Hebrews

1972 Hebrews

The Enhanced Notes from R. B. Thieme, Jr.

The best way to get the most out of Bob’s teaching is to order the MP3 files and listen to them.

Links for the Enhanced Notes of 1972 Hebrews
Index to Bob’s Corrected Translations in 1972 Hebrews	Index to Doctrines from the Book of Hebrews	Lesson summaries of 1972 Hebrews
Lesson #1 (beginning of enhanced notes)	Nixon crisis	Bob Thieme’s corrected translation of the Book of Hebrews
	What Are Enhanced Notes?

Chapter Links to Lesson Summaries
Hebrews 1	Hebrews 2	Hebrews 3	Hebrews 4	Hebrews 5
Hebrews 6	Hebrews 7	Hebrews 8	Hebrews 9	Hebrews 10
Hebrews 11	Hebrews 12	Hebrews 13
Chapter Links to Chapter Notes
Hebrews 1	Hebrews 2	Hebrews 3	Hebrews 4	Hebrews 5
Hebrews 6	Hebrews 7	Hebrews 8	Hebrews 9	Hebrews 10
Hebrews 11	Hebrews 12	Hebrews 13

Index to Bob Thieme’s Corrected Translation of:
Genesis 17:1–9	Genesis 25:27–34	Psalm 7:14–16
Psalm 30:1–12	Psalm 31:5	Psalm 138:2
Proverbs 3:11–12	Proverbs 5:15–19	Proverbs 8:33–36
Proverbs 11:28	Proverbs 13:7	Proverbs 15:17
Proverbs 18:22	Ecclesiastes 9:5–6	Song of Solomon 2:4
Isaiah 53:10–12	Jeremiah 31:31–34
Matthew 16:28–17:9		John 16:8–9
Romans 4:17–21	Romans 5:12	Romans 7:15
Romans 12:1–2	Romans 16:17–18	2Corinthians 6:11–12
Galatians 5:4	Ephesians 1:19–23	Ephesians 3:20–21
Philippians 3:3b–8	Philippians 3:12–21	Colossians 2:16–17
1Timothy 2:13–14	2Timothy 1:13–14	2Timothy 4:7–8
2Peter 1:12–21	2Peter 2:15–19

Index to Doctrines from the Book of Hebrews:

A–D

E–L

M–Q

R–Z

Abel Communicates Bible Doctrine

The Factors Necessary for Learning Bible Doctrine

Categories of the Fatherhood of Abraham

Abraham and Circumcision

Fatherhood of Abraham

A Contrast of the Two Altars

The Golden Altar of Incense

Promises Made to Abraham

Ears

Egyptian History During the Time of Moses

Enemyship

Enemyship (2)

Summary: “As Esau”

Esau Compare to Negative Jews

Exodus Generation

Exodus Generation, The Failure of...

Faith

The Faithfulness of God

The Faithfulness of God (2)

Mediator for an Estrangement Between God and Man

Mediatorship

Mediatorship (2)

Melchizedek and Jesus Christ

Melchizedek Meaning

Melchizedek (not a theophany)

Melchizedek is not a Theophany

Mental Attitude (Revised)

The Rebound Technique

Reconciliation

Reconciliation (2)

Redemption

Redemption (reworked)

Repentance

The Resurrection, Ascension and Session of Jesus Christ

Resurrection (revised)

Resurrection (review)

Resurrection (5)

Reversionism

Reversionism (Revised)

Abrahamic Covenant and Circumcision

The Abrahamic Covenant, (Review and Addition)

The Application of the Abraham Covenant

The Testing of Abraham

Ascension & Session

Frantic Search for Happiness

Greek: the Middle Voice

Greek Conditional Clauses

Hardening Process

Characteristics of the Millennium

Words for Minister

The Missing Link Between Supergrace and Surpassing Grace

Money

Mosaic Law

The Mosaic Law (review)

The Mosaic Law (Revised)

Categories of Reversionism

Divine Discipline of the Reversionist

The Stages of Reversionism

The Stages of Reversionism (2)

Revolution (Review)

The Royal Family

The Superiority of Royalty

Ascension and Session

Ascension

Ascension (review)

Ascension

Ascension and Session (revised)

Baptism

Baptism of Fire

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit

Hardening Process (Review)

Heirship

Heirship 2

High Priesthood of Jesus Christ

The High Priesthood of Jesus Christ (Review)

The High Priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ (2^nd Review)

The Mosaic Law, or the Old Covenant

Powerlessness of the Mosaic Law

Moses and His Egyptian Background

The Characteristics of Moses’ Decision to Set Aside Egyptian Royalty

The Royal Priesthood—introductory Concepts

Sex with the wrong woman

The Factors Necessary to Learn Bible Doctrine

Grace Provision for Learning Bible Doctrine

The Blood of Christ and the Blood of the Animal Sacrifices

The Body of Christ

Christ and the Function of the High Priest

Seven Ways of Chain Sinning

Seven Ways of Chain Sinning (reviewed)

Jesus Superior to All High Priests

Compare Our High Priest with the Levitical High Priest

The Three Superiorities of the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ

High Priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ 4

The Holy of Holies Understood for Today

Hospitality, The Gift of

Human Good

Hypostatic Union (The Uniqueness of the Person of Christ)

The Hypostatic Union

The Doctrine of the Hypostatic Union 3

Moses' Supergrace Parents

Mount Sinai Versus Mount Zion

What Is Mount Zion?

Mutual Respect Principles

Negative volition (Part 1) (Part 2)

The New Covenant to Israel (Introductory Points)

The New Covenant to Israel

The New Covenant to the Church

New Covenant to the Church (Review)

The New Covenant to the Church (additional material)

The New Covenant Solves the Sin Problem

The New Covenant to Israel

Shadows

Shadows of the Mosaic Law

Spiritual Maturity Synonyms

Supergrace

The Doctrine of Supergrace 2 Categories of SG2 Blessing

Supergrace Life

Supergrace, Dying Grace, Surpassing Grace

Supergrace, Loss of

Surpassing Grace

Paragraph SG3 — the Doctrine of Surpassing Grace

Surpassing Grace (Review)

Christ Our Savior and the New Covenant

Christ the Shepherd

The Church

Nine Unique Features of the Church Age

The Uniqueness of the Church Age

Abraham and Circumcision

Circumcision

Civilizations

Conscience

The Convicting Ministry of the Holy Spirit

The Crown of Righteousness

Impeccability

Impeccability (Review)

The Importance of Bible Doctrine

The Importance of Doctrine 2

The Importance of Bible Doctrine (Review)

Imputation

The Incense for the Altar of Incense

Inspiration

Intercalation

Occupation with the Person of Christ

Occupation with Christ

Occupation with Christ (review)

Occupation with Christ (3)

Occupation with the Person of Jesus Christ (4)

Some of the Ground Rules for Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer on the Cross

The Tabernacle

The Tabernacle and Shadows

Summary of the Priestly Function in the Tabernacle

The Table of Showbread

Thorns

Timothy

Tithing

God and the Two Immutable Things

Type and Antitype Regarding the Tabernacle and its Furniture

Daniel Shutting the Lion’s Mouth

Classification of Death

Didaskô

The Dispensations

The Dispensation of the New Order

The Benefits from Divine Discipline

Divine Faithfulness

Divine Good

Divine Guidance

Divine Guidance, Abraham and Bible Doctrine

Dung

Dying Grace

Dying Grace (revised)

Jealousy, the Great Enemy of Love

The Difference Between the Millennial Jerusalem and the Eternal Jerusalem

Justification — the Result of the Imputation of Righteousness

Last Judgement

Last Judgement (review)

Last Judgement (3)

Laying on of Hands

Governmental Legislation

The Levitical Priesthood has been Revoked

The Priesthood

The Priesthood (Review)

The Priesthood (Redux)

The Priesthood Review

The Change in Priesthood

Comparing Priesthoods

Levitical Priesthood

The Levitical priesthood (review)

Principles of the Priesthood

Prophets of the Old Testament;

Propitiation

Propitiation (review)

Propitiation Redux

The Purpose of the Epistles to the Hebrews

The Unpardonable Sin

The Unpardonable Sin (a review)

Walking

The Walls of Jericho Come Down

The War of the Vale of Siddim

The Doctrine of Warfare (Revised)

Weeping

Links for the Enhanced Notes of 1972 Hebrews
Index to Bob’s Corrected Translations in 1972 Hebrews	Index to Doctrines from the Book of Hebrews	Lesson summaries of 1972 Hebrews
Lesson #1 (beginning of enhanced notes)	Nixon crisis	Bob Thieme’s corrected translation of the Book of Hebrews

1972 SERIES: Hebrews
419	1	04/28/1972	Heb. 1:1–2a; Luke 21:20–24	5 views/authorship; purpose of Hebrews; outline chapter; doctrine of the Prophets of the Old Testament; doctrine of Heirship
419	2	05/05/1972	Heb. 1:2b-3	Jesus Christ, key to history & sustainer of universe. Answer is Christ not politics or human good
419	3	05/19/1972	Heb. 1:3–4	Doctrine of ascension & session, Jesus Christ as God-man
419	4	05/26/1972	Heb. 1:5–9	Authority comes before freedom; Old Testament documentation of superiority of Jesus Christ to angels
419	5	06/02/1972	Heb. 1:10–14	Superiority (& its results) of Jesus Christ over angels, 6th Old Testament documentation; Doctrine of Operation Footstool
419	6	06/09/1972	Heb. 2:1	Bona fide ritual has meaning; ritual without meaning will be destroyed
419	7	06/16/1972	Heb. 2:2–3	Jews worship shadow, reject the reality of Christ
419	8	06/23/1972	Heb. 2:4–5	Testimony of 2 U.S. Marines just out of basics; grace warning before judgment; Doctrine of Spiritual Gifts; Doctrine of Civilizations
419	9	06/30/1972	Heb. 2:6–9	Relative positions of angels, man, Christ; ultimate victory of Christ; mechanics of Operation Footstool
419	10	07/07/1972	Heb. 2:9-10	Satan’s kingdom, beginning to end; God’s plan unstoppable; Jesus Christ, Prince-Leader
419	11	07/14/1972	Heb. 2:11–13	By grace God is not ashamed of any believer; Bride for Christ; The Resurrection, Ascension and Session of Jesus Christ The Doctrine of the Ascension and Session doctrine of glory
419	12	07/21/1972	Heb. 2:14	Blood in animal, man, Christ; difference between birth into & function of priesthood. Spiritual death, 7 points.
419	13	08/04/1972	2 Cor. 13:5–9	Pastor-teacher’s life no issue in GAP; every believer to test own life for reversionism
419	14	08/11/1972	Heb. 2:15–16	Spiritual death causes fear/slavery, production of human good & legalism; security in absolutes
419	15	08/18/1972	Heb. 2:17–18	Celebrityship of Jesus Christ; corrected translation of Hebrews 3:1–6
419	16	08/25/1972	Heb. 3:1	Corrected translation of Hebrews 3:1–19; believer’s function in supergrace
419	17	08/27/1972	Heb. 3:1–2	The Doctrine of Occupation with the Person of Christ Principles of occupation with Christ; faithfulness in Christ. One celebrity, Christ; many heroes, such as Moses
419	18	09/03/1972	Heb. 3:3–4	The Dispensations Christ, only celebrity, constructed and furnished the dispensations, each having supergrace heroes.
419	19	09/10/1972	Heb. 3:5	Characteristics of Moses, 1 of the 3 greatest supergrace heroes
419	20	09/17/1972	Heb. 3:6	Nine Unique Features of the Church Age Christ’s house = Church Age; supergrace hero in Church Age
419	21	09/24/1972	Heb. 3:7	Doctrine of GAP (extensive coverage)
419	22	10/01/1972	Heb. 3:8; Ex. 17:1–7; Ps. 95:8	Meribah Revolution
419	23	10/08/1972	Heb. 3:9-10a	Doctrine of revolution
419	24	10/15/1972	Heb. 3:10b-12	Doctrine of Sabbaths or rests; Canaan = supergrace life
419	25	11/12/1972	Heb. 3:12	Capacity to receive from God
419	26	11/19/1972	Heb. 3:13a	Doctrine of revolution, reversionism, one day at a time
419	27	12/10/1972	Heb. 3:13–14	Doctrine of a day at a time; separation between believers; partnership with Christ
419	28	12/17/1972	Heb. 3:15	Doctrine of revolution
419	29	04/01/1973	Heb. 3:7; Ps. 95:6–11	Games with God 1
419	30	04/01/1973	Heb. 3:7	Games with God 2; doctrine of negative volition
419	31	04/08/1973	Heb. 3:13	Prevention of reversionism
419	32	04/15/1973	Heb. 3:14 Isaiah 30:29	Partnership of the priesthood
419	33	04/15/1973	Heb. 3:15	Doctrine of GAP (Review); Doctrine of the Hardening Process (Review) Doctrine of Revolution (Review)
419	34	04/16/1973	Heb. 3:16	Doctrine of reversionism
419	35	04/17/1973	Heb. 3:17–4:1	Challenge to supergrace Exodus Generation
419	36	04/18/1973	Heb. 4:2	Doctrine of negative volition (points 1–3) Negative volition (Part 1) (Part 2)
419	37	04/19/1973	Heb. 4:2; James 1:19-25	Doctrine of negative volition Negative volition (Part 1) (Part 2)
419	38	04/20/1973	Heb. 4:3	The Doctrine of Faith The Doctrine of Supergrace
419	39	04/22/1973	Heb. 4:4	This is an Easter message and good for a new believer. Doctrine of the Sabbath
419	40	04/22/1973	Heb. 4:5–6	Potentiality of supergrace The Failure of the Exodus Generation
419	41	04/23/1973	Heb. 4:7	Doctrine of the hardening process
419	42	05/06/1973	Heb. 4:8–9	Past failures
419	43	05/13/1973	Heb. 4:10–12a	The Doctrine of inspiration
419	44	05/20/1973	Heb. 4:12	Doctrine of the soul
419	45	05/27/1973	Heb. 4:14a	The Doctrine of the Ascension, The Doctrine of the Hypostatic Union (The Uniqueness of the Person of Christ), The Doctrine of the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ
419	46	06/03/1973	Heb. 4:14b-15	The Doctrine of impeccability
419	47	06/10/1973	Heb. 4:16	Doctrine of prayer; praying for believer & unbeliever
419	48	06/17/1973	Heb. 5:1	Principles of the priesthood
419	49	06/17/1973	Heb. 5:1b	Ordination Service; Doctrine of the Levitical Priesthood
419	50	06/18/1973	Heb. 5:2	Compassion vs. grace
419	51	06/19/1973	Heb. 5:3–5a; Ps. 2:7	Pastor-teacher’s state of honor
419	52	06/20/1973	Heb. 5:5b-6	Doctrine of Melchizedek (not a theophany)
419	53	06/21/1973	Heb. 5:7–8	Jesus Christ’s prayer on the cross The Lord’s Prayer on the Cross
419	54	06/22/1973	Heb. 5:9-11	Jesus Christ’s self-discipline & respect for authority
419	55	06/24/1973	Heb. 5:12a	Obligation to divine viewpoint
419	56	06/24/1973	Heb. 5:12b-14	Royal righteousness
419	57	06/25/1973	Heb. 6:1a	Doctrine of the supergrace life
419	58	06/26/1973	Heb. 6:1b	Doctrine of repentance, Doctrine of Human Good
419	59	06/27/1973	Heb. 6:2a; 5:8	Doctrine of baptisms; Laying on of Hands
419	60	06/28/1973	Heb. 6:2b-3	Doctrines of resurrection (revised), Last Judgment
419	61	06/29/1973	Heb. 6:4	Hindrances of lifestyle in reversion recovery Greek: the Middle Voice
419	62	07/01/1973	Heb. 6:5–6	Summary of lifestyle compromises
419	63	07/06/1973	Heb. 6:7–8	Doctrine of thorns; agricultural analogy
419	64	07/08/1973	Heb. 6:9-10a	Function of pastor-teacher; potentiality of supergrace
419	65	07/08/1973	Heb. 6:10b-11	Doctrine of occupation with Christ Words for Minister
419	66	07/09/1973	Heb. 6:12–14a	1^st of 2 immutable things
419	67	07/10/1973	Heb. 6:14–17	Categories of Grace
419	68	07/11/1973	Heb. 6 via Gen. 17:1–22	Promises Made to Abraham Doctrine of fatherhood of Abraham Abraham and Circumcision
419	69	07/12/1973	Heb. 6 via Rom. 4:17	Abraham and Circumcision Doctrine of Circumcision The Categories of the Fatherhood of Abraham
419	70	07/13/1973	Rom. 4:18–19	Doctrine of circumcision (review)
419	71	07/15/1973	Rom. 4:20–21; Heb. 6:18	Reality of supergrace inner resources God and the Two Immutable Things
419	72	07/15/1973	Heb. 6:19-20	The upside-down anchor
419	73	07/27/1973	Heb. 6:13–20
419	74	08/31/1973	Heb. 7:1	Types of nobility The Doctrine of the Priesthood The Levitical priesthood (review) The Superiority of Royalty
419	75	09/02/1973	Heb. 7:1; Gen. 14:1–24	Melchizedek is not a Theophany The War of the Vale of Siddim
419	76	09/02/1973	Heb. 7:2–5	Melchizedek Meaning The Priesthood (Review) The Doctrine of Tithing Comparing Priesthoods
419	77	09/03/1973	Heb. 7:6–9	Axiom of blessing
419	78	09/03/1973	Heb. 7:10–11a	Doctrine of the Body of Jesus Christ The Six Propositions Regarding the Change in Priesthood
419	79	09/04/1973	Heb. 7:11–13a	The Doctrine of the Body of Christ
419	80	09/05/1973	Heb. 7:13–14	The Doctrine of the Royal Family
419	81	09/06/1973	Heb. 7:15–17; Lev. 21:17–21	Melchizedek and Jesus Christ Qualifications for the Levitical priesthood
419	82	09/07/1973	Heb. 7:18–20	Doctrine of the Mosaic Law Powerlessness of the Mosaic Law
419	83	09/09/1973	Heb. 7:21a	God’s oath, authorization of the royal priesthood
419	84	09/09/1973	Heb. 7:21b-23	Establishment/ superiority/ royal priesthood
419	85	09/14/1973	Heb. 7:24	The Doctrine of Resurrection (review)
419	86	09/16/1973	Heb. 7:25	Two functions of Jesus Christ as High Priest
419	87	09/16/1973	Heb. 7:26a	Categories/uniqueness of Jesus Christ; principles of taxation
419	88	09/17/1973	Heb. 7:26b-28	The Doctrine of the Hypostatic Union The Doctrine of Impeccability (Review)
419	89	11/07/1973	Heb. 8:1a	The Doctrine of the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ (Review) The Three Superiorities of the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ The Doctrine of the Priesthood (Redux)
419	90	11/08/1973	Heb. 8:1b-2	The Doctrine of Ascension & Session Compare Our High Priest with the Levitical High Priest
419	91	11/09/1973	Heb. 8:3	Doctrine of the Tabernacle Jesus Superior to All High Priests
419	92	11/11/1973	Heb. 8:4–5	The Levitical Priesthood has been Revoked The Doctrine of Shadows
419	93	11/11/1973	Heb. 8:6	The Doctrine of Mediatorship
419	94	11/12/1973	Heb. 8:7–8a	The Doctrine of the Mosaic Law (review) The New Covenant to Israel The New Covenant to the Church
419	95	11/13/1973	Heb. 8:8b-13	Class distinctions
419	96	05/17/1974	Heb. 9:1; 10:1	The Doctrine of the Mosaic Law (Revised) The Tabernacle and Shadows
419	97	05/19/1974	Heb. 9:2	The Golden Lampstand The Table of Showbread
419	98	05/19/1974	Heb. 9:3–5	The Golden Altar of Incense A Contrast of the Two Altars The Incense for the Altar of Incense The Mercy Seat The Doctrine of Propitiation
419	99	05/20/1974	Heb. 9:6	The Doctrine of the Priesthood Review Summary of the Priestly Function in the Tabernacle
419	100	05/21/1974	Heb. 9:7–8	The Doctrine of the Blood The Holy of Holies Understood for Today
419	101	05/22/1974	Heb. 9:9	The Blood of Christ and the Blood of the Animal Sacrifices Christ Our Savior and the New Covenant Type and Antitype Regarding the Tabernacle and its Furniture
419	102	05/23/1974	Heb. 9:10–11	The Dispensation of the New Order The Doctrine of the Uniqueness of the Church Age
419	103	05/24/1974	Heb. 9:12	The Doctrine of the Blood (review) The Doctrine of Redemption Greek Conditional Clauses
419	104	05/26/1974	Heb. 9:13–14a	Contrast of shadows and reality
419	105	05/26/1974	Heb. 9:14b-15a	The Doctrine of the Mediator
419	106	06/02/1974	Heb. 9:15a	Review doctrine of mediatorship; The Doctrine of the New Covenant to the Church (Review) Mediator for an Estrangement Between God and Man
419	107	06/02/1974	Heb. 9:15b-17	The New Covenant Solves the Sin Problem The New Covenant to the Church (additional material)
419	108	06/03/1974	Heb. 9:18	(Intro.) Review: Doctrines of the blood, redemption, reconciliation, propitiation The Doctrine of the Blood (redux) The Doctrine of Redemption (reworked) The Doctrine of Reconciliation The Doctrine of Propitiation (review)
419	109	06/04/1974	Heb. 9:18–21	Animal blood validates old covenant
419	110	06/05/1974	Heb. 9:22–24	The Doctrine of Ascension (review)
419	111	06/06/1974	Heb. 9:25–26	The Day of Atonement Christ and the Function of the High Priest Jesus Christ on cross, conjunction of history
419	112	06/07/1974	Heb. 9:27–28	The Doctrine of the Classification of Death The Doctrine of the Last Judgement
419	113	06/09/1974	Heb. 10:1a	The Doctrine of the Mosaic Law, or the Old Covenant Metamorphisms
419	114	06/09/1974	Heb. 10:1b	Jesus Christ’s spiritual death is the highest of value to God Shadows of the Mosaic Law
419	115	06/14/1974	Heb. 10:2–4	Shadows teach crossroads of history
419	116	06/16/1974	Heb. 10:5; Ps. 40:6–8	The Doctrine of Ears
419	117	06/16/1974	Heb.10:6–9a	The Doctrine of Propitiation Redux
419	118	06/17/1974	Heb. 10:9-10a	The Baptism of the Holy Spirit (pts. 1–4). Leasing soul to Satan
419	119	06/18/1974	Heb. 10:10–11	The Baptism of the Holy Spirit (continued) The doctrine of positional truth
419	120	06/19/1974	Heb. 10:12	The Doctrine of Ascension
419	121	06/20/1974	Heb. 10:13–14	Doctrine of Sanctification
419	122	06/21/1974	Heb. 10:15; Jer. 31:31–33	The New Covenant to Israel (Introductory Points) The Doctrine of the New Covenant to Israel
419	123	06/23/1974	Heb.10:16–17; Jer. 31:34	Characteristics of the Millennium
419	124	06/23/1974	Heb. 10:18–20; Matt. 27:51; Luke 23:45	The veil of the Temple The split veil
419	125	06/24/1974	Heb. 10:21–22a	The Doctrine of the High Priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ (2^nd Review)
419	126	06/25/1974	Heb. 10:22b-25	The Doctrine of the Faithfulness of God
419	127	06/26/1974	Heb. 12:1; 10:26; John 16:9	The Doctrine of the Unpardonable Sin
419	128	06/27/1974	Heb. 12:2–3	The Doctrine of Occupation with Christ (review)
419	129	06/28/1974	Heb. 10:27–28	The Doctrine of Enemyship The Doctrine of the Last Judgement (review)
419	130	06/30/1974	Heb. 10:29-31	The Doctrine of the Convicting Ministry of the Holy Spirit The Doctrine of the Unpardonable Sin (a review)
419	131	06/30/1974	Heb. 10:32 via 2 Pet. 1:12–15	Peter’s legacy from the high ground
419	132	07/01/1974	Heb. 10:32 via 2 Pet. 1:16; Matt. 16:27–28a	Reality of doctrine from experience
419	133	07/02/1974	Heb. 10:32 via 2 Pet. 1:17–19a; Matt. 16:28–17:9	Discipline produces security
419	134	07/03/1974	Heb. 10:32a	“Follow the Colors”
419	135	07/04/1974	Heb. 10:32b-33	Holding ground in success and suffering
419	136	07/04/1974	Heb. 10:34a	Compassion
419	137	07/04/1974	Heb. 10:34	GAP to divine plunder
419	138	07/05/1974	Heb. 10:35	The Doctrine of the Stages of Reversionism
419	139	07/05/1974	Heb. 10:35	Doctrine of the stages of reversionism (pts. 5–8)
419	140	07/05/1974	Heb. 10:36a; Hosea 4:1–6a	Stalin’s plan of conquest
419	141	07/06/1974	Ps. 138:2; Prov. 8:33–36	The Doctrine of the Importance of Bible Doctrine
419	142	07/07/1974	Heb. 10:37; Hab. 2:3	Doctrine of importance of doctrine (pts. 7–11); Doctrine of principles of the resurrection of the Church
419	143	07/07/1974	Heb. 10:38–39; Hab. 2:4	Follow the Colors!
419	144	07/08/1974	Heb. 11:1	Doctrine is the reality
419	145	07/09/1974	Heb. 11:2–3	God controls history The Importance of Doctrine 2
419	146	07/10/1974	Heb. 12:1–2; Luke 15:11–32	The Doctrine of the Rebound Technique
419	147	07/11/1974	Heb. 12:3; Phil. 3:4–5	Human celebrityship
419	148	07/12/1974	Heb. 11 via Phil. 3:6–8	The Doctrine of Dung
419	149	07/14/1974	Heb.11:4	Roster of Old Testament heroes; The Doctrine of Imputation The Doctrine of Justification — the Result of the Imputation of Righteousness Abel Communicates Bible Doctrine
419	150	07/14/1974	Heb. 11:5	Enoch; doctrine of dying grace
419	151	07/15/1974	Heb. 11:6–7a	Pleasing God; Noah
419	152	07/16/1974	Heb. 11:7b; Phil. 3:12	Doctrine of heirship (revised & amplified); righteousness/ supergrace The Doctrine of Heirship 2
419	153	07/17/1974	Heb. 11 via Phil. 3:12–14	Supergrace, Dying Grace, Surpassing Grace
419	154	07/18/1974	Heb. 11 via Phil. 3:14	The Doctrine of Supergrace 2 (pts. 1–8)
419	155	07/19/1974	Ps. 84:1–12; Lam. 3:21–25	Doctrine of supergrace (pts. 9-17)
419	156	07/21/1974	Heb. 11:13	The Doctrine of Dying Grace (pts. 1–8)
419	157	07/21/1974	Heb. 11:5–6	Doctrine of dying grace (cont.)
419	158	07/22/1974	Heb. 11:7–8	The Doctrine of Divine Guidance Divine Guidance, Abraham and Bible Doctrine
419	159	07/23/1974	Heb. 11:13	Anticipating surpassing-grace blessings Supergrace, Loss of
419	160	07/24/1974	Heb. 11:9	Doctrine of the Abrahamic Covenant
419	161	07/25/1974	Heb. 11:10	The Missing Link Between Supergrace and Surpassing Grace The Doctrine of Surpassing Grace
419	162	07/26/1974	Heb. 11	Doctrine of surpassing grace (cont.) The Crown of Righteousness
419	163	08/02/1974	Heb. 11:7	Noah changes history
419	164	08/04/1974	Heb. 11:11; Gen. 17:1–9	Sarah reaches supergrace Abrahamic Covenant and Circumcision
419	165	08/04/1974	Heb. 11:11b	Woman’s motivation to GAP
419	166	08/05/1974	Heb. 11:12	The Doctrine of Faithfulness of God (2)
419	167	08/06/1974	Heb. 11:13 via Phil. 3:15–16 Proverbs 23:6–7 Isaiah 55:6–9 2Corinthians 10:4–6	The Doctrine of Mental Attitude (Revised)
419	168	08/09/1974	Heb. 11:13a	Death; Nixon crisis
419	169	08/11/1974	Heb. 11:13b	The doctrine of dying grace (revised) (points 1–8)
419	170	08/11/1974	Heb. 11	The doctrine of dying grace (revised) (points. 9-14)
419	171	08/12/1974	Heb. 11 via Phil. 3:17–18	The Doctrine of Walking The Doctrine of Enemyship (2)
419	172	08/13/1974	Heb. 11 via Phil. 3:19-21	The Doctrine of the Sin unto Death 4 characteristics of reversionism
419	173	08/14/1974	Heb. 11:14–15	Distractions from the Road to Glory Categories of SG2 Blessing
419	174	08/15/1974	Heb. 11:15–16a	Paragraph SG3 — the Doctrine of Surpassing Grace (Review)
419	175	08/16/1974	Heb. 11:16b-23	SG3 City of the Patriarchs
419	176	08/18/1974	Heb. 11:17a	The Abrahamic Covenant, (Review and Addition) The Doctrine of the Testing of Abraham
419	177	08/18/1974	Heb. 11:17a	Doctrine of the testing of Abraham (cont.)
419	178	08/19/1974	Heb. 11:17b; Rom. 4:19-21	Manliness is in the soul
419	179	08/20/1974	Heb. 11:18; Gen. 22:1–4	The Lord sees to it
419	180	08/21/1974	Heb. 11:19; James 2:20–23	Reorganization of Sunday School
419	181	08/22/1974	Heb. 11:20	Isaac blessed Jacob; The Application of the Abraham Covenant
419	182	08/23/1974	Heb. 11:21; Gen. 49:1–29	Jacob’s dying prophecy
419	183	08/25/1974	Heb. 11:22	The Saga of the Bones of Joseph
419	184	08/25/1974	Heb. 11:23	Parents of Moses
419	185	08/26/1974	Heb. 11:23b	Moses' Supergrace Parents The Doctrine of Surpassing Grace (Review)
419	186	08/27/1974	Heb. 11:24	Egyptian History During the Time of Moses (Isagogics) Doctrine of surpassing grace (cont.)
419	187	08/28/1974	Heb. 11:24	Moses’ 39 silent years
419	188	08/29/1974	Heb. 11:25	Glamor vs. Glory
419	189	08/30/1974	Heb. 11:26	Moses and His Egyptian Background The Characteristics of Moses’ Decision to Set Aside Egyptian Royalty
419	190	09/01/1974	Heb. 11:27	The Doctrine of Fear The Doctrine of Occupation with Christ (3)
419	191	09/01/1974	Heb. 11:27	Doctrine of occupation with Christ (cont.)
419	192	09/02/1974	Heb. 11:28	Moses & the Passover; doctrine of feasts The Doctrine of the Feasts Intercalation
419	193	09/03/1974	Heb. 11:29-30	The Walls of Jericho Come Down
419	194	09/04/1974	Heb. 11:31; James 2:25; Joshua 2:9-14; Matt. 1:5	Rahab and prostitution Rahab
419	195	09/05/1974	Heb. 11:32–33a	Old Testament supergrace heroes
419	196	09/06/1974	Heb. 11:33b-34a	Asyndetons for supergrace Daniel Shutting the Lion’s Mouth The Doctrine of Governmental Legislation
419	197	09/08/1974	Heb. 11:34	The Doctrine of Warfare (Revised)
419	198	09/08/1974	Heb. 11:34	Doctrine of warfare (cont.)
419	199	09/13/1974	Heb. 11:35	Dissertation on women
419	200	09/15/1974	Heb. 11:36–38	Testing of old covenant saints The Plan of God
419	201	09/15/1974	Heb. 11:39-40	The Importance of Bible Doctrine (Review)
419	202	09/16/1974	Heb. 12:1a	Biography of the reversionist - Gory Road
419	203	09/17/1974	Heb. 12:1b-2a	The Doctrine of Occupation with the Person of Jesus Christ (4)
419	204	09/18/1974	Heb. 12:2b	Doctrine of ascension and session
419	205	09/19/1974	Heb. 12:3a	The Doctrine of Ascension and Session (revised) The Doctrine of Mental Attitude (2)
419	206	09/20/1974	Heb. 12:3b	The Doctrine of Mental Attitude (2)
419	207	09/22/1974	Heb. 12:3; Gal. 5:4	The Doctrine of Reversionism (Revised) Five Different Concepts of Frantic Search for Happiness The Stages of Reversionism (2) Divine Discipline of the Reversionist A Few of the Categories of Reversionism
419	208	09/22/1974	Heb. 12:3; Ps. 7:14–16	Doctrine of reversionism (cont.)
419	209	09/23/1974	Heb. 12:4	Doctrine of the old sin nature
419	210	09/24/1974	Heb. 12:5a; Prov. 3:11–12	Child rearing, discipline, good manners
419	211	09/25/1974	Heb. 12:5b-6	Doctrine of divine discipline (revised)
419	212	09/26/1974	Heb. 12 via Phil. 3:19	The Doctrine of the Sin unto Death (2)
419	213	09/27/1974	Heb. 12 via Ps. 30:1–4	Psalm of celebration
419	214	09/29/1974	Ps. 30:5–12	Supergrace vs. reversionism
419	215	09/29/1974	Heb. 12:7–8	Doctrine of divine establishment
419	216	09/30/1974	Heb. 12:9	Respect for authority
419	217	10/01/1974	Heb. 12:10	The thinking parent
419	218	10/02/1974	Heb. 12:11–12	The Benefits from Divine Discipline
419	219	10/03/1974	Heb. 12:13	Seven Ways of Chain Sinning
419	220	10/04/1974	Heb. 12:14	The Doctrine of Sanctification (2) Seven Ways of Chain Sinning (reviewed)
419	221	10/06/1974	Heb. 12:15–16a	The Doctrine of Fornication Biblical grounds for divorce: desertion and adultery
419	222	10/06/1974	Heb. 12:16b	Esau to shame unsaved Jews Summary: “As Esau” Esau Compare to Negative Jews
419	223	10/11/1974	Heb. 12:17	The Doctrine of the Last Judgement (3)
419	224	10/13/1974	Heb. 12:16–17	The Doctrine of Weeping
419	225	10/13/1974	Heb. 12:17b-18	Doctrine of weeping (cont.) Mount Sinai Versus Mount Zion
419	226	10/14/1974	Heb. 12:18–21	Jews’ attitude toward Mount Sinai
419	227	10/15/1974	Heb. 12:22–23a	What Is Mount Zion? The Doctrine of the Church (points 1 & 2)
419	228	10/16/1974	Heb. 12:23b	The Doctrine of the Church (points 3–7)
419	229	10/17/1974	Heb. 12:23c-24a	The Doctrine of Sanctification (3) The Doctrine of Mediatorship (2)
419	230	10/18/1974	Heb. 12:24b	The Doctrine of the Blood (4)
419	231	10/20/1974	Heb. 12:24c-26	The whirlwind of history
419	232	10/20/1974	Heb. 12:27–29; Matt. 24:36–40	The Doctrine of the Baptism of Fire
419	233	10/21/1974	Heb. 13:1	The Doctrine of Category #3 Love
419	234	10/22/1974	Heb. 13:2–4a	Illustration of category #3 love Hospitality, The Gift of
419	235	10/23/1974	Heb. 13:4 via Prov. 5:1–23	Doctrine of adultery Sex with the wrong woman
419	236	10/24/1974	Heb. 13:4 via Prov. 6:20–32	The Doctrine of Category #2 Love Jealousy, the Great Enemy of Love
419	237	10/25/1974	Heb. 13:4–5a; Eccl. 9:5–6	Doctrine of category #2 love (cont.)
419	238	10/27/1974	Heb. 13:5a	The Doctrine of Money (pts. 1–6)
419	239	10/27/1974	Heb. 13:5b	Doctrine of money (cont.); The Doctrine of Divine Faithfulness
419	240	10/28/1974	Heb. 13:6	The Doctrine of Category #1 Love
419	241	10/29/1974	Heb. 13:7	The Doctrine of Pastor-teacher (pts. 1–2)
419	242	10/30/1974	Heb. 13:7, 17a	The Doctrine of Pastor-teacher (cont.) The Factors Necessary for Learning Bible Doctrine
419	243	11/08/1974	Heb. 13:8	The Doctrine of the Hypostatic Union 3 The Doctrine of the High Priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ 4
419	244	11/10/1974	Heb. 13:9a	The Doctrine of Grace
419	245	11/10/1974	Heb. 13:9b	Doctrine of grace (cont.)
419	246	11/11/1974	Heb. 13:10–11	Altar of Church Age believer
419	247	11/12/1974	Heb. 13:12	Physical death of Jesus Christ
419	248	11/13/1974	Heb. 13:13	The Royal Priesthood—introductory Concepts The Doctrine of Separation (pts. 1–4)
419	249	11/14/1974	Heb. 13:13b; Matt. 10:34–39	The Doctrine of Separation (pts. 5–7)
419	250	11/15/1974	Heb. 13:14–16	The 2 Jerusalems The Difference Between the Millennial Jerusalem and the Eternal Jerusalem The Doctrine of Divine Good
419	251	11/17/1974	Heb. 13:17a	The Doctrine of the Royal Sacrifices The Doctrine of Didaskô
419	252	11/17/1974	Heb. 13:17b	The Factors Necessary to Learn Bible Doctrine The Pastor’s Alert
419	253	11/18/1974	Heb. 13:17c	Grace Provision for Learning Bible Doctrine Spiritual Maturity Synonyms
419	254	11/19/1974	Heb. 13:18a	Doctrines of royal sacrifices, prayer Some of the Ground Rules for Prayer
419	255	11/20/1974	Heb. 13:18b	The Doctrine of the Conscience
419	256	11/21/1974	Heb. 13:19-20a	The Doctrine of Reconciliation (2)
419	257	11/22/1974	Heb. 13:20b	The Doctrine of Resurrection (5) The Doctrine of Christ the Shepherd The Doctrine of the Blood (5)
419	258	11/24/1974	Heb. 13:20c-25	The Purpose of the Epistles to the Hebrews Timothy Mutual Respect Principles END OF SERIES

Links for the Enhanced Notes of 1972 Hebrews
Index to Bob’s Corrected Translations in 1972 Hebrews	Index to Doctrines from the Book of Hebrews	Lesson summaries of 1972 Hebrews
Lesson #1 (beginning of enhanced notes)	Nixon crisis	Bob Thieme’s corrected translation of the Book of Hebrews

1972 Hebrews 1:1–2a Luke 21:20–24 Lesson #1

04/28/1972 5 views/authorship; purpose of Hebrews; outline chapter; doctrine of the Prophets of the Old Testament; doctrine of Heirship

Chapter 1

By way of introduction, one of the big questions has to do with the human author of the book of Hebrews. There are about five different views on who is the human author of Hebrews.

Authorship of Hebrews

The first view is that Luke wrote Hebrews, and this was held by Origen, one of the early church fathers, Calvin, Deilitch, and many others. The reason for this is because the Greek of the book of Hebrews is very polished. In some cases it is almost classical Greek. It is most interesting that the epistle that has the most information by way of Jewish background should also be the purest type of Greek. However there is way too much Jewish background in this epistle for it to be written by a Gentile, and Luke was a Gentile.

The second view is that Clement of Rome wrote Hebrews, and this is held by Eusebius, Erasmus. At one time Origen said that it had Paul’s thoughts but Clement of Rome or Luke wrote it. Again, there is too much Jewish background for Clement of Rome.

The third view of the early church fathers was that Barnabas was the human author, and this is supported by Tertullian, and Godet. Barnabas was a Levite with a good Jewish background. He was also the mediator between Paul and Jewish Christians. But a well-known person like Barnabas would not be obscured in this. However, even today Barnabas is considered by scholars to be the leading contender.

A fourth view, one held by Martin Luther, was that Apollos wrote Hebrews. As a Jew from Alexandria and well-versed in the Old Testament he is obviously a contender. However, no ancient tradition or testimony exists in that direction.

The fifth view, which was held by Clement of Alexandria, the Chester Beatty papyri, Athanasius, Jerome, Augustine and others was that Paul wrote it. It is not like Paul, however, to omit his name and the style of Hebrews is too smooth, too literary a Greek for Paul. Paul only wrote in an elliptical style and a very rough style. Paul would quote the Old Testament also from the Hebrew text and whoever wrote Hebrews did not quote Old Testament passages from the Hebrew text, but quoted from the Greek text — from the Septuagint. Obviously there are Pauline ideas here but this is not the Pauline vocabulary.

The conclusion, then, is that the writer is anonymous. As Origen, one of the early church fathers summarized, “God only knows certainly who wrote Hebrews.” That brings us to the fact that it is not the man but it is the message, and whoever wrote Hebrews was deliberately obscured by God the Holy Spirit. The reasons will be obvious when we study it.

The epistle was written in 67 AD, three years before the fall of Jerusalem and the fifth cycle of discipline’s administration. This was the last warning of the coming of the fifth cycle of discipline to the Jews. The first warning came from the Lord Jesus Christ when he prophesied of it in Luke 21:20–24.

The Lord Jesus Christ in the previous context had been warning born again Jews to get out of Jerusalem, to stay away from Jerusalem, during the time of the fulfilment of this prophecy. He said in verse 17, “Ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake, but there shall not a hair of your head perish” — and then a very interesting verse, “In your patience possess ye your souls” .You possess your soul by the use of the faith-rest technique.

Luke 21:20 — “And when ye shall see,” the aorist active subjunctive of horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh], indicating that some will see it and some will not. Jesus prophesied in 30 AD and these things would occur in 70 AD The aorist tense refers to the point of time when the Roman armies would invade Judea, which is actually 66 AD The active voice: some believers will see this event. The subjunctive mood: not all believers will see these things, many will die before 70 AD — “Jerusalem compassed,” the present passive participle of kyklóō (κυκλόω) [pronounced koo-KLOW-oh], which means to be surrounded and invested for siege, to be encircled. The present passive voice: they receive encirclement by the armies — “with armies” — the word “with” is u(po, ‘under the authority of armies’, and it is a reference to the Roman army. In fact it refers to the fifth, tenth, and twelfth legions. Three legions were used by Vespasian in surrounding Jerusalem.

In 145 BC the Jews won their independence. They lost it in some measure by 63 BC due to the fact that Pompey invaded the land of Judea and took over for a while. From 63 — 40 BC Herod the Great, however, stood as the ruler of the area. When Herod died in 4 B. C. the country went over to Rome as a Roman province, but it still had a lot of autonomy. This lasted until 66 AD at which time the Romans began to crack down on a revolt and by 70 AD the country lost out completely. It was Nero who was especially interested in trying to destroy and crush the Jews, and before this could happen he died, stabbing himself to death, and as he did he said, “What a pity that such a great artist should die.” He was neither great nor an artist, he was a monster. Vespasian who could not stand Nero had been banished. Nero had been in Greece competing in the Greek music festival. He always won! He played the flute and sang, and Vespasian would put his hands over his ears — he was a general who went along in the staff — and when Nero saw this he said, “That man is ruining my performance, let’s find something for him to do.” He was told the Jewish war was just beginning and Vespasian was sent to command. In that way Vespasian became the next Caesar.

The armies here refer to the Roman army — “then know that the desolation is near.” “Then know” is the aorist active imperative of ginskô (vινώσκω) [pronounced gih-NOH-skoh]. Ginskô (vινώσκω) [pronounced gih-NOH-skoh] means you will know by observing it then. This is a constative aorist for this will be observed for a few months before the siege culminates. The word “desolation” is really “devastation”, complete destruction. “Is near” is the perfect active indicative of eggizô (ἐγγίζω) [pronounced eng-ID-zoh], which means “has come to pass with the result that it is there.” There is no change in it. The only thing believers can do is get out.

Verse 21 — “Then let them in Judea flee,” present active imperative of fugw which means get out and get out now. Don’t waste any time, don’t look back, don’t think about it, just get away. Robertson said that Christians did flee from Jerusalem to a place called Pella before it was too late — Vol. 2, p259 of Robertson’s Grammar.

“let them flee to the mountains” — this is Edom. Moab and Ammon even as it will be in the Tribulation. These are mountains in southern Palestine — “and let them who are in the midst of it [Jerusalem] depart” — ‘depart’ is a present active participle of e)kxorew and it doesn’t mean to depart out, it means to get out without picking anything up along the way — “and let them not [these are believers] enter therein” — do not enter back into Jerusalem for any reason at any time.

Verse 22 — “These be the days of vengeance” — a reference to the fifth cycle of discipline as portrayed in Leviticus 26:27-46, and in Deuteronomy 28:49-67 — “which have been written” — perfect passive participle of graphô (γράφω) [pronounced GRAWF-oh]: written in Leviticus and in Deuteronomy. The perfect tense indicates the Old Testament; the passive voice means they were prophesied; the participle indicates the fifth cycle of discipline is a principle — “may be fulfilled” — the aorist passive infinitive of plhrow which in this case means “completed” — the completion of the plan of God. The aorist tense refers to the siege of Jerusalem. The passive voice: the Jews receive the fifth cycle of discipline. The infinitive is God’s purpose to handle the Jews in this way.

Verse 23 — it is no time to have children, to have babies that can’t walk — “For there shall be great distress in the land” — hunger and famine. “In the land” is epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] which usually means “upon” but there is a use of it where it means “against” — “there shall be great pressure against the land.” Then the pressure is described as being punitive measures from God — “and wrath upon this people [the Jews].”

Verse 24 — “They shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations” — 92,000 were led captive; about 2-million killed — “and Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles is fulfilled.” The times of the Gentiles will end with the second advent.

This was the warning of our Lord; Hebrews is actually the second warning. We know from Hebrews 6:6 that the temple was still standing and this had not occurred as yet.

The recipients of Hebrews: This is addressed to Jewish believers living in Jerusalem three years before the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline. The Jews have exactly three years to build an edification complex in the soul and get out before the Romans get there.

The Purpose of the Epistle

1. To warn believers regarding reversionism and to aid them in recovery of an ECS, and to provide doctrine to aid them in the recovery of the ECS. At that time in history it was imperative that they recover the ECS because if you do not recover one in a time of crisis you forfeit your life as well and the administration of the sin unto death is concurrent with the administration of national judgement. So there are certain times in history when you can’t afford to be in reversionism because you get caught in the trap.

2. To deliver believers in Jerusalem from the catastrophe of the fifth cycle of discipline.

3. To clarify the issues of the angelic conflict. The believers in Jerusalem are going to see a great deal of conflict but they are only in a double conflict — a conflict with the Romans, but greater than that is the angelic conflict and the believer’s relationship to this great spiritual warfare. Believers are engaged in a spiritual warfare from the time they are saved. Even in time of peace you are in warfare.

4. To lead believers to maturity through the erection of the ECS. The priesthood of the believer is supplied to every Christian at the point of salvation to hasten his movement toward maturity. You cannot dilly-dally along the way in phase two, you must become a mature believer quickly and rapidly. This involves the function of GAP is specific fields of doctrine taught in this epistle.

5. To reveal the glory of the person of Jesus Christ and stimulate while on earth occupation with Christ, or maximum category one love response.

6. To orient the believer to grace principles of the universal priesthood of the believer. The universal priesthood of the believer is the spring from which rivers and fountains and lakes and oceans of grace orientation stem. God has found a way to work for you during the Church Age. This is the intensified stage of the angelic conflict and God has found a way to work for you by providing for you a system.

7. To distinguish between the Jewish dispensation and the Church Age, and the reality of your priesthood and its function is never possible until you become a dispensationalist, recognising the difference between the Church Age and the Age of Israel.

8. To relate the priesthood of the believer to every facet of phase two.

The Outline of Chapter One

1. Jesus Christ as the victor of the angelic conflict — verses 1-4.

2. The Old Testament documentation regarding the superiority of Christ to angels — verses 5-13.

3. The result of the superiority of Christ to angels through the priesthood — verse 14.

Verses 1-4, Jesus Christ the victor in the angelic conflict. It took a lot of things to make Christ the victor. First of all it took the authorization of God the Father.

Hebrews 1:1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets,... (ESV)

Verse 1 — “God” — ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] is literally, “The God.” This epistle begins with the highest and greatest subject in the universe — “The God.” There is no way that man can be the victor in the angelic conflict apart from the plan of God, the decree of God, the authorization of God. We are going to start with Jesus Christ as God, and yet Jesus Christ becomes a man, lower than angels. And yet as a man and as a member of the human race we have the key to the victory. It took a lot of planning to take Jesus Christ, eternal God, coequal with the Father and with the Spirit, and suddenly cause Him to become a member of the human race, the human race being lower than the angelic race. It took a lot of planning for the one who is lower than the angels to become higher than the angels. It is very simply and very easily stated several times in this chapter but there is nothing easy or simple about the plan behind it. And in order to understand the plan you have to understand the planner. it is to our advantage to know how in the great spiritual conflict, how in the angelic conflict. God the Father actually came up with a plan whereby the angels get their comeuppance from a lower creature. Jesus Christ could have slugged Satan and wiped out all of the angels in eternity past before man was created. But you have to remember that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all share this magnificent thing called a sense of humour, and the devil who in all of his pride and in all of his genius came up with what he thought was a sure way of getting out of the lake of fire and getting all of the fallen angels off the hook. All God had to do was snap His fingers and the lake of fire would have existed, and all of the fallen angels would have dropped into the lake of fire immediately. But then that is no contest. The omnipotence of God versus the power of Satan is no contest. Satan hasn’t a chance. And so God in His magnificent sense of humour came up with a brilliant, beautiful idea: Why not create something lower than angels, something inferior to angels, and through that lower and inferior creation whip all the angels; totally defeat them, and have one man who will do it. So we are going to go in this particular paragraph of two and a half verses from Jesus Christ, eternal God, made lower than angels, to Jesus Christ the last Adam, the one who in His humanity completely broke the back of the angels and of Satan in the angelic conflict.

But we have to start with, What is God like? Who and what is God? Why could God come up with this marvelous plan? So first of all let us notice that there are two concepts of God in the scripture: the essence of God and the person of God. In essence God is one. He is sovereignty, absolute righteousness, justice, love, eternal life, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability and veracity. Veracity especially will come into the faith-rest picture. Faith-rest has as its object Jesus Christ as the God-Man, and the veracity of Jesus Christ in that certain promises are made, and the thinking of Jesus Christ where the doctrine is. So the promises come from the veracity of Christ, the doctrine comes from the omnipotence of Christ, and the whole person is responsible for providing objects for faith in phase two. In essence God is one, that is, the Father, the Son and the Spirit — all have the same essence. There are three separate and distinct persons who have this identical essence and each one has a part in the plan. The Father is the author of the plan; the Son executes the plan; the Holy Spirit gives power for the plan.

So we begin in the English, though not in the Greek, with the words, “The God.” Actually, “the God” comes at the end of three interesting adverbs. The Greek starts out by saying, Polumerôs (πολυμερς) [pronounced pol-oo-MEHR-oce] kai polutrópōs (πολυτρόπως) [pronounced pol-oot-ROP-oce] palai (πάλαι) [pronounced PAHL-ahee] ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS]. In other words, before we get to the name of God in this verse we have three adverbs. The first one is polumerôs (πολυμερς) [pronounced pol-oo-MEHR-oce] which means “in many parts” .It is actually a reference to the Old Testament which is going to be used for documentation beginning in verse 5. In many parts of the Old Testament Jesus Christ is revealed. In many parts of the Old Testament we have the person who would eventually come in the flesh [incarnation] and would be the basis for breaking Satan’s back in the angelic conflict. Jesus Christ is going to come as the last Adam, but in the Old Testament He was not the last Adam, He did not come in the flesh. He was in Christophanies, he came in different manifestations. he came as an angel; He is the Angel of Jehovah. He came as the man who wrestled with Jacob. He came in many manifestations in many parts of the scripture. He is revealed from Genesis all of the way through to Malachi. Many parts of the scripture talk about Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the subject of the Old Testament even as He is the subject of the New Testament. And while the New Testament uses Greek and therefore ‘Ihsouj Christos (χριστός) [pronounced krees-TOSS] kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss], words which are Greek, He is also found by the word Jehovah, by the word El, by the word Elohim, by the word Adonai, and by many other words and designations. So the first adverb does not talk about God as a person, the first adverb talks about the Old Testament. God as a person is nebulous, abstruse, unknown to us, apart from revelation, and the entire first chapter of Hebrews is a very strong proof of the importance of the Old Testament. The Old Testament reveals Jesus Christ in many ways. The Old Testament reveals many wonderful things about Him. The principle of occupation with Christ existed just as much in the Old Testament as it does in the New. They did not have doctrines that we have, the whole realm of the Church Age doctrine was unknown to them, was actually blocked out to them. However, they had enough doctrine, enough information so that the same principle under which we operate — occupation with Christ — was very much available to them. The human race had to exist and continue to exist until the incarnation. The Jewish nation had to exist and there had to come out of the Jewish nation into the human race Jesus Christ as the God-Man, born not only a Jew but born King of the Jews, born not only royalty of the Jews but born as the one lower than the angels, who would break the back of Satan and who would totally defeat all angels in the angelic conflict. Therefore this verse in the Greek does not start with God, it starts with three adverbs, and the first adverb tells us that Jesus Christ is revealed in many parts of the Old Testament. So literally, “In many parts.”

The next phrase “in divers manners” is actually the second adverb, polutrópōs (πολυτρόπως) [pronounced pol-oot-ROP-oce] which means “in different ways.” Jesus Christ was revealed in different ways — theophanies, anthropomorphisms, types, tabernacles, the offerings, the holy days. All of the ways in which Christ was revealed are brought out by the second adverb. The first adverb, then, says in every part of the Old Testament from Genesis to Malachi Jesus Christ was revealed — in many parts of the Old Testament. Then the second adverb says in many way Jesus Christ was revealed. These many ways are going to be in contrast to the New Testament where Jesus Christ is revealed in one way.

Then there is a third adverb, palai (πάλαι) [pronounced PAHL-ahee], which indicates we are talking about Old Testament times. Palai (πάλαι) [pronounced PAHL-ahee] means “of old.” So we have, “In many parts and in many ways of old, the God.” “The God” is the subject. Why? “The God spake” — aorist active participle of laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh]. Laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh] means to communicate. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb is at the beginning of verse 2 — “hath spoken.” “In many parts [of the Old Testament] and in different ways of old the God having spoken” — ingressive aorist tense, “he began to speak.” That isn’t all we have about Christ. When did God begin to speak about Jesus Christ? In the Old Testament. “Having begun to speak”, the aorist is ingressive, God just began to speak then about Christ. And there is a point: Ever since man has lived on the earth God has spoken about Jesus Christ. There are two things that man learned in the garden: who was his right woman and who and what Jesus Christ was. Jesus Christ was his teacher, and also there was a right woman there. The principle remained the same. From the time of the garden and innocence there never has been a time in any generation, in any age, among any group of people where Jesus Christ has not been known, and there never will be. Jesus Christ is the most important subject to the human race; He is the only celebrity for believers. Jesus Christ was the only celebrity in the garden. Once man fell, Jesus Christ was the only celebrity. The seed of the woman is the only Savior. Jesus Christ demands first place in the human race. Why? One of the reasons set forth by Hebrews: Jesus Christ lower than angels, defeated angels. And since the day that Jesus Christ ascended into the presence of the Father in His resurrection body, from that day right down to this moment, from now on, it is a matter of the enemy is defeated and we are in the mop-up stage, and will be until the second advent. The enemy is already defeated.

There are pockets of believers who do not know this in every generation, and these believers get into reversionism. It is possible to be winning a battle and to be defeated in certain parts of the battlefield. That has happened many times in history. It is possible to be on the winning side and still be losing in your corner of the battlefield. That is why reversionism is so bad.

Principle: Reversionism is incompatible with winning the angelic conflict. The devil counterattacks only where reversionism exists. Reversionism is also incompatible with the priesthood of the believer; it is incompatible with the grace of God; it is incompatible with everything that belongs to you since the day you were saved. The big problem in Jerusalem at the time of the writing of Hebrews was that about 95 per cent of the believers were reversionistic, and it was totally incompatible with the angelic conflict, with the priesthood of the believer.

Jesus Christ has always been revealed. “Having spoken unto the fathers” — “the fathers” is dative plural of advantage, patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR], refers to the national ancestors of the Jews, the Jews of Old Testament times — “by the prophets” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental plural of profhthj — “by means of the prophets.” The writers of the Old Testament were all prophets.

Hebrews 1:1 “In many parts [of the Old Testament] and in many different ways of old, the God, having communicated to the fathers by means of the prophets,...” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Doctrine of the Prophets of the Old Testament

1. There are three categories of Old Testament prophets who wrote. a) Super prophet: Moses. His brother was the high priest — prophet and priest in the same family; b) The office of prophet; c) The gift of prophet. In addition to this there was another category of prophet, those who did not write, like Elijah and Elisha, and they functioned in the process of communicating God’s message to a specific generation.

2. The first section of the Hebrew Old Testament was written by the super prophet, Moses. It is called the Torah and includes the first five books of the Old Testament, and possibly Job as well. There are actually three super prophets in history: Moses, Jeremiah, and Jesus Christ.

3. The second section of the Old testament is called the Nebiim, and that means “the prophets.” The ones who wrote in this section, the human authors, held the prophetic office. They are divided into two groups: the former prophets — Joshua, whoever wrote Judges, Samuel, Kings; the latter prophets — Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve (the so-called minor prophets).

4. The third section of the Hebrew canon is called Kethubim, which means “writings.” Those who were the human authors of this section had the gift of prophecy, not the office. There are three sections: first the prophetical books, Psalms, Proverbs and Job; the second section is called the Megilloth which means the five rolls: Song of Solomon, which was always read at the Passover, the book of Ruth, read at Pentecost, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, given during Tabernacles, and Esther, given during the feast of Purim; the third section has three historical books. Daniel was not regarded as a prophecy but rather as a historical book, Ezra and Nehemiah was one book, Chronicles was one book. So we have Daniel, Nehemiah, Chronicles.

Hebrews 1:2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. (ESV)

Verse 2 — the New Testament revelation. “In these last days” begins with the word epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE]. epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] can mean different things. epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] with the genitive, with the ablative, means “upon” or “in,” but epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] with the accusative means “against” or “toward” or “over upon”, and so on. All prepositions seem to have two or three meanings, depending upon the case of the object of the preposition. We can translate this “In the last of these days” or “Upon the last of these days.” Either way it specifically refers to the New Testament canon, and it should be translated not “in these last days” but “upon the last of these days”, which is a phrase in the Greek for the rest of history. For the rest of history God reveals Himself through the incarnate Christ. The New Testament is the revelation of the incarnate Christ. The Old Testament: Jesus Christ was always revealed as God, and He took upon Himself the form of man, the form of angels, the form of burning bush, a cloud, the Shekinah glory, etc. But when you get down to the New Testament that is after the incarnation. The New Testament was all written after Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father and therefore Jesus Christ is revealed in a different way, in a different language. Now He is the God-Man and this passage will emphasize His humanity because through His humanity He won the victory of the angelic conflict, and humanity is created lower than angels. There is no revelation, by the way, beyond the closing of the canon of scripture. The complete revelation of Jesus Christ takes us right down to the book of Revelation. In fact the book of Revelation is the panoramic history of Christ from the cross to the end of time. The Bible is the only source of revelation with regard to God, and God the Son is the only revealed member of the Godhead. he is revealed in one way in the Old Testament; he is revealed another way in the New Testament. The two are brought together in a very dramatic way, beginning in verse 5 and going through verse 13. This is a very dramatic passage. Why? Because this is the New Testament quoting the Old Testament as documentation for Christ winning the angelic conflict.

Now we come to our main verb — “hath spoken.” This time we have the aorist active indicative of laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh] which means to communicate. We had it as an aorist active participle, now in the second verse we have it as an aorist active indicative. “The God, having spoken in the Old Testament”: the aorist active participle for communication. Jesus Christ was revealed in the Old Testament; Jesus Christ was revealed in the New Testament — the aorist active indicative. The indicative indicates this is the main verb and this is the ultimate in the revelation of Jesus Christ. Once Jesus Christ as a man breaks the back of Satan then we are ready for the ultimate in revelation. The ultimate in revelation is the New Testament.

“unto us” — we are the recipients and the beneficiaries of things never known before. Moses longed to see our day but never got there. We are alive in one of the most dramatic moments in all of history. We are alive when Jesus Christ has already won the victory of the angelic conflict, as we shall see in chapter two, and having already won the victory it is now a matter of the details of the Church Age: the completion of the body, the calling out of the bride for Christ. Christ could not have a body and a bride until he became a true member of the human race and won the angelic conflict. He won it at the cross and at the ascension. Now He has a bride, and the reason why we have an interruption of the Jewish Age is simply because the bride is not to be taken from the Jews, the bride is to be taken from Jews and Gentiles. The bride will be unique, and therefore once a person believes in Christ in this age he is not a Jew, he is not a Gentile, he is a member of the body of Christ and will some day be the bride and, as a matter of fact, be the next section of the resurrection.

Now, once again, we have en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental, only there is a contrast. We had in the last verse en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental of profhthj, now we have en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental of huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS] — “adult son.” Notice the contrast. In the Old Testament laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh], aorist active participle; New Testament, aorist active indicative. Now we have a contrast of prepositional phrases. Both are en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental but the object of the preposition: Old Testament prophets. Now, notice here, all revelation is confined to huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS] — “through Son.” Why? Because the Son has now true humanity. He is the God-Man, He is the unique person of the universe. He is different from God; He is humanity. He is different from humanity; He is God. He is unique. And as a man He broke the back of Satan.

There is no pronoun here, there is no definite article here. Notice it says “by means of His Son.” There is no “His”; there is no definite article. The absence of the definite article calls attention to the uniqueness of Christ, and while you can translate it literally “by means of a Son” it really means “by means of Son.” There is nothing that precedes huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS]. In other words, in the Greek this is the antithesis of English. In the Greek the absence of the definite article is stronger and it is like underlining the word “Son.” It is like putting it in caps and underlining it.

The big contrast then: in the Old Testament God spoke through the prophets; in the New Testament God speaks through the unique Son. In the Old Testament the prophets were many voices; in the New Testament the Son is one voice. In the New Testament God has spoken in one way and in one part: Jesus Christ, the Son. This principle alone makes the human author anonymous. This is the one book where the human author had to be anonymous; it is absolutely vital.

Summary

1. There are separate revelations in different passages of the Old testament regarding Jesus Christ.

2 Each revelation sets forth a truth about Jesus Christ.

3. In the Old Testament each generation of believers needed a fresh voice; a different prophet was raised up.

4. But now all truth is set forth in the God-Man, Jesus Christ — John 1:14,17.

5. The Old Testament dealt in shadow revelation but with the incarnation and the manifestation of Christ the shadows are removed.

6. Christ is the reality that removes all the shadows.

7. While the revelation of the two testaments differs in mechanics and content the source is the same — ho Theos; and the subject is the same — Jesus Christ.

8. Therefore all revelation focuses on Jesus Christ who is the victor in the angelic conflict.

At this point we begin with Jesus Christ in the divine decrees. He is the subject of the divine decrees.

“whom he hath appointed heir of all things” — “Whom” is the accusative singular of hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]; the antecedent is Jesus Christ. He is both the subject and the object of divine revelation — “he hath appointed,” the aorist active indicative of tithêmi (τίθημι) [pronounced TIHTH-ā-mee], which means to decree. The subject is God the Father, ho Theos; the object is Jesus Christ. As the planner God the Father appointed the Son. The aorist tense: this a point in eternity. The aorist means occurrence. There was an occurrence in eternity: the doctrine of divine decrees. This is brought out in Psalm 2:7. The active voice: the Father appointed the Son as a part of the divine plan, as the focal point of the divine plan. Remember that we are in the plan of God but the focal point, the important thing, in the plan of God is Jesus Christ. The indicative mood is the reality of the appointment of Jesus Christ as the victor in the angelic conflict. Jesus Christ was there when the appointment was made; He was there when the decrees were decreed; and He is also the subject and the basis of it.

And He was to be made the “heir of all things” — the accusative singular of klêronomos (κληρονόμος) [pronounced klay-roh-OHM-oss]. This means “heir and possessor” of all things. The genitive plural of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] means that as the victor of the angelic conflict Christ is going to be the heir of both angels and mankind. Christ inherits everything in the two systems of things. He inherits all regenerate kingdoms. He inherits the Old Testament saints, the Church Age believers, the Tribulational saints, the Millennial believers, and all elect angels. That is what is meant by all things.

Doctrine of Heirship

1. As the victor of the angelic conflict and as a part of the divine decrees Jesus Christ is the heir of all things — Hebrews 1:2.

2. Sonship means heirship. Heirship is based on Sonship — John 1:12; Romans 8:16,17; Galatians 3:26.

3. Heirship is based on the death of another. We inherit the eternal kingdom of Jesus Christ on the basis of His death — Romans 5:8; 1Corinthians 15:3,4.

4. To inherit from God one must possess the life of God, therefore we do — Titus 3:7; 1John 5:11,12.

5. Therefore salvation is the qualification for joint inheritance — Colossians 1:12.

6. Heirship is related to the doctrine of divine decrees in the sense of sharing the destiny of Christ — Ephesians 1:11.

7. Heirship is also related to the doctrine of election since the joint heirs share the election of Christ — Hebrews 9:15.

8. The principle of our heritage is related to eternal security — 1Peter 1:4,5.

9. Our heritage is provided on the basis of grace — Galatians 3:29.

10. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the down payment on our heritage — Ephesians 1:14.

This brings us now to the principle that Jesus Christ is not only the God of all eternity, along with the Father and the Spirit, but He is also the focal point of history. He is the object of everything that is important to us; He is first in our scale of values; but you can’t understand history apart from understanding Jesus Christ and His relationship to the angelic conflict.

1972 Hebrews 1:2b-3 Lesson #2

05/05/1972 Jesus Christ, key to history & sustainer of universe.

Answer is Christ not politics or human good

Hebrews 1:2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. (ESV)

We are now down to the last phrase of verse two — “by whom also he designed the worlds.” “By whom” is dia plus the genitive of hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç], and it should be translated “through” “though whom [Jesus Christ]. The person whom God the Father appointed in eternity past was Jesus Christ. The appointment includes lots of things, not only God’s plan, grace provision, the laws of divine establishment, the spiritual principles of preservation, the spiritual dynamics of history, but at the same time there has to be a person around whom all of these things revolve, and Jesus Christ, before history began and before man began, agreed to become a member of the human race and to solve history.

So we have, then, “he was appointed in eternity past heir of all things”, but “through Him he also designed the ages” — the whole pattern of history. The word “made” here is the aorist active indicative of poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] and it has a rather unusual meaning. It usually means to do or to make or to work, but here is means to design or arrange. The subject is God the Father who designed the ages of the dispensations around the Lord Jesus Christ.

Notice what comes first. In the doctrine of divine decrees Christ was appointed heir of all things, and once the heir of all things historically is provided then and only then did He design the ages. The ages refers primarily to dispensations and the dispensational view is the historical interpretation of history. The word for ages here, aiôn (αἰών) [pronounced ī-OHN], refers to the divine outline of history. The ages were not designed until after the appointment of the heir. The heir is Jesus Christ. He was appointed first in the doctrine of divine decrees, so we actually have an agenda here, an agenda which presents to us the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first thing on the agenda is the appointment. God the Father makes an appointment and He appoints Christ the heir of all things. That is the key right there. But after He was appointed the heir of all things then, and only then, were the ages designed, the dispensations. The person comes before the dispensations; the person comes before the ages were outlined. God the Father designed the ages to fit Jesus Christ; to prove that Jesus Christ was necessary.

Hebrews 1:2 “In these last days he has communicated to us by means of a unique Son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom [Jesus Christ] he [God the Father] designed the dispensations.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Now we get right down to what is important in history. Jesus Christ is not only the Savior, but He is the solution to man’s problems historically as well as spiritually. So no matter which way you turn you bump into the fact that apart from the Lord Jesus Christ life does not have meaning. And even those who have not accepted Christ as Savior and will never accept Christ as Savior, their life is meaningless apart from Jesus Christ. There is only one key to history and the key is Jesus Christ.

And God the Father in the doctrine of divine decrees appointed Jesus Christ as the heir of all things. He is the key, and once you have the key then you design the lock. The lock is the pattern of dispensations in which man is given full vent to his volition and never gets anywhere. As man has freedom he blows it. Why? Because he is not capable of handling freedom. Only Jesus Christ can handle freedom. History proves that when you give man his free will and his full vent, and let him go, he doesn’t do anything but foul up history. Every dispensation is designed in its own way to give man his freedom — up to the last one — and in giving man his freedom, to demonstrate that man has no appreciation of his freedom and that the best thing he can do with his freedom is to believe in Jesus Christ, and once he has made that decision to use his freedom to get Bible doctrine.

Hebrews 1:3 He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

Verse 3 — the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] — “who"— has as its antecedent Jesus Christ; “being” — eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] — “always being”, there never was a time when He wasn’t; “the brightness” — Jesus Christ is the brightness. This is a compound noun, a)paugasma. Apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] is ultimate source; a)gasmoj is from a verb a)ugazw which means to view in the clearest light, to see distinctly. Nothing can be better than to see Christ as He is.

A)ugazw is a classical or Attic Greek verb, and when you put apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] with it and put the two together you have what is commonly called “effulgence” .But for some reason “effulgence” just doesn’t click. Except for a few scholarly people with a rather extensive vocabulary effulgence doesn’t mean a thing, and yet that is the best translation. But there are some other ideas that are pretty close: “radiance” is close — “who being the radiance, the shining forth.”

“of the glory” — there is no pronoun here [his]. God not only appointed Christ heir of all things but when he appointed Him heir He gave to Him all the glory. Jesus Christ is the God-Man. In His deity He has glory through essence; in His humanity He was given glory through resurrection, ascension and session. And there is no pronoun. It is not “his” glory but it is “the” glory. It is not a glory that belongs to Him, all glory belongs to Him. He is the flashing forth of the glory. The Greek word for glory is doxa (δόξα) [pronounced DOHX-ah]. Glory is often used for the essence of God — like Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” That is the sense in which the glory is involved here.

God the Father appointed Jesus Christ the heir of all things, and the divine glory that existed in Jesus Christ and the glory that would be in His humanity blend together. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit all have the same glory because they have the same essence. However, when God the Father, who in this case is the spokesman in the divine decrees, appointed the Son — Jesus Christ the heir — He would become man and there is no glory in man. Man blew it, and the old sin nature and spiritual death destroyed glory in man. Man does not have glory.

But Jesus Christ came into the world — virgin birth, without a sin nature, without the imputation of Adam’s sin — He lived without any personal sin and the devil through every type of glory at Him, including the rulership of this world. (There is a certain amount of glory in what Satan could offer, but it is absolutely zero compared to the glory that comes through the Father’s plan, the glory that comes through grace) Since the resurrection the Man Christ Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father. The deity is omnipresent, just like the Father’s, but the Man Christ Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father and he now has the only glory in all the human race. As this chapter develops we will see that this glory is not just the human race, this glory goes beyond the human race. This glory that Jesus Christ has as a man is greater than the glory of any angel and angels are made out of glory, they are made out of light. The only story, the only message, the only place where this glory is seen today is through the content of the Word of God. It will not be observed visibly until the second advent of Jesus Christ.

God the Father made it very clear that Jesus Christ was appointed the heir of all things. Jesus Christ said while He was on the earth that He understood this doctrine: John 1:18 — “He that seeth me seeth Him that sent me.” In other words, Jesus Christ is the effulgence in another way. With the glory of God and the glory of man, the double glory, He now becomes the manifestation of God and God’s plan. He is the manifestation of God through His human glory, His perfect glory greater than that of angels. He is the manifestation of God also by His divine glory. The plan of God, the wisdom of God, grace of God, are all seen in Jesus Christ, so the key to history is also the very source of all understanding of what glory really is.

“Who being the radiance [or effulgence] of the glory” — the effulgence of glory emphasizes the humanity of Christ, and the glory of His humanity, but the next word emphasizes the glory of His deity — “the express image”, and the Greek noun is xapakthr. It was used originally for an engraving tool, a die, a stamp or a mark, or an impression made with an engraving tool. That is exactly what Jesus Christ is. He is the engraving tool that makes an impression on sinful people, the only one who can. Therefore, how goes history” Well the devil rules the world, therefore history goes very poorly. But in the devil’s kingdom Jesus Christ as an engraving tool touches the lives of individuals through doctrine and in the devil’s kingdom we have engraved the very glory of Jesus Christ — the ministry of the filling of the Spirit, Bible doctrine in the launching pad. So Jesus Christ makes an impact on history even when the devil rules the world. The devil’s kingdom is a kingdom of darkness and the only light in this darkness is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and the thinking of Christ which is doctrine. So “the express image” is literally “the exact image” — “of his person,” hupostasis. “Who being the effulgence [or radiance] of the glory and the exact image of His hupostasis” — hupostasis means “substance” or “essence.” hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] means under; stasij means to stand or standing. So put together it gives us “standing under.” That is where we get hypostatic union: the humanity of Christ stands under the deity of Christ. Jesus Christ is unique. He is the God-Man.

Next we have “upholding”, a present active participle of phérô (φέρω) [pronounced FEH-row] which means to bear or to carry. In this case it means to sustain. The present tense is linear aktionsart, which means He does it all the time. The active voice means that Christ constantly sustains not just the earth but the entire universe. When Christ was in the cradle He was holding the inverse together; when he was on the cross He held the universe together; while He was in the tomb for three days He held the universe together. He is holding the universe together right now, seated at the right hand of the Father. Jesus Christ is actually the one who holds the universe together. And that isn’t all, He is the creator of the universe — James 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:10.

But here we see Him as the sustainer of the universe. He sustains the entire universe by the word of His mouth. Now what is more important to an individual, what he thinks or what he says? What he thinks! The principle is: Doctrine is what Christ thinks; the way the universe runs is what He says. It is easy to keep you on this earth — the law of gravity. He just speaks and by His word He holds you on the earth. But to get into your soul with something meaningful in the devil’s world is something else. But what He [Jesus Christ] thinks is more important than what He speaks, and you have what he thinks as well as what He speaks. You live in a universe that is sustained by the word of His mouth, but in your soul you have what He thinks — Bible doctrine, if and when you get it.

“by the word” — the instrumental of hrma (ῥμα, ατος, τό) [pronounced HRAY-mah] is the word for “word” here, not logos (λόγος, ου, ὁ) [pronounced LOHG-oss]. Why don’t we have logos (λόγος, ου, ὁ) [pronounced LOHG-oss]? Logos (λόγος, ου, ὁ) [pronounced LOHG-oss] really has to do with thinking; hrma (ῥμα, ατος, τό) [pronounced HRAY-mah] has to do with speaking. Hrma (ῥμα, ατος, τό) [pronounced HRAY-mah] could also be translated “expression” — “sustaining the all things by the verbal expression of his power.” The word for “power” is dúnamis (δύναμις) [pronounced DOO-nahm-iss], and that is His inherent power. When God the Father made Jesus Christ the heir of all things He did a very interesting thing. He also assigned to Jesus Christ, not only the creation of the universe but the sustaining of it. There is the whole universe around us and one little spot in this universe is the earth. The devil rules that one little tiny spot and Jesus Christ could tell that spot to run into the sun, and that would destroy it, or run into Mars, or into some other galaxy and destroy it. And He could destroy in one second this little tiny planet called earth. And this is the devil’s kingdom, and it is a big kingdom to the devil. It is just a little hunk of nothing as far as the whole universe is concerned.

God has a fantastic sense of humour, in fact this little kingdom is so dull to the devil that he spends very little time here. The devil is in heaven probably right now — very likely mentioning some of us to the Lord! But the one who controls the whole universe can also control your soul, and that drives the devil right up the wall. He can’t stand that. Your life has meaning with doctrine. Without doctrine your life doesn’t mean a thing; it is nothing. The one who makes it possible for the devil’s kingdom to spin around in space is Jesus Christ, and He does it with a word. Now you have to see something: Jesus Christ is more important than anything in your life. There is nothing greater than to be occupied with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“when” — this is part of the participle, there is no “when” here. The participle is the aorist middle participle of poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh]. This time He does something so we translate this, especially since it is in a middle voice, “having himself accomplished.” The “having” indicates the aorist participle; the “himself” indicates the middle voice; and “accomplished” indicates the meaning of poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] in this particular phrase. The aorist tense is the point of time in which Jesus Christ actually came into history as a man and did something that is absolutely unique. The fact that Jesus Christ was on the cross was not unique. In any particular given period of history during SPQR more people were crucified than any other type of death. So crucifixion was very common. In the Sparticus revolt they crucified people for miles and miles. In every road leading into Rome they had one cross next to another. You couldn’t go an and out of Rome without going by all these corpses rotting on the wood. So the idea of crucifixion being unique is not correct, it is the One who was on the cross who was unique, He was the God-Man. The unique thing was that Jesus Christ did in three hours what man has done for six or seven thousand years of history: we die spiritually the moment we are born spiritually, and from then on we show it. Jesus Christ took everything we ever showed, every sin, and every personal sin was poured out; all the sins of the world were judged. They were poured out on Christ and Christ was judged for our sins. So the unique thing about the cross was those last three hours when He was bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. That was different. That had never happened before in history and has never happened since — only once in all of human history. Jesus Christ enters human history twice: once at the cross and once at the second advent. At the cross He did something unique; at the second advent He will do something unique. At the cross Jesus Christ became the only Savior, so now it is more than history, it is the matter of eternal salvation, it is a matter of entering the plan of God. Jesus Christ came for one purpose only: for the purpose of providing for man eternal life. By so doing He made it possible to have that kingdom which will begin at the second advent and be perpetuated forever in a new atmosphere, in a new heaven, new earth, and new Jerusalem. He had to do something to do it, so the aorist tense is that unique point of time. The middle voice is reflexive: He did it Himself. The participle is an aorist participle, and the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb is “sat down” .When He did this He sat down. But what did He do?

“having himself accomplished purification” — and the word “purged” is kaqarismoj which means to purge. History is man’s activity in the old sin nature. Man demonstrates that he is dead spiritually by sinning personally. Spiritual death is based upon the existence of the old sin nature; man demonstrates his spiritual death by personally sinning. So what is the biggest problem in history? The sins of the old sin nature and the human good of the old sin nature. These are history’s two greatest problems. The sins were judged at the cross; the human good was rejected at the cross.

“for our sins” — the genitive plural of hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah] has the definite article with it. It refers to the sins of the entire human race under the doctrine of unlimited atonement.

“sat down” — to step down in heaven you have to leave the earth — that is, the human being part has to. “Having himself accomplished purification of the sins he was caused to sit down” — the aorist active indicative of kathizô (καθίζω) [pronounced kahth-EED-zoh].

“on the right hand” — decioj means the right hand side. The right hand side is the side of honour — “of the megalôsunê (μεγαλωσύνη) [pronounced mehg-al-oh-SOO-nay]” — this is a periphrasis, the use of a longer phrase in a place of a shorter expression. A periphrasis here is to demonstrate that there aren’t enough words in the world to express what it means for Jesus Christ in His humanity to be seated on the right hand side of the Father. For Jesus Christ in His humanity to be seated on the right hand side of the Father is so important in history and in the resolving of the angelic conflict that there aren’t enough words to express it. However, when words are to be selected to express, as they will be in this passage, they are significant words since all the words in the world can’t express how great it is for Jesus Christ in His humanity to be seated on the right hand side of the Father. But since there aren’t enough let’s take a few and do it, says the writer, therefore what words will I select? And what words does the writer select? The Old Testament; words from the Word of God. From verse 5, all the way through verse 13, we have nothing but a series of verses from the Old testament — documentation, but when these verses are quoted from the Old Testament they are quoted not from the Massoretic text, not from the Hebrew, but from the Greek of the Septuagint. The periphrasis becomes very important here, it is translated “of the majesty” — genitive singular of megalôsunê (μεγαλωσύνη) [pronounced mehg-al-oh-SOO-nay], and this is actually the periphrasis. In the concept of the periphrasis it says in effect “all of the words in the world could never adequately describe this, but there are some words that will describe this — the Old Testament.” Once again we see the importance of understanding the Old Testament along with doctrine pertaining to the Church Age.

And why did the writer quote them from the Greek rather than the Hebrew text? There are a number of reasons but one is because he is now dealing with a Greek language which is the best and most technical way to express what is contained in the periphrasis. What is contained in the periphrasis is so magnificent that you have a choice of two languages: the Septuagint, the first translation of the Old Testament, or the Hebrew. But the Hebrew is a more ancient language; the Greek of the Septuagint is a more modern language and a language which is the most technical of all. Therefore he quotes from the Septuagint so that no one will miss the power and the dynamics of the Word of God. And this proves the principle of the periphrasis: God’s Word, though originally written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and in Greek, the power of the Word can come out in the English. And the language with more words or less words, with technical words, is able to communicate something of the phenomenal things we have here. That is the message of the periphrasis.

“on high” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative plural of u(yhloj. U(yhloj means “on high”, but it means more than that. It means that right down here is this little planet, and billions of light years away is the third heaven, the glamour spot of the universe. The devil has his little kingdom down here and Jesus Christ has the whole universe.

Translation: “Who being the radiance [the flashing forth] of the glory, and the exact image of his essence, also sustaining the all things by the verbal expression of his power, having himself accomplished purification of sins, was caused to sit down on the right hand side of the majesty in the highest places.”

1972 Hebrews 1:3–4 Lesson #3

05/19/1972 Doctrine of ascension & session, Jesus Christ as God-man

“having himself accomplished purification of sins” — this means that every sin that has ever been committed in the human race has already been purified. This doesn’t mean that sinners stop being sinners. It doesn’t even mean that sinners are saved. It means that when Jesus Christ was on the cross He was actually judged for every sin that you and I will ever commit. The sin problem has so many tentacles and so many areas. The sin problem causes us to come into this world spiritually dead. The sin problem is the need for salvation. The sin problem is related to so many facets and activities of life that are contrary to the plan of God, the will of God and the grace of God. But every personal sin that you will ever commit in your lifetime — thought, word, or deed — was purified on the cross.

There is no reference here to the resurrection, but it goes on to emphasize the high priesthood of Christ — the result. Jesus Christ as a high priest entered into the real holy of holies, the one in heaven, and there He was seated on the right hand side of the majesty in the highest places.

The Doctrine of Ascension and Session

— the doctrine whereby Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. This is the flashing forth of His human glory. One of the things that is going to run all of the way through this chapter: Christ in His humanity is superior to any member of the human race; Christ in His humanity is superior to angels; and Christ in His humanity is different as the God-Man from the other members of the Godhead. Therefore, Jesus Christ is the unique person in the universe in every sense of the word.

1. The resurrection body of Jesus Christ was capable of space travel, and through the mechanics of this space travel Jesus Christ came to be seated at the right hand of the Father. The humanity of Christ is a resurrection body traveled through all three heavens and arrived at the throne room which is comparable to the holy of holies. The high priest of Israel, once a year on the Day of Atonement, was permitted to enter the holy of holies twice; but not apart from the shedding of blood: once for himself and once for the people. The people literally held their breath to see if he could come out of this sacred place alive, and they would always breath a sigh of relief when he did so. That is a type of the third heaven. But Jesus Christ as our high priest ascended into the presence of the Father in a resurrection body. Jesus Christ as our high priest is unique. He is different from all members of the human race at this time. He is different from us in that He has a resurrection body. As the high priest — he was appointed high priest on the cross — he offered Himself as a sacrifice. No high priest can have any efficacy to his ministry unless he has a bona fide sacrifice, and Jesus Christ offered Himself and by so doing He established Himself as a high priest forever.

In the ministry of the priesthood the sacrifice is offered outside of the tabernacle. It is at the brazen altar that we have the sacrifice. Then the high priest took the blood of the sacrifice past the first veil, past the second veil, into the holy of holies. Jesus Christ became a high priest because he had the perfect sacrifice: Himself. And as a high priest He had to get off the altar and get into the holy of holies which is the third heaven. The only way to get off the altar if you are the sacrifice and get into the holy of holies is by a resurrection body. So it is imperative to understand the importance of resurrection. Without the resurrection body Jesus Christ could not be our high priest and we could not be a kingdom of priests in this Church Age. Therefore before the Church Age could ever begin Jesus Christ had to be established in the holy of holies forever; He had to be seated on the right hand side of God the Father. He had to be accepted by God the Father and by the acceptance in one person we have both sacrifice and high priest all fulfilled in the unique person of Jesus Christ — John 20:17.

2. Jesus Christ being seated — the session of Christ — documented in many scriptures: Psalm 110:1; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3, 13; 8:1; 10:12; 12:12; 1Peter 3:22. The session of Christ confirms the acceptability of the humanity of Christ, and no only so, but it confirms the appointment of Jesus Christ as a permanent high priest, setting aside all other priesthoods that have ever been bona fide. Jesus Christ, therefore, by being seated at the right hand of the Father has a confirmation of His ministry which makes our life on this earth meaningful, because in this dispensation we not only have Jesus Christ receiving to Himself a body and then a bride — the believers of the Church Age — but Jesus Christ also has for Himself a priesthood made up of every believer in the Church Age. It is a priesthood that began on the Day of Pentecost and will terminate on earth on the day of the Rapture. Now here is a dignity that we could never earn or deserve or work for. You yourself are a priest. Every believer has been elevated by grace. Who ever earned the right or the privilege of being a priest. The privileges of the priesthood are absolutely fantastic. And by so doing Jesus Christ did two things: He called to the attention of the devil and the great hosts of fallen angels your existence on the earth in the devil’s kingdom under a system of double blessing compared to any blessing that any believer in the past could ever receive. We have a kingdom of priests on the earth today. You and I are those priests. Our life, then, inevitably, regardless of discouragement, regardless of catastrophe or tragedy or heartache or difficulty, or a very hopeless outlook as far as life is concerned, has meaning. God has a purpose for your life; you are a priest, you are a part of the kingdom of priests on earth. And that isn’t all. You will never get out of this priesthood, your priesthood goes on forever. Your are going to have a resurrection body. And you may not function as a priest when you die physically because your soul will be in heaven without the resurrection body But as of the day of the Rapture you are a priest for ever in the kingdom of priests — the order of Melchizedek, the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. You are never going to appreciate your priesthood until you get Bible doctrine, and the more doctrine you receive the sooner you will appreciate it.

To be alive on this earth at this time is not perhaps one of the best periods in history. But we do not choose the time in which we come into history and therefore we have to have some stabilizer, we have to have a rudder, something to orient us to the time in which we live. I suppose people that in history have always been disappointed with the time in which they lived, especially if they know anything about history. Ignorance of history makes everything simple: everything is fine! But once you learn something about history you have a tendency to become malcontent with the time in which you live, and especially with a little doctrine and a little common sense, or a little discernment. But you are here, and that’s a fact, and you are as a believer also a priest, and that’s a fact. And since you are a priest and since you therefore have two links with Jesus Christ — you are a part of the body; you are a part of the priesthood — then obviously it should become very important for you to learn all you can about your priesthood — from doctrine — so that you can begin to function in connection with it. Once you do, then a bad day isn’t quite as bad.

So the priesthood of the believer is of the utmost importance; you have to realize that you are a priest. Then there is one other step after that, and that is the highest degree: you are an ambassador. The priesthood is permanent and it is solid and it is great. If you believe in Jesus Christ and that He is sitting at the right hand of the Father, d you realize that He is sitting their because He is a high priest? Do you realize that He is a King right now without a kingdom, that His kingdom literally on earth will not occur until the second advent? He is going to wait for that. But do you realize that He has something right now? He has a spiritual kingdom of priests. If you really believe that Jesus Christ exists and if you really believe that he is at the right hand of the Father and then you stop to realize that you are a priest, do you realize that you are hooked up with heaven? It is true.

Do you know that the angels envy you? The angels all have to gather in heaven for convocations. The book of Job tells us about one. Do you know why the angels envy you? Because every time they go to the throne room there is Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. They see that He has two arms and two legs and one head. He has hands and feet and eyes — eyes that flash. He has a human resurrection body, and it is the only one in existence. Every time they meet in the third heaven for a convocation they keep peeking over at Jesus Christ. Why? Because they have seen arms and legs on human beings but this is a resurrection body and they know that all of us are going to have the same thing. We need to stop and realize this.

3. The ascension and session of Christ formed the basis of victory in the angelic conflict — Hebrews 1:5-13.

4. The ascension and session of Christ begin a new sphere of the angelic conflict. While the Tribulation is a horrible time on earth and there is lots of obvious angelic fighting the Church Age is the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. So having this priesthood we need to be reminded of the fact that since every believer is a priest he is also with this priesthood in a very intense conflict — Ephesians 1:20-22; 4:7-10. Therefore the believer in the Church Age is involved in the intensification of the angelic conflict.

5. The ascension and session of Jesus Christ begin operation footstool — Psalm 110:1 which is quoted significantly in this connection three times: Luke 20:42,43; Acts 2:33,34; Hebrews 1:13.

6. The second advent of Christ will conclude operation footstool — Daniel 7;13,14; Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15; Revelation 20:1-3.

7. The ascension and session completes the glorification of Christ in hypostatic union. The glorification of Christ in the hypostatic union is very important as far as His high priesthood is concerned. If Jesus Christ is going to be anything forever, if anyone is going to be anything forever, they must have a glory. You can’t get into forever without glory, and Jesus Christ as God is forever and He has glory. God the Father is forever; He has glory. God the Holy Spirit is God; as God He has forever glory. But Jesus Christ, from the moment He took humanity He took humanity not in glory. From the virgin birth to the cross there is no glory. Humiliation is the word connected with the incarnation and the first advent. The first advent is humiliation. Glory began with resurrection; glory was manifest by the session of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ not only has to have a glory because of the resurrection and session but He has to have a glory in His humanity that puts Him way out ahead of any creature of any kind, including the angels. That is why the whole first chapter of Hebrews, beginning at verse 6, is going to document the principle that the humanity of Christ has a fantastic glory that is greater than any glory that the angels have. The angels have a certain type of glory but Jesus Christ is superior to them in His humanity, and His glory is related to the high priesthood. When we get to chapters seven through ten we will see a magnificent searchlight on the glory of the humanity of Christ. It goes without saying that His deity is glory — Colossians 1; Philippians 2.

As long as we are on this earth we are priests, and as priests we do not have a glory of our own. We have no claim to fame. The only glory we have is the glory of Jesus Christ in resurrection body, high priest, seated at the right hand of the Father. That is our glory. The only way we manifest this glory is a big reflector built in the soul, and that big reflector is the edification complex.

8. The ascension and session explain the uniqueness of the Church Age — John 7:37-39.

9. The ascension and session is the key to victory in the angelic conflict.

Hebrews 1:4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. (ESV)

Verse 4 — “Being made,” aorist middle participle of ginomai which means to become something. So “being made” is incorrect. It should be translated with the aorist participle concept here, “Having become.” Jesus Christ as God always existed. There never was a time when He didn’t exist; there never was a time when He didn’t have the essence of His deity. But now He became something that He was not before, and this can never be said about the Father and this can never be said about the Holy Spirit. The Father has always been the Father, has always had the same essence, and there has never been any change and never will be. The same is true of God the Holy Spirit. But God the Son became something He was not before. He became mankind. That is why they translated this “being made.” However, “being made” does not bring out into the English the concept of the aorist middle participle. The aorist tense is really a culminative aorist in view of what we have had in verse three. In a culminative aorist we have the point of time, not at the beginning, not constative, not during, but at the end.

Jesus Christ is now seated at the right hand of the Father and He has become something He was never before. As a member of the human race He was made lower than angels; now He is higher than angels. The middle voice is reflexive, it indicates that Jesus Christ is unique. The reflexive means that Christ Himself and only Himself is superior to all angels. You and I are not superior to angels, we are inferior both by creation and function. Christ is superior. Why? Christ became a man and we are talking about His humanity. Humanity sits down at the right hand of the Father. Deity doesn’t sit; deity doesn’t have to sit. Deity coexists and is coeternal with the Father, but Jesus Christ is a man. As a man He is higher than angels. But why not other men? First of all, Christ is minus the old sin nature. Secondly, Christ as a human being always avoided something that we have not avoided: human good. Then, of course, minus the old sin nature He was also minus personal sin.

But even these things, absolutely unique in the history of the human race, do not make Him better than angels. What makes Him better than angels? The resurrection body. He has a human body that is superior to the body of angels. That isn’t the way creation was designed originally, that is the way it comes through resurrection. So the middle voice is reflexive indicating the uniqueness of Christ, the uniqueness of His resurrection. At this time Jesus Christ is the only member of the human race in a resurrection body. This will be true until the Rapture. No other member of the human race at this time is superior to angels, only the humanity of Christ. There will come a day when we, too, will be superior to angels. That day has not yet occurred.

“Having become so much better” — tosoutw kreittôn (κρείττων) [pronounced KRITE-tohn]. Tosouô is an instrumental case of vocabulary form tosoutos (τοσοτος) [pronounced toss-OO-toss] which means in its vocabulary form “by so much.” It is in the instrumental case here and that means “by means” of something He became more prominent. And then kreittôn (κρείττων) [pronounced KRITE-tohn] is the comparative of kratus, which means “more prominent”, “more superior” .Kratus means inherent power.

Jesus Christ inherited power from His very birth. First of all He was born without an old sin nature, and that gave Him power. He was born without the imputation of Adam’s sin, and that gave Him power. He was also born the sin of David, and that gave Him power — the right to rule. But “by so much” — the ascension and session. The instrumental says somewhere in the context there is a subject which is “by so much”, and the subject is ascension.

“By so much [by the ascension and session], having become more prominent [more superior] than angels.” “Angels” is an ablative plural here for comparison. The ablative plural says that the writer is deliberately making a comparison between all angels and one man, one unique man, Jesus Christ. And in His humanity He was more of a man than any man that ever lived. Being more of a man He is compared to all angels. One man is a resurrection body at the right hand of the Father is greater than all of the angels put together. That is the meaning of the ablative of comparison. And that is not all, that is the direction of our priesthood. That is the way we are going. We, too, will have a resurrection body. In the meantime we have something to do, and just living and breathing and taking in doctrine is really doing something.

The trouble is that we live in that Mickey Mouse age when everyone is impressed by doing things. Everyone wants to be doing things — all show and no go. The trouble with most of us is that we are conditioned to the day in which we live: conditioned to cosmic thinking, to human viewpoint. Many have said at different times, “Well I’m really not doing anything for the Lord.” Of course you are! If your are breathing and taking in doctrine, you are doing something. The trouble is you don’t know you are doing something. Until you get more doctrine you don’t realize how significant it is. By sitting down in a pew and not lifting your little finger, by taking in Bible doctrine as a priest [the first thing that a priest in the Old Testament had to do was spend years in seminary, and memorize the Bible as it then existed] you are doing something. No, you learn and learn, and learn and learn, and you never stop learning. Moses was the man of deeds but he wasn’t the high priest. What did the high priest do? He did nothing. He wore the breast plate. What did he do with it? Nothing. He just stood still for God’s commands. What else did he do? Very little. He carried the bowl of blood and put it on the mercy seat once a year. The beautiful thing about the priesthood is learning how to do nothing — and do it well! That means grace, grace, more grace. So the biggest function of the priesthood is to listen to the teaching of Bible doctrine.

Doctrine works, but doctrine only works on the inside. Doctrine works in the right lobe, and that is what we need — doctrine in the right lobe — and here is where the priest really gets with it on the earth. Here comes doctrine, hits that frame of reference, gets into that memory centre, becomes a part of the technical vocabulary, sets up categories, norms and standards [divine norms and standards], and doctrine on the launching pad. There is nothing greater. People who run around and say, “I’ve got to run around and do great things for God,” have missed the boat. They’ve lost track of the emphasis in Hebrews, because Hebrews says you are a priest. And what does a priest do well? Nothing. And how do you do nothing well? You come and you sit in a pew and you concentrate on the teaching, on the content, of the Word of God. And no greater thing can be said for anyone than that.

“having become more prominent” — Jesus Christ as a man is more prominent than all angels, and it also means “more superior” than angels — all angels, fallen and elect.

The word “as” is instrumental of w(soj and should be translated “by so much as.” By so much as what? Now immediately you think Christ is going to do something. But not right away. He is not going to do something.

“he hath by inheritance obtained” — there is no “obtained” in the verse. This is a perfect active indicative of klêronomeô (κληρονομέω) [pronounced klay-ron-om-EH-oh] which means to inherit, but in the perfect tense it means He has inherited, and the perfect tense means it is permanent. (Of course, we are going to share His heritage. Remember, we are joint heirs as well as priests) The active voice: Jesus Christ does the inheriting. The indicative mood is the reality of inheritance. Note the impact of klêronomeô (κληρονομέω) [pronounced klay-ron-om-EH-oh]: you don’t do anything to inherit. Once again you are doing nothing. And Jesus Christ as our high priest has inherited. He did something on the cross and in the plan of the Father there is action — resurrection, ascension and session — but what is He doing as high priest? What is He doing sitting down at the right hand of the Father? He is doing nothing. How do you do nothing? You inherit. You inherit on the basis of two things: relationship and love; both, or one or the other. But whichever way it is you are not doing anything. What did you do to get into the family of God? You believed in Christ, and that is doing nothing. No matter how you slice it you are an heir forever. So this priesthood has a great aspect: doing nothing and doing it well. That requires doctrine; that requires grace orientation.

“a more excellent” — diaphoros (διάφορος) [pronounced dee-AF-or-oss], an accusative singular neuter. It is in the neuter gender. Christ is not neuter but the principle. The principle of glory belongs to a person but glory as a principle is neuter here. It should be translated “more superior” because it is the comparative form of diaphoros (διάφορος) [pronounced dee-AF-or-oss].

“name” — onoma (ὄνομα,ατος,τό) [pronounced OHN-oh-ma]. We have a tendency to associate name as being someone’s name, but not in the ancient world. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. In the time in which this was written name did not mean name, it meant reputation — “he has a more superior reputation.” Not only in His person is He now superior to angels but in His reputation. Every time the angels have a convocation in heaven they all gather, and there they are. And who has the greatest reputation? Jesus Christ. And what is Jesus Christ? Well He is God, but reputation doesn’t go with His deity but with His humanity. In His humanity He has a greater reputation than all of those angels.

“than they” — pitiful translation. We have a prepositional phrase here, para plus autos. Para here with the accusative means “by the side.” Then autos is in the accusative plural and refers to all the angels — “by the side of them.” Whenever the angels get together in heaven for a convocation, by the side of them is one in a human body — there is only one human body at angelic convocations — superior.

Hebrews 1:4 “By so much [ascension and session], having become more prominent than angels by so much as he has inherited a more superior reputation by the side of them.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

He is not only better in His person, He is better in His reputation. Here they are with all the glamour of angels and one resurrection body is there.

Summary

1. The ascension and session of Jesus Christ indicates the Father’s approval of His priestly ministry — death on the cross; He offered Himself as a sacrifice.

2. As a result of the first advent and incarnation Jesus Christ as a resurrected human being has become superior to angels at the right hand of the Father.

3. The resurrected humanity of Christ is superior to all angelic creatures, including Satan.

4. The next paragraph in this chapter — verses 5-13 — demonstrates the superiority of Christ from Old Testament documentation. And that isn’t all. God the Holy Spirit did not see fit to quote those passages from the Hebrew text, they are quoted from the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament. It is just like a total divorce from the Levitical priesthood.

5. This Old Testament documentation becomes a shock to the Jews and a put-down to the fallen angels.

1972 Hebrews 1:5–9 Lesson #4

05/26/1972 Authority comes before freedom; Old Testament documentation of superiority of Jesus Christ to angels

Verses 5-13 present the Old Testament documentation of the superiority of Jesus Christ to angels.

Hebrews 1:5 For to which of the angels did God ever say, "You are My Son, today I have begotten You"? Or again, "I will be to Him a Father, and He shall be to Me a Son"? (ESV)

Verse 5 — we start with an epexegetical particle gar. Some one could write a doctor’s dissertation on the use of gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] in the New Testament, it is a phenomenal subject. The epexegetical gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] is used to explain further details of the superiority of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union. The great thrust of verses two through four is the fact that Jesus Christ is the God-Man, and many of the things which are described are dealing with the hypostatic union with emphasis on His humanity. Therefore it becomes necessary to document these things from the scripture which existed from old times, that is the Old Testament.

“For unto which” — the dative singular of the interrogative pronoun tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç]. This interrogative pronoun has an accent to indicate the difference from tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] without an accent which means “anyone” .This word in the dative of the interrogative pronoun means “to which” or “unto which,” and it introduces a rhetorical question — “of the angels,” and this refers to the super creation, to the angelic creatures — “said he” — aorist active indicative of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] to indicate spoken communication. Then we have an adverb, “at any time” — poté (ποτέ) [pronounced poht-EH]. The rhetorical question has a quotation, the first of seven Old Testament passages used to document from various aspects and from different angles the superiority of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union over angels and, as a matter of fact, the superiority of the humanity of Christ over angels. There is no question with regard to His deity because in His deity He is infinitely superior to all creatures. In fact he is the source, the origin of all creatures. But as man we now have a rhetorical question to introduce seven Old Testament quotations demonstrating the fact that Jesus Christ is infinitely superior in His humanity to all angelic creatures.

The first documentation is from Psalm 2:7 which contains a part of the divine decrees. “Thou art my Son” — the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], indicating eternal status quo. It is present linear aktionsart — huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS] mou. Huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS] is an adult son, a mature son; mou is the possessive pronoun, genitive of possession. There is an eternal relationship here between the first and second persons of the Trinity, and Huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS] as adult Son refers to Jesus Christ as eternal God, undiminished deity — “Thou art always my Son.” Jesus Christ is always God, there never was a time when He wasn’t God, there never will be a time. But this is a quotation from the divine decrees. You say, well look, Son indicates that He didn’t exist as long as the Father. This is language of accommodation, this is indicating the function of the members of the Godhead in the plan of God, in the divine decrees. In the divine decrees the Father does the planning, and the Son executes the plan as far as the human race is concerned. Therefore this is language of accommodation rather than language of chronological sequence.

“this day” introduces another concept. It is the Greek adverb sêmeron (σήμερον) [pronounced SAY-mer-on] and it means “today” or “this day.” “This day” refers specifically to the time when this phase of the plan, always in the mind of God, was put into operation. It refers to the day of the virgin birth or the day of the incarnation. In proving the superiority of Christ over angels inevitably you must start out with His deity. “Thou art my Son” is a quotation from the divine decrees to show that in eternity past God the Father always existed, God the Son always existed, there never was a time when the Father existed before the Son or the Son before the Father, there never was a time when both of them did not exist. Since both of them have always existed it becomes necessary to understand this in terms of that. If you are going to start out proving superiority start out with what Christ always was: Jesus Christ was always God. He was just as much God as God the Father. “Thou art my Son [e)imi]” links the two of them together, right here. Jesus Christ also created angels, he created man, but He now must become a man. There is no question about His superiority in deity but in order to start at the proper place the deity of Christ is brought into focus first. “This day” is an adverb referring to a point of time in history when Jesus Christ became true humanity. Jesus Christ became true humanity in the moment of the virgin birth and this causes Him to be different from the Father — now He is the God-Man, undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever. But the source of the hypostatic union is still God the Father.

“this day have I begotten thee” — “have I begotten” is the perfect active indicative of gennáô (γεννάω) [pronounced gen-NAH-oh]. Jesus Christ continues forever in the hypostatic union. The perfect tense means that Jesus Christ will be different from the Father throughout all eternity as well as time. Jesus Christ is now the God-Man; He always will be the God-Man, there never will be a time when he will be anything but the God-Man. Therefore He is different from the Father and the Spirit who are God but not humanity. By the way, gennáô (γεννάω) [pronounced gen-NAH-oh] in the Hebrew is jaladh in the qal perfect, and the qal perfect in the Hebrew is equivalent here to the perfect active indicative of gennáô (γεννάω) [pronounced gen-NAH-oh]. The active voice: God the Father is the author of this grace plan. The indicative mood is the reality of the birth of Jesus Christ, the reality of virgin birth, the reality of the incarnation, the reality of the hypostatic union, the reality of the inculpability of the humanity of Christ at the point of His birth because He was born without a sin nature, without the imputation of Adam’s sin; and, therefore, in His volition He must through His free will refuse to sin in the same way that Adam resisted for a certain period of time.

Psalm 2:7 is the divine decrees related to the hypostatic union — Jesus Christ is the unique person of the universe. He is different from God the Father because He is true humanity. He is different from God the Holy Spirit because He is true humanity. He is different from angels because he is the God-Man; He is different from man because He is God; He is different from man because He is perfect man. The very first documentation we have indicates that Jesus Christ always existed as God, that something is unique. “This day” Jesus Christ became a member of the human race. Furthermore, He became a member of the human race without jarring His deity, without compromising His deity and without destroying His deity. The deity of Jesus Christ was no compromised in the moment that He became a true member of the human race. Had He had a true father, and had He had a normal birth, then there would be a compromise of deity and deity could not be deity. Jesus Christ cannot be God apart from the virgin birth. But He did not have a normal type birth, he had a virgin birth. His birth is unique, there is only one virgin birth in all of human history and there will only be one. In this way Jesus Christ became true humanity without compromising His deity. His deity could not remain deity and be compromised by sin, and therefore when Jesus Christ was born into this world it was a virgin birth, there was no old sin nature. Furthermore, there was no imputation of Adam’s sin. Therefore Jesus Christ is unique from the moment of His birth, and the uniqueness only is amplified. That means that he is unique at birth, that means He will have a unique life, that means that His death will be unique: both His spiritual death, bearing our sins and His physical death, that means His resurrection will be unique — He is the firstfruits of them that sleep — and it means that from there on everything will be unique — the ascension, the session, the whole bit. Therefore, not only is our Savior unique, as he must be, but so is our high priest. And this is the point at which both are introduced.

Who is our Savior? In eternity past he was God, always God, there never was a time when He wasn’t God. But He didn’t become man until this word, “this day.” “This day” was planned billions of years ago, a day when the Father and the Holy Spirit recognized that Jesus Christ would take upon Himself something that was absolutely unique and things would never be the same again in heaven. For on the basis of what Jesus Christ did there would be human beings in heaven. And that isn’t all. On the basis of what Jesus Christ did man who was inferior to angels by physical birth would become superior to angels through the new birth. God the Father turned the universe upside down the day that Jesus Christ was born. Nothing would ever be the same again. God the Father knew that when Jesus Christ was born into the world that the time would come — just thirty-three years from that moment — when all of the sins of the world would have to be poured out upon Him and God the Father Himself would have to judge God the Son.

And all by itself is that accusative singular from the pronoun su, referring to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the object of the verb. He is the one who was begotten. Psalm 2:7 is so important that it is actually quoted three times in the New Testament. In Acts 13:33 Jesus Christ is the baby in the manger and at the same time the eternal Son of God. The documentation in that verse is to emphasize the uniqueness of His birth. Here is Hebrews 1:5 the humanity of Christ is superior to all angels. Later on in Hebrews 5:5 the priesthood of Christ is superior to all priesthoods.

“and again” — kai palin. This introduces a new quotation, this time from 2Samuel 7:14 — “I will be to him,” future active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. In the first quotation eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] was in the present active indicative. Why? The rest of this phrase will explain it. “To him” is dative singular of a reflexive pronoun autos — “I will be to him and only to him for a father” — we have the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] here plus the accusative of patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR], for “father.” This is again language of accommodation but it also show the direction of the incarnation. God the Father is not really a father; God the Son is not really a son, both of them are eternal God, coequal, coexistent, having identical essence but two distinct personalities.

The word “father” indicates one doing the sending; the word “son” indicates one being obedient. “Father” sets up a principle of authority; “son” sets up the principle of obedience, response to authority. Jesus Christ responded to authority before He was glorified in His humanity. In His birth He responded to the authority of God the Father. And this is something that people have forgotten and it is tragic. You cannot have capacity for life until you learn what authority means and how to respond to it. We are not born free. Freedom is capacity for life under the laws of divine establishment, and the best thing we can do is be born under authority. The only way to keep freedom as freedom is to have boundaries for it called authority. Jesus Christ was born under authority — Father-Son; eternal God but He became the Son.

The future tense indicates something — eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. In the first quotation it was present active indicative because eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] there indicates God equal with God. And in eternity past Jesus Christ is equal with God just as much as the first person of the Trinity is God, but in the future tense of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] — future active indicative — it means that in the future, future from 2Samuel 7:14, Jesus Christ would come under the authority of the first person. As God He can’t do it. If Jesus Christ is God, how can He ever get under the authority of the other members of the Trinity? He can’t as God. He is coequal and coeternal. It is impossible for Him to be under authority as long as He is God, but as man He comes under the authority of the Father. And He had to become a man to get under the authority of the Father. The future tense of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] is the change, Jesus Christ as the God-Man; the present tense of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]: Jesus Christ as God. “I will be (in the future) a father, and you will be a son”, and under that relationship I have the authority and you must be obedient “even obedient unto the death of the cross.” And the night before the cross occurred Jesus Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane said, “Father [recognizing the authority of the first person of the Trinity] if it be thy will let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but thy will be done.”

Authority, authority, authority. Do you realize that there would be no salvation were it not for the principle of authority. Which comes first, freedom or authority? Authority comes first, always. First of all, Jesus Christ became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, Philippians 2, so that in Galatians 5:1, “Therefore stand fast in the freedom wherewith Christ has set you free.” Authority comes before freedom. You must have authority before you can have freedom. Freedom is born of authority, not vice versa.

Jesus Christ could not go to the cross until something had been established — it was in eternity past. The first person of the Trinity is the Father and the second person of the Trinity is the Son, and the Son obeys the Father. Therefore, this is language of accommodation so that you and I can understand a principle: when Jesus Christ became true humanity the first person of the Trinity was calling the shots. “I have come to do the will of the Father”, Jesus said. The will of the Father is the doctrine of divine decrees. Therefore there a great distinction between two tenses in one verse. In Psalm 2:7, what is the tense? Present active indicative, linear aktionsart for eternal existence in the past. Then, in Hebrews 1:5, the future active indicative to show a time occurred when there was a change.

“and he shall be” — a second future active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]; “to me” — dative singular of egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH] referring to the Father. Then we have a prepositional phrase again, eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative — “for a Son.”

The first two quotations document the superiority of the deity of Christ over angels and the superiority of the hypostatic union of Christ over angels.

Hebrews 1:5 “For to which of the angels did he say at any time, Son of mine are you, I this day have begotten you? And again, I will be to Him for a Father, and He Himself shall be to Me for a Son?” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 1:6 And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, "Let all God's angels worship him." (ESV)

Verse 6 — “And again” is the third quotation, Psalm 97:7 — de palin. Palin means “again”, it cites a passage; de means continuing the documentation principle. Then we have “when” which looks like an adverb but here is a conjunction — o(tan which means “on the occasion of” .So we have so far, “Again on the occasion when.”

“when he bringeth in” — aorist active subjunctive of e)isagw, a compound verb. E)isagw is a very, very old verb, one of the oldest in the Greek language. It goes back to Homer. In Homer’s time it meant to bring someone into something, like to bring someone into a city, to bring someone into a temple. It is also used to bring someone into a barracks or a house, or an arena. Here it refers to the second advent where Christ is brought back into the world again under operation footstool. It is an aorist tense here. “Aorist” is derived from a Greek word — aoristos, a noun that means unlimited, indefinite, without boundaries, limitless. In other words, aorist is a tense that has no limits. It is without limit of time. It isn’t past, it isn’t present, it isn’t future. So when you have something that is not related to our tense system — past, present, and future — we have to have some way of picking it up. So we can say just a point in time without regard to the past or the present or the future. Therefore you get the concept of a point of time divorced from time and perpetuated. This point of time has no relationship to past, present, or future, it is just taken out of time and is perpetuated. The concept of the aorist, then, is that it is an action as attained rather than an action relate to time. It states the fact of an action, the fact of an event. The aorist expresses the occurrence of the action. And what we have here is a gnomic aorist in which the second advent, while future, is regarded as fixed in its certainty, it is axiomatic. A gnomic aorist means the second advent is going to happen, it is a certainty. The active voice: the second advent is a part of the Father’s plan and a part of the Father’s schedule. The subjunctive mood is used to indicate an indefinite temporal clause, which means a future event certain to come but the time of the event is unknown. The subjunctive mood is not the ordinary subjunctive, just as we do not have an ordinary aorist here. ThereforeTranslation: “But on the occasion when he again introduces [second advent].” What have we had in the first two quotations? We had Christ introduced the first time — first advent. Now we are on the second advent.

“the firstborn” — not the “firstbegotten” — prôtotokos (πρωτοτόκος) [pronounced proh-tot-OK-oss], which means firstborn. Under the doctrine of the firstborn it is based upon the Old Testament. The firstborn had three things: rulership or sovereignty — Christ is the sovereign of all things at the second advent; the priesthood (to be introduced in chapter five) — Christ is the high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek; the double portion — Christ is the heir of all things, including elect angels and regenerate mankind. Hence, the firstborn is to be brought back at the second advent. He isn’t born the second time He comes.

“into the world” — should be to “the civilized world” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus o)ikounomh which means “the civilized world” or “the inhabited earth.”

“he said” — present active indicative of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh], and at this point we actually have the quotation. The third quotation has documentation that angels worship Christ. Therefore Christ as the returning King is superior to all angels. Christ was superior the moment He came into the world, but Christ is superior when he returns.

“let all the angels of God worship him.” “Worship” is an aorist active imperative. It is preceded by the phrase panthj a)ggeloi theou” — all angels of God worship.” It is an order: aorist active imperative of proskuneô (προσκυνέω) [pronounced pros-koo-NEH-oh] — proj; face to face; kuneô: to kiss. To kiss face to face means to worship. Hence this verb connotes homage, worship, adoration. It is derived, by the way, from a Persian custom of showing homage by kissing the feet or the hem of the robe of a king. This is the recognition of the absolute authority of Jesus Christ. He started out totally under authority; at the second advent He is the authority, and not just for mankind but for the whole angelic creation. And at the second advent Jesus Christ will slaughter the enemy at Armageddon, and all the angelic creatures will be commanded to worship Him — angels worshipping a Man who has just slaughtered millions of the enemy!

Hebrews 1:6 “But on the occasion when he [God the Father] again introduces the firstborn [Jesus Christ at the second advent] to the civilized world, he said, All the angels of God worship him.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

That, again, demonstrates the superiority of Jesus Christ. This is a command to angels.

Hebrews 1:7 Of the angels he says, "He makes his angels winds, and his ministers a flame of fire." (ESV)

Verse 7 — our fourth documentation. “And of the angels he said.” The problem with this is the word “of.” It is grossly mistranslated. The word “of” is proj, and we have pros plus the accusative which means “face to face with.” So this should be translated, “And face to face with the angels.”

“he saith” — present active indicative of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] — Psalm 104:4, is now quoted. So He is face to face with the angels and He says something to them. He tells them to do things actually.

“Who maketh his angels spirits” — but that is not what we have in the Greek. We have a present active participle of poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] plus the definite article. A more literal Translation: “And face to face with the angels He says, The one making his angels spirits.” He doesn’t say “make the angels spirits,” the one who is speaking is the one who has made His angels spirits. Jesus Christ created the angels and when He did he made them spirits — the accusative plural of pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah]. This refers to the essence of the angels. He made the essence of angels. Angels are called spirits in Matthew 8:16; Mark 1:27; 6:7; Acts 5:16; 1Peter 3:19; Revelation 16:13. Note that most of the references to angels as spirits are made to fallen angels. For example, fallen angels are called “unclean spirits.” But the word “spirit” itself refers to the essence of angels. This is one reason why they are invisible. Jesus Christ is the creator of angels. So “he says”: what he says is not given here, but what he has done — He has made His angels spirits. He is the creator of angels. And that isn’t all.

“his ministers a flame of fire” — He not only made them spirits but He also made them a flame of fire. The word “minister” here is the word leitourgos (λειτουργός) [pronounced li-toorg-OSS] which is used for the function of angels. It should therefore be translated “sacred servants.”

“a flame of fire” — puroj is the word which is used and it is the genitive of pur for fire, and then we have floc for flame. In other words, He not only created angels but He also created their job. He is superior to them; He created their being; He created their function. As a flame of fire the elect angels under the command of God administer judgement, punishment. And, of course, he gave them their function and therefore Christ is superior theirs whom He has given job assignments. They are His servants as well as His creatures, therefore the superiority.

A corrected translation of v. 7 is down below.

Hebrews 1:8 But of the Son he says, "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. (ESV)

Verse 8 — the fifth quotation, Psalm 45:6,7. “But unto the Son.” This is face to face with the Son, pros plus the accusative of u(oij. Notice that while the angels were addressed in the previous quotation what was said was not given, just what was done to them; how they came into existence, their origin. “But face to face with the Son.” There is no “he saith.” We have looked at one side, the Son is the creator of angels. That is what happens when the Son is face to face with them. He tells them what to do. The Father, whose plan it is, says this to the Son: “Thy throne” — ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] qronoj su — “The throne of yours,” translated correctly, “Thy throne” or “Your throne.” This refers to the throne of Christ in contrast to the function of servantship of the angels. The angels are sacred servants and the worshippers of Christ. But Jesus Christ has a different function, he is the ruler.

“O God” — ho Theos, vocative addressed to Jesus Christ by God the Father — “the God”.

“is forever and forever” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] tôn aiôn (αἰών) [pronounced ī-OHN] tou aiôn (αἰών) [pronounced ī-OHN]oj — “unto the ages of the ages,” forever and ever and ever. There is a contrast here. While the angels are servants administering under Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ is the ruler forever and ever. And as a ruler he has a sign of rulership, He has a sceptre.

“the sceptre” — ho hrabdos (ῥάβδος) [pronounced HRAB-doss] — “the rod,” the rod of rulership, the badge of rulership, and correctly translated “sceptre.” A sceptre was a badge of authority for kings. The rod or the sceptre is found in many areas of the ancient world. The shepherd’s staff had the same concept with the sheep. This concept is given in Leviticus 27:32; Micah 7:14. It is possible that the sceptre even originated among pastoral peoples where the shepherd had a staff which was his authority, and the king became the shepherd of the people, and therefore he had a staff.

What kind of a sceptre is this? It is called a sceptre of “e)uquthj” — translated by the word “righteousness,” but that is not correct. E)uquthj does not mean righteousness. “Righteousness” would be dikaios (δίκαιος) [pronounced DIH-kai-oss] or dikaiosunê (δικαιοσύνη) [pronounced dih-kai-oh-SOON-ā or dik-ah-yos-OO-nay]. E)uquthj means “straightness” — “a sceptre of straightness.” Straightness refers to perfect standards of law and establishment. Jesus Christ will reign forever under perfect laws, divine laws, the laws of establishment. So, “the sceptre of establishment is the sceptre of your kingdom.” The sceptre represents the authority and the One who makes them function.

Hebrews 1:7–8: “And face to face with angels he says, The one making his angels spirits [Christ makes angels spirits; He created them], and his sacred servants a flame of fire [He provides not only life for them but function].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

“But face to face with the Son, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever and ever: and the sceptre of establishment is the sceptre of your kingdom.”

Hebrews 1:9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions."

Verse 9 — the fifth quotation is continued. So far we have only had Psalm 45:6; now we have Psalm 45:7, the rest of the quotation. “Thou hast loved” — aorist active indicative of agapaô (ἀγαπάω) [pronounced ahg-ahp-AH-oh], mental attitude love. This is a constative aorist. Active voice, the subject is Jesus Christ as the King, holding the sceptre of the establishment. The indicative mood is the reality of establishment, and the basis for the function of establishment is “righteousness,” and that means here morality and justice. So we now have dikaiosunê (δικαιοσύνη) [pronounced dih-kai-oh-SOON-ā or dik-ah-yos-OO-nay] for the principle. Notice that dikaiosunê (δικαιοσύνη) [pronounced dih-kai-oh-SOON-ā or dik-ah-yos-OO-nay] refers to justice as a characteristic of the ruler; e)uquthj refers to the principle on which He rules — establishment. There can be no wonderful government of any kind unless, “iniquity is hated” .But the word is not iniquity — aorist active indicative of missew, divine attitude toward a)nomia “lawlessness.” Lawlessness stands for anti-establishment; lawlessness means not just violation of laws, not just criminal activity, but lawlessness means rejection of authority. “You have loved the justice of establishment, and you have hated the lawlessness [anti-establishment].”

“therefore” — dia plus the accusative of houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] means “because of this” — because of the perfect function of the laws of establishment under Christ, because Christ is both perfect and unique, because Christ is righteous and just, because Christ is superior to angels, he will supersede Satan as the ruler of this world — a Man will supersede and angel in the rulership of this world. The emphasis here is no the humanity of Christ — “because of this, the God [God the Father] hath anointed” — aorist active indicative of xriw means to be appointed, to be commissioned — “thee” — accusative singular of a pronoun referring to Jesus Christ as Man. The incarnate Christ is infinitely superior to angels in His deity; He is also infinitely superior to angels in His humanity. He is anointed King. A man will supersede and angel as the ruler of this world. The ruler of this world at the second advent will be Jesus Christ.

And He is anointed with oil — the accusative singular of e(laion. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. In the ancient world they did not have commissions in written form, they had them with oil. This is a reference to ceremonial oil used for the appointment of a king. This is the kind of oil that Samuel used to anoint David king over Israel.

Notice this is said to be “the oil of gladness.” That is a pitiful translation of a)galliasij which means super happiness, optimum happiness. Then the word “above” is para which means “above and beyond” here — “thy fellows,” metochos (μέτοχος) [pronounced MET-okh-oss] which means “associates” and it is a reference to angels. Angels associated with Christ in operation footstool. Therefore it should be translated “above and beyond your angelic associates.” In other words, Christ is superior to angels.

Hebrews 1:9 “You have loved the justice of establishment, and you [Christ] have hated lawlessness [of anti-establishment]; because of this the God {the Father, the author of the plan] has anointed you [Christ] with the oil of ultimate happiness above and beyond your [angelic] associates.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews 1:10–14 Lesson #5

06/02/1972 Superiority (& its results) of Jesus Christ over angels, 6th Old Testament documentation; doctrine of Operation Footstool

The Angelic Conflict continues into the next chapter.

Once again, the fifth documentation demonstrates the superiority of the person of Jesus Christ.

Verses 10-12 — the sixth quotation documenting the victory of Jesus Christ in the angelic conflict. This quotation is from Psalm 102:25-27.

Hebrews 1:10 And, "You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands;

Verse 10 begins with the word “And” — kai, which introduces the sixth quotation. This is what is called a continuative documentary kai. It continues the documentation and it introduces a new one — the sixth quotation to document from the Old Testament scripture the superiority of Jesus Christ over angels.

“And, thou, Lord” — the word “thou” is the personal pronoun su in the emphatic position and should be translated “you and only you” ."Lord” is kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss] in the vocative — “you and only you, Lord.” This vocative of kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss] refers to Jesus Christ who is both eternal God and true humanity in one person forever.

And between the two words in the Greek we have a prepositional phrase kat arxaj. katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] is the preposition, and with the accusative of a)rxaj, katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] often means “with reference to.” And a)rxaj is the accusative plural from archê (ἀρχή) [pronounced ar-KHAY], the Greek word for beginning. It should be translated “with reference to the beginnings.” It is in the plural. The plural of archê (ἀρχή) [pronounced ar-KHAY] refers to more than one beginning.

The Various Beginnings.

1. For example, the creation of the heavens and the earth was one beginning;

2. the creation of angels was another beginning. The restoration of the earth

3. and the creation of mankind was a third beginning.

4. All of these beginnings are recognized by the plural of archê (ἀρχή) [pronounced ar-KHAY].

So literally, “You and only You with reference to the beginnings, O Lord.” That is the Greek word order.

Immediately you should be struck with something. Kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss] is the title of Jesus Christ for deity — kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss] means deity. That is why there was a great conflict with the Roman empire. Rome claimed Caesar was lord and, of course, Christianity said Jesus is Lord. This caused many a martyrdom in the first centuries of church history.

Jesus Christ had something to do with all the beginnings in history. Jesus Christ created the universe, including the earth. That was one beginning. Then, sometime after that he created the angels. A long time after that we have the creation of man.

No one knows the age of the earth or of the universe. No traffic problems. Bob wishes that the Lord would do some work on Houston traffic. Bob is upset with slow drivers. No problem with traffic in the universe. God snapped His fingers and then angelic creation. God redesigned the earth for man’s occupation.

Now we have a specific reference to one of the things that Jesus Christ did as creator — “hast laid the foundation of the earth.” “Hast laid” is the aorist active indicative of qeneliow which means to lay a foundation or to build a foundation. We could translate this, “you and only you with reference to beginnings, O Lord, the earth you have founded.”

“and the heavens” — plural; “are” — present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] — “keep on being [existing]”; “the works” — ergon (ἔργον) [pronounced EHR-gon]; “of your hands” — the genitive plural of cheir (χείρ,χειροός,ἡ) [pronounced khīr]. This is what we call an anthropomorphism. Hands belong to the anatomy of mankind, they do not belong to God. God is a Spirit. Here we have ascribing to God some human characteristic in order to make a point. The point is that Christ has more power in His hands than all of the angelic creatures put together. So we have, “are the works of your hands.”

The hands of Christ as an anthropomorphism make a very wonderful study. Here in Hebrews 1:10 and in Psalm 19:1 Jesus Christ created the universe, so the hands of Christ are the hands of the creator. The hands of Jesus Christ were also nailed to the cross — Psalm 22:16; John 20:19-28. These are also the hands of security — Psalm 37:24, “though we stumble he upholds us with His hands”, and the same thing is found in John 10:28. The hands of Jesus Christ are the hands of creation, salvation and security.

Hebrews 1:10 You and only You with reference to beginnings, O Lord, the earth You have founded and the heavens keep on being the works of Your hands R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 1:11 they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment,

Verse 11 — we begin again with an emphatic word “They” .This is a)utoi, a nominative plural of a reflexive pronoun. The word refers to the heavens of the previous verse, which is why it is in the plural. Remember that the heavens are the abode of the angels. This is not only a reflexive pronoun but it is intensive at the same time and therefore it should be translated here, “They themselves.” This is a reference to the heavens.

“shall perish” — future middle indicative of apollumi (ἀπόλλυμι) [pronounced ap-OL’-loo-mee] which refers to the future destruction of the heavens at the end of the Millennium. The Millennium is a civilization of perfect environment. Man has always clamoured for perfect environment, man is always trying to find perfect environment. He is trying to legislate perfect environment, he is trying to bring about perfect environment. Man has never succeeded in doing so and never will because in this civilization we have an angel, the devil, ruling the world. Consequently, man cannot bring about perfect environment. But once Jesus Christ bumps the devil and supersedes him as the ruler of this world, he will bring about perfect environment. Then a very interesting thing happens. There is always a revolution or rebel somewhere revolting against something. The reason for it is always given as “we need to improve things.” Revolution has never improved anything, historically speaking.

Even against perfect environment there is a revolution. This is indicated here, “they themselves shall perish.” The heavens are destroyed after that revolution is put down. A part of putting down the final revolution — revolution is always anti-establishment, therefore anti-God — the heavens are destroyed. That is what is mentioned here: “they themselves [the heavens] shall be destroyed” — future middle indicative of apollumi (ἀπόλλυμι) [pronounced ap-OL’-loo-mee]. This destruction of the heavens after the revolution at the end of the Millennium is described in Matthew 24:35; 2Peter 3:10-12; Revelation 20:11; 21:1; Hebrews 12:26,27; Isaiah 34:4.

“but thou” — another proleptic pronoun, su de, and it should be translated “and emphatically you” — “remain unchanged,” present active indicative of diamenw. Diamenw doesn’t mean really to remain, it means to remain unchanged.

“they all” — kai pantes (πάντες) [pronounced PAHN-tehç] [pantes (πάντες) [pronounced PAHN-tehç] is the plural of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs]], refers again to the heavens — “shall wax old,” future passive indicative of palaióō (παλαιόω) [pronounced pahl-ah-YOH-oh]. This means to be superseded here — “they shall be superseded.” The heavens that are now in existence are going to be superseded by some new heavens. The illustration which is given here: “as doth a garment” .Literally, “as a cloak.”

Hebrews 1:11 But You, and emphatically You (Jesus Christ) will remained unchanged; but they all (the heavens) will be superseded, like a garment.... R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

we are suddenly in v. 12.

Hebrews 1:12 like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end."

Verse 12 — “And as” — a conjunctive kai followed by an adverb o(sei — “and like.” The word for vesture, peribolaion, means a mantle that you wrap around you.

Bob knew how to do this at one time, to wrap himself in a Roman mantle; you are half-gentleman and half-hippie. The Romans knew how to dress comfortably and gracefully. Everyone then only had 2 garments. They all had the same clothes. The toga and then a harness that might pass for a leather g string; and those were working clothes. Ladies had a garment that went down just above their knees; a much better style then. The Romans spent all of their time in these clothes. What was dressy was the color and the border. Most of the people wore white. They did not wear yellow, green or blue.

The Britans battled naked, and they were tattoed in blue and hard for others to concentrate. For the first 300 years, everyone had about the same food. Whether a Senator os a common man. They really went for turnips. They ate fruit; and about every 10 days, they hadd a market day; and they would kill a lamb and eat mutton. They drank milk; and the only ancient people who drank water just about. They became famous before they heard of wine; and did not drink for the first few hundred years. They had a good start on everyone else. They lived a simple life and they seemed to have a lot of fun. As they became more complex, they seemed to decline.

Verse 12 — “and like a robe you will fold them up, and they shall be changed” — “they” refers to the heavens. Like a garment the heavens are going to be changed at the end of the Millennium — “they shall be changed” is a future passive indicative of allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH]ssw. The future tense indicates replacing a garment. This refers to the heavens, the abode of angels. Jesus Christ will take the home of the angels, the heavens, and fold them up like a garment. While the heavens change, Jesus Christ superior to angels, does not change, and therefore we have the final phrase — “but,” conjunction of contrast, “you keep on being the same” — present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], absolute status quo — ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] autos — “the same.” Jesus Christ remains forever in the hypostatic union.

“and thy years” — the system of dating age in the ancient world — “shall not fail” — future active indicative of ekleipô (ἐκλείπω) [pronounced ek-LIE-poe], which doesn’t mean to fail, it means to fall off or come to an end — “and your years shall not come to an end.”

Hebrews 1:12 “And like a robe you will fold them [the heavens and the earth] up, as a garment also they [they heavens] shall be changed [or, replaced]: but You [Jesus Christ] keep on being the same, and Your years do not come to an end.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

So the heavens are at the mercy of Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ is never at the mercy of the heavens. Nature is at the mercy of Christ but Christ is never at the mercy of nature. When nature is destroyed the fallen angels are judged and cast into the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his angels — Matthew 25:41. Jesus Christ is untouched by these things, and so, by the way, is everyone in union with Christ.

Hebrews 1:13 And to which of the angels has he ever said, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"? (Psalm 110:1)

Verse 13 — the climax of the documentation. “But to which of the angels” — “to which” is the preposition tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] plus the accusative. “But face to face with which of the angels” — pros plus the accusative; “has he said” — perfect active indicative of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]; “at any time.” We have an enclitic particle poté (ποτέ) [pronounced poht-EH].

Now begins the seventh quotation, the climactic quotation from Psalm 110:1 — “Sit down,” present active imperative of kathêmai (κάθημαι) [pronounced KATH-ay-mahoe]. The present tense is dramatic; active voice: addressed to Jesus Christ the God-Man, and addressed specifically to His humanity. So we have the dramatic present to indicate one of the most dramatic moments in history when a human being was commanded to sit down at the right hand of the Father. The active voice: Christ was seated at the place of honour, emphasizing His humanity. And, again, humanity at that point becomes superior to angelic creatures. The imperative mood: Christ was commanded to sit until operation footstool is completed.

“on my right hand side,” literally — “until” — heôs (ἕως) [pronounced HEH-oce] — “I appoint [or constitute]” — aorist active subjunctive of tithêmi (τίθημι) [pronounced TIHTH-ā-mee]. The time of appointment according to the aorist tense is the second advent. The active voice: God the Father produces the action; He does the appointing. The subjunctive mood is not potential here but it is an indefinite temporal clause which is used in the Greek for a future event certain to come but the exact time is unknown.

“your enemies” — the fallen angels plus Satan — “thy footstool” .The Greek says “the footstool of your foot.” The footstool of your foot was a sign of conquest in the ancient world. In the Roman world there were three signs of conquest.

Three Signs of Conquest

1. First of all, prisoners passing under spears was a sign of defeat.

2. The second was to put your foot on the head of the conquered.

3. The third way was for kings. They would sit on a throne and the prisoners had to crawl up under the foot of the king.

That is the one we have here, and this is actually what happens to the demons — the become “the footstool of your foot.” In other words, you rest your foot not on the ground but on a footstool which is someone else’s head.

Hebrews 1:13 “But face to face with which of the angels has he said at any time, Sit down on My right hand side, until I appoint Your enemies the footstool of Your feet.”

Doctrine of Operation Footstool

1. Israel under the fifth cycle of discipline no longer represents Jesus Christ on the earth. Since 70 AD the southern kingdom has been under the fifth cycle of discipline. Many of the Jews to whom this was originally addressed were unbelievers, therefore under a double curse. They were under the penalty of sin, which is death, and they were about to get under the fifth cycle of discipline. The only answer to this is the grace of God — Hebrews 2:1,3. All of this adds up to the principle that the Jews were about to go under a terrible disaster, and at that point the southern kingdom no longer represents the Lord Jesus Christ. In place of that, of course, we have the Church.

2. Israel is replaced by the Church, hence the Church now represents Jesus Christ on the earth. Remember that any Jew who believes in Christ is a member of the body of Christ, or the Church, just as any Gentile. In that way cursing is turned to blessing for Israel during the Church Age. Because of this and the session of Jesus Christ the angelic conflict has intensified during the Church Age. In fact, everything has changed. The Church Age is a radical change in the function of believers because of the intensification of the angelic conflict. In the past angels were teachers of prophets, angels gave the law to Moses??????, angels were teachers in the Old Testament. But angels are now replaced by human teachers — the pastor-teacher. All of this is a part of the intensification of the angelic conflict and all of this started on the basis of the session of Jesus Christ. The various passages which emphasize this include Ephesians 1:22-24; 2:16; 4:4,5; 5:23,24, 30,32; Colossians 1:18,24; 2:19.

3. The body of Christ is being prepared on earth by means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit — 1Corinthians 12:13; Colossians 2:10. At the moment of salvation every believer is entered into union with Christ. Positionally, all believers are now superior to angels.

4. When the body is completed it is removed from the devil’s world by means of the Rapture of the Church — 1Thessalonians 4:16-18. Rapture is a technical word for the resurrection of the Church Age believers only. The completed body, through the Rapture, then becomes the bride of Christ. Once in heaven the bride is prepared for the second advent.

5. The preparation of the bride in heaven: First of all the bride enters ultimate sanctification, which means receiving a resurrection body like that of the Lord Jesus Christ — 1Corinthians 15:51-57; Philippians 3:21; 1John 3:1,2. Secondly, the bride is not permitted to have anything old. The old sin nature is removed — 1Thessalonians 5:23. Thirdly, the bride is cleansed from all human good — 1Corinthians 3:12,15.

6. The bride returns with Christ at the second advent — 1Thessalonians 3:13; Revelation 19:6-8.

7. Then comes operation footstool which occurs at the second advent. First of all, Satan is imprisoned for a thousand years — Revelation 20:1-3. Secondly, fallen angels are removed by believers of the Church Age — Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15; 1Corinthians 15:24,25.

8. The removal of Satan and fallen angels, plus the rulership of Christ replacing Satan, changes the environment of the earth. Religion is removed — 1Corinthians 10:20,21. You can’t have perfect environment as long as you have religion on the earth. False doctrine is removed (doctrines of demons) — 1Timothy 4:1. Spirituality includes ecstatics for the first time — Joel 2:28,29. Perfect environment on earth. Lion and the lamb lay down together; animals lose their ferocity; lion will eat straw like the ox; weather will be perfect, all over the world. Flowers will grow in great abundance. Sand will be there, but covered wrth growth. Bob does not care whether it is a rose or a crocus. No one will be on relief. Crime will be detected immediately and punished immediately. Capital punishment is the only reason why a person dies.

Heb. 1:14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Verse 14 — the result of the superiority of Christ over angels. “Are they not all” — “all” refers to angels. As a result of operation footstool the fallen angels are going to be removed. So what happens to the elect angels? We already know what they are going to do. They are already the servants of believers, and that is what they are going to be forever. You have a guardian [servant] angel now, and you may have a whole plantation full of angels as servants in the future. Angels who are now superior to us are going to be servants. Bob wishes that Abraham Lincoln knew this passage. The principle is: What Jesus Christ did is so great that the elect angels are now the servants of believers on this earth. We will each have a servant angel. What Jesus did is so great that the elect angels are now the servants of believers, those corny, sorry carnal believers. Every type of believer will have a slave angel.

“ministering” — leitourgikoj, which means a subordinate servant. Angels superior to you by creation will take the place of subordination, and be glad to do it. And already they are doing it. You can be subordinate and be happy and blessed. Certain people can do certain things. Bob talks about some Black people who are in subordinate positions and they are happy and content. They enjoy life. The Word of God does not condone slavery; nor does it condone putting people in positions that they are not qualified for. When you believe in Jesus Christ, you learn to be content with your life. You just cannot gild the lily. Freedom means you go into life doing whatever you are capable of. There is a lot of poor white trash too. Some of them are in Washington; and that is a part of our problem. Liberalism always tries to gild a lily. Who wants a gilded lily anyway? Angels, created superior to us; they will be our servants.

“spirits” — the nominative plural of pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah], referring to the angels —

“sent forth” — the present passive participle of a)postellw which here means being sent into action, as subordinate servants — “to minister,”

the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of diakonia. “E)ij” here means “for the purpose of” — “for the purpose of ministry.” Diakonia is to row where the bilge is the hardest. Not sure about that. Worst place to be, according to Bob.

“for them” — dia plus the accusative which is “because of them” — “who shall be” is mellô (μέλλω) [pronounced MEHL-low] which means to be about to be.

“heirs of salvation” — the word “heirs” is a present active infinitive of a verb, klêronomeô (κληρονομέω) [pronounced klay-ron-om-EH-oh], and it means to inherit “salvation,” sôtêria (σωτηρία) [pronounced soh-tay-REE-ah], which should be translated “deliverance” — deliverance from the devil’s world.

Hebrews 1:14 “Are not they [the elect angels] all subordinate servants, spirits being sent into action for the purpose of ministry because of them [believers] being about to inherit deliverance.”

deliverance from the devil’s world.

Here is the principle of the guardian angel. The guardian angel is a servant to you. Why? Because positionally you are in union with Christ, and Christ is superior to all angels. And since positionally you are in Christ, and since positionally you are superior to all angels, then it follows. If you have a position higher than angels then angels ought to be serving you. Therefore you are served by elect angels at this time, and this is the way it will always be forever and ever. Angels will even provide music for us?

We are set up for the Angelic Conflict, in the next chapter.

1972 Hebrews 2:1 Lesson #6

06/09/1972 Bona fide ritual has meaning; ritual without meaning will be destroyed

The first item of business is to get some kind of report on this trip. Buddy Dano and Bob returned from a hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. Buddy Dano gets up to speak. First time there was a conference Atlanta, Georgia. Took Buddy a long time to learn about the faith-rest technique. And some 50 years to learn about Georgia peaches; the kind without fuzz. Well-attended conference. People drove from as far as 4.5 hours away; Florida, Alabama, Virginia. Really interesting to see souther womanhood and souther gentlemenhood. The south will not rise again; it has already risen. Atlanta was beautiful with Magnolias and mint julips. Various music. A great deal of military represented there. Jerry Webber, came out for doctrine; graduated from the Marine Corps; #1 in his class. Green beret there; and another. Everything necessary was provided for. Nothing was asked for. Presidential suite; the door even said that. He kept walking in that door. Maybe 2 longhairs, but Bob got rid of them the first night. The people growing up today will have no idea what happened at the battle of Atlanta. Terrible presentation on the battle of Atlanta; liberalized (not sure where that was). Book store where he got a few books on Theodore Roosevelt. Perfect example there how doctrine opened up the doors. They were entertainers. Both husband and wife were ex-Catholic; they were entertainers; and we sent them some materials.

Some pastors there. Black man there who graduated from Carter. He was interested in going to Dallas. There are those interested in reaching the Blacks. That is what he wanted to do.

5 year old daughter listening to Adam’s Rib. Her question, “Momma, what’s a prostitute?” Mom was in a bind and explained to her; and she said, “I won’t do that; I will wait for my right man.”

Birmingham, Alabama is wide open; many people came from there. Maybe more there than from Atlanta.

Chapter 2

You do it God’s way or you don’t.

Heb 2:1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

Heb 2:2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution,

Heb 2:3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,

Heb 2:4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Heb 2:5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking.

This chapter as a whole is a phenomenal chapter. You must remember that angels have a relationship to Jesus Christ and therefore function in the plan of grace. You must also remember that members of the human race who are born again have a relationship to Jesus Christ, to God the Father, and therefore have a purpose in this life. Fallen angels have rejected God’s grace and are going to spend eternity in the lake of fire. Unbelievers have rejected Jesus Christ as Savior and are also going to spend eternity in the lake of fire.

The first time in human history, we have angels and man on earth at the same time. We cannot see them; they can see us.

Outline of Chapter Two: Four Paragraphs

1. The prologue: The angelic conflict is a warning to the human race — verses 1–5.

2. We have the two Adams and the angelic conflict — verses 6–9.

3. We have the bride and the angelic conflict — verses 10–13.

4. Epilogue: Since mankind was created to resolve the angelic conflict Christ became a man — verses 14–18

Why the Hypostatic Union? Why did He not become the God-angel. There came a time when He became the God-man. This chapter brings together the Trinity, our relationship to them, giving our lives meaning. Life has no meaning apart from the Father, Son and Spirit. There is a higher creation than us, which requires some explanation. Then there is mankind; and our life has meaning.

Some of you are perturbed, etc. It is hard to teach to happy people.

Hebrews 2:1 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

Verse 1 — “Therefore,” Dia, the preposition, touto, the accusative singular. Dia plus the accusative should be translated, “Because of this.” I would say that this looks back to the first chapter.

Because of What?

1. Because Jesus Christ as the God-Man is the victor in the angelic conflict — we are not victors; angels are not victors. Hebrews 1:1–4.

2. Because of the Old Testament documentation as to the superiority of Christ over angels — Hebrews 1:5–13.

3. Because the angels have been subordinated to believers in time — Hebrews 1:14.

4. Therefore, because of the angelic conflict the human race is warned, Do not reject Jesus Christ. The worst thing we could do is to refuse to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior.

5. Jesus Christ as a member of the human race is the victor of the angelic conflict. Furthermore, any member of the human race who rejects Christ as Savior will share the ultimate destiny of all fallen angels which is the eternal lake of fire.

This prepositional phrase not only begins the second chapter of Hebrews but relates it to the first chapter. The privacy of the priesthood in the church lies in your soul. Christianity is very personal.

Our next word is a personal pronoun which is a special warning to Jewish unbelievers residing in Jerusalem in 67 AD, three years before the fall of Jerusalem. Titus will roll into Jerusalem with his troops and kill a million people; and 97,000 Jews will be taken into slavery. ἲhis is one of the great catastrophies of all human history. Luke 21 Jesus warned those listening to Him as well.

The writer has pointed out the great victory of Jesus Christ, but he must stop here and warn the citizens of Jerusalem, those who are in a state of rejection of Jesus Christ. This is their hope to escape this persecution and to have lives with meaning and definition.

“We” is used in a very interesting way here. The writer is going to warn of missing the boat; he is going to present the gospel from the negative side. The writer is a believer; the passage coming up is a challenge to unbelievers. He uses the personal pronoun “we” — the accusative plural of egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH] — to warn to beware of missing the port of eternal life, because if you refuse to believe in Jesus Christ you are going to be overtaken by a national catastrophe. Believing in Christ not only means your personal salvation but believing in Christ means your personal safety in the coming Jewish war with Rome. So he identifies himself with his people. Whoever the writer is, he is a Jew. He is a believer and he has written one of the most unique of all of the books of the Bible. He is a fantastic person in that as a believer in Jesus Christ he feels the desperate need of the hour, and he identifies himself with unbelievers to bring them this message. He isn’t an unbeliever but at this moment he is speaking to unbelievers, he is identifying himself with them, and he is exercising a function of his priesthood which indicates his maturity. He is willing to take responsibility for his own nation. He is willing to associate himself with unbelievers who are in peril.

“ought” — this is a very strange form. It is taken from a verb which is never used as such — dei, which is what is called an impersonal form to indicate logical necessity. The writer is a patriotic believer, concerned for his people and for their lives.

The logical necessity is for religious types, and of course religious types are the most difficult ones to reach with the Gospel. You have to slap religious people down with many negs because they are negative. The worst people in the world to whom to witness are religious people. They have too many theories and ideas on how they are going to get to heaven. They have built a hundred back doors into heaven through legalism. They all have their own little pet ideas and they will hang on to them if for no other reason than they don’t like the set of your jib and they want to argue with you; they want to put you down. The Jews who lived in Jerusalem were generally very religious people.

Exceptions like the Hellenistic Jews who accepted Greek culture.

“For this cause we ought...” religious people always have some big thing going for them, at least in their own opinion. They all have this thing they feel is important. The Jews at this time, in a state of unbelief and in a state of religion, had clung tenaciously to the Levitical priesthood. When people are often uncertain as to their destiny they try to find some tradition on which to anchor it. Therefore they had a temple in which they used animal sacrifices. They had a priesthood. Even though many of the priests were not even related to the tribe of Levi they still functioned. They had lots of ceremonies and religious activities, lots of religious days they had added to the feasts of the Levitical code, and they dabbled in these things and they clung to these things. All through this great epistle we are going to find the writer showing that these things had a purpose in the past, that that purpose is now gone, that there is a new purpose for believers, there is a new purpose in life. And the new purpose in life is related to the fact that the priesthood to which they cling, and the ceremonies and the functions of that priesthood, are all shadows, they’re gone, they’re out; and that there is now a super priesthood, an eternal priesthood. And as religious types functioning under the temple activities they are very far from these things, and that in the function of their priesthood and going through all of their sacrifices they are actually in the worst possible shape; they are on the way to hell with these things.

Bob talks about ceremonies and the Military.

Ritual of brushing one’s teeth? Bob never hears a miliary tune without thinking of his service and country; loved mounted reviews. A mounted brigade is fantastic. This ritual has meaning. Any ritual related to maintaining our freedom is fantastic.

The Jews had wonderful traditions and rituals of music. They could sing and play instruments. Once Jesus came and died for our sins, their rituals no longer had any meaning. The shadow worshipers were going to hell; they had not believed in Jesus Christ.

The Jews had their ritual and it pulled them together. It gave them national consciousness at a time when Rome was about to bury them again. They related it to their nation, to their freedom, and unfortunately they related it to God. But you can’t take the shadows of ritual and get any reality with God. In the past that ritual had reality because Christ had not yet come in the flesh. But once Jesus Christ came and died on the cross for our sins, and was raised again and ascended, now that ritual still used has no reality. It is shadow worship. Tragically the shadow worshippers were going to hell, they had not believed in Jesus Christ. There were also reversionistic believers who joined them, and by joining them encouraged them to think that they had some reality. But in the year 67 AD the offering of the animal sacrifices had no reality. The man who wrote this book was a Jew. His heart was broken because all of these rituals when they pointed to Christ before He came were wonderful, but now that Christ has come and these people have rejected Him they are left with an empty shell called religion, and they are left with a ritual that has no meaning. This is what this writer sees as he begins with such phrases as Dia touto, “Because of this we ought.” And why does he say “we”? Because he is a Jew, a born again Jew, and therefore really not a Jew any more but a member of the body of Christ. He can understand the tragedy of the religious Jew in 67 AD And not only does he understand the tragedy but he has under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit the most fantastic compassion you will ever see in writing. His Greek becomes classical Greek from time to time. This is because he has great compassion. The writer of this book is a man with an edification complex structure and he moved into the supergrace life.

You walk into this chapter and you realize that there are religious people who are going to hell; and they don’t even have fun. Marti gras is the last time to raise hell before 40 days of agony.

The word “ought” really should be translated “it is necessary,” and it introduces logical necessity for religious people dabbling in shadows of the law and fooling around with the function of an obsolete priesthood when Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, and has come and established Himself as the high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And the high priest is seated at the right hand of the Father, and the reality that He has left behind is no longer in ritual in the temple or animal sacrifices or observing the ritual of a holy day, but in taking in the Word — the daily function of GAP. The Jews should have understood this, they had manna every day. God still provides manna but it is in written form — the Word of God. Once manna is put in writing, ritual is unnecessary.

Every morning, people came out of their tents and God gave them another day. There was not a day when manna wasn’t there. When they were undeserving in every way, God still provided for them each and every day.

God still provides manna, but it is in written form. How can you relate to ritual if there is no reality in your life. By the time we get out of this chapter, we will separate the sheep from the goats. If you don’t love Jesus Christ, then get the hell out of here and let someone occupy your seat who does.

Brotherhood is apostasy. There is a so-called brotherhood, but the key is Jesus Christ, not people. Brotherly love is a farce, an hypocrisy. Love1 is what is key, not love2.

“For this cause it is necessary for us” — to make it personal the writer now identifies himself with the unbelievers of Jerusalem. While the writer has heeded these things the unbelievers of Jerusalem have not. He is saved; they are not. His compassion is overflowing to them.

“to give” — actually we have to words here. The word “to give” isn’t to give at all, it is a present active infinitive — proséchô (προσέΧω) [pronounced pros-EHKH-oh]. echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] means to have and to hold; “give” is the word didômi (δίδωμι) [pronounced dihd-OH-mee]. Pros plus the accusative means face to face with. We have pros plus echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] in the infinitive — to have and to hold face to face. Proséchô (προσέΧω) [pronounced pros-EHKH-oh] means “to have and to hold face to face with” It as real as anything will ever be. When you love someone, you give them some face to face attention. Man is designed to embrace face to face. Did you ever embrace back to back? A tame translation would be, “For this cause we ought to pay much more attention.”

This means to have something in your soul, so much so that it is a reality to you. Therefore it connotes everything from concentration on what is communicated to giving undivided attention. The word “give” here means to embrace; it is an infinitive of reality. It is category #1 love, present tense, linear aktionsart, active voice. The believer priest has a face to face reality thing but why does he use it here for unbelievers who are about to depart from this life without Christ. He used it for them because every day they faced the altar of the temple, they faced animal sacrifices, they faced the high priest and the priests in their function in the ritual. And they think that is reality but it isn’t .The reality is with the high priest, Jesus Christ.

The phrase “more earnest” is really one word, a comparative adverb, perisotorwj. The word actually means much, much more than we are doing, and in effect the writer is demanding that Jewish unbelievers stop this ritual for a minute and listen. The tremendous moving ritual is a pageantry of emptiness; it is going to hell in style. There is no reality in it any longer. The reality lies in who and what Jesus Christ is: what He has done for you on the cross and what happened to the angelic conflict when God the Father said, Sit down on my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.

The phrase “to the things” is one word. It is a dative plural, tioj, and it is a dative of advantage. It is to your advantage, unbelieving Jews, to listen to the Gospel — “which we have heard” — the Jews have heard the Gospel all of their lives. They have the Torah, the Old Testament Scripture. It is an aorist passive participle of akoúô (ἀκούω) [pronounced ah-KOO-oh]. They have been hearing the Gospel in many different ways. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, and the main verb is proséchô (προσέΧω) [pronounced pros-EHKH-oh] — face to face, have and hold. You have to hear before you can hold face to face. I n other words, proséchô (προσέΧω) [pronounced pros-EHKH-oh] as addressed to unbeliever Jews is the moment they believe in Jesus Christ. But you can’t hear while you are running around going through all this ritual. They are so involved in ritual that they have lost touch with reality completely.

So we have, “For this cause it is necessary for us to pay more attention to the things having been heard” — aorist passive participle. The passive voice indicates that in the past these people have really received a lot of Gospel.

A casual believer might not be impressed with the writer of Hebrews. Some of you are too filled with salesmanship; but that is not witnessing for Christ. The writer of Hebrews has common sense; he knows what the Jews have already heard. He does not use some goofy system that he just heard the other day.

Some get an edification complex structure and then they stop growing. Once a believers grows into the supergrace life, he never witnesses in the same way twice in a row. He has so much information, he can emphasize what is important to the person.

Buddy Dano walked into that book store like Appomattox. But he scored a great book. People knew Bible doctrine.

Bob thought about many things due to that book; and he realized that the writer of Hebrews is a great patriot. It is a great challenge; the challenge of deliverance.

The application part of the verse. “lest” — the negative mê, which denies subjectivity. The negative mê is a little different from the others like ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] and o)u, and so on. It is a negative which is designed to deny subjectivity. When you use this type of a negative in the Greek and you follow it up with an enclitic particle you develop a negative temporal clause out of it. We have the enclitic particle pote, so we have two words: mhpote, and it should be translated literally, “lest at any time.” But what does it mean? It means the time is short. He now relates the reality of the situation. All of this ritual is meaningless, the time is short, this ritual is about to be wiped out. This ritual which is blinding you is going to be removed, the Romans are going to destroy the temple.

The Romans are going to destroy their worship system; their rituals. But if the Romans can destroy it, then it is not eternal.

“lest we should let them slip” — the word “them” is not there in the Greek. What we have is a verb, an aorist active subjunctive of the verb pararrew. This is a compound. Para means “past” or “by” here. Para is the preposition of immediate source with some tenses, but para means past or by. Rew means to flow; sometimes it means to drift. Para plus rew means to flow past or to drift past or to slip past something. Here it is used in a nautical sense of a ship facing the possibility of a great storm and not able to tack back and forth to enter the harbour. This is the place of safety, this is the place of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. And these Jews are drifting past, and once they drift past and pass the headland the storm is going to hit them. The headland is 70 AD and this is 67 AD And going on in the habit of ritual they are drifting past the point of salvation and are going around the headland, and the storm is going to destroy them. The Jews are facing national catastrophe. They are warned not to drift past the only reality, Jesus Christ.

Ritual, religion, makes you drift past reality.

Once you pass the headland, you are right in the middle of the storm.

Hebrews 2:1 “For this cause it is necessary for us to pay more attention to the things having been heard [the doctrine, not the ritual], lest at any time we might drift past them.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

this introduces a very long conditional clause.

1972 Hebrews 2:2–3 Lesson #7

06/16/1972 Jews worship shadow, reject the reality of Christ

Bob is finding more and more about the supergrace life; and he almost wanted to have a special on it.

Hebrews chapter 2 is one of the more difficult passages in the Word of God for interpretation as well as application because this passage finds us right in the middle of the angelic conflict at a desperate time in the history of the southern kingdom of Judah.

This was written in a.d. 67, just 3 years before the destruction of Jerusalem, something which is heavily documented. This could have been avoided had the Hebrew people believed in Jesus Christ.

They are warned not to drift by their only salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ. They are about to go into one of the greatest catastrophes of human history.

Hebrews 2:2 For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression or disobedience received a just retribution,...(ESV)

A conditional clause will cover 2 verses.

Verse 2 — we begin with the particle gar, translated “for.” We have to watch these particles in the Greek very carefully. gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] can be used in three general ways in the Greek. First of all, to express a basis or a reason for something. This is called the illative use and it is translated under these conditions, “for.” That is the type of particle we have here at the beginning of verse 2. However, gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] is also used to provide an explanation, and when it is, it is translated “that is.” It is also used to express a confirmation or an assurance of something, and then it is translated “indeed” or “certainly” .Here we find an illative use of gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] to express or introduce a reason.

Here is the reason why unsaved Jews should pay more attention to the Gospel than they ever have before — because the time is short, they are about to face great national disaster. In that national disaster, while there are a million Jews living in Jerusalem at this time, 900,000 of them will die horribly, some 90,000 will go into slavery, and the only way to avoid these things is to respond to the Gospel, believe in Christ, and get out of Jerusalem as a result of understanding doctrine.

Our second word is a particle ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] which introduces a first class condition — “For if,” and whatever follows the word “if” is true, this is a bona fide first class condition. (There is also a debater’s first class condition in which something is assumed to be true for the sake of setting up an argument for debate)

There are about 185 doctrines contained in the Law of Moses. Moses and Aaron were the qualified teachers in Israel. 70 men were qualified administers; but not teachers. Angels were the teachers of the Jews in the Exodus generation. Ho logos is a specific reference to the angels who taught the people of Israel. Angels acting as teachers; as pastor-teachers. 3 sections to the Mosaic Law. Confirmation: Deuteronomy 33:2 Psalm 68:7 Acts 7:38, 53 Gal. 3:19. The Jews had 2 types of teachers. Moses was one of the greatest Bible teachers of all time. Aaron was a good teacher as well. He was more like a college professor who lives up in the clouds. The Exodus generation had the best of Bible teaching. All of these passages indicate that angels taught the people. In teaching this, they were teaching shadows. The divine establishment section was not shadow. When these doctrines were taught, they were taught in shadow form. All 5 levitical sacrifices taught by the angels. They explained these things to the priests. All of these things were very carefully explained. This is how many thousands of people were taught. So there is also a corps of angels teaching.

There was also the teaching of ritual, which is used to teach many things. This is a bona fide way of teaching. In this protosis, it is true that angels taught doctrine.

During the time of the book of Hebrews, these rituals were no longer valid. The shadows look forward to the cross. The mystery age is a time that the people did not understand. The mystery age was taught by Jesus, as a prophet; Upper Room Discourse and the Gethsemne discourse? Then the apostles took it from there. At this new dispensation, the shadows are over; they are gone. It is no longer right for angels to engage in teaching in the Church Age. No longer necessary.

If the angels taught shadows, then man teaches the mystery and the mystery is even moer so. The Jews are hung up on the shadows. They are still going to the Temple; they are still offering up animal sacrifices. Both the believer and the unbeliever in reversionism are dabbling in shadows. With the believer: crucifying the Son of God afresh; putting Him to open shame — Hebrews 6:6; with the unbeliever: drifting by the port of eternal salvation — Hebrews 2:1. Believers and unbelievers both dabbling in shadows.

The shadows were administered by angels. Now that man is superior to angels and now that the born again believer is positionally superior to angels — though not physically at the present time — how does he get the Word of God today? Not through ritual, not through shadows, you get it through teaching — the pastor-teacher. Bob is no angel.

Human beings are provided a spiritual gift and in the provision of that spiritual gift members of the human race in a body of corruption can communicate things that the elect angels didn’t even know of. Remember that the Church Age doctrine is a mystery doctrine, and not only did the people not know about it but neither did the angels. The angels could communicate the Mosaic law, they knew the Mosaic law; but Church Age doctrine they did not know. Therefore it is fitting that in God’s plan of grace that men, starting with the apostles and continuing in every generation with pastor-teachers, should communicate things that angels did not even know of. In Ephesians 3:10 we have this fact, that the angels listen in on sermons so they can learn it too. The angels learn from the Church the wonderful things of God. That means that even the function of a Bible class breaks Satan’s back in the angelic conflict because Satan always thought he had a chance as long as elect angels were communicating doctrine to believers in the Old Testament. But that is all wiped out now. Now it is strictly mankind. The Word of God is completed, no angels have anything to do with communication. And the power to communicate isn’t even angelic power, the power is God the third person, the Holy Spirit. The power to receive in the power of the Spirit. No longer the power of the angels.

Gap in the OT was different; a different system of grace. The Holy Spirit had not yet been given because Christ was not yet glorified.

Angels taught, so only Moses and Aaron were needed, because of all the angels.

“the word spoken” — aorist active participle of laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh]. Laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh] means two things. it means to gossip and it means to communicate in a conversational type situation. Here it means to communicate. It is an aorist active participle, therefore it should be translated “for if the doctrine (ho logos) having been communicated through angels” .Not “by angels” — dia plus the genitive means a channel. Dia plus aggeloj in the genitive should be translated “through the channel [or agency] of angels.” Angels were the channel by which God communicated doctrine to the Jews.

Next is “was” — aorist active indicative of ginomai — “became.” The word “was” means to become something that was not in existence before. This is an aorist tense, a constative aorist to cover the whole area of the Old Testament. And the word “steadfast” is the noun which goes with ginomai, the word bébaios (βέβαιος) [pronounced BEB-ah-yoss]. Bébaios (βέβαιος) [pronounced BEB-ah-yoss] means dependable, reliable, inviolable, permanent. The word “permanent” indicates that not only did the angels teach these things but human writers eventually recorded them. And everything that human writers recorded in the Old Testament angels were involved.

So far, putting it all together, this is what we have: “For if the doctrine having been communicated through the channel of angels became permanent [and it did]...” That is the first half of the protasis. There is a second part which is necessary to make the illustration. It has to do with the fact that when there was a violation of the law it was punished.

So we have next, “and every transgression” — kai pasa parabasis (παράβασις) [pronounced par-AB-as-is]. Parabasis (παράβασις) [pronounced par-AB-as-is] is the noun that we need. It means “stepping by the side of.” It comes to means deviation, transgression, violation of the law — “and every transgression [or violation] of the law” — “and disobedience” — parakoh which does not really mean disobedience, it means refusal to hear doctrine, disobedience or unwillingness to hear. Disobedience means negative volition toward doctrine, unwillingness to hear Bible teaching. And so there were two kinds of violations. First of all there was the direct violation of the law, deviation from it, and secondly there was a violation called unwillingness to hear.

And these “received” — aorist active indicative of lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh]. Lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh] is used here in the sense of receiving punishment, receiving discipline — “a just recompense of reward.” The word “just” is the accusative of e)ndikoj which means just or fair. The word “recompense of reward” is not correct. Whatever that word meant 300 years ago it is certainly not correct here. It is a compound noun misthapodosia (μισθαποδοσί) [pronounced mis-thap-od-oss-EE-ah]. It means punishment. fmisthos (μισθός) [pronounced mis-THOSS], the first part of the noun means wages. Apodidômi (ἀποδίδωμι) [pronounced ap-od-EED-o-mee] is a verb from which the last part of the noun is taken and it means to receive back. So it is literally to receive back wages but it was also used in the unfavourable sense of receiving punishment, and that is what we have here — “received a just punishment.”

This is the protasis:

Hebrews 2:2 “For if the doctrine having been communicated through angels became permanent [and it did], and every violation of the law and negative volition received a just punishment [and it did].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. The victory of Christ in the angelic conflict becomes the spearhead to driving home the importance of Jewish unbelievers in 67 AD receiving Christ. The victory of Christ in the angelic conflict is His session and it becomes a spearhead for driving home to these Jews the importance of getting away from shadows. The shadows are no longer bona fide. Angels administered shadows but in the angelic conflict the angels have been defeated and man is superior to angels. Christ is a resurrection body is seated at the right hand of the Father, He is superior to all angels. Some day we, too, will have a resurrection body like His and physically we will be superior to angels. But in the meantime we have something that no other believer ever had before the Church Age began. We are in union with Christ; this is true of every person who has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. None of this occurred in the Age of Israel. We are positionally superior to angels because we are in Christ. Angels are only impressed by Jesus Christ; they are not impressed by us? They are impressed with us only because we are in Christ. No angel can ever teach us now, because we are positionally in Christ. And someday, we will be in a resurrection body, and greater than all angels as a result. It is imperative that we wake up to the great principle. The fallen angels don’t like this at all. No matter how sorry we are as a Christian, we are still greater than all angels, including Satan.

2. These Jews are enmeshed in the Mosaic law which originated by communication through angels. The Jewish people are tied up in the Mosaic Law.

3. But something more important is here: salvation administered by Jesus Christ, the son of David and our high priest forever. And they are missing it, they are drifting past the port of salvation. Salvation is a reality, all they have to do is believe in Jesus Christ. And all of that stuff in the temple is no good, it is a shadow. The fact that they are dabbling in the shadows at this point makes them apostate.

4. The Jews are dabbling in shadows while the reality is being presented to them. They are fiddling with the shadows but the reality is right there.

5. The angels administer shadow doctrine but Christ administers substance doctrine, reality doctrine.

6. If there was punishment for violation of the Mosaic law, and if that punishment was just and severe, how much more the rejection of Jesus Christ as Savior?

So much for the protasis; we go into the apodosis now.

Hebrews 2:3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard,

Verse 3 — “How shall we” — “how” is an interrogative adverb, pwj, and it should be really translated “By what means” — “shall we” — there is a pronoun here in the emphatic position, an editorial pronoun. The writer, though a saved Jew, identifies himself with unsaved Jews in order to make the issue clear. With the interrogative adverb we have a rhetorical question which expresses a denial — “How shall we escape,” future middle indicative of e)kfugw. This means to make a clean escape, to get completely away. Fugw means to escape; e)kfugw means to escape out, away from. The future tense envisions both eternity and the catastrophe of the fall of Jerusalem. It is possible to believe in Jesus Christ in 67 AD and not only to be saved immediately to escape the horrible second death but, at the same time, to escape one of the greatest catastrophes in history. All believers who had studied any doctrine, including Luke 21:20–24, got out. The middle voice is reflexive: every individual must make a decision for himself. The indicative mood: since this is a rhetorical question it expresses a denial, and there is no escape for unbeliever from either the catastrophe of the lake of fire or the catastrophe of the fifth cycle of discipline. Again, a rhetorical question expresses a denial when the rhetorical question is begun with an interrogative adverb rather than an interrogative pronoun. Therefore there is no escape.

“if we neglect” — an incorrect translation. Many of the translators, and some still do it, take a participle and translate it like an “if” clause. There is no “if” here, the “if” was back in the previous verse. This is an aorist active participle of ameléô (ἀμελέω) [pronounced ahm-el-EH-oh]. Ameléô (ἀμελέω) [pronounced ahm-el-EH-oh] actually means to disregard, and in that sense to neglect, to be totally unconcerned about something, to pay no attention to something. But it should be translated here, “having disregarded.”

“so great” is an ablative singular from têlikoutos/têlikautê (τηλικοτος/τηλικαύτη) [pronounced tay-lik-OO-toss]. The ablative case has the same morphology as the genitive case in the Greek. However, it has a different meaning. It has the concept of source. The ablative case connotes both source and separation. Here we have what is called an ablative of comparison in which there is nothing which can be compared to salvation. “So great” in the ablative means there never was, there never will be, there never can be anything to compare with salvation. “So great” is all right as a translation but it misses the whole concept of the ablative. Here we have a rhetorical question followed by an ablative of comparison and it says, Look, you have something that is greater than anything anyone will ever have, ever could have. Angels could envy you for what you have. There is nothing that will ever compare with it and, that isn’t all, while salvation is eternal life it is the beginning of something so great in time, if you will just get with doctrine it is absolutely fantastic again. The ablative of comparison says this: Look, so you’re saved, and you know you’re saved. But what is this salvation to you? Is it real to you? Is it absolutely unique? How can you ever fail to faith-rest or doubt God on anything when you already have the greatest thing in the world — “so great a salvation.”

With this ablative of comparison we have sôtêria (σωτηρία) [pronounced soh-tay-REE-ah], also in the ablative. The very word for salvation here is in the ablative. The way to translate it: “so great a salvation.” Why is he putting it in the ablative? Why does he have a rhetorical question followed by an ablative of comparison? Because while this is an appeal to Jewish unbelievers Jewish believers are reading this too and they are a bunch of knuckleheads at this point because they are not getting with doctrine. Jewish believers do not fully appreciate what they have from salvation. You have the most at salvation; so after salvation, we have much more than the most. This is unique in human history; unique in angelic history.

No one is every saved by anything that man can do. God knew we needed salvation, and He made it happen. Jesus executed it; and the Holy Spirit revealed it. So, there is no credit which we can take.

Salvation is complete and total grace; and there is more grace that comes after, as we grow. We have everything. What the hell is wrong with you? Don’t ever give your testimony until you understand this. If you are called to give a testimony, stand up and tell a joke, then sit down.

We have things that Moses longed for; and he was one of the greatest Bible teachers who ever lived.

“By what means shall we escape having disregarded so great a salvation.” There is no escape in eternity for those who reject Christ as Savior. There is no escape for unsaved Jews when divine judgement in time takes the form of the fifth cycle of discipline.

Now we go to a qualitative relative pronoun, a nominative feminine singular, hostis (ὅστις) [pronounced HOH-stihs]. It means “which kind” .The antecedent for this pronoun is “salvation” — which kind of salvation?” Next we have “at the first” which is archê (ἀρχή) [pronounced ar-KHAY] and it means “a beginning.” Then, “began,” and there is no such word here as “began.” Instead we have the aorist active participle of lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh] which means to receive — “which was at first communicated” .("Having received a beginning” is the literal translation) — “spoken” is the present middle infinitive laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh]. Laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh] is used for angelic communication of doctrine; now laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh] is used in the present middle infinitive for Jesus Christ speaking doctrine, but before He went to the cross. Why? Because Jesus Christ taught doctrine as the last Adam. He was born without a sin nature, without imputed sin. He lived a perfect life — the impeccability of Christ. So He even communicated in His perfection before His resurrection body which made Him superior to angels. And laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh] is used here as it was used for angels in the previous verse, to indicate Christ communicated something as a man that no angels ever had the privilege of communicating. They communicated shadows; He communicated substance.

“having received a beginning to be spoken” — which should be translated “which was at first communicated” — dramatic present tense. Middle voice: Christ Himself did it as a man. The infinitive: it was God’s purpose that man should take over the communicating in this age. This is a reference to the spoken ministry of Jesus Christ in which the Jews were warned of the temporal judgement of the fifth cycle of discipline and the eternal judgement of the lake of fire for disregarding so great a salvation.

“By which means shall we escape having disregarded so great a salvation; which was at first communicated through the Lord.” We have the same structure as in the previous verse — dia plus the genitive — where we have “through the angels”; now we have “through the Lord”.

“and was confirmed” — the aorist passive indicative of bebaióō (βεβαιόω) [pronounced beb-ah-YOH-oh] which means to make a firm stand, to establish, to verify, to ratify. Here it means to verify. Aorist tense: was verified. Passive voice: received verification. Indicative mood: the reality of such verification — “to us” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH]. eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] is directional, and Jesus Christ put it in our direction and started something. He started something that has never stopped to this moment. Jesus Christ communicated to the apostles, the apostles communicated to the Church, the Church had spiritual gifts where men communicated to people, and men have been communicating to the Church ever since. Not only do we have the miracle of the preservation of the Word of God but we also have the miracle that in every generation there is communication. That is grace; that is provision; that is something none of us could ever do.

“by them that heard” is a preposition hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus an aorist active participle as the object — hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus akoúô (ἀκούω) [pronounced ah-KOO-oh].

U(po means “under the authority of,” and akoúô (ἀκούω) [pronounced ah-KOO-oh] means to hear and recognize authority, to hear and to concentrate.

Hebrews 2:3 “By what means shall we escape having disregarded so great a salvation; which was at first communicated through the Lord, and was verified under the authoritative teaching of those having heard.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

“Those having heard” means that the apostles took this up from the Lord and perpetuated it.

Summary1.Those having heard refers to the apostles.

2. This passage infers that there was one generation between the writer of Hebrews and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. The unknown writer of Hebrews could not be Paul who received this message direct from the Lord — Galatians 1:11.

4. The unknown writer of Hebrews received his message from the apostles who received it from the Lord.

5. Therefore this passage in its syntax makes a good case for either Clement of Rome, Barnabas, or Apollos being the human writer

Now Bob puts both verses together:

Hebrews 2:2 “For if the doctrine having been communicated through angels became permanent [and it did], and every violation of the law and negative volition [unwillingness to hear] received a just punishment [and it did].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 2:3 “By what means shall we escape having disregarded so great a salvation; which was at first communicated through the Lord [in contrast to the communication by angels], and was verified under the authoritative teaching of those having heard.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This is all a single thought.

V. 4 is a grace warning.

1972 Hebrews 2:4–5 Lesson #8

06/23/1972 Hebrews 2:4–5 Testimony of 2 U.S. Marines just out of basics; grace warning before judgment; doctrine of spiritual gifts; doctrine of civilizations

Corrected translation of vv. 2–3 given.

Hebrews 2:4 ...while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will. (ESV)

Verse 4 — we have a grace warning to the Jews as they face the fifth cycle of discipline. Remember, there is a principle here. Because doctrine is neglected by a nation a nation which has a doctrinal heritage — the Jews in that day — the laws of divine establishment are neglected. And when the two of them are neglected there is first of all loss of freedom in the inter relationship of the nation, and secondly, loss of freedom and slavery by outside conquest. The Jews had a great heritage of Bible doctrine, a heritage of the laws of divine establishment. As a nation they had been blessed of God as few nations have ever been blessed. And yet, there came a generation of negative volition toward doctrine among believers, and therefore reversionism, the rejection of the laws of divine establishment and therefore confusion. When the laws of establishment are rejected the first thing to go is the military and law enforcement. After this there is nothing left and it is simply a matter of conquest. That is exactly what is about to happen. But before it happens, a special warning. This warning is given, beginning now in verse 4. God warned the Jews in a special way through Bible doctrine.

The first word in verse 4 is the genitive of theos plus the definite article — “The God.” We have what is a part of a genitive absolute with a present active participle. In a genitive absolute — which includes a noun in the genitive case in the present active participle — it is legitimately translated “The God.” “The God” is a reference to God the Father, the author of the divine plan — operation grace. The next word “also” is not found in the original.

“bearing them witness” — also a part of the genitive absolute. It is present active participle from a triple compound verb sunepimartureô (μαρτυρέω) [pronounced mar-too-REH-oh]. Sun is a preposition which means “with”; epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] is a preposition which means here “in addition to”; martureô (μαρτυρέω) [pronounced mar-too-REH-oh] means to testify in court, to witness. When you put it all together it means to jointly testify or to testify at the same time, or to confirm by additional testimony — “The God confirming by additional testimony” .

“both with signs” — instrumental plural of shmeion, which actually means “miracles,” and the instrumental should be translated “both by means of miracles.” The word shmeion doesn’t mean just an ordinary miracle, it means a miracle designed to alert a nation. It is not a miracle, for example, to a small group of people. Many of the miracles which were performed during the time of the Lord Jesus were observed by a few thousand people in one locale. But this is not the type of miracle meant here. Shmeion means a miracle which comes to the attention of the entire nation and is designed awaken a nation to a special need. There were three such miracles [shmeion], that is why it is translated “signs.” The three of them were given in the past and are found in the book of Isaiah. They were prophetical signs, warnings which team up with the book of Hebrews and with the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ to warn Israel of coming disaster, the catastrophe of the fifth cycle of discipline.

The 3 Signs of the 5^th Cycle of Discipline:

1. The first of these three signs or miracles was the virgin birth prophesied in Isaiah 7:14.

2. The second one was the sign of the two deaths of Christ in Isaiah 53:9.

3. The third was the sign of the gift of tongues in Isaiah 28:11.

Immediately we notice something about the word shmeion. It is not a miracle like when a person is blind and now he sees; it is not some man who has never walked and now he walks normally; it is not even like the one about Lazarus brought back from the dead. It is a miracle in the sense of a national warning.

The first of these signs was the virgin birth. There is only one time in all of history when anyone ever came into the world through the virgin birth, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. The virgin birth made it possible for the humanity of Christ to come into the world without a sin nature, without the imputation of Adam’s sin.

In order to go to the cross where the second warning occurred Jesus Christ had to be free from any personal sin, which He was. Therefore He arrived at the cross in the status quo of impeccability. As the God-Man, undiminished deity could not sin; humanity was temptable but impeccable. So the Lord Jesus Christ came to the cross without any sin. And there, because He had no sin of His own, he was made sin for us, or He bore our sins on His own body on the tree. That is spiritual death. After he accomplished our salvation then physical death, He died physically. The virgin birth was a warning to the nation. Thirty-three years later Jesus Christ went to the cross and that was the second warning to the nation. At around 33 AD Jesus Christ was hanging on that cross, and while literally millions of people had been crucified during the course of the history of SPQR, only one of them died twice on the cross — spiritual death for our salvation; physical death because His work was accomplished.

Fifty days after the resurrection of Christ we have the third sign, the gift of tongues whereby the Gospel was presented to the Jews in a foreign language. The Jews were responsible in the Old Testament times for giving out the Gospel. Their failure to do so meant that they would be evangelized in foreign (Gentile) languages, and on the Day of Pentecost Jews in Jerusalem were evangelized in many different Gentile languages.

In each case this is a sign. The first sign probably occurred around 2 or 3 BC. The second sign occurred in 30 AD The third sign occurred between 30 and 70 AD Over a period of forty years the gift of tongues occurred only to warn the nation Israel of the coming disaster and to show them the only solution which is to believe in Jesus Christ. These are the signs. The signs are a special warning to a nation, a unique event, something that warns the nation of coming disaster.

I can see tongues as a sign, but not connected to Isaiah.

We can tell the signs of our own country going down. Hippiesville; males with long hair; the rise of drug traffic. These are standard signs found through Bible doctrine. These are not to be mixed up with the signs of the end of Israel.

There is a second category here called “wonders.” This is also in the instrumental plural of the noun teraj. Teraj is a special miracle to focus attention on the person of Christ rather than, for example, signs which are unique miracles to warn a nation of coming catastrophe. The word “signs” is the warning to the entire nation; the word “wonders” is a special miracle designed to evangelize, to focus attention upon who and what Christ is, designed to come at a time when national disaster is impending, and to evangelize those who are facing disaster. The seven credit cards of Jesus Christ found in the Gospel of John come under the category of teraj. The function of the apostles in performing many miracles focus attention upon who and what Christ is, focus attention upon the Gospel. These miracles, however, only occurred when unbelievers with positive volition at the point of God consciousness could observe them and there could be a response to the message. The response to the miracle message was always the same: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

Signs special miracles to warn a nation; wonders are special miracles.

Next we have a third one — “and divers miracles” .We have a conjunction kai which separates this from the first two. The word “divers” is the instrumental plural of poikilos (ποικίλος) [pronounced poy-KEE-loss] which means a variety. Then we have the word dúnamis (δύναμις) [pronounced DOO-nahm-iss] which means “powers” — “and by means of a variety of powers.” These powers are actually the apostolic use of grace dynamics. In addition to that, God provided at the beginning of the Church Age, and continues to provide at the point of every believer’s salvation, at least one spiritual gift. And so we have next the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Again, we have the instrumental plural for “gifts,” merismoj which means the impartation of gifts. Then we have “of the Holy Spirit,” an ablative of source. So literally, “by the distribution of spiritual gifts from the source of the Holy Spirit.” Pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] in the ablative means “spirit,” not “ghost” .

“according to his will” — according to the Holy Spirit’s will. “According to” is katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] with the accusative, the accusative singular of qelhsij which is an act of sovereign will. The sovereign will of the Holy Spirit determines your spiritual gift.

Some of you men have the gift of pastor-teacher. God has a marvelous sense of humor when it comes to the assignment of the gift of pastor-teacher. Why does God pick sub-zeroes? You are blessed in a wonderful way having this gift; and a lot of difficulties. God could not pick too many nice guys; not enough nice congregations.

Bob thinks the best way to handle an outfit is to find the worst problem in the outfit, and kill him or make him feel like he was dead. Times have sure changed.

Bob chews out a longhair. “You’re a reflection on your family. Do you have a hearing problem?”

Paul was the greatest Bible teacher of all. He did not earn it or deserve it. He killed a lot of Christians as an unbeliever. No matter how bad the person or the personality, if God makes him a communicator, then he can use that gift. A pastor-teacher who tries being a sweet person, he is not doing his job. A pastor worried about being sweet will raise up a congregation of emotional weepy types.

There is a myth of southern women. Someone talking about parties with northern women and southern women. This is a quote from someone. When the women arrived, the men paid attention to them. The thing about southern women is southern men. There’s a point there. Every believer has a spiritual gift. But no woman has the gift of pastor-teacher. Every woman is born with natural communicating talent. Some can become nags, some become teachers, some can communicate better than any man could. Never a woman who could not teach her children well.

There are women in Christianity and they claim to have some kind of preaching gift. But, God never gave those gifts to women. Man has authority over women; this is why their hair is different. This authority is established through divine laws.

The Doctrine of Spiritual Gifts

1. For the Church Age spiritual gifts are the Father’s organized witness to the plan of salvation as well as national warning — Hebrews 2:4. This plan anticipates the intensification of the angelic conflict during the Church Age.

2. At the point of salvation, and accompanying his priesthood, every believer receives at least one gift from the Holy Spirit — 1Corinthians 12:11. This gift does not depend upon merit, talent, or human ability; it is a sovereign decision of the Holy Spirit as seen in Hebrews 2:4 1Cor. 12:11.

3. At any point in the Church Age each spiritual gift is necessary for the function of the body of Christ on earth — 1Corinthians 12:27–31.

4. All spiritual gifts function through the filling of the Spirit — Acts 2:4; 1Corinthians 13 amplified.

5. The proper mental attitude toward spiritual gifts is recorded in Romans 12:3.

6. All spiritual gifts were presented after the resurrection of Christ — Ephesians 4:8.

7. There are two kinds of spiritual gifts: temporary and permanent.

a. Temporary gifts were necessary to take up the slack until the canon of scripture was completed. Once the Bible was completed, about 96 AD, all temporary gifts were removed — 1Corinthians 13:8–10; Acts 19:11,12 cf. Philippians 2:27; 2Timothy 4:20. Temporary gifts include apostleship, tongues, interpreting tongues, miracles, healing.

b. Permanent gifts function after the completion of the canon of scripture and throughout the entire Church Age — Romans 12:6–8; 1Corinthians 12:31.

8. Communication gifts carry both authority and maximum purpose as declared in Ephesians 4:11–13; Hebrews 13:7,17. Communication gifts are limited to males only.

9. Apostasy and reversionism seek to perpetuate temporary gifts — apostleship, healing, miracles, tongues — beyond the closing of the canon of scripture.

The mother does all of the teaching of the child between the ages of 0 and 6; and this is the most important teaching a child will receive. When properly taught, no child breaks away from it. Whatever you are taught in those first 6 years determines the pattern for your life, apart from Bible doctrine.

Hebrews 2:4 “And the God confirming their witness, both by means of signs and wonders, also by means of a variety of powers, and by distribution of spiritual gifts from the source of the Holy Spirit according to his will.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The victory in the angelic conflict. Civilizations, Millennium, and the Angelic Conflict

Hebrews 2:5 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking. (ESV)

Verse 5 — the ultimate triumph of man in the angelic conflict. This verse has some exegesis and three major doctrines: the doctrine of civilizations, the doctrine of the Millennium, and doctrine of the angelic conflict.

“For unto the angels” — Ou gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] aggelos (ἄγγελος) [pronounced AHN-geh-loss]. Ou is a negative, and you will notice immediately there is no negative in the King James version. There is no negative until you get to “hath not put in subjection.” That “not” is out of place, it goes with gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] and aggelos (ἄγγελος) [pronounced AHN-geh-loss]. It should be translated, “For [gar, an illitive particle] not to the angels” — dative of dignity — “hath he put in subjection” — the aorist active indicative of hupotassô (ὑποτάσσω) [pronounced hoop-ot-AS-so]. Tassô (τάσσω) [pronounced TAS-soh] means to be in ranks, under authority; hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] — under the authority of, a military word. “For he has not put under the authority of angels the coming civilization” is what it really says.

“the world to come” — the word “world” is not world. Oikoumenê (οἰκουμένη) [pronounced oy-kou-MEHN-ay] refers to a civilization; it means inhabited earth or a civilization. Then we have a present active participle of mellô (μέλλω) [pronounced MEHL-low]. Mellô (μέλλω) [pronounced MEHL-low] means to be about to come — “the coming civilization”.

Hebrews 2:5 “For he has not put under [or, subordinated] the authority of angels the coming civilization [or, world].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

There are only four civilizations and the next one is the Millennium. This is a reference to the Millennium. The Millennium is not the next dispensation, the Tribulation [the end of the Jewish Age] is. Jesus Christ will rule throughout the civilization of the Millennium. The Millennial reign of Christ is both a dispensation and a civilization.

The Millennium is both a dispensation and a civilization. It is the next civilization on the horizon.

The Doctrine of Civilizations

1. A civilization begins a period of human history with believers only, or with innocent persons only, and terminates with a cataclysmic judgement. In the cataclysmic judgement the entire population of the world is destroyed, except for believers, and believers begin the next civilization. So a civilization is like a dispensation in that it is a period of history, but it has different termini with the exception of the Millennium.

2. Each civilization has its own climate, its own environment and characteristics within the species — that is, man has a different life span in each civilization, weather is different in each civilization, animals are different; but each species remains, there is no transmutation. We have the pre-diluvian civilization — the civilization before the flood. It started with two people, man and woman in innocence; it terminates with a cataclysm, the flood. The second civilization is called the post-diluvian civilization. It begins with eight believers — Noah plus seven. It includes the Age of Israel, the Church Age, the Rapture of the Church, the Tribulation and the second advent. So it begins with believers only and it ends with the baptism of fire by which all unbelievers are removed from the world and cast into fire. Then the third civilization is the Millennium, the reign of Jesus Christ for a thousand years. it begins with believers only. These are the “wheat”; the tares are removed. This is perfect environment at the end of which there is another great cataclysm, the destruction of the universe, the removal of the unbelieving population of the Millennium which is cast into the lake of fire with the devil and his angels. The final civilization is the eternal one — believers only.

3. The first civilization is called antediluvian or pre-diluvian. It began with Adam in innocence and concludes with the universal flood which destroyed all the population of the earth but eight people.

4. The second civilization is post-diluvian. It began with Noah’s family — all believers — and concludes with the second advent judgement of the baptism of fire. In this manner all of the unbelievers on the earth are removed at one time. That is the fulfilment of Matthew 25 — “Two shall be in the field; one shall be taken, the other left.” Many related parables; good and bad tares, wise and foolish virgins, etc. The earth will be repopulated by the believers who remain.

5. The third civilization is the Millennium which begins with Tribulational saints who survive the Tribulation — they are alive at the second advent — and it concludes with a rebellion led by Satan personally: the Gog and Magog revolution, at the end of which is the last judgement and the earth is destroyed by fire.

6. The fourth civilization is eternal in nature, it has no end. Therefore it is believers only in resurrection bodies. It begins with the new heavens, the new earth and the new Jerusalem. It has no termination, there will never again be unbelievers in a civilization.

7. Each civilization begins with a divine blessing and terminates with a divine judgement, except the last which has no termination and there is no end to divine blessing for believers in resurrection bodies. It begins with perfect climate.

Texas has a few not days, but it is still paradise. Animals sometimes change with a civilization. Today, you do not pet a king cobra. Bob saw a cobra milked and there was 3 cc’s of venom; enough to kill 25,000 people.

Animals are different and people are different, so some degree.

Hebrews 2:5 “For he has not put under the authority of angels the coming civilization [the Millennium].” This is the son of David ruling in the future, the Millennium. This will be the next civilization.

1972 Hebrews 2:6–9 Lesson #9

06/30/1972 Relative positions of angels, man, Christ; ultimate victory of Christ; mechanics of Operation Footstool

Conference tomorrow. Many extra events. Concert; fly-by; after they have done 2 other places. Choppers and repelling; maybe or maybe not.

Hard to get much from the KJV. Bob reads the 3 verses.

Hebrews 2:5 “For he has not put under the authority of angels the coming civilization, concerning which we communicate.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Verses 6–9, the two Adam’s and the angelic conflict.

The millennium will not be under the authority of angels. That is the next civilization.

Hebrews 2:6 It has been testified somewhere, "What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? (ESV)

Verse 6 — we begin with documentation. “But” is the particle de used as a post positive conjunction, used here in the transitional sense. In other words, this little particle de should be translated “Moreover.” The word “one” is tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç], and it means “someone,” referring to the human author of Psalm 8 which was David. When David wrote Psalm 8 he was totally occupied with the person of Jesus Christ and living the supergrace life. David not only lived the supergrace life but he gave a tremendous expression of occupation with the person of Jesus Christ in Psalm 8.

“in a certain place” is an enclitic indefinite particle pou (πού) [pronounced poo] which is used to specify a definite or a specific passage of scripture — Psalm 8:4–6. This passage will be quoted in the next few verses. This is documentation to the fact that the second advent will bring radical changes to this world. The ruler of this world at the present time is Satan. Satan will be superseded by the Lord Jesus Christ as the son of David and as the last Adam. Two created beings have ruled this world. The first Adam ruled during the period before his fall. At his fall he was superseded by Satan. Satan rules from the fall of man to the second advent of Jesus Christ, at which time the last Adam supersedes Satan. Satan as the ruler of this world is established by 2Corinthians 4:4; Ephesians 2:2; John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11. During Satan’s rule Christ is absent from the earth, until He leaves that throne at the right hand of the Father and returns to take over. The second advent includes not only operation footstool, resulting in Satan’s overthrow, but it also confirms the fact that of a coup de tat which will change civilization.

Civilizations and dispensations are not the same. There is some overlap between them, but a civilization always begins with believers only and ends with a great catastrophe which eliminates unbelievers from the world. In the antediluvian civilization the great catastrophe which terminated it was the flood. Only believers survived. We are in the post-diluvian civilization at the present time and will remain in this civilization until the second advent, at which time unbelievers are eliminated from the scene and we begin a new civilization, the Millennial civilization, with believers only. The baptism of fire is the great catastrophe which eliminates.

There will be a coup de tat in the future. Satan will be removed. In the meantime one of the functions of the priesthood, by way of application, is to avoid trying to whitewash the devil’s world. This is the devil’s world. As believers we have a bona fide function in this world, but it deals with the laws of divine establishment. For example, we have the responsibility of patriotism, of military service, of functioning as believers in this area because it is the military that provides the freedom by which a nation operates. There can be no freedom in our civilization apart from military victory, and the slaughter of the enemy on the battlefield is the guarantee of the freedom of a national entity. Freedom is divine institution #1 under the laws of divine establishment. Capacity for freedom comes through Bible doctrine, through the observation of the laws of divine establishment. This freedom also includes the principle of right-man, right-woman.

Idiocy has struck Berachah; and Bob has never seen so many idiots going in so many different directions. We just about need ushers at every Bible class, and Bob is apt to tell them where to go, and that is not always good.

Children are spoiled because they are not trained under strict discipline. You can give a kid anything and still teach him discipline. Bob spends a lot of time dealing with adults who were never properly raised.

We as believers have a responsibility to our nation. We have responsibility within the framework of family and in the field of freedom. But we do not have any responsibility in trying to whitewash the devil’s world. When a nation starts to go mad or disintegrate one of the first things it does is to try to clean up the devil’s world. This is where we get the welfare state, all of the platforms for political liberalism, all the anti-establishment concepts. This is where we get the bad music, the decadent culture, and all this type of thing. You can’t whitewash the devil’s world.

Supreme Court removing the death penalty. Bob wants people executed by skinning them alive with a dull hunting knife...for certain kinds of criminals.

That’s why the believer doesn’t get involved in social action, and that is why he doesn’t try to “get a television” for every minority person within the country. The business of race is ridiculous. The believer’s responsibility is not to whitewash the devil’s world, and social action is definitely not a part of his responsibility.

These things are clarified as you begin to understand the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, both now and in the Millennium. In the Millennium He will overthrow Satan, there will be a coup de tat, and the Lord Jesus Christ will reign forever. Until then it is the devil’s world, and the only protection that you have in the devil’s world apart from the spiritual assets of grace are in the area of the laws of divine establishment.

Someone in a specific place has testified...

“testified” — should be “has testified” — aorist middle indicative of diamarturomai. Marturomai is the middle voice form for witnessing, martureô (μαρτυρέω) [pronounced mar-too-REH-oh]; dia means because of or through. Here, when you put it together, it means an intense testimony, even an ecstatic testimony. David gave an intense testimony as to who and what Jesus Christ is. Reason: Because he had tremendous Bible doctrine, he had moved beyond the ECS into the supergrace life.

“saying” is a present active participle of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh], and at this point the quotation begins. Légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] is nothing more really than quotation marks. The present active participle indicates that the Word of God liveth and abideth forever. This is linear aktionsart.

“What” — an interrogative pronoun ti. It is followed by the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], the absolute status quo verb, to be. Correctly translated “What is.”

Next we have the word for “man,” a predicate nominative, the noun is anthrôpos (ἄνθρωπος) [pronounced ANTH-row-pos], a generic term for mankind, male and female. The Hebrew which is used here, by the way, is enosh which refers to man in his frailty, in his weakness, in contrast to ish which means man in his nobility. So here we have anthrôpos (ἄνθρωπος) [pronounced ANTH-row-pos] which is used for the entire human race as being totally depraved. It refers to the fact that you and I, and all members of the human race, are born into this world spiritually dead. The moment we are physically alive, that moment is the moment we are spiritually dead to God. We are born with an old sin nature, we do not acquire a sin nature, we do not become sinners by a personal act of sin. The only person who ever became a sinner by a personal act of sin was Adam. Adam went negative toward the prohibition of God and partook of the forbidden fruit, and at that point he became a sinner, and he acquired a sin nature. Adam did not previously have a sin nature, he was not created with a sin nature. God is not the author of sin. God has nothing to do with sin, He doesn’t sponsor sin, He doesn’t do anything but condemn it. Adam became a sinner by an act of his own volition. Adam acquired a sin nature by sinning; you and I acquired a sin nature by being born. Since all of us are born into this world spiritually dead, possessing an old sin nature, we are all under a concept called total depravity. Personal sin of any category is merely a manifestation of the possession of the old sin nature.

“that thou art mindful” — literally, “that you yourself remember him.” We have the present middle indicative of mimnêskō (μιμνήσκω) [pronounced mim-NACE-koe] which means to remember or call to memory. So here we have, “who is mankind that you yourself remember him.” Man has failed, has done nothing right. Adam was in perfect environment and had everything going for him when he failed.

Hooking up ego with pride. A student came up to Bob and wanted an explanation and he tells them to study and listen to the tapes. This idea of running crying to someone for help because you don’t get your own way and you’re crying; that’s pitiful.

Bob was pretty cynical; so accepting human nature for what it is, was not a difficult thing for him to do. Bob does not hate the human race; he just has a low opinion of them. We as members of the human race; we have few redeeming features. Some of you have a sense of humor; that helps. We are no damn good; and that is putting it mildly. Some of you pompous self righteous jackasses may have trouble with that. We are zeroes in God’s sight. Sin and then cover, sin and cover.

We do not merit in any way for God to remember us. God promised to remember and come back, to crush the serpent’s head.

When Adam failed, he had everything going for him; beautiful rw, great food, sex every day. Imagine sinning when you have no problems. If you think you have helping God in any way, you are arrogant. God chose the sorriest form of divine creation and yet, God uses us.

Psalm :4

“or the son of man” — ho huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS] a)nqropou, a reference to the progeny of Adam. God could have forgotten the whole deal when Adam sinned but He didn’t .And in the progeny of Adam He remembers each one of us. He remembered us when we were spiritually dead. It is actually, “a son of man,” there is no definite article. The absence of the definite article in the Greek calls attention to the condition of the human race in spiritual death. There is great emphasis here, the whole progeny of Adam is spiritually dead. That is why Christ on the cross paid in spiritual death.

“that thou visitest him?” — the word “visit” is the present middle indicative of epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE]skeptomai which means to help someone, to come to someone’s aid — “or son of man that you yourself come to his aid.” God actually came to the aid of all members of the human race. This is a present middle indicative, He keeps on doing it, there never was a time when He didn’t.

Hebrews 2:7 You made Him for a little while lower than the angels; You have crowned Him with glory and honor,... (ESV)

Verse 7 — the first Adam and his failure. “Thou madest him a little lower” is not correct. It is the aorist active indicative of the verb e)lattow which means to be made inferior. The verb occurs in an idiom here. The idiom includes a prepositional phrase, para plus the accusative. Also the object of this verb is a straight accusative. Para plus the accusative sets up a comparison in which the object of the preposition is inferior to the object of the verb. This is a very strong idiom. The object of the verb is the accusative of the demonstrative pronoun autos. We also have an accusative form of an adjective brachus (βραΧὺς) [pronounced brahk-OOÇ] which isn’t even translated. Brachus (βραΧὺς) [pronounced brahk-OOÇ] means “for a brief time.” Altogether it is: “For a brief time you have made him inferior to the angels.”

Summary

1. The angelic creation is superior by creation to mankind.

2. Only at the point of salvation does man begin to become superior to angels, and that is positional.

3. While angels are superior to mankind by creation they have one area in common with man, and that is in the area of free will or volition.

4. It is the free will of mankind which plays a non-meritorious part in resolving the angelic conflict.

5. The free will of the humanity of Christ took Him to the cross and that is where Satan’s back was broken. The cross is the basis of the coup de tat which begins the Millennial civilization.

6. The free will of man expresses in a non-meritorious manner what Satan cannot stand — doing the will of God, responding to the grace of God from one’s own free will. This is especially true because of the priesthood which is the subject Hebrews.

7. In the future mankind has a resurrection body, and at that point he will be physically superior to angels

“thou crownedst” — the aorist active indicative of stefanow. It means to crown a victor at one of the games. There is another word for crown — diadhma, which means a king’s crown. This is a victor’s crown here.

“him” is, again, autos and it refers to Adam. When Adam was created he was crowned the ruler of the world. How do we know? The last phrase: “and did set him over the works of thy hands” is not found in the original. We know because of an idiom which follows: “glory and honour” are both datives of possession. The word “glory” is doxa (δόξα) [pronounced DOHX-ah], and “honour” is timê (τιμή, ς, ἡ) [pronounced tih-MAY or tee-MAY]. What is a dative of possession? It is a technical grammatical term and it means a dative used in which personal interest particularizes the point of ownership. In other words, the glory belongs to God; He crowned Adam with it. Adam was given both the honour of God and the glory of God when he was created. He was not only created man on this earth, he was also created ruler of this earth. Adam lost all these things; he lost his crown of glory and honour. He lost these through his first sin and his fall, and the result was that Satan became the ruler of this world in his place.

So literally we have” “For a brief time you made him [the first Adam] inferior to angels]; you have crowned him with glory and honour [which belongs to you].” Adam lost the sovereignty of the world to Satan, but Jesus Christ, the last Adam, will regain it again. There will only be in all of history two men who ruled the world, the first Adam during the period of innocence and then the last Adam at the second advent.

“thou” refers to God the Father under operation grace; “hast put in subjection” — the aorist active indicative of hupotassô (ὑποτάσσω) [pronounced hoop-ot-AS-so] which means to subordinate; “all things” — accusative plural of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs], but pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] is in the emphatic position here in this sentence, therefore it should be translated “[emphatically] all things you have subordinated.” The word “under” which is usually hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] is not found here. Instead we have a compound adverb used as a preposition — hupokatô (ὑποκάτω) [pronounced hoop-ok-AHT-oh]. hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] means under; kato/katôterô (κάτω/κατωτέρω) [pronounced KAT-oh,kat-oh-TER-oh] means down — down under, and translated “underneath.” “Emphatically all things you have subordinated underneath his feet.”

Millennial application comes first; then Church Age application.

“For in that” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] to gar. gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] is the illitive particle. The illitive particle is used with a preposition, en (ἐν) [pronounced en] in the locative here, to be translated “For in.” With this phrase you must have an infinitive. We call this an articular infinitive, and we actually have the aorist active articular infinitive of hupotassô (ὑποτάσσω) [pronounced hoop-ot-AS-so]. And hupotassô (ὑποτάσσω) [pronounced hoop-ot-AS-so] must now be translated like a preposition. Instead of “in that” it is translated “For in subjecting” or “For in subordinating.” Now “all things” come up, but this time with the definite article. Ta panta is the accusative plural plus the definite article pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] — “the all things.” So literally, “For in subordinating the all things to him [Jesus Christ].”

“he left nothing” — aorist active indicative of a)fiemi, which means “he omitted,” plus o)udiej which means “not one thing.” And then we have “not put under” which is not a good translation — a)nupotaktoj, which should be translated insubordinate — “he [the Father] omitted not one thing insubordinate to him.”

Hebrews 2:7 “For a brief time you made him [the first Adam] inferior to angels]; you have crowned him with glory and honour [which belongs to you].Emphatically all things you have subordinated underneath His feet.“For in subordinating the all things to Him [Jesus Christ]. He [the Father] omitted not one thing insubordinate to Him.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 2:8 putting everything in subjection under his feet." Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. (ESV)

Hebrews 2:8 “All things you have subordinated underneath his feet. For insubordinating the all things to him [Christ] he [God the Father] omitted not one thing insubordinate to him.”

This is the Millennial application. In the Millennium everything is going to be perfect, there will be no revolutions of any kind — until the very end when Satan is loosened, and then there will be a revolution because Satan is the author of religion and he is the author of revolution.

Now we get to Church application. “But now” — Nun de. This is the Church Age, in contrast to the Millennium; “we see” — horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh], present active indicative. This generally means a panoramic view or perception.

“not yet” — this is not a negative, it is a negative adverb oupô (οὔπω) [pronounced OW-poe] — “the all things,” and then we have hupotassô (ὑποτάσσω) [pronounced hoop-ot-AS-so] in the perfect passive participle. “But now we see not yet the all things having been subordinated to him.”

This Means Three Things:

1) During the Church Age the angelic conflict continues and reaches its intensified stage.

2) During the Church Age and the Tribulation there will be war both in the angelic and human realms.

3) Peace will not occur in either realm until the second advent of Christ and His Millennial reign.

Hebrews 2:8 “All things you [the Father] have subordinated underneath His feet. For in subordinating the all things to Christ He [the Father] omitted not one thing insubordinate to Him. But now [Church Age] we see not yet the all things having been subordinated to Him.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

There will be no insubordination in the Millennium. That is why you have perfect freedom and perfect environment, because authority is recognized and capacity for life is at a maximum. But now in the Church Age things are different. Now we have rebellion, now we have insubordination.

Hippies today have no idea what freedom is all about. Ever male with long Hair is an insult to our military and our land.

Perfect freedom in the Millennium, because there is perfect authority there.

Hebrews 2:9 But we see Him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. (ESV)

Verse 9 — what do we do in this terrible age in which the devil rules? Answer: “But” — here is a particle used as an explanatory conjunction. The particle is de. “But we see” — but it is a different word, we don’t have horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] this time. This time we have blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh], present active indicative. Blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh] emphasizes the glance of the eye, causing someone to see something of importance. It doesn’t mean just to glance, it means to see something of importance in the glance. The verb we have just used in the previous sentence, horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh], means to have perception as a result of seeing. You see something, you analyze it, you understand it. In the previous verse you see the difference between Christ ruling in the Millennium and the devil ruling in the Church Age. Blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh] is used in verse 9 because something important is Jesus Christ. He is the only celebrity for the believer. He is not only the only celebrity in the Church Age but for the believer he is the high priest. We are a kingdom of priests. Horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] was used in the previous verse for “not yet all things having been subordinated to him.” We understand the system. We perceive through GAP that all things are not subordinated to Jesus Christ at the present time. However, even though we live in the time of rebellion, the time of kósmos (κόσμος) [pronounced KOSS-moss] diabolikuj, we do see Jesus — “Jesus” is in the emphatic position: Jesus and Jesus only. There is only one problem with this verb blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh], it is out of place in the English word order. It doesn’t come up just yet. We see Jesus, and only Jesus, is the concept but it doesn’t really come up at this stage.

“Jesus” is used for the humanity of Christ. It is the Hellenised form of the word “Joshua” which means Savior. Why? because “neither is their salvation in any other, there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.”

“having been made inferior to angels” — “who was made” is the perfect passive participle of e)lattow which means to be made inferior. “Having been made inferior” would be the perfect passive participle. Then we have that idiom again, para with its object of the verb, and when you put it altogether it means “having been made inferior to angels for a brief time [the period of the incarnation].” And again, brachus (βραΧὺς) [pronounced brahk-OOÇ] is nor even brought into the translation. Actually, in the Greek word order we do not have as yet, “we see Jesus.” It starts out, “But having been made inferior to angels for a brief time.” It is referring to the virgin birth and all of the way to the resurrection. That is brachus (βραΧὺς) [pronounced brahk-OOÇ], a brief period of time in which Jesus Christ in His human body is inferior to angels. Once in His resurrection body, of course, He is superior.

Next we have “for the suffering of death” mistranslated in the King James version — dia plus the accusative of pathêma (πάθημα) [pronounced PATH-ay-mah] should be translated “because of” the suffering of death. Thanatos (θάνατος) [pronounced THAH-nah-toss] here is referring to the spiritual death of Christ on the cross. It has a definite article — “because of the suffering of the death.” Here is where we get the phrase “we see Jesus.” “Because of the suffering of the death, we see Jesus crowned.” He isn’t crowned yet, but we see Him crowned. We see it coming. We know enough doctrine to know it is coming. So “we see,” blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh], goes after “death” and before “crowned.” “We see Jesus crowned,” perfect passive participle again of stefanow which means “having been crowned.”

We glace and see Jesus having been crowned (seeing this now, looking forward to the future)

Jesus is crowned as a man; as God He has always been sovereign. We have the dative of possession of doxa (δόξα) [pronounced DOHX-ah], the dative of possession of timê (τιμή, ς, ἡ) [pronounced tih-MAY or tee-MAY], and you put the two together, God the Father gives His glory and His honour to one person in the future, Jesus Christ when He is crowned. He is our celebrity now, He is the world’s celebrity in the future.

Hebrews 2:9 “But having become inferior to angels for a brief period of time because of the suffering of the death, we see Jesus having been crowned with glory and honour.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Principle: The cross must come before the crown. The high priesthood of Christ began at the cross. There would be no high priesthood of Christ if He had taken the crown first — as well as no salvation, of course. So the metamorphosis of the humanity of Christ describes the whole victory of the angelic conflict and our ultimate triumph in union with Christ. We have the virgin birth, we have the impeccability of the humanity of Christ, we have His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and session. And in this panorama we find Jesus Christ going from lower than angels to higher than angels. When the humanity of Christ in resurrection body was seated at the right hand of the Father He was higher than angels.

That brings us to an adverb used to introduce a purpose clause, therefore this purpose clause gets fantastic emphasis. Ordinarily you have hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] plus the subjunctive for a purpose clause. Here we have o(pwj plus the subjunctive mood. Why? because this is a most emphatic and most unusual. This we see as very special emphasis — “that,” and then we have “by the grace of God” — the instrumental singular of charis (χάρις) [pronounced KHAHR-iç], “grace,” but we have with it theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] [God] in the ablative of source — “by means of the grace from God.” This is what we emphasize here as we get ready to anticipate our priesthood in the angelic conflict. There is no definite article in front of “grace”; there is no definite article in front of God. Why? The absence of the definite article in the Greek is the opposite of the definite in English, it calls attention to the noun involved and gives it great emphasis.

“he should taste” — aorist active subjunctive of geuomai (γεύομαι) [pronounced GHYOO-ohm-ahee]. Aorist tense: the point of the cross; the active voice: He did it; subjunctive mood: purpose clause. God’s purpose in sending Jesus Christ is directly related to our happiness and blessing in time and in eternity.

Then we have an objective genitive. Instead of putting this in the accusative thanatos (θάνατος) [pronounced THAH-nah-toss] is put in the objective genitive. Why? To emphasize the importance of the cross in breaking the back of Satan so that a coup de tat will occur in the future and Satan will be superseded, and at the same time blessing you right now in the devil’s world. The cross not only breaks the back of Satan in the future but the cross is the basis for entering into the plan of God and living in the devil’s world and living in great blessing from God.

“for every man” — or literally, “on behalf of all,” hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus the genitive of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs]. hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] is a preposition of substitution with the genitive of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs], and it should be translated “on behalf of all” — unlimited atonement.

Hebrews 2:9 “But having been made inferior to angels for a brief time because of the suffering of death, we see Jesus having been crowned with glory and honour, that by means of grace from God he should taste death on behalf of all.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This is what we have now. This is the application in the Church Age. We are not going to have world peace in the Church Age. The only way to have any peace at all is to have a strong military and, when necessary, to clobber the enemy. “Brotherhood of man” is the fallacy of Satan. Noting to do with the Word of God.

Tomorrow night will be the conf with the supergrace life.

1972 Hebrews 2:9-10 Lesson #10

07/07/1972 Satan's kingdom, beginning to end; God's plan unstoppable; Jesus Christ, Prince-Leader

Review of v. 9:

Both verses poorly rendered in the KJV. Many technical words in Hebrews; and some words have changed their meaning. V. 9 is explained once again. Blepô is a glance of the eye that picks up something that is very important. Present active indicative so we keep on seeing this. This verse puts us right on the edge of the supergrace life. We are taken up to that edge, but it backs off in order to provide some more information.

Horao used in the previous verse; blepo in this verse. Horao is picking up a panorama view, taking in a lot. Horao is the believer who has erect the edification complex of the soul; or he is very close to that. He has picked up enough doctrine through gapping it.

To pick up something of value, you go to blepo. V. 9 puts us on the edge of supergrace. The principle of occupation with Christ comes into focus.

So many idiots running around, like Jesus freaks, who should not have any mention of Jesus.

We have Jesus here alone, and this emphasizes the humanity of Jesus Christ. When we come to the edge of the supergrace life....growing in grace takes up to the edification complex. Those who do not continue to gap it do not see this.

The priesthood is going to be found in v. 5, and then 7 through 9. We will be able to define maturity with greater accuracy. If the first Adam does not resolve the Angelic Conflict, then the last Adam will. He will pick up the ball which was fumbled by the first Adam. Man will resolve the Angelic Conflict. For that reason, Jesus Christ could not become an angel. He had to become a man. A creature inferior to angels will resolve the Angelic Conflict.

God created something low and slow, and that is man. That is why we have this phrase; Jesus Christ as God is inferior to no one.

When God gave the world to the first Adam to rule, Adam blew it; and Satan took over the world. An angel rules over the world today. A man will rule over the world forever.

Jesus Christ went up through the 2^nd heaven and through all of the angels and all of the demons; and no one was able to stop Him. He arrived at the 3^rd heaven, and God said, “Sit down at My right hand.” Jesus Christ, in His resurrection body, is infinitely superior to all angels. He was inferior to angels for only a short time, when He was on earth, prior to His resurrection body.

Thanatos (θάνατος) [pronounced THAH-nah-toss] is used for the spiritual death of the Lord on the cross, paying for our sins.

Perfect passive participle translated crown, but that is incorrect. This can mean to crown someone victor in one of the games. Jesus Christ is in super glory which opens up the avenues of the supergrace life.

Glory and honor both belong to God. They are conferred upon Jesus Christ, when He is seated on the right hand of God. Because Jesus as a man ascended up to the 3^rd heaven, glory and honor are bestowed upon Him.

Adam was a sucker for choosing the woman outside of the garden rather than Jesus Christ in the garden.

Bob saw things on the news that made him blow up.

Adam could have waited on Jesus to provide for him another woman; but he did not. Operation fig leaf; Adam was a sucker. The devil had a great laugh over this.

Adam sinned and he experienced spiritual death. He did not suffer physical death. The wages of sin is not physical death, or they would have both died right then and there.

The devil’s kingdom is made up of people who are spiritually dead. Jesus has to have a kingdom of regenerate people. The Millennium begins with spiritually alive people. Jesus Christ is not going to rule over a bunch of zombies. He will rule over those who are born again. Some in resurrection bodies and some will be in their physical bodies. All unbelievers removed from the earth. Good fish and the bad fish; the wheat and the tares. Every doctrine in the Word of God dovetails with another. You cannot understand Jesus as the only celebrity until you realize that the first Adam blew it. When Adam and the woman were spiritually dead, Satan took over rulership of the earth.

The cross must come before the crown. This is the panorama of going from lower to higher.

Still reviewing v. 9... At the fall, Adam and the woman died spiritually immediately.

Hebrews 2:9 “But having been made inferior to angels for a brief time because of the suffering of death, we see Jesus having been crowned with glory and honour, that by means of the grace from God He should taste death on behalf [or, as a substitute for] of all.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Verses 10–13 is a new paragraph: the bride and the angelic conflict. Here is the completion of the last Adam.

Hebrews 2:10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. (ESV)

Verse 10 — “For” is the illitive use of gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] to express a ground or a reason for something. Here God assigns a reason for the previous verse. We see Jesus crowned because He is the groom; we are the bride — Church Age believers. He is the high priest; we are a kingdom of priests. He is the crown prince waiting to become the King at the right hand of the Father; we are His ambassadors on the earth.

There is a girl fiddling with her pencil. This is not place for dreaming. What at time to hit an impersonal verb.

“For it became” — it is very difficult to communicate the idiom of an impersonal verb. This is the imperfect active indicative of an impersonal verb prepei. Prepei connotes fitness. The essence of God qualifies Him to do this. The imperfect tense means there never was a time when it wasn’t — when God wasn’t qualified to handle His plan. The plan of God is always complicated to us but it is simple to Him. So in order to bring this out there is no Greek verb that will do it, you have to go to an idiom. When you go to an idiom you have to go to an impersonal verb, and impersonal verbs are designed to establish qualifications of the one who is acting in the verb. The one who is acting in the verb is God the Father. God the Father knows how His plan is operating at all times, he never loses track of it, and it is all going to come out fine. So therefore, probably the best translation with this illitive gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] — “For it was fitting for him” .

“him” is the instrumental of cause, a very unusual use of the instrumental case — autos, a reflexive pronoun. This use of the instrumental rejects the intermediary means by which a result is produced and goes to the original factor producing it. In other words, “him” follows an impersonal pronoun which indicates the fitness of God to handle His plan. God is capable and qualified for handling His plan. This verb is followed by an instrumental of cause. When you get an instrumental of cause it is saying in effect that we just skip all the intermediaries and we go right back to the source of everything. God the Father is the source of everything and He has it well under control. So this is a reference to God the Father as the author of the divine plan, rather than Jesus Christ who is the means of executing phase one of the plan. “Him” refers to God the Father. Translation so far: “For it was fitting for him.”

“for whom” — the preposition dia plus the accusative of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç], and dia plus the accusative means “because of whom.” Then we have ta panta — “the all things.” God the Father who is holding this plan together right now also started it. God the Father is the author of the divine plan and therefore is the original cause of everything.

God is in control of His plan, so that the negative volition of man and the negative volition of angels cannot mess it up.

“and by whom” — now we have dia plus the genitive of hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] — “to whom”, and then the accusative plural of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] again — “the all things.” The Father is both the cause and the agent by whom the universe came into existence. The Father is the originator of all things. He used the Son as the means of creation — Colossians 1:16; and as the means of salvation — Acts 4:12. But the Father in the plan is the originating source. As such God the Father keeps control by never becoming incarnate. God the Father never appeared in the Old Testament as the angel of Jehovah; He did not take upon Himself true humanity. God the Father keeps control of the whole situation at all times, he does not have any humanity or any angelic relationship. These two prepositional phrases indicate that He never loses control. He is separate from angels and from man. God never loses His cool; He never loses track of anything.

“in bringing many sons.” “In bringing” is an aorist active participle from a)gw which means to lead. God the Father has control of things, He is still the leader. It should be translated “having led” .Then we have pollouj u(iouj — masculine accusative plural referring to believers in the Church Age only — “having led many sons”, referring to the bride only, members of the body of Christ, members of the priesthood, and after the resurrection, the bride of Christ.

At this point there are three analogies to the Church to complete the doctrinal picture here.

The 3 Analogies to the Church

1. First, Christ is the head, believers are members of the body — Ephesians 1:22,23; 2:16; 4:4,5; 5:23; Colossians 1:18, 24.

2. Secondly, Christ is the high priest and we are a kingdom of priests — Hebrews 7:25; 10:10–14; 1Peter 2:5,9; Revelation 1:6.

3. Thirdly, Christ is the groom and we are the bride under the analogy of right man/ right woman — 2Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25–32; Revelation 19:6–8

“unto glory” — prepositional phrase, eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of doxa (δόξα) [pronounced DOHX-ah]. This brings us to the principle of glory — “many sons to glory.”

This sentence is so long that it gets a little involved at this point. But in the Greek it is very simple because to make sure that you keep track of the thought we go from this point into an aorist active infinitive of teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh] — “to make perfect” is a bad translation. Teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh] means to accomplish an objective, to cross a goal line. It doesn’t mean you are perfect when you cross the goal line either. The goal is operation footstool whereby the last Adam, Jesus Christ, overthrows Satan and supersedes him as the ruler of this world. The aorist tense here is a culminative, it emphasizes operation footstool. Christ is already wearing the crown but He wont have the kingdom until all the citizens are lined up. The active voice: the Father produces the action as a part of His perfect plan. The infinitive expresses the Father’s purpose and plan — “to bring to the objective” is the best translation. Here is the Father bringing to the objective. You can’t get the cart before the horse. You have to bring the crown prince to the objective first, and the objective of the crown prince is to go to the cross so He will have a kingdom.

So we have next the word “captain” which can be used in many ways. It is used for a company commander in an infantry battalion, for any naval officer who commands a vessel. But this word is an archêgos (ἀρχηγόός) [pronounced ar-khay-GOSS], a high, high ranking person, the highest next to the king. It means here the one who is going to be the King. A)rkhgoj is made up of archê (ἀρχή) [pronounced ar-KHAY] and a)gw and it means “prince-leader.” Archê (ἀρχή) [pronounced ar-KHAY] means “prince”; a)gw means to lead — “to bring to the objective the prince leader of their salvation.”

“of their salvation” — thj sôtêria (σωτηρία) [pronounced soh-tay-REE-ah] a)utwn. This includes the genitive singular of sôtêria (σωτηρία) [pronounced soh-tay-REE-ah], an objective genitive, which means “salvation” .It is followed by a possessive genitive, autos. Jesus Christ is the crown prince. He is a man; as a man He is the crown prince. The crown prince means that He is going to rule. He is going to rule as a man; He is going to supersede an angel.

God provides freedom for man in the devil’s world by the laws of divine establishment. There will be wars and rumors of war because of Satan. So God deals with this with the military. Stack up the corpses around you; that is peace.

There needs to be law; internal peace; law and order. The laws of divine establishment counteract all the evil the Satan does.

“through sufferings” — dia plus the genitive of pathêma (πάθημα) [pronounced PATH-ay-mah] which refers to all the pressures and sufferings of Christ getting to the cross. This is in contrast to the previous suffering on the cross bearing our sins.

Hebrews 2:10 “For it was proper for him [God the Father], because of whom the all things, and through whom the all things, having led to glory many sons, to bring to the objective through sufferings the prince leader of their salvation.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Notice some contrasting structures. We have a contrast of prepositional phrases. “To glory” (ours) through sufferings (Christ’s).” That is grace. We receive glory through the sufferings of Christ. Two contrasting prepositional phrases. We go to glory (ours) through sufferings (Christ’s). That’s grace. Notice the contrasting verbs. That aorist active participle of a)gw — “having led”; the aorist active infinitive, “to bring to the objective.” We are led to the objective. That’s grace. Notice also the contrast in the persons who are the object of the verb. “Many sons” are the believers of the Church Age. Object of the believer: “prince leader of their salvation” who makes it possible. So we have in this verse the most beautiful set of contrasting structures you almost have to have every other word in emphasis. So you have an emphasis within an emphasis, you have a series of emphases, you have a series of contrasting structures in verbs, in prepositions, in objects of verbs, and you actually have one of the most phenomenal phrases in all of the Word of God.

Hebrews 2:9–10 “But having been made inferior to angels for a brief time because of the suffering of death, we see Jesus having been crowned with glory and honour, that by means of the grace from God He should taste death on behalf [or, as a substitute for] of all. For it was proper for him [God the Father], because of whom the all things, and through whom the all things, having led to glory many sons, to bring to the objective through sufferings the prince leader of their salvation.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This puts the whole package together. This introduces our High Priest; Who now functions on our behalf before the Father.

1972 Hebrews 2:11–13 Lesson #11

07/14/1972 By grace God is not ashamed of any believer; Bride for Christ; doctrine of ascension & session; doctrine of glory

Hebrews 2:11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers,...

Heb 2:12 saying, "I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise."

Heb 2:13 And again, "I will put my trust in him." And again, "Behold, I and the children God has given me." (ESV)

Verse 11 — we have gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] used as an explanatory particle. It indicates the reason why the prince leader, Jesus Christ, was brought to the objective through sufferings. The prince leader, Jesus Christ, in His accomplishing of salvation was alone on the cross as the last Adam. It was Jesus Christ Himself who said of the first Adam in Genesis 2:18, “Not good the man to be alone.” Having said that, He said “I will manufacture for him a help responding to him.” God the Father must have said something similar when the last Adam was alone on the cross bearing our sins and taking our place — “Not good that the last Adam should be alone.” So the Father, while judging Jesus Christ for our sins, was also planning for Him a bride, a right woman, which he would manufacture over the entire period of the Church Age. In this verse the body and the bride of Christ is mentioned as being sanctified.

“he that sanctifieth” is a present active participle of hagiazô (ἁγιάζω) [pronounced hawg-ee-AD-zoh]. It refers to Jesus Christ, He is the sanctifier. The Holy Spirit is the agent of sanctification through the baptism of the Spirit — that is mechanics — but the sanctifier is the person into whom every believer is placed at the point of salvation. We enter into union with Jesus Christ, so he is the sanctifier. In other words, He is the right man, He is the groom, as well as being the head of the Church. Hagiazô (ἁγιάζω) [pronounced hawg-ee-AD-zoh] really means to set apart, and in this case we are set apart unto God by union with Christ. Positional truth is the means of providing a bride for the last Adam. When Jesus Christ was on the cross he said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He was forsaken because He was paying the penalty of sin. The penalty of sin is spiritual death. He was paying in full. Therefore He was made sin for us, therefore He was also separated from God even as the first Adam was at the point of his sin. So the one doing the sanctifying is the last Adam who is the one presented in the previous verse as the prince leader. Jesus Christ is the one who solved the problem that man created by his sin.

When man, the first Adam, went negative and the fall occurred man entered into spiritual death — the penalty of sin. When he sent into spiritual death he created a kingdom for Satan and at this point Satan began to rule the world. This continued until Jesus Christ broke the back of Satan on the cross. By paying spiritual death, the penalty, for all members of the human race by bearing our sins. In this way Jesus Christ purchased a kingdom for Himself. First we have the cross and then we have the crown. In the first advent Jesus Christ provided a kingdom of regenerate people. He was also alone on the cross. God the Father couldn’t have anything to do with Him because He was judging Him; God the Holy Spirit could have nothing to do with Him because He was bearing our sins. Jesus Christ was all alone hanging on this cross. He was bearing our sins and taking our place. He was also forsaken by man, was totally and completely alone, and at some time the Father said, “Not could that the Son should be alone.”

When Jesus Christ was resurrected and ascended He was the only member of the human race to have a resurrection body, so He, as it were, ascended alone. There is only one member of the human race right now who has a resurrection body, so He is still alone. The next group to get a resurrection body will be His bride, but the bride is not a bride until the resurrection occurs at the Rapture. In the meantime the bride is a body.

Whenever a man is going to marry a woman he is marrying not only a soul but a body. She is a body when he meets her. But eventually she becomes his body, therefore bride. That is the whole concept of using body as a designation for the Church during the Church Age, but when the Church Age is over the body is going to do exactly what Christ did — resurrection and, as it were, ascension — going into heaven. Then, Christ as the last Adam will no longer be alone, He will now have His bride. Then He comes back with His bride to the earth to take the kingdom of this world away from Satan.

So the one sanctifying is Jesus Christ, the one who makes it possible for members of the human race to be set apart. We are in union with Him and in the future we will have a resurrection body exactly like His. But being in union with Him makes us victorious right now in the angelic conflict. The one being sanctified, then, is the bride which is now the body, the Church Age believer. The only difference in hagiazô (ἁγιάζω) [pronounced hawg-ee-AD-zoh] this time is that the first time we have the present active participle of hagiazô (ἁγιάζω) [pronounced hawg-ee-AD-zoh] and then we have present passive participle of hagiazô (ἁγιάζω) [pronounced hawg-ee-AD-zoh]. The active participle: Jesus Christ, right man, is the initiator; passive voice: believers are the responders. So the one sanctified is Jesus Christ; the ones being sanctified are Church Age believers only. This does not apply to Old Testament saints.

Next we have “all of one” — ec enos pantes (πάντες) [pronounced PAHN-tehç]. Ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk] means “out from”, but with pantes (πάντες) [pronounced PAHN-tehç] it means “all from.” Pantes (πάντες) [pronounced PAHN-tehç] is the nominative masculine plural of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs]. Ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk] is the preposition with the ablative of heís,mia,hen (εἵς,μία,ἕν) [pronounced hice,Mee-ah,ehn], which means “one.” So: “all from one” .Since it is ablative case: “all from the source of one.” The “one” is God the Father, the author of the plan. Ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk] plus the ablative singular, plus the nominative masculine plural of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] refers to believers of the Church Age only. God the Father is the author of the plan, the source of operation grace, the source of the bride or the right woman for Jesus Christ.

The principle is that in His humiliation of bearing our sins Jesus Christ was definitely said to be alone — prophetically, Psalm 22:1; historically, Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34. But His glorification demands that He has someone to share His glory. The first man had a glory, he was the ruler of this world. So as the ruler of this world it was not good for him to be alone, and he wasn’t .God the Son provided for the first Adam a bride. The last Adam is also going to rule, therefore God the Father provides for Jesus Christ what Jesus Christ provided for the first Adam — a bride. The bride in the first case was a woman, the bride in the second case is all believers of the Church Age.

“for which cause” — preposition dia plus the accusative feminine singular of hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] — “because of which.” The idiom is usually translated “for this reason” .

“he is not ashamed” — present passive indicative of a compound verb, e)paisxunomai. epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] means upon or toward; epaischunomai (ἐπαισχύνομαι) [pronounced ehp-ahee-SKHOO-nom-ahee] means to be ashamed, it is an intensified form of the verb to be ashamed. The subject is Jesus Christ. The passive voice means He does not blush, He is not ashamed of His bride. This is referring to ultimate sanctification. When the bride comes back with Jesus Christ he will not be ashamed. Why? Because the bride was formed as a body and at the Rapture we have a resurrection. Now the believer has a resurrection body exactly like that of Christ. Then over the period of the Tribulation, while the body is turned into a bride, all human good is removed and burned. Therefore, when the bride returns with Christ at the second advent He will not be ashamed of believers who comes with Him, and that will include every believer. The worst believer you can think of, and Jesus will not be ashamed of that believer. “He is not ashamed” — present tense, linear aktionsart, it goes all the way into eternity. The passive voice: we receive this from Him — grace. The indicative mood: the reality of the fact that grace found a way not to be ashamed of any believer.

If Bob had a son with long hair, he would not introduce him as his son, but as his daughter.

Bob went with this blonde and they went to a very snooty affair. There is a smooth way to sit down with tails, and still smile. She bragged about Bob going. Bob put on a ragged pair of jeans and patches. When Bob picked her up and she was ashamed of him. He was eventually ejected with some of his football friends. He went down to the beach and went skinny dipping. Bob’s mother was ashamed of him for a week (his father was not).

God is ashamed of us anytime we sin; and even worse when we are in reversionism. But God has found a way to be able to present the very worst believer as his bride, and without being ashamed.

There are a lot of screwballs, some who are the worst weirdos that Bob has seen anywhere and they tell people that they are from Berachah. They can spell it and everything. Bob is ashamed of them.

How can God, Who is perfect, find a way not to be ashamed of all of us? We are sinners and some of us do all kinds of acts of human good. All of that is pitiful. God hates that human good just as much as sin. But the sins are forgiven and erased and the human good is burned up.

“How many of you are going to be embarrassed when you are asked how many you witness to and you say, zero, zero, a big fat zero.” When the rapture occurs, you go. Even if you have one foot in the grave as a reversionist believer during the sin unto death.

You are giving the young people a license to sin. Don’t have to. We’ve got a parking lot. 800 or 900 young people there tonite, and Bob is not afraid of grace or of anyone who is critical of him. Bob’s best friends will tell us that he is not a holy Joe. It is just grace.

God will not be ashamed of Bob. I knew that would be a revelation to some of you.

Bob knows a lot of believers that he is ashamed of; but God will not be.

“to call” — kaleô (καλέω) [pronounced kal-EH-oh], present active infinitive, also means to introduce or present. In other words, to call out a name in presentation. He won’t be ashamed to introduce any of us. Kaleô (καλέω) [pronounced kal-EH-oh] means He is not ashamed to introduce them “as brethren” — members of the family of God.

There are people who hang out at the pastor’s conferences. Bob is ashamed of them; and they were real dingalings. He wanted to lock them up during the conference. No common sense, no manners, no sense of responsibility. God will not be ashamed of the dingalings. It starts with positional sanctification and ends with ultimate sanctification.

Hebrews 2:11 “For the one sanctifying [Jesus Christ] and the ones being sanctified [believers of the Church Age] all from the source of one [God the Father, author of the plan]: for this reason he is not ashamed to introduce them as members of the family.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation 38:00

Hebrews 2:12 saying, "I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise." (Psalm 22:22) (ESV)

Verse 12 — “Saying” — present active participle of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] to introduce a quotation from Psalm 22:22. This is the same psalm in which we have prophetically, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” The quotation, Psalm 22:1 is followed by all of these verses, bringing us the Psalm 22:22 which is quoted here. The quotation anticipates the session of the Lord Jesus Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father, at which point God the Father provides a bride for the last Adam. He provides a bride first, then operation footstool. In Psalm 22:21a we have the death of Christ, in Psalm 22:1b we have the resurrection. In Psalm 22:22 we have the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. The bride comes before the crown; we will be present as the bride. Again, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me” that opens up Psalm 22 is prophetical of the cross which anticipates the resurrection, ascension and session of Jesus Christ.

The Resurrection, Ascension and Session of Jesus Christ

1. After the ascension Christ is promised a bride and future rulership of the world.

2. At the Rapture Christ receives His bride; at the second advent Christ receives His kingdom.

3. The cross comes before the crown, the bride comes before the coronation.

4. The Father is perfect; His order is perfect.

5. In the Church Age a bride is being prepared for the last Adam.

6. In the Tribulation historical events are being prepared for the advent of the King.

7. The second advent of Christ will remove the angelic usurper, Satan, and place the rightful heir on the throne, the last Adam, the son of David. He is called in the previous verses the prince leader of salvation, He is called the groom of the Church, He is called the King of kings, the Lord of lords. Jesus Christ is therefore the only celebrity in the Church Age. The bride has one celebrity, the groom.

Bob would not kiss the bride that belonged to some other guy for all the money in the world. What’s wrong with this custom. If the bride has a lick of sense, her lips are for her rm. A bride should have one celebrity in her life, the groom. If Bob was the groom and he saw his bride kissing around, he’s end things right there, and dramatically so.

This chapter will celebrate the Lord Jesus Christ as the True High Priest.

“I will declare” — aorist active indicative of apaggellô (ἀπαγγέλλω) [pronounced ap-ang-EL-loh] which means to proclaim. Apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] is the preposition of ultimate source; angeleô (ἀγγελέω) [pronounced ang-ehl-EH-oh] means to announce. It means to announce from ultimate source — “I will proclaim” .This is Jesus Christ, as it were, seated at the right hand of the Father. David wrote the Psalm. The subject is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, as it were, proclaims this in heaven. He must leave behind on the earth in the devil’s kingdom a message in permanent form for His right woman. The message is the content of Bible doctrine written in a permanent form — 1Corinthians 2:16.

“your name” — the Father’s name — onoma (ὄνομα,ατος,τό) [pronounced OHN-oh-ma] means the personality, the character. “I will proclaim your personality, your character, your plan.” God the Father is the author of operation grace. The Father’s plan is clearly proclaimed in the Word of God, it is reduced to writing, it is in permanent form. The content of scripture is the fulfilment of this verb.

“unto thy brethren” — the members of the family, dative of advantage. The believer has a response to this when he takes in doctrine, so we have the believer’s response:

“in the midst of the church” — when this was originally written in Psalm 22 it meant “in the midst of the assembly.” Ekklêsía (ἐκκλησὶα) [pronounced ek-klay-SEE-ah] means “church” today; it meant the assembly of Israel when David wrote it. When they were together David praised the Lord. So this was the original response of David as the writer of Psalm 22, in the middle of the congregation of Israel. But here, now that it has its prophetical significance fulfilled, and in the Church Age, we translate it “in the middle of the church.”

“I will sing praise” — future active indicative — “unto thee.” And that future tense means after the body becomes a bride. So this is the response when the bride identifies Christ, when the bride is in resurrection body.

Hebrews 2:12 ...saying, I will proclaim Your name to My family for their advantage in the midst of the assembly (of Israel) I will bring praise to You. (Psalm 22:22) R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 2:13 And again, "I will put my trust in him." And again, "Behold, I and the children God has given me." (ESV)

Verse 13 — the documentation continues. We have a quotation from Isaiah 8:17,18. The second and third documentations are from the Old Testament presenting two sides of the angelic conflict and relating them. The quotation from Isaiah 8:17, which comes first, presents the human side. Isaiah 8:18 is the divine side of the same picture. When you have in this verse “And again,” this is a special way of introducing a quotation from the Old Testament — Kai palin, which occurs twice. It is correctly translated “And again.” It means “citation.” The first “and again” — Isaiah 8:17, we have a very rare periphrastic, a future perfect periphrastic. In other words, we have a future active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. The periphrastic is made up of a verb followed by a participle. Then we have the perfect active participle of peithô (πείθω) [pronounced PIE-thoh]. The future perfect periphrastic indicates a permanent result in the Church Age of every believer being the bride. How do you become a bride? By believing in Jesus Christ. Isaiah 8:17 is quoted to indicate the permanence of the relationship. You are a part of the bride of Christ forever as of the moment you believed in Him.

“in him” is a prepositional phrase, epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the dative. The object of faith is Jesus Christ. You identify Him as the Savior. In so doing you are not aware of the fact. It is like a young lady meeting a young man, not aware of the fact that he is her right man. First of all she becomes acquainted with him; the realization of this may come later. You don’t start out by saying Jesus Christ is my right man, you start out by believing in Him as Savior. Then as you learn doctrine you become aware of these things.

The divine side is quoted: Isaiah 8:18 — “And again, Behold.” The imperative of horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] — “see this” ."I” refers to Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father; “and the children” — paidion (παιδίον) [pronounced pahee-DEE-on], a term of endearment for “dear children” .

“whom God has given to me” — the word “God” is literally, “the God” — ho Theos; “has given” — aorist active indicative of didômi (δίδωμι) [pronounced dihd-OH-mee]. The moment you believed in Jesus Christ, that was the moment when God the Father gave you to Jesus Christ as a part of His bride; “me” is a dative singular of possession from the personal pronoun. The dative of possession is personal interest particularized to the point of ownership, and these believers now belong to God but are given to Christ, the last Adam, so that He should not be alone.

Hebrews 2:13 “And again, I will put my trust upon him. And again, Behold I [Jesus Christ] and the dear children [believers of the Church Age] whom the God has given to me [Jesus Christ] for a possession.” (Isa. 8:17, 18) R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

We are getting ready for the doctrine of the Incarnate Christ.

The Doctrine of the Ascension and Session

1. The resurrection body of Jesus Christ was capable of space travel. The humanity of Jesus Christ in a resurrection body traveled through all three heavens, John 20:17, and therefore demonstrated that in His resurrection body the humanity of Christ was greater than all the angelic forces put together.

2. The session of Christ confirms the acceptability of the humanity of Christ in heaven which guarantees the acceptability of the bride in heaven. Jesus Christ is acceptable — Psalm 110:1; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3, 13; 8:1; 10:12; 1Peter 3:22. We are acceptable because Christ is acceptable; we are in union with Christ.

3. The ascension and session of Christ form the basis for victory in the angelic conflict. The fact that Jesus Christ could go through all of the hordes of angels opposed to Him and get into the third heaven indicates that His human resurrection body is greater than all angelic creatures — Hebrews 1:3–13.

4. The ascension and session of Christ began a new sphere of the angelic conflict — Ephesians 1:20–22; 4:7–10 — therefore the believer in the Church Age is involved in the intensification of the angelic conflict.

5. The ascension and session began operation footstool prophesied in Psalm 110:1 and quoted in Luke 20:42,43; Acts 2:33,34; Hebrews 1:13.

6. The second advent of Christ will conclude operation footstool — Daniel 7:13,14; Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15; Revelation 20:1–3.

7. The ascension and session of Christ completes the glorification of Christ in hypostatic union. Christ was in hypostatic union, but up through the cross we have humiliation. There is no glorification until resurrection occurs three days after the cross. Acts 2:33; 5:31; 1Peter 3:22.

8. The ascension and session of Christ explain the uniqueness of the Church Age — John 7:37–39.

9. The ascension and session of Christ is the key to victory in the angelic conflict — Hebrews 1:4.

The Doctrine of Glory

1. Glory is used in the scripture for the essence of God — Romans 3:23; Ephesians 1:17; Deuteronomy 5:24; Psalm 21:5. So glory has the concept of the perfect character of God, everything that God is.

2. Glory is used for the edification complex of the soul of the believer — Ephesians 3:21; Colossians 1:27; 1Peter 1:8; 2Thessalonians 2:14.

3. The right woman is the glory of the right man — 1Corinthians 11:7, 15.

4. The grace of God is described as glory — Ephesians 1:6.

5. The provision of God’s grace is called “the riches of glory” [everything that comes from His perfect character] — Ephesians 3:16; 1:18; Philippians 4:19.

6. Heaven and eternal life are described as glory — 1Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 2:10; 1Peter 5:10; 2Peter 1:3.

7. There are a few passages in the scripture where human glamour is described as glory [should be translated “glamour”] — 1Peter 1:24; Philippians 3:19.

8. Glory is used to describe the wonders of the universe — 1Corinthians 15:40,41.

9. Glory is used to describe the resurrection body of the believer — 1Corinthians 15:43; 2Thessalonians 2:14.

10. Glory is associated with operation footstool in the presentation of the Church as the bride of Christ at the second advent — Hebrews 2:10

1972 Hebrews 2:14 Lesson #12

07/21/1972 Blood in animal, man, Christ; difference between birth into & function of priesthood. Spiritual death, 7 points.

Weeded out of the idiotic teachers; they did volunteer. We seem to have a great teaching corps now. Advantage to have children learn Bible doctrine with their peers. This is a very good extension of the training that they are getting at home. It is good training for boys. They can get into a fight and it’s okay. They cannot punch yet.

I think this is the beginning of prep school. Whatever this punch is, they drink it, but it will ruin leather. Daily Vacation Bible School. The crisis began with the books left in the seats.

Those of you who are necking in the parking lot, or counseling, whatever, the night watchman to send you home.

Apparently a recent move to the Galleria area; and it is mentioned a few times. Don’t leave a Bible behind unless you are going to sit in that seat tomorrow.

Bob says, “Onto better things” just when I am looking down at the DVD of the 3^rd season of Better Things.

Hebrews 2:14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,... (ESV)

The devil does not have the sovereignty or power of physical death, unless God grants him that authority. You must understand this and understand v. 14 to refer to spiritual death.

Verse 14 — “Forasmuch then” is two Greek words, Epeí (ἐπεί) [pronounced ehp-IH] oun. ὀυν is an inferential particle, it demands a conclusion. “Epeí (ἐπεί) [pronounced ehp-IH] means “since.” The word “as” is not found in the original. We really have something that sounds like, “Since therefore.” “Since” is the adverb indicating that we are approaching a very important principle, one that needs great emphasis. The word “then” or literally, “therefore,” is the inferential particle. Generally it does not occur at the beginning of a sentence but somewhere in the sentence to indicate a conclusion is being reached in the process of developing the sentence.

“the children” — ta paidia is quoted from the previous verse. Paidia is the nominative plural of paidion (παιδίον) [pronounced pahee-DEE-on] and refers to believers both here and in the previous verse. The noun is a term of endearment for children and can very easily be translated “dear children.” The Greeks actually used words to distinguish children at their best and children at their worst. So paidion (παιδίον) [pronounced pahee-DEE-on] means children at their best. “Since therefore the children [born again believers].”

“are partakers” — (“Are” is usually used to translate a passive voice. Here is an active voice but the translation is bad) perfect active indicative of koinwnew. In the perfect tense this means to have a permanent partnership. Koinwnew means to share in common with one another. Here it means a permanent type partnership, a permanent sharing. The active voice means that all the “dear children” have this permanent sharing. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that all believers are human. The verb is set up in contrast to one which is used a little later on for Jesus Christ for His humanity. This anticipates a few words: metechô (μετέχω) [pronounced met-EHKH-oh] which also means to share. Metechô (μετέχω) [pronounced met-EHKH-oh] is used for Jesus Christ; koinwnew is used for the rest of the human race. This is because of the impeccability of the humanity of Christ.

“flesh and blood” is incorrect. It is haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah]toj kai sarkoj. Haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah]toj is the genitive singular of haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah], the word for “blood” .It comes first in the text — “blood and flesh” .We have the genitive singular of haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah] and the genitive singular of sarx (σάρξ) [pronounced sarx]. The blood represents the whole principle of the cardiovascular system. We, as members of the human race, are blood and then flesh. The blood is mentioned first because the blood is related to life. In the approach here we have the physiological approach rather than the soulish approach to man. Why don’t we mention the soul here? Because there is a distinction between the human soul of Jesus Christ and the human soul of all members of the human race. All members of the human race have an old sin nature; Jesus Christ is different. So this is brought out by blood and flesh as physiological terms for mankind and koinwnew as over against metechô (μετέχω) [pronounced met-EHKH-oh]. Koinwnew indicates our common physiological function. The statement of this passage in the original language eliminates any form of evolution. There never was a member of the human race from the very beginning that did not have blood and flesh. And no one has ever found a way to turn amoeba into blood. Blood comes before flesh and it is something we all have in common.

Putting out a pamphlet on the Blood of Christ in the near future. The precious blood of Christ is related to the animal blood. Animals die by losing their blood. Every time the heart beats, it sends the blood out of the animal’s carotid.

This came right out of John Walvoord’s theology class; he is going to be surprised to be quoted. Some of you could lose 50 or 60 lbs. and be healthier, but you cannot lose 4 quarts of blood; you’d die. The blood carries oxygen and it does a lot of processing. You can get along without your fat.

One of Bob’s friends who ran off weight and then the Marines took off more weight. The blood is mentioned first because the blood is related to life. We all have this in common. The physiological approach rather than the soulish approach to man.

This goes against evolution. Every member of the human race has blood and flesh from the very beginning. I am calling you stupid if you think that evolution has any part on God’s plan. Some of you have gone through a geology system. Some went through medicine and you got it that way. Some were just trying to get through, and they got it in the science courses. Some are biochemists. Some have had this all of their academic lives.

Science has great imagination. They have put flesh upon a skeletal structure. Bob learned about blue blood and Baron Deruff was living nearby and Bob learned his first anti-communist lessons; he got out of Russia. When he cut his foot on a shell, he bled red and Bob noticed that.

Blood comes before flesh; and this is something that we all have in common. Oun anticipates a conclusion which has not yet come.

“Since therefore the dear children share blood and flesh” — “since” is the conjunctive adverb that indicates we haven’t really got to the point yet. But we will get there. And ὀυν is a secondary inferential particle which tells us the conclusion will come in the next breath. Now we have arrived in a very dramatic way — “He also himself.” Kai autos refers to Jesus Christ. Kai translated “also”; autos is a reflexive pronoun which has great emphasis. It is a reflexive pronoun used as a personal pronoun for great emphasis — “He himself.” And then instead of koinwneo we switch verbs to tell us that we are getting to our conclusion because when you have an adverb used as a conjunction followed by an inferential particle, second class — oun, followed by a verb which sets up something common in the human race, and then you come to something that is a conclusion and is unique but still a part of the human race, then you get kai autos — “he also himself.”

And now we are coming to holy ground because we are coming at this point to meet out high priest who has already been presented as our prince leader. He is the only celebrity in Christianity; He is our one and only celebrity. We start to meet Him first at the cross and then later on in this section, verse 17, as our high priest. Then we will see something He understands about us but we don’t understand about Him in verse 18. So we are moving in the direction of a conclusion and at the same time as we have a conclusion we have information that puts the Lord Jesus Christ in the spotlight and for the first time in our passage a direct reference to the subject of Hebrews: the high priesthood of Jesus Christ and the universal priesthood of the believer. And Jesus Christ the high priest demands our attention, and He demands that we move into the supergrace life. There is only one place for a priest to be and that is in supergrace, the normal function of the priesthood of the believer. In this dispensation, the Church Age, God has ordained as a part of His plan that all born again believers function as priests. So right now in this apostate generation very few are doing so. Every believer is a priest. It is one thing to be a priest, it is something else to function as a priest. Only in the function of the priesthood do we see the human entrance into the angelic conflict on the side of the Lord. The only believers who are on the side of the Lord in the angelic conflict are born again believers who have reached supergrace.

Jesus did not function as a priest until He was an adult. We are born as priests, but we do not function as priests until we reach spiritual adulthood, which is supergrace.

In Hebrews 6, you have a whole bunch of dumbheads who do not understand the priesthood and they have to be pulled out of reversionism before they can function as priests.

We are starting here with the celebrity of Christianity, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the fact that Jesus Christ became a member of the human race. But one thing was missing in, the one thing in his soul that kept Him out of the devil’s kingdom. To show that you have to have koinwnew. This is for members of the human race who are born spiritually dead and born into Satan’s kingdom and there has got to be a difference between koinwnew and what is coming up — metechô (μετέχω) [pronounced met-EHKH-oh]. Metechô (μετέχω) [pronounced met-EHKH-oh] is the humanity of Christ because the humanity of Christ is true but unique; koinwnew is the rest of humanity, we are all the same blood and flesh.

Next we have metechô (μετέχω) [pronounced met-EHKH-oh], aorist active indicative. Meta is the preposition of association; exw means to have and to hold, hence to have an association with, to share in the sense of taking hold, but being unique. This verb is used instead of repeating koinwnew because while Christ shared blood and flesh there was something He did not share. Why won’t koinwnew work?

Two verbs here; one of them cannot be applied to Jesus. Metecho means He has blood and flesh; all of the things of the soul; but He does not have a sin nature. That is the one thing that He does not have in common with the human race. It is impossible for there ever to be equality in birth.

What do we have in common, being born into the human race? We have in common and old sin nature, and that means we are born spiritually dead and it means we are born into the devil’s kingdom. That is why there is a whole chapter before hand on the angelic conflict. Why the angelic conflict here? Because the angelic conflict finds man behind the eight ball from the moment of birth. We are born into the devil’s kingdom. Our citizenship card is spiritual death or the old sin nature. Now here is that marvelous, impeccable, unique person, the prince leader, Jesus Christ. He came into the world virgin born, without a sin nature. Therefore we could not have koinwnew used for Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was not born with an old sin nature. The virgin birth puts Him into metechô (μετέχω) [pronounced met-EHKH-oh] instead of koinwnew. Metechô (μετέχω) [pronounced met-EHKH-oh] means He is blood and flesh, all of the things of the soul, but He doesn’t have a sin nature. So He doesn’t share everything in common with the human race because he doesn’t have a sin nature.

We are born into the kingdom of the devil; our spiritual death is our separation from God, from birth.

That brings up a principle: It is impossible for there ever to be in physical birth equality in birth. In the first place the birth of Jesus Christ is so unique that He is born above us in that he does not have an old sin nature. Koinwnew means to share everything in common, and we do, we all have a sin nature. We were born into the devil’s kingdom, and our high priest did something in three hours that makes it possible for us to get on God’s side as members of the human race. Not only at the cross are we saved and become the beneficiaries of 36 things, including eternal life, but at that moment we enter the angelic conflict on God’s side. We have been delivered from the power of darkness.

We are born again and being born again means we are born into a new kingdom. And that means something of great significance, it means that while we are spiritually immature at the point of being born again we can through the daily intake of Bible doctrine grow up. And since we were born again as priests we can actually function some day under the priesthood we receive at birth. At birth Jesus Christ was born a king but He doesn’t function under it yet. There is a lapse between what we receive by birth and the function of it. We were born again as priests but that doesn’t mean you will ever function as a priest. The function of the priesthood starts at the supergrace life. The basic operation of the priesthood in getting to function as a priest is Bible doctrine taken in every day.

All priests are born as priests, in the Levitical system. But they do not always grow to an age of majority where they begin to function as a priest.

Our old notes on Hebrews and Ephesians are now obsolete. A lot of you have had a rough life for a long time; and some of you may be kicked around pretty hard. But you are alive and God’s objective for your life is spiritual maturity. God brought everyone to Berachah to grow spiritually and to function as a priest.

There is a system and plan by Satan to get us working for him. We may have 1 or 5 or 10 glorious years in supergrace. “Happy am I, oh yes I’m happy,” you can’t even fool a hippie with that one.

Heliograph? Apaches; and the cavalry could not catch up with them. This system made it possible for the Americans to catch up with them.

Herod used the heliograph, but could not find the Lord Jesus Christ.

“he also himself” … metechô (μετέχω) [pronounced met-EHKH-oh]” — aorist tense, the point of His birth; active voice: He was born but He was and is the only member of the human race born outside of the devil’s kingdom. The devil had no hold on Jesus Christ. Metechô (μετέχω) [pronounced met-EHKH-oh] means He shared in a unique manner.

You do not have to have a sin nature in order to be true humanity. Two Adams started out with no sin nature. Both were true humanity.

Then we have the word “likewise” — the adverb paraplhsiwj which means “in the same manner” .In other words, He was just as much true humanity as we are, except He didn’t have a sin nature. Note: You don’t have to have a sin nature to be true humanity. There have been two Adam’s, the first and the last, without one.

Next we have “of the same,” the genitive singular of autos. Because of the virgin birth Christ was born minus the old sin nature and is therefore unique.

Now we get to the purpose. “That” is hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] plus the subjunctive mood. This introduces a purpose clause — “that he death,” the preposition dia plus the genitive of thanatos (θάνατος) [pronounced THAH-nah-toss], literally, “through death.” This is a reference to His spiritual death on the cross. In the physical death of Christ we have a very clear statement in the scripture. In His spiritual death our sins were poured on Him and judged, and spiritual death is associated with the blood, not physical death. The blood of Christ refers to His spiritual death, not His physical death. In His physical death His soul went to paradise and His spirit went to the presence of the Father. But in His spiritual death He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. The blood never refers to the physical death of Christ, that is one reason He died with all of His blood in His body. “That through death” — Christ bearing our sins.

Christ died physically because His work was finished. His dying for our sins was not physical but spiritual.

“might destroy” — aorist active subjunctive of katargeô (καταργέω) [pronounced kaht-ahrg-EH-oh]. Katargeô (καταργέω) [pronounced kaht-ahrg-EH-oh] means to render useless, to render powerless, to abrogate, to cancel, to render null and void, to neutralize. The best translation here is “that he might render powerless.”

“him that had” — present active participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh], “the one having and holding” — “the power” — kratoj means “ruling power” .So we have, “the one having the ruling power of the sovereignty of death.” And again we have thanatos (θάνατος) [pronounced THAH-nah-toss], referring to spiritual death.

Summary

1. Thanatos (θάνατος) [pronounced THAH-nah-toss], which occurs twice, refers to spiritual death, and the second time — the ruling power or the sovereignty of death — it refers to the dominion of those who are spiritually dead.

2. Members of the human race are born physically alive and at the same time spiritually dead.

3. Therefore through birth mankind enters into the kingdom of Satan, a kingdom of spiritual death.

4. Satan has and holds the ruling power of spiritual death. He has had this power from the fall of man and will have it until the second advent of Christ.

5. As part of the second phase of the angelic conflict Satan holds man in his power through spiritual death (from birth) just like jailer holds a prisoner until a true legal release is obtained.

6. Jesus Christ as our high priest provided the true legal release by His work on the cross, bearing our sins, paying the penalty of sin — spiritual death.

7. The death of Christ for our sins propitiates the justice of God the Father and reconciles man to God, taking him out of the kingdom of Satan and putting him into what is called literally from the Greek, the kingdom of the Son of his love.

“that is” — present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], “that keeps on being” — tôn diabolwn, the accusative form — “the devil.” In other words, since the fall of man an angel has been the ruler of this world. An angel replaced man, Adam, as the ruler of the world. Satan will be the ruler of the world until he is replaced by the last Adam at the second advent.

Hebrews 2:14 “Since, therefore, the children share blood and flesh, he also himself in a unique manner and in the same manner took hold of the same [shares the same;] that he through death [spiritual] might render powerless the one having the ruling power of the death, that is, the devil.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

It is spiritual death that brings fear upon man. It is true that many people are afraid to die physically but spiritual death is the kingdom of Satan that brings fear into the hearts of men about every subject.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #13

08/04/1972 2 Cor. 13:5–9 Pastor-teacher's life no issue in GAP; every believer to test own life for reversionism

We are going to be moving into the priesthood of the believer and the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ. We came a priest the day that we accept Jesus Christ as Savior. This appointment does not guarantee our function. We have this by birth, but not by function.

We may think that we should not listen to a pastor-teacher because of his life; but that is not right; no more than Bob decides, “I don’t want to teach these knuckleheads; they just don’t deserve it.” There is one general and 40 privates, not the other way around.

In the army, someone might say, “I am not going to obey my general because he does not live a very good life.” What Bob does before he steps into the pulpit and after, is none of your business? What we do before and after is none of his business. For most of us, this is old hat.

2Cor. 13:5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith [in the doctrine]. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! (ESV)

Every believer must determine for himself his own spiritual state. It is not up to us to determine the spiritual state of anyone else.

Be testing yourselves; and how do you do this without being weird? You just ask yourself, when was the last time I went to Bible class. What excuse have I been using.

En + pistis and the definite article. This is what is believed or Bible doctrine. Is God going to leave to dangling so that you will be subjective? In Bible doctrine and you are progressing; not in Bible doctrine, you are retrogressing.

Dokimazo is testing for approval. Epiginosko which is the verb, which is getting over and above knowledge. To know completely; to know exactly; to perceive categorically. Christ in you is positional truth; Christ with you is the edification complex structure. The supergrace believer having fellowship with Christ. When the believer is in reversionism, Jesus stands outside the door and knocks. You are lukewarm as a believer. Reversionistic. Opposite that is the supergrace believer.

Be testing yourselves if [1^st class condition, from the supposition of reality] you are in the doctrine, for approval, be perceiving yourselves that Jesus Christ [is] with you.

There is an exception. Aymeti means unless or except. The believer with an edification complex has a capacity for love of Jesus. First of these exceptions is the spiritual moron. They get out of fellowship and stay there. Out of fellowship from the day that he first sins after salvation and he stays there. He is a holy roller or something like this. He never grew. There is the reversionist, who grow spiritually, but then took a dive. Both can end up in the sin unto death.

Neuter plural of adokimos. A technical word for reversionism. The person is worthless, he is unfit.

The indwelling of Christ is the indwelling of Jesus Christ in every person. The Presence of Jesus Christ is Him living inside of us having an edification complex.

2Cor. 13:6 Moreover, I hope you will find out that we have not failed the test [we are bit reversionists].

Two hoti’s here. The content of Paul’s hope and the second is the anticipated thinking in the mind’s of the Corinthians.

Paul then says that his life and the life of any other communicator is not the issue.

2Cor. 13:7 But we pray face to face with the God that you (Corinthians) may not do evil—not that we may appear to have met the test [approved should be visible], but that you may do what is right [the honorable thing], though we may seem to have failed [or, to seem to be like reversionists to you].

There are two negatives here. What evil (kokos) means, is delineated. Negative volition to Bible doctrine, scar tissue on the left bank, opening up on mataiotis, the frantic search for happiness and blackout of the soul, emotional revolt of the soul, reversionism, reverse process reversionism; this is a description of committing evil.

Ouk hina is a negative purpose clause. A reference to we refers to Paul and all other pastor-teachers of that era. Constantive aorist; there would be communicators in every generation.

Not that we are not seen to be approved.

Explanation of 2corinthians 13:7

1. It is not about the pastor-teacher being approved by the believer in the congregation. The life of the pastor is not the benefit; but the message. Isn’t that inconsistent? No; you do not deserve to be in Bible class either.

2. Since dokimos is nominative plural, it cannot be the object of the verb; it belongs with the subject.

3. So “we” and “approved” go together.

4. The individual believer’s opinion of his pastor-teacher is unimportant. Only what he says is of interest to the members of the congregation.

We only have to know that Bob teaches doctrine and that he has the authority. You may like one day what you think you know about him, and one day you might like him and the next day you might not. The only important detail is, what Bob teaches.

it is a double-standard that the congregation can do whatever they want; but the preachers are supposed to be goody two-shoes. Why should there be a double-standard in the ministry? The issue is, not the type of sins committed.

This passage says, you don’t have to approve and you do not have to disapprove.

The honorable thing is to grow spiritually. It is to developed the edification complex.

2Cor. 13:8 For we (pastors) cannot do anything against the truth (Bible doctrine), but only for the truth.

Whatever our lives are, Paul says, we can only do with the doctrine is. We can only act upon the truth.

“What is the difference between us?” Paul asks them, “Sometimes you are good and sometimes you are not; sometimes I am good and sometimes I am not. It does not matter.”

“No matter how I fail or succeed in life, my life is not the issue and my life cannot stop doctrine. You can get it and grow up.”

A pastor’s life, with his sins or failures, does not neutralize Bible doctrine. The pastor can only communicate for doctrine. It does not matter what a person is in life as a pastor-teacher.

Summary

1. The pastor’s message is the issue in the supergrace life.

2. Concentrate on the pastor’s teaching; and give him privacy in his life.

3. No one earns or deserves blessing from God.

4. The phrase against the truth means the pastor’s life is not the issue.

5. The pastor’s function is teaching Bible doctrine, which is the issue to us.

2Cor. 13:9 For we are glad when we are weak and you are strong. Your restoration is what we pray for.

1972 Hebrews 2:15–16 Lesson #14

08/11/1972 Hebrews 2:15–16 Spiritual death causes fear/slavery, production of human good & legalism; security in absolutes

Monday: John, Tuesday: James, Wednesday: Revelation; Thursday: Ephesians (whether you like it or not); Friday: Hebrews, 1^st Sunday: Colossians, 2^nd Sunday: Romans, Sunday evening: about to finish 2Corinthians and start Genesis. Monday morning: 2Peter.

Any jackass who does not like this book or that; it is all the Word of God. You cannot get enough Ephesians.

There are 7 kinds of death; v. 14 is spiritual death. Adam lost out to the ruler of this world through sin. Adam died that day that he sinned. He lived some 900 years after his spiritual death. When he ate, he lost the rulership of this world. Spiritual death was his citizenship paper indicating that he is under Satan. In Luke 1, the unbeliever is said to be sitting in darkness; and Jesus is presented as the light of the world. Spiritual death is the key for understanding this section. It is the sign of citizenship in Satan’s kingdom.

Jesus was tempted in all points as us. He was tempted to enter into Satan’s kingdom. Thousands of temptations were thrown into His path. He went to the cross being sinless; impeccable, a free man qualified to purchase our freedom from the slave market of sin.

Jesus died spiritually on the cross. When Christ came around to dying physically; salvation was a completed fact. Jesus kept screaming, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Jesus dies physically because His work was finished. The Lord’s physical death has nothing to do with salvation. That just meant that His work was complete.

Fear from the source of death; and death is spiritual death. People are afraid to die physically, but physical death is what causes fear in the souls of most men.

Hebrews 2:15 ...and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. (ESV)

Verse 15 — the word “deliver” is an aorist active subjunctive of a)pallassw ἀπαλλάσσω

- Transliteration: Apallasso; - Phonetic: ap-al-las'-so this means to set someone free; to get the release of someone. Culminative aorist emphasizes the results of what has happened. If the results are absolute and dogmatic, then it is a gnomic aorist. Jesus Christ produced the action of this verb.

This word really means to effect the release of someone, to set someone free. This is what we call a gnomic aorist. It is very difficult to distinguish between the gnomic and the culminative aorist. The culminative aorist emphasizes the results of what has happened. If the results are absolute and dogmatic it becomes a gnomic aorist, and because this deliverance is axiomatic we actually have a gnomic aorist here. The active voice: Jesus Christ produced the action of this verb. The subjunctive mood indicates the continuation of the purpose clause from the previous verse. The devil rules the world by spiritual death, this is the part of doctrine you must know. A king always has a sceptre. The sceptre of the devil as the ruler of this world is spiritual death. The devil cannot rule anyone who is related to God. Spiritual death is no relationship with God, no fellowship with God. So the word “deliver,” the subjunctive mood, is a continuation of that purpose clause that began in the middle of verse 14.

“that he might deliver” — the believer is released or set free form the Satanic rule to become a member of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ and to become at the same time a servant of Jesus Christ — but a servant with most unusual dignity for he is a priest servant to Jesus Christ.

“them” — masculine accusative plural of the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. The demonstrative pronoun refers to all members of the human race who believe in Jesus Christ. God has provided a way of deliverance. The word “deliver” means to release, set free, effect the release of. On the cross Jesus Christ effected our release from Satan’s kingdom. So the translation so far: “And release from Satan’s kingdom ["them” is not correct. The demonstrative pronoun should be translated “those"] those [persons]” .

“who” — hosos (ὅσος) [pronounced HOS-os]. The demonstrative pronoun is followed by a relative pronoun. This is called a correlative relative pronoun. An ordinary relative pronoun would be hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. The correlative relative pronoun is used in four ways. it can be used of space and when it is it is translated “as great as” .It can be used of time and it translated “as long as” .It can be used of quantity — “as many as.” It can be used of measure — “as much as” .Here we have quantity and therefore we translate it: “those persons as many as.”

“through fear” — instrumental singular from foboj. In the instrumental foboj means “by fear,” or “by means of fear.” Then we have “of death” and this is nothing to do with physical death, this is fear of something greater. “Of death” is incorrect. This is the ablative singular of thanatos (θάνατος) [pronounced THAH-nah-toss], spiritual death which is Satan’s ruling power over the human race. So literally, “by means of fear from the source of death.” All fear in the human race has its source in the fact that people are cut off from God. That is what this phrase is saying. Why do people in the human race have fears about anything? Because they have no consciousness of an absolute relationship with God. Therefore the kingdom of Satan, spiritual death, is made up of frightened people. All people are frightened until they know their relationship with God. At some time, some fear creeps up on any member of the human race. fear is really used here in the sense of lack of security. How can you have any security in this life and in this world unless you know that you have a permanent relationship with God and you know that you are in His hands and He is taking care of you? That is what wipes out fear. When you are occupied with Christ, how can you be afraid of anything? That is why the Psalmist said, “What time I could be afraid, I will trust in thee.”

A spiritual moron is afraid because he has never learned any doctrine; a reversionistic believer is afraid because he has forgotten doctrine. He is like an unbeliever in that sense. Satan can only capture, as it were, the believer. He can’t take the believer out of God’s kingdom, but he can capture him and neutralize him through fear, by inducing fear. For babies getting started they faith-rest — claim a promise — but when a believer grows up he will be so occupied with Christ he won’t have to claim a promise. And how does a reversionist get out of the hole he has dug — faith-rest! Faith-rest is for reversion recovery; faith-rest is for babies; faith-rest is to get you going in the right direction. But once you have enough doctrine in the supergrace life you are going to be so occupied with Christ that you are going to forget all about claiming promises and will realize how great is His power and how great is grace, and you move right on without even thinking about claiming a promise.

When you grow up, your mind and soul grow up. You are able to bypass various promises.

The writer of Hebrews is addressing a lot of babies; a lot of people who need faith rest. That gets you going in the right direction.

How many of you read a manual and then decide, “If my date smiles at me 3x then I will kiss her.” You do not follow a manual when on a date. Hebrews finds you as a baby and leaves you in supergrace. Hebrews finds you in reversionism and leaves you with an edification complex structure. In the 3^rd and 4^th chapters, the writer was dealing with a bunch of idiots; so you go back and claiming promises.

As you grow up, you claim promises day after day, but then, at some point of growth, you don’t necessarily need to. You are comfortable in your spiritual life. When you get security, you move on to something else. Believers are responders to the Lord. Once you have enough doctrine in the supergrace life, you move forward without claiming promises.

Rebound is a doctrine as well as a promise. “How many of you in rebound, tell God, ‘I am standing on Your promise of 1John1:9)’?” You are getting into the doctrine stage, a good stage to get into.

“by means of fear from the source of death” — the ablative of source connotes the root idea of separation and it is accompanied by the implication that the original situation contributed in some way to the present state. Therefore, the present state is fear, the basis for it is spiritual death. Spiritual death has no relationship with God and therefore no absolute security. In every stage of life, they teach that there are no absolutes; but the Bible tells us the exact opposite. God is an absolute and His promises are absolutes.

The goose that lays the golden egg is capitalism. Destroy management and capital, then you destroy the goose. Destroy that and there is no more security.

Fear is not only a mental attitude sin, fear is a condition. The ablative says that fear is a state, a condition in life based upon no absolute security. We have absolute security whether we know it or not. The source of fear is spiritual death, not physical death.

You don’t frighten people into a way of life or into a particular behavior pattern. The basis of your security is grace. Who gave you the idea that you can commit a sin and lose your salvation. You cannot sin and fall outside of the plan of God. Our sins never cancel the plan of God. God is a lot greater than your sins and your failures and your idiocy. When God saves us, there is no way that you can cancel it. You cannot change what God has done; that’s grace.

Legalist parents, their kids are the worst, most drunken kids on the campus. They got out from under your screwball ideas. It is very relaxing to know you have done all that you can to teach your child and, wherever they are, they are holding their own. There is a lot of difference between grace rearing and legalistic rearing.

In college, the wildest people that Bob knew were kids from fundy homes.

“were” — imperfect active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. “All of their lifetime” is incorrect. It is dia plus the genitive of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] plus the present active infinitive of zaô (ζάω) [pronounced DZAH-oh]. This is an idiom which means through all the functions of life — “were through all the functions of life.” Then comes the verb, “kept on being subject to bondage.” “Subject to” in the nominative plural from the adjective e)noxoj, and it means to be liable to or held in. Then we have douleia which is the genitive singular for slavery.

Hebrews 2:15 “And released [from Satan’s kingdom] those persons as many as by means of fear from the source of death [spiritual] through all the functions of life were held in slavery.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

An unbeliever is in slavery in every function of life, no matter how great he is, no matter how he succeeds.

Summary

1. In other words, while they were alive physically in all the functions of the life they were in slavery spiritually — in slavery to spiritual death, they had absolutely no relationship with God. When unbelievers talk about God, they are really deists; like Voltaire. They do not believe in God; they use Him as a front.

2. Spiritual death is a set of chains that shackle all unbelievers into slavery while continuing in every function of life. Invisible set of chains called spiritual death.

3. Jesus Christ came into the world to break those chains and shackles and give relationship with God. Gal. 5:1 Jesus Christ made us free by the cross. The believer gets shackles back on by submitting to legalism. We are filled up with believers who are legalistic.

4. The result of the cross was breaking the shackles of slavery to fear and spiritual death.

5. In this way, through the cross, Jesus Christ has delivered us from the sovereignty of Satan while still living in the devil’s world.

6. The cross not only provides eternal salvation but freedom from the bondage of Satan’s kingdom.

Hebrews 2:16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. (ESV)

Verse 16 — the choice of the incarnation. “For” — gar, is a particle used as a conjunction to express one of four things: cause, inference, continuation, or explanation. Here we have explanation, gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] plus the adverb dhpou, which means “obviously” — “For obviously” .

It is obvious that Jesus did not take upon Himself the nature of an angel.

“he took not on” — present middle indicative of epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh]. epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] means upon; lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh] to receive. When you put these together it means to assume. The present tense is the dramatic present. The middle voice is reflexive: He Himself [Christ] — “For obviously he did not assume the nature of angels”.

“but” — we have an adversative conjunction, al. The contrast is between angelic and human creation. Again we have epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh], “he did assume the seed of Abraham.”

Hebrews 2:16 “For obviously he did not assume the nature of angels; but he did assume the seed of Abraham.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. Since man was created to resolve the angelic conflict God stays with His plan. God does not change His plan midstream. If God creates man to resolve the angelic conflict, count on it, God is going to find a man to do it. That Man is the last Adam. Therefore Christ did not become an angel, He became a man.

2. Since the first Adam lost the victory through the fall the last Adam must win the victory at the cross.

3. Abraham is mentioned as the human being for the pattern because Abraham was born a Gentile and became a Jew. Jesus Christ is going to save Jews and Gentiles but Jesus Christ is born of the Jewish line.

4. Abraham is both the founder for the Jewish race and the pattern for Jewish regeneration. Jewish regeneration is described in Genesis 15:6, the hiphil perfect of amen. The hiphil is causative active voice; perfect tense: completed action. It should be translated, “Abraham had believed in the Lord and it was credited to his account for righteousness.” This is amplified in Romans 9:6–15.

5. Therefore Jesus Christ is born to the Jewish race to fulfil the unconditional covenants to born-again Jews.

The choice of Jesus Christ

God killed 2 birds with one stone; broke the back of Satan and provided salvation for us; based upon the cross.

Jesus Christ made a choice when he was still God, coequal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. The sovereignty of Jesus Christ: he had to choose to become man. The choice was from His sovereignty. When Jesus Christ decided to become a man and not an angel He decided it on His own. Was His judgement good? He is perfect — essence box. After the cross Jesus was glorified through resurrection, ascension and session, and at that point — session — the humanity of Christ became superior to all angelic creatures.

So man inferior to angels by birth, by the new birth becomes superior to angels. Furthermore, it is God who receives the glorify by taking man, an inferior creature, and through grace making him ultimately and eternally superior to angels in every way. That is why we have only one celebrity in the Christian way of life: Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 2:17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. (ESV)

Bob can barely read this translation.

The greatest celebrity in Israel, originally was the High Priest, not a king. Not until the people wanted to be like the other nations.

Verse 17 — the celebrity. The celebrityship is found in the phrase “merciful and faithful high priest.” Do you realize that as the history of Israel developed the greatest celebrity in Israel was always the high priest, that it was never God’s intention for a king to be visible, that Jesus Christ Himself was the King of Israel until the people of Israel elected Saul king of Israel. They wanted to be like other nations. They were different from nations; they were a theocracy; they were ruled by the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God; God was invisible to them, but real through doctrine, through the great rituals which portrayed the doctrines of the superiority, the sovereignty of Jesus Christ in their midst. And until the day that Saul was elected king by the people the greatest celebrity in Israel, by design, was to be high priest — though he wasn’t always the greatest person. That was the design.

The high priests generally were flops, they failed. But in the history of Israel God’s design never worked out because doctrine never had its proper place. Therefore the high priest did not have the place of celebrityship, God had to raise up prophets because of Israel’s apostasy. The prophet was often the greatest man but he still wasn’t a celebrity either. Most of the prophets, like Isaiah, were persona non grata with most of Israel. But it was always God’s objective to have the high priest as the visible celebrity of Israel.

In this passage, introducing in verse 17 the primary subject of the book: the celebrity of Israel, the high priest, Jesus Christ who is also the son of David. Celebrityship changed in Israel from the high priest to the family of David when David became the ruler, and the line of David lasted all the way to 586 BC when the Jews went out under the fifth cycle of discipline. And even when there was no king descended from David sitting on David’s throne, when the Jews were in the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity, it was Zerubbabel who was their leader, and Zerubbabel was directly descended from David though not a king. And when they came back, never again did they have anyone sitting upon the throne of David, even though David’s son, Zerubbabel was their leader. Never again has Israel, from the time of the fifth cycle of discipline in 586 BC, had anyone sitting upon the throne because God has said to Israel by this, “My intention was always to have the high priest your celebrity. It didn’t work out because of apostasy. You selected a king. I set aside your king Saul when he got into reversionism and kicked him our under the sin unto death. I put my man on the throne. I brought David out of the sheepcote and I made him king. But, there again, apostasy led to failure. So you and I, Israel, are going to meet. You revered the king as your celebrity; I recognized the high priest as my celebrity. Now we will meet in the Millennium after the second advent of Christ, and your celebrity the king, the son of David, and my celebrity the high priest, will be the same person. And you will have a celebrity forever. In the meantime Israel, you have rejected the celebrity, but I will raise up the worst bunch of knuckleheads that ever lived — the goi [Gentile] — and a few of the choice ones, the Jews, and they will recognize my Son seated at the right hand as the only celebrity.” Only through Bible doctrine and the supergrace life do you recognize the celebrityship of Jesus Christ.

1972 Hebrews 2:17–18 Lesson #15

08/18/1972 Hebrews 2:17–18 Celebrityship of Jesus Christ; corrected translation of Hebrews 3:1–6

Hebrews 2:16 “For obviously he did not assume the nature of angels; but he did assume the seed of Abraham.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Jesus did not become an angel, but He became a human being.

Verse 17 — the word “Wherefore” is a relative adverb, hothen (ὅ́θεν) [pronounced HOTH-ehn]. It is used both here and at the beginning of next chapter. It has many concepts. It usually refers to circumstances or to time or origin. It can be translated “From which circumstance” or “For this reason,” as in Hebrews 3:1. It is a reference to the circumstances of the incarnation and the resultant hypostatic union. If Christ is to bypass the angelic creation in solving the angelic conflict He must become a man.

The next phrase is “in all things” — katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs]. This prepositional phrase: “From which circumstances he was obligated according to the standard of all things” .We have it changed around in the English but the actual Greek word order is what we have just stated. “According to the standard of all things” refers to the fact that Jesus Christ had to become a man to be our Savior. Therefore He was obligated to be properly equipped to redeem mankind and at the same time to propitiate God the Father. So “it behoved him” is an imperfect active indicative of opheilê (οφειλή) [pronounced oh-fih-LAY] which means He was obligated.

“to be made like” — the aorist passive infinitive of o(moiow. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, and Jesus Christ, when he took upon Himself true humanity, this settled it. The angelic conflict was not going to be resolved in the angelic realm, that’s to give Satan the victory. It was going to be resolved in the human realm and this gives the victory to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ began to be like true humanity at the virgin birth and He was just as much humanity in the cradle as He would ever be. This aorist actually indicates the completion of God’s plan at the point of the incarnation. When Jesus Christ was a baby in the cradle the plan of God was completed as far as the victory of the angelic conflict. Jesus Christ was true humanity, the Father would sustain Him all the way to the cross where He would break the devil’s back. In the angelic realm Satan could sin the angelic conflict but when man was created lower than angels to resolve the angelic conflict it looked even easier for Satan. The fall of man made Satan very confident that he could win. But he forgot one principle. At the time of the fall of man the incarnation of Jesus Christ was promised. It was promised that the celebrity of the universe would come into existence as a man and would go to the cross as the seed of the woman and die for the sins of the world, and not only save man but at the same time resolve the angelic conflict. In this way the Lord Jesus Christ is the only celebrity. So he was “to be made like.” The passive voice: Christ received humanity at the virgin birth, minus the old sin nature. The infinitive expresses the Father’s purpose in the incarnation to provide eternal salvation for the human race and at the same time to resolve the angelic conflict, and to give the universe in the form of the God-Man the only celebrity in existence. So in resolving the angelic conflict regenerate mankind will also be found placed above the angels forever. When Satan appealed in the court of heaven the case of the fallen angels God took it out of the angelic realm in order to win the victory and to resolve the angelic conflict. The angelic conflict could not be resolved by keeping it in the angelic realm. But if God had created a being superior to angels then Satan would have cried “unfair, unjust” .And since his attack and his defence was already the fact that God could not be fair and just and at the same time put angels in the lake of fire if man had been created superior to angels then they would have been no contest, Satan would have made an issue out of this immediately. But Satan could not make an issue out of creating a creature which was inferior to angels.

“unto the brethren” — this is a dative plural from adelphos (ἀδελφός) [pronounced ad-el-FOSS] and it has two connotations. First of all it refers to the human race. He was made a member of the human race rather than being an angel. But secondly, brethren refers to only one segment of the human race, the Jews. Jesus Christ was born in the tribe of Judah, the family of David, and is the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant. He is born a Jew. We have the definite article here to define “brethren” in a restrictive sense of the Jew. The word “that” is a conjunction, hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na], plus the subjunctive that introduces a purpose clause.

“he might become” — aorist middle subjunctive of ginomai. This means to become something that He was not before. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, in fact it becomes a gnomic aorist which means this is axiomatic — what Christ became can never be changed. The middle voice is reflexive indicating Christ Himself and only Himself; this introduces the concept of celebrityship. The subjunctive mood indicates a purpose clause.

Now we meet the only celebrity for the Church Age, the only celebrity in history, the supergrace celebrity, “a merciful and faithful high priest.” Celebrityship will be covered in this passage from the standpoint of the priesthood of Christ. Other passages cover it from the standpoint of His kingship, His sovereignty.

“merciful” is an adjective, e)lehmwn, and this means “compassionate.” Mercy is always grace in action, grace based on maximum love capacity of the supergrace life of the Lord Jesus. Remember, before Jesus Christ became the high priest He was first of all a supergrace believer. Jesus Christ was not born a priest, he was not born in the tribe of Levi. He was born in the Jewish Age and He was not born a priest. He became a priest on the cross through sacrifice rather than through birth. In the Old Testament the kings would sometimes try to offer a sacrifice, like Saul, and would be very severely disciplined for it. Only the priests of the tribe of Levi could offer sacrifice. But Jesus Christ, in offering Himself, was the exception. He is the unique person of the universe, He is the only celebrity, and by offering Himself he becomes a priest at that point. He is also a merciful priest in that He first of all was a supergrace person before He was a priest. The next word is “faithful,” the adjective pistos (πιστός) [pronounced pis-TOSS], which refers to His consistency and His stability. “High priest” is the central subject of Hebrews, the basis from which the celebrityship of the Lord Jesus Christ will be studied. Since a priest must be a man, Jesus Christ had to become a man to be high priest. The only celebrity of the Christian life first of all became supergrace as a person and then He became the priest.

“in things pertaining to God” — ta pros tôn qeon. This is the accusative of qoej, pros plus the accusative, “face to face with God.” ta is the pre-positive definite article — “the things face to face with God.” The high priest must be able to face God. This was the issue on the Day of Atonement when the Jewish high priest once a year, and only with blood, entered into the holy of holies representing face to face with God. He would go into the holy of holies to sprinkle blood on the mercy seat. The principle here, then: the high priest must be able to face God. Our high priest is literally in the presence of God the Father, so He is able to fulfil this principle; again, a facet of His celebrityship.

Why, and under what circumstances, did He become high priest? At the point of propitiation. The next phrase is not only mistranslated but it is a mistranslation which leads to devastating results as far as understanding the appointment of the high priesthood of Christ. Remember that in Israel the first high priest was appointed by God. After that it was a matter of progeny, the sons of Aaron became the high priest. Moses did not have any children in Israel, the only children that Moses ever had were among the Kenites by his first wife. Moses was not appointed high priest of Israel. Aaron his brother had that honour. The sons of Aaron and the grandsons of Aaron succeeded him as high priest. The eldest son was always the high priest. The high priesthood in Israel cane through physical birth, through the eldest son of the direct line of Aaron. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ not receiving His high priesthood by birth. He receives it by appointment from God. The question is: When was He appointed?

Jesus became High Priest at the cross at the point of making propitiation.

The answer is right here: “to make reconciliation”, which is an incorrect translation. This is the present middle infinitive of i(laskomai, which does not mean to make reconciliation, it means to make propitiation. There is a vast difference. The reason we have propitiation here is because this is the point at which the celebrityship of Jesus Christ was to be established. He was not a celebrity on the cross, He humbled Himself; but after the cross in resurrection, ascension and session He functions as the high priest. But He was appointed at the time of the cross, at the time when He made propitiation. This is a present middle infinitive of the verb to make propitiation. The present tense is dramatic. The most dramatic moment in the world was when Jesus Christ was appointed high priest. The middle voice indicates that this occurred when He Himself was propitiating God the Father. The infinitive is an infinitive of purpose. It was the purpose of God the Father to appoint Jesus Christ high priest at the point of propitiation, when He “made propitiation for the sins of the people.” The genitive plural of hamartia plus the genitive singular of laos (λαός) [pronounced lah-OSS] gives us what we call an objective genitive followed by a possessive genitive. “For the sins” is objective genitive; “of the people” is possessive genitive. The people possessed the sins, Christ had no sins of His own and was made sin for us. When Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross He had no sins. The sins of the people were poured out upon Him.

Jesus Christ is high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek was not Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ was in the order of Melchizedek, but Melchizedek had to be a human being. And why Melchizedek? Because Melchizedek was a king as well as a priest. And the order: Jesus Christ was the son of David; Jesus Christ is a high priest. He combines in one person King-priest. He is legitimately the King of Israel; He is also legitimately the high priest forever. At this point, while He was bearing our sins, He was providing salvation or redemption for mankind, but at the same time He was propitiating the Father and this is the Father’s appointment of Jesus Christ as high priest. Why? because there were many, many sacrifices in Israel, many kinds of sacrifices, many principles of sacrifices, and they all are fulfilled at the cross. Every sacrifice of the Mosaic code is fulfilled at the cross, and every sacrifice of any kind in the Old Testament lead to the cross and there every one of them was saying in effect, I am a contribution to the celebrityship of Jesus Christ.

Isaiah talks about the celebrityship of Jesus Christ as King; the writer of Hebrews talks about the celebrityship of Jesus Christ as high priest. High priest is used here because Jesus Christ is King of Israel but not the King of the Church. Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, not the King. He is the groom; the Church is the bride. So kingship is a celebrityship concept reserved for Israel, and that is why Isaiah made such an issue out of that. But to the Church the rulership of Christ is presented through His high priesthood. Christ is the head of the Church and at the same time the high priest for a kingdom of priests. But the kingdom of priests is not Israel, the kingdom of priests is the Church only — after the cross. The Age of Israel had to stop with the cross because Christ not only had to have a bride but He had to have a kingdom of priests. Christ had no bride, He was all alone on the cross. Christ had no priesthood, He was appointed high priest on the cross but He didn’t have a priesthood. So there has to be the Church Age so that Christ can have a bride and have a priesthood. That is why in the Church Age Christ is the only celebrity because of His high priesthood and because he is the groom.

Hebrews 2:17 “From which circumstance he was obligated according to the standard of all things to be made like the brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the things face to face with the God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Now, since the high priest was going to die physically after bearing our sins the only way that the appointment could be confirmed was by resurrection, ascension and session. That is exactly what we have, with this difference: the high priest carried the blood into the holy of holies after it was offered on the cross. Jesus Christ did not carry His blood to heaven. This is a new type of priesthood, not a blood carrying priesthood. Jesus Christ went to heaven in a resurrection body, not carrying the blood. The Father had already appointed Him at the point of propitiation on the cross, therefore it was not necessary for the reality to carry the blood to heaven. In the substance, in the shadow, that is portrayed on the Day of Atonement; in the reality it is not necessary.

Since Jesus died on the cross, He had to be resurrected in order to continue as our High Priest.

Hebrews 2:18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. (ESV)

Verse 18 — the grace provision of the incarnation. “For in that he himself hath suffered.” “For”is the explanatory use of gar; “in that” is the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative neuter of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. It should be translated, “For in that which.”

“he himself” — “himself” is a separate word not taken up as a middle voice. We have a reflexive pronoun of autos referring to Jesus Christ accomplishing propitiation and becoming the unique celebrity to the Church.

“hath suffered” — perfect active indicative of paschô/pathô/penthô (πάσχω/πάθω/πένθω) [pronounced PAHS-khoh/PATH-oh/PEHN-thoh] which refers to the spiritual death of Christ on the cross. It was through spiritual death that He propitiated the Father. The justice of the Father is propitiated by spiritual death, not by physical death. At physical death He said “Finished” .It was completed, all over before He died physically. It is the spiritual death of Christ which propitiated God the Father. The perfect tense is permanent results of Christ’s suffering on the cross. This includes salvation of man and the resolving of the angelic conflict. The perfect tense can be portrayed as a point at which the action took place, the cross, and the results go on forever. The active voice: Christ offered Himself on the cross, which was His first function as priest. The indicative mood is the reality of the ministry of Christ as the high priest satisfying God the Father. So Jesus Christ suffered on the cross with permanent results. The permanent results: the appointment of Jesus Christ as the high priest.

However, He didn’t get to the cross without some problems — “having been tempted” is an aorist active participle of peirazô (πειράζω) [pronounced pi-RAD-zoh]. Satan challenged Jesus Christ at every step He took toward the cross. Jesus Christ was tempted time and time again. Only three of the temptations, the great ones, are recorded. These are unique temptations. Not only is Jesus Christ our celebrity from every viewpoint of uniqueness, but especially when it comes to temptation. He faced three temptations that we would never face — Matthew chapter four. So “being tempted” indicates that Christ reached the cross in status quo impeccability. His person had to be perfect before He could bear our sins and before He could propitiate the Father and be appointed our high priest on the cross. So this verb actually connotes the qualification of Jesus Christ to suffer for our sins on the basis of His impeccability. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb: “he himself has suffered.” So first of all he was tempted, then he suffered. He was tempted and found perfect, not once did He succumb to temptation.

The rest of this says “he is able to succor them that are tempted.” He is not able to help us because He was tempted, He is able to help us because He was appointed high priest. Remember, the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. “He was tempted,” that is the aorist participle; “He suffered” on the cross, that is the main verb. Now, on this side of the cross, He is high priest and as high priest He is able to help us.

Human viewpoint of alcoholics anonymous; that you can help others because you have been tempted in the same way that they are.

“he is able” — present active indicative from dunamai (δύναμαι) [pronounced DOO-nam-ahee]. Jesus Christ as God is able to help us, He is omnipotent; Jesus Christ as Man is high priest, and as the combination of omnipotent high priest he is able to help man. This is present tense, linear aktionsart, He keeps on having the ability. Active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. Indicative mood: the reality of the fact that the uniqueness of Christ leads to His unique ministry of “succoring” — the aorist active infinitive of bohqew which means to advance to the assistance of someone, to help, to furnish aid, to run to the aid of someone crying for help. The meaning that is involved here is to run to the aid of someone crying for help. When a person cries for help their volition is involved, they want to be helped. In the priesthood, Jesus Christ as high priest can help but He can only help where positive volition exists. “He keeps on being able” — gnomic aorist. It is an absolute fact that if your volition is involved positively, your high priest can help you.

Bob is studying so much that he is talking to himself. Balderdash likes that, as it is a human voice.

“them that are tempted [tested]” — present passive participle of peirazô (πειράζω) [pronounced pi-RAD-zoh], and it should be translated “those being tested” or “those being tempted.” This refers to members of the human race who are tested and fail by entering into personal sin. How does the high priest help there? Rebound, which is a priestly function. The unbeliever can’t rebound and be forgiven, it is a function of the priesthood only.

Hebrews 2:18 “For in that which he himself has suffered, having been tempted [but remaining impeccable], he keeps on being able [He was appointed high priest at the cross] to help those being tempted [tested].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. Satan’s kingdom is the kingdom of spiritual death. We are born into Satan’s kingdom because we are born with an old sin nature and spiritual death.

2. Christ was born free, without a sin nature, through the virgin birth. The significance of the virgin birth cannot be overemphasized, it makes it possible for Christ to come into the world without being in Satan’s kingdom. If you are in Satan’s kingdom you are also in Satan’s slave market, and if you are then you can’t get anyone else out; you can’t redeem anyone else. Christ had to be born a free man in order to purchase the freedom of slaves. We are born into slavery, we are born into the devil’s kingdom, but Jesus Christ through the virgin birth was born outside of the devil’s kingdom.

3. Christ lived free from the slave market of sin by resisting temptation.

4. Therefore He went to the cross where He satisfied God the Father, was appointed high priest, and purchased our freedom from Satan’s kingdom.

5. Therefore, Christ as our high priest is able to help those being tempted and failing, tested and failing or not failing. In other words, Christ is the only one who can help us.

Summary translation of the first six verses of chapter three

It is celebrityship or reversionism. His celebrityship is for supergrace believer priests.

Hebrews 3:1 — For which reason, holy members of the family of God, associates of the heavenly vocation, concentrate on the Apostle, even the High Priest of our acknowledgment, Jesus

We are in full time Christian service We are a kingdom of priests; and we acknowledge the High Priesthood of Jesus.

Hebrews 3:2 — Being faithful to the one having appointed him, as also Moses in his entire house,

Jesus was appointed our High Priest on the cross.

The house of Moses is the dispensation of Israel. This is a reference to the previous dispensation.

In celebrityship, we have the uniqueness of the God-man; but we also have heroship, which is like Moses in his day. This makes him even more outstanding as a hero.

Hebrews 3:3 — For example. this one has been permanently evaluated deserving of more glory than Moses, by so much as the one having constructed and furnished the house keeps having more honour than the house.

Jesus should be evaluated with more glory, as He is the true celebrity.

The one building the house is much greater than the house itself. Also he is greater than the furniture. Moses is not the builder; he is the agent.

Hebrews 3:4 — For every house in constructed and furnished by the agency of someone; but the one [Christ] having constructed and furnished all things God.

Hebrews 3:5 — Now Moses, in fact, faithful [dependable, trustworthy] in all his house, as a noble servant, for evidence of things which are about to be communicated.

Moses was a noble servant; not simply a servant.

Hebrews 3:6 — But Christ as an adult son over his house [the Church]; whose house are we, if we hold fast [if we have in full and secure possession of or if we steer and maintain our course of confidence] [this is the supergrace life] our confidence [in doctrine] and the object of boasting [Christ our only celebrity] of the expectation [phase three brideship] stabilized [by supergrace] until the end. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

We belong to the Church Age, which is given here. Moses to the Age of Israel, which is found back in v. 5.

We are stabilized by supergrace until we die or until the exit-resurrection.

1972 Hebrews 3:1 Lesson #16

08/25/1972 Hebrews 3:1 Corrected translation of Hebrews 3:1–19; believer's function in supergrace

The teaching of various books is getting moved around.

There are 3 or 4 vacant seats. There are going to need to be ushers on Bible class night.

Chapter 3–4:1

Bob has retranslate this chapter, and he will kick this off with a new translation.

Hebrews 3:1 — For which reason, holy members of the family of God, associates of the heavenly vocation, concentrate on the Apostle, even the High Priest of our acknowledgment, Jesus

Hebrews 3:2 — Being faithful to the one having appointed him, as also Moses in his entire house,

Hebrews 3:4 — For every house in constructed and furnished by the agency of someone [like Moses in Israel]; but the one [Christ] having constructed and furnished all things God.

Hebrews 3:5 — Now Moses, in fact, faithful [dependable, trustworthy] in all his house [Israel], as a noble servant, for evidence of things which are about to be communicated.

Hebrews 3:6 — But Christ as an adult son over his house [the Church]; whose house are we, if we hold fast [if we have in full and secure possession of or if we steer and maintain our course of confidence] our confidence [in doctrine] and the object of boasting [Christ our only celebrity] of the expectation [phase three brideship] stabilized [by supergrace] until the end. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 3:7 “For this reason therefore (according as the Holy Spirit communicates, This day if you will hear and concentrate on his voice”,... R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 3:8 ...do not go on hardening your hearts as in the reversionistic revolution of the meribah on the day of testing in the desert... R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 3:9 ...in which place (Meribah) your reversionistic fathers (the Exodus generation) began testing (to determine good of evil) in Him (God) by means of approving Him after testing. And they had a panoramic vision of my grace for 40 years. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This is all idiomatic in the Greek, so that, if God should pass the test (whatever they make it out to be), that they would recognize it.

Hebrews 3:10 “Because of which reversionism I was disgusted with that generation, and said, They are always being deluded in the right lobe; and they have not learned my ways [systems of doctrine].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Heb. 3:11 “In keeping with the facts, I promise with a solemn oath in my disgust, My name is not God if they shall enter into My rest [which is the supergrace life].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Canaan does not represent heaven; but it does represent supergrace. It is the supergrace life; and you live that only on this earth. Holy rollers flying out of closets to some place they would scramble.

Heb. 3:12 Beware, members of the family of God, that there not be in any one of you a malignant heart of unbelief by revolting from the always living God,... R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 3:13 “But keep on encouraging self and others on each successive day, as long as long as in whatever place you are located it is called This day; that not one from among you become hardened by the delusion from the sins [the practice of reverse process reversionism].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This verse will change things up like you cannot believe. Never miss an opportunity to come to Bible class. The exegesis of that will stand you up on your ear.

Hebrews 3:13 “Keep on encouraging self and others on each successive day, as long as it is called This day; that not one from among you begin to become negative by delusion from the source of sin.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 3:14 “For we have become partners of the Christ [our high priest], if indeed we retain the beginning of our essence [daily function of gap under supergrace, doctrine in the soul] stabilized by supergrace until the end.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 3:14 “For we have become partners [associate priests] of the Christ, if indeed we retain and secure the beginning of our essence [the daily function of GAP to supergrace], stabilized [by supergrace ] until the end [of phase two].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 3:15 “So long as it is being said [Psalm 95:8], This day if you will hear and concentrate [function in GAP] on his voice [Bible doctrine], do not go on, hardening your hearts as in the reversionistic revolution.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 3:15 “So long as it is being said, Today if you will hear his voice, stop hardening your right lobes, as in the reversionistic revolution.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 3:16 For who, having heard, revolted? Did not all coming out of Egypt through Moses? R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 3:17 “Then with whom was he disgusted forty years? Was it not with the ones having missed the mark [reversionism]? Whose dead bodies had fallen in the desert? Affirmative.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

4 rhetorical questions up until now.

Hebrews 3:18 “Then to whom did he promise with a solemn oath that they should not enter into his rest? Only to those having been obstinate.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 3:19 “So we perceive that they were not able to enter in because of unfaithfulness [or a lack of faithfulness].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Bob is assuming that we understand the Angelic Conflict and operation footstool and the whole concept of reversionism and the supergrace life. The trouble with this section, the believers who heard this are like the Exodus generation, and in reversionism. The Exodus generation was on the outside trying to get in. The Jews receiving this letter were on the inside receiving the information.

Many of you have traveled and you have looked forward to it. How many of you are happy because you took this trip? You are not happy because of what you have or don’t have.

We start chapter 3 with the celebrityship of Christ.

The concept of this chapter is simple. In the first six verses we meet the celebrity of the Church Age. If Christ is truly your only celebrity you are in supergrace. In verses 7–18 we see the sign of reversionism. So this is a chapter of signs. Sign of supergrace: the celebrityship of Christ; sign of reversionism: breakdown of the faith-rest.

Outline

Verses 1–6, the celebrity of the Church.

Verses 7–18, the reversionism of the Exodus generation.

The sign of supergrace is the celebrityship of Christ; the sign of reversion is the breakdown of faith-rest.

Heb 3:1 Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, (ESV)

Verse 1 — “Wherefore,” the adverb Hothen (ὅ́θεν) [pronounced HOTH-ehn]. Hothen (ὅ́θεν) [pronounced HOTH-ehn] connotes place, fact, or reason. Here the adverb connotes reason and should be translated, “For which reason” — because Christ is the only celebrity of the Church Age, because Christ is able to help those being tested. The same adverb begins Hebrews 2:17 which introduces Christ as the only supergrace celebrity.

“holy brethren” — a)delfoi a(gioi. The trouble with just giving it the straight “brethren” is because fundamentalism has taken such phrases and distorted them into phrases of good luck, mysticism, and a facade of hypocrisy. When people stop thinking they always have to have a smoke screen, and the smoke screen can be very neatly set up (to show that you’re not thinking) with certain pet phrases, like “brother this” and “sister that,” “blessings on you brother”, “praise God brother”, “hallelujah”, etc., all said in great sincerity. But there is no benefit in that kind of hot air. It becomes a facade, a smoke-screen that hides ignorance.

With a few choice phrases and a look, you can be seen by others as a spiritual giant. We are all born into the family of God; and we are all in the same family.

“Brethren” means we are members of the family of God. We are brethren, we are members of the family of God, we are all born into the family of God, and we are in the same family. “Holy” is all right if you understand that holy means in union with Christ. The only reason that any of us are holy is because we are in union with Christ, not because of what we do or give up. The word “holy” is also used for supergrace believers. However, the context will soon demonstrate we are not talking to supergrace believers. The context includes Hebrews 5:11–14 and it is quite obvious in that passage, as well as others, that this passage — Hebrews chapters 3,4,5, and 6 are addressed to reversionistic believers living in Jerusalem in the year of our Lord, 68 AD. “For which reason, holy members of the family of God”.

“partakers” — nominative plural, metochos (μέτοχος) [pronounced MET-okh-oss] which means partners or associates. It is in the plural to include all of us. The plural puts us all in the same situation: partners of Jesus Christ and we are His associates.

Summary

1. Metochos (μέτοχος) [pronounced MET-okh-oss], the noun, emphasizes then fact that every believer is in full time Christian service. Two people can be drafted from the same city at the same age, and 25 years later, one is in the brig and the other is a vice admiral. This is us in the Christian life.

2. Furthermore, this noun emphasizes Christianity as a relationship in contrast to religion which is slavery to the devil — trying to work your way into heaven by works, works, works.

3. In religion man works to gain the approbation of God. He is stimulated by Satanic doctrine, by Satanic principles.

4. In Christianity God works to bless man. Man works to bless God is religion.

5. Religion is human good; Christianity is divine good.

6. Religion is legalism; Christianity is grace.

7. In Christianity every believer is holy. That is, he is in union with Christ. In religion is every believer is trying to be holy.

8. Because of union with Christ every believer is a partner with God or associate of God. Associate might be better than partner.

“associates of the heavenly calling” — genitive singular of epouranios (ἐπουράνιος) [pronounced ep-oo-RAN-ee-oss], which means heavenly in respect to locality, essence or character. With it, however, is the genitive of klêsis (κλσις) [pronounced KLAY-sis]. There is a difference between the two. The first genitive, e)pourainoj, is a genitive of description. Heaven is the source of our blessing.

The second genitive, klêsis (κλσις) [pronounced KLAY-sis], is a genitive of relationship. We are related to God through election. It is translated, “associates of the heavenly vocation.” Klêsis (κλσις) [pronounced KLAY-sis] means vocation, station in life, position as well as calling. The emphasis is placed on the fact that every believer priest is in full time Christian service. The avenue of this service is determined by knowledge of doctrine in the supergrace status of phase two.

Christ is our high priest; he was appointed on the cross at the point of propitiation. We as a kingdom of priests are appointed at the moment of our salvation. So all appointments go back to the cross. The priesthood comes through the cross, the reality; the substance rather than the shadows of the Levitical offerings. You cannot have a universal priesthood of believers as long as you are dealing with shadow worship. Bona fide shadow worship existed in the Age of Israel; now we have the reality, the cross. When the substance replaces the shadow, then the universal priesthood of the believer replaces the specialized Levitical priesthood. Once that happens there are two breakthroughs in the plan of God. The first is the intensification of the angelic conflict, and it is accompanied by the universal full-time Christian service of the believer.

We now come to the first verb, an imperative commanding us to enter the supergrace life. The people to whom this was addressed are negative toward doctrine. They are truly born again, Jews living in Jerusalem and the surrounding territory, and they are three years from the fifth cycle of discipline. They have gone negative toward Bible doctrine and therefore they have scar tissue on the left bank of the soul. They have also built scar tissue on the right bank of the soul by means of legalism; they have become super religious. The opening of mataiotês (ματαιότης) [pronounced mat-ah-YOHT-ace] brings through the vacuum false doctrine which attacks the right lobe’s frame of reference, memory centre, vocabulary, categories, norms and standards, and the launching pad, setting up emotional revolt of the soul and the function of reverse process reversionism. This is the condition of the people to whom the writer addresses Hebrews. They must break out of this and he is going to devote part of Hebrews — chapters three through six — to getting them out, comparing them to the one generation that everyone likes to avoid.

These believers to whom this epistle is directed know all about the Exodus generation and how badly they failed in life. This book compares these believers to the Exodus generation.

The first command is to get out of reversionism and get into supergrace, because every priest must have one celebrity: Jesus Christ. He is the only celebrity in the Christian life. We have the aorist active imperative of katanoeô (κατανοέω) [pronounced kat-an-oh-EH-oh]. katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] means against or norm and standard; noéô (νοέω) [pronounced noh-EH-oh] here refers to thinking. It means to think down, to think according to a norm and standard, it also means to think in terms of concentration; you get that from “down”; to think down means to concentrate, bear down with your mind on something. To think according to norms, standards or criteria plus thinking down, comes to mean to perceive, to understand, to concentrate. It means to be occupied with someone in your mind, therefore in your soul.

Loving Jesus Christ comes from the soul and loving Jesus Christ comes only from a supergrace soul. This is why Bob does not want people to come in a sing solo in Berachah who do not know anything. It is phony. It is done by testimony. Such a person is conning God for blessing.

Bob is moving Hebrews to Sunday morning. It is about time that some of you love Jesus.

Everyone in the sophomore stage has tried to use Jesus Christ as a genie. All of the hot air in the world won’t advance you one iota.

If someone is in your soul, then you are concentrating on them. The verb connotes occupation with Christ or category #1 love concentration. This is only possible through the daily function of GAP to the point of the edification complex, and then to keep on into supergrace. Occupation with Christ makes Christ the only celebrity.

The aorist is culminative, it demands the function of GAP all of the way to the ECS, and all of the way to supergrace. Supergrace becomes the point at which the believer becomes occupied with Christ. Katanoeô (κατανοέω) [pronounced kat-an-oh-EH-oh]: concentrate, category #1 love response. The initiator is Jesus Christ. He initiates on behalf of the entire Trinity, He represents the Trinity, He is the visible member of the Trinity, He is how we understand the other members of the Godhead. As you take in doctrine and take in doctrine you are going to get to the point of an erected ECS, and once it goes up and you move into supergrace your capacity to love is going to be phenomenal. The active voice is a command to every believer priest. Every believer is to be occupied with Christ. Every believer priest is to occupy with Christ to the point where his heavenly association and vocation are reality. The imperative mood: this is a command to enter the supergrace life. It is impossible to respond to the love of God, to love Jesus Christ, apart from Bible doctrine in the soul.

Next we have the word “Apostle” used for the Lord Jesus Christ — “the Apostle”, it has the definite article. It is the accusative singular of apostolos (ἀπόστολος) [pronounced ap-OSS-tol-os], used in a very different manner than it is with the twelve where it is used for authority; here it is a little stronger than that. Apostolos (ἀπόστολος) [pronounced ap-OSS-tol-os] is used for the highest authority in the priesthood, it is used for the high priest. Jesus Christ is unique among high priests. Therefore apostolos (ἀπόστολος) [pronounced ap-OSS-tol-os] indicates the uniqueness of Jesus Christ among high priests in that He has received the highest commission and greatest responsibility that any high priest ever had from God the Father. All priesthoods which are bona fide in the past must come from God the Father as the source. He does the appointing. He appoints a line of priests through perpetuation — the eldest son. So we have kai, used as a conjunction of apposition, to relate the highest-ranking word, apostolos (ἀπόστολος) [pronounced ap-OSS-tol-os], to the highest-ranking high priest, the unique high priest. And in this way we now have the accusative singular of archiereus (ἀρχιερεύς) [pronounced ar-khee-er-YUCE]. Archiereus (ἀρχιερεύς) [pronounced ar-khee-er-YUCE] emphasizes celebrityship. Aaron was the first high priest of the Levitical priesthood. He wasn’t a celebrity or even a hero, but God graced him out, Bob calls him a mouse. He made him the high priest. Here is a high priest who is a hero because He became supergrace in His humanity, but He is also apostolos (ἀπόστολος) [pronounced ap-OSS-tol-os], He is the only celebrity.

“of our profession” — genitive singular of homologia (ὁμολογία) ψ[pronounced hom-ol-og-EE-ah] which means “acknowledgment” — “the High Priest of our acknowledgment.” Acknowledgment simply is the fact that we recognize as of now, this passage, that every believer is a priest. We acknowledge it as a point of doctrine.

Bob training Bobby. He required Bobby to say, “Acknowledge.”

The word “Christ” is not found in the original, just the word “Jesus.” Why? because here we have the humanity of Christ. When did the second person of the Trinity become Christos (χριστός) [pronounced krees-TOSS]? At the point of the virgin birth. The word means anointing, appointment, commission. In eternity past the second person of the Trinity agreed to do these things, but there comes a time when the commission is recognized. David was anointed king by a prophet, Samuel. That was his commission. The virgin birth is the commission of Jesus Christ; He became Christ at that point. At the point that He was commissioned the Messiah came into the world: “Thou shalt call His name [His human name] Jesus.” He became human at the point of His birth but when was He appointed a high priest? Thirty-three years later on the cross when He propitiated the Father, this was the time He was appointed priest.

The one who was appointed priest was a true member of the human race because a priest must be a man to represent man. That is why Jesus Christ was not Melchizedek. Melchizedek was a human being, Aaron was a human being. You had to be a human being to be a priest. A priest is a man who represents himself or others to God and before God. So on the cross when Jesus was appointed high priest you can call Him Jesus but you can’t call Him Christos (χριστός) [pronounced krees-TOSS] — not in connection with the priesthood because Christos (χριστός) [pronounced krees-TOSS] makes Him, the anointed one, King. We are talking about priests, and while He is a King-Priest we are talking about the point of His appointment and therefore it is Jesus and not Christ Jesus. There is no “Christ” in the passage and it does make a difference. It is not a matter of semantics; it is a matter of the Word of God; it is every jot and every tiddle being inspired.

Inviting Christ into the heart if reversionism recovery.

1972 Hebrews 3:1–2 Lesson #17

08/27/1972 Hebrews 3:1–2 Principles of occupation with Christ; faithfulness in Christ. One celebrity, Christ; many heroes, such as Moses

This is a move from the week to Sunday.

Bob reads his translation from the Greek:

Hebrews 3:1 “For which reason, holy members of the family of God, associates of the heavenly vocation, concentrate on the Apostle even High Priest of our acknowledgment, Jesus.”

There is a principle involved here. While the believer is appointed to the priesthood at the moment of salvation he does not function as a priest until he enters the supergrace life by way of the edification complex. You are a priest now, your function in the priesthood awaits your entrance into supergrace.

The objective of the Christian life is to enter into supergrace. This is achieved by the constant exposure to Bible teaching, taking doctrine into the left lobe where it is understood objectively by the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Positive volition or faith then transfers this doctrine into the human spirit where it becomes epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] or useable doctrine. epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] transferred into the right lobe or the heart enters the frame of reference, memory centre, vocabulary and categories, norms and standards, and is place on the launching pad. Once epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] is accumulated it also begins the construction of the edification complex of the soul (ECS). First floor: grace orientation; second floor: mastery of the details of life; third floor: relaxed mental attitude; fourth floor: capacity to love in all categories — toward God; right man-right woman; friendship; and then +H which is the penthouse of the ECS. Once the ECS is achieved the believer enters into supergrace where with the continuation of doctrine he has capacity for freedom, for life, for love, happiness, and this is the objective of the Christian way of life. However, once the ECS is partially or almost constructed there is a great danger. The danger is entering into reversionism. Reversionism takes the opposite tack. It is negative volition toward Bible doctrine, producing scar tissue on the left bank of the soul which opens up a vacuum through which comes Satanic doctrine into the heart or the right lobe. Satanic doctrine attacks frame of reference and memory centre, it attacks norms and standards, the vocabulary categories, it attacks the launching pad with human viewpoint, it produces scar tissue on the right bank, it leads to emotional revolt of the soul, it begins the destruction of the ECS which, when completed, causes the person to be in reversionism and to practice reverse process reversionism.

The issue of chapter three is this: Is Jesus Christ the celebrity of your life through supergrace? Or are you in reversionism. The ones to whom this is addressed, Jewish believers living in Jerusalem in 67 AD, were in reversionism and this is their challenge to get out of reversionism.

Become occupied with... is the command.

Hebrews 3:1 — For which reason, holy members of the family of God, associates of the heavenly vocation, concentrate on the Apostle, even the High Priest of our acknowledgment, Jesus,... R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Doctrine of Occupation with the Person of Christ

1. The basis for occupation with Christ is the intake of Bible doctrine through the function of GAP. God makes love to the believer through Bible doctrine, and the communication of Bible doctrine is the basis for entering into the celebrityship of the Lord Jesus Christ — Jeremiah 9:24; Ephesians 3:18–19; 4:20. You cannot, you will not ever love Jesus Christ apart from the intake of Bible doctrine. This is the capacity to love Him.

a. Specialized priesthood in the Age of Israel; universal priesthood in the Church Age.

b. God makes love to the believer through Bible doctrine.

2. With doctrine as the working object of faith the believer has maximum category #1 response causing him to be designated as philos theou — “Friend of God” — James 2:22,23.

3. Occupation with Christ is based upon the glorification of Christ — Colossians 3:1,2.

4. Occupation with Christ standard operating procedure of the Christian life — Hebrews 12:1,2.

5. Occupation with Christ is illustrated by the doctrine of right man-right woman — Ephesians 5:25–32; 1Corinthians 11:7 (the long hair is the sign of responding to right-man).

6. The function of GAP is the believer responding to Christ’s love — James 1:21,22.

7. The sealing of the Holy Spirit guarantees eternal love relationship between Jesus Christ and the believer — Ephesians 1:11–14.

8. Occupation with Christ bring the believer into a total dependence upon grace provision. Grace provision existed in eternity past, it is the believer’s experience linking up with what God did for him in eternity past — Psalm 37:4,5.

9. Occupation with Christ is related to both stability and inner happiness — Psalm 16:8,9.

10. Occupation with Christ is the basis for blessing in suffering. Reversionism intensifies suffering; occupation with Christ minimizes suffering — Psalm 77.

11. Occupation with Christ is based on the believer’s entrance into the supergrace life — Hebrews 3:1, 6

That was review; Romans will now be taught in the Friday night class.

The challenge is found in this passage.

Our greatest danger on this earth is reversionism.

The words found at the end of v. 1 belongs in v. 2.

Heb 3:2 who was faithful to him who appointed him, just as Moses also was faithful in all God's house. (ESV)

Verse 2 — the celebrity of the Christian way of life, the Lord Jesus Christ. The word “who” is not found in the original. We start out with the word “was,” the present active participle of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. The subject of this participle is the word found at the end of verse 1 — “Jesus.” “Jesus being” (constantly being).” “Jesus” belongs in verse 2, not in verse 1.

Then we have the object of the preposition, “faithful,” accusative singular of the noun pistos. Pistos (πιστός) [pronounced pis-TOSS] means faithfulness to the utmost here because of the absolute status quo verb. “Jesus, being trustworthy [dependable, faithful to the maximum]” .There never was a time when Jesus Christ was unfaithful to you; there never will be a time. Under category #1 love Jesus Christ loves you with a perfect love. He is the object of true love in category #1.

Nothing is solid, stable, worthwhile, honourable or good until first of all it is directed toward God. In other words, if you love Jesus Christ with category #1 love, when you are occupied with the person of Christ, then you have capacity to love others. Your capacity for love is dependent upon going God-ward first, then the human part takes care of itself.

Without doctrine, you will sound like a jackass when you talk about how much you love Jesus and how wonderful He is. But it does not mean a thing. Bible doctrine will change all of that.

Some young man ran around trying to get a petition signed to stop Bob from using profanity from the pulpit. Some don’t know what fornication means; Bob is tempted to use 4 letter words. Sexually infidelity means fornication. That is what you can do with your petition.

We stack ‘em from the ceilings and that is true in Bible class.

After pistos (πιστός) [pronounced pis-TOSS] we have the words “to him” — dative singular of the definite article ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] and should be translated “to the one” [to God the Father]. “Jesus, being faithful to the one.” This is the dative of indirect object to indicate the one, God the Father, in whose interest faithfulness, dependability and trustworthiness existed. Jesus Christ is faithful to us today because first of all He was faithful to God the Father from the time of the virgin birth to the time of the cross. He was faithful in every step of the way, He fulfilled everything that the Father required of Him, including the cross. Faithfulness took our high priest to the cross where He received His appointment.

When we have the ability to love Jesus Christ, then we have the capacity for everything in life.

Jesus is prophet, King and priest, and Savior.

God wanted to give eternal life to man; but how can He do this? He wants to give us His love to the maximum; but that must be accomplished without compromising His righteousness and justice.

The sacrifices were the shadow; and they are fulfilled by the Lord. The people brought the sacrifice; but the person put his hand on the head of the lamb; and the priest then sacrificed the animal.

“that appointed him” — dative of advantage, aorist active participle of poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh]. Poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] means to make, to do, and sometimes when you make something you appoint something. Jesus Christ has never failed and was always faithful.

The aorist tense is gnomic. Gnomic aorist takes an occurrence in eternity past and fulfils it in time at the cross. The aorist tense relates God the Father’s plan in eternity past to the cross in time. The gnomic aorist is an absolute. It is an absolute fact that the Father planned it, it is an absolute fact that the Son executed it, therefore the gnomic aorist means this is without equivocation an absolute fact that cannot be changed by God, by man, by Satan, by anyone or anything. The active voice of the participle indicates that God the Father did the appointing, and the participle itself denotes a principle and at the same time the concept. We also have the fact that the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb was given in verse one — “concentrate on Christ”, be occupied with Christ. Before we could be occupied with the person of Christ and before He could be our celebrity, first of all He had to be appointed high priest. He was appointed in eternity past, He fulfilled the appointment on the cross. It was a part of the Father’s plan in eternity past, it was executed and fulfilled on the cross. We have one celebrity: Jesus Christ our high priest. “Jesus, being faithful to the one having appointed him.” “Him” is the accusative singular of autos which is a reflexive pronoun, here used in its true reflexive sense — “having appointed he himself.” So often the reflexive pronoun autos is used to demonstrate great emphasis, what is really important.

“as also” — hôs (ὡς) [pronounced hohç] kai sets up an analogy. Before hôs (ὡς) [pronounced hohç] kai we have Jesus Christ the only celebrity; after hôs (ὡς) [pronounced hohç] kai we have heroes. There is one celebrity and many heroes. For example, we are now talking about the Jewish Age, the dispensation of Israel. One of the greatest heroes in the dispensation of Israel is Moses. Here is Moses set up as the greatest of Jewish heroes in the Jewish Age, but remember that Moses was a hero because he was a supergrace believer. Jesus is the only celebrity; Moses and Jeremiah are heroes in their own dispensation or their own house. At this point the faithfulness of Moses is emphasized because the Jews involved are believers in the Church Age in 67 AD. In three years the fifth cycle of discipline will hit Jerusalem. Jerusalem will fall and 900,000 people will be slaughtered in two years, and at the end of that time 90,000 Jews will be taken into slavery. It will be one of the greatest disasters in all of human history. The book of Hebrews is written to these people who are believers in reversionism so that they can recover from reversionism and get out of Jerusalem before this occurs.

Moses was considered by all Jews to be great, that is, all Jews but the Jews of his own generation. He was the most damned, the most cursed, the most despised, the most maligned, the most slandered man of his own generation. He was not appreciated, he was despised, the two-million Jews had a lot of complaining to do, and Moses was their target. But no matter how they maligned him, no matter how they hated him and despised his authority, they stayed under his authority in reversionism.

There were a handful of allies for Moses. Aaron, Joshua, Caleb, his Ethiopian wife, and Eleazar. He was still the great leader and led the Jews for 40 years.

Cæsar, the greatest unbelieving genius; and Paul, the greatest believer genius. Both lived within 100 years of one another. Moses was an administrative genius, a construction genius (building two cities), great public speaker, greatest leader, one of the strongest men who ever lived. Bob admires that he broke the neck of a slavedriver. Great writer. But he is greatest, being the most grace oriented person of all time.

Principle: There is only one celebrity; there are many heroes. What made Moses a hero? Not his human genius. What made him great was not anything that Moses could crank up. It was grace. He was one of the most oriented men to grace of all time. God said he was the meekest man that ever lived. Being meek meant that he was the most grace-oriented man who ever lived. He was a supergrace believer, therefore a hero.

Now we meet a hero. We have been discussing in this passage and in the first two chapters, the celebrityship of Jesus Christ; now we come to heroship. This always deals with a believer. The faithfulness of Moses was emphasized by God when he was criticized and maligned for marrying the second time.

Numbers 12:1 — Moses’ wife was an Ethiopian princess, a beautiful woman, and all of the ruling class of Ethiopia at the time of Moses were all white.

Verse 2 — “And hath the Lord spoken only by Moses?” — There are other Bible teachers beside Moses! “Hath he not also spoken by us?”

How about that Miriam! Women Bible teachers! There is no place for them.

And Aaron gets a little nervous now because; “What if they have children,” he says to himself, “if they have children it may be that God will set me aside as the high priest. But God always takes a mealy-mouthed mouse like Aaron and makes him the high priest — so he doesn’t run anything. And God set the precedent. There will always be a stronger man running the priesthood of Israel and there always was. The priesthood of Israel tried to run the country from time to time but they got their butts kicked all over the place. God does not intend for a specialized priesthood to control but to do a job. The specialized priesthood was communication of Bible doctrine through ritual and through teaching. But once you get a universal priesthood God still doesn’t intend for the priest to run the show.

“And the Lord heard it.”

Num 12:1 Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman.

Aaron was concerned that Moses’ sons would be handsome and great and take over in the place of his children.

Num 12:2 And they said, "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?" And the LORD heard it.

Num 12:3 Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth.

Verse 3 — (Now the man Moses was very meek [grace-oriented], above all the men which were upon the face of the earth). Here is a super supergrace believer. Moses had more doctrine in his soul than any man in his time. Moses was the man who communicated doctrine to Israel.

Most people cannot distinguish between pride and the exercise of authority.

Num 12:4 And suddenly the LORD said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, "Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting." And the three of them came out.

Verse 4 — The Lord finally called in Miriam and Aaron and chewed them out, and made it very clear who was running the show.

Num 12:5 And the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward.

Num 12:6 And he said, "Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the LORD make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream.

Verse 6 — “And he [the Lord] said, hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you. I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and speak unto him in a dream.”

Num 12:7 Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house.

Verse 7 — “My servant Moses, not so” — everything they had said about him was wrong — “he is faithful in all my house.”

Num 12:8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?"

Verse 8 — “With him I will speak mouth to mouth.”

Hebrews 3:2 — we have seen in Numbers 12:7 that Moses was en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of o(loj, plus the locative of oikos (οκος) [pronounced OY-koss]. O(loj means entire; oikos (οκος) [pronounced OY-koss] means “house” and refers to a dispensation. Literally then,

Hebrews 3:2 “Jesus, being faithful to the one [God the Father] having appointed him, as also Moses being faithful in his entire house.”

The house of Moses is the time in which he lived, the dispensation in which he lived, the generation in the dispensation in which he lived.

1972 Hebrews 3:3–4 Lesson #18

09/03/1972 Hebrews 3:3–4 Christ, only celebrity, constructed and furnished the dispensations, each having supergrace heroes.

Heb 3:3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. (ESV)

Verse 3 — the difference between a hero and a celebrity. “For” — the particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] used to express cause, inference, continuation or explanation. Here gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] is used in the explanatory sense and should be translated “For example.” The word “this” is a demonstrative pronoun, houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. Houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] is a demonstrative pronoun giving special emphasis to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only celebrity in the Church Age, and it should be translated “this one and only this one” .Jesus Christ is our only celebrity, this is one of the great principles taught in the book of Hebrews.

Early service, very bad manners from a couple of woman. About 6000 people in the pews on Sunday. It is tragic that people cannot understand the importance of the Word of God. They cannot understand the objective of the Word of God. The objective is for the believer to move from spiritual infancy to the supergrace life.

capacity for life, capacity for love are objective of the Christian way of life. That means entry into the supergrace life.

Doctrine of demons attacks every part of the soul. The idea that you do not need doctrinal distinctions. A system of self-righteousness based upon someone else’s unrighteousness. You build up scar tissue. All of this leads to emotional revolt and to reverse process reversionism.

The Jews were occupied with the ancient rituals, the vows, the offerings; and this was a part of their reverse process reversionism. I assume that this is a reference to believing Jews. Moses is a hero because of supergrace. Moses is a hero and Jesus Christ is their Savior. When they go into the sin unto death, they might even renounce Jesus Christ. You leave this life under maximum discipline.

“For example, this one [Jesus Christ]” — “was counted worthy of,” perfect passive indicative of axioô (ἀξιόω) [pronounced ax-ee-OH-oh], it means to be considered worthy of, to be considered deserving of, and it is here a perfect tense. The perfect tense is the permanence of the celebrityship of Jesus Christ. This verb is used to portray for the first time that Jesus Christ is the only celebrity, and the perfect tense is used to show that this is a permanent status quo. In human life celebrities come and celebrities go, but here we have the perfect tense to show that Jesus Christ always was and there never will be a time when He is not a celebrity. Then we have the passive voice: Christ received this permanent evaluation from God the Father when He told Him to sit down at the right hand of the Father. The resurrection, ascension and session of Jesus Christ forms a part of the permanent evaluation of the passive voice. Under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit and under the plan of God the Father the humanity of Christ was resurrected, the humanity of Christ went up to the third heaven, and the humanity of Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, waiting for operation footstool. The indicative mood is the reality of Christ being permanently evaluated as the only celebrity for believers in any dispensation. Moses was a hero in a certain dispensation, Israel, but Jesus Christ is the celebrity of all time, the only celebrity. Moses was the hero of Israel; Christ is the unique person of the universe. “For example, this one [Jesus Christ] has been permanently evaluated deserving of.”

Putting anything before Jesus Christ is indicative that you have not grown up and you have no capacity for life or love.

Moses is to the Jews as Julius Cæsar is to the unbeliever as Paul is to the Christian.

The word “more” is a genitive singular of pleiôn/pleiôn/pleione/pleon (πλείων/πλεον/πλέον) [pronounced PLI-own,PLI-on,PLEH-one/pleon (πλείων/πλεον/πλέον) [pronounced PLI-own,PLI-on,PLEH-on, a comparative of polus,polos (πολύς,πολλός) [pronounced poll-OOS]. Polus,polos (πολύς,πολλός) [pronounced poll-OOS] means “more.” It is found in the emphatic position in the sentence — “absolutely more,” excluding everyone else. The word “glory” is also in the genitive singular of description — doxa (δόξα) [pronounced DOHX-ah], to indicate that there is a glory that belongs to Jesus Christ that is absolutely unique, one that makes Him the only celebrity. There is not such thing as another celebrity, and anyone who is a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and who has reached supergrace has maximum capacity to love Jesus Christ, therefore occupation with Christ, therefore recognizes the celebrityship of Christ. Therefore everything else falls into its proper place. This is a genitive of description. When a genitive stands out boldly in its typical significance without shading off into any combination with some contextual idea this is classified as a descriptive genitive. In other words, the descriptive genitive we might call here the genitive of celebrityship and glory has been used to describe.

When you have a comparative somewhere in the context there must be something with which the comparison is made, and we have that now — “than Moses” .When you have a comparative of polus,polos (πολύς,πολλός) [pronounced poll-OOS] or a comparative of anything else there must be somewhere a preposition plus the accusative. Para is often used for such a comparative, so para is translated here “than.” “Moses” is in the accusative case, and this is what is called para plus the accusative used for a comparison and is correctly translated “than Moses” .Moses, along with the apostle Paul, stands out as a man of unusual genius. If the writer of Hebrews was addressing reversionistic believers he must pick someone who is an obvious, unusually great man, one of the greatest heroes of all. he can’t pick the apostle Paul who is persona non grata with the reversionistic believers of Jerusalem. The apostle Paul is only famous in Jerusalem for the fact that he murdered Christians before he himself was saved. He was a zealous exterminator of Christians. Moses is an illustration of a great hero, a spiritual hero, but Jesus Christ is unique.

The writer points out that Jesus Christ is a greater person than Moses.

Next we have “inasmuch as” — the preposition katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of hosos (ὅσος) [pronounced HOS-os], a correlative relative meaning “as great as” or “as much as.” In the prepositional phrase with katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] it should be translated “by so much as.”

“he who hath builded” — occasionally we find a relative pronoun, like “who”, used in the translation of a aorist participle. We have here an aorist active participle, we do not have a relative pronoun. This was a legitimate way about 150 years ago of translating. Often participles in a foreign language were translated by a relative clause in the English. Our clauses in the English, however, are so fouled up that to improve the translation we stray away from using that relative pronoun in the English. “He who hath builded” is an aorist active participle of kataskeuazô (κατασκευάζω) [pronounced kaht-ask-yoo-AHD-zoh] which means not only to build a house but to furnish it. The builder does the furnishing. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ as the only celebrity. Moses operated in a house.

That house is called the Age of Israel; it is actually divided into three parts. First of all we have the patriarchs from Abraham to Moses. Then we have the law from Moses to Christ. Then we have the dramatic interruption for the Church Age. But there is still some to go on the Age of Israel — seven years — and the Church is going to be raptured and the Jewish Age will then finish up. The first two parts of the Jewish Age are sequential. Then we have an interruption followed by the third part which is the Tribulation. This is a house which really hasn’t been finished yet but Moses lived in this house. He was a hero in the house of Israel or the Age of Israel, but Jesus Christ constructed the house. Jesus Christ is the author of the dispensation. Again, that makes Him the only celebrity. But in the house are some heroes and the one on whom the Holy Spirit focuses with this writer is Moses. So we have “the one having constructed and equipped the house” .The aorist tense is a gnomic aorist. That means that in eternity past the Lord Jesus Christ constructed the dispensations. The active voice: Jesus Christ not only constructed but furnished. And it is a participle. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb.

“the house” — oikos (οκος) [pronounced OY-koss]. You would think that since this is the object of the verb it would be in the accusative case, but it is in the genitive case. This is an objective genitive and the reason it is put in the genitive is because what follows the verb as the object of the verb is used in the sense of description. There is no accusative of description but there is a genitive of description, therefore the genitive case is often used as the object of the verb to show possession or description. In this case description. We have already had the description. This is not referring to a house, it is referring to the structure of human history which is the dispensation of Israel. So by putting it in the genitive God the Holy Spirit tells us we are dealing here with a dispensation, not with a literal house. With a literal house you would put it in the accusative case. So how do you know when the Bible is literal or figurative? You know by exegesis, you know by the grammar, the structure of the original language.

“hath” — here is the main verb, the present active indicative of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh]. Sometimes it means to have and to hold, here it means to have — “keeps having,” present linear aktionsart. Active voice: Jesus Christ is the subject. Indicative mood: this is the main verb which follows the action of the aorist participle. First of all, in eternity past Christ constructed the dispensation, now He has more honour than anyone in the dispensation in time. He has more honour than Moses because in eternity past He designed the dispensation.

“more honour” — the accusative singular of timê (τιμή, ς, ἡ) [pronounced tih-MAY or tee-MAY] which means honour and evaluation, and again we have the accusative singular from pleiôn/pleiôn/pleione/pleon (πλείων/πλεον/πλέον) [pronounced PLI-own,PLI-on,PLEH-on] e/pleon (πλείων/πλεον/πλέον) [pronounced PLI-own,PLI-on,PLEH-on] which is the comparative of polus,polos (πολύς,πολλός) [pronounced poll-OOS].

“than the house” — oikos (οκος) [pronounced OY-koss], and this time oikos (οκος) [pronounced OY-koss] occurs in the ablative of comparison, and again it refers to dispensations.

Hebrews 3:3 “For example, this one [Jesus Christ] has been permanently evaluated deserving of more glory than Moses, by so much as the one having constructed and furnished the house, keeps on having more honour than the house.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This verse says that no matter how you slice it or in what age you find yourself it has always been the same story without exception, Jesus Christ is the only celebrity in history. Jesus Christ constructed the dispensations, He furnished the dispensations with grace provisions. There are heroes within the dispensations. In this Church Age dispensation in which we live any believer who reaches supergrace is a hero, but there is only one celebrity: many heroes; one celebrity.

Heb 3:4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) (ESV)

Verse 4 — there is also a difference between the creature and the creator. This is a new distinction. So much for the dispensational distinction which adds to the celebrityship of Jesus Christ. Now for one which is used to approach Jesus Christ from the standpoint of His deity. Obviously Christ is the only celebrity, Jesus Christ is our Savior. He is also God. He is true humanity but He is undiminished deity.

Again we have the particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] beginning the verse. gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] is used as a conjunction to express cause, inference, continuation, estimation, and here is the explanatory use for the second time in a row. Why? Because in the previous verse the dispensational aspect is used to present the celebrityship of Christ. Now gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] is used again, this time to express the deity of Christ as over against a creature.

“every house” — we have pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] oikos (οκος) [pronounced OY-koss], referring to any dispensation. Now that we have learned that the house here refers to a dispensation, the meaning of a word is determined by its first use in context, it continues to means a dispensation. But now we go from the dispensation of Israel, a specific, to the generality concept. All of the dispensations are involved at this point.

The Dispensations

1. The first dispensation is the Age of the Gentiles, the first age in history. It began with Adam in innocence, from the creation of man, and concludes with the destruction of the first “united nations” building. God does not care for the United Nations, it is just simply a Satanic tool. Whenever someone in associated with promoting the United Nations it is always the same story: that person is the devil’s own tool. So here is a Satanic operation being pushed today in our age of apostasy. In this Age of the Gentiles there are three parts.

a. There is man in perfect environment. Man did not have a sin nature and God provided everything for him. He provided doctrine, sex and food, and man rejected the perfect provision of God. “What’s the matter with some of you, have you never been around?...forget the petitions.” This was the age of perfect environment. Man rejected the perfect environment provided by God.

b. Negative volition was expressed through food; there was one forbidden food. Negative volition caused the fall and once man has an old sin nature he needs protection, so he gets his protection from the laws of divine establishment.

c. So we go from the period of perfect environment to the laws of divine establishment. Then, finally, the laws of divine establishment result in nationalism. So these are the three periods in the dispensation of the Gentiles. Nationalism was attacked by the “united nations” and at that point this particular house was removed from the scene of history and

2. the second house was put up — Israel: the patriarchs, the law,...

3. ...then interruption by the Church Age, and the completion of the Jewish Age with the Tribulation. Then we have the third age which is the Church Age — the third house — in which we find ourselves living today. It is easier in principle to be a hero in the Church Age than in any other house constructed by God. Why? Because the Church Age is the age of the completed canon of scripture.

a. The Church Age is only divided into two parts: from 30 to 96 AD when the canon was being form, called the pre-canon period;...

b. ...from 96 AD right down to this moment we have the post-canon age. So it is easier to be a hero now and to be occupied with the celebrity, Jesus Christ. Why? Because we have doctrine in written form. In principle this should make it easier, but in this generation we have more believers in reversionism than in all of our past history. This is the age of apostasy, reversionism, rejection of Bible teaching.

4. There is one more house that should be added to round out the scene: the Age of Christ, called the Millennium because it lasts 1000 years. But it is the age of the personal rule of Christ in human history. The personal rule of Christ lasts forever but it is divided into two parts. The first part is the Millennium or the first 1000 years of His reign — the last 1000 years of human history. After that He reigns in eternity forever and ever. Jesus Christ as the only celebrity, as the God-Man, as the King of kings and Lord of lords, is going to return to the earth. He is going to be crowned and He is going to live as the ruler of the world for 1000 years. There will be once again, as at the beginning of history, perfect environment on the earth.

So, “every house” refers to the whole pattern of history from the viewpoint of dispensations. Remember that a dispensation is merely a period of human history from the divine viewpoint, from the standpoint of divine design, divine planning and divine construction. “For every house,” pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] oikos (οκος) [pronounced OY-koss], means every dispensation, “is builded” — the present passive indicative of kataskeuazô (κατασκευάζω) [pronounced kaht-ask-yoo-AHD-zoh], which means to construct and furnish. The present tense is the continuation of dispensations. The passive voice: God uses human agents, human heroes, to administer each dispensation. The one in context is Moses in the specific house of Israel. The indicative mood is the reality of human function, believers in each dispensation who are supergrace heroes. Right now you are a believer priest. Right now God is constructing the Church Age from the lives of believer priests as he has provided for them in grace. The heroes of this dispensation are supergrace believers. So we read, “For every house is constructed and furnished by some man”, literally, “by the agency of someone” — we have the preposition hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus the ablative which is used to express agency. We have as the ablative here the indefinite pronoun tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç], meaning “someone.” So it should be translated “by the agency of someone” .The agency in this case is Moses. God used many agents during the Age of Israel — Abraham, Moses, Joseph, the judges, the prophets and certain kings. This passage emphasizes, however, Moses as the great hero in his house.

“but” — this is the adversative use of the particle de to set up a conjunction of contrast — “he that built”, kataskueazw here is an aorist active participle. Twice the word is used with God as the subject, once as man. When the subject is God it refers to the only celebrity, Jesus Christ. When man is the subject it refers to a hero of the faith. One celebrity; many heroes. This time the subject of the participle is really Jesus Christ as it was the first time.

“all things” — the accusative plural of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] used to indicate everything that Christ constructed. History and the dispensations is only one thing that Jesus Christ constructed. This is in the plural to indicate He constructed the universe — Colossians 1:16.

“God” — there is no verb here; there is no definite article with theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS]. When a Greek wanted to emphasize the meaning of a noun they put the definite article in. If they wanted merely to define the noun it would be ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS]. But the absence of the definite article in the Greek indicates the quality of the one being defined by the noun. So the absence of the definite article emphasizes quality or essence here, the essence of God. God is the creator and, specifically God the Son is involved at this point. Jesus Christ is the only creator — John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:10.

Hebrews 3:4 “For every house is constructed and furnished by the agency of someone; but the one [Christ] having constructed and furnished all things, God.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. Jesus Christ is the author of the dispensations — Hebrews 1:2.

2. Jesus Christ is the only celebrity; Moses is one of many heroes in the Age of Israel.

3. Jesus Christ is the unique person of the universe, the only celebrity. In this passage He is recognized as a celebrity because He is God and therefore infinitely superior to all creatures. Secondly, He is recognized because of His priesthood. Thirdly, because of His Kingship. Fourth, because of His relationship to the plan of the Father and the fact that he is the revealer of the Godhead to man and He is the advocate and the intercessor from mankind to the Godhead — He is the mediator, then.

4. At the point of doctrine there are many grace heroes but only one grace celebrity.

5. Moses was a hero in the house furnished by grace, but Christ is the celebrity who constructed and furnished the house.

6. In the history of grace there are many heroes but there is only one celebrity who is the source of all grace. In other words, the only celebrity is also the source of grace

1972 Hebrews Lesson #19

09/10/1972 Hebrews 3:5 Characteristics of Moses, 1 of the 3 greatest supergrace heroes

A reading of these verses.

Heb 3:5 Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant, to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, (ESV)

Moses is the hero in his house; but Jesus is the celebrity.

Verse 5 — “And Moses” — Kai Mwushj. This is in the emphatic position. We have an emphatic kai plus the Hellenised form of the Hebrew word for “Moses.” This relates back to the prepositional phrase of the previous verse “by the agency of someone.” Moses is emphasized as one of the greatest heroes on supergrace of all time.

3 greatest supergrace heroes would be Moses, Jeremiah and Paul.

The various men that God has used in different ages. God uses any believer who gets into supergrace and stays there.

“verily” — the particle used is an emphatic particle, men, and it indicates that everything before it in the sentence has great emphasis. “And Moses in fact” would be a good modern translation. Then we have the word “faithful,” the nominative singular of pistos (πιστός) [pronounced pis-TOSS] which means not just faithful as we understand the word but faithful with the connotation of dependability. Dependability is a sign of stability. To be consistent in certain things that ought to be done, that have to be done; to be consistent in certain functions of life which are legitimate and bona fide, functions of modus operandi or modus vivendi.

“Moses in fact was dependable [faithful, trustworthy] in all his house” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of oikos (οκος) [pronounced OY-koss] refers to the entire dispensation of Israel. Moses was the one man above all men who was more positive to doctrine than anyone who lived in his dispensation.

Abraham crossed the river, in obedience to God, and this began a new dispensation. The Jewish Age, and he begins the first part of it, which is the patriarchal period.

Why did Moses, receive all of the doctrine, and not Aaron, whose line began the royal priesthood? Moses was positive towards Bible doctrine, more than any other person; and possibly more than anyone who has ever lived. Moses and the Apostle Paul are the two most positive men in history. Moses longed to see our day, and that is because there were many doctrines which would not be given until the Church Age.

What kind of man is Moses from human viewpoint? He was a very attractive man; his physical body and strength was phenomenal. He was a genius in many fields.

Many geniuses are geniuses in one or two fields, and they are weirdos. They do not adjust to anything else. But Moses is a greater genius in more fields than any other man.

Moses was a musical genius, writing the music that the people sang. Long before the Israelites knew how to wield a sword, Moses was a great warrior; and he was a military genius, able to train them.

He constructed the treasure cities of Egypt, their greatest cities.

He set up the administrative system so that Egypt had the greatest period of Egyptian history for government administration. Moses was even a great administrator than Julius Cæsar. His administration broke down when dealing with thousands of Israelites in negative volition.

Moses could whip you in seconds; he could out think you in any way you wanted to challenge him; yet he was the most humble man who ever lived. He is a great man in all of human history. God did not choose to use even 1cc of his human genius unless that was related to his intake of Bible doctrine. Only when he took in Bible doctrine, that God allowed his musical genius to become operational.

Moses, despite being a military genius, was not permitted to lead his troops into battle. Holy rollers often just lift their hands into the air. Give me the old holy rollers who would roll in the aisle and frothed at the mouth and danced in the choir loft. Bob was very impressed with their dancing. He saw something similar in a Frank Buck film of Massai warriors. Old holy rollers were honest and you could respect them, even though they are wrong. He has no respect for holy rollers today, who are dishonest holy roller. They would do better to go back to their snake dances and conga dances.

Take away grace and doctrinal orientation, and Moses is just another genius.

So many geniuses in the United States are often misfits with no common sense.

It is not accident that God chose Moses as a supergrace hero. He was more positive to doctrine than anyone who lived in his dispensation. The two greatest men are Moses and Paul; and they are both Jews.

“Get those girls who walked out and tell them not to come back. Some of you parents need to hang closer to your children; they are not doing so well.”

If Bible doctrine becomes your life, no matter what your expressions of life may be, no matter what your job, then you have the opportunity of being something fantastic. The real secret to success for any believer is measured in terms of his attitude toward Bible doctrine. Whether you have any ambition in life is really inconsequential. You have been left behind in this life in order to honour God in a special way, and it depends entirely on Bible doctrine. “And Moses in fact was faithful [trustworthy, dependable].” Pistos (πιστός) [pronounced pis-TOSS] is used here for his attitude toward doctrine. He was consistent in the intake of doctrine, he was consistent in his desire for doctrine, he realized that the most important thing in his life was doctrine and that everything else was secondary.

We have more than Moses had, since we are in the Church Age. We have the complete system of doctrine before us.

“as a servant” — this is not doulos (δολος) [pronounced DEW-loss], which means “slave.” There is another word in the Koine Greek which is only used here: therapôn. Then word means a noble servant, not just a slave who does his job but a slave who has nobility of soul and it manifests itself. One of the greatest by-products of being a supergrace hero is nobility of soul from Bible doctrine. The background of the individual makes absolutely no difference. A person who is a supergrace believer is not a product of his environment, he is a product of the plan of God. What we are because of physical birth becomes of no consequence, it is what we are after the new birth.

Scythians were some of the worst people in the world, who drank out of sculls. God can take a trashy person and make him noble; and a rich person can become trashy, without Bible doctrine.

Col. 3 no Scythians. There is no wrong side of the tracks with a supergrace hero.

A whole generation failed because of negative volition toward doctrine. Potentially, every person in this generation can become a Moses. Even as a female, you can become a Moses.

A noble servant is a believer who is pistos (πιστός) [pronounced pis-TOSS] when it comes to Bible doctrine — dependable, faithful, trustworthy, stable. Bible doctrine is more important than anything else and everything else is set aside as secondary.

You think that you can come to church once a week and make it? You cannot. You don’t eat physical food once a week.

People in reversionism suddenly want the rapture to come. It is rather humorous in a way when it comes to Bible doctrine.

If you have a great spiritual life, then you can enjoy the secondary things. Moses got remarried and it bugged his sister. He exploited Bible doctrine and the grace of God to the maximum. It drove his sister nuts. She got leprosy for that.

A good servant is one of the greatest things in the world. Bob has lived in a family with servants; they were happy, well-adjusted, and they loved serving. One servant who loved driving, and loved tinkering with those cars. But the liberals got a hold of him and he quit and was no longer happy. The government decides what makes you happy. They don’t know what makes you happy. Money isn’t happiness; Bible doctrine is happiness; and the laws of divine establishment are happiness. Government cannot take a sow’s ear and turn it into a silk purse. Bob knows a lot of happy sow’s ears and a lot of unhappy silk purses. The government cannot figure out what to make a person happy.

The Constitution says, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. You can only pursue happiness with liberty. If the government decides to make you happy, they have to remove the other options from you; they must take away your freedom. “You do not have the ability to figure out what makes you happy.” The lib is always unhappy; and he cannot decide how to make himself happy; yet he wants to make this decision for everyone else. People in this country are so stupid and so brainwashed that they will vote for this candidate (McGovern). The business of government is not to take away our freedoms. We need to decide what makes us happy. Let’s say Bob thinks that living on the beach with a pair a trunks without being disturbed by a bunch of hippies. Bob’s idea of happiness is to swim 4x a day when the waves are up. The government, leave me alone. A government will collect some taxes and there is some responsibility to the military. Government has not right to knock on my door and want to know how many toilets I have or how many children I have. As a beach boy, I might not want others to know that.

People in government are poor businessmen and they don’t know anything about real life. Some little mealy mouth jackass from the government is allowed to stop some big business over some problem that he has. You take one generation of Americans who are positive of Bible doctrine, and you will be the closest thing to the super race, no matter what color they are. This will be the greatest people around. Politicians who promise a basic salary would be laughed out of the world.

Only Goldwater could be elected if there were a bunch of supergrace believers. Bible doctrine changes things. We have failed as believers and as a nation.

Moses had positive volition. There were a few others, like Caleb and Joshua. But there was never a man like Moses. He was a fantastic person. So he is recorded so many times in the Word of God.

“for a testimony” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative singular of marturion (μαρτύριον) [pronounced mar-TOO-ree-on]. This does not mean “for a testimony.” If we are going to give it its exact meaning in modern English we have to be very clear — “for evidence.” Moses is evidence, evidence for the importance of entering the supergrace life. Moses and his positive volition stands as the all-time evidence of how important it is to enter supergrace, how important it is to be positive toward Bible doctrine. This is divine evidence that it is possible for a person with the greatest handicap in the world, that is, to be a super genius. When a super genius will set aside everything and be positive toward Bible doctrine that is evidence.

“of those things which” — not correct. “For evidence of things being communicated” is the correct translation.

“were to be spoken after” is the genitive plural, future passive participle of laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh]. Laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh] is a future tense to indicate in the participle that Moses will stand in every future generation as to what can be done when a person is positive toward doctrine. No one has ever exploited grace like Moses, and like the apostle Paul, but anyone can who is a believer. You have to make up your mind to do it and are going to have to set aside everything to take in doctrine and take in doctrine. The passive voice means that Moses receives commendation as evidence. The participle indicates this will always be true, and it should be translated “of the things which were to be communicated.” Supergrace was to be communicated in the New Testament epistles. Many principles of doctrine were to be communicated throughout the formation of the canon of scripture, and whenever these were to be communicated Moses stands as evidence. This can be accomplished, you can enter into supergrace, you can exploit the grace of God through doctrine. Moses as a grace hero is used as evidence not only against reversionism, and specifically against reversionism in the Exodus generation, but every generation of believers who through negative volition toward doctrine become reversionistic. So Moses is evidence for the importance of supergrace, but the word “evidence” [marturion (μαρτύριον) [pronounced mar-TOO-ree-on]] really here means evidence against. And every believer who ever goes negative toward doctrine for any time, Moses stands as evidence against him. Moses is evidence against his own generation but the future tense of the participle indicates he is evidence against every generation.

Hebrews 3:5 “Now Moses in fact, faithful [dependable, trustworthy] in all his house [the dispensation of Israel], as a noble servant, for evidence of things being communicated in the future.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews Lesson #20

09/17/1972 Hebrews 3:6 Christ's house = Church Age; supergrace hero in Church Age

Heb 3:6 ...but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope. (ESV)

Verse 6 — “But Christ” — the adversative use of the particle de sets up a contrast between Moses as a supergrace hero and the Lord Jesus Christ as the only celebrity — “as a son,” the adverb hôs (ὡς) [pronounced hohç] plus huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS] is in contrast to the previous verse. Huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS] means an adult son, a mature son.

In the previous verse we saw that Moses was hôs (ὡς) [pronounced hohç] qerapwn, a noble servant, a hero, but Jesus Christ is in contrast to him as the adult son, as the only celebrity in any dispensation. Moses is in the house; Christ is over the house.

“over his own house” — the preposition epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the accusative of oikos (οκος) [pronounced OY-koss]. We had, for example, Moses in the previous verse en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus oikos (οκος) [pronounced OY-koss], and here is the difference, the preposition epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] over en (ἐν) [pronounced en]. epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] means authority over something; en (ἐν) [pronounced en] means in something. So the Lord Jesus Christ is over the house of Israel of which Moses was a hero in the house. Moses is in the house; Christ is over the house, once again establishing the uniqueness of the person of Christ. He is undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever. He is the only manifestation of God, He represents and epitomises everything that is important in God’s plan under the concept of grace. He is the object of category #1 love, but people do not love Christ apart from the intake of Bible doctrine. Lack of doctrine means lack of appreciation, lack of capacity for loving the Lord Jesus Christ. Capacity for loving Jesus Christ is based upon Bible doctrine in the soul. So Christ is the only celebrity. Once this is achieved through the intake of doctrine and the entrance into the supergrace life then the believer fulfils his priesthood. There is no fulfilment of his priesthood until he is a supergrace believer. The universal priesthood of the Church is based upon being a supergrace hero.

Christ is both over the house of Israel and over the house called the Church. In other words, He is the chief cornerstone, the stone on the corner where two walls come together. One wall is Israel. Jesus Christ is the King of Israel, David’s greater son and a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Christ is also the head of the Church, the groom to the Church, His bride; He is the head of the body. So Christ is the chief cornerstone.

So literally, “But Christ as an adult son over his house.”

The next phrase indicates that we are now discussing not the house of Israel of the previous verse but the house which represents the Church Age; “whose house” — genitive singular of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç], referring to the Church Age. And again we have oikos (οκος) [pronounced OY-koss], only this time it represents the Church Age rather than the Age of Israel.

“we are” — present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], the absolute status quo verb — “we keep on being.” Since the Church Age is a house over which Christ rules as an adult son it has certain unique features which did not exist in the previous dispensation mentioned in verse 5.

Nine Unique Features of the Church Age

1. Every believer is in union with Jesus Christ, this was never true before. Every believer has been entered into union with Christ as of the point of salvation, this is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

2. Every believer is indwelt by the person of Jesus Christ. No Old Testament believer was ever indwelt by Christ.

3. Every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. While God the Holy Spirit had a ministry of enduement or empowerment to certain Old Testament saints the universal indwelling of God the Holy Spirit is unique to the Church Age.

4. For the first time in history every believer is his own priest, therefore every believer must function in his priesthood and this demands the supergrace life.

5. We have a completed canon of scripture and in this house or dispensation all divine revelation is in written form. There is no extra-biblical revelation in this dispensation. God does not speak except through His Word. No dreams or visions.

6. We have a clearly-defined grace way of life superior to and superseding anything that has ever existed prior to this dispensation. This is also the dispensation of grace.

7. Therefore every believer is in full-time Christian service, every believer is an ambassador for Christ, every believer represents Christ in the devil’s world. In the devil’s world there is no Jesus Christ because He is seated at the right hand of the Father, He is represented by you.

8. We have the intensification of the angelic conflict. Never before in human history has there been such an intensification of the angelic conflict. Therefore we live the most difficult of all dispensations, much more so even than the Tribulation (Rev.6–19).

9. All believers are commanded to go for the supergrace life by way of the ECS, and all such commands are based upon the full and only expression of the priesthood. Every believer is a priest, God does not intend for your priesthood to get rusty. Every believer is an ambassador. God does not intend for the corrosion, for the disintegration of your ambassadorship.

10. Our focus should be upon occupation with Christ; and not with production. Production is a manifestation of the supergrace life.

The objective of the Christian is to take in Bible doctrine, and when you reach the supergrace point God will have you occupied with those things that are productive. But we never think in terms of production, we think in terms of occupation with the person, not in doing something for God. God does not depend upon us for His plan to succeed in time. God’s plan depends upon God’s essence, God’s concepts, God’s grace; it never depends on us. The fact that we are permitted under grace to be productive to the maximum is simply a manifestation of His perfect plan. All believers are commanded to enter the supergrace life by way of construction of the ECS.

Maybe you feel insignificant; maybe your week seems terrible; and you may not feel like a representative of the King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Christianity never is based upon how we feel.

“if” — “we” refers to all believers. The only people, however, who qualify are believers who enter the supergrace life. Supergrace heroes function under the priesthood and have the privilege of maximum glorification of Christ under the intensified angelic conflict. All believers are the house of Jesus Christ but only supergrace believers become heroes as Moses was. The word “if” introduces a third class condition. Third class conditions are easy to recognize. We start out with eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN] in the protasis plus the subjunctive mood of the verb. The conditional clause is divided into two sentences, the protasis and the apodosis.

The 4 Class Conditions

1. The protasis always qualifies what the apodosis says. For example, if the protasis says “If you give me the car I will go to the store.” The store is across the street. The person is qualifying under what conditions they will go to the store. They will go to the store if they are permitted to drive. The Greeks could say this in four ways. They could say, “If you will give me the car I will go to the store” —

2. 1st class condition, and you will give me the car. Sometimes in English you can translate a 1st class condition, “Since you have given me the car I will go to the store.”

3. But in the second class condition you have been told, “No, you can’t go.” So you say, “If you will give me the car (and you won’t) I will go to the store,” which means “I won’t go to the store.”

4. The third class condition means you haven’t asked for the car yet, so the 3rd class condition is potential — maybe yes, maybe no. This time, “If you give me the car I will go to the store” is a bribe: “If you give me the car I will do something for you.”

5. Then the fourth class condition expresses a youngster who has just learned to drive and you don’t allow them to drive yet: “If you will give me the car (I wish you would but you won’t) I’ll go to the store. In the English we have no such exegetical, grammatical systems to make these distinctions, so we have to make them in other ways.

The third class condition indicates the believer’s volition in moving toward supergrace or toward entering into reversionism. This “if” indicates the direction in which you or I will go as believers in the Church Age. The first part of this sentence says, “But Christ as an adult son over his house; whose house we are.” We live in a certain time in history, we live in the dispensation of the Church, we are the administrators of that dispensation. As an administrator, as a believer in the ministry, as an ambassador, as a priest, you are a part of the function of this dispensation. And if you could know the divine interpretation of history your life is of much greater significance than the broad scope of activity historically in our time in this world. What you do is much more important and your first objective after salvation is to reach the supergrace life. Until you reach supergrace you’ve had it, you are just wobbling around. But once you reach supergrace there is a big “if,” and here it is.

“if we hold fast” — “we hold fast” is an aorist active subjunctive of a compound verb, katechô (κατέχω) [pronounced kaht-EH-khoh]. katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] is the preposition of norm or standard, it also means “down” under certain conditions. echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] means to have and to hold. It means here to have and to hold according to a norm and standard, to have and to hold down something. It means here to hold fast, or even stronger than that, to keep in one’s memory, to occupy, to have in full and secure possession. There is also a nautical use of this word: to steer toward something or to make a heading, to be on course. All these meanings relate to heading for and maintaining a course toward the supergrace life. In the breakdown of the verbs there is a definite relationship between these compounds. In Hebrews 3:1 we had the aorist active imperative of katanoeô (κατανοέω) [pronounced kat-an-oh-EH-oh]. This is the verb for occupation with the person of Christ as the only celebrity of our dispensation. It used for occupation with Christ on the part of a supergrace believer.

Now in verse 6 we have katechô (κατέχω) [pronounced kaht-EH-khoh] used for heading toward and maintaining a course toward supergrace. Verse 1 gave us the objective, now under katechô (κατέχω) [pronounced kaht-EH-khoh] we have the course. There are three meanings of the verb that are pertinent here. “If we hold fast” is the simplest translation. It obviously refers to doctrine in the right lobe, doctrine in the ECS, and doctrine in the supergrace area. “If we hold fast” — maybe we will and maybe we won’t — depends upon the function of GAP.

Bible doctrine goes into the left lobe as gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis]. As gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis] Bible doctrine is understood objectively but is not useable. James says this is hearing the Word but not doing it. If you are going to do it it must be transferred by positive volition into the human spirit where it becomes epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] . epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] is useable. First it is cycled into the right lobe or the heart. It enters into the frame of reference with the memory centre, it enters into our vocabulary and categories, into our norms and standards. It becomes swfia or doctrine on the launching pad. It is also used for the construction of the ECS — first floor: grace orientation; second floor: mastery of the details of life; third floor: relaxed mental attitude; fourth floor: capacity for love; and the fifth floor is +H. From +H you enter into the supergrace life which is capacity for freedom, capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for happiness. That is the objective. “If you hold fast” — keep on taking in doctrine, keep on taking in doctrine — you will reach the objective where you can have the normal function of the priesthood which is the supergrace life.

This also means “if we have in full and secure possession” .And again, it has the same meaning: doctrine in each one of the lobes, doctrine in the human spirit, doctrine in the ECS, doctrine contributing to the supergrace life.

The third meaning is the nautical term: “If we steer for and maintain our course.” This emphasizes the daily function of GAP leading to supergrace. This is the translation we will use. Katechô (κατέχω) [pronounced kaht-EH-khoh] is in the aorist tense here. This is the constative aorist which gathers into one ball of wax every time we take in doctrine, every day that we feed our soul on Bible doctrine under the system designed for the Church Age: a pastor-teacher communicating with authority to a congregation of believer priests. The active voice: the believer priest must persist in the function of GAP until he reaches the point where he can function in a normal way. We are born again at the point of salvation. That is the point at which we become priests, but we are, as it were, born into the family of God born into a priesthood and we must become spiritually mature in order for normal function to exist in our priesthood. Normal function does not exist until we enter the supergrace life, then we are able to actually function under the priesthood. The subjunctive mood here indicates a third class condition — maybe we will, maybe we won’t .The third class condition indicates, along with the subjunctive mood, that you have volition. You can choose for Bible doctrine or not. You can set aside other things and take in doctrine on a crash basis. You can take in Bible doctrine daily. But every time you come to a Bible class that is a decision you have to make. And if at some point you neglect doctrine, if at some point you fail to take in doctrine, and if you fail to make this decision, then instead of going for supergrace you move into reversionism through the usual process — negative volition toward Bible doctrine, scar tissue on the soul, emotional revolt of the soul, blackout of the soul, reverse process reversionism in practice, reversionism in status quo. All of these things will occur. So there must be a course toward which you steer and a course which, once you are steering in that direction, you must maintain. There are two objectives, nautically speaking, from this verb katechô (κατέχω) [pronounced kaht-EH-khoh]. One is to steer, so we set the course and steer in that direction. But maybe to maintain that course you have to even tack in order to maintain the course in spite of contrary winds, in spite of difficulties, storms, and so on.

“the confidence” — “confidence” here is the accusative singular of parrhêsia (παῤῥησία) [pronounced par-rhay-SEE-ah],. It really means here confidence or assurance or authority, confidence in the authority of doctrine. These meanings are derived from the original concept of this noun which meant outspokenness or boldness of speech, and confidence here is confidence in the authority of Bible doctrine as it is presented to you.

The next phrase has to do with a fulfilment concept. It has to do not with being in the house, the Church Age, but being effective in the house, being effective in our priesthood. If we do “steer and maintain our course with confidence in doctrine” we are going to end up occupied with the high priest, occupied with the person of Jesus Christ the only celebrity of the Church Age. So we have “and the rejoicing of the hope.” The word “rejoicing” is not rejoicing at all, it is the accusative singular of a noun kauxhma which means “boasting” — the object of boasting. It refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as the only celebrity of the Church Age. However, Christ can only become the object of boasting to the believer who has erected the edification complex and has capacity to love Jesus Christ. Capacity to love Jesus Christ comes from Bible doctrine, it comes from taking it in daily.

“of the hope” — this is what is called a descriptive genitive singular of the noun elpís (ἐλπις) [pronounced el-PIS]. Generally, elpís (ἐλπις) [pronounced el-PIS] would mean confidence, hope, or expectation. Here it means expectation. This is anticipation of our life with the Lord in phase three. Right now we are here in time. Our whole life is ordered by time. Let’s assume for the moment that you are going to enter phase three through physical death, through dying grace. That is what is meant here by “the object of boasting of the expectation.” The expectation of the priesthood is to be with God forever. In other words, there is a time coming when you are going to depart from this world and your soul will vacate your body. You will no longer be in the house called the Church Age, you will be taken immediately to heaven. Your soul will be absent from the body and face to face with the Lord. You will go from whatever you are in this life to perfect happiness. That is our expectation or our hope.

The next word is “firm”, the accusative feminine singular from bébaios (βέβαιος) [pronounced BEB-ah-yoss] and it doesn’t mean firm, it means “stabilized.” This means never leaving supergrace for reversionism.

“unto the end”, an adverbial preposition of time, mechri/mechris (μέχρι/μεχρίς) [pronounced MEHKH-ree/mekh-RIHS] plus the genitive of telos (τέλος) [pronounced TEHL-oss]. It should be translated “until the end” — until the end of phase two.

Hebrews 3:6 “But Christ as an adult son over his house; whose house we are, [if we hold fast, if we have in full and secure possession] if we steer and maintain our course of the confidence and the object of boasting [Christ as the only celebrity] of the expectation, stabilized until the end.”

Stabilized is something that we need in life. It is our soul that is saved and enters into phase III before the Lord. It is our soul that needs to be fed. It is of infinite value to the Lord.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #21

09/24/1972 Hebrews 3:7 Doctrine of GAP (extensive coverage)

Reversionism of the Exodus generation

Heb 3:7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, "Today, if you hear his voice, (ESV)

Verse 7 begins with the word “Wherefore.” This is the beginning of the study of the reversionism of the Exodus generation. In verses 7–11 we have a warning from the Meribah revolution, one of the most serious revolts of all time as far as believers are concerned. The worst thing that can happen to any believer is the status of reversionism. There are basically three kinds, and possibly four, of reversionism. There is phallic reversionism, monetary reversionism, ritual reversionism, and also the negative volition type of reversionism which is really the basis for everything else. In this particular chapter we see one of the greatest illustrations of a generation of believers totally failing. Ordinarily we do not think of believers as failing because of the tremendous benefits of the grace of God. But through the principle of reversionism this failure is not only probable but is very definite reality. Here is what reversionism can do to destroy a whole generation of believers. The word “wherefore” which begins verse 7 is an inferential conjunction, dio (διό) [pronounced DEE-oh] (διό) [pronounced DEE-oh]. It is a compound conjunction made up of dia plus hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] and it means “for this reason.”

Because of the celebrityship of Jesus Christ, because of the potential heroship of every believer-priest in the Church Age, this following paragraph is given as a warning. There is a potential danger always from reversionism. Every believer is a priest, every believer has unlimited divine operating assets which can come to him through the daily function of GAP and result in the ECS and the function of the supergrace life. The supergrace life for the believer is the area of heroship, it is also the area in which Jesus Christ is the only celebrity.

“as” begins an analogy. The adverb kathôs (καθώς) [pronounced kahth-OCE] is used to set up a comparison and should be translated “according as.” Then, in addition to that we have the next phrase “Holy Ghost.” This is a mistranslation of to pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah]tw hagion (ἅγιον) [pronounced HAG-ee-on]. Hagion (ἅγιον) [pronounced HAG-ee-on] never means ghost. This was an attempt on the part of translators 300 years ago to use some device to distinguish between the technical and non-technical use of the neuter noun pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] Sometimes pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] means nothing more than breath or spirit, and sometimes it refers technically to the human spirit as a part of God’s provision of the inner life. Sometimes it is used for the third person of the Trinity, and in an attempt to show that this member of the Trinity was just as much God as the others, but invisible, they set upon the concept of using the word “ghost”; a fairly respectable word some 300 years ago but has now fallen into decline. While the translation device was workable at the time it is a part of the problem of anachronism which obscures certain portions of the Word of God today. So we translate it: “According as the Holy Spirit.” This is a reference to the third person of the Trinity, also a reference to that member of the Trinity responsible for the canon of scripture — its accuracy and the principle by which the canon of the scripture is the only source of Bible doctrine. So here we have the divine author of the canon of scripture, and 2Timothy 3:16; 2Peter 1:21 both indicates the same principle. The writers of the scripture in the Old Testament had the gift of prophecy; the writers of the scripture, New Testament, had the gift of apostleship. These two gifts under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit made it possible to store in writing the very mind of Christ.

“saith” — present active indicative of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] which means to communicate. So this is the divine side of the preparation of the Holy scripture. Now we have with “saith,” Psalm 95:8–11 quoted. The passage deals with the Meribah revolution, and the repercussions of the Meribah revolution and the reversionism which started it are alive in every generation. First of all in the Meribah revolution there are several things to be understood. All revolution is rejection of human or divinely constituted authority. All revolution is antagonistic to the laws of divine establishment, and the greatest antagonism to authority as constituted by God comes from born again believers in status quo reversionism. The greatest antagonists to authority are believers in reversionism. The source of legalism is believers in reversionism. The source of everything that is anti-establishment and detrimental to humanity comes from reversionism. This is the great lesson of the Meribah revolution.

“Today” is an adverb, sêmeron (σήμερον) [pronounced SAY-mer-on], which begins the quotation. The whole principle of beginning the quotation with sêmeron (σήμερον) [pronounced SAY-mer-on] — which is translated “this day” — indicates that this passage dealing with a revolution which occurred in the time of Moses is pertinent to us right now. However, this adverb occurred first of all in the Hebrew text of Psalm 95. That means it was pertinent to the generation in which David lived which was 1000 BC or roughly 450 years after the events occurred. It was also pertinent to believers of the first century AD because it is quoted in Hebrews chapter three. That means Hebrews chapter three was written in 67 AD, so nearly 1000 years later the Meribah revolution is still pertinent to the life of the individual believer. It is also pertinent to the 20th century believer to whom it is now being taught and it is also applied to the Exodus generation.

The communist revolution was one of the worst things to occur in human history. Bob wanted to watch McHale’s Navy, and he came across the documentary which he thought was exceptional and it will be played at Berachah soon (like the next lesson?).

“Today” is literally “this day”; this is a continuous day. This is a day in which the Meribah revolution is pertinent to every period of human history. It is a warning to believers that their individual and collective reversionism has a detrimental effect upon history.

As a part of this particular passage we have to understand that immediately we go into a protasis, and in this particular protasis we begin with the word “if,” introducing a third class condition — eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN] plus the subjunctive. Remember that conditional clauses have a protasis and an apodosis. The apodosis is the main clause; the protasis[1] is a clause which limits the main clause and is always introduced with the word “if” to indicate a condition. Eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN] is an “if,” a third class condition meaning “maybe yes, maybe no.” This conditional clause emphasizes your volition as a believer priest and how it relates to Bible doctrine. There is a principle from the word “if” here: The believer can always find time to do what he thinks is important. Man can always find time to do what he wants to do and the believer is no exception. The word “if” is used to introduce the fact you can take in Bible doctrine every day but that is strictly up to your volition. God will provide a way for positive volition.

“if ye will hear” — the aorist active subjunctive of the verb akoúô (ἀκούω) [pronounced ah-KOO-oh]. This means to hear and to concentrate and is used here for the function of GAP. It also means to hear and accept the authority of the one who teaches and communicates the Word and it has basically the true Biblical concept of discipleship. The believer in the local church is a student without privilege and without portfolio. He has come to learn the Word and therefore he must set aside all human authority or human ability or human talent and must take in Bible doctrine. The aorist tense here is a constative aorist used for every time the believer functions in GAP. The active voice: Every believer must produce the action of the verb by his daily function of GAP, this is the basic reason for the priesthood. There was no universal priesthood of the believer until there was a canon of scripture available to every priest. Now we have the universal priesthood of the believer and the completed canon of scripture. All doctrine, all divine revelation is in writing. Since it is all in writing every believer priest on positive volition can GAP it daily. The subjunctive mood goes with the third class condition to indicate the potentiality of GAP, depending on whether the believer is positive or negative toward Bible doctrine. There are two things that must be connected here and that is the adverb and the verb. The adverb is “this day,” sêmeron (σήμερον) [pronounced SAY-mer-on]; the verb is akoúô (ἀκούω) [pronounced ah-KOO-oh]. Believers in every generation, from the Exodus generation to the present, must be consistent in the intake of Bible doctrine as it is presented in each generation. The principle concept, then, is that Bible doctrine is absolutely necessary every day. This is how you grow; this is why your soul is saved, so that in phase two you might take in Bible doctrine.

The Doctrine of Gap (Grace Apparatus for Perception)

1. In considering any system of perspicacity by grace we must distinguish between human and spiritual IQ. Human IQ is the number assigned to a person on the basis of dividing their mental age by their chronological age. There is no equality at birth and there is no equality after birth in the field of perspicacity. A person can be as a believer very stupid by the measuring standard of the IQ test. However, this same believer can be so positive toward doctrine that he is given by grace the perspicacity of a genius, and if he sticks with Bible doctrine there is nothing he cannot learn. There is a distinction between human and spiritual IQ, and this distinction is brought forth in 1Corinthians 2:1–16.

1) Some people are smart and they fall for communistic propaganda; it appeals to them and their human viewpoint.

2) The illusion that education is the solution to man’s problems. This is why they are trying to get everyone into college. When Bob went to college, the only stupid people who could get in were football players.

3) Some football players figured out that they could take 4 years of ROTC.

4) People on our campuses have no right to be there today.

5) Some think that education will bring equality to all, but that just does not happen; the grades given out are different.

6) A lowering of the standards of discipline in the colleges.

7) Education is not a panacea.

8) However, God is able to take people from everywhere and He makes them equal. At the point of salvation, equality exists.

2. Human IQ is excluded from the grace apparatus for perception. You can be a genius and be stupid about doctrine; you can be stupid in human realms of measuring IQ and be brilliant in the field of doctrine. Human IQ is excluded from GAP — 1Corinthians 1:19-2:16. While human IQ is often considered a factor in learning it is no factor in learning Bible doctrine. To say that human perspicacity overflows into the Christian life is to give all low IQ believers a handicap, and grace excludes human handicaps.

1) If a person sticks with doctrine, there is nothing that they cannot learn.

3. The perceptive lobe in the grace apparatus for perception is the left lobe. However, having information there is not going to cut it. You must have information in the right lobe, which is called the kardia (καρδία) [pronounced kahr-DEE-uh] in the Greek, or heart. It has inside of it a frame of reference with a memory centre. In order the develop and increase your capacity for knowledge you must have vocabulary receptacle and a categorical receptacle. This gives you the ability to think and to advance in your thinking. It takes vocabulary to think; it takes vocabulary to advance in thinking. In addition to that you have norms and standards which undergo change as you become the recipient of information in life. You also have a launching pad which is the area for the unbeliever’s common sense. This is the area for application of information you have received, this is the basis for practicing professions. For example, you take information you have learned in medicine, information you have learned in law, in military, in engineering, and so on, and you apply it to a specific project in life. So that the right lobe is really the basis of your functioning in life, and what you really are is what goes on inside of your own right lobe or your own heart. “As a man thinks in his heart, so he is.” This is the real person. Now you have a basis for human freedom and something in common with the angels: volition. And you have a positive pole and a negative pole. Your free will is designed so that you can have a part in the angelic conflict. Angels also have this same volition. In addition to that you have emotion, your response to what exists in your right lobe. Emotion is a sounding board, a responder. Emotion is the right woman to the right lobe’s right man. In addition to that you have a conscience.

In the concept of GAP it is necessary for Bible doctrine to enter that left lobe. That is the perceptive lobe, the mentality of the soul. Whenever you hear Bible doctrine God the Holy Spirit takes that information into your left lobe and makes it real to you. It is impossible for spiritual phenomena to be real apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, and He makes that objective information so that doctrine in the left lobe is objectively understood but non-usable. This is the person who is the hearer of the Word and not the doer. The doer of the Word is the believer with doctrine in his right lobe. The perceptive lobe is called noús (νούς) [pronounced noose] and its content is called gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis], and it is translated “mind” .The Holy Spirit causes the believer to understand Bible doctrine in the left lobe. This is objective learning but it is not the basis for application. This is known as perceptive comprehension — data understood but not applied.

4. The grace provision for learning Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine must cycle into the right lobe. It cycles through the human spirit and enters the right lobe. God had to set up some way for doctrine to go from the left lobe, where it is non-usable, to the right lobe where it is useable. Doctrine must become operational, useable, and that has set up a grace system for learning doctrine and making it useable. There are nine principles involved:

1) The formation and preservation of the canon of scripture — the doctrine of verbal plenary inspiration whereby God has put our spiritual food in storage to be utilized on a day-by-day basis.

2) The classroom for learning doctrine, the local church. This is divine authorization for doctrinal communication and worship. The classroom is the local church.

(1) The local church is not designed for social life. There is noting about friendly or unfriendly churches in the Bible. The church is not some kind of fraternity or a place to provide a social life to those who are socially inept.

(2) The local church is an auditorium, not a sanctuary. When Bob is asked, how many does your sanctuary seat? He answers 1...and only when he is sitting.

(3) Bob likes the ability to see everyone. And he describes people in the back row behind the glass. “Now everyone is looking down in that back row.”

(4) The greatest mistake in Berachah Church is the choir loft behind him.

3) A spiritual gift, the gift of pastor-teacher. This is the divinely authorized communicator.

4) The priesthood of the believer for privacy and freedom of reception of doctrine.

5) Without these, however, we would still not be on an equal basis for the intake of doctrine were it not for the fact that God the Holy Spirit indwells every one of us. So we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit for the function of GAP — 1Corinthians 2:9-16; 1John 2:27. However, the believer must be filled with the Spirit in order for the intake of doctrine to occur, and therefore we have the command of Ephesians 5:18, “Be filled with the Spirit.”

6) Grace provision for the filling of the Spirit is the rebound technique, as per 1John 1:9.

7) We have the human spirit as the first target for GAP — Job 32:8; 1Corinthians 2:12.

8) We have the provision of the divine laws of establishment whereby the government of a nation protects the freedom and the privacy of the local church.

9) The next provision has to do with human anatomy. It has to do with grace in anatomy whereby the body carries on certain non-meritorious functions making it possible for you to take in the Word of God. For example, we have oxygen getting into the blood.

5. The mechanics of GAP.

1) Under these mechanics we have operation ICE. Operation ICE is the job of the pastor-teacher whereby he communicates doctrine to the local assembly. He does so under the verb didaskô (διδάσκω) [pronounced did-AS-koh]. He is the absolute authority in the classroom, he has the authority in communication. He must communicate, however, a content. He message must contain the tree following:

(1) First of all, when necessary, it must contain isagogics. Isagogics refer to a principle of exegesis and interpretation. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. Nothing can be understood in the Bible apart from the background of the time in which it was written. So isagogics interprets the Bible in the framework of its historical setting, and whenever necessary this must be brought in. Therefore the pastor must be a student of the times in which the Bible was written.

(2) Secondly, he must be able to think categorically. He must learn to recognize categories in scripture. He must be able to take various portions of scripture and by comparing scripture with scripture determine their classification of doctrine. And in his content he must emphasize the principle that scripture must be compared with scripture.

(3) Thirdly, he must be able to analyze scripture, preferably from the original languages. He must be able to emphasize the grammar, the syntax, the etymology of the original languages. And if he is not versed in these things he must depend on someone else so that he is able to present a true analysis of what the scriptures say in the Hebrew, Aramaic and the Greek.

(4) This we call “ICE,” and ever pastor must be familiar with isagogics, categories and exegesis. This is the ICE principle in communication.

2) He must so communicate to his hearers that they enter into operation gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis]. This is equivalent to receptive comprehension whereby the believer is positive toward doctrine, concentrates on what is being said, is filled with the Spirit as he listens, and comprehends what is being taught. Comprehension at this stage does not mean agreement or disagreement, it means objective perception. It means an understanding of the doctrines, the principles, the names, the dates, the places, the formulas, the categories involved in a specific passage of scripture.

3) Next we have operation epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] . In this area doctrine goes from the left lobe to the right lobe by means of the human spirit. This comprehension demands agreement with what is taught. You cannot learn without at some time agreement with the one who communicates. It may take awhile but sooner or later there must be agreement or you are in the wrong church! Positive volition toward what is taught and what resides in the left lobe transfers it so that it becomes useable. It moves it out. Therefore, this doctrine goes in two areas. It goes first of all into the human spirit, the pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] Here it becomes epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] , and epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] moves. epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] becomes structural material for the ECS, it immediately cycles up to the right lobe where it is utilized.

6. The frame of reference. What is its function?

1) It is the basis for the comprehension of more advanced doctrine.

2) Frame of reference establishes a new conscience in the believer, a conscience whose norms and standards comply with divine norms and standards. The norms and standards in the soul begin to agree with divine norms and standards.

3) It forms the divine viewpoint in the right lobe. The divine viewpoint is out in the launching pad for application to life.

4) It deals with problems of the subconscious and the guilt complex. You do things or think things which are too difficult to accept, so you put that stuff into your subconscious so that you do not think about them.

5) It provides a true content for prayer and really turns one into a good prayer warrior.

6) It provides accuracy to communicate the Gospel to others — witnessing — and in helping those who are not as far along in the faith as you are.

7) It provides discernment to detect false doctrine.

8) It provides capacity for liberty, life, love, and happiness.

9) It provides capacity to detect what is important in life and what is not important. It gives a true scale of values. This helps a woman to discover your rm or rw; or your correct pastor-teacher.

10) It makes possible for God in grace to share His own happiness with you through the erection of an ECS and the entrance into the supergrace life.

11) It causes proper function of the priesthood of the believer in the devil’s world

Doctrine of the Soul

This was inserted in the middle of the GAP doctrine above.

1. Self-consciousness. You are aware of your own existence

2. Right lobe and left lobe. The left lobe is the nous, which is the place for objective perspicacity. We must have that information in the right lobe.

3. The memory center.

4. We need a vocabulary receptacle and a category receptacle.

5. Norms and standards.

6. Old sin nature; area of weakness produces sins; area of strength produces human good.

“his voice” — we now have an objective genitive, phônê (φωνή) [pronounced foh-NAY] plus the genitive of possession of autos, referring to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Here we have the principle of the communication of Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine is called the Word of God in Hebrews 4:12, the mind of Christ in 1Corinthians 2:16, the voice of the Spirit here in Hebrews 3:7. In this context the voice of the Spirit refers to the Bible doctrine, to the promises, to everything which becomes the object of the faith-rest technique, for the faith-rest technique is born in the believer’s right lobe. But the right lobe must have doctrinal content in order for the faith-rest technique to be born.

Hebrews 3:7 “For this reason therefore (according as the Holy Spirit communicates, This day if you will hear and concentrate on his voice” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews 3:8; Ex. 17:1–7; Ps. 95:8 Lesson #22

22 10/01/1972 Hebrews 3:8; Ex. 17:1–7; Ps. 95:8 Meribah Revolution

Chapter 3:8 via Exodus 17:1–7; Psalm 95:8

In order to understand the structure and the background of the next paragraph in our passage in this chapter it is necessary to have two things clearly in mind. First, how does a believer enter into the supergrace life? There are two frontal lobes. The left lobe is designed for objective understanding of all information in life. The left lobe is called the mind — noús (νούς) [pronounced noose]; the right lobe is called the heart — kardia (καρδία) [pronounced kahr-DEE-uh]. The right lobe has a frame of reference and a memory centre, norms and standards called the conscience of the soul, it has a vocabulary and categories and a launching pad for Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine is taught isagogically and enters into the left lobe where as spiritual phenomena the ministry of God the Holy Spirit makes it objective information — perception through the objectivity of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. This doctrine is called gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis] in the Greek, it has to be transferred for utilization. James says, “Be not a hearer of the Word but a doer.” First of all you have to hear the Word before you can do the Word. Hearing it is not doing it. It has to be transferred and the system of transfer has to be consistent with God’s grace. Positive volition, called pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] — faith — transfers that doctrine down to the human spirit where it becomes epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] . Now for the first time Bible doctrine can be utilized. epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] is cycled into the right lobe. It enters the frame of reference, it enters memory centre, it forms a new technical theological vocabulary in your soul. It eventuates in categories of the soul, it takes your norms and standards and makes them comply with divine norms and standards, and it puts divine viewpoint on the launching pad for application.

At the same time this is occurring this same doctrine in the human spirit now becomes building material for the ECS and the supergrace life. This is comparable to Canaan. Canaan is never a type of heaven. Canaan or the promised land is an illustration of the supergrace life, and in the picture found in this passage the Jews of the Exodus generation were first of all liberated from the slavery of Egypt. That is a picture of redemption. Then they were given the opportunity and the promise of supergrace but they never were able to reach Canaan which is analogous to the supergrace life. Instead, the died the sin unto death in the desert over a period of forty years. The reason why they failed is because from the time they were freed from slavery, from the time of the Passover, until the next generation bivouacked at the Jordan these people were in a constant state of reversionism; a state whereby they had to be disciplined and removed.

What is reversionism? Reversionism starts with negative volition and reverses the process of God’s plan and God’s objective for every life. Reversionism is negative volition toward Bible doctrine, negative volition building scar tissue on the left bank of the soul, opening up mataiotês (ματαιότης) [pronounced mat-ah-YOHT-ace] and allowing doctrine from Satan to attack the various parts of the right lobe. This is called in our passage “hardening of the heart”, and there is a command coming up: “Harden not your hearts as in the Meribah.” That is Satanic doctrine in the right lobe crowding out Bible doctrine and presenting in the launching pad the human viewpoint of life or Satanic viewpoint of life. Then, of course, the trends in the old sin nature go to work and there is scar tissue on the right bank of the soul eventuating in the blackout of the soul which is delineated in Ephesians chapter four. Then there is the emotional revolt of the soul which blocks all the valves of the right lobe. Then there is a destruction of the ECS, bit by bit as doctrine is forced out of the right lobe. Then the practice of reverse process reversionism.

This is the history of the Exodus generation and the Exodus generation is used as an illustration of why believers fail to use their priesthood in the Church Age. Every believer is a priest, that is what Hebrews is all about. The objective of Hebrews is to get believers into the sphere of occupation with Christ. That comes under the supergrace life. The objective of the priesthood is for the daily function of GAP to result in a supergrace life. But you and I are going to fail as the Exodus generation failed if we go negative toward Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine is the spiritual food, the spiritual phenomena, whereby the believer enters into the supergrace life, becomes occupied with the person of Christ, fulfils the purpose for which he remains in this life. The priesthood appointment occurs at salvation but the priesthood does not properly function except in the supergrace life, and that is what this passage is all about.

Hebrews 3:8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, (ESV)

Verse 8 — the apodosis[2]. “Harden not” is the present active subjunctive sklêrunô (σκληρύνω) [pronounced sklay-ROO-no] plus the negative mê. Sklêrunô (σκληρύνω) [pronounced sklay-ROO-no] is used in a technical sense. It means to be negative toward doctrine. That is where reversionism begins. Negative volition toward doctrine produces every stage and every facet of reversionism. If you are negative toward Bible doctrine it is because of some attitude you have picked up (you can pick it up in a short period of time), some mental attitude sin that crops up in your life, some concept of getting your eyes on people, on things — the frustrations of life, the disappointments of life all do this.

Bob has noticed a lot of people who have begun to go positive toward doctrine. You are moving ahead or retrogressing in the spiritual life.

“your hearts” — the hardening of the heart isn’t something where you freeze up over night, it is something where you get very subtly sloppy in your volition. The hardening of the heart is where a little bit at a time, a little bit at a time, a little bit at a time; and then you begin to think like any unbeliever would think, but no doctrine left. So we have the present tense plus m (μή) [pronounced may]. Linear aktionsart plus m (μή) [pronounced may] plus the subjunctive means this is a command.

Not all commands are given in the imperative mood in either the Greek or the Hebrew. In the Greek language the subjunctive mood carries a strength of the imperative but recognizes human volition. Linear aktionsart to indicate negative volition toward doctrine producing scar tissue, producing blackout of the soul, producing emotional revolt, producing reversionism, producing reverse process reversionism. This should be translated “Do not go on hardening your hearts” .It means you started at some point in a subtle way. And this does not recognize hardness of heart, it recognizes the process of getting there. The hardening of the heart is reversionism, but this is “do not go on hardening your heart.” The active voice plus the negative means the believer priest must discontinue something that he has already started. And the passage was originally addressed to Jews in Jerusalem in 67 AD. In that year the Jews in Jerusalem were reversionistic. They have three years to recover and to get out of Jerusalem before the great catastrophe of the fifth cycle of discipline. So far they have shown no signs of recovery. They are about to be taken out by the fifth cycle of discipline and the sin unto death.

Then there is the subjunctive mood. The subjunctive is a mood of probability; the indicative mood is of reality. The subjunctive assumes unreality, it leads to a list of potential moods and as the meaning of the verb departs farther and farther from reality the subjunctive shades into the optative. This subjunctive is somewhere between the probability of the subjunctive and the desirability of the optative, and therefore it becomes a strong imperative to stop a disaster course, to turn away from a disastrous course, to turn away in your thinking (for the issue here is what you think), to turn away from some sloppy attitude that is knocking you down, some sloppy attitude that is making you negative toward Bible doctrine — “do not go on hardening your hearts.”

Kardia (καρδία) [pronounced kahr-DEE-uh] in the Greek here refers to the right lobe with the frame of reference, the memory centre, the vocabulary, the categories, the norms and standards, and the launching pad. The right lobe has all four areas where doctrine must be resident and it is the objective of the teaching ministry of the Church Age to get Bible doctrine into your right lobe. It is the objective to do this in a local church with a pastor-teacher communicating to a group under the principle of monologue. Nothing is accomplished by dialogue.

People have called from all over the world and they want Buddy and Bob to make their decisions for them. Now, they are being sent a tape. Call tapes and pubs for the right information. Counseling is a farce and letters written by Bob and Buddy have been distorted in all sorts of ways. One thing that is wrong with people is, they will not stand on their own two feet. Seminaries are now teaching counseling. You get away from reversionism by learning Bible doctrine.

Some of you have become sloppy in your self-discipline. You find excuses and avoid Bible doctrine. Someone’s testimony is that they were getting much more from a tape than from television. Television will amuse you right into a crisis. You are not growing and it shows.

Hardening the heart describes the reversionistic believer with emphasis on negative volition toward doctrine. Every stage of reversionism involves negative volition toward doctrine. Reversionism not only means a failure of GAP but it means also in any stage of reversionism when you start to go negative toward spiritual food. When you stop eating your daily manna from heaven, you are going to have a breakdown of the basic techniques — rebound, GAP, faith-rest.

The Word of God tells you, Do not go on hardening your hearts.

Failure in rebound, in gap and/or in faith-rest technique Those are fundamental to spiritual growth. How many of you claim doctrine? Too technical for you? Promises are the bottle or the nipple; but you have to move on from there. Bob is not knocking claiming the promises of God; but some of you have not yet been weaned.

When Bobby was young, Bob promises him things like a train trip to St.Louis to see a live baseball game. He did that to keep Bobby pitching. But Bob no longer does this, because Bobby has grown.

When you grow up, you know the character of God. You either progress or you retrogress.

The adverb “as” takes us to the Meribah — hôs (ὡς) [pronounced hohç], which sets up a correlation in the field of reversionism. The classic example of reversionism is the Exodus generation whose hero, Moses, was mentioned in the first part of this chapter. In this chapter the believer has a choice of supergrace or reversionism, the choice of the celebrityship of Jesus Christ, at which point the character of God is ultimately more important than the promises that emanate from that character.

The celebrityship of Christ or discipline from God — “as in the provocation” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus parapikrasmoj. Parapikrasmoj is a translation of the Hebrew word from which it is quoted. “Provocation” comes from Psalm 95:8.

Exodus 17:1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the LORD, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. (ESV)

Exodus 17:1 — the Jews had been liberated from Egypt. Egypt is a picture of the slave market of sin. The deliverance of the Jews is a picture of redemption through the cross. The Passover is a picture of leaving the slave market into freedom. As of the Passover the Jews are free, and when God makes you free he always makes you free on a wonderful basis. He not only made the Jews free but He made them very wealthy free people. Now, once the Jews are free they can make a choice. They can move to supergrace, which is going to be Canaan promised to them, or they can move into reversionism which comes from neglecting Bible doctrine. And they chose reversionism, they “hardened their hearts.”

Unless they were in supergrace they were not capable of entering the land, but no reversionistic generation is going to enter the promised land. If you are going to have God’s plan for your life, if you are going to have God’s best, you must have the capacity for God’s best and the capacity for God’s best is supergrace. There is no substitute. You only get to supergrace one way: positive volition on a daily basis. They could have entered the land of Canaan by getting into supergrace, but they chose not to do that.

For any believer, the choice is between advancing to supergrace or retrogressing to reversionism. In reversionism, you will never be happy again.

Here is the big choice now. God has to give some tests for the utilization of Bible doctrine. By the time the Jews reach this test have already undergone tests and have had a lot of doctrine, and all this test is for is to apply doctrine from the launching pad to “no water”. That’s all it is. They were there by the will of God. And they camped in Rephidim, and Rephidim means refreshments in the plural. They had come to a place to stop and have Bible class. But in the place of refreshment the people had no water. All they have to do is apply another water situation. They have just recently gone through a place where there was too much water. God moved it out of the way. Now there is no water and God can bring water for them to drink. If there is doctrine on the launching pad the battle is the Lord’s .And if there is doctrine on the launching pad that doctrine says the very character of God demands that I stay alive. It is up to God to provide. That’s grace.

They have already been where there was too much water, and God moved it out of the way. They are where they are based upon the commandment of the Lord. Now they don’t have enough water. God can handle no water and too much water.

“Have you complained about anything this week?”

Moses is their human authority; and their manners stink.

Exodus 17:2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink." And Moses said to them, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the LORD?" (ESV)

Verse 2 — “Wherefore the people did strive with Moses.” The verb is rîyb (רִיב) [pronounced ree^bv], which means to complain. Complaining is a sign of reversionism. From this word comes a noun, meribah. They complained because there was no water and complaining is an insult to the character of God. Moses can’t provide water. God is the provider; Moses is the leader. And when they go to Moses in their sarcasm and say, “Give us water”, they have rejected God’s authority and they have rejected Moses. Moses is the human authority. They have rejected his authority, they have rejected God’s authority, and their manners stink. And Moses said to make the issue clear, “Why do you complain to me? Why do you tempt the Lord?” Tempt the Lord of what? To remove you. The Lord is tempted to remove reversionists immediately. He never succumbs to that temptation because of grace and because He cannot sin. They think that no water is the source of their danger. No water is not the source of their danger, it is reversionism in the soul that is their danger. The fact that there is no water and that water is necessary to sustain life is not the problem. The problem is no doctrine in the soul. And typical of reversionists they had their eyes on Moses. If they had their eyes on the Lord and were moving along they would respect Moses’ authority and they would go to the Lord from their own souls. But, having their eyes on people, this is the time to put Moses down. There is no water, there is no hope of water, and they are going to put Moses and the Lord down all at the same time.

When God sets up an authority, then that authority must be followed and obeyed. The ones who rejected Moses’ authority were the first to die the sin unto death in the desert. They started a revolution to destroy Moses and God destroyed them.

Not many wise and not many great have been called. This is for authority as well. There are not many people like Paul or Moses.

Saul was all wrong; and yet David said, “I will not slay the Lord’s anointed.”

Exodus 17:3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" (ESV)

Verse 3 — “… the people murmured against Moses.” Was Moses wrong here? No. But even if Moses had been wrong they are still wrong. When God sets up an authority it may be pitiful in your eyes but it is still God’s authority. A reversionist always considers any authority as pitiful. He may go along with it so that he doesn’t wind up in jail but he doesn’t like the authority of the police or the judge, he doesn’t like a lot of authority. Why? Because he is stuck on himself. He is having a great love affair with himself and there are no rivals. When a person doesn’t accept the authority of others it is because he is so full of pride and arrogance that he only thinks of himself as an authority. And God must put these mad dogs down, and does. These mad dogs are the first ones to die under the sin unto death, the first ones to die in Israel. The ones who rejected authority went. They accused Moses of deliberately leading them to this spot so that he could wipe them all out. What ever gave them this idea? They were slaves to the details of life. Remember they were all wealthy. They superimposed their own low standards on Moses. Moses didn’t lead them out their to rob them or kill them. Reversionism breeds a set of mental attitude sins that bring up this kind of stuff out of the sewers of their souls. They are jealous of Moses, bitter toward Moses. They are implacable and vindictive and so they are sitting around their tents having their rap session. They accused Moses, they maligned Moses, the slandered Moses. Moses was a supergrace believer and therefore a target. Why? Who criticizes the supergrace believer? The legalist — the son of the bond woman always persecutes the son of the free woman. That’s Abraham, now we are dealing with Moses. Any believer in reversionism, no matter how great he has been in the past, is critical of a believer in supergrace or approaching supergrace. So reversionism and supergrace are divided and the supergrace crowd always are the targets for the reversionist. The reversionists always malign and judge and ridicule the supergrace crowd, or individuals.

Exodus 17:4 So Moses cried to the LORD, "What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me." (ESV)

Verse 4 — Moses didn’t say a word to them. Notice, a supergrace believer doesn’t try to justify himself to the people. He doesn’t go out and try to explain himself to the people. All he does is go to the Lord about it in prayer.

Exodus 17:5 And the LORD said to Moses, "Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. (ESV)

The elders were to stand with Moses; they are to be on the side of authority.

Verse 5 — God knew that Moses was personally a brave man, so he told him to go out and demonstrate it. This rod with which Moses “smote the river” actually refers to the principle of striking and getting water, striking and using it for different things. This rod represents divine power in human hands. It was the rod of judgement: Exodus 7:20. When the rod of judgement strokes the rock it will represent Christ being judged. The rod that he is to take out in front of them represents judgement, divine power in human hands.

Exodus 17:6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink." And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. (ESV)

Verse 6 — “the rock.” The Hebrew word for “rock” is necessary at this point — tsur. This is a sharp, jagged rock, and they have rocks in their hands, “You stand by a sharp, jagged rock.” The rocks in their hands are their maligning. The rocks that they have to stone him are to judge him. They want to kill him with those rocks. The rock Moses stands by represents judgement. It actually represents Christ, the Rock, being judged for us. Moses holds in his hand a rod which also represents judgement. He is told to strike the rock. (The striking of the rock is a picture of Christ the Rock bearing our sins} Strike it, and water will come out of that rock. And Moses did.

Exodus 17:7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the LORD by saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?" (ESV)

Verse 7 — “And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah.” Massah means testing; Meribah means complaining.

This particular incident is described in Psalm 95:8 — “Harden not your hearts” — The Hebrew has a verb, the hiphil imperfect of qasah. Qashah means to make stubborn or obdurate. We have with it the negative — “Do not harden” — the hiphil imperfect, and this is a jussive in the hiphil. The hiphil is the causative stem, it carries the same weight as our aorist subjunctive which means to harden — “as in the day of provocation” — Meribah; “as in the day of Massah” — temptation.

Psalm 95:8 do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,

Psalm 95:9 when your fathers put me to the test and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work.

Psalm 95:10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, "They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways."

Psalm 95:11 Therefore I swore in my wrath, "They shall not enter my rest."

Heb 3:8 ...do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness,... (ESV)

Hebrews 3:8 — “Harden” — sklhronw, present active subjunctive. The subjunctive carries the weight of an imperative. This is a prohibitive subjunctive with the negative mê. “Do not go on hardening your hearts as in the Meribah.”

“in the day” — the preposition katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of hêmera (ἡμάρα) [pronounced hay-MEH-raw]. It should be “on the day,” or “on the time” .It is a reference to the first Meribah incident of Exodus 17:1–7.

“of temptation” — at this point we face the genitive of peirasmoj which means testing for the purpose of good or evil. The Jews were tested to see if they had supergrace or reversionism; tested for the purpose of finding out if they were ready to go into Canaan. Supergrace believers can go in. Are you ready to go or not? The no water test was to determine the celebrityship of Jesus Christ as over against reversionism. Therefore, this passage should read so far, “Do not go on hardening your hearts, as in the reversionistic revolution of Meribah, on the day of testing in the desert.”

Principle of the Reversionistic Generation

1. Canaan is a type of the supergrace life.

2. The Exodus generation failed to enter Canaan because of reversionism.

3. Reversionism was manifest by the malfunction of faith-rest. The Jews could not claim the easy promises of faith rest, so they could not go into the land.

4. Reversionism cannot cope with either the charge of the mosquito or the charge of the elephant.

5. The function of our partnership with Christ today demands supergrace, depends on supergrace.

6. Therefore, to reach supergrace we must GAP it daily.

7. Then thrust of this passage is supergrace versus reversionism; blessing versus misery; prosperity versus the sin unto death; occupation with Christ versus pseudo-love fanaticism of the psychopathic personality.

1972 Hebrews 3:9-10a Lesson #23

23 10/08/1972 Hebrews 3:9-10a Doctrine of revolution

Bob assembled a science panel to check his teaching on science in relationship to Genesis. Science is agreeing still with the Bible.

Heb. 3:8 Do not go on hardening your hearts as in the reversionistic revolution, on the day of testing in the desert. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Meribah Revolutions

1. The first Meribah revolt. Exodus 17:1–7

2. The second Meribah revolt. Numbers 20

3. The review of the Meribah revolution. Psalm 95

4. Commentary on the Meribah revolution Hebrews 3:7–11

Previous doctrine reviewed from previous lesson.

The Doctrine of Revolution

1. The Word of God does not justify revolution — Romans 13:1–7; 1Peter 2:13,14; Numbers 16.

1) The French and Russian revolutions were illegitimate.

2) The American War for Independence was not a revolution. This was a war for independence. A fight for freedom and not an overthrow of the establishment.

3) We are seeing a bloodless revolution in the election this year. An anti-establishment candidate to the core. One party is endorsing a total destruction of the laws of divine establishment. No interest in the man on the street; this is simply a power grab. Anyone who would vote for that man does not belong in this church.

2. Revolution involves the overthrow of the laws of establishment. It also involves lawless mobs which can neither think nor achieve anything compatible with divine institutions or the laws of divine establishment. A mob cannot think. A mob has a leader or leadership but it does not think for itself and there is always a power grab involved.

3. Revolution means apostasy and reversionism, therefore lack of or lack of the influence of Bible doctrine — Isaiah 1:3–5; 59:13.

4. Revolution is always anti-God — Isaiah 31:6.

5. Revolution is caused by a breakdown of the laws of divine institution in the right lobe. The laws of the divine institution are found in the frame of reference. In the memory centre they are part of the norms and standards of the conscience of the soul. They are located in the vocabulary and the categories of the soul, and the laws of divine institution are on the launching pad of the soul. Reversionism destroys these things. Revolution is caused by the failure of the right lobe, known as reversionism — Jeremiah 5:23. Therefore revolution is involved with emotional revolt, blackout of the soul, reversionism, and revolution itself is the practice of reverse process reversionism.

1) Revolution destroys the souls of men; and they wear long hair.

2) Law and order and authority are thrown away in revolution.

3) God has set up laws. These are the laws of divine establishment.

4) Laws of divine establishment in the military as well. Military requires the strictest discipline.

6. Revolution or revolt against authority always has a primary motivator, and apart from the lust pattern of the old sin nature jealousy is the prime motivator — Isaiah 11:13 cf. 1 King 12:19 and 2Chronicles 10:19.

7. The communication of Bible doctrine is designed to stop revolution — Ezekiel 2:3–10.

8. Heathenism, gypsyism, hippieism, is the result of revolution or the precursor of revolution. The gypsies and the hippies are not only anti-establishment but in that sense they have defied the very laws that protect the freedoms of the human race, and they usually do it from freedom. Gypsies think that they are free, but they are not and they seek to impose controls on others. Hippies are poorly dressed gypsies. So this type of gypsyism and heathenism is the result of revolution — Romans 1:19-26. The result of such revolution is human degeneration — Romans 1:27–32.

9. The principle of revolution is the function of reversionism in the field of approbation and power lust implemented by mental attitude sin clusters from jealousy, destroying the freedom, the rights, the privacy and the property of individuals. Hence, revolution is a Satanic device in the angelic conflict to establish Satan’s cosmic kingdom and to superimpose his will over mankind.

10. Reversionism, therefore, is the basic cause of revolution and supergrace becomes the antidote — Hebrews 3:8,9

Heb 3:9 ...where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. (ESV)

Verse 9 — begins with an adverb, o(u, and it means “in what place” or “where.” It does not mean “When.”

“your fathers” — nominative plural of patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR]. This is addressed to Jews of the southern kingdom of Judah in AD 67. “Your fathers” refers to people in the same nationality. It refers, therefore, to historical background of a nation. The very phrase, “Where your fathers,” is a biblical reminder that there are many lessons to be learned from our own history. Every nation has a history. Every nation has a period of prosperity. This period of prosperity is based on the laws of establishment. Every nation loses its prosperity and loses its freedoms by anti-establishment, by revolution. Therefore people can learn even historically from their own nation provided that history is not distorted by liberalism. Liberalism is always forerunner of revolution. First there is theological liberalism, then comes political liberalism, and then comes the destruction of the nation through revolution. It can be a mental revolution, or it can be a revolution of violence. Generally, both are involved.

Great Britain is an excellent example of this.

First, there is theological liberalism, then political liberalism; and this destroys a nation. Look at one of our candidates for president for how far liberalism takes us.

The Jews of the Exodus generation had freedom based upon their escape for Egypt.

The south in the time of the Civil War was establishment thinking.

Freedom to Blacks, is freedom to go out and steal and riot. They distort and destroy our freedom. We have not been shot at yet or raped because of we still have guns. There is a great turmoil of revolution. This is a shame because there are wonderful Blacks who respond to Bible doctrine. They don’t like it any more than we do. It is here, violence. Only the grace of God has held this back.

Bob has ancestors going back to the French and Indian War, and he has a record from all of his ancestors who have fought in every war of the United States. Good men go out and die and parasites multiply and have more parasites. A country of parasites will destroy themselves. Now, you bleeding hearts, you masticate that.

“tempted” — aorist active indicative of peirazô (πειράζω) [pronounced pi-RAD-zoh]. Peirazô (πειράζω) [pronounced pi-RAD-zoh] means to test for the purpose of determining good or evil in an individual or in a group of individual. This is an ingressive aorist. The ingressive aorist is used here to indicate that the reversionistic Jews began to tempt God at the first Meribah. They tempted God to remove them by the sin unto death, they tempted God with reversionism. God must discipline reversionism. The Jews could not enter the land in a state of reversionism, the water tests were used to demonstrate that. The Jews could not enter the land, as illustrated one year from Meribah in Kadesh Barnea. The Jews could not enter the land in a state of reversionism, the water tests of Israel were used to demonstrate that fact. God was tempted to destroy them when it began at Meribah, but the water tests will continue. There will be water tests.

Ingressive, culminatative, gnomic, and .

Some of These Water Tests Include:

1. Too much water: the Red Sea — Exodus 14. An impossible barrier of water. God provided in grace. That should have told them something.

2. No water at Shur— Exodus 15:22.

3. The wrong water undrinkable— Exodus 15:23.

4. Plenty of water at Elim — Exodus 15:27.

5. No water at Sin — Exodus 17. The indicative mood is the reality of Jewish reversionism testing God’s grace. Not content with the doctrine, the promises, the Jews of the Exodus generation in their reversionism made great demands upon God. They demanded things from God when they already had things from God.

4 water tests + this test at Meribah.

We should notice that there is a difference between peirazô (πειράζω) [pronounced pi-RAD-zoh], the verb which means to test for the good or evil, to test and see what is there, and the verb dokimazw which means to test to prove that someone has passed the test. We also have noun that goes with the verb, a cognate: dokimoj. The word “me” is not found in the original manuscript. It should read “in which place [Meribah]” .They have already had every water test possible. Now at the end of four water tests they had the Meribah test, and they flunked it.

“In which place [Meribah] your fathers began testing to determine good or evil by means of testing to approve God if God passed the test.” That is what is meant by “proved me” which is not correctly translated. The word “proved” is a prepositional phrase. We have en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental of dokimoj — “by means of testing” .Dokimoj is testing for approval in contrast to peirazô (πειράζω) [pronounced pi-RAD-zoh] which is testing to see of there is good or bad.

First Summary

1. The reversionistic believer ignores grace because he has no capacity for grace.

2. Capacity for grace cannot be acquired or assimilated through any human activity in life. Only through doctrine in the soul. Bible doctrine inculcation must move towards supergrace. That is the thrust of the book of Hebrews, it is one thing to be married and it is quite another to have no capacity for it. The souls of the people in this country have shriveled.

3. Reversionism comes from negative volition toward Bible doctrine which is the only hope for capacity for grace and loving God.

4. The reversionistic has no capacity to appreciate the source of grace or grace. Our salvation is the source of grace.

5. However, God continues to be faithful even though the reversionist is unfaithful.

6. Reverse process reversionism causes the believer to become fanatical in the objects that they substitute for God. Today in 2020, this negative volition is replaced by politics.

7. Only doctrine in the soul makes Jesus Christ the only celebrity of the universal priesthood of the Church Age.

8. The celebrityship of Jesus Christ is only possible through the consistent inhale of Bible doctrine and the function of gap. This will lead to the supergrace life, which is analogous the entering into Canaan.

1Cor. 10:1–12 covers this. Whoops, put this in the wrong place....

Summary

1. When believers begin to test God to see if God is good or evil they are in a state of reversionism. You don’t think that God lives up to His reputation.

2. If God does what they want Him to do they will approve God, but if not they will disapprove Him. We are God’s creatures; so He may test us; we do not get to test Him.

3. The Jews of the Exodus generation, the Jews of the Hebrews generation, were in the status of reverse process reversionism.

4. This is the believer who is never content with doctrine but must have some extra natural or ecstatic experience, or God must somehow bribe him with something. He wants more than he is getting from God.

5. The reversionistic tendency began at Meribah, Exodus 17, and continued for forty years, finally ending at second Meribah in Numbers chapter twenty. Both Meribahs are described in Psalm 95 which is being quoted.

6. Therefore they did not enter into Canaan, which is a type of supergrace.

“and saw” — aorist active indicative of horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh]. Horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] means to have a panoramic view of something. The aorist tense here is culminative. The culminative aorist looks at the forty years during which every day God manifests His grace. Now they are looking back at it. The active voice: the reversionistic Jews saw God’s grace and never responded to it. The indicative mood is the reality of seeing the grace of God, the work of God, for forty years, being indifferent to it and therefore dying the sin unto death which is maximum divine discipline.

“my works” — the accusative plural of the noun ergon (ἔργον) [pronounced EHR-gon]. Ergon (ἔργον) [pronounced EHR-gon] in the plural means production — “my production.” Production is the grace of God. In grace God does the working. God provided every need of the Exodus generation in eternity past.

They had no capacity to love God; they had no capacity for anything. They did not even get along with one another; and they did not respond fully to the authority of Moses.

Reversionism is a constant breakdown of the faith-rest technique. God had to remove the generation age 20 and older at the exodus.

Hebrews 3:9 ...in which place (Meribah) your reversionistic fathers (the Exodus generation) began testing God to determine good or evil in Him by means of approving God after testing, if He should past the test according to the reversionist (no one can pass that test) and they had a panoramic view of My grace provision for 40 years. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. The reversionistic believer ignores grace because he has no capacity for grace.

2. Capacity for grace cannot be acquired or assimilated through any human function of life. Capacity for grace comes only from Bible doctrine in the soul. Bible doctrine inculcation must move to the point of supergrace.

3. Reversionism begins with negative volition toward Bible doctrine which is the only hope for capacity for grace and loving God.

4. The reversionistic believer, therefore, has no capacity to appreciate grace or the source of grace. The source of grace is Jesus Christ.

5. However, God continues to be faithful even though the reversionist is unfaithful.

6. Reverse process reversionism causes the believer to become fanatical in his pseudo love of objects he substitutes for God.

7. Only doctrine in the soul leads to capacity of love which makes Christ the only celebrity of the universal priesthood of the Church Age.

8. The celebrityship of Jesus Christ is only possible through the consistent inhale of Bible doctrine through the function of GAP. This must inevitably lead, if it is consistent, to the supergrace life which is analogous to the land of Canaan.

9. Reversionism has rejected doctrine, therefore reversionists have no capacity for grace, no appreciation of divine provision and faithfulness. This same concept is covered in 1Corinthians 10:1–12.

So in principle we have this: Reversionism cannot occupy the land in the day of the Exodus generation because they have no capacity in their souls to appreciate the land. The land was a land of prosperity under an agricultural economy — “a land flowing with milk and honey”, an idiom for prosperity. You have to have capacity for prosperity. The Exodus generation had no soul capacity. And what is the analogy and why is this recorded in the Word today? Because believers have no capacity for their priesthood. Capacity comes from Bible doctrine in the soul and if the soul is shrivelled up in neglect and rejection of doctrine, and you are in reversionism, then you have no capacity for the thing that God has given you. Bible doctrine is the only way that you will ever have compatibility with your priesthood.

The Exodus generation has no capacity; and believers today have no capacity for what God has given us. Children have no capacity for adult things in life. They must grow up first. Same principle as we have here. Bible doctrine is the only way that we will have compatibility with the priesthood.

Heb 3:10 Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, 'They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways.' (ESV)

Verse 10 — the divine reaction. “Wherefore” — the inferential conjunction dio, a compound which comes from dia plus the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. It should be translated, “For this reason,” or “Because of which.” “Because of which reversionism.”

“I was grieved” — aorist active indicative of prosoxqizw. The word means to be angry to the point of being provoked, to be disgusted to the point of provocation. It is an anthropopathism for divine displeasure. In other words, God walked another mile and another mile in grace and finally became disgusted. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist. God put up with guff for a long time before He disciplined. That’s grace. But grace doesn’t mean that it is always going to be the same. There comes a time when provocation has arrived. “Because of which reversionism I was disgusted to the point of provocation with that generation.”

There is a point at which God says, best we just see each other in eternity, and you are gone from this world. Things will be better there. God just finally wiped them out.

“that generation” — dative of indirect object and disadvantage.

Hebrews 3:10a ...because of which reversionism I was disgusted to the point of provocation with that generation.... R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

That Generation

1. Reversionism was the spiritual malady of the Exodus generation. They did not have to work; they just had to sit around and listen to their tape recorders.

2. Liberated by God’s grace from slavery they failed to appreciate grace provision because they were negative toward doctrine.

3. Their needs were provided in grace for forty years. Their food was provided, their money was provided, their safety and security was provided. They did not have to work for 40 years; they could listen to Bible doctrine instead.

4. Not once did they appreciate what God had provided. They had no capacity.

5. They did not know how to use their freedom, they lacked capacity for freedom. They had no capacity for grace.

6. Therefore in this verse we have the anthropopathism of disgust to express the divine reaction to negative volition

It should be noted that there were some exceptions: Moses, Moses’ second wife, Caleb, and Joshua are at least four recorded exceptions.

“and said” — aorist active indicative of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. This légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] is a gnomic aorist for stating an absolute.

“They do always err” — the word “err” means to wander. It is the verb planaô (πλανάω) [pronounced plahn-AH-oh]. This means to wander, to go astray, to be deceived to be seduced in the passive voice. They were seduced away from doctrine, they were deceived in their souls by reversionism, and it all came about because they wandered from doctrine — negative volition toward Bible doctrine. The present tense is linear aktionsart for the function of reverse process reversionism. Negative volition toward doctrine causes all of these things. The passive voice: they received these things as a result of negative volition toward doctrine. The indicative mood is the reality of reversionism in their souls. They were deluded, deceived and seduced.

They are always being deluded, deceived, seduced and misled.

No way to complete this verse this morning.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #24

10/15/1972 Hebrews 3:10b-12 Doctrine of Sabbaths or rests; Canaan = supergrace life

the first 9 or 10 verses read.

“They always go astray” some did not function constantly under deceit, but they only functioned at certain times. Iterative present. Negative volition toward Bible doctrine led to this condition. They were constantly indifferent. They carried away a huge amount of wealth. What you really are is what you are in your soul. They had their eyes upon freedom but not upon the source of freedom. We face a similar circumstance in our nation today. The eternal source of freedom are the laws of divine establishment.

A movie from last night; the principle that men fight and die. Hippies only look at the freedom, but not at the source. A private complained that the army was totalitarian and it bothered him.

They do always wander, there are deceived, they are seduced. Indicative mood is the mood of reality. This delusion takes place in the heart. When the right lobe has control of the soul, the man is manly; but when emotion takes over, then everything falls apart. The key to everything is what is in the heart. Plenaô.

Nothing is permanent. Things come and things go. But God is always there. So our occupation needs to be with the source and not with the gift.

“in the heart” — the heart refers to the right lobe, the real you: frame of reference, memory centre, vocabulary, categories, norms and standards, and the launching pad. That is where they were deceived, the mentality of the soul.

“they have not known my ways” — aorist active indicative of the verb ginskô (vινώσκω) [pronounced gih-NOH-skoh] which means to know because of doctrinal instruction in this passage. This is a culminative aorist. They have been deluded over a period of time. It is possible to be saved and to be saved for a long time and not understand how God operates. The negative here is very strong. The active voice means that the individual in reversionism produces the action. The accusative plural of hodos (ὁδός, ο, ἡ) [pronounced ho-DOSS] refers to what God is like. There is the source. The accusative plural indicates that God has many ways of blessing you. Many facets of God’s grace exist. The word “way,” hodos (ὁδός, ο, ἡ) [pronounced ho-DOSS], originally meant a road or a course of action, but it also means a system of doctrine which explains the road or the highway or the course of action. It was used for teaching in the most comprehensive sense of the word. It was also used for doctrines as a specific system, whether it was in philosophy or whether in the truth. Here it refers to Bible doctrine. “They have not learned my ways through a system of doctrine” .

Hebrews 3:10 “Because of which reversionism I was disgusted with that generation, and said, They are always being deluded in the right lobe; and they have not learned My ways [systems of doctrine].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. The divine indictment of believers in phase two is always related to their ignorance of Bible doctrine from which all evils of phase two originate. When you fail to relate the source of grace with the benefits of grace, you’ve had it. Doctrine in the soul is the missing link.

2. The indictment does not stress the works or production, as is the modern tendency of apostasy, but the ignorance of doctrine.

a. You have been brainwashed if you think that there are things that you should have done for God. It is all about Bible doctrine in the soul.

b. When God indicts you, He does not meniton your failures. He says you are stupid, ignorant, dumb butts.

3. Because of this, believers of any generation are under perpetual divine discipline terminating with the sin unto death. Maximum divine discipline for any believer.

4. This anticipates the next verse.

5. Remember, the land of Canaan is not a picture of heaven. The land of Canaan is analogous to the supergrace life with its capacities — capacity for freedom, capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for happiness, capacity for grace.

6. The Exodus generation was in reversionism, therefore they did not enter into the supergrace life or its capacities.

7. Reversionism has no capacity, therefore reversionism cannot occupy the land.

Heb 3:11 As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest.'" (ESV)

Verse 11 — “So” is a comparative particle indicating the manner in which something proceeds — Hôs (ὡς), and adverb which is often used as a conjunction. Hôs (ὡς) [pronounced hohç] is actually a correlative adverb and should be translated here “In keeping with the facts just enucleated.”

“I sware” — aorist active indicative of omnuô (ὀμνύω) [pronounced om-NOO-oh] which means to make a solemn oath, the most serious, the most solemn oath that one can make. The aorist tense is a gnomic aorist. This is an absolute fact. That generation would not enter the land. The active voice: God produces the action of making a solemn oath. The indicative mood is the reality of God’s solemn oath of discipline to reversionistic believers of the Exodus generation, to reversionistic believers of any generation.

Eiserchomai is entering into

“in my wrath” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of orgê (ὀργή) [pronounced ohr-GAY]. Orgê (ὀργή) [pronounced ohr-GAY] is used for indignation. It is used here as an anthropopathism to express in human language the basis of God’s discipline.

Omnuô (ὀμνύω) [pronounced om-NOO-oh] always has an elliptical oath, and we have now the elliptical oath. The elliptical oath is a Greek idiom in which the one who takes the oath takes it in his own name. Literally then, we should have first, “I am not God if.” This is the solemn oath. God is taking the oath and He is saying “I am not God if.”

“if” introduces a first class condition and the protasis of the solemn oath — “they shall enter, future active indicative of eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee], which means to enter into something so as to take full possession of it. The analogy is to enter into supergrace with all of the capacities. And of course they failed because of reversionism.

“my rest” — this is the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative singular of katapausis (κατάπαυσις) [pronounced kat-AP-ow-sis]. Katapausisj is a very interesting word for rest, it means a state of complete settled rest, a state of inner and complete happiness and tranquillity. It is used here for Canaan which is a type of the believer in the supergrace life.

Heb. 3:11 “In keeping with the facts, I promise with a solemn oath in my disgust, My name is not God if they shall enter into my rest.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This same discipline of keeping the Exodus generation out of the land is expressed in Jude 5 and in 1Corinthians 10:5.

The Doctrine of Rest or Sabbaths

1. Salvation is described in terms of rest — Matthew 11:28, the rest of eternal life.

2. The land of Canaan is a type of the supergrace life and in this context supergrace is manifest by faith-rest. The rest of Canaan in Hebrews 3:11 is the supergrace life characterized by maximum use of faith-rest with doctrine.

3. We have a third kind of rest, the Sabbath rest of Genesis 2:2,3. The Hebrew verb for this Sabbath rest is shabath, which means to rest, to relax, to have tranquillity. On the seventh day of the earth’s restoration we have everything provided for man and God rested. God rested in the sense that there was absolutely nothing else to be provided for man, rest in the sense of the total provision of grace. That is the concept of the Sabbath rest of God in Genesis 2:2,3 — it is a memorial to the grace of God. Under grace God always provides everything.

4. The fourth Sabbath is the Sabbath of Israel — Exodus 20:8–11; Deuteronomy 5:12–15. This was every Saturday. It came around once a week and it was the last day of the week. The Jews were permitted to work for six days but on the seventh day they had to stop all work. The very change of pace was not only beneficial to them physically and even mentally but it had ultimate benefit in the spiritual realm because it was a reminder of grace. The fact that they had to stop work at the end of every week was a reminder that they could do nothing for salvation, they could do nothing for blessing. It is the provision of God.

5. The Sabbatical year of Israel. This was the big test of supergrace — Exodus 23:10,11; Leviticus 25:3,4; 26:33–37. Every seven years the Jews were supposed to stop work, and if they had been functioning properly under supergrace then this was really a year’s vacation, they didn’t have to work. They lived without work and without it being detrimental to them. This was a great test of whether they had entered into supergrace or not. They had to depend for one year on God’s provision. The failure of the Jews to observe the Sabbatical year was the basis for determining how long they would stay out under the fifth cycle of discipline. From the Exodus down to the first administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the southern kingdom was 490 years. In that time they had not observed one Sabbatical year. In 490 years they had accumulated seven Sabbatical years, so God in His great sense of humour said to them in 586 BC, “You missed your Sabbatical years, I’ll give them all to you now in slavery.” That is why the first administration of the fifth cycle of discipline was seventy years. This is all taught in the sequence of verses in 2Chronicles 36:20,21 cf. Daniel 9:2; Jeremiah 25:11,12; 29:10.

a. Some people cannot survive a year without working; it can cause them great problems, psychologically.

b. The Jews had to depend upon God for one year for provision. How long would they stay out under the fifth cycle of discipline.

6. There is a moment-by-moment Sabbath for the Church Age. In the Church Age we do not have a Saturday Sabbath. That didn’t work too well, the Jews didn’t learn anything from it. So in the Church Age, since every believer is a priest, God beefed it up. He gave us a moment-by-moment Sabbath, the faith-rest technique. This is also a principle by which the believer enters into the supergrace life. So the moment-by-moment Sabbath or the faith-rest technique is the growing stage, and then the annual Sabbath (taking a Sabbatical year) is supergrace.

7. Illustrations of the moment-by-moment Sabbath or the dynamics of faith-rest.

a. a) Abraham in Romans 4:17–21;

b. b) Moses at the Red Sea — Exodus 14:10–14;

c. c) The bones of Joseph in Hebrews 11:22;

d. d) Caleb and the giants — Numbers 13 and 14 cf. Joshua 14:6–14; 15:14; Judges 1:20.

So it is inevitable that the daily function of GAP, the daily function of the faith-rest, will eventuate in the supergrace life which is your spiritual Sabbatical year.

Heb 3:12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. (ESV)

Verse 12 — the warning against reversionism. “Take heed” — present active imperative of blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh]. Blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh] means to look. “Look out” or “Beware” here. The present tense means be constantly alert. Active voice: every believer is a priest and therefore has the basis for alertness. The imperative mood is a command to alertness, a command based upon Bible doctrine in the right lobe. The daily function of GAP is the basis for alertness.

“brethren” — adelphos (ἀδελφός) [pronounced ad-el-FOSS] refers to members of the family of God; “lest” — the Greek introduces here a negative purpose clause mhpote plus eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] — “that there not be.”

“in any of you” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of an indefinite relative pronoun, tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] — “inside anyone of you.”Here is the warning. The Exodus generation is the illustration. This was a warning first given by interpretation to the Jewish believers of Jerusalem in 67 AD, three years before their nation went down. Now it comes to us. Therefore we as believers ought to become alert, become aware of the importance of what is important, namely Bible doctrine.

“an evil heart” — the word “evil” here, ponhroj, means malignant, evil, or worthless. What is an evil heart? It is a heart minus doctrine, it is the heart of a believer in reversionism, the heart being the right lobe.

“of unbelief” — unbelief here is the ablative of means, a very strong noun, a)pistia. It is, however, not the ablative of source but the ablative of means. Therefore it becomes a very unusual expression. As the ablative of means the source and the origin of unbelief, or the breakdown of faith-rest, is emphasized. And reversionism is the source of unbelief. Reversionism is characterized by a breakdown of the faith-rest technique — Colossians 2:6; 2Corinthians 5:7; Hebrews 11:6. This is not a rejection of Christ as Savior here. It is tantamount to a rejection of Bible doctrine leading to reversionism. It is the failure of the believer under reversionism to claim either promises or doctrine. Hence, reversionism is further described as withdrawal from God, revolt against God, on the part of the believer. God’s promise was the land of Canaan, analogous to the supergrace life, and the Exodus generation is in reversionism and could not claim either the promise or the doctrines as they went along, therefore they were incapable of entering the land. They had no capacity.

Beware, members of the family of God...a malignant heart of unbelief.

“in departing” — the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental case of an aorist active participle a)fisthmi, and it should be translated “by revolting.” We have the instrumental case here and it should be “by revolting against the living God.” Reversionism is a revolt against God on the part of the believer.

“from the living God” — the word “living” is the present active participle of zaô (ζάω) [pronounced DZAH-oh] — “always living God” .Just as reversionism kept the Exodus generation out of the land of Canaan, so reversionism keeps the believer from erecting the ECS and entering into the supergrace life. Just as reversionism put the Exodus generation under the sin unto death, so today the believer is placed under the sin unto death by reversionism.

“always living God.” We do not have the definite article, its absence calls attention to the character of God. The “always living God” means that He is still waiting around to bless you. God wants to give you great things.

Doctrine of reversionism next time.

1972 Hebrews 3:12 Lesson #25

25 11/12/1972 (A month later) Hebrews 3:12 Capacity to receive from God

It is possible that there are no notes for this lesson? This is not included in the notes on Hebrews.

We began v. 12 last time, but did not complete it.

Apparently a long time since Hebrews has been covered. Jesus Christ is the only celebrity in the Christian life. No believer functions fully or utilizes fully until they have entered into the supergrace life. You need all those capacities. It all takes time and lies within the supergrace life. People are supergrace heroes based upon the doctrine in their souls. Moses lived before the completed canon. Always, it is doctrine in the soul. There were other ways of learning it. Angels and prophets both taught man. God, angels and human beings taught people. Moses was a supergrace hero, based upon the doctrine in his soul. His life fulfilled the very purpose for which God designed for him in time.

Grace was always in view, but the Exodus generation did not grab onto it. God is tapping His foot, waiting to provide for us blessing and success, but we refuse it because we lack the capacity for it. Reversionism keeps us from the great happiness that we can have in Christ. God did not save us so that we could have a bad life and be unhappy all of the time. You cannot even dream up what God has for you. What comes first, capacity or prosperity? Capacity comes first. God has unlimited resources and the perfect character to give. God is looking for men of great capacity. Paul was a great man of doctrine. Bob has heard from Paul’s critics in the Bible and about his looks, but God gave him a great amount of doctrine.

As believers, we are in full-time Christian service just like Paul and Moses. God has been waiting for 1900 years for a man with great doctrine so that God can drop a million or billion dollars onto his lap. God just needs to find the capacity.

RM/RW can fight like crazy, if they lack Bible doctrine. You need to have capacity. God has yet to find a military leader who can be blessed with military victories. God is looking for military types and for statesmen and for businessmen. Closest thing that we ever got was Teddy Roosevelt. God looks for men and women in every area of life. There is nothing that is more important than capacity. Some of you don’t want this kind of teaching and you are not going to change Bob. No one asks you for money or to do something; and you have your privacy at Berachah. Find some other church because you are stupid and superficial.

people have come to Bob about increasing the size of the auditorium; and he wants to get rid of a lot of people here. One guy smokes at Berachah, and rubs it onto the floor. Get in some church where you can smoke all over the place. You do not have the manner or the poise or anything. Bob does not care whether or not we smoke; but not in the building. Atrocious smell. We have a lot of deadwood. I don’t know why some of you come. It is Bible teaching all of the way all of the time.

Heb. 3:12 Beware, members of the family of God, that there not be in any one of you a malignant [worthless, evil] heart of unbelief by revolting from the always living God,... R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

People were saved in the hundreds of thousands in a Baptist Sunday school. They went out and got into some form of carnality. At some later time, some campus organization said, “You must ask Jesus into your heart” or “you must make Jesus Lord.” As a result, they think that this is where they were saved.

Some never got rebound, so they could not gap it. A reversionist first must experience some growth. He is a spiritual moron who never grew; the reversionist grew and then reverted.

Obadiah is a reversionist; Ahab is a spiritual moron.

“Keep on being alert, members of the family of God...”

You do not mark time in place in the spiritual life. You never stay in the same place. You must be alert always and you must never neglect spiritual food for even a day.

Evil is a status of the soul; it refers to a malignant soul, a soul filled with mental attitude sins. A soul filled with the practice of sins of the tongue. Gossip, maligning, judging. The real evil is the neglect of Bible doctrine. Sooner or later, there will develop a pattern in your life.

Quintessence of human pride to say, “The devil is after me.” A frantic search for happiness is not the way to happiness. There is no end to what God can give us. God is rich. He is not poor; and He is not dead. He is rich and alive; but the trouble is, He is also smart. You cannot con God. The only thing that God can do when we are out of line is the knock on the door, which is warning discipline.

This is strange to many of you, the fact that God wants you to be happy. We must have the ability to receive blessing.

It is not a part of the minister’s job to counsel. What if they charged? Bob might charge $500/half hour.

Very unusual verse when it comes to the Greek. Ablative is used here. What is the source or origin of the heart? The lack of doctrine in the right lobe. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Source is apistia. Lack of doctrine and lack of faith.

This passage is addressed to the believer. Adelphos refers to members of the family of God. He does not have maturity; he only has discipline. There is a lack of faith and lack of doctrine.

Gen X did not enter into Canaan because they lacked doctrine. Canaan is not heaven; it is entering into supergrace.

The desert-wilderness is a place of testing. No capacity for happiness, no capacity for blessing no capacity of any kind. Gen X was completely incapable of enjoying the land.

En + apistimi, which means, by means of revolting. This is a revolt against God. A person who has been positive to this point and he grows by faith in Bible doctrine.

The line that you cross is strong delusion. Someone did not hear the classes and had questions on James. Bob teaches and teaches, and this guy that he deserved a private lesson.

When a person grows up, they don’t need baby milk anymore. Bob is not going to stop his ministry to catch you up, you are mistaken. You are whiny brats.

Confessing your faults to one another is the sin unto death.

The always living God means that God is still waiting around, wanting to give us great things. He has a fantastic capacity to give. He is frustrated trying to give to us because we are idiots and dumbbells. God wants to make us successful.

Bob was in Miami and they were having a convention. People were working pretty hard. About Wednesday, the convention was over. Bob rode the elevator with a guy on Thursday. “I was too busy before and now I can live it up.” Bob knew what he had in mind. He had capacity to work hard and to play had.

Bob chewed on Bobby pretty hard at age 9, 10 and 11. Bob was preparing him to be a teen. He did not have to be watched like a hawk in his teens. You need to discipline your kids when they are young. Bob was preparing him to have capacity for life. So he could go to Mexico or drive the LA. He was being prepared to be able to do things on his own.

1972 Hebrews 3:13a Lesson #26

26 11/19/1972 Hebrews 3:13a Doctrines of revolution, reversionism, one day at a time

Heb 3:13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (ESV)

Verse 13 — “But” is an adversative conjunction. It sets up a contrast between the reversionistic believer in revolt with a malignant right lobe and the progressing believer through the daily function of GAP. Remember verse 12 — “Beware, members of the family of God, that there not be in any one of you a malignant heart of unbelief, by revolting from the always living God.” There are two principles involved at the end of verse 12. One is revolt and the other is a form of revolt — spiritual revolt called reversionism.

This Doctrine of Revolution is covered here and in Lesson #28; but I have reproduced the doctrine only here. Additional material from that lesson is inserted here.

The Doctrine of Revolution

1. The Word of God does not justify revolution — Romans 13:1–7; 1Peter 2:13,14; Numbers 16.

a. History on the House of commons and of Nobles. A discussion of the United States revolution.

b. No elections; no representation in the House of Commons by the colonies. This became the basis of there war which took place.

c. Revolution was a misnomer. First struggle was to get representation in the House of Parliament. However, as time continued, that proved futile.

2. In the Biblical sense of the word revolution involves lawless mobs which can neither think nor achieve anything compatible with the laws of divine establishment.

3. Revolution means both apostasy and lack of Bible doctrine — Isaiah 1:3–5 59:13. In this sense reversionism is an apostasy and revolution.

4. The Bible teaches that revolution is anti-God — Isaiah 31:6.

5. Revolution is caused by failure of the right lobe which the Bible calls the heart — Jeremiah 5:23. Revolution is always involved in the soul and in the soul’s right lobe before it becomes an overt system of violence for overthrowing the establishment. Therefore revolution is involved with emotional revolt of the soul as well as reversionism.

6. Jealousy is a motivator in revolution — Isaiah 11:13 cf 1Kings 12:19; 2Chronicles 10:19. Ephraim was motivated by jealousy towards the Southern Kingdom and that is how there was a revolution in the time of Solomon.

7. The communication of doctrine is designed to stop revolution — Ezekiel 2:3–10. However, that doctrine must be communicated on a basis of the principle of the local church today, a basis where there is freedom to accept or reject the doctrine. Rejection of doctrine always leads to some form of revolution. In the history of the human race wherever people have gone reversionistic revolution and violence is the order of the day.

8. Heathenism is the result of revolution — Romans 1:19-26. The result of such revolution is human degeneration — Romans 1:27–32.

9. The principle of revolution is found in the soul. Approbation and power lust seek to gain power by the destruction of freedom, rights, privacy and property of others. Therefore, revolution is a Satanic device in the angelic conflict to establish his cosmic kingdom and to superimpose his will over mankind. If you reject the freedom, privacy and freedom of others, you have revolution in your soul. Satan is a tyrant; he is a revolutionist.

10. Reversionism causes revolution. Supergrace is the antidote — Hebrews 3:8,9.

The Doctrine of Reversionism (Review)

1. Reversionism must be defined. It is a believer who starts out properly in the Christian life, taking in Bible doctrine and advancing. He constructs an ECS and then moves into the supergrace life. Somewhere along the line, if he goes negative toward Bible doctrine, he begins to retrogress.

1) The unbeliever starts out as an establishment person. He recognizes authority and so on. But he goes from this to reversionism. No nation is destroyed under the fifth cycle of discipline.

2) First of all, there is scar tissue on the left bank of the soul, scar tissue on the right bank of the soul, emotional revolt, the blackout of the soul, the practice of reverse process reversionism. Remember, a reversionist is a person who loses what he has. He is not the same as a spiritual moron who never took in doctrine. So by definition reversionism where the believer is concerned refers to a believer who constructed partially or completely an ECS and then went negative toward doctrine and then into apostasy. For the unbeliever we have a different situation. He is a person who followed the laws of establishment, but he goes from that down to reversionism. So the unbeliever can also enter into reversionism. The result is a reversionistic nation. No nation is ever destroyed under the fifth cycle of discipline without first of all passing through one generation at least of reversionism.

2. The mechanics of reversionism. The principle: 1Corinthians 10:12. The concept of mechanics: Romans 6:16–23. The believer goes negative toward doctrine; the unbeliever goes negative toward the laws of establishment.

3. The illustrations of reversionism.

1) The Exodus generation — Psalm 77; Exodus 17:3.

2) The generation of Jeremiah — Jeremiah chapters 42–44.

3) In the area of the Church Age one or two stand out. The Corinthian church — 1Corinthians chapters 10 and 11.

4) Also the church of Laodicea — Revelation chapter 3.

4. The principle of reversionism is found in Galatians 5:4, which does not say falling from grace as such but literally translated says, “You reversionists have become null and void, useless, powerless, unprofitable, non-productive, from the ultimate source of the Christ. Whosoever are being vindicated by means of the law, you have drifted off course from grace.” To drift off course from grace describes the principle of reversionism.

5. In reversionism the believer uses mental attitude sins to perpetuate his apostasy — Hebrews 12:15.

6. There are certain Biblical descriptions of reversionism in the Bible.

1) Galatians 5:4 — drifting off course from grace.

2) No one failing from the ultimate source of the grace of God — Hebrews2:15.

3) Uncircumcised of heart — Jeremiah 9:25, 26.

4) The tortured soul — 2Peter 2:7,8.

5) The unstable soul of 2Peter 2:14.

6) The lukewarm believer of Revelation 3:15,16. Excellent description because the lukewarm water first begins as being hot.

7) The enemy of the cross — Philippians 3:18.

8) Leaving your first love — Revelation 2:4

9) Fallen — Revelation 2:5.

7. Recipients of Hebrews involved in reversionism are described in Hebrews 5:11–14.

8. Reversion recovery is impossible apart from the daily function of GAP in the field of basic doctrine — Hebrews 6:1–3; Revelation 3:19,20.

9. Reversion recovery is impossible so long as one continues to practice the things that make them negative to doctrine — Hebrews 6:4–6; 2Corinthians 12:20,21.

10. Reversionism produces national disintegration — Romans 1:29-32.

11. Reversionism intensifies suffering — Psalm 77.

12. We have a principle under the practice of reversionism called reverse process reversionism. This is the abnormal practice of reversionism.

1) Normally a believer under category #1 love loves Jesus Christ but he accepts an inconsequential person or an idol as a substitute — like in the days of Jeremiah, Baal was the substitute. We have some illustrations of this: Jeremiah 8:9-20; Revelation 3:14–21; 2:4,5, 14,15.

2) Not every male in Berachah can be trusted.

3) In category #3, friendship: You have true friends and false friends. Under reversionism you are going to run with your false friends.

13. Reversionism leads to psychosis — 2Peter 2:15–19. In reversionism and the practice of reverse process reversionism, first of all the believer becomes psychopathic, and then he becomes neurotic or psychotic. Most believers lose their common sense, discernment and their sense of humour. This is illustrated by Baalim in 2Peter 2:15–18.

14. There are categories of reversionism.

1) Phallic reversionism — 2Corinthians 12:21; Ephesians 4:19; 5:5; Colossians 3:5; Revelation 2:14, 20–23.

2) Ritual reversionism. This is a legalistic type — Hebrews 5:11ff.

3) Monetary reversionism — James 4:13,14; 5:1–6; Revelation 3:14–20.

4) Drug addiction type of reversionism — Galatians 5:20 (farmakeia — drug addiction). You can destroy your mentality with drugs and be unable to take in Bible doctrine. Marijuana is harmful. Some of you have sold your souls. Your body was just thrown in. You get beyond a certain point, and you have had it.

5) Anti-establishment reversionism — Romans 1. This destroys a nation.

6) Mental attitude reversionism — James 4. They include jealousy, hatred and bitterness.

7) Verbal reversionism — James 5:9,12.

8) Mental illness reversionism which results from many of these things. Sometimes there is only a treatment by prescription drugs. That brings you back to zero; it does not cure you. In psychotic reversionism, you go to a doctor because you have a mental illness. There are psychos around Berachah and they need treatment. Berachah Church cannot teach Bible doctrine to psychos. Psychos cannot take it in. We cannot undo years of negative volition.

15. Reversionism destroys supergrace living. Just as reversionism kept the Exodus generation out of the land of Canaan, so reversionism keeps the believer from the ECS, the supergrace life, and all the happiness involved. #16?

A pastor is not in the business of making friends. A lot of you don’t like it when Bob isn’t nice and they bring in psychos or similar. GAP operates from zero up; it does not start at sub-zero.

You might be a believer, and you go negative for a long long time; and suddenly your world falls apart. You cannot come in for a day or two and get mentally repaired. The Word of God was not designed for consistent negative volition; it is for consistent positive volition.

Bob teaches concentrated Bible doctrine during the holiday season. Why double up? This is the time when people decide to take a vacation from Bible doctrine. If you depend upon people and family gatherings for happiness...not going to happen.

Verse 13 — the prevention of reversionism. Notice again, we have the adversative “But.” That sets up a contrast between the reversionistic believer in revolt and the believer who functions daily under GAP.

“But exhort” — present active imperative of parakaleô (παρακαλέω) [pronounced pahr-ahk-ahl-EH-oh] — “But keep on encouraging.” The present tense is an iterative present. The iterative present is designed to take in doctrine on a consistent daily basis, but don’t take it in every second of every day. The iterative present needs to be explained for the idiots, who think they take doctrine in every moment. Food requires seasoning to taste good; some good teaching has some seasoning. Parakaleô (παρακαλέω) [pronounced pahr-ahk-ahl-EH-oh] is a flavour-type verb, it means to encourage here, it means to encourage with flavour. You encourage people to eat by flavouring it up. The active voice: the believer produces the action. The imperative mood: this is a command to encourage one another to GAP it on a consistent basis.

Bob adds salt first, and then he tastes it. Believers have all of this stuff in their frame of reference; so they are getting the spice with their doctrine.

“one another” is the accusative plural from the reflexive pronoun ho autou. In the plural it becomes a reciprocal pronoun and that is the use of it here. This means it should be translated “each other.” But with this imperative it means “Keep on encouraging self and others.”

The next word gives us the frequency with which we should feed upon the Word. “Daily” is what we have in the English but that isn’t what is in the Greek. We have a preposition, kata, plus the accusative of e)kastoj, plus the accusative of hêmera (ἡμάρα) [pronounced hay-MEH-raw] which means a twenty-four-hour day. It means here “on each successive day” . The believer must be encouraged every day to take in doctrine.

“while” is an adverb of place or time, achri/achris (ἄχρι/ἄχρις) [pronounced AHKH-ree/AHKH-rece], which means “as long as” .In other words, as long as you have a day you have some time during that day when you can take in Bible doctrine — “it is called” — present passive indicative of kaleô (καλέω) [pronounced kal-EH-oh]. The present tense is iterative. The passive voice: the subject receives one day at a time. The indicative mood: the reality of receiving from God by grace one day at a time.

“To day” — literally, “This day.”

Summary Hebrews 3:13

1. The emphasis of the adverb is that each day is a grace gift from God to the believer priest. God measures your life in days after salvation. You measure your life in years; God gives you one day at a time. Why? Because the emphasis changes. Once you accept Christ as Savior it is one day at a time and it is very difficult to switch your thinking. Bible doctrine must come in and help. You must switch from thinking in terms of anniversaries, in terms of birthdays, in terms of certain special days out of each year, and you must think in terms of every day is now a special day. “Keep on encouraging self and others on each successive day as long as, in whatever day you are located it is called This day.” That’s what it means. It is a conflict that Christians have, thinking in terms of a day rather than in terms of years.

2. The believer should take advantage of every day to take in doctrine on as much of a crash program as possible.

3. Opportunities to take in doctrine are not always available. Therefore, use each day to GAP it to the point of the ECS and supergrace.

4. Therefore, it should be translated “as long as, in whatever place you are located, it is called This day.”

5. The principle of GAPing it daily is both preventative of reversionism and progressive to supergrace. The basis for growing up and the basis for recovering from reversionism.

Reversionist thinks in terms of years; believer thinks in terms of days. We are trained from early childhood to think in terms of years. For the believer, we have to consider one day at a time.

The Doctrine of a Day at a Time begins in this lesson. I changed the numbering.

The Doctrine of One Day at a Time

1. The believer with an ECS and the supergrace life regards every day as unto the Lord — Romans 14:5,6

2. Only the believer has the grace provision to redeem time — Ephesians 5:15–18.

3. The capital for the purchase of time is called “greater grace” — James 4:6. This refers to the supergrace life. God the Holy Spirit provides the basis for supergrace through His gracious teaching ministry of doctrine in the function of GAP — John 14:26; 16:12–14; 1Corinthians 2:9-16; 1John 2:27.

4. Every day we live as a believer in phase two is a gracious gift from God. Time is God’s gracious gift to us. The only time we possess to honour God is the number of days in phase two — all provided by grace — Psalm 90:12; James 4:13–15.

5. The fact that the believer lives another day on the earth is a sign of divine grace and faithfulness — Lamentations 3:22,23. The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will have confidence in him." (Lam. 3:22–24)

6. God has provided soul capital in the form of Bible doctrine to make each day count for His glory — James 1:21. The “engrafted word” is Bible doctrine in the soul of the believer through the daily function of GAP. So therefore the importance of acquiring doctrine on a daily basis — Jeremiah 15:16; Matthew 4:4.

7. Every day is a special day in phase two — John 11:9,10.

8. Each day in phase two the believer must avoid mental attitude sins which produce self-induced misery. Why? This is the worst category of the three categories of sin — Proverbs 27:1. Furthermore, mental attitude sins are motivators for all other kinds of sins. These mental attitude sins are the worst day by day enemies. So every day you must have a relaxed mental attitude — 1John 2:9-11.

9. Since there is no suffering in phase three — Revelation 21:4 — God can only demonstrate His grace provision for you now, in time. And it is one of God’s objectives in the days you have left on this earth to show you something of great prosperity, to show you something of His provision in adversity, so that no matter what your circumstances may be at any time you can have great happiness through it all — 2Corinthians 12:7–10; Psalm 102:1–3

This doctrine was taught in this and the next lesson. It is put together here rather than split up.

Heb. 3:13 “Keep on encouraging self and others on each successive day, as long as in whatever place you are located it is called This day...” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews 3:13–14 Lesson #27

27 12/10/1972 Hebrews 3:13–14 Doctrine of a day at a time; separation between believers; partnership with Christ

This is a month later. There may be some review of the previous lesson.

We have the reversionistic revolution by Gen X.

Most of you have not been here before and you have no idea what this vocabulary means. We cannot stop to explain each term as we come to it.

A skeleton holding a guide-on on the cover the Reversionism.

You are just occupying a pew that someone else wants. There is just a lot of dead wood in this church that could be moved out. This pulpit is designed to meet the needs of those positive toward doctrine. There are more people who have been here and are gone than are here this morning.

Some are pastor-baiters or think that you should get special treatment from the pastor. Bob hung up on 5 people since he got back from SF. Our objective is to study and learn the Word of God. We need to move to a place of self sufficiency.

Heb 3:13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (ESV)

No believer is standing still in the Christian life. You are moving forward or backward. There will be failures on both roads. Phase III is for both groups. Same basic thing, no more sorrow, no more tears, etc.

We have been studying King Saul and he suffered 30 years of divine discipline. David and Saul both took opposite roads. Moses, Joshua, Caleb and a few others took one road, and the rest of Gen X took the other road.

There is a gap between believers. The idea of loving all believers means a lack of mental attitude sins. You can have nothing in common with members of your own family. Bob has one sister with nothing in common; as different as two people can be. Bob hears from his sister about once every 10 years; he is about due. You cannot believe how different we are. Bob lives in North America and his sister in South America, which is a good arrangement.

Believers can be hopelessly divided. Free will explains all of this. Why do we have denominations and differences of opinion. This is because believers are on one road or the other. This divides them.

Moses did not have any children after the Exodus. He has 2 sons that he saw briefly. His sons were never involved in the nation of Israel. Their mother and sons went one way, and Moses went the other. Aaron’s sons were those who communicated Bible doctrine. They taught the written Word of God; and this was taught in part by ritual.

Separation between David and Michel; David and Saul. The separation is all about Bible doctrine.

Positive believers encourage one another. There is no violation of the privacy of the priesthood. No violation of the privacy of the individual priesthood.

He autou. This is a repetition of material covered before. Encourage self and others. Never let a day go by without encouraging yourself and others daily. The days are successive, one at a time.

Time for the doctrine of A Day at a Time (which is back here).

The Doctrine of a Day at a Time (2)

1. We are brought up to think in terms of years. Rom. 14:5–6

2. I decided to go back and add to the previous iteration of this doctrine.

Heb. 3:13 “Keep on encouraging self and others on each successive day, as long as in whatever place you are located it is called This day...” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The summary is repeated. It is found here. Now we are with the notes recorded previously.

The rest of this verse is made up of a negative purpose clause which emphasizes the use of GAP in a preventative connotation. The daily function of GAP not only moves the believer priest into supergrace by way of the ECS but prevents the believer from falling into the malignancy of reversionism or the reversionistic revolt against God. Verse 12 gave us the reversionistic revolt against God.

The word “lest” introduces a negative purpose clause, hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] plus m (μή) [pronounced may] plus the subjunctive in the verb for a negative purpose clause — “any of you.” The word tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] plusek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus the pronoun su — “anyone from among you.” Then we have the verb in the aorist passive subjunctive, “be hardened” — sklhrunq, which means to be hardened. Here is means to become hardened. The aorist tense is a constative aorist. This gathers into one ball of wax every act of negative volition toward doctrine. The constative aorist takes in negative volition today, tomorrow, the next, the next, and so on. And when one is negative like that this is what happens: negative volition toward doctrine, scar tissue in the left bank of the soul, the accumulation of scar tissue opens up the mataiotês (ματαιότης) [pronounced mat-ah-YOHT-ace] and through this vacuum comes Satanic doctrine into the heart or the right lobe of the believer’s soul. It comes into his frame of reference, clutters up his memory centre, enters into his vocabulary, works into his categories and destroys categorical teaching, changes his norms and standards to comply with Satan’s cosmic system, puts human viewpoint up on the launching pad which causes him to make a frantic search for happiness, putting scar tissue on the right bank of the soul. It leads to emotional revolt of the soul, the practice of reversionism and reverse process reversionism, and therefore it is destructive to the believer.

Sklêrunô (σκληρύνω) [pronounced sklay-ROO-no] means scar tissue. The constative aorist looks at the fact that every time you say no to Bible doctrine, every time you reject an opportunity to take in the Word of God, you in effect have hardened your right lobe. The passive voice: the result of scar tissue is received from negative volition toward doctrine or the daily neglect of doctrine in the part of the believer priest. Some people attend, and you are negative; but you are there in Berachah by some form of coercion. The subjunctive mood indicates the purpose clause, and with a negative it means a negative purpose clause. The purpose is “that you not become hardened.”

The word “deceitful” is the instrumental of a)path, and it doesn’t mean deceitful, it means “delusion.” This is the same concept as “strong delusion” in 2Thessalonians 2:11. It is a reference to reversionism. Delusion of the old sin nature is a part of reversionism, and under this delusion the Exodus generation can only be disciplined to the point of the sin unto death. The have no supergrace capacities to enter and enjoy the land. Hence, the function of the old sin nature under reversionism has deluded them and they will die in the desert over a period of forty years. Saul reigned for forty years, most of it in reversionism. The Exodus generation were free from slavery forty years, most of them in reversionism. Reversionism has no capacity to enjoy freedom. God graced out the Exodus generation and gave the crown to Saul, they had no capacity for these things.

V. 14 is our partnership with God.

Heb 3:14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (ESV)

Verse 14 — a statement of our supergrace partnership with God. The first word is a particle, “For” — the particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] is a conjunction. It is used to express cause, inference, continuation or explanation. Here is the explanatory use of this particle. It is designed to relate the daily function of GAP in the previous verse with the objective of phase two: partnership with God in the supergrace life. We fulfil our priesthood, our ambassadorship and our partnership only as supergrace believers.

“For we are made” — perfect active indicative of ginomai, should be translated “we have become”; “partakers” — the nominative plural of metochos (μέτοχος) [pronounced MET-okh-oss], which means sharers or associates or partners — “of Christ” is the genitive singular plus the definite article. It is a genitive of relationship and also a genitive of possession. The possessionship of Christ is based upon eternal relationship with Christ. This should be translated, “For we have become partners of the Christ”

“if” — e)aonper. This is a rather unusual compound particle. It is composed of the conjunction, eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN], which introduces a third class condition, plus the particle per. Per is an enclitic particle and it gives the concept of supposing. So we have “if supposing.”

We Will Summarize What Is Coming with this Compound Particle:

1. Eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN]per plus the subjunctive introduces a third class condition. The third class condition relates to the believer’s volition toward Bible doctrine and the supergrace life.

2. In other words, the effectiveness of our partnership with Christ depends on our entrance into the supergrace life.

3. While the believer is appointed a priest at the cross he does not function effectively as a priest and a partner with Christ apart from the possession of the ECS and the entrance into the supergrace life. Notice that “partnership” [metochos (μέτοχος) [pronounced MET-okh-oss]] is used for this reason: it is a synonym for the priesthood of the believer. Christ is the high priest; we are a kingdom of priests. Whenever this passage is talking about partnership it is talking about the priesthood.

4. Also implied. Reversionism destroys the function of both partnership and priesthood.

5. The third class condition, eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN]per, indicates that the believer’s attitude toward doctrine will determine his status — whether he is a supergrace believer or a reversionist. This is the fork in the road.

6. In supergrace the believer will recognize Christ as the only celebrity as a part of his category #1 love response.

7. By way of contrast, in reversionism the believer will have a total breakdown of the faith-rest technique like the Exodus generation.

8. The believer in reversionism will also end up like the Exodus reversionists, outside the land under the sin unto death. The land is a picture of victory or supergrace in the spiritual life.

9. Canaan, therefore, is a type of the supergrace life.

10. The Exodus generation was kept out of Canaan because of their reversionism. The believer is kept out of supergrace by reversionism.

11. The manifestation of their reversionism was the malfunction of the faith-rest technique. Therefore the faith-rest principle comes into focus as proof of reversionism or proof of supergrace.

12. Therefore the effective function of faith-rest, depending on Bible doctrine and the ECS becomes a demonstration of a supergrace life.

13. Maximum use of faith-rest is exploited in supergrace, claiming both promises and doctrines. Therefore, the third class condition sets up the alternatives which every believer must face: supergrace versus reversionism.

Supergrace book out in January.

“we hold” — the aorist active subjunctive of katechô (κατέχω) [pronounced kaht-EH-khoh]. echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] means to have or to hold; katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] means norm or standard — “if we retain and secure.” This means to retain and secure possession of something, to retain and hold fast mentally. It refers to Bible doctrine in the soul through the function of GAP.

“the beginning of our confidence” — the accusative singular of archê (ἀρχή) [pronounced ar-KHAY] plus the definite article. With the definite article it refers to a definite beginning. “The beginning” has to do with the daily function of GAP by which the believer starts to grow. That is the beginning of “our confidence” — genitive singular of hupostasis. Hupostasis means essence, real being, confidence, assurance, steadfastness. The “beginning of our essence” refers to the beginning of the essence of the priest. The believer only is a priest, therefore the believer has the essence of the priesthood. What is it? Positive volition toward doctrine. He takes doctrine into his left lobe, called the mind. Positive volition cycles it into the human spirit as epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] . The epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] is cycled into the right lobe or the heart, into the frame of reference. The memory centre then scatters it and puts it into your vocabulary, develops categories, norms and standards, and puts it on the launching pad. At the same time this doctrine becomes the basis for constructing the ECS. When the ECS is completed you have +H or the sharing of God’s happiness. This leads to the supergrace life which is more +H — all of the capacities, including the function of the priesthood and the capacity for partnership with Jesus Christ are all involved in the supergrace life. So there must be the securing of Bible doctrine in the soul for these things to exist. The reality or the essence of the believer priest is the doctrinal structure of the soul.

“steadfast” — accusative feminine singular noun, bébaios (βέβαιος) [pronounced BEB-ah-yoss], which means stabilized. This is a reference to the continuation of GAP and the construction of the ECS plus the entrance into the supergrace life. Stability comes to the believer upon entrance into supergrace. Then great danger to the believer is the neglect of doctrine after a partial completion of the ECS.

“unto the end” — this is an adverbial preposition, mechri/mechris (μέχρι/μεχρίς) [pronounced MEHKH-ree/mekh-RIHS], plus the genitive singular of telos (τέλος) [pronounced TEHL-oss]. This means stabilized by supergrace “until the end”, the end of your life on this earth.

Life is simple; if you are positive toward doctrine, God will provide a means for you to get Bible doctrine. Many of you who have lived in Houston for a long time, and you have not been taking advantage of the teaching of Bible doctrine. It is yours, but it is up to you whether you want it or not.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #28

28 12/17/1972 Hebrews 3:15 Doctrine of revolution

Heb 3:15 As it is said, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." (ESV)

Verse 15 — the rejection of the supergrace partnership is reiterated. The first word is “While” but in the Greek it is a prepositional phrase — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative case of the definite article, which is translated “So long as it is.” Then we have an infinitive which is the object of the preposition. It is a present passive infinitive used as an idiom. This idiom is used as a temporal clause which quotes again Psalm 95:8 in order to apply the reversionistic failure of the Exodus generation to the Jewish believers living in Jerusalem in 67 AD, and in order to make the same application to us who are alive in this 20th century.

We are living in a fool’s paradise; in pseudo prosperity. All of this has some reason and purpose behind it. Mediocrity and failure of our own system of government. All of these things have been made the object of blame. True blame must lie on the individual believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He in reversionism is rationalizing away all that we have in the Word of God. Mediocrity in government. Many tentacles of the octopus which is destroying us. The real culprit lies within the soul of the individual believer.

We are now approaching the Christmas season; people go in for superficialities as never before. They find a brief happiness in the Xmas tree or the exchange of presents. Might be mid-February before you recover from it. If you are a supergrace believer, then you have capacity for life.

Perhaps today in 1972, we might be 3 years before we face the same crisis that Jerusalem faced. The Kremlin would like to take over the United States in 1776 ti defeat us on our 200^th birthday. Africans running around and being catered to by mediocre people in the government. These Africans should have been shot. Admiral Zumwalt should go.

All types of services represented when he saw Bobby off. The Navy was the worst looking of all, with beards and long hair. The Navy looked like a bunch of hippies walking around.

Bob had the shock of his life yesterday watching tv. He was games from the 1920's. You could not even see hair. It was phenomenal. Bob realizes just how far down the line that we have come. Today, they look like a viking who lost half of his uniform.

Behind everything is a spiritual condition. There is no counteraction to any of these things in the souls of individuals. The Black peoples, many of them, are dragging this country down. White trash with long hair; ill mannered, mixed up people. Illustrations of this almost everywhere that you look. This type of thing is the most destructive thing that exists; until the evil soul is replaced with the edification complex structure.

“So long as” means as long as these things continue there will be a gradual and a continual destruction of the national entity.

“it is said” — this is the object of the preposition. The preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] has as its object the verb mistranslated “it is said.” But we have a present passive infinitive of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh], it is a part of a temporal prepositional phrase. This is an idiom. The present tense is the retroactive use of the progressive present. It is used to apply something in the past to the present. Something in the past is the failure of the Exodus generation, the failure of the generation of Jews in 67 AD who would be destroyed by the Roman legions in 70 AD. The passive voice is used for the second time to quote Psalm 95:8. The infinitive is part of the idiom and is the object of the preposition. “So long as it is being said” is a better translation.

Then we have the word “today”, an adverb, sêmeron (σήμερον) [pronounced SAY-mer-on]. Sêmeron (σήμερον) [pronounced SAY-mer-on] begins the quotation. The adverb connotes a continuous day pertinent to every generation of believers. The adverb is used because believers live one day at a time. This also has the concept of generations of believers. The Exodus generation is the generation being observed in the quotation. David made the application in Psalm 95:8. Then in the first century AD a generation of Jews, believers, and after the second generation of believers in Jerusalem reversionism was so rampant that they destroyed themselves.

Jerusalem is not a holy city; and it will not be so considered until Jesus returns.

We are not one nation under God; we are a nation of confused races. The Indians were going to take over until they got their rights. These different races do not exist; you are a citizen of the United States or you are not. If you are a citizen of this country, the color of your skin does not mean anything. We have no concept of freedom. Those who rise to the top do so because they have the freedom to do so. You do not makes things by lifting up people from the bottom and trying to force them to be better. Everywhere you turn, you have long-haired feminine males. 63% of the students recognize that drugs are a serious problem in the high schools and junior highs. Houston is the only large city which was protected from organized crime; but the mafia has now moved into Houston. The trash and scrum always attract that kind of influence. We are on the verge of a niggar revolution. We are on the verge of some of the most ghastly things that we have ever seen. African Niggars cut off the arms and legs and genitals of those they defeat. That’s coming because of the softest attitude towards trash that has ever existed. They are running in packs in Germany. Not safe for an American woman on a post in Germany. They would not let her off the post, and said it was too dangerous for her to go off the base, due to the Black soldiers moving about in packs. Unfortunately, there are in every race who are a great credit to their race. Bob knows some Black people who are as great as anything else. They understand establishment and they appreciate it. A Black man is not safe in their own neighborhoods because of the Black Panthers and the Black Muslims. They even put these people on television. The way that they talk is unbelievable. The Navy has made their caps larger to accommodate African hairstyles.

There are Black young people who understand establishment. We have the most noncourageous presidents in our history. Some of the highest offices in the land; Bobby Kennedy persecuted some great men, an Officer... That is what we all face and it is going to get worse; so Merry Christmas.

“if” — a Greek conjunctive particle eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN] plus the subjunctive which introduces a third class condition. It emphasizes the believer’s volition related to the teaching of Bible doctrine. The third class condition means maybe yes, maybe no. It all depends upon your volition, your understanding of the situation.

The only hope of our nation is in our souls and in the souls of other believers just like us. Maybe yes and maybe no.

“ye will hear” — aorist active subjunctive from the verb akoúô (ἀκούω) [pronounced ah-KOO-oh]. Akoúô (ἀκούω) [pronounced ah-KOO-oh] means self-discipline and concentration in the daily function of GAP. Every believer after salvation faces the same issue. His attitude toward Bible doctrine determines which fork in the road he will take. Bible doctrine makes the difference. If he is positive toward doctrine he is going to take the supergrace road. If he is positive toward the Word of God he will grow into supergrace. That is the place of great blessing, the place of prosperity, the solution to our national problems. But if he is negative toward doctrine, then he is going to enter into reversionism. As goes the reversionist, so goes the nation. That was true of the kingdom of Judah is 67 AD, that was true of the Exodus generation, that was an issue that David faced when he wrote Psalm 95, that is an issue in every generation of people. What think ye of doctrine?

Jesus Christ is the issue at salvation but Jesus Christ never becomes an issue to the believer apart from Bible doctrine. You can’t understand Jesus Christ, you can’t love Jesus Christ, you can’t respond to His love, you can’t appreciate His love, you can’t recognize the celebrityship of Jesus Christ, until you have started to take in enough doctrine to know what it is all about. So the reversionist always winds up under the sin unto death. The supergrace believer always winds up in a place of great blessing in the capacities for life. He has capacity for every aspect of life.

A pack of niggars cut of the hand of a sailor and this is virtually unknown except by a Corpus Christy newspaper.

If you want to stop the crime rate, use capital punishment. Hang the criminal in from of his house on a lamppost and leave him up for Christmas. Best Christmas decoration ever. Anyone who peddles dope, kill ‘em. And then take every 10^th criminal and execute them as well. Word would get around.

“his voice” — the objective genitive of phônê (φωνή) [pronounced foh-NAY]. It refers to Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine is the source of all blessing for the believer. This is the voice of Jesus Christ. This is the way Jesus Christ makes love to the believer.

“harden not your hearts” — this is where reversionism begins. We have the present active subjunctive of sklêrunô (σκληρύνω) [pronounced sklay-ROO-no]. Sklêrunô (σκληρύνω) [pronounced sklay-ROO-no] is a technical word. How do you harden your heart. It is a present tense again; it means it is a process, not linear aktionsart. The active voice means at certain times you harden your hearts toward doctrine. The subjunctive mood says this is potential. The subjunctive plus the negative indicates this is going on at the time the writer of Hebrews sent this message to the believers of Jerusalem in 67 AD. The same thing was happening to them that started to happen in David’s day. However, in David’s day they overcame this thing and supergrace saved the day. But in the day in which this was being sent to the Jews they did not repent, they did not get back on Bible doctrine, and the result was the destruction of the nation.

Mechanically, how do you harden your heart? This says, “Harden not your hearts.” We have the accusative plural here of kardia (καρδία) [pronounced kahr-DEE-uh]. This is addressed to a lot of believers, it is in the plural. The heart is the right lobe of the soul. The heart has a frame of reference with a memory centre, a vocabulary, categories, norms and standards, and a launching pad. This is the right lobe, this is where you live. “As a man thinks in his heart, so he is.” The left lobe is the processing point. Doctrine comes in here and goes into the human spirit (by faith) from where it is transferred to the right lobe where it is used to erect the edification complex of the soul, and the believer enters into supergrace with capacity for freedom, for life, for love, for happiness, for adversity, occupation with the person of Christ, recognition of the celebrityship of Christ, love of Jesus Christ, and so on. This is the place of great happiness and blessing, this is where God feels free to pour out all of His blessings upon the individual.

Hardening the heart means to shut it down. The way it is done is negative volition toward doctrine. Hardening of the heart begins with scar tissue on the left bank of the soul. This opens up a vacuum line which attacks the right lobe. Satanic doctrine, doctrine of demons, comes through this vacuum and attacks the frame of reference, attacks the memory centre, attacks vocabulary, categories, norms and standards, and it attacks doctrine on the launching pad. Then there is emotional revolt of the soul which shuts down the valves, and all of the valves fail to function and there is no feeding of doctrine from one part of the right lobe to the other when emotional revolt occurs. The heart is hardened by negative volition toward doctrine, by emotional revolt of the soul which shuts down all of the function of the right lobe. Therefore “harden not your hearts” is a command to believers. The subjunctive carries the strength of a command but recognizes that your volition is involved. The negative indicates that they are doing it at the present time. They are in reversionism, they are practicing reverse process reversionism, they have destroyed the ECS.

Summary

1. The heart refers to the right lobe of the mentality of the soul where in the function of GAP doctrine becomes part of the believer’s life. Doctrine functions in the right lobe and this becomes the believer’s life.

2. The first objective of GAP is to get doctrine into the right lobe’s frame of reference, therefore moving it into the conscience, the vocabulary, the category compartment, and onto the launching pad.

3. The next objective is the erection of the ECS and entrance into supergrace.

4. The hardening of the heart hinders this, for the hardening of the heart is the description of reversionism with reference to the stages by which the individual goes from negative volition all of the way to reverse process reversionism.

5. Such reversionism is accompanied by malfunction of the faith-rest technique, as at Meribah.

“as in the provocation” — the word “as” is hôs (ὡς) [pronounced hohç] which relates reversionism to the Exodus generation at Meribah. This relates the failure of the Exodus generation of the Meribah to our situation. The words “in the provocation” is a prepositional phrase — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of parapikrosmoj. Parapikrosmoj means revolution — “as in the reversionistic revolution.” Actually, parapikrosmoj is a translation of Meribah which means revolution, revolt. This is a historical citation to Exodus 17:1–7. It also sets up an analogy: Canaan is a type of supergrace; the wilderness is a type of reversionism. Believers who live in reversionism die in reversionism. Reversionism keeps the believer out of the supergrace life. Reversionism keeps the believer from divine blessing, from the sharing of God’s happiness, from the capacities of life, from occupation with the person of Christ. Therefore reversionism keeps the believer out of the supergrace life.

The Doctrine of Revolution. We go back to lesson #26 for this.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #29

29 04/01/1973 Hebrews 3:7; Psalm 95:6–11 Games with God 1

This is 4.5 months later; and not sure if there are notes on this lesson.

Hebrews 3:7, going back to this after a few months. I think that this is #29.

No reserved seats in Berachah Church. Don’t leave your stuff behind.

Bob has been on an extensive study, and he has spend a full day on each verse of the first 3 verses of Hebrews 4. He has left out too much stuff. Canaan is not simply a picture of the faith rest life but of the supergrace life.

I am not finding any doctrine of Games with God.

Wherefore is dia + ho, it means because of which.

Moses is a supergrace hero in a reversionistic generation. His cup overflowed to the people of his day. This is why God told him, “Walk away from this people and I will wipe them out.” The same thing will happen in the days of the Apostles. The writer of Hebrews and men like the Apostle Paul who challenged their generation.

God has certain things to say through the writer of Hebrews at that time; and for future generations. At some point, you may have been given something with no strings. When a person receives a no-strings gift, they truly enjoy the giver and there is capacity for love. Occupation with the giver. Reversionism is the believer with no capacity to appreciate grace or salvation.

If you have supergrace capacity, then you will have supergrace blessings. God did the sowing in eternity past; and the supergrace believer reaps this in time. There must be occupation with Christ before the harvest can be enjoyed. Then you have the cup and the cup is capacity, which overflows with blessings. Self cannot provide capacity for self. This is why culture is no substitute for doctrine. Culture is capacity to enjoy life only from human viewpoint; and when the believer tries this, they fall apart as believers. Culture cannot replace Bible doctrine.

Hebrews 3:7 “For this reason therefore according as the Holy Spirit communicates, This day if you will hear and concentrate on his voice”,... R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

As the canon of Scripture is formed, God vindicates His Word. He preserves it forever. The writer of Hebrews took this passage and wrote it in Koine Greek. This passage is found in the OT and in the NT. Psalm 95:7–11 God the Holy Spirit gave this to David when in supergrace. There is something to be learned from the Hebrew and something to be learned from the Greek. God’s message and His meaning was completely recorded by David as God wanted it to be recorded. David, without waving his human intelligence, God’s complete and connected through for man was recorded.

Now starting Psalm 95 I wonder if this can be found in the psalms? I looked and could not locate it.

Bob is finding a lot about faith rest, which is for babies; and supergrace is for adults. No one functions properly in their priesthood as babies. God has done so many things, and this generation is about to miss it.

Psalm 95:6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!

This is not a reference to creation; but this is all about something which God keeps on doing, Qal imperfect. Out of doctrine, you manufactory something in your soul. You manufacture a cup that God can pour into.

David goes into Philistia, and hits a low point. But he recovers and becomes a wealthy man; as God keeps on pouring. When God can pour, it is an eternal memorial. There is one thing that you will take with you to heaven.

The One Who has manufactured us out of doctrine.

Psalm 95:7 For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you hear His voice,...

It is very rare for the believer to love the Members of the Godhead.

Pasture means the feeding of Bible doctrine; the growth comes from the daily function of gap. God pours for those who have the cup.

This day is a reference to the daily intake of Bible doctrine. Qal imperfect of shamar, which means, this is a continuous process. It refers to the function of GAP from the first phase of GAP. It is possible for doctrine to get into your left lobe, but it goes nowhere else. That makes you a hearer of the Word but not a doer.

Two kinds of negative volition. Primary negative volition, refusal to assemble yourself; and the refusal to believe it. That would be secondary negative volition. Refusing to accept what is taught.

Moses was a great Bible teacher, and the people assembled, but they did not believe him. They did not transfer Bible doctrine to the human spirit.

6 kinds of negative volition?

Psalm 95:7 For He is our God, and we are the people of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. Today, if you hear His voice,...

All communicators are simply a voice. This is the system by which believers have understood Bible doctrine. This goes back even to Adam. David in his recovery. God has chosen certain people as voices.

Hearing is primary positive or negative volition.

Psalm 95:8 ...do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,...

Hiphil stem of qashah. How do you cause the hardening of your heart? A modern translation, do not turn on negative volition.

Negative Volition at the Hearing of Bible Doctrine

1. You become disillusion, bitter, frustrated, boredom, discouragement, self-pity, jealous are the ways that you keep yourself from getting Bible doctrine.

2. You react to one or more of these areas by a frantic search for happiness. This is manifestation of having no capacity for life.

3. The frantic search for happiness is you doing it and reaping what you sow.

4. Emotional revolt plus the frantic search for happiness cause 2 things.

5. You might hear what is being taught, but then you say, “I don’t know where he got that from? Who teaches that? Where did that come from?”

6. Primary and secondary negative volition.

7. Do not turn on your negative volition, which refers back to hardening your heart. A little negative volition is a lot of negative volition.

Psalm 95:8 ...do not harden your hearts [or, do not turn on your negative volition], as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness,...

This is a reference to the revolution which takes place in the first year (Exodus 17) and the 40^th year (Num. 20:1–14).

Meribah is also called Massa. Massa means, reaping what you sow.

The fathers in v. 9 refer to the 1^st generation. When they would come into a difficult situation, they would test God; they would play games with God, testing Him one more time. Reversionistic games. “You be nice to me and I will worship You.” Tempting means to play games. There are people who do not really like you, but they pour on some sugar. This is the attitude of reversionism. Lack of capacity is plaing games.

Psalm 95:9 ...when your fathers put Me to the test [or, played games with Me] and put Me to the test, though they had seen My work [or, grace provision].

Bachan means, to strap it on God. The believers got manna every day; but they wanted a bunch of other things from God. They were going to make the appropriate noises towards God in order to get more stuff from God.

This generation used God. They did not really respond to His love; they just pretended to in order to get what they want. That is playing games with God. A supergrace believer loves God; the reversionist does not.

If you tend to play games with people, then you will likely play games with God. It will catch up to you. Michel played games and it caught up with her and David. She was the loser.

Some of you will never have a permanent set of friends in this life. Sooner or later, it all catches up with you. All of us will have love come our way at some time, and if we have no capacity, we will play games with it and lose it. God says, “I loathe them.”

Psalm 95:9 ...when your fathers put Me to the test [or, played games with Me] and put Me to the test, though they had seen My work [or, grace provision].

God gives with no strings. “I have for you acres of money trees; rm/rw, promotion. But all I can do for you in reversionism is basic needs, to keep you alive in order to spank you.”

Primary negative volition, they are not here today; secondary negative volition, you are here but you do not believe it.

Psalm 95:10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, "They are a people who go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways."

You must gap it every day. The opportunity to hear doctrine every night may be closed down, very shortly. There is no substitute for face to face teaching.

This people goes astray, they stagger, they wander; they go astray in their right lobes. When Bible doctrine is rejected, the brain then acts like a siphon (an Oklahoma credit card) or like vacuum and sucks in false information.

Psalm 95:11 Therefore I swore in My wrath (indignation), "They shall not enter My rest."

An if that introduces an elliptical oath. Whoever is making this solemn promise. It is like saying, “I am not Bob Thieme, if...”

Here, it is, “I am not God, if they enter into My rest.” Or, “You strap it on Me, you fool around with Me, you play games with Me, and you will never enter into My rest.”

Faith must mix the promises or the truth and take it into the right lobe. Then it can be used by the entire soul. The pouring are the supergrace blessings. “I am not God if they enter into My resting place.”

David communicated this as a supergrace believer.

Hebrews 3:7 “For this reason therefore according as the Holy Spirit communicates, This day if you will hear and concentrate on his voice”,... R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This writer is also guided by God the Holy Spirit.

David goes back to the Exodus generation and so does Paul and so does Jude. They are a great illustration of reversionism versus supergrace. Bob recounts all of the warnings being given.

What Are We Being Warned About?

1. God must vindicate His Word in the souls of believers.

2. Supergrace is the means and it is available to believers today just as it was available in 1440 b.c., a warning to David in 1000 b.c.; and to the believers reading Hebrews a.d. 67.

3. God takes what God has provided for us in supergrace in eternity past and here we on in time.

4. Only a relatively small number of believers appropriate supergrace. We are not talking about needs; we are talking about prosperity blessings. Bible doctrine in the soul is the vacuum pump; and it suck divine blessing right into your life.

5. There emerges in each generation some person who demonstrates the failures of that generation by going all out for doctrine. Take Jeremiah, David, Moses. Paul. In every generation, there emerges a supergrace hero with such a fantastic vacuum pump into their present day. Our blessings come now from eternity past; not from eternity future. Some of you move about on motorcycles. Bob talks about using the tube to suck out gas from someone else’s gas tank (hopefully, you will swallow some and that will cure you). You need to set up a vacuum. Long before anyone existed, God planted millions of money trees. Success and promotion is right there. Do not let your vacuum pump break down; do not go a day without doctrine.

6. The blessings of those who had supergrace blessings in the Bible what they hadd is available to you. Bob shows the gap setup in the soul.

7. God did a lot of planting in eternity past so that we can not miss all that He has given us.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #30

30 04/01/1973 Hebrews 3:7 Games with God 2; doctrine of negative volition

might not be notes on this lesson.

We are continuing with the material from the previous lesson.

If there is an empty seat with a Bible or book in it. Hold it up and Jess with come by to get it. Bob assumes that the couple vacant seats are legitimate ones.

We are in the middle of v. 7.

Today if you will hear His voice... This introduces the 3^rd class condition, which focuses on the volition of the believer in the Church Age. Primary positive volition is to show up; secondary positive volition is to transfer the information by faith to the right lobe.

Your attitude towards doctrine determines the sort of life you are going to have. Life involves you making many decisions. These decisions must be made on a daily basis. Frankly, some of you ought to decide to go elsewhere. Some of you are just playing games with God.

Akouô, the Greek equivalent to Hebrew shamah. Constative aorist and it refers to every single time that you assemble with other believers together. A partnership of association with Jesus Christ.

metakos. Not partakers here, but partners. The partnership is the priesthood of the believers. It is one thing to be a priest; it is another thing to function as a priest. You either hear or you don’t hear.

Summary

1. For the believer reaching supergrace, there is the believer who reaches supergrace and receives pouring.

2. As a priest, he begins to harvest what God sows from eternity past. That all occurs in eternity past. That is the believer. He only can reap under supergrace. Certain things that God provides under grace.

3. The harvest of supergrace blessing is potential.

4. The alternative in the potential is reversionism, where the believer reaps what the believer sows. Anytime you do your own sowing, God is not in it.

5. The believer sows frantic search for happiness, negative volition and that leads to the blackout of the soul through the opening of a vacuum to the heart. 3 categories of divine discipline.

6. To reach supergrace, the believer must become a student without portfolio.

7. The true concept of discipleship is the believer accepting the authority and teaching of his right pastor. He must be consistent in his attendance of class and consistent in transferring the doctrine that he learns. Primary and secondary negative volition. The second is to assemble, but not to believe the doctrine. Primary and secondary negative volition. Believers around Berachah, I never heard that, or I don’t like the way he said that, or I don’t know where he got that from.

If you will hear His voice, the descriptive genitive. The absoluteness of doctrinal teaching. God has to delegate authority, being up in heaven. He must vindicate His Word, wherever it is found. The doctrine is found in the Bible. His authority is called phonê. Then this is transferred to the sheep. He sets up another authority, the pastor-teacher. The sheep accept it or reject it. Sheep in the wrong pasture and more on. Hebrews 13:7, 17

Hebrews 3:7 “For this reason therefore according as the Holy Spirit communicates, This day if you will hear and concentrate on His voice”,... R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The communication is made to David in Psalm 95 and the writer of Hebrews.

Hebrews 3:8 ...do not go on hardening your hearts as in the reversionistic revolution of the Meribah on the day of testing in the desert... R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

we will have to look at, what does it mean to harden the heart. The whole process of hardening will be looked at when we complete this passage.

The Whole Process

1. The believer gets into a reaction state, which is one of a number of things, disillusion, to be completely bored, discouragement, overcome by self-pity, frustration, mental attitude sins, bitterness and jealousy. This is the reaction where the believer begins to react.

2. Then the believers reacts, which is always a frantic search for happiness.

3. The frantic search for happiness is coterminous with or precedes emotional revolt. Some kinds of unhappiness depend upon emotional revolt; other trigger emotional revolt. Sometimes even coterminous.

4. The combination results in either apathy, indifference, rejection or neglect of Bible doctrine. The hardening process almost finished by step 4.

5. Satanic doctrine enters the heart of the believer.

6. Blackout of the soul, is a loss of part or all of the doctrine that you have ever learned.

A customary present, a continuous process. Active voice means the believer reaps what he himself sows. The malfunction of gap is related to the priesthoods.

This doctrine will be covered elsewhere in a subsequent lesson.

The Doctrine of Negative Volition

1. The refusal of doctrine. This is primary negative volition. The forsaking of the assembly of yourselves together. Not listening to your right pastor.

2. The second type is the refusal of faith rest, secondary negative volition. James 1:22–25 Many are not strong enough in their reaction, so they go to church for good luck, but they don’t believe it.

3. Refusal to rebound; also a malfunction of gap. Keeps doctrine from coming into the left lobe. Failure to be filled with the Spirit means no doctrine comes into the left lobe apart from what an unbeliever would understand, like divine establishment.

4. Refusal to be consistent. A person only gaps it when there is adversity. They gap it to get something from God or to take away from pressure or discipline. Unstable believer.

5. Negative vulnerability. Even in supergrace, a person can be vulnerable. Reacts to self-pity,

6. Negative emotionalism, negative to doctrine through emotional revolt in some way or another. They get into the tongues movement. Some emotional stimulation. They are in a state of unfaithfulness. The emotion is unfaithful to the right lobe.

Primary negative volition is refusing to assemble; malfunction of gap no filling of the Spirit, then secondary negative volition is not coming in a time of adversity.

Hebrews 3:8 ...do not go on hardening your hearts as in the reversionistic revolution of the Meribah on the day of testing in the desert... R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

bitterness leading to revolt; bitterness leading to reaction; another side of meribah. It means the meribah revolution or the reversionistic revolution.

Someone that you are interested in someone who can do something for you. But you do not have any actual interest in them. Like a mixed up old sugar daddy and a gal starts going with this guy to see if he is worth the risk or not. How long will he last? Her objective is to get a meal ticket. This is how the Greeks used perosmos. To check someone out to determine if they can get something from them.

The Exodus generation tested God to see if they could get anything from Him. They got the routine things of life from Him; but they wanted more. On a day of playing games in the desert, testing God to see what they can get from Him.

A woman just needs to put about 2 cc’s of flattery into the man’s head. He is like a football, being kicked around.

Women are beautiful; men are not. That men are attractive is an optical illusion.

The adverb, where your fathers, ancestors. They were like their ancestors in the soul. You do not inherit the soul. You inherit the body and the genes. You can inherit the soul in the sense of making the same mistakes that your ancestors do.

You can play games with God, to play games with God, to strap it on God. The Jews and their ancestors were playing games with God. They were hustling animal sacrifices into the Temple. Born again believers in the Church Age. When Christians offered up animals at the Temple, they are playing games. This is like the 40 days of fasting etc. before Easter. Marte Gras is the last time to celebrate before the 40 days.

The pattern of the Jews in Jerusalem is the same as that for those in the Meribah generation. Reversionism is reaping what the believer himself sows. Reversionism recovery and going into supergrace is the only way to get out of Jerusalem in time.

Perazo. They ran a test to see if it was worthwhile. Can God do something for me? If they decided yes, they would then play games with God. An attempt to get something from God. Bob telling how people get into fights today. These people in reversionism are trying God. They say, “We have checked you out and we think we can get something from You,” and God says, “Try me.”

God tests us. He tests us for doctrine. Where there is a cup, God pours out blessing. Reversionism practices pseudo-love. Reversionists like to play games.

Hebrews 3:8 ...do not go on hardening your hearts as in the reversionistic revolution of the Meribah on the day of testing in the desert... R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The reversionistic believer has no capacity for love. Those who love God are supergrace believers. The Lord spanks the reversionist. En + dokimos. “We will approve God, if He passes the test; we will give Him respect, esteem and our approval. They demanded water and they did not get it.

40 years of eating manna, 40 years of water, 40 years of provision; but a second meribah testing, and they did not pass it. They were bored with God’s grace. God sowed in eternity past and they were to harvest in time.

Supergrace blessing is not about needs; it is over and above needs. Food, shelter and clothing is for the reversionist as well. Logistical grace is for all believers; God handles the needs for all believers. As long as you have a reason to be in God’s plan, He keeps you alive. Ecology is a farce. God will provide food, shelter and clothing.

Summary

1. Strap on is when they began the games.

2. No capacity for freedom, blessing, etc. You are bored or indifferent.

3. Capacity in the soul comes only from Bible doctrine in the soul.

4. Remember, God must vindicate His Word. In written form and in your soul, in invisible form. The Word of God lives and abides forever.

5. The Exodus generation missed all of that because of reversionism. God continues to be faithful to the faithless reversionist. The reversionist does not love God. God provides for the needs of the reversionist; and He provides them with discipline as well. No discipline in eternity. You get that all now.

6. Jesus Christ is our only celebrity. High priesthood of Christ and celebrityship of Jesus Christ.

7. Reverse process reversionism causes the believer to be bored, frustrated and filled with pseudo-love, which is the basic motivation for playing games. The whole problem is having no capacity for grace. The reversionistic believer priest does not know what to do. The big issue in the Church Age is functioning under your priesthood. No believer functions under his priesthood until he reaches supergrace. Meribah generation found it out the hard way.

If you truly love someone, then you can be disgusted with them, but you maintain your love towards them.

Hebrews 3:9 ...in which place (Meribah) your reversionistic fathers (the Exodus generation) began testing (to determine good of evil) in Him (God) by means of approving Him after testing [if God could pass the test set up by reversionist]. And they had a panoramic view of my grace provision for 40 years. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This is all idiomatic in the Greek, so that, if God should pass the test (whatever they make it out to be), that they would recognize it.

Bob apparently exegetes this passage again. Grace leaves such a believer bored; you are filled with self-pity. A man gives to a woman; but she is bored with him. The gift with no strings is grace giving. The only thing that people who are superficial can understand is giving with no strings.

Summary Remarks

1. If you sow in ignorance, you reap in ignorance. If you sow in ignorance of doctrine/ grace, you reap without benefit of grace or doctrine.

2. No doctrine means no capacity. Capacity is not instantaneous. Doctrine comes a little bit at a time. Available in Berachah more than anywhere else. Bob studied until midnight last night. We has discovered that he does not know half of what is found here. Faith rest is for babies; for those who desire the sincere milk of the Word. Bob previously lost about 70% of the truth from this passage. There is so much here, there is so much available. David is the key to this passage; some of it is by contrast. We are priests; David is not.

3. Reversionism has no capacity for supergrace blessing; so reversionism cannot enter into the land of Canaan and take it. Application to David, the people could not enjoy the land; in the time of Hebrews, the people were about to go under.

4. What was the land? It represents supergrace. The land is a gift from God without strings; and they blew it. You blow a no-strings gift by having no capacity of soul.

5. Where there is not capacity of soul, there is no capacity for life and boredom, instability and unfaithfulness.

Inside some souls is ignorance and abuse; despite having a no-strings gift given.

V. 11 is the last verse for this lesson. Bob had to beat Bobby for awhile; the best thing that he could do was the spank him. It took about 3 years. Those were hard years. Bob loved him; but he knew he could not put a monster out there. After that, Bob had no problems with Bobby. Bob believes that he has a perfect relationship with his son. The paddle became a blessing in his life.

God can only do one thing for a reversionist, paddle the hell out of you. You may not get the message of love, you get the message that something is wrong.

God swears by Himself; there is nothing higher upon which He can swear. The future and aorist tense are both very similar. The present and imperfect represent progress; the future and the aorist are punctiliar. Only Caleb and Joshua walked across the Jordan.

1972 Hebrews 3:13 Lesson #31

31 04/08/1973 Hebrews 3:13 Prevention of reversionism

Not sure where this lesson integrates into the mix. Bob says v. 13, but he only went as far as v. 11 last session (a week ago). Apart from that, what remains is found in the notes on Hebrews.

We have been studying the supergrace, which is where Moses and David meet.

David was challenged by the concept that once you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and enter the family of God, God has a purpose for your life. This purpose is blessing. God is glorified by blessing the believer. That is the principle. God is not glorified when He has to spank or to discipline. God is glorified and we are blessed when the believer takes the road of positive volition toward Bible doctrine, consistent persistent positive volition. This is the road where when one reaches it the priesthood begins its normal function. The whole subject of the book of Hebrews is that you are appointed a priest at the point of salvation. That means that every believer is in full time Christian service; every believer is a priest. But his priesthood only has a normal function when the supergrace status is reached. The supergrace status is characterized by: 1) Occupation with the person of Jesus Christ; 2) Supergrace capacity — that is the cup in the soul constructed of Bible doctrine; 3) God is glorified in the angelic conflict when the supergrace blessing begins to flow. That is God pouring into the cup.

In the history of Israel as a nation there are men who hold specific records. Moses is the record-holder for supergrace leadership of all time. It is a very rare thing for a man to be such an outstanding leader when he has a rebellious negative generation of people. Moses led, roughly for forty years, some two-million rebellious type people and yet he is one of the greatest of all. His human genius is not the issue here but the fact that God provided for him through Bible doctrine a cup, and his cup was running over practically all of the time. He is the greatest man in the field of supergrace leadership who ever lived. No one ever had more opposition, no one ever had more problems with people, no one ever had so much static from his own, and yet God kept pouring and pouring and pouring. There are some different supergrace blessings. For example, he finally acquired his right woman which is always paramount in the minds of those who are still in single bliss. But where he holds the record is in the principle of leadership.

Then there is the period when the Jews reached their peak. This is the period of David. And David also holds a supergrace record but it is a different kind. You would think that because Israel had reached an all-time high that his would be leadership also, but instead God did other things for David. God poured in unusual ways for him and David holds the variety record. For example, David was the wealthiest man if his day and one of the wealthiest men who ever lived. In fact, his son Solomon was the wealthiest man in the world and he merely inherited from his father. We have great wealth and great success. God promoted David more than any person who ever lived. David holds the record for promotion. As God said, “David is a man after my own heart.” He also holds the record in other areas for variety: anything in a materialistic way, anything that has ever been related to success or happiness, David had it, he had more of it than anyone else.

And then we get down to the end of the monarchy, the nationalism of Israel, and we have another record holder of a most unusual type: Jeremiah. As the fifth cycle of discipline was approaching God used Jeremiah in a very wonderful way. Jeremiah had fantastic message for the approaching of the fifth cycle of discipline or the disintegration of a national entity. During this time you wouldn’t think that God was pouring because Jeremiah lost his right woman. In addition to that he lost all of his friends and just about everything he could lose and still stay alive. This went on for a long, long time. Jeremiah holds a record though. Jeremiah must have been past seventy when God started to pour for him in a special way. Jeremiah is the all-time record holder for happiness and blessing after seventy. He holds the record that proves the principle: If you have a cup, God may not pour right away but when He pours He really pours. After Jeremiah left Egypt and went to Babylon and lived under the final years of Nebuchadnezzar’s great reign he had the greatest happiness, the greatest blessing that could ever come, and he had it all at the end. Jeremiah is a perfect illustration of when you have a cup you live happily ever after, and eventually it came to that. He holds the record for happiness and blessing in old age.

But there is another record that is also involved from a Jew. The apostle Paul holds the record for doctrine. After Israel is out, as it were, and about to go out again under the fifth cycle of discipline the apostle Paul was the greatest recipient of doctrine in his cup of anyone who has ever lived.

The interesting thing is that the blessings which came to Moses, the blessings which came to David, the blessings which came to Jeremiah, and the blessings which came to the apostle Paul are all available to the believer priest in the twentieth century right now. All of these blessings are available under supergrace. We have it in the canon of scripture and it is available to anyone. It is possible for these blessings to all be yours. That is why the writer of Hebrews is so frustrated on his subject of the priesthood, and that is why when we get to chapter 5:1–10 he is going to stop because he is dealing with reversionism and not people who are positive. It will be chapter seven, verse one, before he gets back on his subject of the priesthood. In fact, he hasn’t even mentioned the priesthood yet, he has called it partnership. He is still pressing toward his point and will finally make his point in the fifth chapter and then he will sever off from his point because we have a problem: you can go the road to supergrace or you can go the road to reversionism. The road to supergrace is the road of great blessing (you reap what God sows); the road to reversionism is the road of cursing (you reap what you sow). All of the believers who get on the road to reversionism are going to see the love of God. The love of God is expressed in a beautiful way to the supergrace believer: “We love him because he first loved us.” But the love of God is expressed to the reversionist in a different way: “Whom the Lord loves he chasteneth, and he skins alive with a whip every son whom he receives.” There are three areas of divine discipline. There is self-induced misery on this road and there is also divine discipline. The first area of divine discipline is the warning or the knocking [on the door] stage. The second area is the intensive stage. The third area is the dying stage. Inevitably, those who stay on the road to reversionism, like king Saul, die the sin unto death. On the road to supergrace you reap what God sows, on the road to reversionism you reap what you sow: divine discipline. The road to supergrace is the road to Romans 8:28 — “to them who love God” .The only believers who love God are those who have enough doctrine in the soul so that they have now reached the fourth floor of the ECS — capacity for love, category #1. This is really where supergrace blessing begin to flow because doctrine comes into the left lobe, by positive volition it is cycled to the human spirit, it picks up a siphon which takes it into the heart or the right lobe, into the frame of reference, into the memory centre. It becomes a part of your vocabulary. You develop categories and classifications. You have new norms and standards and eventually you have doctrine [divine viewpoint] on the launching pad, and that causes to make an application toward the celebrityship of Christ. The celebrityship of Jesus Christ is a combination of maximum doctrine on the launching pad, plus the ECS — 1st floor: grace orientation; 2nd floor: mastery of the details of life; 3rd floor: relaxed mental attitude of agápē (ἀγάπη) [pronounced ag-AH-pay] love; 4th floor: capacity love really begins. There is an application from the right lobe and there is capacity for love coming out of the ECS, and this creates a vacuum that goes all of the way back into eternity past where God has provided two kinds of blessings. Blessings which belong to you on the basis of grace and blessings which belong to you on the basis of supergrace. The blessings that belong to you on the basis of grace do not involve your volition; the blessings that belong to you on the basis of supergrace requite positive volition and GAPing it all of the way to supergrace. This depends upon doctrine in the soul. One involves your volition; the other one does not. In both cases, it is a nonmeritorious manner.

There is one other distinction that should be made. There is a difference between a carnal believer and a reversionistic believer. A reversionistic believer is negative toward doctrine and out of fellowship, a carnal believer is positive toward doctrine and temporarily out of fellowship. The carnal believer uses rebound and gets back in fellowship and keeps GAPing it, but a reversionistic believer is negative toward doctrine, does not rebound and stays perpetually out of fellowship.

Heb 3:13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (ESV)

Verse 13 — “But” — allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH], an adversative conjunction which sets up a contrast between the reversionistic believer with his malignant right lobe in the status of reversionism and the positive believer moving toward supergrace. This is addressed toward those who are positive toward doctrine. And the word “exhort” is not exhort here, it is the present active imperative of parakaleô (παρακαλέω) [pronounced pahr-ahk-ahl-EH-oh]. While parakaleô (παρακαλέω) [pronounced pahr-ahk-ahl-EH-oh] in some passages means to exhort it also means to encourage. The present tense is linear aktionsart. The active voice: the subject, the believer priest, producing the action. The imperative mood is a command.

“one another” is not quite correct. It is a reciprocal pronoun ho autou in the accusative plural and it means self and others.

“daily” is a prepositional phrase, katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of hêmera (ἡμάρα) [pronounced hay-MEH-raw]. katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative has several translations. Hêmera (ἡμάρα) [pronounced hay-MEH-raw] plus the accusative plural means “on each successive day”, and this particular prepositional phrase reminds us that there are certain things that God gives you whether you like it or not. For example, when you were saved God gave you eternal life whether you like it or not. That is all settled and you cannot change it. Most people want it, unless you are a real weirdo.

“Keep on encouraging self and others on each successive day.” This is a command, an order to every believer priest. How do you do it? No matter what happens in any particular day, not matter what conflicts exist, it is the concept of positive volition toward doctrine. That is the encouragement of self. No matter how bad you feel positive volition toward doctrine in the encouragement of self. The overflow of your grace capacities to others is encouragement to them. The principle is that every believer is going to live one day at a time, and on every day just as you have physical food you need spiritual food.

We need physical food daily; and spiritual food as well.

The encouraging self and others means first of all to beware that you do not fall into primary negative volition. Primary negative volition says, I’m not going to Bible class, I’m not going any more, to hell with them, etc. This, again, is usually a disillusion reaction, an apathy reaction, a boredom reaction, a discouragement reaction, a self-pity reaction, and so on.

One person in Berachah claimed that he could get it all from books; and he lost his self-discipline and he was eventually shipped out.

Almost from the first day, Bob got antagonism from various members from the congregation. He decided to keep cranking out the Word of God; and if he uses a hell or a damn, or brings sex into it...that is how he will communicate.

Once you get to Bible class, however, and you sit down, you have another problem. You have already passed the primary volition test. Next, there is a secondary volition test and that comes when you hear. Your failure to transfer means you are a hearer of the Word and not a doer. Some may remember a pastor from his past and he never taught that. Or someone claims that they have done a lot of reading. “I’ve read 45 books.” And maybe she teaches women. “I hear what you are saying, but I don’t believe it.” You can accumulate a lot of information in the left lobe but it is not useable. To be useful it has to go down to the human spirit from where it is transferred into the right lobe where it is useable and where you become a doer of the Word.

The writer of Hebrews did a very smart thing. He took the combination of David’s Psalm 95 about the Exodus generation and applied it to the Jews in Jerusalem in 67 AD. The Exodus generation was 1440–1400 BC; Psalm 95, about 1000 BC; the Jewish believers in Jerusalem in 67 AD. By God the Holy Spirit causing this writer to quote Psalm 95 into the Greek, bringing in the Exodus generation, actually makes it possible for a challenge to be set up for us in the 20th century right now with regard to our priesthood. So he pulls the whole thing together for us: “Keep on encouraging self and others on each successive today while it is designated today” .In other words, if you eat every day you also should eat spiritual food every day. “Today” is an adverb, sêmeron (σήμερον) [pronounced SAY-mer-on]. Sêmeron (σήμερον) [pronounced SAY-mer-on] actually means “This day” .

Principle

1. God has supplied every believer with X amount of time in phase two. But God has provided this time on the basis of days, so the time in given one day at a time.

2. Every day is a grace gift from God to the believer priest. God only gives you one day at a time.

3. Positive volition is measured each day on the basis of attitude toward Bible doctrine.

4. Opportunities to take in doctrine are not always available, therefore each day when doctrine is available through teaching that should be regarded by the believer as a GAP day.

5. The real issue every day is to beware of the malfunction of unbelief in the function of GAP. The malfunction of GAP comes through negative volition.

6. The objective of GAPing it to supergrace in this context is the normal function of the priesthood. Normality in the function of the priesthood comes with the supergrace life. The supergrace life only comes by the daily or consistent function of GAP. GAP is also the preventative of reversionism; GAP is also the basis of recovery from reversionism.

7. The objective of gapping it to supergrace is the normal function of the believer. This is what they ought to be doing. Churches are filling up with people who have no clue; they are abnormal. They march for peace or speak in tongues; they are as abnormal in the spiritual life as homosexuals are in regular life.

Hebrews 3:13a “Keep on encouraging self and others on each successive day, as long as it is called This day...

Next follows a negative purpose clause which emphasizes the use of GAP to prevent reversionism. The daily function of GAP not only moves the believer toward his supergrace life, the normal function of the priesthood, but prevents malignancy in his life, the malignancy of reversionism. The negative purpose clause begins with the word “Lest.” We have a conjunction plus the negative — hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na], which ordinarily is used to introduce a purpose clause. With this we have the negative mê. Hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] plus m (μή) [pronounced may] means “that not”, literally. So, “that not one from among you.” “Any of you” is not quite correct, this is an indefinite pronoun tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç]. The indefinite pronoun is designed to make this a personal impersonal factor. Personally, you may be involved. You may be one of those who has neglected Bible doctrine. But you are in a group, and being in a group you can take this personally without it becoming a personal issue to the entire congregation. That is the purpose of having an indefinite pronoun in the Greek. This indefinite pronoun tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] means not “any” but “anyone”, and it is designed to be impersonal and objective. With it is a prepositional phrase, the prepositionek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus the ablative plural of su. ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], means out from among and su in the plural means a group — “out from among you all.” In other words, you are in a group. That is what the plural says here. And being in a group, that gives you the only way you can properly and objectively take in Bible teaching. For example, if this was one on one like a pastor-teacher and a sheep (which is forbidden), then you would have to take everything personally. “Among you” means believers assembled together.

Bob on his critics. One criticism is, Bob lets people come to church in a bikini. SamHankins illustrated this by coming in a barrel. It might be difficult in concentration. If all a person has in a bikini, and is positive, then they should come. How can Bob ever profit from these criticisms, as they come from people who have never heard what he teaches. When Bob calls those in his congregation idiots, the koine English, and you can better understand it.

Bob might get you to stop drinking coffee and you might have a testimony, I used to be an idiot, but now I am an idiot who does not drink coffee. The whole objective is to be objective.

The next phrase, “be hardened” is an aorist passive subjunctive of sklêrunô (σκληρύνω) [pronounced sklay-ROO-no]. Sklêrunô (σκληρύνω) [pronounced sklay-ROO-no] means to become hardened or negative — “that not one from among you begin to become negative.” Why? Because the aorist tense here is an ingressive aorist. In the aorist generally you have what is known as the entirety — the ball of wax. Sometimes the action of the aorist tense is at the beginning. We call that ingressive. Then, the whole ball of wax may be considered. Something is extracted from the ball of wax which is the same, like GAPing it daily. That is what we call constative. Then, the action may be viewed from the results of this ball of wax or at the end, so we call that culminative. So you have ingressive, constative, and culminative aorist. Here we are looking at the beginning of something — “Don’t begin to go negative.” This passage is addressed to believers living in Jerusalem in 67 AD and they have begun to go negative, so it denotes here the entrance into a state or condition, and they are entering into reversionism. And they are entering in the usual way. Something has happened and they are disillusioned, they have become bored, they have become discouraged, they have become overcome with self-pity, they have become frustrated, they are full of bitterness or jealousy. And to one or more of these things they react with a frantic search for happiness. In 67 AD these believers, either through legalism or lasciviousness, have gone into their frantic search for happiness accompanied by emotional revolt and resulting in either apathy, indifference, or antagonism for the Word of God. All of these things, of course, are negative volition toward doctrine. The Word of God, Bible teaching, is neglected. So the aorist tense notices that they are beginning to enter this status.

The passive voice of our verb: the believer begins to be hardened or begins his negative volition toward doctrine when he reacts. Again, he may react to disillusion, to boredom, discouragement, etc., and his reaction is a frantic search for happiness. The frantic search for happiness upsets the soul with emotional revolt. The inevitable result is negative volition toward doctrine, both primary and secondary, and the believer priest to receive hardness of heart through this activity. The subjunctive mood denotes the purpose clause here, and we now have the fact that the believer is becoming hardened.

The frantic search for happiness includes self-delusion. No one ever gets into the frantic search for happiness without being involved in self-delusion. And, of course, the frantic search for happiness involves both self-delusion and sin. So self-delusion plus sin characterizes frantic search for happiness and this is brought out in our next phrase, “through the deceitfulness of sin.” The word “deceitful” is an instrumental case of the verb a)path, and it means self-delusion. Then we have the word “sin” which is the ablative singular of hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah], and hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah] means basically to miss the mark. Here hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah] means a frantic search for happiness. The Exodus generation tried a frantic search for happiness in operation golden calf, which also illustrates the self-delusion of sin — but not sin in carnality, sin in reversionism. Remember, there is a difference between a supergrace believer’s sinning and a carnal believer.

Delusion from the source of sin is the frantic search for happiness.

“On each successive day while it is called today” means don’t wait for tomorrow when it comes to taking in doctrine. You come home at night and you’re tired and warn out, and you sit down and say that you really don’t think you can make Bible class tonight. If I did I wouldn’t get anything, I’m too tired, I’d fall asleep. There is always some way to rationalize. So the phrase, “while it is called today”, is very important. It means don’t let a day go by without taking in some spiritual food.

The Pattern of this Verse Can Be Summarized under Eight Points

What is the pattern for hardness of heart?

1. The believer becomes disillusion, bored, discouraged, overcome by self-pity, frustrated, bitter, jealous. One or more of these factors arise in the life.

2. The believer reacts to one or more of these conditions and enters into a frantic search for happiness. This function is the self-deception or the self-delusion of sin.

3. Delusion from sin results in emotional revolt. Emotional revolt further destroys capacity for love and capacity for life.

4. The combination of frantic search for happiness plus emotional revolt of the soul causes negative volition toward doctrine.

a. Speaking in gibberish and relating that to healing makes no sense.

b. A vocabulary is related directly to the soul.

5. Negative volition, either primary or secondary, causes scar tissue on the soul which opens the vacuum to the right lobe, into which Satanic doctrine is sucked or drawn. The Satanic doctrine leads to demon influence.

a. Easter Sunday is an invention of the Catholics, to get people into church.

b. They give them 40 days to dry out.

6. The result is called in Ephesians chapter four the blackout of the soul in which the believer has no doctrinal resources for his priesthood to function. Remember that your priesthood functions only on Bible doctrine.

7. The blackout of the soul is followed by reverse process reversionism.

8. During this entire process the believer reaps what the believer sows. He reaps self-induced misery, he reaps three stages of divine discipline — warning, intensive, dying.

1972 Hebrews 3:14 Lesson #32

32 04/15/1973 Hebrews 3:14 Isaiah 30:29 Partnership of the priesthood

Two guys stand up who are associated with tapes and pubs, but in remote locations.

We have now arrived in the section of the passage which deals with our partnership with the Lord Jesus Christ. It is imperative that we as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ recognize the principle of full time Christian service. In the day of apostasy in which we live a distinction is made between clergy and laymen. This distinction is often based upon erroneous principles and concepts. The distinction does exist in the area of spiritual gifts and does exist in the assembly of the local church. The authority in the local church is vested in the communicator and whenever and under whatever conditions there is a gathering together of believer priests for the teaching of the Word every believer is a student without portfolio. Yet through the fulfilment of this objective every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ reaches the objective God has for him. This objective should begin immediately after salvation. Once you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ there are two roads you can take. One road is a road of progress that leads to the supergrace life. This is a road of functioning daily under GAP. This is the road which fulfils that which we are appointed at salvation.

One of the 36 things we receive at salvation is a priesthood. Every believer is a priest as of the moment he puts his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. The normal function of the priesthood does not occur until the supergrace life. This means the constant intake of doctrine into the left lobe of the soul, the cycling of that doctrine into the human spirit of the soul, the picking up of that doctrine by a vacuum line that takes it into the heart or the right lobe of the soul, resulting in doctrine in the frame of reference, doctrine in the memory centre, doctrine in the vocabulary and the categories, doctrine in the norms and standards, and doctrine on the launching pad.

Now with doctrine on the launching pad, that sends out a signal and that signal matches the fourth floor of the ECS which is capacity for love, category #1. The two signals together form a vacuum that goes right into eternity past at which point God begins to pour. In other words, supergrace is characterized by 1) occupation with the person of Jesus Christ, 2) by supergrace capacities. That is the cup. That is when God starts pouring. The supergrace capacities include capacity for freedom, for life, for love, for happiness, prosperity, for adversity, and so on. And this is God’s objective, to pour. But God never pours without a cup. That is one of the rules of the angelic conflict. Once there is a cup then God begins to pour, and divine prosperity designed for us in eternity past is poured, and we call that supergrace blessings. That is the objective. That is when God is glorified by your life. Most people think that you glorify God by doing something for God, but glorifying God is God being glorified by being able to give without reservation to you. So we have that principle in the supergrace life.

All of this is related in our passage to the priesthood of the believer. We saw in chapter one how Jesus Christ became a member of the human race and in resurrection, ascension and session became higher than angels. We have seen not only this to be a fact and a principle involved in the angelic conflict, but as a result of this there is one man in all of the universe who is now higher than angels: Jesus Christ in resurrection body seated at the right hand of the Father. Ultimately this is the objective for all believers from the beginning of time to the end of time — to occupy a resurrection body, to live in heaven, and to be completely and totally superior to angels. But this superiority will not exist until resurrections occur, and at the present time the only one who has been resurrected is the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. However, in the flesh every believer is designed in this age to be a priest. Every believer is in full time Christian service. There is no such thing as a layman. Whatever you do in life it is your full time service. And it is God’s objective to bless to the ultimate, and also to provide adversity where there is absolute blessing in the adversity. God has designed the most wonderful life but God cannot even begin to pour until you come to the party. And no believer priest comes to the party until first of all he has possession in his soul of an ECS and has entered into the supergrace life.

To be a traitor of a country is one of the most awful things that one can conceive, but there is something worse than that and that is to be a believer-priest and a traitor to God. This traitorship comes through reversionism.

There are two roads then, the road to supergrace which is now emphasized in this verse, and the road to reversionism which has been emphasized since chapter three, verse seven. On the road to supergrace the believer reaps what God sows. The supergrace believer comes under Romans 8:28. Romans 8:28 does not apply to any believer except the supergrace believer, and is so stated in its context, “We know that all things work together for good to them who love God.” The “all things” refer to the fact that God has planned it in eternity past for you — money, prosperity, right man or right woman, blessings that are almost beyond human understanding. All of these things were provided, and that is one thing. The other thing is to reach the supergrace life, and when one thing combines with the other thing you have “all things working together for good”, or God pouring. Romans 8:28 is God pouring for the believer who has the cup, the believer who has the supergrace capacity. That only applies to the supergrace believer. To the reversionist God’s love applies in a different way.” “Whom the Lord loves he chasteneth,” and God’s love is expressed in a different way in reversionism. In reversionism you reap what you sow. You reap divine discipline in three categories. You reap self-induced misery. The believer priest is neutralized in reversionism; the believer priest fulfils the very purpose for which he is still alive on this road. The difference: one is positive volition toward doctrine and the other is negative volition toward doctrine. That is the difference we must face as we now come to the supergrace partnership in verse 14.

If you rededicated yourself, then you did nothing but make an ass out of yourself, with the help of some pastor or some youth leader, etc.

Heb 3:14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. (ESV)

we are re-doing this passage. Some passed a few lessons ago.

Verse 14 begins with a continuative explanatory particle. The particles often reveal a great deal of what is going on in the scripture. gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] is a continuative explanatory particle, it is designed to relate the daily function of GAP and the warning against the neglect of doctrine with the believer’s priestly partnership with God in the Church Age. You are in full time Christian service. The moment that you believed in Jesus Christ God did 36 things for you. One of those 36 things was to make you a priest. Another was to appoint you an ambassador. It is your priesthood which is in view right here. The word “priesthood is not mentioned yet because of the reversionism of those to whom this was originally addressed. Priesthood will not be mentioned until chapter five. In the meantime a word to substitute for priesthood is the word that we have now — “partakers”, the Greek word metochos (μέτοχος) [pronounced MET-okh-oss] means “partners.” We are in partnership.

However, that isn’t quite correct. The verb isn’t correct because it says here in the English “we are made.” This is the perfect active of ginomai which means to become something you were not before. Before we were not partners, we were nothing. Now, at the point of salvation we suddenly become something in that God made each one of us a priest. And while the priesthood is not anticipated until chapter 5:1ff, right now it must be understood that the priesthood is called “partnership.” Every believer living on the earth is in partnership with Jesus Christ the high priest seated at the right hand of the Father, and we became this. We were not priests before; now we are priests. We have become something we were not before, and it is erroneously translated “we are made.” To make it even worse, this is the perfect active indicative of ginomai and in the Greek the perfect tense is the tense of completed action. In other words, the fact that we are in partnership, the fact that we are priests, that was an action completed at the moment we believed in Christ. The perfect tense is something that has happened in the past — at salvation — but the results go on. The results in view here: supergrace is the objective of the priesthood of the believer. So we have a completed action. Not only is the action completed but the results of the action are emphasized. Here is what is called the intensive perfect of the Greek. It emphasizes the existing results from the completed action. At the cross the believer was appointed a priest and this is a phase one commission. All believers are appointed a priest. The results in phase two only can be realized through the daily function of GAP, and as you GAP it day by day you will come to recognize and to appreciate your priestly partnership with Jesus Christ for it is a partnership into which you have entered.

Now when you enter into a partnership it is not a religion. Religion knows nothing of partnerships. Religion knows something of hierarchies. Religion dispenses good on the basis of you being good. Religion is a combination of human good inciting human good. But your partnership is not designed to do that. Your partnership is a relationship and therefore if you think you are religious you are wrong. There is no religion in Christianity. Christianity is a relationship, but more than that, Christianity is a partnership. Right now, you have a life of meaning and purpose and definition, even though you might say to yourself, I have a difficult life, I have a miserable life. There is no such thing in God’s sight. You are a partner and God is waiting for His partner to come to the party so He can pour. And you ask, “Well, why haven’t I been able to come to the party?” It is the simplest thing in the world. You GAP it to supergrace and once you have supergrace capacity it is a party from then on out, the rest of your life is a party. Reversionism is leaving the party. So God has a purpose for your life. God has invited you at salvation, by making you a priest, to a party that won’t quit!

Bob’s father’s parties would last for days. He knew how to throw a party. He drove from Chicago to New York to get some cases of champagne.

Bob went to see an old drinking buddy of his father.

Do you know what it is like when a party is over after it has gone on for two or three days? You have seen how a street is broken up with a trip hammer. Well five of those guys are in your head, one in each one of the compass directions and one going out the top! That is what happens when a party is over, and that is the way reversionism is too. Reversionism is a spiritual hangover. And God says there is no excuse for reversionism. God says, I will never stop pouring, and your capacity is the only thing that counts. Your capacity is based on the intake of Bible doctrine.

Bob wants to thank all 5 of you rounders for understanding that illustration.

Here is the principle. Most people think that Christianity is some painful thing where you must constantly be “suffering for Jesus” so that somehow you will make points for eternity. God intends for you to enter into this partnership — you are already a partner — by receiving from Him all the blessings He designed for you in eternity past.

Isaiah 30:29 “You shall have a song, as in the night [a party] a holy solemnity is kept [that is what God calls His party]; and +H of the right lobe [happiness], as when one goeth with a pipe [flute] to come into the mountain [a party in the hills] of the Lord, to the Mighty One of Israel.”

This is party language and this is what God intends for you. God intends for you to come to the party. How do you get into this party? All you have to do is show your priesthood at the door for God knows your priesthood as of the moment you are saved. God is waiting to bless you. God is thoroughly disgusted with people who have all of these wonderful blessings waiting for them and they won’t come to the party. God has for some, great wealth; He has for some, promotion; He has for some, success; He has social and sexual prosperity; He has some adversity too to prove that He can handle that for you and show that you can have perfect happiness in the midst of that adversity. God has a fantastic life but no one really lives the Christian life while they are growing. All have heard the old idiom, “Green behind the ears” to express callow youth, and God cannot bless callow youth. God has fantastic blessings and God never stops pouring, but for some of you He will never start pouring and He will be disgusted with you. And how does God express His love plus His disgust? You go out under the sin unto death. Just think. By missing all of the blessings of God in supergrace, what is the alternative? To die miserably under the sin unto death. You really have to be stupid to want one over the other.

The perfect tense is intensive. We have become in the past with results that will continue — when we come to the party. And what is the book of Hebrews? A manual of instruction on how to come to the party. It is a manual of instructions of what to do with your priesthood. it is a manual of instructions of how to come to the place of occupation with the person of Christ. The book of Hebrews is designed to bring the believer to the celebrityship of Jesus Christ.

The active voice: the believer priest produces the action of the verb when he reaches supergrace. No capacity for divine blessing means no capacity; no cup and God does not pour. The indicative mood is the reality of the partnership without the blessings of the partnership. The writer to the Hebrews is addressing himself to believers in reversionism, people who are not coming to the party but are saved. The partnership is the reality at salvation, the blessings of the partnership come through supergrace.

“For we have become partners of the Christ” — we have a genitive of relationship with the word Christos (χριστός) [pronounced krees-TOSS] plus the definite article — “the Christ.”

The Priesthood

1. The priesthood stands because it is based on salvation. You will always be a priest no mater what kind of a priest you are. You may be the world’s worst reversionist but you are still a priest, and as long as you are a priest you have the right of recovery and the right of moving to supergrace.

a. What you receive at salvation is permanent. No power combine, no government, not even you can take away from what you are given at salvation.

b. This includes the priesthood.

2. But the blessings of the priesthood demand supergrace capacity.

3. The principle of partnership is part of the priesthood but the experience of partnership comes from the entrance into the supergrace life. In other words, it is one thing to be a priest, it is another thing to enjoy the blessings of the priesthood. In other words, the normal function of the priesthood begins at supergrace and until you reach the supergrace status you are not even a normal believer. So there is a difference between being appointed as a priest and functioning as a priest.

Therefore a condition is set up. You are a priest, you cannot lose your priesthood. You have eternal life, you can’t lose it. God vindicates you on the basis of His righteousness; and now He vindicates us on the basis of a priesthood which you will always have, but the blessings of that priesthood only come to those who enter supergrace.

That is why our next word in our verse is “if.” This is a compound particle which becomes a conjunction — eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN]per. Usually eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN] is used to introduce the third class condition — eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN] plus the subjunctive — but here we have the enclitic particle per added to it to make a compound. Why? Eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN]per plus the subjunctive introduces a third class condition of great intensity, a third class condition of great importance. it means you must sit up and take notice because here is available to you divine blessing beyond your greatest imagination.

God wants to give you that which is perfect for you but you won’t hold still long enough to get anything. It is one thing to be a priest, it is another thing to have God pouring to the priest. And God does pour. When David said, “My cup runneth over”, that was one of the greatest understatements of the Bible. There are no limitations with God. The limitations lie with the ruler of this world, Satan. Now there are limitations. No one ever sold himself out to the devil and got anything but trouble, but the believer who goes all out for the Lord (and it is so easy. All it means is taking in doctrine once a day) there are no limitations. Is it any more difficult to take in spiritual good each day than physical food?

The bachelor who stays alive by buying cans of tuna and a good can opener. And he is able to keep himself alive on tuna. He is keeping himself alive for his right woman. Then maybe they will have two cans of tuna.

When you hear a doctrine more than once, so what? Bob loves baked beans; and he can eat them all the time.

Without stretching it one of the easiest things in the world is to take in Bible doctrine daily. It is not all that hard. And the repetition of doctrines from time to time doesn’t make any difference. It is easy to take in food every day and it is easy to take in spiritual food. God has made it available.

You think you are ready for God’s blessing, but you are not. You lack the capacity for blessing. God does pour when you are ready for it.

Now what does eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN]per have to do with this wonderful partnership? The effectiveness of our priestly partnership depends on entrance into the supergrace life. While the believer is appointed a priest at salvation he does not function effectively in this partnership until he reaches supergrace. And this is an intensive 3rd class condition. It emphasizes the volition. It emphasizes the principle that your consistent attitude toward Bible doctrine will determine your spiritual life and the function of your priesthood on this earth. Only the supergrace believer functions under category #1 love — i.e. toward his high priest, Jesus Christ. In supergrace Christ the high priest is recognized as the only celebrity. The 3rd class condition, then sets up alternatives of reversionism versus supergrace with emphasis on supergrace status at this point. In other words, salvation is a simple issue. Your attitude toward Christ determines where you stand in eternity — salvation or eternal condemnation, the lake of fire. After salvation that is no longer the issue, the issue is your attitude toward doctrine, your attitude toward spiritual food. To take it in on a daily basis is the road to supergrace; to reject it is the road to reversionism.

That is why we now have a verb with the compound particle eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN]per — “If we hold”, the aorist active subjunctive from the compound verb katechô (κατέχω) [pronounced kaht-EH-khoh]. Katechô (κατέχω) [pronounced kaht-EH-khoh] is composed of the preposition katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] for norm or standard and the verb echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] which means to have and to hold. katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] also means “down.” It means to hold something down permanently, and therefore katechô (κατέχω) [pronounced kaht-EH-khoh] doesn’t really mean to hold here, it means to retain — “if we retain.” Now bringing out the per in eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN]per it would be “if indeed”, a little more intensive.

“if indeed we retain the beginning.” Archê (ἀρχή) [pronounced ar-KHAY] is used in many ways in scripture. In this case it has the definite article referring to a specific beginning — “if indeed we retain the beginning.” The beginning has to do with the way we started. No one is ever saved without getting some information about the Gospel, about Christ. And we took that in and the Holy Spirit made it real. And the volition of the soul responded to that and said, Yes, I believe. That is the beginning. The fact that you believed in Christ means that you retained, momentarily at least, enough information to be saved. The retention factor here must be perpetuated. The Gospel is doctrine. After salvation it is still doctrine. Why? Principle: God must vindicate His Word, doctrine, in the soul of the believer priest.

The aorist is the constative aorist. How do we retain? The principle is we take in doctrine today, tomorrow, the next day, and the next and the next, and so on. So we have a constative aorist. The active voice: volition is always involved in all uses of the angelic conflict, this is no exception. You must be positive toward doctrine. The subjunctive mood goes with the third class condition.

“of our confidence” — unfortunately, not correctly translated. The word for “confidence” is the noun hupostasis. It means essence. So what is the concept here? The real essence of the priest is doctrine in the soul. God knows this, therefore God has provided everything to fulfil the hupostasis or the essence of the priesthood. First of all, at salvation every believer was made a priest. After salvation, what does a priest function on? How does he fulfil his partnership? Doctrine. So God has provided from eternity past the doctrine that the believer priest needs, and He provides it on a basis so that you can have it on a daily basis, a consistent basis, so that you can go all the way to supergrace. Therefore God set up a law in eternity past, a law which He does not and has not violated.

In eternity past he decided how it would be done so that he could keep His own essence intact. First of all, there must be the capacity and therefore God provided the spiritual manna for the believer priest to the Church Age — doctrine. And when doctrine comes and fulfils its objective in the soul of the believer priest behind it comes supergrace blessings. The occupation with Christ must come first, and it does. You don’t have to worry about it, it always does where doctrine is taken in. After occupation with Christ or the celebrityship you have the capacity which is the cup and behind that is the supergrace blessings so that all things — one thing in eternity past and one thing in time — blend together for good (which is what work together really means. It means they blend for good). Therefore, what is holding you up from great blessing right now?

In eternity past God provided for you, and He provided X number of things to keep you alive. That is simple grace. Then He provided for you X number of blessings whereby you would enjoy life and put the devil right back on his angelic ear. That is the supergrace area. The first factor doesn’t depend on anything, God is keeping you alive whether you like it or not. The second factor does depend on your attitude toward doctrine — a non-meritorious attitude, that is always the way of grace, it never changes. Therefore, we must retain the beginning of our essence.

In India, there might be an arranged marriage between a 9 year old boy to a 6 year old girl. What is the problem? They have no capacity for marriage. So they consummate their marriage much further on down the line.

“if indeed we retain the beginning of our essence” — and the retention merely follows God’s law: Doctrine before blessing; capacity before fulfilment. You must have the capacity before the fulfilment. The capacity factor is supergrace status. Once you reach that then God will bless you in a fantastic way. Doctrine in the soul is the essence of the believer priest. It begins with Gospel type doctrine and ends up with the whole realm of doctrine.

“steadfast” — this is a noun, the accusative singular of bébaios (βέβαιος) [pronounced BEB-ah-yoss] and it means “stabilized.” Stability results from the consistency and the continuation of the intake of doctrine. The real stability comes from reaching supergrace. Supergrace with the ECS becomes the stabilizer of your life.

Now this should go on until the end of your life. “Unto the end” is a prepositional phrase. We have an adverbial preposition, mechri/mechris (μέχρι/μεχρίς) [pronounced MEHKH-ree/mekh-RIHS]. This is called an impersonal preposition. And we have the genitive singular of telos (τέλος) [pronounced TEHL-oss], the ordinary Greek word for termination or ending — “stabilized by supergrace until the termination or the ending of your life.” There is a time coming when you will depart from this world. If the Rapture doesn’t occur first it will be based upon physical death. In heaven there will never be one moment of suffering or one moment of regret. There is no embarrassment in heaven. The alternatives to supergrace are your own self-induced misery leading to discipline.

Some communicators are very legalistic. He gave a message based upon the girlie shows that he had to walk past when he went from his hotel to the Church of the Open Door. “And God will ask you, where were you when you were raptured up?”

There is no embarassment in heaven. No matter how great you can imagine your life, it is better in supergrace.

Hebrews 3:14 “For we have become partners of the Christ [our high priest], if indeed we retain the beginning of our essence [doctrine in the soul] stabilized by supergrace until the end.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. The priestly partnership of the believer has an essence. The essence is doctrine in the soul. What changes your life experientially? Doctrine in the soul. Not decisions you make but doctrine you receive.

2. Why? because God must vindicate His Word in the souls of believers. God is no respecter of persons but God does respect His Word — Psalm 138:2, “He has magnified His Word above His name.”

3. The universal priesthood of the believer was designed to operate on doctrine in the soul.

4. Therefore the canon of scripture was completed for the Church Age, was completed for the age of the universal priesthood of the believer. This is the only dispensation in which every believer is appointed a priest at salvation. Therefore the canon of scripture was completed for the Church Age so that every believer would have his spiritual food in writing. This spiritual food is available through the teaching of the Word of God.

5. The stability of this partnership comes through the supergrace life.

6. The supergrace life comes through the consistent intake of doctrine.

7. The supergrace life begins the normal function of the priesthood and capacity for divine blessing. By divine blessing is meant all of the things that God provided for you in eternity past. Materialistic thing; promotional things, God is tapping His foot waiting to provide these things for us in our lives.

v.15 is the rejection of the supergrace life.

1972 Hebrews 3:15 Lesson #33

33 04/15/1973 Hebrews 3:15 Doctrines of GAP; hardening process; revolution

Bob reads the correct translation.

Verse 3 — “… the one who has builded the house has more glory than the house.” It is God’s desire to construct a house of prosperity and the day that God can prosper you in supergrace is the day that God is glorified, and there is a permanent record in heaven of you having so been blessed in time. In other words, reward in heaven is based upon receiving divine prosperity in time. God isn’t glorified by your suffering, God is glorified by your being blessed. A priest is designed to be blessed just as the house should be built well. And if God is the builder the house is built well.

Heb 3:15 As it is said, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion." (ESV)

Verse 15 — the rejection of the supergrace partnership by some believers. The partnership is there, the partnership is a reality, but every reversionist is not only in revolt against God as a believer but he rejects the very partnership which he possesses, and therefore never derives any benefit from it.

“While it is said” — the word “while” is a prepositional phrase, en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of the definite article plus the present passive infinitive of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. It is an idiom. There is also a definite article between the preposition and its infinitive object. Now this is actually an idiom to introduce a temporal clause which quotes from Psalm 95:8. The temporal clause quotes Psalm 95:8 in order to apply the reversionistic failure of the Exodus generation to the Jewish believers living in Jerusalem in 67 AD, and it is recorded in the Word of God to further apply to any reversionistic believer living thereafter. From the time of the writing of the book of Hebrews in 67 AD to the present day. Right down to this moment this particular phrase, this temporal clause, was designed to apply to anyone who is indifferent antagonistic, or in any way negative to Bible doctrine. It is incompatible with your priesthood to be indifferent, negative or antagonistic.

So literally, this passage should start out by saying, “So long as it is being said.” This is the best way to translate the idiom. The idiom applies to the Old Testament passage and to every generation from David to the present. And since Psalm 95 goes back to the Exodus generation it applies to the Exodus generation, 1440–1401 BC. It applies to David’s day. David wrote and cited the Exodus generation as the illustration of reversionism. It apples to 67 AD to whom the unknown writer of Hebrews applies it. And then being a part of the canon of scripture it goes on applying as long as time exists.

The idiom applies, an Old Testament passage then, to every generation of believers but places the emphasis on the Church Age. Why? Because in the Church Age every believer is a partner with Christ, and that partnership will be defined when we get to chapter five as a priesthood. For the first time in history a radical change has occurred. This isn’t the first time in history that a universal priesthood was offered. A universal priesthood was offered to Israel and rejected, just as at one time Moses was the only supergrace believer in Israel and God said I will destroy the rest of Israel and give you the land and give you a new progeny. And Moses turned down that very attractive offer, and in this way again demonstrated the fantastic concept of supergrace blessing.

So the essence of the priesthood is doctrine in the soul. The appointment of the priesthood occurs at salvation but all essence of the priesthood is related to doctrine in the soul. The normal function of the priesthood begins at the point of the supergrace life.

The word “Today” is the adverb which has been used so many times — ha jom in the Hebrew, sêmeron (σήμερον) [pronounced SAY-mer-on] in the Greek. It now takes on a new meaning. If today and tomorrow and the next day we do not take in doctrine it constitutes, according to this passage, a repudiation of our priesthood, a repudiation of our partnership with Christ. Therefore the next word is again that conjunctive particle eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN] which introduces the third class condition and shows the options of the Christian life. Here the third class condition emphasizes the believer’s volition related to the teaching of Bible doctrine.

“if ye will hear”— the aorist active subjunctive of the verb akoúô (ἀκούω) [pronounced ah-KOO-oh]. This is in the constative aorist which gathers up into one ball of wax every time the believer assembles and listens to the teaching of Bible doctrine; taught, of course, by one with the gift of pastor-teacher. The active voice: the believer priest in partnership with Christ produces the action of the verb. The objective is supergrace. The subjunctive mood indicates a third class condition and the involvement of the individual’s volition.

“his voice” — this is actually Bible doctrine. This is the genitive singular of phônê (φωνή) [pronounced foh-NAY]. It is a descriptive genitive for doctrine. Doctrine is said to be the mind of Christ, the voice of the Spirit. Once again this is the concept. This is Bible doctrine taken from the Word and communicated to you. The conditions under which you hear His voice are grace conditions. We must never forget that. It is grace that you have the Bible. It is grace that God has given the gift of pastor-teacher to someone. It is grace that the pastor-teacher can communicate to an assembly. It is grace that assembly exists. And the whole thing is called GAP, the grace apparatus for perception.

The Doctrine of Gap (Review)

1. It is vitally necessary for every believer to shed any inferior attitude toward his own IQ. Some people are very proud of having a high IQ; some people are very disturbed about having a low IQ. It is therefore absolutely necessary to recognize that when you assemble as a believer priest your human IQ is no handicap in the intake of Bible doctrine. Human IQ is the number assigned to someone on the basis of dividing their mental age by their chronological age. The mental age is determined by testing, the chronological age is determined by interrogation and there is a very definite way in which an IQ is established. Spiritual IQ, however, is the amount of Bible doctrine stored in the human spirit, in the right lobe. Also it is based upon how much of the ECS is constructed in the soul. The information on which this is accomplished is strictly a matter of grace perception. The distinction between human and spiritual IQ is the subject of 1Corinthians chapter 2, and from that passage it is demonstrated that a low IQ person can understand as much as a high IQ person in the field of Bible doctrine.

2. Human IQ is excluded from GAP. Everything with which God is related, everyone has the same crack at it — 1Corinthians 1:19-2:16 is the basic passage and it teaches that human IQ, which is a feature in learning academically, has absolutely no connotation in taking in Bible doctrine. In other words, a low IQ believer is not handicapped in learning doctrine. In eternity past God found a way through grace whereby every believer can learn doctrine apart from any human perspicacity ability. For this reason every believer in the dispensation in which we live is not only a priest, not only a partner with God, but he is indwelt by God the Holy Spirit — he has at the point of salvation a human spirit — and the indwelling of then Holy Spirit plus the activation of the human spirit totally sets aside any human IQ concepts. So that a genius believer who is negative cannot learn as much as a very stupid positive believer.

3. When you and I were born again, the moment we were certain grace things were provided for us whereby spiritual phenomenon is learned.

a. God the Holy Spirit;

b. The activation of a human spirit;

c. A classroom (local church) set up in eternity past but not revealed until the Church Age began;

d. A person who has the gift of pastor-teacher. All of these things are provided as grace gifts. None of them are earned, none of them are deserved, none of them are based upon any type of human merit.

4. Everything begins with the perceptive lobe or the left lobe in the mentality of the soul. Recalling once again that the soul has self-consciousness by which you are aware of your own existence. That is sometimes called by the first person singular pronoun, egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH] in the Greek. It is not pride, it is awareness of your own existence. Pride is a mental attitude sin which is an extension from the ego, but ego itself is never sin. Then the area where you do your thinking, the two frontal lobes. There is your volition, your emotion, your norms and standards or conscience.

5. Involved first of all are the frontal lobes. The two together form the mentality of the soul. Mentality is divided into two frontal lobes and the perceptive lobe in the perceptive lobe. It is called in the Greek noús (νούς) [pronounced noose], just as the right lobe is called kardia (καρδία) [pronounced kahr-DEE-uh] or heart. One is called “mind”, one is called “heart.” Mind plus heart makes up the mentality of the soul. The perceptive lobe or the noús (νούς) [pronounced noose] in the Greek is the basis for all information being processed. Whatever you learn, whatever you have learned by human perspicacity or the grace system for perspicacity, whatever you have learned in all of your life, it all started in one lobe. This is actually the staging area for all information. In the field of human perspicacity you have a number of wires going back and forth between the two lobes. it is processed in one place as objective information and it is passed into the next lobe for utilization. That is human perspicacity and that is not the way God does it. God has given us the Holy Spirit and God has given us a human spirit at the point of salvation. And with the ministry of God the third person and the human spirit as a second staging area it is now possible for us to learn the whole realm of doctrine. That is the command to all believers without exception. God intends for every believer to learn the whole realm of doctrine. It must be communicated; it must be received.

6. The left lobe or the mind becomes the staging area for spiritual perspicacity. The Holy Spirit must control the believer at the point of teaching. This is why rebound is so important and why rebound is the first function of the priesthood and the baby function of the priesthood. It is absolutely necessary for God the Holy Spirit to control the life because this lobe is the concentrating lobe. An initial concentration begins here. Once you concentrate on the information and you understand it objectively , then you have gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis] which is nothing more than objective information residing in your left lobe. This information in the left lobe cannot be applied to anything, ever. Your applier is the launching pad. And this is why James said don’t be just a hearer. “Hearer” means to objectively understand. A “doer of the Word” is the believer with doctrine in his right lobe. The effectiveness of your life is based upon doctrine in your right lobe. It is possible to have an objective understanding of something but that does not make it a part of your soul’s assets. The left lobe information is never cognisance, it is objective understanding in a staging area. Information in a staging area is not a part of the soul’s assets. The doctrine must be in the right lobe.

7. This is known historically as receptive comprehension. Receptive comprehension means to understand data but not to be able to apply it. We must remember that receptive comprehension is the first stage of GAP and is vitally necessary but not the end.

a. 1066 or 1776 are meaningful dates, but it is not much help to you, even if you know what happened then, but have no effect on your lives.

b. Bob watched an operation being done on the inside of his mouth, and he watched all of it, but he could not do it himself.

8. In order to understand the end let’s take up, for example, what God has provided in grace so that we can learn doctrine. These are things that God has provided whether you want them or not. Remember, we have grace provision in eternity past. You are alive; that’s grace. You have had food today; that’s grace. You have shelter, you have clothing; that’s grace. Supergrace is dependent upon a consistence in positive volition reaching a status. But grace includes everything that we are now going to outline:

a. God has provided for you the Bible, the formation and the preservation of the canon under the doctrine of inspiration. That is grace. You didn’t earn it, you didn’t deserve it.

b. You have a classroom (local church), and that is grace. You didn’t earn it, you didn’t deserve it.

c. The spiritual gift of pastor-teacher. Somewhere, you have a right pastor. You don’t earn it or work for it, neither does the right pastor earn or deserve the gift. We learn by monologue, not dialogue. This is grace provision.

d. The priesthood of the believer for privacy and freedom of reception of doctrine.

e. God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, indwelling so that GAP will function apart from, over and above, human perspicacity or human IQ — 1Corinthians 2:9-16; 1John 2:27. And the believer must be filled with the Spirit for this function to occur — Ephesians 5:18. And, again, the filling of the Spirit is a grace function, the rebound technique — 1John 1:9.

f. The rebound technique whereby any believer can recover the filling of the Spirit in a relatively short time.

g. The human spirit given at the point of salvation which is the target for GAP. The human spirit is a distributor of spiritual phenomena.

h. The provision of the laws of divine establishment whereby the national entity protects the freedom and the privacy of the local church. This is a place where our own nation has been outstanding over the past 100 years.

i. The realm of human anatomy. Without oxygen it would be impossible for us to assimilate, and God provides oxygen. There must also be sugar whereby the neurones in the brain can function, etc. All of this is a grace provision.

9. The whole area.

a. Operation ICE is the communicating end.

i. “I” is for isagogics which interpret the Bible in the framework of its historical setting. The Bible must be understood in the time in which it was written, not the time in which it is being interpreted.

ii. The “C” is for categories, Categorical teaching is based upon a very simple hermeneutical principle of comparing scripture with scripture. It develops the concept of the classification of information in the scripture.

iii. “E” is for exegesis which is the analysis of each verse within the framework of its context, emphasizing its grammar, its syntax, its etymology, from the standpoint of the original languages. All of these things are put together and they form the communication of information.

b. This information goes to the left lobe — operation gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis]. This is, again, receptive comprehension whereby the believer is positive toward doctrine, concentrates on the information in the assembly, being filled with the Spirit he listens, he understands what is taught or re-taught, he comprehends at this stage, but it does not mean he agrees with it. In the left lobe receptive comprehension means you understand what is being taught. Understanding does not mean agreement. The real issue comes, as James points out, not in hearing but in doing the Word. And that is operation epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] . Before doctrine is any good to you the doctrine in the left lobe as gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis] must be transferred into the human spirit and converted to epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis]. gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis] is objective information, made clear by the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, but which cannot be applied. It is epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] which is appliable, useable. It is epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] which is the basis of all growth. The transfer of the information to the human spirit from gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis] is faith. Faith merely says, “I believe it.” Faith sees the truth of it and converts it to epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] . It is secondary negative volition that keeps people from growing. Secondary negative volition is to say no to what you understand. “Yes” no gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis] is a non-meritorious function. The word is pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] — “faith.” Pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] is not only used in the Greek for faith, it is also used for doctrine or what is believed, and it is pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] that converts gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis] to epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] . Secondary negative volition refuses to convert gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis] to epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] , which is a condition of the reversionist.

Who did the teaching to the Exodus generation in view in this passage? a) Moses, the greatest Bible teacher of his day and one of the greatest Bible teachers who ever lived; b) Angels. They were actually taught by angels; c) Aaron, and eventually his sons as they became adults.

So it is non-meritorious positive volition, i.e. faith, which transfers gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis] into epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] . Once epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] is in the human spirit then epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] is working doctrine. First of all epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] is picked up by a vacuum line which takes it into the right lobe and distributes it in the frame of reference. The memory centre then picks it up and makes it a part of your new vocabulary. You have to have a vocabulary with which to think. Then the classification of doctrine, or the categories, begins to build. The norms and standards are filled with this doctrine so that they comply with divine norms and standards. The launching pad begins to fill and, as a matter of fact, it is from this launching pad that you get that first vacuum going back into eternity past. At the same time epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] is not only siphoned in a vacuum line but it also builds and begins the construction of the ECS. As epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] increases it is taken into the right lobe, it is used for structural material in your ECS, and there comes a time when you initiate from your launching pad through doctrine, from the fourth floor, capacity for love, category #1, which creates a vacuum going all the way into eternity past and, as it were, God pours through that vacuum the supergrace blessings.

In the frame of reference we have some very interesting factors, factors which are extremely important. It is your frame of reference which actually links up with your launching pad and makes you a believer oriented to what is going on. For example, the fame of reference is basic comprehension for more doctrine. The greater your frame of reference and the greater your vocabulary from the frame of reference the easier it is to understand new and more doctrine. When in your frame of reference, for example, you have the supergrace concept, reversionism, the few basic doctrines in this area, and you have a vocabulary and have them down categorically, this means that any new information on any of these subjects, or related subjects like the priesthood, is easily grasped. And when this becomes epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] — like the priesthood — you can relate it immediately. The next few chapters relate the priesthood to either reversionism or supergrace showing the advantages of one and the disadvantages of the other. As a matter of fact they put your whole life on the line and, at the same time, they structurise certain areas of your soul.

For example, your ability to love God is based upon Bible doctrine and if Bible doctrine never goes any farther than the gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis] stage you do not love God, you cannot love God, you are a fake. Oh you can say, “I love God”, but you really don’t because you don’t have the capacity. Comprehension of more doctrine is based upon epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis]. epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis], then, is the basis for setting up comprehension of more advanced doctrine. It also establishes a new conscience, it gives you the divine viewpoint, it deals with problems of the subconscious. Right off of your frame of reference is your subconscious and this is a very dangerous spot. This is where you store things to which you react in a guilt way. Information for guilt reaction is kept here. This is once and for all sealed off by a maximum amount of epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] doctrine, so that the problems of guilt reaction are minimised and removed. Your content for prayer, your accuracy in witnessing, your discernment of false doctrine, the beginning of your capacity for life, the beginning of your capacity for love, your ability to identify a true friend as over against a false friend, your ability to identify right man, right woman. All of these plus the normal function of the priesthood all begin at this particular point. Therefore it is imperative to understand the issues connected with it.

This is what is means when it says, “if you will hear his voice”. This and one other thing which we cannot ignore. You must accept the authority of the communicator. If you do not then you will be guilty of one or two types of negative volition. Primary negative volition means you will not assemble. You will “forsake the assembling of yourselves together as the manner of some is”. All believers are priests and are commanded to assemble. Or, in assembly you will have gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis] doctrine but you will fail to transfer it, and this is secondary negative volition. And either primary or secondary or a combination of both will keep you from ever growing and will guarantee a life of reversionism, a life of self-induced misery and divine discipline. The “if” indicates that it is up to you as a believer priest.

“harden not” — present active subjunctive of sklêrunô (σκληρύνω) [pronounced sklay-ROO-no] plus the negative mê. The present tense plus the negative mê indicates to stop doing something you are doing. This means that the people to whom this was originally addressed were hardening their hearts, were in a state of obstinacy. The active voice: the believer priest in this case is producing the action of the verb. The believer priest is a Jew living in Jerusalem three years before one of the greatest of all historical cataclysms. Then the subjunctive mood is a prohibitive subjunctive which carries the force of a command but recognizes the involvement of human volition, and recognizing that volition is an issue in the angelic conflict, states it without a command but to show you the danger of the course on which you have embarked. This was true of the born again Jews in Jerusalem in the year 67 AD.

The Doctrine of the Hardening Process (Review)

1. The believer is in a certain type of status which includes disillusion, boredom, loneliness, discouragement, self-pity, frustration, bitterness, jealousy. For one reason or another one or more of these in the life forms a reactor — not response, react. (You respond positively; you react negatively) You react to these things. The reaction is the frantic search for happiness.

2. The frantic search for happiness can be of a number of types. Everything depends upon the condition of the old sin nature as it relates to the soul at that time. All factors of the old sin nature can be involved, or some. For example, if the frantic search for happiness involves sinning, it may be just simply living it up, going out on the town, fornicating, chasing, raising hell, getting skunk drunk, and so on. Or if the area of strength is involved it might be going to Africa as a missionary, etc. If your trend is toward lasciviousness then you are going to go out and fornicate, but if it is toward asceticism you are going to give up everything. If it includes approbation lust you are going to become a holy-roller and go out and speak in tongues, etc. All factors of the old sin nature become involved, and also with them the frantic search for happiness is coterminous with or the emotional revolt immediately follows.

3. There is always then, after the frantic search for happiness, the third stage of hardening the heart — emotional revolt. Under emotional revolt your whole personality is changed. If you are a woman you are no longer feminine. If you are a man you are no longer masculine. The man has a tendency to become effeminate; the woman has a tendency to become horsy and pushy. Other factors involved are multitudinous. They involve such things as getting into the holy-roller activity, finding something to stimulate the emotion, etc. But there is one factor that cuts out doctrine as long as it occurs. Emotional revolt has a principle that goes with it. Emotional revolt demands entertainment. It demands that someone do something for you to entertain you, to make life pleasant. Emotional revolt cannot stand to be crossed or rejected. That is why a lot of people can’t stand Bible teaching, because Bible teaching isn’t entertainment.

4. The fourth factor is the combination of emotional revolt and frantic search for happiness leads to the signs of negative volition toward doctrine, primary or secondary, or in between, the rebound concept. Negative volition toward doctrine can be apathy. It can be antagonism. It can also be rationalism. But whatever combination you use the result is scar tissue on the soul and the opening of a vacuum which is as harmful as the vacuum from the human spirit to the right lobe is a blessing. This is the tube through which all Satanic doctrine reaches the right lobe. It is called in the Greek mataiotês (ματαιότης) [pronounced mat-ah-YOHT-ace] and is often mistranslated by the word “vanity”. But it is a vacuum line, and this vacuum line draws in Satanic doctrine or the doctrine of demons of 1Timothy 4:1. The accumulation of doctrine of demons becomes the sup of demons and a believer cannot drink of the cup of demons and the cup of the Lord. As a result of this information going into the right lobe the believer’s attitude on everything in life, his norms and standards, completely change and the result is the blackout of the soul.

a. Those in emotional revolt demand to be entertained; but they are terrible to be around.

5. The blackout of the soul. This is the state of no doctrine plus demon influence. No believer can be demon possessed but he is under demon influence. Demon influence is the doctrine of demons so saturating the soul as to form a blackout of the soul.

6. The blackout of the soul is the influence of demons when under negative volition.

7. The blackout of the soul leads to the practice of reverse process reversionism. Reverse process reversionism is characterized as the hardening process. Each one of the points adds a little hardness to the heart, as it were. The hardening process which begins with point #1 terminates with what we have in 2Thessalonians: “Strong delusion.” That is the ultimate in hardness.

8. Each one of these points makes the heart a little harder.

“in the provocation” — we have the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of the noun parapikrasmoj which means revolution, revolt. So we will call it “the reversionistic revolution”. It refers, of course, to the Meribah. The Hebrew word is meribah but it is translated from the Hebrew to the Greek, parapikrasmoj which is embitterment leading to revolt.

Hebrews 3:15 “So long as it is being said, Today if you will hear his voice, stop hardening your right lobes, as in the reversionistic revolution.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Doctrine of Revolution (Review)

1. The Word of God does not justify revolution — Romans 13:1–7; 1Peter 2:13,14; Numbers 16.

2. Revolution involves anti-authority mobs, people who are against authority set up by establishment. Therefore lawless mobs which can neither think nor achieve anything compatible with the divine institutions. Remember, a mob does not think.

3. Revolution by Biblical standards means apostasy, rejection of authority, lack of Bible doctrine — Isaiah 1:3–5; 59:13.

4. So that a conclusion is drawn: Revolution by its strictest definition is anti-God — Isaiah 31:6.

5. Revolution is caused by the failure of the right lobe in the soul — Jeremiah 5:23. Invariably revolution involves as its constituents or personnel a maximum number of people suffering from emotional revolt of the soul, and invariably they are reversionistic.

6. Many revolutions do not start with so-called evil. This is the rationalisation of revolution. The real motivator of revolution is jealousy — Isaiah 11:13 cf. 1Kings12:19 and 2Chronicles 10:19.

7. The greatest hindrance to revolution is the communication of Bible doctrine — Ezekiel 2:3–10.

8. Heathenism is the result of revolution — Romans 1:19-26. And no revolution sweeps a country without being accompanied by degeneration. Revolution always means degeneration of a people. This degeneration is described in principle in Romans 1:27–32.

9. The principle of revolution. Approbation and power lust on the part of some seek to destroy whatever is necessary to gain power. Revolution is always a power grab based upon power lust. It includes the destruction of freedom, rights, privacy, and property of others. Revolution is a Satanic device in the angelic conflict to establish a cosmic kingdom and superimpose Satan’s will over the human race.

10. Reversionism causes revolution; supergrace is its antidote — Hebrews 3:8,9, 15,16. First, the temporal revolt is reversionism constructed on rejection of the laws of divine establishment. Both believers and unbelievers can be involved. Secondly, spiritual revolt is reversionism based on rejection of Bible doctrine and it for believers only. So we must distinguish between temporal revolt and spiritual revolt. Temporal revolt is the believer and the unbeliever revolting against establishment, but a spiritual revolt is the believer in a state of reversionism revolting against Bible doctrine and God’s plan.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #34

34 04/16/1973 Hebrews 3:16 Doctrine of reversionism

The balance of this chapter is devoted to application. In verses 16–18 five questions are asked the generation involved as the original recipients. The original recipients of this passage are those born again Jews living in Jerusalem in the years 67 AD.

Heb 3:16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? (ESV)

Verse 16 — the particle which begins the first question is used as a conjunction to express and explanation. The particle is used in many ways in the Greek — Gar. It could be explanatory as it is here, the illitive or inferential, it could be continuative. It has many uses. The problem here is the word “some” which is an interrogative pronoun in the nominative plural — tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç]. It should be translated, “For who”, and it refers to a lot of people.

“when they had heard” — aorist active participle of the verb akoúô (ἀκούω) [pronounced ah-KOO-oh], one of the most common verbs for the function of GAP, indicating that the Exodus generation definitely had Bible teaching. The aorist tense in the constative aorist which means for forty years as they traveled through the desert they had constant teaching from Moses, from Aaron, from angels. They had phenomenal, excellent Bible teaching. The active voice: they did the hearing. This is also an aorist participle. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb is coming up next: “did provoke.” “For who having heard”. All the Jews of the Exodus generation heard Bible doctrine but only the reversionists provoked. Some were positive toward doctrine in the Exodus generation but you could count them on one hand — Moses, Joshua, Caleb, Moses’ second wife, and possibly Aaron. Most of the Jews of the Exodus generation were all born again believers, those twenty and over, and they all went the way of reversionism.

The problem in the translation is “did provoke” — aorist active indicative of parapikrainw which means to revolt. It is again a constative aorist because somebody was always in revolt. People in reversionism are in different stages just as growing believers are in different stages. Parapikrainw is usually a transitive verb which means to provoke or to be made angry, but it is intransitive in its use here. This verse so far should be translated, “For who having heard revolted.” That is the first question posed by the writer of Hebrews. The word “revolt” refers, of course, to reversionism.

Regarding this First Question

1. “For who having heard revolted.” This question refers to the fact that the reversionists of the Exodus generation were all exposed to Bible teaching, and lots of it. Furthermore, they not only had the communication and teaching of Bible doctrine but they had it under the best possible communicators. Moses was an outstanding teacher; angels were excellent teachers. So that every adult person who was liberated from bondage or slavery in Egypt heard consistent, excellent communication of doctrine.

2. The goal of the Exodus generation was Canaan. Canaan is not a type of heaven , it is an illustration of he supergrace life. And furthermore, the capacity to enjoy Canaan demands the supergrace status on the part of the Exodus generation.

3. As with the Exodus generation so with every believer in the Church Age. We have the opportunity for learning doctrine. We have something they did not have, we have the canon of scripture completed, and that means everything we need to know is in writing — preserved in writing forever. Therefore, just as they had the opportunity so we have the opportunity of spiritual growth — the erection of the ECS, entrance into the supergrace life with the celebrityship of Jesus Christ, with supergrace capacity and supergrace blessing.

4. Therefore, as is always the case, reversionism is not a matter of ignorance, it is a matter of negative volition — primary: refusal to assemble; secondary: refusal to transfer from the left lobe to the human spirit by faith.

5. Negative volition toward doctrine, either primary or secondary, inevitably results in scar tissue, blackout of the soul, reverse process reversionism.

6. The question again: “Who having heard revolted?” The answer to the question is simple: all the Jews of the Exodus generation revolted — entered into reversionism, minus five: Moses, Aaron, Caleb, Joshua, Moses’ second wife. Our of those, only two out of the five supergrace heroes actually entered the land — Caleb and Joshua.

There is a lot of revision in the doctrine below.

The Doctrine of Reversionism

1. Definition:

1) Reversionism is the status quo of the believer in phase two who is negative toward doctrine. Consistent negative volition toward doctrine enters one into the status of reversionism.

2) Reversionism is also recession from any stage of growth in the spiritual life. This means that you may have a partial ECS when the recession begins. You may have a completed ECS. You may be like David and have already entered supergrace.

3) Reversion is one of the two states of phase two, the other being supergrace. There are refinements within these two stages dealing with carnality and spirituality, but these are the two general concepts and the scripture constantly emphasizes these things.

4) The unbeliever in life can also enter into reversionism. His reversionism is recession from the laws of divine establishment. The mechanics of his reversionism as well as the principle of it are found in 2Peter 2:17–22. it is always a recession from establishment and it eventuates in liberalism. All liberalism is a form of recession just as apostasy is a form of recession.

5) Mechanically the unbeliever can also reversionism through rejection of the Gospel. When an unbeliever rejects the Gospel he becomes a candidate for reversionism. In this case he is making a recession from Gospel hearing.

6) Reversion must be distinguished from carnality. The carnal believer is a believer out of fellowship but he is positive toward doctrine. On the other hand, reversionism is negative volition and perpetually out of fellowship. The carnal believer gets back in fellowship; the reversionistic believer does not rebound.

(1) The answer in warning discipline is rebound.

(2) The answer in intensive discipline is repentance.

(3) The answer in the sin unto death, is repentance.

7) The carnal believer rebounds, continues to GAP it to supergrace while the reversionist does not rebound and continues to move toward the sin unto death.

8) Bob cannot think anything worse than someone fornicating with his mother (father’s wife?). He rebounded and repented and is okay.

2. The mechanics of reversionism:

1) The believer enters a status which produces reaction — disillusion, boredom, discouragement, loneliness, self-pity, frustration, rejection, bitterness, jealousy.

(1) Some can suffer disillusion and be okay. Others, it knocks them out.

(2) Some suffer from boredom, particular when doctrines are repeated.

(3) Bob has a lot of different feelings, but it is his job to stand up in front of them and teach, no matter how he feels. The same is true when those are in Bible class.

(4) Too often the response to discouragement is changing one’s environment, like changing jobs, or churches, or moving to another part of Texas. People get discouraged in marriage. The react to it and want to change mates.

(5) Loneliness and self-pity are often first cousins. Often they are found together.

(6) Frustration, nothing is going right in business, nothing is going right at home. Things are all screwed up again.

(7) It is inevitable that some of us get jilted and you react to the whole system. “If the girls are like that, then to hell with them!”

2) The believer reacts to one or more of this list by a frantic search for happiness. A frantic search for happiness can be obvious or subtle. An obvious one is going out and raising hell. A subtle one would be getting what they call the second blessing. There are many ways to react, but whatever the frantic search for happiness reaction is it will be characterized by one thing: the omission from your agenda of any Bible teaching. That will be sure. The frantic search for happiness always upsets the soul — always. The part of the soul that is upset is the emotion. Not everyone is the lusty, hell-raising damn everyone else; some react in other ways and become more religious. No two people have the same idea of happiness.

3) A reaction to one of those mental attitude sins followed by a frantic search for happiness always includes negative volition toward doctrine.

4) The emotional revolt of the soul, which occurs simultaneously or immediately after your brand of frantic search for happiness begins.

(1) One flaky gal came to Berachah and tried doctrine for 3 days.

5) Frantic search for happiness plus emotional revolt leads to the next sub point which can be manifest in a number of ways. It is negative volition either in apathy, indifference, or antagonism. There are a number of areas in which negative volition is expressed:

(1) 1. Refusal to assemble — primary negative volition;

(2) 2. To assemble but to refuse to rebound;

(3) 3. Refusal to transfer doctrine by faith into the operational stages, the human spirit and then right lobe — secondary negative volition.

6) Negative volition resulting in scar tissue and opening a vacuum to your right lobe — the mataiotês (ματαιότης) [pronounced mat-ah-YOHT-ace] — by which the doctrine of demons of 1Timothy 4:1 enters the heart or right lobe. With the entrance of the doctrine of demons you begin to drink of the cup of demons and you are now in a status called demon influence. This is not demon possession. Demons cannot indwell the body of the believer. They can possess doctrinally your right lobe.

7) This results in a blackout of the soul and the practice of reverse process reversionism.

3. The discipline of reversionism.

1) The warning stage — James 5:9; Revelation 3:20. This is the category of discipline in which rebound plus GAP produces the recovery.

2) The intensive stage — Psalm 38:1–14. Not only is the discipline intensified but this is the stage of strong delusion — 2Thessalonians 2:11. In this stage repentance and, in most cases, healing from some disease is necessary for recovery — James 5:14–16.

3) The dying stage — Psalm 118:17,18; 1John 5:16. This is related to the doctrine of the sin unto death. Reversionism is the cause of the sin unto death every time. No one ever dies the sin unto death unless they are in the stage of reversionism — Jeremiah 9:16; 44:12; Philippians 3:18,19; Revelation 3:16. Relationship between negative volition toward doctrine in reversionism and the sin unto death is found in 1Chronicles 10:13,14.

4. The principle of reversionism is found in Galatians 5:4 — “All of you reversionists have become null and void [useless, powerless, unprofitable, non-productive] from the ultimate source of the Christ, whosoever of you are being vindicated by means of the law, you have drifted off course from the grace.” So reversionism is drifting off course from grace.

5. Reversionism always rejects the authority of Bible teachers. Good one like Moses — Exodus 16:20; 17:3; Numbers 11:5. Or like Jeremiah — Jeremiah 44:16. Or like the apostle Paul — 2Corinthians 6:11,12 and chapters 7,10,11. To bring it down to today: Every born again believer has a right pastor, and it means rejecting the authority of and the communication of one’s right pastor. So when there is a large number of reversionists there are a lot of right pastor’s being unheard.

6. In reversionism the believer uses mental attitude sins to perpetuate his carnality, and this invariably contaminates others. A reversionist always is characterized by a maximum number of mental attitude sins which contaminate others — Hebrews 12:15.

7. Biblical descriptions of reversionism:

1) Drifting off course from grace — Galatians 5:4.

2) No one failing from the ultimate source of the grace of God — Hebrews 12:15.

3) Being uncircumcised of heart — Jeremiah 9:25, 26.

4) A tortured soul (Emphasizing the self-induced misery that goes with reversionism) — 2Peter 2:7,8.

5) An unstable soul — 2Peter 2:14.

6) Lukewarm — Revelation 3:15,16.

7) The enemy of the cross — Philippians 3:18.

8) Leaving your first love. This emphasizes category #1 love or occupation with Christ — Revelation 2:4.

9) Fallen — Revelation 2:5.

8. Recipients of the book of Hebrews were involved in reversionism — Hebrews 5:11–14.

9. Reversionism recovery is impossible apart from the daily or consistent function of GAP — Hebrews 6:1–3; Revelation 3:19,20.

10. Reversion recovery is impossible when one continues to practice religion — Hebrews 6:4–6 — or when one is involved in the phallic cult — 2Corinthians 12:20,21. In other words, certain conditions can exist in life whereby reversion recovery is impossible. And notice that they go back to the old sin nature’s trends: lasciviousness or asceticism (phallic cult or religionism).

11. Reversion leads to perversion. Some people on the reversion road become very abnormal — like homosexuals, lesbians. These people aren’t sick, they are sinfully degenerate. When homosexuality is tolerated on a national scale the laws of divine establishment are ignored and the national entity disintegrates — Romans 1:29-32.

12. Reversionism always intensifies suffering — Psalm 77.

13. The doctrine of reverse process reversionism. Reverse process reversionism is departing from a proper and normal relationship in life and picking up an improper and abnormal one. It is a reversal of objects, from the right object to the wrong object. It occurs in every category. For example, category #1 love. The object of our love in category #1 is Jesus Christ, and it is the rejection of that. And, for example, in the days of Jeremiah there is the turn to Baal — Jeremiah 8:9-11, 15,16, 20. Also, this was what happened to the Nicolaitans in Revelation 2:14,15. This is again stated as a principle in Revelation 2:4,5 — “leaving one’s first love.” In category #3 love — James 2:1–5.

14. Reversionism in psychosis — 2Peter 2:15–19: certain areas of reversionism and the practice of reverse process reversionism lead to one form or another of psychosis.

15. There are categories of reversionism.

1) Phallic reversionism — Colossians 3:5; 2Corinthians 12:21; Ephesians 4:19; 5:5; Revelation 2:14, 20–23.

2) Ritual reversionism — Hebrews 5:11–6:6.

3) Monetary reversionism — James 4:13,14; 5:1–6; Revelation 3:14–20.

4) Drug addiction reversionism — Galatians 5:20, the Greek word is farmakeia, mistranslated “witchcraft” and means drug addiction.

5) Anti-establishment reversionism — 2Peter 2 and Romans 1.

6) Mental attitude reversionism — James 4.

7) Psychotic reversionism comes from that — Job chapters 3 and 4.

8) Verbal reversionism — James 5:9,12.

16. Reversionism destroys supergrace status and supergrace living. Just as reversionism kept the Exodus generation out of the land of Canaan so reversionism keeps the believer from the ECS and the supergrace life, supergrace capacities and supergrace blessings. And just as reversionism caused the Exodus generation to die under the sin unto death so today it puts believers under the same maximum discipline.

17. The profile of reversionism — Psalm 7:14–16.

“For who having heard revolted?” We are dealing with reversionism. The second question: “Howbeit not all” is allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH] ou pantes (πάντες) [pronounced PAHN-tehç] and should be translated “But did not all?” Allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH] ou pantes (πάντες) [pronounced PAHN-tehç] is a Greek style brought in from the classical Greek. It is the diatribe style in which a rhetorical question is answered with a rhetorical question.

Then we have “that came out”, the aorist active participle of exerchomai (ἐξέρχομαι) [pronounced ex-EHR-khoh-mai], referring to coming out of slavery in Egypt. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. We translate so far: “But did not all having come out from Egypt” — ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], A)iguptoj. This emphasizes the fact that the entire generation was not only delivered from slavery but they were also born again believers.

“by Moses” — dia plus the genitive should be translated under the concept of agency — “through the agency of Moses.”

First question: “But who having heard revolted?”

Second question: “Did not all having come out from Egypt through Moses?”

This expects an affirmative answer, minus five.

Summary

1. Moses was the grace agent, the grace leader, the supergrace hero of God to deliver the Jews from slavery.

2. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb — “revolted.” They came out of Egypt before they revolted. That is the point. They had freedom before they used that freedom to revolt in reversionism.

3. The Jews were graciously delivered from Egypt before they entered into the reversionistic revolution against God.

4. At the time of the Exodus, 1440 BC, there were approximately two-million adult saved Jews delivered.

5. The very nature of the grace deliverance plus the faithful dissemination of Bible doctrine should have oriented the Jews to the plan of God and the pattern of grace. In other words, grace deliverance demands, logically, more grace afterward — Romans 8:32.

6. The logical conclusion of grace in salvation is supergrace in phase two.

7. At the cross God provided the solution to the greatest problem of all, the sin problem through grace. Now God provides the solution to minor problems through His supergrace.

8. We have more grace as believers when we need it less than we had at the cross when we needed it more.

9. Remember in this concept the analogy to doctrine. The deliverance from slavery in Egypt is an illustration or a type of salvation. The Passover is the appropriation of salvation. Canaan is a picture of the supergrace life. Between the Exodus and Canaan is the issue of attitude toward doctrine — positive or negative, GAP or no GAP. The testing from God in the desert is to bring out the total ability of grace and the complete inadequacy of reversion. The celebrityship of Jesus Christ makes supergrace heroes out of ordinary believers

1972 Hebrews Lesson #35

35 04/17/1973 Hebrews 3:17–4:1 Challenge to supergrace

First question: “But who having heard revolted?”

Second question: “Did not all having come out from Egypt through Moses?”

Verse 17 — the third question: “But with whom was he grieved forty years?”

Heb 3:17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? (ESV)

We have a transitional particle here used without any contrast intended — de. This particle is often used as an adversative conjunction. Here, of course, it is merely a transitional particle. Instead of “but” it should be translated “then”; “with whom” is the dative plural of the interrogative pronoun tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç]; and then “was he grieved” is the aorist active indicative of projoxqizw which means to be disgusted. It is an anthropopathism, the same as found in verse 10. It indicates the presence of love coated with disgust. it is a human term ascribed to God in order to explain why God disciplined the Exodus generation. “Then with whom was he disgusted forty years?” The forty years is the length of the Exodus generation’s reversionism, their discipline, and the time of their dying. The answer to the third question is the reversionist of the Exodus generation.

The fourth question: “Was it not with them that sinned?” “Was it not” is a very strong negative used as an interrogative word — ouchi. This particular negative is not only interrogative but it demands or expects an affirmative answer. “Was it not with the ones who missed the mark?” Hamartanô (ἁμαρτάνω) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TAHN-oh] is an aorist active participle which means sin but it has a basic meaning of missing the mark. It means sin in that sense.

“whose” — genitive plural of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. It refers to the reversionists of the Exodus generation; “carcasses,” — kwlon indicates almost two-million bodies — “fell”, the aorist active indicative of piptô (πίπτω) [pronounced PIHP-toh] should be translated “had fallen”. The aorist tense is a constative aorist referring to the entire Exodus generation. Every time someone died in the Exodus generation it was discipline. The active voice: the reversionist produces the action of the verb, and the action of the verb is the sin unto death. The indicative mood is the reality of the sin unto death to the Exodus generation — “whose dead bodies had fallen in the desert?.” And then you have to add to that, “Affirmative.”

Hebrews 3:17 “Then with whom was he disgusted forty years? Was it not with the ones having missed the mark? Whose dead bodies had fallen in the desert? Affirmative.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Heb 3:18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? (ESV)

Verse 18 — “And” is the transitional particle de, and should be translated consistently as “Then” — “to whom,” a genitive plural of the relative pronoun and again it is referring to the reversionists of the Exodus generation — “sware he” — aorist active indicative of omnuô (ὀμνύω) [pronounced om-NOO-oh], which to promise with an oath. It is used for a solemn promise — “that they should not enter into his rest”. “Enter into “ is eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee], and refers first of all to the land of Canaan. And Canaan represents supergrace, and since they were minus capacity for supergrace they were minus supergrace. “His rest” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus katapausis (κατάπαυσις) [pronounced kat-AP-ow-sis]. This is the rest which is analogous to the supergrace life. Other times “rest” is different in the Greek and has a different connotation. “Then to whom did he promise with a solemn oath that they should not enter into his rest”, and then there is an answer. The word “but”, ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] m (μή) [pronounced may] in the Greek, means “except” — “except to them that believe not” is not quite correct. It is the dative plural aorist active participle of a)peiqew which doesn’t really mean not to believe. Peiqew means “obedience; the a in front of it means “no obedience”. And it means to be obstinate, to reject authority, to be a rebel in the soul.

Hebrews 3:18 “Then to whom did he promise with a solemn oath that they should not enter into his rest? Only to those having been obstinate.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Principle

1. Reversionism keeps the believer out of the supergrace life.

2. Reversionism also means perpetual discipline for the believer all the way to death. The climax, then, to reversionism is to die before your time under the sin unto death, therefore under miserable conditions.

3. In this sense 1Corinthians 10:5 tells us that the Exodus generation was strewn out all over the desert. They lined the desert with their corpses.

4. Moses was the exception. Moses died viewing the land of Canaan. He did not go into Canaan but he did not die from reversionism — the sin unto death. Moses did not enter into the land because of a failure in his own leadership function. But not the sin unto death.

Heb 3:19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief. (ESV)

Verse 19 — “So” is a conjunctive kai used in the explanatory sense. In other words, one clause is connected with another clause by kai for the purpose of explaining the first clause. To explain those five questions we now have a conjuction, translated “And so we see”, the present active indicative of blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh]. This is a customary present tense. “And so we see [we conclude, we learn].” The active voice refers to the individuals listening to this being taught. The indicative mood means to understand under the function of GAP.

“that” introduces a Greek conjunction. It is used after verbs of perception to indicate the content of perception, to see what is being understood — hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee]. Conclusion: “And so we perceive that they could not.” This is not a Koine Greek phrase. The morphology here is Attic Greek, and it is the Attic aorist active indicative of dunamai (δύναμαι) [pronounced DOO-nam-ahee]. It is much more ancient than the Koine Greek. This plus the negative means “they were not able”. The aorist tense, being a constative aorist, takes up the whole forty years. In other words, any years between year one and year forty any or all of these people could have recovered from reversionism and GAPed it to supergrace and still gone into the land. But they didn’t. In other words, God gave them forty years. The constative aorist says n effect that the possibility was always there. They just didn’t avail themselves of the spiritual food. They were inconsistent. They took in physical food but not spiritual food.

“to enter in” — the aorist active infinitive again of eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee], referring to the land of Canaan, an illustration of supergrace. The culminative aorist tense here means taking the whole ball of wax and coming down to the end. It gives us a conclusion. The infinitive indicates that God’s purpose was still open. The active voice: they were still alive and any time they were alive they could have recovered and moved. They did not recover. The Exodus generation has to be, without equivocation, the worst bunch of idiots who ever believed in Jesus Christ. They had everything in the world going for them but the thing that really counts.

You can have all kinds of human assets, attractiveness, a great personality, intelligence; but if you are without doctrine, then you are behind the eight-ball.

“because of” — preposition dia plus a)pistia, which is correctly translated “unbelief” and can be translated “lack of faith” or “unfaithfulness.”

Hebrews 3:19 “So we perceive that they were not able to enter in because of unfaithfulness.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

It is not unbelief here. Unbelief wasn’t their problem in the sense that we use the word. Unbelief connotes no salvation. They were saved people. Their problem was not rejection of Christ, their problem was rejection of doctrine. Technically, in our language we use the word “unbelief” for those who do not believe in Jesus Christ when the Gospel is presented. And for those who are believers, those who are born again, rejecting doctrine is called unfaithfulness.

The Exodus Generation

1. The Jews of the Exodus generation are used by the unknown writer of Hebrews to set up an example for the Jews living in Jerusalem in 67 AD.

2. Both generations, the Exodus and the generation of 67 AD, were reversionistic.

3. However, one generation, the Exodus, was out of the land trying to get in, while the other, in 67 AD, was in the land trying to get out. But essentially the condition of soul was the same: born again believers who had neglected Bible doctrine to the point of maximum reversionistic complications.

4. One generation was punished by the sin unto death in the desert, the other was punished by the sin unto death in Jerusalem.

5. Both generations reached the point of the sin unto death in the same manner: negative volition, indifference, apathy, rejection of Bible doctrine.

6. They failed to feed on spiritual food, they failed to GAP it daily, and therefore they failed to utilize faith-rest in the function of GAP

Conclusion from the Whole Chapter

1. Every generation of believers faces the identical issue. After salvation the issue is: What think ye of doctrine? This is the issue of phase two, the issue to which you must have a continuous positive attitude.

2. Why? The principle: God must vindicate His Word. God’s Word is available in more languages and in more places than ever before. The only place where God can vindicate His Word in relationship to you is in your soul. It is the Bible doctrine in your soul through GAP that God vindicates in you. That is where God starts pouring.

3. Therefore blessing or cursing depends on your attitude toward Bible doctrine during your stay on this earth.

4. Positive volition toward doctrine leads to supergrace and the normal function of the priesthood.

5. Negative volition toward doctrine leads to reversionism and the sin unto death.

6. Reversionism means cursing; supergrace means blessing.

7. The difference between reversionism and supergrace is doctrine in the soul of the believer.

8. From this doctrine in the soul comes the principle. Under supergrace the believer reaps what God sows, and the reaping is the icing on the cake. God gives you the cake whether you want it or not. On the other hand the cursing of reversionism is the believer reaping what the believer sows. He sows negative volition; he reaps divine discipline

Heb. 12:6 for the reversionist; Rom. 8:28 for the supergrace believer.

The translation for chapter 3 is reviewed first.

Chapters 4–5: Outline.

Chapters Four and Five Go Together, They Should Have Been One Chapter.

1. The challenge to supergrace: 4:1–13

2. Supergrace related to the priesthood of the believer: 4:14–16

3. Introducing the unique high priest: 5:1–10

4. The reversion of the Jews interrupts the discourse: 5:11–14

In verses 1–3 we have the application of Israel’s failure to reach supergrace in the Exodus generation.

Heb 4:1 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. (ESV)

Verse 1 — we begin with the word “Therefore” which is a particle used as an inferential conjunction — oun. It is designed to remind us that the application is the conclusion of the matter as far as the Exodus generation is concerned. We notice from our study of the last chapter that the Exodus generation is a failure generation and therefore a parallel to the generation to whom this was originally written. And it is a part of the Word of God to remind you that you too can be a part of a failure generation when your contribution is simply negative volition toward Bible doctrine.

The Bible is very clear when it tells us not to be afraid of anything. Fear is really a mental attitude anyway, a mental attitude sin — Isaiah 41:10. Over in Timothy, “we have not been given the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of sound mind”. One of the characteristics of the supergrace life is freedom from all of the psychotic, neurotic, sociopathic problems of the soul.

The inferential conjunction, then, states a conclusion from the previous context and turns it into an application. And there is an area where we are commanded to be afraid. The Exodus generation failed, their carcasses were strewn all over the desert. There is nothing wrong with dying but there is everything wrong with the way they died. They died the sin unto death, horribly and painfully and before their time. The same thing is about to happen in one of the great catastrophes of history, the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD. A lot of believers to whom this was originally written are going to die horribly in that siege.

The woman who ate half of her baby and saved the rest. I think that this is during the destruction of Jerusalem. Rats were a delicacy. They really went through it, they died horribly. Famine rids a society of the weak sisters. Passing laws to let consumers sue people. Bob is a consumer; and if someone is smart enough to chisel him, then bully.

“let us fear” — aorist passive subjunctive of phobeô (φοβέω) [pronounced fob-EH-oh] which means to fear. The aorist tense is a peculiar type of Greek idiom. Here it denotes an action as occurring without reference to its progress. This is what is called an indefinite or unlimited use of the aorist tense. The Greek word a)oristoj means unlimited or indefinite. This particular aorist states the fact of the action without regard to its duration. So here we have what is known as a dramatic aorist. A dramatic aorist states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. It states a result which has been accomplished. Basically this is a dramatic aorist with an ingressive concept. On other words, at this point the writer says under the dramatic aorist, “Other people have failed, you are doing the same thing. Now it is time for you to be frightened about your failure.” “Let us begin to fear” — that brings in the ingressive aorist concept.

As a result of their reversionistic failure they have before them an illustration of what is going to happen — the Exodus generation. The writer says, Now that you have met the Exodus generation it is time for you to be afraid that you. too, will go the same way as the Exodus generation. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb. The subject is the believer priest living in Jerusalem in 67 AD, and he should receive fear as he now realizes the implications of the third chapter of Hebrews. It is time to get frightened.

The subjunctive mood is what is called a hortatory subjunctive, the writer invites the readers to join him in a course if action. The subjunctive carries the weight of a command here but it emphasizes the importance of human volition. The human volition of the believer priest determines whether he continues in reversionism or backs off and recovers and goes toward supergrace.

Actually, the fourth chapter is the chapter of hortatory subjunctives. There are four of them: the one here —”Let us begin to fear”; verse 11 — “Let us labour [be diligent]”; verse 14 — “Let us hold fast”; verse 16 — “Let us come boldly.” Somewhere, somehow you have to become frightened about something important. You are to be frightened about nothing except missing the boat with regard to Bible doctrine.

Communists are anti-God; and they are killed and spend eternity in hell. All of the weird things being done with legislation. We are not to be frightened about that or anything else. Death should not frighten us or even taxes. You’re stupid; you should be frightened about doctrine. Preachers use fear to motivate those in their congregation. Some are frightened by our terrible education system. You realize for the first time that doctrine is important. If you get out of doctrine, then you should be scared as hell, and the devil will chase you back in to Berachah, missing you with his pitchfork only by an inch. If you decide you are going to neglect doctrine, off you go.

The verb itself sounds warning bells in the soul because the believer is commanded not to fear anything in this life, as per 2Timothy 1:7, and when you get an exception the exception is to act as a warning. Different things frighten different people, so there is in this passage a thing called the secondary cognisance of fear. What you ought to be afraid of is not getting doctrine but if you go into reversionism you are negative toward doctrine so you couldn’t care less about doctrine. So in the warning stage of divine discipline you get things that frighten you so that you will want doctrine again. So in the first stage the Lord Jesus Christ knocks on the door, and the knocking on the door are things that would frighten you; not someone else, but you. So God dumps a whole lot of whatever scares you right in your lap. In that way some will open the door and get right back to Bible class. So the exception is the believer being frightened of missing all the wonderful things God has for him in time.

The rewards we receive are based upon doctrine in our souls. RM/RW, promotion, money, whatever. You must have a cup in order for God to pour. People think that God is giving us a hard time so that we might appreciate heaven. How can God pour for a bunch of travest monks?

“a promise” — this is a part of the genitive absolute. It is therefore a noun in the genitive singular, epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah]. It means a promise of great blessing. God has promised blessing. It refers to the promises that are involved in the principle of Romans 8:28. The promise belongs to the supergrace believer with the supergrace capacity — wealth, promotion, etc., anything that belongs to the over and above category.

Along with the noun in the genitive case we have a participle in the genitive case which finishes up the absolute — “being left,” present passive participle of kataleipô (καταλείπω) [pronounced kat-al-Ī-po]. Kataleipô (καταλείπω) [pronounced kat-al-Ī-po] means to neglect, to leave behind, to leave unclaimed. The noun and the participle are a thought in themselves. They are both in the genitive case, they are not grammatically connected with the rest of the sentence. This is what is called grammatically a genitive absolute in which something is isolated and given maximum importance. The promise being unclaimed is of maximum importance. This participle is in a present tense which is an unusual one: the futuristic present which denotes an event which has not as yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that the tense regards it as already occurring. So the present tense is a futuristic present. God has these things for you, therefore all you have to do is have the cup and God pours. The Exodus generation and the Jews of 67 AD had failed through reversionism and the writer to the Hebrews is saying this is a possibility of very great reality with you. All of God’s promises and all of God’s blessings come through doctrine. They are all related to doctrine and God is waiting to provide them. They are claimed through the cup. God pours when the cup exists. So “a promise being unclaimed” is a genitive absolute — great emphasis.

“of entering into his rest” — the aorist active infinitive of eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee]. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action in its entirety. It takes an occurrence regardless of its extent or duration and gathers it into one ball of wax. In the Exodus generation we know the duration because it is stated — forty years. The generation of believers in Jerusalem is AD 67, and it is three years for the constative aorist here. No entrance into supergrace; no supergrace blessings. The active voice: the subject, the believer in GAP, produces the action of the verb by entering supergrace which is consistent with his function of GAP. The infinitive mood indicates God’s purpose that the normal function of the priesthood will be under supergrace status.

“into rest” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus katapausis (κατάπαυσις) [pronounced kat-AP-ow-sis]. In Matthew 11:28 you have anápausis (ἀνάπαυσις) [pronounced an-AP-ow-sis]. Pausij in both cases means rest; katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] means a norm or standard; aná (ἀνά) [pronounced aw-NAW] means again and again. One is eternal life and one is supergrace. So it is a rest according to the norms and standards God has set up, a rest based upon the intake of Bible doctrine, reaching supergrace. Under supergrace the believer reaps what God sows. God sowed in eternity past, we reap it now. God does the pouring, we just simply have a cup running over. Under reversionism the believer reaps what the believer sows, by way of contrast.

“any of you” means “anyone from among you.” The fact that others around you fail does not mean that you have to fail. We have tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk] u(mwn — “anyone out from among you”. No one else’s failure has to hold you back.

“should seem” — a bad translation. It is the present active subjunctive of the verb dokéô (δοκέω) [pronounced dohk-EH-oh] which means to have a subjective opinion. It refers to subjective thinking. This is the thinking of the reversionist, the thinking of discouragement, the thinking of self-pity or frustration or disillusion. It is the thinking that comes into your soul when you have been jilted, when you are reacting against someone. So this is the thinking of reaction, the thinking that leads to the frantic search for happiness, the thinking of emotional revolt of the soul. The present tense is linear aktionsart, you keep on thinking that way.

“to come short” — perfect active infinitive of husteréō (ὑστερέω) [pronounced hoos-ter-EH-oh], which means to fall short of something, to fail to attain a goal, to be below standard or to default. It means here to default. It is in the perfect tense, the intensive perfect which places emphasis on the results of the failure to reach supergrace. The results of the failure is default. You have defaulted, you have failed to attain God’s goal for you. The active voice: the believer produces the action of such failure and he reacts. God sets up a goal for you; you default. God has this wonderful thing for you. Why default? We have the verbal use of the infinitive expressing the result of subjective thinking and negative volition.

Hebrews 4:1 “Therefore let us fear, lest at any time a promised blessing being unclaimed of entering into his rest, anyone from among you should think subjectively to the point of default.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. Thinking subjectively to default means to come short of supergrace blessing. This is the ultimate tragedy of phase two, since God has designed supergrace blessings for all believers.

2. God has a plan for your life. This plan has a goal. God wants to bless you in supergrace, God wants to pour, God wants to share His perfect happiness and certain specific materialistic blessings. This passage says you have to be afraid of missing this

You cannot afford to miss the boat. You are on the winning side, you idiot, why not enjoy some of the spoils. Stay with it, there is promotion, there is happiness.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #36

36 04/18/1973 Hebrews 4:2 Doctrine of negative volition (points 1–3)

They are just setting up a camera system, just to experiment, to see if this can be used. “If you have little children interested in cameras, tell them to keep their fat, greasy hands off of mind.”

1 [1]Protasis: That phrase or clause in a conditional sentence that sets forth the conditional elements contingent upon the following condition or statement.

2 [2]Apodosis: The phrase or clause in a conditional sentence that sets forth the conclusion or statement resultant from the conditional factors stated in the protasis.

Chapter 4

Heb 4:2 For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. (ESV)

Verse 2 — we begin with an adjunctive kai. The word “For” is not “for.” We do not have the particle gar, we have kai. Kai is not a particle, it is a true conjunction. The adjunctive use of kai means “Also.” Then, with that, the particle comes in. It is an illitive particle, it introduces a reason. The reason, of course, is based on fear in the previous verse. Why be afraid? Why ever have an exception to “Fear thou not”? So the whole structure, “For also”, is designed to cause us to understand that there is a reason why we should be afraid about one thing only. If you have received Jesus Christ as Savior you should be absolutely afraid of living in phase two as a member of the family of God and missing the blessing of God pouring for you. God has fantastic supergrace blessings that are only available with supergrace capacity. Supergrace capacity precedes supergrace blessing. In other words, if you don’t have a cup in the soul God doesn’t pour. And when God can’t pour He is disgusted because in eternity past He provided fantastic supergrace blessings for you.

God has acres of money trees and he wants to drop some money on us; but we have no capacity. We should be afraid of not being able to take these supergrace blessings.

Our next problem is that “unto us” is not there in the Greek. All it says is “For also.” Then the next phrase is not correctly translated because we have four words to mistranslate a periphrastic — “was the gospel preached.” We have a periphrastic construction because it is a perfect periphrastic. This is taken from the Greek word frasij which means to combine, and with peri it means to combine around. In other words, you form a concept around a very strong grammatical structure. The perfect periphrastic is composed of a verb and a participle. The verb is the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], the absolute status quo verb. Along with this we have a perfect passive participle from the verb euaggelizô (εὐαγγελίζω) [pronounced yoo-ang-ghel-EED-zo]. The first problem comes in that euaggelizô (εὐαγγελίζω) [pronounced yoo-ang-ghel-EED-zo] in the passive voice means to receive the Gospel, it doesn’t have anything to do with the Gospel preached. This passive voice means in the Greek, as always, the subject receives the action of the verb, and so euaggelizô (εὐαγγελίζω) [pronounced yoo-ang-ghel-EED-zo] means to have received the Gospel or to have been evangelized. The perfect periphrastic is what is called an intensive and consummative structure. This brings out the meanings of the perfect tense in the Greek. The periphrastic indicates the thoroughness of the evangelism of the Exodus generation and the generation to whom Hebrews is addressed, Jews living in Jerusalem in 67 AD. The intensive concept means the evangelism of Jerusalem in 67 AD was complete. In addition to that we have the consummative concept which means there are results in that. The results are that there are many people in heaven as a result of this evangelism.

It adds up to this. The Exodus generation was a totally evangelized generation. Approximately two-million people left Egypt, freed by the grace of God. They were all saved. They were all wealthy and they were all free. The generation to whom Hebrews is addressed are Jews living in Jerusalem three years before the great catastrophe, the fall of Jerusalem to the Roman legions. They, too, have been thoroughly evangelized. The issue is not salvation. The issue is beyond salvation. Salvation is a very periodic, fleeting issue, always. Evangelization is the first issue to the human race. Once an individual is evangelized he never has to be evangelized again.

Psalm 95 uses the Exodus generation, thoroughly evangelized by 1441. The psalm, which takes in David’s day which was a thoroughly evangelized generation, then goes to Jerusalem of the apostolic times in 67 AD, and there is an analogy between the Exodus generation and the Jews living at that time to whom Hebrews was addressed. One thing is made clear by the periphrastic: the Gospel is not the issue to the Exodus generation and the Gospel is not the issue to the Jewish generation. Jesus Christ as Savior is not the issue to those who have responded to the Gospel. Bob is certain that everyone there has believed in Jesus. The gospel is not the issue to us, we have believed in Jesus. The gospel is not an issue to the Exodus generation; to those in Jerusalem; or to anyone at Berachah Church. The issue is: What do you think of doctrine?

The Exodus generation flunked. They had the best doctrinal teaching in the world at that time, but they were guilty of secondary negative volition. The same problem occurs to those to whom Hebrews was originally addressed. They, too, have heard the Gospel and are now believers in phase two, very legalistic, and they have said no to doctrine. Their problem is they live in Jerusalem where no longer is there a tabernacle but a temple, and they love to go to the temple and go through the ritual of the temple. They had accepted Jesus Christ as Savior but they still had great respect for the priest. Their respect for the priesthood was so great, and it was ingrained in them and inculcated in such a manner, that they observed the ritual of the Passover even though they were saved and the Passover was no longer pertinent. Therefore they would spend Sundays listening to the teaching of doctrine and spend Saturdays observing the ritual of Israel and they never really went beyond the salvation issue, although they had been saved for a long time. The Gospel was no longer an issue, the issue now was Bible doctrine, and this they rejected.

Most of the people in Berachah are from elsewhere. Some people knocked on Bob’s door and say, “I’m here.” So many have such a fantastic testimony. You cannot faith rest it the rest of your life. Faith rest is, at best, a sophomore function. The objective is not to just faith rest for the rest of your life; but to get more doctrine. You have to grow, and that means doctrine. Doctrine is the issue; and this is what this passage says to us.

This helps to understand what is coming up. The isagogics are important here. The issue here is not whether you grab a promise or two, the issue is whether you realize the importance of doctrine. It is the only way you are going to get to supergrace. Supergrace is the issue and this book is about the priesthood of the believer and there is no normal function of the priesthood until you get to supergrace. The fact you are a priest doesn’t mean a thing until you have the normal function of the priest and that comes through supergrace. This periphrastic says, “Look, you’re all saved. That is not the issue.” The issue is doctrine. The corrected translation so far is: “For we also have been permanently evangelized.”

“as well as them” — the adverb is kaqaper which means “even as” or “just as.” And you never translate the nominative case “them”; “them” is accusative. So it should be “they.” However, we have a nominative masculine plural from a compound demonstrative pronoun. This is kakeinoj. This is made up of two words, kai and e)kainos (καινός) [pronounced kahee-NOS],. The first word here is the adjunctive use of kai which means “also,” and ἐκενος means “they”. So you do not translate this “them” or even “they” correctly, it is “they also” — “just as [or, even as] they also.” “They also” refers to the fact that the Exodus generation was perfectly evangelized. The periphrastic applies to the Exodus generation even as it applies to the people to whom this passage was originally addressed. So note the parallel between maximum evangelization of the Exodus generation and maximum evangelization of the Jews in Jerusalem in 67 AD. The Jews of the Exodus were saved but generally reversionistic. The Jews of 67 AD living in Jerusalem were saved but generally reversionistic. Reversionism blinded the Jews of 67 AD to the impending disaster of the siege of Jerusalem. And there is a principle that comes out of this very interesting structure of a compound demonstrative pronoun: reversionism cannot interpret history.

“We have been permanently evangelized even as they also were permanently evangelized,” is what is says here. Principle: Reversionism cannot interpret history. The Exodus generation could not interpret the time in which they lived and in which they died because they couldn’t interpret history. There is a second principle: Jesus Christ controls history, and since He does the easiest way to interpret history is to be occupied with the person who controls history. That leads to a third consideration: The supergrace believer can interpret contemporary history. If a person isn’t occupied with Christ obviously he can’t interpret history. So reversionism is always blind to impending historical disaster.

Our president is probably a Christian; but reversionism cannot interpret history. The last president to understand history was Theodore Roosevelt; he kept the military up and he kept us out of war. Woodrow Wilson, gets us into war every time. Who is the boy who never gets picked on? The kid who is willing to fight. A common sense president is one who understands that we need a tough military. The same old crap, no matter where you turn. True of the military and true of businesses. Poorly run businesses and the government sees to it that we have to hire a certain amount of this or that color. We are filled up with sob sisters who say that the air is not pure. Bob loves impure air. He love the smell of Birmingham air; that is the sweet smell of business and jobs. If you don’t like the air, get out. No one says you have to live there.

Our freedom is based upon the military establishment; and the food that feeds the weirdo hippies on the dole comes from free enterprise. Destroy the military and free enterprise, and you have nothing left. Texas legislator has a law up to let the consumer sue the person who sells you something. If you are dumb enough to be gyped, then you are too dumb to live anyway. We have been permanently evangelized even as they have been permanently evangelized. The supergrace believer can interpret contemporary history. Jesus Christ controls history and we have the mind of Christ, so we are able to understand historical events as they occur. The reversionist is blind to impending disaster.

We have been evangelized. We have passed that and have believed in Christ but the issue is no longer Christ as Savior. You will hear soteriology from time to time from the scripture, this helps your understanding of grace. But the issue is no longer the gospel but now the doctrine of soteriology as one of the classifications of doctrine in scripture and when you learn it, along with all of the other facets of doctrine, it all has the same concept: to give you the cup in your soul, the supergrace capacity for supergrace blessing.

So now we have an adversative conjunction, “but” — allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH]. This sets up a contrast between salvation as the issue of phase one and doctrine as the issue of phase two. The issue in phase one is Christ: “What think ye of Christ?” The issue in phase two is doctrine: “What think ye of doctrine?” After salvation everything depends on the believer’s attitude to Bible doctrine. To be positive toward doctrine is the road to supergrace, the road to occupation with the person of Christ. The difference between blessing and cursing is the difference between positive and negative volition toward doctrine. The principle: Your attitude toward doctrine determines your blessing or cursing in phase two.

The many believers in England gave them the Victorian era. Great business opportunities; great evangelistic and missionary push. Many American missionaries were protected by the flag of the union jack.

At the end of the 19^th century, there was a wonderful group of believers in the US.

We have the greatest prosperity when we did not have income tax and balanced the budget.

“the word” — ho logos, refers to the doctrines of the canon of scripture. They are all gathered up into one word here — “the doctrine.” The word “preached” isn’t there in the Greek. There is a genitive of description noun and it doesn’t mean preach, it means hearing. It isn’t talking, it is listening. It is the genitive singular of akoê (ἀκοή) [pronounced ak-oh-AY], and it means “of hearing”. So it is literally, “the doctrine of hearing”, the doctrine you hear, in other words. Akoê (ἀκοή) [pronounced ak-oh-AY] means hearing, it also means instruction or inculcation. The noun emphasizes the fact that believers cannot learn doctrine directly from the Bible. They cannot classify directly from the Bible. That’s why we have the gift of pastor-teacher.

There is no sharing taking place in Berachah. “You don’t have a thing to give to me.” When you begin to function normally under the priesthood, doctrine is going to change your life completely.

Moses was a great public speaker. He laid it on the line and the people said no.

“did not profit” — the aorist active indicative of ôpheléô (ὠφελέω) [pronounced oh-feh-LEH-oh]. The word means to help, to profit, to benefit. In fact, all of the meanings of the verb apply here. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers up into one ball of wax forty years of great Bible teaching by Moses, by Aaron, by the use of the tabernacle, by angels; all the doctrine that they ever had in forty years. And, by the way, they assembled. They listened. They were constantly exposed to the teaching of doctrine. The active voice: the Exodus generation produced the action of the verb. They did not profit from what they were taught. They refused to transfer doctrine by faith-rest from the left lobe to the human spirit. The indicative mood is the reality of being hearers of the Word and not doers. “Did not Profit” brings up the whole issue of negative volition.

The Doctrine of Negative Volition (points 1-3)

There are six areas of negative volition whereby you can fail to take in doctrine or fail to utilize doctrine or fail to reach supergrace.

1. Refusal to hear. This is the person who fails to assemble. This does not include the Exodus generation, we have already in this passage “the word of hearing did not profit.” This is the person who has rejected today his right pastor and doctrine, or both. That is primary negative volition.

2. Refusal to rebound after assembling to hear the Word. This is the person who assembles but because he is not filled with the Spirit he cannot take in the Word and the Word does not become objective reality in his left lobe. No gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis] because he is quenching or grieving the Spirit, or both, while he sits in the assembly.

3. Refusal to use faith in the transfer. This is secondary negative volition. This is the believer who hears the doctrine under the filling of the Spirit and he understands the doctrine in his left lobe. This is the person that James calls a hearer of the Word but not a doer

1972 Hebrews 4:2 James 1:19-25 Lesson #37

37 4/19/1973 Hebrews 4:2; James 1:19-25 Doctrine of negative volition

Hebrews 4:2 “We also have been permanently evangelized, even as they also [the Exodus generation] were permanently evangelized: but the word of hearing [hearing doctrine] did not benefit them, not having been blended with faith [the faith] on the part of the ones having heard.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

#3 is where many people go astray. They do not believe what they have been taught in Berachah. If you come and listen, then it does you no good.

James 1:19 Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;

James 1:19 — the perfect passage on secondary negative volition, refusal to transfer doctrine from the left lobe to the human spirit. “Wherefore” is really “Know this” — perfect active imperative of oida used as a present tense. “Every man” means “every one”, every believer, every member of the body of Christ , every believer priest — “be” is a present active imperative. The present tense of the imperative is linear aktionsart, “keep on being”. And the first factor is “swift to hear.” That is positive volition for assembling. The adjective “swift”, taxuj, means prompt, speedy. It means to have the mental attitude that goes with the function. Then we have a prepositional phrase eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus an infinitive — “swift for hearing.” “Slow to speak” means, in context, you can’t talk and learn at the same time. “Slow to wrath” reflects the mental attitude when you assemble. If you’ve blown your cork you can’t learn anything either. All of this is the first phase of GAP. “Swift to hear”: positive volition at the point of assembly; “slow to speak”: you can’t talk and learn at the same time; “slow to wrath”: your mental attitude is vitally important and involved.

“Know this, my beloved brethren, everyone keep on being swift for the purpose of hearing, slow for the purpose of chatting, slow with reference to mental attitude sins like anger.”

James 1:20 for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.

Verse 20 — “For the anger of the noble believer [the believer who assembles] does not produce righteousness from the source of God.” Righteousness is in view here for several reasons. As far as GAPing it is concerned it is to understand who and what God is.

James 1:21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.

Verse 21 — in order to rectify this problem in GAPing it we have the rebound technique. “Having removed all pollution [mental attitude sins] and the overflow of wickedness [sins of the tongue and overt sins] ...”

And then we get back to GAPing it again. “Receive is an aorist middle imperative of dechomai (δέχομαι) [pronounced DEKH-om-ahee] and it means to embrace. It is a constative aorist and it gathers into one ball of wax or one entirety every time that you GAP it. The middle voice connected with dechomai (δέχομαι) [pronounced DEKH-om-ahee] means to welcome and retain. The imperative mood: it is an order.

“Meekness” is the mental attitude toward doctrine, toward the one teaching doctrine in the assembly. This is included by God the Holy Spirit through the writer James to remind you that there is no such thing in GAP as a personality conflict. You either have the right pastor or you don’t. He may rub you the wrong way, that is not the point. What he teaches is the issue. You take it from the Lord.

“the engrafted word” — the “ingerminated” or “impregnated” word, actually. Doctrine is no good unless it makes you pregnant. Pregnancy is the passing of doctrine from the left lobe to the human spirit, from the human spirit to the right lobe. That’s where it begins to really count.

“which is able to deliver your souls” — you are delivered from scar tissue, from the devil’s world.

James 1:22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Verse 22 — “Be ye” — present middle imperative of ginomai, “keep on becoming”, present tense, linear aktionsart. Active voice: you as a believer produce the action of the verb. Imperative mood: it is an order that you do this, that you transfer. This is the command right here which offsets secondary negative volition.

“doers” is a noun, the nominative plural of poihthj. This does not mean that you have to be running around “doing things for God”. Doing is function in the soul. The function is not necessarily overt, the function in this case is inside of the soul. “Keep on becoming doers of doctrine, both hearers only.” You have to be a hearer first, that is the first stage of GAP. The hearer is a believer who is positive and takes in ICE teaching from his right pastor. He is filled with the Holy Spirit because he rebounds whenever necessary so that he has an objective understanding of doctrine inside of his left lobe. This is a hearer. But you can’t stop there. Doctrine in the left lobe is not useable and volition must handle it. If you are positive faith will transfer it down to the human spirit where it becomes epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] . But the big problem with the believers in Jerusalem in 67 AD, and the big problem with the Exodus generation was that they were negative right here. Objective understanding of doctrine is being a hearer, and that doctrine has to go to work. So there is a great barrier that the doctrine has to cross. The barrier is between the left lobe, called the noús (νούς) [pronounced noose] or the mind, and the human spirit. The final objective: there is a line from the frame of reference right into the human spirit, and it is a vacuum line which pumps this doctrine right into the heart or the right lobe. So, “keep on becoming doers of the word.” That means you must persist in transferring doctrine from the left lobe to the human spirit.

“not hearers only” — if you have doctrine in your left lobe you can give it back on a piece of paper, you can pass an examination with it, but unless you transfer it you are is a state of self-deceit — “deceiving your own selves”, present middle participle of paralogizomai, which means to defraud or deceive yourself.

“I never heard that before. Dr. So and So never said that; and he was such a nice man.” Some gal called up Bob and he told her where to go after she said what she wanted to know. She called back and said, “I forgive you.” She thinks that she can call Bob and take a half hour of his time. Multiply her by hundreds of jackasses, who think that he needs to sit down and chit chat and be nice, if Bob did that, his congregation would starve to death. It wasn’t that Bob was rude; but she was stupid. Women have the idea that they can get you on the phone and take up your time. Bob hung up on this babe. He is about ready to get an unlisted number. Bob is thinking about removing the telephone from his life.

There were people here who understand a constantive aorist. They stick it out and they understand it. You learn to handle your questions like a fish with bones. You separate out the bones and you let them sit there. Bob has a couple questions too. You do not get your answers by prayer; you get the answers by beating your brains out.

James 1:23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer [failure to transfer], he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror.

Verse 23 — “is like a noble believer contemplating his natural face in a mirror”.

There is a real blessing in looking in a mirror. If you see yourself every day, you do not see any of those changes. If you wait 5 years, then you see many changes.

James 1:24 For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

If you look in the mirror every day, you are not shocked. Bob understands that some ladies when they wake up and look into the mirror, they are shocked until they put on some makeup.

Verse 24 — “he observes himself, and departs, and immediately disregards what sort of a person he is”. The whole point is that by looking into a mirror every day you are oriented to what you are. If you only look into a mirror once in a while you are never oriented. A mirror is a basic principle for orientation in life. “He immediately disregards what he looked like.” In other words, he is oriented for the day. Now, much more important is looking into another mirror, and that is the Word of God.

James 1:25 But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

Verse 25 — “But he that looketh into the perfect law of liberty”. That refers to the Bible, and it refers to GAPing it daily. We have an adversative conjunction here. The word “looketh” is an aorist active participle of parakuptw, a verb for concentration. It means to stoop down and stare vigorously. So it means to concentrate.

“and continueth” — here is the important thing. We have the aorist active participle of paramenô (παραμένω) [pronounced par-am-EHN-oh] which means “and having continued” [Doing this all the time]. This is persisting in taking in Bible doctrine.

“he being” is literally, “he having become” — “the one having become not a hearer of oblivion but a doer of work, this man shall be happy in the action of doing.”

James 1:25 “He that concentrates on the perfect [completed] law [the canon of scripture] of liberty and perseveres (in taking in Bible doctrine), the one having become not a hearer of oblivion but a doer of work, this man shall be happy in the action of doing[Bible doctrine gives freedom to serve God, freedom to function under the priesthood]”

James says “transfer”; Hebrews says, “this is what happens if you don’t transfer. Hebrews looks at it from the standpoint of faith or no faith, from the standpoint of volition in the soul. James looks at the happiness of being a doer of the Word, someone whose doctrine is working for him.

Hebrews 4:2 — “did not benefit them.”

Hebrews 4:2 “The one having looked intently [concentrated] on the perfect law of freedom [Bible teaching], and having persisted, the one having become not a hearer of oblivion, but a doer of work [Bible doctrine going into the various areas of the soul where growth in involved], this one shall be happy in the action of doing [happiness in the function of GAP].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Doctrine of Negative Volition (Continued)

4. Refusal to be consistent. Here is the person who functions correctly under GAP, but when under adversity he won’t function correctly. When he has any kind of difficulty in his life or when he wants something from the Lord he is always in Bible class. But this person is highly unstable and with a little prosperity he begins to neglect Bible doctrine.

5. Negative vulnerability. This is the believer who reaches supergrace but reacts. here is a believer who GAPs it consistently all the way to supergrace. Once he reaches supergrace he begins to react. He had supergrace capacity, started to receive supergrace blessings, and one day he reacted toward the reaction column — disillusion, boredom, discouragement, self-pity, loneliness, frustration, being jilted, being under some kind of mental attitude sin such as jealousy or bitterness or implacability. These are some of the things that cause reaction. Any time you are bored or disillusioned, or any of these others, you are vulnerable to the whole realm of negation toward doctrine. This is negative vulnerability in which in a frantic search for happiness reaction you lose the ECS, you have blackout of the soul, you lose everything.

6. Negative emotionalism, which is the believer becoming negative to doctrine through emotional revolt of the soul. This is what happens to holy-rollers, etc.

But the Word of God did not benefit them...

“not being mixed with faith” — The verb means to mix together, to blend. The iterative perfect emphasizes the process by which the action is completed. In this case with the negative the process was not completed. Doctrine was available; and assembly was available as well. But this doctrine is not mixed with faith. Therefore, these people did not have the blessings of supergrace.

Ministers seem to have charmed lives. You malign ministers and they get blessed by this. All of Bob’s life, he was been greatly blessed by being maligned. If you knew about the blessing, you might slow down. I don’t think that I will even emphasize that point.

Bob has heard some of the most unusual rumors about this congregation. “It wasn’t split when I left; what have you heard?”

The perfect tense means that God has preserved doctrine. You have been preserved for this moment; and I have been preserved; and what is in Hebrews 4 has been preserved.

Can you imagine if someone told you, 20 years ago, that you would be going to church every night?

There is a reason for positional truth. We are placed at the right hand of God because we are in Christ. Since the day that we were saved, God wants to give us something appropriate to our position. Every time that God can find a believer who sticks to it, and pour and pour blessings, it demonstrates that God can positionally place us in Christ, but He can do it experientially. Through our nonmeritorious volition, God can give us everything offered by the devil’s world.

God was very angry with the congregation of the Exodus generation because He had all of these fantastic blessings He was waiting to pour and He couldn’t pour. The iterative perfect is a continuous process which is emphasized under recurrent circumstances. The continuous process is GAPing it. The recurrent circumstances” every time doctrine is available through the function of GAP. The completion of the action here is reversionism because of the negative. Iterative means the process by which the action was achieved.

How did they get that way? They didn’t blend with doctrine into the soul. Doctrine was available in the Word through those who taught it. The assembly was in existence then, the assembly of Israel in a different dispensation. Now we have the assembly today, only it is the local church which is the classroom. So at every point God has preserved doctrine and those who communicate doctrine. God has a special modus operandi and He deals in a special way with those who communicate doctrine: double cursing or discipline, double blessing where blessing is involved. The perfect tense indicates that God has preserved doctrine in the canon. He has preserved those who communicate it and He has preserved sheep in the pasture to feed. The tragedy is for the believer to be in Bible class and at some future time to go negative, or to keep on going to Bible class to hear the Word but never transfer it to the human spirit, to be a hearer and not a doer. All of the malfunctions lie within the soul.

Grace in phase 1, 2 and 3.

The streets are not paved with gold in heaven; that is in Jerusalem during the millennial kingdom. We are alive and we have food, shelter and clothing. What glorifies God is what He can give us with our volition. God looks to give us great blessings of heaven on earth in the devil’s kingdom under the devil’s nose. How do you miss this objective? Your whole life is related to doctrine.

“not being mixed with faith” — the passive voice: the believer through the breakdown of positive volition, the breakdown of faith-rest, fails to cycle doctrine to the human spirit, to the right lobe. Doctrine is only meaningful and useful in the right lobe. This is translated: “but the word of hearing doctrine did not benefit them, not having been blended” — not “with” faith, this is the instrumental singular of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] plus the definite article. It has the definite article and this is what is called an instrumental of manner, it expresses the method by means which the function of GAP is performed; “by the faith” — the definite article always characterizes or defines the noun in the context; “in them that heard it” — the dative plural aorist active participle of akoúô (ἀκούω) [pronounced ah-KOO-oh]. This is the dative of advantage. It is to our advantage to listen to doctrine, to take in doctrine, to GAP it daily. It was to the advantage of the Exodus believers to hear Moses communicate doctrine to them. This is also an aorist participle, and the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb: “did not benefit”. What a tragedy. They heard the doctrine but did not benefit from hearing it. Believers heard doctrine taught before they refused to blend it with their faith. The various ingredients of doctrine are no good in their separate classifications until they are blended with your faith.

Bob hears that there is something called a blender. Now, you might like liver, but, as far as I’m concerned, you are by yourself. Liver without cinnamon is not good. You have to blend them. You think that because this is a bad illustration, that I won’t stick with it?

Hebrews 4:2 “We also have been permanently evangelized, even as they also [the Exodus generation] were permanently evangelized: but the word of hearing [hearing doctrine] did not benefit them, not having been blended with faith [with the faith] on the part of the ones having heard.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Exodus Generation and Jerusalem a.d. 70

1. Here is a direct analogy to the Exodus generation of Israel. This also pertains to the apostolic generation of believers in Jerusalem in 67 AD.

2. Both generations were saved. To them, as well as to us, salvation is not the issue. Salvation is only an issue to the unbeliever.

3. The Exodus generation was in reversionism for forty years.

4. The apostolic generation of born again Jews in Jerusalem would shortly have an identical forty years of reversionism — from Pentecost in 30 AD to 70 AD.

5. However, Hebrews was a warning in the 37th year of the reversionistic apostasy of the born again Jews in Jerusalem. The greatest demonstration of the apostasy of these born again Jews is their rejection of the ministry of the apostle Paul in Jerusalem. Paul visited Jerusalem, his ministry was totally rejected. In that way they differed from the Exodus generation. The Exodus generation gave Moses a hearing, and after the hearing they said no. The born again Jews of Jerusalem said no, they would not give Paul a hearing. The Exodus generation had secondary negative volition; the Jews in Jerusalem had primary negative volition.

6. Only supergrace status will provide the basis for deliverance from that great historical catastrophe of the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

7. The reversionistic Jerusalemites are about to reap what they have sowed instead of reaping what God sowed. Negative volition eventuates in reaping what you sow.

1972 Hebrews 4:3 Lesson #38

38 04/20/1973 Hebrews 4:3 Doctrines of faith, supergrace

If you are in the holy roller movement, you do not belong here. You cannot be filled with the Holy Spirit if you are a part of the tongues movement.

When we come to the cross and believe in Jesus Christ, that is grace. We simply believe in Jesus Christ and behind that is the grace provision of the cross. That is phase I grace. Two types of phase II grace. That which is not involved with your volition. Logistical grace. There is also what is called in James 4:6, unfortunately called more grace, and we call that supergrace. That is the issue in phase II. Your attitude toward Bible doctrine determines your spiritual growth. Then there is surpassing grace which is phase III. Our passage deals with supergrace.

Psalm 95 is quoted here. It is about the Exodus generation. They had warning, intensive and finally dying discipline.

Heb 4:3 For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said, "As I swore in my wrath, 'They shall not enter my rest,'" although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. (ESV)

Verse 3 — the word “For” is epexegetical use of the particle gar. Here gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] is used for additional explanation. it can be translated “For” or “Now you see.”

“we which have believed” is an aorist active participle of the verb pisteúô (πιστεύω) [pronounced pis-TOO-oh]. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which gathers into one entirety a similar series of experiences. Here it refers to those times when the believers of the Exodus generation were exposed to Bible teaching. The concept here is the fulfilment of the second stage of GAP. However, the ones in the Exodus generation were very few who responded, and the issue now is that they failed and that there are always those in the same generation who succeed. The fact that you are rubbing elbows with a nation full of failures, with a government that has failed, with people who have lost their minds and their common sense and establishment, does not mean that you have to fail. So here is the success stream. No matter how a nation fails, no matter how a group of people fail, no matter how a church fails, you do not have to. Just keep right on GAPing it. The aorist participle should be translated, “For the ones having believed.” In other words, success means firstly, that you pass the test of primary negative volition when you assemble. Having assembled you pass the test of negative volition by rebound. Your are positive toward the rebound principle of the priesthood. Now the great issue. You listen to ICE teaching, you concentrate, you are controlled by the Spirit because you have passed the first two volitional tests, and you have doctrine in your left lobe. This is a doer of the Word. The great barrier is right here: your attitude toward doctrine once you understand it objectively. Objective information is not workable in formation and in order for this particular information to become functional positive volition, which is always non-meritorious and therefore faith, transfers it to the human spirit where it becomes epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] . epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] is the issue because epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] is picked up by a vacuum line and taken into the right lobe, into the frame of reference, becomes a part of the vocabulary, the categories, the norms and standards, and the launching pad. It is doctrine coming out of this launching pad which creates the first vacuum. Along with that epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] builds the ECS. The fourth floor is capacity for love. Category #1 love also creates a vacuum. So you have maximum doctrine coming out of the launching pad, category #1 love coming from the ECS, and this creates a vacuum going right back into eternity past, and through this vacuum God pours supergrace blessings — wealth, promotion, success, etc., those things which even in the devil’s world are associated with happiness.

The aorist tense indicates the road by which you reach supergrace: the transferring of doctrine from the left lobe to the human spirit, converting gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis] into epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] . Believing is the converter. The active voice indicates that the believer under the function of GAP produces the action of the verb by faith. He transfers doctrine from his left lobe to his human spirit. The participle is an aorist participle. Not always, but generally, the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb follows: “do enter into.” You cannot enter into supergrace until you have transferred X number of times doctrine from the left lobe to the human spirit. The real issue, then, is faith.

The ones having believed enter into...

The Doctrine of Faith

1. Faith is non-meritorious thinking, a non-meritorious system of perception. it is in contrast to meritorious systems of perception like rationalism and empiricism. Faith is something that everyone uses. It is the basis for all of the knowledge, all of the perception which you have right up to this moment. Everything that you have ever learned is based upon a faith base. Anything you learn is based upon faith.

2. In the Greek language we have five words that are pertinent to the study of faith in the Bible. The first of these is a noun called pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. This means faith or faithful or reliable, or that which is believed. With the absence of the definite article with this noun would indicate the quality of the noun. The definite article added to this noun defines it. So we have the difference between the definition and quality. When the definite article comes with this word is means that which is believed and/or doctrine. So this noun can mean everything from the English word “faith” to the English word “doctrine.” Context plus the use of the definite article or the absence of the definite article will determine its exact meaning.

a. The second word is an adjective, pistos. This means dependable, inspiring trust. It is also used, in the sense of an adjective, faith, believing, the believing ones.

b. Next is the verb pisteúô (πιστεύω) [pronounced pis-TOO-oh]. Pisteúô (πιστεύω) [pronounced pis-TOO-oh] means to believe. It is a transitive verb. In the Word of God the object of this transitive verb always has the merit. The subject is non-meritorious. A transitive verb has a subject and an object stated or implied. The subject, for example, in phase one is any member of the human race. The object is Jesus Christ. Anyone believing in Jesus Christ, and the result is salvation. Why? Christ did the work in salvation. He is the object; He has the merit. There is no merit in the subject of this transitive verb. The issue in phase two is a little different. This time the object of faith is doctrine, the subject is the believer priest. The believing is the second stage of GAP. It is doctrine believed that is actually transferred.

c. The next verb, often translated “faith,” is just a little off-shade from that. Number four is peithô (πείθω) [pronounced PIE-thoh]. It means really to obey. It has a little different meaning in each one of the tenses. The present tense means to obey. In the aorist tense it means to persuade. In the perfect tense it means to have confidence. But in the present tense it means obedience. It generally what is known an iterative present.

d. The fifth one is pistow and is rather rare. It means to show one’s self faithful. It also means to have confidence.

3. The Hebrew etymology. The first of all of the Hebrew verbs from Genesis 15:6 where we get the pattern of Old Testament salvation — aman. The root concept of this verb is a foundation, and it means, for example, in the hiphil stem to use God as a foundation and therefore is a basic word for salvation in the Old Testament. “Abraham had believed in the Lord [or had used God as a foundation] and it was credited to his account for righteousness.”

a. There are several nouns that go with this verb. In fact, the next three in our etymology are based upon this verb. Emun which means faithfulness. It means to be consistent in whatever you are doing as a believer. That is a masculine noun.

b. The next is a feminine noun, Emunah, and this word means truth, steadiness.

c. The fourth is amen which means simply truth.

d. Then there is an offshoot of this, another noun built on the participle, omen, which means faithfulness. it is often used of God’s faithfulness to us.

e. The sixth means doctrine, though not always translated that way. Sometimes it is just translated “truth” — meth. These are all roots of amen, to believe.

f. Number seven goes back to the verbs — batach, the basic faith-rest verb. This was originally a wrestling term — the body slam. From that came the concept of slamming your problems on the Lord, and from that faith in the sense faith-rest. It is also used in Psalm 37:3 and Psalm 91:2. Generally you will find it in the King James version translated “trust.”

g. Next is found in Psalm 57:1 — cherish. It is used of a rabbit fleeing from a larger animal in the desert. The rabbit hides in a crack in a rock and because the larger animal cannot get in the rabbit is safe. It really means to trust in the sense of taking refuge in.

h. The ninth is also a verb, found in Job 13:15; Lamentation 3:21,24 — jachal, which means to trust God in great pressure or in great pain.

i. The tenth, found in Isaiah 40:31; Lamentations 3:25, is the strongest of all the words for faith — qawah. It loses its strength in the King James translation because it is generally translated to “wait”, like “they that wait upon the Lord.” However, the word means that we are hopeless, helpless and useless, just like a piece of thread. You can take a piece of thread in your hand and snap it. That is the way we are. But when you wrap that thread or weave it into a great rope then it cannot be broken. So it means to bind or to twist strands together. Hence, it becomes the strongest of all words for faith and it is often used for faith in the supergrace status or the celebrityship of Jesus Christ status.

4. The Bible itself occasionally uses a descriptive definition for faith. We derive our definition from the etymology of the Hebrew and the Greek. We also derive our understanding from descriptive definitions, like Hebrews 11:1 or 2Corinthians 4:18. Most of the definitions, as these two, describe faith as reality in the unseen things. “We look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are unseen. The things which are seen are temporal but the things which are unseen are eternal. Faith is the evidence of things not seen.”

5. In the verb to believe, whether one of the five Hebrew verbs, whether pisteúô (πιστεύω) [pronounced pis-TOO-oh] or peithô (πείθω) [pronounced PIE-thoh], the verb that is generally used is a transitive verb. Again, this means that it must have a subject, it must have an object. Because of the differences in languages the subject or the object may not be stated, especially the subject. The subject is often found in the suffix of the verb. But whether stated or not there is a subject and there is an object. Since faith is non-meritorious perception point 5 recognizes the principle from the transitive verb: the whole value or efficacy of faith always lies in its object, not in its subject.

6. Classification of the objects of faith. Since there is merit only in the object we need a classification of objects.

a. Salvation. The object of faith in salvation is Jesus Christ the only Savior — Acts 16:31; John 3:18, 36; 20:31.

b. In phase two the object of faith is the Word of God or Bible doctrine. Promises under our basic study of faith-rest are for babies, and sooner or later if you start taking in doctrine you are going to grow up and the object of your faith will be the doctrine itself, and the transfer of that doctrine will lead to the supergrace life. Once you are in the supergrace life you are going to live like an adult spiritually. So the object of faith is Bible doctrine — 2Corinthians 5:7; Hebrews 4:1–3; 11:6.

7. Out of the first six points we develop a concept of faith.

a. All the believing in the world secures nothing but condemnation from God. Having faith doesn’t mean a thing because faith is the basic system of perception. The first things you ever learned you learned by faith. Rationalism and empiricism came later.

i. Having the gift of teaching and actually teaching are two different things.

ii. We all have faith and lots of it. That is how we learn history. You accepted the facts that you were told. You saw a map and you accepted it.

iii. There is not an Italian today with much Roman blood. Italy was a melting pot. They were a tall, blue-eyed, fair skinned people. There are some isolated spots in northern Italy who might have some Roman blood.

iv. They say that 75% of everything a person knows is based upon faith.

b. However, the tiniest bit of faith in Christ secures eternal salvation, but it must be in Christ. A little more than zero faith.

c. Therefore the efficacy of faith lies in the object of faith, not in the amount of faith. It is the quality of the object not the quantity of the faith — Acts 4:12.

d. Since Christ did all the work for salvation on the cross the only response to that work is faith in Jesus Christ.

e. Therefore, faith is not something we do but faith is a channel whereby we appropriate what God has done for us.

8. The development of faith. After salvation faith must take on muscle and strength. So how do you develop faith?

a. The daily function of GAP begins to put strength in your faith — Romans 10:17. But why? Because you have an object for your faith and you believe doctrine as it is taught. This puts strength in your faith.

b. The filling of the Spirit also produces faith — Galatians 5:22.

c. The function of faith-rest produces faith — Hebrews 4:1–3, and, again, this is related to GAP.

d. Once you begin to develop a little bit of faith it has to be tested. Suffering is designed to test faith — 1Peter 1:7,8. Same concept as doing weight lifting. Testing is putting pressure on your muscles to test them. The testing, when successful, develops your strength.

e. The quintessence of faith strength is occupation with the person of Jesus Christ — Hebrews 12:2.

9. The victory of faith — 1John 5:4,5.

Hebrews 4:3 — “For the ones having believed” — constative aorist tense. Active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb through the function of GAP. The participle: the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb has to do with entering the supergrace life.

Next comes the main verb: “do enter into” — present middle indicative of the verb eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee]. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes that which habitually occurs or may be expected to occur. When the believer is consistent in the function of GAP, consistent in transferring doctrine from his left lobe to his human spirit and right lobe, the result is that he enters into supergrace which is the objective of the Christian way of life. Out of the 36 things that happened to us at salvation one of them was that we were entered into union with Christ. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father as out high priest. When Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father as a member of the human race He was superior to all angels. Now, everyone of us as of the moment of salvation are in union with Jesus Christ. We are seated, therefore, positionally at the right hand of the Father. That is our position in Christ. This is the place of absolute victory in the angelic conflict. That is the thing that broke Satan’s back. The customary indicates that if you GAP it it can reasonably be expected that you will enter supergrace. Once you enter supergrace you have for the first time the capacity — that is the cup constructed out of doctrine — and God in eternity past had all of these blessings for you. And God starts pouring. The more He pours the more He is glorified. God is glorified by blessing you under supergrace. Why? Because if God can take you and keep you alive in the devil’s world, keep you alive in time, and bless you to the maximum on the basis of positive volition toward doctrine and you supergrace capacity, then it glorifies God. Rewards in heaven for people in the pew are based upon being promoted, being successful, being wealthy, having a great sex life, a great social life, etc. This bit about “suffering for Jesus” is Satanic propaganda. God is glorified by blessing us. Rewards in heaven are based upon supergrace in time.

In the middle voice the subject, which in this case is the believer priest, participates in the results of the action. As a result of GAPing and believing the believer enters into the rest of the supergrace life. This is what is called a permissive middle voice in which the believer voluntarily yields himself to the results of the action and is benefitted by the action of the verb. The indicative mood is the reality of entrance into supergrace through believing doctrine which is located in the left lobe and bringing it over into the right lobe via the human spirit.

“into the rest” — the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative singular of katapausis (κατάπαυσις) [pronounced kat-AP-ow-sis]. katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] means norm, pausij means rest, but it really means rest according to a norm or standard. The norm or standard is grace, grace provision. All you do is fulfil Romans 8:28 which is for supergrace believers only. “All things work together for good.” Thing one is all of the supergrace blessings which God provided for you in eternity past. Then you reach supergrace capacity, that is the cup. Supergrace blessings [thing one] are poured into supergrace capacity [thing two] and you come out with supergrace blessings, supergrace prosperity, supergrace wealth, supergrace life, whatever it may be. All things do not work together for good for all believers, only those believers “who love God.” That is the qualifying statement, and the qualifying statement indicates a supergrace believer. So here we have katapausis (κατάπαυσις) [pronounced kat-AP-ow-sis] used for the supergrace life.

As far as the Exodus generation was concerned katapausis (κατάπαυσις) [pronounced kat-AP-ow-sis] was Canaan, and in order to enter Canaan they had to have supergrace capacity. They didn’t have the supergrace capacity so they didn’t have the supergrace blessing of Canaan. In supergrace the believer is blessed on the basis of reaping what God sowed in eternity past. However, in contrast to that, in reversionism the believer reaps what the believer sows, which is misery. Supergrace, then, is the basis for the function of Romans 8:28.

The Doctrine of Supergrace

1. Supergrace is the final stage of growth beyond the ECS, as far as phase two is concerned. It is the area of reaping what God sows. It is characterized by occupation with Christ, supergrace capacity like, freedom, life, happiness, prosperity and adversity; and supergrace blessings like wealth, success, and so on.

2. Characteristics: The supergrace life is characterized by the cup that runs over — Psalm 23:5. The cup or the supergrace capacity is built upon maximum intake of Bible doctrine through consistent function of GAP. With the cup in the soul you reap what God sowed for you in eternity past. God is, as it were, tapping His foot waiting to provide these things for us.

3. The first distinction arises. Supergrace must be distinguished from God’s grace and the distinction comes from words like James 4:6 — “supergrace.” Grace is God’s eternal provision apart from human volition. God provided certain things for you totally apart from your volition — salvation, daily needs, protection in the angelic conflict. But “more grace” or “greater grace” of James 4:6 is God’s provision for the believer based on human volition. The issue in the angelic conflict is supergrace or greater grace. Grace is not an issue because grace is provided for you apart from your volition.

4. The supergrace life is analogous to God resting on the seventh day of restoration.

5. The love problem: Under the love problem God loves every believer with a maximum love because of propitiation. However, the believer’s love response varies according to the amount of doctrine in the soul. The supergrace believer loves God, as per Romans 8:28 or 1John 4:19. God’s love for the supergrace believer is expressed in blessing, but God’s love for the reversionist is expressed in discipline or cursing — Hebrews 12:6.

6. The key to the supergrace life begins with the happiness spectrum. Remember that +H begins with supergrace and it is a spectrum. It starts with tranquillity and goes all the way to ecstatics; it has many, many variations. Certain parts of the happiness spectrum apply when you’re under pressure — like tranquillity, others apply when you’re under some kind of promotion or prosperity — like ecstatics. The supergrace life is the place of maximum God-given happiness — Philippians 4:4; 1Thessalonians 5:16. This happiness is acquired through the intake of doctrine — 1John 1:4. The same doctrine which provides +H produces the supergrace status.

7. The celebrityship of Christ: The supergrace believer has maximum love and appreciation of Christ — Lamentations 3:22–25; Hebrews 12:2; Colossians 3:1,2. This is called the celebrityship status. Christ is only a celebrity to the supergrace believer. This celebrityship of Christ is always tested at the communion table.

8. The capacity factor: The supergrace believer has capacity in the following categories.

a. a) Freedom — Galatians 5:1; James 1:25–2:12; Romans 8:21; 2Corinthians 3:17;

b. b) Capacity for life — 1Samuel 17:47; 18:5, 14, 40;

c. c) Love. Category #1 love: Deuteronomy 6:6; 30:20; Joshua 23:10,11; 1John 2:5; 4:19. Category #2 love: Song of Solomon 8:6,7; Category #3 love: 2Samuel 1:26

d. d) Happiness — Psalm 9:1,2; 21:1; 31:7; 43:4; 97:12; John 17:13; 1John 1:4. e) Capacity for suffering — 2Corinthians 12:7–10.

The availability of supergrace is beautifully described in Isaiah 30:18. The promotion of supergrace is described in Psalm 84, illustrated by 1Samuel 17. The supergrace believer is always God’s man for the crisis.

“as he said” — the adverb “as”, kathôs (καθώς) [pronounced kahth-OCE] cites Old Testament documentation; “he said” is the perfect active indicative of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] and means “as he has perfectly communicated.” Now we have a quotation again from Psalm 95:11. This time the quotation begins with the word “as,” a comparative particle hôs (ὡς) [pronounced hohç] which indicates the manner in which something proceeds. it is used as a correlative adverb and should be translated here, “in keeping with the facts.” What are the facts? Reversionism in the Exodus generation.

“I sware” — aorist active indicative of omnuô (ὀμνύω) [pronounced om-NOO-oh], which means to promise with a solemn oath. This is a gnomic aorist referring to an absolute. The active voice: God produces the action in the case of all reversionists. All reversionists, if they persist, wind up under the sin unto death. Why? Because they have missed the only basic issue of the Christian way of life: What think ye of doctrine? The indicative mood is the reality of divine discipline on reversionism. They sow what they reap; they wind up under the sin unto death.

“in my wrath” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of orgê (ὀργή) [pronounced ohr-GAY], used for indignation or disgust. God loves the reversionistic believer but He is disgusted with him. Why? Because God has all these wonderful things to give him and he is not getting them. And He is disgusted because all kinds of fallen angels are watching these idiots. Here they are with all of these wonderful things available but the reversionist doesn’t have any cup into which God can pour.

Then we have an elliptical oath. An elliptical oath always begins with “If” which is preceded by whoever the person is. He takes an oath in his own name. So this idiom should be translated, “I am not God if.”

“they shall enter” — future active indicative of eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee], referring to the supergrace life, originally to Canaan. The future tense expresses the character of a verbal idea but instead of indicating progress, as does the present and the imperfect tenses, it connotes an aoristic or punctiliar concept. We have here a gnomic future. The gnomic future tense is used to present a statement of fact as an absolute. The active voice: this is the reversionistic believer not entering the supergrace life. The indicative mood is the reality of no supergrace blessings for the reversionist.

“into my rest” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus katapausis (κατάπαυσις) [pronounced kat-AP-ow-sis], referring to Canaan as an illustration of supergrace blessing.

“although” — kaitoi, which means “and yet.” This is a compound conjunction, it explains the disgust of God.

“the works” — the genitive plural of ergon (ἔργον) [pronounced EHR-gon]. This is the beginning of another genitive absolute. The genitive absolute stands apart in this particular construction as a Greek idiom to show great emphasis. It is composed of a noun and a participle. God’s grace provides something totally apart from anything else this world has to offer. No one in this world can do anything for you that is even comparable to God’s grace and God’s supergrace blessing. The noun refers to the divine provision — “works,” plural. The works for you! God loves to demonstrate in every generation to his majesty the devil who rules this world that He can take care of members of His family. He took care of them from eternity past and does a better job than anything the devil has to offer. No wonder Christ turned down the devil when he offered Him the kingdoms of this world. God the Son had something much greater. And He now has it for you, and He is disgusted because you don’t have it and you should. You don’t have to wait for heaven for blessing.

Now we have the aorist passive participle in the genitive plural of ginomai which means to become — aorist participle, “having become.” This is a culminative aorist. The culminative aorist indicates that whatever God provided for you by way of supergrace blessings it was completed in eternity past. The passive voice: the blessings of supergrace were completed before the world was created. The participle: the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, the main verb: “do enter into.” These things were in existence before you entered — “and yet, the works having been brought into existence.” The works are supergrace blessings and they were brought into existence in eternity past — “from the foundation of the world”.

“foundation” — preposition apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the genitive of katabolê (καταβολή) [pronounced kaht-ab-ohl-AY] — “from the ultimate source of the foundation of the world.”

Hebrews 4:3 “For the ones having believed are to enter into the rest of supergrace, as he has said in the past with the result that it stands perfectly communicated forever, In keeping with the facts I have made a solemn promise in my disgust, I am not God if they shall enter into my rest [supergrace blessing]: and yet the works [supergrace blessings] have been brought into existence from the ultimate source of the foundation of the world.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

In other words, God’s supergrace blessings existed long before man was created. God sowed in eternity past so that you and I might reap in time. But God’s sowing in eternity past is only reaped by the supergrace believer. To be a reaper you must be in supergrace, otherwise the reaper becomes a weeper. The reversionist cannot harvest what God has sown in eternity past, he can only harvest what he sows in time. There is a choice: what God sowed in eternity past or what you sow in time.

1972 Hebrews 4:4 Lesson #39

39 04/22/1973 Hebrews 4:4 Doctrine of the Sabbath

This is an Easter service:

Some of you showing up once a year during Easter is, at best, confusion for you. We are in the middle of a study; we do not cater to you. You cannot get it in a single study.

Every believer is in full-time Christian service, every believer is a priest, every believer is an ambassador.

Easter Sunday is a farce. Much of this was Romanism combining practices of fertility along with some things which are a part of Roman doctrine. Hunting for eggs is all about being provided with some certain number of children.

Bob gives the gospel clearly.

Bob then explains the supergrace life and all that God might give us. As you take in doctrine, something begins to happen. It becomes reality to you; and that means you are growing. We are not here to suffer for Jesus; we are here to glorify God; and we glorify Him in our success and promotion.

Vv. 1–3 reviewed.

Our volition is key. Psalm 95 is quoted in v. 3. God loves the reversionistic believer as much as He loves the supergrace believer. But He can only express His love through discipline placed on the reversionistic believer.

The reversionistic believer may have several mental attitude sins; jilted, bored, angry, bitter. The reaction leads to a frantic search for happiness. This can express itself in many ways. Some will search for happiness by religion; others will raise hell on the town.

A woman brought you in here, and you will be the same old person always; and the trade-out deal is not going to work. You are hoping that you can impress her so much that she will become a part of you frantic search for happiness. You will become interested in Bible doctrine or not. I know this is a pain in the neck for you. You were evangelized a long time ago, but pressures made you unhappy and you have turned away from all that.

Let’s pick up where we were Friday night. Many of you do not have a Bible; that is a handicap.

Heb 4:4 For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: "And God rested on the seventh day from all his works." (ESV)

Sunday is the 1^st day of the week; and Saturday is the 7^th day of the week. You cannot hook those things up together. You may have been brought up in a Christian household and you could not do anything fun on Sunday. What about Sunday? What does it represent? What is this stuff all about? We are all mixed up.

Most people in the Old Testament times, started back to work on Sunday. This makes sense but it does not tell us why. Saturday is when the Jews meet and the 7^th Day Adventist meet then, following a dispensation from a long time ago.

Verse 4 — “For” is the explanatory particle gar, which is simply a signal that we are about to have something explained to us; “he spake”, the perfect active indicative of the verb légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. Légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] means to say or to speak. Here it means to communicate because it is referring to an Old Testament quotation. The perfect tense of the Greek verb is the tense of completed action. Whatever has been communicated was communicated in the past, says the perfect tense. This is also what is called in the syntax of the Greek an intensive perfect which views the completed action from the standpoint of its results. In other words, Psalm 95 also had this perfect tense, it is a part of the scripture. It was recorded in the past with the result that we still study it. Now we go a little further back this time, to Genesis 2:2. Genesis 2:2 was recorded in the days of Moses with the result that we still have it today and we still have it in the original languages. When the attention is directed to the results of the action stress on the existing facts is intensified. That is why this is called an intensive perfect. So Genesis 2:2 was communicated to Moses by God the Holy Spirit and became a part of the scripture with the result that we study it as a part of scripture today. The active voice: Moses communicated this originally. The indicative mood is the reality of permanence of the canon of scripture. The Word of God liveth and abideth forever.

“in a certain place” — this is an enclitic indefinite particle, pou, and it should be translated “somewhere”. It refers to Genesis 2:2. For He had communicated in a certain place....

“of the seventh day” is a prepositional phrase, and incorrectly translated. The word peri is translated “of”. It is a preposition and it means “concerning.” There is no word for “day” here, it is simply “concerning the hebdomos (ἕβδομος) [pronounced HEHB-dohm-oss]”. The hebdomos (ἕβδομος) [pronounced HEHB-dohm-oss] refers to the seventh day and is the Greek word for the Sabbath — “on this wise” — the adverb says “in this manner.” Literally then, “For he has communicated somewhere concerning the seventh day in this manner.”

The communication is found back in Genesis 2:2 — “And on the seventh day” — God restored the earth in six days for man’s occupancy — “God ended”, the piel imperfect of kalah means He completed something. The piel stem is an intensive stem and it should be translated “Elohim completed his work.” This means that in six days Elohim took the earth and converted it into a wonderful place to live. In six days He provided everything that man would need in the status quo of innocence. Why did God rest? On the seventh day God rested because He had completed His work.

“which he had made” — the qal perfect of asah means that which He had manufactured. God had manufactured everything necessary, He had restored everything that needed to be restored. And He had actually created for man perfect environment. So we read, “therefore on the seventh day Elohim completed his work which he had produced [or manufactured]” out of chaos — “and he rested,” the qal imperfect of shabath. The word Saturday was originally the Sabbath and it is derived from the fact that God rested. Why did God rest? This is what we call the rest of grace. Everything that man would ever need in innocence before the fall was provided. Perfect environment was provided on restored planet earth and nothing could be added to it. This is what we call grace. God does the work; man does the benefitting. man does not earn or deserve or merit what God provides, and from Genesis 2:2 to Exodus 16 no reference is made to the Sabbath. The Sabbath finally in Israel became a day of rest. Man rested on the seventh day in Israel to remind him that you can’t work for salvation, you can’t work for divine provision, you can’t work for grace. Grace and works are antagonistic, they are not compatible in any way, they are mutually exclusive. Therefore man in Israel only had to rest on the seventh day so he would remember that. Six days God works; on the seventh day, God rests. Why? Because there is nothing else to provide. And what God provided for man in perfect environment God has provided for you in eternity past. Therefore the Sabbath always had this connotation.

Many of you might be wondering, should I be worshiping on the Sabbath? No.

The Doctrine of the Sabbath

1. The original Sabbath of Genesis 2:2 was designed by God to teach grace. God rested because everything was provided in grace for man. There was nothing else He could do. The seventh day was always a memorial to who and what God is and to what God does. It was a memorial to grace.

2. In Exodus 16:14–26 the Sabbath had to be called to the attention of the Jews. And it was called to their attention in a special way. Manna represents divine provision for the believer in time. Manna was the food that God provided for the Jews in the desert. And Exodus 16:14 said, “Look, you will always gather manna on day one, day two, day three, day four, day five and day six. And on day six (Friday) you will gather a double portion because on day seven I will provide no manna and you will not, gather manna.” So this was the first specific reference to the Sabbath day since God rested in the restoration of Genesis 2:2. All of that time man understood this principle without being nudged.

3. The Jewish Sabbath: a day had to be instituted finally. The Jewish Sabbath is the fourth commandment of the decalogue — Exodus 20:8–11; Deuteronomy 5:12–15. It is also mentioned in Leviticus 23:3. It was designed with one purpose in mind: to commemorate grace by doing no work on the Sabbath day. This is in fulfilment of the concept of Genesis 2:2. The Sabbath was never designed to be any kind of trouble or difficulty, it was designed to be a time of rest, relaxation and tranquillity, a reminder of grace.

a. If you saddled an animal and it remained saddled on Saturday, then you could not remove the saddle.

b. If you got mud on your robe, you could wait until it dried, squeeze it once, and let go.

4. Then there is a temporal Sabbath which is mentioned in Hebrews 3:11. This is the supergrace Sabbath. It became obvious in the Age of Israel that observing Saturday could be distorted too easily. The Jews began to set up rules and regulations that were ridiculous and had nothing to do with grace. The Sabbath was not designed for overt activity, it was designed for mental activity — to remember grace. Therefore, God had to change it. So we have the supergrace Sabbath mentioned Hebrews 3:11. This is also known as the moment by moment Sabbath whereby you depend day by day and rest entirely on what God has provided. The moment by moment Sabbath is doctrine in the soul, the ECS, the creation by Bible doctrine of capacity — the cup. The cup represents supergrace capacity based on doctrine, and God pouring and pouring and pouring. That is supergrace and the supergrace Sabbath is a moment by moment Sabbath. In other words, God doesn’t bless on one day of the week, God blesses on every day of the week. One thing that happened when the Church Age superseded the Age of Israel is that Saturday was set aside. Saturday was a time of animal sacrifices, a time of a specialized priesthood, the priesthood of the tribe of Levi. It was a time for special activities and a time for assembly worship. But the Jewish Age ended suddenly with the cross, the resurrection, the ascension and the session of Jesus Christ. And as the Jewish Age terminated, very shortly thereafter the Church Age began. Now in the Church Age every believer is a priest, so things are different. Now there is no longer a special day. Why? Because every believer is a priest and the objective is for every believer priest to become spiritually self-sustaining. The priesthood of Aaron is set aside.

a. There were a couple of feasts that the Jews had that really bothered them The Passover they could handle because that was a day which began the feast of unleavened bread. The feast of unleavened bread they could handle. But on the first Sunday, and always on Sunday, they had the feast of the firstfruits and that used to drive them up the wall. The reason was that the feast of the firstfruits speaks of resurrection — the resurrection of Jesus Christ — and it was always on Sunday, and there was one thing the Jews couldn’t stand and that was to have a Sunday Sabbath. A Sabbath to them was any day that they worshipped. Often the priest would go out all by himself and wave a sheaf of grain before the Lord, the feast of the firstfruits.

b. Fifty days from that Sunday there was another observation which always bothered them because fifty days from Sunday is always a Sunday — Pentecost. Jesus Christ was resurrected on a Sunday; Jesus Christ began the Church on the first Pentecost Sunday, fifty days after His resurrection. Jesus Christ was forty days on the earth before He ascended to the right hand of the Father. Another ten days and then the Church began on Sunday. So there has to be a day when assembly worship is authorized, when they all come together, and it was Sunday. We observe the resurrection and the beginning of the Church Age every Sunday. The Jews always had to have a Sabbath day; we have a first day. This is something new, something that begins all over again.

5. In addition to the supergrace Sabbath there was also an eternal Sabbath, which is also a moment by moment Sabbath — Matthew 11:28. This refers to eternal salvation.

6. The Jews already began to crack under observing the of the Sabbath day and all the ritual. So they had to be further reminded. In Leviticus chapter 25 we discover that they had a seventh year, a sabbatical year. On the seventh year they were to stop all sowing, all planting, all harvesting. Under an agricultural economy that looks as though people will starve. But no. God says, “If you will stop on the seventh year and make it a memorial to grace, then grace will provide what you need.” Of course, they never would. God called their bluff right from the start: the Sabbath would never mean a thing to them. They never observed the sabbatical year, and finally, in a period of 490 years of Jewish history they had missed seventy Sabbath years. So God gave them all of the seventy years in captivity. They cooled their heels for 70 years in Chaldea, Persia.

a. We have perpetuated this concept in another way; the sabbatical year.

7. God knew that they would not observe the Sabbath, or the sabbatical year, so He gave them another one: the Jubilee year. The Jubilee year is found in the 25th chapter of Leviticus and this is what is called the generation test. On the fiftieth year everyone who owned property was to return it. And, again, on the fiftieth year they failed to observe. So the rejection of the Sabbath concept was total in Israel. It was total because they had no doctrine. Sabbath is a ritual, not just a day. Observing a day has ritual connected with it. Sabbath means rest, and the Jews had to stop working because that is physical rest. But that is rest ritual and it is not meaningful unless you have doctrine in the soul to appreciate it. The Lord’s table, the communion table, is not meaningful unless you have doctrine in the soul to appreciate it. And so it was with the Jews in the past. Doctrine in the soul was necessary.

a. The Jews went overboard observing the 7^th day; but did not observe the 7^th year or the 49^th year.

8. Now in the Church Age the Sabbath is interrupted even as the Age of Israel is interrupted. This is taught in Colossians 2:16,17. As the Church Age interrupts the Age of Israel so the Saturday Sabbath is set aside. Now in the Church Age we start with something brand new. On the Day of Pentecost, the first day of the Church Age and a Sunday, God the Holy Spirit took all believers alive in Jerusalem and entered them into union with Christ. Thereafter, when any person believes in Christ, one of the things he receives is the baptism of the Spirit; he enters into union with Jesus Christ. This means that Christianity is not a religion.

a. Bible Christianity is anti-religion; religion is the devil’s ace trump. People do something to impress God. That is like meeting on Saturday in order to use God as a genie; to impress Him. They think in terms of how man thinks. Man is impressed with works; so God would be.

b. The heart is key; and God looks upon the heart. The cup that runs over is doctrine in the soul. When there is doctrine there, God can pour with blessing.

The heart or the right is the container for doctrine, and when doctrine is in the right lobe this impresses God. In other words, God is not impressed with people but God is impressed with doctrine. God is impressed with His Word. He has magnified His Word above His name. Therefore, when there is doctrine in the right lobe of an individual God is impressed with that doctrine and God blesses on the basis if that doctrine. The cup that runs over is doctrine in the soul. This is why the Jews failed. There were always a few who succeeded but their failure is emphasized in Hebrews chapter three. The Exodus generation failed because there was not doctrine in the heart, no doctrine in the right lobe. Having no doctrine in the right lobe they couldn’t appreciate the Sabbath day, the Sabbath year, the year of Jubilee. They couldn’t appreciate the ritual that was followed on those days.

The rabbit is prolific; the rabbit is a sex maniac. It has many baby rabbits. Worshiping the goddess of fertility is related to this, where people went into the temple and had sex with whomever is there. Hunting these Easter eggs. By now or by this evening, your kids will be sick. None of your kids know what the bunny represents or what the eggs means. You might have large sex orgies among the children as a result, if they knew what it meant.

You may not have realized that Christianity is not a religion; it is a relationship to God through Jesus Christ.

So during the Church Age Saturday is out. Not only is Saturday out but so is every seventh year and the year of Jubilee. The Sabbath is all over. Now we are starting all over and so we start with the first day of the week, Sunday, the day the Church began. That is what for the last two-thousand years most people observe Sunday. Once you start assembling on Sunday you pick up on doctrine and you find out that you must regard every day as a gift from God, every day is to be regarded alike. Every day is to be regarded alike. This does not mean that you can no longer have Christmas trees; or how you wasted those 40 days of lent. The special days are always the days when a nation has won its victories in battle. Why? Because it is the military that provides freedom for a nation and no nation ever had freedom apart from its military, that is a divine law. We have freedom because the great army which secured our freedom in WWII. How many battles in American history do you know or could even give the approximate decade.

Bob’s favorite holiday was Nov. 11, when the Germans agreed to unconditional surrender. Bob’s dad would teach him about the great battles that were fought. Bob could wear his father’s wings from WWI.

The Pilgrims were not very smart and very legalistic. Our spiritual heritage came out of Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Andrew Jackson defeated the British after the treaty had been signed. It gave him one more crack at the enemy. Our military is what gives us the freedom to assemble. The prosperity of a nation depends upon its economy.

All of these sabbaths are meaningless today. We are meeting on Easter Sunday. We will meet Monday next, and then Tuesday. That is the objective; and that is what God meant for this life.

Hebrews 4:4b — “And God did rest the seventh day from all his works.” The word for “rest” is the aorist active indicative of katapausis (κατάπαυσις) [pronounced kat-AHP-ow-sis]. This word means to cease, to desist from all work according to a norm or standard. The norm or standard is God’s essence. God in His omniscience knew that there was nothing else to be provided. The original Sabbath day, the day when God rested from restoration of the earth is the key to everything. God had a standard, His own perfect character according to which there was nothing left to provide. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the event in its entirety from the standpoint of existing results. The existing results: Adam had everything he wanted in the garden. The active voice: God produces the action which is the concept of grace. God resting is a sign that everything has been provided. The indicative mood is the reality of God ceasing from His restorative work plus the creative work involved with mankind. So the seventh day became a memorial to the grace of God. Under grace God does the working, God does the providing, and man does the receiving, man does the benefitting. Therefore, God sows; man reaps. Divine blessing always depends on who and what God is, what He does for man, not what we can do for Him.

The final phrase says, “from all of his works,” a prepositional phrase, apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the genitive of ergon (ἔργον) [pronounced EHR-gon]. Ergon (ἔργον) [pronounced EHR-gon] means His production, everything that was necessary; apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] is from the ultimate source of all of His works. When God provided for man in innocence it was equivalent to our supergrace blessings. The capacity for innocence came from the fact that Jesus Christ taught man daily in the garden. The blessings included right woman, promotion [Adam was the ruler of the world at that time], wealth, success, everything that man would ever want.

Hebrews 4:4 “For he has communicated somewhere concerning the seventh day in the following manner, And the God rested on the seventh day from all of his works.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Innocence is a perfect analogy to what God has available to us today. Just as God provided everything for Adam in six days God provided every blessing would ever need in eternity past. So the issue is this: God is still resting today because in eternity past he provided everything you would ever need. That is why God is resting right now. Furthermore, He has provided a table for us in doctrine so that our cup will run over, and from this point on it is strictly up to you. It depends entirely upon your attitude toward Bible doctrine whether you ever realize this or not. What a tragedy to think that God is tapping His foot waiting to bless you right now, having all of these wonderful things for you and yet not able to give them because you have no cup. Your cup can only overflow if you have a cup in the soul. A cup in the soul is Bible doctrine.

1972 Hebrews 4:5–6 Lesson #40

40 04/22/1973 Hebrews 4:5–6 Potentiality of supergrace

The first 4 verses are read in corrected translation.

Heb 4:5 And again in this passage he said, "They shall not enter my rest." (ESV)

Verse 5 — “And in this place again.” In the original there is no word for “place” and it should literally be “And in this again.” This is the third time in our context that we have had a quotation of Psalm 95:11. It was first quoted in Hebrews 3:11, then in Hebrews 4:3, and now in Hebrews 4:5. This is the passage with the elliptical oath. In fact, this passage is so strong by its repetition that it time to find out exactly why must be repeated again and again. One obvious factor immediately: an elliptical oath puts God’s character on the line. And just as certain as God exists and just as definite as the essence of God He will not pour for those who have no capacity, even though the supergrace provision existed from before the foundation of the world.

This brings us to the elliptical oath — “if,” the word we have first in the oath, introduces the elliptical idiom. Before the “if”, whoever is making the promise puts his own person on the line. In this case God puts Himself on the line. The elliptical oath is therefore an idiom in which one takes an oath on the basis of his own existence: when God is making a promise by His own existence and by His own essence, that no reversionistic believer will ever receive supergrace blessing unless he enters the supergrace life. And God is no respecter of persons. So the idiom, again, must be translated “I am not God if”.

“they shall enter” is the future active indicative of the verb eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee]. This is the same verb we have been using for entering into supergrace blessings and rest. The future tense is a gnomic future to express an absolute, something that is so definite that even though it is in the future tense it remains true. The gnomic future goes with the solemn oath that God makes. He says, “I am not God if they shall enter into my rest.” This means — the Father is speaking: He is sovereignty, He has made a decision. No supergrace blessings unless you have supergrace capacity; no supergrace capacity without GAPing it on a consistent basis. The righteousness of God is also at stake. If God lets one reversionist receive supergrace blessings then God is not God, we have no salvation. Justice: God would be unfair if He allows one nice, sweet, self-righteous, personable, scintillating believer to have supergrace blessings. But God does not bless on the basis of your personality, on the basis of your attractiveness, on the basis of your self-righteousness, or anything else that you have to offer. Love: It is not incompatible with God’s love to refuse supergrace blessings to the reversionistic believer. In other words, God has to express His love to all believers, it is just a matter of how He is going to do it. To those who enter supergrace God expresses His love in supergrace blessings — “all things blend together for good.” But to the reversionistic believer God expresses His love through discipline — “whom the Lord loves he chasteneth”. Eternal life: God still has eternal life, God has always existed, there never was a time when God didn’t exist. The fact that he has always existed means there never was a time when these blessings were not prepared for you, but even though they are prepared God will chance being disgusted with you and not pouring in your case. Then there is omniscience: God knew in eternity past that blessing would go unclaimed because of reversionism. Omnipotence: He has the ability to stick by His Word and say absolutely not to any reversionist who tries to twist and distort grace and say, as it were, let me in, let me have some of these things. Omnipresence: Jesus Christ is a personal witness, God the Father is a personal witness, and God the Holy Spirit is a personal witness to anything that you think or anything that you do, and there is no way that any member of the Godhead can be deceived. Immutability: God does not conform to you because you are impressed with yourself. God does not conform to your wishes and your desires whether expressed in prayer or expressed with great sincerity and beautiful theological language. God does not bend Himself or conform to you because you are nice. You may fake out people; but you will not be able to fake out God. God is not impressed with a nice personality. You cannot enjoy wealth, promotion, RM/RW, etc. if God is disciplining you. You have no capacity for life. Veracity: When God gives an oath or a promise you can count on it that it is true.

“they shall enter” is also the active voice in which the reversionistic believers do not reach supergrace. No matter how you slice it, if you do not have doctrine in your soul you cannot in time of disaster, you cannot in any time suddenly run to the Bible, grab a verse and try to claim it. It won’t work. God is not blessing under supergrace those who do not have the supergrace capacity. In other words, if you do not have a cup God will not pour. The indicative mood is the principle of doctrine. No supergrace for the reversionist. That is what happened to the Exodus generation. No matter what you have in life it is no fun, it is no good, it is absolutely totally meaningless unless you have doctrinal capacity of the soul. God does not withhold any good thing from those who love Him, but “those who love Him” is the qualifying factor. “He withholdeth no good thing from them that love Him” means God will never stint, He will pour and pour and pour for those who have reached supergrace and for those who have the supergrace capacity. Everything you ever wanted and then some is waiting for you in eternity past, not in the future. You can’t die and get it, you have to live to get it. And there is the problem, because living to get it means taking in doctrine, taking in doctrine, taking in doctrine, and then some more, and then you go all the way to supergrace. You cannot glorify God in time unless you have supergrace blessings being poured out. God is glorified by blessing you.

Some of the most boring people travel; and they find no happiness in traveling. Bob used to go to the Virgin Islands before anyone went there. He saw a lot of things there. He realized that traveling to a lot of places was best to leave it to the nebulous... Bob has met people who have been to places he has never been. People have eaten yak butter in Tibet; but hat has never made them happy. Bob is possibly the least traveled person of his family. Bob’s father by age 18 had been around the world several times. It is doctrine that makes the difference. God is glorified by blessing us.

“into my rest” — again, we have the prepositional phrase, eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus katapausis (κατάπαυσις) [pronounced kat-AP-ow-sis]. Katapausis (κατάπαυσις) [pronounced kat-AP-ow-sis] is the object of the preposition. Katapausis (κατάπαυσις) [pronounced kat-AP-ow-sis] refers specifically to the Exodus generation to Canaan, for Canaan equals supergrace blessings. All of the supergrace blessings were in a geographical area for the Jews. Canaan was where they were to get their supergrace blessings, and God timed it so that it would take about a year, and in that year they would have the capacity to enjoy the blessings of Canaan. But by the end of that year when they cane to Kadesh-barnea they were not ready, they were in reversionism. So God said no, and He turned them around, and for 39 years these reversionists wandered through the desert until they were all dead. Why? No capacity for Canaan. Canaan was a picture of the blessings of supergrace, not the supergrace life.

Hebrews 4:5 He says, “I am not God if they shall enter into my rest.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Failure of the Exodus Generation

1. The quotation is from Psalm 95:11 and describes the failure of the Exodus generation because of their reversionism.

2. The failure of the Exodus generation is analogous to the failure of every believer in any dispensation of time who lives his life on this earth in reversionism.

3. God has grace provision for all believers in time.

4. But this grace provision is not based upon volition. You get it whether you want it or not. God gives us a day at a time, food, clothing, shelter, the necessities of life, and whatever else is necessary. All of that is logistical grace.

5. But God also has supergrace provision based on volition, based on positive volition toward Bible doctrine. There are 50 acres of money trees, and we can claim them or not. Our name is affixed to the supergrace blessing that God has made for us, for every person.

6. Happiness [+H] and supergrace blessing has a principle: God makes love to the believer through Bible doctrine and the believer responds through the daily function of GAP. The believer reacts by forsaking the assembling of himself together with other believers.

7. Grace provision is for all believers in phase two (this would be logistical grace); supergrace blessing is for supergrace believers only.

8. Those who are occupied with Christ have supergrace capacity or the cup into which God pours, but there is no supergrace blessing for any believer in reversionism.

God loves all believers; He simply manifests this love in different ways.

Now we have a new paragraph in which we see the potentialities of supergrace — verses 6–9.

Heb 4:6 Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news failed to enter because of disobedience,... (ESV)

Verse 6 — the first thing we notice is that “seeing” is not seeing. There are only two ways that you can have the word “seeing” at the beginning of a sentence. One is to have the verb blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh] in one of its forms which means to see. You could possibly have another verb, horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh], but horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] has more of the concept of a panoramic view. Then you can have gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] — epexegetical gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] used in an explanatory sense, and that, too, can be “for you see”. But the word “seeing” here is a conjunction, epeí (ἐπεί) [pronounced ehp-IH], which doesn’t mean “seeing” at all, it means “since.”

“Since it remaineth” — present passive indicative of apoleipô (ἀπολείπω) [pronounced ap-ohl-IPE-oh]. The verb is a compound verb: a)po, the preposition of ultimate source, and leipw which means to be left over. Therefore, while the active voice of this verb means to leave behind the passive voice means something left over. There is a lot of difference between being left behind and something being left over. It you are left behind you are out of it; if you’re left over, you’re in it. Add to this an inferential particle, oun. This inferential particle forces the conclusion that even though people have failed to enter it in any specific generation, like the Exodus, it’s still open for the next generation. In other words, God still has supergrace blessings for all believers in the next generation, the next generation, the next, and so on. That is why it is important to understand that the passive voice mean to be left over and not to be left behind or left out — “Since therefore it is left over.” Believers in any generation can reap what God sows through supergrace status. That is what is mean here. This is a dramatic present. The dramatic present indicates that this is something that must be emphasized again and again. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that there never will be a born again believer in all of human history for whom God has not designed and provided supergrace blessings in eternity past. It is all there, and even though others have failed this does not have anything to do with you. You can be in the midst of a whole generation of failures and still get that supergrace blessing.

“that some” — masculine accusative plural of the indefinite pronoun tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç]. This indefinite pronoun is used in a lot of ways but it is used primarily to define a category. It refers, for example, to a category in a failure generation. The failure generation was the Exodus generation. “Some” refers specifically to Caleb and Joshua. “Some” refers to Moses and his second wife, but Caleb and Joshua are the best illustrations because they entered the land. it refers to David, to Jeremiah, the apostle Paul. No matter how a generation fails there are always those who get to supergrace and enjoy its blessing. God started pouring for Jeremiah after he was seventy years old, therefore Jeremiah is the greatest illustration ever of how God can bless a man in old age. These all illustrate the point of the indefinite pronoun which says that no matter how a generation fails there is always someone in every generation who realizes that doctrine is more important than anything else in life.

Paul did not have much of anything, but he was filled with supergrace blessing.

“must enter” — aorist active infinitive of eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee], the word for entrance into supergrace. The Exodus generation was given Canaan as their supergrace blessing. They did not have Canaan because they did not have supergrace capacity — “therein” should be translated “into it” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the intensive pronoun autos. “It” refers to Canaan as a supergrace blessing based on supergrace capacity. The Jews of the Exodus generation did not enter Canaan because Canaan was a supergrace blessing and because they did not have the capacity. They had doctrine presented to them, they gave doctrine a hearing, but after they gave doctrine a hearing they went negative.

“and they” — reference to the Exodus generation; “to whom it was first preached” — “first” is an adverb, proteron, and it means the entire Exodus generation which heard doctrine.

“it was preached” is not a very good translation. We have the aorist passive participle of euaggelizô (εὐαγγελίζω) [pronounced yoo-ang-ghel-EED-zo] which means to proclaim doctrine, to communicate something good. The aorist tense is a constative aorist that gathers into its entirety all of the Bible teaching that occurred over the forty years. The passive voice: the Exodus generation received doctrine constantly. They received manna; that’s grace. They received doctrine; that’s grace. All of this was designed so they could have supergrace. This doctrinal teaching which they rejected became the basis of their cursing. This is also a participle. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, “they entered not”. So first of all they turned down doctrine and therefore never acquired the supergrace blessings which God had for them. They rejected doctrine, therefore they did not enter supergrace. No capacity for supergrace means no supergrace blessing. God will not pour unless there is a cup.

“did not enter in” — e)ijerxomai again, only this time it is a culminative aorist which means it gathers together in its entirety every act of negative volition toward doctrine and expresses it as a result. The active voice: the reversionistic generation in which Moses preached produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is the reality of failure on the part of the Exodus generation. A whole generation of people missed the boat in phase two. Why? What happened?

“because of unbelief” — dia plus the accusative of apeitheia (ἀπείθεια) [pronounced ap-Ī-thi-ah]. Apeitheia (ἀπείθεια) [pronounced ap-Ī-thi-ah] does not mean unbelief. The word for unbelief a)pistia, which is not used here. While they are related words they are not the same. Apeitheia (ἀπείθεια) [pronounced ap-Ī-thi-ah] connotes uncompliance of disposition. In other words, a mule-head! It means also obstinacy, bullheadedness, or disobedience in the sense of rejecting authority. Peiqeia means obedience; apeitheia (ἀπείθεια) [pronounced ap-Ī-thi-ah] means no obedience, it means rejection of the authority of the communicator — “because of obstinacy [negative volition toward authority].”

Bob teaches about 10 hours a week and odds are, he will offend someone every time. So you must be able to deal with authority over you. This is key in Bible teaching.

Hebrews 4:6 “Since therefore it [supergrace blessings] is left over for some [positive types] to enter into it, and they [the Exodus generation] to whom the doctrinal good news was first communicated did not enter in because of obstinacy”. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Exodus Generation and Canaan

1. Canaan represents supergrace blessing. To get into Canaan, you must enter with a cup. You must be able to drink from God’s blessing.

2. However, supergrace capacity precedes supergrace blessing.

3. In other words, you must have a cup before God pours.

4. The Exodus generation did not have the cup because they refused doctrine. They never transferred Bible doctrine from God’s communication to their own souls.

5. This means that the Exodus generation lacked occupation with Christ as well as supergrace capacity. Christ was not their celebrity (remember the golden calf incident).

6. However, their reversionism did not hinder the availability of supergrace blessings to the following generation.

7. This is illustrated in the next verse where supergrace blessing was still available 400 years later in David’s generation. Supergrace blessing was available to David, despite all of the failures which preceded him.

8. Therefore, conclusion: The failure of one generation does not close the door to the next generation or future generations. Conclusion: The failure of one generation does not close the door to positive believers in that generation. And supergrace blessings are just as available now as they were to the Exodus generation in the desert.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #41

41 04/23/1973 Hebrews 4:7 Doctrine of the hardening process

First 6 verses are reviewed.

Hebrews 4:7 again he appoints a certain day, "Today," saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." Psalm 95:7b (ESV)

Verse 7 — this verse indicates that the use of the Hebrew ha jom in Psalm 95 refers to supergrace capacity preceding supergrace blessing, and it was still open in David’s day. Not only was it open in David’s day but David is one of those people who explored new frontiers in supergrace blessing. For variety of blessing no one has ever exceeded the great record held by David. David is a man after God’s own heart, he holds the most phenomenal of all records. God was more impressed with David than anyone else, not because God was impressed with David but, because God is inevitably impressed with His Word. And God must vindicate His Word in the soul of any believer who possesses it. There is no greater possession in life, there is nothing for which we should have greater desire, than the Word of God.

So we begin with the adverb palin which is correctly translated “Again.” Palin is used to express the repetition or continuation of something already done, something that is already provided. That something is supergrace blessing provided in eternity past. God is perfect, His plan is perfect. God has provided in eternity past not only grace at salvation for you but grace for you in phase two, supergrace blessings for you in phase two, and surpassing blessings or surpassing grace for you in phrase three.

“he limiteth” — an erroneous translation. God doesn’t do any limiting here at all. This is the present active indicative of horizô (ὁρίζω) [pronounced hohr-IHD-zoh]. Horizô (ὁρίζω) [pronounced hohr-IHD-zoh] means to appoint, to set up limits, to mark out, to designate boundaries, and it even means to determine or to decree. The present tense is an iterative present. The iterative present is used to describe something which recurs at successive intervals, the successive intervals being the change from one generation to another. This is sometimes called the present tense of repeated action and the concept is that supergrace blessing is open to every generation. There never was a believer in all of human history who did not have for him designed in eternity past the most phenomenal supergrace blessings. Even though 99 per cent of believers in this generation may fail to acquire them they are still open for you. The failure of one generation never cuts it off for the next. The failure of one generation certainly has an effect upon natural life and definitely has been demonstrated historically to put the generation succeeding behind the eight ball. But this is not true in the spiritual realm. The failure of our parents, the failure of our grandparents, the failure of our forbears does not in any way limit us or keep us from supergrace blessing. Anything that the devil offers today God offers it better in quality and more in quantity, and the capacity to enjoy it. That is what horizô (ὁρίζω) [pronounced hohr-IHD-zoh] means in the iterative present. The active voice: God appoints or decrees the continuation of supergrace blessings for every generation of believers. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that God has determined as a part of His plan to pour out supergrace blessings to the believers who have the cup in the soul.

Rahab the hooker made it; but Jesse did not. Thousands of acres planted with money trees; rm/rw available for us. Whatever the devil’s world offers He offers it better and in a greater quantity.

“a certain day” — tina hêmera (ἡμάρα) [pronounced hay-MEH-raw]n. “A certain day” refers to the supergrace life. “A certain day” is the day when you arrive at the point of occupation with Christ because of doctrine in the soul, because of the construction of the ECS. It is the point of celebrityship of Jesus Christ for you. It is the point at which you love Jesus Christ more than you love anything else in life. It is the point at which Jesus Christ who is absent from the earth is more real to you than things on the earth, where you reach the point where you just don’t give a damn whether you have anything or not, or whether you live another day or not. But you are interested in one thing and that is who and what Jesus Christ is, and He is personally very important to you, more important than anything else. It isn’t put on and it isn’t faked. It isn’t emotional, it isn’t any type of a pseudo love, it is the real thing. It is not emotional; you are not trying to rub the genie the right way in order to gain something. You do not necessarily run around and talk about it. That is tripe based upon emotional nonsense. Tarry in a closet, yap your head off.

Holy rollers are not wecome here; they are not even human; they are emotional catastrophes. They don’t know anything about anything.

You love Jesus because you have doctrine in your soul; and it cannot be faked. With enough doctrine, you can enjoy your rm or rw. You get to a place where you don’t care about promotion or money; and you get promotions and money. When God pours, you love it. What’s money but paper in the pocket? Just a certificate with numbers on it. Next thing you know, billions of dollars. God has a great sense of humor. Now you can enjoy it. God is a perfect host; this is money that you can enjoy. There was a time I would have gone wild; I would have killed my mother for a million dollars. “I can read lips; someone just said, ‘I would have done it for less.’ ”

in the devil’s world, we have been brainwashed into thinking that certain things will make us happy. We are priests, not children. God decrees a certain day when you wake up. You love Jesus more than anything else in life. Everything else is secondary.

The more God can bless you with the blessings of this materialistic world the greater He is glorified. Principle of doctrine: God is glorified by blessing you. You go back to your last can of tuna fish and shredded wheat. God is glorified by blessing us. Some of you can even laugh at yourself.

Bob does not know the day or the month that he was saved. He knows approximate year; “Don’t worry, I’m saved.” Some of the greatest things that happen to us happen and you don’t even know it. Doctrine in the soul is the only way that you will know it.

“saying” — present active participle of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh], meaning to communicate — present tense, linear aktionsart. The active voice, subject producing the action of the verb: the Psalm, David writing in a Psalm. The participle strengthens the concept of linear aktionsart, and it should be translated “constantly communicating”. Why is it constant communication? Because Psalm 95 will never be taken out of the Bible, it will be there for your children, your great grandchildren and your great grandchildren to see. it will always be there.

“David” is another way of saying the Psalms since David is the human author of most of the Psalms, but not all. However, the Psalms are often known as “David”. This is the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental of Dauid, and it can be translated “by means of David” since David is the human author of Psalm 95 and since, again, we have a quotation of Psalm 95:7,8.

“Again, he decrees a certain day” [the day at which you arrive at supergrace], communicating by means of David ...”

“Today” — that is the great day. “Today”, sêmeron (σήμερον) [pronounced SAY-mer-on], means it is available now. Why do you think you have a day at a time? Because one of those days is going to be different from any day you’ve ever had. The day you hit supergrace will be the greatest day; you have all the God has designed for you. God enjoys giving us things. It is a victory in the Angelic Conflict.

“after so long a time” — meta tosouton xronon. Tosouton means such a long time, or so long. It can be translated “after such a long time” or “after the elapse of time.” After the elapse of time between the Exodus generation and David’s generation, a period of 400 years. After all of the accumulated failures of that 400 years does not hinder the grace of God in David’s day, and David broke all records in supergrace. It was just as available after 400 years of failure as it was at the time of Moses. It is always available, that is the point. It is available to you right now. And some of you just may be selfish enough and smart enough to stay with doctrine and arrive there.

Keep coming, whether you think you have the right motivation or not. The only thing that is going to straighten out anyone’s conscience. You might want to outdo one another when it comes to self-righteousness. Worrying about your motivation in Bible class is operation over think. Doctrine will straighten out everything in your soul.

Bob was a total ass at various times in is spiritual growth.

The writer of Hebrews is saying, God vindicates His Word by citing this passage 3x.

“as” — we have a temporal use of the adverb kathôs (καθώς) [pronounced kahth-OCE], and then Psalm 95 is quoted again — “as it is said,” the perfect passive indicative of prolégô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. Pro means above, or again here — “after so long a time elapsed; as it has been cited again.” The perfect tense: it has been cited but by now the repetition of it and the teaching of it and the studying of it and the analysis of it ought to begin to break through. That is the perfect tense. The passive voice: we have received the citation of this passage three times now — “after so long a time elapsed; as it has been cited previously [or above].” Hebrews 3:7–9, 15 4:7

Then we have “Today” again — sêmeron (σήμερον) [pronounced SAY-mer-on] begins the quotation in the middle of Psalm 95:7. The availability of the supergrace life is based on the daily intake of Bible doctrine to the soul. God gives the believer one day at a time, and you regard every day alike but when that one day hits that is going to be a special day no matter how you slice it — “Today if” — “if” is a third class condition, the conjunctive particle eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN]. Here is emphasis on the believer’s volition related to the teaching of doctrine. “Today if you will hear” — getting right back to it: doctrine today, doctrine tomorrow, doctrine the next day, and so on, and all of a sudden it is the greatest day of your life — the aorist active indicative of akoúô (ἀκούω) [pronounced ah-KOO-oh], the daily function of GAP. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which gathers into one entirety every time the believer assembles to listen to the teaching of the Word of God. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb by GAPing it today, tomorrow, etc. The subjunctive mood is the part of the third class condition which emphasizes the potentiality of this. Some days you won’t feel like it, some days you won’t want to, whatever it is, but you GAP it anyway. The active voice: you have to produce the action but the subjunctive mood is potential, it depends on volition.

“if you will listen and accept the authority of” — if you will listen and concentrate. The biggest problem in life today is lack of authority, failure to recognize authority, rejection of authority, antagonism toward authority. Authority has been all but eliminated from life and yet authority is the way that you come to love Jesus Christ. “If you will hear his voice” — this is the Bible, the teaching of Bible doctrine. This is the absolute authority of the scripture as contained in the canon in the original languages. This is the descriptive genitive of the noun phônê (φωνή) [pronounced foh-NAY].

“harden not” — present active subjunctive of sklêrunô (σκληρύνω) [pronounced sklay-ROO-no] with the negative mê. It is in the present tense. The present tense is a progressive present, it denotes persistence. And it means persistence in not hardening your hearts toward doctrine. You have to persist in it. The progressive present says you can’t just say today I’m going to harden my heart, I’m going to go negative. You have to persist through all kinds of testing and pressure and difficulties. You have to persist, and you can’t persist by saying today what you are going to do tomorrow. It is the persistence under all kinds of situations that counts. The progressive present is used to denote persistence. The active voice: the negative believer produces the action of the verb, “harden”. The subjunctive mood is a prohibitive subjunctive with the negative. It carries the force of a command while recognition is given to the involvement of human volition.

The review of this doctrine is actually back in lesson #33. (I know that makes no sense)

The Doctrine of the Hardening Process

1. While the believer is commanded to persist there are certain attitudes, moods, status of soul, that hinder persistence or become antagonistic toward persistence. These attitudes are disillusion, boredom, discouragement, self-pity, loneliness, frustration, bitterness, jealousy.

2. It is not unusual nor abnormal to suddenly discover in your life these enemies of positive volition. The abnormal and unusual thing is to cater to them, and the believer caters to them by reaction. The believer caters to this status by reacting with a frantic search for happiness.

3. The frantic search for happiness always upsets the balance of the soul, and in this upset balance emotion takes over from the heart. The heart becomes hardened because the emotion doesn’t respond to it. Remember that the heart of the soul is the right man and the emotion is the right woman, and if the heart initiates and the emotion turns around and takes over the heart hardens. So coterminous with or immediately following is the upset balance of the soul which we call emotional revolt of the soul. Emotional revolt of the soul gives added intensity to the frantic search for happiness. If it happens to be a self-righteous search this is how we get holy-rollers. If it happens to be a lascivious frantic search this is how you get into the phallic cult. These are the swingers.

4. The combination results in a changed attitude toward doctrine. The changed attitude can be apathy, indifference, or antagonism. This leads to some form of negative volition, whether primary or secondary.

5. Negative volition toward doctrine produces the necessary scar tissue of the soul which creates a vacuum to the heart. The heart has already been hardened, now there is a vacuum line going to the heart of the soul. This vacuum line draws in doctrine of demons — 1Timothy 4:1 — which is how we get the cup of demons in the devil’s communion table of 1Corinthians 10:21. To drink of the cup of the Lord: supergrace; to drink of the cup of demons: reversionism. This is not demon possession, this is demon influence.

6. Resultant demon influence causes a blackout of the soul. The hardness of the heart shortens out all the systems of the soul. This blackout of the soul is immediately followed by a complete change of life, a spiritual and negative change called reverse process reversionism.

7. Under the hardening process the believer begins to sow that he reaps. First, in the category of self-induced misery, and secondly, in the category of divine discipline.

Hebrews 4:7 “Again, he decrees a certain day [supergrace life], communicating by means of David [human author, quotation: Psalm 95], Today, after so long a time elapsed; as has been previously cited in the context, Today if you will hear [and recognize the authority of] and concentrate on his voice, stop hardening your right lobes.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews 4:8–9 Lesson #42

42 05/06/1973 Hebrews 4:8–9 Past failures

Bob asks for the young men in uniform to stand.

You are fed, sheltered, and this is provided apart from volition. Volition is involved in supergrace. This is where God pours. The cup depends upon gapping it to supergrace. The grace that sustains us in totally apart from human volition.

Bob goes through the first 7 verses.

Hebrews 4:8 For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken of another day later on. (ESV)

Verse 8 — “For if Joshua (not Jesus)”. The word “for” is the conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] used in the explanatory sense, designed at this particular point to show us the fact that even though in the past born again believers have failed to reach supergrace it is still available today, and past failure on the part of anyone is no hindrance to anyone receiving supergrace blessings today.

“if” is a conditional particle used as a second class condition ei (εἰ) [pronounced I]. Whenever you have this particle and you have with it an aorist tense in the protasis and the imperfect in the apodosis, plus the little particle án (ἀν) [pronounced ahn], this is always the second class condition. In the Greek syntax this is called a contrary to fact conditional clause — “if” and it is not true. The premise is assumed to be contrary to the facts. So the conditional clause states a thing as being untrue: “If Joshua had given them rest [and he didn’t].” Notice that we have the word “Jesus” in the English text. That is because the English word “Jesus” is a transliteration of the Greek word Iêsous (̓Ιησος) [pronounced ee-ay-SOOCE],. But Iêsous (̓Ιησος) [pronounced ee-ay-SOOCE], is actually taken from the Hebrew Yeshua or Joshua, and it refers here, as in Acts 7:45, not to the Lord Jesus Christ but to Joshua who succeeded Moses. So it should be translated, “For if Joshua.”

1. This verse is speaking of the generation immediately following the Exodus generation. The Exodus generation is often designated by its leader, Moses. The generation that followed is called the Joshua generation after its leader, Joshua. So this verse is speaking of the Joshua generation which succeeds the Exodus generation and actually entered the land.

2. The Joshua generation entered Canaan but did not have capacity for Canaan as indicated by their incomplete conquest of the land. They did not take all of the land that God had promised them. So the conquest was incomplete. it was the supergrace generation of David that finally came through and conquered all of the land given to them. They had many military failures. As supergrace believers, they would have entered the land and slaughtered the enemy completely.

The conquest of the land was final under David, between 1000–900 b.c.

Bob saw one of the lousiest movies ever, called The Young Lion; and they made it as if killing the enemy was terrible. That was set aside. This was a propaganda film to discourage the killing of the enemy. Believe that and you will be under chains in one generation. If you are a believer with doctrine, you should have immediately gone out and vomited.

Stonewall Jackson made a speech: “Better to die in battle as a hero than by a firing squad for being a traitor.”

Joshua was great, but he had a lot of weak sisters under him.

So we have the phrase, “For if Joshua [and he didn’t, but if he had].” The “if” again indicates that the failure of the Joshua generation was not in crossing the Jordan but the failure to have supergrace capacity as a military people. In moving into the land they had to fight for it. In moving into the land and having the freedom provided under the ten commandments and the rest of the Mosaic law they had to fight for these freedoms. And, of course, they were incompetent in fighting not because they lacked the physical ability, not because they lacked the military training, but because they did not have the capacity of soul. Joshua himself had the soul for fighting but, unfortunately, Joshua had a an army staff with a lot of week people in reversionism. Joshua gave orders to wipe out everyone at Ai but they didn’t do it. No supergrace status means no supergrace blessings. Only those believers in supergrace had capacity for blessing in the land of Canaan, and actually the great hero of the Joshua generation was Caleb. Caleb was the old man. He was 85 years old but he marched up the hill and whipped the giants. Not only did he defeat the giants but he killed them all. God poured for Caleb as an old man.

Caleb celebrated his old age by killing the giants, which were not killed when they first went into the land.

“had given them rest” — the aorist active indicative of katapauô (καταπαύω) [pronounced kat-ap-OW-oh]. We have the transitive use of the verb here which means to cause to rest — “For if Joshua had caused them to rest”. That is freedom from tyranny by totally successful military victory. The aorist tense is the constative aorist, it takes an occurrence and regardless of the extent of time or the duration of time gathers it into a single whole. The entire generation of Joshua spent many years fighting and conquering but many of them lacked supergrace capacity and therefore no supergrace blessings in the land. Their parents died the sin unto death outside of the land, but they didn’t have supergrace capacity so they didn’t have supergrace blessing in the land. The constative aorist plus the second class condition emphasizes a principle: Prosperous environment without supergrace capacity is just as miserable as adversity without supergrace capacity. Environment makes no difference. Either you have doctrine in your soul or you do not. And it is not your environment, it is the capacity of your soul that counts. It is the capacity of soul that makes the prosperous items of life enjoyable, and the people who enjoy prosperity are the same people who hold up in adversity because it is capacity of soul that counts — doctrine in the soul. So this constative aorist plus the second class condition is a reminder of that principle. The active voice: the believers of Joshua’s generation failed to produce the action of the verb not because they lacked military ability or physical stamina but because they lacked doctrine in the soul. They failed because of reversionism. The indicative mood is the reality of reversionism in the Joshua generation. However, this state of reversionism did not close the door to supergrace blessing in every generation, as pointed out by the next verse.

Next we have the Greek particle which is always a part of the second class condition. It is translated “then”. It introduces the apodosis of the second class condition. The particle is án (ἀν) [pronounced ahn]. The literal Greek of the apodosis is different from what we have in the King James version. It is ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] án (ἀν) [pronounced ahn] peri a)llhj e)lalei meta tauta hêmera (ἡμάρα) [pronounced hay-MEH-raw]j. The word án (ἀν) [pronounced ahn] means “then” — peri a)llhj, concerning another, and then hêmera (ἡμάρα) [pronounced hay-MEH-raw]j for “day”. Literally, “then concerning another day.” Then, “he would not be speaking” — we take ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook], the negative, which is at the beginning — “not”, a very strong objective negative, and e)lalei goes with ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] — “he would not be speaking”. Then it ends up with meta plus the accusative plural of tauta and means “after these things.” Meta plus the genitive means “with,” but meta plus the accusative means “after”. Literal Translation: “Then concerning another day he would not be speaking after these things.” What does it mean?

“Then” means now we go from the failure of the Joshua generation after the failure of the Exodus generation and draw conclusions with regard to every generation. The real key is what we have in our English “would he not have spoken” which is really “he would not be speaking”. It is an imperfect active indicative of laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh]. Here is the key right here. The verb is laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh] in the imperfect tense. It has that negative with it. The imperfect tense is what is called an iterative imperfect, it describes the action of the verb as recurring at successive intervals of time. But it has to be successive intervals in past time. God opened the supergrace life to believers in the previous generation, He opened it to believers of the Joshua generation, He opens it in every past generation. So this particular imperfect tells us this: From the time of Adam’s fall right up to the present there has never been a generation to whom the supergrace blessings from God have not been available. This does not mean that other generations have acquired them but it is available. So doctrine was available for believers in every generation: to Adam after the fall, to the Cain and Abel generation, to the Noah generation. There never was a generation that didn’t have enough doctrine to reach supergrace and supergrace blessings. That is the iterative imperfect. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb. If the failure of one generation closed the door to supergrace then God would keep the offer open, as He obviously did in David’s day — Psalm 95:7–11. The indicative mood of this verb says that we have reality, the reality of God keeping supergrace open to every generation. This means that supergrace is open to any believer on consistent positive volition today, and will be in this generation no matter how badly things go historically.

The prepositional phrase, peri a)llhj hêmera (ἡμάρα) [pronounced hay-MEH-raw]j, which is peri plus the genitive, is translated “concerning another of the same kind of day.” A)llhj is the genitive of allos (ἄλλος) [pronounced AL-lohs], and allos (ἄλλος) [pronounced AL-lohs] means another of the same kind. That means that every generation has the opportunity for supergrace — “concerning another of the same kind of day”, and then the prepositional phrase meta tauta, “after these things.”

Hebrews 4:8 “For if Joshua had caused them to rest [but he didn’t], then concerning another day [of supergrace opportunity] He [the Holy Spirit speaking to David in Psalm 95] would not be speaking after these things [after the failure of past generations].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The prepositional phrase “after these things” refers to the fact that past failure did exist, but past failure did not hinder the availability of supergrace. In other words, when we come to our own generation we have a long history of failure in the past on the part of other believers. This does not in any way hinder us. The failure of past generations definitely has some effect on the next generation, and the only way that can be changed is through Bible doctrine. It means that in the generation of our children the nation will either go down or recover.

The failures of previous generations can affect us today.

Watergate is a big nothing. It is his foreign policy and domestic policy which count. Freedom of the press, but no capacity for freedom. This is a political football. The press did not throw a fit when Nixon gave bushels of wheat to our enemies the Russians. Destroying our educational system by busing. People should go to school with those in their own neighborhood. Nixon’s failures are not hooked up with tapping a wire; they are connected to an unrealistic attitude. Business and free enterprise ought to be flourishing.

Summary

1. The Exodus generation failed to enter the supergrace life with its occupation with Christ, supergrace capacity, and supergrace blessings. Because of no capacity God kept that generation out of the land. They weren’t even qualified to fight. They lacked qualification not because of their military potential but because of their failure of the soul. Reversionism destroys a people as far as fighting for freedom is concerned.

2. The failure of the Exodus generation, however, did not shut the door to supergrace. The Joshua generation entered the land. However, many without supergrace capacity and therefore they did not completely occupy the land, they did not completely win the land, and for generations afterward they were often enslaved because of their failure of conquest. This is the whole story of the book of Judges. Those they left alive rose up and enslaved the Jews at least 11 times.

3. The failure of the Exodus generation, Joshua generation, the failure of the generations covered by the book of Judges, does not result in withdrawal of supergrace opportunity.

4. In David’s generation supergrace was still available — Psalm 95:7–11.

5. For this reason the writer of Hebrews reminds the apostolic generation residing in Jerusalem that supergrace is still available to them in the year 67 AD.

6. Whatever failure of reversionism has occurred between the apostolic generation and the twentieth century it has not hindered the opportunity for supergrace right now. In other words, supergrace is open to you right now.

7. Supergrace living is open to every generation of believers. God provides the doctrine as well as the communicators of doctrine. Supergrace living includes entering into the celebrityship of Jesus Christ. This is the spiritual status that glorifies Him — occupation with Christ, supergrace capacity, and supergrace blessings.

Hebrews 4:9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God,... (ESV)

Verse 9 — we have a conclusion. “There remaineth” is a present passive indicative of the verb apoleipô (ἀπολείπω) [pronounced ap-ohl-IPE-oh]. In the present passive indicative this verb means to have something left over, something remaining behind. The present tense of the verb is a customary present, it indicates that which habitually occurs or what may be reasonably expected to occur. Hence, the supergrace life is available to every generation of believers. This is the customary present, it is linear aktionsart. In the Church Age every believer is a priest.

Every believer priest has available to him:

a) Bible doctrine in permanent form, the canon of scripture, the Bible; b) A continual flow of communicators of doctrine, the gift of pastor-teacher; c) A classroom where doctrine can be assimilated, the local church.

To enjoy the priesthood, believers must have available to them the supergrace life.

The passive voice: this verb in the active voice means to go berserk, to go AWOL, to leave behind, but in the passive voice the verb changes its meaning and comes to mean to be left over. The indicative mood is the reality of divine sowing for supergrace blessings for every believer, and this is accomplished in eternity past. So God is waiting to pour. God faces every generation with great and fantastic blessings, as it were, a full load of blessings waiting to pour these things.

“therefore” is the illitive use of the inferential particle ára (ἄρα) [pronounced AHR-ah], it means to provide a conclusion to the paragraph.

“a rest” — we have not the usual word katapausis (κατάπαυσις) [pronounced kat-AP-ow-sis] here. This has been the word “rest” for the last two chapters. It is used for the supergrace life because the work is accomplished by God. But now we have a different Greek word, it is a synonym with a slightly different meaning — sabbatismos (σαββατισμός) [pronounced sab-bat-is-MOSS]. This word was used by Plutarch in the concept of God has been resting since eternity past with regard to supergrace blessings. The reason it is available to you is because all supergrace blessings were provided in eternity past. Everything God wanted you to have was provided billions of years ago. Katapausis (κατάπαυσις) [pronounced kat-AP-ow-sis] talks about receiving these things and enjoying these things, sabbatismos (σαββατισμός) [pronounced sab-bat-is-MOSS] looks at it from God’s viewpoint. Sabbatismos (σαββατισμός) [pronounced sab-bat-is-MOSS] says, God has been resting before time began because when it comes to surpassing grace blessings, and supergrace blessings, they were all provided in eternity past. Everything you will ever have in eternity was already provided. Therefore these are obviously available. In eternity past God wanted you to share in His perfect happiness, and He combines that with defeating Satan in time Because by giving you supergrace blessings, by pouring for you, God not only fulfils His desire from eternity past to make you happy but your happiness under these conditions also is the great temporal defeat of Satan. It is a tactical defeat, the strategical defeat occurred at the cross. And God found a way not only to save you but to reward you. The rewards in eternity come from being blessed in time.

“to the people” — dative singular from laos (λαός) [pronounced lah-OSS]. Laos (λαός) [pronounced lah-OSS] is the dative case is a dative of reference, and it is a reference to distinguish those qualified for supergrace. This could also be what is known as an ablative of separation, which accomplishes the same thing. Only the supergrace believer reaps what God sows — Romans 8:28 applies to supergrace. Then we have a genitive of possession from theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] plus the definite article, and it should be translated “the God”.

Hebrews 4:9 “Therefore there is left over a sabbatical rest [supergrace blessings] with reference to the people of the God.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Concluding Remarks on V. 9

1. Here is the conclusion of the paragraph. Failure on the part of one generation does not hinder supergrace blessings for future generations.

2. Failure on the part of one believer does not close the door for supergrace blessings for another.

3. Supergrace, therefore, is open in spite of failures in past history.

4. Supergrace is open in spite of your past spiritual failures.

5. God has set up a marker to remind us of this. The marker is the continual existence of the canon of scripture where the pertinent information continues to be available for every generation.

Supergrace blessing still remains for believers in every generation.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #43

43 05/13/1973 Hebrews 4:10–12a Doctrine of inspiration

Bob reviews the first 9 verses of this chapter.

Γνσις is not useable by the soul. Doctrine has to be believed. Norms and standards which line up with divine norms and standards.

Hebrews 4:10 ...for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. (ESV)

Verse 10 — the principle of supergrace. The word “For” the explanatory use of the particle gar, and in this particular passage gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] should be translated “For you see.” As a result of the study of the first nine verses we can now begin to see forming a very definite conclusion, and that is the use of the Greek particle at this point.

“he that is entered into” — the aorist active participle of the verb eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee]. Eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee] is used in this passage for entrance into supergrace capacity. It includes the concept of occupation with Christ [category #1 love maximum], plus entrance into the supergrace capacity and the supergrace blessing. The aorist here is the constative aorist which indicates something of the mechanics. It gathers up into one entirety every time the believer GAPs it, every time the believer takes in doctrine. He starts out zero and ends up 100 per cent — the consistency of taking in Bible doctrine. The active voice in the Greek: the believer produces the action of the verb and he produces it by studying the Word of God daily. This is an aorist participle. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb is that God has ceased from His own works. God has already ceased from His works and therefore you enter into what God has ceased to do it’s nothing but blessing. This is the concept of grace.

“his rest” — here is one of three words found in the New Testament for rest. This is the noun katapausis (κατάπαυσις) [pronounced kat-AP-ow-sis]. This word is the act of resting. The act of resting means that God is doing all the blessing and you are doing nothing about it. You are not earning or working or deserving for blessing. There is another word which is used only in Matthew 11:28, 29: anápausis (ἀνάπαυσις) [pronounced an-AP-ow-sis] which is very similar — aná (ἀνά) [pronounced aw-NAW], meaning again, pausij meaning rest, and it means to rest again or it is used for regeneration. Anápausis (ἀνάπαυσις) [pronounced an-AP-ow-sis] is also used for the phase three rest of surpassing grace. We studied in the previous verse a third word which is used: sabbatismos (σαββατισμός) [pronounced sab-bat-is-MOSS], which connotes rest because work is accomplished and it emphasizes the divine side of grace. Supergrace blessing in eternity past is sabbatismos (σαββατισμός) [pronounced sab-bat-is-MOSS]. Surpassing grace of phase three is anápausis (ἀνάπαυσις) [pronounced an-AP-ow-sis] or phase one, salvation. So kakapausij is reserved for time, and the blessings we receive in time. Because this supergrace blessing is available to all believers we now have the challenge of verses 11 and 12.

Hebrews 4:10 "For you see, he that is entered into His rest...

This does not appear to have been completed.

Hebrews 4:11 Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. (ESV)

Verse 11 — “Let us labour” is incorrectly translated. This is the aorist active subjunctive of the verb spoudazô (σπουδάζω) [pronounced spoo-DAWD-zoh]. This means to be eager, to make every effort to be diligent, it connotes a very strong motivation in the soul. This is the ingressive aorist, it must begin to be strong motivation in the soul. Remember, the soul is composed of self-consciousness by which you relate yourself to time, to people, and in this passage, relate yourself to God. You also have the thinking process of the soul, the two frontal lobes. The left lobe in for objective information, the right lobe is where it is used. In both the Old Testament and the New Testament the left lobe is simply translated by the word “mind” and the right lobe is translated by the word heart. The heart is where you do all of your thinking. Like “the fool has said in his heart there is no God,” that’s thinking. Then we have volition which is the great issue in the angelic conflict. We have emotion, the appreciator of what one has in the right lobe — in his frame of reference, in his vocabulary and categories, his norms and standards and his launching pad. The emotion is designed to respond to what is in the right lobe. We have a new motivater based upon Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine motivates properly in the Christian life. The ingressive aorist means that this must have a beginning. The ingressive aorist look at something form its entirety but the action of the verb is at the beginning, and so usually it is translated “to begin” something. Here the word spoudazô (σπουδάζω) [pronounced spoo-DAWD-zoh] means “let us begin to be diligent” — let us begin to have the proper mental attitude. Then active voice: this is the positive believer producing the action of the verb in his attitude toward doctrine. The subjunctive mood is called a hortatory conjunction. A hortatory subjunctive carries the weight of a command but recognizes the volition of the individual involved, it recognizes that volition is a true issue. So from your own free will as a believer priest you must desire the Word of God. “Let us begin to be diligent therefore”. “Therefore” is the inferential particle ὀυν which always occurs in the middle of a sentence or at the beginning but is never the first word in a sentence. This inferential particle indicates somewhere in the sentence that a conclusion is being drawn. The conclusion is that every believer is not going to fulfil the purpose for remaining in this life unless he enters the supergrace life with its occupation with Christ, with its cup — which is the capacity for life, freedom, love, adversity and happiness — and the actual pouring of blessings so that you can say with David, “My cup runneth over”. That is the supergrace status. The point here is, that no believer is ever going to enter this status apart from doctrine. To enter this status it takes day after day after day of GAPing it, taking in Bible doctrine. It takes persistence in all kinds of situations. Therefore, “Let us begin to be diligent” means to be motivated, motivated to enter supergrace. So we have the concept of motivation. The motivation must be positive volition.

In the middle of this verse, “let us be motivated therefore to enter into that rest lest,” the word “enter into”, again, is an aorist active infinitive of eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee], referring to entering into the supergrace life, but this time we have a culminative aorist. There are basically three kinds of aorist tense. The aorist tense basically gathers into one ball of wax. The duration of the time is dependent upon whatever verb is used. it can be anything from almost instantaneous to a long period of time. Since eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee] is discussing entrance into the supergrace life there must be at the beginning of your Bible study that takes you there — your intake of the Word — the proper mental attitude. So here we have the ingressive aorist. This is the attitude that you carry into GAPing it daily to supergrace; there must be positive volition toward doctrine. And as a result of that eventually you will arrive at the supergrace life and that’s a culminative aorist. So in one sentence here we have the ingressive aorist — “let us be properly motivated” or “let us be diligent” — and “to enter into” is a culminative aorist indicating the result of GAPing it. In other words, when you begin your Christian life and you realize the issue is doctrine, and you realize the importance of doctrine, your motivation is changed. That is the ingressive aorist of this hortatory subjunctive, “let us be diligent”. Then, when you get to the end of the road you will have arrived at supergrace. The ball of wax itself is GAPing it every day to the point of supergrace. That is the concept.

This makes an issue out of something. In salvation the issue is the Lord Jesus Christ. What think ye of Christ? determines your eternal future. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; he that believeth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him.” Your attitude toward Christ determines whether you are saved or not. To believe in Jesus Christ, at the moment of salvation you receive 36 things. In one second, you believe. In the second you believe in Jesus Christ God gives you these 36 things that you will have forever. But that is only phase one and the issue now is, What do you think of doctrine? Your attitude toward doctrine in time determines which way you are going. If your attitude is positive, as suggested by this first verb “let us be diligent” then eventually you’re going to reach supergrace. And when you do you are going to be occupied with the person of Christ, you are going to have supergrace capacity, and God is going to be glorified because with that capacity in the soul God pours and this becomes the tactical victory of the angelic conflict. When God can pour he is glorified because you are blessed exceedingly; but God is glorified and that is the great issue. The way your Christian life goes depends entirely on your attitude toward Bible doctrine. It must be consistent, it must be positive, and it must be daily. This, therefore, leads to the supergrace life, it leads to the rest we have been studying. This is why the Exodus generation failed. They failed because they didn’t have the capacity for the land, therefore they didn’t enter the land.

“let us be motivated therefore to enter into that rest” — the culminative aorist is employed to view an asset in its entirety but to regard it from the standpoint of existing results. This and the previous aorist then combine to put the daily function of GAP in between them. You start with an attitude, you start with positive volition, and that is the beginning. Positive volition causes you to GAP it today, tomorrow, the next day, the next day, and so on, until eventually you reach supergrace. This is the ball of wax. The mental attitude is at the beginning, and at the end you have the great prosperity that belongs to the believer. The active voice of this infinitive: the believer produces the action, any believer. All believers are in full time Christian service. Every believer is a priest, every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, every believer is indwelt by Christ, every believer is in union with Christ, and therefore the objective can be accomplished for any believer. One of the 36 things we receive at the moment of salvation is entrance into union with Christ. This keeps Christianity from being a religion. Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship. And, as Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father so positionally we are the right hand of the Father and therefore share in the strategical victory of the angelic conflict. Jesus Christ is eternal life, we share that life; Jesus Christ is absolute righteousness, we share that righteousness. He is the Son, we share His sonship, His heirship, His priesthood, His election. His destiny. In short, we share everything that Christ is because we are in union with Him. Once you are in that relationship you cannot get out, and the issue is not union with Christ, the issue is supergrace versus the sin unto death. It is learning about union with Christ that motivates the believer to GAP it to supergrace instead of to be negative in volition and to end up like the Exodus generation whose corpses were strewn all over the desert.

The infinitive of the Greek here is an infinitive of purpose, it expresses the objective of the action of the verb. The purpose of GAP and positive volition is to enter into the supergrace life. You have been saved and kept on this earth for that purpose. “Therefore let us begin to be diligent to enter into that rest.” The word “that” is a demonstrative pronoun in the accusative — ἐκενος. A demonstrative pronoun is used to refer to something which is very well known by this time in the context, something that has been previously mentioned, and something though previously mentioned must be emphasized. So “that” used for this particular demonstrative pronoun is to emphasize once again the importance of the noun in the accusative case, katapausis (κατάπαυσις) [pronounced kat-AP-ow-sis], which refers to the supergrace life, the supergrace life which is characterized by occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. No one truly loves God until he reaches that point. All divine blessing always comes in the supergrace life and without supergrace capacity blessing, success, happiness, it meaningless to you as a believer. Only when blessings are related to the angelic conflict in tactical victory does it become meaningful. That is the concept right here.

The word “lest” introduces a negative purpose clause. We have a conjunction hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] plus the subjective negative mê, which gives us our negative purpose clause — “that no one.” We have an indefinite pronoun, tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç], but plus the negative mê “anyone” becomes “no one”. “That no one fall” — the aorist active subjunctive of the verb piptô (πίπτω) [pronounced PIHP-toh], used for reversionism both here and in other passages. Both piptô (πίπτω) [pronounced PIHP-toh] and its compounds are used for reversionism. Now we have our first ingressive aorist. The verb piptô (πίπτω) [pronounced PIHP-toh] is an ingressive aorist which regards the action at the beginning when the believer has reacted to the usual things. This is an ingressive aorist of reaction. Here we have it again: You are going to be disillusioned at some time, bored by something, discouraged by something, etc. This leads to a great frustration. Then you have mental attitude sins intruding — jealousy, bitterness, being jilted, etc. These are reactor factors. This verb piptô (πίπτω) [pronounced PIHP-toh] is related to reactor factors. Here is where piptô (πίπτω) [pronounced PIHP-toh] or falling begins. When you fall, by the way, you never lose your salvation. Falling means to go into reversionism. You react to these things. You go on your own little frantic search for happiness. What kind of a frantic search that is depends upon the trend of your old sin nature.

There is no place for holy rollers in Berachah Church. No place for the phonies. Most of those who tend to asceticism usually leave Berachah.

There is a great deal of emotional revolt today. You can tell it with the long hair on males.

“Therefore let us begin to be diligent to enter into that specific rest [of the supergrace life] lest anyone begin to fall”. It is doctrine that protects the believer from reversionism. The active voice: the believer reacting by a frantic search for happiness plus emotional revolt produces the action of the verb. The action of the verb eventuates in negative volition. So, again, we have an aorist tense and this time the ingressive aorist shows reaction to the reactors, resulting in a frantic search for happiness. Then, emotional revolt and at the end negative volition toward doctrine, and that, of course, leads to the reversionism. The subjunctive mood is what is called a potential subjunctive, it introduces the element of contingency, a possible condition. The compound of this verb piptô (πίπτω) [pronounced PIHP-toh], parapiptô (πίπτω) [pronounced PIHP-toh], is used to describe a person who is already in reversionism. This we will study in Hebrews 6:6.

Now let’s see if we can chart this. Starting with the reactors: disillusion, boredom, discouragement, self-pity, loneliness, the concept of frustration; the mental attitude sins: jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, the experience of being jilted. These are reactors. This time we will have the reaction, the frantic search for happiness, coming right out of it. The frantic search for happiness leads to emotional revolt of the soul. The ones who fool you are the ascetics, whose frantic search for happiness is much different than you would expect.

The emotional revolt of the soul leads to a condition called “obstinacy” in our passage, or negative volition toward doctrine. This obstinacy or negative volition toward doctrine then starts a series of conditions that produce a full-blown reversionistic life. The first of these is scar tissue of the soul. From scar tissue it goes rather rapidly to demon influence, not demon possession. No believer can be demon-possessed. Demon influence is doctrine of demons entering the soul, entering the right lobe. This blacks out the soul, so next we have blackout of the soul. By this time the born again believer is looking at life strictly from the Satanic viewpoint. This eventuates in the practice of reverse process reversionism. This is about as low as you can go, and this also includes divine discipline. Self-induced misery begins at the point of emotional revolt, but you have divine discipline in three categories: the knocking or the warning stage, the intensified stage, and the dying stage. This is the obstinacy which we find as this passage continues.

“after the same example of unbelief” is really “after the same example of obstinacy”. Our noun is apeitheia (ἀπείθεια) [pronounced ap-Ī-thi-ah], which should be translated “obstinacy.” It is a genitive of description and it should be translated “with reference to the same example of obstinacy.”

Hebrews 4:11 “Therefore let us begin to be diligent to enter into that specific rest [supergrace] lest anyone begin to fall with reference to the same example of obstinacy.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This brings us to the solution, to our very life on this earth. More important than the air that we breathe is Bible doctrine.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (ESV)

Verse 12 — “For,” the explanatory use of gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] to indicate a solution to obstinacy, to show how you can avoid apeitheia (ἀπείθεια) [pronounced ap-Ī-thi-ah] — obstinacy, negative volition.

“the word of God” — ho logos tou theou, doctrine that belongs to God. This is a title for our spiritual food. The Bible contains spiritual food for the believer, nourishment for his soul, blessing for the function of his priesthood.

The Doctrine of Inspiration

1. The general principle of inspiration is found in a Greek noun, qeopneustoj. Pneustoj means breathe and qeo means God. It is translated “inspiration” but it should be translated “God-breathed” — 2Timothy 3:16, “All scripture is God-breathed.” This noun indicates mechanics. The mechanics start with the third person of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit, and move to the human writers, and eventuate in a canon of scripture. This is accomplished over a long period of time, starting with Moses as a human writer and ending with John in 96 AD. All scripture originates with a member of the Trinity, God the Holy Spirit. This scripture is said to be the thinking or the mind of Christ in 1Corinthians 2:16. God the Holy Spirit communicates to human writers like Paul, for example. He communicates a complete and coherent message. This principle is called the principle of inhale whereby God the Holy Spirit communicates to the soul of a human writer — 2Samuel 23:2,3; Isaiah 59:21; Jeremiah 1:9; Matthew 22:42,43; Mark 12:36; Acts 4:24–26; 25:28. Then the human author, and in the case of the Old Testament the human author had to be a prophet — in the case of Moses, he had the gift plus the office of prophet; in the case of the second part of the Hebrew canon it was the office of prophet, like Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel; in the case of the third portion of the canon of scripture it was the gift of prophecy, like David and Solomon in Psalms and Proverbs. But the Old Testament human author had to be a prophet. The New Testament human author had to be an apostle or one closely associated with an apostle, like Mark in his association with Peter writing the Gospel of Mark. The human authors of scripture exhaled this information in writing. They wrote without waiving their human intelligence, their vocabulary, their personality, their individuality, their personal feelings. God’s complete message to man was perfectly recorded with perfect accuracy in the original scripture [not in translations].

2. The origin of scripture is not human viewpoint. God the Holy Spirit uses human agency and human language — 2Peter 1:20,21.

3. The Word of God is also said to be the mind of Christ, therefore the absolute criterion for believers — 1Corinthians 2:16 cf. Psalm 138:2.

4. Consequently, the Bible as the mind of Christ existed in eternity past prior to being written in human form — Proverbs chapter eight.

5. Pre-canon revelation from God occurred through the Holy Spirit. We also have before the canon was written God revealed Himself — 2Samuel 23:2; Ezekiel 2:2; 8:3; 11:1; Micah 3:4; Hebrews 3:7.

6. There are four categories of Old Testament revelation: the spoken word, “Thus saith the Lord”; dreams as in Genesis 15:12; 31:10–13; Numbers 12:6; Daniel 10:9; visions as in Isaiah 1:1 and 6:1; 1Kings 22:19; angelic teaching as in Deuteronomy 33:2; Psalm 68:17; Acts 7:53; Galatians 3:19.

7. The extent of inspiration includes a number of things.

a. a) For example, the Bible teaches accurately the historical past before any historical records were kept or an accurate once. Genesis chapters 1–11 is an illustration of what God has provided by way of giving us information regarding the historical past.

b. b) While the Bible is not a textbook it gives accurate historical information about ancient history. All the historical citations in the Bible are accurate. They are not intended to be a complete history but their accuracy as a part of the canon of scripture is guaranteed by the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. These historical citations are not only accurate and form the basis for background in communicating doctrine but it is the basis of isagogics as the means of interpreting the scripture.

c. c) There is objective type law. The Bible contains many laws for individuals as well as national life. These can be summarized under the concept of the laws of divine establishment. These laws perfectly express the essence of God. They contain His will for the people to whom they are given. They also give a basis for survival in the devil’s world. Repetition of these laws and subsequent recording of them demonstrate their application to every generation.

d. d) Dictation. Some portions of the scriptures contain direct quotations from God. The doctrine of inspiration guarantees that the commands, the quotations, are properly recorded, accurately recorded just as they were given from God to man.

e. e) There is also some devotional literature in the Bible: the Psalms, for example. They are related to the experiences of human life, they are accurate in their relationship, and they portray doctrines pertinent to us today.

f. f) There is also in the Bible the recording of falsehoods. The Bible in inspiration does not sanction these falsehoods, such as the Satanic lies, but instead it indicates that this is accurate, this is the way they were, this is the way the devil said it. It does not condone falsehood, it records it accurately. The doctrine of inspiration guarantees the accuracy of the lie.

g. g) Prophecy. Inspiration involves both the selection of prophetic materials as well as their complete accuracy. We do not have a complete and detailed account of everything in the future but we do have enough so that we can put together a very beautiful picture for the believer in phase three.

Heb 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. (ESV)

“For the word of God.” First of all it is said to be “quick” — the present active participle of zaô (ζάω) [pronounced DZAH-oh]. Zaô (ζάω) [pronounced DZAH-oh] in the present active participle is linear aktionsart and should be translated “keeps on being alive.” In other words, Bible doctrine is pertinent to every age, every dispensation, every generation including our own. Bible doctrine is the capacity for life. The linear aktionsart in the participle indicates that Bible doctrine always has been and always will be pertinent to our life. It gives us capacity for life and without that capacity for life there cannot be any happiness. Happiness depends on capacity for life. So the linear aktionsart of this passage indicates that the supergrace is available regardless of anyone’s past failures. As long as you are alive the status of supergrace is available. The failure of the Exodus generation does not hinder subsequent generations from entering into supergrace.

“and powerful” — the word “powerful” is energês (ἐνεργής) [pronounced ehn-er-GACE]. It means effective, active, energetic, efficient, effectual. Actually, this word means four things and all of them are pertinent. a)

First of all, energês (ἐνεργής) [pronounced ehn-er-GACE] means effective. Bible doctrine is effective in producing the supergrace status of occupation with Christ. b) A transliteration: energetic. Bible doctrine produces motivation for GAPing it to supergrace. c) It means also efficient. Bible doctrine is efficient in getting believers into supergrace. d) It means effectual. That means that Bible doctrine is adapted to accomplish the intended result of getting all believers into the area of supergrace or the tactical victory of the angelic conflict.

“and sharper” — this is the comparative adjective of tomoj and should be translated “and more cutting.”

“than” — the preposition u(per is a preposition of comparison as translated. And then we have “any two-edged sword” — this is actually one word in the Greek, maxaira. This was the famous Roman sword that was one of the greatest military inventions of the ancient world. This was a very short sword of about eighteen inches long. It had a sharp point and two sharp sides. The Roman recruits were so drilled with this sword that they could use it very effectively. It was light, well-balanced, and did a very excellent job. It was quite in contrast to other swords of the ancient world. The maxaira in the hands of a well-trained Roman soldier was the most effective weapon of its day . The Bible, of course, does not use other words which are found in the ancient world for sword. For example, dolon is never used. This was a sword in a cane. It usually only has a sharp point and is hidden. Bible doctrine is not hidden so God the Holy Spirit did not permit this word to be used. Then there was the r(omphaia, the Greek broadsword which was about six feet long and had one broad edge. it had only one effective edge, and the Bible does not have just one effective edge, all of it is important. Then there was a sword first introduced by the high-ranking generals of the Persian army, called an a)kinakhj. This was a very ornate sword, it demonstrated something of your rank. It was a very beautiful thing but no good for killing anything. It was just gingerbread. And that is just the trouble with a lot of believers, they think the Word of God is just gingerbread. They want all of the “thees” and the “thous” included, and they want nice, sweet flowing words that they cannot understand. But the objective of the Bible is the antithesis of that. It is to be understood. Another type of sword was the cifoj, a sword that had only a thrusting point. The Bible doesn’t have a point here and a point there, all of the Bible is important. So God the Holy Spirit has carefully selected the proper word which is maxaira. Every part of the Word of God is important, every part is effective.

This is brought out now by another participle, “piercing” — diikeneonai, a rare verb which means penetrating, breaking through, not being hindered by bones. This means that neither bone nor muscle nor any kind of flesh will prevent the person from being seriously if not fatally wounded.

“dividing asunder” is an adverb achri/achris (ἄχρι/ἄχρις) [pronounced AHKH-ree/AHKH-rece] plus merismoj. It means that swords, like the old weapons, were intended to kill the enemy, were intended to fulfil an objective. And it means penetrating so as to separate. The Word of God as a sword is meant to reach the soul of the individual believer. That is the purpose here. This phrase, achri/achris (ἄχρι/ἄχρις) [pronounced AHKH-ree/AHKH-rece] plus merismoj, was used for killing the enemy and recognizing it as a part of the laws of divine establishment.

So far we have then, “For the word of God keeps on being alive, and effectual [accomplishing its purpose], and more cutting than every maxaira, penetrating ...” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

What is the purpose of the penetration of the Word? So as to separate soul and spirit. There is a vast difference between the human soul and the human spirit.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #44

44 05/20/1973 Hebrews 4:12 Doctrine of the soul

All human freedom is dependent upon the military. Until the return of Jesus Christ, freedom will be based upon the military. The manner in which our military is treated is a perfect example today of our degeneracy.

Bob calls for a testimony for someone to give a testimony; he has a commission in the United States Navy. Last 5 years at Berachah have been some of his most enjoyable years. We do not deserve anything in this life, but God gives us the opportunity to make something of our lives. Our nation is the greatest in the world; there are men still willing to die for this nation. My generation has dropped the ball.

Bob only reviews the translation of v. 11.

Apart from the supergrace life, there would not be....God provided these doctrines nesting in the Word of God; and we are to transfer them from the printed page to our souls.

Quick is living.

Phrase I grace is salvation grace, available in one moment of time. Volition is involved in the provision so sally grace. Phase II grace which involves no volition. Whether we want it or not, God keeps us alive in life. Supergrace does involve some choice in Phase II, and it depends upon attitude towards Bible doctrine. This is the great issue of Hebrews 4. There are supergrace blessings available to us. Promotion, prosperity, success, but we need a cup so that God can pour. Phase III grace, surpassing grace. This is not volitional. God provides this from death until forever. The normal Christian life is designed for great prosperity and great blessing. It is the only way for believers to be permanently blessed in this life. One must be positive on a consistent basis. God reaps what God sows; all things work together for good. Supergrace capacity + God’s provision in Phase II = supergrace blessing.

For those who go negative toward doctrine, there is nothing but discipline leading to the sin unto death. The believer reaps what he sows. He might give into reactor factors; jealousy, bitterness, a mental attitude sins, or being jilted; these are the reactor factors which lead to a frantic search for happiness. That triggers and emotional revolt of the soul. The vacuum sucks in doctrines of demons. At this point, the believer has the blackout of the soul. This is why the Word of God is so important; the most important factor in the Christian life. No hope to glorify God in time.

The word of God keeps on being alive and effectual, sharper than every two-edged sword; and we saw how that sword was incredible. It penetrates as to separate the soul and the spirit.

Verse 12b — the Bible is the only book which actually distinguished between the soul and the spirit.

The Doctrine of the Soul

1. In category mankind the real person in located in the soul. The real person is not what is observed by others around you, or even by yourself when you look in the mirror, the real person is located in the soul — Genesis 2:7. The human body is only a temporary residence for you. The surviving part of a destroyed body is the skull, and it is in the skull where the soul is kept and protected. It is invisible and immaterial.

2. The soul has essence, invisible and immaterial. This is why the Bible says that man was created in the image of God. God has essence which is invisible and immaterial. The invisible and immaterial essence of God is similar to the fact that man’s real being is immaterial and invisible. The soul is located somewhere in the cranium and this is the most protected part of the human body.

a. The first characteristic of the soul is self-consciousness, which means you are aware of your own existence. Most of you know where you are, even though you can’t spell it or pronounce it. Angels have self consciousness; but animals do not.

b. Secondly, there is mentality. The mentality of the soul is divided up into two parts. The first part is called in the Greek the noús (νούς) [pronounced noose], which is generally translated “mind.” The other part of the mentality of the soul is called kardia (καρδία) [pronounced kahr-DEE-uh] in the Greek, and is translated in the King James version “heart.” Heart and mind make up the mentality of the soul. The left lobe is where information is first received, and there it becomes objective knowledge. This is the only place where things start. This is, however, not the place where knowledge is useable. That place is the heart or the right lobe. Everyone has as the mentality of the soul the final objective for all information which is the heart. The heart has a frame of reference. All information in life to be useable must enter the frame of reference. Then it has a memory centre which does many things with information in the frame of reference. It starts to form a vocabulary, and the greater your vocabulary the greater your thought pattern. Then it develops from vocabulary into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, paragraphs into categories. Categories are the concepts which reside inside of your right lobe. And then you have your conscience, your norms and standards whereby you determine what is right, what is wrong, whereby you evaluate everything and everyone in life. This is also the area of the soul whereby God seeks to instill through doctrine His concepts. And then, of course, there is a launching pad. This is where you make the application, this is where the unbeliever has common sense, this is where the believer has great discernment. And on this launching pad, when it is doctrine, there is the divine viewpoint and this determines a great deal about your activities in life. So the soul possesses self-consciousness and mentality. In addition to that the third factor is volition or free will. Free will was created in man in order to extend the angelic conflict. The creation of man is for the purpose of demonstrating that Satan’s objection to the lake of fire is not valid, and to invalidate Satan’s objections man was created and given the same free will that all the angels possess. Next we have the emotion, the responder to what you have in the right lobe. If you would say, that in the human body you have male and female hormones — everyone does — then you would also have to say the same thing about the soul. The male hormone is equivalent to the heart or the right lobe, and the female is the emotion. The heart is the right man and the emotion is the right woman. The right woman responds to the right man. So the emotion is designed so that you can have a responder to what goes on in your heart or your right lobe, and that is the normal function of your emotion. As long as the emotion is responding to what you have, regardless of the area of life, it is a bona fide function. It may be in the field of music, it may be in drama, art or literature. It may be in the field of athletics or in the field of relationships with human beings, but whatever it happens to be the emotion is the responder and therefore becomes the enjoyer of the soul. However, when the emotion dominates the soul everything is out of kilter and the soul of the person who is in that status quo is destroyed. There are trends of the sin nature.

3. The soul also has something equivalent to lungs for breathing, for inhale and exhale. The left bank of the soul is designed for taking in things in relationship with God, the right bank is for relationship with the human race.

4. The Bible distinguishes between two inner parts of man. The first inner part is the soul and the second inner part is the spirit. The original man was trichotomous — body, soul, and spirit — according to Genesis 2:7. But the unbeliever is said to be dichotomous. he is called “the soulish man” in the Greek of 1Corinthians 2:14 and also in Jude 19. So that when Adam sinned he lost his human spirit, and one of those 36 things we receive at the point of salvation is the acquisition of the human spirit once again so that the believer is said to be trichotomous — body, soul, and spirit — in 1Thessalonians 5:23.

5. Only the soul, not the body, was made in the image of God — Genesis 1:26,27; 2:7. Again, the image of God means not the same essence that God possesses but the same type of essence, immaterial and invisible.

6. Only the soul, not the body, is saved in regeneration — Psalm 19:7; 34:22; Mark 8:36, 37; Hebrews 10:39; 1Peter 1:9 tell us that only the soul is saved. The body is not saved, we receive in resurrection a new body.

7. Since the soul contains knowledge — Proverbs 19:2 — it is subject to Satanic attack, according to Matthew 10:28; Ephesians 4:17–19. This is important to understand about the soul, that the soul is the source of attack, and therefore Bible doctrine’s objective is to so enter the soul as to protect the individual believer from that attack. The more doctrine in the soul the better.

8. The soul, therefore, becomes a battleground during phase two — Psalm 100:33.

9. The soul is also the area of the worst type of sinning — the mental attitude sin. This is taught in Job 21:25; Zechariah 11:8.

10. Since the soul is the worst area of sinning it causes the accumulation of scar tissue. The soul, therefore, with accumulated scar tissue becomes the seat of human misery. The greatest unhappiness you will ever know will be that which resides inside your soul and is of your own making. It is like being a cook and you make foods that make you miserable.

11. The soul is also the area for the capacities of life — capacity for love, for example — 1Samuel 18:1; 1Peter 1:22. It is also the area for capacity for freedom and all of the other capacities that contribute to your happiness.

12. Physical death is the departure of the soul from the physical body — Job 27:8; Psalm 16:10; 2Corinthians 5:8.

Perhaps one of Satan’s objection is, you made me to sin; you put that in me, God, and therefore, You are responsible for my sins. Man reveals that free will is really free; and that man can choose for or against God, whether in the fallen or innocence state. Angels learn that nothing is more important than God’s Word. They choose to obey God’s Word or not; and they see by watching us what is the result of obeying or not.

The Bible distinguishes between what you are in the soul and the human spirit. The human spirit is distinguished from the soul in our passage, Hebrews 4:12. In the original creation of mankind the human spirit was the basis of fellowship with God. It was the basis of having relationship with God, and when man sinned the human spirit was destroyed immediately and man was spiritually dead with no possibility of having fellowship with God. So the unbeliever is declared even today to be minus the human spirit — Jude 19; 1Corinthians 2:14. Since the unbeliever does not possess a human spirit it is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit at the point of hearing the Gospel to take Gospel information which enters the left lobe and make that Gospel a reality. Then positive volition toward the Gospel causes the person to believe in Jesus Christ, so that even the very basis for our salvation is not even discernible or understandable until God the Holy Spirit has made it a reality in the left lobe. So the Holy Spirit, therefore, must act as a human spirit in the area of the unbeliever understanding spiritual phenomena.

The human spirit is the target for storage in the function of GAP. When a believer hears Bible doctrine and it goes into his left lobe God the Holy Spirit makes that doctrine objective reality, but non-meritorious positive volition, transfers it to the human spirit where that knowledge becomes epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] . It is epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] that is useable. epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] is sucked into the right lobe. epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] is the basis for the ECS, and epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] is the basis for entering the supergrace life. So the human soul, then, becomes very important as far as the function of the believer is concerned. The spiritual IQ of the believer is determined by the amount of doctrine in his human spirit. GAP only functions when the believer is filled with the Spirit and it is the Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that gives us reality in the Christian life.

So this verse says, “For the word of God keeps on being alive, and effectual [it accomplishes its objective], and more cutting than every maxaira, penetrating to the separation of the soul and the spirit.”

All of the immaterial, invisible parts in humanity are understood through Bible doctrine. That’s why the Bible has its own beautiful type of psychology and that’s why the Bible can define as well as give the answer to every problem in human life.

Next we notice “and of the joints and the marrow.” It should be translated, “both joints and marrow.” The word for joints a)rmoj is the word we use today for joints, and we also have another genitive plural, mueloj, which is translated marrow. These two words are descriptive genitives in the Greek. The mueloj or the marrow refers to the highly vascular soft tissue which fills the cavities of most bones. Hence, the Bible not only splits hairs but it splits invisible and very fine hairs because all discernment must come from distinguishing one principle from another. Every distinction the Bible emphasizes must be brought to the attention of every believer priest and when the Bible makes distinctions, no matter how small, no matter how great, they are extremely important to each one of us as believers. God has designed each one of us as a priest, we are to represent ourselves on the earth, we are to be spiritually self-sustaining. That is the objective. God not only wants us to be spiritually self-sustaining but He wants us to have the greatest possible happiness. Great happiness was designed for each one of us in eternity past. So the Bible, then, recognizes the most minute of distinctions. Just as there is a difference between the joint bone and what the bone contains by way of marrow so there is a great distinction between certain doctrines in life.

Next we have the word “discerner,” and that is the Greek word kritikos (κριτικός) [pronounced kriht-ee-koss]. Kritikos (κριτικός) [pronounced kriht-ee-koss] has come down to us in the English word “critic”. Kritikos (κριτικός) [pronounced kriht-ee-koss] actually means a judge. So the Bible and Bible doctrine becomes our critic or our judge. It tells us when we are right and when we are wrong, it tells us when we are in the right direction or the wrong direction, it keeps us constantly aware of what we should be doing and should not be doing, what our attitude should be, and so on.

“of the thoughts” — the word for “thoughts” here could be one of three or four Greek words. This is a genitive plural of e)nqumhsij. This is a very complimentary word to us because it implies that all of us at some time in our lives actually have thoughts! Other words do not imply that, such as noús (νούς) [pronounced noose] and noéô (νοέω) [pronounced noh-EH-oh], and so on. But this means the actual act or function of thinking. This means to take whatever vocabulary you have in your right lobe and to come to conclusions in life. Of course, no vocabulary means not many conclusions. It also indicates that your life and the real you is not what you do but really what you think. What you do is merely coordinated with either by response or reaction to what you think. Once again, the real you is what you think. “As a man thinks in his heart, so he is.”

The Bible is a critic of everything we think and therefore it becomes a critic of our motivation. The word “intents” is another descriptive genitive plural — e)nnoia. E)nnoia, like e)nqumoj means something on the inside. Notice that both of these nouns begin with the word en (ἐν) [pronounced en] which makes them compounds. That is simply the preposition for “inside,” what is going on inside. The first one refers to what you think and the second refers to what motivations are formed from what you think.

“the heart” refers to the right lobe which is the very key to the soul. As goes the heart so goes the soul. The heart or the right lobe is where you do your thinking. It is in the genitive singular and, again, it is a descriptive genitive — kardia (καρδία) [pronounced kahr-DEE-uh], referring to the right lobe: frame of reference, memory centre, vocabulary and categories, conscience, norms or standards, and launching pad. This is the real you and whatever occurs in that is the real you.

Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God keeps on being alive, and effectual, and more cutting than any maxaira, for it penetrates so as to separate soul and spirit, both joints and marrow, and a judge of cogitations and intentions of the right lobe.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Bible, then, is our very life. This is the air that we breathe and this is the most important factor in our lives after salvation. The Bible contains many commands, like commands to love. It is impossible to love, it is impossible to do anything without having the capacity for it, and capacity for the believer comes from Bible doctrine in the soul. This means, of course, that the doctrine must be transferred from the page of the book into your soul before it can be of any use to you at all.

Hebrews 4:13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account. (ESV)

Verse 13 — why is Bible doctrine so important? Because God vindicates His Word in the believer’s soul. And that is the objective of God in phase two. Remember that God is not a respecter of persons; God does have perfect respect for His own Word. He has magnified His Word above His name — Psalm 138:2. Verse 13 gives us the application of this section: God vindicates His Word only in the believer’s soul.

“Neither” — the conjunction kai. This is a transitive conjunction here and it should be translated better by the English conjunction “and.” Kai is a connective conjunction which the power of Bible doctrine to your particular soul, and when you have that doctrine in your soul then God will vindicate His Word. God’s attitude toward His Word is expressed in Psalm 138:2. When the believer GAPs it to supergrace God must vindicate His Word by pouring supergrace blessings for that individual. In other words, if you don’t have a cup in your soul God will not pour. The cup is Bible doctrine which has been transferred from the page of the Word and has eventually formed a cup in your soul. Once this occurs then God begins to pour. Once these supergrace blessings are poured then God is glorified.

“and there is not” — the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] plus the strong objective negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. The word “any” is not found in the original but the word “creature” is — “there is not a created thing,” and the word for created thing is ktisis (κτίσις) [pronounced KTEES-iss], and here ktisis (κτίσις) [pronounced KTEES-iss] applies to the fact that every member of the human race does not become a member of the human race until after he is born and God gives him the very spark of life.

There will be no souls of abortions up in heaven. They only live if you let them live.

“that is not manifest” is incorrect. It should be translated in the form of the adjective, which is a)fanhj, as hidden or invisible — “from his sight” — “there is not a created thing hidden from his sight”. This means that every thought you have ever had, every function of the soul that has ever existed, was known to God in eternity past, long before these functions of the soul actually occurred in your life. So that God is aware of every true and false thought, false motive, of how much doctrine there would be in your soul, and it is God’s desire to pour but he cannot pour where there is no doctrine in the soul.

Satan cannot read minds, but he is very smart and can figure out what we are thinking by our actions and expressions. Bob has become an observer of human nature. He knows that some want to jump up out of their seats and run for the door. But while you are here, you play poker. This congregation demonstrates the best of southern manners.

Next we have a particle used as an adversative conjunction — de. Often we have the regular conjunction for setting up a contrast. The adversative conjunction is allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH], but allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH] is not used here. Why? Because this is not quite as string an adversative because it has almost been stated positively in the negative side of the sentence. Therefore it isn’t necessary to use a strong conjunction when a particle will do just as well. So God the Holy Spirit has placed an adversative particle here to show that you already get the point but let’s hear the other side anyway.

“all things” — the nominative neuter plural of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs]. The neuter gender of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] here indicates that this is what you think. These are the thoughts that go through the soul. These “all things” also include what you do as a result of what you think — your motives, your deeds, everything that occurs, your sins of the mind, are all included at this point.

“are naked” — the nominative neuter plural of gumnoj. Athletes worked out naked, so this word for naked became associated with going to the gym to work out. You may have decided only an hour ago to come to Bible class, but God knew this in eternity past. The omniscience of God is well aware of every thought you would ever have and every deed that you would ever do, and He knew this in eternity past.

The word “open” is the perfect passive participle of traxelizw. The word means to bend back the head of a sacrificial animal in order to expose its throat. So it means to expose something so that it is understood, to expose a target even. That is exactly what is meant here, that everything was exposed to God in eternity past. The perfect tense is an intensive perfect. It means that this occurred in eternity past with the result that God knew what we would think and made preparation accordingly.

“unto the eyes of him” is an anthropomorphism. God does not have eyes in the sense that we have eyes, but explain a policy, a function of God eyes are used at this point.

“with whom” — pros plus the accusative which means “face to face with whom” — “we have to do”— there is no verb here in “we have to do”. Actually, it is the word “our account”. So it is, “face to face with whom we have an account”. The word is logos (λόγος, ου, ὁ) [pronounced LOHG-oss] — “with whom we have our logos (λόγος, ου, ὁ) [pronounced LOHG-oss] [or our account, or our doctrine]”. All doctrine comes from God and it is doctrine that makes the difference in our lives. Our accounting or our doctrine is based on what we have in the soul, not what is in the Word of God. And God the Father is no respecter of persons — 1Samuel 16:7; 2Samuel 14:14; Acts 10:34; Job 27:23, 24. Only doctrine in the soul impresses God. Doctrine is His Word and He is impressed with doctrine in the soul. The only way to get doctrine in the soul is GAP, and when we GAP it to supergrace then God is so impressed with that that he pours the blessings. It is doctrine in the soul that becomes the capacity for life. That is when God starts to pour and to pour and to pour, and that is when life becomes exactly what God wanted it to be. When God can pour these things then you have reached the point of glorifying Him, and that is why you and I are here.

Hebrews 4:13 Neither and there is not from his sight all things are naked unto the eyes of him face to face with whom we have an account, or our doctrine R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation (needs to be proofed)

1972 Hebrews Lesson #45

45 05/27/1973 Hebrews 4:14a Doctrines of the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ, ascension, hypostatic union

Bob came back from Portland, Oregon. Article by a Berachan. He is a coach and he wants long hair being removed from the playing field. Tony, “It is not normal for a male to want to put himself into submission, which is what the long hair suggests.” Bob was asked if this was a member of Berachah Church.

Memorial Day weekend. We recognize the principles of our freedom.

Supergrace blessing is preceded by supergrace capacity. Reversionism is a hindrance to the supergrace life.

For the first time, the word priest is mentioned.

Ascension makes Jesus higher than all angels. This is the age of tactical victory and every time a believer reaches supergrace, God can bless them and this is a tactical victory. God’s objective is to bless every believer priest. So few are blessed because they do not have a consistent attitude towards Bible doctrine.

We have come to the fourteenth verse which is the transition verse and bring us to the very subject, the very purpose for which we have this passage. The word “seeing” is a particle ὀυν used as an inferential conjunction. This inferential conjunction means that we are now reaching a conclusion. This is the real challenge. Up to this point we have seen reversionism as a hindrance to the supergrace life, a hindrance to everything in life. Now we see the other side of the fence. The celebrityship of Jesus Christ is presented in this verse and this becomes, therefore, the transitional verse for the entire book. The purpose of the book of Hebrews is to bring every believer into occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. The objective in to bring everyone to the point of celebrityship of Christ whereby there is a bona fide and true love for the Lord Jesus Christ based upon Bible doctrine in the soul. At that point begins the priesthood which will be mentioned in this verse. For the first time the word “priest” is mentioned, and when the word priest is mentioned it applies to you.

Every believer is priest in this dispensation and therefore the life of every believer has meaning and purpose and definition as far as God is concerned. Therefore this first word, translated “seeing then” is really an inferential conjunction and should be translated “therefore,” indicates we have now come to the most important part of this passage. If Jesus Christ is not the only celebrity in your life it means one of several things: it means that you are negative toward doctrine, it means that you are minus doctrine, it means that you are without benefit of doctrine in your soul. It means that at some time in your life you have been reacting, you have become discouraged and reacted to it. Or you have become bored and reacted to it. Or you have become disillusioned and reacted to it. Or you have been overcome with self-pity and reacted to it. Or you have become lonely and reacted to it. Or you have become frustrated and reacted to it. Or you have been jilted by someone you loved and have reacted to it. This reaction leads to a frantic search for happiness. The frantic search for happiness then triggers emotional revolt and emotional revolt then intensifies whatever reactor factors you have in your soul. As this occurs then you become indifferent, you neglect, you become hostile toward Bible doctrine, and when you do then the mataiotês (ματαιότης) [pronounced mat-ah-YOHT-ace] is opened up and you have the attack on the right lobe. This attack brings in Satanic doctrine so that the believer comes under Satanic influence or demon influence. Whatever doctrine is left in the right lobe moves over to the left lobe where it is totally non-useable and, at this point, there is the blackout of the soul which is followed by the practice of reverse process reversionism. This, of course, leads eventually to the sin unto death. So matter how you slice it the priesthood does not work under these conditions and the situation is totally abnormal. And under these conditions there is nothing but divine discipline, reaping what you sow and the sin unto death. But under conditions of taking in doctrine on a daily basis, GAPing it, then you get to the point of Romans 8:28 which is for the supergrace believer only, it does not apply to every believer. It only applies to those who love God and the only ones who love God are supergrace believers and no one else. You have to be in supergrace. That is when God starts to pour and then there isn’t anything in life that you cannot handle. And that is the objective of the Christian life because that is where the tactical victory begins.

At the cross we have the beginning of the strategical victory. Jesus Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree. Until the time of the cross Satan’s objective was to keep Christ from getting to the cross. But once He died for our sins and took our place, and then went into the grave for three days and rose again and was ascended, once He was seated at the right hand of the Father, we have a completion of the strategical victory of the angelic conflict. The cross broke the back of Satan, says Colossians 2:14, and ascension makes it very certain that Jesus Christ as a man is now higher than all angels. Jesus Christ is the only one in resurrection body. Operation footstool, the next step, will see the return of Christ to the earth at which point He will begin to reign, and at this point Satan and all fallen angels will be removed.

During the interim we have an interruption of the Jewish Age. We live in the Church Age, the dispensation of the Church, and in this particular dispensation God has a very specific purpose. This is the age of tactical victory. Every time a believer reaches the supergrace life it becomes a tactical victory because when a believer is in supergrace then God can do what He desires to do for every believer: give him wealth, success, promotion, great happiness, great blessing. In other words, the believer has a cup and God pours. When God pours blessings into that cup God Himself is glorified. He does the pouring and the believer glorifies God when he reaches supergrace. God’s objective is to bless every believer priest in this dispensation and it can only be accomplished through the intake of doctrine, and that is why so few are blessed because so few have a positive consistent attitude toward Bible doctrine. God is glorified when the believer is blessed to the maximum; that is the concept and that is the objective of the Christian way of life.

With that in mind we now move from the inferential particle to see what we have. “Seeing therefore that we have” — present active participle from the verb echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] which means not only to have but it really means to have and to hold. it is a present active participle in the Greek and that means linear aktionsart, something we have because we have been in it every day — taking in Bible doctrine. This is also a dramatic present to indicate the having and the holding of something that is of the utmost importance to us. Because we are born again, because we are children of God, because Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, because Jesus Christ is our high priest, and because we were commissioned priests at e is God the point of salvation, we keep on having something therefore. The active voice: the subject produces the action of the verb, and you are the subject. Every believer is the subject. The participle, again, indicates linear aktionsart, and it should be translated literally, “having therefore a great high priest.” The adjective megas (μέγας, μεγάλη, μέγα) [pronounced MEH-gas] means uniqueness in this particular case, and absolutely unique person, different from anyone else. Then we have with it a noun in the accusative case, archiereus (ἀρχιερεύς) [pronounced ar-khee-er-YUCE], the word for high priest or chief priest.

“that is passed into” — the perfect active participle of dierxomai shows us the strategical victory in the angelic conflict. The perfect tense is a consummative perfect, it emphasizes the results of the completed action of the verb. The work is already accomplished, the victory is already there, and we simply as believers in this dispensation are here for one reason: to exploit the strategic victory of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross, resurrection and session. We are here for the purpose of exploitation and the greatest function of the priesthood is to exploit that victory. That victory is exploited through entrance into the supergrace life. It is missing the supergrace life which is the subject of chapter three and chapter four.

Then we have an active voice. Jesus Christ, our high priest produced the action. This verb emphasizes the doctrines of resurrection, ascension, and session. Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father in His humanity. As God Jesus Christ doesn’t sit any more than the Father sits. As God, Jesus Christ is omnipresent, he is imminent and transcendent, He is everywhere. It is His humanity which sits down. Note, therefore, the contrast with the Levitical priesthood. Aaron’s place of ministry was on the earth. Aaron was the chief of the Levitical priesthood, its founder, whereas the Lord Jesus Christ, the founder of our priesthood sits in heaven Aaron ministered with shadows but Jesus Christ ministers with reality. We happen to live in the age of reality.

Bob gives an example of the Civil War of having a strategic victory beaten by a tactical victory. Are we here to entertain ourselves, complain about a few thousands things, eek out a living and then die? We are to exploit the strategic victory of the cross.

The strategic victory has to be emphasized again and again. It is possible to have a strategic victory and to lose out tactically. Christ won the strategic victory at the cross. Why are we here? You and I are here to exploit the strategic of the cross, and the exploitation of the strategic victory of the cross comes through recognition of the celebrityship of Jesus Christ. But until you get Bible doctrine in your soul you don’t know what it is all about. Once you get doctrine in your soul you are ready for it, and then you will have it, and you will have the very purpose for which you are alive — to exploit strategic victory — and the tactical victory which exploits it is your blessing in this life. Why does God keep you here right under the nose of the devil? Who is the ruler of this world? Satan himself. What are you doing here, then, in the devil’s world? Right under the devil’s very nose Jesus Christ can give you blessing that the devil could never provide. This is the devil’s world, he has a lot of power, he has a lot of things whereby he can promote his own. This is the devil’s world whereby he can make it attractive for a lot of people, but since the day that we were born again and since the day that we became priests we do not owe his majesty the devil a thing. We are here as the guests of the Lord Jesus Christ, as kingdom of priests we owe the devil nothing, and therefore it is our high priest who will provide for us in the devil’s word — and does through His Word. That is why verse 12 which have just studied comes before verse 14. It is the Word of God that makes the difference in our souls. And God has a purpose for keeping us here: to, right under the devil’s nose, provide everything that Satan can provide for his own and more besides, the very capacity for life, to share the very happiness of God, to receive the blessings of God, to receive the very things you have associated with happiness and to receive them in such a way that God is glorified and you have the best time ever. Heaven on earth is the supergrace life. You can have a relationship with your rw because there is no capacity for life. God gives all kinds of success to those who have capacity. There is a tactical issue.

The Doctrine of the Ascension

1. The resurrection body of the Lord Jesus Christ was capable of space travel. The humanity of Christ in resurrection traveled through three heavens, according to John 20:17.

2. Once He arrived in the presence of the Father the Father told Him to sit down — Psalm 110:1; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3,13; 10:12; 12:2; 1Peter 3:22, and other passages. This is something that is documented time and time again because the Lord Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father is the final point in the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. The fact that Jesus Christ as a man in a resurrection body is acceptable to God the Father guarantees the acceptability of every person in the Church Age who believes in Jesus Christ.

3. The ascension and session of Christ form the basis of victory, then, in the angelic conflict — Hebrews chapter one.

4. The ascension and session of Christ begin a new sphere of the angelic conflict: tactical exploitation — Ephesians 1:20,22; 4:7–10. And we are involved in the tactical exploitation, it is the objective of keeping us alive that we might reach supergrace, that God might pour those blessings He has for us, that God might pour in the midst of that certain adversities that we might take in stride as a demonstration to all the fallen angels that God can provide for His own and that the Word of God will always be vindicated. For we live under a principle: God must vindicate His Word, and God vindicates His Word in the souls of individual believers as they take it in. So we have a new sphere of the angelic conflict, and since the strategic victory is accomplished we are now under the principle of the intensity of the angelic conflict.

5. The ascension and session begin operation footstool prophesied in Psalm 110:1, quoted in Luke 20:42,23, in Acts 2:33,34. Operation footstool recognizes the final victory of the Lord Jesus Christ at the second advent. At that time angels will be removed from the world. Throughout history fallen angels have been permitted to remain around in order to prove the principle of the angelic conflict. For when Satan objected to being sentenced to the lake of fire the basis of his objection has become the very source of all human history. Man was created to glorify God by resolving the angelic conflict. But God has some wonderful things along the way. In resolving the angelic conflict it is God’s intention that every believer priest have perfect happiness and blessing from God, and therefore the Lord Jesus Christ has provided in His departure that we might have this wonderful priesthood into which we might enter into celebrityship of Jesus Christ.

6. The second advent will conclude operation footstool — Daniel 7:13,14; Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15; Revelation 20:1–3. When the Lord Jesus Christ returns he returns with the Church to, the Armageddon campaign, and there is where the Lord Jesus Christ as the greatest soldier in all of history will break His own record in killing the enemy. The record for killing the enemy at this point is 185,000 in one second. There will be over a million people personally killed by the Lord Jesus Christ at the Armageddon campaign. This will pile up the dead their corpses all the way up to heaven. It will take 7 months to bury the dead.

7. The ascension and session completes the glorification of Christ in His hypostatic union — Acts 2:33; 5:31; Philippians 2:9; 1Peter 3:22.

8. The ascension and session explains the uniqueness of Jesus Christ, according to John 7:37–39.

9. The ascension and session is the key to the victory of the angelic conflict — Hebrews 1:4.

No sooner does it state the fact that Jesus Christ is ascended in this passage than immediately we have a very interesting study of Him. We have the phrase “Jesus the Son of God.” The word “Jesus” refers to His humanity. This name always emphasizes the humanity of Christ and, of course, His high priesthood. Remember that a priest is a man representing man before God, according to Hebrews 10:5–10. And that is exactly what we have in the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the high priest who wins the victory, but He is also called the Son of God. So we have the phrase “Jesus the Son of God.” The words “Son of God” refer to His deity. He is just as much God as the Father, just as much God as the Holy Spirit, He is coequal and coeternal with them. But at the same time He is man. He has a body, He has a soul, He has a human spirit, so He is a trichotomous being. As the God-Man He came into this world to accomplish the strategic victory. As God He can’t die on the cross. As God He is eternal life; eternal life cannot die. He is sovereignty: sovereignty isn’t subject to death. As God he is omnipresent; omnipresence cannot reduce itself to one point, like the cross. As God He is immutability; He can’t change His characteristics and die on the cross as God.

So He became true humanity, but He had to be humanity minus the old sin nature, humanity minus any personal sin and minus the imputation of Adam’s sin. So through the virgin birth He accomplished the first two, and through living 33 years without personal sin He accomplished the last, so that when Jesus Christ came to the cross he came to the cross as perfect man. He is the God-Man, and as He was hanging upon the cross He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. All these sins came from the area of weakness of our old sin nature.

We also have an area of strength which produces human good. He rejected all human good. Human good belongs to Satan and to the devil’s world and human good has always been rejected by God. Our righteousnesses are filthy rags in His sight, and right down to the cross and forever after human good has never been acceptable to God. Therefore when Christ took our place and was judged for us He provided this so great salvation. He offered Himself as a sacrifice, the first and only sacrifice of our priesthood. Christ takes our place and becomes our substitute so that when we believe in Jesus Christ we have eternal life, we enter into His plan, we are related to the strategic victory and we are now in line for tactical victory. That is the objective of our life on this earth; the tactical victory of the supergrace life, the tactical victory of occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the unique person of the universe. He is different from God in that he is man; He is different from man in that he is God. He is different from all other members of the human race in that He is perfect man and at the same time God. he is different from the Father and from the Holy Spirit in that He is the God-man. Jesus Christ is absolutely unique, no matter how you observe Him; He is the only celebrity of our priesthood.

The Doctrine of the Hypostatic Union (The Uniqueness of the Person of Christ)

1. By way of definition: In the person of Jesus Christ are two natures inseparably united, without mixture or loss of separate identity, without loss or transfer property or attributes, the union being personal and eternal.

2. The scriptural verification: John 1:1–14; Romans 1:2–5; 9:5; Philippians 2:5–11; summarized in 1Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 2:14.

3. The incarnate person of Christ includes His deity. Jesus Christ is God, coequal, coeternal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. The incarnation does not diminish His deity; He is, therefore, undiminished deity.

4. The incarnate person of Christ is also true humanity. He is bona fide humanity with a body, a soul, and with a human spirit, but minus the old sin nature. Through the virgin birth Jesus Christ avoided both the imputation of Adam’s sin and spiritual death at birth. So Jesus Christ came into the world without an old sin nature. The only way He could have acquired one is to sin as Adam did, though negative volition. But He through free will avoided that.

5. The two natures of Christ are united without transfer of attributes. In other words, the attributes adhere to their corresponding natures. The essence of deity cannot be changed — immutability. The infinite cannot be transferred to the finite. To rob God of a single attribute would destroy His deity and would be blasphemous. To rob the humanity of Christ of a single attribute of His humanity would also destroy His humanity and therefore the hypostatic union. So the two natures of Christ are united without transfer of attributes at any time.

6. No attribute of essence of deity was changed at the incarnation. In fulfilling the purpose of the first advent certain attributes of deity were used, but this does not imply that they were either surrendered or destroyed. There is a false doctrine of Kenosis and under that doctrine it says that certain attributes of deity were surrendered. However, the true doctrine of Kenosis says that Christ voluntarily restricted the independent use of divine attributes in keeping with the plan of the Father. In other words, the humanity of Christ recognized the authority of the Father.

7. This is demonstrated by the three great temptations. You may go forty days without food but the devil is never going to come to you and tempt you to turn stones into bread. Our Lord actually had the power. Why did He refuse? That would be violating God’s plan for Jesus Christ agreed to depend upon the provision of the Father. If Jesus Christ had turned those stones into bread as the devil tempted Him to do so then Jesus Christ would have violated the plan of the Father and rejected the authority of the Father, and would be in a state of sin and therefore would not be our Savior. Satan also offered Him the kingdoms of the world. Why? Because he is the ruler of this world. It was a bona fide offer and Jesus Christ refused this. It is God’s plan in this dispensation to honor the written Word of God.

8. Therefore, the union of divine essence and human nature of the incarnate Christ must be considered hypostatic and personal. That means that Jesus Christ is now at the right hand of the Father, true humanity. He is eternal God, He does not cease to be God, He does not cease to be a member of the human race. He is true humanity is resurrection body. He will be that way forever. He will be an eternal symbol to everything that is related to grace. In order to save mankind, in order to provide eternal salvation for us, in order that we might live forever and ever with God apart from the lake of fire where all of the fallen angels will be God had to come up with something special, God had to find a way. And grace found a way. There is no way that salvation can be accomplished through any member of the human race. Salvation had to be accomplished by the only one who was qualified to do so: Jesus Christ as the God-Man. Therefore the divine essence of God and His human essence in one person forever is the absolute uniqueness in the universe.

9. There is a false interpretation of the hypostatic union: that deity possessed humanity or that the deity of Christ indwelt the humanity of Christ. Or, as the liberals say. “there was harmony and sympathy.” However, the Bible makes it very clear that it is personal. The two natures, divine and human, have been combined in one hypostasis forever. Jesus Christ, then, is undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever.

10. Therefore, Jesus Christ, the God-Man has one essence forever. The attributes of both divine and human nature belong to the person of Christ always. The characteristics of one nature are never attributed to the other. This means that during His first advent Jesus was weak and at the same time he was omnipotent. He was ignorant and He was omniscient. However, the ignorance of His humanity was quickly overcome by the daily function of GAP and the erection of the ECS — Luke 2:40, 52; John 1:14. The word “glory” in John 1:14 is the ECS of the humanity of Christ.

11. Why did Jesus Christ, eternal God, coequal with the Father and coequal with the Holy Spirit, have to become a member of the human race?

a. Jesus Christ had to become a member of the human race to be our Savior — Philippians 2:7,8; Hebrews 2:14,15. Only as a man can Jesus pay for our sins. He must be able to take upon Himself, as a man, the sins of the world. He cannot take these sins on as God, because there is no equality there.

b. Jesus Christ is the mediator. According to the book of Job a mediator must be equal with both parties in the mediation. Party of the first part is God; party of the second part is man. The mediator, if he is going to bring both parties, God and man, together he must be equal with both parties — Job 9:32–33 demands this; 1Timothy 2:5,6 explains it. Jesus Christ was always God, coequal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit; He became true humanity. Therefore He is the mediator between God and man. However, to fulfil the mediation He had to die, and the cross fulfils the mediation. Now man can be brought to God in the basis of Jesus Christ the mediator. So He is not only our Savior but He is the mediator. he is the God-Man. He is coequal with man, He is coequal with the Father, He is superior to all other members of the human race, and therefore He is the only mediator.

c. Jesus Christ had to become a man to be a priest. A priest is a man who represents man before God — Hebrews 7:4, 5, 14, 28; 10:5–14. These passages tell us in definition that a priest must be a man representing man before God. The tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron, represented the entire nation of Israel, and they had to be true members of the human race, they had to be born of the line of Aaron in order to fulfil that principle. Jesus Christ is said to be our high priest. To be our high priest He has to become a man, and therefore the importance of His humanity.

d. God promised David in supergrace something special that his dynasty would last forever. God promised David that he would have a son who would rule the earth forever, not just Israel which is included but all the entire earth. He promised this unconditionally, no strings attached — 2Samuel 7:8–16. He repeated this promise in Psalm 89:20–37. In order for that promise to be fulfilled Jesus Christ not only had to become true humanity but He had to be born into the direct line of David. And, as a matter of fact, He was. He was descended from David through Solomon on one side and Solomon’s brother Nathan on the other. The line of Solomon goes down through Joseph; the line of Nathan goes down through Mary. Through the virgin birth Jesus Christ is directly descended from David, through Nathan to Mary. Then. on the legal side, Joseph, the legal father but not the real father, is descended from Solomon. So on both sides the Lord Jesus Christ is born by directly in the line of David and therefore He is often called the son of David. In this way God keeps His Word, God fulfils His promise to David when Jesus Christ returns. So it becomes, therefore, necessary for Jesus Christ to become a true member of the human race other wise He could not fulfil the Davidic covenant., otherwise he could not be a mediator, otherwise He could not be our high priest, and otherwise he could not be our Savior. Therefore this is a pivotal doctrine, one that you must master and understand in order to appreciate the celebrityship of Jesus Christ.

12. Everything verbally communicated by Christ during the incarnation came from one of three sources: from His deity, as in John 8:58 where Jesus said, “Before Abraham was I existed eternally”; or from His humanity where He said in John 19:28, “I thirst” — deity doesn’t thirst, only humanity; or many times He spoke from His hypostatic union, as in Matthew 11:28 when He said, “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest,” or in John 14:6 where He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” In His hypostatic union He often declared the principle of salvation for the hypostatic union was necessary for eternal salvation.

“Nothing greater than a woman in a dress and a man in a uniform.”

So we can see very briefly, then, from this sketch some of the concepts involved in the celebrityship of the Lord Jesus Christ: His strategic victory by being seated at the right hand of the Father, His great uniqueness which makes the intensity of the Church Age in the angelic conflict a reality. And when we see this phrase, as it occurs occasionally, “Jesus the Son of God,” we are looking at the hypostatic union, the uniqueness of the person of Jesus Christ.

Now, He is called our high priest, and that leads us now to the doctrine of the high priesthood of Jesus Christ. This, too, is a part of His uniqueness.

The Doctrine of the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ

1. There are three different priesthoods in the scripture. When the word “priest” is mentioned you must remember a priest is a man representing man before God. Each of the three priesthoods mentioned in the scripture corresponds to a dispensation in the past or current. For example, the first dispensation in history was the Age of the Gentiles, and in that age there was a bona fide priesthood. The family priesthood was made up of the head of every family. For example, anyone who was the head of a family was the priest, anyone who was the firstborn became the priest upon the death of his father. Foe example, Abraham was a priest, Job was a priest, Melchizedek was a priest. (Melchizedek was not Jesus Christ, he was a member of the human race. In fact he was a king and a priest and illustrates the priesthood of Christ) In the dispensation of Israel we have the Levitical priesthood. The family of Aaron in the tribe of Levi was appointed. The elder surviving son was commissioned as a high priest, and the priesthood was commissioned by the Mosaic law. The objective was to communicate written doctrine and to explain the ritual and the shadows under which Israel worshipped and respected the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a special reason why Levi became the priestly tribe.

a. The firstborn was Reuben. He had three things going for him as the firstborn. He was the family ruler, he was the family priest, he was also the family heir and therefore had the double portion. Reuben, because of reversionism, lost all three.

b. The rulership went to the tribe of Judah; the priesthood went to the tribe of Levi; the double portion went to the tribe of Joseph — Joseph has two tribes, Ephraim and Mannaseh. So we have the tribe of Levi and the specialized priesthood of the previous dispensation.

c. A specialized priesthood calls for a specialized modus operandi. That is why we have so much ritual in the Age of Israel. That is why they had a tabernacle and that is why they had a temple: so the priests could function and teach and communicate. That is why they had animal sacrifices. That is why they had special holy days like the Passover, the unleavened bread, the firstfruits, Pentecost. These special holy days called for a certain type of ritual. This ritual taught the celebrityship of Jesus Christ before Christ went to the cross. It was a specialized priesthood to communicate information with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we have the dispensation of the Church. In the dispensation of the Church Jesus Christ is now out high priest and we are a kingdom of priests. That means that every believer in this dispensation is a priest — 1Peter 2:5, 9.

2. As the high priest Jesus Christ is the minister of spiritual things — Hebrews 5:1. Jesus Christ has left us a legacy of spiritual things in the Word of God. The completed canon of scripture is the legacy through which he ministers.

3. Christ is appointed high priest by God the Father — Hebrews 5:4–10; 6:20.

4. Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice for the priesthood — Hebrews 9:26, 27. The first function of Jesus Christ as the high priest was to solve the problem of the old sin nature. When Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross the sins of the world were poured out upon Jesus Christ and all human good was rejected. He paid in full, this is the first function of the high priest.

a. The high priest offered sacrifices in the Old Testament. On the day of atonement he offered sacrifices out in front of the tabernacle, and later on the temple. Then he took the blood of those sacrifices into the holy of holies twice: once for himself and once for the people.

b. Now Jesus Christ has fulfilled that on the cross by taking our place and bearing our sins.

5. Christ has an eternal and untransmissable priesthood — Hebrews 7:20,21,24. This priesthood will never be changed, never be superseded, and we are a part of it. This is another reminder of the doctrine of eternal security. When we believe in Jesus Christ we are entered at that moment into union with Christ. Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, we enter into union with Him, His priesthood becomes our priesthood, and His priesthood cannot be superseded or transferred.

6. Because of positional sanctification, union with Christ, every believer is to function as a priest in this life — 1Peter 2:5,9; Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6. That function is to reach the supergrace life, to come to the place where God pours out His blessings upon you without measure, to share the very happiness which He has provided and to share these blessings which He has stored up for you from eternity past.

7. Christ as high priest performs a ministry of intercession for the believer on earth — Hebrews 7:25. The high priesthood of Christ in the field of intercession is a reminder of the fact that you and I can never be adequate in prayer. We are commanded to pray, we are to utilize prayer, but no matter how good a prayer warrior you are you will never be good enough. There are things that you are not aware of, areas of ignorance that cannot be overcome, and therefore the Lord Jesus Christ as your celebrity, your high priest also makes intercession for you. That is why all prayer offered to God must come through Jesus Christ, that is the channel, that is the authority.

8. The believer priest in phase two possesses a number of sacrifices or functions different or related to the Levitical code by way of illustration.

a. We have, for example, the sacrifice of the believer’s body — Romans 12:1. This is tantamount to the rebound technique, the principle of 1John 1:9, the first function of the priesthood.

b. The second sacrifice is the sacrifice of praise — Hebrews 13:15. The sacrifice of praise is not standing and saying, “Praise the Lord”, or “hallelujah”. Instead, it is reaching the supergrace life. We can only glorify God as supergrace believers. At that point Jesus Christ becomes our only celebrity and we love Him as He first loved us.

c. The third sacrifice was actually twofold: the production of divine good and giving — Hebrews 13:16.

d. The final one is obedience to the authority of the local church — Hebrews 13:17. This is the sacrifice of the priesthood, this is the way you learn Bible doctrine

Having therefore, the great High Priest, Jesus, the Son of God,...

1972 Hebrews Lesson #46

46 06/03/1973 Hebrews 4:14b-15 Doctrine of impeccability

The high priesthood of Jesus Christ is a reminder that every believer is a priest in this dispensation, and that every believer therefore is in full time Christian service. You do not dedicate yourself to full time Christian service, you are as of the moment of salvation. Our purpose is to be prepared for the possible victory of the angelic conflict and to be prepared for great blessing as we take in the Word of God. The primary function of the priesthood is the intake of God’s Word that we might reach the supergrace status.

Some of the Greek covered in review for v. 14a.

In verse 24 the translation “having therefore a great high priest, having passed through the heavens”, not “that is passed into.” The perfect active participle of dierxomai indicates that part of the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. The perfect tense indicates something that happened in the past with results that continue forever. This is a consummative perfect emphasizing the results of the completed action. The active voice indicates that Jesus Christ has accomplished this in the resurrection body and that this is a part of the strategical victory. The whole issue in the angelic conflict after the fall of man is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. First, on the cross bearing our sins and taking our place. Our sins were poured out on Him and judged. Then having born our sins, having accomplished eternal salvation, He said, “Finished.” That is in the perfect tense too, another consummative perfect indicating the results of Christ bearing our sins and Christ being judged for our sins. Then Jesus Christ died physically. Having dismissed His spirit, His spirit went into the presence of the Father, His soul went to Paradise which is a part of Hades or Sheol, and His body went into the grave. Three days later His soul came from Paradise, His spirit came from the presence of the Father, rejoined His body in resurrection, and He was resurrected. Then for forty days after His resurrection He was on the earth, making some seventeen appearances, and then He ascended into the presence of the Father where He was seated at the right hand of the Father. When the Father said, Sit down at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool, that is the ultimate in strategic victory. That is the point at which Jesus Christ in a resurrection body in His humanity is infinitely superior to all fallen angels. That is the point, therefore, when the Lord Jesus Christ gained the victory over Satan. As Colossians 2:14 indicates, He broke the back of Satan at that time. This is also the subject of Hebrews 2:14,15. So this is the strategical victory.

The strategical victory having been accomplished, the Jewish Age is interrupted ten days later for the Church Age. We live in the dispensation of the Church. Once the Jewish Age is interrupted, then with the high priest at the right hand of the Father, having gained for us a strategical victory, we now live in the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. For up until the ascension of Christ He was the major target for Satan’s activities. But with Jesus Christ glorified at the right hand of the Father the major target in now His representation on earth. Therefore we live in the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. We therefore live in a time when the life of each one of us has great meaning and purpose and definition. As never before in history the emphasis is now on the individual believer, the emphasis is on you as a believer priest. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you are a priest, you are an ambassador, and very important. You are therefore in full time Christian service and therefore the weapon for tactical victory in the angelic conflict. The tactical victory. however, depends upon your attitude toward Bible doctrine. If you are positive toward doctrine and GAP it consistently you will eventually get into supergrace with occupation with the person of Christ, our high priest, with supergrace capacity. Supergrace capacity is that amount of Bible doctrine in the soul that gives you a cup. The supergrace blessing. God pours into that cup. God has for you, billions of years ago, prepared wonderful and fantastic blessings, everything you have ever associated as happiness is yours plus the capacity to enjoy it. This is the time you receive God’s happiness, this is the time when all of these blessings become yours. This is the objective. And when God pours, since God is the host and does the pouring, he is glorified. This is the tactical victory. God is glorified by the completion of His plan with Christ at the right hand of the Father. God is glorified by pouring for you. When God can give you great wealth, promotion, success, prosperity, when God can pour these things for you then He is glorified and you are blessed. The only way a believer can glorify God in the Church Age is through the constant intake of doctrine until he reaches the supergrace life. This is the objective, and whether you like it or not you were born again to be happy, to be blessed, to have great prosperity.

Hustling around a church, praying, saying nice things....these are acts of human good. It is not the act, but the entirety of the act that makes the difference.

Many believers have been psyched out by the suffering-for-Jesus crowd, the crowd who have rejected Bible doctrine, the reversionistic crowd, those who have gone negative toward Bible doctrine and are under self-induced misery, those who have reacted to their discouragement, to their boredom, to their disillusion, to their self-pity, to their frustration, loneliness, etc. These lead to a frantic search for happiness, there are reactors factors, and that frantic search for happiness always causes emotional revolt of the soul.

When you start negative, you begin to suck in human viewpoint and cosmic system thinking.

Too many people are writing and teaching things from experience and not from Bible doctrine.

Demon influence vs. demon possession. The first, they might take off their clothes; they might have increased strength. In the latter, this can be a believer or an unbeliever. If a believer, they have fouled up so badly that they get into reversionism and reverse process reversionism.

Bob is setting up two armies; Napoleon is concentrated on strategic interior lines. I think that he is explaining the difference between a strategic and a tactical victory. The cross, resurrection, ascension and session...these are the aspects of the strategic victory. Our lives and spiritual growth are all about tactical victories.

The issue from the rest of this chapter and into the next two: Are you going to be in tactical victory or defeat? In Hebrews chapter five, verses 11–16, we see tactical defeat. In Hebrews chapter six, verses 1–6, the tactical defeat is amplified with demonstrations as to how it can turn to victory. The last half of chapter six and for the rest of the book we see the principle of tactical victory. At this point there is a relationship between strategical and tactical victory in the Christian life.

You say, What is strategy? It is the maneuver of troops over a large area to get in position so that their concentration at the point of meeting the enemy is greater than the enemy, whereas tactics are all of the maneuvers on a battlefield. So there is a difference between strategy and tactics historically in the military, much more so historically in the angelic conflict. You are already on the winning side of the strategical conflict with Satan. With the session of Christ operation footstool is the next part of the strategical movement, and in operation footstool Christ will come back to the earth — we will accompany Him — and He will defeat the Armageddon armies seeking to destroy Israel. He will also at the same time eliminate from the earth all unbelievers, He will begin His Millennial reign, He will fulfil the Davidic covenant, and that again is strategical victory. The first and second advents are strategical victories in the angelic conflict. In between the first and second advents we have the Church Age and our tactical participation. So don’t ever say, not matter how you have failed, no matter what you have done, no matter how stupid you may feel at this particular moment even, that there isn’t a purpose for your life. Don’t ever say that your life is meaningless, because it is meaningful. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you are a priest, if you are a believer priest God has a purpose for your life and that purpose is tactical victory. Tactical victory means you with millions of dollars, you with business success, you promoted in your profession, you with your right woman or right man having the most wonderful rapport of soul and body, you having social success and prosperity, you having blessing in every field that you have ever associated with blessing, you having materialistic things, you possessing things from God, Jesus Christ making it possible for God the Father to pour out upon you, into your cup, so that your cup overflows. It is no accident that you were appointed a priest at the point of new birth, it is no accident that you are here today as a believer being challenged with the importance of doctrine in your life. It is no accident that God has set up a principle for this dispensation: He must vindicate His Word, and the vindication of His Word occurs in your soul. The vindication of His Word in the Bible is the preservation of the canon of scripture and we have it right now even though Satan has attacked it for centuries. God vindicates His Word, God will vindicate His Word, but His Word must reside in the soul of every believer. No matter what you do in life, no matter where you are, not matter what you are involved in, God vindicates His Word in one specific way, and that is through His Word in your soul, and that means consistency in the function of GAP. The grace apparatus for perception is designed to take in every part of the Word of God. That is the issue in the celebrityship of Jesus Christ. Without the celebrityship of Christ there would be no supergrace life for this dispensation, there would be no pouring as God desires to pour. But these things are available, these things belong to each one of us now. The tragedy of our day is the neglect of doctrine and a maximum number of believers in reversionism.

Government is filled with mixed up liberals. Never has there been so much by way of mixed up people. The whole Watergate is stated in a pompous and self righteous way. That the American people are buying this thing is ludicrous. Our taxes are going to build up nations who are our enemies. We need to have the government off the back of business. There should be laws to keep government out of business. There should be laws where Uncle Sammy should pay.

Teddy Roosevelt was the last president to think like an American. Fortunately, we have 3 volumes of his writing to learn from. All of the things that we have studied take us to an application.

Now we come in verse 14 to the application. “Let us hold fast” — the present active subjunctive of the verb krateô (κρατέω) [pronounced krat-EH-oh]. Krateô (κρατέω) [pronounced krat-EH-oh] as a verb means to seize, to hold fast, to take possession of something. It has a lot of meanings. Here the one that is pertinent is taking possession. This is a progressive present, it signifies the persistence of a status, a status that we have had for a long time without knowing it, but it is knowing it that makes the difference. The status is supergrace and the priesthood is where it begins. The priesthood does not function properly until we reach supergrace but you are appointed a priest at the point of salvation. “Let us hold fast” means here to take possession of what we have. What we need to do is to GAP it to supergrace so that our priesthood will function. We need to take possession of our priesthood. The present tense indicates that concept. The active voice: the believer priest produces the action by GAPing it to supergrace, by maintaining supergrace through GAP when he gets there. The subjunctive mood is a hortatory subjunctive in which the writer encourages other believers to join him in a course of action, join him in the function of the priesthood in supergrace — join me and take possession of what was given to you at salvation.

The next word is “profession”. This is an objective genitive from the noun homologia (ὁμολογία) ψ[pronounced hom-ol-og-EE-ah]. We are familiar with this word under homologeô (ὁμολογέω) [pronounced hoh-moh-loh-GEH-oh], which means to confess or acknowledge your sin, or using 1John 1:9. The cognate is homologia (ὁμολογία) ψ[pronounced hom-ol-og-EE-ah] and is taken from the verb. Ordinarily, when a noun is taken from the verb, if it means confess it means “let us take possession of a confession”. However, the word doesn’t mean “confess”, it means to acknowledge. So this should be translated, “take possession of the acknowledgment”. The acknowledgment is the fact that at the point of salvation every believer was appointed a priest. You are a priest, you do represent yourself on this earth. You as a priest are designed for the greatest possible blessing. You have been designed for supergrace and the function of your priesthood. That is the issue, that is what is important in this passage. “Let us take possession of he acknowledgment”. This means the believer acknowledges that he is a priest as of the moment of salvation but he cannot take possession of that acknowledgment until he GAPs it to supergrace, until he has a cup in his soul and God begins to pour those supergrace blessings. Here, then, is a command to enter the supergrace life, to use the priesthood, to exploit the priesthood, to recognize the celebrityship of Jesus Christ, to become effective to enter into the tactical victory of the angelic conflict.

Hebrews 4:14 “Having therefore a great high priest, who having traveled through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us take possession of the acknowledgment.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The hortatory subjunctive is a little different from the imperative mood because it recognizes this: the imperative mood is a command you can obey immediately. If it is a negative command, Stop doing something, you can stop it immediately. If it is a command to do something, it is something you can do immediately. But under the subjunctive mood you can’t do it immediately. You can’t say in one second, “I am in supergrace, I am going to take possession of a possession.” Something is in between: functioning under GAP today, tomorrow, the next day, the next, the next, and so on. There is between the command given and the fulfilment in supergrace an elapse of time in which the believer must be consistent in the function of GAP until he reaches occupation with Christ and supergrace capacity. So the subjunctive recognizes that the volition is involved in going from point X to point SG [supergrace]. You can’t do it immediately.

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (ESV)

Verse 15 — the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ. This verse tells us a great deal about the compassion of our only celebrity. There is nothing that you have gone through but what Jesus Christ endured that same agony of soul, that same suffering of body, that same frustration of desire. The only difference is that during His life on this earth Christ never succumbed to any sin. And that even made it worse. That intensified every temptation, every testing.

“For” is a conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] used to express a cause or a reason — “we have not,” the present active indicative of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh], to have and to hold, plus the negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. The negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] is an objective negative and therefore this is a very clearly delineated concept without any subjective concepts put in on the side. “We have not and hold not a high priest”. Notice again, we were to have or to hold our acknowledgment. Now we have not, our acknowledgment is obviously the high priest. This sets up the celebrityship of Christ by placing Him in contrast, by the way, with all high priests in history.

“which cannot” — present active participle of dinamai, and this is a tendencial present to indicate a status. This is the status of our Lord Jesus Christ. But notice that “cannot” includes a negative and now we have a subjective negative, m (μή) [pronounced may]. Notice that we go from one verb with ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook], an objective negative, to a verb with m (μή) [pronounced may]. That tells us that we are now getting into our personal feelings, and our personal feelings become a subjective concept. And often in our personal feelings we are filled with self-pity or bitterness or resentment or disillusion or frustration. And this negative followed by another type of negative — ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] followed by m (μή) [pronounced may] — indicates God thorough, complete, and total understanding of our status quo under the greatest of pressures. “For we have not a high priest unable”.

The words to “be touched” — aorist active infinitive of sumpaqew, the word from which we get the word “sympathy.” It means to suffer with, to sympathize with. Jesus Christ our high priest has personally endured every affliction, every testing, every pressure we will ever face. The only exception means without sin. The aorist tense is the constative aorist which gathers up into one entirety the life of Jesus Christ on earth in the incarnation. The active voice: our high priest, Jesus Christ, produces the action of the verb. The infinitive relates God’s purpose in the incarnation to our lives. God knew ahead of time everything we would ever face or suffer and these circumstances were established so that Jesus Christ would go ahead of us in all of these things.

Notice the phrase “with the feeling of”. It is not found in the original. The word “infirmities” is a)sqenia which really means “weaknesses” — weaknesses and pressures.

“but” — the adversative conjunction de, emphasizing a contrast between the Lord Jesus Christ as our high priest being tempted or being tested and we as believers being tempted or tested.

“was tempted” — perfect passive participle of the verb peirazô (πειράζω) [pronounced pi-RAD-zoh]. Peirazô (πειράζω) [pronounced pi-RAD-zoh] is used in a good sense for being put to the test to discover what a person is like. It is used in a bad sense for temptation in the sense of solicitation to sin. Here it is used in the sense of any kind of testing or pressure. The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect which describes the fact in an unusually vivid and realistic way and at the same emphasizes the results of the action. This is a very dramatic concept, that nothing that you have suffered or ever will suffer was unknown to Jesus Christ. The passive voice: Christ received both the testing and the temptation during the period of his incarnation and not once did He crack. This should be translated “having been tempted.”

“in all points” — preposition katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs], which should be translated “in all things.” Whatever your temptation or testing has been Jesus Christ has already been through it.

“like as we are” is not correct. Again, we have katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative, but this time the word is homoiotês (ὁμοιότης) [pronounced hom-oy-OHT-ace]. This is an idiom which should be translated “in quite the same way”. This phrase indicates He went through it just the way we did.

The only exception comes up with an adverb used as a preposition, chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE], followed by the genitive of hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah], the most general term for sin and the principle of sin, and even a definition of sin since hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah] originally meant to miss the mark. So it should be translated “apart from sin”. In the areas of temptation Jesus Christ never succumbed. That is the only exception, so He can’t say “I know what it is like to sin” because He never has.

Hebrews 4:15 “For we have not a high priest unable to sympathize with our weaknesses; but having been tempted in all things in quite the same way, apart from sin.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Doctrine of Impeccability

1. Christ did not have an old sin nature by birth, nor did He commit any act of sin during the incarnation — Hebrews 4:15; 1Peter 1:19; 1John 3:5. By being born of a virgin Jesus Christ by-passed having an old sin nature.

2. Jesus Christ, however, was tempted in every area of humanity — Hebrews 4:15. The unique temptation — Matthew 4:2–11.

3. As with Adam in innocence or sinlessness and Jesus Christ in hypostatic union all temptation to Christ came from without. He didn’t have an old sin nature. So the temptation is bona fide without a sin nature. Adam and the woman were both minus the sin nature before they fell, and they still sinned. It doesn’t take an old sin nature to sin, all it takes is free will. Sin comes from volition.

4. All temptations to Christ came through His human nature. The human nature of Christ is temptable but the divine nature of Christ is not temptable — James 1:13.

5. Christ resisted the greatest of all temptations at Gethsemane when He faced the cross — Luke 22:42; Matthew 26:39; Mark 14:35,36. When Jesus faced the possibility of the cross He had no old sin nature, no imputation of Adam’s sin, no personal sin, and the idea of personal sin was totally repugnant to Him both in His humanity and in His deity; and therefore He uttered the words in great anguish of soul, “Father, if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done.” And by His own volition He went to the cross, and because He did you and I have eternal life.”

6. Christ also resisted the kenosis temptation in Matthew 4:1–11. He resisted the temptation to use His own divine attributes in independence of God the Father.

7. The categorizing of the doctrine involves two factors: the humanity of Christ and the deity of Christ. The deity of Christ is not temptable, not peccable; the humanity of Christ is temptable and peccable.

8. In the hypostatic union Christ is temptable but impeccable.

9. It is possible for the humanity of Christ during the incarnation to suffer all of the physical limitations, all of the adversities and pressures, of any member of the human race apart from sin. None of these sufferings present complications which in any way affect His immutable holiness.

10. The doctrine of impeccability as stated theologically: Christ was able not to sin and not able to sin. Christ is God, God is never the source of evil, temptation or sin. Evil stems from angelic and human volition but never divine sovereignty.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #47

47 06/10/1973 Hebrews 4:16 Doctrine of prayer; praying for believer & unbeliever

We are involved in the angelic conflict; we are in the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. There is a strategic victory which had preceded our dispensation but gives us the very meaning of the epistle which we are studying. When the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. He took our place and became our Savior. At the same time, when He was on the cross He rejected human good, since both human good and sin come from the same source but a different area of the sin nature. The sins come from the area of weakness; human good comes from the area of strength. Then the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled one of His priestly ministries which we will study in the next chapter. That was the famous prayer by which He prayed for the perpetuation of His high priestly ministry. When Jesus Christ became our sacrifice, our Savior, when he offered Himself a sacrifice for sin, that was a ministry of the priesthood, that was a ministry of His high priesthood. But there is another ministry which is also important and that is the ministry of intercession, representing us at the right hand of the Father. For this ministry to be perpetuated there had to be the overcoming of death for death terminates the function of any high priest and someone else is appointed in his place. But the Lord Jesus Christ Himself must perpetuate His high priesthood and therefore He prayed. The reference to this prayer is found in the fifth chapter of Hebrews. It is also found in several other passage: Psalm 69 22 19. In this prayer the Lord Jesus Christ, while still on the cross, asked God the Father to raise Him from the dead for the perpetuation of His priesthood. So we are studying the celebrityship of Jesus Christ. We are studying the unique high priest. There is only one high priest in all of history whose ministry was terminated for three days, but He rose again from the dead in answer to prayer.

So the Lord Jesus Christ, then, rose from the dead on the third day and was seated on the right hand of the Father. That was the first phase of the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. This strategic victory is described in the second chapter of Colossians and in the second chapter of Hebrews. Now, once Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father he is told to sit there until the Father makes His enemies His footstool. This is the end of the first phase of the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. This strategic victory — death , burial, resurrection — is the very basis for the intensification of the angelic conflict. Satan himself has always made Christ and the line of Christ the specific target in the angelic conflict up to this time. Now all of this is changed. Now, Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father and a new dispensation interrupts the Age of Israel — the Church Age — and every believer is now the target, every believer is a priest.

Therefore, at the moment of salvation God the Holy Spirit takes every believer and through the baptism of the Spirit, identifying us with Christ, we are entered into union with Christ as He is seated at the right hand of the Father. We are identified with Christ as He died upon the cross. retroactive positional truth plus current positional truth identifies every believer with the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, and through this identification we are now placed in the position of living on the earth as believers in full time Christians service under a universal priesthood whereby through this identification we are now to move to tactical victory. The tactical victory of the Church Age is reaching the supergrace life through persistence in the function of GAP. Then once the Church, the body of Christ, is completed it is resurrected and becomes the bride of Christ, following the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the Rapture of the Church. Then the second stage of the strategic victory is the second advent of Christ some seven years later at which time the Lord Jesus Christ will break His record as the greatest warrior of all time in the Armageddon campaign. The second thing he is going to do is to remove Satan and all fallen angels from the earth. Satan will no longer rule the world but will be superseded by the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan and all demons will be incarcerated for a thousand years and all unbelievers will be removed from the earth in the baptism of fire. This is all a part of the second stage of the strategic victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. The final stage will come at the end of the Millennium when Jesus Christ puts down forever the Gog and Magog revolution.

Under the principle of the book of Hebrews our priesthood has great significance. It is related to the intensification of the angelic conflict as we saw in the first and second chapters. It is related to the celebrityship of Jesus Christ and we are commanded occupation with Christ as the first move in the supergrace life.

In the classification of grace there is, first of all, phase one grace which is everything that God provided for eternal salvation. God the Father did the planning, God the Son executed the plan all by becoming a member of the human race, entering into the hypostatic union, going to the cross and bearing our sins in His own body on the tree, and completed salvation before He died physically. When He said, “It is finished” all the sins of the world had been judged in Christ, past, present, and future. So that phase one grace, or salvation grace, was completed on the cross. Now it is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit utilizing the Word to make this information available to all the human race.

Phases of Grace

1. Phase one grace involves volition because it is a part of the angelic conflict. It involves the fact that volition, to appropriate this grace, must be non-meritorious. Positive non-meritorious volition is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Once a person accepts Jesus Christ this in itself is where tactical victory becomes a potentiality. But remember this positive volition is related to the strategic victory for God the Holy Spirit makes certain of that by entering each one of us into union with Christ. We are in Christ, we share His life, eternal life, His righteousness, His heirship, His sonship, His destiny, His election. But above all, Hebrews emphasizes the fact that we share His priesthood. Therefore our life has meaning and purpose and definition.

2. The next type of grace is phase two grace which does not involve volition. Phase two grace is every step, everything that God must do to keep us alive in the devil’s world, to keep us from being annihilated by Satan, by unseen forces. Everything, for example, that is necessary to bring us to this hour and to this assembly. To bring us clothed, to bring us fed, to bring us in some sort of condition so that we can listen to the teaching of the Word of God. That does not involve volition. The fact that you and I are alive: our volition is not involved. The fact that God has provided for us to stay alive is because of the grace of God. Remember that Satan has certain powers of death as we are told from the Psalms. He has certain powers of disease, certain ways by which we could be destroyed, were it not for the fact of phase two grace. Volition is not involved. We are alive because of the grace of God and for no other reason.

3. Then there is another type of grace in phase two or the Christian way of life, and that is supergrace. Supergrace involves volition again. It involves volition because it is a part of the angelic conflict. Persistent positive volition toward Bible leads to the supergrace life, whereas on the other hand, negative volition leads to reversionism. So that in one case we have tactical victory and in the other case we have tactical defeat. The objective of the priesthood is to take us to the supergrace life for that is the first time that we function in a normal manner as priests.

4. Then there is a fourth type of grace called surpassing grace. Surpassing grace is phase three grace, everything we will receive from the time we leave this earth forever and ever and ever. Again, no volition is involved there because the angelic conflict does not call for it, it is over by the time we reach that stage.

The first objective of Hebrews is to take believers and move them from indifference toward doctrine and some stage of reversionism to the supergrace life so that the priesthood can function, so that there can be tactical victory in the angelic conflict and so that God can be glorified in this dispensation. God is only glorified when he can pour. We start at the cross and we GAP it all of the way to the supergrace life. When we get there we are occupied with the person of Christ, we have maximum category #1 love response. Secondly, we have the cup. That is, we have the supergrace capacity through Bible doctrine in the soul, and having the cup God then begins to pour. God pours and that is supergrace blessing. And that is the objective of the priesthood, so that God can pour for you. He is tapping His foot right now, waiting to bless you. To do that there must be supergrace capacity. This is the only place where all things work together for good. That passage is well known — Romans 8:28 — and glibly quoted, but the fact of the matter is a very simple one. Here we have the principle that the capacity from Bible doctrine in the soul and the things that God has prepared for you by way of great happiness and blessing in eternity past are blended together for good only in supergrace. How do we know that? Because Romans 8:28 is qualified by the phrase “those who love God”. That refers to the believer occupied with the person of Jesus Christ, that refers to entering the supergrace life and the celebrityship status. This is only possible for the believer with doctrine in his soul, with the cup in his soul. God does not pour unless there is a cup. So the purpose of Hebrews, then, is to take us to the point of Romans 8:28.

Why do people fail to take in doctrine? Where is the real problem? The real problem starts with reactor factors. There is disillusion, there is boredom, discouragement, self-pity, loneliness, frustration, jealousy and bitterness, and other mental attitude sins. These are reactor factors, and everyone has an old sin nature and the OSN has trends. It has a trend toward lasciviousness with its obvious expressions and a trend toward asceticism whereby “they give up something for God”. The frantic search for happiness immediately triggers emotional revolt. This immediately shuts down the valves in the heart where we function. First of all, the frame of reference with the memory centre, the vocabulary, the categories, the norms and standards, the launching pad, are all shut down. And doctrine in all of these areas drains right over to the left lobe or the mind where it can’t be used. Doctrine in the left lobe is like being a hearer but not a doer. Doctrine is not useable in the left lobe. This causes negative volition toward doctrine, and this causes the scar tissue that opens up mataiotês (ματαιότης) [pronounced mat-ah-YOHT-ace] through which comes the doctrine of demons. And it comes into a vacuum. Doctrine has been drained out of the heart of the right lobe and the doctrine of demons then functions in all of these areas, so that instead of having the cup of the Lord overflowing you have the cup of demons. A believer cannot drink of the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. This believer, then, is under demon influence. His body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and safe from demon possession but he is worse than a demon-possessed type, he is under demon influence. His soul is under attack. This is our enemy because this leads to hardness of the heart, blackout of the soul, the practice of reverse process reversionism, and then it is just a matter of how long God wants to keep you alive before He takes you out.

Christian college where wacky things are done in the name of Jesus.

Once a believer reaches supergrace he becomes very effective in prayer. Prayer has minimal to fair results in the life of any believer, but prayer is a weapon which is totally useless in the angelic conflict for the reversionist. No reversionist has any prayer that can be heard except the prayer of repentance in one of the three stages of discipline and rebound. That’s all he can do, that’s the only way his priesthood functions. The priesthood of the believer is designed to function under supergrace under the status of tactical victory. That is the issue.

Maybe you discover that you want to play ice hockey, but you have never ice skated before. Some of you think that, in order to get prayer answered, you just need to be saved. But you cannot do anything until you have prayed.

If you have a glove and a baseball that you are baseball player.

In this tactical victory we must understand that the high priesthood of Christ has been perpetuated, that He Himself offered a prayer by which His own priesthood was perpetuated. This anticipates the middle part of the fifth chapter of Hebrews, especially verses 6–8 where Jesus Christ did something unusual. His priesthood was terminated by His physical death; His priesthood was perpetuated by His resurrection. Therefore Christ is unique as a priest, apart from all of the contrasts with the Aaronic priesthood, apart from the hypostatic union and His impeccability, which all contributes to Hs uniqueness. But here is something else. Jesus Christ is the only person who, as a high priest discontinued for three days but was resumed by resurrection, is the only resurrected member of the human race, right now. He is the only resurrected person in the human race in the presence of all the members of the Godhead — the hypostatic union of Jesus Christ.

And here is something else. You and I are part of that priesthood forever, so that just before you die physically remember this and apply it. You are only temporarily out of it when you die physically because in resurrection body your priesthood will continue too. That is why we have to get out of here so that the Age of Israel can be completed, and that is why when Christ returns for the second phase of the strategic victory we return with resurrection bodies. Why? Because our priesthood is perpetuated with Him. And what is going to hit the earth in the great coup de tat that knocks Satan out of rulership? It is going to be Jesus Christ in His humanity in resurrection body and His bride in resurrection body. We will all be in resurrection bodies and the priesthood will then be perpetuated forever, and will be continued at that point. The first function of the priesthood is going to be to rid the earth of Satan and demons, to rid the earth of unbelievers, in order that there might be one final perfect environment test, the test of the Millennium.

Heb 4:16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (ESV)

Verse 16 — “Therefore” is an inferential particle, οὀυν. This particle, by the way, does not come in the first part of the sentence, it always follows something else. It means to come to a conclusion about the supergrace life, it means that we have something to shoot for. If you keep taking in doctrine and taking in doctrine, you will be a prayer warrior. This inferential particle is designed to draw a secondary conclusion. This isn’t the final conclusion of the book and therefore this particle is used to show you this is just one of the conclusions which anticipates some basic things coming up. So ὀυν is a secondary particle, it means a temporary conclusion to keep you going in the right direction. What is one of the privileges of the priesthood? Prayer. When you reach supergrace you can come boldly to the throne of grace and obtain mercy at any time.

“let us come” — the present middle subjunctive of proserchomai (προσέρχομαι) [pronounced pros-ER-khom-ahee],. Pros means face to face; érchomai (ἔρχομαι) [pronounced AIR-khoh-my] means to come or to approach. It means to approach here. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs or maybe expected to occur. In other words, when you reach a certain point in your life, when you have taken in a certain amount of doctrine, even before you reach supergrace, you are going to begin to have an effective prayer life. Therefore, this particular present tense means that when you reach this point by the intake of doctrine, the Word of God, then you are going to be able to walk into God’s presence boldly, with confidence, and know that you are going to be heard. Prayer is a great weapon, a great privilege, and it is one of the most misunderstood and abused. We have a middle voice here and it is the permissive middle in which the subject, the believer priest, voluntarily yields himself to the results of the action in his own interest. In other words, here is a person who prays and he knows what he is doing, so obviously he is in supergrace. The subjunctive mood here is the hortatory subjunctive in which the writer invites the reader to join him in a course of action outlined by the verb. The course of action is prayer. “Therefore let us be approaching” is a correct translation.

The next word “boldly” is not correct because it is a prepositional phrase and it is translated like an adverb. The preposition is meta plus the genitive of parrhêsia (παῤῥησία) [pronounced par-rhay-SEE-ah],. Parrhêsia (παῤῥησία) [pronounced par-rhay-SEE-ah], here means confidence more than boldness, and meta is used here with the genitive as a preposition of association. When you are moving in the right direction, positive toward doctrine and moving toward supergrace, or when you reach it, then you approach the throne of grace with confidence. You know what you are doing.

“unto the throne of grace” — this is a so-called dative of indirect object, but it means that we are benefitted. It means whatever the action of the verb is it becomes beneficial to us. It is beneficial to us to get to that throne of grace. And notice that we have the indirect dative of advantage qronoj plus the descriptive genitive, and the descriptive genitive really refers to supergrace here which is where we function the best, or approximating supergrace. How do we know that? Because if it was just grace in general the omission of the definite article gives the quality, but we have a definite article, it is the throne of the grace and it becomes definitive then, and we have, then, the supergrace status.

What can a supergrace believer do with prayer that you can’t? “Therefore let us be approaching the throne of the grace with confidence”

“that” — hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] plus the subjunctive to give us a purpose clause — “we may obtain”, the aorist active subjunctive of the verb lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh]. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the event from its entirety but emphasizes the existing results. Once you reach supergrace you are now ready to use a weapon: prayer. You are now in the place of tactical victory and you can use that weapon. You are a priest, you have been since the day you were saved, but your priesthood functions in the normal way once you reach supergrace. Once of the functions of the priesthood is prayer. Up until now, who has been praying for you? Jesus Christ makes intercession for you at the right hand of the Father, waiting for you to get there. The active voice: the believer receives mercy as his very own possession. The subjunctive mood designates the purpose clause, and it is potential because supergrace is potential, depending upon your attitude toward doctrine.

And what is it that we receive? First of all, eleos (ἔ́λεος) [pronounced EHL-eh-os] — “mercy” as it is translated, or benefit from compassion. It even comes to means the concept of grace in action. Here is a great weapon in the hand of a supergrace believer, he can open his mouth and say, “Father”, and benefit.

Then he discovers something. The word “find” means to discover. It is an aorist active subjunctive from heuriskô (εὑρίσκω) [pronounced hyoo-RIHS-koh]. It means to discover. You discover “grace,” the aorist tense is a constative aorist. Now you discover day by day by day what grace is all about. Now you are aware of grace as never before. So you discover grace — supergrace. This is your help in time of need — “grace,” charis (χάρις) [pronounced KHAHR-iç], “to help in time of need” is a Greek prepositional phrase, eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] e)ukairon bohqeian, which means “with reference to seasonable help.”

Hebrews 4:16 “Therefore let us be approaching to the throne of grace with confidence, that we may receive grace in action and discover grace with reference to seasonable help.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

You’re on the panic button; but, you jackass, you don’t know the first thing about prayer. Bob is not known as a prayer warrior, but you would be amazed as to how fast help comes when He prays for it. Isn’t it nice that, when you call for help, that you get it. You have to watch it when it comes to using Imprecatory prayer.

The poop on prayer; it is not what you think it is; it is what you think it isn’t.

The Doctrine of Prayer

1. The approach. How do you approach? What do you say?

a. All prayer is addressed to God the Father, always — Ephesians 3:14, 1. Never to Jesus or to the Holy Spirit.

b. In the name of the Son — John 14:13,14.

c. In the power of the Spirit — Ephesians 6:18.

2. There are three categories of prayer that are addressed to God the Father. He receives prayer from us. He receives prayer from the Lord Jesus. He receives prayer from the Holy Spirit. Prayer from the source of the Son — Hebrews 7:25; prayer from the source of the Holy Spirit — Romans 8:26,27; prayer from the supergrace believer — Hebrews 4:16.

3. There has to be an agenda. First of all if you think you are out of fellowship, rebound — 1John 1:9. Second item: thanksgiving, an expression of category #1 love — Ephesians 5:20; 1Thessalonians 5:18. Then, intercession — Ephesians 6:18. Petition — Hebrews 4:16.

4. Prayer is an exhale of the faith-rest principle — Matthew 21:22; Mark 11:24; Matthew 18:19; John 15:7. Prayer is an exhale of faith, which is directly related to the Word of God.

5. There are eight principles of prayer.

a. Prayer becomes more and more effective as the believer functions consistently under GAP — John 15:7.

b. Prayer is an extension of the faith-rest exhale toward God — Matthew 21:22.

c. Prayer demands cognisance of the will of God. Cognisance of the will of God is based on the intake of Bible doctrine. The more doctrine you know the more effective your prayer life will become — 1John 5:14.

d. Prayer must be offered in the status of the filling of the Spirit — Ephesians 6:18. Therefore, God the Holy Spirit is related in this matter and in all other matters of the function of your priesthood. God the Holy Spirit indwells you, he keeps out demons. The only way you can get any influence from the devil is through the soul, your body is clear from demons.

e. Prayer is ineffective under any state of carnality. Psalm 66:18 mentions the worst category of sins: mental attitude sins.

f. Prayer in complying with the principle of grace demands that the believer grow in grace through GAPing it daily. Therefore prayer becomes an effective weapon in the angelic conflict when the believer reaches supergrace — Hebrews 4:16.

g. Prayer is ordained as a function of the priesthood as a part of the divine decrees — Jeremiah 33:3.

h. Prayer is directly related to category #1 love and/or occupation with Christ, and/or recognition of the celebrityship status of Christ — Psalm 116:1,2.

6. Nine reasons why prayer isn’t answered.

a. You are not filled with the Spirit — Ephesians 6:18.

b. There is no faith-rest function from doctrine in the soul, therefore no faith rest — Matthew 21:22.

c. Mental attitude carnality — Psalm 66:18.

d. Lust type selfishness — James 4:2–4.

e. Failure in the field of authority, lack of obedience — 1John 3:22.

f. Noncompliance with the will of God — 1John 5:14.

g. The specific mental attitude of pride as a basic mental attitude sin and resultant self-righteousness — Job 35:12,13.

h. Lack of compassion (bona fide sensitivity). People are so full of themselves that they are insensitive towards others. Intruding upon the life of others. A person might have perfect manners, but he is totally insensitive to others and he stays and stays and stays.

i. Lack of domestic tranquillity — 1Peter 3:7. “I am going to have a good prayer life; I am going to divorce that bitch.” Charley, we may have to post someone on the phone for this.

7. The principle of grace in prayer

a. Prayer is the privilege and the extension of grace function. Therefore it is impossible to approach God on the basis of human good or human merit.

b. The believer priest approaches God in prayer on the basis of our high priest, Jesus Christ, and His merits.

c. The Father is propitiated with the work of Christ but is no respected of persons among believers offering prayer. God does not answer our prayer based upon our human activity, our personality or successes or failures.

d. God does not hear my prayers because I am fervent, moral, sincere, religious, or self-effacing.

e. God hears my prayers because of the function of GAP, the ministry of the Son, the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and reaching the supergrace life.

8. There are four categories of returns on your prayer — four ways in which God can answer your prayer. He can give you a positive and a negative. In each one of these categories you have a petition and a desire behind that petition.

a. In category #1 God says yes to the petition, no to the desire. Under this category you wanted a million dollars and prayed for it. So God says no, or He says yes to the petition but no to the desire behind it. 1Samuel 8:5–9; 8:19-20 gives a Biblical illustration. The Jews prayed for a king so they could be like other nations. Petition: We want a king. But they lost all their blessings under the reign of Saul.

b. Negative on the petition and positive on the desire. You pray for a million dollars but this time you don’t get it but you get happiness. You get the blessing of happiness before you get to supergrace. With supergrace, you would enjoy $1 million. Moses wanted his nephew saved, but stopped praying when God said that He would deliver Sodom with 10 righteous people. There were only 3 righteous, Lot and his 2 daughters. Illustration: Genesis 17:18; 18:23–33; 2Corinthian 12:7–10.

c. Yes and yes. 1Kings 18:36,37; Judges 16:28; Luke 23:42,43; John 11:41–45.

d. No and no.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #48

48 06/17/1973 Hebrews 5:1 Principles of the priesthood

The birth of the United States army is a great holiday. Nothing is worse than the phony activities of Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. Easter was all about the rites of fertility and the phallic cult. Our country is so stupid and mixed up about our holidays, but we are not. I trust that some of you are flying the flag over the past few days. The army was the first service to be authorized by the Continental Congress.

Chapter 5

The first ten verses of this chapter are devoted to the purpose of preparation for the study of the priesthood: the importance of the priesthood of the believer. We study, therefore, the unique high priest and in the first five verses the history of every high priest before the Lord Jesus Christ.

Remember that if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you are in full time Christian service. When you personally trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ God gave you 36 things. These things relate to God, they relate to the angelic conflict, they relate to your function in this world, they relate to your relationship to other people, they relate to everything. The thrust of this passage is the fact that at the point of salvation you were appointed a priest. Every believer is a priest. The universal priesthood of the believer is of absolute vital importance to you personally. The priesthood of the believer does not function normally until you reach supergrace, and once reaching supergrace you have the normal function of this priesthood. Your priesthood causes you to face toward God; your ambassadorship causes you to face toward the world. So that actually you are moving toward two directions at the same time. As goes the priesthood so goes your relationship and your function in this life. God has ordained that you should move in the direction of supergrace and upon arrival you have 1) occupation with the person of Christ, and 2) supergrace capacity based upon doctrine in the soul, and 3) God pours supergrace blessings into your cup. These supergrace blessings as poured include everything from prosperity to wealth, success, materialistic blessings, social blessings, sexual blessings. All of these are related to God’s grace in pouring for you and for me. God’s grace begins for us in phase one of grace: everything God provided for eternal salvation, everything that was necessary to make it possible for us to have a relationship with God forever. This particular type of grace involves volition, positive volition, non-meritorious type. Therefore, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” Our second classification of grace involves phase two grace. This is merely survival and keeping you alive in the devil’s world, an impossibility apart from the things that God has provided. Most of these things are like an iceberg, they are invisible, they are hidden from you. You cannot see them but you know they are there because you are alive at this moment. This type of grace has no relationship to volition. The third classification is known as the principle of supergrace, and this involves volition, attitude toward doctrine. Positive volition toward the living Word, Jesus Christ, means salvation. Positive volition on a consistent basis toward the written Word means the supergrace life. Finally, there is surpassing grace or phase three grace and, again, no volition is involved there. Phase three grace is not directly related to the angelic conflict.

The objective of the book of Hebrews is to bring your priesthood to the point of function, which means the point of the supergrace life, to bring you to the point where God can pour because God is glorified in that pouring.

Heb 5:1 For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. (ESV)

Verse 1 — this is the first of four verses relating to the function of high priest before Christ. Before the Lord Jesus Christ there was the family priesthood. The firstborn son of every family was the ruler of that family, was the priest of that family, and also received the double portion which was the financial wealth of the family upon the death of the patriarch of the family or the father.

The word “For” is a conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] and it is used in a continuative way. It is used for explanation, it is a continuative concept.

“every high priest” — the word “every” is pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] which means every category as well as every individual. The word for “high priest,” archiereus (ἀρχιερεύς) [pronounced ar-khee-er-YUCE], simply means ruling priest or first priest. I)ereuj is the Greek word for priest; a)rxi means ruler. We simply use the translation “high priest”.

“taken” is a present passive participle from lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh]. Lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh] means to take, to seize, but this is in the passive voice and that means that the word means to be appointed, to be commissioned, to be recognized or authorized by God. The present tense is an iterative present in the Greek, it is used to describe what recurs at successive intervals in history. Therefore high priests do not exist every moment, there is no linear aktionsart here, but there comes a time when a person is recognized as a high priest. For example, Aaron was Moses’ younger brother. Technically, Moses should have been the high priest of Israel after their liberation. He was the leader, he should have functioned in this area. However, his reluctance to accept the call to be God’s instrument in liberating the people and his subsequent argumentation with God resulted in appointing Aaron as His spokesman. This appointment was set aside from the standpoint of leadership but not from the standpoint of the priesthood, and God appointed the younger brother of Moses, by the name of Aaron, as the first high priest of Israel. Both Aaron and Moses were from the tribe of Levi. Levi was one of the tribes that received the blessing that should have gone to Reuben. Reuben was the firstborn of Israel. The firstborn always had, up until the time of Abraham, three things: the family rulership, the family priesthood, and the double portion — all of the land and all of the wealth became his. Reuben lost all of these things through reversionism. He lost the family rulership to the tribe of Judah, and that brings us down to David. He lost the family priesthood to the tribe of Levi, and that brings us down to Aaron. He lost the double portion to Joseph, and the double portion became Ephraim and Mannaseh, so that technically you have thirteen tribes in Israel.

Now every high priest is appointed is really what lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh] means here. The verb means to take but it means to be taken by God or commissioned by God or appointed by God. Principle: Any time God makes an appointment that appointment sticks. It comes from the sovereignty of God but sovereignty must be linked with immutability, immutability must be linked with omniscience. God knows what he is doing. This is one thing that is absolutely necessary in leadership. Leadership must always know what leadership is doing. Leadership does not have to explain itself or to say, “I know what I am doing.”

God knows what He is doing and He has done it. God makes appointments and he appointed Aaron high priest. So Aaron obviously was an undeserving type. To handle such a ministry as the priesthood is a phenomenal thing, and to think of Aaron handling that whole situation is something most unusual. Aaron always went with the crowd, as in the golden calf incident. Leadership always stands up to a majority which is wrong. It never caters to a majority that is wrong, and that is exactly what Aaron did.

None of us can go too far back in our heritage and find great culture. The Jews have many things in their background putting them light years ahead of us.

Moses and Joshua coming back to the camp and the people’s degeneracy was on full display as they returned. Moses made the people drink the gold their were worshiping.

This is to point out the fact that in the history of high priests the great marking point before Jesus Christ was the high priesthood of Aaron. It began with the Levitical priesthood taken from the name of his tribe, the tribe of Levi, and Aaron became the high priest. he had four sons. His eldest surviving son became the high priest who succeeded him. And they represented themselves and the people to God. Then the eldest son of Aaron had many sons and these sons would be the priests. Other members of the family of Levi would function in connection with the tabernacle and the various aspects of the priesthood. And all of this is brought to a head now under the principle of lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh] in the present active participle. This is a concessive participle which recognizes the fact that this is a bona fide point of history and it reviewed only briefly to show a contrast between the high priesthood of Aaron and the high priesthood of Christ, the high priesthood of Aaron’s successors and the high priesthood of Christ.

The next phrase is so important theologically that it must not be missed. Melchizedek was a Gentile priest, the king of Salem which is the original Jerusalem. He was also the priest of his people, which indicated the fact that before possibly he was the king he had functioned as the priest and they had taken a spiritual leader as their king and as a result they had great prosperity. So great was their prosperity that Melchizedek ministered to Abraham at a time of Abraham’s great need. He ministered to him as a priest although Melchizedek was historically a king-priest.

Bob did get a father’s day card from Pastor SamAmmons, who has a black church in town where he teaches doctrine. He’s on the radio and he is proving that you can teach Bible doctrine and not get emotional in order to get an audience.

There are those who erroneously contend that Melchizedek was not a human being at all but a Christophany, the Lord Jesus Christ. They base this on the fact that it says he had no father and no mother. That is not correct. A Christophany is never presented that way. It means no recorded father, no recorded mother. “From among men”, then, is important because it demonstrates that Melchizedek was a true member of the human race. The very fact that he was a priest demanded that he be a member of the human race. Jesus Christ is not Melchizedek and Melchizedek is not Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was not a priest until His birth. He could not be a priest until He became a member of the human race. Therefore, Melchizedek is not Jesus Christ.

“from among men” — ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus the ablative of anthrôpos (ἄνθρωπος) [pronounced ANTH-row-pos]. Anthrôpos (ἄνθρωπος) [pronounced ANTH-row-pos] is a generic term for the human race. So it must be a member of the human race; no one is a priest unless he is a member of the human race. “For every high priest being taken from among men.” They are not constantly taken from among men. Remember again that the iterative present means that at certain intervals this occurred. Remember this principle once again. The moment a person dies as a priest he is no longer functioning as a priest. Death is the cessation of the function of the priesthood. This is important because, once again, we are meeting on Sunday, the first day of the week. This is resurrection day, this is the day that Jesus Christ came out from the grave. He went into the grave on Wednesday night and He came out on early Sunday morning in resurrection body. He was three days and three nights in the grave. On resurrection Jesus Christ perpetuates His priesthood. He had to be resurrected in order to go to the right hand of the Father to pray for you and for me and to be our advocate and to fulfil the various ministries of high priesthood. If Jesus Christ had not been raised from the dead you and I would not be priests and you and I would therefore not have purpose and meaning to our lives. But we do.

We are not just peons spiritually, we have been appointed to the high office of priests. The effective spiritual life occurs with the achievement of the supergrace life.

Summary of the High Priesthood

1. The high priest was always taken from the human race, never from angels, never from deity. Priesthood, therefore, is unique to the human race. There is no priesthood among angels, there is no priesthood in the Godhead.

2. The high priest must partake of the nature of the person for whom he acts, for whom he officiates, and for whom he represents.

3. The priest, and in this case the high priest, is to minister to men in things which involve man’s relationship to God. In other words, every priest is a man representing man before God and the high priest personifies this to the maximum in the field of leadership.

4. A priest is a man who represents man before God.

5. Therefore, the high priest must be a man or a member of the human race since he is representing man before God.

6. This means that all high priests from the first to the last Adam had to be bona fide members of the human race.

7. Hence, the high priesthood completely by passes angelic creation.

8. Your priesthood demands victory.

Some of you have no background for this information. Bobby is going to teach Hebrews whether the nod-to-God crowd can handle it or not.

God protects the priesthood. Bob looked through a telescope at the moon and it was the dullest look into a telescope that he has ever had. Apart from the military, it just does not mean anything.

There are no priests in angelic creation.

It does make a difference how you play the game; you play to win. It is a disgrace to be a loser. No priest should be a loser.

Now this particular synopsis anticipates Hebrews 7:4,5,14,28; 10:5, 10–14 where the humanity of Christ is related to the high priesthood. As God, Jesus Christ cannot be a priest and therefore another reason for the incarnation and the subsequent hypostatic union.

Hebrews 5:1 For every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. (ESV)

The next phrase: “is ordained” — the present passive indicative of the compound verb kaqistemi. katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] means norm or standard; i(stemi means to stand. To stand according to a norm or standard it means to stand on the basis of something outside of yourself. We as believers stand on the basis of something outside of ourselves, we stand on the basis of a commission, an appointment from God. That is exactly what this compound comes to mean: to appoint, to constitute, to commission, to ordain. The present tense is the static present. This is used for that which is assumed to be perpetually existing. It is taken for granted therefore as a fact, and it is a fact which we must take for granted if we are ever going to move to our tactical victory of supergrace. You and I are a priest, our high priest is Jesus Christ. As God the Father appointed Him high priest so God the Father has appointed each one of us a believer priest. And we must take this for a fact, it must be axiomatic, and on the basis of this axiom we move to the tactical victory of supergrace. This is also a passive voice: the high priest receives appointment or ordination from God the Father, we likewise receive it from the same source. The indicative mood is the reality of Jesus Christ as the high priest, appointed by God, the reality of each one of us at the point of salvation appointed a high priest by God.

“ordained for men” — not quite correct. We have the preposition u(per plus the ablative of anthrôpos (ἄνθρωπος) [pronounced ANTH-row-pos]. Always the priesthood is related to man. This actually means “ordained on behalf of men.”

“in things pertaining to God” — this is a prepositional phrase preceded by a definite article: ta proj ton qeon. Ta is an article used to describe the principles of doctrine. Doctrine is described. This is the phrase “the things.” Pros means belonging to God, face to face with God, or in the presence of God. Then ton qeon — “the God”, a reference to God the Father. “The things with reference to face to face with God” refers to Bible doctrine. We have a high priest who has left a great heritage for us. He is in heaven representing us and since we are on this earth He has left us a great heritage. We possess the things pertaining to God or the things which are face to face with God. Here is a definition of Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine is that which is face to face with God, brought to earth, preserved in a book, and transferred to our souls by Bible teaching. That is exactly what we have. Therefore, you and I possess a phenomenal wealth, a wealth for which there is no classification on the cosmic world. Satan is the ruler of this world and under the cosmic world Satan is dispensing, under the system of the cosmos, great wealth, materialistic things, promotions, certain types of social life, sex life. All of these are things that Satan can distribute and favours which he provides in his system. The cosmic system is filled with these things. When we accept Christ as Savior we do not have to depend upon the cosmic system for anything, and under supergrace God pours these same things which he has had for us billions of years before Satan was created. But how can we possess these things totally apart from the cosmic system? The answer: The link is doctrine, “the things pertaining to God”, the thing about which the cosmos knows nothing. The whole cosmos is opposed.

Your priesthood divorces you from Satan’s cosmos. Satan is the ruler of this world and has set up quite a system of promotion, wealth, success. He has set up materialistic things associated with happiness. As a priest your objective is to have a cup in your soul, God doesn’t pour without the cup. And doctrine or “the things pertaining to God” is the basis for having a cup in your soul. This is how Satan is defeated. The cross was the strategic defeat. The tactical defeat is based on “things pertaining to God”. And God said there will be no slip-up in the Church Age. Every believer is a priest and under his priesthood his first great function is the intake of Bible doctrine. Doctrine is going to make the difference. The high priest was commissioned for man’s benefit in spiritual things. Therefore, the high priest was appointed, ordained, for the benefit spiritually of man. The key to every high priest, then, must inevitably be doctrine. And the key to every priest is doctrine, and the key to your life is doctrine.

Ecology is an evil system. The sovereignty is with the people; not with the federal government. Ecology and liberalism. We are destroying our military; and our economy. Right now, we should take over Libya, because they took over our oil wells. Our industries have been taken of in Cuba and someplace else.

We should be able to go anywhere in the world and be perfectly safe. And if an American is harmed, we destroy that nation. There are people who have only heard derogatory information about the United States. This misinformation is found in China and Russia.

The ascendancy of the United States should mean peace and evangelism throughout the world. These are principles of doctrine and the application of doctrine.

The High Priest was commissioned for the spiritual benefit of man. The key to the priesthood is doctrine. God must have a place to pour. We have a couple hundred men in the military in supergrace, under terrible conditions. As long as there are some supergrace believers in the military, the military will survive. Some for local, state and federal government.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #49

49 06/17/1973 Hebrews 5:1b Ordination Service; doctrine of the priesthood

Bible teaching is the primary purpose of the local church. There are other reasons, and that is what is going on in Berachah. It is the tradition of ordination. Many things in Christianity are traditions of man; but this is one that is Biblical. It is a recognition of the gift of pastor-teacher. The congregation will be witness to this tradition.

Bill Kessler as the chairman of the board of deacons. 3 guys mentioned that I do not know by name. All approved by the board of deacons.

Bob stands up and says that the board of deacons is an excellent functioning body. Drill and training status have been passed. Many applicants for ordination at Berachah. Only these 3 passed the extensive examination, verbal and written.

Dick Witner was ordained in this procedure. He is now serving in Indianapolis, Indiana; and 2 of the young men came from his congregation. It is a credit to his ministry that these two young men did so well. Robert W. Bidlag and Kurt B. Stevens. Also, from Dallas Theological seminary, Dale Brown.

This ritual should be simple and yet clear. It is authorized by the Word of God. When they accept a pastorate, they understand their authority as given to them by the Word of God. There are many good things that a pastor can do, but should not do them. Many people who need counseling, but that the pastor should no do that. Every pastor should be as free from administration as possible. He should not clean up the church, open and closing doors. Legitimate for the congregation to provide for a pastor so his time is free for study. Sooner or later, the pastor-teacher will recognize the importance of guarding his own time. Domestic battles, drug addiction. Counseling is a total waste of time. The people need to responds to Bible doctrine. By sticking to his knitting, the pastor knows where to go from there. Or if anyone entering the ministry to devote his time to the constant studying and teaching of the Word of God. Bob will present them with a copy of the Word of God; the NASB, which is head and shoulders above all others.

There is apparently a translation which speaks of crushed testicles; and Bob agrees that this is not a good thing for a pastor-teacher. It is a passage in Hebrews. Broken stones in the KJV; and it means crushed testicles; and Bob agrees that a pastor-teacher should not be in that condition.

Every high priest refers to the history of High Priests before Christ. 3 types of High Priests before Christ. There is a priesthood in many different nations which are pseudo. Family priesthood, king-priest, and levitical priesthood.

The Levitical Priesthood

1. It began with Aaron, the older brother of Moses. This concept of the priesthood is given in Numbers 16:5 which tells us three things about the Levitical priesthood.

a. They were commissioned by God;

b. They were responsible to be separated unto God, or holy. This is experiential separation after salvation;

c. They were allowed to “come near.” They actually had conversations with God and entered into holy places authorized by God where other members of the nation could not enter. These are the three basic concepts of the Levitical priesthood.

2. The perpetuation of the priesthood through the natural line of Aaron. Aaron actually had four sons: Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. Nadab and Abihu are out, they were involved in a reversionistic revolution and were executed by God. The surviving sons are the two orders of the Levitical priesthood. All those who are bona fide to have the title Kohen are descended from Eleazar or Ithamar. Eleazar was the high priest after the death of his father.

3. However, any progeny in either line with physical defects or other defects were eliminated. Leviticus 21:17ff. It is a fact that when a priesthood is based on regeneration qualification is believing in Christ. But when a priesthood is based upon natural progeny, procreation, then of course there are certain eliminating factors.

a. "Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God. For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long, or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand, or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles.

b. No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the LORD's food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God. He may eat the bread of his God, both of the most holy and of the holy things, but he shall not go through the veil or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that he may not profane my sanctuaries, for I am the LORD who sanctifies them." So Moses spoke to Aaron and to his sons and to all the people of Israel.

c. Leviticus 21:17–24

d. No facial blemishes, male testicles must be intact. No one ministers the Word of God with crushed testicles, speaking metaphorically. No pastor-teacher lets a woman walk all over him. If he has no testicles, he should not teach.

e. Bob could teach a sermon in crushed testicles; or what are you doing in the ministry, sister.

4. The Levitical priesthood was supported by funds and other means. For example, no Levitical priest ever did any work in the sense of industry, he was supported by those who did. His support came, first of all, by the fact that thirteen cities of Israel were given to them and the revenue of those cities went to the Levitical ministry. One tenth of the tithes paid to the Levites of Leviticus 23:10 went to the support of the priesthood. There was a special tithe every third year for the support of the priesthood, according to Deuteronomy 14:28; 26:12. There was also the redemption money of the firstborn — animals; redemption, firstborn — human beings, and that went to the support of the priesthood. So there were at least five or six sources of income to make sure that the priest could devote his time entirely to the teaching and the functioning of the Word of God as authorized in the Old Testament canon.

5. Except on ceremonial occasions the high priests and the priests of Levi dressed like others. But on ceremonial occasions they had a special uniform.

a. It was composed of some slacks that were cut off about six inches above the knees — white linen shorts.

b. They wore over the top part of the body a white linen coat, the skirt of which went down to about two or three inches below the middle of the thigh.

c. They wore a uniform belt made up of four colours like the linen curtains in the tabernacle — white, blue, scarlet, and purple, each having great meaning in relationship to the person of Christ. The belt in the uniform represented the principle that this man served the Lord Jesus Christ by representing the people of Israel to the God of Israel.

d. In addition, there was a white linen cap.

6. The high priest was in command of the priests and had this uniform plus some additional things.

a. Over his white linen coat he wore an ephod, a long robe. It was blue, but woven into it was white, purple, scarlet, and blue threads.

b. He also wore, hooked on to this ephod, a breastplate made primarily from gold and cloth. The breastplate had a checker board with twelve squares right over the chest, each one representing one of the tribes of Israel, minus Levi.

c. Then, on each shoulder, it was hooked on by what is known as Urim and Thummim, two stones which God made to flash yes or no with regard to certain functions in Israel and with regard to the problem of divine guidance.

d. Then there was underneath a gold clasp on which was engraved the names of the twelve tribes of the tribes of Israel on each shoulder, and this attached the breastplate to the ephod. The ephod was attached to the coat.

e. There was a special type of hat, different from the other priests. Instead of the usual white cap the high priest wore a mitre, a form of a turban.

f. Over the top of this turban was a golden crown, and on the front of the crown it said: “Holy To Jehovah.” This was his distinctive head dress. So that he wore the badge of his rank and he carried the final authority over the entire priesthood. He was their ruler, he was the absolute authority, and he supervised all of the functions of the priesthood and was responsible for its function in Israel.

7. The big day for the high priest was always the day of atonement.

a. On that day the high priest put on his full dress uniform, performed a sacrifice on the brazen altar, caught up the blood of the animal, and started his march. He marched into the tabernacle, past everything representing Christ on the holy place — past the table of showbread with twelve fresh loaves on the table, past the golden candle stick, past the golden altar, into the holy of holies where if anyone else walked at any time they were immediately killed by God.

b. He took this blood and sprinkled it upon the top of the altar for himself. Then he did an about face and marched out. If he marched out and again appeared before the people he was high priest for another year. If they had to haul his body out of the holy of holies then his eldest son succeeded him.

c. He offered a second sacrifice and again took a bowl full of blood and started the march. This time the people held their breath. They wanted to know whether they would last another year or not. And with this bowl the high priest walked in and, again, into the holy of holies he sprinkled the blood over the mercy seat, and walked out. When he walked out you could hear a sigh from thousands of people gathered in front of the tabernacle. Often at that time they broke out into song, some song of praise to the Lord.

8. The descendants of the high priest. This is a great and detailed subject. At this point we only need a little information.

a. In the Levitical priesthood succession of the high priest occurred after his death and the installation of the new high priest, his eldest surviving son. Upon the death of Aaron, for example, the office of high priest passed to his eldest surviving son, Eleazar — Numbers 20:28ff.

b. The line was then promised to pass down through Phinehas, the elder son of Eleazar for a very special reason. God said that Phinehas and his line would be the high priestly line in Israel. Why? Because Phinehas picked up a javelin and actually killed those in Israel who were in revolt. So Phinehas was promised in a very beautiful passage just exactly what he would receive. Numbers 25:10–13. He killed hippies and revolutionists. No finer thing that a man can do but kill communists and revolutionists. There comes a time in human history when it is kill or be killed. Long-haired hippies will not do the job. They are anti-establishment and anti-God. Operation phallic cult. That led to emotional revolt of the soul, intensifying their problems rather than helping their problems. That led to negative volition toward doctrine, and that led to demon influence which led to the blackout of the soul and reverse process reversionism. Verse 12 — “Behold, I give him my covenant of peace [reconciliation].” What does that mean? He will offer the sacrifices pertaining to salvation and to rebound. Verse 13 — “and he shall have it and his descendants after him.” And Phinehas will have descendants who will administer animal sacrifices in the Millennium.

i. Num 25:1–4 While Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked himself to Baal of Peor. And the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel. And the LORD said to Moses, "Take all the chiefs of the people and hang them in the sun before the LORD, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel."

ii. Num 25:5–6 And Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Each of you kill those of his men who have yoked themselves to Baal of Peor." And behold, one of the people of Israel came and brought a Midianite woman to his family, in the sight of Moses and in the sight of the whole congregation of the people of Israel, while they were weeping in the entrance of the tent of meeting.

iii. Num 25:7–9 When Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose and left the congregation and took a spear in his hand and went after the man of Israel into the chamber and pierced both of them, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly. Thus the plague on the people of Israel was stopped. Nevertheless, those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.

iv. Num 25:10–15 And the LORD said to Moses, "Phinehas the son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the priest, has turned back my wrath from the people of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I did not consume the people of Israel in my jealousy. Therefore say, 'Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace, and it shall be to him and to his descendants after him the covenant of a perpetual priesthood, because he was jealous for his God and made atonement for the people of Israel.'" The name of the slain man of Israel, who was killed with the Midianite woman, was Zimri the son of Salu, chief of a father's house belonging to the Simeonites. And the name of the Midianite woman who was killed was Cozbi the daughter of Zur, who was the tribal head of a father's house in Midian.

c. However, in the time of Eli the priest, Eli was not descended from Phinehas and the priesthood had switched from the line of Eleazar to the descendants of Ithimar. Eli was actually descended from Ithimar. The descendants of both men are priests. The issue is: Who is the high priest? Eli was set aside when Solomon deposed Abiathar but for some reason in the days of king Saul there had been a switch. So while Eli was a legitimate priest he was not the legitimate high priest. This situation was corrected when Solomon came to the throne. Solomon set aside Ahimelech and put Zadok on the priesthood. Zadok is related directly through Eleazar and Phinehas.

d. There was a very evil high priest at the time of the fifth cycle of discipline. When Israel was about to go out the high priest, whose name was Seraiah, was one of the great enemies of Jeremiah. He did everything he could to get Jeremiah killed, to throw him in jail, to get him out of the way. Seraiah was one of those who was captured by the general of Nebuchadnezzar. He was brought into Nebuchadnezzar and executed.

e. Then we have the son of Seraiah whose name was Jehozadak. He never served as high priest. He lived in the 70 years of the fifth cycle of discipline. But he had a son named Joshua in the days of Zechariah and was appointed high priest, and Zechariah chapter three tells the story and the priesthood was then restored. Then down to the days of Alexander the Great and the descendant of Joshua the high priest was the high priest who made all the priests get into their uniforms and they marched out to meet the army of Alexander as they approached the city. He marched out with a scroll of Daniel, he had the Word of God under his arm, and he unrolled it in front of Alexander and read to Alexander the passages in Daniel dealing with Alexander the Great. And Alexander from that time was a friend of the Jews, he wouldn’t allow his army into Jerusalem and wouldn’t allow Jerusalem to be touched in any way.

f. One more mentioned.

g. Hasmonian family took over the high priesthood and kept it until Herod the Great killed them off.

h. Priesthood defunct at a.d. 70.

Hebrew 5:1a For every high priest being taken from the source of mankind is ordained on behalf of men with reference to things pertaining to God.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation so far

Next we come to a conjunction, hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na], which introduces a purpose clause. Up to this point we have had a brief historical statement about high priests before Christ. Now we have a little bit of purpose and function thrown in by way of amplification — “that he may offer”, the present active subjunctive of prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh] which has to do with sacrifices on the brazen altar. It means literally to present as gifts or oblations, or to offer sacrifices. The present tense is a customary present which denotes that which habitually occurs or may be reasonably expected to occur. it is habitually the function of the high priest and the few priests gathered with him to offer the animal sacrifices on the brazen altar.

Many times there would be thousands of people standing in line with their sacrifices, so the high priest would begin at dawn and he would handle the sacrifices until he became tired. Then he would be relieved by another priest, and another, and another, and so on. Sometimes for many days sacrifices would be offered on that brazen altar. The customary present indicates that function. The active voice: the high priest produces the action of the verb by communicating doctrine and by the ritual of animal sacrifices. The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive used to introduce a purpose clause and to indicate that the purpose in principle was to communicate doctrine, though animal sacrifices were used to do it. However, the subjunctive mood indicates that some people got it and some people never did understand.

“gifts” — the accusative plural dôron (δρον) [pronounced DOH-ron] is the object of the verb. This refers to food offerings. The food offerings or meal offerings of Leviticus chapter two present the Lord Jesus Christ as to His celebrityship, His uniqueness, and emphasized the importance of the humanity of Christ in the incarnation.

“sacrifices” — thusia (θυσία) [pronounced thoo-SEE-ah, always is used for animal sacrifices and never for human in the Bible. The animal sacrifices are very clearly specified in Leviticus chapters 1–6, not only as to the sacrifices but to what they signify. Here, all we need to do is to understand that the five basic Levitical sacrifices were related to sin — three to salvation, two to rebound.

“for sins” — the preposition u(per plus the ablative of hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah] means “on behalf of” — “on behalf of sins” or “for the sake of sins.” There are two problems related to sins, that connected to salvation where all sins were judged; that related to rebound which is the application of the judgement of sin — you simply name the sin because the sin has already been judged. Since it has been judged God is free and has the right and is justified in forgiving you and cleansing you from all unrighteousness.

Hebrews 5:1 “For every high priest taken from the source of mankind is ordained on behalf of men with reference to things [doctrines] face to face with the God, that he might offer both gifts and sacrifices on behalf of sins.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Notice two things about that passage. There is doctrine which has to be communicated verbally, and there is ritual designed to illustrate the doctrine. Sacrifices are ritual. The things pertaining to God is the doctrine he must know. Principle: You cannot communicate what you do not know.

Notice also that the high priest offered for his own sins as well as for the people. The exception and the break in the line will be when the Lord Jesus Christ will only offer for the sins of the world, not for Himself. As our high priest Christ offered Himself for the sins of the world in fulfilment of the Levitical offerings. These offerings, then, are shadows and form a part of shadow Christology and soteriology, and they are fulfilled historically when Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree.

So the high priests before the Lord Jesus Christ were ordained as members of the human race without blemish to offer shadows, to communicate doctrine pertinent to the cross, pertinent to the strategic victory of the angelic conflict.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #50

50 06/18/1973 Hebrews 5:2 Compassion vs. grace

Phone call from Tim Horton, in the Marine Corps, and he was promoted. Bob has a Lt. Ingraham stand. Bob was reading about a gentleman today, Raymond O. Boydoin. Leading the 2^nd company over open territory. Germans began to lay down a curtain of fire. He got his men to dig in. Heavy casualties inflicted on a superior force. He made a one man attack on a sniper nest. He relentlessly moved ahead. 10 yards away, he stood up and charged. 4 killed, but then he was killed by a machine gun. A great courageous act that makes it possible for hippies to have long hair and live in the great state of Texas.

“If any of you don’t like these readings, get the hell out of Berachah and out of my sight. You make me sick.” If you are a yellowbelly, coward or anti-military, you are in the wrong place.

This changed every 10, 20 or 30 years. We have a new High Priest and He will never die. The Lord’s resurrection is the continuance of His priesthood to eternity.

When a high priest died he no longer supervised the communication of the things pertaining to God or the written Word, and a new high priest had to be appointed. Now we have it easy. We have a high priest, Jesus Christ, in charge of the doctrine, the things pertaining to God, and he will never die. He is in resurrection body, He is seated at the right hand of the Father, and because of that the canon of scripture is completed. And the completion of the canon of scripture is a memorial to our high priest, Jesus Christ; a memorial to the fact that we have a high priest who will be a high priest forever and doctrine is the thing pertaining to God which He supervises as far as communication. The high priest — the only high priest now, the Lord Jesus Christ — seated at the right hand of God the Father, supervises the communication of the written Word through the gift of pastor-teacher. Therefore the gift of pastor-teacher is directly related to the principle of the high priesthood of Christ. This will be emphasized in the thirteenth chapter of Hebrews.

Jesus Christ as a man, after He died physically, was in the grave for three days. His resurrection means the perpetuation of His priesthood. His ascension and session at the right hand of the Father means the superiority of this priesthood over all other priesthoods, and at the same time it means that Jesus Christ fulfils what the high priest of Israel did once a year every moment. For they entered into the holy of holies once a year; He, the reality, enters into the holy of holies constantly, always, He is seated there. No high priest ever sat down in the holy of holies, he would have dropped dead immediately. But Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father in the true holy of holies. And Jesus Christ now makes intercession for us as well as acting as our advocate, and while He is in the holy of holies He has appointed a means of communicating the written Word. That means the gift of pastor-teacher which holds the line on earth during the Church Age.

Some female called Bob and wanted to talk to him; she was a great Bible student, by her own testimony. After 5 minutes of talking to her, realized why God did not allow women pastors. “There is a whole organization designed to answer your questions.” “But I want to talk to you, heh, heh, heh.” “I don’t want to talk to you, heh, heh, heh.” Bang.

Delegation of spiritual authority.

There is a principle which comes out at this point. Since there has been a high priest on the earth (Adam was the first) there has been the delegation of spiritual authority in the realm of communication of Bible doctrine. It is the communication of Bible doctrine which every high priest supervised. It was Aaron’s job to do this, it was Eleazar’s job to do it, and later on it was that great man Phinehas. It was his responsibility not to do all of the teaching but to see that it was accomplished by the priesthood. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is our high priest. We are a kingdom of priests. In fact we are a royal priesthood because Jesus Christ is not only a priest and a prophet but He is also the King, the Son of David who will reign forever. Under these conditions He has delegated the responsibility of things pertaining to God. He has delegated this to the gift of pastor-teacher. This brings pastor-teacher into a new light. A legitimate pastor-teacher is a born again believer and he receives the priesthood at the point of salvation, and along with the priesthood he receives a spiritual gift for communication of Bible doctrine. It is the spiritual gift that gives him the authority on this earth. On this earth we are all priests but God has not delegated the communication of doctrine to all priests, only to those with the gift of pastor-teacher. And that is the last surviving gift of communication of the whole realm of doctrine since the end of the apostolic age. Therefore we are going to discover at certain points in Hebrews that one of the delegated responsibilities from our high priest is the gift of pastor-teacher and the communication of Bible doctrine. And when a pastor-teacher dies physically, then someone steps in the gap and takes his place so that always on this earth there are those with the gift who stand in the gap in every generation. Wherever there is positive volition God has anticipated that in eternity past and has provided the gift of pastor-teacher for that particular area and for that era of human history.

The reason that the high priest supervised as well as personally offered gifts and sacrifices is because the high priest of Israel was totally responsible for all of the dissemination of Bible doctrine. In that way the high priest of Israel illustrates Jesus Christ, our high priest, seated at the right hand of the Father. While Jesus Christ is of a different classification of high priest all high priests throughout history have one thing in common: they were totally responsible for the dissemination of spiritual information of Bible doctrine, and they had many ways in which they accomplished it — certain delegated responsibilities and certain direct responsibilities were involved. Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father has delegated to pastor-teachers this particular responsibility in the priesthood. The priesthood, therefore, on earth functions as the pastor-teacher communicates things pertaining to God. In the history of the high priesthood this, then, is one of the most important facts. This helps to clarify in our dispensation, as well as in any past dispensation, where the responsibility lies with reference to spiritual things.

Five Points from Hebrews 5:1

1. The high priest offered for his own sins as well as the sins of the people, which means that the high priest in the Age of Israel had a sin nature and personally committed sins. This could not deter the function of his priesthood under the principle of rebound, and so on.

2. However, there comes into history a high priest who ends all the previous function, modus operandi, modus vivendi, of high priests in history. For about 4000 years there were high priests upon the earth ordained of God but they had different responsibilities. However, all of their responsibilities tied into one factor: Bible doctrine, jurisdiction over the dissemination of Bible doctrine. Then something happened and this was the great warning to the human race. A high priest came into existence, came on to this earth, became a true member of the human race without a personal sin nature, without the imputation of Adam’s sin, without committing one act of personal sin. And that high priest therefore supersedes all other high priests, and that high priest is responsible forever for the dissemination of Bible doctrine on the earth in the devil’s world, during His own personal reign in the Millennium, and in His reign forever. He has chosen in this dispensation to utilize the pastor-teacher communicating the completed canon of scripture.

3. As our high priest Christ also offered Himself for the sins of the world in fulfilment of every shadow, every type, every ritual which portrayed the cross in past history.

4. These offerings, as shadows, were used to communicate the reality — Christ bearing our sins in His own body on the tree — 1Peter 2:24.

5. Therefore all high priests prior to Jesus Christ were ordained in the human race to deal with shadows, to deal with ritual. Our high priest has set aside all ritual except that pertaining to the memory of Him on the cross and therefore our high priest has terminated all other priesthood’s. That is why there is no ritual in the church authorized by the Word of God and that is why all ritual has been replaced by the completed canon of scripture and the exegetical, isagogical, historical interpretation of the canon of scripture.

Heb 5:2 He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. (ESV)

Verse 2 — the first word is not found in the original at all. The word “who” is a relative pronoun in the English and there is no relative pronoun in the Greek text. This is simply an attempt on the part of the translator to smooth out the translation of a participle. The word “can” does occur, however it is a present active participle from the verb dunamai (δύναμαι) [pronounced DOO-nam-ahee]. Dunamai (δύναμαι) [pronounced DOO-nam-ahee] means to be able. The present tense of this participle is a customary present which denotes that which habitually occurs or may be reasonably expected to occur. The active voice refers to the function of the high priest prior to the celebrity high priest, Jesus Christ. Remember that the first four verses of this chapter deal with the high priesthood prior to Jesus Christ. When Jesus Christ became a high priest all other high priesthoods were superseded and the Bible plus the pastor-teacher represents the principle of high priesthood at the present time. The participle is a concessive participle in which the unknown writer concedes that high priests did have a certain ability with regard to those to whom they ministered in the things pertaining to God. The verb now gives us that. So we should translate the word “can” by one word: “able” — “able to have compassion”, is the way this sentence actually begins.

Next we have the present active infinitive of a compound verb metriopaqew. Metrioj means moderation; paqoj means suffering, passion, or feelings, it has different meanings. When you put these two words together in the Koine Greek it means to moderate one’s passions to the point of being gentle, to be moderate in one’s feelings, to be compassionate. And by moderation is meant the removal of anger or stubbornness. It therefore comes to mean, just as translated, to be compassionate. It was possible for the high priests before Jesus Christ to be compassionate. He could never be gracious because only one high priest has been gracious in all of history and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. So it must be understood immediately that while compassion is a very positive asset it is not as great as grace. Compassion is the verb; grace is greater than compassion. Grace is ultimately superior to compassion and grace is the function of our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. However, compassion is a noble human virtue under certain conditions and depending upon certain objects. The present tense, again, is a customary present and it denotes that which habitually occurs or could be reasonably expected to occur in any high priest facing his ignorant, stupid, sheep-like congregation. The active voice: the high priest produces the action of the verb through compassion. The infinitive denotes God’s purpose. It is God’s purpose for any high priest or for any delegated authority from the high priest to have compassion on those whom he teaches.

Jesus Christ is our high priest seated at the right hand of the Father. He has delegated to everyone who has the gift of pastor-teacher and who has a congregation. Certain priests have received the gift of pastor-teacher. The pastor-teacher shows compassion by studying and teaching. Compassion is not maudlin sentimentalism, compassion is faithfulness to the Word of God so that you have the Word in your soul. Having compassion means on the part of the one who has the delegated authority great self-discipline in study in the field of doctrine. Therefore, again, the customary present denotes that which habitually occurs. The active voice: the high priest produces the action of compassion, and those to whom he delegates the responsibility produce the action of compassion. The infinitive, again, denotes God’s purpose in the high priesthood which is faithfulness to the Word of God and its communication. “Able to be compassionate” is the way this sentence begins.

Certain priests in the Church Age have the gift of pastor-teacher; and some of them have a congregation. There was a time when everyone who came to Berachah Church were stupid about Bible doctrine. But now, most after the first few classes have faced some pretty heavy shocks. Traumatic experience of lucid communication. You may have said to yourself that I am not compassionate, because I do not teach with sweetness and light. The pastor-teacher is to study and study and study; and his compassion is giving up whatever is necessary to beat one’s brains out to study, prepare and teach.

Many people came to Phinehas with a turtle dove and a pigeon. But he probably told them to get back with a steer, if that was what was required.

The high priesthood was designed not only to communicate doctrine but to be faithful in communicating doctrine as a demonstration of true compassion. True compassion is to provide the food, fulfilling the responsibility of getting the doctrine to the congregation. If you are ignorant, what do you need? Doctrine. Remember that the compound verb metriopaqew means to be moderate in one’s feelings also. Who gets compassion? The “ignorant” get compassion — the stupid! This is the dative plural present active participle of a)gnoew. This time the participle is used as a noun. The dative case of this participle is the dative of indirect object which indicates the ones in whose the act of compassion is performed — “able to be compassionate to the ignorant ones.”

Bob is very compassionate, he is always providing food. There are times when he sits down at his typewriter and thinks about his congregation and thinks, that son of a bitch, and then throw my books in the trash and walk out. But he does not do that.

The ignorant ones get compassion. No pastor-teacher should be stupid when he stands in the pulpit. In Dallas Theological Seminary, the struck against Greek classes and signed petitions against it. There is only room for one person who knows it all.

A Communicator of Doctrine Giving Compassion

1. Ignorant ones are all born again believers as of the moment of salvation. So “the ignorant” refers to each one of us. The removal of ourselves from the status of ignorance is not completed until we have reached supergrace where we begin the normal function of our priesthood.

a. Women are all trying to show people their babies. Show me the kid when he is 20 or 21.

b. Bob was once a baby and he was stupid.

c. We are all ignorant until we reach supergrace.

2. Even the Levitical offerings took up the problem of ignorance — like sins of ignorance, Leviticus chapter four.

3. The high priest understood the problem of all believers at the point of their salvation and was responsible to alleviate the condition of ignorance.

4. The responsibility was fulfilled through cognisance, study, and communication of doctrine — communication through ritual, communication through teaching.

Heb 5:2 He can deal gently with the ignorant and wayward, since he himself is beset with weakness. (ESV)

“and on them that are out of the way” — a dative plural, present passive participle of the verb planaô (πλανάω) [pronounced plahn-AH-oh]. Dative case, indirect object indicates the one for whom the act of compassion is performed. A lot of people are born again with something worse than ignorance — a religious background. Take people without a religious background. When they are born again they are ignorant. But there is something worse than being ignorant, and that is to be deceived; to be religious. And if you came into the Christian way of life with a great religious background — religion being the devil’s ace trump, the worst thing that ever happened to this world — then you can’t even be ignorant. You’re worse than ignorant, worse than stupid; you’re deceived. And you have to be undeceived before you can just be plain ignorant. Then, when you are plain ignorant, you can advance through learning doctrine. So what is worse than stupidity? Religiosity. The dative case indicates that even though these people have been deceived, now that they are saved there is hope.

Very difficult for a hippie who is saved. He is worse than ignorant. He is deceived. Doctrine has to teach him like it has to teach all believers.

The present tense is an iterative present, it describes what occurs at successive intervals. It is called the present tense of repeated action. The participle is in the passive voice, the believer receives the action of the verb by delusion. He carried into the Christian life religion as his background, or he carried into the Christian life anti-establishment. He is deceived, and there are two sources of deception, both of them are Satanic counterattacks upon the truth. Truth comes in two general categories: doctrine and laws of divine establishment. Satan attacks doctrine with religion and he attacks the laws of divine establishment with revolution or anti-establishment. When anyone comes in with one or the other of religion or revolution then he is worse than ignorant, he is deceived. Therefore, doctrine has to do two things: teach him as it teaches all ignorant believers at the point of salvation, and also undeceive him, he has to drop the deceits of legalism and/or anti-establishment. So the participle classifies this group as reversionists, that is, they came into the Christian life with a form of reversionism — unbeliever form — which they must shed. This is sometimes called the participle of attendant circumstances. So far we have: “Able to be compassionate to the ignorant ones, and a worse category, the ones being deceived.”

The next word is “for”, the conjunction epeí (ἐπεί) [pronounced ehp-IH] which means “in as much as”; “he himself” — the intensive pronoun autos which is much stronger than the personal pronoun. That’s why it is translated “he himself.” It refers to every high priest in principle before Christ. Compassion was part of his essence according to the divine requirement for his life as a high priest. But Jesus Christ is superior to every high priest immediately because grace is greater than compassion. Compassion implies one possessing his own human infirmity as well, but grace from the Lord is something even greater.

The word “also” is simply the adjunctive use of kai, and is correct — “is compassed”, perfect passive indicative of the verb perikeimai (περίκειμαι) [pronounced per-IHK-i-mahee]. Peri means around; keimai means to lay. It means to lay around, to be placed around, to be encumbered by, to be surrounded by. Here it means to be encumbered by. The present tense is the retroactive progressive present which denotes that which was begun in the past and continues into the present. Every communicator high priest responsible for communication to others was encumbered by his own problems, by his own failures, by his own weaknesses. So in having compassion for you the pastor-teacher who receives his delegated authority from our high priest, Jesus Christ, may have a lapse of compassion for you. Therefore, he realizes he needs doctrine and he goes back to study and communicates to others who need it too. That is what this passage is saying, that the high priest before Christ was encumbered by his own weaknesses, his own frailties. The passive voice indicates that the high priest as the subject receives the action of the verb and therefore when the high priest was studying to teach the people he was also teaching himself. There is a principle. The high priest was responsible along with the other priests in Israel to communicate doctrine. The principle carries over today in the sense that Christ our high priest is absent from the earth and cannot personally teach us, and has delegated that authority to certain types of priests — pastor-teachers. These pastor-teachers also have weaknesses, frailties, infirmities, because of possessing an old sin nature. Therefore they teach themselves while they study to teach the congregation. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that every high priest before Christ was encumbered with weaknesses.

“infirmity” — the accusative singular from asthéneia (ἀσθένεια) [pronounced ahs-THEH-nigh-ah], which means “weakness.”

Hebrews 5:2 “Able to be compassionate to the ignorant ones, and the ones being deceived; in as much as he himself also is encumbered with weakness [frailty, imperfection].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. The last phrase “weakness” or “infirmity” anticipates why Jesus Christ is the last high priest, the only celebrity, and absolutely unique in His priesthood. Jesus Christ as high priest never had a sin nature, never had the imputation of Adam’s sin, never committed one sin, and in fact was impeccable.

2. Every high priest before Christ was saturated with and encumbered by weaknesses. He possessed an old sin nature.

3. But Jesus Christ did not have either an old sin nature or the imputation of Adam’s sin, and He resisted all temptation to sin.

4. Therefore Jesus Christ is the last and the unique high priest, in His character, in His essence, in His function.

5. The limitation of all high priests in history does not apply to Jesus Christ in fact. Jesus Christ broke the pattern of high priestly limitations in His own ministry and even at the present time at the right hand of the Father.

1972 Hebrews 5:3–5a; Psalm 2:7 Lesson #51

51 06/19/1973 Hebrews 5:3–5a; Ps. 2:7 Pastor-teacher's state of honor

Adam’s Rib is coming out; stuffing party tomorrow. The Berachah parking lot if its version of sin alley.

Winfield, Kansas named after Winfield a pastor; he founded a Baptist church. When dying, he wrote a letter to the church in Scottsdale, Arizona. I bequeaths to them the work that he had done so far. God is calling him home. He founded two different churches. If anyone asked you, what is the connection between these two cities? Both are named after him and he founded a church in each city.

What is the relationship between Melchizedek and Jesus Christ?

Hebrews 5:3 Because of this he is obligated to offer sacrifice for his own sins just as he does for those of the people. (ESV)

It appears that with the book of Hebrews, Bob switched from a once a week study to a night after night study.

Verse 3 — “And” is the transitional and continuative use of the conjunction kai. “By reason hereof” is a prepositional phrase, dia plus the accusative of the intensive pronoun autos — literally, “because of it”. Because all high priests prior to Christ had old sin natures, because high priests before Christ committed personal sins, because of the imperfection and frailty of all high priests before Christ.

“he ought” — present active indicative of the verb opheilê (οφειλή) [pronounced oh-fih-LAY] which is a verb of obligation. The present tense is a static present used to represent a condition which perpetually exists. it existed constantly among all high priests. They had the responsibility or obligation before the Lord. The active voice: the high priest, perpetually under the obligation to offer for his own sins as for the sins of the people, which means that every time he became involved in the spiritual phenomena of doctrine it was beneficial to him first before it became beneficial to the recipients of his priestly ministry. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that the high priest had to offer for his own sins as well as others, and the application today is the fact that the pastor is first benefitted by the passage he communicates to others. Because of it — the old sin nature — he [the high priest] is under obligation, “as for the people” — kathôs (καθώς) [pronounced kahth-OCE] peri a(martiwn means “as concerning the people.” Peri plus the genitive means “concerning.” The people are the beneficiaries or the recipients of the priestly ministry. As today, so in those days, the people here refers only to those who were positive toward doctrine. Positive volition toward doctrine involves some ritual as well as attendance, and attention and concentration. But the positive volition concept has never changed, it is always the same. The people are those who are positive regardless of any other factor. But then again, the high priest himself had to be positive.

Bob has his own favorite passages; but he is not called to teach his favorite passages. They are all your favorite books. Bob does not give a damn if he has taught it umpteen thousand times. He will teach what God wants him to teach and he will teach it until it comes out of your ears. People don’t come on certain nights because it is not their favorite book. Then don’t come at all. It is still God’s Word. Like the flea that jumps from one black spot to another on a leopard.

It can’t be taught right on Sunday morning? The hell it can’t. The pastor-teachers in this audience might want to hit your congregation with your favorite books; but you cannot do that.

If Bob was to pick his favorite passages, he would teach the military sections. Did you notice how excited I got when it came to Phinehas and his javelin? Anytime the Scripture is open, it is the Word of God. The first 10 verses of this chapter used to leave Bob cold; and he would cover the first 4 verses in 10 minutes. This may be his last time in Hebrews, so he wants to pull it all out. Bob could never stand Catholic priests and could not stand movies that glorified them. He hates people wearing goofy looking clothes. He can understand going without a tie. This is really a phenomenal passage.

When cutting the throat of an animal, the priest had to communicate Bible doctrine. The priest taught what was in the canon of Scripture. The prophets taught what was current in that day. The pastor teacher prepares that food that is given to others.

Chefs have a danger of developing a wide birth because of snacking while he is preparing; and those who are trim and those who drank all the time on the job. The chef enjoys it first. We are dealing with the High Priests before Christ.

“so also for himself”, houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] kai peri heautou (ἑαυto) [pronounced heh-ow-TOO]. Again we have another prepositional phrase with peri — “so also concerning himself.” This phrase, first of all, is of utmost importance by application to anyone who has the gift of pastor-teacher. If he is not positive toward doctrine, even though he has the gift of pastor-teacher, even though he has the preparation necessary to fulfil that gift, even though he has a command of the languages and has everything going for him, he has no ministry and must inevitably accept substitutes and gimmicks of one kind or another. There is no place in the ministry for the one who does not love God’s Word. Positive volition means that a pastor has to go to many, many different kinds of passages and teach them, but first of all he has to study them. The pastor-teacher must first of all prepare that food which is given to others. The chef always enjoys the food first. And the pastor-teacher must study and savour and prepare and classify and relate to other scriptures and analyze the ingredients in order that you might have a spiritual meal. That is what this phrase is saying, and it applies today even though technically it is dealing with high priests before Christ, and specifically the Levitical priesthood.

Then we come to the present active infinitive of prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh], translated “to offer” — in the customary present tense here, it denotes that which habitually occurs or may be reasonably expected to occur. The active voice: the high priest before Christ produced the action of the verb. The infinitive expresses a purpose. “To offer” indicates his function, but remember that the offering was preceded by explanation. Then came the ritual followed by further explanation. So he spoke twice and carried on the ritual in between — “for sins” is peri plus the genitive of hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah] which is “concerning sin.”

The office of High Priest is appointed by God. Those who were contrary to this were cursed in a very specific way. A divine appointment to the office of High Priest.

A man in the pulpit without the gift, his job is no good without the gift.

No one had the gall to assume this office. The High Priest is appointed by God only. The individual involved is responsible to God. Double blessing and double discipline. Some people don’t know what hit them when they take on a pastorate and they lack the gift.

Bob chews out a “sonny boy” making a comment.

When God the Holy Spirit bestows the gift of pastor-teacher on someone, that person is in a state of honor. God handles the blessing and cursing. God knows what He is doing. So it is not our job to curse and correct a pastor-teacher. Most of Bob’s critics have never heard what he teaches. Some guy who teaches Greek wrote a book against Bob, and but has never heard the exegesis of any passage.

Bob has criticisms following him like roaches follow a hippie. Bob is in a state of honor. And he did not earn or deserve his gift. Bob sat on his mother’s knee, but she filled up the surrounded atmosphere with smoke. She smoked about 3 packs a day. Might make a good Mother’s day message. Bob wants to translate this as a state of honor rather than honor. So there is no honor bestowed upon someone.

Hebrews 5:3 “And because of it [the old sin nature] he is under obligation, even as concerning the people, so also concerning himself, to offer concerning sins.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The high priest before Christ was habitually obligated to offer sacrifices for his own sins. He himself, a communicater of the Word, also had an old sin nature and shared the human frailties and weakness of mankind. That has always been true of communicaters with the exception of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, whatever benefit he derived from a portion of the Word of God concerning his own life the benefit should also be derived by those who are positive. So he had the obligation to offer for himself, to offer for the people. This verse anticipates once again the Lord Jesus Christ as the exception to the whole historical precedence of high priests.

Hebrews 5:4 And no one takes this honor for himself, but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. (ESV)

Verse 4 — “And no man” — kai ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç]. Tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] is an indefinite pronoun and means “anyone.” Kai is a continuative conjunction. Ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] is a very strong negative. Literal Translation: “And no one.”

“taketh” — the present active indicative of lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh] means here to seize, to seize power, to seize rank. Instead of being appointed by God, to take it, to seize it illegally. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs or may be expected to occur. No one ever takes upon himself the office of high priest, it is an appointment from God. The active voice indicates that the human race is the subject producing the action, and no one would assume this responsibility or office. The indicative mood is the reality of the importance of the divine appointment to the office of high priest.

The same application goes today. A man may be in the pulpit who does not have the gift of pastor-teacher. He can only be miserable, his ministry can only end in disaster and be a continuous disaster, and no matter how hard he tries or what gimmick he uses he still cannot cut it. On the other hand the worst slob in the world with the gift of pastor-teacher, with enough self-discipline to study, can communicate doctrine to the blessing of thousands. The high priest was appointed by God and no one else. And when God appoints the individual involved is responsible to God. The pastor-teacher is the priesthood today who has the delegated authority from Jesus Christ is a divine appointment with responsibility to God. This is a double-edged sword. When a pastor-teacher is responsible to God this means that God gives him double blessing or double discipline. It also means that anyone who tries to get into the act by their straightening everyone out — there are people who think they know more about the pastorate and how it should be done — suddenly find themselves with the double discipline.

“And no one seizes this honour.” The word “honour” is the accusative singular from timê (τιμή, ς, ἡ) [pronounced tih-MAY or tee-MAY]. Timê (τιμή, ς, ἡ) [pronounced tih-MAY or tee-MAY] means a state of honour. Anyone who is appointed by God to communicate the Word of God in any dispensation resides in a state of honour. Every criticism, every attack, always bounces back because God can handle anyone a thousand times better than us. He knows what He is doing! He doesn’t need our help. The moment that God the Holy Spirit puts the gift of pastor-teacher in the new believer, at that moment that person is in a state of honour. The reason to translate it “state of honour”, which is what it really means, is because the person doesn’t have honour, he is in a state of honour. Being in a state of honour means that criticism bounces off of them and the critics get hurt by their own criticism. Anyone who is placed in this state of honour by divine appointment must get his discipline or his pat on the head directly from God. The only one who can break through this plexiglass is God the Father.

Bob does not seek out pastors as a group of pastors. Filled with phony stuff. When Bob wants to relax, it would not be around pastors. If he wants to let down what hair he has, then he will let it down.

“unto himself” — dative of reference from the possessive pronoun heautou (ἑαυto) [pronounced heh-ow-TOO]; “but” — the adversative allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH] sets up a contrast; “he that is called” — present passive participle of kaleô (καλέω) [pronounced kal-EH-oh]. The present tense is a static present, it is used to represent a condition which is assumed as always existing. It is always true that no one assumes this honour apart from divine appointment. The passive voice: the appointed high priest receives the action of the verb. The is, he receives his commission from God. The participle is a circumstantial participle to set up the precedent for all bona fide high priesthoods from the beginning of time until the first advent of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“of God” — the preposition hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus the ablative of theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS]. It should be “by the God.” hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus the ablative always expresses agency in a prepositional phrase. God is the agent who makes the appointment.

Then we have an adverb, kaqwsper, which is translated “just as” — “just as Aaron.” Aaron is a great illustration because he is the founder of the Levitical priesthood. He is the illustration and the pattern. The Levitical priesthood began with Aaron. He was appointed by God, he was sustained in that office by operation budding rod. By way of contrast, two men not appointed by God were disciplined for attempting to perform the functions of the high priest. King Saul tried to take over the priesthood. He offered a sacrifice himself. Saul was of the tribe of Benjamin which had nothing to do with the priesthood, and he was disciplined for that — 1Samuel 13:9-14. Uzziah tried it — 2Chronicles 26 — and he became leprous.

The Greek adds an ascensive use of kai, so it should be translated “just as even Aaron was.”

Hebrews 5:4: “No one takes the state of honour to himself, but the one being called by God, just as even Aaron was.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 5:5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you"; (ESV)

vv. 5–10 is a beautiful passage dealing with the celebrityship of Jesus Christ.

Verse 5 — “So also” is the adverb houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] used in the adjunctive sense. The adjunctive use of kai plus the adverb houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] should read “In this manner also”. We have previously had a summary of some of the things pertaining to the high priest prior to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we move to the Lord Jesus Himself. This is a transitional phrase. And we move from all high priests before Christ to the unique high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The adverb refers to that which precedes while the adjunctive conjunction kai sets up a parallel between the fact of the divine appointments of high priests and the Father’s appointment of Jesus Christ, the Son, as the high priest.

“Christ glorified not himself” — “glorified not” is the aorist active indicative of doxazô (δοξάζω) [pronounced dox-AD-zo] plus the negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. This is a dramatic aorist tense, it states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. This is an idiom in the Greek, and the idiom is a device for great emphasis at this point. The dramatic aorist emphasizes the fact that now we have a unique high priest and with the coming of this high priest all other priesthoods are defunct, inadequate, useless, and if you take all of the good high priests before Christ and put them all together, next to the Lord Jesus Christ they are completely and totally out of it. Jesus Christ is now presented immediately by a dramatic aorist as being absolutely unique. Jesus Christ, our high priest, is also appointed by God the Father. He was appointed by God the Father in eternity past as a part of the doctrine of divine decrees. Therefore there is authority in the commission of the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The active voice: Christ produces the action of recognizing the Father’s authority in the matter and not pushing Himself into the office. Jesus Christ who is King and Prophet in His humanity did not press for high priest. He was born of the family of David and was therefore in the line of Judah. There is no priesthood of any kind in the family of Judah, the tribe of Levi has all of the priests — like Aaron. Jesus Christ did not push for this, God appointed Him also priest. He is the only priest in all of Israel’s history who is from the tribe of Judah, who is the bona fide King and at the same time is the priest. In the future He will be the high priest of Israel even though he is from the tribe of Judah. This does not exclude the function of the priesthood in the Millennium but now they will function under a high priest from a different tribe.

Bob invites people to leave if they are bored. Just don’t come back.

Principle: Under God’s grace plan there is no place for inordinate ambition. Grace promotes, God promotes, God appoints, God commissions. You don’t have to get pushy. Grace promotion is permanent because it depends on who and what God is. When God appoints he puts you in a state of honour and you couldn’t be better off. But if God doesn’t promote you, you are not promoted. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that Christ did not appoint of promote Himself, though His deity possessed the power to do so. Jesus did not need to promote Himself (God the Father promoted Him).

Someone out of Berachah starts a ministry; and he wants to set up a tape ministry from the beginning. Grace promotion is permanent because it depends upon God.

“himself”, again, is the reflexive singular of heautou (ἑαυto) [pronounced heh-ow-TOO] and it is used to emphasize the identity of the person producing the action.

“to be made” — the aorist passive infinitive of ginomai, which means to become. This is a gnomic aorist, it regards the action of the verb as axiomatic. It is a dogmatic fact. The passive voice: the subject, Jesus Christ receives the action of the verb — divine appointment to the high priesthood. The infinitive expresses divine purpose.

“but” — conjunction of contrast, the adversative conjunction allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH]; “he”, the Father, or literally, “the one”. Grace always glorifies the initiator. That is why you shouldn’t push. When you push you get away from grace. Grace is designed to glorify the initiator and the initiator is God the Father.

“that said” — the aorist active participle from laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh] which means to speak or to communicate. Here it refers to the verbal communication of the divine decrees as illustrated by Psalm 2:7.

“unto him” is pros plus the accusative of autos — “face to face with him.” When God the Father appointed Jesus Christ in eternity past Jesus Christ was right there with Him, face to face — “having communicated face to face with him.”

Translation so far: “In this manner also the Christ did not glorify himself to become a high priest; but the one [God the Father] having communicated face to face with him ...”

Now we are going to have a quotation from Psalm 2:7, so we will go back and look at Psalm 2:7.

Psalm 2:7 I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, "You are my Son; today I have begotten you. (ESV; capitalized)

“I will declare” — the piel imperfect of saphar. Saphar means to speak, to relate, to rehearse, to recount. It means to describe something that has happened previously. Hence, the verb means to reveal something which was previously spoken. David is going to reveal something that was spoken thousands and thousands of years ago. In this case what was previously spoken was that part of the divine decrees dealing with the appointment of Jesus Christ as a high priest at the point of His incarnation.

“I will recount the decree.” The word for decree is choq. It refers to something fixed or appointed. Choq is used for laws, customs, privileges, or decrees.

“The Lord” is the tetragrammaton, which the Jews never pronounced — “Jehovah.” It refers here to God the Father.

“hath said” — qal imperfect of amar. The qal perfect means He spoke it previously, the action was completed in eternity past as a part of the doctrine of divine decrees.

“unto me” — refers to Jesus Christ. How do we know that? He says, been attar, “My Son, you”, and that is a statement of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ was always the Son, there never was a time when He wasn’t. There is no verb here: “My Son, you”.

Then comes the appointment: ha jom, “This day”. This does not refer to the day in which this was uttered but the day in which Jesus Christ was born of a virgin into this world. “This day” is incorrect, it is “The day” — virgin birth, not eternity past when this occurred.

“have I begotten” — the qal perfect of jaladh. It is in the perfect tense to indicate that the moment that Jesus Christ was born He was born the unique high priest, He was born King [of Israel], He was born high priest forever, He was born a prophet. Jesus Christ was born in total uniqueness.

Acts 13:32 And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers,...

Acts 13:33 ...this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus, as also it is written in the second Psalm, "'You are my Son, today I have begotten you.' (ESV; capitalized)

Theophany v. Christophany.

This verse is quoted three times in the New Testament. The first is Acts 13:32,33 — “We declare” is the present middle indicative of euaggelizô (εὐαγγελίζω) [pronounced yoo-ang-ghel-EED-zo] which is about as strong a word as we could have to announce some good news. it means something of great blessing — “the promise”, now we have the cognate, epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah] which connotes a promise of grace and blessing.

“having become” — aorist active participle of ginomai — “face to face with the fathers [ancestors]”

Verse 33 — “the God [ho Theos] has fulfilled” — the perfect active indicative of e)kplhrow, intensive perfect, something accomplished in the past with results that are now completed — “the God has brought to completion”

“to their children” — dative of indirect object. It indicates the one in whose interest the fulfilment is performed. Teknon [children] refers to the Jews. So remember that the incarnation was to benefit the Jews, says the dative of indirect object.

“in that he has raised up Jesus from the again” — the word “again” is not in the original, and the word “raise up” does not mean resurrection. Resurrection was in verse 30 but this is incarnation. We have the aorist active participle of anistêmi (ἀνίστημι) [pronounced ahn-ISS-tay-mee] which means to make the scene, to bring on the scene. So we translate it “having brought on the scene.” The verb refers to the incarnation of Jesus Christ, not the resurrection. The resurrection is the subject of the next verse and was the subject of verse 30.

Then we have the quotation which is the fulfilment of the divine decrees — “as it stands written in the second Psalm, ‘You are my Son; this day I have begotten you’.”

“Thou art” is the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], indicating the deity of Jesus Christ. When this was said Jesus Christ was God. Later on at the point of the fulfilment He became man. Notice that the fulfilment of this portion of the divine decrees is first of all to Israel. In Hebrews 1:5, to prove that the humanity of Christ is superior to all angels we have a second quotation of this passage. In Hebrews 5:5, the third quotation, the high priesthood of Christ is superior to all high priesthoods which have existed before it and supersedes all high priesthoods.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #52

52 06/20/1973 Hebrews 5:5b-6 Doctrine of Melchizedek (not a theophany)

Review of first 4 verse.

Hebrews 5:5 So also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but was appointed by him who said to him, "You are my Son, today I have begotten you"; (ESV)

Verse 5b — we now see “my Son” — huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS] [deity]; “thou art” — the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], absolute state of existence. This present tense is linear aktionsart to denote that Jesus Christ always was God, always has been, always will be. There was a time when He was not humanity and not our high priest. Then we have an adverb. “Today” is the English word. The adverb sêmeron (σήμερον) [pronounced SAY-mer-on] refers to the point of the incarnation, not the point of the giving of the decree.

“have I begotten” is the perfect active indicative of the Greek verb gennáô (γεννάω) [pronounced gen-NAH-oh], which means to give birth. It is a reference here to the virgin birth. The perfect tense is the intensive perfect which indicates that the action is completed and has results that continue forever. Jesus Christ has been born of a virgin, has become a true member of the human race and therefore will be in hypostatic union forever. The active voice that God the Father who planned it brought this into action. The indicative mood is the reality of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, the virgin birth beginning that point.

Hebrews 5:5 “In this manner also the Christ did not glorify himself to become a high priest; but the one [God the Father] having communicated face to face with him [the decrees, as per Psalm 2:7], My Son you keep on being, I today have begotten you.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. All persons of the Trinity are identical in essence. This means that the first and second persons of the Trinity are coequal and coeternal, they have the exact same essence.

2. The first person of the Trinity is called in language of accommodation, Father. This is simply using a human term to describe the relationship of the first person of the Trinity to the divine decrees. He is the author of the divine plan, He is the authority of the divine plan, He is therefore qualified by language of accommodation, “Father.”

3. The second person, under the language of accommodation, is called “the Son” because He is obedient to the authority of the planner in His humanity. While in His deity he has as much sovereignty as the Father — in essence He is one with the Father — in His humanity He must not only obey but His obedience must be implicit.

4. Therefore, authority and obedience become the issue in the strategic victory of the angelic conflict.

5. For this reason they have been made an issue in the human race through the laws of divine establishment. Authority and obedience is the basis for tactical victory in the angelic conflict, and authority and obedience means authority is in the Word, authority is in the one who communicates the Word as the pastor.

6. The Father’s plan calls for salvation of mankind through the cross.

7. These Son as high priest, in obedience to the Father’s authority and the Father’s Word [decree], offered Himself as a sacrifice for sins. He obeyed His Father and the decree.

8. The priestly function of Christ begins with the removal of the barrier between God and man. Therefore Christ is the unique high priest, obedient to the Father’s authority and obedient to the Father’s command in the divine decrees.

Every military involved a great many decisions to obey authority. No one in the military can forget what he learned in close-order drill. Implicit obedience is the key to victory. The strategic victory was based on authority; and our salvation would be impossible apart from Jesus obeying the authority of the Father.

Many fundies like being in a church because it lacks authority. Most people become independent because they want to throw a brick at anything that smacks of authority. And everyone does what he damn well pleases. A pastor is needed for a wedding or a funeral. Without authority and obedience to authority, there is no salvation. So the stream of fundamentalism has gone from bad to worse.

Some of you have wandered in for the summer. Bob knows a teenaged girl came to find a boy friend. Or some have come here to get in trouble. Bob is going to can some of these girls; and first thing you find out is, you need to be here on time. And if I want to sit another 5 minutes and listen to music, then I will do it, because I am in charge. And if any of you guys end up in jail, you can rot in jail; we are not coming to bail you out. Bob does not want to see any man sitting while a woman is standing. And keep your hands of the girls. Around here, you are the protector of womanhood. If Yankees can have good manners, so can you.

We are going to be in some fascinating passages on the 4^th of July. I think he read from a passage in Galatians? There is authority in the pastor and authority in his message. If you are going to go to supergrace, you must accept both authorities.

Jesus has killed more in the military than any other man.

He also holds the record for obedience to the Father for 33 years. He never disobeyed His Father.

Hebrews 5:6 as he says also in another place, "You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek." (ESV)

Verse 6 — we have an adverb, kathôs (καθώς) [pronounced kahth-OCE], used to indicate a comparison. It should be translated “even as”, it gives it a little more strength; “he saith” — present active indicative of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh], “he communicates”: “Even as also in another place he says [communicates].” There is more than one passage of scripture that communicates the doctrine of divine decrees. Now we are going to get a second citation from the word of the Father, the divine decrees. Notice is says “in another place” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of héteros (ἕτερος) [pronounced HEH-ter-os], which means another of a different kind. So a different area, a different passage of scripture, is what e(tereoj means here. it is in the Psalms again, this time Psalm 110:4 is cited.

Psalm 110:4 — “The Lord hath sworn.” This is the tetragrammaton for “the Lord”, it refers to Jehovah the Father who is the author of the divine plan, the author of the divine decrees; “hath sword” is the niphal perfect of shaba which means to seven something, to say it seven times. Seven was considered the perfect number. If you said it seven times it was supposed to be right, and it finally came to mean to make a solemn promise. The niphal stem here is reflexive. The reflexive concept has to do with the fact that in making this solemn promise the reflexive brings out who made it, and the one who made it is absolute truth, eternal truth. The one who made it is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, sovereign, absolute righteousness. In other words, the niphal brings out not only what was said but who said it. The niphal stem says in effect that when God says it, it is a fact, it is an absolute. The perfect tense indicates the action is completed.

There are people that you know who are congenital liars and whatever they say, you know it is not true. On the other hand, when God says something, it is an absolute. It is true.

“and will not repent” — the Hebrew is the niphal imperfect of nacham, and again we have a reflexive niphal, and again it emphasizes the person who never changes his mind, and that is exactly what repent means — to change the mind.

“Thou art a priest” — kohen, the word for priest. it is derived from the verb kun which means to stand up, and kohen was the one who stood up at the altar, stood up for the people, stood up and talked, stood up for what God wanted, stood up and represented the people to God.

“after the order of Melchizedek” — literally, “after the manner of Melchizedek.” Melchizedek was one of those people whose name was mentioned in heaven in eternity past. He was an actual person, a Gentile, who ruled a great city called Salem, the ancient Jerusalem. He functioned as a priest under the family priesthood and he was a contemporary of Abraham and not a theophany.

Christophany is an appearance of Jesus after the resurrection; a Theophany, an appearance of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament

The Doctrine of Melchizedek — Not a Theophany.

1. Theophanies are never given formal names.

2. Theophanies are never related to a specific geographical location. Melchizedek was the king of Salem. Salem is a specific geographical location.

3. Theophanies always disclose God as the messenger. Not so Melchizedek.

4. Psalm 110:4 — Christ is the one being addressed; the Father is speaking to the Son. The verses is conclusive. It does not say “You are Melchizedek,” it says “You are a priest after the manner of Melchizedek.”

5. A priest must be true humanity to represent the human race before God.

6. Therefore Melchizedek was a true historical person rather than a theophany. As a historical person he is a king, the king of Salem, he is a priest under the family priesthood system, therefore a perfect illustration, a perfect pattern of the unique priesthood of Christ. Jesus Christ is a king as well as a priest.

“Thou art” — “art” is simply a part of the verb to be and is not found in the original text either here or in Psalm 110:4. You have a proleptic pronoun su. The proleptic pronoun means you and only you. It is in the singular, one person is involved: Jesus Christ. There is not verb. The absence of the verb not only emphasizes the proleptic pronoun but emphasizes the appointment of a unique person to a unique position.

The next word is a noun, hiereus (ἱερεύς) [pronounced hee-er-YOOCE], the Greek word for priest, followed by eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] ton aiôn (αἰών) [pronounced ī-OHN] which means forever and ever — “You and only you a priest forever and ever.” This phrase is addressed to Jesus Christ. He is appointed a high priest forever and ever by the speaker in eternity past. “For ever” is the duration of Christ’s appointment in contrast to Aaron’s priesthood terminated by his death. The very fact that in the divine decrees the Father said forever and ever indicates that the Father intended to raise Christ from the dead and in fact answered His prayer from the cross to do so. So death does not hinder the priesthood of Jesus Christ. It hindered the priesthood of Aaron. Since Aaron died he has never functioned as the priest. Melchizedek finally died, and when he did that was the end of his priesthood. Death terminates the priesthood for everyone but Jesus Christ, and the fact that He would be a priest forever is the prophecy of resurrection in this paragraph of divine decrees. In resurrection Jesus Christ continued the function of His priesthood.

“after the order of” — we have a preposition katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative singular of taxis (τάξις) [pronounced TAHX-iss]. Taxis (τάξις) [pronounced TAHX-iss] means a rank of troops, the line in which the platoon falls in. It is a military word. It can also be used in the sense of classification — “according to the classification of Melchizedek.” Jesus Christ is in the taxis (τάξις) [pronounced TAHX-iss] of Melchizedek, He is not in the taxis (τάξις) [pronounced TAHX-iss] of the Levitical priesthood, those in the line of Aaron. The classification of Melchizedek is the royal priesthood. It is the one in which we as believers find ourselves during this Church Age. Melchizedek was a king and a high priest. Jesus Christ is the King of kings and is the unique high priest. The symbols of bread and wine are the symbols of one priesthood; the symbols of the other are animals and tabernacles/temples. They are entirely different priesthoods. Melchizedek is a real person; Jesus Christ is a real person. Both of them are in the same priesthood, is what this is saying. They are not the same person.

We have different classifications of priesthoods. Melchizedek is the royal priesthood, and we are in that battalion during the Church Age.

The symbols of bread and wine in the first priesthood; animals and temples are the symbols of the other battalion. You cannot belong to both battalions; you can belong to one or the other. There is the family priesthood; the Melchizedek priesthood, and the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The other priesthood begins with Aaron, Eliezar, Phinehas, Eli, etc.

Bob discusses the distinctive insignia of each type of battalion. We are royal priests, we may not look like it and we may not act like it. Cohen is an honorable Jewish name; there is nothing more American than having the name Cohen.

Now the Levitical Priesthood is deactivated; just as there are deactivated battalions since WWII. There will be the reactivation of the Levitical Priesthood.

Two boys were young boys together in 1954. Ward Christ and Bobby; they have known each other all of their lives. But they are both different people. They ran into each other in Ranger school. They both got regular commissions. They are both stationed in the same outfit, but adjoining companies. Melchizedek and Jesus Christ are both different people. Every jackass who ever wrote a devotional that Melchizedek was really Jesus Christ. They are in the same outfit; but they are not the same person.

Hebrews 5:6 “Even as also in another place, You [Jesus Christ] a priest forever in the same priesthood [or,outfit] as Melchizedek”. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews 5:7–8 Lesson #53

53 06/21/1973 Hebrews 5:7–8 Jesus Christ's prayer on the cross

Bob received a letter from a Sgt. in the marine corps. In Washington D.C. he saw American flags flying right next to Russian flags. Our flags stand for freedom and theirs stands for oppression and loss of freedom. Alan K. Johnson.

We are here because of Edward Bennet. Advancing with company B, pinned down by machine guns. Circuitous route around a house where the machine gun was. Came into a room with 7 Germans, all of whom he killed with 3 different weapons.

Another guy; killed 20 guys. Several different combat scenarios. Enemies began to back up from their post; and this guy, blown across the room for the 4^th time. Still God up and went after it. He fought for 48 hours. He killed 40 enemies soldiers and wounded many more. This is why your little teenage girls can sit and squirm in your pews.

First 6 verses reviewed. Bob knew a guy in CA who thought there was no proper praying without crying.

Jesus is in the real Holy of Holies at this point in time.

When on the cross, Jesus offered up prayers. Also, He died for our sins. These are overlapping constative aorist tenses.

This prayer was screamed from the cross. The agony of bearing out sins is what caused the Lord to scream. The Romans would strip the shirt off a person and whip them and cut up the back. Interrogation by flogging. Jesus was subjected to this and did not say a word. Later on the cross, His bones began to pull apart and still, no screaming.

Hebrews 5:7 In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. (ESV)

Verse 7 — the verse begins with the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] which refers to the Lord Jesus Christ whose priesthood is perpetuated by resurrection. Priesthood was terminated by death but the Lord Jesus Christ was resurrected, and one of the reasons for it, apart from the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, was the perpetuation of His priesthood at the right hand of the Father. Jesus Christ is perpetually in the real holy of holies in heaven at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us.

“in the days of his flesh” now takes us back to the beginning of His priesthood at the incarnation. We have the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative, indicating a time, and this refers to the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ as specified in Psalm 2:7.

“when he had offered up” — the aorist active participle of the verb prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh], one of the primary functions of the Levitical priesthood. The aorist tense here of the participle is very important because He is offering not the usual sacrifice or the one usually portrayed of Himself but He is offering the sacrifice of prayer, indicating that prayer is the ministry of the priesthood, and indicating our function in that particular area. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb: “he did not glorify himself”, verse 5. Before He did not glorify Himself he offered up these prayers. We have the constative aorist here referring to the cross. Remember that the constative aorist gathers up into one entirety a certain type of function. This function is extracted — He did other things at the cross beside this but while He was on the cross He did offer prayer. Sometimes these constative aorists overlap each other and such is the case here, we have an overlapping constative aorist with other functions that occurred on the cross. Instead of the usual prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh] which is for offering animal sacrifices we have it clearly declared by the accusative plural of dehsij that this is something else. Dehsij is translated “prayers” and that is a legitimate use of the word. This is a very intensive type of prayer, however. It refers to Christ’s prayer on the cross as recorded in several of the Psalms. For example, part of this prayer is recorded in Psalm 69:13–15, part of it is recorded in Psalm 16:9,10, and part of it is recorded in Psalm 22.

“prayers and”, and then we have an adjective, “supplications” — i(kthria, which is derived from someone coming up with an olive branch as a peace sign, or sign of wanting a treaty, or as a suppliant. It refers to the prayer of Christ on the cross. As it were, He was carrying an olive branch to God the Father. This, again, is the supplication of Psalm 22:22–31 which contains the Lord’s prayer request for resurrection. This is not a reference to Gethsemane. In Gethsemane Christ prayed to God but he prayed for avoidance, if possible, of the cross. But this is not a reference to that prayer, this is a prayer for resurrection during the intense suffering of the cross.

Next we have a prepositional phrase, the preposition meta plus the descriptive genitive kraugh which means both crying and screaming, even loud shouting. This is a descriptive genitive, it tells exactly what was associated with our Lord’s prayer. We can tell from the use of the noun and the adjective in the first part of this sentence that it was a very intense prayer, but this intensiveness is now amplified. Meta here with the genitive is the preposition of association, and it can be translated “associated with loud crying [or screaming].” This prayer was screamed at God the Father. We know from Psalm 22 that our Lord did quite a bit of screaming on the cross. The agony of bearing our sins is what brought forth the screams. He didn’t scream because He was in pain and couldn’t take it. On the contrary, He had demonstrated that he could stand up under any kind of physical pain and any kind of soul torture. He stood up under the torture of being lied about in every possible way in a courtroom, He stood up under the Roman system of interrogation with whips.

The Lord’s Prayer on the Cross

1. The prayer which is specified in this passage is found in detail in Psalm 16:9,10; 69:13–15; 22:22–31.

2. Christ was praying this prayer during the time when He was offering Himself for our sins.

3. We have two priestly functions occurring simultaneously: offering Himself as a sacrifice for sins and offering prayer for resurrection from the physical death which would follow the spiritual death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4. The physical death interrupts the priestly ministry of Jesus Christ. No man ever ministered as a priest after dying. The death of a high priest meant that he was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, under the Levitical code. This was more or less the same under the family priesthood but it was different under the royal priesthood. Under the royal priesthood a person who was a king also functioned as the high priest of his nation.

5. The phase one ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ: He offered Himself for our sins. the phase two ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ as priest: He makes intercession for us at the right hand of the Father. This is vital because one out of every 100,000 believers knows how to pray. It is only after one is thoroughly inculcated in the doctrine of prayer and have reached the status of the supergrace believer priest that you really begin to have an effective prayer life. Christ could not have fulfilled His phase two ministry without resurrection, so He is praying for the continuation of His priesthood while He is functioning as a priest.

6. No priest can function in physical death, whether Aaron or Christ.

7. Christ is a priest. He could not offer Himself for our sins in physical death, He had to pay the penalty of our sins which is spiritual death. The physical death of Christ came because His work was finished for the moment. So when he was bearing our sins that is equivalent to spiritual death because God the Father was judging all of the sins of the human race, past, present, and future at the point of the cross. Once the objective to go to the cross was accomplished the Lord Jesus Christ departed from this earth. But there is another objective that has to be fulfilled and it has to be fulfilled at the right hand of the Father. So He must be resurrected, He must ascend and be seated at the right hand of the Father under the doctrine of session. Once the session is accomplished then it becomes necessary for Him to function and to fulfil a ministry that not one of us would ever be able to fulfil for ourselves or others.

In anticipation of His own physical death and because His work of salvation, or the sacrificial work, was fulfilled the Lord Jesus Christ now prays for His resurrection in order to continue His own priestly ministry, for He is a high priest. Also there is a second word which is the object of the preposition — “and tears.” This, too, is a descriptive genitive. The only difference is it is a descriptive genitive plural in contrast to kraugh which is a genitive singular. This is also the object of the preposition meta and should be translated “associated with a scream”, since it is singular, “and many tears.” This, again, emphasizes the intensity of the prayer.

The question arises: Was the prayer effective? Even apart from our own understanding of the historical resurrection the answer is yes. The next phrase “unto him” is the preposition pros plus the accusative of the intensive pronoun autos, which means “face to face with him” and indicates that the prayer was getting through.

Summary

1. All prayer is addressed to God the Father. This means that God the Father is the only person to whom you can address prayers and be heard.

2. Jesus Christ as high priest is absolutely accurate in the address of His prayer. He addressed it to God the Father.

3. The principle: All prayer must be addressed to God the Father, as per Ephesians 3:14. The approach is in the name of the Son, He is our high priest — John 14:13,14. And all effective prayer is accomplished under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit — Ephesians 6:18.

4. The Son as our high priest offers prayer to the Father in Hebrews 7:25. So does God the Holy Spirit in Romans 8:26,27.

5. Therefore, the precedent of our priesthood is established. As a kingdom of priests we are under the royal priesthood and we must all follow the same procedure. Being in a royal priesthood you always approach God through your high priest, and our high priest is the King-priest, Jesus Christ.

6. All prayer is offered to God the Father. No believer priest ever prays to God the Son or to God the Holy Spirit. There is a principle here: More failure results from stupidity than carnality when it comes to prayer.

“that was able” is incorrect. The present active participle of dunamai (δύναμαι) [pronounced DOO-nam-ahee]. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes something begun in the past and continues right up to the present time — the time that the writer writes. God has always been able to answer prayer, both then and now. So, “face to face with the one who has always been and continues to be able” is the way you translated a retroactive progressive present. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb by answering prayer. This participle is the adjectival use of the participle to describe God the Father. One of His functions is prayer answering. The accusative case of the participle is still a part of the object of that preposition proj, so that literally that whole prepositional phrase should be translated, “face to face with the one who has always been and continues to be able.”

Now we have an infinitive, the present active infinitive of sôzô (σώζω) [pronounced SOHD-zoh] which is translated “to save” which actually means to deliver. The type of deliverance is specified by context. The present tense is an iterative present, it describes that which occurs or reoccurs at successive intervals. It is called the present tense of repeated action. At different intervals of time there is deliverance. The active voice of this infinitive: God the Father is the subject producing the action of the verb which is deliverance as an answer to prayer. The infinitive is a verbal noun here. This is not an ordinary infinitive, it came to the Koine Greek from the Sanskrit by way of Attic Greek. This is called the infinitive of purpose for it is God’s purpose to raise Jesus Christ from the dead to continue His priestly ministry at the right hand of the Father. This is used as a noun and therefore when you have the infinitive used as a verbal noun it means that this is a part of the Father’s plan, He always intended for it to happen, and the fact that Jesus prayed for it is for our information, as well as to show that when Jesus Christ on the cross side of His death prayed for something and was answered through death — which apart from resurrection would have been an impossibility for an answer — it was a demonstration of the power of prayer from our only celebrity and high priest, Jesus Christ. His power of prayer is phenomenal because from the cross it was answered through death and resurrection. It also gives us the thrust of our Lord’s prayer on our behalf at the right hand of the Father. It is also God’s purpose to make the resurrection a part of the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. The reason we have supergrace today is because of the victory of the angelic conflict. The back of Satan was broken at the cross. Not only was our salvation provided but this is what broke the devil’s back. Then resurrection, ascension and session completes the first stage of the strategic victory which interrupts the Age of Israel, starts up the Church Age with a new type of priesthood — the royal priesthood — and makes our tactical objective — supergrace, where we have the cup through doctrine and God pours: celebrityship of Christ, supergrace capacity, and supergrace blessings. And under the royal priesthood it is God’s objective that we live like royalty. He wants to give us wealth, success, prosperity, promotion, etc. The royal priesthood demands royal living.

Sanscrit if very important for a person studying Greek.

Our next word is “him”, the accusative singular from the intensive pronoun autos. It refers to Jesus Christ. The intensive pronoun emphasizes more than the personal pronoun. That is why we have it so frequently. The personal pronoun just means “you,” the intensive pronoun means “you yourself.” Here we have “he himself” because the intensive pronoun always has a stronger connotation, and Christ is the victor in that strategic activity — the cross, resurrection and session.

The intensive pronoun always has a strong connotation. The strategic victory has two phases. The abnormal crowd makes up the freaks; they make up all of the phony rules.

Jesus answered a prayer on the cross, and this was answered by the Father with the resurrection and ascension.

God is glorified by promoting us, not for us suffering. We are royal priests and nobility lives within luxury.

Billions of dollars of American money are stolen every year, like our oil fields in Libya. Bob wants universal military service; and we go into Vietnam, Chili, Cuba, etc.

“from death” — preposition ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus the ablative singular of thanatos (θάνατος) [pronounced THAH-nah-toss] for physical death — “the one being able to deliver he himself [Jesus Christ] out from physical death.” Note that Christ did not pray for deliverance from death on the cross but out from death. In other words, while Christ was bearing our sins on the cross, which was one of His priestly functions, He was anticipating another priestly function but death stood in the way. So he anticipates His physical death as the termination of the first phase of His priesthood but He prayed for the perpetuation into the second phase, therefore He prayed for resurrection. He didn’t pray for resurrection because He was not aware of the implications, He prayed for resurrection so we would be aware of the implications.

“and was heard” — here is the dynamics of our Lord’s ministry of prayer. We have the aorist passive participle from the compound verb e)isakouw. eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] means upon or because of; akoúô (ἀκούω) [pronounced ah-KOO-oh] means to hear. Christ was heard because of His prayer, therefore the verb means to accept someone’s petition — “and having received the acceptance of his petition.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which indicates the results of His prayer, it gathers up the whole concept of His prayer and emphasizes the result. So the culminative aorist followed by the passive voice, the subject [Christ] receives the action of the verb — answer to His prayer. The participle is an antecedent participle. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb, the main verb is found in verse 5: “he did not glorify himself.” The Father glorified Him.

“in that he feared” — the preposition apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the genitive of eulábeia (εὐλάβεια) [pronounced yoo-LAHB-i-ah]. Eulábeia (εὐλάβεια) [pronounced yoo-LAHB-i-ah] means to be careful and watchful in the sphere of respect for authority. It means to be very careful about the authority of someone who has authority. It means maximum respect for authority. It means also reverence but reverence is merely a type of authority and therefore not a good way to translate eulábeia (εὐλάβεια) [pronounced yoo-LAHB-i-ah]. Here is respect for authority. A high priest must have respect for the person of God the Father. The prayer is offered to God the Father. He respects His person. That means His essence. He respects the plan of the person to whom He offers the prayer. And eulábeia (εὐλάβεια) [pronounced yoo-LAHB-i-ah] means respect for the authority of the person and for the authority of the plan of God. Therefore it should be translated, “because of respect for divine authority.”

Hebrews 5:7 “Who in the days of his flesh [incarnation], having offered up both prayers supplications associated with scream and tears face to face with the one [God the Father] who was able in the past and keeps on being able to deliver him out from death, and his petition having been heard because of his recognition of divine authority.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. There is no normal function of the priesthood apart from the supergrace life. We are in a royal priesthood that demands a supergrace life. Here is where prayer becomes effective.

2. Jesus Christ is a royal high priest, He is the King high priest. He was effective in His prayer because of His recognition of the Father’s authority and the Father’s plan.

3. The prayers that are effective demand concentration on who and what the Father is and who and what His plan is. That calls for knowledge of doctrine.

4. The petition for resurrection indicate thorough cognisance of the importance of having started a strategic victory to complete it.

5. In this way and in this prayer Jesus Christ paved the way for the tactical victory of the supergrace life in this dispensation. The supergrace life is for royal priests.

6. Eulábeia (εὐλάβεια) [pronounced yoo-LAHB-i-ah] emphasizes authority, and the supergrace believer has maximum recognition of the authority of Jesus Christ, His person and His work.

7. Blessing and happiness in life must be related to authority and respect for authority. Respect for authority is always involved in two categories: a person who has the authority, and the plan.

You cannot learn or even be saved without some recognition of authority. For your pastor-teacher, you must respect his person and office, not his personality.

Is there a missing lesson on Hebrews where v. 8 was taught? He talks about picking up there the next time Hebrews is taught, but lesson 54 takes up to v. 9.

Hebrews 5:8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. (ESV)

Hebrews 5:8 “Although being a Son, he [Christ] entered into learning obedience to authority from the things which he had suffered.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews Lesson #54

54 06/22/1973 Hebrews 5:9-11 Jesus Christ's self-discipline & respect for authority

Frank Farmer has the green book; and he uncovered this? Joseph Grant, fighting in Vietnam.

Hebrews 5:9 And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, (ESV)

First 8 verses reviewed.

Verse 9 — this verses records the result of Jesus Christ learning absolute obedience to authority. The result was the cross where Christ fulfilled His priestly function as offering Himself a sacrifice for our sins.

The word “and” beginning the verse is a continuative use of the conjunction kai and indicates the results of Christ’s suffering to learn obedience. He had to learn discipline of absolute to authority or there would be no salvation. It is always hard for people to realize that if Jesus Christ had not been the most disciplined, the most obedient to authority person who ever lived, He would not have gone to the cross and offered Himself for our sins. This required the greatest of self-discipline and the greatest respect for authority in all of human history. Furthermore, it was contrary to every impulse, every desire, every part of His soul. Nevertheless, He did it. And while we like to think in terms of freedom and the blessings of our royal priesthood it would be totally impossible were it not for discipline. The Lord Jesus Christ didn’t enjoy great freedom, He went to the cross under the strictest system of discipline. The Father was the absolute authority; His plan was also the authority. In obedience to the person of God the Father and in obedience to the plan of God the Father Jesus Christ went to the cross. It was the strictest system of discipline in all of human history. Out of discipline comes freedom. Out of self-discipline and principles of authority freedom exists in the human race so that the angelic conflict might be perpetuated from one generation to another. So this is the continuative use of the conjunction in order to now move to the results of learning discipline and respect for or obedience to authority.

The phrase “being made perfect” is not a correct translation. The aorist passive participle teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh] means something different. Teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh] means to execute a command perfectly, to execute fully, to complete, to bring something to an end, to accomplish a goal or to reach an objective. It also means to complete the process of training through the suffering and the discipline of the previous verse. So its best possible Translation: “and having completed the disciplinary training.” The whole life of our Lord was one of disciplinary training, of extreme self-discipline. Every temptation to sin was also an issue of self-discipline. The Lord Jesus Christ never had the freedoms that you and I had. He had the freedoms and more so, but He did not have the freedoms because His objective was the cross and His objective was to reach the cross in sinless perfection. If He had succumbed to one temptation and sinned He would have acquired an old sin nature, He would have been a sinner in the same way that Adam became a sinner. But the Lord Jesus Christ went through 33 years of intense discipline and it reached its culmination on the cross where He obeyed a command to go to the cross where He bore our sins. He knew how horrible it would be and yet He was carried by His respect for the Father’s authority, His respect for the plan of the Father, ad by the extreme self-discipline of His own soul. All of this carried Him to the cross. The cross represents from the God-ward side and from the standpoint of our high priest, Jesus Christ, the highest obedience to authority. This is brought out by the aorist passive participle of teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh]. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which regards the event in its entirety. In other words, the entirety in this case is everything whereby Jesus Christ learned to respect authority, learned self-discipline, learned obedience, obedience unto death. He learned it in childhood, He learned it through doctrine, He learned it through temptation, He learned it through testing, He learned it in relationship with other people, He learned it by living not a normal life but an abnormal life. He was true humanity and could have lived a normal life without sin but He lived an abnormal life without sin and He fulfilled His objective without ever losing sight of His objective. And we now have here the culminating aorist. Here is the constative concept, the punctiliar concept, of the aorist. The culminative aorist regards the event in its entirety — learning obedience to authority through disciplinary training of suffering — but places special emphasis on the existing result: executing our salvation as the first function of His high priesthood. As a royal priest He had a different sacrifice. As a King with a crown on His head He went to the cross and offered Himself in fulfilment of the uniqueness of the royal priesthood. He executed our salvation by offering Himself for our sins on the cross. The passive voice of the participle: the subject, Jesus Christ, receives the action of the verb, namely the completion of His training course of learning discipline by suffering and then fulfilling the result of His training course in obedience to death, the death of the cross. The participle has antecedent action, it is an aorist participle, and the antecedent action is relevant to the main verb, “he became.” So literally, “And having completed the disciplinary training, he became.”

We are not certain about the family priesthood. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all High Priest for their families.

“he became” — aorist active indicative of the verb ginomai. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist which states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. The active voice: Christ became the only Savior, which is part of His celebrityship involved here. The indicative mood states reality plus the main verb from the preceding participle.

The next word “author” is also incorrectly translated. Aitios (αἳτιος) [pronounced AHEE-tee-oss] does not mean “author”, it means “source.” The absence of the definite article in the Greek emphasizes the qualitative aspect of the source. The principle of no definite article means that Christ is the only source of salvation.

“of eternal salvation” — sôtêria (σωτηρία) [pronounced soh-tay-REE-ah]j aiôn (αἰών) [pronounced ī-OHN]iou are two descriptive genitives. When a genitive stands out in its typical significance without shading off into combinations with some contextual idea it is classified as a descriptive genitive and this is also the genitive of possession. This was originally addressed for believers, we know that from the genitive. They actually possessed eternal salvation.

“unto all” — the dative plural of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] is the indirect object, which isn’t really the indirect object at all but that is the easiest way to describe it from English syntax. The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the act is performed. Jesus Christ did this because of us. And all of the time on this earth when Jesus Christ was under discipline He had you in mind.

“them that obey” — the dative plural of advantage, the present active participle from the verb hupakouô (ὑπακούω) [pronounced hoop-ak-OO-oh], a very strong word for obedience. hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] means to be under the command of; akoúô (ἀκούω) [pronounced ah-KOO-oh] means to hear or to obey or to respect the authority of. So “the ones obeying” is the corrected translation. The present tense is an iterative present, it describes what occurs or recurs at successive intervals. That means that throughout history there will always be those who obey. Only our obedience is different. The obedience to the cross on the part of Jesus Christ was offering Himself as a high priest; our obedience is to believe in Jesus Christ, to receive Him as personal Savior in the sense of a gift. The Lord Jesus Christ, our high priest, had a special obedience connected with the cross. Everyone who enters the royal priesthood also has a special obedience. His was the obedience of total ability from His hypostatic union; ours is the obedience of total inability, for obedience specifies the principle but faith indicates the mechanics. Faith is non-meritorious. The obedience of Jesus Christ was one hundred per cent merit, whereas our obedience to the cross as the royal priesthood is zero merit. So anyone related to the cross in any way has to face the issue of obedience. God ordered Jesus Christ: Go to the cross. And when He obeyed that order it took one hundred per cent of everything that He had. But when God commands us obedience to the cross it takes nothing because it took everything. In other words, in fulfilling this verb our high priest gave one hundred per cent and He came to the cross under obedience that required all of His ability to stay there and to take it, to bear our sins. But when we approach the cross it is zero, zero point zero, zero because he took all the percentage. So the doctrine of obedience to the cross is the very basis for our priesthood. Our priesthood gives us freedom but that freedom always and inevitably comes through the strictest obedience to authority. It is God’s objective to take every royal priest and through the function of GAP bring that royal priest to the point of supergrace. He not only saves us but in time it is His intention to give us blessing and prosperity exceedingly abundantly above all we could ever ask or think. And when a priest fails here the bottom drops out of everything for that generation. The active voice: people at different times obey and believe in Jesus Christ. That is where you start obeying God. The participle is a modal participle, it signifies the manner in which the action of main verb is accomplished. The main verb: Christ “became the source of eternal salvation” .The modal participle tells us how He accomplished it. The manner of accomplishment: obedience to the cross. The word “obeying him” is a dative singular from the intensive pronoun autos. The intensive pronoun refers to Christ who commands salvation.

While we are learning about all of these great blessings, God designed every priest for nobility. Until that, we are hunchbacks, or crush testicle types.

Bob forgot to look at his watch or a calendar. So he doesn’t know when he was saved. If don’t think I am saved, I will throw you through that wall. Kept a guy around who thought you had to know the day and time of your salvation. You need someone who is mixed up so we can tell if we are learning anything.

Hebrews 5:9 “And having competed the disciplinary training [to learn obedience], He became to all the ones obeying Him the source of eternal salvation.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This completes the first phase of the high priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. The second phase involves His intercessory work on our behalf. To perpetuate His high priestly ministry He has to be raised from the dead and placed in a position to make intercession, namely at the right hand of the Father.

Hebrews 5:10 being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. (ESV)

Verse 10 — “Called of God.” The word “called” is an aorist passive participle of the verb prosagoreuw and it does not mean to call. Kaleô (καλέω) [pronounced kal-EH-oh] means to call. This verb, prosagoreuw means to designate, to salute in the sense of recognizing authority. It also means to nominate, but it came to mean to designate. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist which states the present reality from the past quotation of Psalm 110:4. The passive voice: Christ received the action of the verb in eternity past as part of the doctrine of divine decrees. The participle: the antecedent action relative to the main verb, Christ became the source of eternal salvation but first of all He was designated. He was designated in eternity past as a part of the divine decrees and therefore He was commissioned to go to the cross.

“of God” is a prepositional phrase, hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus the ablative. hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] mans a lot of different things depending upon what we have by way of object. The ablative case is the object here. We have a definite article, so it means “by the God” — God the Father.

Then we have again, archiereus (ἀρχιερεύς) [pronounced ar-khee-er-YUCE] katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] thn tacin Melxisedek, which means “according to the battalion of Melchizedek.” It is called the battalion of Melchizedek because of the first record of a royal priest. This doesn’t mean that he was the first royal priest, but that he is the first one recorded.

Hebrews 5:10 Having been designated by the God, High Priest, according to the battalion of Melchizedek. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. At this point we have a dramatic interruption. This is the end of talking about the priesthood for awhile. All of a sudden the writer of this epistle stops his great doctrinal dissertation. Reversionism cannot take the royal priesthood. The writer of the epistle has a large congregation which doesn’t know what he is talking about because they are in reversionism.

a. Reversionism cannot handle the priesthood. They get bitter.

b. You cannot react in reversionism and get the priesthood and understand it. Whatever your reactor factor might be. Disillusion, boredom, discouragement.

c. God isn’t giving me what someone else has. That is reaction; and this is against the royal priesthood.

d. We begin in obedience to God. But we react.

e. This writer is going to take a detour into reversionism; because you cannot learn what he is teaching, if you are in reversionism.

2. Those to whom this passage was originally addressed are believers — Jewish believers in Jerusalem. The year is 67 AD, the eve of the greatest disaster in Jewish history. Jesus warned about this time in Luke.

3. The Jewish believers are reversionistic, they are not ready for the doctrine of the royal priesthood of the believer nor related doctrines of the angelic conflict.

4. They do not understand the strategic victory of our high priest and how it relates to the tactical victory of the royal priesthood.

5. Before this doctrine can be understood these believers must recover from reversionism. The writer will not go on until he has presented the issue of reversion recovery and how it relates to occupation with the person of Jesus Christ,

6. The fact of this reversionism and the quality of it is now discussed in verses 11–14.

7. This subject of the royal high priesthood of Christ, according to the Melchizedek classification, will not be mentioned again until Hebrews 6:20. This is where this doctrinal discourse will be resumed.

8. Spiritual progress is always hindered by reversionism. As long as we are in reversionism we have compounded our spiritual abnormality.

9. While the royal priesthood demands nobility of life and character, and the possessions that accompany nobility, the reversionistic believer has demonstrated the antithesis and in effect has demoted himself. So the writer must stop and deal with this reactionary reversionistic self-demotion.

Warning Against Apostasy

Hebrews 5:11 About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. (ESV)

Verse 11 — the interruption because of reversionism. Reversionism is always negative toward doctrine, but more than that, reversionism is negative toward anything related to God.

“Of whom” — the preposition peri plus the genitive of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. This particular phrase means “concerning whom.” The relative pronoun refers to our Lord Jesus Christ presented as the royal high priest in verses 5–10.

“we” — egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH] in the dative plural of indirect object, indicating the believers in whose interest this teaching is performed. The word “have” is not found in the original MSS. It is literally, “Concerning whom to us.”

“many things” — the adjective polus,polos (πολύς,πολλός) [pronounced poll-OOS] referring to many doctrines — “Concerning whom to us many doctrines.” This is rather awkward English and to smooth it out this idiom means “Concerning whom [Christ] we have many doctrines.”

“to say” — present active infinitive of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. The present tense is iterative, it describes what occurs at successive intervals, namely the assembling and the teaching of doctrine by the right pastor. The active voice: the writer is the pastor who does the teaching here. The infinitive denotes his purpose: to teach and to go on with his teaching and only stop long enough to make an issue out of a problem in the congregation, namely reversionism.

“and hard to be uttered” — this is a verbal compound noun, dusermhneutoj. it means hard to explain, difficult to teach. Advanced doctrine is difficult to teach. There is a waning of interest on the part of many, there is a straggling of spiritual growth, there is some reason people fall out right and left; and therefore it is always hard to explain advanced doctrine. The doctrines relating to our royal priesthood are advanced doctrines. There must be a frame of reference in the right lobe before the doctrine is understood. The reversionist not only lacks a frame of reference but he has also lost whatever he originally learned and it totally handicapped in his attempt to understand these things.

The word “seeing” is a causal conjunction, epeí (ἐπεί) [pronounced ehp-IH], it should be translated here “because”; “you are” — perfect active indicative of ginomai, which means to become: “because you have become.” The perfect tense is an iterative perfect in which the process of a completion occurred at recurrent intervals rather than continuous progress. In other words, the iterative perfect recognizes the fact that these Jews would, for a while, GAP it and then they would peel off and react and have to start over, then again they would peel off into reversionism, and so on. So that at different intervals they have advanced a bit and then fallen off, advanced a bit and fallen off. This is the perfect tense of repeated action. The stress is upon completed action but the character of the action is iterative, and this means that the believers involved already are reversionists but they get there by repeated acts of negative volition, repeated acts of reacting to something. The active voice: the negative believer produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is the reality of repeated acts of negative volition, repeated acts of reaction, resulting in a completed action of reversionism. They just can’t get up long enough to do anything.

They start to advance and then they retrogress. Your frog is full of buckshot so you croak loudly but you jump high.

Some believers can run 2 miles in 20 minute; but others will spend their entire life running this same 2 miles.

“dull” — the nominative plural from the adjective nôthros (νωθρός) [pronounced noh-THROSS]. This means apathy as well as dullness. With the locative of this verse it indicates another classification of believers in Jerusalem in 67 AD. They are dull, dull, dull when it comes to listening to Bible teaching.

“of hearing” — the locative plural of akoê (ἀκοή) [pronounced ak-oh-AY].

Hebrews 5:11 “Concerning whom [Christ] we have many doctrines to communicate, and hard to explain, because you have become apathetic in the sphere on hearing.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews Lesson #55

55 06/24/1973 Hebrews 5:12a Obligation to divine viewpoint

A commendation. Derva Shean. An aggressive advance leaving them way ahead of theic company. Sounds like he and his men captured around 20 men. He feigned death, and then assaulted the position and captured 4 more men. Unable to locate any more targets in the area, he escorted these men...

Bob knows this person; he is a second generation Armenia. Great persecutions by the Turks.

We find it difficult to project ourselves into a conflict; but we are involved in a spiritual conflict. Even more meaningful than the WWII conflict. In recent years, we have done nothing by way of true victory; slowly but surely, we are seeing the destruction of everything that we hold dear. Add to this that we, as believers, as a kingdom of priests. We belong to the first battalion of the royal priesthood. We are not associated with the family or Levitical priesthood; but we are a part of the universal priesthood. We are to close in on our target of normal Christian living. All of our other passages have been set aside to spend all of our time in Hebrews 5. We are fighting on two fronts, visible and invisible. The unseen conflict of the angels. But this writer must stop and deal with a problem; the problem of being casualties in the Angelic Conflict. Reversionism recovery.

Hebrews 5:12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, (ESV)

Verse 12 — we begin with the word “For”, the conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] used here to express continuation. These conjunctive particle are quite important as far as understanding the interpretation of a passage. Here we have continuation from what we have previously studied. The word “when” is incorrectly translated, it is the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai and it should be translated “also”; “for the time” is also incorrectly translated because this is dia plus the accusative of chronos (χρόνος) [pronounced CHRON-oss]. Chronos (χρόνος) [pronounced CHRON-oss] refers to time in the sense of one minute following another minute, one hour following another, one day following another. Literally then, “For also because of the time.” The time at which this particular epistle was written is very similar to the time in which we live today. The time refers to the proximity of national disaster.

Summary

1. The phrase here refers to the proximity of the fifth cycle of discipline to the southern kingdom of Judah, headquarters and capital city Jerusalem. This was written to Jewish believers in Jerusalem just three years before their great national disaster.

2. One of the greatest disasters in all of history was the siege of Jerusalem which would occur in 70 AD.

3. The principle of this verse indicates to that people, as it indicates to us as a people, that the time is short. The only preparation for disaster is entrance into the supergrace life and the full function of the royal priesthood of the believer.

4. A nation on the eve of such disaster needs doctrine as never before. It is the objective of this writer to provide that information so necessary for a nation approaching disaster.

5. Supergrace means deliverance for those who reach it, and during the time that this was written and afterward there were many Jews in Jerusalem who through the daily function of GAP reached supergrace and were delivered from one of the greatest disasters in all of human history.

6. God pours in another way under the supergrace life. We have seen supergrace in the sense that after salvation we GAP it all of the way to this condition. Supergrace is characterized by occupation with the person of Jesus Christ our high priest. It is characterized by having supergrace capacity which is the cup in the soul. This is Bible doctrine. It is characterized by God pouring into that cup. God is glorified by such pouring. We are left here to glorify God. We glorify God by receiving from His hand through grace, wealth, promotion, success, all of the things which are designed for us in eternity past. God wins the tactical victory by providing these things. We are a part of the strategic victory because of the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ in the incarnation. We are now moving toward the objective which is tactical victory and when we reach it God is glorified, we are blessed. It is this blessing which has another aspect now. In time of approaching or in time of actual national disaster it is the pouring of God that delivers us under the most difficult things of life. And God poured for many of those Jews who listened to what this writer had to say, who heeded it, who GAPed it to supergrace. They were delivered from that great disaster. In the course of action many of these Jews ended up living in Egypt in Alexandria. Many of them moved to Rome, many of them to Ephesus, to one of the Greek Islands. But wherever they went God poured, first of all by deliverance and later on by prosperity. So we have in the generation to whom this was originally addressed those who listened to the teaching of the Word of God, those who reached the tactical victory of supergrace, those who were delivered from this awful disaster and spent a very wonderful life in the prosperity of the far-flung Roman empire.

7. But the reversionist is caught in national disaster, ending his life, ending his priesthood, by the sin unto death. So your spiritual condition is very important in time of national disaster, and it is the believer who has Bible doctrine to the point of supergrace who stands in the gap, just as Jeremiah stood in the gap, and then later on receives that great wealth and blessing. When God delivers from national disaster He doesn’t leave you down at the heels, His deliverance is followed by a great period of personal prosperity in whatever part of the geographical location of this earth he finds himself on in that deliverance.

8. National disaster is no time to be caught in reversionism. We are aware of the fact that we are under national disaster conditions. Smoke screens of Congress cannot hide these facts.

Our next phrase says “ye ought.” This is a present active participle of the verb opheilê (οφειλή) [pronounced oh-fih-LAY] which connotes obligation. In time of national disaster all believers are obligated to communicate and to converse divine viewpoint, and this is what we have. You are not to be a teacher, a preacher. You are to be a communicator of divine viewpoint because of the time. The time in which we live demands that you take your stand for divine viewpoint as God provides the opportunity. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present in which communicating doctrine begins in the past and continues into the present time. This is called a present tense of duration. This is the time, as it were, to stand up and be counted. This is the time to express as you have opportunity the divine viewpoint of life. This is a very important principle. The retroactive progressive present means to communicate doctrine and keep on doing so.

This is the day in which, surprisingly enough, there is a request on the part of almost every type of news media for your comments. One thing that has come out of all of this is the fact that people are invited to speak their piece and to declare what they feel is the right about something that is wrong. There are letter columns in the papers where each person has a right to express himself on a given subject. “Because of the time ye ought” you have an obligation to communicate divine viewpoint. You don’t have to be a preacher, you are not supposed to be a preacher, all you are supposed to do is to communicate — at parties, in conversations, etc.

A letter from a member of Berachah Church wrote to the Texas Tribune. He is going to explain something about a letter Tony someone. Does not even nature herself teach you that long hair on a man is wrong. Jesus Christ had short hair. Jesus is the only man to be born and to live perfectly. To think like an American, the first step might be a trip to the barber shop. A letter from Al Clark.

The active voice of this participle: it is the believer’s responsibility to produce the action of the verb as disaster approaches. It is the function of the supergrace believer to take a courageous stand. The participle denotes a purpose. “Being obligated” is the best translation. All believers have an obligation as disaster approaches.

“to be” — the present active infinitive of the verb eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], the absolute status quo verb. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes that which habitually occurs or should occur. The active voice: the supergrace believer or the growing believer in the normal function of his royal priesthood produces the action of the verb. The infinitive is an infinitive of command, it is called the imperative infinitive.

The word “teachers” is the predicate nominative plural of didaskalos (διδάσκαλος) [pronounced did-AS-kal-oss] and here it simply means communicators. The word can be used for a pastor-teacher but in this context it is used for the entire priesthood. It means indoctrinators, inculcators, or communicators of divine viewpoint.

Notice that we have an almost identical situation in our time to that of the original context. In the original context of this passage these people in Jerusalem were three years from the great national disaster which would destroy their nation and put 90,000 of them into slavery, and would at the same time cause the casualties to be over 1,000,000. Roughly 20,000 came out as supergrace believers, totally delivered, and prospered for the rest of their lives in other geographical areas. God always pours for the supergrace believer, and no matter how dangerous, disastrous or how difficult the circumstances God’s pouring includes this deliverance.

Our next phrase says “you have.” This is the present active indicative of the verb echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] which means to have and to hold, and sometimes, depending upon the noun that goes with it, the object of the verb, it means something else. The present tense here is a progressive present indicating linear aktionsart. We have a special responsibility as believers in time of our nation’s decline. “You keep on having” says the linear aktionsart. The active voice: the reversionist produces the action of the verb here. He is not doing what he should be doing. The supergrace believer or the growing believer actually expresses fearlessly the divine viewpoint. it is the reversionist who lines up with the decadence of the national entity. Since this is addressed to reversionism you have a special need. The indicative mood is the reality of the reversionist having to relearn Bible doctrine before he can actually communicate divine viewpoint in time of national crisis.

The word “you have,” echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] plus the accusative singular of xreian means “you require.” Xreian means a need. The two words together are blended into a Greek idiom — “you keep on requiring that one teach you again”.

“one teach” is a present active infinitive of didaskô (διδάσκω) [pronounced did-AS-koh]. Here is the problem with reversionists, they have to relearn Bible doctrine. The progressive present tense is used to signify the action of the verb in a state of persistence. In other words, once you realize that you are in reversionism and you realize that the only answer is to study doctrine and to take it in and to take it in, and to GAP it to recover, then you must be in a state of persistence. The active voice: the pastor actually produces the action of the verb, and he produces the action through the teaching of Bible doctrine. The infinitive denotes purpose and therefore we could translate this very simply, “you require teaching.”

Hebrews 5:12a “For also because of the time being obligated to be communicators of divine viewpoint, you require teaching.”

The word “again” is an adverb, palin, and it means “once more.” This means there was a time when you came to Bible class every night, a time when you were so positive about doctrine it was almost painful to your friends, and you received the isagogical and exegetical teaching of the Word of God and all of the things that were pertinent to learning doctrine. They went into your left lobe and became objective reality because of the ministry of God the Holy Spirit making these things real. Then there was the great issue. Are you simply going to be a hearer of the Word or are you going to be a doer of the Word? This is not a person running around hustling for Christ. This means that you will believe the doctrine. You make that transfer into the right lobe.

So the issue came up: would you transfer doctrine from the left lobe down to the human spirit where it is useful? And you made that transfer, and with that epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] immediately there was a line that draws doctrine right in to the frame of reference of the heart or the right lobe of the soul. Then this doctrine was picked up by the memory centre and a new vocabulary was developed and with it came categories. Then gradually your whole scale of values in life changed and your norms and standards began to line up with divine norms and standards. Your capacity for life began to develop. You began, therefore, to get divine viewpoint on the launching pad and this was a great time in your life, though possibly you have forgotten it because once you started to react because of disillusion, boredom, discouragement, overcome with self-pity, loneliness, frustration, bitter or vindictive or jealous, jilted in some way. These things caused you to react by that frantic search for happiness, whatever type it was. This always leads to emotional revolt which amplifies, intensifies the reactor factors, and at the same time destroys this beautiful picture you had built up over the years or over some period of time because now you are negative toward doctrine. Now there is a vacuum opening up and through this vacuum comes Satanic propaganda or the doctrine of demons. And now doctrine has drained out of your heart or right lobe back into the left lobe where it is no longer useable. Now your right lobe is filled up with all kinds of weird ideas. As this develops there is the destruction of whatever you had in your ECS and you are now in reversionism. You require teaching once more of “certain things.”

The words “which be” is not which be at all. It is the accusative neuter plural from the indefinite pronoun tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç]. The indefinite pronoun means “certain things.” These certain things are described by the phrase “the first principles” .However, the first principles is really the doctrines — logiwn in a descriptive genitive plural, and it refers here to basic or elementary doctrines which have to be relearned. You require teaching once more of certain things, the elementary basic doctrines — “of God.” The ablative of source means “from the source of the God”: theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] in the ablative plus the definite article.

“and are become” — the perfect active indicative of ginomai — “you have become.” The perfect tense is the intensive perfect, it emphasizes a completed action of the verb with existing results. The existing results of the completed action: reversionism. The process of this action started out with your reactor factors, then your reaction — frantic search for happiness, then the emotional revolt of the soul which closed down the valves in the right lobe or the heart, then negative volition toward doctrine, then the attack upon the right lobe through the vacuum through which Satanic doctrine goes, the destruction of the ECS, the blackout of the soul, the practice of reverse process reversionism. All of these things became a part of the picture and the intensive perfect emphasizes this particular function resulting in reversionism. The active voice: the reversionistic believer produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is the reality of reversionistic failure as specified. Nothing is worse for any believer than to be in reversionism in time of national disaster, you are under double pressure: the pressure of the spiritual conflict and the pressure of the disastrous historical movement that you face. Therefore the most miserable people alive are reversionists today because they cannot help but see something of what is going on, they cannot help but see the disaster course taken by the nation.

Watergate is a ludicrous situation. It is stupidity in high and low places; and it is amplified way out of its proportion. It is a political football. The people in this country are no longer able to think.

The word “such” is not found in the original. The word “have” is a present active participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh], and this time it does not mean to require because it is not in idiom with xreian, this time it stands alone — “the ones having need”, and again we have a retroactive progressive present in which this need has existed since they went into reversionism and the need exists right now. Ever since they went into reversionism they have needed to get some kind of spiritual food called milk.

The word for “milk” is a descriptive genitive singular from the noun gala, and this particular noun is used for very simple food. it is actually a metonym for basic doctrine necessary for recovery from reversionism.

1972 Hebrews 5:12b-14 Lesson #56

56 06/24/1973 Hebrews 5:12b-14 Royal righteousness

Bob is amazed how the American public has been so ignored. Totally out of the picture when it comes to what we want for government. 5000 officers in the United States army have been riffed. These are regular army types and they were dropped. This is another example of the immorality of our government. We have allowed any enemy of the United States to take television time on all networks. Bob watched a lousy filthy communist jackass speaking to the American people. On all 3 networks. Bob tried one more station and he found a Spanish speaking B&W movie. This made much more sense than the media of this United States to allow our enemies to speak. No American would be allowed to speak on a Communist network; Bob would not be allowed to speak. We have a government totally dedicated to evil.

Private Kessler, went towards a machine gun; he got within 50 yards of it, and then he went headlong towards it. He killed the gunner and his assistant. Overpowered a 3^rd German after a short struggle. This was only one of the things he did. 2 prisoners tried to escape; Kessler stopped them and then captured 2 snipers.

The fight of the supergrace hero against all of the forces of hell.

The commissions of Bob, his father, and Bobby are quite similar. But changes made in Bobby’s.

Hebrews 5:12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, (ESV)

Milk is a metonym for basic doctrine. All of the doctrine in their souls have been lost. The solid food cannot be assimilated.

The parallel is to a child who must first have milk before he can start on solid foods.

Verse 12b — “strong meat.” The word “strong” is an adjective in the genitive singular, stereoj, which means “solid.” The genitive is a genitive of description. Solid food means food assimilated by adults. And then we also have the genitive singular of the noun trofh which means food, not meat. What we have here is not so much a bad translation as a problem of anachronism. Meat used to be “food” 300 years ago in English and the word strong used to be “solid” or food that had great substance.

Hebrews 5:12 “For also because of the time [the national crisis] being obligated to be communicators of divine viewpoint [in time of crisis], you require once more teaching of certain things, the elementary principles of the doctrines from God; and you have become ones having need of milk, and not of solid food.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 5:13 for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. (ESV)

Verse 13 — this is now amplified. We have an explanatory gar. This is used as a conjunctive particle to explain what is meant by the fact that you cannot take solid food into your soul. “Every one” is the nominative singular of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] and it refers to the reversionist. Reversionism has reached a new peak in Jerusalem and therefore this particular word is used.

“that useth” is incorrect. The present active participle of metechô (μετέχω) [pronounced met-EHKH-oh] means to partake or to assimilate. It can be translated “partaking” or “assimilating.” The present tense of the participle is a customary present for that which habitually occurs. The reversionist does not care for solid food, he does not like advanced doctrine. Among other things he isn’t interested in the royal priesthood, it has no more significance to him than positional sanctification has. The active voice: the reversionistic believer is producing the action. The action is partaking of milk only, he cannot take solid food. The participle is an ascriptive participle which ascribes a quality or characteristics to the reversionistic believer. The reversionistic believer is immature and like all immature types, whether in the spiritual realm or in the human realm, they demand entertainment, they demand that which is shallow, the demand the superficial, they cannot take anything that is deep.

The word for “milk” is an objective genitive, again, of the noun gala. The word “unskilled” is incorrect, it is the adjective a)peiroj and it means ignorant or stupid. It doesn’t means stupid in the sense of not being able to learn, it means ignorant in the sense of being able to learn and having learned, having forgotten, and can no longer apply what was once known.

“in the word” is the descriptive genitive singular of logos (λόγος, ου, ὁ) [pronounced LOHG-oss] which means doctrine — “of righteousness”, is “pertaining to righteousness.” We have a descriptive genitive of dikaiosunê (δικαιοσύνη) [pronounced dih-kai-oh-SOON-ā or dik-ah-yos-OO-nay], Dikaiosunê (δικαιοσύνη) [pronounced dih-kai-oh-SOON-ā or dik-ah-yos-OO-nay] describes the principle of righteousness in the sense of nobility. The ordinary Greek word for righteousness is dikaios (δίκαιος) [pronounced DIH-kai-oss]. Dikaiosunê (δικαιοσύνη) [pronounced dih-kai-oh-SOON-ā or dik-ah-yos-OO-nay] means not simply righteousness. The word says that if you are in a royal priesthood you must have with your royal priesthood a royal righteousness. A royal righteousness means nobility of character. Nobel righteousness, nobility were always famous for several things — recognizing the privacy of others, recognizing the freedom of others, the rights of others. That is the nobility of our priesthood. We are a royal priesthood and we are going to live like royal priests upon reaching supergrace. We will have every type of prosperity but there is also a prosperity of the soul. Dikaiosunê (δικαιοσύνη) [pronounced dih-kai-oh-SOON-ā or dik-ah-yos-OO-nay] is prosperity of the soul, and prosperity of the soul has its own righteousness, which is right without self-righteousness. It is a divine righteousness. It is doing the right thing but not, as it were, rubbing it into everyone. It is being right without being offensive. Dikaiosunê (δικαιοσύνη) [pronounced dih-kai-oh-SOON-ā or dik-ah-yos-OO-nay] is the soul righteousness of the priesthood. Here it is then: “For every one partaking of milk is ignorant of doctrine pertaining to royal righteousness.”

Has anyone told you they are right and you are wrong; did it make you feel good? This is righteousness without nobility. It is one thing to be right; and another to be noble about it. Being right and rubbing it in and thinking of new ways to rub it in the face of another. That is a total lack of nobility. That is being right and wrong at the same time.

We are born into this battalion; and therefore, we are born into this priesthood. God will not tolerate self-righteousness or lasciviousness.

Bob describes throwing an eraser being thrown at him. Bob was sitting in the back row as usual; and his friend in the front row. Bob filled the eraser with chalk and tossed it back. He ducked and Bob hit the woman right in the face. The girl who turned Bob in was very self righteous; and she would have been a wonderful legalist today. All righteousness and no nobility. She made it a point of sitting near Bob and watching him, and to tattle on him. It was not gum but fenamint; 15 minutes after the class started, everyone got up and ran for the door. The teacher said what happened and the little girl said what Bob did. He found himself making the usual steps to the principal’s office to explain what he did.

We are a royal priesthood; and this dikaiosunê is about being right without being offensive.

Hebrews 5:13 for everyone partaking of milk is ignorant of doctrine pertaining to royal righteousness because he is immature. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

“for he is a babe” — “he is” is the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]: “keeps on being immature.” This is present linear aktionsart. A baby always looks awful, smells awful and you always have to do something to it. The active voice: it refers to the reversionist. The indicative mood is the reality of his condition; “a babe” — the Greek word is nêpios (νήπιος) [pronounced NAY-pee-os], which means a minor, an immature person, a person who grows physically without maturing soulishly. Here it has the connotation of spiritual immaturity. There is, of course, a definite relationship between the spiritually immature type of person and the person who is non-adult as a member of the human race. When you have a believer in both status’s then this compounds the problem. it is very hard for a believer to grow up spiritually and at the same time to be growing up mentally. This is why some people find it so difficult to reach supergrace, because while they are consistent they are overcoming two problems at the same time and not one. This is why it takes so long for some believers to make supergrace, because doctrine must not only overcome spiritual immaturity it must also over come human immaturity.

True sensitivity recognizes live and let live; good manners and thoughtfulness of others.

Furthermore, people who are humanly childish have a very difficult time concentrating. Bob recognizes a woman in the congregation who is chewing on her nails; and she is immature. Doubly difficult for her to reach supergrace because doctrine has to overcome spiritual immaturity and human immaturity. Humanly childish people have a very difficult time concentrating. Human immaturity keeps you sidetracked and hard to grow from there.

The word “for” is an explanatory use of gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] and should be translated “because”; “because he is immature.”

Hebrews 5:14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (ESV)

Verse 14 — “But.” We have a conjunctive particle de used to connect two clauses when there is a contrast between the clauses. Here the contrast is between the immature reversionist of the previous verse and the mature supergrace believer of this verse. It is possible to move in to solid food but solid food. Again we have stereoj and trofh — “belongeth.” This is not quite correct, we have the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] which means “to be”, or literally, “keeps on being.”

“to them” — eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] plus “to them” means to possess — “solid food possessed to them that are of full age”. However, téleios (τέλειος) [pronounced TEHL-i-os] means “mature.”

“those” the genitive plural of the definite article which modifies téleios (τέλειος) [pronounced TEHL-i-os] means “the ones.” This is an appositional genitive.

“who by reason of use” is incorrect. We have dia plus the accusative of e(cij, and e(cij means “skill”, acquired through practice or discipline. It comes to mean self-discipline. Lack of self-discipline is a sign of immaturity. Mature people, humanly speaking, have great self-discipline; immature people do not have self-discipline.

“have” — the present active participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] brings out the basic meaning of this verb. echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] means to have and to hold.

“there senses” — a)isqhthrion means perceptive faculties. In other words, if you are a mature person when you accept Christ as Savior you have the ability to concentrate. No matter how boring or how difficult you can concentrate. But at the same time you contribute in other ways. You may be saved for a short time but you have excellent manners. You are thoughtful of those around you, you do not wiggle or squirm or move or do something to demonstrate immaturity. You not only have manners but also a recognition of authority, and even though you may not be understanding what is taught at the moment you demonstrate maturity by excellent poise and self-discipline in a teaching situation. This again is a sign of maturity and it makes it easier for you to move on. Your maturity plus the filling of the Holy Spirit causes you to concentrate and in the intensity of your concentration you are able to acquire more information much more quickly than the one who is immature.

“exercised” — the perfect passive participle of gumnazô (γυμνάζω) [pronounced goom-NAD-zo], from which we get the English word “gymnasium.” It means to be trained by extreme self-discipline applied to exercise. The perfect tense is the intensive perfect which indicates the completed action with emphasis on the existing results. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb — mental faculties for perception are acquired through self discipline, and this self-discipline is brought into the Christian life with speeded-up results under the function of GAP. The participle is a modal participle which signifies the manner in which the action of the main verb is accomplished. The main verb means to keep on having their perceptive faculties. We translate it “well-trained.”

“to discern” — this is a prepositional phrase, not a verb: pros plus the accusative of diakrisis (κρίσις) [pronounced KREE-sihs], which means “discernment.”

“the good and the evil” — the word “good” is the descriptive genitive singular of kalos (καλός) [pronounced kal-OSS] and should be translated “noble”; and it is followed by the adjective kakoj, and should be translated “the honourable and the bad [or evil].” The word “honourable” refers to the supergrace function of the royal priesthood; “evil” refers to the function of the priest in reversionism. So the two adjectives describe the two conditions of the royal priesthood. Some have moved toward supergrace and their function is honourable in the royal priesthood. Some, on the other hand, are functioning under reversionism and they are evil or bad.

Hebrews 5:14 “But solid food [advanced doctrine] is belonging to the mature [the growing believer or the one who has reached supergrace], the ones because of self-discipline keep having their perceptive faculties well-trained with reference to differentiating between both the honourable and the evil.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. Only the supergrace believer can distinguish between the honourable function of supergrace and the evil function of the reversionist.

2. The supergrace believer in addition to supergrace blessing knows what he is doing and where he is going. This is something no reversionist understands, and no Christian understands, until he reaches supergrace.

3. Solid food or doctrine in the soul not only gives capacity for love but capacity for life and blessing which calls the believer to emerge into tactical victory of the angelic conflict. And he emerges not only with tactical victory but, attached to it, honour and nobility of righteousness. This is in contrast to legalistic self-righteousness.

4. Only the supergrace believer related to the strategic victory of the cross, resurrection, ascension and session, with the tactical victory of the supergrace status can appreciate where he has been and where he is going.

5. God vindicates His Word in the soul of the supergrace believer. Therefore the supergrace believer is not only noble in righteousness and functions under the royal priesthood but he is a winner.

6. God has designed solid food [doctrine] and the believer to meet in the study of the Word of God to merge with doctrine so that he becomes a winner. Doctrine was always a winner. Satan has tried to knock out doctrine for thousands of years but God has stored doctrine in a container called the canon of scripture, and doctrine has always been a winner. Satan has never been able to knock out the Bible. You cannot merge with doctrine without coming out a winner yourself.

7. God loves a winner. God hates [anthropopathism] losers in the Christian life because they all go out under the sin unto death before their time. There is no excuse for any believer not being a winner.

8. This verse describes a winner, but remember this passage is addressed to losers, to reversionists.

9. The purpose of this section of scripture is to convert losers into winners.

10. God is glorified by winners, and the only winners in the Christian way of life are supergrace types. God is disappointed by losers and He expresses His disappointment by the sin unto death.

1972 Hebrews 6:1a Lesson #57

57 06/25/1973 Hebrews 6:1a Doctrine of the supergrace life

Congressional Medal of Honor was given to 19 men from the same movement. Bob reads from a green book. He found a Marine, apparently reading this for a friend. Howard B. Lee, in Vietnam.

Chapter 6

In chapter six we deal with the subject of reversion recovery, and the principle of reversion recovery is given in the first six verses. The chapter is divided into two parts. The first six verses deal with the principle of reversion recovery and verses seven through twenty deal with the illustrations of reversion recovery. As we begin in verse one we notice the principle of GAP in reversion recovery — verses 1,2.

Heb 6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, (ESV)

We begin with an inferential conjunction dio (διό) [pronounced DEE-oh] which means either “therefore”, “for this reason”, or “because of.” Because the recipients of this epistle are in reversionism, because the time is short, because of the angelic conflict and its strategic victory and therefore tactical implications, and because the recipients of this epistle must recover from reversionism as quickly as possible, a command is given which sets up the principle for reversion recovery.

“Therefore leaving” is the beginning of a command. The aorist active participle from aphíêmi (ἀφίημι) [pronounced af-EE-ay-mee] means several things. It means to leave behind, to depart, to depart from in the sense of graduation here. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasizes the results. The action of the verb in its entirety is GAPing it through Bible doctrine so that one graduates from basic doctrine. Being an aorist participle it should be translated “having graduated.” The active voice: a recovery from reversionism produces the action of the verb and the recoveror is relearning basic doctrine pertaining to Christ. The participle has antecedent action relative to the main verb. The main verb is “let us go on” or “let us advance.”

“the principles” — the word “principles” is a descriptive genitive singular from the noun a)rkh, which generally means “in the beginning.” Archê (ἀρχή) [pronounced ar-KHAY] has other related meanings, one of them being “elementary”, and that is the use here in the sense of elementary doctrine, basic doctrine. Note, however, that this is not the object of the participle. The true object of the participle is given in this fashion in the accusative form of ton logon. This is “the doctrine” or “the word” and it is in the accusative case. Every major translator has failed to translate this phrase correctly and yet it is simple. dio (διό) [pronounced DEE-oh] a)fentej is how it begins — “Therefore having graduated.” That is the form of the aorist active participle of aphíêmi (ἀφίημι) [pronounced af-EE-ay-mee]. Then the very next thing that we have is a definite article in the accusative, ton. But with that definite article the noun is not next to it. After ton we have thj archê (ἀρχή) [pronounced ar-KHAY]j tou Xristou, which is genitive, but ton is accusative. So obviously the object of the participle must be in the accusative. So you have thj a)rhj tou Xristou, descriptive genitive, which means “the elementary of the Christ” .Now, “having graduated from” and the object of this particular preposition is not “the elementary of the Christ,” the object comes next in the sentence — logon, which goes with ton. “Therefore having graduated”, aorist active participle, “from the.” You know “the” comes next because it is in the accusative, but thj archê (ἀρχή) [pronounced ar-KHAY]j tou Xristou is genitive, and then comes the accusative, “the logon” or “the doctrine” .So we have, “Therefore having graduated from the doctrine.” What doctrine? The elementary doctrine necessary for reversion recovery. The object of the preposition is “the doctrine” — ton logon.

Bob has not found any translation which gets this right, including the NASB (which name he could not recall). You cannot put an accusative and a genitive together; that is strictly stupid. Apparently the is a separation between the definite article and the noun it goes with it.

Then we have what kind of doctrine: genitives of description, four of them; thj, the genitive article, it goes with archê (ἀρχή) [pronounced ar-KHAY]j — “the elementary”; tou Xristou — “of the Christ.” Those are all descriptive genitives to tell us that not all basic doctrine is involved but only basic doctrine in the field of Christology. Corrected translation so far: “Therefore having graduated from the elementary [doctrine] of the Christ.” The descriptive genitive is put in the genitive for a reason: to show you that when you have six items coming up this is the title of the item. Thj a)xhj tou Xristou is the formal title of the list, or it is the descriptive title of the list. Those six items all relate to the elementary doctrines pertaining to the Lord Jesus Christ. It isn’t the list but it describes the list. The elementary doctrines of Christ include other things — the incarnation, the hypostatic union, the King-priest, the sacrifice of Himself on the cross, the perpetuation of His priesthood through resurrection, ascension and session, the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, our relationship to the strategic victory through the baptism of the Spirit and the subsequent positional truth. All of these things will be developed along the way but you have to have some basic things on which to start.

First of all we have a command. It is in the present middle subjunctive form and it is translated “let us go on,” and that is not correct: phérô (φέρω) [pronounced FEH-row] means to bear or to carry. It means to bear down, and eventually because it means that, it means to advance. It doesn’t mean to go on, it means to advance. The present tense is a tendential present, it is used of an action which is purposed or intended where it is not actually taking place. That means that they are not bearing down, they are not advancing, they are retreating. So the present tense is used in the Greek to represent the idea of what is intended by the command in the subjunctive mood. Advance is what they are not doing but should be doing. The middle voice describes the subject as participating in the action of the verb. But the subject isn’t participating because it is in the tendential present, and therefore the tendential present plus the subjunctive means that this is a command, this is what you should be doing. The subject acts with a view toward participating in the outcome of the verbs action. In this case the believers should learn basic doctrine and therefore participate in the advance toward supergrace. So this is what is called a direct middle, it refers the results of the action directly to the agent with reflexing force and therefore it should be translated, “let us advance ourselves” .If this was an indirect middle it would be “let us ourselves advance.”

Question: How do you advance yourself? You advance yourself by relearning basic doctrine specified in context, or any basic doctrine you need to relearn in recovering from your own brand of reversionism. Remember here we are dealing with legalistic reversionism. There are many categories of reversionism, all of them require learning some phase of basic doctrine. The subjunctive mood is a hortatory subjunctive in which the writer commands to reader to join him in a course if action — advancing toward supergrace where the normal function of the priesthood exists.

Next we have a prepositional phrase: “unto perfection.” We have a preposition epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the accusative of teleoiothj, which means maturity. epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] can mean three different things as a preposition. Here we have epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the accusative of teleiotês (τελειότης) [pronounced tehl-ee-OHT-ace], and this means one thing. It emphasizes motion or direction. But epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the genitive means “on” or “before”, because epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the genitive emphasizes contact. The Holy Spirit does not use the genitive here because there is no contact with supergrace — not yet. Then we have epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative which means “over”, “before, or “at”, and emphasizes position. The position of these people is not in supergrace, therefore no epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative. We have epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the accusative which means toward, up to, over to. It emphasizes direction and is the concept here. So we can translate this, “let us advance our selves on to maturity.” Maturity here refers to the supergrace life, the normal place for the function of the royal priesthood. The royal priesthood is associated with royal living, royal wealth, royal promotion, royal success, and royal blessing.

That brings us to the great contrast. We have at this point before these people reversionism versus supergrace, the ultimate issue in the Christian life.

The Doctrine of the Supergrace Life

1. Supergrace is a term that represents maturity, the final stage of growth beyond the ECS, as the objective of the Christian life.

2. Since this objective is strictly a grace action, and since it is the human volition involved in the grace action, it is distinguished from the grace by which you live, the grace that keeps you alive. It is so distinguished in James 4:6 where we have grace preceded by the word meizwn which means “greater” grace, and greater grace is simply, in modern English, supergrace. There are, therefore, four categories of grace involved in the plan for the believer:

a. Salvation or phase one grace. This is everything that God planned, everything that Christ did on the cross, everything that the Holy Spirit revealed. This is the sum total of the work of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit by which each one of us is saved. This type of grace does involved volition and positive volition is non-meritorious, therefore “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.”

b. Living grace or phase two grace. No volition is involved. Whether we like it or not we are kept alive on this earth and the means by which we are kept alive in the angelic conflict is strictly divine provision. It may include everything from food, shelter and clothing to keeping a battalion of demons of your back at some given time, protecting you in many ways and assigning to you a personal angel valet to protect you and keep you on this earth as a part of God’s will for your life.

c. Super or greater grace. Supergrace involves volition and positive volition is now expressed in a non-meritorious way toward doctrine, the written Word. This appears to be the first stage of spiritual maturity.

d. Surpassing grace. This is phase three grace and no volition is involved, the angelic conflict is over. Supergrace, then, is one of the categories of grace involved in the life of every believer. It is the one category of grace that most believers have chosen to omit. This category of grace is the one that the fewest believers in heaven can say that they possessed on earth. It is the one category of grace where the believer is involved in tactical victory. The first category of grace, salvation grace, is strategic victory. The second, and as a result of that, is where God keeps us alive in phase two. Tactical victory is supergrace. Ultimate victory is surpassing grace — Ephesians 2:5. The principle of supergrace is very important because in this generation at least probably one per cent of all Christians will know anything about supergrace, they will never reach it; yet it is the only way in which you and I as believers can glorify God. The reason that believers will not reach it is because they have a lousy, no-good attitude toward Bible doctrine, or they do not have the guts to take it in every day, they always have something else to do. These gutless wonders never know what it is all about and they are suckers for everything that comes along. Make up your damn minds about what you are going to do. “With talk like that, I don’t think I will stick around.” “I don’t really give a damn about that.” Dropping in occasionally is not going to get the job done at all. You cannot grow up on 2 or 3 sermonettes a week. You are in Houston, you might as well get with it.

e. Dying grace (not covered)

3. The supergrace life is characterized by the cup that runs over — Psalm 23:5. The cup is supergrace capacity. The cup refers to an invisible cup in the soul, a cup which can only exist through doctrine. This cup is made up of doctrine in the human spirit, doctrine in the right lobe, doctrine in the ECS. The ECS is the thing that holds everything up — like the stem on a wine glass — and that puts it all together, provides storage space for capacity. So that stem is important. Bob teaches about how to drink in a stemmed glass. Bible doctrine in your soul is supergrace capacity. Before you finally reach supergrace, and the stem is completed which is occupation with the person of Christ, occupation with Christ is the key to enjoying what God the Father pours into your cup. The objective of supergrace is to reach this capacity so that the supergrace blessings which were stored for you in eternity past can be poured. And these supergrace blessings run in all varieties of things related even to human happiness. Money, for example, success, promotion, prosperity, are the way that God pours. Why does God have to do it that way? Because, firstly, occupation with Christ gives you the blessing of realizing the source. Secondly, supergrace capacity or doctrine gives you the soul ability to enjoy every materialistic thing in life, and to do it under the devil’s nose in the devil’s world when the whole system of the cosmos is designed to lure people into its trap in order to provide cosmic blessing. And when God can pour for you He is glorified. He is the host. The ECS holds up the cup, and when the stem snaps the cup tilts and the contents depart. So the characteristics of the supergrace life are:

a. Occupation with the person of Jesus Christ, maximum category #1 love and happiness. This is related to the living Word.

b. Supergrace capacity based upon doctrine. This is related to the written Word.

c. The royal priesthood demands royal living, and that is what is poured.

d. There was no money or prosperity in the garden. There was good food and sex. But the devil sets up many of the standards after the fall.

e. Gold has a great deal of intrinsic value. Gold is found in the earth, and the earth belongs to the devil. But God graces believers out. Every supergrace believer is a thorn in the devil’s side; proof that grace will always triumph. Our tactical objective is to reach supergrace; and we will like it.

4. The distinction of grace. Supergrace is distinguished from other forms of grace. Supergrace is that type of grace which is classified verbally by James 4:6 — Greater grace. Grace is God’s eternal provision apart from human volition.

5. The analogy of grace. Supergrace is analogous to God resting on the seventh day of restoration — Hebrews 4:3, 10. He was done providing; nothing left for Him to do.

6. The love problem. God loves every believer with maximum love. God loves you. He found a way to love you without compromising His character. The doctrine is called propitiation. The believer’s love response is something else, and that is where the problem is. The supergrace believer loves God as per Romans 8:28 and 1John 4:19. He has the capacity to love God, that is a part of the stem or the ECS. God’s love for the supergrace believer, therefore, is expressed in blessing. But God has to express His love for the reversionist in another way — Hebrews 12:6, “Whom the Lord loves he chastens.” The supergrace believer loves God because he has the capacity; the reversionistic believer does not love God and does not have the capacity to respond to God’s love.

7. The key to the supergrace life begins with a happiness spectrum. The supergrace life is the place of maximum God-given happiness — Philippians 4:4; 1Thessalonians 5:16. This happiness is acquired through the intake of doctrine — 1John 1:4. The same doctrine which provides +H produces supergrace happiness.

8. The celebrityship of Christ. The supergrace believer has maximum love and appreciation of Jesus Christ. He is a royal priest with a maximum love of the King high priest — Lamentations 3:22–25; Hebrews 12:2; Colossians 3:1,2. The celebrityship of Christ is tested in your life by the communion table. The communion is a ritual and the test of your love for Jesus Christ, or your love response, is always brought in focus by the communion.

9. The capacity factor is very important. The supergrace believer has capacity in the following categories: Freedom — Galatians 5:1; James 1:25–2:12; Romans 8:21; 2Corinthians 3:17; Capacity for life — 1Samuel 17:47; 18:5, 14, 30; Capacity for love: Category #1 — Deut. 6:6; 30:20; Joshua 23:10,11; Category #2 love — Song of Solomon 8:6,7; Category #3 love — 2Samuel 1:26; Happiness — Psalm 9:1,2; 21:1; 31:7; 43:4; 97:12; John 17:13; 1John 1:4; Suffering — 2Corinthians 12:7–10.

10. The availability of supergrace is glamorized even in Isaiah 30:18 where Jesus Christ under the anthropomorphism of tapping His foot is waiting to give you these blessings. He has stored them up for you in eternity past and He is waiting to give them to you now.

11. The promotion of supergrace is the subject of Psalm 84. The illustration is found in 1Samuel 17.

Hebrews 6:1 “Therefore having graduated from the elementary doctrines of the Christ” — the incarnation, the hypostatic union, the King-priest, the sacrifice of Himself on the cross, the perpetuation of His priesthood in resurrection, ascension and session, the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, our relation to the strategic victory through the baptism of the Spirit and subsequent positional truth, and many other classified areas of Christology and soteriology — “let us bear down [press on, advance] to maturity.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This advance is toward the tactical victory of the angelic conflict and is being held up by the reversionism of the people to whom this passage is being addressed — “not laying again the foundation.”

1972 Hebrews Lesson #58

58 06/26/1973 Hebrews 6:1b Doctrines of repentance, human good

2 Medal of Honor recipients. Bob reads the corrected translation of the first 6 verses.

Heb 6:1 Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,

Bob is going to try to cover these 6 verses by the end of the week. Bob reviews some exegesis done previously. The elementary doctrine of Christ includes the incarnation, the sacrifice of Himself on the cross; resurrection, ascension and session; our relationship to the strategic victory, etc.

Most of these prepositins mean different things depending upon the case. Epi + genitive emphasizes contact; + the accusative emphasizes direction.

“not laying again” — present middle participle of kataballô (καταβάλλω) [pronounced kat-ab-AHL-low]. katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] here means “down”; bállô (βὰλλω) [pronounced BAWL-low] means to “lay.” It means to lay down a foundation. However, it has a negative with it and therefore it changes its meaning. The tense is present tense, it is called an iterative present which describes what occurs at successive intervals. The laying of the foundation of basic doctrine has occurred before and must now occur again. They must repeat, they must relearn what they have once learned before but have lost through reversionism. This time it must be the last time. That is what the negative mê means, it is a subjective negative and it means “this is your last crack at it and you’d better learn it this time and stay with it or you’re through”, the reason being the condition of history at the time of writing. Then we have an adverb, palin again. The word means the idea of returning or turning back to repeat a course of action, and the reversion recovery demands that they turn around and repeat a previous course of action; that is, they must relearn the basic doctrines, especially certain ones to help them to understand what is coming up in this book.

“the foundation” — the accusative singular from qemelioj which refers to the basic doctrines of Christology which are necessary to understand this epistle. It does not mean all of the doctrines, but certain doctrines must be understood of they are going to understand the royal priesthood and how it differentiates from the previous Levitical priesthood. They must be very clear on which they find themselves. They are in the royal priesthood, not the Levitical priesthood. So they must learn a foundation. No one can understand the royal priesthood apart from mastering certain basic doctrines first. Now follows a list of six items which are absolutely necessary to understand chapters seven, eight, nine, and ten.

“repentance” is the genitive singular of metánoia (μετάνοια) [pronounced met-AHN-oy-ah], and this particular word is a descriptive genitive. It means a change of mind, a change of mind with regard to “dead works”, the preposition apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the ablative of nekros (νεκρός) [pronounced nehk-ROSS], the ablative of ergon (ἔργον) [pronounced EHR-gon], which means “away from dead works.” Ergon (ἔργον) [pronounced EHR-gon] means production, nekros (νεκρός) [pronounced nehk-ROSS] means dead, and it should be translated “of a change of mind away from dead works.”

The Doctrine of Repentance

1. The word for repent used in the Old Testament is nacham. It is generally used in the Old Testament for God, God is the subject. So obviously it doesn’t mean to feel sorry for sin. When God is the subject it is an anthropopathism and it means that God changes His policy from time to time and this anthropopathism is used to indicate a change of policy. In Genesis 6:6 God changed His policy about man; Exodus 32:14; Judges 2:18; 1Samuel 15:35; Psalm 90:13; Jeremiah 15:6; 42:10; Amos 7:3, 6.

2. Since God is immutable, therefore unchangeable, these expressions — such as God repents — are anthropopathisms. They are designed to explain changes in policy, divine acts of discipline, in terms of human attitudes or expressions. This is what we call, therefore, language of accommodation: ascribing to God a characteristic He doesn’t have to accommodate us so we can understand.

3. We have a Greek verb, metanoéô (μετανοέω) [pronounced meh-tah-noh-EH-oh] which is translated “repent.” Meta means “change; noéô (νοέω) [pronounced noh-EH-oh] means thinking. It means to change your mind about something. Metanoéô (μετανοέω) [pronounced meh-tah-noh-EH-oh], when the subject is man, means a change of mental attitude with limited ability to follow through. When God is the subject in the New Testament metanoéô (μετανοέω) [pronounced meh-tah-noh-EH-oh] means a change of policy with total ability to follow through. We also have an emotional verb which is translated “repent” — metamélomai.(μεταμέλομαι) [pronounced meh-tah-MEH-loh-my], which means to feel sorry for something you’ve done. In other words, this verb has emotional connotations. It should be translated correctly, “regret.” It is often translated “repent” but repent does not mean to regret and regret does not mean to repent.

4. Metanoéô (μετανοέω) [pronounced meh-tah-noh-EH-oh] and nacham are both transitive verbs, they must have a subject and must have an object. The subject changes its mind about the object.

5. Meta noéô (νοέω) [pronounced noh-EH-oh] and its cognate is used in salvation. In each case we have a subject and an object of the verb metanoéô (μετανοέω) [pronounced meh-tah-noh-EH-oh]. In salvation the subject is always the unbeliever, the object is always God. In each case the unbeliever is the subject and the object is Jesus Christ as a member of the Godhead. In a few cases God the Father is the object as the author of the divine plan of grace. Because He is the author of the divine plan some of the passages talk about repentance toward God. Others talk about repentance toward Christ. Actually they are synonymous terms. A change of mental attitude does not save but it is immediately followed by believing in Christ. You change your mental attitude before you believe, you are persuaded before you believe and then you believe in Christ. So repentance and faith are not the same. Faith is necessary for salvation; repentance sets you up for it. Repentance causes you to change your mind so that from your own free will you are willing to make a decision. Cf. Mark 1:15; Matthew 12:41; Luke 13:3, 5; 15:7, 10. The unbeliever does not repent toward sin, he repents toward God — God’s message, the Gospel. We also have Luke 16:30,31; Acts 17:30; 20:21; 26:20; Hebrews 12:17; 2Peter 3:9.

a. There is no repentance of sins for salvation.

b. The sinner changes his mind towards God. Then he believes. Repenting is changing the mind.

c. Bob talks about a woman wearing a hat.

6. Salvation repentance is defined as a change of attitude toward God, toward Jesus Christ, prior to faith in Jesus Christ. This change of mental attitude is wrought by God the Holy Spirit. This is the illuminating work of the Spirit, based upon 1Corinthians 2:14 — the natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God, etc. The Holy Spirit acts as a human spirit in the perception of the Gospel — Psalm 16:8–11; 2Timothy 2:25.

7. The verb metanoéô (μετανοέω) [pronounced meh-tah-noh-EH-oh] and the noun metánoia (μετάνοια) [pronounced met-AHN-oy-ah] are also used in the Christian life. For example, in our passage a change of mental attitude toward human good — Hebrews 6:1. It is used as a change of attitude toward doctrine in reversionism — Revelation 2:5, 16, 22; 3:19; 2Corinthians 12:21.

8. Metamélomai.(μεταμέλομαι) [pronounced meh-tah-MEH-loh-my] is translated “repent” but it should be translated “regret”, it connotes feeling sorry for something you have done, regretting some act or some thought or some function. There are four uses of metamélomai.(μεταμέλομαι) [pronounced meh-tah-MEH-loh-my]:

a. regret of a previous action — Matthew 21:29;

b. the regret of Judas Iscariot — Matthew 27:3, his regret was strictly emotional with no spiritual connotation;

c. then we have God as the subject. God has no regrets regarding saving individuals and giving them spiritual gifts — Romans 11:29;

d. the Father has no regrets regarding appointing Jesus Christ as a high priest — Hebrews 7:21.

9. Metánoia (μετάνοια) [pronounced met-AHN-oy-ah] is used in Romans 2:4; 2Corinthians 7:9,10; 2Peter 3:9; Acts 20:21.

What are “dead works” ? A change of mind from dead works.

The Doctrine of Human Good

1. Human good is dead to God’s plan. That is why in Hebrews 6:1 nekros (νεκρός) [pronounced nehk-ROSS] is used. God is not impressed with anything you do in the energy of the flesh. Jesus does not like dead works.

2. Human good is not acceptable to human good at any time — Isaiah 64:6. Menstrual rags.

3. Therefore human good has no place in the plan of God — 2Timothy 1:9.

4. However, when you classify human good you have to be very careful not to step on morality’s toes. We must distinguish between human good and morality because morality is legitimate in God’s plan and human good is not legitimate in God’s plan — Romans 13:4,5. Morality is a part of the function of the laws of establishment and is necessary for the perpetuation and proper function of the human race under the angelic conflict. It is moral to kill criminals. Often human good comes along and does the opposite. Marvin Zindler uncovered something.

a. Human good rejects divine establishment.

b. Morality supports divine establishment. Establishment produces morality.

5. Human good will not save mankind — Titus 3:5.

6. The believer’s human good is revealed and destroyed at the judgment seat of Christ. There will be no dirty clothes in heaven — 1Corinthians 3:11–15. The bride is going to be dressed up in clean clothes and in a resurrection body minus the old sin nature we are not permitted to take along with us human good.

a. Bob was taught to avoid good deed doers.

b. You do not have to be a Christian to smell out the stench of a human gooder.

7. Human good is the basis for the unbeliever’s indictment at the last judgment — Revelation 20:12–15. All the good deed doers and they think their good deeds will get them into heaven.

8. Human good can only produce human boasting — Ephesians 2:9; Romans 4:2.

Now we have some concept of the first item in this list of doctrines.

“and of faith toward God”: “faith” is a descriptive genitive singular, pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. It is used three ways when it is directed toward God. In phase one pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] Christ is the object of faith in salvation. Phase two pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]: the written Word is the object of faith in faith-rest. Along with that, pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] is used for what is believed, or doctrine, and this gives the believer capacity for faith toward God.

This is said to be “toward God” and it is a correct translation because it is epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the accusative, and with the accusative it is motion or direction — “toward God.” The absence of the definite article calls attention to the quality of the noun. The quality of the noun is the sum total of perfect. In essence God is perfect as well as eternal.

Hebrews 6:1 “Therefore having graduated from the elementary doctrines of the Christ” — the incarnation, the hypostatic union, the King-priest, the sacrifice of Himself on the cross, the perpetuation of His priesthood in resurrection, ascension and session, the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, our relation to the strategic victory through the baptism of the Spirit and subsequent positional truth, and many other classified areas of Christology and soteriology — “let us bear down [press on, advance] ourselves to maturity [supergrace], not laying again the foundations of a change of mind away from dead works and of faith towards God.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews 6:2a; 5:8 Lesson #59

59 06/27/1973 Hebrews 6:2a; 5:8 Doctrine of baptisms; laying on of hands

Reese Huchins taught his dog to drive?

Bob skipped the exegesis of this verse:

Heb 5:8 Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered.

Hebrews 5:8 — the word “Though” is a compound conjunction, kaiper (καίπερ) [pronounced KAH-ee-per],. Kaiper (καίπερ) [pronounced KAH-ee-per], when used with a participle means although and therefore kaiper (καίπερ) [pronounced KAH-ee-per], is what is called a concessive conjunction admitting a point claimed in an argument or acquiescent to a point in an argument. It is recognized that Jesus Christ is eternal God even though in the previous verse we saw Him suffering as a man on the cross. Therefore “though” should be “although” as a concessive conjunction. Actually, a concessive conjunction came from the Attic Greeks where they used this as a part of debater’s technique. It is not so used in the Koine Greek, it is used to recognize a point and to bring it in and to introduce it relating here, of course to the celebrity ship of Jesus Christ. We are finding Jesus Christ is His humanity as a royal high priest. As a royal high priest he has to be a man, is a man, functions like a man, and has to learn certain things in the human race. And although it is admitted that Jesus Christ is eternal God, the sovereign and creator of the universe, in His

humanity these things were true.

“he were” — present active participle from eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] which means “being.” The present tense is a static present, it represents a condition which is assumed as perpetually existing, and the condition which is perpetually existing is the hypostatic union. Jesus Christ is the God-Man, undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever. The active voice: Christ produces the action of the verb as our royal high priest. Christ has to be resurrected to continue His priestly ministry and to perpetuated it forever as demanded by the divine decrees. The participle goes with kaiper (καίπερ) [pronounced KAH-ee-per], it is a concessive participle, it recognizes the deity of Christ as a part of the hypostatic union but in this passage is going to deal with something His humanity had to learn — deity learns nothing, deity is omniscient.

“a Son” is a correct translation. We have the noun huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS] without the definite article, which is the antithesis of the use of the definite article in the English language. The definite article in the English language adds emphasis to the quality of the noun; the definite article in the Greek merely defines the noun, but the absence of the definite article emphasizes its quality. Therefore when you translate this literally you get “a Son” but it means a son in the sense of absolute deity. Jesus Christ is eternal God, always was, there never was a time when He wasn’t .He is coequal and coeternal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit, having identical essence with them. it is conceded, then, from the Greek that Christ is eternal God.

“yet” — this is used to translate the concessive participle, and there is no “yet” in the Greek — “learned he”, aorist active indicative from the verb manthanô (μανθάνω) [pronounced mahn-THAHN-oh]. Manthanô (μανθάνω) [pronounced mahn-THAHN-oh] means to learn from someone as a teacher, to learn through instruction. The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist. This signifies the action at its beginning though it regards the verbal idea, sees the action in its entirety. The ingressive aorist signifies the action at its beginning, a state or condition of obedience to authority is signified. It denotes entrance into a state or condition in order to learn obedience to authority. The key to everything in life, the key to victory in the angelic conflict, strategic and tactical involves self-discipline, recognition of authority, obedience to authority, and more self-discipline. You are free to use every form of self-discipline, every system of obedience to authority authorized by the Word of God. Manthanô (μανθάνω) [pronounced mahn-THAHN-oh] means to learn the hard way under a system of absolute discipline, it means to learn by recognition of authority. The ingressive aorist means this recognition of Jesus Christ began at some point. He recognized the authority of His parents, He recognized the authority of Israel, He went into the temple when He was twelve to hear the Word of God by the Levitical priesthood, He recognized every system of authority in life. He was obedient to those authorities. The active voice: the humanity of Christ produces the action of the verb — learning obedience, learning discipline. The indicative mood is the reality of Christ’s orientation to the authority of the Father and the Father’s plan during the incarnation. “Although being a Son [deity], he [Christ] began to learn.”

When a man enters the military, he surrenders his freedom to the military. When a woman enters into marriage, she surrenders her freedom to her husband.

“obedience” is the accusative singular from the noun hupakoê (ὑπακοή) [pronounced hoop-ak-oh-AY]. It connotes obedience to the authority of God the Father who is the author of the plan. He was obedient to the Father, His person, He was obedient to His plan [the Word of God]. This same principle applies in growing up. The pastor teacher is a person with a message, and in getting to supergrace there must be obedience to the person, there must be obedience to the message — recognition of the authority of both. Hupakoê (ὑπακοή) [pronounced hoop-ak-oh-AY] is the quintessence of obedience.

Niles Kinney represents everything about football that was great. They inspired other men under them. They worked out harder than anyone else. Great self-discipline; and great team leadership. He died in WWII. Any lion can grow a mane; it takes a real man to cut it off.

The pastor-teacher is a person with a message. To grow up as a believer, one must recognize the authority of the pastor-teacher.

Then it says, “by the things which he suffered.” “By the things” is the preposition apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the ablative plural of the relative pronoun hôs (ὡς) [pronounced hohç] — this means source, and it means “from the source of the things which he suffered.” In other words, there are certain principles in life, certain disciplines in life, certain concepts in life that you can only learn through suffering. This is why the military used to puts its recruits through the paces; they suffered in training. There is a lot of suffering and self-sacrifice.

“suffered” is the aorist active indicative of paschô/pathô/penthô (πάσχω/πάθω/πένθω) [pronounced PAHS-khoh/PATH-oh/PEHN-thoh]. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers up into one entirety the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ during the incarnation. Remember that the aorist tense can be very short of very long. In the case of the Lord Jesus Christ we know that this was approximately thirty-three years. This constative aorist gathers up into one ball of wax the sufferings of the incarnation that caused Jesus Christ to recognize the authority of the Father and acquiesce to His plan. The active voice: Christ produces the action of the verb, suffering during the incarnation, but suffering for a purpose: to learn from obedience, to learn discipline. The indicative mood is the reality of Christ’s suffering during the incarnation. This suffering became discipline to prepare Christ for the cross where He performed His priestly function of offering Himself. No suffering, no self-discipline; no obedience to authority. No obedience to authority; no salvation. The discipline from suffering caused Christ to say in Gethsemane, “Nevertheless not my will but thine be done” — Matthew 26:39.

Suffering becomes a discipline, a system of training for absolute obedience in the time of crisis. The time of crisis for the Lord Jesus Christ was Gethsemane when He faced from His free will to go to the cross or not to go to the cross. In His deity He could easily have turned His back and said I will not go to the cross, but in His humanity He had learned obedience through suffering, and therefore was willing to go to the cross for you and for me.

He began to learned is an Ingressive aorist; He suffered is an constative aorist; completing the training is the culminative aorist. The dramatic aorist is the obedience to God’s plan.

Having completed His disciplinary training is the culminated aorist. These 4 aorist tenses tell the story of Jesus Christ going to the cross. A phenomenal self-discipline.

Hebrews 5:8 “Although being a Son, he entered into learning obedience to authority from the things which he suffered.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Back to our passage:

Bob first reviews the corrected translation of Hebrews 6.

Stonewall Jackson was one of the most disciplined soldiers ever. He defeated 4 union generals in his valley campaign. He acted under the authority of General Lee. Had Longstreet obeyed Lee, then Gettysburg would have been the end of the war.

The strategic victory of the Angelic Conflict occurred at the cross. Now Jesus is seated next to God the Father waiting on operation footstool. We are a royal priesthood; and there must be in us the nobility of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Great self discipline of a leader of France that Bob does not like; but he must give the devil his due.

Heb 6:2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

Chapter 6:2 — the third item which has to be laid in the foundation is now before us: “of the doctrine of baptisms.” The word for doctrine is the accusative singular of didaxh but it has no definite article. The noun is translated like a genitive, which is wrong because it is not a genitive. There is no definite article, so it is not “the doctrine,” and there is no genitive case, so it is not “of.” We have the accusative case. The absence of the definite article emphasizes the qualitative aspect of the noun rather than its identity. Doctrine is the highest quality of anything in this life. Doctrine is more important than life itself. Doctrine in the soul is the basis of all nobility in our universal royal priesthood. So actually the verse begins “doctrine.” We have “doctrine of baptisms”, and now we have a genitive case. This is the descriptive genitive plural from the Greek word baptismoj. It means dipping, immersion, ablution, washing all over.

The Doctrine of Baptisms

1. 3 classic illustrations of how baptism was used prior to the NT.

a. Homer’s Odyssey wrote the famous story of Cyclops, with one eye, and a pole being put into his eye was like a piece of metal being put into water.

b. Zenophan’s and the 10,000 men who came out of Persia. When the Spartans went off to war and many were recruits, never having been to war before. The only was to do this would be the sacrifice of pigs. A bowl of blood, and the spear would be baptized in blood.

c. A ship off over the ocean; and it sinks into the ocean. It is baptized.

2. The etymology of words:

a. Baptô means to dip into some food. Also used for dyeing.

b. Baptizô

c. Baptisma ritual baptism in Matt. 3:7 Luke 12:50 for martyrdom.

d. Baptistês which means the one who does the baptism. Matt. 3:1

e. Baptismas refers to a woman’s favorite pasttime, to wash dishes; that is its primary meaning. Mark 7:4

3. There are 4 baptisms which are real: these are actual identifications

a. 1Cor. 10:2 the baptism of Moses. He is identified with the dry sea. Moses said, “Stand still and watch the deliverance of the Lord.” This is an actual identification. The baptism of Moses was very dry. The Egyptians were immersed.

b. Matt. 20:2 the baptism of the cross. Our sins were judged on the cross.

c. Baptism of the Spirit. Rom. 6 is the longest dissertation of this subject.

d. Identified with Christ in His strategic victory. Every believer is identified with the strategic victory.

e. Matt. 3:11 the baptism of fire. All unbelievers, who are losers; in the strategic phrase of the Angelic Conflict. This identifies the losers.

4. Ritual baptisms:

a. Baptism of Jesus Christ in Matt. 3. He is baptized into water, which represents the plan of God. It is the Father’s authority and the Father’s plan for the incarnation.

b. They were identified with the Kingdom of God; and what happened in the Temple then was total apostasy.

c. Christian baptism. Acts 2:38 the water represents Jesus Christ in His death; and victim goes down in the water. He comes up with the strategic victory recognized.

Item four is “laying on of hands.” The word “and” is really not “and”, it is the particle te (“and” would be kai or de) which means “as well as.” Te is used instead of kai for a reason here. Kai simply means next in the classification; te means this is related to baptisms. We have baptisms, and then comes laying on of hands, and te says these two are parallel classifications. Baptism represents identification; laying on of hands represents identification wherever it is used. So we have another classification, the fourth item in the foundation, and this one also refers to identification.

“laying on” is a descriptive genitive, epithesis (ἐπίθεσις) [pronounced ehp-IHTH-ehs-is]. epithesis (ἐπίθεσις) [pronounced ehp-IHTH-ehs-is] means the imposition of hands, the act of actually placing the hand on something, generally on the head. The word for “hands” is also genitive plural, cheir (χείρ,χειροός,ἡ) [pronounced khīr]. This is also a subjective genitive in which the noun in the genitive actually produces the action. It signifies identification with the laying on of the hand, which is the action, therefore it is related as a subject to the verbal idea of the noun modified. This is translated, “as well as the laying on of hands.”

There are three types of identification expressed by the laying on of hands.

Laying on of Hands

1. Sacrifices as illustrated by Leviticus 1:4. Throughout the book of Leviticus you find the priest putting one hand on the head of the animal and the other on the offerer, and when the sins are mentioned they are transferred to the animal in principle. So it is identifying the sins of the guilty.

2. The principle of blessing. In Acts 19:13 the laying on of hands results in blessing. Paul put his hand on people and they were healed — touching for blessing. That only lasted during the time of the apostles and no one cand o it any more.

3. The ordination for the ministry. When the representation of a church puts its hands on the head of a person they are saying that they recognize that the person has the gift of pastor-teacher — the principle of identification in the ordination ceremony.

These doctrines were ritualistic designed to portray the various ministries of Jesus Christ. They were designed to portray certain ministries on the cross — He was identified with our sins — the strategic victory of the angelic conflict and the relationship of every believer in the royal priesthood to this victory. These doctrines were designed to portray that and therefore it became imperative to learn or relearn these doctrines in that connection so the command “on to supergrace” could be fulfilled.

1972 Hebrews 6:2b-3 Lesson #60

60 06/28/1973 Hebrews 6:2b-3 Doctrines of resurrection (revised), Last Judgment

Medal of honor recipient. Took over a gun in position and used it against the enemy. Took place at Salerno.

Jose M. Lopez from Texas. He cut down 10 Germans from a shallow hole that provided no real cover. Several more things. He killed about 100 in total of the enemy. Because of men like that, we have freedom today. That is why we are here tonite.

We never see the enemy in the spiritual warfare.

Heb 6:2 and of instruction about washings, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment.

Verse 2 — “of resurrection”, a genitive singular from the noun anastasis (ἀνάστασις) [pronounced an-AS-tas-is]. The singular of this noun is a specific reference to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, and His resurrection perpetuates His royal priesthood. As royalty Jesus Christ has to rule forever, therefore the necessity for His resurrection. God had already stated that Jesus Christ was going to be David’s son who would reign forever and ever. You cannot reign while you are physically dead, neither can you function as a priest. As a priest Jesus Christ must perpetuate His ministry. He has a ministry of intercession for every believer, therefore once again the necessity of His resurrection.

The Doctrine of Resurrection

1. Resurrection must be distinguished from resuscitation. In resuscitation a person is brought back from the dead into a body of corruption and will subsequently die again, e.g. Lazarus, but in resurrection a person is brought back from the dead never to die again, the believer is in a body of incorruption.

2. The resurrection is part of the Gospel — 1Corinthians 15:1–4, 12–17. The Gospel has certain limitations to it. Christ died for our sins is a part of the Gospel. Christ was buried and Christ rose again — resurrection. This is the Gospel. For example, note that the universality of sin, the condemnation of man under spiritual death, is not a part of the Gospel. These are all true facts but they are not under the classification of Gospel. Gospel means good news, and Gospel only deals with the solution to the sin problem, it does not deal with the doctrine of hamartiology as such. When it says Christ died for our sins that is spiritual death. man is a sinner by birth, a sinner by function of the old sin nature, and man is also spiritually dead. So there are doctrines in the field of hamartiology which relate to the Gospel. The Gospel deals with the field of soteriology and there is a vast different between hamartiology and soteriology. The first item of the Gospel is the Christ solved the sin problem. He did it as a priest. He offered Himself. The burial of the Lord Jesus Christ is one of those doctrines which is a part of the good news. The burial has to do only with His body, not His soul or spirit. The soul and spirit of Jesus Christ were not buried, but the body was buried because the body is the residence of the soul and Spirit of Jesus Christ in resurrection and because Jesus Christ must have a physical body to rule forever, to be a high priest forever, and to resolve the angelic conflict. The angelic conflict is resolved in the field of humanity, not in the field of angels and not in any other field. So His body was buried, and the burial of His body for three days was definite proof of His physical death. His physical death cuts of His priesthood, cuts of His dynasty, but “rose again” is also part of the Gospel and this perpetuates both His priesthood and His reign in the future. So the resurrection of Christ is a definite part of the Gospel.

3. Theophany and Christophany have the same suffix which is simply a Greek word for manifestation.

a. A theophany is the appearance of Jesus Christ prior to the incarnation. He appeared as the angel of Jehovah, He appeared as a wrestler who wrestled with Jacob. Any time that there is a manifestation of Christ prior to the virgin birth is a theophany;

b. A Christophany is a resurrection appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ — Mark 16:9-14; Luke 24:13–43; Acts 2:32.

4. The resurrection of Christ is a part of the strategic victory of the angelic conflict — 1Corinthians 15:20–25.

5. The resurrection is necessary for the perpetuation of the Davidic line — Romans 1:3,4; 2Timothy 2:8.

6. The resurrection of Christ is the basis for the believer’s confidence in the future — 1Peter 1:3–5, 21.

7. The resurrection of Christ indicates the completion of the ministry of justification — Romans 4:25.

8. Identification with Christ in His resurrection through the baptism of the Spirit is the motivator for tactical victory of the supergrace life — Romans 6:4. Therefore, tactical victory is the objective of the royal priesthood — 1Corinthians 15:57,58. The heritage of the royal priesthood in life is supergrace status with supergrace blessings.

9. There are two general categories of resurrection found in scripture — “everyone in his own battalion” .

a. The first resurrection is made up of Jesus Christ and believers only — Daniel 12:2; John 5:24–29; 1Corinthians 15:20–24; Revelation 20:6, 13.

b. The second resurrection is the unbeliever only — Matthew 25:41; 1Corinthians 15:24; Revelation 20:5–15.

10. Every man in his own order:

a. Alpha company. The first battalion of resurrection is Jesus Christ — Matthew 28; Mark 16:9-14; Luke 24:1–48; John chapter 20 & 21; Acts 2:31–34.

b. Baker Company. There is quite an interval between the first and second battalions. The second battalion is the Church at the Rapture — John 14:1–3; 1Corinthians 15:51–57; Philippians 3:20,21; 1Thessalonians 4:13–18; 1John 3:1,2.

c. Charley Company. Then there will be a seven-year interval between the second battalion and the third which is made up of all the Old Testament saints plus the Tribulational martyrs — Daniel 12:13; Isaiah 26:19,20; Matthew 24:31; Revelation 20:4.

d. Delta Company. Finally, the fourth battalion is made up of the Millennial saints.

“of the dead” is an ablative of source, an ablative plural from nekros (νεκρός) [pronounced nehk-ROSS] which should be translated “from the source of deaths” (plural). In other words, Christ rose from His own death but not from ours. Each one of us will rise from our own grave — “resurrection out from the source of deaths” because each person dies for himself. There might be those in battles against one another, and they will rise in the same place where they killed each other.

Wherever you die, that is where you will be raised up. 3 resusitations in the OT and 3 in the New.

Next we have the continuative use of the conjunction kai which is correctly translated “and” — “of eternal judgment.” 4 basic meanings (not given).

The word “judgment” is a genitive singular from krima. Krima is a descriptive genitive, it describes the last judgment; “eternal” is also a descriptive genitive from aiônios (αἰώνιος) [pronounced ahee-OH-nee-oss].

The Doctrine of the Last Judgment

1. The human race is divided in time by his attitude toward Jesus Christ dying on the cross for his sins into two categories: unbeliever and believer. The unbeliever is the unsaved category; the believer in Jesus Christ is the saved category. John 3:36 is the verse which documents this division.

2. The unbeliever is under condemnation — John 3:18. The basis of his condemnation is his refusal to believe in Jesus Christ. Hell will be filled with religious types.

3. The unbeliever has two appointments — Hebrews 9:27, 28.

a. It is appointed unto man once to die. Death is an appointment with God.

b. After that there is another appointment, the unbeliever meets God again and it is called the last judgment. There is a second resurrection for a second judgment.

4. Therefore the unbeliever has resurrection — Revelation 20:11,12.

5. Once the unbeliever is resurrected he has an indictment — Revelation 20:12,13. His indictment is not sin. The sins of the unbeliever were judged on the cross. He has an area of strength that produces human good. Human good was rejected at the cross, therefore the unbeliever’s human good is recorded and brought up, and human good is the basis of indictment at the final judgment. Good deeds only will be mentioned at the final judgment. Bob gives several examples of good deeds, like joining a church and spending fifty grand for the stained glass windows. The unbeliever’s sins can’t be mentioned because they have already been judged on the cross. The basis of his indictment is works.

6. The unbeliever has a terrible future, Revelation 20:14, which is eternal separation from God.

7. The unbeliever’s condemnation, Revelation 20:15, is in the lake of fire which burns forever.

Hebrews 6:2, “The doctrine of baptisms, as well as of laying on of hands, resurrection out from the source of deaths, and of eternal judgment.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Being in reversionism means that you have rejected the authority of your pastor-teacher and of the Bible. You do not snap your fingers and suddenly experience re-growth. All of this takes time.

Heb 6:3 And this we will do if God permits.

Verse 3 — “And”, the continuative use of the conjunction kai. Kai connects two major thoughts here and continues the concept. What has to be continued? Many of the believers in Jerusalem are reversionistic and being in reversionism they have just been challenged. Now they must recover from reversionism. But it takes GAP to recover, it takes a constant consistent faithfulness to the Word of God, listening to the teaching of the Word time and time again. Being in reversionism they have rejected the authority of their right pastor as well as his message and this makes it all the more difficult. Getting back into the saddle and studying and learning and growing and recovering is going to take some time. So “and” continues the thought relating it now to time.

“this” — the accusative neuter singular from the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. This refers to graduating from the six basic doctrines and other basic doctrines of Christology related to soteriology, and therefore continuing again the advance toward supergrace maturity — “this” relearning of doctrine.

Jews kept returning to the Temple, those who have believed in Jesus Christ. This was their weakness. That is a legalistic frantic search for happiness; and some others might do a lascivious search for happiness. Both operation fornication and operation religion trigger emotional revolt and you move into the blackout of the soul. All of the valves of the heart are frozen. Then you go into reverse process reversionism.

Then there is repentance; they decide to turn it all around.

“we will do” — aorist active indicative of the verb poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh]. Poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] in the aorist tense is an ingressive aorist in which the action of the verb is contemplated from its beginning. This use is commonly employed with verbs which signify a state or a condition and denote entrance into that state or condition. They have now decided to go back, so the entirety is recovery. So at this point we have the ingressive aorist of poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] and it is usually translated “and this we will begin to do” .It means to enter into the process of recovery. The active voice: the reversionist produces the action of the verb by entering into his recovery sphere. The recovery sphere is GAPing it to supergrace. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative, denoting a simple assertion. The indicative is the mood of certainty, it represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality and therefore this person has made a real decision. But the aorist tense says he is just beginning.

Bob gives the illustration of being down in a submarine; you cannot just swim up. It takes time to be under pressure and move to the top. If you are on the bottom, you can only go up; but you cannot go up all at once.

“if” is a compound conditional conjunction, eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN]per. Eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN] is the conditional conjunction which is actually used for a third class condition but the per added on makes it even stronger. The condition is based on the sovereignty of God in permitting the believer priest to live long enough to recover. So you have to recognize a principle: every time you go into reversionism the time gets shorter every time you revert. The shorter the time in this life the greater the degree of difficulty in recovery. In other words, you may not ever recover because you may not live that long. That is the point here — “if only”: the sovereignty of God is a factor in phase two. Whenever God wants to take us out we are going.

“God”, is literally “the God” — ho Theos, referring to the sovereignty of God. God the Father is the author of the divine plan. He is the one who determines the length of time each one of us is going to live on this earth.

“permit” — the present active subjunctive from the verb epitrépô (ἐπιτρέπω) [pronounced ep-ee-TREP-oh] which means to allow, to permit, to order, or to give permission. To give permission is the meaning here — “if only the God gives permission.” The present tense of this verb is a static present used for a condition which perpetually exists. That is, God always determines how long each believer will remain in this life. Every day the believer is on earth is by divine permission. The active voice: the Father produces the action of the verb by permitting the believer to remain X amount of days on this earth as a gracious gift. The subjunctive mood is a potential subjunctive, it goes with the third class condition. Divine permission to remain on this earth is potential. We don’t know whether we have another day or not, only God knows that, it is a matter of divine sovereignty. It takes a lot of time to learn doctrine. The believer will accomplish the tactical objective of supergrace status if God permits him to live long enough to do it. And that is what this verse is all about.

Requesting permission to come aboard a ship. The principle is, you do it by permission. We are under the permissive will of God when it comes to our life on this earth.

Hebrews 6:3 “And this we will begin to do if only the God gives permission.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

First 6 verses corrected translation is given. Quite a number of aorist participles in v. 4.

1972 Hebrews 6:4 Lesson #61

61 06/29/1973 Hebrews 6:4 Hindrances of lifestyle in reversion recovery

True sensitivity training is summed up by live and let live.

Luke field almost entirely populated by Texas; an OK who got a lot of ribbing. Lt. Col. Leon Vance. Turns out he did some amazing things. Some sort of pounding. Bob stops momentarily. Successfully ditched his plane into the channel. There was a bomb that did not fall out. He was found floating in the channel.

Lt. Michael on another plane. Amazing as to how many things were not working, he landed the plane without a mishap.

We are in a warfare of a different kind. There is something else that keeps one from getting to supergrace. It has to do with lifestyle. We used to call it a pattern of life. It is superficial to Bob. Style is meaningless to Bob. Homosexual stylists who hate women; and Bob loves the little beauties. You no longer see elegance among women. Even in the depression, even if a woman had one dress, looked elegant in that dress. “If we don’t follow the styles, they we can’t wear anything.” Bob thinks that they would look better.

Going back to v. 1. We are here by permission of the God.

Everything that we need to know about reversionism recovery.

1. This paragraph/sentence requires us to understand the grammatical details. Vv. 4–6. Antecedent action must be understood. We must pick out the main verb and all of the actions which are antecedent to it. Everything stated after the main verb is antecedent to the main verb.

2. There are 5 aorist participles. Aorist middle/passive/active participles. The fifth aorist participle bring in the lifestyle.

In verse one we have already seen the issue which is having graduated from basic doctrines, “not laying down again the foundation.” Then we have six representative items for the foundation: a) a change of mind away from dead works; b) faith toward God; c) doctrine of baptisms; d) laying on of hands; e) resurrection from the source of deaths; f) eternal judgment.

Heb 6:4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit,...

In verses 4–6 we have everything we need to know about hindrances to reversion recovery. By way of beginning verse four, notice several things. This paragraph cannot be understood apart from the grammatical principle of antecedent action related to the main verb. This paragraph, made up of verses 4–6, is really one sentence and it lays it on the line for all believers. The basic principle we must understand in grammar is antecedent action. Antecedent action is always relative to the main verb. We have to identify the main verb and then we have to identify everything that is antecedent to the main verb, everything that occurs before. The main verb is going to come first in the sentence — verse 4 — and everything that is stated in verses 4,5, and 6 is all antecedent to the main verb. The main verb becomes the issue in the Christian way of life as far as the royal priesthood is concerned and the function of the angelic conflict.

There are basically five aorist participles which precede the action of the main verb under the antecedent concept. These aorist participles all follow a very simple principle. First of all we have an aorist passive participle, then we have an aorist middle participle, and then an aorist passive participle, an aorist middle participle, and finally the aorist active participle where the believer does something on his own which is one hundred per cent wrong — a superficial pattern of life which requires neither thought no anything else, it is just an easy way to go. So the lifestyle of the reversionist is brought in by the fifth aorist participle.

The first participle is phôtizô (φωτίζω) [pronounced foh-TID-zoh], which means to illuminate. This is the first contact that God the Holy Spirit has with you as an unbeliever, and these four participles are the sequence of grace. The second participle is geuomai (γεύομαι) [pronounced GHYOO-ohm-ahee] which means to taste. The aorist passive participle is ginomai. Finally, we go back again to geuomai (γεύομαι) [pronounced GHYOO-ohm-ahee] for representation of the supergrace life. These are the four participles of the sequence of grace: the illuminating ministry of God the Holy Spirit, salvation and the ministry of the Holy Spirit there. Then the ministry of the Holy Spirit after salvation and the partnership we have with Him in phase two. And then supergrace is the fourth one. These four participles actually form a logical sequence. Then the fifth one is an aorist active participle, the active voice making it stand out like a sore thumb — parapiptô (πίπτω) [pronounced PIHP-toh]. These five words are vitally important for us to understand.

Bob wants these written down on a large piece of paper to go back to and refer to.

Lifestyle in its most superficial keeps us from going on and moving to supergrace. You might come to Bible class every night and fornicate every night as well, and not advance at all. You can also be religious and self righteous and never make it to supergrace. Lifestyle is your enemy.

Reference back to the 5 participles above. You can be positive toward doctrine and not make it to supergrace.

The concept starts with the word “For” in verse 4. This is a conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] and it is used to introduce an explanation. This is a warning to wake up. You can be positive to doctrine and still not make it to supergrace.

The word “impossible” is the accusative singular from the adjective adunatos (ἀδύνατος) [pronounced ad-OO-naht-oss]. Adunatos (ἀδύνατος) [pronounced ad-OO-naht-oss] in the accusative case becomes something interesting. Immediately, when you see the accusative case and you don’t see a verb on even the same line with it, then you have to say “Wait a minute.” The accusative is generally the direct object of the verb, but here it is not the direct object at all, it is the subject of an infinitive. This is called an accusative of general reference. An accusative of general reference simply looks like this. The accusative case, a noun or an adjective, is used as the subject of an infinitive. The infinitive here comes in verse 6. The accusative is used with the infinitive. It really is not the subject, we call it the subject to make it simple to understand but it isn’t the subject. Actually, the accusative of general reference is an accusative case used to describe the person connected with the infinitive or connected with the action of the infinitive.

Bob explains why this verse is not underlined in red. It does everything without diacritical markings. It is a brilliant scrambled sentence. It has been so easy for Bob that he wants to go home; he understands it.

Passive voice, middle, passive, middle and suddenly an active voice. That describes the participles here. Impossible to recover as long as you pull this rinky stuff in your lifestyle.

“to renew them again” is a present infinitive, and the adjective “impossible” is the subject of that infinitive, or it describes the character of the person who is doing the action of the infinitive. To “renew again” means to restore again, and it merely means to restore from reversionism. So now we know what our sentence is all about: the impossibility of not recovering from reversionism. It is impossible to recover from reversionism under certain qualifying circumstances. Now immediately, when you hear that, you know something. To make an absolute dogmatic statement in the declarative mood — it is impossible to recover from reversionism — is wrong. This is what this sentence is saying, it is impossible to recover from reversionism. However, in this sentence which is very long, it gives certain qualifying aspects. It is impossible to recover from reversionism under certain conditions, i.e., lifestyle activity. You can have a lifestyle that makes it impossible to ever recover from reversionism. You can rebound to take the heat off occasionally, but rebound isn’t going to get you anywhere when you keep up a certain lifestyle. We now have the subject of one long sentence, verses 4–6. Subject: that qualifying lifestyle that makes it impossible to recover from reversionism, therefore impossible to go to supergrace, therefore impossible to ever be a normal believer. There are those believers who will never be anything but abnormal in the angelic conflict as long as they live because there is something in their lifestyle that keeps them from doctrine. Our breakthrough will be to find out what keeps us from supergrace.

The main verb here: “impossible to renew.” Once again, the adjective adunatos (ἀδύνατος) [pronounced ad-OO-naht-oss] has two meanings. As an adjective it has an active meaning which is “powerless” or “impotent.” The passive meaning is “impossible.” It is the passive meaning which is important here. God the Holy Spirit says in effect “Look, if you would just stay with the passive voice you wouldn’t have any trouble.” It is when one gets active. We get an active voice in parapiptô (πίπτω) [pronounced PIHP-toh]. What do you have in the first four participles? Passive voice, middle voice, passive voice, middle voice. And that was when you were doing well and everything was fine. Then it was the active voice that blew it, the active voice is “falling away.” Adunatos (ἀδύνατος) [pronounced ad-OO-naht-oss] has an active meaning. The active says you did something, you’re impotent spiritually, but in the passive voice it means you can recover from that spiritually. But the passive voice says impossible to recover so long as you follow a certain lifestyle. “Impossible to restore them again” with reference to the basic list, called repentance, is the accusative of general reference as well as the main verb.

Grace uses you; you do not use grace. You can stand where you are filled with the Spirit and never move forward. You move forward with doctrine only.

To amplify the sentence, “for” is the first word in our translation — explanation. The next word is the subject of the infinitive, “impossible” rather than “impotent”, the passive meaning to go with the fact that if you don’t get back on a passive voice, the voice of grace, you are never going to make it.

Then the infinitive “to renew them” — these believers involved — “again”, a part of the verb — “to repentance.” Repentance is not repentance here. Repentance is the first item on the list of basic doctrines. We actually have in the accusative of general reference “impossible to restore them again”, not renew, to the basic list — impossible to relearn the six items while following a superficial modus operandi, a lifestyle that really laughs at grace or uses grace. Grace uses you, you don’t use grace.

Again, the accusative of general reference acts as the main verb, and the action of the five aorist participles precede the accusative of general reference which is the main verb so that the basic structure of this sentence: “for impossible to restore them again to repentance.” “Them” refers to the reversionists. “Repentance” is number one on the basic list. It is impossible to restore the basic list under certain conditions.

Summary

1. The action of the five aorist participles precedes the action of the main verb.

2. The main verb is the accusative of general reference made up of an adjective in the accusative case, “impossible”, plus the infinitive “to restore again”.

3. The adjective which is the subject of the accusative under the concept of accusative of general reference is in the emphatic position. This emphasizes the total impossibility of advancing through learning doctrine and recovering from reversionism under the function of the now-obsolete Levitical priesthood.

4. The subject of the long sentence is bound up in the accusative plural of the definite article.

5. Verses 4–6 is one sentence. What we are studying is our spiritual life or our lifestyle.

A guy in that era goes to the Temple to offer up animal sacrifices in a.d. 67 in order to get a lot of people off his back. But this group of Jews are mixed up and they insult the Lord Jesus Christ by offering up animal sacrifices. This is a religious insult to the Lord. Nothing worse than religion.

The subject of the a sentence is preceded by the explanatory use of the particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] to amplify a third class condition in the previous sentence — “if God gives permission.”

“For Those” —

1. “For those” is the accusative plural of the definite article o(, also going with the accusative of general reference. It refers to legalistic reversionism practiced in Jerusalem under the lifestyle of offering sacrifices in the temple. It is an insult to our High Priest.

2. This is the use of the article to denote individuals under a specific classification. A lot of them existed in Jerusalem in 67 AD — legalistic reversionists.

3. The accusative of general reference of which the article is a part is the usage of the case in the definite article. The accusative is used as the subject of the infinitive. Or better, the accusative of general reference is used to describe the person or persons connected with the action of the infinitive. That is very important. The accusative of general reference describes the people involved in the action of the infinitive. So not all reversionists are included in this, only those reversionists who make it a lifestyle to enter the temple and offer sacrifices and observing all of the other Jewish activities in the temple are involved. The definite article does not say that all reversionists can’t recover because of their life, it says all reversionists involved in a specific type of lifestyle. All reversionists are not in an impossible situation. The only reversionists who are in an impossible situation are those who have a religious lifestyle, a frantic search lifestyle in some area where they say they love doctrine, give lip service to doctrine, but they don’t care for doctrine and they don’t listen to doctrine, and they react to doctrine whenever they hear it because of their lifestyle. Everyone needs to check their own life and decide if they need to clean something out of their life in order to advance. This is a good illustration because no one in the auditorium has suffered from this form of negative volition. Relax and learn the principle first.

4. The objective of the action of the infinitive is to renew again maturity or supergrace. This involves recovery from reversionism and then pressing on.

5. The adjective adunatos (ἀδύνατος) [pronounced ad-OO-naht-oss] indicates that such renewal or reversion recovery is impossible under certain specified conditions. The certain specified conditions are going to be delineated in this sentence by two present active participles that follow the infinitive: “impossible” in verse four; infinitive “to renew” or “to restore again” in the first part of verse six. Then, later on, “to restore again” … “so long as” or “while”, and then you have two present active participles. One gives the lifestyle, one gives the result of the lifestyle.

Hebrews 6:4 “Impossible for those.” Reversion recovery depends on the daily function of GAP but there can be no consistent intake of doctrine as long as certain types of lifestyle exist. A lifestyle which is in conflict with the daily intake of doctrine is involved here. The royal priesthood of the Church Age can never function in the temple. There is no reality in shadows and as long as anyone dabbles in shadows that keeps them from the reality of doctrine.

“who were once enlightened” — the aorist passive participle of phôtizô (φωτίζω) [pronounced foh-TID-zoh],. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the participle in its entirety. The length of the entirety depends upon the context. It can be a few minutes, it can be a few months, but this entirety is made up of the hearing of the Gospel and the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in illuminating that Gospel message in your soul. The Gospel is spiritual phenomena, the natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them because they are discerned by the Spirit. So the constative aorist contemplates the action of the participle in its entirety. It takes an occurrence and regardless of its extent or duration gathers it into a single whole. These believers were formerly unbelievers and the first aorist participle applies to them as unbelievers. Grace found them unable to understand the Gospel, so God the Holy Spirit made it clear. This should be translated “having been illuminated” — the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in clarifying the Gospel. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb. The subject here is the believer before he was saved, therefore the believer as an unbeliever. These believers once received illumination as unbelievers. They heard the Gospel, the didn’t understand it, they didn’t understand it.

The participle has antecedent action to the main verb. With this participle is an adverb to indicate that this happened before and can never happen again. The adverb says you can’t lose your salvation. The adverb is hapax (ἅπαξ) [pronounced hap’-ax] — “once.” Hapax (ἅπαξ) [pronounced hap’-ax] was the time in the past, however long it took.

The second of the participles: “and have tasted of the heavenly gift.” This is an aorist middle participle of geuomai (γεύομαι) [pronounced GHYOO-ohm-ahee] meaning to taste. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the event of enlightenment or illumination in its entirety but emphasizes the result. This person believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, otherwise he wouldn’t be a believer in reversionism in this jamb.

Greek: the Middle Voice

1. This voice is one of the most distinctive types of phenomena in the Greek language.

2. The middle voice is that use of the verb which describes the subject as participating in the results of the action of the verb.

3. The subject acts with a view toward participating in the outcome.

4. Therefore, tasting is faith in Jesus Christ.

5. The outcome or participating in the results of the verb is salvation.

6. This the direct middle voice. The direct middle voice refers the results of the action directly to the subject, and it refers to the subject with reflexive force. Therefore, “having tasted for themselves” is the correct translation of the direct middle.

7. This middle voice emphasizes human volition in the angelic conflict.

“the heavenly gift” is not quite correctly translated. We have a descriptive genitive singular from dwrea, which means a gift given without strings, a free gift. So we have to translate dwrea, “gracious gift.” This descriptive genitive is also the objective genitive, plus epouranios (ἐπουράνιος) [pronounced ep-oo-RAN-ee-oss] which is the ablative of source and means “from heaven”, literally.

Hebrews 6:4a “and having tasted for themselves the gracious gift from heaven”.

Now we have a progression which is delineated for us by the constative aorist followed by a culminative aorist. Here is the ministry of God the Holy Spirit gathered up into one ball of wax. It took place over a long period of time, it took place over a short period of time. The period of time, the duration of this ball of wax, is unknown because it varies with the individual. But the point is it is a gracious function for God the Holy Spirit to take the message of the Gospel which you have heard and make it real to you. The culminative aorist is the believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. The middle voice indicates that the one who believes participates in the results of the action which is eternal salvation.

“and were made” — the aorist passive participle from ginomai which means to become, and is translated “and having become.” Now we have another culminative aorist. This culminative aorist views an event from its entirety again and regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. This means the 36 things that we receive at salvation, plus something else. But it only takes out some of those 36 things because of qualifying phrases. We now have a second culminative aorist to show that out of those 36 things 5 were performed by God the Holy Spirit and which caused us to become something we were not before. We have become partners with the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit regenerated us, He is the agent of regeneration and we are born into the family of God or born again, canceling out all handicaps which came through the first birth and the life in between. Next we have indwelling. God the Holy Spirit came to indwell us. Thirdly, we have sealing: God the Holy Spirit provides eternal security by sealing us forever. Fourth, we have the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby God the Holy Spirit relates us to the strategical victory of the angelic conflict. We are identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and His session at the right hand of the Father. Then He gave each believer priest in the royal priesthood a spiritual gift. These are five things which are bound up in this culminative aorist. These are five results of salvation. “Having become” — the passive voice means the believer has received partnership with the Holy Spirit, and again the participle is an aorist participle whose action is antecedent to the main verb.

“partakers” is an accusative plural from metochos (μέτοχος) [pronounced MET-okh-oss], and it means partnership or partners — “having become partners with the Holy Spirit.” And “the Holy Spirit” is in the genitive case, the genitive of relationship.

Hebrews 6:4 “For you see, impossible for those having once been illuminated, and having tasted for themselves the gracious gift from heaven, and having become partners with the Holy Spirit.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews 6:5–6 Lesson #62

62 07/01/1973 Hebrews 6:5–6 Summary of lifestyle compromises

A few hundred people are standing. If there are songbooks on the seats, take them off and sit down. If you think you can save your seat with a songbook, you have rocks in your head. This is apparently the first day of the July 4^th conference, but before the actual conference topic begins.

Someone is saving a seat with a purse and Bob had it removed. In a.d. 67, this was all taking place. There would be many who would escape, who are supergrace believers. But many would be killed in Jerusalem. Jesus Christ controls history and there is pouring for the supergrace life. A maximum number of believers today who are in reversionism. Legalistic reversionism back then; but the same fundamentals. Boredom, discouragement, being overcome by self-pity; loneliness. Frustration followed by mental attitude sins. Some shocking experience in life like being jilted, or losing something in some way, like your job, your bf or gf. With emotional revolt freezing all of the valves and forcing doctrine back into the left lobe where it cannot be used. Any believer can be influenced by the doctrine of demons. Various ludicrous ideas; all concepts developed in order to destroy the laws of divine establishment. Continued riffing in the armed forces to allow for more money for foolish social projects.

The holy rollers who are totally against God. Once doctrine of demons takes over, there is blackout of the soul. This is to whom this is addressed. Every believer is a priest. The first battalion, Jesus and every believer who is in union with the Lord. We are a royal priesthood. 2^nd battalion are those of Israel; 3^rd is made up of the family priesthood. We are a royal priesthood. Out objective is to move to supergrace. This is accomplished through the daily function of gap. The rejection of doctrine removes us to the sin unto death. We can go supergrace or the sin unto death. Supergrace blessings. God gives great wealth, promotion, social prosperity, sexual prosperity. Abraham kept failing to move forward. Abraham was 100 years old when he reached supergrace. God first told Abraham about the blessing for him would happen was back in Gen. 12.

Abraham’s pouring and it began about age 100 and he lived about another 30 years after. This is our objective and God has preserved for us some kind of supergrace blessing. We will see a category of grace and a fulfillment of that category. Phase II grace has no volition involved. How long we live is up to God. We have x number of days. Grace keeps us alive in the unseen conflict. Our tactical objective is called more grace, greater grace or supergrace. Great wealth, promotion, all types of prosperity all comes in phase III. Positive volition towards the written word is key. Give away all of your money does not give you rewards in heaven. You cannot bribe God for some blessing. God is not a genie. Many of you will have blessings dumped into your lap.

First 3 verses reviewed. Review of v. 4 and how it is put together.

Aorist middle and passive participles. We had to have the gospel made real to us by God the Holy Spirit.

Heb 6:5 ...and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come,...

Verse 5 — “And have tasted” is the aorist middle participle of the verb geuomai (γεύομαι) [pronounced GHYOO-ohm-ahee] means to taste but it means this time to taste in the sense of appropriation, a different object. The first time we had tasting it was the living Word, Jesus Christ; now it is the written Word which is Bible doctrine. It is the tasting of Bible doctrine at this point that indicates the principle.

What is the logical result of being a royal priest as indicated in the first part of Hebrews chapter five? What is the logical result of being related to a partnership with the Holy Spirit? What is the logical result of being related to the strategic victory through the baptism of the Spirit? The answer is to move to the tactical objective which is the supergrace life. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, no matter what the duration may be. Tasting is GAPing it every day. So the constative aorist gathers into one entirety every act of GAPing it, every moment in which you take in Bible doctrine. This is GAPing it to supergrace. The middle voice describes the subject as participating in the results of the action. The subject acts in this case by GAPing it. The subject is any member of the royal priesthood, any believer GAPing it to supergrace with a view toward participating in the outcome. In other words, your objective is not only supergrace but your objective on reaching supergrace it to participate through the results. For example, the first result of supergrace is that God is glorified. God is glorified when God can pour. That is the divine side. But the human side says this: the results of supergrace to you are spiritual blessings as well as material blessings, as well as the principle of prosperity, every type of prosperity. All of these things are involved in reaching the tactical objective. God is not glorified in your life by witnessing to twenty-five people a day, by giving your glowing testimony to some group, by the hours you spend in prayer, etc. God can only be glorified in one way in your life and that is by reaching the point of the supergrace life. The supergrace life is the normal status of the royal priesthood and no believer is normal until he gets there. Your production is the result of being in supergrace, the result of doctrine in the soul, not the means of gaining something with God. You don’t have to worry about witnessing or prayer or these other things, they are the normal result of certain stages of growth, they are the normal result of the function of the supergrace life.

We have a constative aorist here plus the middle voice showing this objective. The middle voice also indicates the importance of volition in the function of GAP. This is what is called a direct middle which refers the results of the action directly to the subject with reflexive force, and therefore should be translated “having tasted for themselves.” Each one must do it for himself. Furthermore, the constative aorist plus the middle says you must decide today that you want doctrine, you must decide tomorrow that you want doctrine, you must decide the next day that you want doctrine. The participle, again, has antecedent action and the main verb is coming up in verse 6.

Bob on the sorry television. One good war movie and nothing else.

“the good” — the accusative singular from the adjective kalos (καλός) [pronounced kal-OSS] which means “noble.” It has no definite article in the Greek, and when we have an adjective minus the definite article it emphasizes the quality of the adjective, and the quality of the adjective goes with the life we have been given, the commission we were given at the point of salvation. “The noble” is stronger to us in the English; “noble” without the definite article is stronger in the Greek.

“the noble word” — this isn’t logos (λόγος, ου, ὁ) [pronounced LOHG-oss] usually used for doctrine, we have instead hrma (ῥμα, ατος, τό) [pronounced HRAY-mah] which is even stronger than logos (λόγος, ου, ὁ) [pronounced LOHG-oss] because it means doctrine removed from its covers. When you want to see doctrine where it is located in the canon it is logos (λόγος, ου, ὁ) [pronounced LOHG-oss]; when you want to take it out of the cover of the scripture and present it to the soul of the individual it is hrma (ῥμα, ατος, τό) [pronounced HRAY-mah]. It means doctrine communicated by the one authorized to communicate it. God has ordained that certain royal priests because of the gift of pastor-teacher have the privilege of communicating this. It still means doctrine but it means doctrine communicated.

“of God” — the ablative of source from theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS], “from God.” All doctrine is from God. “And having tasted for themselves noble doctrine from God.”

“and the powers” — a second accusative as the object of the participle. This one is dúnamis (δύναμις) [pronounced DOO-nahm-iss] which means power or ability, inherent power or ability. It refers to God pouring supergrace blessings to the supergrace believer.

How would you like to be 100 and look 20? You don’t need to respond to that; it was just a rhetorical question.

“inherent abilities of the coming age” refers to the Millennium. The word “world” is not world, it is the genitive singular of aiôn (αἰών) [pronounced ī-OHN]. The word for “coming” is from mellô (μέλλω) [pronounced MEHL-low], the verb which means about to be and in the participial form is used as an adjective and means coming. The present active participle is used in this case. So we have “and inherent abilities of the coming age” which is a reference to supergrace blessings. God has the ability, totally apart from Satan or his cosmic system, to provide great wealth, great prosperity, promotion, great success, anything else that is associated with happiness. This means that in the Millennium God will provide perfect environment on the earth after having despatched Satan and all the fallen angels to the abyss. Therefore the Millennium is the time of unrestrained doctrine and unrestrained blessing accompanying doctrine. Remember that the Millennium is characterized by the fact that the earth will be covered with doctrine as the waters cover the seas. And with that you have accompanying prosperity and blessing in every field of life.

We as believers are members of the royal priesthood and we have these supergrace blessings now through the consistent intake of Bible doctrine. We are not involved in living in human bodies in the Millennium, now is our time for these things. Every time a believer reaches supergrace it means it is a little patch of Millennial blessing in that area of life for that person.

Heb 6:6 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 and holding him up to contempt.

Verse 6 — “If they shall fall away,” the aorist active participle of parapiptô (πίπτω) [pronounced PIHP-toh] plus the connective kai — “and having fallen away.” This is a constative aorist which contemplates the entire process of reversionism. This starts with the reactor factors, a frantic search for happiness as a reaction, the emotional revolt of the soul. It includes negative volition toward doctrine, demon influence through the opening of : mataiotês (ματαιότης) [pronounced mat-ah-YOHT-ace], it includes the blackout of the soul and/or the hardness of heart. It includes the practice of reverse process reversionism, the various systems of self-induced misery and the dying discipline that all accompany reversionism. And that is all bound up in the entirety, this is the constative aorist. This word does not mean “fallen away”, it means to defect, to commit apostasy, to go astray, and here it is technical for entering reversionism — “having entered reversionism”, “having gone astray”, “having defected.” The active voice: the believer in reversionism produces the action of the verb by entering into reversionism and its various stages. Once more this is the aorist participle whose action is antecedent to the main verb.

Now we come to our main verb. It is an accusative of general reference plus two participles. An accusative of general reference has either a noun or an adjective. In this case adunatos (ἀδύνατος) [pronounced ad-OO-naht-oss] is an adjective, it is in the accusative case and is the subject of the infinitive. Remember that adunatos (ἀδύνατος) [pronounced ad-OO-naht-oss] is put at the beginning of the sentence. This sentence is one sentence from verse four to verse six and adunatos (ἀδύνατος) [pronounced ad-OO-naht-oss] is put at the beginning of the sentence to give it emphasis. Therefore it should probably be translated in the English, “Definitely impossible.” That is the first part of the main verb, the rest of the main verb is an infinitive — “to renew them again”, the present active infinitive of a)nakainizw which means to restore again — “Definitely impossible to restore again.” This infinitive refers to reversion recovery. The way to reversion recovery is to GAP it back to supergrace but there is something that holds that up.

With this we have the adverb palin — “again.” This goes with the adverb we had at the beginning of the sentence, “having once been illuminated.” That adverb means you can’t turn back. But even though you can’t turn back and become an unbeliever you can fail as a believer, and that is the contrast between the adverb hapax (ἅπαξ) [pronounced hap’-ax] and the adverb palin. Hapax (ἅπαξ) [pronounced hap’-ax] says “having once been enlightened”, once you have been enlightened and believe you can never lose your salvation, so this is assurance with regard to salvation — eternal security; palin says but you can sure foul it up as a saved person. So now we have palin to show where the foul-up is. The present tense is a tendential present, and it is used of an action which is purposed or desired but is actually not taking place as yet. The action which is desired is to move toward supergrace, it has not occurred as yet. It represents the idea of what is intended or what tends toward realization. The active voice: the subject of the infinitive is the accusative plural of the definite article referring to the people — “impossible for those.” “Impossible” is the adjective, the adjective goes with the definite article in the accusative. So the true subject of the infinitive is the reversionist following a certain course of action to specified by the two participles. The infinitive itself is a part of the accusative of general reference, it also expresses purpose.

We have a next a reference to the list of basics. “Unto repentance” is the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of metánoia (μετάνοια) [pronounced met-AHN-oy-ah], the first item on the list of basics, a change of mind away from dead works. Only the first word is used to refer to the entire list of six basics mentioned, so metánoia (μετάνοια) [pronounced met-AHN-oy-ah] is number one on a list of one through six. This time you don’t repeat the entire list, just the first word in the list is necessary. This does not refer to repentance as such but to list of basics.

Next we have the hindering modus vivendi, and it is introduced by the word “seeing.” There is no word “seeing” found in the original MSS, this is merely used to designate temporal participles which portray action which hinders recovery. These temporal participles are also circumstantial participles because they indicate what keeps people from getting with doctrine so that they can recover. This only indicates in principle because one specific thing is involved in Jerusalem. There are many specifics today, as many as we have reversionists who cannot get back with Bible doctrine. “Seeing” is not a good way to translate a circumstantial and temporal participle, it is better to translate it either “so long as” or “while.” The first of these participles: “they crucify afresh”, the present active participle of a)nastaurow [aná (ἀνά) [pronounced aw-NAW] means again; staurow means to crucify]. Christ was crucified once, He never has to die again for our sins. His work the first time and the only time was totally and completely efficacious.

Now how can anyone crucify Christ again? By a reversionistic lifestyle. In this case the reversionistic lifestyle is legalism, religionism. Here are members of the royal priesthood submitting themselves to a priesthood that no longer exists. The present tense is the retroactive progressive present which denotes a practice begun in the past and is continuing up to the moment the writer writes. This practice represents a frantic search for happiness in the field of legalistic reversionism. These believers are offering animal sacrifices in the temple which would be crucifying Christ afresh. Each animal sacrifice represents some aspect of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, historically the death of Christ was completed some years before. The death of Christ on the Christ is the reality which eliminates the shadows of animal sacrifices. Having the reality they return now to the temple to dabble in shadows and to accept an authority that no longer exists, the authority of the Levitical priesthood. The active voice indicates that believers, royal priests, are actually doing this in Jerusalem. The participle, again, is both temporal and circumstantial.

“to themselves” is the dative plural of disadvantage of the reflexive pronoun heautou (ἑαυto) [pronounced heh-ow-TOO]. They are themselves involved in doing this and the result is that they are crucifying to themselves “the Son of God”, which emphasizes the strategical victory of the angelic conflict and their failure to relate it properly to the royal priesthood. “The Son of God” refers to the fact that Christ is the God-Man, that He is now at the right hand of the Father waiting for the fulfillment of operation footstool, that He has won the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, that He has broken Satan’s back on the cross, as per Colossians 2:14.

“and put him to an open shame” is the second present active participle, paradeigmatizw which means to hold in contempt. to expose to ignominy, to expose to contempt, to publicly embarrass someone and therefore to make a public example of contempt. This is the iterative present, it describes what occurs when the believer enters the temple to offer sacrifices. The present tense of repeated action or the iterative present means that every time they do this they again and again expose Jesus Christ to public shame and contempt. The active voice: as a result of offering animal sacrifices they are engaging as royal priests in blasphemy instead of honour to the Lord Jesus Christ. The participle is, again, temporal and circumstantial as per the first participle. So this activity will hinder every effort to recover from reversionism since this function sponsors and encourages negative volition toward doctrine. There is a conflict between learning doctrine and in going to the temple. As long as that conflict exists they will never recover from reversionism and they will die the sin unto death under the most horrible circumstances of history, that great second siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD. These Jews who are born again cannot publicly shame Jesus Christ and at the same time recover from their reversionism. Their action is incompatible with the function of GAP. Any activity which is incompatible with the function of GAP hinders reversion recovery.

Hebrews 6:6 “And having gone astray in to reversionism, for you see impossible to restore them again with reference to the basic list [repentance]; so long as they again and again crucify to themselves the Son of God, even exposing him to public shame and contempt.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. In other words, you cannot move toward your objective while retreating from it. You can’t advance and retreat at the same time. Offering sacrifices in the temple was retreating. You cannot hang on to anything that compromises with learning doctrine and learn doctrine.

2. You cannot move toward occupation with Christ while holding Him in public contempt.

3. You cannot move toward the celebrityship of Jesus Christ and expose Him to public shame.

4. Your attitude toward Christ determines your attitude toward His Word. If you love Christ you take in doctrine.

5. You cannot divorce the living Word, Christ, from the written Word, Bible doctrine. You do not love Jesus Christ unless you love Bible doctrine.

6. The written Word is the very thinking of Christ as well as capacity to love Jesus Christ.

7. There are certain functions, certain types of lifestyle (that which is superficial; that which is idiotic), in life related to the frantic search for happiness which must be eliminated before the believer can recover from reversionism. In this passage it was going to the temple and offering animal sacrifices. Today it is whatever you do that keeps you from taking in Bible doctrine.

8. No believer can persist in learning doctrine under GAP and at the same time enter into either evil or human viewpoint functions which contribute toward apathy or any other form of negative volition.

9. A believer can recover fellowship by rebound but he can never recover from reversionism so long as he has a lifestyle compromise which in effect dishonours our royal high priest, Jesus Christ. We cannot shame Christ and at the same time GAP it to supergrace.

10. Supergrace is incompatible with the believer’s frantic search for happiness, and God has provided a totally superior happiness in the ECS and the entrance into the supergrace life.

11. Happiness must either come from God through doctrine or be attempted by the believer through his own ability, schemes, sinfulness and self-induced misery.

X things were blended together with Y things, and the result was working together for good.

A repeat of first few verses of this chapter.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #63

63 07/06/1973 Hebrews 6:7–8 Doctrine of thorns; agricultural analogy

First 6 verses repeated.

Review Points from Last Time.

1. You cannot move towards an objective and, simultaneously, move away from it.

2. You cannot attain the object of occupation with Christ and still hold Him in public contempt.

3. You cannot move towards the celebrityship of Christ and expose Him to an open shame.

4. Your attitude towards Christ is in tandem with your attitude towards the Word of God.

5. You cannot divorce the written word from the living word.

6. The written word is the thinking of Jesus Christ.

7. There are certain functions in life related to the frantic search for happiness which must be eliminated.

8. You cannot persist in gapping and adhering to evil functions.

9. A believer can recover fellowship but not from reversionism, as long as his lifestyle compromises the Lord Jesus Christ.

10. Supergrace is incompatible with the believer’s happiness...

11. Happiness must come from God through doctrine.

Verse 7 — at this point we begin a study of the illustration and application to reversion recovery. In verses 7 and 8 we have the alternatives of the Christian way of life. The back ground for this is an illustration from an agricultural economy. In verse 7 we have supergrace; in verse 8 we have the alternative to supergrace which is reversionism. Using the illustration of the ground and agriculture we see these alternatives which become a reality after salvation.

The moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ we are commissioned immediately into the royal priesthood. However, there is no normal function under that priesthood until we reach the supergrace status. That means from the beginning of phase two we GAP it and be consistent in this until we reach the supergrace status. Once we reach the supergrace status the first great factor is occupation with the person of Christ or maximum category #1 love response. In the supergrace status we have the doctrinal capacity to truly love God. Secondly, we have supergrace capacity, and thirdly, we have the supergrace blessings. Since we are in a royal priesthood as of the moment of the new birth we should live like royalty. That demands supergrace blessings. We should also function in the nobility of royalty and that means the normal function of the priesthood of the believer. With that in mind we see in this passage these alternatives: the supergrace life on the one hand or reversionism on the other — in verse 7, supergrace; verse 8, reversionism.

God has our name on some supergrace prosperity; and these things were created long before man was created. The X things and Y things are combined, so that all things blend together for absolute and intrinsic good. Rom 8:28 applies only to the supergrace believer. This is only when God pours. You must have a cup and God pours into the cup. Since we belong to the royal priesthood, we should live like royalty.

Heb 6:7 For land that has drunk the rain that often falls on it, and produces a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated, receives a blessing from God.

“For” is a conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] used as an explanation. The next word is “the earth.” The noun is gh which means ground or earth, even planet earth from time to time. Here it refers to the surface of the earth, the ground. All believers are pictured in this particular illustration or analogy as part of the ground. The objective of the ground is to grow something, to produce something. The ground producing is a picture of the supergrace life, and the ground failing to produce the normal edible things of life, the pleasant things of life, and instead producing cactus, briars, thorns, and so on. This is the picture of reversionism. The issue is that you are the ground as of the moment that you accepted Christ as Savior. The question is: What does your piece of ground produce?

Do not bother to drop anything tonite; I am not just a dull boy but a mean one.

“which drinketh in” — the aorist active participle pinw. The word means to drink. This should be translated “having drunk.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes an occurrence and regardless of the duration or extent of that occurrence gathers it up into one entirety. The constative aorist means every time that you GAP it as a believer. That is drinking in the rain, the ground taking in the rain necessary for growth. The rain is Bible doctrine. The active voice: the ground produces the action of the verb by absorbing the rain. The rain is absorbed through the function of GAP. The participle has antecedent action to the main verb, the main verb: “receives blessings from God”. The blessings from God are supergrace blessings.

“rain” is the accusative singular of huetos (ὑετός) [pronounced hoo-eht-oss]. We also have with it the definite article, and the noun and its definite article are separated by a phrase — “coming many times upon it”, literally. So between the definite article and the noun we have an entire phrase: “the coming many times upon it”, literally in the Greek. “The coming many times” is Bible doctrine taught and taught and taught.…

The key to the phrase “coming many times upon it” is the present active participle of érchomai (ἔρχομαι) [pronounced AIR-khoh-my]. The present tense is an iterative present which describes what occurs at successive intervals. In other words, the present tense of repeated action. It isn’t linear aktionsart, it isn’t every moment. You don’t get rain every second or the ground would never grow, it comes just often enough as it should. That is in keeping with the iterative present, it means it recurs at certain times. The active voice: the ground produces the action. The ground is analogous to the believer. The participle is known as a circumstantial participle to describe attendant circumstances by which the action of the main verb is fulfilled. In other words, the rain keeps on coming and the ground can accept it or reject it. If the ground accepts it there will be production, if it rejects it there will not. If the ground accepts the rain there will be prosperity, the supergrace concept.; if the ground rejects it there will be no prosperity but there will be a great deal of misery, illustrated by thistles, briars and cactus.

Abraham regained his sexual function as a part of his supergrace package.

The word “oft” is the English is an adverb, pollakis (πολλάκις)[pronounced pohl-LAHK-iss], and it means “many times.” In Palestine the production of the agricultural economy depended upon what is known in the Bible as the early and the latter rains. The early rains were rains that occurred with great frequency between October and December; the latter rains came in March and April. They are often called by the Jews the winter and the spring rains. They came just at the right frequency so that the ground would bring forth under the proper cultivation.

When you reach supergrace, people around you will appreciate it. They will receive blessing by association. Most of you do not come as diamonds in the rough; more like broken milk bottles in the rough.

“upon it” is the preposition epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the genitive of an intensive pronoun autos.

“For the ground having drunk the rain coming many times upon it” — “and bringeth forth”, the present active participle of tiktô (τίκτω) [pronounced TIHK-tow] which means to give birth, or if it is used as in the case of “ground”, to produce something that is edible, something pleasant from the ground. So we will use the word “production”, iterative present again describing the harvest as recurring at successive intervals. The earth represents the believer producing the action of the verb, and the production of the action is supergrace. The active voice: the earth representing the believer producing the action of the verb. The participle is the complementary participle which completes the idea of the action.

“herbs” — and old English word. This is the accusative singular of the noun botanh, from where we get “botany”, and it means useful vegetation, edible vegetation. It is even used for what the animals eat — fodder, herbs, plants, any harvest from the earth. Probably the best translation would be: “and yielding a harvest of vegetative production”.

“meet” is not correct. This is the accusative singular of e)uqhtoj and it means “useful” or useably”; “by them” is the instrumental plural from the demonstrative pronoun ἐκενος, and the man who harvests, the farmer who did the planting. The farmer is not the believer, he is that portion of the human race in the periphery of any supergrace believer. Once you reach supergrace you will know it. Others around you are going to be benefitted by the very fact that you are alive and breathing. The farmer is benefitted when he harvests, and people around you are going to be benefitted by your reaching supergrace. Their benefit will come in many forms. They will not be the beneficiary of your maligning, gossip, antagonism, jealousy, etc. Whoever is your right man or right woman will discover that all of a sudden they are related to a new person with soul capacity for love. They will discover that they have someone who is thoughtful and protective and fulfilling and a sheer total pleasure to be around all the time.

“by whom” is literally “because of whom” — dia plus the accusative of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. In other words, “for the glory of the one for whom it is cultivated.” We have in the English “it is dressed” — the present passive indicative of geôrgeô (γεωργέω) [pronounced gheh-ore-GHEH-oh] which means to cultivate land, to farm. The customary present tense indicates that which habitually occurs. In the illustration the farmer habitually cultivates the land and that is the concept here. The passive voice: the land or the ground receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is what we call a declarative indicative which denotes the verbal idea from the standpoint of reality. The land is cultivated, it really is the cultivation of the land and the growth on the land is a reality. There are various stages. This growth would be impossible apart from Bible doctrine. It is the intake of doctrine illustrated by the rain that contributes to this. So literally, “and yielding production [harvest] useable by them because of whom it is also cultivated.”

“receiveth” — now we go from the farming to its analogy. What does God do for the supergrace believer? The supergrace believer receives blessing from God. “Receiveth” is the present active indicative from metalambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh], which means to receive a share in, to obtain, to partake of, to share in something. The present tense is a progressive present of existing results. It refers to a fact which has come to be in the past — supergrace blessings designed for you in eternity past — and is emphasized as a present reality. Here is where the present tense takes the place of the perfect tense in the Greek, a progressive present of existing results. In the past it is a fact, God designed for you supergrace blessing. Whatever God designs is designed to be for you in perfect happiness, perfect capacity to enjoy. Supergrace is the reality for all who will be consistent in the daily function of GAP, and as a result of the daily function of GAP one day you arrive. The active voice: the believer who is faithful in the intake of the Word of God will attain supergrace blessings. The indicative mood is the mood of certainty of reality of unqualified assertion, and this is the declarative indicative which means this is a fact. This is a fact you can count on. You are just like the ground. You keep on taking in and taking in and the time is coming when you are going to be greatly blessed. But always in supergrace blessing your happiness overflows to others.

The word for “blessing” is the genitive of possession, a genitive singular, e)ulogia. You personally possess this blessing just for you. It is in the singular because God has a special supergrace package for you.

“from God” — this is from the ultimate source of God, the preposition apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the ablative of source from theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] — “from the source of the God.”

The verse says the ground obtains blessing from the source of God. The ground is every believer, the royal priest. he obtains through the daily function of GAP — the rain coming often. Blessing is supergrace blessing and the source of that supergrace blessing is God.

Hebrews 6:7 “For the ground [the believer positive toward doctrine] having drunk the rain [the believer GAPing it] coming many times upon it, and producing a harvest of crops by them [the Trinity], because of whom [the Trinity] it [the ground] is also cultivated, obtains blessing [supergrace] from the source of the God.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The first of two alternatives: supergrace, verse 7.

This man’s Greek is harder than any other Greek in the NT. He is very difficult. He keeps track of things beautifully. He might throw down a definite article, but then throws in several words, and eventually throws in the noun for that definite article. This is very very close to Rom.8:28. Romans emphasizes the blessing; this emphasizes the priesthood.

Heb 6:8 But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.

Verse 8 — reversionism. “But”, the conjunctive particle de is used to emphasize a contrast. This brings together two sentences which in opposition to each other. two antithetical type sentences.

“that which beareth” — the present active participle of the compound verb ekpherô (ἐκφέρω) [pronounced ehk-FEHR-oh]. ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], means out from; phérô (φέρω) [pronounced FEH-row] means to bear, to carry. It comes to mean to bear out or to carry out from the soil. In other words, a seed goes into the ground and it bears out from the soil some kind of a stalk, leaf, fruit or vegetable, etc. It means to grow or produce out of the ground. The present tense is a progressive present of description, it indicates what is now going on. The active voice: the ground does the producing. The participle is a temporal participle, and temporal participles are translated “when” or “so long as”. So literally, “But when it is growing”.

“thorns” — the accusative plural of akantha (ἄκανθα) [pronounced AK-an-thah]. It should be translated “thorn plants.” Here is a piece of ground that is negative, and when you step on this piece of ground you get stuck. This is reversionism. It refers to those around you who get hurt. Notice that a cactus is never bothered by the cactus sticking in him! This emphasizes the fact that reversionists always hurt other people and it doesn’t seem to bother them that they do. In other words, the first thing that we notice about the reversionist is the antithesis to the supergrace believer, the reversionist is always hurting someone else.

“and briers” — the accusative plural of tribolos (τρίβολος) [pronounced TRIHB-ohl-oss]. Tri means “three”, and the noun beloj which means “dart”. So this is a three-pronged dart. Actually, tribolos (τρίβολος) [pronounced TRIHB-ohl-oss] was a very thorny weed that grew in Palestine. So literally the verse says, “But when it is growing thorns and thistles”. Thorns and thistles refer to the areas of reversionism where you hurt others.

If you are filled with self-pity, and you do not get the attention that you want, you gig them. 3 thorns. You think about something that someone else has and you don’t; so you gig them. If you are jealous, then you stick them quick.

The Doctrine of Thorns

1. Thorns are associated with the curse of mankind and nature at the time of the fall — Genesis 3:18.

2. Thorns are used to designate divine punishment — Numbers 33:55 Judges 2:3 2Corinthians 12:7.

3. Thorns are used to designate national discipline, the fifth cycle of discipline — Isaiah 34:12.

4. Thorns are related to economic depression and recession under an agricultural society — Jeremiah 12:13.

5. Unconquered people in the land of Canaan were thorns in the side of the nation — Numbers 33:55 Joshua 23:13 Judges 2:3.

6. Thorns are used for negative volition toward Bible doctrine — Proverbs 22:5 26:9.

7. Thorns describe the various stages of reversionism — Hebrews 6:8.

8. Thorns are used for the details of life which cause negative volition toward doctrine — Matthew 13:7,22.

9. Jesus Christ wore a crown of thorns on the cross. This signified that He was being made a curse for us when He was bearing our sins in His own body on the tree — Matthew 27:29 Mark 15:17 John 19:2 cf. Galatians 3:13.

10. The Millennial deliverance of nature from the curse of the fall is expressed by the removal of the thorns — Isaiah 55:13 Ezekiel 28:24.

“is rejected” — adokimos (ἀδόκιμος) [pronounced ad-OHK-ee-moss], which means here, “worthless.” The reversionist is worthless. Reversionism is the status of tactical defeat. God loves a reversionistic believer but He disapproves totally of his reversionism. The believer becomes a casualty in the angelic conflict and he is worthless in the intensive stage of that conflict. God disciplines a worthless believer, first with warning, then with intensive discipline, and then the final stage which is the sin unto death.

“and is nigh” — the adverb eggus (ἐγγύς) [pronounced ehng-GOOS] which means near, and it indicates the approaching disaster of the sin unto death for the reversionistic believer.

“cursing” — the descriptive genitive of katara which is a genitive of reference as well and is used with adjectives like worthlessness. So it means “worthless and near a curse”, the curse being the sin unto death.

“whose” — the genitive feminine singular from the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. The relative pronoun has as its antecedent akantha (ἄκανθα) [pronounced AK-an-thah] or the thorns — “whose thorns”, in other words. The sin unto death is not administered by burning, the burning of the thorns is analogous to the sin unto death. The burning of the thorns represents the believer being removed from this life by the sin unto death.

“whose end” — the noun telos (τέλος) [pronounced TEHL-oss] means termination of this life — “to be burned” — preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of kausij, the noun for the act of burning. “For burning” is the correct translation. Burning is analogous to the administration of the sin unto death to the reversionistic believer.

Hebrews 6:8 “But when it is growing [producing] thorns and thistles it becomes worthless, and near a curse; whose end is for burning”. (R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation)

Summary

1. The two verses express the alternatives of the Christian life on this earth. Verse 7 expresses the principle of blessing under supergrace; verse 8 expresses the principle of cursing under reversionism.

2. The difference between cursing and blessing is the attitude of the believer toward doctrine.

3. In salvation the issue is the living Word, Jesus Christ.

4. However, in phase two of the Christian way of life the issue is attitude toward the written Word, Bible doctrine, from Bible teaching.

5. The obedience of the Cross, faith in Christ, must inevitably lead to obedience to the Word — Hebrews 13:7, 17 — which is that priestly self-discipline whereby the believer concentrates on the teaching of his right pastor.

First 8 verses reviewed.

1972 Hebrews 6:9-10a Lesson #64

64 07/08/1973 Hebrews 6:9-10a Function of pastor-teacher; potentiality of supergrace

Review of 8 verses.

Hebrews 6:8 “But when it is producing [growing] thorns and thistles it becomes worthless, and near a curse [intensive discipline]; whose end is for burning [= the sin unto death]”. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

When you go negative, you begin to strike out against everything; expressions of your sins; and you stick thorns in others; and this is to test others. But when the test is over, God takes you out of the world. God keeps you alive long enough to test the others going on to supergrace. God is testing the scourge of your bitterness.

When you malign someone or gossip about them, you have gotten into their business; and when you have inflicted some pain, once they move on, you are left behind and God removes you from this world.

V. 7 expresses the blessing of supergrace through doctrine; and v. 8 is going the other way. It is your attitude towards doctrine which is more important than anything else in life. Every decision that you make, that is key to the direction that you are moving in. You will have many opportunities to become involved in things that are fun or improve your materialistic existence; and these things will be made very attractive to you.

Bible doctrine is the only way to supergrace blessing and life. If you go the other way, you might only have salvation and nothing more. Your attitude is determined by the amount of Bible doctrine in your soul.

Abraham and Sarah lost one another along the way. They lost each other in reversionism, but they found themselves in supergrace. Some of you sitting in the back are there because you did not get into Berachah on time. Those who live in the barracks have taken advantage. Take your shower first and then come back. A lot of young eager beavers here, but next time, conference will rope off some seats. About 800 or 900 seats needed for those coming to the conference.

Heb 6:9 Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel sure of better things—things that belong to salvation.

Verse 9 begins with the conjunctive particle de which is the conjunction of contrast. This conjunction of contrast says, Having chewed you out I now have confidence that you will respond to my authority (the writer’s). Every writer who wrote to every local church in the Word of God was the right pastor at the time that he wrote. He was an apostle or closely associated with an apostle, and being such his authority was paramount. This is there this writer has made his point and now moves on. This is called objectivity in teaching. “But beloved we are persuaded better things of you.” That is objectivity.

The word “beloved” is a vocative plural from the adjective agapêtos (ἀγαπητός) [pronounced ag-ap-ay-TOSS]. When you have a word like this you have to ask yourself a question. Does the writer love them or does God love them? The answer is simple: God loves them. Always remember that God loves you, you are in this vocative plural. The reason it is a vocative plural is because it was not only addressed to those people in the time at which it was written. And these people had just received a very severe disciplinary thrashing, but now he calls them “beloved” to remind them of the fact that they are the objects of God’s love, that God loves them with a perfect love, and even though they have been chewed out they are to profit by it. They have to remember that the love of God is constant and consistent.

“we are persuaded” — the perfect passive indicative of the verb peithô (πείθω) [pronounced PIE-thoh], which has a number of meanings. Peithô (πείθω) [pronounced PIE-thoh] means to receive confidence, to obey, to trust, to recognize authority, to be convinced. Here in the passive voice of the perfect tense it means to be convinced, to be convinced that doctrine will do what nothing else can do. For remember that it is doctrine that has been presented along with the exhortation that is the basis for the exhortation. Doctrine must always be the basis for any kind of exhortation. The perfect tense is the intensive perfect indicating the results. We have received convincing or we have received persuasion or confidence that you will move on — “But beloved we have been convinced.” The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb and the subject is the writer. The writer is convinced. The indicative mood is the mood of reality and the writer is convinced that the doctrine already presented is enough to make the individuals involved in the southern kingdom of Judah and in the capital of Jerusalem respond by coming back to doctrine and coming back to reversion recovery through the intake of doctrine. 25 min.

“better things” — the accusative neuter plural of a comparative kreittôn (κρείττων) [pronounced KRITE-tohn] or kreisswn. It is spelled two ways in the Greek. It should be translated either “higher things” (in rank), “preferable things” (the things moving you toward supergrace), “more advantageous things” or “better things.” But better things means higher things, preferable things, more advantageous things, and all are true. Moving toward the tactical victory of supergrace is moving toward higher things, moving to higher ground, moving toward preferable things. It is preferable to glorify God in phase two, preferable to all of the horrible things of reversionism. It is also “more advantageous things” because it is to your advantage to reach the supergrace life — always to your advantage.

“of you” — the preposition peri means “concerning”; the object is su, the personal pronoun. The genitive plural means “concerning you”.

“and things that accompany” — we have the continuative use of kai, and there is nothing else following it. We do not have another noun here, we have simply a participle. “Things that accompany” is a present passive participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] and echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] means to have and to hold, even sometimes to hold down, to belong to or to attach. So the question is, how to translate this. It should be translated “and things belonging to [attached to] salvation.” The present tense is a static present, it is used to represent something which perpetually exists. The supergrace life perpetually exists for any believer after salvation, and the static present says no matter how you have failed in the past, no matter how you have gone into reversionism, God still has your name attached to X number of supergrace blessings. And all that is necessary is for you to reach capacity. These are the higher things in rank, more advantageous things, and the preferable things concerning you and the things belonging to salvation. One thing that belongs to your salvation are the supergrace blessings.

This is the problem. Between your salvation and the pouring of the supergrace blessings into your life is the consistent daily function of GAP so that you reach the point of occupation with Christ and you reach the point of supergrace blessing. This gap can only be closed by taking in doctrine, and the great hindrance to this gap is reversionism and some of the activities that accompany reversionism, like going into the temple and offering animal sacrifices. In other words, a royal priest putting himself under the Levitical priesthood when the Levitical priesthood is out in the Church Age. So we have the choice and the choice is based upon doctrine and any deviation from doctrine and any decision you make against doctrine.

Bob, because of Bible class, has 2 times missed the movie Zulu. There is a lot of killing of the enemy and Bob loves that. Bob makes decisions for doctrines too. He has stood up and was so sick and dizzy but he shows up to teach. We are constantly faced with decisions and each one of us has our own free will. The decisions which mean the most are those when something attractive is in front of you. Not as impressive if you are sitting around think, “I have nothing to do tonite; I will go the church.”

The most boring passage in the world is better than going out on a date with a stunning woman. Some of you are not convinced.

The passive voice of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] is very interesting here. With salvation the believer receives the potentiality of supergrace. No one has ever been saved without having his supergrace blessings lined up for him in eternity past. This is why the human writer is optimistic here. The participle echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] is an ascriptive participle, it ascribes to salvation the potential of the supergrace life blessing and function. Remember that not only is there a life of occupation with Christ, the blessings of materialistic things, the blessings of promotion, wealth, success, prosperity, and so on, but it is also a life of function. It is the true function of the royal priesthood that begins at the supergrace life, therefore the ascriptive participle.

The word “salvation” is the objective genitive singular of sôtêria (σωτηρία) [pronounced soh-tay-REE-ah] which refers to the time when we accept Christ as Savior.

So far in this verse we have the followingTranslation: “But, beloved ones [every believer, whatever classification], we have been convinced of better things [the supergrace things which are higher in rank, preferable and more advantageous] concerning you, and the things belonging to salvation [supergrace]”.

“though thus we speak” — the word “though” is a conditional particle used to introduce a first class condition — ei (εἰ) [pronounced I]. This is the condition for advancing to supergrace and it means faithful teaching of the Word by a faithful pastor. So we have “if thus.” This is an adjunctive kai, which is translated “also”, plus the adverb houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. It should be translated “if also in this manner we speak.”

Bob is assuming that the pastor has sweated their shadows into the wall. This is the job of the pastor. Some young pastors from Berachah think the pastor needs to get all of the sheep into a pen and kick their butts. That is part of the job, but not all of it. It is an unpleasant part of the job.

“we speak” is the present active indicative of the verb laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh] and it means to communicate verbally. It is used here for the communication of doctrine and the accompanying exhortation. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes that which habitually occurs or may be expected to occur if believers are going to reach supergrace. Pastors must faithfully teach doctrine. The active voice: the pastor of the local church produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative. That is, it is used for a statement of unqualified assertion. It is absolutely necessary for the pastor to be faithful in teaching the Word. it is the pastor who teaches the other members of the royal priesthood concerning the tactical objective of the supergrace life. It is the pastor who, warns the royal priesthood of becoming casualties in the angelic conflict through reversionism. It is the pastor who can distinguish between reversionism and carnality. Whereas reversionism has perpetual carnality, growth has occasional rebound type carnality and there must be a distinction.

Hebrews 6:9 “But, beloved ones, we have been convinced of better things concerning you, and things attached to salvation, if also in this manner we habitually communicate [doctrine], and we do.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The blessing of the pastor precedes the blessing of his congregation. His supergrace blessing overflows to his congregation.

Heb 6:10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.

Verse 10 is parenthetical. it is an explanation of the function as well as the reward of the pastor-teacher. The blessing of the pastor precedes the blessing of the congregation. Obviously the pastor is going to reach supergrace before any member of his congregation, and his supergrace blessing becomes the supergrace blessing of the congregation when they, as he, faithfully stay under the teaching of the Word of God until arrival at that point. The blessing of the pastor is learning and teaching doctrine. Learning doctrine is the only road to supergrace where there is great blessing in time and reward in all eternity, and this is the reason why we are royal priests. We are royal priests because Christ our high priest is going to reign forever. And since Christ is going to reign forever, and since a demonstration of His reign is the perfect blessings of the Millennium, the blessings of the Millennium become ours right now, as we have previously seen in this passage. The blessings of the age to come are our blessing right now under supergrace status!

You have no right to criticize a pastor; you get out without making a fuss. You may be right that the pastor’s content is not keeping with Scripture, fine, get out quietly. He still has the authority and you just remove yourself from his authority.

Bob started the ministry thinking that the clergy is not special. But no one can grow on their own. There are all kinds of organizations which have done great work in evangelization. But they are out from under the local church. They must remain evangelical organizations. They cannot bring anyone to supergrace.

“For” is the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar. We are about to get an explanation from the writer, an explanation that goes with Hebrews 13:7, 17. Those two verses summarize the authority of the pastor-teacher.

“God” — literally, “the God” — ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS]. God knows everything that the pastor-teacher does. The pastor-teacher is directly responsible to God who is responsible for every blessing he will ever have in this life and who is also responsible for every item of discipline he will ever have. The pastor-teacher gets double discipline. Bob has had some fantastic double blessing; and that does not sit will with some people. Discipline or blessing is all grace.

“not unrighteous” — a strong negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] plus the adjective a)dikoj. This says “not unjust.” This says, “the God is not unjust”; He is not unfair to pastors. If a pastor does his job of teaching the Word of God, then God is going to keep him there.

These pastors who have come out of Berachah; and they have been calling and complaining. Big smiley happy people, and some told Bob, “After what you have done, you are not going to last 6 months.” There are all kinds of people in a congregation, but if the pastor does his job, then God keeps him there.

“to forget” — the aorist middle infinitive of epilanthánomai (ἐπιλανθάνομαι) [pronounced ehp-ee-lan-THAN-ohm-ahee]. This is not the usual word for forgetting, it means to disregard and forget, to be thinking about something else and overlook something you should have remembered. Something was more important! The aorist tense is a gnomic aorist, because God is the subject. It is an absolute fact or a doctrine which must regarded as being axiomatic. “The God is not unjust to disregard”. God never has more important business than a pastor teaching. That is what this verb means. There is nothing more important in the Church Age than a pastor doing his job and God never disregards a pastor teaching the Word of God. The middle voice is a permissive middle, it represents the agent — God the Father in this case — as sovereignly yielding Himself to the results of the action of the verb to secure results in His own interest. The action of the verb is e never disregards the pastor teaching. So what we actually have here is an anthropopathism — ascribing to God a human characteristic which God really doesn’t have to show God’s special faithfulness to the pastor who teaches the Word of God.

A gal forgets your date or is late because something else comes up, just walk away. Something is more important than you. Let the skirt think about it.

“your work” — this is not the work of the believer priest, this is the work of the pastor-teacher. It is the objective genitive of ergon (ἔργον) [pronounced EHR-gon]. The word means occupation here, or accomplishment, and it refers to the bona fide occupation of the pastor-teacher which is studying and teaching the Word. The occupation or accomplishment of every pastor should be faithfully teaching the Word so that the believer priest arrives at supergrace and remains there, fulfilling practical function and victory under the royal priesthood.

“and” — this is an adjunctive use of kai, it indicates the pastor’s occupation with Christ is necessary to fulfill his teaching — “and labour”, but there is no word for “labour.” It should read “also the love”, not “and labour of love.” We have the objective genitive of agápē (ἀγάπη) [pronounced ag-AH-pay]. Agápē (ἀγάπη) [pronounced ag-AH-pay] means a relaxed mental attitude. Here it has to do with the relaxed mental attitude necessary for the pastor to keep going in spite of everything.

“which” — the genitive singular feminine of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç], and the feminine gender of hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] tells us that the antecedent is agápē (ἀγάπη) [pronounced ag-AH-pay] — “which love”, in other words.

“you have showed” — the aorist middle indicative of endeiknumi (ἐνδείκνυμι) [pronounced en-DIKE-noo-mee]. This is the love that the pastor demonstrates — “you yourselves have demonstrated”, according to the aorist middle indicative. We have to demonstrate as pastors our true love for the congregation and our true love is based upon teaching the Word to everyone. The aorist tense is the constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety — the supergrace life. It takes an occurrence — the supergrace life — and regardless of its extent or duration gathers it into a single whole. Whatever it is that God has for you in the way of supergrace blessings from eternity past the constative aorist gathers it up into one ball of wax. The middle voice is the indirect middle which lays stress on the agent, the pastor-teacher, as producing the action rather than participating in the result. So it is translated “you yourselves [pastors] have demonstrated”. It means to demonstrate. The indicative mood is the declarative used for a statement of fact. It represents the verbal idea from the standpoint of reality, it is the mood of certainty and therefore here it indicates unqualified assertion. It is absolutely a fact that the only way the pastor can show his love for the congregation is by teaching the Word.

“toward his name” — the pastor demonstrates love “toward his person” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of onoma (ὄνομα,ατος,τό) [pronounced OHN-oh-ma], which means personality, person, as well as name. Here it means “with reference to his person”.

1972 Hebrews 6:10b-11 Lesson #65

65 07/08/1973 Hebrews 6:10b-11 Doctrine of occupation with Christ

Bob spent more than 4 hours on one verse. He was watching tv and it was terrible, so he needed to work on teaching.

3 passages crossing. Hebrews 6; Bob was working on a verse in Rom. 4; and this is the same place where Gen. 17 crosses them. Abraham is sexually dead and he arrives at the supergrace life; and he had sexual prosperity. But, by that time, he was impotent and Sarah was in menopause. Gen. 17:5 quotes in Rom. 4 and implied in Hebrews 6.

Abraham was circumcised at age 100. He was once again able to have sex; and he was a great sexual athlete after that point. Bob has to do the exegesis in Romans and Genesis. Supergrace sex special or something like that for the next few weeks. X-rated for the next few weeks.

An amazing thing happened between Gen. 17 and 18. About Gen 23 etc., Abraham extends his prosperity. He will become the father of many nations. Abraham sired a lot of races as well. Abraham is semitic and so are the Arabs.

Abraham cohabiting with Egyptian resulted in an Arab race. They are sort of a catch-all. Abraham’s brother sired some Arab groups. Abraham will later sire many Arab groups. Abraham is the father of the people of the people of Israel; and the Moses the father of nation Israel.

The next doctrine of circumcision is going to be dramatically changed. All circumcision is related to supergrace prosperity in the realm of sex. A new race and a new nation. David will be the greatest king of that nation. All that David had was related to his kingship.

The key to Jeremiah since the 5^th cycle; old age prosperity and blessing. Abraham and Jeremiah both received their supergrace blessings in old age. Abraham staggered not at the promises of God; well, you are staggering. 5 men give you the whole history of Israel.

“in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister.”

Heb 6:10 For God is not unjust so as to overlook your work and the love that you have shown for his name in serving the saints, as you still do.

The explanatory use of the conjunctive gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] which began verse 10 changes the subject. Often gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] changes the subject. When you start with gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] and end with de, gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] de often changes the subject or the classification of the subject. And we have a gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] de situation where in verse 10 we are talking to pastors only.

Hebrews 6:10 “For the God is not unjust to disregard the ministry [disregard your accomplishment, your occupation] and also the love which you yourselves have demonstrated toward his name [his person].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This verse refers specifically to pastors.

The Doctrine of Occupation with Christ

1. Occupation with the person of Jesus Christ begins at the supergrace life — maximum category #1 love toward Christ. The basis for this occupation, therefore, is the intake of Bible doctrine through the function of GAP or the consistent and daily function of GAP — Jeremiah 9:24; Ephesians 3:18,19; 4:20.

2. With doctrine as the working object of faith the believer has maximum category #1 love response to God. This classes him to be designated “friend of God”, as in James 2:22,23. “Friend of God” is simply a title for a supergrace believer. And we know that it is different from the saved person. For example, the word “friend” is not agápē (ἀγάπη) [pronounced ag-AH-pay] but it is the genitive of philos, and philos is the maximum love type of word. The principle, then, in James 2:22,23: “Abraham became a supergrace believer.” But he didn’t become one over night. Abraham was probably saved at about 20 or 21, it was 80 years later before he reached supergrace. However, there were times when he was almost there and then reverted; he was up and down. Abraham was a very unstable person. He was one of those people who had to live a long time before he finally reached the supergrace life.

a. Circumcision is the key to Abraham.

b. The Law is the key to Moses.

3. Occupation with Christ is based upon the glorification of Jesus Christ — Colossians 3:1,2. In other words, when a believer reaches supergrace and is occupied with Christ this also glorifies Christ. Christ is glorified by the maximum love, the supergrace love, of the believer. When a believer reaches supergrace he has a special relationship with the Lord which other people can neither understand nor acquire, nor duplicate. It comes through the intake of Bible doctrine, and comes through the consistency, the self-discipline, the concentration of the royal priesthood related to the Word.

4. Occupation with Christ is the standard operating procedure for the Christian life — Hebrews 12:1,2, the bridge between the Old and the New Testaments. Hebrews 11 is Old Testament spirituality leading to Old Testament supergrace; Hebrews 12:3ff, the other side, deals with the Church Age spirituality, the Church Age reaching supergrace. So there is a bridge between the Old Testament and the New Testament, between the Age of Israel and the Church Age. This bridge is built by Hebrews 12:1,2 because it shows us occupation with the person of Christ as it exists in any dispensation.

5. Occupation with Christ is illustrated by the doctrine of right man-right woman — Ephesians 5:25–32; 1Corinthians 11:7.

6. The function of GAP is the believer responding to Christ’s love in phase two — James 1:21,2.

7. The sealing of the Holy Spirit guarantees an eternal love relationship between Jesus Christ and the believer — Ephesians 1:11–14.

8. Occupation with Christ includes total dependence upon supergrace provision — Psalm 37:4,5.

9. Occupation with Christ is related to both stability and inner happiness — Psalm 16:8,9.

10. Occupation with Christ is the basis for blessing in time of suffering. While reversionism intensifies suffering, occupation minimizes suffering — Psalm 77.

11. Occupation with Christ is based on the believer’s entrance into the supergrace life — Hebrews 3:1,6; Colossians 3:16,17.

Occupation in this passage is related to the pastor-teacher. He must be occupied with Christ long before the congregation; he must reach supergrace long before the congregation. He cannot lead to supergrace without getting there himself, and understanding the issue of how to get there and therefore pouring it on as never before when it comes to the teaching of Bible doctrine.

Bob’s next few weeks are going to be very busy. When you put sex together with the spiritual life and prosperity; and that is where it should be related.

A pastor demonstrates his love for his congregation by studying and teaching.

The verb which comes up also indicates that we are not talking to the royal priesthood in general but the royal priesthood’s pastor-teacher specifically — “ye have ministered”, the aorist active participle of the verb diakoneô (διακονέω) [pronounced dee-ak-on-EH-oh]. There are six different verbs which are used “to minister” in the Greek language. I call these the synonyms of service. Diakoneô (διακονέω) [pronounced dee-ak-on-EH-oh] will be listed in last place, it is used for the pastor-teacher teaching the Word and it is also used in the noun form, diakonia, for the deacon handling the administration of a local church. Both of them are specialized, there is no general usage on this one.

Bob was going to the gym and watch a muscle contest. On the day for the contest, Bob made a note to himself. Something came up in the exegesis; and he missed it.

Words for Minister

1. Dulouw, which connotes a slave. It means to work as a slave, to be a slave and to work as a slave. It is often used for the royal priesthood in general; we are the slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in that sense it is our privilege to serve Him at various times and in different ways.

2. Qerapeuw, to serve in a professional sense in medical practice. So it means to serve but to serve professionally, a service that not anyone can do.

3. Latreuô (λατρεύω) [pronounced lat-RYOO-oh], which means to work for wages, also a bona fide service.

4. leitourgeô (λειτουργέω) [pronounced li-toorg-EH-oh], to perform an official service for the state.

5. U(peretew, which means to serve in the sense of steering a ship. This was used for the quartermaster on the bridge, steering a ship, receiving his instructions and following them out. This again requires skill of some kind and is service in that sense.

6. Diakoneô (διακονέω) [pronounced dee-ak-on-EH-oh] is translated “to minister.” It meant originally to wait on tables. Then it meant to go into the kitchen and bring some food to the table. Then it meant to prepare the food in the kitchen and then bring it in — one person doing both things, a combination of cook and maid for service. It finally came to be used for pastors and deacons. It is used for pastors because it is analogous to the pastor studying, like working in the kitchen. Then after he has prepared it he brings it out to the congregation and serves it, and that is like teaching the Word of God. How is it used for the deacons? It is more or less the same idea. The deacon then comes and picks up the plates and takes them back to the kitchen and cleans them. In other words, the pastor has a teaching function and the deacons have an administrative function. There is only one pastor in the local church, there are also deacons, and woe to the pastor who doesn’t get men qualified by spiritual gift to be deacons.

So much for the verb. It’s morphology is an aorist active participle. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of preparing and teaching the Word in its entirety. In other words, every act of study and teach, study and teach, study and teach, is in the constative aorist. That is the life of a pastor-teacher. it should be translated “having ministered” — aorist participle. The active voice: the supergrace pastor produces the action of the verb. We have the action of them participle antecedent to the main verb, “you have demonstrated love toward God.” So before you demonstrate love toward God you do so by this constative aorist active participle.

“to the saints” should be “with reference to the saints”, this is a dative plural of reference, not a prepositional phrase. The noun in the dative plural is hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss] and refers to all believers. Notice that the royal priesthood are called here hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss] or saints. The word really means “set apart ones”.

“and do minister” is not correct. It is the present active participle, again, of diakoneô (διακονέω) [pronounced dee-ak-on-EH-oh]. We have just had an aorist participle, now we suddenly have a change to the present tense of diakoneô (διακονέω) [pronounced dee-ak-on-EH-oh]. What does it mean? The present tense is an iterative present which describes that which recurs at successive intervals. It is called the present tense of repeated action to indicate that repeatedly the pastor studies and teaches. The active voice: the pastor produces the action of the verb by teaching the Word of God. But it is the participle that is different, this is a circumstantial participle and should be translated “and under the circumstances continues to minister.” It is easy to reach once or twice, it is difficult to keep it up, to keep it up, to keep it up, and keep going. And the point that he is making is that the pastor has to stay in there, keep teaching, keep teaching, and so we have a circumstantial participle translated “and under the circumstances continue to minister.” “Continue to minister” comes from the present tense and “under the circumstances” is the translation from the circumstantial participle.

Hebrews 6:10 “For the Lord is not unjust to disregard your occupation [pastors], also the love which you yourselves [pastors] have demonstrated with reference to his person, having ministered the word with reference to the saints, and [under the circumstances] continuing to minister [the Word].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Translation reviewed to v. 10.

Heb 6:11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end,

Verse 11 — the exhortation to reversion recovery. The desire of every pastor is that all the members of his congregation will be utterly and completely and totally devoted to doctrine. It begins the conjunctive particle de which now brings us back to the royal priesthood again and them pastor’s desire for the royal priesthood.

“we” refers to the pastor — not just the writer who is a pastor-teacher but the pastors who are residing in Jerusalem, this is their desire too, or it is the desire they should possess.

“we desire”, the present active indicative from epithumeô (ἐπιθυμέω) [pronounced ehp-ee-thoo-MEH-oh]. This means a very deep, earnest desire. It has a cognate in the noun, epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE]qumia which refers to the lust pattern of the old sin nature. This tells us something. These are entirely different words but it tells us that this is the grand passion of any pastor, that his congregation have an earnest and deep desire, that they deeply long for Bible doctrine. It is his most earnest desire for his congregation. The present tense of epithumeô (ἐπιθυμέω) [pronounced ehp-ee-thoo-MEH-oh] is a customary present which denotes what habitually occurs. it expresses the attitude of a good pastor toward his flock. The active voice: the pastor produces the action of the verb. We have a declarative indicative mood denoting an unqualified assertion. Any pastor who is occupied with Christ will have this desire for his congregation.

Now we go back to the priesthood in general: “every one”, the masculine accusative singular of hekastos (ἕκαστος) [pronounced HEHK-as-toss]. The word is much more personal than “every one”, it is “each one individually” in the singular, not the plural. It is the accusative case and the object of the verb. The present active indicative of epithumeô (ἐπιθυμέω) [pronounced ehp-ee-thoo-MEH-oh] takes an accusative as the direct object. But this is more than just a direct object, this is a part of the accusative of general reference. The accusative is used with the infinitive, not really as the subject but used to describe the person involved in the action of the infinitive. So it comes to be the subject of the infinitive and at the same time the object of the verb. “And [de to show that the parenthesis is over and we are back to the general priesthood] we pastors earnestly, deeply, with great passion, desire each one individually.” The desire has an object but the object is not just the accusative of direct object, it is also the accusative of general reference. And here is one of those beautiful structures that only the Alexandrian school could come up with where you have a transitive verb and the accusative is the direct object and, at the same time, it is as it were the subject of the infinitive. It doubles for both. “Each one individually” refers to you personally as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

“do show” — the aorist middle infinitive of endeiknumi (ἐνδείκνυμι) [pronounced en-DIKE-noo-mee]. We have just had it for the pastor demonstrating his love to the Lord. Now here is another demonstration, it means again to demonstrate. This time it is in the aorist infinitive. The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist, used with verbs which signify a state or a condition and denote an entrance into a state or condition. In other words, the pastor longing for you to GAP it to supergrace. He wants you to have a mad passion for doctrine and for you to come right on through to supergrace. That is exactly what the ingressive means. The middle voice is an indirect middle, it lays stress on the agent who is the recovering believer as producing the action rather than in participating in the results of the action. A direct middle always has the subject with the agent participating in the action of the verb, but this is different, it stresses the agent, a recovering believer, as producing the action — or beginning to. The infinitive, therefore, denotes purpose. So here is the point where the writer finds the congregation to whom he addressed the epistle to the Hebrews. The congregation in Jerusalem are sitting under the ingressive aorist and his mad desire, his passionate desire for them, is that they will begin to get with doctrine and come right on through, GAPing it daily to the supergrace life where he is. This is translated, then: “to each one individually to demonstrate.”

“the same diligence” — an accusative singular from spoudê (σπουδή) [pronounced spoo-DAY], a difficult word to translate because there is no true English equivalent. Actually, it means more than anything else devotion to duty, also a total and complete devotion to someone or something. It is used for absolute devotion to a cause; it is used for devotion to a person in love. It means concentration on one thing to the exclusion of the superficialities of life. That is exactly what is means and somehow we do not have an exact English equivalent, apart from the word “devotion.” And it should be translated, “the same devotion.” This is devotion to doctrine. In other words, it is the writer’s desire that the readers show the same devotion to doctrine that he has shown and does show in his teaching. He has personally studied and taught and he has moved all the way to supergrace. Now he is dealing with reversionists and he wants them to begin and to keep on coming. He wants them to have devotion to doctrine, that’s all they need. it is your devotion to the written Word that causes God to provide you with a right pastor-teacher to communicate it to you so you can get to supergrace. That is where the right pastor-teacher is and that is his desire for you, that you too will get to that same spot. The communicator must be devoted to doctrine before the recipient can be devoted to doctrine. That is why in verse 10 endeiknumi (ἐνδείκνυμι) [pronounced en-DIKE-noo-mee] was used of the pastor. He demonstrates his love for Jesus Christ by taking in doctrine and by ministering doctrine. It is the written Word that becomes the issue after the cross.

“to the full assurance” — we have pros plus the accusative of plêrophoria (πληροφορία) [pronounced play-tohf-ohr-EE-ah]. Pros plus the accusative means several things. It often means “face to face with”, it also means “toward” or “to” or “beside”. Here it means “toward”, it is directional — “toward the full assurance.” Plêrophoria (πληροφορία) [pronounced play-tohf-ohr-EE-ah] means not just assurance but it means complete confidence.

Bob loves Christ; he teaches; we love Christ, we listen.

“We continually desire each one of you individually to demonstrate the same devotion to doctrine toward full confidence.” Your direction is to come face to face with complete confidence. If you keep going you will come face to face with supergrace. Supergrace is described by “full confidence” or plêrophoria (πληροφορία) [pronounced play-tohf-ohr-EE-ah]. In other words, the normal Christian life begins with supergrace. Full confidence begins with supergrace.

Next is “of hope.” This is a descriptive genitive singular of elpís (ἐλπις) [pronounced el-PIS], and elpís (ἐλπις) [pronounced el-PIS] means confidence or prospect. The prospect or confidence of taking in doctrine consistently is supergrace status, the tactical objective of every believer priest in phase two and the tactical victory of the angelic conflict.

“until the end” — the adverb achri/achris (ἄχρι/ἄχρις) [pronounced AHKH-ree/AHKH-rece] is used as an improper preposition. When an adverb is used as a preposition it is called an “improper preposition.” It should be translated “until the end” — achri/achris (ἄχρι/ἄχρις) [pronounced AHKH-ree/AHKH-rece] plus telos (τέλος) [pronounced TEHL-oss] means the end of your life on earth, the end of phase two.

Hebrews 6:11 “And we [pastors] continually desire each one of you believers individually to demonstrate the same devotion [to doctrine], moving face to face toward the full assurance of the confidence [supergrace status] until the end [of your life]”. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

We do not have a definite article before telos (τέλος) [pronounced TEHL-oss]. The reason is because the quality of the noun is emphasized. In other words, if you are moving toward doctrine in time take away the definite article because you are going to die the most beautiful way in all the world. You are going to die under dying grace. If you had the definite article with telos (τέλος) [pronounced TEHL-oss] it wouldn’t mean much, but the absence of the definite article calls attention to the high quality of the noun. The high quality of the noun is the glorious privilege of dying grace. The concept goes back to verse 3 where the departure of the believer is always a matter of the sovereignty of God. We will receive as long as God gives us permission. So verse 3 is now explained. This says in verse 11, “until the termination of life on earth”, God’s permission. The last phrase, telos (τέλος) [pronounced TEHL-oss] minus the definite article actually describes God’s permission. God’s permission is for you to move into, live in, enjoy, and have all the blessings of supergrace as long as you live, and then to depart from this earth under dying grace under the most beautiful and comfortable and delightful of circumstances, where even the dying has as much happiness as the living. In this way we derive maximum benefit from life while glorifying God as a royal priest. A royal priest should go out in a royal way!

1972 Hebrews 6:12–14a Lesson #66

66 07/09/1973 Hebrews 6:12–14a 1st of 2 immutable things

Heb 6:12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

Verse 12 — “That”, the conjunction hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] plus the negative mê used to introduce a negative purpose clause with the subjunctive of the verb — “That you be not”, the aorist middle subjunctive of the verb ginomai which means to become. The word “lest” is the best way to translate a negative purpose clause: “lest you become.” The aorist tense of the verb become is a constative aorist, contemplating the action in its entirety. It takes an occurrence and regardless of the extent or duration of that occurrence gathers it into a single whole. With the predicate nominative coming up, nôthros (νωθρός) [pronounced noh-THROSS], it gathers up into one ball of wax what we should never, never do — neglect doctrine for even a day. Nôthros (νωθρός) [pronounced noh-THROSS] is a predicate nominative with ginomai, Ginomai is a verb to be or become and therefore takes not an accusative but a nominative. It means negative volition toward doctrine. With the negative it demands that the royal priest spends time every day taking in the Word of God. The middle voice is the permissive middle. The permissive middle plus the negative represents the agent, the believer priest, as not voluntarily yielding himself to the results of the action of the verb, and not doing so to his own interests. So his failure to take in doctrine shows a lack of interest in his own purpose in being here. The negative mê with the subjunctive is prohibitive, so we have the subjunctive of prohibition. The word “slothful” is the word nôthros (νωθρός) [pronounced noh-THROSS], and again it is in the predicate nominative and is in the plural. We saw this noun in Hebrews 5:11 where it indicated apathy or indifference toward Bible doctrine. As in Hebrews 5:11 so in Hebrews 6:12 it means apathy, indifference, negative volition toward doctrine. So far then we have, “Lest you become apathetic [indifferent, negative, toward doctrine].” This is the one thing that no believer can afford to do.

The basic way in which this apathy develops is through reactors in the life. Reactors are not necessarily sinful but they form the basis of getting into something that is sinful. Disillusion, boredom, discouragement, etc. are not sin but they make you vulnerable for a frantic search for happiness. Self-pity is a sin, a mental attitude sin very definitely. Loneliness is not a sin but it can produce a whole batch of sins when one reacts to it. There are the mental attitude sins like jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, antagonism, also double as reactor factors. Frustration is not a sin but as a reactor factor it can lead to sin. So some of these reactors are actually sins and some are not, but when one reacts to any of these situations he comes to the frantic search for happiness, and the frantic search for happiness perpetuates carnality into the life on a very extensive basis. The frantic search for happiness also leads to emotional revolt. Once the emotion revolts it intensifies whatever reactor factors are involved. This combination always results in neglecting, becoming indifferent or apathetic toward Bible doctrine. It is the negative volition toward doctrine that starts all the trouble as far as Satan getting into the picture. A vacuum is opened up by negative volition that goes directly to the right lobe. The right lobe has already been attacked by the emotion under emotional revolt. Emotional revolt freezes the valves in the frame of reference, in the memory centre, the vocabulary, the categories, the norms and standards and the launching pad. When these valves freeze that forces all of the doctrine back into the left lobe where it is not useable. It can still be understood objectively but it is not useable until it is again transferred. Through the vacuum, which is called mataiotês (ματαιότης) [pronounced mat-ah-YOHT-ace] in the Greek, comes the doctrine of demons which puts the believer under demon influence. The believer cannot be demon possessed but demon influence brings the doctrines of Satan into the right lobe and they replace the places where Bible doctrine existed previously, so that the norms and standards are changed. The vocabulary changes, you get a lot of silly things like loving everyone, and so on, and you get all kinds of applications that are erroneous. As a result of these things there is a total blackout of the soul which is called two different things in the scripture — blackout (darkness) and hardness of heart. This leads to the practice of reverse process reversionism.

Once you get to negative volition toward doctrine then you lose the indwelling of Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ is on the outside knocking. The indwelling of Christ can be lost at frantic search for happiness or the point of emotional revolt, or very shortly after getting into the negative volition factor. You cannot neglect doctrine and get away with it, that is the principle.

Then we have a conjunctive particle de used to emphasize a contrast. — “but.” And here is what we should be doing in contrast to what we shouldn’t be doing as royal priests — “followers”, the nominative plural of mimêtês (μιμητής)[pronounced mihm-ay-TACE] means “imitators”. And we are now going to have an illustration of what we should imitate: Abraham reaching supergrace.

“of them” — the genitive masculine plural of the definite article is a reference to supergrace believers, Old Testament types primarily. At the time of the writing of Hebrews the Old Testament canon was completed and had been circulated for quite a few hundred years. So this category, because of devotion to doctrine, has achieved the tactical victory and believers are commanded to imitate them or to follow them.

In the selection here God the Holy Spirit could have selected a number of different keys. He selected Abraham for a lot of reasons. Abraham is the pattern of Old Testament salvation as well as Old Testament spirituality. Abraham is also extremely well documented in the New Testament. Abraham is discussed in the whole fourth chapter of Romans, both his salvation and his spirituality. He is also discussed in the second chapter of James. He is the subject of Hebrews chapter six and has quite a few sentences in chapter eleven, as well as having everything to do with Genesis chapters twelve and all the way through chapter twenty-five. So Abraham is obviously the perfect illustration to use at this point. In selecting him God the Holy Spirit opens up the whole perspective of supergrace blessing. From the point of salvation on if a believer remains positive it is possible in a relatively short period of time to reach the supergrace status. The supergrace status is first of all characterized by occupation with the person of Christ, then supergrace capacity — the cup in the soul based on doctrine, and then the; pouring of supergrace blessings. Every Old Testament hero who reached supergrace had a specific and a particular type of key to his whole supergrace blessing life. Supergrace blessings always include wealth. Wealth differs. For example, Abraham was a millionaire but his wealth was counted in sheep and goats and cattle, and so on. Then we have the principle of prosperity, and prosperity has many aspects — materialistic prosperity, possession of things at different types, social prosperity, and sexual prosperity which is the key to Abraham. Then in some cases it is a matter of promotion, like in David’s case. But these are basically the characteristics of supergrace blessings. There is also another one that is brought into the picture for all of them at some time: pressure. These men are all great in supergrace under pressure. The key to Abraham is sexual prosperity. Abraham also is the farther of a new race. Sexual prosperity is brought out in the Abrahamic covenant as it appears first in Genesis 12:1–3, and especially in Genesis 12:2 where it says “In multiplying I will multiply.” This demands sexual prosperity which has two parts: the procreation and the perpetuation of the family, the race, into a nation. Abraham is the father of a new race, he is also the father of many Gentile nations — ethnos (ἔθνος,ους,τό) [pronounced EHTH-noss] means Gentiles, it is never used of the Jews. Abraham is the father of the new race whereas Moses is the father of the new nation. Before Moses there was no nation. With Abraham the key is sexual prosperity; with Moses the key is leadership. Then the nation finally had a good king in David, and the key to David’s supergrace is his leadership again, or his kingship. Then when we get to Jeremiah the nation is going out under the fifth cycle of discipline, and does, and old age blessing is the key to Jeremiah. All the way through the big thing has always been that Israel were the custodians of the Word of God. Therefore Paul supergrace blessing is doctrine. There never was a man of doctrine like Paul and there never will be again. These men are all Jews, all related to Israel, and all had different keys to the supergrace blessings.

“through faith” — the preposition dia plus the genitive of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. And we are going to have a problem with the noun pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. The problem is that pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] does mean faith, but pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] also means what is believed or doctrine. So pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] can be faith in action or it can mean doctrine. Or really what is comes to mean is you keep believing what you hear and you transfer it to your human spirit and to your right lobe, and so faith is the key to doctrine. Without faith the concentration on the teaching of the Word becomes useless because it is faith and faith-rest that transfers it. So faith connotes both faith-rest as a technique, the function of GAP and what is believed, and/or doctrine.

“and patience” — makrothumia (μακροθυμία) [pronounced mak-roth-oo-MEE-ah]. “Patience” is not too good a translation, it means more endurance or consistency, or stability in consistency. You have to be consistent in the intake of the Word of God, you can’t get around that. This is where most people miss. They are consistent for awhile and they phase out.

Young women who came to Berachah for doctrine, they find some guy in Berachah barracks and decide he is their RM...mixed up. They always talk a great talk. They talk about how much they like getting doctrine face to face. Next thing you know, they are face to face fornicating with someone. You have to wait awhile; do not put the cart before the horse.

“inherit” — the present active participle of klêronomeô (κληρονομέω) [pronounced klay-ron-om-EH-oh] which means to acquire possession of something, to possess something you don’t possess before. The present tense is an aoristic present, it is used for punctiliar action in the present time. Remember that the aorist tense always connotes punctiliar action in past time. So there is an aoristic present which expresses the idea of a present fact, supergrace blessings, acquired without reference to progress. All of a sudden we are there. The active voice: the supergrace believer acquires possession of supergrace blessings, and this is accomplished by consistency, faithfulness, steadfastness, persistence in the function of GAP. That is what counts. The participle is a telic participle, used to express God’s purpose in preserving doctrine. God is preserving doctrine so that you and I can move to supergrace, so that every generation of believers will have something on which to move to supergrace. Reaching the objective of the supergrace life with its occupation with Christ, with its supergrace capacities and with its supergrace blessings, is the purpose and is the objective. Therefore God preserves doctrine for that reason.

“the promises” — the accusative plural of epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah], used here for divine promises, pledges, anything related to supergrace — all the doctrines that lead to it, all the principles, all the promises. Not only did Abraham have doctrine and promises and messages from God by which he could move toward supergrace but God even told him ahead of time what type of emphasis, what type of prosperity, he would have in supergrace. The word here is “promises” in the plural and it indicates variation of promises to supergrace believers. There is always a key emphasis but there are many supergrace blessings. Supergrace promised blessings to Abraham related, for example, to having a son from his own loins. You and I have many wonderful supergrace blessings for us with our name on it but God hasn’t given us an engraved promise as He did Abraham, yet ours are just as definite as his. But with Abraham it was so clear: “You Abraham are going to be the father of a new race. From your own loins will come a son who will be a new race.” Supergrace promised blessings to David related to his kingdom, therefore he became a king. Supergrace promises to believers of this dispensation are compatible with the blessing categories of the time in which we live.

Types of priesthoods reviewed.

Summary

1. The illustration of this principle is taken from Abraham who was in a different dispensation and in a different priestly battalion.

2. Abraham was a family priest not of the royal priesthood of the Church Age. Yet God had great blessings for him. But because we are of the royal priesthood our supergrace blessings are even greater. So while we do not know the key to our supergrace blessings we know that being in the royal priesthood in the Church Age makes them greater blessings.

3. Nevertheless the promises of supergrace blessings applied as much to Abraham as to us. The principle of supergrace belongs to all of us.

4. Note that Abraham is used as the pattern of Old Testament salvation — Romans 4:1–16, 22–25.

5. Abraham is also used as the pattern of Old Testament supergrace heroes as well as Old Testament spirituality. In Romans 4:17–21 we have supergrace. In Hebrews 6:13–15 we have supergrace, as in Hebrews 11:8–19; James 2:21–23. So a character study of Abraham reveals all of the advances and all of the retreats of phase two.

Hebrews 6:12 “Lest you become apathetic [toward doctrine], but instead become imitators of them [supergrace heroes], the ones who through faith and persistence [in GAPing it] acquired possession of the promises [supergrace blessings].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

(No review of the translation here)

The Certainty of God's Promise

Heb 6:13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself,

Now we have come to our illustration of persisting to supergrace, the illustration of staying with it until you get there. Abraham is the pattern of persistence ending in supergrace blessing — verses 13–15. Out of this illustration will come the doctrine of the two immutable things. Verse 13 is the first of two immutable things: the oath of God which is based upon who and what He is, His person; verse 14, the second of the two immutable things, is the promise to Abraham, the supergrace blessing promise. And verse 15 is how Abraham finally arrived at the point of supergrace. In other words, verse 15 is the actual illustration. We will first of all study the two immutable things as they relate to Abraham. Then the rest of Hebrews six will go on and deal with the two immutable things as they relate to the royal priesthood. We are believers in the Church Age; our high priest is a King priest, He is in the same battalion as Melchizedek.

Verse 13 — we start with gar, the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle. We are starting a new subject with gar. Every time you have gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] it means a new subject. So we have the principle of the first immutable thing. Persistence in learning doctrine is the key to reaching our tactical objective of supergrace status in the royal priesthood. The objective is the supergrace life. “For” begins the illustration of Abraham. The word “when” is not found in the original, it is used by the translator to interpret the participle coming up as a temporal participle.

“God” — ho Theos, “the God.” The first person of the Trinity is the one who handles supergrace blessings. God the Father is the author of the divine decrees and all supergrace blessings are related to the divine decrees. Your supergrace blessings were provided for you in eternity past. God has your name of specific supergrace blessings, things that are so wonderful, so fantastic that you wouldn’t want to miss them. Your birthright as a royal priest is supergrace. So don’t be like Esau and sell your birthright for a mess of pottage or a mess of frantic search for happiness. It isn’t worth it. You have before you an inheritance, a birthright, an inheritance in time which when you receive it God is glorified in giving it to you and you are blessed in receiving it.

“made promise” — aorist middle participle of epaggellô (ἐπαγγέλλω) [pronounced ehp-ang-EHL-low]. It should be translated “having promised.” The active voice was used in Homer with this particular verb but in the New Testament the active voice is not used in the participial form, it is always the middle voice in the Koine Greek. The aorist tense is a gnomic aorist, used as a generally accepted fact or doctrine which is regarded as so fixed in its certainty as to be axiomatic. Therefore we are describing something that is an absolute, as though it was an actual occurrence at this moment. The middle voice is used for the subject participating in the results of the action of the verb. God participates in having promised us something. He actually participates in the results. However, this is an indirect middle in which the agent [God the Father] is emphasized as producing the action rather than participating in its results. Therefore you have to translate it in a reflexive way — “the God himself having promised.” The participle being an aorist participle has antecedent action to the main verb, the main verb doesn’t come up until verse 15 where he obtains the supergrace blessings. This is also, by the way, a temporal participle which is why the translator put the “when” in.

“to Abraham” — the dative singular of the indirect object. It indicates the one in whose interest the promise is made by God. It is for Abraham’s blessing that God gave him all of these promises relating to his supergrace experience and blessing. The same thing is true with us. By application, being in the royal priesthood we are much higher than Abraham. Our priesthood is a higher priesthood than Abraham’s priesthood. Abraham’s priesthood was a family priesthood, the lowest of all. Remember that when Melchizedek, a bona fide person, a royal priest, came into contact with Abraham it was Melchizedek who ministered to Abraham, not vice versa. This indicates once again that the priesthood of which we are a part, the royal priesthood, is a superior priesthood in every way to Abraham’s. Yet God blessed Abraham to the maximum. Therefore we have the right to ask ourselves a question” How does this participle apply to us? The answer: In a much greater way. The blessings that are stored up and reserved for us are infinitely superior to the blessings to Abraham. This does not means that they exclude Abraham’s blessing, they include it. But we have something that is greater in supergrace than any priesthood that has ever existed. When Abraham reached supergrace God poured but the road to supergrace was filled with a lot of setbacks and failures. Nevertheless, Abraham did do one thing well. He persisted. He is, therefore, the illustration of persistence. In spite of many setbacks, in spite of side-trips into reversionism, he stuck with the principle and stayed with it until he made it.

“because” — the conjunction epeí (ἐπεί) [pronounced ehp-IH] is used in a causal sense here; “he had” — imperfect active indicative of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh]. This is what is called the customary imperfect, it denotes that which occurs at regular intervals in past time. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood: this is a declarative indicative used for unqualified assertion. It represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

“no one” — katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the genitive of oudeís (οὐδείς) [pronounced oo-DICE],. It should be translated “by no one”; “greater” is a genitive masculine singular, a comparative from megas (μέγας, μεγάλη, μέγα) [pronounced MEH-gas]. This is a genitive of description. There is no one in the universe greater than God, therefore He could not promise in the name of another, there is no one higher. This is our first introduction to the doctrine of two immutable things and the first of these is God swearing by Himself because there is no higher person in the universe — “because he had no one greater by whom to swear”, the aorist active infinitive of omnuô (ὀμνύω) [pronounced om-NOO-oh]. It means to take a solemn oath, to confirm a promise by an oath. The constative aorist contemplates the action of taking an oath in its entirety. The occurrence of confirming the promise with an oath is gathered up into a single ball of wax. That is the constative aorist. God could find no one greater than He is because there is no one greater, so He takes an oath “by himself”, on the basis of His own person He is emphasizing that He in His essence is well qualified to make the promise and to keep the promise, no matter how great the problem. It was this thing that Abraham remembered above everything else. God took an oath in His own name that He would fulfill this, and for that reason Abraham at age 99 and sexually dead was not shook.

Circumcision means that God’s oath is greater than anything else in the world. Abraham was circumcised at age 99. Abraham probably had sex for every day for the next 20 years; an important incentive to stay in supergrace.

And Abraham continued in faith and was willing to offer up his own son. Abraham had 9 other children by Keturah. “You see, I’ve got this whole thing figured out.” The worst thing to happen to youth is to be young. Why? They are all too stupid about these things. It is the waiting that counts. It is the persistence. Do not sell your birthright for a mess of pottage. Esau was covered with hair, but that was not important. Esau and Isaac were very different looking; but it was what was in their souls that was important.

“He sware by Himself” — aorist active indicative of omnuô (ὀμνύω) [pronounced om-NOO-oh] again which means to take an oath. He took an oath in the name of His Own Person. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the occurrence of taking an oath in its entirety but regards it from the standpoint of its results. The result, of course, was Abraham’s blessing in supergrace. The active voice: God produced the action of the verb, He took the oath. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative which represents the verbal idea from the standpoint of its reality. It is the mood of unqualified assertion, the mood of certainty, and it is an unqualified fact that God took an oath on the basis of His own essence in making the promise to Abraham. “By Himself” is the preposition katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the genitive of the reflexive pronoun heautou (ἑαυto) [pronounced heh-ow-TOO], and it means “by Himself”, “on the basis of his own person.”

Hebrews 6:13 “For the God when He Himself had promised to Abraham, because He had no one greater by whom to take an oath, he took an oath on the basis of His Own Person.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. Here are two immutable things — the oath of God and the promise. The oath is related to His person and the promise is the content, the message or decrees.

2. The solemn oath emphasizes who and what God is. He is the greatest of all, there is no one greater, He took an oath by Himself.

3. There was no one greater by whom God could take the oath, so He had to take the oath in the name of His own person.

4. With that oath He gave a specific promise to Abraham. The promise has to do with Abraham’s supergrace sexual prosperity.

5. This whole thing has an analogy to the function of the pastor-teacher in our dispensation. The pastor-teacher is divided into two parts, the person and the message. God in effect has put two things into the pastor-teacher: a spiritual gift which becomes the basis for the pastor’s authority (Hebrews 13:7,17); a message, and that is like the promise, the second of the two immutable things. The message is the basis of supergrace blessing to those who respond, who are positive, to the authority of the pastor and therefore concentrate on the message that he gives.

Heb 6:14 saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you."

Verse 14 — gives us the promise itself. We begin with the word “Saying” which is a present active participle of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. The present tense is a static present used for that which may be taken for granted as a fact. The active voice: God the Father made the promise, as quoted in Genesis 22:16,17. The participle is a temporal participle and should be translated “When he was saying”, to put it together with the previous verse. In other words, “when He made the promise”.

Now comes the quotation from Genesis 22:16,17 — “Surely.” We have two particles ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] mê (μή) [pronounced may], and it is an idiom in the Greek used as a formula. It means “assuredly” or “definitely.” In other words, this is an oath formula: definitely in my own name I am doing this. “Definitely” is “I am God” — here is the actual oath. Ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] mê (μή) [pronounced may], then, is used as the formula to show the oath of the previous verse was actually taken, and before God gave a promise he said, “Just as assuredly as I am God I promise that blessing, you will be blessed” , and so on. In other words, ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] mê (μή) [pronounced may] is the place where you insert the oath. We have in the English translation “Surely”, but it should be translated “definitely” or “assuredly.”

1972 Hebrews 6:14–17 Lesson #67

67 07/10/1973 Hebrews 6:14–17 Doctrine of categorical grace

First 13 verses reviewed.

Heb 6:14 saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you."

In verse 14 we have the present active participle of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. This is the static present tense, used for that which may be taken for granted as a fact. When God takes an oath and then makes a promise the promise is equivalent to the decree. While God promised Abraham in time He decreed it in eternity past. The active voice: God the Father made the promise, or decreed. And we have the quotation of the promise of Genesis 22:16,17. The participle here is a temporal participle and should be translated “when he was saying [to Abraham]”. Then comes the quotation from Genesis 22:16,17. God first of all took an oath in the name of Himself when he was making this promise to Abraham. A promise is merely a repetition of the decree in eternity past. So the two immutable things can be described this way: The first of the immutable things is the oath God took an oath in the name of Himself and that emphasizes the person of God. Secondly we have the decree — what God said in eternity past — and in time a decree is a promise. The promise began in Genesis 12:2, that Abraham would have sexual prosperity. It was reiterated in Genesis 15:5, then in 17:5, 22:17. It is also quoted in numerous passages like Romans 4 and Hebrews 6. The promise is secure to Abraham because it is based on two immutable things: the person of God [the oath]; the decree of God [the promise].

The word “surely” is one that is so pitifully translated in the KJV because it is a highly specialized idiom made up of two particles — ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] mê (μή) [pronounced may]. These particles are not really translatable, they merely indicate this is where you put in God’s oath. God took an oath in the name of Himself and ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] mê (μή) [pronounced may] is an idiom to indicate the insertion of an oath. “Just as definitely or just as surely as I am God” — that is the oath which is brought in by the two particles. The two particles are called, therefore, the idiom of oath formula, for an actual promise is being quoted.

“blessing” is a present active participle from eulogeô (εὐλογέω) [pronounced you-lohg-EH-oh] which means to bless or provide benefit. The present tense is tendential which is used of an action which is purposed. The action which is purposed here is supergrace blessing though it has not yet taken place. Abraham was given this promise repeatedly before it actually occurred. The action is purposed but hasn’t been fulfilled. Though it hasn’t taken place it represents what God intends for Abraham under supergrace status — sexual prosperity and a new race, sexual prosperity and the father of many nations. The active voice: God intended to produce the action of the verb for Abraham when he reached supergrace, which he did at age 99. The participle is a telic participle used to denote a future purpose. So it should be translated, “Just as definitely [or assuredly] as I am God, intended blessing I will bless” — the future active indicative of eulogeô (εὐλογέω) [pronounced you-lohg-EH-oh]. The future tense with the solemn oath formula, ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] mê (μή) [pronounced may], becomes a gnomic future. A gnomic future presents a statement of fact as a promise which must be considered as axiomatic. In other words, God would keep Abraham alive until he did reach supergrace even if Abraham had to be a thousand years old. But, of course, in the whole structure of the decree the omniscience of God knew billions and billions of years ago that it would take Abraham 99 years to get into supergrace so He could pour. The telic participle plus the gnomic future is a translation and refinement upon the quotation of Genesis 22. So the oath formula in the gnomic presents a statement of absolute fact, and it is used for stating something so dogmatic as to be anticipated in the future without equivocation. So we know something now about the imperfect tense in the Hebrew which is being translated here, that when God said this it was a dogmatic promise. Therefore, while it was only going to be fulfilled in supergrace God knew that Abraham would reach supergrace.

Abraham is the father of the new race; or many nations; and the father of us all (reference to us as believers).

God knew that it would take God 99 years to reach supergrace. Everything that God decreed is based upon His foreknowledge. Sarai is 90 and her name means bitch. Suppose God made a sex-athlete out of you 10 min. after you are saved...where would you be today?

“blessing I will bless” — the active voice of the future active indicative: God produces the action of the promised supergrace blessings — sexual prosperity the key. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative which presents an unqualified assertion. The verbal idea is represented from the viewpoint of reality and certainty. God promised Abraham supergrace sexual prosperity, plus from that prosperity the formation of a new race and becoming the father of many nations. Many Arab nations go right back to Abraham, and he is their original ancestor. The Jewish race goes back to Abraham. Abraham was a Gentile and he did not become a Jew until 99 years of age. Now he was a Hebrew because he crossed over a river (“Hebrew” means to cross over a river) but he did become a Jew at the time he was circumcised. So he lived 99 years without being a Jew. Literally now we have, “when he was saying.” That goes with the previous verse. When he was saying what? Well, after He had taken the oath, that is when He started doing the saying. “When he was saying, Just as certainly as I am God, intended blessing I will bless you.” This is a reference to the supergrace status, the supergrace blessings, which came to Abraham.

Bob could speak of Sarai as Xantippe; but he would know the reference and we would not. The descriptor bitch communicates in 20^th century America.

4 categories and 4 statements of involvement:

Categories of Grace

1. Salvation grace (Phase one grace), which is all the Trinity has accomplished to save man. It involves the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. On the involvement side: non-meritorious volition expressed by faith in Jesus Christ or the living Word.

2. Living grace (Phase two grace), everything the Trinity must do to keep us alive in the devil’s world. We are in enemy territory, therefore we have to be kept alive. This includes dying grace as well. The involvement side: no volition is involved since keeping us alive in enemy territory is a matter of the sovereignty of God. The only exception to that is when some idiot in reversionism commits suicide. They superimposed their own volition over the sovereignty of God which is a type of reversionism that leads to sudden sin unto death — they administer it themselves.

a. They can be truly saved.

3. Supergrace — James 4:6. “More grace” is a mistranslation. The comparative of megas (μέγας, μεγάλη, μέγα) [pronounced MEH-gas] should be translated “greater grace.” “Greater grace” is supergrace. This is maximum growth resulting in occupation with Christ, resulting in occupation with Christ through doctrine and supergrace blessings. This is the tactical victory of the angelic conflict in contrast to category #1 grace which is the strategical victory of the angelic conflict. On the involvement side: non-meritorious volition of the believer expressed by the daily function of GAP. It involves a positive attitude toward the written Word.

4. Surpassing grace. “Surpassing grace” is the corrected translation of Ephesians 2:7 where we have the phrase “exceeding riches of grace”. This is all that God will do for us in phase three. On the involvement side there is no volition involved since the angelic conflict has terminated for the one involved.

Summary

1. This part of the promise refers to a specific supergrace blessing for Abraham, a supergrace blessing which Abraham could not have until he reached supergrace status.

2. The supergrace blessing is sexual prosperity, it results in the birth of Isaac and in many other things. Abraham’s supergrace status included wealth and prosperity, success, promotion, but the key again is his sexual prosperity.

3. The sexual prosperity came to him at approximately 100 years of age.

4. The age which is given in Genesis 17:1 obviously indicates that Abraham persisted. He had many setbacks but he did persist. He kept on GAPing it until he got there.

5. Abraham’s sexual prosperity is described in Romans 4:17–21.

6. Abraham’s supergrace production is epitomised in James 2:21–23, some 20 or 21 years after the birth of Isaac and 22 years after he reached supergrace.

7. There are other aspects to Abraham’s supergrace promise. Abraham has a land and a city. They are really not a part of supergrace, they are a part of category #4, surpassing grace. Abraham will enjoy a land forever and he will have a city belonging to him forever. Jerusalem will be his city in eternity. These come under surpassing grace and they’re covered in Hebrews 11:8–19.

Now we have a second participle plus the verb. We have the word “multiplying”, the present active participle of plêthunô (πληθύνω) [pronounced play-THOO-noh]. Eulogeô (εὐλογέω) [pronounced you-lohg-EH-oh] means God pouring for Abraham great sexual prosperity; plêthunô (πληθύνω) [pronounced play-THOO-noh] is the result of this sexual prosperity. The sexual prosperity is the supergrace blessing, there are many results from it. So we now start another study here in the promise, the second half of the promise, “multiplying”. This is the present active participle of the verb plêthunô (πληθύνω) [pronounced play-THOO-noh]. Plêthunô (πληθύνω) [pronounced play-THOO-noh] means the progeny. First of all the new race progeny, Isaac and Jacob. This is where a new race began. The new nations, of course, are Arab nations. Again the present tense is tendential. A tendential present is used of an action which is purpose.

The evolvement of the new race and the many Arab nations is still future from the time God gave the promise but God gives it as though it was taking place at that moment, and a tendential present is how you do that mechanically. In the Greek the tendential present is something future but because it is going to be fulfilled it is put in the present tense, indicating its reality. It represents what God intended to do for Abraham’s progeny, hence God promoted Abraham by making him the father of a new race and Abraham is the father of many [Arab] nations. Moses is the father of the nation; Abraham is the father of the new race. The participle is a telic participle. God is the subject producing the action of the participle. The telic participle is used to denote God’s future purpose for the progeny of Abraham to Isaac and Jacob. This promise comes second because it is based upon Abraham’s supergrace blessing — sexual prosperity. Sexual prosperity will lead to the new race and to the father of many nations concept. To fulfill this promise Abraham required the revival of both his and Sarah’s genitals, but God kept the promise and, again, we have ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] mê (μή) [pronounced may] to indicate that He will. So the telic participle indicates this will occur, and all Abraham has to do is believe this.

“I will multiply” is the future active indicative of plêthunô (πληθύνω) [pronounced play-THOO-noh]. This time we have the verb form instead of the participle. The future tense is gnomic future. Used with a solemn oath formula it presents an absolute fact which is regarded as axiomatic and very dogmatic. The active voice: God produces the action as a result of Abraham’s supergrace blessing in the area of sexual prosperity. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative used for an unqualified assertion.

Hebrews 6:14 “When he was saying, Assuredly [or, decidedly] just as I am God, blessing I intend to bless you, and multiplying I intend to multiply you.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Last night we had the oath; and today the promise. Abraham had specific blessings with his name on them.

The promise represents the decree of God in eternity past. Abraham had some specific blessings with his name on it, just as you and I as believers have some specific supergrace blessings with our name on it. But, of course, the reality only comes with supergrace status and supergrace status only comes by persistence in the function of GAP.

Heb 6:15 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise.

Verse 15 — the principle of fulfillment. “And so”, the continuative use of the conjunction kai plus the adverb houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. It should be translated “And thus.” It is used to refer to that which has immediately preceded, namely the promise of God. The adverb in the Greek simply says we are not referring to something further up the context, we are referring to that which was just promised. The promise involves two immutable things: the person or essence of God who made the promise, and the word, the decree of God in eternity past. The principle: Our life and our future is based upon the same two immutable things. God promises; God on the basis of His own person takes a solemn oath that He has for you supergrace blessings.

“after he [Abraham] had patiently endured” — the aorist active participle of makroqumew. Makroqumew refers back to verse 12 where we had the noun, makrothumia (μακροθυμία) [pronounced mak-roth-oo-MEE-ah]. In verse 12 it does not mean “patience”, the way it was translated in the KJV, it means persistence. Here it means “having persisted” — the daily function of GAP, being consistent, stabilizing with your attitude toward doctrine, not letting anything get between you and Bible doctrine — “and so having persisted” is the corrected translation. This is a constative aorist, it contemplates persistence in its entirety — today, tomorrow, the next, the next, and so on. The constative aorist gathers up into one ball of wax all of your persistence in learning doctrine. Abraham persisted in spite of many reversionistic setbacks until he finally arrived at age 99. The active voice: Abraham produces the action of the verb by persisting in his intake of doctrine and the use of the faith-rest technique. Faith-rest was the spirituality of the Old Testament. The participle is antecedent action to the main verb which comes up next.

“he obtained” — the aorist active indicative of epitugchanô (ἐπιτυγχάνω) [pronounced ehp-ee-toonng-KHAHN-oh] which means to obtain. epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] means “on” or “upon”; tugchánô (τυγχάνω) [pronounced toog-KHAHN-oh] itself means to “attain”, to “gain.” It means to reach a goal, to attain a goal. it means to cross the goal line. In this case we cross the goal line being supergrace. The aorist tense is the culminative aorist. The participle is a constative aorist — GAP, GAP, GAP, and so on, gathering up into one ball of wax how you get there. Now, we have a culminative aorist as a result. The culminative aorist emphasizes the entirety but emphasizes the existing results. The existing result is supergrace. The active voice: Abraham produced the action of the verb by persisting in the intake of doctrine. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative denoting an unqualified assertion. It indicates the fact of reality and certainty — he finally made it. “And so having persisted [in the function of GAP] he obtained it [the promise].”

“the promise” — the objective genitive of epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah] which refers to the supergrace promise of sexual prosperity and the resultant plêthunô (πληθύνω) [pronounced play-THOO-noh] activity, the multiplication concept.

Hebrews 6:15 For the God when He Himself had promised to Abraham, because He had no one greater by whom to take an oath, he took an oath on the basis of His Own Person [or, in the name of Himself]. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 6:14 When He was saying, Assuredly just as I am God, blessing I intend to bless you, and multiplying I intend to multiply you.

Summary

1. Persistence in the function of GAP leads to the tactical victory of the angelic conflict — arrival at the supergrace life.

2. The tactical victory includes maximum love for Jesus Christ or occupation with the person of Christ.

3. It also includes the supergrace capacity with supergrace blessings as illustrated by Abraham’s sexual prosperity — the resultant birth of Isaac, all of the father of many nations concept.

4. Note that Abraham persisted in spite of many failures, many trips into reversionism.

5. On previous occasions Abraham came very close to the supergrace life only to fall back, only to retreat into reversionism.

6. But Abraham had one thing: he never gave up and he finally made it.

The encouragement of Abraham is the principle of our encouragement. It is the two immutable things which guarantee the supergrace blessings. Now we have in verses 16–18 a dissertation on the two immutable things.

Heb 6:16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.

Verse 16 — “For men” — “For” is the use of gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] to indicate once again a change of subject. This time we are talking about a custom in life. “For men” — the nominative plural of anthrôpos (ἄνθρωπος) [pronounced ANTH-row-pos] refers to mankind. The word “verily” is not found in the original text.

“swear” — present active indicative of omnuô (ὀμνύω) [pronounced om-NOO-oh] which means to take an oath. The present tense is a customary present, it is used to denote an event which occurs habitually in the human race. It is a custom, a precedent kind of thing. The active voice: mankind produces the action in the settling of a dispute. He takes an oath by something higher than himself. The declarative indicative represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Many, many times some kind of hassle has been settled by someone taking an oath in the name of God, someone greater.

“by the greater” is a prepositional phrase, katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the genitive of the comparative of megas (μέγας, μεγάλη, μέγα) [pronounced MEH-gas]. It is correctly translated “by the greater.”

“and an oath” — the word for “oath” is horkos (ὅ́ρκος) [pronounced HOHR-koss] which means a solemn oath verifying something or promising something.

“for confirmation” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of bebaiôsis (βεβαίωσις) [pronounced behb-AH-yoh-sihs]. It should be translated “with reference to”. This is the reference use of eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative — “with reference to guaranteeing”, “with reference to furnishing security”.

“to them” is the dative plural of advantage the intensive pronoun autos. The words “the end” is the nominative singular of peraj is “termination”.

“of all strife” — antilogia (ἀντιλογία) [pronounced an-tee-lohg-EE-ah], which is “hostility, dispute, opposition.” Because a principle is involved here it means “opposition”.

Hebrews 6:16 “For mankind customarily takes an oath by the greater [by God]: and to them [the opposition] such an oath with reference to guaranteeing security is the termination of all opposition.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The human custom of settling a dispute by taking an oath in the name of God is well known to the readers of Hebrews because it was a Jewish custom of long standing to do this. This gives rise to the question: By what does God take an oath in His promise of supergrace blessing to Abraham as well as to us in the Church Age, the royal priesthood. The answer is in verse 17.

Heb 6:17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath,

Verse 17 — “Wherein” is literally, “By means of which” — the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] — “By means of which decree or promise.”

“God” — ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] — “the God”. God the Father with emphasis on His person, His essence. Here again we have the two immutable things. First of all we have the word “willing” which is a present active participle of boulomai, and it means to decree just as the noun boulh means a decree. The present tense is a static present representing a condition assumed as perpetually existent. The active voice: God produced the action of the verb in eternity past. The participle is a telic participle denoting divine purpose. And it should be translated “By means of which oath the God sovereignly decreeing.”

“more abundantly” is incorrect — the accusative singular of the comparative perissos (περισσός, ή, όν) [pronounced pair-ihs-SOSS] which means “beyond this” or “even more.” In other words, beyond the sovereignty and the essence of God He adds a second immutable thing. He decrees it in eternity past and He declares that portion of the decree to the one involved in time. He did this for the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, “Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee”. He said, “Sit down at my right hand”. And all of these quotations from the Psalms are simply quotations of promises from the divine decrees to Jesus Christ. He did the same thing with Abraham. He extracted from the Abraham paragraph in the divine decrees that which belongs to Abraham, and He constantly threw it at him so that Abraham would get on the ball, get off his butt, and get going. Abraham was slow on the uptake.

Here is the interesting thing. God stopped quoting the divine decrees, the paragraph that applied to certain people, when He completed the canon of scripture. So there is a big paragraph in there with your name on it but you’re not going to get the quotation. The reason? You have all of the encouragement you need in the completed canon of scripture, you don’t need an itemised list. You don’t need to ask God what your supergrace package is because you don’t know if you want to go that far or not! Just remember that God is perfect, the package is perfect for you. You couldn’t be happier.

So the static present represents that which perpetually exists. The telic participle indicates God’s purpose, and the accusative singular of the comparative perissos (περισσός, ή, όν) [pronounced pair-ihs-SOSS] means “beyond this” or “even more.” In other words, “even more” is like more grace. God on the basis of His person, on the basis of His Word, is going to fulfill for Abraham — and He did; and will fulfill for you — and He will.

“to shew” — epideiknumi (ἐπιδείκνυμι) [pronounced ehp-ee-DIKE-noo-mee] the aorist active infinitive meaning to demonstrate in addition. In addition to the decree from His essence — “to demonstrate in addition to the heirs of the promise.” A couple of things we should notice about “to show in addition” [e)pideiknumi]. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist which states the present reality of the promise of supergrace. The fact that the writer of Hebrews put this in the dramatic aorist means it is a reality now for those people living then just as it is a reality now for us. There is a paragraph with your name on it in the supergrace file. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb by an additional oath. The infinitive expresses His purpose to give to you as He gave to Abraham, as He wants to give to every believer supergrace blessings.

“the heirs” — dative plural of klêronomos (κληρονόμος) [pronounced klay-roh-OHM-oss]. This is a dative of direct object, it indicates the ones for whom or in whose interest the action of the decree is performed. Here we have a reference to each one of us as members of the royal priesthood read into the picture by the plural.

“of promise” — which means Abraham had a paragraph with his name on it, so do we. “Promise” is genitive singular from the noun epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah]. This is a descriptive genitive as well as a genitive of relationship. We have a relationship with God and God has a descriptive paragraph on exactly what He is going to do for us when we reach supergrace.

“the immutability” — accusative singular from a)metaqetoj, which means immutability or unchangeability. In other words, the paragraph with your supergrace blessings is unchangeable. It is unchangeable because of His person, because of His Word in eternity past.

Then we have a beautiful verb to back it all up: “confirmed it” — the aorist active indicative of mesiteuô (μεσιτεύω) [pronounced mehs-iht-YOO-oh] which means to guarantee it, not confirm it. It is guaranteed. This is the dramatic aorist which states the present reality of the oath and the word of the decree in eternity past. The active voice: God gave the oath, He swore on His own name and He made a promise to you before you lived. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative and, again, it represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality, certainty and assurance. And it is an unqualified assertion that you as a believer have your name on supergrace blessings as a part of the eternal decrees. The blessings of when you came.

We also have the instrumental once more of horkos (ὅ́ρκος) [pronounced HOHR-koss], the oath.

Hebrews:6:17 “By means of which oath the God, sovereignly decreeing even more to demonstrate in addition to the decree to the heirs of the [royal priesthood] promise [of supergrace blessing] the unchangeableness of his decree [regarding supergrace blessing], he guarantees it [supergrace blessing] by means of an oath.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. Note again that in this passage we are dealing with that portion of the divine decrees pertaining to the royal priesthood. Abraham is merely the illustration, he was in an inferior priesthood.

2. A royal priest should live like royalty. Therefore the promise of supergrace blessing.

3. These promises of supergrace blessings to each believer priest are guaranteed by two immutable things: the oath, which refers to the person of God; the decree, which refers to the promise of God.

4. The double and unchangeable guarantee is backed by who and what God is. (To say that you do not have supergrace blessings waiting for you is to deny the existence of God) The supergrace blessings are just as sure as God’s existence.

In order to understand our passage in Hebrews chapter six dealing with two immutable things and the parallel passage in Romans chapter four we now take up the introduction to both of them in Genesis chapter seventeen. They all meet in one spot called Abraham. The seventeenth chapter of Genesis anticipates the supergrace life. In the first eight verses we have the anticipation of the promised blessings of supergrace to Abraham. The key is sexual prosperity.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #68

68 07/11/1973 Hebrews 6 via Gen. 17:1–22 Doctrine of fatherhood of Abraham

Bob reads Gen. 17.

Verse 1 — “And when Abraham was.” The qal imperfect of hajah means when he became or had passed a certain point. He had become 99 which means he was somewhere between 99 and 100. In the previous chapter Abraham was eighty-six, so there were thirteen years in the elapse between the two passages. That means that at the time this chapter opens Ishmael is thirteen years old. However, at 99 the situation is hopeless because Abraham was now sexually dead.

For 13 years, Abraham has had no sex.

“the Lord appeared” — this is a grace act on the part of the Lord. The niphal imperfect of raah. The niphal here is reflexive, “the Lord himself appeared.”

“and said” — qal imperfect of amar, “I am the Almighty God”, but that is not what He said at all. “I” is correctly translated, it is the personal pronoun, first person singular ami. There is no verb. “I am El” which is a title for God’s omnipotence. It is translated “Almighty” but what is left out is the next word, Shadaw. Shadaw is a plural, it has a plural ending, and it is taken from the noun Shadh which means “breasts.” This should be translated “I am a God of many breasts.” The breast is used to denote supergrace blessing, the breast being the source of the first food the child had in the ancient world. The concept coming from this: The land flowing with milk and honey — the milk from the breast is involved. And actually, God says, “I have as many breasts as there are believers in history. Part of the divine decree we have studied is a paragraph with your name on it and your supergrace blessing. The same was true of Abraham a few thousand years ago. He said, “I am the omnipotent God of many breasts.” The breast indicates God’s supergrace blessings for Abraham. They centre around his prosperity in supergrace which is sexual prosperity. The phrase El is the description of God having the ability to do anything. At the time that God announces Himself Abraham is sexually dead. Actually, what this first phrase says is “It came to pass that Abraham was ninety-nine years old, and Jehovah himself appeared to him, and said, I am an omnipotent God of many breasts” — many supergrace blessings — “I have the ability to provide them and I do have the blessings”. This is a command, then, for Abraham to get with the supergrace life. The command is given in the hithpael imperative of hâlak^e (הָלַךְ) [pronounced haw-LAHK^e] — translated “walk.” The imperative mood: it is a command. The hithpael stem is reflexive and here it connotes advancing toward an objective. The hithpael stem of hâlak^e (הָלַךְ) [pronounced haw-LAHK^e] means to advance. In the KJV is says “walk before me”, but it means “advance under my supervision”.

“be thou perfect” is the qal imperative of the verb hajah which means to become. And with it the predicate adjective tamim which means to be complete or sound or entire, and it is used to describe the supergrace life. “Advance under my supervision and become mature.”

Literally the verse says: “And it came to pass that Abram was ninety-nine years old, and Jehovah himself appeared to Abram and said, I am an omnipotent God [I have the ability to do anything] of many breasts [many supergrace blessings]; advance under my supervision, and become mature [supergrace in status].”

Verse 2 — the confirmation of supergrace blessings. The first word “and” is the waw — “That.” Then “I will give”, the qal imperfect of nathan means “That I may give.” God has all these supergrace blessings for Abram and he wants to give them to him, and so He is telling him “Advance and get with it”.

“my covenant” — it actually means promises — “between me and you, with the result that.” Then we have “multiply”, the hiphil imperfect of rabah which means “I will cause to multiply.” The hiphil stem is the causative active voice.

“thee exceedingly” — literally, “to the maximum.” We have the repetition of an adverb which means “to the maximum”.

“That I may give my covenanted promises between me and you, with the result that I will cause to multiply you to the maximum.”

The multiplication can only occur one way. Abram does not have a son by Sarah and yet he has a long series of promises. This is the doctrine he has been learning for about forty years. He still does not have the literal fulfillment of that and the last time he got involved in something like that with Hagar it was the end of all sex altogether, and since then he has been totally impotent, incapable of sex. He is sexually dead. God has quoted to Abraham on many occasions that paragraph in the eternal decrees which applied to supergrace blessings and it involves a phenomenal sex life, great sexual prosperity in supergrace that he might be many things:

Promises Made to Abraham

1. That he might become the father of a new race, the Jews;

2. That he might become the father of many Gentile nations;

3. That he might become the father of us all. There are two ways in which he becomes the father of us all. First, he becomes that in the pattern of salvation — he believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and it was credited to his account for righteousness — Genesis 15:6. Secondly, circumcision is going to become the sign of faith-rest by which he enters into the supergrace life.

Abram at this point goes into GAP subordination. He recognizes authority. The manner in which he does so is perfectly normal for the time in which he lived. Verse 3 says he fell on his face, the qal imperfect of nâphal (נָפַל) [pronounced naw-FAHL]. This is recognition of the authority of his teacher, the one who is announcing these things to him. And he recognizes two types of authority: the authority of the person, and in circumcision he recognizes the authority of His Word. At this moment he recognizes the authority of the Word by listening. Later on he will recognize the authority of the Word by his faith-rest activity. From the launching pad of his heart he will faith-rest it by an act of circumcision. Here he falls down and God does the talking, the piel imperfect of dabar which is the rest of the passage until it says that God leaves. This means that God is going to provide the information for his faith-rest.

“God talked with him, saying”, the qal infinitive construct to indicate content follows. The posture of Abraham recognizes the authority of God’s person or essence. The listening at the moment recognizes the authority of what God says. He listens and he concentrates.

In verses 4–8 we have an extrapolation from the divine decrees. This is that paragraph which God decreed billions of years before Abram lived. This was a part of the divine decrees and it had his name on it as Abraham, and it was entitled “supergrace blessings.” Now God communicates it to Abram.

So verse 3 says, “Abram fell on his face while Elohim taught him, saying.”

Verse 4 — “As for me” is where the two immutable things of Hebrews chapter six comes into the picture. Later on in Genesis 22 God will say, “I take an oath in the name of myself.” But here the oath comes in the form of a Hebrew idiom. He uses that first person singular personal pronoun, ani. By so doing this is equivalent to the oath. This is the person. It is translated “As for me” but it actually says “I,” and it could be “Because I am God” instead of “As for me” .And we could take this in its proper idiomatic sense, “Because I am what I am [Because I am God], Behold, my covenant is with you.”

Now the extrapolation begins, “thou shalt be” — qal perfect of hajah — “a father of many nations” — ab [father], hamon [many] goi im [Gentiles]. Abraham was going to be a father of many gentiles nations. This makes sense to Abraham, as he is a gentile at this time. Abraham is not a Jew at this time.

The Doctrine of the Fatherhood of Abraham

1. The title “Abraham” is said to be the father of us all — Romans 4:11, 16. It is a reference to the fact that Abraham is the spiritual father, the pattern of salvation and supergrace blessings — Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:1–3, the pattern for salvation. The pattern for supergrace blessings — Genesis 17:1–14.

2. Abraham is also called the father of circumcision — Romans 4:12. That means that Abraham is the originator or the father of a new race.

3. He is also called “father of many Gentile nations” — Genesis 17:4,5; Romans 4:17. It is a reference to Abraham’s progeny from his supergrace sexual prosperity through Keturah — Genesis 25:1–4. He is not the father of the nation Israel, that is where Moses comes in.

4. Abraham gave to Isaac all that he had (Gen. 25:5)

“therefore you shall become a father of many Gentile nations as well.” The many Gentile nations is merely icing on the cake. In other words, as long as the man is alive and in supergrace he is going to be a great sex athlete so obviously he is going to keep having children, but it is the first one that counts. It was the first wife and the first child by the first wife, it is Sarah as the wife and it is Isaac that is the son. This is the brand new race.

Then there is another distinction, there is a constant weeding out. The new race goes through Isaac. Isaac received all that Abraham had and then Isaac is going to have twins. And here is a real problem. Here are twins of two different races — Esau and Jacob. The eldest twin Esau lost out on a mess of pottage. Why? Because he represents reversionism, and the line goes down not only through regeneration but it goes down through supergrace. Jacob finally became Israel toward the end of his life — Prince of God. “Prince of El”, by the way. “I can do it,” God says. Not Prince of Elohim, Prince of El. That “El” is very important. Esau lost out. He was the eldest of the twins and yet he was a Gentile, and from him come other races. Jacob has twelve sons and those twelve were the twelve princes, and from there you have the new race in its formation. This is through the patriarchal period.

Verse 5 — gives us some additional information. “Neither shall thy name be any more Abram.” “Neither shall be called” is the niphal imperfect of qara. Qara means to call and it is in the niphal which is used here in the passive sense plus the negative. And we have an adverb here, “never again.” His name shall never again be called Abram. Ab is the word for father; ram means altitude, high and windy places. His name had been “father of high and windy places.”

“but your name shall become” — hajah, qal perfect. Now we have “Abraham,” which means “father of a multitude.” It means, again, a father of many nations.

“because I have given you” — the piel imperfect of nathan, meaning it took God a long time in human time to do this because Abraham had such a hard time getting to supergrace where he would have the capacity. Doctrine gives the capacity and he didn’t have the capacity up until now — “a fatherhood of many Gentile nations as well” — as well as a new race.

“Consequently your name shall never again be called Abram, but your name shall become Abraham; because I have given you a fatherhood of many Gentile nations as well.”

Verse 6 — “Also I will make thee exceedingly fruitful” — literally, “I will cause you to be prolific,” the hiphil perfect of parah — “to the maximum,” we have the double adverb.

“furthermore, I will give you” — qal perfect of nathan — “nations from your copulation, and kings shall spring forth from you.” This means from all the areas of Abraham’s progeny there will be many kings. Even his reversionistic progeny which is Ishmael will be the source of Arab kings. Then through Isaac and Jacob there will be many kings, the whole Davidic line and the Lord Jesus Christ as well as Saul before David. From Esau there were a famous group of Edomite kings. From Keturah he had all of those men who became kings and had kingdoms. Hundreds of kings to come from Abraham.

Verse 7 now gives us the specifics on the new race. “I will establish,” the hiphil perfect of qum. Qum means to stand. In the hiphil it means to cause to stand and therefore correctly translated “establish.”

“thy seed” — now it is no longer goi im, Gentile nations, it is now a singular, the masculine singular noun from zera. We also have a suffix, the second masculine singular suffix which applies to Abraham. Abraham is the father of the new race. It now refers to why he gave everything that he had to one son only, Isaac.

“for an everlasting covenant in their specific generations” — “I will perpetuate them.” There are Jews today, there never will be a time in all of history when the Jews will cease to exist and, furthermore, you can see why anti-Semitism is anti-God and anti-Christian. Abraham is not only the father of a new race but that race also has father Abraham as their spiritual heritage, as the pattern for their salvation — Romans 4:1–3; as the pattern for their supergrace blessing — Romans 4:17–21.

The seed of Abraham is a line of supergrace blessings, and we can trace the line from time to time. Starting with Abraham. When he reached supergrace at 99 God provided everything, that is the El part, He had the ability to do so and Abraham became sexually prosperous, the father of a new race and the father of many nations.

Next in line was Joseph. Joseph is a perfect illustration in the line of Abraham in the supergrace promotion and prosperity with emphasis on ruling Gentiles. Joseph was a Jew who was prospered by God and ruled Gentiles. The third in the line is Moses and his supergrace leadership in ruling the Jews at a most difficult time. Moses rules over the Jews at their worst.

Number four is David. Supergrace leadership made David the greatest king in the Jewish nation and the greatest king in history until Christ returns.

Number five is Isaiah because, first of all, he too was from the tribe of Judah, the royal family. He was actually an uncle of one of the rulers and the brother of another. Isaiah had supergrace blessing in the realm of doctrine when Israel was a nation. He was the greatest prophet and Bible teacher when the nation was assembled as a nation. Number six is Jeremiah because his supergrace blessing came in time of national disaster, the fifth cycle of discipline. His greatness in supergrace was under pressure and he then held the greatest record for prosperity in old age. So the first six are all related. Now today we are in the Church Age and Israel is out as a nation under God. So we have a Jew, the greatest of all, Paul, whose supergrace blessing in time of Israel’s dispersion is in the field of doctrine. The Jewish Age was interrupted by the Church Age and Abraham’s progeny, the apostle Paul, holds the record for all time for doctrinal blessing and dissemination. So here are seven men who are the fulfillment of this phrase.

The covenant is first of all said to be an everlasting covenant “in their specific generation”. Notice how every one of these seven were all believers and therefore followed the pattern of Abraham, the father of us all, they all reach supergrace and therefore followed the spiritual pattern of Abraham — they all made it to supergrace, they were all given specific blessings in the devil’s world. Remember once more that everlasting clause demands that Abraham have a spiritual seed. This is to indicate that then spiritual heritage as well as the racial heritage is involved. The spiritual seed of Abraham refers to all born again by faith in Jesus Christ — Romans 4:13, 16, 21–25.

The final verb here, “to be,” is a qal infinitive construct of hajah — “to be to you an Elohim, and to your seed [progeny] after you.”

So that the whole verse seven dealing with the new race, its spiritual heritage and its physical heritage: “Furthermore I will establish my covenant between me and you and your see after you for an everlasting covenant in their specific generations, to be your Elohim and your progeny’s Elohim after you.”

Now here is Abraham with no way to copulate, no way to become the father of anything, and now he is getting the whole historical steps in that condition. Why? This is the Bible class that put him over the line into supergrace. This is the Bible class where the doctrine became his, where he believed it, he took it in one lobe and cranked it out the other lobe in faith-rest. His faith-rest manifestation is going to be circumcision.

Verse 8 — the new nation. “Furthermore I have given,” the qal perfect of nathan, “the land,” eretz. He is saying that Abraham is not only going to be a new race but God is going to make a nation out off him too. But they will never be a nation until they get to the land. Eretz relates the new race to a specific geographical location, therefore this race was to become a nation. In the previous verse the new race was related to a specific generation of history. Generations of history followed the spiritual heritage, followed the blessings. This promise from the eternal decree of God indicates that the new race will also be a new nation with a specific geographical location on planet earth.

“wherein thou art a stranger” is not quite correct. The plural from the noun magur is the one which is translated like a verb. It means “residence” really — “the land of your residence” .Abraham is dwelling in a certain land, he has a residence there. He is not a citizen there, he is a pilgrim or a stranger.

“all the land of Canaan, for an eternal possession” — that means that there is going to be a day when there is not going to be any Arabs in the land — “also I will become their Elohim.”

In verses 9-22 we have the ritual anticipation of supergrace blessings.

Verses 9 — “And God said,” qal imperfect of amar plus the waw, an inferential waw. It should be translated, “Furthermore [or therefore] Elohim said to Abraham.”

“Thou shalt keep” — qal imperfect of shamar, which is “You shall guard,” literally. There is why we have a new race. God is going to put in written form on this earth His own Word, and the guardianship of His Word is Israel. “You shall guard my covenant … you, and your seed after you shall guard my covenant.” The guardianship has a ritual, it has a uniform. The guard wears a uniform and the uniform that he wears is circumcision. That is the way the race is perpetuated. This is a circumcised race from generation to generation until the Age of Israel is interrupted and then, of course, circumcision is not a spiritual issue.

Abraham and Circumcision

1. A covenant to Abraham in verses 4–8 can only be guarded by positive faith response to Bible doctrine.

2. Abraham’s positive faith response to Bible doctrine will become evident from the circumcision of his totally useless phallus at age 99, and at a future time by the offering of his son Isaac. At 99 Abraham was incapable of sex but God says I am going to do this, so doctrine was more real to him than the condition of his phallus and he said go ahead and circumcise. Why circumcise if you are never going to use it Abraham? Because I believe the Word. There is Abraham staggering not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God. He was demonstrating supergrace faith.

3. Circumcision represents the principle of faithfulness to the Word of God as well as the perpetuation of a physical heritage through supergrace sexual prosperity.

4. Circumcision becomes a ritual with both a spiritual and physical connotation to Israel. Abraham was 99 years old and sexually dead when he reached the point of supergrace.

5. In Genesis 17:5,6 the promise of supergrace sexual prosperity is repeated to Abraham at the time of his sexual death — when he was in a totally hopeless condition.

6. However, Abraham was circumcised in his dead phallus, as per Genesis 17:24, 26.

7. At the moment of circumcision Abraham demonstrated maximum faith-rest application from Bible doctrine.

8. Romans 4:18,19 describe in greater detail his totally hopeless situation. However Bible doctrine in the form of a specific promise called the Abrahamic covenant was much more real to Abraham than the totally hopeless, discouraging physical condition of his genitals. In other words, the issue that Abraham faced was the issue that Peter faced in 2Peter 1:12–21, only with Peter the doctrine was the second advent, and while he had seen the second advent at the mount of transfiguration he said that what the Word of God says about the second advent is much more real than what he had seen with his eyes.

a. Supergrace is the place where Bible doctrine is more real to you than anything else in life. There is only one thing more real than doctrine and that is the living Word who is the source of doctrine. Jesus Christ is more real.

b. Abraham believed God more than is inability to have sex.

9. Consequently there emerges a spiritual concept from circumcision. Circumcision connotes recognition of and positive volition toward the spiritual heritage of Israel. The new race is great but that is a physical thing. The heritage of that new race is doctrine, and that is the all-important thing. Israel has a spiritual heritage: Bible doctrine, the canon of scripture.

10. Every time a male Jew urinated he was reminded of the importance of Bible doctrine.

11. Therefore, the spiritual connotation of circumcision is a reminder that both eternal and temporal blessings from God cannot be acquired apart from Christ, the living Word, and the Bible, the written Word.

12. Abraham’s faith in Christ came when he was uncircumcised. Therefore he is the pattern of salvation for both Jew and Gentile. He was saved as an uncircumcised person and this makes him the father of us all. Romans 4:10–12, 23–25.

13. After salvation comes the issue of supergrace. Circumcision has nothing to do with Abraham’s salvation, it was the memorial to his faith-rest in a hopeless situation. He arrived at supergrace hopeless, but he believed Bible doctrine. When he arrived doctrine was more real, therefore he submitted to circumcision because he believed doctrine.

There are two immutable things: the oath representing God’s person and the actual decree which is represented in the promise. In eternity past God always existed, there never was a time when God did not exist. His essence has always existed, therefore when He makes an oath or a solemn promise in the name of Himself it is because there is no one greater. It emphasizes His person and His ability as we saw in El Shadaw, the omnipotent or almighty God [El]; Shadaw [the many-breasted one] which means that He has for each one of us supergrace blessings. God also in eternity past had a plan — the doctrine of divine decrees — and He has extrapolated one paragraph of the divine decrees for the promises to Abraham: the two immutable things. The oath points to the person, the promise points to the decrees. These are unchangeable and immutable and they involve you and me.

When someone in your family reaches supergrace, blessing comes to your family.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #69

69 07/12/1973 Hebrews 6 via Rom. 4:17 Doctrine of circumcision

Verse 17 — a parenthesis begins. It is introduced by an adverb, kathôs (καθώς) [pronounced kahth-OCE], used in a causal sentence. It is used as a conjunction at the beginning of a sentence, and the adverb actually has four meanings. Indicating a comparison it means “just as”; connoting the degree of something it means “to the degree that”; it has a temporal connotation translated “when”; but the fourth is the one used here, it has a causal connotation and it is used therefore as a conjunction, and here in this context it should be translated “since” or “insofar as.” The adverb actually relates to the previous phrase, hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] estin (ἐστίν) [pronounced ehs-TIN] patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR] pantwn — “who is the father of us all.” It refers to the spiritual heritage which is divided into two parts. First of all Abraham is the pattern of salvation. Secondly, he is the pattern for receiving supergrace blessings.

“who is the father of us all, (insofar as it is written...” — the perfect passive indicative of graphô (γράφω) [pronounced GRAWF-oh] which takes us back to the quotation in Genesis 17:5. The perfect tense is an intensive perfect, it means something that was written in the past with the result that it stands written forever and is used in connection with the verbal plenary doctrine of inspiration. The passive voice indicates the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in the function of inspiration, as per 1Timothy 3:16 and 2Peter 1:20,21. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative, it is the mood of unqualified assertion, the mood of the reality of the canon of scripture in this case, and it indicates once again that God the Holy Spirit directed the writers of scripture so that in the original languages God’s complete and connected thought toward man was recorded. In the recording of this particular passage we get once more the same concept. God specifically promised to Abraham. In promise form He told him what he was actually going to have by way of supergrace blessing.

Rom. 4:17 “Who is the father of us all, (insofar as it has been written in the past with the result that it keeps on being written [or stands written] forever...”

Circumcision and Abraham

1. The quotation is from Genesis 17:5, an additional encouragement to Abraham to move toward supergrace.

2. God had previous defined Abraham’s supergrace blessings in the original supergrace promise of Genesis 12:2, and later on in Genesis 22:16–18 as well as 17:5.

3. The key to Abraham’s prosperity or promise is supergrace blessing in the field of sexual prosperity. It was to result in great blessing in connection with his right woman, then it was to result in a new race, and it was to result in many Gentile nations being fathered by Abraham.

4. The true meaning of circumcision, however, is related directly to the new race which would be started at the point of Abraham’s circumcision. Abraham was never a Jew until he was circumcised.

5. Circumcision is a sign of Abraham’s supergrace prosperity resulting in the new race.

6. The law was a sign of Moses’ supergrace prosperity in relationship to a new nation.

7. Abraham, then, is the father of the new race; Moses is the father of the new nation which came out of the new race.

8. The Mosaic law contains the laws of divine establishment which became the basis of national prosperity. Moses reached supergrace at the time that he went to get the law, and the law was the sign of his supergrace prosperity which would overflow to the nation in coming generations. Abraham’s sign of reaching supergrace was circumcision. Circumcision is the memorial to God’s grace in the new race; the law is the memorial to God’s grace in the new nation.

9. Both circumcision and the Mosaic law therefore are defined in terms of supergrace and the origin of Israel.

Next in the verse we have hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] which merely introduces the quotation. It is a conjunction acting as quotation marks, and it introduces the quotation of Genesis 17:5.

Bob has never been satisfied with previous incarnations of this doctrine, but he is now.

Some additional notes from lesson #70 have been added in:

The Doctrine of Circumcision

1. Circumcision consists of cutting away part of the foreskin of the male phallus. The ritual was the sign that Abraham had arrived at the supergrace life, and he had arrived in a totally hopeless condition. But because he believed the promise and the reiteration of the promise of supergrace sexual prosperity he went ahead and submitted to circumcision. By so doing he dedicated his phallus to the supergrace prosperity, and at the same time the removal of the dead skin was a sign of no more reversionism.

a. Don’t bring me articles on female circumcision.

b. Circumcision is the opposite of Leviticus. 12:2–3 (comments from lesson 70)

2. The significance of circumcision.

a. The true meaning of circumcision cannot be understood apart from Genesis 17.

b. Abraham was 99 years old and sexually dead when he arrived at the supergrace life — Genesis 17:1.

c. In Genesis 17:5–6 the promise of sexual prosperity in supergrace had been repeated to him. It had been promised first in Genesis 12:2. Then in Genesis 15:5, 17:5.

d. In Genesis 17:10–14 Abraham was circumcised as a memorial sign. It is a memorial to category #2 love, and a memorial to the principle of supergrace. It reminds us that Bible doctrine is of the utmost importance. This was a daily reminder of Bible doctrine (the promises of God)

e. Abraham through circumcision in supergrace became the father of a new race, even though at the point his phallus was circumcised he was incapable of sex. Doctrine was more important to Abraham than his sexual death; he was unable to have sex; not since Hagar. He assumed that was it. Abraham believed it during a time when it could not be worse; and he was a sex athlete for the next quarter century.

f. Abraham is the father of the new Jewish race while, again, Moses is the father of the Jewish nation. Circumcision was a memorial to positive volition towards Bible doctrine.

g. Abraham was saved when he was uncircumcised. Gen. 15:6 circumcision was his supergrace paragraph. Abraham realized, “I am unable to have sex, but I will obey God’s command to be circumcised.” Doctrine was more real to him than any circumstance of life.

h. God performed 2 miracles with Abraham:

i. He made him a Jew.

ii. Abraham was reborn sexually.

i. Circumcision is God’s memorial to supergrace.

j. When the hissing snake began to speak to the woman, Bob learned stuff about women that he never realized before, and he thought he knew everything about them. “I’ll tell you one thing; it helped me to understand the little beauties.”

k. The Jewish races is based upon supergrace prosperity. They continue to glorify God by their existence.

l. The devil never got over Abraham reaching supergrace and saying, “Cut.”

3. Circumcision and the Mosaic law. Circumcision preceded the Law by 500 years. Circumcision is related to the law in two ways.

a. Circumcision relates to the establishment content of the law, including the fact that national stability comes from the right man-right woman relationship and all of the factors it takes. There must be the spiritual factor, there must be the factor of soul, and out of the spiritual factor and the soul factor comes supergrace prosperity. And when right-man or right-woman gets to supergrace, either one of them, it means sexual prosperity.

b. Circumcision relates to the Mosaic law in the sense of Codex #2 — the spiritual part of the law and the doctrinal part. Circumcision relates to that because circumcision is the sign, the memorial, to the importance of Bible doctrine.

4. In the doctrine of circumcision the near death of Moses — Exodus 4:24–26. Moses was the be the father of the Jewish nation and that meant that he would be the one used of the Lord to liberate them from slavery. He was about to enter upon this task with one son uncircumcised. What does that mean? The neglect of the parent to circumcise the male child was a sign of rejection of Bible doctrine. Moses’ failure to have his younger son circumcised was indicative of carelessness with regard to doctrine. His carelessness almost cost him his life. Circumcision is a memorial to the importance of Bible doctrine; and they knew this every time that a man urinated. Moses failed to circumcise his younger son; and this was carelessly not doing what God required of him.

5. From the race to the nation.

a. No Jew could partake of the Passover without circumcision. Circumcision relates the new race to the nation. What was Abraham when he was saved? Uncircumcised. It relates salvation to supergrace. New race, Abraham; new nation, Moses. Circumcision is the link between the new race evolving into a nation and spiritually circumcision is the relationship between salvation and supergrace. That is why no one could ever take part in the Passover unless he was circumcised. The Passover speaks of the death of Christ and the significance: All you have to do is to be saved and you are qualified to go to supergrace. If you don’t accept Christ there is no supergrace. Circumcision therefore becomes a great spiritual factor.

b. The Jews were placed under the fifth cycle of discipline because they lacked circumcision of soul. Circumcision of soul is found in Jeremiah 6:10; 9:25,26. In other words, the Jews observed the ritual without seeing its meaning. They were circumcised but they did not relate it to salvation or supergrace — no circumcision of soul. In other words, when a nation comes to the point of the fifth cycle of discipline it means that nation is almost totally devoid of supergrace believers and the nation has rejected Bible doctrine. That is called no circumcision of soul.

c. Circumcision of soul further connotes that the unbeliever would live under the establishment of the Mosaic law but would reject the spiritual impact of the law which is Christ the only Savior and, after salvation, GAPing it to supergrace.

d. Circumcision therefore is just as much the spiritual heritage of the Jew in the Age of Israel as the communion table is the spiritual heritage of the believer in the Church Age. And it had just as much significance to them as communion has to us, but with this difference: Circumcision connotes arriving at supergrace whereas the communion is a test to show you when you have arrived at supergrace.

e. Therefore circumcision connotes the spiritual heritage of supergrace to Abraham’s physical and spiritual progeny. The physical and spiritual progeny would be: physical — Jew; spiritual — born again Jew. Circumcision is used to designate the Jew by race and by spiritual heritage — supergrace — Galatians 2:8 Colossians 4:11 Ephesians 2:11 Titus 1:10.

6. Circumcision in the Church Age has no spiritual significance to the believer. In other words, it is not a ritual we use to indicate moving toward supergrace or arriving at supergrace. The fact that circumcision has no spiritual connotation for this dispensation is taught in 1Corinthians 7:18,19 Galatians 5:2,3.

a. Circumcision relates the Jew to his racial origins and his national origin. But more than that it related the Jew to his spiritual heritage — faith in Jesus Christ and moving from there to the supergrace life.

b. The origin of the Church on the other hand is entirely different. We do have in a certain sense a new race when people accept Christ in this dispensation. The origin of the Jewish race: circumcision; the origin of the Church race: the baptism of the Holy Spirit whereby we are entered into union with Christ at the point of salvation. The baptism of the Holy Spirit eliminates the spiritual connotation of circumcision for the Church Age.

7. Circumcision, however, is used in the New Testament to illustrate.

a. For example, circumcision illustrates the function of GAP leading to supergrace — Deuteronomy 10:16; Jeremiah 4:4.

b. One which is found in both Old and New Testaments: circumcision is used to portray arriving at the supergrace life — Deuteronomy 30:6; Romans 2:28,29; Philippians 3:3.

c. Also, circumcision is used to illustrate scar tissue, emotional revolt of the soul, and resultant reversionism; this is lack of circumcision — Jeremiah 6:10; 9:25,26; Ezekiel 44:7; Acts 7:51.

8. The distortion. Circumcision was distorted into a system of legalism — salvation by works, spirituality by works — by the Judaizers of the apostolic age of the Church. In the early period of the Church before the canon was completed circumcision became the rallying point for legalism, as per Acts 15:1, 24 Galatians 6:12,13.

Romans 4:17–21 is actually a parenthesis. It interrupts verse 16 and the sentence of verse 16 is resumed in verse 22. In this parenthesis is found Old Testament spirituality, the faith-rest technique as it is expressed at the point of supergrace. We have introduced the principle of dynamics in faith-rest. Dynamics in faith-rest is one of the ways you can always tell when you have finally reached the supergrace life. How can you tell when you have arrived? Bible doctrine in more important, more real to you, than anything else in your life — than your problems, your trials, your tribulations, your adversities, your successes, etc. Bible doctrine is more real than any person, any situation, in life. When that happens you have reached supergrace. And once Bible doctrine is more real God dumps all these wonderful things in your lap. God gives you the capacity to enjoy them. Circumcision was Abraham’s demonstration. From that moment on you have the first of two great dynamics. The second one came in Abraham’s life when he offered his son Isaac. Isaac, being circumcised, had never had a chance to use his phallus to perpetuate the race and Abraham said, “I am going to cut your throat boy, but God will raise you up because you are going to be the perpetuation of the promise.” (“In Isaac shall your seed be called”) So, twenty or twenty-one years after he was circumcised he had the chance to apply circumcision and resurrection. Doctrine was more real when he put his son on the altar and got ready to cut his throat.

Abraham demonstrated a principle: Circumcision must inevitably be as great an illustration of the dynamics of faith-rest as the statement of Peter in 2Peter 1:12–21. To Peter, Bible doctrine, what the Bible said about the second advent, was more real than being at the mount of transfiguration and seeing Jesus Christ changed. And in effect Peter was in the circumcision pattern. Doctrine, the book, the written page, was more real than what he had seen with his eyes. Abraham with his eyes saw a hopeless situation, he couldn’t have sex. But Abraham in his soul had doctrine, and doctrine in the soul was more real than his actual status quo. Another Jew, Peter, perpetuated the same dynamics of the faith-rest technique as we saw in Genesis 17.

Now we are ready for it: “Quote” — hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] simply means “quote.” “I have made” — perfect active indicative of tithêmi (τίθημι) [pronounced TIHTH-ā-mee] which in the perfect tense means to design. The word means to decree, to destine, to appoint, to establish, but here in keeping with the supergrace concept it means to design — “I have designed [or decreed]” .Remember that Genesis 17:5 is being quoted. It was an extrapolation from the eternal decree. So when God says “I have decreed [or designed] something” He is merely quoting to Abraham what He had said in the first place. God has the privilege of quoting Himself! There is no one greater to quote. The point is a very simple one. In eternity past God decreed that Abraham would reach supergrace and have sexual prosperity. We have to watch the perfect tense here because the intensive perfect simply takes an occurrence or a process and sees it at the end with its existing results. That is the ordinary perfect tense. But this is a little different, this is the consummative perfect which emphasizes not the existing state but the process. It goes back to the process, not the result but the process by which the result was achieved. So it is a slightly different type. In other words, the process by which the existing state came into completion. So what is emphasized? GAP is emphasized, taking in doctrine today, tomorrow, the next, and the next. So we don’t have the existing results here, we have the process by which Abraham came to the point where Bible doctrine was more real than sexual death.

Circumcision kept Bob from being born in Texas. His dad was going to send Bob to a great circumciser. All these years, this kept him from being born in Texas. Bob did live the first 2 years of his life in Texas, but he was not born here. I guess he was born in CA? Not sure I understood this fully.

When you arrive at the point of supergrace doctrine is going to be more real than anything in your life. The only thing that is more real than doctrine is the person that doctrine introduced you to, your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Category #! love will then be maximum in your soul. “We love him because he first loved us.” So it is the process of GAPing it to supergrace that this perfect tense emphasizes. it was supergrace that was necessary for the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. Not all promises have to wait for supergrace but this is one that did.

Rom. 8:28 is related to supergrace as well. If you are in supergrace, sister, then that is Rom. 8:28.

The active voice here brings us back to the sovereignty of God plus His omnipotence and His omniscience. These are all involved. Billions of years ago omniscience knew every move that Abraham would make, and He knew just when Abraham would finally arrive. So in the decree He said sexual prosperity resulting in new race, resulting in many Gentile nations, and a pattern for every believer who ever comes along. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ it is time you learned all about circumcision. Circumcision is a reminder of the importance of Bible doctrine, and Abraham has left us a spiritual heritage which far exceeds the ritual. We are in the Church Age, we are royal priests, and just as it was important for Abraham to get to supergrace it is ultimately much more important for us to get to supergrace. Therefore, we learn from circumcision the importance of getting there so that we can fulfill the royalty in our priesthood and start to get the royalties of our priesthood. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative, it represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. It is the mood of fact, the mood of unqualified assertion, and the pattern in the same with Abraham as with us, he had to GAP it too.

“I have decreed you (Abraham)” — accusative singular of su used as the direct object of tithêmi (τίθημι) [pronounced TIHTH-ā-mee]. Next we have “father” — patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR] in the accusative singular. How can Abraham become the father of a great race if he can’t even be the father one child, a special race?

“many nations” — descriptive genitive plural of the adjective polus,polos (πολύς,πολλός) [pronounced poll-OOS] and the descriptive genitive plural of the noun ethnos (ἔθνος,ους,τό) [pronounced EHTH-noss]. And ethnos (ἔθνος,ους,τό) [pronounced EHTH-noss] means Gentiles. In Genesis 25:1–5 when Abraham married Keturah he had six sons, and yet he never lost track of doctrine because with all of these sons from which great Arab kingdoms would come he gave all that he had to Isaac — verse 5. This was the third great supergrace crisis in his life. Circumcision was the first, offering Isaac was the second, but the third was the greatest of all. Here is a man surrounded by children, and he loves children, but he gave all that he had to Isaac.

The Categories of the Fatherhood of Abraham

1. Abraham is the father of us all — Romans 4:11, 16. This refers to the fact that Abraham is the pattern of salvation before he was circumcised and the pattern of reaching supergrace at the point of his circumcision. So “father of us all” is the title of our spiritual heritage through Abraham. The heritage of faith — faith in Jesus Christ; the heritage of faith-rest — Bible doctrine is more real than any situation in life at the point of supergrace.

2. The “father of circumcision” — Romans 4:12. Abraham is the originator of the new race — the Jews.

3. The “father of many [Gentile] nations” — Romans 4:17. It refers to Abraham’s progeny through Keturah in Genesis 25:1–4.

Rom. 4:17 — (Insofar as it has been written, I have decreed you a father of many Gentile nations”) Why does God always hit Abraham with that promise first — the last thing that came into Abraham’s life? Because that is the one thing he could understand. Abraham was a Gentile until he was circumcised. “Hebrew” means to cross over a river but Abraham, until he was circumcised, was never a Jew. And Abraham did not become a Jew until he was 99 years old.

“before him” — an adverb now, katenanti (κατέναντι) [pronounced kat-EHN-an-tee] is a triple compound adverb made up of three prepositions. Since it is an adverb it is used as an improper preposition. This should be translated with the genitive “in the presence of” or “in the sight of”

“whom” — the genitive masculine singular of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç], and this refers to God. God is the antecedent of the relative pronoun — “in the sight of whom God.” No one else knew the great issue with Abraham, but Abraham did, so in the sight of God “he believed” — the aorist active indicative of pisteúô (πιστεύω) [pronounced pis-TOO-oh] is the dynamics of the faith-rest technique at the point of supergrace.

Later on Abraham died in a tent. Why? Because Bible doctrine was more real to him than the fact that there was no city as God promised. But he knew that that wasn’t a supergrace promise. By that time he knew category #4, that was a surpassing grace promise. So he died knowing that in phase three he will get it, and he is still going to get his city. That is the city that is going to be lowered from heaven. This is a culminative aorist, it views the event in its entirety but emphasizes the results. Abraham’s faith is gathered up into one ball of wax. But the culminative aorist looks at the results. The result was that he found himself copulating that night. Abraham’s faith in doctrine, in the extrapolation from the divine decrees, is viewed here in its entirety and it resulted in becoming the father of a new race and many Gentile nations. The active voice: Abraham produced the action of the verb by believing the promise. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative, it represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. This is an unqualified assertion, this is reality in the maximum. Abraham believed the promise at a time when all hope of fulfillment of the promise was gone.

“even God” — God is the objective genitive here, he had believed God. There is no definite article here. The absence of the definite article with theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] emphasizes the essence of God, especially His sovereignty, the source of the divine decree, and the paragraph extrapolated with Abraham’s name in it; the omniscience of God, He knew every turn of the road Abraham’s life would take; and the omnipotence of God whereby after circumcision he had the full and the best use of his phallus of all time. He was now a totally new person.

“who qickeneth” — present active participle of zowpoieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] which means to revive here. Zow means life, poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] means to give. It only has two meanings: either to give life or to revive. He now revives the phallus of Abraham. The present tense is a pictorial present, it is one in which the distinctive force of this tense is used to present to the mind a picture of an event, in this case the revival of Abraham’s use of his sex organ. The process includes Abraham’s power of procreation and the removal of every type of condition in his body which was related to the climacteric, plus the new better-than-ever sex life between Sarah and himself — “the one reviving the dead” .The word “reviving”, the active voice: God performed the miracle giving him procreative power; and the participle is a telic participle. It was God’s purpose after he reached supergrace to do this for him. The telic participle expresses the divine purpose. The word “dead” is in the accusative from nekros (νεκρός) [pronounced nehk-ROSS]. Here the noun indicates sexual death. It is in the plural to indicate that both Abraham and Sarah were sexually dead.

Romans 4:17 Inasmuch as, it stands written (in the past with results that continue forever), “I have decreed you, Abraham, the father of many gentile nations, in the sight of whom, he believed God, the one reviving his dead genitals; and calling....”

“and calleth” — the present active participle of kaleô (καλέω) [pronounced kal-EH-oh]. This is a dramatic present. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb, and what is coming up next is the fact that God actually calls into existence what does not exist. When God becomes more real than anything in life, and life is hopeless, God calls into existence what doesn’t exist. Hopelessness is always related to something that doesn’t exist. In this case, Abraham’s power of procreation did not exist. God simply called it into existence. The participle is a circumstantial participle.

“those things” — the accusative neuter plural of the definite article, a reference to the dormant genitia of both Abraham and Sarah.

“which be not” — the present active participle of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] plus m (μή) [pronounced may]. m (μή) [pronounced may] is a subjective negative and therefore it means Abraham was blue about this — “and calls into being the not existent”, that which does not exist.

“as though” is the conjunction hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] used to denote an actual quality which has ceased to exist. Again, it refers to the power of procreation necessary for Abraham to have sexual prosperity — “as though they were”, the present active participle of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] means “existing.” The best translation should be, “and calls into existence that which does not exist.” Abraham believed doctrine. Doctrine was more real than his hopeless condition. So God calls into existence what did not exist.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #70

70 07/13/1973 Rom. 4:18–19 Doctrine of circumcision (review)

Captain Al Pitts.in Vietnam.

Rom. 4:18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, "So shall your offspring be."

Verse 18 — “Who against hope” — the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] refers to Abraham at age 99. he has just demonstrated that final push, that faith-rest dynamics, which brings him into the supergrace life. His supergrace blessing, as per Genesis 17:5, is going to be sexual prosperity. At this moment, however, he is totally sexually dead — “against hope,” the preposition para plus the accusative of elpís (ἐλπις) [pronounced el-PIS]. “Hope” is a bad translation. It has many good translations, “expectation” and “confidence” are two of them. Para plus the ablative means “from”; para plus the locative means “before”; para plus the accusative means “beyond.” So here we have the word “beyond.

”Elpís (ἐλπις) [pronounced el-PIS] here means “expectation” and has nothing whatever to do with phase three. It has to do with phase two, age 99 plus, and the problem he now faces. “Who beyond expectation” — he was beyond the hope of ever having sex again. The prepositional phrase indicates once again his sexual death. There was no expectation of sexual prosperity from the standpoint of his physiological being, yet all of the supergrace blessings with his name on it all point to sex. You can’t be the father of many nations in supergrace, and you can’t be the father of a new race, unless you can perform quite a number of sex acts. And that is not even the point, it isn’t even his capability, it is the total enjoyment of them which was a part of his supergrace prosperity — “Who beyond the expectation [of sex] believed.” Here is the point at which he entered into the supergrace life — the aorist active indicative of the verb pisteúô (πιστεύω) [pronounced pis-TOO-oh].

Recall that in verse 17, quotation from Genesis 17:5, “I have decreed you [Abraham in supergrace] a father of many Gentile nations, in the sight of whom [God] he [Abraham] believed God, the one reviving his dead genitals, and the one calling into existence his sexual power and ability that did not exist at that time.”

That is the background for the relative pronoun “who beyond expectation believed.” The aorist tense of pisteúô (πιστεύω) [pronounced pis-TOO-oh] is culminative. The culminative aorist regards the entirety from the standpoint of its existing results. Here is Abraham GAPing it, GAPing it, GAPing it, and finally he reached the point of supergrace, and when he reached supergrace his supergrace blessing package was all tied up in sex, and that is one thing he couldn’t even get close to. He was totally incapable of it, totally impotent, totally without any sexual ability at all. Therefore he believed the Word of God. That is the thing that was important to him. Bible doctrine was more real than anything around him — his total helplessness and hopelessness. The result, then, of the culminative aorist is sexual prosperity even though Abraham is beyond the expectation of sexual prosperity. The active voice: Abraham produced the action of the verb — faith-rest dynamics. This is probably one of the greatest faith-rest acts of all time. He had been taking in doctrine, it was transferred over to his right lobe, doctrine was on his launching pad. Faith-rest says that the doctrine in his right lobe is more real than anything else in life. He all of that supergrace information, that extrapolation from the divine decrees, in his frame of reference. He has the memory centre that puts it all together. He has the norms and standards, he has the vocabulary and the categories, and doctrine on the launching pad. And doctrine on the launching pad is more real than his condition. That is why he submitted to circumcision and that is why circumcision was the sign that when doctrinal is more real than anything in life you have arrived at supergrace. Having arrived at supergrace you are in the best possible situation you could ever be, that is where faith-rest dynamics begins. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. This is the declaration of unqualified assertion. He believed in spite of everything.

“in hope” — elpís (ἐλπις) [pronounced el-PIS] again, and once again elpís (ἐλπις) [pronounced el-PIS] should be translated “expectation”, only this time we have epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative. Once again, we have that same problem. Many of these prepositions have the different cases for the object of the preposition. For example, epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the genitive means “on” or “upon.” This emphasizes contact. epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the accusative means “over” and emphasizes motion or direction. epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative means “on, over, before” or “at.” This emphasizes position. And here we have epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative, and it should be translated then “at the point of expectation” — at the point of reaching supergrace.

“[Abraham] Who beyond the expectation of sexual prosperity had believed at the point of expectation.” At the point he reached supergrace he couldn’t perform a sex act and that is when he believed doctrine. Doctrine was more real to him than his totally hopeless situation. So Abraham’s faith-rest confidence at the point of reaching supergrace is the point of his circumcision. Circumcision became for all generations of Israel a memorial token or a memorial sign.

Principle: Nothing is more important than Bible doctrine, and the reality of doctrine being better than anything in life only comes to the individual when that individual reaches supergrace.

There are people wandering the halls looking at pictures. Someone here is in for a big shock.

The Word of God is more important to Abraham than anything else.

All of the promises to Abraham add up to one thing: sexual prosperity at the point of supergrace. And, we say, when he got there how do we know he is going to believe? How do we know doctrine is going to be more real? Because of a word: pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. Pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] has a double meaning. It means faith but it also means what is believed. Doctrine had been taken in and has been put on the launching pad under faith-rest, so supergrace doctrine gave Abraham the strength to believe, and the strength to believe turned right around and claimed the very doctrines which God had enunciated in his direction. So doctrine was more real to Abraham than his hopeless status quo. Supergrace is the place of true faith-rest dynamics. Faith-rest is Old Testament spirituality, but more than that, supergrace faith-rest is the dynamic of phase two as far as both the Old and New Testaments are concerned. This same principle is outlined in 2Peter 1:12–21 — the reality of doctrine; doctrine is more real than anything in life. So faith-rest reaches its peak in the supergrace life. Supergrace faith-rest is called “hope” or elpís (ἐλπις) [pronounced el-PIS] — confidence. This confidence is the ultimate in faith-rest dynamics.

Now we have a preposition translated with the word “that” — e)ij, and eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the infinitive is used to denote a purpose. eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] is translated “that” to introduce a purpose concept. The infinitive: “he might become.” The aorist active infinitive of ginomai, but remember that this infinitive is the object of the preposition e)ij. The aorist tense of the infinitive is a culminative aorist, it regards the event in its entirety but emphasizes the existing results. Supergrace is the entirety while sexual prosperity in starting the new race, the Jewish race, is the result. The active voice: Abraham produced the action of the verb by entering into supergrace. At that point he had so much confidence in doctrine, and at that point doctrine was so meaningful to him and so real, that his hopeless situation was meaningless. He was not in any way disturbed by is hopeless situation. Therefore Abraham had something in his soul that was greater than what he had in his body. And as an application, remember it is the soul that counts and not the body. The soul can influence the body and does influence the body. It is the soul of Abraham that made all of the difference, and with doctrine more real than anything else in his soul Jesus Christ becomes more real than anything in his life. And at that moment Jesus Christ performed the miracle. Circumcision does not give the ability to copulate but it was at the point of circumcision: the removal of the dead flesh is like the removal of any of the reversionistic trends which had characterized Abraham’s life in the past. The removal of the dead flesh was when God performed two miracles. God, at the point of Abraham’s circumcision, made him a Jew. He wasn’t born a Jew, he became a Jew. The active voice: Abraham produced the action of the verb by entering supergrace and having confidence in God’s ability to keep a promise regardless of how hopeless the situation. The infinitive goes with the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] for purpose.Translation: “in order that he might become.”

Sarah had not arrived to supergrace, but Abraham had. It is all a miracle. Don’t try to explain it by some medical explanation. Do not think that circumcision is the solution to some of your problems. Bob has to head some of you off at the pass.

People reach supergrace when doctrine is more real to them than anything else in life. When Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son, at age 21 or 22, Bible doctrine was clearly the most important thing in his life.

Now we have the fatherhood of Abraham brought out again. The fatherhood of Abraham could be emphasized from one of three principles. a) The father of us all — his spiritual heritage to us; b) the father of circumcision — the new race; c) and the father of many Gentile nations.

At the point of Gen.17:1, Abraham had not had sex for 13 years. But at his circumcision, Abraham became a Jew, at age 99.

Ishmael is not included in the many nations promise to Abraham. Perhaps that is because Abraham’s sons after circumcision were the ones who counted.

“according to that which was spoken” — again we have another preposition, kata. It is interesting that in every one of these prepositions the meaning varies depending upon the case in the noun which is the object. For example, here we have katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the perfect passive participle in the accusative case of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. But katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the ablative means “down”; katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the genitive means “against”; katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative means “according to.” Here we have katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of the perfect passive participle. So it should be translated “according to” — the participle is légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] — “that which had been spoken in the past with the result that it stands spoken forever”, the intensive perfect to indicate that this extrapolation from the divine decrees became a part of the canon of scripture. This is the promise of Genesis 15:5 given by God with the result that it stands forever, and the promise was fulfilled at the point when Abraham at the point of circumcision entered the supergrace life.

The principles of circumcision are reviewed... (so I am going to look back in my notes).

Moses is the father of our nation much like Washington is the father of our nation.

Circumcision is a reminder to us today, as it was to Abraham at age 99, that supergrace is available to every person and that in eternity past God declared the decree. The essence of God the Father had the ability to perform it. His decrees were put down in declaration in the eternal life conference. So the decree has many, many paragraphs; your name in on one of those paragraphs dealing with supergrace blessing. Circumcision is the dynamic of Abraham’s faith and the memorial to the fact that every born again believer has a paragraph in the divine decrees on his supergrace prosperity. The passive voice of “according to that which was spoken [in the past with the result that it keeps on being spoken forever]” indicates that Abraham received this doctrine and that the promises given to him were in his soul.

Faith rest only claims promises which you have already believed. It is no good when choosing promises from the Bible that you do not believe.

“So shall be” — the future active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. The future tense is a predictive future, it is used for an event expected to occur at a future time, the giving of the promise — first you enjoy the promise, then you enjoy the fulfillment of the promise. There may be some time between the enjoyment of the promise and the fulfillment of the promise which you also enjoy — enjoyment of anticipation and fulfillment. The indicative mood is the deliberative indicative representing the verbal idea from the standpoint of reality, certainty, and unqualified assertion. We are dealing with God’s Word. So you enjoy the promise twice.

“thy seed” — to sperma (σπέρμα) [pronounced SPHER-mah] sou. This is a second masculine singular from the personal pronoun su, and the genitive says, “your sperm”, “your seed”, and it is singular — Abraham. This is something Abraham didn’t have until circumcision. This has a dual connotation: physical and spiritual. The physical seed does not refer to the fatherhood of many Gentile nations, it refers to a new race being born. Secondly, we have Abraham’s spiritual seed. Since Abraham is the pattern of salvation on the Old Testament to all who believe circumcision is not the issue. Abraham was saved uncircumcised, he was not circumcised until he had reached the point of supergrace and that was the elapse of forty or fifty or sixty years.

Once the sperm was there, Abraham was a Jew. He was sitting in the rocking chair and ready to die.

Romans 4:18 “Who beyond expectation [of sexual prosperity] had believed at the point of expectation [the point of entrance into the supergrace life] in order that he might become the father of many Gentile nations, according to that which had been spoken, So shall your seed be.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The hopeless situation becomes a challenge to believe doctrine but this cannot be possible until you get to supergrace.

Rom. 4:19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.

Verse 19 — “And” is the continuative use of the conjunctive kai — “being not weak” — he is weak physically, he is not weak otherwise, the aorist active participle of astheneô (ἀσθενέω) [pronounced as-then-EH-oh] plus the negative mê. The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist. The ingressive aorist plus the negative indicates that Abraham did not even begin to becomes weak in faith. He didn’t flinch for a moment even though it was a totally hopeless situation. The active voice: Abraham produced a negative action. He didn’t miss a step for one moment. The participle is the ascriptive use of the participle in which the participle ascribes a characteristic Abraham. When he reached supergrace his faith did not even miss a step, it moved right on. Doctrine was so real to him that nothing else counted. Doctrine was real, therefore the Lord was real and therefor nothing else made any difference. So it should be translated, “And without becoming weak.”

“in faith” — the locative singular of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. Faith had to transfer doctrine to the human spirit and faith had to apply doctrine that he had in his soul to his own life. So we have pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] used in its dual sense here. it was Arndt and Gingrich who first emphasized to the English-speaking world — they were German — that pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] means faith but it also means what you have believed, it means the whole body of doctrine, it means doctrine you have believed. So it also comes to mean doctrine. So, “being not weak in the sphere of supergrace doctrine.” With supergrace doctrine you are never weak. Doctrine is so real that it is easy to believe. When doctrine is more real than anything else in your life it is easy to faith-rest something. The dynamics of it are tremendous from the outside.

Now we have the main verb, “he considered not” — the aorist active indicative of the compound verb katanoeô (κατανοέω) [pronounced kat-an-oh-EH-oh]. noéô (νοέω) [pronounced noh-EH-oh] always means to think; katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] here means norm or standard. So it means to think according to a norm or standard, to think or to concentrate on a norm or standard. So he concentrated, he contemplated, he actually knew his own state. The constative aorist gathers up into one entirety Abraham’s concentration on his body. He knew that he was sexually dead and he had known it for thirteen years, so the constative aorist gathers up that entire period of time between Genesis chapter 16 and Genesis chapter 17. The active voice: Abraham produced the action of the verb by perceiving and understanding the true hopeless situation. A supergrace believer never buries his head in the sand, he faces reality. Then he looks at the doctrine and the doctrine is always greater than the hopeless situation. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative which regards the verb from the standpoint of certainty, reality, and unqualified assertion.

“his own body” — this refers to Abraham’s physical body at age 99. Literally, “And without becoming weak in the sphere of supergrace doctrine, he had thoughtfully reflected and contemplated the condition of his own body now dead.” This adverb is stronger than “now”, this is h)dh which means “already dead.” The word “dead” is the perfect passive participle of nekroô (νεκρόω) [pronounced nek-ROW-oh] — he was dead in the past with the result that he kept on being dead and there was nothing he could do about it. That is the status of sexual death. The passive voice: Abraham through the advance of age received the action of the verb — sexual death. The participle is ascriptive, it describes his hopeless sexual condition.

“when” — we have an enclitic adverb, pou. It indicates an approximation with numbers so therefore it means approximately — “living approximately one hundred years” is the way it is translated; “being” — huparchô (ὑπάρχω) [pronounced hoop-AR-khoh] which means he was just existent. He wasn’t really living. We do not have biow or zow, both of which would say he is living; he is just existing right now. However, that is his physical condition: living or existing approximately one hundred years.

“neither yet the deadness” — the accusative singular of nekrôsis (νέκρωσις) [pronounced NEHK-row-sis] refers to the fact that Sarah, who is now ninety, is well past the menopause.

Romans 4:19 — “And without becoming weak in the sphere of supergrace doctrine, he had thoughtfully and carefully reflected and understood his own body already having become sexually dead, with the result that it was permanently under sexual death, living approximately one hundred years, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.”

1972 Hebrews Lesson #71

71 07/15/1973 Rom. 4:20–21; Hebrews 6:18 Reality of supergrace inner resources

Rom 4:20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,...

Verse 20 — what was Abraham’s reaction to all of this? He is now at the point where he must face the issue: doctrine versus reality of experience. Many times in our experience you have hopeless situations. Many times the experience is very real to you to the point of where you are upset, disturbed, where you completely fall apart, you are overcome with self-pity, you are disillusioned, you are discouraged, you are involved in some of the reactor factors. It is this very thing that caused Abraham to take so many side-trips that he failed to reach the point of supergrace when he was younger.

He was bored, he knew some loneliness, he was discouraged; he understood mental attitude sins as reactor factors. He saw these things in Sarah. He was frustrated. All of these are reactor factors. He would get very close to supergrace, but then lose it over a frantic search for happiness. His soul would open up to the doctrine of demons. This is why Abraham failed on so many occasions.

Now he has arrived at the point at which doctrine had thoroughly described certain things. Doctrine is divided into two parts here: a) The decree of God in eternity past. And as with Abraham so also with you, God actually has provided for you a paragraph with your name on it — a supergrace paragraph in the doctrine of divine decrees. It includes wealth, success, promotion, sexual prosperity, social prosperity, and many other things. This was decreed in eternity past. The extrapolation of Abraham’s paragraph is recorded for us in time and becomes a part of the Word of God. For example, in Genesis 12:2 the original declaration of the Abrahamic covenant. This particular paragraph was extrapolated and reiterated to Abraham many times in time. The decree was given in eternity past, the extrapolation of that paragraph is called “promise.” God had promised Abraham three things under the fatherhood of God. Abraham was promised that he would be the father of many Gentile nations. This can only come through sexual prosperity, this must come through his supergrace status. He was also promised to be the father of a single seed, and that single seed is a new race, the Jewish nation. That promise is only fulfilled at age 99. Also he was promised to be the father of us all, and this means that Abraham is the pattern of supergrace and supergrace prosperity. So he had been given in time a promise which was a part of doctrine. This promise was an extrapolation of that portion of the divine decrees relating to the supergrace blessings of Abraham. b) Not only does Abraham have a promise but he also has from God a solemn declaration, an oath, that He will keep that promise. And since God could swear by no greater He made the oath in His own name. Since God is absolutely perfect He has the ability [omnipotence], the character [immutability], to fulfill that promise. So here we have two immutable things: the oath of God and the promise of God. The oath goes back to the person who lived in eternity past and originated the divine decrees. The promise is an extrapolation from the decree itself. One has to do with the person, one has to do with the Word of God. This is the doctrinal content that Abraham has before him as part of the issue.

However, his status quo, his experience at the point of reaching supergrace, is quite different from anything he ever anticipated. Abraham finds himself sexually dead, incapable of sexual prosperity. So he now faces the issue: Which is more real to him on the threshold of supergrace: Bible doctrine and its extrapolation of the eternal decrees — the oath and the promise (two immutable things) — or his status which is sexual death, sexual death of Sarah as well as himself? In other words, a totally hopeless, helpless situation with regard to this particular paragraph.

What is he going to do about it? Is doctrine more real to him than his experience? Is his experience more real than doctrine? This is an issue that you must face many times in your spiritual life. What is more real to you, a hopeless set of circumstances or Bible doctrine? The principle is settled for us in 2Peter 1:12–21 and also now in Romans 4:20 —

“He staggered not” — the aorist passive indicative of diakrinô (διακρίνω) [pronounced dee-ak-REE-no]. This word has a number of meanings, usually connected with discernment, to discern is the general meaning. It is translated “stagger” here which is also a correct translation. It means to doubt, to waver in the mind, to be divided in the mind, to vacillate between two opinions. However, in this case there is no vacillation because we also have with diakrinô (διακρίνω) [pronounced dee-ak-REE-no] the strong negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. He did not vacillate between two opinions. The aorist tense is the ingressive aorist which contemplates the entirety of the verb’s action from the standpoint of its beginning. In other words, the constative aorist would simply say that he kept vacillating back and forth. We have ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook], he did not do this, that is the entire ball of wax. But here is the ingressive aorist which means he didn’t even start to vacillate, not even for one moment did he miss a step in his faith-rest technique. He is claiming what he has learned by way of Bible doctrine at this particular point. The passive voice: Abraham did not receive the action of the verb, he didn’t even start to receive it. It was never a problem right from the first moment that he reached supergrace, he was not disturbed by his hopeless situation. You can always tell a supergrace believer, he doesn’t fall apart under the pressure of hopeless situations. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative which views the action of the verb from the standpoint of reality, this is a statement of unqualified assertion, he did not begin to waver.

However, in this sentence the verb does not occur first. This verb is tucked away after a phrase or two, “at the promise of God” is where the sentence begins. And “at the promise” is a prepositional phrase — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah] which means a promise. It also means an unconditional promise and it should be translated “with reference to the promise.” Then “of God” is a possessive genitive plus the definite article, ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] — “with reference to the promise belonging to the God.” The promise belongs to God. God made the original decree in eternity past. God provided Abraham supergrace blessings billions of years before Abraham lived, just as God has provided your supergrace billions of years ago. Whether you reach that point or not depends upon your attitude toward Bible doctrine — “he did not even begin to waver through unbelief.” The word “unbelief” is the locative of sphere, a)pistia. So the verse reads literally, “With reference to the promise of the God he did not even begin to waver in unbelief.”

“but” — the adversative conjunction allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH] indicates a complete antithesis, a contrast between what Abraham did and what he did not do. First we have what he did not do, he did not even begin to waver in unbelief. But he did do something very positive, “but was strong” — the aorist passive indicative of endunamoô (ἐνδυναμόω) [pronounced ehn-doo-nam-OH-oh] [en (ἐν) [pronounced en] means “in; dúnamis (δύναμις) [pronounced DOO-nahm-iss] is “power”] which means to invigorate — “he had become invigorated.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist. In other words, there was something that kept him from wavering. We have Abraham taking in doctrine, GAPing it, GAPing it, GAPing it, and eventually he reached the point. The culminative aorist regards the entire intake of doctrine but emphasizes the existing result. The result is that he had a strong faith-rest, and in his faith-rest he now sees doctrine as more real than anything in his life. Remember that he has just arrived at supergrace which is characterized by three things: a) Occupation with the person of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is more real to him than ever before. b) He has supergrace capacity. He now has the cup in his soul. c) God is getting ready to pour. And Abraham knows that God must pour. He understands the issue of supergrace capacity, and he always knows what God is going to pour because he has received promises — the extrapolation of the divine decree. Therefore, “he had become invigorated.” The culminative aorist views the event of GAPing it to supergrace in its entirety but emphasizes the existing result. The existing result is invigoration of doctrine. Doctrine is more real to him than his hopeless situation. He has now arrived where he can be the father of many nations, where he can be the father of a new race, where he can have sexual prosperity. The passive voice indicates that he received invigoration or power from doctrine. The indicative mood is an unqualified assertion. He has arrived at the point of supergrace and at the point of supergrace Bible doctrine is always more real than any hopeless situation.

“in faith” is an incorrect translation. The instrumental of means of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] is “by means of faith.” Pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] has two meanings. Pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] means what has been believed, it refers to doctrine in the left lobe transferred by faith through positive volition to the human spirit where it becomes epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] , is transferred to the right lobe into the frame of reference, memory centre and vocabulary. Doctrine is the structure, the edification complex, and therefore pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] means what is believed as well as faith — both are involved here. He had to believe these things through the function of GAP, now he is utilizing all of the doctrine he has learned — “by means of the faith doctrine.” Pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs], again, refers to what is believed or doctrine, and it is doctrine that he believes.

Simple things are complex things to those who neglect God’s Word. Bob chews on some people there.

Doctrine in the Word of God is no use to us. The faith-rest technique does not operate out of the Bible, the faith-rest technique operates within the framework of the soul and doctrine with all of its promises. Every promise in the Word is related to a category of doctrine, so doctrine must be blended. X things must be blended with Y things. Y things refer to the right lobe of the soul, and there must be doctrine going from the book into your soul before faith-rest becomes operative. Faith-rest has as its object doctrine, promises, found in your soul. So faith-rest does not operate apart from learning the Word of God.

“giving glory to God” — this is not “giving” here, it is an aorist active participle and, again, the aorist tense is a culminative aorist. We have the verb doxazô (δοξάζω) [pronounced dox-AD-zo] which means to glorify God. This culminative aorist means that he has now reached supergrace, he has GAPed it, GAPed it, GAPed it, he is now culminative aorist at the end of the ball of wax — the existing result. He has now reached supergrace, and having reached supergrace he now possesses in his soul a cup. Now God can pour. This is supergrace capacity. He is occupied with the person of Christ and here are the supergrace blessings, the X things of eternity past from the doctrine of divine decrees. X things blend with Y things, all things work together for good to those who love God. The one who loves God is the supergrace believer, he is now occupied with the person of Christ. So the supergrace blessings are now poured. In this case Abraham is hopeless, all he has is supergrace capacity and in one moment of time at the point of circumcision God poured. God gets the glory because God does the giving. The giver gets the glory under grace. God is glorified by giving Abraham supergrace sexual prosperity. To do so he had to revive the genitals of Abraham and Sarah, He had to give them the capacity for being able to copulate and out of this he becomes the father of a new race — the Jew, he becomes the father of many nations. All of this is his sexual prosperity. Furthermore, because of his circumcision demonstrating his faith-rest, demonstrating that doctrine was more real to him than anything in life, he is the father of us all when he reached the point of supergrace. He is the father of us all in uncircumcision: he is the pattern of salvation because he believed in Jesus Christ; he is the father of us all in circumcision because he reached the supergrace life, and this is the only way you glorify God. Whatever your supergrace blessings happen to be, once you begin to receive them God is glorified. God is glorified in giving and you are benefitted in receiving. So when you glorify God you are benefitted. All reward in the Christian way of life is related to the cup. You must have a cup in your soul, God does not pour unless you have a cup.

“to God” is a dative of advantage of theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS], it is also a dative of indirect object. It also has the definite article, so it should be translated “the God” — the God who made the promises, the God of the two immutable things. God is glorified by the supergrace status of the believer, the believer’s occupation with Christ glorifies God, the believer’s supergrace capacity and Bible doctrine glorifies God, so God receives the glory from providing the blessing for the supergrace believer.

Romans 4:20 — “With reference to the promise of the God he did not even begin to waver in unbelief; but he had become strong by means of the supergrace faith doctrine, having given glory to the God.”

Rom 4:21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

Verse 21 — the hopeless situation is recognized. “And” is the continuative use of the conjunction kai.

“being fully persuaded” is an aorist passive participle, plêrophoreô (πληροφορέω) [pronounced play-rof-or-EH-oh], which means to be fully convinced. This is a gnomic aorist. This brings together that ingressive aorist plus two culminative aorists, and we now have a gnomic aorist. One ingressive aorist plus two culminative aorists equals one gnomic aorist. The gnomic aorist indicates an absolute, it indicates that this is axiomatic, for once a person gets into supergrace Bible doctrine is definitely more real than anything else — “having been fully convinced.” The passive voice: Abraham receives the action of the verb from doctrine in his soul. In other words, doctrine in his soul is more real than sexual death in his body. The participle has antecedent action to the main verb. The main verb: “he did not waver in unbelief.”

“that” — is a conjunction after verbs of mental activity, and this is a verb of mental activity because he has the doctrine in his soul — “what he had promised.”

“what” is an accusative neuter relative pronoun, hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. What things, what promises. “What” refers to the fact of sexual prosperity as under the fatherhood of Abraham doctrine.

“he had promised” — the perfect middle indicative of epaggellô (ἐπαγγέλλω) [pronounced ehp-ang-EHL-low] which means to promise. This is an iterative perfect in which the promise God has fulfilled to Abraham is repeated at recurrent intervals. In other words, the perfect tense generally means something that has happened in the past with results that go on. But this promise was given at different times — Genesis 12:1,2; 15:5; 17:5; and chapter 22. The point is, it was given again and again though once was enough to fulfill it. In this case He repeated the promise so we have an iterative perfect to indicate that God encouraged Abraham from time to time to move toward supergrace, to make doctrine his life. The middle voice is an indirect middle which lays stress on the agent as producing the action of the verb rather than participating in the results. It should be translated “he himself.” God Himself had promised. That emphasizes one of the two immutable things, the oath in which He made the promise. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative, it is the mood of certainty, it represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality, it is the mood of unqualified assertion.

“he was” is the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. This is a simple case of linear aktionsart denoting a continuous status quo — “he kept on being able”, and now we have a predicate nominative from the adjective dunatos (δυνατός) [pronounced doo-nat-OSS]. Here is where faith-rest broke down into mechanics. Dunatos (δυνατός) [pronounced doo-nat-OSS] means He had the ability to revive anything in Abraham’s body so that the promise could be fulfilled. He has the ability to do it.

“to perform” — the aorist active indicative of poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] means to revive the organs of Abraham as well as Sarah. The aorist tense again is a gnomic aorist, it is for that which is an absolute. The active voice: God performs the action, providing both the means and the result. When the situation is hopeless God must provide the means and the results. In this case the means was He had to revive Abraham’s sexual organs and the organs of his wife Sarah. The result was he will be the father of a new race, he will be the father of many nations. The means and the result are both involved in a hopeless situation. No situation is totally hopeless unless God must provide both the means and the result, and that is what He does. Because He has made a promise He does provide the means, and Abraham says, “I believe that, circumcise me.” Abraham was 100 and the moment he was circumcised that was the moment when God revived the use of his sexual organs. The active voice: God performed the action. The infinitive is the result of entering into the supergrace life.

Romans 4:21 “Having been completely convinced that, what he himself had promised, he was able also to do it.”

What God promises God can do. That is what circumcision means, what circumcision is all about. it is a permanent grace monument to God’s ability. When God makes a promise, when the doctrine is there, God will always perform it.

This takes us back to Genesis, but then that takes us to...

Heb 6:18 ...so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us.

Category #2 love illustrates....

Hebrews 6:18 — Circumcision was perpetuated in the Jewish race. There was not only the covenant of Abraham but there was also the covenant of circumcision, found in Genesis 17:10–14. Abraham was circumcised because doctrine was more real to him than his hopeless situation. This doctrine was so important to him that he went ahead and was circumcised, and all the males were circumcised in that generation, the next, the next, the next, and always it was a reminder that Bible doctrine is more important than anything in life.

This is a transitional verse, it shows the relationship between Abraham and us. This shows us that Abraham’s circumcision was indicative that doctrine was more real than any situation in life. Abraham had his reality in two immutable things. Those same two immutable things belong to us. The first word in verse 18, “That” is the conjunction hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] which introduces a purpose clause. It is better translated “In order that,” to bring out the purpose clause.

“by two immutable things” — we have dia plus the genitive plural of pragma (πργμα) [pronounced PRAG-mah]. Dia plus the genitive means “through” as well as “by.”

Then we have with pragma (πργμα) [pronounced PRAG-mah] an adjective a)metaqetoj. Metaqetoj means “mutable”; “a” mean “not” or “un” changeable. The two immutable things are the way in which God transferred the doctrine from Himself to Abraham’s soul, or God transferred the doctrine from His eternal decree. God must keep His promise. So immutable thing #1 is the person of God. Immutable thing #2 is the doctrine of God — which in this case is a promise — or the Word of God. So we have the person and the Word, two immutable things.

“in which” — literally, “in the sphere of which”, the locative plural; “impossible” — again we have adunatos (ἀδύνατος) [pronounced ad-OO-naht-oss]. We notice now that there are two impossible things, and these are in contrast. The first impossible thing came up in Hebrews 6:4 — it is impossible to recover from reversionism so long as the believer is in legalism or involved in anything that conflicts with doctrine. That is the first impossibility. No one ever recovers from reversionism as long as something in their life conflicts with coming to Bible class and getting doctrine. Anything that keeps the believer away from Bible doctrine means that it is impossible to recover from reversionism.

The second impossibility lies in this passage and therefore must be summarized. It is impossible for God to lie about supergrace blessings for the royal priesthood, even as it was impossible for God to lie to an inferior priest by the name of Abraham — he was only a family-type priest.

God and the Two Immutable Things

1. It is impossible for God to lie, to go against His own decree of eternity past.

2. The impossibility is based upon two immutable things: the oath of God and the decree of God.

3. The oath is presented in verse 13 of Hebrews chapter 6; the promise was presented in verse 14.

4. The oath represents the perfect person making the promise.

5. The decree represents the content of the promise — in this case, supergrace sexual prosperity.

6. Since both are immutable it is impossible for God to welch on His promise. He has an obligation to Abraham, He will keep it.

7. Under grace everything depends on who and what God is.

8. These two immutable things are the basis for our function in the royal priesthood. (Remember, no believer functions under his royal priesthood until he reaches supergrace) Supergrace is the normal function of the royal priesthood.

9. The oath and the promise are no stronger than the person performing them, and the person performing them is the eternal God. Therefore they are unlimited as declared in that paragraph of the divine decrees that has your name on it.

“for God” — this time without the definite article. The absence of the definite article calls attention to the quality of the noun. Therefore, once more, by the use of Greek syntax there is emphasis on who and what God is and on His ability.

“to lie” — the aorist middle infinitive of yeudw. This is the culminative aorist tense, it views the existence of God in its entirety and emphasizes the existing results. God always exists, there never will be a time when He doesn’t, and there never will be a time in all of God’s existence when God will ever lie. The middle voice is a direct middle which refers the results of the action directly to the agent with reflexive force. It is impossible for God Himself to lie. The infinitive is a part of an accusative of general reference in which God is the subject of the infinitive, or He is portrayed as fulfilling the action of the infinitive, it is impossible for Him to lie.

Therefore, since it is impossible for God to lie, “we might have a strong consolation.” “We might have” is a present active subjunctive of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] — “we might have and hold.” The present tense is a static present, it is used here for something which is taken for granted as a fact and will always exist as a fact. We have, and we always will have, a strong consolation. The active voice: the subject is the royal priest. Since you are a royal priest you are the subject, you are included in this phrase. The subjunctive mood is potential, the potentiality depends upon your attitude toward doctrine. You as a royal priest can go one of two ways. Doctrine is the great issue after salvation; Christ is the issue in salvation. After salvation it is the written Word that becomes the issue. GAP is the road that takes you to supergrace. Supergrace has: occupation with the person of Christ, supergrace capacity (the cup), and supergrace blessings. This is the road of the daily intake of doctrine. The other road is the road to the sin unto death, the road of reversionism, and it is simply based upon rejection of doctrine: reaction, frantic search for happiness, emotional revolt, the infiltration of Satanic doctrine (called demon influence), and the blackout of the soul and the practice of reverse process reversionism. It eventuates in the sin unto death. So every believer has a choice and his choice determines whether he goes to tactical victory or becomes a casualty in the angelic conflict.

“a strong” — this is an adjective, ischuros (ἰσχυρός) [pronounced is-khoo-ROSS], which means an inherent strength. It refers to Bible doctrine’ “consolation” — the word paráklêsis (παράκλησις) [pronounced par-AK-lay-sis] means “encouragement” here. Bible doctrine is our strong encouragement. This is our strong encouragement to move toward supergrace.

“who have fled” — “who” refers to the believer, and it is not a relative pronoun, it is a definite article in the nominative plural; “have fled for refuge” — an aorist participle, so we do not actually have a relative pronoun here — the aorist active participle of katapheugô (καταφεύγω) [pronounced kat-af-YOO-go], which means to take refuge in something, and here the constative aorist means to take refuge in the Word of God. In other words, we keep on having, and it is potential, depending on whether you use it or not — doctrine, doctrine, doctrine, available. One misconception: You cannot get doctrine by reading the Bible for yourself — as the evangelist told you after salvation! You have to have a pastor-teacher, that is why we have them. And you have to go to class, the classroom is the local church. The pastor-teacher is a person, he has a message; so you have the combination of a person and his message. He has the gift and the final authority. He has the message and God will provide for you a pastor-teacher to communicate the message and provide for you Bible doctrine to you so that it enters your soul. No one gets doctrine by reading it for himself, it is the pastor-teacher who communicates it to him. Therefore, between you and the fulfillment is also your right pastor-teacher and your attitude toward your pastor-teacher determines whether you are ever going to get there or not. The active voice: the royal priesthood produces the action of the verb by listening to the teaching of doctrine consistently, constantly. The participle is a temporal participle, and therefore a temporal participle should be translated “while we have fled” or “when we have fled [to doctrine] for refuge”.

“to lay hold upon” — the aorist active infinitive of krateô (κρατέω) [pronounced krat-EH-oh]. Krateô (κρατέω) [pronounced krat-EH-oh] means to see what belongs to us and it refers to supergrace blessing. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views GAPing it, GAPing it, GAPing it from the standpoint of its results. The result is supergrace and laying hold of God’s specific blessings for you. The infinitive is the infinitive of purpose — “for the purpose of attaining the hope,” or as elpís (ἐλπις) [pronounced el-PIS] means here, the objective — the objective being the supergrace life. Elpij means the objective here, it also means “attainment,” “expectation.”

“set before us” — present active participle of prokeimai (πρόκειμαι) [pronounced PROHK-i-mahee]. The present tense is a static present. All of us have before us the same thing Abraham had. The only difference is that we do not have specifics in a promise. Why? Because you live in the royal priesthood in the completed canon of scripture. God has not given a specific promise to anyone since the canon of scripture was closed. But whatever Abraham had, and all other supergrace believers, are yours. They are set before us right now, this passage says they are set before us, the static present of prokeimai (πρόκειμαι) [pronounced PROHK-i-mahee]. The active voice: the believer positive toward doctrine produces the action of the verb, he attains these things. The participle is a circumstantial participle. Add it all up, it says simply this: God has for you, and has had since eternity past, since He enucleated the divine decrees, supergrace blessings. These supergrace blessings fall into several categories.

“In order that by two immutable things [the oath and promise of God], in the sphere of which it is impossible for God himself to lie, we [the royal priesthood] might have strong encouragement [doctrine by which we advance to the tactical objective], so long as we take refuge [in doctrine] for the purpose of attaining the objective [supergrace blessing] constantly placed before us.”

Hebrew 6:18 “In order that by two immutable things [the oath and promise of God], in the sphere of which it is impossible for God himself to lie, we [the royal priesthood] might have strong encouragement [doctrine by which we advance to the tactical objective], so long as we take refuge [in doctrine] for the purpose of attaining the objective [supergrace blessing] constantly placed before us.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews Lesson #72

72 07/15/1973 Hebrews 6:19-20 The upside-down anchor

Heb 6:19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain,

Verse 19 — here we have the conclusion of the matter in one more illustration. This illustration is the upside down anchor. We begin with the word “Which hope.” The word “which” is the accusative feminine singular from the relative pronoun Hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç], and it refers to the hope or the objective which the supergrace life. Doctrine in the soul is the objective, and doctrine in the soul is the only basis by which we can obtain this objective. Remember, Abraham had to believe the doctrine in his own soul and until he had transferred it there he couldn’t do so. He transferred it by two immutable things: the oath of God and the promise of God. The oath is comparable to His person; the promise is comparable to the divine decrees. As far as Abraham was concerned these promises which he believed were in his soul and they were transferred to his soul by the two immutable things. We have that which is comparable to the two immutable things in the function of GAP. The principle, therefore, remains the same and it is a very simple one. Doctrine must be in the soul in order to claim it, in order the faith-rest it, whether the doctrine is a promise or it is a principle. Regardless of what it is it must be in the soul, not in the Bible. You don’t claim promises out of the Bible, you claim promises from your own soul.

And this accusative feminine singular from the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] refers to the word elpís (ἐλπις) [pronounced el-PIS] or “hope” which we had in the previous verse, and while it is translated “hope” it should be translated “expectation.” Or, here we could translate it “Which hope objective.” The hope objective is the combination of doctrine plus the advance of the supergrace life.

“we have” — this time echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] is not in the present active subjunctive but in the present active indicative because it is available to every member of the royal priesthood. Here it refers to the paragraph in the divine decrees that has your name in it, a specific paragraph in the supergrace area — “we keep on having.” The present tense here is retroactive progressive present which in this case goes all of the way back to eternity past where the person of God the Father, author of the plan, actually enucleated the plan. The person was first, then came the plan. The person is God the Father, the plan enucleated is the Word of God as it existed in eternity past, not in a book as we have it but in the form we call decrees. The retroactive progressive present means we have always had these things — long before we existed; it denotes what every member of the royal priesthood had in the past with the result that he will always have it. Whether he attains what he has depends entirely on his attitude toward doctrine. The active voice: the believer has confidence in the strategic victory of the Lord Jesus Christ which becomes the basis of confidence in his own supergrace blessing. This is the declarative indicative mood representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality and certainty. The verbal idea here is first of all confidence in the strategic victory of our Lord. It must be remembered that before there could ever be in any paragraph in the doctrine of divine decrees dealing with the royal priesthood of the Church Age, first of all there had to be a paragraph on the royal high priest. There is first of all a large paragraph on His prosperity. His prosperity is only in part right now.

Jesus Christ first of all had to go to the cross and offer Himself as a sacrifice. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, this is where He broke Satan’s back. His resurrection, ascension and session at the right hand of the Father are all a part of the strategic victory. At the point of ascension where the Father said “Sit down until I make your enemies your footstool” is the end of the first stage of strategic victory, and is where the supergrace prosperity of our high priest begins. But it doesn’t end there. He has a supergrace prosperity in heaven, but He will have a supergrace prosperity on earth when He returns to rule. He will take the kingdom of the earth away from Satan, He will destroy all of the armies of Armageddon, He will kill the enemy, He will also remove from this earth all demons, and His supergrace prosperity is really the Millennial reign. We share that with Him as His bride. Just as Sarah shared the blessings of Abraham in supergrace so the Church will share the blessings of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Millennium. In the meantime we as members of the royal priesthood in the Church Age declare this principle to Satan by receiving supergrace blessings in time, but only when we get that cup. And the cup is supergrace capacity. It comes from Bible doctrine and only from Bible doctrine. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ is going to have His supergrace blessings on earth at a future time. The objective right now is for every member of the royal priesthood is to fulfil that supergrace paragraph that is for him and only for him. Supergrace is the normal function of the royal priesthood and God has your name on a paragraph in the divine decrees, associated with supergrace blessing. This all begins with the strategic victory.

This woman calls and said, “I want to know about your church,” and Bob gave her the number to T&P, and then she decided that she would have to find a pencil to write this down, and she is not sure that she is interested. “I told her politely to go to hell and hung up.” “Getting rid of dead wood is a great past time; not a pleasant one.”

Every believer has his name on a supergrace paragraph. There will be men of all walks of life who will receive great supergrace blessings. Business success, military honors, etc.

“as an anchor” — the anchor is very important here because it is sea anchor. “As” indicates a comparative particle, hôs (ὡς) [pronounced hohç]. This sets up the comparative particle of analogy. The analogy here is unique, it is between the use of a sea anchor to stabilize a ship in a storm and protect it from the shoals, and the entrance of the high priest into the holy of holies on the day of atonement. And both of these are illustrations. There are two illustrations set up as an analogy. The first is the sea anchor which was used in a storm so that a ship would not go on the rocks, they would anchor offshore and ride out the storm.

Then we have the tabernacle, and we have the holy of holies — the second veil — and the high priest entering once a year — both are illustrations. This is the system of dual illustration and both of these are analogous to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ as our high priest at the right hand of the Father at the present time.

The first part of the analogy is an anchor. This is agkura (ἄγκυρα) [pronounced ANG-koo-rah] — a sea anchor, and it is called an “anchor of the soul”; “of the soul” is a genitive of possession, psuchê (ψυχή) [pronounced psoo-KHAY]. Again we must be reminded: doctrine has to be in the soul before it can be used. The sea anchor was the stabilizer; doctrine is the sea anchor. Doctrine was more real to Abraham than his hopeless situation. The storm in Abraham’s life was the hopeless situation.

The sea anchor might be at the front or there may be several of them. The parallel is properly to a singular anchor.

Doctrine must be in the soul. Doctrine in the Bible is like the two immutable things for Abraham. Abraham didn’t have a Bible, there was no canon of scripture. Instead, Abraham had the oath which represents the person, and he had the promise which represents the decree. Abraham had his name of one paragraph in that decree just as you have your name in one paragraph of that decree. Abraham had doctrine in his soul, it was transferred by the same two immutable things that are involved in the function of GAP. Doctrine is in the soul, that is the sea anchor, the sea anchor stabilizes the ship. Bible doctrine is the anchor in the believer’s soul keeping the ship from drifting onto the reefs and the shoals of reversionism. Bible doctrine in the soul stabilizes the ship during the storms of life. The first part of the analogy, therefore, refers to doctrine.

We then have two adjectives to amplify the first part of the analogy. The first of these is the word “sure” — asphalês (ἀσφαλής) [pronounced as-fal-ACE], and it means stabilize. It is a nautical term for the stability of a ship. You must be consistent and you must be stabilized in order to reach the supergrace life. Bible doctrine in the soul becomes the sea anchor that stabilizes the believer. Then there is a second word which is very similar to stability but really means “dependability.” It is the word “steadfast” — bébaios (βέβαιος) [pronounced BEB-ah-yoss], which means dependability. Stability and dependability are the two adjectives to describe that consistency necessary for any individual believer to reach the supergrace life. You have to stay with doctrine.

Abraham patiently endured, he obtained the promise and he obtained it at the point of the supergrace life. That is exactly what we have in these two words. You have to be a stable person, you can’t be easily led away from the teaching of the Word of God. You have to be consistent in getting with it, you can’t be constantly involved in the reactor factors just as Abraham was and therefore didn’t get there until age 99. A stabilized and dependable believer is a believer who is consistent in his attitude toward the Word of God and consistent in using his volition in the proper way.

Then we have a connective kai to introduce the second part of the analogy. Kai is simply a conjunction used as a connective link.

The second part of the analogy is entering into the veil. There is no relative pronoun “which”. Instead, we have a present active participle from eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee]. E)is means “into”; Érchomai (ἔρχομαι) [pronounced AIR-khoh-my] means to enter. It refers to the high priest on the day of atonement entering into the holy of holies. But remember that these are all parts of the same analogy. So it refers not to the sea anchor on the bottom of the ocean holding the ship in place, but here we have it upside down. Our sea anchor is in heaven.

Here is where the Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. When the Lord Jesus was seated at the right hand of the Father that was the first phase of the strategic victory. That calls for tactical victory down here. So now the anchor is upside down. Why? This is a picture of positional truth or union with Christ. Union with Christ is the way the Church Age began. At the moment of salvation your royal priesthood is related to strategic victory, and your objective is tactical victory. Tactical victory only comes to you through the supergrace life. And remember, the supergrace life is always the same. There is a cup for your soul and that cup is made up of supergrace capacity, and that is doctrine in your soul. And God pours, and Romans 8:28 is fulfilled. X-things are the things that God provided for you in the divine decrees under paragraph supergrace. There is a supergrace paragraph with your name on it. Y-things are the doctrines that it takes to get to supergrace. X-things blend with Y-things to those who love God. Those who love God = occupation with Christ, the first sign of supergrace. So we have “We know that X-things blend together with Y-things for those who love God, for those who are the called according to his purpose.” “Called according to his purpose” is a reference to the divine decrees, and there is a paragraph in the divine decrees with your name on it. And since you are a royal priesthood you ought to live like royalty.

The principle behind this: God does the pouring. God pours into your cup so that your cup runs over. And God gets the glory. You get the benefit of the supergrace blessing. So when God is blessing you with promotion and prosperity and wealth and success, God is glorified by that and you are benefitted.

The high priest, once a year, on the day of atonement had to put on the complete dress uniform of the high priest. It was a very beautiful uniform. All the people gathered because if anything happened to the high priest they knew they were “dead ducks.” They were under the Levitical priesthood and they had to sweat out this day once a year. So he went through the procedure, the animal sacrifices, gathering the blood. He took the blood in first for himself and then for the people, and he always did the same thing, he sprinkled it over the top of the mercy seat to indicate the doctrine of propitiation — the Father’s righteousness is satisfied with the work of Christ on the cross, and because Jesus Christ is +R (absolute righteousness) the Father can love and save members of the human race without compromising His righteousness.

And justice the same way: Jesus Christ was judged in our place, He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, and therefore justice is satisfied. Because righteousness and justice is satisfied God the Father is free to love those who believe in Jesus Christ and to love them with maximum love. All of this was portrayed by the work of the high priest once a year on the day of atonement, and this in effect is what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us on the cross, this is a picture of the strategic victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 2:14,15; Hebrews 2:14 tells us that not only was our salvation provided but Satan’s back was broken as a part of the angelic conflict.

At the moment of our salvation God the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Jesus Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father. There is the upside down anchor. At the moment of salvation there is our relationship with that strategic victory. Now the anchor also goes the other way, only this anchor is for tactical victory, this anchor is doctrine. And when this anchor is in the soul the believer has reached supergrace and the normal function of his royal priesthood. So we have the upside down anchor and the anchor from heaven. One of them is the strategic victory of Jesus Christ — the baptism of the Spirit and positional truth by which we are permanently related to the strategical victory. Whereas the anchor going the other way is for phase two tactical victory. So we have an anchor going each way. The one is doctrine going into the believer’s soul and the other is the anchor going into the holy of holies.

How are these portrayed? Why do we have a double analogy? It is very simple. First of all the anchor portrays the ship on life’s seas in a storm. The anchor goes down to secure the ship during the storm. That is doctrine in the believer’s soul, that is your sea anchor. Then you also have an anchor entering the veil, and the anchor going up is our strategic victory. This guarantees we will ride out the storm. So we are related at the point of salvation, the upside down anchor is positional truth, union with Jesus Christ. The other analogy of the sea anchor, is doctrine in the soul which is the point of supergrace blessing.

Hebrews 6:19 “Which hope [doctrine] we have as an anchor of the soul, both stabilized and dependable, and having entered into the room [the holy of holies] behind the curtain.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Jesus Christ our royal high priest has entered into heaven. Remember that the holy of holies is a picture of heaven, and while the holy of holies was in the tabernacle on earth heaven is many billions of light years away. Jesus Christ our royal high priest has entered the reality of heaven. Whereas the Levitical high priest could not even enter the shadow except once a year on the day of atonement by blood, now Jesus Christ after His sacrifice and resurrection enters into the true holy of holies, the reality. The Levitical priest dealt with shadows; the royal high priest deals with reality, seated at the right hand of the Father.

Heb 6:20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

Verse 20 — the word “whither” is an adverb of place, hopou (ὅπου) [pronounced HOHP-oo], which means “where”, and “where” refers to the right hand of the Father which is illustrated by the holy of holies in the tabernacle. The holy of holies is the shadow and the third heaven is the reality, the right hand of the Father.

“the forerunner” — prodromos (πρόδρομος) [pronounced PROD-rom-oss] [pro means before; dromoj is the aorist of the verb trekw, “to run”] means to run in advance, but it is more important than that. It actually is a military term and refers to the point, that advance guard which we call today “the point.” The concept here is that we have one man on the point and that is the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ. He has already advanced to the objective. The objective is the right hand of the Father and the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, which in this case is also a tactical victory. So He is the advance guard and He is there entered for us. “Where the advance guard [our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, the anchor within the veil] has entered ...”

“for us” — u(per plus the genitive plural of su. He has entered on behalf of us (plural), all members of the royal priesthood.

“entered” should be “has entered”, the aorist active indicative of eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee], the same verb for the second time in two verses, to show that Jesus Christ is the advance guard, Jesus Christ is the anchor inside of the veil. The aorist tense is the culminative aorist which regards the action in its entirety but emphasizes the existing results. Jesus Christ lived on earth as a man. He lived as a royal high priest. He went to the cross, died, was resurrected, ascended, and is seated on the right hand of the Father. The culminative aorist emphasizes the strategic victory of our advance guard, the Lord Jesus Christ. So on behalf of us He has already entered and is seated on the right hand of the Father. The active voice: the Lord Jesus Christ, the royal high priest, produces the action of the verb. And this is a declarative indicative which regards the verb from the viewpoint of reality, where Jesus the advance guard has entered on behalf of us.

There is a parallel between the High Priest entering to into the Holy of Holies; and Jesus living here on earth, and then entering into the 3^rd heaven, as our advance guard.

Now, at that point and the mentioning of the Lord Jesus Christ we go back to the subject where we left it in Hebrews 5:10 — “Called an high priest of God after the order [or battalion] of Melchizedek.” This time, instead of “called” it is much more personal — “made.” And it is even stronger than that, it is the aorist active participle of the verb ginomai and it means to become. The aorist participle: “having become.” This is a gnomic aorist. The gnomic aorist is for a doctrine which is so absolute as to be axiomatic. The active voice: Christ produces the action of the verb. The participle has antecedent action to the main verb. Before He entered He was already a high priest. Before Jesus Christ accomplished the strategical victory of the angelic conflict He was a priest first. In other words, He offered Himself on the cross as a priest. Just as the animal was offered on the altar in the Old Testament Levitical offerings, so Jesus Christ offered Himself as our high priest.

“after the order of” is incorrect. It is katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of taxis (τάξις) [pronounced TAHX-iss]. katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative means according to the norm or standard of, but it is taxis (τάξις) [pronounced TAHX-iss] that needs the development. Taxis (τάξις) [pronounced TAHX-iss] means battalion — “according to the battalion of Melchizedek.”

We had an outfit that came to the high walls by Peking; a man volunteered to climb the wall, and the whole 14^th infantry climbed the wall killing hundreds of Chinese. They are given the place of honor in many parades. Many battle honors. 1^st of the 14^th is called the golden dragons.

Melchizedek is a king as well as a priest. He was a royal priest; the Levitical priesthood; and there is the family priesthood, which is what Abraham belonged to. The royal priesthood is always the greatest. Today, there is no Levitical Priesthood. The greatest remains. When Melchizedek came eyeball-to-eyeball with Abraham, Melchizedek did the administering.

Hebrews 6:20 “Where the advance guard [our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, the anchor within the veil] has entered on behalf of us according to the battalion of Melchizedek.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews Lesson #73

73 07/27/1973 (2 weeks later) Hebrews 6:13-20

People have been wondering where Bob has been for the past few days. He reads an article from the Houston Chronicle, one which was given to him. There is a group that was planning to go underground to defeat a communist running Santiago. Leading this group is a Roberto Thieme.

We are going to pick out some things in this chapter which were not fully covered before.

Verses 13–20 (Review)

Billions of years ago in eternity past God the Father had plan for the life of every believer, and that plan includes a supergrace paragraph. In the divine decrees God the Father has taken cognisance of every believer who ever lived or ever will live. This is true of believers who lived before the canon of scripture. Before the Bible was written even there were believers like Abraham and God the Father had a plan for their life. So since Abraham did not have a Bible God the Father extrapolated from His supergrace blessing paragraph certain portions of the paragraph which come down in the Bible to us in the form of promises. He actually spoke personally to Abraham though He does not speak personally to us. And in His personal conversation with Abraham He emphasized these particular promises. So He spoke to him and that of course is the Word of God. It was not in writing, Abraham did not have a Bible. So in order to emphasize that this was what was going to happen to Abraham, and is guaranteed, God also took a solemn oath in the name of His own person. So we have two facets to the supergrace promise to Abraham. First of all the oath of God, and secondly, the Word of God. He made the solemn promise in His own name and then declared the content of the promise.

This was not in writing; but God’s oath, taken in the name of His Own Person, functioned as the Word of God in that era. There was no written Bible in Abraham’s day.

We have the Bible, the canon of Scripture; and we have a supergrace paragraph just as Abraham did. God spoke to Abraham personally; He does not speak to us personally. Our supergrace paragraph is just as real as Abraham’s.

What has been omitted in our study of the last part of the sixth chapter of Hebrews is the fact that you and I today do not have the same exact immutable thing. We have the same principle but we do not actually have God speaking to us. We cannot say we know what our supergrace blessing will be because God isn’t speaking to us. Nevertheless, our paragraph in the supergrace life is just as real as Abraham’s was.

There is another problem. God is not talking to us personally, and since the first immutable thing is an oath, what do we have by way of saying that there is also a first immutable thing — the oath of God? Since God isn’t talking to us, none of us have ever heard God say “Just as I am God” or “My name is not God if this is not true”. We hear this same kind of thing as we read Abraham’s life but we don’t hear it personally. God has not made a personal oath, a solemn oath, to any of us to guarantee our supergrace blessings. So what takes the place of the oath? God spoke personally to Abraham. Abraham lived before the canon of scripture so first of all God said, “My name is not God unless I will do this.” He also spoke to Abraham and that is the Word, there was no canon of scripture. Abraham didn’t have anything in writing. We now have a Bible and therefore have what Abraham did not have. But we have the exact equivalent and that is the application that comes in the last part of the sixth chapter of Hebrews.

Abraham had nothing in writing; but we do.

First of all, you and I as believers have the Word of God. What you read in the Bible is just as if God is speaking, in fact that is God speaking. And since the canon of scripture is completed God doesn’t speak verbally to people any more. The big issue is what takes the place of the oath. How do we have two immutable things that guarantees exactly the same thing to us? What are the two immutable things? The first is the preservation of the canon of scripture. God takes a new type of solemn oath where you and I are concerned, the fact that we have the scripture at all. The preservation of it is God’s solemn oath. Just as the Word of God continues to exist in spite of all opposition, just as the Word of God has not been destroyed over the last two thousand years, just as every portion of the canon has been preserved and even translated, just as the Bible is the best seller in the world and written in nearly 1000 languages of the world, this is the equivalent of God’s oath. He said to Abraham, “Just as I am God I will do this”. He says to us, “The fact that you have a Bible is equivalent to that oath I gave to Abraham.” The very existence of the Bible is the equivalent of that oath. So the first immutable thing: the existence of the Bible. The second immutable thing is the content of the Bible, and we have our two immutable things just as Abraham had his. Abraham had the two immutable things and he said, “Circumcise me.” We have two immutable things and we know that just as we are saved, just as we have the reality of our salvation, so supergrace prosperity is just as real for each one of us. There is only one difference. While all of us have salvation through faith in Jesus Christ not all of us are going to go to supergrace. For some, if there is a conflict of interest it always goes against the Bible and therefore some are never going to get there.

Bob has heard every excuse there is why someone has not come to Bible class. But it comes down simply to negative volition toward doctrine. “Not a bad idea taxing sin; might get us out of the red.”

Verse 13 — we are talking about God’s promise of supergrace blessing to Abraham, the extrapolation from the divine decrees. In the middle of this verse is the first of two immutable things. The explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] introduces the subject of two immutable things. Persistence in learning doctrine is the key to reaching supergrace. The word “when” is not found in the original, and it should be translated here, “For God himself having promised.” Just as this was an absolute to Abraham it is an absolute to you.

God not only saved you — the Father planned it, the Son executed it, the Spirit revealed it — but there is something more than that. God promised Abraham specifically that he would have supergrace blessing, and as goes Abraham so you go. If Abraham doesn’t have it, you don’t have it. If God’s promise and God’s approach isn’t valid there it is not valid for you. Actually, you and Abraham are all tied up in this thing together. The only difference is that Abraham lived before there was any Bible, he was pre-canon completely. The Bible starts with Moses and Abraham lived 500 years before Moses. Furthermore, Abraham lived in a different dispensation, the patriarchal period at the beginning of the dispensation of Israel and you live in the Church Age. Consequently, there is a different mechanic in making the promise.

“Howard, go chase that dumb butt from those pictures over there.”

The mechanics to Abraham: An oath. God says, “I am God. I sware on my own person that I will do something for you”, and then He gives him the Word. So you have the person and the Word. Now, today in the Church Age, instead of the oath we have the existence of the Bible, the perpetuation of the Bible. The Word of God lives and abides forever. Even though it is under great attack and even though at times it is pressed down to a very small portion of this planet it goes on. The very existence of the Bible is equivalent to the oath of the Father, and the content of the Bible is equivalent to the extrapolation of the supergrace promise to you personally.

A promise is no greater or no stronger than the person who gives it. So, you receive promises all of the time from various individuals, but the promises are no stronger than that individual.

“because he had no one greater by whom to sware [make an oath]” — the first immutable thing. There was no one greater than God Himself — “he took an oath in the name of himself.” When God approached Abraham on this subject He first of all said, “I take a solemn oath in my own name.” There is no one greater than God and therefore God took an oath in His own name. That is to emphasize the person, the person who actually provides for you supergrace blessings. The person is sovereign and He made a sovereign decision to do this. He made a decision to give each believer supergrace blessings and you have supergrace for you. It may stay in the warehouse until you die and you may have to go to heaven and find out what you missed, but He made the decision and it is a good decision because He is absolute righteousness. It is a fair decision; He is just, He has never left anyone out of the supergrace paragraph. The fact that people do not get to supergrace is because they reject the very basis of supergrace which is His Word — the content of His Word or doctrine. He is also love. God has perfect love for each believer and in His perfect love has provided supergrace blessing. He is eternal life, which means He promised this billions of years before we existed. And God is omniscient. He knew that you would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and become a member of the family of God, and therefore took care of it because of His omniscience. He is omnipotent and has the power, the ability to fulfil the promise when you reach supergrace. And then omnipresence. God is always around. He has a great sense of humour and sees the whole operation unfold. Immutability: God can’t change any of His characteristics, He has no intention of doing so. So any time God makes you any kind of a promise He has to keep His word because He can’t do anything else. Veracity: He can only tell the truth, He can’t tell a lie. So the oath merely amplifies the person who has made the promise.

Verse 14 — “Saying”. Now we get the promise. “Saying” is a static present and it is also a participle or temporal participle, and therefore it should be translated, “When he was saying.” The quotation of the promise given in Hebrews is taken from Genesis 22:16,17 although it could have been taken from Genesis 17:5,6 or Genesis 12 or a number of passages. This one is selected because of its great comprehensiveness.

The word “surely” is very important here because it is a very bad translation of a wonderful Greek idiom which is made up of two particles which are a formula for an oath: ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] mê (μή) [pronounced may]. It means assuredly, definitely, certainly, dogmatically. And all we have is simply the two words. Why is that all w have? Because God is taking an oath in His own name, so the idiom is correctly brought into the English “assuredly or dogmatically, blessing I will bless you”. That means there is a supergrace paragraph for Abraham. “Blessing I will bless” and then “multiplying I will multiply” is a specific. One is a general concept: There is for you Abraham a supergrace blessing. And specifically it is related to sexual prosperity for Abraham because multiplying is something that comes through sex.

We stopped at this stage to look at the categories of grace in the overall picture. The first category was salvation grace [Phase one]. We have the category and we have the involvement. Phase one grace involved all of the Trinity. The involvement is volition — positive volition expressed in a non-meritorious way — or faith in the living Word, Jesus Christ. This, of course, is related to the angelic conflict. Category #2 grace is called living grace, but it also includes dying grace. Living grace is all that God provides to keep you alive on this earth. No volition is involved since this is a matter of the sovereignty of God. He doesn’t many, many thing of which we are not aware to keep us alive. There is also in this dying grace for supergrace believers or believers who are not involved in reversionism. The third category is supergrace or the “more grace” of James 4:6. Supergrace involves volition again — non-meritorious. This time GAPing it, the object of volition is the written Word. We never really get into the perfect relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ in time unless we do it through doctrine. This is the tactical victory. Finally, there is surpassing grace or “the exceeding riches of his grace” in Ephesians 2:7 and no volition is involved because this is the sovereignty of God and His provision for phase three.

Verse 15 — Abraham finally achieving supergrace, the fulfilment of the two immutable things in the life of Abraham. “After he had patiently endured” is incorrect, it is “having persisted.” Abraham kept taking in the Word, he never stopped.

“he obtained the promise” — What promise? The supergrace promise. So the two immutable things are linked together with the supergrace promise. Verse 13: first immutable thing, the oath, emphasizing God’s person; verse 14: the second immutable thing, the content, which places the emphasis on doctrine. In verse 15 we have Abraham, the illustration, achieving. We studied this from 3 different passages.

After going through this principle — the first immutable thing, the second immutable thing, and the fulfilment to Abraham — we now have a theological dissertation on two immutable things in verses 16–18.

Verse 16 — we start again with gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] to show it is a new paragraph and to show it is the same subject but a different approach. First of all in verse 16 we go back to the illustration: “For mankind customarily takes an oath by the greater”— he takes an oath by God — “and to them [those in opposition] such an oath [making a promise in the name of God] with reference to confirmation [guaranteeing security] is the termination of all opposition.” So this is simply an historical illustration to the fact that when people take a solemn oath in the name of God this gives security to the opposition and peace is made between the two antagonistic parties or nations.

Verse 17 — then uses this illustration to amplify the principle. “Wherein” is “By means of which decree” — “the God decreeing [not “willing” as in the KJV]”. This is boulomai which means to make a decree. The present tense is a static present representing the condition assumed as perpetually existing. There never was a time when your supergrace blessing should not exist. Right now in heaven there is a warehouse and there is all of this tremendous supergrace blessing piled up there for you — the prosperity, the promotion, the success, the happiness, whatever it is. They are specific things where you are concerned. The principle applies to every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are involved. This is the story of your life, it is failure or success. Whether we are promoted or not; whether we find RM/RW.

By means which oath the God sovereignly decreeing even more” — God decrees even more — “to demonstrate in addition to the heirs.” Who are the heirs? Abraham is the father of Gentile nations [operation Keturah]. He is the father of a new race [the Jew]. He is also “the father of us all.” How? We are heirs of supergrace promises, and there is father Abraham. Just as Abraham was recipient of a supergrace paragraph, so are you. This is an heirship to be possessed now, not in heaven. There are two kinds of heirship: you inherit in phase three but you inherit in phase two. Abraham is the father of us all and we are Abraham’s heirs. That means God has for each one of us a supergrace paragraph.

“heirs of the promise” — the promise is in time. For Abraham is was sexual prosperity. The promise has nothing to do with heaven. This refers to materialistic things without emphasizing what goes with this. What goes with this is a soul saturated with doctrine — persistence. Abraham persisted in taking in doctrine and he got there. You and I are the heirs of Abraham — in time.

Next comes the immutability of His decree. “By means of which oath the God sovereignly decreed even more to demonstrate in addition to the decree to the heirs [royal family of priests] of the promise the immutability of his decree [supergrace blessings], he guaranteed it by means of an oath.” God has the power to keep the Bible going forever. The second immutable thing is what is inside. That is why we have the gift of pastor-teacher.

Verse 18 — “That by two immutable things.” The two immutable things to Abraham and the two immutable things to you. In principle they are the same, mechanically they are different — we have the Bible, the completed canon of scripture. But the Bible must be taught to us. For Abraham it was an oath and a promise extrapolated from the decrees; for us the existence of the Bible and the teaching of the Bible.

Satan keeps trying to destroy the Bible, and yet, they continue to exist. God can perpetuate His Word forever. The Bible is equivalent to the oath made to Abraham. But we understand that from the teaching of a well-qualified pastor.

Abraham did not have a Bible; so God spoke to him. We do not have the doctrine until the Bible is taught to us.

“we [the priesthood] might have strong encouragement” — to advance and seize our paragraph, to make advance to tactical victory — “so long as we take refuge in doctrine for the purpose of attaining the objective constantly placed before us.” Every time the Word of God the objective is placed before us.

Verse 19 — the upside down anchor is also right side up. “Which we have and hold an anchor of the soul.” The anchor is said to be of the soul, a genitive of possession. The anchor is also described as a sea anchor of the ancient world and inasmuch as the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written it is quite obvious that the two adjectives which follow, sure and steadfast, are related to sea anchors of the ancient world.

Sea anchors do two things. They give direction and they give stability. They secure the ship from the shoals and they give stability in the storm. And “sure” means stability which comes from getting the bow into the storm. But “steadfast”, which means “dependable”, keeps the ship off of the shoals.

This anchor of the soul is said to be stabilized and dependable. An anchor of the soul means Bible doctrine in the soul. So here is the Bible, our oath from God, His solemn promise. The doctrine must go into your soul. Bible doctrine in the soul provides stability as well as security.

If there are enough supergrace believers, then the nation will be able to be under the umbrella of those supergrace believers.

There is another anchor here though. This anchor has to go up. The Jews could not enter into the holy of holies. The high priest could go in once a year and if he went in and came out the nation had another year of survival. This was a part of the function of the day of atonement. The holy of holies is a picture of heaven. Jesus Christ our high priest enters into heaven by His resurrection and ascension. He is seated at the right hand of the Father, that is the end of the first phase of strategic victory. Jesus Christ is the anchor, this time it is upside down. This time He is the one who entered in as the anchor. Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. At the moment of salvation God the Holy Spirit entered us into union with Christ and we not only have the anchor which is doctrine in the soul but we have anchor in heaven. The anchor in heaven is the Lord Jesus Christ.

What is the anchor in the soul of the believer? Doctrine! The written Word. What is the second anchor? It is the living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. So again we have the living Word and the written Word. With those two anchors we have perfect security in this life as well as perfect happiness. The fact that you and I at the point of salvation were picked up and placed into union with Christ guarantees that we have supergrace blessing. It doesn’t guarantee that we will get it. Our attitude toward Christ is the first anchor in heaven. Our attitude toward the written Word determines whether we ever get to supergrace or not. And it has to be a consistent attitude. We cannot be unstable, as so many are, and get there.

Verse 20 — we have one more illustration. “Forerunner” can be translated two ways. The nautical use of prodromos (πρόδρομος) [pronounced PROD-rom-oss] is “pilot ship” — which brings the ship into harbour — or “advance guard”, the military use of it. Jesus Christ is the advance guard for a second great supergrace victory. This is the victory that will come with surpassing grace.

Bob calls this a squeeze operation. We have in the middle, the Church Age, our two immutable things. Principle is the same; the mechanics are different. We can look back to Abraham, or we can look forward to Jesus Christ, Who is our advance guard. We have it from both sides.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #74

74 08/31/1973 Hebrews 7:1 Types of nobility; doctrine of priesthood

#73 ends above, and #75 begins below. So what is in this lesson?

“If you are a holy roller or a draft dodger or anti-war, you can get out now.”

The superiority of royalty is the subject of this section of Hebrews.

Bob has a letter from a man who knew he was about to die. He listened to 2 tapes a day. There were times when I hated you; I called you some pretty raunchy names. Benjamin A. Hathaway.

We are all members of the royal family of God; and it is about time that we hear about this status. Positionally, we are superior to anything that has walked this earth; but the only way that we can catch up to this is, through spiritual growth.

The Priestly Order of Melchizedek

Hebrews 7:1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,

Chapter 7

The Superiority of Royalty

1. There are many types of royalty and nobility in human history. In ancient times, for example, there was a very wonderful system of royalty called the Spartiates. They had a code that has never been equalled in military, in courage, and in strength. They were royalty by deeds of military courage. They had a discipline that has never been rivalled in all of human history. We also have another system of royalty based upon great mental ability, leadership by brains: the Eutatridai of Athens, some of the most brilliant men who ever lived in the field of handling administration. The Patricians of Rome represented some of the greatest systems of self-discipline and nobility the world has ever seen. Even the Brahman cast of India which lasted for many centuries made up originally a very brilliant, unusual people. If ever we could say in history that there was a Gentile super race, as Hitler kept shouting, it would have to be that Brahman cast. They are the only Arians in history who have ruled for over a thousand years.

a. Romanoff in Russa.

b. Various French royalty families.

c. 1500 in ginnt a man born, from the no sure who this guy is. Father is Philip II of Spain. His mother was Joanna the Mad. Ruler more of Europe than anyone since Charlimaign. He wound up fixing clocks in a monastery.

2. Going from groups who succeeded and became nobility in history we get a family. Probably the family that impresses in the history of Europe is the Hollenzollen family, a family of great royalty and great success. The Hapsburg family lasted longer than any other of the ruling families of Europe, ruling out of Vienna, ruling what was known as the holy Roman Empire (which was neither holy nor an empire). Then there were the Romanovs which did very well in Russia for a while. France had some famous ruling families.

3. There are famous families in the history of Rome, families of great nobility — the Cornelius family which contributed all of the Skipios. There is another famous Patrician family called the Julius family. One of that family was one of the greatest men of all history, his name was Gaius.

4. There is also another type of royalty and the man who created it was a man of great genius. Napoleon created battlefield royalty. Many of Napoleon’s marshals were given titles of nobility on the basis of their tactical success or in making some great contribution to a campaign.

5. Bob names a buttload of royalty. Battlefield royalty.

6. The original nobility of our Anglo-Saxon heritage. Many people are born into royalty but royalty is always developed through ability. This is the key. At one time or another in English history the dukes, the marques, the earl, the viscount, the baron, all represented people who did great things..

7. Edward III created earls. When a heir to the throne of England is born today, he becomes the something and later the prince of Wales. Viscount created by Henry VI. Many are born into royalty. But only a few have the ability to succeed as royalty.

8. Some of the greatest men of our history are those who have come from royalty, People have a tendency in our society to demonstrate their stupidity by failing to recognize the historical impact of royalty. Some of the greatest men in history from the standpoint of genius and impact are people who have come from royalty — ,,,,like Gaius Julius Cæsar

We will come to understand the royal priesthood. You may have been born a bastard or so low on the totem pole that you are ashamed of it. Born again means that you walked into the greatest system of royalty.

All of the things that we will enjoy in life from God are based upon royalty and the priesthood. Where does Hebrews 7 fit into the picture? The seventh chapter has nothing to do with the 6^th.

We will study in this chapter the peerage of Melchizedek. We will come to understand one of the oldest and most important categories of nobility in all of history. You are a part of that royalty, not on the basis of your ability, but on the basis of who and what Christ is. As we study this chapter we will come to understand the royal priesthood of the Church Age. Nobility of the royal priesthood will last forever. The moment you were born again you walked into the greatest system of royalty the world has ever known, and somewhere along the line you have to come to appreciate it. Two chapters are designed to make you appreciate your nobility: chapter 7, the royal priesthood; Ephesians 4, the system of royalty in supergrace. Believers of the Church Age, having the most enduring type of nobility, need to understand that this nobility is designed so that God can pick you up and give you millions of dollars, promote you, give you material prosperity, social prosperity, sexual prosperity, provide His very own happiness for you. All of these things are related to royalty. Royalty must have royalties, that is the supergrace life. Royalty must have function, that is the function of the priesthood. The royalties come from supergrace, the function of nobility comes from the priesthood.

The question arises: Will believers enjoy the privileges and blessings of being royalty while being still on the earth? The answer is: That depends on you! It depends on your volition, your attitude toward Bible doctrine. The answer to these questions are all found in the book of Hebrews. To enjoy the privileges and blessings of royalty the believer must be consistently positive toward Bible doctrine. The question now is where Hebrews 7 fits into the picture. Hebrews 7 has nothing whatever to do with Hebrews 6. Hebrews 5:11 through 6:20 is a parenthesis to pull believers — to whom this was originally addressed — out of reversionism, for you neither look, nor think, nor act like the royalty you are when you are in reversionism. You are one of the skeletons in the closet of the palace!

Hebrews 5:10 says literally from the Greek, “Having been designated by God high priest according to the battalion of Melchizedek.”

Principles Between Hebrews 5:10 and 6:19,20

1. Those to whom Hebrews was originally addressed were believers living in Jerusalem in 67 AD, three years from the greatest crisis in all of Jewish history.

2. This was on the eve of the greatest disaster in Jewish history, the second administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the southern kingdom of Judah. It would occur in 70 AD.

3. At the time of the writing of Hebrews believers in Jerusalem and Judah were generally reversionistic, as per Hebrews 6. Hence, they were not ready for the message which we will be studying.

4. The royal priesthood and the supergrace life were not a challenge to them.

5. They did not comprehend the strategic victory of Christ and its relationship to the tactical victory of the royal priesthood.

6. Spiritual growth and progress was hindered by reversionism.

7. The believers who are recipients of this epistle must be challenged to repent, to recover from reversionism. The challenge was presented to them in Hebrews 5:11–6:20. They were assigned to the battalion of Melchizedek, not assigned to the family of Aaron and the tribe of Levi.

Hebrews 6:19–20 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, here Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. (ESV)

Bob is drawing battalions on the board. Melchizedek is a king and a priest; a royal priest. We are in union with Christ. We are saved forever and saved as royalty. We are royalty forever. We do not have to open the package way off in the future; we can open it up now.

There are in the field of priesthoods three battalions. All bona fide priesthoods appointed by the Word of God fall into three categories or battalions. We are in the royal priesthood, the only other person in this battalion is Melchizedek who was both a king and a priest — a royal priest. Jesus Christ is also a royal high priest. We are in union with Christ and here is where we get out royalty forever. The second category is the tribe of Levi, family of Aaron, and it is now defunct. The third category is family priesthood. That is where Abraham was, and it was also deactivated. There is no Levitical priesthood and no family priesthood functioning in the world today. There is only one priesthood and the believer is in it, and he is royalty in it, he is nobility. It is one thing to be born into royalty, it is something else to live and to function like royalty.

Abraham believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and it was credited to his account for righteousness — which means: God the Father gave him +R, then justified him. At the same time God the Holy Spirit regenerated him. And that is true for all of the Old Testament saints from Adam right down to the interruption of the Jewish Age. The Jewish Age was interrupted by the Church Age and that was one of the most dramatic and traumatic moments of history — a dispensation is stopped before it is completed — and when it occurred the Levitical priesthood was defunct, deactivated completely, immediately, and in its place a royal priesthood. Now God the Holy Spirit takes every believer and enters him into union with Christ, the baptism of the Spirit which never occurred before. Moses didn’t have the baptism of the Spirit, David didn’t, Isaiah and Jeremiah didn’t. The baptism of the Spirit enters the believer into union with the King priest, the King high priest. Jesus Christ in His person as deity is sovereign forever; Jesus Christ in His humanity was born of the tribe of Judah, the royal tribe; the family of David, the royal family; and therefore in His humanity He is a King. But more than that, He is a King high priest and therefore He is King of kings, He is Lord of lords.

In Hebrews chapter seven we are studying the superiority of royalty; in Ephesians chapter four which will follow we study the royal family.

The Outline of Hebrews Chapter 7 Is Threefold:

1. The superiority of the Melchizedek battalion — verses 1–10.

2. The inferiority of the Levitical battalion — verse 11–19.

3. The superiority of the royal priesthood in the Church Age — verses 20–28.

The Doctrine of the Priesthood

1. A priest is a member of the human race representing the human race before God. The priest is taken from the male population of the human race, he must partake of the nature of the person or persons for whom he acts, officiates, represents. In other words, he must be a bona fide member of the human race — Hebrews 5:1; 7:4,5,14,25. It is also part of the subject of Hebrews 10:5, 10–14.

2. The sphere of priestly function. The priest and the high priest must function in the sphere of spiritual phenomena. Therefore he is appointed for man’s benefit in spiritual things. This means the royal priesthood of the Church Age is inevitably and totally related to Bible doctrine.

3. The categories of the priesthood. The first battalion is the royal priesthood. a) The royal priesthood in which Melchizedek is the pattern — Hebrews 7:1–3. b) Melchizedek was both a king and a priest, but without any emphasis but without any emphasis on his parents, his genealogy, his birth certificate or death certificate. c) Melchizedek appeared once to Abraham ministering to him bread and wine, the symbols of Christ’s ministry on the cross.

4. By way of contrast, the Levitical priesthood symbolized the cross through animal sacrifices which were discontinued when the Jewish Age was interrupted.

5. The symbols of the royal priesthood remain — bread and wine. We have the symbols of the royal priesthood every time we assemble for the communion service.

6. The office of the royal priesthood in not hereditary but perpetual. In other words you and I are a royal priest but it does not follow that our children are, of course. No one enters into the royal priesthood through heredity. We enter on a spiritual basis — being born again — and it is perpetual, we are royal priests forever.

7. The appointment is not related to physical birth but to the new birth.

8. The second battalion is the Levitical priesthood (review).

a. The Levitical priesthood began with Aaron, the older brother of Moses.

b. The concept of this priestly ministry of spiritual things is found in Numbers 16:5.

c. This priesthood was perpetuated through heredity. Aaron had two surviving sons through whom the entire Levitical priesthood was descended.

d. However, physical defects caused the elimination of a priest in the priestly line. He couldn’t function at the altar if he had physical defects — Leviticus 21:17–21. Bob gives a list of things of those things which disqualified a person from being a priest.

e. The Levitical priesthood was supported by thirteen Levitical cities — Joshua 21:13–19.

f. In addition there was a special annual tithe paid to the Levites for their support — a tax — Leviticus 23:10. What a sucker you are; you don’t have to give 10%.

g. Other support came from redemption money of the first-born — Numbers 18:16.

h. The spiritual phenomena of the Levitical priesthood was grace, but limited to shadows. The cross is the reality. The Levitical priesthood dealt with shadows, we in the Church Age deal with reality.

9. The third battalion is the family priesthood in which the patriarch of the family functioned as the priest. Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, were family priests.

10. The royal high priest of the Church Age: the Lord Jesus Christ.

a. Jesus Christ is the royal high priest of the Church Age.

b. As such He has fulfilled the first function of the priesthood — offerings at the altar. He offered Himself on the real altar which was the cross. He offered Himself for the sins of the world; our sins were poured out upon Him and judged.

c. From this function comes the first strategic victory of the angelic conflict: resurrection, ascension, and session — Hebrews 10:5–14.

d. Our royal high priest, Jesus Christ, was appointed forever in the divine decrees — Hebrews 5:6.

e. He was assigned to the first battalion, the battalion of Melchizedek, the royal battalion — Hebrews 5:10.

f. He was assigned specifically in the pattern of Melchizedek to prove that the priesthood of which we are a part is infinitely superior to the Levitical priesthood. g) He was appointed with two immutable things — Hebrews 7:21.

11. The royal priesthood of the Church Age includes every believer. You and I are a kingdom of royal priests, now and forever. Our royalty depends upon God’s perfect plan, upon the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and the baptizing ministry of God the Holy Spirit which puts us in the royal palace forever — 1Peter 2:5,9; Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6.

12. The purpose of the royal priesthood in time is to reach supergrace, the tactical victory of the angelic conflict — Hebrews 6:17–20.

13. The function of the royal priesthood is delineated in Hebrews 13.

We start v. 1 Sunday morning.

1972 Hebrews 7:1 Gen. 14:1-24 Lesson #75

75 09/02/1973 Hebrews 7:1; Gen. 14:1-24 Superiority of royalty; Melchizedek not a theophany

Chapter 7 is outlined.

1. The superiority of the Melchizedek battalion — verses 1–10.

2. The inferiority of the Levitical battalion — verse 11–19.

3. The superiority of the royal priesthood in the Church Age — verses 20–28.

We begin by seeing the superiority of our priesthood from the standpoint of royalty.

There Are Three References to Melchizedek in the Bible.

1. The historical reference is found in Genesis chapter fourteen,

2. the prophetical reference in Psalm 110:4,

3. and the doctrinal reference in Hebrews chapter seven. Our passage in Hebrews chapter seven deals with the doctrinal implications of the life of Melchizedek.

Heb 7:1 For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him,...

Verse 1 — the conjunction “For”, which is gar, is used to explain the fact that there have been many priesthoods in human history. Three of them were bona fide and authorized by God. But out of all of the priesthoods which have been functional in human history only one of them is meaningful today and forever at the same time.

“this Melchizedek” — the word “this” is a demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos], it is used to indicate that he will be the subject, along with others, in the next few verses. Houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] also places a very special emphasis on Melchizedek as being unique in the day in which he lived. The uniqueness in the day in which he lived overflows into the uniqueness of the person of Christ both being in the same battalion. “Melchizedek” in the Greek is Melxisedek. In the Hebrew the compound words are “king” and “righteousness.”

“king of Salem” — the Greek words here, basileus (βασιλεύς) [pronounced bahs-ee-loose], and Salhm, indicates a bona fide historical person. Basileus (βασιλεύς) [pronounced bahs-ee-loose], incidentally, refers always to a human being, it is a king from the standpoint of being a member of the human race. In other words, Melchizedek is an actual historical character, not a theophany. Salem is an actual place.

Melchizedek is not a theophany

Theophanies refer to the appearances of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. In addition to theophanies we also have Christophanies which are appearances of the Lord Jesus Christ after His resurrection. There are six reasons why Melchizedek is not a theophany.

1. First of All, Theophanies Are Never Given Formal Names. Melchizedek Is Very definitely a formal name.

2. Theophanies are never mentioned with specific geographical locations, like Salem.

3. Theophanies always disclose God as the messenger. In the case of Melchizedek he is not so indicated in the historical, doctrinal, or any other passage connected with him.

4. The content of Psalm 110:4 indicates that Melchizedek is a genuine historical person. Christ is addressed by God the Father, He does not say to Christ, “You are Melchizedek”, He says “You are a priest after the classification” [or the battalion] of Melchizedek.” Christ is not addressed as Melchizedek because Christ is not Melchizedek and because Melchizedek is not Jesus Christ.

5. A priest by very Biblical definition must be true humanity to represent the human race before God. Melchizedek was functioning as a priest when he met Abraham therefore he had to be a member of the human race. The fact that Melchizedek was a king without genealogy forms the pattern for the royal priesthood in the Church Age. Every believer in the Church Age is spiritual royalty based upon spiritual birth. It is true that in the Old Testament people were saved in exactly the same way, by believing in Christ as He was revealed. And at the time of salvation God the Father gave to each believer +R and justified him. So one of the ministries in salvation in the Old Testament was justification from God the Father. God the Holy Spirit regenerated the person simultaneously. So we can say that at least five things occurred when any person believed in Christ in the Old Testament times.

6. By way of contrast, the Church Age dramatically and suddenly interrupted the Jewish Age. In this interruption God the Holy Spirit does something that He has never done before. The baptism of the Holy Spirit enters every believer into union with Christ. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. This makes Him a member of the royal family of God instead of simply a member of the family of God. The Holy Spirit indwells: the sign of royalty. The Holy Spirit seals: security for royalty. The Holy Spirit provides a spiritual gift which is the function of royalty. All of these things add up to the fact that for the first time, and the only time in history, we have a spiritual royalty that is exists forever. None of that was true, even of people who were kings, in the Old Testament. For example, we have David who was born again. His function in life was king, he was a ruler. Yet he is not a member of the royal family of God. He is a member of the family of God but he is not in the palace. Cyrus, king of Persia, a Gentile believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was born a king and was one of the greatest kings of the ancient world. Yet he is not a member of the royal family.

7. Melchizedek was a true historical person rather than a theophany. As an historical person he was a royal priest, therefore a pattern and an illustration of the present priesthood of the Church Age. With the royal priest it makes no difference who your father is, who your mother is, your birth certificate, your death certificate, or an other factor; ours is not royalty by heritage, ours is royalty by regeneration. So we have an eternal royalty, an eternal nobility. The pattern and the illustration which is used is Melchizedek. But more important than that, Melchizedek as a member of the royal priesthood had an encounter with Abraham who is not only a family high priest as a patriarch but was also the source of the Levitical priesthood. Therefore, in their historical meeting whatever occurred is significant as far as the superiority of royalty is concerned.

Notice that he is called “king of Salem.” Salem is the ancient city of Jerusalem. The name means “city of peace.” It was always a warlike city and therefore had a good name. If you want to have peace the best way to have it is through a strong military. The people who occupied this city had the best military in the world and therefore had peace most of the time. It was not until David’s day that Jerusalem was even captured, and that was nearly five hundred years after the Jews entered the land. The is called the city of peace not to cater to the bleeding hearts but because it is always the strong military that keeps the freedom of such a city protected.

Melchizedek was a royal priest and therefore the battalion derives its name from him. It is known as the Melchizedek battalion. He is called a “priest of the most high God”, which indicates a number of things. First of all, he was born again, he was a believer. He was appointed by God. He was a Gentile. There were no Jews in the world at this time and the only thing that represents the Levitical priesthood is also a Gentile by the name of Abraham who at 99, the point of his circumcision, would become the first Jew. Melchizedek was a king and had political power; he was a believer and had great spiritual power.

“met Abraham” — “met” is an aorist active participle of sunantaô (συναντάω) [pronounced soon-ahn-TAH-oh], a constative aorist that gathers up into one historical meeting all that occurred between Melchizedek and Abraham. This took a little time, at least a few hours, and therefore the constative aorist gathers up into one entirety everything that occurred in that historical meeting. The active voice: Melchizedek produced the action of the verb. He was the aggressor, the one who went to meet Abraham. Abraham had just won some great spiritual victories as well as military victories, and he was still very vulnerable. We are very vulnerable to defeat after great victories. Abraham had just won the greatest spiritual victory of his life to that point and was now very vulnerable to defeat. Therefore Melchizedek aggressively came to his rescue. The participle has antecedent action to the main verb which is found in verse two — “Abraham gave”.

At this point we have another participle, “returning” — the present active participle of hupostrephô (ὑποστρέφω) [pronounced hoop-os-TREF-oh], and aoristic present which expresses the idea of a present fact without reference to progress. It is called punctiliar action in present time. The active voice: Abraham produced the action of the verb, he is coming back from a military victory. The participle is circumstantial, and the circumstantial participle is followed by words which describe his success. Notice how it is emphasized. Although tactically Abraham was very successful, even though he won a battle, in winning a battle, in winning peace, in delivering people from the aggrandizement of a great dictator, notice what is mentioned. You must slaughter the enemy! That is exactly what is mentioned — “from the slaughter”, the preposition apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the ablative of koph, and koph is a very strong word. It means that so many of the enemy were slaughtered that never again will they return to disturb the peace of that area.

“of the kings” refers here to a confederation of kings. The kings themselves were not slaughtered but their armies were.

“and blessed him” — “bless” is the aorist active participle of eulogeô (εὐλογέω) [pronounced you-lohg-EH-oh]. In other words, here is a man who has come back from winning a great victory, and in winning this great victory he is now vulnerable. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The active voice: Melchizedek, a royal high priest, produced the action of the verb indicating his superiority over Abraham at a time of Abraham’s great spiritual victory. That is the implication of the active voice. Melchizedek was superior to Abraham as a believer, he was a great king and also a great military leader. Abraham has just emerged a military leader but Melchizedek was spiritually and every other way superior to Abraham, and was and always will be. It is the superior who ministers spiritual things to the inferior.

Gen 14:1 In the days of Amraphel king of Shinar, Arioch king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer king of Elam, and Tidal king of Goiim,...

Translation of verse 1 — “For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, the one having met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, the one having blessed him.”

All of this is amplified in detail in the fourteenth chapter of Genesis. It gives us the historical incident. Some things are not clear unless we are first of all familiar with Genesis 14 where we have Abraham’s four great victories. In verse 1 all of the men were those who had great kingdoms at the time and they form a combination. The warfare of this chapter is no small time operation, it was a large scale military expedition under the command of Chedorlaomer and when Abraham entered Canaan Chedorlaomer had already conquered the Jordan valley and had subjected it to tribute. When these cities of the valley revolted a military expedition went into Palestine under the command of Chedorlaomer, king of Elam. It would seem from the structure of the language that the king of Shinar occupied first place as far as bringing troops was concerned. The “kingdom of nations” is simply Galilee with larger boundaries, the country north of Jerusalem.

Gen 14:2 ...these kings made war with Bera king of Sodom, Birsha king of Gomorrah, Shinab king of Admah, Shemeber king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar).

Verse 2 — “these made war.” The word “made” is the qal perfect of asah which means they manufactured war, and this is a very important concept. It means to manufacture something out of something, and these kings manufactured war out of their mental attitude sin, out of their old sin nature. And this gives us a great commentary on the source of war. War will always exist until the second advent of Christ. Jesus said “there will be wars and rumours of wars until I come”. People are always going to manufacture an excuse for war, and in verse 2 it says they manufactured war —

“with Bera, king of Sodom, and with Birsha, king of Gomorah, Shinab, king of Admah, and Shemeber, king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela, which is Zoar.”

Disarmament and the National Council of Churches has led to the abuse and destruction of others. This keeps the United States from acting where we could.

Gen 14:3 And all these joined forces in the Valley of Siddim (that is, the Salt Sea).

Verse 3 — “All these were joined to gather in the vale of Siddim.” When it says they “were joined together” it is the qal perfect of chabar and it means they have formed their battle in that area. Chabar is actually the Hebrew word for tactical disposition in the face of the enemy. So we now have forming up a tactical situation, a group of kings under Chedorlaomer about to attack in the vale of Siddim those who have come out to defend the Jordan valley which is now covered mostly by the Dead Sea.

Gen 14:4 Twelve years they had served Chedorlaomer, but in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

What had happened to bring on this battle? Verse four begins retrospective disposition. “Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer.” The word abadh means to be the slaves, but not in the sense that we understand slavery. It means slavery in the sense that they paid tribute, they paid for protection. Then it says that in the thirteenth year they started a revolution — maradh.

Gen 14:5 In the fourteenth year Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him came and defeated the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim, the Zuzim in Ham, the Emim in Shaveh-kiriathaim,

Verse 5 — “and smote”. First of all, they didn’t go and attack the Jordan valley. All around the Jordan valley are some beautiful and high mountains, and in these mountains lived the giants. They attacked these giants, “the Rephaim … and the Zuzim … the Emim”, all races of giants that lived at that time. And notice it says he “smote” them, the hiphil imperfect of nacha means that he drove them back into the mountains. The hiphil stem means that he caused them to be slaughtered. Even though they were giants, even though they were strong, they could not hold up against a good military organization. Chedorlaomer leads a well-trained, well-disciplined military organization and well-trained military types can handle the strong man every time. This was a warn-up for the battle of the vale of Siddim.

Gen 14:6 and the Horites in their hill country of Seir as far as El-paran on the border of the wilderness.

Verse 6 — the Horites were also giants and they, too, were defeated.

Gen 14:7 Then they turned back and came to En-mishpat (that is, Kadesh) and defeated all the country of the Amalekites, and also the Amorites who were dwelling in Hazazon-tamar.

The cities being discussed today are under the Dead Sea.

Verse 7 — “And they returned”, the qal imperfect of shu which means gradually they pulled the various segments of this army together. The army had been broken up into many organizations, had gone out and conquered the various giants, and so on. Now they secured all of the flanks in the valley they were about to attack. This shows that Chedorlaomer and his military organization were very wise when it came to tactical situations.

Gen 14:8 Then the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, the king of Admah, the king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (that is, Zoar) went out, and they joined battle in the Valley of Siddim

Verse 8 — the five kings of the five cities made their tactical disposition in the vale of Siddim. This is one of the first gigantic military enterprises recorded in history. This occurred between 2100 and 2000 BC. The spiritual as well as the military implications of this battle are absolutely fantastic. There are some other implications, too, that might be mentioned. In verse 10 “the vale of Siddim” was full of slime pits. The words “slime pits” means pits of asphalt. In other words, oil was practically on top of the ground in this portion of the middle east.

The War of the Vale of Siddim

1. The vale of Siddim was a very beautiful green valley which later became the Salt Sea and the Dead Sea. The destruction of Sodom, Gomorah, and these five cities by God actually led to the removal of this valley.

2. Chedorlaomer used great military wisdom in first of all securing all of his flanks.

3. The Horites were cave dwellers who were later exterminated by the Edomites.

4. Notice that after extensive conquests in the area of Abraham, while all of the flanks were secured one was not. Abraham was actually on the flank rear of Chedorlaomer’s army as it reassembled.

a. This tells us something. God is protecting Abraham. His territory was completely surrounded by this great invading army but it was not invaded. We have the principle of the wall of fire.

b. There was no reason why Abraham was not rolled up like a mat.

c. Another principle: Jesus Christ controls history.

5. The line of march was from the north, around the east to Edom, and then to the vale of Siddim. They did not march directly through Abraham’s country.

6. After plundering all the tribes east and west of the Aribah the gave battle to the kings of the five cities in the vale of Siddim. The king of Sodom is the ruler of that group.

7. The valley is filled with asphalt pits. Manoeuvrability is very difficult and the asphalt pits will make retreat impossible. So the king of Sodom is typical of the degradation of Sodom, typical of any society that permits any type of homosexuality. This society destroys itself, and he didn’t have any more sense than to pick a battlefield filled with asphalt pits where he could neither manoeuvre nor retreat.

8. The battle was won by Chedorlaomer. We read in verses 11 and 12 — “And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorah, and all their food, and went their way. And they took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, who dwelt in Sodom, with all of his goods and departed.” Note that Lot is a reversionistic believer who has chosen to live in this area, and has chosen on the basis of human viewpoint. So we have the plundering of Sodom, the first consequence of Lot’s human viewpoint choice in reversionism.

9. Abraham’s choice of faith protected him completely from the invasion of Chedorlaomer. He was completely bypassed.

a. Principle: Jesus Christ controls history.

b. Principle: There is a wall of fire around Abraham.

c. Lot’s choice of sight rather than faith cost him every materialistic possession at this particular point.

This is the background for Genesis 14:13–24 where Abraham demonstrates four great victories. The first victory is found in verses 13 and 14. It is the victory of mental attitude, the victory of Bible doctrine in the soul to the extent that Abraham was not one of those I-told-you-so types. He was not a gloater. Lot had made his own trouble and produced his own misery but we do not find Abraham as a gloater at this time.

Gen 14:13 Then one who had escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was living by the oaks of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol and of Aner. These were allies of Abram.

Verse 13 — “And there came one who had escaped.” In the Hebrew we have the qal imperfect of bo plus hapalit. Hapalit means someone who is a fugitive who has escaped with his life but is not even secure in his health. He is a desperate man, one who manage to evade all of the asphalt pits and get completely away, and apparently he was someone related to Lot — a servant of some kind — and someone who also knew Abraham and chose to go with Lot rather than Abraham. So we have “the fugitive”, as he is called. At one time in his life he could have stayed with Abraham or he could go with Lot. He had free will, he had volition, and he went off with Lot into the beautiful green valley, into the place of Funsville, into the place which represent the concept of a frantic search for happiness. He went off into reversionism with Lot and he, too, laughed at Abraham and ridiculed Abraham for living where he lived. But when disaster hit he remembers Abraham, the man who was positive toward doctrine, someone who was on the right track. Therefore, where does he go when he has nothing left, when his life is in danger, when he is fleeing for his life? The fugitive goes to Abraham.

“and told Abram” — the word “told” is the hiphil of nagadh. It means he was forced to tell all. In the hiphil stem, the causative active voice, means that there was no place else to go. He was forced — it was almost like compulsion — to run and tell Abraham what had happened. Remember that from the human viewpoint Abraham can do nothing. This is a large army and Abraham does not have any such army. The fugitive knows that but he is desperate, he has escaped, he knows there is nowhere else to go. When the chips are down and the pressure is on people always come to the believer who has demonstrated stability and divine power for the crisis. Men often laugh at the strong believer, until the emergency. In times of distress people always come to the one who is in doctrine, who has stability, who is moving toward supergrace or is in the supergrace life.

Notice the testimony of Abraham — “Abram the Hebrew”. Hebrew simply means to cross over the river, it is not the word for the Jew. The Jew comes at age 99. This is Abraham, the one who crossed over the river. He crossed the Euphrates to live in this land.

This may give us a clue as to how this name came to be assigned to the Hebrew people.

“for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite.” He was actually living in a valley which belonged to Mamre the Amorite, “the brother of Eschol, the brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram” — they had a treaty with him. They were also coverts of Abram and at this particular point they are his very good friends. He has rejected Sodom. Lot wanted to go to Sodom and have a good social life. Abram stayed back in the hills and God brought to him a wonderful social life. These three people, under the tutelage of Abram, are wonderful people. They are Amorites which is a synonym today for decadence, but at this time they were wonderful friends. Abram stayed where he was, God provided him some wonderful friends.

Gen 14:14 When Abram heard that his kinsman had been taken captive, he led forth his trained men, born in his house, 318 of them, and went in pursuit as far as Dan.

Verse 14 — “Abram heard” — the qal imperfect of shama. In this chapter Abraham is a great man. He hasn’t reached supergrace but he is positive and he is on his way. He doesn’t ridicule, he doesn’t even stop for one minute to criticize lot — no judging, no gloating, no callousness, no indifference. He is not doing anything that is negative. This is the attitude of grace found in Galatians 6:1,9-10. Abraham under doctrine is only concerned about Lot. So the first victory of Abraham is the victory of Bible doctrine in his soul, a mental attitude free from mental attitude sin. He is not bitter or vindictive or implacable, jealous or gloating, or any of the things that characterize the petty person.

The second victory is a victory in battle. The first was a spiritual victory of mental attitude, the second is the battle victory of Abraham in verses 15 and 16.

In verse 14 — “And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive” — he has heard what had happened. This is not quite a correct translation — “had been captured” is the niphal perfect of shabah, and it indicates that there will be dire results.

“he armed his trained servants” — wrong, he did not arm his trained servants. The hiphil of ruq means he led out his trained servants. Ruq doesn’t mean to arm them, it means they are already armed, they are already trained. They are under arms and he merely leads them out. The invasion of Chedorlaomer has put Abraham on alert. Abraham believed in universal military training and he had trained everyone in his household — 318, not the entire army but all the people who worked for Abraham; and everyone had some military training, everyone was prepared, everyone knew his equipment, and they were pulled together for battle. He led them out.

“and pursued them all the way to Dan” — the word “pursued” tells us a great deal, especially in the imperfect tense. It means first of all they had to locate the enemy. This means that they had some people to go out on reconnaissance. Once they located the enemy then they had to determine the direction the enemy was going, find out the exact force of the enemy, how they were operating as far as moving from point A to point B. All of these things they learned very rapidly so that Abraham in verse 15 makes a decision. And this is a tremendous bit of moral courage. With possibly only as many as 1500 men he is about to launch an attack on anywhere from 50–100,000 men. He is greatly outnumbered.

Gen 14:15 And he divided his forces against them by night, he and his servants, and defeated them and pursued them to Hobah, north of Damascus.

Verse 15 — “He divided himself against them.” This is a reflexive niphal of chalaq and it doesn’t mean that he divided himself, it really means that he separated his force into groups to attack from various points. He is going to make a night attack. It is interesting that here after a great battle we have a column moving toward Damascus. This is a long column, they are carrying a lot of booty, a lot of prisoners, so they are stretched out. Abraham makes a reconnaissance up and down the column. he is not dividing himself against a concentrated force, he is dividing himself against a column in order the recover a segment of the column, e.g. where Lot is. They are strung out; Abraham has darkness and concentration, so he has everything going for him tactically — surprise, cover of darkness, and concentration. These things make a great deal of difference because now he is going to have his second victory, he is going to win the battle.

“and smote them” — the word “smote” is the hiphil imperfect of nakah which means he slaughtered them. It doesn’t do any good to talk over a table, you talk over the dead bodies of the enemy. Notice that he not only “smote” them but he pursued them.

It does no good to talk over a table; you talk over the dead bodies of the enemy.

Gen 14:16 Then he brought back all the possessions, and also brought back his kinsman Lot with his possessions, and the women and the people.

A victory must be followed by pursuit. Why pursuit? Because those you don’t kill you must scare to death.

Verse 16 — “he brought back”, the hiphil perfect of shub, literally, “he caused to return”. He caused through military action, military training. Notice the principles. God protected Abraham because Jesus Christ controls history, but when the crisis came Abraham became aggressive. And when Jesus Christ controls history and Bible doctrine controls a man in history that man becomes aggressive. He went after the enemy and he used his head. He “caused to return all of the goods”, the materialistic things. Great wealth is implied in the word “goods”; “he also caused to return again” — we have shub again, in the hiphil perfect — “his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.” This is success; this is victory. Abraham has just had two great victories.

Bob made a point that you do not teach one-on-one. But you witness one-on-one.

Now Abraham is stimulated and he is in great danger for he has just seen more wealth than he has ever seen. The Jordan valley and the five city states were very concentrated in wealth, so we have in verses 17–23, Abraham’s third victory.

3 Victories

1. In the first victory Abraham was the aggressor in that he refused to enter into mental attitude sins. He refused to criticize, he refused to gloat, he refused to run down Lot for his very own decision. That is grace.

2. But the second victory was one of his own military training. Like all good Chaldeans Abraham somewhere had a good military background, and he had been faithful in training his men. But now he is very vulnerable to losing the power, the dynamics of the first two victories, and this is where Melchizedek is coming into the picture, at the time when Abraham needed him the most.

Notice that Abraham has three great friends, all Amorites — Aner, Mamri, Eschol. Now they cannot help Abraham any more because while they are born-again believers they are baby believers, they do not have enough doctrine. Now someone greater than Abraham, a human being, must come into his life. And someone greater than Abraham must minister to him in spiritual things.

Gen 14:17 After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley).

Verse 17 — the attack of the king of Sodom. “And the king of Sodom went out to meet him.” Notice that the king of Sodom did not get caught. He was a fugitive too. The king of Sodom went one way, another fugitive came to Abraham. “Went out” is the qal imperfect of jatsa, which means aggressive action. Notice that when the king of Sodom sees all of this wealth coming back sees a chance to recoup. He is going to go out to make a deal with Abraham. The king of Sodom has nothing but he is going to try to get his people back and give Abraham the wealth, and he is going to immediately by his own ability make himself greater than Abraham. His plot is to make himself greater than Abraham to rob Abraham of the victory by coming out with a deal. He will give Abraham all of the wealth which will make Abraham the greatest man in the world, but he will keep them people. He will tell the people, “I made Abraham wealthy.” In this way he will make himself superior to Abraham and eventually recoup that wealth as well. So it is a Satanic device. Here is a man who is going to try to make himself greater than Abraham. But here comes a man also a king, the equivalent of the king of Sodom in that he is a king but he is greater than Abraham. So a person truly greater than Abraham is going to come at this point and save his neck spiritually.

Gen 14:18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.)

Verse 18 — Melchizedek to the rescue. “Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought.” He, too, jatsa’d but in the hiphil. In other words, when the king of Sodom — qal stem for jatsa — advanced aggressively to attack, Melchizedek also was caused to advance aggressively to protect Abraham. Why? Because Melchizedek was a spiritual giant, he was a supergrace high priest.

“with bread and wine because [not “and”] he was the priest of the most high God” — the most high God is Jesus Christ. He represents the Lord Jesus Christ.

Principles in this Victory

1. This battle is a second battle — the battle of the two kings. Abraham is out of it. This is the king of Sodom versus Melchizedek. It is almost as if they are battling for the soul of Abraham.

2. The king of Sodom — Satan’s representative — came to rob Abraham of the victory of grace.

3. If the king of Sodom can make the motive of Abraham appear to be desire for the spoils of battle then Satan can still win by obscuring the grace issue.

4. Furthermore, everyone will give the king of Sodom credit for enriching Abraham, and with the people under his command he will regain the wealth. The king of Sodom is brilliant when it comes to politics, perception and intrigue. Beware of the intriguer.

5. God’s matchless grace is manifest at this point. Abraham receives reinforcement in the form of a royal priest.

6. We are most vulnerable to defeat after great victory. Abraham is no exception.

7. Melchizedek arrives at the scene to help Abraham resist the devil’s counterattack. The timing is perfect.

8. Melchizedek did not arrive while Abraham was talking with the escapee or while Abraham was attacking or pursuing. He arrived after the victory was secure. This is the key time that Abraham needed him.

9. Melchizedek came on the scene while the more deadly enemy, the king of Sodom, pursued Abraham. In other words, God sent Melchizedek when he was needed most. Neither the 318 trained men nor his confederates can protect Abraham. He needs someone greater than himself.

Principle: There will be a time in your life when you face a spiritual crisis or a spiritual attack, and into your life will come someone greater than you are spiritually, and that person will save your neck just as Melchizedek saved Abraham’s.

Gen 14:18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.)

Verse 18 — Melchizedek comes to the rescue; verse 19 — the spiritual administration of blessing. Notice that he did not tell Abraham, “Don’t”. He gave Abraham certain things representative of certain doctrines, he brought Abraham’s focus away from wealth and frantic search for happiness and brought it back to the thing that really counts, occupation with the person of Jesus Christ.

Gen 14:19 And he blessed him and said, "Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth;

Verse 19 — “He blessed him”, the piel imperfect of barak. This goes with the aorist participle eulogeô (εὐλογέω) [pronounced you-lohg-EH-oh]. The piel stem in the Hebrew is very intensive and it indicates the fact that he taught him some doctrine as well as administering bread and wine, and in this whole factor — the teaching plus the administration of the elements — took Abraham’s eyes off of the wealth and back on to the Lord. Abraham needed to be taught and Melchizedek became his teacher on this occasion. This is a case of where he taught him once and this saved everything for Abraham.

“of the most high God” is literally, “From the most high God,” who is Jesus Christ, “possessor of heaven and earth.”

Gen 14:20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!" And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Verse 20 — “And blessed be the most high God, who hath delivered thine enemy into thine hand.” When he says “delivered” he is using the piel of magak, and by using this particular word he indicates that so far he has been delivered in contact with the enemy. By using magak he indicates that there is a greater enemy, a more subtle enemy, an enemy related to the angelic conflict, an unseen enemy. You see the king of Sodom but you don’t see the motivation behind the king of Sodom. You don’t know that the king of Sodom is demon possessed, that he is controlled by Satan himself, and that what he proposes is Satanic activity in order to neutralize the victory. In other words, the angelic conflict follows the military conflict.

Therefore, we read “he brought forth bread and wine.” He was the priest of the most high God. He says in verse 20, “God has blessed you by delivering you from your enemies.” And then we read, “And Abraham gave him tithes of all.” The giving of tithes here means the giving of tithes from the top of each pile. He took and gave Melchizedek a portion of each pile of wealth, the top tenth of every pile.

Gen 14:21 And the king of Sodom said to Abram, "Give me the persons, but take the goods for yourself."

We have three things here: bread, wine, and blessing. The bread is analogous to the humanity of Jesus Christ who is being represented. And long before Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; he that cometh unto me shall never hunger,” Melchizedek knew Jesus Christ not only as his Savior, but as a supergrace believer he had great appreciation for Christ the bread of life, the basis for his own eternal salvation. The wine is analogous to the priestly function at the altar and refers to the Lord Jesus Christ on the altar of the cross. It speaks of the blood of Christ which cleanses from all sin or the work of Jesus Christ bearing our sins in His own body on the tree.

The bread and the wine would never be used again until the royal priesthood functioned. Bread and wine are always the royal priesthood and when the Church Age interrupts the Age of Israel there are no longer animal sacrifices of the Levitical priesthood so we go back to bread and wine. Bread and wine speak of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and they are the signs of the royal priesthood only. The Levitical priesthood deals with that which is inferior and animals sacrifices.

The third factor is the blessing. It is the blessing that has the least amount of emphasis for blessing has to do with the communication of Bible doctrine. The blessing brings into focus certain things. We do not have all that Melchizedek but we have a summary. The most high God is Jesus Christ; He has delivered Abraham in battle. He is the possessor of heaven and earth, therefore Abraham does not have to depend upon this money, this wealth that has been recovered, for the Lord Jesus Christ possesses everything. He has for Abraham some wealth of his own which will come along with supergrace. Melchizedek reminds him of God’s faithfulness when he says that He has delivered him. And when he had finished his doctrinal dissertation it was Abraham who gave to him a tenth off of the top of each pile. Therefore Abraham does something else.

First of all, he tithes to Melchizedek. He also now says no to the king of Sodom because he has been given by Melchizedek bread, wine, and blessing [doctrine]. It is the doctrine that causes him to make up his own mind. Melchizedek did not tell him what to do. Melchizedek gave him pertinent doctrine and he took it from there.

Gen 14:22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, "I have lifted my hand to the LORD, God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth,

So Melchizedek, in communication Bible doctrine, did not communicate which course to take because he recognized the freedom of Abraham. Melchizedek gave the doctrine, now it is up to Abraham to use it or not to use it. Abraham uses it, for he says in verse 22 to the king of Sodom, “I have lifted up my hand unto the Lord” — the hiphil perfect of rum. “I have been caused”, in other words. He was caused or motivated by Bible doctrine.Translation: “I have been motivated to lift up my hand to the Lord, the most high God [Jesus Christ], the possessor of heaven and earth [He owns everything].”

Gen 14:23 that I would not take a thread or a sandal strap or anything that is yours, lest you should say, 'I have made Abram rich.'

Verse 23 — “Therefore I will not take from a thread, even a shoelatchet, and that I will not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldst say, I have made Abraham rich.” That isn’t what it says. Abraham said, “Even from a thread, even to a thong [of a sandal]” — he started out by naming the smallest thing of all that was recovered — “Even if I take all which is yours, then you will say, I have caused Abraham to become rich.” He absolutely refused to take anything for himself and therefore Abraham won the third great victory.

But there is another victory. People who win victories like this always have a tendency to get self-righteous, and the greatest victory is the last victory. Abraham now has the doctrine to realize, he doesn’t need to take anything from anyone. It would neutralize his motivation, it would destroy him. But the fourth victory in verse 24 is fantastic.

Gen 14:24 I will take nothing but what the young men have eaten, and the share of the men who went with me. Let Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre take their share."

Verse 24 — “Save” means except — “only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eschol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.”

Summary of the Fourth Victory

1. Abraham in self-righteousness and pride could have imposed his own standards of spiritual maturity on his troops, on his new converts, but they are not as advanced as he is in the spiritual life. So therefore, he has higher standards than they have. He will not superimpose his higher standards on them, that is self-righteousness.

2. If Abraham had demanded that they not take any spoils he would have been guilty of pride and self-righteousness. Notice the great wisdom of a man when he gets squared away doctrinally. He was about to lose his doctrinal perspective when Melchizedek came along. And notice the results of Melchizedek’s teaching. Abraham sheds his self-righteousness. When you are occupied with the person of Christ you have the highest possible standards without superimposing them in legalism on someone else who does not have the doctrinal moxie to cope. That is the greatest victory of all. He won a great spiritual victory in the field of motivation. You would think this is the peak, but it isn’t. It is lack of self-righteousness, the refusal to force his leadership upon these men who do not have the moxie to cope with it.

3. It is a temptation to impose his high standards and spiritual maturity on those who were not ready or could not understand.

4. Abraham recognized the principle, the reimbursement of his 318 servants, and he recognized that he could not impose high spiritual standards on believers who had not had the same doctrinal benefits and who had not reached the same spiritual peak. Therefore he absolutely refused to make any imposition of self-righteousness on these people.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #76

76 09/02/1973 Hebrews 7:2–5 Doctrines of priesthood and tithing

Hebrews 7:1 For this, Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, the one having met Abraham, returning from the slaughter of the kings, and the one having blessed him. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

He made it possible for the 3^rd and 4^th victories. Every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is a member of a perpetual royalty. We are not simply priests, but a member of the royal family of God forever. Not acquired by physical birth or from ability. It is a grace system of royalty. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit as a sign of that royalty.

Hebrews 7:2 and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace.

Verse 2 — “To whom” is a dative masculine singular from the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. Hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] refers to Melchizedek. It is the dative of indirect object indicating the one in whose interest the action of the verb is performed. Then we have the adjunctive use of kai — “also.” “To whom [Melchizedek] also Abraham” — Abraham the patriarch, Abraham the founder of the Jewish race, Abraham the one who eventually reached supergrace under dramatic conditions.

“gave” — the aorist active indicative of merizw does not mean to give, it means to apportion, and it in keeping with the historical sequence where he took one tenth off of the top of every pile of recovered booty and gave it to Melchizedek. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist used to view the event in its entirety but to regard it from the viewpoint of existing results.

The existing results are very important here because by giving ten per cent of all of the materialistic things recovered, first of all Melchizedek was recognized as the superior one and the one who provided the spiritual blessing and benefit for Abraham. Secondly, Abraham became a citizen of the city state of Salem, which means that Abraham was the original citizen of Jerusalem and on that very spot where he became a citizen — the citizenship of Abraham under the king of Salem. Abraham had no citizenship, he was a man without a country, he had left Ur of the Chaldees, but by paying his taxes to Melchizedek he becomes a citizen of the kingdom of Salem — by paying his taxes Abraham will some day inherit a city from God: the great Salem of all, the Jerusalem coming down out of heaven. Just very near that spot Abraham offered his son Isaac, so the citizenship of Abraham is also involved — every spiritual blessing as well as Abraham’s citizenship.

“To whom also Abraham apportioned.” The active voice indicates that Abraham produced the action of the verb. The declarative indicative represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. This is a statement of dogmatic and unqualified assertion. This is a statement whereby Abraham declares two things: a) Melchizedek is superior to him and is a blessing to him spiritually; b) He not only recognizes the priesthood of Melchizedek and the spiritual benefit but he recognizes the kingship of Melchizedek, and he becomes a citizen of the nation of which Melchizedek is the ruler. Remember that Melchizedek is a king high priest and the tithes go to the king; Abraham becomes a citizen of his country. Also, the tithes go to the priest — spiritual benefits. So there are two great principles and they are tied in together — the citizenship of the kingdom of Salem plus the recognition of spiritual benefit from Melchizedek.

Then we have the phrase “A tenth part of all”, from which we get the English word ‘tithe’, for the English word ‘tithing’ means tenth. The Greek here is dekathn apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] pantwn. These are genitives of description as well as the objective genitive. The genitive case is used with nouns of action to become the object rather than the accusative — “tithes from all”. “All” is in the genitive plural to indicate every pile of booty and Abraham went to every pile, took ten per cent off of the top of it, and that went to Melchizedek.

First Summary

1. From the top of every pile of spoils Abraham distributed a tenth to Melchizedek, but he distributed this (under Genesis 14:20) not just to the high priest but to the king priest. Abraham, in this way, is no longer a man without a country. From this point on he is a man with a country. He is a citizen under the rulership of Melchizedek. In that way he recognizes his temporal authority. At the same time he recognizes his spiritual authority because Melchizedek administered to him bread, wine, doctrine.

2. Abraham was peculiar in that he was actually a family priest from the first battalion plus a representative of the second battalion because Levi was in his line. So Abraham himself is in a rather strange situation, he is a third battalion man because he is a family high priest as a patriarch. In his loins, the Levitical priesthood, the second battalion. Therefore, he is a representative of two battalions of the priesthood and he is recognizing the superiority of the first battalion which is the royal priesthood. Remember that Abraham did two things. He first of all became a citizen of Jerusalem, and therefore he is the first alien to do so. He is also the last citizen of Jerusalem in that all of his life as long as he lives, and forever, he is going to live in a tent in time because of his citizenship in Salem. And God will bring down at the beginning of the Millennium the Jerusalem from above which will be suspended over the earth and will be the portion of Abraham forever.

3. In this historical encounter Abraham represents the Levitical priesthood which is part of the new race progeny. Tithing is taxation. Abraham is a citizen paying his taxes. Abraham is waiting for God to fulfill a promise. The new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven.

4. Therefore, tithing to Melchizedek not only means the superiority of the royal priesthood over the family priesthood, but more important, it represents the superiority of the royal priesthood over the Levitical priesthood.

5. Remember that this was a historical meeting between two human beings representing two priesthoods. But that isn’t all. Abraham was a patriarch but he had to have a country, he had to recognize temporal authority. Abraham had no temporal authority to recognize until he met Melchizedek. When he met Melchizedek he said this man is my right ruler and I recognize his authority. And by giving him taxes he recognized his authority.

6. The rest of this verse indicates the superiority of even the name of the royal priest over Abraham and the Levitical priesthood. First of all, the name is represented in the Hebrew because the rest this verse comments on the Hebrew name, deriving certain prophetic implications. The Hebrew name is Malki tsedek, which means “king of righteousness”, but it is literally called Melchizedek. Secondly, he is also a temporal ruler, Melek Shalem.

“first” is an adverb prôton (πρτον) [pronounced PRO-ton], meaning sequence of enumeration. In other words, the name of the royal priest will be translated and interpreted —

Melchizedek Meaning

1. “being by interpretation” is first of all a present passive participle of hermêneúô (ἑρμηνεύω) [pronounced hair-may-NEW-oh], which means to translate, to explain, or to interpret. Here it means to interpret.

2. The translation does not occur in the passive voice. It only means to interpret in the passive voice, so it is translated “first [Melchizedek] when being interpreted.” This is the correct translation. Now we get the interpretation of his name from the Hebrew.

3. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs or may be reasonably expected to occur. It is called the present tense of repeated action to denote the consistency of interpretation when Melchizedek was being examined.

4. The passive voice indicates that the name of Melchizedek is being both translated into Greek and at the same time interpreted.

5. The interpretation is obvious. The Greek noun dikaiosunê (δικαιοσύνη) [pronounced dih-kai-oh-SOON-ā or dik-ah-yos-OO-nay] refers to God’s righteousness or +R. The last part of Melchizedek’s name is tsedek, and translated into the Greek that is dikaiosunê (δικαιοσύνη) [pronounced dih-kai-oh-SOON-ā or dik-ah-yos-OO-nay] — “righteousness”, so that his name is king of righteousness.

6. There is a definite precedent involved in this passage. Also, the participle is a temporal participle and therefore translated “when being interpreted.”

7. While Abraham is born again — Genesis 15:6 — the line of the Levitical priesthood does not depend upon regeneration but depends upon physical birth, human heredity.

8. However, the interpretation of the name Melchizedek indicates the line of the royal priesthood depends upon the new birth and not physical birth or heredity.

9. Levitical priests were sometimes born again and sometimes they were not. The first one, Aaron, was born again. However, all royal priests have to be born again and justified. This, then, is a superiority. This is the superiority brought out by the name Melchizedek.

“king of righteousness, and after that also” — now we have the second superiority in enumeration. The adverb is epeita (ἕπειτα) [pronounced EHP-ī-tah] which denotes a succession. This is the second point brought out in his title. First his name is a point; now his title is a point. His name is a point in that the royal priesthood must have a spiritual heritage rather than a physical heritage, and there is no physical birth that can put you into the royal priesthood. A second point is brought out by the adverb epeita (ἕπειτα) [pronounced EHP-ī-tah]. And this point, along with de, used as a connective particle, kai used as the adjunctive kai, should be translated “and secondly” or “then also.”

“king of Salem” — basileus (βασιλεύς) [pronounced bahs-ee-loose], Salhm which is the equivalent of melek Shalem — “which is”, the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] in the nominative neuter, the neuter indicates a point or a principle is brought out, and the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] — “and then also King of Salem, which keeps on being King of Peace” — eirênê (εἰρήνη, ης, ἡ) [pronounced eye-RAY-nay].

What does eirênê (εἰρήνη, ης, ἡ) [pronounced eye-RAY-nay] mean? It means security and tranquillity here. And we have already seen the principle: Why after winning a great victory did Abraham become a citizen of Salem? Because Salem was basing its tranquillity and peace — temporal concept — on strong military. Therefore Abraham with his small military recognized how God had graced him out, but he recognized that he needed to come under the protection of a great military organization. And came under the greatest; a military organization that lasted all of the way until David’s time — 1000 years. And even though the land of Palestine was invaded many, many times Jerusalem remained intact as the kingdom of Salem and it was not conquered until David’s day by a stronger military. Therefore there was security and tranquillity.

“which being interpreted King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem” King of righteousness is the spiritual superiority of Melchizedek, king of Salem is the temporal superiority. Abraham paid taxes to the king of Salem because the king of Salem had a strong military and security, and he wanted to become a citizen of a country which followed the principle of the law of divine establishment.

Now look at the principle. On the basis of his name [Melchizedek] he recognized that the doctrine he gave him was the basis of victory. On the basis of the fact that he had just fought and won a victory and he saw that Palestine and the middle east was a hot spot, he also became a citizen. He became a citizen of the city state of Salem. So these two are put in at the end of this verse to indicate the principles of superiority and the concepts by which men live under freedom.

Notice how the verse is translated:

Hebrews 7:2 “To whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth from all the spoils; first [superiority] when Melchizedek being interpreted King of righteousness, and second, [superiority] also King of Salem, which is being interpreted, King of tranquillity and security.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 7:3 He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.

Verse 3 — the advantages of being Melchizedek. “Without father” — apatôr (ἀπάτωρ) [pronounced ap-AT-ore], means independent of paternal descent. Melchizedek had a father but his father wasn’t a king. This goes with the previous verse. He is a king independent of paternal descent. He isn’t a king because his father is a king, he is a king because he conquered a kingdom and became a king by his military ability. There is no paternal genealogy recorded for Melchizedek. The royal priesthood battalion does not depend upon physical birth. This is in contrast to the Levitical battalion which is dependent upon recorded genealogy, being able to place one’s line and one’s descent from Aaron through Eliazar or Ithimar. The only way to qualify for the royal priesthood is through the new birth — regeneration, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit — which only occurs during the Church Age. Therefore, “without father” means without recorded father, not recorded in a genealogy.

“without mother” — amêtôr (ἀμήτωρ) [pronounced am-AY-tore], which means independent of maternal descent. The mother of Melchizedek was not a queen, therefore he did not become a king by inheriting from his mother. He is without recorded pedigree, without genealogical papers, without any genealogy to prove royalty through his mother’s side.

“without descent” — a)genaealoghtoj, without any genealogical papers. So literally, “without recorded father, without recorded mother.” He had a mother and father but they are not recorded in royalty tables of genealogy — without genealogical record is the meaning of the Greek word.

“having” — present active participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] plus a negative, mhth a)xh h(merwn refers to a birth certificate, a knowledge of his birthday. The historical record is silent regarding the time of his birth. His priesthood does not depend upon the possession of a birth certificate.

“nor end of life” — we do not have a death certificate so that we can see the perpetuation of his royal line. So literally, “having neither birth certificate not death certificate.”

“but made like unto” — perfect passive participle a)fwmoiw. This means to produce a copy, to cause to resemble. Here it should be translated “having caused to resemble.” The perfect tense is an intensive perfect, indicating completion of the action with results that continue. Melchizedek will always be a pattern of Jesus Christ. He is not Jesus Christ, he is a pattern of Jesus Christ. By obscuring his parents, his genealogy, his birth, his death, the royal priesthood cannot be related to any human factor related to physical birth. Here is royalty based on spiritual factors alone and not on physical birth.

“having been caused to resemble the Son of God” — causal participle here. He is not the Son of God. This verb is never used for exact likenesses or for anything except resemblance. The Son of God is used for the deity of Christ in hypostatic union with His humanity. Jesus Christ is in the same royal priesthood battalion as Melchizedek.

Now follows bad punctuation in the KJV. It is Jesus Christ who abides perpetually, not Melchizedek — “but having been cause to resemble the Son of God who remains” — the present active indicative of ménô (μένω) [pronounced MEH-noh],. In the English Bibles we have “abides” but it should be translated “remains.” This is a static present tense used to denote a condition or status as perpetually existing. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative, it represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of unqualified assertion. This is a dogmatic principle that not Melchizedek but Jesus Christ is perpetuated as a priest. The Greek noun hiereus (ἱερεύς) [pronounced hee-er-YOOCE] refers to the humanity of Christ. This is only used of humanity. Son of God is His deity and here is His humanity. So the combination of Son of God and hiereus (ἱερεύς) [pronounced hee-er-YOOCE] gives us the uniqueness of our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ.

“continually” is a prepositional phrase, eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] to diênekes (διηνεκές) [pronounced dee-ah-nehk-EHS]; diênekes (διηνεκές) [pronounced dee-ah-nehk-EHS] means perpetually.

Hebrews 7:3 “Without recorded father, without recorded mother, without genealogical record, having neither birth certificate nor death certificate; having been caused to resemble the Son of God who remains a priest perpetually.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Lord Jesus Christ remains a priest perpetually, and the Lord Jesus Christ as a priest was a sign to the Melchizedek battalion and there are four areas of His assignment:

The Priesthoods of Jesus Christ

1. Christ is appointed forever in the divine decrees — Hebrews 5:6; 7:17; Psalm 110:4.

2. Christ is appointed to the royal priesthood — Hebrews 5:10.

3. Christ is assigned specifically to the Melchizedek battalion — Hebrews 6:20.

4. The appointment of Christ was made with an immutable divine oath — Hebrews 7:21.

Now a review

The Doctrine of the Priesthood (Review)

1. A priest is a member of the human race representing the human race. The priest is taken from the male population of the human race, never from angels. He must partake of the nature of the person or persons for whom he acts or officiates or represents. He is a bona fide member of the human race, and this is true of the Lord Jesus Christ — Hebrews 5:1; 7:4,5,14,28; 10:5,10,14.

3. The categories of priesthood are three.

a. The first battalion: the royal priesthood of which Melchizedek is the stated pattern — Hebrews 7:1–3. Melchizedek was both a king and a priest but without any emphasis on parents, genealogy, birth or death certificates. Melchizedek appeared to Abraham, ministering to him bread and wine, the symbols of Christ’s ministry on the cross as well as doctrine, of course. Under the Levitical priesthood the cross was symbolized by animal sacrifices which have been discontinued. But the symbols of the royal priesthood remain — the bread and the wine continue. The office of the royal priesthood is not hereditary but perpetual. The appointment is not related to physical birth but the new birth. The appointment is related to the ministries of God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation. The appointment is based upon understanding the interruption of the Jewish Age, the doctrine of the mystery, the doctrine of intercalation.

b. The second battalion: the Levitical priesthood which began with Aaron, the older brother of Moses. The concept of this priestly ministry of spiritual things is found in Numbers 16:5. They were commissioned, holy, and allowed to “come near,” i.e. to approach, the altar. The priesthood was perpetuated through the natural line of Aaron. His older sons Nadab and Abihu lost out as revolutionists. The surviving sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, formed the basis of the Levitical priesthood. Physical defects caused elimination of a priest in this particular line — Leviticus 21:17–21. The Levitical priesthood was supported by 13 Levitical cities — Joshua 21:13–19. They were supported by part of the taxation of the nation, an annual tithe — Leviticus 23:10. Other support came from redemption money of the firstborn — Numbers 18:16. The spiritual phenomena of the Levitical priesthood was limited to shadows — Hebrews 10:1–4.

c. The third battalion is the family priesthood in which the patriarch of the family functioned as the priest. Illustrations: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.

4. The royal high priest of the Church Age.

a. Jesus Christ is the royal high priest of the Church Age.

b. As such He has fulfilled the first function of the priesthood by offering Himself on the altar of the cross for the sins of the world.

c. From this function comes the strategic victory of the angelic conflict: resurrection, ascension, session — Hebrews 19:5–14.

d. He was appointed forever under divine decrees — Hebrews 5:6.

e. He was appointed to the royal priesthood — Hebrews 5:10.

f. he was assigned to the Melchizedek battalion — Hebrews 6:20.

g. His appointment was accompanied by the immutable oath, therefore His appointment is under two immutable things — Hebrews 7:21.

5. The royal priesthood of the Church Age follows the royal high priest. You cannot have a high priest without some priests. The high priest is not alone, every believer in the Church Age is a part of the royal priesthood, appointed by the baptism of the Spirit; again, the badge of royalty, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit; the security of royalty, the sealing ministry of God the Holy Spirit; and the apportioning of spiritual gifts is the recognition and guarantee that supergrace is available for all believers — 1Peter 2:5,9; Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6.

6. The purpose of the royal priesthood of the Church Age is to reach the supergrace life — Hebrews 6:17–20; Ephesians 3:17–21; 4:11–16.

7. The function of the royal priesthood is delineated in Hebrews 13.

Hebrews 7:4 See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils! ESV

Verse 4 — the superiority of the royal priesthood. “Now” — the transitional use of the particle de. No contrast is intended, we merely go on now from using the name of Melchizedek and his title and seeing their significance as related to tithing or taxation. “Now consider” — the present active imperative of theôreô (θεωρέω) [pronounced theh-oh-REH-oh], from which we get out English word in geometry, “theorem.” It means to observe. The present tense is retroactive progressive present denoting something begun in the past, continued into the present. Again, it is the present tense of duration. For many centuries believers have observed the superiority of the royal priesthood of the Church Age. The active voice: this is a command to all believers of the Church Age to orient to their dispensation, to orient to the supergrace objective, to orient to the angelic conflict; all of these things we orient to by the doctrines of the mystery. The imperative mood: this is a command.

“how great” — this is a correlative pronoun, phlikoj which denotes a geometrical magnitude. it is distinguished from other words which are arithmetical. And this is a geometrical magnitude, so it is an extremely strong word. Used with it is posos (πόσος) [pronounced POHS-oss] which indicates the celebrityship of Jesus Christ from the standpoint of His high priesthood.

“Now consider how distinguished this man” — not correct. We have a demonstrative pronoun used as a substantive, houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. The use of the demonstrative pronoun here is to indicate not only the celebrityship of Jesus Christ but it is used in reference to someone in the context. The best translation is: “how distinguished this one (this celebrity).”

“unto whom” — now we go back to Melchizedek; “the patriarch Abraham” — “gave,” we are coming back to taxation again, ten per cent: aorist active indicative of didômi (δίδωμι) [pronounced dihd-OH-mee]. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist in which the event is viewed in its entirety but regarded from the viewpoint of its existing results. The existing results: Abraham paid taxes to Melchizedek, Melchizedek was superior to him in temporal power, in spiritual attainment. The active voice: Abraham produced the action of the verb. We have a declarative indicative for unqualified assertion. It is a fact: Abraham paid taxes to Melchizedek king of Salem. Note that he paid to Melchizedek King of Salem. The name and the title are both involved. The name has to do with the spiritual superiority and the title has to do with temporal superiority, and both are involved.

“the tenth” is the accusative singular with no definite article — dekatoj is the noun, it means a tenth and it is used for a definite taxation. The absence of the definite article, by the way, calls attention to the qualitative aspects of this word. The tithe was given from the best spoils, the top of the pile — recognition of Melchizedek in two areas of life: spiritual and temporal. By tithing Abraham actually became a citizen of Salem, and at the same time he recognized the spiritual benefits of being ministered to by Melchizedek.

“of the spoils” is ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus akrothinion (ἀκροθίνιον) [pronounced ak-rohth-IN-ee-on] which has to do with the top of the heap, the best of the spoil, the finest things there.

Hebrews 7:4 “Now observe how distinguished this one to whom Abraham the patriarch had give a tenth from the best part of the booty.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This is a significant act on the part of Abraham recognizing superiority of Melchizedek king of Salem, priest of the most high God. This was Abraham’s positive response to the one who ministered to him in spiritual things — the bread, the wine, the blessing. Notice that Abraham had positive volition, he listened to the teaching of doctrine. He received the bread and wine as administration of the occupation of Christ, the only case we have of anything resembling communion. And it was a bona fide communion because Melchizedek is in the royal priest battalion. Only in the royal priest battalion is communion possible. Positive volition toward doctrine was Abraham’s third victory which resulted in his fourth victory over self-righteousness. This was also response to the kingship of Melchizedek, the tithing came afterward and was a sign of entering into the citizenship of Melchizedek’s kingdom.

Hebrews 7:5 And those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers, though these also are descended from Abraham.

Verse 5 — the significance of Abraham’s tithing. “And verily” — the continuative use of the conjunction kai plus the nominative plural definite article, plus the affirmative particle men. We have a very interesting thing here. This is something that anyone who has ever studied classical Greek will remember — “On the one had or the other.” Whoever wrote Hebrews was a man with a classical Greek education. Whoever this man was he was someone who graduated from the university of Alexandria which was the only classical Greek university in the Roman world. So we have instead of “And verily”, “And those indeed” or “On the one hand”.

“that are” is not found in the original — “of the sons of Levi” — ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus the ablative plural of huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS] plus Leui for “Levi.”

“receive” — present active participle of lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh], and the present tense should be translated “receiving.” The present tense is the static present used to represent a condition assumed as perpetually existing. The active voice: the Levitical line of descent from Aaron receives the action of the verb, except for the physical disqualifications listed in Leviticus 21:17–21. The active voice indicates that they receive it and do it. The participle is a circumstantial participle dealing with the office of priesthood. The “office of priesthood” is one word: hierateia (ἱερατεία) [pronounced hee-e-at-Ī-ah], which refers to the actual office of priesthood in contrast to the priest himself.

“have” — present active indicative of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh], “have and keep having”. The customary present denotes that which habitually occurs. The active voice: the Levitical priesthood is under the command to collect the taxes (tithes). The indicative mood is declarative indicating it was the job of the Levitical priesthood in Israel to collect the taxes.

“a commandment” — the accusative singular entolê (ἐντολή) [pronounced en-tol-AY] means this is a part of the Mosaic law. The same law that authorized the Levitical priesthood also authorized its function to collect taxes. The Levitical priesthood not only ministered in the tabernacle, ministered at the altar with the Levitical sacrifices, ministered on the holy days, but they were also the tax collectors.

“to takes tithes” is the present active infinitive of the verb a)podektow which has to do with collecting a tenth as income tax. The customary present denotes that which always occurs. The active voice: the Levitical priesthood collected taxes. The infinitive: the purpose in which the infinitive is used is to express the action denoted by the finite verb, and therefore we should translate it “have a commandment a tenth.”

“of the people” — incorrect. It should be “from the people”.

“according to the law” — kata, the authorizing agent plus nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss], a reference to the Mosaic law.

The Doctrine of Tithing

1. Dealing with the pre-Mosaic occurrences. Twice before the Mosaic law tithing is mentioned in the Bible as a system of taxation, related also to spiritual life. The first is where Abraham gave a tenth of the best part of the spoils to Melchizedek — Genesis 14:20; Hebrews 7:2,6. The second was where Jacob, after his vision at Bethel, consecrated ten per cent of his property to God if he returned home safely. Why did he do that? Because Jacob was far from home, and home was the place where he paid his taxes. So he said, “All right God, I’m going to bribe you to get me home. I’ll pay my taxes now, instead of when I get home.”

2. Definition. A tithe was ten per cent of Jewish income tax where both the unbeliever and the believer paid. Abraham as a believer became a citizen of Melchizedek’s kingdom and that’s why he paid ten per cent.

3. The categories of tithing in Israel. a) To the Levites went ten per cent for the maintenance and sustenance of the Levitical priesthood — Numbers 18:20–21, 24; Hebrews 7:5,9. This may seem to authorize a national church. It does not. You must remember that in the previous dispensation it was the Levitical priesthood who handled all of the national holidays. They offered all the sacrifices at every one of the special feasts as well as the feast of the trumpets, on the first day of each month. b) A tenth was to be used for the sacred feasts and sacrifices — Deuteronomy 12:17–19; 14:22–27. Every third year there was a third ten per cent taxation. This was for a charity tax for the poor of the land (This was not welfare, it was charity) — Deuteronomy 14:28,29.

4. Gospel references — Matthew 23:23; Luke 11:42, are illustrative of references to tithing in the Gospels. Whenever you find a reference to tithing in the Gospels it illustrates the distortion of the law through legalism. The references there all have to do with the condemnation of legalism. The Talmud extension of the Mosaic law distorted the entire concept of tithing. The Pharisees at the time of our Lord extended it to the minutest details of life not required by the Mosaic law.

a. How apropos to today, where everything is taxed!

5. Tithing is also mentioned in connection with an income tax evasion — Leviticus 27:30–34. This passage forbids the substituting of one animal for another in the payment of tax. The penalty was one fifth more of your income.

6. The perpetuation of the income tax principle is also mentioned in Matthew 22:17–21; Mark 12:13–17, the concept that income tax is a bona fide function.

7. Tithing is not a part of New Testament giving, it has nothing to do with the Church Age. In 1Corinthians 16:1,2 tithing has never been spiritual giving at all in the Church Age. The amount that you give to the local church is strictly between you and the Lord, it does not have to be ten per cent, more or less. Giving is the expression of worship of the royal priesthood and therefore is not related with tithing, and never can be. Why? Because while the priesthood can receive ten per cent it can never give ten per cent to anyone. The royal priesthood is the highest of all priesthoods and as such it never deals in ten per cent. 2Corinthians chapters 8 & 9 has a detailed dissertation on giving for the royal priesthood. Tithing is never mentioned as related to giving in this dispensation.

“that is” — tout estin (ἐστίν) [pronounced ehs-TIN], which is literally, “that is.” Tout estin (ἐστίν) [pronounced ehs-TIN], however, is an explanatory idiom. It is translated literally in the KJV but it is an idiom. Estin (ἐστίν) [pronounced ehs-TIN] is the present active indicative from eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]; tout is from the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos], and tout estin (ἐστίν) [pronounced ehs-TIN] means to imply something “which implies” literally, instead of “that is.”

“from their brethren” — not “of” but “from.” This refers to their fellow countrymen, their fellow citizens.

“though” is the conjunction kaiper (καίπερ) [pronounced KAH-ee-per], and it means “although, even though.”

“they come out”, or literally, “having come out”, the perfect active participle from exerchomai (ἐξέρχομαι) [pronounced ex-EHR-khoh-mai]. The perfect tense is intensive, indicating that even though the Jews of the nation of Israel had the same kind of descent as the Levitical priesthood they still pay their taxes to their own fellow countrymen, they pay their taxes to the Levitical priesthood. The active voice: The Jewish people, regardless of their tribe, must pay taxes to the Levitical priesthood. Which means that the Levitical priesthood is regarded superior to the other Jews in the nation. Which means there is no such thing as equality in any nation. The participle is a concessive participle conceding the fact that the people who pay tithes to Levi have the same common origin as Abraham; they are of the same race — Jews; the are of the same nation — Israel, but they are inferior in that they pay taxes to the Levitical priesthood. That is why throughout the history of Israel the Mosaic law set up a system to pay taxes to the Levitical priesthood, because the Levitical priesthood was regarded as superior to the rest and the inferior pays the tithes to the superior.

“of the loins” — the preposition ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus the ablative of o)sfuoj, which refers to seed — the reproductive organs, not the loins.

Hebrews 7:5 And those indeed from the sons of Levi, receiving their priestly office, have a commandment to collect a tenth from the people according to the law, that is, from their fellow countrymen, even though having come out of the genitals of Abraham.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Comparing Priesthoods

The implications of this verse are endless.

1. This verse settles a very important concept of our society or country, i.e. there never was and never will be equality among people of the same race in the same nation.

2. Those who minister spiritual things provide maximum benefit to their recipients, and even though the recipients are the same race and have a common ancestry the spiritual is superior to the temporal — 2Corinthians 4:16–18.

3. Those who minister spiritual things to the people should be supported by those to whom they minister. Principle: the inferior supports the superior — Hebrews 7:7. The application to this in the passage is quite obvious. The Levitical priesthood was superior to the rest of the people by divine appointment in the Mosaic law.

4. The conclusion: All people of the same race, same background, same heritage, same nation, are not born equal.

5. Those who have the same parents, grandparents, and are related in common ancestry, are not born equal. The only exception to this rule is found in the royal priesthood of the Church Age, and in the royal priesthood when you believed you entered into the priesthood of equality, the royal priesthood. You are equal to all royal priests and superior to everything else in the devil’s world — by divine appointment, not by action.

6. All believers regenerated in the Church Age have received simultaneously with regeneration the baptism of the Holy Spirit by which they are entered into the palace, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit which is the sign of royalty, the sealing of the Spirit which is the security and perpetuation of royalty, and the spiritual gift for the function of royalty.

7. The Lord Jesus Christ is eternal royalty. The body of Christ is His right woman and His royal family.

8. Here again there is a some grace in equality. Some male believers at the point of salvation receive the gift of pastor-teacher, a sovereign and grace gift from the Holy Spirit. The function of this gift possesses supreme authority over the local church and becomes the basis for all believers reaching supergrace.

9. Returning to the context, this verse prepares the way for the next one where the royal priesthood is declared to be superior to the Levitical priesthood, still in the genitals of Abraham, but represented by Abraham on this historic occasion. Even though the Levitical priesthood is superior to the rest of Israel, everyone who is born again today is a member of a priesthood which is infinitely superior, perpetually superior to the Levitical priesthood of the previous dispensation. Death terminated the function of that priesthood. Death does not stop us, we go right on in our priesthood.

10. Melchizedek whose genealogy is not traceable received tithes from Abraham whose genealogy is traceable. Melchizedek is superior to Abraham as demonstrated by the historic occasion. The royal priesthood of the Church Age is superior to the Levitical priesthood of Israel. Abraham was a citizen of Salem as a result of the action in this particular verse. Chapter 7:6–9

1972 Hebrews Lesson #77

77 09/03/1973 Hebrews 7:6–9 Axiom of blessing

Hebrews 7:6 But this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.

Verse 6 — “But” is the conjunctive particle de used to set up a contrast; “he whose descent is not counted” is a present passive participle from genealogew. The word means to have his genealogy traced, and with the negative here we have a static present tense representing a condition which never exists and never will exist. The passive voice: Melchizedek receives the action of the verb by not having his genealogy traced from Israel. The participle is circumstantial expressing an attendant set of circumstances or an additional fact that there is no relationship between Melchizedek and the Levitical priesthood; that in effect the Levitical priesthood was always subordinated to the Melchizedek type.

“from them” — the preposition ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus the ablative of autos. This refers to the Levitical priesthood; “received tithes” — the perfect active indicative of dekatê (δεκάτη) [pronounced dehk-AT-ay], indicating that Abraham tithed to Melchizedek. This is how he became a member of his kingdom. The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect. A dramatic perfect is a very rare type of Greek idiom, it actually has a rhetorical application to the perfect tense. It means that since the perfect tense represents an existing state it may be used for the purpose of describing the fact of that state in a very dramatic or vivid way. It is the same concept as the historical present or the dramatic aorist, only it is stronger. It is like the intensive perfect in that it emphasizes the results of the action but it is actually a rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. Therefore this is very, very strong. In other words, it sets a precedent; it stands forever, it will never be changed. Once Abraham became a citizen of Salem, from that moment on always, invariably, the Levitical priesthood was subordinate to the royal priesthood. Abraham entered into the citizenship because he was benefitted. This is the first time that he had ever been benefitted by another country, and the ruler of that country Melchizedek, a royal priest forever, was beneficial to him spiritually. Abraham finally joined something because of the spiritual benefit and because here was the first time he had ever seen a country which actually had establishment. When Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees he was a man without a country, and he continued to be a man without a country until he became a citizen of Salem. As a citizen of Salem he lived in a tent all of his life because God promised this citizen of Salem that he would have a city forever, and that city will be given to him at the end of the Millennium. It is the new Jerusalem that will come down out of heaven. That is the personal property of Abraham and that will be the payoff of his citizenship. What happens in time has eternal repercussions, that is what this dramatic perfect is saying. The most obvious illustration is the fact that you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

This meeting was one of the most dramatic meetings in history because of the results in heaven. Always, the Levitical priesthood is subordinate to the royal priesthood. While the royal priest approached Abraham with symbols, the bread and the wine, these symbols represent a tremendous reality and they are never considered to be shadows. When we gather around the communion table we partake of the bread and the cup. These are not shadows to us, we are looking back to the reality of the cross. The bread and the wine were never said to be shadows but all of the five majors categories of Levitical offerings, plus seven or eight other categories of Levitical offering, plus the feasts and the holy days, plus every function of the Levitical priesthood, was a shadow function. So that always superiority belongs to the reality, and we have the reality.

This meeting between Abraham and Melchizedek is extremely important, not only in the immediate life of Abraham but as far as the eternal repercussions are concerned. The phrase “received tithes” means to collect tithes. Melchizedek collected taxes from Abraham — the one whose genealogy is not traced. In verse 3, his father was not on any genealogical table of royalty, his mother was not only any genealogical table of royalty. Melchizedek’s birth certificate has nothing to do with royalty, nor his death certificate. He is not related to royalty by physical birth, he is royalty by conquest. He conquered Salem and held it, and made a great state out of it, one in which Abraham became a citizen. Therefore, it says “the one whose genealogy is not traced from them collected taxes” — the active voice. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative, it represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Here is a statement of unqualified assertion, this is the statement of dogma on which Bible doctrine is constructed.

“of Abraham” should be “from [the source of] Abraham”, it is an ablative. So the one who is first in the genealogy of the Levitical priesthood is subordinated forever on the basis of this historical meeting. He recognized a principle: the name is Melchizedek — spiritual blessing; the title is King of Salem — temporal. He is a temporal and spiritual ruler and Abraham listened to the teaching of Melchizedek [positive volition] and joined the country of Melchizedek so that Melchizedek’s authority over Abraham was two fold. It was the temporal authority of the King of Salem — he became a citizen of Salem by paying taxes. And Melchizedek became his spiritual leader as well. So he recognized both the temporal and the spiritual authority of Melchizedek. When he did so, in his seed is Levi and specifically the family of Aaron, and therefore they are subordinated to him forever. It is most interesting, in fact almost a paradox, that also in Abraham from Judah and the family of David we have the Davidic line from which the Lord Jesus Christ came. But the Lord Jesus Christ is not subordinate to Melchizedek because it has been specifically stated that Melchizedek is the pattern of the Lord Jesus Christ who is the son of David. And because the Lord Jesus Christ as the son of David is put into the Melchizedek battalion, and Melchizedek is the pattern, this means that Jesus Christ is superior to Melchizedek and fulfils in the pattern the same concept. The Lord Jesus Christ is a temporal ruler forever. He is also the spiritual leader forever. So Melchizedek is superior to everything in Abraham’s line but the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are in union with Christ and therefore we are superior to Melchizedek, and in the same pattern. Jesus Christ has a right woman, the body of Christ. The body of Christ belongs to Jesus Christ forever. You and I are in the body of Christ. In fact, “body” is simply a way of designating positional truth in the relationship with the Lord Jesus. When Jesus Christ was on the cross He was making the sacrifice for the Priesthood. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. He was very much alone on that cross. As a King, the perfect King, the impeccable King, the son of David, and the sovereign God of the universe, He is a King on His deity side and on His humanity side. This is why He has the title, King of kings and Lord of lords. But He was bearing our sins and was very much alone in bearing our sins — “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He was totally alone, and yet, God the Father said for the last Adam what God the Son said for the first Adam, “Not good that He should be alone.” Therefore, when He was glorified by being seated at the right hand of the Father, ten days later the Jewish Age which had seven years still to run was interrupted. With that interruption a body is prepared on earth — every believer. The moment you believe you are entered into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore you are a part of the royal family, not by physical birth, not by inheritance, not by genealogy, not by any human ability, but strictly on the basis of a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, when God the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Christ we enter not only into the palace but we enter into a priesthood at the same time. There are two functions here. We enter into the palace, that is the temporal function represented by the name King of Salem. And we enter into a spiritual function represented by Melchizedek. The temporal function: we share the reign of Christ forever, therefore we are going to be temporal rulers forever. We are going to rule in heaven, in the eternal state, in the Millennium, because Jesus Christ is a temporal ruler. At the same time we have a spiritual function, the fact that we are a kingdom of priests. We are a royal household, a kingdom of priests, says 1Peter 2:9.

It is important to understand that Melchizedek is superior to Abraham, because they met. But Christ is superior to Melchizedek. Christ is not Melchizedek, He is infinitely superior. And when Christ is raised above Melchizedek in this battalion so is the body of Christ raised above Melchizedek. So we are talking about things to which we are totally superior because of our union with Christ. And if we are totally superior then we only have a very simple responsibility in this life and that is to move to the status of superiority which is supergrace — superiority without self-righteousness.

Melchizedek is historically superior to Abraham, and that tells us something else. The Church Age is an age that is never interrupted. The only dispensation which has never been interrupted is the Church Age. The Age of the Gentiles was interrupted. Why? The “united nations” had to be destroyed. The Age of Israel was interrupted. Why? “Not good that the last Adam should be alone.” The Millennium is interrupted. Why? The releasing of Satan causes the Gog revolution. There is only one dispensation that God would not dare to interrupt. Why? Because the body must be completed.

No nation builds its greatness upon education. The Roman empire lasted for 10,000 years and they looked down on education. We have educated ourselves into total lookdown ignorance. Highly educated people do not support the military; and our monies are sucked up by money to welfare. We are soft on criminals. Compulsory education is the biggest farce in history. It keeps people from maturing. A PhD is not better than a dropout.

There is a good reason for technical and military education. Homosexuality ruined Greece; and that jackass Aristotle led them astray.

Having money is convenient, but it is not royalty. We are a rudderless society because we do not recognize the true value of human achievement. We do not recognize the value of a good strong business. Most people in government could not be successful in business if their lives depended upon it. They are stupid and jealous of big business. Therefore, they try to destroy us. We have never developed a true historical nobility.

How many times have you been ashamed over your education or your birth? We are a nation of snobs. The welfare crowd are snobs; the government is filled with snobs. The only true service is done by police and the military. We have never established true standards in the military.

We have been bailed out by the supergrace types. Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield. They brought a maximum people to the supergrace life. This is not based upon genealogy. It is wonderful to forget genealogy and snobbery. We are so desperate we try to make heroes out of athletes. No such thing as nobility in the United States.

And we are superior to Abraham and to Melchizedek, but we learn the story of precedence from this. God the Holy Spirit has seen fit to give it a lot of verses. We are royalty, we are a nobility that cannot be changed. We are protected by a nobility. We are protected by the fact that the royal priesthood has bailed us out. A maximum number of believers in some generations reaching the ECS and the supergrace life has bailed us out time and time again. But it isn’t based upon genealogy. The thing that bails this country out is the royal priesthood.

When Melchizedek collected taxes from Abraham the thing that is really great is the fact that Abraham subordinated himself temporally as well as spiritually to Melchizedek. It is that temporal subordination that is so important. Why? Because in the battalion of Melchizedek everything is temporal.

God did not give Abraham something special to wear around his neck, and each time he touched it, something special happened.

“and blessed him” — this has to do with the teaching of doctrine. The perfect active indicative of eulogeô (εὐλογέω) [pronounced you-lohg-EH-oh] indicates more than saying, “Bless you brother”! You misunderstand this unless you see another dramatic perfect, for we have the perfect active indicative. The dramatic perfect means he began to teach him. And apparently he taught him not for an hour and fifteen minutes but perhaps all day. It was toward evening when Abraham went around and took ten per cent off the top. When Melchizedek departed he departed with some heavy taxes. But the thing that God the Holy Spirit emphasizes is the temporal authority, the spiritual authority, the surrender to Melchizedek. We have the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect and it emphasizes the long Bible conference and its dramatic results. The active voice: Melchizedek produced the action of the verb by Bible teaching, communication of doctrine. Remember that communication of doctrine is spiritual blessing. The indicative mood is the declarative of unqualified and dogmatic assertion. He didn’t say “Bless you”, he taught him doctrine.

Notice that he taught doctrine to someone who possessed promises and had a great heritage: “him that had,” the present active participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh]. The present tense is an historical present, it gives dramatic emphasis to a past event viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence. The active voice: Abraham who possessed promises, who had a great deal of blessing under supergrace, who had the beginning of the covenants of Israel, received blessing. You can have everything going for you but you have to have doctrine on a constant basis. You have to be taught Bible doctrine. The circumstantial participle brings up a principle, and even though he kept on having the promises, and even though he was promised many wonderful things, and even though he will be a key person in history, Abraham like everyone else needs one thing: Bible doctrine, Bible doctrine, and more Bible doctrine.

“the promises” is the accusative plural of epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah] which means promises of great blessing. They were promises he couldn’t really avoid. But even though you may have guarantees which you can’t avoid you still need doctrine. Doctrine provides the dynamics. Every blessing in life has to be related to doctrine as soul capacity.

We have the promise of a RM or a RW; but what do you need for this? Bible doctrine. Doctrine gives you the capacity; doctrine gives you the dynamics.

Hebrews 7:6 “The one [Melchizedek] whose genealogy is not traced from them [the Levitical priests] collected tithes from Abraham, and blessed him [through doctrinal teaching], the one possessing the promises.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 7:7 It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior.

Verse 7 — the axiom of blessing. “And without” — the connective use of kai, adding the whole to the part. In adding the principle to the historical citation you have to have an adverb in the Greek. So kai, adding the whole to the part or the principle to the historical citation, also takes in an adverb, chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE]. And chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE] has with it a genitive singular from pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs]. Chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE] becomes an improper preposition, and kai is used to add a principle to the historical situation, or the whole to the part — the part is the historical situation, the whole is the principle that comes out of it. Then you take an adverb and turn it into a preposition calling it an improper preposition. Then with it you have the genitive case — the genitive of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs], the genitive of antilogia (ἀντιλογία) [pronounced an-tee-lohg-EE-ah]. When you put all of this together it comes out to mean, “And without any dispute [or contradiction].” This becomes an idiom for a dogmatic statement. And why do we need, speaking through the Holy Spirit, and extra dogmatic idiom? For this reason. We are not talking about equality, about brotherly love, etc. We are talking about superiority and inferiority, true superiority and inferiority.

“the less” — the nominative neuter singular elassôn/elattôn (ἐλάσσων/ἐλάττων) [pronounced ehl-AS-sohn/ehl-AHT-tone]. It means “inferior”, “inferior in quality.” It is used here for Abraham in comparison to Melchizedek. He was inferior in quality. This also sets up a principle of authority. The teacher is superior to the student. The inferior in quality is “blessed” — present passive indicative of eulogeô (εὐλογέω) [pronounced you-lohg-EH-oh]. The present tense is a static present, it represents a condition assumed as perpetually existing. The passive voice: the subject, Abraham, receives the action of the verb — Bible teaching or blessing from Melchizedek. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative which goes with the improper prepositional phrase of dogmatism — a Greek idiom — and represents the verbal idea, therefore, from the viewpoint of dogmatic reality.

“of” — the preposition hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus the ablative of kreittôn (κρείττων) [pronounced KRITE-tohn]. Kreittôn (κρείττων) [pronounced KRITE-tohn] is the comparative of agathos (ἀγαθός) [pronounced ag-ath-OSS] which is inherent intrinsic good. hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus the accusative represents authority; hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus the ablative, as here, represents agency. There is no need to establish authority because the authority is established by the use of our inferior/superior words, the comparatives. So we have literally, “by the agency of the better in quality.”

“I am superior in brains, authority, etc. You don’t have enough to crank it out day after day like I do. You can get out anytime that you want to.”

Hebrews 7:7 “And without any dispute the inferior [Abraham] received blessing [the teaching of doctrine] from the superior one [Melchizedek].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Here is where the authority of the pastor-teacher in the royal priesthood comes. The pastor-teacher communicates the doctrine and the inferior receives from the superior. That is what we call strict academic discipline.

Principles: The superiority of the royal priesthood is established over the Levitical priesthood. When the Levitical priesthood meets the royal priesthood the Levitical priesthood takes a back seat. (The Levitical priesthood will function again in the Millennium and will be ruled by the royal priesthood) The royal priesthood belongs to the royal family of Christ while the Levitical priesthood belongs to Israel. The royal priesthood of the Church Age is also the bride of Christ while the Levitical priesthood is represented as friends of the groom. The royal priesthood is superior to the Levitical priesthood on two counts from this historical meeting of Melchizedek and Abraham. First, Melchizedek blessed Abraham — taught him doctrine, a spiritual superiority. Secondly, Abraham paid taxes to Melchizedek as a sign of citizenship in the kingdom of Salem. So there is both a temporal and a spiritual superiority.

Hebrews 7:8 In the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives.

Verse 8 — we have a longevity which is superior to the Levitical priesthood. The subject of Hebrews 7 is the superiority of royalty, so verse 8 tells us longevity is the superiority of the royal priesthood also; not just the historical meeting between Melchizedek and Abraham, but we have a longevity.

“And here” — a connective use of the conjunction kai which introduces a result from what has just preceded. Therefore it should be translated “And so.” And we have another adverb with kai, the adverb of place, hôde (δε) [pronounced HO-deh], referring back to verse 5 — “And so under these circumstances”, the circumstances of verse 5.

“men” — nominative plural from anthrôpos (ἄνθρωπος) [pronounced ANTH-row-pos] used for the Levitical priesthood; “that die” — present active participle from apothnêskô (ἀποθνήσκω) [pronounced op-ohth-NACE-koh] which refers to the fact that the Levitical priesthood loses its function by physical death. Physical death terminated Aaron’s priesthood, it terminated the priesthood of Eleazar, of Phinehas. And every Levitical priest when he dies is finished as a priest. So apothnêskô (ἀποθνήσκω) [pronounced op-ohth-NACE-koh] here is a customary present to denote what habitually occurs or may be reasonably expected to occur. The active voice: the Levitical priest produces the action of the verb. That is, he dies and terminates his ministry. The participle is ascriptive, it is used as an adjective. The adjectival participle ascribes a characteristic or quality to the Levitical priesthood. The quality is quite simple. We call it in our English “mortality”, subject to death. So we could translate this, “And under these circumstances mortal men receive.”

“receive” — present active indicative from lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh]. The present tense is an iterative present, it describes what recurs at successive intervals — the present tense of repeated action. The active voice: the Levitical priesthood produces the action of the verb by collecting taxes. The declarative indicative is an unqualified statement of assertion that taxes were collected by the Levitical priesthood, giving them temporal power in Israel which went with their spiritual power. The word “tithes”, again, means tenths or taxes — ten per cent taxation.

“but” — adversative conjunction from the particle de to set up a contrast between two clauses. “there” — the adverb ekei (ἐκε) [pronounced ehk-Ī] referring to an historical situation, to Melchizedek as a representative of the royal priesthood. This adverb refers back to verse 3 where Jesus Christ the royal high priest is called a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Also Hebrews 5:6; 6:20.

“he of whom” is not found in the original. It should be “there, he being the subject of the testimony.”

“it is witnessed” is a present passive participle nominative masculine singular from the verb martureô (μαρτυρέω) [pronounced mar-too-REH-oh], which means to testify or to witness. The nominative masculine singular refers to Jesus Christ as the royal high priest. The present tense of the participle is the historical present employed when a past event is viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence. The passive voice: Christ receives attestation or testimony. He becomes the subject of the testimony of Psalm 110:4; Hebrews 5:6; 6:20. The participle is circumstantial.

“that he liveth” — in other words, there is no death sitting off the priesthood. “That” is used for the conjunction hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] after verbs of testimony to reveal content. Hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] is simply a conjunction used after a verb of testimony to show the content. The content is that He is alive, the present active indicative of zaô (ζάω) [pronounced DZAH-oh]. Christ died spiritually and physically on the cross; He is alive. This is the static present, used for a condition which perpetually exists. The royal priesthood is not terminated by physical death. We have the pattern: Jesus Christ was resurrected. The first part of His priesthood was performed on the cross. The He died physically. Then He rose again. Now He is at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us, as we will see at the end of this chapter. So death does not terminate the royal priesthood but it is perpetuated beyond that. The active voice: the subject is Jesus Christ, the royal high priest whose priesthood is perpetuated through resurrection. The indicative mood is declarative, and unqualified dogmatic assertion.

Hebrews 7:8 “And under these circumstances [of verse 5] mortal men [Levitical priesthood] received tithes; but in that place [verse 3 plus Psalm 110:4] he [Jesus Christ] received attestation [or testimony] that he lived.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. Here is the inevitable superiority of the royal priesthood. It is perpetuated beyond death.

2. The Levitical priest functions until he dies. The royal priest functions forever as illustrated by our high priest who has functioned beyond physical death even as we will.

3. The royal priesthood is the only one that passes the boundaries of time, through death, to function forever. Again, the sealing ministry of God the Holy Spirit is security that you will always be a royal priest.

Verses 9 and 10 give us the application of the axiom.

Hebrews 7:9 One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham,

Verse 9 — “And as I may so say.” This is a Greek idiom: Kai hôs (ὡς) [pronounced hohç] epos (ἔπος) [pronounced EHP-oss] e(ipein. Kai is a connective conjunction; hôs (ὡς) [pronounced hohç] is a relative adverb used as a comparative particle. Epos (ἔπος) [pronounced EHP-oss] is a noun for a word or that which is expressed in words. E)ipein is the aorist active infinitive of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. These are all combined in an idiom to limit a startling or shocking statement. “And so to speak” is the best translation. In the aorist active infinitive of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] the aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the event in its entirety but emphasizes the existing result. The active voice: the writer draws a shocking conclusion. The infinitive expresses a conceived result and/or a shocking conclusion.

Next comes a prepositional phrase, dia plus the indeclinable proper noun A)braam — “And so to speak through Abraham.” Then we have another kai but this is the adjunctive use of kai, correctly translated “also”.

“Levi” — here is the shocker. The Levitical priesthood has just been clobbered by this one. Levi is the founder of the Tribe of the Levitical priesthood.

“who receiveth” — this puts them high in Israel, it gives them temporal authority. That is how they finally had a Sanhedrin in Israel, because they collected the taxes. They has temporal as well as spiritual authority. “Who receiveth” is the present active participle of lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh]. That means that they were high in Israel. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes that which habitually occurs in Israel; they collected the taxes. The active voice: the Levitical priesthood customarily received taxes from Israel. This was a part of their superiority in Israel and their authority. This is a circumstantial participle.

“payed tithes” — this is the shocking statement. Levi “paid tithes in Abraham.” This is the perfect passive indicative of dekatê (δεκάτη) [pronounced dehk-AT-ay]. Abraham set up something for the entire human race. The Levitical priesthood had temporal and spiritual authority, and they never lost it even with the monarchy. They only lost it through spiritual decadence. That is, some of them were not even saved and some were reversionistic from time to time. This is a dramatic perfect for a shocking statement — they paid tithes. This describes the historical situation and it is a shocking situation to the Jew. The passive voice with the intermediate agent: When the agent is the medium through which the original cause has effected the action expressed by the passive verb for regular construction is dia plus the genitive plus the passive, and that is what we have here, the passive voice of intermediate agent. The indicative mood is declarative for an unqualified and dogmatic assertion.

Hebrews 7:9 “And so to speak, Levi also, the one receiving tithes, had paid tithes through Abraham.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Final Summation

1. Once again the startling conclusion indicates the superiority of the royal priesthood over the Levitical.

2. The historical meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek forces a shocking conclusion. Abraham subordinated himself spiritually by listening to doctrine. He received bread and wine. Then he recognized the temporal superiority of Melchizedek. By paying taxes he became a citizen. So the meeting between the two forces the conclusion regarding the Levitical priesthood serving in Israel with the highest authority.

3. The royal priesthood serving under Christ is infinitely superior to the Levitical priesthood serving in Israel until the time of their death. The royal priesthood will serve forever. For just as Christ was raised as the firstfruits of them that slept so you and I, either through Rapture, or through physical death will continue our priesthood in a resurrection body. Our priesthood is perpetuated forever.

We will always be royalty in heaven. We will always have this. So many of us do not have a clue about this.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #78

78 09/03/1973 Hebrews 7:10–11a Doctrine of the Body of Jesus Christ

Beautiful dog, 9 month old Timberwolf mix with husky. If you want a good dog; meanwhile, Balderdash has company. Being a bitch, she has a good disposition, different from the human race.

Liberalism is taught in schools and every media system. The men whose records Bob read are why we are free. Men whose names are never mentioned in any history book. Politicians do more to destroy a country than the worst decision that any military decision made in battle. Whether a liberal in the pulpit or in Congress, these liberals are destroying our nation. If Bob survives the next war, he is going to personally find a liberal and punch him in the nose. We are going to be a Navy without ships and an Air Force without planes.

Hebrews 7:10 ...for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.

Jesus Compared to Melchizedek

Verse 10 — “For” is an inferential conjunction, gar, explaining the reason for the foregoing conclusion.

“he was” — the imperfect active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] is the absolute status quo verb. The imperfect tense represents linear aktionsart in past time. This is what is called a progressive imperfect which denotes action in progress in past time. This is a progressive imperfect of description which vividly represents the process going on at the time. The active voice: Levi was in the genitals of Abraham the patriarch when he met Melchizedek and paid tithes to him. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality, unqualified and dogmatic assertion.

“yet” — the adverb éti (ἔτι) [pronounced EH-tee], an adverb of time and denotes a past situation. In fact it goes with the imperfect tense which is linear aktionsart in past time.

“in the loins” — the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of osphus (ὀσφς) [pronounced oss-FOOS], which really means “in the reproductive organs of” — “his father,” the possessive genitive singular of patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR] denotes the ancestor. Abraham is the ancestor of Levi.

“when” — the conjunction o(te indicates the historical meeting; “met” — the aorist active indicative of sunantaô (συναντάω) [pronounced soon-ahn-TAH-oh] which means to encounter. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It gathers the historical meeting between Abraham and Melchizedek into one single whole. Regardless of length or duration it is all pulled together. The active voice: Melchizedek produces the action of the verb. It was the initiative of Melchizedek that ministered spiritually to Abraham at a time of Abraham’s great vulnerability, the attack from the king of Sodom. The indicative mood is declarative emphasizing the reality of the historical meeting.

Hebrews 7:10 “For he was still in the reproductive organs of his ancestor [Abraham], when Melchizedek encountered him.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Principle: The superiority of the royal priesthood demands permanent changes. Any permanent and lasting changes can only be made by the Lord Jesus Christ.

We now move into another section as to why we are not only members of the royal family but why each one of us is a royal priest. We must begin at this point with the six propositions regarding the change of priesthood. We have seen the change of the royal family. They were simply the family of God. The family of God was made up of Adam and Eve and Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, all kinds of great people; but when there was a break, an interruption of the Jewish Age, there is no longer the family of God, it is now royal family. To get into the family of God you must be born again — regeneration. The agent of regeneration is God the Holy Spirit, and God the Holy Spirit does that for believers in the Church Age. But He does something else. After that, the baptism of the Spirit which never occurred before. The baptism of the Spirit enters the family of God into the royal family. Only in the Church Age do we have royal family. There was no royal family before the Church Age began, there is no royal family after the Church Age is concluded with the Rapture. The only royal family is now.

The royal family also has a royal function. We have already seen that every priesthood that has functioned in this passage has functioned under conditions of rulership. The Melchizedek priesthood: he was a king, a temporal ruler as well as a spiritual leader. In the Levitical priesthood they were temporal rulers, they were tax collectors, they collected the tithes. Levi not only had great spiritual leadership and authority but Levi had great temporal leadership and authority. Until the time of king Saul and the rule of the monarchy, Levi had all of the rulership. The tribe of Levi had its first ruler in Moses. After the death of Moses the temporal rulership went to the high priest, and it stayed there right through Samuel who was descended from Aaron through Ithamar. Samuel himself appointed the first king; he appointed the second king. He appointed Saul; He appointed David. He was the high priest of Israel, he had the temporal authority and responsibility for appointing the king. So there was always temporal authority and leadership as well.

This is true in every priesthood. This is true with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not only a priest with spiritual authority but He is a King with temporal authority. He is the King of kings as well as out high priest forever.

This brings us to the six propositions regarding the change of priesthood. This anticipates the next paragraph. In verses 11 -19 we are going to see something of this change. Beginning in verse 11 we are going to have an entire new tack. We are going to see the inferiority of the Levitical priesthood, the inferiority of the Levitical battalion.

The Six Propositions Regarding the Change in Priesthood

1. Verse 11 has a very important word: teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis],. It is mistranslated “perfection.” It means the process of completion. Completion cannot be produced by the Levitical priesthood.

2. Since completion, or the process of completion, cannot be produced by the Levitical priesthood it cannot be produced by the Mosaic law. (The Mosaic law is the authorizing agent for the Levitical priesthood)

3. Since neither the Levitical priesthood nor the Mosaic law can produce completeness there must be some change to coincide with the change of dispensation. This is brought out by verse 12.

4. Therefore the priesthood begun with Aaron is replaced by the priesthood begun with Christ. The Levitical priesthood is replaced by the royal priesthood. The authorizing agent of the Levitical priesthood, the Mosaic law, is replaced by the authorizing agent for the royal priesthood which is the eternal decrees of God — Psalm 110:4. This anticipates verses 18,19.

5. The Levitical priesthood is earthly, terminated by death, and belonging to an interrupted dispensation. The only dispensation which is not interrupted is the Church Age. Teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis], is so important that God would never think of interrupting it because teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis], is how the royal family is acquired. The royal priesthood is heavenly, perpetuated beyond death by resurrection, and functions under the interrupting and completed dispensation, the Church. The Levitical priesthood is limited to one family. The royal priesthood belongs to one family. The family of Aaron limits the Levitical priesthood but the royal priesthood belongs to one family, the family of God, the body of Christ. The Levitical priesthood is obtained by physical birth; the royal priesthood is obtained by the new birth.

6. Since the purpose of God is the process of completion of the body of Christ to become the bride of Christ through the royal priesthood, the Levitical priesthood must be set aside, deactivated.

Verses 11–19, the inferiority of the Levitical battalion. The Levitical priesthood must be set aside for the superiority of the royal priesthood.

Bob chews someone out for reading off someone else’s notebook.

Hebrews 7:11 Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron?

Verse 11 — the inadequacy of the Levitical priesthood. The first word is “If”, a conditional particle ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] plus the imperfect, aorist or a pluperfect. Any one of these makes it a second class condition. A second class condition is sometimes known as a contrary to fact clause. The particle o)n is sometimes used with it and sometimes not — ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] plus o)n which is found in the apodosis; the protasis ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] plus the apodosis o)n. Because the protasis is considered contrary to fact only past tenses of the indicative are used. Therefore the protasis states what is untrue and unreal. So this is what is called the contrary to fact condition, a second class condition: if and it is not true.

“therefore” — the inferential particle ὀυν . In historical narratives ὀυν resumes the subject once more after its interruption. Therefore, ὀυν reaches back to Hebrews 5:4 where Aaron was mentioned as the representative of the Levitical priesthood.

“perfect” — teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis],. Teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis], is sometimes translated “perfect”, sometimes “completion.” With the suffix (sij = process or action) it means the act or process of completion.

So literally, “If indeed therefore a process of completion.”

Process of Completion

1. What is a process of completion?

2. Whatever it is, note the absence of the definite article in from of teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis],. The absence of the definite article calls attention to its quality rather than its identity. Identity is emphasized by the use of the definite article in the Greek, while quality is stressed through the absence of it. (The antithesis of English syntax)

3. Even commentators are inclined to relate this phrase to eternal salvation, and this is where everyone has gone off base.

R.B. Thieme, comment: “I’ve never seen anyone who had the ability to think clearly in exegetical form and avoid the error of someone in the past. A.T. Robertson (page 383) says: ‘The Levitical priesthood failed to give men a perfectly adequate relationship with God.’ Now this is a brilliant Greek scholar, there’s nothing wrong with A.T. Robertson. You can always tell the ‘fundies’ who criticize him, it means they don’t know anything about Greek. A.T. Robertson was a brilliant scholar but he was a victim of being pushed into a little mould. This has to do with salvation, he said. This is what all ‘fundies’ have all said. ‘The Levitical priesthood failed to give men a perfectly adequate relationship with God’ — failed to give them salvation. That is not true. The Levitical priesthood was the means of saving millions of people. So he missed it altogether there.

Kenneth Wuest, in his book on Hebrews, page 132, says: ‘The purpose of the priesthood was to remove the obstacle of sin” — that was never true — “which kept men from God. The Levitical priesthood could do that in a typical but not in an actual way.’

A.R. Fausett, page 547, said: ‘Perfection is the bringing of man to his high estate — salvation and sanctification.’ When you throw those two words in you can mean so many things by sanctification it is almost unbelievable. Now I have selected men that I think are good commentators and sound men, and yet, on this particular thing they all run away from the issue. They all think “perfection” must mean salvation.”

All right, you’re saved, you’re not perfect. That breaks down immediately. And it doesn’t even mean perfection here, it means the process of completion. Salvation is not a process, salvation is instantaneous. The moment you believe in Jesus Christ you’re saved, you receive 36 things immediately. So there is no process there.

Previous Doctrine—the process of completion

4. Let us begin with the suffix, sij. It indicates an active process rather than something as instantaneous. Salvation is instantaneous so because of the suffix alone it couldn’t be salvation. Salvation is not a process, it takes place in less than a second.

5. Furthermore, under the ministry of the Levitical priesthood millions of people were saved, so obviously it is not talking about salvation. And one of the strong parts of the Levitical priesthood is that they were good on the Gospel and they were clear on the Gospel. The Levitical Priesthood was good about providing enough information by which to be saved. So, perfection here is not a reference to salvation.

6. So the Levitical priesthood not only brought people to salvation and justification but through the teaching of the written canon of scripture they also led many of these believers to supergrace. People in the past dispensation of Israel actually reached supergrace through the faithful teaching of the Levitical priesthood. Illustration: David.

7. Therefore the process of completion must have another significance in keeping with the context, another significance apart from salvation. And it does.

8. Teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis], means process of completion, and it refers to the completion of Jesus Christ over a period of elapsed time. The period of elapsed time is the course of the Church Age.

9. The issue between the Levitical priesthood or the royal priesthood completing Christ is found in Colossians 2:16,17 — “Consequently, stop allowing anyone to judge you in eating, or drinking, or in matters of a feast, or the new moon, or the Sabbath [all Levitical priesthood functions], which keep on being a shadow of those things about to come; but the body is from the source of the Christ.” Which came first? The cross came first. Christ on the cross is alone. Then resurrection, ascension and session. Now comes the body. The Levitical priesthood could not provide a body for Christ. The Levitical priesthood could not marry Jesus Christ, to use the analogy. The body which belongs to Christ is the royal priesthood, every believer of the Church Age.

10. Christ was alone on the cross: “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He was alone because He was bearing our sins. He was being judged by God the Father in our place. Christ was alone, He was forsaken. And the Father said, Not good that the last Adam should be alone.

11. Christ, the last Adam, is just as completed as the first Adam. The first Adam was completed by the manufacture of a right woman. The last Adam is completed by the manufacture of a body, a mystical, spiritual body called the Church.

12. For this reason, and in this sense, the Church is called the body of Christ.

13. The Levitical priesthood is not the body of Christ. The Levitical priesthood could not complete Christ. The Levitical priesthood is in another dispensation dealing with shadows — Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 8:4,5; 10:1.

14. Therefore, there was a need for a dramatic and, of course, traumatic interruption of the dispensation of Israel. After Christ was brought down from the cross it was still the Age of Israel. The Levitical priesthood could do nothing for Jesus Christ. Three days later Jesus rose from the dead and the Levitical priesthood could still do nothing for Him. For forty days He was on the earth in His resurrection body and then He ascended. The Levitical priesthood could still do nothing for Him. The Levitical priesthood did one thing for Him: at His trial they slapped Him for what they called talking back to the high priest. The high priest is Jesus Christ, and they slapped the true high priest for talking back to the pseudo high priest. That is all the Levitical priesthood can do. They cannot complete Jesus Christ. The Rapture occurs at the completion of the body, but right now it is in the process.

15. The Church Age interrupts to fulfil the process of completion, to fulfil teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis], of Christ.

16. The Church Age was designed by God the Father to complete Christ. Therefore, the Church on earth is called the body of Christ, the process of completion and fulfilment of Christ. The body is teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis],.

17. The Church in heaven after the Rapture is called the bride of Christ. The process has been completed when the bride emerges. First of all the bride must have a body. The body is completed when the Church Age is completed and then it becomes a bride.

Conclusion: Therefore a new priesthood is necessary for teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis],. Christ is royalty on both sides of the hypostatic union. He is royalty in His deity, He is royalty in His humanity; He could not possibly be completed by those “peasants”, the Levitical priesthood. Peasants can’t do it. It takes royalty to complete royalty. And you and I are the royalty to complete Jesus Christ. Every believer is royalty; and this is why we are able to complete Jesus, Who is also royalty.

With nearly 3 minutes to go, Bob begins the doctrine of the Body of Christ. I will keep it at the beginning of the next lesson. He covers most of the first point.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #79

79 09/04/1973 Hebrews 7:11-13a Doctrine of the Body of Jesus Christ (complete)

Hurricane Delia came ashore on Galveston. “There are a lot of people who called. “From 6:30 on, I answered the phone. As long as the streets are not frozen over, we are meeting here. For those of you who hear this on the tape, before I rebound, I have one sweet thought for you.”

The first point or two was begun in the previous lesson.

The Doctrine of the Body of Christ

1. The Trinity is related to the body of Christ. God the Father placed Christ at the head of the body — Ephesians 1:22 — so the Father is related to the body of Christ. Christ is the head of the body — Ephesians 1:22,23; 5:23,24; Colossians 1:18. Also, the Holy Spirit forms the body of Christ — 1Corinthians 12:12,13. He forms it by His baptizing ministry at salvation. It is the baptism of the Holy Spirit which is so significant because we enter into union with Christ. Christ is royalty in His deity; Christ is royalty in His humanity; Christ is super royalty in hypostatic union, and we are in union with super royalty, we share His royalty. We become royalty spiritually. We are the only ones in all of human history who will be in this status quo. We are royalty because of spiritual appointment by God the Holy Spirit. Furthermore, it is a permanent spiritual appointment because of the sealing ministry of the Spirit. We even wear a badge of royalty, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

2. Christ is the Savior of the body — Ephesians 5:23,25,30. This indicates that every member of the body of Christ will live with Him forever because of His priestly sacrifice on the cross.

3. Christ is the sanctifier of the body — Hebrews 2:11; 13:12. Because Jesus Christ is royalty we have been set apart as royalty forever. We are the only royalty perpetuated forever, the only royalty based upon a strict spiritual principle. There is nothing comparable to the royalty of the family of God in the Church Age.

4. The body is also related to the strategic victory of the angelic conflict — Ephesians 1:22,23: “And he subordinated all demons under his feet, and he has given him [Christ] absolute sovereignty above all [believers of the Church Age] with reference to the Church, which is such a royal quality as to be his body, the fullness of the one being filled with reference to all [the royal priesthood of the Church Age].”

5. The body includes Gentile believers of the Church Age only — Ephesians 3:6.

6. The body is the recipient of multifarious spiritual gifts — Romans 12:4,5; 1Corinthians 12:27,28.

7. The communication of doctrine is a gift for the purpose of edification and leading the royal priesthood to supergrace — Ephesians 3:6–8; 4:11,12.

8. Therefore the objective of the body of Christ in phase two is to reach the supergrace life — Ephesians 4:15.16. The objective of the body of Christ at the Rapture is the fulfilment of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus Compared to Melchizedek

Hebrews 7:11a — “If therefore the process of completion were by the Levitical priesthood [but it isn’t: second class condition].”

“were” — teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis], is followed by the imperfect active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. The imperfect tense is progressive. The progressive imperfect is used for continuous action in past time. However, the progressive imperfect denotes action in progress at the time. This is the progressive imperfect of duration which indicates there never was a time when the Levitical priesthood functioned as the completer of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, following out the analogy of fulfilment and completion, the Levitical priesthood is not the Lord’s right woman. The active voice must be linked with the second class condition of the Levitical priesthood. The second class condition: the Levitical priesthood produces an action of never completing Jesus Christ, an action which cannot be fulfilled. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality, which is in this case, the Levitical priesthood was never related to teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis],. The Levitical priesthood belongs to the Age of Israel which was an interrupted dispensation.

The body of Christ is taken from the believers of this dispensation, it is related to Christ forever. Christ is royalty, the body of Christ is royalty. We have in this chapter the superiority of royalty and here is one superiority from the second class condition of the protasis of verse 11.

“by the Levitical priesthood” is dia plus the genitive of the adjective Leuitikos (Λευiτικός) [pronounced lyoo-iht-ee-KOSS]. Then we have the noun for the office hierôsunê (ἱερωσύνη) [pronounced hee-er-oh-SOO-nay].

Summary of Completion and the Priesthood

1. The priesthood must relate to its own dispensation. Generally speaking, the family priesthood is related to the dispensation of the Gentiles, the Levitical priesthood to the dispensation of Israel, the royal priesthood to the dispensation of the Church.

2. The dispensation of Israel was characterized by a specialized priesthood based on heredity through physical birth.

3. The dispensation of the Church is characterized by the universal priesthood of the believer based on regeneration; at the point of salvation the baptism of the Spirit entering every believer into the royal family; the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the badge of royalty; the sealing of the Spirit, security and perpetuation of the royal family forever; spiritual gifts: the function, the action of the royal family as the body of Christ.

4. Therefore, the interruption of the Jewish Age demands a new priesthood. The new priesthood must be compatible with the new dispensation — “but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood” — 1Peter 2:9.

5. Now comes a parenthesis of great importance. This parenthesis relates to the second proposition regarding the change in priesthood. A change in priesthood demands a change in authorizing agency.

6. Since the process of completion cannot be produced by the Levitical priesthood it cannot be produced by the authorizing agent of the Levitical priesthood. The authorizing agent is, of course, the Mosaic law.

7. Therefore the parenthesis which now begins relates the Mosaic law to the Levitical priesthood. The parenthesis divides the protasis from the apodosis. The protasis is the “if” clause, the second class condition. The apodosis relates to the protasis in conditional clauses. And there is no apodosis until we get to “what further need.”

The parenthesis is often properly introduced with the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] — “for under it,” the preposition epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the genitive singular feminine of the intensive pronoun autos. It should be literally translated: “For on the basis of it [the Levitical priesthood].”

Bob’s excellent Greek teacher taught him that the key to understanding the New Testament is understanding all of the particles.

“the people” — ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] laos (λαός) [pronounced lah-OSS]. This refers to the Jews of the Age of Israel; “received the law” — perfect passive indicative of the compound verb nomotheteô (νομοθετέω) [pronounced nom-ohth-eht-EH-oh]. Nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss] means law; qetew comes from the verb tithêmi (τίθημι) [pronounced TIHTH-ā-mee], to appoint. We can translate this, “For on the basis of it [the Levitical priesthood] the people [of Israel] received the enactment of the law.” The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect. The dramatic perfect is a rhetorical application of the intensive perfect tense. Since the perfect tense always represents existing state it is used for the purpose of describing a fact in a very unusual, vivid and dramatic manner. The historical present, the dramatic aorist do the same thing to some extent but the dramatic perfect is much more forcible, and like the intensive perfect it always emphasizes the results of the action, namely the nullification of the Mosaic law, along with the Levitical priesthood. We are not under the Levitical priesthood, we are not under the Mosaic law. They both hang together, they both stand together. At this point the parenthesis ends. It is a very short explanatory parenthesis.

On the other side of the parenthesis we get back to the apodosis. “what further need” — tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] éti (ἔτι) [pronounced EH-tee] xreia. It should be translated, “What further need would there be”, a technical, rhetorical phrase. “that another priest” — the accusative of the direct object masculine singular of héteros (ἕτερος) [pronounced HEH-ter-os] means another of a different kind, a different category; then we have the word for “priest”, hiereus (ἱερεύς) [pronounced hee-er-YOOCE]. it is used here by the way as the accusative of general reference which isn’t really properly the subject, it goes with the infinitive to describe the one involved in the action of the infinitive. Literally, “for another of a different category of priest”.

“to arise” — present middle infinitive of a)nisthmi. The word means to make the scene, to come on to the scene of history, to be raised into existence, and so on. The present tense is an historical present used for a past event viewed with the vividness and the drama of a present occurrence, although it isn’t a present occurrence. The middle voice is used to emphasize the intransitive use of the verb — to make the scene, to come into existence. So it is translated like an active voice. The infinitive is used to indicate God’s purpose and God’s plan.

“after the order of Melchizedek” — katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of taxis (τάξις) [pronounced TAHX-iss]. Taxis (τάξις) [pronounced TAHX-iss] means category or battalion.

“and not be called” — present passive infinitive of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] plus the very strong negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] which closes the door. Légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] here means to designate — “and not be designated according to the battalion of Aaron.”

Hebrews 7:11 “Now if therefore a process of completion [of Christ] was through the Levitical priesthood [2nd class condition: but it was not], (for on the basis of it [the Levitical priesthood] the people had received the law,) what further need would there be for a different category or a different battalion of priests to be activated according to the battalion of Melchizedek, and not be assigned according to the battalion of Aaron.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Why not use Aaron’s battalion, a priesthood is there? Instead we have the interruption of a dispensation, we have the deactivation of the second battalion, we have the deactivation of the Mosaic law as an authorizing agent. Neither the Mosaic law nor the Levitical priesthood have anything to do with the Christian life today, with the royal family. So the interruption of the Jewish Age deactivates the Levitical priesthood while at the same time reactivating the royal priesthood which began with Melchizedek and terminated with his death.

A change of priesthood means a change in the authorizing agent.

Hebrews 7:12 For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well.

Verse 12 — a change of priesthood means a change in the authorizing agent. We have the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] to carry on the thoughts started by the second class condition. The Levitical priesthood is out.

The next word is actually not found in the English but it should be there. “For when the priesthood is changed”. The word “when” is used to indicate a temporal participle. “For when the priesthood is changed” is the correct translation. The word “priesthood” is the genitive singular of the noun hierôsunê (ἱερωσύνη) [pronounced hee-er-oh-SOO-nay]. This noun refers to the priestly office, the entire Levitical battalion authorized by the Mosaic law.

“being changed” — present passive participle, genitive case of metatithêmi (μετατίθημι) [pronounced meht-at-IHTH-ay-mee]. The word means to change over, to transfer, to alter, or to replace. The present tense is the aoristic present used to express the idea of a present fact without reference to its progress. The passive voice: the Levitical priesthood receives the action of the verb.

The dramatic interruption of the Jewish dispensation terminated the Levitical priesthood. It also terminated its authorizing agent. Remember that the Levitical priesthood and the Mosaic law stand together and fall together.

“there is made of necessity” — “there is made” does not occur in the Greek text. The next phrase is actually “from necessity”, not “of necessity.” It is the preposition ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus the ablative of anakê (ἀναγκ) [pronounced ahn-ahg-KAY]. This actually comes next. This is a little difficult because for some reason it is all right to lift phrases out of the Greek, following their proper syntactical concept, and rearrange the sentence to make smooth English, provided you do not violate the syntax. But this thing not only violates the syntax — and often translators get into this kind of a bind — in order to make sense in bringing from another language some sense into the situation you have to start juggling things and adding words like “there is made”, which doesn’t occur at this point at all. All we have at this point is actually “from necessity” — “For when the priesthood is changed from necessity”.

Next we have a word not even found, kai. It means “also” — “from necessity also”.

“a change” — now we have the cognate metathesis (μετάθεσις) [pronounced meht-ATH-ehs-iss].

About Metathesis (μετάθεσις) [pronounced meht-ATH-ehs-iss]

1. It refers to a change in the authorizing agent. It indicates that the authorizing agent for the royal priesthood is changed. You cannot use the Mosaic law as an authorizing agent for the royal family any more than you can take Sabbath observance in the Mosaic law and impose it on the royal family. Sabbath observance was for the peons of the family of God, those who were born again in the Age of Israel. We are in the palace, we never observe the Sabbath.

2. The strategical victory of Christ interrupts the Jewish Age.

3. Therefore, Christ is the end of the law for believers of the Church Age — Romans 10:4.

4. A new authorizing agency replaces the Mosaic law.

5. The authorizing agent is related to the entire ministry of God the Holy Spirit to the royal family of the Church Age. The eternal decrees of God authorized a royal priesthood after the strategical victory of Christ being seated at the right hand of the Father. The authorizing agent for the Levitical priesthood did not survive the Levitical priesthood. The royal priesthood is based upon an eternal document, not a temporal document, and this eternal document which authorizes our priesthood is a forever document. So is our priesthood.

a. The divine decrees.

b. We are priests forever, as an extrapolation from the Levitical priesthood.

c. We will be priests forever.

d. David was royalty in time; we are royalty forever.

e. “That’s alright, it’s raining outside; if you want to drop everything you have, drop it.”

6. While God the Holy Spirit regenerated every person who believed in Christ during the course of human history, only in this dispensation does God the Holy Spirit baptize every believer into union with Christ, making him a member of the royal family forever.

7. Members of the royal family — Church Age believers — operate under a much higher authorization — Romans 8:2–4 illustrates that.

8. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a sign of royalty.

9. Every believer by virtue of positional truth lives in the palace. Therefore every believer of the Church Age is and always will be royalty — royalty through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

10. Hence, we have a royal priesthood. We have the universal indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We have the command to all members of the royal family to be filled with the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit. Spirituality in the Church Age is a very definite change. So the authorizing agent, the doctrine of divine decrees, is related to the various ministries of God the Holy Spirit to the believer of the Church Age at the point he believes.

“from necessity also a change of the law” — the genitive singular of nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss] indicates the law as the authorizing agency for the Levitical priesthood.

“is made” — present active indicative from ginomai, and it should be translated “occurs.” The present tense is an historical present in which the past of the deactivation of the law and the Levitical priesthood is replaced by the royal priesthood. And this is so dramatic and so important that the present tense is used to dramatize it. The active voice: the action is produced by the subject which is metathesis (μετάθεσις) [pronounced meht-ATH-ehs-iss], a change. A change occurs. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative representing the verbal idea of a change occurring from the viewpoint of reality.

Hebrews 7:12 “For when the priesthood is changed [replaced], from necessity also a change of law must occur.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Verse 13–15, a royal high priest demands a new authorizing agent. In other words, royalty comes in and cleans house. This is a complete change of administration, and the royal high priest seated at the right hand of the Father means a complete and total house cleaning. So our royal high priest demands a new authorizing agent, the new authorizing agent becomes the basis for the house cleaning.

Hebrews 7:13 For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar.

Verse 13 — again we have the explanatory use of the particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] — “For”; “he of whom” — the preposition epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the accusative of the relative pronoun oj. It should be translated, “For the one toward whom.”

What Does this Mean, for the one toward whom?

1. It is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, the royal high priest.

2. Jesus Christ and Melchizedek were both royalty before they were priests.

3. Jesus Christ was born physically into the line of David, so He was born royalty; while Melchizedek acquired royalty through conquest.

4. Neither became royalty through the second birth or regeneration. Melchizedek was born again but at the time of being born again he was not baptized by the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit never occurred until the day of Pentecost, 30 AD Melchizedek, then, is royalty but not through the second birth. Jesus Christ is royalty but not through the second birth. It is blasphemous to assume that Christ had to be born again.

5. We as believers of the Church Age become royalty through the second birth. The moment we believed in Christ, the agent of regeneration, entered us into the family of God. “Ye are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus”. But He did something else that made us royalty. Ours is unique royalty. We at the moment of salvation were entered into union with Jesus Christ, so we have royalty by virtue of union with Christ. Furthermore, we have permanent royalty and we are the only permanent royalty in history.

Now the high priests in this battalion do not have royalty on the same basis that we do. However, they have the same authorizing agent — the doctrine of divine decrees, the two immutable things. Both the oath of the Father and the promise of the Father are in the decrees.

Death ended everything for Melchizedek; but not for Jesus Christ, as He was resurrected and He continued as the Royal High Priest.

There Are Three Categories in the Royal Priestly Battalion.

1. Historically: Melchizedek, high priest, became a king through conquest, became a priest by ruling Salem [Jerusalem];

2. Jesus Christ: born a King, appointed a priest by the eternal decrees;

3. believers of the Church Age: became royal priests through the baptism of the Holy Spirit by which they were entered into union with Christ, and became members of the royal family forever.

All members of the battalion in all three categories all had their appointment from the divine decrees, whereas in the priesthood of Aaron, the Levitical order, all of them were appointed and authorized by the Mosaic law. The Mosaic law deals with temporal things, the divine decrees deal with eternal things.

You are an chosen race; you are a royal priesthood

1972 Hebrews Lesson #80

80 09/05/1973 Hebrews 7:13–14 Doctrine of the Royal Family

Congressional Medal of Honor recipient in Vietnam. Politicians are more responsible for the deaths of men than the worst decision made in battle by a military commander.

Function of the royal family of God; and the function of a military. All freedom is won by means of a military victory.

Review of Hebrew 7 translation.

Heb 7:13 For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. (ESV)

Verse 13 — “For the one toward whom”, literally. This is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ, the royal high priest. Jesus Christ, Melchizedek, and the believers in this dispensation of the Church are the only personnel in the first battalion. Jesus Christ and Melchizedek are the only two high priests. Then we have the royal family of the Church Age. These are the three categories. We differentiate in this way. Jesus Christ was born a King, He was born in the line of David.

Mary is not the mother of God. Bob is upset over a movie with a Catholic priest. She was born a sinner; she was not immaculate. Maybe she was well-groomed, but she was not immaculate. She does hold one record. One virgin pregnancy.

Joseph did not want Mary stoned to death; but he was ready to put her away; until he received some Bible doctrine.

Melchizedek became a king by conquest, he was not born a king, he didn’t inherit a kingdom. Salem is also a city whose ruler is high priest, so Melchizedek was the king of Salem and the high priest of Salem. And when Abraham went out to meet him he conquered Abraham too, with doctrine. And Abraham became a citizen of Melchizedek’s kingdom. This is demonstrated by the fact that he paid taxes to him. Melchizedek became a king by conquest. Jesus Christ became a King by birth and was appointed a priest in eternity past in the doctrine of divine decrees. That leaves one other group, the believers of the Church Age, and we become members of the royal family at the point of salvation through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

Jacob promised to pay his taxes in advance if he is taken back into the land.

The Doctrine of the Royal Family

1. Definition: All believers of the Church Age belong to the world’s most unique system of royalty. This royalty is founded on strictly spiritual principles of doctrine. The royal family is every believer of the Church Age because in this dispensation very believer is entered into union with Christ, and this is royalty that will last forever.

2. The basis of royalty in the Church Age: The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the basis of royalty. No believer before the Church Age and no believer after the Church Age is qualified for royalty.

a. One guy said, “When I get to heaven, I will punch Adam in the face.”

b. We are royalty because of Adam and his sins. Eternal royalty is formed in one dispensation only. The worst people in Christendom today distort this doctrine; the holy rollers.

3. The precedent for royalty: The precedent for royalty is set up for us by the Greek word taxis (τάξις) [pronounced TAHX-iss] which means category or battalion. The first battalion is the royal priesthood; second battalion: Levitical priesthood; third battalion: family priesthood. The family priesthood is deactivated. The Levitical priesthood is deactivated by the interruption of the Jewish Age. The precedent for setting up a royal priesthood was taken from the only other occurrence, the priesthood of Melchizedek. One time in history is all it took to set a precedent. So Melchizedek, a bona fide historical person is the precedent. The battalion of Melchizedek provides both the pattern and the precedent. it should be noted that Melchizedek acquired his royalty by becoming king of Salem, while Jesus Christ acquired His royalty by being born a King in the line of David. The royalty of the Church Age believer comes at the moment we believe in Christ, again, through the baptism of the Spirit.

4. The relationship to the King:

a. When Jesus Christ was alone on the cross God the Father provided for Him a body and a bride.

b. Through the baptism of the Spirit every believer is entered into union with Christ.

c. Therefore, every believer in the Church Age is called body of Christ.

d. Being body of Christ makes every believer of the Church Age personally related to the King of kings.

e. Positional sanctification places every believer in the palace forever.

f. Positional sanctification places every believer in the palace.

g. When the body of Christ is completed the Church Age terminates with a resurrection. And what is the word for the process of completion? Teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis],.

h. At the Rapture or the resurrection the body of Christ immediately becomes the bride.

i. During the Tribulation the bride is prepared for operation footstool, which is the second phase of Christ’s strategic victory.

5. The sign of royalty: The sign of royalty is the unprecedented universal indwelling of God the Holy Spirit. The purpose of this indwelling is to glorify Jesus Christ — John 7:37–39.

6. The security of royalty: The sealing ministry of God the Holy Spirit is designed for the special double security of the royal family. Just being regenerated is security. The you have entered into union with Christ, and that is security. Then you have the sealing ministry of the Spirit to indicate that not only do you have eternal security but you have eternal security as an aristocrat.

7. The function of royalty: The function of royalty is twofold. First, moving toward the objective of the supergrace life. This is the attainment of the tactical goal of phase two. Secondly, the function of royalty is the modus operandi of the priesthood. Not only are you royal family but again, unprecedented, every believer is a priest. The normal function of the priesthood begins at the supergrace life but you are a priest from the moment of salvation.

8. The future of royalty: As members of the body of Christ and the royal priesthood all Church Age believers will return with Christ at the second advent. We will return to participate in the strategic victory at Armageddon. This strategic victory includes the Lord Jesus Christ breaking His record in slaughtering the enemy. His record: Jesus Christ in one second slaughtered 185,000 infantry. He will break this record at the second advent. The story is found in Isaiah 63 and many other passages. Ezekiel says it will take seven months to bury the dead. Revelation 14 says the blood will flow as high as the horse’s bridle for 275 miles. Jesus Christ will personally slaughter millions. Then all unbelievers will be removed from the world at that time — the baptism of fire. Then Jesus Christ will be crowned ruler of the world forever, the first 1000 years being a dispensation. After the Millennium the royal family will be with Christ forever.

Next we have a nominative neuter plural of the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos], translated “these things”. This demonstrative pronoun is used as a substantive. It is a reference to the doctrine of the royal family related to the priesthood. “These things” is best covered by two phrase from 1Peter 2:9 — “We are an elect (chosen) race, a royal priesthood.”

“are spoken” — present passive indicative of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. It refers to the context where Jesus Christ is described as a royal priest after the battalion of Melchizedek.

“pertaining” — perfect active indicative of metechô (μετέχω) [pronounced met-EHKH-oh]. It means to share, to partake, to participate, to belong. Here it means to belong. The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect. The dramatic perfect is a rhetorical application of the perfect tense and an intensification of the already intensive perfect. In fact, it is the most realistic way of describing something that is absolutely permanent and can’t be changed. The active voice: Jesus Christ, the royal high priest, produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative which states an unqualified assertion, a point of doctrine. “For the one toward whom these things are spoken belongs ...”

“to another tribe” — the word “tribe” is an objective genitive — phulê (φυλή) [pronounced foo-LAY]. Then we have with that, héteros (ἕτερος) [pronounced HEH-ter-os], which means another of a different kind — “a different kind of tribe.” The tribe of Levi is the tribe of the priesthood in Israel, family of Aaron. The tribe of Judah is the kingly tribe. Remember that the king and the priest are separated in Israel. It wasn’t always that way. Reuben was the firstborn. Reuben had as the eldest son all three of the advantages of birthright. He had the birthright double portion — the money would go to him. He had the rulership and the family priesthood. But he lost all three. He lost the rulership to Judah, the priesthood to Levi, and the double portion to Joseph who has two tribes in the double portion: Ephraim and Manasseh. The Levitical priesthood is all in the tribe of Levi but the Lord Jesus Christ belongs to another of a different kind of tribe — different from Levi is what it is saying here. Jesus Christ is descended from the royal line of David, through Solomon and through Nathan. The tribe of the Jewish priesthood is Levi, the family of Aaron. Obviously the priesthood of Christ, therefore, could never be related to the Lord Jesus Christ.

“of which” is not quite correct. We have the preposition apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the ablative of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. It should be translated “from which.”

“no man” — oudeís (οὐδείς) [pronounced oo-DICE], literally, “no one”; “gave attendance” — the perfect active indicative of proséchô (προσέΧω) [pronounced pros-EHKH-oh] means “has officiated.” The perfect tense is an intensive perfect. No one in the past has officiated with the result that no one has officiated. The active voice: No one from Judah could ever produce the action of the verb because Judah is not the priestly tribe. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative of unqualified assertion.

“at the altar” is the locative of place. thusiastêrion (θυσιαστήριον) [pronounced thoo-see-as-TAY-ree-ohn] refers to the altar of burnt offerings and therefore the Levitical altar. Who approaches the altar of burnt offerings? Only Levi. You either belong to the tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron, or you just don’t officiate at the altar.

Uzziah, in the line of David, tried to act as a priest, and he became leprous. Only the tribe of Levi can officiate as a priest.

Hebrews 7:13 “For the one toward whom [Jesus Christ] these things are spoken belongs to another of a different kind of tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar [of burn offerings].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Heb 7:14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.

Verse 14 — “For”, the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar; “it is evident” — nominative singular neuter of prodhloj, meaning “known to all”.

“that” — we have hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] after verbs of perception, meaning even dummies know this one!

“our Lord sprang out” — but that isn’t correct. It is the perfect active indicative of a)natellw which means to descend — “our Lord has descended from”. The perfect tense is an intensive perfect. In other words, He was born in the tribe of Judah and therefore no matter where He went He was always in the tribe of Judah. He never changed His tribe; He couldn’t change His tribe. The active voice: our Lord produces the action of the verb with the result that He is always descended from Judah, not Levi. The indicative mood: unqualified statement of fact, there is no way that our Lord can ever be brought into the tribe of Levi.

“of Judah” — the preposition ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus the ablative, meaning from the source of Judah, or simply “from Judah.” The genealogies of Matthew and Luke are conclusive.

“of which tribe” — the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus accusative of hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] plus the accusative of phulê (φυλή) [pronounced foo-LAY]. it should be translated “with reference to which tribe”.

“Moses spake nothing” — the aorist active indicative of laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh] means he communicated nothing. This is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the entire writings of Moses, gathers them into one ball of wax, and you can’t find anywhere in what Moses wrote any authorization for anyone but the tribe of Levi serving at the altar. The active voice: Moses is the human author of the Pentateuch, and he is producing the action. This is a dogmatic and unqualified assertion as indicated by the indicative mood.

“concerning the priesthood” is not found in the Greek manuscript.

Hebrews 7:14 “For known to all is the fact that our Lord has descended from Judah; with reference to which tribe Moses has communicated nothing.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews Lesson #81

81 09/06/1973 Hebrews 7:15–17; Lev. 21:17–21 Qualifications for the Levitical priesthood

A guy with a Vietnam prisoner who grabs a grenade. He gets him into a bear hug and he thereby protects the other men.

Another one and a copter.

Commenting occurring behind the glass; but tells him to come to him and comment.

Heb 7:15 This becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek,

Verse 15 — we have the continuative use of the conjunction kai, correctly translated “and, even, also”; “it is” — present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], absolute status quo verb. Between the conjunction and the verb is an adverb, éti (ἔτι) [pronounced EH-tee], which means “still” or “in addition.” “Itis” is a static present tense, “it is and always will be.”

“far more evident” — the word for “evident” is katadêlos (κατάδηλος) [pronounced kat-AD-ay-loss] — “And it is still much more evident.”

“for that” — the conjunction ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] which is used for an emotional build-up phrase; “after the similitude of Melchizedek” is the preposition katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of homoiotês (ὁμοιότης) [pronounced hom-oy-OHT-ace], which means likeness or similarity, plus an indeclinable proper noun translated like a descriptive genitive — “according the similarity of Melchizedek.”

Notice that Melchizedek is a king priest; Jesus Christ is a King priest. Melchizedek acquired rulership and priesthood by conquest; Jesus Christ received kingship by birth and He received the priesthood by the divine decrees in eternity past. So it is the king high priest where the similarity exists. Both of them were being regarded from the standpoint of their humanity.

“there ariseth” — present middle indicative of a)nisthmi. The word means to come upon the scene, to make the scene, to rise up, to stand up in history. We have the historical present tense in which a past event is used with vividness of a present occurrence, and therefore it becomes a very dramatic, very intensive statement. The middle voice describes the subject as participating in the results of the action, or the subject acting with a view toward participating in the outcome. This is what is called a direct middle voice which refers the results of the action directly to the agent with reflexive force; a very strong statement. The indicative mood is declarative for unqualified assertion. Notice with the word “another” the word is héteros (ἕτερος) [pronounced HEH-ter-os], so while Melchizedek and Jesus Christ and Church Age believers are all in the same battalion they are not the same persons. Melchizedek is a pattern only. He became a king by conquest, he became a high priest by conquest, and all of this is accomplished as a pattern. But as a spiritual giant when he met Abraham historically he demonstrated his superiority by ministering to Abraham, Abraham recognized his superiority by becoming a citizen of his kingdom by paying taxes. This is very significant because it demonstrates the fact that the first battalion is infinitely superior to the second battalion, even on the one historical meeting. That historical meeting sets up the precedent which we studied in the first ten verses.

Now we have another of a different kind of priest. Jesus Christ was born a king; He was the high priest by decree. Melchizedek became a king by conquest, his genealogy had nothing to do with it. Jesus Christ is a King priest by birth and by the two immutable things from God the Father. We are royal family forever, not by physical birth, not by ability, not by any relation except one: baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 7:13 “And it is still much more evident: that according to the similarity of Melchizedek another of a different type of priest arises.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Note that this passage distinguishes between Melchizedek and Jesus Christ.

Melchizedek and Jesus Christ

1. Two things are evident. First, this verse is conclusive that Melchizedek was not a theophany. He is a pattern for the royal priesthood in contrast to the Levitical priesthood.

2. héteros (ἕτερος) [pronounced HEH-ter-os] (another of a different kind) demands further that a distinction be made between the royal priesthood of Melchizedek and the royal priesthood of Jesus Christ.

3. The obvious distinction is that Christ was born into royalty while Melchizedek became royalty by conquest.

4. The king of Salem, Melchizedek, was not born the king of Salem, as per verse 3.

5. This verse now comes into focus and related to the context. Melchizedek was not born king of Salem.

6. Jesus Christ is portrayed in this verse as héteros (ἕτερος) [pronounced HEH-ter-os] — another of a different kind — in that He was born a king. We are born again royalty; Jesus Christ was born physically a king.

7. Nevertheless in the battalion everyone is royalty one way or another. Melchizedek was royalty by conquest, Jesus Christ was royalty by the first birth, and we are royalty by the second birth.

8. Note the application to us, the believers of the Church Age: We are not royalty by human achievement, we are not royalty by physical birth, we are not royalty because we are better than everyone else. We are royalty by regeneration plus the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

9. Consequently, three types of royalty exist in the first battalion. The first is royalty by achievement Melchizedek, the second is Jesus Christ, the high priest, and then we have a kingdom of priests made up of believers of the Church Age.

4 out of 5 things done for us by the Holy Spirit are related to our royalty. Family priesthood, Levitical Priesthood, and the Royal Priesthood.

In verses 16, 17 we have categorical superiority of the royal high priest.

Heb 7:16 who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life.

Verse 16 — we begin with the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. The antecedent: another of a different kind — “who” [Jesus Christ]; “is made” — perfect active indicative of ginomai, and should be translated “has become.” The perfect tense is the intensive perfect, it emphasizes the existing results of the completed action. So we could translate it in more detail” “Who has become in the past with the result that he will always be.” The active voice: Jesus Christ as the subject produces the action of the verb. He is the royal high priest producing the action here. The declarative indicative is for a dogmatic and unqualified assertion.

“not” — first we get the negative, and it is a shut door. It is the objective negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook].

“after the law of a carnal commandment” — katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] nomon entolê (ἐντολή) [pronounced en-tol-AY]j sarkinhj, “not according to the law of physical requirements. “Not according to the law” is the first part, nomon is in the accusative; entolê (ἐντολή) [pronounced en-tol-AY]j sarkinhj are genitives which describe.

Summary

1. We have the strong negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook], a point blank negation, it is objective and final.

2. We have the preposition katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss] which refers to the Mosaic law’s requirements for the Levitical priesthood — Leviticus 21:17–21.

3. We have the genitive of description entolê (ἐντολή) [pronounced en-tol-AY], and it extrapolates the specific paragraphs in the Mosaic law which deal with the qualifications of the Levitical priesthood.

4. We have the adjective sarkikos (σαρκικός) [pronounced sar-kee-KOSS] which simply refers to the fact that all qualifications for the Levitical priesthood were physical and not spiritual. There were no spiritual qualifications. You didn’t have to be saved, it was the physical birth that counted, minus the defects. They had to have good breeding. This is important because that means whatever came from selective breeding was lost at death. Furthermore, selective breeding carries a tremendous pride and they did practice selective breeding with the line of Aaron. It was very important to them to have the most beautiful physical male specimens.

Leviticus 21 — everything in the Levitical priesthood depended upon physical requirements from birth all of the way through.

Verse 17 — “Speak unto Aaron, saying, Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations who hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.” The bread of his God refers to officiating at the altar, to putting bread on the table of showbread, entering. In other words, the function of the priesthood.

Verse 18 — “For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he who hath a flat nose, or anything superfluous [Hebrew: “deformed legs”].”

Verse 19 — “Or a man that is broken-footed, or broken-handed.”

Verse 20 — “Or a crookbacked [hunchback], or a dwarf, or hath a blemish [defect] in his eye, or be scurvy [eczema], or scabs [or other skin diseases], or hath his stones broken [crushed testicles].”

Lev 21:17 "Speak to Aaron, saying, None of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish may approach to offer the bread of his God.

Lev 21:18 For no one who has a blemish shall draw near, a man blind or lame, or one who has a mutilated face or a limb too long,...

Lev 21:19 ...or a man who has an injured foot or an injured hand,...

Lev 21:20 ...or a hunchback or a dwarf or a man with a defect in his sight or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles.

Lev 21:21 No man of the offspring of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to offer the LORD's food offerings; since he has a blemish, he shall not come near to offer the bread of his God.

These men represented man to God; and therefore, had to be without blemish, as they represented Jesus Christ.

All of this adds up to the fact that they were very particular about their priesthood on the basis of God’s Word. It wasn’t just a matter of pride with them. God ordered it; He ordained this. The reason is because they were dealing with spiritual things. When there is the administration of spiritual things there is not to be anything to break the concentration of the people. In other words, no distractions from physical handicaps. There must not be distraction when it comes to spiritual things. No breaking the concentration of those who are there.

Bob illustrates this walking with a bad leg.

In the Levitical priesthood it must be remembered that no matter how great they were in their spiritual lives their qualifications were still all physical. They had to be born in a certain family, they had to be physically without any handicap of any kind. The concept is a very important one: If the requirements are physical they are terminated by physical death. When Aaron died he never again served as a priest. Nor did any other Levitical priest.

Samuel is in the line of Ithamar?

“but” — the adversative conjunction allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH]. The contrast between the physical requirements for the Levitical priesthood and the spiritual norms for the royal priesthood as represented in the person of Jesus Christ.

“after the power” — katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative singular of dúnamis (δύναμις) [pronounced DOO-nahm-iss], inherent power, and it should be translated “according to the inherent power of an endless life” — zôê (ζωή) [pronounced dzoh-AY] plus akatalutos (ἀκατάλυτος) [pronounced ak-at-AL-oo-toss. Zôê (ζωή) [pronounced dzoh-AY] means “life”; akatalutos (ἀκατάλυτος) [pronounced ak-at-AL-oo-toss does not mean endless, it means “indestructible”; “according to the inherent power of indestructible life”.

Hebrews 7:16 “Who has become a priest, not according to the law of physical requirements, but according to the power of indestructible life.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. This indestructible life is described in the next verse as eternal life or forever life.

2. Therefore, a priesthood which only possesses physical requirements is terminated by physical death.

3. But a priesthood which is related to eternal life can only be entered by regeneration and never destroyed by death.

4. So not only is the royal priesthood of the Church Age a superior priesthood of nobility in the royal family but it lasts forever.

5. The documentation for the royal priesthood is given in the next verse. This documentation relates Christ our high priest to us and is not part of the Mosaic law.

6. Therefore it is not an extrapolation from Moses but an extrapolation from the eternal decrees that authorizes our priesthood, our royalty — Psalm 110:4.

Heb 7:17 For it is witnessed of him, "You are a priest forever, after the order of Melchizedek."

Verse 17 — the documentation is taken from an extrapolation of the divine decrees and is quoted in Psalm 110:4.

Psalm 110:4 The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, "You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek."

“For” is the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar; “he testifieth” is not found in the original.

“Thou” — the emphatic use of the personal pronoun su. Because it is proleptic it should be translated “you and only you”.

“a priest forever” — hiereus (ἱερεύς) [pronounced hee-er-YOOCE] eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] ton aiôn (αἰών) [pronounced ī-OHN], “priest with reference to the ages [idiomatic for ‘forever’].” This emphasizes and documents the eternity of the royal priesthood. Christ as the God-Man lives forever. We as born again believers, members of the family of God by faith in Christ, live forever in union with Christ.

“after the order of Melchizedek”, or literally, “according to the battalion of...”

Hebrews 7:17 (Translation, quoting from Psalm 110:4) — “For you and only you, a priest for ever according to the battalion of Melchizedek.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This was first addressed to Jesus Christ in eternity past. Now, since you and I have been entered into union with Christ this applies to us as much as it applies to Him, except that we are a kingdom of priests and He is the high priest. He is not only the ruler of the Church but He is the high priest of the royal priesthood.

1972 Hebrews 7:18–20 Lesson #82

82 09/07/1973 Hebrews 7:18–20 Doctrine of the Mosaic Law

Heb 7:18 For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness

Verse 18 — we have a contrast of authorizing agencies. Superiority has been demonstrated by an historical encounter. Superiority has been demonstrated by the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ as a king — His appointment from the divine decrees. Now this is emphasized in contrasting the divine decrees with the Mosaic law.

We have an explanatory use of the conjunction gar. It is a particle which has a great deal to do with the thought continuity of the Greek language as well as its interpretation. It is followed by the affirmative particle men, used with de in classical Greek. These two particles are used — on the one hand, on the other — to present the alternatives of a situation. So literally, “On the one hand there is.”

“there is” — present active indicative of ginomai — “there comes to pass.” The present tense is an historical present used for a past event viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence. The active voice: the subject produces the action of the verb; the subject is not found until a little later, it is the word “commandment.” This is a declarative indicative for unqualified assertion.

“a disannulling” — athetêsis (ἀθέτησις) [pronounced ath-EHT-ay-siss] which means “annulled”; “a commandment going before” — the word “commandment” is a genitive singular, and with the present active participle, an ascriptive participle which qualifies the noun as an adjective, we get something that goes like this: “a former commandment.” “For on the one hand a former commandment becomes annulled.” “Disannulling”,athetêsis (ἀθέτησις) [pronounced ath-EHT-ay-siss], is a noun for “annulled”.

The former commandment refers to the Mosaic law. The Mosaic law in the authorizing agent for the Levitical priesthood. The Levitical priesthood is appointed on the basis of what the Mosaic law says. The Mosaic law is annulled, therefore there is no basis for the continuation of the Levitical priesthood. Therefore people who are in the Levitical line today do not function as priests unless they believe in Jesus Christ, at which point they are no longer Israel but Church. They are members of the body of Christ and that is the only way anyone who has this name — Kohen — can actually become a priest today. Kohen means priest and it was a name given to those generally in the line of Aaron, either through Eleazar or Ithumar.

The dramatic interruption of the Age of Israel annulled two things: the Levitical priesthood and its authorizing agent, the Mosaic law. The reason for the abrogation of the Mosaic law is now described in the prepositional phrase, “for the weakness”, the preposition dia plus the accusative of asthenês (ἀσθενής) [pronounced as-thehn-ACE] which means weakness or powerlessness. Dia plus the accusative should be “because of.” Soit should be translated “because of powerlessness.”

We also have an intensive pronoun autos, it intensifies the demonstrative pronoun and further qualifies what is being discussed. The intensive pronoun here is used as a possessive pronoun and so we have a literal translation, “because of its powerlessness.” The powerlessness of the Mosaic law is the fact that it authorizes an obsolete priesthood. The Mosaic law is still in the Bible, it will always be in the Bible, but it is not functioning today. The priesthood that it authorizes is defunct. Therefore the Mosaic law is powerless. It is powerless to produce a Levitical priesthood functioning today, to get you to keep the Sabbath which is just as defunct as the Levitical priesthood and all of the rest of the Mosaic law. We do not live under the Mosaic law. The Mosaic law authorizes Levitical sacrifices. We need to know about those sacrifices because they are beautiful illustrations and often they help to elucidate with regard to the work of Christ on the cross. But we do not offer those sacrifices because the Mosaic law is powerless. In their day they were meaningful and wonderful, but now they are powerless. The Mosaic law is annulled because of its powerlessness. The annulment of the Mosaic law as an authorizing agent is just as absolute as the putting away of sin at the cross — Hebrews 9:26. The law was conditional, depending on the laws of divine establishment. The new authorizing agent for the new royal priesthood is unconditional, depending on who and what God is. The law depends on human nobility; grace and our authorizing agent depends upon divine nobility. The Mosaic law is an appeal to human nobility; our authorizing agent is an appeal to grace and divine nobility. The law applies to physical birth; grace applies to the new birth. The law is temporal; grace is eternal.

“and unprofitableness” — again we have the accusative, this time from a)nwfelej which is a part of the same prepositional phrase and should be translated “uselessness.”

Because of the interruption of the Jewish dispensation the law is now useless. It was designed for an interrupted and non-functioning dispensation. The insertion of the Church Age makes the law useless.

Powerlessness of the Mosaic Law

1. The powerlessness of the Mosaic law is based on the fact that it authorized an obsolete priesthood.

2. The annulment of the Mosaic law as an absolute and as an authorizing agent is just as absolute as the putting away of sin.

3. The law was conditional, depending upon divine establishment.

4. The new authorizing agent for the royal priesthood is unconditional, depending upon God, the divine persons of the Trinity rather than the divine establishment.

5. The law demands human nobility; the royal priesthood demands divine nobility.

6. The law applies to physical birth — starting with circumcision, but the royal priesthood applies to the new birth.

7. The law is temporal; the royal priesthood is eternal.

The athurozing agent for the Levitical Priesthood is declared annulled

Hebrews 7:18 For on the one hand, a former commandment from the Mosaic Law becomes annulled because of its powerlessness and uselessness. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Doctrine of the Mosaic Law

1. The Mosaic law is divided into three parts: the moral code —

a. Codex #1 — which has the commandments related to the laws of establishment — like in Exodus chapter 20 and Deuteronomy chapter five. This part of the Mosaic law is pertinent today under the laws of divine establishment;

b. Codex #2 is the spiritual code, known in the scripture [KJV] as the ordinances. It is a complete Christology designed to present the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Savior and the God of Israel. It includes everything from the structure of the tabernacle, the holy days, the Levitical offerings, and the modus operandi of the Levitical priesthood;

c. Codex #3 is known in the KJV as the judgements. It presents divine laws of establishment designed to provide freedom and privacy for Israel. It was designed to protect their property, their rights, their privileges. It included the functions of the divine institutions, many practical and wonderful things such as diet, sanitation, quarantine, soil conservation, taxation, universal military training, and many other things.

2. It is very important to understand the recipients of the Mosaic law. They can be divided into three very simple points.

a. It was given to Israel — Exodus 19:3; Leviticus 26:46; Romans 3:19; 9:4;

b. It was not given to the Gentiles — Deuteronomy 4:8; Romans 2:12–14;

c. Christians — Church Age believers — are not under the law. It was not given to the Church. It is not an authorizing agent for any part of the royal priesthood — Acts 15:5, 24; Romans 6:14; Galatians 2:19.

3. The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the law — Matthew 5:17. He fulfilled specifically, Codex #2, by His ministry on the cross. In effect, He actually fulfilled Codex #1 by His impeccability. It can even be said that He fulfilled certain stages of Codex #3 in the field of patriotism and the laws of establishment — Matthew 22:21. But the principle concept is that the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled the law by His sacrifice on the cross.

4. Therefore, Christ is the end of the law for the royal family, for Church Age believers, for the royal priesthood — Romans 10:4. And in effect there is a conflict between the royal priesthood of the believer and the former Levitical priesthood. The conflict is resolved by the annulment, the abrogation of the law. The law is not in function today.

5. Believers of the Church Age, members of the royal family, are under a higher law. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the badge of royalty. The filling of the Holy Spirit is the fulfilment of the higher law, the superseding law, the law which nullifies the Mosaic law — Romans 8:2–4; Galatians 5:18, 22, 23; 1Corinthians chapter 13.

6. The limitations of the Mosaic law.

a. It cannot justify. The law was never designed to be an agent of justification — Galatians 2:16; Romans 3:20, 28; Acts 13:39; Philippians 3:9.

b. It cannot provide life, it cannot perpetuate anything. Everything related to the law died and disappeared — like the Levitical priesthood. The Mosaic law could not perpetuate the Levitical priesthood forever. So it cannot give life — Galatians 3:21.

c. It cannot provide God the Holy Spirit — Galatians 3:2. God the Holy Spirit is provided — indwelling only — members of the royal family as the sign of royalty.

d. It cannot solve the problem of the old sin nature — Romans 8:3.

7. The present purpose of the Mosaic law.

a. Under Codex #1 we have a definition of freedom through the laws of divine establishment. Codex #1 is also designed to convince by divine standard that the unbeliever is a sinner and needs a Savior — Romans 3:20, 28; 1Timothy 1:8–10.

b. Codex #2 is designed to communicate the Gospel by illustration, by analogy.

c. Codex #3 provides for the national function of freedom under the laws of divine establishment: freedom through military victory, prosperity through free enterprise.

8. This is in contrast to our passage where the past purpose of the Mosaic law was for an authorizing agent for the Levitical priesthood. We saw that in Hebrews 7:11,12. 8.

9. The Mosaic law is known by other nomenclature. For example, it is called the book of the covenant — Exodus 24:7,8; 34:27,28; Deuteronomy 4:13–16, 23; 8:18; 9:9,11,15. There is an addendum to the Mosaic law in Deuteronomy 29. The prophecy of the breaking of the covenant is found in Deuteronomy 31, and also Jeremiah 22:9. The book of the covenant is the subject of Jeremiah chapter 11 but is not to be confused with the new covenant of Jeremiah 31.

10. Keeping the law was never a way of salvation, it was the way of human freedom and human prosperity under establishment. It was designed to provide the best possible conditions for the writing of the Old Testament canon, and it did that perfectly. There is constant reference throughout the Old Testament to the Mosaic law.

Hebrews 7:18 “For on the one hand a former commandment [the Mosaic law] becomes annulled because of its powerlessness and uselessness.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Heb 7:19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.

Verse 19 — “For”, a second explanatory gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] to introduce a parenthesis. Now we have a parenthetical concept — “For the law”, ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss] which refers to the Mosaic law which is the authorizing agent for the Levitical priesthood as well as animal sacrifices, holy days, and other shadows of the past dispensation.

“made nothing perfect” — teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis], means the process of completion. It means that Christ at the time of the cross, all the way through to His ascension, was alone. So ten days later God provided a bride, but the provision of the bride takes the entire course of the Church Age. The point is, this is teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis], — the process of completing the body. The process demands the permanent creation of a royal family, and you and I as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are royalty forever — not by regeneration but by the baptism of the Holy Spirit which occurred at regeneration. Regeneration enters you into the family of God but the baptism of the Holy Spirit enters you into the palace of the family of God — royal family. We are in union with the person of Christ through the baptism of the Spirit. The phrase “made nothing perfect” is the aorist active indicative of teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh], the verb. It means to complete, to bring to an end, or to finish a process. “For the law did not finish the process”. We have a very strong negative, oudeís (οὐδείς) [pronounced oo-DICE],. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. it takes the occurrence of the function of the law all the way from Moses to Christ and gathers it up into a single whole. The active voice: the law produces the action of the verb, which is accomplishing nothing as far as providing a bride for Christ. The indicative mood is declarative denoting the verbal idea as being actual. It is the mood of certainty and unqualified dogmatic assertion.

“but” — now we have de which goes with men. This is classical Greek. Now we have ‘on the other hand’: “but (close of parenthesis) on the other hand”

“the bringing in” — epeisagôgê (ἐπεισαγωγή) [pronounced ehp-ice-ag-oh-GAY] minus the definite article means “introduction, insertion”; “of a better hope [or confidence].” “Better hope” is the genitive singular from the comparative of agathos (ἀγαθός) [pronounced ag-ath-OSS]. It can be spelled two ways: kreisswn or kreittôn (κρείττων) [pronounced KRITE-tohn]. Kreittôn (κρείττων) [pronounced KRITE-tohn] is a comparative of agathos (ἀγαθός) [pronounced ag-ath-OSS]. We have here descriptive genitives and they are used as adjectives, they qualify what is introduced by the interruption of the Church Age. Hence, this is the descriptive genitive defined by attributing a quality to what is introduced. So we translate it simply, “by the introduction of a better confidence.”

“by the which” — dia plus the genitive of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. It should be translated “through which”. The relative pronoun refers to the better confidence. The better confidence is your confidence. What is your confidence? The moment you believed in Christ you entered the royal family. You are nobility forever, you are a member of the royal family forever. There never was such a thing before in history even in the battalion of Melchizedek where you have a royal high priest. He is dead and it is all over. Melchizedek will be another illustration — a king in time but in heaven he is just another member of the family of God. Not that that is to be sneered at but we have a comparative here. This is better than good is what this comparative says, so we say better than good confidence.

“we draw nigh” — the present active indicative of eggizô (ἐγγίζω) [pronounced eng-ID-zoh]. The present tense is a static present, it represents a condition which perpetually exists in the royal priesthood. We have a better confidence, better than anything that ever went before, better than the Mosaic law. We are more permanent. The Mosaic law is now in a state of annulment but you and I go on forever as royal family. “unto God” — this is dative of indirect object of theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] plus the definite article. The definite article is merely used to show that God has been previously brought into the context. The dative of indirect object is used in a very idiomatic sense here. It is a dative of possession in which the personal interest in God is made very special to the point of ownership. We now, as members of the family of God, should have a very personal interest in God, an interest which can only be satisfied and assuaged by the study of Bible doctrine. The royal priesthood possesses God forever.

Summary

1. The better than good confidence is the superior authorizing agent for the royal priesthood. The superior authorizing agent is actually twofold: the decree of eternity past but the ministry of God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation. So the authorizing agent for the royal priesthood is God the third person of the Trinity, coequal with the Father, coequal with the Son. He is our authorizing agent and He will be forever and ever.

2. God the Holy Spirit as the authorizing agent accomplished His mission in a permanent manner. He took you and He took me at the moment of salvation — and it is known as the baptism of the Spirit — and He entered us into union with Jesus Christ. At the same time He indwelt us, at the same time He sealed us, at the same time He gave us at least one spiritual gift.

3. We as members of the royal priesthood approach God on the basis of union with Christ, which we call simply positional sanctification. We approach with confidence because we are sealed by the Spirit, we are indwelt by the Spirit.

4. We approach with confidence because the ministry of God the Holy Spirit is infinitely superior to the ministry of the Mosaic law. The Mosaic law is the authorizing agent for the Levitical priesthood; God the Holy Spirit is the authorizing agent for the royal priesthood.

5. As we have seen in this verse the law does not accomplish the completion of a process, the law accomplishes nothing. But God the Holy Spirit accomplishes everything.

6. We saw that noun epeisagôgê (ἐπεισαγωγή) [pronounced ehp-ice-ag-oh-GAY], translated “introduction.” That noun emphasizes the fact of doctrine that the Church Age is an interruption of the dispensation of Israel. It is an intercalation period, it is inserted toward the end of the Jewish Age.

7. This interruption of the Jewish dispensation is dramatic and traumatic. The Levitical priesthood could only approach the shadow of good things to come, but we have entered into the reality of good things to come.

8. The royal priesthood deals strictly in reality, the Levitical priesthood in shadows.

9. This means that we as believers in this dispensation approach God on the basis of a royal and eternal priesthood.

10. At the moment of salvation the Holy Spirit regenerated us. He did that for all believers since Adam.

11. But God the Holy Spirit simultaneously with regeneration baptizes us into union with Christ. Therefore for the first time the baptism of the Spirit, and for the first time a permanent royal family exists. In other words, God the Son has finally selected His bride, the Church Age believer.

12. While we are family of God like the Old Testament saints, we are more than family of God. We are royal family, we live in the palace forever.

13. Furthermore, the sign of royalty is the indwelling presence of God the Holy Spirit.

14. The security of royalty is the sealing ministry of the Spirit.

15. Therefore the introduction of a better hope or confidence implies a dispensation without precedent, a priesthood without termination, a royalty through perfect and permanent relationship. We are not perfect but the manner in which we were entered into union with Christ is perfect. The work was accomplished by God the Holy Spirit who is perfect, so we do have a perfect relationship.

16. For this reason Jesus Christ is the only celebrity.

That brings us now to a new section: The superiority of the royal priesthood of the Church Age — verses 20–28. In verses 20–22, superiority is established on the basis of two immutable things. The two immutable things were first presented to us in chapter 6:16–18. The two immutable things are a divine promise — the Word, and a divine oath — a person. So the two immutable things always involve the person and His Word. The oath is always connected with a person, and the promise is connected with His Word. That is the key.

So far we have not seen two immutable things as they relate to our priesthood, we have only seen them as they relate to Abraham. Abraham received a promise on the basis of two immutable things: an oath and a promise, the person and the Word. Now they are going to be applied to the royal priesthood. In Hebrews 6 we had the illustration of two immutable things and the illustration was Abraham. There are two immutable things because God is immutable, and He is immutable in two ways. He is immutable as to His essence, His person, and He is immutable as to what He says. God cannot lie, God cannot welch on a promise. So the two immutable things are both related to who and what God is and what He says; His person and the content of His Word. The two immutable things are the basis for the royal priesthood, making it superior to anything in any previous dispensation. Furthermore, the two immutable things apply to the royal priesthood causing it to last forever without any possibility of annulment. The Mosaic law and the Levitical priesthood were annulled. That will never happen to us. This gives us a permanent royalty and a permanent priesthood.

This also stimulates us to advance to supergrace in time so that we can discover what royalty is like. This can only be accomplished through the classroom of the local church, under the authority of the ministry of the pastor-teacher. (It can be accomplished by listening to tapes because you can’t get anything locally, and you can go all the way to supergrace)

Bob talks about some of those who are trying to scratch up a congregation. They make his pants tired.

Heb 7:20 And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath,

Verse 20 — “And inasmuch as.” This is the transitional use of kai plus a preposition katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the object of the preposition kata, the accusative of hosos (ὅσος) [pronounced HOS-os]. What is really means is “By how much, by so far as.” But we simply say in modern English, “Inasmuch as”.

“not without” — we have a very strong negative, ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. Then we have an adverb, chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE]. A few things about ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]: First of all, ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] is the particle of summary negation. It is a very proper negative particle for the statement of an absolute and downright negative fact. Ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] denies the reality of an alleged fact. It is therefore a clear cut, point blank, objective, final negative. It is also very objective. It says no objectively, not subjectively. In other words, it shuts the door tight. Whereas mê, the other negative particle, leaves a crack in the door, says no and means yes, that type of thing. The adverb chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE] is an improper preposition. So “apart from an oath” is actually a prepositional phrase, but chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE] is really an adverb and not a preposition though it is used as a preposition. And with the improper preposition we have a compound noun horkômosia (ὁρκωμοσία) [pronounced hor-koh-moss-EE-ah], which really means the act of taking an oath — “And inasmuch as not without the taking of an oath.”

What Does this Mean?

1. It is a reference to an oath made at the time of the eternal decrees. When God started to utter this phase of the eternal decrees that involved us, the royal family and the royal priesthood, He swore by an oath [by Himself because there was no greater]. When He came to the Church Age He took an oath on the basis of His own immutable, unchangeable, perfect character. Then, having taken the oath He promised the Church Age, a royal priesthood, a royal high priest, a Savior for the body, and all the rest of it. By union with Christ through the baptism of God the Holy Spirit we share in the oath that God the Father made to God the Son with regard to His royalty, He promised Him a royal family, a royal bride, a royal priesthood, and He promise this would be perpetuated forever. So at the time of the declaration of the divine decrees pertaining to the appointment of Jesus Christ as a royal high priest God the Father took an oath mentioned in this phrase. And that is why it isn’t a regular prepositional phrase. God the Father never took an oath with regard to the Levitical priesthood. The Mosaic law is not a part of the eternal decrees.

2. The extrapolation of the decrees in Psalm 110:4 authorizes the royal priesthood through the appointment of the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. By union with Christ we share in that appointment just as we share in the priesthood.

4. At the time of the declaration of the divine decrees pertaining to the appointment of Jesus Christ as a royal priest God the Father took an oath mentioned in the prepositional phrase “and not apart from taking an oath.”

5. God the Father never took an oath regarding the Levitical priesthood.

6. Therefore the superiority of the royal priesthood over the Levitical priesthood.

Hebrews 7:20 “And inasmuch as not without the taking of an oath our royal priesthood was appointed.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews 7:21a Lesson #83

83 09/09/1973 Hebrews 7:21a God's oath, authorization of the royal priesthood

The Jewish Age was interrupted. Jesus Christ is sovereignty royalty. The filling of the Spirit is the badge of our royalty. We are also priests at the same time. We are in the greatest battalion. Melchizedek acquired his royalty through conquest. Jesus was born a king. We are in Melchizedek’s battalion. Melchizedek blessed Abraham; that make Melchizedek greater. A review of the verses.

Melchizedek was a priest and a king and a supergrace believer. Abraham liked how Melchizedek ruled and he joined Melchizedek’s country. Abraham paid back taxes and all future taxes all at once.

Heb 7:21 but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him: "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, 'You are a priest forever.'"

Verse 21 — a parenthesis. In order to understand this verse there are three things we need to know first.

What We Need to Understand about V. 21

1. First of all, this verse is parenthetical It indicates the superiority of the royal priesthood over the Levitical in relationship to the divine oath.

2. Secondly, the sentence was begun in verse 20 and is completed in verse 22. The sentence of verse 20 is not complete but it will be completed in verse 22.

3. Thirdly, we word order is very different in the Greek text and therefore we will have to follow from time to time the word order of the Greek text in understanding verse 21.

We begin with the word “For” in the English. This is a conjunctive particle gar. It has a number of uses. In fact, all continuity in the Greek language is carried on by conjunctive particles rather than by verbs and the full structure of sentences. gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] is used to express the ground or the reason, the explanation, and to indicate a parenthesis. We also have with gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] an affirmative particle, men, used with the nominative plural of the definite article. So we have another particle, o(i — the definite article is actually a particle. So we have gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] men o(i, and all of these are used to explain how God giving a solemn oath relates to the Levitical priesthood. God, in eternity past, was carving out the divine decrees and He was declaring that there would be a royal priesthood, greater than the Levitical priesthood, superseding the Levitical priesthood, and being a priesthood forever — a priesthood which doesn’t run around and hustle, but a priesthood which operates in the soul. The whole function of the royal priesthood of the dispensation in which we live is to get doctrine into the soul, not to be running around and hustling and not to be trying to sell the Lord Jesus Christ like you would sell soap or some other product. This is our objective. Then, after getting doctrine into the soul, the next objective is to get to the place where God can bless us. We do this through the intake of Bible doctrine. So the big function of the priesthood in our day is exactly like the big function of the Levitical priesthood in this sense. Their job was to take in doctrine; our job is to take in doctrine. However, their job was to take in doctrine to communicate it; our job is to take in doctrine to get to the place of supergrace status where the Lord Jesus Christ can be glorified. He is glorified when you are made wealthy, when you are made successful, when you are promoted, when you are given materialist things. He is glorified when the supergrace blessings are poured out in your life.

Most of you have been confused that as a Christian, you are supposed to become some great hustler; or fill up your car with young people and drive from point A to point B.

About the only kind of oath that we know of occurs in the courtroom.

“For in fact” is the way we are going to translate men. And then o(i, the definite article, is actually going to be used as a pronoun — “For in fact they [Levitical priests] without an oath.” Now we have an improper prepositional phrase. We do not have anything improper in the English language but we have many improper things in the Koine Greek of the New Testament. And the purpose of improper prepositional phrases is to give special emphasis to something. The word chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE] is actually an adverb. This is an adverb used as a preposition, therefore it becomes improper. With it we also have the genitive case of the noun horkômosia (ὁρκωμοσία) [pronounced hor-koh-moss-EE-ah]. The word actually means to take an oath. God the Father actually said when He came to this part of the decree, “I promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me, me.” He had to swear by Himself, there is no greater.

“For in fact they [the Levitical priests], without the taking of an oath” — which means that the Levitical priesthood was appointed without God saying, “I sware by myself.” God did not appoint the Levitical priesthood by taking a solemn divine oath. God did not make any oath of any kind. This is in contrast to our priesthood where God took a solemn oath that we would be priests forever after the order of or, as the Greek says, according to the battalion of Melchizedek. So our priesthood is based upon something which is absolutely, totally unusual. God not only appointed you a priest forever but He made it doubly sure by saying, “I sware in my own name.” Now that is your heritage.

So on the one hand we have the swearing and on the other the content of the divine decrees. And God said certain things. He said that after the glorification of Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father, at the termination of the first stage of the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, there would be a new priesthood, there would be a royal family and that this new priesthood and this new royal family would perform teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis], the process of completion. And it would take at least 2000 years — we do not know how much longer — to finish up teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis],. When teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis], is completed then this particular body will be removed to heaven where it becomes the bride of Christ and where it continues forever.

So we have two immutable things: the person of God the Father and the Word of God the Father. These two things establish your royalty forever. You cannot lose your royalty, you cannot lose what you have. When we come to the Levitical priesthood we are looking at something in contrast. The contrast is quite obvious. “For in fact they [the Levitical priesthood], without the taking of an oath, have become”.

Many famous families of the world have lost their royalty; the Hapsburg’s, the Hollenzon’s, but we cannot lose out. There is no failure on our part that can cancel out our royalty.

“Were made” is what you have in your English Bibles.” This is a perfect periphrastic composed of two things. First of all we have the perfect passive participle plus the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. The participle is ginomai. We have both of the verbs to be indicating the long historical record of the Levitical priesthood. We have ginomai in the perfect participle, we also have eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] in the present active indicative. This is called a perfect periphrastic in the Greek. And it indicates that even though they did not have an oath they existed for a long, long time and made a very definite impact in history.

Take, for example, the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. The present tense is a customary present indicating that the Levitical priesthood habitually were appointed without divine oath. God never gave His word to perpetuated them. The active voice: the Levitical priesthood produces the action of the verb. They were appointed without any divine oath or sanction personally from God. No Levitical priest was appointed under the two immutable things.

Take, for example, the perfect participle of ginomai. This perfect tense is called a consummative perfect in which not the existing state but the process in emphasized. In the historical process of the Levitical priesthood they were never appointed by divine oath. The authorizing agent was the Mosaic law. Then they were born in the proper line, and they lived until they became mature and then they were actually ordained in a special ceremony, provided they passed all of the physical requirements. It was physical birth that put them in, it was the physical condition that made it possible for them to function. So all the way through it is physical requirements, physical requirements. There is nothing of the divine oath, there is nothing of the divine decree, it is strictly a matter of perpetuation by the usual manner of perpetuating the human race. That is the consummative perfect, it is the one type of perfect which is very rare. In the consummative perfect we have therefore a physical process by which a priesthood is perpetuated.

So literally we have, “For in fact they [the Levitical priesthood], without the taking of an oath have become...”

“priests” — referring to the Levitical priesthood; “but” — now we have the adversative use of a post positive conjunction de. We are going to set up a contrast here. This means to set up a contrast between the Levitical priesthood appointed without a divine oath, appointed on the basis of physical perpetuation, and the royal priesthood appointed with a divine oath, appointed under the authorizing agent of the divine decrees.

The next word is “this.” However, the word “this” is a definite article in the nominative singular and if use with the particle de it means something else. So we have de plus o(. It is used as a personal pronoun. One of the purposes of the definite article is to call attention to the noun that it modifies. Here the noun that it modifies is understood, and when it is understood and preceded by the particle de it is a very special and a very emphatic personal pronoun. So we translate, “but he” — reference to the unique person of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ who is directly related to our priesthood, to our status on this earth, to every blessing we will ever have. He is the God-Man, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, He is a high priest forever in the battalion of Melchizedek. So it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is brought into focus suddenly in a very dramatic way. The putting of these particles together gives great emphasis to who and what the Lord Jesus Christ is.

In the royal priesthood of the Church Age Jesus Christ is the only one directly appointed. Our appointment is related to Him, to the fact that the moment we believe in Christ something different happens in the Church Age — the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This only happens in this dispensation.

We are royalty. Our Constitution calls for a Republic, not a Democracy. Rome is the only nation with 1000 years of marvelous history, and 500 of those years it was a republic.

Some of us have been related to royalty from Scotland, Wales, England. Many of us might have no idea even how to be even a Texan. Suppose you run into royalty. “You do not call a duke, duke.” You do not say, “Hey, duke, what’s going on?” Similar, you would not see to the queen, “What’s going on, queeny.” We do not even say your majesty, as we are not English subjects. We would reasonably call her ma’am.

Royalty is not starving yourself, sitting in a closet and try to see visions. Throwing a faggot on the fire and making some oath, is not royalty. Royalty does run around asking for money; or even throw banquets for money; royalty never suffers for Jesus.

Bob through away about 20 pages of notes on Ephesians. He now has 55 pages of notes and he is only to Eph. 4.

We are royalty forever; we are the bride of Christ. The Old Testament saints are merely called friends of the groom. Royal people can be jerks and you may prove that point. The first function of the royal priesthood is the intake of Bible doctrine.

“but this one [the Lord Jesus Christ] with an oath have become priests” — we have the preposition meta plus the genitive of horkômosia (ὁρκωμοσία) [pronounced hor-koh-moss-EE-ah]. Now “with” is correct here; “accompanied by” is the concept — “with the taking of an oath.”

Summary of taking an oath in v. 21

1. The oath mentioned here is one of two immutable things.

2. The other is the promise or the content of the decree extrapolated in Psalm 110:4.

3. Aaron’s line became priest through physical birth and physical qualifications. Their authorization was the Mosaic law. No divine oath was involved in the ordination of a Levitical priest.

4. Therefore, the twofold authority of the physical priesthood was a) physical birth (physical qualifications of those from the line of Ithamar or Eleazar); b) the Mosaic law which not only authorized the line of Aaron and the tribe of Levi but, again, specified physical requirements for ordination.

5. Nothing permanent comes from the authority of the Levitical priesthood.

6. The physical death of the priest terminated his function while the interruption of the dispensation of Israel — interrupted by the Church Age — annulled the Mosaic law.

7. On the other hand we have a twofold authority for the royal priesthood.

a. God’s oath based upon the immutability of His essence, based upon the perfection of His person; and

b. ...the divine decrees, which is what God said at this stage of the decrees, and we have a concept of what he said from the extrapolation in Psalm 110:4.

Literally, then, we have so far in this verse: “For in fact they [the Levitical priests], without the taking of an oath, have become priests; but he [Jesus Christ] by the taking of an oath...”

“by him that said” — not correct. It is dia plus the definite article in the genitive, and it should be translated “through him”, or “through the one saying”. We also have the present active participle of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh].

“unto him” — pros plus the accusative of the intensive pronoun autos — “face to face with him [with the Father].” Jesus Christ as a member of the Trinity was present at the divine decrees in eternity past. So the prepositional phrase indicates that both the Father and the Son were present at the divine decrees. Not mentioned but also present was God the Holy Spirit.

“The Lord” — kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss], a title for deity. Kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss] stands for the Hebrew Tetragrammaton which we simply call “Jehovah.” Kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss] is used here for God the Father, the author of the divine decrees.

“sware” — aorist active indicative of omnuô (ὀμνύω) [pronounced om-NOO-oh], equivalent to the Hebrew shaba which was used for a solemn oath. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states the present reality of a past event. It indicates that this event took place in the past but it is stated as a present event because it is so dramatic and so pertinent. In eternity past God the Father said these things but it is stated in the aorist in order to show that they are just as important now to us, in fact more so than ever before. It is used to state what has just been realized. The active voice: God the Father produced the action of the verb as a part of the divine decrees. The indicative mood is unqualified assertion of an eternal decree related to us. The Lord made a solemn oath. The first immutable thing is the Person. The second immutable thing emphasizes the promise.

“and will not repent” — you can emphasize that right now for this reason: You may have failed. You may be a failure right now in your spiritual life. God isn’t going to change His mind because you are a colossal failure. It just proves that you have rejected divine authority at some point but it doesn’t change God’s mind. Now here is the principle: The Lord made a solemn oath and will not change His mind. The word here is a future passive indicative of metamélomai.(μεταμέλομαι) [pronounced meh-tah-MEH-loh-my]. Metamélomai.(μεταμέλομαι) [pronounced meh-tah-MEH-loh-my] is used for regretting something that you have done. But when God is the subject, God has no emotion. When you get all full of emotion God is not full of emotion. Why? Emotion is something we need, it is a prop for expressing what is in the right lobe in terms of some form of happiness — that is when it is used right, of course — but God is not weak.

Bob saw a Nebraska boy run for 71 yards for a touchdown; he emoted for hours on that. He used the cut perfectly. Red Grange was the greatest cutter of all time. His last step was a one-step cut. The average great college player makes a 3-step cut. Bob emoted over that. It was something to emote over.

We, on the basis of emotion, change our minds about many things. Some doll decides a guy is a total ass and she realizes that he is an ass. She metamelomai’s him. She phases him out. He doesn’t exist any more in her mind.

We all fail; some of us go down the road at different rates. Blackout or darkness of the soul is the left lobe; hardness of heart is the right lobe.

Emotion is necessary for the frailty of mankind, but God isn’t weak, He doesn’t need emotion to prop up His love. The omniscience of God does not need emotion. Why didn’t the Holy Spirit put in metanoéô (μετανοέω) [pronounced meh-tah-noh-EH-oh] here? The Lord has made a solemn oath and will not change His mind, but it is metamélomai.(μεταμέλομαι) [pronounced meh-tah-MEH-loh-my]. Why? To demonstrate something. We on the basis of emotion change our minds about many things. But why does God the Father metamélomai.(μεταμέλομαι) [pronounced meh-tah-MEH-loh-my]? The answer is very simple. Metamélomai.(μεταμέλομαι) [pronounced meh-tah-MEH-loh-my] means literally to regret, to change the mind in the sense of no regrets. God has no regrets even when we fail. The whole thing in focus here is the fact that we fail — all of us. We have old sin natures, we neglect doctrine, we go on the road to reversionism. But God has no regrets about taking a solemn oath, about appointing you in the divine decrees with Jesus Christ. He has no regrets. That is the issue in this verse.

1972 Hebrews 7:21b-23 Lesson #84

84 09/09/1973 Hebrews 7:21b-23 Establishment/ superiority/ royal priesthood

I think Bob read off the correct translation here for v. 21

Heb 7:21 but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him: "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, 'You are a priest forever.'"

We now move into the second immutable thing in this passage, which is what was actually said. The solemn promise, the first immutable thing, represents the essence of God, represents the fact that His person is absolutely perfect and any promise He makes is absolutely perfect. Now for the content of what God the Father said in the divine decrees.

The second immutable thing starts with the word “Thou”, the proleptic pronoun su. It can be translated “you and only you.” It refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was being addressed at this point in the divine decrees. It is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ in His appointment as high priest. First of all, God the Father made a solemn promise on the basis of His perfect character, and now He gives the content.

“a priest forever” — hiereus (ἱερεύς) [pronounced hee-er-YOOCE] eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] ton aiôn (αἰών) [pronounced ī-OHN]. This is the eternal superiority of the royal priesthood. The superiority is involved in one person only. Jesus Christ was addressed alone in the doctrine of divine decrees. The extrapolation of the divine decrees mentions only Him. The extrapolation is in the Old Testament so obviously it could not mention the Church and the body of Christ. The Old Testament knows nothing of Church doctrine or Church Age doctrine. Church Age doctrine is called “mystery” and therefore completely obscured from the Old Testament prophets and from the Old Testament writings. Since this is a quotation from Psalm 110:4, obviously it is addressed only to the Lord Jesus Christ. “You are a priest forever according to the battalion of Melchizedek.” That is the extrapolation. When it is revealed to the Old Testament prophets there is no reference to the Church, the body of Christ. This would come from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself during the last day of His earthly ministry before the cross. In fact, this information was given in that same upper room where the communion service was first authorized by the Lord Jesus Christ. The unique person here is emphasized by the proleptic pronoun. The perpetuation of this priesthood is emphasized by the phrase “forever.” The “order of Melchizedek” gives us a categorical concept. Jesus Christ is not a family priest, not a Levitical priest; Jesus Christ belongs to the royal battalion, the first battalion.

Our parenthesis says in detail,

Hebrews 7:21 “For in fact they [Levitical priests], without the taking of an oath, have become priests; but he [Jesus Christ] with the taking of a solemn oath through the one saying, face to face with him [God the Father], The Lord made a solemn oath and will not change his mind, You are a priest forever.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The verb is definitely left out for two reasons: to give greater emphasis to the pronoun and to emphasize again the principle of forever. Whenever a verb is removed in either the Hebrew or the Greek it gives great emphasis to the words on each side. First of all the Lord Jesus Christ is emphasized and then the perpetuation of His priesthood. You know one thing for certain. Whoever is in the priestly line with the Lord Jesus Christ could not possible be there unless they had the same kind of life that Jesus Christ has — forever life, eternal life. This is why it is first of all necessary to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to have this type of life. And at the moment of believing in Christ you are appointed into the priesthood. You have forever life so that forever you can be in the royal family and so that forever you can be a priest in the same order as the Lord Jesus Christ. He is not only the King of kings — He will rule many categories in the Millennium and many more in eternity — but there is one category that is absolutely unique: the royal priesthood. And you are a member of that royal family.

Heb 7:22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.

Verse 22 — the first conclusion. “By so much” is a prepositional phrase. It is the preposition katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of the demonstrative form of tosoutos (τοσοτος) [pronounced toss-OO-toss]. It is an idiom, it means literally, “Before so much” but it actually means correctly translated, “By so much doctrinal evidence.” So this verse begins our conclusion on the basis of all true conclusions in the Christian way of life: doctrinal evidence. All doctrinal evidence is presented to the royal priesthood on the earth on the basis of Bible teaching. We also have the use of the adjunctive kai which should be translated here, “also”.

Bob laughs at so-called discipleship. But true discipleship is a student acting without portfolio. The modern apostasy is much different from the true meaning.

Next is the word “Jesus” emphasizing the humanity of Christ in keeping with the fact that a priest must be a member of the human race to represent the human race before God.

“was made” — literally, “had become”, the perfect active indicative of ginomai. The perfect tense is the intensive perfect, it takes the action of the verb as completed with emphasis on its existing results. In other words, Jesus had become with the result that He keeps on being. The active voice refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, He produces the action. The indicative mood is the unqualified assertion of a dogmatic doctrinal principle. “By so much doctrinal evidence also Jesus had become a surety”. The word for “surety” is the noun egguos (ἔγγυος) [pronounced ENG-goo-oss], it means a guarantee. The Lord Jesus Christ has become a guarantee of a better testament. The word “better” is that genitive singular, the comparative of agathos (ἀγαθός) [pronounced ag-ath-OSS], which is spelled in two different ways, kreisswn or kreittôn (κρείττων) [pronounced KRITE-tohn]. With that we have the genitive singular of diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay] for “covenant.” It means a covenant or a contract. Really, the word “contract” came a little later in the Koine language. This was a papyri and a Patristic meaning of diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay]. In the Hellenistic use of the word it was a will, but it loses this concept when used as the translation for the Hebrew word berith which always means covenant. Jesus Christ is the guarantee of a better covenant than the Mosaic covenant, the one which authorized the Levitical priesthood. The Mosaic law is a covenant; this is a better covenant. The better covenant, by the way, is the extrapolation from the divine decrees — Psalm 110:4. As with Abraham’s supergrace in Hebrews 6:13–18 so also in the appointment and the guarantee of the royal priesthood. There are two immutable things: the oath representing the person of God, and the Word representing the doctrine of God.

Notice that verse 22 was really a continuation of verse 20, and we have in verse 21 a parenthesis. So the corrected sentence starts in verse 20, and reads: “And inasmuch as not without the taking of an oath our royal priesthood was appointed: by so much doctrinal evidence also [verse 22] Jesus has become a guarantee of a better covenant than the Mosaic code.”

Verse 21 is a parenthesis that sounds like this: “For in fact they [the Levitical priests], without the taking of an oath, have become priests; but he [Jesus Christ] with the taking of an oath through the one saying face to face with him [Psalm 110:4], The Lord has made a solemn promise and will not change his mind, You are a priest forever.”

Hebrews 7:22 Jesus has become a guarantee of a better covenant than the Mosaic code.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The words “after the order of Melchizedek” do not occur this time. They were simply added because it was found in the other phrases where Psalm 110:4 was quoted. This time the entire Psalm 110:4 was not quoted for a very definite reason. It isn’t necessary. The emphasis in the quotation this time is the fact that the Father made a solemn oath rather than the actual content of what He said.

Now we have the superiority established on the basis of perpetuation — verses 23, 24.

Heb 7:23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office,...

Verse 23 — “And they truly,” kai o(i men: three particles. It should be translated, “And they [Levitical priests] on the one hand.” The word kai is simply a conjunction; o(i is the nominative plural of the definite article, and the definite article is used for a personal pronoun, “they”; men means “on the one hand.”

“were many” — many in number. We have the nominative masculine plural of pleiôn/pleiôn/pleione/pleon (πλείων/πλεον/πλέον) [pronounced PLI-own,PLI-on,PLEH-one/pleon (πλείων/πλεον/πλέον) [pronounced PLI-own,PLI-on,PLEH-on, a comparative with polus,polos (πολύς,πολλός) [pronounced poll-OOS] which a concept of quantity. It is used as the subject of a verb, even though it is an adjective, and as an adjective used as a noun — you have to supply a noun. So we translate, many numerically or many in number. “And they [the Levitical priesthood] on the one hand were many in number.”

Why use an adjective? Every time you turn around the Levitical priesthood with all of its greatness at the time that it functioned, and at some times it’s failures, cannot even be compared even remotely to the priesthood which we posses at this moment, the priesthood which functions right now. It functions in remembering the Lord at the communion table, it is functioning now in listening to the teaching of the Word of God, and then priesthood that you have is infinitely greater than the Levitical priesthood. And to downgrade it the Greek language has a very interesting way of doing it — an adjective instead of a noun, an adjective which shows a great numerical concept perpetuated over a long period of time, helping in their own generation but of absolutely no use in any other generation or at any future time. This is the Levitical priesthood which is being mentioned.

The word “were” which is our verb actually is a periphrastic perfect in which you have a perfect participle followed by then present tense of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] as the finite verb. Generally, most periphrastics are a combination of a participle and a verb. The verb has to be eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], the state of being verb, and the perfect periphrastic is a great intensive concept here. So we have eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] as the present active indicative, and ginomai is the perfect participle. And ginomai plus eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] means, “And they [Levitical priests], many in number, had become priests in the past with the result that they functioned as priests at a certain time.” The word “priests” is the predicate nominative with the periphrastic.

“because” — dia plus the accusative of the definite article. The accusative of the definite article is used as a pronoun, it gives it great emphasis, and so it should be translated “because they”.

Next in the Greek manuscript we have the instrumental singular of thanatos (θάνατος) [pronounced THAH-nah-toss]. Everything was going fine except that you knew something was going to go wrong because of the fact that you have an adjective instead of a noun, and you have to supply the noun from the meaning of the adjective, and when you have to supply a noun for the meaning a an adjective already you have a peon on your hands by comparison. And that is exactly right, we have a peon priesthood as compared to a royal priesthood and even though the Levitical priesthood was very frequently great and very frequently terrible, no matter what it was it was still a peon priesthood — always was, always will be. Aaron was a peon. His younger brother Moses was the greatest leader that Israel ever had but Moses had no royal connections except that he had been adopted by the queen regent of Egypt. Had he stayed in Egypt Moses would have started a great kingly line and dynasty, but he chose to reject the rulership of the Egyptian empire and to become a peon leader of the Jews.

And that is exactly what the tribe of Levi is. Levi himself was a crude person, always a troublemaker and always in trouble. So you knew that Levi’s line was not going to be too good and that the only thing that would ever help it out would be regeneration and doctrine. And that is exactly what happened. And there is always something of the peasant in the line of Levi, but God turns cursing into blessing and He did so by giving them the great spiritual responsibility which was theirs as long as Israel was a dispensation. But no matter how you slice it, whether you are talking about Phinehas or Samuel or some other great priest in the line of Levi, even their greatness must be qualified by a noun, peon. That is exactly what they are compared to the priesthood that would follow. This does not detract from greatness for those who were great in their day but no matter how great they were in their day they were still peons. Therefore there has to be an adjective. You can’t describe the Levitical priesthood with a noun when you are starting to compare it with you. You are royalty. You are by the baptizing ministry of the Holy Spirit greater, and will be forever greater. You are under an eternal guarantee which makes you greater forever. This does not detract from those who were great in the Levitical priesthood but it does show the contrast. Grace has done something for you without ever lifting a finger, it was all accomplished for you by God the Holy Spirit.

“by reason of death” is literally “by means of death.” This is an instrumental of means of thanatos (θάνατος) [pronounced THAH-nah-toss].

“they were not suffered”, but it doesn’t say that at all. This is the present passive infinitive of kwluw which means to prevent. It means they were prevented. The present tense is an aoristic present, it is used to express the idea of a present fact without reference to progress. In other words, it is punctiliar action in present time. The aorist tense always portrays punctiliar action in past time, with some rare exceptions, but the present tense is used to portray punctiliar action in present time. And this is a rather unusual use of it because most present tenses in the Greek, as in similar languages, have linear aktionsart. This can also be called a customary present to denote that which habitually occurs. But it is an aoristic present. The passive voice: in this case the Levitical priesthood received the action of the verb which was hindrance or prevention from continuing. Death stopped them in their tracks. The moment they died physically they were all through functioning as a priest, they could only function in time. That means that all of the Levitical priests in heaven, while they were priests on earth authorized by the Mosaic law under the dispensation of Israel, they will never function as priests in heaven. There is just one priesthood in heaven and that is the royal priesthood. Aaron was a high priest on earth, he will not even be a priest in heaven. What they were in time was terminated by death. But no so with us. Death doesn’t stop or prevent or hinder, we go right on and on and on forever and ever. In fact, we have the guarantee of that from the eternal decrees as well as the fact that God made a solemn oath.

The infinitive is an infinitive of result. This use of the infinitive actually expresses three points of view in the Greek. First of all, the infinitive of result represents an actual result. Sometimes it represents a conceived result and sometimes it represents an intended result. We have here an actual result, death actually terminated the function of the Levitical priests. With this infinitive we also have a present active infinitive paramenô (παραμένω) [pronounced par-am-EHN-oh] which means here “from continuing.” The present tense is tendential. The tendential present is used for an action which is purposed though not taking place. They probably wanted to continue but they couldn’t. The active voice: the Levitical priesthood wanted to produce the action of the verb but they were hindered by death. The infinitive indicates purpose. It was God’s purpose to hinder them from continuing.

Hebrews 7:23: “And they [Levitical priests] on the one hand, many in number, had become priests because they by means of death were prevented from continuing.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Bob wants to dispel something that has lasted too long in your life. You have not made a fool of yourself in some way, so you are made to think that you are some kind of second class Christian. You are not involved in holy rollerism; you don’t sell Jesus like one sells soap. Ask them about the gospel some time if you want to hear a lot of stuttering.

Or they are intense, “Brother, we’ve got to get it done today.” Pulled a muscle with that.

What does God want you to do? God wants you to be loaded up with doctrine so that you can only think the divine viewpoint. God has many wonderful things for you, to share His happiness. He has many wonderful things for you and they all come through Bible doctrine. The thing He wants you to do is to think doctrine. That is why we have the communion service, it is designed to think doctrine, to think divine viewpoint in a certain category — the Lord Jesus Christ.

What does the military between wars? Babysitting. Training. Constant. Going to Berachah Church is like being on garrison duty; sometimes it is very dull. When God wants you to function, He will let you know. You will be faced with a circumstance and you will stand up and stand in the gap. God wants us to think doctrine.

It is very hard for people who all of their lives have been trying to make points with God to stop and think; but that is what God wants you to do. The soul is the critical thing, not your body going from door to door, not your body kneeling and genuflecting, not your body out helping the downtrodden; it is your soul thinking that counts. The palace is designed for you to think, and you will never think without doctrine. The equipment for thinking is Bible doctrine.

The beautiful thing is that the moment you die your soul leaves the body and, still thinking, goes right into the presence of the Lord. Your soul is saved. The doctrine you have accumulated right to that moment you take to heaven with you. God intends for your soul to gather all of the doctrine it can. Some people in life may be compulsive eaters and they show it. Believers who are compulsive in taking on doctrine, in a very far different way, also show it. And God has many uses for the doctrine in your soul. God can always take the gold in your soul, Bible doctrine, and bring it out and use it — always. You are to make yourself useable by the intake of doctrine.

The Levitical priest was cut off by death. Aaron, with all the doctrine he had by listening to Moses; Phinehas who had more doctrine than Aaron; Eleazar, a man of doctrine; Samuel, one of the great men of doctrine in the Old Testament; they were priests with a lot of doctrine but when they died they couldn’t use it any more. We are going to use ours, and use it and use it and use it. We are a part of the angelic conflict in which no one in the Old Testament was a part.

1972 Hebrews 7:24 Lesson #85

85 09/14/1973 Hebrews 7:24 Doctrine of resurrection

Review of the chapter 7 translation. Death does not stop the function of our priesthood.

Heb 7:24 ...but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever.

Verse 24 — our first word is the adversative use of the conjunctive particle de. All continuity and development of thought in the Greek language is based upon the use of particles. The particle de sets up a contrast between your priesthood and the priesthood of the previous dispensation. The time from Moses to the time of Christ was the period in which the Levitical priesthood functioned. It functioned as a very wonderful priesthood. Many of the men who were in the Levitical priesthood were spiritual giants, led thousands of people to the Lord, and taught doctrine in such a way that supergrace was reached by their contemporaries. However, the priesthood itself was authorized by the law. The law came in time as an authorizing agent, the Levitical priesthood began in time with the older brother of Moses who was Aaron.

Now when Jesus Christ came into the world and went to the cross and bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that was the beginning of the strategical victory of the angelic conflict. It began with the cross and terminated with Jesus Christ being seated at the right hand of the Father. Jesus Christ was alone on the cross, He was alone in resurrection. Jesus Christ was alone seated at the right hand of the Father. Now a bride is provided by God the Father for the last Adam. To do so there is a sudden halt to the Age of Israel, a dramatic, traumatic halt. That halt and the drama of it is portrayed by the Day of Pentecost on 30 AD, the day the Church Age began. It began in one locale only, Abraham’s home town. Remember that Abraham by paying taxes became a citizen of Melchizedek’s kingdom, Salem. That, of course, is Jerusalem. And one morning on the Day of Pentecost we have the baptism of the Spirit whereby all believers in that upper room were entered into union with Christ. That is where something new began, the baptism of the Spirit had never occurred before. The baptism of the Spirit is simply being in union with Christ, this is how the royal family is formed. Up to this time we have family of God through regeneration, now we have royal family of God through the baptism of the Holy Spirit which occurs at salvation.

You are royalty; and you don’t realize how shocking that is except by standing up here and seeing all of you.

At some point, the pope said, “I am pope and what I say is bul.” Papal bul. The clergy is not to be confused with a sort of priesthood.

So we have a contrast between the Levitical priesthood which was a bona fide function in the Age of Israel and the royal priesthood which functions in the dispensation of the Church, and forever because we have indestructible life. Many of the members of the Levitical priesthood were unbelievers and will not even be in heaven, but the ones who are will not be there as priests they will be there as members of the family of God. So now we have two categories from the Age of Israel. David was a king but in eternity David is just a member of the family of God, whereas you are royalty and David is not. Aaron was a high priest but in eternity Aaron is a member of the family of God and you are a royal priest. So they functioned in time only. So God has given you not only eternal life as a believer but indestructible life which means you are a priest forever, you will function as a priest forever.

The priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ is perpetuated by means of resurrection. At this moment Christ is the only one whose royal priesthood has been perpetuated beyond death because He is in a resurrection body. So we have the conjunction “But this”. The word “this” is the definite article used as a pronoun. We should translate this “But on the other hand he [Jesus Christ]”, not “this.”

“because he continueth” — dia plus the accusative of the definite article, o(, plus the accusative of the intensive pronoun autos. Altogether, it should be translated “But he on the other hand because he.” Autos is an intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun to identify and emphasize what the contrast is all about. The contrast is simple. Jesus Christ as the high priest is in contrast to Aaron as a high priest. Then we have the word “continueth”, the present active infinitive of ménô (μένω) [pronounced MEH-noh], which means to remain or abide. Ménô (μένω) [pronounced MEH-noh], in the present tense is a static present, it represents a condition which perpetually exists. The active voice: Jesus Christ as the high priest produces the action of the verb. The infinitive: this was God’s plan in eternity past, that there would be three different types of priesthood in history authorized by God and only one would be perpetuated forever, and that is our royal priesthood. And we are perpetuated in the royal priesthood because of our relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

The word “ever” is actually a prepositional phrase, eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the definite article plus the accusative plural of aiôn (αἰών) [pronounced ī-OHN]. It should be translated “unto the ages” or better, “forever”.

“hath” — present active indicative of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh]. The static present represents a perpetual situation. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The indicative mood is unqualified and dogmatic assertion.

“an unchangeable priesthood” — these words are all in the accusative. First, “unchangeable” is aparabatos (ἀπαράβατος) [pronounced ap-ar-AB-at-oss], it means permanent or unchangeable. It is an adjective. The word “priesthood” simply is our old word hierôsunê (ἱερωσύνη) [pronounced hee-er-oh-SOO-nay], and it refers to the office of the priesthood.

Hebrews 7:24 “But He [Jesus Christ] on the other hand because He remains forever, He keeps on having a permanent priesthood.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

What Christ has, we have.

The Doctrine of Resurrection (review)

1. Resurrection is best defined by distinguishing it from resuscitation. These are two different concepts. Resuscitation means to be dead and to be brought back from death — like Lazarus. Lazarus was dead, three days in the tomb. Jesus Christ performed a miracle with His voice: “Lazarus, out here.” And Lazarus did. But this is not resurrection, this is resuscitation because when Lazarus stepped out he lived for a number of years and then he died physically. In other words, resuscitation means to be brought back from the dead but it means to subsequently die; whereas resurrection means to receive a body, a new house for the soul, which lasts forever. So there is a very definite difference between resurrection and resuscitation. Only one person in history has so far been resurrected. Numerous people have been brought back from the dead — three recorded in the Old Testament and three during the time that Jesus Christ was on the earth, therefore recorded in the New Testament. But these people were all brought back from the dead but subsequently died. They were still subject to death. But the Lord Jesus Christ was given a new body as the house for His soul and His spirit and it is a body of incorruption. So in resuscitation a person is brought back from the dead in a body of corruption, therefore he dies again; but in resurrection a person is brought back from the dead never to die again.

2. Resurrection is a definite part of the Gospel and in the categorizing of the Gospel is so declared — 1Corinthians 15:1–4, 12–17. This does not mean that every time you witness to someone you present all of the Gospel but categorically it is included in that area. The Gospel includes the death of Christ, His burial, His resurrection.

3. Resurrection is also connected with the subject of theophany and Christophany. This, again, is technical and theological and therefore important to understand the distinction. Distinctions are understood by vocabulary.

a. A theophany is an appearance of Jesus Christ prior to His incarnation, generally associated with the angel of Jehovah, sometimes He appears as a man. The one who fought with Jacob was the Lord Jesus as a theophany. This loosened Jacob up in his mind. He was a chiseler and in his younger days, he tried to solve everything by fighting. When he wanted to solve anything, he would whip them. That should be in Sunday School literature, that the Lord beat the hell out of him.

b. A Christophany is different in that it is a resurrection appearance of Jesus Christ, it is Jesus Christ in the New Testament in resurrection body. Christophanies are mentioned in Mark 16:9; Luke 24:13–43; Acts 2:32.

4. The resurrection of Christ is part of the strategic victory of the angelic conflict — 1Corinthians 15:20–25.

5. The resurrection is necessary for the perpetuation of the Davidic line — Romans 1:3,4; 2Timothy 2:8.

6. The resurrection of Christ is the basis for the believer’s confidence in the future — 1Peter 1:3–5, 21. Our body wasn’t designed to last more than 100 years. The resurrection body forms a purpose, it is a permanent house for the soul. Physical death is when the soul leaves the body but you are very much alive because the soul doesn’t die, it can’t die. The soul of the believer is going to live in a perfect house forever. This is described as having a body like the Son of God. Therefore the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ has demonstrated that in His body He can travel through space, He can move vertically or horizontally, He can eat or not eat, He can walk through closed doors or open doors. These things we learn from observing the Lord in His resurrection body.

7. The resurrection of Christ indicates the completion of the ministry of justification — Romans 4:25.

8. Identification with Christ in His resurrection through the baptism of the Spirit is not only entrance into the royal family and into the royal priesthood but it also becomes motivation for the tactical victory of the supergrace life — Romans 6:4. Therefore, tactical victory is the heritage of the believer priest in time — 1Corinthians 15:57,58.

9. There are two general categories of resurrection.

a. The first category is for believers only, it is found in Daniel 12:2; John 5:24–29; 1Corinthians 15:20–22; Revelation 20:6,13.

b. The second resurrection is declared in Matthew 25:41; 1Corinthians 15:24; Revelation 20:5–15.

10. Every man in his own battalion [taxis (τάξις) [pronounced TAHX-iss]] refers to believers. Usually 4 battalions in a ...

a. Alpha company: The first battalion is equal to the first resurrection. In 1Corinthians 15:20–23 we actually have a battalion review and “A” company has already passed the reviewing stand — Jesus Christ. It is also called the firstfruits. He has passed the reviewing stand in the sense that He has a resurrection body — Matthew 28; Luke 24:1–48; John chapters 20 & 21; Acts 2:31–34. Jesus Christ is resurrected.

b. Baker Company: “B” company is going to pass the reviewing stand next, and you and I and all believers of the Church Age are “B” company — the royal priesthood. Royalty comes first, RHIP — “royalty has its privileges”. Furthermore, we are necessary for the coronation. So the next resurrection is “B” company, the Church at the Rapture — John 14:1–3; 1Corinthians 15:51–57; Philippians 3:20–21; 1Thessalonians 4:13–18; 1John 3:1,2.

c. Charley Company: Then comes “C” company. That is where the Old Testament saints fall in and the Tribulational martyrs — Daniel 12:13; Isaiah 26:19,20; Matthew 24:31; Revelation 20:4.

d. Delta Company: Then finally, “D” company, the Millennial saints. This will be at the end of the Millennium and that will be the end of the first resurrection. There will be, then, every category of believer since the beginning of time. Christ the firstfruits, then the Church, then Old Testament saints from Adam to the Day of Pentecost plus the Tribulation martyrs, then the Millennial saints.

11. The agents of the resurrection of Jesus Christ:

a. God the Father — Colossians 2:12; 1Thessalonians 1:10; 1Peter 1:21;

b. God the Holy Spirit — Acts 2:24; Romans 1:4; 8:11; 1Peter 3:18. Both God the Father and God the Holy Spirit had a part in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 7:24 “But He [Jesus Christ] on the other hand because He remains forever, He keeps on having a permanent priesthood.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary of Hebrews 7:24

1. In resurrection Jesus Christ in His humanity is no longer subject to death.

2. Therefore He continues to function as high priest. When Jesus Christ went to the cross and bore our sins in His own body on the tree the Father judged our sins in Christ. That was the ministry of the high priest. When He had finished bearing our sin He said He had finished so we would know that salvation was completed. Then He died physically. He was resurrected on the third day, He ascended, and seated at the right hand of the Father He continues His high priestly ministry. So resurrection is the link between the beginning of His priestly ministry on the cross and the perpetuation of His priestly ministry at the right hand of the Father, the second advent, the Millennium, and forever.

3. Christ’s high priesthood is unlike the Levitical priesthood which has many high priests. Physical death terminated the function of the Levitical high priest.

4. However, this verse declares that that is not true with our high priest. Physical death does not terminate His function. There is no provision for a successor to Jesus Christ as high priest. Why? He is the final high priest forever.

5. If our high priest lives for ever, and He does, so must we as members of the royal priesthood. Remember, we are in union with Christ. Death did not terminate His priesthood, it continued in resurrection and continues forever. We are a kingdom of priests, we continue forever.

6. Therefore, in anticipation of the next verse all members of the royal priesthood in the Church Age have eternal life at the moment they believe in Christ — not only eternal life but indestructible life.

7. This is emphasized in relationship to entrance into the royal family by means of the baptism of the Spirit, and its implications are stated in 1John 5:11,12. This life is in His Son.

8. The next verse also divides the sacrificial ministry of Christ on the cross and the intercessory ministry of Christ at the right hand of the Father. Both are priestly functions but both functions are divided by resurrection. The resurrection is the key to the perpetuation of the priesthood of our Lord, just as the resurrection is the key to the perpetuation of our priesthood forever.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #86

86 09/16/1973 Hebrews 7:25 Two functions of Jesus Christ as High Priest

Our freedom is the result of victory on battleflelds. The is why we are here.

Heb 7:25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

Verse 25 — in this particular passage we have the entire scope of the Levitical priesthood. We have the two major functions of our high priest. Once again we should be reminded that we in this dispensation, as believers, are members of the royal family of God. The family of God began when Adam believed in the Lord and it continues down to the end of time. But there is only one royal family: believers of the Church Age. We have been entered into union with Christ by the baptism of the Spirit, we are indwelt by the Spirit as the badge of royalty, and furthermore we are sealed by the Spirit as the security of royalty. The believer is also appointed a priest. We are in the order of Melchizedek, the royal battalion. The Lord Jesus Christ is the high priest and we are called in 1Peter 2:9 a kingdom of priests.

The word “wherefore” brings us to a conclusion. It is an adverb hothen (ὅ́θεν) [pronounced HOTH-ehn] meaning “for which reason.” It always takes the preceding paragraph and brings it down to the point of its conclusion. “For which reason also” — we have the adjunctive kai also used. This is a reference now to a permanent priesthood, a priesthood which has two kinds of life: indestructible life and eternal life. Eternal life means that the life goes on forever; indestructible life means that death does not destroy our priesthood, nor is there any way a coup de tat can remove us from the palace.

“he is able” refers to God the Father who is the author of the plan concerning you. You are in the plan of God, and not only for time but forever. And, furthermore, there is no failure on your part that can remove you from God’s plan. God’s plan calls for you to be a member of the royal family forever. God’s plan calls for you to have great blessings in time — material blessings, that which is contrary to the thinking of asceticism and legalism. You are not here to “suffer for Jesus”, to make great sacrifices; you are here for a much more important reason than that. You are here to be blessed by God with promotion, with success, with prosperity of all kinds, to share the very happiness of God in time. In other words, God has designed in His plan the principle of heaven now. This is your heritage as of the moment of the new birth. The heritage of regeneration is royalty and God is glorified by providing these blessings.

Here is a passage in which we see the panorama of our Lord’s priesthood. He is the high priest; we are a kingdom of priests. We see the fact that it is perpetuated, that there are two distinct and separate phases to the ministry of our Lord as a high priest. The first one has to do with His strategic victory. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. God the Father judged our sins when they were poured out upon Christ on the cross. He was forsaken on the cross because He was dying spiritually. Spiritual death is isolation from God. Then, when all of the sins of the world had been judged in Christ — when He as our substitute, taking our place, had been completely judged, as per 1Peter 2:24 — having completed it He said, “Finished”, which means salvation was completed and there is nothing man can do for salvation.

“able” here is a present active indicative of the verb dunamai (δύναμαι) [pronounced DOO-nam-ahee]. Dunamai (δύναμαι) [pronounced DOO-nam-ahee] in connection with God the Father is total ability. The present tense is a static present representing a condition as perpetually existing. The active voice: God the Father did the planning, God the Son does the saving. So God the Son produces the action of the verb. He has the ability and He does the work. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality, representing a dogmatic and unqualified assertion — “he keeps on being able.”

“to save” — the present active infinitive of sôzô (σώζω) [pronounced SOHD-zoh], which in this case refers to eternal salvation. The present tense here is what is called an aoristic present, it represents punctiliar action in present time. So this is a moment of time in which you personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, for His ability to save you depends upon your free will expressed in a non-meritorious way. Non-meritorious expression of positive volition is faith, for believing is non-meritorious thinking. And the object of faith has the merit. Therefore, once again, He saves when you believe in Him. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb by His work on the cross. This is an efficacious sacrifice, it is the sacrifice of the high priest. The only high priest who is a bona fide high priest today is Jesus Christ, the only kingdom of priests are those who are believers in Christ during this dispensation. The infinitive expresses God’s purpose and this purpose has been fulfilled for those who have personally believed in the Lord Jesus Christ.

“them” — the accusative plural of the definite article. The definite article is often used for a pronoun. Here it is so used. “Them” refers to believers of the Church Age, those who are members now of the royal priesthood.

The next phrase is a prepositional phrase and indicates that whenever Jesus Christ does something it is absolutely permanent. This, again, is a part of that great doctrine found throughout the scripture, the doctrine of eternal security. So “to the uttermost” is to add to that principle of eternal security. You are entered into union with Christ at the point of salvation. That is the positional approach to eternal security.

“to the uttermost” is the prepositional phrase that clinches it — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of pantelês (παντελής) [pronounced pan-tehl-ACE]. Pantelês (παντελής) [pronounced pan-tehl-ACE] actually means for all time. The eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative often means with reference to or for all time. So it is an idiom actually meaning forever — “he is able to save them forever”.

“that come” — present active participle proserchomai (προσέρχομαι) [pronounced pros-ER-khom-ahee],. Proserchomai (προσέρχομαι) [pronounced pros-ER-khom-ahee], means to come face to face with. It sometimes means to approach or to draw near but here it means the ones that come face to face with. We come face to face with God in the principle of believing in Him. The principle from the standpoint of the priesthood: we approach. Again we have the aoristic present to denote punctiliar action in present time. It refers to that moment when we believed in Christ. The active voice: mankind of the Church Age produces the action of the verb by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a circumstantial participle.

“unto God” is the dative of the direct object of theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS], and in modern English that would be “to God.” The dative of direct object indicates that we are benefitted by such an activity on our part of believing in Christ.

“by him” is literally “through him”, dia plus the genitive of the intensive pronoun autos. Autos is an intensive pronoun used as a personal pronoun to identify specifically those involved. Those involved are the ones who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The word “seeing” is not found in the original at all. The translator apparently tried to make a smooth sentence, to make a transition between two clauses. He tried to demonstrate that they are connected but they are not connected. He inserted one word which completely destroys the meaning of the verse. In the middle of the verse is the word “seeing” which does not occur in this passage at all. It has been added by a translator and therefore leads to a lot of confusion. Salvation does not depend upon the intercessory ministry of Christ, they are entirely different functions. Salvation was the pre-resurrection ministry of Christ whereas intercession is the post-resurrection ministry of Christ. And by putting the word “seeing” in it looks in the English as though our salvation depends upon His making intercession. By putting the word “seeing” in here we lose track of a great principle. Jesus Christ is a high priest forever whose ministry is not terminated by His death. It goes on beyond His death and continues in indestructible life as well as eternal life. And salvation does not depend upon the intercessory work of Christ on the cross as the English translation indicates. Far from it. These are two separate and individual clauses and both of them describe the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf.

When it says that He saved us this refers to the first high priestly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. In order to save us He had to go to the cross. While He was on the cross bearing our sins, taking our place, He was dead spiritually. When salvation was completed on the cross He was still alive, He was still talking. He didn’t die physically for our sins, He died spiritually. The wages of sin is spiritual death. When He said “Finished”, He then said “Father” in contrast to “My God.” “My God”: He is bearing our sins, He is being judged for our sins, He is our substitute. But when He says “Father” He is back in fellowship and He says “Father into thy hands I dismiss my spirit”, and when He did He died physically. Spiritual death provides salvation; physical death means that His work is finished. At that point the work of salvation is finished. The brazen altar with its animal sacrifices being sacrificed have all been fulfilled by the cross. All of the Levitical sacrifices, all of the sacrifices of regenerate people since the beginning of time were shadows pointing to the cross. The cross is the reality; they have all been fulfilled. The first ministry of the high priest is completed.

Violation of the essence of God; violation of the provision of God; violation of the authority of God. Reference to the 3 things inside of the Ark of the Covenant.

The High Priest went into the Holy of Holies and when he came out alive, that meant that Israel was preserved for another year. The High Priest went into the Holy of Holies with a basin of blood. The Lord Jesus Christ did the same thing, by going to the cross and bearing our sins.

Jesus was questioned by the High Priest and what He said caused Him to be slapped; and Jesus is the true High Priest.

Hebrews 7:25 “For which reason also he [Jesus Christ] is able to save forever them who come face to face to the God through him [Christ].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

In heaven, there is only one priesthood, the royal priesthood. We are priests right now. Most of you have an idea about priests from watching Bing Crosby in movies.

The word “seeing” is not there, but something is. Instead we have a doctrine there which indicates a very important principle. In the physical death of Christ His spirit is in the presence of the Father. His soul is in Paradise. His body is in the grave. Physical death for the Levitical priest meant the end of his function. The high priest, once he died, no longer functioned. In heaven no Levitical priest will ever serve as priest. There is only one priesthood and that is the priesthood of the Church Age, the royal priesthood. You will serve as a priest in heaven forever, as well as a priest in time. You are a priest right now, and yet death will not terminate your priesthood any more than it terminated the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. His ministry continues. The strategic victory of the angelic conflict is the cross, resurrection, ascension, and session. When Jesus Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father, that was it. That is the glorification of the Lord. That is the end of the first phase of the strategic victory, and for that reason the Age of Israel was interrupted before its completion and the Church Age is the intercalation dispensation. Now Jesus Christ is alone seated but God the Father provides for Him a bride.

Most of us have prayed for miracles which have not occurred. But Jesus prays perfect prayers for us at all time.

We have an adverb which begins the second part of our Lord’s priestly ministry. The adverb is pantote (πάντοτε) [pronounced PAN-tot-eh], which means at all times or always. With that is a present active participle from the verb zaô (ζάω) [pronounced DZAH-oh], which means to live. It is a static present for a condition which always exists. It is the active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb through His resurrection. It is a circumstantial participle indicating that the resurrection separates the first and second priestly ministries of our Lord. His first priestly ministry: His efficacious death upon the cross. His second priestly ministry: His intercession in order that He might pray for you, as He is right now — intercession at the right hand of the Father. He is praying for you. So the translation should not be “seeing he ever liveth” but “always living”. That is the correct translation of the adverb and the participle. And He is always living to pray for you, right now. This phrase divides the death of Christ and His resurrection from His present ministry.

The Lord’s second ministry on our behalf is intercession for us.

So literally so far, Hebrews 7:25 “For which reason also he is able to save forever the ones coming face to face to the God through him, always living...” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary of the Continued Priesthood of Jesus Christ

1. The priesthood of Christ does not terminate with physical death as with every priesthood in the past.

2. Jesus Christ is resurrected to continue His ministry as a priest. Resurrection, therefore, divides this verse right down the middle. It divides the cross and His priestly sacrifice from the intercession or His priestly ministry of prayer on our behalf.

3. The first part of the priestly ministry of Christ was the efficacious sacrifice of Himself — the only salvation.

4. This required spiritual death — bearing our sins, taking our place — plus His physical death because the ministry of the first advent was completed.

5. But through resurrection, ascension and session, Jesus Christ continues His priestly ministry of intercession. And notice the change in ministry. His first ministry was sacrifice — our salvation; His second ministry is intercession. Both of the ministries of our Lord are for us — He died for our sins, He makes intercession for us. Everything in the priestly ministry of our Lord is on our behalf. He thinks of us when we never think of Him. He is for us all the way.

“to make intercession” — the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative definite article plus a present active infinitive of the verb entugchanô (ἐντυγχάνω) [pronounced en-toong-KHAN-oh]. Entugchanô (ἐντυγχάνω) [pronounced en-toong-KHAN-oh] means to make intercession. With the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative in the definite article it denotes purpose. eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the infinitive is used for the purpose of expressing purpose. So it should be translated “for the purpose of making intercession.” We have in the present tense a retroactive progressive present which denotes what has begun in the past and continues into present time. So it is a present tense of duration. This is a present tense that goes on as long as this dispensation. Until that moment when we see Him in resurrection body He will be praying for us constantly. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb as a continuation of His priestly ministry. If He died for you, what can He do now? He can do much more than that. But there is nothing greater than dying for your sins and giving you eternal salvation. But there is a much more principle: He is now praying for you. So He was sacrificed for you, now He prays for you constantly. And, again, the infinitive of the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] denotes the concept of purpose.

“for them” is incorrectly translated. It is the preposition u(per plus the ablative of autos, an intensive pronoun. Again, the intensive pronoun is used as a regular demonstrative pronoun to emphasize who is beneficiary. So it should be translated “on behalf of them.”

Hebrews 7:25 “For which reason also he is able to save forever the ones approaching to the God through Him, always living [at the right hand of the Father] for the purpose of making intercession on behalf of them [those who have believed in Him and approach near to Him].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews Lesson #87

87 09/16/1973 Hebrews 7:26a Categories/uniqueness of Jesus Christ; principles of taxation

We have been studying verse 25 which includes one word which completely destroys the meaning of the verse. In the middle of the verse is the word “seeing” which does not occur in this passage at all. It has been added by a translator and therefore leads to a lot of confusion. Salvation does not depend upon the intercessory ministry of Christ, they are entirely different functions. Salvation was the pre-resurrection ministry of Christ whereas intercession is the post-resurrection ministry of Christ. And by putting the word “seeing” in it looks in the English as though our salvation depends upon His making intercession. By putting the word “seeing” in here we lose track of a great principle. Jesus Christ is a high priest forever whose ministry is not terminated by His death. It goes on beyond His death and continues in indestructible life as well as eternal life. And salvation does not depend upon the intercessory work of Christ on the cross as the English translation indicates. Far from it. These are two separate and individual clauses and both of them describe the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ on our behalf.

In concluding our passage we have come to the fact that the superiority of our high priest has been established. So far ahead of all high priests in every possible way is our Lord that only a few things now have to be added. The superiority of Jesus Christ is established on the basis of the uniqueness of our high priest. He has been demonstrated as superior from the fact that He was authorized a high priest by two immutable things in eternity past, in contrast to the Mosaic law which was temporary and is gone. He was also declared to be superior because not only is He a high priest but He is a royal high priest. As a royal high priest He has established a royalty. Every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ in the Church Age is royalty. You are a member of the royal family of God forever. Therefore He is unique in every possible way and, as it were, we ride on the coat tails of His uniqueness.

Heb 7:26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

Verse 26 — the uniqueness of His person. We have a conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] which begins this verse. It is used as a continuative particle, it is also explanatory. Inasmuch as the Lord Jesus Christ continues to have a priestly ministry on our behalf, inasmuch as He continues to pray for us every day, all of the time, and His prayers are effective because of who and what He is, we read some additional explanation. The Lord Jesus Christ is our high priest forever, He is our Savior forever, He is royalty forever, and we are members of His royal family forever. Therefore, everything must focus on who and what Jesus Christ is. Who is this Lord Jesus Christ?

“such” — a correlative adjective, toioutos (τοιοτος) [pronounced toy-OO-toss]. “For such” is literally “For such a category” or “such a type.” It is hard to recognize this principle that uniqueness must also be categorized. Anything that is unique must be presented in such categories to emphasize uniqueness. So this correlative adjective reminds us that we are now on the edge of categorical concepts of the uniqueness of Jesus Christ — Jesus Christ our high priest, Jesus Christ our Savior, Jesus Christ the member of the royal family. Jesus Christ is the one who must be categorized. The words which are found in this verse are technical theological classifications to make us understand the uniqueness of the person of Jesus Christ.

“of high priest” — archiereus (ἀρχιερεύς) [pronounced ar-khee-er-YUCE] is the word for high priest, the high priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ. “For such a category of high priest.” This is a reference to the previous verse where physical death would not terminate the priesthood of Jesus Christ. He continues to function as our high priest even after death. He is different, therefore, from any high priest who ever lived before Him.

“became us” — is not quite correct. First of all, they did not translate a little conjunction here. Not translated is the adjunctive use of kai. With kai we also have the imperfect active indicative of prepô (πρέπω) [pronounced PREHP-oh]. Prepô (πρέπω) [pronounced PREHP-oh] means to be fitting, to be suitable. With this we also have a dative plural of the personal pronoun egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH]. All of these words put together mean, “For it was also fitting that we should have such a category of high priest.”

If we are royalty it is fitting that we have a royal high priest. If we are a kingdom of priests it is fitting that we have a king who is unique for that kingdom. So we start with us now and work back up to the uniqueness of the person of Christ. So let’s take a look here at what is meant by this little personal pronoun egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH], and prepô (πρέπω) [pronounced PREHP-oh] — “it is fitting that we should have ...” Who are “we.” Before the cross we were nothing except sinners and spiritually dead. By one non-meritorious decision such as “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” It is amazing that we went from nothing to the absolute, zero to 100, and we did this by the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which took place at the point of salvation, by which we were entered into union with Christ. All of a sudden because of union with Christ we are royalty, members of the royal family of God. Not only are we royalty but we find ourselves priests. We have done nothing for it and yet there we are. In addition to that we have many other things. We have the fact that we possess eternal life, can never lose it. The fact that we have a tactical objective for the Church Age which is moving to supergrace, moving to the place of phenomenal blessing. All of a sudden we find ourselves with many things. We find ourselves indwelt by God the Holy Spirit, indwelt by God the Son. We find ourselves with some orders and instructions. We find ourselves in the plan of God and with a life that has meaning and purpose and definition. And so we have a right to say, All right, if we are all of these things as the Bible says, and many more beside — many complimentary things — who is the person that makes all of this possible. We are royalty; who is the King? We are in the palace; who sits on the throne? We are priests; who is the high priest? We are saved; who did it? We are in the angelic conflict, but greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world. Who made it possible? Everywhere you turn the answer is exactly the same. The Lord Jesus Christ provided all of these things. It is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the high priest; it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the King of kings; it is the Lord Jesus Christ who is the Savior. So we go, as it were, from the part to the whole. This is the system of reasoning. And we draw certain conclusions and the word gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] told us that this was going to happen.

Now, putting everything in its proper word order, this is what we have in the passage. “For it was also fitting [or proper] that we should have such a category of high priest.” Why is it fitting and proper? Because now we find ourselves saved forever, we find ourselves members of the family of God, we find ourselves royal family of God, we find ourselves in the palace, we discover that God the Holy Spirit entered us into union with Christ, and that the Holy Spirit also indwells us, that He seals us, that He gives us spiritual gifts, that He has provided all of these wonderful things. We discover that the Father has been propitiated and we have been redeemed, that we have been reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Everywhere we turn we find that all roads lead somewhere. If you are anything, if I am anything, and the Bible says we are, then where do all of these roads lead? Contrary to human viewpoint of life all roads do not lead to Rome. All roads for the believer lead to the Lord Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father.

Now here we are with all of these wonderful things that we can not always evaluate until we learn doctrine, but we are aware of the fact that we must have something. In knowing these few things we forget a principle. If Jesus Christ has improved your life — and He has — who is He? Why did He stop? Where did He stop? He gave you eternal life. Why is He letting you dangle around now? Well, He is really not. You are dangling around, all mixed up and confused, but because of Jesus Christ. It is because after the living Word comes the written Word. And your appreciation for what you have, and learning more about the things that you have now and the things that you can have is a matter of doctrine. Any person who is aware of his salvation has within 30 days of his being saved has the opportunity of making one of the greatest deductions of his life, and it is a simple one: If Jesus Christ saved me, if Jesus Christ has done this and that and the other thing, who is He? What is He? And what else is He doing for me? Where do we go from here? What is His idea? He is the leader, what is going on?

“For it was also fitting.” You are royalty, it is fitting you should know who is the leader. It is fitting you are a priest, it is important to know the high priest. The leader if the King of kings, Jesus Christ. The high priest is Jesus Christ, He is the royal high priest. In fact, He is more than that. He is the creator of the universe, He is eternal God. He was with God the Father in eternity past when God the Father said to Him, You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. So, now the question will be answered in this passage after this beautiful syntactical approach: “For it was also fitting that we should have such a category of high priest.” The key here is the word “category”. And the word “category” comes from that correlative adjective toioutos (τοιοτος) [pronounced toy-OO-toss]. We have a category that is unique for our high priest. The one who offered Himself as a sacrifice is unique. The one who makes intercession at the right hand of the Father is unique. Between that intercession and His death upon the cross is resurrection, and that is unique. He is the only person in the world up to this time who has been resurrected. Everywhere you turn He is unique. Therefore sooner or later you must come face to face with the fact that you must know who Jesus Christ is, you must know what Jesus Christ is, you must understand your Savior, your King, your high priest, your leader. And of you don’t know your leader how can you follow your leader? How can you take commands from your leader? You have to know Him. So immediately we begin to get categorical terms.

After being saved, people don’t know what to do next. They know that there was a change, but they don’t know the next step. You need to follow your Savior, which is understood by knowing Bible doctrine.

But they don’t look categorical in the English — “holy, harmless, undefiled.” We have three adjectives followed by a perfect passive participle. This lines up for us the categorical uniqueness of our high priest. The three words, “holy, harmless, undefiled”, all refer to the priesthood of Jesus Christ as it functioned on the cross, as it is functioning today; for the three adjectives which we have here not only describe His qualification for dying for our sins but they also express His qualification for having His prayers heard. Jesus Christ was qualified to go to the cross because He was “Holy, harmless, undefiled.” He was qualified to bear our sins in His own body on the tree because He was “holy, harmless, and undefiled”. Jesus Christ is qualified to pray for you right now — as He is — and be heard because He is “holy, harmless, and undefiled.” One thing should be noted before we analyze these three words. They belong to the humanity of Christ, they do not belong to the deity of Christ. And yet we will see that they suggest also the hypostatic union. But remember that Jesus Christ as a high priest is a Man, for by very Biblical definition no one can be a priest unless he is true humanity.

So we have adjective #1, “holy”, which is the word hosios (ὅσιος) [pronounced HOHS-ee-oss]. It has a number of meanings. It is translated “holy”, a legitimate translation. It also means “devout”, it means “pious.” The basic concept of hosios (ὅσιος) [pronounced HOHS-ee-oss] is to be separated unto God. It could also mean concentrating on what God wants, and doing it. In other words, being completely separated by following the plan of the Father all of the way through. So actually, “holy” here comes to mean pleasing to God. He never did anything as a high priest that was not pleasing to God. And immediately you see His uniqueness.

The word “harmless” is a pitiful word, and mistranslated. The word is akakos (ἄκακος) [pronounced AHK-ak-oss], which means totally free from evil, unsullied, pure, impeccable.

The third adjective, “undefiled” is amiantos (ἀμίαντος) [pronounced am-EE-an-toss] which means physically clean, moral, under establishment all the way. Amiantos (ἀμίαντος) [pronounced am-EE-an-toss] means to straight in thinking and not to be covered with erroneous thinking.

The Christian has no right to refuse to withhold his taxes. This does not matter if our taxes are high and ridiculous. 90% of our taxes ought to go to national defense. The federal government should be a weak government with only administrative duties. What should I do about my income tax? Pay it. Pay it with honesty. The government being immoral is not an issue. Not paying taxes is solving a wrong with a wrong. People write in all of the time to Bob and talk about how they should not pay taxes.

We have no right to be seditious. We have no right to rebel against our government.

Hebrews 7:26a “For it was also fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, pleasing to God [or, devout], impeccable, clear in his thinking ...” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

But more than that, He was different from everyone else, not by the three adjectives but more so by the participle which follows — “separate” is the perfect passive participle from chôrizô (χωρίζω) [pronounced kho-RIHD-zoh]. Chôrizô (χωρίζω) [pronounced kho-RIHD-zoh] means to divide, to separate, to disassociate, to withdraw. Here the literal translation should be “having been separated”. The perfect tense is intensive perfect, which means separated in the past with the result that He was always separated. Now notice our Lord. He was perfect. He was virgin born so He didn’t have a sin nature, He didn’t have the imputation of Adam’s sin. Not once did He ever commit a personal sin though He was under greater pressure to sin than anyone who has ever lived. Yet not once, not under any circumstances did He ever sin. Not once did He ever fail. And in His perfection, in His separation from sinners He still did what sinners did: advocated income tax, advocated establishment, rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s. He was clear all the way through. Undefiled means clear-thinking.

“having been separated” — this is a circumstantial participle; “from sinners” is the preposition apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the ablative of hamartôlos (ἁμαρτωλός) [pronounced ham-ar-to-LOSS]. “Sinners refers to the rest of the human race and this prepositional phrase says that Jesus Christ was absolutely, completely, totally unique in every way. He is separated from sinners by His impeccability; He is separated from sinners by His hypostatic union; He is separated from sinners by His resurrection; He is separated from sinners by His ascension and session. And the rest of the passage confirms this — “and made higher than the heavens.”

1972 Hebrews Lesson #88

88 09/17/1973 Hebrews 7:26b-28 Doctrine of the hypostatic union & impeccability

The Doctrine of the Hypostatic Union

1. Definition: In the person of Christ are two natures inseparably united, without mixture or loss of separate identity, without loss or transfer of properties or attributes, the union being personal and eternal. (This is a classical theological definition — by which is meant that throughout the rest of this particular categorical study various aspects of this definition will be discussed. In fact, in this definition are five separate points in our study.)

2. The scripture which covers the hypostatic union — John 1:1–14; Romans 1:2–5; 9:5; Philippians 2:5–11; 1Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 2:14.

3. The incarnate person of Jesus Christ includes deity. Jesus Christ, even though He is also man, is just as much God as the Father or the Holy Spirit. In fact, Jesus Christ is God, coequal and co-eternal with the Father and with the Spirit. The incarnation does not diminish His deity, hence He is undiminished deity. The fact that He is humanity does not in any way change His deity.

a. All aspects of the Lord’s Deity remain intact.

b. It is hard for us to understand perfect mentality making perfect decisions.

c. The Last Adam could attain to a sin nature only the way that the first Adam did

4. The incarnate person of Christ is also true humanity. Jesus Christ is a bona fide member of the human race with a body and with a soul. Also add the fact that He was born with a human spirit and retained it because He did not sin personally. He is minus, of course, the old sin nature from birth. He never had an old sin nature, never sinned. He would have had to sin to acquire one. He did not sin, therefore He did not acquire the old sin nature. With the virgin birth Jesus Christ avoided the imputation of Adam’s sin as well as the old sin nature by birth. Therefore He lived perfectly and under impeccability never had an old sin nature. But apart from that He is true humanity.

5. The two natures of Christ are united without transfer of attributes. The attributes adhere to their corresponding natures. The essence of deity cannot be changed — immutability; the infinite cannot be transferred to the finite. To rob God of any attribute of His essence would destroy His deity. This is impossible. To rob the humanity of Christ if a single attribute of His humanity would destroy His perfect humanity. So He is true humanity. He is God. He is the God-Man forever.

6. No attribute of the essence of deity was changed by the virgin birth and subsequent incarnation. In fulfilling the purpose of the first advent certain attributes of deity were used, but this does not imply that they were either surrendered or destroyed, as per the false doctrine of Kenosis.

7. The union of divine essence and the human nature in the incarnate Christ are put together you have a unique person, a hypostatic and personal union. This means that Jesus Christ is different from God in that He is Man; He is different from man in that He is God. This is called in the Greek hupostasis. The word means “standing under”, it means “substance”, it means “essence”, it means taking a thing upon one’s self. Jesus Christ took upon Himself true humanity — Hebrews 1:3. Hypostatic, technically, refers to the whole person of Christ as distinguished from His two natures which are divine and human. Not only do we have hypostatic but we also have the concept of personal. The personal concept refers to the fact that there emerges the unique person of Jesus Christ — always God and therefore always equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit, having the same essence. He always has the same essence, even though He also has a body, soul, and spirit of a human person and is called the last Adam. He has both of these, and this makes an unique person in the human race. As a man Jesus is superior to all mankind; as deity He is so-equal with the other members of the Trinity, and at the same time superior to mankind.

8. The false interpretation.

a. The hypostatic union does not imply that deity possessed humanity. This is one of the liberal views, that Jesus Christ had God-consciousness and was so conscious of God that God dwelt inside of Him.

b. Or, the deity of Christ indwells the humanity of Christ.

c. Some liberals went further and said the union was merely harmony or sympathy (God sympathized with Jesus), and that that is the hypostatic union.

d. In other words, all liberal views, erroneous views, ignore the fact that it was a personal union: the two natures, divine and human, had been combined in one hupostasis (hypostasis) or essence forever, so that you could no longer say that the essence of Christ is just deity or that the essence of Christ is just humanity.

e. The essence of Christ is both. He is God and He is man, and He is both forever. Jesus Christ as God will always be true humanity, and there never will be a time when He drops His humanity. He is the God-Man, and that is His essence forever. So when we approach the hypostatic union we are talking about the God-Man. He is the only celebrity; He is God and man in one person forever.

f. An academic liberal. He is not a conservative; but he is a true liberal, and he will allow for the conservative viewpoint to be expressed. This is a reference to a teacher at U of H.

9. Therefore, Jesus Christ has one hypostasis or essence forever, not two. The attributes of the divine and human nature are in one person. The characteristics of one nature are never attributed to the other nature. This means that during the first advent Jesus could be simultaneously omnipotent and weak, omniscient and ignorant. However the ignorance of His humanity was quickly overcome through the daily function of GAP and moving into supergrace through the ECS, as per Luke 2:40, 52; John 1:14.

10. The necessity for the humanity of Christ, or why the hypostatic union. The problem is that Jesus Christ for all of eternity past was no different in essence from the Father or the Holy Spirit. They are coequal and co-eternal. From the moment of the virgin birth everything is different. Why? Jesus Christ as God is eternal life, and it is obvious that eternal life does not die. So as eternal life Jesus Christ cannot go to the cross and die spiritually or physically. Sovereignty cannot become obedient unto death, and yet Jesus became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Divine righteousness and justice cannot tolerate sin and could not have anything to do with sin, except to judge it. Omnipresence cannot get on the cross, you cannot reduce God to one point. Furthermore, He is immutable and can’t change any of His characteristics and make Him get on the cross. Principle: There is no way Jesus Christ can be Savior and be just God. To get on the cross He has to become a man. He has to be a perfect man, and then in impeccability the Father can pour our sins upon Him and judge them. While man can get on the cross and God cannot, once Jesus Christ becomes a man He can get on the cross. And as the God-Man He does get on the cross, but He gets on the cross in hypostatic union.

a. Philippians 2:7,8; Hebrews 2:14,15 say very clearly that Jesus Christ had to become true humanity before He could be our Savior.

b. Secondly, whoever is the mediator has to have the full essence of the hypostatic union. Mediator means someone who is equal with both parties: someone who is God, therefore equal with God; someone who is humanity and therefore equal with humanity. That is why there is only one mediator. This is emphasized in Job 9:32,33; 1Timothy 2:5,6. Illustration of a tree which was on a mountain top and it died and fell over, reaching over to a nearby mountain. That tree fossilized and became a bridge between the two mountains.

c. Jesus Christ cannot be a priest unless He is first of all a man. All priests must be bona fide members of the human race — Hebrews 7:4, 5, 14, 28; 10:5–14.

d. Then there is one other factor which is absolutely essential to understand. God the Father said to David that he was going to have a son who will reign forever. He would perpetuate David’s dynasty. This is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is descended from David through Mary, descended legally through Joseph. Mary was descended from Nathan; Joseph was descended from Solomon. Jesus Christ became a man, from the tribe of Judah, in the line, and He is the fulfilment of the Davidic covenant. He will reign forever as a man. This doesn’t mean that when He reigns His deity will go outside and park somewhere. He is one essence forever, deity and humanity. Not two people, one person, one essence.

11. Everything verbally communicated by Christ during His incarnation came from one of three sources. Sometimes His deity spoke — John 8:58; sometimes His humanity — John 19:28; sometimes His hypostatic union, His whole person — Matthew 11:28; John 14:6.

12. Categories of attributes as related to the person of Jesus Christ.

a. The first of the categories are attributes of the whole person: redeemer, Savior. Both natures are essential to the function of being Savior and redeemer.

b. There are attributes which are true just of His deity, but the whole person is the subject — John 8:58. It was the God-Man speaking but obviously only His deity preceded Abraham.

c. There are attributes which are true of His humanity and the whole person is the subject — John 19:28 — “I thirst.” Only humanity thirsts. But the person on the cross was the God-Man, so the God-Man is the subject.

d. The person is described by the divine nature but the predicate of the human nature. In Revelation 1:12–18 we have a description of Jesus Christ. It is obvious that the deity of Christ is in evidence, yet He is described as the one who was dead and alive again — verse 18. So death is only possible for the humanity, the human nature is said to have died, but deity produces the action. And it is describing the Lord Jesus Christ in His deity but He is the one who once died.

e. Then we have the person described according to the human nature but predicate of the divine nature — John 6:62 where we have the title “Son of Man” which is a title for the humanity of Christ. But get this: “The Son of Man ascending up where He was before” is deity. So human nature, subject; attribute of deity in the predicate.

f. Next, the person described according to His divine nature but the predicate of both natures. This time divine nature is the subject but both natures — hypostatic union — in the predicate — John 5:25–27. Christ as the Son of God spoke to those who are spiritually dead, and those who heard — positive volition — lived. But He went on to say that in the future Christ will execute judgement as the Son of Man. Then we have the person described according to the human nature but the predicate of both natures. The best illustration is Matthew 27:46. Christ was speaking from the viewpoint of His human nature, but the pronoun “Me” has reference to both natures. “Why hast thou forsaken Me?” What was forsaken? The God-Man was forsaken. That is as close as you can get to the inscrutability of the fact that when Jesus Christ was on the cross His deity was there too. “Me” is the same one who was in the cradle as a baby. From there, all of the way to the cross, there was no separation of His hypostatic union.

The Doctrine of Impeccability (Review)

1. Christ did not have an old sin nature by birth, nor did He commit an act of sin during the incarnation — Hebrews 4:15; 1Peter 1:19; 1John 3:5.

2. Christ was tempted in the area of His humanity. The unique temptation: Matthew 4:2–11; principle: Hebrews 4:15.

3. As with Adam in innocence, or sinlessness, so Jesus Christ in hypostatic union: all temptation came from without. Neither had a sin nature. Adam was created without a sin nature; Jesus Christ was born without a sin nature.

4. All temptations to Christ had to come through His human nature. The human nature of Christ is temptable; the divine nature of Christ is not temptable — James 1:13.

5. Christ resisted the greatest of all temptations at Gethsemane when He faced the cross in all of its horror and reality — Luke 22:42; Matthew 26:39; Mark 14:35,36. The first Adam failed the volitional test; the last Adam passed it with flying colours.

6. Christ resisted the Kenosis temptation in Matthew 4. He did not use His own divine attributes independently of the Father’s plan. He resisted the temptation to use His divine attributes in independence of the Father. He could have turned the stones to bread through His omnipotence but the humanity under the filling of the Spirit refused and depended upon God the Father.

7. The categorizing of the doctrine is very simple. The humanity of Christ was temptable and peccable; the deity of Christ , not temptable, not peccable.

8. In the hypostatic union Christ is temptable but impeccable.

9. It is possible for the humanity of Christ during the incarnation to suffer physical limitations of an unmoral sort. That is, He suffered weakness, fatigue, sorrow, hunger, thirst, righteous indignation and physical death. But none of these sufferings presented complications which in any way affected His holiness.

10. Possi non percari, able not to sin; non possi percari not able to sin. Christ was able not to sin and not able to sin. So Christ is God. Christ is never the source of evil under any circumstances. Evil stems from angelic and human volition, never from divine sovereignty.

Heb 7:26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens.

Verse 26 — “and made higher,” the aorist active participle of ginomai means “having become.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the event in its entirety but emphasizes the existing results. The ascension and session of Christ is seen as the entirety but the results are emphasized here, the result in strategic victory, intensification of the angelic conflict, the need now for a royal family, all of these are results from the culminative aorist. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb in ascension and session, seated at the right hand of the Father, as per Psalm 110:1, 4. The participle has antecedent action to the main verb. The main verb: “for it was fitting”. Before it was fitting the Lord Jesus Christ had to be glorified at the right hand of the Father.

“higher” is a nominative singular comparative from hupsêlos (ὑψηλός) [pronounced hoop-say-LOSS], which actually means “more elevated.”

“than the heavens” — an ablative of comparison plural from the word for heavens: ouranos (οὐρανός) [pronounced oo-ran-OSS]

Hebrews 7:26 “For it was also fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, impeccable, moral, having been separated from the sinners [through resurrection and ascension], and having become more elevated than the heavens [seated at the right hand of the Father as the God-Man].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Heb 7:27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.

Verse 27 — the unique sacrifice. We start out with the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç], referring to the Lord Jesus Christ in His uniqueness as the God-Man.

“needeth not” — ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] a)nakkh. Ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] is the strong, close the door, shut it tight, negative. Then we have the present active indicative of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] plus the accusative singular of anakê (ἀναγκ) [pronounced ahn-ahg-KAY], a direct object. All of this should be translated, “who does not have need”, or “who never has need.” “Who does not have need” goes better with the prepositional phrase translated like an adverb, “daily.” It is the preposition katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of hêmera (ἡμάρα) [pronounced hay-MEH-raw], the word for “day.” This is literally, “according to the standard of the day”, but it becomes an adverb really which is a good way to translate it — “who does not have daily need”. In other words, the prepositional phrase used as an adverb modifies anakê (ἀναγκ) [pronounced ahn-ahg-KAY], the substantive. But it must be understood He never will have daily need.

“as” is an adverb, hsper (ὥσπερ) [pronounced HOH-sper], and the adverb sets up a comparison between the Lord Jesus Christ as the unique perfect high priest and the Levitical high priests; “those high priests” refers simply to the Levitical priesthood. The Levitical priesthood had to offer daily sacrifices for themselves. They offered for others as well. This is contrasted with Christ who offered one efficacious sacrifice for sins for all time.

“to offer up” — present active infinitive of anapherô (ἀναφέρω) [pronounced an-af-EHR-oh], a technical word for sacrifices. The present tense is a progressive present used in the sense of description. It is the same as the pictorial present in the Greek, used to present to the mind a picture of events as in the process of occurring. In other words, you are supposed to picture in your mind a Levitical high priest offering animal sacrifices for himself and for the people. The active voice: the Levitical high priest produces the action of the verb. The infinitive is circumstantial.

“sacrifices” — the accusative plural of thusia (θυσία) [pronounced thoo-SEE-ah is the accusative of direct object and it describes the various categories of Levitical sacrifices.

“first” is a neuter singular — proteroj — used as an adverb. The adverb means first in sequence and very important. First in sequence, he had to offer for his own sins. He can’t function at the altar if he is out of fellowship. He can only function if he gets himself in fellowship and then he can function on behalf of others — “first for his own sins, and then for the people’s”. The word “people’s” is ablative plural definite article followed by a genitive singular definite article, followed by the genitive singular of the noun laos (λαός) [pronounced lah-OSS]. Then we have with all of this the preposition u(per plus the genitive. U(per goes with the ablative plural and it is used as the demonstrative pronoun. With two definite articles, one preposition and one substantive — “and then on behalf of those [sins] of the people.” The genitive of reference here is better translated “with reference to the people.” The phrase describes the routine of the Levitical high priest who on the day of atonement offered first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people.

“for this he did” — the aorist active indicative of poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] means here to accomplish. We have an explanatory gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] plus a demonstrative pronoun referring back to what has just been said — “he accomplished.” We have a gnomic aorist here for an absolute fact. No high priest ever did anything but follow this procedure.

“once” — the adverb “once” is really a little stronger, ephapax (ἐφάπαξ) [pronounced ef-AP-ax]. Now hapax (ἅπαξ) [pronounced hap’-ax] means “once”; ephapax (ἐφάπαξ) [pronounced ef-AP-ax] means “once and for all”.

“when he offered up” is the aorist active participle of anapherô (ἀναφέρω) [pronounced an-af-EHR-oh]. The dramatic aorist states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. This is a very dramatic thing, as a matter of fact. Jesus Christ produced the action of the verb on the cross. He did everything in three hours that all of the high priests represented over a thousand years. Because of impeccability Jesus Christ was qualified to offer Himself and therefore the reflexive pronoun which goes with this verb, heautou (ἑαυto) [pronounced heh-ow-TOO], emphasizes the uniqueness of the hypostatic union.

Hebrews 7:27 Jesus Christ, Who does not have daily need, as those high priests, who keep offering up sacrifices, first on behalf of their own sins, and then on behalf of the sins with reference to the people [of Israel]. For this he accomplished once and for all, when He offered up Himself [a sacrifice]. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Jesus Christ did something different. He offered once and for all Himself.

Heb 7:28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.

Verse 28 — “For the law.” We have the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] — ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh]nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss] refers to the Mosaic law, but more than that, it refers to the law as the authorizing agent for the Levitical priesthood.

“maketh” — the present active indicative of kathistêmi (καθίστημι) [pronounced kath-IHS-tay-mee] means to appoint, to authorize. “For the law authorizes” — the customary present, it denotes that which habitually occurs or is expected to occur. This is a customary historic present, this always happened. The active voice: the Mosaic law produces the action of the verb by appointing the Levitical priests and the Levitical high priest. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Always there was a high priest in Israel, always authorized by the Mosaic law.

“men” — the accusative plural of the direct object from anthrôpos (ἄνθρωπος) [pronounced ANTH-row-pos] indicating the fact that all priests are members of the human race — and that includes Melchizedek.

“high priests which have” — present active indicative of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh], they have and they hold it. This is a retroactive progressive present which denotes that which was begun in the past and continues to the present time. It is the present tense of duration, it is always true. The active voice: the Levitical priest produces the action of the verb. It is a concessive participle, it concedes the existence of the old sin nature in every man that the law appointed as a high priest. But God appointed a high priest minus the old sin nature. The only high priest in all of history who was without an old sin nature is the Lord Jesus Christ.

“infirmity” — accusative singular direct object of asthéneia (ἀσθένεια) [pronounced ahs-THEH-nigh-ah] referring here to the old sin nature.

“but the word of the oath” — ho logos de thj o(rkwmosioj means God the Father’s oath-taking. This introduces once again the two immutable things. God the Father in declaring this phase of the decrees took a solemn oath — Psalm 110:4 — “but the word of the solemn oath-taking [by God the Father].”

“which was since the law” — meta plus the accusative of nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss] which is literally “which came after the law.”

Summary of Hebrews 7:28

1. While the authorization for the priesthood of Christ occurred in eternity past it did not exist historically until after the law, after the function of the Levitical priesthood. There is a reason for that. The Levitical priesthood could make nothing perfect, it could not produce teleiôsis (τελείωσις) [pronounced tel-Ī-oh-sis],. Therefore the Levitical priesthood came first in history while the actual appointment in the decrees came first in eternity past.

2. The Church Age accompanied by the royal priesthood interrupts the Jewish Age with its Levitical priesthood.

3. Here now is the completion of the contrast between the Levitical high priests having weaknesses [the OSN] and the King high priest, Jesus Christ having perfection.

4. Not only is there a contrast in the quality of high priests but in the quality of the authorizing agents. And both meet at this point, the two roads cross. The quality of the authorizing agent: God the Father is greater than the Mosaic law; the quality of the high priest: Jesus Christ, minus the old sin nature, is greater than any Levitical high priest with his sin nature.

Now we have to supply the word “authorizes the Son” — the accusative singular from huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS] without the definite article. The absence of the definite article calls attention to the quality of the noun. The quality of this noun: the unique person of Jesus Christ the God-Man, the only celebrity for the Church Age.

“who is” is not found in the original manuscript and not necessary to smooth out the translation. The reason is because “consecrated” is a perfect passive participle, teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh]. It means to be perfect. The perfect tense is intensive, it sees the action of the verb as completed with emphasis on existing results. Jesus Christ as God is perfect, as humanity He is impeccable and perfect, and cannot be anything else. Therefore we have the hypostatic union, the sum total of uniqueness and perfection both together under the intensive perfect tense. The passive voice: Jesus Christ receives perfection forever. The participle is ascriptive which treats this verbal form as an adjective describing a characteristic of the new high priest which is perfection. And not just perfection but perfection forever. So literally, “authorizes the having been perfected Son forever.”

Hebrews 7:28 “For the law appoints men [high priests] having weaknesses [old sin nature]; but the word of the solemn oath by God the Father, which came historically after the law, authorizes the having been perfect Son forever.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews 8:1a Lesson #89

89 11/07/1973 Hebrews 8:1a Doctrine of the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ; priesthood

Bob was apparently at a conference in Hollywood or the Los Angeles area. Many people in uniform there. Got to meet Bobby’s battalion commander. A turn around toward Bible doctrine, in Peoria, in Portland, and several other cities.

A lot of people have an interest in doctrine, and can handle hearing a hell or damn thrown at them. Discipline is better. Maybe he was in Hawaii?

Things are much better in the military service than on the outside. Service-oriented personnel always put on a top-notch conference.

Chapter 8

The Doctrine of the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ (Review)

1. There are three priesthoods in the scripture. The first is in the dispensation of the Gentiles, the second in the dispensation of Israel, and the third in the dispensation of the Church. Each dispensation has a priesthood.

a. We become priests at the moment of exercising faith in Jesus Christ.

2. As high priest Jesus Christ is a minister of spiritual things — Hebrews 5:1. Therefore, all spiritual things which pertain to us in this dispensation are related to Jesus Christ.

3. Jesus Christ is appointed high priest by God the Father — Hebrews 5:4–10; 6:20.

4. Jesus Christ offered Himself a sacrifice of the priesthood — Hebrews 9:26,27. In other words, our high priest is greater than all high priests that ever went before because He offered Himself as a sacrifice. Basically He did two things. When Jesus Christ went to the cross as our high priest He solved the problem of the old sin nature. He solved this problem by bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. At the same time He completely disassociated Himself with all human good of any kind.

a. In order for God to love us, He cannot compromise any of His essence. He cannot set aside His justice and righteousness in order to save us.

b. We have a sin nature, personal sin, and imputed sin.

5. Jesus Christ has an eternal and untransmissable priesthood — Hebrews 7:20, 21, 24. In other words, He will always be the high priest and we will always be a kingdom of priests, always be royalty.

6. Because of positional sanctification — union with Christ — every believer is a priest — 1Peter 2:5,9; Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6.

7. Christ as high priest performs a ministry of intercession for believers on the earth — Hebrews 7:25.

8. The believer priest in phase two possesses a different sacrifice from the Levitical code. In the Levitical code you would take to the altar a lamb or a goat. But not any more. All of the animal sacrifices ended with the operation of the Levitical priesthood, so now we have three basic sacrifices:

a. As priests we have the sacrifice of the believer’s body — Romans 12:1. This is rebound.

b. The sacrifice of praise — Hebrews 13:15. This is based on supergrace capacity and category #1 love response. That, of course, is based on doctrine.

c. A third sacrifice is production and giving — Hebrews 13:16. These are sacrifices of the priesthood.

d. A fourth one, which is very rarely ever heard of, is obedience — Hebrews 13:17.

There are three basic principles taught in Hebrews chapter eight. The subject of the chapter is the superiority of Jesus Christ as high priest, and this passage denotes three superiorities:

The Three Superiorities of the High Priesthood of Jesus Christ

1. Christ is superior because He has an heavenly ministry — Hebrews 8:1–5.

2. Christ is superior because He has a better ministry — Hebrews 8:6.

3. Christ is superior because He has a new covenant ministry — Hebrews 8:7–13. So we have the three superiorities of the high priesthood of Christ over all other priesthoods.

Verses 1–5, the heavenly ministry of Christ. The first verse talks of the glorification of Christ and acts as a transitional verse between what we have in the seventh chapter and what we now have in the eighth chapter.

Heb 8:1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,

Verse 1 — “of the things which we have spoken this is the sum” is not correct. The first word “Now” is the Greek particle de used as a transitional particle. This is a conjunctive particle. It is never used first in the sentence, it always follows. It is used here with the word kephalaion (κεφάλαιον) [pronounced kef-AL-ah-yon]. Kephalaion (κεφάλαιον) [pronounced kef-AL-ah-yon] is used by Pindar and Demosthenes not as the sum but as the main point. So de plus kephalaion (κεφάλαιον) [pronounced kef-AL-ah-yon] means “Now the main point.” We have come to the main point in Hebrews and we have a summary of everything. This is a transition summarising what we have had and then going on to what is ahead.

Next we have “of the things which we have spoken”, and it is incorrect. We have a prepositional phrase with the participle as the object of the preposition — epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative plural present active participle of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. The present tense is a static present used for perpetual communication of God’s Word. The passive voice: doctrine of the superiority of Christ as high priest is now being communicated in summary. The participle is telic. The telic participle acts as a transitional one to denote the purpose of what is coming related to what has just been said. It should be translated “Now the main point on what has been said is this.” That is the way the verse actually starts, or “the main point on what is being communicated is this.”

Then, “We have such an high priest.” “We have” is the present active indicative of the verb echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh]. It means to have and to hold, to have and possess. The present tense is a static present, we always will have. The active voice: every person who believes in Jesus Christ will always have Christ. We are forever saved. “We keep having such a high priest”, but it isn’t “such a high priest.” It is “such a category of high priest.” There is only one but He falls in a separate category. And the word for high priest: archiereus (ἀρχιερεύς) [pronounced ar-khee-er-YUCE] which means the ruling priest.

Literally then: “Now the main point on what is being communicated is this: We keep on having such a category of high priest”.

“who” — the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] refers to the Lord Jesus Christ; “has sat down.”

The Doctrine of the Priesthood (Redux)

1. Definition: A priest is a member of the human race representing the human race to God. The priest of the Old Testament was always taken from the male population of the human race but never from angels and never from women. The exception is the Church Age where every women, the moment she believes, becomes a priest too. The priest must partake of the nature of the person or persons for whom he acts. That is, he must be a member of the human race — Hebrews 5:1; 7:4,5, 14, 28. This is one reason why Jesus Christ had to be a member of the human race, As God He could not be a priest — Hebrews 10:5, 10–14.

2. The sphere of the priesthood function: The priest and high priest must function in the sphere of spiritual phenomena. Therefore, he is appointed for man’s benefit in spiritual things. This means the royal priesthood of the Church Age is related to Bible doctrine. If you and I are going to have spiritual benefit in spiritual things then as members of the priesthood we must live on Bible doctrine. The only food for a priest is doctrine — Matthew 4:4.

3. The categories of the priesthood (3 battalions):

a. The first category is the battalion of the royal priesthood. The pattern of that battalion is Melchizedek who was both a king and a priest. He became a king by conquest; he became a priest by divine appointment. The Lord Jesus Christ is in that battalion. He was born a King, He didn’t require kingship by conquest. Salem or Jerusalem is His future headquarters. The Lord Jesus Christ is a King as of birth, descended from David through Solomon. This is the only battalion authorized today. So the first battalion is made up of the royal priesthood and that refers to every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

i. We are all in full-time Christian service.

ii. We are priests every bit as much as Bob is.

b. The second battalion is the Levitical priesthood, authorized by the Mosaic law which is now defunct. The Levitical priesthood is no longer authorized. You had to be in the family of Aaron. The concept of the priestly ministry in spiritual things is found for this priesthood in Numbers 16:5. They were commissioned, they were holy, they were allowed to “come near” to the altar. This priesthood was perpetuated through the natural line of Aaron and specifically through his surviving sons. Everything was a shadow. All of the celebrations were shadows of what was to come.

c. In the third priesthood, the family priesthood, the patriarch of the family functioned as the high priest. And the second and third battalions are defunct, only the first battalion has survived.

4. We have a royal high priest in the Church Age, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is appointed forever by divine decrees — Hebrews 5:6. He was appointed to the royal priesthood — Hebrews 5:10. He was assigned to the Melchizedek battalion — Hebrews 6:20. His appointment was accompanied by divine oath — Hebrews 7:21.

5. The royal priesthood of the Church Age. All believers of this dispensation are priests — 1Peter 2:5,9; Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6.

6. The purpose of the royal priesthood in the Church Age is to reach supergrace and maximum divine blessing. Everything else is incidental. Hebrews 6:17–20; Ephesians 3:17–21; 4:11–16.

7. The function of the royal priesthood. It will be delineated in Hebrews chapter 13.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #90

90 11/08/1973 Hebrews 8:1b-2 Doctrine of ascension and session

Two medal of Honor recipients.

We have started a study of the superiority of our high priest, Jesus Christ. The superiority of Jesus Christ as high priest is the subject of this chapter.

Jesus Is Superior

1. He is superior because of His heavenly ministry: 8:1–5;

2. because of His better ministry: 8:6;

3. because of His new covenant ministry: 8:7–13.

We possess Jesus Christ as a high priest forever. There is no way we can lose our salvation. The relative pronoun “who” refers to the unique person of the universe, the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, the King of kings and Lord of lords, the one who is the object of category #1 love, the one who is responsible for everything that will ever be worthwhile in our lives.

Jesus, High Priest of a Better Covenant

Heb 8:1 Now the point in what we are saying is this: we have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven,

He is said to be “set” — incorrect. The aorist active indicative of the verb kathizô (καθίζω) [pronounced kahth-EED-zoh] does not mean to be set but to be seated. It should be translated, “who has sat down.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the action of the verb in its entirety but it emphasizes the existing results of the strategic victory of the Lord Jesus Christ in being seated at the right hand of the Father. The session is the result and so we have a culminative aorist. The Lord Jesus Christ having been seated is in the place of strategic victory. The active voice: Jesus Christ demonstrated His superiority by sitting down in heaven. This is in contrast to the high priest who always stood as he ministered in the tabernacle. He never sat down. The indicative mood is the unqualified assertion of the principle of doctrine that Jesus Christ has won the strategic victory.

The Doctrine of Ascension & Session

1. The resurrection body of Jesus Christ was capable of space travel, just as ours will be. The resurrection body of the humanity of Christ traveled through all three heavens — John 20:17.

2. The fact that Jesus Christ was seated in heaven at the request of God the Father, and the fact that this is the place of honour, is the subject of many scriptures, including Psalm 110:1 where it was first prophesied; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3,13; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; 1Peter 3:22. Notice that this prophecy is more frequently quoted in the epistle to Hebrews because the epistle to Hebrews gives us the power, the glory, the strategic victory, of our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. All of these verses confirm the fact of the acceptability of the humanity of Christ in heaven. This guarantees our acceptability in a future day, according to Ephesians 1:6.

3. The ascension and session of Christ forms the basis of victory in the angelic conflict — Hebrews 1:3–13. 4. The ascension and session of Christ begins a new sphere of the angelic conflict — Ephesians 1:20,22; 4:7–10. Therefore the believer of the Church Age is involved in the intensification of the angelic conflict. And this is why the Age of Israel was never completed but interrupted. It will be completed in the future. The first dispensation of history, the Age of the Gentiles, was interrupted never to be completed. The second dispensation, the Age of Israel, was interrupted to be completed at the Tribulation. The third dispensation, the Church Age, will never be interrupted. It will be completed at the point of the Rapture of the Church without interruption. This is because the royal family in heaven is being completed at the present time.

a. Louis XVI was a terrible king; brilliant locksmith. Nice guy. Married Marie Antoinette. Not in a place for nice guys.

b. Bob uses the term Millennium advisedly, as there is some religious figure out there talking about it. 11/08/1973.

c. As a prisoner at Fort Sill, he believed in Jesus Christ when there.

d. George V believed in Jesus Christ; so he will be a king in heaven and here.

e. Some hearing the doctrine of ascension, so many people go to sleep. Jesus traveled through all of that space, but He sat down, but He sat down alone. He will never be alone after the rapture.

f. The ascension means victory; it means that the victory is already won.

g. Louis XIV broke the back of royalty in trying to run France. They all looked foppish. He gave them all minor responsibilities.

h. We are royal priests forever.

i. We are in the intensified attack on the believing population.

4. The ascension and session begins a new sphere of the dispensation Israel; operation footstool. This was prophesied in Psalm 110:1. It was quoted in Luke 20:42,43; Acts 2:33,34; Hebrews 1:13. Operation footstool merely means that all of our Lord’s enemies, angelic and human, will be annihilated at the second advent.

5. The second advent of Christ will conclude operation footstool, according to Daniel 7:13,14; Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15; Revelation 20:1–3.

6. The ascension and session of Christ completes His glorification in hypostatic union. He is now in permanent hypostatic union as the God-Man — Acts 2:33; 5:31; Philippians 2:9; 1Peter 3:22.

7. The ascension and session explain the uniqueness of the Church Age — John 7:37–39.

8. The ascension and session is the key to the victory of the angelic conflict — Hebrews 1:4.

9. The ascension and session of Christ after resurrection make possible the second high-priestly function of Christ, namely making intercession for each one of us. Jesus Christ prays daily for every member of the royal family on earth. That means there is one person praying for you every day. He is in heaven, He is at the right hand of the Father — Hebrews 7:25.

Hebrews 8:1 — “Now the main point on what is being communicated is this: We have such a category of high priest who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The word “majesty” is a descriptive genitive of megalôsunê (μεγαλωσύνη) [pronounced mehg-al-oh-SOO-nay]. The word emphasizes the total glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ as high priest. He is the only high priest to function in a resurrection body forever.

Compare Our High Priest with the Levitical High Priest

1. The right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens places the Lord in a totally superior place for the function of His high priesthood. He is in contrast to the Levitical priesthood in this sense.

2. The Levitical priesthood: The high priest died and ceased to function as a high priest. Christ as our high priest died on the cross but continues to function in resurrection. The Levitical priesthood was composed of sinners who had to offer sacrifices for their own sins, they had to offer sacrifices for the sins of the people. Our high priest always was, always will be, totally impeccable.

3. The Levitical high priest operated on the earth, while our high priest operates in heaven.

4. The Levitical high priest operated under an inferior authorization from the Mosaic law. He was authorized to function under the Mosaic law, a covenant which has been nullified by the change in dispensation.

5. The Levitical high priest was neither a mediator nor a Savior. Jesus Christ is both a mediator and a Savior.

6. Furthermore, his ministry terminated with physical death in contrast to our Lord’s ministry which continues after death in resurrection and forever.

Hebrews 8:2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.

Verse 2 — Christ has the best temple. The word “minister” is not the usual word for minister which is diakonos (διάκονος) [pronounced dee-AK-on-os], used for the pastor of a church and sometimes for deacons. It means those who wait on tables. The word here is the word leitourgos (λειτουργός) [pronounced li-toorg-OSS]. This word was originally used in the Greek language before it came to the New Testament. It was used in a most disparaging, derogatory way. It was used to indicate a government official or one who holds a public office. It was used for a politician and there is nothing that has caused us more trouble than politicians. But in the ancient world the public officials had a great deal more respect than we are able to five to our politicians today. The word leitourgos (λειτουργός) [pronounced li-toorg-OSS] had a higher meaning in those days in that it connoted a government official who used his authority properly and served the people. He regarded himself as a servant of the people. It was also used when the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek — the LXX, the Septuagint. Leitourgos (λειτουργός) [pronounced li-toorg-OSS] was used for the Jewish high priest in the sense of his rulership of the nation. And it is used here in the same idea of the Lord Jesus Christ as our high priest ruling us. There are two concepts in our relationship with God. We are royal family. That means ruler. We are also priests, and that means function. Leitourgos (λειτουργός) [pronounced li-toorg-OSS] brings the two together, a ruler who is also a priest. It was used for the high priest in Israel and therefore it becomes a very significant word when used for the Lord Jesus Christ because it describes Him not as a high priest but as the royal high priest.

Bob sees no reason to use the word reverend except when speaking with a traffic officer.

So He is a minister of the “sanctuary”, the genitive plural of hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss], used for the parts of the tabernacle covered by the tent. The descriptive genitives set up a correlation to the parts of Israel’s tabernacle. The two areas in which the royal family is now located, heaven and earth, are analogous to the two parts of the Jewish tabernacle. They are generally called the holy place and the holy of holies. One is analogous to the believer on earth and the other to the believer in heaven. So it became a shadow pointing to the royal priesthood of our day. And who is the minister of this? The Lord Jesus Christ. He rules today through Bible doctrine. “A minister of the holy places” would be better than “the sanctuary.”

“and of the true tabernacle” — this is a descriptive genitive from skênê (σκηνή) [pronounced skay-NAY], which means tabernacle or tent. A tabernacle means a large tent. We also have a genitive of apposition, alêthinos (ἀληθινός) [pronounced al-ay-thee-NOSS], meaning the real one. Heaven is the real tabernacle, the genuine one. The tabernacle was a shadow pointing to reality. The reality is heaven itself. Jesus Christ is called “a minister of the holy places, and of the tabernacle, the real one”.

“which” — accusative feminine singular from the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. The antecedent is also in the feminine — skênê (σκηνή) [pronounced skay-NAY],.

“the Lord” — ho (ὁ) [pronounced ho] kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss], refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, and it refers to Him as the creator.

“pitched” is the aorist active indicative of pêgnumi (πήγνυμι) [pronounced PAYG-noo-mee]. The word is used in Isaiah 42:5 for the creative activity of God regarding the heavens and the earth. Here again we have a perfect illustration. Pêgnumi (πήγνυμι) [pronounced PAYG-noo-mee] meant to pitch a tent, but when they came to translating from the Hebrew to the Greek when they came to Isaiah 42:5 they used this Greek word. It also means to fix, to put together, or to build. It is a constative aorist and it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety — the action of creating the heavens. The creation of the heavens is gathered into a single whole. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb in creating the heavens — John 1:3; Hebrews 1:10; Colossians 1:16. The indicative mood is the reality and certainty of Christ as the creator, the builder of the true tabernacle, the alêthinos (ἀληθινός) [pronounced al-ay-thee-NOSS], the genuine tabernacle. Moses was the “contractor”, he had men working under him and they built the tabernacle according to the specifications in Exodus, but the Lord Jesus Christ built the genuine tabernacle in heaven.

Therefore we have the phrase, “and not man” — ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] anthrôpos (ἄνθρωπος) [pronounced ANTH-row-pos]. “Not man” refers to the tabernacle on earth constructed by man. Man had nothing to do with constructing heaven. That is a very significant point. There is no member of the human race who ever lifted a finger to build any part of heaven. Does that tell you something? The people who go to heaven never lifted a finger to be saved. The whole concept of grace is in view. All you have to do is to see the analogy. After all, we are members of a royal priesthood. Our high priest is in heaven and some day we are going to be in heaven, as royal priests, members of the royal family of God. And we are going to serve in heaven forever and ever and ever. So this is important. What did you ever do to construct heaven? What did you ever do to build up the billions and billions of light years of space? Nothing! What did you ever do for salvation? Nothing! What did you ever do to merit anything from God? Nothing! And you understand, therefore, that all of us are nothings made something by God’s grace. It was grace that caused a genuine tabernacle to be built, the whole construction of heaven. Christ did it, the same Jesus Christ who saved us, the same Jesus Christ who makes us members of the royal family forever, and we are in His priesthood forever.

When Bob used to teach Hebrews 8, he would cover it in an hour; he made hash out of it.

Bob had a beautiful lawn in Beverly Hills; what did he do to get it? Nothing. Just like we did nothing to build heaven. So many testimonies are bragamonies, because they think they did some of the work. Ministers are having breakthroughs all over the United States because they have listened to a tape by Bob.

We were designed to enjoy what is going on. We don’t need to take credit for it. Spiritual growth gives you the capacity to enjoy whatever God drops into your lap, RM/RW, a billion dollars, whatever.

The Tabernacle was designed to reveal grace. We cannot use legalism to gain God’s favor.

Hebrews 8:2 “A minister of the holy places, and of the tabernacle, the real one which the Lord put together, and not man.”

1972 Hebrews 8:3 Lesson #91

91 11/09/1973 Hebrews 8:3 Doctrine of the Tabernacle

All of the freedom that we have is based upon victory on the battlefield. Politicians make silly laws; the police and military preserve our freedom.

We must stop and at least get a thumbnail sketch of what the tabernacle is all about. This is merely a summary to teach certain principles related to the tabernacle.

The tabernacle was set up as the basic principle of worship in Israel

Doctrine of the Tabernacle

1. The tabernacle in general as a part of the ordinances or the spiritual code of the Mosaic law. The tabernacle is a picture of the incarnate person of Jesus Christ, the unique high priest, the unique Savior, the unique person. The tabernacle in scripture often speaks of the human body, as in 2Corinthians 5:1,4. It also speaks in terms of a representation of something, as in Hebrews 9:1–11. The tabernacle in Israel, according to Exodus 25:1–9, was specified as God’s dwelling place and the whole concept was the grace principle, God fellowshipping with men. The tabernacle represents the place where we meet the God of heaven. It is God fellowshipping with man and man fellowshipping with God on the basis of salvation. The tabernacle reminds us in a general way that nothing was made by guess or by the will of man or by the plan of man. It was strictly by divine design.

a. Many Christians lack common sense.

b. This is strictly a divine design thing.

c. Bible doctrine has nothing which is speculation or guesswork.

d. The Tabernacle is a picture of the believer in union with Christ. Today, every believer is a member of the royal family of God.

e. The specifications of the Tabernacle remind us that the plan of God is exact and it existed in eternity past. If God designed a plan for your life in eternity past, why get worried or upset about it. Life is unstable; but God can be trusted.

f. God has provided for us the assets of the soul, money, sex, friends, etc.

g. God knew your needs before you were born; and you have just discovered them recently.

2. In the 25th chapter of Exodus where the specifications are all given it is strictly what God says and there is no guess work. And so it is with Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine doesn’t put anything in the area of speculation of guess work, it is all laid out very perfectly for us under the principle of grace. God does the work, we stand by and enjoy the benefits.

3. he tabernacle is by way of application a picture of the believer in union with Christ. Remember that only a priest could enter the tabernacle. Today every believer is a priest, every believer is inside the tent. And while the Jews didn’t know it every time a Levitical priest went inside it was a shadow of things about to come, the universal priesthood of the royal family in the Church Age. The principle of the specifications of the tabernacle: Everything is given in great detail as a reminder also that God’s plan is unchanged. God’s plan for man has existed long before we existed. And God has a plan for your life, and that plan is older than you are. That plan means simply this. If God has a plan for your life, and if that plan is older than you are and existed long before you did, what are you worried about? God knew every problem you would ever have and God has made provision for it. The tabernacle represents the plan of God, the decree of God. And the principle of God’s plan is unchanged.

4. The tabernacle was divided into three parts. There was the outer court which represented the earth. Then there was the holy place and then the holy of holies. The holy place represents heaven as it relates to our experience, and the holy of holies represents the very presence of God, the very throne room of God. All of the articles of furniture have great significance.

5. The location of the tabernacle. It was located in the very centre of the camp. And that is important. All around the tabernacle we have tribes of Israel: three tribes to the north, three to the south, three tribes west and three east. That should be a reminder of something. All of us spend time on the outer periphery — north, south, east, or west. All spend time on the peripheral activities but the thing that is most important is Bible doctrine. That is the message of the location of the tabernacle. Your life is nothing without doctrine in the soul, and the fact that the tabernacle represents doctrine as the thinking of Christ, and the fact that it is located in the centre of the bivouac of Israel is extremely important. It is a reminder of the importance of Bible doctrine.

6. Exodus 25, one of several passage dealing with the specifications of the tabernacle, begins by specifying not the outer court as we would but it gives the specifications of the holy of holies. This is to remind us that salvation starts with God and not with man. The first specs that are given in Exodus 25 deal with the holy of holies which represents heaven and the presence of God, and all blessing comes from God, and God did the initiating in grace. The first thing to be described is the holy of holies because in grace God initiates everything. None of us were there; none of us helped.

7. The court is a picture of the earth. It was a perfect oblong, 100 cubits by 50 cubits. God specified exactly what it would be. If we reduce it to English measure it was 175 feet long, 87.5 feet wide, and 8 feet nine inches high. It was always that way and it never changed, a reminder of the fact that God never changes. That is why Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. In building the outer court there are 60 pillars of brass — not 59. The 60 pillars have to have 60 brass sockets — brass, not gold. There were 20 pillars on the north and on the south, ten on the east and on the west. All pillars were connected by the bar of silver. Hanging upon the pillars were 490 feet of fine twined line, colour white except the gate which was blue. There is always a right place to enter and the fact that you enter where it is blue is a reminder that there is only one way to be saved. There are many lessons which come out of this. For example, the brass sockets: the brass speaks of sin and its penalty. The brass pillar is the cross: Christ judged for our sins. The white linen is for the righteousness of Christ, and once you walk through the blue gate you’re behind the white linen which means imputation and justification. Throughout the tabernacle brass always represented judgement — Christ being judged for us, or our spiritual death. Silver always speaks of redemption. While linen speaks of the +R of God, His perfect righteousness. The gate is a reminder the Christ is the only way of salvation. It was 35 feet wide. It was specified — not 34 feet, not 32. God provides exact specifications for everything, including eternal salvation.

8. To go through the gate all you had to do was push on the blue, and there were three other colours that you passed by on the way in. The blue speaks of the deity of Christ. The next colour as you were going in was purple which speaks of the royalty of Christ, the Kingship of Christ. Then there was scarlet for redemption and then linen for the righteousness of Christ. And by the time they had passed through they didn’t know it but they were representing the fact that in this dispensation every believer is a member of the royal priesthood. There were four pillars on the gate and they, too, had significance. It is 35' wide, big enough for anyone to go through.

a. God is not impressed by anything that you do or say. Your testimony often means nothing to Him. God is as impressed with us as the biggest name in Christendom; whoever that is. And that is not at all.

b. We would not have the ability to believe without having a brain.

c. We learn words first; this comes from others, not from ourselves.

d. Your ability to believe is provided for you...your brain, the information, the revelation of the Spirit.

e. Multiple choice

9. Materials. These pillars were made of boards, acacia wood, and they were overlaid with gold. That is the order of most of the building materials. Nearly everything was made of acacia wood and that was the only wood used. It was then overlaid with gold. The boards were placed in sockets of silver and each socket weighed 125 lbs, two sockets per board. They were placed in the sockets by a tenon or a projection with fitted into the socket or the slot. In other words, everything had great significance. The entire foundation of the tabernacle weight six and a quarter tons. The thing that is important all the way through is that you constantly find wood overlaid with gold. The acacia wood speaks of the humanity of Christ, the gold speaks of the deity of Christ. And always, everywhere you turn in the tabernacle and see these materials you have something which represents the uniqueness of the person of Christ. They didn’t have the doctrine of the hypostatic union as we have it in the Bible and they couldn’t read it as we read it. They read it in all of these materials which were constructed. The roof was covered with four different types of covering. They had badger skin as an outer covering, ram skin dyed red, goat’s hair and fine linen. The goat’s hair was always the white hair of the goat. Everything was secured by tent pins and nails driven into the ground to which cords were attached, and so on.

a. The estimated cost, before inflation, was US$1,500,000 for the entire construction.

b. This is why God told Moses to have Israel ask for 400 years back-wages from Egypt, not so they could make golden calves but so they could construct this tabernacle.

10. The roof of the tabernacle. The badger skin which was the top one was a seal or a porpoise skin really, it wasn’t a badger skin at all. It was a very durable leather and it was also used by the Jews for shoes. It speaks of the humanity of Christ. The ram skin dyed red: the rams were sacrificed on the brazen altar and then they were dyed. This speaks of Christ dying for us. Then there was a curtain of goat’s hair. It was white, speaking of the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you have curtains of white linen speaking of the perfect humanity and impeccability of Christ.

11. The tabernacle had two altars.

a. The brazen altar was at the entrance of the first veil and the golden altar was at the entrance of the second veil. The golden altar speaks of prayer, but first of all we have the cross — no one prays until they are saved.

b. Both altars were in front of the veils and both altars signified entrance through that veil. The first veil represents salvation by faith in Christ, the second veil is the principle of intercession as a priestly ministry.

12. The laver. The laver stood between the altar and the actual entrance to the tabernacle. This was the place where the priests washed their hands. Every believer today is a priest and our brazen laver is the rebound technique. The brazen altar was made out of brass because Christ had to bear our sins before we could name our sins and be forgiven. And it doesn’t cost us a thing to rebound. All we do is name our sins and we are forgiven immediately because Christ was judged for every sin ever named in the rebound technique.

13. The table of showbread. This table was made of acacia wood and overlaid with gold. On top of it is what is called the showbread, one for each of the tribes minus Levi. The showbread is literally “the bread of the face” or “the bread of the presence”. The table itself speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. The loaves of bread represent the supergrace blessings that come from the intake of Bible doctrine. (Doctrine is often analogous to bread) The bread was made from fine flour without leaven. It was baked with a fire and frankincense. All of these things had meaning. The eating of the bread by the priest is a picture of GAPing it in this dispensation. Each loaf was placed under a crown, and that meant that the Lord Jesus Christ was the ruler of Israel.

14. The golden candlestick. The represents Christ the light of the world. It had seven lights. Seven is the number of perfection and also represents blessing. As we have occupation with the person of Christ we enter into the supergrace blessings. This was the only light in the holy place.

15. The oil in the lamp (fuel). This represented the ministry of God the Holy Spirit and the principle by which we become enlightened with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ.

16. The two veils. The first veil is the entrance to the holy place and the second veil is the entrance to the holy of holies. There is great detail as to how they were constructed. Each one of these veils was supported by five pillars — five is the number of grace. All entrance into relationship and blessing comes from the principle of grace. The colours of the veil: blue for deity, purple for the rulership of Christ, scarlet for salvation, the white linen refers to imputation and justification. The veils also had cherubs on them representing the essence box, and everything that is worthwhile is based upon divine essence.

a. The tearing of the veil or the splitting of the veil indicated the end of the significance of the holy of holies.

b. When Christ was bearing our sins, after it was over He said “Finished.” Then, of course, the veil was split.

17. The ark and the mercy seat. These represent propitiation and how God comes to love us without compromising His character.

Going back to verse 2 — the Lord Jesus Christ is said to be a minister of the holy places, “the sanctuary.” As a minister of the sanctuary He is in heaven at the right hand of the Father — “and of the tabernacle” which is in apposition — “the real tabernacle which the Lord put together, and not man.” He gave all the specifications, every detail was specified by the Lord just as with every detail of your life God has provided for it.

Hebrews 8:3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.

Verse 3 — the sacrifice. Christ is a better high priest because He offered a better sacrifice. This is the comparison between the person of Christ and the animals of the Levitical offerings.

The first word is “For.” This is a conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] used to express a continuation and a further explanation. In verse 1 Jesus Christ is a superior high priest because He is seated at the right hand of the Father. In verse 2 He is a superior high priest because he sits in the real tabernacle. And no one could enter the holy of holies in the tabernacle, only the high priest once a year on the day of atonement when he entered twice.

Now we move into the field of offerings, says gar, and once more we have the phrase “every high priest” — pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] archiereus (ἀρχιερεύς) [pronounced ar-khee-er-YUCE], which refers to the Levitical high priests who succeeded one another on the death of the previous high priest. The eldest surviving son who was a priest became the high priest. They also went through an ordination which is now mentioned: “is ordained” — present passive indicative of the verb kathistêmi (καθίστημι) [pronounced kath-IHS-tay-mee] which means to appoint or to ordain. The present tense is an iterative present which describes what occurred historically at successive intervals. The successive intervals means simply the death of the high priest. The first one was Aaron. When he died he was succeeded by his eldest surviving son, Eleazar. And so on down the line. So the present tense here represents successive intervals, this is the present tense of repeated action. No Levitical high priest could minister beyond his death. This in itself is a great contrast for the Lord Jesus Christ continued to minister after His death and resurrection. The passive voice: the Levitical high priest received appointment on the death of the previous high priest. The indicative mood is declarative describing an historical reality.

“to offer” — present active infinitive of the verb prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh] which means to offer animal sacrifices and refers specifically to Levitical offerings. This, however, is not iterative but a customary present which denotes that which habitually occurred historically. It represents a state or an act assumed to be true in the past, in the future, and in the present when so authorized. Hence, it was historically true throughout the age of Israel. The active voice: the Levitical high priest produced the action of the verb. The infinitive is an infinitive of purpose and it has with it a preposition which denotes purpose. The preposition is e)ij. It should be translated “For every [Levitical] high priest is appointed to offer.”

Now we have “both gifts and sacrifices — after eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] we have the word “gifts and sacrifices, ” both in the accusative: dôron (δρον) [pronounced DOH-ron] and thusia (θυσία) [pronounced thoo-SEE-ah]. Dôron (δρον) [pronounced DOH-ron] refers to the food offering; thusia (θυσία) [pronounced thoo-SEE-ah] refers to the animals sacrifices. Basically, this is simply a study of the Levitical offerings[1]. By way of summary: The burnt offering of Leviticus chapter one is propitiation with emphasis on the work of Christ; the food offering of Leviticus chapter two is propitiation with emphasis on the person of Christ; the peace offering of Leviticus chapter three is reconciliation or the removal of the barrier between God and man; the sin offering of Leviticus chapter four is rebound, with emphasis on the unknown sins; the trespass offering of Leviticus chapter five is rebound with emphasis on the known sins.

“wherefore” is an adverb — hothen (ὅ́θεν) [pronounced HOTH-ehn], which means “for which reason”; “of necessity” is “necessarily.” “Therefore, it is concluded necessary” would be the best way to translate it.

“That this Man”

1. This is an accusative masculine singular from the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. The demonstrative pronoun gives great emphasis and it should be translated “this one.” “Therefore it is concluded necessary that this one.”

2. The demonstrative pronoun refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as different, unique, and superior high priest.

3. The accusative is a part of the accusative of general reference. That means that somewhere there is an infinitive and the accusative acts as the subject of the infinitive, or better yet, it describes the person who enters into the action of the infinitive. The person is the Lord Jesus Christ.

4. In effect, the accusative becomes the subject of the infinitive which comes up next.

“that this one have” — present active infinitive of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh]. This one as a demonstrative pronoun refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. The present tense is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The infinitive is a result. There are three types of result expressed by an infinitive. The first of these is an actual result, the second is a conceived result, the third is an intended result. Here we have the actual result infinitive.

“somewhat” — tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] means “something”; “also have something to offer.” If high priests on special days like the Passover and like the Feast of the Atonement, and at other occasions, always had to offer special animal sacrifices and if Christ is superior to all those high priests then He has to offer a superior sacrifice. And He does. He offers Himself. Therefore He is superior by the very offering that He brings to the altar.

“to offer” is an incorrect translation. The nominative singular neuter of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] means “which”; plus the aorist active subjunctive. It should be translated “something which he might offer.” We have prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh] again, we have the constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The constative aorist takes up the last three hours of the cross when all of our sins were poured out upon Christ and judged. The active voice: Christ produced the action, He offered Himself for our sins. The subjunctive mood indicates the potentiality and so it should be translated “which he might offer”.

Hebrews 8:3 For every Levitical High Priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; therefore, it is concluded necessary that this one [that is, Jesus Christ] also have something that He might offer. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Jesus Superior to All High Priests

1. If Christ is a superior high priest to any high priest in the Levitical battalion He must have a superior sacrifice.

2. The implication demands a conclusion.

3. The conclusion is found in the efficacious sacrificial offering of Himself. Jesus Christ offered Himself in hypostatic union as the God-Man.

4. This anticipates Hebrews 9:11–14.

5. Every high priest before Christ dabbled in shadows but the shadows must be replaced by reality. Christ is the reality.

6. Animal sacrifices can only portray, they cannot be an efficacious sacrifice. No animal is an efficacious sacrifice, they can only teach, portray, represent the efficacious sacrifice. That is why the animals bled to death and why Christ did not bleed to death for our sins, He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.

7. Animal blood can illustrate but cannot atone for sin.

8. The reality of the cross is superior to all shadows of the cross.

9. Jesus Christ is infinitely a superior high priest, having offered a superior offering. He could offer no greater than Himself.

1972 Hebrews 8:4–5 Lesson #92

92 11/11/1973 Hebrews 8:4–5 Doctrine of shadows

Nov. 11, 1918 the Krauts gave up.

Readings from the green book. Stood against tremendous odds, killing 25 of the enemy, and apparently making it possible to take Hen Hill. I think this is on Okinawa?

The superiority of Jesus Christ as our High Priest is the general topic.

Hebrews 8:4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law.

Verse 4 — “For” is an affirmative particle and rarely used in this type of a situation: men. This particular particle is one of the commonest in the Attic Greek but it is used very rarely in the New Testament — a total of 182 times. It is generally translated “indeed.” But more than that, it simply says this. In the first three verses we have enough information or enough ammunition to recognize that Jesus Christ is totally superior to any high priest who ever lived or ever will live, that Jesus Christ is absolutely unique, that He is eternal God and has never changed and cannot change. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, to day and forever. He is also true humanity, perfect humanity, impeccable humanity, and as the God-Man He went to the cross and offered the perfect sacrifice, the only efficacious sacrifice where He bore our sins in His only body on the tree. In addition to all of this, anything that is now said is superfluous. But there is no such thing as a superfluous statement in the Word of God, it all has meaning and purpose and definition. If you have missed the superiority of our high priest in the first three verses you won’t miss in the next two. It all goes together to point out one factor: our objective in living on this earth is to reach the point of occupation with Christ, to reach the point at which these passages have real meaning and purpose and understanding in our lives. Too often we are distracted by other things. We are distracted from the Word of God. We spend our time, as it were, fighting apostasy, becoming involved, social action, getting involved in the devil’s program which is welfare, socialism, and communism; getting involved in things that are totally apart from our purpose in being alive. Each one of us has a soul, each soul has a potentiality of love, and the love of the Lord Jesus Christ who is unseen is the highest peak that the soul can reach. “For we look not at the things which are seen but the things which are unseen, for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are unseen are eternal.” And we have the privilege as a part of the supergrace life of being occupied with the person of Jesus Christ. And with this status in supergrace everything else in this life which is worthwhile, which is provided through grace, becomes wonderful and meaningful. All of that is tied up in this one particle.

“For if” — the condition particle e(i introduces a second class condition. The first two words, then, are translated “If indeed.” And since it is a second class condition — that means contrary to fact — we have to recognize that the full translation says “If indeed but it isn’t.”

“he were” is the imperfect active indicative of the verb eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], the absolute status quo verb. The imperfect tense is a part of the protasis of the second class condition or unreality. Ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] plus the imperfect is used to indicate a second class condition. This is also a customary imperfect which denotes what regularly occurs in past time. The active voice: Christ would produce the action of the verb but it isn’t so. The indicative mood is declarative.

Then we have with this, “on earth” — the preposition epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the genitive of gh which is the object of the preposition. It refers to the land or to the earth. Here it refers to the entire earth.

So far then we have, “If indeed he [Christ] were on the earth” — second class condition, but He isn’t. In other words, if He were functioning right now as a high priest on the earth there would be a serious problem now mentioned.

“he should not be” introduces the apodosis of the second class condition. And in introducing this we should notice several things. First of all, the Greek text includes a negative conjunction oude (οὐδέ) [pronounced oo-DEH] — “not even” instead of “not”. There is also a Greek particle which introduces the apodosis of the second class condition, and that is a)n. With this we have the imperfect active indicative of the verb eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. When you put all of this together it is translated in the English Bible “he should not be”, but it is literally “he would not even be a priest”. Why?

“seeing that there are” — present active indicative, again, of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] [third use of this verb in the sentence]. The present tense is a historical present. At the time of writing of this epistle, 67 AD, the Church Age had begun but the Levitical priesthood was still functioning in Jerusalem, specifically in the temple at Jerusalem which would be destroyed in three years. The Levitical priesthood was no longer authorized but would continue for another three years until Rome conquered Judea, followed by Jerusalem, followed by the temple. What this passage means, then, is that Christ would not be a Levitical priest of He were still on earth.

Actually, the writer is setting up a contrast between the function of the Levitical priesthood in the temple and the function of the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father. The active voice of this verb indicates that the Levitical priesthood produces the action of the verb by illegally functioning on the earth, while Christ legally functions in heaven. The participle is a temporal participle and therefore it should be translated “while there are priests who keep on offering on the earth”. In other words, as long as the Levitical priests are functioning in the temple this is illegal.

Christ at the right hand of the Father is the legitimate high priest. And when the Lord Jesus Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father, after His resurrection and ascension, this interrupted the Age of Israel. Why? Because there was a new high priest, a legitimate high priest. He is a King priest. The Levitical priests were not related to royalty in any way. The royal family in Israel is the tribe of Judah, the family of David. The Levitical priests and the high priest are from the tribe of Levi and the family of Aaron, the brother of Moses. Therefore, once Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father we find the Levitical priesthood continuing to function and into the Church Age. The writer of Hebrews is writing in 67 AD and for 37 years now this has been going on and it is about to end. And he is pointing out why. This priesthood cannot continue, it is an illegitimate priesthood, it is not recognized by God, it no longer has a function, there is a new dispensation. The new dispensation demands a new priesthood. As a matter of fact it is very interesting to note that even in Jerusalem during that period of forty years you have many believers in Jesus Christ, and all of those believers were members of the royal family of God and were also of the royal priesthood. And they were functioning legitimately in Jerusalem while the Levitical priesthood was functioning in an illegitimate manner. There cannot be two priesthoods authorized by God functioning at the same time on the earth.

So we read, “If indeed [Christ] were on the earth [but He isn’t] he would not even be” — The word “priest” is not found in the original — “one of those who keep offering”.

“offering” — the present tense of prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh] which means to function at a legitimate altar, and not only to function at the altar but to offer sacrifices portraying Christ. The present tense is retroactive progressive for something begun in the past but continuing throughout the dispensation of Israel by the Levitical priesthood. The active voice: the Levitical priesthood produces the action of the verb. This is a circumstantial participle, it is in the genitive case, the descriptive genitive.

Literally, “If indeed he were on the earth [but he isn’t], he would not even be a priest [of the Levitical order] whole there are ones offering the Levitical gifts according to the law.” The Levitical gifts refer to the sacrifices of the temple ritual.

“according to the law” is very important because this prepositional phrase tells us the authorization for the Levitical priesthood, an authorizing agent which was strong enough to keep the Levitical priesthood functioning for over four hundred years. We have katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss] for the Mosaic law.

The Levitical Priesthood has been Revoked

1. The interruption of the Jewish dispensation has nullified the Levitical priesthood. Therefore it has set aside the Mosaic law as an authorizing agency.

2. However, the Levitical priesthood, no longer authorized, continued to function in Jerusalem leading astray many reversionistic believers — Hebrews 5:11–6:6.

3. Two points of superiority are not in this context. First, Christ functions in heaven in contrast to the Levitical priesthood on the earth. Heaven is infinitely superior to the earth. Second, Christ functions under the authorizing agency of the eternal decrees which cannot be revoked.

4. The Levitical priesthood, on the other hand, functions under the authorizing agency of the Mosaic law which has been abrogated or annulled.

5. The interruption of the Jewish dispensation countermands the Mosaic law as an authorizing agency.

6. The annulment of the Mosaic law rescinds the Levitical priesthood.

7. Therefore, Christ functions legitimately in heaven under the authorizing agency of the eternal decrees, while the Levitical priesthood functions illegitimately on the earth under an abrogated law.

8. A revoked priesthood is inferior to an established priesthood. Therefore, once again, the superiority of Jesus Christ as high priest.

Now the issue reaches its peak on verse 5 where we have the superiority of the reality over the shadows. The Levitical priests were functioning in the Church Age illegitimately. But what is even worse, they were dealing with shadows after the reality had come. The reality is Jesus Christ, born of a virgin, going to the cross in status impeccability, bearing our sins in His own body on the tree, taking our place, being resurrected, ascended, being seated at the right hand of the Father. This is the reality. Every portion of the tabernacle, and later on the temple, spoke of this particular reality. The reality has occurred, the Levitical priests are still functioning under shadows. This demonstrates the blindness of the blackout of the soul and the terrible distortions that come to those who suffer from scar tissue of the soul. Blackout of the soul and scar tissue of the soul are the fourth and fifth stages of reversionism, and therefore the Levitical priesthood were practicing reverse process reversionism. They were dealing with shadows when the reality was here. They were functioning as priests when they were no longer authorized, except by regeneration.

Hebrews 8:5 They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, "See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain."

Verse 5 — “Who” is a nominative plural of the qualitative relative pronoun Hostis (ὅστις) [pronounced HOH-stihs], and it refers to a category here — “Who are such a category as to perform worship service”.

“serve” — present active indicative of latreuô (λατρεύω) [pronounced lat-RYOO-oh], which means to perform worship service. The present tense is a customary present which denotes that which habitually occurs in worship function of the Levitical priesthood. They were actually using animal sacrifices, they were actually wearing a certain type of uniform, they were actually standing before a certain type of altar, and all of these things are shadows pointing to the reality. But the reality has come. They are still dealing with shadows even though there is now reality. The active voice: the Levitical priesthood produces the action of the verb, namely the performance of worship functions with shadows. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative which represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

”unto the example” means “as a model.” This is the dative singular from hupodeigma (ὑπόδειγμα) [pronounced hoop-OD-igue-mah] which means a model or a pattern. The dative is dative of indirect object which indicates the one in whose interest the action of the verb is performed. In other words, it was in the interests of the Levitical priesthood and it was in the interests of Israel for the Levitical priesthood to continue in their own dispensation. This is the way in which doctrine was communicated to the people. Everything connected with the superiority of the person of Christ, everything related to the Saviorhood of Christ, everything related to the new covenant and how Christ would fulfil it to Israel; all of these things were specified in the function of the Levitical priesthood. Therefore it became a model, and the indirect object indicates that it was in the interests of Israel to know these things, it was in the interests of the Levitical priesthood to function in this way.

Next we have the words “and shadow.” This is also a dative singular from the noun skia (σκία) [pronounced SKEE-ah], one of the many words in the Greek for shadow. It means a shadow in contrast to reality. We have both the dative of indirect object and the dative of advantage in the use of this word, this noun grammatically. The dative of indirect object indicates, again, the one in whose interest the action of the verb is performed. And, again, it is in the interest of the Levitical priesthood and of Israel in their own dispensation to understand doctrine through the shadows, through the performance of these activities. These activities were not the reality but they portrayed the reality before it occurred historically. In other words, until Christ went to the cross. The Levitical sacrifices were a copy or a pattern or an example of doctrine in the field of soteriology and Christology before they occurred. It was to the advantage of Israel to have this copy, this was the way they learned the pertinent doctrine. As a matter of fact no Jew could be occupied with the person of Christ until he understood the ritual activity which was performed by the Levitical priesthood. Even David himself learned a great deal of doctrine in the field of Christology by watching the function of the Levitical priesthood. This is why David always had a very wonderful relationship with the priesthood and with the tabernacle simply because he came to the place of occupation with Christ through the constant observance of ritual. Ritual was a teaching aid in the Old Testament; ritual is not a teaching aid today. The only teaching we have through ritual today is one factor alone, the communion table, the communion which commemorates the person of Christ. But ritual today depends upon doctrine already in the soul.

“of heavenly things” — this is a descriptive genitive plural from the noun epouranios (ἐπουράνιος) [pronounced ep-oo-RAN-ee-oss] which plus the definite article should be translated “of the heavenly things.” Notice again that here is the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ who ministered in heavenly things, while the Levitical priesthood only ministered in copies and shadows of heavenly things. Therefore, we have the superiority of the reality over the shadows, the superiority of the heavenly over the earthly. The rest of this verses indicates that Moses received His instructions for the tabernacle, for the Levitical priesthood, and so on, from God the Father who was in heaven.

The Doctrine of Shadows

1. Shadows were used for hospitality in the Old Testament — the shadow of a tree. People in the ancient world would often sit under the shadow of a home or the shadow of a wall of a home and the people who owned the home would invite them in. This was the concept of hospitality and is taught in Genesis 19:8. It indicates the principle of love, the relaxed mental attitude, the spiritual growth of the soul that extends hospitality to a stranger.

2. Shadows are used for life in contrast to eternity — 1Chronicles 29:15; Job 8:9. In other words, the shadow of this life is nothing compared to the reality of eternity for the believer. If life can be so wonderful and still be a shadow, how fantastically glorious eternity must be, and it is something that all of us contemplate with great anticipation. For physical death means absent from the body, face to face with the Lord. It means no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain, no more death, the old things have passed away. It means having an incorruptible inheritance from God Himself. And all these things cannot be explained except in terms of shadows. Life at its best is a shadow; eternity at its worst for the believer is a reality of great blessing and happiness.

3. Shadows are also used, then, for dying grace. One of the greatest blessings that comes to the believer in this life is the experience of dying grace — Psalm 23:4. Death is a shadow to the believer in dying grace. He knows where he is going, he knows where he has been. No matter how great the pain, how prolonged the dying, he is in the valley of the shadow of death, and therefore the dying does not have that disastrous reality that it portrays for the unbeliever or for the reversionistic believer minus Bible doctrine. So the shadow portrays the principle of dying grace.

4. The shadow is used for protection from the source God. All of us face known and unknown dangers in our lifetime. Life is filled with many dangers for the believer because once you accept Christ as your Savior you enter into the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. There are many invisible and unseen dangers in your life, there are many pressures which the unbeliever does not have. There are many pressures of this life which belong to the human race in common but the shadow of God protects from all — Psalm 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 63:7; 91:1. This was David’s wonderful testimony of how God cast His shadow over him in all circumstances of life. David had that supergrace confidence that the Lord was protecting him.

5. The shadow is also used in a contrasting thought. The shadow is used in the Bible for empty, superficial, and disastrous type living — Psalm 144:4; Ecclesiastes 8:13; 6:12. Cacophonous concept of an idiot = music today

6. The shadow is used for the love protection of right man over right woman. The right woman always is protected by the one she loves, even when he is absent — Song of Solomon 2:3.

a. I was about to call you a dumb butt, but that is ot the sort of thing to say on a Sunday morning.

b. Being an older woman with a young man like the Graduate makes a woman a dumb butt. You should be protected by your RM’s shadow, even if he has died.

c. The Duchess of Marborough was better looking at 60 and there was always some fop on the make. She had many offers of many kinds; and she always turned them down in the most beautiful way. “You will never compare to the Duke,” she would say. John Marborough was the great, great grandfather of Winston Churchill.

d. A young girl avoids all of that fornication by having a RM. SoS 2:3

e. Love in memory is a great thing; and it protects from the many disasters of life.

7. The shadow is used for instability — James 1:17. In other words, the instability concept is that a shadow keeps moving. The instability factor comes from the fact that a shadow may be in one spot one moment and it is in another spot the next. So the shadow for instability often portrays the fluffy-headed female who can’t make up her mind about which one she loves.

8. The shadow is also used for bad foreign policy — Isaiah 30:2,3.

a. FDR giving a third of the world to communism; and he gave weapons over to the Russians.

b. Russian submarines go around the United States from their base in Cuba.

c. John Birch killed by the Chinese communists. They knew the Truman was a weak sister. They went into Cuba because they knew that Kennedy was a weak sister.

9. The shadow is used for pressure destroying the normal functions of life, as in Job 17:7; Psalm 102:11; 109:23.

10. The shadow is used for the ritual of the Old Testament, a ritual which was meaningful at the time. The people of the Old Testament learned much of their doctrine through the observation of ritual. Therefore, the Levitical priesthood functioned in ritual to teach doctrine. So the shadow is used for the ritual of the Old Testament which has no function or substance in our dispensation, the Church Age — Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 8:5; 10:1.

Now we come in the middle of our verse to an adverb, the word “as” — kathôs (καθώς) [pronounced kahth-OCE], “as” or literally, “since.” Used in its causal sense it means “since.”

“Moses was admonished” — perfect passive indicative of chrêmatizô (χρηματίζω) [pronounced khray-mat-IHD-zo]. In the active voice this verb means to impart revelation or a warning. In the passive voice it means to be revealed or to receive instruction. Here it should be translated “since Moses had received divine instruction.” Moses is the human writer of the first five books of the Bible, the writer of the Mosaic law which is the authorizing agent for the Levitical priesthood. Moses received his instructions from heaven where the Lord now ministers as a royal high priest. The Levitical priesthood ministers in the pattern or the copy, while Christ ministers with the reality. The Levitical priesthood in the past ministered on earth while Christ ministers in heaven. The perfect tense of this verb is intensive. The intensive perfect indicates the completion of the action in the past with results continuing. The existing results indicate the superiority of the Lord Jesus Christ as our high priest. The passive voice: Moses received divine instruction, therefore setting up the principle of an inferior authorizing agent. Moses is inferior to God. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative stating an absolute and unqualified principle of doctrine.

“of God” — not found in the original. Furthermore, it is unnecessary since chrêmatizô (χρηματίζω) [pronounced khray-mat-IHD-zo] in the passive means to receive divine instruction.

“when he was about” — present active indicative of the verb mellô (μέλλω) [pronounced MEHL-low], which means to be about to do something. The present tense is aoristic present which refers to punctiliar action in present time. The aorist itself indicates punctiliar action in the past time, here we have present time. The active voice: Moses produced the action of the verb. The participle is temporal and is therefore preceded by “when.”

“to make” — the present active infinitive of epiteleô (ἐπιτελέω) [pronounced ep-ee-tel-EH-oh] which means to complete something through construction. The present tense is a futuristic present, it denotes an action or event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that it will occur in the future. It may be contemplated as already coming to pass because it is so certain. Moses, when he received the instructions, had not constructed but he definitely did so at a later time. The active voice indicates that Moses is the contractor. The infinitive denotes God’s purpose in appointing Moses the contractor with specific instructions. The word for “tabernacle”, skênê (σκηνή) [pronounced skay-NAY], means a large tent — literally, “when he was about to construct the tabernacle.”

At this point we have documentation of this. A second sentence is added in this verse. The documentation is a quotation from Exodus 25:40.

We begin with the explanatory use of the conjunction gar, which means “for”.

“for he says” — the word for “says” is a different one, it is a present active indicative of phêmi (φημί) [pronounced fay-MEE]. We are accustomed to seeing légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] but it is not used in this passage. Phêmi (φημί) [pronounced fay-MEE] is in the aoristic present for punctiliar action at that time. The active voice: God the Son who talked with Moses produced the action of the verb. Jesus as God is infinitely superior to Moses, He gave him instructions for the tabernacle which would portray Him. So we have again the superiority of Jesus Christ as high priest. He gave Moses a copy of the very area where the Levitical priesthood functioned. The indicative mood is used for the reality of a quotation which is used to prove a point or principle and to establish what has already been said, therefore phêmi (φημί) [pronounced fay-MEE].

The quotation begins with the word “See” — the present active imperative of horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] means to understand or perceive. Blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh] also means to see, it means to see with the eye. We are not to see this with the eyes, we are to see this with the mind or to understand it. So the aorist active indicative of horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] means to understand with the mind, to perceive, to take note of. The present tense is tendential present, it is used for an action which is purposed or about to take place — you are about to understand this. The active voice: Moses is commanded to produce the action of the verb. The imperative mood indicates a command: “be taking note”.

The next phrase should be translated “thou shalt make,” the future active indicative of poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh]. The future tense here is an imperative future, it is a command. The active voice indicates that Moses is the contractor and he must produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is called a cohortative indicative, it is used to express a command in the future tense.

“all things” — refer to three chapters which are found in the Bible: Exodus chapters 25–27.

“according to the pattern” — katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of tupos (τύπος) [pronounced TOO-poss] which means “blueprint.” The word “shewed”, the aorist passive participle of deiknumi means “having been explained.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one ball of wax the entire specifications of the tabernacle. The passive voice: Moses as the contractor received an explanation and he received it from Christ. The participle is circumstantial, and it is antecedent to the main verb, “be taking note” or “learn”.

“to you” — dative of indirect object. It was to Moses’ advantage to understand exact specifications.

“in the mount” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of oros (ὄρος, ους, τό) [pronounced OH-ross] means “on the mountain”. The mountain refers to Mount Sinai.

Hebrews 8:4–5 “Who [Levitical priesthood] perform worship services as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, since Moses had received divine instruction when he was about to construct the tabernacle: for he communicates, Be taking note, you shall make all things according to the blueprint having been explained to you on the mountain.” (Exodus 25:40) R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. This verse is a contrast between the copy and the original, between the shadow and the reality, between earth and heaven.

2. In each contrast Christ as our high priest is superior.

3. Christ is the original and the reality now ministering for us in heaven.

4. Furthermore, Christ provided the doctrinal information and authorizing information for Moses.

5. Once again, Christ is infinitely superior as a high priest to any aspect of the Levitical priesthood.

6. A similar contrast has been previously studied in Hebrews 3:1–6.

Why is this information given to us. Not only to avoid the problems of legalism in Judaism, not only to avoid all of the problems that are connected with us as believers when we face false teaching, but to give us what many do not have and that is sound common sense with regard to religion. Religion comes in many forms. Many of you are in love with some form of ritual. You are a sucker; you’re a fool. Nothing more authorized than the Communion table.

Many of you have trouble dealing with the cults. The idiots who won’t go to the doctor when they have a serious illness; or they are involved with divine healers. Bob would die of chagrin if anyone from Berachah went out to see that idiot in an Indian costume in the Astrodome.

Don’t argue with these people. That’s wrong. No member of the human race can bring in the Millennium. Do we run around and argue these people away from this or that?

1972 Hebrews 8:6 Lesson #93

93 11/11/1973 Hebrews 8:6 Doctrine of mediatorship

What We Have Studied

1. The importance of the Angelic Conflict and why man was created. Hebrews 1–2

2. The importance of Bible doctrine in the life of each believer. Hebrews 3–4

3. The doctrine of reversionism and why believers go astray but do not lose their salvation. Hebrews 5–6

4. The significance of our life as a believer on this earth. Every believer is a royal priest; a member of the royal family of God forever. In the kingdom of priests, Jesus Christ Himself is our High Priest. Hebrews 7

5. The Superiority of Jesus as the High Priest. Hebrews 8

Hebrews 8:6 But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.

Verse 6 — the better ministry of Christ our high priest. We begin with the word “But” which is a conjunctive particle de. As go the particles so goes the change of argument, the development of conclusions, the categorical principles of doctrine which are found throughout the Word of God. Here we have the conjunctive particle used to emphasize a contrast between shadows and reality.

“now” — the adverb nun, used to indicate the dispensation of the Church in contrast to the dispensation of Israel. This adverb is used to indicate that there is an interruption in the Age of Israel, that the Levitical priesthood no longer functions. The Levitical priesthood was based upon human birth but our universal priesthood of the believer is based upon regeneration. We have a universal priesthood and this means that every believer is in full time Christian service. This means that God has a purpose for your life and this means that no matter what you do in life you are in full time Christian service. Therefore, as per Colossians 3:15,16 you do your job as unto the Lord.

The interruption of the Age of Israel deactivates the priesthood which dealt with the copy and not the original, which dealt with shadows and not reality, which dealt with function on earth but never function in heaven.

“he hath obtained” — the perfect active indicative of the verb tugchánô (τυγχάνω) [pronounced toog-KHAHN-oh]. The imperfect tense is the intensive perfect, it indicates a completed action with emphasis on existing results. When special attention is directed to the results of the action stress upon the existing fact is intensified, and here we have the intensification of the superiority of our Lord Jesus Christ as the high priest forever.

The active voice: Jesus Christ as the high priest produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for unqualified and dogmatic assertion of doctrine. “a more excellent ministry” — two words in the Greek are used for the phrase. Both of them are in the genitive case. The first one is a genitive singular comparative from diaphoros (διάφορος) [pronounced dee-AF-or-oss] which means more outstanding or more excellent. With this we have a genitive singular from the noun leitourgia (λειτουργία) [pronounced li-toorg-EE-ah] which means a priestly service or a priestly ministry. He has and always will possess a more excellent or more outstanding priestly ministry. Both of these genitives are possessive in that Christ possesses these characteristics forever. He has a more outstanding public ministry, a more outstanding priestly service over anyone who ever existed in the Levitical order. These are also objective genitives to complete that part of the sentence.

“by how much” — an instrumental singular neuter of a correlative relative pronoun, which always indicates something existing categorically, hosos (ὅσος) [pronounced HOS-os]. There are three ways in which this word is used in the Greek. It is used first for space and time, and when it is so used it is translated “as long as.” It is also used for a quantity or a number, and is translated “as many as”. It is used for measure and degree, and translated “as mush as”. Here it is translated “by as much as”; “also” is a adjunctive use of kai — “by as much as also.”

“he is” — present active indicative of the verb eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], the absolute status quo verb — “he keeps on being.” This is a static present which means He always will be, there never will be an exception to this. The active voice: Christ produces the action of the verb as the superior high priest, the unique high priest. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic assertion of doctrine.

“the mediator” — this is a predicate nominative from the noun mesítês (μεσίτης) [pronounced meh-SEE-tays]. This could be translated “mediator”, also it could be translated “referee.” Here it means mediator.

“of a better covenant” — two word are involved in the phrase “better covenant” in the Greek. The first is a genitive singular from kreittôn (κρείττων) [pronounced KRITE-tohn], and it is the comparative of agathos (ἀγαθός) [pronounced ag-ath-OSS], and is therefore correctly translated “better”. And with this we have the genitive singular of the noun diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay] which can be translated “testament” but is correctly translated “covenant.” Diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay] equivalent to the Hebrew berith, and therefore it should be translated here “covenant” rather than “testament. The noun berith indicates what God decrees and the regulations which are based upon divine decrees. The better covenant refers here to the new covenant to Israel which is found in Jeremiah 31:31–34. The old covenant in Israel was the Mosaic law; the Mosaic law authorized the Levitical priesthood. The old covenant was temporal and conditional. The new covenant or better covenant is permanent and eternal. Each priesthood is authorized by a covenant. The Levitical priesthood was authorized by the Mosaic law, the Mosaic covenant. The royal priesthood is authorized by the new covenant to the Church.

Hebrews 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent priestly ministry by so much as He keeps on being the Mediator of a better covenant...

The Doctrine of Mediatorship

1. The earliest and most basic concept of mediatorship is found in Job 9:2,32,33. The word “daysman” in Job is the hiphil participle of jackach, and this word in the hiphil [being causative active] means to arbitrate. In the participial form it means an arbitrator. The arbitrator, by the way, is a technical word in the participial form and it means someone who can lay his hands on both. The original form, mokiach, means someone who reaches out and puts his hands on both. This technically means someone who is equal with both parties in the mediation, and this is the problem that Job states — party of the first part, God; party of the second part, man. Obviously, then, this sets up the hypostatic union for Jesus Christ is truly man and He is God, and therefore He is qualified as the only mediator.

2. A mediator removes disagreement or estrangement between two parties and brings them to a common goal. A mediator interposes between two parties as equal or the friend of each. By so doing reconciliation is effected. Mediatorship results in reconciliation of God and Man. The Father is propitiated by the mediator; man is reconciled on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

a. The barrier is made up of sin. All have sinned and come short of the character of God. Solution: redemption and unlimited atonement.

b. The barrier is made up of the penalty of sin. The wages of sin is death. The penalty was paid; so that problem is removed.

c. We are born physically alive but spiritually dead. The problem of physical birth is solved by regeneration.

d. The problem is that we have relative righteousness and God requires absolute righteousness. God is +R, man is –R; +R cannot have fellowship with –R. Solved by the imputation of divine righteousness + justification.

e. God has perfect character and cannot have fellowship with a sinner. The problem of the character of God solved by propitiation.

f. Position in Adam; in Adam all die. Position in Adam replaced by position in Christ.

g. Jesus Christ, on the cross, solved every problem.

3. Jesus Christ must be equal to both parties in order to act as mediator. God is propitiated; and man is reconciled by the work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Hebrews 9:27–28

4. The mechanics of mediatorship are found in 1Timothy 2:5,6. The two parties, God and man; one God in essence. 3 Persons with this exact essence. A barrier between God and man.

5. Relationship to the Mosaic law. The relationship between mediatorship and the Mosaic law is discussed in Galatians 3:19,20. The Mosaic law served as a temporary measure until Christ could become incarnate. Jesus Christ had to become man, and as the God-Man in hypostatic union He went to the cross and took our place and bore our sins. The Mosaic law was merely a temporary measure until the mediator became incarnate. In the meantime the Mosaic law under the supervision of the mediator was taught by angels to Israel.

6. The identification of the mediator of the new covenant — Hebrews 9:15,16. Christ is identified as the mediator. His mediation was accomplished through His work on the cross.

7. We have relationship of the blood to the mediator in Hebrews 12:24. The blood of animal sacrifices were shadows portraying the work of Christ in bearing our sins and providing reconciliation between man and God.

8. Obviously, therefore, a conclusion is called for and the conclusion is found in our passage, Hebrews 8:6. Christ our high priest is the mediator of a better covenant which deals with realities rather than shadows. The shadow covenant anticipated the coming of Jesus Christ but the new covenant is the coming of Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins as an efficacious sacrifice. In other words, He fulfilled His own priestly ministry.

Hebrews 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent priestly ministry by so much as He keeps on being the Mediator of a better covenant...

The word “which” is a nominative feminine singular from the categorical qualitative relative pronoun hostis (ὅστις) [pronounced HOH-stihs] which means “which category of”.

“was established” — the perfect passive indicative of nomotheteô (νομοθετέω) [pronounced nom-ohth-eht-EH-oh], which means to be legally enacted, to be established by law, to be legislated, to be ordained. While “legally enacted” is closest to the etymology God produces the action here, and in keeping with the consistency of the theological concepts it should be translated “ordained”. The intensive perfect means that the action is completed and emphasizes existing results. When special attention is directed to the results of the action stress upon the existing fact is intensified by the perfect tense. The passive voice: the better covenant receives the action here by enactment of better promises. For example, we are under a better covenant and therefore we have better promises. Our better promises are all designed to take us from phase one, the point of salvation, all of the way to the supergrace life. And we do this by GAP, by the intake of doctrine daily. Through the ministry of the Spirit and the teaching of the Word of God we can reach the supergrace life characterized by occupation with the person of Christ, characterized by supergrace capacity — that is the cup in the soul — followed by supergrace blessings. So we have better promises based upon a better covenant. The same thing is true for Israel in the future.

“upon better promises”, a prepositional phrase — epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative of the comparative adjective kreittôn (κρείττων) [pronounced KRITE-tohn], plus the word for promises, epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah] — “on the basis of better promises. But epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah] means promises of blessing, never of cursing. For example, the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ was designed by God to remain on this earth in order to reach the supergrace status. He has better promises. He has promises of material prosperity, of promotion, promises related to sharing the happiness of God. We have a better covenant; we have better promises. The life of each believer has meaning and purpose and definition because we are born members of the royal family of God.

There is no such thing as a layman.

Hebrews 8:6 “But now He has obtained a more excellent priestly ministry, by so much as He also is the mediator of a better covenant, which category of covenant has been ordained on the basis of better promises of blessing.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary of Hebrews 8:6

1. The better promises are related to the royal priesthood and the royal family. We have blessings for time, we have blessings for eternity.

2. The purpose of Hebrews is to bring the royal priest through the normal function of his priesthood to entrance into the supergrace life.

3. We have in verse 6 the argument for reaching the goal of supergrace. It is very difficult in these days of apostasy for people to understand the objective stated in the New Testament scriptures. The objective is based upon attitude toward doctrine. The objective of doctrine is to bring the believer into the supergrace status, the only place that he in his priesthood can glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.

4. The believer must understand that this is the dispensation of reality in contrast to the dispensation of shadows. The Age of Israel was and age of shadows. In the Age of Israel they had special days. In Romans chapter 14 we regard every day alike and we live one day at a time. They had to have a tabernacle and a temple as their sanctuary; our sanctuary is the body of every believer which is the temple or the sanctuary of the Holy Spirit. They had to portray heaven with earthly things, we portray earthly things with heavenly doctrine through the Word of God.

The launching pad is bringing every thought into captivity for Christ. The objective of the supergrace life is attained by the intake of Bible doctrine. Negative volition to doctrine takes us into divine discipline.

The frantic search for happiness can either be towards lasciviousness or asceticism. They intensify the reactor factors.

Dispensation of reality versus dispensation of shadows. They had special days; we live every day alike. They portrayed heavenly things with earthly shadows.

1972 Hebrews 8:7–8a Lesson #94

94 11/12/1973 Hebrews 8:7–8a Doctrines of the Mosaic Law, New Covenant to Israel, New Covenant to the Church

Politicians destroy freedom; soldiers gain it.

Hebrews 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

Verse 7 — the word “For” is a conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] and it is used to express inference.

“For if the first” — the word “if” is a conditional particle, it introduces the protasis of a second class condition — if, and it is not true. Conditional clauses are very important in the interpretation of the

New Testament. The Greek first class condition; if and it is true — “If thou be the Son of God [and you are].” The second class condition: if and it is not true — “If you will fall down and worship me [but you won’t].” The third class condition has possibilities and it is still open to volition: “If we confess our sins [maybe we will and maybe we won’t]”. The fourth class condition: “If, [ wish it were true but it isn’t] — Peter uses this: “If you are suffering for righteousness sake [I wish you were but definitely you are not].

Now we have a second class condition — “If that first”. The word here for “first”, prôtos (πρτος) [pronounced PROHT-oss] indicates the Mosaic law as the authorizing agent for the Levitical priesthood during the dispensation of Israel. “For if that first had been faultless [but it was not].”

The Doctrine of the Mosaic Law (review)

1. The Mosaic law is divided into three parts.

a. The first section, Codex #1, is the moral code. It includes the decalogue which relates morality to freedom and makes it possible for us to understand the true concept of freedom. The ten commandments are not trying to define morality or even to define sin as such — for that would be very limited — but they are the clearest and best and foremost delineation of what freedom really is and how it relates to various aspects of life. In addition to the ten commandments we have hundreds of others which form the moral code. The moral code indicates the basis for the function of the laws of divine establishment. Codex #1 defines morality in terms of not only absence of sin but in terms of patriotism, loyalty, capacity for love, relationships in life, and so on.

b. The second part of the Mosaic law, Codex #2, is the spiritual code. This is called in the scripture, the ordinances. It is a complete Christology designed to present Jesus Christ as the only Savior. The presentation of the Lord Jesus Christ through the tabernacle is one of the many areas of Codex #2. In addition, Codex #2 has a complete list of holy days, including the Passover, Firstfruits, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles. All of these portray some aspect of the Person of Christ. In addition, Codex #2 portrays the Levitical offerings, the modus operandi of the Levitical priesthood. And again, basically speaking, all Bible doctrine in the Old Testament was portrayed through ritual as well as through the written page and its communication.

c. Codex #3 is the social code known in the scripture as the judgements. It presents the laws of divine establishment which are designed for the freedom, the privacy, and the continuation of the human race in the angelic conflict. It includes the function of the divine institutions plus diet, sanitation, quarantine, soil conservation, taxation, military service, and so on.

2. The recipients of the Mosaic law. The Mosaic law has various names. It is called the covenant, the first covenant, the covenant to Israel, the law, and so on.

a. It is therefore specifically given to Israel, not to the Church — Exodus 19:3; Leviticus 26:46; Romans 3:19; 9:4.

b. It is not given to the Gentiles — Deuteronomy 4:8; Romans 2:12, 14.

c. It is not given to the Christians, they are not under the law — Acts 15:5, 24; Romans 6:14; Galatians 2:19.

3. Christ fulfilled the law — Matthew 5:17. He fulfilled Codex #1 by living a perfect life on earth during the incarnation. Impeccability fulfils Codex #1. Codex #2 was fulfilled by His death on the cross. Codex #3 was fulfilled by both the patriotism of our Lord plus His observation of the laws of divine establishment, as per Matthew 22:21.

4. Christ is therefore the end of the law for the royal family of the Church Age — Romans 10:4.

5. Believers in the Church Age are under the higher law of spirituality, the law of the filling of the Spirit — Romans 8:2–4; Galatians 5:18, 22,23; 1Corinthians chapter 13.

6. The limitations of the Mosaic law. There are four specified. a) The Mosaic law cannot justify — Galatians 2:16; Romans 3:20, 28; Acts 13:39; Philippians 3:9. b) The Mosaic law cannot give life — Galatians 3:21. c) The Mosaic law cannot provide the Holy Spirit — Galatians 3:2. d) The Mosaic law cannot solve the problems of the old sin nature — Romans 8:3. The Mosaic law can reveal the existence of the old sin nature, as per the tenth commandment, but it cannot solve any problem regarding it.

7. The present purpose of the Mosaic law. The Mosaic law is no longer the authorizing agency for the Levitical priesthood. We no longer have the ritual, we now have the reality. With Christ dying on the cross, rising again, being seated at the right hand of the Father, we now have that glorious, wonderful reality which is so beautifully recorded for us in the New Testament scriptures. So since the Mosaic law is recorded in the scripture, what is its present purpose?

a. Codex #1 is designed to convince by divine standard that the unbeliever is a sinner and needs a Savior — Romans 3:20, 28; 1Timothy 1:8–10. Codex #1 is also designed to define the principles of freedom as related to the laws of divine establishment, and to define further the responsibility of every individual in the field of freedom, and where freedom and discipline meet.

b. Codex #2 is designed to communicate God’s grace both in salvation and in rebound.

c. Codex #3 is to provide national function and freedom under the laws of divine establishment, to preserve nations under the principle of divine institution #4. The past purpose of the Mosaic law was an authorizing agent for the Levitical priesthood — Hebrews 7:11,12.

8. The Mosaic law is called the book of the covenant. It is not only known as the first covenant but it is also called the book of the covenant — Exodus 24:7,8; 34:27,28; Deuteronomy 4:13, 16, 23, 31; 8:18; 9:9, 11. In Deuteronomy 29:1 to the end of the book we have an addendum to the Mosaic law. We also have the prophecy of the breaking of the covenant in Deuteronomy 31:16,20. This book of the covenant is the subject of Jeremiah chapter 11, and it is not to be confused with the New Covenant to Israel — Jeremiah 31:31–34.

9. The keeping of the law is not a way of salvation. It is a way of human freedom and prosperity under the laws of divine establishment but it is not the way of salvation — Galatians 2:16.

Sheer stupidity of government interference with the energy sector. They were against the pipelines from Alaska. The automobile is a way of life. Listening to the stupid people, there are all of the stupid ideas about vehicles. The government is to legislate against crime; not law-abiding citizens. Stay out of education, stay out of welfare, and get back to their job. Count and process the taxes, putting about 80% into the military. Gas rationing is more against our freedoms. Allow all the gas to be pulled out of the ground okay. American genius will figure it out. Oil exploration and the harnessing of American genius to find other sources of energy. This is what we have fought for; and this is why Americans have died on the battlefield. What right does anyone have to drive down the highway and give you a dirty look for driving too fast. Bob never has that problem. Most cannot catch up to him. And he has no problem stepping out of his car and hitting someone.

“For if that first” — the word for “that”, ἐκενος, is a demonstrative pronoun. It refers to the Mosaic law as the authorizing agent for the Levitical priesthood in the dispensation of Israel.

“had been” — imperfect active indicative of the absolute status quo verb eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] which means “to be” in the past here. “If it had been in the past.” We have in the imperfect tense linear aktionsart in past time. The active voice: the subject, the Mosaic law, produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative in which the absolute assertion of doctrine is made.

“faultless” — a compound adjective, amemptos (ἄ́μεμπτος) [pronounced AM-emp-tos]. The word actually means “blameless.” It can be translated “faultless” as well, either one will do here. This is the protasis of a second class condition, therefore it is contrary to fact, it is not true.

“then” — the particle a)n used to introduce the apodosis of a second class condition; “no”, the objective ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] denying the reality of an alleged fact; “place” — topos (τόπος) [pronounced TOP-oss]. The problem here is that the negative doesn’t go with the word topos (τόπος) [pronounced TOP-oss] here. We have ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] topos (τόπος) [pronounced TOP-oss] and the negative goes with the verb, not with the word for place, topos (τόπος) [pronounced TOP-oss]. The translation gets fouled up because that has been ignored — “a place would not have been sought for the second”, there is where the “not” goes. In the KJV it is “no place … had been sought”, and that is incorrect.

“have been sought” — the imperfect passive indicative of zêteô (ζητέω) [pronounced zay-TEH-oh],. The imperfect tense here is a progressive imperfect, it denotes the action in progress in past time. The process actually presents something as actually going on in past time and it is sometimes called an imperfect of description. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb, the subject is the Mosaic law. The indicative mood is declarative recognizing the reality of constantly seeking a place for a second or new covenant for Israel.

“for the second” is a genitive of description. The Greek word is deuteros (δεύτερος, -α, -ον) [pronounced DYOO-ter-oss].

Hebrews 8:7 “For if that first [the Mosaic law] had been faultless [but it wasn’t], a place would not have been sought for the second.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Notice now the words “new covenant.” There are two new covenants in the Bible. The first new covenant is the one in our context, the new covenant to Israel.

The New Covenant to Israel

1. Where is it found in scripture? Jeremiah 31:31:34. It is quoted in Hebrews 8:8–12. It is mentioned in Galatians 4:4; Hebrews 10:15–18.

2. The new covenant to Israel was designed to demonstrate to the Jews the fact that the first covenant, the Mosaic law, was temporary and was to be replaced. The Mosaic law was designed for the Age of Israel, from the time of Moses to the time of the cross, resurrection, ascension and session. At this point we have the interruption by the Church Age in which God calls out a royal family for the Lord Jesus. Then the Age of Israel continues with the Tribulation and concludes with the second advent. The new covenant for Israel was designed for the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ as well as for eternity. But specifically, then, the old covenant was designed for the age between Moses and Christ. The new covenant is designed for the Millennium.

3. The new covenant to Israel was designed to carry Israel in the Millennium. The old covenant was designed to carry Israel in that part of the dispensation of Israel from Moses to Christ.

4. The new covenant to Israel was designed to authorize the form of worship and the priesthood of Israel in the Millennium. The old covenant to Israel was designed to authorize the form of worship and the priesthood to Israel between Moses and Christ.

5. The new Covenant to Israel was designed for Israel during the Millennium only.

6. The new covenant will not be fulfilled until Jesus Christ returns to the earth at the end of the Tribulation.

7. In this sense the new covenant is like the other unconditional covenants to Israel. There are three: the Abrahamic, Palestinian, and Davidic. There are three unconditional covenants that existed in the Old Testament: the Abrahamic — Abraham is promised a nation forever; the Palestinian — the geographical location of that nation; the Davidic — that the son of David would rule that nation forever. Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of that. The new covenant is like these three in that it is unconditional and will not be fulfilled until the Millennium.

8. The Mosaic law, or the first covenant in context, is designed for the Age of Israel. The second covenant, the new covenant to Israel, is designed for the dispensation of the Millennium. Therefore, it must be clearly understood that the quotation of Jeremiah 31:31–34 in Hebrew 8:8–12 is the new covenant to Israel to be fulfilled in the Millennium and not the new covenant to the Church. It was inevitable that the Levitical priesthood should be replaced by a change of dispensation. The interruption of the dispensation nullified the Levitical priesthood as it nullified the Mosaic law as the authorizing agent.

Israel no longer has a Levitical priesthood; and when they gather, they do not have animal sacrifices.

The New Covenant to the Church

1. The new covenant to the church. Hebrews 9:15 10:29 12:24 Matt. 26:28 Mark 14:24 Luke 22:20 1Cor. 11:25 2Cor. 3:6 Hebrews 7:22 9:15–20

2. The new covenant to the Church recognizes the interruption of the Jewish Age and the need to replace the shadows with reality. A specialized priesthood must be replaced by a universal priesthood.

3. The strategic victory of Jesus Christ on the cross, followed by His resurrection, ascension, and session, demands the replacement of the first covenant in our context with the second covenant to the Church. The second covenant is not found in Hebrews chapter eight. We do not have it until Hebrews chapter nine.

4. In the new covenant to the Church the royal priesthood is authorized while in the new covenant to Israel we have the fulfilment of the Millennium but not a royal priesthood authorized.

5. The new covenant to Israel is fulfilled in the Millennium; the new covenant to the Church is fulfilled in the dispensation of the Church. The new covenant to the Church only operates on the earth during the Church Age.

6. Notice that in the book of Hebrews both new covenants are discussed.

7. To understand these covenant passages we must be able to distinguish between the new covenant to Israel and the new covenant to the Church. The are entirely different in content, they are in different dispensations, and certain passages in Hebrews cannot be properly understood without this distinction being previously in your mind.

Hebrews 8:7 “For if that first [the Mosaic law] had been faultless [but it wasn’t], a place would not have been sought for the second.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 8:8 For he finds fault with them when he says: "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,

Verse 8 — the quotation of the new covenant to Israel. Starting in the middle of the verse with the word “Behold” and going down to verse 12 we have a complete quotation of the new covenant to Israel in Jeremiah 31:31–34.

Again we begin our verse with the explanatory particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] used as a conjunction, and here it should be translated “for you see.”

“finding fault” — present middle participle of the verb memphomai (μέμφομαι) [pronounced MEHM-fom-ahee]. The word means exactly how it is translated in the KJV, except it should be translated as a participle — “when finding fault.” It is a temporal participle and “when” is used to translate a temporal participle. This is the present tense of duration or the retroactive progressive present in which something begun in the past continues into the present time. The middle voice or the deponent verb: middle in form but active in meaning.

“with them” — the accusative plural from the intensive pronoun autos. Autos refers to Israel at the time of their great apostasy and reversionism in the time of Jeremiah. The new covenant of Israel was given just before the first administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the southern kingdom. This occurred in 586 BC. Israel was destroyed as a nation in 586 but even though they were destroyed they are going to become a nation again. And they will continue to be a nation. Even though, once more, in 70 AD, they will go out under the fifth cycle of discipline they will again become a nation and as a nation in the Millennium they will be the centre of all spiritual blessing for the perfect environment of planet earth during the one thousand years of the reign of Jesus Christ.

There is a principle in the original placement of this passage. It was given by Jeremiah to a lot of people who couldn’t care less: people who were bored, indifferent, apathetic, in different stages of reversionism, etc. But there is always a remnant of those who care, those to whom something like this is of great significance.

This is not a passage that will excite you. But a passage has to separate the men from the boys; the supergrace types from the weirdos.

Every now and then God the Holy Spirit does a very interesting thing. He takes something that is really fantastic and buries it very deep, so deep that most people stop digging before they even get close. Therefore they miss a great blessing, a blessing which will inevitably explode and make them aware at the Rapture of the Church. This is the type of a passage that has a beautiful application to us and a beautiful promise to the nation of Israel.

“For when finding fault with them.” That is, finding fault with Israel in their time of apostasy. The Jews would not go out under the fifth cycle of discipline were it not for the fact that they were in reversionism and there were Jews, therefore, in the reaction stage. They were disillusioned, bored, discouraged, overcome with self-pity, in loneliness and couldn’t handle it, frustrated. And there were those who had the intensification of the reactor factors through mental attitude sins. Then there was the inevitable frantic search for happiness through the old sin nature. It is interesting that the writer of Hebrews would quote the passage from Jeremiah in its entirety three years before it would happen again. Hebrews is the greatest challenge in the Word of God from the standpoint of national disaster, for the fifth cycle of discipline was about to hit Jerusalem and Judea again. So we have the principle of the new covenant to Israel as an encouragement that no matter how bad things get historically, not matter how many areas of pressure and suffering you may face personally, there is always something in the Word of God for you: a source of comfort, a source of blessing, a source of encouragement. And it illustrates again the great principle that all of our true and really great blessings are directly related to our inner sources of the soul, and that there is nothing more important than finding and developing these inner resources through Bible doctrine.

‘he saith” — the present active indicative from légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. Here is one of those Greek words for communication, for speaking, for saying something. Actually, it becomes a picture of Neum Jehovah in the Hebrew — “This saith the Lord”. God communicates for a purpose. The Jews in 586 BC could all trace their history back to BC 1440. That means that we have about 854 years, nearly a Millennium of background. In all of that time they had had the Mosaic law, and having it all of that time they still had found themselves in a state of apostasy. So this is what it means when it says “finding fault with.” There is nothing wrong with the Mosaic law, it is a part of the Word of God. But the Mosaic law was not an instrument to sustain the people spiritually. It was an instrument to sustain the people on the basis of the laws of divine establishment.

But in time of apostasy the first thing to go were the laws of divine establishment, so that the laws of divine establishment never stop apostasy. They are a guideline for prosperity and blessing but they never stop apostasy. The only thing that stops apostasy and revolution is Bible doctrine in the soul of the believer. So in finding fault with the Mosaic law it is not that the Mosaic law was at fault but it was not designed to do what was necessary in time of reversionistic apostasy. Therefore it has to be superseded by something which adds the spiritual to the establishment. It is the spiritual factor which preserves the individual and also preserves the nation.

The laws of divine establishment can stave off degeneracy for a very long time; but there is a spiritual factor as well which is part of the preservation for a nation.

1972 Hebrews 8:8b-13 Lesson #95

95 11/13/1973 Hebrews 8:8b-13 Class distinctions

They talk about an energy crisis, which is a political football; but there is a freedom crisis. We are in the worst jam that we have ever been in. Oil and natural gas are easily obtained from the ground. Freedom is very hard to come by in these days of apostasy.

Hebrews 8:8 For he finds fault with them when he says: "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,...

We have come now to the quotation of Jeremiah 31:31–34 as found in Hebrews 8:8–12. This message is given around 589 b.c.

In verse 8 the word “Behold” is a demonstrative particle idoú (ἰδού) [pronounced ih-DOO]. It is an aorist middle imperative of the verb horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh], and “behold” actually means to perceive, understand. It is a command demanding perception. With this word we begin our study of the translation into the Greek language of Jeremiah 31:31–34.

When Jesus returns, there will be a great annihilation of the enemy.

“the days come” — a reference to national crisis. The nominative plural from hêmera (ἡμάρα) [pronounced hay-MEH-raw] refers to a succession of days which will resolve all of Israel’s crises. There is a time coming when Israel will be static as a nation as well as ecstatic as a nation. There is a time coming when Israel will see the fulfilment of every promise that God ever made to them: all of the promises of the Abrahamic covenant, the Palestinian covenant, the Davidic covenant and, of course, the new covenant to Israel. The days, then, refer to a succession of days which add up to nearly 1000 years, the period of time in which the Lord Jesus Christ will reign upon the earth. He will first come back under the principle of the second advent and His first job will be to annihilate the enemy. This will be followed by the removal from the earth of Satan as the ruler of the world, plus all fallen angels. Then will begin 1000 years of perfect environment on the earth. Human history begins with perfect environment; human history ends with perfect environment. In both cases perfect environment simply demonstrates the principle that it is not the solution to man’s problems. The answer to man’s problems lies within his soul. First of all, the soul must be saved by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then, the soul must take in doctrine and grow and reach the point of the supergrace status. This is the answer, this is the reason man was created in order to resolve the angelic conflict by responding to grace. So, “the days come”, the present active indicative of the verb érchomai (ἔρχομαι) [pronounced AIR-khoh-my]. Érchomai (ἔρχομαι) [pronounced AIR-khoh-my] in the present tense is a futuristic present which denotes an event which has not yet occurred but which is regarded as so certain that in thought it is contemplated as already coming to pass. This is the reality of the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ. The active voice: the Millennium produces the action of the verb — it comes. The indicative mood is declarative which indicates an unqualified assertion of doctrine: doctrine of dispensations — last dispensation, the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ.

“when” — the emphatic use of kai means “really”; “I will make”, the future active indicative of sunteleô (συντελέω) [pronounced soon-tel-EH-oh]. Sunteleô (συντελέω) [pronounced soon-tel-EH-oh] means to carry out, to fulfil, to complete a project. The future tense is a predictive future denoting an event which is expected to occur in the future. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action by the second advent. Again we have a declarative indicative. The verbal idea here is represented from the viewpoint of certainty and actually. We have an unqualified assertion of doctrine, the Millennium is going to occur.

“a new covenant” — this refers to the new covenant to Israel. There must be s distinction between the new covenant to Israel and the new covenant to the Church. This is specifically the new covenant to Israel. The word “new” is actually word kainos (καινός) [pronounced kahee-NOS], and it means new in the sense of contrast to the old. So this is in contrast to the Mosaic law.

“with the house of Israel” — this new covenant is specifically to the house of Israel. “With the house” is epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the accusative of oikos (οκος) [pronounced OY-koss]. epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the genitive emphasizes contact; epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative emphasizes position; epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the accusative emphasizes direction. Therefore it should be translated “to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.” Israel is the northern kingdom; Judah is the southern kingdom.

Hebrews 8:8 “For when finding fault with them, he [God] communicates, Behold the days come, says Jehovah, in reality I will carry out a new covenant to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 8:9 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.

Verse 9 — “Not according to the covenant” — the negative ou plus the preposition katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay]. The word ou here is very important, it come in three forms — o)u, ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook], ouch, depending upon words which precede and follow in the Greek. It is the Greek negative of objectivity. It denies the reality of an alleged fact. It is used with the indicative as a clear-cut, point blank denial of something. It is final, it means that the door is closed. It is used here in connection with a covenant — “not according to the covenant.” Diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay] refers to the Mosaic law which authorized the Levitical priesthood and was the basis for the modus operandi of the dispensation of Israel. Each dispensation has covenants and these covenants authorize certain functions from God. For example, the Age of the Gentiles had a covenant called the Noahic covenant. The Age of Israel had the Mosaic covenant. The Church Age has the new covenant to the Church. The Millennium actually has several covenants — the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New covenants to Israel.

“that” is literally “which” — “which I made,” aorist active indicative of poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh]. The constative aorist gathers up into one entirety the action of the verb, and it gathers up into one fact the Lord provided for Israel a covenant. This covenant is made up of the laws of divine establishment, made up of spiritual principles related to Christology, and also very practical principles for the function of life. The active voice: God produced the covenant, He gave it to Moses. Again we have the indicative mood for the unqualified assertion of doctrine.

“with their fathers” — ancestors of the Jews to whom this was originally addressed — “in the day” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of hêmera (ἡμάρα) [pronounced hay-MEH-raw] refers to the exodus, the time that God delivered the Jews from slavery. Before they can function as a nation they must be free. No nation is truly a nation unless its peoples have the freedom guaranteed by the ten commandments, guaranteed by the laws of divine establishment.

“when I took them” — aorist middle participle of epilambanomai (ἐπιλαμβάνομαι) [pronounced ehp-ee-lahm-BAHN-ohm-ahee], the verb which indicates their freedom from slavery. They were in slavery to Egypt. The aorist middle participle is very important. The culminative aorist regards the liberation of the exodus generation in its entirety, emphasizing the principle that you can’t function as a nation until you have freedom. The middle voice is an indirect middle, emphasizing God in grace as the agent producing the action of the verb. This is a temporal participle and therefore it should be translated “on the day when I took them by their hand.” The participle is also in the genitive case. With it is a genitive singular of a personal pronoun. The thing together forms what is known as a genitive absolute. A noun plus a participle in the genitive case not grammatically connected with the rest of the sentence is called a genitive absolute. The root idea of the genitive absolute is sensation, emotion, sharing, or ruling. Here the participle indicates sharing or ruling as the function of God’s grace in liberating the Jews from slavery.

We have voted in politicians who have removed out freedoms. Always under the greatest good for the greatest number. This happens to every nation about to go under.

“when I took them by the hand” is a grace metaphor. It was God who did all of the work in liberating the Jews from slavery. Furthermore, the metaphor indicates that the Mosaic law was given to the Jews in the time of their minority. You take a child by the hand, not an adult. Israel, then, was treated as a minor to be placed under special laws and regulations until maturity occurred. Under this metaphor, all during the Jewish Age the Jews are regarded nationally as immature, just as in the Millennium they are regarded nationally as being very mature. The very nature of the content of the Mosaic law is compatible with the minority metaphor of being taken by the hand. The shadow theology of the tabernacle, of the animal sacrifices, the holy days, the Levitical function, and all of these things, were object lessons just as you would teach the children. That is the way they learned their doctrine. Their system of rewards and punishments, cursing and blessing, in the Mosaic law are typical of the modus operandi of handling children. Furthermore, Galatians indicates that the purpose of the Mosaic law was to be a school bus — Galatians 3:24,25. The Greek paidagwgh means a slave who walks the children to school. So wherever you turn and you study the Mosaic law it is related as it were to a nation in its minority before it becomes an adult nation.

The next word is an infinitive: “to lead them out” is an aorist active infinitive of exagô (ἐξάγω) [pronounced ex-AG-oh] which means to lead out or to bring out. Here it means to bring them out, to bring them out of slavery. The aorist infinitive denotes that which is eventual or particular in contrast to the present infinitive which indicates a condition or a process. Here we have that which is specific. They were liberated by God apart from any ability of their own from slavery. The Jews in slavery were in a hopeless situation. They had no ability, they had nothing by which they themselves could liberate themselves. God provided everything for them, it was strictly a grace activity. The culminative aorist tense in this infinitive views the exodus in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of results. The results are related to freedom. The active voice: God produces the action of the verb which is the function of deity in providing freedom for Israel. The infinitive is an infinitive of result. Actually, there are three categories of infinitive of result. These are the conceived result, the intended result, and the actual result. Here we have the actual result. All of this is very technical in the Greek for a reason. Whenever you quote a passage in the Old Testament which was written in Hebrew, and you quote it in the Greek, there is always a reason for the quotation under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. And the reason is quite obvious. Already the big discussion is freedom. Just before the Jews lost their freedom in 586 BC Jeremiah, under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, presented them this passage, and the emphasis is on freedom, that which they are about to lose.

“because” — the conjunction hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee], a causal conjunction to show what happened, to show why they had to go out under the fifth cycle; “they continued not in my covenant”, the aorist active indicative of emmenô (ἐμμένω) [pronounced em-MEHN-oh] plus the strong negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. Emmenô (ἐμμένω) [pronounced em-MEHN-oh] means to remain in, to stand firm in, to persevere in, to continue in. Here it means to continue — “because they did not continue in my covenant.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist and it gathers up into one entirety, one ball of wax, the reversionistic failure of Israel over that 400 years prior to 586 BC. During that time they had great periods of apostasy, and the failure is attributed to neglect of doctrine — emmenô (ἐμμένω) [pronounced em-MEHN-oh] means to neglect or not to continue in the covenant. The active voice: Israel as a nation failed to stand firm in the Mosaic covenant. The declarative indicative mood indicates the verbal idea which is represented from the viewpoint of reality. This is an historical fact.

“in my covenant” refers to the Mosaic law which provided the basis and the principle for freedom of the national entity of Israel.

“and I” is literally “I also”; “regarded them not” or literally, “I disregarded them.” We have the aorist active indicative of ameléô (ἀμελέω) [pronounced ahm-el-EH-oh] which means to disregard or to punish.

Hebrews 8:9 “Not according to the covenant [the Mosaic law] which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by their hand to bring them out from the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in my covenant, I also disregarded them, says the Lord.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

In other words, the fifth cycle of discipline has been historically administered twice to Israel because they failed to live within the realm of divine establishment. Divine establishment is portrayed by the Mosaic law.

Hebrews 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Verse 10 — “For” is literally “Because”, the causal conjunction hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] again — “this is the covenant that I will make”. Because they failed under the first covenant, the Mosaic law, God speaking through Jeremiah says “I will make a new covenant with you.” “For this the covenant”, there is no verb to be here, it is included to smooth out the translation but it is simply “this the covenant.”

“which I will make” — wrong! “I will assign”, the future middle indicative of diatithemai (διατίθεμαι) [pronounced dee-at-IHTH-em-ahee]. Diatithemai (διατίθεμαι) [pronounced dee-at-IHTH-em-ahee] actually means to decree, to ordain, or to assign. “This is the covenant which I will assign”. The future tense of diatithemai (διατίθεμαι) [pronounced dee-at-IHTH-em-ahee] is gnomic future, it is used for a statement of fact or performance anticipated in the Millennium. The indirect middle voice emphasizes God as the agent producing the action. Just as God freed the Jews in the past from slavery from which they could not liberate themselves, so in the future God will provide for them what they could never provide by their own ability. Even though the Jews today are a strong nation in the sense of being one against their enemies, understanding the principles of universal military training, understanding principles of discipline, fighting against hopeless odds and doing extremely well; even though they are very clear in these things, even though they have taken a hard-nosed attitude toward the Soviet Union, they do not have the ability to bring about the very things that God has for them. They will never be able to conquer the land from the Euphrates down to the Red Sea. That land belongs to them by divine promise — everything from the Mediterranean, all the way through Saudi Arabia — but they will never by their own strength be able to carve out this great empire which belongs to them. That remains for the Lord Jesus Christ as the King of kings to conquer for them.

“the house of Israel” is the dative of indirect object and it indicate the new covenant is given in the interests of Israel. When God gives something it is in the interest of the recipient to possess it. And it should be not “with the house of Israel” but literally, “to the house of Israel.”

“after those days” — the preposition meta plus the accusative means not only “after those days” but it is a little stronger than that. The word “those” is the demonstrative pronoun ἐκενος, and ἐκενος in the Greek here is used to make reference back to a previously mentioned or implied fact. The previously mentioned or implied fact is the Millennium.

“I will put” — the present active participle of didômi (δίδωμι) [pronounced dihd-OH-mee] meaning to give. This is “I will cause to give” actually. The reason it is translated Cause to give” is because it is a causal participle used for the function of GAP in the Millennium. And because the static present represents a condition as perpetually existing throughout the Millennium, and because the active voice is a causative active voice, in this sense God causes the fact to come about — “causing to give”.

“my laws” — the word for “laws” is not laws at all. In this case the accusative plural of nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss] refers to principles — “my principles [my doctrines].”

“into their mind” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of dianoia. eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] is a purpose preposition here — “for the purpose of their thinking.” Dianoia refers to thinking in the left lobe. It means the power of thought also, it means the ability to perceive. It means that all will have the ability to perceive doctrine in the Millennium — “causing to give for the purpose of thinking.” Here is the principle that thinking is living. The real capacity for life is in your thought pattern The thought pattern is confined to the soul, to the right and left lobes. The Bible even goes further than that and says that the heart or the right lobe is the area for thinking. “As a man thinks in his heart, so he is.” Every capacity for life, all living, all ability to enjoy life, is related to the thinking part of the soul. All blessing, all capacity for life, all happiness is based upon this principle. Here is actually the promise of supergrace capacity under the new covenant to Israel.

The next word “and” is the ascensive use of kai and should be translated “even upon their hearts” — epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus kardia (καρδία) [pronounced kahr-DEE-uh] in the accusative plural. In other words, everyone will have doctrine to think about and they will also have it in the right lobe.

“I will write” — wrong! The future active indicative of epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE]graphô (γράφω) [pronounced GRAWF-oh] means “I will engrave.” It is a gnomic future used for a fact anticipated in the Millennial reign of Christ. The active voice is causative active. The declarative indicative is an unqualified assertion of fact. There will be GAP in the Millennium.

“them” — the doctrines. God’s doctrines will be engraved. This indicates the means by which all of this GAP is going to function. God Himself will make it possible for everyone who is alive to understand all the issues.

“also I will be to them a God” — “I will be” is the future active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], indicating that this is a future fact as it is quoted at this time by the writer of Hebrews. It is going to be a great blessing to many, many Jews who will go down under the fifth cycle of discipline. They will remember this even though they rejected it at the time the epistle arrived. Three years later it will be a great source of blessing to them.

“a God” is the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS], and it should be translated “I will be their God.” Literally, is it “I will be to them for a God.” It is idiomatic for “I will be their God.”

“and they shall be to me for a people” — literal translation. This refers to Israel under the fulfilment of these covenants.

Hebrews 8:10 “Because this is the covenant which I will assign to the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: causing to give My doctrines for the purpose of their thinking, even upon their hearts I will engrave them: also I will be to them for a God, and they shall be to Me for a people.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary Hebrews 8:10

1. In every dispensation divine blessing is related to doctrine in the soul of the believer. There is always some form of GAP in every dispensation, even when Christ is personally reigning on the earth.

2. Doctrine in the soul is the key to the believer’s relationship with God in time.

3. Doctrine in the soul is the means of reaching supergrace and glorifying God. And therefore “the earth will be covered with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters that cover the sea.”

Hebrews 8:11 And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest.

Verse 11 — we have the adjunctive use of kai, translated “also”; “they shall not teach” — aorist active subjunctive of didaskô (διδάσκω) [pronounced did-AS-koh], and we have about as strong a negative as you can have. We have ou mê, a double negative, and a double negative in the Greek is stronger, it is an emphatic denial. Translating it literally, it would be “they shall not never teach”, but we simply say “they shall not teach.” But we understand that this is a very strong double negative. The epistolary aorist tense: the writer places himself at the viewpoint of the reader using the aorist to state an event future to him. The Millennial Jewish citizens will produce the action. The subjunctive mood is potential, and sometimes this is called a futuristic subjunctive emphasizing future reference rather than contingency.

“each one his fellow citizen,” not “neighbour” as in the KJV. This is polithj; “and every one his brother” is literally “each one his brother”. It not only means brother but it means fellow countryman or intimate friend.

“saying, Know the Lord”, aorist active imperative demanding that you know the Lord. Why? The word “for” is hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] again, “because all shall know” — future active indicative of oida. The word ginôskô (vινώσκω) [pronounced gih-NOH-skoh] is the word for “know the Lord”, and that is a command. They shall not teach “know the Lord” [ginôskô (vινώσκω) [pronounced gih-NOH-skoh]] for everyone shall oida. Oida is the perfect tense used as the present tense for an absolute fact, everyone will know the Lord. But more than that this becomes a futuristic use of the perfect used as a present tense, so it is actually a future perfect. The future perfect is intensive, it refers to the Millennium, and this will be a result in the Millennium, a result that will always exist. There will be a lot of unbelievers before the Millennium is over. Even under perfect environment there will be unbelievers but everyone will clearly understand the issue. So the future perfect intensive indicates the fact there is no such thing as a person in the Millennium who doesn’t have a clear understanding of every issue of life.

“for all [each one] shall know me.” Under perfect environment of the Millennium where you have a chicken in every pot, where everyone has great blessing, where there is no death, where there is perfect health, where the lion and the lamb lie down side by side, where the swords will be turned into plowshares and the spears into pruning hooks and man will learn war no more, and where the desert will blossom like a crocus, in perfect environment you still have and always will have under the perfect reign of Jesus Christ class distinction. The perfect reign of Jesus Christ does not and cannot change the fact that some people are stupid and some are smart, some make it and some don’t, some are least and some are great — “from the least to the greatest.”

You are opposed to nobility; well, if you were nobility, you would not be. If everyone was equal, Bob would go to sleep during his own sermons. No government in the world can make people equal.

We delivered the French from bondage and the French hate us. We gave the Chaicoms their empire and they murdered a million people the first year.

The United Nations is the great spy operation in the world. We are totally without sense. Politics has been a vat for habidashers and everyone else. We are in trouble today. We are not equal and we never will be. In the Millennium, perfect environment, there will be the greatest class distinctions. Mediocrity cannot stand brilliance. Some of you sitting there cannot stand brains. Bob is smart enough to know you.

“from the least” — apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the ablative of micros/mikroteros (μικρός/μικρότερος) [pronounced mik-ROSS, mik-ROT-er-os].

Hebrews 8:11 “Also they shall not teach each one his fellow citizen, and each one his intimate friend, saying, Know the Lord: because all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest of them.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

In the perfect environment of the Millennium under the personal reign of Christ there will still be class distinctions and inequalities among people. So there is a principle: Perfect government does not mean equality among people. This is one of the fallacies of the thinking of our day. A perfect government does not mean equality among people, it means that all people are free. It means the least are free and the greatest are free, the humble are free and the mighty are free. Freedom is what a government must guarantee, not equality. We are neither born equal nor do we die equal, nor in between are we equal. People are not born equal, they do not live equal. All will have freedom and equal opportunity but all will not achieve to the same degree either now or in the Millennium.

Perfect government does not mean equality among people. The least are free, the greatest are free. Our government needs to guarantee freedom and not equality. One of the great fallacies of Thomas Jefferson; he thought he was equal to those in England; but he did not think that his slaves were equal.

Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more."

Verse 12 — “For” is literally “Because”; “I will be merciful” is “I will be gracious”. The predicate nominative is hileôs (ἵλεως) [pronounced HIHL-eh-oce] which means “gracious.”

“to their unrighteousness” — this is the locative of adikia (ἀδικία) [pronounced ah-dih-KEE-ah] and it should be “in the sphere of their unrighteousness.”. What does “I will be gracious in the sphere of their unrighteousness” mean? It means that evangelism will continue in the Millennium for the purpose of saving subsequent generations of the Millennium. Because of the baptism of fire the Millennium begins with saved people only. Their progeny, however, have to be evangelized. Many of their progeny will be negative and will form the nucleus of the Gog revolution at the end of the Millennium. So this is actually a prophecy of evangelism. And this also explains the previous verse as to how everyone comes to know the Lord in the Millennium.

“and their sins and their iniquities” — the words “and their iniquities” are not found in the original.

“I will remember no more.” The words “no more” is ou m (μή) [pronounced may] again, the strong double negative. The aorist passive subjunctive of mnaomai (μνάομαι) [pronounced MNAH-om-ahee], “I will not ever remember”. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist viewing the event in its entirety, regarding it from the viewpoint of existing results. The subjunctive mood plus the double negative puts special stress on the negative proposition and therefore should be translated “any more.”

Hebrews 8:12 “Because I will be gracious in the sphere of their unrighteousnesses, and I will not remember their sins any more.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This ends the quotation of the new covenant to Israel in the Millennium as quoted in Jeremiah 31:31–34. It is specifically a covenant to Israel, it is in contrast to the new covenant which belongs specifically to the Church. We as members of the royal family of God have our own new covenant and it must be distinguished from the new covenant to Israel. Since the Mosaic law is replaced by two new covenants it is no longer valid either in the Church Age or in the Millennium.

Hebrews 8:13 In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

Verse 13 — the significance of the fifth cycle of discipline. “In that he saith” is “In that he cites” actually; “a new”. The word for “new”, kainos (καινός) [pronounced kahee-NOS], refers to the new replacing the old. It should be translated, “In his citation of the new, he has made obsolete the first covenant.” We have palaióō (παλαιόω) [pronounced pahl-ah-YOH-oh] in the perfect tense means to make obsolete the first covenant, i.e. the Mosaic law.

“Now that which decayeth” — we have palaióō (παλαιόω) [pronounced pahl-ah-YOH-oh] again, this time in the present tense, and it should be translated “Now the one being superseded [the Mosaic law]” — static present for a condition assumed as perpetually existing. The Mosaic law receives the action verb here, which is abrogation, and this is a circumstantial participle.

“and waxeth old” — literally, “and growing old”; “is near destruction”, not “ready to vanish away”. We have the adverb eggus (ἐγγύς) [pronounced ehng-GOOS] and it is an historical adverb of prophecy. They are three years from the fifth cycle of discipline. Then with that we have the word “destruction.” “Now the one becoming obsolete and growing old [the Mosaic law: the temple, the function of the Levitical priesthood] is near destruction” — aphanismos (ἀφανισμός) [pronounced af-an-is-MOSS], total destruction, fifth cycle of discipline.

Hebrews 8:13 “In his citation of the new he has made obsolete the first [the Mosaic law]. Now the one [Mosaic law] becoming obsolete and growing old is near destruction.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Note how Jewish believers in Jerusalem are warned of the coming of the fifth cycle of discipline in their own time, their own generation; in fact, within three years. Notice, they have perfect and adequate warning in the utilization of the new covenant.

Strangely enough there are two great warnings of the fifth cycle of discipline to the Jews of 70 AD. The first warning is the one we have here, the quotation of the new covenant to Israel. It is always quoted before the fifth cycle. The second was the function of the gift of tongues, and for forty years people evangelized the Jews in Gentile languages as a warning of the coming of the fifth cycle. So there was a spiritual warning and there was an establishment warning, and these two warnings plus the warning of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of Luke add up to the fact that they had the most perfect warning system the world has ever known, and the greatest opportunity for preparation.

[1] See Thieme, Levitical Offerings, 1973.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #96

96 05/17/1974 Hebrews 9:1; 10:1 Introduction; doctrine of Mosaic Law (revised); the Tabernacle.

It is 1.5 years later since the previous lesson.

It took the High Priest 7 days in order to prepare to enter into the Holy of Holies.

Bob talks about this as if this is review; but the translation did not sound like his.

Hebrews 10:1 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

The Law here is the Mosaic Law. The Mosaic Law is a divine authorizing agent; a divine commission which authorized the priesthood and the environment under which the priesthood would function.

The next two chapters of Hebrews set up a contrast between shadow and reality. The key to these two chapters is found in chapter 10:1, so we will review that verses as the introduction to chapter 9.

The explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] indicates that this is the key to the context. It is one of those particles that explains why we have some of the most difficult Greek in the New Testament in the first half of chapter 9.

“the law” — ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh]nom refers to the Mosaic law. The Mosaic law is a divine authorizing agent. It is the divine commission that authorized the priesthood and the environment under which the priesthood would function. The environment would be a specialized, limited priesthood dealing with ritual and shadows. Those shadows were just as important to them as the reality is now to us as members of the royal family of God. The holy of holies was forbidden to everyone except royalty, and Jesus Christ was the only person who dwelt continually in the holy of holies in the Age of Israel. With the veil rent or torn it is now open and you and I are positionally in the holy of holies today.

“having” — the present active participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] which means to have and to hold. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present in which something begun in the past continues into the present time. The active voice: the law produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial.

“a shadow” — even today the law has a shadow. Even though the law is not operational today the law is still in the Bible. How is that resolved? Very simply. The law still casts a shadow. The law casts a shadow forever because the law is a part of the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. The word “shadow” here is the accusative singular, the direct object of the noun skia (σκία) [pronounced SKEE-ah]. skia (σκία) [pronounced SKEE-ah] means a shadow in contrast to reality. It refers to a shadow caused by the interruption of light. The Mosaic law interrupts the light portraying it in image form. Therefore a shadow is not the substance, not the reality, but an image portrayal of the substance. While the shadow is not the reality it depicts the presence of reality. The shadow, therefore, verifies the presence of the reality. In this concept Christ is the reality and Codex #2 of the Mosaic law is the shadow portraying the reality to come.

The Mosaic law is the authorizing agent for all of these things. Therefore we need to review the doctrine on the Mosaic law.

The Doctrine of the Mosaic Law (Revised)

1. The Mosaic law is divided into three parts.

a. The first section, Codex #1, is the moral code. It includes the decalogue which relates morality to freedom and makes it possible for us to understand the true concept of freedom. The ten commandments are not trying to define morality or even to define sin as such, for that would be very limited, but they are the clearest and best and foremost delineation of what freedom really is and how it relates to various aspects of life. In addition to the ten commandments we have hundreds of others which form the moral code. The moral code indicates the basis for the function of the laws of divine establishment. Codex #1 defines morality in terms of not only absence of sin but in terms of patriotism, loyalty, capacity for love, relationships in life, and so on.

2. The recipients of the Mosaic law. The Mosaic law has various names.

a. It is called the covenant, the first covenant, the covenant to Israel, the law, and so on. It is therefore specifically given to Israel, not to the Church — Exodus 19:3; Leviticus 26:46; Romans 3:19; 9:4.

b. It is not given to the Gentiles — Deuteronomy 4:8; Romans 2:12, 14.

c. It is not given to the Christians, they are not under the law — Acts 15:5, 24; Romans 6:14; Galatians 2:19.

3. Christ fulfilled the law — Matthew 5:17.

a. He fulfilled Codex #1 by living a perfect life on earth during the incarnation. Impeccability fulfils Codex #1.

b. Codex #2 was fulfilled by His death on the cross.

c. Codex #3 was fulfilled by both the patriotism of our Lord plus His observation of the laws of divine establishment, as per Matthew 22:21.

4. Christ is therefore the end of the law for the royal family of the Church Age — Romans 10:4.

5. Believers in the Church Age are under the higher law of spirituality, the law of the filling of the Spirit — Romans 8:2–4; Galatians 5:18, 22,23; 1Corinthians chapter 13. We have more responsibility in the plan of God than any set of believers before.

6. The limitations of the Mosaic law. There are four specified.

a. The Mosaic law cannot justify — Galatians 2:16; Romans 3:20, 28; Acts13:39; Philippians 3:9.

b. The Mosaic law cannot give life — Galatians 3:21.

c. The Mosaic law cannot provide the Holy Spirit — Galatians 3:2.

d. The Mosaic law cannot solve the problems of the old sin nature — Romans 8:3. The Mosaic law can reveal the existence of the old sin nature, as per the tenth commandment, but it cannot solve any problem regarding it.

e. The most that the Law could do is teach shadows.

a. Codex #1 is designed to convince by divine standard that the unbeliever is a sinner and needs a Savior — Romans 3:20, 28; 1Timothy 1:8–10.

b. Codex #1 is also designed to define the principles of freedom as related to the laws of divine establishment, and to define further the responsibility of every individual in the field of freedom, and where freedom and discipline meet.

c. Codex #2 is designed to communicate God’s grace both in salvation and in rebound.

d. Codex #3 is to provide national function and freedom under the laws of divine establishment, to preserve nations under the principle of divine institution #4. The past purpose of the Mosaic law was an authorizing agent for the Levitical priesthood — Hebrews 7:11,12.

9. The keeping of the law is not a way of salvation. It is a way of human freedom and prosperity under the laws of divine establishment but it is not the way of salvation — Galatians 2:16.

10. The Mosaic law was the authorizing agent for the function of the nation Israel in the dispensation of Israel. From the time that the Jews came into freedom — the Exodus — until they were finally wiped out by the fifth cycle of discipline the Jews as a nation always had the perfect norm and standard.

“For the law kept having a shadow.” The shadow is described — “of good things”, a descriptive genitive plural of the noun agathos (ἀγαθός) [pronounced ag-ath-OSS]. Agathos (ἀγαθός) [pronounced ag-ath-OSS] refers to something of intrinsic value. Here in the plural it means profitable things, intrinsically profitable things, things that are always profitable. Any time God promotes it is always profitable regardless of the dispensation. What God provides is always valuable, always intrinsically profitable. The descriptive genitive, then, describes good things or profitable things related to the cross. In other words, the plural brings out everything pertaining to the person and the work of Christ on the cross and how it becomes the basis of our blessing. It must be remembered that all of our blessing is the result of the strategic victory of the cross, and we therefore share the plunder of victory. All blessing for the royal family is based upon victory. Therefore, no matter how we fail experientially we can never be a loser. And that is important. The plural is necessary to bring out the multiplicity of plunder that comes to us as members of the royal family through the strategic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The plunder of victory for the royal family is hooked up to the plural of agathos (ἀγαθός) [pronounced ag-ath-OSS]. And remember, this plunder is permanent!

Too many Americans act like losers. We give a check to people who do not work. We give our secrets to Russia. Bob cannot stand losers. You cannot be a loser in Christianity; temporarily, but ultimately we are winners and the winning side.

There are three things that keep the believer from being the winner that he really is:

a) The criterion block — this is a refusal to accept the Word of God as the absolute criterion of life, and its compromising the fact that the absolute criterion is the Word by accepting reality in experiential things — how you feel, reality in programs, reality in what people say contradicting the Word of God. Your reality is in the Word of God and not in anything else and the criterion block keeps you from realizing that you are on the winning side.

b) The ignorance block — the Word is accepted as the criterion but it’s ignorance of the technique of appropriation of doctrine, it’s ignorance of the balance of residency which is so important in the royal family. The sign of the royalty is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. There was no indwelling by the Holy Spirit of anyone in the Old Testament. That indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the badge of royalty, and there was no royalty in the Old Testament, there was no royalty until the ascension and session of Christ. Once you are filled with the Spirit, if you are under the ignorance block, then you are lopsided. You were designed to be balanced and the balance of residency comes from filling up one side with doctrine so that when you are filled with the Spirit your life is meaningful. If you are filled with the Spirit and you have no doctrine then you are lopsided. It doesn’t mean anything. But if every time you are filled with the Spirit you have balance of residency then it is meaningful. The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit; not the soul. The Holy Spirit loses control of the soul whenever we sin.

c) The volitional block — the Word is accepted as the criterion, the techniques of the function of GAP are understood, but the individual refuses to come under the teaching of his right pastor-teacher and submit to his authority in the teaching of the Word. Some of you get real hepped up on the authority thing. How often do you function everyday under the authority of your pastor-teacher? Maybe an hour a day. When you go to a restaurant, you put yourself under the authority of their cook/chef.

Bobby went out to Jack in the Box almost daily for awhile for tacos.

One or more of these blocks can cut the believer off from the victory that belongs to him in time.

“to come” — present active participle of mellô (μέλλω) [pronounced MEHL-low]. The present tense is a futuristic present, it denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain in thought that it may be contemplated as already coming to pass. The active voice: good and profitable things — loot, plunder — produces the action of the verb. It is about to come. The participle is ascriptive, that is, a participle used as an adjective to ascribe a certain quality to a noun. “For the law possessing a shadow of coming good things.”

“not the very image” — or literally, “not the real image.” The word “image” is the accusative singular of eikôn (εἰκών) [pronounced ī-KOHN]. It means a real or exact image. The exact image is the person of Christ in hypostatic union on the cross, resurrection, ascension, and session, seated at the right hand of the Father in the place of permanent victory.

“of the things” — the genitive plural of pragma (πργμα) [pronounced PRAG-mah] means events. The events refer to the victory of our Lord Jesus Christ — strategical: cross, burial, resurrection, ascension, session, the right hand of the Father.

This much of the verse indicates that the law was a shadow but not the reality. The shadow indicated the presence of substance but the shadow is never the substance. The Mosaic law teaches various aspects of our Lord’s strategical victory. it does not teach the function of the royal family because that was a mystery not revealed until New Testament times. These shadows all have great significance.

Chapter 9

Returning to chapter nine: In the 28 verses of chapter 9 we have four shadows of the cross, four shadows of the victory, four shadows which are related to the royal family. The royal family didn’t exist in the Old Testament, but the shadow was there, the reality is here.

The 4 Shadows of Hebrews 9

1. Shadow #1, the tabernacle — verses 1–11.

2. Shadow #2, the blood — verses 12–14.

3. Shadow #3, the testament — verses 16–23.

4. Shadow #4, the appearances — verses 24–28.

Hebrews 9:1 Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness.

Verse 1 — the tabernacle was the centre of Jewish worship in the Age of Israel. “Then verily” — this is a Greek series of particles, men ὀυν kai. This is used to denote a continuation of the last verse of the previous chapter. Men ὀυν kai means that someone divided the chapter at the wrong point because it doesn’t end at 8:13 which says, “In his citation of the new covenant he had made obsolete the first [the Mosaic law]. Now the one [Mosaic law] becoming obsolete and growing old is near destruction.”

kai is ascensive; men is an affirmative particle; ὀυν is an inferential particle. We have an affirmative participle plus an inferential particle plus the ascensive use of kai, and to smooth it out we have, “even so therefore.” “the first” — hê prôtê, referring to the Mosaic law. The definite article indicates the existence of a concept in the noun but it does not indicate the quality.

“had” — imperfect active indicative of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh]. The imperfect tense is a progressive imperfect, it contemplates a process having gone on in past time but is changed, of course, by the dispensation. This is called an imperfect of duration and it means that as long as that dispensation continued the Mosaic law was the authorizing agent for that dispensation. But once that dispensation is interrupted, as it was after the ascension, we now have a new authorizing agent. The old agent: the law; the new agent: the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ will do all of the authorizing because He has one personal family, a royal family. So the authorizing agent is now personal, a person. We should translate this, then, “Even so therefore the first [the Mosaic law] used to have.”

“ordinances” — the accusative plural of dikaiôma (δικαίωμα) [pronounced dik-AH-yo-mah], “regulations” — “used to have regulations for worship”, not “of divine service”. The accusative plural of dikaiôma (δικαίωμα) [pronounced dik-AH-yo-mah] indicates a large number of regulations. The accusative is the direct object of the verb, “used to have.” And “of divine service” is simply a descriptive genitive singular of latreia (λατρεία) [pronounced lat-RĪ-ah], and it means “worship.” So we have “regulations for worship.” The Mosaic law authorized regulations for worship. Saturday was a day of worship, the holy days were all Sabbaths as well, a specialized priesthood when you have regulations, animal sacrifices, a sanctuary called the tabernacle, and later on the temple; “and a worldly sanctuary” — the Greek phrase is to te hagion (ἅγιον) [pronounced HAG-ee-on] kosmikos (κοσμικός) [pronounced kos-mee-KOSS]. The definite article is to, and to plus the accusative of the noun hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss] plus the accusative of the adjective kosmikoj means earthly in contrast to heavenly. But the whole thing put together is an idiom. The idiom means a sanctuary belonging to this world.

Hebrews 9:1 “Even so therefore the first [Mosaic law] used to have regulations for worship, and its sanctuary [the tabernacle] was right here in the world.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Tabernacle and Shadows

1. The shadow is something real on the earth that can be seen by anyone with good vision. The tabernacle was hard to miss. So this verse refers to the tabernacle, a real tabernacle on the earth, but a shadow depicting heaven.

2. Heaven is the true tabernacle but not the actual tabernacle of Israel. We have never seen heaven but heaven is more real than that tabernacle was up and constructed in Israel. The thing that you can see with your eye isn’t nearly as real as the thing that you can’t see — “the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal.” The tabernacle was put up so they could understand invisible things, doctrinal things. God is invisible but we understand Him through doctrine.

3. The tabernacle of Israel was an authorized building, a building which the Word of God said “Build”. It was authorized by the Mosaic law and provided a focal point of worship.

4. Animal sacrifices were made in front of the tabernacle. The people gathered at the tabernacle on holy days. Everything centered around the tabernacle. And there was one person who lived permanently inside the tabernacle: Jesus Christ. He lived in the holy of holies, and the reason He is said to have had His abode in the holy of holies is because He is the King of kings, He is royalty. Therefore, royalty must have its privacy — and all stay out is what the veil said. Why? That place was reserved for us and we couldn’t be there yet because our dispensation hadn’t come up. Our dispensation couldn’t come until Christ came. So obviously, as long as Christ doesn’t come that curtain means stay out. And until Christ comes everyone stays out of there. There is no royalty to live in their except the Lord Himself, the Shekinah glory. Once the Lord comes, and once He starts screaming “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” then from top to bottom this great thick curtain, which couldn’t even be cut with a sword, is ripped. And it is all over for Israel, their dispensation is interrupted, the royal family is coming into existence, and the royal family lives in there. No curtain any more, the curtain is destroyed. Why? Because now we have a royal family.

5. The actual tabernacle on earth was a shadow, a picture of the person and the work of Jesus Christ in salvation, a picture of the glorious strategic victory of Christ with promise of loot and plunder and wealth for the supergrace believer, royal family type.

6. Since the tabernacle was declared to be God’s dwelling place. only Jesus Christ dwelt there to depict the principle of grace — Exodus 25:1–9.

7. The regulations portray many spiritual truths, doctrines, functions, actions, a promise of great things to come when the royal family would be born, and blessing for those who derived or extracted from the shadows the pertinent Bible doctrine; for from these shadows great doctrines can be and will continually be extracted.

8. The tabernacle, then, was a way to teach doctrine and to teach the principles related to grace.

9. The analogies often related to the priesthood and the function of the Levitical priesthood anticipates the existence of the royal priesthood of the Church Age. For example, one regulation for worship specified that the priests of Israel were the only ones who could enter the tabernacle. However, they could only enter under certain conditions and do certain things. The Levitical priests in the holy place is a picture of the royalty priest in union with Christ. The tabernacle was located in the centre of the bivouac, therefore indicating that the most important function in life is doctrine, and doctrine is the way that we become occupied with the person of Christ. Another regulation said, You cannot enter the holy of holies. That regulation is a shadow, the had to stop there. And every time a priest stopped at the holy of holies and had to turn around and go out it was indicative of the fact that there is something better in the future.

10. Everything about the tabernacle is significant.

a. The outer court represents the world.

b. We have the brazen altar representing Christ bearing our sins on the cross.

c. The laver: rebound. The holy place represents the heavenlies of Ephesians, the area of positional truth.

d. The priest in the holy place is analogous to the believer in union with Christ.

e. The holy of holies represents the throne room, the actual presence of God. It depicts Christ at the right hand of the Father, it is the place of victory. And, by way of anticipation again, there was a veil or a curtain between the holy place and the holy of holies to keep out the Levitical priesthood. No one would be allowed in the holy of holies until the veil was torn from top to bottom. The holy of holies was for the royal priesthood, and the royal priesthood could not exist until Christ was glorified. Everything hinged on that. The Holy Spirit was not yet given because Christ was not yet glorified. And right now, positionally you occupy the holy of holies, and when you die you go to the holy of holies, the third heaven itself.

1972 Hebrews 9:2 Lesson #97

97 05/19/1974 Hebrews 9:2 Golden lampstand; table of showbread

Sergeant McCall. Our religious holidays have been distorted to a point of being ludicrous. No one can study Bible doctrine apart from freedom.

Hebrews 9:2 For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place.

Verse 2 — we meet the greatest teaching aid that ever existed, which is the Tabernacle. We meet various parts of the tabernacle. The tabernacle is the greatest collection of Bible doctrine before Bibles were actually printed. One of the most important facts in all of the world is the fact that the tabernacle standard for over 500 years was the basic source of all Bible doctrine in Israel. A person could understand every facet of the tabernacle, every article that went into its construction, everything which had significance. And, in effect, this tabernacle was the Bible for Israel for over 500 years while certain books were being accumulated. For over 500 years the only books that were actually recorded in writing were the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, and Samuel.

The next few verses, 2–5, actually amplify the last phrase of verse 1 — to hagion (ἅγιον) [pronounced HAG-ee-on] kosmikos (κοσμικός) [pronounced kos-mee-KOSS], “a worldly sanctuary” which actually means “a sanctuary of this world”. In other words, there was a sacred building in this world which acted as all the Bible doctrine the Jews would need to go from spiritual babyhood all of the way to maturity and supergrace. It was David who became a supergrace believer by understanding the various parts of the tabernacle.

The word “for” which begins verse 2 is the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar. We are now going to get a brief explanation of the various parts of the tabernacle — not in detail.

Every detail of the Tabernacle has meaning and it might take 35 hours to study it.

Only a Levitical priest could enter into the Tabernacle.

“there was made” — the aorist passive indicative of kataskeuazô (κατασκευάζω) [pronounced kaht-ask-yoo-AHD-zoh] which means to construct. In the passive voice it is going to have to be translated “was constructed.” It should be translated “For a tabernacle was constructed.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, the constative aorist gathers up all of the time from the starting of the sewing of the materials, the weaving of the materials, the artwork, to everything that was involved in the construction of the tabernacle, and the aorist tense actually talks of the complete construction from point A to point Z. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb, and the subject is skênê (σκηνή) [pronounced skay-NAY], which means a large tent. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

The tabernacle is divided into two large rooms. We have the words “the first”, ho prôtos (πρτος) [pronounced PROHT-oss], and they refer to the holy place or the first room of this gigantic tent. In this verse “the first” is also called the sanctuary at the end of the verse.

“wherein” is literally, “in which”; “the candlestick” — this is not a correct translation. There was no candlestick in the holy place. There was a great wall of white cloth that went around the area where the tabernacle was posted. Inside was the outer court. Out in front of the first room was a brazen [brass] altar and a brazen laver. The brass altar speaks of the cross and the laver speaks of the rebound technique. Inside we have a lampstand and a table of showbread. Just in front of the second curtain there was a golden altar which belonged to the second room but was outside of it. Then inside we have the ark of the covenant, the mercy seat, the cherubs, and so on. This was the greatest collection of Bible doctrine that ever existed outside of the completed canon of scripture. Therefore, whatever is mentioned here becomes extremely important in orienting us to our royal priesthood, our purpose on earth, and our glorious future with the Lord.

“the candlestick” — ho luchnia which means a lampstand. A luchnia (λυχνία) [pronounced lookh-NEE-ah], is a system of light whereby oil is actually burned in the light. A candle is a piece of wax with a wick, and that is more or less a candlestick. Its light is relatively small. A lampstand is something entirely different and was the best system for giving light. There are lamps on it and each one of the lamps has oil in the lamp and the oil is burning. It is not a candlestick. The Lord isn’t trying to hide anything, He is trying to show us something.

This lampstand speaks of Christ as the light of the world. It was the only light in the holy place. Remember the tabernacle did not have windows and all of the light in the tabernacle came from the inside. This is a golden lampstand and it speaks of Christ as the living Word, just as the table of showbread, also in the holy place, will speak of Christ as the written Word.

The Golden Lampstand

1. The golden lampstand is described in great detail in Exodus 25:31–40; 37:17–24. It stood on the south or the left side of the tabernacle, opposite the table of showbread — Exodus 40:24. Every portion of this lampstand was significant.

2. The original construction of this lampstand: a talent of pure gold was used, it was actually hammered out into this beautiful form. Only the mercy seat and the lampstand are of pure gold.

3. There was a central branch or shaft which was beaten out with three branches on each side. In other words, this lampstand had a central branch and beaten our were three sub-branches. The central branch was higher. Each branch has at the top a bowl, inside of which was a wick and a system of oil flowing into it. There are a total of seven lamps. Christ is the revealed member of the Godhead.

4. It was the only light in the holy place, just as the Shekinah glory is the only light in the holy of holies.

5. The light from the lampstand revealed a scene of rare beauty. Remember that the light in the lampstand portrays Christ as the only source of understanding God. No one approaches God except through Christ, no one understands God apart from Christ. Christ is the revealed member of the Godhead. The light was kept burning all the time and as the Levitical priest would walk in he would see some beautiful things. First of all, he would see the walls. The walls were made with wood overlaid with gold, so the walls were made of gold. He saw the roof which was made of linen and it had embroidered cherubs of blue, purple, and scarlet, a reminder of the fact that only as the light shines and reveals the roof can people understand what God is like. Only as Christ, the light of the world, is received by the individual will the individual ever understand what God is like. The cherub refers to the character of God, His sovereignty and righteousness, His justice, love, eternal life, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability and veracity. It is Christ who throws light on who and what God is and what God is like. It also showed the beautiful table of showbread and the golden altar of incense. So when the priest walked in his eyes beheld a scene of great beauty. Everything spoke of who and what Christ is, and everything spoke of how Jesus Christ portrays who and what God the Father is. Jesus Christ is God, He is the revelation of the Godhead, He is the portrayer of what the Father is like and what the Holy Spirit is like.

6. It should be pointed out that only the priests could enter and behold the beautiful scene. Outside, all the people could see was a white wall and a badger-skin roof, but they could not see the beauties inside. That was only for the eyes of the priests, portraying the principle that in the Church Age there would be a royal priesthood. Every believer is a priest, every believer therefore has the right and the privilege of understanding who and what God is, understanding His plan of grace and operating under that perfect plan. It is the believer priest of today who has, as it were, the entire beauties of God revealed. We have the completed canon of scripture. Outside, they could just see the badger skin.

7. This illustrates how also the unbeliever cannot see the beauties of Christ. This is reserved for the royal priest of the Church Age. He is qualified by having the residency of God the Holy Spirit and the area for residency of Bible doctrine. This comes from knowledge of doctrine through the consistent function of GAP.

8. The result of the consistent intake of doctrine or beholding the beauties of God through the intake of doctrine is occupation with Christ which is the basic characteristic of maturity.

9. The golden lampstand, therefore, is a shadow or a type of union with Christ. In John 15:5 Jesus says, “I am the branches, you are the vine.” The branch is a vine is connected in the same way that these branches were connected to the main stem of the lampstand. Union with Christ is portrayed. Jesus Christ prophesied the relationship of Himself to the members of the royal family in John 14:20 when He said, “I in you and you in me.” We are in Christ and Christ is in us. 1Corinthians 12:12 portrays the branches in relationship with the main stem. 1Corinthians 12:13 tells us exactly how it occurs, we are in union with Christ. So actually, what is portrayed by the lampstand we portray in the principle that the moment you accept Christ as Savior you enter into union with Christ seated at the right hand of the Father.

10. The result. Six is the number for man in the scripture, also for incompleteness; seven in the perfect number and the point is, again, that there are six lamps representing humanity competed by the seventh lamp, by union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 2:10.

11. To portray in shadow form the royal family of the Church Age each branch is not only joined to the central branch, representing Christ, but joined to the branch on the other side to portray the basis for unity among members of the royal family. Our unity is not based upon solving our personality differences or solving our personality conflicts, the unity of the royal family is based upon the fact that at the point of regeneration each one of us was entered into union with Christ. Our unity is in the fact that we are all “in Christ”.

12. All six branches are lower than the central branch in this golden lampstand, indicting the fact that Christ is the head of the Church and Christ is the head of the royal family as the King of kings.

13. The central shaft gives light because Christ is the light of the world — John 8:12; 1:4; Luke 1:78. Christ as the light of the world not only reveals God but He reveals the way to God. He is the Savior. No one can ever be saved apart from believing in the Lord Jesus Christ — Acts 4:12; John 14:6.

14. The six branches give light because the royal family of the Church Age is also light. The significance is first found in Matthew 5:14 where Christ prophesied this. He said, “You are the lights of the world”. Matthew 5:16 — “Let your light so shine before men.” Ephesians 5:8 tells us that we are light. Why? We are the royal family on earth, we represent the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore our life has meaning and purpose and definition no matter how insignificant our life may appear to be. The lampstand burned in the tabernacle for over 500 years and in the temple for 1000 years to remind us of a principle: You as a believer have a life with meaning and purpose and definition.

15. The value of the lampstand is determined on the basis of the talent of gold from which it was made. A talent of gold is worth around US$20,000. So the very material out of which the lampstand was made was worth $20,000 and under our system of inflation that would be worth more than a quarter of a million dollars today, just for material.

16. The principle of value is enhanced as the talent is beaten. Since the lampstand was constructed of one talent, and since it was beaten and shaped in order to do this, it denotes the royal family in the palace forever based upon the work of Christ on the cross. The beating indicates the cross, the hammering of the metal into a shape of something meaningful. Positional sanctification and eternal security are also indicated by the fact that they did not break off any part of this lampstand which was shaped out of one talent. We would say carving except that we are dealing with metal. The branches, the believers, cannot be separated from the central shaft. The talent of gold not only had value but when you shape it into an art object, the golden lampstand, it increases its value. Our Lord has ultimate, complete, maximum, total value. But when you shape our Lord as one Son into many sons, those who are saved in the Church Age, He now has increased His value. And since He was maximum value at the beginning, one Son bringing many sons into glory, now increases the value. So never look at the lampstand without thinking of value, and when you think of value you have to remember that you are a part of that value and that the fact that you are in union with Christ and a member of the royal family means that you have value to Him forever. It means that you are of infinite interest to God, and no matter how you feel cut off or no matter how you say ‘God has forsaken me’ or ‘God has let me down’, or other blasphemies that you may utter from time to time, you remember that you are of infinite value to God the Father, of infinite value to God the Son, and that you have enhanced the entire value of heaven by being a member of the royal family forever.

17. The gold represents the deity of Christ which was also presenting the hypostatic union at the cross. The beating of the gold portrays the cross, as per Isaiah 53:5,10. And so the whole principle: a talent of pure gold of extreme value is now of extreme ultimate value because of being shaped into something meaningful. The Lord Jesus Christ, by coming into the world and going to the cross and bearing our sins and taking our place, was shaped into something meaningful. And right now the six branches are in the process of formation during the Church Age. And when the last believer of the Church Age receives Christ as his Savior the lampstand will be complete and lifted up into its proper place, heaven itself. That is the basis for the Rapture of the Church.

18. The cross brings something of greater value into history. The cross brings the royal family into history. The talent was alone before its construction but it became seven lights after the construction was completed. When Christ was on the cross He was alone but now Christ has multiplied Himself — members of the royal family. He is seated at the right hand of the Father and we who have responded by personal faith to His so great salvation are a part of the golden branches of the lampstand. The cross became the basis for the calling out of a permanent royal family.

19. One Son left glory to bring many sons into glory — Hebrews 2:9-14. This is also portrayed by the oil in the lamps. There was oil in the central lamp, speaking of the residency of God the Holy Spirit in Christ during the period of His life on this earth, the period of the first advent. There is also oil in the six lamps of the lampstand which are from the branches from the main stem. This speaks of the fact that for the first time in history God the Holy Spirit makes His residency in the body of every believer. That is because we are royal family. And when we are filled with the Spirit He also controls our soul, therefore the light burns through the filling of the Spirit. This wick, then, is burned and every day the priest had to come in and trim off the dead wick so it would continue burning. The dead wick is service performed in the power of the ministry of the Spirit and it was put into a golden snuff box which represents the Lord’s memory and the basis of our reward in eternity. All divine good is burnt wick and the burnt wick is stored in the golden snuff box.

The priest did not understand anything about the golden lampstand except as it related to Christ bearing our sins, Christ in the second advent. But he did not understand the details of the royal family in the Church Age, that was a part of the doctrine of the mystery.

“and the table of showbread” — the word for “table” is trapeza (τράπεζα) [pronounced TRAP-ed-zah]. This table is described in great detail also in the Old Testament.

The Table of Showbread

1. Scripture: Exodus 25:23–30; 37:10–16; Leviticus 24:5–9.

2. Description: It was constructed of wood plated over with gold. The acacia wood was the basis for forming the table and the wood was overlaid with gold. The table, therefore, portrays the uniqueness of the person of Christ. The gold represents His deity and the wood represents His humanity. So the table also speaks of our Lord Jesus Christ.

3. There was bread on the table, and the bread on the table speaks of Bible doctrine by which we have come to know and to love the Lord Jesus Christ. You could not put bread on the table unless there was a table. The table speaks of Christ and basically all doctrine is courtesy of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4. The table was located on the north side of the holy place, facing the lampstand — Exodus 40:22.

5. Around the edge of the table was what is called in the King James version a crown. Actually, it is a moulding of gold which projected above the table to keep the bread from falling off. This reminds us of the eternity of the Word of God and its content, Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine lives and abides forever, it cannot be destroyed by experts. Satan has tried to destroy it, many have tried to neutralize it, it has been distorted but it cannot be removed.

6. The bread of the table was called showbread, but that is wrong. The Hebrew says “bread of the face” or “bread of the presence”. In other words, Bible doctrine portrays for you what God is like. It is the bread that shows His face, it is the bread that makes you understand His presence. The showbread, then, represents not only who and what Christ is but it represents the basis of coming to know Him in supergrace status. The showbread represents the supergrace life or occupation with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

7. The bread is composed of fine flower describing the impeccability of the humanity of Christ. Christ was perfect, therefore qualified to be our Savior, qualified to be our high priest, qualified to be the King of kings, qualified to have a royal family forever.

8. The absence of leaven in the bread is a reminder of the virgin birth. Christ was born of a virgin, therefore without a sin nature and without the imputation of Adam’s sin.

9. Baking of the bread with fire is a picture of the cross. Christ provided everything through becoming our Savior, bearing our sins on the cross. His efficacious death for our sins is the basis of the provision.

10. There was with the putting the bread on the table the offering of frankincense in golden bowls which were also located on the table. The offering of frankincense in the golden bowls on the table is a picture of the fragrance of Christ as far as God the Father is concerned, a picture of Christ propitiating God the Father, satisfying all of the requirements of the Father so that He could have a royal family forever.

11. The eating of the bread — only the priests and a few others could eat the bread; a king like David could — by the priests is a picture of the daily function of GAP by the believer priest in the Church Age. As the priest ate the bread it sustained him; as we live on Bible doctrine we are sustained in this life.

12. No leper could ever eat the showbread, that was one of the no-no’s of Leviticus 22:4. It means that no reversionist can take in Bible doctrine and profit from it. Leprosy represents reversionism.

13. No stranger could eat the bread, according to Leviticus 22:10. The stranger is the unbeliever. The unbeliever cannot understand Bible doctrine — 1Corinthians 2:14.

14. The showbread cost the priests nothing. Therefore it is a picture of both salvation by grace and living by grace.

15. The twelve loaves of bread represented the twelve tribes of Israel, but this is a shadow of the doctrinal basis for unity in the royal family. As all twelve loaves of bread were on the table it meant that God intended for there to be unity among the tribes, but this unity was based upon their attitude toward Bible doctrine. The table represents Christ. On the table was doctrine. There were twelve loaves of bread on the table. The unity was based upon all Israel, members of each tribe, being positive toward Bible doctrine. Unity is always based upon perception of doctrine.

Now let’s notice, “For the first tent was constructed in which there was both a lampstand and a table, and showbread; which is called the sanctuary.” The word “showbread” is literally “a table”, but it doesn’t tell us what kind until we get a little further on. A prosthesis (πρόθεσις) [pronounced PROTH-es-is] of bread is what the Greek says. The KJV has simply “and showbread”, which is wrong. It is ho prothesj tôn artôn, and literally it is “the prosthesis (πρόθεσις) [pronounced PROTH-es-is] of the bread.” It is translated “showbread”, so what does it mean “the prosthesis of the bread”? Well prosthesis (πρόθεσις) [pronounced PROTH-es-is] means the setting forth, the putting forth, the presentation, it means a purpose or a plan. So it means bread which is planned, or a predetermined plan of God is involved in this bread, so it should be translated “and the way of thinking of the bread,” which is a reference to the table of showbread. It doesn’t say “table of showbread”, it simply says “trapeza (τράπεζα) [pronounced TRAP-ed-zah] of the way of thinking.” So it is “the table of the way of thinking of the bread.”

What does it mean? It means that the twelve loaves on the table represent God’s way of thinking. God’s way of thinking is Bible doctrine, divine viewpoint. The bread was never seen without the light shining on it. Remember that on opposite sides we have a lampstand and then the table. The light shines on the table or you do not see the table and the bread. You must be a believer in Christ before you can understand God’s way of thinking. God’s way of thinking is understood by the bread. The bread represents Bible doctrine, and the bread is made to be eaten. You must eat the bread, you must function under GAP on a consistent basis in order to understand God’s plan for your life, what God is like, and all of the wonderful plunder He has for you from His great strategical victory of being seated at the right hand of the Father. So we have here a descriptive genitive of the plural word artos (ἄρτος) [pronounced AR-toss], and it is translated therefore “breads.” It is a descriptive genitive, it actually portrays Bible doctrine. The bread was located on the table, which means there is no understanding of Bible doctrine apart from personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and after that personal faith a positive attitude toward the Word. The believer, of course, starts out by receiving the living Word as his Savior; now he must understand what his role is in life and eternity. He does not understand apart from the daily function of GAP. He eats of the prosthesis (πρόθεσις) [pronounced PROTH-es-is] bread, the way-of-thinking bread. Jesus made some reference to this when He said man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. He was talking about doctrine as bread. So this is analogous to the fact that Bible doctrine is the spiritual food for the royal priesthood in the Church Age.

Next we have the word “which”, a nominative singular of hostis (ὅστις) [pronounced HOH-stihs], a relative pronoun but a relative pronoun of a special type. It is called a qualitative relative pronoun. The antecedent of this qualitative relative pronoun is all of the furniture in the holy place, both the lampstand and the table of showbread. It should be translated “which category of thing is called.” The present passive indicative of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] means “is designated.” The present tense is a customary present denoting what habitually occurs. The passive voice: the tent and all of its furniture receive the action of the verb, it receives nomenclature. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative confirming that the nomenclature of the first tent is a part of Bible doctrine, a part of the heritage of those that are born again, and therefore designed to be understood, not simply designed for ritual. All of the ritual of the Old Testament was meaningless unless they had doctrine resident in their souls. That was the purpose for the tabernacle.

Notice it is “called the sanctuary.” That is wrong. We have the nominative neuter plural of hagion (ἅγιον) [pronounced HAG-ee-on] which means “holies” and it should be translated that way, “holies” or “holy place.”

Hebrews 9:2 “For the first tent was constructed in which there was both the golden lampstand and the table of the prosthesis bread [way of thinking loaves]; which categorically is designated the holy place.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

So here are things in the holy place, things that have meaning, things which portray doctrine. The Levitical priesthood dealt with the shadows, the royal priesthood deals with the reality. The shadows look forward to doctrine, we have the historical doctrine portrayed and reserved for us in the Word of God. So behind these shadows is reality. Reality has come. The Age of Israel has been interrupted, we now have a new dispensation, we now have believers with a new meaning in life. So the challenge of this passage is really to the royal priesthood. That is why it is placed in Hebrews. This same information taught in Exodus is a challenge to the Jew of that day and an illustration to us. But when you bring that information into the ninth chapter of Hebrews you are now speaking to the royal family. Specifically this speaks to the royal family in 67 AD — Jews living in Jerusalem who are dabbling in the shadows, who actually go into the temple where they had reproductions of these very things, the golden lampstand and the table of showbread. But these things are obsolete. We now have the interruption of the Age of Israel, we now have a new dispensation, we now have a royal family. And what a tragedy for royal family to be living in shadows when God has provided for them the reality.

Until the day that you, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, are consistent in the intake of doctrine, consistent in understanding who and what Christ is, consistent in being occupied with the person of Christ, consistent in the volume of doctrine which is resident in your soul, you will be like those early Christians in 67 AD in Jerusalem. Jerusalem, the spiritual capital of the world, was now the capital of apostasy. Those believers had failed, and they had failed for one reason: lack of Bible doctrine in the soul by which these things can be related.

1972 Hebrews 9:3–5 Lesson #98

98 05/19/1974 Hebrews 9:3–5 Doctrine of propitiation; brass altar; golden altar; incense; ark of the covenant

Hebrews 9:3 Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place,

Verses 3–5 introduces the holy of holies.

Verse 3 — “And after the second veil”, the preposition meta plus the accusative of deuteros (δεύτερος, -α, -ον) [pronounced DYOO-ter-oss]. Meta plus the accusative means “behind.” Deuteros (δεύτερος, -α, -ον) [pronounced DYOO-ter-oss]is the adjective, the noun also being in the accusative, katapetasma (καταπέτασμα) [pronounced kat-ap-EHT-as-mah] which means a curtain or a veil. Literally, “And behind the second curtain.”

The first veil is the one that separates the holy place from the outside. Out in front of the first veil we have the brass altar and the brass laver. Inside we have the lampstand and the table. Now the second veil is in view, the second veil which separates the holy place from the holy of holies.

The Second Veil

1. The second veil or curtain divides the holy place from the holy of holies.

2. The curtain or veil is hung upon four pillars which represent the incarnate person of Christ as presented by the four gospel writers. Matthew emphasizes Christ as the King; Mark emphasizes Christ as the servant of Jehovah; Luke portrays Christ as the Son of Man; and John emphasizes Christ as the Son of God. This is a very big veil and four pillars are used to suspend it. Actually, we have four pillars representing the person of Christ and this veil is hung upon these four pillars.

3. The colours in the veil or the curtain are blue, depicting the deity of Christ; purple, the kingship of Christ; scarlet, the redemptive work of Christ; and white, the impeccability of the incarnate person of Christ. Already we see in the veil those things which portray who and what Christ is.

4. Embroidered on the curtain were cherubs. The cherubs represent the essence of deity as well as a reminder to those who faced that curtain of the existence of the angelic conflict; it is a reality.

5. The hooks on which the curtain was hung referred to the sustaining ministry of God the Holy Spirit to the humanity of Christ during His first advent. As royalty His body was indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and His soul was filled with the Spirit.

6. The Levitical priesthood could not go past the veil. It was reserved for the royal priesthood after the strategic victory of Christ. Until Christ came in the flesh through the virgin birth, lived His 33 years, went to the cross and died for us spiritually and then died physically, was buried, rose again and ascended to the right hand of the Father, the holy of holies was off limits to all people, including the Levitical priesthood. The only exception was the high priest once a year on the Day of Atonement, and then after seven days of ritual purification, and then after very stringent ceremonies outside. He was permitted to enter the tabernacle three times. Once into the holy place to offer incense on the golden altar, and twice he entered the holy of holies, once with the blood of a goat and once with the blood of a young steer or bullock. So this veil is the most important of all.

“the tabernacle” — skênê (σκηνή) [pronounced skay-NAY], meaning tent. It is a reference to the holy of holies. Actually, the definite article does not occur here in front of “tent” or skênê (σκηνή) [pronounced skay-NAY],. The absence of the definite article calls attention to the qualitative aspect of the noun. The Greeks emphasized nouns from two viewpoints: identity and quality. Identity was always emphasized by the use of the definite article; quality by the absence of the definite article. The absence of the definite article calls attention to the quality of the noun and is therefore the antithesis of English grammar. So the tent involved here is of the highest possible quality of all of the aspects of the tabernacle — obviously, then, a reference to the holy of holies.

“which is called” — present passive participle of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] meaning to call or to designate. The present tense is the present tense of description which is one of the progressive presents, also construed as the customary present since this was the habitual way to indicate or designate the holy of holies. The passive voice: the holy of holies receives the action of the verb, it actually has nomenclature. The participle is circumstantial.

“the Holiest of all” — simply hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss] repeated twice, once in the nominative singular, once in the genitive plural, and should be literally translated “Holy of holies”.

Hebrews 9:3 “And behind the second curtain [or veil], a tent which is called [or designated] the Holy of holies.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 9:4 having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant.

Verse 4 — “Which had” is simply a present active participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh]. The present tense is retroactive progressive in which something is begun in the past and continued into the present time. This is also a customary present tense as well. The active voice: the holy of holies produced the action of the verb, having certain articles of furniture or, as echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] can also mean, possessing them. The participle is circumstantial, indicating that while the golden altar was not located in the holy of holies it is furniture which belongs to the holy of holies.

Basically, there are two articles of furniture for each of the three areas of the tabernacle. Outside were the brazen altar and brazen laver. In the holy place is the golden lampstand and the table of showbread. In the holy of holies is the golden altar and on the other side of the veil is the mercy seat and ark of the covenant which is all one piece of furniture.

“the golden censer” — this is mistranslated. We have the accusative singular direct object of the adjective chruseos (χρύσεος) [pronounced KHROO-seh-oss] which is the adjective for gold, and therefore correctly translated “golden.” However, the next word is not a censer. We have thumiastêrion (θυμιαστήριον) [pronounced thoo-mee-as-TAY-ree-on] which is an altar, and it is the golden altar of incense, a smaller altar on which incense is poured and burned.

The golden altar of incense is described in great detail in Exodus 30:1–10; 34–38; 37:25–28. Like most of the articles of furniture it was constructed of acacia wood, overlaid with gold. This always represents the hypostatic union, the fact that Jesus Christ is undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever. He is absolutely unique.

The Golden Altar of Incense

1. While just outside the veil or the second curtain the golden altar of incense belongs to the furniture of the holy of holies. It was placed outside because the golden altar of incense was constantly used, whereas the ark and the mercy seat was used once a year.

2. The golden altar of incense depicts Jesus Christ after His strategic victory, seated at the right hand of the Father as the King of kings and royal high priest.

3. The basic ingredients of the golden altar include not only its construction of wood and gold but a crown, fire, and incense. So there are five articles in the structure of the golden altar: wood, the humanity of Christ; plated with gold, the deity of Christ — therefore the altar itself is wood-gold, or a picture of the hypostatic union; then three more articles: a crown, fire, and incense.

4. The crown kept the fire from falling to the ground. The principle: the fire represents judgement of Christ on the cross for our sins, and the crown kept this fire from falling to the ground.

5. Since the fire is held up by the crown, the crown means resurrection, ascension, and session. And when the fire was burning all the time, and the crown was holding it up, altogether it represented the strategic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ — His death, burial, resurrection, and session.

6. The validity of the work of Christ on the cross is found in resurrection, ascension, and session, the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. Therefore, the incense represents several things. First of all, that the work of Christ on the cross is acceptable and therefore a part of the victory of our Lord. The incense refers to propitiation, so does the mercy seat — everything related to the holy of holies refers to propitiation. In addition to that, the incense represents prayer. First, the prayers of our Lord Jesus Christ making intercession for us, and secondly, the prayers of the royal priesthood and their dynamics in phase two, Church Age.

7. While the horns on the brazen altar speak of sacrifice and refuge the horns on the golden altar speak of power and prayer.

8. The golden altar also had rings for carrying it. The rings and the staves of the golden altar have significance. The rings speak of the perfection of God’s plan of grace, while the staves or the golden rods that carried it indicate the world-wide ministry of prayer. There is no place prayer cannot go.

9. Therefore the golden altar represents the concept of prayer in the utilization of divine resources.

A Contrast of the Two Altars

1. Outside was the brass altar, brass always speaks of judgement. We have the picture of the cross — Jesus Christ being judged for us. Inside was the golden altar speaking of the strategic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ which comes out of the cross.

2. Brass speaks of judgement; gold speaks of victory and plunder.

3. There is no crown on the brass altar, speaking of the humility of the cross. There is a crown on the golden altar, speaking of the victory and the glory of the angelic conflict.

4. The brass altar outside emphasizes salvation and how it was accomplished. The golden altar inside emphasizes victory and how it was accomplished. The fire for the golden altar was from the brass altar. They carried coals in from the brass altar and put them in the crown which started the fire in the golden altar.

5. Without the brass altar and its fire there would be no worship at the golden altar — meaning apart from the cross and salvation there is no effective worship or prayer in mankind. You cannot ignore the brass altar! Don’t ever bother to pray until you believe in Jesus Christ.

a. Prayers from unbelievers do not go up to God.

b. Politicians ask for these prayers wrongly.

c. You must have the brass altar first.

6. Therefore, a principle emerges. All prayer and worship must begin at the cross. Only the born again believer is qualified to pray and to worship. There is no prayer for the unbeliever and there is no worship for the unbeliever. The brass comes before the gold; judgement comes before worship, just as the cross comes before the crown.

7. Without the fire in the brass altar there is no incense in the golden altar. Without the death of Christ on the cross there is no intercession of Christ, there is no victory, and there is no plunder. No plunder means no supergrace life.

8. Therefore no plunder means no royal family, no Church Age, no pastor-teacher, apart from the cross.

9. The cross must come before the crown. The cross must come before the royal family can be born.

10. In their revolution and reversionism there were two believers, sons of Aaron — Nadab and Abihu — went and started a fire with a torch in their tent. They were talking revolution and were about to take over. One of the first things they did was to bring strange fire before the Lord — Leviticus 10:1,2. Strange fire means they put on their priestly garments, started a fire in a tent with a torch, walked out of the tent and into the tabernacle, walked right past the brazen altar and did not stop. There was a brass shovel to shovel coals out of the brass altar to be carried to the golden altar, and they didn’t do it. They walked in with a torch and put down the fire in the golden altar. This was a revolution, they did not use the fire of the brass altar. This was total disobedience to the Word of God, it broke the type, they got their fire from another source, according to Leviticus 16:12, and when they put this fire on the golden altar they died the sin unto death.

The Incense for the Altar of Incense

1. The incense is a symbol of prayer as well as propitiation. The fact that incense was also used as a symbol of prayer is found in Psalm 141:2; Hebrews 13:15; Revelation 5:8; 8:3.

2. Therefore incense represents the intercessory prayer of Jesus Christ as high priest — Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25.

3. The prayers of all the believers which were processed through Christ at the right hand of the Father are also represented by the incense.

4. The composition of the incense portrays the strategic victory of Jesus Christ in the angelic conflict. According to Exodus 30:34 the incense was composed of four ingredients: stachte, onycha, galbanum, frankincense.

5. Stachte means to drop, to distil. It is so called because of the drops of gum which exuded from the tree producing it. Stachte refers to the uniqueness of the person of Christ in His first advent — the hypostatic union, the God-Man. He was different from God in that He is man, different from Man in that He is Man, different from man in that He is impeccable, perfect, qualified to bear the sins of the world — no personal sin, no imputed sin from Adam, and no old sin nature. Therefore, stachte speaks of the merit and the nobility of the life of Christ.

6. Onycha refers to scale or shell. It is derived from a shell fish which yields this perfume. It refers to the ministry of Christ on the cross in His two deaths.

7. Galbanum means fat or fertile. It is a resinous gum which adds strength and persistence to the other ingredients used in mixing. It is a reference to the resurrection of Christ.

8. Frankincense means to be white or white incense. It receives its name from the pure whiteness of the gum from which it was extracted. When it burns it also burns with a very pure white flame. it is a reference to the ascension and session of Christ as the completion of His glorification.

So, stachte: the ability of His life on earth; onycha: the courage and nobility of His death; galbanum: the greatness of His resurrection; frankincense: the greatness and nobility of His ascension and session. The incense goes up, just as Christ went up into the presence of God the Father.

“and the ark of the covenant” — kai thn kibwton thj diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay]j. The ark of the covenant is described in detail in Exodus 25:10–22; 37:1–9; Romans 3:22–25.

“overlaid round about” — perfect passive participle of perikaluptô (περικαλύπτω) [pronounced per-ee-kal-OOP-toe] which means to plate or to cover — “having been plated on all sides.” The perfect tense is the intensive perfect, it indicates a completed action with emphasis on existing results. When you looked at the ark it looked gold because it had been gold plated. The box was constructed of wood and plated with gold. The passive voice: the subject is the ark and it receives the action of the verb, it was plated with gold. The participle is circumstantial.

Then we have the instrumental of the noun chrusion (χρυσίον) [pronounced khroo-SEE-on], “gold”, used to represent the deity of Christ. The wood of the ark represents the humanity of Christ.

“wherein” is literally, “in which” — the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç], translated “in which [ark].” The antecedent to the relative pronoun is the ark.

“the golden pot” — not quite correct. It is stamnos (στάμνος) [pronounced STAM-nos] which is a golden urn, not a pot; “that had” — present active participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh], “having.” The present tense is a customary present. The active voice: the urn produces the action. The participle is circumstantial; “having the manna”.

“and Aaron’s rod that budded” — the word “budded” is the aorist active participle of blastanô (βλαστάνω) [pronounced blas-TAN-oh]. It means to germinate and sprout. This was a part of the great revolution. Aaron’s rod germinated and sprouted. “Aaron’s rod having germinated and sprouted.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety the action of the verb.

The ark of the covenant is a box 45 inches long by 27 inches wide and 27 inches high. It was constructed of acacia wood and plated with gold, the wood representing the humanity of Christ, the gold representing the deity of Christ, the plating being completed representing the hypostatic union of Christ. The content of the box is not only described here in Hebrews 9:4 but also in Numbers 17:8,10.

There are three things: the urn of manna representing sin in the sense of rejection of God’s provision. it is just like some believers, they have neglected Bible doctrine and are therefore losing out on the fantastic blessings God has designed for them from eternity past. Secondly, we have Aaron’s rod which germinated and sprouted some kind of a flower. This represents sin in rebellion against God’s order and God’s authority. God chose Aaron as the high priest. When God sets up authority it may not look like much but if God sets it up it has His backing. The third item was the tables of the law. These represent sin as a transgression of God’s love. The content of the box represents Christ bearing our sins on the cross. Notice that they were all inside the box: Christ bearing our sins on the cross.

No posies are growing out of your head, even though the fertilizer might be there.

Hebrews 9:4 “Having belonging to it [the holy of holies] the golden altar of incense, the ark of the covenant having been plated on all sides with gold, in which was the golden urn having the manna, and Aaron’s rod having germinated and sprouted, and the tables of the covenant.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 9:5 Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

Verse 5 — “And over it,” we have a transitional particle de which continues the discourse. plus the adverb huperanô (ὑπεράνω) [pronounced hoop-er-AN-oh] used as a preposition with the genitive of the intensive pronoun autos. Altogether it mean literally, “And above it [the box].” In other words, above the ark.

“the cherubim of glory” — Xeroubin, which should be translated “cherubs”; “of glory”, a descriptive genitive of doxa (δόξα) [pronounced DOHX-ah]. Doxa (δόξα) [pronounced DOHX-ah] refers to the essence of God — “All have sinned and come short of the doxa (δόξα) [pronounced DOHX-ah] [the essence] of God.” The cherubs represent essence. In this case there are two cherubs, one represents God’s righteousness and the other represents God’s justice. The two cherubs together represent the holiness of God — righteousness + justice = holiness. They are said to be shadowing, but that is wrong. It is a present active participle of kataskiazô (κατασκιάζω) [pronounced kat-as-kee-AD-zoh] which means “overshadowing.” The present tense is an historical present in which a past event is viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence. In other words, this is so written that you ought to be able to visualize it. The active voice: the two cherubs produce the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial.

“the mercy seat” — hilastêrion (ἱλαστήριον) [pronounced hil-as-TAY-ree-on]. The word is found here in Hebrews 9:5 as well as in Romans 3:25 and 1John 4:10. Sometimes it is translated “propitiation” and sometimes “mercy seat”. it means both. The mercy seat represent propitiation. Notice that the noun means both mercy seat and the place of propitiation. The mercy seat was fashioned out of pure gold — Exodus 25:17–22; 37:6–9.

The Mercy Seat

1. At each end of the mercy seat a cherub representing pertinent essence involved in propitiation is found. One represents righteousness, one represents justice.

2. It is divine righteousness and justice which would be compromised by saving and loving man apart from the cross.

3. Therefore, righteousness and justice must be propitiated or satisfied so as not to compromise them.

4. On the Day of Atonement the high priest entered the holy of holies with the blood of animal sacrifices. This blood was sprinkled over the mercy seat to indicate that God’s righteousness and justice was satisfied by the saving work of Christ on the cross.

5. Therefore, because of the propitiatory work of Christ on the cross God the Father is satisfied and the essence of God is not compromised in loving and saving sinful man.

6. Because of propitiation God the Father is free to love the believer without compromising His righteousness or justice, represented by the cherubs.

7. Therefore, propitiation inevitably emphasizes the celebrityship of Jesus Christ.

The Doctrine of Propitiation

1. There are three words which every believer ought to know and understand. The God-ward side of salvation whereby the essence of God is made compatible with man’s salvation through Jesus Christ is propitiation. Remember that propitiation is always God-ward, taking care of the essence of God so that it is in no way compromised. Reconciliation is manward. That is the removal of the barrier between God and man. Redemption is sinward. Propitiation means satisfaction. God the Father is satisfied with the work of God the Son on the cross. He is satisfied with the person of Christ — impeccability; He is satisfied with the work of Christ bearing our sins.

2. Propitiation was communicated to Israel through the mercy seat — Exodus 25:17–22; 37:6–9.

3. Propitiation is appropriated by faith and is the basis for imputation of divine righteousness — Romans 3:25,26.

4. Propitiation is related to the work of Christ on the cross — Leviticus 16:13–16.

5. The mercy seat represents the presence of God — Exodus 25:22; Leviticus 16:2; Numbers 7:89.

6. The New Testament confirms the importance of the mercy seat — Hebrews 9:5.

7. The mercy seat or propitiation is related to unlimited atonement — 1John 2:2.

8. Propitiation demonstrates the perfect love of God — 1John 4:10.

9. Therefore propitiation is used to express the celebrityship of Jesus Christ — Romans 3:25. Celebrityship is established on the basis of propitiation.

10. The importance of propitiation can be observed from the existence of the tables of the law in the ark of the covenant. Note, then, the true function of the law:

1) The law is not an instrument of justification — Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16; Romans 3:28;

2) The law is an instrument of condemnation to both Jews and the entire race — Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:21–28; 1Timothy 1:9,10.

3) The purpose of the law is to curse mankind with a hopeless curse — Galatians 3:10 — and only the work of Christ on the cross can remove that curse — Galatians 3:13;

4) The law does not produce a righteousness which has credit with God. Therefore the law cannot produce a righteousness having credit with God and cannot compare with the imputation of divine righteousness received by faith in Jesus Christ — Philippians 3:9.

5) Many Jews of the previous dispensation failed because they attempted to be saved on righteousness based on keeping the law — Romans 9:30–33;

6) They failed — like the rich young ruler — and the conclusion is obvious: the law cannot provide justification — Acts 13:39. Therefore the prayer of the publican is not only mistranslated but as it stands in translation it is a very subtle and vicious form of apostasy. He said, “O God, be merciful to me a sinner”. That is not correct. Luke 18:13, “O God be propitious to me a sinner.”

11. Propitiation is the only approach to God — Luke 18:13.

1) He said, “O God be propitious to me a sinner”;

2) Dr Chafer: “God cannot be merciful toward the sinner in the sense of being generous or lenient, and the publican did not ask God to do the impossible”;

3) God cannot be merciful without propitiation which removes the compromise to His righteousness and justice;

4) The publican asked God to be propitious, he did not ask Him to be merciful. Why? Because propitiation is compatible with the divine plan and divine essence, mercy is not;

5) Being merciful excludes Christ, but being propitious includes Christ;

6) What the publican said — ho Theos, O God, i(lasqeth which is the aorist passive imperative of i(laskomai. I(laskomai does not means to be merciful, it means to be propitious. The aorist tense of i(laskomai is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it sees the perfection of God, His essence.

Man is saved not by begging God for mercy but by believing that God is propitious to him based upon the cross.

“of which” — the preposition peri plus the genitive plural of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç], meaning “concerning which.”

“we cannot now speak” — ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] estin (ἐστίν) [pronounced ehs-TIN] nun legein. The word ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] is “not”; estin (ἐστίν) [pronounced ehs-TIN] is “it is”; nun is “now”; legein means to teach, it is the present active infinitive of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. When you put it all together it means “it is not now time to teach”.

Then we have “particularly”, and that is a prepositional phrase, also idiomatic — katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] méros (μέρος) [pronounced MEH-ros] which is “according to its parts”, but it means “in detail”.

Hebrews 9:5 “And above it the cherubs of glory overshadowing the mercy seat; concerning which mercy seat it is not now time to teach in detail” — or, “there is no time to teach in detail.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews 9:6 Lesson #99

99 05/20/1974 Hebrews 9:6 Doctrine of the priesthood

Hebrews 9:6 These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties

In verses 6–8 we have a new paragraph dealing with the function of the Levitical priesthood.

Verse 6 — the words “these things” includes a genitive plural of the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. It is a reference to the tabernacle, the articles of furniture, and the various types of structure. The transitional particle de indicates the new paragraph but relates it to the old one, and we have a perfect passive participle from kataskeuazô (κατασκευάζω) [pronounced kaht-ask-yoo-AHD-zoh]. Kataskeuazô (κατασκευάζω) [pronounced kaht-ask-yoo-AHD-zoh] is a part of a genitive absolute. The verb actually means to build, to construct, rather than ordain. The intensive perfect tense indicates the completed action of the verb with existing results. The existing results: a tabernacle stood until the temple.

The question was asked if the tabernacle and the temple stand simultaneously, and the answer is no, they did not. One replaced the other. If the tabernacle had continued then the great appreciation for the art objects of the tabernacle would have caused idolatry. As long as every item of furniture outside of the brazen altar is inside of the tabernacle idolatry is avoided. No one ever got down on his knees outside and worshipped a white sheet with badger skin on top of it. And that is why the Jews, even though they had actual articles of furniture, never ever worshipped them in idolatry. In other words, the only people who actually saw those articles of furniture were the priests, and the priests were so indoctrinated that they would not be inclined to get involved in any idolatry. They functioned with these articles of furniture but they never worshipped the articles of furniture. Why? The articles of furniture were designed to teach doctrine. It was the greatest volume on Bible doctrine that ever existed until the completion of the canon of scripture.

So we have “construction” in the perfect tense. The passive voice: the subject is the tabernacle. The tabernacle and all of its furniture receive the action of the verb. All of these things were hidden from view from the people. The knew about these things because the tabernacle was presented in two different places. First of all, in the book of Exodus. So it was in the scroll called “Torah”, the scroll of the law, the first five books of the Old Testament. Then it was constructed where all the people could see the outside. Here was the test. The could see the outside, and some people are positive and some are negative. A negative person could walk by that tabernacle every day and never wonder what was inside. A positive person wanted to know what was inside and would go to the priest and ask. That is how they joined Bible class! The priests would pull out the scrolls, unroll them, and describe, and then talk about the articles of furniture and their significance. That is the way David reached supergrace. So we have a beautiful picture here and a very important picture. The tabernacle was constructed but once it was constructed the furniture couldn’t be seen. Only the priests could see it. The participle is a temporal participle, and the temporal participle plus the adverb houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos], means “in this manner.” So we have as a corrected translation: “Now when these things had been constructed in this manner.” Notice that “when” is the temporal participle. You translate a temporal participle like a temporal clause.

Notice the significance of all of this. First of all, this was written in the Bible, the canon of scripture — Exodus 30 and 37. Then it was constructed but not until it was completed did they have a perfect correlation. Once the structure goes up they cannot see inside that tent. They see white walls made of heavy cloth and a badger skin roof. So all the information on what is inside they learn from the page of the Word of God, the scroll. And eventually there are two ways in which it is recorded: the scroll, and then the actual tabernacle. Remember, the people never went inside, ever. They listened to the teaching of the priest as he exegeted Exodus and Leviticus, and that is the way they learned. They understood the ritual, they understood the function, they understood everything that went on because it was all related to principles of doctrine. These were the shadows. Wherever there is a shadow there is reality. The reality is Christ. The shadows all point to the reality.

“the priests” — nominative plural of hiereus (ἱερεύς) [pronounced hee-er-YOOCE]. That stands for the Hebrew kohen. It refers to the Levitical priesthood authorized by the Mosaic law for the Age of Israel. Notice, it all goes together. The tabernacle demands upkeep. The upkeepers of the tabernacle are the priests. The people cannot enter the tabernacle. Once again you see that great principle that comes out throughout the ninth chapter of Hebrews: There is always some “Forbidden” sign around. No one could enter the tabernacle except the priests. No one could carry the ark except the priests. No one could offer animal sacrifices on the brass altar except the priests.

This is because they represent Jesus Christ. Only He is able to do the things listed here.

The Doctrine of the Priesthood Review

1. Definition. A priest is a member of the human race, male type, representing the human race to God. A priest is taken from the male population of the human race but never from angels. The exception is the royal priesthood, male and female believer. The priest must partake of the nature of the person or persons for whom he acts. This means that when he officiates he represents the human race — Hebrews 5:1; 7:4,5, 14, 28; 10:5, 10–14. Jesus Christ could not be our high priest unless He was a member of the human race.

2. The sphere of the priestly function. The priest and the high priest must function in the sphere of spiritual phenomena. Therefore he is appointed for man’s benefit in spiritual things. The Levitical priest functioned in two spheres of spiritual phenomena: the Torah, the tabernacle. The only person who could deal with these things was the Levitical priest. Notice that the priests of the Old Testament dealt with shadows, and the shadows came in two forms: a) written. The written shadow came before the constructed shadow for the writing tells how to construct. In other words, the building called the tabernacle did not go up until they had the blueprint, and the blueprint is in the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever. b) constructed. And when it is all finished, whether you are talking about the written Word, the Torah, or you are talking about the tent, the tabernacle, you are talking about something sacred, something wonderful but, with all of that, a shadow. You can learn from a shadow. David went to supergrace because of his positive volition toward doctrine. He learned from the tabernacle, from a shadow.

3. The priests had a teaching ministry. When they fell down on the job, God introduced the prophet.

4. The sphere of the priestly function always remains the same. When Jesus Christ died on the cross His spiritual death, the blood of Christ representing His saving work on the cross, the veil was “rent in twain”, which means the curtain was torn or ripped to pieces from top to bottom. There was no curtain. Why? Because entrance into the holy of holies was now provided for a new priesthood. You and I are members of the royal priesthood. We have access into the holy of holies, we live in the holy of holies. And being a priest we are to deal with spiritual phenomena, only the shadows are all gone and we have the reality starting with Christ, the living Word, and the canon of scripture, the written Word. With the completion of the canon of scripture you as a priest must now deal with spiritual phenomena.

5. In the Old Testament we have the priest plus the tabernacle and we have only the priest dealing with this. Now we have the royal priest plus his Bible. What’s wrong with that? Nothing, but it is only a start. The royal priest has to transfer the content of the Bible to his frontal lobe by the function of GAP.

6. The categories of the priesthood.

1) The royal priesthood in which Melchizedek is the stated pattern — Hebrews 7:1–3. There is no priesthood to match the royal priesthood.

2) Melchizedek was both a king and a priest but without any emphasis on his parents, his genealogy, his birth or his death certificate. The thing that made him important for us is that he was a royal high priest.

3) Melchizedek and Abraham had a confrontation and when they came together it was Melchizedek who ministered to Abraham. Two priesthoods are involved here. Abraham’s line in the Levitical priesthood. Melchizedek is not the line but the pattern for the royal priesthood. Why does the royal priesthood minister to the Levitical priesthood in that face to face confrontation between Melchizedek and Abraham? Because the Levitical priesthood deals with shadows, we have the reality. The one who has the reality is superior to the one who has the shadow. The priest dealt with an animal whose volition was not involved in the sacrifice. Our priesthood deals with the sovereignty of the second person of the Trinity who billions of years ago said yes to the cross of His own free will. With His sovereign will He agreed to go to the cross in the fullness of time. The 4 norns of the altar allow for the animal to be tied down.

4) Melchizedek appeared once to Abraham ministering to him bread and wine, the symbols of the royal priesthood. What are the symbols of the Levitical priesthood? Animal blood and incense.

5) Under the Levitical priesthood the cross was symbolized by animal sacrifices but under the royal priesthood the precious blood of Jesus Christ, the Lamb without spot and without blemish.

6) The royal priesthood is the greatest because the office is not hereditary, it is perpetual. The symbols remain bread and wine.

7) The appointment of the royal priesthood is not based on physical birth and we are not disqualified by physical blemishes.

7. The second priesthood is the Levitical priesthood.

1) It began with Aaron, the older brother of Moses.

2) The concept of this priestly ministry of spiritual things is found in Numbers 16:5 — “commissioned (appointed), holy, and allowed to come near.” They were qualified by their birth record. But being born a male in the line of Aaron didn’t do it either. They had to be without any kind of physical blemish. They were commissioned as a priest and then from then on they were considered set apart or holy. No birthmarks; no scars. Their job was to “come near” When you are dealing with shadows you can only come near. We of the royal priesthood don’t come near, we are in — in union with Christ.

3) This priesthood was perpetuated through the natural line of Aaron.

4) Physical defects caused the elimination of a priest in the priestly line — Leviticus 21:17–21.

5) The Levitical priesthood was supported by thirteen Levitical cities — Joshua 21:13–19.

6) In addition there was a special annual tithe, a tax for the support of the Levites — Leviticus 23:10.

7) Other support came from redemption money of the firstborn — Numbers 18:16.

8) The spiritual phenomena of the Levitical priesthood was limited to shadows. They had shadow doctrines, shadow ritual — Hebrews 10:1–4.

8. The third priesthood was the family priesthood which existed in the Age of the Gentiles. The patrician of the family functioned also as a priest, as in the case of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

9. The royal high priest and the Church Age.

1) Jesus Christ is the royal high priest.

2) As such He has fulfilled the first function of the priesthood, the offering of a sacrifice.

3) From this function comes the first strategic victory of the angelic conflict: resurrection, ascension, and session — Hebrews 10:5–14.

4) The royal high priest was appointed forever under the divine decrees — Hebrews 5:6.

5) He was also given authorization for a royal priesthood — Hebrews 5:10.

6) The priesthood is assigned to the Melchizedek battalion in Hebrews 6:20 because that is a royal priesthood.

7) The appointment of Jesus Christ as a high priest was accompanied by the divine oath of Hebrews 7:21.

10. The royal priesthood of the Church Age. Every believer of the Church Age is a priest — 1Peter 2:5,9; Revelation 1:6; 5:10, 26.

11. The purpose of the royal priesthood: to reach supergrace — Hebrews 6:17–20; Ephesians 3:17–21; 4:11–16. The objective is to reach supergrace. Why? The priest deals with spiritual phenomena. We have a canon of scripture and a priest. The objective is to get the canon inside of the priest, and when you get the canon inside of the priest he grows to the supergrace life and occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. Here is the whole point. You and I as royal priests live in the holy of holies, and there is just one thing to do if you are going to live in the holy of holies and that is to be occupied with the Shekinah glory, to be occupied with the person of Jesus Christ. And why are you and I here? To be occupied with Christ. And there is only one way to do it: study, study, study, transfer the page of the Word to the frontal lobes, to the human spirit, convert gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis] into epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] , etc. That is the only way.

12. The function of the royal priesthood is delineated in Hebrews 13.

A woman came to Berachah, no Bible, no notes; just dark glasses, and she sat and just looked around. We need to put a bus stop out in front for people like this.

If you think I am going to slow down, you’re crazy; I want to finish Hebrews before I die. If you are here without a Bible, grab some kind of a book and look pious.

“went” — wrong. It is the present active indicative of eiseimi (εἴσειμι) [pronounced ICE-i-mee] and it means to enter: “the priests entered.” That was the privilege they had, to enter the tabernacle, a privilege that no one else had. The present tense is the customary present, denoting what habitually occurs. The active voice: the Levitical priesthood produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

“always” — this is the preposition dia plus the genitive of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs]. Dia means “through”; pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] means “all”. So actually it is really “through all”. It is an idiom which means “constantly” — “the priests entered constantly into the first tent” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of skênê (σκηνή) [pronounced skay-NAY], and also prôtos (πρτος) [pronounced PROHT-oss] for “first”. The first tent is the holy place. That is the only place they could go.

“accomplishing the service” — the word “accomplishing” is the present active participle of epiteleô (ἐπιτελέω) [pronounced ep-ee-tel-EH-oh]. The word means to complete, to accomplish, to perform, and “performing” is probably the best translation here. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what was begun in the past and continued right up to the present time. They were still doing it in Jerusalem in 67 AD contrary to the change in dispensation. The active voice: the Levitical priesthood produced the action of the verb in the holy place. It is a circumstantial participle. That is the only place they could function. They could not enter the holy of holies.

The word “service” is the accusative plural latreia (λατρεία) [pronounced lat-RĪ-ah] (λατρεία) [pronounced lat-RĪ-ah] which really means here “spiritual functions.” Latreia (λατρεία) [pronounced lat-RĪ-ah] (λατρεία) [pronounced lat-RĪ-ah] means worship functions or spiritual functions. There were a tremendous number of detailed sacred functions relating to the first tent or the holy place and these they could do.

Hebrews 9:6 “Now when these things had been constructed in this manner, the priests constantly entered into the first tent, performing the sacred functions.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary of the Priestly Function in the Tabernacle

1. Only the priests were permitted to enter the holy place.

2. Their entrance was the daily routine in order to maintain the various items of sacred furniture and to perform the sacred functions related to doctrine, namely the trimming of the lamp, the replacement of the Showbread.

3. The function of the priests in the holy place — the first tent — illustrates the royal priest entering daily into the local church to fulfil his sacred worship of perception of the Word of God.

4. This way the royal priest fulfils the balance of residence between the filling of the Spirit and maximum Bible doctrine in the soul. Your job as a royal priest on this earth is to get balance of residency.

5. While the Levitical priests enter the holy place the holy of holies was forbidden, except the high priest once a year. The only reason he could go in once a year was to depict the ascension of Jesus Christ. Until Christ came, no one else could go behind that curtain. That kept man separate from God. The royal family lives in there.

6. All of this that we have had up through this verse is a reminder of the great significance of a shadow. When God creates a shadow it is a perfect shadow. But the shadow points to the reality, and the reality is absolute perfection. The reality is Jesus Christ.

7. The outer court has two articles of furniture: the brass altar, speaking of the cross; the brass laver, speaking of rebound. The outer court represents the area of the world, and in that sense this is where evangelism occurs, and the first thing a believer should learn is how to rebound.

8. The holy place with its lampstand and the table of showbread represent the believer in phase two and his relationship with God. Notice the simplicity of it. Remember that the golden altar is also in that room but it belongs to the holy of holies. The lampstand: Christ the living Word; the table of showbread: doctrine, the written Word.

9. Furthermore, it depicts the analogy of the royal family in union with Christ. The priest was inside the tent; we are in union with Christ. In the Church Age every believer is a priest and only the priest can deal with the sacred phenomena of the Word.

10. Therefore, the whole thing portrays positional truth. The holy of holies represents the throne room of God in the third heaven, and we positionally are in the third heaven. While we function in the first tent we are in the second tent positionally. Christ is at the right hand of the Father in the place of strategic victory. That is the significance of the holy of holies. Only the royal priesthood can function daily in the holy of holies. That is why we can “come boldly to the throne of grace and obtain mercy, to find grace to help in time of need.”

11. Our high priest, Jesus Christ, sits in the real holy of holies in the third heaven. Therefore, the way into the holy of holies is now revealed in this dispensation. The holy of holies is for the royal priest only. That is why the Levitical priest was barred at the second veil.

1972 Hebrews 9:7–8 Lesson #100

100 05/21/1974 Hebrews 9:7–8 Doctrine of the blood

Call for a doctor. This has been the weirdest day Bob has ever had. They will have to close down next week and they will overhaul the AC.

AC, sound and eye contact are the 3 necessary things. If you have poor circulation, dress for winter.

Heb 9:7 ...but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people.

Verse 7 starts out with “But.” This is the particle de used as an adversative conjunction. This particle has many uses. One of them, and the one used here, is to set up a contrast between the fact that the Levitical priesthood could enter the holy place, which was permitted, and not the holy of holies. The only exception is now stated, and the exception is the high priest once a year on the Day of Atonement. We will see later on that the death of Christ opened the holy of holies to the royal family of God. Many times when the Mosaic law said no it was related to the fact that something had been reserved for the royal family.

“into the second” — the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of deuteros (δεύτερος, -α, -ον) [pronounced DYOO-ter-oss], deuteros (δεύτερος, -α, -ον) [pronounced DYOO-ter-oss] referring to the holy of holies.

“once” — hapax (ἅπαξ) [pronounced hap’-ax], and then it should reach “for each year only the high priest.” Notice several things here:

The High Priest and the Holy of Holies

1. The first thing we should not is the genitive of time from the noun e)niautou, meaning each year, rather than one year as it appears.

2. With this there is a contrast to the adverb pote, meaning any time. There is definitely no poté (ποτέ) [pronounced poht-EH] here because the entrance into the holy of holies could not occur at any time.

3. The high priest could not enter at any time that he wanted to. There was a specific day in which he entered and for the rest of the time the second curtain or veil was also forbidden to the high priest.

4. The day specified was the Day of Atonement. He could enter the holy of holies on that day according to certain prearranged specifications. He had to spend seventy days in purification rites. He had to follow the principles of Leviticus 16:14–18. The high priest alone could enter and he entered for one reason only: there had to be at least once a year the teaching of the doctrine of the ascension and session of Christ.

5. The high priest alone, who portrays the Lord Jesus Christ forsaken by God and forsaken by man in bearing our sins, could enter the holy of holies speaking of the third heaven. And he could only enter because the ascension had to be taught.

6. There were three entrances into the entire tabernacle on the Day of Atonement by the high priest.

a. He entered with incense in a shovel — Leviticus 16:13.

b. he entered with the blood of a bullock for his own sins — Leviticus 16:14.

c. The first time he only went into the holy place with the incense. But remember that the golden altar of incense, while in front of the second veil, actually belongs to the holy of holies. He entered a third time all the way into the holy of holies with the blood of the sacrificial goat. There were two goats on the Day of Atonement, the sacrificial goat and the scapegoat. One went out alive and one was executed. The blood of the goat was sprinkled upon the mercy seat for the people — Leviticus 16:15.

So in Leviticus chapter 16 verses 13,14, and 15 we have the function of the high priest on the Day of Atonement. First of all he went into the holy place, past the first curtain, and he went to the golden altar of incense. He put on the coals there and the incense, and incense went up — propitiation. Then he went out to the brazen altar and offered a young bull. He collected the blood in a basin and walked in past the first curtain, past the second curtain, and over the mercy seat he sprinkled blood for his own sins. Then he walked out and offered the goat, collected the blood of the goat, walked past the first veil, past the second, and sprinkled the blood of that goat over the mercy seat for the sins of the people. This was done once a year and it portrayed the strategic victory of our Lord Jesus Christ — the cross, resurrection [portrayed in the goat that they turned loose], ascension, and session. This was the only reason anyone was ever allowed in the holy of holies, to teach the strategical victory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The interesting thing is that we live in the holy of holies. We live where no one could go in all of the hundreds and even thousands of years before. No one ever went in the holy of holies. That means that your life has meaning.

So we read, “But into the second [the holy of holies] once each year only the high priest...”

The next phrase says “not without blood”. We have a strong negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] plus the adverb chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE] which means “apart from.” It is an adverb used as a preposition, and plus the genitive of the noun haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah]. Now haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah] is clearly defined in any good Greek lexicon as having a figurative as well as a literal connotation. First of all, Arndt and Gingrich, page 22, dealing with the word haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah] states in its second paragraph dealing with the figurative use of blood, “Blood and life as an expiatory sacrifice, especially the blood of Christ as a means of expiation” is figurative.

The Doctrine of the Blood

1. Animal blood defined. Animal blood is the seat of animal life. The animals of this world do not have souls. “The life of the flesh is in the blood” for animals only, and every time that phrase occurs in the Old Testament it refers to animals only because animals do not have a soul. The do not have self-consciousness, they do not have the two frontal lobes, they do not have emotion, volition. Leviticus 17:1–14 clearly enucleates the true meaning of “the life of the flesh is in the blood”.

1) In the Old Testament the whole system of worship for Israel based on the Mosaic law and a specialized priesthood, the Levitical priesthood, was a shadow worship, as per Hebrews 10:1.

2) The literal blood was the blood of the animals in the Old Testament, in the shadow days. Now the real days are here, the Church Age and the royal family, we have figurative blood in the New Testament. The blood of the animal was always real blood. Animals do not want their own throats cut.

3) In Gen. 3:21, the animal skins come from sacrificed animals.

4) In a representative analogy this literal blood portrays the figurative blood of Christ because the blood of Christ is simply the Bible designation for the saving work of Christ on the cross and relating it to the Old Testament portrayal.

5) The animals always bled to death; Jesus did not bleed to death.

2. The blood of Christ defined. Kiddel’s Theological Dictionary, says that the idea that the New Testament links with the blood of Christ is that it is a verbal symbol for the saving work of Christ. So the blood of Christ refers to His saving work on the cross, specifically to His expiatory work. The doctrine of expiation explains the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ refers to Christ bearing our sins — 1Peter 2:24. The blood of Christ is Christ being judged for our sins as our substitute.

3. The representative analogy. An animal dying on an altar died physically. Physical death portrays the spiritual death of Christ on the cross. The literal shedding of blood portrays the figurative blood of the cross. The bleeding for the hands and feet of Christ on the cross has no significance in bearing our sins. He did not bleed to death. The bleeding of Christ doesn’t save anyone, it is Christ taking our sins upon Himself and being judged for them that saves. “He who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

1) While the animal blood was real and literal it represented the spiritual death of Christ on the cross — Colossians 1:26; Hebrews 10:19; 13:20; 1Peter 1:2.

2) A real analogy would be a literal death compared to a literal death. The physical death of Christ has to do with the importance of Bible doctrine and the importance of having finished the work of the first advent. But there is no analogy between the physical death of an animal and the physical death of Christ.

3) In a real analogy the physical death of the animal would be compared to the physical death of Christ, but such is not the case. That comes out in Hebrews 10:1 — “shadow” is the word. The death of the animal was a shadow portraying the reality. The reality was Christ bearing our sins.

4) Therefore it should be noted that Christ did not die by bleeding to death.

5) We have in the term “blood of Christ” a representative analogy in which the physical death of the animal on the altar represents the spiritual death of Christ on the cross.

6) The fact that Christ died twice on the cross is established in Isaiah 53:9 which says, “While his burial would be assigned with criminals [in obscurity], nevertheless he would be associated with a rich man in his deaths [plural].” Two deaths on the cross. Spiritual: expiation; physical: work completed.

7) The representative analogy demands that the blood of Christ be taken figuratively. The word “shadow” demands that the blood of Christ be taken figuratively. The shadows were literal, historical, and real, and they portray that which is figurative and spiritual and efficacious to God.

4. Christ did not die on the cross by bleeding to death — John 19:30–34.

1) When Christ was dead on the cross a Roman soldier thrust a spear into His side, and that is when His blood came out.

2) The physical death of Christ on the cross occurred from His own free will, not from bleeding to death — John 10:18.

3) After His work on the cross was finished Christ exhaled after His last breath in which he uttered the words of Psalm 31:5, partially quoted in Luke 23:46.

4) Having exhaled His last sentence Christ did not inhale again — Matthew 27:50; Mark 15:37; Luke 23:46; John 19:30.

5) Therefore the blood of Christ is part of a representative analogy between the physical death of the animal sacrifice and the spiritual death of Christ on the cross being judged for our sins — 2Corinthians 5:21; 1Peter 2:24.

5. The blood of animal sacrifices was a shadow. A shadow points to the reality — Hebrews 9:12–14.

6. Therefore the blood of Christ depicts the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

7. Four doctrines are depicted by the blood of Christ: a) Expiation — Revelation 1:5; b) Redemption — Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; 1Peter 1:18,19; Hebrews 9:12. c) Justification — Romans 5:9; d) Sanctification — Hebrews 13:12, sanctification here being the royal family in the holy of holies forever.

8. The blood of Christ in expiation is the basis for the rebound technique. Why can you simply name your sins privately to God and be forgiven? Because the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses from all sin — 1John 1:7 cf 1John 1:9. This was taught by the shadows of the Old Testament, namely the non-sweet savour offerings. The sin offering of Leviticus chapter four is rebound with emphasis on the unknown sins, and blood was used in that offering. The trespass offering of Leviticus chapters five through six verse seven — rebound with emphasis on the known sins of the believer.

The shadows are actual, real and historical.

So no matter how you slice it the blood of Christ is literal under the shadows but figurative under the historical reality of the cross.

“not without blood” — chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE] plus the genitive of haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah] means “not without making use of blood.”

“which” — the nominative neuter singular from the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. The antecedent is haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah] — “blood.”

“he offered” — present active indicative of prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh]. The present tense is a customary present for what occurs as the ritual routine of the Day of Atonement. The active voice: the current or resident high priest produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative denoting dogmatic reality of the shadows — literal animal blood was used.

“for himself” — the preposition u(per plus the genitive of the reflexive pronoun heautou (ἑαυto) [pronounced heh-ow-TOO]. It should be translated “on behalf of himself.” U(perplus the genitive denotes substitution. That was the first trip into the holy of holies.

“and the errors of the people” is wrong. The word “errors” is a)gnohma and it means sins of ignorance. It should be “on behalf of the people their sins of ignorance.”

Hebrews 9:7 “But into the second [the holy of holies] once every year [Day of Atonement] only the high priest alone, not without making use of blood, which he offers on behalf of himself, and on behalf of the people their sins of ignorance.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The offering by category is the sin offering of Leviticus chapter four which is rebound with emphasis on the unknown sins. The priesthood had to use the young bull offering of Leviticus chapter four, verses three through twelves. First of all, when he offered for himself he used the young bull. That was the sin offering. The goat is the sin offering of Leviticus 4:24, 28. So both of the animals used are found in Leviticus chapter four.

Heb 9:8 By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing

Verse 8 — “The Holy Ghost” — tou pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah]tos tou a(giou, meaning “The Holy Spirit.” Notice that tou pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah]tos tou hagiou is all genitive. We find in this chapter a predilection for genitive absolutes. A genitive absolute is a genitive case noun plus a genitive case participle which are isolated grammatically from the rest of the sentence, and the genitive case noun is the subject of the genitive case participle. It should be translated “The Holy Spirit” as the subject although it is in the genitive case [because it is a genitive absolute], then the present active genitive case participle of dêloô (δηλόω) [pronounced day-LOH-oh], the word “signifying.” Dêloô (δηλόω) [pronounced day-LOH-oh] means to make clear or to make manifest or to reveal. “The Holy Spirit revealing this” is the correct translation of the genitive absolute. The present tense of the participle is a static present for a condition which perpetually exists. The active voice: God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb, not only as the author of scripture but as the teacher of doctrine. The participle is circumstantial as well as telic. A telic participle expresses a purpose. It was God’s purpose to teach through the shadows. The two ministries of the Holy Spirit in teaching are found in this statement. The first: He provided the information to the human authors of scripture which was written down, recorded, in the canonical books. This is a part of the doctrine of inspiration. Secondly, the teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit in the function of GAP, as per John 14:26; 16:12–14; 1Corinthians 2:9-16; 1John 2:27. ]

“that” is not found in the original, but is sometimes used to introduce indirect discourse.

“the way into the holiest” — the accusative singular of hodos (ὁδός, ο, ἡ) [pronounced ho-DOSS] means “entrance”; “the holiest” is in the plural here for the holy of holies — hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss] in the plural.

“was not yet made manifest” — perfect passive infinitive of phaneroô (φανερόω) [pronounced fan-er-OH-oh] plus a very strong negative adverb mhpw. It should be translated “The Holy Spirit making it clear that the entrance into the holy of holies had not yet been revealed.” The holy of holies is where the royal priesthood lives. The holy of holies portrayed the third heaven. The believer is in union with Christ as of the moment he believes in Jesus Christ — the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ as our high priest ascended into heaven. He was seated at the right hand of the Father as our high priest. When you believe in Christ God the Holy Spirit enters you into union with Christ. You are in the holy of holies now and forever. You will always be in union with Christ. But the Holy Spirit could not reveal this information to the Old testament saints because it dealt with the royal family in the Church Age which was a mystery, and was not revealed at that time. The perfect tense of phaneroô (φανερόω) [pronounced fan-er-OH-oh] is intensive, it views the action of the verb as being completed with emphasis on the existing results. Every day when a priest went in to change the table of showbread, or went in to trim the wicks on the lamps on the golden lampstand, or went in to perform some duty in connection with the golden altar, when he came to that second veil he always stopped. He never went past that second veil ever. Why? Because that was reserved for you, for royalty. And more than that, it was not only reserved for you but it is the place where you live and the royal family was never taught in the Old Testament. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb.

The subject is the way or the entrance into the holy of holies, and while the death of Christ was revealed in the Old Testament its significance was never revealed as far as the royal family is concerned. This is compatible with the doctrine of the mystery, the Church Age doctrine. The death of Christ necessitated a royal family because of resurrection, ascension, and session. There had to be a royal family. The entrance into the holy of holies could not be revealed because the entrance into the holy of holies is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit did not exist in the Old Testament, was never taught in the Old Testament, the first prophet of the baptism of the Holy Spirit was our high priest Jesus Christ. And just before His ascension He said “John really baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days hence.” Ten days later it occurred.

The baptism of the Spirit is the basis for forming the royal family of God. The royal family of God lives in the palace forever and you live in the holy of holies, and no one could go into the holy of holies under shadow worship. Israel and the Church are not the same. There is one of the great demonstrations of the dispensational principle, the difference between Israel and the Church.

“while” is not found in the Greek text but it is used to translate a second genitive absolute. Now we have again another genitive absolute. We have the genitive case and the participle, the present active participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh]. The genitive this time is skênê (σκηνή) [pronounced skay-NAY], referring to the tabernacle. We have a noun in the genitive case, it will be the subject although the nominative case is the case for the subject ordinarily. The participle becomes the verb and the noun in the genitive case becomes the subject.

In this case we even have another word, an adverb éti (ἔτι) [pronounced EH-tee], meaning “yet.” So when we put it all together, “so long as the original tabernacle kept having existence.” echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh],present active participle. Static present, always existed until the dispensation was terminated — or its equivalent. The tabernacle only lasted until the building of the temple. The temple took the place of the tabernacle.

Hebrews 9:8 “The Holy Spirit revealing this, that the entrance into the holy of holies had not yet been revealed, so long as the original tabernacle kept having existence.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Holy of Holies Understood for Today

1. The tabernacle was a part of the function of the Levitical priesthood, the shadow worship of the Old Testament. As long as the Levitical priesthood was authorized the tabernacle or its equivalent, the temple, kept having existence.

2. However, the Levitical priesthood could not enter the holy of holies. Interestingly enough, the temple was still standing at the time of writing. It would be destroyed three years later. While it was still standing at the time of writing the whole point was this: You, believing Jews, should not be going to the temple. Here you are fooling around with shadows when the reality has come, and you are in the holy of holies! The believer in Jerusalem in 67 AD was in the holy of holies and yet he was running with animal sacrifices into the temple. That is the apostasy we studied in Hebrews chapter six. They were crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting Him to open shame.

3. Only the high priest once a year could enter on the Day of Atonement, and this depicted the ascension and session of Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father in the literal holy of holies which is the third heaven. The holy of holies on earth was a shadow portraying the third heaven.

4. Remember that the holy of holies is a type of the third heaven, the presence of God, and Jesus Christ went into the presence of God. The high priest could into go into that which was a shadow of the presence of God, once a year. The rest of the time the high priest and all of the Levitical priesthood stayed out. They could not go in.

5. When Christ died on the cross the veil which covered the holy of holies was torn from the top to the bottom — Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38.

6. This was done without any human hand ever touching it. God did this. Why?

7. The entrance into the holy of holies was now revealed. The way into the holy of holies had been forbidden to the Levitical priesthood but the way into the holy of holies was opened by our high priest, and it is where we live. We are now, we always will be, a heavenly people.

8. Christ being seated at the right hand of the Father led to the dramatic interruption to the Age of Israel. The Day of Pentecost interrupts the Age of Israel.

9. The interruption of the Age of Israel was based on the fact that God Himself lifts the veil that covered the holy of holies.

10. The royal family of the Church Age lives in the holy of holies through the baptism of the Spirit, positional sanctification.

11. Because Church Age doctrine is a mystery it was not revealed to the Old Testament saints, which is why the holy of holies was forbidden to the Levitical priesthood.

12. The holy of holies was reserved for the royal priesthood and the royal high priest. The veil which kept out the Levitical priesthood has been removed by God.

13. The dispensation of Israel has been interrupted. A new dispensation, the Church Age, and a new priesthood is authorized, and a royal family is now born.

1972 Hebrews 9:9 Lesson #101

101 05/22/1974 Hebrews 9:9 Principles of blood and shadows

At this Point We Need to Anticipate the Direction in Which We Are Going. We are taking it in from this verse to v. 17.

The Blood of Christ and the Blood of the Animal Sacrifices

1. We are getting ready to study the real blood and the shadow blood.

2. Only the shadow blood is real and the real blood is figurative.

3. The real blood of animals was a shadow pointing to the efficacious, expiatory sacrifice of Christ on the cross — i.e., His spiritual death.

4. The reality and fulfilment of the shadows is the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ refers to His saving work upon the cross, bearing our sins and being judged for them.

5. Without the two deaths of Christ on the cross the new covenant would not be valid or operative. Bob reads Hebrews 9:17–19 Jesus lived during the shadow dispensation; He had to ratify the new covenant.

6. The blood of Christ or His spiritual death ratifies the new covenant.

7. The physical death of Christ indicates that His work of the first advent was finished, i.e. the work of being judged for our sins.

8. The physical death of Christ gave God the Father the opportunity to express His propitiation, to express His mercy seat function, and He expressed it by raising Christ from the dead.

9. The resurrection of Christ leads to His ascension and session where Christ resides in the real holy of holies, the third heaven itself.

10. The expiatory sacrifice of Christ’s spiritual death on the cross made the new covenant valid as illustrated by the tearing of the veil of the temple between the holy place and the holy of holies. The reality destroyed the shadow. The priests could not enter into the Holy of Holies, except for the Great Day of Atonement.

11. Once the expiatory, efficacious sacrifice was accomplished Christ died physically. And the new covenant was valid and a new priesthood authorized. The old covenant authorizes the Levitical priesthood, the sacred building, and all of the shadows of the Levitical offerings. The new covenant authorizes a royal priesthood, of which you are a part.

12. The resurrection, ascension, and session of Christ formed the basis for the royal family as well as the royal priesthood, and the royal priesthood is now positionally in the holy of holies.

13. But more than that, the holy of holies or the third heaven is the eternal home of the royal priesthood.

14. In a resurrection body the royal priesthood will come in and out of the holy of holies every day for eternity. We live in the holy of holies, that is our home. That is why we are going to have a resurrection body. How did Christ enter the holy of holies? In a resurrection body.

15. The blood of Christ was both the ratifying agent of the new covenant and the fulfilment of the shadow blood of animal sacrifices.

16. The shadows have been fulfilled, the new covenant is valid, and the royal family has a legacy forever.

You do not grow by witnessing or by prayer. If you are a normal believer, you are a supergrace believer; and you will know when to witness and your prayer will be effective.

Some believers are essentially rending a tux. That is their Christian life. They do not actually live the Christian life.

God has given us the completed canon of Scripture and this allows us to grow.

At the end of verse 8 we have some conclusions we must face by way of making the transition to the next section. This verse leads us to some conclusions:

Christ Our Savior and the New Covenant

1. The strategic victory of Christ in resurrection, ascension and session separates the function of the old priesthood from the function of the royal priesthood. They never function together. That is why there must be a new covenant to Israel. The new covenant to Israel is an authorizing agent for the function of the Levitical priesthood in the Millennium. Because the Mosaic law is out the Levitical priesthood cannot function in the Millennium.

a. Principle: The covenant only becomes valid by a spiritual death, by an expiatory sacrifice. A will is valid by physical death. Actually, the New Testament ought to be called the New Covenant. When a testator dies then his will is valid. But that is not what we have in the New Covenant — Matthew through Revelation. We don’t have a testament, we have a covenant. And this covenant, the new covenant, is only valid by spiritual death.

2. Since every believer is a royal priest in the Church Age through the baptism of the Spirit and resultant positional truth he is now positionally in the holy of holies.

3. The holy of holies in the tabernacle and the temple was a type of the third heaven. The royal priesthood is positionally in the antitype, and experientially in the antitype at the point of physical death. The third heaven is the real holy of holies. Physical death means that we go home.

4. Now the Holy Spirit could not reveal the way into the holy of holies as long as the Jewish Age existed.

5. But with the interruption of the Jewish Age and the beginning of the Church Age the way into the holy of holies is fully revealed in all of its Biblical significance.

6. Once Christ our Savior and high priest entered into the third heaven, the holy of holies, through ascension, the way for entrance into the presence of God is open. The veil is removed and destroyed by the ascension of Christ. As a result the Old Testament saints were even transferred from their abode in the heart of the earth known as Paradise or Abraham’s bosom to the third heaven — Luke 16:10–31; 23:39-45 cf Matthew 27:51–52.

7. So the death of Christ was the way into the holy of holies for them also. This is declared in Ephesians 4:8–10.

8. The Old Testament saints have been transferred — Matthew 27:51,52 — from Paradise to the third heaven, waiting for their resurrection bodies at the second advent. Then they will get to live on earth because they are earthly people. Only the Church, only royalty, lives in heaven.

9. All Church Age believers — ie, royal family — upon physical death enter into the third heaven waiting for the resurrection at the Rapture of the Church. The Jews have to wait for the second advent.

10. The veil was designed to keep the Levitical priesthood out of the holy of holies but Christ destroyed the veil. Death, burial, resurrection, and ascension have removed the veil. Therefore, the veil was destroyed when the royal family came into existence.

11. The existence of the veil in the in Jerusalem in 67 AD — they had replaced it — indicated the failure of the Jewish nation to understand and appreciate both the dispensational change and the Messianic passages dealing with Christ as the King priest.

12. Only royalty can enter the holy of holies. There is no qualified royalty as long as the Mosaic law is valid. But the Mosaic law is not valid and the Seventh Day Adventists are trying to go back to the gutter!

13. In the standing of the tabernacle only Jesus Christ dwelt in the holy of holies. Jesus Christ dwelt in the holy of holies in the previous dispensation as the Shekinah glory — Exodus 25:1,8; 29:45,46; 40:34; Ezekiel 43:2–5. 14. Christ and His royal family dwell in the holy of holies. This is why the baptism of the Spirit did not occur until the Day of Pentecost — the Church Age. So the type or the shadow of the third heaven went out of existence with the death, resurrection, ascension, and session of Christ. Therefore, since it went out and since the moment that Christ died the Mosaic law was no longer valid, it was now fulfilled. Once the Mosaic law is fulfilled with the death of Christ, once the blood of Christ comes, that is it. Therefore you have to stop the Jewish Age, because it operated under the Mosaic law and there is no Mosaic law, it is gone. The law was given by Moses but grace and doctrine came by Jesus Christ. Therefore the law out. So the Lord did the only thing He could do, He interrupted the Jewish Age so that the royal family could be born. The law as an authorizing agent of the Levitical priesthood was abrogated by the death of Christ.

The blood of Christ stands for the spiritual death of the Lord. We are saved by His spiritual death.

The sign of royalty is the Holy Spirit indwelling your body.

Bob refers back to Ephesians several times. The type and antitype is a good nomenclature, if you can understand the Greek of it.

Heb 9:9 (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper,

Verses 9-11, the tabernacle in type and antitype.

Verse 9 — We begin with the word “Which”, not the ordinary relative pronoun translated “which” but a nominative feminine singular from the relative pronoun hostis (ὅστις) [pronounced HOH-stihs]. Hostis (ὅστις) [pronounced HOH-stihs] is a categorical relative pronoun, sometimes called a qualitative relative pronoun. It is used to indicate a type-antitype thing, to indicate some kind of a quality type thing that goes with something else — matching things. “Which type” or “which category of tabernacle” is what it is meaning. The antecedent to hostis (ὅστις) [pronounced HOH-stihs] is skênê (σκηνή) [pronounced skay-NAY], “tabernacle”.

Next we have the word “figure” — parabolê (παραβολή) [pronounced par-ab-ol-AY]. Para means beside; bolê is taken from the Greek verb balw which means to throw or to set beside. It means to put something beside something else. For example, we have been discussing the holy of holies, and it is a picture of the third heaven. So parabolê (παραβολή) [pronounced par-ab-ol-AY] recognizes the whole principle of comparison. When you break down the principle of parabolê (παραβολή) [pronounced par-ab-ol-AY] this is the type. The holy of holies is the type; the third heaven is the antitype. The real animal blood is a type; the spiritual death of Christ, His expiatory sacrifice, is the antitype. So “Which tabernacle is a parabolê (παραβολή) [pronounced par-ab-ol-AY]” — placing one thing alongside another in order to illustrate or to explain; a parallel illustration under the principle of type and antitype. So it should be translated, “Which tabernacle was a type.”

“for the time then present” — the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of kairos (καιρός) [pronounced kī-ROSS]. Kairos (καιρός) [pronounced kī-ROSS] is a synonym for dispensation, it means an epoch of time or a dispensation. So it should be translated, “with reference to the dispensation.” The words “then present” is the perfect active participle of enistêmi (ἐνίστημι) [pronounced en-is’-tay-mee]. Enistêmi (ἐνίστημι) [pronounced en-is’-tay-mee] is a participle which is used in an ascriptive way, it is used as an adjective. Therefore we translate it like an adjective and it means literally “having been present”, but here it is translated simply “present” — “with reference to the present dispensation.”

This means that the tabernacle was designed to communicate doctrine to the Jews of the Age of Israel, especially the doctrines of Christology and soteriology. The function of the Levitical priesthood and the various objects of furniture, and the animal sacrifices, were all shadows pointing to the reality. In this dispensation we have the reality. For example, a priesthood in the holy place is a shadow of the royal priesthood in phase two. The table of showbread is a picture of Bible doctrine in the soul through the daily function of GAP. The golden lampstand is a picture of occupation with Christ, especially on the part of a supergrace believer. The holy of holies is a type of the third heavens, the shedding of animal blood is a type of Christ bearing our sins. So all of these things were shadows pointing to something in the present dispensation.

“in which” — preposition katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. “According to which” is a better translation. It refers to parabolê (παραβολή) [pronounced par-ab-ol-AY] or type.

“were offered” — present active indicative of prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh]. The present tense is a customary present for that which habitually occurred. The passive voice: the types were being offered. The indicative mood views the whole thing from reality.

“Which category [tabernacle] was a type with reference to the present dispensation [Church Age], according to which type both gifts and sacrifices were being offered.”

“gifts and sacrifices” — dwra th kai thusia (θυσία) [pronounced thoo-SEE-ahi refers to the Levitical offerings. They are all shadows in which literal blood was shed. Real blood was the shadow and figurative blood was the reality. There five different categories of sacrifice: the three sweet savour offerings refer to salvation; the burnt offering in Leviticus chapter one — propitiation with emphasis on the work of Christ on the cross; the food offering of Leviticus chapter two — propitiation with emphasis on the person on the cross, the God-Man; the peace offering in Leviticus chapter three — the doctrine of reconciliation or the removal of the barrier between God and man. All of these were shadows portraying it. Then there were two non-sweet savour offerings. These were the rebound offerings. In Leviticus chapter four, the sin offering — rebound with emphasis on the unknown sins. Then the trespass offering in Leviticus chapter five through chapter six, verse seven — rebound with emphasis on the known sins.

We have a nominative plural of dôron (δρον) [pronounced DOH-ron] for “gifts” and a nominative plural of thusia (θυσία) [pronounced thoo-SEE-ah for “offerings” — “both gifts and offerings.” Thkai is “both and”.

The word “that” is not found in the original manuscript; “could not” is a present active participle from dunamai (δύναμαι) [pronounced DOO-nam-ahee] plus the negative mê. The present tense here is a customary present denoting what habitually occurs. These things were habitually offered day in and day out over a thousand years. The active voice: this is a deponent verb, it actually has a passive voice in form but an active voice in meaning. The subject therefore produces the action of the verb and the subject is the gifts and offerings, the sacrifices, which were constantly being offered. The causal participle denotes what is the basis for the action of the main verb here. It says, “gifts and offerings were being offered which were not able [rather than “could not”].

“make him perfect” is an aorist active infinitive of teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh]. Teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh] means to complete, to finish, to accomplish, to bring to an end, to bring to a goal. Here it refers to bringing to the goal of maturity or becoming a supergrace believer. The animal sacrifices could not make the offerer a supergrace believer. Shadows can’t do it. Shadows can teach doctrine but shadows and the ritual of shadows cannot bring anyone to supergrace. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasizes the existing results. The existing results in teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh] are coming to supergrace. The active voice plus the negative indicates that the shadows are types under the Mosaic law, the function of the Levitical priesthood, all of the ritual, all of the animal sacrifices, cannot bring anyone to maturity. Only doctrine can do that.

Now they can teach doctrine which brings to maturity but they cannot bring to maturity in themselves. In other words, the believer of the dispensation of Israel cannot reach maturity except the same way that we do, and that is through the intake of doctrine. He can’t do it through ritual and he can’t do it through the shadows. This ritual taught doctrine and you could learn doctrine and benefit, but if you simply went through the ritual for the sake of the ritual it would not bring to maturity. The shadows at best could teach doctrine, at worst they could confuse and lead astray from doctrine. The shadows could never replace doctrine. The principle: Doing something does not produce growth in the spiritual life. It is learning that makes mature, not doing. That is not to say that some of the doing is not all right, but it should be the result of maturity, never the means. The infinitive expresses result. Result from an infinitive is expressed in three points of view. First of all, the conceived result; secondly, the intended result; thirdly, the actual result. Here we have an actual result. It should be translated, “not being able to bring to the goal of maturity.”

“him that did the service” — the present active participle of latreuô (λατρεύω) [pronounced lat-RYOO-oh], which means to perform worship. The present tense is an iterative present describing what recurred at successive intervals, sometimes called the present tense of repeated action. The active voice: the Old Testament believer produced the action of the verb in the dispensation of Israel under the shadows of the Mosaic law. This is a circumstantial participle. It is translated, “but not being able to bring to the goal of maturity the one performing the worship”.

“as pertaining to conscience” — katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of suneidêsis (συνείδησις) [pronounced soon-Ī-day-sis], and it should be translated “with reference to the conscience.” Why the conscience? Because this is the part of the soul where norms and standards are stored and is the part of the soul that is lulled to sleep by going through ritual, by going through some system. The conscience is never assuaged by shadows. Your conscience is clean by the work of Christ, the reality. It is the reality that counts. And it is learning doctrine thereafter that takes care of conscience, nothing else will ever do it.

Hebrews 9:9 “Which [tabernacle] was a type with reference to the present dispensation, according to which type both gifts and sacrifices which were being offered were not able to bring to the goal of maturity [supergrace] with reference to the conscience of the one performing the worship.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Type and Antitype Regarding the Tabernacle and its Furniture

1. The tabernacle is a type. The antitype is the present dispensation of the Church.

2. Beginning with the brazen altar representing the work of Christ on the cross, every part of the tabernacle has significance as far as this dispensation is concerned. That is set up by the principle of type and antitype.

3. For example, the outer court represents the earth in which the royal priesthood functions. And, by the way, it has two articles of furniture, as all of them do. First article: the brazen altar [the cross]. Second article: brass laver [rebound].

4. The holy place represents positional sanctification of the royal family.

5. The priest in the holy place is the picture of the believer priest in union with Christ in this dispensation.

6. The golden lampstand represents Christ the light of the world and the principle of occupation with the person of Christ in supergrace status.

7. The table of showbread represents Bible doctrine as spiritual sustenance of the royal family. Notice: You have to eat the bread on the table. You have to transfer doctrine from the book to your soul.

8. The holy of holies represents the very presence of God, the third heaven. This is the place of positional occupancy of the royal family. Positionally we are in union with Christ.

9. Just outside the veil outside the holy of holies is the golden altar of incense. It belongs to the holy of holies but it is in the holy place. It represents the ministry of the royal priesthood — the production of divine good with emphasis on prayer.

10. The ark and the mercy seat portray the strategical victory of Jesus Christ.

11. The actual ritual and modus operandi related to the tabernacle could not provide supergrace status. Ritual can never produce spiritual growth. Only Bible doctrine in the soul produces spiritual growth.

1972 Hebrews 9:10–11 Lesson #102

102 05/23/1974 Hebrews 9:10–11 Doctrines of dispensations, uniqueness of Church Age

Heb 9:10 but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation.

Verse 10 — we have to supply two words in order to pick up the continuity. “This applied”, not found in the original but is necessary to maintain the continuity. Then we pick up the word “only”, the adverb monon, limiting the action or the state to the one designated by the verb — “This applied only.”

“in meats” — the preposition epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative plural of brôma (βρμα) [pronounced BRO-mah]. epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative means “over” — “This applied only over foods and beverages.” We have the locative plural of poma (πόμα) [pronounced POHM-ah] which is translated “drinks, beverages”.

“divers washings” — the locative plural from diaphoros (διάφορος) [pronounced dee-AF-or-oss] means various or different kinds of. In the function of the tabernacle they were always washing something.

“and carnal ordinances” — this is all one prepositional phrase: “over foods and beverages and various kinds of washings and regulations pertaining to the body,” not “carnal ordinances.” The locative plural of dikaiôma (δικαίωμα) [pronounced dik-AH-yo-mah] means “regulations.” Along with that we have sarx (σάρξ) [pronounced sarx], generally used for the flesh, but sometimes used in place of sōma (σμα) [pronounced SOH-mah] for the body. In other words, this applied to the hygienic portions of the Mosaic law.

“imposed” — the present passive participle of epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE]keimai which means to perform worship or “being imposed.” “Being imposed” is the passive voice; this is passive. The customary present denotes what habitually occurs. The passive voice means the subject receives the action of the verb. The priest in functioning in the tabernacle receives the action, these were imposed upon him. It is a circumstantial participle.

“until the time of reformation” is not correct. “Until the time” — we have an adverb used as a preposition, mechri/mechris (μέχρι/μεχρίς) [pronounced MEHKH-ree/mekh-RIHS], plus the genitive of kairos (καιρός) [pronounced kī-ROSS], a synonym for dispensations. it means an era, an epoch, or a dispensation. The words “of reformation” is a descriptive genitive singular from diorthōsis (διόρθωσις) [pronounced dee-OHR-tho-sis], and it does not mean “reformation”, it means “new order.” It is a reference to the Church Age.

Hebrews 9:10 “This applied only to foods and beverages, and various washings, and regulations pertaining to the body, being imposed until the dispensation of the new order.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Everything related to the shadows had to follow exact regulations. You couldn’t go into the tabernacle the way you can go to church — unwashed, unshaven, unclean! The physical cleanliness of the priest represents the spiritual cleanliness of the royal priest. There is a place for good hygiene, for being clean.

The time of the new order is the Church Age, and age which interrupts the Age of Israel.

The Dispensation of the New Order

1. A dispensation is a period of human history expressed in terms of divine revelation. Dispensations are both the divine outline of history as well as the time categories of history. At the same time the dispensations are the divine interpretation of history and therefore God’s plan for man related to time. The believer’s orientation to time in history is vitally necessary for understanding God’s plan and God’s purpose for his life. In every dispensation God administers His plan through specific agencies or stewards. That means that each dispensation must be understood by the believers in that dispensation.

2. The Greek vocabulary regarding dispensations. We have four words.

1) The first is chronos (χρόνος) [pronounced CHRON-oss] which simply means time as a succession of events. It is used to portray the chronology of the history of Israel, for example. And it is used to portray the chronology in the Age of the Gentiles.

2) The second word is kairos (καιρός) [pronounced kī-ROSS]. It takes the successive events of time and breaks them up into time unites called dispensations.

3) The third is a)ion, which simply speaks of dispensations as a major period of time or a divine category of human history, as in Ephesians 3:2 and Colossians 1:25.

4) Then the fourth and last is o)ikonomia, which means stewardship or administration. This is the word most translated “dispensation” by the ancient translators.

3. The first dispensation was the Age of the Gentiles. It covers the period of Genesis chapters 1–11. By outline it has three periods.

1) The period of positive volition or man in innocence, the period of negative volition or conscience, and the period of divine establishment, the establishment of human government. It is characterized by one language, one race [Gentiles], the angelic attack upon the principles of establishment, the attack upon freedom and free will [Genesis 3], the attack upon marriage and family [Genesis 6], the attack upon nationalism [Genesis 11:1–9]. It goes from Adam to the tower of Babel, the first united nations building which God personally destroyed. It also is a period of no written canon of scripture of any kind, no missionary agency, salvation by faith in Christ.

4. The second dispensation is the Age of Israel, the age of the Jews. It covers all of the Old Testament minus Millennial passages, from the time of Abraham to the second advent of Christ, minus the Church Age.

1) It is divided into three parts: patriarchs, law, and the Tribulation. It is a broken up dispensation in the sense that it is interrupted by the Church Age and then continues to its conclusion at the second advent. The period of the patriarchs goes from Adam to Moses.

2) The period of the law goes from Moses to Christ. The period of the Tribulation goes from the Rapture to the second advent. It is characterized by many languages spoken on the earth, many races on the earth, the development of Israel from a race to a nation, Israel becomes the custodian of the written canon and the custodian of special covenants. its security came from the unconditional covenants — Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic and New covenants to Israel. It had also the Mosaic law. It had a principle for national security, prosperity, and blessing which came through the Mosaic law. There was a national system of discipline, the five cycles of discipline of Leviticus 26. There have been two administrations of the fifth cycle of discipline to Judah and one to the northern kingdom. The two to Judah were 586 BC and 70 AD. Salvation was by faith in Christ and spirituality was the faith-rest technique.

5. The doctrine of intercalation. Intercalation means insertion. It is the concept that the Age of Israel runs from Abraham to the second advent and there is inserted something which interrupts it. That, of course, is the Church Age, the calling out of the royal family. A new dispensation called the Church Age is inserted; this demands an interruption of the Jewish Age. Intercalation is the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. The Church Age was a mystery as well as an intercalation and it was not known to the Old Testament writers — Romans 16:25,26; Ephesians 3:1–6; Colossians 1:25,26 teach the principle of the mystery. The mystery refers to royal family doctrine not revealed until there was a royal family. This is also a problem in the Old Testament because whenever the Church Age would come up chronologically the passage always skipped over it. So we have what is known as “the great parenthesis” passages, passages which come right up in the teaching of prophecy to the point when the Church Age began — like the Day of Pentecost, and before that the death of Christ is taught, His resurrection, ascension and session. These are all prophesied. Then there is suddenly a blank, a parenthesis, and all the prophesies skip right over to the Tribulation, the second advent, and Millennium. Never once was the Church Age taught in the Old Testament. These parenthetical passages include Daniel 2:40, 41; 7:23,24; 8:22,23; 11:35,36; Hosea 3:4,5; 5:15–6:1; Psalm 22:22,23; Isaiah 61, the middle of verse 2.

6. The Church Age, the dispensation in our verse. It is not taught in the Gospels, except John chapters 14–17. The outline is very simple since it is a continuous dispensation. We have the pre-canon period from 30 AD to 96, during which time the canon was in the process of formation. Then we have the post-canon period from 96 AD until the Rapture. The characteristics of the Church Age will be considered later.

7. The fourth dispensation is the Millennium which is the Age of Christ. It is taught in passage like Isaiah chapters 11, 35, 62, 65; Psalm 72; Revelation 20.

When the dispensation of the new order interrupted the Jewish Age the Mosaic law was abrogated, the shadows were abrogated, everything connected with the Levitical priesthood and the tabernacle and the sacrifices were abrogated.

The Doctrine of the Uniqueness of the Church Age

1. The uniqueness of the Church Age is based on the strategic victory of Jesus Christ during the first advent, His two deaths on the cross, both of which are involved. The first death validated the new covenant, His second death or physical death abrogated the old covenant. So the Mosaic law was abrogated by His physical death but His first death was a spiritual death and that was the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ refers to the expiatory sacrifice of Christ bearing our sins. The blood of Christ covers the last three hours on the cross when He who knew no sin was made sin for us, and His first death on the cross, the blood of Christ death, actually validated the new covenant whereas the second time He died on the cross he died physically and that abrogated the first covenant. From those two deaths we have resurrection, ascension and session, all part of this great strategic victory. From this victory comes the royal family of God, and because of the royal family of God and because of the validation of a new covenant, there has to be an interruption of the Jewish Age. For one thing, the Jewish Age had just run out of gas because its covenant is abrogated. The Mosaic law was abrogated at the cross and therefore out of gas in the name of the game for the Jewish Age. Furthermore, Christ is sitting up there alone and the born again Jews cannot be royal family, they all were saved during the period when the Mosaic law was operative. Therefore, a new covenant means a whole new ball game, and that means a new age, a unique age, the Church Age; that means things that never happened before. That means a royal family and there never was a royal family of God, there was just family of God.

2. Every believer lives in the holy of holies in the palace forever. Therefore, this is accomplished by something absolutely unique, the baptism of the Holy Spirit and resultant positional sanctification.

3. As a sign of royalty every believer is indwelt by the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament no one was ever indwelt by the Holy Spirit. John 7:39 — “The Holy Spirit was not yet given because Christ was not yet glorified.” No glorified Christ, no possibility of a royal family. Glorified Christ; royal family. While believers in the Old Testament could be filled with the Spirit they were never indwelt by the Holy Spirit. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit appears to be unique to the Church Age.

4. A second sign of royalty is the fact that the believer is indwelt by the Son of God as well as the Holy Spirit. Moses longed to see our day.

5. A new dispensation means a new covenant, a unique covenant authorizing a new priesthood, and so the fifth unique factor is that every believer is a priest, and not only just a priest but a royal priest.

a. Reading and writing is an aspect of the royal culture.

b. Royal cultures often supported the arts.

c. Books were scarce and valuable in the ancient world.

d. Only in the past 100 or so years has there been a great deal to read.

6. As members of the royal family of God we have the completed canon of scripture. All divine revelation to the royal family of God is in written form and therefore God does not reveal Himself to us by dreams, visions, trances, or direct conversation. The canon of scripture was completed in 96 AD and God does not reveal Himself apart from the canon of scripture. A new communicator of doctrine has now been provided: the pastor-teacher; and a new classroom: the local church. And since this is the intensified stage of the angelic conflict, all get attacked: the Word, the communicator, the local church.

a. The holy roller has no interest in reading and writing. They prefer getting all hopped up.

b. You don’t seek God in dreams or if you hear the voice of God, you are a coocoo clock.

c. Abraham never memorized a single verse?

d. Moses could read and write. He walked out of Egypt. Until Moses there was nothing by way of written Scripture.

e. The Bible is a part of royalty.

7. The believer does not live under the Mosaic law, he lives under the new covenant which abrogates and supersedes the Mosaic law. Therefore we have a clearly defined grace way of life, so clearly defined as to be unique. There is no clearer definition of grace than Ephesians and Hebrews.

8. The objective of maturity, the supergrace life, is for the first time constructed in a systematic way. It is constructed through the various stages of the ECS. The ECS is constructed out of doctrine. For the first time in history maturity is based entirely on Bible doctrine resident in the believer’s soul. Before he reaches supergrace he will have a fully constructed ECS. Contrast that to the shadows of the Old Testament. David reached supergrace but he reached it through shadows. He learned doctrine through the tabernacle, he learned it through the teaching of Samuel, Samuel being the priest of the time. So it took shadows to build an ECS in the ancient world, now we have the finest building materials, Bible doctrine forming six floors of and edification complex moving the believer into supergrace.

9. Every member of the royal family of God is in full time Christian service. As a member of the royal family you represent God on the earth, and that is called ambassadorship. You are God’s personal representative and this is the only age in which God has represented Himself through all believers. When David was the king of Israel all believers did not represent God.

10. The strategic victory of Christ plus the interruption of the Jewish Age leads to something unique: the intensification of the angelic conflict during this dispensation. The Tribulation is not the intensification of the angelic conflict, this age is.

Now that you have accepted Christ, there is not a damn thing that you can do about it. So you might as well get with it.

Heb 9:11 But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation)

Verse 11 — first of all, we have the obvious adversative conjunction taken from the connective particle de. It sets up a contrast between the dispensation of Israel and the dispensation of the Church.

“But Christ being come” — is wrong. The aorist middle participle from paraginomai (παραγίνομαι) [pronounced pah-ahg-EEN-ohm-ai], which means to come, to arrive, to make a public appearance, to appear. We will translate it, “But when Christ himself had appeared”. Notice it is a participle, but you can translate it “when” because it is a temporal participle. A temporal participle is translated like a temporal clause. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasizes the existing results. The first advent is gathered into one entirety but emphasizing here the result of Christ becoming a royal high priest forever. So we have the whole first advent but the emphasis is on Christ being seated at the right hand of the Father. The middle voice is a direct middle in which Christ the agent participates in the results of the action with reflexive force. There, again, we have an aorist participle which has antecedent action to the main verb which is found in the middle of the next verse — “he entered”. The high priest entering the holy of holies is a picture of Christ ascending into heaven, and therefore the main verb doesn’t come until the middle of verse 12.

“an high priest” — archiereus (ἀρχιερεύς) [pronounced ar-khee-er-YUCE] minus the definite article. The absence of the definite article here calls attention to the qualitative aspect of the noun, and this places great emphasis on Christ as a new and different high priest greater than any that ever existed before. Jesus Christ is a royal high priest, He is a King priest.

“of good things” — the possessive genitive plural of agathos (ἀγαθός) [pronounced ag-ath-OSS] which means good of intrinsic value. The plural means “good things. The good things are those unique things we have just mentioned in the doctrine of the uniqueness of the Church Age.

“to come” —aorist active participle of ginomai, “good things having come to pass. The aorist tense here is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it gathers up into a single whole the divine possession of the believer as a member of the royal family —the provision, the blessing, the distribution of spoils, the unique things, everything is tied up in this constative aorist. The active voice: the good things of divine blessing and provision, the plunder, the unique things, all of these produce the action of the verb. This is a circumstantial participle which means these things belong to you, the believer.

“by a greater and more perfect tabernacle” — our source of blessing is the greater and more perfect tabernacle which is heaven. The word “by” should be translated “by means of” or “through”, it is dia plus the genitive of skênê (σκηνή) [pronounced skay-NAY], — “through” or “by means of a greater and more perfect tabernacle.” We have two comparative here, “greater” and “more perfect.” Where would you rather get your supplies for this intensified stage of the angelic conflict? From a tent or from heaven? The Jews got their supplies from a tent; we get ours from heaven.

Beans and bullet analogy. God is providing the needs of all royal family. He provides the needs of reversionists. This is why it says we are provided by a greater and better Tabernacle.

Elijah had ravens bringing him steak twice a day from heaven, not served by human hands. Trying to teach him a lesson. We are supplied and blessed out of a royal King of Kings depot. “Our food is not touched by human hands.” They had a baboon for a chef.

“not made with hands” — the ablative of source, and the noun is cheiropoiêtos (χειροποίητος) [pronounced khi-rop-OY-ay-tos], “not made with human hands”. You are not dependant on human beings at all. That is where the royal family gets its spiritual cockiness. You and I are not dependant upon human beings, this plunder comes from God. The means of administration is resident doctrine in the soul. God is dealing with a royal family, He doesn’t supply them out of a tent.

“that is to say” — literally, “that is.” There is no “to say” here; “not of this building” — this is the objective genitive singular of ktisis (κτίσις) [pronounced KTEES-iss], and it doesn’t mean “building.” It is “not of this creation.” The third heaven is not of this creation. Our source of supply owes nothing to man.

Everyone owes Uncle Sugar. But heaven doesn’t.

Hebrews 9:11 “But when Christ himself had appeared a high priest of the good things having come to pass [in the Church Age], by means of a greater and more perfect tabernacle [third heaven] not made by human hands, that is, not of this creation.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The dividing line between the shadows and the reality is the first advent of Christ. Christ is the minister of reality. Christ ministers and supplies and blesses and provides from the third heaven. The third heaven is in contrast to the shadows of the earth — the tabernacle, the Levitical order, and the animal blood. The first advent of Christ occurred during the Jewish Age. As a result of the strategic victory on the cross, His resurrection, ascension and session, the Lord Jesus Christ has replaced the Jewish Age. He has replaced the shadows with reality, therefore the shadow age is interrupted, the law which authorized the shadow age is abrogated, and it is a brand new ball game.

1972 Hebrews 9:12 Lesson #103

103 05/24/1974 Hebrews 9:12 Doctrines of the blood, redemption (revised)

Supply is never going to be a problem for us. Our supply comes directly from the third heaven. But supply is not even an issue. Most of us have memorized “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Riches in glory is the third heaven. Riches in glory is the greatest supply depot in all of history. It is such a fantastic supply depot that there has always been and always will be enough for any believer in the royal family. Supply is not the issue. This must be understood. The issue is: Are you positive enough to get into the blessing status? It is the blessings that are in doubt and the real issue in the Christian life today, the real issue in the family of God is, Are you going to get to supergrace and have that paragraph which was designed for you. There is an overabundance of money, promotion, prosperity, success in the supply depot in heaven, and the reason is because so many people didn’t use theirs!

The more holy rollers you see, the more that these blessings remain unclaimed.

There is one other thing that we should notice and we cannot ignore at this stage, and that is in verse 11 we also have Jesus Christ mentioned as the high priest. It is the first time since chapter 7 that we have had Christ mentioned as the high priest.

Verses 12–14, the shadow of the blood. These are three verses that are extremely important to understand what it means when it says, “We are not redeemed with corruptible things such as silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without spot and without blemish”, or the principles that are found in Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14. The phrase “the blood of Jesus Christ” occurs so frequently that it demands cognisance, it demands that we understand it.

Heb 9:12 he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

Verse 12 — the contrast between the shadow and the reality; the contrast of offerings. First we have the word “Neither.” This is a negative adverb oude (οὐδέ) [pronounced oo-DEH]. It is made up of two words, ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] and de, and it should be translated “And not” rather than “Neither.”

“by the blood of goats and calves” — the preposition dia plus the genitive of haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah]. The blood here is obviously defined by the descriptive genitive plurals that follow — “the blood of goats and calves.” Therefore this blood is the real blood of animals but it is a shadow pointing toward the figurative blood of Christ or the saving work of Christ on the cross. The two descriptive genitive plurals: the first is tragos (τράγος) [pronounced TRAG-oss] [goats] and the second is moschos (μόσχος) [pronounced mos’-khos], which is literally a young bull. The two offerings together are very important. The passage says so far, “And not by means of the blood of goats and of young bulls.”

1. This is a reference to the offerings used on the Day of Atonement. While a goat and a young bull were used in all of the Levitical offerings the two here refer to the offerings on the Day of Atonement specifically.

2. The high priest on the Day of Atonement, first of all with the blood of a young bull — Leviticus 16:13. The young bull was sacrificed on the brass altar, the blood was collected in a basin, carried into the holy of holies and sprinkled on the mercy seat. This blood offering was for the sins of the high priest. Then he went out and there were two goats. The first goat was sacrificed, the second goat was released — the scapegoat. So the high priest entered the second time with the blood of a goat, and this was for the sins of the people — Leviticus 16:15. The blood of goats and young bullocks was a shadow pointing to the reality. The literal blood of the animals represents the work of Christ on the cross whereby the veil was ripped by God from top to bottom. So the literal blood of animals represents the saving work of Christ. You have to keep in mind that the phrase “the blood of Christ” in the Bible does not refer to the literal blood from His hands and His feet on the cross. The “blood of Jesus Christ” refers to the sins of the world being poured out upon Him and judged; Christ bearing our sins; Christ taking our place; Christ becoming a substitute for us.

Weirdos who try to equate the blood from the Lord’s hands and feet with the phrase the blood of Christ. The literal blood of the animals is the shadow and the figurative blood of Christ is the reality.

“but by His Own blood” — the particle de is used as an adversative conjunction, it sets up a contrast between the literal blood of animals acting as a shadow in contrast to the figurative blood of Christ being the fulfilment or the reality of the shadow. So we have a contrast between the physical death of the animal and the spiritual death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross bearing our sins. Only it is not called a spiritual death. The only reason it is not is so that we won’t be confused.

You and I are born spiritually dead because we have an old sin nature. Christ did not have an old sin nature, He did not have the imputation of Adam’s sin. Christ lived a perfect life without any personal sin — doctrine of impeccability — therefore He never was spiritually dead. If He had have been He could not have gone to the cross for us. But since He was perfect He was qualified to be our redeemer. For that reason the Bible does not use the phrase “the spiritual death” but it says it is a death. Christ died twice on the cross, and He was very much alive during one death because He kept screaming “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” The problem is that most people never distinguish between the two deaths of Christ, and not being able to do so they fail to see that for three hours the blood of Christ was a reality. The blood of Christ refers to His work of three hours, always alive, bearing our sins and being judged for us. Failing to see that they fail to realize the impact and the implications of their own salvation. The Bible doesn’t call it spiritual death, it calls it “his own blood” or “the blood of Christ”, some phrase which designates the fact that He was fulfilling the shadow sacrifices of animals.

The particle de establishes a representative analogy. A representative analogy is one in which one thing illustrates another. It is not an exact analogy. An exact analogy would be a physical death indicating a physical death, but in this case it is the physical death of an animal illustrating the spiritual death of Christ. The physical death is a shadow and the spiritual death is a reality. The animal blood is real and literal pointing to the historical death of Christ bearing our sins.

The preposition dia plus the genitive singular of the definite article ídios (ἴδιος) [pronounced IH-dee-os] means it belonged to one individual — “his own” is the way it is translated. Ídios (ἴδιος) [pronounced IH-dee-os] means to belong to an individual “but by means of his own blood.” In other words, the high priest carries a bowl full of blood into the holy of holies, the shadow; Christ enters the real holy of holies having been judged for our sins.

To be called an idiot is the be called by a Bible name.

“he entered” is the aorist active indicative of eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee]. It is a culminative aorist, it depicts the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasizes the result. The action of the verb in its entirety is the blood of Christ or Christ bearing our sins, an approximate three-hour period. When it was finished then we have the culminative aorist. He died physically, He was resurrected, was ascended and was seated at the right hand of the Father. “He entered” is the culminative aorist. The active voice: Christ as our high priest entered the third heaven having accomplished His mission. The mission is described under the Biblical title “blood of Christ.” The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic assertion of doctrine.

“once” — an adverb, ephapax (ἐφάπαξ) [pronounced ef-AP-ax] which means “once for all”. He only had to do it once. The high priest every year had to make the trek into the holy of holies. He went in twice. Christ went “once for all” into heaven proving that the blood of Christ is efficacious, demonstrating that the three hours of work on the cross are a fulfilment of all the shadows. Therefore the shadows must stop.

What was the criticism of the believers in Jerusalem? They were going into the temple and offering animal sacrifices when the animal sacrifices had been fulfilled. The year was 67 AD. In 30 AD the shadows had been fulfilled completely and therefore they are condemned in their reversionism for crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting Him to open shame. In other words, you mock, you ridicule, you blaspheme the Lord Jesus Christ by going back to the shadows when the shadows have now been fulfilled and Christ once and for all entered the holy of holies, heaven itself, the third heaven. Since Christ has entered the holy of holies, that’s it. Never again is a shadow valid. Living in shadows insults Jesus and is a believer living in abysmal ignorance.

“the holy place” is wrong, it is eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative plural of hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss] which refers to the holy of holies. “So we have now, “And not by means of the blood of goats and of young bulls, but by means of his own blood once for all he has entered the holy of holies”.

For some of you, you are asking God for miracles every day. God is not in the hocus pocus business.

Animals do not have souls. Balderdash may be an exception.

The Doctrine of the Blood (review)

1. The animal blood defined. Blood is the seat of animal life — Leviticus 17:10–14. In the Old Testament shadow worship was always connected with the blood because you can’t worship God until you’re saved and the blood portrayed salvation. The animal blood of the sacrifice portrayed the blood of Christ or His saving work on the cross. This started with the coats of skins in Genesis 3:21, and goes down through the Levitical offerings of Leviticus 1–6. Animal blood represented the figurative blood of Christ. The animal blood of the Old Testament portrays the redemptive work of Christ on the cross.

a. There is nothing in the physical death of Jesus that paid for our sins, apart from Jesus saying, “Finished.”

b. Jesus did not bleed to death on the cross.

2. The blood of Christ defined. Inasmuch as Christ had literal blood and figurative blood the saving work of Christ is connected with His figurative blood. He still had His literal blood in His body after death, minus what He bled from His hands and feet which was very little.

a. Arndt and Gingrich recognize literal and spiritual blood in the Bible.

b. Kittles the blood of Christ is simply a pregnant verbal symbol for the saving work of Christ.

3. The representative analogy is now established. While the animal blood was real and literal it is a shadow. So the real and the literal was a shadow, it represents the figurative blood of Christ, the spiritual death of Christ on the cross — Colossians 1:20; Hebrews 10:19; 13:20; 1Peter 1:2. Christ died twice. The Old Testament teaches it — Isaiah 53:9 … “with the rich man in his deaths (Plural).” Then in Hebrew 9:17 we have “deaths” in the plural. Many times in the New Testament the word death pertaining to the work of Christ on the cross is in the plural, but it has been translated in the singular because the translators didn’t know what to do with it.

4. Christ did not die on the cross by bleeding to death — John 19:30–34. The physical death of Christ on the cross occurred from His own free will, not from bleeding to death — John 10:18. After His work on the cross was finished He exhaled His last breath in which He uttered the important challenge of doctrine — Psalm 31:5; Luke 23:46 records part of it. And having exhaled this famous last sentence Christ did not inhale again — Matthew 27:50; Mark 15:37; Luke 23:46; John 19:30. Therefore, the blood of Jesus Christ is a part of a representative analogy between the physical death of the animal sacrifice and the spiritual death of Christ on the cross being judged for our sins — 1Peter 2:24.

5. The blood of animal sacrifices was a shadow pointing to the reality of the cross — Hebrews 9:12–14.

6. Therefore the blood of Christ depicts the saving work of Christ on the cross. There are four doctrines of salvation or soteriology depicted by the blood of Christ — expiation: Revelation 1:5; redemption: Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; 1Peter 1:18,19; Hebrews 9:12; Justification: Romans 5:9; Sanctification: Hebrews 13:12.

7. The blood of Christ in expiation is the basis for the rebound technique. This is taught by the Old Testament shadows, the non-sweet savour offerings of Leviticus 4 &5. It is also taught in a doctrinal comparison of 1John 1:7 with 1John 1:9.

Most of what Bob gets, comes from his own work. But here, he resorts to a lexoographer to show that this is not a new idea with him.

Reese appears to be a new person at Berachah Church at this time. He is going to fix the AC unit.

“having obtained” — the aorist middle participle of heuriskô (εὑρίσκω) [pronounced hyoo-RIHS-koh] which means to find, to discover, to come upon. In the middle voice it means to find for one’s self, to acquire, to obtain, to procure. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers up into one entirety the verb which is procuring eternal redemption. The middle voice is an indirect middle, it emphasizes Christ as the agent producing the action of the verb rather than participating in the results of the action of the verb. The participle is an aorist participle of antecedent action to the main verb. The main verb: “he entered”, the picture of the ascension of Christ. Christ secured or procured redemption on the cross before he entered the true holy of holies, the third heaven.

“eternal redemption” is in the accusative. This is the accusative of the direct object in the singular of the adjective aiônios (αἰώνιος) [pronounced ahee-OH-nee-oss] meaning eternal or everlasting. It really means everlasting, technically speaking. If it is dealing with God it is eternal, He has no beginning and no end; if it is dealing with man it is everlasting because he has a beginning but no end.

Then we have the accusative singular of the direct object of lutrôsis (λύτρωσις) [pronounced LOO-troh-sis] which is the act of redemption. The suffix ij is an active suffix and it means the act of liberating, ransoming, or releasing a slave from the slave market.

Hebrews 9:12 “And not by means of the blood of goats and of young bulls, but by means of his own blood once and for all, he [Christ] has entered the holy of holies, having secured eternal redemption.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Doctrine of Redemption

1. Definition. Redemption is the saving work of Christ on the cross toward sin. In other words, the saving work of Christ on the cross is directional: toward God is propitiation; toward man is reconciliation — removal of the barrier; toward sin is redemption. The blood of Christ covers all of them. Redemption refers to the work of Christ in purchasing our freedom from the slave market of sin. We are born in the slave market of sin because we are born with an old sin nature as well as the imputation of Adam’s sin. So we are born spiritually dead and in the slave market. Christ was born outside the slave market, the only one who was, and the only way He could was through the virgin birth. So he was born outside, lived a perfect life, and as a free man He freed us. The coin of the realm, of course, was the blood of Christ or His saving work. He had to buy our freedom. Ephesians 1:17; Colossians 1:14.

a. There is no amount of bleeding that we can do in order to be saved.

2. The significance of redemption. Christ paid the ransom for sin on the cross. Christ purchased our freedom by bearing our sins or being judged for our sins on the cross — Psalm 34:22; Galatians 3:13; 1Peter 1:18,19.

3. Christ was qualified to be our redeemer. This is the application of the doctrine of the virgin birth, the doctrine of incarnation, the doctrine of impeccability — 1Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 1:3; Isaiah 53:9; John 8:46; 19:4; 2Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; 7:26–28; 1Peter 1:18–20.

4. Christ was willing to redeem. The redemptive work of Christ on the cross was an act of His own free will. Christ was obedient to the Father’s plan — Luke 22:42; Romans 5:19; Philippians 2:8.

5. The doctrine of redemption was communicated in the Old Testament by the shedding of blood — Hebrews 9:22; 9:12. The Old Testament saints understood and applied this doctrine — Job 19:25,26.

6. The blood of Christ is the ransom money or the purchase price of our freedom or redemption — Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; 1Peter 1:18,19. The blood of Christ depicts His saving work on the cross, His spiritual death and being judged for our sins.

7. The results of redemption.

a. Deliverance from the Mosaic law and its shadows — Galatians 3:13; 4:4–6.

b. The redemption provides forgiveness for sins — Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Hebrews 9:15; Isaiah 44:22.

c. Redemption provides the basis for justification — Romans 3:24.

d. Redemption provides the basis for sanctification — Romans 5:25–27.

e. Redemption provides the basis for the believer’s eternal inheritance — Hebrews 9:15.

f. Redemption is the basis for the strategical victory of our Lord Jesus Christ in the angelic conflict — Colossians 2:14,15; Hebrew 2:14,15.

g. Redemption of the body is the ultimate status of the royal family of God — Romans 8:23; Ephesians 4:30. The redemption of the body is possessing a resurrection body.

1972 Hebrews 9:13–14a Lesson #104

104 05/26/1974 Hebrews 9:13–14a Contrast of shadows and reality

The first 12 verses of this chapter now lead to a fantastic conclusion made up of two verses. Verse 13 gives us the protasis of a first class condition. Verse 14 gives us the apodosis. The two verses together actually make up one sentence. The problem is to understand enough of the Greek syntax in order to be able to put this together.

Greek Conditional Clauses

1. A Greek conditional clause is the statement of a supposition the fulfilment of which is assumed to secure realization. We have the statement of a supposition in the first clause and then realization of the potential fact expressed in the second clause. The first clause expresses the potential, the second clause expresses the realization which comes from that potential. The first clause is introduced by the word “if” in the English. The second clause then follows fulfilling the realization of that potential.

2. The clause containing the supposition is called protasis. V. 13

3. The clause containing the statement based on the supposition, or the conclusion, is called apodosis. V. 14

4. All conditional clauses in the Greek are classified on the basis of the attitude they express with reference to the reality. The protasis is always a supposition; the apodosis is always the reality.

5. For example, there are four categories.

a. A first class condition is a supposition from the viewpoint of reality. It is introduced by the word “if” which in the Greek of a first class condition is ei (εἰ) [pronounced I]. This means if and it is assumed to be true. Satan said to Jesus in the great temptation, “If thou be the Son of God [and you are].” this is a first class condition. Then he also said, “If you will fall down and worship me [and you won’t].” That was a second class condition.

b. A second class condition has a supposition from the viewpoint of unreality — if and it is not true. A contrary to fact condition. So it is introduced by the conditional conjunction ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] again, but it also has the optative instead of the indicative mood in the protasis. Then the apodosis always begins with the conjunctive particle a)n, untranslatable but used to identify.

c. Then we have a third class condition which is called the more probable future condition. The protasis is introduced by eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN] plus the subjunctive mood of the verb. It should be translated, “If”, maybe yes, maybe no. “If we confess our sins” — maybe we will and maybe we won’t, it is a matter of volition. The third class condition generally has to do with the future, ordinarily the immediate future.

d. Then there is a fourth class condition in the Greek called the less probable future condition expressed by ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] in the protasis plus the optative mood. It the apodosis it begins with that untranslatable particle a)n. So this simply gives us illustrations of all four conditional clauses. We have in 1Peter chapter 3 two fourth class conditions. Peter says to the adherents to his doctrine, “If you suffer for righteousness sake [I wish you were but you’re not].”

6. Verse 13 of Hebrews chapter 9 has the protasis of a first class condition. It is assumed to be true. While this verses introduces the second verse, verse 14 introduces the apodosis.

So we have one of those very difficult conditional clauses covering verses 13 and 14. And we have an introduction to it in verse 13 — the shadow cleansing. The real cleansing — verse 14.

A lot of you just walked in and what I am teaching has 2 weeks of prologue. This is the Word of God; and it is very important. This is why we don’t go to church on Saturday; and this is why you are not a layman. You are related to heaven.

The High Priest entered twice into the Holy of Holies on the Day of Atonement. First with the blood of the bull for himself; second with the blood of a goat for the people of Israel.

Heb 9:13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh,

Verse 13 — this is the first part of a representative analogy. In the Old Testament at the brass altar they offered an animal sacrifice. The ones that we have been noting in this passage are young bulls and goats. This was especially on the Day of Atonement. The animal being killed is a representative analogy of Christ bearing our sins in His own body on the cross.

The animal dying physically; Christ died spiritually. So there is an analogy between the physical death of the animal and the spiritual death of Christ bearing our sins. The literal animal blood is a shadow, the figurative blood of Christ is the reality. For Christ had two kinds of blood, the literal blood in His veins — He bled from His hands and His feet for a short time, and then His blood coagulated. He did not bleed to death and the blood in His veins is not significant, it is the blood of Christ which is significant — and “the blood of Christ” represents Christ bearing our sins, taking our place. In other words, the blood of Christ is used for the expiatory offering of Christ on the cross. Christ died twice on the cross. His spiritual death was substitute for us — “He who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” He bore our sins in His own body on the tree. And while He was bearing our sins God the Father judged Him, and when He was being judged for our sins He screamed out during three hours of darkness on the cross, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He was forsaken because He was bearing our sins. This was depicted by shadows in the Old Testament, the shadows of the animals being killed on the altar.

In Isaiah 53:9 it says that Christ died “deaths” on the cross — He died twice. The same thing will be found again in our context. The word “death” is often in the plural when applying to the cross because when Jesus Christ was on the cross He died twice. He died bearing our sin, that was His salvation work. That salvation work is covered by a phrase in the New Testament called “the blood of Christ.”

His physical death occurred because His work was finished. Having sent away, dismissed His spirit, He exhaled His last, His human Spirit went into the presence of the Father, His body into the grave, His soul into Paradise or Hades; all rejoined in resurrection, and then ascension and session. And when Christ went up into the third heaven as the God-Man in resurrection body God the Father said to Him, “Sit down on my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.” That was the completion of the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, and the high priest once a year going into the holy of holies was a picture of Christ going into heaven and being seated there. In other words, the holy of holies is the shadow pointing to the third heaven. That is why everyone stayed out of the holy of holies and that is why in the last chapter of Exodus, chapter 40, it was Jesus Christ who came to dwell in the holy of holies as the Shekinah glory.

When the tabernacle was standing Jesus Christ alone was in the holy of holies. Therefore there was a veil and no one could go past that veil. But when Jesus Christ was bearing our sins on the cross the veil was split from top to bottom. Now we live in the holy of holies, that is our position. We are in union with Christ.

All of this is important as we begin the verse with the word “For”, the conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] used in an explanatory sense. gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] summarizes everything that we have studied in the first twelve verses of this chapter. In other words, we are now ready for the explanation. The first part of this particular clause in verse 13, the protasis, presents the shadows and a representative analogy — shadow cleansing with literal animal blood. The second part of the analogy found in verse 14 gives us the figurative blood of Christ which describes His saving work on the cross.

Shadows can only purify shadows, it takes reality to purify reality. And the point is that the shadows existed for over a thousand years but when Jesus Christ was on the cross the reality was there and the shadows are gone. It takes the reality to cleanse the reality, it take the blood of Christ to cleanse in reality, and the blood of Christ is His saving work and that is where we are today. We live in the greatest of all dispensations. The Jewish Age was interrupted because the reality came. And when the reality went to the cross and bore our sins and took our place then shadows were gone. And once the shadows are gone the Mosaic law which authorizes the shadows has gone. The Mosaic law being abrogated means that the Levitical priesthood is abrogated, there is no specialized priesthood any longer and you are your own priest. You are not only your own priest but you are a royal priest.

We are going to translate that conjunctive particle gar, “For you see”, since it is an explanatory conjunction and it explains why shadows can only purify shadows and why it takes reality to purify the reality. The word “if” is the conjunctive particle ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] used to introduce a first class condition — if, and it is true.

Now we come to the word “blood” again, the nominative singular of to haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah], “the blood.” This is used for the real and literal animal blood, blood which an animal had in his body. Death is official in an animal when his blood is gone. But that is not true of mankind. Man may die by bleeding to death but man is not officially dead ever until his soul leaves his body. The animal has no soul. That is even what the scripture says: “Absent from the body, face to face with the Lord.” The real you is your soul. The physical death of the animal at the brass altar represents the spiritual death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

Notice that the word order in the Greek is the exact opposite of the English. It is “goats and bulls” — tragôn kai tarôn. These are both genitive plurals and the goat comes before the bull, rather than the bull before the goat. Why? The goat is a descriptive genitive plural used for salvation offerings. However, tauroj here is equivalent to the Hebrew par and therefore it is the bullock in the AV or the rebound offering of Leviticus 4:4–8. So the goat comes first because it represents a salvation offering here, and salvation always come before rebound.

“and the ashes of an heifer” — the nominative of spodos (σποδός) [pronounced spohd-OSS], “ashes”, plus descriptive genitive of damalis (δάμαλις) [pronounced DAHM-al-is], “heifer.” The ashes of the heifer refer to Numbers chapter 19, one of the great rebound offerings, and the ashes are mentioned specifically in Numbers 19:9. The offering is related to ceremonial uncleanness, and ceremonial uncleanness is a picture of carnality. The red heifer offering took care of ceremonial uncleanness and represents the rebound technique. Therefore, once again we have a representative analogy. The Jews were rendered ceremonially unclean by touching a corpse, by touching a tomb, by entering a house where a dead body was. All this represents is the old sin nature with which we are born. We are born physically alive and spiritually dead because we possess in the soul this old sin nature. The ashes, again, are dependant upon the cross. The reason that we name our sins and are forgiven is that our sins were judged on the cross, our known sins and our unknown sins.

“sprinkling” — a present active participle of the verb rhantizô (ῥαντίζω) [pronounced hran-TIHD-zoh] and was used for cleansing. It means really to sprinkle as a rite of purification. The present tense is a customary present to denote what is habitually used as an offering in Numbers 19. The active voice: the blood of the animal was sprinkled in the ritual of purification. The participle is a temporal participle and therefore should be translated as a temporal clause — “when sprinkling”.

“the unclean” — perfect passive participle from koinoô (κοινόω) [pronounced koy-NOH-oh] which means the one having uncleanness. it should be translated “the one having been defiled.” The perfect tense is a consummative perfect, it describes the process by which the existing state occurs. The process: the Jew has become ceremonially unclean by touching a dead body, by touching a tomb, by entering into a home where there was a corpse. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb, he becomes ceremonially unclean. The participle is circumstantial.

“sanctifieth” — present active participle of hagiazô (ἁγιάζω) [pronounced hawg-ee-AD-zoh] which means to sanctify or to purify or to cleanse. It means here to purify. The present tense is an iterative present in the Greek, it describes what recurs at successive intervals, it is often called the present tense of repeated action. In other words, this was only done during a red heifer offering, during one of the animal sacrifices. The active voice: the blood and ashes were used in purification ceremonies to represent the expiatory work of Christ on the cross and/or the blood of Christ. The indicative mood is declarative, it represents the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality and becomes a dogmatic statement of historical past. Therefore it should be translated “keep purifying”.

The shadows were used to purify shadows, the reality has to be purified by reality. Therefore in the fullness of time Jesus Christ had to come, had to go to the cross, for all of these sacrifices portrayed some facet of His expiatory work on the cross. That is why blood was used in connection with all of them. Every bit of animal blood represents the efficacious, expiatory sacrifice of Christ which is Christ bearing our sins. It says in Romans 5:8, “God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” And then occasionally you will see the phrase “Christ died for our sins,” and “for our sins” is u(per, meaning “on behalf of” or “as a substitute for”. He didn’t die physically for our sins, He died spiritually for our sins.

“to the purifying of the flesh” — a prepositional phrase, pros plus the accusative of katharotês (καθαρότης) [pronounced kath-ar-OHT-ace], and it should be translated “with reference to ceremonial cleansing of the flesh”.

Hebrews 9:13 “For you see if the blood of goats and of bulls, and the ashes of the red heifer when sprinkling one who has become ceremonially unclean, continue purifying with reference to ceremonial cleansing of the flesh [and they do].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

That is the protasis. In other words, this ceremony actually worked. Why did it work? Because God the Father anticipated the coming of Christ, bearing our sins, the blood of Christ, the expiatory offering.

The rest of the sentence is verse 14, the real cleansing. V. 14 is the apodosis.

Heb 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Verse 14 — “How much more” — the instrumental singular from posos (πόσος) [pronounced POHS-oss]. Posos (πόσος) [pronounced POHS-oss] is actually used adverbially before a comparative adverb mallon (μλλον) [pronounced MAL-lon], and it means “how much greater” as well as “how much more.” Christ is the reality, and how much greater is the reality than the shadow. All of the animal sacrifices portrayed something fantastic, they represented doctrine by which men like David reached supergrace. But how much greater is the reality? Remember that always, from the time of the Mosaic law, from the time of the starting of the canon of scripture, until the death of Christ on the cross, all worship was related to shadows. That is why they had a specialized priesthood, a specialized priest to explain the shadows, to function in shadows, to deal with the holy and sacred building. But now, you are a priest, you are royal family, the shadows are gone. The shadows were dissipated being fulfilled at the cross. And the resurrection, ascension and session put Jesus Christ in the palace, and Jesus Christ brings with Him many sons into glory. Now there is no specialized priesthood. You are your own priest, you are to represent yourself before God. The point is that the reality is here. We no longer live in the shadows, we have reality. But the reality only becomes meaningful as we GAP it daily, as we take in Bible doctrine on a daily basis.

“the blood of Christ” — this is the reality, to haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah] tou Xristou: His expiatory work on the cross.

“who”, relative pronoun referring to the blood of Christ, “through the eternal Spirit” — bad translation. We have dia plus the genitive of pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] plus the genitive of aiônios (αἰώνιος) [pronounced ahee-OH-nee-oss]. Aiônios doesn’t always mean eternal. It means eternal when it applies to God because God has not beginning and no ending, and eternal is no ending and no beginning. It also means everlasting — to have a beginning but no ending. We have everlasting life, we have a beginning but no ending. God is eternal; we as royal family are everlasting. It should be here, “through the instrumentality of his eternal spirit.” What does it mean? It doesn’t mean the Holy Spirit, it means the volition or the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. The words “eternal spirit” refers to the entire divine essence of Christ. Jesus Christ is God. As God He is sovereignty, righteousness, justice, eternal life, etc.

Sometimes pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] is simply used for God because His essence is invisible. For example, in John 4:24 we have pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] ho Theos, “God is a spirit.” Ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh]merely tells us that this is the subject, ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh]theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] is pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] You don’t have to have a verb there in the Greek, they never used it for an obvious relationship like this which has great emphasis. It should be literally translated, “The God is a spirit.” The verb to be is understood, never translated. We know that ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] is the subject and which is the predicate nominative because the definite article indicates which is which. If it was ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh]pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS], then it would be “The spirit is God.” But it is “God is a spirit.”

Notice is says here, “through the instrumentality of his eternal spirit.” It is referring to His essence. In other words, Jesus Christ did something in eternity past that is related to our salvation. This was before He ever became man. By the way, we have no definite article in this passage, the absence of the definite article calls attention to the quality of the noun and the adjective. Jesus Christ is the highest quality as God. He is the infinite quality. It does not refer to the human spirit of Christ here since aiônios (αἰώνιος) [pronounced ahee-OH-nee-oss] is an adjective and it refers to something that existed long before the incarnation. It can refer to the eternal deity of Christ and only His eternal deity. Christ said “I will die”, and He said it in eternity past, and He said it in His humanity. His deity in the eternal decrees had already agreed to go to the cross. That is what is being said here. The blood of Christ must be linked with the eternal essence of God. We have a contrast here between the animal life and the volition of eternal God, the second person of the Trinity.

Principle

1. Animals were unwilling sacrifices, they had to be tied to the horns of the altar.

2. Animals were offered through the law which authorized Levitical offerings, rather than by their own consent. It was law that put them on the altar.

3. We have previously seen Christ offering Himself from His human volition. This was during the incarnation — Matthew 26:39, 42; Mark 14:35, 36; Luke 22:42. The human volition of Christ is emphasized also in Hebrews 10:7, 9. But here the divine sovereignty of Jesus Christ in eternity past is linked with His blood. So in the hypostatic union Christ made a decision but this verse is not teaching the hypostatic union.

4. In the sphere of His eternal spirit or essence Christ made a decision to go to the cross in eternity past, and this is a part of the divine decrees. In other words, in eternity past the cross was planned by God the Father in the sphere of His sovereignty, and Jesus Christ acquiesced in the sphere of His eternal divine sovereignty to go to the cross. So this phrase is a reference to the divine sovereignty of Jesus Christ in eternity past saying, “Yes, I will go to the cross. Yes, I will become humanity and go to the cross.” And this is in contrast to the animals who said, “Don’t.” That is why there were horns on the altar, because the animal said, “No, not me. Someone else, not me” So there is a contrast in that sense.

We are designed for blessing; we are not designed to suffer for Jesus. There is suffering which occurs along the way; but God wants us to have the things which He provides.

“offered himself” — this is in eternity past when He was only deity, the aorist active indicative of prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh]. This is a gnomic aorist, an occurrence in eternity past. A gnomic aorist expresses a dogmatic or axiomatic fact of doctrine which cannot be argued in any way. It refers to an actual occurrence in eternity past. The gnomic aorist is very close to the culminative aorist and the culminative aorist also applies. It gathers up into one entirety the decision, which was instantaneous, and also looks at it from the standpoint of its existing result. In other words, billions of years ago gather up into one ball of wax the volition, the sovereignty of Jesus Christ. He said yes. That was in eternity past. Then in time here is the existing result. So the culminative aorist looks at the existing result, Christ bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. The active voice: Christ produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative which views the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality and dogmatism.

The man who wrote Hebrews graduated from the university of Alexandria; it was not Paul. The writer of Hebrews had a classical Greek education. This man is brilliant and he knows attic Greek. He had a phenomenal choice of vocabulary.

There is also with this a reflexive pronoun of the direct object which says “himself”, and “himself” in contrast to animals. The shadow, therefore, is contrasted with the reality. The reality: billions of years ago Christ said, “Yes, I will become a member of the human race and go to the cross.”

Furthermore, we have “without spot” added. This is an adjective amômos (ἄμωμος) [pronounced AM-oh-moss], meaning “blameless”, inside as well as outside. The animals were without spot or blemish on the outside but Jesus Christ is blameless inside — doctrine of impeccability. Notice the direction of the offering, the dative of indirect object, theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] plus the definite article — ho Theos, “to the God.”

Hebrews 9:14 Translation so far: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the instrumentality of his eternal spirit [divine essence] has offered himself without blemish to the God.”

1972 Hebrews 9:14b-15a Lesson #105

105 05/26/1974 Hebrews 9:14b-15a Doctrine of mediatorship

Redemption Through the Blood of Christ

Heb 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.

Greek Conditional Clauses is first reviewed (previous lesson). Bob reviews the individual words already covered in the previous lesson. Dia and pneuma (already covered). The Holy Spirit is not in view here; this is a reference to the Deity of God the Son. John 4:24 substantiates this. Everyone in the Godhead is a Spirit. I think the notes given here are slightly out of order.

“Through the Eternal Spirit”

1. We have the preposition dia plus the genitive of pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] plus the genitive of aiônios (αἰώνιος) [pronounced ahee-OH-nee-oss]. There is no definite article, it should be “through the instrumentality of his eternal spirit.” It calls for the use of a pronoun to correctly translate it.

2. The question arises; What is the meaning of “eternal spirit” mistranslated in the King James version, “the eternal spirit”? First of all, it does not mean the Holy Spirit.

3. The absence of the definite article calls attention to the quality of the noun and the adjective — highest quality. Also it helps us to understand the principle here, that this is not a reference to the Holy Spirit who is eternal God but not in view here.

4. This is a reference to the deity of God the Son.

5. This is substantiated by John 4:24 which says pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh]theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS]. This phrase in the Greek has a subject and a predicate nominative, and you can always tell — even though they are in reverse order in the Greek — the subject. The definite article isn’t even translated here, it merely is used to demonstrate what is the subject — ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh]theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] is the subject and it is not translated “the God”, just simply “God.” Then in this type of relationship, for emphasis you remove the verb, simply the verb to be. But you put it in for translation — ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh]theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] is, and then pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah]: “God is a spirit”. Pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] is often used in the Greek to indicate divine essence. So when it says “the eternal spirit” it is talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, His deity, His essence.

6. It does not refer to the human spirit of Christ since the adjective aiônios (αἰώνιος) [pronounced ahee-OH-nee-oss] is attached. When used of God aiônios (αἰώνιος) [pronounced ahee-OH-nee-oss] means eternal, but the same adjective used of a saved person means everlasting. Why? The adjective used with people means they have a beginning but no ending; the adjective used with God means He has no beginning and no ending. The principle is that it does not refer to the human spirit of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, it couldn’t refer to the human spirit of Jesus Christ because the human spirit of Jesus Christ does not have volition and volition is involved here. It refers to His eternal essence, His sovereignty specifically.

7. So “through eternal spirit” refers to the eternal deity of Christ with emphasis on His sovereignty. In other words, in eternity past Christ agreed to go to the cross and bear our sins. He agreed to become humanity.

8. This phrase is used in contrast to the animal life. So there is a contrast here between the animal and the volition of eternal God the second person. The animal did not want to go to the altar.

9. Animals were unwilling sacrifices, they had to be tied to the horns of the altar.

10. Animals were offered through the law which authorized Levitical sacrifices rather than by their own consent — emphasizing that animals did not agree to this.

11. We have previously seen Christ offering Himself from His human volition in His human soul — Matthew 26:39, 42; Mark 14:35, 36; Luke 22:42. The human volition of Christ is also emphasized in Hebrews 10:7,9. But here we have the divine and eternal sovereignty of Jesus Christ willing to go to the cross. In the hypostatic union Christ made the same decision to go to the cross the night before the crucifixion, but that is not in view in this passage, it is the fact that in eternity past He made the decision.

12. In the sphere of His eternal spirit or essence Jesus Christ made a decision to go to the cross billions of years ago as part of the divine decrees, the same decrees that say to you as royal family, “Look, you’re alive. That means your needs have been provided right up until now, and providing your needs is not of any spiritual connotation.” The fact that you are alive and have all of your needs doesn’t mean a thing, the spiritual connotation lies in divine blessing and divine blessing comes to the believer in supergrace status. “Get off the panic button over your needs.” Of course He will. That’s the whole point. That is routine 6 for royal family. But what God wants to do is bless you.

13. The sovereignty of God the Son, Jesus Christ, was willing to go to the cross and the sovereignty of God the Holy Spirit agreed to sustain God the Son during the period of His incarnation.

14. Therefore in eternity past the cross was planned by God the Father in the sphere of His sovereignty, so that everyone is involved.

15. Therefore, this phrase is a reference to divine sovereignty of Jesus Christ in eternity past agreeing to the incarnation and the cross.

16. The sovereign volition of Christ resides in the essence of His deity while the human volition of Christ resides in His human soul.

17. Pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] is used instead of psuchê (ψυχή) [pronounced psoo-KHAY]. Pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] refers to the eternal essence of Jesus Christ, and pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] is used to designate the area of volition involved and to set up a contrast between the non-cooperating animal being dragged to the altar and the total compliance of divine sovereignty with regard to the cross.

Christ is infinitely superior to the animals, which are being regularly offered up.

Hebrews 9:14 Translation so far: “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the instrumentality of his eternal spirit [divine essence] has offered himself without blemish to the God.”

The word purge indicates that the writer of this book graduated from the University of Alexandria; filled with Attic Greek. The morphology of many of these verbs is Attic rather than Koine Greek.

Next, the future active indicative of the verb katharizô (καθαρίζω) [pronounced kath-ahr-EED-zoh], is in the Attic Greek form. The word is used in the Koine but it has Koine suffixes, and so on, and here we have strictly classical Greek. Katharizô (καθαρίζω) [pronounced kath-ahr-EED-zoh], means to cleanse, to purify, to make an expiation. Here it means to purify as an expiatory offering.

The basic sentence is: “How much more shall the blood of Christ purify by an expiatory offering.” The future tense is a gnomic future, it is a statement of absolute fact definitely expected under conditions of faith in Christ. The active voice: the blood of Christ or the saving work of Christ on the cross produces the action of the verb in contrast to the blood of animals. The indicative mood is declarative for dogmatic statement of fact.

“your conscience” — it says “our conscience” in the Greek. The word suneidêsis (συνείδησις) [pronounced soon-Ī-day-sis] is the direct object but we have a genitive plural personal pronoun from egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH] which should be translated “our” rather than “your”.

“dead works” is a reference to any human plan which intrudes upon the plan of God, anything by which man seeks to be saved by man’s plans and man’s actions.

“to serve the living God” — and that is exactly where we are. We are in the service of the living God as members of the royal family of God.

Done with the review and moving forward in v. 14:

Continuing at the end of verse 14, “to serve” which is a present active infinitive of the verb latreuô (λατρεύω) [pronounced lat-RYOO-oh],. Latreuô (λατρεύω) [pronounced lat-RYOO-oh], is used for the priestly function of the Levitical order. This verb was actually used in the Septuagint and it was also used in Attic Greek. As a translation of the Septuagint it was always used for the modus operandi of the Levitical order. Hence, we have a parallel here, a priestly function. We have the priestly function of the royal priesthood in the holy of holies portrayed by the Levitical priesthood. The royal priesthood performs its priestly function in both the holy place and the holy of holies. Again, we live in the holy of holies, the place where no Levitical priest ever went except the high priest once a year to teach ascension and session.

The present tense of the verb to serve is a static present, it denotes a condition or a set of circumstances which perpetually exist. And the royal priesthood performs priestly function in the reality area of the holy of holies forever. The active voice: the royal priest on the basis of the blood of Christ performs His priestly function, not in the shadow of a sacred building, not in the holy of holies, but in the reality. We are positionally in the third heavens and therefore everything that we do is extremely important. The infinitive is an infinitive of result based on the blood of Christ and/or the saving work of Jesus Christ. So we should translate this, “to function as a royal priest,” and then, “to the living God.” The last phrase is a dative of indirect object, “the living God” indicating the one for whom or in whose interest our function is performed. He keeps us alive in His own interest, that is why He supplies our needs.

God provides everything that keeps us alive, and we are alive as His guests, as His ambassadors, even when we are failing. And the fact that He provides our need is not a spiritual issue. It is providing our blessings that is a spiritual issue, and as we mature spiritually our blessings increase and intensify.

The word “living” is an ascriptive use of the present active participle of the verb zaô (ζάω) [pronounced DZAH-oh]. “Ascriptive” means to use it as an adjective. Zaô (ζάω) [pronounced DZAH-oh] is translated, therefore, “living God”.

The entire conditional clause, beginning at verse 13:—

Verse 13 — “For you see if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a red heifer when sprinkling one who has become ceremonially unclean, continue purifying with reference to the ceremonial cleansing of the flesh [and they do]: R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 9:14 “How much more shall the blood of the Christ, Who through the instrumentality of His eternal spirit [His divine essence] has offered Himself without blemish to the God [the Father], purified by an expiatory offering our conscience from dead works to function as a royal priest to the living God.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

We function on this earth as royal priests. And we are here to receive maximum blessings from God. The highest thing that we can do is take in doctrine on a daily basis and we grow up; and then God is able to bless us, which glorifies Him.

The whole concept of social security is Satanic. They are living from the devil’s own system; just like socialism and communism. An officer has a SS number, rather than a serial number. Bob is glad to have his. It is everywhere. Bobby has a stupid social security number.

Dead works are believers who are starving and going without, just to impress God. For a born again believer, from the royal priesthood, it does not speak well. Bob is not referring to times of discipline. God provides air for us to believe. We are thriving on the air in Houston.

Bob wants paper mills all over town. That means publications are possible. Food and clothes, that is routine. Blessing is what glorifies God.

Our existence on the earth flies in the face of the devil; it is the devil’s world. We are elected without owing the devil a thing. Our blessings do not depend upon any system provided in this world.

Summary

1. The blood of Christ or the saving work of Christ on the cross, which refers to His spiritual death, is the beginning of reality which dissipates the shadows.

2. The shadows are related to the tabernacle, the function of the Levitical priesthood, a specialized priesthood, and the use of animal sacrifices which are shadow sacrifices even thought the blood is literal and real.

3. The Levitical priesthood was prohibited from entering the holy of holies which was reserved for the royal priesthood of the Church Age. Behind the second veil was reserved for us.

4. Jesus Christ made the decision to go to the cross from His divine sovereignty billions of years ago. This became the basis for the divine decrees.

5. The blood of Christ is describing an expiatory offering. In other words, the blood of Christ is the expiatory work of Christ on the cross, it is not bleeding. Christ had figurative blood and literal blood. His literal blood bled during the first three hours on the cross for a short time. It has nothing to do with salvation. It is His figurative blood when during the last three hours He was bearing our sins, when they were poured out upon Him. That is the figurative blood of Christ, that is the expiatory sacrifice, that is what saves us, that is what tore down the veil between the holy place and the holy of holies in the temple. The word “blood” is related to the animal sacrifices to prove that Christ is the fulfilment of the shadows. The blood of Christ refers to becoming a substitute for us. Only mysticism and superstition thinks that the physical blood of Jesus is meaningful. Bleeding from His hands and feet was nothing. His physical blood did not save us. Even had He bled to death, that would not have saved us. It was His being judged on the cross that bore our sins.

6. The blood of Christ is the expiatory work involving His spiritual death bearing our sins.

7. It occurred during those three hours when Jesus was in darkness and kept screaming, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

8. During that time Christ was bearing our sins in His own body on the tree — 1Peter 2:24, and being judged for them by God the Father.

9. The fulfilment of the shadows, the coming of the reality [Jesus Christ], results in the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. This victory began with His spiritual death — Colossians 2:14, 15; Hebrews 2:14, 15.

10. The victory was concluded with the resurrection, ascension, and session of Jesus Christ. He is at the right hand of the Father living in the real holy of holies, the third heaven.

11. The saving work of Christ establishes the pattern and the precedent of grace.

12. The royal priest is purged from dead works. This qualifies him to function as a royal priest before the living God. Each one of us has already been purged from dead works. We were purged or cleansed from dead works by the blood of Christ. There is no excuse for dead works in the life.

People duck around this subject of the blood; they know that people will get angry to hear this taught. People who teach congregations are afraid of them and might believe what is true, but won’t teach it.

Verses 15–23, the shadow of the covenant. This is the 3^rd of the 4 shadows. Shadow of the Tabernacle; shadow of the blood, shadow of the covenant, and shadow of the priestly function.

Verses 15–17 is one paragraph. There are two new covenants, and the reason we have new covenants is because the old one, the shadow one, the one that authorized all the shadows was the Mosaic law. It was a shadow covenant; it is gone. When the blood of Christ occurred, the expiatory sacrifice on the cross, that wiped out the Mosaic law; it abrogated it. And the abrogation of the law means we have two future things: we have a royal family, so there is a new covenant for the royal family — the new covenant to the Church; then, when Christ returns He is going to regather Israel, so there is a new covenant to Israel. Israel can’t operate under the Mosaic law and yet they are going to have a temple in the Millennium, they are going to have a priesthood in the Millennium, but it calls for a new covenant to get away with it. So there is a new covenant to the Church and a new covenant to Israel.

Heb 9:15 Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

Verse 15 — “And for this cause.” This is a connective conjunction kai setting up the relationship between the shadow of the blood and the shadow of the covenant. They go together because blood ratifies a covenant. In the Mosaic law shadow blood ratified the covenant. In the two new covenants to the Church and to Israel the blood of Christ ratified the covenants. But we also have dia plus the accusative of the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos], so it is translated literally, “And because if this” — because of Christ, the reality, having accomplished His efficacious work; because Christ has offered Himself and is the efficacious sacrifice. This phrase actually refers back to Hebrews 8:6. So the strategic victory of the Lord Jesus Christ makes a new covenant possible, and the strategic victory of Jesus Christ makes Him the mediary of a better covenant, the new covenant which authorizes our priesthood.

The better promises are all about greater blessing in the Church Age. Fundamentalism is not interested in Bible doctrine.

The 10% income tax kept all of the things going at the Tabernacle or the Temple. They were paid large salaries out of income tax. When Bob visited a church and heard, “We will now have tithes and offerings,” he would cringe. Spiritually blind cannot tell anything between the shadow and the reality. The guy who wrote “There is a fountain drawn from Immanuel’s veins” was a heretic. He should have died the sin unto death.

Our priesthood has nothing to do with the Mosaic law, we are under a new covenant ratified by the blood of Christ, ratified by His expiatory sacrifice on the cross. The better promises are related to the royal priesthood and the plunder that belongs to the royal family now as well as for ever. The purpose of the epistle to the Hebrews is to bring the royal priest of the Church Age to the normal function of his priesthood and his cut of the plunder. And that is about the most difficult thing that God ever does because that demands supergrace status, and that demands a constant, consistent intake of Bible doctrine. So here is the argument for reaching supergrace — Hebrews 8:6 cf 9:15.

“he is” — present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. The present tense here represents a condition as perpetually existing, known as the static present.

“the mediator” — this is a predicate nominative from mesítês (μεσίτης) [pronounced meh-SEE-tays].

The Doctrine of the Mediator

1. The earliest and most basic concept of the mediatorship is found in Job 9:2 cf 32, 33 where “daysman” is used. A daysman is a mokiach which is the same as mesítês (μεσίτης) [pronounced meh-SEE-tays]. It is someone who goes between two groups and is equal with both groups, and arbitrator but he must be equal with both parties in the arbitration.

2. A mediator is someone who removes a disagreement or an estrangement between two parties and brings them to a common goal and purpose. It means to interpose between two parties as the equal friend of each. By so doing a reconciliation is effected. Therefore mediatorship results in the reconciliation of God and man. The Father is propitiated by the mediator and man is reconciled to God by the mediator. So the mediator is not only equal with God because He is God and equal with man because he is man, but He propitiates God and He reconciles man as the act of mediation. And all of this is accomplished by the blood of Christ.

a. Sin becomes the issue between man and God. In order to bring two parties together, He must be equal to both parties.

b. Reconcilliation in itself does not provide a common goal.

3. The mechanics of mediatorship are found in 1Timothy 2:5,6. In verse 5 the two parties are God and man. They are revealed plus the mediator who is equal with both: the God-Man. In verse 6 the basis of reconciliation is the redemptive work of the cross.

a. 1Tim. 2:5–6 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

4. The relationship to the Mosaic law — Galatians 3:19,20. The Mosaic law served as a temporary measure until the mediator became incarnate and until the blood of Christ became a reality. In the meantime the Mosaic law under the supervision of the mediator was taught by angels to Israel.

5. The mediator of the new covenant is identified as the Lord Jesus Christ — Hebrews 9:15–17. His mediation was accomplished through three things. His mediation brings man and God together. They are estranged because of sin. So, sinward: redemption; manward: reconciliation; God-ward: propitiation. And the blood of Christ = redemption + reconciliation + propitiation.

6. Therefore there is a relationship between mediation and the blood — Hebrews 12:24. The blood of the animal sacrifices portrayed redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation.

7. Therefore the obvious conclusion is found in Hebrews 8:6. Christ our high priest is the mediator of a better covenant which deals with realities rather than shadows. The shadow covenant anticipated the coming of Christ but the new covenant is the coming of Christ, is the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ ratified the new covenant.

1972 Hebrews 9:15a Lesson #106

106 06/02/1974 Hebrews 9:15a Review doctrine of mediatorship; doctrine of New Covenant

First day in the Battle at Gettysburg. Took huge casualties on the rebel side. 13 color bearers for about 300 yards of land.

Verse 15 (Review)

Beginning in verse 15 and going through verse 23 we have one of the clearest of all paragraphs on what is the blood of Christ and what is the responsibility of the believer in the dispensation in which we find ourselves. In these verses we have the shadow of the covenant. We have seen the first shadow which was the shadow of the tabernacle. The second shadow was the shadow of the blood. Now here is the third of four shadows in this chapter, the shadow of the covenant.

One of the greatest mistranslation is all of the Bible is ho kainh diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay] which is translated “the New Testament”. It is really and literally “the New Covenant”, and this is more than just a technical point, this a the great issue to the royal family. We do not have a new testament, we have something greater than a will or a testament, we have a new covenant.

Never has so much been given to the believer; and we utilize less and less of what God ha provided for us. This dispensation of the church is the greatest dispensation where God gives so much to the believer.

Hebrews 8:6 gives us in clear terms from the original exactly how important this dispensation is.

Hebrews 8:6 “But now he [Christ] has attained a more excellent ministry by so much as he is the mediator of a better covenant, which category of covenant has been ordained on the basis of better promises of blessing, both spiritual and material.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Mosaic law can only authorize shadows, including a shadow priesthood. The new covenant to the Church authorizes substance to the royal priesthood. The Church Age is the dispensation of reality in contrast to the Jewish age which is a dispensation of shadows. Only once in history, in this dispensation, we have the greatest opportunity of the exploitation of grace as has ever existed in all of the human race and in all of human history.

Therefore we read, “And because of this by means of a new covenant he the mediator of the new covenant”.

The word “mediator” is the predicate nominative from mesítês (μεσίτης) [pronounced meh-SEE-tays]. He is said to be the mediator of the “new testament” and this is where we run into a real snag, one which does not appear important until you’ve had a lot of doctrine from the scripture. We go back and review the doctrine of mediatorship. I will not add it, but go back and add whatever might be missing.

The mediator removes the estrangement between the two parties and then he brings borth parties forward to a common goal.

The words “of the new testament” is an ablative of means from the noun diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay], a word which actually means a covenant and is equivalent to the Hebrew berith. Diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay] comes from the word diatithemai (διατίθεμαι) [pronounced dee-at-IHTH-em-ahee] which means to decree, indicating that the covenant is from God. It means to decree regulations. It is the actual decree which forms the relationship between God and man and the spiritual legacy of the royal priesthood. We also have with it the word “new”. It is also an adjective but the ablative of means of the adjective kainos (καινός) [pronounced kahee-NOS],. Kainos (καινός) [pronounced kahee-NOS], means new in species, new in character, new in category. The phrase in the Greek precedes “he is mediator” so that literally the word of the Greek is “And because of this by means of the new covenant he is mediator.”

The Doctrine of the New Covenant to the Church (review)

1. Definition. We will spend a lot of time here; and there will be many subpoints.

1) A covenant is a disposition made by one party (God) in favour of another party (man after salvation). It is not a testament. A testament simply means inheritance after death, it depends on someone’s physical death before it becomes valid to those who are mentioned in the will as the heirs. But the physical death of Christ has nothing to do with salvation, nor does it have anything to do with our legacy. Our legacy is based upon His spiritual death. And a covenant has greater strength than a will, it cannot be set aside whereas a will can be set aside by an act of law. Therefore we have something that is much greater than a will or testament. Furthermore, Jesus Christ is alive. A will or a testament is in operation because the person is dead, but Christ in resurrection body is physically alive. So we are not the beneficiaries of a will and testament because otherwise the resurrection of Christ would have cancelled His will and testament. We are the beneficiaries of a covenant which has nothing to do with physical death. The new covenant demands the spiritual death or the saving work of Christ or the blood of Christ for its fulfilment.

2) The Mosaic covenant or the Mosaic law was a covenant of shadows — shadow buildings, shadow priesthood, shadow sacrifices — because the Mediator had not come in the flesh, and therefore there was no mediator until Christ became true humanity.

3) Therefore the function of the Mosaic law in the Age of Israel was legitimate but not efficacious.

4) A new covenant must exist with historic reality — the first advent of Christ making Him mediator and qualifying Him to be Savior. And there must be an efficacious sacrifice. The Mosaic law did not authorize any efficacious sacrifices, it simply pointed to efficacious sacrifice. The coming of reality — the first advent — and the fulfilment of the shadows in the efficacious sacrifice of Christ on the cross demands a new covenant.

5) In fact, it demands two new covenants, one to the Church and one to Israel. Once Christ comes and becomes the true mediator by His virgin birth, true humanity — in other words, the hypostatic union qualifies Him to go to the cross, qualifies Him to be a mediator, and it immediately sets aside the Mosaic law. In setting aside or abrogating the Mosaic law that leaves Israel hanging for the Millennium. So there must be a new covenant to Israel in the Millennium as well as a new covenant to the Church for our dispensation. Every dispensation after the interruption of the age of the law must have a new covenant related to the efficacious sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross.

6) This new covenant to the Church is a spiritual legacy for the royal family of God and authorizes a royal priesthood.

7) The new covenant applies only to those who are born again by faith in Christ.

8) Hence, the new covenant is God’s grace disposition to the royal family of God in time and eternity.

This is highly technical. This is not a new testament but a new covenant. A testament is based upon the death of someone.

The Doctrine of the New Covenant to the Church (continued)

1. Summary

1) The new covenant is not a will which requires the physical death of the testator (the one who makes the will).

2) The new covenant requires the spiritual death of Christ on the cross, His efficacious offering of the blood so that God the Father can ratify a new covenant. A covenant is ratified; a will or testament becomes operational by physical death. But the parties involved are alive in the ratification of the covenant, and Jesus Christ in resurrection body is alive.

3) The new covenant to the Church is made in favour of the royal family. This is God’s greatest experiment of grace.

4) The new covenant supersedes the shadow covenant of the Old Testament — the Mosaic law, the Levitical code.

5) It authorizes a new universal priesthood for the royal family of God which operates positionally in the holy of holies.

6) The new covenant ratified by God the Father is valid only because of the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ could not be, therefore, His physical, literal blood. Christ did not save us by bleeding to death, He saved us by bearing our sins. Animal blood was not efficacious.

7) The new covenant is the reality in contrast to the shadows of the old covenant, the Levitical code.

8) Hence, the new covenant is the legacy of the royal priesthood with God the Father as the ratifier and God the Son as the mediator.

9) The mediator offered Himself as an efficacious sacrifice on the cross.

10) The Father was propitiated, the covenant was ratified. The covenant calls for a royal family to live forever in the holy of holies. The real Holy of Holies is heaven. Bob gives vv. 14–17 right here. 44:00

2. The scripture regarding the new covenant to the Church. The reason we pause to give the scripture is because there is a new covenant to Israel and it has a different set of scriptures. This is scripture regarding the new covenant to the Church, not to Israel — Matthew 26:28; Mark 14:24; Luke 22:20; 1Corinthians 11:25; 2Corinthians 3; Hebrews 7:22; 9:15–20; 10:29; 12:24.

3. The principle of the new covenant to the Church. The old covenant, the Mosaic law is abrogated by the death of Christ, His burial, resurrection, and ascension. When He is seated at the right hand of the Father the old covenant is through and the new covenant is operational. So the new covenant replaces the old, the shadow is now replaced by reality, and for the first time in all of human history we live in the reality period of God’s plan.

1) Once you have believed in Jesus Christ, the plan of God begins for you.

4. The new covenant and the priesthood. The new covenant authorizes a new priesthood, a royal priesthood of the Church Age. The specialized priesthood, the Levitical order of Israel, is set aside with shadow worship.

5. The new covenant and the strategic victory of Jesus Christ. The strategic victory of Christ in the angelic conflict — which is His death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and session — interrupts the Age of Israel, voids the old covenant, the Mosaic law. It does not void the unconditional covenants of Old Testament times. The Mosaic law is an unconditional covenant abrogated by the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. We also have to Israel the Abrahamic, Palestinian, and Davidic covenants. With the death, burial, resurrection, and session of Christ at the right hand of the Father the Mosaic law is abrogated and is replaced by the new covenant to the Church. To take care of these unconditional covenants we also have a new covenant to Israel. The new covenant to the Church is authorized for the Church Age, the new covenant for Israel is authorized for the Millennium. Both are eternal. The new covenant belongs to the royal family only, the new covenant to Israel belongs to Israel in the Millennium and forever.

6. There is a distinction, therefore, between the new covenant to Israel and the new covenant to the Church. The new covenant to Israel, for example, is found in Galatians 4:4; Jeremiah 31:31–34; Hebrews 8:8–12; Hebrews 10:15–18. The new covenant to Israel is the authorizing agent for the restored Israel in the Millennium. Today there is not Israel. Israel is scattered as far as the Word of God is concerned and when a Jew believes in Christ he is a member of the royal family of God just as when a Gentile believes in Jesus Christ. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile in this age. The distinction comes after the Rapture of the Church. So we have a distinction between these covenants. The new covenant to Israel replaces the Mosaic law for the function of Israel’s priesthood and all Israel in the Millennium. This means that there will be animal sacrifices in the Millennium authorized by the new covenant to Israel as a memorial to the work of Christ, not a shadow. We also have the new covenant to the Church which authorizes the royal priesthood and will continue forever, living in the holy of holies.

7. The summary of authorizing covenants.

1) We have the Mosaic law which authorizes the Levitical priesthood of the Age of Israel.

2) We have the new covenant to the Church authorizing the royal priesthood of the Church Age.

3) We have the new covenant to Israel authorizing the Levitical priesthood of the Millennium and the Millennial temple of Ezekiel chapters forty through forty-eight.

8. The new covenant to the Church is the basis for establishing the royal family of God forever. Part of the plunder of the strategic victory of Christ is the establishing of a royal family composed of Church Age believers only. The new covenant to the Church authorizes the royal family its priesthood and its supergrace plunder — promotion, wealth, materialistic things, success, prosperity, sharing God’s happiness. Remember that God is not interested in merely providing your needs.

9. The shadows and the reality. All the shadows of the old covenant point to the person and the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the reality, He has become the “guarantee of a better covenant” — Hebrews 7:22. The better covenant is the new covenant and Jesus Christ is the guarantee. The blood of the covenant has set us apart as the royal family — Hebrews 10:29.

1) This guarantee is the new covenant.

God provides our needs to keep us alive. That is nothing. He provides these needs for all believers. The reversionist believer is kept alive in order to discipline him. As long as it is God’s will for us to be alive, He will provide our needs for us. My God shall supply all of your needs, according to the riches and glory of Christ Jesus.

After death, there is no discipline. God can only spank us in time, and that is why He keeps some of us alive.

The next phrase says, “that by means of”. It is not quite correct. We have the adverb o(pwj used as a conjunction to introduce a purpose clause. It should be translated “in order that” which is the traditional way of translating a purpose clause — “in order that a death” [not “by means of”]. We have “of death” in the English translation but this is a genitive absolute and the word thanatos (θάνατος) [pronounced THAH-nah-toss], the word for death, is in the genitive. But you don’t translate it that way in a genitive absolute because a genitive absolute is a combination of a noun in the genitive case and a participle in the genitive case, and the genitive case is translated like a nominative. In other words, the noun is the subject. So instead of “of death” it is “a death.” Then we have the participle, the aorist active participle in the genitive case of ginomai which means to come to pass — “a death having come to pass” is the correct way to translate the genitive absolute. Again, the genitive absolute is a noun and the participle in the genitive case which are not directly connected with the rest of the sentence and the genitive case now becomes the subject and the participle becomes the verb. So this genitive absolute begins a parenthesis. And the phrase “in order that”? Well, the purpose clause is on the other side of the parenthesis. So we have “in order that” which introduces a purpose clause. Then “a death having taken place” is the beginning of a parenthesis, and on the other side of the parenthesis we will have the purpose clause.

Some passages must be exegeted from the original languages in order to understand what they mean.

So far in this verse we have “And because of this, by means of a new covenant [new authorizing agency] he is the mediator” — we will forget about “in order that” since it goes with a clause later on. From the word “mediator” we have a parenthesis — “a death having come to pass.” Now ginomai is in the aorist tense and the aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The duration of this constative aorist is about three hours, from twelve noon until about three o’clock in the afternoon when Christ was on the cross. During this time Christ was bearing our sins, He was being judged for our sins. The constative aorist gathers up into one entirety the saving work of Christ on the cross and/or the blood of Christ. So this is the saving work of Christ on the cross, His spiritual death which is called the blood of Christ. The active voice: the spiritual death of Christ produces the action of the verb — “a death having come to pass.” The participle has antecedent action to the main verb which is “might receive.”

Continuing in the parenthesis we have “for the redemption.” Here we have a prepositional phrase, eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of apolutrôsis (ἀπολύτρωσις) [pronounced ap-ol-OO-troh-sis], one of the very strong words for redemption, it connotes the payment of a ransom and completing the deliverance or the manumission of a person in slavery. Only the virgin birth made it possible for Christ to be born a free man, and it takes a free man to redeem slaves. The coin of the realm is the blood or the cross where Jesus Christ redeemed us, liberated us from the slave market of sin, where He reconciled us to God and where He propitiated God the Father. So we walk through the door to freedom by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative has many meanings but the one that is pertinent here is “for the purpose of redemption”. The fact that there is no definite article in from of apolutrôsis (ἀπολύτρωσις) [pronounced ap-ol-OO-troh-sis] emphasizes the quality of the noun.

“of the transgressions” — parabasis (παράβασις) [pronounced par-AB-as-is] refers to the transgressions; “under the first testament” which is literally, “under the first covenant” — the Mosaic law — epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative of diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay]. This is a reference to the Mosaic law which set up the standards clearly defining sin. Therefore a violation of these known standards is called transgression.

At this point the parenthesis is closed and we can begin our purpose clause. But so far we have “And because of this, by means of a new covenant he is mediator” — parenthesis — “a death having come to pass for the purpose redemption of the transgression against the first covenant.”

Mediator for an Estrangement Between God and Man

1. A mediator removes the estrangement between two parties and brings to a common goal. The estranged parties are God and man.

2. The basis for the estrangement between God and man is sin, therefore sin must be resolved on the cross.

3. Christ is the mediator and is therefore equal to both parties in the mediation. He is God, therefore equal with God; He is man, therefore equal with man — 1Timothy 2:5,6.

4. But to become mediator Christ had to become a man. He is eternal God and He became a man, setting up the doctrine of the hypostatic union. The hypostatic union qualifies Him for mediatorship.

5. The mediation is accomplished by the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ is His saving work on the cross.

6. The saving work on the cross is directional. Redemption, toward sin; reconciliation, toward man; propitiation, toward God. Therefore, redemption plus reconciliation plus propitiation equals the blood of Christ, and the blood of Christ is the basis for the new covenant for the Church and the new covenant to Israel.

So far in this verse we have “And because of this, by means of the new covenant he is mediator (a death having come to pass for the purpose of redemption of the transgression against the first covenant) in order that” — taking the adverb used as a conjunction to introduce a purpose clause and replacing it on the other side of the parenthesis where it belongs in English — “they which are called.”

1972 Hebrews 9:15b-17 Lesson #107

107 06/02/1974 Hebrews 9:15b-17 Validity of the New Covenant

Hebrews 9:15a “And because of this, by means of a new covenant he is mediator” — (a death having come to pass for the purpose redemption of the transgression against the first covenant.”

In order that. The word “they” is actually a definite article in the nominative plural o(i. The definite article is used in many ways. It is used in the Greek for pronouns of all types. It is used in the articular infinitive for a personal pronoun. It is used often for a demonstrative pronoun. It is used in almost every way conceivable in order to clarify certain areas. And since the original language and its grammar understands this someone caught this in the translation and correctly translated it. The definite article nominative plural translated as a personal pronoun refers to the royal family of God, and as members of the royal family of God we are included in this sentence — “they which are called.”

The definite article is a part of the articular participle here, and the participle is a perfect passive participle of the verb kaleô (καλέω) [pronounced kal-EH-oh]. It refers to the doctrine of election and the fact that in eternity past God the Father had the good sense to know ahead of time who would believe and who wouldn’t. Omniscience always knows and understands what is ahead. What is ahead is generally unknown to us, except as we anticipate peripheral trends, but what is ahead has always been known to God. That is a part of omniscience. Therefore God had a plan for us and this plan is summarized under the category of election. God made each one of us members of the royal family of God. They which are called refers to the royal family of God except that we do not have a good translation of the perfect tense — “they having been called.” The perfect tense here is intensive, it indicates that the action of the verb has been completed and it emphasizes the existing results. The existing results include the fact that we are here as members of the royal family of God. We are a universal priesthood, we have a very definite purpose for remaining in this life. The passive voice: the royal priest receives the action of the verb, he is in the plan. There is a plan for your life right now. Not only is the participle articular but it is circumstantial, referring specifically to the royal family of God and their purpose.

“might receive” — again, we have an aorist active but this time the subjunctive mood of the verb lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh]. The word lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh] here means to receive or to take into one’s possession, or to receive into one’s possession. Here we have a culminative aorist which views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. There are many promises which come from God for the royal family specifically. These promises came from God in eternity past, they are recorded in the canon of scripture in time. And they all simply go back to the source, God Himself. It is translated “that they might take into their possession”, literally. The active voice: the royal family, those who are elected of the Church Age, produce the action of the verb. The subjunctive mood is potential, it indicates that it is God’s purpose for us to utilize all of the promises He made to us under the doctrine of decrees. But it also indicates that while this is His purpose it is potential. The potentiality of the subjunctive mood is based upon the believer’s attitude toward Bible doctrine. Positive volition which is consistent fulfils the plan of God, but inconsistent positive volition or negative volition result in failure to utilize the wonderful plan of God and to enter into the blessings of the supergrace life.

The word “promise” is in the accusative singular. It is a direct object and it gathers up, as it were, all of the promises that God has ever made. Furthermore, the singular indicates the fact that all promises depend upon the essence of God. There is only one source so basically no matter how diversified the content of promises they all have one source. So we have the accusative singular direct object of epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah]. It refers to grace promises, which means we cannot earn them or deserve them or work for them.

The next phrase is a genitive of the adjective aiônios (αἰώνιος) [pronounced ahee-OH-nee-oss], meaning “eternal”, the adjective for eternal or everlasting. With that we have the noun which it modifies, klēronomía (κληρονομία) [pronounced klay-rohn-ohm-EE-ah], which means “inheritance, possession, property.” It often connotes materialistic things, as certainly we have under our supergrace paragraph. Both of these genitives are genitives of possession connoting the idea of ownership. God has something special for each one of us by way of blessing. We own these things but possessing them depends upon reaching the supergrace life.

Hebrews 9:15 “And because of this by means of a new covenant he is mediator, (a death having occurred for the purpose of redemption of the transgressions against the first covenant) in order that they [the royal family] having been called may receive into their possession the promise of eternal inheritance.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The New Covenant Solves the Sin Problem

1. The new covenant was based on the death of Christ providing redemption. (The word “transgression” emphasizes redemption)

2. The old covenant defined transgressions while the new covenant solved the sin problem.

3. Not only did the new covenant solve the sin problem through Christ and His blood but it authorized a royal family of God forever.

4. The abrogation of the old covenant of shadows and the establishment of the new covenant of reality brings into existence the royal family of God, and with it a new royal priesthood universal in scope.

5. The new covenant was ratified by the spiritual death of Christ on the cross, i.e. the blood of Christ: redemption, reconciliation, propitiation.

6. The next two verses illustrate this principle. Namely, that the new covenant became valid and effective on the basis of the spiritual death of Christ on the cross, making it a covenant instead of a testament. It is the physical death of Christ that indicates not only His work was completed but makes possible a bona fide resurrection from the dead. So the physical death of Christ has great meaning but not in the ratification of the new covenant, it is the spiritual death that is primarily involved.

7. Christ ratified the covenant through His blood, making it valid, and at the same time authorizing a new and universal priesthood.

8. The next two verses emphasize the importance of the two deaths of Christ on the cross, one in validating the new covenant, the other also having significance. The new covenant had to be ratified with the blood of Christ and His expiatory sacrifice, just as the old covenant was ratified by animal blood.

People have taken Bob’s doctrine of RM/RW but have added things like, “47 things you do on a date and 68 things that you should not do on a date.”

Bob’s job is not to tell us how to live our lives. He is to teach the Word of God. Some even instruct of how to have a tape class. You cannot tell another person God’s will’s for their life. There is no time schedule for one believer which applies to another. You have noticed a minimal amount of interference in this church as to how you should dress. Your manners outside of the church is your business; your manners inside the church is something else.

People must handle their own lives using doctrine. It is not the pastor’s job to tell us how to live. Bob spent 2 or 3 days on v. 15; but he presents it in a couple of hours. So you may not get it or agree with it at the start. If you are not getting doctrine here, then you need to get it somewhere else. Your standards need to be inside of you. You don’t have to ask a lot of questions or get a lot of guidance about this or that.

Heb 9:16 For where a will is involved, the death of the one who made it must be established.

Verse 16 begins with the words “For where.” We have a conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] used for explanation, and an adverb hopou (ὅπου) [pronounced HOHP-oo],. An explanation is now going to be given and first of all it says “For where a testament”, and we now understand this means “covenant”, the nominative singular of the noun diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay] — “For where a covenant”. A covenant, again, is a disposition made by one party in favour of another party on specified terms which must be acceded to. The specified terms are believing in Jesus Christ, receiving Him as Savior and, after that, growth in grace through the intake of doctrine.

The Mosaic law was a covenant and since it was a covenant of shadows its authorized Levitical sacrifices were not efficacious. They were animal sacrifices, they could not take away sin. They could point to the blood of Christ which would cleanse from all sin but they could not take away sin in themselves. A new covenant must exist with an efficacious sacrifice which is, in this case, the spiritual death of Christ on the cross, His saving work on the cross, the blood of Christ, the three hours in which time Jesus Christ provided His redemptive work. While diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay] can connote last will and testament it connotes in the Bible a spiritual legacy. The word “covenant” [diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay]] can be used for a last will and testament. That is the way it was used in profane Greek, in Attic Greek, it is a very old word. But it is used in the Bible for a spiritual legacy, in this case the legacy of the royal family of God. In the Attic Greek, the classical Greek, diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay] or “covenant” was used also for an agreement or a treaty, sometimes and ordinance or a series of regulations. In the New Testament it has the connotation of spiritual legacy to the royal family or, in the case of the new covenant to Israel, spiritual legacy to Israel in the Millennium. However, this verse does not imply that this word is used for last will and testament. The death of Christ is unique, His spiritual death is the basis for a spiritual legacy, the spiritual legacy of the royal family. His physical death has nothing to do with our salvation. His physical death has great doctrinal implications but it is the spiritual death of Christ bearing our sins that has the implication spiritually. Christ was very much alive when He said salvation was finished. “It is finished” refers to salvation; He was alive when He said “It is finished.” It is when Christ was alive and bearing our sins and being judged for us that He did His saving work, and our spiritual legacy is not based on the physical death of Christ, it is based upon His saving work, the spiritual death of Christ.

The last words that Jesus uttered, The God of doctrine.

“For where a covenant.” We add the word “is” which isn’t necessary really — “For where a covenant is.” There is no verb there but the verb to be can be added to make better English.

“there must also be of necessity the death of the testator” — that phrase is wrong. It is actually a phrase made up of six words. The first two: qanatwn anakê (ἀναγκ) [pronounced ahn-ahg-KAY]. The next is a verb, an infinitive feresqai, and then tou diaqenemon. The only way to handle this is to number them. 1 = qanatou; 2 = anakê (ἀναγκ) [pronounced ahn-ahg-KAY]; 3 = fereqai; 4 = tou diaqenemon.

The Phrase Words

1. Thanatwn is the accusative singular of the noun thanatos (θάνατος) [pronounced THAH-nah-toss]. It is part of an accusative of general reference with the infinitive. The noun is in the accusative case, and when a noun in the accusative case is used with an infinitive [The is classical or Attic Greek] while the noun is not properly the subject — we call it that — it describes the thing connected with the action of the infinitive. Hence, the noun in the accusative is t

2. Anakê (ἀναγκ) [pronounced ahn-ahg-KAY] means necessity. So let’s put is this way: “For where a covenant exists of necessity death.” The reason for putting “death” next is because it must be put with the infinitive, it is the subject of the infinitive in the accusative of general reference.

3. The infinitive, feresqai, is the present passive infinitive of the verb phérô (φέρω) [pronounced FEH-row]. phérô (φέρω) [pronounced FEH-row] means here to be brought in. The present tense is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. The aorist tense is punctiliar action in past time. The aoristic present is actually punctiliar action in present time. In addition to that this is an historical present which views a past event, the spiritual death of Christ on the cross, with the vividness of a present occurrence. The passive voice: the subject is spiritual death or the blood of Christ or His expiatory sacrifice or His redemptive work. The subject receives the action of the verb. The efficacious death of Christ on the cross — known as the blood of Christ, known as the saving work of Christ — receives the action of the verb. The infinitive is a part of the accusative of general reference. In the active voice phérô (φέρω) [pronounced FEH-row] means to bear, to carry, to bring along. But in the passive voice it means to be brought in, and we have a passive voice of phérô (φέρω) [pronounced FEH-row] here.

Now we have an articular participle, and notice we have dia with the definite article outside. In other words, tou is the genitive of the definite article. Then comes dia. So we have tou — genitive case — the definite article, then we have the preposition. The reason for this is because in classical Greek whenever you have an articular infinitive and the articular infinitive is the object of the preposition the preposition must be inserted between the definite article and its object. We actually have dia plus a participle for the object. The participle is in the genitive case. We have the aorist middle participle of diatithemai (διατίθεμαι) [pronounced dee-at-IHTH-em-ahee] . So we have dia plus the genitive of the articular participle of diatithemai (διατίθεμαι) [pronounced dee-at-IHTH-em-ahee] . Diatithemai (διατίθεμαι) [pronounced dee-at-IHTH-em-ahee] means to arrange according to one’s own mind, to make a will is another meaning. It also means to decree when used of God. To ratify a covenant is the other meaning, and that is what it is here. The culminative aorist of the participle views the event in its entirety but emphasizes the existing results.

The existing result is that the new covenant is ratified and that you as a member of the royal family of God are authorized to function on this earth under that new covenant, you are authorized to grow in grace, you are authorized to be occupied with the person of Christ, you are authorized to be prosperous, to be successful, to be promoted, to be in every way in enjoyment of materialistic things in the devil’s world under the new covenant. The middle voice is the indirect middle in which Christ as the agent produces the action, but it emphasizes Christ ratifying the new covenant through His blood or His saving work. The participle is not only part of an articular participle but it is circumstantial. In addition to that it is an aorist participle. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb is “might receive.”

Hebrews 9:16 “For where a covenant exists, of necessity death must be brought in of the one having made the covenant.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This is the spiritual death of Christ, this is the efficacious saving work of Christ on the cross.

The New Covenant to the Church (additional material)

1. This verse, and all of these verses, do not talk about a testament. Therefore “testament’ is an erroneous translation. They talk about a covenant. This is not a will or testament which requires the physical death of the testator but this is a covenant which requires the spiritual death of the testator. Jesus Christ as the testator in His spiritual death makes it possible for us to be beneficiaries as members of the royal family. The only thing that can ratify the new covenant is not the shadow blood of an animal, nor even the physical blood of Christ coming out of His veins, but His saving work on the cross while He was very much alive.

2. This verse amplifies and illustrates the previous verse. The new covenant is made in favour of the Church, the royal family of God.

3. It supersedes the shadow covenant, the Mosaic law. The shadow covenant is abrogated by the cross, therefore it supersedes the old covenant, the shadow covenant, the Mosaic law.

4. It authorizes a new priesthood for the royal family of God in which every member of the royal family is a priest living positionally in the holy of holies until he dies and then his soul moves directly to the holy of holies or the third heaven. The holy of holies in the tabernacle and then again in the temple was a shadow pointing to the third heaven. We live right now in the holy of holies positionally. In Christ we are in the holy of holies. The veil was rent from the top to the bottom while Christ was still alive and the entrance into the holy of holies was now open.

5. This new covenant is only valid because of the efficacious death of Christ on the cross bearing our sins, the reality fulfilling all of the shadows of the Levitical code. The “life of the flesh is in the blood” referred to animals only and the shadows of the Levitical code are all fulfilled by the death of Christ on the cross. Therefore technically the death of Christ is always efficacious whereas animal sacrifices are non-efficacious.

6. Therefore the covenant is the spiritual legacy of the royal priesthood, just as the old covenant was the legacy of the Levitical priesthood.

7. The new covenant has a mediator, Jesus Christ, whose blood ratified the covenant. The mediator, the God-Man, Jesus Christ, offered Himself an efficacious sacrifice in bearing our sins on the cross. The Father was propitiated by the offering of Christ, man was reconciled, sin was taken away through redemption. The new covenant, therefore, calls for a royal family to live forever in the holy of holies in the third heaven because of the blood of Christ. Remember, the blood of Christ equals redemption plus reconciliation, plus propitiation = the blood of Christ.

Heb 9:17 For a will takes effect only at death, since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive.

Verse 17 — we have the conjunction gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] to indicate a continuation of the explanation — “For a covenant — diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay], without the definite article. The absence of the definite article emphasizes the qualitative aspect of the noun. There is no higher covenant and never will be than the new covenant which makes you a member of the royal family forever. This is the real covenant in contrast to the shadows, this is the eternal covenant of the royal priesthood.

“is of force” — this word is completely out of the Greek order, so once again we have trouble. So this time we have five words involved. First of all we have diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay] gar, the beginning of the sentence. But next we have a prepositional phrase, epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] nekroij, and there is one more word, the word “of force”, notice where it comes. It comes at number five, bébaios (βέβαιος) [pronounced BEB-ah-yoss].

The Words That We Have So Far

1. We have the conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] used to continue the explanation, and then the subject diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay] — “For a covenant.”

2. Then a prepositional phrase, epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] nekroij, which is the locative plural. So we have epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative plural of nekros (νεκρός) [pronounced nehk-ROSS]. Notice, it is locative plural — “deaths”, plural. It is a reference to the two deaths of Christ on the cross, and epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative should be translated “upon”.

3. Then we have bébaios (βέβαιος) [pronounced BEB-ah-yoss] which means reliable, dependable, valid, or certain.

It should be translated: “For a covenant is valid upon deaths.” Like Isaiah 53:9, “deaths” is in the plural to indicate that Christ died twice on the cross. The first death was His saving work called the blood of Christ. The physical death which followed was necessary as the stepping stone from spiritual death to, resurrection, ascension and session where the strategical victory of our Lord could be completed. The physical death was necessary for physical resurrection and through the raising of Christ from the death the Father recognizes and verifies the new covenant.

The word “otherwise” is incorrectly translated. It is the causal use of the conjunction epeí (ἐπεί) [pronounced ehp-IH] and it should be translated “because”.

“it is of no strength at all” — the negative mê plus the present active indicative of ischuô (ἰσχύω) [pronounced is-KHOO-oh] plus the adverb pote. poté (ποτέ) [pronounced poht-EH] is an enclitic particle here, and with the negative mê it means “not ever.” Ischuô (ἰσχύω) [pronounced is-KHOO-oh] means to be valid. It should be translated “because it is not ever valid”.

“while the testator liveth” — now we have a temporal particle o(te, translated “while.” The word for “testator” is the aorist middle participle of diatithemai (διατίθεμαι) [pronounced dee-at-IHTH-em-ahee] which means the one having made the covenant. The aorist tense is culminative, it gathers it up into one ball of wax and looks at it from the result standpoint. The middle voice is the indirect middle in which Christ as the agent produces the action of the verb rather than participating in its results. He is the agent in making the covenant, this is His saving work. The indirect middle is very important here because it says the covenant becomes valid through Jesus Christ bearing our sins, through His redemptive work, through His work in reconciliation and propitiation. The participle has antecedent action to the main verb, the main verb is in verse 15 — “might receive”.

“liveth” — present active indicative of zaô (ζάω) [pronounced DZAH-oh].

Principle: The new covenant is not valid until Christ died twice on the cross. He died the first time as His saving work. That is the blood which ratifies the covenant. But the new covenant is no good without Christ in the holy of holies. The blood was shed on the brass altar but the high priest must take the blood to the holy of holies. Therefore, He has to die to do it because He is not shedding His blood like the high priests of old in a bowl, He is carrying Himself, the Savior. Therefore He has to die physically, be resurrected, ascend, and then be seated at the right hand of the Father. The new covenant is no good, even though it is ratified, until the Lord Jesus Christ is in the holy of holies because the new covenant calls for royal family living in the holy of holies. Therefore Christ is living in the holy of holies in a resurrection body and that is where we will live forever.

Jesus lived under the Mosaic Law. The Olivet Discourse and the Sermon on the Mount had nothing to do with the church and the Church Age. He had to present Himself as the Messiah to Israel. Since the Old Covenant is under the Law, Jesus was under the Law. The meek don’t inherit the earth today. They get crushed. That is all about the Millennium. This was a part of His platform as Israel’s king.

Jesus could not enter into the Temple, as He was not a Levite. It is a brand new ball game, and some of you are still back there being batboys for Moses. The way into the Holy of Holies was opened up, after Jesus died for our sins.

Jesus came to ratify a new covenant with His blood; and He did, and He was still alive. He dismissed His spirit; He did not take in another breath.

The devil is in the business of prospering those he chooses. He hates to see a supergrace believer in maximum prosperity.

The Jews would go back to the Temple and offer up sacrifices. This was crucifying the Lord afresh.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #108

108 06/03/1974 Hebrews 9:18 (Intro.) Review: Doctrines of the blood, redemption, reconciliation, propitiation

The first 17 verses read.

Hebrews 9:17 For a covenant is valid upon deaths [the two deaths of the cross]; because it is not even valid as long as the one having made the covenant lives. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

In order to understand from verse 18 to chapter 10 verse 17 it is necessary to review some doctrines.

The Doctrine of the Blood (redux)

1. Animal blood must be defined and understood before anyone ever begins to understand the blood of Christ. Animal blood is literal, the seat of animal life — Leviticus 17:10–14. The animal does not have a soul as we have a soul, and therefore death for us is the departure of the soul from the body. Death for the animal is the departure of his blood from his body. In the Old Testament shadow worship the blood of animals was used to represent the saving work of Christ on the cross. Each animal sacrifice portrayed some facet of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross in saving us. This was first started in Genesis 3:21 with the coats of skins perpetuated through the coming of the Mosaic law and the Levitical offerings which were authorized under the law, especially Leviticus chapters 1–5 where literal animal blood was used to represent the figurative blood of Christ or the saving work of Christ on the cross. The animal blood of the Old Testament portrayed the redemptive work of Christ under three categories: redemption, reconciliation, propitiation.

a. The Roman church came up with the idea that the Lord got together a container of blood and brought it up into heaven.

b. Romanism began wearing crosses very early on, as sort of a good luck thing.

c. Nothing drawn from Immanuel’s veins is going to save anything.

2. The blood of Christ defined. There are two uses of blood in the Bible, literal and figurative. Literal blood is used for animal sacrifices. The blood of Christ is figurative. “It refers to blood as an expiatory sacrifice, the blood of Christ as the means of expiation” — Arndt and Gingrich. Kittle: “The ideas which the New Testament links with the blood of Christ is simply pregnant with verbal symbols for the saving work of Christ.”

a. Arndt and Gingrich have the best lexicon.

b. Kittle is another German.

3. The principle of the representative analogy. While animal blood was real and literal it represents the spiritual death of Christ on the cross — Colossians 1:20; Hebrews 10:19; 13:20; 1Peter 1:2. There are two kinds of analogies, real and representative.

a. A real analogy would say the blood of animals equals the blood in Christ’s veins.

b. A representative analogy says the blood of animals on the altar is real blood and the animal bleeding to death dies physically, but it represents the spiritual death of Christ on the cross bearing our sins. In the Bible we have the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament being compared to Christ bearing our sins. In other words, Jesus Christ did not bleed to death for our sins, He died for our sins. The wages of sin is death and, notice, the person who is spiritually dead is also very much alive. In the case of a representative analogy the animal unwillingly dying physically on the altar by bleeding to death represents our Lord willingly hanging on the cross, bearing our sins and being judged for them. And while He was judged for them He makes it very clear that He was dying for our sins because He said, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” He was forsaken because He who knew no sin was made sin for us. The fact that Christ died twice is established from both the Hebrew and the Greek — Isaiah 53:9 where “death” is in the plural, and in Hebrews 9:17 where “death” is in the plural.

4. In order to emphasize the principle Christ did not die on the cross by bleeding to death — John 19:30–34. When the Bible speaks of the blood of Christ cleansing from all sin, the blood of Christ as the basis of redemption, it is always referring to the saving work of Christ on the cross and/or the expiatory sacrifice of Christ on the cross. The blood of Christ is a part of the representative analogy between the physical death of the animal and the spiritual death of Christ being judged for our sins, as per 1Peter 2:24.

a. Jesus said that “It is finished” while He was still alive. This means that He did not die physically for our salvation.

b. The soldier pierced the Lord’s side with a sword, and blood and clear plasma came out, meaning that He had not bled to death.

5. The blood of animal sacrifices was shadow blood pointing to the reality of the cross. The blood of the animal was literal blood but it had shadow connotation, it pointed to the reality of the cross. So when Christ was on the cross it was a literal cross but the blood was Christ bearing our sins. So we have His figurative blood representing the real or the literal salvation. The real blood of the animal was a shadow which represents what Christ did for us on the cross — Hebrews 9:12–14 teaches this principle.

6. Therefore the blood of Christ depicts the saving work of Christ on the cross, and in the scripture the blood of Christ is specifically related to His saving work. Four doctrines of salvation are related to the blood of Christ:

a. expiation — Revelation 1:5;

b. redemption — Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; 1Peter 1:18,19; Hebrews 9:12;

c. justification — Romans 5:9;

d. sanctification — Hebrews 13:12.

7. The blood of Christ in expiation is the basis for the rebound technique, so taught in the shadows of the Old Testament.

a. The non-sweet savour Levitical offerings — the sin offering of Leviticus chapter four, the trespass offering of chapter five, both speak of rebound.

b. The sin offering is rebound with emphasis on the unknown sins, the trespass offering is rebound with emphasis on the known sins. It is taught in the New Testament by comparing 1John 1:7 with 1John 1:9.

8. The true meaning of the blood of Christ.

a. The true meaning of the blood of Christ is found in the direction of the doctrines of soteriology.

b. Redemption is inward. Redemption is directional towards sin.

c. Reconciliation is man-ward. Man is brought to God without compromising the character of God.

d. Propitiation is God-ward.

e. Christ is mediator — Hebrews 9:15. As man and God, Jesus is able to be the Mediator between man and God.

f. Sin has estranged the two parties — God and man. The Mediator removes the estrangement on the cross.

g. Jesus Christ as Savior reconciles man, propitiates God, and redeems from sin.

h. Therefore the blood of Christ equals redemption + reconciliation + propitiation.

The doctrine of redemption has been reworked; so get out a new sheet of paper.

The Doctrine of Redemption (reworked)

1. Redemption is the work of Christ on the cross toward sin. It refers to the work of Christ in purchasing our freedom from the slave market of sin. The coin of the realm is the blood of Christ and we are manumitted from the slave market of sin. The blood of Christ which purchases our freedom is Christ being judged for our sins — Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14.

2. Christ paid the ransom for sin on the cross. He purchased our redemption by bearing our sins or being judged for our sins on the cross — Psalm 34:22; Galatians 3:13; 1Peter 1:18,19.

3. Christ was qualified to be our redeemer. This applies the doctrine of the virgin birth, the doctrine of the incarnation, the doctrine of impeccability, plus certain scriptures such as 1Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 1:3; Isaiah 53:9; John 8:46; 19:4; 2Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 4:15; 7:26, 28; 1Peter 1:18,19.

4. Christ was willing to be the redeemer. The redemptive work of Christ on the cross was an act of His own free will. His free will was sovereignty in eternity past — “who though the eternal spirit” in Hebrews chapter 9 refers to the sovereignty of God the Son in eternity past when He said in the time of the eternal life conference, “I will go to the cross.” Then the free will of His humanity the night before the cross when He said, “Father if it be thy will let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done.” So Jesus Christ went to the cross as an act of His own free will, He was obedient to the Father’s plan — Luke 22:42; Romans 5:19; Philippians 28.

5. The doctrine of redemption was communicated in the Old Testament times by the shedding of blood. Christ did not come until the fullness of time. It was somewhere about 30 AD when Christ died on the cross bearing our sins. Therefore up to 30 AD you have some 5000 years of history, and are you going to deprive people for 5000 years of salvation? The answer is no. So how did they witness? The animal sacrifices. In effect, when Abel sacrificed an animal he was witnessing to Cain. This is the way the gospel was portrayed — through the shedding of animal blood — Hebrews 9:12, 22. The Old Testament saints understood and applied the doctrine of redemption because in Job 19:25 Job under pressure said, “I know that my redeemer liveth.”

6. The blood of Christ is the ransom money or the purchase price for redemption — Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; 1Peter 1:18, 19.

7. The results of redemption.

a. The deliverance from the Mosaic law and its shadows — Galatians 3:13; 4:4–6.

b. Redemption provides forgiveness of sins — Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; Hebrews 9:15; Isaiah 44:22.

c. Redemption provides the basis for justification — Romans 3:24.

d. Redemption is the basis for sanctification — Ephesians 5:25–27.

e. Redemption is the basis for the believer’s eternal inheritance — Hebrews 9:15.

f. Redemption is the basis for the strategic victory of Christ in the angelic conflict — Colossians 24,15; Hebrews 2:14,15.

g. Redemption of the body is the ultimate status of the royal family of God — Romans 8:23; Ephesians 4:30. So the redemption of the body is the believer in resurrection, and therefore redemption has a future connotation. We are not only freed at the point of salvation but our freedom is consolidated by resurrection body. So redemption is used for resurrection in Romans 8:23 and Ephesians 4:30.

The Doctrine of Reconciliation

1. While redemption is sin-ward and propitiation is God-ward, reconciliation is man-ward. Therefore by definition reconciliation is the removal of the barrier between God and man. It is often called “peace”, the removal of enmity between God and man. So peace is often a technical word in the Bible.

2. Reconciliation is related to the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ is a synonym for the saving work of Christ on the cross. The blood of Christ is therefore the basis for reconciliation — Colossians 1:20. Therefore the work of Christ on the cross and/or the blood of Christ is associated with reconciliation — Ephesians 2:16.

3. Reconciliation is related to man. In concept of reconciliation mankind is regarded as the enemy of God — Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21.

4. Peace is the synonym for reconciliation. Reconciliation finds man the enemy of God, but the saving work of Christ on the cross brings peace between God and man — cf. Ephesians 2:14 to 2:16, and Colossians 1:20.

5. Reconciliation is portrayed in the Levitical offerings — the peace offering, Leviticus chapter three depicts the doctrine of reconciliation and/or Christ removing the barrier between man and God. This is also taught in Leviticus 7:11–38; 8:15.

6. The application of reconciliation to the royal family. Every member of the royal family [Church Age believer] is an ambassador — 2Corinthians 5:18–20.

7. The prophecy of reconciliation. The fact that Christ would literally remove the barrier by His saving work on the cross and/or His expiatory sacrifice, and/or the blood of Christ, is prophesied — Isaiah 57:19.

8. The mechanics of reconciliation. There are six:

1) Sin is removed from the barrier by unlimited atonement and redemption. The doctrine of unlimited atonement simply says Christ died for everyone’s sins. Redemption is the actual mechanic of removing sins. Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree.

(1) Unlimited atonement — 2Corinthians 5:14, 15, 19; 1Timothy 2:6; 4:10; Titus 2:11; Hebrews 2:9; 2Peter 2:1; 1John 2:2.

(2) Redemption — Galatians 3:13; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; 1Peter 1:18,19.

2) The penalty of sin is removed from the barrier by expiation — Colossians 2:14; amplified in Psalm 22:1–6. Expiation simply means Christ paid the penalty of sin and that is what the blood of Christ is all about. He is an expiatory sacrifice.

3) The problem of physical birth is removed from the barrier by regeneration — John 3:1–18; 1Peter 1:23; Titus 3:5.

4) Relative righteousness or human good is removed from the barrier by two factors connected with the cross: imputation and justification.

(1) Imputation — Romans 3:22; 9:30–10:10; 2Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9; Hebrews 10:14.

(2) Justification — Romans 4:1–5, 25; 5:1; 8:29,30; Galatians 2:16; Titus 3:7.

(3) Imputation must come first, it is crediting to our account God’s righteousness. Once +R is credited to our account God looks over and says, “Vindicated” and/or “Justified”.

5) The problem of God’s perfect character is removed from the barrier by propitiation — Romans 3:22–26; 1John 2:1,2.

6) The problem of position in Adam is removed from the barrier by positional sanctification — 1Corinthians 15:22, “In Adam all die, in Christ shall all be made alive”; 2Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 1:3–6.

The Doctrine of Propitiation (review)

1. By definition propitiation is the God-ward side of salvation whereby the essence of God is made compatible with man’s salvation through Jesus Christ. Propitiation means satisfaction. God the Father is satisfied with the work of God the Son on the cross. He is satisfied so that His own person, His righteousness and justice, is not compromised. The impeccability of Christ satisfies the righteousness of the Father and Christ being judged for our sins, and expiatory sacrifice, satisfies the justice of the Father.

2. Propitiation was communicated to Israel through the mercy seat — Exodus 25:17–22; 37:6–9.

3. Propitiation is appropriated by faith and is the basis for the imputation of divine righteousness — Romans 3:25,26.

4. Propitiation is related to the work of Christ on the cross — Leviticus 16:13–16.

5. The mercy seat represented the presence of God — Ephesians 25:22; Leviticus 16:2; Numbers 7:89.

6. The New Testament confirms the importance of the mercy seat — Hebrews 9:5.

7. Propitiation is related to unlimited atonement — 1John 2:2.

8. Propitiation demonstrates the perfect love of God — 1John 4:10.

9. Therefore, propitiation is used to express the celebrityship of Christ — Romans 3:25.

10. The importance of propitiation can be observed from the existence of the tables of law, the ark of the covenant. That helps us to understand, then, the true function of the law.

1) The law is not an instrument of justification, says Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16.

2) The law is an instrument of condemnation to both Jew and Gentile — Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:21,22; 1Timothy 1:9,10.

3) The purpose of the law was to curse mankind with a hopeless curse — Galatians 3:10 — and only the work of Christ on the cross can remove that curse — Galatians 3:13.

4) The law does not produce righteousness which has credit with God, it produces self-righteousness — Philippians 3:9.

5) Many Jews of the previous dispensation failed because they attempted to be saved by righteousness produced from the law — Romans 9:30–33.

6) The law cannot provide justification Acts 13:39.

7) Therefore the prayer of the publican in Luke 18:13. He did not say “be merciful”, he said “be propitious to me, the sinner”.

11. The only approach to God is through propitiation.

1) Men are not saved by begging God for mercy, they are saved when the dare to believe that God has been propitiated by the cross.

2) God cannot be merciful toward the sinner in the sense of being generous or lenient, and the publican did not ask God to do the impossible.

3) God cannot be merciful without propitiation which removes the compromise to His righteousness and justice.

4) The publican demanded God to be propitious, which is compatible with the divine plan of grace, which is compatible with His essence.

5) Being merciful excludes Christ, excludes the blood, but being propitious includes Christ and includes the blood of Christ.

6) Therefore the publican said it right when he said, “O God, be propitious to me, the sinner”.

Heb 9:18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.

1972 Hebrews 9:18–21 Lesson #109

109 06/04/1974 Hebrews 9:18–21 Animal blood validates old covenant

You are now primed and ready to go, knowing the blood of Christ and propitiation, etc. Bob gives the last few verses of this chapter.

There is blood being sprinkled all over the place, so what does it mean? There is no remission without blood; and this is not a salvation verse for the New Testament. We are going into a slugging match now that you won’t believe.

Heb 9:18 Therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood.

Verse 18 — the shadow blood of the old covenant. We start out with the adverb hóthen (ὅθεν) [pronounced HOHTH-ehn],. It means “from which fact, for which reason.” So instead of the word “Whereupon” which is old English we have three simple English words which correctly translate the adverb here — “From which fact.” The adverb always picks up like a magnet some fact in the periphery. The previous verse, verse 17, is the fact to which the adverb refers. Verse 17 says literally, “For a covenant is valid upon the deaths, because it is not even valid as long as the one having made the covenant lives.” If the validity of the new covenant depends upon the spiritual death of Christ, even so the validity of the shadow covenant [the Mosaic law] depended upon the shadow of blood of animals for its validity. In other words, real blood of animals made the Mosaic law valid, ratified it. The figurative blood of Christ ratifies two new covenants, one to Israel and one to the Church. “From which fact”: the fact is the ratifying of a covenant by blood.

Next we have the negative conjunction oude (οὐδέ) [pronounced oo-DEH] which means “not even.” The word “first” is a nominative feminine from prôtos (πρτος) [pronounced PROHT-oss] referring to the Mosaic law, the old covenant or the first covenant. We have prôtos (πρτος) [pronounced PROHT-oss] here connoting something which is first in order of time. The Mosaic law came before the new covenants. It was the authorizing agent for all of the shadow worship of the Old Testament, ie, the Age of Israel.

“was dedicated” — the perfect passive indicative of egkainizô (ἐγκαινίζω) [pronounced eng-kahee-NIHD-zoh] which means to inaugurate, and it should be translated “not even the first has been inaugurated.” The perfect tense is a consummative perfect, it refers to a completed action but it emphasizes the process by which the action was completed. Basically there are two types of perfect tense. The intensive perfect: the action of the verb is completed and the results go on and on. The consummative perfect indicates that the action is completed at point X but it goes back and emphasizes the process by which the action was completed. So it is the exact antithesis of the intensive perfect. The intensive perfect always talks about the lingering and continual results but the consummative perfect always tells you how you got the action completed. So we have here the process by which the action was completed. The inauguration has a process. The passive voice: the Mosaic law receives the action of the verb as the subject. The declarative indicative mood views the action of the verb from the standpoint of reality. The inauguration always occurred by the sprinkling of blood. How was the inauguration carried out? By animal blood.

“without blood” — we have an adverb used as a preposition, chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE], and the object of the preposition is haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah] — “blood.”

Hebrews 9:18 “From which fact not even the first covenant [Mosaic law] had been inaugurated without blood.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary of Hebrews 9:18

1. The shadow blood of animals was used to inaugurate the first covenant. The first covenant was the Mosaic law, a shadow covenant. Shadows were used to inaugurate it — blood of animals.

2. The shadow blood was real animal blood pointing to the reality of the blood of Christ, the efficacious, expiatory sacrifice of Christ on the cross bearing our sins, being judged for our sins.

3. So again, the representative analogy between the physical death of the animal on the altar and the spiritual death of Christ on the cross.

4. The animal blood used for the dedication of the first covenant portrayed the saving work of Christ on the cross.

5. Moses sprinkled animal blood in dedication — Exodus 24:3–8. Therefore, the old covenant or the Mosaic law was dedicated with blood.

6. As the shadow blood of the animals consecrated the first covenant so the blood of Christ, His expiatory sacrifice, consecrated the new covenant to the Church.

7. Animal blood validated the Mosaic law. The expiatory sacrifice of Christ’s spiritual death on the cross validated the new covenant — as illustrated by the tearing of the veil in the temple.

Worse thing that you can do is get emotional about something that you don’t understand.

In verses 19-21 we have the historical dedication with shadow blood discussed.

Heb 9:19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,

Verse 19 — we start out with the conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] used as an explanatory conjunction. Next we have lalhqeishj which is the aorist passive participle of the verb laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh] which means to speak, to communicate, and so on. It is part of a genitive absolute. Moses is not only not the subject but Moses is the object of a preposition further down the line. The subject is pashj entolê (ἐντολή) [pronounced en-tol-AY]j which comes next, and it is a genitive. In fact we have pashj which the genitive singular of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs]; entolê (ἐντολή) [pronounced en-tol-AY]j is the genitive of the noun entolê (ἐντολή) [pronounced en-tol-AY]. It is in the genitive case, but in a genitive absolute the genitive case noun is the subject of the genitive aorist passive participle. The aorist tense of laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh] is a culminative aorist in which the action of the verb is viewed from the standpoint of its entirety, but it is regarded also from the standpoint of its existing results. The culminative aorist looks at the results. The action of the verb is the entire ball of wax here, the entire concept, but the emphasis is on results. This is a culminative aorist. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb but Moses isn’t the subject. The participle is not only a temporal participle, which means it will be translated like a temporal clause, but it also has antecedent action to the main verb, the main verb is “sprinkled.” So this happened before the blood was sprinkled.

So far this is what we have in this sentence: “For when every commandment had been spoken”. Moses gave them the information. He spoke twice. First he spoke off-the-cuff, then he wrote all night and read it to them again. And the message came before the ratification and/or dedication, before the blood was sprinkled. Why? Because you had to either say yes or no to the message.

We all fail; we all fail at the Ten Commandments.

Now we have a prepositional phrase, katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss], and it means “according to the law.” Then we have Moses, the object of the preposition — hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus the ablative of Mwusewj, and hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus the ablative is “by means of”, it connotes agency. Moses didn’t speak every precept , it actually says “For every commandment had been spoken according to the law by Moses.” In other words, as we saw from the passage in Exodus, Moses communicated this information twice. And it was accurate both times — katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss]. When he gave it right off the top of his head it was just the way God wanted him to give it. When he wrote it, it was just the way he gave it the day before. Both times the people agreed, their volition was involved. Then Moses went ahead and sprinkled them. The tabernacle was sprinkled with blood, the table of showbread was sprinkled with blood, the golden candlestick was sprinkled with blood, the priestly garments were sprinkled with blood, the altar, the brass laver, all of these things at the point of their construction and inauguration were sprinkled with blood.

Hardly anything was not sprinkled with blood. There were hundreds of commandments in the last half of Exodus and in Leviticus.

“by Moses” — Moses is the means of communication, but the subject of the genitive absolute is “every commandment.”

“to all the people” — the dative singular indirect object of both pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] and laos (λαός) [pronounced lah-OSS].

So we have, “For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to the people, according to the law.”

“he took” — aorist active participle of lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh]. It is a participle and should be translated “having taken.” This is a constative aorist which gathers up into entirety the action of the verb. In other words, how long it took him to do it. The active voice: Moses produced the action of the verb in Exodus 24:3–8. The participle has antecedent action to the main verb. The main verb is sprinkled, so it should be translated “after he had taken” or “after having taken”. Half of the blood was sprinkled on the altar; and the other half was sprinkled on the people.

“the blood” — the accusative singular direct object, haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah]. And it is the blood of moschos (μόσχος) [pronounced mos’-khos], the descriptive genitive plural moschos (μόσχος) [pronounced mos’-khos] — “young bulls”; “and of goats”, the descriptive genitive plural of tragos (τράγος) [pronounced TRAG-oss] — male goats. The blood of bulls and goats are shadows which validated the Mosaic law or the first covenant. The bull was offered for Moses himself and the goat for the people.

“with water” — the preposition meta plus the genitive singular of hudôr/hudatos (ὕδωρ/ὕδατος) [pronounced HOO-dor,HOO-dat-os]. The water represents the Word or doctrine in such passages as Ezekiel 16:9 cf Ephesians 5:26. It is so used in Exodus 15:25 for doctrine, making bitter experiences sweet. In Psalm 23:2 water is used for doctrine which provides rest and refreshment for the believer. So water is simply indicating that the doctrine that was in the Torah as Moses gave it — the law — is dedicated by blood, but water represents the actual content of what Moses gave them. It all had doctrinal content.

“and scarlet wool” — a genitive singular of kokkinos (κόκκινος) [pronounced KOHK-kee-nos] with erion (ἔριον) [pronounced EHR-ee-on]. It has a preposition with it, meta, and should be translated “and with it a scarlet woollen cloth”.

There was a system to sprinkling the blood. The blood was collected in a woollen cloth for sprinkling. All of the people were sprinkled. In other words, what Moses did was dip the cloth in the basin and then sprinkle the people with it. He also had another system for sprinkling the people which is mentioned here called “hyssop.” The Greek uses the word hussôpos (ὕσσωπος) [pronounced HOOS-so-poss]. It is a plant which collects liquid and then distributes it. It is a plant which acted like the wool and collected the blood for sprinkling. It would absorb the blood and then when it was shaken it would splatter out. So the hyssop and the scarlet cloth are sprinklers. They were also used at other times — the red heifer offering in Numbers 19:6; the offering of the cleansed leper in Leviticus 14:4–7.

In Psalm 51:7 David says, related to the rebound offering, “Purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean.” That verse says exactly the same as 1John 1:7, “The blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son. cleanses us from all sin.” David was looking at the shadow and John was looking at the reality.

The meaning of these shadows is obvious. The water represents Bible doctrine residing in the believer’s soul. The scarlet wool and the hyssop were used to sprinkle blood or to apply blood. Hence, they are related to 1John 1:7. The red heifer offering of Numbers 19 was a rebound offering. Therefore the use of sprinkling of blood. The scarlet wool and the hyssop were used for applying blood in Numbers 19:6. Therefore they are shadows portraying the importance of rebound and the function of GAP for the royal priesthood. Note the order of the ritual of dedication. First the blood of the young bulls and goats, portraying salvation, then the sprinkling of that blood portraying rebound. In effect, every time you confess a sin or name a sin to God under the rebound technique you are sprinkling the blood.

“and” — is out of place. We have those classical Greek conjunctions te kai, and it should be translated “both and.” Notice is says, “both the book”. Biblion (βιβλίον) [pronounced bib-LEE-on], here indicates a rolled scroll.

“sprinkled” — aorist active indicative of the verb rhantizô (ῥαντίζω) [pronounced hran-TIHD-zoh] which means to sprinkle. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the action of sprinkling the book, the sprinkling of the people, the sprinkling of the altar, and eventually everything that was inaugurated for the first time under the law — the tabernacle, the brazen altar, the brazen laver, and so on — but it emphasizes the existing results. Once Moses sprinkles something with blood it was validated, it was Israel’s spiritual legacy, Israel’s spiritual heritage from that time on. The active voice: Moses produced the action of the verb. In other words, when he sprinkled blood on the scroll of the Torah that was their sacred book at that time and still is. The indicative mood is declarative plus the fact that the declarative indicative here indicates the main verb for all of these aorist participles. The action of all of these aorist participles is antecedent to the main verb.

Hebrews 9:19 “For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to the people, to all the people according to the law, after he had taken the blood of young bulls and goats, and with water and scarlet wool, and hyssop, he sprinkled both the written scroll, and all of the people.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The water was used to make the blood sprinkle out of both the scarlet cloth and also the hyssop. Water actually made the sprinklers work. In other words, the reason that you can learn doctrine now it is because you already have doctrine. We are talking about the blood of Christ but this isn’t something simple. It is simple to hear that Christ died for your sins, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But the complexities of grace which structurize your salvation is the application of grace to your whole life, now and forever. When straight doctrine is taught some understand it and some don’t. It flows into the soul of some because they have water to make it flow. But some have a mind like a clogged-up pen and therefore they will not understand until they get some other things first which are more basic. So the water made the sprinkler system work; doctrine makes it possible to understand more doctrine.

All of this ritual was necessary for them to learn. We live in the Holy of Holies; but the priests in that era could not go into it. We are royal family and we can live in the Holy of Holies. No human person could spend any time in there. But, the curtain was torn in half, after the efficacious sacrifice. Now we can enter in. We have a new and living way. There never was a royal family, and now there is. We are royalty. We also have our own High Priest over the house of God.

Heb 9:20 saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you."

Verse 20 — “Saying”, present active participle of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. He said this over and over and over again. The present participle is a retroactive progressive present, which means he kept doing it again and again — linear aktionsart.

“This” — the nominative singular demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. Houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] as a demonstrative pronoun always refers to something in the immediate periphery of the context, and here it refers to the blood. In other words, This is the blood. As he sprinkled these people he would says, “This is the blood”.

“of the testament” — literally, “of the covenant”, the genitive singular from diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay]. Diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay] always refers to a spiritual legacy. Our covenant is in force because Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree; their covenant was in force because the shadows were executed, or slaughtered, on the altar.

“which” is also a genitive singular of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç], and it refers to diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay] or covenant.

“God” — ho Theos, “the God”, God the Father. The definite article here indicates someone with whom they were familiar. The knew Him. So the definite article is used here to indicate someone who is well known to those who are the listeners as well as to the speaker, and they all knew who God the Father was.

“hath enjoined” — the aorist active indicative of entellomai (ἐντέλλομαι) [pronounced en-TEHL-lom-ahee] which means to command. It is a dramatic aorist. God the Father produces the action, He does the commanding. The declarative indicative is the reality and the dogmatic fact that God has ordered this.

Then we have pros plus the accusative of the personal pronoun su in the plural, and it means “pertaining to you” here.

Hebrews 9:20 “Saying, This is the blood of the covenant which the God has commanded pertaining to you.” You Jews are responsible from now until the cross to portray who and what Christ is by means of these shadows. You must be faithful in the function of these shadows, but you can’t be faithful unless you have doctrine in your souls.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Heb 9:21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship.

Verse 21 — “Moreover”, the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai and should be translated “Also.” This is at a later time, it indicates the elapse of time. First of all they had to build these things.

“he sprinkled” — the aorist active indicative of rhantizô (ῥαντίζω) [pronounced hran-TIHD-zoh] — “with blood” should be “by means of blood”, the instrumental singular of haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah].

“the tabernacle, and all of the equipment,” literally. The word “vessels” means all of the equipment.

“of the ministry” — this is a possessive genitive from leitourgia (λειτουργία) [pronounced li-toorg-EE-ah] which means “priestly ministry”.

Hebrews 9:21 “Also he sprinkled with that same blood the tabernacle, and all of the equipment of the priestly ministry.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

This occurred at a later time in Exodus 40 in which chapter Moses set up the tabernacle, and in verse 33 Moses finished the tabernacle and dedicated it with blood. Everything, as it came into function, was inaugurated by blood.

1972 Hebrews 9:22–24 Lesson #110

110 06/05/1974 Hebrews 9:22–24 Doctrine of ascension

James L. Stone from Houston, TX.

When you listen to a politician, this is a man who is generally involved in taking away your freedom, in one way or the other.

Heb 9:22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.

Verse 22 — the Mosaic law is authorized by shadow blood, the Mosaic law was validated by shadow blood. There is nothing of the function and worship of the past dispensation of Israel that was authorized apart from blood.

Our first word is “And”, the cotinuative use of the conjunction kai. “And almost” — here is an adverb schedon (σχεδόν) [pronounced skhed-OHN], meaning “nearly.” There were a few exceptions so schedon (σχεδόν) [pronounced skhed-OHN] is used.

“all things” — the nominative plural of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] refers to the people, the written scroll of the Torah, the tabernacle, the priesthood, the various articles of equipment. Therefore we have everything related to the shadow covenant had to be dedicated with shadow blood, the blood of animal sacrifices. This adverb qualifies the entire clause.

There are very few exceptions to the blood dedication. One of them is given in Exodus 19:10 where the people washed their clothes with water for the special delivery at Sinai. Another exception is found in the turtle dove offerings of the trespass category where no blood was shed — Leviticus 5:11. Another exception is the unclean man because of some discharge from his body, some infection. If there is any puss going from his body he is an exception to this. Another exception is anything related to certain kinds of ceremonial impurities. Water was used instead of blood in these cases — Leviticus 15:5, 6, 7, 8; Numbers 16:46–50 — incense was used. But these exceptions are rare and have special inference and meaning.

“by the law” — the preposition katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss], “according to the law” or “according to the standard of the law.”

“are purged” — the present passive indicative from katharizô (καθαρίζω) [pronounced kath-ahr-EED-zoh], which means to be clean, to be purified, or to be an expiatory offering, or to be purified by an expiatory offering. The present tense is an iterative present, it describes what recurred at successive intervals. So this is the present tense of repeated action. The passive voice indicates that the subject receives the action of the verb; the subject: “nearly all things.” The indicative mood is declarative which views the action from the viewpoint of reality and sets up a dogmatic category.

“with blood” — the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental of haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah] — “by means of blood”, animal blood, the shadows pointing to the reality.

Then we have again the continuative use of kai — “and without shedding of blood.” Blood here refers to animal blood, animals only. It does not refer to the blood of Christ. Furthermore, we have an adverb used as a secondary preposition — chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE], meaning apart from or without.

“shedding” — a genitive singular compound noun, aihmatekchusia (αἱματεκχυσία) [pronounced hahee-mat-ek-khoo-SEE-ah] which means pouring out of blood. It always is used for animals bleeding to death from a cut in the throat. It does not refer to Jesus Christ. It refers to the shadows which validated, authorized, dedicated, consecrated and inaugurated the Mosaic law.

“is no” — a present active indicative of ginomai plus the strong negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. Ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] is used with the indicative for a definite prohibition.

“remission” — áphesis (ἄπεσις) [pronounced AWF-ess-iss] means the act of forgiveness — pardon, cancellation or forgiveness.

Hebrews 9:22 “And according to the law nearly all things are cleansed with [animal] blood; and without the pouring out of [animal] blood pardon [or forgiveness] does not happen.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

In the old dispensation of Israel, the dispensation where the Mosaic law was valid, all forgiveness and pardon was represented in the shedding of animal blood. This does not refer to Jesus Christ bleeding from His veins, nor does it refers to the blood of Christ which is redemption plus reconciliation plus propitiation. This is not a salvation verse, this verse is dealing with the manner in which the old covenant was dedicated an inaugurated. It refers to the validity of the whole Levitical system which was always based upon animals bleeding to death on an altar.

Hebrews 9:22 Summary

1. This passage has been taken out of its context by nearly everyone to apply to the blood of Christ. That is the problem here. It has nothing directly to do with salvation, it has to do with how the Mosaic law was validated. The Mosaic law is a covenant, all covenants must be validated. They must be validated on the basis of spiritual death in reality or that which portrays spiritual death in shadows.

2. This verse deals with the shadow blood of animal sacrifices under the Mosaic law rather than the precious blood of Christ which is His expiatory sacrifice.

3. This verse, therefore, makes no brief for the literal shedding of Christ’s blood on the cross for salvation. To the contrary, it does very strenuously portray the figurative blood of Christ — redemption plus reconciliation plus propitiation.

4. Remember that Christ had both literal and figurative blood. There is no significance from bleeding from His hands and His feet, except that He was alive and truly human. It has no salvation significance whatever.

5. The literal or physical blood of Christ was shed sometime during His first three hours on the cross, it came from His hands and from His feet and His blood coagulated rapidly so that there was no appreciable loss of blood. He did not die by bleeding to death, nor did the loss of blood from His hands and His feet in any way affect His health. There was no salvation significance.

6. Therefore the literal blood of Christ has no significance at the cross as far as salvation is concerned.

7. At the cross it was the figurative blood of Christ bearing our sins and being judged for them.

8. The figurative blood of Christ represents the saving work of Christ on the cross, His expiatory sacrifice, His bearing our sins in His own body, being judged at the cross.

9. The shadow blood of animals was real or literal blood; the figurative blood of Christ fulfilled the shadows, the real figurative blood of Christ being His saving work.

10. Hebrews 9:22 deals with the shadow blood animal sacrifices and its function in validating the Mosaic law, consecrating the Mosaic law. In other words, the Mosaic law authorizes the shadow blood of animals to administer pardon and forgiveness as well as cleansing, and to continue administering it until the cross. Therefore cleansing, pardon, forgiveness, were all administered through animal sacrifices, the shadow blood. In the typology the cleansing comes through the shadow blood, but eventually in the elapse of time it became necessary for the reality. All the shadows could do was to point to the reality, and they did. Reality occurred on the cross when Jesus Christ became a sacrifice for us.

V. 22 deals with the blood of animals; not the blood of Christ.

Heb 9:23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

Verse 23 — the relationship between shadow blood and reality. “It was” is not found in the original. The Greek text begins, “Therefore necessary.” We have the word anakê (ἀναγκ) [pronounced ahn-ahg-KAY] which means “of necessity.” We also have with this the inferential particle oun, and it should be translated “Of necessity therefore” — in view of the last paragraph.

Next we have “on the one hand.” We have the little classical Greek particles again, ta men.

“the pattern of things” is one word, the accusative plural from the noun hupodeigma (ὑπόδειγμα) [pronounced hoop-OD-igue-mah] which is part of an accusative of general reference. In the accusative of general reference you find a noun in the accusative case. Generally that is the object of the verb. Here it becomes the subject and it is the subject of the infinitive. Actually it really isn’t the subject of the infinitive, we say that to over simplify it. It really describes the action of the infinitive. Therefore it is translated like a subject. So hupodeigma (ὑπόδειγμα) [pronounced hoop-OD-igue-mah] means “copy, imitation, model” or “example”, not “pattern of things.” Literally then, this is what we have so far: “Of necessity therefore, on the one hand, that the copies, models, or shadows of things.”

“of things” is the genitive plural with the definite article and it refers to something specific in context, given next in a prepositional phrase.

“in the heavens” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of ouranos (οὐρανός) [pronounced oo-ran-OSS]. In other words, everything in the tabernacle pointed to something in heaven or something that would occur at the cross.

“should be purified” — present passive infinitive of katharizô (καθαρίζω) [pronounced kath-ahr-EED-zoh], which means to be cleansed. The present tense is an iterative present referring to any time when animal sacrifices were used. The passive voice: the copies or the models receive the action of the verb — cleansing. The infinitive indicates the accusative of general reference.

“but” — literally, “but on the other hand”, following the classical Greek. We have de and men, two untranslatable particles which we simply render by “on the one hand; on the other hand.”

“the heavenly things” — literally, “the heavenly realities themselves”; “with better sacrifices” — the word “better” is the instrumental plural kreittôn (κρείττων) [pronounced KRITE-tohn], the comparative of agathos (ἀγαθός) [pronounced ag-ath-OSS] which refers to something which has intrinsic value always. Therefore the sacrifice of Christ always has intrinsic value.

Hebrews 9:23 “Of necessity therefore, on the one hand, that the copies of the things in the heavens be cleansed with these shadows; but on the other hand the heavenly realities themselves with better sacrifices than these [shadows of the animal blood] .” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. While the copies or models, the tabernacle with all of its furniture, can be cleansed with animal blood, the reality can only be cleansed with reality. The reality is the blood of Christ and/or His efficacious sacrifice on the cross bearing our sins and being judged for us.

2. Animal blood therefore is only a shadow pointing to the better sacrifice, Jesus Christ bearing our sins.

3. The principle emerges: The shadows can only purify shadows; reality must be purified by reality.

4. Note how the angelic conflict is brought back from the first two chapters of Hebrews. Heaven as well as the earth participated in man’s conflict, man’s sin. The conflict with evil, the angelic conflict, began in heaven and extended to the earth. It began in the angelic realm and then extended to the earth through the fall of Adam.

5. The conflict was resolved on earth at the cross. Now the cleansing extends to heaven.

6. The Bible actually teaches that as a result of the angelic conflict heaven was not clean — Job 4:18; 15:15; 25:5.

7. The shadow of the tabernacle could be cleansed with shadow animal blood, but the reality, heaven itself, had to be cleansed with the reality — the precious blood of Jesus Christ, His saving work on the cross. Shadows can teach the fact of reality but shadows cannot do the work of reality.

In verses 24–28 we have the shadow of the priestly functions. This is the fourth shadow we have seen in this passage. We have seen the shadow of the tabernacle, the shadow of the blood, the shadow of the covenant. Now we have the shadow of the modus operandi of the Levitical priesthood.

Heb 9:24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf.

Verse 24 — the priestly function in the holy of holies. We start with the holy of holies because this is crucial to everything. The veil in the temple was sixty feet high and thirty feet wide. It took three hundred priests to lift it into place. It was made up of seventy squares that had to be made separately and then sewed together. For a veil to be split from the top to the bottom it had to be a miracle: God did it. It is important to understand that the veil has been ripped.

“For” is the conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] used to add further explanation; “Christ” — this time we have the name for Christ without the definite article. This emphasizes the quality of the noun. The quality is emphasized here not only in the hypostatic union but Christ fulfilling the shadows of the old covenant, the Mosaic law.

“is not entered” — the aorist active indicative of eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee], used for the high priest entering the holy of holies on the day of atonement. The negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] here says He does not enter, or literally, “For Christ has not entered.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes an occurrence regardless of its extent or duration and gathers it up into a single whole. And here the constative aorist summarizes the function of the high priest on the day of atonement, emphasizing the fact that he went first of all to the golden altar in the holy place. Then twice he went through the curtains, once for himself and once for the people, and he sprinkled blood on the mercy seat. Then when he came back out he made an appearance to the people. In fact he made two appearances. They didn’t understand the appearances; we do. One appearance is the Rapture and one is the second advent. The holy of holies is heaven. Going in is a picture of Christ being resurrected, ascending, and being seated at the right hand of the Father. The high priest in the holy of holies depicts Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father, but He leaves the right hand of the Father to meet us in the air at the Rapture and then He returns to the earth. So the second appearance of the high priest outside after the second offering is a picture of the second advent of Christ. The active voice plus the negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] indicates that Christ did not fulfil the shadows in relationship to the tabernacle but in relationship to earth and heaven itself. Earth is depicted by the place of the brazen altar and laver. Heaven is depicted by the holy of holies. So there was heaven and earth depicted in the actual function of the priest. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative for a dogma of doctrine. Christ did not enter the holy of holies as the high priest of old did but He ascended into the third heaven which is the real holy of holies.

“into the holy places” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative plural of a(goij. A(goij in the plural always refers to the holy of holies. So it should be translated “into a holy of holies.”

“made with human hands” — Christ did not enter into anything made with human hands. When Christ was alive on earth we have the second temple. Christ never entered the holy of holies. He entered, not the shadow but the reality.

Then we have the word “figures”, and the accusative neuter plural from antitupon (ἀντίτυπον) [pronounced an-TEET-oo-pon] means a copy or a representation; “of the true” means “of the reality”, alêthinos (ἀληθινός) [pronounced al-ay-thee-NOSS] means reality and so it should be translated “a copy of the reality.” The holy of holies is a copy, a shadow, it is not the reality. This is also emphasized by the adversative conjunction allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH] which sets up a direct antithesis between the first and second clauses, a contrast between Christ not entering the shadow holy of holies but entering the real holy of holies.

“into heaven itself” — we have another eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] prepositional phrase here, and then we have with it an adverb, “now” — nun; “to appear” — the aorist passive infinitive of emphanizô (ἐμφανίζω) [pronounced em-fan-IHD-zoh] which means to become visible, but in the passive voice it means to show one’s self. Therefore as a passive voice it is translated the active voice of “to appear.” The culminative aorist is employed to view an event in its entirety but to regard it from the viewpoint of existing results. So this culminative aorist recognizes that Christ’s death, resurrection, ascension, session. All of these things are gathered up into one ball of wax with existing results, the royal family on the earth. And the tragedy is that the royal family should ever spend one second thinking that there is some mysterious, abstruse meaning to Christ bleeding when there is not. The royal priesthood should know better. We live in reality, there are no shadows. “But into heaven itself now to appear” — once Christ appears the Mosaic law, the Levitical system, the specialized priesthood — is abrogated. The passive voice: Christ is His ascension receives the action of the verb. He has now appeared at the right hand of the Father as our great high priest. The infinitive expresses the result of the resurrection. As a result of His efficacious death, burial, resurrection, it is now necessary for Christ to appear in heaven so that He can appear in the first heaven to meet us and so that He can appear again on the earth to be crowned as David’s greater son, King of kings forever.

“in the presence of God” — this is portraying the ascension. We have the locative of sphere prósôpon (πρόσωπον, ου, τό) [pronounced PROS-oh-pon], which means “in the presence of the God.” Then “for us” is u(per plus the ablative plural of egw, which is correctly translated, or better “on behalf of us.” The personal pronoun refers to you, a member of the royal family of God. Because Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father the Jewish age is interrupted because it is out of gas, the Mosaic law was abrogated and something brand new came into existence. We now have the Church Age, the age of the royal family.

Hebrews 9:24 “For Christ had not entered into a holy of holies made with human hands, a copy of the reality [the third heaven]; but into heaven itself to appear in the presence of God the Father on behalf of us.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

“On behalf of us” means so that we could be blessed in time.

The Doctrine of Ascension (review)

1. The ascension is that doctrine of Christology pertaining to our Lord’s [in hypostatic union] change of residence from earth to the third heaven. It is portrayed by the high priest once a year on the day of atonement, going from the brazen altar to the holy of holies. As he went to the holy of holies so Jesus Christ went from the cross to the third heaven. The change of residence was accomplished in the resurrection body of our Lord.

2. The capabilities of the resurrection body, therefore, come into focus. Our Lord could not ascend in His human body. But in a resurrection body our Lord could travel horizontally or vertically. His resurrection body was capable of unlimited space travel. The humanity of Christ in His resurrection body traveled through the heavens to the third heaven.

3. The reception and acknowledgment of the Son at the right hand of the Father is important. When Jesus Christ got to heaven there was a change that the priest in the holy of holies never did. There was a mercy seat but the priest never sat in it. When the Levitical priest went into the holy of holies he sprinkled blood on the seat but he didn’t sit there. There was no place to sit down in the tabernacle, but when Jesus Christ goes to heaven He sits down at the right hand of the Father — Psalm 110:1; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3,13; 8:1; 10:12; 12:2; 1Peter 3:22. The session of Christ confirms the acceptability of the resurrected Christ. It confirms and acknowledges the validity of His bearing our sins, His efficacious sacrifice known also as the blood of Christ.

4. The celebrityship of Christ. The ascension and session of Christ completes His glorification in hypostatic union — Acts 2:33; 5:31; Philippians 2:9; 1Peter 3:22. As God Jesus Christ is pre-eminent. As the God-Man seated at the right hand of the Father Jesus Christ is unique, overwhelming distinction of nobility is His. He has the most illustrious celebrityship of all time.

5. The strategical victory of the angelic conflict is accomplished at the same time. The ascension and session of Jesus Christ forms the basis for our Lord’s strategic victory in the angelic conflict — Hebrews 1:3–13. Furthermore, the ascension and session of Christ begin a new sphere of the angelic conflict, the intensified stage which is the Church Age — Ephesians 1:20–22; 4:7–10. This means that the Church Age believer, royal family of God, is involved in the intensified stage of the angelic conflict.

6. We have the ascension and the formation of the royal family. Christ in resurrection body is seated alone at the right hand of the Father. God the Father does not leave Him alone, a royal family is formed for the last Adam. The royal family is formed by means of the baptism of the Spirit and for the first time in history God the Holy Spirit takes every believer at the point of salvation and enters him into union with Christ. We are resident positionally in the palace forever. This could not occur until Christ was glorified — John 7:37–39.

7. The ascension and the new priesthood. The ascension and session of Christ sets aside the Levitical priesthood of the interrupted dispensation of Israel. When the Tribulation resumes the Age of Israel there will be no Levitical priesthood in function. All of the spiritual function for the last seven years of the Age of Israel will centre in the 144,000 Jews called out of every tribe for spiritual leadership. There will be no function of the Levitical priesthood in the Tribulation even though there will be a false temple set up by a false Messiah. Not until the second advent will there be any resumption of the Levitical priesthood and then under the new covenant, not under the old covenant to Israel. So we have the ascension and session of Christ setting aside the Levitical priesthood of Israel, and now instead we have a royal priesthood made up of every believer — 1Peter 2:5, 9; Revelation 1:6. Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father is the new high priest — Hebrews 10. He even makes intercession for the royal family — Hebrews 7:25.

8. The ascension and the ultimate defeat of Satan. The ascension is the first phase in Satan’s ultimate defeat — operation footstool. Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father until His enemies are made His footstool. His enemies include Satan — Luke 20:42,43; Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15; Revelation 20:1–3. When Christ returns the second stage will be the binding of Satan and the removal of all demons from the earth. The final stage occurs in putting down the Gog and Magog rebellion at the end of the Millennium.

9. The ascension verifies the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross bearing our sins. In other words, the ascension ratifies and verifies the blood of Christ — Hebrews 9:23,24. The Levitical high priest entered the holy of holies on the day of atonement. This was a shadow pointing to Christ entering the third heaven or the real holy of holies on behalf of the royal family of God.

In verses 25 and 26 we have the function of the high priest at the brazen altar, or the function of any of the Levitical priests.

1972 Hebrews 9:25–26 Lesson #111

111 06/06/1974 Hebrews 9:25–26 Jesus Christ on cross, conjunction of history

4 German commanders in the same place. This included Hitler. It made for a great deal of confusion. Bob describes what took place on Utah beach. 4 men named. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. is the 4^th one.

Heb 9:25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own,...

Verse 25 — “Nor yet,” a negative conjunction oude (οὐδέ) [pronounced oo-DEH], it should be translated “And not”. Next comes the word “that.” This conjunction introduces a purpose clause. Hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] plus the subjunctive of the main verb always introduces a purpose clause.

”he should offer” — a present active subjunctive of prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh], used for offering an animal sacrifice and then later on for the efficacious sacrifice of Christ. Here it is used for the Old Testament Levitical priest offering a sacrifice on the Levitical altar, the brass altar. The present tense is retroactive progressive present, denoting what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. That is, at the time that this occurred historically it had been going on for a long time. It was authorized by the Mosaic law and once the consecration of the Levitical priesthood occurred and they began to function in their modus operandi, specified and authorized by the law, this continued daily. There was always a priest at the brazen altar, he was always offering an animal, and the animal always portrayed the blood of Christ and/or redemption plus reconciliation plus propitiation, or the saving work of Christ on the cross. We have the active voice with the negative conjunction and that denotes that Christ did not enter heaven many times, but once. The subjunctive mood is used here for the purpose clause.

The word “himself” is the accusative singular of the direct object from the reflexive pronoun heautou (ἑαυto) [pronounced heh-ow-TOO] which always has great emphasis. This is the genitive form, the nominative does not occur at such an emphatic reflexive pronoun.

“often” means many times, pollakis (πολλάκις)[pronounced pohl-LAHK-iss].

Literally, it reads so far: “And not that he should offer himself many times.” Christ did not have to offer Himself day in and day out as the Levitical priests did. In contrast to the high priest of Israel or any of the Levitical priesthood Jesus Christ offers once, enters the holy of holies once, and that is it. Just once He performed a perfect efficacious sacrifice and therefore this is never repeated.

“as” — the adverb of comparison, hsper (ὥσπερ) [pronounced HOH-sper]. It refers now to the Levitical order — ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh]archiereus (ἀρχιερεύς) [pronounced ar-khee-er-YUCE], the high priest of Israel. Archiereus (ἀρχιερεύς) [pronounced ar-khee-er-YUCE] refers to the high priest because we have specifically the day of atonement. On the day of atonement only the high priest could offer the sacrifice. Seven days before he offered those sacrifices he went through a very strong system of purification. After seven days, on the day of atonement, he came to the altar. First of all he offered for himself a young bull. Then he carried the blood past the first veil, past the second veil, and he sprinkled that blood in the holy of holies on the mercy seat. Then he came out, and the second time he offered one of the two goats. One goat was turned loose and one goat was sacrificed, and he took the blood of that goat in and sprinkled so that we have the cross portrayed by those sacrifices — that is, redemption and reconciliation. But the sprinkling of the blood on the mercy seat in the holy of holies portrayed propitiation. The only place where blood was sprinkled as a rule was around the altar but on this occasion blood was sprinkled in the holy of holies because the holy of holies represents the presence of God, and inasmuch as the mercy seat represents propitiation and inasmuch as God is propitiated the blood always had to be sprinkled in there and never anywhere else. That is the only reason the high priest ever went into the holy of holies — to portray propitiation. God is satisfied with the work of Christ. The young bull and the goat represented the work of Christ on the cross. The young bull represented reconciliation and the goat which was sacrificed represented the principle of redemption. So we have redemption plus reconciliation at the brass altar. Then we have propitiation at the mercy seat. The combination of the three equals the blood of Christ.

“entereth” — the present active indicative of the verb eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee] which means to enter into something. The present tense is an historical present which views past event with the vividness of a present occurrence. In other words, when we read this we are supposed to see in our mind’s eye 1500 times over a period of 1500 years many different high priests carrying a golden bowl of blood into the holy of holies and sprinkling this blood on the mercy seat. The active voice: the Levitical high priest produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative which views the action of the verb from the standpoint of historical reality.

“into the holy place” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative plural of hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss]. Hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss] in the plural always means holy of holies, never the holy place. So it should be “into the holy of holies”.

“every year” is katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of eniautos (ἐνιαυτός) [pronounced en-ee-ow-TOSS] which means year by year or annually. “with blood” — the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental of haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah] — “by means of blood”.

“of others” is the instrumental singular of allotrios (ἀλλότριος) [pronounced al-LOT-ree-oss] and it means “alien blood”. Alien blood is animal blood. It means that when the high priest was carrying blood to sprinkle in the holy of holies it was alien to the blood of Christ. Furthermore, allotrios (ἀλλότριος) [pronounced al-LOT-ree-oss] means that the blood of Christ cannot be the blood in His human veins, it has to be His work on the cross. It means that it is entirely different.

Hebrews 9:25 “And not that he [Christ] should offer himself many times, just as the [Levitical] high priest enters into the holy of holies year by year by means of alien [animal] blood.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Christ and the Function of the High Priest

1. Christ does not follow the pattern of the Levitical high priest who functioned under shadows. Christ was fulfilling the reality, He was no functioning under shadows.

2. The Levitical high priest on his annual trek into the holy of holies offered animal or alien blood. Therefore it had to be repeated. Alien blood is a shadow, it cannot cleanse from sin. Without the shedding of alien blood there is no pardon. Alien blood could pardon in the Old Testament because it pointed to the real blood of Christ which is His redemption plus reconciliation plus propitiation.

3. But Christ made one ascension after one perfect efficacious offering. He offered Himself under the principle of the blood of Christ.

4. The blood of Christ is His saving work on the cross and/or His spiritual death on the cross and/or His bearing our sins in His own body on the cross and being judged by God the Father.

5. The priestly function at the brass altar on the day of atonement was annual modus operandi.

6. There the high priest offered many animal sacrifices during his tenure of office. Once a year on the day of atonement he offered two specific animal sacrifices: the young bull which was a rebound offering for himself, and then the goat which speaks of the redemptive work of Christ, His work in reconciliation which he offered for the people. But they were shadows pointing to the efficacious offering of Christ on the cross. This efficacious offering preceded His ascension and session.

7. After Christ offered Himself He died physically because the offering was completed. Then He rose again to portray the entrance of the high priest into the holy of holies. Christ entered into the third heaven which is the reality. The holy of holies was the shadow.

8. Under a shadow covenant a high priest offered a shadow sacrifice — the blood of an animal. With the sacrifice he entered into the holy of holies. The shadow sacrifices accurately portray the work of Christ on the cross bearing our sins and taking our place. Having completed the sacrifice the high priest went into the holy of holies with the blood. Christ ascends with the blood also, but not His literal blood, He ascends with His redemptive work. When the Father said “Sit down” He did so because the blood of Christ represents redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation because His saving work was efficacious.

Heb 9:26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Verse 26 — the first word is a conjunction but it is a causal conjunction, epeí (ἐπεί) [pronounced ehp-IH]. It means “Because”.

“then must he” — imperfect active indicative of deô, and it should be translated “Because he would have needed.” This is an idiomatic phrase, it demands the protasis of a second class condition for proper translation. This is an idiom used instead of going into a complete conditional clause. So we have to include in the English for good sense what would be said — “Because if that were true [but it isn’t] then he would have needed.” So the protasis of a second class condition assumes to be untrue that Christ has to offer Himself many times since the foundation of the world. Christ in fulfilling the shadows suffered once, and once was enough because once was efficacious.

Salvation occurs after the first time that you believe in Jesus Christ. An assistant pastor thought, if you did not remember the day and the hour that you were saved, then you weren’t saved. Bob tolerated him as a test for many others; he was sweet, apparently the exact opposite of Bob.

“to have suffered” — an aorist active infinitive of paschô/pathô/penthô (πάσχω/πάθω/πένθω) [pronounced PAHS-khoh/PATH-oh/PEHN-thoh]. Paschô/pathô/penthô (πάσχω/πάθω/πένθω) [pronounced PAHS-khoh/PATH-oh/PEHN-thoh] is never used for the fact that Christ was abused, beaten up, flogged, maltreated, etc. Paschô/pathô/penthô (πάσχω/πάθω/πένθω) [pronounced PAHS-khoh/PATH-oh/PEHN-thoh] is when He was bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. This is a dramatic aorist tense, a dramatic aorist from a false conclusion. The active voice: Christ would have produced the action of the verb but He didn’t — the idiom of the second class condition. The infinitive denotes the results of an erroneous conclusion. And again we have pollakis (πολλάκις)[pronounced pohl-LAHK-iss], not for “often” but “many times.”

We have so far: “Because if that were true [but it isn’t] then he would have needed to have suffered many times [which he didn’t].” So by stating the erroneous conclusion we get the correct conclusion.

“since the foundation of the world” — apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the ablative of katabolê (καταβολή) [pronounced kaht-ab-ohl-AY], which means from the beginning, not the foundation; “of the world” is a descriptive genitive of kósmos (κόσμος) [pronounced KOSS-moss].

We began to lose that vigor of being an agricultural society. That is what made the Romans, Greeks and Jews great. A farm boy always made a better soldier than a city boy. We have lost in areas that we are not aware of.

“but now” — nun (νν) [pronounced noon] de, the temporal adverb plus the adversative use of the conjunctive particle de.

“once” — hapax (ἅπαξ) [pronounced hap’-ax], another adverb, a very strong adverb. This is a strong statement. In effect: “Don’t ever get the idea that Christ had to die many times like the animals did, don’t ever mix the shadows with the reality.” We are not to ever live in the shadows.

“in the end” — epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative of sunteleia, and it should read “at the consummation”, or “conjunction.” So the correct Translation: “But now, once and for all, at the conjunction of the ages.”

What is the conjunction of the dispensations? It is where a dispensation is interrupted and another one begins without ending the previous one. The Age of Israel is not ended, it still has seven years to completion after the Church is raptured. A conjunction is where one thing meets another without finishing up. So what this actually says is that the Age of Israel wasn’t completed. Furthermore, a conjunction is where all of the roads meet, and all of the roads meet at the cross.

“hath he appeared” — the perfect passive indicative of phaneroô (φανερόω) [pronounced fan-er-OH-oh] — “he has been revealed.” He was revealed at the conjunction. Christ was revealed at the conjunction of the dispensations. The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect which describes the completed action of the verb in a dramatic and vivid way, emphasizing the completed results of the action. This is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect, which means not only was His appearance at the conjunction of the ages the most dramatic event in history but it is a dramatic event which has results going retroactively and results going to the end of time. So it is a true conjunction. It is the point of history at which the appearance of one person, the God-Man Jesus Christ, means that we have retroactive as well as future results to the end of history and permanent and eternal results in heaven.

Jesus Christ the God-Man is the only celebrity. He controls history. But more than that, Jesus Christ is the conjunction of history. He is the epitome of everything that is important in history, and everything that is permanent and wonderful and lasting in history. Everything that is glorious in history either looks forward to the cross or looks back to the cross. So that the conjunction of history is the once and for all sacrifice. A sacrifice which is the conjunction of history and is the salvation of all people in history must be once and for all. And when a person approaches that salvation it must be something that occurs once and for all in the instant of decision. That one decision is the instant that you were saved.

The passive voice refers to the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Comparable to the Levitical high priest appearing at the brazen altar on the day of atonement to offer the sacrifice Christ appeared — “he appeared”. It is used for Christ’s appearance on the cross on the day of crucifixion. The high priest appeared at the brazen altar many times, annually, but only once did Christ appear. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative for absolute dogma. The conjunction of the ages is the point of the cross between the dispensation of Israel and the Church.

“to put away sin” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of athetêsis (ἀθέτησις) [pronounced ath-EHT-ay-siss] which means annulling or abrogation. eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative means “for the purpose of.” We also have with this a descriptive genitive singular from hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah], the word for sin. So literally, “for the purpose of annulling of sin.” The word hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah] is in the singular because our sins were judged on the cross, but that’s plural, personal sins. But not only was Christ judged for our sins but by being judged for our sins He cancelled the imputation of Adam’s sin and He cancelled the old sin nature as a deterrent to salvation — so that we are saved and still have an old sin nature. Every time you sin after salvation, you don’t lose your salvation. Your sin nature remains a part of you. Expiatory, which means that Jesus cancelled the sin nature as a hindrance to salvation.

The whole principle of sin was annulled at the cross, not just your personal sins. Personal sins are an issue for rebound, recovering for fellowship, but the old sin nature caused you to be spiritually dead and that is why expiation cancelled the old sin nature as a hindrance to salvation. So a person can be saved and sin after salvation and not lose his salvation.

“by the sacrifice” — dia plus the genitive singular of thusia (θυσία) [pronounced thoo-SEE-ah, “through the sacrifice of Himself.” This is comparable to the brazen altar which was a shadow pointing to the cross. The animal sacrifices on the altar were shadows pointing to the saving work of Christ. His was a once and for all efficacious, expiatory sacrifice.

Hebrews 9:26 “Because if that were true [but it is not] then He would have needed to have suffered many times from the beginning of the world. But now once for all at the conjunction of the ages He has been revealed for the purpose of annulling of the sin [imputation of Adam’s sin] through the sacrifice of Himself.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews 9:27–28 Lesson #112

112 06/07/1974 Hebrews 9:27–28 Doctrines of the classification of death, Last Judgment

Two men medal of honor recipients. A Colonel Johnson in the Ploesti raid.

Heb 9:27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

Verse 27 begins a parenthesis that goes through the middle of verse 28. This much is a parenthesis: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgement: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many” — close the parenthesis. Then verse 28 continues from the end of verse 26 — “and unto them that look for him...” All of verse 27 and half of verse 28 are a parenthesis, not so marked in our Bibles but syntactically designed by the Greek language.

We begin a parenthesis in verse 27 now with the word “And” which is a conjunction used in this case to begin a parenthesis — kai. “And as” — we actually have the preposition katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of hosos (ὅσος) [pronounced HOS-os], and it should be translated “And inasmuch as.”

“it is appointed” — present passive indicative of the verb apokeimai (ἀπόκειμαι) [pronounced ap-OHK-i-mahee] which means to be stored up, to be reserved, to be destined. While the verb means basically to be laid aside so that it can be counted on, here it has to do with destiny. It means to have a destiny. The present tense is a customary present which denotes what habitually occurs or may be reasonably expected to occur. The passive voice: mankind receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic point of doctrine. The declarative indicative views the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality — “And inasmuch as it is destined,” literally.

“unto men” — the dative plural of reference of the noun anthrôpos (ἄνθρωπος) [pronounced ANTH-row-pos] for mankind; “once” — the adverb hapax (ἅπαξ) [pronounced hap’-ax], “once and for all”; “to die” — the aorist active infinitive of apothnêskô (ἀποθνήσκω) [pronounced op-ohth-NACE-koh], used here for physical death and is used in its worst sense that physical death is a result of spiritual death, the result of having an old sin nature. It is not the same as the penalty of sin, it is the result of the penalty of sin. So it is death in its worst sense. The aorist tense is a culminate aorist which views physical death in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, eternal judgement and condemnation. For a person who lives on this earth and dies physically without believing in Jesus Christ he has an appointment with the second death or judgement. The active voice: mankind produces the action of the verb by dying physically. The exception in this dispensation is the royal family of God. The exception will occur for all members of the royal family of God, the second appointment is cancelled, and there will be at least one generation of believers who will not even die physically, the Rapture generation. The infinitive can denote three categories of result. It can denote an actual result conceived or intended result. Here we have an intended result which blends the concept of both purpose and result in the infinitive.

So our verse says so far: “(And inasmuch as it is destined for mankind to die physically.” The reason we have to add “physically” is because the Bible teaches by category and classification seven kinds of death.

The Doctrine of the Classification of Death

1. The first death that ever occurred in the human race occurred when Adam sinned — spiritual death. Spiritual death is found in Ephesians 2:1; Romans 5:12; 6:23; 1Corinthians 15:22. Spiritual death is a judgement on the human race from birth. Spiritual death is being born into the devil’s kingdom, it is having citizenship papers in cosmos diabolicus. Spiritual death is separation from God in time. It is characterized by loss of the human spirit and no fellowship or relationship with God.

2. Physical death — Matthew 8:22; 2Corinthians 5:1–8; Romans 8:38,39; Philippians 1:21, and many other citations. Physical death is the soul being separated from the body. As long as the soul is in the body the person is alive, when the soul departs from the body the person is dead.

3. The second death — Hebrews 9:27; Revelation 20:12–15. It refers to the final judgement of the unbeliever at which time he is cast into the lake of fire forever.

4. Operational death — James 2:26. It is a reference to the believer’s failure to produce divine good, the failure to be productive as a believer. Operational death belongs to the believer only. It is an experiential death in which there is no doctrine, no filling of the Spirit by which divine good is produced. It is called “faith without works is dead and/or non-productive.”

5. Positional death. The word “death” is used for position — Romans 6:3,4; Colossians 2:12, 20; 3:3. At salvation we enter into the holy of holies. The baptism of the Spirit takes every believer and enters him into union with Christ seated at the right hand of the Father. We are identified with Christ forever, but we are also identified with Christ in His death as well as in His resurrection. The baptism of the Spirit identifies us retroactively with Christ in His death on the cross. That means that we go back to the cross where Christ was judged for our sins and where He rejected human good. It is the rejection of human good that is the issue here. We are identified with Christ in His death and therefore positionally we have rejected human good. We are members of the royal family, the royal family should never have anything to do with human good. Positionally we have been cut off from it, positionally we are in union with Christ, we live in the palace forever, we are royal family of God forever. We are unique and therefore being in this unique situation God has already graciously cut us off from human good. So that human good, like personal sin, becomes a matter of choice — whether he knows it is sin or not, whether he knows it is human good or not.

6. Temporal death. This means the believer of his own choice after salvation committing sin — which we all do. Having committed sins we are out of fellowship and temporal death is the description for that. Without our own free will we produce human good and we also produce sins. Temporal death is producing sins. Temporal death is taught in Romans 8:6, 13; Ephesians 5:14; 1Timothy 5:6; James 1:15; Revelation 3:1; Luke 15:24, 32. Temporal death means to be out of fellowship.

7. Sexual death, which is mentioned specifically twice in the scripture — Romans 4:16–21; Hebrews 11:11,12. Sexual death is total inability to copulate.

“but” — the particle de is a connective conjunction; “after this” — meta plus the accusative of the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. A demonstrative pronoun is always designed to refer to something specifically in the context without repeating the entire phrase — “but after this [physical death].” The word “this” refers to physical death, the aorist active infinitive of apothnêskô (ἀποθνήσκω) [pronounced op-ohth-NACE-koh].

“the judgement” — the noun krisis (κρίσις) [pronounced KREE-sihs] and it means the act of judgement. This is exactly the same as the second death.

Hebrews 9:27 “(And inasmuch as it is destined for mankind to die, but after this [physical death] the judgement.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Doctrine of the Last Judgement

1. The last judgement is the culminating judgement of history in which the unbelieving segment of the human race is confined to the lake of fire forever. It is also known as the “great white throne”; it is also known as the second death, as in Revelation 20:12. It is for unbelievers only.

2. The basic categories of the human race, therefore, must be defined. The human race is divided into two categories, believer and unbeliever. The category is based upon attitude toward the gospel, toward the Lord Jesus Christ who is the only Savior. The categories are divided by John 3:36.

3. Only the unbeliever is under indictment at the last judgement. The unbeliever’s indictment is related to his rejection of Jesus Christ as Savior — John 3:18; 16:9; Revelation 20:15.

4. The believer in Christ is not involved in the last judgement — Romans 8:1.

5. The unbeliever, therefore, has two appointments with God — physical death and the second death — Hebrews 9:27.

6. The second appointment of judgement is kept by means of a second resurrection — Revelation 20:12,13. The second resurrection is unbelievers only.

7. The unbeliever at the last judgement is condemned on the basis of human good, not sin — Revelation 20:12,13.

8. The eternal state of the unbeliever is described three ways.

a. He is said to reside in the lake of fire — Revelation 20:14,15; Matthew 25:41;

b. He is said to have the second death — Revelation 20:14. In other words, the second death and the lake of fire are synonymous terms.

c. He is said to be dying in his sins — John 8:21,24.

The parenthesis continues. Both of these appointments are a reality to the human race, except in the case of the one who believes in Jesus Christ — John 3:18. Physical death has an entirely different meaning, then, to the believer. To the believer physical death is a very wonderful thing because we go from positional holy of holies to real holy of holies at the point of physical death.

Heb 9:28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

Verse 28 continues the parenthesis and the explanation for the brazen altar. The background for this verse is found in the modus operandi of the high priest on the day of atonement. The adverb which begins this verse is still a part of the parenthesis. The adverb houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] refers to what precedes, indicating we are still in that parenthesis. What precedes is namely, the need for salvation and the need to cancel the second appointment of judgement. We translate it “So also the Christ” — ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] Christos (χριστός) [pronounced krees-TOSS]. Christ fulfils the shadows and fulfils the function of the high priest on the day of atonement. The high priest at the brazen altar: Christ bearing our sins; the high priest sprinkling blood on the mercy seat portrays propitiation. So between the animal being sacrificed on the altar and the sprinkling of the blood on the mercy seat we have the entire meaning of the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ = redemption + propitiation + reconciliation.

“was once offered” — the entrance of the high priest into the holy of holies is a picture of Jesus Christ in resurrection, ascension and session. The return of the high priest from the holy of holies has to do with his appearance before the people and it foreshadows the second advent. So “the Christ was once offered” — we have hapax (ἅπαξ) [pronounced hap’-ax] plus the aorist passive of prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh]. It should be translated “So also the Christ once for all was offered,” the aorist passive participle. This is a constative aorist which gathers up into one entirety the blood of Christ, which covers a period of three hours on the cross from twelve noon until three o’clock in the afternoon when Christ was bearing our sins and in the process accomplished redemption toward sin, reconciliation toward man, and propitiation toward God. The passive voice: Christ receives the action of the verb, being offered, and the participle is circumstantial. Being an aorist participle it also has antecedent action to the main verb, “he shall appear.”

This particular phrase “having been offered once for all” is followed by a phrase which is found in Isaiah chapter 53. In the Hebrew it is “and he bear the sins of the many.” This, again, is a reference to the saving work of Christ on the cross. So the qal perfect of nasa in the Hebrew of Isaiah 53:12 is actually depicting redemption plus reconciliation plus propitiation, or the blood of Christ. Now in this particular quotation of it it is reduced to an aorist active infinitive of apopherô (ἀποφέρω) [pronounced ap-of-ER-oh] which means to bear or to take away. This is a constative aorist and again it gathers up into one entirety the work of Christ on the cross. It takes an occurrence, the blood of Christ, regardless of its extent of duration, and gathers it up into a single whole. In this case the blood of Christ and/or the saving work of Christ, lasting for about three hours, is in view in taking away sins. The active voice: Christ produced the action of the verb on the cross in His spiritual death and/or the blood of Christ. The infinitive is the object of the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus apopherô (ἀποφέρω) [pronounced ap-of-ER-oh] in the infinitive form.

At this point we have the closing of the parenthesis and the subject of the appearance of Christ. The appearance of the high priest to the people, coming out of the holy of holies, is a picture of Christ leaving returning to the earth at the second advent, at which time He will deliver Israel. Close parenthesis.

The Greek word order of the last half of this sentence is so different that we need a corrected translation from which to work. So first of all, this is the way it should go: “a second time apart from sin shall he appear to the ones waiting for him, resulting in deliverance.”

“the second time” — the preposition ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus accusative of deuteros (δεύτερος, -α, -ον) [pronounced DYOO-ter-oss]. It is literally, “from the second”, but it is a Greek idiom meaning a second time.

Next we have an adverb used as a preposition, “apart from sin” — chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE] plus hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah]. In other words, “apart from sin” means that once Christ bore our sins in His own body on the tree He immediately had accomplished His work and He goes back to the status in His humanity, “apart from sin”. So he will remain in hypostatic union, and from the time He ascends and is seated at the right hand of the Father He will still be in hypostatic union in that day when His feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives at the end of the Tribulation. So “apart from sin” indicates that He is in a state of impeccability, He is in the hypostatic union forever.

“he shall appear” — the future passive indicative of the verb horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] for a panoramic view. The future tense is a predictive future to describe the second advent of Christ. The passive voice: horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] in the passive means to be manifest or to be seen, and to be seen is to appear. So you take the passive voice and change it to an active voice — “he shall appear.” Christ will appear as the King of kings to Israel. He will appear as David’s greater son, just as the high priest left the holy of holies on that last trip out, and he came through the holy place to stand in front of the brazen altar and appear to the people and they let out a cheer. But it meant more than that, it represented the second advent of Christ when He would deliver Israel. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogma of doctrine. This is a shadow portraying the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Every time we see a Jew, we are witnessing the faithfulness of God.

“unto them that look for him” — a wrong translation. It is a dative plural, present middle participle from the verb apekdechomai (ἀπεκδέχομαι) [pronounced ap-ek-DEHKH-om-ahee]. It means to wait eagerly for someone, to wait in great anticipation. It means to think about someone you love and know that they are coming to see you very shortly. It is used in the Hebrew to express the eschatological expectation of Israel in the future. It means here to anticipate through doctrine. Those who have the most doctrine anticipate the Lord the most during the Tribulation. The dative case is dative of advantage. It is to your advantage to have doctrine; in the future it is to the advantage of the Jew to have doctrine, especially in the Tribulation. The present tense is retroactive progressive present which denotes what has begin in the past and continues throughout the present time and throughout history. In other words, this is an eschatological present to indicate the great principle of anticipating Christ through doctrine. The futuristic present is also a possibility here to denote an event such as the second advent which has not yet occurred but is so real that it is put in the present tense instead of the future tense. To put a future event in the present tense means it is real.

This means that Christ is going to come back to deliver Jews who are in a jamb — the whole Armageddon campaign. This means that Christ is going to come back and straighten out the world, something you and I could never do. The participle is a middle voice participle. It is an indirect middle emphasizing the agent, Christ, as producing the action rather than participating in its results, and it signifies that the action of the verb is closely related to the subject, and the participle is articular with the definite article. And we have an intensive pronoun which is the object of the participle, and the object of the participle is “him” [Christ].

“unto salvation” is eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of sôtêria (σωτηρία) [pronounced soh-tay-REE-ah], which does not mean here salvation, it means deliverance — “resulting in deliverance” is the correct translation. When Christ makes His appearance at the second advent it means deliverance for Israel.

Hebrews 9:28 “So the Christ also having been offered once and for all for the purpose of taking away the sin of the many) a second time apart from sin shall he appear to the ones eagerly waiting for him [through doctrine resident in the soul] resulting in their deliverance.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Note the rather complex handling of the two appearances of Christ. The first appearance of the high priest was at the brazen altar — verse 26. The second appearance is found at the end of verse 28. In between we have a parenthesis to explain why the brazen altar. So verses 27–28a is an explanation for the brazen altar, why the cross must come before the crown. So the ones who through doctrine resident in the soul eagerly await the return of Christ in the Tribulation are the Tribulational believers who will be alive and delivered at His coming. They are positive to doctrine, they understand eschatology, they continue to apply doctrine, they resist the enemy, they are hiding in the hills, and they are able therefore to be alive when Christ returns.

Review of Hebrews 9.

1972 Hebrews 10:1a Lesson #113

113 06/09/1974 Hebrews 10:1a Doctrine of the Mosaic Law

There is no such thing as equality in the human race; but there is freedom. This freedom is based upon the military establishment.

Two men have completed basics for the Airborne Rangers. Tony Simpson. Saw a long-haired hippie, and he noticed a lot of hair there. He was going to cut off all his hair before the drill sergeant. He talked to him about Bible doctrine; and he seemed to be very positive. Several books presented to him at graduation. Mother was over his shoulder and she said, “Let me see those books.” Best platoon, the best company commander, best 3 drill sergeants. Graced out there all the way. Learned how to work the M16 rifle until they can do it in their sleep. He was a coach in the public schools for 5 years. By comparison, the US Army is in much better condition. Better instruction, quality of instruction, etc.

Jim MacAvie. Completely different way of life than what they are both used to. Arrived and 15 drill sergeants yelling at them. One drill sergeant was converted to the Church of Christ a few months back. Another was a holy roller. One quoted Scripture; the other talked about getting the ghost. A lot of problems, a lot of AWOL’s, fighting, stealing. He asked about this. Cleveland, Chicago and CA are where the problems tend to be.

They stopped hand-to-hand combat; physical training was not much, disappointing. He and Tony were in a tent together and they could listen to Bible doctrine in their tiny tent. Came back and the darned place was shut down.

Chapter 10

This is the transitional chapter that pushes people into the area of the supergrace life. The supergrace life is the only way in which a believer in this dispensation can glorify God. It is acquired only through the constant and consistent intake of Bible doctrine which leads to orientation to the plan of God. The tenth chapter is the most critical because it begins to deal with the realities of which shadows we have been studying. For example, we have seen from the standpoint of shadows that the holy of holies was forbidden in the Old Testament as far as entrance was concerned, and that only once a year after careful preparation and not apart from the shedding of blood the high priest was permitted to enter the holy of holies to sprinkle the blood of animal sacrifices on the mercy seat, portraying propitiation. However, we discover that no one else was ever permitted inside, and in effect it was where the Lord Jesus Christ lived in Old Testament times under the title of Shekinah glory.

The veil in the temple was ripped apart during the time when Jesus Christ was bearing our sins and being judged for them, so that we are a part of a new age, a new dispensation, which interrupted the Age of Israel. We live in the age of the royal family of God. Positionally, at the moment of salvation, God the Holy Spirit entered us into union with Christ who is in the true holy of holies, the third heaven, so that we live positionally in the holy of holies. We are a royal family, we have a specific object. The life of every believer has meaning and purpose and definition. Therefore, we are in that transitional part of Hebrews where the shadows are removed and we begin to see some of the reasons why the Church Age.

Bob reads a few verses from this chapter.

In this great chapter our subject is a focus on the plan of God. The outline of the passage is very interesting because it shows the directions in which this passage is going.

There Are Three Basic Paragraphs in the Tenth Chapter.

1. Paragraph #1 deals with the metamorphism of a shadow — verses 1–18. Here is where we see the transition from the shadow life and the shadow worship of the Age of Israel to the realities of the dispensation in which we live.

2. The second paragraph, verses 19-25, deals with the royal family in the plan of God. Basically there are two concepts taught in that paragraph. The royal family has a new home, verses 19-21; the royal family has a new perspective, verses 22–25.

3. The third paragraph deals with the subject of failure to utilize the plan of God, verses 26–39. This is broken down into two basic concepts, failure to appropriate phase one or the doctrine of the willful sin, verses 26–31. The willful sin is synonymous with the unpardonable sin. Then finally we have the failure to utilize phase two, called the trimming of the sails or reversionism in the royal family, verses 32–39. This is the great passage which orients the believer to the spiritual realities in the day in which he lives, correlates those with the materialistic blessings which is the real issue in your life. The issue is not provision of needs for God has provided your needs as a member of the royal family of God. As long as you are alive on this earth it is obvious that your needs are provided. Furthermore, God provides the needs of all kinds of members of the royal family of God — the needs of the reversionist, the carnal believer, in order to discipline him, for discipline can only occur in time for the royal family; the needs of those who are growing in grace in order that they might come to the place of materialistic as well as spiritual blessing. This great chapter deals with the fact that God has provided for you not only the great spiritual blessings that come from occupation with Christ in the supergrace status, but He also has for you materialistic blessings — promotion, prosperity, success. These are the things that God provides totally apart from any system in cosmos diabolicus, and God is glorified by providing these things.

God is tapping His foot, waiting to bless us. He has provided special blessings in life. Our blessings precede us. That helps us to orient to His plan.

Heb 10:1 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

Verse 1 — the source of all shadows begins with the explanatory conjunctive particle gar, translated correctly “For”, indicating now that there will be an explanation of all of the shadows we have been studying in chapter nine.

“the law” — ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss] is a reference to the old covenant, the Mosaic law or the authorizing agent for shadows.

The Doctrine of the Mosaic Law, or the Old Covenant

1. The Mosaic law is defined as the covenant presented by God through Moses, conditional in nature, authorizing the function for Israel as they became a nation. There was no Mosaic law or old covenant so long as the Jews were in slavery. There is no place for the laws of divine establishment in slavery. The laws of divine establishment oppose slavery in every way because it keeps a man from making his own decisions, it destroys the principle of his privacy, property, and the ability to go as far as he can go on his own. So the Mosaic law did not exist until there was first of all freedom for the nation. God freed the Jewish nation from Egyptian bondage before He gave them the old covenant or the Mosaic law. The Mosaic law is a very fascinating combination of the laws of divine establishment and the spiritual function of Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine was presented in shadow form. The Mosaic law is also the beginning of a written canon of scripture. Until the time of Moses there was no written canon and all Bible doctrine was communicated by God through dreams, visions, trances, direct conversation, angelic teachers. Now we have for the first time in all human history the beginning of the canon of scripture with the Mosaic law.

2. The books of the Torah:

a. Obviously the book of Genesis is not pertinent to the Mosaic law because it describes the history of the human race from the time of its beginning until the time that Moses gave the law.

b. The book of Exodus shows the correlation between the race of Israel and the nation of Israel, and how God took one group of people and made them custodians of divine truth.

c. Then, of course, the last half of Exodus deals with the tabernacle, and then when we get to the books of Numbers and Leviticus,

d. Numbers gives us the Jewish history as they moved out of slavery, Leviticus gives us the function of a specialized priesthood — the animal sacrifices, the holy days, everything that was involved in teaching Bible doctrine as well as evangelising this special nation.

e. Deuteronomy is the great book of grace under the Mosaic law, reiterating certain facets of the law, tying together the laws of divine establishment with the spiritual life and showing that there is a purpose and place for both, and that freedom in the human race is vitally necessary if man is ever going to be a source of resolving the angelic conflict. And since this is the purpose for which man is created it is obvious that God has taken every step to protect human freedom in the devil’s world.

3. Therefore the law is divided into three parts. The Mosaic law is not exactly synonymous with the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible. They are also called Torah — nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss] in the Greek. The word “law” is used for the first five books of the Bible, but in those first five books we have other things beside the Mosaic law. Therefore our first point recognizes that the actual content of the Mosaic code is found in those first five books but is not the entire content of those books. Therefore it is necessary to break down categorically the actual structure of the Mosaic law.

a. First of all, there was a moral code. This is called the decalogue but it includes more than ten commandments, it includes literally hundreds of commandments. The actual decalogue is given in Exodus chapter 20, verses 1–17, as well as in Deuteronomy chapter five. It is designed to show that the laws of divine establishment are so ordained to protect human freedom, to gave everyone the privacy and the freedom and the right to be evangelized, and to say yes or no to the gospel.

b. The second part of the Mosaic law is a spiritual code. It is called in the Bible “the ordinances”. It is a complete Christology as well as a complete soteriology, it is designed in shadow form to present Jesus Christ as the only Savior. In effect, it fulfills Acts 4:12 — “Neither is there salvation in any other, there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” Therefore it is a very vital part of the Mosaic law.

c. The third area of the Mosaic law is the social code. This is known in the scripture as the judgements. It presents the divine laws of establishment which are designed to provide freedom and privacy for the human race during the course of the angelic conflict. It includes the function, of the divine institutions, it also includes some very practical advice. The Jews were short haired and without beards. Nazarite vow. Samson was the most famous of that group. Jesus was a Nazarene, not a Nazarite.

4. Today, there are seventh-day adventists. We, however, are not under the Law. The Mosaic law was given to Israel only, never to the Gentiles, and never to the Church. And we do not have Sabbath observance — Exodus 19:3; Leviticus 26:46; Romans 3:19; 9:4. It was never given to the Gentiles — Deuteronomy 4:8; Romans 2:12–14. It was never given to the royal family of God. Christians are not under the Mosaic law, it was never given to the Church — Acts 15:5, 24; Romans 6:14; Galatians 2:19.

5. As far as the Mosaic law is concerned when Christ came in the flesh he fulfilled the law, all of the way from His virgin birth to His death, burial and resurrection. Jesus Christ fulfilled the law, and in Matthew 5:17 He said He came to fulfill it. Jesus Christ is the end of the law for believers — Romans 10:4. We are not under the Mosaic law, the Mosaic law becomes a means, a vehicle for learning certain doctrines and learning to appreciate the grace of God; but it is not the modus operandi for the royal family. We have a higher and a new modus operandi authorized by the new covenant to the Church.

6. Believers in the Church Age are under higher laws of spirituality — Romans 8:2–4; Galatians 5:18, 22–23; 1Corinthians 13.

7. Therefore we must recognize the limitations of the Mosaic law.

a. It cannot justify or provide salvation — Galatians 2:16; Romans 3:20, 28; Acts 13:39; Philippians 3:9.

b. The law cannot give life — Galatians 3:21.

c. The law cannot provide the Holy Spirit — Galatians 3:2.

d. The law cannot solve the problems of the old sin nature — Romans 8:3. Therefore the law has certain limitations. It was designed to set up divine standards, it was designed to portray the laws of establishment, it was designed to be a vehicle for teaching Bible doctrine in Old Testament times. But the Mosaic law is definitely not a source of salvation or eternal life or the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, nor can it solves the problems of the old sin nature. The present purpose of the Mosaic law, therefore, comes into focus since it is not given to the Church but is still a part of the Word of God. Since the teaching of the Mosaic law is in the Word of God we need to recognize something of its present purpose.

8. 3 codices

a. Codex #1 which has a standard of morality designed to provide human freedom — like the ten commandments — is a divine standard and still has a function. The function is to demonstrate what the diviner standards are and for the individual member of the human race to define both human freedom, the basis for it, and also to be able to define personal sin as it relates to human freedom.

b. Codex #2 is a means of teaching Bible doctrine.

c. Codex #3 gives us a perfect standard from God for the function of a national entity — the right of all citizens in a nation to freedom even though they are unequal, the right to have their own privacy, the right to own and possess property, the right to enter into free enterprise business function as long as it does not violate criminal laws. Therefore Codex #3 sets up the divine standards for the preservation of a nation and its freedoms and evangelization of the human race.

9. The past purpose of the law was an authorizing agent for the Levitical priesthood — Hebrews 7:11,12. The Mosaic law also authorized the tabernacle as a sacred building — Hebrews 9:1–6; it authorized animals sacrifices to portray Christ on the cross — Hebrews 9:12,13; and the blood authorized by the Mosaic law — Hebrews 9:18–22 — was the basis for dedication of all of the shadows.

10. The Mosaic law has other names. It is also known as the book of the covenant — Exodus 24:7,8; 34:27,28; Deuteronomy 4:13–16, 23, 31; 8:18; 9:9, 11, and so on.

11. The addendum to the Mosaic law which is found in Deuteronomy 29:1ff should also be noted as being a part, but a grace emphasizing part. The prophecy of breaking the covenant in Deuteronomy 31:16,20; Jeremiah 22:9, also belongs to the Mosaic law.

12. This book of the covenant is also the subject of Jeremiah chapter eleven, not to be confused with the new covenant to Israel in Jeremiah 31. It is imperative to understand some of these principles.

13. Keeping the law is not the way of salvation but a way of human freedom and prosperity under establishment. This is taught also in Galatians chapter two. So it is imperative to understand that we are not under the Mosaic law, that the Mosaic law was never a way of salvation, and that the Mosaic law content wise is in three categories. The category we have been studying is Codex #2, the shadows of the tabernacle, the shadows of the Levitical sacrifices, the shadows of the day of atonement, the shadows of the modus operandi of the Levitical priesthood.

So far we have “For the law”, reference to the Mosaic law, “having,” present active participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] which means to have or to have and to hold. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present which means something begun in the past with the result that it continues into the present time. The law will always have shadows. The law’s shadows will always have significance. We do not function under these shadows but we learn from them, they become great illustrations, they teach us a great deal about the Lord Jesus Christ. The active voice of this participle indicates that the Mosaic law produces the action of the verb. The Mosaic law has within its contents Codex #2, shadows. The participle is a circumstantial participle.

“For the law having a shadow” — the accusative singular direct object of skia (σκία) [pronounced SKEE-ah]. Certain portions of the Mosaic law constitute a great shadow. A shadow in contrast to reality is what skia (σκία) [pronounced SKEE-ah] means, therefore a shadow caused by the interruption of light. You see, the world was not ready.

God always gave those portions of the Bible to the world at exactly the right time. The first portion came from Moses — the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch. Then we have other writers coming along, like Samuel, like David, like Solomon. And these portions came along at certain times so that the canon of scripture remained open from 1440 BC until 96 AD, for a period of over 1500 years. The canon of scripture was formed between 1440 BC and 96 AD, and over this period of time certain things were given. Some of these things were not a direct development of light such as we have in the Pauline epistles but were shadows, the interruption of light. The reality had not occurred historically. So the things that Moses wrote of are called shadow here, gathering them all together into one category. These were shadows because the historical reality of the death of Christ on the cross had not occurred. Therefore a shadow is an interruption of light or indicates the reality of light. The reality of light existed from eternity past, the Lord Jesus Christ, and historically He came to the earth and went to the cross. But until He did He was portrayed in either shadow form such as the Levitical sacrifices or prophetical categories such as Isaiah 53. Therefore the shadow is not the substance of Christ but indicates the reality of substance. The shadow is not the reality but always portrays the presence of reality. Jesus Christ in His incarnation is the reality but Jesus Christ had to be taught to millions and millions of people before He came in the flesh, and this teaching occurred in shadow form.

“of good things” — a descriptive genitive plural of the noun agathos (ἀγαθός) [pronounced ag-ath-OSS]. Agathos (ἀγαθός) [pronounced ag-ath-OSS] means good of intrinsic value. It means that something is valuable no matter where you find it. Agathos (ἀγαθός) [pronounced ag-ath-OSS] is used of gold in the Greek language because gold has intrinsic value, it is valuable wherever you find it. It doesn’t change its value just because of where it is located. This is a descriptive genitive which portrays the good things of the cross. The plural brings out everything pertaining to the person of Christ, that is why it is in the plural. There are many, many shadows actually of good things. So the shadow is in the singular to show they are all gathered together here in concept, and “good things” is in the plural. The shadows actually refer to the blood of Christ, the saving work of Christ on the cross.

Now we are getting ready to see the sequence of the metamorphisms which are found in this paragraph. These metamorphisms begin with the human race.

Metamorphisms

1. A metamorphism is a phenomenal transformation. For example, innocent man or Adam in the garden becomes a sinner and spiritually dead — Genesis 3:6.

2. The second metamorphism is the change that came to the woman. God made the woman the child bearer. So Genesis 3:15, 16 gives us our first salvation verse in the Bible, it teaches us that the seed of the woman, the Lord Jesus Christ, would come and He would come through the virgin birth, therefore without the imputation of Adam’s sin and would be qualified to go to the cross and bear our sins. This is explained in 1Timothy 2:9-15.

3. Then the third great metamorphism is that of our Lord Jesus Christ. As eternal God He coexisted with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. He became man, and as the God-Man or in hypostatic union Jesus Christ became unique — Hebrews 10:5–10. The fourth metamorphism is taught throughout the scripture: sinful man, by believing in Jesus Christ, becomes saved, the possessor of eternal life.

“to come” — the present active participle of the verb mellô (μέλλω) [pronounced MEHL-low], meaning “about to come.” The futuristic present denotes an event which has not yet occurred but which is regarded as so certain in thought that it is considered as having already occurred. That was the idea of the law. The law always recognized that Christ would come and that God would keep His word. The active voice: the good or profitable things of salvation produce the action of the verb. The participle is ascriptive, it is used as an adjective and it describes a fact or quality directly to the word agathos (ἀγαθός) [pronounced ag-ath-OSS]. However, notice that while the law possessed a shadow of coming good things pertaining to salvation it was not salvation in itself.

“and not the very image of the things” — the negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] is a very strong one, it says definitely not the very image or the real image. The word for “image” is in the accusative case but the form is eikôn (εἰκών) [pronounced ī-KOHN], and it refers to an exact image. It is not the exact image of the Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union providing through His redemptive work eternal salvation. So literally, “not the real image of the things”. The genitive singular which describes “image” here is pragma (πργμα) [pronounced PRAG-mah] which means “events” — “not the real image of the events [of the cross].”

Translation so far: “For [you see] the law possessing [or, having] a shadow of the coming good things [pertaining to salvation], not the real image of the events [of the cross].” In other words, the animal blood was not the real image. The animal blood on the altar was real, but it was a shadow portraying the reality on the cross which is Jesus Christ bearing our sins, or redemption plus reconciliation plus propitiation and/or the blood of Christ. So it wasn’t the real thing, it was a portrayal of the real thing. Therefore it was a teaching aid.

The Hebrew people did not know that the Holy of Holies was reserved for us, in the Church Age. They did not know what the Church Age was.

1972 Hebrews 10:1b Lesson #114

114 06/09/1974 Hebrews 10:1b Jesus Christ's spiritual death is the highest of value to God

We have all been brought to think, how much is, what is the value of that? But the most important thing of value is Bible doctrine.

As members of the royal family of God Bible doctrine inevitably must become of the highest value. There is a reason why doctrine has such a high value. There was no doctrine in written form for the first few thousand years of human history. When Abraham crossed the Euphrates river there was still no doctrine in written form. All of the great patriarchs were guided by God, whether Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, or Joseph. They were all guided by the spoken Word of God, by dreams, by visions, by trances, by the teaching of angelic creatures, by the Lord Jesus Christ in the theophany known as the angel of Jehovah.

No one ever had anything in writing until specifications for shadows became necessary. The day that God put shadows into the life of Israel, after their freedom, their departure from Egypt, that was the day when it became very clear to the human race that God also has a scale of values. His scale of values is readily discernible from the doctrine of divine decrees. God the Father who is always the spokesman for the Godhead in the Old Testament places the highest value of anything in human life on the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. So valuable was it to God the Father that a series of instructions were given to Moses on the mountain. Moses was to order the construction of a golden lampstand. The ordering of golden implements, of all of the various articles of furniture in the tabernacle, the command to have animal sacrifices continuously — offered over a period of 1500 years before Christ came.

These great expensive items will never be found. They will not be found in museums, owned by collectors, etc.

The cost of all of these animals over that period of time would go into the billions of dollars. Yet God was willing that all of these things be accomplished. He commanded that the high priest and the Levitical priesthood be dressed in the most expensive possible clothes. He commanded that the materials used in the construction of these shadows be of the best all the way. He commanded that the animals used would be the best animals in the flock. These were just little ways by which God said to the human race, I have a scale of values and the most valuable thing to me is the blood of Jesus Christ, His efficacious sacrifice on the cross. All of these shadows had a real place in the life of the people in the time in which they lived, for they lived in a time when there was no completed canon of scripture. They lived in a time when the things that were used for worship were of extreme value, and they recognized in these expensive shadows that God considered the death of Christ on the cross for our sins the most important, that to which the highest value was ever to be attached for anything in history. These shadows, then, have a great significance.

In effect they say: God the Father says to us, “I value the death of Jesus Christ on the cross above all else in the universe, and because of this I have set up in the Old Testament time in the Age of Israel shadows, many shadows.” These shadows were all valuable art objects but they all represented something of great significance, and these shadows portray the most valuable thing in all of the universe, the death of Christ on the cross. But once the shadows have been removed by the coming of the royal family, the beginning of the Church Age, they will never survive.

There is noting sacred about what you wear or don’t wear. Even if your Bible has a wood storage made of wood from Jerusalem.

There is just one way now that the shadows have gone that God will demonstrate the value of the cross. God has ordained a book, a book which will live forever, a book which will survive every Satanic attempt to destroy it, and the content of that book will deal with God’s Son, Jesus Christ. And that book which liveth and abideth forever is a memorial to the fact that the most valuable thing in the universe took place in the conjunction of the ages when Jesus Christ was bearing our sins, dying for us. There is nothing scared about any of the shadows, the sacredness is in the Word of God. And God has given to one family only, the royal family of the Church Age, the privilege of transferring from a written book to the soul the very content of that book. As the believer consistently transfers this content one thing will become apparent to him. Jesus Christ in dying on the cross, in fulfilling that efficacious sacrifice which we call the blood of Christ, is more valuable than anything in the world. And when it becomes more valuable to us than anything in the world it is because of the content of doctrine in our soul which we have simply called occupation with the person of Jesus Christ.

The first time that you agree with God the Father about the value of the cross is when you believe in Him. God the Father knew that we would never have the mentality, that we would never have the capabilities of soul to appreciate in full who and what Christ is and how significant is His work on the cross. God the Father therefore made it very simple for us right from the beginning. He made a grace way, a simple way, a simple spark in the soul — non-meritorious thinking called faith. He utilized this as the means by which we agree with God the Father about the work of the cross, that it is more important than anything in life.

And because you agreed, by believing in Jesus Christ, you are going to spend eternity with God in the holy of holies. The holy of holies is your home forever. From the holy of holies you are being supplied right now. Positionally you are in the holy of holies right now because of the baptism of the Spirit. Experientially every blessing you will ever have in this life comes from the holy of holies. The holy of holies was so important in the ancient world that God the Son dwelled there under the term “the Shekinah glory.” The Shekinah glory is simply another manifestation of Jesus Christ, and in effect, the Shekinah glory dwelling in the holy of holies is simply another reminder that God the Father has placed the highest value within the capabilities of divine essence on the work of the Son. It is interesting that this valuable principle, this valuable work, this most valuable thing in all of history could not exist had not Satan in his arrogance gone negative and, because of his fall and original sin, made possible something of value.

Bob is embarrassed about his previous work in Hebrews 10. He once completed it in two hours.

Now something of value inevitably has to go back to what we are studying. We are now in the transitional phase. We will in the tenth chapter of Hebrews begin to see something of value. The absorption of its content will give an entire new attitude on life, not only from the fact that you are royal family but from the viewpoint of the fact that something of value is your permanent possession.

Translation so far: “For [you see] the law possessing [or, having] a shadow of the coming good things [pertaining to salvation], not the real image of the events [of the cross].”

Heb 10:1b ...it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

“can never” — the present active indicative of the verb dunamai (δύναμαι) [pronounced DOO-nam-ahee], a verb of ability. This verb has a very strong negative adverb with it. It is oudépote (οὐδέποτε) [pronounced oo-DEH-po-teh]. Negative adverbs can be extremely strong, there is nothing stronger than this one. It should read “never able,” never a possibility of it being able. There is no way that the Mosaic law can ever be construed as having anything permanent, because it is made up of shadows and because the shadows only point to the reality but the shadows are not the reality. It takes a new covenant — a new covenant to the Church and a new covenant to Israel — in order to portray the reality. The present tense here is a static present which represents a condition which is assumed as perpetually never existing. The active voice: the Mosaic law produces the action of the verb. The Mosaic law is never able. The indicative mood is declarative viewing the verb from the viewpoint of certainty. It represents the verbal idea as being absolutely dogmatic.

“with those sacrifices” — the instrumental plurals involved here means “by means of those sacrifices”, and it is a reference first of all to the five categories of Levitical offerings. In addition to that there were special offerings for jealousy, special offerings for being cleansed from leprosy, special offerings for various types of ceremonial cleansing and ceremonial uncleanness. So all in all these Levitical offerings all focus our attention on a principle, a very simple one. God says nothing is more valuable than the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. So to make you realize how valuable it is God says I will take all of your talents and all of your abilities and forge them into something that speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ and remind you daily of who and what He is until the conjunction of the ages. So the Levitical offerings are a part of these shadows, and they are merely portraying the real, the efficacious sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

“which they offer” — “which” is the accusative feminine plural of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] whose antecedent is sacrifice; “they” refers to the priests; “offer” is the present active indicative of prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh]. The present tense is an iterative present to indicate that at certain intervals certain sacrifices were offered and that at certain times every day there was some kind of sacrifice being offered for some reason by someone — “which they continually offer.” The active voice: the Levitical priests produce the action of the verb, and again we have a declarative indicative for a dogmatic fact. Add to that the fact that they not only offered them one year but this went on annually, “year by year”, katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus eniautos (ἐνιαυτός) [pronounced en-ee-ow-TOSS], an idiom which actually means “year after year”. But that isn’t enough to say year after year. God the Father wants it to stick in your soul, as He wanted the Jews to understand in their day that these things must be repeated again and again and again. The repetition of sacrifices was a reminder to the Jews just as the repetition of Bible teaching is a reminder to you. It is good that we are out of the shadows.

Balderdash is barking a lot, and there are painters around Bob’s home with long hair. If your hair is too long,...

“continually” is a prepositional phrase. It is translated like an adverb but it is eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of diênekes (διηνεκές) [pronounced dee-ah-nehk-EHS], and this prepositional phrase means again and again and again and again. In other words, it means perpetually. There is a reason for that repetition. God is saying, “I want the world to know through the function of these shadows that nothing is more important than the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. I have placed the highest value on Him and therefore I want the royal family to do exactly the same.

Some of you hate repetition; but would you like me to be offering sacrifice after sacrifice, a dozen a day.

And I have given them a sacred book filled with doctrine to be transferred to their souls.” What does it mean to be mature spiritually. It means to recognize that Jesus Christ is more valuable in His death on the cross, the most valuable thing in history, and to recognize it not because anyone else says so but because your own soul, the content of doctrine in your soul, says so, and the content of doctrine in your soul is so real that the written Word becomes the living Word and you become occupied with the person of Jesus Christ, our objective as members of the royal family. We will translate the word “continually” as “perpetually.”

So far we have, “never able by means of those sacrifices which they offer year after year perpetually.”

Next we have “make perfect,” and we have an aorist active infinitive of teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh]. Teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh] means to cause perfection, and they could never do it. This is a gnomic aorist, used generally for an accepted fact so axiomatic in character that it is described in the aorist tense as though it was actually occurring right now. The active voice: the Levitical sacrifices offered by the Levitical priesthood perpetually could never cause perfection. The infinitive is a causative infinitive, and perfection here means salvation. So those sacrifices never caused one person to be saved.

Why is salvation described in terms of causing perfection or causing completion? Because you are perfected in time when you come to have a full understanding of the divine standards in the sense that you totally agree with God the Father that the sacrifice of Christ on the cross is the most valuable, the most important thing in history.

“comers” — the present active participle of proserchomai (προσέρχομαι) [pronounced pros-ER-khom-ahee], means those who approach the altar, and “comers” isn’t a bad translation. The present active participle is a circumstantial participle for the expression of worship through shadows.

Hebrews 10:1 “For the law possessing a shadow of the coming good things [pertaining to salvation], not the real image of the events [of the cross], that is, the law is never able by means of those sacrifices which they offered year after year perpetually to cause perfection to those who approached the altar [with a sacrifice].”

Shadows of the Mosaic Law

1. The Mosaic law cannot provide salvation, it can only through shadow worship reveal the way of salvation in Jesus Christ — Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16; Romans 3:28.

2. Causing perfection simply refers to salvation. Salvation is described in terms of perfection when there is the imputation of divine righteousness. But here it is the attitude, sharing the attitude of God the Father which is that the most valuable of all things in history is the work of Christ on the cross.

3. Shadows can portray reality but shadows cannot be reality.

4. The animal sacrifices authorized by the law were shadows portraying the various aspects of the work of Christ on the cross. But Christ is, was, always will be, in eternity past He was, the reality.

5. The Levitical priesthood was authorized to deal with shadows; the royal priesthood is authorized to deal with reality. Why? Because we have a different authorizing agent. The Mosaic law of the old covenant was the authorizing agent. It is now abrogated. The new covenant to the Church is the authorizing agent for our priesthood.

6. The reality for us, and again to show how valuable the cross is to God the Father at the time that Christ was bearing our sins, the Father was propitiated. It was so valuable that He had the function of the day of atonement in the shadows when once a year the high priest sprinkled in the holy of holies on that mercy seat. That spoke of the Father being propitiated by the work of Christ on the cross. So at the actual time that Christ was bearing our sins God the Father was doing two things. He was pouring out our sins upon the Son, judging Him, and then being propitiated by what He was doing. But there is more than that. By His resurrection, ascension and session Jesus Christ is seated in the holy of holies permanently. He is seated there right now. And being seated at the right hand of the Father His sacrifice is acceptable forever. Because it is acceptable forever Jesus Christ is now the focal point of history, and He is waiting for the last stage of victory which is over the fallen angels — operation footstool.

7. Being seated there means, once again, that God the Father attaches the highest value to the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. And now that we have a new covenant for the first time in all of history God the Holy Spirit takes each one of us at the point of salvation and enters us into union with Christ so that positionally we are in the holy of holies.

8. The baptism of the Spirit puts every one of us behind the torn curtain in the holy of holies. And being positionally in the holy of holies as royal family we have a tremendous reminder from God, that God the Father attaches the highest possible value from His essence to the work of Christ on the cross. There is nothing higher, nothing greater, nothing more important in the universe. And so great is the value He attaches that is saves you and me and millions and millions of people in human history. And so great is the value He attaches to it that those who reject the cross are going to be in the lake of fire forever and ever.

9. There will be no escapees from the Lake of Fire; they cannot be prayed out, bought out. They attached no importance to the gift of Jesus Christ.

The holy rollers blathering at the mouth is the lowest form of humanity.

When we believe in Christ none of us attach enough importance to the cross. Why? Our emotion is in the way if we are aware of what has happened. Just think of becoming aware of the fact that once you were hopelessly lost and a sinner, like everyone else, and now you are going to go to heaven, there is nothing that can stop it, you have believed. Your emotion gets a hold of that and gets so cranked up that you can’t begin to appreciate the cross. Therefore, all of us at the moment of salvation may or may not have some emotional response. But emotional response is really bad at the point of salvation because it sort of clouds the issue. You are getting an emotional kick and response out of the realization of the fact that you are really going to heaven that you lose track of the real issue. But even if you had no emotional response there is no way at the point of salvation that you could ever appreciate the value attached to the cross. That is why the command is “believe”, not learn, not understand, not pass a test. So God the Father starts out on the simplest plan of agreement.

Let’s say we all had to pass a test and have to make 100 in order to be saved. “I’d get 99, but you wouldn’t.”

All of us have faith. Faith is the basic system with which we think. Our basic systems of learning all revolve around faith, therefore there is nothing more important for learning than faith. But to make the object of that faith Jesus Christ is the simplest form of agreement that the cross is efficacious. But recognizing the efficacy of the blood of Christ is not enough and it takes the supergrace life to appreciate to any degree the tremendous value that God the Father has placed ion the work of God the Son on the cross. Therefore shadows did that same job in Old Testament times. Now we have no shadows; now we have the reality. The shadows involved ritual. The only ritual we have is to remember who and what Christ is. Our ritual isn’t even connected with shadows, it is connected with the reality rather than the shadows.

“We love because He has first loved us.” That is a verse for a supergrace believer. Only a small percentage of believers make it to that point.

So with the strategic victory of Christ through His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and session we now have the greatest privilege that any group of believers have ever had. We live in the Church Age as members of the royal family of God, and with a sacred book, the Bible whose content must be transferred to the soul in great amounts so that we can have resident in our souls the capacity to love Jesus Christ. None of us have the capacity to love until we have the right amount of doctrine in the soul to do so.

When it says “which they offer year by year” there is a constant, continuing staying with it, sticking it out, doing it again and again and again. Now the big question arises. Suppose that you had been a Levitical priest, that your job for life was to offer sacrifices, sacrifices, sacrifices. Suppose that your job was doing something over and over and over again. How do you keep from going crazy? How do you keep from complaining? How do you keep this from being routine? If you are doing something you enjoy it takes the problem out of the routine. In the tribe of Levi only two families provided all of the priests, two families directly descended from Aaron and Eleazar. Eleazar had two sons that continued the priesthood, but the tribe of Levi was a big tribe and everyone in the tribe was dedicated to spiritual service. So there were people who were tested at a very early age, and it was discovered that they had good voices. Therefore all of their lives, day in and day out, they practiced, they sang, they learned their parts perfectly. And accompanying all these things was the beautiful music of professional singers. They made it possible, through music, their beautiful singing, for the priests to continue doing a monotonous job day in and day out so that the meaning of what they were doing would not be lost to them. And they sang doctrinal words such as found in the Psalms, they sang things that were significant. What they sang was the Word of God, and the Word of God as they heard it sung made it possible for them to do it again and again and again without losing the meaning of the shadows. That is what choirs are all about. They are a part of the shadows; that is the purpose of choirs. But we don’t live in the shadows any more.

A church choir made up of no one else other than amateur volunteers; and they are no good. There is no authorization for a special choir. Don’t ever get the idea that cornball singing from a fundy choir has any meaning. We sing as a group because we are all royal family.

Ancient choirs help the priests not to get bored in their repetitive tasks.

Application: Life is made up of a lot of monotonous things. That is why people read books, the monotonous things are left out of books. A book would never sell if it described lucidly and beautifully monotonous things in life. That is why people read missionary stories, they leave out all of the monotony. There are certain things in life, like in earning a living, doing a job or whatever we do in life, where there is a certain amount of monotony connected with it. But this passage has taught us that God has provided a way for the royal family, even with the simplest repetitions of life, to find no monotony in them. So we are now getting ready to dig into the chapter where there is no monotony, where there is reality and not shadows, and where we understand the purpose for the conjunction of the ages.

Shaving is monotonous; but he keeps onn doing it. Good grooming requires preparation.

God made these things with great monotony to be something which people could do and stand doing them.

1972 Hebrews 10:2–4 Lesson #115

115 06/14/1974 Hebrews 10:2–4 Shadows teach crossroads of history

Braxton Bragg would have made a perfect chief-of-staff, but that position had not yet been invented yet. Bob learned from this battle that some Yankees had a good sense of humor.

The American infantry is always behind. The Indians at Custer’s last stand had better rifles. They could shoot multiple shots; Custer’s men only had single shot rifles.

Bob says the M16 is a piece of junk. AC went out and Bob almost became a streaker preacher. He notices a good response to Bible doctrine; and that the people of the south also have the best manners, discipline and concentration. One improvement is Baptist preachers no longer call Bob, “Brother.”

v. 1 translated again. The Mosaic Law could only provide shadows; but they are not reality. We have now learned that the blood of Christ is redemption + reconciliation + propitiation. Sin was solved by redemption; reconciliation solved the problem of man; and the problem with God was solved with propitiation. As a result of the saving work of Christ being a reality. We live positionally in the Holy of Holies. We are going to go from the shadows of the OT to the reality of the Church Age life.

Heb 10:2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

Verse 2 — the inadequacy of shadows. “For then” is a conjunction. It is used in an ellipsis. In an ellipsis we usually have to put in some words in the English because we do not have an exact equivalent. The word epeí (ἐπεί) [pronounced ehp-IH] which is translated “for” should be “since”. “Since if they really did perfect” is what it means. Whenever you have the elliptical use of epeí (ἐπεί) [pronounced ehp-IH] it is assuming something.

“then” — the particle a)n plus the aorist which indicates a second class condition — “since if they really did perfect, but they didn’t.”

“would they not have ceased” — an aorist middle indicative of the verb pauw. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. We have nothing in the English which is comparable to this — taking the action of a verb and regardless of the duration of that action to gather the action together in its entirety. This is something which is very special in the Greek language. The middle voice is also unusual, we have nothing comparable to it in the English. Here we have a permissive middle in which the agent, the Levitical priests under the law, is represented as voluntarily yielding himself to the action of the verb or the results of the action of the verb. We have a declarative indicative, and when you put it all together you have “Since if they really did perfect [but they didn’t] then would they not have ceased to being offered.”

“to be offered” — present passive participle of prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh]. The present tense is an iterative present which describes what recurs at successive intervals, hence the present tense of repeated action. The passive voice: the shadow offerings were being offered. The participle is circumstantial. If any blood of an animal could have saved just once then there never would be another animal sacrifice, but as we recall on several occasions in chapter nine they were offered gain and again and again and again. The principle that we derive from this passage is that the shadows are gone and God the Son has actually passed on to us the regimental colours of the royal family, and our alignment with it and our advance depends upon the intake of Bible doctrine and understanding the difference between shadows and reality. There is a great difference.

Bible doctrine is our regimental colors and we have to see them in order to follow them into battle. These are the regimental colors of the royal family.

“because that the worshippers” — a prepositional phrase, dia plus the accusative of the definite article, plus the accusative of mêdeis/mêden (μηδείς/μηδέν) [pronounced may-DICE, may-DEN], which is a negative, plus an articular infinitive, echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh]. When you have dia plus the accusative of the definite article you know how to translate dia. It is “because of.” And mêdeis/mêden (μηδείς/μηδέν) [pronounced may-DICE, may-DEN] is a very strong negative, it means “no one.” Then, when you add an articular infinitive to all this you are really in trouble because the translation is almost impossible in the English. About the best that can be done is “because something would not be having”. Whatever it is will have to be inserted. So far all we can make out of the translation is “because”, [blank, something will have to be inserted] “would not be having”. The words “be having” is the articular infinitive and it has a noun force. This is a very unusual classical Greek idiom. The definite article with the infinitive makes it more adaptable with using a preposition. All of this is necessary to understand what this verse is all about, and this verse can’t even be understood yet until you do what you always have to do in the Greek, find out what is to be inserted at this point. We have to have a clarifying insertion — touj latreuontaj hapax (ἅπαξ) [pronounced hap’-ax] kekaqarismenoús (νούς) [pronounced noose].

The interlinear does not give you any syntax or grammar. Feinberg flunked about half the class for using interlinears.

The word touj is an accusative plural definite article. Next we have a participle, latreuô (λατρεύω) [pronounced lat-RYOO-oh], also in the accusative plural. In fact, it is the object of the preposition dia. Latreuô (λατρεύω) [pronounced lat-RYOO-oh], is a worshipper, and in the present active participle it is someone who is a consistent worshipper. The present tense here indicates someone who because they are a believer continued to follow the rituals specified by the shadows. Maybe they understood it, maybe not. But one thing is settled, the present participle is a believer as a worshipper. The problem is, how much did they know? They knew very little in some cases and a lot in others. So, “because the worshippers would not be having”.

We have along with this another insertion, the perfect passive participle of katharizô (καθαρίζω) [pronounced kath-ahr-EED-zoh], which means to cleanse. This participle is necessary to qualify the worshippers. So “the worshippers having once and for all cleansed would not be having.” So, “because would not be having” is our basic phrase.

In our insertion we have a present participle, in our insertion we have a perfect participle. Both of these are in the accusative case, both go with “because” or dia. The first one is actually going to be our subject — the worshippers who are believers under the law. The word hapax (ἅπαξ) [pronounced hap’-ax] is an adverb indicating once and for all. The verb katharizô (καθαρίζω) [pronounced kath-ahr-EED-zoh], is an intensive perfect and it means cleansed in the past with the result that they keep on being cleansed or have permanent results. So we put it all together: “because the worshippers having been once and for all cleansed in the past, with the result that they keep on being cleansed, would not be having.” Then we have the word “no more.” Here is where we have the accusative feminine singular of mêdeis/mêden (μηδείς/μηδέν) [pronounced may-DICE, may-DEN], and while it doesn’t make good English it makes excellent Greek. It means “not one” or “no longer” is sometimes the meaning. Therefore this is what we have: “Since if they really did perfect [animal sacrifices] [but they don’t] then they would not have ceased being offered, because the worshippers having been once and for all cleansed, not one no longer would be having a conscience of sins.” This is the literal translation.

The problem here is the fact that everything in this sentence is in the accusative case. So far we have had subjects and we know from the English that a subject is in the nominative case. But there is a problem here. First of all, we have an adverbial accusative, mêdeis/mêden (μηδείς/μηδέν) [pronounced may-DICE, may-DEN]. Then we have an accusative of general reference in which you have a participle and a noun in the accusative case which is the subject of the participle. Then there is an accusative with the preposition dia and an accusative of direct object. So this is the sentence of five accusatives all used in a different way, a grammarian’s dream but an exegete’s nightmare!

The Greek of Hebrews and the Author of Hebrews

1. This verse demonstrates the extremely complicated structure of classical Greek, and how classical Greek influenced Koine Greek.

2. The writer was a great scholar, he was a master of classical Greek and Koine idiom. To interpret Hebrews you must know Koine idiom. This is not the style of the apostle Paul.

3. The writer has to be an Alexandrian Jew from the university, therefore he is both acquainted with classical Greek background and he is acquainted with Israel’s background of Judaism.

4. The message of the verse is obvious: Shadows can teach the fact of reality but they cannot do the work of reality. Therefore we are not required to do the worship of the Old Testament, we are required only to learn from it. Hebrews always takes the Church Age believer, the royal family, and advances him to supergrace having the right perspective about the Old Testament. No one ever grows up until he understands the Old Testament in its perspective. We learn from the shadows but we do not do the shadows.

5. Shadows can teach Christ and salvation but they cannot save.

6. Therefore the Levitical offerings were constantly being offered both to present salvation and to act as a memorial to the work of Christ.

7. The worshippers who offered the sacrificial shadows were not saved by these offerings.

8. Only the reality, Christ Himself, could save from sin and at the same time reconcile man and propitiate God. These are the 3 things which salvation must deal with.

OT teaching and shadows are used to teach a reality. Anyone dealing with this has to separate the shadows from the reality.

The person sin that we have is only a part of it. That comes from the sin nature. The sin nature is the more fundamental problem. The brass altar is where the animal is placed, and that solves the sin problem. A man goes from the brass altar carrying the blood in a bowl. Walking in through the veil and he sprinkles this blood on the Mercy Seat. God is propitiated. So few understand the blood of Christ. God the Father sees the blood and is satisfied. He comes out and appears twice to the people. He comes out with a empty bowl; and this means one sacrifice for sin.

Evangelists are trying to stop sinning people for 5 minutes. Trying to stop people from committing sins that they don’t like. That is evangelism by legalism. If you stopped a person from sinning for 100 years, when they die they go to hell. This does not solve the problem of sin nature or Adam’s original sin. Reducing sin does not solve the problem of man. God cannot compromise His essence. God cannot be soft on sinners like Nixon is on communism. God cannot whittle away on His perfect righteousness even the first time. God is not an emotional dropout. God is perfect and no area of His perfect character is going to be compromised. God must save us without compromising His character. He must love all believers to the maximum. Sin separates man from God; man is born spiritually dead; not even Bevo can bring man and God back together.

Hymnwriters live in the OT; they do not realize that the cross is the key.

Jesus did not compromise Himself in any way. Shadows won’t do it.

Why is this Greek so hard? Why are there unusual pressures when studying this? God chose the highest meeting of languages in order to present the value of the cross. This is filled with Attic and classical Greek.

The inadequacies of the shadows without detracting from the purpose of the shadows. This can only be taught with all of these accusatives. Accusative of general reference; accusative of direct object. Shadows can teach, but shadows cannot do it.

Hebrews 10:2 “Since if they really did perfect [animal sacrifices] [but they don’t] then they would not have ceased being offered, because the worshippers having been once and for all cleansed, not one no longer would be having a conscience of sins.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Heb 10:3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year.

Verse 3 — “But” is a very strong adversative conjunction, allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH].

“in those” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of autos in the plural; then the word “remembrance”, anamnêsis (ἀνάμνησις) [pronounced an-AM-nay-sis]. Mnhsij means remembrance; aná (ἀνά) [pronounced aw-NAW] means again and again and again. The sacrifices were not just remembrance. “This do in remembrance of me” — our communion. Ours is a simple remembrance of what happened in the past, it is based upon the doctrinal content of our souls. But this is anamnêsis (ἀνάμνησις) [pronounced an-AM-nay-sis]; the communion table is mnhsisj. In other words, they had to be reminded constantly by repetitious sacrifices, a constant reminder. Why? Because historically the crossroads had not come, all of these things had not met. The first time they met, that was it. The first time redemption on the brass altar and reconciliation — going from the altar to the mercy seat, and the mercy seat — met and the only time they met was the cross. The Jews always had these things scattered. They could never line them up except in the soul. When they understood these things they knew it was going to happen. But historically the three roads never crossed until the cross because it took a certain type of person to do it — unique, to accomplish all three.

“of sins” — the genitive plural of hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah]; “every year” is literally “year by year.” The Levitical offerings could teach hamartiology, they could teach that man and God are not reconciled but at enmity, but they cannot solve the enmity. To solve the enmity sin must be redeemed, man must be reconciled, and God the Father must be propitiated. Therefore the shadows are not efficacious.

Heb 10:4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Verse 4 — “For” is a conjunctive particle gar, “Therefore”; “not possible” is not what it says, we have the adjective adunatos (ἀδύνατος) [pronounced ad-OO-naht-oss] which means “impossible” — “for the blood of bulls and goats”

“should take away” is a present active infinitive of a)fairew, which means not “should take away” but “to take away.” It is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs with adunatos (ἀδύνατος) [pronounced ad-OO-naht-oss], the adjective. The active voice: adunatos (ἀδύνατος) [pronounced ad-OO-naht-oss] is an accusative and we have an accusative of general reference, and the accusative is the subject of the infinitive. So “impossible” is in the accusative and therefore becomes the subject of this particular infinitive. The accusative is a part of the accusative of general reference and therefore it should be translated, “therefore impossible for the blood of bulls and he-goats to takes away sins.” In other words, the gist of the sentence: impossible for animal sacrifices to take away sins, it can’t be done. And adunatos (ἀδύνατος) [pronounced ad-OO-naht-oss] is an adjective and has a double emphasis because it is the subject of the infinitive as the accusative of general reference, and because of its position in the sentence. The whole point is, Israel in all of its history never had anything under the law that could take away sin, but Israel in its history had David’s greater son who did in three hours what 1500 years of sacrifices could never accomplish.

1972 Hebrews 10:5; Ps. 40:6–8 Lesson #116

116 06/16/1974 Hebrews 10:5; Ps. 40:6–8 Doctrine of ears

The 9^th and 10^th chapters of Hebrews are two of the most important chapters in the Bible. The intent of these chapters is spiritual advance. This passage puts all of this information together for us. We begin with the incarnation, dealing with OT passages.

Review of vv. 1-4

We are going to study a metamorphous. Jesus Christ is God and He will undergo a change. He is originally God; all the characteristics of God belong to Him. He made a decision to become true humanity; He made the decision to pull all the roads together.

The brass altar is all about sin and the need to solve this. The priest walks from the brass altar into the Tent and into the Holy of Holies, which represents the very place of God. There is sin, the character of man and the essence of God. All of these roads cross at one point in history at the cross. In order for these roads to meet, there must be the incarnation. This is the greatest metamorphism.

Gen. 3:6 man became a sinner. The woman, who was not a child bearer, became a child-bearer, and the means of perpetuating the human race. The third is God becoming man. The final one is where we are involved. At the moment of believing in Jesus Christ, we become members of the royal family of God forever. All of these metamorphisms depend upon the 3^rd one.

Heb 10:5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;

Verse 5 — the word “Wherefore” is an inferential conjunction and like everything else in Hebrews it is a little different. This is dio (διό) [pronounced DEE-oh] which is a very rare inferential conjunction and indicates something very important is following. Whatever the inference, whatever the conclusion which is brought from all of our study of shadow passages, this is extremely important. This is a shouting inferential. It is literally “Therefore.”

when he cometh into the world” — the word for “coming” here is the present active participle from the compound verb eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee]. The word was used for the high priest entering into the holy of holies. Now it is used for our high priest leaving the holy of holies and becoming a member of the human race. Eiserchomai (εἰσέρχομαι) [pronounced ice-ER-khom-ahee] is correctly translated. The present tense is an historic present, it is employed when a past event, in this case the incarnation, is viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence. It is, again, a Greek idiom and the Greek idiom comes to us from the classical or the Attic Greek. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb at the time of the incarnation, the virgin birth. In other words, the baby in the cradle at the same time is holding the universe together. This is a temporal participle which is translated like a temporal clause, and therefore, “when He entered the world” — a correct translation of the historic present. The historic present is translated like a past tense and it is very dramatic, and the word “when” indicates the temporal participle.

“into the world” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative singular of kósmos (κόσμος) [pronounced KOSS-moss]. Kósmos (κόσμος) [pronounced KOSS-moss] is the devil’s kingdom. The devil is the ruler of this world and this is his kingdom at the present time.

“he saith” — the present active indicative of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] is used to indicate documentation. In other words, when Jesus Christ was a baby in the cradle He was also saying something. The baby couldn’t speak but the deity could speak, and the very moment that He came into the world He uttered something, and the moment He departed he uttered something; and both of them are found in the cross. Recently we studied Psalm 31:5 and we saw that with the last breath our Lord spoke, and the last thing He talked about was calling God the Father Jehovah el emeth — Jehovah, referring to God the Father; el is the strongest word for God, emphasizing His power; ʾěmûwnâh (אֱמוּנָה) [pronounced eh-moo-NAWH], is doctrine. That was the last phrase ever uttered by our Lord Jesus Christ, emphasizing the importance of Bible doctrine. Now, when He begins His incarnation He also begins with something in the Psalms.

Psalm 40:6–8

Psalm 40:6 — the word for “sacrifice” here refers only to animals which were slaughtered. The Hebrew word “sacrifice” is zebach and refers only to the sacrifices that involve slaughtering animals. These are blood sacrifices. We have also food sacrifices. For example, out of the five Levitical offerings it only refers to four — the burnt offering which is the work of Christ: propitiation; it refers to the peace offering, the work of Christ: reconciliation; it refers to the sin offering, the work of Christ: redemption with emphasis on rebound of unknown sins. And then the trespass offering is also a rebound offering with emphasis on known sins. It does not refer to the food offering or any of the food offerings. The food offerings always emphasized the person of Christ but the animal sacrifices always emphasized the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and, as we have seen, the blood of Christ is involved.

The next word is “offering” — minchah, and a minchah is a food sacrifice. It is brought in to indicate the principle that the Lord Jesus Christ cannot go to the cross as God. As God He is not subject to death. As God He is eternal life, eternal life cannot die. As God He is sovereignty and sovereignty is not subject to spiritual death and/or physical death. Therefore the word “offering” indicates that Jesus Christ had to become a member of the human race. But we are talking here about shadows. “Sacrifice and offering” refers to the shadows of the Old Testament. The offering is the bloodless offering, often called the “meat offering” but should be called the food offering in Leviticus chapter two. It emphasizes propitiation with special emphasis on the person of Christ propitiating the Father on the cross.

“the didst not desire” — the qal perfect of chapter is very important, it means to desire but it also means a command decision. When it comes to salvation God the Father made a command decision. The command decision was that there must be an efficacious sacrifice. God the Father authorized through the Mosaic law, shadows. The shadows that the law authorized all were different things. For example, the sin problem needed to be solved so we have the brazen altar for that. The problem of man being at enmity with God and the barrier has to be removed. So we find man going through a barrier, going through the first curtain, passing through the holy place to the holy of holies, going through the second barrier. And we find this man, the high priest, therefore sprinkling blood on the mercy seat which covered the ark, and the holy of holies is the place where God dwells. So man goes from point A to point X, and going to point X man is reconciled. That is what it illustrates. So the illustrations of reconciliation and redemption and propitiation were all separate, all apart, in the Tabernacle, and these roads must be pulled together so the Father authorized the shadows to show what Christ would do before He did it and to make it possible for all people who lived in Old Testament times to understand salvation and grace, and to respond to it by faith in Christ.

So, “[animal] sacrifice and [food] offering you did not authorize [or make a command decision, or delight in].” Ritual without reality is meaningless. The ritual was the means of teaching doctrine but it was not the fulfillment of the doctrine. The believers who were reversionistic often went through the ritual but they did not accept its meaning. This is the unbeliever in reversionism. Or the believer who went through the ritual or observed the ritual without appreciating it — being completely bored, being negative toward doctrine as it was portrayed in shadow form, and as a result he was reversionistic. Ritual or shadows is simply a teaching aid. If the believer is negative the teaching accomplishes nothing. The reversionist, therefore, is guilty of ritual without reality in the Old Testament and today the reversionist is guilty of negative volition toward the historical reality. There is no merit in ritual as such, only the doctrine it represents. What little ritual has been left to the royal family in the Church Age, the communion table for example, is only meaningful as we have Bible doctrine in our human souls.

“mine ears hast thou opened” — this would be assumed that people get interested in doctrine and open their ears and listen, but that isn’t what it says.

“thou hast opened” is the qal perfect of karah and it means to pierce the ears — “my ears you have pierced.” This is a custom of the ancient world rather than the wearing of some kind of jewelry. It refers to becoming a servant, to the fact that a person who wanted to become a slave for life would pick his master, the person he desired to become a slave to, and it the master agreed he would pierce his ear. That would be the sign that of his own free will he was a slave.

Zulus were Africans not captured by anyone. The Blacks who came here were easy to conquer. Masi could not be conquered. The Watusi was a tough tribe; no Watusis here. The ones who came here were from weak and immoral tribes; and they were easy to conquer and to enslave. Yankees transported them. They did not come here of their own free will. This was totally against their will. Since they were weak tribes, that is how they came. Their volition was never involved.

Slavery was more honorable in the past, and, of their own free will, they became slaves.

In eternity past God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit held a conference with regard to something that they all anticipated in their omniscience. They anticipated the fall of angels and the fall of man even though man would be in perfect environment. In anticipation of the fall of man and the problem of spiritual death, the problem of an old sin nature, the problem of personal sin, the plan that the Father came up with called for a sacrifice; an efficacious sacrifice where the road of sin and estranged man and perfect God could meet. And the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who said in the cradle, you have pierced my ear. In other words, Jesus Christ is saying “I am here because I want to be here, I am here because in my sovereignty I have chosen to do so.” When God the Son of His own free will became the Father’s slave He was saying in effect “My ear was pierced.” He is saying in effect that he of His own free will has agreed to do this, and He is also saying that slavery is a noble and an honourable function under a good master and, in this case, a perfect master. Jesus Christ became a slave in order that He might free us.

There was a time when there were servants and they were phenomenal. They were a part of the family. They were very noble. There was nothing wrong with their work. In the mixed up liberalism today, service is seen as bad. Jesus became a slave be profession.

All of us, at one time or another, have chosen a profession. Jesus became a slave that He might free us today. Stand fast in the freedom whereby Christ made you free. Philip. 2, Jesus became a slave and went to the cross.

Don’t you sneer at people who are in the service profession. It is honorable. Only in a welfare state is it looked down upon. There would not be rioting. People out of place revolt, cause trouble; they don’t know what to do.

Bob was an officer in the army and then in the air force. But now he is a slave. He is shackled to Word of God. He has to study all of the time. He is happy being a slave. Once he commanded 10,000 officers and others. But he is a slave now; and Bob likes his slavery. I am not a slave that you can kick around, thought.

There is a sense in which all of us are slaves. A woman with her rm is a slave. She’d walk 3 paces behind him and get down on her knees and thank him for existing. When you lose track, you get ambitious; you get cocky. You promote yourself; you push yourself. So we are slaves, many of us in many ways. Jesus came into the world a slave to God the Father. He willed to be a slave. He was glad to be a slave. We have eternal life because of that.

The piercing of a slave’s ear is his decision to become

The Doctrine of Ears

1. Ears are used to indicate the function of GAP — Revelation 2:7,11,17,29; Proverbs 18:15; Job 34:1–3. The ear is used for the principle of concentration. You must concentrate on the teaching of the Word of God. You need to concentrate, despite the pastor’s personality; despite the environment. The function of gap is the objective.

2. Ears are used for supergrace dedication — Psalm 40:6; Exodus 21:6; Deuteronomy15:7. In other words, you pierce your ear to the extent that your volition says on a daily basis, I love the Word of God, I want the Word of God, it is more important to me than anything else, it is the only way that I will ever share the divine viewpoint of the value of Jesus Christ.

3. The ear is used for negative volition toward doctrine in the reversionist — Jeremiah 6:10.

4. The ear is used to portray reversionism leading to the fifth cycle of discipline — Isaiah 6:10.

5. The ear was part of the consecration of the priest — Exodus 29:20; Leviticus 8:23. Blood on the right ear indicated the function of the priesthood in teaching the written Word or communicating it through shadow ritual. The Levitical priest recognized that for his entire lifetime his job was related to Bible doctrine, in shadow form and in the written Word as it existed at that time.

6. A healed leper had blood placed on the ear to indicate the importance of doctrine in the solution of life’s problems — Leviticus 14:14. Whenever a person was healed from leprosy it was always a miracle. It was always therefore related to the sovereignty of God. The leper who was healed therefore recognized that God had a purpose for his life and in a sense, then, he became God’s slave.

7. David describes the ear in the sense of an anthropomorphism, i.e. God is said to have ears, and this is used in reversion recovery — Psalm 34:15,17.

8. The ear as an anthropomorphism is used in the restoration of Israel from the fifth cycle of discipline — Nehemiah 1:6.

9. The ear as an anthropomorphism is contrasted from idols which cannot hear — Isaiah 59:1; Psalm 135:17.

10. The ear is used associated with gossip — Proverbs 17:4.

“burnt offering and sin offering thou hast not required” — the burnt offering is olah, the ascending offering or a burnt offering, and it portrays propitiation with emphasis on the work of Christ on the cross. In other words, it portrays the fact that when Jesus Christ was bearing our sins He was absolute perfection in His humanity — +R. This satisfied the righteousness of the Father. In being judged for our sins the justice of the Father was satisfied, and these two are the great problems when it comes to the compromise of the character of God. God made a sovereign decision to save man but He can’t save man because He is perfect righteousness and He is justice. Justice and righteousness can have nothing to do with sinful man, except to condemn man. So righteousness and justice are satisfied so that eternal life and love can go through the grace pipe to man by way of the cross. This is the concept of propitiation and this is what he had in mind when he mentioned burnt offerings. The sin offering is rebound with emphasis on the unknown sins and also relates to redemption. So two out of the three areas of the blood of Christ are mentioned at this time.

Corrected translation “Animal sacrifice and food sacrifice you did not delight in; you have pierced my ears; burnt offering and the sin offering you have not required” [literally, requested — the qal perfect of sha’al].”

The passage which is quoted in Hebrews 10:5–10 is actually what our Lord said in the cradle when He came into the world. He quoted this passage to indicate that once again the Levitical offerings, the shadow offerings, could not save, they could only teach the way of salvation. They were all separate roads portraying various facets of salvation but the roads could only cross historically in the death of our Lord. So Jesus quoted the passage to indicate that Levitical offerings were shadows pointing to the cross but they could never take away sins. The animal sacrifice could not take away sins, the animal sacrifice could only teach the cross, teach the work of Jesus Christ which would come up in the future historically.

So there is one significant difference, then, in the quotation of Psalm 46 and how it is found in Hebrews 10:5. “A body thou hast prepared for me” is not found in Psalm 40. Instead there is the phrase “you have pierced my ears”. What is the difference? There is no difference. The fact that Jesus Christ took a body was His agreement that He would go to the cross and bear our sins. In fact, becoming humanity was the piercing of His ears and in the incarnation, therefore, He becomes the slave of God the Father.

Psalm 40:7 — “Then said I” — literally, at that time; “I have said.” The qal perfect of amar is a prophetic perfect. A prophetic perfect says it is past tense, it is completed action even though it is future, but because it is going to happen, because it is guaranteed by God to happen, it is put in the perfect tense.

“Lo, I come” — the qal perfect of bo referring to the incarnation; “in the scroll of the book [or in the written scroll] it is being written concerning me” — the qal passive participle of kathab means it is being written, it isn’t written yet. The qal participle is linear aktionsart indicating a process begun in the past and continuing into the present time. The passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb. The subject is the canon of scripture and this verb says in effect that the canon of scripture was in the process of formation at this time.

Verse 8 — here is what our Lord says after He comes. He, in effect, once again expresses His divine volition. His human volition is in the state of a baby and therefore there is no human volition being involved. “I delight” — qal perfect from chapetz which means “I delight” or “I make a command decision.” This is the sovereignty of His deity speaking.

“to do” — qal infinitive construct of asah which means to manufacture something out of something — to manufacture out of the plan of God the salvation work. “I have made a decision to do your will, O my Elohim,” indicating that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were all in agreement on the plan. The reason: “yea, they law within my heart.” We have a causal waw which should be translated “because.” Then we have the word “torah” for Bible doctrine — “within my heart”, not correct. The word here is mea which means “in the midst of my bowels” which refers to Bible doctrine specifically in the right lobe and overflowing to the emotions of the soul. In other words, Jesus Christ had maximum doctrine in His right lobe and it overflowed all during His incarnation into His emotion so that He responded emotionally to doctrine in His soul. His emotion was not out of order. His emotion was stimulated by the Word. This must be true of any person who reaches supergrace in the royal family. You have to come to the place where your emotion is stimulated by the Word. You can’t fake it out, you can’t get any form of pseudo emotion to do it. When people simply let their emotions go wild then they never make it. Your emotion must respond to the Word and the only way this could happen is to have the Word in your soul as our Lord had it in His soul. This is the only possible way that can occur.

Hebrews 10:7 “I have made a command decision to do Your will, O My Elohim; because Your doctrine is in the middle of My emotions.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

He emotionally responded to the Word and therefore the Word became the basis for His function. It is the will of God that all believers in phase two reached the supergrace status or maturity. To do so, this requires the daily function of GAP, the constant and consistent intake of the Word. So great must be the saturation that doctrine overflows to the emotion and the emotion responds to the Word of God. At the incarnation Jesus Christ quoted the last half of this verse, and at the time of the writing, by the way, David used the entire verse to express his supergrace testimony. But only the last half is quoted by David’s greater son at the time that He came into the world.

Hebrews 10:5 — “Therefore when he entered into the world, he said.” Remember that Hebrews 10:5–7 quotes Psalm 40:6–8. Some things are changed, some things are left out to make it pertinent to the incarnation.

“Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not.” The word for “sacrifice” is the accusative singular of the noun thusia (θυσία) [pronounced thoo-SEE-ah, referring again to animal sacrifices portraying the work of Christ on the cross. It is the accusative of direct object with the verb thélô (θέλω) [pronounced THEH-loh], which means desire or decision, plus the negative. And we have the strong Greek negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. God the Father shuts the door on animal sacrifices ever saving. They can only point to the Savior; they cannot save. “I do not desire animal sacrifice.”

“offering” — prosphora (προσφορά) [pronounced pros-for-AH] means the act of presenting a gift. Not just the food offering but any person trying to bribe God for salvation. Prosphora (προσφορά) [pronounced pros-for-AH] means to come to the altar with a gift, and in effect it says that there is no way that you can have salvation by bribing God. So we have “sacrifice and the act of presenting an offering you do not desire.” The actual accusatives come first but they are the objects of the verb, “you do not desire,” the aorist active indicative of the verb thélô (θέλω) [pronounced THEH-loh]. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it is used for stating a present reality with the certitude of a past event. This is an idiom, it is a device in the classical Greek for emphasis. It is constantly used for a state which has been realized or a result which has been accomplished. After many years of history the state is finally realized, Jesus Christ came in the flesh. He came as a baby in the cradle because God the Father never had and never would desire an animal sacrifice for salvation, they are non-efficacious, they are teaching aids, but they cannot in any possible way save. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb, not being satisfied with shadows for salvation. God the Father designed shadows to teach salvation, He did not design them to save. The indicative mood is declarative, it represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality and certainty. It is a dogmatic and unqualified assertion that animal sacrifices never could, never would save. The negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] is such a strong particle that it shuts the door forever on any animal sacrifice ever saving anyone. Used with the indicative mood it is a statement of absolute fact in the negative. But there is something He does desire, there is something that He has done by way of a command decision, so the little particle de separates one thing that God does not desire from the positive thing, the thing that God the Father wants.

“a body” — sōma (σμα) [pronounced SOH-mah] is the Greek word referring to the incarnation. Jesus Christ is given a human body, a human soul, and a human spirit.

“you have prepared” — the aorist middle indicative of katartizô (καταρτίζω) [pronounced kat-ar-TID-zoh] which means to prepare, to train, to supply, to store. Here it is in the middle voice which means to equip someone. To equip an army is the way it was used in the ancient world.

Katartizô (καταρτίζω) [pronounced kat-ar-TID-zoh]: In 1Corinthians 1:10 it was used to tune up a machine. It was the machine that was used to lower the actors over the stage. A second use found in the scripture is in 2Corinthians 13:11 where it meant to equip an army. We also find this same word in 1Thessalonians 3:10 for supplying a fleet with provisions. In Galatians 6:1 it is used for mending a broken bone or to set a broken bone. Peter uses it is 1Peter 5:10 to mend a broken net. In our passage, Hebrews 10:5, it has the connotation of equipping. If Jesus Christ who is eternal God is going to be the Savior He has to be equipped, and so He is equipped with a body. A body has to be supplied, a human soul and a human spirit, otherwise there is no Savior and otherwise there is no salvation.

Katartizô (καταρτίζω) [pronounced kat-ar-TID-zoh] is in the aorist tense in our passage. This is the gnomic aorist for a point of doctrine so generally accepted as to be axiomatic. In other words, the fact that Christ had a human body and will never lose His human body is a generally accepted fact. The middle voice is the intensive or dynamic middle, it emphasizes the part taken by the subject of the verb, God the Father. He actually supplied the body. Jesus Christ could not go to the cross unless He was true humanity. The indicative mood is a statement of absolute fact, it is a part of the doctrine of the royal family of God that Jesus Christ by virgin birth was given a human body.

“me” — a dative of indirect object from the pronoun egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH]. It indicates in whose interest the act is performed. “You Father have prepared me [Christ] a body.” Note the change from the Massoretic text which says “you have pierced my ears.” Jesus Christ changed the phrase “you have pierced my ears” to “you have prepared me a body.” Why? Because the sovereignty of Jesus Christ was positive in eternity past. But at the point of the virgin birth Christ receives a body. He made the decision in eternity past. He changes from Psalm 40 the decision that He made billions of years ago to the result of the decision. Christ made the decision; God the Father provided for Him the body. Not only did He provide the body but He provided the indwelling of the Holy Spirit for that body. So that is why we have the change from “you have pierced my ears” to “you have prepared me a body.”

Hebrews 10:5 “Therefore when he [Christ] entered the world, he said, You [God] did not desire sacrifice and offering, but you [Father] have prepared for me a human body.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Principles

1. The human body of Christ would accomplish on the cross what all of the animal sacrifices of history could not accomplish, namely, solution to the problem of sin — redemption; solution to the fact that man is the enemy of God. He is now reconciled, the barrier is removed — reconciliation; solution to the perfect character of God. God the Father is propitiated or satisfied with the work of Christ and attaches the highest value ever of anything to the work of Christ on the cross — propitiation.

2. The shadow sacrifices were pointing to the reality but they could not do the work of the reality.

3. Shadows can teach spiritual lessons of salvation but shadows cannot save.

4. Therefore it states the inadequacy of shadows by way of advancing the subject. The shadows are inadequate, it is the reality who saves.

5. The body of Jesus Christ is the real image by which the shadows of the Levitical offerings were merely a portrayal.

This brings us to the principle that Jesus Christ had us personally in mind when He came into the world, and He knew what it was going to cost Him. But He went ahead and became, as it were, not only the slave to God the Father, but one slave went into the world that many slaves might live forever in the holy of holies. We are royal family but as long as we are on the earth we are also slaves. But here is the principle. We are only slaves to the extent that our volition is involved positive toward doctrine. Apart from positive volition toward Bible doctrine we are not slaves and therefore failures. The plan of God calls for the royal family to be servants of God the Father on the earth, and the big issue we should ask ourselves: “Is my ear pierced?” Only the pierced ears get blessing, only the pierced ears are made wealthy by God, only the pierced ears are promoted, only the pierced ears have social and sexual prosperity, only the pierced ears have +H.

1972 Hebrews 10:6–9a Lesson #117

117 06/16/1974 Hebrews10:6–9a Doctrine of propitiation

Heb 10:6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.

Verse 6 — “burnt offerings” is the accusative plural of holokautôma (ὁλοκαûτωμα) [pronounced hol-ok-OW-to-mah]. The word refers to the whole burnt offering in which the animal sacrifice was entirely consumed by fire. Because of the Hebrew olah in Psalm 40 we actually have a word coined by the writer here to give us the concept of the entire burnt offering. This is the burnt offering of Leviticus chapter one which emphasizes propitiation.

“and for sin” — preposition peri plus the genitive of hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah]. It should be translated “and concerning sin.” It is a reference to the sin offering. That portrays rebound with emphasis on the unknown sins in the life. It is mentioned here because Christ died for unknown sins, and the fact is that the death of Christ solves every problem and every aspect of every problem. People always wonder why if a person didn’t know he was sinning then why should Christ die for that or how can that be a sin? The answer to that is found in the principle that whether you knew it was a sin or not, in your volition you did it. All sins originate in a combination of the old sin nature’s area of weakness plus volition. In other words, you wanted to do it whether you knew it was right or wrong. And the point is that God goes by His perfect righteousness and He does not go by human standards.

Now the passage says, “In whole burnt offerings and concerning the sin offering.” We have the two most difficult problems of the cross solved right here. Sin is not the most difficult problem, it is reconciling man to God and God being satisfied and uncompromised in providing salvation.

“thou hast had no pleasure” is the aorist active indicative of the verb eudokeô (εὐδοκέω) [pronounced yoo-dok-EH-oh] plus the negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. The two words together: “you have not delighted” or, eudokeô (εὐδοκέω) [pronounced yoo-dok-EH-oh] also means to propitiate — “you have not been propitiated”, “you were not satisfied with the animal sacrifices”. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Hence, it takes all the animal and food sacrifices of the Old Testament authorized by the Mosaic law, all of the shadows, and gathers them into a single whole. There never was a sacrifice out of the millions of sacrifices over a period of 1500 years which ever propitiated the Father. All they did was to teach. That is why there is a multiplicity of sacrifices. They taught and taught and taught and taught but they did not save. They had absolutely no efficacy. God the Father was not propitiated by animal sacrifices. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb, and this action we have a verb which says He was not propitiated. The indicative mood is a dogmatic statement of doctrine, this is an absolute fact that no animal sacrifice offered by any person at any time ever propitiated God the Father.

The Doctrine of Propitiation Redux

1. Propitiation is the God-ward side of salvation. The purpose of propitiation is to make the essence of God compatible to man’s salvation through Jesus Christ. Propitiation in itself means satisfaction. God the Father is not only satisfied with the work of God the Son but it has another meaning too: uncompromised. God the Father is not compromised in providing salvation for sinful man, the enemy of God. Remember that in the Levitical offerings the propitiatory offerings come first. Why? because God is more important than we are. The greatest thing God the Son did on the cross was to propitiate God the Father. Until the Father is propitiated there is no solution to the sin problem and man cannot be reconciled to God. God the Father cannot change. His character cannot be changed. Propitiation is orientation to grace from the divine viewpoint.

2. Propitiation was communicated to Israel through the mercy seat and through the first two Levitical offerings: the burnt offering and the food offering — Exodus 25:17–22; 37:6–9; Leviticus chapters 1 & 2.

3. Propitiation is appropriated by faith. The propitiatory work of Christ can only be appropriated in a totally non-meritorious way. There is no way that any of us can have anything to do or say in the plan of God, it is strictly His work. Therefore faith does that, faith is non-meritorious. It is also the basis for the imputation of divine righteousness. God cannot credit to our account His righteousness apart from propitiation. First of all, He must be propitiated which He is by the work of Christ on the cross, so that when we believe in Christ we simply receive immediately +R. Then God the Father vindicates us or justifies us. God being propitiated allows Him to credit righteousness to us. Cf Romans 3:25–26.

4. Propitiation is therefore a part of the work of Christ on the cross — Leviticus 16:13–16.

5. The mercy seat represented the presence of God and the mercy seat is a part of propitiation — Exodus 25:22; Leviticus 16:2; Numbers 7:89.

6. The New Testament confirms the importance of the mercy seat in Hebrews 9:5. The mercy seat portrays propitiation. The box is the ark of the covenant. It is acacia wood plated with gold. The gold represents the deity of Christ, the wood represents the humanity of Christ. Inside were the tables of the law, sin in violation of divine standards. Inside was Aaron’s rod which budded, sin in violation of divine authority. Then there is a golden urn inside of which was manna which always represents Bible doctrine, bread from heaven. Here we have the manna put in the ark to represent the principle of sin in rejection of divine provision, sin in negative volition toward Bible doctrine. And all of these items representing sin are found inside the ark, a picture of Christ bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. Then, over the top of this we have the a mercy seat made out of gold which has a cherub on each side. One cherub represents God’s perfect righteousness and the other represents His justice. When the high priest would sprinkle the blood over the top of the mercy seat righteousness sees the blood and is satisfied; justice sees the blood and is satisfied. The satisfaction of righteousness and justice is propitiation. These are the two characteristics of God that must be satisfied, and the satisfaction of righteousness and justice frees God to save us without compromising His character. Hebrews 9:5 tells us of the importance of the mercy seat in propitiation.

7. Propitiation is also related to unlimited atonement — 1John 2:2. Unlimited atonement is Christ dying for every sin that was ever committed in all of human history.

8. Propitiation demonstrates the perfect love of God — 1John 4:10.

9. Therefore, propitiation is used to express the celebrityship of Jesus Christ. Only Jesus Christ had a righteousness that could satisfy the Father, only Jesus Christ could bear the sins of the world, so only Jesus Christ could propitiate the Father and this qualifies Him to be a celebrity forever. Romans 3:25 says literally, “Whom the God [God the Father] has predetermined the mercy seat through faith by means of his blood” — the blood of Christ represents the principle of redemption plus reconciliation plus propitiation — “ for a demonstration of his righteousness because of the passing over of previously committed sins” — all sins in the Old Testament were passed over. They were accumulated but they were passed over, nothing was done about them, they were not judged until the cross and then they were poured out upon Christ and judged — “by the clemency [the delaying judgement] of the God [the Father].”

10. The importance of propitiation can be observed from the existence of the tables of law in the ark of the covenant. They are related to the doctrine of propitiation.

a. The law is not an instrument of justification — Romans 3:20, 28; Galatians 2:16.

b. The law is an instrument of condemnation to the Jew and to the entire human race — Galatians 3:21–28; 1Timothy 1:9,10.

c. The purpose of the law is to curse mankind with a hopeless curse — Galatians 3:10. Therefore only the work of Christ on the cross can remove that curse — Galatians 3:13.

d. The law does not produce a righteousness which has credit with God. The righteousness produced by the law has zero credit with God. People have been trying to keep the law for salvation but the law was never an instrument of salvation. It cannot be compared to the imputation of divine righteousness which we receive by faith in Christ — Philippians 3:9.

e. Many Jews of the previous dispensation failed because they attempted to be saved by a righteousness produced by keeping the law — Romans 9:30–33.

f. The conclusion, then, is obvious. The law cannot provide salvation, the law cannot provide justification — Acts 13:39. Therefore the prayer of the publican — Luke 18:13 — was literally, “O God, be propitious to me, a sinner.”

11. Propitiation is the only approach to God. The Pharisee was trying to be saved by keeping the Mosaic law. The publican in Luke 18:13 sought salvation through propitiation. God cannot be merciful toward the sinner in the sense of being generous or lenient, and the publican did not ask God to do the impossible. He did not ask for mercy. Being merciful excludes Christ but being propitious includes the Lord Jesus Christ.

Bob goes off on Stanford and some of their tests; total human viewpoint.

The two greatest problems in salvation are mentioned by the two offerings: propitiation emphasizing the need for God the Father to be consistent. Propitiation is the great problem in salvation and it does not matter what we think but it does matter what God thinks. Bible doctrine captures what God thinks.

Hebrews 10:6 You have not been propitiated by burnt offerings and concerning sin offerings R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary of V. 6

1. Propitiation is taught in two offerings. Emphasizing the need for God the Father to be consistent. It does not matter what we think; but it does matter what God thinks. That is why salvation is appropriated through non-meritorious thinking. Faith means that there is no importance placed upon public opinion; or what man thinks, as a group or as an individual. It is what God thinks that is important. Bible doctrine captures what God thinks. Most devastating thing is public opinion. Public opinion means nothing, ever. Public opinion is the worst thing in the United States. What we think is unimportant; what we think is not. Can you see how ridiculous it is for people to walk aisles or to confess their sins, etc.? Salvation is always the same. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. You are saying, by these words, “My opinion is meaningless; Your opinion is what matters.” Man placing value on man’s opinion.

2. Our regimental flag has to golden pot of manna. The more you know about the canon of Scripture, the more that you transfer doctrine from the canon to your soul.

Heb 10:7 Then I said, 'Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.'"

Verse 7 — because animal sacrifices could not propitiate the Father, could not provide salvation, Jesus Christ responds to the situation by dedicating Himself in hypostatic union to go to the cross. Since the shadows will not propitiate the Father Jesus vows to become the reality which will save mankind and at the same time propitiate the Father.

Our first word is a correlative adverb of time, tote, and it should be translated “At that time.” In the cradle. As it were, the first Christmas. That means at the time when our Lord Jesus Christ was in the cradle.

“said I” — and immediately we have a problem. What on earth could He say that would be important, and how could He talk? We have to go back to the principle. God the Son in the doctrine of divine decrees, in eternity past, agreed to go to the cross. That was positive volition, divine sovereignty. Again, at the cradle, positive volition. And it was still His deity. The baby could not talk, could not think. The baby was just born, so in the God-Man it was the deity of Christ that spoke out. The humanity of Christ will confirm on the night before the cross in His humanity: “Father if it be thy will … nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.” But here in this verse is the deity of Christ, here is the baby who speaks like an adult.

Now we have a parenthesis, “in the volume” is the prepositional phrase en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of kephalis (κεφαλίς) [pronounced kef-al-IHS] which means a scroll. So “in a scroll of the book” — a descriptive genitive singular biblion (βιβλίον) [pronounced bib-LEE-on], (βιβλίον) [pronounced bib-LEE-on],. Literally, “in the scroll of a book.” It refers to the Old Testament scriptures. It refers to Genesis 3:15 where we have the seed of the woman; it refers to Micah 5:2, But as for you Bethlehem of Judea, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, from you shall go forth one who for me will be the ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from long ago, and from the days of eternity past.” This is in the scroll of the book.

Isaiah 7:14 is in the scroll of the book: “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, the virgin shall be pregnant, and bear a son, and you shall call his name God with us.”

Or Isaiah 9:6 — “A child will be born to us [humanity of Christ], a son will be given [deity], consequently the government will rest on his shoulders [Millennium]; now his name will be called a Wonderful Counselor, a Mighty God, author of eternal life, Prince of reconciliation” — the Prince who removes the barrier between man and God.

So, “in a scroll of a book it stands written” — there are many references to the Lord Jesus Christ in His incarnate form. The perfect passive indicative of graphô (γράφω) [pronounced GRAWF-oh] describes the permanence of the Word of God. The intensive perfect, the Bible was written in the past with permanent results. The passive voice emphasizes the means of inspiration. The human authors under the direction of God the Holy Spirit received and transmitted the information they way God wanted it transmitted. The indicative mood is the reality of prophecies regarding the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“of me” — literally “concerning me.”

Hebrews 10:7 “At that time, I said, Behold, I have arrived (in a scroll of a book it stands written concerning me).”

Now “I said” is an aorist active indicative of the verb légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. This is a dramatic aorist, it states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. It is used for a result which is on the verge of being accomplished. The cross is the result of the incarnation and the dramatic aorist indicates two things. It indicates the fulfillment of the incarnation — the Son speaking. And at the cross it will be the speaking of the God-Man, but as a baby at this point only deity can speak so it is the Lord Jesus Christ as God speaking here. This is a dramatic aorist to indicate a unique situation in history. The active voice: Jesus Christ speaks from the cradle. He produces the action of the verb. The baby in the cradle spoke to God the Father about the divine decrees. It means that the shadow of the cross was hanging over the cradle. The indicative mood is reality and certainty, an absolute doctrine.

The word “Lo” is a demonstrative particle, idoú (ἰδού) [pronounced ih-DOO]. It is actually an aorist middle imperative from horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] used for perception, and here it emphasizes the principle of GAP. It emphasizes the fact that everything that was taught in the Old Testament about Christ, and every time that a person believed from the doctrine of the Old Testament or from the shadows that were used to portray the gospel, they are now being fulfilled. It is the guarantee of God the Son that every person who trusted in Christ in the Old Testament will actually get a reality from His incarnation. He is saying in effect, “I intend to keep my promise, there is no efficacious sacrifice yet, but there will be.”

So “Behold” is the translation. “Behold I have arrived” — the present active indicative of hêkō (ἥκω) [pronounced HAY-koe] which is “arrived,” not “come.” Érchomai (ἔρχομαι) [pronounced AIR-khoh-my] would mean to come; this is “arrive.” This is an aoristic present tense, punctiliar action in present time. The moment the baby was born it was the deity of Christ speaking from the cradle. The active voice: Jesus Christ produced the action. The indicative mood, again, is the dogmatic reality. This ends the parenthesis.

“to do thy will” — the aorist active infinitive of poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh]. The parenthesis merely recognize the fact that written scripture is the most important way that any generation can orient to the plan of God, and the parenthesis reminds us of the fact that we would know nothing about God apart from written scripture, Bible doctrine. But the sentence that the Lord actually uttered was, “I have arrived to accomplish your plan.” The words “to do” is an aorist active indicative of poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] and it is a constative aorist, it gathers up the action of the verb in its entirety. From the virgin birth to the cross, resurrection and ascension He has come to do the will of the Father. This constative aorist takes us all the way through the second death of Christ on the cross. The active voice: Christ produces the action of the verb. The infinitive is an infinitive of purpose, it says in effect that this was His purpose. “I have arrived to accomplish thy will.” The word thelêma (θέλημα) [pronounced THEHL-ay-mah] refers to the will of God as declared in the divine decrees. “O God” is the vocative addressed to the Father, but He doesn’t call Him the Father because it is His deity speaking. When His humanity speaks or He speaks in hypostatic union He will use the word “Father”.

“At that time [in the cradle] I said, Behold, I have arrived to accomplish Your plan, O God.” We have left out the parenthesis. The parenthesis verifies the fact that this was all promised. The entire sentence says, “

Hebrews 10:7 At that time I said, Behold, I have arrived (in the scroll of a book it stands written concerning me) to accomplish Your plan [Your purpose], O God.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Heb 10:8 When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law),...

Verse 8 — when Jesus Christ came, when He fulfilled the reality, the shadows would have to go. In this verse we have a citation. Our first word is a rather unusual word. It is a neuter singular a)nwteroj, an adverb. It is an adverb to cite something previously stated in the context. “Above, when he said” the present active participle of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. It is a dramatic historic present, a temporal participle, which is correctly translated “when he said”. The temporal participle now quotes again — he is referring back top verses 5 & 6 — Psalm 40:6.

Next comes the word for quotation marks, hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee], a conjunction used in many ways, one of which is for quotation marks. “Sacrifice and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings” — the accusative singular plus the accusative singular plus the accusative plural actually sounds like this: “Sacrifice and [food] offering and whole burnt offerings and concerning sin offerings.” These are the offerings of the Levitical code. All of these phrases have been studied in verses 5 & 6 and he is merely citing them now.

“thou wouldst not”, the aorist active indicative of thélô (θέλω) [pronounced THEH-loh], is literally, “you did not desire.” He is referring back to what Jesus said. It is the writer speaking now. God the Father did not desire animal sacrifices for salvation; “neither hadst pleasure” — wrong! It is “nor have you been propitiated.”

“which are offered by the law” is correctly translated “which category of shadows are being offered according to the law.” So the writer now makes a conclusion from what our Lord said. He is permitted to quote our Lord; He is also permitted to make a conclusion by God the Holy Spirit. His conclusion: “which category of shadows are being offered according to the law.” He is getting ready for something. He is getting ready to show once again — time and time again, her repeats this, he presses home with the attack and he goes over and over and over it — that shadows cannot save. They could only teach salvation, they could only evangelize. This was a way of witnessing. These were the words that were witnessed, as it were, by these offerings. But they are shadows, they cannot save, they cannot pull together redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation. They must be pulled together and this can only be accomplished by the cross.

Hebrews 10:8 “Above when he was citing Psalm forty, Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and concerning sin offerings you did not desire, nor have you been propitiated by them; which category of shadows are being offered according to the law.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Heb 10:9 then he added, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He does away with the first in order to establish the second.

Verse 9 — the application. “Then” — we have that correlative adverb again, tote, meaning that the time of the incarnation, the time when Jesus was speaking in the cradle, at that time “he said” — perfect active indicative of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. He is emphasizing once again that Jesus Christ spoke from the cradle to God the Father. He said in the past with the result that it stands said forever — the intensive perfect, something that happened in the past and it goes on and on forever. This stands. Now, you can put it all together. We have already had the Lord Jesus Christ passing on the regimental colours when He died on the cross. And on our regimental colours we have these words: “Jehovah, the God of doctrine.” When He started at the cradle He started right then and there with doctrine. He quoted doctrine. And when He died He mentioned Jehovah the God of doctrine. So our Lord started with doctrine and He went to the cross with doctrine, and doctrine carried Him the whole way through the thirty-three years. Apart from doctrine He didn’t function. Everything He accomplished He accomplished through doctrine. Doctrine carries us from the new birth to the grave.

This means that the way has been set for us. These are our regimental colours. Regimental colours are always related to something of historical significance. Our regimental flag has this: “Jehovah [God the Father], the God of doctrine.” An outfit which beat the Chinese in the Boxer rebellion; and a flag with a dragon on it.

The royal family no longer follows the colors; we are casualties, filled with human opinion.

But the Lord could not advance from that cradle to the cross, step by step fulfilling the Father’s plan, apart from doctrine. By the time He was twelve He had maximum doctrine in His soul. He was in supergrace status, and He advanced step by step by step against all pressure, against all problems of every kind. It was doctrine that carried our Lord from the cradle to the cross. And it is doctrine that carries us from the new birth to the grave. If we are not carried by doctrine we’ve had it. We have no excuse for being here. That is the advancing that is lining up on our regimental colours, and if we are to press the attack, if we are to line up with the regimental colours, it must be because we understand them. Doctrine is the regimental colours.

“Then, he said [in the past, with the result that is stands spoken forever], Behold, I have arrived” — again the present active indicative of hêkō (ἥκω) [pronounced HAY-koe] — “to accomplish your plan, Your purpose, Your design.” Notice once again, from the cradle to the cross it wasn’t what people thought, it wasn’t public opinion, it wasn’t what the Sanhedrin thought or the Pharisees or the Roman governor, or anyone else that our Lord encountered. It was always, What did the Father think? What was the Father’s plan? That was the only thing that counted.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #118

118 06/17/1974 Hebrews 10:9-10a Doctrine of baptism of the Holy Spirit (pts. 1–4). Leasing soul to Satan

Jack G. Hansen, of Galveston, TX. He was found dead with 22 enemy dead laying around him.

Our provision is provided by Bible doctrine.

I have arrived, is the testimony of Jesus in the cradle.

At this point in verse 9 we begin the application of what our Lord said. The application concerns us personally since we are members of the royal family of God and since we are directly involved in the great heritage which His victory on the cross provided. When our Lord said that He had come to accomplish the Father’s will He did it from His own free will. He did this as a slave. Of His own free will he became a slave.

There are two types of slavery, one is forbidden and one is the highest and noblest function of mankind. Out of the two types of slavery the first category involves volition, and any slavery that involves volition is the noblest form of function in life. There is no greater function in life than to be a servant, than to be a slave. We are accustomed to thinking in terms of achievement on a level whereby you supersede and exceed the abilities of others, but the divine viewpoint of life is the antithesis. The Lord Jesus Christ willingly had His ear pierced by God the Father, as it were, and as He said in Psalm 40 it is a wonderful, it is an honourable, it is a noble thing from one’s own free will to become a servant. It is not degrading. It may be degrading for those who are not oriented. But our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to accept this humiliation and to turn it into the noblest form of service. A slave is the only one who can serve. Our Lord served us on the cross. He served us of His own free will when He performed the saving work of redemption, reconciliation and propitiation. There are many forms of service today, or even slavery. We do not think of them as such but that is what they are. For example, the military. One of his own free will enters into military service, becomes a slave to discipline, to training, to the principles of strategy, tactics and logistics in order that he might defend freedom and make it possible for freedom to continue in the national entity. So a military person is a servant and a slave.

There is another form of slavery or service which is non-voluntary and, of course, this type is definitely outlawed. So the noblest form of activity in life is volitional involvement in service, and the most devastating form is where a person is enslaved contrary to his will.

Heb 10:9 then he added, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He does away with the first in order to establish the second.

As we continue our study our Lord has said, “I have arrived to accomplish your plan, your purpose, your design.” When that happened the Lord did something — “He taketh away,” the present active indicative of a)nairew. It means to take away, to do away with something, to destroy, to abolish, or to abrogate. “Abrogate” means to annul by authoritative action, and this is really what it means here — “He has abrogated.” We have an aoristic present tense, punctiliar action in present time. The aorist tense is punctiliar action in past time. The aoristic present sets forth an event as now occurring. The active voice: God the Father actually abrogated the old covenant. The old covenant was composed of shadows pointing to the cross, but once our Lord fulfilled these shadows it is removed. The indicative mood is a dogmatic assertion of doctrine: the Mosaic law has been abrogated.

“He has abrogated the first” — the Greek is to prôton (πρτον) [pronounced PRO-ton]. Prôton (πρτον) [pronounced PRO-ton] is in the accusative of direct object here from the vocabulary form, prôtos (πρτος) [pronounced PROHT-oss], and it is correctly translated “the first.” It refers, of course, to the sacrifices authorized by the Mosaic law. They were shadows, they did not propitiate God the Father. As soon as God the Father is propitiated by the work of God the Son they are set aside. In other words, once historical reality occurs the shadows disappear. The shadows are taken away in favour of reality.

“that” — hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] is a conjunction that introduces a purpose, “that” or “in order that”; “he may establish,” the aorist active subjunctive of histêmi (ἵστημι) [pronounced HIHS-tay-mee]. It means to establish in the aorist here. The aorist is also a culminative aorist which sees the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results. The fact that the new covenant is established for all of the rest of time and for eternity — a new covenant which authorizes the royal family is an established fact — but the culminative aorist emphasizes the result. The result is that you live in the holy of holies, that God has something special for you that never existed before. The result is that while great believers do not envy, yet Moses looked for the day in which you lived. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb. The subjunctive mood goes with hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] to set up a purpose clause. This is not a potential subjunctive, this is a fact. This is the establishing of the second — to deuteron, from the accusative of direct object and it is from deuteros (δεύτερος, -α, -ον) [pronounced DYOO-ter-oss].

Hebrews 10:9: At that time He said in the past with the result that it stands spoken forever, Behold, “I have arrived to accomplish Your plan.” He has abrogated the first [the old covenant] in order that He might establish the second [the new covenant to the Church].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. The “first” in this passage refers to the Mosaic law. The Mosaic law authorized the shadows, authorized a specialized priesthood to utilize the shadows.

2. When the reality comes the shadows depart. We live during the reality phrase. We live in a dispensation is superior to all dispensations.

3. Therefore the Mosaic law has been abrogated in favour of the new covenant and reality.

4. The Levitical priesthood authorized by the Mosaic law has been abolished in favour of the royal priesthood of the believer.

5. The new covenant, called in this verse “the second,” not only authorizes the royal priesthood under Christ but also specifies a system whereby each one of us can go to divine blessing in time. (God’s purpose for keeping the believer alive is divine blessing, not the providing of needs. We are here for a purpose. We are here so that God can demonstrate to the devil that He can bless the royal family in time, that He can distribute the spoils of the strategic victory in time, to the most obscure believer who ever lived)

There is pseudo happiness or pseudo blessings. This is temporary.

You can get the hell out of Berachah and pursue some temporary pleasure; which will result in unhappiness. Maybe you are an 18 year old woman who is not yet married. Your friends want you to join them in the pot of misery. Once you have believed in Christ, your life is doctrine; your happiness is in doctrine.

Pseudo-happiness is available. But you won’t know the difference. You would want to be out there eating a hot dog at a fair (or whatever people are missing).

There is also real blessing, the other kind of happiness; and it is based upon doctrine. It exists totally apart from the devil’s world. Many of you ingratiate yourself to people in authority; and you are brown-nosing them for a promotion. You are a slave to your ambitions; but you don’t mind using them. Sometimes you are always thinking about yourself, willing to do whatever is necessary to get ahead. Ready to use your beauty to get ahead. Or you will cultivate certain friends to get ahead. This is not new; it is almost as old as Cain and Abel. This is the story of life. People who commit suicide because they have tried this system. You can move ahead in the devil’s world without his power or assistance. The devil does have power and he has things; and they are associated with happiness. He makes them available under circumstances. You are a special target of the devil because you are a child of God. There is an aspect of the Angelic Conflict which is in play here. God has the ability to promote you, to give you happiness, prosperity, materialistic prosperity. He can promote you, despite hell and high water. The only thing that you need to be concerned about is,...

Jesus distributes the spoils in time the victory spoils...you might be in obscurity.

So the second in the new covenant which not only authorizes the new priesthood under Christ but deals in realities. The realities or the doctrines of the Church Age were once a mystery but now they are revealed, they are in the golden urn of manna, they are in the Word of God.

The purpose of the 3^rd metamorphism:

Heb 10:10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Verse 10 — “By the which” is the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] — “By means of which.”

“will” — the instrumental singular of thelêma (θέλημα) [pronounced THEHL-ay-mah]. It means purpose, will, and design. It is what God is doing for us, what He planned billions of years ago, the blessings that He planned to defeat Satan in time, the distribution of the spoils of victory — all related to the written Word.

“we are sanctified” — this is actually a periphrastic, a combination of a participle and some form of the verb to be. We have, for example, the perfect passive participle of hagiazô (ἁγιάζω) [pronounced hawg-ee-AD-zoh]. With it we have the present active indicative of the verb eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. When you put the two together you have a periphrastic, which is an intensive structure designed to indicate the highest form of permanence. This is what is called a perfect periphrastic. “By means of which will, purpose, and design we have been sanctified in the past with the result that we remain sanctified [or separated, or earmarked] forever.” The question is: For what are we sanctified or earmarked? Sanctification means we are earmarked for something, and we are earmarked right now for blessing in time — all of us. This is not for suffering; this is not to be a ragtag salvation army type. This is a very permanent thing. When God blesses it is permanent. Any time you get anything from God it is permanent.

We have to be among the living right now in order to get a distribution of spoils in time.

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit

1. Prior to the Church Age at salvation God the Holy Spirit was the agent of regeneration. Now, He in not only the agent of regeneration but He performs other functions as well, other functions which make the Church Age believer unique. You, as a Church Age believer, have been entered into the holy of holies. That is unique because in the previous dispensation everyone had to stay out. The holy of holies is Christ at the right hand of the Father and you have been entered into union with Christ. So positionally you live in the holy of holies, and the means by which this is accomplished is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. That is why you didn’t feel or experience the baptism of the Spirit. That is entrance into the royal family. And that isn’t all. Our bodies are indwelt by the Holy Spirit and nobody was ever indwelt by any member of the Trinity in the Old Testament. Always before man was building something to represent what God did — a tabernacle, an altar, a laver, a table of showbread, a lampstand, a golden altar of incense, an ark of the covenant, later on a temple. All of these things are shadows pointing to the reality, and once the reality comes God does His own building. He builds instantaneously a temple, a temple inside of the believer. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, inside you. That never happened before.

a. We live where no one went before; the Holy of Holies. Furthermore, our bodies are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Abraham’s soul was filled with the Spirit, but his body was not indwelt by the Spirit. This is a great equalizer. Even good if we do not live in Texas.

b. And what does God want to do with that temple? He wants to fill it with human treasures from the divine source of grace, something to match the third person of the Trinity living inside of you. What could match it? Something on the outside that has to do with victory in the angelic conflict — your blessing, your promotion, your prosperity. Whatever form it was designed to be in eternity past, it is definitely there. Then you were sealed by the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation. That is the security of your royalty. And you were given a spiritual gift, the guarantee of the provision of royalty.

c. The baptism of the Spirit, then, is unique, along with the other salvation ministries of the Spirit — except regeneration.

d. Everyone has standards; but God has perfect standards. God builds a Temple inside of us. That has never happened before. What does God want to do with this Temple? He wants to fill it with divine treasures.

2. The prophecy of the baptism of the Spirit was given first of all in John 14:20, then in Acts 1:5. It was accomplished by Jesus Christ just before the conjunction of the ages or the interruption of the Age of Israel and the beginning of the Church Age — Acts 1:5 is very important in that connection. We are all inseparably linked together.

3. The definition and the mechanics of the baptism of the Spirit is important today simply because of that form of apostasy called the tongues movement. By definition the baptism of the Spirit is a part of the salvation work of the Holy Spirit, instantaneous, not felt or experienced in any way, whereby He takes you and me when we believed and enters us into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. The mechanics of this are taught in 1Corinthians 12:13. The mechanics are related to the concept of the body of Christ.

4. The baptism of the Spirit and the essence of the royal family are linked and related forever. The baptism of the Spirit unifies all members of the body of Christ, according to Ephesians 4:5. It is something we have in common, it is something we all have and always will have and there never will be a time when we lose it. And we are all inseparably linked together. All members of the royal family have the same baptism, the baptism of the Spirit, and it provides equality in the royal family which did not exist under physical birth. The moment we are born physically into the world we are immediately in a system of inequality. The devil could never overcome that, but he keeps trying.

a. If you are born in Texas, you are automatically unequal.

b. Throw in IQ or any other factor, and you are undeniably unequal.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #119

119 06/18/1974 Hebrews 10:10–11 Doctrine of baptism of the Holy Spirit (pts. 5–9); positional truth

No such thing as a Mexican, a Negro, etc. There are only Americans in this country. Bob is glad to read a citation of Corporal Martinez.

Review of the first 4 points.

We are royalty now; we do not wait for heaven to be royalty; we are royalty right now. Accumulated doctrine in the soul, results in a saturation, results in supergrace. We have no obligations to Satan. We can follow the colors all the way to supergrace. No one with an accumulation of doctrine in the soul can do anything but be perfectly happy.

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit (continued)

5. The baptism of the Spirit is related to spiritual sanctification.

6. The baptism of the Spirit occurs at the moment of salvation — Colossians 2:12. Therefore the baptism of the Spirit is not an experience of any kind. It is not speaking in tongues, it is not ecstatics, it is something that happens instantaneously and has no connotation of emotion, of stimulation, or anything else that the holy-rollers erroneously peddle today.

7. The baptism of the Spirit interrupts the Jewish dispensation and begins the Church Age. We studied this in Hebrews 9:26 where Christ is the conjunction of the ages. At the conjunction of the ages He offered the efficacious sacrifice that interrupted the Jewish Age before its completion and began the Church Age which is the dispensation for the royal family of God. The baptism of the Spirit, therefore, is the interrupter of the Jewish Age and the beginning of the Church Age — Matthew 16:18; Acts 1:5; 2:3; 11:15–17 which says the baptism of the Spirit occurred in Acts 2:3.

8. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is one of seven Bible baptisms. The Bible baptisms are divided into two parts, those which are real and those which are ritual. There are four real and three ritual baptisms.

a. A real baptism is an actual identification whereas a ritual baptism is simply a representative identification, and in that ritual water always represents something very important. Of the real baptisms there is the baptism of Moses — 1Corinthians 10:2, the people of Israel identified with Moses in crossing the Red Sea to safety. There is the baptism of the cross in Matthew 20:22 where our sins were identified with Christ in the function of His efficacious saving work. Then there is the baptism of the Spirit whereby we are identified with Christ forever, identified with the real holy of holies — 1Corinthians 12:13. Finally, there is the baptism of fire in Matthew 3:11 and in many passages in which the Tribulational persons who are unbelievers are cast into fire at the end of the Tribulation which is really the end of the Jewish Age.

b. There are three basic ritual baptisms. Again, water is always used to represent something in the spiritual realm.

i. In the baptism of John — Matthew 3:1–10 — water represented the kingdom which he preached, and those who believed were entered into the water. He had not ritual of the temple, he lived in the Jewish Age, therefore baptism was given to him as a special ritual. This is the only shadow not authorized by the Mosaic law but authorized by a special addendum from God. God personally did something for John the baptist that he has never done for anyone else. He permitted him to have a ritual which would be meaningful to these people who were very close to the interruption of the Jewish Age. The water represented the kingdom which he proclaimed.

ii. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself was baptized by John. And it is interesting that our Lord is never related to the shadows which portray Him at the temple. He is never related to these things because at the time they were ritual without reality, they were reversionism. Therefore in Matthew 3:13–17 our Lord tuned His back upon the shadow, the temple, and walked down to John and asked John to baptize Him. John refused because he understood his own ritual and he also identified the Messiah and knew that He was sinless and did not need salvation and was in effect the Savior, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So he said no, and our Lord explained that this was another addendum to the addendum and that the water would have a different meaning. It was simply our Lord’s volitional ritual by which He agreed to go to the cross. The water, therefore, represented the divine decrees and the Father’s plan, and the humanity of the Lord willingly accepting this plan, though for Him is was the most excruciating misery that anyone ever suffered in history. Therefore once again we have a ritual baptism, a water baptism, and the meaning of the water is dependent entirely upon its declaration in scripture and has no meaning apart from that.

iii. There is also what we call Christian baptism. This is found in Acts 8:36–38; 16:33, and a host of passages in the book of Acts where baptism was practiced after the Church Age began. The water represented the individual identified with Christ in his death, and when the candidate came out of the water it was a picture of identification with Christ seated at the right hand of the Father. So it portrayed identification with Christ in death, burial, and resurrection. There is no reference to water baptism in the epistles, except in an unfavourable reference in 1Corinthians 1 where there was a lot of squabbling. The purpose of water baptism was not to enter into controversy but it was to understand some very important principle of doctrine. It was to portray the baptism of the Holy Spirit. There is no record that there is any significance in the perpetuation of baptism after the canon of scripture is completed.

Bob was baptized a number of times. As a baby, at a Baptist church. We only grow by a saturation of doctrine in the soul.

The baptism of the Spirit is not an experience but it is the basis by which we enter into the holy of holies.

The first part of verse 10 says we have been sanctified in the past with the result that we remain separated toward God forever. We have been earmarked as unique. We are royal family. The baptism of the Spirit is unique to the Church Age and the baptism of the Spirit is only used for royalty, for royal family only. It was not used in the Old Testament, it will not be used in the Tribulation, it will not be found in the Millennium.

Bob goes after some guy with lousy manners. Good manners and respect for the military in Berachah Church.

The Doctrine of Positional Truth

1. One of the five things which occurred in the ministry of the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation was the baptism of the Spirit. God the Holy Spirit did five things for us at the moment that we believed in Christ.

a. Regeneration — John 3:1–16; Titus 3:5. Regeneration enters us into the family of God;

b. Baptism, which enters us into the royal family of God;

c. Indwelling of the Holy Spirit which is the sign of royalty;

d. Sealing, which is the security of royalty;

e. The distribution of a spiritual gift which is the function of royalty. So it all adds up to the fact that we are royal family forever.

2. The baptism of the Spirit is the mechanics by which we enter into union with Christ — Acts 1:5; 1Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 4:5.

3. Positional truth belongs to the carnal as well as the spiritual believer. It belongs to the reversionist as well as the supergrace believer. All of us have exactly the same position, all of us are in the holies, all of us are in the palace forever — 1Corinthians 1:2,30.

4. Positional truth guarantees that we will never be judged in eternity. That is why some believers live a long time and a miserable time because God keeps them alive to discipline them, to spank them. So positional truth earmarks us for no judgement in eternity — Romans 8:1.

5. Positional truth qualifies the believer to live with God forever and ever. That is because we enter into union with Christ. Jesus Christ is eternal life, He is +R. When we enter into union with Him we share His eternal life, we share His righteousness — 1John 5:11,12; 2Corinthians 5:21.

6. Positional truth is the key to both election and predestination — Ephesians 1:3–6. In eternity past the Lord Jesus Christ was entered into the plan of God the Father. He agreed to do certain things. He was given a destiny forever. He was elected at that moment. He was elected in the divine decrees and He was given a destiny that goes all of the way to the future in eternity. We are in time. We enter into union with the Lord Jesus Christ, we share in His election, we share in His destiny. This is what it means to be foreordained or to be predestined. Predestination simply means that the believer shares the destiny of Christ.

7. Positional truth creates a new creature — 2Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:10. We are new creatures in Christ, we are royal family, and the old things that are passed away is our relationship to Adam in his fall. A new creature in Christ does not mean experiential changes.

8. Positional truth guarantees the eternal security of the believer — Romans 8:38,39. We are in union with Christ and we never get out.

9. Positional truth is categorized under two categories: retroactive and current. Retroactive positional truth means identification with Christ in His death, not in bearing our sins but in His rejection of human good. Being identified with Christ in His death we have positionally rejected human good. There is no place in the royal family for the function of human good. Divine good is provided on the basis of the filling of the Spirit and Bible doctrine, but human good is outlawed. Then there is current positional truth: Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father and we are in union with Christ as He is seated there. This takes Christianity out of the realm of religion and saves us from being religious. The thing that characterizes religion is human good and trying to use that human good to make points with God. So retroactive positional truth eliminates human good, enters us into union with Christ seated at the right hand of the Father, making Christianity a relationship and not a religion.

10. The implications of current positional truth mean that we shares certain things that Christ possesses. For example, eternal life — 1John 5:11,12; God’s righteousness — 2Corinthians 5:21; Election — Ephesians 1:4; Destiny — Ephesians 1:5; Sonship — 2Timothy 2:1; Heirship — Romans 8:16,17; Sanctification or earmarkship — 1Corinthians 1:2, 30; The kingdom of the future — 2Peter 1:11; A priesthood — Hebrews 10:10–14.

11. The characteristics of positional truth.

a. It is not an experience, it is neither emotional nor ecstatics;

b. It is not progressive, it cannot be improved in time or eternity. When God entered you into union with Christ, that’s it. That means that forever you have something that was perfect from the moment you received it and will never be improved;

c. It is not related to human merit, to human ability, or to human good;

d. It is eternal in nature, positional truth will last forever. There is no place in the plan of God for human good, and connecting this with the previous concept, grace escalates. So since it is eternal in nature nothing can change the fact that you are royalty;

e. Positional truth is known only by the Word of God, by revelation from God;

f. Positional truth is attained at the moment of salvation, accomplished by God the Holy Spirit, therefore no place for human boasting, no place to apply any principle of human good, no do-it-yourself kit qualifies you.

Heb 10:10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Hebrews 10:10 — “By the which will [plan, purpose, or design].” When God plans something it is permanent, it is perfect. Whatever God designs of plans is compatible with His own character. God’s character is perfect; God’s plan is perfect. It is impossible for God’s plan to be imperfect, even though at this stage imperfect persons are involved. So how does God come up with a perfect plan when imperfect people are involved? The answer is the fact that everything depends upon God, everything that is done in the plan is done by God. Inasmuch as there is no place in God’s plan for our works, our talents, our abilities, our human ingenuity, it is a very relaxing thing to know that everything depends upon God. That is the only way you can have a perfect plan with imperfect persons involved. And while we are imperfect God does not intend for us to run around and demonstrate it, so He has made a few side plans — like rebound, like the intake of doctrine, like spiritual growth and spiritual maturity. So all of it had to begin somewhere for us as royal family. (Note that the word “sanctification” is used for royal family only. It is not a term for the Old Testament saint, nor the Tribulational saint, nor the Millennial saint. It belongs to this dispensation) It had to have a beginning point and here it is —

“though the offering” — dia plus the genitive of prosphora (προσφορά) [pronounced pros-for-AH]. The offering here is the efficacious offering of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. But please notice that God’s plan is perfect and God’s supplying is perfect, and Jesus Christ as eternal God must be supplied with something in order for the plan to advance and in order for the offering to be efficacious. And that is the word “body”; “through the offering of the body” — and we have a genitive of sōma (σμα) [pronounced SOH-mah]. This is the item being described which had to be provided for the offering of Christ to be efficacious. Not only was the body supplied — the humanity: body, soul and spirit, actually — but at the same time it was a once and for all sacrifice, the adverb ephapax (ἐφάπαξ) [pronounced ef-AP-ax] which means “at one time.” Millions of animal sacrifices and none of them could redeem man.

Hebrews 10:10 “By means of which will [purpose, design] we have been sanctified in the past with the result that we remain earmarked as royalty to God forever through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ at one time.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. Here is the purpose, then, of the third metamorphism. This is why Jesus Christ as eternal God became unique in the sense of being true humanity.

2. The purpose of the hypostatic union which is the will, purpose, and design of God the Father is both to fulfill the shadows of the Levitical code and to countermand the authorization for the Levitical priesthood.

3. At the same time in fact, at one time, a new priesthood was authorized as well as the establishment of a permanent royal family. This priesthood takes us out of the layman bracket. We are able to represent ourselves to God directly, strictly from the teaching of the Word of God.

In verses 11–14 we have the result of the third metamorphism or Christ becoming true humanity.

Heb 10:11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins.

Verse 11 — “And every priest”. Immediately there comes into focus something new, something that puts the believer into full time Christian service and something that makes his life meaningful. If you are going to live your own life as unto the Lord it must be done on the basis of doctrine resident in your soul. This is your basic function. There are no animals to sacrifice, no food offerings to bring.

What changed is, we are now priests. Kai pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] men hiereus (ἱερεύς) [pronounced hee-er-YOOCE]. The word men is an affirmative particle which comes from classical Greek. It is translated in many ways, but “and to be sure” is a good translation here, “every priest.” It confirms the fact that everything that we have studied makes you a priest, and it confirms the fact that as a priest your life now has tremendous significance and that you are now very definitely in the picture as far as God is concerned.

The next word, “standeth,” is the perfect active indicative of the verb histêmi (ἵστημι) [pronounced HIHS-tay-mee], and it means to stand. The perfect tense is an iterative perfect, the process of which the completion is represented in is one which occurs at certain intervals. And it is going back now to the fact that in the Levitical priesthood they had to do a lot of standing. They always stood up for worship. They always had to stand up to make sacrifices, and all worship from the time of Moses to the time of Christ was accomplished standing. There was one seat in the tabernacle, the mercy seat. No one ever sat in it. Today when you worship you are sitting. Why? Because you are royalty. That is the way worship is accomplished. The iterative perfect indicates that even the Levitical priesthood didn’t stand all the time. They only stood for worship. The active voice: the Levitical priesthood produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative viewing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality, in fact historical certainty.

“daily” — katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative singular of hêmera (ἡμάρα) [pronounced hay-MEH-raw] and it means “day after day.” Every day for the Jews was a worship day, not just the Sabbath.

“ministering” — the present active participle of leitourgeô (λειτουργέω) [pronounced li-toorg-EH-oh] which means public worship. Day after day, publicly officiating or publicly worshipping. The customary present here denotes the habitual activity of the priest standing up. The active voice: the Levitical priest produced the action of the verb as authorized by the Mosaic law. He was authorized to stand up but never to sit down. The participle is circumstantial and it refers to the historical fact that they always stood. Royalty, of course, gets to sit down. Out of courtesy to royalty God has provided that your worship be accomplished while being seated.

“and offering” — the present active participle of prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh]. Not only did they stand up but they also worked. The Levitical priesthood was a working priesthood; the royal priesthood is a resting priesthood. You are supposed to be resting in your soul; your soul should be resting in doctrine, in the Word.

“oftentimes” — the adverb pollakis (πολλάκις)[pronounced pohl-LAHK-iss] which means time after time after time. The word is used because it indicates this happened many times a day. Animal sacrifices were offered many times a day and they worked and worked and work. Our command is to rest, rest, rest, rest in the Lord, rest in doctrine, rest in promises of God.

“the same sacrifices” is designed to give you a feeling of monotony of the job in the Old Testament. The accusative plural of the definite article plus the accusative feminine plural of the intensive pronoun autos plus the accusative feminine plural of thusia (θυσία) [pronounced thoo-SEE-ah. It all adds up to “the same sacrifices,” but the intensive pronoun indicates it is inevitable, it is an occupational hazard, that the one who constantly is offering the same sacrifice had a challenged to their self-discipline that could only be met by having doctrine in the soul. The priest who didn’t have doctrine in his soul was in trouble. To the priest who did have doctrine every animal sacrifice was meaningful. So that the only way to handle monotony, which will inevitably exist in the life of anyone, is to handle it through the soul. If you don’t handle monotony through the soul you don’t handle it. This is where many believers go astray because they try to make social life a substitute for GAP. Social life is a wonderful thing after GAP but to drive GAP away by negative volition and to simply go in for some form of social life is where the trouble begins. Monotony can only be handled in one way. Every animal sacrifice was pertinent and loaded with doctrinal implications, and it is imperative that these doctrinal implications be understood. And how can they be understood? Only one way. You must have in your soul that which is comparable to that which is going on in the ritual. So monotony can only be handled by doctrine in the soul. And as you grow spiritually and as you move toward maturity monotony is removed from the scene.

“which” — the nominative feminine plural of the qualitative relative pronoun hostis (ὅστις) [pronounced HOH-stihs], and this particular pronoun means “which categories” — the same offerings again and again and again.

“never” — one very strong adverb, oudépote (οὐδέποτε) [pronounced oo-DEH-po-teh]. Ou means “no.” That is the positive, slam-the-door objective “no.” De is simply a particle and it has a number of meanings. The one here would be “definitely not”. poté (ποτέ) [pronounced poht-EH] means time, “at this time”. So “definitely not at this time” is all put together and it means “never”. There never was a possibility that out of the millions of animal sacrifices which were offered that one of them would somehow provide salvation. So the priest wasn’t doing this in hopes that the next one would be the efficacious one! But never was there a possibility of it. The active voice here: the animal sacrifices, the shadows, produce the action of the verb. They did not have the ability to save. The indicative mood is the dogmatic reality that ritual never saves. Ritual teaches but ritual does not save.

Sacrifice after sacrifice, and not a single one could take away the sins. This must have been incredibly monotonous. Monotony can turn to depression unless there is a check in the soul. There is a carry-over. There are some passages in the Word of God which might not interest us, but the Word of God is important; and there is a reason for it. Sometimes, we learn things that we do not understand just how they fit into the picture.

Bob could not believe when he came to the “sucking plant” passage. But when he found out what it was, then that gave him some enthusiasm for the passage.

“can never” — the present active indicative of dunamai (δύναμαι) [pronounced DOO-nam-ahee]; oudépote (οὐδέποτε) [pronounced oo-DEH-po-teh] plus dunamai (δύναμαι) [pronounced DOO-nam-ahee] — “never have the ability.”

“take away” — the aorist active infinitive of periaireô (περιαιρέω) [pronounced per-ee-ahee-REH-oh], it means to lift off, to remove, to take away. It means to remove guilt, it means to make expiation. It means here to make expiation — “Never have the ability to make expiation.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the offering of animal sacrifices in their entirety but regards it from the standpoint of existing results. The result of all those sacrifices was no efficacious sacrifice. The active voice: the Levitical offerings, the shadows, produced the action of the verb, they could never produce an efficacious sacrifice. The infinitive is an infinitive of result.

The word “sins” is not sins, it is the objective genitive singular from hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah] and it is sin in the singular. “Sins” would simply indicate the individual’s sins but sin indicates the problem of sin keeping man and God apart and establishing enmity between man and God. So sin in the singular says there is more than just your sins, there is the fact that you are the enemy of God and that God is perfect. All of the animals couldn’t do this but the cross does. The cross takes care of the sin problem: redemption; the problem of man — reconciliation; the problem of God — propitiation.

Hebrews 10:11 “And to be sure every priest has stood up day after day publicly officiating, and offering time after time the same sacrifices which never have the ability to make expiation for sin.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. Shadow sacrifices are like the dreams of childhood and early youth. For example, a young man may dream about the idea woman whom he has never seen.

2. Therefore, his dreams are without form and substance. Nevertheless, to him they are real.

3. But once the young man meets his right woman, sees her, touches her, smells her, shares the experiences of the interrelationship of soul, he now collects memories which have form and substance so that what in childhood was a dream becomes in adulthood a memory. The Old Testament sacrifices are like dreams but our understanding, looking back to the cross, are memories. It is the difference between a dream without substance and a memory with substance.

4. The Levitical offerings are like the dreams of youth, real but no actual person visualized.

5. The sacrifice of Christ on the cross is like the royal family of God in the Church Age — believers with memories of reality. The communion table is so designed.

6. Therefore, the Old Testament saints had Levitical offerings or shadows while we have the historical, efficacious sacrifice of Christ on the cross. We have the substance.

7. The shadows performed a great service to believers of Old Testament times because they represented and they taught the doctrines of Christology and soteriology. But the offerings could not propitiate God the Father, they could not reconcile man and they could not take away sin. They could only point to what was coming, the cross.

8. Inasmuch as they did not expiate they had to fulfill the function of portraying the expiator.

This verse deals with the shadows but the next one with the reality portrayed by the shadows.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #120

120 06/19/1974 Hebrews 10:12 Doctrine of ascension

Heb 10:12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God,

Verse 12 — we have the conjunctive particle de translated “But” and therefore indicates and adversative conjunction. There is a contrast here and this particular particle sets up the contrast. What we have been studying is before this particle and it speaks of shadows. Everything on the other side speaks of realities. We now move into the reality side of the adversative conjunctive particle. The realities always deal with the Lord Jesus Christ. Shadows deal with many things but all reality focuses on who and what Christ is. Therefore there must be some way in the Greek to emphasize how important the Lord Jesus Christ really is.

After a conjunctive particle like this the strongest possible thing is to take what is known as the near demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. The far demonstrative pronoun is ἐκενος. Houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] is a demonstrative pronoun used here for someone who is more important than anyone else in life and who is very near in the context. ἐκενος would refer to something distant from the context. Since this passage has been discussing who and what Christ is, how important He is — He is the King of kings and Lord of lords — the demonstrative pronoun is the perfect way to demonstrate that Jesus Christ is paramount, that He is our only celebrity, that there is no one greater, never can be and never will be, and the sooner that we learn that the better.

“this man” is incorrect. It should be “this one,” or sometimes the demonstrative pronoun is best translated by the personal pronoun “he”. But “this one” refers to the Lord Jesus Christ so either translation is acceptable.

“after he had offered” — the aorist active participle of the verb prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh]. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist and it looks at the cross from the viewpoint of its entirety. It looks at the cross from the standpoint of the spiritual death of our Lord accomplishing redemption plus reconciliation plus propitiation, and it also looks at the physical death of our Lord, so both of them are covered within the concept of the culminative aorist. But the culminative aorist not only emphasizes the entirety of the verb but it emphasizes the results of that entirety gathered together. So the culminative aorist views the cross in its entirety but emphasizes the existing results. The existing results which will be coming up in context: the ascension of our Lord, the principle of operation footstool, the relationship of our Lord not only to the human race and our history but to angelic history and its significance. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb on the cross with results that advance the Father’s plan to resurrection, ascension and session. The participle is a temporal participle. It also has antecedent action to the main verb.

“when he had offered” — this is the way a temporal participle is translated; “one sacrifice” — the emphasis is on the word mian in the accusative here, “on and only one,” one unique sacrifice, one efficacious sacrifice, one perfect sacrifice, one fulfilling sacrifice. So the one sacrifice fulfills all of the shadows, the one sacrifice is efficacious, the one sacrifice is reality. We call it sometimes the blood of Christ, here is called mian thusia (θυσία) [pronounced thoo-SEE-ahn, the accusative direct object of thusia (θυσία) [pronounced thoo-SEE-ah, the object of the participle.

“for sins” — the preposition u(per plus the ablative plural of hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah]. U(per plus the ablative always is substitutionary, so it should be translated “on behalf of.” It connotes substitution for us. Hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah] which refers to sin indicates the cause of all of the problems. This is used to demonstrate all of the problems. Sin is the basis of enmity between man and God. Basically there are three problems in salvation, not one. Sin merely dramatize it and sin also summarizes it. Because of sin perfect God cannot save man or have eternal relationship with Him. Because of sin man is the enemy of God. So sin is often used in the sense of dramatising and emphasizing the entire problem, and the cross resolves it all because not, only does the cross solve the sin problem — the substitutionary prepositional phrase referring to redemption — but as a result of redemption man is reconciled, God is propitiated. They all fall together and, again, all the roads meet at the cross so that one sacrifice solves the separate problems that exist. God has a problem: He cannot be inconsistent. God is immutable, He cannot change. He can’t change His righteousness to unrighteousness, He can’t change His justice to some form of accepting on a sentimental basis. Therefore, He has a problem. Man has a problem because he is the enemy of God. Sin is the basis for having these problems and all of them are solved at the same time. “But this one [Jesus Christ], when he had offered one unique sacrifice on behalf of sins.”

The word “forever” is not quite correct. “Forever” could mean eternity past, it could mean the eternal future. But this is a prepositional phrase, eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of diênekes (διηνεκές) [pronounced dee-ah-nehk-EHS] which means “for all time.” This prepositional phrase is in contrast to one we have been having. We have been having katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of hêmera (ἡμάρα) [pronounced hay-MEH-raw], and that meant day after day. This is in contrast to “for all time.” The former sacrifices were katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus hêmera (ἡμάρα) [pronounced hay-MEH-raw] but the sacrifice of Christ is eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus diênekes (διηνεκές) [pronounced dee-ah-nehk-EHS], so we have a big contrast here between day after day and for all time. So “for all time” is a prepositional phrase which cancels the shadows which have been translated under the word “daily” but really means day after day. This cancels everything for all time. It cancels out the shadows forever. One prepositional phrase cancels out the other and they are set up in great contrast.

You can begin to see what a terrible thing it is for the reversionistic believers who are living in Jerusalem in 67 AD, who are the recipients of this epistle, and who are offering animal sacrifices. This will help to understand Hebrews chapter six where it explains very simply that as long as the reversionist continues to offer animal sacrifices, so long as he crucifies the Son of God afresh and puts Him to an open shame, he can never recover from reversionism. He is actually performing an act which makes it impossible for him to reverse his attitude and go back to Bible doctrine. As long as they fool around with shadows they will never get to the reality, and we get to the reality only through the intake of Bible doctrine.

Therefore we move on, then, to the great strategic victory where at one time Jesus Christ sat down and the angels were clobbered and salvation was guaranteed. But more than its guarantee, a royal family is guaranteed forever. Never was sitting down so important as the one time our Lord did it in heaven in the true holy of holies.

We are in union with the Lord Jesus Christ seated, and that means a lot of things. We have already set up the contrast of how the priests had to stand, stand, stand, and all worship was standing — the people stood, the priests stood, no one ever sat down. As long as shadows were the form of worship everything was stand, stand, stand. Now it is sit down. But it is sit down in more ways than one, it is sit down in the sense of you are not running your life any more and never will again. Once you are royal family your life is run by someone infinitely superior and whose wisdom exceeds anything that e will ever have. Therefore it is not a matter of you running your life any more, you are to sit down in the plan of God and let God run the show. This requires a tremendous amount of doctrine because everyone is tempted to interfere with the Lord and to override the Lord. This is a very subtle form of blasphemy, it is like saying, “Look God, I can do a better job and I want things to go a little faster so I’m going to get cracking.” Sitting means that contrary to everything this is the way it really should be. You should be sitting, relaxing in the Lord. You sit to take in doctrine and in effect your life is one of sitting. You are positionally in the holy of holies and that mercy seat was not occupied during the Age of Israel, but the mercy seat is now Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father, so we sit down.

God does not immediately kill off a reversionist. Sometimes God provides blessing, and then takes it away. People can fake you out. Some of you never got past Black Beauty. Naive isn’t really bad, provided that you don’t get faked right into the stands. Naive people have a tendency to misread other people. But in eternity past, God put together a supergrace paragraph, with all kinds of prosperity and happiness. This includes the ability to enjoy and appreciate your blessings. Don’t misread other people and get led astray. You only advance one way in the Christian life. You do not advance as a result of witnessing.

The Mercy Seat is never sat upon. Blood was sprinkled upon it. But our Lord sits there today. When the Lord sits down, the curtain is torn open.

Therefore it is nice to have the main verb finally coming into focus. This main verb follows the action of the aorist participle. First of all in the aorist participle the Lord Jesus Christ, “when he had offered one unique sacrifice, sat down.” The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The aorist participle: “when he had offered.” The main verb: “he sat down,” the aorist active indicative of kathizô (καθίζω) [pronounced kahth-EED-zoh] which is the regular word for sitting. The aorist tense is a constative aorist and it is used for a momentary action. It is also a gnomic aorist for a doctrine which is so certain as to be axiomatic. The doctrine of the session or the seating of Christ is an absolute dogma. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. The active voice indicates that Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb by means of resurrection and ascension. The indicative mood is used as a declarative indicative, it is the sign of the main verb, it is also for a dogmatic and certain assertion that Jesus Christ is seated, and that by being seated He has won two great battles. He won the battle of the angelic conflict and at the same time He made it possible for the veil in the temple to be torn and for us as royal family to live in the holy of holies.

“the right hand of God” simply indicates the place of highest honour. It is literally, “the right hand of the God” — tou theou is the genitive at the end of this sentence. They are descriptive genitives to indicate the highest honour that has ever been accorded anyone in the human race. Jesus Christ sat down as humanity, not as deity. This is the highest honour given to anyone in being seated, ever at any time. No higher honour can ever be accorded to anyone and therefore Jesus Christ is the only celebrity.

There is a lot we can learn about sitting, but it all begins with the fact that Christ sat down. Here is the point: The only thing that was ever sprinkled on the mercy seat was blood — animal blood. That was a shadow. That was the only thing that ever occupied the mercy seat but right now our Lord is sitting in the heavenly mercy seat. The blood was a shadow pointing to Him. Here is the wonderful thing. When the Lord sits down the curtain is open, torn to shatters from top to bottom, and anyone in this dispensation by believing in Christ enters into the holy of holies and becomes royal family. We are related to a Lord who is seated, seated at the right hand.

Hebrews 10:12 “But this One [Jesus Christ], when He had offered one unique sacrifice on behalf of sins for all times, sat down on the right hand of the God.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Principle: Only God can glorify God; the right hand is the place of glorification; the seating of Christ at the right hand is the strategic victory of the angelic conflict and Satan and his fallen angels are defeated by our Lord sitting down; this victory is always related to mankind as well, and right now our supergrace paragraph is based on the fact that the Lord sat down. Right now our supergrace paragraph is based on the fact that the Lord sat down. This is the only time that one person sat down and millions of people are provided prosperity. Remember once again that the issue of the Christian way of life is not the Lord providing your needs, the issue of the Christian way of life is getting to the point of blessing. The whole issue is blessing, not needs.

The Doctrine of Ascension

(or, the Doctrine of Our Lord Being Seated at the Right Hand of God)

1. The ascension is that doctrine of Christology pertaining to our Lord’s change of residence from earth to the third heaven after resurrection. He did this in His resurrection body.

a. Jesus did not carry His blood upon into heaven.

b. This is the Roman Catholic church, which teach that the wine/grape juice turns into the Lord’s blood.

2. The capabilities of the resurrection body are definitely a part of this doctrine. The resurrection body of the Lord Jesus Christ travels horizontally, or vertically, is capable of unlimited space travel — John 20:17.

3. The reception and acknowledgment of the Son is the great issue in our Lord’s entrance into the true holy of holies. The reception is totally that of God the Father. He is the one who said, “Come in and sit down.” Psalm 110:1 describes it prophetically; Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3, 13 describes this. This was said to the humanity of Christ — a Man sat down in heaven!

a. The God-man sat down.

b. He immediately became superior to all the angels. No angel has ever had this honor before.

c. We will be physically greater than the angels in our resurrection bodies.

d. There was some sort of plunder related to the angels; and that plunder has not been on the earth before. This plunder has been shipped to the earth, waiting for believers to reach supergrace.

4. Being seated at the right hand our Lord is the only celebrity. He is preeminent, He is above all, He is the object of our concentration without ever straining because the intake of doctrine brings this about automatically.

a. Supernatural love developed by Bible doctrine in the soul.

b. Loving the Lord has an overflow to category #1 and category #2.

5. The strategical victory of the angelic conflict. In this strategical victory the angels are defeated — Hebrews chapter one; Ephesians 1:2–22; 4:7–10.

a. Regimental colors. The arrow is going up. Hebrews 1

b. The Lord distributes the plunder. The arrow is going down. Ephesians

6. The ascension leads to a new family in the family of God, and that is the royal family. When Christ sat down a new family was begun. Jesus Christ was there alone but immediately, ten days afterward, He wanted company on earth that would come to heaven so the baptism of the Holy Spirit immediately took a group of people in Jerusalem and entered them into union with Christ.

a. When the Jews are evangelized in gentile languages; this means that the 5^th cycle was upon them.

b. Peter stood up and gave the message of the resurrected Christ.

7. The ascension and the new priesthood. We are not left here without some means of understanding the importance of the golden urn of manna. The golden urn of manna is a beautiful picture of the completed canon of scripture. The canon of scripture contains the doctrine we will need and all of a sudden we are on an entirely different basis. Since the ritual has been cut out, except for the communion table, and since the canon of scripture has been completed and preserved to this moment God has a brand new system. Every believer for the first time in history as royalty also has the dignity of royalty, and the dignity of royalty is the privacy to live your own life as unto the Lord.

a. We have the right to live our lives before the Lord.

b. We are to continue assembling because this gives us privacy.

c. Parents do have the right to tell their children certain things, a few thousand times.

d. No old biddy has the right to tell you what to wear. Agreed that you gals wear some pretty raunchy stuff. But Bob does not have the right to tell you what to wear.

e. The only dress code in the Bible is of a man to have short hair.

f. We are to have privacy as priests. There used to be a Berachah directory; but it was a mistake. The key is privacy. The privacy of public assembly. That is the only place where you can learn anything.

g. The Ranger growl. It means Amen in the church; but it means, kill, kill, kill outside the church.

h. You are not going to learn anything under a service organization. There is no privacy of the priesthood; there is no system of authority.

i. Royalty displayed great poise during the French Revolution.

8. The ascension and the ultimate defeat of Satan. The ascension means that Christ sat down, and when Christ sat down it meant that Satan was defeated, permanently defeated, and he can’t recover from it and never will. Satan is now fighting a series of rearguard actions, but he is defeated. So the ascension means the ultimate defeat of Satan, described in Luke 20:42–43; Acts 2:33,34; Hebrews 1:13. The second advent of Christ will end all rearguard actions. Satan will be annihilated at the second advent — Daniel 7:13,14; Zechariah 13:2; Colossians 2:15; Revelation 20:1–3.

a. Nothing worse than to be whipped by a whipped chicken.

b. Satan is fighting rear-guard actions; he is already defeated. So we should not allow ourselves to be defeated by him.

c. The 2^nd advent will end all rear guard actions. Operation Footstool.

9. The ascension verifies the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross bearing our sins — Hebrews 9:23,24; 10:12.

1972 Hebrews 10:13–14 Lesson #121

121 06/20/1974 Hebrews 10:13–14 Doctrine of sanctification

Heb 10:13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

Verse 13 begins with an adverbial use of loipon (λοιπόν) [pronounced loy-POHN]. It is translated “From henceforth.” Loipon (λοιπόν) [pronounced loy-POHN] means “from now on” or “in the future” and it should be translated correctly, “From that time on.” The implications of this are fantastic.

From that point on, there is the provision of the basics; but the key after that is blessing. God has many blessings to lay upon us. This becomes a very strong adverbial substantive.

From the time that Jesus Christ offered that efficacious sacrifice, the sacrifice of redemption plus reconciliation plus propitiation, the sacrifice which resulted in passing on the colours to us, the sacrifice which interrupted the Jewish Age and began a new dispensation, the sacrifice by which our Lord ascended and was seated at the right hand of the Father, winning the strategical victory of the angelic conflict and opening up the holy of holies so that our residence is in that place which was always forbidden to the Old Testament priesthood. They were never permitted to enter the holy of holies, except on one authorized day and by one authorized person. But we live in the holy of holies as the royal family of God forever, and because of that it is God’s purpose and plan and design to provide for each one of us supergrace blessings. The issue in remaining in this life is not just to have provision. Grace provision is not the issue, the issue is blessing and blessing comes to you on the basis of the supergrace life. The supergrace life is that saturation of doctrine which completes the structure of the ECS and takes the believer to the point of occupation with the person of Christ. This is a synonym for spiritual maturity. We are on the others side of that phrase, “From that time onward.” That is why we are members of the royal family of God, that’s why we live in the holy of holies, that’s why we can anticipate great blessing in time when we reach supergrace, that’s why we sit to worship, that’s why we assemble to worship, every believer is his own priest and has the privacy of his own priesthood.

“expecting” — the present active participle from the verb ekdechomai (ἐκδέχομαι) [pronounced ehk-DEHK-oh-mai]. This word has a lot of meanings but the one that is important here means to wait in anticipation of something. When you anticipate something you are going to enjoy, something pleasant, then you can’t wait for it. This is not tapping-your-feet and being bored type of waiting, this is exciting type waiting, waiting with great anticipation, having happiness just in the anticipation of it. The present tense is a static present, it represents a condition which perpetually exists among those who are positive toward Bible doctrine. The active voice: Christ at the right hand of the Father produces the action of the verb, He is waiting with great expectation to bring His royal family, His bride, back to the earth for the Millennial reign. The participle is circumstantial. From that time on our Lord is waiting. This waiting means that Jesus Christ has nothing to so really between His ascension and His return to the earth for operation footstool but to provide blessing for you. Our Lord is waiting with great pleasure, it makes Him very happy to think that you are going to persist in the intake of doctrine and reach the point of supergrace prosperity. He enjoys thinking about it, He looks forward through blessing you. This comes, of course, through persistence in the intake of doctrine.

“till” — is heôs (ἕως) [pronounced HEH-oce], “until”; “his enemies” — our Lord just sits there and has a great time, and His enemies are fighting a rearguard action. His enemies are angelic and are not getting anywhere very rapidly, in fact they are just simply retreating to their doom, retreating to their certain destruction. We have the nominative masculine plural of echthros (ἐχθρός) [pronounced ehkh-THROSS], the word for enemies. We also have a possessive genitive intensive pronoun, “his” enemies, they belong to Him.

“be made” — the aorist passive subjunctive of tithêmi (τίθημι) [pronounced TIHTH-ā-mee] which means to be appointed; “until his enemies have been appointed.” It is just a matter of time until His enemies fulfill this certain appointment. The constative aorist contemplates the action of operation footstool in its entirety, including the second advent of Christ, the slaughter of Armageddon, the incarceration of Satan and all the fallen angels, the baptism of fire, and the coronation of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he has all of these wonderful things to anticipate, and while He is anticipating these things He is looking forward to providing blessing for each one of us. The passive voice: the enemies of Christ receive the action of the verb, they receive an appointment. The subjunctive mood is the future subjunctive and it is used to portray the perfect tense of the Hebrew. Since it is a quotation from Psalm 110:1 this subjunctive is not in the ordinary concept of a potential subjunctive, a hortatory subjunctive, a deliberative subjunctive, this is merely a future concept in the subjunctive. So it should be translated “have been appointed.”

Then we have in the Greek ʿupopodion tôn podôn ʾautou. The word hupopodion (ὑποπόδιον) [pronounced hoop-op-OHD-ee-on], the accusative direct object of hupopodion (ὑποπόδιον) [pronounced hoop-op-OHD-ee-on] is a footstool, a human footstool. In the ancient world the Romans liked to do this because the Romans were a relatively short race. A tall Roman was five feet ten inches. The barbarians were often well over six feet tall. The Romans always liked to defeat the barbarians because they approached the Romans in battled and laughed because of their size. But once they got into battle with them they found out it was an entirely different story The Romans had the finest discipline and training in the world and at the end of a battle men like Caesar liked to say, “Go find the tallest barbarian of all.” They would bring him in an slap him down in front of Caesar who would then take the Roman standard with SPQR on it and he would stand on him. The troops then would cheer. He would hold up the Roman standard and they would all cheer. He was using a human foot rest. That is what this really means. This is nothing but sheer victory.

Texas infantry men killed hundreds of dead Germans; and they were using these dead enemies as tables, chaise lounges, etc.

And so the footstool is Satan, the fallen angel. As it were, this is a battle analogy and taken from battles of the ancient world, the Lord is going to stand on him.

Victory means unconditional surrender, and hupopodion (ὑποπόδιον) [pronounced hoop-op-OHD-ee-on] means unconditional surrender in ancient terms of warfare. There is no question about it, if Caesar is standing on the body of a person on the ground it is unconditional surrender, he doesn’t have any rights. That is exactly what our Lord is portrayed as doing here. This is operation footstool, but footstool is a misnomer, it is operation unconditional surrender and our Lord is the victor. The word footstool is followed by tôn podôn ʾautou. tôn podôn means footstool of the foot. Podos is the Greek word for foot. It is “the footstool of his feet” and it means unconditional surrender. This is a very important passage because it portrays our Lord in a new light. You see two facets of His character. You see the one from ekdechomai (ἐκδέχομαι) [pronounced ehk-DEHK-oh-mai], the one in which our Lord is waiting to bless you, looking forward to it, anticipating it right now, providing you great wealth, prosperity, happiness, promotion, things for you as an individual. This is what He enjoys thinking about now, but the time is coming when he is going forth against our enemies, the fallen angels, and when He does they are going to be prostrate under His feet. It is going to be a total victory, unconditional surrender.

Bob stands while we sit, as our servant feeding us doctrine. Since the War Between the States, the government used to be the servant of the people, but that has been turned around.

Hebrews 10:13 “From that time on waiting until His enemies have been allotted the footstool of His feet.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The enemies are the fallen angels and they are allotted to Him as the footstool of His feet which is unconditional surrender.

Heb 10:14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

Verse 14 — the fourth metamorphism. We begin with an explanatory use the conjunctive particle gar. This particle occurs many times, it has three or four basic purposes, but conjunctive particles are extremely important in the Greek. “For by one offering” — we have the instrumental singular of mia plus prosphora (προσφορά) [pronounced pros-for-AH]. The ia suffix here indicates the instrumental case and it should be translated “By means of one unique offering,” the efficacious sacrifice of Christ. This is the blood of Christ, this is redemption plus reconciliation, plus propitiation.

“he hath perfected” — the perfect active indicative of teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh]. Teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh] means to bring to a goal, to accomplish, to finish, to complete or to perfect. Here it means perfection in the sense that God has provided everything that completes us.

At the point of salvation the baptism of the Holy Spirit entered us into union with Christ. Being in union with Christ we are in the holy of holies forever. We are royal family of God forever. We belong to Him forever. We are kept on this earth for a purpose, the purpose is blessing. When God can bless us in the devil’s world God is glorified. He is not glorified because we witness, because we pray, because we perform certain functions that are prescribed in the Word. We glorify God in one way only and that is by reaching supergrace, and the only way to get there is through doctrine in the soul. The things we perform are merely results of doctrine in the soul, results of the filling of the Spirit, commands which are automatically executed as the occasion arises — the occasion for prayer, for witnessing, for anything else that might be construed as royal family service. “For by means of one offering he has perfected” — a completed action with existing results. The perfect tense is the intensive perfect which indicates that the action of the verb is completed and then results continue. So we have already been perfected at the point of salvation. No one can improve upon positional truth, no one can improve upon your royalty, you are absolutely turned out perfectly at the point of salvation — from the standpoint of positional truth, not from the standpoint of experience. We are left in time, then, for a purpose: not to improve on what was accomplished at the cross, we aren’t here to improve anything, we are not even here to improve ourselves. We are here to glorify God, we are here to advance, to follow the colours. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is dogmatic reality. “He has perfected for ever with the result that we remain perfected for all time.”

“for ever” is actually eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of diênekes (διηνεκές) [pronounced dee-ah-nehk-EHS] — “for all time.”

Then we have “them that are sanctified” — present passive participle of hagiazô (ἁγιάζω) [pronounced hawg-ee-AD-zoh] which means to be earmarked, set apart. We have been perfected for all time at the point of salvation. You can’t improve on the holy of holies and you were entered into the holy of holies at salvation. Now you are on this earth having been perfected or earmarked at salvation at the point you believed in Christ. That is when you were perfected. And why are you here? To glorify God by advancing to the high ground of supergrace by the daily function of GAP, following the colours. And when you get there, that is when you glorify God and God starts blessing you totally apart from the devil’s world, you are on the high ground. The present tense is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. The punctiliar action gathers into one entirety all phases of sanctification because there are two phases that are in focus. The first phase perfected us — teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh] is the first phase, salvation.

Now we are in phase two, the believer in time. In time it is the balance of residency. The Holy Spirit indwells the body, He controls the soul only when He fills, and that means that there must be balance. The balance comes from doctrine. We start out minus doctrine in the soul and that minus must become a plus, and there is where we get balance of residency. And when we have that balance of residency, maximum doctrine, we are on the high ground. The passive voice: the royal family of God in the Church Age receives the action of the verb. The participle is a telic participle, it indicates God’s purpose. God didn’t put you on this earth for self-improvement after salvation and He didn’t leave you here for that. Your self-improvement is pitiful! It will never advance you anywhere spiritually. What God wants you to do is to line up with His grace project, to advance to the high ground of supergrace so that you can be blessed by God totally apart from Satanic activity.

Hebrews 10:14 “For by means of one (unique) offering He has perfected for all time [while on this earth] the one’s being sanctified with the result that they keep on standing perfected forever.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Doctrine of Sanctification

1. Sanctification concept:

a. Sanctification means to be earmarked by God, to be set apart as sacred, to belong to God and to no one else on a permanent basis by a momentary commitment — belief in Christ.

b. More than that, each one of us as royal family is under contract to God for time and for eternity.

c. The actual death of Christ set aside the old contract, the old covenant. The old covenant was covenant of shadows and of ritual, it is called the Mosaic law. That contract is abrogated.

d. Inasmuch as the old contract is canceled, annulled, abrogated, and since we are under a contract, we are under a new contract.

e. The new contract or the new covenant is for the royal priesthood of the Church Age.

f. In the strictest sense of the meaning of sanctification the believer is under new contract to God forever, and the contract was sealed by the 40 things that happened at salvation, especially emphasizing the baptism of the Spirit that entered us into the holy of holies forever and ever.

g. The contract is provided on the basis of the efficacious one-and-for-all sacrifice of Christ on the cross fulfilling the Levitical shadows.

h. We signed the contract the moment we believed in Jesus Christ.

i. The contract is inviolable. Those in the new contract are all members of the royal family of God. The word “earmarked” or “sanctified” merely indicates that God knows it whether we do or not, we are under contract to Him forever.

2. The etymology of Greek words that are pertinent to the word sanctification.

a. Hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss]. In the New Testament a(goij is usually translated “holy” or “saint.” All it means is an earmarked creature. We talk about Old Testament saints but there are no Old Testament saints technically and biblically. The only people who are saints are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ because believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in this dispensation are the only ones who ever had the baptism of the Spirit, and are the only royal family. “Saint” refers to a believer, royal family of God. All believers from Pentecost to the Rapture are saints.

b. Hagiotês (ἁγιότης) [pronounced hag-ee-OHT-ace]. This word is generally translated “holiness.” Holiness simply means the state of being royalty. It also means to be under contract forever. Our status quo as members of the royal family of God is we are always under contract, and unbreakable and unviolable contract.

c. Hagiôsunê (ἁγιωσύνη) [pronounced hag-ee-o-SOO-nay]. it is translated “sanctification,” it is the noun, and it means the state of being under contract, the state of being royalty forever.

d. Hagiasmos (ἁγιασμός) [pronounced hag-ee-as-MOSS], the adjective. It means consecrated one, sanctified one, state of being royalty one, state of being earmarked one. Again, it is an adjective to describe the royal family under contract to God forever.

e. Hagiazô (ἁγιάζω) [pronounced hawg-ee-AD-zoh], the verb. It means to set apart, to be earmarked, it is the verb of sanctification. In addition to these words being used for the believers of the Church Age or the royal family, Jesus Christ is called hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss] tou theou — “the holy one of God.” And we are holy ones of God because we are in union with Christ — John 6:69.

3. Phase one sanctification. The plan of God is divided into three phases” phase one, salvation; phase two, the believer in time; phase three, the believer in eternity. Phase one lasts just long enough for you to believe in Christ. Phase two depends on God’s plan entirely, how long you are alive on this earth. Phase one sanctification is called positional sanctification. It merely means that at the moment we believe God entered us into the holy of holies, into union with Christ. We are in union with Christ forever and it means royalty, it was never accomplished before the Day of Pentecost, it will never happen after the Rapture of the Church. It is called the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Therefore sanctification is used in the sense of becoming royal family at the moment of salvation. It is so used in 1Corinthians 1:2, 30; 6:11; Hebrews 10:10, 14.

4. Phase two sanctification — taking the high ground. This is the supergrace life. Following the regimental banner up the high ground by the constant intake of doctrine. It fulfills the principle of balance of residency. It adds to the residency of the Holy Spirit, the residency of Bible doctrine in the soul. So that phase two sanctification is the filling of the Spirit plus the daily function of GAP equaling entrance into the supergrace status.

5. Phase three sanctification. This is called ultimate sanctification and this is what God has provided for the royal family for eternity — the resurrection body. Each one of us will receive at the Rapture of the Church a body exactly like that of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a permanent home for the soul just as the Bible is the permanent home of Bible doctrine. Romans 8:29; 1Corinthians 1:8; Philippians 3:21; 1Thessalonians 5:23; 1John 3:1,2.

6. The agents of sanctification. God does all the work in God’s plan. There is no place for human ability, human merit, human ingenuity, human planning. Therefore all agency resides in God. For example, the Son of God is the agent of sanctification in Hebrews 10:10,14; the Holy Spirit is the agent of sanctification — Romans 15:16; 2Thessalonians 2:13. The Word of God is the agent of sanctification — John 17:17; Ephesians 5:26. Since these are the agents there is no place for human good or human intrusion into the plan of God. A plan is no stronger than its weakest link; there are no weak links in this agency — the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God.

7. All phases of sanctification are related to the angelic conflict. Phase one is regeneration by which the royal family is positionally higher than angels. We are entered into the holy of holies, positionally we are higher than angels. No angels are allowed in the holy of holies. Phase two is the supergrace believer occupying the high ground, and therefore God is glorified and there is a relationship between the strategic victory of Christ and the tactical victory of the believer on this earth. Phase three is the royal family in a resurrection body, physically superior to all angels.

8. Conclusion:

a. Sanctification is the uniqueness of the Church Age and the royal family of God. This uniqueness is based upon the efficacious sacrifice of Christ on the cross plus His resurrection, ascension and session. He sat down.

b. The royal family can only exist because the conjunction of the ages has passed. The conjunction of ages was studied in Hebrews 9:26. Because we have passed the conjunction of ages now we can have a royal family.

c. The necessity of the royal family means the necessity for sanctification. So sanctification and royal family become synonymous terms with different emphasis.

d. Sanctification equals the baptism of the Holy Spirit plus positional truth by which we as members of the royal family of God live in the holy of holies forever and ever — Hebrews 10:19,20.

9. The purpose of phase two sanctification.

a. Phase two sanctification equals the filling of the Holy Spirit plus the residency of Bible doctrine in the soul. The purpose of this sanctification is earmarked for blessing. So when is it coming? When you have been consistent enough with the intake of Bible doctrine to reach the supergrace status it will drop right in your lap. All you have to do is advance.

b. The reason for God keeping the royal family in the devil’s world is to bless them with materialistic things, with happiness, prosperity, promotion, totally apart from Satanic devices of kósmos (κόσμος) [pronounced KOSS-moss] diabolikus.

c. It is the objective of God to provide supergrace blessing in compatibility with His eternal decrees. Sanctification relates your blessing to the eternal decrees. You are earmarked for blessing. This is why we are alive, to be blessed, blessed, blessed.

i. Some people are interviewed at age 100, and they say the secret is, they don’t drink or smoke.

ii. Another is interviewed, and they have a drink every day.

iii. This means, they don’t know why they are still alive.

d. Blessing can only be accomplished by maximum residency of Bible doctrine in the soul.

e. Failure to acquire this blessing through supergrace means that the believer is kept alive in a state of reversionism for the purpose of divine discipline. This explains sometimes why the good die young and others live on and on and on. Many times God keeps the believer alive to spank him because once the believer goes to heaven there is no discipline. He has to get it all now. The worst person in the world won’t be embarrassed in heaven.

f. There is no discipline in phase three for any believer. Once you die, “no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain, no more death, the old things are passed away.”

g. For this reason many reversionists prolong their stay on this earth and have a miserable time of it.

When you see this word, sanctification, think, earmarked for blessing.

1972 Hebrews 10:15 Jer. 31:31–33 Lesson #122

122 06/21/1974 Hebrews 10:15; Jer. 31:31–33 Doctrine of New Covenant to Israel

Beginning in verse 15 and going through verse 17 we have one paragraph in the Word of God which is so important. It deals with the necessity for a new covenant to Israel. By way of anticipation there are three or four principles that we need to put down so that as we get into this subject we will begin to realize its import and its impact and just exactly how it relates to our age.

The New Covenant to Israel (Introductory Points)

1. First of all, you have to remember that the abrogation of the Mosaic law by the strategic victory of our Lord on the cross, by His resurrection, ascension and session. When you remember that the Mosaic law was addressed to Israel — it belonged to Israel and to no one else — then you know that not only is there no covenant for believers as time moves on, but specifically there is no covenant for Israel. In other words, the work of Christ on the cross, His ascension and session, abrogated the Mosaic law. The Mosaic law was canceled. This also interrupted the Jewish Age — we have the Church Age — and immediately we need a new covenant to replace the Mosaic law. So we have a new covenant to the Church. But when the Church is raptured the Age of Israel resumes. However, they begin without God authorizing anything for the function of the nation. The seven years of the Tribulation is just like Israel in Egypt, and anywhere they happen to be is their Egypt. So that at the second advent it will then become necessary for Israel to have a replacement for the Mosaic law. So there is in the Millennium a new covenant to Israel. In other words, there are two new covenants, and both of them are called new covenants because each one of them replaces to a specific group of people the old Mosaic law. The Mosaic law applied to believers in the Age of Israel, it applied to unbelievers in the Age of Israel. And when you wipe out the Mosaic law you still have believers in the Church Age so they need a new covenant, a new covenant to the Church. But then, when Israel begins under God as the nation at the second advent you need a new covenant to replace the Mosaic law to Israel. So the first thing we must remember is that there is not only a new covenant to the Church but there is also a new covenant to Israel.

2. Secondly, the new covenant to Israel in a number of passages of scripture and, by way of anticipating the doctrine itself, Jeremiah 31:31–34 is one of the greatest areas of documentation in that field. And the basis for it should be understood. Jeremiah had lost his right woman and in losing his right woman he could well understand Israel in the future losing its covenant. Therefore God provided something new to replace Jeremiah’s right woman while he was in time, just as God always provides something to replace the loss of a covenant to a group of people. Jeremiah 31:31–34 has great significance in the life of Israel, it is the major prophecy of the new covenant. Then, of course, from the standpoint of doctrine, in Galatians 4:4 we have a reference to that new covenant, and in Hebrews 8:8–12 we have quotation from Jeremiah.

3. A third thing that we must remember is that since there is a new covenant to Israel it is still future, and the new covenant to Israel verifies the future of Israel. It verifies the fact that there will be an Israel in the Millennium under David’s greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and that the new covenant to Israel will function when God fulfills the Abrahamic, Palestinian and Davidic Covenants.

4. A fourth principle to remember is that the new covenant to Israel replaces the Mosaic law, just as the new covenant to the Church replaces the Mosaic law for the Church and that Israel’s priesthood will function in the Millennium again under the new covenant. They can no longer function under the Mosaic law. This will help to explain Ezekiel chapters 40–48.

5. A fifth principle, the abrogation of the shadows demands something new all the way around. And up to this point we have been studying something new with regard to the Church. Now this is a pause to help us to understand that Israel does not lose out because we are the gainers from the strategic victory of Christ. Israel does not lose out. That is the big principle that needs to be emphasized, and Israel gains along with us. So God does not bless us at the expense of anyone else. And in the Church Age Israel gains even though they are scattered and even though God does not recognize any nation Israel. Since they are scattered and under the fifth cycle of discipline they gain by entering into union with Christ, they gain by entering the holy of holies, something no Jew in the past dispensation could do. Jew and Gentile become one in Christ in this age. Then they gain again in the Millennial reign of Christ because there will be a new covenant to Israel. So Israel does not lose out because of the abrogation of the Mosaic law. Whenever God cancels something it can only be an advance. The abrogation of the Mosaic law is an advance.

Heb 10:15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,...

Verse 15 — the word “Whereof” is supposed to be “And.” It is actually a connective conjunctive particle de plus the adjunctive use of kai. “Ghost” — there are no ghosts. It is to pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] to hagion (ἅγιον) [pronounced HAG-ee-on]. God the Holy Spirit was never called “the Holy Spirit” or very infrequently called the Holy Spirit in Old Testament times. The reason he is called the Holy Spirit now is because the third person of the Trinity has a special relationship to us in this dispensation, a relationship that never existed before.

The word hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss] is translated “saint” or “holy.” Why do you think the third person of the Trinity who is called “Spirit” in the Old Testament [ruach] but He is never called “Holy Spirit”. He couldn’t be called Holy Spirit because there was no royal family, but it is the Holy Spirit who makes us royal family. The Holy Spirit regenerates us, baptizes us into union with Christ, indwells our body, seals us, gives us a spiritual gift. So Holy Spirit is a title for the third person of the Trinity which is peculiar to the royal family only. And God the Holy Spirit does more for you in your lifetime as a believer, no matter how short, than He ever did for all the Old Testament believers put together. The word here is not “Holy Ghost” but “Holy Spirit,” and the word is used here for the title of the third person of the Trinity as the author of the canon of scripture. This phrase actually begins, “And the Holy Spirit also”; de is translated “and,” and then kai in the adjunctive use is translated “also.” That “also” is a reminder to you and to me that God the Holy Spirit is the secret to the function of the royal family. He is the security of the royal family, He is the royal family creator, He is the one who makes it possible for the royal family to exist forever, He is the protector of the royal family in time, He is the only source of understanding doctrine, and only through understanding doctrine do we take the high ground of the supergrace life. He is therefore both directly and indirectly the source of materialistic blessing or supergrace blessing.

The next phrase indicates that He is teaching us, that He is providing information for us, and that He makes it possible for us to understand that when God blesses us He does not do so at the expense of any other group of believers in any other dispensation. No one ever suffers from divine blessing.

“is a witness” — the present active indicative of the verb martureô (μαρτυρέω) [pronounced mar-too-REH-oh]. The static present represents a condition which perpetually exists. He always is a witness to Bible doctrine. The active voice: this is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the formation of the canon and therefore every word in the Bible is the witness of God the Holy Spirit to you. The indicative mood is declarative for the plenary, verbal inspiration of the scriptures. This is used to indicate a quotation from the Old Testament. “And the Holy Spirit also bears witness.” The quotation is a part of the new covenant to Israel. And notice that He is now quoting it to us for a reason.

The only reason any author is stated, is to help with the interpretation; not to satisfy our curiosity. All the speculation in the world as to the author of Hebrews is a waste of time. We have no idea.

“to us” — the dative plural of the pronoun egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH]. In this pronoun we have the dative of indirect object, it indicates the ones in whose interest the Holy Spirit witnesses. Bible teaching is the witness of the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit witnesses to us, and when He witnesses it is time to listen. The witnessing here is to quote in the Greek from the Hebrew of Jeremiah 31:33,34 which is a part of the new covenant to Israel. The dative of indirect object means that it is to our interest to understand a principle that whenever God provides blessing for us it never hurts others. Some of you find your happiness in harm comnng to your enemies. If all of Bob’s critics were destroyed at one time, there would be a decimation of population in the United States.

Next we have a conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] used as an explanation. It is used here to express and explain and therefore to cite a quotation.

“after that he had said before” — this is the preposition meta plus the accusative singular of the definite article. The definite article is used here because the object of the preposition is really an infinitive. It is the perfect active infinitive of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh], but you cannot translate a preposition until you know the case of the object. And since an infinitive does not have a case the definite article is merely in here for one reason only, to show you what the case of the infinitive would be if the infinitive were a substantive instead of an infinitive. This all should be translated “after having said.”

Hebrews 10:15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us: for after having said....

Now we have a quotation. The text breaks right in on the quotation of the new covenant to Israel. But there is no sense in trying to break into that quotation until we have a better understanding of the new covenant to Israel.

The Doctrine of the New Covenant to Israel

1. Definition:

a. A covenant is a disposition made by one party — God — in favour of another party — mankind, specifically regenerate of Israel.

b. The Mosaic covenant, also called the old covenant, was a covenant of shadow worship, shadow buildings, shadow priesthood, shadow offerings.

c. Therefore its function was legitimate in a shadow dispensation. The shadow dispensation was that part of the Age of Israel from Moses to Christ.

d. The first advent of Christ and His saving work on the cross abrogated, canceled, the old covenant and/or the Mosaic covenant.

e. A new covenant had to be established so a new covenant was immediately established for the Church. The new covenant to the Church authorizes the royal family of God during the Church Age and sets up the modus operandi for a universal priesthood among believers.

f. The new covenant to Israel recognizes the fulfillment of the unconditional covenants to Israel in the past and sets up a modus operandi for Israel in the Millennium.

g. The new covenant to Israel is a legacy for the restored Israel of the Millennial reign of Christ.

2. Scripture: Jeremiah 31:31–34, quoted in Hebrews 8:8–12, in part in 10:15–17, and mentioned as a point of doctrine in Galatians 4:4.

3. The new authorizing agency in Israel. The abrogation of the Mosaic law by the saving work of Christ on the cross plus the strategic victory — death, burial, resurrection, ascension and session — leaves Israel without authorization for their Levitical priesthood. Their license is revoked. Therefore the new covenant to Israel replaces the Mosaic law and gives a new license to the Levitical priesthood — in the Millennium, not before. The function of that priesthood in the Millennium is described in great detail in Ezekiel chapters 40–48.

4. The new dispensation for Israel. Israel will be restored at the second advent of Jesus Christ and Christ will begin a Millennial reign of 1000 years. The new covenant to Israel is the authorizing agency for the restored Israel of the Millennium as well as the verification of the fulfillment of the unconditional covenants which have never been fulfilled. God keeps His word. And so the new dispensation of Israel is the fulfillment of the unconditional covenants.

a. Arabs are all over the world today.

b. They are vicious killers; and they have even assassinated a president.

c. When we have a revolution, the greatest killers will be Moslems.

d. They have not changed. You will see a lot of them break loose some day and go on a yergamentando.

5. The basis for the new covenant to Israel.

a. Neither the Hebrew noun berith nor the Greek noun diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay] refer to a will or a testament, so they are often mistranslated. The correct word is covenant. A will or a testament depends upon the physical death of the testator; the covenants we are studying depend upon the spiritual death of Christ. But a covenant doesn’t depend on death at all, a covenant is a disposition of the party of the first part in favour of the party of the second part. Death does not have to be involved, it just so happens that in the two new covenants death is involved — the spiritual death of Christ.

b. The new covenant to Israel goes into effect on the blood of Christ and/or the spiritual death of Christ and/or the efficacious sacrifice: redemption, reconciliation, propitiation.

c. Therefore the blood of Christ is the spiritual legacy for the royal family of the Church Age and Israel in the Millennium.

d. The new covenant to Israel is valid because of the blood of Christ, the efficacious death of Christ on the cross bearing our sins. It is valid because Christ sits in the mercy seat.

e. The new covenant to Israel is a reality in contrast to the shadows of the old or Mosaic covenant.

f. The new covenant functions in the Millennium when Christ reigns as David’s greater son. Christ comes to the royal family as a high priest but He comes to Israel a King. Therefore there will be a place in the Millennium for the Levitical priesthood because Christ will reign over Israel as David’s greater son.

g. The animal sacrifices in the Millennium (found in Ezekiel 40–48) are no longer shadows but they represent a frame of reference memorial to Israel concerning the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Hebrews 9:15–17.

6. The new covenant and the Tribulation. Immediately a question arises. What about the last seven years of the Jewish Age? The cross, resurrection, ascension and session interrupts the Jewish Age. There are still seven years to go. The Church Age is an age of intercalation, an insertion. Then, when the Rapture of the Church occurs the Jewish Age resumes — +7 years. But there is no priesthood in that seven years, the old covenant has been abrogated. There is no old covenant in the Tribulation and neither is there any new covenant. So that poses a question. What is the relationship of the new covenant to Israel to the Tribulation.

a. The Lord Jesus Christ will not be reigning in the Tribulation. Satan will still be the ruler of this world.

b. Therefore the new covenant to Israel will not be operative and for those seven years of the Tribulation there will be neither the new covenant to the Church nor the new covenant to Israel. That means that those seven years historically are going to be the worst in all of history. The pressure is not any greater on the believer. We live in the intensified stage of the angelic conflict right now. But there is going to be suffering on the earth and catastrophe on the earth such as never was in all of history. Why? Because in the last seven years — in fact it is called the Tribulation for that reason — the new covenant to the Church crowd are in heaven and the new covenant to Israel crowd haven’t started yet. So you have seven years when neither of the new covenants function. And so the Tribulation is the period between the two new covenants. When Christ returns the new covenant to Israel will function on the earth but the new covenant to the Church will function in heaven forever.

c. There will be a Tribulational temple but it is a place of apostasy and reversionism and is not authorized by the old covenant nor the new covenant to Israel. There is no authorization for the temple constructed in Jerusalem in the Tribulation. That is where the abomination of desolation will be set up but it is not authorized by God nor by any covenant to God.

d. The new covenant to the Church will not be operative during the Tribulation because the Church has been resurrected or Raptured.

e. Neither of the new covenants operate during the Tribulation.

f. Therefore God sets up a different type of spiritual function, different from anything that ever happened in the past but in some ways similar to the period of the Judges. He sets up one hundred and forty-four thousand Jews as spiritual leaders throughout the earth. They are evangelists and spiritual leaders.

i. These are not the devil’s witnesses.

ii. Anyone here should be willing to fight and die for our freedom.

iii. They are cowards hiding behind a false system of doctrine.

iv. When they knock on Bob’s door, “Of what tribe?”

7. Summary. The new covenant to Israel is the authorizing agent for the restored Israel of the Millennium. It verifies the future of Israel and recognizes that the unconditional covenants will be fulfilled. God keeps His word. The new covenants to Israel replace the Mosaic law for the function of Israel’s priesthood in the Millennium.

Jeremiah 31:31–34

Verse 31 — we begin with a demonstrative pronoun, hineh, used as an interjection, used to focus attention on the new covenant to Israel given at a low point in Jewish history. The Jews were about to go out under the fifth cycle of discipline, they had just about had it, and just at a time when they were at the lowest point God, through Jeremiah, gives them this wonderful prophecy about their future. “Behold, the days come.” People have a tendency to talk about “the good old days” but here are the good future days. Jamim refers to the Millennial reign of Christ — “Behold the days are coming,” not come — the qal active participle of bo means they are coming, they are future from Jeremiah’s day, they are future from our day.

“when I will make” — the qal perfect of karath which means to cut or engrave, it comes to mean to cut a covenant or to make a covenant. It was so used for cutting the throat of an animal and since covenants were verified by blood — even the old covenant was verified by shadow blood, the new covenant to Israel and the new covenant to the Church were verified by the blood of Christ — so karath is used originally for slaying an animal sacrifice, but it comes to mean making a covenant. In this case it is used for making a new covenant. Notice the direction of it, it is “to the house of Israel [northern kingdom] and with the house of Judah [southern kingdom].”

Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold, the days are coming, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.”

Nothing here about the Church, this is the new covenant to Israel and it belongs to the Millennium.

Verse 32 — reference to the old covenant. “Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers [Exodus generation] in the day that I took them” — the hiphil infinitive of chazaq means that He had to pick them up by the collar and haul them out of Egypt. In effect, this is what God did, it is the hiphil infinitive, it is very strong; God caused them to be hoisted up by their collars and hauled out of slavery — “in the day when I seized them by the hand” — the verb connotes the grace of God. The Jews were suffering from give-up-itis and God dragged them out of Egypt — “to bring them out” — the hiphil infinitive of jatsa means He caused them to come out — “to cause them to come out of the land of Egypt; which” — relative pronoun, goes with the verb — “they broke, although I was an husband” — the qal perfect of baal means lord but it also means husband — “and yet I was their Lord” is what it means here — “saith Jehovah.”

Jeremiah 31:32 “Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers [in the Exodus generation] in the day when I seized them by the hand to cause them to come out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, and yet I was their Lord, saith Jehovah.”

Notice several things here: The failure of the Exodus generation illustrates the failure of the incarnation generation. The Jews of the Exodus generation rejected the Mosaic law but the Jews of the incarnation generation rejected Messiah who fulfilled the shadows of the Mosaic law. Therefore the necessity for the second advent of Christ to regather Israel from their dispersion of the fifth cycle. The abrogation of the old covenant demands a new covenant because Israel has a future.

Verse 33 — “But this covenant” — referring to the new covenant to Israel — “that I will make” — the qal imperfect of karath indicating that it has not been completed yet, not fulfilled yet — “with the house of Israel [Notice: always to the Jews]: After those days [the Tribulation], saith the Lord” — He is going to make this covenant after those days, and those days refers to the Tribulation — “I will put” — the qal perfect of nathan means ‘I will give’ — “my law [Torah: literally, my doctrine] into their inward parts” — be qir ban, a prepositional phrase which means bowels, and refers to the mentality, the frontal lobes — it should be translated “I will give my doctrine into their mentality/frontal lobes”.

“and write it” — we have kathab which means to engrave, to engrave it in their hearts, and it refers to the function of GAP and learning Bible doctrine so that they cannot forget it. There is no knowing God apart from doctrine; there is no loving God apart from knowing God. And so when it says “I will give my doctrine into their frontal lobes and engrave it in their right lobe, their heart, consequently I will be their God” — we have the inferential waw; I will be their God because they will have doctrine to understand me, to love me. They will have the capacity to love me. God is not the God of all believers in the sense of a wonderful relationship. You cannot love God until you know doctrine.

Jeremiah 31:33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days [the Tribulation], saith the Lord, I will give My doctrine into their thinking, and engrave it in their right lobes, therefore I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

The secret is doctrine in the frontal lobes.

Notice that each dispensation has its own covenant. The dispensation of the Gentiles has the Noahic covenant, the dispensation of Israel has the Mosaic covenant, the dispensation of the Church has the new covenant to the Church, and the dispensation of the Millennium has the new covenant to Israel. And note that in every dispensation divine blessing is related to doctrine in the soul always, without exception. Doctrine residing in the soul is the key to the believer’s relationship with God in phase two. Doctrine in the soul through the function of GAP is the means of achieving supergrace, it is the way that we follow our regimental standard to the high ground of the supergrace life.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #123

123 06/23/1974 Hebrews10:16–17; Jer. 31:34 Characteristics of the Millennium

There verses are read:

Jeremiah 31:31 “Behold, the days are coming, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.”

Jeremiah 31:32 “Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers [the Exodus generation] in the day when I seized them by the hand to cause them to come out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, and yet I was their Lord, saith Jehovah.”

Jeremiah 31:33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days [the Tribulation], saith the Lord, I will give my doctrine into their thinking, and engrave it in their heart [ their right lobes], therefore I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

What is the content of the new covenant to Israel which we have been studying in Jeremiah chapter thirty-one? The new covenant to the Church has as its content the New Testament epistles, the mystery doctrines of the royal family. What is the content of the doctrine which Israel will understand and learn in those days of the new covenant to Israel? It is a combination of Old Testament doctrines plus the principles that are found in Ezekiel chapters 40 through 48, as well as everything pertaining to the Millennium. The Millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ will be a reality when this covenant is in function and therefore they will understand completely the Millennial reign of Christ. To make sure that we understand, then, the content of the new covenant it deals with all Millennial passages in Isaiah, it deals with Ezekiel 40–48, it is described in the eschatological passages of the Millennium and the Tribulation in the book of Revelation.

But let us summarize just exactly when the new covenant to Israel will be fulfilled. The last dispensation is the Age of the Millennium or the Age of Christ’s Reign. The Millennial reign of Christ begins with the second advent. The first item on the agenda is the completion of the Armageddon campaign, the destruction of the enemy, the baptism of fire, the coronation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and followed by the 1000 years of His reign. At the end of that 1000 years Satan, who has been incarcerated with all fallen angels at the beginning of the Millennium, will be released and will lead in a Gog and Magog revolt against Christ and the reign of Christ, demonstrating the fact once more that people cannot be satisfied with perfect environment, the must have more than that. The environmentalist as a philosopher is always saying that the solution to man’s is problems is to improve his environment, whether it is his social environment or his natural environment. But the Word of God says this is not enough, there must be a relationship with God, and this comes through regeneration.

Characteristics of the Millennium

1. It is a time of perfect environment on the earth, a time when Satan will be bound and all demons will be removed from the earth. There will be no religion and religion will be outlawed. Because of the outlawing of religion the true issues will always be grace and relationship with God such as we have them now. The fact of the binding of Satan and the removal of demons is taught in Revelation 20:1–3 and is amplified in our studies of the doctrine of operation footstool.

2. There will be an optimum spirituality among believers on the earth. This is taught in Isaiah 65:24; Joel 2:28,29; Zechariah 14:16,17. This answers part of the question. Here is the new covenant in its content. The new covenant to Israel has a system of spirituality. Note that the new covenant to the Church also has a system of spirituality. It deals with God the Holy Spirit and deals with the fact that we are members of the royal family of God forever. As members of the royal family of God living in the Church Age we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. But the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a little abstruse and therefore we need to clarify that to make it more perspicuous. God the Holy Spirit indwells the body of every believer — 1Corinthians 6:19. He does not indwell the soul of the believer, He is said to fill the soul of the believer at such time as the believer is in fellowship. The great issue is the balance of residency. We start out as new believers in the royal family of God, minus doctrine. This minus must become a plus and then it must become optimum saturation of doctrine in the soul, or taking the high ground of the supergrace life. The filling of the Holy Spirit is spirituality in the Church Age and it is based upon the fact that the Holy Spirit indwells, always will indwell, the body of the believer. He indwells our human body, He will also indwell our resurrection body forever. The royal family of God is unique. After the Rapture of the Church, the elapse of the Tribulation and the second advent of Christ, again we have a system of spirituality which includes God the Holy Spirit, only this time it is God the Holy Spirit filling, and the change in the filling of the Holy Spirit is based upon the fact that Christ is personally on earth reigning and therefore there is emotional content; whereas the filling of the Spirit in the Church Age is minus emotion. So in the new covenant to the Church we have minus emotion in relation to the filling of the Spirit, but in the new covenant to Israel it includes emotion. The difference is the fact that in the Church Age Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, therefore the filling of the Spirit is designed for maximum intake of doctrine so that Christ can be appreciated. And inasmuch as the ministry of God the Holy Spirit is to bring about appreciation of the absent Christ through the intake of Bible doctrine or the function of GAP emotion must never be an issue. So the filling of the Spirit has no emotion today.

3. Israel will be restored as a nation — Isaiah 5:26–30; 10:19-23; 11:11–16; 65:19; Joel 2:16ff; Zechariah 8:20–23; 10:6–12. All of these passages are also a part of the new covenant to Israel, a part of the doctrinal content of that new covenant.

a. Some in Israel believe in the welfare state.

b. You cannot have true freedom with a welfare state.

4. The fulfilment of all of the unconditional covenants and the fact that the new covenant to Israel is fulfilled along with them — Daniel 9:24.

a. The UN is a Satantic foothold.

5. There will be many nations on the earth during the Millennium because this is God’s order. God’s order is nationalism. God is not the author of any form of confusion or any form of internationalism. Internationalism is a Satanic device by which Satan seeks to control the world which he rules. It has never succeeded and the extent to which any form of internationalism does succeed is the extent to which Satan gains control over the people of this earth. The United Nations is a perfect representative of Satan, it is an evil organization in every sense of the word, it has set itself up as God, it has all but destroyed many areas of the earth. The principle, then, that many nations of the earth will enjoy perfect environment under the reign of Christ is a part of the new covenant to Israel as well as a doctrine of the scripture.

a. There are at least five categories in the scripture which are stated as being a part of that perfect environment. First of all, there will be universal peace in the Millennium — Psalm 46:9; Isaiah 2:4; Hosea 2:18; Micah 4:3. Several of these passages mention the “swords being turned into plowshares and the spears into pruning hooks, and man will learn war no more.” These passages have been taken out of their context and have been used by peaceniks, doves, liberals, and other mixed-up people in order to try to say that we can bring about world peace today. Only the Lord Jesus Christ can do that. Universal peace will never exist until our Lord reigns. Our Lord said just before He departed from this earth, “There will be wars and rumours of wars until I return.” And He also made it very clear that the only way to have peace in any generation is to have such a strong military establishment that no one will attack. This is the only true way of peace.

i. General officers do not run the army.

ii. We have a mixed up and confused set of politicians in charge of the military.

iii. The politicians are destroying your military.

iv. We’re full of rock-concert hippies. We need no help from the communists to self-destruct.

v. Truman fired MacArthur, who was a greater man than Truman will ever be.

b. There will also be another factor in the great environment of the Millennium. Remember that the nations will enjoy perfect environment during the reign of Jesus Christ. There will be universal prosperity. There will be no such thing in the Millennium as a welfare state and there will still be universal prosperity and no one will suffer. That is because our Lord Jesus Christ will bring free enterprise to its peak. This is taught in Psalm 72, especially verses 7 and 16.

c. The third factor of the Millennium is a perfect world government under Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ will rule all of the nations of the earth without destroying their national freedom — Isaiah 11:1,2; Zechariah 14:9. There will also be a perfect universal knowledge of God. This is a part of the new covenant to Israel — Isaiah 11:9 is one of the principles of the new covenant to Israel. There will be perfect reflected in the longevity of the race. Life will be extended in those days and we will go back to the times before the flood and before Noah. There will be people living a thousand years, a child will be a hundred years — Isaiah 65:20.

6. There will be perfect objectivity in the administration of justice — Isaiah 11:3–5; Psalm 72:12–14. There will be perfect administration of justice, therefore crime will be controlled. There will be capital punishment, one of the few ways in which a person can die in the Millennium. There will be perfect control and therefore crime will be eliminated.

7. Perfect environment will also exist in nature. This means that creation is going to be released from the bondage of sin — Romans 8:19-22. Sin in the human race has a tremendous effect upon nature — the existence of deserts, for example. Plant life will about — Isaiah 35:1,2,7. There will be no ferocious animals, though all the animals will be there — Isaiah 11:6–9; chapter 65 guarantees that all wild animals will no longer be wild.

a. King Ranch is buying up some African animals to preserve them.

b. Bob does not care for flowers; but he would like to have a lion. ..to follow him around.

c. We don’t handle snakes at Berachah.

8. The human population of the Millennium. The baptism of fire will remove all unbelievers from the earth’s population at the beginning of the Millennium Ezekiel 20:34–38; Matthew 25:31–36. So at the beginning of the Millennium when our Lord returns all unbelievers are going to be cast off the earth — Tribulational unbelievers. Only believers are going to be left alive to start in the Millennium. They begin in their normal physical bodies and they will have a great relationship in perfect environment. There will be a rapid repopulation of the earth. But the Millennium begins with believers only. There will be a population explosion which will result in a world population of both believers and unbelievers under perfect environment.

9. The Gog revolution, Revelation 20:7–10, is the terminating point of the Millennium. The Gog revolution finds Satan released at the end of the Millennium after 1000 years of perfect environment on the earth. Satan is able to persuade thousands of unbelievers to revolt against perfect environment. The basis for this revolt is power lust. People still are human and they have old sin natures and power lust is the basis by which Satan starts a revolt which is put down immediately by the Lord Jesus Christ. So we start with the second advent of Satan in this revolution and it terminates with the great white throne, the destruction of the earth, the judgement of all unbelievers. This, then, is the termination of the Millennium which proves once again that perfect environment is not the solution to anything.

Jeremiah 31:34 — “they shall teach no more” is the piel imperfect of the verb lamadh, which means to teach again and again, to teach with discipline, to use discipline in teaching. The only way people can learn is to be under authority of the one who teaches. Lamadh means to use discipline.

“know the Lord” — There will be no need to persuade people to know the Lord in those days, they will know the Lord. He will be reigning on the earth; “for they shall all know me” is literally, “for all of them shall know me.”

“from the least to the greatest” — this is talking about the Millennium, about a perfect environment on the earth, and under God’s perfect environment there is still not equality among people born into this world. “least” and “greatest” indicates that at birth no two people are the same. This demonstrates the fallacy of equality in the human race. Even under the perfect environment of the Millennium inequality will continue to exist among people. People are not born equal and never exist in equality with others. This is impossible. The human race is given by God freedom and it is freedom that is important. The laws of divine establishment should guarantee equal opportunity but they cannot make people equal. It is freedom and privacy and opportunity that is provided by the laws of divine establishment but there is no such thing as equality among people. So we have the least and the greatest even under the perfect environment of the Millennium.

We also have propitiation and the blood of Christ emphasized — “for I will give,” the qal imperfect of salach which means to be propitious — “I will be propitious” or “I will forgive on the basis of propitiation their iniquity.” There will be spiritual function in the Millennium whereby people can be saved and have eternal life.

Jeremiah 31:34 “And they shall not teach again every man his neighbour, and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all of them shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive on the basis of propitiation their iniquity, and their sins I will not remember again.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

We have the same now covenant quoted in part in Hebrews chapter 10.

Heb 10:16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,"

Verse 16 — “This is the covenant” — first of all we have a very strong intensive pronoun in the nominative, the feminine a)uth, a demonstrative pronoun intensified, used in the Greek to identify something important in the context. “This” refers to the new covenant to Israel. We can even translate this, “This same thing is the covenant.” There is no verb here. We do have diathêkê (διαθήκη) [pronounced dee-ath-AY-kay], the Greek word for covenant.

“that” — the accusative feminine singular of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] should be translated “which.”

“I will make” — the future middle indicative of the verb diatithemai (διατίθεμαι) [pronounced dee-at-IHTH-em-ahee] . Diatithemai (διατίθεμαι) [pronounced dee-at-IHTH-em-ahee] does not means to make something, that is the verb poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh]. Diatithemai (διατίθεμαι) [pronounced dee-at-IHTH-em-ahee] means to ratify, to confirm. It means that the covenant is already made, it is merely ratified to Israel. The future tense is a predictive future which declares the event in the future time. The new covenant to Israel is for the future, the Millennium. The middle voice is a direct middle which emphasizes God as the agent producing the action. The indicative mood is for a dogmatic assertion that in eternity past God the Father made and prepared a new covenant for Israel which is ratified by the Word of God in time.

“with them” — pros plus the accusative of that intensive pronoun autos, actually an intensive demonstrative pronoun and it refers to someone special in the context. That someone special is Israel in the Millennium. So, “This is the covenant which I will ratify face to face with them” — born again Jews of the Millennial reign of Christ. Notice that this is a result of that quotation from Jeremiah 31:31–34. As a result of that quotation we now have this information.

“after those days” — meta plus the accusative of hêmera (ἡμάρα) [pronounced hay-MEH-raw] in the plural for “days” — refers to the Tribulation.

“saith the Lord” — the present active indicative of leg indicates that God Himself permits this to be reduced to writing. God the Father in eternity past made this new covenant just as He made the new covenant to the Church. The royal family was designed in eternity past. The royal family could not exist on the earth until the efficacious sacrifice of Christ occurred on the cross, but once Christ performed His saving work of bearing our sins then you have the conjunction of history and you have the interruption of the Jewish Age and the calling out of the royal family which is the Church Age. That was all designed in eternity past. “Saith the Lord” here indicates that while God was, as it were, putting this in writing it existed from eternity past. Curio is the word for “Lord” and it refers to the essence of deity, it places special emphasis on the omniscience of God. There never was a time when this new covenant was not designed for Israel in the Millennium.

“I will put my laws” — I will put is the present active participle of diadem and it means to give, not put; “my doctrines” literally. The present tense is a futuristic present, it denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain to occur that in thought it has already occurred. We know that the Millennium is really going to exist and therefore a futuristic present dramatizes the fact that there will always be doctrine on the earth and that doctrine will always be in the souls of those who are blessed by God. So, “I will give my doctrines.” The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb, He will never leave any generation of believers without Bible doctrine. The participle is temporal and that is why we translate it “when I will give my doctrines.” The word for “laws” here is the accusative plural, the direct object of the verb, it is found in nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss] which refers here in the plural to doctrines, categorical doctrines of the scripture.

“into their hearts” — epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the accusative plural of kardia (καρδία) [pronounced kahr-DEE-uh] which refers to the right lobe. It should be “in their right lobes.” In other words, God’s objective in having the Word of God in writing is to always have the doctrines transferred to the right lobe of the individual. That is the purpose, that is why we have pastor-teachers today, and that is why there will be a great teaching thrust in the Millennium. Remember that in the Millennium they will have the same Bible and will use the same content of doctrine and they will have their own specific doctrine dealing with doctrine.

“and in their minds” — epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the accusative of dianoia. Dia means through; noia means thinking. Thinking through comes to mean simply “in their thinking.” This is a reference to the launching pad of the right lobe.

“will I write” — the future active indicative of epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE]graphô (γράφω) [pronounced GRAWF-oh] means to engrave — “and I will engrave.” This is a gnomic future for an absolute fact or a perceptive performance reasonably expected under conditions of the Millennial reign of Christ. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb by a special function of GAP in the Millennium when people will know about the Lord and will know the Lord. The indicative mood is declarative which views the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality. In the Millennium everyone will know doctrine.

“them” is the accusative plural direct object of autos referring to the doctrines.

Hebrews 10:16 “This is the covenant which I will ratify with them [Jews in the Millennium] after those days [Tribulation], saith the Lord, when I will give My doctrines into their right lobes, and in their thinking I will engrave them [doctrines].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Here is the point. If people need doctrine under perfect environment then the key to life is not perfect environment and blessing, the key to life in doctrine in the soul.

People are not generous because they have money; but because they have generous souls.

We learn from previous dispensations that we would not be happy today with perfect environment.

Heb 10:17 then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more."

Verse 17 — a specific reference to Israel in the Millennium whose past sins and failures have caused them to be punished under the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline. It means they will be restored as a nation apart from any human ability or human thinking. They will not be restored as a nation by Zionism, they will be restored by the second advent of Jesus Christ. They will be restored God’s way. God has spanked the Jews through the fifth cycle of discipline, God must regather them. Any other regathering is not going to work. But once Israel is restored in the Millennium they will never again be dispersed under the fifth cycle of discipline. The nation Israel will continue throughout the Millennial reign of Christ, and forever under the reign of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 10:17 Both their sins and their violations of the Law I will remember no more. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews Lesson #124

124 06/23/1974 Hebrews 10:18–20; Matt. 27:51; Luke 23:45 The split veil

Heb 10:18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Verse 18 — this gives us the final conclusion before we bring in the application to the royal family. The final conclusion is the evanescence of the shadows. We begin with the transitional particle de which is correctly translated “Now.” Next we have a particle of place used as an adverb, hopou (ὅπου) [pronounced HOHP-oo], — “Now where remission.” The word remission is not quite correct, áphesis (ἄπεσις) [pronounced AWF-ess-iss] is a little stronger than that, it means “forgiveness” and it is a reference to the blood of Christ or the expiatory sacrifice of Christ on the cross fulfilling the shadow blood sacrifices of the Levitical code, as well as the abrogation of the old covenant.

“of these” — the genitive plural of the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. Houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] is the demonstrative pronoun for something near in the context. There is another demonstrative, ἐκενος, which is for something further away in the context. But this is close and therefore it refers to something very near at hand, in this case to sins and violations of the law which were mentioned in the previous verse. The previous verse says “their sins and violations of the law I will not remember any more.” This is the quoting of the new covenant. “Now where there is forgiveness of these [the violations of the law of the previous verse].” In other words, the cross and the saving work of Christ on the cross is where forgiveness of sins exists. This cancels the old covenant, and the abrogation of the Mosaic law means that Israel must have a new covenant. They do not have a covenant in the last seven years of the old dispensation but they do have a new covenant beginning in the Millennium. Instead, they have 144,000 Jews who will function during that particular period known as the Tribulation. The ratification of the new covenant to both Israel and the Church is the blood of Christ. Just as the animal blood ratified the Mosaic law so the blood of Christ ratifies the two new covenants, and therefore the blood of Christ is the reality that removes the shadows of the animal sacrifices.

“there is no more” — the negative adverb ouketi (οὐκέτι) [pronounced ook-EHT-ee] means it is no longer with us. So we say, “no further shadow sacrifices concerning sin,” not “for sin” — peri plus the genitive of hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah].

Hebrews 10:18 “Now where there is forgiveness of these there is no further animal or shadow sacrifice concerning sin.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Note:

1. Forgiveness refers to the efficacious sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the cross.

2. This is also known as the blood of Christ which is a combination of redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation.

3. The word “these” refers to the sins and transgressions of the violations of the law mentioned in the previous verse.

4. The word “no further” in the English as “no more” refers to the animal sacrifices or the shadow offerings of the Mosaic law.

5. Therefore this verse says in effect that the shadows are evanescent, replaced by the efficacious sacrifice of the Lord Jesus on the cross. This verse will be applied and amplified under the paragraph dealing with the willful sin — verses 26–31.

Now we move on to the royal family in the plan of God. This is a new paragraph which begins at verse 19 and goes through verse 25. There are two factors in the paragraph. The first, in verses 19-21, we have a new home for the family of God. It is important to know where your home is in this particular case. Then we have a new function for the family of God beginning in verse 22 and going through verse 25.

Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,

Verse 19 — the word having is a present active participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh]. echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] means to have and to hold. The present tense here is retroactive progressive present which denotes something begun in the past and continues into the present. The active voice means that someone produces the action of the verb, and the royal family of God produces the action of the verb in this case. You and I as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in the Church Age are producing the action. The participle is a causal participle and therefore should be translated with the word “since” — “Since having.”

“therefore” is the post-positive inferential conjunction o)uv. It means we are now coming to a conclusion and that certain people are involved in that conclusion called “brethren”, only we use a more technical term, “royal family of God.” The vocative plural of adelphos (ἀδελφός) [pronounced ad-el-FOSS] refers to the royal family of the Church Age. So we have now left studying these things from the past from the old dispensation of Israel, the old Mosaic covenant, the Levitical priesthood and the function of its shadows, and we have now come down to ourselves. “Since we have therefore, members of the royal family of God.”

Shyness and reticence are normal feelings when beginning the Christian life. “boldness” — literally, “confidence,” the accusative singular direct object of parrhêsia (παῤῥησία) [pronounced par-rhay-SEE-ah], means confidence. “Boldness” indicates lack of fear and even lack of pressure, but confidence indicates the normal activity of life but having a perfect stability in the soul. The word “confidence” indicates that the original recipients of this passage were not mew believers. They were not shy, reticent, or bashful in any way, they had received a certain amount of doctrinal teaching. This is in keeping with the general context of the book of Hebrews, this was addressed originally to born-again believers living in Jerusalem in 67 AD. The Church Age had begun in Jerusalem, the oldest of all the local churches was located in Jerusalem, and it was not their lack of doctrinal teaching, it was their lack of positive volition toward doctrinal teaching which resulted in a type of legalistic reversionism that caused neo-Judaism to get started in that area.

Our confidence is Bible doctrine resident in the soul. And notice that we have a confidence that no one ever had in Old Testament times. We have a confidence which has to do with entering the holy of holies. No one ever entered the holy of holies in the Old Testament dispensation, it was forbidden to all members of Israel. But you and I as members of the body of Christ have confidence to enter where those people could not even come close. So the word parrhêsia (παῤῥησία) [pronounced par-rhay-SEE-ah], doesn’t mean boldness so much as confidence.

“to enter” — we have a preposition and a noun, the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the noun eisodos (εἴ́σοδος) [pronounced ICE-od-os]. eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative means “with reference” and the word eisodos (εἴ́σοδος) [pronounced ICE-od-os] means entrance or access. “Access” is probably a little better because we do not stay home all of the time. The holy of holies is actually our home. We might say that we have access. We live there; we belong there, and when we die we will go there immediately because that is our home.

“into the holiest” — the genitive plural of hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss] plus the definite article. When hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss] is found in the plural it refers to the holy of holies. “Holiest” is an incorrect translation because that is singular, and it should be “into the holy of holies,” the objective genitive in which the noun in the genitive receives the action, and it is related as an object to the verbal idea contained in the noun. So therefore it is translated “into the holy of holies”. This means that all members of the royal family should understand that their home is the holy of holies. That is your home forever.

The third heaven is the presence of God, and the confidence of this passage therefore becomes knowledge of pertinent scriptures dealing with the holy of holies, the real holy of holies, as well as scriptures dealing with our relationship to God as believers in this dispensation.

“Therefore royal family of God, since we have confidence with reference to access into the holy of holies.” We have complete and total confidence with regard to this. Why? Because of the next phrase which is a prepositional phrase, en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental of haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah], which should be translated “by means of the blood.” And then with that we have the possessive genitive of the word for Jesus, “by means of the blood of Jesus.”

Note that the high priest on the day of atonement had no access into the holy of holies apart from animal blood. The entrance of the high priest portrayed the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ as our high priest, and even in shadow function blood was necessary for access into the holy of holies. And much more so now when the blood of Christ is the basis of our access into the real holy of holies which is the third heaven. Therefore, when Christ accomplished His saving work on the cross — known as the blood of Christ — something happened in the temple.

God wouldn’t let it pass. When God finished pouring out the last sin on Christ, when the principle of redemption, reconciliation and propitiation were completed on the cross, God in His great sense of humour looked down on all those Jews clustered in the temple and cut the veil from top to bottom.

That veil in the temple at that time was 60 feet high, 30 feet wide, and approximately a foot thick. When it was constructed it was divided up into 72 squares and a different person made each one of the squares. It took 300 priests to lift the veil (only a priest could touch the veil). The Talmud describes the veil which covered the holy of holies. It was too tough and too thick to be split by an earthquake. There was just one way it could be ripped from top to bottom. Our Lord did it Himself.

Matthew, Mark and Luke all have something to say about the tearing of the veil.

Matthew 27:51 — “And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake and the rocks were torn up.”

Kai idoú (ἰδού) [pronounced ih-DOO] — “And, behold” — focuses on a very important event. The word for “veil” here, katapetasma (καταπέτασμα) [pronounced kat-ap-EHT-as-mah], means a big heavy curtain — “of the temple”, the possessive genitive of naos (ναός) [pronounced nah-OSS] refers to a specific temple, the temple, the important temple, the temple of Solomon rebuilt and called the temple of Herod — “was rent” — the aorist passive indicative of schizô (σχίζω) [pronounced SKHID-zoh], [From where we get schizophrenia. Phrenia means thinking, schizo means split — split thinker]. This means to rip or tear here. It is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it probably took all of a couple of seconds for that veil to spilt and to tear. However, long it took it gathers the action of this verb up into those few seconds. The passive voice indicates that the veil received the action of the verb from God Himself. The indicative mood is the declarative mood for a fact — “and behold the veil of the temple had been torn” — “in twain,” the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of duo means “in two pieces.”

“from the top” — apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the adverb anôthen (ἂνωθεν) [pronounced AN-oh-thehn]. Apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] is the preposition of ultimate source. This is where we learn that God did it Himself. There is no definite article — “from top to bottom”, the improper preposition heôs (ἕως) [pronounced HEH-oce] plus kato/katôterô (κάτω/κατωτέρω) [pronounced KAT-oh,kat-oh-TER-oh]. This particular phrase doesn’t mean anything to you, but to have a proper preposition plus an adverb plus an improper preposition plus an adverb is comedy. But it isn’t funny in the English and doesn’t mean anything, but it means that God was chuckling as He did it. In effect, this becomes an anthropopathism. God is laughing at the idiots all down there in that temple when He has closed down the temple as far as removing its authorizing agency. It will be forty years before He gets around to literally closing it down by its destruction. But He is saying in effect, It is all over. And He is telling them that once you see that thing torn from top to bottom and Christ is out there on Golgotha, He has just finished bearing the sins of the world and providing salvation, it tells them that they can walk in now. It was an invitation to enter the holy of holies be believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father had just announced the beginning of something new: the royal family of God. And He is giving these people the opportunity of being on the ground floor in Jerusalem. Fifty days from the time that veil was split something great and new was going to happen, the new dispensation would begin. And so literally this verse says, “And, behold, the veil of the temple was split from top to bottom into two separate pieces.”

Mark 15:38 says exactly the same, except for the word “Behold.” But we find some changes when we get to Luke 23:45. The first thing we notice is that the word “And” here does not occur in the original text. It simply says the sun was darkened to show that this happened while it was dark on Golgotha — “sun was darkened” is a genitive absolute. That means we have a noun in the genitive case, the word for “sun,” helios (ἥλιος) [pronounced HAY-lee-oss]. When you have a genitive case participle with a genitive case noun it is called a genitive absolute. And we have the present active participle of ekleipô (ἐκλείπω) [pronounced ek-LIE-poe] which means to be obscured or eclipsed. Since there is no “and” at the beginning of this verse and since the verse begins with a genitive absolute the whole genitive absolute refers back to something in the previous sentence — “and darkness came to pass over the land until 3pm.” So the sun being eclipsed was during that time and it goes with the previous verse to show us that when this veil was rent it was just about the time when Christ had finished bearing the sins of the world.

“and the veil of the temple was split in the midst,” only it is literally, “down the middle.” We have the same phraseology until we get to “in the midst,” then we have mesos (μέσος) [pronounced MEH-soss], in the accusative for “down the middle.” So Luke tells us that when it was split it was split right in the middle. It means it was spilt down the middle at 3pm because the genitive absolute goes with the previous verse, with the explanation as to how it was dark. Three o’clock in the afternoon was exactly the time when our Lord finished bearing the sins of the world. As soon as He said tetelesqai (?), that is when it happened. Luke follows the chronology and this is the place where we know exactly when that veil was torn.

Hebrews 10:19 “Therefore, royal family of God, since we have confidence with reference to access into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 10:20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh,

Verse 20 — “By a new and living way.” A new and living way does not occur at the beginning of the sentence, it is actually in the Greek in the middle of the sentence. It is important, therefore, to follow the Greek order of this verse since it relates to the previous verse. “By the blood of Jesus which access he had inaugurated.” Next we have an accusative feminine singular relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] whose antecedent is “access”. Verse 20 begins “Which access.” Then “he hath consecrated,” the aorist active indicative of egkainizô (ἐγκαινίζω) [pronounced eng-kahee-NIHD-zoh] which means to renew — “which access he has renewed [or inaugurated].” Inauguration is the connotation here. We have a culminative aorist tense which views the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasizes the existing results of access into the holy of holies. In other words, the culminative aorist sees Christ from twelve noon to 3pm bearing our sins during darkness. It sees Christ saying at the end, “Finished” — completed action, and now it sees the veil opened at 3pm. The culminative aorist is the point at which the veil was ripped open and the point at which God says “Access.”

The inauguration is provided by God the Son. He dedicated the new access into the holy of holies. The indicative mood is declarative meaning that a brand new dispensation has begun, everything is new.

“for us” — the dative plural from the pronoun egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH]. “Us” refers to each one of us of the royal family. The dative of indirect object indicates the ones in the royal family in whose interest the act of dedication is performed, and therefore it also becomes a dative of advantage. It is to your advantage to have your home in the holy of holies. We belong in the holy of holies forever.

“through the veil” — the writer of Hebrews goes back to our Lord’s sense of humour. The Lord split the veil, and he mentions it right here, dia plus the genitive of katapetasma (καταπέτασμα) [pronounced kat-ap-EHT-as-mah]. katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] means down and petasmoj means to hang.

“by a new and living way” — literally, “a newly slain way”. We have the accusative of hodos (ὁδός, ο, ἡ) [pronounced ho-DOSS] and the accusative of prosfatoj. Pro is “before” and faw is slain, and it means freshly sacrificed or newly slain. So we have a compound adjective here plus the noun. Hodos (ὁδός, ο, ἡ) [pronounced ho-DOSS] means way but prosfatoj means newly-slain. It should be translated “Which access [or entrance] he has dedicated for us a newly-slain yet living way though the veil, that is, his flesh.”

Hebrews 10:20 “Which access [entrance into the holy of holies] He has dedicated a newly-slain [blood of the cross] yet living [resurrection, ascension and session] way for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The writer of Hebrews identifies the dying Christ on the cross with the split veil in the temple.

Summary

1. The home of the royal family of God is the holy of holies or the third heaven, the presence of God.

2. This is confirmed by the baptism of the Spirit whereby every Church Age believer is entered into union with Christ.

3. The result: Every believer of the Church Age is now positionally in the holy of holies during his lifetime on earth.

4. At death his soul leaves his body for the third heaven, the real holy of holies.

5. Our new home, the holy of holies, has been dedicated with the blood of Christ which is His saving work on the cross.

6. However it is a living way — resurrection, ascension, session. Having accomplished His saving work of redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation, Christ died physically, was buried, rose again, ascended, is seated at the right hand of the Father in glory. So it is a living way as well as a newly-slain way. “Newly-slain” says all animal sacrifices are canceled, the real efficacious offering has come.

7. Our royal high priest is living in the real holy of holies.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #125

125 06/24/1974 Hebrews 10:21–22a Doctrine of the High Priesthood of Lord Jesus Christ

In our study of the book of Hebrews we are now moving toward the place of taking the high ground and how we make this assault as members of the royal priesthood.

Hebrews 10:21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

Verse 21 — we meet our great high priest, the leader of the royal family, the one whose colours we follow to the high ground of the supergrace life.

The word “And” is the ascensive use of kai and it identifies the one who has consecrated or inaugurated the newly-slain yet living way. It is interesting that a conjunction at this point can be used to identify the Lord Jesus Christ, and a very common conjunction at that. But this is the ascensive use and it is translated “Even,” to bring the Lord Jesus Christ into full focus. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is perfectly clear. We have already seen that the home of the royal family of God is the real holy of holies and/or the third heaven. This was confirmed by the baptism of the Spirit and by positional truth. The result is that every believer of the Church Age is now positionally living in the holy of holies which was forbidden to all of the Old Testament believers. Our new home, the holy of holies, has been dedicated by the blood of Christ which is His saving work on the cross. Having accomplished His saving work — redemption, reconciliation and propitiation — Christ then died physical, was buried, rose again, ascended, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father. His seating has to do with the fact that the royal family sits as they take in the Word of God as they worship. So our royal high priest has provided for us an opening into the holy of holies which is our home.

“an high priest” — the accusative singular of hiereus (ἱερεύς) [pronounced hee-er-YOOCE] plus the adjective plus the adjective megas (μέγας, μεγάλη, μέγα) [pronounced MEH-gas]. Megas (μέγας, μεγάλη, μέγα) [pronounced MEH-gas] is important because it means a little bit more than simply “high.” Actually, it doesn’t mean “high” at all, it means great or illustrious or eminent. So it should be translated, “Even an illustrious priest.” There is no word for high priest here. “High priest” would be hiereus (ἱερεύς) [pronounced hee-er-YOOCE] with an archê (ἀρχή) [pronounced ar-KHAY] in front of it. But this time, instead of that we have megas (μέγας, μεγάλη, μέγα) [pronounced MEH-gas] which means illustrious. The illustrious priest over the house of God is the Lord Jesus Christ who broke into the holy of holies for us, as it were, provided the opening through His work on the cross.

The Doctrine of the High Priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ (2^nd Review)

1. There are three legitimate priesthoods found in the scripture. In the dispensation of the Gentiles we have the family priesthood who was the head of each family. In the dispensation of Israel we have the Levitical priesthood authorized by the old covenant, the Mosaic law, to communicate written doctrine and to function in the ritual of the tabernacle. Then, in the dispensation of the Church we have the priesthood of Christ. Jesus Christ is the high priest and each one of us as believers in this dispensation are members of the royal family of God, and therefore we are a royal priesthood under our high priest.

2. Christ as the high priest is a minister to us in spiritual things — Hebrews 5:1.

3. Christ is appointed high priest by God the Father — Hebrews 5:4–10; 6:20.

4. As high priest Christ offered an efficacious sacrifice as for the priesthood — Hebrews 9:26,27.

5. Christ has an eternal and intransmissable priesthood, it cannot be passed on to another high priest — Hebrews 7:20,21,24.

6. Because of positional sanctification, union with Christ, every believer is a priest — 1Peter 2:5,9; Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6.

7. Christ as high priest performs the ministry of intercession for the believer on earth — Hebrews 7:25. Also He remains seated, which means we are to rest in His plan. Royalty doesn’t work.

8. The believer priest in phase two possesses a different sacrifice from the Levitical code. He has the sacrifice of his body which is the rebound technique — Romans 12:1; the sacrifice of praise — Hebrews 13:15; the sacrifice of production and giving — Hebrews 13:16; the sacrifice of obedience to authority — Hebrews 13:17.

No one who has not been under discipline be able to function in a place of authority. Such people will always fail. They do not understand the concept; they do not know that it is an impersonal thing.

Several races of people do not understand discipline. Discipline is not degrading. Bob thinks of Patton, who went through all kinds of discipline and emerged understanding it. Those over him were very jealous, because they were incompetent.

Our next paragraph is the new function of the royal family of God — verses 22–25.

First of all we need to note the concept of the hortatory subjunctive in this passage. The passage is made up of hortatory subjunctives. For example, in verse 22, “Let us draw near”; in verse 23, “Let us hold fast”; in verse 24, “Let us consider.” These three phrases are known in the Greek syntax as hortatory subjunctives.

The Hortatory Subjunctives

1. The first person plural plus the subjunctive mood in a verb is called an hortatory subjunctive.

2. The purpose of the hortatory subjunctive has to do with the writer of scripture. The writer invites the reader to join him in a course of action specified by the verb itself. For example, in our passage “Let us draw near”; “Let us hold fast”; “Let us consider.” The writer of Hebrews is inviting the members of the royal family of God to join him in a course of action. His invitation is tantamount to an imperative mood or a command. So the hortatory subjunctive carries all of the weight of a command, but it is a command that always includes the writer as well as the reader.

3. This develops the concept of spiritual exercise or doing something over and over and over again no matter how you feel. Effective exercise ignores how you feel and carries on anyway. It becomes a matter of soul determination. These hortatory subjunctives develop certain concepts. We are commanded not to do something once. It isn’t the command, “Do it,” it is the command “Do it again and again and again, no matter how you feel.” So the hortatory subjunctive in the Greek says to keep doing it whereas the imperative mood would simply say to do it.

4. Exercise, then, connotes the self-discipline and respect for authority which is found in these three hortatory subjunctives. In other words, as royal family of God even though we are royalty we are subject to discipline. No matter how high one goes in life he never escapes the principle of discipline, the principle of authority. As members of the royal family of God facing these hortatory subjunctives we have the security of God’s discipline, we have the security of victory that comes from this discipline, we have the security and the blessing of it. And that is exactly why we have them as members of the royal family of God. People do not realize the dynamics that are found in discipline.

This is being taught during Watergate. There are checks and balances in our government.

A private soldier in Caesar’s army, after 10 years, would be a millionaire. They always learned to respect Caesar’s discipline. They had no idea what would happen under Pompey.

Basically in life there are three systems of exercise. Exercise is not a series of repetitions that challenge the muscles, exercise is a system of self-discipline in the soul. These hortatory subjunctives are going to introduce it to us as members of the royal family of God. Take, for example, the three types of exercise in life. There is physical exercise, but what is physical exercise? Not merely the exercising of the body and its muscular system. It is a system of self-discipline which produces maximum effectiveness in body function. It is the self-discipline that makes exercise effective. The issue is in the soul, the self-discipline of the soul. The same is true of mental exercise. A consistent system of self-discipline in the field of study or concentration or perception improves mental capability and professional ability as well as capacity for life. But the greatest area of exercise of all is in the spiritual realm. Spiritual exercise is the means by which the believer transfers in a consistent way Bible doctrine from the Word of God, the canon of scripture, to his own soul. This in turn results in grace orientation, understanding the plan of God, the function of the great techniques of grace — rebound, the filling of the Spirit, faith-rest, the construction of the ESC, the acquiring of maturity and/or the supergrace life, etc. The self-discipline involved here is phenomenal and no one ever takes that higher ground of supergrace without being challenged in the field of self-discipline in the soul.

These hortatory subjunctives are all designed to encourage us to move, to follow the colours, to advance and to take the high ground of the supergrace life. But the monotony in this, the sheer grit that it takes, the sticking it out in spite of every pressure of life, in spite of every deterrent and distraction, this is the difficulty.

So we have a series of hortatory subjunctives. In verse 22 we have one which is God-ward, in verse 23 the selfward hortatory subjunctive, and in verse 24 the mansard. When these are all straightened out then verse 25 is doctrineward, directed toward doctrine. This series of hortatory subjunctives is designed to bring us to the place of assembling ourselves together. Notice verse 25. There is no hortatory subjunctive there, the command is given in a participial form — “Stop forsaking the assembling of yourselves together.” The assembling of yourselves together for Bible study is exactly how you are going to take the high ground and move into the supergrace life. But before you can understand the importance of the consistent taking in of doctrine there must first of all be the hortatory subjunctives.

Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Verse 22 — “Let us draw near,” our first hortatory subjunctive. This is the present middle subjunctive of the verb proserchomai (προσέρχομαι) [pronounced pros-ER-khom-ahee],. which means to approach. Literally, this should be translated “Let us approach.” Because of the hortatory subjunctive this is known as a tendencial present tense. Tendencial means something that it purposed, something that you are going to do from your own volition. It is purposed but it is not taking place. It represents, therefore, the idea of what is intended. So the writer starts out by assuming that no one is doing this but should be. The middle voice is a permissive middle. That is an offshoot of the indirect middle in which the emphasis is on the agent as producing the action of the verb rather than participating in its results. Therefore the action is closely related to the subject. That is why it is called a permissive middle voice representing the agent as voluntarily yielding himself to the results of the action or seeking to secure the results of the action by the use of his own free will. He is free, he has the right to do so. The first person plural plus the subjunctive mood indicates a very strong command.

“Let us approach” is a reference to the royal priesthood, and we are approaching God just as the Levitical priesthood approached God by approaching the tabernacle. There are actually four ways for anyone in the royal family to approach God, each one of them is related to Bible doctrine. Under the Mosaic law in the Age of Israel the Levitical priest approached the altar. The people could come as far as the altar. Then at that point you cut down on approaches. Only the Levitical priest could approach and enter the holy place and, of course, he could not enter the holy of holies. Then once a year on the day of atonement the high priest could approach the mercy seat in the holy of holies. So this is the concept in which “draw near” or “approach” is used in this passage. All of us have a relationship with God, a perfect relationship with God, a relationship which has existed from the moment we believed in Christ, a relationship which cannot be improved. The baptism of the Spirit entered us into union with Christ, we are in union with Christ forever. Our home is in the holy of holies and so when we are told to approach it has to do with our experience, with our life in phase two.

Here is how we approach: 1. “with a true heart” — the preposition meta plus the genitive singular of the adjective alêthinos (ἀληθινός) [pronounced al-ay-thee-NOSS], the word which is translated “true.” It is the adjective which is mistranslated. This doesn’t mean “true”. What is true? It is whatever appeals to you and is faithful to you regardless of what you are. That isn’t what true is here. Alêthinos (ἀληθινός) [pronounced al-ay-thee-NOSS] means dependable, consistently dependable. This means that somewhere in your life as a member of the royal family you have to make up your mind about something. You have to make up your mind whether it is going to be doctrine or a long or short life of misery, whichever the Lord decides. You have to remember that God keeps you alive for one or two reasons. Because you are advancing to the high ground He keeps you alive to pour out those blessings. You have to make up your mind. Is it going to be doctrine or not? Once you make up your mind that it is not going to be doctrine, if you peal off from doctrine entirely, then you will have a relatively short life and will die the sin unto death.

It took Abraham a long time to get to supergrace. He was sexually dead by the time he got there. He had to be revived; and he glorified God by being a magnificent sex athlete. I don’t dangle that out to keep you in doctrine. I am sure that could be considered motivation.

But if you kind of dabble back and forth, swing back and forth, get with it, get away from it, God is going to keep you alive for a long time and you are going to have the longest and most miserable life ever imagined. You won’t even know what happiness or blessing is until you get to heaven. The issue is doctrine or discipline. Take you choice. You have free will so you might as well decide. If you decide that it is going to be doctrine then you have to learn to gut it out. You are not going to like every lesson, every book, every subject. Sometimes you are going to be bored to distraction. You are going to have to decide and be consistent, and that is exactly what we have here, “a dependable right lobe.” The word “heart” is right lobe; the word “true” is not true, it is dependable. So how do we approach God? We approach with a dependable right lobe.

Sometimes you are going to be bored...like Bob, when he has to teach about flowers in a passage.

God cannot discipline us in eternity. Only in time.

Just being human, means we have inconsistencies.

This permissive middle, then, is very important because the permissive middle voice of the hortatory subjunctive plus the prepositional phrase with a dependable right lobe means that you decide on a course of action but then that course of action demands a continual series of decisions. Daily decisions to get doctrine.

Approaches to God

1. So the first approach to God is consistency in positive volition toward Bible doctrine. Since the royal family lives positionally in the holy of holies, and inasmuch as the royal family of the Church Age is an heavenly people, they must approach God with maximum Bible doctrine in the right lobe — “Let us approach with a dependable right lobe.” The dependable right lobe is the one in which the member of the royal family of God is positive toward doctrine.

2. The second area of approach is another prepositional phrase. This one says “in full assurance of faith.” This is the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental of plêrophoria (πληροφορία) [pronounced play-tohf-ohr-EE-ah]. The instrumental here indicates a means. Plêrophoria (πληροφορία) [pronounced play-tohf-ohr-EE-ah], by the way, in non-Christian literature means certainty but in the New Testament it means “supreme fullness.” So we have supreme fullness as a possibility, but some people who have done a great deal of work in the field of etymology in the Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament, vol. 6, page 311, say, “This word is one of the terms which Paul uses to try to define linguistically the great richness of the divine work in the present life of Christianity.” The writer of Hebrews is actually trying to portray the richness concept, and therefore in our verse this means “full confidence.” By the word “full” you must understand saturation of riches, a confidence that brings great wealth to the soul and eventually great wealth to the person. There is no definite article. The lack of a definite article calls attention to the quality of the noun — full confidence. Along with that we also have a descriptive word in the genitive. The possessive genitive of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] also helps us to understand in what we are to have full confidence. The word pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] here means doctrine or what is believed. The genitive case explains what this noun plêrophoria (πληροφορία) [pronounced play-tohf-ohr-EE-ah] actually means. So we have, “by means of full confidence in doctrine.” This is not saying you are going to understand doctrine right away, it is saying you should have full confidence in doctrine. When you hear doctrine taught there are many things you don’t understand and you simply have to accept them as being true. They may be contrary to your back ground, to your life, to your observation, to what you have seen, what you taste, what you smell, whatever it is from the standpoint of empiricism. But you have to have confidence in doctrine, that doctrine is right when there is a contradiction between what you think and what Bible doctrine says. “Let us approach with a dependable right lobe by means of full confidence in doctrine.”

3. “having our hearts sprinkled” — “having sprinkled” is the perfect passive participle of the verb rhantizô (ῥαντίζω) [pronounced hran-TIHD-zoh], a word which is used for our understanding of salvation, our understanding of the blood of Christ, and it is a part of the accusative of general reference. The accusative of general reference is a system that the Greeks had that we do not have. It takes a noun in the accusative case [which we would expect to be the direct object of the verb] and puts with it a participle in the accusative case, and it sets the whole thing aside as being unique. Then it turns the whole concept of grammar around, for the noun in the accusative case becomes the subject of the participle, or explains that which is involved in the action of the participle.

a. The word “hearts” is the accusative plural of kardia (καρδία) [pronounced kahr-DEE-uh], our noun, and it refers to the right lobe in the mentality of the soul. Then we have the perfect passive participle, “having been sprinkled.” The perfect tense of the participle is a dramatic perfect. A dramatic perfect, like the intensive perfect, emphasizes the results of the action. It describes in the highest possible sense existing results of salvation. It describes them in the most realistic and vivid possible way. The passive voice: under the accusative of general reference our right lobes receive the action of the verb. In other words, the believer ought to have a complete and total understanding of salvation. The verb “to sprinkle” refers to the dedication of the Torah or the Bible, the dedication of the people, the tabernacle. They sprinkled everything with blood with a scarlet cloth or a hyssop. The word sprinkled here means “dedicated”. We have to be able to concentrate, we have to be able to enter into the principle of self-discipline that is involved in taking in the Word of God on a daily basis. Therefore to concentrate we cannot be distracted by our own soul. You must be free to concentrate on what the Bible teaches. The only issue is the content, the assimilation of the content, not the life of the pastor, not the life of other members in the congregation.

b. You do not approach God based upon the life of another person. You don’t decide that their life is fine, and they are negative towards doctrine; and so you set them up as an excuse. They aren’t coming to Bible class; and so you peel off.

c. There are more wonderful people in the Berachah congregation. Less than 1% kooks. Your job is not to evaluate the other people here. Your conscience or your right lobe is unsprinkled. Bob watches the expression on your face. You don’t have one thing to be egotistical about. There is only one celebrity. There was a professional wrestler and football player who came to Berachah. He didn’t like it. A jackass is a believer who walks into Berachah with an unsprinkled right lobe. Quite frankly, some of you should get out. You don’t belong here. If you are just waiting for me to drop dead in this pulpit, you’re going to have to wait a little longer. If you have human systems of celebrityship or your eyes are on people, you are unsprinkled. You must approach God being sprinkled.

d. Now we have a specific here, “from an evil conscience.” This emphasizes the mental attitude sins. We have apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the ablative singular of suneidêsis (συνείδησις) [pronounced soon-Ī-day-sis]. The possessive genitive singular of ponhria is mistranslated here, it means “sinfulness,” mental sinfulness primarily; “our right lobes having been sprinkled from a conscience of [mental] sinfulness.” This is the concept of approaching God in fellowship, free from mental attitude sins.

4. “and our bodies” — the continuative conjunction kai plus the accusative singular of sōma (σμα) [pronounced SOH-mah]. Sōma (σμα) [pronounced SOH-mah] here refers to the body and there are several principles involved here. We have with this the definite article. Often the definite article is used in the Greek for some other part of speech. Here it is used for the possessive pronoun, so it should be translated “and our body,” singular. With the particle another accusative of general reference is involved here. Sōma (σμα) [pronounced SOH-mah] is a noun in the accusative case but it is used as a subject and the cleansing of the body here is a euphemism for rebound, it is a reminder that the royal family’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and therefore rebound is the order of the day in approaching God.

1972 Hebrews 10:22b-25 Lesson #126

126 06/25/1974 Hebrews 10:22b-25 Doctrine of the faithfulness of God

Letter from Gary Horton’s wife.

V. 22 is God-ward, v. 23 is selfward, v. 24 is manward, v. 25 is doctrine ward.

We draw near with a dependable right lobe. By means of full confidence in doctrine. 4^th approach is the body (which is above).

There is one more point above; I decided not to split up the doctrine.

Hebrews 10:22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

The word “washed” is the perfect middle participle of the verb louô (λούω) [pronounced LOO-oh]. The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect. This is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect, it places a dramatic emphasis on the rebound technique resulting from the work of Christ on the cross. Everything goes back to the fact that we have an efficacious sacrifice or, as we have already seen, we have a high priest. The middle voice is the permissive middle. This is a little rare as far as the scripture is concerned and in a permissive middle the agent, which is the believer, voluntarily yields himself to the results of the action of the verb in his own interest. In other words, of your own free will you rebound. You do not rebound because you are forced to or because of coercion , you do so because you wan to. Therefore it is to your interest because then you want to be controlled by God the Holy Spirit in the balance of residency. The participle is part of the accusative of general reference, the accusative case becomes the subject, the participle becomes the verb.

“with pure water” — the instrumental singular of the adjective katharós (καθαρός) [pronounced kahth-ar-OSS], and with that the noun hudôr/hudatos (ὕδωρ/ὕδατος) [pronounced HOO-dor,HOO-dat-os]. The pure water here is a reference to the brass laver and reminds us that this was portrayed in the Old Testament. When the priest washed his hands in the brass laver it portrayed the rebound technique.

Hebrews 10:22 “Let us approach God with a dependable right lobe by means of full confidence of doctrine, our right lobes having been sprinkled from a conscience of sinfulness, and our body washed with pure water.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

All of these procedures have to do with our relationship with God and how in time it becomes effective.

Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.

We now turn to a second hortatory subjunctive; this is the selfward one — verse 23. “Let us hold fast” is the present active subjunctive of katechô (κατέχω) [pronounced kaht-EH-khoh]. Katechô (κατέχω) [pronounced kaht-EH-khoh] means not only to hold fast but it means to guard certain traditions. That is exactly how it is used here. We are the guardians of a tradition. The tradition has been passed on through one generation to an other generation of believers throughout all of history, and it is the tactical advance. But it is especially meaningful to the royal family of God since the Lord Jesus Christ has provided the strategic victory. When we get to chapter eleven we are going to see this tactical advance in the Old Testament believers but here it is applied to us, the royal family. The present tense is retroactive progressive present, it denotes what was begun in the past and continues into the present time. It is also a present tense of duration for advancing in phase two through the daily function of GAP. The active voice: the royal family produces the action of the verb by consistent positive volition in spite of all pressure. Again, we have a hortatory subjunctive in which both the reader and the writer are commanded to advance and take the higher ground of the supergrace life.

The word “profession” is an accusative singular, this time the accusative is direct object, and the noun is homologia (ὁμολογία) ψ[pronounced hom-ol-og-EE-ah]. It means “confession” used in the sense of the whole body of doctrine by which we advance to supergrace. “Let us keep holding fast the confession.”

“of our faith” — the descriptive genitive singular of the noun elpís (ἐλπις) [pronounced el-PIS] which does not mean “hope” here, it means expectation or prospect. We have the definite article used as a possessive pronoun, so the expectation or prospect is the supergrace blessing on taking the higher ground.

“without wavering” — the accusative singular of the compound adjective aklinês (ἀκλινής) [pronounced ak-lee-NACE]. It means in one word, “unbending.” In other words, it just means to know that there is one thing in life that is more important than anything else in life and never changing your mind about it, and always being consistent with that principle. Unbending means really that you know something is right and you do it no matter what. It means to be consistent with a principle. This adjective emphasizes the important in being consistent in the function of GAP. The royal family was designed to live on doctrine. Doctrine in the soul is the means of following the colours to the high ground of supergrace.

The most important thing in this life is Bible doctrine He is unbending; dogmatic. Doctrine is more important than anything else in life. This adjective stresses the importance of being consistent with gap.

“for” — this should be “because,” the conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] used as an explanation plus a causal participle. gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] plus a causal participle is never translated “for,” it is translated “because.”

“faithful” — the predicate adjective of pistos (πιστός) [pronounced pis-TOSS], it means “trustworthy, dependable, faithful.” “Faithful” is the predicate adjective, that means we can’t translate it next. We have to have a subject and then a verb, and “he that promised” is a participle, it isn’t really the verb. The verb is the verb to be. “He that promised” is the aorist middle participle of epaggellô (ἐπαγγέλλω) [pronounced ehp-ang-EHL-low]. God has promised you wealth, success, promotion, any kind and every kind of prosperity, whether it is social, sexual, materialistic. God has promised you that life can be meaningful and wonderful and He promised these things before you lived. The promises came before the world, in eternity past with the divine decrees. And of there is anything God loves to do it is to honour His Word. He wants to keep His promises, and in keeping His promises God is glorified. This is the middle voice, an indirect middle, emphasizing God as the agent producing the action, and the gnomic aorist goes with “unbending”. The gnomic aorist is for an absolute fact, a dogmatic fact, something that is an axiom, something that must never be questioned. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. He promises something and then after the promise He fulfills it.

You lock it in gear and you keep it there. You throw away the clutch; you never need to shift again.

Hebrews 10:23 “Let us keep holding fast the confession of our expectation [the whole promise of supergrace blessing and victory] unbending [a fixed positive volition toward doctrine]; because the one having promised is faithful.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Doctrine of the Faithfulness of God

1. Definition: Divine faithfulness is the grace expression to the believer of God’s perfect character, God’s perfect essence. Divine faithfulness is possible because of the propitiatory work of Christ on the cross that removed any compromise of God’s essence. So that faithfulness is the consistency of God’s character to do the same thing every time on the basis of who and what Christ is. Faithfulness is consistency, and divine faithfulness has its counterpart with the believer.

2. God’s faithfulness is manifest to the royal family in rebound — 1John 1:9. Why is He faithful? He is faithful because He is consistent with His character; it is consistent with His essence. He always does the same thing, He never varies because any believer is more raunchy than another believer. God is consistent and He can afford to be consistent because of the blood of Christ. He is consistent, He is without compromise, and therefore being consistent He is faithful, He always does the same thing every time. You might d a thousand different things when you rebound; but God always does the same thing. He forgives us our sins.

3. God’s faithfulness in His perfect plan. God is perfect; His plan is perfect. God is faithful; His plan therefore represents and reflects faithfulness — 1Corinthians 1:9. “God is faithful through whom you have been called into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” We have been called into fellowship with His Son. Where is His Son? He is sitting at the right hand of the Father in the holy of holies with the curtain torn apart. And we have been invited into the holy of holies.

4. God’s faithfulness in provision and blessing — 1Thessalonians 5:24. “Faithful is he who calls you and he also will bring it to pass.” If you are unbending, faithful to the Word, He will also bring it to pass — supergrace blessings. But if you are bending instead of unbending, if you are vacillating, if you are positive one day and negative the next, if you are distracted by your own mental attitude sins, by other people, by other situations, then “he also will bring it to pass,” i.e., divine discipline. So it is an open verse and it depends upon your attitude toward Bible doctrine.

5. God’s faithfulness in testing — 1Corinthians 10:13. “No testing has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tested beyond what you are able [beyond your capacity]” Capacity is based upon doctrine resident in the soul ; “but, with the testing , will provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” All believers who are advancing are being shot at. Our tests are different because we have different levels of response. When you advance, the incoming is greater.

6. God is faithful to the royal family of God — Hebrews 10:23, “Let us keep holidng fast the profession of our faith unbending, because the one having promised is faithful.” He can’t be unfaithful. God can only be faithful. This ways God’s essence remains cohesive.

7. God is faithful to the reversionistic believer — 2Timothy 2:13, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.” In other words, God cannot turn around and say, “All right, you are unfaithful to me, I’ll show you, I’ll be unfaithful to you.” He cannot do it because He is God.

8. God is faithful to the believer in the realm of the angelic conflict — 2Thessalonians 3:3, But the Lord keeps on being faithful, he will support and guard you from the evil one [Satan].”

9. Conclusion:

a. Faithfulness is the consistency and the stability of God. In other words, faithfulness is God being God.

b. God cannot be inconsistent with His own essence. God cannot destroy Himself as God, He can’t say He wont be God any more and stop being God. Immutability prohibits forever any possibility of God having any human instability.

c. He cannot change His essence and therefore God can never be unfair to you.

d. God is consistent with Himself, therefore He is consistent with us. Therefore He is faithful to us.

e. One of the acts of consistency on the part of God is to make a promise and keep it.

f. There never was a time when God was unfaithful, the thought is blasphemous and unthinkable.

g. Unfaithfulness is totally incompatible with God’s character.

h. The very existence, function, provision, and blessing of the royal family now and forever, depends on the faithfulness of God. Therefore, it depends on the character of God. God is unbending.

Hebrews 10:24 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works,...

Verse 24 — the manward hortatory subjunctive. “And,” the continuative use of the conjunction kai, indicating that these are all tied together even though they go in different directions.

“let us consider” — the present active subjunctive of katanoeô (κατανοέω) [pronounced kat-an-oh-EH-oh]. noéô (νοέω) [pronounced noh-EH-oh] means to think; katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] means to think according to a norm or standard. It comes to mean to notice, to observe carefully, to contemplate, to understand. It means to know the doctrine and properly apply it. So here we really have the concept that you know the doctrine and now you are going to apply it to others. The present tense is an iterative present, it is used to describe what recurs at successive intervals. The reason it is an iterative present is because it depends on contact with other people and we are not always in touch with other members of the royal family. So it is the present tense of repeated action — but it doesn’t go on all the time. When you are out of touch with people it doesn’t apply and sometimes when you are in touch with people it doesn’t apply. But there will be times when it does. The active voice: the royal family produces the action of the verb, and again the subjunctive is hortatory in which the writer invites the reader to join him in a course of action, moving toward the high ground. So we will translate this, “Let us concentrate on [application].”

“one another” — the accusative plural of direct object from allêlôn (ἁλλήλων) [pronounced al-LAY-lohn] which means one another of the same kind, other members of the royal family of God. It can be translated “each other.”

“to provoke unto love and to good works” — but “to provoke” is really a prepositional phrase, not an infinitive. It is eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of paroxusmos (παροξυσμός) [pronounced par-ox-oos-MOSS] (παροξυσμός) [pronounced par-ox-oos-MOSS] which means to stir up, to stimulate, to encourage. “And let us concentrate on each other for the purpose of encouragement” — not “unto love” but “from the source of love.” This is the ablative of source, agápē (ἀγάπη) [pronounced ag-AH-pay]. It must be done from a relaxed mental attitude — “from the source of the RMA [Mental attitude love].”

“and” — another ablative of source — “from the source of”, rather than “and to” — “good works”, the ablative of the adjective kalos (καλός) [pronounced kal-OSS], which really means “noble” here, and with it we have the noun ergon (ἔργον) [pronounced EHR-gon], which is production, any kind of production, anything that you are doing — “and from the source of noble deeds [or actions].” Noble actions, of course, emanate from royal family.

Hebrews 10:24 “And let each of us concentrate on each other for the purpose of encouragement from the source of love and from the source of noble production.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The noble production is any type of divine good produced under any condition as a member of the royal family of God. We are to encourage, rather than discourage, any other members of the royal family of God with whom we are in contact.

Hebrews 10:25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.

Verse 25 — this is doctrineward but does not have a hortatory subjunctive because it goes with the previous verse. The verse really goes on, so the hortatory subjunctive which is mansard now related to verse 25. “Let us concentrate” is the third hortatory subjunctive and you could actually put it in here — “Let us concentrate on not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.” That is what the grammar of the Greek says.

We have another participle, the present active participle of egkataleipô (ἐγκαταλείπω) [pronounced eng-kat-al-Î-po] which means to desert under fire. We translate it “forsaking” but that is really what it means; the pressure is too much and we peel off, quit coming to Bible class. The negative mê means don’t do it, but the negative mê recognizes the fact that some will. “Stop forsaking” — the present tense is a customary present, they were customarily deserting in the face of pressure. The active voice: reversionistic Jewish believers living in Jerusalem in 67 AD were guilty of producing the action of the verb and are now commanded to stop it. The participle is an imperative. It is interesting that whenever the participle is used as an imperative it is because there are previous imperatives in the context and it simply changes up the style so as not to get too much monotony. We do have imperatives but the ones that we have are three hortatory subjunctives. So this becomes another imperative and this is a participial imperative directed toward Bible doctrine. And it has a negative, so you have to change it up for the negative.

“the assembling” — the accusative singular of direct object, episunagôgê (ἐπισυναγωγή) [pronounced ep-ee-soon-ag-oh-GAY]. epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] means under authority of; sun means along with others who are under authority; agôgê means you come together.

“of ourselves” — the genitive plural from the reflexive pronoun heautou (ἑαυto) [pronounced heh-ow-TOO]. This word is a very interesting reflexive pronoun because it is constructed on the intensive pronoun autou. Autou is an intensive pronoun from a demonstrative pronoun. A demonstrative pronoun is designed to identify something in the context; an intensive one means to identify it in a special way. That is why autos and autou here is used so many times for our Lord Jesus Christ. Heautou (ἑαυto) [pronounced heh-ow-TOO] means not only to identify it twice but to make you jab yourself and say this applies to me. This is what the writer of Hebrews was doing at this particular point with his original hearers. “Stop forsaking the assembling together, under authority, of yourselves.” The forsaking of the assembly of the local church is the basic sign of negative volition toward doctrine. Whatever your excuse it is tantamount to negative volition toward doctrine, which is the basic concept in reversionism.

“as the manner of some is” — kathôs (καθώς) [pronounced kahth-OCE] ethos (ἔθος) [pronounced ETH-os] tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç]. Kathôs (καθώς) [pronounced kahth-OCE] is an adverb of comparison; ethos (ἔθος) [pronounced ETH-os] is a nominative singular meaning habit or custom; the dative plural from the indefinite pronoun tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] is tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç], and it means “certain ones” — “as is the habit of certain ones.” Who are the certain ones? Reversionists. Some people make it a habit, some are staying away because they follow those who make it a habit.

The next word is the strong adversative conjunction allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH]. It sets up a very strong contrast between two clauses. The word “exhorting” is not correct. The present active participle of parakaleô (παρακαλέω) [pronounced pahr-ahk-ahl-EH-oh] means encouraging. The present tense is linear aktionsart of the progressive present. The active voice: the positive attitude toward doctrine of the royal family of God, you will produce the action of the verb of not only coming to hear the Word taught consistently, unbendingly, but you will be an encouragement to others by your consistency. The participle is the instrumental participle and it should be translated “but by being an encouragement.”

“and so much the more” — this writer suddenly breaks in to absolutely sheer classical Greek. This is no longer Koine Greek. We have the ascensive use of kai, “even” — “so much the more” is the dative singular neuter of the Attic Greek correlative demonstrative pronoun tosoutos (τοσοτος) [pronounced toss-OO-toss], a classical Greek word, it is not in the Koine at all. And with it you have something you don’t have in the Koine Greek which is a common language, you have a comparative adverb, mallon (μλλον) [pronounced MAL-lon]. So we have tosoutos (τοσοτος) [pronounced toss-OO-toss] plus mallon (μλλον) [pronounced MAL-lon] and it means “even so much the more” as translated, but to change from one language to another — they are both Greek languages but they are entirely different — it is to emphasize something. Whenever that is done in the scripture God the Holy Spirit authorizes it. The principle here is that when you go from one language to another it makes a break in the thought, and the break in the thought is to remind you of the fact that while you have wonderful blessings and privileges on this earth you are not going to be on this earth indefinitely. And actually what he is doing is what is often done. If you have ever been on the point of death, or thought you were you will understand this. When you are on the point of death or think you are, if you are a normal person, you are not hating anyone, you don’t despise anyone, you don’t want to see anyone hurt. Your attitude changes on things of that sort. All of a sudden the nearness of death makes you realize how silly it is to walk around being antagonistic toward people. It doesn’t add anything to you and it certainly doesn’t bother them, so why mess with it? That is exactly what the writer did here, he changes languages in order to bring out the fact that the Rapture could occur at any time. “So much the more” doesn’t look like much in the English, and apparently the translator knew classical Greek so he translated it properly.

“as you see” — the dative neuter singular of the correlative hosos (ὅσος) [pronounced HOS-os]; with it we have the present active indicative of blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh] which means to see and blink your eyes. The present tense is the retroactive progressive present denoting what has begun in the past and continues — the perception of doctrine that the Rapture could occur at any time. The active voice: the believer who is positive toward doctrine produces the action. He understands the Rapture and makes the proper application. The indicative mood is declarative which views the action of the verb from the viewpoint of absolute reality, every day the Rapture is getting closer.

“the day” — the day could be the day of your death or the day of the Rapture. Here it refers to the day of the Rapture.

“approaching” — the present active participle of eggizô (ἐγγίζω) [pronounced eng-ID-zoh]. Every day the Rapture gets closer, the futuristic present of eggizô (ἐγγίζω) [pronounced eng-ID-zoh] means that the imminency of the Rapture is a very definite principle of doctrine. The active voice: the Rapture produces the action. The participle is circumstantial to show that no doctrine has to be fulfilled, that the Rapture can occur at any time. This is the doctrine of the imminency of the Rapture.

Hebrews 10: “Stop forsaking [neglecting, retreating] from the assembling together of yourselves, as is the habit of certain reversionists; but by being an encouragement: even so much the more as you see the day of the Rapture approaching.”

Verse 22 — we have come now to the fourth approach:

“and our bodies” — the continuative conjunction kai plus the accusative singular of sōma (σμα) [pronounced SOH-mah]. Sōma (σμα) [pronounced SOH-mah] here refers to the body and there are several principles involved here. We have with this the definite article. Often the definite article in the Greek is used for some other part of speech. Here it is used for a possessive pronoun, so it should be translated “And our body,” singular. With the particle another accusative of general reference is involved here. Sōma (σμα) [pronounced SOH-mah] is a noun in the accusative case but it is used as a subject, and the cleansing of the body here is a euphemism for rebound, it is a reminder that the royal family’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and therefore rebound in the order of the day in approaching God.

“washed” is the perfect middle participle of the verb louô (λούω) [pronounced LOO-oh]. The prefect tense is a dramatic perfect. This is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect, it places a dramatic emphasis on the rebound technique resulting from the work of Christ on the cross. Everything goes back to the fact that we have an efficacious sacrifice or, as we have already seen, we have a high priest. The middle voice is the permissive middle. This is a little rarer as far as the scripture is concerned and in a permissive middle the agent — the believer, member of the royal family of God — voluntarily yields himself to the results of the action of the verb in his own interest. In other words, of your own free will you rebound. You do not rebound because you are forced to, you do so because you want to. Therefore it is to your interest because then you are controlled by God the Holy Spirit in the balance of residency. The participle is part of the accusative of general reference. The accusative case becomes the subject, the participle becomes the verb.

Hebrews 10: “Let us approach God with a dependable right lobe by means of full confidence of doctrine, our right lobes having been sprinkled from a conscience of sinfulness, and our body washed with pure water.”

All of these procedures have to do with our relationship with God and how in time it becomes effective.

Verse 23 — the selfward hortatory subjunctive, “Let us hold fast” is the present active subjunctive of katechô (κατέχω) [pronounced kaht-EH-khoh]. Katechô (κατέχω) [pronounced kaht-EH-khoh] means not only to hold fast but it means to regard certain traditions. This is exactly how it is used here. We are the guardians of a tradition. The tradition has passed on from one generation to another generation of believers throughout all of history, and it is the tactical advance. But it is especially meaningful to the royal family of God since the Lord Jesus Christ has provided the strategic victory. When we get to chapter eleven we are going to see this tactical advance in the Old Testament believers, but here it is applied to us. The present tense is retroactive progressive present, it denotes what was begun in the past and continues into the present time. It is also a present tense of duration for advancing in phase two under the daily function of GAP. The active voice: the royal family produces the action of the verb by consistent positive volition in spite of all pressure. And again we have a hortatory subjunctive in which both the reader and the writer are commanded to advance and take the higher ground of the supergrace life.

The word “profession” is an accusative singular, and this time the accusative is direct object, and the noun is homologia (ὁμολογία) ψ[pronounced hom-ol-og-EE-ah] meaning “confession.” It is confession used in the sense of the whole body of doctrine by which we advance to supergrace. “Let us keep holding fast the confession.”

“of hope” — the genitive singular is a descriptive genitive of the noun elpís (ἐλπις) [pronounced el-PIS] which does not mean “hope” here, it means expectation or prospect. And we have the definite article used as a possessive pronoun, so the expectation or prospect is the supergrace blessing on taking the higher ground.

“without wavering” — the accusative singular of the compound adjective a)kinhj. It means in one word “unbending.” In other words, it just means to know that there is one thing in life that is more important than anything else and never changing your mind about it and always being consistent with that principle. The idea is that you know something is right and you do it no matter what. It means to be consistent with a principle, to be faithful to a principle. This adjective emphasizes the importance of being consistent in the function of GAP. The royal family was designed to live on doctrine. Doctrine in the soul is the means of following the colours to the high ground of supergrace and we are on this earth to advance. “Let us keep holding fast the confession of our expectation [the whole concept of supergrace victory].”

The word “for” is not “for” at all, it is “because” — the conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] used as an explanation plus a causal participle which is never translated “for”, always “because.”

“faithful” — the predicate adjective of pistos (πιστός) [pronounced pis-TOSS] which means “trustworthy, dependable, faithful.” “Faithful” is the predicate adjective and that means we can’t translate it next. We have to have a subject and then a verb.

“he that promised” is a participle, it isn’t really the verb. The verb is the verb to be. It is the aorist middle participle of epaggellô (ἐπαγγέλλω) [pronounced ehp-ang-EHL-low]. God has promised you wealth, success, prosperity, promotion, etc. And He promised you these things before the human race existed. The promises were with God in eternity past in the divine decrees. God has these promises and if there is anything He loves to do it is to honour His Word. He wants to keep His promise because in keeping His promise God is glorified. This is an indirect middle voice, emphasizing God as the agent producing the action, and the gnomic aorist goes with unbending. The gnomic aorist is for an absolute fact, a dogmatic fact, something that is an axiom, something that must never be questioned. The action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. He promises something and then He fulfills it.

Hebrews 10: “Let us keep holding fast the confession of our expectation [the promise of supergrace blessing] unbending [a fixed positive volition toward doctrine]; because the one having promised is faithful.”

The doctrine of the faithfulness of God

1. Divine faithfulness is the grace expression to the believer of God’s perfect character and essence in phase two. Divine faithfulness is possible because of the propitiatory work of Christ on the cross that removed any compromise of God’s essence. So that faithfulness is the consistency of God’s character to do the same thing every time on the basis of who and what Christ is. Faithfulness is consistency, and divine faithfulness has its counterpart with the believer. There is one thing that the believer should be always and that is unbending. Unbending is the response to God’s faithfulness.

2. God’s faithfulness is manifest to the royal family in rebound — 1John 1:9.

3. God’s faithfulness in His perfect plan. God is perfect, His plan is perfect. God is faithful, His plan represents and reflects faithfulness — 1Corinthians 1:9. We have been called into fellowship with His Son. Where is His Son? At the right hand of the Father in the holy of holies and we have been invited as members of the royal family of God into the holy of holies.

4. God’s faithfulness in provision and blessing — 1Thessalonians 5:24. “Faithful is He who calls you who will also bring it to pass.” If you are unbending you will receive supergrace blessings; or, if bending, divine discipline.

5. God’s faithfulness in testing — 1Corinthians 10:13. All believers who are advancing are being shot at. God will not allow testing beyond your capacity. That is why our tests are different, we have different capacities. Capacity is based upon the content of doctrine in the soul.

6. God is faithful to the royal family of God — Hebrews 10:23, the anticipation of supergrace blessings.

7. God is faithful to the reversionistic believer — 2Timothy 2:13. “If we are faithless he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.”

8. God is faithful to the believer in the realm of the angelic conflict — 2Thessalonians 3:3.

9. Conclusion: a) Faithfulness is the consistency and stability of God; b) God cannot be inconsistent with His own essence; c) He cannot change His essence and therefore God can never be unfair to you; d) God is consistent with Himself, therefore He is consistent with us; therefore He is faithful to us; e) One of the acts of consistency on the part of God is to make a promise and to keep it. God keeps His Word; f) There never was a time when God was unfaithful; g) Unfaithfulness is totally incompatible with God’s character; h) The very existence, function, provision, and blessing of the royal family now and forever depends on the faithfulness of God. Therefore, it depends on the character of God.

Verse 24 — the manward hortatory subjunctive. “And,” the continuative use of the conjunction kai, indicating that these are all tied together.

“let us consider” — the present active subjunctive of katanoeô (κατανοέω) [pronounced kat-an-oh-EH-oh]. noéô (νοέω) [pronounced noh-EH-oh] means to think; katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] means according to a norm or standard. It comes to means to notice, to observe carefully, to contemplate, to understand. It means to know the doctrine and properly apply it. The present tense is an iterative present, it is used to describe what recurs at successive intervals. The reason it is an iterative present is because it depends on contact with other people. So it is the present tense of repeated action — but it doesn’t go on all the time. The active voice: the royal family produces the action of the verb. The subjunctive is hortatory in which the writer commands the reader to join him in a course of action — moving toward the high ground. So we will translate this, “Let us concentrate on” — concentration on application.

“one another” — the accusative plural of direct object from a)llhlon which means one another of the same kind — other members of the royal family. It can be translated “each other.”

The next phrase says “to provoke unto love and to good works,: but to provoke is really a prepositional phrase, not an infinitive — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of paroxusmos (παροξυσμός) [pronounced par-ox-oos-MOSS] (παροξυσμός) [pronounced par-ox-oos-MOSS] which means to stir up, to stimulate, to encourage — “for the purpose of encouragement.”

“unto love” — should be “from the source of love.” This is the ablative of source of agápē (ἀγάπη) [pronounced ag-AH-pay]. It must be done from a relaxed mental attitude.

“and to good works” — should be from the source of good works, and “good works” is the ablative of the adjective kalos (καλός) [pronounced kal-OSS], which really means “noble” here, and the noun ergon (ἔργον) [pronounced EHR-gon] which is production, any kind of production, anything that you are doing.

Hebrews 10: “And let each of us concentrate on each other for the purpose of encouragement from the source of love and from the source of noble production.” The noble production is any kind of divine good produced under any condition as a member of the royal family of God. And we are to encourage rather than discourage other members of the royal family of God with whom we are in contact.

Verse 25 is doctrineward but does not have a hortatory subjunctive because it goes with the previous verse. The verse really goes on, so the hortatory subjunctive which is manward is now related to this one. We have another participle, the present active participle of egkataleipô (ἐγκαταλείπω) [pronounced eng-kat-al-Î-po] which means to desert under fire. The pressure is too much so they peel off and quit. The negative mê means don’t do it, but the negative mê recognizes the fact that some will. This was one of the key problems in the Jerusalem church: refusal to come to Bible class. The present tense is a customary present, they were customarily deserting in the face of pressure. The active voice: reversionistic Jewish believers living in Jerusalem in 67 AD were guilty of producing the action of the verb, and they are now commanded to stop it. The participle is an imperative. Whenever the participle is used as an imperative it is because there are previous imperatives in the context and it simply changes up the style so as not to get too much monotony. We do have imperatives but the three that we have are hortatory subjunctives. So this becomes another imperative and this one is directed toward Bible doctrine. It has a negative, m (μή) [pronounced may].

“the assembling” — the accusative singular of direct object episunagôgê (ἐπισυναγωγή) [pronounced ep-ee-soon-ag-oh-GAY]. epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] means under authority of; sun means along with others you are under authority; agôgê means you come together. When we come together we are all under authority, and the only one in authority is the one who doesn’t sit during the teaching — the pastor. This is called assembling but it means assembling under authority.

“of ourselves” — the genitive plural from the reflexive pronoun heautou (ἑαυto) [pronounced heh-ow-TOO] . Heautou (ἑαυto) [pronounced heh-ow-TOO] is a very interesting reflexive pronoun because it is constructed on the intensive pronoun autou. Autou is an intensive pronoun from a demonstrative pronoun. A demonstrative pronoun is designed to identify something in the context. An intensive one means to identify something in a special way. That is why autos and autou is used so many times for our Lord Jesus Christ. Heautou (ἑαυto) [pronounced heh-ow-TOO] means not only to identify it twice but to make you jab yourself and say this applies to me. That was what the writer of Hebrews was doing at this point to his original hearers — “Stop forsaking the assembling of yourselves together.” Forsaking the assembling together under the authority of the local church is the basic sign of negative volition. Whatever your excuse it is tantamount to negative volition toward doctrine which is the basic concept in reversionism.

“as the manner of some is” — kathôs (καθώς) [pronounced kahth-OCE] ethos (ἔθος) [pronounced ETH-os] tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç]. Kathôs (καθώς) [pronounced kahth-OCE] is an adverb of comparison; ethos (ἔθος) [pronounced ETH-os] is a nominative singular meaning habit or custom; the dative plural from the indefinite pronoun tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] is tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] and it means “certain ones” — “as is the habit of certain ones. Who are the certain ones? Reversionists. Some make it a habit, some are staying away because of those who make it a habit.

The next word is the strong adversative conjunction allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH] which sets up a very strong contrast between two clauses. The word “exhorting” is not correct. The present active participle of parakaleô (παρακαλέω) [pronounced pahr-ahk-ahl-EH-oh] means “encouraging”. This is linear aktionsart of the progressive present tense. The active voice: if you are positive toward doctrine as a member of the royal family of God then you will produce the action of the verb in not only coming to hear the Word taught consistently, unbendingly, but you will be an encouragement to others by your consistency. The participle is the instrumental participle and it should be translated “but by being an encouragement.”

“and so much the more” — this writer suddenly breaks in with Attic Greek. We have the ascensive use of kai which should be translated “even”; and “so much the more” is the dative singular neuter of the Attic Greek correlative demonstrative pronoun tos outos, it is not in the Koine at all. And with it is something you don’t have in the Koine Greek, you have a comparative adverb mallon (μλλον) [pronounced MAL-lon]. It means “even so much the more” as translated, but to change from one language to another is to emphasize something. And whenever that is done in the scripture God the Holy Spirit authorizes it. And the classical Greek is an entirely different language. This writer demonstrates that he has had a very excellent classical education. The principle here is that when you go from one language to another it makes a break in the thought, and the break in the thought is to remind you of the fact that while you have wonderful blessings and privileges on this earth you are not going to be on this earth indefinitely. Actually, what he is doing is doing is often done at the point of death. When you are on the point of death, or think you are, if you are a normal person you are not hating anyone, you don’t despise anyone. Your attitude changes on things of that sort. This writer changes languages in order to bring out the fact that the Rapture could occur at any time. “So much the more” doesn’t look much in the English.

“as you see” — the dative neuter singular of the correlative hosos (ὅσος) [pronounced HOS-os]. With this we have the present active indicative of blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh] which means to see and blink the eyes and see. The present tense is retroactive progressive present denoting what has begun in the past and continues, the perception of doctrine that the Rapture could occur at any time. The active voice: the believer who is positive toward doctrine produces the action, he understands the Rapture and makes the proper application. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative which views the action of the verb from the viewpoint of absolute reality. Every day the Rapture is getting closer. “the day” — this could be the day of your death or the day of the Rapture. Here it refers to the day of the Rapture; “approaching” — the present active participle eggizô (ἐγγίζω) [pronounced eng-ID-zoh]. The futuristic present of eggizô (ἐγγίζω) [pronounced eng-ID-zoh] means that the imminency of the Rapture is a very definite principle of doctrine. The active voice: the Rapture produces the action. The participle is circumstantial to show that no doctrine has to be fulfilled, that the Rapture can occur at any time. This is the doctrine of the imminency of the Rapture.

Hebrews 10:25 “Stop forsaking [neglecting, retreating] from the assembling together of yourselves, as is the habit of certain reversionists; but by being an encouragement, even so much the more as you see the day of the Rapture approaching.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

1972 Hebrews Lesson #127

127 06/26/1974 Hebrews 12:1; 10:26; John 16:9 Doctrine of the unpardonable sin

Chapter 12:1–3;10:26; John 16:9

Bob is switching things up for the coming 4^th of July conference. Repelling and a setting up of a defense perimeter outside the church. The study will be Follow the Colors.

3 paragraph field order in vv. 1–3. Objective of attack and encouragement to follow the colors. Intent is also to just keep going to complete Hebrews.

Heb 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,...

Hebrew 12:1 — the first word is most unusual. It is translated “Wherefore” but it is not wherefore at all, it is a triple compound inferential particle toigaroun (τοιγαρον) [pronounced toy-gar-OON], and you only have it a couple of times in the Koine Greek because it is not useable too much in that language, it is more of a classical Greek type of word. The only way to translate it is to bring out the entire concept here. It is a compound particle, toi, gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] and oun are three words put together. When they are put together it means that there has been a parenthesis, a long parenthesis, and something on the other side of the parenthesis must be extracted in order to come to a conclusion. Actually, toigaroun (τοιγαρον) [pronounced toy-gar-OON] is one of the proofs that the entire eleventh chapter is parenthetical. As a matter of fact the eleventh chapter of Hebrews is not only parenthetical but it brings out some very wonderful points that even in Old Testament times there were supergrace heroes, people who advanced and took the high ground of supergrace status. This particle, in order to extract right information, goes back beyond the eleventh chapter, the entire eleventh chapter being a parenthesis. It goes back to chapter 10, verse 39 which says literally, “But we are not the retreating category [in other words we are going to stay with doctrine] of believers designed for destruction [sin unto death]; but we are the doctrinal type for doctrinal possession of the soul.” Now, toigaroun (τοιγαρον) [pronounced toy-gar-OON] reaches back and grabs that verse and continues it, and in the continuation it should be translated “for this very reason therefore.” It is indicating that the royal family is designed for maximum doctrinal possession of the soul. That, of course, is the supergrace status and the status in which in this life we have the most appreciation of who and what the Lord is.

The supergrace heroes of the Old Testament which are portrayed in Hebrews chapter eleven are a source of encouragement to the royal family of God in this dispensation. They are an encouragement to us to advance and take the high ground. They did not have any of the things that we have by way of doctrine but they were able to take the high ground with less support, with less provision, and with less of the wonderful things of life that God has given to us in grace. For this reason we have now this three-paragraph field order in chapter twelve, and we are going to look now at paragraph one, the authorization for the advance. Paragraph two is the objective of the attack — verse 2, and paragraph three is the encouragement to advance.

This paragraph starts out “For this very reason therefore,” and it means we are not the retreating kind because we were not designed for the sin unto death, we were not designed by God for maximum discipline. In other words, you and I as members of the royal family of God were designed for something better. One of the great subjects in the book of Hebrews, “a better covenant, a better priesthood,” we have better things all the way around. Therefore we were designed to take the high ground, we were designed to follow the colours, we were designed for the supergrace life. Because we were designed for these things God’s grace has made it possible for us to fulfill a mission, and this is the authorization for the royal family to advance.

The phrase “seeing we also” is one of those pitiful things that translators try to use to smooth out English. The word “also” is correctly translated, it is the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai. But with it we have simply the nominative plural of the personal pronoun egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH], and the best you can do with this is translate it literally and correctly, “we also.”

“are compassed about with” — incorrect. What the translator tried to do here was to merge two prepositions, but he ignored something. He ignored the fact that one of these prepositions has an object in the accusative and he translates it like a nominative. Then he ignored the nominative, the subject of the second participle. The first participle is the present active participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh], to have and to hold. This participle is a static present for a condition perpetually existing. In other words, we will always have the roster of the supergrace heroes of the Old Testament in Hebrews chapter eleven. The active voice: we as members of the royal family will always be encouraged to follow the colours by studying these people. The participle is known as a concessive participle and therefore it should be translated “since.” The subject of this participle is that little word egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH] in the plural — “since we keep having.” So we have, “For this reason therefore since we also keep having.” The second participle is the present middle participle perikeimai (περίκειμαι) [pronounced per-IHK-i-mahee] which means to be placed around, to be surrounded by in the sense of combat support. So when we translate this participle “surrounding” you will understand that it is used in the sense of support — supporting our advance. The present tense is a static present for the fact that those heroes of the Old Testament, mentioned in Hebrews eleven, form permanent support and encouragement to us in our advance to the high ground of supergrace. The middle voice is a direct middle, it is one in which the agent, the royal family, participate in the results of the action. In other words, the royal family is supported in the advance by studying and learning as a part of doctrine about the Old Testament supergrace heroes, those specifically in Hebrews chapter eleven. The participle is circumstantial. So far we have in this verse, “For this reason therefore, since we also keep having surrounding us.” But we are going to have to fill in some things between “keep having” and “surrounding us.”

The word “us” is the dative plural indirect object of egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH]. It is a dative of indirect object which indicates the royal family, the ones for whom the action is designed, are blessed by it. The action of this verb is designed, therefore, for blessing and the advance of the royal family.

Between “having” and “surrounding” we have a lot of words. The first of these is “so great,” but “so great” is mistranslated in this passage because you’ll notice it says “so great a cloud of witnesses” and that isn’t what the passage says at all. “So great” is the accusative singular of a qualitative demonstrative pronoun tosoutos (τοσοτος) [pronounced toss-OO-toss]. A demonstrative pronoun is used to emphasize something in the paragraph; a qualitative one says that whatever is being emphasized is of the highest quality. Therefore, it should be translated “such great.” Remember that with this is the accusative and it is the direct object of the first participle. The first participle is “since we also having.” The accusative of the direct object means that “such great” goes as the object of that verb, that participle. It isn’t translated that way in the KJV.

Then there is something else here. You have the absence of the definite article with this unusual demonstrative which again emphasizes the quality of the pronoun. So we have a double emphasis on quality. With this double emphasis it demands additional English words to clarify the translation. So it should be translated, “since we also keep having such great.” Now we have to explain “such great what.” We know from that triple compound inferential particle and the parenthesis of Hebrews chapter eleven that we are referring here to the Old Testament supergrace heroes, those who were unbending, those who followed the colours, those who were consistent in taking in doctrine on a consistent basis and reached the high ground of tactical victory. So it should be translated “since we also keep having such great Old Testament supergrace heroes.” We have them as a source of encouragement. Then you can put a comma, and then you have “a cloud of witnesses.” See the problem here” “so great” as you have it in the English is accusative in the Greek; “a cloud” in nominative in the Greek, so obviously “so great” and “a cloud of witnesses” does not go together. Why? It is very simple. Obviously an accusative does not go with a nominative. So it isn’t “so great a cloud of witnesses,” though everyone translates it that way.

“a cloud” — this goes with the next participle. The subject is nephos (νέφος) [pronounced NEHF-oss], but nephos (νέφος) [pronounced NEHF-oss] is not the ordinary word for cloud, it is clouds when you want to think of a large group of people in the same outfit, like a battalion. So we have nephos (νέφος) [pronounced NEHF-oss] as the nominative and the subject of the next participle. Not only do we have the word “cloud” for a group but we also have with it a descriptive genitive of mártus (μάρτυς) [pronounced MAHR-tooç] — “cloud of witnesses.” It refers to the fact that the Old Testament supergrace heroes give testimony to the fact that it is possible in anyone’s life time to reach the high ground because they did it with less equipment than we have — and they made it. So they are witnesses only in the sense that they testified to us from their place on the roster in Hebrews chapter eleven. And they testify to us or they tell us, “You can reach the high ground.” “For this reason therefore, since we also keep on having such great supergrace heroes, a cloud of witnesses surrounding us.”

“let us lay aside” — incorrect. We have the aorist middle participle of apotithêmi (ἀποτίθημι) [pronounced ap-oht-EETH-ay-mee] incorrectly translated as a hortatory subjunctive in the KJV. This participle has antecedent action to a hortatory subjunctive but it isn’t the hortatory subjunctive. The hortatory subjunctive is the main and the action of this participle precedes the action of the main verb. This verb, apotithêmi (ἀποτίθημι) [pronounced ap-oht-EETH-ay-mee] means to take off like clothes, to lay aside, to put away, to lay down, and it is also used for a soldier stripping himself for action. And that is what this means: being stripped for action. — “having taken off” is a good translation. We have an aorist participle here. This is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the concept of stripping for action and regardless of its extent of duration it gathers it into a single whole. The constative aorist includes positive volition toward doctrine and everything that includes being stripped for action, assembling in the local church classroom, in spite of distractions of pleasure, of mental attitude sins, personality conflicts, resentment of the pastor or rejection of the authority of his spiritual gift. All of these things that might be distracting are stripped off so that your life becomes simplicity itself. Bible class is the hub of your life. The middle voice is the indirect middle and it emphasizes the agent, the royal family, as producing the action of the verb rather than participating in its results. So the constative aorist, therefore, plus the middle voice means the use of rebound, the concentration in Bible study, the poise of good manners in the local church, constantly making sure that you are controlled by the Spirit, and in spite of monotony, discouragement, despondency, illness, or anything else, you just keep right on with it. In other words, this is the counterpart to unbending. This is a circumstantial participle, it depicts the believer one or two ways. The language could be that of a runner or it can be a military man, and which way it goes depends entirely upon the participle coming up which as an ascriptive participle means military. As a circumstantial participle, in other words a verbal use of the participle, it would mean a runner.

“every weight” — this is the accusative singular of direct object of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] plus ogkos (ὄγκος) [pronounced ONG-koss]. Ogkos (ὄγκος) [pronounced ONG-koss] is not a weight, it is an impediment, a burden, a haversack that is loaded up with stuff and it is too much — “having removed every impediment.” The impediments include anything that keeps us from consistency in taking in Bible doctrine. They include social distractions, any person who keeps you out of Bible class, any pleasure distractions, sexual distractions, personality conflicts or hang-ups about authority or antagonisms with other people. Impediments include despondency, discouragement, monotony, loss of health, putting something in your scale of values first and when the conflict arises, going in the other direction. These are all impediments that keep you from advancing and taking the high ground. The whole thrust in this paragraph is consistency.

Sin can also be a hindrance, and so we have “and the sin.” And it is for you personally, it is not anyone’s sin, it is the sin that gets to you easily. It the accusative singular direct object of hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah].

“which doth so easily beset” — this is the accusative singular of an adjective. The adjective modifies the word “sin”, and there is no verb here, there is no relative pronoun, and there is no adverb. The translator did everything here but put in an adjective, and all it is is an adjective. In one adjective we have everything, it is a triple compound adjective — euperistatos (εὐπερίστατος) [pronounced yoo-per-IHS-tat-oss]. It is made up of the adverb e)u which means “well, prosperous, rightly, correctly,” the word peri which is a preposition meaning “around,” and histêmi (ἵστημι) [pronounced HIHS-tay-mee] which means to stand. The adjective means “easily ensnaring.” The best that can be done to make this more like an adjective — “and the easily ensnaring sin.” What is the easily ensnaring sin? It is a reference to the believer’s current area of weakness. It could be anything, no two of us have the same area of weakness and no two of us are ensnared easily by the same thing. So it is whatever gets to you by way of sin. How do you take off this easily ensnaring sin so you can advance? The answer is obviously the rebound technique.

So far we have, “For this reason therefore, since we also keep on having such great supergrace heroes, a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, having removed every impediment and easily-ensnaring sin...” (Heb. 12:1)

Now we have the fourth hortatory subjunctive, “let us run” — only that isn’t what it says here. It is the present active subjunctive of trechô (τρέχω) [pronounced TREHK-oh]. All of the words that are used in the last half of this verse have a dual connotation. They are used in the realm of athletics, they are also used in the realm of military. W are getting close now to the ascriptive participle that will help us out. Trechô (τρέχω) [pronounced TREHK-oh] means to run, to advance, or to charge, depending upon the context. The verb has to follow the analogy of the others words, but it always means motion and it always means forward motion, and it always means rapid forward motion, it always means advancing. The present tense is a tendential present used for the action which is commanded though it is not taking place at the moment. It represents what is intended and what God has authorized. The active voice: the royal family is commanded to participate in the action of the verb, and the subjunctive mood is hortatory in which the writer invites the readers to join him in a course of action, and he does so under the form of a command. This is the subjunctive used as a command. “With patience” actually comes first in the Greek before “let us run.” It is dia plus the genitive of hupomonê (ὐπομονή) [pronounced hoop-ohm-ohn-AY],. Dia plus the genitive can mean several things — through, by, or with. Here it means “with” as translated. But hupomonê (ὐπομονή) [pronounced hoop-ohm-ohn-AY], means “endurance.” It matches “unbending.” Endurance connotes persistence of positive volition and has exactly the same idea as unbending in Hebrews 10:23 — consistent positive volition. So, “let us advance with endurance.”

The next word is the word “race” — the accusative singular direct object of agôn (ἀγών) [pronounced ag-OHN]. It has both an athletic and military connotation. It is used of a stadium where a track meet is held. It also means conflict, struggle, fight, so it has a military connotation and often it has the connotation of a military objective.

“that is set before us” — present middle participle, prokeimai (πρόκειμαι) [pronounced PROHK-i-mahee], and it means to lie before, to be present, it is also used for a goal or a destination. And here is the big issue. This is an ascriptive participle, therefore it should be translated “present”, and when used with agôn (ἀγών) [pronounced ag-OHN] this participle means “present objective.” We have a present objective, so it should be translated “let us advance with endurance to the present objective.” And notice, you never advance without endurance.

Hebrews 12:1 “For this reason therefore, since we also keep on having such great supergrace examples, a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, having removed every impediment and the easily ensnaring sin, let us advance with endurance to the present objective.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The objective before us is supergrace status.

Back to chapter 10:

Hebrews 10:26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,

Chapter 10:26 — the definition of the willful sin. We start with a conjunctive particle gar, used to express a cause or reason.

“if we sin” — the present active participle of hamartanô (ἁμαρτάνω) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TAHN-oh] which means if we deliberately continue sinning, it does not have anything to do with personal sin. It is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what was begun in the past and continues to the present time, and it refers to those Jews in Jerusalem in 67 AD who are unbelievers. The active voice: unbelievers produce the action of this verb. It is a conditional participle, that is why it is translated “if.” It is not a conditional clause. A conditional clause would be a first, second, third, or fourth class condition. This is a conditional participle. It should be translated, “For if we deliberately continue sinning.”

“we” is the genitive plural from the personal pronoun egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH]. It is the subject of the participle and this is a genitive absolute — egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH] plus hamartanô (ἁμαρτάνω) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TAHN-oh].

The word “willfully” is deliberately or willingly — hekousiôs (ἐκουσίως) [pronounced hek-oo-SEE-oce]. It has to do with rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ at the point of gospel hearing. It is connected with the genitive absolute. The present tense of the participle indicates that these Jews had constantly heard the gospel and had constantly rejected it. So it is a reference to the unpardonable sin or the failure of the unbeliever to appropriate the gospel by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what is mentioned at this particular point.

The Doctrine of the Unpardonable Sin

1. The unpardonable sin is the one sin for which Jesus Christ could not and did not die because it is the sin of rejecting Christ as Savior — John 3:18, 36. It is a sin of volition.

2. The unpardonable sin is related to the convicting ministry of God the Holy Spirit — Genesis 6:3; John 16:7–11; Hebrews 10:29.

3. The rejection of Christ is called sin in John 16:9. This is the only unpardonable sin.

4. Synonyms for the unpardonable sin: “The willful sin — Hebrews 10:26–31; Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit — Matthew 12:31; Resistance of the Holy Spirit — Acts 7:51; Insulting the Holy Spirit — Hebrews 10:29.

5. Those who are under the unpardonable sin consider the gospel to be foolishness — 1Corinthians 1:18; 2:14.

6. The unpardonable sin is categorized by strong delusion — 2Thessalonians 2:11,12.

7. The unpardonable sin also has its own reversionism — 2Peter 2:19-22.

So far we have “For if we deliberately continue sinning.” That is a genitive absolute with an adverb. The genitive case is the subject of the participle, and with this a conjunctive particle.

John 16:9 — “of sin” is a prepositional phrase, not a genitive case as translated. It is peri plus the genitive of hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah]. It should be translated “concerning sin.” It is genitive singular; just one sin. This is the unpardonable sin.

“because” — the causal conjunction hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] explains what it means for the Holy Spirit to convince or reprove the world of sin. However, the verb “reprove” in the previous verse is elegchô (ἐλέγχω) [pronounced ehl-EHNG-khoh], future active indicative, and it is a gnomic future for a statement of fact or performance rightly expected under normal conditions. The active voice: the Holy Spirit acting as a human spirit produces the action. The declarative mood says that this is the main verb for the aorist active participle “when he is come.” So it merely sets up a dogmatic principle and acts as a main verb. Actually, verse 8 says “And when he [the Holy Spirit] has come, he will convince the world [of unbelievers] concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment.” Then, “concerning sin because”, which brings us into verse 9.

“they believe not” — the present active indicative of pisteúô (πιστεύω) [pronounced pis-TOO-oh] plus the strong negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook], the one that slams the door. They have slammed the door in the Lord’s face when they reject the gospel. The present tense here is a retroactive progressive present to show once again that the unbelievers in Jerusalem to whom this was originally sent had heard the gospel many times and had consistently rejected it right up to this moment. Again, the active voice: the unbelievers in Jerusalem rejected Christ; they produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a historical fact.

“on me” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH], which is “with reference to me.” In other words, the gospel was presented to them.

John 16:8–9, simply say this: “And when he [the Holy Spirit] has come, he will convince the world [of unbelievers] concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment; concerning sin because they do not believe with reference to me.”

This is the sin we are discussing in our passage, Hebrews 10:26.

“For if we deliberately continue sinning.” The next word is “after that.” This is a preposition, meta plus the accusative of the definite article. The definite article is used as a part of the articular infinitive and therefore the infinitive is the true object of meta. In other words, the definite article is used simply to show that since the infinitive does not take a case, what the case would be so that it could be correctly translated. When the object of a preposition is a verb form that does not have any case — participles have cases but infinitives do not — you have to put in a definite article and whatever case you find the definite article, that is how you translate it. You see, meta plus the genitive means one thing but meta plus the accusative means something else. It is the difference between “with” or “associated with” or “after.” The infinitive here is the aorist active and it is mistranslated, it is translated like a finite verb, “after that we have received,” the aorist active infinitive here of the verb lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh]. It should be translated “after having received.” The aorist tense is the constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety all of the rejections of Christ after they have heard the gospel. The active voice: the unbelieving Jew produces the action. The infinitive is an infinitive of result.

“the knowledge” — the accusative singular direct object of epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] which means a full and through understanding of the gospel.

“of the truth” — possessive genitive singular of alêtheia (ἀλήθεια, ας, ἡ) [pronounced ahl-Ā-thi-ah], referring to gospel doctrine.

“there remaineth” — present passive indicative of apoleipô (ἀπολείπω) [pronounced ap-ohl-IPE-oh] which means to leave behind. We have a static present for a condition which perpetually exists, and apart from Christ there is no salvation. That is the condition; “there remaineth no” — the passive voice: the subject receives the action of the verb, the subject is sacrifice. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine which is found in another form, a positive form of Acts 4:12.

“no more” is the strong adverb ouketi (οὐκέτι) [pronounced ook-EHT-ee], a very negative adverb. It has the idea of not ever, it is a door closer.

“sacrifice” — thusia (θυσία) [pronounced thoo-SEE-ah; “for sins” is really “concerning sins”, or “on behalf of sins,” peri plus the genitive plural hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah].

Hebrews 10:26 “For if we deliberately continue sinning [rejecting Christ] after having received the full knowledge of the gospel doctrine, no more sacrifice on behalf of sins is left behind.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The writer who is both a Jew and a member of the royal family of God identifies himself with Jews in Jerusalem in a very personal way. He said “we”, but he is saved. They are unsaved. So this is known as the strongest personal appeal. The appeal is made to fellow Jews on the eve of the fifth cycle of discipline in the year 67 AD. The fifth cycle of discipline will be completed in 70 AD.

Summary

1. Three factors are found in this verse.

a. Some people are guilty of willful sin which is rejection of Christ as Savior;

b. These who are guilty have received a full understanding of the gospel;

c. For such persons who have rejected Christ there is no sacrifice for sins, i.e. there is no other way of salvation. You can see the problem. A lot of these people spend a lot of time going into the temple and offering sacrifice, but there is no sacrifice for sins.

2. There is only one efficacious sacrifice for sin, Jesus Christ on the cross bearing our sins.

3. The blood of Christ is the only solution to the sin problem.

4. Furthermore, the blood of Christ or the expiatory sacrifice of Christ on the cross is the only efficacious sacrifice for sins. This goes back to Isaiah 53:5,6 Romans 5:6–9 Hebrews 7:27 Ephesians 1:7 John 14:4 Acts 4:12, and many other passages.

5. Furthermore, under the doctrine of unlimited atonement Christ died for the entire human race, so He died for all of these Jews who have rejected Him. Therefore no other sacrifice can exist for them which will save. They are involved in sacrifices which will not save them.

6. Therefore the willful sin is defined in this context as negative volition toward the gospel, rejection of Christ as Savior after having received a clear understanding of the gospel.

7. Such rejection is unpardonable, for now other sacrifice for salvation can exist — John 3:18, 36; 16:9.

8. However, for the believer in Christ there is no such thing as an unpardonable sin. Therefore only an unbeliever can commit the unpardonable sin — and any time he believes in Christ he has canceled the unpardonable sin. When Christ has been rejected as Savior there is no efficacious sacrifice for sin, therefore our verse defines the unpardonable sin in terms of the willful sin, a synonym for the unpardonable sin. By definition the willful or unpardonable sin is failure on the part of the unbeliever to appropriate the gospel by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #128

128 06/27/1974 Hebrews 12:2–3 Doctrine of occupation with Lord Jesus Christ

We have a 3 paragraph field order here; the US generally has 5 paragraph field orders. V. 1 the authorization of the advance; v. 2 the objective of the advance; v. 3 encouragement for the advance, which is the study of this conference.

The second verse is much more difficult than the first in many ways. The reason is because again we have so many problems in the grammar and the syntax in the Greek. We find writer, whoever he was, uses a very unusual combination of classical Greek, Koine Greek, Patristic Greek which has only been recovered fully in the last 30 years through the discovery of a large amount of papyri from which this type of Greek was used.

We begin with the word “Looking”, the present active participle of aphoraô (ἀφοράω) [pronounced af-or-AH-oh]. This is made up of two words, the preposition apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO], the preposition of ultimate source, and the verb horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] which means to take a good long look, in contrast to blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh] which means to take a quick glance. The word actually comes to mean to look away, to look off to, to turn the eyes away from other things and fix them on something more important, to turn one’s mind on something, to focus on something, to view from the source of doctrine. The verb connotes concentration on the object. The objective for us a the royal family is the high ground of supergrace. So a good translation would be “Be looking away.” That is because of the type of participle we have. The present tense here is the tendencial present, it is used here for an action which is purposed but no actually taking place. This is one of those unusual types of present tenses, a present tense which indicates you ought to be doing this but you’re not. This is what is being commanded for you but it isn’t being done at the present time. The royal family produces the action of the verb by focusing their attention on the objective and following the colours to it. The participle is used as an imperative mood. This happens every now and then in the Koine Greek, a participle can be used in that way after a series of either imperatives or hortatory subjunctives.

This is also a directional verb and a directional verb usually has a prepositional phrase as its object., and the prepositional phrase is “unto Jesus” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of Iêsous (̓Ιησος) [pronounced ee-ay-SOOCE],. “Be looking away toward Jesus.” In other words, after a glance at the great battalion of witnesses, the Old Testament supergrace heroes of Hebrews chapter eleven, “Concentrate on your objective.” You are looking at people who have been there and made it, and that of course, is the eleventh chapter of Hebrews. Occupation with Christ is the first and foremost and most important principle in the concept of advancing to maturity, it is a doctrine which belongs to the supergrace believer.

The Doctrine of Occupation with Christ (review)

1. Occupation with Christ is the basic characteristic of the supergrace life. It is the maximum expression of category #1 love toward God — Deuteronomy 6:5; Hebrews 12:2. It can only occur under conditions of consistent function of GAP, consistent intake of doctrine, so that the soul is literally saturated with doctrine resulting in capacity for category #1 love.

2. Occupation with Christ can only be achieved through the function of GAP, it is not achieved through any system of Christian works whether they are authorized by the Word of God or are merely the activities of legalism. Occupation with Christ, therefore, depends entirely upon the intake of doctrine and becomes the perfect expression for maturity in the royal family on earth. Capacity for occupation with Christ therefore depends on the intake of doctrine and its residence in the soul — Jeremiah 9:24; Ephesians 3:18,19; 4:20; Colossians 3:1,2; Philippians 3:7,8. The function of GAP is the believer priest responding to the love of the Lord Jesus Christ — James 1:21,22. Occupation with Christ is the motivator of the pastor-teacher in consistency in teaching the Word of God as well as those who respond. Under occupation with Christ, therefore, the believer enters the normal function of the priesthood — Hebrews 6:10.

3. An illustration of occupation with Christ is the doctrine of right man-right woman as found in the scripture — 1Corinthians 11:7; Ephesians 5:25–32, both of which indicate that right man-right woman is a direct analogy to the occupation with Christ status.

4. Relationship to the strategic victory. Occupation with Christ is related to our Lord’s strategic victory of the ascension and session, as illustrated by Colossians 3:1,2 where we are to be occupied with Him seated at the right hand of the Father. This is also brought out in Hebrews 12:2.

5. The permanence of category #1 love is based upon the sealing ministry of God the Holy Spirit which at salvation guarantees that there will be an eternal love relationship between Jesus Christ and the royal family. So it is a permanent relationship, according to Ephesians 1:11–14. Because it is a permanent relationship there is no sense in waiting for eternity to start enjoying it. The enjoyment of it is the status of Christian maturity.

6. Occasionally there is a phrase in the Word of God which indicates a title for occupation with Christ, such a believer is known as the friend of God as in the case of Abraham illustrates the principle — philos theou, James 2:22,23.

7. The characteristics of occupation with Christ. a) Occupation with Christ is the basis for supergrace believers contributing to national blessing. This is where the believer becomes the salt of the land — Deuteronomy 30:16, 20; b) It provides courage and victory in battle — Joshua 23:10,11. The quality of military personnel is often related to not only the training and the discipline but also to the principle of those involved in the ranks who are occupied with the person of Christ; c) Occupation with Christ leads to both preservation and prosperity — Psalm 31:23, 24; d) Occupation with Christ is associated with stability and great happiness — Psalm 16:8,9; e) Occupation with Christ results in supergrace blessings — Psalm 37:4,5; f) Occupation with Christ is the basis of blessing in suffering. While reversionism intensifies suffering occupation with Christ minimizes suffering — Psalm 77.

8. Occupation with Christ is the means of glorifying God in phase two — Ephesians 3:21.

9. Occupation with Christ begins at the believer’s entrance into the supergrace life — Colossians 3:16,17; Hebrews 3:1,6.

Bob talked about outfits with tough discipline and lax discipline. There are often real idiots who move among us who need to be kicked out. Bob has to make it very clear, from time to time, who is in charge. Most pastors today are panty wastes. Security comes from good discipline. We know that we belong to the right family because of the wonderful discipline that the Lord provides.

The rest of this passage gets tough from the standpoint of its grammatical contents. “Be looking away toward Jesus” is the first phrase. The word “author” is an incorrect translation of the accusative singular archêgos (ἀρχηγόός) [pronounced ar-khay-GOSS], which is a prince or a ruler or a leader. The noun connotes a ruler or a prince on the basis of beginning something. He is the beginner of something, and Jesus Christ is the beginner of the royal family. He is not only the ruler but He is the ruler in the sense of the beginner of it. We are members of the royal family of God and we are here by courtesy of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are His guests on this earth as long as He sees fit to keep us here and we are here to fulfill certain objectives. So He is the leader, the ruler, the prince.

The definite article in the accusative should be translated as a possessive pronoun. This is often the way it is, especially in the transition from classical Greek to Koine Greek. So it is a correct translation to say “our prince.”

The next word is “finisher” — the accusative singular of teleiôtês (τελειωτής) [pronounced tel-i-o-TACE], which does not means finisher. It is a hapaxlegomena and it only occurs here, and it means consummater, completer, the one who will bring us through to final attainment — “Be looking away toward Jesus our ruler and the one who brings to attainment [the supergrace life] of supergrace status.”

“of our faith” is also wrong. Pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] in this section of the Word of God never refers to faith as such, it refers to doctrine and/or what is believed. There is no pronoun here and there no word “of.” “Of our” is not there, this is an ablative singular from pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs], and the ablative is an ablative of means and is translated “by the doctrine.” Ordinarily the ablative is never used in this sense, means is expressed by the instrumental case. But in the classical Greek — and it came into the Koine Greek — whenever you are dealing with a source then means is expressed by the ablative rather than the instrumental. This has been a lost principle from those Greek languages that are involved here. So the ablative is used to express means where there is the implication of an origin, and the implication of origin comes from archêgos (ἀρχηγόός) [pronounced ar-khay-GOSS] or ruler. Christ is our ruler, our leader, as members of the royal family. Supergrace is acquired by doctrine. This phrase emphasizes both the means of attaining supergrace through doctrine resident in the soul as well as the objective of our life which is occupation with Christ or entrance into the supergrace status.

“who for the joy that was set before him” — the relative pronoun is correctly translated here, and that is all — hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç], referring to Jesus Christ: “who.”

“for the joy” is where we get into a really serious problem — anti plus the ablative of the noun chara (χαρά) [pronounced khahr-AH] is a classical Greek prepositional phrase. Chara (χαρά) [pronounced khahr-AH] is translated “joy” but really means “happiness.” In this case it refers to the Lord’s happiness, in other words +H is the meaning of the word “joy.” But it is not “for the joy” or “for the happiness” because in the classical Greek anti plus the ablative always means “in exchange.” Some thing is exchanged for something else. In the papyri it became very clear that the common usage of this preposition in the first century at the time of the writing of Hebrews was that it was “instead of.” In other words, anti always had a substitutionary connotation and in classical Greek it means in exchange for. Gradually it came to be a slight variation of that: “instead of.” But both have a substitutionary connotation. That is exactly what we have here. It should read, “who in exchange for perfect happiness.”

The implications of this classical Greek preposition are phenomenal. As a matter of fact the writer likes these Attic Greek phrases so well that he uses them several times, e.g. Hebrews 12:16 which should read “who in exchange for one meal gave away his birthright.” That is exactly the way we have it in verse 2. In exchange for His happiness Christ took the cross. Chara (χαρά) [pronounced khahr-AH] as the object of the preposition connotes perfect happiness here because it belongs to Jesus Christ as God.

“that was set before him” — that is wrong because it is translated, more or less, like a participle. We have here a present active participle of prokeimai (πρόκειμαι) [pronounced PROHK-i-mahee] which means, among other things, to be present. This is an ascriptive use of the participle and it should be translated like an adjective, “present”. Therefore this is a part of the prepositional phrase and it should be translated “who in exchange for the perfect present happiness.”

“him” is also out of line here. It is a possessive dative singular of the intensive pronoun autos. Autos is an intensive pronoun used to identify someone important in context, used to identify the Lord. However, the dative of possession has no equivalent in the English so we translate it like a possessive pronoun. It should be translated “the present happiness to him,” that would be literal, but that is not what it means. It means “his present happiness.” So we now have “who in exchange for his perfect always-present happiness endured the cross.”

What Does this Mean? Summary

1. To go to the cross for us Christ had to exchange His perfect happiness for maximum pressure and misery.

2. In order to fulfill the Father’s plan for the incarnation Jesus had to turn in His perfect always-present happiness for the most intensive excruciating agony of history, the cross.

3. The translation is the great issue here. As translated in the Bible it would indicate that it was the Lord’s joy to go to the cross, and that is incorrect.

Some other illustrations of this. The translation of the prepositional phrase beginning with anti is the real issue — anti plus the ablative always has the connotation of substitution. How do we know that? Matthew 20:28 — dunai thn yuxkn autou lutron anti pollwn. This starts in the middle of the verse, but the verse starts out: “Just as the Son of man came not to be served, but to serve.” Then we have “to give”, the aorist infinitive of purpose; “the soul of him” or “his soul,” the accusative of direct object from the infinitive; autou is the possessive genitive which modifies “soul”, it is “his soul.” Now lutron means “ransom,” and then we have anti plus the ablative which means “in exchange for” or “instead of many” — “to give his soul a ransom in exchange for many,” or “instead of many.” It always connotes substitution. So here Christ substituted the world’s greatest misery, the cross, for the perfect happiness always present with Him. That is what this phrase is actually saying in Hebrews 12:2.

What caused our Lord to exchange His perfect happiness for the intensive misery of the cross? The answer is found in Bible doctrine resident in His soul. This is what motivated Him. Bible doctrine in the soul oriented Him to the plan of the Father. That is what He said, “Nevertheless not my will but thine be done.” Doctrine motivated Jesus Christ to endure the cross. The resolving of the angelic conflict, our salvation, the formation of the royal family, the plunder of the royal family — supergrace blessing, all of these things were involved. So just as doctrine motivated our Lord to go to the cross so doctrine motivates the royal family to follow the colours to the high ground of the supergrace life. We are either motivated by doctrine or we are not motivated.

“endured the cross” — the aorist active indicative of hupomenô (ὑπομένω) [pronounced hoop-om-EHN-oh],. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the occurrence of the cross with Christ being judged for our sins, and gathers it up into a single whole. It gathers up into one ball of wax the saving work of Christ. In other words, “he endured the cross” refers to His spiritual death. This is “the blood of Christ” — redemption, reconciliation, propitiation. That took three hours, and that three hours is gathered up into one entirety. The active voice: Christ produced the action of the verb by bearing our sins and offering Himself an efficacious sacrifice. The indicative mood is declarative for an absolute dogmatic assertion.

This verb, hupomenô (ὑπομένω) [pronounced hoop-om-EHN-oh], should remind us of something. We have had dia hupomenês in verse one, it was translated “let us advance with endurance.” That is exactly the same as unbending. We must be consistent, we must remain positive and stay positive; keep moving, keep moving no matter what. Where do we get that order? We get that from the fact that our Lord endured. And why did he endure? Because Bible doctrine in His soul kept Him on the cross until our sins were judged. Therefore, Bible doctrine in our souls will keep us following the colours until we’ve reached the high ground, and then we’ll hold it. So our Lord on the cross is an illustration of endurance. Endurance, therefore, must be defined. Endurance is maximum doctrine resident in the soul plus maximum pressure not hindering the believer’s advance. He goes right through the barrage of pressure. The royal family’s endurance is maximum doctrine resident in the soul plus maximum pressure to keep us from doctrine. Our pressures are designed to cause us to peel off from doctrine. They are something that keeps us from doctrine, from the tactical victory. But doctrine throws it aside.

“he endured the cross” — the accusative of direct object stauros (σταυρός) [pronounced stow-ROSS]. The cross here refers to the fact that our Lord bore our sins, it refers to His spiritual death.

“despising” — the aorist active participle of kataphroneô (καταφρονέω) [pronounced kat-af-ron-EH-oh]. Phroneô (φρονέω) [pronounced fron-EH-oh] means to think, katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] means to think down or think against, and it means to scorn, to treat with contempt, or to disregard. By the turn of the first century kataphroneô (καταφρονέω) [pronounced kat-af-ron-EH-oh] meant to disregard — “having disregarded” is the way it should be translated. The aorist tense here is a dramatic aorist for a result which has been accomplished. The active voice: Jesus Christ produced the action of the verb of disregarding something. This participle is both circumstantial and has antecedent action to the main verb. The main verb: “he endured the cross.” So this action came first. What was it that while He was on the cross or as He approached the cross He disregarded? Actually this is not exactly antecedent action, it should be coterminous action. While He was on the cross He stayed there, He stuck it out until every sin was judged. Why? Because doctrine in His soul gave Him the ability to disregard something, the objective genitive singular of aischunê (αἰσχύνη) [pronounced ahee-SKHOO-nay] — which means ignominy. This is also a descriptive genitive for Christ bearing our sins — “having disregarded the ignominy he endured the cross.”

“and is sat down” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] decia te tou qronou tou theou kekaqisen — “at the right hand of God he sat down.” First we have “at the right hand of the throne of God”, and then “he has sat down.” The perfect tense is the dramatic perfect, and the dramatic perfect is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect which doubles the consequence of the existing results. It emphasizes existing results to the maximum, so He sat down with the result that He still is seated in the place highest honour.

Hebrews 12:2 “Be looking away toward Jesus our ruler and the one who brings us to the attainment of the supergrace objective by doctrine; who instead of his always-present happiness, having disregarded the ignominy he endured the cross, at the right hand of the throne of God he has sat down with the result that he remains seated in the highest position of honour.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Verse 3 tells us to follow the colours. The explanatory use of gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] now puts it all together. “For consider” — the aorist middle imperative of analogizomai (ἀναλογίζομαι) [pronounced an-al-og-IHD-zom-ahee], a hapaxlegomena: aná (ἀνά) [pronounced aw-NAW] means again and again; logizomai (λογίζομαι) [pronounced log-IHD-zohm-ai] means to think, but that is not what the word means at all. It means to think over. That is probably as close as we can come. The aorist tense is ingressive, which means the action signified by the aorist is contemplated at the beginning. The ingressive aorist takes the entirety and looks at it at the beginning. This is the way we should begin to think. It denotes entrance into the state of learning doctrine and therefore knowing Christ, beginning to concentrate on Christ. The middle voice is called permissive middle, it represents the agent, the believer, as voluntarily yielding himself to the results of the action in order to secure results from the action of the verb. This should be translated then, “For let yourselves begin thinking about.” The imperative mood is a command.

“him” is not correct, it is not a personal pronoun, this is a definite article in the accusative case used as a demonstrative pronoun and it should be translated “such a one [Christ].”

“that endured” — perfect active participle of hupomenô (ὑπομένω) [pronounced hoop-om-EHN-oh],. In every verse we have this in some form, the verb or the noun — “having endured”. The intensive perfect emphasizes the existing results. The results include the efficacious sacrifice of Christ, His saving work, the passing of the colours to the royal family in His physical death, His resurrection, ascension and session. The active voice: Christ produces the action. The participle is circumstantial.

“such contradiction” — “such” is, again, classical Greek coming in and it is toi outos. It is not such contradiction but such antilogia (ἀντιλογία) [pronounced an-tee-lohg-EE-ah], such opposition.

“of sinners” — we have a prepositional phrase, hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus the ablative of hamartôlos (ἁμαρτωλός) [pronounced ham-ar-to-LOSS] which expresses agency: “by sinners”.

“against himself” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of a reflexive pronoun; “lest” is a device of 300 years ago to introduce a final negative clause. A final clause can denote purpose, aim or goal. The negative actually goes with the verb, and therefore the conjunction hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] is translated as it should be for a final clause, “in order that.”

“ye be wearied” should be “you be not wearied” — the aorist active subjunctive of kamnô (κάμνω) [pronounced KAM-no], a word that means to be fatigued, to be weary, to be worn out, to be exhausted — “in order that you do not become weary.” It is translated that way because we have an ingressive aorist. We have the active voice plus the negative which means that this is the negative purpose of the royal family: not to become fatigued in following the colours. The subjunctive mood plus the negative is called a subjunctive of prohibition. We are commanded not to become fatigued.

“and faint” — there is no word “and.” It is a device to turn a participle into a finite verb. The word “faint” is a present passive participle of ekluô (ἐκλύω) [pronounced ek-LOO-oh] which means to become slack, to become weary, to lose courage, to become despondent, to become weakened. Here is means being feeble. The present tense is an iterative present, it describes what recurs at successive intervals. At some time you’re going to be discouraged and are going to want to give up when it comes to taking in doctrine. The passive voice: the believer with negative volition toward doctrine receives the action of the verb here, which can be any one of a number of things, any of the reactor factors in reversionism — self-pity, guilt complex, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, disillusion, etc. The participle is a complementary participle, it completes the idea of the action of the verb. Our main verb is kamnô (κάμνω) [pronounced KAM-no], being fatigued, and so it should be translated “in order that you do not become fatigued, fainting in your souls.” The word “mind” is psuchê (ψυχή) [pronounced psoo-KHAY], and this is the locative plural. We have a definite article used as a possessive pronoun.

Hebrews 12:3 “For let yourselves begin thinking about such a person [Jesus Christ] having endured such opposition by sinners against himself, in order that you do not become fatigued, fainting in your souls.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

In verse 26 we have failure to enter the plan of God. The passage in Hebrews chapter 10 which is pushing us toward the high ground of the supergrace life is interrupted at the point of verse 26 and going through verse 31. This interruption is designed with one thing in mind and that is to show that there is only one thing worse than failure to reach the high ground of supergrace and that is to enter the plan of God at all. This passage deals with that subject — failure to benefit from the gospel, rejection of God’s plan at the point of salvation. We have already studied verse 26 where we have the definition of the wilful sin. We have seen that it has to do with rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #129

129 06/28/1974 Hebrews 10:27–28 Doctrines of enemyship, Last Judgment

We are looking back at v. 26 and then picking up from there.

The unpardonable sin is the sin of unbelief in Christ. That is the only sin for which the Lord did not die.

Hebrews 10:27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

Verse 27 — the result of the wilful or unpardonable sin (rejection of Christ as Savior), the sin of negative volition, refusal to respond to the gospel. We begin with the connective particle de which is used as an adversative conjunction. This adversative conjunction sets up a contrast with the previous clause, and in contrast to the refusal to accept the gospel there is something in eternity as a result of rejection of Christ. The word “certain” is an enclitic indefinite pronoun used as an adjective to indicate that a principle is being introduced — “But a certain fearful.” The word for “fearful” is an adjective, phoberos (φοβερός) [pronounced fob-er-OSS], which means fearful, frightful, terrible, causing fear, terrifying, and it is a very weak word when you realize what it is covering. It is covering the lake of fire forever and ever.

Then we finally have a noun, “looking for” — ekdochê (ἐκδοχή) [pronounced ek-dokh-AY] , used for expectation. It means expectation, and with the adjective the worst kind of expectation.

“of judgement” — the possessive genitive singular of krisis (κρίσις) [pronounced KREE-sihs] and is a reference to the last judgement which is the result of rejection of Christ as Savior.

“and fiery indignation” — the words are a little different, “a fury of fire” is what it says. We have a genitive singular of the noun pur for fire, and then with that we have the word zêlos (ζλος) [pronounced DZAY-loss] which generally means zeal, but it also has other meanings as well; jealousy is one of them, and jealousy is considered to be a burning and destructive fire. So this word “zeal” goes two ways: zêlos (ζλος) [pronounced DZAY-loss], meaning zeal; it could be “ardour,” a fire called love, or it could be jealousy. It is a fiery word and it is put together with a fiery noun. So we have pur zêlos (ζλος) [pronounced DZAY-loss] which is a “fury of fire.”

“which shall devour” — it takes two words here to describe eating. We have no relative pronoun, instead we have two verb forms. We have the present active participle followed by a present active infinitive. The participle is mellô (μέλλω) [pronounced MEHL-low] which means “to be about to be.” Then the present active infinitive of esthiô (ἐσθίω) [pronounced es-THEE-oh] means to eat. The two forms together are translated “being about to devour.” The present tense in both the infinitive and in the participle is a static present, which indicates an eternal state, a state that will never change, a permanent state. The active voice in each case indicates that the fire is always in the process of eating but never in the process of swallowing. These two words together — a participle plus an infinitive — means that the fire keeps chewing but it never swallows, the fire keeps burning but you never die. That is the point. Eternal hell is a place where you burn and burn and burn and burn, but you never, never, never die.

“the adversaries” — this is an old English word for enemy. It is the accusative plural of direct object from the noun hupenantios (ὑπεναντίος) [pronounced hoop-en-an-TEE-oss]. This word means enemies. It is a quotation from Isaiah 26:11. It is talking about the enemies of God forever, those who have rejected Christ as Savior.

Hebrews 10:27 “But a certain terrifying expectation of judgement and fury of fire, being about to devour your enemies.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The Doctrine of Enemyship

1. The Bible specifies by definite category certain stated hostilities or alienations whereby two parties are estranged. Some of these categories have to do with theology and some do not. Many times in the Bible it talks about a woman hating a man, e.g. David’s first wife came to despise him, but these are simply historical occurrences which advance some principles of doctrine in the scripture but are not doctrines themselves. So definite categories refer to those areas where a certain category of the human race, a segment of the human race or an individual in the human race, is an enemy of God or an enemy in principle to some concept of doctrine. The fact that there is no reconciliation and the enmity is stated by nouns and so on is what we are going to study theologically in this categorizing. So just because we have passages like “If thine enemy is hungry feed him, if he thirst give him drink, we are not covering those categorically because their theological implications do not fall into the concept of enemy ship.

2. Satan and fallen angels are the enemy of believers — 1Timothy 5:14; 1Peter 5:8 — “Be stabilized, be on the alert, your enemy the devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.” Catering to an enemy encourages him to make you miserable. Communists are our enemies and we are encouraging them.

3. Demons are the enemies of God — 1Corinthians 15:25; Hebrews 10:13 — “He sat down on the right hand of God. From that time on he is waiting until his enemies [demons] have been allotted the footstool of his feet.” The principle: God has very definite enemies in the fallen angels under Satan.

4. Unbelievers are the enemies of God — Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21 — “And you being at one time in a state of alienation and hostile in your thinking in evil deeds ...”

5. Both categories of enemies of God, demons and unbelievers, will be judged and cast into the lake of fire. All the enemies of God are consigned to the lake of fire in eternity — Hebrews 10:27.

6. The carnal believer is the enemy of God — Romans 8:7,8. “Because the carnal mind is hostile with reference to God, for it is not subordinate to the law of God for it is not able to do so. And they that are in the flesh are constantly unable to please God.”

7. God is also the enemy of the reversionistic believer — 1Samuel 28:16, “… therefore he [the Lord] has become your enemy.” When a believer is about to die the sin unto death he dies as the enemy of God. The sin unto death is administered as an enemy. Therefore the sin unto death is the most awful punishment that can ever occur in the life of the believer, but remember that it occurs while the believer is living. But the moment he dies the punishment is all over.

8. The reversionistic believer is the enemy of God — it works two ways — James 4:4.

9. The reversionistic believer is also the enemy of the cross — Philippians 3:18.

10. The pastor who counters legalism with true doctrine is considered the enemy of the legalist. When a pastor teaches grace and stands on the principle of grace, legalism despises him — Galatians 4:16.

Hebrews 10:27 “But a certain terrifying expectation of judgement and fury of fire, being about to devour your enemies.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Our enemies are unbelievers and demons.

The Doctrine of the Last Judgement (review)

1. The last judgement is defined as the culminating judgement of history in which the unbelieving segment of the human race is processed, judged, and cast into the lake of fire forever. Along with unbelievers all fallen angels [demons] are so judged. It is called the great white throne judgement, it is also known categorically as the second death — Revelation 20:12.

2. The basic categories of the human race must be understood in connection with this judgement. The human race is divided into two basic categories: believer and unbeliever. This division is based on attitude toward Jesus Christ — John 3:36. Attitude toward Jesus Christ divides the human race into believer or unbeliever, saved or unsaved.

3. In the last judgement only the unbeliever is under indictment. The unbeliever’s indictment is related to rejection of Christ as Savior. This is the wilful sin or the unpardonable sin — John 3:18.

4. The believer in Christ is not involved in the last judgement — Romans 8:1.

5. The unbeliever has two appointments — Hebrews 9:27. The first appointment is physical death, the last appointment is judgement.

6. The second appointment of judgement is kept by means of a second resurrection — Revelation 20:12–13. This means that the unbeliever will be in his physical body and in that body will be able to suffer from fire forever.

7. The unbeliever at the last judgement is condemned on the basis of human good — Revelation 20:12,13. Not his personal sins. The personal sins of the unbeliever were all judged at the cross, and at the same time human good was rejected. When a person refuses to believe in Christ he takes his human good to the last judgement and there his human good becomes the basis of his indictment.

8. The eternal state of the unbeliever is described under three terms: “the lake of fire” — Revelation 20:14,15; Matthew 25:41; “the second death” — Revelation 20:14; “dying in your sins” — John 8:21, 24.

Hebrews 10:28 Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses.

Verse 28 — the illustration of the wilful sin. We begin with the word “he that despised” — an aorist active participle of atheteô (ἀθετέω) [pronounced ath-eht-EH-oh] which means to reject, to set aside, to swerve away from. We have with this an enclitic indefinite pronoun tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç], and therefore tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] becomes the subject — “anyone having rejected” is how it is translated. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, the constative aorist is used, for example, to the people to whom this was originally addressed. They heard the gospel in Jerusalem. They heard it again and again and again, and so gathered up into one entirety is the action of the verb. These people have heard the gospel so many times that they now have epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] understanding of the gospel and they still reject it. The active voice plus the indefinite pronoun tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] means anyone who is an unbeliever produces the action of the verb. The participle is not only circumstantial but it has antecedent action to the main verb. We have to be careful about action with regard to a participle and a main verb. Generally speaking, and almost without exception, the action aorist participle or the perfect participle precedes the action of the main verb. So we call that antecedent action. The present participle’s action is coterminous with the main verb and is called simultaneous action. The future participle, a rare form, its action follows the main verb.

But occasionally you are going to find that the action of the aorist participle is also contemporary with the main verb — simultaneous or coterminous — because Christ on the cross was doing this. Christ on the cross stuck there, He stayed there, He didn’t quit in the middle, He endured the cross. That was the main verb, having despised the disgrace, the dishonour, and He despised it all the time He was on. Ordinarily that would have to be in a present participle but because it is one of the most dramatic moments in history we have that rare situation where that aorist participle has simultaneous action with the main verb (this is a once in a lifetime circumstance).

Now here is a true case of antecedent action — the action of the aorist participle precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb is “died.” “Anyone having rejected” — this action comes first, you reject Christ before you die. And there is a principle and a point of doctrine: Any one who is alive on this earth has rejected Christ either at the point of gospel hearing, or before that at the point of God-consciousness, has had the opportunity to believe in Christ. We now have in this passage an illustration of wilful sin, and the illustration is rejection of the Mosaic law. Rejection of the Mosaic law is illustrating rejection of Christ as Savior. When a person said no to the Mosaic law he violated and died, physical death. When a person rejects the cross he dies spiritual death — another one of those representative analogies. “Anyone [in Israel] having rejected Moses’ law” — the accusative singular of the direct object for nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss]. Moses is in the genitive, so it is nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss] plus the genitive of Moses and it should be translated “law of Moses.” “Anyone having rejected the law of Moses died” — present active indicative of apothnêskô (ἀποθνήσκω) [pronounced op-ohth-NACE-koh], a customary present tense denoting what occurred under the conditions cited in this passage. It is also an aoristic present because it views a past event with the vividness of a present occurrence. Therefore it is a very dramatic type of present tense. The active voice: the rejecters of the law of Moses produce the action of the verb, they died, were executed. The indicative mood shows the main verb, it is also a dogmatic statement of the declarative indicative that capital punishment is the only way to control crime.

“without mercy” — incorrect. He died without pity. We have an adverb chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE] used as an improper preposition. This adverb “without” is actually “apart” or chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE], and it has with it the genitive plural of oiktirmos (οἰκτιρμός) [pronounced oyk-tir-MOSS] which does not mean mercy, it means pity. Pity means an emotion. Even though you were emotionally involved with someone because you were a judge you still said the penalty was death. Because the person had violated the law there was no emotional involvement in saving someone’s neck. So, “without pity” or “without emotion.” Anyone having rejected the law of Moses died without emotion from others. Pity is getting emotion from someone else.

Getting someone to feel sorry for you will not advance their love for you.

“under two or three witnesses” — a revolutionary phrase which indicates the fact that the laws of evidence belonged to Israel thousands of years ago. We have epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative plural with the numerals duo (δύο) [pronounced DOO-oh] and treis/tria (τρες/τρία) [pronounced trice/TREE-ah] plus the noun mártus (μάρτυς) [pronounced MAHR-tooç] which does not mean a martyr, it means a legal witness. Witnesses is a technical word used for the courtroom where a good system of law prevails, and that is exactly what we have here. It is literally, “on the basis of two or three witnesses.” What is left out? “Testimony”. Witnesses testify, so it should be translated “on the basis of the testimony of two or three witnesses.” This is objective testimony acceptable under the laws of evidence, ruling out the principle of hearsay.

We complain that we cannot make it to supergrace; and this passage tells us of the many people in the Old Testament who moved to supergrace without all of the assets which we have.

Hebrews 10:28 “Anyone having rejected the law of Moses died without pity on the basis of the testimony of two or three witnesses. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. Here is an illustration from Deuteronomy 17:2–6. First the person rejected the law, then guilt was established by a bona fide judicial procedure from the laws of evidence. Under the laws of evidence you had to have a witness who had seen the crime, they did not accept hearsay.

2. Guilt was established by judicial procedure before capital punishment was administered. The law was fair. The point is that God is fair. Anyone who is in the lake of fire will always have one testimony: God is fair.

3. We have some case histories about this principle.

a. Achan had a fair trial before his execution — Joshua 7:18–26;

b. Nadab and Abihu — Leviticus 10 and Numbers 26:61;

c. Dathan and Abiram — Numbers 16.

d. The guy who touched the Ar.

4. A representative analogy is now established. To reject the Mosaic law was punished by physical death while the rejection of Christ as Savior is punished by the second death or the lake of fire forever and ever.

5. The Mosaic law deals with the principle of divine establishment in life, but rejection of Christ deals with an eternal principle, a spiritual principle. Rejection of eternal salvation means the lake of fire.

6. While physical death or capital punishment is the maximum penalty for violation of the law it can never be compared with the second death which is eternity in the lake of fire.

7. Therefore we have a representative analogy, not an exact analogy, in this illustration.

8. That means the lesser is rejection of the Mosaic law, the greater is rejection of Christ as Savior. This anticipates the first part of the next verse which gives a comparative description of the wilful sin.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #130

130 06/30/1974 Hebrews 10:29-31 Doctrines of convicting ministry of Holy Spirit, unpardonable sin

Hebrews 10:29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace?

Verse 29 — a comparative description of the unpardonable sin. We begin with the instrumental of measure of an interrogative pronoun posos (πόσος) [pronounced POHS-oss]. It is translated “of how much,” but it should be translated in the instrumental of measure “by how much.” The instrumental of measure actually expresses the degree of difference. Hence, this is an argument now from the less to the greater. The less has been the illustration. If people died physically by disobeying the Mosaic law how much greater the second death those who have rejected Christ as Savior. The argument is from the less to the greater, from the illustration to the reality.

“sorer” — this is the genitive singular of cheírōn (χείρων) [pronounced KHEE-rohn], and with it we have the comparative of kakoj, and when you put the two words together in modern translation they are a little different. It should be translated “more severe”; and then we have “punishment” which is correctly translated, it takes us back to the previous verse. I am not finding kakos in this verse.

Timôria (τιμωρία) [pronounced tee-mo-REE-ah] is the word for punishment and it means a punishment based upon a good trial, objective punishment based upon all the facts. So this is the righteousness and fairness of God in this particular word.

“suppose ye” is the present active indicative of dokéô (δοκέω) [pronounced dohk-EH-oh] which means to think or to suppose; it is a word for thinking. Generally it has to do with objective thinking.

“shall he be thought worthy of” — this is simply one word, the future passive indicative of axioô (ἀξιόω) [pronounced ax-ee-OH-oh] which means to be deserving. The future tense here is a gnomic future and it is used for a statement rightly expected under normal circumstances. The passive voice: the subject, the unbeliever, receives the action of the verb. This is an interrogative indicative. The viewpoint of reality is implied in a fact inquired about. The interrogative indicative assumes that there is an actual fact which may be stated in answer to the question. Therefore, the phrase reads so far, “By how much more severe punishment do you think he shall be deserving.” This is the conclusion that you are supposed to draw from the previous illustration.

Then we come to the characteristics of the unpardonable or the wilful sin. The first characteristic is stated, “to have trodden under foot the Son of God.” You are to draw a conclusion. If a person dies physically by capital punishment for a violation of the Mosaic law how much greater should be the punishment that God will mete out to the person who rejects the Lord Jesus Christ as his Savior. At this point we now receive the characteristics of the unpardonable sin.

“trodden under foot” is the aorist active participle of the verb karapateô (καταπατέω) [pronounced kaht-ahp-aht-EH-oh] which means to trample under foot or to treat with disdain. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the occurrence of rejection of Christ after a clear delineation of the gospel and regardless of its extent or duration it gathers rejection into one entirety. In other words, the people to whom this was originally addressed were Jews living in Jerusalem in 67 AD, and during the time that they were living there they heard the gospel many times. They came to understand it very well. The active voice: the unbeliever produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. It should be translated “the one who has trampled under foot the Son of God [the Lord Jesus Christ in hypostatic union].” The word “Son” refers to the fact that He became true humanity to go to the cross; “God refers not only to His source but to His own deity. Disdain or trampling under foot is the strongest type of negative volition.

The second characteristic: “and hath counted” — the aorist active participle of hêgeomai (ἡγέομαι) [pronounced hayg-EH-ohm-ahee] means to regard. This particular verb is used after assembling all of the facts, reviewing them carefully, and coming to a conclusion. The constative aorist, again, gather into a single whole the thoughts by which the blood of Christ is rejected. The active voice: the unbeliever produces the action. The participle is circumstantial.

“the blood of the covenant an unholy thing” — the word for blood, haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah], refers to the saving work of Christ on the cross; “unholy thing” — the accusative singular of the direct object of koinos (κοινός) [pronounced koy-NOSS] is not “unholy,” it is “common, unclean, or ordinary.” They have heard the gospel over and over again, they have rejected it, to them it is common, unclean, or ordinary. “The blood of the covenant” refers to the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

“wherewith” is a prepositional phrase, en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental of the relative pronoun. The object of the preposition is hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç], the relative pronoun in the instrumental case. It should be translated “by which.”

“he [the unbeliever] was sanctified” — the aorist passive indicative of the verb hagiazô (ἁγιάζω) [pronounced hawg-ee-AD-zoh] which means to be set apart or earmarked. All members of the human race have been set apart or earmarked by the doctrine of unlimited atonement. In other words, when Jesus Christ went to the cross he solved the problem of the old sin nature. When Jesus Christ was on the cross the sins of the world were poured out upon Him and judged, and human good was rejected. That is why no one can be saved by any system of human good — Ephesians 2:8,9. The dramatic aorist here states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. In other words, already their salvation was provided. There has been an elapse of 37 years since Jesus Christ was actually judged for their sins and they were earmarked for salvation. In the passive voice the subject receives the action of the verb. Here the unbeliever, specifically the Jewish unbeliever in Jerusalem in 67 AD, receives the action of the verb. The unbeliever is set apart by the blood of Christ. Christ died for the entire human race. The declarative indicative says this is a dogmatic fact of doctrine — “by which he has been sanctified.”

Characteristic #3, “and hath done despite” — we have an aorist active participle of enubrizô (ἐνυβρίζω) [pronounced en-oo-BRIHD-zoh] which means to insult. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, rejection of Christ is the entirety here. As a result of constantly saying no to the gospel they have ended up insulting the Holy Spirit who makes the gospel clear to them.

God the Holy Spirit is introduced to us by His title “Spirit of grace” — to pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] thj charitos which means Spirit of grace as indicated. In other words, God the Holy Spirit is the one who reveals grace to us.

There is nothing to give up in salvation, like adultery or drinking. The issue is Jesus Christ. Personal sin was an issue to Christ, Who bore our sins; but not to us. The Holy Spirit makes the accurate portions of an evangelist’s message meaningful.

Hebrews 10:29 “By how much more severe punishment do you think he shall be deserving who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has considered unclean the blood of the covenant by which he has been sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?”

The Doctrine of the Convicting Ministry of the Holy Spirit

1. The convicting ministry of God the Holy Spirit is the pre-salvation work of the third person of the Trinity whereby He acts as a human spirit to clarify the gospel. He teaches the gospel only so that the gospel in the frontal lobe of the unbeliever can be understood. In other words, if you are going to make a true decision you must understand the issue. It is information that is necessary, not salesmanship.

2. The need for the convicting work of the Holy Spirit is found in 1Corinthians 2:11,14. The unbeliever does not have a human spirit, he is spiritually dead, and therefore cannot assimilate the information.

3. The first reference to the convicting ministry of the Spirit is found in Genesis 6:3.

4. The mechanics for the conviction of the Spirit. God the Holy Spirit simply acts as the human spirit to clarify the gospel and make it epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] gospel — 2Peter 2:20,21.

5. The doctrine of common grace. “Common grace” is a theological term. It is the work of God the Holy Spirit is revealing the gospel to the unbeliever. It includes enablement to understand, to perceive, the true issue of sin and eternal life. It is designed to present clearly the plan of God for salvation. Furthermore, this ministry is designed to present the universal call to faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, a dead man cannot understand the things of life. So with those who are spiritually dead. All unbelievers are spiritually dead, they cannot understand the things of God, therefore the Holy Spirit must make these things a reality.

6. The categories for the convicting ministry of the Spirit are stated in John 16:7–11 — sin, righteousness and judgement.

7. Theological definitions. Common grace is the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit without the use of any human pressure. Efficacious grace is the convicting ministry of the Spirit in which positive volition is expressed. In common grace doctrine is simply revealed to the unbeliever — gospel doctrine; in efficacious the person who has received this information says, I believe. This tells us what it means to insult the Spirit of Grace.

There is no greeter for Berachah Church. There will be no standing up and telling the person behind you that you love them.

Many people contact Bob to ask him what the unpardonable sin is. No matter what branch of sinning you are involved in at the moment, if you have believed in Jesus, you are saved.

The Doctrine of the Unpardonable Sin (a review)

1. The unpardonable sin is the one sin for which Jesus Christ did not and could not die on the cross — rejection of Himself. The unpardonable sin is therefore refusal to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior — John 3:18.

2. The unpardonable sin is related to the convicting ministry of God the Holy Spirit — Genesis 6:3, “My Spirit shall not convince inside man forever”; Those alive had 120 years to respond to the gospel message. John 16:8,9; Hebrews 10:29.

3. Rejection of Christ is called the sin — John 16:9, “and sin because they believe not on me.”

4. Synonyms for the unpardonable sin: blasphemy against the Holy Spirit — Matthew 12:31; resistance of the Holy Spirit — Acts 7:51; willful sin — Hebrews 10:26–31; insulting the Spirit of grace — Hebrews 10:29.

5. The unpardonable sin is categorized as strong delusion — 2Thessalonians 2:11,12.

6. Reversionism of the unpardonable sin is taught in 2Peter 2:19-22.

7. Those under the unpardonable sin always consider the gospel to be foolish — 1Corinthians 1:18.

Hebrews 10:30 For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people."

Verse 30 — The certainty of judgement connected to the unpardonable sin. We begin with the explanatory use of gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] which can be translated “for you see.”

“we know” — the perfect of oida used as a present for something that we already understand. At least those to whom this was originally addressed understood.

“him that hath said” — the articular aorist active participle of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] used to cite references from the Word of God. This is simply a device to bring in documentation and the documentation comes from Deuteronomy 32:35.

“having said, Vengeance belongeth unto me” — not quite correct. We have e)kdikesij which does not mean vengeance, it means punishment. With that we have “unto me” which is a dative of possession and is part of a Greek idiom. This dative of possession or personal ownership should be translated “For you see we know the God having said, Punishment belongs to me.” Punishment personally belongs to God.

“I will recompense” — future active indicative of a)ntapodidômi (δίδωμι) [pronounced dihd-OH-mee] which means to pay back or repay. The future tense is a gnomic future, it is a dogmatic statement of fact that there is a future judgement for the unbeliever. And it is a dogmatic statement of fact that not only is there a future judgement for the unbeliever but he will spend eternity in the lake of fire. The active voice: God the Father produces this punishment. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative for a dogmatic fact. “and again” is simply a device for quoting Deuteronomy 32:36 — “The Lord shall judge his people”. The word “Lord” or kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss] can be God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit. Kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss] simply means deity. Here is refers to Jesus Christ who is to be the judge at the last judgement — John 5:22, 27. The word “people” here in its context refers to Israel, but here it is cited to include all members of the human race.

Hebrews 10:30 “For you see we know the God having said, Punishment belongs to Me, I will repay. And again, The Lord shall judge His people.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Hebrews 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Verse 31 — the hopeless horror of the last judgement. The word “fearful thing” is an adjective phoberos (φοβερός) [pronounced fob-er-OSS], and it means terrifying. It has a definite article in the accusative singular which makes it the subject of the infinitive. So “a terrifying thing” is the way it should be translated as a subject. Remember that this is the subject of the infinitive under the principle in the Greek, the accusative of general reference. Occasionally to emphasize a point in the original language they will take the infinitive and make the accusative the subject rather than the object. So “a terrible thing” is the subject, “to fall” is the verb — the aorist active infinitive of e)mpiptô (πίπτω) [pronounced PIHP-toh]. The culminative aorist takes a look at the last judgement from the standpoint of its results. The aorist tense here recognizes that the result of rejecting Christ, the result of the unpardonable sin, is eternity spent in judgement. The active voice: the unbeliever produces the action of the verb by rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. The infinitive is a part of the accusative of general reference, and it should be translated “A terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” “Hands” is simply an anthropomorphism, ascribing to God a human characteristic which He doesn’t possess.

Hebrews 10:31 A terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the Living God. R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

People can learn from anthropomorphisms. The story of the two officers, where one gives the gospel to the other and tells him about God holding onto him.

Summary

1. Knowing that God the Father has turned all judgement over to Jesus Christ, John 5:22, means that the more a person knows about the fairness and the faithfulness of Christ the more he realizes how hopeless, how futile, how horrible will be the last judgement.

2. Just as Christ is faithful to us in blessing so He will be faithful to the unbeliever in cursing.

3. The intensity of our eternal blessing as believers is matched by the intensity of the suffering and the punishment of the unbeliever. This means that the lake of fire is horrible beyond imagination.

4. The lake of fire has no escapees. The sentence is forever.

5. It is totally fair that those who reject Jesus Christ as Savior should suffer forever in the lake of fire.

6. This is the value that God the Father places on the work of Christ on the cross. God the Father has assigned to the cross the highest value so that all who reject the blood of Christ will spend eternity in the lake of fire.

7. This is why the blood of Christ is called “precious” in 1Peter 1:18,19.

8. The Father has placed the highest value on the blood of Christ, and since God the Father was propitiated by the saving work of Christ on the cross it is inevitable that to have any less regard for the cross than the Father has means eternal judgement.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #131

131 06/30/1974 Hebrews 10:32 via 2Peter 1:12–15 Peter's legacy from the high ground

Hebrews 10:32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,

Traditionally, every US regiment has its own colors. Each company will have a guide on. Might be a number on the guide-on. Verbal commands are impossible to hear. Commands often done through the color.

Therefore, our regard for the cross must be a matter of grace — Ephesians 2:8,9. Not that we can have the same appreciation for the cross that the Father has but in grace God the Father has provided a non-meritorious way whereby we can assess the same value to the cross that the Father did. In the moment that we believe in Christ, in effect, we recognize that this is the highest values in all of the universe: the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, which cleanses from all sin.

2Peter 1:12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have.

2Peter 1:12 — “wherefore,” an inferential compound conjunction, dio (διό) [pronounced DEE-oh] (διό) [pronounced DEE-oh]. It is made up of the preposition dia plus hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] which is the relative pronoun. It means “therefore” or “because of this.” This is the strongest of all the inferential conjunctions in the Koine Greek, and because of its great strength it means that whatever is being said now is the conclusion to everything. Actually, this is the conclusion of Peter’s life, this is the summation of everything that is important, and as an apostle he is now making this very strong declaration.

“I will not be negligent” — there is no negative here, there is simply the future active indicative of the verb mellô (μέλλω) [pronounced MEHL-low] plus an adverb a)ei. In this passage with the future tense it should be translated “I will always be ready.” Peter is saying, “Therefore I will always be ready.” The future tense is a progressive future, it denotes the idea of progress in future time. As long as Peter is alive he will always be ready to do something, he will always be ready to make an issue as far as the way of life for the royal family is concerned. The active voice: the apostle Peter produces the action. The indicative mood is for the reality of the fact that Peter makes this decision.

“to put you in remembrance” — a present active infinitive of the verb hupomimnêskô (ὑπομιμνήσκω) [pronounced hoop-om-im-NACE-koh]. The present tense is retroactive progressive present which means that Peter, because of his understanding of doctrine, because of his advance, because he is on the high ground, because during the latter part of his life he has held the high ground, because he has had the greatest of all blessings there, he now wants the others to join him in this particular situation. The active voice: Peter as an apostle and the writer of this epistle produces the action. The infinitive simply denotes his purpose — “to keep reminding all of you.”

“of these things” — peri plus the genitive of houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] means “concerning these things.” Houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] is a demonstrative pronoun that emphasizes something very near in the context — doctrine. Many times we are going to see houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] used for Bible doctrine. Here Peter is referring specifically to doctrine of residency or the importance of Bible doctrine in the soul of the believer.

Next is the conjunction kaiper (καίπερ) [pronounced KAH-ee-per], which means “even though”; “you know them.” In other words, this is something they know, something they understand, and he is going to go over and over and over it. If people are ever going to do what God intended for them to do they have to not only know it, they have to remember it, they have to be in a position where they can’t forget it. In other words, what the apostle Peter is saying is that anything that is done right in life has to be done almost automatically. This means you have to hear doctrine again and again and again. We have oida which means these things have been heard again and again and again and have been assimilated. Oida is a dramatic perfect tense, the rhetorical application of the perfect tense. The dramatic perfect simply takes the perfect tense and intensifies it. The perfect tense says the action of the verb covers something that has happened with continuous existing results. The dramatic perfect recognizes that as a fact never to be argued with. “Although you have known these things for a long time” — this is a concessive participle and it describes therefore the fact that what the writer is about to say is so important, it is so commonplace. They have heard it over and over again. Because they have heard it so often, because they have learned it, because again and again this has been given to them, they have almost forgotten how important it is. Therefore he uses this particular word to show them that something they have heard again and again is so important that he passes on the colours.

“and be established” — the perfect passive participle of the verb stêrizô (στηρίζω) [pronounced stay-RIHD-zoh]. This is an intensive perfect which emphasizes again the existing results of doctrine resident in the soul. The passive voice: the believers as members of the royal family of God receive the action of the verb. The action of the verb is stability through resident doctrine. The participle is circumstantial.

“in the present truth” — this should be “by means of resident doctrine”. We have the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental of alêtheia (ἀλήθεια, ας, ἡ) [pronounced ahl-Ā-thi-ah], the word for doctrine. There is also in this a participle, the present active participle of the verb pareimi (πάρειμι) [pronounced PAR-i-mee] which means to be present. It is the ascriptve use of the participle, therefore it is used as an adjective, and it is simply “present” or “resident.”

2Peter 1:12 “Therefore I will always be ready to keep reminding you all concerning these things, although you have known and have become stabilized by means of resident doctrine.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Here are some people that Peter ha taught before, and they are moving along pretty well. They are at a dangerous point and they are ready to retreat. They are so close to occupation with the Person of Christ.

Peter I about to tell them about a most important function in life.

2Peter 1:13 I think it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of reminder,

Verse 13 — The word “Yea” is a transitional use of the conjunctive particle de and should be translated “Moreover.”

“I think” — the present active indicative of hêgeomai (ἡγέομαι) [pronounced hayg-EH-ohm-ahee] which means to lead or to guide. But if you are going to guide someone you have to know where you are going yourself. The word finally came to mean not to be a guide but to be a thinker, to know what you are doing. When people know what they are doing and they say something from their own thoughts, that is hêgeomai (ἡγέομαι) [pronounced hayg-EH-ohm-ahee]. The present tense is a static present, it represents a conclusion to be taken for granted as a fact. So the apostle says, “Moreover, I think.” Peter is a thinker because of several things. He is a thinker because in the frontal lobes of his soul he has doctrine and he has vocabulary. No one can be a thinker without a vocabulary. Because of his technical vocabulary Peter knew what he was doing.

Fighting Joe Hooker was dazed Joe Hooker. Bob explains how Stonewall Jackson used a guide in a particular maneuver.

People who are smart in one field, and they think that they are brilliant in other fields. A nuclear physicist may know all kinds of things about nuclear physics; but he has no idea when it comes to politics.

Spock knew how to bring babies into the world. He knew nothing about raising children. If ever there was someone who knew nothing about babies after they are born, it is Spock.

Bob decides what he is going to do about an organization. He chooses the color that he likes; and he makes the decision to change it.

You take a Baptist and he knows tithing and rededication; but no idea what Bob is saying.

“it meet” — the accusative singular of dikaios (δίκαιος) [pronounced DIH-kai-oss] which means in the neuter here “duty.” The noun in the neuter is a part of the idiom of obligation. Peter considers it his solemn duty and his responsibility before the Lord to inculcate the royal family on the importance of Bible doctrine resident in the soul. This is a dogmatic statement.

If you lack respect for someone teaching the Word of God, then you will not advance at all.

“as long as I am in this tabernacle” — “as long as” is a prepositional phrase, epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the accusative of hosos (ὅσος) [pronounced HOS-os]. This is another idiom and is a reference to life in phase two. epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] means upon but “as long as” is the correct translation; “I am” is the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], meaning alive; “in this tabernacle.” The word for tabernacle is skênôma (σκήνωμα) [pronounced SKAY-noh-mah] and it means a human body. Each one of us lives in a human body which is the tabernacle. Skênôma (σκήνωμα) [pronounced SKAY-noh-mah] means a tent or a tabernacle, and the human body is simply a tent, a temporary shelter.

“to stir you up” — the present active infinitive of diegeirô (διεγείρω) [pronounced dee-ehg-Ī-roh] does not mean to stir up, it means to awaken, to thoroughly awaken, to excite, to turn on, to arouse. The present tense is an iterative present which describes what recurs at successive intervals. It is called also the present tense of repeated action. Whenever Peter teaches he reminds his hearers of the importance of Bible doctrine resident in the soul. The active voice: Peter produces the action of the verb by teaching doctrine. The infinitive expresses his purpose. His purpose is to teach doctrine so that they will be interested, so that they will be turned on to doctrine.

“by putting you in remembrance” is not correct. We have a prepositional phrase, en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental of hupomnêsis (ὑπֹόμνησις) [pronounced hoop-OHM-nay-sis], and it should be translated “by means of a reminder.” The reminder is the repetition of doctrine, going over it and over it and over it again so you can’t forget it. The reminder is to teach it when you know it and instead of turning off and closing your ears to listen again and again to it.

2Peter 1:13 “Moreover I consider it my duty as long as I am in this tabernacle, to arouse you [to turn you on] to doctrine by means of a reminder.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

God keeps us alive to bless us or to discipline us.

“Smile all you want to, honey, but you have done your last talking.”

2Peter 1:14 since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me.

Verse 14 — “Knowing,” perfect active participle of oida. He is aware of the fact that he is about to die; “that,” the conjunction hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] is used after verbs that denote some kind of cognisance or sense of perception. “shortly,” tachinos (ταχινός) [pronounced takh-ee-NOSS] : here is the adjective that Peter recognizes as a short time to live. Peter knows that his death is very near, it is impending.

“I must put off” is incorrect. We have a nominative singular of a noun, there is no verb here. The noun is apothesis (ἀπόθεσις) [pronounced ap-OHTH-es-is]. We also have with it the definite article, also a verb, eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] in the present active indicative, also a genitive singular of skênôma (σκήνωμα) [pronounced SKAY-noh-mah] for that word tabernacle again. And this is what it says: “Knowing that the laying aside of my body [tabernacle] is imminent.” Peter knows that he will die very shortly.

“even as” or “just as our Lord Jesus Christ has showed me.” “Showing” here is the aorist active indicative of dêloô (δηλόω) [pronounced day-LOH-oh] and it means to make it very clear. Jesus Christ told Peter how he would die. John 21:18–19 is where Jesus told him about his eventual death.

Bob was once over the water, and one engine was on fire and another quit. The people got really shook. There were a bunch of psychiatrists on board. They really fell apart; and stewardesses were inane. They spent most of their time flirting with some guy in back.

We were about 1100 miles from land; and people began to think about death.

2Peter 1:14 “Knowing that the laying aside of my body is imminent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me.” (John 21:18–19) R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Peter is about to die and he knows he is about to die but he turns out to have at this point the most fantastic use of the Koine Greek language. His language is excellent. It should that he is not shaken, he is not weeping or wailing or falling apart. Why? Because he understands the doctrine of death, because he knows that to be absent from the body is to be face to face with the Lord, because he understands the principle that after death he goes to be with the Lord and there is no more sorrow, no more pain, the old things are passed away; because he knows that he has a mansion in heaven, because he knows that he has an inheritance, incorruptible and undefiled, fading not away, reserved in heaven for those who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. He knows these things. He is not a bit upset.

Death does not destroy Bible doctrine.

2Peter 1:15 And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

Verse 15 — The principle: death does not destroy Bible doctrine. We again have the word “moreover”, the post positive conjunctive particle de. “Moreover” is used once again to emphasize Peter’s approaching death in which he will be removed from this life. However, Peter will leave behind a legacy to the royal family. When anyone dies from the high ground of supergrace they always leave behind a legacy, a spiritual heritage for other members of the royal family of God, a legacy and a heritage that is greater than any materialistic thing that was ever provided through a will. And Peter standing on the high ground of the supergrace life very close to death is about to leave a phenomenal legacy. He is about to pass on to us as members of the royal family of God, the colours.

“I will endeavour” — the future active indicative of the verb spoudazô (σπουδάζω) [pronounced spoo-DAWD-zoh] which means to make every effort, to be zealous, to be eager, to be diligent. The future tense is a gnomic future, it is used for a statement of fact which may be rightfully expected under normal conditions. Peter is producing the action of the verb in communicating a dynamic message in context. The indicative mood here views the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality, from the standpoint of dogma, from the standpoint of a dying person. So, “Moreover I will be diligent.”

The word “that” does not occur here. We have the emphatic use of the conjunction kai, ordinarily translated “and” and sometimes “even”, sometimes “also”, but here “in fact.”

Next in the Greek text comes an adverb, hekastote (ἑκάστοτε) [pronounced hek-AS-tot-eh] which means “at any time”; “ye may be able” is not found in the original manuscript. And next in the Greek is what we have in then English as “to have”, a present active infinitive of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] meaning to have or to have and to hold. We also have with it the accusative plural of the pronoun su forming the accusative of general reference. Su is the personal pronoun “you” and it should be translated with the infinitive in the accusative of general reference “you may have it”.

“after my decease” — the preposition meta plus the accusative of exodos (ἔ́ξοδος) [pronounced EX-ohd-oss] which means going out, going away, but it is used euphemistically as an expression for death, so it should be translated “after my death.”

“Indeed I will be diligent, in fact at any time you may have the doctrine after my death.”

Note the analysis of the present active infinitive of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh]. It says “you may have it.” This is a part of the accusative of general reference, it is a static present. The present tense, “you may have it,” means that it will always be available, it will perpetually exist. And the static present says in effect that doctrine will always exist. You may have doctrine “after my death,” he says. The active voice: the royal family of God will always have doctrine. The infinitive, again, is a part of the accusative of general reference.

“to have these things in remembrance” means literally, “to recall these things” or to “call to remembrance these things.” We have very difficult Greek here. “To have these things in remembrance” is made up of three words. We have an objective genitive plural from the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. Houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] is used for Bible doctrine. To be able to call specific doctrines into memory. The middle voice is the subject, the royal family, acting with a view toward participating in the results of the action of the verb. This is what is called an indirect middle, it emphasizes the agent as producing the action of the verb rather than participating in the results. We have an infinitive of purpose.

This is possibly the worst translated verse in the Bible.

2Peter 1:15 “Indeed I will be diligent, in fact at any time you may have the doctrine after my death to call to remembrance these things.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Summary

1. Doctrine continues in spite of the death or removal of any great teacher of doctrine or any pastor.

2. Peter will die very shortly but doctrine goes on forever.

3. Therefore it isn’t the man it is the message, it isn’t the human personality of the communicator, it is the content of doctrine that counts.

4. Men come and go but the Word of God abides forever.

5. The greatest thing a pastor can do for his congregation is to pass on the heritage of doctrine. The pastor needs to teach doctrine Doctrine resident in the soul of the believer is the objective in this dispensation. Doctrine resident in the soul of the believer is the basis of occupation with the person of Christ.

6. Doctrine in the soul is the means of acquiring the supergrace status, supergrace blessings. Whatever God has for us personally in our supergrace paragraph. We are a person who has been designed for blessing. We are in the royal family of God.

7. Doctrine resident in the soul, therefore, is the means of glorifying God who gives supergrace blessings to the royal family; and in so giving, God is glorified.

8. Therefore, if the pastor fulfills his function his departure or his death does not upset the stability of the congregation of royal priests.

9. Believers must depend upon doctrine resident in their souls rather than gimmicks, rather than scintillation from a personality-type pastor, any psychological systems, etc. The church is not designed as a lonely hearts club. .

10. Every pastor who is faithful in teaching the Word will build something permanent, something will live way beyond his lifetime. In other words, the pastor’s tombstone is the doctrine resident in the souls of his congregation. He doesn’t need a tombstone to mark his grave for the marker is in the soul of any believer who has taken in doctrine and who has advanced through his teaching.

11. Doctrine resident in the soul is the impact of the pastor’s life and no ornate tombstone could ever replace this monument. The pastor’s tombstone is the doctrine resident in the congregation. That doctrine must be more real than anything else in life.

This summary was slightly appended in the next lesson. Friendships that were forged in 1847, and Longstreet was right, but Lee rejected it. Picket was there as well; he said, “Sir, I am ready to charge.” This friendship lasted a lifetime, due to this charge (I guess known as Picket’s charge). Every Lieutenant who survived this charge was made a general in the Civil War.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #132

132 07/01/1974 Hebrews 10:32 via 2Peter 1:16; Matt. 16:27–28a Reality of doctrine from experience

Bob has overseen some of the painting. It is not yellow, but Confederate gold.

A review of the 2Peter translation and the points which closed out the last session.

You don’t come to Berachah to find a gal or a guy. You come to follow the colors; and you will make some of the greatest friendships that you have ever made.

Grant would not take Lee’s sword or destroy the confederates after they surrendered, as the radical Republicans wanted them to do.

Patricia (Patsy) Louise Lane is marrying Bobby in Berachah Church. A lieutenant heard about this impending marriage and said, “That’s great; every man needs a patsy.” They did meet in Berachah. Open wedding. All will be invited.

A lot of guests will be coming for this 4^th of July Conference. This time, infantrymen and their low crawl.

Hebrews 10:32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,

In 2Peter 1:16–18 we have the reality of doctrine from experience — the seeing of doctrine, the feeling of doctrine, the smelling of doctrine, the tasting of doctrine, the hearing of doctrine in a very real type of situation.

2Peter 1:16 For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

Verse 16 begins with the illitive use of conjunctive particle gar. It presents a reason why doctrine is the only criterion. It also presents a reason why this is what a pastor must do: he must repeat, he must continue, he must interpret, he must talk and talk and teach and teach and teach.

“we have not followed” — the aorist active participle exakoloutheô (ἐξακολουθέω) [pronounced ex-ak-ol-oo-THEH-oh] plus the negative, which is “for not having followed.” Exakoloutheô (ἐξακολουθέω) [pronounced ex-ak-ol-oo-THEH-oh] means to follow authority, it means to be obedient to authority, it means to respect the authority and therefore to follow the one who possesses it. Peter says, “we have not followed as our authority.” Peter is saying first of all by this negative that there is an authority to follow, and the authority that you follow is the most important authority of all as far as the Church Age is concerned — the authority of the pastor-teacher who is communicating. The aorist tense is the constative aorist, and with the negative it says we follow a system of authority — the constative aorist — but when you put the negative in there is also a system of authority you do not follow. So we actually have a double aorist here. Negative: we do not follow the wrong system of authority; positive: we do follow the right system of authority. the pastor-teacher concept. The active voice: Peter as an apostle and a writer of scripture does not use human authority or human viewpoint as source material. The participle is circumstantial and it has antecedent action to the main verb, the main verb is “we made known.”

Since orders could not be heard, the guide-on was the colors. Bob has a regimental colors. They were to be destroyed. This is the last flag of that regimental organization. Bob looks at the patches. It’s not the prettiest flag he has ever seen; it is the pretties flag he has ever seen.

Then men valued these colors so much. The 16^th main on the first day of Gettysburg, they were given a suicide mission. One regiment was left behind to hold a corp and a half of confederates. 600 men to hold about 30,000 men. The men took pieces of the flag and took it with them. They took shreds of this flag and those shreds were framed all over Maine (I think). This guide-on flag represents authority.

The local church is designed to teach doctrine. You do not grow from other organizations. It is not taught by those in authority; it is not a growth organization. The YMCA was an organization like these others, and look where they are today. Local churches kept on going. There have always been local churches. Navigators, Campus Crusade, etc. will all go by the wayside; but the local church will continue. One-on-one teaching is not authorized.

“cunningly devised” — the perfect passive participle of sophizô (σοφίζω) [pronounced sof-IHD-zoh] which means subtly concocted, cleverly devised, skillfully invented. The consummative perfect is different. We think of the perfect tense in the sense of the intensive perfect where you have completed action and the results going on. We don’t have that here. There is no completed action that results here, this is called a consummative perfect in distinction to the one that we are familiar with. The consummative perfect does not emphasize the existing results but it emphasizes the process. The process is completed but the process is emphasized. The passive voice: the subject [fables or myths] receives the action of the verb. The participle is ascriptive, i.e. the participle is used as an adjective. So it should be translated “cleverly concocted.” It means having been cleverly concocted but is translated simply “cleverly concocted.”

Then we have the substantive that goes with the participial adjective, the instrumental plural of muthos (μθος) [pronounced MOO-thohs] which means “myths” just as it is transliterated. It also means legends or fables. So far we have the fact that myths existed at the time that Peter wrote. When he says “cleverly concocted” he means one devised by Satan himself.

There were myths which existed during the time of Peter. An old Greek myth from before the rise of Athens. It was revived in this 1^st century. It was 700 or 800 years. This myth was used by Satan to counter the teaching of supergrace. Baccus and Philemon is the name of the myth. We go back to there land of Phrygia; and this is a husband and wife. Hard to tell which is which (Baccus is the woman). They had a good life and they were poverty stricken. They were a kindly elderly couple. Old man and old woman are not seen as heroes. No romance novels of a couple like that. These two were over 60. It reached a very interesting point. Two travelers were coming through Phrygia, and they began to ask for shelter for the evening. They kept getting no answers. Jupiter and Mercury (originally, Zeus and Hermes). They came to a cottage in the poorest part of town, the cottage of Baccus and Philemon. They saw the two travelers and invited them in. They asked for hospitality for the evening. He got his wife up, and she had not much to offer, but she got together the best that she could. They had cheap wine. They would pour wine from the jug and it would fill up again. Then they tasted the wine and it was really good. The food changed before them as well. After the meal was over, the visitors revealed who they were. And Jupiter asked, “What would you like to have?” “To live together.” Jupiter gave them a long happy life, being made young again, in a beautiful marble temple. They were old and looking into each other’s eyes. They were turned into trees, an oak and linden tree. There was this temple there with the two trees. Together in life and not parted in death.

I know that this does not do much for you, but it did a lot for people in the ancient world. Think of all the old people who picked up on that myth. The idea of sexual prosperity, material prosperity are all a part of this myth. Revived by Satan himself to dangle in front of his own people, if you will just be nice to a hippie, friendly to a stranger, you might get an extended life. This is designed so that “I, Satan, can provide for you.”

This is what Peter had in mind, when he was speaking of myths. ...cleverly concocted myths...

“when we made known” — the aorist active indicative of gnôrizô (γνωρίζω) [pronounced gnoh-RID-zoh]. It means to communicate. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, and it summarizes all of Peter’s doctrinal teaching with emphasis on the second advent, which will be used. The second advent of Christ, the constant advents of Jupiter is the concept in mind here. The active voice: Peter communicated doctrine. The plural subject indicates all the teaching of all of the apostles. Peter isn’t the only one who taught doctrine and so he brings in the other apostles and he brings pastor-teachers in with him on it. As a matter of fact that “we” stands for all pastors down through the ages who has communicated Bible doctrine faithfully. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that Peter, as well as others with the proper gift and the proper authority, has taught doctrine.

“unto you” — the dative plural of the personal pronoun su. It is the dative of indirect object and it indicates the ones in whose interest the teaching of doctrine is performed. So it also becomes a dative of advantage. Now Peter names a doctrine because this is not only one of the doctrines that he had resident in his own soul but it is a doctrine which he personally had observed — “the power and coming of our Lord.” The word “power” is the accusative singular of the direct object of dúnamis (δύναμις) [pronounced DOO-nahm-iss]. This means inherent power. The word “coming” is also the accusative singular of another direct object, of parousia. This word is used eschatologically for at least three different events. It is correctly translated “coming.” But watch this word parousia because it is used for the Rapture in 2Thessalonians 2:1; it is used for the second advent in 2Thessalonians 2:8; it is used for the rise of the man of sin in the Tribulation in 2Thessalonians 2:8. So it is used eschatologically for a number of things. In our passage it is used for the second advent, the return of Christ to the earth.

2Peter 1:16a “For not having followed as our source and authority cleverly concocted myths, when we had communicated to you all the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ,...

Summary

1. Peter has selected a doctrine from eschatology to make his point.

2. Peter will use the doctrine of the second advent as the basis for establishing the true and absolute criterion for the royal family of God in the Church Age.

3. Peter has the advantage of reality in this doctrine from two sources: from the experience of seeing the doctrine at the mount of transfiguration, and from the residence of doctrine in his soul — second advent doctrine.

4. The question arises: What makes a doctrine real? Seeing it or knowing it in the soul?

5. The question is now going to be answered. What is real to Peter? Seeing Christ as He will appear at the second advent, or the doctrine which teaches Christ at the second advent.

6. The answer will be found in our following verses.

The word “but” is a strong adversative conjunction allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH]. It sets up a contrast between visual observation of the second advent and the doctrine of the second advent resident in Peter’s soul; “were”— the aorist passive participle of ginomai — “but having been made,” literally. The constative aorist views the action of the verb in its entirety. The passive voice: Peter became a spectator of the second advent on the mount of transfiguration. The participle is circumstantial, Peter was actually there.

“eyewitnesses” — the predicate nominative plural of the compound noun epoptês (ἐπόπτης) [pronounced ep-OHP-tace] which means spectators. The plural indicates the presence of others with Peter there. In fact, it was Peter, James and John on the mount of transfiguration. So this was empirical reality, and it was reality with regard to the majesty of our Lord for we have an objective genitive from the demonstrative pronoun ἐκενος. ἐκενος denotes a remote object and emphasizes it — the second advent. We also have the objective genitive of megaleiotês (μεγαλειότης) [pronounced mehg-al-ī-OT-ace] which means grandeur or majesty — “but became spectators of that one’s magnificence.”

2Peter 1:16 “For not having followed as our source and authority cleverly concocted myths, when we had communicated to you all the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we have become spectators of his majestic magnificence [appearance of the second advent].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

The observation of Christ on the mount of transfiguration was the reality of the second advent from experience — through empiricism. It is Peter’s objective of this context to point out that while he has seen the second advent it is more real to him because of doctrine in his soul, and that if you must choose a source of reality there is nothing comparable to doctrine in the soul. In other words, Peter was saying if he had his choice of following the colours [doctrine] or just simply sitting down or going of in a tangent he will follow the colours every time.

Matt. 16:27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

Matthew 16:27 — “For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” The word “for” is the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] — “For you see.” Jesus is coming to the end of a message and He is now about to bring in a conclusion — “the Son of man”, the title of Jesus Christ in His hypostatic union with emphasis on His humanity. Something they can see is the humanity of Christ — “shall come” is not quite correct because we really have two verbs here in the Greek. The first is the present active indicative of mellô (μέλλω) [pronounced MEHL-low] which means to be about to be. The present tense here is a futuristic present, it denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that it is regarded as having already occurred. There is nothing like this is in the English, the futuristic present is peculiar to the Greek language. The active voice: the second advent produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative contemplating the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality. So already Jesus is stating here the reality of the second advent.

Then we have a second verb, a present active infinitive of érchomai (ἔρχομαι) [pronounced AIR-khoh-my]. This is a futuristic present as well, and also the second advent produces the action, but this is called the infinitive of conceived result. So the Translation: “For you see the Son of man is destined to come”; “in the [his] glory” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative singular of doxa (δόξα) [pronounced DOHX-ah]. When Jesus is standing in front of them He has no glory, He “has no ostentatious majesty that we would desire Him” — Isaiah 53. And so He tells the disciples He is going to come back again with ostentatious aristocracy.

Bob always sees those with furrowed brows; or the one who always leans over and shares his own thinking.

“with his angels” — meta plus the genitive of aggelos (ἄγγελος) [pronounced AHN-geh-loss] means “accompanied by his angels”; “and then” is the conjunction kai plus the adverb tote which means “at that specific time.”

Then a quotation from Psalm 62:12 and Proverbs 24:12, “he shall reward every man according to his works.” The word “he shall reward” is the future active indicative of apodidômi (ἀποδίδωμι) [pronounced ap-od-EED-o-mee]. It is a gnomic future for a fact of doctrine expected at the second advent. Jesus will produce the action. The declarative mood is dogmatic about it, and it has to do with entrance into the Millennium. He will give back. This means to pay back. While we can translate it “reward” if we want to He is really talking about giving back Israel their national entity under God. The word apodidômi (ἀποδίδωμι) [pronounced ap-od-EED-o-mee] means to give back. He is not going to reward anyone, He is going to give Israel back its national standing.

“each one according to his works” [praxis (πρξις) [pronounced PRAX-ihs] — actions, i.e. whether he believes in the Lord or not]. That is the determining factor with the future of Israel.

Matt. 16:28 Truly, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."

Verse 28 — “Verily” is amên (ἀμήν) [pronounced am-ANE], this particle means to earnestly or positively affirm something. It is a transliteration from the Hebrew amen. This is legitimate since this was done in the Septuagint. It is used in the gospels for introducing something that is very solemn and very significant and it has a lot of meanings. It has, first of all, a pubic speaking meaning — concentrate. It always demanded that everyone refocus. After using this particular word Jesus would always pause, it demands that there be a pause, a pause to let everyone concentrate.

Sometimes in public speaking, someone pauses for a few seconds; suddenly people wake up and notice what is happening.

Suddenly someone wakes up, looks around, makes a comment to his wife.

“Verily” is an old English word which means “truth.” Now why did our Lord do this? He did it because the people could not concentrate. It should be translated, “Truth I say,” the present active indicative of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. The present tense is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. This is dative of advantage as well as the indirect object, it indicates the ones who are standing there that it is in their interest to see what is going to happen in six days.

“There are” — a conjunction hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] used for quotation marks, plus the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]; “some standing here” — the nominative masculine plural is the subject; “some” is an indefinite relative pronoun, tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç]; the perfect passive participle of histêmi (ἵστημι) [pronounced HIHS-tay-mee] gives us a present periphrastic, which means that some are standing there like bumps on a log and not listening. They were standing with blank minds. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that they were about to get a very beautiful picture of the second advent. He said “here” which is the adverb of place — hôde (δε) [pronounced HO-deh].

“which” — nominative masculine plural, qualitative relative pronoun hostis (ὅστις) [pronounced HOH-stihs]. The qualitative relative pronoun emphasizes poor quality here. The meaning of the qualitative relative pronoun, whether it is good or bad quality, is determined by the other words. And what are the other words? They are all bad, they are all people not concentrating, people not getting it, people not understanding it, people whose minds are wandering.

“shall not taste death” — the aorist active subjunctive of geuomai (γεύομαι) [pronounced GHYOO-ohm-ahee] (γεύομαι) [pronounced GHYOO-ohm-ahee] plus a double negative ou mê, and the combination of the double negative occurs 96 times in the New Testament.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #133

133 07/02/1974 Hebrews 10:32 via 2Peter 1:17–19a; Matt. 16:28–17:9 Discipline produces security

Matthew 16:28 — “Truth I way to you, there are some of those standing here [Peter, James, and John] who will never taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

Why are we here? We are not here to pray or to be Miss Goody Two shoes. We are here to take the high ground. Each one of us has our own supergrace paragraph. There are billions of dollars waiting to be dumped into someone’s lap. There are the heritage, apart from the spiritual heritage of the believer.

We are going to get the whole panoramic view of why we are here and what it is all about.

Matthew 17:1 And after six days Jesus took with Him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.

The Lord Jesus Christ was about to make a demonstration which is very important. In chapter 17:1 — “And after six days taketh.” The word “and” is a transitional use of the conjunction kai. “Six days” means an elapse of time after Jesus had given a message that no one seemed to understand too well. The word “taketh” is the present active indicative of the verb paralambanô (παραλαμβάνω) [pronounced pahr-al-am-BAHN-oh], which means to take along with you. Actually, para means discipline. It means to be taken along under a system of authority. When it says that Jesus took along it means in effect that He took a detachment of three here.

Bob had security and discipline all of his life. So many men today who could not make it today in the Army; in fact, they could not make it today in, excuse the expression, the Navy. No orientation to authority in life.

Jesus took a detachment with Him.

“and bringeth them up” — the present active indicative of anapherô (ἀναφέρω) [pronounced an-af-EHR-oh] which means to be led by authority. The word phérô (φέρω) [pronounced FEH-row] means to bear; with aná (ἀνά) [pronounced aw-NAW] it means to bear again and again. The historical present here plus the accusative plural of the direct object from the intensive pronoun autos can be translated “and he led them by his authority up into a high mountain.”

We think that this is Mount Tabor. Anyone who has seen all those highs and lows for weather know that, in Houston, you are just being faked out.

Matthew 17:1 And after six days take along with Him Peter and James, and John his brother, and he led them by his authority up into a high mountain.

Matthew 17:2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

Verse 2 — “And was transfigured.” Now Jesus said that some of the disciples would actually see the second advent long before it ever occurred. We have the aorist passive indicative of metamorfow which means to change one’s form, an outward and visible change, and outward transformation or appearance. We have had hippies come to Berachah Church and be changed into Airborne Rangers, which is about a big a change as a person can make.

The aorist tense is a constative, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes an occurrence, our Lord’s transformation on the mount of transfiguration and regardless of the extent gathers it up into a single whole. The passive voice: Jesus Christ receives the action of the verb — transformation. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that for a short time on that mountain with these three men as a detachment Jesus was transformed from the looks that He had to how He would appear at the second advent. It was a glorious transformation.

“before them” is literally “in front of them”; “his face did shine” — this means not really to shine but great animation, great aristocratic bearing; “and his clothes were changed and became white as light” — in other words He was very aristocratic looking, just as He will appear at the second advent.

Matthew 17:2 And He was transfigured in front of them, and his face became animated like the sun, and his clothes became [transparent or] white like light.

Matthew 17:3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with Him.

Verse 3 — “And, behold there appeared to them talking with him” — and now we have the two heralds of the second advent — “Moses and Elijah.” This is an authentic second advent scene. Peter saw this with his eyes and heard it with his ears. This very picturesque scene.

Matthew 17:3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with Him.

Guess who has something to say? He always had some comment.

Matthew 17:4 And Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah."

Verse 4 — “Then answered Peter” — apokrinomai (ἀποκρίνομαι) [pronounced ahp-oh-KREE-noh-mai] doesn’t means to answer because no one has asked Peter anything. He spoke up; “Lord” — kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss], this vocative indicates that Jesus Christ is God; “it is good for us to be here” isn’t quite what he said, he said “it is to our advantage to be here” or, literally in the Greek, “it is advantageous that we are here.” Notice two things about what Peter is saying: “it is advantageous to be here”, but he also says “we are here, you and I God.” Peter said in effect, “We are lucky, you and I Lord, to be here with all these VIPs” — Moses and Elijah. He hadn’t been listening, he missed the boat.

Bob looks for the husband and wife, the one who made comments. “About this time, there’d be a comment.”

Peter has decided that this is where he wants to be for the rest of his life. From that range, you could see the mountain range and the Mediterranean. Palestine does not appeal to Bob; he likes the Arabs like the communists. Bob avoids like the plague people who have been to Palestine.

Bob talks about the various battlegrounds where he has been and what happened there. Some of you went

“if thou wilt” — this is a conditional particle, a first class condition of supposition plus the present active indicative of the verb thélô (θέλω) [pronounced THEH-loh], and it really says “if you desire it.” Peter had learned enough doctrine to know that he just couldn’t override the Lord.

“let us make” should be “we will make here [in this place] three tents; one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah. He thought he could talk the Lord into this big deal. The implications of this “big deal” are no cross, no salvation, no royal family of God, nothing that is worthwhile in life, nothing that is permanent, no basis for perfect inner happiness, no basis for stability in life, no basis for divine viewpoint, nothing that is really worthwhile. This happens with people occasionally. They would like to superimpose their ideas on God’s plan. They would like to change God’s plan. They forget the principle that God is perfect, God is a genius, everything that comes from Him is perfect, God is perfect, His plan is perfect. And if any imperfect object has anything to say about the plan then the plan is no stronger than the imperfect object. Peter has forgotten this principle for Peter is an imperfect object and therefore his planning is not good.

Matthew 17:4 And Peter spoke up and said to Jesus, "Lord, it is advamtageous that we are here. If You wish, we will make three tents here, one for You and one for Moses and one for Elijah."

It sounds innocuous, but it’s not. No cross, no redemption. Peter’s planning is not good.

Matthew 17:5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him."

At this time God the Father interrupts Peter. Verse 5 — “While he yet spake [while Peter was still speaking]” — Peter was not through with his plan, he had just got the part of his three tents for the Lord, Moses, and Elijah and was now about to go on when just at that point “a bright cloud overshadowed them; and behold a voice out from the cloud” — Peter heard this voice, it was the voice of God — “which was saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I have been well pleased; Hear ye him” — present active imperative of akoúô (ἀκούω) [pronounced ah-KOO-oh], which means not only to listen but to listen and respect the authority of, to concentrate on, to recognize the authority of the one who communicates. The present tense is the present tense of duration — Keep listening Peter! Just keep listening to the Lord and you’ll get squared away.

Matthew 17:5 While Peter was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud cast a shadow over them, and a Voice from the cloud said, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I have been well pleased; keep listening to Him."

Matthew 17:6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were extremely frightened.

Verse 6 — “And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their faces and were extremely frightened,

Matthew 17:7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Rise, and have no fear."

Verse 7 — “And Jesus came and touching them said, Get up, do not be afraid.

Matthew 17:8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus Himself alone.

Verse 8 — “And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

Matthew 17:9 And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, "Do not tell anyone about this vision, until the Son of Man has risen from the dead."

Verse 9 — “And as they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them saying, Do not tell anyone about this vision, until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.” In other words, this was a closed subject until the resurrection of Christ. Now after the resurrection of Christ, and many years later, Peter is dying and he recalls this event and he uses it to make a point.

He has done exceedingly abundant more than we could ask or think. This is about time and not eternity. God wants us to have the cup. God is the host and we are the guest; and when we reach supergrace, God begins pouring.

Hebrews 10:32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,

2Peter 1:17 — we begin with the explanatory use of the particle gar: “For you see.”

2Peter 1:17 For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,"

“he received” — the aorist active participle of lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh] which refers to the mount of transfiguration. The big point here is the temporal participle, “when he received”. This refers to a moment of time when our Lord was suddenly changed. Remember that this was empirical reality. Peter saw with his eyes the Lord change, he heard the voice of God the Father. It was so real and so great to him that he wanted to start building a city right there. He wanted the crown before the cross. But before he could get the whole plan out God the Father interrupted him.

There is something more real than what you see with your eyes or hear with your ears.

The second advent and the Millennial reign of Christ were very real to Peter. They were real because he saw it, they were real because he heard the voice of God, they were real because it was such a great feeling to be there that he wanted to stay there forever. That is how great it was to him. And because it was so great to him he didn’t want it to ever change, he wanted to keep it just that way. Therefore the second advent is real to Peter.

There is something more real than what you see with your eyes, what you hear with your ears, what you taste with your mouth, what you smell with your nose. There is something more real in life than any of these things, and that is Peter’s dying message. In effect, Peter’s dying message explains to us the colours as the members royal family of God. As they did in ancient times we are expected to guide on the colours, to follow the colours, and to move to that high ground of the supergrace life.

And so we read, “For you see when he had received honour and glory from God the Father.”

“when there came such a voice” is not correct. The English translation ignores the genitive absolute, ignores the word order, ignores the grammar, and it should be translated “such a unique voice having been carried to him by his majestic glory.” In other words, it doesn’t say when he heard a voice, it says “such a unique voice”. The voice of God was unique.

2Peter 1:17 “For when he had received from God the Father honour and glory, such a unique voice having been carried to him by His majestic glory, This one is My Son, My beloved One, with reference to whom I have been well pleased.”

What was left out from the Matthew account” “Keep listening to him.” Now in his dying moments, in effect, Peter is saying I am about to fall and I am going to pass on the colours to you. Pick them up and carry on.

Peter is dying and he is near the end of his life; and he shut up and he began to listen. If you listen long enough, you will learn and you can speak. He picked up the colos. But now he is falling, and he wants to hand off the colors.

2Peter 1:18 we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain.

Verse 18 — “And this voice [this same voice, literally. The voice of God the Father] having been carried from heaven we heard” — the constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, they heard everything that God the Father said. The greatest asset in the Christian life is listening. Keep listening. To keep listening you have to recognize that there is an authority greater than your own. You have to recognize that there is a plan greater than your own. Therefore the greatest asset that any believer can ever have is to keep listening, keep listening, keep listening — when we were with him in the holy mount.”

2Peter 1:18 ...and this same voice, having been carried from heaven, we ourselves heard, for we were with Him on the holy mountain.

Verse 19 — there is a greater reality. “We have” — present active indicative of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] which means to have and to hold. The present tense is a static present, it represents a condition as perpetually existing. The active voice: members of the royal family produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative viewing the action of the verb from reality. Peter is saying there is something more real than being on that mountain, there is something more real than seeing Jesus transformed into the aristocratic and majestic bearing of the second advent, there is something more real than hearing the voice of God. The Word of God is more real than what you see, what you hear, what you smell, what you taste. It is the most important objective reality in life. It is your life, it is more important than the air that you breathe. It is the Word of God which is alive and powerful.

Notice he says “we keep having also a more sure” — incorrect. Bébaios (βέβαιος) [pronounced BEB-ah-yoss] means more reliable — “prophetic doctrine [not word of prophecy].” Peter is saying, more reliable than the mount of transfiguration is reading about it or learning it, or having the doctrine resident in the soul. What the Bible has to say is more real and more important than anything around us. If there is a conflict between what we see and what the Bible says, the Bible is always right.

There are many believers today who get upset over killing the enemy. They think that it is against God’s will to kill the enemy. The Word of God is very real and very clear. He will have not one moment of regret.

The Russians have all of this armor and all of these men; but they cannot keep their trucks working. The Russians have not attacked us, because they have not yet solved the transportation problem.

The Russians feared Patton because he could organize his trucks to supply his troops. He had patrols all over, at the edge of Berlin; and FDR backed down. Patton hard armor everywhere and they were afraid of him. Armor is no good without trucks. The Russians have persuaded Nixon to have Ford and GM to build trucks for the enemy.

You cannot be a conscientious objector as a Christian. It is right to kill the enemy. We have studied these passages dealing with war. It is kill, kill, kill the enemy. Someone came in to talk to Bob and told him how many men his troops killed and trucks and armor stopped. That is the Christian view.

2Peter 1:19 “We keep. possessing this prophetic doctrine as something more reliable, with reference to which doctrine, you perform honorably.

“you do well” — poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh], the present active indicative here means performance, “you perform.” The present tense is a progressive present and it emphasizes existing results. You keep on performing. The active voice: members of the royal family of God produce the action of the verb through the function of GAP. The indicative mood is declarative. The word “well” is kalos (καλός) [pronounced kal-OSS] meaning honourably — “you perform honourably.” No matter what God has for you in this life, if you have doctrine resident in your soul you will perform honourably.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #134

134 07/03/1974 Hebrews 10:32a "Follow the Colors"

Beginning of 4^th of July conference. There will be no offerings. Complicated schedule. 10:00 hours will be the latest revelry in history. This is the longest message, at 1:27.

A citation for the silver star for Col. Howard. He is the most decorated officer in the US Army. In fact, in US history. Bob names all of these badges and awards and commissions. He is given an award in Berachah; not sure what for?

Col. Howard speaks. More patriotic types in Berachah than in all of the 50 states. In SF, the students were put on the plane first and at a lower rate. A president who said, “Where freedom is threatened, Americans are challenged.”

Problems with motivating his men in Vietnam. A poem he wrote.

The unpardonable sin from Hebrews 10:31. People often would call Bob and tell him of the unpardonable sin that they committed. There is no personal sin by category which is unpardonable.

The gospel. The Lord died twice on the cross. The sins of the world were poured out upon Him and judged. The cross was His objective. He suffered many indignities. He was slapped and beaten until his face was unrecognizable. When He began to take on our sins, then He called out, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me? Jesus was still alive when He said, finished. Religion tries to help God. His plan does not need any help from us. God the Father planned it, God the Son executed it, God the Holy Spirit revealed it.

The problem of sin, the problem of man, and the problem of God. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Jesus took care of the problem of sin.

The doctrine of redemption is all of us being born into the slave market of sin. We are all here and all in the same boat. All people are born into the slave market of sin. We walk out be believing in Jesus Christ. The best thing that you have ever done is –R and God is +R; and there can be no fellowship. We have a position in Adam; in Adam all die. God credits to every person who believes +R.

No matter how you feel, that does not impress God. How you feel about it is inconsequential. It is how God thinks about it; that is important. The problem of sin, redemption; the problem of man, reconciliation. The final problem is God. God is perfect righteousness. He cannot accept us as having relative righteousness at best.

60' high curtain; 30' wide; and it was torn in half. There is no more a barrier between man and God.

Once you are saved, you are given a certain number of years to live. And you will live that number of years. .45 automatic drawn on the board. We are here until God wants us to go. Why does He keep us here? No one is going to feel sorry in heaven. God is glorified by taking the high ground. You have to have your own cup; that is your supergrace capacity for life. We all have a paragraph with our names on it.

Hebrews 10:32–39, the challenge to follow the colours. In verses 32–34 we have the beginning of the advance. 2Peter 1:12–19

Why didn’t the confederacy win? They should have had the best army and leaders. Less war and battles as one nation. Bob describes some things on the first day of Gettysburg. General Barlow, 27 years old, and one of the meanest. One saw that Barlow was in bad shape. His wife was gotten through the lines. They met later at a banquet. Are you any relation to a general who died that day? I am that man.

The famous charge in up Chapoltacec, all on the same side; and these were generals on opposite sides in the Civil War.

Often 12 or 15 different men who carry the colors. Bob knows all of those who carried the colors. 72% confederates in that regiment (brigade?) died. They stopped that, when too many men were being killed. We have our colors. We are here for a reason. We are all different. No such thing as a stereotype Christian. No two of us are alike; and we are not supposed to be alike.

This is why we are here; how and why we follow the colors.

Hebrews 10:32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,

Verse 32 — the first word is “but”, the Greek particle de is merely used for continuity. This is used to set up a contrast. There is a contrast between what we have had about the unpardonable sin and what is the objective of those who believe in Jesus Christ. This one little particle is used to change the subject from eternal salvation to the question, What are we doing here? The royal family has its regimental colours, Bible doctrine in the soul, and we advance on the basis of following the colours. Therefore, dressing to the colours is now going to be explained.

“call to remembrance” — the present middle imperative of the verb anamimnêskô (ἀναμιμνήσκω) [pronounced an-am-im-NACE-koh]. Aná (ἀνά) [pronounced aw-NAW] means again and again; mnaomai (μνάομαι) [pronounced MNAH-om-ahee] means to remember. It means to recall something again and again. If you remember something that you really enjoyed at some time in your life, some moment of happiness, some triumph, something that you really liked, you will remember it all of your life. We have here an iterative present tense, it describes what recurs at successive intervals. All of us have moments when we can remember. The middle voice is the direct middle, it refers the results of the action directly to the subject with reflexive force. You yourself must do some remembering. The imperative mood: this is a command. In preparation for the advance we expect commands. So literally, “But keep remembering again and again.”

Life is a series of concentrations. But, every now and again, we have time when we can think of things which have happened in our lives.

We remember things in our soul; we are not vain and proud; so we know we exist. We use our souls in order to remember. Bob describes the different parts of the soul. The heart is where you do your thinking. You need vocabulary in order to think. You have a Bible filled with a lot of printing; but it is no good in the Bible. It has to be in your soul. You cannot take the high ground unless you have the proper equipment, with is Bible doctrine in the soul. God provided the gift of pastor-teacher. If Bob decided to put up spittoons all around the church tomorrow, then there would be spittoons all around the church. I know I’m right; you don’t know that, but I do. A lot of you don’t like me, but still you stick. You know that you are going to learn from me. You are able to set aside the personality and see the authority. Even though you can’t stand anything about me, you still keep coming.

Sometimes you show up, and you are filled with liberal ideas. But sooner or later, the Word of God seeps through. The importance of Bible doctrine is the issue here.

You can’t love someone until you know them. You will never know Jesus Christ until you learn doctrine. You need clearcut orders.

Since we are dealing here with the advance to the high ground of the supergrace life, advance to the point of great happiness and blessing, since that is the issue what is it that we must remember again and again and again? The answer to that is the importance of Bible doctrine, the importance of getting Bible doctrine out of the book and into our souls. You have to be equipped. You can’t take the high ground until to take doctrine from the Bible to your right lobe. That is what must be done.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #135

135 07/04/1974 Hebrews 10:32b-33 Holding ground in success and suffering

Bob hates announcements, but it is necessary. A Ranger demonstration outside. Some double-sessions. Uniforms are the order of the day. A military communion Saturday night. Bob will have the Saturday night movie right here. He’s got a copy of Zulu.

The objective is to cover the rest of Hebrews 10; then the importance of doctrine, and then one more thing.

The guide on allowed for an army to exploit their attack.

Hebrews 10:32a Translation: “But keep remembering again and again to yourselves the former days,...

“the former days” — this brings us right back into the problem of the interpretation of this passage. This passage was originally addressed to those who were believers in the Lord Jesus Christ in the city of Jerusalem in 67 AD. The problem with these people was that they had started to make the advance before, they had started to follow the colours after their salvation. They had the advantage of some of the greatest preachers of all time — men like Peter and other men were great in communicating doctrine to these people. But they had failed because of a distraction. They had failed along the way because they just simply could not keep positive toward Bible doctrine. Their failure in a sense reflects the failure of fundamentalist Christianity, for while their failure was one of going back to the animal sacrifices, going back into the temple where the veil between the holy place and the holy of holies had to be repaired and had to be put up again. They preferred to stand before a veil which says keep out rather than to enjoy the privileges of living behind the veil.

What was wrong with these believers? They could actually go into the temple but they could never go into the holy of holies. They stayed out of it because the ritual of the Old Testament said stay out. They actually stayed away from the place where they lived — in the holy of holies. As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ they were in union with Christ. Being in union with Christ they actually lived in the holy of holies and they didn’t even recognize their home. They didn’t recognize the significance of the rent veil, they did not understand in any way the principles involved as far as the Word of God is concerned. Why? Because they had retreated, because they had fallen off for some reason. We do not have a temple today and we do not have people going back into the temple and offering animal sacrifices, called in Hebrews chapter 6 “crucifying the Son of God afresh,” but we do have something that is just as bad. We have people who peel off because of negative volition toward doctrine. They want to be entertained, they want to be amused, and therefore they can’t stick out the daily concept of study the Word, today, tomorrow, the next day. And so we have people today who fail to continue the advance, the fail to stay with Bible doctrine, they are no longer taking it in. And when they fail to do this there are many different types of allurements to satisfy their negative volition. Maybe these allurements are getting into some service organization or into some social organization. Often these are people who simply want a cheap thrill. Navigators and Campus Crusade, etc cannot take you to the high ground. You have one objective in this life, and that is to move to the high ground. We are not in this life to get sidetracked by the works groups. Bible doctrine is neglected when Bible doctrine is rejected (or vice versa?).

Hebrews 10:32 But recall the former days when, after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with sufferings,

“The former days in which” — refers to the fact that at one time the original recipients of Hebrews were definitely interested in Bible doctrine.

“after ye were illuminated” — the aorist passive participle of the verb phôtizô (φωτίζω) [pronounced foh-TID-zoh], which means to enlighten, and it means here to be enlightened by Bible doctrine. It is simply a synonym for Bible doctrine in the soul. The aorist tense is a constative aorist and it gathers the action of the verb into one entirety. The believer began the advance in doctrine and started growing, and it gathers the fact that there was a time in the life of these believers when they were positive toward doctrine, when they wanted to go to Bible class every day, when they wanted to take in doctrine and learn something about the Lord so that they could advance. The passive voice: the believer receives the action of the verb through the daily function of GAP and the people who are addressed here as the original recipients had been positive in the past. Therefore the participle is a temporal participle. It also has antecedent action and it should be translated “but keep remembering again and again to yourselves the former days in which after you had become enlightened.” They had started out in the right way; something caused them to peel off.

While they were advancing they were advancing into pressure, they were advancing under fire. This is brought out by “ye endured” — the aorist active indicative of the verb hupomenô (ὑπομένω) [pronounced hoop-om-EHN-oh],. This word means to remain, to stay in under pressure, to hold your ground. The culminative aorist of this verb views the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasizes the result. The active voice: in the midst of the pressure the believers did not run away, they stood their ground, they did not retreat when pressure came their way. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative which views the action of the verb from the standpoint of reality and certainty.

“a great fight” — the accusative of direct object of the adjective polus, polos (πολύς, πολλός) [pronounced poll-OOS], which means much or great, plus athlêsis (ἄθλησις) [pronounced ATH-lay-sis] which means two things. It can refer either to competing in a competitive type sport or it can refer to a tactical situation in combat. Here we are following the military analogy.

“of afflictions” — the word for afflictions, pathêma (πάθημα) [pronounced PATH-ay-mah], means sufferings or pressures. When these Jews first accepted the Lord they took Bible doctrine into their left lobe. They transferred it through positive volition into epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] which was taken into the right lobe. They had Bible doctrine in their right lobes and they started to advance. As they started to advance they had a number of different problems. One of them was success, some of them could not take success. They began to have some blessing in their lives and they lost track of the source. Some of them were promoted; they lost track of the source. Remember: In every blessing and happiness you will ever have in life the direct source is the Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t ever by negative volition turn your back on who and what the Lord is. They did and they lost out.

When some believers become successful, sometimes they leave behind those who they find embarrassing to them.

God keeps us in this life to bless us. God did not leave us behind to supply our needs. God has left us behind to bless us in the devil’s world. Our purpose is related completely and totally to Bible doctrine. It is more important for you to get Bible doctrine in the soul, every day; more than anything else.

Hebrews 10:32 “But keep remembering again and again to yourselves the former days, in which, after you had become enlightened, you held your ground in a great conflict of pressure [or, suffering].”

Hebrews 10:33 sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, and sometimes being partners with those so treated.

Verse 33 — we have the development of this with the original people involved. Whenever you have something of this sort it doesn’t mean that you are going through the same thing but it does mean that the principle applies even if it isn’t your exact situation.

The word “partly” is a part of the classical Greek. It is the accusative neuter singular from the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] plus the affirmative article men. This has nothing to do with Koine Greek, the language of the New Testament. We have sarcasm here to awaken these people. We have two “partlys” in this verse and we to understand that they are sarcasm.

You were a great believer; but now you are just a fancy dan. You have become uppity or snooty. You think you are better than everyone else. God will keep you alive and provide for you, so that you can have a long life of being spanked. This is sarcasm being used.

With them we have an accusative of general reference — “whilst ye were made a gazingstock”, the present passive participle theatrizô (θεατρίζω) [pronounced theh-at-RIHD-zoh] which means to put to shame, to be publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, to be in the amphitheater, to be embarrassed. Embarrassment is a lack of poise, lack of understanding, lack of concentration on who and what Christ is. When you are embarrassed you are in spiritual trouble. Embarrassment is the key to this word theatrizô (θεατρίζω) [pronounced theh-at-RIHD-zoh]. If you are embarrassed by your church, your Christian friends, by carrying a Bible that will all be changed when you start following the colours and take in Bible doctrine on a daily basis. The word “gazingstock” means to be publicly shamed, publicly embarrassed, publicly abused. We have in this participle part of the accusative of general reference where the participle is in the accusative case. The present tense is the historical present used for a past event viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence. The passive voice: believers received the action of the verb in the past when they were positive toward doctrine. The participle is a temporal participle. “Partly when being publicly embarrassed.”

Are you embarrassed when you pick up and Bible and tell the family you are going to church? Tell your mother-in-law, you should have been there.

“both” — we have “both and,” also in the classical Greek here — te kai; “by reproaches” means verbal insults or visual insults. People can insult you by the way they look at you. And if you are hypersensitive about the fact that you are a believer, a member of the royal family of God, have to publically carry a Bible, if you are sensitive about this, then you are not following the colours. You are going to have a miserable life. Who are those people who are laughing at you? Are they important? No they are not, but you have made them important by losing your perspective and being publicly embarrassed.

“affliction” — thlipsis (θλίπσις) [pronounced THLIP-siss], pressures.

“and partly whilst ye became” or literally, “having become” — the aorist passive participle of ginomai which actually means to become, as translated, but it is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes the occurrence and regardless of its extent or duration gathers it into a single whole. So now we are going to have the problem of your social life. When you find that you are being attracted to the unbeliever and to people outside of the periphery of your organization: you are a member of the royal family of God, you should be following the colours, and when you peel off an head in another direction then you’ve had it. That is exactly what the problem happens to be right here.

We have the fact that they have become “companions,” this is social life — “of them that were so used.” The problem here is that Christians often will be embarrassing to you. That is because Christians are under pressure. Sometimes, they act a little strange because they are being put under unusual pressure. The whole thing that is being developed here is the fact that you have a choice in your life at some time to be identified with someone who is under pressure and you don’t mind being identified with them because you love the Lord and you know the source of every blessing you will ever have. Many times Christians around you are going to be persecuted. Why are they persecuted? They have taken some kind of a stand for the Lord. They are being persecuted not because they have idiotic personalities but because they are believers and because they are advancing. Are you going to stand with them or are you going to go running off because of embarrassment? — “partners with those being treated in this manner.”

People were taught doctrine in Berachah Church; and they went to Dallas Theological Seminary, and became embarrassed and acted as if they did not know Bob.

“companions of them that were so used” — this is the genitive plural definite article plus the present middle participle of anastrephô (ἀναστρέφω) [pronounced an-as-TREF-oh], and an adverb is involved in this. Anastrephô (ἀναστρέφω) [pronounced an-as-TREF-oh] means to be treated rather than used.

Hebrews 11:33 “Partly, when being publicly abused both by visual and verbal insults, and by other pressures; and partly having become companions with those who are being treated in this manner.”

There is a concept that comes out of these two verses. It is the concept that we are in the ranks. This is portrayed by the association, by the fellowship with other members of the royal family of God on the earth. Our social life, our category #3 love should be directed toward other members of the royal family of God. In this way we stand by each other under the pressures and persecutions of life. We become support to each other as we advance toward the higher ground.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #136

136 07/04/1974 Hebrews 10:34a Compassion

Silver Star award in Vietnam. Lt. Pickering. He is there and talks to the church.

There is a Ranger who showed up for most of Bob’s conferences. Ranger Breison. 4 Berachan Rangers here being paid to take in the Word. Ranger Horton is invited up. There is some screaming and laughing. Not sure what happened. Honorary Ranger tag awarded to Col. Thieme. A lot of weird Ranger calls. “Sit down right here; this is Sgt. Brison.”

Hebrews 10:34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

Verse 34 — the phrase “of me in my bonds” is not found in the original text. “For” is an explanatory particle; “ye had compassion.” Having compassion is a good thing under certain circumstances as long as the compassion is dictated by principle, but to be a bleeding heart is not compassion.

It is not the man, but the message. This book bears that out.

Our policy should be nothing less than unconditional surrender. We expect to run our country under freedom and privacy.

Compassion is fine if you have capacity for life and it is based upon principle. The more realistic the training, for the army is the best. That is true compassion.

The writer is reminding these people that as members of the royal family of God, as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, as those who have received Him as Savior, that there is a true compassion. We have the constative aorist tense from the sumpatheô (συμπαθέω) [pronounced soom-path-EH-oh]. Patheô means to suffer and sun means with. Sumpatheô (συμπαθέω) [pronounced soom-path-EH-oh] means not simply and emotional activity but it is one of very strong discipline; self-discipline. To suffer with means here group discipline — “ye had compassion”, they are reminded of the fact that they were once victorious, they were once advancing toward the enemy, moving toward supergrace, interested in Bible doctrine.

This is what they used to be, and now he says they’re compassionate. What does compassionate mean? Sun means with, patheô means to suffer. It means to suffer with. All principles are based on authority and the source of every principle in the Word of God is some kind of authority. In the doctrine of divine decrees the source is God’s decision, God’s sovereignty. If it is eternal salvation it is the principle that the Lord Jesus Christ with doctrine resident in His soul went all the way to the cross and bore our sins and took our place. We are looking in this passage at a group of people who once guided on the colours of Bible doctrine but they quit. They couldn’t take it, they were distracted. They stopped listening to the teaching of the Word of God.

Bob is talking about the crown prince, who studies the violin and French. The father broke at least a half dozen violins over his head. The father realized that his kingdom might be gobbled up. There were several major countries which were aggressive.

Huguenots were a great people who loved Bible doctrine. People were looking for successful organizations to gobble them up. He recruited a great army. He made every child at age 17 a member of the Prussian army. Toughest system of discipline that the world had ever seen. He also collected freaks, over 7 or 8 feet tall and called them the Potsdam, Guard. They were the most impressive site for anyone to see. He had middle class manufacturing. One of the greatest systems for military training since Philip of Macedon. One time he saw a woman begging. He hit her with a cane and brought apples to her for her to sell.

Little Fritz then started playing flutes. He went AWOL with someone else, and he was caught and the other person was executed in front of Fritz. He sat down and explained what his plan was and Fritz caught it. He threw away he flute and French books. He was commissioned after that; and Frederick II became the king of Prussia. He took Silesia, while France, Germany and Russia were deciding how to split it up. He was given ultimatums, that he ignored. They declared war on him, as he was on strategic interior lines. He had 20,000 men against 60,000 French and wiped them out. Then the battle of Luthen, and he beat them, 90,000. Then, afterwards, he beat the Russians. The 7 years war, which we call the French and Indian War.

Otto Van Bismark, he had a Berachah haircut. When men recognize the principle of freedom taught in the Word of God,... The source of every principle in the Word of God is some sort of authority.

You are here as a group and you are well-mannered. You didn’t start that way; you were trained.

Throughout the Civil War, there was the guide on the colors.

Authority and the teaching of the Word of God. Where else can you go where the choir got canned? Sunpatheo means someone else took the freedom and responded to it.

Why does it says “prisoners” here? You have known believers in your lifetime and these people may not be attractive or celebrities. And you get in with the celebrity type crowd, a snooty bunch of people. You are not living by principle any more, you are living on flattery. When you start living on flattery instead of Bible doctrine you are through, you are a casualty. You are still royal family and you can’t possibly lose your salvation. God is just keeping you alive and providing your needs to discipline you. Sumpatheô (συμπαθέω) [pronounced soom-path-EH-oh] means that when these people started their advance they started in the most wonderful possible way. They were not ashamed of the Lord Jesus Christ and they were not ashamed of other believers. “For you even demonstrated compassion to those in the embarrassing position of being prisoners” — but you weren’t embarrassed.

A lot of these people were wealthy, a lot of these people had things people associate with happiness. They had money, they had success, they had many wonderful materialistic things — “and took joyfully” isn’t quite correct. It means literally “you accepted to yourselves with happiness” — meta plus the genitive of chara (χαρά) [pronounced khahr-AH] plus prosdechomai (προσδέχομαι) [pronounced pros-dekh’-om-ahee] in the aorist middle; pros means face to face, dechomai (δέχομαι) [pronounced DEKH-om-ahee] means to receive something. It means to accept here. The word for happiness means a mental attitude. if you live by principle, if you live by doctrine, and you lose some materialistic thing you still have the principle. When these people accepted Jesus Christ as Savior they were persecuted. Their money was taken from them, their businesses were closed down, they lost materialistic things, their homes were taken away, they were thrown into prison, but it didn’t change their principles.

It is always the principles which count.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #137

137 07/04/1974 Hebrews 10:34 GAP to divine plunder

repelling out of the baptistry here probably set some new records. There will be every kind of pressure and disaster and you will be a self-contained unit.

Hebrews 10:34 For you had compassion on those in prison, and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property, since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one.

Verse 34 they accepted the plundering of their assets (the Hebrews?) — “knowing.” The key is always knowledge, the present active participle of the verb ginôskô (vινώσκω) [pronounced gih-NOH-skoh]. It means to know from the principle of doctrine resident in the soul. This is a retroactive progressive present denoting what occurred in the past and continued up until the time they peeled off. The active voice: the believers produced the action of the verb. This is a circumstantial participle. Notice where the knowledge is. It isn’t in a book. The knowledge was taken from a book but one thing you cannot do is when you are under pressure you cannot go back to what was written in the book. By that time it has to be transferred to the frontal lobe. It has to be instinctive, it has to be ingrained in the soul. When the believer is under pressure only that which is ingrained can he use. it isn’t what is in the Bible that is going to help you under pressure and under disaster, it is what you have taken from the Bible and transferred into your soul.

The Ranger has to have the manual ingrained in his soul. He must use his head under those conditions.

“in yourselves that you have” — the present active infinitive of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] which means to have and to hold. This is a static present for a condition which perpetually exists. The active voice: the royal family produces the action. This infinitive is part of the accusative of general reference, and this again goes back almost to a classical Greek form of expression. Once again the classical Greek is used in a Koine Greek situation for sarcasm. You had something that was really great but now you’ve lost it, you can’t recover it.

“in heaven” — you have something in heaven that is absolutely perfect, something that you cannot lose, something in the future that is absolutely glorious in every way. And since you are going to have that forever and ever and ever only now do you have the chance of any kind of testing.

huparxis (ὕπαρξις) [pronounced HOOP-arx-ihç], which is a better possession, a constantly enduring possession. Once you posses Bible doctrine, you have the world by the tail. When you have doctrine in the soul, you are following the colors. The high ground in the supergrace life. The capacity is that cup. When you come to this party, y9ou bring your own cup. You take in that doctrine and

Hebrews 10:34 For you even demonstrated compassion to the prisoners and you accepted in yourselves with happiness the plundering of your material possessions, knowing that in yourselves (that is, resident in your souls), you have a better possession (Bible doctrine) and one which is constantly enduring.

Summary of the Principle:

1. God the Father has attached the highest value to the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

2. He has demonstrated this fact by the resurrection, ascension and session of Jesus Christ.

3. He attached such great value to the work of Christ that He interrupted the age of Israel and began a new dispensation.

4. The royal family of God are the heirs of a strategic victory, which belongs to Jesus Christ. The tactical victory belongs to us.

5. At salvation no member of the royal family of God no person can recognize all that was done at the cross. We understand that he saved us, but little else. Jesus is absolute sovereignty; he has all of these divine qualities. None of these things can be compromised by the cross. Jesus accomplished the victory. There is a parade in the Roman world, after a victory, where all of the prisoners and the spoils are carried. The romans were a great nation for over 1000 years because they appreciated their military. Then there was a system of dividing up the plunder. We are in the dispensation of splitting up the plunder.

6. To share the view of God the Father about the efficacy of the work of Christ and its value, Bible doctrine was reduced to permanent and written form.

7. The advance demands a positive attitude towards the word and a consistent function of the grace apparatus for perception.

8. Application: I can only advance as I am consistent with taking in the Word of God. I can only reach the high ground and the victory with Bible doctrine. What is my attitude to be?

We will see the principle of pressing the attack next time.

Singing all 4 stanzas of My Country Tis of Thee. This was our national anthem at one time.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #138

138 07/05/1974 Hebrews 10:35 Doctrine of the stages of reversionism (pts. 1–4)

There is a covering over Hebrews 11:1–3 and 12:1–3. Bob is behind schedule. Many extra features this year; a detachment of Rangers from Fort Benning. Bob is going to review one or two things.

Verse 25 says literally, “Stop forsaking the assembling together of yourselves, as is the habit of certain ones [reversionists]; but by being an encouragement: even so much more as you see the day of the Rapture drawing near.”

Then we have in verses 26–31 a parenthesis on the unpardonable sin.

V. 10:32, “But keep remembering again and again to yourselves the former days in which after you had become enlightened [had some doctrine resident in the soul], you held your ground in a great conflict of suffering.”

Verse 10:33, “Partly, when being publicly abused both by verbal insults and other pressures; and partly, when having become partners with those who were being treated in this manner.”

Verse 10:34, “For you even demonstrated compassion to the prisoners, ad you accepted to yourselves with happiness the plundering of your material possessions, knowing that in yourselves [resident in your souls] you had a better possession [Bible doctrine] and one which is constantly enduring.”

Hebrews 10:35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

Verse 35, the principle of pressing the attack. We are commanded to keep going.

We start out with the phrase “Cast not away” — the aorist active subjunctive of apoballô (ἀποβάλλω) [pronounced ap-ob-AL-lo]. This particular word is in the constative aorist tense which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the action of the verb and pulls it together into a single whole, regardless of how long it is. Always in the active voice in the Greek the subject produces the action of the verb, the subject here is the member of the royal family of God. The subjunctive mood is a prohibitive subjunctive because of the negative mê with the verb. When you put it all together apoballô (ἀποβάλλω) [pronounced ap-ob-AL-lo] really means to throw away something as worthless. Literally this should say, “Do not throw away as worthless.”

“therefore” — the inferential particle oun, and this particle tells us that the people involved here — believers in Jerusalem in 67 AD — did exactly that. They threw away as worthless, Bible doctrine. Something became more important to them. There scale of values became fouled up and they neglected the Word of God at some point. Even to neglect it for a day is disastrous.

“your confidence” — the accusative singular is a direct object. The noun is parrhêsia (παῤῥησία) [pronounced par-rhay-SEE-ah], which means not just confidence, it means much more than that. It actually means doctrine in the soul producing confidence. That is the concept here. Confidence is the meaning of the word but the confidence is not produced by human ability. Once you become a member of the royal family of God your confidence must be in doctrine resident in your soul. “Therefore, do not throw away as worthless your confidence in doctrine.”

You will all have the chance to do this. You will meet a girl, or you get a promotion; or you become involved with very attractive people; and Bible doctrine will become an item for the waste basket.

“which” — the nominative feminine singular of a qualitative relative pronoun, hostis (ὅστις) [pronounced HOH-stihs] which has as its antecedent “confidence and it should be an extended translation, “which category [of confidence],” but we will simply say “which confidence in doctrine.”

“hath” — echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh], the present active indicative. The static present represents a condition which is assumed to be perpetually existing or to be taken for granted as a fact. The active voice: confidence in doctrine is the subject and it produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is a dogmatic declarative indicative which says “which confidence in doctrine you keep having an holding.” There is pressing the attack. You keep having doctrine means you keep taking it in. You keep holding doctrine and in the holding of doctrine you not only continue to take it in but the more you take in the more you utilize. Many times a passage in the Bible does not appear to have any relation to your life, but it all fits together.

The next phrase is an interesting one — “great recompense of reward.” This is not talking about future reward, which is a true doctrine, it is talking about splitting the plunder or dividing the loot in time. It is God’s objective to provide for you in time supergrace blessings. Keep remembering this fact: the issue of your life is blessing, not provision. God is going to keep you alive as long as His plan calls for you to be alive, so He will provide for your needs. The point is that this great recompense of reward is for now, not for the future. First of all, we have an adjective here, megas (μέγας, μεγάλη, μέγα) [pronounced MEH-gas]. It is translated “great”, a legitimate translation but not the only one. As an adjective megas (μέγας, μεγάλη, μέγα) [pronounced MEH-gas] means a lot of things, and really it does not mean great primarily, it means rich. That is what it means here. Then this adjective modifies the noun, misthapodosia (μισθαποδοσί) [pronounced mis-thap-od-oss-EE-ah]. It is made up of two words, fmisthos (μισθός) [pronounced mis-THOSS] means wages, it connotes monetary reward; apodidômi (ἀποδίδωμι) [pronounced ap-od-EED-o-mee] means to give in expectation. This tells us that we should anticipate blessing from God. As we stick with doctrine we know it is coming. But when these words are put together it means a rich distribution of materialistic blessings. This is a materialistic category of supergrace blessings. Remember that all supergrace blessings are not materialistic, some of them are very definitely spiritual — occupation with the person of Jesus Christ, Bible doctrine resident in the soul giving you the divine viewpoint dynamics of life, the great function of the faith-rest technique. Now this says here, “great or rich distribution of materialistic blessings.”

Our nation became the greatest nation in the world by free enterprise. This is before the federal government was filled with mediocrity. Big business brought great prosperity to our nation. The greatest record for prosperity is the Roman Empire. They were way ahead of us; the greatest system of manufacturing and free enterprise. We became second only to them.

There was a distortion which built up, that you could not become too successful in business. We started hearing, you are not really a good Christian unless you give away most of your money. Of course that is not true. Some of you are so weird, we beg you not to witness ever. When you begin to understand Bible doctrine, you will learn to present the information low key and accurately. Many organizations want to teach salesmanship techniques.

God is tapping His foot, willing to provide great things for you. There is nothing which tears up the devil more than God prospering you. Bob did not cater do the Colonel’s wives who wanted to dance. People always saying you needed to cater and brown-nose. Being a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, Bob had an allegiance to the Lord, which was to do his job as unto the Lord, no matter what came of it. Whether he ended up in the stockade or not. A general kept promoting him, and he was Lt. Col. by age 26. Whenever God promotes you, you are promoted.

Hebrews 11:35 “Therefore do not throw away as worthless your confidence in doctrine, which confidence keeps having rich distribution of materialistic blessings.”

Summary

1. The attack well begun must continue. We must keep pressing until we reach the objective.

2. These believers to whom this was originally addressed started well in Bible doctrine but faded for some reason in the reaction phase of reversionism.

3. They failed to follow the colours, they failed to persist in doctrine.

4. Press home the attack is the message of this verse.

5. The believers in Jerusalem in 67 AD were so close to supergrace and the resultant blessing — spiritual and material.

6. However they were not persistent, they did not press the attack, they lost their confidence in doctrine. They were actually doing this at the time that Hebrews was written. They were throwing away doctrine as worthless, they were negative toward Bible doctrine.

The Doctrine of the Stages of Reversionism

1. The reaction stage. When people start to go negative toward doctrine they react. So stage one is reaction. Reaction comes in many forms — reactor factors are the forms. For example, boredom is a reactor factor. Discouragement, disillusion, loneliness, frustration, bitterness, etc. It is easy to get bored with Bible class; where there are not many things going on; and Bob is not teaching RM/RW. We won’t be seeing Australian repelling all the time. Boredom can be quite a reactor factor. The barracks life can be filled with boredom. This is a reactor problem in life with anything.

2. Frantic search for happiness. When people react they always go out looking for some kind of happiness. So the second stage is always the worst one, the one that makes you look silly, the frantic search for happiness. The frantic search for happiness depends upon the type of control in your old sin nature. The OSN has trends: asceticism and lasciviousness.

3. Stage three is the frantic search for happiness resulting in operation boomerang. The frantic search for happiness always ends up in intensifying the reactor factors. You went out to become happy and instead of becoming happy you are just more bored, more jealous, more bitter, have more self-pity, whatever the reactor factor was you have more of it.

4. The fourth stage is the one where the spiritual decline begins in earnest — the emotional revolt of the soul. This is a spiritual problem and it is the fourth reactor factor.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #139

139 07/05/1974 Hebrews 10:35 Doctrine of the stages of reversionism (pts. 5–8)

Don’t even think about bringing children into T&P. Finishing up the stages of reversionism; and then the film.

Review of first 4 points of the stages of reversionism.

Hebrews 10:35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.

Stages of Reversionism Continued.

5. Negative volition toward doctrine. As a result of the presence of the reactor factors — reactor factors, emotional revolt — the believer becomes negative toward doctrine. There are certain characteristics: a) Indifference or apathy to Bible teaching; b) too busy for Bible teaching; c) antagonism or personality hang-ups regarding the pastor-communicator; d) antagonism or conflict with others in the congregation; e) failure to utilize the rebound technique; f) inability to handle prosperity; g) an early pattern of reversionism.

6. When a person has an emotional revolt this means that they are a woman inside — a man becomes a woman inside. Just as every human body has both male and female hormones so the soul has male and female parts. The controller of the soul is the heart or the right lobe, the mentality. You are only in control in your life when your mind controls everything. We all have emotion and we use our emotion. That is because we have a frame of reference. Our frame of reference means that our emotion is merely designed to respond. This means that when we see certain things or hear certain things we respond and our emotions were made to be enjoyed. In emotional revolt the emotion controls the mentality of the soul.

a. There is no such thing as a racial problem.

b. The problem is emotional revolt of the soul.

c. Second generation Japs were great. Some received draft notices in their camps.

d. The Nici battalion was great. It is not the color of the skin; it is the soul.

e. Bob loves the southern ladies in Berachah Church. One feisty female with the arrow going the wrong way, and the church is in trouble.

7. Blackout of the soul. There are two lobes. The left lobe is called the mind, the right lobe is called the heart. When you go negative toward doctrine you open up the : mataiotês (ματαιότης) [pronounced mat-ah-YOHT-ace], and into this vacuum goes your false ideas. Blackout of the soul is what happens to believers and unbelievers alike, unbelievers because they lose track of the laws of divine establishment, believers because they go negative toward doctrine. This leads to scar tissue of the soul. Negative volition toward doctrine opens the : mataiotês (ματαιότης) [pronounced mat-ah-YOHT-ace] for Satanic propaganda, and once that Satanic propaganda comes in you’ve had it. Once you get a blackout of the soul by getting false information then you have the next stage which is hardness of the heart. Hardness of the heart means the valves on the frame of reference freeze. The doctrine, therefore, quits moving around. When the valves freeze you lose your vocabulary, the categories, the norms and standards, you have human viewpoint on the launching pad, and that leads to stage 7, scar tissue on the soul.

a. No one can use the Bible to be a conscientious objector.

b. You turn the cheek to roll with a punch to set up a counterpunch.

c. Why do people think that they should not work? The false ideas come from blackout of the soul.

d. Americans must be trained to win. You don’t just have your kids play sports but you have them play to win.

8. Scar tissue on the soul. And then you have finally, stage 8, reverse process reversionism.

9. Reverse process reversionism. Whereas you ought to be occupied with Christ as a believer and member of the royal family of God you are instead occupied with some false system. Whereas you have a right woman, when you get into reversionism you hook up with the wrong woman. Whereas you have true friends you get mixed up with false friends. Whereas you should love your country you get all fouled up and you think that the welfare state is okay.

a. The story of the usher who put his begging friend in a lousy seat.

b. He put goldfinger into a nice seat.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #140

140 07/05/1974 Hebrews 10:36a; Hosea 4:1–6a Stalin's plan of conquest

Hosea 4:1–6

Hosea 4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land;

Verse 1 — the word “hear” is the qal imperative of the verb shama. The qal stem in the imperative mood means not to hear so much as it does to respect and recognize the authority of the one who is teaching, and to concentrate on the message. So it is equivalent to the daily function of GAP. Remember that this word means to obey, to recognize authority, and to concentrate. The concentration has a direction: “the word of the Lord” or doctrine from the Lord. Either is a good translation.

“children of Israel” is merely a way of designating the citizens of the northern kingdom in the days of Hosea.

“for a controversy with the Lord” — a controversy has to do with the fact that God has set up a nation to be the custodians of Bible doctrine, to be an example of what freedom and privacy should be, and they have failed in this particular situation. So the controversy has to do with the fact that believers have neglected doctrine and the nation is beginning to fall apart. Note that the controversy is expressed first in terms of no doctrine, “no truth.” The word for truth is the Hebrew noun ʾěmûwnâh (אֱמוּנָה) [pronounced eh-moo-NAWH], and it means Bible doctrine. It means that Bible doctrine is the very lifeline of a nation as well as the individual believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Without truth, you have anti-military and anti-war.

The next word says “nor mercy” — the Hebrew noun here is cheçed (חֶסֶד) [pronounced KHEH-sed] and it means grace. When you don’t have doctrine you don’t have grace, when you don’t have grace you have legalism, when you have legalism you have religion. when you have religion you have trouble, when you have trouble through religion you have slavery.

And finally therefore, “no knowledge of God in the country.” Knowledge of God comes through Bible doctrine. We know the Lord Jesus Christ because we have been studying doctrine. We know a lot of things about Jesus Christ that people on the outside do not know. So in verse 1 we have no doctrine, no grace, no knowledge of God, the worst thing that ever could happen.

It was a miracle that we survived the Battle of Bladensberg, in the War of 1812. In every war, we are caught flat-footed.

Hosea 4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no doctrine or mercy [or, grace], and no knowledge of God in the land;...

Hosea 4:2 there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Verse 2 — “By swearing and lying” means dishonest business practice in the Hebrew. Swearing is actually lying about the price you are charging for something, and lying is also used for business. These are two business terms and it means that once the country loses doctrine the country loses principle, and that means that you can’t trust anyone in business.

“killing and stealing” — the killing has to do with crime, not with killing the enemy in the military. The word “killing” is the qal active participle of râtsach (רָצַח) [pronounced raw-TSAHKH] and it means murder rather than killing, and has to do with crime. So killing and stealing are crime type words, and the two of them together show again the degeneration of a nation without doctrine. When a nation doesn’t have doctrine it doesn’t have principle and then it loses track of the importance of such things as capital punishment. When you don’t have capital punishment then you are in serious trouble because you don’t have control over crime.

“and committing adultery they break out and blood toucheth blood” — it isn’t talking about adultery here, it is talking about rape. Literally it says, “they break in to commit adultery.” In other words, this isn’t a case of adultery, this is a case of rape where the woman’s volition is not involved. Then “blood touches blood” is literally “blood reaches blood” meaning violence and no one to stop it. So altogether what you have in verse two are the results of the indictment of the previous verse. What is the indictment? What is the Lord’s controversy with these people? Three things: no doctrine, no grace, no knowledge of God. There is where we fail as believers. As goes the believer in the nation so goes the nation. That is why we are called the salt of the earth. In the ancient world salt was used as a preservative, and when salt is a preservative then the food doesn’t spoil. Now we are the salt of the land and if we study doctrine and advance to the high ground of the supergrace life then there is the wonderful principle of the preservation of the freedom of a nation. Now people may or may not agree with you with regard to Bible doctrine but when Bible doctrine is resident in your soul it means that people, even unbelievers, are going to live by principle. it is principle that keeps the nation, then, from falling apart.

Hosea 4:2 there is dishonest business practice, lying, murder, stealing, and committing rape; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Hosea 4:3 Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away.

Verse 3 — what is the result of all of this? When a nation starts to fall apart we have the law of the five cycles of discipline. Under the fourth cycle of discipline an enemy power invades the land. Under the fifth cycle of discipline they win a victory which conquers the nation. “Therefore the land shall mourn.” The qal imperfect from ʾâbal (אָבַל) [pronounced aw-^BVAHL] means to lament the death of loved ones in battle, it means lamentation, mourning for loved ones who have died in battlefields. But it means more than that, it is used as a Hebrew idiom for defeat. It means universal lamentation, it means that because of poor training and because no one has ever backed up any military organization that they commit themselves to battle without the proper training and they squander the lives of the men. It means that in the squandering of the lives of the men they are tactically defeated and there is therefore mourning and lamentation throughout the land.

“and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish” — which isn’t what it says at all. This is the pual perfect of the verb amal, and the pual stem means to be weak in character, and weakness in character means not immorality, it means failure to live by principle. Principle to us is Bible doctrine resident in the soul; principle to the unbeliever are the laws of divine establishment in the soul. So we have, then, the principle of defeat in battle, we have mourning because of the death of loved ones, and we have in addition to that weakness of character. The citizens of the land are weak in character and they are “taken away” into slavery, according to the end of verse three.

In the Lone Star State, people are independent. Bob is a Texan by choice. Bobby gave a talk about being born in Texas and the confederacy. Bob is a transplanted Californian.

Bob is alive today after Houston traffic because there is authority. This is because people recognize authority.

Hosea 4:4 Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest.

Verse 4 — “Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another.” “Let no man strive” is the qal perfect of the verb rîyb (רִיב) [pronounced ree^bv], it means quarreling and dissension. It means that because there are no principles, because there is no authority there is dissension. No nation can enjoy its freedom without two factors: authority and discipline. “Nor reprove” is the hiphil imperfect of yâkach (יָכַח) [pronounced yaw-KAHK]. In the hiphil stem it means to reproach, to punish, to judge, and it also means to stick your long proboscis into someone else’s business. It means to fail to recognize the privacy and the rights of another individual. “Let no one reject authority or stick their nose into someone else’s business”, it means to judge.

“for thy people are as they that strive with the priest” — the priest here is the Levitical priesthood. The Levitical priesthood at this time in Israel was responsible for the communication of the written Word. They were responsible to teach Bible doctrine, they were responsible to crank out doctrine and they were being rejected. When they strive with the communicator of doctrine they are rejecting his authority, and rejecting authority of the one who communicates doctrine means negative volition toward doctrine, and negative volition toward doctrine destroys a nation.

Hosea 4:5 You shall stumble by day; the prophet also shall stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother.

Verse 5 — “Therefore shalt thou fall in the day.” “Thou shall fall” is the qal perfect of kashal (כַּשַל) [pronounced kaw-SHAHL]. This doesn’t mean to fall, it means to become defeated as a nation. it means to stagger, to totter, to become feeble. “In a day” is a prophetic utterance. In 721 BC the Assyrian army attacked Samaria, the capital of the northern kingdom. They didn’t wipe it out in a day but this doesn’t really mean a day, this means in a period of time and it means a period of degeneracy. It means when people depart from doctrine, when people depart from principle, when there is nothing worth fighting for, nothing worth dying for, then this kashal (כַּשַל) [pronounced kaw-SHAHL] applies. Kashal (כַּשַל) [pronounced kaw-SHAHL] means they become feeble of soul, they become degenerate, that they have no principles, it is just dog eat dog with them. No nation survives that attitude.

“and the prophet shall fall” — the prophet here is the false prophet, the one who teaches turn the other cheek, the one who wants to disarm, to get rid of the military. This is the one who says “peace, peace, and there is no peace.”

The good thing about a nation being defeated, they always get the liberal preachers.

“I will destroy your mother” — the nation. “Motherland” means national heritage.

Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

Verse 6 — “My people are destroyed”, the niphal perfect of dâmâh (דָּמָה)[pronounced daw-MAW] which means total defeat, to be taken over by the enemy. And what causes people to go down? “Lack of knowledge” — lack of Bible doctrine.

“because thou hast rejected knowledge” — the word for “reject” is stronger than that, it is the qal perfect of mâʾaç (מָאַס) [pronounced maw-AHS], and the word means to neglect and disregard and finally come to scorn — “you have disregarded knowledge”.

“I will disregard you, that thou shalt be no priest” — no one left to teach doctrine — “to me; seeing thou hast forgotten the law [doctrine] of thy God, I will also forget thy children” — I will destroy and blot out the nation.

This passage was given by Hosea around 700 BC, over 2600 years ago. But sometimes when Hosea is read in the Hebrew it almost seems like reading the newspaper of today.

We entered into the Korean War. The Soviets are getting what they want without war. Americans are naive. We are not familiar with the courses of history. The communists are doing more without conquering.

Bob began to study the communist doctrine of materialism. Man is mass and nation without a soul. They reject God, Jesus Christ, and Bible doctrine. So man is an animal, but only super-animal. He will either destroy or control all of the other animals. This is the communist opinion of Americans.

Let’s look at what the communists do. They advance towards an objective. Suppose Bob is going to go and punch Udahl in the nose. He has to advance towards his objective.

Some of you women like opera. You want to bring your husband there. You want to show off your lovely, charming husband. Will Rogers: “I go to opera twice a week whether I need to sleep of not.” But the husband says, no.

As Americans, all we need to do is get roused up and we will fight. So the commies work against our basic principles; they turn around and destroy our souls. In 1931 Dimitri Manualiski, and said, “War is inevitable; we are not strong enough to attack. We have to put the Bousghasi to sleep, putting them to sleep, with a peace movement. They will leap at the change to be our friend; and as soon as their guard is down, we will smash them with our clenched fist.”

Communists can have the ability for double-think. Joe Stalin caught the eye of Lenin by saying that the US could be conquered. To get at the US through culture. What stops the communists is Christianity. One person was captured by the communists, and he gave the gospel and he was beginning to convert his jailers.

Set up the idea of thinking internationally. Get rid of their patriotism. Ridicule the military. Liberal-minded ministers were to be sought out. They attack Bible doctrine. They attack the clergy. In most American churches, there is an anti-American sentiment.

Some of the attitudes that the communists use. There is no absolute or eternal truth. Everything is relative; everything changes. If you believe truth, then you are bigoted and narrow-minded.

Some believe that physical survival is the highest good. Better red than dead.

People are not born equal; they are born free. Man has been trying from the very beginning to make people equal. How do you make a moron and a genius equal? Equality is achieved only at salvation.

The communists held 7000 prisoners and not one person ever escaped after reaching a collection point. Only 4000 survived. They experimented with psychological brainwashing techniques. They were controlled without barbed wire, poisonous gas, vicious dogs, etc. Rangers captured a document on the evaluation of the American soldiers.

The American soldier has weak loyalties to his country, family, his unit. Weak values. Little understanding of the United States philosophy and history. He fails to understand the meaning of or necessity of military training or obligation. Hardship and difficulties are viewed dimly.

It was discovered that born again believers with even a little Bible doctrine totally and completely rejected this system. They returned in good health physically and mentally. They resisted the enemy.

One man wounded told that he would be killed if he fell out. He kept trying and he begged for help; and his comrades would not help him. He was bayoneted.

The Chaicoms used a psychological system against them. But those who did not fall for it had Bible doctrine in their souls.

Hebrews 10:36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.

Hebrews 10:36 — the exploitation of the breakthrough. Why are we here; why were we born? Why do we have the freedom and privacy to believe in Jesus Christ and to take in Bible doctrine and to grow in grace. “For” — the explanatory use of gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] means we are going to get an explanation now. Why are we here? What are we doing? Answer, “you have” — and there again we have that present active indicative of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh], having and holding. The retroactive progressive present means you keep on having. We have some that is more valuable than anything else: the Word of God. We have the promises, the categories, the doctrines, the principles. So you keep on needing something with this, and here it is.

“for you keep on having need of patience” — the genitive singular of hupomonê (ὐπομονή) [pronounced hoop-ohm-ohn-AY], but it doesn’t mean patience, it means perseverance. The Lord Jesus Christ has left to us a spiritual legacy, a spiritual heritage called Bible doctrine. And here we have the attitude we must have toward doctrine: perseverance. Once you start the advance you must continue the advance. The objective is to continue the advance, to keep moving. Hupomonê (ὐπομονή) [pronounced hoop-ohm-ohn-AY], means to be under discipline. You need to be under discipline, you need to have perseverance, the discipline to take in Bible doctrine today, tomorrow, the next day, the next and the next.

The British Grenadiers landed on our soil and they lined up with great personal discipline. Congress came by to watch their great rugged Americans drive the Redcoats back into the sea. 6000 American soldiers and 2000 Redcoats. Flashy coats, beautiful targets, white breeches, brass stood out. Easy to squeeze out a shot and a man is dropped. The band was playing. They kept moving. One would fall and they kept marching. They got closer and they would kill. But they kept marching and closing in. Psychology began to take over. They had beautiful bayonets shiny steal. They suddenly turned around and ran like hell. They left Congress standing there eating from their picnic baskets. The British were making an attack in columns. No blood on their bayonets. They marched into Washington DC and burned it to the ground. The American soldiers were raw material; they had not been whipped into a team. They were not under discipline. They needed to have perseverance.

“that, after you have done the will of God” — what is the will of God for you? To take in Bible doctrine. Your soul must be prepared for the advance as the military must prepare for combat. Therefore, “you have need of perseverance.” You must constantly have going up from your soul positive signals toward Bible doctrine. That is the will of God for your life — to take it in, to grow in grace, to begin to develop that ECS.

You miss a date with a gal or want to see a tv show. Bob’s missed Zulu 3x. He is bringing it to church to watch. We must constantly have positive signals towards Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine comes in as ἑπίγνωσις. We keep building on that.

Most preachers in this country are liberals. They went to China and they closed down the whore houses and the bars. The promised to make this a clean town. The preachers there were thrilled. And they even got on the radio to support the communists. The missionaries cooperated. A missionary spoke to Bob and he said he was ashamed. He betrayed freedom for a mess of pottage.

God wants to give us great blessing and prosperity. This demands perseverance. If we persevere, we will be blessed and so will our nation. If we do not persevere, we are going down as a nation.

The attitude of a serviceman is to be willing to die for people who wear their hard long. That is freedom; that is Bible doctrine. Tonight there will be a men’s chorus getting ready.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #141

141 07/06/1974 Ps. 138:2; Prov. 8:33–36 Doctrine of importance of doctrine (pts. 1–6)

The Doctrine of the Importance of Bible Doctrine

1. Definition. Bible doctrine is the content of the canon of scripture, but the content which emphasizes communication. Bible doctrine is what the Bible has to say when it is taught. It is the communication of Bible information on the basis of exegesis, classification, analysis, interpretation of scripture by authorized personnel — someone who has the gift of pastor-teacher and someone who is prepared through study to communicate Bible doctrine. Since Bible doctrine is the mind of Christ — 1Corinthians 2:16 — it must be communicated by those who have been authorized, and beginning in the past this means the prophet, the Levitical priesthood, the apostle, and the pastor-teacher in this particular period of history.

2. In His dying breath the Lord Jesus Christ made doctrine the spiritual legacy of the royal family of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ died twice on the cross. His first death was a spiritual death bearing our sins, taking our place. He was judged in our place, He became our substitute. And because Jesus Christ completed the work of salvation while He was very much alive He said “It is finished.” Finished means that salvation was completed. Nothing could be added to it, nothing could be taken from it, salvation was a completed fact. Then Jesus Christ began that very quick process of dying physically. He exhaled one breath before He died, and in His last breath He uttered the words of Psalm 31:5 — “Into your hands I deposit my spirit, for you have delivered me O Jehovah, God of doctrine.” So the Lord Jesus Christ Himself explained where He had the spiritual stamina, the strength, the motivation, the courage, the nobility, to take the most awful course in history and follow it to the object which was the cross. According to Colossians 2:14,15, Hebrews 2:14,15 the Lord Jesus Christ broke the back of Satan on the cross, He accomplished the strategic victory, He provided everything necessary in that moment for our eternal salvation. Now something is added to it because of the work of Christ, because of the strategic victory, because of His resurrection, ascension and session the Age of Israel was suddenly interrupted. A new dispensation was begun, the dispensation of the Church, the age of the royal family of God, a dispensation in which we find ourselves today at this moment. And in order that the royal family of God might understand its mission on earth, its objective, Christ has passed on to it the regimental colours of Bible doctrine.

3. This legacy, this spiritual heritage of Bible doctrine, also existed in Old Testament times. Psalm 138:2 — this particular passage is talking about David as a soldier. This verse is generally misunderstood because two or three words are not quite correctly translated. “I will worship” — the hithpael imperfect of the verb shachah. The hithpael stem is a reflexive stem. Every time that you have a verb in the Hebrew it always has five possible meanings, depending on the stem. The hithpael stem is reflexive but it is also the stem of freedom. Shachah, again, is the word for worship. Actually, it means to bow down but eventually it came to mean worship. This is not quite correctly translated unless you understand that when it says “I will worship” the subject “I” is free to worship or not to worship. It means that no one must ever be coerced into worship. You must want to worship, you must be motivated to worship. You must worship because it comes from the capacity of doctrine in your own soul. That is why the communion service is such a wonderful examination, it tests to see how much doctrine you have in your own soul. So we translate that “I myself will worship toward the temple.” Problem: There is no temple at that time. It will be built in Solomon’s day. So what do we have here? Actually, the temple here refers to the fact that David is worshipping toward heaven. When he worships he is looking up, he is not bowing his head. David recognizes where headquarters is, he recognizes that heaven is the abode of God, he is occupied with the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, as a great soldier he has a maximum amount of Bible doctrine in his soul, and when he says “I will worship toward the temple” he is talking about the real holy of holies. He is prophetically anticipating the fact that the veil would be torn apart at the cross and that you and I would live in the holy of holies. So here is a king looking forward to the day when there would be a royal family on the earth and every believer would live in the palace. You and I today live in the palace because of the dispensation in which we were saved. David will not be a king in heaven. We will be royal family in heaven and he will be there but he will not be a king at that time, but he was looking forward to it, and when he was looking forward to it he was recognizing something else. He was recognizing that God is perfect, and if God is perfect any time He has a plan it can only be a perfect plan. It is impossible for a perfect God to come up with an imperfect plan. Therefore he was recognizing that everything depended on who and what God is, and that God had already set up the five paragraph field order, God had already made the issue clear and it was merely a matter of being oriented himself. And when David said, “I myself will worship” in effect he was saying “I am oriented to the plan of God”. In other words, we are looking at David at a time when he had maximum doctrine in his soul, we are looking at David on the edge of the supergrace life, on the high ground. David is on the high ground, he is holding the high ground at the time that he says this.

Missionaries can be too liberal and they mess things up. Zulu you can boo when the liberal missionary shows up. We are here free through military victory.

Psalm 138:2 I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your steadfast love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

“of your holiness” — in other words when he takes the high ground his first look is an upward look. David never lost track after those dismal days as a battalion commander and as a mercenary force hired out to the Philistines. After he recovered from that stage of reversionism he never had any illusions as to the source of his grace and blessing. Therefore, this is actually a statement of occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. David is standing at a high spot, he has taken the high ground, he has made the point of maturity, he is now a supergrace believer as he utters these words.

Bob learned Hebrew conjugation based upon the base word to kill. Bob goes through the various stems, Piel, Pual, Hiphil, Hophal.

There is no love without freedom to love.

David would worship towards the Temple; the true Temple (as it had not yet been built). David here is holding the high ground of supergrace. I myself will worship towards the Temple of Your holiness.

We have all had the people who come up and stand nearby and say, when there is an opening, praise the Lord. That is phony language. Many times, this reveals that you are an egotistical weirdo. Bob never called his sister, sister; he called her everything but. That is a lot of phony language. David is a supergrace hero.

“and praise” — the hiphil imperfect of the verb yâdâh (יָדָה) [pronounced yaw-DAWH]. The hiphil stem is causative active voice. He is caused or motivated to praise. But it doesn’t really mean praise. Basically this word means to celebrate. You will never praise or celebrate the Lord until you are motivated, and you will never be motivated until it comes from inside you — not some herd-bound thing, but inside you. If it comes from inside you it comes from your soul, and if it comes from your soul it is because you kept going, you kept going, you never let anything stop you. No party or situation in life kept you from Bible doctrine. Nothing keeps you from Bible doctrine.

“your name” is literally “your person.” The word shem means reputation or person. Here it means person, later on we will see it as reputation — “and celebrate your person.” Ritual must have something in the soul to relate it to reality. Ritual without reality is meaningless and because we have doctrine in the soul we love and appreciate who and what Christ is, and because we have doctrine in the soul we love and appreciate the traditions of our freedom as they relate to our military organizations.

All 4^th of July, we had ritual that was meaningful. It was God Himself Who ordains military establishment and freedom. All services are the custodians of our freedom. Ritual must have something in the soul to relate it to reality. Behind the iron curtain, they march to intimidate their own people and to intimidate the world. They make certain that we get pictures of what they are doing. We have something that the communists have never had; Bible doctrine in the soul.

The next word is “for”, but it is not for at all, it is the causal waw which is almost like the Greek gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] which has so many meanings. gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] can be explanatory, it can be inferential, it can be a lot of things. So with waw. This is what is called a causal waw and therefore you never translate it “for”, you translate it “because.” He is going to explain to us why he worships the Lord, why he is occupied with Christ, why he recognizes the celebrityship of Jesus Christ. He is going to explain all of this in detail, very quickly.

“thy loving kindness” — lovingkindness is an old English word which is anachronistic, it really doesn’t have too much meaning to us any more because the word “love” has been so abused. In the Hebrew “lovingkindness” is a very short noun, cheçed (חֶסֶד) [pronounced KHEH-sed], and it means grace. Grace depends on who and what God is. Under grace God does the planning, God provides, God meets the need. It should be translated “because of your grace.”

“for thy truth” — ʾěmûwnâh (אֱמוּנָה) [pronounced eh-moo-NAWH], which means doctrine — “and because of your doctrine.”

“for” — once more it is a causal concept, but this time it is a conjunction. Instead of being the causal waw it is a little stronger, ki; and then we have “thou hast magnified” — the hiphil perfect of gadal; then we have “thy word” — im rah, which means categorical, analytical, exegetical discourse. We will simply translate it “doctrinal teaching.”

“above all thy name” — this is a prepositional phrase, al plus shem which means fame, renown, or reputation. It should be translated “over your reputation” — “you have magnified your doctrinal teaching over your reputation.” In other words, God’s character is no the line with Bible doctrine. The principle of doctrine is more important than reputation.

Psalm 138:2 “I myself will worship toward the temple of Your holiness [heaven], and celebrate Your person [occupation with the person of Christ] because of Your grace and because of Your doctrine; because You have magnified Your doctrinal teaching over Your reputation.”

God is revealed, God utilizes, God has centered everything for us in Bible doctrine. Therefore, Bible doctrine is more important than the air that you breathe. God the Father attaches the highest importance to doctrine because it expresses who and what Christ is, because it expresses His plan, because it provides the logistics for His plan, because it provides everything that we will ever need at any time. God the Father attaches the highest honour to the person and the work of Christ but that would be obscure apart from Bible doctrine.

4. Bible doctrine preexisted the human race. Bible doctrine is the thinking of Christ, Bible doctrine was the plan of God the Father, Bible doctrine is authored by the Holy Spirit; and since God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit always existed Bible doctrine preexisted with them — Proverbs chapter eight.

5. Attitude toward Bible doctrine determines whether the believer is going to be blessed or disciplined. Proverbs 8:33–36

Proverbs 8:33–36 —

Verse 33 — “Pay attention to doctrinal teaching [heed instruction]” — listen to the teaching of doctrine. And what happens when you do? — “so that you will be wise” — wisdom is maximum doctrine on the launching pad. Wisdom is spiritual common sense, Bible doctrine on the launching pad, the utilization of Bible doctrine. Wisdom is more than common sense though, wisdom is living by divine principles, basing your life on divine principles. It means to have principles — “do not neglect it”. How can you neglect it? When anything else is more important than assembling for Bible teaching.

Verse 34 — “Blessed” — as here is “happinesses”, plural because as you advance and follow the colours to the high ground and to the tactical victory you have two kinds of happiness, spiritual and material. One is related to the person of Christ and the other is related to supergrace blessings.

“Happinesses to the man who listens to me” — “me” is Bible doctrine. This is a personification of Bible doctrine — “watching daily” — the daily function of GAP — “at my gates” — the gates of the ancient world was the place for assembly, an auditorium — “waiting at my door posts” — that indicates a positive attitude toward the Word of God.

Verse 35 — “For he who finds me [Bible doctrine] finds capacity for life, and obtains supergrace from the Lord.”

Verse 36 — the other side for those who will not persevere. “But he who sins against me [negative volition toward doctrine] injures himself; and those who hate me [doctrine] love death [the sin unto death].”

6. Therefore, doctrine is the basis for the distribution of supergrace blessings — Isaiah 53:12, “Therefore I [God the Father] will distribute the spoil of victory to him [Christ]” — Christ is the victor in the great angelic warfare — “because of the many [believers, members of the royal family], then He will distribute the plunder of victory to the great ones [the heroes, any believer who GAPS it to supergrace], because He poured out His soul to death; prior to this He was identified with the [Levitical] offerings for sin;” — in other words, He fulfilled them all — “because he himself carried the sin of the many [human race], and about the offering for sin it was caused to fall upon him.”

We’re at the halfway point. Not in the lesson tonite; the overall doctrine. Do you think I want to miss Zulu?

The strategic victory of Christ began on the cross when He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #142

142 07/07/1974 Hebrews 10:37; Hab. 2:3 Doctrine of importance of doctrine (pts. 7–11); Doctrine of principles of the resurrection of the Church

Our subject is to follow the colors, with references to Isaiah and Peter, both telling us to follow the colors.

An outline of these individual verses. Hebrews 12:1–3 is a 3 paragraph field order. Authorization for the advance, objective of the advance, encouragement to advance.

The Importance of Bible Doctrine (Continued)

7. Bible doctrine is more real than empirical knowledge — 2Peter 1:12–21. When a believer continues to take in doctrine it becomes more real to him than anything else. With this viewpoint he is motivated for everything in life for which God designed him to do. Bob gives a corrected translation of the 2Peter passage.

8. The plan of God is advanced and vindicated through Bible doctrine — Isaiah 53:10 (However, Jehovah the Father made a command decision to crush Him; He [God the Father] caused the affliction of Christ, when You will appoint His soul a trespass offering.). God the Father in eternity past appointed Jesus Christ the mission of eternal salvation for the human race. When he was on the cross bearing our sins and taking our place that mission was accomplished. Now we simply believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and have eternal salvation. “He shall see his seed” — the royal family of the Church Age — “he shall prolong his days” — the future rule over Israel — “therefore the plan of Jehovah the Father shall advance by his hand.” The plan of God advances through the Lord Jesus Christ. The plan of God advances today because Jesus Christ has given to us the heritage of Bible doctrine. In another way, Romans 3:4 says the same thing — “Shall unbelief cancel the faithfulness of God?” If someone says I no longer believe, does that cancel anything? No. God remains faithful no matter what our instabilities may be in life. Answer: “Definitely not. Moreover, let God continue truthful though every man a liar; even as it stands written, That you might become vindicated by means of your doctrine [the doctrine you learn], and that you might become victorious when you are being maligned.”

9. Lack of doctrine destroys a nation — Hosea 4:1–6.

10. The communicator of Bible doctrine authorized for the Church Age is the pastor-teacher — Ephesians 4:11–13; Colossians 1:25–29; Hebrews 13:7,17.

11. The communication of doctrine establishes the balance of residency in the soul of the believer. When the believer is filled with the Spirit the Holy Spirit controls the soul as well as the body. There is something missing — minus doctrine in the soul. Therefore we have the word of God, we have the communicator authorized to do so, we have the local church as the classroom, in order that this minus might become a plus. The filling of the Spirit plus doctrine resident in the soul is the dynamics of the royal family on this earth. Therefore Bible doctrine is important to balance out the residency of the soul. Without Bible doctrine in the soul and only the filling of the Spirit you have unbalance and this must be rectified. It is rectified by doctrine in the soul — balance of residency.

a. Bible doctrine is transferred from the written page of the Word of God to the soul of the believer under the function of GAP. That means that there is doctrine resident in the Word. That means that there is a communicator authorized by God and a place to do it which is the local church. That means that when this doctrine is communicated under the ministry of the Holy Spirit it becomes resident in the left lobe only. But doctrine in the left lobe won’t do it. James says that you must be a doer of the Word and not a hearer only. A doer of the Word is one who has doctrine in his right lobe or on the launching pad. So hearing the Word is the first stage. Transferring it over is a grace function, but the point is that the doctrine you use is the doctrine you have transferred to your right lobe. We call that a grace apparatus for perception because regardless of your human IQ God has provided at the point of salvation a system, an apparatus of the soul, whereby you can understand doctrine whether you are two points above a moron or a genius. Your human IQ is never an issue. There is no such thing as a person who is a believer who cannot through persistence understand Bible doctrine.

b. The purpose of this transfer is to establish in the soul of the believer balance of residency, the stability necessary for us to fulfill our objective in life.

c. As a badge of royalty the body of every Church Age believer is indwelt by God the Holy Spirit.

d. When the believer is filled with the Spirit in compliance to Ephesians 5:18 a residency of the third person of the Trinity is established.

e. Since the Spirit works through the Word, or Bible doctrine, the filling of the Spirit creates a vacancy in the soul.

f. This vacancy is filled by the daily function of GAP creating a balance of residency necessary for the function of the royal family on earth.

12. Consequently, the importance of consistency in the function of GAP. It is important that we persist, that we continue to take it in, today, tomorrow, the next day, and the next, regardless of other circumstances in life — Hebrews 10:25.

Principles

1. The promise mentioned in verse 36 has to do with your paragraph of supergrace blessing.

2. The promise, then, refers to supergrace blessings promised in eternity past. These supergrace blessings come to you on the basis of persistence, of perseverance, in following the colours.

3. Consistency, then, is the secret to growing up spiritually, therefore the secret to taking the higher ground of the supergrace life.

4. The believer must be challenged to GAP it daily regardless of the circumstances which arise in his life. The principle is that no matter what we must realize the importance of Bible doctrine.

5. No matter what is perfectly expressed in this life it is always going to be distorted. Therefore, when you do not understand what is being taught from any given passage your persistence must recognize that your persistence will understand when the time comes.

a. Example, when math was begun, you learned basics first. You learned them in a process.

b. The Bible in any given paragraph has simple addition; but you may suddenly jump to calculus; and then back to something simple. The Word of God follows a sequence, and every passage has something for everyone. When you are starting out, you will not understand all that you hear.

c. The first time you showed up to Berachah, you thought that it was a foreign language.

The same concept is found in Colossians 2:6,7. Paul in Colossians 2 is setting up a defense perimeter to regroup the Colossians. They had been pretty badly mauled by some false doctrine. So in setting up a defense perimeter to regroup them, this is what he says. “According as you have received to yourselves Christ Jesus the Lord, so keep walking in him.” Now what he is saying is this. How did you begin the Christian way of life? Well at first you didn’t know anything. Then somewhere along the line you were squared away by hearing what the true gospel is. As a spiritual baby it was a brand new ball game and gradually you had to learn the whole thing, and it took a little time. Don’t be discouraged is the principle.

Some moved down to Houston, left good situations and you enlisted. You began knowing noting. Some of you had the worst posture Bob has ever seen. You all learned, sooner or later, the rule of the soldier. We all have things to learn. Bob learns something knew almost every day. To keep ahead of this crowd, he will have to learn a lot. We are all in this together.

Then in Colossians 2:7 Paul sets up that perimeter — “Having been rooted and constantly being built up in Him, being stabilized by means of doctrine, in the manner that you have been taught, over flowing with thanksgiving.”

Doctrine conquers all.

Hebrews 10:36 — “For you keep on having need of perseverance [persistence], in order that, when you have accomplished the will of God [the daily function of GAP], you might carry off for yourself the promise.” (I am not sure when exactly this got exegeted)

God has something special for you on that high ground.

Hebrews 10:37 For, "Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;

Verses 37,38 — the importance of taking the high ground. In this importance we have three quotations from the Old Testament. The first of these in verse 37 is a quotation from Isaiah 26:20. In the quotation of it it is kind of mixed up as we have it in the English. This is not a correctly translated passage. We have éti (ἔτι) [pronounced EH-tee] gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] mikron. Then there are two more words which are identical — hoson twice: which is a form of hosos (ὅσος) [pronounced HOS-os].

Gar is a conjunctive particle, it indicates that an explanation is due. If we are going to persevere, if we are going to take the high ground, if we are going to follow the colours, we need some kind of an explanation. We need to understand a little better from God why the objective and what it is all about. Why are we told to do this? Why every day? Why persevere?

There is no growth which occurs in the spiritual life if you come twice on Sunday and once on Wednesday.

Next we have éti (ἔτι) [pronounced EH-tee], a particle, an adverb of time, and it means that we are in time and being in time we have a purpose. No matter how humble your circumstances your life has a purpose. Therefore the adverb of time is translated “yet.”

Number three is the word mikron which means little. It is the nominative neuter adjective meaning little and it has to do with something that is very, very important. It means that God has assigned to each one of us a certain amount of time on this earth after salvation. In His plan we have a time allotment. The adverb éti (ἔτι) [pronounced EH-tee] plus the adjective mikron means that every member of the royal family of God has a time allotment on this earth. In that time God has certain definite objectives for you. Therefore we have the phrase, “For yet a little while.”

The next word “and” isn’t even found in the original. Instead of “and” there are two words which aren’t even translated at all. We have hosos (ὅσος) [pronounced HOS-os], hosos (ὅσος) [pronounced HOS-os]. Hosos (ὅσος) [pronounced HOS-os] is a correlative demonstrative pronoun from tos outos, a very strong classical Greek word. When it is connected with a temporal adverb it means “how short.” So this is what we have: “For yet a little while, how short, how short.”

When troops are committed to battle they should have been thoroughly trained. All military service is always training for battle. It is important to always be in training, first in mental attitude and then in other ways. That is exactly what this means — “how short, how short.” The opportunity is always a short one, therefore you are always prepared for it. This is what “how short, how short” means. It means that sometime in your life you are going to have a full-blown disaster. You will walk into catastrophe, and when you do if you do not have Bible doctrine you are going to be caught short and you are going to fall apart like any idiot can do, and you are not going to be able to stand up under the pressure. But if you take in Bible doctrine today, tomorrow, the next, the next, when some disaster hits you are able to stand up under it. You “train and train and train” and when the difficult hour comes it is short, it is short, it is short.

It is Bob’e job to train you for the disaster; he does not have to hold our hands when that disaster is happening. Bob has seen those under great and stringent conditions. But he does not have to go to hospitals to be with his congregation. That is why we are royal priests and we can function on our own.

Battles are relatively short; emergencies are relatively short. The pressure hits, it is a short time. The preparation for it is long and lengthy. Anything in life that is worth attaining comes from training. Berachah boys on a football team. They went wild; they almost had +H. All of that exhilaration and happiness is based upon hours of monotonous had training. A successful combat team trans and trains. But the actual disaster is short. You won’t spend you entire life in disaster. Bob will never perform a teenage marriage. The kids are not dry behind the ears yet. If you are prepared for marriage, then you are ready for a great spiritual and sexual relationship. You are in training for taking in doctrine. Everything in life that is worthwhile demands soul preparation.

As in the military, when you finally get to combat it is something that is short. You are not going to spend your whole life under disaster. Everything in life that is worthwhile, everything in life that is wonderful, demands soul preparation. And so sometime when you are taking down the 25 points on suffering, or the ten points on the faithfulness of God, or whatever category it may be, just remember that when these categories become a part of you they are instantly alert to any adversity of life.

“For yet a little while, how short, how short” is a quotation from Isaiah 26:20. The second quotation is from Habakkuk 2:3 — “he that shall come will come, and will not tarry.” This is our future.

Habakkuk is a soldier’s handbook; we will get to that book someday.

“He that shall come” is the present active participle of érchomai (ἔρχομαι) [pronounced AIR-khoh-my]. It has to do with a future time: the resurrection of the royal family of God. In the original context it referred to the second advent but here it is applied to the resurrection or, as it is known theologically, the Rapture of the Church. The Rapture of the Church terminates the Church Age. The royal family has been on the earth for almost 2000 years. This is the age of the royal family, but there is a time coming when the Church is going to be removed so that the Age of Israel can continue and that history can move on in that particular direction.

So we have now a quotation from Habakkuk which applied to us refers to the Rapture. The futuristic present tense denotes something which is still future and when this occurs it means that we are going to be taken out as an entire body. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb for the royal family. The participle is circumstantial. So He is the one coming — “and the one coming will come” is the future active indicative of a different word. This time we don’t have érchomai (ἔρχομαι) [pronounced AIR-khoh-my], we have hêkō (ἥκω) [pronounced HAY-koe] which as a verb means to arrive. It is in the future tense. The active voice: Christ produces the action. it is the indicative mood. It should be translated, “the one [Christ] coming will arrive, and will not tarry [delay].” The plan of God is going to move on with or without, as it were.

We get a lot of our own military personnel at certain times. Some of their best times is being able to gather together. Bob likes running into military types. But in normal life, they are scattered all over the world. This is what the rapture is going to be. It will be on a permanent basis. It is great to do your job well; and that you have done your job to your best ability. No matter what your job is in the military.

Bob would rather go to the movies with the Berachah crowd more than anyone else in the world.

Geography temporarily separates us; and even death is temporary. One of the keys to life is understanding death. There will be no booing of missionaries in heaven.

Hebrews 10:37 “For yet a little while, how short, how short, he who is coming will arrive, and will not delay his arrival.”

1972 Hebrews Lesson #143

143 07/07/1974 Hebrews 10:38–39; Hab. 2:4 Follow the Colors!

Hebrews 10:38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."

Verse 38 — a third quotation. “Now the just shall live by faith,” a quotation from Habakkuk 2:4. It begins with the conjunctive particle de. it is used in the transitional sense to add another quotation from the Old Testament. The word “just” is not quite correct, it doesn’t really give what the Hebrew says, nor the Greek. Since this is a quotation we will look at the Hebrew first — tsadiq in the plural, and in the plural it should be translated “justified ones.” It does not mean just, it means someone who has been justified. Justification means vindication and there are two areas in which justification or vindication exist. The first of these two areas is salvation. When we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ we are vindicated or justified by faith. After salvation we are called “justified ones” or “vindicated ones.” The reason for that is that God did something for us at salvation. When we are born it is just like being a million dollars in debt, a hopeless debt. When the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross and paid for our sins by being judged for them He paid off that debt. This is the doctrine of redemption. So that debt is canceled, completely paid off. But that isn’t the whole story of salvation.

The other is on the positive side where we have God the Father giving us +R, His righteousness. Then He turns around and looks at that and says, “Vindicated” or “Justified.” So we are justified not because we live good lives or because we are better than anyone else but because of something that God did for us at the point of salvation. And here we have from the Hebrew, tsadiq, which means justified one. And so when it was brought into the Greek in Hebrews the word dikaios (δίκαιος) [pronounced DIH-kai-oss] was used. Dikaios (δίκαιος) [pronounced DIH-kai-oss] also means a justified one. However, with this we also have a possessive pronoun, and it should be translated “Now My justified ones.” This is a reference to anyone who has believed in Jesus Christ.

“shall live” — all of us have moments of discouragement. There never was a person at any time who didn’t find something about which he could be very definitely upset or discouraged. Life must become a frame of reference and we are going to discuss being on the inside and being on the outside.

Bob uses the example of the military for being on the inside and the outside. Have you ever watched a hippie caravan going from Los Angeles to Yosemite. They are disorganized and a mess. Some have a hard time adjusting outside of the military. There is a security and orderliness to the military.

Being on the inside is a love of Bible doctrine, positive volition toward doctrine. The believer on the outside is a reversionist and he is negative toward doctrine. On the inside it is an orderly life, a life where everything is provided through grace. On the inside you have objectives, life has meaning and purpose and definition. But on the outside there is discipline, trouble, disaster, catastrophe, and no way to cope with it. Notice it says, “Now the justified ones shall live,” the future middle indicative of the verb zaô (ζάω) [pronounced DZAH-oh] which means the function of life. There are two different words that are used in the Greek, the other one is bioj from which we get biology, and it has an entirely different connotation. Zaô (ζάω) [pronounced DZAH-oh] means a life that is orderly, a life that is meaningful and has objectives, and a life where there is enough authority, enough discipline so that there is a great peace and satisfaction and happiness from it. That is exactly what we have in following the colours. The future tense here is a progressive future, it denotes the idea of progress in future time. The middle voice describes the subject as participating in the results of the action of the verb. The subject acts with a view towards participating in the outcome. The active voice emphasizes the action the middle voice stresses the agent. In a sense, now, the middle voice tells each one of us whether you know it or not when you believed in Jesus Christ , God in eternity past had a plan for your life. He assigned you, first of all, a certain amount of time on this earth. He assigned you an objective. He also provided for you the logistics so that you would be able to reach that objective. The objective in simple terms: God wants you to be happy, to be successful, to be prosperous. This is the objective. The reason that some do not reach the objective is because they are on the outside, they are negative toward Bible doctrine instead of being on the inside. So far in this verse: “My justified one himself [middle voice] shall live.” The question is, how do we reach these objectives? how do we have all of the wonderful things that God has in store for us? The answer is found in the next two words.

“by faith” — only that isn’t the way it is in the Greek. We have the preposition ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus the ablative of the noun pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. It should be translated “by means of doctrine.” Pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] here means what is believed or a system of doctrine. “Now my justified ones shall live by means of doctrine.” The issue here is the soul. If in your soul you have Bible doctrine you can adjust to monotony, to routine, to everything in life, and you begin to live. Bible doctrine brings you alive and makes you aware of many wonderful things in life, it gives you capacity for life. That is what we have right here, those in the inside.

The next word is “but”, and this is the application of the quotation. It should be translated, however, “and so” — “and so if.” That brings us to a protasis. The word for if is eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN], and it is correctly translated “if”, so it is a protasis of a third class condition — “if”, maybe yes, maybe no. The third class condition always depends on two things: volition and frame of reference.

“draw back” is not very well translated. It is the aorist middle subjunctive of the verb u(postellw which means to retreat. These are the outsiders, the ones who don’t stick with doctrine. To retreat means to fail to follow the colours, it means to turn around and go back. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, the constative aorist takes up the steps of reversionism — reaction, the frantic search for happiness, operation boomerang which intensifies the reactor factors, negative volition toward doctrine opening up a vacuum which causes false doctrine to go into the mataiotês (ματαιότης) [pronounced mat-ah-YOHT-ace], the blackout of the soul and then scar tissue of the soul, and then reverse process reversionism. That is what is in view here in this constative aorist. When people retreat they don’t retreat all at once, they retreat gradually. The retreat always starts in the soul before you move away from the objective and go in the opposite direction. The retreat in the soul causes an attitude. This is why people get bored, why people change jobs, why people change wives, why people get out of something instead of sticking with it. The subjunctive mood here means that it is potential, you don’t have to run away just because you have some pressure — “and so if he himself retreats.” The retreat means failure to follow the colours, failure to take the high ground.

“my soul” simply means a divine attitude. The soul is often used for the essence of God — the essence box. When it says “my soul shall not have pleasure in him” it means that the sovereignty of God is displeased with one of the members of the royal family and, of course, that means discipline instead of blessing.

“shall have no pleasure” is a futuristic present, it anticipates the fact that discipline is a future factor, that you can always turn around and go positive toward doctrine — “my soul shall not approve [or have pleasure] in him.”

Hebrews 10:38 “Now My justified ones [the royal family of God] shall live by means of doctrine: consequently if he himself retreats [fails to follow the colours], My soul shall not have pleasure in him.”

A hotshot Charley, flying as a part of training in the Panama. In a P39, and you cannot tell anything about speed until you get near to the ground. So he took off a wing. Another knocked off the other wing. He then got caught up in a tree. Still alive. That is how the retreating ones will arrive in heaven.

Sometimes God keeps us alive to spank us.

Hebrews 10:39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

Verse 39 — the volitional determination to follow the colours. This should be the attitude of every believer: to take in Bible doctrine today, tomorrow, the next day and the next. “But we” — the word is a pronoun. It is the nominative plural, a proleptic pronoun. The form is egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH] in the Greek and it means we and only we, it means believers. God has a purpose for your life, God has meaning for your life, God has definition for your life.

“are not” — the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] plus the negative. We are definitely not going to do something. In other words, here is a way to see the issue that Bible doctrine is more important to you than anything in life and to make your determination that you are going to stay with doctrine no matter what. And so to do that “we are not of them” — “of them” is not found in the original. It should be translated “we are not those who draw back.” But the genitive singular of the noun hupostolê (ὑποστολή) [pronounced hoop-os-tol-AY] doesn’t mean that, it means a retreating one. We are not the retreating type. This is a descriptive genitive. Bible doctrine inculcated, ingrained, the importance of Bible doctrine in your life, means that you are not the retreating type. You have to make constant decisions. You have to find some way to get doctrine on a consistent basis.

“unto perdition” — the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus apôleia (ἀπώλεια) [pronounced ap-OH-li-a] means here destruction. So it should be translated “we are not the retreating type for the purpose of destruction”. Destruction means the cancellation of living. The justified ones shall live, and destruction means you are still alive but you are not living, you are a walking zombie. Destruction means a system of discipline that leads to the sin unto death — maximum discipline to the believer — and it means to die apart from dying grace. The sin unto death is divine discipline for those who retreat. We are not the retreating type to be processed by destruction.

“but of them that believer” is wrong. The Greek here says “but we are the doctrinal type.” The phrase “to the saving of the soul” is all incorrect. The words “saving” is a prepositional phrase, and it is eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of peripoiêsis (περιποίησις) [pronounced per-ee-POY-ay-sis] which does not mean saving, it means possession. It means to possess something that is wonderful, to possess something that is our heritage, to possess something that was designed for us. Why are we here? We are here to get that high ground, to be occupied with the person of Jesus Christ, we are here to get our eyes on the Lord and have the capacity for life and to have those supergrace blessings. We are here to be promoted by God, we are here to be prospered by God, we are here to be blessed by God. God wants us in the devil’s world for the purpose of thumbing His nose at the devil and showing him that cosmos diabolicus cannot offer anyone anything that would even come close to what God offers us. But it must be a volitional thing, you must be free to turn it down and free to take it. That is what it means. Instead of the saving of the soul it should be translated “for the purpose of possession by the soul.” You start with the soul. When you possess doctrine in the soul you are going to possess prosperity on the outside.

Hebrews 10:39 But we are not retreating type for the purpose of destruction, but we are the doctrinal type for the purpose of possession by the soul.

The “of the soul” phrase here is what is called the ablative of means. The Greek word is psuchê (ψυχή) [pronounced psoo-KHAY] and it should be translated, then, “But we are not the retreating type designed for destruction [sin unto death]; but we are the doctrinal type for the purpose of doctrinal possession by the soul.”

Doctrinal possession by the soul leads to the supergrace life. The soul of the believer must possess Bible doctrine in order to have tactical victory. The next chapter actually records the believers before the cross who achieved this victory. We have a whole roster of supergrace heroes.

Col. Simpson “Lee’s Grenadier Guards.” Although the sun of the confederacy has set and the bloody fight for state’s right has ended...few have fought so long with so little and suffered so many casualties. 83% casualties.

Bob has a poem, and he is not much on poetry; but this will be what we will be like.

You cannot choose your battlefield

God does that for you;

But you can plant the colours

Where the colours never flew

Hebrews 10:39 “But we are not the retreating type designed for destruction [sin unto death]; but we are the doctrinal type for the purpose of doctrinal possession by the soul.”

1972 Hebrews Lesson #144

144 07/08/1974 Hebrews 11:1 Doctrine is the reality

Chapter 11

Bob was able to talk to some people about getting a detachment of soldiers sent to a church, Berachah. Indoor repelling record by Gary Horton and the rope will be donated to the Berachah military museum.

Taking the high ground in vv. 32–39. Bob covers the translation of this passage:

The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is a parenthesis designed to show that even before doctrine was in writing, and when there was only a partial canon of scripture, that doctrine was available and that people from the beginning of time have been able to reach the supergrace life by the constant intake of doctrine. They have not thrown away as trash the Word of God. They did not let anything stop them.

They have not gone negative, they have as we have seen from hupomenô (ὑπομένω) [pronounced hoop-om-EHN-oh], and hupomonê (ὐπομονή) [pronounced hoop-ohm-ohn-AY], the cognate persisted and continued in taking in doctrine.

In this chapter we have a roster of Old Testament supergrace heroes. In verses 1–3 we have the importance of Bible doctrine; in verses 4–7 we have the roster of the Age of the Gentiles; in verses 8–22 we have the roster for the period of the patriarchs; in verses 23–38 we have the roster for the age of the law; and in verses 39 and 40 we have the difference between and Old Testament and a New Testament supergrace hero.

Now we have the importance of doctrine in verses 1–3. We begin now with the advance to the supergrace status. Bible doctrine is important in the advance to the supergrace status.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen....

Verse 1 — the emphatic or intensive use of the conjunctive particle de is the first thing we have. It acts as a connection with the previous verse. It should be translated “In fact.” In other words, we move right on with the concept. In the previous verse we have “But we are not the retreating type of believers designed for the purpose of destruction; but the doctrinal type for the purpose of doctrinal possession of the soul. In fact ...” It goes right on.

Faith here, and in the next two verses and throughout this chapter generally refers to doctrine or what is believed, and it is used to indicate the function of GAP. The noun here is pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. You have “In fact faith”, but it should be “In fact doctrine.” The word pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] has three different meanings in the Greek language. The first meaning: that which causes trust and faith. Therefore translated faithfulness, reliability, proof, and pledge. This is a very common word in the New Testament. It means that which causes trust and faith. The second meaning of this Greek word is faith in the active sense of believing, and it is always translated, then, “faith”, “trust”, and “confidence”. Then there is a third use of the word which is quite common and never correctly translated throughout the New Testament: that which is believed, the body of faith or belief, and therefore translated “doctrine”. Here in verse 1 we have “doctrine”. And all the way through we are going to see, for example: Verse 4 — “By doctrine Abel offered”; verse 5 — “By doctrine Enoch was translated”; verse 7 — “By doctrine Noah, being warned”. Noah wasn’t warned by faith, he was warned by doctrine. Faith doesn’t warn you, doctrine warns you. This will all make sense when we see this using the word doctrine rather than faith.

“doctrine is” — the present active indicative of the verb eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. The present tense is a static present, it represents a condition as perpetually existing. The active voice: doctrine produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic assertion. This phrase begins the study of the importance of doctrine in the sequence of the book. Faith is not defined in Hebrews 11:1–3, doctrine in relationship to chapter 10:39 is being defined. Hebrews 19:39 is amplified by chapter 11:1–3. Then comes the parenthesis for the battalion of witnesses in verses 4–40. Then the actual high ground in Hebrews 12:1–3.

“But we are not the retreating type of believers designed for the purpose of destruction [the sin unto death]; but the doctrinal type for the purpose of doctrinal possession by the soul. In fact, doctrine is...” The unbeliever can be demon possessed; the believer can be doctrinally possessed.

Now what is doctrine here in the advance to the high ground? It says that doctrine is “the substance.” Incorrect. We have hupostasis, a predicate nominative. The word means reality, confidence, and assurance, as well as substance. But here it means reality. “In fact, doctrine is the reality.” There is no excuse ever for not being persistent in taking in the Word. It is available, and when it is available and you are positive there is no such thing as an excuse. “In fact, doctrine is the reality,” and what you are saying when you omit to take in doctrine on a consistent basis is that there is something more real to you than doctrine. When you say that — go back to Hebrews 10:35 — you are throwing away as trash, as worthless, your confidence in doctrine. Why? Because “In fact, doctrine is the reality.” It is our reality.

“of things hoped for” — the ablative plural of the present passive participle elpizô (ἐλπίζω) [pronounced el-PID-zoh]. This word means to have confidence but it is in the passive voice so it means to receive confidence. The ablative plural of source means we have to translate “from which.” The ablative case denotes the source of our confidence. The source of our confidence is Bible doctrine. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes that which habitually occurs. The passive voice: the believer receives confidence from doctrine. The participle is circumstantial. The circumstantial participle eliminates any excuse you have ever had, ever. We are without excuse.

So far we have: “In fact, doctrine is the reality from which we keep receiving confidence.” Doctrine is the source of our confidence: our confidence in the Lord, our confidence in His plan, our function in the plan.

The next noun says “the evidence” — elegchos (ἔλεγχος) [pronounced EHL-eng-khos], it means “proof” with a view toward convincing. It means proof or persuasion rather than correction. Elegchos (ἔλεγχος) [pronounced EHL-eng-khos] also has the connotation of correction in classical Greek, but now it simply means proof or persuasion. Doctrine is proof of evidence. What does it prove? It proves that Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the Father and is real to us. It proves that the Father has a plan, the plan of the Father is real. It proves that the Father has always existed, the essence of the Father becomes real. It proves that God then Holy Spirit is the source of our power, the power of the Spirit is real. All spiritual reality is bound up in Bible doctrine and nothing else.

“things” — the genitive plural of pragma (πργμα) [pronounced PRAG-mah], a descriptive genitive that means the noun should be translated “events” or “matters.”

“not seen” — wrong. We have the present passive participle of blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh] plus the negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook], and it should be translated “not being seen.” The present tense is a retroactive progressive present which denotes what was begun in the past and continues into the present. The passive voice: the subject, matters or events, receive the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial.

The unseen world of the angelic conflict is only known through doctrine; the unseen members of the Trinity known through doctrine; the reality of divine viewpoint known only through doctrine. So there are many unseen things. We look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are unseen. The things which are seen are temporal but the things which are unseen are eternal.

Hebrews 10:39 “But we are not the retreating type designed for destruction [sin unto death]; but we are the doctrinal type for the purpose of doctrinal possession by the soul.”

Hebrews 11:1 “In fact, doctrine is the reality from which we keep receiving confidence, the proof of matters not being seen.”

Principles

1. The more doctrine we learn the more real becomes the unseen supergrace blessings designed from eternity past.

2. The more doctrine we learn the more real becomes the Lord Jesus Christ. “We see him who is invisible.”

3. The more doctrine we learn the more real becomes the plan of God and the perfect essence of God behind that plan.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #145

145 07/09/1974 Hebrews 11:2–3 God controls history; doctrine of the importance of doctrine

Antisemitism is out; experimenting with longer books now.

Hebrews 11:2 For by it the people of old received their commendation.

Verse 2 — the explanatory use of the word gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] follows. Since doctrine is all of these things gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] sets up a sequence to explain how doctrine is related to people in the Old Testament. They did not have a completed canon of scripture and for 2000 years there was no scripture at all. So we have an explanation that doctrine was still available to them, there never has been a generation to which doctrine was not available.

“by it” — the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental singular of the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. The demonstrative pronoun always refers to something near at hand, something important in the context. Here it refers to doctrine. Literally, “For by means of it [doctrine].”

“the elders” — the nominative plural of presbuteros (πρεσβύτερος) [pronounced pres-BOO-ter-oss]. The word really means here “men of old” or “ancient people”. it is a reference to the supergrace heroes of the Old Testament times.

“obtained a good report” — the aorist passive indicative of martureô (μαρτυρέω) [pronounced mar-too-REH-oh] which means to witness. At least that is what it means in the active voice. In the passive voice it means to be witnesses, to be well spoken of, or to be approved. Since this is the passive voice it means here to be approved. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasizes the existing results. The action of the verb is constant function of GAP and following the colours, no matter what. The existing results mean taking the high ground or the attainment of the supergrace status. In other words, we have the continual function of GAP until the point of reaching the high ground. This is a culminative aorist which emphasizes the results but looks back and sees the process by which they were obtained. The passive voice: the men of old received the action of the verb, they received divine approval through the daily function of GAP. The indicative mood is the historical reality of the fact that in olden times, long before there was a canon of scripture, people reached the high ground because they were positive, because they wanted doctrine, and God provided it.

Hebrews 11:2 “For by means of doctrine men of old gained approval.”

Principles

1. The gaining of divine approval is the entrance into the supergrace life. The men of old or the ancients were able to reach supergrace without doctrine in writing as we have it today. They had to have positive volition and they had to submit to a system of discipline, whether it was angelic creatures providing the information, prophets or, later on, Levitical priests. But until the time of Moses there was no written doctrine at all, it was always communicated by some person.

2. If the ancients could take the high ground of the supergrace life without having the amount of doctrine that we have in the royal family then there is no excuse for anyone of us failing to take the high ground.

3. Perseverance was always the key when doctrine was not available as it is now. The principle remained the same, and it is the persistence, the tenacity, of understanding the issue and sticking with it that counts.

Hebrews 11:3 By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Verse 3 — doctrine not only plays a great part in the life of any believer and is the means of reaching maturity or supergrace but doctrine is also the basis for understanding history. So we see the importance of Bible doctrine in orientation to history in this verse.

Again we have the phrase “through faith”. This time it is simply the instrumental of means from the noun pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. And it means “by means of doctrine.”

“we understand” — the present active indicative of the verb noéô (νοέω) [pronounced noh-EH-oh]. It means to perceive but it means perception based on the fact that you have already learned something. It means to build knowledge on knowledge, perception upon things you’ve already understood. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes something begun in the past and continuing into the present. The active voice: the royal family produces the action of the verb by learning dispensational doctrine and other doctrines pertaining to the interpretation of history. The indicative mood is the reality of perception in this area. In other words, the believer must be oriented in two ways. Verse 2 says we must be oriented to our object which is to follow the colours until we reach the high ground of the supergrace life. The other objective is that while we are moving through life we are involved in the history of our time and therefore we must be able to understand history and God’s activity in history through Bible doctrine, so we orient to our own personal situation and we also orient to the circumstances of our life.

“that” is simply a translational device for indirect discourse; the word for “worlds” is an incorrect translation, it is the accusative plural of the noun aiôn (αἰών) [pronounced ī-OHN] and it refers to ages. “By means of doctrine we learn that the ages.” The ages are the dispensations. This is a part of the accusative of general reference with the infinitive. And when you have a noun in the accusative case with the infinitive it really isn’t the subject but we call it the subject because it indicates the one who is producing the action of the infinitive. So we translate it, “By means of doctrine we learn that the dispensations were framed.”

“were framed” is the perfect passive infinitive of katartizô (καταρτίζω) [pronounced kat-ar-TID-zoh], and it means to put in order, to complete or to make complete, to prepare, to fit together, to arrange. Here it means to have been put together. The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect. That is the rhetorical application of the intensive perfect. That means it is even stronger than something that happens in the past with results that go on forever. The passive voice: dispensations or periods of history receive the action of the verb. The infinitive is not only the accusative of general reference but it indicates the divine purpose: God is going to control history. History will never get out of hand. God will allow the volition of angels and the volition of members of the human race to run their free course but you will never run your course to where you run out of history.

“by the word” — ordinarily we would expect logos (λόγος, ου, ὁ) [pronounced LOHG-oss] but here we have hrma (ῥμα, ατος, τό) [pronounced HRAY-mah]. Hrma (ῥμα, ατος, τό) [pronounced HRAY-mah] means planning. It refers to the planning of God in eternity past. It means the decrees of God. Then we have the ablative of source, theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS], and it should be translated “from the ultimate source of God.”

“so that” — the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of the definite article. It should be translated “with the result that.”

“things which are seen” — the present passive participle of blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh], literally “what is being seen”. The passive voice: the events of history receive the action of the verb. It is a circumstantial participle, and it is best translated “with the result that what is being seen.” What is being seen by us is history. We are enmeshed in the events of history, and while we are as they are occurring in our day we have another objective, we are advancing toward high ground. So we live in time of historical uncertainty and at the same time we are fulfilling our purpose for being here. Which means that God not only provides for us to advance but He also provides the very basis in history whereby this is possible. History caters to the royal family; God caters to the royal family historically. God provides historically for positive volition; God caters to positive volition. He not only caters to the individual but He caters to the whole national entity. In other words, Jesus Christ controls history. History is designed to glorify Jesus Christ. Positive volition toward doctrine on a persistent and consistent basis is the means by which this is accomplished. Therefore the events of history never get out of control so that some positive believer is kept from reaching higher ground. As goes positive volition with members of the royal family, so goes the nation.

“were not made” is incorrect. We have a perfect active infinitive of ginomai plus the negative mê. It should be translated “has not come to pass” — “what is being seen has not come to pass.” The intensive perfect again. Disaster is seen, disaster is a great potential on every hand, and yet there is something invisible holding everything together. In effect, this passage is saying historically the events of history are regulated by the positive volition of those who are members of the royal family of God. Your attitude toward Bible doctrine not only has personal and individual repercussions but it has phenomenal effects upon history. God honours positive volition toward doctrine. The individual positive volition of any member of the royal family of God can change the course of history.

Because Captain Howard has principles, the Army has some difficulties with who he is. He is the most decorated man since Audy Murphy. As a result, they have tried to bury him.

Our positive volition is key to the future of our nation. God honors positive volition towards doctrine. The individual positive volition of any member of the family of God can change the course of history. It is us in Berachah, TX which keep things going. Undergirding every system of establishment is our positive volition. Our police officers are unappreciated; our positive volition towards doctrine has a positive effect. Being in or out of uniform is not the issue; it is positive volition that is the issue.

Hebrews 11:3 “By means of doctrine we learn that the dispensations have been put together by the decree from God, with the result that what is being seen in history has not come to pass from what is visible in history.”

No church has had Medal of Honor recipients come to it like ours; or a detachment ordered to come to Berachah.

When it comes to Bible doctrine, tenacity is key.

“of things which do appear” — this is a prepositional phrase, ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus the ablative plural from the present passive participle phainô (φαίνω) [pronounced FAH-ee-noh]. Literally, “from those that are visible.” The present tense of the participle is aoristic present. It is for punctiliar action in present time, it refers to the people and leaders in your immediate periphery of history, and the leaders and the people and the establishments systems seem to be holding us up. But in reality you are holding them up. It is this great invisible power of positive volition toward the Word that is in reality the thing that makes the establishment go, and the establishment, then, is the visible overt part of it. The passive voice: the subject, the people in your range of observation, receive the action of the verb. They are the ones who are visible.

Principles

The doctrine of dispensations proves that history is in the hands of God and that history never gets out of control. People get out of control, life gets out of control, circumstances of life get out of control, but never out of God’s control. Even though history occurs in the devil’s world the events of history are shaped by God. So you have to remember a principle of history: God had the good sense to know before hand everything that would ever occur in history. No historical event, no catastrophe of history, has ever caught God off-guard. He knew about that catastrophe in eternity past. God made provision, therefore, to control history without controlling human volition. So that free will is still the issue in the creation of man and in this stage of the angelic conflict. Therefore, our understanding and interpretation of history is based upon the knowledge of doctrine. Bible doctrine resident in the soul is the basis of correctly evaluating our own spiritual advance and our personal relationship to history.

The Doctrine of the Importance of Doctrine 2

1. Bible doctrine is the content of the canon of scripture with emphasis on the communication of that content by teaching and instruction. Doctrine is the communication of Bible information on the basis of exegesis, classification, analysis, and interpretation of scripture. Since Bible doctrine is the mind of Christ it must be communicated by authorized personnel — prophets, Levitical priesthood, apostles, pastor-teachers.

2. In His dying breath the Lord Jesus Christ made doctrine the spiritual legacy of the royal family of God — Psalm 31:5, “Into Your hands I deposit My spirit, for You have delivered Me, O Jehovah, God of doctrine.” And that is the declaration of the deliverance. Jesus Christ was delivered by doctrine resident in His human soul. The greatest and most important moment in history was the cross. And what is unseen and what is invisible about the cross is the fact that Jesus Christ went to the cross because of doctrine in His human soul, and He endured the cross because of doctrine in His soul, and in His dying moment He passed on the legacy of doctrine to the entire royal family. That is how we follow the colours.

3. The legacy existed in Old Testament times — Psalm 138:2, “I myself will worship toward the temple of Your holiness, and I will celebrate Your person because of Your grace and because of Your doctrine; because You have magnified Your doctrinal teaching over Your reputation.”

4. Bible doctrine pre-existed the human race. Bible doctrine was with God in eternity past — Proverbs chapter eight.

5. Attitude toward Bible doctrine determines whether the believer is blessed or disciplined — Proverbs 8:33–36. “Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it. Blessed is the one who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors. For whoever finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD, but he who fails to find me injures himself; all who hate me love death." Attitude towards Bible doctrine determines whether the believer is blessed or cursed.

6. Therefore, doctrine is the basis for the distribution of supergrace blessings, but it must be doctrine resident in the soul through the daily function of GAP — Isaiah 53:12. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

7. Bible doctrine is more real than empirical knowledge — 2Peter 1:12–21 Therefore I will always be ready to keep reminding you all concerning these things, although you have known and have become stabilized by means of resident doctrine. Moreover I consider it my duty as long as I am in this tabernacle [this human body], to arouse you [to turn you on] to doctrine by means of a reminder. Knowing that the laying aside of my body [lit., tabernacle] is imminent [I am about to die], just as our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. (John 21:18–19) Indeed I will be diligent, in fact at any time you may have the doctrine after my death to call to remembrance these things. For not having followed as our source and authority cleverly concocted myths, when we had communicated to you all the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we have become spectators of his majestic magnificence [appearance of the second advent]. For when he had received from God the Father honour and glory, such a unique voice having been carried to him by His majestic glory, This one is My Son, My beloved One, with reference to whom I have been well pleased. ...and this same voice, having been carried from heaven, we ourselves heard, for we were with Him on the holy mountain. We keep. possessing this prophetic doctrine as something more reliable, with reference to which doctrine,.you perform honorably when you habitually become occupied with doctrine; doctrine as a lamp shining in a dark place until the day dawns and a morning star [Venus] has come up. Knowing this first that all prophecy of Scripture does not originate from one’s own explanation for prophecy was never produced from human design or volition; but men (human authors) communicated from God being carried along by the Holy Spirit R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

8. The plan of God is both advanced and vindicated through Bible doctrine — Isaiah 53:10 (However Jehovah the Father made a command decision to crush Him. He (God the Father) caused the affliction of Christ when you will appoint His soul a trespass offering and then the resurrection. He Christ shall see a seed; He shal prolong days to rule Israel. Therefore, the plan of Jehovah the Father shall advance by His hand.); Romans 3:4.

9. Lack of doctrine destroys a nation — Hosea 4:1–6.

10. The communicator of Bible doctrine authorized for the Church Age is the pastor-teacher — Ephesians 4:11–13; Colossians 1:25–29; Hebrews 13:7,17.

11. The communication of doctrine establishes the balance of residency in the soul of the believer. Bible doctrine is transferred from the written page of the Word to the soul of the believer under the function of GAP. The purpose of this transfer is to establish in the soul of the believer the balance of residency. As the badge of royalty we are indwelt by the Spirit. We are commanded to be filled with the Spirit, that is how God the Holy Spirit controls our soul. Indwelling has to do with the body; filling has to do with the soul. Filling is the dynamics of phase II.

12. Consequently the importance of consistency in the function of GAP — Hebrews 10:25, 35, 36. Translations are given. Seems to be a consensus of opinion that the last 4^th of July conference was the happiest time for Berachah Church.

a. The promise in Hebrews 10:36 has to do with your personal supergrace paragraph.

b. The promise refers to the blessing of supergrace promised in eternity past. Therefore the importance of the consistent function of GAP.

c. Consistency is the secret of growing up spiritually, therefore the secret of taking the higher ground of the supergrace life.

d. The believer must be challenged to GAP it daily no matter what.

e. Basic distractions include people on the outside who are pulling in another direction, or people on the inside who irritate, or mental attitude sins, or failure of rebound, or the desire for entertainment over the desire for doctrine. Colossians 2:6,7.

13. The results of doctrine resident in the soul.

a. It produces confidence for phase two, as per Hebrews 10:35; 2Corinthians 5:6–8 Job 5:26–27

b. It causes the divine viewpoint ion the right lobe — Isaiah 55:7–9; 2Corinthians 10:5

c. It orients the believer to the plan of God — Isaiah 26:3,4; Romans 8:28.

d. It produces stability of mind — James 1:8.

e. It is the basis for divine guidance and the execution of God’s will — Romans 12:2,3.

f. It leads to capacity for loving God and occupation with the person of Jesus Christ — Philippians 3:10; Ephesians 3:19; Hebrews 12:2,3.

Our positive volition is like a rope with many, many strands, which represent Bob’s positive volition and our positive volition.

Jeremiah had to do goofy things for a sermon. But there was negative volition; and the nation went down. When Noah was alive, too many threads broke and the rope snapped. So ended that civilization.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #146

146 07/10/1974 Hebrews 12:1–2; Luke 15:11–32 Doctrine of rebound

Chapter 12:1,2

In the first three verses we have a three-paragraph field order. Paragraph one authorizes the advance — verse 1; paragraph two is the objective of the advance — verse 2; paragraph three is the encouragement to advance, to follow the colours — verse 3.

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,

Verse 1 — the authorization for the advance. The first word is a triple compound inferential particle Toigaroun (τοιγαρον) [pronounced toy-gar-OON], and intensive inferential. It always relates to something that has been given in the context, and what is does is go back beyond the parenthetical chapter and goes to Hebrews 10:39.

This compound particle recognizes the parenthetical nature of Hebrews chapter eleven, and that is why we can carry out the sequence of doctrine by skipping for the moment verses four through forty. The compound particle, then, recognizing the parenthesis picks up the thought again from Hebrews 10:39. The supergrace heroes of the Old Testament, portrayed in chapter eleven, are a source of encouragement to the royal family to advance, and they take the high ground in their day with very little support compared to what we have in the Word of God. In other words, many of the Old Testament saints did not have very much doctrinal exposure from the written Word. They were positive toward doctrine and they received their doctrine from other sources. In fact, there was no written Word at all until the time of Moses. The principle is that doctrine has always been available even before the canon of scripture. The supergrace heroes, being a source of encouragement to the royal family to advance, give us a reason. For this reason there must be a three-paragraph field order in keeping with that doctrinal concept. The order is to follow the colours and it is given in three paragraphs So we translate toigaroun (τοιγαρον) [pronounced toy-gar-OON] “for that very reason therefore” — because we are not the retreating type, because we have not given up, because we have not backed off from doctrine, because we have not become indifferent to doctrinal teaching. Because we were positive toward Bible doctrine, because we were not designed to depart from this life under the sin unto death and maximum discipline, because God’s grace has designed us for tactical victory through supergrace, we are therefore commanded to advance. For that very reason, also...

“seeing we also” is simply the adjunctive use of the particle kai, and here it is correctly translated “also.” With this we have the personal pronoun — “we also”,

“are compassed about” is not a correct translation at all. There are actually two participles here. The first is the present active participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] which is a favorite of whoever wrote Hebrews. It means to have and to hold, and obviously this type of language is necessary when you advance to the high ground of the supergrace life. The present tense is a static present for a condition perpetually existing. We will always have the roster of Old Testament supergrace heroes in chapter 11:4–40. And because we will always have this roster and because we will always have this battalion of witnesses before us, therefore we can only join them on the high ground of supergrace. The active voice: the royal family is encompassed in the concept of “we”, the subject. The royal family has a roster of supergrace heroes and are therefore encouraged to follow the colours to the high ground. The participle is concessive. A concessive participle can be translated “since we keep having.”

The present middle participle of perikeimai (περίκειμαι) [pronounced per-IHK-i-mahee] is the second one which is involved in this phrase. It means to be placed around, to be surrounded by in the sense of combat support. We again have the static present for a condition which perpetually exists, and the static present refers to the heroes of Hebrews 11:4–40, they form a battalion of permanent support and encouragement to us as we advance to take the high ground. The direct middle voice is one in which the agent, the royal family here, participates in the results of the action. In other words, the royal family is supported in their advance to the high ground by the past victories of Old Testament saints. The participle is circumstantial. So at this point we have, “For that reason, therefore, since we keep having surrounding us.”

“us” is the dative plural of an indirect object. The pronoun is egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH]. The indirect object indicates the ones for whom the action of the participle is performed and, again, we are talking about members of the royal family of God.

The words “so great” is a very strong qualitative demonstrative pronoun tosoutos (τοσοτος) [pronounced toss-OO-toss]. This particular demonstrative emphasizes some kind of a great quality. It can be translated “so great” or “such great”. “Such great seems to go better here. The accusative is the direct object of the first participle, echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh], so we have to translate, “since we keep having such great.” And “such great” refers to the battalion of witnesses, the Old Testament supergrace heroes. The absence of the definite article emphasizes the quality of the pronoun, and with this double emphasis on quality it demands some additional English words. Since it refers to the roster of supergrace heroes given in Hebrews 11:4–40 we will simply translate “since we keep having such great supergrace heroes.”

Then they are called “a cloud of witnesses”. This is the subject of the second participle. First of all, we have the word for cloud, nephos (νέφος) [pronounced NEHF-oss]. This word is in the nominative case to indicate it is the subject. We have with it a genitive plural, mártus (μάρτυς) [pronounced MAHR-tooç], a descriptive genitive to tell us of what the cloud is composed. It is composed of mártus (μάρτυς) [pronounced MAHR-tooç] and this means supergrace heroes. They give testimony to the fact that it is possible to take the high ground even without a completed canon of scripture. So we have literally, “For this reason, therefore, since we keep on having such great supergrace heroes, a cloud of witnesses surrounding us.”

“let us lay aside” — the aorist middle participle of apotithêmi (ἀποτίθημι) [pronounced ap-oht-EETH-ay-mee]. The word is incorrectly translated, it is translated like a hortatory subjunctive which it isn’t. This participle has antecedent action to a hortatory subjunctive but it isn’t one. It should be translated simply, “having taken off” or “having stripped for action.” The aorist tense here is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the concept of stripping for action and regardless of its extent or duration it gathers it up into a single whole. Stripping for action means constant, consistent, persistent, positive volition. So the constative aorist includes positive volition toward doctrine, assembling in the local church classroom in spite of anything that would keep it from happening. The middle voice is an indirect middle which emphasizes the agent, the royal family, as producing the action of the verb rather than participating in its results. We have a circumstantial participle depicting the believer as either a runner stripping down to run a race or troops getting ready to go into action against the enemy. Which way you take it, military or athletic, depends upon the other words in the verse.

The next phrase is “every weight”, and ogkos (ὄγκος) [pronounced ONG-koss] means burden or impediment. So in this case it means “having removed every impediment”. The impediment includes anything that keep us from concentrating on doctrine, anything that keeps us from consistently taking in doctrine. Impediments, therefore, can include anything from social distractions, anything that keeps someone from class, or in class anything that keeps one from concentrating.

“and the sin” — the accusative singular direct object of hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah]. This recognizes specifically now that we cannot advance apart from rebound. The sin also has something to describe it. We have several other words. In our English Bibles we have “which doth so easily beset.” We have an adjective, euperistatos (εὐπερίστατος) [pronounced yoo-per-IHS-tat-oss], and it means “easily ensnaring” or “easily entangling.” It is a reference to whatever is current in your life by way of area of weakness. The area of weakness will change from time to time so there is no such thing as specifying a direct sin because everyone has different areas of weaknesses at different times. So it is simply “the easily ensnaring sin”, and this is removed by the rebound technique. So again there is an emphasis here on the rebound technique as a part of stripping for action for the advance.

The Doctrine of the Rebound Technique

1. By definition rebound is a technical term for the believer’s restoration to fellowship. Carnality puts the believer out of fellowship and loss of the filling of the Spirit; rebound puts him back in fellowship.

2. The concept of rebound.

a. Rebound must be understood in the light of relationship with God. Jeremiah 3:13 teaches this principle.

b. Rebound must be correlated with positional truth by the royal family of God — Romans 8:1.

c. The frame of reference for rebound is the efficacious death of Christ on the cross, being judged for our sins. In other words, all we do in the actual function of the rebound technique is to name our sins. How we feel about them is totally inconsequential. 1John 1:7; 2Corinthians 5:21; 1Peter 2:24.

d. Rebound means restoration to fellowship with God plus the recovery of the filling of the Holy Spirit — Proverbs 1:23; Ephesians 5:14 cf. verse 18.

e. Eternal security is the prerequisite to understanding the rebound technique — Romans 8:38,39. The believer sins after salvation but such sin is carnality, not loss of salvation — 1Corinthians 3:1–3; 1John 1:8, 10.

3. The mechanics of the rebound technique. First of all, confess it — 1John 1:9. Confess means to name or to cite; then we forget it — Philippians 3:13,14; then we isolate it — Hebrews 12:15.

a. There is no place for penance in the plan of God.

b. If you have a guilt reaction, then you name that sin to God as well. Christians can remain out of fellowship for a long time ver guilt.

4. There is an alternative to rebound. Both carnality and reversionism are the results of refusing or rejecting the rebound technique. Or it can be simply the result of failure to use it properly, because if you add anything to naming your sins privately to God the you are not forgiven. The alternative to rebound, then, becomes very important because the alternative is great discipline — 1Corinthians 11:31 (If we should judge ourselves, then we will not be judged).

a. Other people may remind you of the sins you committed, but all sins are between you and God.

b. There is always some self righteous ass who wants to tell you how terrible your are or to grovel over your sin.

c. Self-judgement is the same as naming your sins.

5. The discouragement to rebound. Legalism is the discouragement to rebound — Luke 15:11–32; 2Corinthians 2:5–11.

a. Throughout this entire story, these two are the sons of this man.

b. One asks to get his full inheritance and to waste away this inheritance.

c. A depression occurs and he is in a jam. He realizes that the servants are better off at his father’s home than he is.

d. He admits his sin to his father.

e. His father runs to the son; he has compassion. This is like God towards us.

f. Best robes are brought out. This is indicative of righteousness. The signet ring means that he could not sign checks. Shoes on the feet is walking in the way.

g. The older brother is working in the field. He comes back and hears music and dancing. Bob calls him devious. He is not honest. Self righteous believers are not honest or noble.

h. The older brother is jealous and he is wrong even about what is going on.

i. He has a terrible case of self-righteousness.

j. The brother being lost and then found, is out of fellowship and back in; dead and now alive. Same thing.

k. The brother is now out of fellowship.

l. Berachah people do not tend to be self righteous. But many have been brought up with a strong religious background. Some have a self righteous reaction or a guilt reaction to their own sin.

6. The Old Testament rebound commands are also to be found in abundance — Proverbs 28:13; Psalm 32:5; 38:18; 51:3,4.

7. There are biblical synonyms for rebound:

a. Confess — 1John 1:9;

b. to judge self — 1Corinthians 11:31;

c. yield in the aorist tense — Romans 6:13; 12:1;

d. lay aside every weight — Hebrews 12:1;

e. be in subjection to the Father of lights — Hebrews 12:9;

f. lift up the hands that hang down — Hebrews 12:12;

g. make straight paths — Hebrews 12:13 (In Hebrews 12:1–15 the major subject is divine discipline and it is interesting to note that there are four different ways in which rebound is described in that passage);

h. “arise from the dead” is literally, “stand up again out from deaths” — Ephesians 5:14;

i. put off the old man — Ephesians 4:22;

j. acknowledge thine iniquity — Jeremiah 3:13.

8. Helping others to rebound under grace has a series of grace principles.

a. The mechanics of grace in helping others to rebound — Galatians 6:1.

b. The mental attitude of grace in helping others to rebound — Matthew 18:23–35.

c. The application of grace orientation — Colossians 3:13.

d. The reward for helping other members of the royal family to rebound — James 5:19,20

Our passage says, “For this reason, therefore, since we also keep on having such great supergrace heroes, a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, having removed every impediment and the easily ensnaring sin.”

Next we have “let us run” — the present active subjunctive of the verb trechô (τρέχω) [pronounced TREHK-oh]. Trechô (τρέχω) [pronounced TREHK-oh] is a different word from walking because it has to do here with advancing. We are advancing toward the high ground of supergrace. So this verb follows the analogy of advancing toward the enemy on the run which we simply call a charge today. The present tense is tendencial, it is used for an action which is commanded though not taking place at the moment. It represents the idea which is intended. The active voice: the royal family is commanded to participate in the action, and this is the hortatory subjunctive in which the writer orders the readers to join him in a course of action specified by the verb.

“with patience” is literally “with endurance” — dia plus the genitive of hupomonê (ὐπομονή) [pronounced hoop-ohm-ohn-AY],. Hupomonê (ὐπομονή) [pronounced hoop-ohm-ohn-AY], means with patient expectation or with endurance. Endurance connotes the persistence of positive volition. It has the same connotation as “unbending” in Hebrews 10:23.

“the race” — this doesn’t necessarily mean race. Agôn (ἀγών) [pronounced ag-OHN] has two connotations. First connotation: a race in a stadium; second connotation: a conflict, a tactical situation.

Bob has noticed that certain athletic types are not in class tonite. He takes a mental roll call. They are bent down in front of a television watching a game. The night before, Bob taught about unbending persistence.

“that is set before us” — the present middle participle prokeimai (πρόκειμαι) [pronounced PROHK-i-mahee]. it means to lie before to be present but it also means goal or objective, and so it should be translated “the objective before us.” So we have “let us advance with endurance in the conflict to the present objective.”

Hebrews 12:1 “For this reason, therefore, since we also keep on having such great supergrace examples a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, having removed every impediment and the easily ensnaring sin; let us advance with endurance in the conflict, to the present objective.”

Hebrews 12:2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Verse 2 gives us the objective of the attack. “Looking unto Jesus” — the present active participle of aphoraô (ἀφοράω) [pronounced af-or-AH-oh] is best translated “look away.” The verb connotes concentration on the objective which is occupation with Christ and should be translated therefore “Be looking away.” The present tense is tendencial which means that the action is not taking place but is the objective. It is the objective once you get on the high ground of supergrace. The active voice: the royal family focuses attention on the objective, the objective being occupation with Christ. The participle is used as an imperative and that is why it is translated “Be looking away toward Jesus.” In other words after a glance at the supporting battalion, those who have already made it, move out and keep moving in the area of your objective.

“the author” — archêgos (ἀρχηγόός) [pronounced ar-khay-GOSS] does not mean someone who writes a book, it means a leader a ruler or a prince. The noun connotes a ruler or a prince on the basis of having begun something, to have begun a dynasty, to be the originator of a kingdom. Jesus Christ is our prince-ruler in the sense that he started the royal family of God on the cross, and from the cross to His session at the right hand of the Father. The definite article in the accusative is translated as a possessive pronoun, and it should be “our prince leader” or “our ruler.”

“and finisher” — the accusative singular of the noun teleiôtês (τελειωτής) [pronounced tel-i-o-TACE] and it means “perfecter.” The word means consummater or completer, the one who brings through to final attainment. So we have our prince-leader and the one who brings to attainment of supergrace.

“of our faith” is wrong. There is no pronoun “our.” The ablative singular from pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] connotes doctrine again as we saw in Hebrews 11:1–3. It should be “by the doctrine.” “Be looking away toward Jesus our Ruler and the One who brings to attainment of supergrace by the doctrine.” That is the only way we will ever get to supergrace. This means doctrine in the soul. This emphasizes both the means of attaining supergrace through doctrine resident in the soul as well as the objective of supergrace which is occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. When you put these two things together it means once you get to the high ground you have to hold it, and you hold it the same way you got there — by doctrine.

The relative pronoun “who” refers to the Lord Jesus Christ, and the words “for the joy” is incorrect. This is a classical Greek prepositional phrase and it is designed to just stand out and hit us — anti plus the ablative of chara (χαρά) [pronounced khahr-AH] is the make-up of the prepositional phrase. It should be translated “in exchange for the happiness.”

“that was set before him” — the present active participle of prokeimai (πρόκειμαι) [pronounced PROHK-i-mahee] but it is used as an adjective. It is what is called ascriptive. Prokeimai (πρόκειμαι) [pronounced PROHK-i-mahee] as an adjective means “present.” So it is “the present perfect happiness.”

The word “him” is a possessive dative singular intensive pronoun meaning “his present perfect happiness”. So, “Be looking away toward Jesus our prince leader and the one who brings to attainment of supergrace by the doctrine, who instead of [or in exchange for] his perfect always-present happiness.” In other words, to go to the cross Christ turned in His perfect happiness for maximum pressure and misery. Bearing our sins was the most excruciating thing that could ever happen to the perfect Son of God. In order to fulfil the Father’s plan for the incarnation He had to turn in His always-present happiness for the intensive agony of the cross.

What caused the Lord to exchange His perfect happiness for a horrible misery, and what motivated our Lord to become a sin bearer and to be our substitute? The answer is found in Bible doctrine resident in His human soul. He was willing to make that decision, He had the courage to make that decision, because He had maximum Bible doctrine resident in His soul. Doctrine motivated Jesus Christ to endure the cross. The resolving of the angelic conflict and man’s salvation through His own efficacious sacrifice indicated the saturation of doctrine in the soul. In other words, He had an objective and He didn’t want it. He had to turn in His always-present perfect happiness in order to meet that objective. We are the beneficiaries of the fact that He did. In other words, doctrine had the dynamics to carry Him to the fulfilment of the objective, and in that way He set the way for us to get doctrine in the soul, to fulfil the objective before us. So just as doctrine motivated the Lord to go to the cross so doctrine motivates the royal family to advance, following the colours to the high ground of the supergrace victory. Therefore the importance of doctrine resident in the soul.

Next we have “endured”, the aorist active indicative of hupomenô (ὑπομένω) [pronounced hoop-om-EHN-oh], which means “with endurance”. The aorist tense of this verb is constative, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety and it takes the occurrence of the cross, Christ being judged for our sins, and gathers it all up into one entirety. The entirety lasted some three hours, the most agonizing three hours in history. It was so terrible that the temptation was there to leave, but He never did. Doctrine carried Him for three hours. He had enough spiritual resources of the soul to make it all the way.

The word “despise” is not a correct translation. It is the aorist active participle of kataphroneô (καταφρονέω) [pronounced kat-af-ron-EH-oh] which means to disregard. It means to treat with contempt, to treat with scorn. The dramatic aorist was used for a result which was accomplished — salvation. Jesus Christ produced the action of the verb. This is circumstantial. It also has simultaneous action with the main verb. He “endured the cross, disregarding the ignominy.”

“and is set down” — perfect active indicative of kathizô (καθίζω) [pronounced kahth-EED-zoh] which in the perfect tense is a dramatic perfect. In other words, he is seated in the past with results that go on for the entire Church Age. He splits the plunder of the victory with us, it is the basis of our supergrace blessing. Christ produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is a dogmatic reality of the declarative — “at the right hand of the throne of God he has sat down.”

Our supergrace paragraph may sit there on the hill throughout eternity, if you don’t go get it.

Hebrews 12:2 “Be looking away toward Jesus our prince leader and the one who brings us to the attainment of supergrace [by doctrine]; Who instead of His always-present happiness endured the cross, having disregarded the ignominy [shame, disgrace], at the right hand of the throne of God He has sat down with the result that He remains seated in the highest place of honour.”

1972 Hebrews Lesson #147

147 07/11/1974 Hebrews 12:3; Phil. 3:4–5 Human celebrityship

Hebrews 12:3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

Verse 3 — we have an explanatory use of the particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] which pulls together the principles involved in this passage. The first two verses demand a little more explanation before we get into the subject of the perspective of the high ground.

“For consider” — the aorist middle imperative from the verb analogizomai (ἀναλογίζομαι) [pronounced an-al-og-IHD-zom-ahee] which means to think something over very carefully. Because we have an ingressive aorist here we begin to think as a result of what we have just learned. The ingressive aorist in which the action as signified by the aorist is contemplated at its beginning. In other words, this is entrance into the constative idea and when you enter into it it is called ingressive. So it is translated, “And let yourselves begin thinking about.” “Yourselves” comes from the permissive middle which represents the agent or the believer voluntarily yielding himself to the results of the action and securing the results of the action in his own interest. The imperative mood is an order. So we are commanded to begin thinking about, but this command can only be obeyed when we understand the principles in the first two verses of this passage.

“him” is the accusative singular of the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun, and translated “such a one.” When the definite article is used as a demonstrative pronoun it gives it great emphasis. Reason for this: once you get on the high ground your perspective changes, you scale of values changes, your ideas of celebrityship change. And when it says “For let yourselves begin thinking about such a one” this means that Jesus Christ is the only celebrity and that being a supergrace hero you have an entirely different viewpoint of life, of celebrityship, of things around you, of what is really important.

“that endured” is the perfect active participle of hupomenô (ὑπομένω) [pronounced hoop-om-EHN-oh],. Hupomenô (ὑπομένω) [pronounced hoop-om-EHN-oh], is characteristic of the advance to the high ground of the supergrace life. This advance is based upon consistency, persistence, gutting it out, enduring, and that means the continuation and perpetuation of positive volition. The perfect tense is an intensive perfect, it views the action as completed and emphasizes the existing results. The results include the efficacious sacrifice of Christ, His saving work on the cross, and then His dying words in which He passed on the colours to each one of us so that we can follow the colours; so that as He persisted, we can persist; as He was positive, we can be positive; as He was consistent, we can be consistent. We also have the resurrection, ascension and session as a part of that strategical victory included here in the results. The active voice: Jesus Christ produced the action of the verb by enduring the cross and in enduring the opposition prior to the cross. This is a circumstantial participle and it now historical in its connotation.

“such contradiction” — the word “contradiction” is really “opposition.” The word “such” is a correlative demonstrative pronoun toioutos (τοιοτος) [pronounced toy-OO-toss]. This takes us back to classical Greek. It means with great intensity. Such opposition was such intense opposition. The word for “opposition” is antilogia (ἀντιλογία) [pronounced an-tee-lohg-EE-ah]. “For let yourselves begin thinking about such a one [Christ] having endured such opposition.”

“of sinners” in incorrect. We have hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus the ablative plural of hamartôlos (ἁμαρτωλός) [pronounced ham-ar-to-LOSS],. While hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] is usually a preposition of authority, when it is used with the ablative it expresses agency. So it should be “by the agency of sinners” or “by the sinners.” In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ endured the most unusual and intensive opposition that anyone ever endured in all of history. He was the greatest and yet He was treated as the lowest.

“against himself” indicates that the whole target for Satanic opposition during the incarnation was the Lord Jesus Christ. He intensified his activities to the utmost and because our Lord followed the colours, because He was consistent, because He was persistent, and because He gathered so much doctrine in His soul, He was able to wade through all of this opposition.

“lest” is the conjunction hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] plus the negative. it is a negative purpose clause. It means “in order that you be not.”

“wearied” — the aorist active subjunctive of the verb kamnô (κάμνω) [pronounced KAM-no] which means to be fatigued, to be worn out, or exhausted. It means to carry on and do your job even though you are completely and totally shot down. Which is what our Lord did. The pressure was phenomenal but He carried on anyway. The aorist tense is the ingressive aorist in which the action signified by the aorist is contemplated from its beginning. The active voice plus the negative is the purpose of the royal family in not producing the action of the verb. In other words, weariness, fatigue, despondency, discouragement are all included in the idea. The subjunctive mood plus the negative indicates prohibition.

Then we have the word “and faint.” There is no word “and” in our passage. “Becoming feeble” is the present passive participle of ekluô (ἐκλύω) [pronounced ek-LOO-oh]. The present tense is the iterative present, it describes what recurs at successive intervals and therefore it is the present tense of repeated action. In the passive voice the believer receives — with negative volition he receives fainting of soul, he receives despondency, discouragement, loss of courage. The participle is known as a complementary participle, it is used to complement the idea of the action of the main verb, and the main verb is to become weary or fatigued.

“in your minds” is literally “in your souls.”

Hebrews 12:3 “For let yourselves begin thinking about such a person [Jesus Christ] having endured such opposition by the sinners against himself, in order that you do not become fatigued in your souls.”

Fainting in the soul is the function of the reactor factors in the first stage of reversionism. Reactor factors include such things as self-pity, guilt complex, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, disillusion, disenchantment, boredom, loneliness or overcome by self-pity.

This particular verse now leads us into the new perspective of the high ground. There is a whole paragraph on the Word of God that connects with this idea of fainting and becoming feeble in the soul — Philippians 3:4,5. The more you press the attack the more the pressure on you, the more the enemy begins to look for your weakness, what makes you discouraged, despondent, bitter, jealous, what keeps you from the Word of God, etc.

The reason this passage is so apropos is that by human standards the apostle Paul as Saul of Tarsus was truly one of the great all-time celebrities in the area of celebrityship called Judaism. Therefore, when he speaks on this subject he can point out to us from his own life that there is something more important than being a celebrity in one’s field, and that in reality once you become a member of the royal family of God celebrityship belongs to Jesus Christ, and that when a believer is negative toward doctrine and neglects doctrine, in effect he tries to rob or steal from Jesus Christ His celebrityship. This is blasphemous and reversionistic and this will explain the disciplinary passage in Hebrews 12:4–15. None of us have the right as members of the royal family to ever try to steal honour or fame or celebrityship from the Lord Jesus Christ. The way we do this is to neglect the Word of God and by so doing to intrude upon the celebrityship of Christ by placing something over it, something becomes more important.

Philippians 3:3b, 4 And not have confidence in the flesh, though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more:

Philippians 3:7–8 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

Bob gives a corrected translation.

What is more important to you than doctrine in your soul?

Bob is going to cover the doctrine of excrement tomorrow; bring a clean sheet of paper. He is learning a lot about teaching categorically.

Philippians 3:4 — Paul’s human celebrityship is the subject of this verse. We begin with a conjunction translated “Though.” The word is kaiper (καίπερ) [pronounced KAH-ee-per],. Kai is one of the most common conjunctions in the Word of God; the particle per which goes with it is non-translatable, it is used to intensify a conjunction, it emphasizes the meaning of a word to which it is affixed, and it should be translated here, “although.” It indicates that Paul has a greater basis for confidence in the flesh and that he is a true human celebrity. And Paul almost has to break up and laugh because the Judaizers have set themselves up as celebrities to the Philippians.

The Philippians are a Gentile church, they are made up of mostly retired army personnel from the Roman army. Their whole background in Gentile, they do not have one clue as to what Judaism is all about. So when the Judaizers came to Philippi to attack the local church there they all thought maybe this was something that Paul hadn’t let them in on. In reality, these were Paul’s greatest critics, and one of their approaches was to say that Paul didn’t take you far enough.

“I might have” — the present active participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] plus the pronoun in the proleptic position, egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH] — “Even though I,” and then we have to add “I myself” because of the proleptic position of the pronoun. “Even though I myself might have.” echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] in the present tense is a pictorial present, it presents to the mind events or a process in occurrence. The pictorial present brings up something very graphic, something that you can stand and say, “Isn’t that beautiful.”

Paul is going to present Saul of Tarsus, an unbeliever, who reached the peak of self-righteous celebrityship, who reached the peak in the field of legalism and in the field of Judaism. Judaism was the frame of reference for his self-righteousness. Therefore he is going to say “Even though I myself might be having”, the descriptive or pictorial present. The active voice: Paul as the human celebrity in the field of Judaism produces the action of the verb. The participle is concessive in which Paul concedes his superiority over all other people in Judaism and in reality, in the sense of human standards and human celebrityship, he did qualify. So he mentions that now under the word “confident” — the accusative singular direct object of the noun pepoithêsis (πεποίθησις) [pronounced pehp-OY-thay-sis]. This word is built on the verb poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] and it means the ultimate in confidence.

“in the flesh” — prepositional phrase en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of sarx (σάρξ) [pronounced sarx]. Here the word “flesh” stands for human standards of celebrityship. “Even though I myself might be having confidence in human standards of celebrityship.” He said he might be; he isn’t, of course. The reason that he says this is found in the end of verse 3 — “and have no confidence in the flesh” — “have no confidence” is a perfect participle — “have no confidence in the flesh with the result that I will never have confidence in the flesh.” In other words, the apostle Paul from the high ground can look out and get a new perspective of life.

“If” is a conditional particle ei (εἰ) [pronounced I], and plus the indicative mood it introduces a first class condition. Remember that a conditional clause is the statement of a supposition, the fulfilment of which is assumed to secure the realization of the potential fact expressed in the companion clause. We call the supposition clause the protasis and the companion clause where we have the conditions for the supposition is called the apodosis. So we have a first class condition, if and it is true. “If any” — the enclitic indefinite pronoun means “anyone,” tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] without an accent. Actually, it is “If anyone other.” The word for other is allos (ἄλλος) [pronounced AL-lohs], meaning another of the same category, therefore he is referring to Jews functioning in Judaism.

The word “thinks” is presumptive thinking, subjective thinking, the present active indicative of the word dokéô (δοκέω) [pronounced dohk-EH-oh], subjective thinking or holding a subjective opinion. Therefore we translate it “presume.” All subjectivity involves arrogance. Objectivity involves humility or modesty. “If anyone of the same kind [category] presumes” — the customary present denotes what habitually occurs among the Judaizers, they always presume. The active voice: the Judaizers produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative to indicate a first class condition.

“he hath whereof he might trust” — the perfect active infinitive of peithô (πείθω) [pronounced PIE-thoh] which means to have confidence. The perfect tense is intensive, it indicates a completed action and emphasizes the existing results as subjective arrogant over confidence. The active voice: the Judaizers produce the action of the verb. This is an infinitive of result. However, there are three different kinds of infinitive of result. There is the actual result, the intended result, the conceived result. Here we have the conceived result. “And not having confidence in the flesh, even though I myself might be having confidence in the flesh. If anyone of the same category [Judaizers] assumes to have confidence in the flesh, and they do.” Then he adds egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH] mallon (μλλον) [pronounced MAL-lon] — “I more.” That is an objective dogmatic statement, and it is the kind of a statement that makes everyone hate you. They say you’re arrogant and you’re proud, but it is interesting that the shoe is on the other foot. Arrogance belongs to the Judaizers and Paul is truly a very humble, modest person. He isn’t proud at all. He is speaking not from arrogance but from true achievement in the field of Judaism. People cannot stand dogmatism.

“I More”

1. Paul indicates objective confidence in his superiority in the field of Judaism.

2. Paul was established as the top celebrity in the field of self-righteousness of all time. This is in the Bible, so it is true.

3. If salvation had been through legalism, if spirituality has been through legalism, if any achievement can come from legalism, then Paul is the achiever. Paul would be in heaven by his own works, would have been spiritual through his own ability in the field of self-righteousness. And Paul would have been the most saved person ever.

4. If salvation had been accomplished through Judaism Paul would have been saved as Saul of Tarsus and would have taught salvation by works to the Philippians. But he didn’t. When he came to Philippi what did he teach? “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved” — Acts 16:31. So obviously the Philippians had it historically in mind. Paul never taught anything like the Judaizers.

The false perspective of the old standards is give, beginning in verse 5.

Principles

1. Paul had the highest rating under Judaism. By every standard of Judaism Paul is tops, so he could truly say that he was a human celebrity by the standards of Judaism.

2. Under the legalism of Judaism Saul of Tarsus was a great celebrity and already had an impact on history as a human celebrity.

3. The Gentile believers of the early Church had been infiltrated and influenced by Judaism. Judaism was the antithesis of Hellenistic culture and quite attractive to Gentile believers.

4. Judaism appealed to Gentile believers as a new way of life antithetical to the Greek way of life. It appealed to them because it was self-righteous and therefore eliminated the amorality and immorality of Hellenism.

5. For this reason three groups in the early church were very susceptible to Judaistic legalism— the Galatians, the Corinthians, and the Philippians. The Galatians and Corinthians bought it, the Philippians were headed off at the pass.

6. These peoples were impressed by legalism because it was new, it was different, it was fascinating, and it seemed to go with salvation in the sense that it called for an entirely new way of life.

7. The categories of Judaism in which Paul up-classed all the Judaizers are listed in this paragraph, and in this paragraph, verses 5, 6, remember that these are the norms of Judaism, not the norms for any form of celebrityship among the people of our own country.

a. Ritual confidence — “circumcised the eighth day.” “Circumcised” is the dative of advantage from peritomê. The principle of circumcision with the Jews was the highest type of ritual confidence and it immediately indicated anyone who was circumcised on the eighth day was obviously in Israel. The ritual had been distorted into legalism and while Paul had been circumcised on the eighth day this gave him a tremendous celebrityship of race. Circumcision therefore has this connotation. The idea of being circumcised on the eighth day in Paul’s time was a racial superiority. Always, as long as there are old sin natures there will be racial problems but remember that circumcised on the eighth day reminds us of the fact that racial problems have nothing to do with the colour of one’s skin, nor of one’s background. What is actually said here by way of celebrityship is to be circumcised on the eighth day — even in Paul’s day racial purity had more or less disappeared, though not entirely — by the standards of Judaism was racial superiority. It should be remembered that racial problems have nothing to do with the colour of one’s skin. All racial problems come from the old sin nature — from mental attitude sins. Old sin nature problems exploit differences in features, differences in skin, differences in background.

b. The first point is a ritual problem which is related to a race. The race has its start with a ritual and the true meaning of this will come up later with Abraham. For the moment let us note that this is a ritual confidence related to a racial confidence.

c. Racial confidence — “of the stock of Israel,”ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus the ablative singular of genoj which means “from the race”. So we have “from the race of Israel.” Israel is the name given to Jacob when he reached supergrace status, it became both the racial and the national designation for the Jews who are the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob. And of salvation can be claimed on the basis of physical birth then Paul would automatically be saved and therefore would not teach “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” However, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob demands a new birth. Paul therefore had not confidence in the flesh and he rejects confidence in birth or racial confidence. There is a slight overlap. The ritual of circumcision overlaps into the race of Israel, and this will again overlap into the nation. He will be from the tribe of Benjamin. So birth is the great issue at the start. And what kind of a birth you are or the source of your birth is of no consequence. All human standards are eliminated by the glorious high standards of God’s grace.

i. There is no problem with the skin color; the problem is with the sin nature.

ii. Being born in high or low circumstances is not an issue.

iii. There is no such thing as a racial difference.

d. Family confidence, or national issue — “the tribe of Benjamin”. The tribe of Benjamin had four superiorities: 1. They were great military types, therefore they had military celebrityship. Out of all of the tribes of Israel Judah and Benjamin have true military celebrityship. 2. They had the first king over Israel, therefore they had royal celebrityship. The Judaizers came from a lot of the no account tribes, like Dan and Ephraim, or from Asher, the good-time boys that never amounted for anything. All Paul had to do with the Judaizers was to say, “I am Saul of Tarsus, born of the tribe of Benjamin”, and he shut them up because he is a celebrity and they are not. 3. They were loyal to the Davidic dynasty in the great revolution. Hence, they also had character celebrityship. The men of Benjamin are famous for being men of great character, character including loyalty and faithfulness to a principle or to persons.

4. There were several types of celebrityship; and this is what Paul talked about. They were a part of the southern kingdom and therefore they had stability or establishment celebrityship.

The tribe of Benjamin, next to Judah, is about as great as you can be — four types of celebrityship in their history. To be able to say I am from the tribe of Benjamin means immediately that by human standards great celebrityship is involved.

This says literally, “from the tribe of Benjamin. We have the ablative of phulê (φυλή) [pronounced foo-LAY] here, and if relationship with God had been based on family prominence or national prominence or family connections then Saul of Tarsus would have been saved at birth and Saul of Tarsus would have been recognized as one of the greatest people. But neither ancestry nor family determine salvation or celebrityship. And yet down through the ages of history ancestry has been used by the arrogant in order to establish themselves as superior to those in their periphery, whether it is a society, whether it is a city or a nation or a church or a social organization, etc. This is the principle of superiority by caste.

Then we have a national confidence brought out in Hebraios (ἑβραος) [pronounced heb-RAH-yoss] ex Hebraiôn, “an Hebrew from the Hebrews.” This is really a cultural superiority. This refers not only to Jewish nationalism and patriotism but to conservatism in culture contrasted with the liberal Hellenistic culture which had infiltrated Israel. We have two kinds of Jews, the Hellenistic Jews who were liberal and the Orthodox Jews who were conservative. “Hebrew from the Hebrews is an Orthodox Jew. So Paul as Saul or Tarsus resisted liberalism in culture, he resisted liberalism in tradition. And if salvation had come from nationalism, patriotism, and conservatism, then Paul would have been saved; for Paul as Saul of Tarsus was one of the great men of his day. He was a dynamic person who had a great impact on history as a Judaiser himself because he was a “Hebrew from the Hebrews.”

“Circumcision on the eighth day, from the race of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew from the Hebrews.”

5. Religious confidence. This is where his self-righteous celebrityship comes in — “as touching the law” is katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative singular of nomos (νόμος) [pronounced NOHM-oss], and it should be translated “with reference to the law.”

“a Pharisee” — here is the great historical tradition of Israel from about the second century on. Pharisee means everything that is conservative, separatist, a patriot, one who is oriented to nationalism. The New Testament writers mention the Pharisees many times under the assumption that the readers knew all about the Pharisees. Today, of course, we do not. They emphasize not the general doctrines of the Pharisees but those that differed from our Lord and Christianity.

Basically speaking, many of the doctrines of the Pharisees are ones with which you would heartily agree. The traditions of the Pharisees actually began with conservative theology in the days of Ezra, about 459 BC, and down to the second century they were believers who were quite strong in conservatism. In other words, the great conservative party in the history of Israel for 500 years came from believers in the time Ezra, right down to the time of John Hercanus over a period of about 250 years.

But the conservatives, even though they came from believers and their background was doctrine, they departed from it, and that is the history of the Pharisees at the time of our Lord. They were still conservatives without the source, Bible doctrine. They had added their own traditions and they had substituted strong character and self-righteousness for the grace orientation principles. Around 134 to 104 BC the Pharisees became very powerful under John Hercanus who became virtually the ruler of the Jews. When John Hercanus saw that the Pharisees were trying to control the state he began to persecute them, but on his death bed he told his wife to stick with the Pharisees because they were the ones who had the best character. In his lifetime he had crucified over 800 Pharisees and he had ruled from 134 to 104, a period of thirty years. His wife took his advice and from that time the Pharisees dominated the Sanhedrin. However, the Pharisees had some setbacks under Antiper and under Herod who were Arabs and who ruled that area. They persecuted the Pharisees terribly but by the time that Herod died the Pharisees petitioned for Roman help and received it, and from then on the Pharisees really ruled the southern kingdom. In our Lord’s time the Pharisees, of course, opposed Him because over a period of nearly 400 years they had lost the source of their conservatism. The source is Bible doctrine. This is why Christians can be antisemitic.

Philippians 3:5 “Circumcision on the eighth day, from the race of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew from the Hebrews; with reference to the law a Pharisee.”

1972 Hebrews Lesson #148

148 07/12/1974 Hebrews 11 via Phil. 3:6–8 Doctrine of dung

Translation reviewed:

Philippians 3:3b–4 And not having confidence in the flesh, even though I myself might be having confidence in the flesh; If anyone (of the same category) assumes (or presumes) to have confidence in the flesh, I more:

Philippians 3:5 “Circumcision on the eighth day, from the race of Israel, from the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew from the Hebrews; with reference to the law, a Pharisee.”

Philippians 3:6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Verse 6 — “Concerning zeal” should be “with reference to zeal.” It is katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of zêlos (ζλος) [pronounced DZAY-loss]. The Judaizers were proud of the fact that they had a principle on which to stand, they were proud of the fact that they persecuted the apostle Paul as the apostle of grace. Now the apostle Paul goes back in his own life to the time when he was an unbeliever and says “With reference to zeal persecuting the church”, the present active participle of diôkô (διώκω) [pronounced Dee-OH-koh]. The present tense is a historical present with linear aktionsart connotation. Saul of Tarsus as an unbeliever produced the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. “The church” refers to the royal family on earth, and if the standard or measurement is zeal Paul was superior to all people in Judaism, he was superior to his peers among the Judaizers. He persecuted and killed all kinds of Christians, the Judaizers did not. The Judaizers opposed Paul and they only persecuted grace types. The apostle Paul made no distinction between grace types, legalistic types, between those who were growing and those who were not. His persecution included killing, jailing, dispossessing, taking away the possessions and driving people out of the general area of Palestine. Therefore, as a person with zeal under Judaism Saul of Tarsus was greater in zeal, sincerity, conviction, than the Judaizers. They were inconsistent, he was consistent. So if zeal, conviction, and sincerity could save or make for celebrityship then the apostle Paul had arrived when he was an unbeliever. But since Paul has taken the high ground of the supergrace life he rejects salvation by zeal, salvation by sincerity, plus salvation by false conviction. In addition to that he has treated them in celebrityship by human standards but he now regards this as skubala, in verse 8, which is an accusative plural of skubalon (σκύβαλον) [pronounced SKOO-bal-on]. It means “dung”. The plural means an accumulation.

Now we come to the part which is the final stage as far as the Judaizers are concerned in the field of celebrityship — sanctimonious confidence, self-righteous confidence, “touching the righteousness which is in the law.” This is katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus dikaiosunê (δικαιοσύνη) [pronounced dih-kai-oh-SOON-ā or dik-ah-yos-OO-nay] and, again, it means “with reference to”; “with reference to self-righteousness which is in the law.” Now we have to insert a verb which was not even translated, the aorist active participle of ginomai — “having become.” This is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, and the action of the verb in its entirety is keeping the law, in the same way in which the rich young ruler kept the law. It is a self-righteousness. The apostle Paul exceeded all other people in keeping the Mosaic law. As Saul of Tarsus he produced the action of this circumstantial participle.

“blameless” — while Paul was a very moral man as an unbeliever, extremely self-righteous, he was the worst sinner who ever lived, according to 1Timothy 1:12–15. He was the epitome of self-righteousness, morality, and sanctimoniousness. So if salvation could come through keeping the law then the apostle Paul would have gone to Philippi and said to keep the law instead of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. But to the contrary he rejects this facet of celebrityship under legalism and says in reality that man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ — Galatians 5:16.

Philippians 3:6 “With reference to zeal, persecuting the church; with reference to self-righteousness in the law, having become blameless.”

In these last two verses we have established a super celebrityship by human standards in the field of Judaism. This is the background for the two verses that form a principle which goes with Hebrews 11:1–3. In verses 7 and 8 we have the true perspective of the new standard of supergrace. This is the perspective from the high ground.

Philippians 3:7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ.

Verse 7 begins with the adversative conjunction allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH] which sets up a contrast between human celebrityship and being a supergrace hero, or contrasting confidence in false standards and confidence in God’s plan — “But.”

“what things” — the nominative neuter plural from the qualitative pronoun hostis (ὅστις) [pronounced HOH-stihs] means “what category of things.” This is a reference to the standards of human celebrityship. And, again, we have a problem because Judaism is not a problem today in this country or in this part of the world. Therefore, while we must remember that while we do not have today the same concepts of celebrityship the principle of human celebrityship exists here as it existed in Paul’s day among Jews universally located throughout the Roman empire. This is a reference, by the way, to false standards and the erroneous perspective of the unbeliever or the reversionistic believer.

“were” — the perfect active indicative of the verb eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. The imperfect tense is a customary imperfect for what had regularly or ordinarily occurred in past time. The active voice: Saul of Tarsus produced the action of the verb in the field of legalistic human celebrityship. The declarative indicative indicates an absolute fact in past history.

In connection with that we have the first word that helps us, a key word, to understanding these next two verses, 7 and 8. It must be understood that the word “gain” translated in the singular is really in the plural. This is the predicate nominative plural of kerdoj. It is in the plural; it is translated as a singular. The singulars and the plurals are very important in this passage, they actually set up the contrast between divine perspective from the high ground and human perspective from the viewpoint of the unbeliever.

“What Category of Things Were Gains” — Summary

1. The plural refers to the seven gains of Paul’s human celebrityship in Judaism.

2. These seven gains formed confidence in the flesh by standards of Judaism.

3. These are the things that the Judaizers used to say one person is a celebrity and another is not. These are human standards of celebrityship.

4. While we as members of the family of God no longer have standards of Judaism as the criterion for celebrityship there is some norm, some standard of the soul, which in human viewpoint holds our admiration to the point of establishing in our minds the concept of human celebrityship. All believers enter into the Christian life and start to grow and carry in their souls certain concepts from their unbelieving life or from any life they have had before doctrine. And they carry standards of celebrityship through admiration of certain categories.

5. Therefore, a sample of the possibilities in this field. In our society we have athletic celebrities, drama celebrities, musical celebrities, art celebrities, business celebrities, social life celebrities, professional celebrities, and so on. There is nothing wrong with greatness in any of these fields. The issue is that as you advance toward the high ground if there is ever a conflict between the celebrityship status and the celebrityship of Jesus Christ then you have to decide what your standards are. If you are taking in Bible doctrine it is no issue. If you are not taking in doctrine any celebrityship could turn you negative toward doctrine. That is why the apostle Paul is very strong on this particular concept.

6. Facing the fact that we are all human, have normal capacity for life, we all have norms and standards in the conscience of the soul where our admiration for someone attaches to them some system of human celebrityship.

7. There is a second problem: the idea of trying to attain human celebrityship. Believers often strive for these things, making them a lifetime obsession.

8. In our striving for them or in our association with those who have achieved human celebrityship we neglect Bible doctrine, and that neglect of doctrine is the issue in focus here. Nothing must keep us from consistency in the field of positive volition toward doctrine.

9. By taking the high ground of supergrace we avoid the celebrityship pitfalls. Therefore the principle of doctrine which emerges from the two verses is extremely important in our advance toward the supergrace life.

“But What Category of Things Were Gains [Advantages]” — Principles

1. Persistent positive volition toward Bible doctrine orients to the grace perspective. If you are consistent you may make mistakes along the way and you may fail in these areas but your persistence in being positive toward doctrine will eventually carry you to a point of maturity where this will no longer be a problem and you will no longer be involved in the push-pull of the celebrityship of Christ versus human standards of celebrityship. In other words, for the royal family there is true versus pseudo celebrityship.

2. Disorientation to grace is the first floor of the edification complex of the soul. It comes first in consolidated growth. It has to come first. Grace orientation includes understanding perspectives we are studying in these two verses.

3. Therefore we must come to recognize that when Christians have attained certain areas of celebrityship through grace that this is a part of their supergrace paragraph, supergrace blessings. And we must distinguish between pseudo celebrityship and supergrace blessing.

4. Therefore the standards of grace from doctrinal teaching and standards of human fame or gain are set up in contrast in the soul, and eventually the prevalence of doctrine will eliminate the human standards as being important. You will come to realize that if the Lord doesn’t provide it, it is not worth having.

5. Therefore, doctrine resident in the soul provides a new set of standards.

6. The seven standards of fame under Judaism have been eliminated by taking the high ground of supergrace.

7. Paul therefore has presented under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit biagraphical material necessary to make a point. This is not, however, the basis of his confidence or the basis of his supergrace fame or renown.

8. The divine viewpoint of supergrace has replaced the human viewpoint of pseudo celebrityship. Therefore Paul’s perspective is from the high ground. And Paul is not saying to you, if you have through God’s grace received something that it should be regarded as a pile of dung. Only that which is attained by human ability is in the perspective here.

“to me” — the dative singular of the personal pronoun egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH]. And Paul now indicates that this is a dative of disadvantage. It is to his disadvantage to put any confidence in human celebrityship.

“those” — the nominative plural of the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. Demonstrative pronouns are very important because they always are used to specify something in context, now understood by us. So the word “those” in the plural refers to the human gains or advantages under Judaism as celebrityship. A better translation is “the same things.”

“I counted” — perfect middle indicative of hêgeomai (ἡγέομαι) [pronounced hayg-EH-ohm-ahee]. Originally in the Classical Greek it meant to be a guide. To be a guide you had to know something. The idea is to be a guide, to have knowledge as a guide, to be an expert on a subject and therefore to be a guide. Here it means to conclude as an expert. The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect. The dramatic perfect is the rhetorical intensive perfect and therefore it emphasizes the fact that whenever Paul speaks on the subject of legalism or Judaism he speaks as the world record holder. He is an expert. The middle voice: the subject acts with a view toward participating in the outcome of the action of the verb. The middle voice stresses the subject as the agent of the action. This is an indirect middle emphasizing the subject or agent as producing the action. The indicative mood is declarative, a reality of the fact that the apostle Paul was the, and is the, expert. “I myself have concluded” is the best translation; “myself” is a reflexive pronoun which indicates the indirect middle; “I” is the subject; and “concluded” is the best translation.

“loss” — notice we had “gains”, plural; we have “loss,” accusative singular from zêmia (ζημία) [pronounced dzay-MEE-ah]. The word means “disadvantage” or “loss” and it is the singular. All of the seven gains are lumped up into one loss. Later on he is going to call them a pile of excrement, but right now he simply calls them “loss.” This is the high ground perspective. From the standard of Judaism these seven areas of celebrityship are gains, but from the standards of supergrace they are one loss or one disadvantage. On the high ground human celebrityship is replaced by the celebrityship of Christ. Principle: Once you become occupied with the person of Christ all human attainment becomes loss or disadvantage, and you lump them all together regardless of the different areas of human attainment. In other words, the supergrace hero has a new perspective as well as new blessings.

“for Christ” — dia plus the accusative of the definite article plus the word for “Christ.” So it is translated “because of the Christ.” Here is occupation with Christ as the first and foremost characteristic of the supergrace life and the basis of an entirely new set of values and a new perspective.

Philippians 3:7 “But what category of things were gains to me, these same things I myself have concluded loss because of the Christ.”

Summary

1. This is the perspective of the high ground. That is, this is the attitude of the believer who is now occupied with the person of Christ. It is all about who provides your blessing, you or God.

2. This attitude is not acquired by renouncing or giving up any human recognition or human achievement. It is not about giving up, it is about replacing. Doctrine must replace where replacement is necessary, and where doctrine doesn’t replace doctrine implements. That is the Christian way of life.

3. It is the attitude of those who follow the colours to the high ground of supergrace where all human achievement or fame is eliminated from the soul to be replaced by the celebrityship of Christ. Don’t give up anything that is energy of the flesh, just take in doctrine and allow the course of spiritual growth to replace or to implement.

a. You have a bf or gf and let’s say it is the wrong one. You are the bf, and she is negative. You stay with doctrine, and she stays negative. Doctrine eventually replaces her.

b. You keep moving forward spiritually. You just stay positive and you have replacement or implementation or both.

c. No testimony like, “I had the best looking woman in the world, but I gave her up.”

4. If you have been promoted in some activity of life do not reject or renounce the promotion.

a. You just stay where you are. Bob passed out tracks on a street corner and it did not add even a half inch to his ministry. Even Dallas Seminary has this as a part of their training. This does not make him a great minister or a great anything.

b. You do not develop presence and poise on street corners. You develop that from knowing your subject.

5. Follow the colours, GAP it to the high ground of supergrace. When you do there will be both replacement and implementation.

6. In giving you these blessings God is glorified.

7. In other words, you fulfil the principle of grace sharing the plunder of victory. You enjoy the benefits of your own tactical victory and maximum doctrine in the soul will provide the standards, the capacities, the perspective to enjoy to the utmost whatever God has and whatever God is providing for you personally.

Philippians 3:8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

Verse 8 — “Yea, doubtless, and” — allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH] men ὀυν ge kai. Allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH] is an adversative conjunction. While the conjunction is adversative it also has an emphatic use, so here it means “In fact.” Since it is here both emphatic and confirmatory, and since it follows the affirmative particle men we can translate it “More emphatically.” Then there is a third particle, the inferential particle ὀυν — “therefore”. The fourth particle ge emphasizes the word with which it is used, hence it becomes an enclitic particle appended to a word, and it refers to the word to which it is appended. Therefore it is translated “even” because it is appended to kai which is translated “also.” There is really no true translation in the English but this is as close as we can come: “More emphatically, therefore, even I also.” There are not enough euphemisms to make it sound as it should.

“I count” — present middle indicative of hêgeomai (ἡγέομαι) [pronounced hayg-EH-ohm-ahee]. The expert is speaking again. This is the aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. The present time is Paul on the high ground of supergrace. The punctiliar is his conclusion based on doctrine resident in his soul. The middle voice is the permissive middle in which the agent, the supergrace believer Paul, is represented as voluntarily yielding himself to the results of the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement.

“conclude all things” — the accusative neuter plural, pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs]. This is a part of the accusative of general reference. With it we have a definite article — “the all things.” There is not word “but” here in the original. We have a verb form, the present active infinitive of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] — “the all things [of human celebrityship] to be.”

“loss” — the accusative singular of direct object of zêmia (ζημία) [pronounced dzay-MEE-ah] again which means loss or disadvantage.

“for the excellency of the knowledge” — this is a prepositiona.l phrase, dia plus the accusative of the present active participle u(perexw used as an adjective. This is an ascriptive use of the participle and in the ascriptive use it means surpassing. With that we have a noun, gnôsis (γνσις) [pronounced GNOH-sis], and so we translate: “for the sake of the surpassing greatness of the knowledge.” Note what the surpassing greatness of the Christian way of life is: the knowledge” of doctrine — “of Christ Jesus my Lord.” There is occupation with Christ expressed.

Most emphatically, even I also myself conclude the all things of human celebrityship to be loss for the sake of the surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord (there is occupation with Christ).

“for whom” — dia plus the accusative of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] — “because of whom.”

“I have suffered the loss” — wrong! This is the aorist passive indicative of zêmioô (ζημιόω) [pronounced dzay-mee-OH-oh] which means in the passive voice to forfeit. You translate it like an active voice: “I have forfeited.” This is replacement, not give up. The culminative aorist views the event in its entirety, it regards the action of the verb from the viewpoint of existing results. In other words, what Paul is saying is “I have all these world’s records. I took in doctrine today, tomorrow, the next day, the next day. I persisted in taking in doctrine until I reached the high ground, and when I reached it at that point I had total replacement. Not one of those world’s records meant a thing tome anymore.” The passive voice: Paul received the action of the verb, “loss”, by following the colours to the high ground of supergrace, by persistence in the intake of doctrine. The indicative mood is again declarative for a dogmatic reality. “all things” — back on the plural of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] again. This is the accusative of direct object. “The all things” refers to the gains of human celebrityship, it refers to all of the apostle’s world’s records.

“and do count them” — the present middle indicative of hêgeomai (ἡγέομαι) [pronounced hayg-EH-ohm-ahee], “I keep on concluding them.”

“but dung” — the accusative plural direct object from skubalon (σκύβαλον) [pronounced SKOO-bal-on]. It is in the plural. Excrements? Remember that this is God the Holy Spirit directing the apostle. There is probably no better way of expressing the viewpoint of supergrace from the high ground than to see all energy of the flesh achievement as a pile of excrement. That is the true perspective. This completely cuts out human viewpoint.

The Doctrine of Dung

1. Human excrement, or dung, is used in the Word of God to illustrate or to portray certain principles of doctrine. From the standpoint of vocabulary alone there are numerous Hebrew words — five prominent ones and about five minor ones — for human excrement. There is at least one Greek word.

a. Hebrew: ashpot. It is used euphemistically and it is used figuratively for any degrading situation or condition. It is also used for something that is as low or useless as anything can be — 1Samuel 2:8; Psalm 113:7; Nehemiah 2:13; 3:14; 12:31.

b. There is another word: gelel. It is simply another way of describing the human excrement concept — Job 20:7; 1Kings 14:10; Ezekiel 4:12, 15; Zephaniah 1:17.

c. There is a very closely related word, galel, and another which is considered one of the more vulgar words, domen. It defies euphemism. Then there is peresh which is literally translated “feces”. These words are all used in the Word of God in some context to teach a point of doctrine. They are not the only words. Stercorarius objects; or fecal matter.

2. Dung is used to describe the celebrity standards of legalism or pseudo celebrityship — Philippians 3:8.

3. Dung is used to describe the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to a national entity. Dung is used for defeat in battle by which the military establishment is destroyed. The loss and destruction of the military destroys national freedom and function. The dead soldiers, therefore, become the basis of losing everything in a national entity. Jeremiah 9:22 (the corpses of the soldiers will fall like dung on the open fields....their deaths were useless...and after the sheep after the reaper, no one will bury them); 16:4 (they will die of diseases, as dung on the surface of the ground; they will come to an end...) — the civilian population. 25:33 (They will not be lamented...they will be like dung on the ground) 8:2 Zeph. 1:17 describes the fifth cycle of discipline. This word is often used to describe people who have died after worthless lives.

4. Dung is used to portray the judgement of the wicked. It is applied to the prosperous wicked or the prosperous believer in reversionism. There is a false prosperity provided by Satan for certain believers in reversionism — Job 20:4–7. He perishes forever like his excrement.

5. Dung was used to threaten and intimidate the Jews to surrender to the Assyrians — 2 Kings 18:27; Isaiah 36:12. Doomed to eat their own dung and drink their own piss.

6. The interruption of the Jewish Age plus the fifth cycle of discipline to the southern kingdom is described in terms of dung in Malachi 2:3. I am going to discipline your seed and I will spread excrement over your faces...

7. Dung is used to describe the fall of mighty ones under human celebrityship — Lamentations 4:5. Those who ate delicacies now become desolate on the streets; those raised in purple shall embrace piles of dung.

8. Dung is used to describe the uselessness of the reversionistic believer — Luke 14:34,35. The believer is called the salt of the land. It preserves the national entity. When salt loses its preservative power, with what will the nation be preserved? The reversionist believer is not preserving his nation and he will face nothing but divine discipline.

“that” — the conjunction hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] introducing a purpose clause; “I may win” — the aorist active subjunctive of the verb kerdainô (κερδαίνω) [pronounced kehr-DAH’EE-noh] which means to gain. The aorist is a culminative aorist, it views the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasizes the existing results, that is, taking the high ground of supergrace, having a new perspective of life, occupation with the person of Christ, capacity for life and capacity to enjoy divine blessing. The active voice: Paul produces the action. The subjunctive mood is potential. While Paul has qualified the element of contingency exists for the readers down through the ages. And then to demonstrate that everything depends upon attitude toward doctrine, and not simply attitude toward doctrine in one day, but every day — “in order that I may gain Christ”, which means supergrace.

Philippians 3:8 “More emphatically therefore, even I also myself conclude the all things of human celebrityship to be loss for the sake of the surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: because of whom I have forfeited the all things of human celebrityship, and keep on concluding them piles of dung, in order that I may gain Christ [seizing and holding the high ground].”

1972 Hebrews Lesson #149

149 07/14/1974 Hebrews11:4 Roster of Old Testament heroes; doctrines of imputation, justification.

Review of previous 3 verses in Hebrews 11.

Hebrews 11:4

Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.

Verse 4 — we have a parenthesis now which goes through verse 40. In this parenthesis we have the roster of Old Testament supergrace believers, the supergrace heroes of the past. This is used as a basis of encouragement to the royal family. In verses 4–7 we have a roster from the Age of the Gentiles, a roster of antediluvian supergrace heroes. Three people have been selected who are representative of the antediluvian period of history. In verse 4 the first of these is supergrace hero, Abel.

The first phrase that must be clarified is the opening two words “By faith”. This is the instrumental of means, and the noun itself is pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] which has a number of possible translations. Here it means doctrine or what is believed. So a translation of the instrumental of means: “By means of doctrine.” The implication is doctrine resident in the soul.

“Abel” — the word is taken from Habel, and is brought into the Greek A((bel. The word in the Hebrew means vanity, nothingness, or vapour. The name assigned indicates disillusion on the part of the original parents. At the time that Abel was born they had discovered what they had left behind by way of perfect environment, and they had discovered some of the repercussions in history of the old sin nature, and they had come to a point of disillusion and discouragement. Therefore, they expressed their disillusion and discouragement by giving the second-born son the name of Abel. Abel was the first person in the human race to be both physically born and to be born again. His parents were born again but remember that they were created. His name is apropos to the principle of grace orientation, for it is Abel, the first person who was born and then born again, who was also the first person in that category to reach the supergrace life. And as he reached the supergrace status he did so in the same way that we do, by doctrine. However, our doctrine is in written form, his was in revealed form.

“offered” — the aorist active indicative of prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh]. The aorist tense of this verb is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes all of the ritual sacrifices of Abel, regardless of their extent or duration, and gathers them up into a single whole. In other words, the manifestation of the inner doctrine came out in the ritual of animal sacrifice, and the constative aorist gathers up into one entirety every sacrifice that Abel ever made portraying doctrine in the soul. This is the true meaning of ritual. Ritual must be comparable to something in the soul, it is an overt manifestation or an overt teaching of what someone actually has in the soul. Here we have a case, one of the first cases in history, of ritual. The animal sacrifices were a part of worship ritual and they were meaningful to Abel because Abel had doctrine in his soul to the maximum, he was a supergrace believer. Therefore the constative aorist gathers up into one entirety every time that Abel offered an animal sacrifice. It signified to him the entire plan of grace — everything from the cross to the glorious eternal future that comes to those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. The active voice: Abel actually produced the action of the verb through the continuous offering of pertinent animal sacrifices. The indicative mood was declarative for a dogmatic and unqualified assertion. Therefore when it says by means of doctrine resident in the soul Abel offered, it means two things. It means that he had a maximum amount of doctrine and it means that he had the privilege of expressing this doctrine through ritual and that this ritual was very meaningful and very important to him. Ritual was not a means of gaining the approbation of God, it was an expression on the part of one who had reached the high ground of supergrace.

“unto God” — a dative of indirect object from the noun theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS]. The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the offering is sacrificed. The offering is sacrificed in the interests of the Lord. We also have with this the definite article, “the God.” “By means of doctrine [resident in the soul] Abel had offered to the God.”

Bob describes the flag ritual, the way it is to be presented.

“a more excellent sacrifice” — there was not simply the matter of offering a sacrifice but it was the offering of a sacrifice which is meaningful. This indicates that certain types of gifts and sacrifices, bloodless gifts, were provided also by his brother Cain, but they had no meaning, there was no doctrine in Cain’s soul. Cain was an unbeliever, he had not received the Lord and not positive, therefore, toward any doctrinal revelation. So “more excellent”, then, indicates that there is a comparison here with someone else who was trying to contact God or worship God through ritual. “A more excellent” is the accusative singular direct object of a comparative adjective pleiôn/pleiôn/pleione/pleon (πλείων/πλεον/πλέον) [pronounced PLI-own, PLI-on, PLEH-one/pleon (πλείων/πλεον/πλέον) [pronounced PLI-own, PLI-on, PLEH-on, and as a comparative adjective it is correctly translated “more excellent” or, better yet, “greater.” It is the comparative of the adjective polus, polos (πολύς, πολλός) [pronounced poll-OOS], and the best translation today in modern English is “greater” — “a greater sacrifice.” And, again, we have a noun in the accusative case — thusia (θυσία) [pronounced thoo-SEE-ah], indicating both food gifts as well as animal sacrifices.

The sacrifice of Abel was greater for two reasons. The first reason: Abel was a believer; Cain was not. it is impossible for anyone who is an unbeliever to enter into any ritual that will worship God. The ritual is meaningless, the person is not born again and does not have a relationship with God. All worship is predicated on the principle that you have made that all-important decision to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore Cain, who was not a believer, was eliminated from even being considered under the principle of ritual. The greater sacrifice therefore went to Abel who was a believer. Attitude toward Christ determines acceptability of worship. Secondly, Abel was a growing believer who reached the supergrace status. He was constantly taking in doctrine as doctrine was available to him in that particular era of history. Abel was positive and responded to the doctrine. The whole key to this verse is that Abel who was no only a believer but a believer with doctrine resident in his soul.

“than Cain” — the preposition para plus an indeclinable noun Kain which means “than Cain.”

“by which” — the preposition dia plus the genitive of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] should be translated “through which.”

“he obtained witness” — the aorist passive indicative of martureô (μαρτυρέω) [pronounced mar-too-REH-oh]. The verb means not only to witness but in the passive voice it means to receive approval, to receive testimony of approval or deposition of approval. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist viewing the action of he verb in its entirety but regarding it from the viewpoint of existing results. As a result of constantly taking it in there was doctrine resident in the soul, and when we get to the point of accumulation of doctrine or supergrace we have a culminative aorist, a deposition to the fact that he was pleasing God. The indicative mood is declarative, it is a dogmatic statement of viewpoint. He really pleased God, not by the offerings but by the accumulation of doctrine in the soul leading to a meaningful ritual and a relationship with God in worship.

“that he was” — present active infinitive of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], the verb to be. This is a static present representing the verbal idea of perpetually existing, he always had this status. The active voice: Able produces the action of the verb as a supergrace hero, namely his offerings included both ritual and reality. He demonstrated the fact that he was justified, vindicated by God, and he went on to the high ground of the supergrace life through Bible doctrine. And he had many blessings in life, but included in his blessings was the fact that here is a man whose worship was so fantastic that the dynamics of his worship became an issue in history. Here is a man who was so occupied with the Lord, who was so occupied with Christ through doctrine in the soul, that he stands as a monument in history for what worship really is. In the active voice here Abel produces the action of the verb as a supergrace hero.

“righteous” — the predicate nominative of dikaios (δίκαιος) [pronounced DIH-kai-oss]. There are a number of words for “righteous” and “righteousness”. This one refers here to his imputed righteousness or his justification at the point of salvation.

Both Cain and Abel were born with sin natures. Cain rejected Christ as Savior; Abel went positive. Through doctrine, Abel overcame the problems of the sin nature. Cain brought food offerings, by which he tried to bribe God. Bloodless sacrifices. He tried to show God just how good he was.

The Doctrine of Imputation

1. Under the concept of imputation Abraham is the pattern for the Word of God. Abraham received divine righteousness at the point of salvation — Genesis 15:6. Abraham believed in the Lord and it was credited to his account for righteousness. Imputation, therefore, recognizes one of the problems of the old sin nature. We are all born on the debit side of the ledger. We are born with the sin nature which produces sins; we are born with human good which can produce only -R. Therefore, we have a problem. When Jesus Christ went to the cross He cancelled this debt — Colossians 2:14; He cancelled the IOU that was against us on the cross. That takes care of the problem of sin, but we also have the problem of relationship with God. God is +R, we are -R. Therefore, He credited to our account +R, the righteousness of God. This righteousness is received by each one of us at the point of salvation.

2. Divine righteousness is only imputed on the basis of faith in Christ — Romans 3:22.

3. Many Gentiles in the Old Testament times found God’s righteousness by believing in Christ, while many Jews who were hung up on the Mosaic law missed imputation — Romans 9:30–33.

4. The imputation is the basis for justification — Romans 4:22; 5:1.

5. Imputation encourages faith in Christ — Romans 4:24,25.

6. Imputation also becomes a motivator for the function of GAP — Philippians 3:8,9; Hebrews 11:4.

7. Imputation is based on the work of Christ on the cross — 2Corinthians 5:21.

The Doctrine of Justification — the Result of the Imputation of Righteousness.

Thirty-six things happened to us at the moment of salvation. Among those is the crediting to our account of God’s righteousness, and then God looks down from heaven and sees His own righteousness credited to out account. Therefore He says, “Vindicated,” and vindicated means justified.

1. Justification means vindication. The meaning is derived from a number of words in the Bible. These words are always translated “justify” or “justification” but they really mean vindication.

2. There are various categories of justification. For example, there is phase one justification — Christ taking our place and dying for our sins for our salvation. Phase two is the believer in time from the time of his salvation to the time he departs. Phase three is the believer in eternity. There is a vindication or justification for every part of the plan of God. Phase one justification occurs at the moment we believe in Christ — Romans 3:28; 5:1; Galatians 3:24. Phase one justification is based upon faith in Christ.

3. Phase one justification is based upon the principle of grace — Romans 3:24; Titus 3:7.

4. Therefore, phase one justification does not occur through the Mosaic law or keeping the Mosaic law — Romans 3:20; Galatians 2:16; Romans 3:28.

5. The mechanics of phase one justification is the imputation of divine righteousness to the one believing in Christ — Genesis 15:6; Romans 3:33; 4:4,5, 11; 9:30–32.

6. The work of justification was accomplished by Jesus Christ on the cross — Romans 5:8,9.

7. Because the work of our justification was accomplished on the cross Christ was resurrected to relate justification to the strategic victory of the angelic conflict — Romans 4:25.

8. Phase two justification or vindication is the function or production of the supergrace life — Hebrews 11:4; James 2:21–25. In the book of Romans we have justification by faith; in the book of James we have justification by works. These are in perfect harmony, they refer to two different phases of the plan of God. Phase one: justification by faith. Phase two: justification by works. Abel performed a ritual time and time again. He had the ritual of animal sacrifices and in offering these sacrifices to God he was actually indicating the doctrine in his soul, the supergrace status, the great blessing from God. The supergrace life is God pouring out blessing to us. Phase two vindication is the function or production of the supergrace life.

9. The means of phase two justification or vindication is following the colours to the high ground, persistence in GAPing it daily, persistence in taking in the Word of God until a maximum amount of doctrine resides in the right lobe, the erection of the ECS — Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:35.

Hebrews 11:4 “By means of doctrine [resident in the soul] Abel had offered to the God a greater sacrifice than Cain, through which offering he received confirmation that he kept on being righteous”

— he kept on possessing +R, his supergrace status indicated that God had vindicated him at the point of salvation.

Now we have a new formation of words here set up in Classical Greek style to alert us to something that is very important. Next in the phrase we have a genitive absolute which includes a noun and a participle, both in the genitive case. The noun in the genitive case is the subject of the participle. The noun is the genitive case of theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] plus the definite article — “the God.” God the Father is the author of the plan. As a member of the royal family of God, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you are in the plan. You are left in this life for one reason only: so that God can demonstrate as a part of the angelic conflict that you can have blessing in your life. God’s desire is to bless you, God’s purpose is to bless you, God is here to provide blessing for you as a member of the family of God. And you can either accept that blessing in the way that He has provided, which is the only way, or you can stick around for discipline.

“testifying” — the present active participle of martureô (μαρτυρέω) [pronounced mar-too-REH-oh] means to make a deposition or to testify in a courtroom. It is also used here as a translation from Genesis 4:4 where the qal imperfect is shâʿâh (שָעָה) [pronounced shaw-ĢAW]. Putting the two together it means something a little different, it actually means to approve. It means a testimony that approves, a deposition that approves. In genesis 4:4 we have literally, “But Abel, he also brought from the firstborn of his sheep and from their best parts. Therefore Jehovah approved of Abel and his offering.” The word “approved” is the qal imperfect of shâʿâh (שָעָה) [pronounced shaw-ĢAW]. Now we have martureô (μαρτυρέω) [pronounced mar-too-REH-oh] used to translate that word. Therefore it should be translated “the God approving”. The present tense is an historical present which views the past event with the vividness of a present occurrence. It is like taking the fact that over 5000 years ago God the Father approved of Abel. He vindicated Abel at the point if believing in Christ. Not only did He vindicate or justify him but He provided for him Bible doctrine for his soul. Abel was consistent in taking in this doctrine, he followed the colours to the high ground of supergrace tactical victory. Once he was on the high ground he began to express his doctrine in the soul in terms of the ritual of animal sacrifice. Therefore the offerings pleased God because the reality of the ritual was in his soul, he had the doctrinal assets of his soul, he was a supergrace believer, and he was obviously blessed in many ways because in those days materialistic wealth was measured in terms of cattle. He said that he had sheep and he was constantly bringing sheep. He was offering them as sacrifices. Obviously, then, he had a great deal of materialistic wealth. He was blessed of God under supergrace conditions of the time, he was extremely wealthy. He was prosperous and had that perfect happiness that goes with supergrace, but above all he was occupied with the person of Christ, he had maximum capacity for category #1 love and he expressed his category #1 love in a repetition of animal sacrifices which were pleasing to God. So the active voice: God the Father produced the action of the verb — approval. The participle is circumstantial.

“of his gifts” — the preposition epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative plural of dôron (δρον) [pronounced DOH-ron], which means he brought repetitious sacrifices, he brought many animals and placed them on an altar and went through the apropos ritual.

“and by it” — the preposition dia plus the intensive pronoun autos. Autos is used as a demonstrative pronoun, an intensive pronoun, a personal pronoun. Here it is an intensive pronoun to emphasize identity of someone in context. It should be translated, “and through the same.” It refers to the sacrifices and comparable doctrine resident in his soul.

“he being dead” — the aorist active participle of the verb apothnêskô (ἀποθνήσκω) [pronounced op-ohth-NACE-koh]. This word is used for death here because he died violently, he was the first murder victim in history. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist here, it states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. Even though he was suddenly removed from this earth he had everything that life had to offer him over a long period of time before his departure through physical death. The active voice: Abel produces the action of the verb. Abel was murdered by his brother Cain but his testimony regarding doctrine in the soul kept going after his death and, as a matter of fact, he is a permanent monument to the grace of God and the importance of taking the high ground, the importance of positive volition toward doctrine. The active voice: Abel produced the action of the verb, he was murdered by his brother Cain but his testimony again regarding doctrine in the soul continues forever. In other words, Abel had something resident in his soul that continued long after his death. The temporal participle means “while having died.” This is also a concessive participle recognizing his death without going into details.

“yet” — the adverb éti (ἔτι) [pronounced EH-tee] denotes a given situation in a positive statement and it is still continuing, so we translate it “still.”

“speaketh” — or “communicates,” the present active indicative of the verb laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh]. He still speaks or communicates. The static present represents a condition which is perpetually existing, we will always have throughout all of history and forever the fact that Abel reached supergrace, and Abel is a monument to the fact that you can have ritual and have it meaningful of a basis of worship and a basis of expressing love provided there is comparable doctrine in the soul. And even though he was removed violently from this earth the doctrine resident in his soul was not removed, it is a permanent monument as to the importance of Bible doctrine. So we have a static present representing a condition which will perpetually exist. The active voice: the supergrace status of Abel meant maximum consistent doctrine resident in the soul. This maximum doctrine was the motivation for the numerous sacrifices and the ritual into which he entered. These sacrifices communicated the importance of Bible doctrine to the soul and the importance of following the colours to the high ground. The indicative mood is declarative representing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality and certainty.

Hebrews 11:4 “By means of doctrine [resident in the soul] Abel had offered to the God a greater sacrifice than Cain, through which offering he received confirmation [or approval] that he kept on being righteous [justified], the God approving his sacrifice; and through the same [sacrifices, with resident doctrine] while he had died he still speaks [communicates to us the importance of Bible doctrine].”

Why does God the Holy Spirit tell us about Abel, speaking to us through Abel?

Abel Communicates Bible Doctrine

1. What does Abel communicate? This verse says that he has died but still communicates something, he is still speaking to us. What can Abel say to you and to me down through the corridors of history since his murder? What can the life and the death of a person who lived over 5000 years ago say to us?

2. First of all, Abel communicates the importance of Bible doctrine resident in the soul. Every believer must have positive assets of the soul, without which he has no life. You cannot survive or enjoy life, you cannot have happiness or blessing in life no matter what you are doing, without resident assets of soul.

3. Abel communicates the importance of following the colours to the high ground of the supergrace life. Once we accept Jesus Christ as Savior we are left behind with an objective — to reach the high ground of the supergrace life. The only possible way that we can reach this high ground is to be consistent in taking in doctrine.

4. Abel has been dead now for over 5000 years but his testimony or his deposition comes down through the corridors of time to remind the royal family of God of the importance of persistence, of understanding the objective and driving toward the objective, of closing in on the objective, of staying with it no matter what — persistence of positive volition toward doctrine and the importance of GAPing it to supergrace.

5. Doctrine in the soul glorifies God and perpetuates the dynamics of God’s plan.

6. Note the attitude of Abel’s peer, his brother Cain. Cain was jealous of Abel, Jude 11, but jealously did not hinder the deposition of Abel. In other words, Abel was not petty, he did not lower himself to become jealous in turn. He ignored the hatred, antagonism and the jealousy of his brother and moved right on with his objective.

a. David’s brothers gave him a hard time, but he ignored them and went forward to kill Goliath.

7. Cain rejected Bible doctrine, John 8:44, but this did not distract Abel from positive volition toward doctrine.

8. Cain murdered Abel with his sacrificial knife, 1John 3:12 in the Greek, but the death of Abel did not hinder the advance of doctrine or the importance of doctrine resident in the soul of the believer, it merely accentuated it and showed that no matter how you depart from this life dying grace still applies in every sense of the word. Therefore the tragedy is not the death of Abel but Cain as a murderer going through life in great misery and, as an unbeliever, doomed to eternity in the lake of fire.

9. Doctrine cannot be stopped by jealousy or by murder. In other words, nothing can stop Bible doctrine.

10. Here then is the testimony of one who was murdered. Next we are going to have the testimony of a supergrace hero who never did die.

1972 Hebrews 11:5 Lesson #150

150 07/14/1974 Hebrews 11:5 Enoch; doctrine of dying grace

This is a very short commentary on the life of this one man.

Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.

Verse 5 — a second antediluvian supergrace hero. “By faith” — the instrumental singular of the noun pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. This noun has several meanings. It is used for the substance of right doctrine appropriated, it is used for faith, it is used for conviction, and sometimes it is used for confidence. The fact that the word pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] has other meanings that faith is well substantiated by the best etymologists, including Arndt & Gingrich on page 669 — “This word means that which is believed, the body of faith or doctrine.” So it is doctrine that is the connotation here. Because it is the instrumental of means it is so translated — “By means of doctrine.” It is understood from the general context that this means Bible doctrine in the soul, the residence of Bible doctrine from the daily function of GAP.

“Enoch” — Enoch is the son of Jared and the father of Methuselah. Methuselah was a supergrace hero but is not mentioned in this passage. Genesis 5:18, 21 begin a commentary on Enoch. He is called the seventh generation from Adam, he is also by occupation or profession a prophet, he was a communicator of Bible doctrine. As a communicator of doctrine Enoch had first of all to assimilate doctrine through the function of GAP as it existed at that time in history. Whatever the form it was not written form but he concentrated on doctrine, learned it, and through his spiritual gift communicated it. Enoch was a supergrace believer of that period of history, one of three mentioned in our context. The antediluvian stage of history.

“was translated” — the aorist passive indicative of the verb metatithêmi (μετατίθημι) [pronounced meht-at-IHTH-ay-mee] which means to convey from one place to another. Meta means a change; the verb tithêmi (τίθημι) [pronounced TIHTH-ā-mee] means to place something. So it means a change of place. In the passive voice it means to be transferred. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, the removal of Enoch from the earth apart from physical death is gathered up into an instantaneous entirety. An instant change of station. (The story of Enoch is found in Genesis 5:22–24) Enoch received this PCS.

Enoch’s supergrace paragraph included this principle. So we can add something now to supergrace blessings. One of the great supergrace blessings is dying grace, but in addition to that we have a supergrace blessing for some to depart from this earth apart from physical death. This will be the blessing of the Rapture generation, this was a blessing for Enoch. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of reality from history. This is an historical fact that Enoch departed from this life apart from physical death and that he was transferred from phase two to phase three without dying. The translation or the transferring of Enoch is a monument to the reality of supergrace blessings designed in eternity past for every believer. And Enoch pressed on to the high ground by following the colours, by GAPing it daily, and he had a wonderful period of time on the earth and when it was all over he just one day departed from this life without seeing physical death. So it should be translated, “By means of doctrine resident in the soul Enoch was transferred.” This is the transfer from earth to heaven without death. There is no particular reason for his transfer, he is not coming back. He is not one of the two witness involved in the Tribulation. Enoch is a Gentile so he is not involved in that operation. This emphasizes the fact that supergrace blessings. People have a natural ingrained fear of death. People would be motivated erroneously, if this was a promise of no fear of death if we grew spiritually.

No sympathy or pat on the head from Bob anymore. No counseling.

Translated means without death. The word “that” is a translation device for the infinitive, and the word “that” is not found in the original. It is a legitimate translation device when you want to change an infinitive into to a finite verb to smooth out the translation. So it goes with “that he should not see” which is the aorist active infinitive of horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] plus the negative. The culminative aorist views the transfer in its entirety and emphasizes the existing results. We have just had an aorist tense, a constative aorist, that takes up in a point of time the transfer from earth to heaven. The culminative aorist indicates that this was made without seeing physical death, so the culminative aorist emphasizes the existing results — this man arrived in phase three without going through physical death. The active voice: Enoch produced the action of the verb by not seeing death. The infinitive is an infinitive of result. But actually, there are three types of infinitive of result. There is the actual result, the conceived result, and the intended result which is a combination of purpose and result. Here we have an actual result — “with the result that he should not see death.”

Death is described in its calmest terms — thanatos (θάνατος) [pronounced THAH-nah-toss], which means death in its academic sense. In the previous verse we had violent death — apothnêskô (ἀποθνήσκω) [pronounced op-ohth-NACE-koh].

“and was not found” — the perfect passive indicative of the verb heuriskô (εὑρίσκω) [pronounced hyoo-RIHS-koh]. They searched for him. This is called the imperfect tense of duration in which the writer implies that the process has been completed at a given point in the past. It is very similar to the pluperfect except that it does not deal with results. The passive voice: Enoch received the action of the verb, he couldn’t be found anywhere. The indicative mood is a declarative indicative for a dogmatic statement of reality. Remember that a transfer is different from physical death. In physical death the soul leaves the body and the body stays on the earth, but in a transfer such as we have with Enoch the body goes along and there is no body or sign of Enoch at all left on the earth. Obviously there was consternation from his own family when he was never seen again. But apparently from his own teaching he made it very clear that this was going to happen so they did understand, i.e. those who were positive toward doctrine. For those who were negative to doctrine no explanation would ever work. The same thing will be true at the Rapture. People think that the Rapture is going to stir up a lot of people because believers are going to disappear. In the first place there will be mighty few believers on the earth as we get down to that last great apostasy that precedes the Rapture. Therefore the few believers that are on earth and suddenly disappear are not going to stir up much. There is no body left behind. They are fully gone. And there will immediately be a lot of Satanic propaganda to ignore the whole thing.

The supergrace paragraph has not only has +H, promotion, success, all of the various types of blessings in life, prosperity, etc., but it also has something about death. Under supergrace there is a special type of dying grace for those who die, in other cases there is no death involved at all — that was true of Enoch, that will be true of one generation at the end of the Church Age.

God began the Church Age in a rather dramatic way and He will end it similarly (in a dramatic way).

“because” — we have a very strong conjunction here, a compound conjunction, dioti (διότι) [pronounced dee-OAT-ee], made up of dia and hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee]. It is a very strong “because”.

“God” — ho Theos, “the God,” a reference to God the Father; “had translated” — the aorist active indicative of metatithêmi (μετατίθημι) [pronounced meht-at-IHTH-ay-mee] again, means “transferred”. We have a culminative aorist which views the transfer in its entirety, it emphasizes the existing results, he was not found any more on the earth. This was Enoch’s last supergrace blessing in time. His supergrace paragraph called for numerous blessings, terminating in transfer to heaven apart from physical death, and this verse concludes that dying grace is one of the supergrace blessings.

The Doctrine of Dying Grace

1. By definition dying grace is the believer’s experience of physical death or dying under the provision of grace whereby the individual believer has blessing and happiness in death. His death has a minimum or no pain, maximum happiness, and the soul is stimulated to the maximum in its last moments in the physical body. Not all believers go out under dying grace. Believers in reversionism do not go out under dying grace, they go out under the sin unto death. It doesn’t change their status in heaven but it is God’s last opportunity to discipline them.

a. If the rapture occurs 100 years from now, then we are all going to die. God has a way for Bob to die and time for him to die. He has not say in it.

b. That is a cheerful thought.

c. Crashing in a plane or being shot by a gun usually ends suddenly. Ironside just went to sleep and his soul left the body.

2. Dying grace removes the fear of death — Psalm 23:4, “Even though I walk through the valley of the deep darkness of death.” This is describing the manner of dying and dying grace. “I will not fear” — dying grace is such a marvelous doctrine that it eliminates the idea of fear connected with death. “I will not fear harm” — a miserable death — “for you are with me” — God is with every believer, and especially every supergrace believer, at the moment of his dying.

a. The rest of the world is in bondage to fear of death. They won’t get into planes or they won’t go into the service.

b. Fear of death is a great motivator of life.

3. Dying grace, therefore, is a supergrace blessing — Hebrews 11:5; Psalm 116:15, “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his godly ones [supergrace believers].” A supergrace believer gets the best possible send-off into heaven.

a. God keeps, saves and supplies our needs.

b. He keeps us alive to discipline us.

4. Description of dying grace — Job 5:21–27. The believer cannot die until the Lord is ready to take him home. Instruments of death cannot kill the believer until God’s plan calls for the believer to die.

a. Job 5:22 At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the beasts of the earth.

b. All psychotics are devoid of humor.

c. Job 5:23 For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you. Weapons of destruction are the stones. The beasts of the field will be in league with us; they are instruments of death as well.

d. Job 5:24 You shall know that your tent is at peace, and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing. The tent is the human body.

e. Job 5:25 You shall know also that your offspring shall be many, and your descendants as the grass of the earth.

i. People come and go; but history marches on. Julius Caesar straightened out the calendar; but he is dead. He is dead and gone and he had a great impact on history; but he is dead and he is gone. No matter how important you think you are, when you die, you are gone. Wouldn’t it be tragic if your death ended the forward movement of the human race.

ii. Doctrine is taught every year, no matter what teacher dies out. Barnhouse and Chafer were great teachers. No one like them today; but they are with the Lord and doctrine is still being taught.

f. Job 5:26 You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, like a sheaf gathered up in its season. God has for each of us a supergrace paragraph. There are all kinds of prosperity found in each person’s supergrace paragraph. There is a right and a wrong time to harvest corn. The expert must determine; and God is the expert. Bob is 56 and damn glad of it; that is his testimony.

i. Some say they exercise by carrying the caskets of their friends.

ii. A woman who Bob knows who is 90; she exercises all of the time. Whether we do this or that, it is a matter of God’s will.

iii. Bob has all of his teeth and no fillings. True of his father and his grandfather. When his father is asked, he said, “I make it a habit of soaking my teeth in scotch every day.”

iv. The secret does not lie with us, but with God.

v. God has a plan for each one of us. Until God calls us home, we remain here.

vi. When someone dies, we miss them terribly and we would like to see them again; but we do not get hysterical about it.

vii. God decides the time and the manner of our death. His judgment is perfect. All corn is not picked at the same time; and God knows the perfect time.

Hebrews 11:4 “By means of doctrine resident in the soul Enoch was transferred with the result that he should not see death; and he was not found because the God had transferred him.”

“him” refers to Enoch, it is an intensive pronoun and the intensive pronoun emphasizes identity. It can be translated “him” or “the same one.”

Now we have another sentence in this verse. It begins with the explanatory use of the particle gar, a little explanation is necessary.

“for before his translation [transfer]” — pro plus the ablative of metathesis (μετάθεσις) [pronounced meht-ATH-ehs-iss], translated “for before his transfer [to heaven].”

“he had this testimony” — the perfect passive indicative of the verb martureô (μαρτυρέω) [pronounced mar-too-REH-oh]. The perfect tense is dramatic, it is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect and therefore it has great emphasis on existing results. In the passive voice this particular verb means to be witnessed, to be well spoken of, to be approved. Because of the dramatic perfect plus the passive voice it should be translated, “he had obtained the testimony in the past with the result that the deposition stood.” This is the result end of the dramatic perfect. The indicative mood is a historical reality. And what is the deposition that stands even to this moment?

“he pleased” — the perfect active infinitive of euaresteô (εὐαρεστέω) [pronounced yoo-ar-es-TEH-oh], and it means to please — “that he had pleased”; “God” or “the God.” The perfect tense is an intensive perfect again, emphasizing the fact that he kept pressing until he reached the high ground. Enoch produced the action of the verb by persistent positive volition. He was one of the most persistent people in all of history. The infinitive represents actual result. “God” is in the indirect object of the dative case. Under the dative of indirect object it indicates that the one in whose interest the act of reaching the high ground is performed. God is glorified by anyone reaching high ground and God was glorified by Enoch reaching the high ground.

Hebrews 11:5 “By means of doctrine resident in the soul Enoch was transferred with the result that he should not see physical death; and he was not found because the God had transferred him: for before his transfer to heaven he had obtained the testimony in the past with the result that the deposition stood, that he had pleased God.”

Pleasing God is a matter of entering the supergrace life. Entering the supergrace life means consistent, persistent positive volition toward doctrine, never for a moment letting up on the intake of doctrine, pressing the attack constantly under all circumstances of life, making it a way of life to take in doctrine today, tomorrow, the next day and the next. This means reaching the high ground of the supergrace life.

The implications of all of this are given in verse 6.

1972 Hebrews 11:6–7a Lesson #151

151 07/15/1974 Hebrews 11:6–7a Pleasing God; Noah

Bob had some very specific ideas about teaching the Word of God which many people at Dallas Theological Seminary thought it was a bad idea. Only one professor liked his approach.

Bob is not going to go back to basics. He will continue going verse to verse each night, and he is bull-headed about it and smart about it as well. Some cannot take Bob’s approach. He knows what he is doing regarding teaching. He is not going to change. “You should know this that I am not going to change.” Bob is not going to sit on his mental butt and not move forward.

The word pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] has three different meanings in the scripture. It means faith, and that is the most common meaning. It also means conviction but it also means doctrine.

Having all the faith in the world does not mean anything.

Jesus Christ controls history. Men, nations and systems do not change history.

6000 years later, Abel still speaks to us.

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Verse 6 — the connective particle de is used simply to carry on a transition and to show that after taking up two of the antediluvian supergrace heroes a principle of doctrine comes out of the fact that one died violently and one didn’t die at all, and therefore their departure from this life was as antithetical as departures could be. But with both of them somehow their lives are related to death and both of them had a very dynamic departure from this life as a part of their supergrace paragraph. Even though one was violently murdered he suffered no pain or no problem. His murderer, of course, suffered extensively for a long period of time on the earth. The second one didn’t die at all but they both had something very definitely in common. The particle de should be translated not “but” but “and”.

Next we have chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE] as an improper preposition plus the genitive singular of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] which means doctrine — later on we will see that other connotations of the word exist. “And without doctrine”, and it always means here what is believed or doctrine resident in the soul.

“impossible” — the accusative singular adjective adunatos (ἀδύνατος) [pronounced ad-OO-nat-oss], which demands some kind of a verb to smooth it out in the English, and without doctrine resident in the soul it is impossible. However, “impossible” is an accusative of general reference with the infinitive. That means we have something special coming up. While not properly the subject of the infinitive the accusative of general reference describes the person or the concept connected with the action of the verb, and therefore it is translated as the subject of the infinitive. The infinitive is to “please,” the aorist active infinitive of euaresteô (εὐαρεστέω) [pronounced yoo-ar-es-TEH-oh] which means to please as indicated in the translation. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers up into one entirety the action of the verb. Pleasing God is consistent and persistent positive volition toward doctrine resulting in following the colours to the high ground. So it has to be gathered up into one concept: every positive decision to take in doctrine regardless of distractions. Regardless of mental attitude sins, regardless of traps of any kind, regardless of any factor in life, here is the issue. The constative aorist gathers up everything it takes to please God, and everything it takes to please God is simple positive volition toward the Word of God on a daily basis. Pleasing God, again, is persistent and consistent positive volition toward doctrine resulting in following the colours to the high ground of supergrace victory. The active voice: the subject, the royal family of God, produces the action of the verb but never apart from Bible doctrine. The infinitive is an infinitive of intended result. An intended result is when the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate aim, it is a blending of purpose and result. It should be translated, “And without doctrine resident in the soul it is impossible to please God.”

The first question we should ask ourselves is: Who am I trying to please in this life? If you have placed anyone ahead of God in this category then this principle is lost to you, you are the salt that has lost its savour, you have lost the preservative ability and the influence of your life and the purpose for being here. Inevitably you have to come to the place, often through discipline, of through many tragedies and heartaches, where God is going to be pleased. You are here as His guest, you are a member of the royal family of God, you have a home in the holy of holies, a home in heaven, forever; and you have been left here to take the objective, to take the high ground and to hold it. The Christian way of life isn’t complicated and it isn’t filled with a lot of gimmicks. None of us can please God without doctrine in the soul and none of us have ever received doctrine in the soul without submitting to academic discipline.

Bob needs to weed out as much as possible those who are weak-kneed, distracted by other things, by my guest and get the hell out.

Without doctrine in the soul, it is impossible to please God. You have to make up your mind what is important in life. Doctrine in the soul comes from academic discipline. Bob put himself under the authority of two pastor teachers. “If you take this personally and are offended, then don’t forget not to come back.”

Now the explanatory use of the particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] indicates why there is only one way to please God in this life. Without doctrine in the soul it is impossible to please God” — “for he that cometh” is wrong. We have the present active participle of proserchomai (προσέρχομαι) [pronounced pros-ER-khom-ahee],. The word means to approach, to occupy one’s self with, and that is the meaning here — “for when one is occupied with the God”. The present tense is the customary present for what habitually occurs or may be expected to occur once you get positive and stick to your guns. A lot of people are distracted for one reason or another and if there is a conflict between a Bible class and some person, the person wins; a Bible class and entertainment, the entertainment wins, etc. The present tense means you must be customarily occupied with “the God.” The active voice: the royal family of God produces the action of the verb through positive volition toward doctrine. The participle is a temporal participle.

“to God” — an instrument of association from theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] plus the definite article, indication to some extent who and what God is, so “the God” makes it very strong as to who and what He is. This emphasizes the reality of essence, the reality of the members of the Godhead. It should be translated “with the God.”

“must believe” is also wrong. We have two verbs, the first is an impersonal type verb dei, the present active indicative of dew, is used in the Koine Greek and in the papyri for the compulsion of duty. It indicates the fact that no matter where you go in life you are going to face the issue of authority and discipline, for duty is a combination of authority and discipline. If you don’t face it in one area you are going to face it in another, and if you can’t face it you are going to wash out as far as life is concerned. So we have the impersonal verb of compulsion of duty. It also has to do with inner necessity. Here we have inner necessity growing out of a given situation. So it is translated “must.” But it means more than must, it means compulsion of duty, it means necessity growing out of a given situation. Given situation: you are born again, you are a member of the royal family of God, your life now has meaning and purpose and definition, the Word of God has defined your objectives and your definition in life. Therefore, you must comply with these things.

The second verb is an aorist active infinitive of pisteúô (πιστεύω) [pronounced pis-TOO-oh]. Pisteúô (πιστεύω) [pronounced pis-TOO-oh] means to believe but it also has other meanings. It means to give credence, to be convinced of something so that you become dogmatic about it. It means the presence of dogmatic reality in your soul. It means the presence of the unlimited divine operating assets of doctrine. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety the concept of the verb — “he must be convinced.” He must be convinced by resident doctrine. The issue: first of all you expose yourself to a little doctrine and it becomes resident. That doctrine must convince you of the importance of going on with doctrine. Then you get a little more doctrine by going on with doctrine. Then the accumulation of doctrine in your frame of reference means that you are convinced from doctrine in your soul that you must go on with doctrine. And then you get some more doctrine in your frame of reference and then you must be convinced. Then you get tests in the form of people, in the form of things, entertainment, mental attitude reactor factors. So whatever it is that tests you the frame of reference, Bible doctrine in your soul, says one thing: you must press on, you must follow the colours. You must be convinced by resident doctrine. That means that when you are making your decisions they had better be made on the doctrine you now have in your soul, for every advance in doctrine is based upon a decision today, tomorrow, the next day and the next.

Bob had no sleep at all working the in the Word during the July 4^th conference. Having these new principles. The other night, he could not sleep in his bed, but he slept soundly with his face on his desk in his Bible.

The rain test does not mean a thing; being tired does not mean a thing. Bob does not care who he insults. He knows what he is doing. The resident doctrine in your soul must convince you to come tomorrow.

“that he is” — present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. This is absolute status quo and has to do with the essence of God and the fact that God exists in tree persons. The present tense is a static present. God always exists, there will never be a time when He doesn’t exist. God always exists in perfect character, there never will be a time when God is unfair. So we have the principle that He exists and always will and always has — the static present. The active voice: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality, therefore a declarative indicative of unqualified assertion and dogmatic reality.

The we have a second “he is” which is not he is at all. It is ginomai which means to become, the present middle indicative. Not only is “He is” but He becomes something under certain circumstances. So we have “that he is and he becomes.” This “become” is very important. The middle voice is the intensive or dynamic middle which emphasizes the part taken by the subject, the subject being God. The form of the indirect middle stresses the agent as producing the action of the verb, so we translate it, “and that he himself becomes.” No we have a static present to go with the static present of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. Here is one of those conditions like we have in John chapter one. We have eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], to be, and we have ginomai, to become. These are both state of being verbs. One is an absolute state of being and the other is a relative state of being. So God is and He becomes. He always is in essence, He always is in person — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit being involved here — but God the Father, for example, becomes something under certain conditions of interest to us. Therefore, the intensive middle, the static present, and the declarative indicative, unqualified assertion of dogmatic reality — “and that he himself becomes.”

“a rewarder” — the predicate nominative of ginomai, misthapodotês (μισθαποδότης) [pronounced mis-thap-od-OHT-ace] and it means, just as translated “a rewarder” — “and that he himself becomes a rewarder.” What is the reward? God always is, and that is a fact, and doctrine tells us that. The reality of the existence of God is the simplest forms of doctrine, but the fact that God is a rewarder, now that is possible or not possible. That can be a yes or a no, depending upon your attitude toward doctrine. Doctrine which makes God a reality is also the basis for divine blessing in your life. What does this add up to? It adds up to the fact that while God always exists, and while there exists in God’s plan a supergrace paragraph with your name on it you may or may not get it, that is why we have ginomai. He becomes a rewarder. God is not a rewarder, He becomes one. He becomes one on the basis of the first five verses that we have already studied in this chapter — by doctrine resident in the soul. With doctrine resident in the soul we become aware of Him from the standpoint of His essence, from the standpoint of His person, from the standpoint of His plan. We become aware of the invisible — “we see him who is invisible.” “We do not look at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen, for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal” Therefore the phrase, “them that diligently seek” is the key to defining this is relationship to doctrine. This is a dative of indirect object of the definite article. The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the supergrace blessings are rewarded or distributed.

With this we have a dative plural of advantage, present active participle of the verb ekzêteô (ἐκζητέω) [pronounced ek-zay-TEH-oh], and the word means to diligently or earnestly seek,” it is a verb of obsession. It means that something becomes so important in life that it crowds out other things just like an obsession will. It means that Bible doctrine and its importance becomes the obsession of your life. It means to seek out, to search for, to continually, habitually seek in the participial form. The verb, therefore, is a verb of consistent positive volition toward Bible doctrine. The present tense, therefore, is a third static present in this verses; a static present for a condition which perpetually exists. This emphasizes the importance of being consistent in the function of GAP. The believer must persevere, he must endure, he must gut it out, he must keep on taking it in, taking it in. The participle is circumstantial. We have, therefore, “and that he himself becomes a rewarder to them” — dative of advantage — “who diligently seek him” — the accusative singular direct object of the intensive pronoun autos. Autos is used in many ways, as a personal pronoun, a demonstrative pronoun, an intensive pronoun. As an intensive pronoun it is used to emphasize identity, and identity is emphasized here to the maximum. “Him” is God, and seeking Him is not running around and having some holy-roller experience, seeking Him is gutting it out day after day with doctrine. Those who diligently seek Him are the people who are monuments of greatness in this passage, the supergrace heroes.

Hebrews 11:6 “And with doctrine resident in the soul it is impossible to please God; for when one is occupied with the God he must be convinced by resident doctrine in the soul that he is [essence and Trinity], and that He Himself becomes a rewarder to those who diligently seek Him.”

Principles

1. Note how this verse unfolds the principles beginning with the importance of doctrine resident in the soul.

2. As the believer begins to absorb Bible doctrine through the function of GAP he finds that the doctrine resident in his soul does two things. First of all, he becomes more and more convinced as to the reality of the essence of God and the reality of each member of the Trinity. This becomes very real to him. Then a second thing happens, doctrine begins to formulate in his soul the difference between what God wants and what the individual or someone else wants. Immediately it sets up a conflict in the soul and resident doctrine dictates one course of action whereas the rest of the soul — the emotions — and the old sin nature dictate another course of action. So that you will face the conflict until through reversionism doctrine is submerged and the valves are frozen in the right lobe. But until that happens there will always be, when Bible class is going on, wherever you are, warning bells going in the soul. If they have stopped then you are down the line in reversionist.

3. The persistence in learning doctrine causes the believer to seek Him who invisible. The invisible becomes more real than the visible.

4. This in turn begins the true development of category #1 love. Category #1 love is based upon Bible doctrine in the soul, the same doctrine that tells you to keep following the colours to the high ground is the same doctrine that forms capacity to love the invisible God.

5. Such capacity intensifies the love of the living Word as well as the love of the written Word.

6. This motivates the believer to be consistent in the assembling of himself together for the purpose of learning more doctrine. For more doctrine means more love toward God, more capacity to orient to God’s plan, more capacity for life, one step closer to the objective.

7. This causes the construction of the ECS. The first floor is grace orientation, mastery of the details of life, relaxed mental attitude, capacity for love, occupation with Christ; these areas of structure begin to build one on the other. This leads to occupation with Christ and supergrace life, the high ground. But once you get there to stay there is the issue. It is staying there that means the victory. It is exploitation of the breakthrough that counts. Just because you get there isn’t enough.

We will see from the life of Paul that it isn’t enough.

Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Verse 7 — supergrace hero #3 of the antediluvian civilization. “By faith” — and again we have the instrumental singular of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs], “By means of doctrine resident in the soul.” Noah is the last of the antediluvian trio of supergrace heroes. The first 500 years of his life were passed off in silence. We assume that during that time he was going back and forth and never quite making the objective of supergrace. During that time he reached the high ground on several occasions, only to be pushed back and to lose the advantage. The dramatically Noah and his three sons are mentioned in Genesis 5:32 and chapter 6:10. They are mentioned in such a way as to indicate the last 450 years of his life were years of supergrace.

“being warned” — the aorist passive participle of chrêmatizô (χρηματίζω) [pronounced khray-mat-IHD-zo]. The word means to utter divine communication or revelation. As close as it can be translated is “having been warned”, but it means to be warned by doctrine. Doctrine is not only a source of capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for happiness, receiving the rewards of supergrace blessing, but doctrine is also a source of warning, a system of warning signals in the soul about many things in life. Doctrine, then, is a system of warning but only as it is resident in your soul. Your life was designed after salvation to have doctrine in the driving seat dictating your course of life, and your volition must respond to the doctrine which is resident in your soul. Therefore, “by means of doctrine resident in the soul Noah having been warned.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes the communication of pertinent doctrine and regardless of how long it took for Noah to understand it, gathers it into a single whole so that this doctrine was resident in his soul and caused him to understand the course of history and to take the proper action. The passive voice: Noah received the action of the verb. He stuck it out with doctrine and attained supergrace. The circumstantial participle has antecedent action to the main verb, and the main verb is “prepared and ark.”

When you have doctrine in the soul you take the proper action eve though you are in the minority, even though people say that you are crazy or on the lunatic fringe or that something is wrong with you. Whatever they may say about you doctrine is going to make you in the minority and there is one principle of doctrine you might as well learn right now: the minority is always right.

“of God” is not found in the original manuscript; “of things not seen as yet” — the preposition peri plus the genitive of the definite article. Then we have a negative adverb, mêdepô (μηδέπω) [pronounced may-DEHP-oh] — “not yet” — and with it a present passive participle of blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh] which means to see. So all of this is a part of a rather unusual prepositional phrase. It should be translated, “about things not yet being seen.” So he was warned of things which had not yet occurred in history. As a supergrace believer Noah received doctrinal information about the termination of the antediluvian civilization. This doctrinal information was a part of Noah’s supergrace blessing.

Principle: Supergrace believers always receive adequate warning before any major catastrophe in history. Their warning system gives them the opportunity to take action that will glorify God. That ship that Noah constructed was action. It was the source of ridicule until the flood came. This information came to Noah at least 120 years before the flood, according to Genesis 6:3. The divine revelation was the basis of further supergrace blessings both in survival of the catastrophe and after. So supergrace blessings often follow a pattern: warning followed by the catastrophe followed by supergrace prosperity. Noah took action. He took minority action. He gave daily for 120 years a minority report. He was laughed to scorn. They ridiculed him, they mocked him, they made life miserable for him, but for 120 years he fulfilled the principle of hupomenô (ὑπομένω) [pronounced hoop-om-EHN-oh], and never changed. When your stubbornness or your conviction or your decisiveness is based on Bible doctrine in the soul, you have it, you have something worthwhile and something great. Greatness is in finding the right track and staying on it.

“moved with fear” — bad translation. He wasn’t moved with fear. It should be “having been motivated by reverence” or “occupation with Christ.” We have the aorist passive participle eulabeomai (εὐλαβέομαι) [pronounced yoo-lab-EH-ohm-ahee]. This word means to be concerned, to be reverent, or to have respect, respect for authority. Because of the construction here it means to be motivated in that area. The constative aorist gathers up into a single whole Noah’s supergrace occupation with Christ, doctrine resident in the soul — maximum doctrine. Noah received motivation by this occupation, that is the passive voice. The passive voice of eulabeomai (εὐλαβέομαι) [pronounced yoo-lab-EH-ohm-ahee] means to receive motivation in the sphere of the action of the verb. The action of the verb: occupation with Christ or reverence or respect and, passive voice, being motivated by it. The circumstantial participle put together means ‘having been motivated by reverence he prepared”.

No he didn’t, he constructed — aorist active indicative of kataskeuazô (κατασκευάζω) [pronounced kaht-ask-yoo-AHD-zoh] which means to construct, to construct on the basis of a specified blueprint. The culminative aorist in employed when you wish to view an event in its entirety but to regard it from the viewpoint of existing results. And we do not have the time it took to build that ship, nor do we have the exact specifications, only the general specifications which are given in Genesis. But this aorist emphasizes the results. One day there was a completed construction. The entire course of the construction is in view but the completed results are emphasized. The active voice: why did he build a ship out on dry land? Answer he was motivated by occupation with Christ; he was motivated because he loved the Lord. He wasn’t motivated by people around him sharing and encouraging and loving and all the other idiotic things that people use when they are emotional rejects. The indicative mood is the declarative, indicative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

“an ark” — kibôtos (κιβωτός) [pronounced kib-oh-TOSS], which is a chest or an ark or a box or a ship; “to the saving” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of sôtêria (σωτηρία) [pronounced soh-tay-REE-ah] meaning deliverance; “for the purpose of deliverance of his family” — the only ones who responded. The seven members of Noah’s family were all who were delivered with him, and here is the principle: Blessing by association. Supergrace blessing is the means of blessing those in the periphery who are not supergrace types — in some cases not even saved.

“by the which — dia plus the genitive of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç], and this means “through which [doctrine resident in the soul].”

“he condemned” — aorist active indicative of katakrínō (κατακρίνω) [pronounced kaht-ak-REE-noh]. The culminative aorist is used to view the results of everything that Noah did that pleased God. Here we have in one ball of wax his positive volition, we have the doctrine resident in the soul, the doctrine that motivates him. He reaches supergrace — occupation with Christ. He builds his ship. All of this is in the face of the strongest possible human opposition, as well as Satanic. In other words, Noah stood alone as the only living supergrace believer. The only other possible supergrace believer was Methuselah and Methuselah died just before the first water hit the earth in the flood. So there were two great men on the earth and both of them stood up against all the opposition. It takes a great deal of strength, a tremendous amount of doctrine in the soul, to stand up against continual opposition over a long period of time.

It is often said by those in the television media that if you listen to them long enough they will convince you no matter what your views are because they will say it often enough to where in weakness you will succumb at some point. And once you succumb at one point you will succumb to the whole cosmos system. That explains why people have gone from strong conservatism to liberalism to socialism to communism. The whole world condemned Noah, the whole world ridiculed him, and he didn’t do anything but to stick to his knitting — stick, stick, stick. By sticking to it he condemned them. One man turned the whole course of history around. Supergrace concept: it is possible in times of great catastrophe that just one supergrace believer on the earth can turn the whole course of history. In this case Noah turned all of their condemnation back on them. For 120 years they gave him every bit of pressure but in the end of that time he turned the whole thing back on them and, katakrínō (κατακρίνω) [pronounced kaht-ak-REE-noh], he condemned them. He condemned them by being a supergrace believer, he condemned them by sticking with doctrine, he condemned them by living his life on the basis of what doctrine resident in his soul dictated. And so he turned the whole course of history around. The active voice: Noah produces the action of the verb by responding to divine warning, by his supergrace life. In other words, he not only got to the high ground but he held it, and nothing would move him off that hill.

“the world” is the kósmos (κόσμος) [pronounced KOSS-moss], it means the organized population of the world under Satan. That means that he turned the whole thing around. But he didn’t snipe back at those people, he didn’t argue, he let them have their laugh; he just ignored the whole thing and concentrated. He was a man of great and deep concentration, he was occupied with the person of Jesus Christ as few people have been in history. As a result of his total occupation with Christ gave him the highest honour that any man could ever have. God spun the whole course of history around Noah. One man can change the course of history. And he doesn’t do it, all he does is just concentrate on what is important, what pleases God. The only way you can please God is with doctrine resident in the soul. It was doctrine resident in the soul that turned around the course of history.

Bob and others used to go around and talk about communism. When they ask, what can we do? Too often the answer is, write your Congressman. But that is not the key. The key is Bible doctrine in the soul. That is what changes history.

“and became” — the aorist active indicative of ginomai. This is, again, a culminative aorist and it is designed to go with the ginomai in the previous verse: “he is, he becomes.” So God becomes a rewarder when man who is the recipient becomes something.

Next time, Bob has developed a lot to do with heirship.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #152

152 07/16/1974 Hebrews 11:7b; Phil. 3:12 Doctrine of heirship (revised & amplified); righteousness/ supergrace

Verse 7 — we have not yet explained “and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” We have in the word “heir” klêronomos (κληρονόμος) [pronounced klay-roh-OHM-oss] which is a predicate nominative. It goes with ginomai, and it is used of Christ in Hebrews 1:2 where is says, “in the last he has communicated to us [the royal family] by means of his unique Son whom he has appointed heir of all things.” This is the second time now that we have had klêronomos (κληρονόμος) [pronounced klay-roh-OHM-oss]. it is now used for us as believers in time in supergrace. In place of self-righteousness there is a supergrace righteousness: “heir of the righteousness,” the genitive singular of dikaiosunê (δικαιοσύνη) [pronounced dih-kai-oh-SOON-ā or dik-ah-yos-OO-nay], used here for the experiential righteousness that belongs to the supergrace hero.

“which is” is not found in the original manuscript; “by faith” is wrong, we have the preposition katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs], and that means “pertaining to doctrine.”

Hebrews 11:7 — “By means of doctrine resident in the soul, Noah having been warned about things not being seen [the destruction of the earth], having been motivated by reverence [occupation with Christ], he had constructed an ark for the purpose of the deliverance of his family; through which doctrine resident in the soul he had condemned the world [the antediluvian population], and had become the heir of the righteousness pertaining to doctrine.”

To be an heir of righteousness is to have an entire new way of life, the antithesis of self-righteousness, a true righteousness that has no self-righteous energy of the flesh production in it, it is strictly a righteousness based on inner resources of the soul. And the fact that we are heirs of righteousness, even as at the present time, Christ is the heir of all things is a reminder that there is a relationship between the heirship of Christ of all things and the fact that one of the supergrace blessings is to inherit a true grace righteousness.

The Doctrine of Heirship (2)

1. By definition the doctrine deals with the various categories in which grace has provided an inheritance for both time and eternity.

2. The basis of our heirship in the royal family:

a. Heirship is based on sonship — John 1:12; Romans 8:16;17. So heirship is based upon the fact that we are in the family of God. Our heirship, which comes under the heirship of Jesus Christ who is the heir all things, begins at the point of salvation. We in this dispensation are not simply born into the family of God but are born into the royal family. Galatians 3:26 — that is where our heirship begins.

b. Heirship is based upon the death of another — Romans 5:8. Therefore the heirship of the royal family is based on the new covenant — Hebrews 9:15. So we have an eternal inheritance tied into the fact that we are royal family and tied into a new covenant. And the fact that we are still alive on this earth being the heirs of God, having a new covenant and a royal family, demands that there be some type of heritage in time. We do not wait for heaven for that heritage.

c. To inherit from God one must possess the life of God which is eternal life — 1John 5:11,12. Again, this strengthens the idea that if all of this comes to us in an inheritance at the point of salvation then there must be something in time which is absolutely phenomenal.

d. All of the heirs of God have been justified by grace — Titus 3:7.

e. Therefore salvation is the qualification for this inheritance — Colossians 1:12. Any realization of the inheritance in time comes from the light of Bible doctrine.

3. The believer has a supergrace heritage in time. This is a righteousness related to doctrine. It is a righteousness on the outside related to doctrine on the inside. The balance of residency in the soul is made up of the filling of the Holy Spirit plus Bible doctrine. The combination of the two produces something on the outside which is the exact antithesis of self-righteousness — Hebrews 11:7.

4. The heirship of the royal family is based on the divine decrees of eternity past — Ephesians 1:11. The heirship of the royal family, then, is based upon something we have and have always had from eternity past. There is the possibility of missing the heritage in time. And, incidentally, this heritage is called the heritage of righteousness. In other words, you an have social prosperity, economic prosperity, sexual prosperity, leadership prosperity, any form of materialistic prosperity, and it becomes a part of your righteousness. Whereas self-righteousness is never related to any blessing in life, and that is the final principle that comes out of Noah. Noah was a unique person in that one man with doctrine resident in his soul changed the course of history. God allowed history to revolve around the hub of one man’s life at a crisis point in history, the end of one civilization and the beginning of another. But there is also a righteousness which is totally foreign to the thinking of man. All righteousness which is self-righteousness is related with strain, is related with denying one’s self of what appears to be pleasant in life, everything that is fun or illegal or illegitimate, and therefore self-righteousness is a terrible strain. But the righteousness which belongs to supergrace is not, and it is a righteousness associated with greatness, it is a righteousness that is associated with great leadership (like Lee and Jackson), a righteousness associated with great wealth, success, and wonderful relationships in life. So it is a righteousness which is a part of the capacity for life, and it is a great thing. It is the exact antithesis of the animal life so that it is based entirely upon the resources of the soul.

a. This is our heritage. God did not give us a heritage in time without putting it and relating it to something worthwhile so that we could enjoy and appreciate the whole thing. Therefore there is the inner resource of the soul through doctrine which has a righteousness which goes along with it and a righteousness which is associated with prosperity. Those who knock prosperity or act as if there is something wrong with it, that they often lack capacity for life.

b. True righteousness is a low-key righteousness; it ignores failings and successes of other people. It is a righteousness which can be well-associated with love in its various categories.

c. In self-righteousness, Paul persecuted Christians.

d. The righteousness with we have in supergrace is wonderful and based upon the divine resources of the soul.

e. Bob illustrates this with two people at a party who do not drink and everyone around them is drinking. A is very self-righteous; and he heard a million demon-rum sermons. B refuses alcohol, but without self-righteousness. He is not trying to impose his standards on others.

f. Self-righteousness is fine, as long as the people around are going along with their norms and standards. Sometimes, the norms and standards of self-righteous people are reasonable and accurate; and sometimes, beneath that veneer, there is a pretty nice person. But, it is hard for a self-righteous person to grow spiritually.

g. A righteousness which bullies others is self-righteousness. It ignores the privacy of the individual and his right to live his life privately before the Lord.

h. Your low-key righteousness encourages others to get into the Word. Noah had this righteousness and some people listened to Noah. There were 3 people outside of his family who listened (the wives of his sons). This is a doctrinal righteousness; not a bullying righteousness).

i. In the divine decrees God gives to every believer in supergrace a righteousness based on doctrine, a righteousness that is a comfort, not discomfort, a comfort to you and a comfort to others, never a discomfort to anyone — Ephesians 1:11.

5. The indwelling Holy Spirit is the down payment of the inheritance of the royal family — Ephesians 1:14. The believer who reaches supergrace has the super praise of His glory. This is a test of the righteousness of supergrace. It may be an historical test, it may be a disaster or a pressure test, it may be a test known to no one, it may be a test known to everyone, but it is a test which results in praise. But it is super praise. When a supergrace believer meets the tests of life with the inner resources of doctrine the result is the super praise of His glory.

6. Our inheritance is part of the divine promise — Galatians 3:29. Our heirship is based upon the character of God, and therefore the promise of God. The promise of God and the character of God are related in this matter.

7. Our inheritance is secure forever — 1Peter 1:4,5.

8. The supergrace life has a temporal inheritance for the royal family of God — Hebrews 6:12. if you become apathetic toward doctrine then, of course, you lose out on the supergrace life. But if you are positive and persist you become imitators of them who through doctrine and persistence inherited the promises. The inheritance of the promises has to do with supergrace blessing in time. So again, the emphasis in this doctrine is not only on phase three but the emphasis and challenge is on phase two to reach the high ground of supergrace. Same thing in 1Peter 3:9.

9. Doctrine resident in the soul is the means of supergrace heritage in time — Proverbs 8:21; Psalm 16:5; Ephesians 1:18.

Philippians 3:12 — the concept here is that once you get into supergrace you have a new perspective, everything is different.

“Not as though” — the Greek is ouch hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] which picks up the thought after the parenthesis which 3:4–8 left off. Ouch is a very strong negative and the reason it is in this form is because it is used before words beginning with vowels or rough breathings, and therefore it is spelled in this way. But it is exactly the same as the Greek negative ou and also ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. It is spelled three different ways depending upon what kind of words are around it in the sentence. It is the strongest single negative in the Greek language, it denies the reality of an alleged fact, it is a clear-cut negative making no as a final and objective answer. Hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] is a conjunction, and is the conjunction used after hêgeomai (ἡγέομαι) [pronounced hayg-EH-ohm-ahee] in verse 8 and therefore it is used again. Hêgeomai (ἡγέομαι) [pronounced hayg-EH-ohm-ahee] is verse 8 says, “I conclude.” In verse 12 we have hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] to indicate a second conclusion. The first conclusion dealt with the piles of dung; the second conclusion now takes us to another aspect of the supergrace life. “Not that I conclude,” literally, or “I conclude not that.”

“I had already attained” — “already” is êdê (ἤδη) [pronounced AY-day], a correct translation, but there is also another meaning which is a little more in keeping with the context. “Before now” is the meaning of the adverb, and that is the meaning here, “already” or “before now”. “Before now” indicates that the apostle Paul has just arrived once more at the supergrace life, that he had been on the high ground, that he had gone reversionistic, that he had been driven off the high ground by reversionism, and that he has just come back once more. But he does not feel that he has stabilized at this point and before he becomes stabilized he wants to make a point. We have the aorist active indicative of lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh] which means to receive supergrace, to attain it or to receive it. This is a constative aorist which views the action of the verb in its entirety. It does not refer to the resurrection body of the previous verse, verse 11, but it refers back to verse 8, the last phrase which says literally, “and I keep on concluding them [human systems of celebrityship] piles of dung in order that I may gain Christ,” which means to seize and to hold the high ground of the supergrace life. The active voice: Paul until now had not produced the action of the verb, that is, he had been recovering from reversionism over a period of four years. His discipline from the Lord had included two years imprisonment in Caesarea, two years of imprisonment in Rome. And he writes the prison epistles having just again reached the objective, but he has not as yet [in Philippians] held the ground. Before he stands to hold the ground for the last five years of his life he wants to make a point. The indicative mood is the reality of once more reaching the high ground of supergrace. He has followed the colours for the last four years, he has made a phenomenal recovery from reversionism. Literally we have now, “Not that I have concluded I have before now received supergrace status.” So he concludes two things. The first at the end of verse 8; the second, verse 12, “Not that I have before now received the attainment [supergrace].”

The word “either” should be translated “nor”; “were already perfect”, and again, êdê (ἤδη) [pronounced AY-day] means “before now,” and with it this time we have the perfect passive indicative of teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh] which means to come to the goal, to bring to an end, to accomplish, to bring to the goal in the sense of accomplishment of an objective. “Nor have before now reached the objective of supergrace.” In other words, for four years he has been moving back up. He has now recovered but he has not yet held this ground. This is the only chance he would have to make this point because by the time he writes the next letter, Ephesians, the position is consolidated. Once you gain the objective it has to be consolidated. Reaching the objective is teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh]. It is in the perfect tense which is an intensive perfect recognizing the action is completed and now emphasizing the result that he has reached the objective, he must hold it. The passive voice: Paul receives the objective, advancing to supergrace by following the colours. The indicative mood is the reality of supergrace status.

Literally then, “Not that I have concluded I have before now received supergrace status, nor have before now reached the objective of supergrace.”

“but” should probably be translated, “now then”; this is a continuative use of the particle de.

“I follow after” — the present active indicative of diôkô (διώκω) [pronounced Dee-OH-koh] means to pursue or to press an attack. He has reached the high ground. The key to everything in life is doctrine. There are two issues. The one in verses 4–8 was human prosperity, human celebrityship is “dung.” But once you become a supergrace hero and receive blessings the enjoyment of those things is the perpetuation of doctrine in the soul and the continual intake of doctrine. And once you get there you must consolidated and exploit the breakthrough, and that is perpetration of positive volition. So he says, “Now then I keep pressing”, a retroactive progressive present denoting what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb and he produces it by going from reversionism to supergrace in four years of time.

On 29 May of 57 AD the apostle Paul hit Jerusalem and hit the all-time low in his spiritual life. He entered Jerusalem as a reversionist, he began to function as a reversionist, making the vow in the temple, and would have died the sin unto death except for the grace of God and the use of the military to intervene and to save his life. So from May of 57 AD the discipline of the apostle began, and it began with the fact that there was a conspiracy of forty to kill him. Therefore, there was a change of venue and he was removed. The apostle was in terrible reversionism and therefore there was a change of venue to Caesarea. After this he was two years in Caesarea. During that time he appeared before some of the greatest people in the Roman empire at that time. He appeared before Felix, Festus, and Agrippa. He was forced to say, “I appeal to Caesar.”

He eventually arrived in Rome in the spring of 60 AD. By this time he is on reversion recovery and from 60–62 his reversion recovery was completed. As a result he wrote the prison epistles — Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon which have the highest type of doctrine anywhere in the Word of God, outside of Hebrews itself. This doctrine is the backbone and the core for orienting to the entire royal family dispensation.

At the end of 62 AD he went before Nero and was acquitted. Then the next missionary journey, the fourth, the last five years of his life. He was acquitted in 62 AD, he died in 67 AD, five years later, when once more he was made a prisoner in Rome and we decapitated by the order of Nero. So from 67–67 AD he had five more years and these were all years from the high ground.

So what he is actually saying to us here is something that he followed himself. He said “I keep pressing.” Once he hit breakthrough, once he hit the weak spot in the line and moved in, he kept pressing — “now then I keep pressing.” And the indicative mood is the declarative indicative representing the verbal idea from, the viewpoint of historical reality and unqualified assertion. Paul was pressing the attack on the ground of supergrace status.

Principles

1. Having once more reached the high ground Paul will not be driven off this time. The last five years of his life were going to be phenomenal. Out of it come seven great epistles, the four prison epistles and the three pastoral.

2. As a result of the tremendous battle that he had all of the way through, never again will this man go into reversionism. “I keep on pressing.” Doctrine is his life more than it ever was before.

3. This time he will exploit the breakthrough, he will keep on pursuing, he will keep on taking in doctrine. He will not only hold his position but he will advance beyond that which any person in all of history ever advanced. And while Noah represents to us a believer who was just one man who turned around the course of history he only turned around the course of history in his generation. So Noah represents to us a man who turned around the entire course of history on one generation, but the apostle Paul turned around the course of history for every generation from 62 AD until now, and as long as time continues. In all of the history of the Word of God there never was a greater man for pressing the attack than the apostle Paul. Those last five years of his life have changed the course of many generations and have had impact on someone in every generation.

4. Paul realized that he had failed; and after, he advanced more than any believer prior to him. Those last 5 years changed men in every generation. Noah changed history for one generation; and Paul changed the course of history for every generation.

So far this is what we have: “Not that I have concluded that I have before now received supergrace status, nor have I before now reached the objective of supergrace: but now then, I keep on pressing.” He pressed the attack. Paul consolidated his gains; he counted human celebrityship as dung.

“if” — the conditional particle ei (εἰ) [pronounced I], and it is a very unusual one. When you have a third class condition the conditional particle is eán (ἐάν) [pronounced eh-AHN] plus the subjunctive, but a change came into the Koine Greek and suddenly we have “a” plus the subjunctive for a third class condition — it is a very rare and unusual one. You see, ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] is the particle for a first class condition — ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] plus the indicative. But here we have ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] plus the subjunctive mood. So what kind of a third class condition is that? It is not a true third class condition, and it can’t be a first class condition because it has the subjunctive mood in the verb. Now we have ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] plus the subjunctive. In other words, it is a way of showing, “Now that I have arrived, I will never make the same mistake again.” And in effect the apostle Paul is saying, “Press on, press on.” He consolidated his gains. In other words, he took the attitude that there is nothing in life more important than doctrine and he never let up. So we have a third class condition with a first class condition particle to show that while it’s still in doubt at this stage it is not on doubt in his mind. He doesn’t know that he only has five more years but he knows that as long as he is living there is only one things he is going to do, and that is to press the attack.

“that” — the conjunction kai is used in the adjunctive sense, so kai here means “also.” The third class first class plus the adjunctive kai means “that also.” He is saying, therefore, “that also” rather than “if.” You can’t translate this “if”, the translator made a mistake.

“I may apprehend” — the aorist active subjunctive of katalambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh]. It means to seize, to attain, to make one’s own, to overtake. “I keep on pressing that also I might seize and hold the high ground of supergrace.” There is no “if” there at all. He will press for the rest of his life and therefore he will take doctrine further than anyone ever had before. And he will demonstrate the fact that a person can have an old sin nature and live in this life and have great failures and make great mistakes and still press and become the greatest of all supergrace heroes. We have a culminative aorist here, it views the event of taking the high ground in its entirety, but it emphasizes the existing results. Once you hit the high ground you’re only living the normal life of a high priest. Normality for the royal priesthood begins on the high ground. Now he is going to exploit the breakthrough. The active voice: Paul produces the action of the verb, the attainment of supergrace, seizing and holding the high ground. The subjunctive mood: this is the potential subjunctive implying future reference and is qualified by the element of contingency, the element of contingency being overcome by the consistent positive volition of Paul.

The next phrase says, “that for which also” — epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] plus the adjunctive use of kai. It means “on account of which high ground also”; “I am apprehended” — wrong. We have katalambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh], this time meaning to overtake. “I was overtaken also.” In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ pursued Paul and overtook him — grace pursuing. The constative aorist contemplates the work of Christ in its entirety. He pursued the apostle Paul as Saul of Tarsus, then He provided doctrine giving Paul a chance to respond and to grow. Therefore we see the tremendous aggressiveness of our Lord pursuing positive volition from an unbeliever all the way to supergrace. Paul recognizes that he has been overtaken in the pursuit. The passive voice: Paul receives the action of the verb, the Lord in grace overtook him. When grace overtook him then he had a purpose. Here is what you have to see. Here is the Lord, as it were, pursuing Paul. Then He overtakes him. Once He overtakes him He goes right on past out in front so that Paul follows the colours, doctrine, to the high ground.

1972 Hebrews 11 via Philippians 3:12–14 3:12–14 Lesson #153

153 07/17/1974 Hebrews 11 via Phil. 3:12–14 Surpassing-grace blessing

Bob was having respiratory problems so he started getting up and started to work on a doctrine; but now, it has come together, and Bob is worried that he might put the cart before the horse.

A quick testimony from a military type.

Philippians 3:12 — “Not that I have concluded that I have before now received supergrace status, nor have I before now reached the objective [the high ground of supergrace];..”

— that doesn’t mean that he hasn’t been on the high ground but it does mean that there is something that must be linked up with supergrace — “now then I keep on pressing that also I might seize and hold the high ground, on account of which high ground of supergrace also I was seized and held by Jesus Christ.”

Principles

1. Everything which Christ did to save the believer has meaning in time as well as in eternity.

2. This means that God has a purpose for every member of the royal family of God in time. Therefore, your life has meaning, purpose, and definition.

3. The royal family is seized and held by Christ for a purpose on earth related to a purpose in heaven.

4. This purpose is defined in terms of the objective for phase two — to follow the colours of Bible doctrine and take the high ground of supergrace. While that is the end of one thing it is also the beginning of something else.

5. Once taken, the believers commands from God include the principle “seize and hold.”

6. From the standpoint of sheer mechanics there is little change from the concept of positive volition: persistence in positive volition toward doctrine no matter what the cost.

Philippians 3:12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

In anticipation of the next verse, Paul has not failed to reach the high ground before but he has failed to seize and hold the high ground. He has failed to maintain that position. You can’t simply get there and then retreat, get there and retreat. This form of instability is ruinous and causes the believer to miss the boat entirely. In between getting there and then retreating is human failure, our failure, our failure known to us, our failure known to others, our failure therefore as a means of perpetuating future failures. Nothing could be worse than that. So Paul says he must ignore past failure and keep pressing. That is the key in this verse.

Philippians 3:12 — “Not that I have concluded that I have before now received supergrace status, nor have I before now reached the objective [the high ground of supergrace]; now then I keep pressing that also I might seize and hold the high ground, on account of which high ground of supergrace also I was seized and held by Christ.”

Christ seized us and held us in eternity past. Christ seized us and held us when we were invisible and we have the learn the fact that we can seize Him when He is invisible. Dying grace is a bridge between supergrace blessings in time and surpassing grace blessings in eternity. And if you don’t seize and hold then you miss the bridge.

We were seized while we were invisible in eternity past; and now, we seize and hold Him, Who is invisible to us.

Philippians 3:13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,...

Verse 13 — “Brethren” is the vocative plural referring to the royal family. And in spite of past failure and in spite of the fact that Paul has advanced up the hill and retreated he now sees that there is something more than reaching it. To reach the objective defines a new objective, and that is exactly what he is going to say.

“I count not myself” — the present middle indicative of the verb logizomai (λογίζομαι) [pronounced log-IHD-zohm-ai]. Logizomai (λογίζομαι) [pronounced log-IHD-zohm-ai] means to evaluate. The negative adverb oupô (οὔπω) [pronounced OW-poe] which means “not yet”. There is the negative particle here; but I don’t think this negative particle.

The reason we have “myself” in there is because this is the present middle indicative. The present tense is aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. In other words, every now and then we have some experience, good or bad, some failure or some success, some pressure, something in life that causes us to evaluate — a normal, objective evaluation. The middle voice is a direct middle, it refers the results of the action directly to the agent with reflexive force. That is why he says, “I evaluate myself.” The indicative mood is the declarative indicative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

“I evaluate myself as not yet to have apprehended” — the word “apprehended” is the perfect active infinitive of katalambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh] and it means to seize and hold. “I evaluate myself as not yet to have seized and held,” Paul says. He is on the high ground, he has arrived at supergrace, but he evaluates himself as not yet seizing and holding. So you can be on the high ground and start the normal function of the royal priesthood but that is seizing but not holding. The perfect tense is a consummative perfect. The consummative perfect is not an existing state but a process completed. And the process, he says, “I count not myself to have seized and held” in the sense of the process. The active voice: with the negative adverb oupô (οὔπω) [pronounced OW-poe]

Paul has not yet consolidated his position on the high ground. There is still something he needs to do to consolidate. The infinitive is the intended result in which the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate objective. In other words, a blend of purpose and result.

Translation so far: “Royal family, I evaluate myself as not yet to have seized and held the high ground of supergrace.” Paul seized the high ground, but he has not yet held it. The issue in this passage is not getting back to supergrace but holding it. He needs to further hold onto his gains and consolidate them.

Life on earth for the believer is to seize and hold that high ground. There is often a phenomenal amount of pressure on anyone reaching the high ground of supergrace.

Example of the confederacy, of breaking through, but not exploiting of the breakthrough.

“but this one thing” — the conjunctive particle de used in an adversative sense, plus the nominative neuter singular of the word heís (εἵς) [pronounced hice] — “but one thing.” This is an idiom of concentration. We can translate it “but one thing on which I concentrate.” As long as the believer is alive reaching the objective of the high ground [supergrace] means that there is a consolidation which must follow. It is the same as follow-through in any form of athletics. Therefore the believer must concentrate on one thing. He must keep pressing, keep advancing. No matter how you fail you must get up and keep moving. You can fail on the high ground but you get up and you move on. Life on earth for the royal family is a matter of persistence once you reach the high ground. Once you get to the high ground there is always a phenomenal pressure. And there must be exploitation of the breakthrough — keep pressing, keep pressing. One thing this means is that you can’t sit around and be morbid about your failures.

“forgetting” — the present middle participle of epilanthánomai (ἐπιλανθάνομαι) [pronounced ehp-ee-lan-THAN-ohm-ahee]. If you are going to press on you can’t look back It means to forget, “constantly forgetting.” The present tense is a static present representing a condition as perpetually existing. The middle voice is them permissive middle representing the agent as voluntarily yielding himself to the results of the action, or seeking to secure the results of the action in his own interest. The participle is a telic participle expressing a purpose for phase two. Ordinarily expressed in the future participle but occasionally in the present. So the negative part of pressing is constantly forgetting what lies behind.

“those things which are behind” — your failures, in other words. The Greek says ta men opisô (ὀπίσω) [pronounced ohp-ISS-oh] — an idiom for what lies behind. We have here ta, the things; men is an untranslatable Classical Greek or Attic Greek particle; opisô (ὀπίσω) [pronounced ohp-ISS-oh] is what is behind. This applies not only to your past failures in the area of reversionism but it applies to past sins and failures in carnality as well. Carnality is handled by the rebound technique; reversionism and the lapses of reversionism are handled by a persistent positive volition toward doctrine, a comeback, a recovery. Paul has just completed the most remarkable recovery in history and the results of his recovery are obvious in the content of doctrine, they are obvious from the fact that right here he learned a lesson. He not only took the high ground but he held it, and he held it for the next five years until his dying breath came. And because he held it this man has the greatest impact of any man in human history.

The other side in principle — “and”, the particle de for a mild contrast — “but”; “reaching forth” — the present middle participle of epekteinomai (ἐπεκτείνομαι) [pronounced ep-ek-TIH-nom-ahee]. This word has two connotations. It is used of a sprinter’s last burst of speed before he hits the tape. It is also used for exploiting the breakthrough in a military situation. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs when one constantly forgets what lies behind and makes his life doctrine in the sense of never relaxing positive volition. Paul discovered that once you reach the high ground you are dictated to by the frame of reference in your soul, and the frame of reference in your soul is doctrine. Doctrine influences your volition so that you are not doing something to please someone, you are not taking in doctrine to get something, you are taking in doctrine because in your soul your inner resources have dictated the course of action. Therefore we have the permissive middle again where the agent voluntarily yields himself to the results of the action and secures the results of the action in his own interest. That isn’t his objective but that is the way it turns out in the permissive middle. This is a telic participle denoting a purpose for phase two.

“but constantly stretching toward or pressing toward or advancing toward”; and we have “those things which are before” — toij de e)mproqen. It goes with what lies behind and it means exactly the same thing in the opposite direction. It means “what lies before,” the high ground of supergrace. It is a dative plural of advantage. What lies before is strictly for your advantage. And what lies ahead once you get up there? Normal function of the priesthood, pressing all of the way to the end of your life however long or short it may be, so that you go from supergrace blessing to dying grace blessing to surpassing grace blessing without missing a beat. And you lay hold of the invisible.

Philippians 3:13 “Royal family, I evaluate myself as not yet to have seized and held the high ground of supergrace: but one thing on which I concentrate, forgetting what lies behind but pressing toward the objective [what lies before, the high ground of supergrace].”

Summary

1. Here Paul emphasizes the importance of maintaining a persistent positive volition toward doctrine after you have attained the objective. Once you have attained the object you don’t let up, you now start to roll.

2. Remember that this is autobiographical. Remember that if you think you’ve had failures you could never match Paul. When you go to heaven don’t try to match failures, he will beat you every time!

3. In four years of divine discipline Paul lost four years, so if anyone wants to be a cry baby about the past perhaps Paul has a right to shed four CCs of tears! He has really messed things up — four years out of an extremely valuable life. And that isn’t all, he only has five to go before he crosses the bridge of dying grace. Therefore, he has lost four valuable, valuable years. The great apostle himself has been set back by reversionism. He should have gone to Spain but he didn’t. He should have gone west from Rome but instead he turned around and went south east to Jerusalem. Geographical reversionism led to operational reversionism, and the road back is a very hard road for someone like Paul because having accomplished both reversion recovery and the reconstruction of the ECS, and to take all the discipline he had coming for four years has given him a scar-filled life. And he now emphasizes the principle the principle of doctrine: “Look, I’m up here once again and I’ll tell you what I am going to do. I’m going to press, I’m going to keep going.”

Bob is running on energy that he did not know he has. He almost wants to apologize for what he has missed before.

Philippians 3:14 ...I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Verse 14 — “I press” is the present active indicative of diôkô (διώκω) [pronounced Dee-OH-koh] which means to pursue. In the present tense it means to keep advancing. So here it means to bear down, to keep on advancing. This is a retroactive progressive present denoting something which has begun in the past and continues right up to this moment. He is keeping on advancing. The active voice: Paul advances after he reaches the high ground. The indicative mood is the declarative for historical reality in autobiographical material.

“toward the mark” — katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of skopos (σκοπός) [pronounced skohp-OSS]. He has already reached the objective but the objective was never called skopos (σκοπός) [pronounced skohp-OSS], so what is he driving for now? He is driving for persistent positive volition to the skopos (σκοπός) [pronounced skohp-OSS], and the skopos (σκοπός) [pronounced skohp-OSS] is the moment that a Roman officer will march him out and have him kneel down and decapitate him. He is pressing all the way to death. So he is pressing toward the mark or the new objective. He is on the high ground but on the high ground he has already told us from katalambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh] there is a seize and hold objective.

“for the prize” — the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of brabeion (βραβεον) [pronounced brab-EYE-on] which is surpassing grace blessings. Not supergrace, surpassing grace! He is in supergrace and in supergrace, like with all people in supergrace, there is a phenomenal accumulation of blessing. Brabeion (βραβεον) [pronounced brab-EYE-on] means two things. It means, “All right I have arrived.” He followed the colours — doctrine. He is now up on the high ground of supergrace and he has blessings showering on him at this point. But he is going to drive with those blessings. Those blessings are the greatest things you can have in life and they belong to you in time. But there is a wall here and he is going to drive for five years right into that wall. Then, that wall has a beautiful bridge, dying grace. If you hit the wall with supergrace you have dying grace, and supergrace converted to dying grace is always convertible to surpassing grace. Surpassing grace is phase three blessing and it is the most beautiful advance in the world because you advance from saving grace to supergrace, from supergrace to dying grace, from dying grace to surpassing grace. And that is the road to glory, and he is on it now, and he is not going to look back, and he is not going to slack up.

“of the high calling” — literally, “the upward station” — the adverb anô (ἄνω) [pronounced AN-oh], meaning upward, plus the genitive singular of klhsij which means station in life, position, or vocation. This is a possessive genitive referring to the high ground of supergrace as the beginning of something new. Salvation is the beginning of something new, positive volition is the beginning of something new, supergrace is an objective but once you reach the objective it is always the beginning of something new. You have an objective in life but every time you reach that objective you start another one. The accomplishment of one objective means to seize and hold, and seize and hold doesn’t mean to stand there, it means to move to the next objective. And therefore he says, “I keep advancing for the purpose of reward belonging to the upward station in life.” The upward station in life is the continuation of positive volition toward doctrine leading to dying grace, leading to surpassing grace. “Calling of God” is wrong, it is ablative of source from theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] plus the definite article, and it should be “from the source of the God.” Saving grace, from God; supergrace, from God; dying grace, from God, surpassing grace, from God. Same source for each advance.

Philippians 3:14 “I keep advancing to the objective of the high ground of supergrace for the purpose of reward belonging to the upward station of life from the God in Christ Jesus.”

Now let us put together all three verses:

Verse 12 — “Not that I have concluded that I have before now received supergrace status, nor have I before now reached the objective: now then I keep on pressing, that also I might seize and hold the high ground of supergrace, on account of which high ground also I was seized and held by Christ Jesus.”

Verse 13 — “Members of the royal family of God, I evaluate myself as not yet to have seized and held the high ground of supergrace; but one thing on which I concentrate, forgetting what lies behind but pressing toward the objective.”

Verse 14 — “I keep advancing to the objective for the purpose of reward belonging to the upward station of life from the God in Christ Jesus.”

Supergrace, Dying Grace, Surpassing Grace

1. There is a relationship between the supergrace blessings of time and the surpassing grace blessings of eternity.

2. The link between them is dying grace. The reversionist dies the sin unto death or simply does not enjoy dying grace.

3. Dying grace bridges the gap between supergrace status in time and surpassing grace status in eternity. This is the believer going from grace to grace.

4. For example, Abraham’s salvation grace is found in Genesis 15:6, so we know that he was the beneficiary of saving grace.

5. Abraham’s supergrace blessing is related to his sexual prosperity. The Bible emphasizes this in Romans 4:17–21 and Hebrews 11:11,12. The sign of his sexual prosperity was circumcision.

6. Abraham’s surpassing grace blessing is related to something specific, the heavenly Jerusalem — the heavenly Jerusalem of Hebrews 11:9,10; Revelation 21:2,10. The sign is living in a tent in time. Abraham lived in a tent because he could see that which was invisible. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all lived in tents because they trusted God.

7. The dying grace principle that links Abraham’s supergrace blessing with his surpassing grace blessing is Hebrews 11:13.

8. Dying grace is the bridge that takes the believer from supergrace blessing in time to surpassing grace blessing in eternity.

9. Here, then, is the importance of Bible doctrine resident in the soul, the driving principle of follow the colours. Never give up on doctrine. Even when you reach the high ground, intensify your efforts. Why? Because this is the road to glory. On to glory means going from saving grace to supergrace, from supergrace to dying grace, from dying grace to surpassing grace. In other words, in time it takes doctrine to see the invisible, but once we cross the bridge of dying grace we see Him face to face. But this is the point: When you seize and you hold the high ground and you walk across the bridge of dying grace you recognize Him immediately and say, Hello there! Whereas if you die as a reversionist it is a miserable death, and when you arrive in heaven your first words will be, Who are you?

1972 Hebrews Lesson #154

154 07/18/1974 Hebrews 11 via Phil. 3:14 Doctrine of supergrace (pts. 1–8)

Abraham looked over to that beautiful city. He lives in a tent for the rest of his life. They all died living in tents. Sarah did not have supergrace when Abraham did. She was blessed by association.

Dying grace is a drawbridge lowered down there just for you to take you from supergrace to surpassing grace. You walk from glory to glory to glory.

We are kept here after salvation in order to glorify God. Our rewards glorify God.

Paul saluted his surpassing grace paragraph. Moses had every type of human celebrity; but he persisted, nonetheless.

Verse 14 — “I keep advancing to the objective for the purpose of reward belonging to the upward station of life from the God in Christ Jesus.”

You have now taken the high ground. You look across to the next mountain, and there is your second paragraph, surpassing grace.

The Doctrine of Supergrace

1. General definition and classification.

1) Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of the cross and, more than that, on the basis of His character because God designed the cross.

2) Grace is God’s freedom to love the believer in Christ and to express His love in a perfect plan for that believer. God is free to give without us earning anything so He is free to give on the basis of His love.

3) In eternity past — the doctrine of divine decrees — God found a way to save man and bless him. The key is the cross because the cross frees God to give, to give without strings.

4) Grace is the plan of God, therefore, on behalf of man.

5) Grace is the plan, the policy, the function of divine modus operandi.

6) Grace depends on the essence of God, the character of God, therefore grace depends on who and what God is, and that means who and what God the Father is, who and what God the Son is, who and what God the Holy Spirit is.

7) Grace is what God can do for man and still be consistent with His own essence — which is everything. And the only issue ever is volition, but that is because volition is an issue in the angelic conflict but it is always non-meritorious volition. For example, supergrace comes by resident doctrine in the soul but resident doctrine in the soul means that you must recognize what God has provided. He has provided the Word, He has provided a communicator of the Word, He has provided a classroom — the local church — and your volition is related to all three of these factors.

2. There are five categories of grace, and they are sequential. Bob places this still under point 1.

1) There is saving grace, like Ephesians 2:8,9. Saving grace includes all that the Trinity has done to accomplish salvation. The Father planned it, the Son executed it, the Holy Spirit reveals it. This is the simplest form of grace to the believer, therefore the key to all other types of grace. For example, you know that you are saved by faith, that you can’t earn it or deserve it or work for it. You know that you were saved when you were spiritually dead, you know that you couldn’t even understand the gospel issue apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, you couldn’t be saved apart from the work of Christ. He said, “Finished” on the cross. You couldn’t be saved if God the Father hadn’t planned it in eternity past and when you put all these things together there is no way that you could ever take any credit for salvation.

2) Living grace. This includes all that the Trinity does to keep the believer alive in this earth. Under living grace there are several principles we should remember:

(1) God provides for both the supergrace believer as well as the reversionist. Living grace means God keeps you alive by grace. It means you will be here as long as He wants you to be here, that there is no way you can depart as long as God wants you here. As long as God wants you here there is no way that you will ever depart from this life.

(2) Being alive on the earth is a part of the angelic conflict.

(3) We are alive for a purpose — to have an attitude toward doctrine. After salvation we are kept alive for one reason: basically to have an attitude toward God’s Word, Bible doctrine. Everything else is appended to that basic concept.

(4) Consistent positive volition means supergrace and the beginning of the road of glory — supergrace, dying grace, surpassing grace.

(5) However, negative attitude toward doctrine means reversionism and divine discipline. And remember, the consequences of negative attitude toward Bible doctrine are too horrible to contemplate — loss of supergrace in time, loss of dying grace in transition, loss of surpassing grace forever. And it is terrible to think that forever, rolling around in eternity, is your surpassing grace paragraph unclaimed.

(6) Since divine discipline is confined to time God often keeps the believer in phase two for discipline — Hebrews 12:4–15. So He keeps us for discipline or blessing, depending upon our attitude toward doctrine. You have a choice of two roads as long as you are alive: the glory road which takes you to the high ground of supergrace, dying grace, surpassing grace; but then there is the gory road — negative volition, all the stages of reversionism, divine discipline, the sin unto death and arriving in heaven just barely intact and losing out on a surpassing grace paragraph even as you lose out on your supergrace paragraph.

3) Supergrace.

4) Dying grace, the bridge between supergrace blessings and surpassing grace blessings. It is the bridge for the supergrace believer who seizes and holds the high ground. The whole angelic conflict in the royal family stage is based on this principle of following the colours to the high ground of supergrace and holding. Then there is a bridge, and that bridge is dying grace. Supergrace is absolutely fantastic, dying grace is better than supergrace, and surpassing grace is the best yet.

5) Surpassing grace: the rewards and blessings of eternity for the supergrace believer. In eternity past God designed for each believer a supergrace paragraph for time and a surpassing grace paragraph for eternity — Ephesians 2:7 says literally, “That in the approaching ages [eternity] he might demonstrate his surpassing grace riches [eternal blessings and rewards] in generosity toward us in Christ Jesus.”

3. Definition of supergrace.

1) Supergrace is a synonym for Christian maturity.

2) The nomenclature is derived basically from James 4:6 which says literally from the Greek, “But he gives greater grace [supergrace]. Therefore he says, The God opposes the arrogant [reversionist] but he gives grace to the humble [the supergrace type].”

3) In this verse arrogance is reversionism, humility is supergrace status. Humility is not some sort of self-effacing affect.

4) Supergrace status is described from the viewpoint of God’s essence in Ephesians 1:19 — “And what is the surpassing magnitude of his omnipotence upon us [the fact that in eternity past for each one of us He designed a supergrace paragraph that has the most phenomenal blessings] the believing ones, according to the norm of the operational power [the Holy Spirit] of the ruling power [doctrine in the Bible], of his inner power [doctrine resident in the soul].”

5) Supergrace is described as a pursuing grace in Ephesians 1:6. It is called a pursuing grace because in eternity past God designed supergrace blessings for us before we existed. Now these overtake us as we follow the colours, as we take in doctrine daily — “Resulting in the recognition of glory [the identification of the glory road, following the colours to the high ground of supergrace, maintaining our high ground to the point of death] from the source of his grace, from which he has pursued us with grace in the one having been loved [or, in the beloved].” God has pursued us through Jesus Christ. God pursues us with the blessings of supergrace. Stonewall Jackson’s last words: “Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the tree.”

6) Glorification of God by the Church comes in every generation through the distribution of supergrace blessings: Ephesians 3:20,21 — “Now to the one himself being able far beyond all things to do infinitely more than that which we could ask or be imagining” — this applies to both paragraphs. You and I are incapable of even imagining what God has for us in our supergrace paragraph or in the surpassing grace paragraph, but you don’t have to wait until you get there to know how wonderful it is — “according to the power [doctrine resident in the soul] itself effective in us, to him be the glory in the church” — the Church has a glory road — “and in Christ Jesus with reference to all generations, forever and ever. Amen [I believe it].” You don't have to push for rewards; you just take the high ground and hold it.

7) In 1Timothy 1:14 supergrace is described in terms of abundance. Whatever God has for you it is more than more, it is abundant.

8) Supergrace, therefore, is the adult stage of spiritual growth attended by maximum blessing from God, which blessings glorify God. Remember, you are always receiving from God but in receiving and in getting and obtaining God is glorified. He is glorified by your rewards in heaven.

9) Supergrace, then, is the ultimate in spiritual growth and the basis for the normal function of the royal priesthood.

10) Supergrace is the sphere of life in which the royal family reaps what God sows instead of reaping what we sow. As long as we live we reap what we sow until we get to supergrace.

4. (Everything previously was under point 1, definition). Supergrace is the objective of phase two: Ephesians 3:16–19 — “In order that He might give you, according to the riches of His glory [two paragraphs, supergrace and surpassing grace], to become strong [to advance to supergrace] by means of power [doctrine resident in the soul] through his Spirit [the function of GAP] with reference to the inner man [the place where doctrine is received for growth]; that the Christ may be at home in your right lobes [doctrine, frame of reference, occupation with Christ] through the doctrine [resident in the soul]; in love [the filling of the Spirit], after having been rooted [doctrine in the right lobe], after having received the foundation [doctrine in the human spirit], in order that you all might have a complete ability to comprehend in the company of all saints” — which means that following the colours means assembling in the classroom provided by God in living grace — “what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height” — What is the breadth? Looking out toward supergrace, looking from supergrace to surpassing grace, looking at the wonderful bridge that connect the two — “and come to know the surpassing knowledge love of Christ [knowledge love of Christ is occupation with Christ, supergrace blessings], that you might be filled up with all the fullness of God.” You have two paragraphs and those two paragraphs are the fullness of God. Giving is designed to be an expression of love; it is a very weak person who gives expecting something in return.

1) Imagine spending all eternity in a resurrection body but without your SGIII blessings.

5. The characteristics of the supergrace life.

1) The best description of supergrace comes from Psalm 23:5,6 — “My cup overflows [SG2]. Dogmatically grace will pursue me all the days of my life” — when you seize and hold the high ground grace pursues, keeps after you, never lets you go.

2) The overflowing cup is supergrace capacity for life plus the supergrace blessings in paragraph SG2 with your name on it.

3) These blessings fall into two separate categories: spiritual and temporal.

4) The spiritual blessings include occupation with Christ , inner resources to cope with any disaster in life, and at the end of it, dying grace.

5) Temporal blessings include promotion, success, wealth, prosperity [not necessarily all for one person but these things in variation], prosperity social, prosperity economic, prosperity sexual, prosperity material, prosperity technical [advance in some area of life that is very technical], and with these things stability and dynamics of living producing often great leadership.

6. God is waiting to provide for you and for me supergrace blessings — Isaiah 30:18, “Therefore Jehovah longs to be gracious to you, and therefore he waits on high to have compassion on you; for Jehovah is a God of justice [God is fair, demonstrated by His provision of the paragraphs]; how blessed are those who long for him [positive volition toward Bible doctrine].”

7. The importance of Bible doctrine in the attainment of supergrace status — Hebrews 11:1–3 (read). Doctrine is the reality from which we keep on receiving confidence, the proof of matters not being seen.

1) Celebrities appear to be making history, but it is God Who is making history.

8. Therefore there is a new perspective of supergrace — Philippians 3:4–8 (read).

9. We have the command, therefore, to advance to supergrace — Hebrews 12:1–3.

10. The importance of retaining the objective — Philippians 3:12–14 (Read)

We will pick up supergrace doctrine next time, but first a summary:

A Summary of the Principle That We Have Had up to Date

1. In eternity past as part of the divine decrees omniscient God provided for every believer two paragraphs of special blessings — SG2 is the supergrace paragraph, special blessing in time; SG3 is surpassing grace paragraph, special blessings in eternity.

2. The attainment of these special blessing paragraphs both occur in time. This is your only chance to get SG2 and SG3, there is no opportunity to attain these things by the function of eternity. You can only get this two paragraphs in time.

3. In other words, while the believer cannot lose either salvation or heaven he can lose supergrace blessings in time and surpassing grace blessings for eternity.

4. They are both on the line in time on the basis of your attitude toward doctrine.

5. After salvation attitude toward doctrine is the issue resolving the angelic conflict.

6. Therefore, consistent negative volition toward doctrine means reversionism and its attendant losses — loss of supergrace blessings in time, loss of dying grace, loss of surpassing grace blessings in eternity.

7. Through living grace God provides everything necessary to make doctrine resident in your soul — He provides physical life, food, shelter, clothing, doctrine, a communicator of doctrine, and a classroom to learn doctrine.

8. The only thing involved with the believer is his volition, God provides everything else. Volition in man is the issue in the angelic conflict.

a. Bob feels for those who are dragged into Berachah.

9. God provides, and you either say yes or no.

10. Consistent yes means supergrace, dying grace, surpassing grace. In other words, you get everything that is coming to you from eternity past.

11. Consistent no means reversionism, discipline, sin unto death, minus SG3 and/or no reward in heaven.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #155

155 07/19/1974 Ps. 84:1–12; Lam. 3:21–25 The Revised Doctrine of supergrace (pts. 9-17)

The outline of the next section of Hebrews 11. We are going to be studying verses 8–22 which area deals with the supergrace roster of patriarchs. We will study in this section, four men who made it all the way; Abraham in verses 8–19; Isaac in verse 20; Jacob, verse 21; Joseph, verse 22. Only the first one receives detailed comment and that is to set the pattern. Here are four generations of men who went down the road to glory, all the way to surpassing grace. The pattern is found in verses 8–19. In verse 8, Abraham’s living grace; verses 9 and 10, Abraham’s surpassing grace; verses 11 and 12, Abraham’s supergrace; verse 13, the missing link, Abraham’s dying grace; verses 14–16, the test of surpassing grace; verses 17–19, the test of supergrace. Therefore, there are three things that we must have in mind clearly before we resume the details of that passage — the doctrine of supergrace, the doctrine of dying grace, the doctrine of surpassing grace.

But before we go back to supergrace, one principle: the missing link. On the road to glory there is one missing link, the thing that hooks it all up.

The Missing Link

1. There is a relationship between supergrace blessings in time and surpassing grace blessings in eternity. In other words, we are talking again about SG2 and SG3. SG2 = supergrace blessings in time; SG3 = surpassing grace blessings for eternity.

2. The link between maturity in phase two and rewards in phase three is dying grace.

3. Dying grace bridges the gap between supergrace blessings and surpassing grace blessings.

4. This is known as going from grace to grace. Cf.. Romans 5:20. The life of every believer should be advancing in five stages of grace. Grace must always abound, that is God’s plan for your life. There is saving grace, living grace, supergrace, dying grace, and surpassing grace.

5. Abraham’s supergrace blessings in time related to his sexual prosperity — Hebrews 11:11,12; Romans 4:17–21. The sign of this prosperity was circumcision — Romans 4:11,12.

6. Abraham’s surpassing grace blessing in eternity is related to the heavenly city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven — Revelation 21:2,10; Hebrews 11:9,10. And the sign of this prosperity was the fact that Abraham lived in a tent — Hebrews 11:9.

7. The principle of dying grace links the supergrace blessings of time with surpassing grace blessings of eternity — Hebrew 11:13.

8. Dying grace is the bridge that takes the believer from supergrace to surpassing grace. In other words, it is the bridge that takes the believer from one grace blessing in time to another grace blessing in eternity.

9. Therefore, supergrace is the best for time. Dying grace is better, surpassing grace better than the best.

10. You cannot lose with grace, and the road to glory, then, is obvious: from saving grace to living grace, from living grace to supergrace, from supergrace to dying grace, from dying grace to surpassing grace. That is the perfect way in which human volition becomes enmeshed with grace and God is glorified. This is the driving principle that we are studying of following the colours and this is what it means “on to glory.”

We are studying supergrace.

The Doctrine of Supergrace (Cont)

1. General definition; for supergrace, surpassing grace, dying grace. The golden bridge, but time to eternity. This is the great bridge, not to be feared but embraced. Our name is engraved on two paragraphs—supergrace and surpassing grace. Eph. 2:7 is where the verbiage comes from. If you seize and hold the high ground in supergrace, you can look over the chasm from one mountain to the next. Surpassing grace only belongs to those who get to supergrace and seize and hold the high ground.

a. James 4:6 and others

2. Supergrace is the objective of phase II. In order that He may give us on the basis or the riches of His glory to become strong by means of power through His Spirit with reference to the inner man....in order that you all might have complete ability to comprehend in the company of all the saints.

a. Dying grace is not for all believers.

b. Getting supergrace in time means you know that you will have rewards in heaven.

3. Characteristics of the supergrace life.

4. God is waiting to give us supergrace blessings. God longs to be gracious to us. He waits on high in order to have compassion on us.

5. The importance of Bible doctrine in the attainment of supergrace.

6. Piles of dung.

7. The command to advance to supergrace.

8. The importance of retaining the objective. When we were invisible, nonexisting, we were seized and held by God the Son. Philip. 3:12–14

a. Bob did not know that Jacob and Isaac were supergrace believers; and when they got there, the kept their ground.

b. It is hard to tell from the book of Genesis, due to their failures. We don’t know by reading all of the commentaries that they became great.

c. END OF REVIEW

9. The issue, therefore, of phase two.

a. God loves every believer with maximum love regardless of temporal status of that believer.

b. This maximum love is based upon propitiation, the God-ward work of Christ on the cross.

c. According to 1John 4:19 it is possible for the believer to love God in time.

d. However, no believer loves God until he knows Him. The key to everything is Bible doctrine in the soul.

e. No believer loves God until there is doctrine resident in his soul through the daily function of GAP.

f. The supergrace believer has maximum love for God because of maximum doctrine resident in the soul — Romans 8:28; Ephesians 3:19; 1John 4:19.

g. God has two ways of expressing His love to every believer in time: 1) To the supergrace believer He expresses through blessing — blessing in time, supergrace blessing; blessing in eternity, surpassing grace blessing. 2) To the reversionistic believer God expresses His love through discipline in time, loss of surpassing grace paragraph in eternity.

10. The role of happiness in the supergrace life.

a. The key to supergrace is happiness or sharing the happiness of God.

b. Therefore the supergrace life is characterized by the total happiness spectrum, ranging from tranquillity on one end to ecstatics on the other.

c. The same doctrine which provides supergrace blessings also provides +H from God.

d. The top floor of the ECS is the beginning of supergrace, and the top floor is +H — Philippians 4:4; 1Thessalonians 5:16.

e. The fulfilment of +H through accumulation of doctrine resident in the soul is at the entrance into the supergrace life, so that we have 1John 4:4 fulfilled. These things are written to you that your joy might be fulfilled.

11. The relationship of the various categories of grace, and the relationship in all of them to their involvement concept.

a. Under salvation grace, for example. Salvation grace is all the Trinity does for us at the point of salvation. We enter into that in a non-meritorious way by faith — Ephesians 2:8,9. And that is the beginning of a plan, a plan which in part there is no volitional involvement and in part there is.

b. Take, for example, the second type of grace which is living grace. With living grace you have no control over how long you stay here but you have control over what happens in the sphere of living grace and for all eternity. In other words, under living grace God provides life, God provides food, clothing and shelter, God provides text book, the Bible, the communicator, the pastor-teacher, and the classroom, the local church. God provides everything necessary for you to remain alive in this earth as a part of the angelic conflict, and He has a certain amount of time for you on this earth. That is living grace.

c. And when you depart, that is the point of your death, and it is either going to be over the golden bridge of dying grace because you’ve taken the high ground, or it is going to be down on the bamboo bridge with no dying grace. So in this whole principle of living grace God even prolongs life so that there may be a response to discipline.

d. You have a paragraph forever with your name on it, a surpassing grace paragraph, and only you can claim it. And you don’t claim it in heaven, you claim it in time. Yet get it by attitude toward Bible doctrine. So then, living grace gives you the opportunity for all of the other graces. So this is the relationship.

i. If God was fair to Jacob, then He will be fair to us.

e. The length of time from the cross to your departure from this life is the length of time in living grace that you have the option. God has given you enough time to go from salvation to the end of your life and in that time to have followed the colours, to seize and hold the high ground and to go across that golden bridge called dying grace, and to move to the higher ground of your very own surpassing grace paragraph. So the relationship to the categories of grace is important.

i. The key is using your living grace to go from salvation to supergrace. And from there, to your surpassing grace paragraph.

ii. Paul must have been thinking about this when he was in a shipwrecked ship. He had been driven off the high ground.

f. All types of grace are related; and we are under the fair administration of God forever. We never get away from grace. If you cannot escape it, you might as well embrace it.

12. The categories of supergrace are represented in the whole history of Israel. These merely show the variety of areas in which supergrace paragraphs are emphasized. We don’t always have exactly the same thing. There is always one thing that we have in the whole periphery of prosperity that stands out. F

a. or example, Abraham’s peripheral prosperity was sexual prosperity, and Abraham was almost 100 years old before he got to the high ground and held it. Therefore, seizing and holding the high ground when you are 99 and sexually dead, and the main part of your paragraph is sex, you can see immediately there were some problems! But it didn’t bother Abraham because once he seized and held he knew that this was what God had for him. And he was circumcised and entered into fantastic sexual prosperity. And, of course, from that sexual prosperity came the only new race that we have had since the end of the flood. The newest race from flood was the Hebrew race.

b. Joseph had his RW when in a gentile nation.

c. Moses has a RW on the second go-round.

d. David represents supergrace leadership in both military and national categories.

e. Then there is Isaiah who represents supergrace leadership in communication of doctrine. He is the greatest Bible teacher and prophet in the period of the southern kingdom.

f. Then there is Jeremiah who represents supergrace blessings in time of national catastrophe.

g. We have actually seen in Hebrews 11 that one man can actually change the whole course of history, and when Noah hit the high ground of supergrace God made him the hub for history.

h. The apostle Paul is the illustration of the type of person whose supergrace prosperity was the greatest amount of doctrine for all time. And as a result the whole history of the world from his time on revolves around Paul in every generation. Paul was in supergrace when he wrote several books, but he did not hold that high ground. He lost it and regained it. He might have the greatest SGIII paragraphi.

i. Daniel represents supergrace promotion and leadership and blessing, just like Joseph, in a Gentile periphery; whereas Paul represents supergrace blessings of a Jew when Israel was dispersed under the fifth cycle of discipline, the Jewish Age is interrupted, and Abraham’s progeny in Saul of Tarsus, the apostle Paul, holds the all-time record for doctrinal blessing.

13. The promotion of supergrace — Psalm 84. This psalm actually talks about a temple, and there was no temple. This is a psalm written by the sons of Korah and there was no temple when the sons of Korah were doing their writing.

a. Verse 1 — “How lovely are thy dwelling places, O Lord of hosts!” His dwelling places are the places where supergrace believers live; high ground. And where else is a dwelling place? On the golden bridge, how long it takes you to die. And where else is a dwelling place? On the other side in eternity where you have SG3, surpassing grace. So the dwelling places are SG2 and SG3. They are not “lovely”. The word for lovely in the Hebrews means the utmost beauty, the beauty which charms, a beauty which enhances, a beauty which gets into your soul and you think about it and remember it. “O Lord of hosts!” is referring to the fact that God is the God of the armies of heaven as well as earth.

b. Verse 2 — “My soul longs” — positive volition toward doctrine; “even yearns” — intensifying the intake of doctrine; “for the courts of the Lord” — the court is where the Word is taught. So the temple or the dwelling places are where the victories are won, but the victories are won by spending a lot of time in the courts. In a sense the local church is a court; “my right lobe and my flesh [my human ability to sing] sing with +H to the living God.”

c. Verse 3 — “The bird also has found a home [doctrine]” — the bird is a wanderer. In other words, where doctrine is that is the place where home is; “and the swallow a nest” — the swallow is a bird that migrates from place to place and regularly comes back to the same place; “for herself where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.” The altar always takes us back to the initiation of grace which is salvation grace.

d. Verse 4 — “Blessings to those who dwell in thy house” — persistence in doctrine; “they are ever praising thee. Selah [think about that].”

e. Verse 5 — “Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee” — resident Bible doctrine, getting to the high ground; “in whose right lobe are the highways to glory” — supergrace, dying grace, surpassing grace.

f. Verse 6 — “Who passing through the valley of Baca [valley of tears]” — and crying so much they “make a spring; however the early rain [doctrine] also covers it with blessing” — doctrine in the soul in time of great tragedy in your life. You can be in the valley of Baca and have great blessing. So even in the greatest tragedies and heartaches of your life doctrine will take you through the valley of Baca just as doctrine takes you to the high ground of supergrace.

g. Verse 7 — “They go from strength to strength” — the first strength is the high ground, SG2, and you have your SG2 paragraph and everything that God has for you, and you seize and you hold. That is strength. What is coming up next? Death is coming up next. Death is considered something related to weakness, but you’re going from SG2 to strength, and this is a golden bridge over the chasm from time to eternity and that is dying grace, and therefore another strength. You don’t die in weakness, you die in strength under dying grace. And as you cross the bridge you come over now to your next paragraph, surpassing grace. So you go from strength to strength to strength.

i. Going from strength to strength was what told Bob was was going on.

ii. “every one of them” — not found in the original. It should be “they go from strength to strength appearing before God in Zion.” In other words, the whole principle here is that when you go from strength to strength you come face to face with God. You may be in time and you can’t see God, but when you get on the high ground you see the invisible. “We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal” — 2Corinthians 4:18.

iii. When you get on the high ground you can look over and see what was invisible before. This is the fantastic blessing that goes with occupation with Christ.

h. Verse 8 — “O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob. Selar.”

i. Verse 9 — “Behold, our shield O God” — the shield is an item of military equipment used in advancing. No army ever carried them while retreating. The whole concept of a shield is advance; “and look upon the face of your anointed one” — that is David speaking. In other words, ‘Look God, I’m moving toward You, look on my face.’

j. Verse 10 — Here is how you advance, get back to those courts, wherever your right pastor and local church is. “For a day in class [Bible class, learning doctrine] is better than a thousand [out raising hell]. I would rather stand at the entrance of Bible class than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.”

i. Remember, I would rather be at the door of Bible class than raising hell with friends.

k. Verse 11 — “For the Lord God is a light and a shield” — in other words the glory road is light ahead of us, all we do is follow, and He is a shield, He protects us on the flanks and to the rear as we move forward — “the Lord gives grace and glory” — saving grace, living grace, supergrace, dying grace, surpassing grace. And the last three are glory. And when you get to the high ground of supergrace you have one paragraph, SG2, and you have the assurance of the second paragraph, SG3, and this is what it says: “No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly [with integrity]” — integrity here means doctrine. He does not hold any good thing from those who walk in the Word.

l. Verse 12 — “O Lord of hosts, blessings to the one who has confidence in you.”

14. The areas of supergrace capacity. There are five basic ones.

a. Freedom — Romans 8:21; 2Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:1 — In the sphere of freedom Christ has freed us. “Stand fast, therefore, stop being enmeshed again by the yoke of slavery.” The yoke of slavery is any form of reversionism. The one in view in the context is legalistic reversionism.

b. Life itself — 1Samuel 17:47; 18:5. Capacity for life comes from supergrace capacity.

c. Love, all three categories — Category #1, Deuteronomy 6:6; category #2, Song of Solomon 8:6,7; category #3, 2Samuel 1:26.

d. Happiness — Psalm 9:1,2; 21:1; 31:7.

e. Sufferings — 2Corinthians 12:7–10.

15. The reality of the celebrityship of Jesus Christ. Once you hit the high ground one thing becomes obvious. There is only one celebrity — many heroes but one celebrity — on the glory road. There are many supergrace heres but there is only one person in the royal family who is a celebrity and that is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the God-Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince leader of the royal family of God. In supergrace status the believer becomes occupied with Christ. Occupation with Christ makes heaven a reality, makes death an anticipated blessing, and makes life absolutely fantastic. So that you have the best in life, better in dying, better than the best for all eternity.

The purpose of the communion table is to see how far you have come in maturity.

Our passage for the reality of the celebrityship of Jesus Christ is Lamentations 3:21–25.

Lam. 3:21 But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope:

Verse 21 — “This I recall to my mind” — function of the frame of reference, the function of the memory centre; “therefore I have confidence.” This is spoken by Jeremiah as a supergrace believer seizing and holding the high ground of supergrace, anticipating dying — although he is going to live to have the oldest advanced supergrace in age of anyone — and anticipating the glories of SG3 as well.

Lam. 3:22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end;

Verse 22 — “The grace expressions of the Lord are never exhausted, there will never be an end of God’s grace.” God never runs out of grace, cannot run out of grace, will not run out of grace. Even when you are under discipline your discipline is grace. The grace expressions of the Lord are never exhausted. They were not exhausted at salvation, they were not exhausted in time, they are not exhausted on the high ground of supergrace, they are not exhausted crossing the golden bridge of dying grace, they are not exhausted in SG3, the surpassing grace blessings of eternity. Why? Because God is fair, therefore His compassions never fail, it says, but it should read “cannot fail.” God could neither run out of grace nor run out of compassion. Grace is the principle, compassion is His personal attitude toward you.

Lam. 3:23 they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Verse 23 — “They are new every morning;” — another day on this earth means another day of living grace, and after you have advanced another day of living grace and the great principle of supergrace they are new every morning — “great is thy faithfulness.” God never lets us down.

Lam. 3:24 "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I will hope in him."

Verse 24 — the conclusion: “The Lord is my portion, says my soul” — and what says that in the soul? Doctrine resident in the soul; “therefore I have confidence in him.”

Lam. 3:25 The LORD is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

Verse 25 — “Absolute good is the Lord to those who wait for Him” — that means to follow the colours to the high ground; “to the soul that will seek him.”

16. Supergrace, therefore, is part of the road to glory.

a. a) There is a relationship between the supergrace blessings of time and the surpassing grace blessings of eternity;

b. b) The link between the two is dying grace;

c. c) Dying grace bridges the gap between supergrace status in time and surpassing grace status in eternity. Therefore, the road to glory is grace to grace and supergrace is a part of that road;

d. d) For example, Abraham’s salvation grace — Genesis 15:6;

e. e) Abraham’s supergrace blessing related to his sexual prosperity — Hebrews 11:11,12;

f. f) Abraham’s surpassing grace blessing related to the heavenly Jerusalem — Hebrews 11:9,10; Revelation 21:2;

g. g) The dying grace principle which links Abraham’s supergrace blessing with his surpassing grace blessing is Hebrews 11:13;

h. h) Dying grace is the bridge that takes the believer from supergrace blessing in time to surpassing grace blessing in eternity;

i. i) Therefore, we have the importance of doctrine resident in the soul, the driving principle of follow the colours, the principle of pressing, pushing to the higher ground, pressing to the objective of Philippians 3:12–14. And we press from saving grace to supergrace, from supergrace to dying grace, from dying grace to surpassing grace. In other words, in time it takes doctrine to see the invisible God but once we cross that bridge we are with Him face to face.

17. Attitude toward doctrine in time determines all great blessings in eternity.

a. a) In eternity past God designed for each believer two paragraphs: supergrace for time; surpassing grace for eternity. These are blessing paragraphs.

b. b) The believer cannot lose either heaven or salvation but he can lose both paragraphs.

c. c) He can lose supergrace blessings in time through negative volition toward doctrine and subsequent reversionism.

d. d) He can lose surpassing grace rewards in eternity by the same negative volition toward doctrine.

e. e) Therefore, attitude toward doctrine on a daily basis is the determining factor for the angelic conflict and for us glorifying God as members of the royal family.

f. f) Negative volition means loss of blessing in time as well as in eternity — minus SG2, minus SG3.

g. g) Therefore, again, the importance of seizing and holding the high ground by pressing with positive volition after reaching supergrace. In other words, the command is seize and hold.

h. h) The attainment of supergrace reaches the objective and immediately establishes a new objective, as per Philippians 3:12–14.

i. i) In this passage (Philippians 3) seize and hold means not only to attain supergrace status but through continuous, persistent positive volition toward doctrine hold that status until death.

j. j) Note the sequence of advance: grace to grace, glory to glory: —

i. Saving grace attained by faith in Christ advances us into the royal family of God forever. Living grace is divine provision that keeps the believer in phase two for the attainment of blessing or divine discipline, whichever is chosen by the believer.

ii. The provision of living grace includes both doctrine, a communicator of doctrine, and a place to receive doctrine under strict discipline. Supergrace is a maximum amount of doctrine resident in the soul resulting in the believer’s spiritual maturity. It is the place of occupation with Christ, the place of sharing God’s happiness, the place of temporal blessings as well. And it is the road to dying grace. Dying grace, then, is the bridge between supergrace and surpassing grace, between paragraph SG2 and paragraph SG3. Surpassing grace is the eternal reward and blessing of the supergrace believer.

Without the spiritual gift Bob would have quit long ago due to discouragement.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #156

156 07/21/1974 Hebrews 11:13 Doctrine of dying grace (pts. 1–8)

There are two different ways to go from time to eternity. Categorically, any believer goes from time to eternity, goes from whatever his spiritual status in time happens to be to eternity as a believer. The moment that he believed in Jesus Christ he became the recipient of eternal life and will always have that eternal life and will always be in the family of God. For the spiritual birth is a permanent birth and when a person believes in Christ he is said to be born again, born into the family of God. In this particular situation we are talking about the royal family of God or the Church Age. Anyone who is born in this age immediately becomes a member of the royal family and is his own priest and representative before God. The issue has always been the same but it is dramatized now by the fact that we have a completed canon of scripture. It is possible to pass from time to eternity by way of a golden bridge called dying grace. This means the person who passes in this way has already been the beneficiary of the supergrace status, and that means supergrace blessings or the fulfilment of SG2, his paragraph with his name on it. SG2 is a paragraph that is designed in eternity past for every believer. It includes everything from occupation with the person of Christ to such wonderful and glorious things as the ability to handle all difficulties in life through the inner resources of doctrine, wealth, success, prosperity, dynamic leadership ability, many wonderful and unusual things. And to seize and to hold the high ground of supergrace all the way to death means to pass over the bridge of dying grace. This takes us, then, into eternity where is waiting for each one of us who passes over this bridge paragraph SG3, the surpassing grace paragraph. This route is taken only by those who seize and hold the high ground of supergrace, as per Philippians 3:12–14. This is the glory road, and to reach the point of surpassing grace means that the individual believer in the Lord Jesus Christ has followed the glory road from saving grace to living grace, to supergrace, to dying grace, to surpassing grace. In the eleventh chapter of Hebrews we will need to understand three great doctrines — supergrace, dying grace, surpassing grace.

There is also another road that goes from time to eternity for the believer. The believer never loses his salvation; the believer never loses eternal life. But the believer who is negative toward Bible doctrine gets into reversionism. The reversionistic road from time to eternity is the road of the sin unto death. This is a miserable dying, this is the last piece of discipline that God ever gives the believer. The sin unto death is preceded by all kinds of divine discipline. Once the believer goes from time to eternity under the sin unto death — he has previously lost SG2 in time — he is minus SG3. He will spend eternity in the presence of God, he will be in heaven forever, his salvation is not in doubt or in question, but he definitely has the loss of the rewards and blessings that are related to SG3.

Philippians 3:14 ...I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

The Doctrine of Dying Grace

1. By way of definition dying grace is the experience of physical death by the supergrace believer. It is dying under divine provision for grace whereby the individual believer has blessing and happiness in death. There may be pain but pain is offset by the blessing and the happiness of this type of death. There is minimum or no pain, there is maximum happiness, and during the entire process of dying there is total soul stimulation.

2. Dying grace, therefore, removes the fear of death — Psalm 23:4. Even though I walk through the valley of deep darkness of death, I will not fear harm from death, for You, Jehovah, are with me.

a. When in heaven, there is no more pain or suffering.

b. Life is the only time that God can correct us with pain and discipline.

3. Dying grace is a supergrace blessing — Psalm 106:15 (Precious in the sight of the Lord are His precious ones); Hebrews 11:5.

4. The description of dying grace is given for us in Job 5:21–27 (you will laugh at violence....you will be in league with the stones of the field...and you will know that your tent is in peace and you will visit your home and you will not sin. You will know that your seed will be many. You will come to the grave in a fully timing, like a shock of corn comes into its season.).

5. Dying grace is the bridge between supergrace blessings and surpassing grace blessings.

a. Abraham’s supergrace blessing in time was related to his sexual prosperity — Hebrews 11:11,12; Romans 4:17–21.

b. The sign of this prosperity was Abraham’s circumcision at age 99.

c. Abraham’s surpassing grace blessings in eternity are related to the fact that God has a city for him — the eternal city, the heavenly Jerusalem — Hebrews 11:9,10; Revelation 21:2,10.

d. The link between Abraham’s supergrace blessings in time and his surpassing grace blessings in eternity is dying grace. Dying grace is the principle which links supergrace with surpassing grace — Hebrews 11:13.

e. In time it takes doctrine to see the invisible God.

f. But once we cross the bridge called dying grace we see Him face to face.

g. Therefore, dying grace is the linkup between time and eternity. It is making the transition from time to eternity with minimum pain and maximum blessing. In following the colours we advance on the road to glory from saving grace to supergrace, from supergrace to dying grace, from dying grace to surpassing grace.

6. Therefore, the importance of seizing and holding the high ground —

a. A breakthrough for the Confederates, but they seized the high ground, but then they lost it. Twice.

b. Philippians 3:12–14. In eternity past God designed for each one of us a supergrace paragraph. These supergrace blessings are designed to glorify God and, again, we call that supergrace paragraph SG2, the 2 referring to time, 3 refers to eternity. Phase two is the believer in time. Under SG2 God has a lot of wonderful things for everyone of us. But SG2 is a part of the angelic conflict and it is optional. Whether you ever get it or not depends entirely upon the consistency of your attitude toward Bible doctrine.

c. God gives you a textbook, a classroom and a teacher.

d. Since man was created to resolve the angelic conflict man’s resolving of it was always related to his volition.

e. SG2 is available, and once you get there you seize and hold there. That is for time, and it is the ultimate of blessing for time in every sense of the word. You can both lose blessings in time and reward in eternity by failing to seize and hold the high ground.

f. God has assigned us so many days in SG2; and we can use that time to seize and hold the high ground.

g. We live in Hebrews 11 or Hebrews 12. Supergrace blessing or divine discipline.

h. The believer cannot lose heaven and he cannot lose salvation, all he can lose is heaven on earth and SG3 in eternity. And when he has lost those he has really lost something.

7. The relationship between supergrace and surpassing grace is found in dying grace — Hebrews 11:13, “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” Bob gives that translation a D-.

We go to eternity by heaven or hell on earth; blessing v. cursing (discipline). You can lose your blessings by failing to seize and hold the high ground.

Hebrews 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.

“These” is the nominative plural from the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos], referring to something in context comparatively near at hand in contrast to another demonstrative pronoun ἐκενος, meaning something obscure, something far away from the context. ἐκενος is not used here. The very first word here in the plural indicates that while Abraham is the pattern for going from saving grace to living grace, from living grace to supergrace, supergrace to dying grace, dying grace to surpassing grace, he was also followed by his son Isaac in this pattern, as well as Jacob.

The writer of Hebrews thinks in terms of classical Greek, rather than Koine Greek. The author of Hebrews must have gone to the University of Alexandria and majored in Classical Greek.

“all” indicates that they departed through physical death. Death is palatable for the supergrace believer because it is simply a step from one step of wonderful blessings to a set of even greater blessings. It is going from paragraph SG2 to paragraph SG3. Therefore, no matter what the means of dying it doesn’t make any difference, it is going from the best to better than the best by way of a better road.

“died” is the aorist active indicative of the verb apothnêskô (ἀποθνήσκω) [pronounced op-ohth-NACE-koh], one of several words for death, and it is used here simply for physical death in contrast to what was in the previous verse. In the previous verse there is another word for death nekroô, but that is used for sexual death. The apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] part indicates here that it has the connotations of the greatest type of blessings. So when it says they died it is referring to a great, great blessing. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of dying in its entirety. It takes the occurrence of dying and no matter how long it took these men to start on the bridge and gathers it all up into one entirety. The active voice: the supergrace believers produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the standpoint of reality. Dying grace is a dogmatic reality.

For Enoch, the drawbridge was opened from the other side. No dying grace because no dying.

“in faith” — the preposition katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the noun pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. Pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] means what is believed here and/or doctrine. Pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] has three meanings. It means faith, it means very strong confidence, and it also means doctrine or the content of what is believed. Cf.. Arndt and Ginchricht on page 669 — pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] means that which is believed, a body of faith or belief.” In other words, doctrine. So we translate, then, “According to doctrine resident in the soul all these died.” That is the correct order in the Greek.

But notice there was something they did not received: “not having received” — the aorist middle participle of komizô. In the active voice this word means to bring. In the middle voice it means to carry off for one’s self, to carry off plunder, to receive reward or wages or recognition. So we will translate it as it is in the KJV, “not having received,” with the negative mê. We also have a culminative aorist tense which views the action of the verb in its entirety but it emphasizes the results in a negative way. In other words, they lived in time and they passed from time to eternity, and during that time they received many blessings. But there is one thing, at the end of this time they had not received a certain promise. That is what the culminative aorist says to us from the Greek. The direct middle refers the results of the action directly to the agent so that the agent participates in the results which are the blessings of surpassing grace. And the point is that while in time he did not receive the blessings of surpassing grace. Then we have a participle which is circumstantial, plus the negative, which means that in time neither Abraham nor any believer receives the blessings of his surpassing grace paragraph. The attainment of these special blessings depends upon reaching phase three or eternity. So “according to doctrine resident in the soul these all died not having received the promises” — the accusative plural direct object of epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah]. The plural here means that each one of these men had his own SG3 paragraph, but he didn’t receive it in time. All you get in time is SG2 which is phenomenal. However, the adversative conjunction sets up a contrast between not receiving eternal rewards in time but still enjoying supergrace blessings in time.

“but having seen them afar off” — so the point is, they did not actually enjoy in time that great city that Abraham has in SG3 because it belongs to eternity. Moses was given sexual prosperity. He was a man with many blessings, but it is his sexual prosperity which is emphasized.

When you are in supergrace and you’ve been there, where you seize and hold the high ground, when these great blessings from God begin to come to you so that God is glorified by them and you are benefitted by them, you begin to see something of eternity. That is what we have in the phrase, “having seen them afar off,” the aorist active participle of horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] means to get the overall perspective. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, and it gathers into one entirety Abraham’s supergrace experience of looking over the chasm from time over to eternity and seeing these wonderful things. Horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] means to see everything in general, to get an overall perspective. This is where we get our English word “horizon”. It means to get the overall picture. As you take in doctrine and take in doctrine and take in doctrine, and begin to move to the high ground, and when you get to the high ground and seize it and hold it, then you get a chance at a broad panorama, the broad perspective, of heaven. What a glorious thing it is and what wonderful things you have on the other side. That is what is used here for a supergrace believer with the broad perspective. Abraham could stand at the edge and view the whole thing, something that only the supergrace believer does.

When a photographer takes a photo of the Grand Canyon, then we can see blepô what is in the photo. But if we are standing there at the edge of the Grand Canyon, we get a larger view and appreciation of it. That is horaô.

For the believer who has SG2 it becomes a fantastic and phenomenal thing. So Abraham didn’t mind living in a tent as a millionaire, as the most successful man of his day, as a great leader, as an unusual person. He didn’t mind living in a tent because he was standing on the high ground, holding it, and looking toward the higher ground of SG3 — “having seen them afar off” or “from a distance.” The distance in this adverb is that distance between time and eternity for the individual supergrace believer. From the high ground of supergrace Abraham could look out and look into eternity and see what we see by Revelation 21:2, 10, that beautiful city coming down from heaven, the heavenly Jerusalem which is the personal property of Abraham. It is a part of his SG3 paragraph.

The next phrase, “and were persuaded of them,” is not found in the original, but the next phrase “and embraced them” is. It is the aorist middle participle of aspazomai (ἀσπάζομαι) [pronounced as-PAD-zom-ahee] which means to salute. It had two original meanings. It means to embrace erotically or sexually, or it means to salute. Actually, it means to greet other members of the human race. Abraham personally embraced all of his blessings of SG3 across the chasm. He did it by doctrine, they were real to him. On the other side of the chasm was eternity, and he could look over the chasm into eternity and actually embrace these. It also means to salute in the sense of recognition of rank or authority.

The Romans invented decorations to recognize merit above and beyond the line of duty. Various solutes, indoors and outdoors.

Supergrace believers salute when coming over the bridge of dying grace. They salute their blessing paragraph.

“and confessed” — homologeô (ὁμολογέω) [pronounced hoh-moh-loh-GEH-oh] which means to acknowledge, “also having acknowledged.” A supergrace believer who seizes and holds the high ground acknowledges something. This is a dramatic aorist, it is an idiomatic device for emphasis. It states what has just been realized. In the supergrace status the continuation or the perpetuation of supergrace brings about the realization of surpassing grace. The active voice: anyone who seizes and holds the high ground, as per Philippians 3:12–14, will come to produce this action. The participle is a concessive participle in which supergrace believers in continuing to hold the high ground acknowledge that it is only going to be better. Supergrace is the most fantastic blessing in life but beyond it is something better, the passing from time to eternity — dying grace. And there is something better than the best, and that is the surpassing grace paragraph in eternity.

“that they were” — the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. The present tense is an historical present in which a past event is viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence. The supergrace heroes, like Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, produce the action of the verb in this context. The indicative mood says this is an historical reality, people have actually gone this route.

“were strangers and pilgrims” — “stranger” is xenos (ξένος) [pronounced XEHN-oss]; “pilgrims” here is parepidêmos (παρεπίδημος) [pronounced par-ep-IHD-ay-mos], which means to be a transient, a passing-through type of person. That is exactly what we have here, a passing-through person, a person who is going from grace to grace and glory to glory. So they acknowledged that they were strangers and transients, passing through from grace to grace and from glory to glory “on the earth”.

Dying Grace (Cont)

8. Therefore, dying grace is the transition to surpassing grace — 2Timothy 4:7,8. “I have fought a good fight” — seizing and holding the high ground of supergrace; “I have finished the course” — that means to reach the bridge, the point where you initiate the salute to eternity; “I have kept the doctrine” — Paul followed the colours to the point of death. “Therefore, in the future there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness” — surpassing grace blessing; “which the Lord, the righteous evaluator, will award to me on that day; and not to me only, but also to all those who love his appearing.”

1972 Hebrews Lesson #157

157 07/21/1974 Hebrews 11:5–6 Doctrine of dying grace (cont.)

A quick review of points 1–8 of dying grace. On one end of it, we have saluting what belongs to us, and then we embrace it when we get there. Point 9 is not the completion of Dying Grace, but it will be the last point for awhile.

Dying Grace (Cont)

9. The exceptions to dying grace:

a. The sin unto death. The reversionistic believer dies miserably under discipline, and through losing his supergrace paragraph in time he also loses his surpassing grace paragraph in eternity. The sin unto death is the transition between time and eternity with benefit of SG2 and SG3.

b. Transfer without dying; PCS apart from death. Hebrews 11:5,6 where we have Enoch transferring from time to eternity without seeing death. We have a second illustration in the Rapture generation, transfer from time to eternity, and all supergrace believers at the Rapture fall into this category. There will be a lot of other people besides supergrace believers in the Rapture, however the ones involved there are simply blessed by association. A reversionist will be blessed by association at the Rapture, he will also go from time to eternity without seeing death — 1Corinthians 15:51–57; 1Thessalonians 4:16–18.

This verse was already exegeted and translated back in Lesson #150.

Hebrews 11:5 By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God.

I have a corrected translation of these two verse already; not sure if I went through the entire exegesis before?

Hebrews 11:5 — “By faith” is the instrumental singular of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. Pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs], again, means three things: faith, confidence, and also what is believed, the body of belief and/or doctrine. It means doctrine here and should be translated “By means of doctrine resident in the soul.” The instrumental case is instrumental of means.

“Enoch” — was a prophet, which means he was a communicator of Bible doctrine. And to learn doctrine he had to study the materials made available by God. We do not know the actual mechanics by which Bible doctrine was communicated at the time of Enoch but he had consistent and persistent positive volition. He kept pressing, he never let up. The result was that he accumulated more doctrine in his day than anyone else had ever accumulated. Therefore, when it came time for Enoch’s transfer we have a very rare type of situation, the drawbridge is let down from the other end.

“was translated” — Enoch was transferred, not translated. That is exactly what the aorist passive indicative of metatithêmi (μετατίθημι) [pronounced meht-at-IHTH-ay-mee] means. It means to convey from one place to another. The passive voice means to be transferred. The aorist tense is a gnomic aorist for an historical fact so certain that it is described in the aorist as though it was actually occurring right now. Therefore it is an idiom for the culminative aorist and the culminative aorist views the transfer in its entirety but emphasizes the existing results of obtaining surpassing grace without ever going through physical death. The passive voice: he receives the transfer. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative representing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality. Enoch went from supergrace to surpassing grace without the experience of physical death.

The transfer of Enoch is a monument to the fact that a person can break every frontier of knowledge and come down to something that is absolutely and completely fantastic. It is possible to be so strong in positive volition, to be so stable a person, to be so remarkable a character, that you keep driving, keep driving, keep driving, and that you accumulate more doctrine than anyone who ever went before. So much so that, in effect, the doctrine in your soul puts the bridge between time and eternity down, and by putting it down already God just says why bother with death. That is what He did with Enoch.

God in eternity past has designed two paragraphs for each believer. These paragraphs are optional depending on your attitude toward doctrine in time. The supergrace paragraph is for blessing in time; the surpassing grace paragraph is for blessing in eternity. Persistent positive volition toward doctrine results in attaining the supergrace status but entering supergrace and sticking it out are two different things and it is the holding and the saturation of doctrine afterwards that is the issue with Enoch. Enoch was so strong after he reached the high ground that he seized and held in such a wonderful way that he parlayed the principle of supergrace into surpassing grace without ever dying.

The word “that” is a translational device used by the translator to show a result infinitive. Therefore it is legitimate in this case.

The written word is the thinking of the Living Word.

“he should not see” — the aorist active infinitive of horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] plus the negative mê. The culminative aorist here views the transfer from time to eternity in its entirety. It emphasizes the existing results, i.e. after you cross that bridge, even if you don’t die, you move on to surpassing grace. The active voice: Enoch produces the action of the verb, of transferring from supergrace to surpassing grace without dying at all. The infinitive is an actual result of passing from supergrace in time to surpassing grace in eternity minus death. He went down the glory road without ever dying.

“death” — the accusative singular of thanatos (θάνατος) [pronounced THAH-nah-toss], used here for death in its simplest form of the soul leaving the body.

Enoch was transferred and not translated. He is a person, not a passage of Scripture.

“and was not found” — the imperfect passive of heuriskô (εὑρίσκω) [pronounced hyoo-RIHS-koh] which means to find, to search, but here in the passive voice it means to be found. With the negative it means not to be found. The imperfect tense of duration implies that the process has been completed at a given point in the past. It is very similar, therefore, to the pluperfect. The process is completed, he simply was not found. People looked for him and they finally realized he wasn’t there. The passive voice: Enoch received the action of the verb, not being found on the earth because of a PCS (transfer) minus death. The indicative mood is the declarative mood for the historical reality of the fact that Enoch was transferred from time to eternity apart from death.

Immediately we have a question. Why didn’t Enoch transfer from supergrace to surpassing grace by the usual manner, by dying? Because dying grace is related to the supergrace paragraph. For anyone who holds supergrace the last part of the paragraph is dying grace. Dying grace is definitely a part of SG2 . But Enoch is unique because his dying grace is related to his surpassing grace paragraph. That is unique. So with Enoch it is different. Dying grace was hooked up to his SG3 and therefore since in eternity there is no death he couldn’t go to heaven by death. The drawbridge is lowered from eternity for him. The same thing happened to Elijah and the same thing will happen to the Rapture generation.

Another question comes up. Why was that over in SG3? If dying is related to SG2 you are going to die physically, but if dying is related to SG3 then you cannot die because SG3 has no dying clauses, there is no death in eternity. There is only death in time. So great was the intake on the part of Enoch, so great was his occupation with Christ, so consistently did he hold his ground, so stabilized was his life, so dynamic was his leadership, that in eternity past God said that this man will come out of time but there will be no drawbridge on the side of time. He said this man is going to shock his generation and be a monument forever to the fact that no one by being faithful to the living Word — and you can only be faithful to the living Word by being faithful to the written Word — will ever lose out.

In this life Bible is more important than anything else and everything else is related to it. The tactical victory in the angelic conflict is related to your attitude toward Bible doctrine — your daily attitude. Your attitude toward doctrine determines your activity in the angelic conflict. There is blessing related to the faithful intake of doctrine, there is pressure, there is testing. Everything that is difficult, everything that is a problem, everything that is distracting is related to Bible doctrine. Satan cannot stand someone interested in the Word of God. So he will bring all kinds of distractions against you.

Enoch went through all of that. Elijah and Enoch advanced so far and so fast in supergrace that transfer apart from death was warranted. Where are the orders written? If the orders are written in SG3 then you depart from this life without dying. If your paragraph of blessing goes directly to SG3, then there is no death.

God took a man like Jeremiah and gave him a very long life. Jeremiah did not lose out; he just had a lot of trouble. He had a wife who was a snit and who ran around on him. Jeremiah was a prophet, and very unpopular. All of the false prophets were teaching about peace and prosperity. They kept cutting the military budget. Finally, it hit the fan. Jeremiah had just about every kind of problem that you could imagine. He was the most unpopular person. He won the skunk award every year. Things went from bad to worse in his life.

In his last 20 or 25 years, God was going to show something the world had not seen before. Jeremiah had great happiness between ages and 70 and 100. In old age, he had the greatest blessing, and a wonderful, beautiful dying grace.

Enoch takes his body to eternity; and Elijah as well. They could not suffer physical death because they were already under SG3.

The Concept

1. Dying grace is like a drawbridge.

2. Ordinarily the drawbridge is let down or controlled from the time side of the chasm.

3. Dying grace is a blessing of supergrace. Therefore the drawbridge is let down on the time side.

4. But in this passage we have the drawbridge let down from the eternity side. There is no death.

5. The same thing will happen to supergrace believers in the Rapture generation.

6. Because the Lord is to meet the Rapture generation in the air that drawbridge called dying grace will not be lowered. Instead, the bridge will be lowered from the eternity side. This means that all carnal believers at the Rapture, all immature believers at the Raptures, all reversionistic believers at the Rapture will also be transferred at the same time. Their transfer is blessing by association.

“because” — the conjunction diote; “the God had transferred him” — now we have the aorist active indicative of metatithêmi (μετατίθημι) [pronounced meht-at-IHTH-ay-mee]. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it take the transfer of just a few seconds and gathers it up into a single entirety. God the Father produces the action of the verb by transferring Enoch and the transfer was written up in his SG3 paragraph, and being written up there no death is involved. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of Enoch’s transfer without dying.

“for before his transfer,” literally; “he had this testimony” — perfect passive indicative of martureô (μαρτυρέω) [pronounced mar-too-REH-oh]. The passive voice means to have a deposition. The deposition is written in the past with the result that the deposition continues to exist. The deposition is this passage. The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect. The dramatic perfect is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. The intensive perfect is a process completed and results from that process forever. In this case, Enoch receives the deposition in the past with the result that the deposition is a monument to God’s grace forever. The passive voice: Enoch received the approval of the deposition with the result that it stood, and the monument of this approval is the transfer of Enoch from time to eternity without death. And you have to take your body along! The indicative mood is the declarative indicative for an historical action, the action of the verb is represented from the viewpoint of reality.

He obtained the testimony in the past with the result that the deposition stood and stands forever — “he pleased God.” The whole issue is that here is a man that God has put his death in SG3 so he wouldn’t die, and He put his death there because he pleased God. This is the perfect active infinitive of euaresteô (εὐαρεστέω) [pronounced yoo-ar-es-TEH-oh]. The intensive perfect means that he pleased God in the past with the result that God is still pleased. The infinitive represents an actual result. “God” here is the dative of indirect object of theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] plus the definite article — “the God.” The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the seizing and holding of the high ground is performed. Positive volition in time means the attainment of supergrace. In the case of Enoch it meant supergrace and surpassing grace. The attainment of each paragraph blesses the believer, but here is what the dative says: While we keep thinking about the wonderful blessings that Enoch had in time and the wonderful blessings he had in eternity, and the wonderful way in which the golden drawbridge went down so that he went from time to eternity without dying, we forget the big issue — God was glorified in the whole thing. The principle we should never forget: When we reach supergrace we are blessed but God is glorified.

God is glorified when He blesses us here on earth. This man’s body is buried in heaven because that glorifies God.

Hebrews 11:5 “By means of doctrine resident in the soul Enoch was transferred with the result that he should not see death; and he was not found, because the God had transferred him: for before his transfer he had attained the testimony in the past, with the result that the deposition stood, that he had pleased God.”

Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

Verse 6 — the principle of pleasing God. “But without faith” — we have “And without faith”, chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE], an adverb used as an improper preposition, plus the genitive of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. Pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] means doctrine. So it is “And without doctrine.” If you are minus doctrine in your soul you cannot please God.

The whole thrust of this chapter is, by means of doctrine resident in the soul. The biggest farce in fundamentalism is, you can do something for God; that God cannot get along without us. God wants us to be something for Him; He does not want us to do something.

“impossible” — adunatos (ἀδύνατος) [pronounced ad-OO-naht-oss]. This is the accusative singular adjective, it is the subject of the infinitive, and the infinitive is “to please,” euaresteô (εὐαρεστέω) [pronounced yoo-ar-es-TEH-oh], this time in the aorist active infinitive. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It follows the pattern of Enoch in context, takes the occurrence of Enoch’s advance down the glory road to the high ground of supergrace, and regardless of the extent or duration of it gathers it up into a single whole. It includes in the entirety Enoch’s salvation grace, living grace, taking and holding the high ground, and moving from the high ground of supergrace to the higher ground of surpassing grace, without that bridge called death. The active voice: the subject includes not just Enoch but those addressed in the epistle to the Hebrews, the royal family of God. Hence, the royal family of God in the Church Age can produce the action of the verb of pleasing God. The infinitive of intended result is a blend of purpose and result in the royal family. When the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate aim or goal it is called intended result. The intended result in pleasing God is to take in doctrine, to take in doctrine, to keep moving forward, to press forward, to follow the colours, to advance to the high ground.

“for” — the explanatory use of gar; “he that cometh” — proserchomai (προσέρχομαι) [pronounced pros-ER-khom-ahee], here means to occupy one’s self with something. This is the customary present for what habitually occurs or may reasonably be expected to occur. Occupation with Christ causes the believer to seize and hold the high ground of supergrace. Seizing and holding means to be occupied with God as well as with Christ. The royal family can produce the action, according to this active voice. This is a temporal participle, and the temporal participle says, “when you do it you are pleasing God too.”

“must believe” — there are two verbs here. “Must” is a correct translation, it is taken from the verb of compulsion of duty, the impersonal verb dei. But the aorist active infinitive of pisteúô (πιστεύω) [pronounced pis-TOO-oh] means to be convinced here rather than to believe. He must be convinced by doctrine resident in the soul in supergrace status. Again, the constative aorist gathers the action of the verb into its entirety. The verb gathers into one ball of wax all the doctrine in the soul which makes the invisible God real as to His person, His essence, His plan, His decrees, the special blessings of SG2 and SG3. All of these things become real in the soul. The infinitive is also a purpose type infinitive.

“that he is” — this is the reality of God, not the existence of God. This is talking about a believer on the high ground where he is, as it were, face to face with the invisible God. The static present represents a condition assumed as perpetually existing. Then, the second “he is” is wrong. It is the present middle indicative of ginomai — “that he is and that he becomes.” He is to become something is what is really means — eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] plus ginomai. God exists to become something for you. God is real to you as a source of blessing, the only source.

“a rewarder” — that is paragraph SG3. That is the whole story of Enoch. God became so real to Enoch on that high ground of supergrace that God became the rewarder in SG3 , and He rewarded Enoch in an unusual way, He simply took him across the bridge without death.

“to them that diligently seek him — this articular participle has a definite article as the dative of indirect object as well as the dative of advantage. The dative of indirect object says here that to the royal family in whose interest both SG2 and SG3 were written in eternity past God is the rewarder. The present active participle is a very strong participle for earnestly seeking, searching, desiring something, very strong positive volition. The static present is for the perpetual existence of this positive volition with the believer who seizes and holds the high ground.

Hebrews 11:6 And without doctrine resident in the soul it is impossible to please God: for when one is occupied with God he must be convinced [by the inner resources of resident doctrine] that he is, and that he becomes a rewarder to those who diligently seek him.

We have Abraham’s living grace in verse 8; Abraham’s surpassing grace in verses 9,10; Abraham’s supergrace in verses 11,12; Dying grace, verse 13. We have the test of surpassing grace in verse 15,16; the test of supergrace in verses 17–19.

1972 Hebrews 11:7–8 Lesson #158

158 07/22/1974 Hebrews 11:8 Doctrine of divine guidance

Bob apparently covered v. 7 (or a portion of it) previously.

Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Verse 8 — the living grace of Abraham. “By faith” is the instrumental singular of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs], and it mans “by means of doctrine.”

“Abraham” — not mentioned here is Abraham’s saving grace, because that is taught elsewhere and is not pertinent to the subject. We do have a very strong statement of Abraham’s saving grace in Genesis 15:6; Romans 4:1–5. This chapter gives a lot verses to Abraham because he illustrates the pattern of the glory road of the royal family. The glory road actually begins at the point of salvation — saving grace; phase two is living grace; following the colours to the high ground — supergrace; crossing the bridge of dying grace; and then on the other side in eternity — SG3 or surpassing grace.

“when he was called” — the present passive participle of the verb kaleô (καλέω) [pronounced kal-EH-oh]. The present tense is an historical present, it views the past event with the vividness of a present occurrence. The call was based on the fact that Abraham was positive toward doctrine. In fact, he had accumulated enough doctrine to be almost ready to enter into supergrace when he was called. This indicates the fact that regardless of geographical location or any other factor that might be considered isolation Abraham had enough information right where he was in a famous heathen city, Ur of the Chaldees. The passive voice: Abraham received the action of the verb on the basis of doctrine resident in the soul. The participle is temporal, which is why we translate it “when he was called.”

After this point in the verse the Greek word order is different, so different that we are not justified in following it as it is in the King James version. Next in the Greek comes the word “obeyed,” the aorist active indicative of hupakouô (ὑπακούω) [pronounced hoop-ak-OO-oh]. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the event in its entirety, namely the accumulation of doctrine in the soul through GAP as GAP existed at that time, but regards the verb from the viewpoint of existing results, namely Abraham had now acquired enough doctrine and had made enough spiritual advances to be ready to make a major change of residence. Abraham had enough doctrine to accept a tough challenge. He knew he was getting into something that was going to be rough. All of this is covered in the word “obeyed” here. The active voice: Abraham produced the action. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality. Under the principle of living grace God provided for Abraham in Ur of the Chaldees the necessary doctrine and everything necessary to move out. The principle of divine guidance there demands that a person who is going to make a permanent geographical change like Abraham was from Chaldea to Canaan, a major change of life, has doctrine in the soul.

God does not tell you to go out in the middle of a field, spit up in the air and then go in whatever direction the spit goes.

The Doctrine of Divine Guidance

1. There are three categories of the will of God as far as phase two is concerned. As far as history is concerned there are three types of categories of will. There is #3, bullheadedness — your volition; #2, invisible headedness — angelic volition; #1, correct and absolute sovereignty — God’s volition.

2. The cardinal principle of divine guidance is found in 1John 3:23, and it is broken down into two categories. It is God’s will for each one of us to believe in Jesus Christ, and secondly, it is God’s will for each believer to advance down the glory road. This starts with the filling of the Spirit and/or love which John emphasizes.

3. The humanity of Christ has free will — Matthew 20:22; 26:42; Hebrews 10:7,9. The implications are obvious. Man has volition and volition must be tested. Man was tested in the garden. Outside of the garden we still have the test, the cross. But for those who have passed the cross test there is another test. There is the test of doctrine to the high ground of supergrace and then there is the test on the high ground — seize and hold. After that there is no test because the sovereignty of God takes over, then the golden drawbridge is lowered and you walk across, dying grace, into eternity. But as long as you are in time volition is an issue. The implications: no free will in mankind means no free will in the humanity of Christ. No free will in the humanity of Christ means no redemption and no salvation. But, of course, we do have redemption and salvation and we know that our Lord had free will because He expressed it — “Father if it be thy will, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not my will but thy will be done.” It was not a conflict of wills in deity, it was the will of the sovereignty of God the Father versus the will of the humanity of Christ. So man does have free will. The principle of divine guidance is based on the fact that man does have free will and that if man does have doctrine in the soul, as per our passage, then man’s residency of doctrine plus his volition will make a combination whereby he does the will of God from true motivation — doctrine in the soul — plus the use of his free will. So man’s free will plus doctrine resident in the soul means the execution of the will of God and the glorification of God.

4. There are several types of the will of God which must be executed: directive will, permissive will, and overruling will of God. It was the directive will of God that called Abraham out of Ur of Chaldea, and it was the directive to which he responded. However, when he got hung up at Haran it was the overruling will of God that hauled him out of Haran and put him into Canaan. The will of God said go from Ur to Canaan, and he stopped off at Canaan. So he went part way with the directive will of God and when he was hung up then God just overruled him.

5. The academic principles of divine guidance.

a. Knowledge — doctrine resident in the soul, Psalm 32:8; Proverbs 3:1–6; Isaiah 58:11, Romans 12:2. You must know Bible doctrine to understand the will of God. It is knowing the will of God that makes it possible to execute the will of God, therefore the first and major issue in divine guidance is resident doctrine in the soul. Resident doctrine in the soul is the basis for knowing the will of God as well as being motivated to do it.

b. Then, there is the principle of yieldedness which is the filling of the Spirit, the means of execution of the will of God — Romans 6:13; 12:1,2; Ephesians 5:17,18; 1John 1:9.

c. And there is growth. This is the factor involved in uprooting Abraham from Ur of Chaldea — 2Peter 3:18.

6. Phase two categories of the will of God.

a. The viewpoint will of God, what does God want me to think? That is solved by resident doctrine;

b. The operational will of God, what does God want me to do? That is solved by resident doctrine;

c. The geographical will of God, where does God want me to be? That is solved by resident doctrine.

7. The mechanics of the will of God — Acts 11. Guidance through prayer, verse 5; guidance through objective thinking, verse 6; guidance through contact with the Word, verses 7–10; guidance through providential circumstances, verse 11; guidance by means of the filling of the Spirit, verse 12; guidance through fellowship and companionship and the data compared, verses 13,14; guidance through scripture memory, verse 16.

8. Divine guidance reaches a routine peak in the supergrace life, it becomes automatic — Hebrews 11:7.

Hebrews 11:8 “By means of doctrine in the soul when Abraham was called he obeyed...”

— “to go out” — the aorist active infinitive of exerchomai (ἐξέρχομαι) [pronounced ex-EHR-khoh-mai], which means to be uprooted, to be drastically pulled away from some place where you have all of your roots. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. The idiom here is a device for emphasis and it is a result which has just been accomplished. The aorist infinitive denotes the eventual result. The active voice: Abraham produces the action. He has enough doctrine resident in his soul to say, “I am going to leave Ur” — and family and everything that is wonderful and great. The infinitive is called an instrumental infinitive, it functions as a noun in the instrumental case. It is not the verbal type use of the infinitive, it is a very rare situation called an instrumental infinitive and it should be translated, “he obeyed by going out.”

“into a place” — this skips operation Haran and simply takes him to Canaan — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of topos (τόπος) [pronounced TOP-oss]. The “place” was Canaan.

“which” — the accusative singular of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] whose antecedent is topos (τόπος) [pronounced TOP-oss]/place.

“he should after receive” — we have two verbs here. The first is an Attic Greek verb, the imperfect active indicative of the verb mellô (μέλλω) [pronounced MEHL-low], which means to be about to be. This is the Attic inceptive imperfect signifying the initiation of a process. It denotes an action which is on the point of occurring. And with it we have the present active infinitive of lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh], an historical present. The word means to receive. The active voice: Abraham produces the action. The infinitive denotes God’s purpose. We should translate this, “By means of doctrine resident in the soul when Abraham was called he obeyed by going out to a place which he was about to receive.”

“for an inheritance” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative singular of klēronomía (κληρονομία) [pronounced klay-rohn-ohm-EE-ah], which means inheritance just as translated. It refers to part of the Abrahamic covenant.

“and he went out” — aorist active indicative of exerchomai (ἐξέρχομαι) [pronounced ex-EHR-khoh-mai]. So he was challenged to go out and he did it. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety — the whole trip from Ur to Canaan. The active voice: on the basis of Bible doctrine resident in his soul Abraham was motivated to keep moving geographically to the place where God would provide for him both SG2 and his future great city, SG3. The indicative mood is declarative for a historical reality.

And here is how he went — “not knowing” — present middle participle of epistamai (ἐπίσταμαι) [pronounced ehp-IHS-tam-ahee] which means knowledge gained by contact, by prolonged practice. You might know how to do your job because you have worked at it for a long time. You do something for a long time, and learn from that perspective. Bob knows a half-dozen ways to shovel. Bob surprised Reese that he could use a shovel. Bob knows how to do it from his work as a younger person. You do something so long, it becomes almost a routine action. “There’s a lot of people who think I get up here and shovel a lot as well.”

And we have the negative mê with it. This is the direct middle which refers the results of the action directly to the agent with reflexive force. God knew it, of course, but he didn’t know it. So it should be translated with the middle voice here, “not knowing himself”.

“whither” — literally, where — pou; “he went” — this is simply érchomai (ἔρχομαι) [pronounced AIR-khoh-my] in the present middle indicative. The pictorial present portrays the event in the process of occurrence. The direct middle stresses the agent with a view toward participating in the outcome of the action. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality.

Hebrews 11:8 By means of doctrine resident in the soul, when Abraham was called he obeyed by going to a place which he was about to receive for an inheritance; and he went out not knowing where he was going.

Analysis of Hebrews 11:8

1. This verse summarizes living grace in the life of Abraham, living grace with emphasis on resident doctrine, positive volition, and being motivated by doctrine before reaching maturity.

2. The change of geographical location was the basis of separating Abraham from his family and his relatives, as per the Abrahamic covenant. There is a principle here. When family and relatives hold you back then family has to go, and relatives have to go.

3. Therefore there is an important principle. The glory road, which is saving grace, living grace, supergrace, dying grace, surpassing grace, was not open to Abraham in Chaldea; not because of Chaldea but because of his family and relatives. Abraham never hit supergrace until he was totally separated from all of his relatives. Lot had to leave for Sodom. Sodom was Los Angeles, CA, 2000 years before Christ.

4. It was necessary for Abraham to have a permanent change of residence. His growth was involved, the glory road was involved.

5. Abraham was uprooted in time so he would have roots forever. Abraham was leaving a place where he was appreciated; but that was keeping him from Bible doctrine.

6. Note also the principle of living grace in the area of supply and demand. Abraham had positive volition which demanded the presentation of doctrine. Doctrine was available to him in Ur of Chaldea up to a point. The gospel, basic doctrine, and advancing doctrine were available to Abraham in Ur of Chaldea. Where it ceased to be available God had to uproot Abraham and get him out of there.

7. Principle: Wherever there is positive volition toward doctrine God supplies the spiritual food, the manna from heaven, even if it means a permanent change of residence.

8. The circumstances in Ur of the Chaldees militated against following the colours to the high ground of supergrace. Abraham could go so far but in the environment of influence by family, friends, social life, all of these things influenced him into going neutral toward doctrine. Therefore the importance of his change of circumstances.

9. When environment is not conducive to persistent positive volition toward doctrine, necessary to keep pressing, then God uproots.

Divine Guidance, Abraham and Bible Doctrine

1. God provided enough doctrine in Ur of Chaldea to give Abraham the inner resources to obey the command for a change of residence. Abraham obeyed because he was motivated by doctrine in his soul. We have to be motivated by our own souls. Doctrine in Bob’s soul puts him right there in the pulpit. He does not have to come because has had to come; he comes because he wants to come. He loves God and he loves God’s Word. Once you get a little doctrine; you have to make a choice to come to Bible class. Bob might motivate you to come to a few classes; but resident Bible doctrine in your souls must motivate you. There is probably an aching back crowd, a jealous husband crowd, a nagging wife crowd. Many ways to get us from coming to Bible class.

2. When environment becomes a hindrance to positive volition toward doctrine then environment must be changed. Environment includes people as well as many other things, including people.

3. Note also the basis for divine guidance in any period of history — Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

4. As a member of the royal family of God, as your own personal priest responsible to God, this resident Bible doctrine must become the dictator of your soul. Bible doctrine guides your soul through divine viewpoint. Every believer goes through a weirdo stage, where the doctrine in their soul is greater than their ability to apply it. Chemical personality--a person who needs a pill to wake up and a pill to sleep. The same thing is true of believers are a certain stage. You start out as an adolescent weirdo. Obviously, some very queer things happen. “Would you believe that once I was a weirdo?” Bob put a notice on the board, “I will fight anyone in school; if I win you will have to go to church with me. Now, that is weird; but I thought I had discovered a new way to evangelize. Bob loved to fight because he knew how.”

5. As members of the royal family of God Church Age believers become spiritually self-sustaining through doctrine resident in the soul. That means you had to pass the weirdo stage.

6. Abraham did not know the place where he was going but he knew the one sending him there. We know the One Who gives the order.

7. While Abraham did not have enough doctrine in Ur to reach supergrace he did have enough doctrine to obey orders for a change of residence. The change of residence was designed to give him his supergrace paragraph.

8. To obey the Lord’s commands the believer must have doctrine in the soul, not information on where he is going.

9. Therefore, the issue in knowing and executing the will of God is doctrine resident in the soul through the persistent and daily function of GAP.

10. Under living grace God provides everything necessary to remain alive in phase two.

11. But God also provides under living grace the means of accumulating doctrine in the soul — the textbook which is the Bible, the professor who is the pastor-teacher, the classroom which is the local church.

“Naturally, I am going to tell you what I think about people who don’t come to Bible class. Do you think I am a mouse?”

1972 Hebrews 11:13 Lesson #159

159 07/23/1974 Hebrews 11:13 Anticipating surpassing-grace blessings

Bob is skipping around a little bit. You don’t have to know why; you just need to understand that I know what I am doing. Bob is apparently going to be out of town for 4,5 or 6 days. Back to v. 9 tomorrow night.

Bob remembers the first time he saw a person die; first time he saw a man die in the military. He thinks about those who went down in midway. 700 or 800 men in darkness on a submarine, and they all knew that they were going to die in darkness, that the oxygen would run out. They were 40 or 50' beneath the surface, and death was a certainty. They would probably end up being torpedoed by their own side, so that the Japs did not get the submarine.

Physical death is the greatest producer of fear. People are more frightened about death and how they might die. People compound the problem with great imagination. Death was not designed by God to be horrible.

“The only thing some of you remember about Sunday, is what I said about the Pilgrims.”

A salute and an embrace are the too greatest things in life.

People who come back from a drowning experience are upset about it for quite awhile. Bob cannot think of a more important subject than the subject of the golden bridge.

Verse 13 — “These” is the nominative plural from the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos], the way the Greeks had to show that they were referring to someone in the immediate context. The immediate context goes two ways. There are five people involved by houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos], four men and a woman. The plural here increases the scope to include all of the patriarchs between verses 8 and 22. All of the patriarchs started out very poorly and if you had observed the early life of Abraham or Isaac or Joseph not one of them would have ever passed a peer rating from you or from me. We would have flunked them as being a total loss in their generation. Abraham stayed too long in Haran; Isaac was a momma’s boy who needs a servant to go out and find a wife. Jacob was the worst chiseler of his time. He knew more ways to cheat than you will ever know. We’d flunk Joseph as a Mr. Goody Two-shoes.

Here are five grace people mentioned by the demonstrative pronoun “these.” They all started poorly, but we all start poorly. Even some after starting fail, then get up and move back up the hill, fail, and get up and move back up, and so on. This is the “forgetting those things which are behind” area. Abraham was 76 years old before he ever did anything that really pleased God. But all of these kept going, they caught on and they moved to supergrace. The dynamics of doctrine can never be discounted, even when you appear to be running out of time, even when the sands of time are low and have about run out.

“all” — the nominative plural of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs]. The principle that all the patriarchs encompassed and carried on with doctrine, moved in the right direction, so that they all faced death the same way is given in these two words — “These all.” It means that no matter how many failures they had — and the Bible records a number of their startling failures — they all wound up with that same bulldog tenacity that they were going to drive on regardless. And they drove on, and they pressed on, and they seized and they held the high ground of supergrace, and they faced death not as something horrible but as something rewarding. We start out death by saluting something on the far hill of eternity and we wind up by embracing it.

“died” — aorist active indicative of apothnêskô (ἀποθνήσκω) [pronounced op-ohth-NACE-koh], here used for physical death. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of dying in its entirety. The active voice: the subject always produces the action of the verb and we have a plural subject, five people in view in the context. They all followed the same pattern, they produce the action of all reaching supergrace. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Dying grace is a dogmatic reality for the supergrace believer. It is the means of transferring from time to eternity. The past part of the paragraph SG2 deals with dying grace, the manner we are to die, the length of time we are to take, the place we are to die, and when in our lifetime that this will occur.

The front door into heaven is the golden bridge is the front door. That is the bridge that goes from supergrace to SG3.

“in faith” — katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs], “according to the norm and standard of,” and the way this should read is, “According to doctrine [katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] resident in the soul all these died under the principle of dying grace.”

“not having received” — aorist middle participle of lambanô. In the active voice it means to bring but in the middle voice it means to carry off to one’s self plunder or reward or first prize. It connotes receiving wages, receiving reward. Here the verb is used to designate the rewards and blessings of the surpassing grace paragraph, and to get surpassing grace you have to have supergrace. No supergrace, no surpassing grace. No supergrace, no dying grace. No supergrace, nothing! — except discipline, discipline, and the sin unto death. “Not having received here means not having received surpassing grace. Principle: You can’t receive SG3 in time, it belongs to eternity. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, and during the entire time of supergrace living on the earth the believer never receives his surpassing grace rewards. The constative aorist gathers up into a single entirety life — phase two — and in phase two we have no SG3. The middle voice is a direct middle which refers the results of the action directly to the agent so that the agent participates in the results, not having a surpassing grace paragraph in time. The participle is circumstantial, plus the negative which means that neither Abraham nor any of the patriarchs nor anyone else ever receives his surpassing grace blessings in time.

No supergrace means no surpassing grace and no dying grace.

If Bluebeard walks through the door in Berachah and he has had 20 divorces, you pay him no mind. If you gossip, you are just going to have discipline.

Some people want to get the principles, no matter what sort of language is used.

“promises” — the accusative plural direct object epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah]. Epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah] in the plural means that you have more than one type of blessing in SG3, that is, if you are in supergrace. While surpassing grace rewards cannot be received in time they can be anticipated.

Supergrace, Loss of

1. As a part of the divine decrees in eternity past omniscient God provided for every believer two different paragraphs — SG2, supergrace blessing in time, and SG3, surpassing grace paragraph of blessings and rewards in eternity. Both paragraphs are special blessings, designed only for you. And either you claim them or they are never claimed.

2. The attainment of these special blessing paragraphs depend on the daily attitude of the believer toward doctrine while in time, while under living grace.

3. Believers have volition in the soul and it is there for a purpose, it is there to be a part of the angelic conflict, so that the believer’s volition is the centre of the angelic conflict for the Church Age.

4. Consistent and stabilized attitude toward Bible doctrine determines entrance into supergrace and surpassing grace blessings.

5. While the believer cannot lose his salvation or his place in heaven he can lose supergrace blessings in time and surpassing grace blessings in eternity. And of you lose supergrace you not only lose surpassing grace but you lose dying grace as well. Remember that dying grace is the bridge between supergrace and surpassing grace, and that the other road into eternity is low crawl over ground glass under the sin unto death.

6. Consistent negative volition toward doctrine results in the various stages of reversionism.

7. Reversionism means that living grace becomes the administration of divine discipline to the believer.

8. Such divine discipline not only means personal misery but it means loss of blessing — loss of SG2, loss of SG3, and the golden bridge between them.

9. Loss of dying grace means the sin unto death — maximum discipline in time and a miserable, horrible death.

10. By attitude toward doctrine the believer has the option of gaining or losing SG2 and SG3.

11. The believer has the alternative of dying grace or the sin unto death .

12. The key issue in time is attitude toward Bible doctrine.

13. This issue exists not only for our blessing but for the resolving of the angelic conflict.

“but” — adversative conjunction allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH]. This sets up a contrast between not receiving SG3 in time but still enjoying the anticipation of it in time.

“having seen” — aorist active participle from horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] for the panoramic view. It is used here for anticipation of paragraph SG3. The aorist tense is culminative, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasizes the existing results of that entirety. The entirety includes seizing and holding the high ground of supergrace by being consistent in positive volition toward doctrine. The resultant accumulation of doctrine resident in the soul anticipates and appreciates supergrace blessing in eternity. Principle: Supergrace status perpetuated in time gives the perspective of surpassing grace status in eternity. The active voice: Abraham in supergrace produces the action of the verb, he anticipated SG3. The participle is circumstantial for the perspective of maximum resident doctrine in the soul anticipating SG3.

“them” — the accusative plural of the intensive pronoun autos. Surpassing grace blessings in eternity are involved in the word “them.” This is the attributive use of the intensive pronoun and it should be translated “but having seen the same.”

“afar off” — from a distance. This is the adverb porrhôthen (πόῤῥωθεν) [pronounced POHR-hro-then]. Abraham looked over and saw his paragraph SG3. He saw his great city. The distance described by this adverb is the space or interval between time and eternity. From the high ground of the supergrace life Abraham could see from a distance part of his SG3.

“and were persuaded of them” is not found in the original text, but the next phrase, “and embraced” is — the aorist middle participle of aspazomai (ἀσπάζομαι) [pronounced as-PAD-zom-ahee] which means two things. In the Classical Greek it means to embrace erotically or to embrace in greeting. In the Koine Greek this word means to salute and it was used by the Roman soldiers at this time in the Roman empire in that way. It is a constative aorist. The salute is when you begin to die because all you can do is see it. The salute is explained by the fact that Abraham could actually see SG3 waiting for him at the other end of the bridge. So he saluted from afar. So the constative aorist actually gathers up into one entirety the salute-embrace.

The principle: Dying grace was designed to be the last and best, the dessert for the supergrace believer. The dessert comes after a marvelous ten course meal! So dying is dessert. The middle voice is the indirect middle which emphasizes the agents. The participle is circumstantial for the entire experience of dying grace which begins with a salute in time and terminates with an embrace in eternity. The constative aorist includes the entire length of time it takes to cross the golden bridge from time to eternity in dying grace.

“and confessed” — the aorist active participle of homologeô (ὁμολογέω) [pronounced hoh-moh-loh-GEH-oh] which means to acknowledge. The divine viewpoint advances in the soul causing the believer to advance in life and to reach the dessert stage, and to enjoy to the maximum the walk over the bridge. The active voice: the supergrace believer in holding his position on the high ground not only salutes his surpassing grace blessings of the future but acknowledges his temporary residence on earth in the present. So we have a concessive participle in which the supergrace believer looks around and concedes that he is a temporary resident in this world. In his temporary residence on earth he enjoys supergrace blessings but the closer he comes to the bridge of dying grace the more he acknowledges that the temporary blessings of supergrace are going to be replaced by something better. And, furthermore, the closer he comes to the bridge of dying grace the more he is attracted to his SG3, and therefore he salutes them in time and embraces them in eternity.

We next have the conjunction hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] which is used to reveal the content of what one thinks and concludes. The writer is now drawing conclusions.

“that they were” — present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], the historical present in which a past event is viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence. The active voice: the five patriarchs in context produced the action. The declarative indicative is for historical reality in the field of conclusive and dynamic thinking.

“strangers” — xenos (ξένος) [pronounced XEHN-oss], which means strangers in the sense of having total divine viewpoint of life. “and pilgrims” — parepidêmos (παρεπίδημος) [pronounced par-ep-IHD-ay-mos], transients. It means to be a passing-through type.

Hebrews 11:13 According to doctrine resident in the soul, all these died under the principle of dying grace not having received the surpassing grace promises, but having seen the same from a distance, and having saluted and embraced them, also having acknowledged that they were strangers and passing-through types from grace to grace, form glory to glory, on the earth.

1972 Hebrews 11:9 Lesson #160

160 07/24/1974 Hebrews 11:9 Doctrine of the Abrahamic Covenant

General George Brown on the front of Air Force; he was one of the heroes of Ploesti.

A medal of honor recipient. Battle of the Solomon Islands. 700 mile flight without support or anyone along side him.

Hebrews 11:8 Again, by faith, by means of doctrine in the soul, when Abraham was called, he obeyed by going to a place that he was about to receive for an inheritance, and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

This is the first shot at this doctrine:

The Doctrine of the Abrahamic Covenant

1. The Abrahamic covenant is the compilation of all the promises of God to Abraham and to his descendants related to the glory road, including saving grace, living grace, supergrace, dying grace, surpassing grace. When these promises emerge, a new race, the Jews, and a new nation, Israel. Remember that a covenant is a disposition made by one party, God, in favour of another party, in this case Abraham and his descendants. Therefore a covenant requires two parties, one party favouring the other.

2. The original three-paragraph covenant is found in Genesis 12:1–3. Paragraph one is separation; paragraph two is blessing; paragraph three is miscellaneous. Paragraph one is Genesis 12:1 — “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house [immediate family]. Paragraph 2, verse 2, — “And I will make you a great nation [national promise], and I will bless you [personally — supergrace], and I will make your name great [surpassing grace], and so you will be a blessing [by association].” Paragraph 3, the miscellaneous. The reason it is miscellaneous is because it has three clauses in it. The blessing by association clause is the first one, the anti-Semitism clause is the second, and the Messianic blessing clause is the third.

3. The Abrahamic covenant includes an additional promise of land — Genesis 13:14–16. This land belongs to the Jews in the future, not now. The Jewish Age is interrupted, the Jews do not have any right to the land promised here until Christ returns. Any land they get there now they get the same way we get our land — you kill off the natives. Sam Houston used to come down to Buffalo Bayou and party with the Indians. This is how everyone gets their land. In our dispensation, it is a scramble for land. This promise of land to Abraham will be fulfilled in the Millennium. Genesis 15:18–21. The Nile River is the southern border, the River Euphrates in the northern border.

a. We took the land from Creeque Indians because they had a lousy army.

b. The Jews can have every bit of land that they want, as long as they can seize and hold it.

c. The land that the Jews will own is a massive land.

d. David and others held that land as long as they could hold it. Nebu. beat down the Jewish army; later the Romans did.

e. Abraham gets his city in the Millennium.

f. The true promised land is Berachah Church.

g. Bob, if he was a Jewish commander, would take the border all the way to the Nile, just like the Millennium.

h. The Jebusites accepted the gospel. Melchizadek was a Jebusite and he accepted the gospel.

4. Furthermore, God has promised Abraham a city suspended over the land — Revelation 21:2, 10.

5. The covenant includes the seed of Abraham, not just Abraham personally — Genesis 22:15–18.

6. The Abrahamic covenant was reiterated to the next generation — to Isaac, Genesis 26:3,4.

7. The Abrahamic covenant was the basis of the Exodus deliverance of Israel — Exodus 6:2–8. Verse 5, “the groanings of the children of Israel … and I have remembered my covenant.” The are called the children of Israel, they are not called Israel, they are not a nation. They weren’t a nation during the entire lifetime of Moses, they did not become a nation until they were settled in the land under the leadership of Joshua. They remained transient for one more generation because of reversionism. What part of the covenant is remembered in verse five? The part that says Abraham, you are not only a new race but you are a new nation. The new race part had been fulfilled. God went to tremendous lengths to deliver the Jews — without their co-operation, by the way. “I will bring you to the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob … I will give it to you for a possession.” That part of the covenant was fulfilled in the Age of Israel, and that part of the covenant was lost until the Millennium through reversionism and the fifth cycle of discipline.

a. The Abrahamic Covenant is the basis for God delivering Israel from Egypt.

b. At this time, they are a race; but God promises to make them a nation.

Hebrews 11:9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

Verses 9 and 10 — Abraham’s surpassing grace. Verse 9 — “By faith,” the instrumental case of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. Pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] has three meanings: faith, strong conviction, Bible doctrine. This same doctrine which caused Abraham to seize and hold supergrace at 99 until the end of his life was the same doctrine which provided him with surpassing grace.

“he sojourned” — the aorist active indicative of paroikeô (παροικέω) [pronounced par-oy-KEH-oh]. It means to dwell as a temporary resident. We use the word transient. It means to be in a transitory stage. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety and it gathers up into a single whole the supergrace living in Canaan. The supergrace living in Canaan was closely related to Abraham’s identification of his surpassing grace blessings, and that is why we have the emphasis of these two verses. The active voice: Abraham as a supergrace believer produced the action of the verb and it was seizing and holding the high ground, as per Philippians 3:12–14. This is what motivates Abraham to live in a tent. From the high ground of supergrace Abraham could see his surpassing grace. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of supergrace reality. Abraham seized and held with the result that he went from grace to grace and glory to glory. This should be translated, therefore, “By means of doctrine resident in the soul he lived as a temporary resident.” Since Abraham was on the road to glory he was just passing through Canaan on his way to dying grace and surpassing grace. This was the land he would some day own but he didn’t own it when he was passing through it. Therefore Abraham could not stop to build a permanent residence. In eternity past as a part of his surpassing grace paragraph God had built him a permanent residence and therefore living in a tent was Abraham’s pressing, seizing, holding the high ground. He is a millionaire but he will not build a castle, he will not build a city of any kind. He is going to seize and hold and the testimony of his tenacity, his stability in the supergrace life is the fact that he remained in a tent.

Bob has revised his opinion of Isaac and Jacob. He never thought much of them; but he believes that they advanced considerably in the end. Both of them could be written off as failures, yet they reached the high ground of supergrace.

“in the land of promise” — the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of the noun gh. it should be translated “with reference to the land.” We also have with this a descriptive genitive, epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah]. This is “the land of the promise.” The definite article merely indicates that this was a well-known promise, the doctrine of the Abrahamic covenant. Abraham’s spiritual progeny will live in that land forever but in his life time Abraham was living there as a transient and not a citizen. It just happened that the road to glory took Abraham right through the centre of Canaan.

“as a stranger” — the comparative particle hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] plus the accusative singular allotrios (ἀλλότριος) [pronounced al-LOT-ree-oss] which means here a foreign land; “as to a foreign land” rather than “as a stranger.”

“dwelling” — the aorist active participle of katoikéô (κατοικέω) [pronounced kah-toy-KEH-oh] which means to live in. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it gathers into a single whole time in phase two in which Abraham logged in supergrace in Canaan. The constative aorist simply takes up the time they [Abraham, Isaac and Jacob] were in supergrace in the land. It further indicates that these patriarchs all reached supergrace and held their ground so that they advanced on the road of glory to dying grace. They kept advancing in spite of reversionistic failure and in spite of carnal failure and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all crossed the bridge called dying grace. The participle is circumstantial emphasizing the fact that they lived in tents as a testimony to the reality of the unseen surpassing grace blessings of eternity.

“in tabernacles” — a large tent, en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of skênê (σκηνή) [pronounced skay-NAY],.

Summary

1. Living in a tent was a testimony to the reality of surpassing grace blessings and rewards forever. They knew. They had a tenacity of divine viewpoint.

a. Abraham could have build some solid houses, but he did not.

b. You can’t take it with you; it is better on the other side.

c. You can enjoy your SG2 here and embrace it as SG3 on the other side.

2. To live in a tent in Abraham’s time was to invite disaster. People in the ancient world were simply not safe in tents.

3. Wealthy people like Abraham lived in fortified homes surrounded by great walls, fortifications.

4. Tent walls were no protection against the invading armies, the mercenaries, the bandits, that roamed the ancient world at that time. Good human viewpoint!

5. However, Abraham’s security was not based on fortifications, massive walls, or any system of human security, but in the Lord. Under the principle of living grace God provided doctrine and security to Abraham in a tent.

6. The reason for Abraham living in a tent will be amplified in the next verse.

“with” — here are the next two generations. If ever there was a wonderful illustration, “Train a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it,” you have it right here. Parents often despair in the training of children when they reach the teenage bracket and seem to go in every direction but the right one. They key to that proverb in the scripture is “when he is old [mature].” Sometimes the parents never live to see the changes that come about as a result of training them right in childhood. When it says “with Isaac and Jacob” that is meta plus the words for Isaac and Jacob — “with Isaac and Jacob,” a wonderful testimony of the faithfulness of parents in really driving home spiritual truths and giving a spiritual foundation in the home. Where else can you get divine viewpoint outside of church except in the home. In the home is where divine viewpoint should be presented. So never give up on presenting divine viewpoint.

Principles

1. “With Isaac and Jacob” is an amazing announcement by God the Holy Spirit speaking through the unknown writer of Hebrews that the Word never returns void from the mouth of parents to what appeared to be, on the surface, wayward children.

2. This prepositional phrase says in effect that not only Abraham but his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob all reached the objective of supergrace, and when they did they held until death. All three of them went over the golden bridge of dying grace.

3. So here is a beautiful record almost buried from sight, but these words are so precious and so important. So much of Genesis is left out that whatever the Holy Spirit sees fit to emphasize in Hebrews 11 must receive our undivided attention and concentration. Therefore, three generations — father, son, and grandson — all turned their backs on reversionistic failure and advanced up the road to supergrace, dying grace, surpassing grace. And notice what they are called now …

“the heirs with him” — heirs of the Abrahamic covenant. They are heirs of their very own, each has SG2 and SG3, and they all attained it. We all have the paragraph. There is one word in the Greek, the genitive plural of apposition sugklêronomos (συγκληρονόμος) [pronounced soong-klay-ron-OHM-oss], which means joint heirs.

The sons of Abraham enjoy the same inheritance which he has due to their relationship to him (provided, of course, that they believe in Jesus). This is topological of our inheritance being a result of our relationship with Jesus Christ.

It isn’t how you start but how you finish; which is illustrated by Jacob and Isaac.

Divine viewpoint fanatic means that you have it made.

“of the same promise” — this means that the Abrahamic covenant included SG2 and SG3. We have the use of an intensive pronoun with this, autos, emphasizing the identity of the two paragraphs — “joint heirs of the same promise.” And “the same” is a very strong intensive pronoun in the Greek, it emphasizes the fact that each one in eternity past had an SG2 and an SG3.

Hebrews 11:9 By means of doctrine resident in the soul, he lived as a temporary resident with reference to the land as a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, joint heirs of the same promise.

1972 Hebrews 11:10 Lesson #161

161 07/25/1974 Hebrews 11:10 Doctrines of surpassing grace, missing link

Hebrews 11:10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.

Verse 10 — we start out with the explanatory use of the particle gar, “For.” It explains the reasons why we have three generations of patriarchs who lived in tents. In these three generations they all did the same thing. We have seen the pattern — saving grace, living grace, supergrace, dying grace, surpassing grace.

“he looked” — imperfect middle indicative ekdechomai (ἐκδέχομαι) [pronounced ehk-DEHK-oh-mai]. It means to anticipate or wait with expectation. It describes the believer who is holding the high ground of the supergrace life and by persistent positive volition toward doctrine on the high ground he knows that he has SG3 in the bag. The imperfect tense is the progressive imperfect of description, it denotes a process vividly represented as going on in past time and it refers to a constant and steady anticipation of surpassing grace blessing on the basis of maximum doctrine in the soul. Abraham in supergrace anticipated surpassing grace and he knew that he had a city coming up, as per Revelation 21:2,10. In other words, he set the pattern, he followed the colours to the high ground — consistent positive volition. Once he was on the high ground he held. Then he could look over and see his surpassing grace reward. He lived in a tent until he crossed over the bridge that brought him into phase three and his SG3 paragraph. He anticipated it in time. “For he himself kept waiting with anticipation.”

Dying grace is one foot in eternity and one in life. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and John the Apostle all look forward to eternity from where they are in time.

“city” — polis (πόλις, εως, ἡ) [pronounced POH-liss] refers to a gigantic city in space in the future; “which hath” — the present active participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh], meaning to have and to hold, sometimes just to hold. The present tense is a futuristic present, it denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain in thinking that in the mind it is already contemplated as coming to pass. The active voice: the city produces the action of the verb. This is Abraham’s city, his surpassing grace city paragraph. The participle is circumstantial.

“foundations” — the accusative singular direct object plus the definite article. The noun is qemelioj which means foundation.

“whose” — relative pronoun; “builder” — technitês (τεχνίτης) [pronounced tekh-NEE-tace], which is a designer of buildings, an architect; “and maker” — dêmiourgos (δημιουργός) [pronounced day-me-oor-GOSS], which means contractor or builder — “whose architect and contractor is the God.” The architect and the contractor are two different functions in the construction of the building, but one person does them and this is one contractor who will always be in business.

Hebrews 11:10 For he himself kept waiting with anticipation for a city having the foundation, whose designer and builder in the God.

Principles

1. This city is a part of Abraham’s SG3. As we will see later, on it is a part of Isaac’s and Jacob’s as well.

2. The city is called the heavenly Jerusalem and is mentioned by John the apostle — Revelation 21:2,10.

3. In order for Abraham to have this city he had to seize and hold the high ground of supergrace. So to maintain supergrace in time means not only the spiritual and temporal blessings of supergrace but there is something else in everyone’s supergrace paragraph, the anticipation of phase three.

4. In this passage we have already seen two things. We have seen Abraham’s living grace — verse 8; Abraham’s surpassing grace — verses 9,10. We are not anticipating Abraham’s supergrace in verses 11, 12. In verse 13 we will get Abraham’s dying grace, and in verses 14–16 we will get the test of dying grace, the test of SG3.

Bob no longer teaches something different each night. People just show up for their favorite book or topic.

The Missing Link Between Supergrace and Surpassing Grace

1. There is a relationship between supergrace blessing in time and surpassing grace blessing in eternity.

2. The link between maturity in phase two and the rewards of phase three is dying grace.

3. Dying grace bridges the gap between supergrace blessing and surpassing grace blessing — there is a bridge between time and eternity for the supergrace believer called dying grace.

4. This is the principle of going from grace to grace, like Romans 5:20, “where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” Going from grace to grace is the abounding of grace.

5. Abraham’s supergrace blessing in time was related to his sexual prosperity — Hebrews 11:11,12; Romans 4:17–21. The sign of this prosperity was circumcision.

6. Abraham’s surpassing grace blessing in eternity is related to his heavenly city — Hebrews 11:9,10; Revelation 21:2,10. The sign of this prosperity — living in a tent — Hebrews 11:9.

7. The principle of dying grace links the supergrace blessings of time with the surpassing grace blessings of eternity — Hebrews 11:13.

8. Therefore dying grace is the bridge that takes the believer from grace blessing to grace blessing by way of grace blessing.

9. Supergrace is the best for time, dying grace is better, surpassing grace is better than the best.

10. There is a principle: You cannot lose with grace. You low-crawl through broken glass, which is the sin unto death. Remember you cannot lose with grace.

11. Here then is the driving principle of following the colors. You don’t get to choose your battlefield; God does that; but you can follow the colors.

12. It is impossible for God not to keep His word. God cannot change His word any more than He can change His character or His essence. God keeps His word in time, God keeps His word in eternity.

These 10 verses have prepared us for the next doctrine, which is brand news. Buying notebooks from other people. That stuff is pitiful. Bob’s notes are used as a springboard for their goofy ideas. 50 things you should or should not do on a date...Bob would not go along with that at all. You don’t have to think, what was point 11, midway through your date. If you are so stupid that you do not know what to do on a date. Do not buy notes from people. There is always someone trying to make money on Bob’s notes. Just stick it out, under discipline.

If Bob finds out who it is, he will see to it that you never come into this congregation ever again.

The Doctrine of Surpassing Grace

1. Definition:

a. Surpassing grace refers to the special blessings and rewards belonging to the supergrace believer in eternity.

b. In eternity past under the divine decrees, God designed for every believer two special blessing paragraphs — SG2 and SG3.

c. SG2 paragraph contains spiritual and temporal blessings for the mature believer.

d. The spiritual blessings include occupation with Christ, sharing God’s happiness or +H, inner resources of resident doctrine for adversity and testing, dying grace.

e. Temporal blessings include wealth, promotion, success, prosperity — social, economic, sexual, material, technical, and leadership dynamics.

f. The second paragraph of special blessing is SG3, the surpassing grace paragraph for blessings and rewards in eternity.

g. For the believer who seizes and holds the high ground of supergrace there are special rewards and blessings in eternity. These rewards and blessings are above and beyond the normal blessings of heaven.

h. This comes from Eph. 3:7 that He might demonstrate His surpassing graces riches and generosity toward us in Christ Jesus

i. God’s ultimate objective toward us to administer supergrace blessing to us; followed by surpassing grace.

j. This road begins with salvation grace, moves into living grace, supergrace, and enters into the final rewards of surpassing grace.

2. A specific surpassing grace blessing is Abraham’s eternal city or the new Jerusalem. In supergrace Abraham anticipated this city — Hebrews 11:9,10. In dying grace Abraham and his progeny embraced the city — Hebrews 11:13. All these died, not receiving the blessings promised them, see them from afar off, and, having saluted them, embrace them. The salute followed by the embrace. They were passing-thorugh types on the earth. Will you have cities in heaven or outhouses?

3. Crowns are used to designate surpassing grace rewards for eternity. The first of these is the crown of life — James 1:12 (Blessed it the man who perseveres under testings).

a. This crown of life means the believer constantly loving God is the one who has followed the colours to the high ground of the supergrace life and has maintained occupation with the person of Christ. You maintain it by constant, persistent, consistent positive volition toward doctrine.

b. Once the believer has attained the high ground of supergrace he must seize and hold.

c. Seizing and holding is taking in doctrine every day of your life in spite of distractions.

d. There are many tests, many pressures, to drive the believer off the high ground into reversionism.

e. Continued positive volition toward doctrine, persistence in the daily function of GAP, holding the high ground until physical death, is a guarantee of dying grace and SG3. And in SG3 you have as one part of your SG3 paragraph a crown of life. Therefore, holding supergrace until death the believer attains both dying grace and surpassing grace, and in surpassing grace the crown of life.

f. The crown of life is an eternal reward. Once the believer reaches supergrace status he is challenged, he is tested to hold his ground. But by holding he goes from the best things in life to a permanent change of station which is better than the best and includes a crown — Revelation 2:10 (Do not fear those things that you are about to suffer; the devil is about to throw you into prison; become faithful, dependable unto death, and I will give you a crown of life. There is waiting for you on the crown of life.

g. The second crown in the scripture is the crown of glory — 1Peter 5:4. Peter is writing to pastor-teachers, so this is a very specialized thing for those who have the gift of communication. This is a part of SG3 blessings for eternity. There are tests for the pastor. Max Kline is an Airborne Ranger; but he has the gift of pastor teacher; and he must leave to pursue the function of preparation for the function of pastor teacher.

4. Abraham’s something....

It is inevitable that a pastor teacher will drop a lead egg. Not sure if the following is under the second crown or where this belongs.

Philippians 4:1 — “Therefore, my brethren, my loved ones, my deeply desired ones.” Paul is calling them that because he loves his congregation and he deeply desires one thing for them, that they will come and listen. So he is not throwing some sentimental nonsense at them, he is showing the respect that a pastor-teacher must inevitably have for anyone who is faithful in coming under his ministry. You cannot help but respect people when they are faithful under all circumstances. “Deeply desired ones means he desires their continued faithfulness, they are his sheep and he knows that by their persistence in coming under all circumstances that they have something glorious in time, something better in dying, something better than the best in death. “ … my happiness” — Paul recognizes, as all pastor-teachers do that their happiness is in the faithful part of their congregation, and that faithful part is their victory crown. Who gets the crown? “My brethren,” the loved ones, the deeply desired ones. They become his victory crown, but don’t misunderstand, he isn’t getting the crown here, they are getting the crown. They get the crown of life. “ … in this way” — doctrine resident in the soul of the supergrace believer — keep on being stabilized” — it takes stability to get there —”by the Lord, ones worthy of love.”

1Thessalonians 2:19 — “For who is our hope, or happiness, or crown of exaltation? Is it not you “— So Paul has a crown of exaltation — “in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at his coming?” There will be an administration of crowns for those who have an SG3, and Paul says that his happiness, his crown of exaltation, will be the members of his congregation who after the Rapture at the judgement seat of Christ will receive SG3 paragraphs. This verse implies that the pastor has a crown of glory but it is really those in his congregation who are faithful to the teaching of the Word, and when any member of the congregation of a local church perseveres in the function of GAP that person will reach supergrace. The continuation of GAP after supergrace all the way to dying means that person will have dying grace and surpassing grace. The pastor’s job is to be faithful in teaching the Word under the ICE principle (Isagogics, Categories, Exegesis), and that member of the congregation who is positive will get on the high ground and stay there until the bridge. Once he gets to the bridge he doesn’t have to call the pastor to hold his hand, he walks over the golden bridge with his own salute at one end and his own embrace of SG3 on the other, and a pastor is not necessary. The pastor’s job to faithfully teach the Word of God, and as he faithfully teaches the Word of God it is that Bible doctrine that he communicates that is transferred to your soul, and it is doctrine resident in your soul that gives you your supergrace blessings in time and your surpassing grace blessings in eternity.

There is the confused notion that, every time you sprain a finger, the pastor needs to be right there with you, saying, there, there, it’ll be alright. Bob does not want to be in eternity and some person run up to him saying, why didn’t you give me some doctrine?

The pastor can make you feel good only by teaching the Word. Then he does not have to come around and help you out through every problem.

Surpassing grace is a phenomenal thing, and the sad thing is that every pastor ought to know surpassing grace because it clues him in on his objectives. All of these verses say the same thing, the pastor is faithful and he winds up having a congregation all decorated forever under SG3. 1Thessalonians 2:19 implies that the pastor’s crown of glory is the surpassing grace blessings of his congregation.

In seminary, they practice epigrams, getting the proper tone. The more people who reach SG3 will mean that Bob will get a better crown. Now, you can better understand what Paul is saying.

Then in 1Thessalonians 2:20 he says, “for you are our glory and happiness.” When any member of the congregation of a local church perseveres in the function of GAP that person will reach supergrace and continue to hold the high ground with the result that he will come to dying grace and have a ball!

1972 Hebrews Lesson #162

162 07/26/1974 Hebrews 11 Doctrine of surpassing grace (cont.)

Enoch’s body was not found because it was part of the translation.

We have gone over and over some doctrines

The Third Crown in Our Study Is the Crown of Righteousness

1. The crown of righteousness is a surpassing grace reward of eternity.

2. Whatever its specific form in eternity the principle of the crown of righteousness is obvious right now.

3. It is one thing to arrive at supergrace, it is another thing to stay there.

4. It is staying there which is in view in the crown of righteousness as well as Paul’s great statement in Philippians 3:12–14.

5. The crown related to sticking is a surpassing grace reward called the crown of righteousness — not your righteousness but the righteousness of God which emerges in the believer who seizes and holds the high ground. The crown of righteousness is a surpassing grace reward for all supergrace believers who seize and hold on the basis of the utilization of the inner resources of doctrine and adding to these inner resources by continued positive volition.

6. By continued positive volition doctrine in the soul increases.

7. This increase forces a divine type righteousness to the surface as well as stabilizing the inner life of the believer. When this increase meets death the result is dying grace on the one hand and the crown of righteousness on the other hand — 2Timothy 4:7,8. I have fought a good fight; I have finished the course (reaching the bridge of dying grace); I have kept/guarded the doctrine (persistent and consistent positive volition). In the future, there is a crown of righteousness laid up for me, not for me only, but for all of those who love at His appearing.

The Doctrine of Surpassing Grace (Con’t)

4. The key to surpassing grace blessing in eternity is pleasing God in time. There is no way to get SG3 by anything you do in eternity. SG3 and SG2 are both obtained in time, and once you become aware of the fact that you have your SG2 it is just a matter of hanging on to it until you die. So no one ever leaves this life without knowing that he has reward in eternity, blessing in eternity under SG3. No man ever died as a supergrace believer without having enough doctrinal common sense to know that on the other side he has some phenomenal things waiting for him. So that in effect no supergrace believer ever dies without the salute and the embrace.

a. Bob is convinced that everyone in supergrace will recognize what is going on in dying grace.

b. Bob does not have to wonder about his own state. He has no doubt at all. He has a simple life. He just needs to hold. He knows that he is there.

c. The key to surpassing grace in eternity is pleasing God in time.

d. The principle is, is accomplished by persistent positive volition toward Bible doctrine resulting in supergrace blessings in time, dying grace is transition (the transfer). Hebrews 11:5,6 tell us the story of this principle. Without doctrine resident in the soul it is impossible to please God. When one is occupied with God the perpetuation of supergrace in time by consistent positive volition toward doctrine he must be convinced by the inner resources of resident doctrine that He is — God as a source of blessing — and that He becomes a rewarder to those who diligently seek Him.

5. The judgement seat of Christ is the basis for the administration of SG3 to the royal family of God — 2Corinthians 5:10. This says several things:—for we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ...face to face with

a. The formal presentation of paragraph SG3 to the royal family occurs after the Rapture of the Church at the judgement seat of Christ.

b. The entire royal family of God, the Church Age believers, will at that time be in resurrection bodies ready for the total and eternal enjoyment of surpassing grace blessings. There is a relationship between the enjoyment of SG3 and resurrection. In a body of corruption you can enjoy SG2 but in a body of resurrection you enjoy SG3.

c. There is one word in 2Corinthians 5:10 that should be explained since it is mistranslated in the KJV — “evil.” The word is phaulos (φαλος) [pronounced FOW-loss], a very very gutter type word for human excrement — “whether good or phaulos (φαλος) [pronounced FOW-loss].” I have kakos here instead. So this is probably a different Greek manuscript.

d. The judgement seat of Christ eliminates any necessity for judging or maligning other believers, hence the surpassing grace of eternity demands the privacy of the priesthood in time so that each believer can live out his own life as unto the Lord — Romans 14:10–12.

i. James 1:25 — “But the one having looked intently [positive volition and concentration] into the perfect law of freedom [the Bible], and having persisted [in the function of GAP], the one having become not a hearer of oblivion” — a person who comes to Bible class but he gets so mad because he can’t stand exegesis, etc. — “but a doer of assigned occupation” — a believer advancing, following the colours to the high ground of supergrace — “this man shall be happy in the act of doing.” You can seize and hold the high ground for the rest of your life and be happy the whole time.

ii. Compare this to James 2:12,13 — “So keep speaking, and so keep doing [seizing and holding], as they who through the law who through the law of freedom [Bible doctrine] are about to receive judgement [evaluation, SG3].” There comes a time when it is possible to have judgement without mercy. “For judgement without mercy [grace] for those not having produced mercy [grace]” — not having produced supergrace, not having come to the point of dying grace. God judges without grace, and that means that in eternity any believer who fails to seize and to hold the high ground is going to be in heaven forever and ever, and get to look at the streets of gold and have all the “funsville” or whatever it is people have in heaven, but they are not going to have anything like what the supergrace/surpassing grace believer has. In other words, when you come up to the judgement seat of Christ as you will after the Rapture, in your resurrection body, and you stand before the Lord, if you have not crossed that golden bridge you will be judged without mercy. That does not mean the lake of fire. It means that you lose SG3. And God is firm about it. There is a difference in eternity between those who have SG3 and those who do not — “and grace exalts judgement.” Note that the rewards at the judgement seat of Christ is called “judgement” in these verses and it is based on grace in action — supergrace in function. Therefore, the judgement seat of Christ is a time of gain or loss of SG3.

iii. 1Corinthians 3:11–16 more or less teaches the same thing. Cf. Hebrews 6:7–12. “For the ground [the believer positive toward doctrine], having drunk the rain [the daily function of GAP] coming many times upon it [positive believers], and producing a harvest of crops [SG2] useable by them [by the Godhead] because of whom it [supergrace believer] is also cultivated [obtains blessing, supergrace plus surpassing grace], from the source of the God. But when it is growing thorns [minus SG2] and thistles [minus SG3] it becomes worthless, and near a curse [the sin unto death], whose end [the thorns] is for burning [loss of SG2 and SG3]. But, beloved ones, we have been convinced of better things [SG2 and SG3] concerning you, and things attached to salvation, if also in this manner we keep communicating doctrine to you, and we do. For the God is not unjust to disregard your occupation [the pastors teaching the royal family], also the love which you yourselves [pastors] have demonstrated toward his person [the pastor occupied with Christ], having ministered [teaching of the Word] to the saints [royal family], and continue ministering [so that they can persist]. And we [pastor-teachers] continually desire each one of you [royal family in the congregation] individually to demonstrate the same devotion [to doctrine, advancing toward supergrace] toward the full assurance of the confidence in doctrine [SG2] until termination [dying grace leading to SG3]. Lest you become apathetic toward doctrine, but become imitators of them [supergrace heroes of Hebrews 11], the ones who through doctrine and persistence inherit the promises [SG3].”

iv. Hearers of oblivion; those who reject Bob’s new teaching. You have to get to the place where you are willing to hear what the pastor is teaching. This is someone who has rejected the teaching of his right pastor.

v. Pitiful songs by the Swedes on heaven.

vi. We must be motivated by the Word.

vii. There is a principle. The reversionistic believer can lose his supergrace blessings in time, his surpassing grace blessings in eternity, but this does not mean loss of salvation or loss of heaven — 2Timothy 2:11–13. Entrance into phase one or salvation is a guarantee of entrance into heaven in eternity. “If we persist [seize and hold the high ground of supergrace] we shall also reign with him [SG3], but if we deny him [negative volition toward doctrine resulting in reversionism] he will also deny us [SG3].

viii. The apostle Paul used the background Isthmus Games to dramatize the judgement seat of Christ. In 1Corinthians 9:24–27 — “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run [all believers are running, i.e. living grace], but one receives the prize [SG3]. So run in such a way that you may win. And everyone who competes [in the Games] excerciseth self-discipline in all things. They do it to receive a perishable reward, but we an imperishable [SG3]. Therefore, I run in such a way as not without a goal; I fight in such a way as not to beat the air; I discipline my body, and keep it in training [physical exercise, comparable to consistent positive volition toward doctrine], lest having preached to others I myself should be disqualified [from SG3].”

1972 Hebrews 11:7 Lesson #163

163 08/02/1974 Hebrews 11:7 Noah changes history

Bob discovered a lot more things when out in CA.

Everything in the book of Hebrews revolves around the proper interpretation of history. The interpretation of history, God-ward side, is based upon the angelic conflict and man created as an extension of it. This means that we must always be motivated by Bible doctrine in the soul as a part of the victory of the angelic conflict. In eternity past God was cognizant of history, every stage of history, your own personal birth and your life in this earth, the day you accepted Christ as Savior and entered into the plan of God.

The first phase of the plan of God is saving grace, and under the principle of saving grace God provided everything necessary for salvation totally apart from any human ability. The motivation for providing this was Bible doctrine presented to you in the form of the gospel. No one has ever accepted Jesus Christ as Savior unless he was motivated by a certain specialized type of doctrine called the gospel. Whether you know it or not, the day you believed in Jesus Christ and you were born into the family of God you believed in Jesus Christ because of doctrine in your soul called the gospel, and that gospel was a reality to you through God the Holy Spirit. He made it real to you, and from that time on God designed the whole grace plan so that you would always be motivated by doctrine. If you are not motivated by doctrine you are nothing.

Bob meeting with Nakamura, who is a genius. He took his notes on the package of cigarettes. He has been witnessed to on many occasions. Nok is an unbeliever but maybe he believed this time. 3 laws of thermodynamics are certain and they are absolutes. He thinks in the most phenomenal ways imaginable. “You take time out of anything and reduce it to its most basic...” He understands eternity. Nok and his 3 daughters explaining to his wife that they are not Japanese Americans, they are Americans. Bob began to see that there are some places of review necessary before we go back to Hebrews 11.

There are five areas of grace from time to eternity. Only God can take an absolute factor like grace and insert time and keep it absolute. The gospel: You understand it, we have talked about the blood of Christ, it is toward sin, toward man, and toward God — redemption, sinward; reconciliation, manward; propitiation, God-ward. All of that is accomplished by God and the whole thing is worked out by God. And here are we in time as variables in time and God hits us with His information — doctrine, specialized doctrine called the gospel. This is not a variable, it is an absolute. It cuts through the variable factor and reaches the soul though the ministry of the Holy Spirit (and someone who will give straight information). This is absolute information. One simple person filled with the Spirit giving the truth gives an absolute which cuts through the variables with this information which simply describes what He did about it, what the divine solution is — He has given to every person who will believe in Christ an eternal life without compromising His character. Doctrine is an absolute. The word pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] mistranslated “faith” in our passage means doctrine or what is believed. The first stage is salvation, saving grace, everything that God did for us in a moment of time, and we move immediately into a second stage — living grace. Living grace is divided into two absolutes. Absolute #1, you are alive. Why are you alive as a believer? Because it is God’s will for you to be alive, and since it is His will for you to be alive He sees to it that you will always have plenty of good air to breathe and food to eat. Absolute #2, under living grace God has provided a means to get more truth than you had when you accepted Christ. God wants you to have more doctrine than you had when you believed in Christ. God does not intend for you to feed like a sparrow! Therefore God has provided everything whereby you can feed on the Word of God. That is living grace. Why are we alive and what are we doing here? We are here to move forward to what God designed for us in eternity past, because long before the variables existed God took two paragraphs of solid, dogmatic, absolute blessing — SG2, SG3 — and he designed them for you personally. And He said, “The day of give that to you that will be the day when I am glorified by your volition.” Because both of these special blessing paragraphs come through motivation from within, doctrinal motivation from within. You must be motivated from inside. And to reach that high ground under living grace we follow the colours, GAP it daily. Then when we seize and hold we have SG2. Jesus Christ is glorified when He can give you the best. Therefore in time you can have the absolute — occupation with the person of Christ, resident doctrine to meet any exigency of life. You have a whole line in your paragraph on what you have — spiritual blessing, God’s +H. You have a second line filled with temporal blessings, the blessings of promotion, success, wealth, prosperity. And then you have a sentence on dying.

“I don’t want all of those nice things; I want to suffer for Jesus.” “You’re a freak!”

In Hebrews 11:7 there is a principle that is extremely important to us as believers. Noah is a perfect demonstration of two great points. a) The majority is always wrong. b) One man can face up to history with doctrine in his soul and change the course of history.

Majority rule or a majority vote is a parliamentary procedure, a means by which a group of mad, mixed up people make a decision. Majority rule doesn’t mean a thing and what the majority says is wrong. Noah was one person in the wildest time of human history. With Bible doctrine in his soul Noah defied history and changed the course of history. That is the answer to the problems we have in our country.

Entertainment types are not important. A society which glorifies entertainment is a society the way out. What is Nixon doing that Lyndon Johnson didn’t do better? He always had more on the other guy. Watergate is stupid. We should blowup the hotel and end it like that.

“By means of doctrine resident in the soul Noah” — Noah is one supergrace believer who stood alone. He ignored the majority because inside he had Bible doctrine, maximum doctrine. When God the Holy Spirit wants to reduce this to its clearest, most lucid summary He picks the only one in all of the world who was truly a supergrace believer. And that isn’t all, he seized and held the high ground for 120 years before the crisis of history that changed history.

“being warned” — aorist passive participle of chrêmatizô (χρηματίζω) [pronounced khray-mat-IHD-zo]. Just one person could be warned. The aorist tense is a constative aorist and it actually covers a period of 120 years. When Noah took the high ground by following the colours for 120 years he seized and held. During that 120 years God would warn him about the course of history. A believer with maximum doctrine becomes the accurate interpreter of history. The passive voice: Noah received the doctrine along with all categories necessary to seize and hold the high ground of supergrace. The participle is circumstantial plus antecedent action. He did something, he “prepared an ark.” The words “of God” are not found in the original.

“warned of things not seen as yet” — a combination of several things. All of them make up a Greek idiom. In fact, it is Classical Greek, not Koine — peri plus the genitive plural of the definite article is the way the idiom begins. With the definite article we also have a participle which is the object of the preposition, therefore an articular present passive participle of blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh] which means to glance. But we also have inserted into this prepositional phrase the adverb mêdepô (μηδέπω) [pronounced may-DEHP-oh], and there lies the principle. “Not yet” means there was no way on the earth that disaster appeared. It was a time of great prosperity, a time when people had more than they ever had, a time when the arts and sciences and dramas and entertainment was developed to the maximum. It was a most unusual time, it was a time of the greatest human apostasy in all of human history, but it was also a time of the development of maximum types of pleasures and activities in every field of life. “By means of doctrine resident in the soul, Noah having been warned about things not yet being seen.”

For 120 years, there were no Aggie jokes, but there were Noah jokes.

Bob has gotten tired of prison grey and marks on the walls by children without parents to supervise them.

Bob, when he wants something done, he consults himself and does it. Instant decision.

Now there is an issue. Noah took in the Word of God and he took on the Word of God and he took in the Word of God, and suddenly he found himself with divine viewpoint facing the whole world. “By means of doctrine resident in the soul Noah having been warned about things not yet being seen.” Noah was a supergrace believer, the only supergrace believer in the antediluvian civilization, except one other Methuselah. The day the flood crisis hit Methuselah departed from this earth, but Noah stayed. Noah was God’s man for the crisis.

“moved with fear” is wrong — the aorist passive participle of eulabeomai (εὐλαβέομαι) [pronounced yoo-lab-EH-ohm-ahee]. The word means to have reverence, respect for authority, to be occupied with. The aorist passive participle actually refers to motivation by occupation with Christ, motivation by doctrine in the soul — “motivated by reverence [by occupation].” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into a single whole 120 years Noah’s occupation with Christ. Motivated by love for Christ he did something. He did something to meet the crisis. He did something to express doctrine in his soul, he dramatized the doctrine in his soul because he built an ark.

Bob knew that this was the place to build the church.

“prepared an ark” — he didn’t prepare it either; aorist active indicative of kataskeuazô (κατασκευάζω) [pronounced kaht-ask-yoo-AHD-zoh]. katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] means he started at the bottom and built up. katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] means “down”, so it means to construct. The culminative aorist says one day he finished it too. The active voice: he was motivated by doctrine to do it. Everybody said there was no need for it, there would never be a flood. They all said he was wrong and Noah just kept right on building and said, “I’m right!” The word “ark” is kibôtos (κιβωτός) [pronounced kib-oh-TOSS] which means a chest or a box.

Everyone was against Noah. If you gals heard 25 people tell you they did not like your hair, you’d change it; you might even think it is God’s will.

“to the saving of his house” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus sôtêria (σωτηρία) [pronounced soh-tay-REE-ah], “for the deliverance of his family.” The word is not “house”, it is “family”.

Noah is a supergrace hero; his family was not in favor of what he was doing.

The world ridiculed and condemned Noah for a 120 years but this passage says, “through which [doctrine resident in his soul] he condemned the world.” The word is katakrínō (κατακρίνω) [pronounced kaht-ak-REE-noh] which means to talk down. The culminative aorist is employed when it is wished to view an event in its entirety but to regard it from the standpoint of existing results. For 120 years he took it but in the end he straightened out the world. God used one man.

A wheel must operate on some form of an axle. Noah is the axle, and the whole history of his generation turned around Noah. It was going in one direction and it turned and went in another direction. He condemned and judged the world and “became”— ginomai, aorist active indicative. It is a culminative aorist, Noah produces, the action, and the indicative mood is a historical reality of the declarative.

The interesting thing is, it says “through which doctrine resident in the soul he had condemned the world and had become heir of the righteousness.” And “heir of the righteousness” refers to SG3, surpassing grace. The word klêronomos (κληρονόμος) [pronounced klay-roh-OHM-oss] is the normal word for heirship. What is his SG3 paragraph called? “Heir of righteousness.” That means “rightness. Dikaiosunê (δικαιοσύνη) [pronounced dih-kai-oh-SOON-ā or dik-ah-yos-OO-nay] means “righteousness” but it also means “rightness.” Noah was right and the world was wrong. But he is the heir of the one who is always right. Noah was a great man in time but heir of righteousness is eternity. God gave Noah SG2 in time but eternity is timeless — SG3, it has not time in it. And Noah being right in time through doctrine in his soul and the world was wrong, and he became the heir of righteousness, his SG3 paragraph. He has a phenomenal eternal blessing. God used him to change the course of history by doctrine in his soul — the dynamics of resident doctrine — but God did more than that, God had on the other side a phenomenal thing. Noah turns the whole thing around and starts the postdiluvian civilization, but more than that, in this turn around which is based on doctrine Noah is the one man who glorified God and he becomes the heir of righteousness “pertaining to doctrine.”

“by faith” — katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] means “pertaining to doctrine”, resident in the soul. So he had become the “heir of righteousness pertaining to doctrine.” One man can turn the course of history.

Hebrews 11:7 By means of doctrine resident in the soul, Noah having been warned of things not being seen [the destruction of the earth], having been motivated by occupation with Christ, he had constructed a box for the purpose of the deliverance of his family; through which [doctrine resident in his soul] he had condemned the world [antediluvian population], and had become the heir of the righteousness pertaining to doctrine.

If God can use one person with doctrine to turn the course of history what can He do with a lot of people with resident doctrine? The answer: God does much more than the most. Doctrine resident in your soul under supergrace status can change the course of history.

1972 Hebrews 11:11 via Genesis 17:1–9 Lesson #164

164 08/04/1974 Hebrews 11:11; Gen. 17:1–9 Sarah reaches supergrace

Chapter 11:11 via Genesis 17:1–9

Philippians 1:21 says, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” In one sentence that covers the principle of God’s plan by which God is glorified. “For me to live is Christ” is occupation with Christ as a part of the supergrace life. The supergrace life is the maximum spiritual growth factor. It is spiritual maturity and is a synonym for maturity emphasizing the glory of God and the blessing of the believer in maturity. It all starts with salvation. The moment that you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and receive Him as Savior you come under the principle of saving grace — Ephesians 2:8,9. One second later we are in phase two, the Christian way of life or living grace. God provides everything to keep us alive so that our volition can enter into the tactical operation of the angelic conflict. By following the colours, the daily function of GAP, we finally reach that high ground of the supergrace life where we have paragraph SG2 — 2 is for phase two or time, SG is for supergrace. This is where that which was designed for us in eternity past as special blessing becomes a reality in our lives. The first sentence in SG2 deals with spiritual blessings — occupation with the person of Christ, sharing the happiness of God, enjoying the residency of doctrine to meet every exigency of life. Then the second sentence deals with temporal blessings — promotion, success, great wealth, prosperity, social and sexual prosperity, economic prosperity, technical prosperity, material prosperity, many types of prosperity are involved. The third and final sentence in SG2 has to do with dying prosperity. God has provided a way for us to die under dying grace so that death becomes greater than anything that we have in life. We go over that golden bridge called dying grace — this is for supergrace believers only — and we reach the other side which is eternity where we get paragraph SG3 for those who seize and hold the high ground of the supergrace life. From this supergrace life we make the transfer into eternity and there we receive our surpassing grace blessings. In SG3, 3 is for eternity, SG is for surpassing grace, and this is everything that God has provided for us in eternity by way of special blessing. There are class distinctions in eternity as there are class distinctions now. The basis of them in eternity will be grace only. Therefore some people will have a phenomenal SG3 and some will be minus SG3 and yet saved, and yet have nothing to show for life on this earth as a believer. All of this is a picture of the glory road of the royal family. From saving grace to living grace, from living grace to supergrace, from supergrace to dying grace, from dying grace to surpassing grace. This is the glory road that honours the Lord Jesus Christ.

In verses 11–12 we have the supergrace of Abraham, mentioned briefly here but expanded in other passages.

Hebrews 11:11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

Verse 11 — “Through faith”. It is interesting that in Hebrews 11 verse 1 we should have “Now faith”, and then in verse 3 “through faith”, in verse 4 “by faith, verse 5 “by faith”, verse 7 “by faith”, verse 8 “by faith, verse 9 “by faith”, and then we come to “through faith” again but it is still the same instrumental of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. While the translators seemed to like to jump around we still have the same noun, pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs], and it is still in the same instrumental and it still means “by means of doctrine.” So we have “By means of doctrine [resident in the soul].”

The word “also” is not quite correct. It is technical but this is the ascensive use of the conjunction kai. Kai has a number of different meanings. Here it means “even”.

“Sarah” — even a woman! “Even Sarah herself.” meaning that Sarah can be in supergrace.

The woman in response can become aggressive. Women are responders and they can become frustrated. The man does not have to initiate on every occasion. People who focus on RM/RW don’t have any idea what to do, because they do not have all of the other doctrine necessary to apply RM/RW doctrine.

That means a lot of things. It means that a woman advances spiritually when she is either a) under the authority of her right man when he is advancing spiritually — she is following the colours because her right man is. She is under the authority of her right man who is under the authority of a pastor and recognizes it and sticks with it, or b) the woman does not have her right man or lost her right man in a disciplinary shuffle, or failed all the way around and therefore she must recognize the authority of her pastor-teacher, and is very difficult for a woman because a woman like to be pleased, she likes to be wooed, she likes attention, she likes individual recognition — she is designed for that.

Women are very sensitive to personality and they get the person and the message mixed up. Even worse is the woman who falls in love with her pastor. “I can tell by the way that you look at me in class that you love me.” Bob was not designed to love 50,000 beautiful women.

Women truly have a problem in learning doctrine and they learn doctrine better through these two conditions: where they recognize the authority of the pastor-teacher and they recognize that the authority is a spiritual one, that it relates to Bible doctrine and the teaching of Bible doctrine; and the second is that they have their right man. If they do and they follow him they will often advance beyond him spiritually in their enthusiasm for the Word of God. Since they recognize the authority of their right man and since they are very happy with their right man it is easy for them to objectively recognize the authority of the pastor-teacher — without hang-ups, without subjectivity, without hypersensitivity.

Sarah herself indicates the principle. She did reach supergrace. It took her a much longer time. Abraham was there first, and for a while she was under the principle of blessing by association. When Sarah became pregnant at age 89, and when she gave birth to Isaac at 90, that was blessing by association. It took Sarah a longer time to get there. She finally managed but Sarah was a rebel type woman. She was the type of a woman who had been very frustrated over the years because she had been barren.

When it says “Sarah herself” we actually have two Greek words here. The first is the proper noun Sarra, and that represents the Hebrew word Sarah which is “princess.” Obviously now she is advancing and she is no longer called Sarai, which means nagger, and we find her name now changed to “Princess.” There is a reason for Sarah being called Sarai, a very beautiful woman who had lost out on all the points systems for the evaluation of women in her society. She grew up in a Semitic society where having children and having male children and perpetuating the line was extremely important. We do not live in such a society and therefore cannot perhaps understand in full her frustration. But being beautiful and brilliant she also became a very frustrated, horsy female. Eventually, of course, she grew up but she had a difficult time doing it because all of her life she was admired, all of her life everyone spoke well of her, envied her beauty and her brains.

But there was always one serious problem. She failed to fulfil the motherhood function and therefore the motherhood status, the male child being born, was denied her. Therefore she reacted to this and became very bitter. It was a test to Abraham’s faith-rest technique and, later on. to his supergrace status. But it became the means over a period of twenty or thirty years of turning Sarah into a real “bitch.” Therefore, for her type to break out of this type of reversionism, the bitterness of her reversionism, and to advance spiritually was very difficult. So God the Holy Spirit tells us, however, that she finally attained that status, and this speaks volumes for her greatness, for her persistence, for the fact that she continued day in and day out to take in the Word in spite of reverses and failures of all kinds.

“By means of doctrine resident in the soul even Sarah herself” — we have the intensive pronoun autos which functions to emphasize identity. The name was changed from Sarai to Sarah. Abraham’s wife through whom the Lord fulfilled the promise of a son was to live 37 years after the birth of Isaac, she died at age 127. Isaiah is the only prophet who named Sarah after her death. He did so in 51:1,2. Paul mentions the deadness of Sarah’s womb in Romans 4:19 and cites the promise received in Romans 9:9. The apostle Peter eulogises Sarah and her submission to her husband — that only took her about 90 years but she finally learned. 1Peter 3:6 is a eulogy to Sarah and her obedience to her right man, and how that obedience became the result of her spiritual advance.

When a woman is hooked up to an apostate right man she must give doctrine first place. She owes her first allegiance to doctrine and not the jackass who has peeled off. On the other hand, when there is positive volition toward doctrine on the part of the right man he is the leader to the high ground of the supergrace life.

“received” — the aorist active indicative of the verb lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh], the ordinary Greek word for receiving. We have a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the occurrence of the revival of Sarah’s sexual capabilities after the menopause and gathers them into a single concept. The whole point is that in this constative aorist Sarah was 89 years old. She was sexually dead. And from 89 on, when Abraham reached the high ground of supergrace (seized and held) his SG2 was centered around sexual prosperity. Abraham himself was sexually dead, he was totally incapable of copulation. When Abraham reached the high ground and held he was 99 years old. Sarah, who would be capable of sex, had passed the menopause and was out of it too, so both of them were sexually dead. This constative aorist gathers up into one entirety the revival of the sexual capabilities of Sarah so that she could respond to her right man and the two together could have 37 years of sexual prosperity. The sexual prosperity included youthful beauty restored. The active voice: as a supergrace blessing, Abraham’s which she shared, Sarah received the restoration of her physical beauty and her sexual capabilities. The indicative mood is the historical reality of the declarative indicative.

Notice how it is described. We don’t have the word “beauty,” we don’t have one of the many Greek words for sex, but we have a word which describes and relates it to her spiritual life and to the spiritual life of her right man, Abraham, and to her long-time husband — the accusative singular direct object of the noun dúnamis (δύναμις) [pronounced DOO-nahm-iss]. The word “strength” is the way it is translated but it is stronger than that, it means in the Greek “inherent power.” She received her inherent power. Her inherent power is found in three areas — her soul, which by now was receiving a lot of doctrine to that she could fulfil what to us is the balance of residency. She had resident doctrine in her soul — “by means of doctrine resident in her soul even Sarah.” So she is now approaching supergrace. She also has the great beauty of her face and body. Then she has the revival of her total sexual apparatus which she had lost after the menopause — not that she was incapable of sex but she was incapable of enjoying sex, and furthermore her right man was totally incapable of sex. Strength means she received the normal function of her sexual and reproductive organs long after the menopause had occurred.

God designed sex to be an expression of love.

“to conceive” — the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of katabolê (καταβολή) [pronounced kaht-ab-ohl-AY]. It is a prepositional phrase, not an infinitive. Katabolê (καταβολή) [pronounced kaht-ab-ohl-AY] means “deposit”; eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative means “for.” So we have “for the deposit”. Then we have with that a descriptive genitive singular from the Greek noun sperma (σπέρμα) [pronounced SPHER-mah], the word for “seed.” “By means of doctrine resident in the soul even Sarah herself received inherent ability for the deposit of seed.” The rejuvenation of Sarah’s sexual apparatus can only be understood in the light of several other passages in the Word of God.

Genesis chapter 17. In the first eight verses of this chapter we have the anticipation of supergrace. Abraham is advancing up the high ground and is about to reach the top. He is 99 when the chapter opens and he is sexually dead. Sarah is 89, past the menopause and therefore also sexually dead.

Verse 1 — “Abraham was ninety years old and nine.” When it says he “was” it is the qal imperfect of hajah, and it means “and it came to pass that Abraham was ninety-nine years old.” He was 86 at the end of the previous chapter, there are thirteen years between chapters 16 & 17.

“the Lord appeared” — the Niphal imperfect of ra’ah. The niphal is reflexive and it should be translated in a reflexive way, so “Jehovah himself appeared and said.”

“I am the Almighty God” — ani ʾÊl (אֵל) [pronounced ALE] Shadday (שַדַּי) [pronounced shahd-DAH-ee], “I am the God of many breasts.” Shadday (שַדַּי) [pronounced shahd-DAH-ee] is in the plural and means many breasts. That means many blessings and it refers to supergrace. The breasts denotes supergrace blessings plus the source. The source is the milk of the Word of God, Bible doctrine. The word El means “I am the omnipotent [or powerful] God of many breasts. That is, God has designed in eternity past supergrace blessings for you. Abraham is very close to supergrace, this is an encouragement to keep pressing.

“walk” — the hithpael imperative of hâlak^e (הָלַךְ) [pronounced haw-LAHK^e] which means “advance”. The hithpael stem, the imperative mood, “keep advancing.” Then the next imperative, “be thou perfect” — the qal imperative of hajah which means to become, and then the noun tamim which means to be complete, sound, entire, and it is used for supergrace status or spiritual maturity. It means to become a supergrace believer.

Genesis 17:1 And it came to pass that Abraham was ninety-nine years old, and Jehovah himself appeared to Abram, and said, “I am omnipotent God of many breasts [supergrace blessings]; keep advancing under my supervision and become mature [a supergrace believer].”

Verse 2 — the confirmation of his supergrace blessings. “I will make” is a qal imperfect, nathan. Predicated on reaching supergrace status God will provide the supergrace blessings related to the revelation, “I am the God of many breasts.” The word “multiply is actually a part of the supergrace blessing, the hiphil imperfect of rabah. The hiphil stem is causative active voice and it means that God will be the source of multiplication. The multiplication is related to and the result of Abraham’s supergrace sexual prosperity. “That I may give my covenant promises [supergrace] between me and you,” is what it says literally, “with the result that I will cause to multiply thee to the maximum.” This means a complete restoration of sexual apparatus as a part of SG2. Abraham had spiritual blessings at this point, he was occupied with Christ. He had come to the point of sharing God’s happiness, he has maximum doctrine in his soul, he also has great wealth, leadership dynamics and other things, but the emphasis is on the sexual because Abraham is to begin a new race. Therefore, God says, “I will cause you to multiply to the maximum.”

Genesis 17:2 “That I may give my covenant promises [supergrace] between me and you, with the result that I will cause to multiply thee to the maximum.”

Verse 3 — Abraham’s GAP subordination. “And Abraham fell on his face: and God talked with him.” The word “fell” is the qal imperfect of nâphal (נָפַל) [pronounced naw-FAHL] which is an act of recognition of authority in Chaldea. It means to prostrate. He did so for two reasons. He recognized the authority of God’s person and he recognized the authority of God’s Word. The two together make a beautiful authority picture. Having recognized and subordinated himself to divine authority God talks to him — the piel imperfect of dabar. The talk is encouragement, God doesn’t teach him a lot of doctrine, he already has learned that. God puts the doctrine to work by way of encouragement. The piel stem is the intensive stem for the fact that God is now applying information for him, “saying.” The qal infinitive construct indicates that more is said than is recorded. The posture of Abraham recognizes God’s authority and the listening and concentrating of Abraham recognizes the authority of the Word. Now we have an extrapolation from the divine decrees.

Genesis 17:3 And Abraham fell on his face: and God talked with him.

Verse 4 — “As for me” is wrong. All we have here is Ani, the personal pronoun “I.” “I, behold, my covenant is with you.”

“thou shalt be” is the qal perfect of hajah, and it doesn’t say “thou shalt be.” It is “you have become” — a prophetic perfect. Abraham has arrived at the high ground — “a father of many nations.” Abraham is called “father” in several ways: “father of us all” in Romans 4:11,16 — a reference to the fact that Abraham is the pattern of salvation, as per Genesis 15:6; “the father of circumcision” in Romans 4:12. Abraham is the father or the originator of the Jewish race and the Jewish race began when Abraham was circumcised at 99; “the father of many nations”, a title given to him again in Romans 4:17, and it is a reference to Abraham’s progeny from supergrace, sexual prosperity — Genesis 25:1–4.

Genesis 17:4 “I, behold, my covenant is with you, therefore you shall become the father of many Gentile nations” — as well as the implications.

Abraham’s sexual supergrace prosperity is going to be more extensive, even but Sarah. This takes us to operation Keturah.

Verse 5 — “Consequently your name shall never again be called Abram.” Abram means the father of high and windy places, the father of high altitude. In effect, it means the father of nothing and that is what Abram had been all of his life. He married this beautiful woman in Ur of the Chaldeas at a time when the Chileans were perpetuating their families because the Chaldeans were the most famous people on earth. Sarah was always barren. So “father of high altitude” came to mean father of nothing. He had no children and this was considered to be a disgrace. But it was a disgrace that he bore simply because he dearly loved Sarah. She was his right woman and to him it made no difference. And God kept hitting with this idea that he was going to have a progeny.

Genesis 17:5 “Consequently your name shall never again be called Abram.”

Verse 6 — and God said, “I will cause you to be prolific to the maximum [not fruitful].” Parah in the hiphil means to be prolific. God is causing all of this through the sexual prosperity of his supergrace paragraph. Here again is the promise of great supergrace prosperity resulting in maximum progeny.

“furthermore I will give you nations” — the word “make” in the KJV is the qal perfect of nathan and it means to “give” nations — “kings shall spring forth from you.”

Genesis 17:6 “I will cause you to be prolific to the maximum, furthermore I will give you nations from your sexual prosperity, and kings shall spring forth from you.”

Verse 7 — the new race is mentioned. “I will establish thy seed”. The qal perfect of qum means “I will cause it to come to pass.” The hiphil emphasizes that God will produce this in grace totally apart from the hopeless situation of Abraham. “Thy seed” is the masculine singular of zera and refers now to the progeny of Abraham. The suffix refers to Abraham, the singular noun refers to the new race which comes through Isaac and Jacob, not the many Gentile nations that will also come from Abraham’s prosperity. Remember that Abraham is the source of one new race and that is through Isaac and Jacob. But from Keturah he will also be the source of many Gentile races.

Genesis 17:7 “Furthermore I will establish my covenant between me and you and your progeny after you” — the new race, the Jews — “for an everlasting covenant in their specific generations.”

In other words, Abraham is not only the father of a new race but that race also has father Abraham as the pattern for salvation, for living grace, for supergrace, dying grace, and surpassing grace. Abraham is the be a pattern of God’s grace, a monument to it, forever.

Verse 8 — a new nation.

Genesis 17:8 “Furthermore I have given you and your seed a land of your residence” — the land of Abraham’s residence is the land where he is now located — “all the land of Canaan for an eternal possession; also I will become their Elohim.”

The ritual anticipation of seizing and holding is brought out in verses 9-14. Verse 9 —

Genesis 17:9 “Therefore, Elohim said to Abraham, Now as for you, you shall guard my covenant, you, and your progeny after you in their specific generations.”

The Abrahamic covenant is to be guarded.

Abrahamic Covenant and Circumcision

1. The Abrahamic covenant can only be guarded by positive volition toward Bible doctrine. In other words, the Abrahamic covenant can only be guarded by seizing and holding the high ground of supergrace.

2. Abraham’s positive faith response to doctrine will become evident from his circumcision. The fact that he has reached the high ground will be demonstrated by him. He will actually overtly do something to show that he is going to seize and hold, that he believes that God keeps his word, that doctrine resident in his soul is a reality to him.

3. The sign of seizing and holding is circumcision. Circumcision represents the principle of faithfulness to the Word of God as well as perpetuation of the racial heritage of Abraham. Circumcision represents supergrace blessings. It represents the fact that Abraham with doctrine in his soul recognizes that God will take care of his hopeless situation.

4. Circumcision becomes a ritual, then, with both a spiritual and physical connotation to Israel. 5. In Genesis 17:5,6 the promise of supergrace sexual prosperity is repeated to Abraham at the time of his sexual death.

5. However, Abraham was circumcised in his dead phallus, as per Genesis 17:26.

6. The meaning of Abraham’s circumcision is in spite of hopelessness of sexual status Abraham recognizes that God will overcome hopeless circumstances, that He has in fact provided for them in eternity past. Abraham came to recognize that the solution to his temporal problem existed before he did, something every believer recognizes as he reaches supergrace. The solutions to our problems came in eternity past.

7. Abraham recognizes that God will overcome his impossible circumstance. Long before Abraham had problems, God had the solutions.

This is why people who wander about and whine are out of line. Pastors will listen to whining, bitching and complaining for hours on end. It is a waste of time. These are weak sisters who do not have the doctrine to deal with life.

You seize and hold the high ground, which is your supergrace paragraph from eternity past.

Bob remembers the general who lost his son. He recog nized that his line was over and there was nothing that he could do about it. If there is a Jew in Texas, then there is a supergrace paragraph for you.

Abraham demonstrated that eternity caught up with time. SG2 is in time; SG3 is outside of time. If God wants you to have prosperity, success, promotion, sexual blessing, then you will have it. Abraham had enough doctrine to think this way.

Skin would be removed from his phallus as a monument forever. No Jew can urinate without remembering the greatest spiritual lesson found here. Abraham was saved in uncircumcision; but when he was circumcised, that was it.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #165

165 08/04/1974 Hebrews 11:11b Woman's motivation to GAP

To live is grace; to die is gain.

Hebrews 11:11 By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.

Notice the trend of this chapter from verse 4, “By means of doctrine Abel”; verse 5, “By means of doctrine Enoch”; verse 7, “By means of doctrine Noah”; verse 8, “By means of doctrine Abraham.” Then, skipping down to verse 20, “By means of doctrine Isaac”; verse 21, “By means of doctrine Jacob”; verse 22, “By means of doctrine Joseph”.

Here are the patriarchs but in the midst of this in verse 11 we have the name of one woman. “Through faith” is the instrumental of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] — “By means of doctrine resident in the soul Sarah.” But is isn’t “Sarah also,” it is “even Sarah herself.” This is the great key. It is more difficult for a woman to reach supergrace than a man. It is easier for a woman to be more interested in doctrine but not to reach supergrace. Reason: the woman was deigned to be a responder. As a responder she is designed to respond to one man, her right man. If her right man is moving toward supergrace, or has seized and held, she will follow his lead if she truly loves him. Therefore she is following his authority in listening to the teaching of the Word. But if she is minus her right man it is extremely difficult for her to ever reach supergrace, just as it is difficult for a woman to work or to do anything but respond to her right man. Reason: women are confused about authority. It is very difficult for a woman to be objective about the authority of a pastor-teacher.

The woman is a responder; she gets bored easily. She has a tendency to be subjective.

“had received strength [ability]” — this was her SG2, and the word dúnamis (δύναμις) [pronounced DOO-nahm-iss] here is used for the revival of her sexual apparatus, inherent strength for the deposit of sperm — “for the deposit of sperm.” The next phrase, “and was delivered of child”, is not found in the original.

“when she was past age” — we have an ascensive kai, “even”. And then the next phrase is strictly a prepositional phrase and not a verb. It is the preposition para plus the accusative of kairos (καιρός) [pronounced kī-ROSS]. In addition to that we have one other word here, the genitive of hêlikia (ἡλικία) [pronounced hay-lik-EE-ah]. When you put it all together it says literally, “even beyond the proper time of life.” So we have so far, “By means of doctrine resident in the soul, even Sarah herself received ability for the deposit of sperm even beyond the proper time of life,” meaning that she was almost 90 years old.

Sarah was a phenomenal woman, a woman of great courage, greater than most of the men of her time because she had a strong tendency toward subjectivity. This comes out from her original name, Sarai, which means “bitch” or “contentious,” or “complainer,” or “nag,” or a combination of all of these things. In other words, a highly beautiful, highly unstable, highly subjective woman. When you have everything going for you there always has to be some flaw, and the flaw according to the ancient world in Sarah’s day, it was a part of the prosperity package to have children. In every case where the woman was barren it was a great test to her, regardless of how beautiful she was, regardless of any other factor. So the flaw was the act that Sarah was barren. She was in a total hopeless situation.

On the positive side, is it possible for a mixed-up, flaky female to snap out of it and get cracking. A woman, Sarah, had her right man and yet she always had rejected the authority of her right man.

As a matter of fact Sarah often spent her time trying to set aside the wishes of her right man in everything. She complained to him, she tried to wear him down by nagging and sap the strength of his life. She tried to make him over into what she wanted. But she always had this thing that messed her up and that was the fact that she was barren and subject to criticism herself in the society in which she lived. With all of these factors against her and with the reaction that set in, she was bitter about her failure to have children, she was very upset and antagonistic toward her right man, so much so that you have to add to bitterness implacability. She refused most of the time to recognize authority and it always took a lot of Abraham’s strength and concentration to get her in line, so that he did not have strength and concentration for the normal things of life that should have occupied his mind. But worst of all was the fact that she constantly was trying to help Abraham to rationalize on the matter of SG2, she was always looking back toward home, dragging her feet and didn’t want to go into the land, she was always ready to leave the land, to get up and go. She was constantly pulling in the wrong direction.

Abraham had a choice to make and most of the time he made the wrong choice. There is nothing that destroys a man quicker than to follow a woman instead of the will of God. For example, it was the will of God for Abraham to stay in the land. What did he do? He went out of the land. Sarah was all for that, she was ready to lie. To duck away from a man’s authority a woman has to be a liar and a deceiver and a reactor. But all of the things that made her a deceiver and a reactor against her situation and against Abraham all meant that she was a liar and a deceiver, and a liar and a reactor against doctrine, so that she was always behind Abraham spiritually. She was always subjective about doctrine. It isn’t that she was totally negative toward doctrine, it is that her subjectivity produced negative reactions — he mental attitude sins, her jealousy of Hagar later on, her bitterness toward Abraham and her situation, her desire to liberate herself by running Abraham and running everything else, her desire to have the ostentations of life — Abraham was wealthy but there was no ostentation in the wealth. So there were always these factors that produced a tremendous negative attitude in her while she really wasn’t negative. The greatness of Sarah is the fact that all of these were eliminated from her life by rebound and by persistence. Her supergrace paragraph calls for sexual prosperity, conception and motherhood. to fulfil the paragraph God had to perform a physiological miracle, the total revival of her sexual apparatus and the total revival of her physical appearance with her physiological revival. Remember that the basic concept of sex between right man and right woman is pleasure and not conception. She had, after age 89, many wonderful times of pleasure but she still only had one son. Sarah made it to supergrace. Sex is not primary when it comes to having children. Sarah and Abraham only had one son. Sex is for pleasure. It is designed for the maximum pleasure for RM/RW.

Women are robbed of their femininity by being in the armed forces. She is designed to respond or to react. She is quick to respond or react; and she is quick to lose her objectivity.

“because” — the conjunction epeí (ἐπεί) [pronounced ehp-IH] used here is the causal meaning. Notice how she got there. Supergrace is never attained without that strong objectivity of divine viewpoint, encouragement from doctrine in the soul which gives an increasing occupation with the person of Christ. You must learn to respond to the Lord and you respond to the Lord by positive volition toward doctrine. Between you and the Lord is the doctrine that will give you a love for the Lord. Therefore you have a series of problems, a structural type problem. If you [a woman] are responding to your right man and your right man and your right man is negative toward doctrine then you must choose doctrine over your right man. If you are responding to a right man who is positive then you have an easy problem for he will lead you in spiritual things as in all things. If you are minus right man then you have a strong tendency toward the reactor factors. So that the problem of the woman being interested is easy because when a woman is reacting in one thing she is finding interest in something else. Women often seek interest in spiritual things as a solution to temporal things rather than in fulfilling the purpose for which every woman is in the royal family of God which is to follow the colours and seize the high ground. So basically there are three factors: she has a right man who is negative and therefore she is more interested in her negative right man than she is in the word; she has a right man who is positive and therefore he leads her, and that is the simple one; she is minus her right man and in some stage of reaction constantly frustrated, like Sarah. And here is how she did it from one phrase from God’s Word:

“she judged” — she didn’t do that, you can’t be objective and judge others. It says “she concluded” — hêgeomai (ἡγέομαι) [pronounced hayg-EH-ohm-ahee]. Sarah did have an easier time than most. If God does not have a right man for a woman then it is easy. If there is no right man from eternity past then her concentration on the Word is simple. Or if her right man is positive then she follows him. But these two factors are the easy factors, the difficult factor is a negative right man. The only answer to that is hêgeomai (ἡγέομαι) [pronounced hayg-EH-ohm-ahee]. In the etymology of this word — God the Holy Spirit is very sparing in the use of words — it does not mean to judge, it means to think, to conclude, and the conclusion is based on being an expert in a field. Hêgeomai (ἡγέομαι) [pronounced hayg-EH-ohm-ahee] originally meant a guide. A guide is an expert who knows the way from point A to point B, a guide always is a guide because he knows something. The point is that Sarah, who failed in every part of her life, became an expert in the field of doctrine. And when she had maximum doctrine in her soul then she was able to draw conclusions. She overcame all of her problems by doctrine in her soul, and as the doctrine increased she became an expert. What did she do with her doctrine? She started to draw conclusions about the Lord! So her conclusions were based on doctrine. But notice, it was doctrine in her soul that motivated her. Sarah is a perfect illustration of how with all the handicaps, the subjectivity, frustration, all of the mental attitude sins collected, it is possible to break through these barriers and move to the high ground of supergrace, but it must be done by motivation from doctrine in the soul. Sarah reminds us all of the importance of Bible doctrine. We must be moved by doctrine in the soul. Doctrine becomes the authority.

There are more that physiological differences between men and women. Only a handful of men have written Bob thank you letters. Women write all kinds of letters about all kinds of things.

Much more difficult for a woman to make it to supergrace. Tragically, it’s a man’s world is far too true. Sometimes Bob has to begin a topic by saying, “Women are also human.”

People who come to Berachah Church are utterly amazed about the number of men at Berachah Church. Objectivity only comes to some women when they are being taught by another woman. Women must be taught how to face the funeral of a loved one.

A woman will not accept the authority of her boss. Some will go out with some jerk. When someone comes along and is faithful to her and to no one else, that person has her attention.

Sarah told Abraham to go into the tent, but he obeyed her. She got madder and madder. Abraham was not faithful. She sponsored the whole deal and Abraham should not have gone into the tent of Little Egypt. He was not faithful here, even though that was Sarah’s idea. To her, there was no such thing as human faithfulness.

“because she concluded him” — there is no personal pronoun. It is a translation device for the articular participle. It is actually, “she concluded “faithful” — the accusative singular direct object of pistos (πιστός) [pronounced pis-TOSS], the adjective. Of all the things that you could say about a woman! She concluded Him a rewarder, she concluded that God keeps His word, there were all kinds of conclusions, but what does a woman want more than anything else? Faithful! She finally found someone she concluded faithful. A woman does not have any security in life except the faithfulness of her right man. Abraham was not faithful. Even though she had sponsored it he went off to the tent of Hagar. Sarah had become very bitter because to her there was no such thing as human faithfulness. But she began to take in doctrine because Abraham stuck it out with doctrine and she began to follow him. And when she got doctrine in her soul she had enough to know that God is faithful. Once she found someone who was faithful she became positive and stuck with it. And here is one of the great women of history seizing and holding the high ground of supergrace because she concluded from doctrine in her soul that God was faithful, and concluding that she followed the colours, she was faithful and she never stopped following the colours. She finally found someone who was faithful, someone who was stable and never let her down.

“the one who had promised” — the articular aorist active participle of epaggellô (ἐπαγγέλλω) [pronounced ehp-ang-EHL-low]. How did she catch on to this faithfulness? In a very simple, yet wonderful way. She had seen the unfaithfulness of Lot to Abraham. She had seen the unfaithfulness of people all around her, she had witnessed many unfaithful things. She had seen everything in life that was bad and she had reacted to it. She had even turned Abraham into an unfaithful person and therefore she was thoroughly washed up with these things. But doctrine in her soul, inevitably brought her face to face with the essence of God. The essence of God made her thirst for doctrine and the cycle began — doctrine, the essence of God, more essence and more doctrine. She thirsted for doctrine, she became positive toward doctrine, she wanted more than anything else doctrine. As this cycle continued she began to grow up and a wonderful edification complex emerged in her soul. She followed the colours and she reached the high ground. She would have reached it with or without Abraham. Why? Because it no longer depended upon Abraham who was positive, it depended upon her. She was positive.

What motivates you to be positive? Are you looking for blessing? Are you looking for your right man? Right woman? Then you really did not want doctrine; you wanted something and doctrine was the way to get it. This is why you are here a few days and gone a few days. You are not steady.

Once you discover from doctrine the faithfulness of God you can only be faithful to Him. Faithfulness begets faithfulness. How can you be faithful to God? One way only. Your faithfulness to Him is in how often you come to Bible class. When you are motivated by doctrine you come. If you are motivated by Bible doctrine in your soul you can’t stay away, but if you are motivated for some other reason you can be so busy with other things you haven’t time or you can be distracted by some person, etc.

The aorist tense of epaggellô (ἐπαγγέλλω) [pronounced ehp-ang-EHL-low] is a gnomic aorist for a fact of doctrine so certain as to be axiomatic in character. she finally concluded what was already true. It was true billions of years ago, it is true in time, it is true forever. There never was a time when it wasn’t true. So it is used to describe how Sarah was motivated to follow the colours. The active voice: God the Father in eternity past produced the action of the verb. He made a promise and that promise stands. He made lots of promises and all of them are tied up in SG2 and SG3, and they are not available to the believer, even though they were made for him, until the believer responds to the faithfulness of God. And how does he respond? By being faithful to what God has placed in the world: Bible doctrine — Matthew 4:4. So your response to God’s faithfulness, by being faithful, by using your volition toward doctrine, results in getting SG2, and holding means SG3. Between the two is dying grace. This is a circumstantial participle.

Hebrews 11:11 By means of doctrine resident in the soul even Sarah herself received sexual ability for the deposit of seed, though she was beyond the time of life for conception, because she concluded faithful the one who had promised.

Principles

1. Sarah’s conclusions did not occur at the moment that Abraham received supergrace but shortly thereafter.

2. At first Abraham on the verge of supergrace laughed at God after Sarah’s conception — Genesis 17:15–19.

3. Then Sarah laughed in Genesis 18:9-15.

4. But by the time that Abraham and Sarah were both in supergrace status the sexual prosperity resulted in the birth of “laughter” [Isaac] — Genesis 21:1–3.

5. Sarah’s literal laughter was not turned into laughter [a son] until the accumulation of doctrine resident in her soul meant the attainment of supergrace status.

Supergrace will give you a sense of humour! A sense of humour is the ability to relax and laugh at yourself.

The people of England have a great sense of humor. They have the ability to laugh at themselves. Hundreds of years of traditions.

Sarah discovered that God was faithful. She is able to conclude that from doctrine in the soul.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #166

166 08/05/1974 Hebrews 11:12 Doctrine of the faithfulness of God

Medal of Honor recipient. A strong believer that Bob knew, who was at this battle in Holland, lost a leg and arm. His boss at Eastern Airlines said he had his job waiting for him; and he returned and worked at Eastern Airlines until he died.

Sarah finally reached the high ground.

The Doctrine of Faithfulness of God (2)

1. There is only one person in all of God’s universe who was totally faithful to you and was related to you, and that is God the Father. This is not to say that God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are not faithful but the Father is the author of the plan. As the author of the plan the Father has more than His great love for you, a total faithfulness to you. He can only be faithful to you because of His perfect character. Divine faithfulness is the grace expression of God’s character to the believer, it is the manifestation of His perfect character. All faithfulness in the human realm resides first of all in the soul. People are faithful to different things in life. Faithfulness is an attitude toward something in life that you love, respect, admire or recognize its authority.

a. We would have nothing if not for the faithfulness of God. That we are clothed, fed and healthy—that is the faithfulness of God the Father.

b. We are in church because of God’s faithfulness.

c. Sarah caught on to this—she recognized that God was faithful to her and kept His promise to her.

d. Like all women, she tested her husband. She sent Abraham into Hagar’s tent.

e. Sarah was a very righteous person, and she looked down on others. A very subtle type of arrogance.

f. Because a woman is a responder, it is easy for her to evaluate men and easy for a man to make a mistake.

2. God is faithful to us in rebound — 1John 1:9. If we name our sins He is faithful and just. That is the stability of God. it is possible for a human being to be faithful but he is never faithful and just in the sense that God is. The key to love is found in righteous character, in stability of soul, in the capacity of the soul. God’s faithfulness is always related to His character. Justice is a part of the sovereignty of God. Because God the Father is just He is also faithful. When a person can be faithful to us without compromising his character he has perfect stability, and God has perfect stability. God’s faithfulness in rebound teaches us the principle that His faithfulness is related to His perfect character.

3. God’s faithfulness is also related to His perfect plan — 1Corinthians 1:9. We have been called in eternity past. In eternity past God was cognisant of all of our failures. The word “called” had to do with the fact that God called us or designated us — kaleô (καλέω) [pronounced kal-EH-oh] also means to designate — in the decrees. For example, He called or designated us royal family of God forever. All of this designation in eternity past means that God found a way to save us and take us through every stage of grace from saving grace to surpassing grace without compromising His character. Therefore, one again, God’s faithfulness goes back to His perfect character.

4. God’s faithfulness in provision and blessing. This is inevitable. If God found a way to save us it is much easier to find a way to provide for us and to bless us — 1Thessalonians 5:24. God’s perfect faithfulness in eternity past inevitably leads to God’s perfect faithfulness to you in time. Principle: If God was faithful to you in eternity past He can only be faithful to you in time where the variables become extensive, and He can only be faithful to you in eternity, the eternal future. He cannot be anything else — application of immutability as well.

5. God’s faithfulness in testing. 1Corinthians 10:13. The first area of testing overtaking is living grace. After you pass a certain number of living grace tests then you start up the hill. Then you are going to be tested with regard to you love of doctrine. Is doctrine more important to you than family, social life, entertainment, someone you love, etc. So you are tested as you climb the hill and then when you seize the high ground, in holding you get the greatest test of all. Abraham’s greatest test was the offering of Isaac. So you are tested at the point of living grace, you are tested at the point of advancing, you are tested at the point of victory. So you have three categories of testing. In the preparation for the advance you are tested, in the advance you are tested, in the victory you are tested. This verse is for all stages. 1Cor. 10:13 No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

a. Abraham’s great supergrace test is the offering up of Isaac.

b. In the advance, we are tested; in victory, we are tested.

c. What is the “way of escape”? It is doctrine resident in the soul. God provides the right doctrine for every phase of your spiritual growth. The way of escape is not something overt, it is doctrine. “That you may be able to endure it”.

6. God is faithful to the royal family of God — Hebrews 10:23, “Let us keep holding fast the confession of our confidence unbending.” Our confidence comes from resident doctrine. Doctrine is hooked up to the faithfulness of God. The more doctrine you have the more you see His perfect character, the more you see His perfect character the more you advance. The more you advance the less amount of importance is then attached to the things around you that were formerly important and distracting — “because the one having promised is faithful.”

7. God is also faithful to the reversionistic believer — 2Timothy 2:13, “If we are faithless he remains faithful, he cannot deny himself.” His perfect character makes it impossible to be faithless to the reversionistic believer.

8. God is faithful to the believer in the realm of the angelic conflict — an invisible conflict, one with which in our human bodies we are unable to cope. Our human souls cannot perceive the tremendous spiritual conflict involved. Therefore 2Thessalonians 3:3 tells us, “But the Lord keeps on being faithful, he will support and guard you from the evil one.” We are protected from the invisible enemies.

9. God’s faithfulness is a reality in supergrace status and getting to supergrace — Hebrews 11:11.

10. Conclusion:

a. Faithfulness is the consistency and stability of God.

b. Faithfulness is the perfection of God’s essence and the fact that He cannot be inconsistent with His own essence, nor can He compromise His essence.

c. Furthermore, faithfulness is the fact that God cannot change His essence and cannot be unfair to anyone. It is impossible for God to be unfair.

d. God is consistent with Himself, therefore He is faithful or consistent with us.

e. God keeps His Word. God makes many promises. Since eternity past God has made thousands of promises and God has kept every one of them.

f. There never was a time when God was unfaithful. The very thought of divine unfaithfulness is blasphemy.

g. Therefore unfaithfulness is totally incompatible with the very nature and character of God.

h. The very existence, function, provision, and blessing of the royal family now and forever depends on God’s faithfulness.

Because a woman naturally responds, she also reacts.

After salvation, God tests all of us. Some of us will be tested and we will panic. Once we are saved and eternity conscious, God will test us. We must always be conscious of God’s faithfulness.

The chances of having natural compatibility with your pastor is almost nil. You simply respond to the faithfulness of God.

Hebrews 11:12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

Verse 12 — “Therefore” — inferential conjunction dio (διό) [pronounced DEE-oh] plus the connective kai. It should be translated “And therefore.” Note that God the Holy Spirit in dealing with this great matter has chosen Romans 4 to give Abraham’s side but He has chosen Hebrews 11 to present a magnificent, wonderful woman. Even though this is primarily a chapter of supergrace heroes, male type, there are supergrace heroes female type, and none of them are greater than Sarah.

“sprang there” — the aorist passive indicative of ginomai, “there was born. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. It was quite a dramatic thing when “young” Sarah at age 90 gave birth to a son. The passive voice: Isaac receives the action of the verb, being born from the sexual prosperity of SG2. The declarative indicative is the historical reality of the birth of Isaac, the fulfilment of God’s promise, the manifestation of God’s faithfulness in a hopeless situation. God is faithful in hopeless situations.

“even” — wrong! We have a connective kai which means “and,” “of one”, and the preposition apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the ablative of the numeral heís (εἵς) [pronounced hice] — “from the source of one.” This refers to Abraham in status of sexual death at the time he reached the high ground of supergrace. Sarah is mentioned in the previous verse as the mother of Isaac. In this verse Abraham is emphasized as the father of Isaac. This is all that God the Holy Spirit has to say about the father here.

“and him” — the accusative neuter plural of the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. It is plural here, “him” is singular. The demonstrative pronoun refers to someone close at hand in the context. Who is close at hand? Abraham and Sarah. God the Holy Spirit brings them both in at this point as being sexually dead. It should be translated “and these same ones.”

“as good as dead” — the perfect passive participle of nekroô (νεκρόω) [pronounced nek-ROW-oh] which means to be dead, and the perfect tense is a dramatic perfect which is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect, something that happens in the past with existing results. It should be translated, “and the same ones [Abraham and Sarah] having become sexually dead.” They weren’t as good as, they were, says the dramatic perfect. The results of sexual death indicate a completely hopeless situation. The passive voice: Abraham and Sarah receive the action of the verb. They received sexual death with the result that they kept on being sexually dead. The participle is part of the accusative of general reference. Houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] now becomes the subject of the participle.

Summary

1. The rest of the verse quotes the promise of Genesis 15:5 which was requoted in Genesis 22:17 and requoted in Genesis 32:12.

2. The promise is based on Abraham’s supergrace paragraph.

3. The promise was extrapolated from his SG2 to encourage Abraham to move to the objective of supergrace.

4. The promise as quoted is designed to emphasize the difference between a hopeless situation of sexual death and the faithfulness of God who has never died, who is perfect, and who can overcome any obstacle in life.

5. Therefore to understand the rest of the verse the quotation of a promise must be added.

From a hopeless situation of the sexual death of Abraham and Sarah comes a new race perpetuated into the second generation — Isaac.

“so many as the stars of the sky” — wrong! ta a)stra tou o)uranou is “the stars of the heavens”, not the sky. Technical but important.

“in multitude” is wrong. It is the locative singular from plêthos (πλθος) [pronounced PLAY-thoss], “in number.”

“and as the sand which is by the sea shore” — kai w( ho a)mmoj ho para to cheîlos (χελος) [pronounced KHĪ-loss] thj qalasshj means “and just as the sand which is by the lip of the sea.” This is not a big beach, this is sand scattered among the rocks, little patches of sand innumerable but not concentrated.

Hebrews 11:12 And therefore from the source of one hopeless couple was born Isaac, and these same ones [Abraham and Sarah] having become sexually dead [in contrast to the promises of Genesis 15:5], just as the stars of the heavens in number and the sand which is by the lip of the sea, innumerable.

Summary

1. We have a contrast between the divine promise of supergrace blessing and the hopeless circumstances of sexual death. They are placed side by side to show that man cannot so anything about it. And side by side you have a hopeless situation with supergrace blessing to show the one who makes the difference is God, His perfect character, His perfect essence, is the guarantee of His faithfulness.

2. From this contrast we learn that there is no such thing as a hopeless situation. When you take a hopeless situation and put it next door to SG2 what cancels out the hopeless situation? The essence of God. There isn’t a hopeless situation.

3. Man’s failure places him in a situation but God in grace turns the whole mess into blessing.

4. Note the fact that Bible doctrine resident in the soul of Abraham finally brought him to supergrace status.

5. In that status Abraham gave the order to circumcise himself because doctrine in his soul was more real than the hopeless situation of his phallus.

6. Circumcision became the sign of Abraham’s supergrace sexual prosperity.

7. It also became a monument to the fact that God overcomes. Therefore there is no way that we can ever take any credit.

8. Divine omnipotence overcame all.

9. Why? God must be true to Himself, God must be consistent with Himself, God cannot compromise God.

10. The reality of this truth came to Abraham through Bible doctrine resident in his soul at the time of circumcision.

11. The same reality came to Sarah through doctrine resident in her soul.

12. Together, Abraham and Sarah entered into supergrace sexual prosperity which historically resulted in a new race of Jews whose number is as the stars of the heavens. On the earth the number of Jews is a variable, but the number of Jews in heaven is as large as the number of stars in the galaxies.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #167

167 08/06/1974 Hebrews 11:13 via Phil. 3:15–16 Doctrine of mental attitude (revised)

Hebrews 11 reviewed to v. 12.

Under living grace, the basic things are provided so that we can pursue Bible doctrine. Under supergrace, occupation with Christ is fundamental. We must seize and hold the higher ground.

11:13 via Philippians 3:15

Php 3:15 Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

Philippians 3:15 — The word “perfect” here does not mean self-righteousness. The first word really is “Therefore.” It is an inferential particle, oun, designed to take up the preceding context, verses 12–14, the seize and hold passage, and to make an inference from it.

“as many as” is a correlative word, hosos (ὅσος) [pronounced HOS-os], which emphasizes quality. Quality folks here refer to supergrace believers, those who have followed the colours to the high ground. The verb to be is not found here, it merely helps to smooth out the translation.

“are perfect” — we have nominative masculine plural adjective, téleios (τέλειος) [pronounced TEHL-i-os], which refers to maturity or the supergrace life. “Therefore, as many as are mature” is the corrected translation so far.

“let us” is simply a device for handling the subjunctive mood here; “be thus minded” is the verb — present active subjunctive of the verb phroneô (φρονέω) [pronounced fron-EH-oh] which means to think objectively. We have already seen Sarah under dokéô (δοκέω) [pronounced dohk-EH-oh] thinking subjectively, but here we have the principle of objective thinking. It is characteristic of the supergrace life and it is a part of the paragraph SG2 to begin to have an objective attitude about life, about death, and about eternity. The present tense is retroactive progressive, it denotes what has happened in the past and continues into the present. Objective thinking begins before you reach the high ground and it continues once you seize and hold. The active voice: the supergrace believer produces the action — objective thinking about everything in life; no confusion, no subjective thinking, no human viewpoint. The subjunctive mood is hortatory — one in which the writer, recently recovered from reversionism, invites the readers to join him in a course of action. The course of action has been previously stated as “seize and hold.” How do you seize and hold? It is impossible to hold the high ground if you become subjective in your thinking. No one with subjective thinking can ever hold the high ground.

Subjective thinking has certain manifestations. It includes all the realm of mental attitude sins — envy, pride, jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, and so on. It is also manifest by pettiness or, along with pettiness, the desire to hurt — the vengeance complex. It also comes from areas like self-pity, all of the self concepts. Any expression of human viewpoint — failure to constantly take in Bible doctrine — which is any human viewpoint attitude, any human viewpoint scheme, the idea of advancing yourself by your cleverness, by your ability, by some pseudo system. It also includes a very interesting principle called hypocrisy in which hypocrisy is the means of gaining whatever you want — social prosperity, sexual prosperity, economic prosperity. Hypocrisy is a false means of attaining pseudo prosperity. In other words, you are nice to people you can’t stand so that you can have prosperity. This is the concept of the subjunctive mood and the course of action, then, is objective thinking. To seize and hold the high ground the supergrace believer must think objectively. This comes from the continuation of the intake of Bible doctrine. The superficialities of human celebrityship are also set aside as Paul has previously stated in the context of verse 8 — “piles of dung.” Doctrine becomes the inner motivation of life, doctrine becomes the basis of thought pattern, doctrine becomes the common sense, the good judgement, the objective thinking of such a believer. So it should read, “let us continue objective thinking.” In other words, the perpetuation of divine viewpoint through the consistent daily function of GAP.

The Doctrine of Mental Attitude (Revised)

1. Definition.

a. The function of the right lobe or the heart of the believer is his mental attitude.

b. The sum total of all thought impulses which emanate from the launching pad or the believer’s right lobe. In other words, human viewpoint is the expression of cosmic norms and standards of life. The antithesis, the divine viewpoint, is the expression of Bible norms and standards. An attitude, then, is every thought impulse of the believer. All though impulses can be categorized into divine or human viewpoint.

2. Thinking is the real personality. Who are you? What are you? You are to some what your physical appearance connotes. All physical classifications are superficial. You are a person and thinking is the real personality. What a person thinks in his soul is what he really is. Mental attitude determines both the character and the lifestyle of the person. Proverbs 23:6,7 — “Do not eat the bread of selfish man” — so this verse immediately establishes the true person. In his soul he is selfish and stingy — “or desire his delicacies.” Why? Because he may say, “Join me,” or “sit down and eat,” or he might even make motions toward picking up the check, but inside he is stingy, in his soul he is selfish. His attitude is entirely different from what he says. If a person is stingy and you sit down and eat with him it may kill him! It will disturb him. That isn’t really what he wants, it is just the thing he knows is what society demands that he say. “For as he thinks in his soul, so he is” — he is a stingy man, a selfish man, and if you sit down and eat with him it kills him — “for he says to you, Eat and drink, but his right lobe is not with you.”

a. Bob gives the example of a woman going out with this jerk. But she goes out with him for the meal, the entertainment or whatever. But the whole time, she dislikes him. On stupid jerk and one hypocritical female. Both fail. The real person never comes out. All this guy needed to do is get the woman angry, and then he would have found out immediately what she thinks of him.

b. People all around us put on a facade. A man can be castrated in war, and still be 100% a man. A woman is truly a woman based upon what she thinks. The issue is always what is in the soul.

c. In the country, we almost worship all forms of entertainer. They are entertainers and nothing else. They are paid to do this. If you are paid to be something that you are not, then you are a nothing. You women dream of men in the movies or on television, and you are not seeing the real person. If you are not phony when you start, you will be phony when it is over. These people are well-paid and they receive great adulation for what they do.

d. Proverbs 23:6–7 Do not eat the bread of a man who is stingy; do not desire his delicacies, for he is like one who is inwardly calculating. “Eat and drink!” he says to you, but his heart is not with you. Four things about these two verses:

i. The passage portrays hypocrisy as the background for a principle — a stingy person having to share and hating every minute of it. In truth, he wishes you are not there; or he wants something in exchange.

ii. In his soul a person thinks reality, whereas overtly and in hypocrisy he gives you the impression acceptable to society.

iii. The real person is not the one who offered you the hospitality, the real person is the one who thinks — “I love him, I hate him; he is a jerk, he is wonderful.” The person who says sit down or let’s go out for a drink, that isn’t the real person. The real person is in that soul, what is said is meaningless.

iv. What goes on in the soul is what the person is really like.

3. The conflicts of mental attitudes in the believer — Isaiah 55:6–9.

a. Verse 6: “Seek the Lord while he may be found.” This is addressed to a believer in living grace and the issue is positive volition toward doctrine. It means while you are in time you have the opportunity to take in doctrine. it is not evangelistic, it is addressed to reversionistic believers and it is a call to positive volition toward Bible doctrine in time. “Call upon him while he is near”, a reference to living grace being administered to a reversionistic believer.

b. Verse 7 — “Let the wicked” — a reversionistic believer; “forsake his way.” What is the way of the reversionist? Negative volition toward Bible doctrine. He must forsake negative volition toward doctrine. “And the unrighteous man [reversionist] his thoughts.” What are the thoughts of the reversionist or the unrighteous man? Human viewpoint. “And let him return” — here is the key; “to the Lord” — reversion recovery through consistent positive volition. And what will the Lord do? “And he will have compassion on him; and to our God; for he will abundantly pardon.” This is not salvation, this is restoration.

c. Verse 8 — “For my thoughts [divine viewpoint] are not your thoughts [human viewpoint of the reversionist], neither are your ways [reversionism] my ways, saith the Lord.”

d. Verse 9 — “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts [divine viewpoint] than your thoughts [human viewpoint].”

e. So we have a conflict in the soul between divine and human viewpoint. Human viewpoint exists, for example, in the royal family indwelt by the Holy Spirit and even filled with the Spirit through rebound but minus doctrine. When minus becomes plus then you have divine viewpoint. So the balance of residency is the key to whether you have human or divine viewpoint.

4. The command to divine viewpoint. Since doctrine is the mind of Christ — 1Corinthians 2:16 — attitude toward doctrine determines the viewpoint of life For example, we are commanded in Philippians 2:5, “Keep on having this mental attitude in you which also was in Christ Jesus.” This command is obeyed by the daily function of GAP. Maximum doctrine resident in the soul is the source of divine viewpoint. 2Corinthians 10:4–6.

a. Verse 4 — “(For the equipment and weapons of our conflict are not human attributes, but attributes of inherent power [resident doctrine in the soul] through God against the destruction of Satan’s fortifications).” Satan’s fortifications are destroyed by the thought impulse of your soul, divine viewpoint, the dynamics of Bible doctrine.

b. Verse 5 — we become aggressive in the soul. “Assaulting and demolishing cosmic thoughts [human viewpoint], and every obstacle of pride which attacks against the objective knowledge of God, and making a prisoner of every human viewpoint system of thought to the authority of Christ.”

c. Verse 6 — “Holding in readiness [the garrison of resident doctrine] to punish all deviation [human viewpoint], from disobedience [reversionistic human viewpoint] when your obedience [the daily function of GAP] has been fulfilled.”

5. Rapport in the royal family of God is based on the divine viewpoint — Philippians 2:2, “Fill up the deficiency with my inner happiness, that you keep on thinking the same thing [divine viewpoint], having the same love [mental attitude love], soul rapport in thinking [which comes through the divine viewpoint of life].” So rapport in the royal family is based upon maximum doctrine in the soul.

6. The function of the royal priesthood demands a new mental attitude — 2Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of sound mind [judgement].” There is the royal family with maximum doctrine, the balance of residency in the soul. Romans 12:2, “Stop being conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your thinking, that you may prove what is the will of God, namely that the will of God is good and acceptable and perfect.” There you have the mental attitude which is so important in the function of phase two.

7. Divine viewpoint from doctrine produces confidence — 2Corinthians 5:1, “For we know [knowledge of doctrine] that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down [death], we have a building from God [resurrection body], a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” You never know when God is going to call you home but it is always important, as soon as possible in the Christian life, to have a mental attitude toward death, for your mental attitude toward death therefore improves your mental attitude toward life. It is imperative for us to have confidence with regard to eternity, confidence with regard to dying.

a. A young lady who came from Florida came to Berachah and she was about to marry a guy from New Mexico, who came every summer. Ann Munger was killed with a building collapsed.

b. 2Cor. 5:6 — “Therefore we keep having confidence, even knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord” — knowing these things.

c. Verse 7 — “(For we walk by doctrine resident in the soul, not by sight).”

d. Verse 8 — “We keep on having confidence, I say, and take mental delight in the fact that to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord.”

e. All the way through these four words, first we know and then we have confidence. Having confidence we understand and take mental delight in some of the greatest and most shocking things in life — death and transfer from time to eternity. So divine viewpoint from doctrine produces confidence for life, for dying, and for eternity.

8. Areas of life involving mental attitude.

a. Stability is a mental attitude. The mental attitude of stability creates stability in the life — James 1:8, “A double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways.” Instability is not what you do, instability is the way that you think. Sloppy thinking leads to instability, clear thinking leads to stability. A double-minded person is an unstable person. So instability is an attitude of soul, instability reflects the attitude of the individual.

b. Prosperity is a mental attitude — Philippians 4:7, “And the prosperity from God, transcending human comprehension, shall garrison your right lobes and left lobes by means of Jesus Christ.” In other words, prosperity is found in your mental attitude long before it ever touches your life in any other way.

c. Giving in a mental attitude. “Each one [each royal priest], according as he has determined by means of his right lobe, so give, not out from distress of mind [pressure], nor from compulsion of emotions, for the God keeps on loving the gracious giver.” The gracious giver is the one whose mental attitude is of grace.

d. Worldliness is a mental attitude — Romans 12:2, “Stop being conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mental attitude, that you may prove what the will of God is, namely that it is good, acceptable and perfect.” Colossians 3:2, “Keep thinking objectively about the above things [divine viewpoint], not the things on the earth [human viewpoint].”

e. Evil is a mental attitude. Men perform things that are called evil but evil is a mental attitude. Matthew 9:4, “And Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, Why are you thinking evil in your right lobes?” You think evil before you ever do evil. All evil is spawned from the thought pattern of the soul.

f. Arrogance is a mental attitude — Galatians 6:3, “For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”

So far in Philippians 3:15 we have, “Therefore as many as are mature [supergrace types], let us continue objective thinking” — supergrace is characterized by objective thinking —

“and if” — conditional particle ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] used as a conjunction, it introduces a first class condition with the indicative.

“in anything” is simply a nominative neuter indefinite pronoun tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] and it means “in anything at all.” The word “otherwise” is the adverb héteros (ἕτερος) [pronounced HEH-ter-os], meaning “differently.” It goes with the verb and it has to do with thinking.

“ye be minded” is the present active indicative of phroneô (φρονέω) [pronounced fron-EH-oh]. This time the adverb cancels the objectivity and merely shows that this is human viewpoint.

“God” — ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] qoej, “shall reveal,” future active indicative of apokaluptô (ἀποκαλύπτω) [pronounced ap-ok-al-OOP-toe], a gnomic future for a statement of fact or performance rightly expected under normal conditions in the daily function of GAP. God reveals all of our human viewpoint if we stay with it long enough — if we are patient, if we persist with the function of GAP; “even this” — we have the adjunctive use of kai plus the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos], meaning “this also.” Being in the nominative case it is the subject, not the object.; “unto you” is dative of indirect object.

Php 3:16 Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

In other words, to seize and hold the high ground of supergrace the believer must continue to take in the Word of God as a means of maintaining that objective.

The perpetuation of supergrace status is now given in the next verse, verse 16. “Nevertheless,” the adverb plhn used as a conjunction, meaning “however”; “whereto” is a prepositional phrase, eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative neuter singular of hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. Hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] is a relative pronoun used here in a rather unusual way. It means “However with reference to as far as”; “we have already attained” — the aorist active indicative of phthanô (φθάνω) [pronounced FTHAHN-oh], and it means to advance, to take an objective. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It gathers into one entirety all the function of GAP necessary to reach the point of supergrace. Now that he is there he gives a command for himself and for all believers.

“let us walk by the same rule” is wrong. This is the present active infinitive of stoicheô (στοιχέω) [pronounced stoy-KHEH-oh] and it means to advance in ranks, it means to submit yourself to discipline. It doesn’t mean that you are running by yourself or advancing, it means to advance in line of rank. The present tense is retroactive progressive, it denotes what has begun in the past and continues up to the present time — following the colours in ranks with other members of the royal family of God. Sitting in the auditorium means that we are in rank. What does it mean to be in ranks? First of all, it means that you are under authority. You are under the authority of the pastor-teacher, you are under the authority of academic discipline. You are in ranks. In rank means that you have an authority over you. That is why the local church is God’s classroom for the Church Age, and there will never be another. The YMCA was designed to combat the problems with denominations. Where are they today? You may like the person in authority and you may not. Doesn’t matter.

In a unit, the commanding officer gives an order, and they move as a unit. All kinds of men, liked and disliked, give orders and their unit advances.

People think that they must like their pastor. But that is not an issue. You have to learn under him. He has the authority. You can hate a person’s guts and still grow under him.

Bob would scan the congregation and wonder why some people stayed in Berachah; but they apparently don’t like Bob. That is because they have accepted his authority.

The infinitive is an imperative. “let us mind the same thing” is not in the original. “If you don’t like it here, we have exits all over the place.”

Philippians 3:16 “However with reference to as far as we have progressed [supergrace status], keep advancing in ranks.”

This is a command to seize and hold the high ground in supergrace.

Philippians 3:15 “Therefore as many as are mature [supergrace types], let us continue objective thinking [divine viewpoint with doctrine resident in the soul] and if you think differently in anything at all (and you do), this also the God will reveal to you for your benefit...”

Philippians 3:16 “However with reference to as far as we have progressed [supergrace status], keep advancing in ranks.”

1972 Hebrews Lesson #168

168 08/09/1974 Hebrews 11:13a Death; Nixon crisis

Bob participated in a memorial service. Bob never gets tired of looking at the flag. The red makes him think of those who died for their country, nobly, courageously. 48 stars were nice even rows.

Death never separates a family of believers. The respect for Commander King Cameron was clear. He dove into a target. What a wonderful way to leave this earth. There was no bitterness or rancor. That part of Bob’s day was really great.

Later, a double session. But later, he and Reese watched mostly imbecilic comments from the press. The seething, breathing self-righteousness; that rotten idiotic attitude, where the press has already dictated the approach of the new president should be. The stench of pettiness abroad in the land. Watergate stinks and it indicates that the average American is too naive to live. It was nothing more than a power grab.

There never was a president, outside of Teddy Roosevelt who shouldn’t have been impeached. We have not had any great leaders as presidents since FDR. Those with leadership dynamics and great strength never becomes a president. Too much power maneuvering. The greatness of this country has never been in the executive branch of the United States. The greatness of the United States has been in the individual family. The strength of this country is found in those members of our citizenry who have the inner resources from the Word of God. This is the great thrust, which is never seen. There are other families like that; families with the Word, with Bible doctrine.

Those men who are the commentators. They know nothing. They are confused.

Nixon will die eventually, as we all will. If the rapture takes place tomorrow, then Nixon will go up. News media will not keep him out. Life has not meaning for a man like that without doctrine in his soul.

These newscasters are self-righteous and they just tattle all of their lives. They will be miserable when they die.

Bob and a Little League team, and one of those who criticized Bobby and another kid. It is easy to criticize. Easy to criticize the President.

Nixon wanted to be known as a great peace president. So many of these men have a religious background. It is not the country, but it is their own legacy that concerns them. He gave wheat to Russia; he met with China.

He lost track that he was supposed to concern himself with the country.

For Bob, yesterday was a day of contrasts. The double session, visiting Mexico, coming back in time to see all the idiots on television.

These refers to those in Hebrews 11. Many wonderful and fantastic things. Abraham and Sarah has the best things in life. But at death, they had the greatest thing. Death for the supergrace believer is better than the best things in life. Dying is better than sex. Just put it down. A little bit too much for some of you right now.

Dying is terrible when life is terrible. Dying is worse for the reversionistic believer. Nothing worse. Nothing worse than the sin unto death.

Aristotle, you’re not really great unless you die well.

Living as a supergrace believer, if you live well, then dying will be better.

Verse 13 — “These” refers to the fact that all of them were believers, they had advanced to the high ground, they seized and held, they had their special SG2 paragraph, and in their special SG2 paragraph they had great sexual prosperity, great wealth, great leadership dynamics, many wonderful things. But at the point of dying they had something better. Death for the supergrace believer is better than the best things in life. If you die under supergrace the last part of your supergrace paragraph is dying blessing, and dying is better than anything in life.

“These all” — “these” is a nominative plural demonstrative pronoun from houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] and refers to something important in the context. “These all” are an historical demonstration of the fact that if you live well you will die better. The word “all” is the nominative plural of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs], indicating that they were in the same family. No family can be separated by death where all the family are believers, but these are all supergrace believers which means they all lived well and their death was better than their life; yet, their life was the best of everything.

Bob talking about an opera and a heavy woman with great voice, and she had to throw herself onto the couch. It was no reenforced and she broke it. She still stood up and sang the next song as no one had ever heard before. She took a gross error and turned it into something marvelous.

When you get to dying, then you have something that is phenomenal. Dying is better than living; and SG3 is greater than all.

“died” — the aorist active indicative of apothnêskô (ἀποθνήσκω) [pronounced op-ohth-NACE-koh] which refers to physical death, to transfer from time to eternity. The beautiful thing is that this family is united in heaven. Death did not separate this family. The aorist tense is the constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Life is preparation for dying. If you were to die today and it took, say, four hours to do so and all of that time you were rational and lucid, what you would have to say in those four hours would reflect the success or the failure of your life. The active voice indicates that only those who are supergrace believers can produce this action.

Jacob stood up at the throes of his death, and spoke great doctrine that would remain for several generations after that. Jacob is a field day for every failure a person has ever had. What a wonderful way to end his life.

Thomas Jonathan Jackson was a failure; he had a most unfortunate personality (laughter). He is the greatest man in our military history. He was dull and pedantic in his teaching. When the war came, he was not even considered for a general commission. He was lucky to become a colonel. In 6 months, he had personality conflicts with tons of other people. And his men could not stand it, because he was such a disciplinarian. Only Jeb Stuart liked him, and they were very different people.

We learn from his death that he was premillennial. He had a great time in dying grace. “Let us cross over the river and rest under the shade of the tree.” All of life is preparation for death.

4 hours of fence mending will be how some of you will die. Tell so-and-so that I love them. If you spend that time apologizing, then you die with full regrets. You want to die without regrets.

If you follow the colors to the high ground; if you seize and hold, there will be no regrets. Dying will be better than living. Only those who are supergrace can produce this action. These all died in faith...

“in faith” — in doctrine, or according to the norm or standard of doctrine. That is the way to die without regrets — katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the accusative of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] which means according to the norm or standard of doctrine resident in the soul. There is only one way to prepare for dying and that is to have doctrine resident in the soul. When doctrine triumphs in your life Jesus Christ triumphs in your life. When Jesus Christ triumphs in your life it is because you have reached supergrace and you are occupied with the person of Christ. The great issue is that doctrine might triumph in your life. Dessert comes last; and death is like desert. God designed death to be better than life. That is the issue. This is only possible through Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

While dying, would you be kicking yourself or would you enjoy it. For the unbeliever, dying is the next step to judgment.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #169

169 08/11/1974 Hebrews 11:13b Doctrine of dying grace (pt. 1–8)

The word “supergrace” has become a technical theological word which describes the spiritual maturity of the believer. The word “super” is simply a corrected translation of the word “more” in James 4:6. When it says “he giveth more grace” the Greek word mean greater or super. “Super” is above and beyond the grace provision provided for ever member of the royal family starting at salvation. The moment we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the moment we receive Him as Savior, we come under the principle of saving grace. Under this principle God provides for us the most wonderful things related to salvation, a salvation which is so great that it is permanent and cannot be removed from us by our actions, the action of God, or the action of angels. All the power of heaven and earth cannot take away one person’s salvation. Then we move to living grace where God has provided everything to keep us alive in the devil’s world — alive and often healthy and well. He has also provided for us everything necessary whereby we might advance to the status of supergrace or spiritual maturity. He has provided the text book of the Word of God which is preserved for us forever. He has provided for us the gift of pastor-teacher, and through His faithfulness and His provision mean who have this spiritual gift at the point of salvation are inevitably prepared to teach faithfully the Word of God to a specific congregation. Then He has provided also the classroom which is the local church. It is only within the assembly of the local church that the Word is taught by an authorized teacher — the gift of pastor-teacher — and people in their exposure to doctrine make their spiritual advance. The advance is extremely important because as goes the spiritual maturity of any generation of believers so goes the history of that particular generation in any geographical location of this world. As goes the supergrace type so goes the course of history for that generation and sometimes even the influence, the impact on the next.

These other organizations do not have the authority or the local church; nor does their leader have the gift of pastor teacher. Only in the local church do people advance.

It is supergrace which is important for a number of reasons. First of all, because supergrace means the greatest blessings that you as a believer can have in this life. Furthermore, supergrace means a variety of blessings for each one of us as believers. The temporal blessings that accompany your paragraph SG2 are variable and no two believers have exactly the same but all have maximum blessing. However, there is one thing that all supergrace believers do have in common and that is occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. Beyond occupation with Christ there is a great deal of variety until we come to the point of dying. While the point of dying will vary with each one of us dying as an experience is better than anything in life for the supergrace believer only. For those who are in supergrace at the point of death there is a special blessing in dying, a blessing that is superior to anything in life.

Sin unto death is the most painful and most disgraceful experience for the believer in time. Our attitude towards Bible doctrine is the key as to which death we might have.

“these not having received” — the aorist middle participle of komízō (κομίζω) [pronounced kohm-IHD-zoh] indicates that there was something they did not have in time. [The manuscripts differ when it comes to this verb.] As a matter of fact what they did not have in time was reserved for them in eternity. The verb means to receive, as translated. The aorist tense is a constative aorist and contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, all of the time that they were on the high ground of supergrace having wonderful blessings there is something that they could not possess as long as they were in time. They could not possess certain eternal blessings, blessings under paragraph SG3, i.e. certain things that we have forever and ever which distinguish us from other people who have eternal life. Remember there are class distinctions in eternity even as there are class distinctions in time. However, the class distinctions of eternity are based on grace, upon spiritual factors. The reversionistic believer does not have special blessings in eternity. He is there is a resurrection body, minus human good, minus the old sin nature, and also minus SG3 and all of its implications. The middle voice here is a direct middle, it refers the results of the action directly to the agent so that the agent participates in the results of the action — not having any surpassing grace. We have a circumstantial participle which means that neither Abraham nor any of the other patriarchs ever received any of their SG3 blessings in time. This sets a precedent. No supergrace believer ever receives his surpassing grace blessings in time.

“the promises” — the accusative plural of the direct object epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah] which refers here to SG3. So literally we have, “not having received the surpassing grace promises.” However, the next word is a conjunction that indicates the fact that while we have not received and cannot receive SG3 in time we can at least anticipate some of the things that are coming. The conjunction allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH] says “All right, so you can’t have phase three blessings but you can know that they are there.

We had a balance between farming and rural with city living. There is no longer such a balance. Legislature has destroyed farming and there are government controls over the farms.

We do not have a prepared military. And the press represents the welfare state and they dictate policy. Our Constitution remains intact providing a balance of power.

We get our constitutional interpretation from the media. Our government is set up to be anti-welfare state as much as it is anti-monarchy. Communist phrases for aggrandizement. Once industry goes under, there will be no way to reverse.

If you are in supergrace, then you might enjoy the greatest sex; but then dying grace will be better than the best sex; and surpassing grace will be even greater than all of those.

Rome has 500 years as a republic and then 500 years as an empire makes for a great many applications and illustrations. Regardless of the circumstances, the believer still had the best set of circumstances.

Abraham through doctrine could look down the corridors of time and see even greater things in his future. Supergrace status perpetuated in time gives the perspective of something greater in dying and even better in eternity.

“but having seen” — this is where Bible doctrine adds an additional blessing. As you have inside of your soul maximum doctrine and the filling of the Holy Spirit giving you a balance of residency you not only have the capacity to enjoy SG2, you not only have the preparation for dying, but you have the ability to look out into eternity and to see the reality of the eternal future. You have the ability through Bible doctrine to see the next action after the Rapture of the Church — the function of the Tribulation, the end of the Jewish Age, the second advent of Jesus Christ, the ability to understand the Millennium and all Millennial passages, and not to confuse them with anything in the present.

The culminative aorist of horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] means that Abraham, through doctrine, could look down the corridors of time and anticipate even greater blessings. The entirety was seizing and holding the high ground of supergrace. The culminative aorist looks at the existing results, something better in dying and something better for phase three or all eternity. The principle is that supergrace status perpetuated in time gives the perspective of something better in dying and something better than the best for all eternity in paragraph SG3. Abraham, because he had so much doctrine in his soul, could actually look forward an anticipate these things. The participle is circumstantial for a believer who seized and held supergrace until his death and always anticipated something greater for eternity even though he had the best in time.

“them” — the accusative plural from the intensive pronoun autos which always emphasizes something in the context. That which is emphasized here are the surpassing grace blessings. It should be translated “but having seen the same blessings.”

“afar off” — the adverb porrhôthen (πόῤῥωθεν) [pronounced POHR-rho-then] means in the future, in the unseeable future, we can anticipate a certain category of life, great blessing. So from the high ground of supergrace Abraham could look over and see surpassing grace and see a wonderful transfer.

The next phrase, “and were persuaded of them” is not found in the original. It is true but not found here. “and embraced them” — aspazomai (ἀσπάζομαι) [pronounced as-PAD-zom-ahee] which means to salute and embrace. It means at the beginning of dying there is the salute. He anticipates by a salute, he embraces which is the reality of having it. This is the constative aorist, the salute and the embrace gathered up into one entirety making a constative type aorist. A constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety.

“and confessed” — the aorist active participle of homologeô (ὁμολογέω) [pronounced hoh-moh-loh-GEH-oh]. It doesn’t mean to confess, it means to acknowledge. This is a dramatic aorist, it is a great idiom for emphasis, and it states that Abraham in supergrace came to realize there was even something better waiting for him in eternity and the means of transfer was going to be greater than anything that he had in life.

“that” — hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee], this is a conjunction which is used for verbs of thinking or conclusion and sometimes it is merely translated “quote”.

“they were those who thought differently [not “strangers” but those who had divine viewpoint] and transients [not “pilgrims”] on the earth.”

These last two phrases mean that the best came to Abraham in life. And since he had the best in life and there was something better he realized that he was just a transient in life.

Hebrews 11:13 According to doctrine resident in the soul all these died [under the principle of dying grace], not having received surpassing grace promises, but having seen the same from a distance, and having saluted and embraced them, also having acknowledged that they were strangers and transients [passing through from grace to grace] on the earth.

Dying grace here has been revised.

The Doctrine of Dying Grace (revised)

1. Categories of death in the Bible. There are at least seven different categories of biblical death.

a. Spiritual — separation from God in time. This is the fact that we are born spiritually dead.

b. Physical death — the human soul leaves the body.

c. The second death or the final judgement of the unbeliever and fallen angels. John 3:18 Those who have been judged already. Rev. 20:12–14

d. Operational death or the believer’s failure to produce divine good — James 2:26.

e. Positional death. This is part of the baptism of the Spirit whereby the believer is identified retroactively with Christ on the cross, therefore he rejects human good and he is identified currently with Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father. We are in union with Christ, we share His eternal life, His righteousness, His sonship, His heirship, election, destiny, everything.

f. Temporal death, the believer out of fellowship through personal sin.

g. Sexual death — Hebrews 11:11,12.

2. Bible comments about physical death in general.

a. Death is associated with ending revolution — Numbers 16:25–31.

b. Death is always a matter of the sovereignty of God based upon His perfect character — Psalm 68:19–20.

c. Love is stronger than death — Song of Solomon 8:6. Category #2 love is involved there.

d. God can and does prolong life under certain circumstances — Psalm 102:19–20, 23–24; 118:18; Proverbs 14:27.

e. Women must be taught to face the death of loved ones, the woman being a responder in her soul — Jeremiah 9:20–25.

f. The sin unto death does not bring glory to God — Isaiah 38:18.

g. Death cannot be faced when the norms, standards function of the right lobe is destroyed — Lamentations 1:19–20. This is the characteristic of a reversionistic believer.

h. Dying grace is a promotion for the believer — Philippians 1:21.

i. God provides dying grace — Amos 5:8.

j. God delivers the believer from death — Job 5:20; Psalm 33:19 56:13 116:8.

3. Definition of dying grace.

a. Dying grace is the death of a mature/supergrace believer.

b. It is the means of transferring the supergrace believer into eternity.

c. Therefore dying grace is the experience of physical death under special blessing, the special provision of grace whereby dying is greater than living. This implies minimum pain, maximum happiness, maximum soul stimulation, maximum utilization of resident doctrine, and maximum blessing so that dying becomes better than anything you had in life. This is the ultimate in departure from this life. Reference to Socrates and Plato (Bob mistakenly said Aristotle before).

4. Dying grace is the missing link. There is a relationship between supergrace blessings in time and surpassing grace blessings in eternity or SG3. Dying grace is the missing link between the two, it is the way in which the transfer is made.

5. Dying grace is for the supergrace believer — Psalm 33:18–19.

6. Dying grace removes fear from death — Psalm 23:4.

7. Dying grace, therefore, is a supergrace blessing — Psalm 116:15.

8. Dying grace is the bridge between supergrace blessing and surpassing grace blessing — Hebrews 11:13 2Tim. 4:7–8.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #170

170 08/11/1974 Hebrews 11 Doctrine of dying grace (points 9-14)

What does death mean to the living unbeliever? We will all die, with the exception of those alive during the rapture of the church. Death is a reminder to be prepared. There is only one preparation for death, and that is to believe in Jesus Christ.

For the believer, the preparation for death is the constant intake of Bible doctrine. There is no insulation from the principle of death. For some people, death may take a long time; and others may be short. The longer it takes to die, the more important it is prepare through learning Bible doctrine.

Many of us have enjoyed certain events in life; but we may develop negative attitudes towards the person we shared that event with, and we lose that pleasant memory.

All of the wonderful memories a person has disappear at death. At death, there is nothing but regret.

For the believer, death means many wonderful things. There is blessing as a result of doctrine accumulated in the soul. The supergrace life are blessings for us and glory to God. No matter how great the blessings are in life, the blessing of dying grace is greater. The supergrace believer will leave behind those who love him.

Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift. Our departure from this life is a good gift. As a supergrace believer is a good gift to someone in this world. There will be those who truly love him and truly appreciate him.

Job had an answer for it. He knew that God blessed him with these children. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord. Every gift that we have is a gfit from God. The death of loved ones are those we will see in eternity forever.

The Doctrine of Dying Grace (revised) (Continued)

9. The importance of seizing and holding the high ground of supergrace. In the first eight principles of dying grace we have seen how important it is to be in the supergrace status at the point of physical death. The importance of seizing and holding the high ground of supergrace is related to the plan of God in eternity past. In eternity past under the concept of the doctrine of divine decrees God knew about each one of us. He designed some special paragraphs of blessing to give us the maximum that time and eternity have to offer, but they are also designed to glorify God to the maximum. Maximum glory comes to God by way of the fulfilment of these paragraphs. The one who has SG2 glorifies God in time. The blessing that we receive in SG2 is incidental. Under SG2 the first category of blessing is spiritual blessing, and spiritual blessing means occupation with the person of Christ, sharing the happiness of God, the completion of and ECS, resident doctrine to meet every exigency of life. And then with that we have temporal blessings, and this often becomes a motivator to people but it is a false motivator — to take in doctrine so you can be promoted or very wealthy or successful, etc. All of these things are incidental and God is glorified by giving these things, and there is where the emphasis lies in the glorification of God Himself. Then the third category has to do with dying, so that dying grace is a blessing of supergrace, the greatest blessing in supergrace, the highest blessing of supergrace. But these special blessing are all designed to glorify God, and the link between these two paragraphs, the one that puts the two of them together, is dying grace. So dying grace is described as a bridge going from time to eternity. Dying grace may be seen as the hallway between SG2 and SG3. Therefore the key to everything is being able to seize and hold the supergrace life or to maintain the stability of spiritual maturity. They key there, of course, is continued positive volition toward Bible doctrine.

a. Philippians 3:12–14 is the passage which goes with point 9. “I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.” Not that I have concluded that I have before now received supergrace status, nor have I before now reached the objective [the high ground of supergrace]; now then I keep pressing that also I might seize and hold the high ground, on account of which high ground of supergrace also I was seized and held by Christ [the doctrine of divine decrees]. Royal family, I evaluate myself as not yet to have seized and held the high ground [of supergrace]: but one thing on which I concentrate, forgetting what lies behind but pressing toward the objective [what lies before, the high ground of supergrace]. I keep advancing to the objective for the purpose of reward belonging to the upward station of life from the God in Christ Jesus.

b. That refers to the doctrine of divine decrees. In eternity past we were seized and held by Christ Jesus, so that we have these special blessings paragraphs from millions of years ago.

10. The relationship between supergrace and surpassing grace, then, is found in dying grace. We live to reach supergrace, we die to get to surpassing grace. Hebrews 11:13.

11. The exceptions to dying grace.

a. The disciplinary exception which is known as the sin unto death. This discipline is the exception to dying grace, it includes maximum misery and pressure in time and only increased misery and pressure for the dying stage leading to eternity. And once the believer reaches eternity he has nothing to show for his life on the earth. He has not glorified God in time, he will have no special blessings in eternity by which God is glorified. He is minus SG3 as he was minus SG2, and therefore the transition between time and eternity is of the utmost pain, misery, horror, disaster, everything that is monstrous.

b. The transfer without dying — Enoch in Hebrews 11:5,6. Hebrews 11:5–6 By means of doctrine resident in the soul Enoch was transferred with the result that he should not see death; and he was not found, because the God had transferred him: for before his transfer he had attained the testimony in the past, with the result that the deposition stood, that he had pleased God. And without doctrine resident in the soul it is impossible to please God; for when one is occupied with the God he must be convinced by resident doctrine in the soul that he is [that God is the source of blessing essence and Trinity], and that He Himself becomes a rewarder to those who diligently seek Him.

c. The Rapture generation which will depart from this life without seeing death. The Rapture generation is interesting because at the time of the Rapture there will be supergrace believers, those who have seized and held the high ground and have enjoyed paragraph SG2. They will be transferred to eternity and SG3 by way of the Rapture. The question is not what about the supergrace types, but what about the reversionists, the carnal types, those who are not on the high ground. The answer is they are blessed by association and they, too, go into eternity and their status in eternity with regard to blessing is dependent upon the same principles in time. There is no such thing as a partial rapture.

12. The description of dying grace. Job 5:19-27 has a great deal to say about living and dying and dying grace.

a. Job 5:19–22 He will deliver you from six troubles; in seven no evil shall touch you. In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword. You shall be hidden from the lash of the tongue [social deliverance], and shall not fear destruction [or, violent death] when it comes. At destruction and famine you shall laugh, and shall not fear the beasts of the earth. We have a number of areas where economic disaster is ready. When the balloon goes up, the doctrine in your soul is what will help you. It is doctrine which is going to make the difference. We will be delivered from the economic disaster. “I am depending upon social security.” There isn’t enough money to pay for SS.

b. Job 5:23 For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you. There is no weapon of destruction that will take you before it is your time. When it is time for you to go, you will go.

c. Job 5:24–25 You shall know that your tent is at peace, and you shall inspect your fold and miss nothing. You shall know also that your offspring shall be many, and your descendants as the grass of the earth.

d. Job 5:26 You shall come to your grave in ripe old age, like a sheaf gathered up in its season. People, when you are beginning to die, really are unable to say anything helpful; and it never is.

e. Job 5:27 Behold, this we have searched out; it is true. Hear, and know it for your good.”

13. Dying grace therefore is an advance on supergrace — Philippians 1:20,21. “To die is gain” — SG3. You adjust to the living, so that it is not difficult for them when you die.

14. Dying grace can be accomplished in several ways. There are basically three ways.

a. The maintenance of supergrace until death, and this places dying grace in SG2 paragraph. This is the normal way for the supergrace believer to be transferred to eternity. It is a part of the supergrace blessing, it is the last one on earth and the best. It also, therefore, makes dying better than any blessing in time.

b. A PCS (permanent change of station) from time to eternity, but this time the PCS is accomplished as a part of the paragraph SG3. This is the case of Enoch.

c. The transfer from time to eternity by means of resurrection. This is the Rapture case.

Bob does not think much of trophy hunters. Most animals often, if given a chance, go off to die alone.

I am not completely sure where these next 2 paragraphs come from. This is where they exist in the notes of the person that I have been using.

To the unbeliever death is a reminder to be prepared. There is only one preparation for death and this is the important decision of life by which we come to accept Christ as Savior. Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ prepares that individual for death in the sense that he will have a resurrection body, that he will have the privilege of living forever in the presence of God. Therefore death is settled by that decision. However, because of the doctrine of surpassing grace and because of the special blessing concept it does become necessary to recognize that for the believer the preparation for death is the constant intake of Bible doctrine, the principle of residency of doctrine in the soul. For the unbeliever the death of others is a reminder of the shortness of time and that time hangs by a very fine thread, a thread that can be snapped at any moment for any one of us. Therefore it becomes important to constantly take in doctrine. Life is a constant preparation for death. Death, therefore, becomes the desert for the supergrace believer. Death is also a reminder of the futility of gain in this life — the futility of profit, the futility of human celebrityship, the futility of everything that is considered important in life — for once a person begins to die all of these things fade away and only eternal things count. Mark 8:36,37.

The death that we are studying is dying grace, something which is fantastic because it sets aside all of the horrors of death. It is a greater blessing than any blessing in life because of who and what Christ is and because of His magnificent provision in the written Word. Death means for us many wonderful things. It means that we have an inheritance which is “incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for us who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.” Death means fur us, therefore, blessing, for doctrine resident in the soul accumulated day in and day out leads to the supergrace life, and the supergrace life is a life of special blessings designed for you in eternity past — not just special blessings for you but glory for God, for in giving you these blessings under supergrace status it is God who is glorified, we are the beneficiaries. No matter how great are the blessings in life under SG2 the blessing of dying is much, much greater. But from the standpoint of those who are left behind it is inevitable that a supergrace believer will leave behind those who love him. Therefore there is the principle of James 1:18, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. ”The perfect gift here is the Lord Jesus Christ who provides for us in living as well as dying, as well as eternity. He is so described as a gift — John 3:16. The gift is described in relationship to the cross in Romans 6:23. So we as believers respond as per 2Corinthians 9:15 — “Thanks be unto God [the Father] for his unspeakable gift.” And because of this gift and because we have received this gift, and because we have followed the colours to the high ground, then we recognize that our departure from this life is described as a good gift. If you are a supergrace believer it means that you are a good gift to someone in this world. It is inevitable that a supergrace believer will have those in his periphery who dearly love him and totally appreciate him, and therefore he is the good gift. And the departure from this life of that good gift. When God sees fit to take any gift from us by physical death it is always a reminder to us of many things. It is a reminder that for the believer time and eternity are only a temporary separation and that the death of loved ones isn’t the end of anything for we will see them forever and ever and ever in eternity. Loved ones cannot be separated by death because of who and what Christ is.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #171

171 08/12/1974 Hebrews 11 via Phil. 3:17–18 Doctrines of walking, enemyship

Philippians 3:17 Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.

Philippians 3:17–18

Verses 17–21 are related to the next section of Hebrews 11. Verse 17 — the first word is a vocative referring to the royal family of God, “Brethren,” related to the Church Age context refers to those who are members of the royal family. The word to “be” is a present active imperative of the verb ginomai and means to become. It means to become something generally that you are not in the present imperative. The customary present here is for what may be reasonably expected to occur if you stay with doctrine. If you continue in Bible doctrine, if you persist no matter what, if you are faithful in positive volition toward the Word then it is inevitable that you will reach supergrace.

Saturday night at the movies story.

“followers together” — the nominative plural of summimêtês (συμμιμητής) [pronounced soom-mim-ay-TACE], it means “co-imitators.” The active voice of the verb “to become” refers to the royal family, any believer. The imperative is a command and the predicate nominative “co-imitators” means that Paul is following the colours and he wants the rest of the royal family to join him in this action. The apostle Paul, like all of us who reach the high ground, achieved or attained supergrace status by constantly living in the Word, intake of doctrine on a consistent basis. And so when he uses the word co-imitators he is referring to the fact that all of us, including apostles or who appears to be truly great, has reached the high ground exactly the same way. The apostle Paul sets himself up as an example under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit when he uses the genitive singular of the personal pronoun egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH]. This is an objective genitive and it is correctly translated “of me.” “Members of the royal family, be co-imitators of me.” This is a reference back to Philippians 3:12–14 where the apostle has now arrived now again on the high ground of supergrace and intends to hold at all costs. He is not going to fail again. And in this he asks that each generation of the royal family joins him in this action. As a matter of fact God the Holy Spirit so directed him to use this order in order that we, some nineteen hundred years later can follow this same command and this same principle.

There are certain believers who move ahead. It is all right to observe these believers provided you have the doctrine to make a proper reconnaissance and provided you are not nosy and trying to judge someone.

The word “mark” is the present active imperative skopéō (σκοπέω) [pronounced skohp-EH-oh] which means to make a reconnaissance, to “scope out.” We will translate it “keep observing.” The word “them” is the accusative plural of the definite article and it refers to believers who seize and hold the high ground. The definite article is actually used here as a demonstrative pronoun. The definite article can be used as personal pronoun, a demonstrative pronoun, a possessive pronoun or an intensive pronoun.

“which walk” — it is just like when there are people are up ahead of you advancing, just simply follow them. We have a present active participle of the verb peripateô (περιπατέω) [pronounced per-ee-paht-EH-oh], used here for the believer who reaches the high ground, seizes and holds it, as per the principle of Philippians 3:12–14. The present tense is retroactive progressive, it denotes what is begun in the past and continues to the present time. They have reached the high ground, they are seizing and holding. The active voice: the supergrace believer produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial for supergrace living.

The adverb which comes up next is houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos], “in this way.” The adverb is really not translated; “so as” is literally, “even as.”

“ye have” — the present active indicative of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh]. Retroactive progressive present denoting again what has begun in the past and continues to the present time. The royal family produces the action of the verb by reaching the high ground and becomes an example, The declarative mood is for historical reality in every generation; “us” refers to Paul, Timothy, and Epaphroditus mentioned in Philippians 2:17–30. The word for “example” is tupos (τύπος) [pronounced TOO-poss], a part of a double accusative an means “pattern” here.

Philippians 3:17 Members of the royal family of God, become co-imitators of me, and keep observing those who keep walking in this way, even as you keep having us for a pattern.

Most of the time, you say, “Use me as an example,” you immediately fall flat on your face.

The point is: Follow the pattern of those who expose themselves to the teaching of the Word of God. It does not mean to imitate their lives, imitate their peculiarities. You follow people in their walk into church for Bible doctrine.

Bob braces the gals behind the glass.

The Doctrine of Walking

1. Definition. Walking is a literal activity of life in which most members of the human race have so engaged that it does not need explanation, except where the scripture is concerned. Bob gives a very physical definition of walking. Actually, the mechanics of walking became the basis for another use of the Greek verb. It becomes an analogy to the believer living in the devil’s world during the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. While the Hebrew also uses the word for other dispensations it does mean pattern of life, lifestyle, and it does refer to function, progress, advance of the believer in phase two.

2. Nomenclature. There are three Greek words and one Hebrew word.

a. The Hebrew verb is hâlak^e (הָלַךְ) [pronounced haw-LAHK^e], used many times not for someone literally walking somewhere but for someone’s pattern of life.

b. The Greek words which are used for the royal family include peripateô (περιπατέω) [pronounced per-ee-paht-EH-oh] which refers to lifestyle, and as such it is used for the modus operandi of the royal family of God in time.

c. There is another word translated “walk” which is not quite correct, though very close — stoicheô (στοιχέω) [pronounced stoy-KHEH-oh], often translated “walk” but it means a certain type of walking, it means marching. It means marching in ranks, marching as a part of a military organization. it can be translated “walk” provided that you understand the disciplinary connotation involved. It is used in Romans 4:12; Galatians 5:25; 6:16; Philippians 3:16. Wherever it is so used it does refer to lifestyle but it refers to lifestyle under a principle of authority and under the pattern of self-discipline.

d. The third word is one of those words that we have taken from the Greek and has now become and English word — orthopodeô (ὀρθοποδέω) [pronounced or-thop-od-EH-oh]. Here is where we get the word “orthopedics.” The word is used in Galatians 2:14. It not only means to walk but it means to walk straight. Orthos means straight and podeô is “foot.” All three of these words are used in the New testament for the lifestyle, for the function, for the modus operandi of the believer, for the modus vivendi of the believer.

3. Walking depicts the believer living his life in relationship to Bible doctrine. it depicts the believer living his life is relationship to Bible doctrine — Ephesians 5:8. To be the children of light or light’s children means to be walking by means of doctrine. 3 John 3 — “I was very glad when the brethren came and made a deposition regarding your doctrine, how you are walking in doctrine.” Walking in doctrine refers to living your life by means of doctrine resident in the soul.

4. Walking, therefore, becomes a synonym for the lifestyle of the royal family in the devil’s world — Romans 13:13, “Let us keep walking as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.”

5. Walking is related to the function of GAP, the intake of doctrine — Colossians 1:10. “That you might walk worthy of the Lord” — that is taking in doctrine on a daily basis — “pleasing God in all things” — We have learned from Hebrews 11:6 that we please God with maximum doctrine resident in the soul — “constantly producing in the sphere of good work” — all genuine and divine good production comes from Bible doctrine in the soul. You must be motivated by the Word but the Word has to be inside of you before the motivation can occur — “constantly receiving growth by means of the epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis] [doctrine in the soul] from the source of the God.”

a. Colossians 2:6 says, “As you have received to yourselves the Christ Jesus the Lord, keep on walking in him.” In other words, you receive Him on the basis of information you have in your soul called the Gospel. The Gospel is a part of doctrine. You had this information on the inside and you acted on it, and that is the way you are to walk as a believer — doctrine in the soul making your decisions. Your actions your thought patterns, your production, everything is motivated by and based on resident doctrine in the soul.

6. Walking is related to faith or non-meritorious positive volition. 2Corinthians 5:7 — “We walk by faith and not by sight.” The life pattern of the believer is based, on faith or doctrine and is not based upon human viewpoint.

7. Walking describes the function of the filling of the Spirit. Romans 8:2–4, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, the God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for a sin offering, condemned sin in the flesh: in order that the requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but walk according to the Spirit.” In other words, walking is used in Romans 8:4 to indicate either the Holy Spirit controlling your life or the old sin nature. If the old sin nature controls your life the area of weakness produces sins, the area of strength produces human good, and the lust pattern produces motivation. This is called walking according to the flesh. But if the Holy Spirit controls, then you have a different type of production. This is called walking in the Spirit.

8. Walking describes the supergrace status — Philippians 3:17. See also Romans 6:4; Ephesians 4:1.

9. Walking describes reversionism — Ephesians 4:17,18.

Philippians 3:18 For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Philippians 3:18 For many keep walking, of whom I keep on telling you many times—now I even tell you weeping—they are the enemies of the cross, whose end is destruction [sin unto death], whose God their emotions [holy rollers] whose glory, their dishonor, having the mental attitude of human viewpoint.

This prepares us now for Philippians 3:18 and 19, a warning against slipping back into reversionism. The apostle Paul has slipped into reversionism, had lost his hold on the high ground of supergrace, and therefore he feels that it is fitting to warn others about the same situation.

Verse 18 — “For” is an explanatory use of the particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] which indicates the necessity of holding the high ground once you reach it. You can’t let up the intake of doctrine because you have reached supergrace or obtained maturity, and Paul now states the fact by way of an explanatory particle.

“many” refers to a large number of believers who reached the high ground only to fall back into reversionism. It is the nominative masculine plural of polus, polos (πολύς, πολλός) [pronounced poll-OOS]. The word “walked” is the present active indicative of peripateô (περιπατέω) [pronounced per-ee-paht-EH-oh]. The present tense indicates these people remained in reversionism at the time that Paul writes. They have failed, gone into reversionism, and they stay there. They are in different stages of reversionism. The active voice: believers who were once very close to the top or had reached supergrace have now reverted and in their reversionism they are producing another type of action. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that every person who has ever prayed for a “first-century, old fashioned Holy Ghost revival,” who wanted to go back to the way things were as of Pentecost thought that at that time they always had the rosy glow, all on fire, and they were all great believers, didn’t get that from the Bible but had heard it from someone who had said it elsewhere. In the first century there was widespread reversionism actually.

“of whom” is literally, “concerning whom”; “I have told you” — Paul is now saying “I told you so.” He says it every now and then. “I have told” is the imperfect active indicative of the verb légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] which means to speak, to say, to tell, to communicate. “Concerning whom I kept saying” — the imperfect tense of duration means linear aktionsart in past time. Paul had told them again and again and again.

“many times” — pollakis (πολλάκις) [pronounced pohl-LAHK-iss]. Frequently and patiently the apostle Paul warned the royal family about reversionism and its consequences. Then he adds rather slyly, “and now,” the adverb of time nun plus the conjunctive particle de. He is enjoying this and savouring it. The attack of Judaism and reversionism on the Philippian church made it necessary to repeat his warning again.

“I tell you” — present active indicative of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. He is going to tell them again. He is not satisfied with telling them many times in the past. They have failed in this area and therefore he is now about to lower the boom on them again, only this time he is going to tell them weeping. However, you have to remember that he was writing at the time. This, by the way, is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. This is not linear aktionsart, this is an aoristic present tense which means he is not going to keep crying the rest of his life and he is not going to keep telling them the rest of his life. They have one last chance. Principle: You will be warned about something many times and then the time will come when you are beyond warning. It is that “beyond warning” that you have to watch very, very carefully. And why do you get beyond warning? Because you have ceased to concentrate, you have ceased under the ministry of the Holy Spirit to take it in, to recognize the importance of doctrine. So the aoristic present means there is one more time he is going to warn them. The active voice: he is going to be faithful in warning them. The indicative mood: he is going to do it come hell or high water.

Bob in his younger days, would counsel, and he’d quote Scripture, and they would have said, “I’ve heard that before.” Or, “I know that.” They’ve heard it all before. Bob one day realized that he was wasting their time and they were wasting his. Doctrine resident in the soul is the solution to our own problems. We are royalty. We don’t search out peasants and ask them how to live our life.

When you lean on someone else who has doctrine, then they become your crutch.

“you” is not found in the original manuscript, it is put in to smooth out the translation; “and now even weeping,” the present active participle of klaiô (κλαίω) [pronounced KLAH-yoh]. And this is an historical present to indicate he actually wept as he did it. The historical present views the past event with the vividness of a present occurrence.

Bob knew how to hit someone to make them mad. Some get so angry that they weep. A guy that Bob fought several times did that. He would attempt to get his opponent mad at him. When they are mad, the forget everything.

Now we must have an explanation for his weeping since it is in the Word of God. Why bother to put it in? Why is he crying? Weeping here is an emotional compassion plus just a wee bit of frustration. Paul has talked his heart out, as it were, and was seeing very little response from these people to whom this was originally written. He is weeping to think that they had been exposed to all of the warnings, all of the safeguards against going into reversionism, but it didn’t keep them from doing it. “Even now weeping I tell you” — Paul was a man of compassion. Paul wanted these people to move on to the high ground, to have God’s happiness, to share the great things that are for all believers on the high ground. The tears of Paul obviously dramatize and emphasize the failure of the Galatians and the Corinthians in the field of reversionism.

Then we have to add something not found in the English, but is in the Greek — “they make themselves the enemies of the cross.” They are the enemies of the cross, that is true, but that isn’t what it says here. They make themselves the enemies of the cross. They do it with their own free will, they do it with their attitude toward doctrine. You make yourself God’s enemy when you go negative toward Bible doctrine. The word for “enemy” is the accusative plural direct object, the noun is echthros (ἐχθρός) [pronounced ehkh-THROSS] which means very definitely reversionism and very definite antagonism toward grace things. The cross is the epitome of grace and they are antagonistic toward anything that is grace oriented.

“the cross of Christ” — a possessive genitive to make a distinction. There were many crosses in the history of the Roman empire and during the period of the Roman republic. This is a specific cross, the cross of Christ. The same idea of the reversionist being the enemy of God is found in 1Samuel 28:16 where Saul receives the rebuke from Samuel when Samuel comes back from the dead. Samuel said, “Why then do you ask me since the Lord has departed from you and he has become your enemy.” All Samuel did when he came back to talk to Saul was say, “Saul you are the enemy of God.” All of us in reversionism are the enemies of God. To the extent that you have neglected Bible doctrine you are God’s enemy.

The Doctrine of Enemyship (2)

1. Definition. The Bible specifies by categories certain stated hostilities, certain alienations whereby two parties are estranged. This becomes the basis of communicating doctrine. The word “enemy” is used to teach various categories of doctrine, and the irreconcilable enmity is stated by use of nouns such as “enemy, adversary” and so on. The word “enemy” is used to portray certain aspects of Bible doctrine.

2. Satan and fallen angels are the enemy of the believer. Satan, as the ruler of this world, is your enemy. So you not only have a powerful enemy but you have an unseen enemy. Satan has a great organization of demons. It is the demons who spend a great deal of time trying to hinder the believer from getting to the high ground of supergrace and trying to pitch of the high ground those who reach the objective. 1Timothy 5:14; 1Peter 5:8 — “Be stabilized.” Being stabilized is one of the greatest protections against the unseen enemies, the demons. Stability means maximum doctrine in the soul, for doctrine resident in the soul is the stabilizer of the believer.

3. Demons are not only your enemies but obviously they are the enemies of God — 1Corinthians 15:25; Hebrews 10:13.

4. Unbelievers are the enemies of God — Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21.

5. Both categories of enemies of God, demons and unbelievers, are to be judged by the lake of fire — Hebrews 10:27.

6. The carnal believer is the enemy of God — Romans 8:7,8.

7. God is the enemy of the reversionistic believer — 1Samuel 28:16.

8. The reversionistic believer is the enemy of God — James 4:4, “you adulteresses” .All reversionists are females in their souls. You appoint yourself an enemy of God by being a lover of the world.

9. The reversionistic believer is the enemy of the cross — Philippians 3:18.

10. The pastor who counters legalism with the truth [doctrine] is considered the enemy of the legalist — Galatians 4:16: Have I therefore become your enemy by telling you the truth?

1972 Hebrews Lesson #172

172 08/13/1974 Hebrews 11 via Phil. 3:19-21 Doctrine of the sin unto death; 4 characteristics of reversionism

Philippians 3:19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.

Philippians 3:19-21

Verse 19 describes four of the characteristics of reversionism. The Philippian believers were retired Roman military types, women involved in business, a very unusual congregation, primarily Gentile, in a Roman colony. Because they were Roman citizens and had certain privileges in the empire they were not naive at all. However, Paul recognizes that the debacle in Corinth and among the Galatian churches means that everyone has a blind spot. There are two normal ways in which people can be deceived: a) being naive; b) to have some blind spot in life. And really, the four characteristics of reversionism which are given here are to cover a blind spot in these otherwise very wise believers of the Philippians congregation.

The first of these is that the reversionist transfers from time to eternity by means of maximum discipline, by means of the sin unto death. So it doesn’t pay to be a reversionist, God sees to it. Just as God is glorified as we are blessed under SG2, so God is not glorified by having to transfer from time to eternity a member of the royal family in a painful, miserable, disciplinary status; therefore a very strong negative force to get people to recover and to get back with doctrine. This is the kind of force that doesn’t do much good. If you are forced to take in the Word of God to avoid the horrible death and the discipline of reversionism then you are unstable, and when it takes this kind of force to get you to do anything in life you have to recognize that there is something wrong with you. If you come to Bible class because a whip is cracked or because something is held over your head, because you are afraid of dying the sin unto death, and you should be, you will go along for awhile but you will be unstable and will peel off again. The only true motivation, says this verse by its content, for taking in the Word of God on a consistent basis is the inner resources of your own doctrine and the increasing love of Jesus Christ through more and more doctrine becoming resident in your soul. As this becomes the motivator then you have the real thrust for life and at the same time capacity for life. You are never bored, never subjective, and you lose that rebel instinct of resenting anyone’s authority but your own.

So this is a very strong statement when it says “Whose end destruction” .We are talking about the enemies of the cross. The genitive plural from the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] refers to the reversionists of the previous verse. The antecedent, then, for hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] are the enemies of the cross as the Philippian reversionists were so described. The word for “end,” telos (τέλος) [pronounced TEHL-oss], means the termination of phase two. It refers to the reversionist coming to the point of dying. God has disciplined the reversionist constantly and consistently, God has been faithful in discipline to the reversionist, He has expressed His love in a constant and consistent way, He has made life very miserable for the reversionistic believer and now there in His own very special type of desert, a horrible death.

“destruction” describes that death in one word, the noun apôleia (ἀπώλεια) [pronounced ap-OH-li-a]. It means technically the sin unto death. Actually the word means ruinous destruction. Ruinous destruction means something that is miserable, painful, and horrible.

The Doctrine of the Sin unto Death

1. Definition. The sin unto death is the means by which God transfers the reversionist from time to eternity. It is dying by means of maximum punitive discipline, the antithesis of dying grace.

2. Documentation. Old Testament: Psalm 118:17,18. Verse 18 — “… but he has not given me over to the sin unto death.” New Testament: 1John 5:16 — “… there is a sin unto death.”

3. The cause for the sin unto death. The cause is prolonged and unchecked reversionism. Jeremiah 9:13–16 — “Because they have forsaken my law [my doctrine] which I set before them.” No one ever goes out under the sin unto death without having every opportunity to go out by way of supergrace. God is fair, God is just. “… and have not obeyed my voice” — rejection of authority in communication — “nor walked [hâlak^e (הָלַךְ) [pronounced haw-LAHK^e] for a manner of life, a way of life] according to it.” They have not walked or lived or functioned according to Bible doctrine in the soul.

1) “But have walked after the stubbornness of their right lobe” — stubbornness of heart is negative volition toward doctrine producing scar tissue of the soul; “and after Baals, as their fathers taught them.” They were taught something negative, something wrong.

2) “Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold I will feed this people with wormwood” — whenever a people get scar tissue of the right lobe they will believe anything that is false. Wormwood is the same as strong delusion in 2Thessalonians 2, and it means that they will take it into their frame of reference, it will become a part of their memory centre, their vocabulary, their categories will be worked around in this, they will have the norms and standards to accept it as true, and on their launching pad they can only apply to life human viewpoint. That is the wormwood.

3) “and I will give them poisoned water to drink” — an idiom which indicates that they are definitely poisoned in their minds. Just as poisoned water causes tremendous pain in the abdominal region so false teaching, false doctrine, and human viewpoint cause extreme pain and anguish in the soul.

4) “I will scatter them among the nations [5th cycle of discipline], whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send a sword after them [military disaster] until I have annihilated them” — the administration of the sin unto death in a time of national disaster, the worst type of sin unto death. In other words, Jeremiah tells us that the sin unto death can be administered in different types of environment. It can be administered under prosperity, under adversity, under national catastrophe.

5) A second passage on the sin unto death is found in Jeremiah 44:12 — “And I will take away the remnant of Judah [the reversionists]; there were some reversionists who survived the fall of Jerusalem when Nebuchadnezzar conquered it. Some of these people were positive at the time of the fall and now they have become negative, they are a remnant; “who have set their mind on entering the land of Egypt to reside there” — these were the environmentalists, they wanted to move from the rubble of the southern kingdom of Judah into the nice environment of Egypt; “consequently they will all meet their end in the land of Egypt; they will fall by the sword, they will meet their end by famine; the small and the great [reversionists] will die by the sword and famine” — the sword does not mean military, it means crime. It means that criminals will constantly harass them. The famine means that economically they will never fit in, they will not get jobs and they will starve to death or die of some form of exposure that is very painful. Therefore “they shall become a curse, and object of horror, and imprecation and a reproach.”

6) Revelation 3:15,16 — the church at Laodicea.

4. The sin unto death does not mean loss of salvation — 2Timothy 2:11–13. “Faithful is the word [doctrine]: For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him;” — In other words, the royal family are in union with Christ and are identified with Christ forever — “if we endure [seizing and holding the high ground of supergrace] we shall also reign with him [SG3 reward and blessing]; if we deny him [reversionism], he will also deny us.” In other words, the reversionist is minus SG2 in time and he is minus SG3 in eternity. So he loses out for both time and eternity the special blessings. And remember, it is the special blessings which glorify God. God is only glorified by the special blessings. However, even though the reversionist loses out on these special blessings he doesn’t lose his salvation. “If we are faithless, he remains faithful; he cannot deny himself.”

5. There are four ways for the believer to transfer from time to eternity.

1) The sin unto death — for reversionists only;

2) Dying grace for the supergrace believer — maximum blessing;

3) A supergrace believer making the transfer under paragraph SG3, as did Enoch, Elijah. This is done without dying;

4) All royal family believers at the Rapture.

6. Case histories of the sin unto death:

1) Special horrible death for monetary reversionism — Ananias and Sapphira, Acts 5:1–10.

2) Phallic reversionism — for the incestuous Corinthian, 1Corinthians 5:1–5. This type of sin unto death is always extremely painful and means loss of health, and Satan personally handles the loss of health.

3) Ritual reversionism. Self-righteous reversionism and legalistic reversionism often fall into this area, except for one problem. This is failure to appreciate the ritual in its true concept and therefore to flaunt it. How do you flaunt ritual? The Corinthians did it very simply. They got drunk before the communion. They were greedy and a whole lot of other things. 1 Cor. 11:30,31.

4) Mental attitude reversionism — disobedience to God’s will and God’s plan. This is one that involved king Saul who broke down mentally in the field of reversionism. He was so busy with internationalism and loving everyone that he refused to kill the enemy. He refused to do so because he had neglected doctrine, the laws of establishment had disintegrated in his soul. He refused to do so on the same basis that he did many other things in his reversionism: his jealousy and his attempt to kill David fall into the same category of his reversionism — 1Samuel 13:9-14; 1Chronicles 10:13.14.

5) Verbal reversionism, 1Timothy 1:19,20 — Hymenaeus and Alexander. This is almost a misnomer because it involves mental attitude sins which make you hostile toward another believer and by which you seek to hurt that other believer.

6) Human viewpoint foreign policy on the part of a ruler — king Hezekiah in Isaiah 30:1–3; 31:1–3. He stated his foreign policy and this is the foreign policy for which he was given the sin unto death in Isaiah 38.

7. Rebound as a factor in reversion recovery — 1Corinthians 11:30,31; James 5:20, reversionism is a delusion.

8. The consistent function of GAP is necessary for reversion recovery — James 4:4–8. The reversionist in his feminine soul responds to whatever the world offers by way of pleasantries, entertainment, pleasant thoughts, and so on.

What is the first characteristic?

The second characteristic of the reversionist is enslavement to the emotional patterns — “whose God is their emotional pattern.” Emotions minus the function of the right lobe leads to maximum instability. Emotional people are not people who have emotions, they are people whose emotions have revolted against their right lobe. We are all emotional in the sense that we have emotions. Emotions were designed to be responders to what we have in our right lobes, but when the emotion takes over you have instability because you cannot think with emotion and that is what the unstable person does, therefore they become enslaved to their emotions. When a person goes into emotional revolt he is minus doctrine in his right lobe. He rejects his right lobe and simply lives for pleasure.

The third characteristic: they are distracted by human celebrityship. “His glory is his dishonour,” literally. The word for “glory” is doxa (δόξα) [pronounced DOHX-ah] plus the definite article used as a possessive pronoun. “Glory” here is used for that which they respect, admire, revere, that to which they assign celebrityship or admiration. They give glory to that which is dishonourable. it is like assigning glory to a great athlete just because he is a great athlete, not nobility of soul. The reversionist is trapped by the superficialities of pseudo celebrityship, he can’t be entertained without becoming involved.

They attach honor to the wrong ones. Resident doctrine must set up your correct set of values. But the reversionist never gets it straight; he is caught up in pseudo-Celebrityship.

The fourth area: they are enmeshed with the human viewpoint — “who mind earthly things.” The present active participle phroneô (φρονέω) [pronounced fron-EH-oh] means they keep thinking or they have the viewpoint. They “keep thinking about earthly things,” literally. The accusative plural of epigeios (ἐπίγειος) [pronounced ep-IHG-i-oss] means “about earthly things.”

Philippians 3:19: Whose end [death] is destruction, whose God is emotion, his glory is in his dishonor, who keeps on thinking about earthly things.

These are the four characteristics about which the Philippians had to be on their guard. A very different list from the Galatians and the Corinthians.

Philippians 3:20 But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,...

Verse 20 gives is the concept of the royal family. “For our conversation” — the explanatory particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] plus politeuma (πολίτευμα) [pronounced pol-IHT-yoo-mah] which refers to citizenship. The Philippians really had politeuma (πολίτευμα) [pronounced pol-IHT-yoo-mah], therefore they were the most secure people in their day. They lived a long way from Rome but they had perfect politeuma (πολίτευμα) [pronounced pol-IHT-yoo-mah], they system set up by the Romans which started in Rome, spread to central Italy, then northern Italy, and eventually to the entire western world. The greatest thing that could happen to you living away from Rome and away from Italy was to have politeuma (πολίτευμα) [pronounced pol-IHT-yoo-mah] — Roman citizenship through which you were safe anywhere. It was Paul’s travelling card, by the way. Politeuma (πολίτευμα) [pronounced pol-IHT-yoo-mah] comes from politeia (πολιτεία) [pronounced pol-ee-TIE-ah]. Politeia (πολιτεία) [pronounced pol-ee-TIE-ah] is Roman citizenship and politeuma (πολίτευμα) [pronounced pol-IHT-yoo-mah] is the security of Roman citizenship. The two words are very close.

For most people, citizenship in the United States is the greatest security a person could have. It is considered to be a wonderful and great thing. That is what politeuma meant to people during the time of Rome.

“For the sphere of our citizenship security is [exists]” — present active indicative of huparchô (ὑπάρχω) [pronounced hoop-AR-khoh] which means “exists.” God has given us politeuma (πολίτευμα) [pronounced pol-IHT-yoo-mah], the best politeuma (πολίτευμα) [pronounced pol-IHT-yoo-mah] of all which can never be taken from us. “For our security citizenship keeps on existing.” We have a static present, active voice for members of the royal family only. We have a declarative indicative, it is a reality now and forever. It keeps on existing where there is plenty of everything, security, everything that has been decreed, and already exists for you “in heaven” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of ouranos (οὐρανός) [pronounced oo-ran-OSS], “in the sphere of heaven.” Here the whole concept of citizenship and security is brought into focus for our citizenship is heaven, and we have perfect security.

“from whence” — “even from the place,” literally, “we anticipate the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” The word “we look” is to eagerly anticipate. So great is our citizenship we are looking forward to living there. We live outside of our permanent residency, we live in the devil’s world but we are only temporary residents here. It is interesting that even the worst reversionist has politeuma (πολίτευμα) [pronounced pol-IHT-yoo-mah] and will be transferred at the proper time.

We know about the ugly Americans, who are loud-mouthed, they ridicule the customs, they are boorish. First you want to punch them and then want to haul them home. Bob ran into a person in Jamaica and he wanted to spread out his blood all over the dance floor. This is what reversionism is. They have a citizenship in heaven, despite how boorish they are.

Philippians 3:20 For the seat of our security citizenship exists in heaven; even from which place we eagerly anticipate the Savior.

Who anticipates the Savior eagerly? The supergrace believer only — apekdechomai (ἀπεκδέχομαι) [pronounced ap-ek-DEHKH-om-ahee] is occupation with Christ. When you truly love someone you can’t wait to see them. That is what apekdechomai (ἀπεκδέχομαι) [pronounced ap-ek-DEHKH-om-ahee] means.

Philippians 3:21 ...who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Verse 21 — the anticipation of surpassing grace. “Who shall change” — every supergrace believer anticipates surpassing grace. “Who” is a relative pronoun referring to Jesus Christ; “shall change” is metaschêmatizô (μετασχηματίζω) [pronounced met-askh-ay-mat-IHD-zoh] which means to transform. This is referring only to the supergrace believer who eagerly anticipates seeing the Lord — “Who shall transform”, predictive future, this happens in the future.

“our vile body” is wrong — to sōma (σμα) [pronounced SOH-mah] thj tapeinos which means “the body of our humility.” Tapeinôsis (ταπείνωσις) [pronounced tap-Ī-noh-sis] is a descriptive genitive and it goes with the noun sōma (σμα) [pronounced SOH-mah], and it means “body of our humility.” This means a body that doesn’t stay the same, a body that ages, that loses its symmetry, its power, its health. The present home of our souls are bodies of humiliation. “Who will transform the body of our humiliation.” And how is it going to be? Perfect.

“that it may be” is not found in the original. Next we have the word “fashioned” which isn’t fashioned at all, it is a noun in the accusative, sunmorfoj which means “in conformity with.”

“his glorious body” — we will have a resurrection body exactly like His; “according to the working” is according to the operational power, “through which he is able to subordinate the all things to himself.”

Philippians 3:21 Who will transform the body of our humiliation, in conformity with the body of His glory, according to the operational power through which He able also to subordinate the all things to Himself [angels as well as human beings].

1972 Hebrews 11:14–15 Lesson #173

173 08/14/1974 Hebrews 11:14–15 Distractions from the Road to Glory

A review of Hebrews11.

Hebrews11:14,15

The first thirteen verses of this chapter have brought into focus three major principles. These principles are related to glorifying God in time and doing so in a rather unusual way. For it certainly is unusual that receiving the special blessings from God under paragraph SG2 is at the same time the only means of truly glorifying Him. Everything else is incidental and relegated to detail. The major thrust is taking in doctrine consistently, reaching the high ground of supergrace, seizing and holding as we saw from Philippians chapter 3 verses 12–14.

Categories of SG2 Blessing

1. Under paragraph SG2 there are three categories of special blessing designed by God for you personally in eternity past. The first of these is category spiritual blessing: occupation with the person of Jesus Christ, sharing God’s +H or perfect happiness, the inner residency of Bible doctrine to cope with all of the exigencies of life, and other types of spiritual blessings. Also included as a spiritual blessing, practically everything that you do under the conditions outlined here results in the production of divine good.

2. Then we have a second category: the temporal blessings. These include promotion, unusual wealth, great success in some fields, prosperity — social, sexual, materialistic, technical, economic, etc, leadership dynamics, many temporal type blessings of an unusual nature.

3. The third category has to do with dying grace, making the transfer from time to eternity by means of very special and wonderful blessing. In fact, this is the last and the best of all the supergrace blessings. Then there is receiving in eternity that paragraph SG3 which is defined in several ways in the scripture.

Each person with supergrace blessing listed here has a different emphasis on their blessing.

But the point is that we have seen up to now the importance of the supergrace believer, the importance of the constant, continual intake of Bible doctrine, the importance of going from time to eternity under a better blessing than any blessing that life has to offer, the importance of glorifying God in supergrace, dying grace and surpassing grace. This is the road to glory and this has been outlined by two categories of supergrace heroes from the Old Testament. The first category were the antediluvian civilization heroes. The second category are the patriarchs, the supergrace heroes in the age of the patriarchs — Abraham, Isaac and Joseph.

In verses 14–16 we have the test of surpassing grace. In verses 17–19 Abraham’s supergrace is tested. Both SG2 and SG3 are tested in time.

Hebrews 11:14 For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.

Verse 14 — we begin with the explanatory use of the particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] which links up the concept and thought in the passage — “For.”

“they that say” — we have an articular present active participle from the verb légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] which means to speak, to say, to communicate, it always has some connotation of verbalisation. The present tense is a historic present in which the past event which is in view here is viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence. This is an idiom. We have the present tense for something that happened three or four thousand years ago. The active voice: the patriarchs produce the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. It should be translated, “For they who say.” The definite article here is used as a relative pronoun and is transferred by the word “who.”

Shem, Ham and Japheth rode the coattails of their father Noah. One supergrace believer changed human history. All of the rest were destroyed.

We are overloaded with service organizations in the Christian world. God authorized the local church for positive believers. All of these other organizations are not authorized in the Bible. They like the local church when they have their hand out for money.

“such things” — the people who say “such things” are the patriarchs, they produce the action of the verb in the participle. “Such things” is an accusative neuter plural, a direct object from a correlative adjective toi outos which actually refers to what has gone before. This, by the way, is another bit of Attic Greek. In the neuter gender here we have a subject matter. This is a reference to the acknowledgment that they as supergrace believers were strangers or transients on the earth and that they thought differently from those around them, and that they didn’t mind being different because difference actually came from residency of doctrine in the soul. Because they had doctrine in the soul it didn’t bother them at all because they were maligned, misunderstood, judged, ridiculed. The words “such things” is simply a Classical Greek way of pulling everything in the chapter together at this point. “Such things as these” is the way you have to translate it, and that is that doctrine is more important than anything else, that doctrine is the way to glorify God. they stood for divine viewpoint, they stood for the dynamics of Bible doctrine in the soul, everything that was important in life.

“declare plainly” is not a good translation and not bad, it just doesn’t bring out what is here nor does it really connote what the verb has to say. We have the present active indicative of emphanizô (ἐμφανίζω) [pronounced em-fan-IHD-zoh]. The word means to communicate, to reveal, to make clear, to explain. To make clear really emphasizes what is in the passage. So it should be translated, “they make it clear.” The retroactive progressive present denotes what has begun in the past and continues to the present time. Supergrace heroes of the past always have a message for us. That is why God the Holy Spirit has seen fit to give us a roster of supergrace heroes and to present a message through these people. So they make it clear, and the supergrace heroes produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood views the action of the verb from the standpoint of absolute reality. So we do have a principle of reality here which is now emphasized. So far the translation should read, “For they who say such things as these make it clear.”

“that” — the conjunction hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] introduces the conclusion as to what is made clear. Hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] is an interesting conjunction. Sometimes it isn’t even translatable because it is used for quotation marks. It is usually a conjunction to bring out the conclusions of what someone is thinking or doing or emphasizing. Here it brings out what is being made clear.

“they seek” — the present active indicative of epizêteô (ἐπιζητέω) [pronounced ep-EED-zay-TEH-oh] which means not to seek but to strive, to desire to know something. The present tense is, again, a retroactive progressive present, that which has begun in the past and continues up to the moment of the present. This is also known as a present tense of duration and it means as long as there is time and as long as there is phase two they kept striving or pressing toward the goal which is surpassing grace blessing in eternity. In other words, what it is it that the lives of these men are trying to make clear? It is simply that there are men who have the ability to understand the true issue of living on this earth after salvation. It is to wade through all of the idiocy, the guff, the human viewpoint, the asininity of life, and to get right down to the true issue which is Bible doctrine resident in the soul. It is to understand that this is the issue in the angelic conflict which is the greater conflict and understanding this issue to stick with it. All you have to do is to understand the issue and to stay with it, to persist, to be consistent, to be stabilized, to have the grit to wade through all of the opposition, distractions, everything that would keep you from doctrine and to stay with the daily function of GAP. The active voice: the supergrace believer produces the action. In this case we have specifically, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph all involved here. The indicative mood is declarative for a historic reality. And what is it that they keep striving for? Once you begin to get maximum doctrine in the soul you have great blessing in time but you realize that there is something better than all the wealth in the world, all of the success in the world, all of the promotions in the world. everything that can be truly regarded as a standard of greatness. When these things are achieved you can enjoy them but you realize that there is something more than this, because these are the things you have in time and there is something beyond time called eternity. So the point is that we are really pushing toward eternity future. In eternity past something was designed for us so that in eternity future we can have something that glorifies God and perpetuates the blessing in time on a greater scale into the blessing of eternity. That is exactly what we have in this verse.

“For they who say such things as these make it clear that they keep striving for a heavenly fatherland [or country].” The word for “country” is patris (πατρίς) [pronounced pat-RECE] which means everything that we are going to have in the eternal future — your resurrection body in which you will have maximum blessing, paragraph SG3. There are people who see that issue and push toward it.

There will be great class distinctions in heaven, based upon Bible doctrine in the soul. Life is filled with superficialities. They all add up to nothing. You just keep going.

All of this doing great things for God and feeling good about it; this is a lot of nonsense. All of the service organizations end up the same way. There is only one place where you get Bible doctrine taught in a classroom setting, and that is the local church. The local church is often a failure, and yet, it is still the place where we go for spiritual growth. As you grow up, the shocked feeling goes by the wayside. You learn little by little.

A lot of things broke while people were on vacation, and they came back, and they said, “What the hell is going on?”

Hebrews 11:14 For they who says such things as these make it clear that they keep striving for a heavenly country.

You have a citizenship in heaven.

Hebrews 11:15 If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return.

Verse 15 — “And truly if.” This is interesting because it shows the options open to any believer at any time. He can always slip back into reversionism, sometimes he might find it a little more comfortable than the constant driving, the uphill drive toward the supergrace life. This is the connective use of the conjunction kai plus more of the Classical Greek, an Attic Greek affirmative particle — kai plus the participle men, a Classical Greek word. It has been traditionally translated “on the one hand.”

With this we have the word “if,” a conditional particle ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] which introduces a second class condition. It is correctly translated “if” but here it represents a second class condition.

“And if, on the one hand, they had been mindful” — the imperfect active indicative of mnêmoneuô (μνημονεύω) [pronounced mnay-mon-YOO-oh] does not mean mindful at all. It means to recall to mind, to remember, and here in the imperfect tense it means to keep on remembering. “And if on the one hand they had been remembering.” We have a progressive imperfect denoting progress, linear aktionsart in past time. This is the imperfect of duration. The active voice: with the second class condition it means that the supergrace patriarchs in this passage did not look back to their native land of Chaldea. That would have been geographical reversionism. Abraham went out to a very rural area, leaving one of the most sophisticated cities. Ur was large and beautiful, built on the water. Many ways, it was like Houston. Advanced technology in many ways. Most air conditioned city in the world. They had a tremendous system of air conditioning. They learned to take the southwest wind and to duct it through their homes. They had an advanced system of sewage. But none of them looked back.

“For if on the one hand they had been remembering the country of their origin [but they did not].”

“of that” — the objective genitive from the demonstrative pronoun ἐκενος which means something distant in the context, in this context it is Ur of the Chaldeas. Ur of the Chaldeas is a remote object because these people with doctrine in their souls did not look back to the pleasant circumstances of their youth, their early life, a place where they had an excellent childhood.

“from whence” — the preposition apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the ablative of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. It should be translated correctly, “from which.”

“they came out” — the aorist active indicative e)kbainw, I show a different word exerchomai (ἐξέρχομαι) [pronounced ex-EHR-khoh-mai], which means, to come out, to exit, to go away. Another text as a different word from those two). “from which they had originated.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist viewing the event of leaving Ur of the Chaldeas in its entirety but regarding it from the existing results of never looking back. They always moved forward.

Bob can relate as Beverly Hills, CA in the late 20's and 30's to be the most beautiful place in the world. Beverly Hill High School the #1 high school for many decades. Beverly Hills Hotel a great hotel. A fire every day in the lobby; same fireplace and always a fire. Perfect weather. Same park, same trees. Bob can understand how you can come from a place that is so beautiful, that you always have fond memories. He had a large home overlooking the ocean in La Hoya. Almost anyone who has migrated from anywhere can look back at where they came from as having nicer weather. We have one of the most complex concrete jungles in the world.

“For if on the one hand they had continued remembering the country of their origin [but they did not keep remembering that country].”

“they might have had” — here is the possibility of geographical distraction and possible geographical reversion. We have the imperfect active indicative of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] plus án (ἀν) [pronounced ahn], a little particle that separates the protasis from the apodasis of the second class condition. The verb is echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh], it is translated “they would have had” because we have a tendencial imperfect, often translated like the perfect tense. The tendencial imperfect for an end not attained in past time but tended toward realization. In other words, they were tempted. The tendencial imperfect says there were times when they looked back and were tempted to go back to Ur of the Chaldeas. It wasn’t that they were not tempted, that they never thought of Ur of the Chaldeas, but it was that they kept on going and they did not turn around and go back ever over that period of seventy or eighty years when these temptations existed. So the possibility of the distraction is there, says the tendencial imperfect. The possibility of the temptation was there.

“they might have had opportunity” — the accusative singular direct object from kairos (καιρός) [pronounced kī-ROSS]. Kairos (καιρός) [pronounced kī-ROSS] means time, and they did have kairos (καιρός) [pronounced kī-ROSS] which means favourable time and therefore meaning favourable time that comes to mean opportunity — “they would have had opportunity.”

“to have returned” — the aorist active infinitive of anakamptô (ἀνακάμπτω) [pronounced an-ak-AMP-toe] which means to return, to turn back, and literally it means to bend back. In other words, to bend back in the sense of going back as a weakness, going back as a failure. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. There were many opportunities to turn back or to bend back from the glory road. Each opportunity is a test for both surpassing grace as well as supergrace. In other words, the constative aorist gathers up into one entirety every chance they had to bend back toward Ur of the Chaldeas. The active voice: the believers on the road to glory are tested by distractions, retrospections, human viewpoint, self-pity, other mental attitude sins, the so-called sirens of life. These testings are a part of the function of human volition in the soul of the advancing believer. There are times when you will be tested, you will find distractions which will pose as a threat to your advance through positive volition. The purpose, then, of the test is always to choose between sticking it out in Bible class day in and day out or running off in the direction of the distraction.

Bob goes off on a tangent talking about Homer writing about Ulysses, Clynestra. Ulysses is still following distractions. Caught up in the trap of the Cyclops; then the Sirens called him. Then navigational problems. Ulysses took his own damn time getting back home. Penelope had been faithful, but she was ready to accept a suitor. Some had been suitors of her for 10 years. They had been getting somewhat of a free ride. When Penelope was coming down the hallways, they would talk about her beautiful, but with tons of words found only once. Difficult for a Greek student. Spoke of her eyes as being ox-like. Most of the descriptions of Homer were above the neck.

Ulysses returned home 20 years later in disguise to observe what was happening. He watched these guys compliment his wife. He killed all of these men with arrows a few days later. He was the only one who could pull back the bow. For 20 years he was distracted, following any side trail that looked interesting. When you read the Odyssey, you get a feel for the concept of circling back.

Hebrews 11:15 “For if on the one hand they had continued remembering the country of their origin [but they did not keep remembering that country], they would have had opportunity to bend back [towards Ur of the Chaldees].”

Hebrews 11:15 And if on the one hand they had continued remembering that country from which they had originated [but they did not], then they would have had opportunity to have circled back [in reversionism toward Chaldea].

1972 Hebrews Lesson #174

174 08/15/1974 Hebrews 11:15–16a Doctrine of surpassing grace (review)

Principles with Regard to Verse 15

1. Reversionism in its various stages creates opportunities to get off and stay off the road to glory. The glory road is supergrace, dying grace, surpassing grace.

2. Once reversionism influences volition to circle back or bend off the road to glory many human viewpoint opportunities and rewards and enticements are lying in ambush waiting to deprive the believe of his paragraphs SG2 and SG3.

3. Negative volition toward doctrine creates opportunities for human pleasure, human success, human celebrityship. These in turn are set-ups for divine discipline.

4. The rewards of cosmos diabolicus, including any form of temporary success, are superficial, frustrating, and again, the set-ups for divine discipline and eventuate in the sin unto death.

5. From our study of the last few verses note the tenacity of the patriarchs, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph who never looked back and whose aberrations were temporary and quickly changed from rebound back to doctrine.

6. Ur of Chaldea beckoned as part of the sirens test and neither Abraham or Sarah ever looked back.

7. The believer does not sit around and wait for his destiny but he prepares daily by the function of GAP, by constant and consistent positive volition toward Bible doctrine.

8. What is the best preparation for promotion, success, prosperity, right man/woman, leadership responsibility? The answer: Bible doctrine resident in the soul. The only way to acquire this is the daily function of GAP. So the daily intake of doctrine is, preparation for life, preparation for dying, and sure reward and special blessing — SG3 — in eternity. Again, the believer does not sit around and wait for his destiny but he prepares for it daily by the intake of the Word of God.

Hebrews 11:16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Verse 16 — “But,” the conjunctive particle de used as an adversative. “But on the other hand.” The word “now” is the adverb nun, generally considered to be a temporal adverb, which it is, but not here. This is logical rather than temporal, it introduces a real situation after an unreal conditional clause. The second class condition is an unreal conditional clause and therefore is translated “Not now but as a matter of fact.”

“they desire” — present middle indicative of oregomai (ὀρέγομαι) [pronounced or-EHG-ohm-ahee] which means to aspire to, to strive for, to desire, and all of the meanings are true on the road to glory, therefore it means to desire and strive. It refers to, after saving grace, living grace. Living grace applies to every believer who is alive on the face of the earth, he is alive by courtesy of God Himself. The present tense is an historical present in which a past event is viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence. They desired in the past but the present tense is used as an idiom of drama. The middle voice is permissive middle representing the agent, the supergrace patriarchs, as voluntarily yielding themselves to the results of the action. That is, they seek to secure the results of the action in their own interest. The declarative mood represents the verbal idea from the standpoint of reality.

Bob goes off on cars, seat belts, and additives. Brakes are the worst thing to use when going fast. Bob cut off the shoulder strap of his new car. Bob does not like the government telling him what kind of a car to drive. In Nevada, they police drive Corvettes. They had no speed limit in Nevada. They get you for reckless driving.

Bob likes all that stuff coming out of the stacks of factories. The paper mills were shut down; losing prosperity. Bells and buzzers going off in cars means our Constitution is not being followed.

The government is focused upon masses.

The American Indian is more harmed by American bureaucracy than by the Indian wars.

It should be translated, “But on the other hand as a matter of reality they themselves desire and strive for something better.” This is saying that these are people who reach supergrace, people who on this great road of living grace, are not only kept alive by the air they breathed, by the food they ate and by the shelter they enjoyed, but God has also provided something else under living grace — spiritual factors. The spiritual factors are very simple — a local church, the classroom, and the textbook, the Bible, and the teacher, the pastor-teacher. The pastor-teacher has the authority in the area of the local church and when his authority is followed by positive volition toward Bible doctrine then you have the advance to the high ground. That is the daily function of GAP reaching SG2, the supergrace paragraph, the highest blessings you can have in time.

These blessings are divided into three categories. The first of these is spiritual blessings — occupation with the person of Christ, sharing God’s happiness, having happiness at all times under all circumstances, maximum Bible doctrine resident in the soul so that you can meet all of the exigencies and problems of life. Then there are the temporal blessings that are also included as the second category — success, promotion, etc. When one stays in supergrace to the point of death then there is the permanent change of station by way of dying grace, the third category. This means that dying is better than anything else in the supergrace paragraph, better than anything that has occurred in time, it is the greatest and highest and most noble way to make the transfer from time to eternity. Anyone who crosses this golden bridge has a second paragraph, SG3, surpassing grace blessings designed in eternity past. These are the special blessings and rewards for the believer who held the high ground of supergrace, the place of tactical victory, to the point of death and crossed over that bridge. Once you have your supergrace paragraph and some of the blessings related to it it makes you realize that there is something even greater than this. The greater-than-this is dying. Beyond dying there is something greater than that. That is what happened to these people.

Hebrews 11:16 But on the other hand, as a matter of reality, they themselves desire and strive for a better ...

“better” — the objective genitive singular of the comparative adjective kreittôn (κρείττων) [pronounced KRITE-tohn], and it is the comparative of agathos (ἀγαθός) [pronounced ag-ath-OSS] and correctly translated “better.” Notice it says, “a better country.” The word “country” is not found in the original, as noted by the italics. It should be translated “and strive for something better.” Something better is SG3. In other words, once you have the best that life has to offer you realize through the very doctrine by which they were attained that there is something better than these things, though these things are the objectives of life for most people. Something better is something that will last forever, something that you can take with you and only is greater and better and far superior.

A review of vv. 14–16a...

“that is, an heavenly” — “that is” is simply the nominative masculine singular of the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. it is talking about something in the immediate context, paragraph SG3 or surpassing grace blessings and rewards. The words “an heavenly” is simply an appositional type genitive taken from an adjective epouranios (ἐπουράνιος) [pronounced ep-oo-RAN-ee-oss] which means both heavenly and eternity. That is, “heavenly” a blessing and reward under SG3, something that is eternal. So far this is the way the translation goes: “But on the other hand as a matter of reality, they themselves desire and strive for something better, that is, heavenly [blessing and reward of SG3].”

Paragraph SG3 — the Doctrine of Surpassing Grace (Review)

I. Definition.

1. Surpassing grace refers to special blessings and rewards belonging to the supergrace believer in eternity. They do not belong to the reversionist.

2. In eternity past under the doctrine of divine decrees God designed for every believer two special blessing paragraphs. These are special blessings, not the ordinary blessings of grace. The first is SG2 and the second is SG3, supergrace and surpassing grace. Under SG2 we have blessings for time, special blessings for the supergrace believer only — spiritual blessings all of which revolve around the principle of occupation with Christ, sharing the happiness of God, and being able to cope with any of the adversities of life; temporal blessings; and dying grace. The supergrace believer is the spiritually mature believer.

3. There is also paragraph SG3, the surpassing grace paragraph for blessings and rewards in eternity, while specified under certain conditions they are obscure, inscrutable so as not to provide a false motivation.

4. For the believer who seizes and holds the high ground of supergrace there are special rewards, special blessings in eternity, above and beyond the normal blessings of heaven. SG3 is above and beyond.

5. One thing that must be added to these two special blessing paragraphs is this: The attainment of SG2 glorifies God. God is glorified when He can give special blessings in time and special blessings in eternity. Where do we get the words “surpassing grace”? Ephesians 2:7 — “That in the approaching ages [eternity future] he might demonstrating his surpassing grace riches in generosity toward us in Christ Jesus.” This is the ultimate objective on the road to glory and this is the reason for being in time, so that we can reach that point of maturity through resident doctrine where God is glorified in time by providing for us SG2 and God is glorified forever by the provision of SG3. Special blessing always means God is glorified because God is the provider, the giver, the initiator of these special blessings.

II. A specific SG3 city, that one person owns and possesses it. “That Holy City” is sung. There are several passages, Hebrews 11:9,10; Revelation 21:2, 10, which deal with a specific. Abraham and Sarah are going to live forever in their very own city. There is no city in the world as great as this. This is just for Abraham. This is just peanuts, he has other things too. This just shows what can happen. It also brings up a very interesting principle: Can you take it with you? With what you take with you there is more on the other side. You take doctrine with you and the doctrine you have accumulated in your soul becomes the basis for the most fantastic wealth — not only living forever and ever but having phenomenal wealth, phenomenal happiness, things that are so fantastic.

III. Crowns are used to designated surpassing grace rewards for eternity. The Romans had a system of high decorations and they were called stephanos (στέφανος) [pronounced STEHF-ahn-oss], crowns. Crown in the New Testament doesn’t refer to what a king wears on his head, it refers to something an athlete wears at the Olympic games or it refers to the highest military decoration. it not only meant something by which the person was recognized and given great honour but it represented money for life. The reason that the crown is used in rewards is to indicate you have this highest award but we aren’t told what it is. Stephanos (στέφανος) [pronounced STEHF-ahn-oss] is used in these passages to indicate that you are in for these awards under SG3 but you won’t know until you get there just how much it amounts to. The “monetary” award is unknown. All you see now in the Word of God is the fact that you wore a Roman helmet, you were a noble Roman, now you have the crown, and you just see the crown. The crown doesn’t tell you anything except that you are the holder of a highest award. A crown means you hold the highest award in heaven where there will be class distinctions. Any stable society has class distinctions.

1. Roman decorations.

2. There was additional monies associated with each decoration.

3. Silver crown and gold crown.

4. These crowns could represent money for life. Or they might be given a large tract of land.

5. The gold crown was an unspecified amount of money. No one knew what it was except him and the government. And whomever he told. The crown does not tell you anything.

IV. With that in mind we will take another quick review of the crowns.

1. The crown of life — James 1:12, “Blessed is the man who perseveres under testing.” Testing what? Testing to see if you can stay on the high ground, testing to see if you can seize and hold supergrace. There is a crown for you if you seize and hold. All you have to do is to get to the golden bridge of dying grace and you’re in. The point is, can you seize and hold? Once you get a bit of prosperity, does that keep you away from Bible class? If you come to Bible class when you’re only in trouble you’re not holding. All you have to do for the crown of life is keep going, and once you get on the high ground if God makes you a millionaire, stay with it. You stay with doctrine no matter what your SG2 is.

2. The crown of glory — 1Peter 5:4 is the crown that belongs to the pastor-teacher. A woman cannot get this crown.

3. The crown of righteousness — 2Timothy 4:7,8. So there are a number of different crowns.

V. The key to surpassing grace blessing in eternity is pleasing God in time, as per Hebrews 11:5,6.

VI. The judgement seat of Christ is the time of distribution of SG3 to the royal family — 2Corinthians 5:10; Romans 14:10–12; James 1:25 cf. 2:12,13; 1Corinthians 3:11–16; Hebrews 6:7–12; 2Timothy 2:11–13; 1Cor. 9:22–24.

The Conquistadors wore armor and were looking for those 7 cities of gold. A city of gold does have an idea that lures you on. Many a con artist has gotten together money and expeditions to find a city of gold. Often, the money seems to disappear right before the expedition.

Troy was a true city of gold. A guy studied Greek and he found Troy 6 or 7; and he hauled millions of dollars out of it. Bob’s job does not call for him to look for gold. He would not lift a finger to go get it. What interests Bob is staying on the road that he is on. He can get to the cities of gold in eternity. The key to everything is Bible doctrine in the soul.

Bob starts talking about the various US decorations. This is the only system of honor that we have, outside of promotions and commendations.

1972 Hebrews 11:16b, 23 Lesson #175

175 08/16/1974 Hebrews 11:16b, 23 SG3 City of the Patriarchs

Hebrews 11:8 — “By means of doctrine in the soul when Abraham was called he obeyed by going out to a place which he was about to receive for an inheritance; and he went out not knowing where he was going.”

Hebrews 11:9 — “By means of doctrine resident in the soul he lived as a temporary resident with reference to the land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, joint heirs of the same promise.”

Hebrews 11:10 — “For he himself kept waiting with anticipation for a city having foundations, whose designer and builder is the God.”

Hebrews 11:11 — “By means of doctrine resident in the soul even Sarah herself received sexual ability for the deposit of sperm though she was beyond the proper time of life for conception, because she concluded faithful the one who had promised [in eternity past].”

Hebrews 11:12 — “Therefore from the source of one hopeless couple was born Isaac, and these same ones [Abraham and Sarah] having become sexually dead [in contrast to the promise of Genesis 15:5], just as the stars of the heaven in number, and as the sand which is by the lip of the sea innumerable.”

Hebrews 11:13 — “According to doctrine resident in the soul all these died [under the principle of dying grace], not having received the surpassing grace promises, but having seen the same from a distance, and having saluted and embraced them [SG3], also having the knowledge that they were strangers and transients in the earth.”

Hebrews 11:14 — “For they who say such things as these make it clear that they keep striving for a heavenly home [or fatherland].”

Hebrews 11:15 — “And if on the one hand they had continued remembering that country from which they had originated [but they did not], then they would have had opportunity to have circled back [reversionism].”

Hebrews 11:16 — “But on the other hand as a matter of reality they themselves desire and strive for something better, that is, heavenly blessing and reward [SG3]...

Keep that one word city in your mind.

Lesson says we will cover all of these verses tonite:

Hebrews 11:16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Hebrews 11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son,

Hebrews 11:18 of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named."

Hebrews 11:19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

Hebrews 11:20 By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.

Hebrews 11:21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.

Hebrews 11:22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.

Hebrews 11:23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

At this point we are ready to resume but we must remember one word from verse 8 — “city.” Remember that both SG2 and SG3 are designed to glorify God while simultaneously blessing us with special blessings. As a part of the doctrine of divine decrees in eternity past there are two special blessing paragraphs, SG2 for time and SG3 for eternity. These are special blessing paragraphs and their purpose when directed toward the believer is special blessing, and toward God this is the way in which He is glorified. The whole issue as we have studied it is to seize and hold the high ground of supergrace [maturity], and when we seize and hold by following the colours we have paragraph SG2 which is divided into three categories. The first category is spiritual blessing — occupation with the person of Christ, sharing God’s +H or God’s perfect happiness, and the inner residency of doctrine to cope with any circumstance, and adversity, any tragedy, any catastrophe of life. Then we have a second category, the temporal blessings which include everything from promotion to success, to extreme wealth, to prosperity, etc. A third category is the dying category, and under this principle by seizing and holding as we have studied in Philippians 3:12–14 we reach the point of dying. And we cross that golden bridge. This is the permanent change of station by way of dying grace from time to eternity. On the other side for those who cross this bridge, in contrast to the sin unto death, also have in eternity paragraph SG3.

Hebrews 11:16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Now we have come in verse 16 to the word “wherefore,” an inferential conjunction. The conjunction dio (διό) [pronounced DEE-oh] means “therefore.” We are now coming to a very important conclusion, a conclusion which has something to do with the actual understanding of certain portions of this great chapter.

“God” — ho Theos, “the God.” The definite article merely describes the one with whom we are familiar and is generally translated “God” without the definite article.

“is not ashamed” — When you realize that we are equipped with an old sin nature, that we have an old sin nature. We you realize that “He knoweth our frame” and that we are flesh and have our own special brand of frailty, and then you have the fact that God is not ashamed of something, it is time to perk up and to notice what on earth could be related to us in any way and God isn’t ashamed. “Is not ashamed” is the present passive indicative of epaischunomai (ἐπαισχύνομαι) [pronounced ehp-ahee-SKHOO-nom-ahee]. The word is a middle or passive in form but active in meaning, it is what is called a deponent verb or a defective verb. The present tense is a historical present for a past event viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence, a Greek idiom using the present tense to emphasize some past historical event. The past historical event has to do with the relationship between God and the supergrace believers in context, i.e. the patriarchs.

“to be called” — present passive infinitive of the verb epikaleomai (ἐπικαλέομαι) [pronounced ep-ee-kal-EH-ohm-ahee] which means to be called or to be designated, to be surnamed. Not found in the translation but a part of the original Greek text is the accusative plural direct object of the intensive pronoun autos. It is rather important here as the intensive pronoun always is because the function of the intensive pronoun is to identify the supergrace heroes, and there are people here of whom God is not ashamed. This is what is called the attributed use of autos and it is therefore translated “the same ones,” the supergrace patriarchs. “Therefore the God is not ashamed of the same ones [the supergrace patriarchs] to be designated their God.”

“for,” the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar, an explanation of what has just been said. A little amplification is necessary and in this way for the second time in our context we meet that word “city.”

“he hath prepared” — the aorist active indicative hetoimazô (ἑτοιμάζω) [pronounced het-oy-MAHD-zoh], and when we come to this verb at this particular point we are talking about SG3 for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for Sarah and for Joseph. The dramatic aorist states the present reality of paragraph SG3 to these patriarchs. The active voice: God has prepared for them a special city. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative for a dogmatic assertion.

“for them” — the dative plural intensive pronoun autos. Again we have the attributive use of autos, “for the same ones.” This is the dative of indirect object indicating the ones in whose interest God has prepared this heavenly Jerusalem, this city which is the key to paragraph SG3 as illustrated by verse 23.

The word “city” is the accusative singular direct object of polus, pollos (πολύς,πολλός) [pronounced poll-OOS]. “City” has the equivalency of crowns. City is for the Old Testament supergrace hero what crown is for the royal family of God, Church Age. In other words, simply a designating point for paragraph SG3 without revealing the actual details of SG3.

Hebrews 12:16 But on the other hand as a matter of reality they themselves desire and strive for something better, that is, heavenly blessing and reward: therefore the God is not ashamed of the same ones to be designated their God: for he has prepared a city for the same ones.

We are going to see “city” now for the third time but notice that both times that we have had it it has been in the form of an adjective. Now we will move to verse 23. This is the illustration of that word “city.”

Verse 23 — “By faith” is the instrumental singular of the noun pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] which has numerous meanings. It is the papyri which have revealed the true etymology of this word but all of the meanings of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] fall into three categories. First of all, the category of that which causes trust and faith under which it means faithfulness, reliability, a pledge, or a proof. A second meaning is faith in the active sense of believing. Faith, trust or confidence is the meaning in that category. A third meaning, and the one which is pertinent throughout Hebrews 11, is that which is believed, the body of faith or belief and therefore translated “doctrine.” It refers specifically to doctrine resident in the soul. “By means of doctrine resident in the soul.”

“Moses” is not the subject of this verse. Moses is an object in the verse but he is not the subject. This will be brought out by the passive voice verbs which indicate that the real subjects of this verse are the two supergrace heroes that bridged the gap between the patriarchs and the law in the Age of Israel. Between the two we now have a very interesting phenomenon, the parents of Moses as outstanding supergrace heroes. The commentary of the Holy Spirit in this passage is very brief, very pithy, and every word counts. While Moses is the subject beginning in verse 24, really he is the basis by which the greatness of his parents was manifest. Moses is not the subject in verse 23, the subject are his parents.

Levi had a number of sons. Levi is a half brother of Joseph and he was a contemporary of the patriarchs who came into Egypt. He had only one son in whom we are interested, Kohath. Kohath had a son and a sister. The son’s name was Amram. Amram married his aunt, Jochabed. Leviticus 18:12 forbids this kind of marriage. Amram means “high people.” Jochabed means “whose glory is Jehovah.” Bob says that this must have been a RM/RW situation.

“when he was born” — the aorist passive participle of gennáô (γεννάω) [pronounced gen-NAH-oh] which refers to birth. It is the participle that is interesting. Not only does it have antecedent action as an aorist participle but it is a temporal participle. It is correctly translated, “When Moses was born.” The passive voice: Moses receives the action of the verb. He didn’t have a thing to do about his birth so it should be understood that he is not the hero of this verse. He is the hero of verses 24 and following but he is definitely not the hero here. The passive voice simply tells he didn’t bare anyone here, he was born, and no one is a hero at the point of being born. In reality the heroes of this verse are going to be his parents, by way of anticipation. And further, to add to it, the real hero of the verse is our city. The city is not apparent here.

Bob tells that there are some who did not come up in a Baptist Sunday School. “Not everyone is a legalistic pantywaist, like you.” There will apparently be some interesting things that you did not learn in your Sunday school.

“was hid” — this is the main verb. The third person singular means Moses was hidden. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, however long it took for Moses to be born, Moses was born. Then we note that the next constative aorist is three months when he was hidden after he was born. The passive voice: Moses as the subject receives the action of the verb. “By means of doctrine resident in the soul [of his parents], when Moses was born he was hidden.” The indicative mood is the declarative indicative for historical reality plus the main verb in the sequence of antecedent action — he had to be born before he was hidden!

“three months” — the accusative singular trimênon (τρίμηνον) [pronounced TRIHM-ay-non]. In its proper place it is a direct object, but it is more than that, it is the accusative of extent of time and explains how long he was hidden, and therefore the exact duration of the constative aorist.

“of his parents” is a prepositional phrase, the preposition hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus the ablative plural of patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR] used for parents. In hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus the ablative agency is connoted and therefore it should be “by his parents.”

We also have one of those apparent intensive pronouns but this one is used as a possessive pronoun to give great emphasis to the identity of the object being hidden as a very important object. So when it says “his parents” it is an intensive pronoun in the possessive genitive, used as a possessive pronoun to give great emphasis to the object being hidden as being very valuable.

So far we have, “By means of doctrine resident in the soul, when Moses was born, he was hidden for a period of three months by his parents.”

Moses was born about 1520 BC. This is important because it is during the period of a very dynamic dynasty in the history of the Egyptian empire, the 18th dynasty of the new Egyptian empire. It includes Amenhotep the first. This also includes the Thutmose crowd. Thutmose the first died without having a son and heir, and his daughter Hapchetsit married Thutmose the second. She had a daughter by Thutmose; and he had a son with someone else. Thutmose was a thoroughgoing SOB (or was this his son?). Under Thutmose the third Egypt reached its peak.

When Moses was born the king was Thutmose the first. Exodus 1:15,16,22. The edict was to rob Israel of any future vigour and to utilize them, in slavery. Exodus 2:1,2 — she hid Moses for three months. Exodus 2:1,2 doesn’t tell us a thing, but Hebrews 11:23 tells us something. His parents hid him not because he was beautiful, they hid him because they had doctrine in their souls. The problem lies in what is beautiful. Beautiful in the Hebrew is beautiful but beautiful in our passage isn’t beautiful. It is normal to want one’s child to remain alive. What is the big deal about this?

“because” — the causal conjunction dioti (διότι) [pronounced dee-OAT-ee]. This tells us why they hid him. Because he was beautiful? No.

“they saw a proper child” — “proper” is not proper. “They saw” is aorist active indicative of horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh]. If they wanted to see a beautiful child or a “proper” child all they had to do was blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh] for that. This is horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh], it is in the aorist tense and it is a constative aorist which gathers up into one ball of wax all of the doctrine they ever had. They are seeing something with doctrine resident in the soul. It says “by means of doctrine resident in the soul, when Moses was born,” and this means that Amram and Jochabed has accumulated a tremendous mass of doctrine, and the constative aorist simply gathers up into one entirety all of the doctrine that they have in their souls by which they see something. “They saw” — the active voice: both parents were believers with divine viewpoint, both parents produced the action, both parents with doctrine resident in their souls didn’t see something in the baby they saw something related to the baby. The indicative mood is declarative for the fact that they did have doctrine and they did see something. The word “child” means infant, it is paidion (παιδίον) [pronounced pahee-DEE-on].

The problem here is the word “proper.” It is an adjective which modifies paidion (παιδίον) [pronounced pahee-DEE-on], infant.” Both paidion (παιδίον) [pronounced pahee-DEE-on] and the adjective are in the accusative. The adjective is asteios (ἀστεος) [pronounced as-TĪ-oss]. The noun that goes with this adjective is a)stu which means “city.” The adjective asteios (ἀστεος) [pronounced as-TĪ-oss] means “pertaining to a city.” This is the problem. No one could ever work out how a baby could be pertaining to a city so they just decided to do something else with it, they had to do a little hedging here. They finally came to say that asteios (ἀστεος) [pronounced as-TĪ-oss] meant someone with city manners, therefore someone who has good manners. But thanks to archeologists and the recovery of so much papyri dealing with the Koine Greek they can’t get away with this. This still means “pertaining to a city.” The look at a baby and he pertains to a city, so they hide him. The literal translation is, “an infant pertaining to a city.”

Hebrews 11:23 “By means of doctrine resident in the soul, when Moses was born, he was hidden for a period of three months by his parents, because they saw an infant pertaining to a city.”

The Parents Saw Something

1. There is a city in this context which is very important. It is a specific city mentioned in Hebrews 11:10, 16. That city does something. When you see that city in context like this it reminds you of paragraph SG3 for Old Testament types, just as the word stephanos (στέφανος) [pronounced STEHF-ahn-oss] or crown reminds of SG3 for the royal family of God, believers of the Church Age.

2. The city is related to surpassing grace blessing and reward for the patriarchs in eternity.

3. This city, therefore, is a part of the paragraph SG3.

4. The point is that the parents of Moses had so much doctrine in their souls that they were able to identify Moses as God’s man to deliver Israel from slavery. They were supergrace believers moving on to surpassing grace and they saw their city, and they saw that this was the child who would be in that city too. So the whole thing was related to doctrine, to doctrine resident in their souls.

5. They discerned that the preservation of Moses, saving his life from the edict of Pharaoh, was a part of their supergrace function resulting in their surpassing grace reward. So the parents of Moses are supergrace believers who demonstrate their status by saving this son under the edict of death by Pharaoh Thutmose the first. For this they will have, and do have, their SG3 blessing and reward in eternity. They are a part of that great city.

Acts 7:20 — “In which time Moses was born, and he was pertaining to a city to the God.”

The principle is, just as crowns are the surpassing grace designation for the royal family of God so the eternal holy city is the designation for the surpassing grace blessings and rewards for the patriarchs of Israel.

Paragraph SG3 — the Doctrine of Surpassing Grace (Cont.)

B. The eternal holy city is used to designate the surpassing grace rewards and blessings for the patriarchs and the leaders of Israel. Hebrews 11:9,10,16,23; Acts 7:20; Revelation 21:2 which verse does not refer to the details of SG3 but to the principle of SG3, just like the crown is the principle of SG3 for the royal family of God; Revelation 21:10 — “and having the glory of God.” Few people in history have ever glorified God the way Moses did and it will show for all eternity. Moses is related to that city. But few people have ever had a greater opportunity than his parents to look at life from the divine viewpoint and join in with the glory that Moses would bring to God, and the greatness of Moses who was one of the greatest all-time people who ever lived.

Hebrews 11:9 — “By means of doctrine resident in the soul he lived as a temporary resident with reference to the land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, joint heirs of the same promise.”

Hebrews 11:10 — “For he himself kept waiting with anticipation for a city having foundations, whose designer and builder is the God.”

Hebrews 11:16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.

Hebrews 11:23 “By means of doctrine resident in the soul, when Moses was born, he was hidden for a period of three months by his parents, because they saw an infant pertaining to a city.”

Acts 7:20 — “In which time Moses was born, and he was pertaining to a city to the God.”

1972 Hebrews 11:17a Lesson #176

176 08/18/1974 Hebrews 11:17a Doctrines of the Abrahamic covenant, testing of Abraham

Several verses read. For He has prepared a city for the same ones.

His parents saw an infant relating to a city. When Moses was to God, he was pertaining to a city.

We have been studying the challenge to SG3, the challenge to surpassing grace blessings. Obviously this was a key to everything that we are studying in this passage. We move on now to the test of supergrace, verses 17–19.

Bob reviews the crowns which were awarded to some Roman soldiers. The crown indicated a cash salary to go with it.

The Abrahamic Covenant, (Review and Addition)

1. By definition the Abrahamic covenant is a compilation of all the promises of God to Abraham and his descendants related to the glory road, starting with saving grace, then living grace, supergrace, dying grace and surpassing grace. A certain number of the descendants of Abraham are going to follow the road to glory, they are going to believe in Jesus Christ and receive Him as Savior. They are going to persist in positive volition toward doctrine and therefore if they are Old Testament descendants they are going to have the city which represents all of the glories of surpassing grace. If they are members of the body of Christ, Church Age believers, then they are going to have the crowns represented by paragraph SG3.

a. A city is like a crown. Just the bare minimum information is given; but there is much more to it that we hear.

b. Church Age believers will have the crown, representing SG3.

2. The original three-paragraph covenant dealing with Abraham is found in Genesis 12:1–3. This is merely an outline of things that God continued to promise and amplify by way of promise, but the original three paragraphs of the Abrahamic covenant is in Genesis 12:1–3. The first paragraph deals with separation. One of the great tests that came to Abraham was the fact that his family got in the way. Eventually God had to eliminate his family. Paragraph two deals with blessing — Genesis 12:2. Paragraph three is miscellaneous and deals with a number of subjects pertaining to the future of Israel. The first phrase is a blessing by association sentence, the second deals with anti-Semitism, and the third phrase deals with messianic blessing. So we actually have the original three paragraph covenant, and from this God makes many amplifications and many citations to encourage not only Abraham but his progeny (seed) or his descendants.

3. The Abrahamic covenant is the basis for beginning the Palestinian covenant or a promise dealing with land. This promise is found in Genesis 13:14–16. This was amplified in Genesis 15:18–21.

4. Furthermore, God has promised Abraham a city forever. The last thing that the Jews would ever conquer was the land of the Jebusites which was a city state on the top of a hill. It is now known as Jerusalem. But the Jebusites held out until the time of David.

5. The covenant includes the seed of Abraham — Genesis 22:15–18.

6. The Abrahamic covenant was reiterated to the next generation, and this is why we have Hebrews 11:20,21, and 22.

7. The Abrahamic covenant was the basis of the Exodus deliverance of Israel — Exodus 6:2–8.

8. The Abrahamic covenant was reiterated to the third generation, Jacob — Genesis 35:12.

9. The Abrahamic covenant became the basis of Joseph having something greater in dying than he ever had in living — Hebrews 11:22.

Bob believes that no one could have figured out the information given in Friday’s class on their own.

Isaac was a real wimp. He had someone else go and find a wife for him. But he seized and held the high ground. A whole verse in Hebrews is devoted to him.

Jacob was born cheating.

When any believer seizes and holds the high ground he will be tested in three areas: a) SG3 will be tested, and we have already seen that. b) SG2 will be tested, and we will see that next. c) Dying grace will be tested. So he will be tested on dying, he will be tested on blessing in time, he will be tested on blessing in eternity.

Hebrews 11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son,

We move now to testing in time, the test of supergrace. Verse 17 — “By faith,” the instrumental of means of the noun pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. Again, this noun has three separate connotations. a) That which causes trust and faith. it’s translation is “faithfulness, reliability, proof or pledge.” b) Faith in the active sense of believing, which is faith, trust, or confidence. c) That which is believed, the body of faith or belief, i.e. doctrine. “Doctrine” is the meaning here. “By means of doctrine resident in the soul Abraham.” He is the first Jewish patriarch. As a supergrace believer he seized and held the high ground, and in this context we have recorded his greatest test in seizing and holding.

Bob love to have a continuation come up for the Sunday nod-to-God crowd. So they think to themselves, what the hell is going on?

If this guy who has asked you out, does he really know you or not? If he knew what you were like after losing your sweet temper, he would screech when seeing you.

“when he was tried” — the present passive participle of peirazô (πειράζω) [pronounced pi-RAD-zoh], “when he was being tested.” Peirazô (πειράζω) [pronounced pi-RAD-zoh] means to test for good or bad, to put to the test to discover what a person is really like under pressure. Pressure brings out the best in you for pressure is designed to show to others, and to bring out into the open, that which is in your soul, namely Bible doctrine. Abraham has had a lot of doctrine resident in his soul, it has been eighteen years since Isaac was born. Abraham now has maximum doctrine in the soul and therefore the test is going to bring out the maximum resident doctrine. The present tense is an historical present to show a past event with the vividness of a present occurrence. The passive voice: Abraham received the action of the verb as a supergrace believer. The participle is a temporal participle and therefore, “By means of doctrine resident in the soul Abraham, when he was being tested.” He was under pressure. What did he do?

He offered up” — perfect active indicative of prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh]. He offered up the most valuable, the most important thing in the world, his only begotten son Isaac. Prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh] means to offer with the intent of slaying just as God commanded. The perfect tense is a consummating perfect in which not the existing results but the process is emphasized. The action is completed but the means of completing the action is the thing that is emphasized here. The active voice: Abraham produced the action being tested as to whether he would hold the high ground under conditions of offering to God under divine command his only begotten son and the most loved thing in all of his life. The indicative mood is the declarative mood for historical reality.

To make sure that we understand, the word “Isaac” is given next, ton Isaak — “the laughing one.” While the proper noun is indeclinable, Isaac is not indeclinable. The definite article tells us that Isaac would be in the accusative if Isaac could be declined. Certain proper names which are brought in from the Hebrew into the Greek are not declinable. Therefore ton Isaak. Isaac is nominative, ton is accusative, and it all simply means that here is something very special. God had to show to the world as well as to Abraham that everything that Abraham had the source was God, and the source of the blessing glorified God. The fact that God could provide these things for Abraham had to be tested from time to time so that Abraham, like all supergrace believers, would not lose track of the source. God is the source. Abraham had great wealth, God was the source.

The test does two things. It perpetuates glorifying God — or not — and it keeps the proper supergrace perspective for the one who has maximum doctrine. It also becomes a test of the angelic conflict. Is doctrine still more important than what doctrine produces. That is the issue here. Is Bible doctrine more important than what Bible doctrine produces — wealth, prominence, success, leadership dynamics, sexual prosperity as in the case of Abraham, etc. Is that more important to you than doctrine itself. Now we will take a test and see. “Take your son Isaac and take him out and sacrifice him.” That brings everything into focus. Often the easiest way to lose the high ground and to jump into reversionism is to be so enamored with what maximum doctrine gives, what is produces, that the product becomes the focus and the person becomes so enamoured with what God has provided that he forgets the source and he forgets doctrine and he neglects doctrine. Abraham had to face this test. If ever there was a person who was tested it was Abraham.

The Doctrine of the Testing of Abraham

1. The preparation for testing.

a. In this verse doctrine resident in the soul is the issue.

b. God’s delays are a part of progress.

c. God has to wait to give the believer supergrace blessings of paragraph SG2 — Isaiah 38:2. 30:18?

d. The hardest thing for God to do is to give us something with no strings attached, to give us something for nothing under the principle of grace which is the only way He gives.

i. The believer has a trend toward self-righteousness.

ii. The believer has some sort of legalism in this thinking.

e. Once the believer seizes and holds the high ground of supergrace God gives SG2 blessings and God is glorified by so doing.

f. The function of GAP plus doctrine resident in the soul is the basis for divine testing of the believer’s progress. Progress must be tested. If you make progress in the Christian life it will be tested. The greatest tests in all of your life come after you reach the high ground. The reversionist does not know anything of great testing, all he knows is discipline. So the function of GAP plus doctrine resident in the soul is the basis for all divine testing of the believer’s progress.

g. The daily and consistent intake of doctrine is the preparation for all supergrace testing. Abraham’s testing is based on the Abrahamic covenant which he knew better than we do.

2. The principle of waiting on the Lord. Obviously this is a factor in the doctrine of Abraham’s testing.

a. Waiting on the Lord is the maximum use of resident doctrine in the soul. Sometimes it is the faith-rest technique, this is basically the concept for launching divine viewpoint from the right lobe.

b. The principle of waiting on the Lord is to perpetuate application or faith-rest into hopeless situations and maximum pressures.

c. Waiting on the Lord is the build-up of resident doctrine and its constant application to life.

i. Psalm 37:7 — “Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.” How do you rest in the Lord? Bible doctrine daily. “Wait for” means you wait for blessing and you wait for testing. Your doctrine must be resident so you can wait for blessing and anticipate, and wait for testing and anticipate. If you are relaxed, then you are much more able to deal with testing. A kid wanted to share a lot of things to Bob. “You must think I’ve got a lot of nerve.” “No, I think you’re an ass.” He was a pompous self-righteous idiot. He wanted to share with me. Didn’t know a bit of doctrine. Some people need to be softened up with prosperity. This is allowing the wicked to prosper. This sets them up for discipline. A petty person cannot pass testing from God. Pettiness impedes progress in the spiritual life.

ii. Psalm 37:34 says “Wait for the Lord” — that is what Abraham did; “and keep his way” — the daily intake of doctrine; “and he will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off you will see it” — SG3, whereas they have lake of fire.

iii. Isaiah 40:31 — “Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain strength” — special blessing, paragraph SG2 and, in the future, SG 3; “they will walk and not become weary” — stamina from supergrace!

3. The importance of Abraham’s supergrace paragraph. Abraham’s supergrace paragraph is tied up in Genesis 17, circumcision, and Romans 4:17–21, sexual prosperity; and it must be fulfilled in the promise of the Abrahamic covenant, that Abraham will have descendants from his own loins.

4. The development of Abraham’s testing. The testing began with the barrenness of his wife, Sarah — Genesis 11:30; 16:1.

5. Three categories of reversionistic traps. Abraham would move forward to the high ground and then fall off into reversionism. He would bend back, circle back, and fail.

a. Family distractions. There was his father, Genesis 11:31,32, and his nephew. And his wife caused a real problem because of her mental attitude sins. Female complainer = bitch.

b. Geographical aberrations. Genesis 12:10–20, he went to Egypt when he was told to stay in the land. As soon as there was a famine in the land, a test, he failed to pass it. And again in Genesis 20:1–18 he did the same thing.

c. Self-centered reversionism. On one occasion we find Abraham rebuking God — Genesis 15:1–6. But then we find this same man meekly turning around and obeying his wife in Genesis 16:2. That is highly inconsistent.

6. The triumph of supergrace. This is the background for the rest of our passage. How could someone make such a tremendous sacrifice as Abraham did? How could someone give up something that was more important to him than anything else in life? And what is the real issue in this testing? Answer: Romans 4:17–21.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #177

177 08/18/1974 Hebrews 11:17a Doctrine of the testing of Abraham (cont.) The last point, #6, is found above.

SG2 and SG3 are the greatest security systems known. We receive 36 things from God at salvation. In the Church Age, we live in the Holy of Holies. We have entered into the royal family based upon faith in Christ. God has provided but one classroom, and that is the local church, despite how messtup the local church has become.

in the local church, God has provided everything necessary for you to grow spiritually.

The mature believer enjoys a variety of prosperities.

Bob covers the final point in the doctrine from yesterday.

Here is where Abraham received his confidence. Here is the key to SG2, SG3, and Abraham’s dying grace. Abraham, at the time, was a very miserable person. He was 99 years old and his life was a record of instabilities going up the hill and falling off, going up to supergrace and going back to reversionism. He would reach a high point of maturity but fail to hold. Finally, at 99 he went up and stayed. The reason he did is because of the very nature by which God presented to him the hopelessness of his situation and the fact there is no such thing as a hopeless situation. God laughs at hopeless situations because sitting there in heaven is your paragraph SG2.

Hebrews 11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son,

Rom 4:17 ...as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist.

Romans 4:17 begins with a parenthesis. “As it is written” — the adverb kathôs (καθώς) [pronounced kahth-OCE] presents a causal concept here. This adverb can be used four different ways. It can be an adverb of comparison, translated “just as.” Sometimes kathôs (καθώς) [pronounced kahth-OCE] denotes degree — “to the degree that.” It is often a temporal adverb introduced by the word “when.” It is a causal adverb and a causal adverb is translated “since” or “in so far as.” So, “Since it is written.” No matter how hopeless a situation is remember this. The Word of God guarantees no hopeless situations. Hopeless problems can only be resolved by Bible doctrine.

The Word of God guarantees no hopeless situation. It is the doctrine in our soul which is what counts. Moses is no longer able, at 99, to have sex; and Sarah could not have a child at age 90. That means, hopeless. You aren’t really living until you have a hopeless situation. Unsolvable situations are situations that God can solve.

You cannot learn and talk at the same time. Hopeless problems can only be solved with Bible doctrine in the soul.

And it has to be transferred into the soul which is why we have the prefect passive indicative of graphô (γράφω) [pronounced GRAWF-oh] which means to write. The perfect tense here is an intensive perfect meaning that it stands written, it is written in the past with the result that it stands written forever. The passive voice: the subject, the Bible, receives the action of the verb. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit in inspiration is involved in this passive voice. The declarative indicative mood is the unqualified assertion that the canon of scripture is completed and closed, and that it stands forever and all hell cannot destroy the Word of God. It is the Word of God that lives and abides forever, and it is the Word of God that is important, and it’s Bible doctrine that is important, not your experiences.

The key to Abraham’s problems is sexual prosperity; yet time is ticking away until his sexual desires have waned.

So it stands written in the past. What does? The fact that Abraham has a promise. We have a quotation now — “that you are going to be the father of many nations.” This is the tragic thing about the whole situation. Abraham had to come to the point where he believed this, and that was his problem. Abraham is said to be the father of us all, that is a spiritual concept. But this is a physical concept whereby a new race would be born, and that is exactly what we have in this particular passage, except for one or two changes.

“I have made” is incorrect. It should be, “I have decreed.” This is the perfect active indicative of tithêmi (τίθημι) [pronounced TIHTH-ā-mee] which means here to decree or to so order something. The perfect tense is a consummative perfect which emphasizes not the existing state, which is hopeless to Abraham, but the process by which the SG2 will be completed. The active voice brings in the sovereignty of God in eternity past as a part of the divine decrees. The declarative indicative simply represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Now Abraham has to decide what is more real, his hopeless situation or what God decreed. And there is no way you have decide for what God decreed unless you have maximum doctrine in the soul. If you don’t have maximum doctrine in the soul you will always go with them hopeless situation.

Abraham has a hopeless situation facing a promise from God. With maximum doctrine, you go with the promise of God.

The sovereignty of God in eternity past has already solved the problem, and this is what Abraham learned so that when he was tested in paragraph SG2, when he was tested with regard to offering his son it really was no problem at all. The three happiest days of Abraham’s life were the three days it took him to go to Mount Moriah to offer his son. He wasn’t upset or disturbed then because he had already learned the principle that you must learn, to seize and hold the high ground. You must learn that solutions have existed in eternity past and that man cannot improve these solutions in any way. Therefore, it becomes a matter of spiritual growth, and from this spiritual growth in reaching the high ground, then you are going to claim and latch on to the divine reality in the Word rather than the human reality — hopeless situation.

With that in mind He said, “I have decreed thee.” “Thee” is the accusative singular of the personal pronoun su. The accusative is the direct object, “you and only you” Abraham, not someone else. So Abraham must face this for himself. This is the principle of “aloneness.” There is a point at which we are alone in facing hopeless situations versus divine provision in eternity past.

“a father” — patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR]. Abraham has never been a father under any legitimate system. He has been patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR] but that was a part of another reversionistic aberration. This is what is called a double accusative. Patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR] is in the accusative, the pronoun is in the accusative, and “father” [patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR]] here means new race, originator, progenitor, ancestor.

“of many nations” — the word “many” means great sexual prosperity. Yet he is sexually dead! The fatherhood of Abraham comes into focus at this point. First of all, Abraham is the father of us all — Romans 4:11,16. This refers to the fact that Abraham is the pattern of salvation for all people who are saved in any dispensation. Pattern: Abraham had believed in the Lord and it was credited to his account for righteousness. Abraham is called the father of circumcision in Romans 4:12. That means the originator of a new race. He is the father of many Gentile nations — Romans 4:17, fulfilled in Genesis 25:1–4.

Romans 4:17a Abraham, who is the father of us all, written in the past with the result that it stands written forever, “I have decreed you, Abraham, a father of many nations.

Abraham gets this information when he is sexually dead and it is almost like rubbing salt in the wound. The “father of many nations” when he is the father of zero nations and there is no possibility of his ever being the father of one person, much less a nation. The idea of having a rather extensive progeny is totally foreign to his thinking because it is a hopeless situation.

“before him” is wrong. We have an adverb, katenanti (κατέναντι) [pronounced kat-EHN-an-tee] which really means “in the presence of.” This is actually an “improper” preposition, a technical word for a preposition that truly wasn’t a preposition but originally was an adverb, and the adverb changed its mind and decided that there was a common language coming up and no longer a classical language, like Attic Greek, that it wanted to become an improper, and it looked around for an object and when it finds an object it is called an improper preposition. In other words, it was originally an adverb. Whenever you find these improper prepositions they always are highly emphatic. We translate this “in the sight of whom.” This means that Abraham came to the place where he said, “All right, I’m in a hopeless situation, So what!” There is no such thing as a hopeless situation with God, and there cannot be any such thing.

Therefore God has an answer to this. Abraham has enough doctrine (when he reached the supergrace point) resident in the soul to know that there is an answer. This is what is meant when is says “he believed — the aorist active indicative of pisteúô (πιστεύω) [pronounced pis-TOO-oh], which means to believe, to have confidence, and so on. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the event in its entirety but it emphasizes the result. In other words, the constative part of the aorist is the hopeless situation. But the culminative aorist simply tells us that out of this hopeless situation came a solution that glorified God and blessed Abraham. God not only solves problems but He blesses the one who has the problem in solving it. In other words, the hopeless situation when it is solved glorifies God. God has found way to glorify Himself and at the same time to bless us in the solution. The active voice: Abraham produced the action of the verb by maximum doctrine in the soul. The declarative indicative represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of historical reality. This really happened.

“even God” — the objective genitive of theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS]. He had believed God; “who qickeneth” — the present active participle of zôopoieô (ζωοποιέω) [pronounced dzo-op-oy-EH-oh]. The present tense is a pictorial present in which the distinctive force of this tense is used to present to the mind a picture of an event in the process of occurrence. The active voice: God performed the miracle necessary, not only to give procreative powers to Abraham but at the same time to revive the whole structure of Sarah. Sarah, when she had her normal bearing again, she was young is looks. Having children is for a young woman. Abraham “had believed God, the one reviving the dead.” There is no resurrection here, nekros (νεκρός) [pronounced nehk-ROSS] means sexual death here. All erogenous zones were restored for both of them.

“and calleth” — the present active participle of kaleô (καλέω) [pronounced kal-EH-oh]. Kaleô (καλέω) [pronounced kal-EH-oh] means designating as well as calling. This is a dramatic present. The active voice: God produces the action. The accusative neuter plural of the definite article is translated “those things,” it is a reference to the dead and dormant organs of Abraham and Sarah.

“which be not” — present active participle of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] plus the negative mê. It actually means “not existing.” “Calling the not existing as though it existed.” A hopeless situation is changed by God.

Romans 4:17 Abraham, who is the father of us all, written in the past with the result that it stands written forever, “I have decreed you, Abraham, a father of many nations.” In the sight of whom, he [Abraham] believed God, the One reviving his dead genatia and the one calling into existence sexual power, that which did not exist.

Romans 4:17–23 has been covered in a previous set of lessons.

A ship with guns and ammon cannot function until the ammo is placed into the gun. Parallels having doctrine in the soul to apply that same doctrine.

Verse 18 — “Who against hope.” The relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] refers to Abraham at age 99. Then we have para plus the accusative of elpís (ἐλπις) [pronounced el-PIS] which means hope, confidence, expectation. Para plus the accusative here means “beyond expectation.” Abraham was beyond expectation of solution. In other words, there was no human solution.

There is no such thing as racial purity. Joseph married an Egyptian woman. The double portion tribe are half Jewish and half Egyptian. All Jews have some gentile blood. Goldwater never thought of himself as being part Jewish or part gentile. This is how it should be in the US. We are not black or red or yellow. Racial differences are the problem of the sin nature.

“believed” — the culminative aorist of pisteúô (πιστεύω) [pronounced pis-TOO-oh]. This is the way he called upon the inner resources of doctrine, for the faith-rest technique takes the inner resources of doctrine, calls upon them, brings them up and uses them.

“in hope” is epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative of elpís (ἐλπις) [pronounced el-PIS] and the locative of elpís (ἐλπις) [pronounced el-PIS] means confidence. This time we have epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus elpís (ἐλπις) [pronounced el-PIS] instead of para, and it means something different. It means “at the point of confidence.” The point of confidence is maximum doctrine in the soul and reaching the supergrace life. When you are on the high ground then faith reaches down into the inner resources of the soul and pulls out the right angle for the right situation and fires away, and a dynamic person glorifies God in the midst of the devil’s world in the angelic conflict. “that he might become” — the word “that” is another preposition, e)ij, plus the infinitive introducing a result, an intended result which became a real result — “in order that he might become.” It is the doctrine in the soul that counts. The culminative aorist of ginomai here means that the results are many. The results are personal sexual happiness for Abraham and Sarah, but more than that a new race and the last race in history is born.

“the father of many nations” — not just of the new race but many nations; “according to that which had been spoken.” Now we have a quotation from Genesis 15:5 — “so shall your seed [progeny] be.”

1972 Hebrews 11:17b; Rom. 4:19-21 Lesson #178

178 08/19/1974 Hebrews 11:17b; Rom. 4:19-21 Manliness is in the soul

Hebrews 11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son,

Hopeless situations have been solved in eternity past. Divine viewpoint offsets anything thought to be a hopeless situation.

Romans 4:19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb.

People walk into Berachah and wear a muscle shirt and they think that they are manly because they have muscles. They think that being a sex athlete is manly. Manliness resides between a man’s ears. Honest, stable, straightforward, moral courage are some of the characteristics. People who look in the mirror and flex and they like what they see.

At this point the concept changes and lines up with the last half of our passage which is Hebrews 11:17b. The hopeless situation, the challenge of supergrace doctrine, all ties in.

Abraham was not weak because he had doctrine in his soul and moral courage.

Romans 4:19 — we have a continuation from verse 18 in the conjunction kai, “and being not weak,” the aorist active participle of astheneô (ἀσθενέω) [pronounced as-then-EH-oh] plus the negative. The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist, and plus the negative indicates that Abraham did not even start to become weak. At 99 years old what made Abraham strong? Climbing a hill! He followed the colours to the high ground of supergrace, he reached SG2. Once he reached it he finally seized and held. And when hopeless situations came along to test his SG2 he wasn’t even beginning to get weak. The first test he ever had when he reached the high ground was the fact that he was sexually dead and his wife was sexually dead. There was no possible way that he could have sexual prosperity, much less a progeny, much less a nation Israel. These things were impossible. But with God nothing shall be impossible, says the Word, and “not having become weak,” the active voice plus the negative, Abraham produced the action of the verb by doctrine in his soul. The greatest thing that can ever happen to us is to find ourselves helpless, to find ourselves weak where we would like to be strong, useless where we would like to be useful. In other words, to find that we have run out of gas as far as life is concerned, because when we get to that point we realize the need of Bible doctrine. And Bible doctrine does make the difference.

Egotistical Christians who think they can get along without doctrine. The holy rollers are proud and arrogant. When you know that you are weak, then you begin to have no illusions about yourself. You depend more upon God. Bob knows that he is hopeless and weak and worthless. But knowing this, you can depend upon God. God builds upon our nothingness.

What was it he wasn’t weak in? “in faith,” the instrumental of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs], what is believed, the body of faith, “by means of resident doctrine in the soul.” “And without becoming weak by means of resident doctrine in the soul, he considered not” — the aorist active indicative of katanoeô (κατανοέω) [pronounced kat-an-oh-EH-oh]. noéô (νοέω) [pronounced noh-EH-oh] means to think, katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] means to think down or according to a norm or a standard. To think down means to concentrate, to understand, to perceive, to apprehend, to contemplate. The word “contemplate” is a good translation here. There is no negative here. It doesn’t say he contemplated not, there is no negative. He contemplated and it is a constative aorist which gathers into one syntactical entirety what he was thinking. What was he thinking about? His body, a portion of his body — sōma (σμα) [pronounced SOH-mah], the phallic portion of his body which was dead. He has no sexual capability. The word “now,” the adverb êdê (ἤδη) [pronounced AY-day] means “already”; “dead” — the perfect passive participle of nekroô (νεκρόω) [pronounced nek-ROW-oh], “considered his body already having died.” The perfect tense is the intensive perfect. It means that he had been sexually dead for thirteen years with the result that he was sexually dead at the time he was thinking about this. The passive voice: Abraham received this sexual death. The participle is ascriptive, it describes a hopeless situation. Already having become sexually dead with the result that he was permanently under sexual death, is the meaning of the phrase.

Now we have an enclitic adverb, pou (πού) [pronounced poo], “approximately” — approximately a hundred years,” which means he was about a hundred years old.

Romans 4:19 And without becoming weak by means of doctrine resident in the soul, he thoughtfully reflected and understood his own body already having become sexually dead [with the result that he was permanently under sexual death], living approximately one hundred years, and also the deadness of Sarah’s womb.

Romans 4:20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God,

Verse 20 — a man is a man because of what he has in his soul, not because of his physical makeup. The hopeless situation is a challenge to supergrace. “He staggered not” — the aorist passive indicative of diakrinô (διακρίνω) [pronounced dee-ak-REE-no] plus a strong negative, ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. Diakrinô (διακρίνω) [pronounced dee-ak-REE-no] means to be unstable, to zigzag, to waver, to be hot and cold. It means instability. So we translate this, “He did not waver.” One of the major characteristics of the supergrace life is stability. The constative aorist means that during the whole hopeless situation he didn’t bat an eye, he didn’t zigzag. He did not waver in his soul. The passive voice: Abraham did not receive instability. The declarative indicative is the reality of the fact that Abraham was stabilized by doctrine. Stability is a major characteristic of the supergrace life.

“at the promise” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah], “he did not waiver with reference to the promise.”

Giving another believer a promise when they are under pressure is usually worthless, because they have no frame of reference for that promise. They have no doctrine in the soul. There is no balance of residency.

“of God” should be “from God,” the ablative of source. He did not waver, the promise from God was so strong.

“but” — a very strong adversative conjunction — “was strong,” the aorist passive indicative of endunamoô (ἐνδυναμόω) [pronounced ehn-doo-nam-OH-oh] which means to become invigorated or to revive the strength that is there. A promise merely revives the strength that is there. This is a culminative aorist, it recognizes the entirety of the constative aorist but emphasizes the existing results. All the Abraham’s doctrine was there from daily function of GAP. Insert a promise when you are down in a useless, helpless situation and that promise stimulates all this doctrine with the result that you are invigorated. The invigoration in Abraham’s case is also physical because of the miracle involved. Invigoration means the power to copulate.

“in faith” — the instrumental of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs], “by means of doctrine resident in the soul.” And what happens when you are tested and when Bible doctrine is stimulated and the divine viewpoint prevails? God is glorified.

“giving” is the aorist active participle of didômi (δίδωμι) [pronounced dihd-OH-mee], “having given”; “glory,” doxa (δόξα) [pronounced DOHX-ah], “to God.” What glorified God? God gave him paragraph SG2, sexual prosperity. God invigorated him sexually. God was glorified by the sexual prosperity of Abraham. It is God who gives it, it is God who is glorified, and in the angelic conflict God is glorified when He can give any believer his SG2. Yours has your name on it but whether you ever get it or not depends upon your attitude toward doctrine.

Romans 4:21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

Verse 21 — “And being fully persuaded” is the aorist passive participle of plêrophoreô (πληροφορέω) [pronounced play-rof-or-EH-oh]. Was Abraham any more of a man once he had sexual prosperity? No, he wasn’t. He was the same person. A man is a male with doctrine, dynamics in his soul. This is a gnomic aorist for an absolute truth. He was fully convinced before. The passive voice: he received the action of the verb through doctrine in his soul. The participle has antecedent action to the main verb. The main verb “he did not waver by means of doctrine.”

The sooner a woman discovers what a real man is, the better.

“that” introduces a conjunction, hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee], to show the content of his thinking, the content of his being fully convinced.

“what he had promised” — “he” is God; epaggellô (ἐπαγγέλλω) [pronounced ehp-ang-EHL-low] refers to paragraph SG2. This is an iterative perfect in which the promise God fulfilled to Abraham was repeated at recurrent intervals. It was a permanent part of Abraham’s life, the sexual prosperity from his paragraph SG2. The middle voice is the indirect middle which emphasizes the agent as producing the action of the verb rather than participating in the results — “what he himself had promised.”

“he was able also to perform” — poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] in the aorist active infinitive is very important here. It is the infinitive of actual result. Until Abraham reached supergrace it was the infinitive of intended result, but once he reaches supergrace with maximum doctrine in the soul it is the infinitive of actual result.

Romans 4:20–21 Having been completely convinced that, what he himself [God] had promised in the past with the result that he kept on holding the promise open, He was able also to do it.

This explains the test that we are studying in Hebrews 11:17. By means of doctrine resident in the soul Abraham, when he was being tested, offered as a sacrifice the Isaac...

“and he that had received” — the aorist middle participle of anadechomai (ἀναδέχομαι) [pronounced an-ad-EHKH-om-ahee] which means to receive from above, to receive again and again, to receive in the sense of welcoming someone you love, to receive in the sense of entertaining. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, Abraham received the promise of supergrace blessing. The constative aorist links eternity with time and gathers up into one entirety the formation of the decree, the actual formation of the paragraph, and the information revealed to Abraham. The middle voice is a direct middle in which the agent acts with a view toward participating in the results of the action. The participle is circumstantial. In these circumstances Abraham received in eternity past he received in time as a part of the doctrinal content of the Abrahamic covenant, and it was a reality to him through GAP.

“offered up” — the imperfect active indicative of prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh] which means to offer a sacrifice. The imperfect tense is inceptive, the inceptive imperfect for the initiation of a process. It denotes the beginning of an action which is on the point of occurring and hence it is a colloquial idiom comparable to our English “one went on doing a thing.” So it should be translated “he went right on offering.”

“his only begotten” — the definite article is used as a possessive pronoun, and with it we have the noun monogenês (μονογενής) [pronounced mon-og-en-ACE] — “the only born one in the promise.” This wasn’t the only son he had but this is the only one in the framework of the Abrahamic covenant, the only one related to his supergrace life. Isaac was his only child in the sense of the race, in the sense of the Abrahamic covenant, in relation to paragraph SG2.

Hebrews 11:17 By means of doctrine resident in the soul, when he was being tested, offered as a sacrifice the Isaac: even his only-born one, he went to offering [sacrificing] the one whom he had received as the promise.

Summary

1. Abraham had received the promises of the supergrace paragraph SG2. They had been revealed to him and were a part of the doctrine resident in his soul.

2. He had received a specific promise on several occasions — in Genesis chapters 15 and 17. As a supergrace believer he knew this would be fulfilled.

3. Having received supergrace blessings he was challenged: Are the blessings more important than the one who gave them? This is the test.

4. Abraham seized and held the high ground of supergrace by answering no, the giver is more important than the gift.

5. The blessings are not more important than the Lord who is the source of the blessing.

6. The blessings may come and go but the source we always have.

7. Therefore this is also the issue in surpassing grace blessings. In SG3 we have the source and the blessing forever.

8. God tested Abraham to determine his willingness to depart with the supergrace blessing at the command of the source. The source was more important than the blessing, God was more important than Isaac.

9. Abraham was willing because of doctrine resident in his soul which produced occupation with Christ. One of the facets of occupation with Christ is to be more aware of the giver than the gift. On other words, occupation with Christ is stronger than any supergrace blessing (sexual prosperity, monetary prosperity, technical prosperity, etc.). And there is only one way to be occupied with Christ, and that is through Bible doctrine in the soul accumulated every day.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #179

179 08/20/1974 Hebrews 11:18; Gen. 22:1–4 The Lord sees to it

Bob has not thought about Sunday School for a long time. The facilities are dedicated to 7 days a week ministry; and the once a week ministry is left behind. Only two buildings, which were outgrown in the first year.

People who are in love; or people with capacity for life are never bored.

When was the last time you were impressed with anyone for 48hours? We all have sin natures, and we can only stand so much discerning observation. Bob does not get upset by all the bad news, or who is president.

God directs history. He has a sense of humor. He lets nations and groups hang themselves, and then He pulls it all back together.

Hebrews 11:18 of whom it was said, "Through Isaac shall your offspring be named."

Verse 18 — “Of whom” is incorrect. The preposition pros plus the accusative can be translated in several ways. We have pros plus the accusative of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] and it means “toward whom.” That is, toward Abraham. It means it was given directly toward him before he faced the test, it was not said of him later.

“it was said” — aorist passive indicative of the verb laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh], a verb of communication. It is different from légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] in that it implies teaching. It should be “it had been communicated.” The aorist tense is the constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. Here is the constative aorist referring to a momentary action from God repeated time and time again and gathered up into one entirety. God taught Abraham this principle.

“that” — the conjunction hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] is used as a quotation mark or a summary of what was communicated. The latest communiqué before he faced the test was Genesis 21:12.

The quotation: “In Isaac” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the theoretical locative of the indeclinable noun I)saak. The specific name of Isaac indicates the trend of Abraham’s SG2 paragraph. The trend is obvious. Sexual prosperity would result in the birth of a son, Isaac, and a new nation would come through this son and not through any of the other children which Abraham had before or afterward. The supergrace testing must come through Isaac.

“thy seed” — soi sperma (σπέρμα) [pronounced SPHER-mah], “be called.” The word kaleô (καλέω) [pronounced kal-EH-oh] means to call, the future passive indicative, but it also means a lot of other things too. What is really means in many passages connected with the divine decrees is “designated.” God had designated out of all the children of Abraham through which one would go the racial line. This is the predictive future which portrays an event expected to occur in a future time. But it is more than that, it is a gnomic future for a statement of fact or performance expected under normal conditions. The passive voice: Abraham’s seed. The word “sperm” is probably more important than the word “seed” because sperm is human, seed is not. The sperm of Abraham went in three categories. The progeny of Hagar, the progeny of Sarah, and the progeny of Keturah. But only the genes in the sperm through Sarah is the one that is the Jew. God designated that the sperm that impregnated Sarah would be a race, not a family. The passive voice: Abraham’s sperm receives the action of the verb, namely designating Isaac as a new race. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative for a dogmatic statement of fact that in the second generation from Abraham the sperm which caused the conception of Isaac meant a new race.

Genesis 22:1 After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, "Abraham!" And he said, "Here I am."

Genesis 22:1 — “after these things” means that everything that ever happened to Abraham that tested him. “that God did tempt” — should be “test,” the Piel perfect from nasah which means to prove. God proved Abraham, which means test.

Genesis 22:2 He said, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you."

Verse 2 — “Take now thy son” — the Qal imperative of laqach; “thine only born one”. Why is he called the only son? Because he is the only Jew.

“whom thou lovest” — Qal perfect of ʾâhêb (אָהֵב) [pronounced aw-HAYV^B] for maximum love; “whom you have loved,” literally. “and get thee to the land of Moriah” which is a part of the land belonging to the Jebusites and is near the present location of Jerusalem. The words “get thee” is not correct, the Qal imperative of jalak means “go.”

“offer him there for a burnt offering” — “offer him” is the Hiphil imperative of alah and it means “cause him to be offered.” Alah means an ascending sacrifice. The Hiphil stem is causative — “You cause it, you do it.” That is a test. The fact that he loves is a test.

“a burnt offering” — an offering where you slaughter the sacrificial victim and then burn the whole thing.

Genesis 22:3 So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

Verse 3 — Greatness is being able to relax and carry on with a routine in the greatest crisis of your life. Most people can never think clearly and objectively in a crisis because they don’t have the inner soul equipment to do it.

“and clave the wood for the burnt offering” — “clave” means to split, the piel imperfect of kaqa.

“and rose up” is the verb qum and it means his intention was to follow the orders of the Lord exactly. It is more than just a word of motion.

“and went” — that is the word of motion. Qum reflects the mental attitude, jalak indicates the fact that he actually walked there. He has already passed the test. Here is the greatest test of this type that anyone ever had and he is thoroughly prepared for it. Principle: It is the prepared believer who is great in the crisis. Being prepared means doctrine in the soul. Sooner or later every believer is tested by crisis circumstances and it is the preparation that makes the difference. And the same preparation by which you pass the test is the exactly the same preparation for really enjoying life.

Genesis 22:4 On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar.

Verse 4 — “Then on the third day” — three days of enjoying his son — “he saw the place afar off.” This was designated to him in some way not mentioned in the text.

Verse 5 — “Abide ye here” means stay here, the qal imperative of shub. They were to stay behind, they were not to climb the hill.

“I and the lad will go” — the qal imperfect of jalak, third masculine plural, “we will go,” literally. Then he said “we will worship” and “we will come again.” There are three verbs here and they all have the same morphology. All of them should properly be translated “we will go, we will worship, we will come again.”

The Ishtafel The word “worship” is a double reflexive and should be translated, “we, both the young man and I, will worship.”

Gen 22:6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together.

Verse 6 — “and laid it upon Isaac his son.” Isaac is young and strong. The point is that anyone who can carry the wood up the hill can strong-arm his old man into keeping him off that altar. In other words, Isaac had to be willing to go to the altar. This speaks well for his youthful training in Bible doctrine. The only thing Abraham carried was the fire and the knife.

Gen 22:7 And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”

Verse 7 — “Behold the fire and the wood but where is the lamb?”

Gen 22:8 Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So they went both of them together.

Verse 8 — “My son, God will provide” isn’t exactly what he said. The qal imperfect of raah means to keep on seeing, and so a correct translation would be, “God will keep on seeing to it.” That is the model of every person who seizes and holds the high ground. There are problems here but God keeps on seeing to it. This is equivalent to God will provide, except that the imperfect tense means He keeps on doing it. But it means more than that, it means that God has already provided in eternity past and it is a matter of Abraham seeing how God has provided as the situation unfolds.

Gen 22:9 When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.

Verse 9 — “and bound Isaac his son.” This is the point at which we have a beautiful picture of the submission of our Lord Jesus Christ.

“to the wood” — our Lord Jesus Christ was nailed to the wood on that same spot or in that same vicinity.

Gen 22:10 Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.

Verse 10 — the qal infinitive construct of shachat means to cut his throat.

Gen 22:11 But the angel of the LORD called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

Verse 11 — the angel of Jehovah, the Lord Jesus Christ, stopped him. The doubling of Abraham’s name here means “perfect Abraham.”

Verse 14 — “And Abraham called the name of the place Jehovah-jireh.” This is generally give in notes as “God will provide”, and while God did provide that isn’t what it says. It is the qal imperfect of raah again plus Adonai — Adonai-jireh, which means “Jehovah keeps on seeing to it.” In other words, it isn’t that God just provided for this situation, it is that God keeps on providing. The point is that not just now with the ram caught in the bush does God see to it, but He keeps on seeing to it. Abraham says, the Lord keeps on seeing to it. All the way in life to the point of death, dying grace, and paragraph SG3, and once again Abraham sees the whole road to glory. What this really means is Jesus Christ keeps on seeing to it. God’s grace never breaks down like a machine.

Scofeld told LS Chafer to found a seminary where the original languages could be learned.

Hebrews 11:18 Toward whom [Abraham] it had been communicated, In Isaac your sperm shall be designated.”

That means that Isaac has to live to have children. It means that God will see to it. If God gives an order that seems to contradict that promise then God has to see to it.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #180

180 08/21/1974 Hebrews 11:19; James 2:20–23 Reorganization of Sunday School

As the pastor, Bob needs to deal with certain problems in the church. Bob does not want to move from Berachah or build any more buildings. He likes it there. They checked temporary buildings run 35-50,000. Real bottleneck when stepping out the doors. Also considered setting up one of the most luxurious lady’s john you’ve ever seen.

Sometimes, solving one problem creates many others. So, the small exits keeps everyone from driving out at the same time. Bob got a brief on the Sunday School, about the same time he decided not to do anything about the egress.

Bob thinks that little children will grow up and never come back to Berachah. The methods being used on the kids are wrong. Sunday School teachers are taping their teaching. Bob has taken all of this stuff and, as of last night, they are gone. The kids are getting taught only once a week. So, there is no Sunday School, there is not Junior church, and there is no goon squad.

We need to teach our children as often as Berachah meets. We are going to have Berachah prep school. Bob figures that we have lost a half generation of kids so far.

Carl Kepler is going to manage the space. Whatever age, the kid will go to the same room; but he may have a different teacher, depending on the day. There will be courses in poise, in taking notes. This is so they can enter into the congregation at age 12 or later.

There is no voting on this; that’s it. Bob is not interested in, “Rah rah rah, go ahead.” I am going ahead. Children can never get enough teaching.

Review of vv. 8–18. We have a family pulling in the same direction. There are tons of Jews around today; but Abraham, at age 100, was incapable of copulation; and she was incapable of producing eggs. The existence of the Jews is proof of God’s faithfulness.

Hebrews 11:19 He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

Verse 19 — “Accounting”. The explanation of this word is found beginning in James 2:21. It is interesting how the various facets of Abraham’s victory are divided up. It was one of the most phenomenal of all supergrace victories because it was divided up between James and Paul and whoever wrote Hebrews and the book of Genesis chapter 22.

James 2:20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?

Notice, for example, James 2:20 — “Wilt thou know, O vain man.” Literally it says, “Are you willing to learn, O empty of doctrine person, that doctrine apart from production is unemployed.” This doesn’t mean that you’re doing some work for doctrine, it simply means that your thinking, your action, is divine viewpoint. Doctrine apart from production is unemployed, it is barren, it is non-productive. Non-productive doctrine is that in your left lobe, but never transferred over by faith.

James 2:21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar?

Verse 21 — “Was not Abraham, our father [the Jewish race originated with him and he is the pattern of salvation], justified [vindicated].” The culminative aorist here is the fact that Abraham had prepared all of his life for this test by the daily function of GAP until at this point he had enough doctrine to meet the test. He met is beautifully, as we have seen, and so we have the existing results from the entirety. The entirety is maximum resident doctrine in the soul. He was vindicated by the fact that God supplied him an animal sacrifice because he never wavered from obedience to God in meeting the test. The passage really says literally, “Abraham our father, not from the source of works was he vindicated, having offered up Isaac his adult son on the altar.” He wasn’t vindicated by the work itself, he was vindicated by the doctrine that motivated him.

James 2:22 You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works;

Verse 22 — “Seest thou how” is literally, “You see at a glance (blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh]) how that the doctrine kept on working together with the production.” What was the production? He offered Isaac. He obeyed. We saw the whole course of his obedience in Genesis 22.

“faith” — this is pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] again, and it has the same meaning as in Hebrews 11, that which is believed or the body of doctrine.

“worked together” — sunergeô (συνεργέω) [pronounced soon-erg-EH-oh], the inceptive imperfect, “kept working together.” Here is the beauty of Abraham’s great victory of supergrace. Doctrine kept in harness with the demand made by God. God said to sacrifice Isaac and doctrine said yes and moved out and obeyed at every point, without qualm. without any fear, without being disturbed or upset in any possible way.

“You see at a glance how that doctrine working together with production, and out of the source of the production of doctrine, it was consummated [completed, fully developed].” In other words, there is no greater demonstration of the power of the Word of God in one man’s life than operation Isaac.

James 2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, "Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness"—and he was called a friend of God.

Verse 23 — Abraham is called the friend of God. As a result of passing this great supergrace test he was called philos theou, “lover of God” [occupation with Christ]. This is an Old Testament title for a supergrace hero.

Verse 24 — “You perceive that out from the source of production a man received vindication and not from the source of doctrine alone.” Doctrine worked together with the situation.

This passage is saying that once you have a test, usually a test is some form of adversity, distraction, etc., it is doctrine that must work together with these to produce glory to God. The doctrine must be resident in your soul. In other words, you can’t pass any tests by going to the Bible and trying to read a passage or find a verse, nor can you memorise a verse and do it, nor can anyone quote a verse and do it. You have to do it on your own.

Hebrews 11:19 — “Accounting” is the aorist middle participle of logizomai (λογίζομαι) [pronounced log-IHD-zohm-ai] means to calculate or to think on the basis of information in the frame of reference. “Having calculated” is the translation here. What did Abraham do when he faced a test? Doctrine resident in his soul worked together with the test. What is computerizing? It is when you have a problem and machinery works together with the problem to solve it. So when you press the buttons eventually you get answers, the computer gives you the answers. And so as a believer with doctrine resident in your soul you have your own computer. Abraham had his own computer. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the doctrine resident in Abraham’s supergrace soul and puts it together for Abraham’s confidence. There was a test. Abraham was tested, but inside was resident doctrine and the resident doctrine overcame the test. But when a believer is minus resident doctrine and does not have balance of residency in his soul then he does not overcome the test. The middle voice is the direct middle, it refers the results of the action directly to the agent. The agent is Abraham and he acts with a view toward participating in the results of the action. And he did participate. The result was, he was going right ahead to kill Isaac. The participle is circumstantial.

When it says “All things work together for good” it means that doctrine in your soul works together with every test in life and overcomes the test. The greatest power in the world is Bible doctrine, the Word of God is alive and powerful and as resident doctrine in your soul it overcomes every test that you face.

“that” — the conjunction hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] is used after verbs of cerebration to indicate the content of the cerebration without giving the detail wordage of the thought.

“God” — ho Theos, “the God.” God solves the problem, God answers the situation, God takes care of it. God has given us this phenomenal residency of doctrine, and when we use it on a test then we become philos theou — “lover of God.”

“was able” — we do not have a verb here. The adjective dunatos (δυνατός) [pronounced doo-nat-OSS] simply describes the ability of God. It could be translated “the able God” or “God is able” or “the God was able.” In other words, the adjective goes with theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] — “the able God.” It refers to the inherent power of God. He learned enough about doctrine to know that there never was a test that was bigger than God. There must be your volition involved in the angelic conflict at the point of doctrine, and God uses His ability through the doctrine resident in your soul.

“to raise up” — present active infinitive of egeirô (ἐγείρω) [pronounced eg-Ī-row]. The present tense is an aoristic present, it means to raise him up immediately since the race must go on, not in resurrection. So this is really to raise up in the sense of resuscitation. The active voice: God produces the action. This is an infinitive of result, the conceived result. He already understood that God would have to raise him up immediately and that both of them would have to come down the mountain for God to keep His word.

The word “even” is the adjunctive use of kai and it should be translated “also”; “out from the dead” —ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus the ablative of nekros (νεκρός) [pronounced nehk-ROSS].

“from whence” — the adverb hothen (ὅ́θεν) [pronounced HOTH-ehn], “for which reason.”

“received him” — “recovered him”, literally, the aorist middle indicative of the verb komízō (κομίζω) [pronounced kohm-IHD-zoh], which means to recover in the middle voice. The culminative aorist views the action of the verb in its entirety and takes up the whole story of Genesis 22 — Isaac on the altar, etc. The declarative indicative is historical reality.

And how did he recover him? It doesn’t say through resurrection. The next phrase is important — “in a figure,” the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental of parabolê (παραβολή) [pronounced par-ab-ol-AY] which means a comparison. You put something alongside something else for a comparison. So, “he recovered him by means of a comparison.”

Hebrews 11:19 Having calculated that the God also was able to raise up Isaac out from the dead; for which reason also he recovered him by means of a comparison.

The comparison is an analogy to the cross.

Principles

1. The replacement of Isaac with an animal sacrifice is placed along side the resurrection from the dead as the basis of comparison. The substitute was the ram. Christ is the sacrifice substituted for us. Then the resurrection of Christ — Isaac coming back down the hill is the type or the comparison.

2. The event of Isaac’s recovery is used to illustrate the doctrine of resurrection from the dead, as well as to demonstrate the dynamics of the supergrace life.

3. The result was the Abraham received Isaac back, not from the literal dead but as an illustration of resurrection.

4. Consequently Abraham passed the supergrace test. Such testing was designed to add confidence in holding the high ground, and such testing from God is subject to failure on your part when you are minus doctrine but every time you pass a test from God it is subject to high and great reward in eternity. All testing is rewardable.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #181

181 08/22/1974 Hebrews 11:20 Isaac blessed Jacob; application of the Abrahamic Covenant

Announcement on Berachah prep school. Sept 1, Sunday kickoff. All classes will be as usual this Sunday only.

Hebrews 11:20 By faith Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and Esau.

Verse 20 — how doctrine can make a man out of a wimp. Principle: Doctrine changes people for the better. Growing pains in the field of the Christian way of life are much more pronounced than they ever are in human life.

“By faith” — the instrumental singular of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] means doctrine, not faith. This is technical for doctrine resident in the soul.

“Isaac” — Jitzchaq in the Hebrew, means laughter. He was born about 2061 BC. The birth was a part of Abraham’s supergrace prosperity. The sexual prosperity resulted in the progeny, the extension of the race of Israel. It also relates to the Abraham covenant.

This servant of Abraham was a great servant. Faithful, loyal, phenomenal person. Example of Sergeant Lewis who does a lot of menial things. This servant of Abraham has an eye for what Isaac needs. The servant got the right woman for Isaac. For 40 years he hasn’t done anything. He didn’t get her himself. Abraham was smart enough to send someone who did the job.

Isaac was duplicitous; example of him in Gerar. He did start to grow. He became a famous farmer and rancher.

Jacob conned his father concerning the birthright, the double portion. Isaac made the mistake and later on discovered it. Upon discovery of the deception Isaac took a doctrinal stand, and for the first time in his life on record in the scripture he recognized that it was God’s will that the elder should serve the younger. And all of his life, even though Esau was his favorite, he noted that it was Jacob who was the believer and that Esau was still an unbeliever. The supergrace Isaac who seized and held the high ground did so on the basis of talking a stand on Bible doctrine. He withstood all of the complaining of Esau. He took a stand contrary to his inclinations. He didn’t care for Jacob, Esau was his favorite. Doctrine resident in Isaac’s soul took precedence over his great love for Esau, his favorite son, and doctrine took precedence over the fact that he was put down by Rebecca whom he loved dearly. Doctrine was more real to supergrace Isaac who had finally found his courage on the high ground.

Isaac was a great believer, and, even though he was deceived, he still took a stand on doctrine. As long as Isaac lived after that, he was no longer a wimp. He son would cry and complain; but the father never changed after that.

Doctrine can make a male into a man.

“blessed Jacob” — the aorist active indicative of eulogeô (εὐλογέω) [pronounced you-lohg-EH-oh]. This is the culminative aorist, it views the event of blessing in its entirety but it regards it from the standpoint of existing results. The active voice: supergrace Isaac produced the action of the verb. He stood by his guns, he was never dissuaded. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative for an historical fact.

Summary

1. The blessing is recorded in Genesis 27:28–40. While Esau was the eldest twin and should have received his father’s blessing and inheritance it was Jacob, the young twin, who became the heir through deception. However, that was a part of God’s plan. The deception was merely the test, as all of us are tested once we reach the high ground.

2. The deception was discovered, but even though Isaac loved Esau who was his favorite he would never reverse the decision, though Esau worked on him for years. The real man takes a doctrinal stand no matter what his personal feelings are.

3. This, therefore, was an act of supergrace nobility based on resident doctrine in the soul and is comparable to the test of Abraham in Genesis 22.

4. In addition to the principle of doctrine, the elder shall serve the younger, there is a second principle by which Isaac held to his decision — Romans 9:6–14.

5. The line and the future of the race must follow the course of regeneration. The line of Israel and the future of the race in its inception must follow the course of regeneration.

6. This is because regeneration is necessary for the fulfilment of the Abraham covenant.

7. Supergrace Isaac understood the Abraham covenant. As a supergrace believer he was thoroughly aware of all that was involved and he understood a very important category of doctrine and utilized it. So it is doctrine working together with a test, and he emerges as a great man.

The Application of the Abraham Covenant

1. It was obvious to supergrace Isaac that unregenerate Esau could not inherit or perpetuate the doctrinal principles of the Abraham covenant.

2. Much as he loved Esau, Isaac knew from the divine viewpoint that the unbeliever was excluded from the Abraham covenant. Esau, a Jew, is not a Jew.

3. Therefore he made the great decision to let the blessing stand in spite of Esau’s protest and in spite of the fact that it put him down permanently. A real man always sees the true issue and never allows his pride to interfere.

4. Esau sought the reversal of his father’s blessing on Jacob with tears but there was no way he could change supergrace Isaac. Isaac stood fast and refused the most pathetic of crying entreaties.

5. Even at the point of death Isaac remained firm, demonstrating right up to his last breath that he was a supergrace believer under dying grace and that he had the courage and strength of character to stand by a good decision.

Next we have the twins, Jacob and Esau, mentioned. Jacob is mentioned first even though he is the younger because he was the heir and he was the line of Israel. Jacob was born again and was the true line of the Jewish race. Esau was an unbeliever and not in the race of Israel at all. He is mentioned because while he was given the blessing of a younger son he was never given the heritage. The blessing given to Esau did not change or reverse the heirship of the Abraham covenant. While Esau continually sought to reverse the blessing of Jacob, as illustrated by Genesis 27:34–38, the blessing given to Esau in Genesis 27:39,40 only confirmed the fact that the elder would serve the younger. The principle of doctrine remained and the doctrinal issue was kept clear, and the racial stand was pure because the Jewish race is not only the youngest race but it is the greatest in its foundation. It is founded on regeneration. Abraham had other children, Isaac had other children, but the race always went down for the first three generations through regeneration. That is why Jesus Christ has as one of His greatest titles, that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That means He is the God of those who are born again. He is the God of three generations who were not only racially in the same line but were spiritually in the same line, they all followed the same pattern.

“concerning things to come” — the preposition peri plus the genitive case of the present active participle mellô (μέλλω) [pronounced MEHL-low] plus kai. When you have mellô (μέλλω) [pronounced MEHL-low] as the object of the preposition in participial form, and you have the conjunction kai, you get “concerning things destined to be.” Mellô (μέλλω) [pronounced MEHL-low] means to be about to be, to be destined to be, to be on the point of being. The present tense here of the participle is a futuristic present, it denotes an event which has not yet occurred but is certain that it will occur and therefore is regarded as already coming to pass. Therefore it is in the present tense. Things were going to happen. The Jewish race was going to keep on being, it would never be destroyed. The active voice: the Abraham covenant produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial, it denotes the fulfilment of the Abraham covenant through Jacob and not through Esau.

Hebrews 11:20 By means of doctrine resident in the soul, even concerning things destined to be [come] — the fulfilment of the Abraham covenant.

Isaac blessed Jacob in the covenant, Esau out of it. He gave Esau all he could give an unbelieving son but he could not give him the spiritual heritage, so he was out. Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, but notice that he blessed them “concerning things destined to be.” Therefore, Isaac only blessed Jacob because Esau can’t be blessed, he is not in things to be.

Summary

1. Isaac was a weak sister all of his life but he became strong and decisive in facing the crisis of deception, for he was prepared by the intake of doctrine. Isaac the weak wimp became the man of steal and strength, and doctrine made the difference. Manhood is between the ears and not between the legs.

2. Even his preferential love for Esau did not change the blessing on which Isaac stood. It was the application of doctrine. The doctrine is the Abraham covenant.

3. While Isaac was deceived in giving the blessing to Jacob it did not change the fact that he made a right decision.

4. Only supergrace status and maximum doctrine resident in the soul gave Isaac the objectivity and courage to stick with a major command decision. This is one of the major decisions in all of history.

5. Isaac is a supergrace hero with great moral courage.

6. Once again laughter comes into the picture as his contemporaries and peers laugh at Isaac for being deceived by Jacob and Rebecca. It wasn’t just Jacob and Rebecca, it was also all the ridicule.

7. But the supergrace believer has great moral courage to stand by a right decision no matter how much pressure of ridicule.

8. What made the decision so difficult to maintain was the fact that Isaac wanted the blessing to go to Esau because he loved Esau. Because Esau was his favorite he would have excluded Jacob but when the test of deception cam he made the decision, he knew it was the right decision.

9. Even his own personal feelings did not prejudice Isaac into reversing a correct and doctrinal decision.

10. Doctrine resident in his supergrace soul was stronger than love and stronger than the pressure of ridicule.

11. Isaac the failure emerges as Isaac the supergrace hero, the man of objective wisdom, the man of noble courage. In effect, the man of doctrine. The Word became more real to Isaac than anything in life. Bible doctrine was more real than his love for Esau.

12. Here is Isaac seizing and holding the high ground for eternity where he has the highest honours of surpassing grace and blessing forever and ever.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #182

182 08/23/1974 Hebrews 11:21; Gen. 49:1–29 Jacob's dying prophecy

Hebrews 11:21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff.

Verse 21 — “By faith” is the instrumental of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs], used here for doctrine resident in the soul of a supergrace believer. Pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] has three basic meanings: that which causes trust and faith, meaning faithfulness, reliability, proof or pledge; secondly, faith in the active sense of believing, translated faith, trust, or confidence; thirdly, the one used here in this verse, that which is believed, the body of faith or belief, therefore meaning “doctrine.”

“Jacob” — the Hebrew word is Jaaqobh, which means heel-catcher. What is a heel-catcher? It doesn’t really mean anything except that Jacob was the second one to be born of twins. Heel-catcher simply means that he was the second one to be born and he came out trying to get out first. The word Jaaqobh is derived from a verb, aqab, which means to be a chiseller, to be a con artist. It means to defraud or deceive or to make a living by deceit. And Jaaqobh means “the defrauder, the deceiver.”

Later on he is going to have another name, Jisrael, “Prince of God.”

Bob apparently tries to draw this, apparently without much luck.

Jacob

1. He was one of two twins, the youngest. He was born when his father was sixty years old at around 2001 b.c..

2. His name certainly was prophetic. He was an opportunist, a con artist, a chiseller, one of the outstanding deceivers of all time on record. He utilized everything to his own advantage. His brother’s hunger he used to purchase his brother’s birthright which included not only the double portion of Deuteronomy 21:17 but, more than that, the rulership of the entire family — Genesis 27:29 — as well as the title to the family blessing from God — Genesis 27:4 cf. verses 28, 29.

3. His impersonation of Esau was one of the neatest tricks anyone ever pulled. His father was blind and his impersonation of Esau caused him to receive the same blessing officially from his father Isaac. Esau had already sold this double portion birthright to Jacob, so Jacob had already bought it, but being the chiseller he was Jacob superimposed his own dishonesty on Esau. Esau would have cheated him out of the birthright that he had already sold. But Jacob realized the Esau was going to do this so he beat him to the jump. So the impersonation caused him to receive the blessing that he had already purchased.

a. Jacob bought the double-portion from Esau.

b. Esau was going to try to cheat him out of it.

c. Jacob deceives his father to keep the double-portion that he already purchased.

4. Esau’s antagonism caused Jacob to flee to his uncle Laban in Haran, on the Euphrates River. But uncle Laban made a great mistake when he started cheating his talented nephew because his talented nephew then had no qualms about taking uncle Laban to the cleaners. As a result of this he went back home and immediately he met Esau. While Jacob is a believer he is in reversionism. His twin brother is an unbeliever.

a. Cheating ran in the family.

b. Laban cheated Jacob.

c. Jacob also cheated Laban.

d. Laban cheated Jacob on the marriage.

e. Jacob then married the other daughter as well.

People who claim to read the Bible through 5 times, Bob asks them, What do you think about the ringshank cattle?

Jacob was one of the smarted people in the field of human nature. When he returns to the land, he puts cattle on the point, then his two wives and children, and he brings up the rear.

Esau is an unbelieving gentile. Jacob was quite strong.

On the way back he stopped at a place called Jabok on the east side of the Jordan and there he was challenged to a wrestling match. In this match he was not only beaten up badly but he limped for the rest of his life. This wrestling match did many things for Jacob, the believer. First of all, since Jacob was the best of all wrestlers he assumed that there would never be another person any better. He learned the hard way that the Lord Jesus Christ could out wrestle him any day of the year. But it also did something else to him. It was the first time in all of his life that he could neither think his way out nor fight his way out of a jamb. All of a sudden he woke up and he realized that he was just another member of the human race, hopeless, helpless, useless. That was the beginning of his rebound and his reversion recovery.

Therefore, when he came back there was a great change. He went all out for doctrine and he finally reached the high ground. Of course he was sorely tested after he reached the high ground of supergrace. He lose the woman he loved dearly, Rachel. Then later on he lost his favorite son, Joseph, and finally he lost his father Isaac. So he had on the high ground a series of rather shocking losses, but all of these with resident doctrine in the soul turned him into a phenomenal person. Therefore when he finally came to Egypt he began to see the other side of the supergrace life and he was a very strong supergrace believer, he was stabilized, he did have paragraph SG2, he would go out under dying grace, and he would have paragraph SG3.

Verse 21 — By means of doctrine resident in the soul Jacob, when he was...

“when he was a dying” — the prefix “a dying” is an intensitive prefix but it is no longer pertinent in the English language. It is a translation of the present active participle of the verb apothnêskô (ἀποθνήσκω) [pronounced op-ohth-NACE-koh], a reference here to dying grace. We will have to translate this “when in the process of dying.” The present tense is a descriptive present to actually describe the process of dying. The active voice: Jacob was in the sphere of dying grace, he had seized and held the high ground during his years in Goshen and he was now crossing the golden bridge of dying grace. This is a temporal participle and therefore we translate it, “while he was in the process of dying.”

“blessed” — the aorist active indicative of eulogeô (εὐλογέω) [pronounced you-lohg-EH-oh]. This is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the crossed hands incident of Genesis 48:13–21 and gathers it into one entirety. The active voice: Jacob in dying grace produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of the crossed hand incident.

Summary of the crossed hand incident

Joseph was to be the double portion heir. Jacob recognized that the younger would serve the elder. Reuben was the oldest, but he lost all of the privileges of being the oldest (the priesthood, the double portion, the authority). This sets aside all of the older boys in the family. Jacob is now dying and he is seated on this occasion. When Joseph approached with his two sons. As he approaches he must get his older son, Manasseh, under the right hand of Israel, the hand of blessing. The elder shall serve the younger is the great principle of family doctrine here from which the race of Israel emerges on the basis of regeneration, by which Israel has a spiritual heritage. Ephraim, the younger son, he places under the left hand. The left hand of blessing is go out and do the best you can type of thing, but you don’t have anything to start with. All of the wealth and all of the family name goes to the elder. But we have seen that reversed with the twins. Israel or Jacob was himself was a younger son and yet he became the heir of Isaac. So it is Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not Abraham, Isaac and Esau. Now Joseph did the right thing by putting the older boy up under the right hand of blessing, the right hand of double portion. But he crossed his hands. He crossed his right hand over and put it on top of Ephraim’s head, then he crossed his left hand over and put it on the head of Manasseh. One more time the doctrine will prevail.

This is the issue. When Joseph approached with his two sons, again Manasseh was the eldest and Ephraim was the youngest. He made his approach to a nearly blind dying father so that Manasseh would come under that right hand of blessing. This was to be the double portion for the eldest son. But through doctrine resident in his soul, when Jacob saw what he did, he crossed his hands over immediately. And when he crossed them over he gave Ephraim, the youngest son, the double portion blessing. The crossed hands, therefore, illustrates the manner in which every believer receives grace blessing from God. We receive the blessings of the firstborn. There are two things that can be taught from this — the cross itself. Jesus Christ was judged for our sins on the cross that we might have the righteousness belonging to Christ. Christ is the firstborn; He is judged, He is cast out. In effect, Manasseh is cast out. So Manasseh is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. On the cross He was bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. He who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. That is the story of the crossed hands in one verse — 2Corinthians 5:21. So Manasseh is cast out so that we can have the blessing. Christ bears our sins on the cross so that we can have +R forever. That becomes the basis always for grace blessing. So the elder shall serve the younger has this phenomenal grace blessing concept. The crossed hands, therefore, indicates the fact that the firstborn, Jesus Christ, is the basis for all of our blessing. And Jesus Christ had to be judged so that we could be the beneficiaries of grace blessing, beginning at the cross.

“both” — the accusative singular direct object of hekastos (ἕκαστος) [pronounced HEHK-as-toss] which is not the same as “both,” it means “each one.” Only one can get the blessing.

“the sons of Joseph” — refers to Ephraim the younger blessed over Manasseh the elder. The principle is that God does not bless the line of natural birth and privilege but God blesses the line of regeneration, the spiritual line. Always God blesses man by means of grace. That means that the natural line of privilege, of ability, is never the basis for God’s blessing. It is always the spiritual line. That is why Jesus said, Ye must be born again. So it is the spiritual line that becomes the beneficiary of grace — saving grace, living grace, supergrace, dying grace, surpassing grace. And again the principle, the elder shall serve the younger. This is a test of the inner residency of doctrine. And note the consistency of doctrine in the ascendancy. We have Seth over Cain, Abraham over Haran, Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, Ephraim over Manasseh. This is a principle of grace, a principle that could not be broken, a title that could not be broken, and only a dying supergrace man had the wisdom to cross his hands and therefore counteract what Joseph had done. This was a phenomenal grace orientation decision.

“and worshipped” — the aorist active indicative of the verb proskuneô (προσκυνέω) [pronounced pros-koo-NEH-oh]. Pros means face to face; kuneô means to kiss. The verb is actually formed from a custom of the ancient world to salute or do obeisance by prostrating one’s self on the ground and kissing of the hem of the robe or the feet of the person receiving the recognition. It became a Persian custom for saluting kings. Here it means to worship in the sense of communication of Bible doctrine. That is exactly what worship is. Worship is the communication of Bible doctrine — communication on the part of the pastor-teacher; reception on the part of the congregation. It describes now this very same thing. Jacob leaned on the top of his sceptre before his family he gave one of the most phenomenal messages that anyone ever gave in all of history. The culminative aorist of “worship” is the entire prophecy of Genesis chapter 49. It emphasizes the results of the prophecy in history. In other words, this man gave his final message and what a wonderful way to go. The active voice: Jacob, as a part of dying grace, produced the action of the verb. The declarative indicative is for the dogmatic reality of Jacob’s dying words, forming the prophecy of Israel’s sons.

“on the top of his staff” — the word for “staff” here, hrabdos (ῥάβδος) [pronounced HRAB-doss], means a cane or a stick or a sceptre. It actually refers to his ruler staff, his badge of authority. We also have the possessive genitive of the intensive pronoun autos emphasizing that this was no ordinary stick of wood but was the sign of his family rulership. This phrase is quoted from Genesis 47:31, and there in the King James the translation is “upon the bedhead.” Actually, the Hebrew says “on the top of his sceptre.”

Hebrews 11:21 By means of doctrine resident in the soul Jacob, while he was in the process of dying, blessed each one of the sons of Joseph, and worshipped leaning on the top of his sceptre.

Jacob died about 1854 at the age of 147 and his dying words are Genesis 49. Notice it says, “he worshipped.” There are only two ways in which a person can worship: a) to teach doctrine; b) to listen to the teaching of doctrine. That is worship.

There are thirteen men involved, there are thirteen tribes in Israel. By Leah Jacob had Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. Then next we have Issachar, Zebulun, and one girl, Dinah. By Rachel he had Joseph and Benjamin. By Bilhah he had Dan and Naphtali. By Zilpah he had Gad and Asher.

In Genesis 47:27,28 we have Jacob’s great and dynamic use of resident doctrine, talking about dwelling, and so on. In 47:29-48:22 we have Jacob’s three looks. First of all he looked forward — 47:29-31. He is facing death, he is ready for death, Bible doctrine resident in the soul always prepares a believer for death. So he was thoroughly prepared. But he also looked backward — 48:1–7. His first recollection was a blessing in verses 4–6; his second recollection was sorrow and adversity, verse 7.

The principle is obvious: Life is made up of both happy things and sorrowful things; blessing and misery. God has provided for the believer for both occasions. And he can look back with doctrine resident in his soul and have no regrets. Then he looked upward in 48:8–22, and in looking upward he gave a testimony to the grace of God in verse 8. Then we have his wise switch, the crossed hands, in verses 9-14. We have learned from that that God does not bless the line of natural birth or natural ability, he must be born again. And the second lesson was that the doctrine of substitution and imputation is the basis for God’s grace. Then the third important principle is the importance of being guided by doctrine. Doctrine must be more real than anything else in life. In verses 15 & 16 a special blessing for Joseph — regarding God’s faithfulness, verse 15; regarding the salvation and the deliverance through the Lord Jesus Christ, verse 16; the adoption of Joseph’s sons, verse 16b whereby we have 13 tribes instead of 12. Both of Joseph’s sons became a part of the tribes of Israel. Joseph received the double portion. Then we have Joseph’s attempt to correct Jacob’s prophecy in verses 17–19, and the double portion prophecy, verses 20–22, Jacob stood fast on Bible doctrine.

There are three great prophecies in Genesis: the prophecy of salvation, Genesis 3:15; the prophecy of the races, Genesis 9 & 10; the prophecy of Israel, Genesis 49. It is Genesis 49 that is covered by one word in the Greek of Hebrews 11, the word “worship.”

Genesis chapter 49.

Verse 1 — we have the fact that the sons are gathered.

Verse 2 is addressed to the sons of Jacob and/or the tribal structure of Israel.

Verses 3–15, we have the sons of Leah the first wife of Jacob. First of all in verse 3 we have Reuben. He had the greatest potential because he was the firstborn. In the Hebrew of verse 3 we have some fascinating things about the potential of the firstborn. His ability is called “excellency.” But his great abilities are neutralized by verse 4 — instability and incest. Reuben seduced Bilhah, one of his father’s mistresses. Verse 4 also gives the failure of the tribe. We have from Reuben, Dathan and Abiram, revolutionists, evil mean. There is no contribution to the tribe of Israel ever from the tribe of Reuben. Reuben’s punishment, “shou shalt not excel.” No leader, no great person ever came out of the tribe of Reuben. He lost the privileges of the firstborn — rulership to Judah, priesthood to Levi, double portion to Joseph.

Applications from verse 4:

a) Instability neutralizes human ability and divine operating assets. An unstable person can never grow up

b) Instability leads to losing the spiritual focus. Unstable believers inevitably become reversionists and go out through the sin unto death.

Human ability is no guarantee for success. Human ability plus instability is a sure way to failure in the Christian way of life. Reuben had excellencies; he did not excel. Reuben had ability but was never able; he had potentiality but he was never powerful.

In verses 5–7 we have the two very close brothers, Simeon and Levi. They were cruel, instruments of cruelty. They were plotters — their secrets of verse 6. They worked each other up, verses 6,7. They were full of their own self-importance, devoid of mercy and grace. Because of their wickedness Jacob would have no fellowship with them, he repudiated them. They “digged down a wall” is incorrect, “they hamstrung cattle” is the correct translation. They could not take the cattle, so they cut their tendons, so that they could not move on their own; they suffered great pain and were useless.

As a result of their failure Simeon did not receive at any time a portion of the land. The people of Simeon were scattered and they became the weakest tribe — Numbers 26:14. Simeon received only a couple of cities in Judah — Joshua 19:1–9. Levi likewise was scattered in the land, but Levi recovered. The dying words of Jacob turned Levi into a supergrace believer over a period of time. He recovered from reversionism, cursing was turned to blessing. Therefore, God did a very interesting thing. He took one of the cruellest men who ever lived and turned his family into a priestly line. And two interesting things happened. They were the great spiritual giants teaching the Word throughout every generation and they had better voices than anyone in Israel — Numbers 18:20,21. So Levi is pictured in recovery. The principles with these two sons: Cursing is turned into blessing by means of grace — doctrine in the soul, the importance of rebound, the importance of reversion recovery, as in the case of Levi. Simeon and Levi were deprived of their inheritance but not of their salvation.

Verses 8–12 — Judah. In verse 10 the sceptre means rulership and Shiloh means Messiah, the second advent is mentioned in Shiloh coming. The prosperity of the Millennium is given in verses 11,12. Judah is the first reference to the second advent in this context and at this point the prophecy moves in that area.

Verse 13 — Zebulun, meaning dwelling or habitation. He was the 10th son of Jacob, the sixth or the last by Leah. He is placed here in the sequence of his relationship to the Lord. After the reference to the tribe of Judah from which the Lord sprang, Hebrews 7:14 says, we have next the tribe which harboured the Lord, and that is the tribe of Zebulun. The character of Zebulun is given in Judges 5:18; 1Chronicles 12:33, and there is a great deal said here — “a haven for ships.”

Verses 14, 15 — Issachar. He was the ninth son of Jacob, the fifth of Leah. He would rather submit to the yoke of slavery or bondage in order to keep his prosperity rather than risk losing possessions in the struggle for liberty, and that is the whole story of these two verses. Peace and prosperity at any price is Issachar. He is called a strong ass. An ass was an honourable animal at the time of Genesis 49. The ass is said to be crouching down. In other words, he is an honourable person but because he loved prosperity better than freedom and because loved his own personal gain more than patriotism he would never do anything about it, he would never buck the tiger. He would never rock the boat, he was always afraid he might lose something. The failure of Issachar is given in verse 15.

Bilhah’s sons are found in verses 16,17,18, 21. Dan is the first one. Dan never has a ruler, even though the word Dan means judge or ruler. “Dan shall rule his people” refers to the Tribulation. The Antichrist or the dictator of Israel in its time of great apostasy in the Tribulation is from the tribe of Dan. Dan always brought up the rear — Numbers 10:25. Dan was the first tribe to go into idolatry — Judges 18:30 — but the last to receive their inheritance in the land — Joshua 19:47. In the list of tribes in 1Chronicles 27:16–22 Dan is mentioned last. In the list of Revelation chapter 7 Dan is not mentioned at all. Dan was always a tribe related to reversionism. Dan is omitted from the genealogies of 1Chronicles 2–10, i.e. Dan is not mentioned by name. Dan is said to be in verse 17 a serpent, that is the Antichrist or the false prophet. The horse is Israel in the Tribulation, the rider is the Jewish remnant of the Tribulation. Dan is the serpent that bites the horse and tries to destroy the rider.

The cry of the Jewish remnant is given in verse 18. Naphtali in verse 21 means “my wrestling”. He was the sixth son of Jacob and the second by Bilhah. He is called a hind let loose. The hind is a deer mentioned for swiftness. Let loose means to get free from a trap. We have an interesting fulfilment of this in Revelation 7:6 when 12,000 Jewish evangelists are from the tribe of Naphtali and these at the point of the Rapture were in the trap of being spiritually dead. They are saved and they go on to do a tremendous job of evangelising.

Verses 19-20, Zilpah’s sons. Gad is the seventh son of Zilpah, Leah’s maid, and his name means fortune, good fortune, or prosperity. From Gad we learn that believers though sometimes defeated can bounce back and win, and he was a man who started out as a loser and ended up as a winner.

Asher means prosperity and he is the other tribe that is the great economic support to the nation. Asher is the whole concept of free enterprise.

Rachel’s sons. Joseph. Benjamin is the youngest and last — verse 27, the son of the right hand. He is called a wolf, and that does not mean that he is necessarily treacherous. Benjamin became the great source for the military greats in Israel. The word wolf here means the ability to work in conjunction with others, to form a combat team, and to be very courageous as a combat team.

All of these verses together tell us the great story of the dying words of Jacob.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #183

183 08/25/1974 Hebrews 11:22 Bones of Joseph

Salvation is the point where you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. At that point you entered into the plan of God, a plan which is described by one word, grace. In one moment you received from God, without merit or ability or any human qualification, 36 things which put you in the plan of God forever. And not only in the plan of God but in the royal family of God forever. You have a very special new birth. The new birth of all of the Old Testament saints was a very simple one, they simply were regenerated by God the Holy Spirit. But yours is much more complex for not only are you regenerated by the ministry of the Spirit but at the same time the Holy Spirit enters you into union with Christ — the baptism of the Spirit. By being entered into union with Him you in a moment of time become royal family. You live in the palace forever, you occupy the holy of holies which was unoccupied during Old Testament times. In fact, the representation of heaven, the holy of holies, was forbidden for entrance by human beings except the high priest once a year on the day of atonement. Therefore you have something very special. You should have an understanding that you have a glorious future and that God only keeps you alive on this earth in order that you might have phenomenal blessing in time. Therefore we have the privilege of living grace. Living grace is everything that God has provided to keep you alive on this earth.

Our objective is to reach the high ground. That means that we follow the colours to the high ground which is merely the constant, consistent, persistent intake of doctrine. The most stabilized thing that you can ever do is to take in doctrine every day regardless of any other factor. Once we reach the high ground of supergrace, which is synonymous with maturity, there is a paragraph. This paragraph, SG2, is a special blessing paragraph and it was designed for us in eternity past. This particular paragraph has special blessings for us. They may be categorically similar to others but they were designed for us and we are the only ones who can claim it. If you do not claim your paragraph SG2 no one else will be able to claim it for you, it is for you and for no one else. It is made up of spiritual special blessings — occupation with the person of Christ, the concept of inner residency of doctrine meeting every exigency of life, sharing the happiness of God, being able to handle any situation in life, being spiritually self-sustaining. All of this is a part of the special blessing in the spiritual realm. The second area is temporal blessing — promotion, success, prosperity, social prosperity, sexual prosperity, technical prosperity, materialistic prosperity, economic prosperity. In addition to that we have leadership dynamics. There are many wonderful categories in which your specifics of temporal blessing are located. Then thirdly, we have dying blessing which is dying grace. This is the final category, paragraph SG2 or your supergrace blessings for time. This is the means by which you make the PCS, the permanent change of station, from time to eternity. Then, after going over the golden bridge of dying grace, you are transferred into eternity, and there you have paragraph SG3, the special blessings for eternity.

Joseph was an amazing hero, but most of what he did that we are aware of, are simply not mentioned here. The focus here is what he tells the Hebrew people to take care of his bones.

Hebrews 11:22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.

Hebrews 11:22 — there is no mention of the greatness of his life, how he saved Egypt, his family, how time after time he was maligned and was the object of jealousy, how he was persecuted and sent to prison. All this verse does is mention his bones.

“by faith” is the instrumental singular of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs], referring to doctrine. This is the instrumental of means and it should be translated “By means of doctrine resident in the soul.”

“Joseph” — he was born in 1910 BC. He was the eldest son of Jacob and Rachel but he is one of the younger sons in the family. The Hebrew name Iôsêph (Ἰωσήφ) [pronounced ee-o-SAFE] means to enlarge, to increase. It means prosperity. It comes from the Hebrew verb yâçaph (יָסַף) [pronounced yaw-SAHPH] means to enlarge, to multiply; and multiplication was the story of his life. Joseph is the qal active participle as well as the hiphil imperfect of that verb and it really should be translated “Cause to enlarge, cause to multiply, or even to prosper.”

Being his father’s favorite aggravated the jealousy of his ten brothers. He was one of the youngest in the family. Benjamin was the youngest. He was sold into slavery and eventually became the overseer of Potiphar’s estates. He was falsely accused of rape and wound up in prison from which he was brought forth and given supergrace promotion and prosperity. He held the Prime Minister’s office in Egypt and he caused Egypt to survive the great depression. Pharaoh was so impressed with this man that he changed his name to Zaphenath-paneah, which means “Savior of the world.” To Pharaoh the world was Egypt and it simply was a title which means he saved his country.

People who think that a new president can turn around our nation. However, there is the example of Joseph who did turn around a nation. However, associated with Joseph is the positive volition of the people of Egypt.

Bob knows that the rapture is not going to occur tonite because he is going to teach something very important tonite.

God the Holy Spirit permitted this to be recorded in Genesis for a reason. It is very rare that history has the meeting of such interesting principles: one supergrace believer saves a nation, saves his own family, and saves a great empire. It is not often that God promotes a supergrace believer to the point where he can save the nation but that is exactly what Joseph did. Joseph’s supergrace promotion occurred around 1883 B.C. at the age of 30. He seized and held the high ground for the next 83 years, dying in 1800 B.C. at age 110, and it is his dying that God the Holy Spirit has seen fit to emphasize in this particular passage. The Holy Spirit passes over a great life, passes over the use of great power, his wisdom, everything that he did to save the nation, and comes down to the point of his dying and mentions only his bones. The interesting thing about all this is what the Holy Spirit emphasizes. God the Holy Spirit is impressed about the way this man died and what he did when he was dying. Dying is greater than living for the supergrace believer and dying grace is not as good as surpassing grace. So that things only get better starting at dying. What we do in dying demonstrates the dynamics of our life. Dying is a portfolio of your life. If you have nobility and greatness in life you will have nobility and greatness in dying. Dying is merely a quick summary of your life. Those who go out under the sin unto death, under terrible discipline and great pain, simply die in a reflection of their life. Death is a mirror that merely reflects what has occurred in the life time. For those who have spent their life accumulating doctrine and reaching the high ground of the supergrace life, seizing and holding, have a glorious death. But for the believer who is reversionistic, who is carnal, who neglects Bible doctrine, he has a horrible death. Dying is the real secret to everything because God has seen fit to make dying a reflection of living.

“when he died” — the present active participle of the verb teleutaô (τελευτάω) [pronounced tel-yoo-TAH-oh] which means to come to an end. It is almost always used in the New Testament for dying, so this translation is good except for one thing. The present tense is a descriptive present for the process of dying. Here we have dying grace, the transfer from time to eternity by means of PCS. The active voice: Joseph produces the action of the verb. The participle is a temporal one and therefore it should be translated “while he was in the process of dying.”

“made mention” — this is the aorist active indicative of mnēmoneúō (μνημονεύω) [pronounced mnay-mon-yoo’-o] which means to remember, not to make mention. It also means to recall to mind. While he was in the process of dying he recalled something to mind that was very important. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes the occurrence of recalling to mind a point of doctrine, thinking about the doctrine, commenting about the doctrine. So it is the whole process by which the doctrine suddenly came into focus. This doctrine had been stored, hadn’t been used for a long time. All of a sudden now, as he is dying, it is the most important doctrine that he could recall. The active voice: during the process of dying Joseph produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a historical reality. So while he was in the process of dying he recalled to mind.

“of the departing” is not quite correct. We have the preposition peri plus the genitive of exodos (ἔ́ξοδος) [pronounced EX-ohd-oss] — “about the Exodus”; “of the children of Israel.” This refers to the patriarchs as they become a nation from a family over 400 years. Supergrace Joseph knew the doctrinal content of the Abrahamic covenant as well as the future of the nation Israel. The Abrahamic covenant had been well developed by this time. From it had come the Palestinian covenant. In addition to that we have Genesis 49, the great prophecy of how the tribes of Israel became the nation Israel. From this patriarchal system came a great nation and the future of that great nation. So the Abrahamic covenant is well sketched in by the time Joseph was dying, and in his supergrace status he remembers the dying words of his father Jacob — Genesis 49. He puts it together with the eschatology that he has received down through his training, the eschatology of the Abrahamic covenant. Cf. Genesis 35:12. Joseph is now going out under dying grace, his mind is very clear and he realizes the importance of these things. He realizes that the reiterations of the Abrahamic covenant were a part of the resident doctrine in the soul of his grandfather, his father, and himself. Therefore he must perpetuate the family concept, in dying he must remind the family that they are in the process of becoming a great nation. Therefore the dying statement of Joseph anticipates the fulfilment of the Abrahamic covenant as well as the necessity for the departure of the children of Israel from Egypt.

Another doctrine of the soul is also added here. He recognizes another principle, the principle of resurrection. We have the adjunctive use of kai, meaning “also.”

“gave commandment” — here is a dying man knowing what he is doing. This is the aorist middle indicative of the verb entéllomai (ἐντέλλομαι) [pronounced en-tel’-lom-ahee] which means to give specific orders, to give commands in a strong voice, to shout and to speak in a staccato way so that people jump. This is the culminative aorist in which the command is viewed in its entirety but emphasizes the existing result. In other words, it only took him a couple of minutes to give the orders about his bones. That is the constative part. But the culminative aorist is the result. That is, he will not be buried.

“concerning his bones” — the preposition peri plus the genitive of ostéon (ὀστέον) [pronounced os-TEH-on]. With it is the genitive singular of autos, the intensive pronoun meaning his bones and no one else’s.

Hebrews 11:22 By means of doctrine resident in the soul Joseph, when he was in the process of dying, recalled to mind about the Exodus of the sons of Israel; and gave orders concerning his bones.

Enoch and Elijah both buried in heaven; their bodies and souls went up.

Bob’s open casket funeral, when a woman jumped onto the casket; and Bob had to go down and take her off the casket.

When it comes to your body, it doesn’t matter where it drops or where it is buried. There is nothing better than the grass on a battlefield where bodies are buried.

The reason he gave orders concerning his bones is this. Here is a man who refused to be buried in Egypt. He knew that he was refusing one of the greatest funerals they ever had in Egypt but he realized that his body should be in a certain spot because it would be meaningful to the next 400 years of generations. He wasn’t insisting on going home [Canaan] to be buried, he was insisting because for 400 years Jews in slavery would go to that coffin and they would say here are the bones of Joseph who said, “Do not bury me here, bury me in the land.”

And they would say that one day they were going to take this coffin and leave Egypt. The father would say to the son, if it is not my generation, then remember to take his bones for your generation.

These bones provided confirmation for the Scriptures which the people knew and had memorized.

God has provided it for us, it is a part of His plan, it is a part of His will. They would say to their son, “Son , it may be your generation. If it isn’t your generation just carry on and live a normal life because we are going to become a large people and a nation in slavery. Then we will be born into freedom by the grace of God and it will be so startling and so unusual that no one will ever doubt the origin of the Jewish nation.” There was no Jewish nation when Abraham crossed the Euphrates and entered Canaan, and there was no Jewish nation when the patriarchs lived. Four hundred and thirty years after the death of Joseph a nation would be born out of slavery. The great population of people came into existence in slavery, which means that people can live normal lives under abnormal circumstances if they have Bible doctrine in their souls. The nation was born on the day of the Passover. There was no nation when Joseph died but Joseph in his great application of doctrine saw the nation, he saw the slavery coming up, he saw the problems, and he knew that the people would need encouragement. That coffin was the Bible of the Jewish people for 400 years. Therefore the commandment concerning his bones was more important than anything he did in his lifetime. The unburied coffin of Joseph became a teaching aid for the next four generations of Israel.

The Assyrians were conquered and enslaved for 100 years, and they mostly died out as a result. Some got into Persian and they are called Persians now. Others went elsewhere. But they are not called Assyrians anymore.

On the other hand, the Hebrew people came out after 400 years as 2 million people.

The Saga of the Bones of Joseph

1. The bones of Joseph left Egypt in that great exodus. When Moses assembled the people and they were ready to move out at the beginning of their great trek to Canaan: Exodus 13:19 — “Moses took the bones of Joseph with him; for he [Joseph] had made sons of Israel solemnly sware, saying, God will surely provide for you, and you will carry my bones from here with you.” Moses was the man of doctrine who kept the promise. That unburied coffin moved out with the people and at the front of the column for forty years was a reminder of the dynamics of Bible doctrine in the soul of one person. In fact, their only responsibility was to follow the colours. They followed the coffin. Why was it a coffin to them? Because they were reversionists. But in effect that coffin was their guidon, the national colours. To follow the coffin means to take in doctrine, day in and day out.

2. The bones of Joseph were forty years in the desert with Israel, carried by reversionists. They followed the coffin overtly but they did not follow the coffin spiritually. They didn’t follow it in the sense of taking in doctrine today, tomorrow, the next day. They had the greatest Bible teacher but they didn’t listen to his teaching and they revolted against his wonderful leadership, for Moses was a humble man under God with the most dynamic system of leadership the world has ever seen.

3. The bones of Joseph crossed the Jordan with the next generation under Joshua. The coffin was carried dry shod across the Jordan river, held up by the grace of God.

4. The bones of Joseph were finally buried 470 years after he made his speech — Joshua 24:32. Again, we have the principle of resurrection. Joseph in resurrection wanted to stand by his grandfather and his father. And in the resurrection which will occur at the second advent there will be a resurrection of regenerate Jews. There will be four generations of believers on the earth — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph — who claimed paragraph SG2, who made the transition from time to eternity by dying grace, and who claimed paragraph SG3.

I would trust Bob’s dating here, based upon his understanding of ancient history.

Summary

1. There are two areas of doctrine which are emphasized by Joseph in his dying moments. The first is national eschatology, the future of Israel under the Abrahamic and Palestinian covenants. Secondly, the personal eschatology: the future of Joseph in resurrection body claiming paragraph SG3.

2. Joseph, therefore, is a classic example of a believer who seized and held the high ground, enjoyed paragraph SG2, had something better in the PCS of dying grace, and had something better than the best in his surpassing grace paragraph of eternity.

3. Joseph’s supergrace blessings included promotion to Prime Minister of Egypt, social and sexual prosperity with his right woman, great leadership dynamics, one of the finest and smartest policy-makers to ever control a nation. Economic and materialistic prosperity came to Egypt through his policies. The inheritance of the double portion of Israel is a part of SG3, sharing the happiness of God, His occupation with Christ, his lack of bitterness and reaction toward his brothers and others who maligned him.

4. Joseph made the transfer from time to eternity by means of dying grace. He not only had a great death but he had one of the most dynamic deaths in history. Very few deaths influence history for four hundred years after that death. His did.

5. Not only did Joseph anticipate his own resurrection but he is included in the salute and embrace principle of the aorist middle participle of aspazomai (ἀσπάζομαι) [pronounced as-PAD-zom-ahee] which we studied in verse 13.

6. In other words, Joseph has in the future a glorious SG3 paragraph — surpassing grace, blessings and rewards forever and ever. These blessings will glorify God for all eternity. What more can you say about anyone in that he glorified God in time, he glorified God even more in dying, and he glorifies God to the maximum forever and ever.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #184

184 08/25/1974 Hebrews 11:23 Parents of Moses

We have been offered all kinds of nonsense as believers. However, what we are not given is information (Bible doctrine).

All of the problems which form the barrier between God and man. The problem of physical birth; the problem of the character of God, the problem of relative righteousness, the problem of...all of these things have been taken care of via the living of Jesus Christ.

The negative believer is under divine discipline all of his life. He operates under the principle of, whom the Lord loves, He disciplines.

Bob goes over the types of decorations given to Roman soldiers. There was always a monetary award tied to the decoration. What made it interesting, that the gold wreath also meant $100,000 a year. Paul and others have brought these decorations into the Bible.

City implies all of the decorations. For the NT saint, there is the sephanas, the golden wreath.

We have the best in life under SG2, which gets better with SG3. A city means a lot of things; it means social life. Berachah does not advertise it, but we have the finest ladies in the world. We have many men who are great.

The city to Bob last night was checking out Kent and a production, with tremendous concepts of discipline. He even saw a few guys from Berachah Church who played the guitar. They perform at Lee High School.

The city means, everything that is fun. These things are associated with fun and happiness. Like something out of a dream. There is always the concept of association.

Hebrews 11:23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

Verse 23 — “By faith”, the instrumental singular of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. Pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] is used three ways in the Bible. It is used for that which causes trust and faith, therefore faithfulness, reliability. It also is faith in the active sense and therefore is translated “faith, trust, or confidence.” But here it is that which is believed or the body of doctrine and it refers to Bible doctrine resident in your soul, Bible doctrine that you have transferred from the Word of God into your own soul. Therefore we translate it “by means of doctrine resident in the soul.”

Levi had the son Kohath; and Kohath had the son Amram. Kohath a much younger sister, Jocabed. Amram married his aunt. Moses will write about incest, yet Moses’ father married his aunt; or Moses’ mother married her nephew.

“Moses” — Moses is not the subject of this verse, he is the subject of the next verse. Moses was born at a very unusual and very difficult time. His parents merit attention because both of them had maximum doctrine in the soul and were supergrace types. They were great people all the way around. Amram means “high people.” Jochebed [Jokebedh in the Hebrew] means “Whose glory is the Lord.”

Moses wrote about incest, even though he came about through incest (a nephew marrying his aunt).

“By means of doctrine resident in the souls of his parents, when Moses was born” — the aorist passive participle of gennáô (γεννάω) [pronounced gen-NAH-oh]. This is a constative aorist and it gathers up into one entirety however long it took Moses to be born. The participle is a temporal participle, translated “when.”

There was crisis in the land. The Pharaoh who was ruling at the time, a man by the name of Thutmose the first, decided that the Jews were a vigorous race and that slavery wasn’t hurting them at all, that they lived normal lives under circumstances of slavery and that they were truly a tough people. He began to notice that these people were too tough to handle and he saw that the second generation would have trouble. Therefore he put out an edict. No male child was to be permitted to live. These parents now faced this edict at the moment that Moses was born.

“he was hidden” — the third person singular, aorist passive indicative of kruptw. The parents would not kill him, they refused to go along with the edict of the Pharaoh. He was hidden instead. The constative aorist means that they hid him for three months.

“of his parents” is wrong — hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus the ablative plural of patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR]. hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] is a preposition of discipline; patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR] in the plural means “parents.” It should be translated “by means of his parents.”

The Hyksos dynasty was thrown out and this new dynasty was concerned about the strength of the Hebrew people. So the king decreed for the sons to be killed and daughters left alive.

“because they saw” — the aorist active indicative of the verb horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh] which means they had a panoramic view. They saw something in this boy.

How can anyone figure out a proper child at age 3 months.

“a proper child” — the word “proper” is asteios (ἀστεος) [pronounced as-TĪ-oss], and adjective which does not mean proper or beautiful, or even well-formed. It is an adjective taken from the noun astu (ἄστυ) (a city); and it means “city.” So asteios (ἀστεος) [pronounced as-TĪ-oss] means “pertaining to a city.” They saw something pertaining to a city. It wasn’t the child that they saw but the principle here.

Bob found that, after enough beating on one end, the other end begins to work.

Then we have with this the noun, the direct object, paidon, which means “infant.” They saw an infant pertaining to the city. In other words, it wasn’t the child they saw, it was the principle they saw. What they are looking at is someone who is a principle. By all means they should wipe him out, they should kill him, but they know that that is wrong all the way around and they refuse to do it on the basis of Bible doctrine in the soul. They are both supergrace believers but they see something else. They have heard the famous eschatological message of Isaac when he was dying, the famous eschatological message of Jacob when he was dying, and the famous eschatological message of Joseph when he was dying — Joseph’s bones. They remembered the bones of Joseph. By putting together the messages of their own forebears were able to realize a principle: this boy was going to be the means under God’s leadership of hauling those people out of slavery and starting a nation. Remember, Abraham is the father of the Jewish race but Moses is the father of the Jewish nation. They saw — not a “proper” child — someone who was going to be so great that he would have the greatest paragraph SG2 anyone ever had and he would also have paragraph SG3 after he made that famous PCS — he went up into the mountain and was never seen again. Moses is going to have his city and, in fact, Moses will be one of the most highly decorated people in heaven. So he is a pertaining-to-a-city infant. In other words, here was a person who was going to carry on the whole thing and because of this they absolutely refused to kill him.

Prep school is getting these children ready for Bible class. Bobby’s mother was phenomenal and Bob could see what a great teacher his wife was. Mother’s have the best crack at raising their children. Bob put Bobby under the toughest discipline.

Bobby was launched at age 15 or 16. Bob knew that he could put him on his own. It is lack of discipline that ruins children and adults. Bobby is also about to get married and everyone at the church was invited.

Some of your kids are going to turn out bad; they will turn into hippies. There were a lot of kids grew up in this church, but their parents criticized Bob, and the kids learned that.

Bobby was a principle to Bob.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #185

185 08/26/1974 Hebrews 11:23b Doctrine of surpassing grace (revised)

A Marine testimony. Lt. Molinar (spending time at Berachah during his free time rather than at home in CA).

Monstrous things happening to our military in the Capitol.

You prepare a child for life with strong discipline and strong love. They must have strong and fair discipline and strong and fair love. If your life depended upon it, you could not love your children the same. But you try to provide them with the discipline and love.

A strong disciplinarian is a fool unless he has equally extensive love. The more a unit responded to Bob’s training and discipline, the more he loved them; and the more time that he gave them. Strong discipline must be accompanied by strong love.

In three months time in looking at that child and thinking about that child, while the child is in hiding, another decision must finally be made. The decision: As long as this child had a destiny under God’s planning of grace, put the child in the Lord’s hands. There is a place for training and there is a place for not training. The parents had doctrine and they knew that that doctrine was going to be perpetuated and they had eschatological doctrine. This was the man who was going to be the leader to bare a nation. They saw this in him and that is why they saw him and an infant pertaining to a city, and that is why they were not afraid of the king’s commandment. The principle: rear them as a principle as well as someone you love.

Moses’ Supergrace Parents: “Infant Pertaining to a City”

1. There is a city in the context of Hebrews 11. It is the specific city mentioned in 11:10 and 11:16.

2. This city is related to the surpassing grace blessing principle for Old Testament saints. In other words. it is related to paragraph SG3.

3. This city, therefore, mentioned here in the adjective, mentioned in the noun polus,polos (πολύς,πολλός) [pronounced poll-OOS] in verses 10 and 16, is a sign of a general but not specific description of the entire paragraph SG3. The city is literal and real in the future but it is more than a city, it represents a lot of peripheral blessings which cannot be described. Remember that when we are talking about paragraph SG3 God does not give us specifics. For the New Testament believer we have the wreaths or the crowns, for the Old Testament believer we have the cities, but these are ways of describing something in terms of great blessing without giving the details.

4. The details revealed would falsify our motivation in phase two. In order to keep our motivation pure (motivation related to doctrine) we do not know the exact details of our future rewards. The point is that the parents of Moses had so much doctrine in their souls that they were able to identify Moses as God’s man to deliver Israel from slavery. They were able to so that when he was just a baby. This means that they had been spending a lot of time in doctrine and it means they understood Jacob’s great eschatological dissertation in Genesis 49 and Joseph’s famous dissertation about his bones. So they were the supergrace types. There is a principle here: Supergrace believers make the best possible parents.

5. They also discerned that the preservation of Moses — saving his life from the edict of Pharaoh — was a part of their supergrace function, resulting in their surpassing grace reward.

6. The parents of Moses are supergrace believers who demonstrated their status by preserving Moses from the edict of Pharaoh Thutmose the first.

7. For this they will have SG3 blessing and reward in eternity. They have a city.

8. By means of doctrine resident in their souls both Amran and Jochebed, the supergrace parents of Moses, defied the edict of Pharaoh Thutmose the first because they possessed their paragraph SG2 and they related to their paragraph SG3.

9. They viewed their son Moses as an infant pertaining to a city. And this isn’t the only place we find this adjective. In the corrected translation of Acts 7:20 we read, “And it was at this time that Moses was born, and he was a child pertaining to a city to the God.”

10. Just as crowns and/or wreaths are the surpassing grace designation for the royal family of God so the city is designated for surpassing grace reward and blessing for the Old testament saints, specifically for the patriarchs.

Hebrews 11:23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

“and they were not afraid” — the aorist passive indicative of phobeô (φοβέω) [pronounced fob-EH-oh] plus the negative. Phobeô (φοβέω) [pronounced fob-EH-oh] has two connotations. One of them has to do with the mental attitude sin called “fear” and the other has to do with an aspect of love called “respect or awe.” Remember that awe and respect are just as much a part of love as sex is between right man and right woman. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the action of the verb in its entirety but empahsises the existing results: Bible doctrine in the soul removes fear. So they were minus fear, minus mental attitude sins. The passive voice: we have the plural subject, Amram and Jochebed, and they receive the action of the verb which is “no fear.” They were not afraid. The indicative mood is the declarative indicative viewing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of reality.

“of the king’s commandment” — the accusative direct object singular from diatagma which means an edict. With that we have the ablative of source from the noun basileus (βασιλεύς) [pronounced bahs-ee-loose], which means king, ruler or Pharaoh. it should be translated “of the edict from the king.”

Hebrews 11:23 By means of doctrine resident in the soul, when Moses was born, he was hidden for a period of three months by his parents, because they saw an infant pertaining to a city; and they were not afraid of the edict from the king.

Cab driver too Captain Howard and 5 soldiers and he got the wrong idea, so they all volunteered to kill him. On the trip to Berachah, they discussed the various ways of killing him.

The Doctrine of Surpassing Grace (Review)

1. Definition:

a. In eternity past, as a part of the divine decrees and as the basis for glorifying God in the angelic conflict two special blessing paragraphs were designed by God the Father for every believer.

b. One special blessing paragraph is temporal — pertaining to time — and one is eternal.

c. Both are related to the believer’s growth and spiritual progress in time.

d. The mature believer is known as the supergrace believer — James 4:6, “greater grace.” Maturity is based on maximum doctrine resident in the soul through the daily function of GAP.

e. The two special blessing paragraphs are as follows: Paragraph SG2 (“S” for super, “G” for grace, “2” for time). This is a supergrace special blessing paragraph for time only; SG3 (“S” is for surpassing, “G” for grace, “3” for eternity).

f. Surpassing grace special blessing and reward for eternity: For the believer who seizes and holds the high ground of supergrace, as per Philippians 3:12–14, there is special blessing and reward forever.

g. This special blessing and reward forever is over and above normal blessings of heaven and eternal life.

h. Surpassing grace, therefore, is the sum total of all the special blessings and rewards belonging to the believer in phase three.

i. The nomenclature is found in the Greek translation of Ephesians 2:7 which says, “That in the approaching ages (the eternal future) he might demonstrate his surpassing grace riches in generosity toward us in Christ Jesus.” The key: “surpassing grace riches” — paragraph SG3.

j. This is the ultimate objective in seizing and holding the high ground of the supergrace life. This is the optimum in glorifying God.

k. Principle: Anything that glorifies God results in maximum blessing to the glorifier — to the believer involved. That is grace!

2. The eternal holy city is used to designate the surpassing grace rewards and blessings for the Old Testament saints, specifically for the patriarchs and the leaders of Israel — like Moses, the parents of Moses, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph.

a. Hebrews 11:9,10 — “By means of doctrine resident in the soul he lived as a temporary resident with reference to the land, as a foreign land, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, joint heirs of the same promise: for he himself [Abraham] kept waiting with anticipation for a city [paragraph SG3] having foundations, whose designer and builder is the God.” There is the insertion of “city” as a designation point for unmentionable, unnamed, indescribable future rewards and blessings.

b. Hebrews 11:16 — “But on the other hand as a matter of reality, they themselves desire and strive for something better, that is, heavenly blessing and reward [SG3]: therefore the God is not ashamed of the same ones [supergrace patriarchs] to be designated their God; for he has prepared a city for these same ones.”

c. Hebrews 11:23 — “By means of doctrine resident in the soul, when Moses was born, he was hidden for a period of three months by his parents, because they saw an infant pertaining to a city; and they were not afraid of the edict from the king.”

d. Acts 7:20 — “And it was at this time that Moses was born, and he was to the God an infant pertaining to the city, and he was sustained three months in his parents home.”

e. Revelation 21:2 — “And I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down of the heaven from God, made ready as a bride dressed for her husband.”

f. Revelation 21:10–11 — “And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and he showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. Having the glory of God,” the city [e)xw, present active participle, ‘keeps on having’]. That is the close as we are ever going to get to finding out what are the detailed rewards and blessings involved.

Again, note the road to glory. The ultimate in glorifying God is maximum reward in eternity based on maximum doctrine resident in the believer’s soul in time. This maximum resident doctrine is equivalent to spiritual maturity, and again the principle, the mature believer glorifies God in time and in eternity.

Doctrine of Surpassing Grace (Revised) (Continued)

3. Crowns or wreaths [stephanos (στέφανος) [pronounced STEHF-ahn-oss], not diadhma] are used to designate surpassing grace rewards for the royal family of God, i.e. the Church Age believer. Our generality for surpassing grace blessing is not a city, it is a wreath (mistranslated crown).

a. At the time of the writing of the New Testament the courageous Roman soldier was the recipient of a variety of spectacular military decorations. These wreaths are associated with a huge yearly stipend.

b. These decorations included collars (made out of gold, silver, bronze), necklaces with disks attached (silver gold and bronze for the various decorations), and higher decorations were on arm bands. The highest of all were the wreaths — stephanos (στέφανος) [pronounced STEHF-ahn-oss]. The translation should be “wreath” rather than a crown. The reason for that is that they wore it on the head as a crown. The wreath is the generality, and what is behind it is unknown to us today. That is why this word is used because it connotes greater rewards than appear on the surface. It also has great peripheral blessings that go with it — such as $100,000 per year! So obviously this becomes the perfect Bible word to describe the unseen, hidden blessings and rewards that belong to the believer who seizes and holds the high ground, crosses the golden bridge of dying grace, and moves into eternity to claim paragraph SG3.

c. Special decorations are also divided. There are certain decorations that belong to officers only in military service. The Romans were the ones who started special decorations. And the same thing is true again. God has provided special awards of another nature for the believer. One of these will be going to the parents of Moses.

d. The Roman historian, Livvy, wrote in the second century BC and he wrote about one centurion. This centurion’s name was Skurius Ligonistus. He had 22 years of service, he was a senior centurion in his legion four times. He had won 34 decorations, six crowns. The description given of this man helps us to understand what is written in the Bible about the New Testament decorations or paragraph SG3.

e. Two of the highest wreaths or crowns were the wreath of grass and the laurel wreath and the oak leaf. All of these are crowns, so there were variations of the highest award. So we have these various types of decoration from the Roman world which explain our system of decorations under surpassing grace. Three such decorations are specified in the Word of God, plus a number of other words that are related to them.

f. The very greatest were given a title. The last to receive this was Caesar.

VOLAR is bringing in some of the worst animals into the armed forces. When the army is filled with the scum of the earth; and if the army cannot control its scum, our army is worthless. Bob talks about universal military training. That is all that will work with a country our size.

Bob wants draft dodgers to be killed; the military is not place for a woman....where did we get off the track

1972 Hebrews Lesson #186

186 08/27/1974 Hebrews 11:24 (Isagogics) Doctrine of surpassing grace (cont.)

The first of these stephanos (στέφανος) [pronounced STEHF-ahn-oss]-type awards is the crown of life. Remember that the stephanos (στέφανος) [pronounced STEHF-ahn-oss] is the highest award the Roman army gave to its military personnel for combat. The stephanos (στέφανος) [pronounced STEHF-ahn-oss] of life is one of the three categories of rewards that are open to believers in this dispensation. James 1:12 is the wreath or the crown of life, not a crown like a king wears but a wreath like a gallant Roman soldier wore at the time that the New Testament was written — “Blessed is the man who perseveres under testing;” — persevering under testing is the issue here — “for having become approved, he will receive a wreath [stephanos (στέφανος) [pronounced STEHF-ahn-oss]] of life, which God has promised to them constantly loving Him [occupation with the person of Christ and a part of the supergrace life].”

Bob steps out of Berachah around 3 am and there were some Berachan types hanging out there.

Principles

1. The believer constantly loving Christ is the supergrace believer, the one who seizes and holds the high ground. Occupation with Christ is synonymous with constantly loving Christ.

2. There are many tests and pressures to drive the believer off the high ground and to defeat him, causing him to enter the various stages of reversionism. Reversionism does not glorify God.

3. However, continued positive volition toward doctrine, persistence in the daily function of GAP, results in seizing and holding the high ground until death transfers us to eternity.

4. By holding and maintaining maturity until death the believer attains paragraph SG3 in the category of the wreath of life, the highest award that God can give a believer in eternity, and the wreaths are only used to categorize rewards for the royal family of God.

5. The exact nature or variations in this award are unknown and we have to fall back on the principle of the Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. A wreath or a stephanos (στέφανος) [pronounced STEHF-ahn-oss], the highest decoration one could receive in the Roman army, was equivalent to winning the medal of honour plus $100,000 a year for life. We do not know what is involved in the rewards of eternity. All we know is that the wreath represented a lot of things that were unseen, and that is exactly why God the Holy Spirit selected the word stephanos (στέφανος) [pronounced STEHF-ahn-oss] to designate our eternal rewards. But whatever it is, it is fantastic. It is better than anything in life.

a. Various wreaths.

b. The Romans appreciated their military and supported them after their battles.

c. The wreath represents a great deal which is not seen; so that is why God the Holy Spirit chose this to illustrate eternal rewards. God has chosen not to reveal in any detail what those rewards are.

6. The reason is obvious. Motivation in phase two must always come from Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

7. So fantastic is the implication of the wreath or crown of life that the very mention of its essence would distort motivation in this stage of the angelic conflict.

8. The wreath or crown of life is an eternal reward or decoration, part of paragraph SG3 above and beyond the possession of eternal life and a resurrection body.

9. To hold until death means permanent change of station by way of dying grace, followed by eternal reward. Revelation 2:10 mentions this same wreath.

You do not learn Bible doctrine except in the local church under the authority of a pastor teacher...or under a tape recorder.

The second one is the stephanos (στέφανος) [pronounced STEHF-ahn-oss] or wreath of glory. This is the highest decoration available in eternity for the pastor-teacher. This is a special decoration for faithfulness in communication of doctrine on the part of those who have the gift of pastor-teacher. It is inevitable that the diligent and faithful study of the Word in preparation for teaching will bring the individual pastor-teacher to the high ground. He can’t help but get there by his own diligent study. 1Peter 5:4; 1Thessalonians 2:19,20 — “our glory and happiness” refers to the faithful pastor who faces a faithful congregation in the study of the Word of God; Philippians 4:1.

Bob was thinking about May 7, 1950, his first day in Berachah Church. He fired the board of deacons.

Bob is going to begin selecting deacons at this point. He knows that there are jobs that these men can handle the administrative jobs. There is no way for the congregation to know anything about these men.

The worst thing to have is a bunch of committees. Karl Kepler is probably the smartest person to handle our prep school, but no one would know this. The only people on the ballot are those approved by Bob; so why have a ballot. “But that’s a dictatorship.” “That’s right; how perceptive you are.” Bob believes in maximum efficiency, and he knows how to get things done.

Originally, the Board of Trustees were those who knew what they were doing; and the Board of Deacons were worthless.

A good administrator does nothing. He puts dents in his desk from putting his feet on the desk. Bob knows pastors who clean out the church and open the church and sweep it out; but that is not what a pastor should be doing.

The stephanos (στέφανος) [pronounced STEHF-ahn-oss] of righteousness is a surpassing grace reward also in eternity. It is a very obvious principle, the word “righteousness” is the key. It actually has the concept of staying on the high ground and the righteousness involved is not your personal righteousness but is the grace righteousness concept — 2Timothy 4:7,8. The crown is a supergrace reward for all supergrace believers who seize and hold the high ground and utilize the inner resources of doctrine. So it is righteousness based upon divine viewpoint, righteousness of the soul.

Doctrine of Surpassing Grace (Revised) (Continued)

4. The key to surpassing grace blessing in eternity is pleasing God in time. This is accomplished by persistent positive volition toward Bible doctrine resulting in supergrace blessing in time, dying grace transition, surpassing grace rewards in eternity.

5. The judgement seat of Christ is the basis of the administration of SG3 to the royal family of God — 2Corinthians 5:10. The formal presentation of SG3 to the royal family occurs after the Rapture of the Church at the judgement seat of Christ and the entire royal family will be assembled at that time. Those who have lived their lives in reversionism or reached the high ground and failed to hold are called phaulos (φαλος) [pronounced FOW-loss] which is translated “worthless” in 2Corinthians 5:10, and that is not the correct translation. Phaulos (φαλος) [pronounced FOW-loss] refers to excrement. Good, on the other hand, refers to what is produced from doctrine resident in the soul. The judgement seat of Christ also has a present application. Before you begin to decide that you know how to do it , and that you could do it better and that you are the world’s best critic, remember Romans 14:10–12. This means that ultimately Bible doctrine resident in the soul is designed so that we can live our lives unto God. That is important. If you live your life as unto God it is because you have doctrine in your soul.

a. Or you, why do you: , which means, For we will all stand before the judgment seat of. Rom 14:10–12 Why do you pass judgment on your brother despise your brother God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

6. Supergrace is the key to blessing in time and the basis for reward in eternity — James 1:25 cf. 2:12,13.

7. “Mercy [supergrace function] exalts at judgement.” In other words, the person who walks off with an SG3 paragraph in eternity exalts — like winning a very important football game and being enthusiastic about the win.

Verses 24–28 depend upon understanding the historical background. The appliance of isagogics here is very simple. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. What is now said about Moses is very brief, it is in summary form from God the Holy Spirit, and it demands isagogical filling. First of all, a summary of what takes place between verses 23 and 24.

Egyptian History During the Time of Moses

1. Israel was 430 years in the land of Egypt — Exodus 12:40,41. The Jews entered the land in BC 1871. Moses was born in BC 1520. The Exodus occurred in BC 1441.

2. The Hyksos dynasty were Semitic invaders of Egypt. They were friendly to Joseph. They were the ones who brought in horses and chariots, they brought in the battle bow so that eventually the Egyptian infantry became archer infantry. Joseph came to power in the Hyksos dynasty.

3. The expulsion of the Hyksos dynasty gave rise to the most famous dynasty of Egyptian rulers, the 18^th.

a. The first man to come into importance was Amenhotep I.

b. He was followed by his son-in-law, Thutmose I. “Mose” or Moses is an Egyptian name. The Moses of the Bible does not have a Jewish name. Moses means “Mac” in Egyptian, like MacDuff — son of Duff. The illustration is Thutmose I, which means son of Thoth. Moses means “son of”; Thoth was one of the gods of Egypt. Thutmose I had a legitimate daughter [Hatshepsut] and an illegitimate son. Thutmose II. He wanted his son to get on the throne so he married him off to his daughter, Hatshepsut, but he died very shortly thereafter. But they had a daughter.

c. After Thutmose II died Hatshepsut had an adopted son, Moses. She also had a legitimate daughter but Thutmose II called Neferure who was one of the most beautiful women of her day. She and Moses were very much in love, and Hatshepsut had made Moses the crown prince and was to be the next Pharaoh of Egypt after she died. By the time he was forty they were going to make sure by marriage to Neferure so there would never be any opposition. This was the basis for Moses at age forty making a decision. He walked away from her, and by this time Moses had established himself as the greatest man in Egyptian history.

4. Moses was born during the reign of Thutmose I. He lived as the adopted son of Queen Hatshepsut. He could have been and was to be the next Pharaoh of Egypt. Hatshepsut had picked Moses to be her successor.

5. Amenhotep I founded the dynasty. (Amenhotep II will be the Pharaoh of the Exodus) He lived 1546 — 1525 BC. Egypt was one of the greatest centres of learning from Amenhotep I to Cleopatra.

6. Hapchetsit’s regency. Thutmose lasted until 1504 BC, his rule was from 1508–1504 before he was poisoned. Hapchetsit’s regency was from BC 1505–1482 during which she proved that some women are very capable rulers. She brought great prosperity to the empire. One reason was that she picked great administrators. She was holding the regency for Moses. She intended for him to marry her daughter Neferure. During the childhood of Moses she had a famous Prime Minister, an administrative genius.

7. Thutmose III, 1482–1450 BC, the greatest Pharaoh in Egyptian history. He was 5 feet four inches tall, whereas Moses was very tall. He was brilliant but feisty. Cambridge Ancient History, vol. 2, part 1, page 319: “Incontestably he was the greatest Pharaoh ever to occupy the throne of Egypt. His vigorous exploitation of the resources of the empire, his very considerable augmentation of national wealth in Egypt, his efficient organization of the internal administration of the country, his vast program of building, his notable advances of Egyptian art-culture achievement; this we must agree is one of the great insight and many-sided diverse abilities of this talented Napoleonic little man who appears to have excelled not only as a general, a statesman, an administrator, but also as the greatest horseman of his day.” He was great, but inferior to Moses.

8. The successor of Thutmose III was his son Amenhotep II by his second wife.

9. Amenhotep II was the Pharaoh of the Exodus. He was famous for his physical strength, his military ability. He was successful in four great military campaigns against Syria, he established a great frontier in the Sudan. His eldest son died at the Passover and he was succeeded by his younger son, Thutmose IV. This is the Pharaoh who had a famous dream that is recorded on an immense slab of red granite on the Sphinx of Giza. He dreamed while he was a young man that his older brother would die and that he would become the Pharaoh. This dream was fulfilled by the slaying of the firstborn in the tenth plague of Exodus 11 and 12.

Bob gives much more information than is found above. Moses was a great contractor, a great musician, a great administrator.

Bob discusses social security. He was branded as anti-senior citizen. Sending money to India is like pouring it down a sewer. They are starving and they have cows walking all over. There is a common sense contingent in the United States; just not in our leadership.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #187

187 08/28/1974 Hebrews 11:24 Moses' 39 silent years

logistical grace is designed for all believers. SG2: Spiritual category (sharing God’s happiness, the residual doctrine); temporal blessings designed for us in eternity past. Dying grace is the 3^rd category. This is better than any blessing in life. This is the high golden bridge. No one has glorified God without maximum blessing.

We are studying Moses and how he seized and held the high ground.

Two points of introduction. The first deals with the first year in the life of Moses, the second deals with the 39 silent years in the life of Moses.

We have already seen that in the first year of his life he was hidden by his parents for three months — Hebrews 11:23; Exodus 2:1,2. Then we see how that Moses was put in a basket and drifted off into the Nile — Exodus 2:3–10. A miniature Noah.

Exodus 2:3–10

Miriam put her nose into Moses’ business here and never took it out.

Pharaoh is Thutmose I and Hapchetsit is his daughter.

Acts 7:21 summarizes this first year of his life by saying, “And after he had been put out to die, Pharaoh’s daughter adopted him and reared him as her own son.” This verse also gives us, in effect, 39 silent years.

So we have a second point of introduction brought up: the 39 silent years. Moses was roughly one year old when he was delivered back to Hatshepsut, and she adopted him. Very shortly he would be named the crown prince, the next Pharaoh of Egypt.

The 39 Silent Years

1. These are the years between Hebrews 11:23 and 24. In the Exodus account these are the same years between Exodus 2:10 and 11.

2. One verse, and one verse only, describes those 39 silent years: Acts 7:22. Acts 7:21 implies the 39 silent years; Acts 7:22 describes them. Literally from the Greek: “And Moses was educated in all of the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a dynamic man in words and in deeds.”

3. Moses was reared in the highest echelon of Egyptian society. He lived in the palace of the regent queen, Hatshepsut, as her adopted son. Moses, her daughter, Neferei, and Thutmose II had a bastard son, later known in history Thutmose III. Very short and very powerful. A man of unusual strength. Nefereri was a very beautiful woman; and Hatshepsut was also beautiful. Moses was always called beautiful, so he had 120 years of beauty.

4. He was brought up in the palace and was educated in the famous Egyptian colleges and universities. We even know his curriculum, math, music, ROTC, palace administration, astronomy.

5. Moses was a genius in many of the fields that he studied.

6. Moses was handsome, very strong, very gregarious. He was an accomplished public speaker and a great military leader. It was Moses who delivered the Egyptian empire from the Ethiopian menace. He could have become president of the United States based upon his personality. He was the greatest man of history and he was truly a humble man. He delivered the Egyptian army from Ethiopia.

7. Moses was also a great architect and contractor. He was loved by what must have been one of the most beautiful women in the world at that time, Neferure, the daughter of Hatshepsut. He designed the palace of Hatshepsut. He built some of the greatest projects and some are still standing today. He was loved by what must have been the most beautiful woman at that time.

8. Hatshepsut herself is a very attractive woman. Bob saw a picture of her statue. Long neck, chiseled features, willowy figure.

9. Moses was a man of great physical strength and athletic accomplishment.

10. By the time he was 40 years old Moses was the greatest man in Egypt, and Egypt was the greatest empire in the world. The genius of Moses overshadowed his palace rival, Thutmose III who himself was a genius and who, when Moses made his decision, would be the greatest king in Egyptian history.

11. Hatshepsut, however, was holding the throne for Moses, and her regency was highly successful.

12. But Moses makes a decision, reported in verses 24–26 of Hebrews chapter 11. He made a decision when he was forty years old, a decision which causes him to reject the throne of Egypt, a decision that was made on maximum doctrine resident in the soul.

13. The decision of Moses to turn down the throne made it possible for Thutmose III to immediately ascend the throne. It was a decision that cost him the love of Neferure who had to marry Thutmose III. Thutmose III hated his stepmother, but he did marry Neferari. She died soon after, lovesick, apparently, for Moses. “And Moses was educated in all of the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a dynamic man in words and in deeds.”

Hebrews 11:24 By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,

Verse 24 — “By faith” is the instrumental singular of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. This is what is believed, the body of doctrine. Here it is used technically for doctrine resident in the soul of Moses. At 40 years of age Moses had reached spiritual maturity. Forty years of age is not described here but is mentioned in both Exodus 2 and Acts 7. Moses had received his first instalment of paragraph SG2. It included leadership dynamics, great wealth, promotion, a phenomenal number of areas of success. It included some of the most unusual personality traits and leadership traits of all time. He had prominence, technical and social prosperity. He had leadership dynamics.

“Moses” — remember that while the name is not originally Jewish or Hebrew it is originally an Egyptian name. Moses was a phenomenal writer. Being able to express yourself so that others would sit down and read—that is something else again. A literary genius. He was a young prince educated in the languages. He knew Egyptian, Ugaritic, Akkadian. Abraham did not speak the same Hebrew known today. Abraham spoke Chaldean. Hebrew and Chaldean are very similar.

Egyptian today is written in Arabic. No Arabic symbols in the Egyptian language at this time.

“when he was come” — the aorist active participle of ginomai means “when he had become.” This is the constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It contemplates the 39 silent years. For one year Moses was with his mother and father being nursed. We have 39 years gathered up into one syntactical entirety. The active voice: Moses produces the action of the verb by becoming great in those 39 silent years. At the same time he advanced spiritually as he advanced to fame in Egypt. The advance was coterminous so that by the time he was forty years of age he was a strong believer as well as the greatest man in Egypt. Note: Everything that is worth having in life is not worth having until you are mature. Maturity is related to capacity for life.

Moses was a great mature believer at age 40. He made a great decision based upon his spiritual growth;

So Moses became great in forty years. At the same time he advanced spiritually to supergrace, and that is why we have the instrumental of means singular of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs], indicating his supergrace status at age forty when he made one of the greatest decisions anyone ever made. Principle: Great people make great decisions. Greatness is in the soul, and great people make great decisions.

The participle is a temporal participle. It also, because it is an aorist participle, has antecedent action to the main verb. The main verb is the decision refused. But he did not refuse or make the decision until he was a mature person. He knew exactly what he was doing. Mature believers know what they are doing. Ignorance is no excuse for the mature believer.

Maturity is related to capacity for life. Self-pity, boredom and instability mean that you lack capacity for life. Boredom and instability become traps, and they can destroy your spiritual life and hinder your maturity.

Little people make little decisions. A decision made with mental attitude sins will make you petty and vindictive. Your children and grandchildren will avoid you; and you will be a test to them.

“to years” — there is no word for years here in the Greek. We have a predicate adjective, megas (μέγας, μεγάλη, μέγα) [pronounced MEH-gas], which means “great” or “prominent.” So, “By means of doctrine resident in the soul Moses, having become great.”

Acts 7:22–23 is a part of the speech of Stephen that God the Holy Spirit recorded and we learn many things from Stephen that we did not otherwise know from the Old Testament.

Acts 7:22 — “And Moses was educated in all of the learning of the Egyptians, and he was a dynamic man in words and in deeds.”

Acts 7:23 — “But when he was approaching the age of forty” — Hebrews 11:24 said “when he had become great”; Acts 7:23 says he approached forty. Notice these are parallels. He was approaching forty and he had become great. Hebrews talks about his greatness; Acts 7 talks about his age — “it entered into his right lobe to visit his brethren, the sons of Israel.” He was fully cognisant of his origin.

Hebrews 11:24 — “By means of doctrine resident in the soul Moses, having become great.”

At forty years of age Moses had become the greatest man in the Egyptian empire. He became the great celebrity in one of the most advanced of all cultures at that time. He was a product of the world’s greatest educational system for hundreds of years which was located in Egypt.

The written style of the writer of Hebrews apparently went to the University of Alexandria. This writer mixes koine Greek and classical Greek. This man was brilliant; and he was the product of the greatest education system in the world. Cleopatra herself was a guest-lecturer at this university.

Arneomai arneomai (ἀρνέομαι) [pronounced ar-NEH-om-ahee]. Moses renounced all that the Egyptian empire could offer him. He killed an Egyptian taskmaster with his bare hands. He fought Egypt for the next 80 years. He walks away from everything that was important in life. No normal person would do this, thinks psychiatry.

Remember that the action of the aorist participle, ginomai, plus the adjective megas (μέγας, μεγάλη, μέγα) [pronounced MEH-gas], precede the action of the main verb. The main verb is arneomai (ἀρνέομαι) [pronounced ar-NEH-om-ahee] and at this point we are ready to study one of the greatest decisions anyone ever made in history. And it was a great man who made a great decision. It was a supergrace hero making a supergrace decision. Supergrace people can make supergrace decisions. Moses made a decision to renounce the throne of Egypt and in doing so to renounce the most beautiful woman in Egypt, and in effect to renounce Egypt. In making this decision Moses who was the greatest patriot in Egypt now becomes the greatest enemy of Egypt. And he decided to visit his brethren. His brethren were in slavery. And when he makes his decision to renounce the throne of Egypt it is a twofold decision, he identifies himself with his own people, the Jews. Until his death he remained the enemy of Egypt and he was responsible for killing more Egyptians, was responsible for more Egyptians dying, was responsible for the only defeats the Egyptians ever took in the 18th dynasty, was responsible for turning Israel once and for all against Egypt for he spoke with disdain of the garlics and the cucumbers of Egypt, and many other things pertaining to Egypt. A man made a decision that turned him from the greatest patriot of his adopted country to the greatest enemy of his adopted country. He became, in effect, the greatest of all Jewish patriots and the father of the Jewish nation.

This man for forty years was never appreciated by the Jews. He could not pass a test with his contemporaries. They despised him. They were jealous, bitter, vindictive, and of all of the people who came out of Egypt there was only one person who truly admired him and loved him, and eventually he married her. She was an Ethiopian princess. But everyone was against him and he never missed a beat, except once. That is why he never crossed the Jordan.

“refused” — aorist middle indicative of arneomai (ἀρνέομαι) [pronounced ar-NEH-om-ahee]. The word means to refuse, to renounce, to deny, to repudiate, but with the infinitive it narrows it down to refusal or repudiation. The aorist tense is dramatic. The middle voice: this is a defective verb and therefore it is active in meaning though middle in form. Moses produces the action of the verb, he refused or repudiated. “Refused” is a better translation with the infinitive. The indicative mood portrays the main verb of the antecedent action of the participle. So we have, “By means of doctrine resident in the soul, when Moses had become great he refused.”

Bob knows about 6 women who ought to be under psychiatric therapy. And 4 men. Usually they don’t bother anyone here. But they are psychos. This sort of thing is not for mature believers. Believers don’t need counseling; they need doctrine. The systems of therapy of psychiatrists good; counseling bad.

Too often, 2 million people voted yes and Moses voted no, and Moses got his way. Moses was not appreciated by his fellow Israelites. They despised him; they were jealous, etc.

“to be called” is wrong. This is the present passive infinitive of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh], and légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] here means to be proclaimed. He refused to be proclaimed. The present tense is the historical present in which a past event is viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence. The passive voice: Moses receives the action of the verb through his own decision. In effect, he repudiated the throne of Egypt, he rejected the daughter of Hatshepsut whom at that time he dearly loved, and he became the greatest enemy that Egypt ever had. The infinitive is an infinitive of intended result in which a deliberate objective in fulfilled, and this combines both purpose and result in the verb.

The word “son” is the nominative singular of huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS], adult son, and it means a title here. With “Pharaoh’s daughter” it means the crown prince, the heir apparent to the Egyptian throne. Moses was being groomed by Hatshepsut to be the next Pharaoh of Egypt and this explains the hatred and antagonism of Thutmose III, not only toward Moses but even more toward Hatshepsut. Thutmose III went around and removed his step-mother’s name from buildings, and put his own there instead.

“Pharaoh’s daughter” — the possessive genitive singular from thugatêr (θυγάτηρ) [pronounced thoo-GAT-air], plus the word for Pharaoh which is an indeclinable title.

Hebrews 11:24 By means of doctrine resident in the soul, when Moses had become great, he refused to be proclaimed heir apparent, the son of the daughter of Pharaoh.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #188

188 08/29/1974 Hebrews 11:25 Glamor vs. Glory

Reading off the verses starting around v. 18. Acts 7:20, then back to v. 24.

Hebrews 11:25 choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.

Verse 25 — “Choosing” is the aorist middle participle of hairéomai (αἱρέομαι) [pronounced hahee-REH-om-ahee]. It means in the active voice to take or pick. But this is the middle voice which has a different meaning. The middle voice means to choose. It should be translated here, “Having chosen.” It is used here for the decision of Moses.

6 Things about the Aorist Tense Here

1. it is a constative aorist and it takes the details of his decision and gathers them into a single syntactical entirety.

2. Moses reached supergrace, and through maximum doctrine resident in his soul he began to see the issue in becoming the crown prince and the heir apparent of Queen Hatshepsut. He was about to become the Pharaoh of Egypt. They are not a nation yet, but he saw his own race in slavery. Moses said, “For 400 years the Egyptians have enslaved my race, and God may use me to release them but not by way of taking the throne of Egypt.” No Pharaoh of Egypt is going to release them apart from the grace principle, therefore he refused the throne.

a. Someone else might have rationalized taking this high office. Moses does not.

b. This is how Moses is great.

3. This aorist says that the source of doctrine which Moses possessed in his soul was obviously from his own people in slavery. Doctrine came out of Israel. The source of this doctrine was his own race. Moses has a country and Moses has a race. There is a racial issue with Moses, and it is based upon the fact that he has a nation to which he has been loyal and which God has raised up, and of which he is a part. And here is a man who has to choose between his nation and his God. If he ascends the throne, says this aorist, then he has chosen for his nation and his own personal ambition. But of he identifies himself with his people instead of going up to the throne, and joins them in slavery, which he did, he is doing it God’s way. That is a supergrace decision. An immature person would say, “I will take the office and use it for the glory of God.” The office in the land is to be used to administer and to lead the people under right principles of doctrine, period. You don’t use public office to advance the cause of Christ in the sense of getting people to accept Christ.

4. Over a period of forty years Moses had had a great deal of contact with his own people in slavery, originally through his mother who nursed him.

5. Therefore, being in the Egyptian palace for forty years did not hinder Moses from taking in doctrine, as illustrated by the way the previous verse begins — “By means of doctrine resident in the soul Moses...”

6. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Moses maintained continual contact with his own people by means of which he received Bible doctrine in his soul. And the constative aorist which we have before us takes into consideration the fact that he was a supergrace believer with maximum doctrine resident in his soul — the basic characteristic of s supergrace believer. When Moses reached supergrace status he was forty. He faced the issue in this verse. We now come to grips with this issue by the constative aorist.

The Middle Voice of Hairéomai (αἱρέομαι) [pronounced hahee-REH-om-ahee]

1. Because the middle voice is the only form used in the New Testament for this verb, it becomes what is known as a deponent verb. A deponent verb is middle in form but active in meaning.

2. Therefore the deponent verb says that Moses produced the action of the verb — “having chosen” is our verb here.

3. Moses made the most dynamic decision in all of his life. He made a divine viewpoint decision all the way. He rejected all of the temptations, all of the attractions including that beautiful woman who was waiting to be his bride.

4. The potential of Moses was fantastic. He could have been the greatest ruler in Egyptian history instead of Thutmose III.

5. He was greater than the one with whom he was reared in the palace, Thutmose III.

6. Thutmose III was the greatest ruler in Egyptian history but Moses overshadowed him from the first forty years in every department.

7. Hence, by comparing Moses with Thutmose III we can see the dynamics of an obvious decision whereby Moses would have been the greatest man in Egyptian history.

8. But Moses through Bible doctrine resident in his soul chose something else: something painful, something filled with misery and pressure and tremendous difficulty. Moses had to turn his back on the woman he loved at that time. He had to leave all of the great things he had earned.

a. He was the commanding general of the Egyptian army.

b. He was one of the great builders in Egypt. Many of the buildings that he built were outstanding.

9. Moses chose God’s way, and no one ever loses by choosing God’s way. (A man in authority never has friends, he only has principles. To be fair and just to all he must stand on the principles and ignore loved ones or friendship or anything else). Strong’s #.

Miriam was Moses’ housekeeper for 40 years?

The participle itself is circumstantial. The circumstances include Moses in supergrace using the doctrine resident in his soul to choose God’s way rather than the way of obvious fortune, the way of human celebrityship, the way of human success. Remember also that the circumstantial participle throws in the most beautiful woman that Moses had ever met and the one with whom he had the most rapport in the first forty years of his life.

Next we have the comparative adverb mallon (μλλον) [pronounced MAL-lon], translated “rather.” The comparative adverb is used for preference, choosing one thing instead of another. Moses didn’t make a decision to choose for one thing, he made a decision to choose one thing instead of another, to choose an obscure thing instead of an obvious thing. The obvious thing was ascending the throne of Egypt; the obscure thing is God’s will for his life and God’s plan for his life. It was obscure at the time he made his choice and the adverb tells us that. He chose God’s will, obscure to him at this moment, over a beautiful woman, over a great throne, over leadership of the greatest empire at that time.

This word comes first in the Greek sentence, and so we translate is that way: “Rather having chosen.”

“to suffer affliction” is the present passive infinitive of sugkakouchéō (συγκακουχέω) [pronounced soong-kak-oo-KHEH-oh] which occurs only this one time in the New Testament. The verb covers all that Moses chose and understood that he was choosing. It means to suffer, to be mistreated with someone else. It means to identify yourself with someone who is being abused and to be abused with them. It means to suffer with others who are suffering. We can translate it, “to endure maltreatment with.” The present tense is the present of duration. In other words, a retroactive progressive present, what has begun in the past and continues into the moment of writing. By his association with the Jews in slavery and his persistence in the function of GAP with them, Moses encountered adversity and pressure from the palace.

What Moses really did was to leave the palace. When he turned in his resignation as crown prince and walked out of the palace he went down to the Jews in slavery. He identified himself with them, and the first thing he did was to kill a taskmaster. The second thing he did was to run away. The next thing he did was to come back the next day and find out the Jews had all voted against him — which was the story of his life. God called him to lead the Jews and the Jews voted unanimously to reject him.

The passive voice: Moses received the action of the verb, persecution and maltreatment in Egypt. This is nothing to do yet with the Exodus. The infinitive is an infinitive of actual result.

“with the people of God” is the instrumental singular from noun laos (λαός) [pronounced lah-OSS] plus the definite article. Laos (λαός) [pronounced lah-OSS] means people, and it refers to a nation about to be born. It is a reference to the Jews in slavery to the Egyptian empire.

“rather than” is both disjunctive and a comparative particle hê. The disjunctive is translated “or”, the comparative is translated “than.” We translate it here, “rather than.” So we have: “Rather having chosen to endure maltreatment with the people of God [the Jews in slavery] than ...”

“to enjoy” — incorrect, there is no “enjoy” here. It is the present active infinitive of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh]. The present tense is an iterative present, and it should be translated here “to keep having.” The iterative present describes what recurs at successive intervals, it is called the present tense of repeated action. The active voice: Moses, the crown prince of Egypt, the heir of Queen Hatshepsut, produces the action of the verb of having forty wonderful years, and this could be perpetuated by becoming the Pharaoh. This is an infinitive of actual result and it should be translated, “to keep having the pleasures,” to perpetuate the pleasures rather than to enjoy.

“the pleasures” — the accusative singular direct object of apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] lausij which means enjoyment or pleasure. It is in the singular, not the plural.

“of sin” is the ablative singular of source, hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah] — “from sin”: “to keep on having pleasure from sin.” This is temporary pleasure from sin. The word temporary is the word “for a season,” the adjective proskairoj — “to keep having temporary pleasure from sin.”

Hebrews 11:25 Rather having chosen to endure maltreatment with the people of the God, than to keep having temporary pleasure from sin.

Summary

1. The possibilities presented by the literal translation of this verse are most enlightening with regard to the first forty years of the life of Moses.

2. They are the silent years. However, God the Holy Spirit has opened the door to some rather fascinating possibilities because of this verse. The possibilities are brought out by the alternatives to his decision — temporary pleasure from sin.

3. It is obvious that Moses was consistent in the function of GAP because he did reach supergrace and made a supergrace decision.

4. The source of his doctrine has to be the Jews with whom he maintained some sort of association. We do not know exactly how this was, but I suspect that he had Hebrew teachers.

5. As Moses became a famous man in such areas as physical beauty, spiritual growth, plus the accomplishments of genius in the field of personality, public speaking, construction, writing and music, etc., there emerges a totally attractive personality. And like everyone else he has an old sin nature.

6. Add to this a young man of great accomplishment — Acts 7:22. This verse is the commentary on the forty silent years.

7. But extra-biblical sources hint at a man whose accomplishments of genius were both phenomenal and diversified. Moses was a genius in national administration, military science, an engineer without parallel. He fascinated the Egyptians.

8. Not only was Moses the most handsome, well-built man of his time but he carried with his physical beauty a tremendous number of talents as an expression of his genius. To such a man the details of life come easily, and this is the point that must be emphasized from this verse. The details of life he possessed.

9. This makes the decision of Moses the greatest decision anyone ever made, greater than appears on the surface.

10. Moses reached the supergrace life with the result that he had maximum doctrine resident in his soul.

11. From these inner resources of doctrine Moses made his decision. Christ was more important to Moses than the temporary pleasures of human celebrityship. Remember that “sin” is in the singular, the pull was from “sin,” his old sin nature, his lust pattern: his approbation lust, power lust, materialism lust, sex lust, all of them were a part of his old sin nature. The pleasure from sin refers to his old sin nature.

12. Doctrine was more important to Moses than the great pull of the lust pattern of the old sin nature and the dangling before his eyes perpetual details of life.

13. Dangling before Moses was the total attractions of success, pleasure, human celebrityship; a big package for the lust pattern of the old sin nature.

14. The allurement of cosmic prosperity was not as great as the inner residency of Bible doctrine and the accompanying occupation with Christ.

15. Moses turned his back on the greatest system of glamour in the ancient world until the Roman empire. He rejected glamour for glory. He kept going on the road to glory. (All believers face glamour versus glory at some time in their lives, it is one of the tests on the high ground) No one ever passes the test of glamour versus glory without doctrine resident in the soul. Moses pressed on. He had SG2 and he would have more of SG2. He had dying grace eventually and he had SG3, and he moved down that road.

No decision in history ever brought more glory to God, more honour to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. No decision ever brought more blessing in time and eternity to one man than to Moses.

1972 Hebrews 11:26 Lesson #189

189 08/30/1974 Hebrews 11:26 Decision of Moses

We are on the cusp of a recession. The glory years of the military are past.

Translation reviewed back to v. 23.

Living grace is what it takes God to keep a believer alive during phase II. Your clothes, food, water, etc. are all provided. God also provides what is necessary for spiritual growth.

The principle by which the parents made one of the great decisions of history in verse 23 to preserve the most unusual man who ever had a sin nature: The situation is the same in every age. There was first of all the beginning of God’s plan — saving grace, Ephesians 2:8,9. Then immediately the believer walks into living grace. Living grace is all it takes for God to keep one believer alive on the earth in the devil’s world in phase two. Living grace is divided into two basic categories. a) All of the mechanics to keep any believer alive — the air you breathe, the food you eat, the shelter you enjoy, the clothes you wear, the transportation by which you get from point A to point B, all that is necessary to keep you alive in order that you might take in doctrine and be a part of the angelic conflict. b) The spiritual provision of living grace. You have been provided a local church [classroom], a textbook {the Word of God], and an authority to communicate the Word to you [gift of pastor-teacher]. This also is a provision of living grace. It is the second provision, linked with the first, whereby you come to Bible class alive and you follow the colours to the high ground of supergrace. Reaching the point of supergrace means that you reach a normal point. Supergrace is synonymous with maturity, and here you have one of several special blessing paragraphs designed for you in eternity past — paragraph SG2. SG2 is divided again into three categories. The first is the spiritual blessing — occupation with the person of Jesus Christ, sharing the happiness of God, the principle of having resident doctrine for every exigency of life. The second category of paragraph SG2 are the temporal blessings which God has provided for you specifically. They vary as far as emphasis in the life of each believer, but they include great wealth, great success, promotion, prosperity, social prosperity, sexual prosperity, materialistic prosperity, economic prosperity, technical prosperity in some field, and leadership dynamics. Generally, the third category is the dying grace category, the means by which the individual believer makes his PCS from phase two to phase three. He takes the high golden bridge and this is better than anything he had in life. Then, when you get to the other side there is paragraph SG3, a series of blessings and rewards above and beyond having a resurrection body, minus the old sin nature, minus human good.

Both SG2 and SG3 were designed for you in eternity past. Whether you attain them or not, whether you claim them or not, depends upon your daily and consistent attitude toward Bible doctrine. For those who are negative there is the alternative. Every member of the royal family who is negative toward doctrine is a sucker, a stupid ass. Reason: God keeps him alive under living grace for the purpose of punitive measures. First of all there is warning discipline, then there is intensive discipline, and then there is the low crawl through the thousand yards of ground glass called the sin unto death as a transfer into eternity.

The pleasures of sin are related to the lust pattern.

Thutmose III was the greatest pharaoh in Egyptian history.

Hebrews 11:26 He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

Verse 26 — “Esteeming” is the aorist active participle from the verb hêgeomai (ἡγέομαι) [pronounced hayg-EH-ohm-ahee]. Hêgeomai (ἡγέομαι) [pronounced hayg-EH-ohm-ahee] means to be an expert in a field. It was originally used for evaluation, for being a guide. A guide has to be an expert in the field in which he is guiding. But here it means to conclude — “Having concluded”, and it means concluded on the basis of resident doctrine. The aorist tense is a constative aorist and takes into consideration everything we have studied in the last verse. Two sides of the coin: first of all Moses was to be the ruler of Egypt and the next Pharaoh, and up until the time that he made this decision the greatest patriot in Egypt. But he had to consider his own people, the Jews. And in making a decision to reject the throne it was also a decision to go to the Jews from that time on. Moses for the first forty years of his life was the greatest friend that Egypt ever had and for the last eighty he was the greatest enemy that Egypt ever had. He personally did more to destroy, to kill, to put down, to defeat that great 18th dynasty empire than all of the great armies of the world at that time. Once he became the enemy of the Egyptians the Egyptians never had a greater enemy. So remember that the constative aorist is a two-sided coin. The active voice: Moses through resident doctrine produced the conclusion. The participle is circumstantial.

Hebrews 11:25 — “Rather having chosen to endure maltreatment with the people of God than to keep having temporary pleasure from sin.”

Moses and His Egyptian Background

1. The possibilities presented by the literal translation of this verse are most enlightening with regard to the first forty years of the life of Moses.

2. These are the 39 silent years of his life. However, God the Holy Spirit has opened the door to some rather fascinating possibilities brought out by the alternative to his decision.

3. It is obvious that Moses was consistent in the function of GAP.

4. The source of his doctrine has to be the Jews with whom he maintained an association while he was growing up in the palace of Thutmose II and Queen Hatshepsut.

5. As Moses became a famous man in areas of physical beauty, spiritual growth, plus accomplishments of genius in the field of personality, public speaking, writing and music, there emerges a totally attractive personality.

6. Add to this a young man of great accomplishments — like Acts 7:22. He was a man of dynamics in words and deeds. This verse in the only commentary on the silent years.

7. But extra biblical sources hint at a man whose accomplishments of genius were both phenomenal as they were diversified.

8. Moses was the total genius, being great in national administration, military science, construction which so fascinated the Egyptians.

9. Not only was Moses the most handsome and well-built man of his time but he carried with his physical beauty a phenomenal number of soul talents by which his genius was expressed.

10. To such a man the details of life came easily. The attraction of the details of life can be understood in their enumeration: success, money, pleasure, social life, sexual life, loved ones, health materialistic things, status symbols, there are some of the things involved.

11. This makes the decision of Moses much greater than appears on the surface.

12. Moses reached the supergrace life with the result that he had maximum resident doctrine in his soul.

13. From these inner resources of doctrine Moses made his decision. Christ was more important to Moses than the temporary pleasures and superficialities of human celebrityship.

14. Doctrine was more important to Moses than the details of life.

15. Dangling before Moses was the total attraction of success, pleasure, and human celebrityship.

16. The allurement of cosmic prosperity was not as great as inner resident doctrine accompanying the occupation with Christ. Doctrine in his soul was greater than any outside factor.

17. Moses turned his back on the greatest glamour the world has ever offered and continued on the road to glory. He chose glory over glamour.

18. Therefore Moses took the grace way. He pressed to attain paragraph SG2, dying grace as his PCS, and he has one of the greatest SG3s for all eternity. No decision ever brought more glory to God and more blessing to any member of the human race, and there never was, excluding always our Lord Jesus Christ, a greater person in all of history with the exception of one other Jew whose name was Saul of Tarsus.

That means we have come to his conclusions, and the word “esteeming” which begins verse 26 should be translated “having concluded on the basis of the inner residency of doctrine”. But immediately we have some very serious exegetical problems. By way of approaching the problems, at this point the English translation does not follow the word order of the Greek text. That isn’t necessarily difficult; only occasionally. The departure from the Greek word order is so radical, however, in the English translation as to warrant a revised translation.

This sentence actually begins in the Greek with what is considered to be the key to everything — meizona plouton. Meizona is the accusative neuter plural, the direct object of the comparative from megas (μέγας, μεγάλη, μέγα) [pronounced MEH-gas], and it is translated correctly, “greater.” Plouton is the accusative singular with the plural of the comparative and it should be translated “greater riches,” and it begins the verse. Remember that we have an accusative plural in meizona. The comparative is in the plural, the noun plouton is in the singular. “Greater riches” — what is greater than what Moses is contemplating. He is about to marry the most beautiful woman in Egypt, he was about to enter the highest point of Egyptian history as an established genius in many fields. The comparative is the key. What is better than all of this? No one ever faced such a temptation to every kind of greatness, every kind of pleasure, every kind of fun there is in life.

h(ghsamenoj is next, “having concluded”; “than the treasures of Egypt” — the ablative of comparison plural thêsauros (θησαυρός) [pronounced thay-sow-ROSS] which means not just money but things that people have always valued: diamonds, jewelry, weapons, beautiful people, all kinds of things. “Treasures” includes everything that was within the grasp of Moses. Moses concluded that there are greater riches in doctrine; “of Egypt” — we have a possessive genitive, and Egypt had treasures like no one has ever heard of.

“Having concluded on the basis of resident doctrine in the soul” — this is legitimate in translation, we put first this particular participle — “the discipline from Christ”, the ablative of source; “the riches of Egypt greater than the reproach of Christ” The word “reproach” is the accusative singular of oneidismós (ὀνειδισμός) [pronounced on-i-dis-MOSS] which means “discipline.” Discipline from Jesus Christ was greater riches than the treasuries of Egypt. That is what the verse is saying.

Next we have the explanatory use of the particle gar, translated “for” or “for you see.”

“he had respect” — imperfect active indicative of apoblépō (ἀποβλέπω) [pronounced ap-ob-LEHP-oh]. This means more than to have respect, it is the ultimate in discipline. The word is a self-discipline word, not punitive discipline. This means to keep on concentrating. The imperfect tense of duration means a process has gone on in the past up to the time indicated in the context. In other words, linear aktionsart in past time. The active voice: Moses produced the concentration in past time by means of resident doctrine in the soul. This verb gives us a new view of life. Concentration is the secret to capacity for life. A person who can concentrate is a person who never gets bored. Concentration is the secret to everything in life. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of the fact that Moses found a point of concentration that you cannot duplicate. You cannot fake occupation with Christ, it is developed by maximum doctrine in the soul. Optimum application of maximum doctrine in the soul inevitably turns your look upward. You cannot fake it; “for you see he kept on concentrating.”

“unto the recompense of reward” — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of the noun misthapodosia (μισθαποδοσί) [pronounced mis-thap-od-oss-EE-ah] which means reward or payment of wages. Misthos (μισθός) [pronounced mis-THOSS] means wages; apo, from the source of one who pays; dosia, to give. Here is a reference to the reward of paragraph SG2 plus dying grace as a PCS from time to eternity, plus paragraph SG3 forever and ever. So he concentrated on the reward.

Hebrews 11:26 Having concluded on the basis of doctrine resident in the soul the reproach from Christ [divine discipline] greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for you see he kept on concentrating on the reward.

He concentrated on the reward because of the source of the reward; not the reward as such but the source. He decides from the perspective of resident doctrine in the soul that even divine discipline is better than everything that the world has to offer, and that kind of scale of values doesn’t come easy.

The Characteristics of Moses’ Decision to Set Aside Egyptian Royalty

1. It was made when Moses was the greatest man in Egypt. He was in maximum human celebrityship. Moses had already achieved the success that later characterized the reign of the one who grew up in the palace with him and lived under his shadow — Thutmose III. Moses fully understood the approbation of human celebrityship, so that the decision was not a reaction to any failure or disillusionment.

2. It was made when Moses was humanly mature. It was the decision of a mature person. Therefore it was not the decision of callow youth. Moses was a mature man of forty years, says Acts 7:23.

3. Moses was also spiritually mature. That means supergrace, of course. He had maximum doctrine resident in his soul, maximum concentration and objectivity. Moses had reached the high ground of supergrace and he had no impulsive or emotional altar call and he didn’t go out to some camp and throw a faggot on the fire!

4. The decision was made at the lowest ebb of Jewish history. As a people in slavery for four hundred years there was no opportunity for advancement for Moses by identifying himself with the Jewish people. By identifying himself with them he could become a slave but there was no chance for promotion. On the contrary, when Moses tried to do something for the Jews they rejected him — Exodus 2;11–14; Acts 7:23–28.

5. It was made at a time when Moses was aware of having temporary pleasure from sin. Every detail of life, every human form of approbation, every system of human power, every sensual and stimulating experience of life, was available to Moses. He was rejecting more than the throne of Egypt, he was rejecting the greatest system of approbation and pleasure open in the ancient world until the Roman empire. The flesh pots of Egypt were famous for 3000 years. They were an allurement to Abraham, to Moses, to Ptolemy (grandfather to Cleopatra, who was Greek), to Caesar, and others.

6. It was made under maximum use of Bible doctrine resident in the soul. That is how you come to conclude that discipline from Jesus Christ is greater than all the treasures of Egypt.

7. It was made, therefore, in the perspective of the divine viewpoint of life whereby discipline from God is greater than all the riches, all the treasuries of Egypt.

A woman isn’t anything until she is 30 or 40.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #190

190 09/01/1974 Hebrews 11:27 Doctrines of fear, occupation with Christ

A review of SG2 and SG3 and dying grace.

Hebrews 12 provides the alternative for those who reject God and His teaching. The withdrawal of prosperity and the 1000 yard crawl through ground glass. On the other side, peon forever.

No one was as great as Moses in that era. He grew up in the palace with 2 who were equally famous. Thutmose III and Nefarari, the true daughter of Queen Hapshesut.

Moses did not make a reactionary decision; he decided on the basis of objectivity. The points from the previous lesson are being reviewed.

Hebrews 11:27 By faith he left Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

Verse 27 — “By faith he forsook”. This is coming down now to this great decision, a decision whereby Moses lost everything in life related to happiness and blessing and prosperity, whereby he turned his back on everything in order to do what God had for him, and became one of the greatest men in all of human history.

“By means of doctrine resident in the soul he forsook” — the aorist active indicative of kataleipô (καταλείπω) [pronounced kat-al-Ī-po]. Kataleipô (καταλείπω) [pronounced kat-al-Ī-po] deals with a great principle of two sides to a decision. The concept here is to give up or abandon. We have already seen what he is moving toward and we will se it again. But this is the negative side, he gave up everything that was fantastic. To leave behind, to give up, to abandon, is the meaning of kataleipô (καταλείπω) [pronounced kat-al-Ī-po]. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety the function of doctrine in the soul of Moses whereby every phase of this decision he was able to handle by resident doctrine in the soul. The constative aorist gathers up into one entirety everything that Moses faced in this decision. This is a further explanation of the decision of Moses made in verse 24. This does not refer to the failure of Moses — Exodus 2:11–15; but the greatness of Moses — Hebrews 11:24.

The people of China are the worst people in the world. We will see people dying under adverse circumstances. Dying will be better than anything in life. Greater that sexual prosperity is the principle of dying grace.

Principles in this Decision

1. There is no contradiction between Hebrews 11:27 and Exodus 2:11–15.

2. Again, the constative aorist gathers into one entirety the function of doctrine in the soul of Moses whereby he gave up Egypt and human celebrityship. Moses was a man based upon what is between his ears.

3. This is a further explanation, then, of the great decision of verse 24.

4. The temporary failure of Moses in trying to deliver the Jews by his own strength is not an issue. He recovered from that energy of the flesh problem and it is not covered in Hebrews, it is covered in Exodus 2.

5. So there is no contradiction between Hebrews 11:27 and Exodus 2:11–15. The decision of Hebrews 11:24–27 is the function of supergrace resident in the soul, while the failure of Exodus 2:11–15 is the mechanical failure of wrong execution of a right decision.

6. In other words, Moses’ decision to renounce the throne of Egypt was a great one made through the function of resident doctrine in the soul.

7. But Moses’ instant decision to kill the Egyptian overseer was a part of the wrong function of going to people under the assumption that they would follow his leadership immediately. He was God’s man for the deliverance of Israel; he knew it. He assumed that it could be accomplished instantly.

8. The explanation is given in Acts 7:25 — “And he supposed that his brethren understood that God was giving them deliverance through him: but they did not understand.”

9. In other words, the decision of Moses to renounce the throne of Egypt was a great decision of a supergrace hero. But his decision to go to the enslaved Jews, as their deliverer, was premature and incorrect mechanics of energy of the flesh. It only knocked him off balance temporarily.

10. God would use Moses to deliver the Jews from slavery, but in the next generation. God’s timing is perfect; Moses’ imperfect. Moses was not lined up with God’s timing. It would be forty years more and the resurgence of doctrine among the Jewish slaves before they were ready to be free. You have to be prepared for freedom. Moses’ contemporary generation was not spiritually prepared for deliverance.

11. It would be the children of Moses’ contemporary generation who would be delivered from slavery.

Notice the Principles of Interpretation in Comparison of These Passages

1. We have only mentioned in Hebrews Moses renouncing the throne of Egypt, making way for Thutmose III — Hebrews 11:24–27.

2. Moses then went to the people to deliver them — Exodus 2:11–15. The problem is that he was wrong in assuming that the Jews understood that God would use him to deliver them. But they did not understand — Acts 7:25.

The active voice of this verb: Moses produced the action of the verb through doctrine resident in his soul. He produced it as a supergrace believer. The indicative mood is declarative, it represents the verbal idea from the standpoint of reality, from the standpoint of dogmatic historical reality.

Literally then, we have so far: “By means of doctrine resident in the soul he gave up the throne of Egypt.”

“not fearing” — the aorist passive participle of the verb phobeô (φοβέω) [pronounced fob-EH-oh], “not fearing” or “not being afraid.”

The Doctrine of Fear

1. Fear is a mental attitude and a mental attitude sin — 1Samuel 17:11,24. Like all mental attitude sins it attacks the soul and anything that attacks the soul is attacking the vital lifeline. The most important part of your life is what goes on in your soul, the real you is the soul. Therefore fear is a part of the makeup of your soul when obviously you do not have the inner residency of Bible doctrine.

2. Fear therefore, is the sign of reversionism — 1Samuel 18:12, 29; 21:12; 28:20.

3. On the other hand lack of fear is a part of mental attitude dynamics — Hebrews 13:6 as well as 11:27.

4. Legitimate fear is related to the supergrace believer failing — Hebrews 4:1.

5. Love is the absence of fear — 1John 4:18. Remember that love is basically a mental attitude.

6. Fear is not a part of the divine plan for the believer — Exodus 14:13,14; Joshua 8:1; Deuteronomy 31:8; Isaiah 41:10; 1Chronicles 28:20; 2Samuel 1:7.

7. Courage or lack of fear is a sign of supergrace status — Psalm 3:6; 56:3,11; Hebrews 11:27.

8. Fear as used for occupation with Christ is a part of supergrace status. The word “fear” in the original language has another meaning: “occupation with.” There are certain passages where fear is used in that sense — 2Samuel 23:3; Nehemiah 5:9,15; Ephesians 5:21; Job 28:28; Psalm 19:9; 34:11; Proverbs 1:7; 9:10; 10:27; 15:16; Malachi 3:16; 1Peter 2:17.

“not being afraid” — the aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety Moses’ lack of fear from Thutmose III. The aorist tense merely gathers up into one entirety, regardless of the duration, his lack of fear. He was plus maximum doctrine. The passive voice: Moses received the action of the verb which is to be devoid of fear in making his famous decision to give up the throne of Egypt. The participle has antecedent action to the main verb, “he gave up.” So he was not afraid before he made the decision.

“of the wrath” — the accusative singular direct object of qumoj refers to anger, and this is an anger which has built up over forty years. Remember that Moses and Thutmose III were contemporaries living in the palace and constantly in competition, and Thutmose always came out second best.

“of the king” — the genitive singular is a descriptive genitive of basileus (βασιλεύς) [pronounced bahs-ee-loose], describing Thutmose III. Basileus (βασιλεύς) [pronounced bahs-ee-loose], refers here to the fact that Thutmose came to the throne immediately. There was undoubtedly a coup de tat immediately, and the fact that there was a coup de tat is well documented in Egyptian history.

“for” — we have the explanatory use of the particle gar. This particle is designed to explain exactly what is meant here.

“he endured” — the aorist active indicative of karteréō (καρτερέω) [pronounced kar-ter-EH-oh]. The word means to be strong, to be stabilized, but it means really to be strong under pressure. This is a culminative aorist viewing the action of the verb in its entirety but emphasizing the results. The active voice: Moses had this motivation and endured as a supergrace believer. The declarative indicative is used for the dogmatic reality of strength in the soul under pressure. Moses not only had all the prosperity and lived it to the maximum but he also was able to handle every adversity of life and handle it to the maximum. “He became strong under pressure” is what the verb says.

“as seeing” — the relative adverb hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] used as a conjunction, and it should be translated “as long as.” The conjunction introduces the characteristic quality of a person in supergrace and at the same time is used as a temporal conjunction, “as long as.” The word “seeing” is the present active participle blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh] which means a glance. The customary present is used here for what may be reasonably expected to occur in the life of a supergrace believer when he faces adversity. The active voice: Moses produced the action of the verb. The present tense of blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh] means that he kept looking at Christ, he kept being occupied with Christ. We have a temporal participle which is always translated like a temporal clause.

“him who is” is not found in the original.

“invisible” — the direct object in the accusative case aóratos (ἀόρατος) [pronounced ah-OR-at-oss], and it means “the invisible one” and refers to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 11:27 By means of doctrine resident in the soul he [Moses] gave up the throne of Egypt, not being afraid of the anger of the king [Thutmose III]; for you see he became strong under pressure as long as he kept seeing the invisible one.

We are strong as long as we are occupied with the person of Christ.

The Doctrine of Occupation with Christ

1. Definition and description.

a. Occupation with Christ is the highest spiritual function of the believer in time.

b. It is the category #1 love of the supergrace believer or the believer in mature status.

c. Since Christ is the manifest person of the Godhead it becomes maximum love for the second person of the Trinity.

d. Therefore, occupation with Christ is the maximum expression of category #1 love toward God. Christ is the representative of the Trinity in our relationship with God. That is because He is our Savior, because He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, because He is in hypostatic union, the God-Man, because He is the royal high priest forever, because He is the true ruler of Israel. Deuteronomy 6:5, a command to Israel in the Old Testament. “You shall love the Lord your God [Jesus Christ] with all of your heart [the right lobe]” — there must be maximum doctrine in the right lobe, doctrine in the frame of reference, doctrine in the memory centre, doctrine in the vocabulary, categorical doctrine, norms and standards based on doctrine, with the result that maximum category #1 love is directed toward the visible member of the Godhead, Jesus Christ who is described here as Jehovah or the Lord — “and with all of your soul” — doctrine must be resident in the soul — “and with all of your power” — the power here is the inner residency of doctrine. Man is incapable of loving God apart from Bible doctrine. It is Bible doctrine that leads to our salvation. The Gospel is doctrine. It is Bible doctrine accumulated in the soul through the daily function of GAP that leads to development of all of the categories of love and the one in focus here, category #1 toward God. Hebrews 12:1,2 says basically the same thing in our description.

2. Occupation with Christ begins at the believers entrance into the supergrace life — Colossians 3:16,17. “And the doctrine from the Christ, let it keep on dwelling in you abundantly to the point of wealth [supergrace], in all wisdom [the application of doctrine] teaching and warning self and others by grace in your hearts, keep singing to the God by psalms of praise by means of spiritual things. And all, whatever things you so in word or in deed, keep doing all things by the person of the Lord Jesus Christ” — occupation with Christ, therefore, becomes the greatest motivator in life — “constantly giving thanks to the God” — the mental attitude of thanksgiving and its occasional verbalization is in view here — “even the Father through him.” That verse adds up to the fact that the only way to become spiritually self-sustaining is to be on the high ground of supergrace, not only to take in doctrine but to seize and hold, to stay there no matter what comes in life, to have and to enjoy paragraph SG2 in all of its categories and to anticipate that salute and embrace, SG3.

3. Occupation with Christ obviously glorifies Christ — Ephesians 3:19-21. “And come to know the surpassing knowledge love of Christ [occupation with Christ], that you might be filled up with all the fullness from the God” — category #1, paragraph SG2, the spiritual blessings, the resident doctrine in the soul to handle every situation in life — “Now to the one himself being able far beyond all things to do infinitely more than that which we could ask or be imagining [paragraph SG2 — for time], according to the power being itself being effective in us, to him the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus” — “to him” refers to God the Father who planned your personal SG2 paragraph in eternity past. The attainment of these things is totally dependent upon doctrine in the soul, not what you are doing for God — “with reference to all generations” — every generation of believers in the royal family of God from the time of Pentecost until the Rapture occurs will have the accomplishment of the tactical victory of the angelic conflict through an issue of Bible doctrine, with all Bible doctrine located in the text of the scripture. The canon of scripture contains all the doctrine in writing. This was never done before the Church Age, the age of the royal family of God.

4. By means of occupation with Christ the function of GAP is possible. Occupation with Christ is accomplished through the function of GAP. The only way to occupation with Christ is through the daily function of GAP.

a. The principle is this: the persistence of perception of doctrine accumulates maximum residency of doctrine in the soul. The basic characteristics of supergrace are related to occupation with Christ and man’s sense of accomplishment by human ability and effort can never be compared with the daily function of GAP producing supergrace status.

b. The other organizations, apart from the local church, are fine for evangelism; but there is no growth by them.

c. Jeremiah 9:23,24 — “Thus saith the Lord, The wise man shall not boast in his wisdom, furthermore, the successful man shall not boast in his success, the rich man shall not boast in his riches” — True supergrace, you have these things from God and you don’t boast in them, you are occupied with the person of Christ — “For the one boasting [the reversionist in the warning stage of reversionism] let him boast in this principle, to be caused to understand [the function of GAP] and prosper” — understanding of doctrine resulting in prosperity — “even to know me [occupation with Christ], I the Lord manufacture grace, judgement [discipline]” — and every believer is either in one category or the other, grace or discipline — “and justice in the earth” — God is fair. Judgement means discipline for the reversionist, justice means the protection of freedom under the laws of establishment — “for in this I take pleasure, decrees the Lord.”

d. The same concept of GAPing it to supergrace is found elsewhere in the scripture. Ephesians 4:20 — “But you [members of the royal family of God] have not been taught in this manner the Christ.” Or, 3:18,19 — “In order that you might have complete ability [living grace] to comprehend in the company of all saints [the local church], what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and come to know the surpassing knowledge-love of Christ, in order that you might be filled up with all the fullness [supergrace blessing] from the God.”

5. Occupation with Christ eliminates the superficialities of human celebrityship — Philippians 3:7,8. Gaining Christ means to hold the high ground. Bible doctrine in the soul will give supergrace, and supergrace recognizes the celebrityship of Jesus Christ, and you step aside and relax and lose all of your arrogance and have true humility. True humility is a mature believer occupied with the person of Christ, totally relaxed, proving nothing and enjoying everything.

a. Philippians 3:7–8 “But what category of things were gains to me, these same things I myself have concluded loss because of the Christ.” “More emphatically therefore, even I also myself conclude the all things of human celebrityship to be loss for the sake of the surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: because of whom I have forfeited the all things of human celebrityship, and keep on concluding them piles of dung, in order that I may gain Christ [seizing and holding the high ground].”

b. Julius Cæsar and Socrates were two unbelievers with great intelligence like Paul and Moses.

c. Paul was sucked in by emotion.

d. People change; and being caused into giving up something. We change in our looks and in our personalities. If it is because of doctrine in the soul, then it is for the better.

e. With doctrine, old age is much better than youth.

f. True humility is the believer occupation with Christ.

6. Occupation with Christ motivates the pastor-teacher to communicate doctrine so that the royal priesthood reaches its objective — Hebrews 6:10. For the Lord is not unjust to disregard your occupation [pastors], also the love which you yourselves [pastors] have demonstrated with reference to His Person, having ministered the word with reference to the saints, and continuing to minister [the Word].

7. The mechanics of GAP produce the dynamics of occupation with Christ. James 1:19 — “Know this, my beloved brethren, everyone keep on being swift for the purpose of hearing, slow for the purpose of talking, slow with reference to anger” — Are you slow to gel mad in class? Verse 21: “Wherefore, having removed all pollution” — pollution has to do with soul environment and it has to do with mental attitude sins [rebound] — “and receive and retain in the sphere of meekness [respect for the authority of the communicator — “the impregnated word, which is able to deliver your souls.” The impregnated word is exactly the same as doctrine resident in the soul.

a. James 2:20 — “But are you willing to learn, O empty of doctrine man, that doctrine apart from production is unemployed.” Verse 21: “Abraham, our father, not from the source of works was he vindicated, having offered up Isaac, his adult son, on the altar? Verse 22: “You see at a glance how that doctrine kept on working together with production, and from the source of production the doctrine was completed [fully developed]?” Verse 23: “And the scripture was fulfilled which said, Abraham believed the God [Jesus Christ], and it was credited to his account for righteousness; and [from saving grace to supergrace] he was designated [philos theou] lover of God [occupation with Christ].”

8. We have an illustration of occupation with Christ. The illustration of occupation with Christ is found of right man-right woman — Ephesians 5:25–33. Corrected translation given.

9. Occupation with Christ is related to the strategic victory of the angelic conflict — Colossians 3:1,2. “If, therefore, you have been raised in the Christ [positional sanctification], keep on desiring to possess and endeavouring to obtain the above things [SG2, dying grace, SG3], where the Christ is sitting on the right hand side of the God. Keep thinking objectively about above things, not things on the earth.” Same concept in Hebrews 12:2

10. Therefore characteristics of occupation with Christ:

a. Occupation with Christ is the basis for the supergrace believer contributing to national blessing — Deuteronomy 30:15, 16, 20. This is your life and your length of days.

b. Occupation with Christ produces combat courage and victory in battle — Joshua 23:10,11.

c. Occupation with Christ is the basis for preservation in testing — Psalm 31:23,24.

d. Occupation with Christ is the basis for stability and great happiness — Psalm 16:8,9.

e. Occupation with Christ results in supergrace blessing — Psalm 37:4,5.

f. Occupation with Christ is the basis for strength, dynamics, power under pressure — Hebrews 11:27.

g. Occupation with Christ avoids boredom or soul fatigue — Hebrews 12:3.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #191

191 09/01/1974 Hebrews 11:27 Doctrine of occupation with Christ (cont.)

The first 4 points already covered. I kept the doctrine all together. Nearly this entire lesson was given over the occupation with Christ doctrine.

The first 4 points are reviewed. Then points 5–10 are covered.

Bob heard the testimony of a Marine about Bible doctrine.

There will be resuscitation in v. 35, the torture of women, destruction of freedom and liberty in v. 36. All kinds of testings.

An emotional experience we greater than doctrine in his soul. Not sure who this is? He wrote this after his recovery. This must be Paul.

Bob talks about the board of deacons; and how he was not just picking people who agreed with him.

Bob has protected the congregation by removing those who gossip and malign. Ideal situation at Berachah. Bob gets excited when it comes to discovering new points of doctrine.

Bob starts on v. 28, which takes up the first 2 paragraphs below.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #192

192 09/02/1974 Hebrews 11:28 Moses & the Passover; doctrine of feasts

Hebrews 11:28 By faith he kept the Passover and sprinkled the blood, so that the Destroyer of the firstborn might not touch them.

Hebrews 11:28 — up until now in this chapter we have had verses starting out with “By faith”. Here we have “Through faith.” We know that “By faith” is the instrumental singular of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] in its passive meaning: doctrine resident in the soul. Now we have something very different here in verse 28 — “through faith.”

Verse 28 — “Through faith” is the instrumental singular of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs], used in the sense of what is believed and/or doctrine, the body of faith or doctrine resident in the soul. It should be translated like all of the rest of the verses in this chapter, “By means of doctrine resident in the soul.”

The subject now refers to Moses. Moses kept the Passover and Moses went through the Red Sea. Others, up to two-million, were also involved but Moses is the one especially in view at this point.

“he kept” is the perfect active indicative of the verb poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh]. Poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] has a number of meanings, all of which cannot be used. The one that fits the situation here is the verb to execute. It means to do, to make, to produce, but here it means to execute. He executed the Passover, which means he did it. The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect. This is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect, and that is the one where the action of the verb is completed and the results go on, only the results are intensified. While poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] means to do, to make, to produce, the dramatic perfect changes the meaning here, and it means to establish or to institute or to execute. Moses himself produced the action of the verb although there were others who did likewise. This, however, only refers to the one to whom the Passover was the most significant. And that is the issue here. The Passover was more significant to Moses than to any of the Jews who went out of Egypt. Actually, he led out a great number of reversionists. Moses and very few others were actually in supergrace status, and while they went along for the ride and killed the lamb and sprinkled the tops and the sides of the doors as per instructions — and saw the results, the preservation of the firstborn — nevertheless they failed to understand the full significance of what was going on. The reason they failed to understand is because they lacked Bible doctrine in the soul. No doctrine resident in the soul means failure to understand what God is doing at any time. The active voice: Moses did it, Moses was the leader, Moses was the man with doctrine, Moses was the man who had it.

“the Passover” — the word for “Passover” is an indeclinable noun in the Greek, pasxa. It is taken from the Hebrew pesach, which is the word for the Passover.

So far the translation is: “By means of doctrine resident in the soul he executed the Passover with the result that is became a permanent institution.”

How did the supergrace believer recognize grace in these feasts?

The Doctrine of the Feasts

1. Definition. The word “feast”, like the Passover, is derived from the Hebrew noun chag. The word is taken from a verb which means to jump for joy, to jump when you are happy, to celebrate. The feast was designated as commemorations and celebrations of God’s grace. A feast, then, is the celebration of the grace of God. They were tests of resident doctrine in the soul, like the Lord’s table or the Eucharist is to us. The commemorated grace blessings derived from doctrine resident in the soul. So we have to call them grace orientation commemorative.

2. The feasts related to the first advent. There are four of them that were related to the first advent and the first one is the Passover. The Passover occurred on 14 April, 1441 BC. Cf. Exodus 12:1–14; Leviticus 23:5. It portrays the work of Jesus Christ on the cross with special emphasis on redemption. It also portrays one other principle. It portrays freedom from slavery, the beginning of a nation. All nations begin at the point they attain their freedom. Therefore it recognizes the principle of freedom in life. But it also recognizes something else. The Passover is not the only feast and by virtue of the fact there were other feasts it is a reminder that no one enjoys freedom unless he is in God’s plan of grace. One must have capacity for freedom and this comes from Bible doctrine in the soul.

3. The Passover is the first of the feasts, it has a dual connotation: freedom and the beginning of a nation. It connotes at the same time the beginning of God’s plan. God’s plan begins at the cross. Grace always begins at the point of salvation.

4. The second of the first advent feasts was the feast of unleavened bread. It occurred immediately following — 15–21 April, a week-long feast. It portrays phase two or living grace. It portrays the concept of everything that God has to do to keep a believer alive in the devil’s world. It means that only God keeps any of us alive. Living grace means that God keeps us alive, we do not earn it or deserve it or work for it. The feast of unleavened bread is described in Leviticus 23:6–18 and in 1Corinthians 5:8. Jesus Christ is called the Bread of Life and that is not always a salvation title but a title of sustaining us in this life. We are here and we are what we are by the grace of God. That is living grace, it means that we are here and alive because of who and what God is and because of His grace. The Bread of Life means something else. Bread means food, food sustains life. When Christ is called the Bread of Life it means he is the sustainer of our life on this earth, and we are alive by courtesy of our great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. Unleavened bread is also a picture of the hypostatic union, Jesus Christ as the God-Man and the one who is qualified to be and became the only Savior.

5. The next feast is called the firstfruits. The firstfruits always occurred the first Sunday after the Passover and therefore it was in the feast of unleavened bread. Leviticus 23:9-14 portrays it. It is described in its significance in 1Corinthians 15:20,23. It represents the resurrection. it also, then, becomes a picture of surpassing grace or paragraph SG3, all that the believer will have by way of reward in eternity. The Sunday of the feast of the firstfruits was a reminder of a principle, that only in time can you acquire paragraph SG2, dying grace, and paragraph SG3; they cannot be acquired in eternity. They can only be attained by persistent, consistent, never-give-up, stubborn, hard-headed, I’ll-never-change-my-mind, all the way. God gives you one day at a time to take in Bible doctrine. Whatever else you do that day it is that which is foremost and important, and it is that point which is tested every day. Every day creates a free will issue: Will I take in doctrine or will I not? For those who say yes every day to doctrine, they follow the colours to the high ground to their paragraph SG2, they are on the road to glory, and they acquire paragraph SG3 forever and ever and ever.

a. Sunday, by the way, has always been the first day of the week because more important than anything else in life is Bible doctrine. So the firstfruits was a sign of the resurrection, a picture of the possibility of attaining SG3, and therefore it becomes another picture of the glory road.

6. The fourth feast was the feast of Pentecost, a one-day feast which occurred fifty days after the Passover. It always occurred in the first week of June. Leviticus 23:15–21. It represents a number of things. It represents the beginning of the fifth cycle of discipline or the time of Israel’s dispersion. It represents also the beginning of the Church Age and the calling out of the royal family of God. It also represents the fact that no adversity in life is too great for the believer on the high ground. There is no disaster, no adversity, no trial, no heartache, no problem in life too great for doctrine in your soul. That is the only place where doctrine copes with problems. If doctrine is not in your soul it doesn’t cope. The only doctrine that you can use for disaster is the doctrine resident in your soul. So in the days of blessing, the easy days, you accumulate doctrine for the disaster days. When you do this the disaster days become easy days and golden days just like all of the other days. So this is the concept of Pentecost and these four feasts are related to the first advent of Christ.

7. Next we have the big gap, an elapse of time where there are no feasts. The big gap is the elapse of time between Pentecost and the feast of the Trumpets. That is a six-month elapse of time. Again, it represents the calling out of the royal family, the time of the Church Age. Remember that the Age of Israel was interrupted by the cross, resurrection, ascension and session of Christ. The Church Age is simply an insertion. Then the Age of Israel is continued with the Tribulation. In other words, the doctrine of intercalation, the principle of the big gap or the elapse of six months without a feast.

a. Intercalation means insertion. The Jewish dispensation was interrupted by the strategical victory of Christ, His death, burial, resurrection, ascension and session.

b. A new dispensation was inserted called the Church Age.

c. Intercalation is the intensified stage of the angelic conflict.

d. The Church Age as intercalated is a mystery, not known to the Old Testament writers — Romans 16:25,26; Ephesians 3:1–6; Colossians 1:25,26.

e. Doctrines pertaining to the Church Age are not found in the Old Testament. Where the Church Age information would have occurred in the Old Testament there is a parenthesis.

f. Doctrine pertinent to the Church Age is intercalated by the New Testament epistles.

g. The Old Testament reveals doctrine up through the session of Christ, then skips the Church Age and reveals the Tribulation, second advent and Millennium.

8. The second advent feasts. There are three of them. The first of these is the feast of the Trumpets — Leviticus 23:23–25. This represents the termination of the fifth cycle of discipline to Israel and the regathering of Israel and the establishment of them as a nation. The fact that Israel will be regathered at the end of the Tribulation and at the second advent is taught in Isaiah 5:26–30; 10:19-23; 11:11–16; 14:1–3; 60:4–6; Joel 2:16ff; Zechariah 10:6–12. So the feast of the Trumpets is a regathering type of thing. In other words, it is a time when old friends meet under perfect conditions. Therefore it represents in another beautiful way to the supergrace believer the social prosperity of having true friends and great friends and having something worthwhile for all eternity. The Trumpets is a reminder that we will get together in eternity, even if not on earth.

9. The next feast is the feast of atonement — Leviticus 23:26–32; Hebrews 9:24–28; Romans 3:23–26. It represents the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants: the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New covenants to Israel. These are given to the born-again Jews of the past dispensation. The eternally saved of Israel will have the land and the covenants forever under Jesus Christ, and this is a reminder of paragraph SG3.

10. The next feast is the Tabernacles. This is blessing on earth; the atonement is blessing in eternity. The Tabernacles: Leviticus 23:33–43; Zechariah 14:9, 16. It is a picture of the Millennial reign of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a reminder of what Jesus Christ will produce on the earth — the prefect environment because Satan is bound and demons are removed from the earth, as per Revelation 20; the optimum spirituality which will exist in the concept of Isaiah 65:24 or Joel 2:28,29; or Israel restored as a nation, the fulfilment of the unconditional covenants, the objectivity in administration of justice, the perfect environment, creation is loosened from the power of sin, the animal life loses its ferocity.

11. The feast of Hanukkah, 25 December through 1 January. This is where we got the idea of celebrating Christmas. Christ was not born on 25 December, 25 December was when the temple was cleansed from all of the pig’s blood of Antiochus Epiphanes and the human blood of all the people he sacrificed. Hanukkah is the independent celebration of Israel. It was first celebrated on 25 December 164 BC when the temple was cleansed from the corruption of Antiochus Epiphanes. It meant freedom through military victory. Military victory always is the basis for providing human freedom.

12. The relationship to the agricultural economy of the ancient world. All of these feasts also had an economic connotation.

a. The Passover was held during the time of the latter rains or the barley harvest and was a reminder of the importance of free enterprise.

b. The feast of the firstfruits was held during the wheat harvest and it was a reminder that God has provided through free enterprise, the only basis for sustaining a nation.

c. Pentecost was the time when the early figs were ripened, a reminder to the Jews always that under free enterprise there is opportunity for new business, and that it must be done by following diligent laws of economy in establishment.

d. During the six months between Pentecost and the Trumpets there was the great olive, fig, and date harvest, depicting the principle that even the delicacies of life all come from free enterprise.

e. The Trumpets, Atonement, and Tabernacles were observed during the early rains and the time of sowing, a reminder that as a nation sows against divine institutions they are destroyed, as they sow by the utilization of the divine institutions they survive and become great. All great nations have been founded on the basis of the laws of divine establishment. These three feasts were related to the sowing time of the agricultural economy of Israel.

f. The feasts were related to the practical everyday living of the Jews, and a principle emerges: Bible doctrine has practical and temporal applications as well as spiritual blessing. Bible doctrine is the producer of common sense.

g. We have the Sabbath month as a feast. This is called Tishri. This was the seventh month, equivalent to the last half of September and the first half of October. The Sabbath month was a special month is all Jewish history. The Jews had a thirty-day month, a twelve-month year. So to compensate for this they had to have a leap year in which they added a month. On leap year they had 13 months in the year. The seventh month or Tishri had seven feasts. The first day of the month they had the feast of the Trumpets and the feast of the New Moon. On the third day of the month they had a special commemoration for the murder of Gedaliah. On the seventh day of the month they had the fast for the golden calf incident. The tenth day of the month was the feast of Atonement. Then on 15–21 of the seventh month the feast of the Tabernacles. On the 22nd day the solemn assembly and prayer for rain, and on the 23rd day they celebrated the dedication of the first temple.

During this doctrine, Bob took some time to discuss a number of things:

Girls who come to Berachah and go crazy. The parents will call Bob to find out what is happening with their daughter. “Sometimes they get horsey with me, so I paint a dark picture. That’s what they get from trying to tangle with me anyway.”

Ultimately, we are alive because of God’s grace.

In the Millennium, Bob wants to have a lion, and he explains why.

Amnesty granted to a drafter dodger irritates Bob.

The Lord kills off all of the traitors in a revolution. You have to cut out all of the infection.

Hebrews 11:28 “By means of doctrine resident in the soul he executed the Passover with the result that it became a permanent institution.”

It was Moses who under the teaching of God set up the original seven feasts in Israel. Leviticus 23 is the chapter and that chapter was written by Moses himself. All of the original grace commemoratives were set up by Moses. In other words, the whole structure of holidays was set up by Moses at the beginning of the Jewish nation. Other holidays came along, but the structure of holidays is grace, doctrine resident in the soul. The holidays are only meaningful to those who have doctrine resident in the soul. A vacation is based upon capacity for life, capacity for life is based upon maximum doctrine in the soul.

“and the sprinkling” — we have the ascensive use of the conjunction kai, and it should be translated “even”; plus the accusative singular direct object from próschysis (πρόσχυσις) [pronounced PROS-khoo-sis] which means “sprinkling” as translated, but it means to have a sprinkler. It means that they took a small reed or a clump of them and dip it in the blood and paint on the sides of the door and the top. So it is a reference to the painting of the blood on the doors of the first Passover.

“of the blood” — the genitive singular of haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah] plus the definite article. This is a descriptive genitive telling what they actually painted on the door.

“lest” — hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] is used here as a conjunction for a final clause, i.e. a final clause that denotes purpose, aim or goal. This is a negative purpose, we have with it a negative, mê, stating the purpose in a negative way, and the negative will be translated with the verb. So we translate it “in order that” or “so that.”

“he that destroyed” — the present active participle of olothreúō (ὀλοθρεύω) [pronounced ol-oth-RYOO-ho]. It is used here as a substantive adjective. This is what is called the ascriptive use of the participle, the participle is used like an adjective, not as a verb. An ascriptive category is one in which the participle always acts as an adjective, sometimes as a substantive. Here it is used with the article and the idea is that we actually have here an adjective with the substantive understood. It should be “the destroying one” or “the destroying angel.” “The destroyer” is probably good enough. It refers to Exodus 12:23.

“should not touch them” — “should not touch” is the aorist active indicative of thingánō (θιγγάνω) [pronounced thing-GAHN-oh] which means to harm, to touch in the sense of destroying. In other words, this tells us the means by which the death angel killed the firstborn in the house of Pharaoh and throughout all of Egypt. It was a matter of just touching them. The aorist tense is a gnomic aorist in which a generally accepted fact or truth is so certain, so axiomatic in its character that it is described by the aorist as though it were actually occurring now. The destroying angel produces the action of the verb, says the active voice. That means where the blood was sprinkled the destroying angel did nothing. This is a prohibitive subjunctive with the negative mê, meaning that no person who had sprinkled blood on the door, no person who had blood of a sacrifice, would be touched by the plague. But it means more than that, it means that those who had doctrine offered the Passover, or they were under the influence of those who had doctrine. It means that Moses told these people to do it and they were preserved. Moses did it because by doing so he set the pace and he also warned them that this would be the means of preservation. And they obeyed him, they accepted his authority. So the first principle is that Moses offered the Passover and it was Moses who set up the system for preservation. The point is very simple. One supergrace believer like Moses preserved all of the firstborn children in the whole Jewish nation. One supergrace person can save thousands and thousands of people. That is all it takes: one supergrace believer. So here again is the principle of preparation. You as a supergrace believer may have the opportunity as Moses did of delivering and protecting thousands of people.

“them” — he offered the Passover, it did not touch “them.” If you study the passage you will find that they offered animals too, but it was Moses who made it possible for them to be delivered in this fashion. The word “them” is the genitive plural of the intensive pronoun autos. Autos takes people and sets them apart in a separate category, at least as far as the context is concerned and momentarily. The objective genitive means they received the action of the verb being related to the verbal idea. But the intensive pronoun itself emphasizes the identity of those who were preserved. They were preserved because of who and what Moses was. Moses was a supergrace believer with maximum doctrine in the soul, and therefore it should be translated instead of “them”, “the same ones.” So they recognized his authority on this occasion and they responded to it.

Hebrews 11:28 By means of doctrine resident in the soul he [Moses] executed the Passover with the result that it became a permanent institution, even the sprinkling of the blood, in order that the destroyer of the firstborn might not touch the same ones.

Summary

1. The divine instructions regarding the Passover were carried out by one supergrace believer, Moses.

2. It was maximum doctrine resident in the soul of Moses that resulted in the observation of the first Passover.

3. An entire generation of firstborn were preserved by the blood sprinkled on the tops and the sides of the doors. But it wasn’t the blood that did it, it was obedience to God’s Word that did it, and it was God’s Word in Moses. God uses supergrace believers.

4. That generation of firstborn who were preserved would be the one to cross the Jordan and enter the land.

5. This is a principle of blessing, blessing by association with supergrace. It might be a member of your family; it might be someone in a social or work circle.

6. The supergrace believer is not only the hub around which history revolves but he is the protector of all in his periphery. That is, he is the protector of his family, his friends, those associated in his business or social life, and sometimes even a nation as in the case of Moses.

7. Jesus Christ controls history.

8. In His sovereign grace Christ shapes the course of history around the supergrace believers of every generation.

9. Moses was that supergrace hero around which the history of Israel was formed. Moses is Mr Israel.

10. Remember that the Passover was the birth of the nation. It was the means by which they were delivered from slavery. There was no nation while they were in slavery. The nation was born when they came out of slavery and out of Egypt.

11. It was the mean of enriching them with 400 years of back wages. The Jews left Egypt very wealthy.

12. Therefore there was no nation until the Passover. There was no freedom, no privacy, no blessing until the Jewish nation was born on that Passover day.

13. Therefore no nation ever had a greater spiritual heritage. They have had this heritage from 1440 b.c. up until this time.

14. It was the supergrace doctrine in the soul of Moses that caused the Passover to be executed according to divine command. The divine energy came from doctrine in the resident of Moses.

15. The Passover, then, is not only a grace commemoration but it is a part of paragraph SG2 for Moses. Moses had leadership dynamics and it took of all of his leadership dynamics to get the Jews to observe that first Passover.

1972 Hebrews 11:29–30 Lesson #193

193 09/03/1974 Hebrews 11:29-30 The Red Sea and Jericho

Hebrews 11:29 By faith the people crossed the Red Sea as on dry land, but the Egyptians, when they attempted to do the same, were drowned.

Verse 29 — “By faith” is the instrumental of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs], the instrumental of means. And, again, pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] is technical here for doctrine resident in the soul. Reducing the Christian life to its simplest common denominator, everything depends upon the intake of Bible doctrine, not what you do but how you listen, what you hear, what you perceive, what through GAP becomes a part of the permanent needs and provisions of your soul. “By means of doctrine resident in the soul.” This is used here for doctrine in the soul of supergrace Moses. The Jews in passing through the Red Sea were blessed by association with this great man.

“they passed through” — the aorist active indicative of diabaínō (διαβαίνω) [pronounced dee-ab-AH-ee-no], which means to go up through. It refers to walking, as the scripture says, dry shod through the Red Sea. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, it takes the Red Sea incident and regardless of how long it took to get two-million people through the Red Sea it covers the whole thing in a single concept. The active voice: the Jews produced the action of the verb and they did so by being associated with one supergrace believer. Two-million people were delivered because of one supergrace believer. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the standpoint of historical reality.

“the Red Sea” — the accusative direct object of the adjective erythrós (ἐρυθρός) [pronounced er-oo-THROHÇ] which means “red,” plus the accusative singular of the noun thálassa (θάλασσα) [pronounced THAHL-ahs-sah] for “sea.”

“as” — the comparative hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] used to clarify the fact that people do not walk through a sea unless something has happened to the sea. It is used to explain the fact that the part through which they walked had been set up for them, separated at the command of God. So we have the phrase, “by dry land” — the preposition dia plus the genitive of xêros (ξηρός) [pronounced xay-ROSS], and then the word for “land,” gê.

“which” — the genitive singular of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] whose antecedent is dry land.

“assaying to do” — we have a Classical Greek idiom which occurs only here in the New Testament. We actually have two words. The first is the aorist active participle of lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh] which means to receive or to take. With it is the accusative singular of the noun peîra (περα) [pronounced PIE-rah] which means to test. So lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh] with peîra (περα) [pronounced PIE-rah] means to receive a test. But we have an aorist participle here and the constative aorist takes the occurrence of the Egyptian pursuit and gathers it up into a single whole. From the time they left Egypt until the time they reached the red Sea the entire Egyptian pursuit is put into one syntactical entirety. The active voice: the Egyptian’s army produced the action. This is a temporal participle and it also has antecedent action to the main verb “were drowned.” So it actually means “when they attempted to pursue.” Literally it means to receive a test but that is not the meaning here at all. The idiom means to attempt to pursue. The Greek had an idiom for it because while they attempted to pursue they never caught up. Therefore you can’t use ordinary Greek words for pursuit, you have to use something that indicates the fact that they only tried to pursue. They were not successful and the only thing they ever caught was trouble and eventual death.

Portions of Exodus 14 covered. In reversionism, these people are panicked, they blame Moses, and they say, essentially,”Better red than dead.” Moses dared say, “Stand by and watch the deliverance of the Lord.” He tells them to stand by. “You will never see them again forever.”

The Jews could see clearly to cross over. But the Egyptians were confused by cloud cover and other things.

“were drowned” — the aorist passive indicative of katapínō (καταπίνω) [pronounced kat-ap-EE-no]. katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] means “down”; pinô means to “drink.” They drank too much water! It means to gulp down, to swallow down, and here it means to drown. Again, we have a culminative aorist which views the event in its entirety but emphasizes the results. They attempted to pursue, that is a constative aorist. The culminative aorist is what they finally caught up with, their own drowning. The passive voice: the Egyptian army received the action of the verb, drowning. The indicative mood is declarative and indicating the main verb.

Hebrews 11:29 By means of doctrine resident in the soul they passed through the Red Sea as through dry land: which they, the Egyptians, in attempting to pursue were drowned.

There are three kinds of people involved in this incident: Category supergrace believer, category reversionistic believer, category Egyptian unbeliever. The Egyptian unbelievers died immediately. Reversionistic believers will die over the next forty years. Supergrace believer Moses was the basis, God’s instrument, for the deliverance. They were associated with him in this deliverance, they will keep on being associated with him, but they will not repent in the sense of changing their minds toward doctrine, they will not rebound, they will not get with doctrine. There will emerge a few who will be in supergrace and they are the ones who will be blessed with Moses, and the rest will go down, their bones will be strewn over the desert over a period of some forty years. So we end with the life of Moses here but the lessons that God the Holy Spirit wants us to have in the context of Hebrews eleven actually deal with such things as blessing by association. If you are in reversionism the only way that you will ever get your hands warmed by the fire on a cold night is to somehow be associated with a supergrace believer. Supergrace believers are prepared for anything; reversionists are prepared for nothing. God always uses and blesses the supergrace believer by making him the instrument of delivering even thousands of reversionists.

Hebrews 11:30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they had been encircled for seven days.

Verse 30 — we have one verse on a whole generation, the Joshua generation. In verse 31, of all the people in Israel not even Joshua is mentioned. We leave Moses’ generation. In the next generation the greatest person was Rahab the harlot! Rahab the whore.

Woman stands up in a church, saying, “A whore cannot be saved.” The teacher was good, but this knocked him off balance.

“By faith” — the instrumental of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] used for doctrine resident in the soul.

“the walls of Jericho” — this is the subject, the nominative plural of teîchos (τεχος) [pronounced TIE-khoss], one of the Greek words for walls, and it means big walls, fortification type walls. “Jericho” is an indeclinable noun, Hierichô (Ίεριχώ) [pronounced hee-er-ee-KOH], and is a transliteration from the Hebrew word Jericho, pronounced Yericho. It actually means “fragrance” in the Hebrew, and in the Semitic language of the original here it means Moon City. It was a hell-raising, wild, lovemaking town, a good time town. It was the most important city in the Jordan valley, according to Numbers 31:12; 34:15; 35:1. It was the gateway to entering the land. It was a large fortified city and it had to be taken before the Jews could enter the land on a tactical basis. They could not simply bypass this city, or their rear guard would always be exposed, and their supply lines could be cut off.

Rahab and her family were all believers. One family only in Jericho and only one person, Rahab, was a supergrace believer.

Many people have excavated Jericho and that general area. Bob names off a number of them. We have a very good idea about Jericho. 5 cities in that same place.

City delta has been studied since 1950. Double walls, 30 feet high, 12 feet thick. This is the city that Joshua will defeat. What made this city so interesting, all of the other walls fell inward. The walls collapsed outward in city Delta in 1400 b.c. City E was around during the time of Ahab.

Jericho was destroyed around the year BC 1400. Jericho was given to the tribe of Benjamin, Joshua 18:21. The men of Jericho help Nehemiah rebuild the walls, according the Nehemiah 3:2. Several New Testament references to Jericho are interesting: Matthew 20:30; Mark 10:46; Luke 19:1ff.

In Joshua 6:26 a curse was pronounced with the destruction of the city, “ … cursed before the Lord is the man who rises up and rebuilds the city of Jericho. With the loss of his firstborn he shall lay its foundations, and with the loss of his younger son he will construct the gates.” There was a man who ignored this curse by the name of Hiel. In the days of Ahab Hiel decided to rebuild the city. 1Kings 16:34 — “In his days did Hiel, the Bethelite, rebuild Jericho; he laid the foundation of it with the loss of Abiram, his firstborn, and at the construction of its gates he lost his youngest son, Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Joshua, the son of Nun.” The elapse of time does not change any principle in the Word of God; the elapse of time does not change God’s mind about anything.

“fell down” — the aorist active indicative of piptô (πίπτω) [pronounced PIHP-toh]. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist in which the action of the verb is considered in its entirety but the existing results are emphasized. Actually it says the walls fell out. The walls of Jericho were an obstacle to the conquest of the land and they had to be overcome by grace. Only the walls around the home of Rahab were actually preserved. The walls are comparable to the pressures, the disasters, the difficulties that believers face today. When you come up against an unsolvable problem you are looking at the walls of Jericho, and then you must learn the lesson that only God can flatten walls like that. The reversionistic believer is impressed by the size of the walls and the impossibility of assault. The supergrace believer is impressed with the Lord who flattens walls. That is what is being said by this verse. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality.

“after they were compassed about” — the aorist passive participle of kyklóō (κυκλόω) [pronounced koo-KLOW-oh] which means to encircle: “having been encircled.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes seven days of marching around the walls and gathers it up into one entirety. The passive voice: the walls received encirclement. The participle is circumstantial having antecedent action to the main verb, “fall down.”

“seven days” — literally, “for seven days.” We have the preposition epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the accusative of hepta for “seven,” hêmera (ἡμάρα) [pronounced hay-MEH-raw] for “days.”

The Walls of Jericho Come Down

1. For six days the army and the ark of the covenant were marched around Jericho one time.

2. On the seventh day the army and the ark marched around Jericho seven times. Then the priests blew the trumpets and the people shouted and the walls fell flat — Joshua 6:1–21.

3. The army did not attack by scaling and assaulting, the army did not even speak to those on the walls. It simply marched around the city depicting total human helplessness.

4. Helplessness is the basis for the function and operation of divine grace.

5. Furthermore, the marching troops were forbidden to speak — Joshua 6:10. The grace of God demands self-discipline on the part of the believer. The greatest demonstration of self-discipline is the control of your tongue!

6. The believer must avoid doing anything under grace. Restraint from human effort is necessary for operation grace.

7. Legalism is lack of self-discipline, lack of restraint from the energy of the flesh.

8. The order of the march. The were four divisions or groups in the march. The first division was the infantry. The second group was the band — seven priests with seven trumpets. The third was the ark of the covenant carried in the appropriate manner. Then, bringing up the rear, the second infantry division.

9. The order of march is a reminder that the believer in phase two is a part of a disciplined and orderly system (No “fundy” chaos!).

10. Grace does not mean lack of discipline and authority.

11. The seven days of marching around the city is a reminder of the importance of consistency and stability in the plan of grace. The believer must be consistent in his daily walk. Note that walking is considered non-meritorious and compatible with grace.

Walking is the Old Testament spiritual life.

Hebrews 11:30 By means of doctrine resident in the souls of supergrace believers the walls of Jericho fell down, having been encircled for seven days.

1972 Hebrews 11:31 James 2:25 Joshua 2:9-14 Matt. 1:5 Lesson #194

194 09/04/1974 Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25; Joshua 2:9-14; Matt. 1:5 Rahab and prostitution

Hebrews 11:31 By faith Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient, because she had given a friendly welcome to the spies.

Verse 31 — “By faith” is the instrumental singular of the noun pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs], used here for what is believed and/or Bible doctrine.

“the harlot Rahab” — Rhaáb (ῥαάβ) [pronounced hrah-AHB] ho pornh, “Rahab the prostitute.” The definite article in front indicates the fact that she was well-known in her generation. The interesting thing about her is that she went from zero to supergrace very rapidly. Why? She had no religious background, she had no illusions about people, she had no hang-ups. She was a totally objective person before she was saved. Then she heard about the Exodus and going through the Red Sea and this was the basis for her salvation. Since then everything she could learn had caused her to have doctrine resident in her soul so that when the reconnaissance team reached her city she was already a believer with maximum doctrine in her soul. Which goes to prove a point: Even in Jericho you can get Bible doctrine.

Rahab

1. Rahab was a woman of Jericho at the time of the Jewish entrance into the land — BC 1440.

2. She was a Gentile. It is interesting that in the generation following Moses it was a Gentile woman who was the only one mentioned in the roster of supergrace heroes. This was a great woman.

a. There is nothing good about being a prostitute.

b. They are not good sex partners.

c. This is not the road to supergrace.

d. They prey on the weakness of men.

e. They are the greatest spreader of disease.

3. Rahab was not only a believer but one who had maximum doctrine resident in her soul. She was a supergrace believer when the reconnaissance team arrived in Jericho, is what this verse says.

4. When the two-man reconnaissance team entered Jericho they were immediately spotted.

5. When Jericho intelligence discovered the spies they sent troops to capture them, but Rahab hid them and lied to the troops.

6. Rahab completely outwitted the king’s troops and saved the lives of the reconnaissance team — Joshua chapter two.

7. The testimony of Rahab to the two men of Israel is recorded in some detail in Joshua 2:9-14.

Bob is not pro-prostitute. Such a woman is a female and not a lady. Bob does not like prostitutes or women who smoke; but that does not mean that they can’t come into Berachah. They are as welcome as anyone else. There is not glamour in prostitution. If you are here tonite as a prostitute, you are welcome. There are people in Berachah who were criminals or still are. They are welcome. Our disapprobation does not mean a thing.

This woman appears to have gotten out of prostitution first? There is nothing good about any woman here giving their bodies to some guy at Berachah. Or the guy says that you are his RW.

This woman is not cunning, she is not clever; but smart enough to outwit. She is the best of her generation. A noble soul of a supergrace believer.

What happened is recorded here in Joshua 2:9-14.

Joshua 2:9 ...and said to the men, “I know that the LORD has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.

V.9 — “I know that the Lord has given you the land.” This is a supergrace believer speaking, this is divine viewpoint. Just one woman in Jericho who has divine viewpoint, who knows Bible doctrine, who has doctrine resident in the soul.

A national testimony. What maintains national sovereignty is the Lord and the military. People are impressed by countries with a strong military. The smallest countries in the world are building up the strongest army that they can.

The Texas Rangers are famous for their moral courage.

Joshua 2:10 For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea before you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon and Og, whom you devoted to destruction.

Sihon and Og had armies of giants

V.10 — “For we have heard” — she concentrated on the message of doctrine — “how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea before you” — she has been exposed to doctrine. There were two things that impressed: what the Lord had done and, a divine institution factor, military victory — “what ye did to the two kings of the Amorites.”

Joshua 2:11 And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.

V.11 — people were saved because Jewish military fought so well and killed the enemy. Killing the enemy one day led to the salvation of greatest believer of that generation, Rahab the prostitute — “for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.” This is what convinced her.

Joshua 2:12 Now then, please swear to me by the LORD that, as I have dealt kindly with you, you also will deal kindly with my father's house, and give me a sure sign

V.12 — “with my family, and give me a pledge of truth.”

Joshua 2:13 that you will save alive my father and mother, my brothers and sisters, and all who belong to them, and deliver our lives from death.”

Joshua 2:14 And the men said to her, “Our life for yours even to death! If you do not tell this business of ours, then when the LORD gives us the land we will deal kindly and faithfully with you.”

V.14 — “our soul instead of yours to die”. That is an idiom which means “our life for yours.”

This is the royal line.

Matthew 1:5 — “And to Salmon was born Boaz by Rahab; and to Boaz was born Obed by Ruth; and to Obed Jesse.”

Matthew 1:6 — “And to Jesse was born David, the king.”

Such a grace principle. There are four women in the line of Christ. No Jewish genealogy ever has a woman in it, but here is God’s magnificent grace. The first woman was Tamar, a famous adulteress. The next is Rahab the prostitute. Then Ruth the Moabitess, and Bathsheba. These four women beautifully emphasize the grace of God.

James 2:25–26 — even James, like the writer of Hebrews, recognizes that in her generation Rahab was the greatest. She is one of the greatest women of all time.

James 2:25 — “In the same way was not Rahab, the prostitute, vindicated by production from doctrine resident in her soul, when she entertained the messengers, and sent them out by a different way?”

James 2:26 — “For just as the body apart from the spark of life is dead, so doctrine apart from production is dead.”

Here is another verse which emphasizes doctrine resident in the soul of the former prostitute, Rahab.

Psalm 87:3,4:

Psalm 87:3 — “Glorious things are spoken of thee, O city of God [Paragraph SG3]. Selah.” Who is going to get a paragraph SG3?

Psalm 87:4 — “I shall mention Rahab and Babylon among those who know me.”

Those who are going to get the city.

“By means of doctrine resident in the soul Rahab the prostitute ...”

“perished not” — the aorist middle indicative from sunapóllymi (συναπόλλυμι) [pronounced soon-ap-OHL-loo-mee] plus the negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. The word means to perish with. The culminative aorist views the event in its entirety but emphasizes the existing results. In other words, the constative concept of the aorist — which is not the one in view here — would be the time when Rahab was saved and under living grace began to take in doctrine until she reached supergrace. After she reached supergrace she had a chance to produce. The doctrine in her soul prepared her to meet her right man. Her right man was on a two-man patrol top perform a reconnaissance to see if there were any weaknesses in the defenses of Jericho. She was ready for him, she had doctrine in her soul. She hid and protected her right man and the other member of the patrol, got them out of there safely, extracted a promise as to her own protection. Here again is association with a supergrace believer. She perished not; they perished not.

The middle voice is the indirect middle, emphasizing the agent as producing the action. The indicative mood is declarative of historical reality. She herself did not perish.”

“with them that believed not” — an articular participle, an aorist active participle dative plural of disadvantage from the noun apeithéō (ἀπειθέω) [pronounced ap-i-THEH-oh] which means to disobey in the sense of refusing the Gospel. So to “believe not” or “disbelieve” is all right. The ascriptive use of this participle denotes a substantive as belonging to a specific class — unbelievers. Hence, this is called a substantive adjective in which the participle is not accompanied by a noun and therefore functions as its own noun combined with the ascriptive or adjective sense. Therefore, “she herself did not perish with the unbelievers” — the citizens of Jericho, Joshua 6:25. But Rahab the prostitute and her father's household and all who belonged to her, Joshua saved alive. And she has lived in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

“when she had received” — the aorist active participle of the verb dechomai (δέχομαι) [pronounced DEKH-om-ahee] which means to welcome as guests, to protect. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers up into one entirety the preservation of the two-man reconnaissance team. The active voice: Rahab produced the action of the verb through doctrine resident in her soul. The participle is both temporal and has antecedent action to the main verb.

“spies” — the accusative plural direct object of katáskopos (κατάσκοπος) [pronounced kat-AHS-kop-oss] which means reconnaissance scouts.

“with peace” — the prepositional phrase meta plus the genitive of eirênê (εἰρήνη, ης, ἡ) [pronounced eye-RAY-nay]. It means peace in the sense of harmony. Rahab was more in harmony with Israel than her own people. This is what doctrine did for her.

Hebrews 11:31 By means of doctrine resident in the soul Rahab the prostitute herself did not perish with the unbelievers, having welcomed the reconnaissance team with peace.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #195

195 09/05/1974 Hebrews 11:32–33a Old Testament supergrace heroes

Our airlines are being blackmailed, where postal accounts are removed unless the right number of various ethnic types.

South Africa is the greatest nation in the world today. Russia and China both want South Africa.

Hebrews 11:32 And what more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—

Verse 32 — the first word “and” is simply a continuative use of the conjunction kai. Following this, “what shall I say more?” The word for “more” is the adverb éti (ἔτι) [pronounced EH-tee] which means further or additional information to what has already been given. This adverb is to indicate that sufficient information has been given and that summary is now in order. The present active subjunctive of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh], translated “I can say,” merely supports the fact that from here on in this chapter no longer will the details be given. Up through Rahab everything is more or less detailed when you consider the amount of space devoted to the subject. From this point on it is going to be simply a matter of summary. We have literary and oratorical idiom in this phrase éti (ἔτι) [pronounced EH-tee] plus légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] — “and what more can I say?” The writer to the Hebrews indicates the impossibility to continue delineating in any great detail supergrace heroes and their relationship to SG2 and SG3.

The summary begins with a conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] — “for”; “the time” — the nominative singular plus the definite article ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] chronos (χρόνος) [pronounced CHRON-oss], is used for time as a succession of events, hence to continuation of the historical dissertation of supergrace heroes from the Old Testament. But now because of the idiom it is going to be in summary form.

“would fail” — the future active indicative of epileípō (ἐπιλείπω) [pronounced ep-ee-LIE-poe] means to be insufficient, meaning that the subject matter of this great epistle must be rounded up very quickly. The best translation for the idiom is “for the time will leave me behind.” This is an idiom for lack of time; “me” is the accusative singular direct object of the pronoun egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH], and we would simply translate that “for time would leave me behind recounting.” The word to “tell” is the present middle participle of diêgeomai (διηγέομαι) [pronounced dee-ayg-EH-om-ahee], and it means to recount in some detail — “for time would leave me behind in recounting detail” or “time would fail me if I go on telling you these things.” Diêgeomai (διηγέομαι) [pronounced dee-ayg-EH-om-ahee] has a retroactive progressive present that indicates what has been going on up to this time in the chapter. From verse four to this time we have had a relatively strong detailed account of supergrace heroes. The middle voice is an indirect middle emphasizing the agent as producing the action rather than participating in its result. We have a temporal participle which should be translated “while.”

“And what more can I say? for time would fail me while I go on recounting or telling.” And now he mentions a few that he would be discussing in detail were there time. The first of these is Gideon. “Gideon” is the object of the preposition peri, as also the others, Barak and Samson. We have peri plus the genitive, and then we have the proper names of certain judges and early kings and prophets. These are all mentioned as the object of this preposition. The preposition means “concerning” or “about.” Gideon is first, and the men who are selected are quite fascinating because they do not come from prominent tribes, they all come from low-class and useless areas. Therefore they emerged out of very handicapped backgrounds. Immediately this sets aside the old psychological adage that you cannot rise above your environment or that your environment explains all of the weirdo activities of your life. In effect, this passage says that environment is never a factor where a believer has Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

Look, for example, at Gideon. Gideon came from one of the worst tribes, the tribe that has the worst of all military records, the tribe of Manasseh. Furthermore, he was in that part of the tribe that never crossed the Jordan but lived in Gilead on the east bank. The Midianites and the Amalakites had taken over the land and Gideon was hiding out in the typical fashion of his tribe. He was down in a dugout and he had a little wheat but he hadn’t had time in running away to separate it from the chaff. So in the morning he was down in his dugout throwing the wheat up in the air. While he was tossing this up and down the Lord Jesus Christ was standing by leaning on a tree and said, “Hello hero”! From there on we have a dialogue which was the beginning of greatness for Gideon. Judges 6:12. He lived from BC 1250–1190 and did deliver the people.

The next person who is the object of the preposition is Barak. Barak means lightning flash, and he was slow, cowardly, and a “momma’s boy.” Barak was one of those areas where the Lord’s sense of humour and His grace meet and a hero emerges. He was also from one of the weaker tribes. He was also suppose to go out and deliver the Jews from the Canaanites under a very very famous soldier of fortune called Sisera. He lived between 1195 and 1155 BC so he was in the generation after Gideon. Then from the tribe of Dan who should emerge but Samson, and he was famous around 1085 BC. He was in the process of delivering the Jews from the Philistines but got involved in too many other things!

These three judges actually have the same grace pattern. They all came from inferior tribes. Mannaseh for Gideon, Naphtali for Barak, and Dan for Samson. These are all inferior tribes when it comes to defense of country, when it comes to military types. This does not imply that they did not have a few people who fought but they were not famous for joining up and fighting for their country. So God raised up occasionally a great one from these three inferior tribes. They lived in a time of reversionism and national crisis, and this is always a time when God in grace raises up the weak, the helpless, the useless, to demonstrate that He is in charge. They were grace oriented through Bible doctrine resident in the soul though they were handicapped from the human viewpoint. They became supergrace believers and delivered their country. Each defeated a superior power.

The next one is Jephthah who follows the exact same pattern. He was born a bastard son on the east bank of the Jordan. Possibly he was from Manasseh. He was ridiculed out of town, moved to Syria, and became very angry and resentful at the ridicule. He entered into the military and became a great soldier. Gradually he collected a band of mercenaries — non-Jewish. Then the Jews were invaded by the Amonites and as soon as they were they were looking around for help since they had let their own military disintegrate. They found that the only army that could help them was commanded by the mercenary they had ridiculed, Jephthah. So they had to go on their hands and knees and crawl to the one they had ridiculed. By this time also Jephthah had lost his bitterness because he had become a believer and had found Bible doctrine. As a supergrace believer he had the greatest military capabilities of his day and therefore he went into action to deliver Israel. While he was in the process he came up to a critical battle he made a vow concerning his daughter. He vowed to keep her single for the rest of her life, thus ending the possibility of perpetuating his family. He ruled from 1105–1099 BC.

The thing that is so impressive about these four men were not considered much and yet these are the kind of people that God’s grace picks up and moves into prominence in history. Again, the principle: Jesus Christ controls history. And Jesus Christ can pick up the one who defies all of the arrogance and pride of the human race — to talent, no wisdom, no background, no training, no human attractiveness — and shoving them forward in history and, as it were, thumbing His nose at the entire human and angelic races. This is grace.

Bob observes that these men could not make it in any service, except perhaps in the Navy (Bob is able to noticed the shocked faces as the Navy people in the front row).

The next phrase is not correctly translated — “David also.” We have David and then te kai, and then Samuel. It is translated “both David and Samuel.” Samuel is the last of the judges, David is a great supergrace king who has to be mentioned. Next to Moses when it comes to ruling David is the greatest king of all time and he is a supergrace hero in every sense of the word.

“and the prophets” — we now have the adjunctive use of kai and it should be translated “also the prophets.” That takes all the rest of the people in the Old Testament.

Hebrews11:32 And what more can I say? for time would fail me while I go on telling about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah; both David and Samuel, also the prophets.

The Prophets

1. The prophets refer to believers of the Old Testament who under the inspiration of God the Holy Spirit communicated to the Jews the will of God, the plan of God, the future of Israel, in both written and verbal form.

2. Excluded from the text in this verse are prophets who existed before David, such as Moses and Samuel. But they are mentioned by name, therefore not included in this category at the end called prophets.

3. However, this category of prophets includes Elijah and Elisha — verbal communicators. Then both verbal and written: to the northern kingdom, Amos and Hosea; to the southern kingdom, Isaiah, Micah, Jeremiah.

4. The word “prophets” also includes, in exile, Daniel and Ezekiel.

5. The word “prophets” also includes the post-exilic prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi.

In verses 33–40, the last part of this chapter, we have the exploits of Old Testament supergrace heroes, not a roster. We depart from the roster to exploits with emphasis not on the blessings but on how they met pressures, how they could face crisis after crisis, adversity, tragedy, trial, heartache, frustration; how they handled these things and became great in adversity. In verses 33–38 we have the actual exploits and in verses 39 and 40 we have the completion of the supergrace dissertation.

Hebrews 11:33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,

Verses 33 and 34 have a very simple construction. We have nine separate clauses designed to present the importance of Bible doctrine in the soul in time of adversity and in historical crisis. These nine clauses have maximum rhetorical force. In other words, each clause is a study in itself. In the syntactical structure there are no conjunctions or anything else linking each clause. We have the conjunctions omitted; these clauses are not connected. Each clause draws a spiritual conclusion in principle form.

Verse 33 — the first clause begins with the nominative plural relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. The plural refers to all the great believers of the Old Testament. The antecedent to this clause is the list of supergrace heroes mentioned in the previous verses, and especially verse 32, but also it refers to other supergrace heroes who have not been mentioned or implied up to now.

“Through faith” is dia plus the genitive of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] — “Through doctrine resident in the soul.” Dia plus the genitive connotes agency.

“subdued” — the aorist middle indicative of katagōnízomai (καταγωνίζομαι) [pronounced kat-ag-oh-NIHD-zom-ahee] which means to defeat. It means to defeat by crushing into the ground. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, and it takes all of the great military victories of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah and David, and gathers them all into a single whole. In effect, it says that over a period of 500 years of Jewish history all of their freedom came through military victory. The middle voice is the indirect middle stressing the agents as producing the action with reflexive force, so we have to translate “who themselves by means of doctrine resident in the soul conquered kingdoms.” The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality.

“kingdoms” is the accusative plural direct object of basileia (βασιλεία) [pronounced bas-il-Ī-ah] referring to kingdoms and their military forces and indicating that they were always the aggressors.

Principle

1. Doctrine resident in the soul is the secret to military victory.

2. Doctrine resident in the soul provides courage to be aggressive in victory. Remember, victory is never won by the defense. You eventually have to attack. All of these men were aggressive and they always attacked a larger force with a smaller force. And there is the principle: the aggressor inevitably wins even when he has a smaller force. But you have to be tough and well-trained to be aggressive.

3. There never was and never will be victory apart from taking the offensive.

4. The emphasis in this clause is on military history as it pertains to national sovereignty. All nations maintained their sovereignty and their freedom by military victory. It is a historical principle.

5. Therefore in the cases in our passage Bible doctrine resident in the soul was the basis of winning battles and wars.

6. Bible doctrine resident in the soul is the key to military victory, freedom, and the maintenance of national sovereignty.

The second clause: “wrought righteousness” — “wrought” is the aorist middle indicative of ergázomai (ἐργάζομαι) [pronounced er-GAHD-zohm-ahee]. It is used in the transitive sense to do, to accomplish, to carry out, accomplished. The aorist tense is a constative again, it gathers into one entirety the grace righteousness produced by supergrace believers from the inner resources of doctrine in the soul. Man is constantly producing what is in his soul whether it is from the old sin nature, mentality, emotion, or conscience of the soul. We produce what is in our souls just as we think on the basis of the vocabulary we possess in our souls. You can’t use someone else’s vocabulary to think, you have to use your own. You think on the basis of the resident vocabulary in your right lobe or heart. So here is grace righteousness produced from Bible doctrine in the soul gathered up into one syntactical entirety. The middle voice has the same reflexive concept of the indirect middle. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of absolute reality. These people in supergrace by means of doctrine resident in the soul actually produced a righteousness.

“righteousness” is the accusative singular direct object of the noun dikaiosunê (δικαιοσύνη) [pronounced dih-kai-oh-SOON-ā or dik-ah-yos-OO-nay]. Like all of the derivatives from the original noun, dikê, it has numerous meanings that are related. it is used here in the moral sense of uprightness as a characteristic required by God; righteousness, therefore, in the sense of fulfilling divine requirements and statutes; righteousness in the sense of inner motivation from Bible doctrine, honourable conviction, a righteousness which finds its strength in doctrine as well as its source, a righteousness in the sense of doing what God wills, therefore a righteousness based upon the balance of residency in the soul. This is an experiential righteousness which we categorize in our day as phase two sanctification. Principle: Doctrine resident in the soul is the basis for accomplishing divine righteousness.

Hebrews 11:33a “Who themselves by means of doctrine resident in the soul conquered kingdoms, accomplished righteousness.”

Third clause: “obtained” — the aorist active indicative from epitugchanô (ἐπιτυγχάνω) [pronounced ehp-ee-toonng-KHAHN-oh] which means to obtain or attain.

The Aorist Tense Here

1. The aorist tense is constative, gathering into one entirety the special blessing paragraphs designed for each supergrace believer mentioned in context.

2. In eternity past as a part of the divine decrees and the basis for glorifying God in the angelic conflict two special blessing paragraphs were designed by God the Father — designed for every believer.

3. Paragraph SG2 — special blessing for the supergrace believer in time.

4. The first category of that paragraph is a spiritual category — occupation with Christ, sharing God’s happiness [+H], maximum doctrine resident in the soul to meet all exigencies of life.

5. The second category of SG2 — temporal, which includes success, wealth, promotion, prosperity, leadership dynamics.

6. Third category of SG2 is dying. The basis for dying grace for believers who seize and hold the high ground of spiritual maturity.

7. Second special blessing paragraph is SG3 — surpassing grace, special reward, and blessing for all eternity.

8. For the believer in supergrace who seizes and holds the high ground [SG2] something better exists for him in dying, and something better than the best in SG3, reward and blessing in eternity.

The active voice: the supergrace believer who holds the high ground of spiritual maturity produces the action of the verb. He moves to glory on the basis of SG2, dying grace, and SG3. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. This is the mood of unqualified assertion and therefore it is a guarantee for the reality of the fact that God has for each believer special blessings. Whether you get them or not depends upon your attitude toward Bible doctrine.

The word “promises” is a genitive plural from the noun epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah]. It is used for divine promises or pleasures, it is a reference to paragraph SG2 and SG3 with PCS dying grace included. The absence of the definite article calls attention to the supreme quality of SG2 and SG3. This is an objective genitive in which the noun in the genitive case receives the action of the verb. This does not refer to messianic promises. Principle: Maximum doctrine resident in the soul is the basis for obtaining paragraph SG2 and SG3.

Hebrews 11:33a “Who themselves by means of doctrine resident in the soul conquered kingdoms, accomplished righteousness, obtained promises.”

1972 Hebrews Lesson #196

196 09/06/1974 Hebrews 11:33b-34a Asyndetons for supergrace

Hebrews 11:33 who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,

Remember that verses 33 and 34 have nine separate clauses designed to present the importance of Bible doctrine resident in the soul of the believer. These two verses have very strong rhetorical force called asyndeton. The syntactical structure of asyndeton is the omission of conjunctions to connect the clauses. It is very unusual to have clauses unconnected. We have nine of them here and each one presents a principle related to the residency of Bible doctrine.

The most famous asyndeton is Veni, vidi, vici, which is attributed to Caesar (I came, I saw, I conquered)

The fourth clause: “stopped” — aorist active indicative of the verb phrássō (φράσσω) [pronounced FRAHS-sew] which means to stop, to shut, to close or to block. Here it means to shut rather than to stop. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist employed when it is wished to view an event in its entirety but to regard it from the viewpoint of existing results. The result of maximum doctrine resident in the soul was that Daniel stopped the mouths of lions. Daniel 6:21–22. The active voice: Daniel produced the action of the verb. It is obvious that Daniel is now listed officially as one of the supergrace heroes. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality. Daniel was a supergrace hero and he is mentioned by this most famous of his deeds.

“mouths” is the accusative plural of stoma indicating the fact that the mouth of the lion is dangerous to human beings.

Daniel Shutting the Lion’s Mouth

1. The ebb and flow of empires radically changes history. When you have one empire going down, as the Chaldeans were, and another empire coming to the front, as with the Medes and the Persians, this means radical changes in history. But radical changes in history do not change the objective for the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Daniel wrote in a time when empires were going and coming and history was in a state of radical flux. Even though this was true the objective for Daniel’s life remained the same. God’s plan for the believer continues in spite of radical changes in history. If the United States fell tomorrow, there would not change our objective.

2. God promotes supergrace believers like Daniel. This is a clear-cut case of promotion. Even though the entire personnel of ruling the empire changed it made no difference to the status of Daniel. As a matter of fact Daniel came out of obscurity to become number one administer behind Cyrus the Great and his father-in-law Darius Cyaxeres II. Maximum doctrine in the soul prepared Daniel for the leadership dynamics and the promotion which came to him out of the lions’ den. Daniel’s supergrace blessings, therefore, include promotion, technical prosperity and leadership dynamics.

3. Supergrace prosperity causes reaction from others. How did Daniel get in the lions’ den? Reaction. There was a personality conflict between 300 princes and Daniel. In other words, supergrace prosperity causes others to react. The reaction in Daniel’s case was jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability. However, the supergrace believer is not petty and does not stoop to retaliation. Daniel simply left everything in the Lord’s hands and the Lord vindicated him — called “all things working together for good.”

4. For the supergrace believer all things work together for good. The jealous princes tried to destroy Daniel with phony decrees, but God used this to destroy them. The principle: Jesus Christ controls history.

5. Darius Cyaxeres II was trapped by his own approbation lust in signing a phony decree and making it a part of the laws of the Medes and the Persians. When people get carried away with too much power the valve stem that reveals this is arrogance. This was the means of producing his own misery. So, mental attitude sins produce self-induced misery.

6. The Doctrine of Governmental Legislation. Legislation under divine institution #4 — national government, must be designed to protect the freedom and the privacy of the citizens in that constituency. They must have opportunity to succeed within the framework of their abilities, their energy and their drive, and all of this is based upon freedom. Once you insert something phony, something incongruous, into national legislation as Cyaxeres did immediately you have a problem.

a. Legislation cannot solve social problems. Only God’s grace can do that. Legislation under God is not designed to solve social problems. Should there be the law, you must love Bob Thieme? One phony law ruins the power of legislation.

b. When legislation is distorted into socialistic and liberal panaceas it creates greater problems and destroys the freedom of its constituents under the evil guise of the greatest good for the greatest number.

i. Example VOLAR, a volunteer army, even though everyone still must register for the draft.

ii. Let’s say a president grants amnesty to all those who left the country to avoid the draft. They are all traitors; they are all enemies. An amnesty law destroys freedom.

c. Legislation and the government who sponsors it becomes evil and immoral when it forces people to make decisions regarding religion, business, retirement, employment, travel, living quarters, and marriage.

i. South Africa and Rhodesia are the two greatest countries in the world. Bob cannot buy a ticket to go to Rhodesia. He has to travel to South Africa to get a ticket.

ii. A friend of Bob’s came back from Rhodesia and he had his possessions from there confiscated along with his newspapers from there. Something is wrong with the laws in this country.

d. Legislation should be designed to protect the innocent and punish the guilty, but never coerce the individual into legitimate fields of human activity. What are the legitimate fields of human activity? If I have a company I have the right to hire and fire anyone. The government should not be able to come in and force the hiring of a certain percentage of minority groups.

e. By virtue of the principle of freedom the government does not have the right to tell me that I cannot believe in Jesus Christ, nor does it have the right to keep me from teaching the Word of God.

f. The government does not have the right to tell me whom I can hire or fire.

g. The government does not have the right to pick my friends and associates and force me into a social situation with people that I have no desire to have fellowship with.

h. These are matters of personal choice and freedom. Legislation must be designed to protect my freedom.

7. The supergrace believer with doctrine resident in his soul was happy in the lion’s den, while the unbeliever who put him there, who failed in the administration of his government, was miserable in the palace.

8. Every believer must face his own den of lions, and sooner or later you have your own den of lions. Daniel was being forced into something that was contrary to the Word of God and sooner or later you are going to face the same issue. How you face your den of lions depends on the amount of doctrine resident in your soul, and whether you are in supergrace or in reversion.

Maximum doctrine resident in the soul meets every exigency of life. Doctrine is the only preparation for testing and for crisis, and doctrine resident in the soul gives you the ability to never compromise the grace of God.

Hebrews 11:34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Verse 34 — the fifth clause: “Quenched” is the aorist active indicative from sbénnymi (σβέννυμι) [pronounced SBEHN-noo-mee] and it means to extinguish or to put out. Here it means to neutralize. The fire was not extinguished, it was merely neutralized or robbed of its power. This is the story of Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednigo from Daniel chapter three, and now they are added to the roster of supergrace heroes. The aorist tense is constative, it gathers into one entirety the historical record of the fiery furnace. The active voice: three supergrace believers produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality; “the violence” — the word “violence” is wrong. This is the accusative singular of the noun dúnamis (δύναμις) [pronounced DOO-nahm-iss] and it means the inherent power; “of fire” — the descriptive genitive singular of the noun pur, and it means fire. So literally it should be translated, “Neutralized the power of fire.”

Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednigo

1. No matter how much power any ruler or leader possesses he cannot control the course of history. Jesus Christ is the one who controls history and neither arrogance nor the abuse of power can change history. All impact of history is based on and related to the principles of Bible doctrine.

a. Many world leaders have had great power, but they could not change human history.

b. Jesus Christ controls human history.

c. Every president has tried to buy fame using the US treasury.

d. Douglas MacArthur had an impact on history, but it was related to the laws of divine establishment.

e. Moses and Abraham had an impact on history based upon the doctrine in their souls.

f. Caesar had a great impact on history, but that is because what he did was related to the laws of divine establishment.

2. You cannot build your happiness on someone else’s unhappiness, as in the case of the jealousy, the maligning, and the accusation of Shadrach, Meschach and Abednigo. Malicious, vindictive, and implacable people always are trying to hurt others but they always wind up hurting themselves instead.

3. The believer must live his life as unto the Lord. He cannot be worried or disturbed about the opinions of others. People are going to think the worst of you sooner or later, this is a test in life. But you can’t spend your time running around justifying yourself. The supergrace believer must live by the principles of Colossians 3:16, 17, he lives his life as unto the Lord. You don’t run around and give your side of the story; to deal with those who are your critics. Bob can speak from experience; his critics are in the thousands all over the world. That is the way you neutralize the fire.

4. The devil makes it easy for the believer to compromise the Word of God. since human government has no right to interfere with human volition in matters pertaining to God the believer must always take his stand on doctrine resident in the soul. Such doctrine resident in the soul makes Shadrach, Meschach and Abednigo the greatest of patriots, just as doctrine makes you a patriot. But when a government uses its power to destroy your relationship with the Lord, then you must take a stand against that government as evil and immoral.

a. If God blesses us, He is glorified.

b. If God disciplines us, He is not glorified.

5. Supergrace believers never dictate to the Lord any course of action — Daniel 3:17–18. Reversionists do. They say he is able to deliver, they do not say He is going to. Doctrine recognizes the ability of God without superimposing human volition on the sovereignty of God. They are not seeking to bribe God.

6. Shadrach, Meschach and Abednigo did not know or suggest that God would or should deliver them from the furnace of fire, they simply took their stand on the basis of maximum doctrine resident in their souls. Supergrace believers always recognize the true issue of God’s sovereignty as well as their own human freedom. Whether God delivered them or not they refused to compromise doctrine by worshipping a golden image. The three men took their stand on the basis of doctrine resident in the soul and they did not try to bribe God for deliverance. Principle: Live by doctrine and leave the rest to the Lord. Leave the decisions to God.

7. The pride and arrogance of political rulers leads to the destruction of great and courageous soldiers. Military heroes are destroyed by politicians. The best soldiers in the Chaldean army were burned to death because of the mental attitude sin of a dictator politician, Nebuchadnezzar — Daniel 3:19-22.

8. Politicians repeat their same mistakes in different forms. When Nebuchadnezzar abandoned the attempt to force idolatry on his subjects he did so because God delivered Shadrach, Meschach and Abednigo. He immediately turns around then and tries to force the God of Shadrach, Meschach and Abednigo on all of his subjects. This means he hadn’t learned a thing. The power of government must never be used to coerce its constituents to believe in Jesus Christ.

9. Uncompromising supergrace believers are delivered and promoted. That is the neutralization of the fire.

Maximum doctrine resident in the soul avoids compromise with Satanic systems such as religion, apostasy, reversionism. Doctrine in the soul is the only protection against compromise, worldly ambition, and pseudo-celebrityship.

The sixth clause: “they escaped” — aorist active indicative of pheugô (φεύγω) [pronounced FYOO-go] which means to escape. This is a culminative aorist. It is used for escape in combat because you have doctrine resident in the soul. It refers to an adverse tactical situation in which you are surrounded, in which other troops are fleeing, in which the army has fallen apart, and you stand fast and by virtue of your courage you are able to fall back, regroup, and escape death in combat; whereas those who run away are invariably killed. Therefore Bible doctrine gives the courage for the supergrace believer in combat to stand fast and not run away. The active voice of the verb refers to the supergrace believer who is a military type in combat. Because of Bible doctrine resident in the soul mean like David, Caleb,

Jehoshaphat were delivered in time of disaster. Take Jehoshaphat in 2Chronicles 18:31 as an illustration of this. He cried out and Jehovah helped him. In other words, he had a personal relationship with Jehovah, Jesus Christ.

“the edge of the sword” — the accusative plural of the noun stoma which means mouth, and here it means “mouths of the sword.” The sword has many mouths. In other words, it is like a machine gun firing all around you but not hitting you. So the mouth of the sword is used to devour and the mouths of the sword refers to a tight combat situation. Principle number six: Maximum doctrine in the soul preserves the supergrace believer from desperate and hopeless situations in combat.

Next we have “out of weakness” — the preposition apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the ablative of asthéneia (ἀσθένεια) [pronounced ahs-THEH-nigh-ah] which means helplessness, total helplessness — “from total helplessness.” In principle this describes every believer who has ever lived in the devil’s world. Every believer inevitably faces circumstances where he is hopeless, helpless, and useless. “were made strong” — the aorist passive indicative of dynamóō (δυναμόω) [pronounced doo-nam-OH-oh] which is the process of grace. The aorist tense here is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It is a reference to any supergrace believer who is at any time hopeless, helpless, useless. However, he has GAPed it, he is prepared for such a situation, and while he is totally helpless he has maximum doctrine in the soul. In other words, he has followed the colours to the high ground over a period of time and he is ready for this exigency. It takes the occurrence of going from zero to supergrace and then meeting any test that life has to offer. The passive voice: the supergrace hero receives the action of the verb through consistent positive volition, meeting all the problems and distractions of rejecting doctrine and staying with it. The declarative indicative represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality and certainty. This is unqualified historical reality.

The same principle is the one that Paul faced under the thorn in the flesh in 2Corinthians 12:9, 10. The answer that God gave him is the same principle that pertains here to Old Testament supergrace heroes. “My grace [SG2, dying grace, and SG3. This is not for the ordinary believer] keeps being sufficient for you.” It is the linear aktionsart that makes it specialized in the field of SG2. For my power is fulfilled by means of weakness [en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental of asthéneia (ἀσθένεια) [pronounced ahs-THEH-nigh-ah]] or helplessness. Most gladly therefore I will boast in asthéneia (ἀσθένεια) [pronounced ahs-THEH-nigh-ah] in order that the power of the Christ may bivouac in my area.” The power of the Christ bivouacs in the area of the supergrace believer who faces a hopeless, helpless test and does nothing about it. The Lord does the work. “Because of which doctrine resident in the soul I am content in asthéneia (ἀσθένεια) [pronounced ahs-THEH-nigh-ah], in insults, in pressures, in persecutions, in troubles on behalf of Christ; for whenever I am asthéneia (ἀσθένεια) [pronounced ahs-THEH-nigh-ah], then I am strong.”

Isaiah, for example, was a man of this calibre. And this probably refers to Isaiah when in 701 BC the Assyrians invaded and the country was in a desperate situation. However, maximum doctrine resided in the soul of the prophet Isaiah and he came to the front in the Sennacherib invasion. He encouraged the people and God on behalf of one man destroyed one of the greatest armies that ever existed. So Isaiah, just like Noah, turned the course of history at that time. Maximum doctrine resident in the soul converts hopeless situations filled with helpless people into deliverance and great blessing. Both the deliverance and the great blessing glorify God. whenever God is glorified through maximum doctrine resident in the believer’s soul the believer himself becomes the recipient of great blessing.

1972 Hebrews 11:34 Lesson #197

197 09/08/1974 Hebrews 11:34 Doctrine of warfare (revised)

Hebrews 11:33 Who, themselves, by means of doctrine, resident in the soul, conquered kingdoms, accomplished righteousness, attained promises, shut the mouths of lions,...

Hebrews 11:34a ...neutralized the power of fire, escaped from the mouths of swords, from weakness were made strong...

We now have two more clauses to go. These two will take some work because of the subject matter that they present.

Hebrews 11:34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

Verse 34 — The eighth clause: “waxed valiant in fight” — the aorist passive of ginomai means to become something you were not before. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which gathers into one entirety the process of learning doctrine, the constant daily persistent exposure to Bible teaching, the function of GAP so that doctrine becomes resident in the soul. The entirety goes from zero doctrine in the soul to maximum. In other words, whoever does the “waxing” here he is a supergrace believer. The passive voice: supergrace believers receive the action of the verb, namely a by-product of maximum doctrine in the soul: courage and strength in battle. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality.

The word “valiant” is the predicate nominative masculine plural of the noun ischuros (ἰσχυρός) [pronounced is-khoo-ROSS] which means strong, mighty, powerful. It is a reference to battle courage and cool, brilliant decisions of commanders under tactical situations. The words “in fight” is the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative polemos (πόλεμος, ου, ὁ) [pronounced POHL-em-oss]. Polemos (πόλεμος, ου, ὁ) [pronounced POHL-em-oss] means battle. So it should be translated, “became courageous [or strong] in battle.” While this clause obviously applies to the battlefield commander as well as to the soldier in ranks it does refer to specific battlefield commanders and those in ranks. It refers to those who through persistence in taking in doctrine reach the supergrace life and demonstrate through courage and tactical decisions the dynamics of doctrine resident in the soul.

The question arises as to whether this applies to the Maccabees, the sons of Matthias, who all fought for Jewish freedom. That question depends upon the extent of Hebrews chapter eleven. It does cover the entire dispensation of Israel, so obviously they must be included. But the principle is that men in time of disaster and men in time of peace have adopted and have accepted the great profession of the military, and as born again believers, those who have received Christ as Savior, they have been preserved alive under the same principle of living grace. Only under living grace there is a slight extension. They have been given food, shelter, and clothing. They have been provided exposure to Bible doctrine, though it is much more difficult for a man in military to take in doctrine because of preparation in his profession. Nevertheless this means that under living grace doctrine was provided for them. In addition to that it also means that they became highly proficient in their profession and they advanced following the colours to the high ground of supergrace. Under their paragraph SG2 they received occupation with Christ, they had the inner doctrine to meet the exigencies of life, they shared the happiness of God, they also received promotion, success, prosperity of various types, economic prosperity, the principle of technical prosperity — they learned their profession. In addition to that many of them would have the great privilege of dying grace by staying on that high ground.

The centurion who understood authority, and knew that Jesus could heal his son from afar.

The eighth asyndeton leads to the eight principle. There are several lessons to be learned from this asyndeton. a) Maximum doctrine in the soul of the supergrace believer gives him battlefield courage and moral courage to make tactical decisions under the pressure of warfare. b) Supergrace believers have maximum doctrine in the soul and therefore, regardless of their rank, maximum doctrine means maximum courage and the ability to face every disaster in life, and the ability to be isolated from the pleasant parts of society in order to do something great for their country.

Military types come to Berachah for doctrine and social life. Berachah Church is a great haven for them. But life is difficult for them in the barracks or out in the field.

The ninth clause begins “turned to flight” — the aorist active indicative of klinô (κλίνω) [pronounced KLEE-noh] which means to cause to fall back or to put to flight. This is a culminative aorist which views the event in its entirety but regards it from the standpoint of existing results. In other words, when we have men in the military who have GAPed it, GAPed it, GAPed it, all the way to supergrace there is a result in combat. They put to flight the enemy. That is the concept of the culminative aorist. The supergrace believer in military produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality. It should be translated “put to flight.”

The next word is “armies” — the accusative plural direct object of parembolê (παρεμβολή) [pronounced pare-em-boh-LAY]. The word actually means a fortified camp, a bivouac, a barracks, a headquarters of an army, or an army in battle array. So it doesn’t mean just an army, it means an army in action. The invading army in this case is the army in action; “of the aliens” — the genitive plural is descriptive; allotrios (ἀλλότριος) [pronounced al-LOT-ree-oss] describes the enemy army. So literally, “put to flight the invading armies of the enemy.”

We have in this verse four references to the military: “escaped from the mouths of the sword”; “from weakness were made strong”; “became courageous in battle”; “put to flight the invading armies of the enemy.” It is amazing that so much of this is related to the military.

The Doctrine of Warfare (Revised)

1. The concept of warfare as taught in the Word of God.

a. In spite of man’s efforts for peace throughout the ages warfare will exist until the Millennium. Matthew 24:6.

b. The exception to warfare will be the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ, the last dispensation of history. Isaiah 2:4.

c. Man will not accomplish in the dispensation of the Church, nor in the Tribulation to follow, what only Jesus Christ can accomplish in the Millennium. The abolishing of war belongs to Jesus Christ, just as the solving of social problems belongs to Jesus Christ, just as the solving of life’s problems belongs to Jesus Christ. People try to use legislation to solve problems, but that is not its purpose.

d. Therefore, the Bible says warfare is a bona fide part of history. Ecclesiastes 3:8; Numbers 21:14.

e. There are some misnomers of warfare. Matthew 26:52 — “All who draw the sword shall perish by the sword.” This means to draw the sword in crime, and they shall perish by the sword or capital punishment.

f. The sword also refers to capital punishment in Romans 13:4 and not to the military.

g. Some guy has assumed that WWIII will be the Armageddon campaign. This man is going to be wrong. During WWII, a pastor had everyone identified. He prophesied that the final war was coming. There are wars going on right now in Africa and the middle east.

2. The concept of the military. The fact that we are always going to have wars means that we are going to have the military. God made His disapprobation for internationalism when the tower was built in Genesis. Nationalism is a very important principle.

a. Under the laws of divine establishment pertaining to divine institution #4, nationalism, all national freedom comes through military victory.

b. There are two factors involved in the protection of national sovereignty and freedom. The first is the spiritual factor. God protects national entities — Nehemiah 4:8,9. The second is the establishment of a military security system — Nehemiah 4:13–15. There were 4 nations which wanted to destroy Jerusalem when the people returned with Nehemiah. From the north, west, southwest and the south, there are nations which conspire against the Jews. Neh. 4.

i. Nehemiah 4:7–9 But when Sanballat and Tobiah and the Arabs and the Ammonites and the Ashdodites heard that the repairing of the walls of Jerusalem was going forward and that the breaches were beginning to be closed, they were very angry. And they all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and to cause confusion in it. And we prayed to our God and set a guard as a protection against them day and night.

ii. Nehemiah 4:13–15 So in the lowest parts of the space behind the wall, in open places, I stationed the people by their clans, with their swords, their spears, and their bows. And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, Who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.” When our enemies heard that it was known to us and that God had frustrated their plan, we all returned to the wall, each to his work.

c. Principles:

i. 1) The failure of the military on the battlefield indicates lack of training, self-discipline, respect for authority, motivation to courage, spiritual incentive to resist and fight;

ii. 2) The failure of the military indicates a general lack of character and stability among the citizens of that national entity. The military is an index to the character of the people of a nation.

iii. 3) The Jewish failure during the Chaldean invasion by Nebuchanezzar — BC 587 — can be attributed to the spiritual and moral decline of the people. Jeremiah spent a whole book talking about the degeneracy, the reversionism, the apostasy of the Jews in that day. And because of these things the nation was wiped out.

iv. 4) God uses the military in action to demonstrate the degeneracy and decline of a nation.

v. 5) Therefore the army becomes the index of national character. Armies defend freedom; armies also destroy freedom — Jeremiah 34:7. The issue of national sovereignty, integrity and freedom always depends on which army wins, the invading army or the army belonging to the nation. In this case the Chaldean army won and the Jews lost their freedom.

3. The military image of Jesus Christ.

a. Throughout Jewish history the military image of Jesus Christ the God of Israel is beautifully portrayed. It began at the Exodus in the Red Sea deliverance — Exodus 14:14, “The Lord will fight for you today.” It was Jesus Christ who personally destroyed the great pursuing Egyptian army. The military image of Jesus Christ continued into the next generation and Joshua had the shock of his life in the generation after Moses.

b. Joshua was making a personal reconnaissance when all of a sudden he encountered a soldier with a drawn sword. It happened to be the Lord Jesus Christ and it was one of those times when the Lord appeared in the form of a man or a theophany. He challenged Joshua. Joshua said he was in command of the armies of Israel, and Jesus Christ said, “No you’re not!” Then the Lord gave His rank, and it was Adonai Tsabaoth. This is mistranslated “Lord of hosts” and it occurs hundreds of times in the Old Testament. It is actually the title of the Lord Jesus Christ as the commanding general of the Jewish troops and it should be translated “the Lord of the armies.”

c. So therefore His title alone gives Him the military image. So the Lord Jesus Christ fought for Israel in their deliverance. Joshua 5:13–6:2. This concept continues all of the way through history to the Armageddon campaign, the last great war in history which begins before but is concluded by the second advent of Christ. This concept, therefore, goes all of the way to the siege of Jerusalem — Zechariah 14:3,4.

d. Jesus Christ holds the record for killing the most enemies of anyone in all of history. The record was established in BC 701 when the great Assyrian army under Sennacherib invaded the land. Isaiah 37:36, 37. The record is 185,000 killed! Jesus Christ will break His own record in killing the enemy at the Armageddon campaign — Revelation 19:11, 15. There is a principle here: War under many circumstances is right.

e. When the Lord makes war, it is just and it is right.

f. Isa. 63:1–3 wine press description of blood.

4. The principle of universal military training.

a. Universal military training demands total national conscription — 20 and older. Numbers 1:2,3.

b. There was one exception to this national draft — a man who takes a new wife. Deuteronomy 24:5.

c. The principle of mobilization is found in Numbers 31:3–5.

d. Each generation must be trained in war under the principle of universal military training — Judges 3:1,2. Now these are the nations that the LORD left, to test Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not experienced all the wars in Canaan. It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before.

e. There must exist in the national entity a professional staff of high-ranking officers whose life is devoted to training, preparing, and planning for warfare — Luke 14:31. Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?

f. True motivation for military training comes from God Himself — 2Samuel 22:35. This also indicates the importance of physical training as a part of military training. Psalm 18:34 (He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.); 144:1.

g. Military training, therefore, is useless and neutralized when men of a nation are apostate, reversionistic, full of emotional revolt, blackout, scar-tissue of the soul, full of degeneracy, anti-establishment, addicted to drugs, antagonistic toward authority. Victory in war does not depend upon numbers or....it requires military training.

5. Warfare is from God

a. Just warfare is from God — 1Chronicles 5:19-22 (They waged war against the Hagrites, Jetur, Naphish, and Nodab. And when they prevailed over them, the Hagrites and all who were with them were given into their hands, for they cried out to God in the battle, and he granted their urgent plea because they trusted in him. They carried off their livestock: 50,000 of their camels, 250,000 sheep, 2,000 donkeys, and 100,000 men alive. For many fell, because the war was of God. And they lived in their place until the exile.).

b. Draft-dodgers, slackers, deserters, discourage the military and are sinful before the Lord — Numbers 32:6, 14, 23. But Moses said to the people of Gad and to the people of Reuben, “Shall your brothers go to the war while you sit here?...And behold, you have risen in your fathers' place, a brood of sinful men, to increase still more the fierce anger of the LORD against Israel!...be sure your sin will find you out.

6. The maintenance of peace by military deterrent. The Bible says that until Christ comes the only way to have peace is for the doves to arm themselves and become hawks. Preparedness acts as a deterrent to aggressive nations.

a. Military victory produces peace — Joshua 11:23.

b. God Himself has ordained the principle of peace through military victory — Psalm 46:7–9 (The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah Come, behold the works of the LORD, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire.). Sometimes the only explanation for one side or another winning in war is, Jesus Christ controls history.

c. God also has to protect believers and certain nations from the crafty, evil, warlike nations which surround them — Psalm 55:20–23. My companion stretched out his hand against his friends; he violated his covenant. His speech was smooth as butter, yet war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet they were drawn swords. Cast your burden on the LORD, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. But you, O God, will cast them down into the pit of destruction; men of blood and treachery shall not live out half their days. But I will trust in you. (This passage is a good explanation of what the communists are and do; and what God does for the faithful client nation). The Lord Jesus Christ overrules stupidity in high places.

d. God destroys nations and empires — Psalm 68:30; Psalm 120:2,6,7 (Deliver me, O LORD, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue...Too long have I had my dwelling among those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war!). Just as God spanks the believer who doesn’t mind his own business so God spanks the nation that doesn’t mind its own business. Psalm 140:1–2 Deliver me, O LORD, from evil men; preserve me from violent men, who plan evil things in their heart and stir up wars continually.

e. Jeremiah 6:13–14 (“For from the least to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for unjust gain; and from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely. They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.”) 8:11

f. We have the worst foreign policy in the United States since 1945.

g. Bob talks about the government and businesses that they intrude upon.

7. The supergrace believer and warfare. The last two clauses of Hebrews 11:34 dramatically portray the role of the supergrace believer in warfare. The supergrace believer becomes courageous in battle and he puts to flight the invading armies. Maximum doctrine in the soul gives the supergrace believer battle courage and moral courage so that tactical decisions are made and tactical actions are made that mean victory. Supergrace heroes are responsible for the defeat of invading armies. The testimony of supergrace David is given in Psalm 27:3 — “Though an army surrounds me my right lobe will not be afraid; though war rises against me, in spite of this I will keep on having confidence.” The supergrace believer is protected in combat — Job 5:20. (In famine he will redeem you from death, and in war from the power of the sword.) Hebrews 11:34

8. The principle of leadership in warfare. Proverbs 20:18 — “War plans are formed by wisdom in planning, and with wisdom make war.” Proverbs 24:1–6. Be not envious of evil men, nor desire to be with them, for their hearts devise violence, and their lips talk of trouble. By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches. A wise man is full of strength, and a man of knowledge enhances his might, for by wise guidance you can wage your war, and in abundance of counselors there is victory.

9. Warfare demands character. It demands moral and battle courage — Deuteronomy 20:1–8

10. Warfare is a means of discipline. God uses warfare not only to preserve the freedom of nations but He also uses warfare as a means of disciplining a nation — Judges 5:8. When the Jews began to go apostate they began to go idolatrous. They entered into reversionistic idolatry — “then war was at the gates.” Cf. 2Chronicles 6:8,9; Isa. 3:16–25 The LORD said: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks, glancing wantonly with their eyes, mincing along as they go, tinkling with their feet, therefore the Lord will strike with a scab the heads of the daughters of Zion, and the LORD will lay bare their secret parts. In that day the Lord will take away the finery of the anklets, the headbands, and the crescents; the pendants, the bracelets, and the scarves; the headdresses, the armlets, the sashes, the perfume boxes, and the amulets; the signet rings and nose rings; the festal robes, the mantles, the cloaks, and the handbags; the mirrors, the linen garments, the turbans, and the veils. Instead of perfume there will be rottenness; and instead of a belt, a rope; and instead of well-set hair, baldness; and instead of a rich robe, a skirt of sackcloth; and branding instead of beauty. Your men shall fall by the sword and your mighty men in battle. And her gates shall lament and mourn; empty, she shall sit on the ground. Jeremiah 6:22,23. Thus says the LORD: “Behold, a people is coming from the north country, a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth. They lay hold on bow and javelin; they are cruel and have no mercy; the sound of them is like the roaring sea; they ride on horses, set in array as a man for battle, against you, O daughter of Zion!”

1972 Hebrews Lesson #198

198 09/08/1974 Hebrews 11:34 Doctrine of warfare (cont.)

This doctrine begins with point 6 above. I just left the doctrine together with the previous lesson.

The first 5 points are briefly reviewed. Then points6–10 are covered. There are two more points, which will not be covered now.

Bob reviews some of his cultural past. Tommy Dorsey is the best arrangers and musicians. Best trumpeters (Bob knows all of them). He could produce music like no one else; he was highly competent and he was tough. And he often fired musicians for being late or going out on the town when they had rehearsal the next day. All of the great bands broke up in the same year. Too much maligning; too much backstabbing.

Separation of the military from politics.

Hebrews 11:34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.

V. 34 not really covered at all.

1972 Hebrews 11:35 Lesson #199

199 09/13/1974 Hebrews 11:35 Dissertation on women

Sometimes Bible teaching knocks a person right to the ground. We take its by means of God the Holy Spirit.

People are missing Sunday mornings, and they are just as bad as those who show up on Sundays only. If you have any questions, tap Bob on the shoulder and he’ll tell you nose to nose.

Hebrews 11:35 Women received back their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, so that they might rise again to a better life.

Greatest thing in the world are women. Not women’s liberation, which turns women into monsters.

Verse 35 — “Women.” We have the nominative plural of the Greek noun gunê (γυνή) [pronounced goo-NAY] referring here to supergrace women. Some men do not know the difference between a woman and a horsey female. We cannot base our opinions on women based upon the horsey female. When a woman challenges Bob’s authority, Bob wants to stomp her into the ground. He is often accused of being a misogynist. Bob could give some lectures on exterior beauty. What constitutes a great women is what she has in her soul. Bob can count on his fingers the women who are great in their souls.

A man who cannot deal with a woman who has had a mastectomy. Her greatness is in her soul. Her soul comes through about age 30. A man has no right to think less of his woman if she has been raped or tortured or abused. A man is less than a man when he has emphasized only the overt parts of the woman which turn him on. Bob cannot help that men are stupid about sex. In marriage, sex might be 3–5% of the marriage, and that is really pushing it. In between these times, you have to talk to her.

The respect of a woman comes from her soul and love comes from her soul.

Bob stays at a place in Hollywood where there are swans. Tiny heads so they have tiny brains. Swans leave him cold; and they are vicious creatures. Bob likes to watch people around swans to see the swans bite the people. Men too often choose swans to marry. There is no replacement for soul rapport with a woman.

Bob worked on the stage for a year. He noticed that women like to talk to men. Even the fags (the male dancers). A woman can take more pain than a man can.

A real man is a real man in his soul. Women today are starving for a soul relationship with a man.

Two women who are widowed with an only son. Women love their children and they have great ability to teach their children. Men do not have this same ability. To teach children, you find out what their vocabulary is and add to it. Two women, both widows, each having a son whom they love; one interacts with Elijah and the other with Elisha.

Loss of a loved one is harder on a women than on a man, because they are responders. In each case, the son was resuscitated.

“received” is the aorist active indicative of lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh]. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it takes the events enumerated above and gathers them into an entirety. it actually gathers up into an entirety two cases: the widow of Zerephath in the time of Elijah and the Shunamite woman in the time of Elisha. Both of these produce the action. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality.

“their dead” — the masculine accusative plural of the direct object from nekros (νεκρός) [pronounced nehk-ROSS]. It is in the plural because in each case it was the only son. With this we have the intensive pronoun autos, used here as a possessive pronoun — “their very own dead” or “their beloved dead” — very strong.

“raised to life” is wrong. We actually have a preposition ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus the ablative singular of anastasis (ἀνάστασις) [pronounced an-AS-tas-is] which is used for both resurrection and resuscitation. Here it is resuscitation. And ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus the ablative indicates means, and it should be translated “received their dead by means of resuscitation” rather than the phrase “raised to life.” Raised to life implies a verb and there is no verb here, it is a prepositional phrase.

“Women received their dead by means of resuscitation.” In other words, they have lost something that was beyond hope but they received it back. Now what is being emphasized here? These women were in a hopeless situation and they had enough doctrine resident in their soul to handle it. The principle behind it is that a woman in the most desperate hour of her life is still a responder in her soul and because the pain of losing a loved one is in the soul then she goes to someone for comfort, someone who can bring out the doctrine in her soul — by conversation and, in this case, God saw fit to honour the tremendous doctrine they had accumulated by their contact with the prophets and brought the sons back to life.

The word “again” is a superfluous word used by the translator and not found in the original.

Notice the principle: supergrace women were benefitted by doctrine in their souls. Here is the pattern. First they had doctrine in their souls. Then, having doctrine in their souls and losing something of great value, they also had great pain in their souls and there was a conflict between the two. They went to their right prophet — Elijah and Elisha — and God in those days answered the tremendous doctrine in the soul with miracles and they were able to handle it. The actual miracle is not the issue today because God rarely performs such a miracle since the canon of scripture was closed. Therefore the point that is being brought out is that these women did not go off the deep end. The point is that with doctrine in resident in the soul a woman can handle it. And there again is the impact of this passage, the fact that they had enough doctrine in the soul to cope with the situation.

How would you handle losing someone that you truly love. Women generally outlive men. The man carries a heavy burden.

“and others” — allos (ἄλλος) [pronounced AL-lohs], others of the same kind. This is the nominative plural and it means women; “were tortured” — the aorist passive indicative of tympanízō (τυμπανίζω) [pronounced toom-pan-IHD-zoh] which means to torture with instruments of torture. It is derived from a Greek noun tumpanon which is a Classical Greek word which connotes using a drum to drown out the screams of the victim. it means that the torture is effective, the victim screams and screams. And this refers to women, and they are screaming because of the pain in the body. The whole point is the soul hasn’t been touched.

Tympanízō (τυμπανίζω) [pronounced toom-pan-IHD-zoh] can mean to be tortured with various types of torture instruments but it also implies rape or the abuse of the female body. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it gathers into one entirety all the torture endured by supergrace women. The passive voice: certain supergrace women received maximum torture. But even though they did they never betrayed their country or their friends. The declarative indicative represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. In this case it is historical reality and it is women being abused physically.

Apaches would tie women down naked on the ground and pour sand into their mouths. Slowly, and stop before they die.

“not accepting” — the aorist active participle of prosdechomai (προσδέχομαι) [pronounced pros-dekh’-om-ahee] which means to receive, to accept, to wait for, to expect. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the accumulation of doctrine in the soul of the woman and the doctrine is greater than the threat of torture as well as the actual torture. Hence, the culminative aorist emphasizes the existing results — refusal to accept deliverance as the means of betraying others. In other words, prosdechomai (προσδέχομαι) [pronounced pros-dekh’-om-ahee] says with the negative that these women would rather be tortured and abused than betray someone they loved, to betray their country, to betray their friends, to betray their lover. That is great nobility. And the nobility doesn’t come on any basis except what is in the soul — doctrine.

“deliverance” — the accusative singular direct object of apolutrôsis (ἀπολύτρωσις) [pronounced ap-ol-OO-troh-sis] which really means “release” here — “refusing to accept their release [from the torture].” Of all of the truly difficult situations in life, here is one that you can understand. The first one was losing someone that you loved dearly. But here is being totally at the mercy of the most bestial type of men whose propensity for torture is maximum, and being under the most excruciating pain never once betraying someone you love or your country. How can you do that? Only one way: doctrine in the soul. Not only does the doctrine in the soul give the ladies the tremendous courage to stand up under this terrible torture but while their body may be destroyed or scarred for life it also gives them the strength to maintain that greatness of soul. And the very means by which she overcame the test of being subjected to torture and refusing to betray someone she loves is the very same way by which she continues in life to be a great person.

“that” is a conjunction hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] used for a final clause, to denote the purpose, aim or a goal. We will translate it “in order that.”

“they might obtain” — the aorist active subjunctive of tugchánô (τυγχάνω) [pronounced toog-KHAHN-oh]. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the entire course of their torture prior to their death but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The active voice: the women endured this torture even to the point of death because with doctrine in their souls they refused to betray someone they loved, a group of people, their own country. These women have something greater in the future — SG3.

“better” — the objective genitive singular from kreittôn (κρείττων) [pronounced KRITE-tohn], a comparative of agathos (ἀγαθός) [pronounced ag-ath-OSS]; and with this we have anastasis (ἀνάστασις) [pronounced an-AS-tas-is] which is an adverbial genitive meaning “after resurrection.”

Hebrews 11:35 Women received their dead by means of resuscitation; and other supergrace women were tortured, not accepting their release in order that they might obtain something better after resurrection.

The issue is not obtaining resurrection here but obtaining something better after resurrection — SG3. So again we see the dynamics of doctrine resident in the soul in the case of these wonderful ladies. The supergrace woman, because of maximum doctrine resident in the soul, is prepared for these two great tragedies. There is no adversity in life as great as doctrine resident in the soul, and doctrine resident in the soul therefore is more important than anything in life. And you can’t wait too long to get there. Every woman must be prepared.

1972 Hebrews 11:36–38 Lesson #200

200 09/15/1974 Hebrews 11:36–38 Testing of old covenant saints

There is one loose end to finish up the previous study. Bob got his Phi Beta Kappa key; Churchill took over from Chamberlain. May 1940 was an unusual time in world history. Von Bock launched a great offensive. The great leader was a new one, who studied the tactics of the British tank corps in WWI. He said the tanks would revamp wars. Gudarian, brilliant man. He said the tanks should go out ahead and for the infantry to catch up later.

Rommel was good, but overrated. Bob is going over a lot of tactics for WWII. Ardines considered secure. You could see people coming from a long distance. Gudarian moved quickly and a right turn; and no one tried to stop him. Interesting thing happened. Adolf Hitler gave the orders for the Panzers to stop moving. They stopped just short of closing that trap. They had stopped everything. People ask, why did he do this? And no one can explain his thinking. This allowed the British to get out of there. One war historian remarks on this decision. The true answer to this is, Jesus Christ controls history. Hitler suddenly became frightened. He was worried that he was too far out in front. Suddenly, Hitler backed out, which allowed operation dynamo, and Britain brought out 338,000 rescued. Only 2000 drown. Hitler’s halt order made this possible. This one decision allowed the British to come back with this same army. Had Hitler continued forth, the British army would have had to surrender. French army totally out of it. Smaller German army controlled everything except Spain and Britain. This one decision tells us who is on the throne.

Hebrews 11:36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.

Verse 36 gives us three of the maximum torture areas of life, therefore three maximum pressure areas of life. The word “others” takes us away from the ladies. We have a connective particle for “And”, de, used as a conjunction, correctly translated “And.” Then we have the nominative plural of héteros (ἕτερος) [pronounced HEH-ter-os] which means others of a different kind and refers now to men again or supergrace believers in general in contrast to the ladies of verse 35. “had” is incorrect. It is the aorist active indicative of the verb lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh] which means to receive, not to have. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which gathers into one entirety the pressures which are now enumerated in this context. These pressures are called “tests”. The active voice: supergrace believers of the Old Testament received these testings. The indicative mood is declarative representing the action of the verb from the viewpoint of historical reality.

“trial” — the accusative singular direct object of the noun peîra (περα) [pronounced PIE-rah]. Peria from peirazô (πειράζω) [pronounced pi-RAD-zoh] has a passive meaning which means to experience, and it should be translated “testing-type experience.” “And others received testing-type experience.” So we have supergrace believers again loaded up with doctrine and meeting every challenge of life. The principle that comes out of this particular passage by way of anticipation is this. There is no disaster, no trial, no heartache, no frustration, no soul pain, no physical pain, no inconvenience in life that is greater than Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

The Plan of God

1. Saving grace begins at the cross. At the moment that we believer in Christ we receive from God 36 things immediately. Living grace follows afterward and living grace is divided into two factors.

2. First of all in living grace, everything that is necessary to keep you alive in the devil’s world. That includes food, shelter, clothing, and transportation to get where you can receive doctrine. All of that is living grace.

3. He has also provided at the same time the means of getting doctrine in the soul. The means of getting doctrine in the soul is first of all the pastor-teacher who communicates the doctrine, the text book which is the Bible and the classroom which is the local church. All of these are provided by God in living grace. Living grace, when it means positive volition toward doctrine, means following the colours to the high ground.

4. Once we get on the high ground that is spiritual maturity or supergrace. There we have one of two special blessing paragraphs, paragraph SG2, the special blessing that glorifies God. Once you acquire supergrace blessings it is God who is glorified, it is God who provides them.

5. These supergrace blessings are divided into three categories.

a. The first is spiritual — occupation with the person of Jesus Christ, the principle of doctrine resident in the soul meeting exigencies of life, the concept of sharing God’s happiness, all of the capacities for life based upon the soul are a part of that first category.

b. The second category are the temporal blessings — great wealth, great success, prosperity (social and sexual), economic prosperity, technical prosperity, materialistic prosperity.

c. And the third category is dying grace, the wonderful way of dying, going over that high golden bridge, a PCS from time to eternity by way of dying grace. On the other side is paragraph SG3. If you have SG2 in time you have SG3 forever, the surpassing grace blessings and rewards in eternity, so great that they are indescribable. They definitely remain obscure for the purpose of keeping our motivation intact. Our motivation must be related directly to occupation with Christ rather than wanting the wonderful blessings that are coming in eternity. And for believers who are negative toward doctrine this road to glory — saving grace to living grace to supergrace to dying grace to surpassing grace — is not for them, it is only for those who are positive toward doctrine. Those who are negative go into reversionism. In going into reversionism there is first of all the warning discipline where the Lord Jesus knocks, and then the intensive discipline, and eventually the dying discipline called the sin unto death, and loss of SG2 and loss of SG3. Many believers are going to be in heaven with a resurrection body, minus the old sin nature, minus human good, and nothing more — peons in heaven forever, there will be class distinction. Your attitude toward Bible doctrine determines it.

There will be class distinction in eternity future.

We have seen all of the wonderful things that we have as supergrace believers. Now here is a change of pace. Not only does supergrace mean great blessings, wealth and success and prosperity and promotion and many wonderful and fine things of this sort, but supergrace also means the ability to cope with any adversity in life, and here are some of the adversities mentioned. Testing-type experiences are now going to be categorized.

The first of these is a descriptive plural of empaigmós (ἐμπαιγμός) [pronounced emp-aheeg-MOSS], it is called “mockings” in the KJV. The word means scorn, mocking, derisive torture, something very painful. It refers to torture inflicted verbally. Mockery is insulting or contemptuous action or speech and therefore it really comes to mean torture by ridicule and impudence. This type of torture is verbal and physical abuse of that part of any human being which should be private and free from public abuse. Therefore this noun connotes not only verbal abuse but physical abuse including exposure to public of nakedness, rape, molestation, and any other type of abuse that is degrading. it is also done publicly. This is a soul-type torture in which the soul rather than the body receives the maximum pain. Therefore the first category of testing type experience means soul torture. It means verbal and physical abuse which is degrading and painful to the soul.

“with scourgings” — the descriptive genitive plural here is from the noun mastic (μάστιξ) [pronounced MAS-tix] which is a whip. The whip refers to floggings. Flogging is categorically physical torture of the body in which the body receives the impact of the torture, whereas under mockings it is the soul that receives the impact of the torture.

There us a third category also mentioned in this verse. It begins with the word “yea,” the adverb éti (ἔτι) [pronounced EH-tee] which has temporal use. In its temporal use it means “still” or “yet.” It also has a non-temporal connotation for what is left or remaining, or that which is added to that which is already at hand. Therefore that is the meaning here, with the little particle de again it means “in addition.”

“bonds and imprisonment” — the word “bonds” is a descriptive genitive plural of the noun desmos (δεσμός) [pronounced dehs-MOSS] which means “shackles,” anything that ties the hands and the feet down or ties you to a wall or to a post. The word “imprisonment, also a descriptive genitive and the only one that is in the singular, is the noun phulakê (φυλακή) [pronounced foo-lak-AY] and refers to incarceration. This is torture by confinement and isolation of both body and soul from the normal course of life.

Hebrews 11:36 And others received testing-type experience, that is, torture by ridicule and impudence [soul torture], and floggings [torture of the body], and in addition shackles and incarceration.

So the three categories of torture used against supergrace believers in Old Testament times are summarized in this verse. This verse then tells us that out of these three general categories of pain and adversity and tragedy the believer with Bible doctrine resident in the soul can handle all of them. So supergrace not only prepares you for great happiness and blessing and participation in happiness and blessing but it prepares you for any adversity in life. So at this point in the study of Hebrews chapter eleven we reach a major conclusion, that the maturity of taking in doctrine in a day by day basis, seizing and holding the high ground of supergrace, prepares you for everything in life, and that no matter whether you are having a time of prosperity or having a time of great tragedy and adversity Bible doctrine resident in the soul prepares you for these things and it is the use of that Bible doctrine under every circumstance of life which glorifies God and becomes the tactical victory in the angelic conflict. So while this verse is categorical the next verse refers to specific ways in which certain Old Testament supergrace heroes were tortured and assassinated.

Hebrews 11:37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were killed with the sword. They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, mistreated—

Verse 37 — We are now taking up historical illustrations without mentioning in this passage the names specifically. “They were stoned” — the aorist passive indicative of the verb litházō (λιθάζω) [pronounced lith-AHD-zoh] which means to be killed with stones. The aorist tense is a constative aorist and gathers into one entirety the stoning of a supergrace believer in the past, the priest Zechariah in the year BC 836. In other words, Zechariah was a great man of God, s supergrace believer, and he was stoned to death in front of the temple between the altar and the temple building itself. The passive voice: Zechariah the son of the high priest Jehoiada received the action of the verb. This is not the same Zechariah who wrote the next to last book of the Old Testament. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality. In the reign of king Joash the priest Zechariah was stoned to death because he was faithful in teaching the Word of God and exposing idolatrous reversionism — 2Chronicles 24:20,21; Matthew 23:35.

“they were sawn asunder” — the aorist passive indicative of prízō (πρίζω) [pronounced PRIHD-zoh] which means to cut in two with a saw. This specifically refers to Isaiah. The aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety and therefore the constative aorist simply shows from the time they tied Isaiah down and kept sawing until he was finally cut in two, at which time he died. Even though this is a very painful thing it was not painful in his case, God provided that wonderful blessing of dying grace as He did with Zechariah. So both of these, while they underwent normally a painful death, as supergrace believers they were able to handle it beautifully.

“were tempted” — the aorist passive indicative of peirazô (πειράζω) [pronounced pi-RAD-zoh] which means to test for the purpose of discovering what is inside. it was used of an assayer who was testing ore samples for gold. In this case the test is for Bible doctrine in the soul. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the testing and regardless of its extent or duration gathers it up into a syntactical whole. The passive voice: the believer with doctrine resident in the soul is tested regarding that doctrine. The indicative mood is the reality of the testing of resident doctrine in some pressure situation.

“were slain” — the aorist active indicative of apothnêskô (ἀποθνήσκω) [pronounced op-ohth-NACE-koh] should be translated “they died.” In other words, they were killed in many ways but dying for the supergrace believer is greater than anything in living. That is why this is a culminative aorist, viewing the killing with a sword here in its entirety emphasizes the result, physical death, and the blessing of dying in this way. Supergrace believers were murdered.

“with the sword” is wrong, it should be en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus phónos (φόνος) [pronounced FOHN-oss] which means “by murder”; “from a sword,” literally. This is a reference to the death of the governor of the remnant in Jerusalem, Gedaliah.

It is not always God’s will to deliver the supergrace believer. This passage and the verses we have been studying indicate that principle. Sometimes the death of a supergrace believer is the plan and will of God rather than the continuation of his life. Some of the reasons for this may be inscrutable but some of them are obvious. God takes in death the supergrace believer at the peak of his spiritual life, and that is the principle.

Another problem is to be isolated from the normal channels of society where food, shelter, and clothing are available.

“they wandered about” — the aorist active indicative of periérchomai (περιέρχομαι) [pronounced per-ee-EHR-khom-ahee] which means to be wandering around without roots. The constative aorist views the wandering around it its entirety. You may wander around for years, you may wander around for a short time, but it means to be lost and cut loose from normal channels of living. The connotation of the verb is also persecution and rejection, forcing them to wander from pillar to post. The supergrace believer produces the action of the verb by being rejected and isolated from society. They were persecuted, driven out of nations, out of cities, out of tribes, out of other organsations of the ancient world. The indicative mood is the historical reality of this fact.

“in sheepskins and goatskins” — we have a prepositional phrase, en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of mēlōt? (μηλωτή) [pronounced may-low-TAY] which is sheepskin but it means rough clothing actually, rough clothing in contrast to more sophisticated types of clothing. Both sheepskins and goatskins simply refer to very rough, crude, and uncomfortable clothing.

In the twelfth century there was a very wealthy merchant in Lyons in France, Peter Waldo. He read a Bible one day and was very impressed. The next day that he read it he found Christ as his Savior. He was a very prominent Roman Catholic layman and he was so impressed by what the Bible taught that he decided to give it to his friends. He paid a lot of money to two great language scholars of the time to translate the Bible into the French. And soon inside of the Roman Catholic church of the twelfth century there arose a group of believers. They were very much like the Plymouth Brethren. They began to meet, to pour over the Bible, and they developed into an organization which were later called the Waldenses. They existed in the Roman Catholic church and out of it. The Roman Catholics finally had a big meeting about them and at the Synod of Barona in 1184 they put an anathema on Peter Waldo. The Pope was so curious about this bunch that he sent a man out to investigate. One of the things that he said in his report was, “The Waldenses went about barefooted, clad in sheepskins and goatskins, and had all things in common like the apostles.” The Pope started a crusade against these people in southern France. As a result they suffered all of the things that we have been reading about in this passage. In about 1316 the Pope Innocent VIII launched a great crusade and by 1487 there was an overall crusade to completely destroy the Waldenses. He called Charles VIII of France and the Duke of Savoy in northern Italy both to destroy them. He sent out an army of 18,000 to do it and they were driven from their homes from pillar to post, they went across mountain passes in the winter, they starved to death, they were pushed off of mountains, they were raped, they were killed, they were tortured, and in spite of that they continue until the present time. But they went through all of this opposition because they simply found in the Word of God the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and, as a matter of fact, had a great influence all of the way over to Bohemia where the Hussites were greatly influenced by these people. Long before the Protestant reformation there always were born-again believer. There were those who were centering their lives in the Bible, there were those in opposition to the Roman Catholic church from the time when Romanism itself got off base in the time of Gregory the Great in the fourth century AD.

“being destitute” is the present passive participle of husteréō (ὑστερέω) [pronounced hoos-ter-EH-oh] and connotes being without food, shelter, and clothing. The historical present is employed when the past event is viewed as a present occurrence. These supergrace believers often found themselves in a time of economic recession or depression persecuted and destitute. Yet, everything was provided for them as in the case of Elijah.

“afflicted” — the present passive participle of thlíbō (θλίβω) [pronounced THLEE-bo] means to be harassed, to be tortured, to put maximum pressure on someone; “tormented” means tortured, maltreated or oppressed.

Hebrews 11:37 They were stoned to death, they were sawed in two, they were tested by pressure, they died by murder from a sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, suffering harassment, being oppressed.

Hebrews 11:38 of whom the world was not worthy—wandering about in deserts and mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

Verse 38, the great conclusion — “Concerning whom” is the genitive plural from the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]; “the world” — ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] kósmos (κόσμος) [pronounced KOSS-moss] is that part of humanity ruled by Satan; “was not” — the imperfect active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] plus the negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. When you put it together in the perfect tense you have a progressive imperfect of description for a process completed at a given point in past time. The Satanic world of unbelievers, the reversionistic believers, produced the action of the verb. The indicative mood is for historical reality. “Of whom the world was not worthy.”

“worthy” — the predicate nominative of axios (ἄξιος) [pronounced AX-ee-oss]. The believer with maximum doctrine in his soul is the only person of noble hero nature recognized by God. God recognizes those with doctrine in the soul as the true great ones of life. These people were greater than the people who persecuted them in every way.

“they wandered” — the present middle participle of planaô (πλανάω) [pronounced plahn-AH-oh] means to go astray, to wander about. The word is used in the Greek for sheep who are lost and who are being hunted by wolves. They are no match for the wolves. The historical present is employed when a past event is viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence — “whole they themselves wandered about.”

“in deserts” — they had to go to isolated areas. They were out of cities, out of countries, out of places where life was relatively pleasant. We have epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the locative of erēmía (ἐρημία) [pronounced er-ay-MEE-ah] which refers to a desert in the sense of an unpleasant desert.

An old timer told Bob to put a pebble in his mouth when he was out of water. That was a big mistake.

“and mountains” — mountains in the rugged sense of being exposed.

“and dens” — spêlaion (σπήλαιον) [pronounced SPAY-lah-yon] or “caves” where they have to find refuge and shelter; then the word “caves” isn’t a cave at all, it is an opê (ὀπή) [pronounced ohp-AY] which means a hole in the ground.

Hebrews 11:38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) while they themselves wandered about over deserts, and mountains, both in caves and holes of the earth.

So these supergrace believers were ostracised from society. They were driven into isolated places where they would suffer some privation. A reversionistic society always excommunicates the supergrace believer who in reality is the preservation of that society. This is the amazing thing, that those who do the most for the human race, and those who bring the greatest divine blessing on any segment of society are always ostracised by that society. Which brings us, then, to the concluding principle from these verses. There is no one more inconsistent than the unbeliever, except the reversionistic believer. Their very source of blessing they seek to destroy. The believer is the salt of the earth, preserving his country.

1972 Hebrews 11:39-40 Lesson #201

201 09/15/1974 Hebrews 11:39-40 Doctrine of the importance of Bible doctrine

Hebrews 11:39 And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised,...

What is found here and in the KJV is only coincidental, at best.

Verse 39 — “And these all”, a phrase which gathers up into one roster those noble men and women, those who were believers in the past who thought it was important to take in doctrine on a consistent basis and to grow up. They are all put together now under these three words. We have the conjunction kai used to introduce a result of what precedes, and therefore kai should be translated here, “And so.” We are now getting ready for a summary. Then, with this kai we have a nominative masculine plural from the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. Houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] is used to designate something in context that is special, and it is something near in context. There are two basic demonstrative pronouns, the other is ἐκενος which indicates something more distant in context. The demonstrative pronoun is always used in the Greek language to designate an object in context, a very special object, something that is noble, something that is great. In effect, this particular demonstrative pronoun tells us we have studied only magnificent people. Obviously these supergrace heroes also failed from time to time but the difference between them and the reversionist is that they utilized the rebound technique, they recovered, and they never allowed their failures to hold them back. We also have another word, the nominative masculine plural of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] indicating that all are included. “And so all of these” — everyone who is mentioned.

A self righteous person sets up his own set of standards and holds everyone else to those standards. The pharisees are self righteous people. The pharisees which plotted against the Lord were self righteous jackasses. People with character are much different from people who are self righteous. They may seem to be the same superficially. But under the surface, they are much different.

There is little great said about Isaac or Jacob. Some people have had such spectacular failures that, you cannot imagine why they are placed in Scripture.

All of these refers back to the supergrace heroes found in this chapter. All of these people with have an SG3 paragraph.

Biddies have all kinds of problems with Rahab, but she is a great supergrace hero.

“having obtained a good report” — the aorist passive participle of the verb martureô (μαρτυρέω) [pronounced mar-too-REH-oh]. Martureô (μαρτυρέω) [pronounced mar-too-REH-oh] has always been misunderstood because people take a transliteration called “martyr” and try to hook it up. This does not mean to be a martyr, it means something entirely different in the Greek. In the active voice it means to bear witness or to testify. It was used especially for testifying in courts. It means to confirm something. But it is in the passive voice here and the meaning changes, it means to receive approbation or a testimony. It means to be well spoken of and finally in the passive voice it comes to mean “approved.” Therefore it should be translated, “having received approval.” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the function of a supergrace hero in his entirety but emphasizing the results of holding the high ground — dying grace which is better, and then surpassing grace in eternity. Doctrine resident in the soul was the basis of their approval. They met and overcame every pressure, every catastrophe, every disaster, every problem that can exist in the devil’s world.

“through faith” — the preposition dia plus the genitive of pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. Pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] means what is believed here, and what is believed refers to doctrine — “having received approval by means of doctrine resident in the soul.” Doctrine in the soul is key to this chapter.

The Importance of Bible Doctrine (Review)

1. Definition. Bible doctrine is the content of the scripture communicated by teaching and instruction. Doctrine is the communication of Bible subjects on the basis of exegesis from the original languages. Context, content, analysis and classification of subjects, as well as isagogics are involved in the presentation of doctrine. In other words, very simply doctrine is what the Bible teaches.

2. Biblical nomenclature for doctrine. This is a review, so we won’t cover these.

3. The legacy of believers in Bible doctrine. Psalm 138:2 — “I will worship,” hithpael imperfect of the verb shachah, and should be translated “I myself will worship” — “toward the temple of your holiness”, i.e. toward heaven where God lives. The next phrase says, “and praise,” the hiphil imperfect of the verb yâdâh (יָדָה) [pronounced yaw-DAWH] and it means to celebrate. That is what worship is all about; “your person” — occupation with the person of Christ or the supergrace status manifest through its spiritual concepts. The word “for” is a causal waw and should be translated “because.” The word “loving-kindness” is incorrect, it is cheçed (חֶסֶד) [pronounced KHEH-sed] which means grace. This refers to saving grace, living grace, supergrace, dying grace, and surpassing grace; “and for your truth,” we have a causal waw plus the noun ʾěmûwnâh (אֱמוּנָה) [pronounced eh-moo-NAWH], used in the sense of doctrine. “I myself will worship toward the temple of your holiness [heaven, the real holy of holies] and celebrate your person [occupation with Christ] because of your grace and because of your doctrine.”

a. The second sentence in this verse tells us how this is accomplished — “for thou hast magnified,” the hiphil perfect of gadal — “thy word” is imrah, doctrinal teaching; “above all thy name” — literally, ‘over your reputation’. God has placed in the line, as it were, His reputation and related it to doctrine as a part of grace. And God has placed such emphasis on that that we are to understand from this verse that no one can understand the reputation of God, the character of God, the person of God, or any factor pertaining to God unless he has Bible. doctrine resident in his own soul.

b. Psalm138:2 I myself will worship toward the temple of your holiness, and celebrate your person because of your grace and because of your doctrine; because you have magnified your doctrinal teaching over your reputation.

c. In other words, doctrinal communication is the means of glorifying God in the angelic conflict. This is the tactical phase. Doctrinal teaching is the means of residency of doctrine in the believer’s soul. Maximum resident doctrine means supergrace status, supergrace status glorifies God. God is only glorified by the supergrace believer and by giving Him great blessing, and by the supergrace believer utilizing resident doctrine to meet the exigencies of life. Therefore everything is tied up with doctrine resident in the soul.

4. In His dying breath the Lord Jesus Christ made doctrine the spiritual legacy of the royal family of God — Psalm 31:5 which is partially quoted in Luke 23:46 as the last statement of our Lord on the cross; “Into your hands I deposit my spirit, for you have delivered me, O Jehovah, God of doctrine.” God the Father is the God of doctrine. It was only possible for the Lord Jesus Christ to go to the cross on the basis of doctrine resident in His soul.

5. Bible doctrine preexisted the human race — Proverbs 8. It was not reduced to writing but it was in the mind of God.

6. Attitude toward doctrine determines whether the believer is going to be blessed or disciplined in time — Proverbs 8:33–36 which is really the overall summary of Hebrews chapters 11 and 12. Hebrews 11: supergrace and its blessings; Hebrews 12: discipline and its cursing. Every believer has to decide in which chapter he is going to live. “Listen to instruction [Bible teaching], and be wise [Bible doctrine resident in your soul], do not neglect it. Blessed [SG2 and SG3] is the man who listens to me [doctrine], watching daily at my gates [the gates refer to the auditorium where they listened to Bible doctrine in OT times], waiting at my doors [the attitude of positive volition]. For he who finds me [doctrine] finds capacity for life, and obtains supergrace from the Lord. He who sins against me [rejection of Bible doctrine] injures himself [with divine discipline]; all those who hate me [doctrine] love death [the sin unto death].”

7. Therefore, doctrine is the basis for the distribution of supergrace blessings — Isaiah 53:12. Because of the cross, because of the saving work of Jesus Christ, we are now in that status called tactical victory or distribution of spoils, and by Bible doctrine resident in the soul we enjoy the distribution of spoils. These spoils were collected for us in eternity past and they were designed for us in the divine decrees as our very very own supergrace and surpassing grace blessings.

8. Doctrine is the basis for the distribution of surpassing grace blessings in eternity — Hebrews 11:9,10 cf. 11:13; James 1:25 cf. 2:12,13.

9. There is a principle at this point. Bible doctrine to the supergrace believer is much more real than empirical knowledge — 2Peter 1:12–21. If there is a conflict between what you see, what you hear, what you smell, or even what you think, and what Bible doctrine says, Bible doctrine is always right. Bible doctrine is the criterion for the royal family of God.

10. Lack of doctrine destroys a nation — Hosea 4:1–6.

11. Bible doctrine is a part of the principle of living grace in phase two. Under living grace God provides both spiritual and temporal factors to keep the believer alive and progressing.

12. The plan of God is both advanced and vindicated through Bible doctrine — Isaiah 53:10; Romans 3:3,4.

13. The pastor or communicator of doctrine establishes the balance of residency in the soul of the believer. The principle of residency is threefold.

a. First of all, we have God the Holy Spirit indwelling the body of every believer — 1Corinthians 6:19. Indwelling refers to the believer’s body and it never refers to his soul. The ministry of the Holy Spirit in the soul is something different, it is temporary and can be cancelled. The ministry of the Holy Spirit in the body cannot be cancelled ever.

b. Secondly, the filling of the Spirit — Ephesians 5:18.

c. Thirdly, the indwelling of Bible doctrine. So Bible doctrine is transferred from the canon of scripture to the individual’s soul, the function of GAP. Therefore the vacancy of doctrine in the soul establishes a spiritual imbalance between filling of the Spirit and residency of doctrine, and this residency is implemented by the daily function of GAP creating a balance, and once that balance is created you are a mature believer and/or in the high ground.

14. Therefore the importance of consistency in the function of GAP. The command to go to Bible class is given in Hebrews 10:25 — “Stop neglecting the assembling of yourselves together as is the habit of certain ones, but by being an encouragement even so much as you see the day drawing near.” Hebrews 10:35 — “Therefore do not throw away as worthless your confidence in doctrine, which confidence keeps having rich distribution of blessing.” Hebrews 10:36 — “For you keep on having need of perseverance [persistence in the function of GAP] in order that when you have accomplished the will of God [GAPing it to supergrace] you might carry off for yourself the promise [SG2 and SG3].” Colossians 2:6,7.

15. The results of doctrine resident in the soul, at least eight, are representative of what the scripture teaches.

a. Doctrine resident in the soul produces confidence for time — Job 5:24; 2Corinthians 5:6,8.

b. It produces divine viewpoint of life — Isaiah 55:7,8; 2Corinthians 10:5.

c. It orients the believer to the plan of God — Isaiah 26:3,4; Romans 8:28.

d. It produces stability of mind — James 1:8.

e. It is the basis for divine guidance in the execution of the will of God — Romans 12:2,3.

f. It leads to occupation with the person of Christ and the capacity and the ability to love God — Philippians 3:10; Ephesians 3:19; Hebrews 12:2,3.

g. It attains and holds the supergrace status — Philippians 3:12–14.

h. it attains surpassing grace blessings in eternity — Hebrews 11:9, 10, 13; James 1:25 cf. 2:12,13.

Driving in Houston has become so dangerous that Bob has almost become a defensive driver.

Bob giving his opinions about women smoking. Bob’s lived 25 years in Houston and he loves bad air; it is a sign of prosperity.

Therefore, Bible doctrine becomes the most important thing of all.

“You cannot choose your battlefield, God does that for you

But you can plant the colours where the colours never flew.”

“received not the promise” — “received not” is the aorist middle indicative of komízō (κομίζω) [pronounced kohm-IHD-zoh]. Komízō (κομίζω) [pronounced kohm-IHD-zoh] is used but the word for “receive” in the Greek is usually lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh]. Why do we not have it here? God owes you SG3 just as God owes you SG2. In eternity past God the Father said, “I have a special blessing paragraph for you in time.” It was designed then. Your SG2 is a reality. You may never get there but it is a reality, and komízō (κομίζω) [pronounced kohm-IHD-zoh] means God has already designed it. He owes it to you. It is just a matter of having enough doctrine to attain it. You can count on this: SG2 is a down payment on SG3. Furthermore, the middle voice is a direct middle referring to the results of the action directly to the agent with reflexive force. So it should be translated, “did not receive to himself.” The constative aorist gathers up into one entirety paragraph SG3, your surpassing grace blessings forever. The indicative mood is the reality of SG3 on the basis of SG2. All of us will die, as others in the past have, without receiving SG3. No one gets SG3 on the earth. The word “promise” is the accusative singular direct object from epaggelia (ἐπαγγελία) [pronounced ehp-ang-ehl-EE-ah] referring to paragraph SG3.

We are royal family; we rank above the OT saints.

Hebrews 11:39 And so all these [supergrace heroes], having received approval [SG2] by means of doctrine resident in the soul, did not receive for themselves the promise [SG3]...

Hebrews 11:40 ...since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Verse 40 tells us when the Old Testament saints will all get SG3. “God” — ho Theos, “The God” — this is the genitive. How can you have a subject in the genitive case? It is very hard to do but the Greeks found a way to do it by way of what is called a genitive absolute, a system for getting the genitive case in the subject. Remember that the genitive case is a descriptive case as well as a possessive case, and both descriptive and possessive are true here. God becomes the subject but it is “our God” who is the subject. There is the possessive genitive. And it is our God who is the subject, that is the descriptive. it is God who is going to provide for supergrace believers surpassing grace blessings and rewards forever and ever. But the Old Testament believers are going to have to wait out the Church age. The royal family is first in line.

“having provided” — aorist middle participle of problépō (προβλέπω) [pronounced prohb-LEHP-oh]. It means to provide but it meant originally to see beforehand, to see it before it happened. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it gathers into a single whole the doctrine of divine decrees in eternity past, and your SG2 and SG3 are all there, as well as all of these Old Testament supergrace heroes. The middle voice is indirect, emphasizing God as the agent producing SG2 and SG3 but doing it in eternity past. “The God himself having provided beforehand”. This is a causal participle denoting what is the ground of action for the main verb. Therefore it should be translated “since” — “Since the God himself having provided ahead of time.”

“some better things” — the accusative of direct object from kreittôn (κρείττων) [pronounced KRITE-tohn] which in the neuter means “something better.” This refers to the entire structure of the Church Age. It begins at the point of salvation with the baptism of the Spirit whereby suddenly you are late as far as history is concerned but you’re first in line. The baptism of the Holy Spirit makes you royal family forever and puts you up in the front of the line of God’s plan. As the royal family of God the believer of the Church Age lives at a time when the strategic victory has already been accomplished and the issue of the tactical victory is the basis for our intensive conflict. The death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ to the right hand of the Father has now settled the strategic victory forever. It is now a matter of tactical exploitation. The holy of holies was forbidden to the Old Testament saints because it was for us, the believers of the Church Age first. Add to this also the fact that for the first time in history, and exclusive to the Church Age, Jesus Christ also indwells every believer. Israel was dependent on a specialized priesthood from the tribe of Levi. We have a universal priesthood. The variety of sources of doctrine in the Old Testament were very confusing in confirmation of authority of the communicator. Now all divine revelation is reduced to writing, there is one source, the completed canon of scripture, and there is no extra biblical revelation. Concentration of doctrine provides a better system for communication and the gift of pastor-teacher, the provision of a classroom, the local church, all make it easier today than it ever has been before to achieve SG2 in a hurry. Therefore the best dispensation in which to live is the one in which we live. Furthermore, the abrogation of the Mosaic covenant and the clear definition of the new covenant to the Church, a superseding principle, clarifies the issue of grace.

We live at the best time possible. Some people think that they want to live when Jesus lived, but that is wrong. We have all the conveniences of modern plumbing and supergrace as well. Our attitude towards Bible doctrine is the same as our attitude towards Jesus Christ.

“for us” — peri plus the genitive plural of egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH] means “on behalf of us”; “that” is the conjunction hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] which introduces a purpose clause — “in order that.”

“without us” — an adverb chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE] is what is called an improper preposition, plus the genitive of egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH]. This is an adverb used as a preposition and is called an improper preposition. It was not originally a preposition, but it became a preposition.

And chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE] plus the genitive means “apart from,” and so it means “apart from us.” Apart from us David will never get his SG3; apart from us Abraham will never get his SG3. “Us” is the Church Age believer. Apart from us the supergrace heroes of the Old Testament do not get their rewards. They are last in line and you have to have the first in the line before the last. As royal family we get ours first, so after admiring all of these fantastic supergrace heroes we are encouraged now to press on so that they can have theirs.

“should not be made perfect” is wrong. We have the aorist passive subjunctive third person plural of teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh] and it means to be completed. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist employed to view the attainment of SG3 and dying grace in its entirety but to emphasize the existing results in the attainment of SG3. The negative mê indicates that these Old Testament supergrace heroes all have SG2 plus dying grace. But m (μή) [pronounced may] plus the culminative aorist: they have not yet received SG3. They have not yet been completed. The completion will be eternity and receiving their SG3. So they are waiting for the royal family. The passive voice plus the third person suffix of the verb refers to the Old Testament supergrace heroes, plus the negative indicating that they do not have SG3. They are going to have it in the future but they do not have it and will not have it until we get ours first. Mê plus the subjunctive is a prohibitive subjunctive and it doesn’t mean it is potential, they will have it, it means they are prohibited from claiming it until we claim ours.

Hebrews 11:40 ...since the God himself [God the Father] having provided something better for us [the royal family], so that apart from us [royal family] they [OT supergrace heroes] should not be completed.

1972 Hebrews 12:1a Lesson #202

202 09/16/1974 Hebrews 12:1a Biography of the reversionist - Gory Road

Chapter 12

The first three verses really should have gone with the previous chapter, but as they did not they are the challenge to follow the colours and they are the beginning of the great three-paragraph field order to all members of the royal family of God. The royal family of God are first in line. We complete the Old Testament saints.

Outline of Hebrews 12

1. Vv. 1–3

2. Verses 4–15 present the great tragedy of living in this life as a member of the royal family — the alternative to supergrace.

3. The third paragraph, verses 16–29, is really for the unbeliever. This is where the pastor turns evangelist.

The road to glory is saving grace followed by living grace. Dying grace followed by surpassing grace.

There is another road, the road to disaster, where the taking in of doctrine is disparaged. Often with discipline, there is some prosperity and happiness; but it is based upon no capacity for life and it is removed, in part, as a part of your discipline.

“Don’t call Bob up, weeping and wailing, and saying, ‘you were right!’ I know I’m right.”

Jacob got his older brother to trade his birthright for a bowl of baked beans. What was Esau hungry? Why did he turn into a crybaby? Why did he find the baked beans to be more important than his birthright?

The royal family is first in line. We have all stood in line.

Verse 1 — this is an order to those who are going to be first in line in eternity. This is an order, therefore, to everyone who is a member of the royal family of God. We start out with a triple compound inferential particle. It is all one word, toigaroun (τοιγαρον) [pronounced toy-gar-OON], and is the most intensive of all particles in the Koine Greek and it does not lend itself to a one-word translation. “Wherefore” is too weak. It has to be something very unusual, very strong, very intensive. “For that very reason therefore” is the best we can do with it — since we are first in line. That is what the Rapture does. Royalty is first in line, rank has its privileges.

We have another problem with this inferential particle and that is Hebrews 10:39. The thought of Hebrews 10:39 is carried forward here. “But we are not the retreating category of the royal family of God for the purpose of destruction {sin unto death], but we are the doctrinal type for the possession of the soul.” That is the key to everything from Hebrews 10:39 to chapter 13. Doctrine must possess the soul for balance of residency, so the royal family is designed for maximum doctrinal possession. We must have a balance between the filling of the Holy Spirit and doctrine. Once that balance is achieved the believer is in supergrace and begins to live a normal life as a royal priest. “For this very reason therefore” — this means we are not the retreating kind, this means we are first in line, this means there is no excuse for any of us not living long enough to seize and hold supergrace. And if you show any signs of positive volition, any signs of persistence, any drive toward the objective, God will keep you alive long enough to seize and to hold. All you have to do is to show something in attitude. Attitude, therefore, is one of the most important things in life. Therefore we follow the road to glory with the mental attitude of positive volition toward doctrine, from saving grace to living grace, living grace to supergrace, from supergrace to dying grace, and from dying grace to surpassing grace. (We are first in line)

The alternative to this, then, is the road to discipline, from positive volition to negative volition, from negative volition to reversionism, from reversionism to warning discipline, from warning discipline to intensive discipline, from intensive discipline to the sin unto death [dying discipline].

So for this very reason we are not designed for the sin unto death, we are designed for tactical victory. if we are first in line we were never designed to go the way of the sin unto death. Here is the whole point of toigaroun (τοιγαρον) [pronounced toy-gar-OON]. In eternity past God had SG2 just for you, and He designed SG2 for every believer, so every believer has his own. And then, God has designed SG3 with our own name on it. It belongs to us and to no one else. No one else can claim it, we are the only ones who can. If we do not, then of course, we have the alternative which is losing these and having maximum discipline in time and being peons in eternity. If God designed these SG blessings for you it is quite obvious that it is not His will for you to die the sin unto death. “For that very reason” we are not designed for the sin unto death. We will go the route of the sin unto death as an alternative. Failure means if you fail in the Christian life you will know it. When God flunks you, you know it.

“seeing we also” — the adjunctive use of the conjunction kai means “also (Adjunctive means something is now added to this beautiful road to glory). The word “we” is the nominative plural of the personal pronoun egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH]. This is what is called an ageless egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH]. In other words, it refers to every generation of the royal family of God. It refers to us right now just as it referred to those reversionistic believers living in Jerusalem in 67 AD. So “we also” is very important and it refers to the positive believer on the road to supergrace, seizing and holding the high ground, and it refers, therefore, to the one who is dedicated to following the colours and having Bible doctrine resident in the soul and facing every disaster in life, becoming spiritually self-sustaining and making his own decisions on the basis of the inner residency of doctrine.

“are compassed about with” is mistranslated. The reason is that we have two participles here. The first of these is a present active participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] which means to have or to have and to hold. It simply is not found in the English, but then neither is the second participle. The present tense of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] is the static present for a condition or a situation perpetually existing. We will always have that roster of supergrace Old Testament believers. They are there, they are in God’s mind forever, they will receive their SG3 in the future. The static present is a reminder that even though they are last in line they will receive their reward in eternity. The active voice refers to the fact also that the royal family producing the action of the verb here possesses its own roster.

The supergrace heroes in Hebrews chapter eleven are to be a source of encouragement to us. That is what God the Holy Spirit picked a variety. You don’t realize it when going through Hebrews eleven that there is a phenomenal diversification of types of people, of variety of supergrace blessings emphasized. This is to encourage all of us. We are different, we have a different emphasis within our SG2 but whatever our emphasis is it is our very own, there isn’t anything that can excel it in time, and therefore for this reason there must be a three-paragraph field order to get there. The first paragraph then is authorization to advance — verse 1. We are not authorized or commanded to retreat. Advancing means taking in doctrine today, tomorrow, the next day, the next. Paragraph two is the objective of the attack — verse 2. Paragraph three is the enemy forces, and our enemies are believers! Reversionistic believers. They are the enemy of Christ, the enemy of the cross, and they are the enemy of the believer.

The participle is a concessive participle, translated “since” — “since we keep having.” The second participle is closely related to the word “encompassed.” Actually it means encompassed in the sense of surrounding — the present middle participle of perikeimai (περίκειμαι) [pronounced per-IHK-i-mahee] which means here to surround in the sense of support. Peri means around; keimai means to support. The present tense again is the static present for the fact that the roster of Old Testament supergrace heroes form permanent support and encouragement for the royal family. Every person who ever went before us in the Old Testament who made supergrace is a support for us, a barrage to protect us in our advance, to encourage us. Therefore one of the great things about studying the Bible characters of the Old Testament is that they are a basis of encouraging us to move forward to follow the colours, to do what they did. Not only do these people glorify God by their own personal advance in the day in which they lived but they do more than that, they act as an encouragement to us. So we are surrounded or supported, and that is the present middle participle. The middle voice is a direct middle in which the agent, the royal family, participates in the results of the action, advancing to the high ground under the cover of combat support units, the Old Testament believers. In other words, the royal family of the Church Age is supported in their advance to the high ground by past victories recorded in the Word of God. The participle is circumstantial. “For this reason therefore, since we also keep having supporting us [surrounding us].”

Between these two participles: “keep having” and “surrounding us” — there is something in the Greek in between. First of all we have the phrase “so great.” This is the accusative singular direct object of the qualitative demonstrative pronoun tosoutos (τοσοτος) [pronounced toss-OO-toss]. This emphasizes the extreme high quality of the Old Testament supergrace heroes. So we have the best possible combat support in our advance to the high ground. The words should not be “so great” but “such great.” The accusative is the direct object of the first participle, echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh]. There is no definite article here and that emphasizes the quality of the pronoun. Hence, we have a double emphasis on quality.

Next is the word “cloud,” the nominative singular of nephos (νέφος) [pronounced NEHF-oss] and becomes the subject of the second participle. “Cloud” is used euphemistically for a battalion. Arndt and Ginchrich, page 539, says, “This is figurative of a compact, numberless throng. .. since we have such a battalion of witnesses surrounding us.”

“For this reason, therefore, since we also keep having such a great battalion of witnesses supporting us.”

“witness” — witnessing technically has nothing to do with evangelization. The word is mártus (μάρτυς) [pronounced MAHR-tooç], and this even further complicates the problem because mártus (μάρτυς) [pronounced MAHR-tooç] has been considered martyrdom. While martyrdom is an English word taken from the Greek it does mean that either. Mártus (μάρτυς) [pronounced MAHR-tooç] is simply a person who goes to court and declares the truth, or a person who gives witness in a case, or gives testimony to the fact that the high ground here of supergrace can be seized and held until death, which is the use of it here. These people give deposition to the fact that in any generation anyone who is positive will get to the high ground. This is their deposition. We have, then, in Hebrews eleven that in different generations under different historical circumstances, some prosperous, some adverse, it was always possible for anyone who was a believer to get to the high ground. All he brings into the conflict is his own non-meritorious positive volition and God takes it from there.

“let us lay aside” — the aorist middle participle of apotithêmi (ἀποτίθημι) [pronounced ap-oht-EETH-ay-mee]. It means here “having taken off, having stripped for action.” There is no hortatory subjunctive here. The participle often doubles for the imperative but not even here is that true. This participle merely supports the command that will be given. it is the aorist participle, therefore a constative aorist taking the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the concept of stripping or preparing for action and regardless of its extent or duration gathers it into a single whole. In other words, the word means to strip for action. It not only refers to the actual stripping for action at the time of the advance but all of the preparation that makes it possible for you to be there advancing — the intake of Bible doctrine. So it has the concept of gathering up everything that it took to bring you to the point where you can advance. The constative aorist includes identification of your right pastor, the persistent assembling in the classroom of the local church, regardless of distractions in order to take in the Word, and concentrating on the teaching of the Word of God. It means that there must be both exegesis, isagogics, and categories. It means that there must be your own personal function of the priesthood in rebound. This is the way you strip for action. The indirect middle here emphasizes the agent, the Church Age believer, the royal family producing the action of the verb rather than participating in the results. The participle is circumstantial depicting troops preparing for action by the removal of any accouterments that might impede their advance. So we have the principle: “having removed every weight.”

The word for “weight” is not quite correct. We have two accusative here, pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] plus ónkos (ὄγκος) [pronounced ONG-koss], which means “every impediment” — “having removed every impediment.” As members of the royal family of God we have some impediments to our advance, and they have to be removed. What are some of these things?

Impediments to Remove

1. It is a reference to distractions;

2. b) We have to get rid of things which in our daily lives have a tendency to want us to deviate from the place where the doctrine is taught. That means we have to be aware and alert with regard to our routine in life;

3. c) Social distractions;

4. d) Sexual distractions;

5. e) Economic or monetary distractions;

6. f) Pleasure or entertainment distractions;

7. g) Personality conflicts;

8. h) Mental attitude impediments — bitterness, jealousy, vindictiveness, implacability, self-pity, etc.;

9. i) reactor factors — discouragement, disillusion, boredom, frustration, loneliness;

10. j) Involvement with human celebrityship;

11. k) These distractions must be distinguished from sin. The distraction itself is not a sin, just as temptation is not a sin. The sin is when you yield to the temptation and do it. The sin here is where you follow through with your distraction, when you allow your distraction to hinder you from the Word or where your distraction produces sins.

Lesson #202 continues here; and #203 picks up here. Is it a review?

The next phrase gets us into the point of sin. Impediments are one thing, they are sin related. If you yield to an impediment obviously you will sin. But then we have sin as a separate category here — “and the sin” is the accusative direct object from hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah]. This includes specific categories of sin — mental attitude sins, sins of the tongue, overt sins, plus the function of the lust pattern. The accusative singular means we are talking about the old sin nature.

“which doth so easily beset” — this is an adjective in the accusative singular, and it is euperistatos (εὐπερίστατος) [pronounced yoo-per-IHS-tat-oss]. It means to easily entangle or so easily wraps itself around you or so easily ensnares. The best translation would be “easily ensnaring.” Everyone has one!

“and the sin” — the accusative singular direct object from the noun hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah] which in the singular generally refers to the old sin nature. This means that we have categories involved immediately.

“which doth so easily beset us” — the compound adjective in the accusative singular euperistatos (εὐπερίστατος) [pronounced yoo-per-IHS-tat-oss] which means to easily ensnare, to easily wrap itself around, to easily entangle.

Everyone has an easily ensnaring sin.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #203

203 09/17/1974 Hebrews 12:1b-2a Doctrine of occupation with Jesus Christ

Bob backs up a little on some of the vocabulary from last night.

What Is the Easily Ensnaring Sin?

1. It is the believer’s current area of weakness. Areas of weakness often change, so it is the current area of weakness. Areas of weakness change because of spiritual growth. They also change because of loss of health or gain of physical strength, or change of outside environment. There are a lot of reasons why the area of weakness changes.

2. Area of weakness change is related to the believer’s progress or retrogression in the Christian way of life; advancing and retreating affects the lust patterns.

3. The advancing believer faces carnality as his easily ensnaring sin;

4. The solution for the advancing believer is rebound;

5. The retrogressing, retreating believer has a more complex area of weakness in reversionism;

6. The solution is likewise more complex for it involves more than rebound. Rebound in the beginning but there has to be a change of attitude toward doctrine, a continual one.

Bob taught in SF, and he had to throw 3 or 4 people out the first night. They left and came back with reinforcements. But, by the end of the conference, they were just like a Texas audience.

Banning the babies in Church. Worst problem since barbarians invaded in the 5^th century. An article. This is apparently taking place in Catholic churches?

A review of v. 1 so far. The impediments are weights, which include reactor factors, etc. All distractions have sin related to them.

The sin which so easily besets us. Various kinds of lusts. Area of weakness. A review of two words from last night.

The context deals only with the believer who is advancing here. Not until we get to verse 4 do we get the retrogressing believer. Therefore the stripping for action principle which is mentioned here comes through the rebound technique.

“let us run” — the present active subjunctive of the verb trechô (τρέχω) [pronounced TREHK-oh] which is used two ways in the Koine Greek. It is used for running in a track meet; it is used for advancing in a military situation. Here, of course, following the other types of words in the context it means to charge, to advance on the run, to advance in quick time or double time. The present tense is a tendencial present used for an action which is commanded though it is not taking place at the moment in 67 AD, the time of writing. It represents the idea which is intended as the objective of the Christian way of life. The active voice: the royal family is commanded to participate in the action by advancing to the high ground of supergrace. This is a hortatory subjunctive by which the writer invites the readers to join him in a course of action and therefore becomes a command. “Let us advance on the run” is the way that the hortatory subjunctive is translated.

“with patience” — the prepositional phrase dia plus the genitive of hupomonê (ὐπομονή) [pronounced hoop-ohm-ohn-AY], which means “endurance.” Dia plus the genitive means “through endurance” or “with endurance.” Endurance connotes the necessity for being consistent, the necessity for being persistent about taking in Bible doctrine. It is a daily issue. This calls for endurance and endurance is the antithesis of distraction. We strip off the distractions and as we advance we endure. So endurance, then, is persistent positive volition toward Bible teaching. The circumstances may be prosperity or the circumstances may be adversity and tragedy, but positive volition must continue through changing and varying circumstances. This is what was taught in Hebrews 10:23.

“the race” — the word “race doesn’t mean race. Again, it has a dual meaning. It is the accusative singular direct object of agôn (ἀγών) [pronounced ag-OHN] which means a contest, a fight, and it also means a battle. It is used here for a battle, a struggle, a conflict. It is used, therefore, in the military sense of a combat objective. The combat objective in the angelic conflict is to seize and hold the high ground of the supergrace life. This is the normal function of the royal priesthood. This is the road to glory; this is the road that glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ.

“that is set before us” — the present middle participle prokeimai (πρόκειμαι) [pronounced PROHK-i-mahee], a verb which means an objective. The present middle participle means to lie before, to be present, but this is the ascriptive use of the participle in which instead of translating it like a verb it becomes a substantive and should be translated “to the present objective.”

Hebrews 12:1 For this reason therefore, since we also keep having such a great battalion of witnesses supporting us, having stripped for action every impediment, and the easily ensnaring sin, let us advance on the run with endurance in the conflict to the present objective. The present objective is the supergrace life.

Heb 12:2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Verse 2 — paragraph two: the objective of the advance. “Looking” is the present active participle of aphoraô (ἀφοράω) [pronounced af-or-AH-oh] which means to turn the eyes away from distraction and concentrate or fix them on something else. It means to focus, the view from the source of doctrine, and it comes to mean here concentration on or occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. The customary present denotes what is expected of every believer. This habitually occurs and is expected to occur under normal conditions in the Christian way of life. The active voice: the royal family produces the action of the verb. The participle is the imperative use of the participle, it is a command. So it should be translated, “Be concentrating on.”

Then we have a prepositional phrase, eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of Iêsous (̓Ιησος) [pronounced ee-ay-SOOCE], and it means “Be concentrating on Jesus.” The objective of following the colours is to reach the high ground of supergrace and occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. This is the ultimate in spiritual experience. The things that are not even important in spiritual experience are such things as being healed, having a super experience of some kind, having the rosy glow, etc. These are not even spiritual experiences at all. That isn’t the objective at all, the objective is occupation with the person of Jesus Christ. When believers neglect Bible doctrine they do not love Jesus Christ. You cannot force yourself or others to love Jesus Christ.

Same is true of people. You cannot make some love someone else. The exception to this is gaining the love of a child. You can gain love of a child easily.

Love does not mean that we give the Chinese and Russians wheat and sophisticated bombs and guidance systems, etc. It is so stupid and ludicrous, that we wonder where we parked our brains.

The Doctrine of Occupation with the Person of Jesus Christ (4)

1. Defining occupation with Christ:

a. By definition occupation with Christ is then highest spiritual function of the believer in time. This is more important than loving people, dogs or good scenery.

b. It is category #1 love in which the mature believer with Bible doctrine in his soul is capable of appreciating, respecting, and loving the Lord Jesus Christ.

c. Since Christ is the manifest person of the Godhead it becomes maximum love toward the second person of the Trinity. Emotion is not love.

d. Therefore occupation with Christ is the maximum expression of category #1 love toward God — Deuteronomy 6:5. All love emanates from the heart, but when the Bible talks about “heart” it is talking about love from the right lobe, from where you think. Emotion is not love; love is strictly in the mentality. Bible doctrine starts in the mentality of the soul and spreads to the rest of the soul. Knowledge is always the key. You cannot love Jesus Christ unless you know Him, and you cannot know Him apart from Bible doctrine in the right lobe.

i. You have to know Jesus Christ in order to love Him.

ii. You cannot look at a woman and love her. You have to know her. If you think you love her, you are just revealing what an idiot you are.

iii. God loves us because He knows us. He knows every one of His creatures. He knows us well and He still loves us.

iv. Once you begin to know Jesus Christ, you love Him.

2. Occupation with Christ begins with the believer’s entrance into the supergrace life — Colossians 3:16,17.

3. Occupation with Christ glorifies Christ — Ephesians 3:19-21, “to come to know the surpassing knowledge-love of Christ” is exactly what the Greek says. That is occupation with Christ.

4. The means of occupation with Christ is the function of GAP.

a. Persistent perception of doctrine accumulates maximum residency of doctrine in the soul;

b. This maximum doctrine resident in the soul is the basis for spiritual maturity known as supergrace;

c. The basic characteristic of supergrace is occupation with Christ;

d. Man’s sense of accomplishment by human ability and effort can never be compared with the daily function of GAP producing supergrace status — Jeremiah 9:23,24; Ephesians 3:18; 4:20. We all have something about which we might boast.

5. Occupation with Christ eliminates the superficialities of human celebrityship — Philippians 3:7,8. Philippians 3:7–8 “But what category of things were gains to me, these same things I myself have concluded loss because of the Christ.” “More emphatically therefore, even I also myself conclude the all things of human celebrityship to be loss for the sake of the surpassing greatness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: because of whom I have forfeited the all things of human celebrityship, and keep on concluding them piles of dung, in order that I may gain Christ [seizing and holding the high ground].” If you walked through a pile of dog waste, people would avoid you and move away from you. Human celebrityship is very similar.

6. Occupation with Christ motivates the pastor-teacher to communicate Bible doctrine to the royal priesthood so that the royal priesthood can reach the objective — Hebrews 6:10 “For the Lord is not unjust to disregard your occupation [pastors], also the love which you yourselves [pastors] have demonstrated with reference to His Person, having ministered the word with reference to the saints, and continuing to minister [the Word].” R. B. Thieme, Jr.’s Corrected Translation

7. The mechanics of GAP produce the dynamics of occupation with Christ — James 1:19-21. Be swift to hear, slow to talk and slow to anger. Meekness is being under the authority of someone else. James 2:20 Doctrine apart from production is unemployed. An unteachable person always has conflicts with others and they are always right while everyone else is always wrong. James 2:23 Abraham was designated lover of God.

8. The illustration of occupation with Christ is found in the doctrine of right man-right woman — Ephesians 5:25–33.

9. Occupation with Christ is related to the strategic victory in the angelic conflict — Colossians 3:1,2 Hebrews 12:2.

10. The characteristics of occupation with Christ are several:

a. Occupation with Christ is the basis for the supergrace believer contributing to national blessing — Deuteronomy 30:15,16;

b. Occupation with Christ produces combat courage and victory in battle — Joshua 23:10,11;

c. Occupation with Christ is the basis for preservation and testing — Psalm 31:23,24;

d. Occupation with Christ is the basis for stability and great happiness — Psalm 16:8,9;

e. Occupation with Christ results in supergrace blessing — Psalm 37:4,5;

f. Occupation with Christ is the basis of strength under pressure — Hebrews 11:27;

g. Occupation with Christ avoids soul fatigue — Hebrews 12:3.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #204

204 09/18/1974 Hebrews 12:2b Doctrine of ascension and session

Verse 2b — “the author” is incorrect. Jesus Christ is not an author in the sense the word is used today. The word is archêgos (ἀρχηγόός) [pronounced ar-khay-GOSS] and has nothing to do with authorship. There are two words that carry the highest rank and authority from the Greek world and even in the Roman world where Koine Greek and Latin were both spoken by the Romans. The Romans became bilingual by the first century AD at the time of writing. The first of these is a)rxon which is equivalent to out modern field marshal or high-ranking general. Then, archêgos (ἀρχηγόός) [pronounced ar-khay-GOSS] is a little higher than an a)rxon, he is the prince-ruler, the highest person in the land. Archêgos (ἀρχηγόός) [pronounced ar-khay-GOSS] means prince-ruler here. We have with this the accusative singular of the definite article, and the definite article is used as a possessive pronoun indicating the fact that if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you personally possess the highest and greatest value that God has ever attached to any person, the prince-ruler, the Lord Jesus Christ. Not only is He King of kings and Lord of lords, not only is He deity, He is also true humanity and God the Father has attached the highest value to Him of anything that exists in this entire universe. And He is our personal possession.

Whenever you take a definite article and it stands for a possessive pronoun it attaches to that definite article used as a possessive pronoun the highest possible emphasis — “our prince-ruler,” someone who belongs to us. And He is called here not our Lord, not our God (which He is), not our Savior (which He is), not our high priest (which He is), but He is called our prince-ruler because the emphasis is on the fact that we are members of the royal family of God forever, and Jesus Christ is our prince-ruler. Plus we have the ascensive use of kai coming up after the word “finisher,” and that gives us the concept of how we know and love Jesus Christ.

“finisher” is also an accusative singular direct object from teleiōtês (τελειωτής) [pronounced tel-i-oh-TACE]. This is the only time this word occurs in the Bible. It means a completer or the one who brings to final attainment. That is the concept here. It is the Lord Jesus Christ and the point of occupation with Christ that brings us to the final attainment of the supergrace objective. Occupation with Christ is the first characteristic of supergrace and the last characteristic of the edification complex, and it is the Lord Jesus Christ who personally escorts each one of us to the high ground after we have followed the colours in the assault on our objective.

Louis XIV spent more money than anyone else before and after in France. He built and constructed a lot. He set all of the fashions for fags. They loved his shoes. He wore red high heeled shoes with laquer all over them. He wore his hat all of the time. He would sit and make everyone around him continue to stand. He planted all of the seeds for the French revolution. He set many precedents for royalty.

Then comes the ascensive kai — “even of our faith.” The words “of our faith” is wrong. First of all there is no pronoun. Secondly, we have the ablative of means in the singular of the noun pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs], and pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs] does mean faith but it also means two other things, it has a triple connotation. Here it means what is believed and/or doctrine. So we have the ablative of means for doctrine resident in the soul. The ablative is not the regular case for expressing means, the instrumental case is. However, the ablative of expressing means is a very unusual situation. When there is an implication of source or great value, then you go to the ablative instead of the instrumental to express means. The source of this something of value is God Himself, and the something of value itself is God. So God, the source, has provided Jesus Christ as something of the highest value. And it is the basis of beginning something. Jesus Christ is the founder or the originator of the royal family of which we are a part. Each one of us are first in line and now that we are first in line we need to take a look at something. What is our source? Our source is the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is our end? There is no end. We are in the royal family forever, we will never lose this status. Since you are born royalty there has to be a system for making you royalty, and there is. it is Bible doctrine in the soul.

Maria Antoinette was raped many times, and she went nobly to her death. It take years of training to think and act like royalty.

The devil does not like the royal family in his domain. He is tired of it. He is trying to do something about it constantly. After about 600 years, the devil learned to take a more indirect approach by keeping believers away from Bible doctrine.

The federal government should be our servant, not our ruler.

Satan has learned the power of calling for the greater good for the greater number. If he could just get some system of equality going, he could destroy free will. Now, you cannot tell the Christians from the unbelievers. Religion is one of the devil’s greatest attacks.

“Be occupied with [be concentrating on] the Lord Jesus our prince-ruler, even the one who brings us to the attainment of the supergrace objective by means of doctrine resident in the soul.”

This is the beautiful ablative of means, giving it great emphasis, and by changing from the instrumental of means to the ablative of means the writer under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit has told us in a half a sentence what the Christian way of life is all about. What is it all about? It is doctrine in the soul; the soul is the issue, the soul is the basis for capacity for life. The real you is in the soul.

The soul does not die; the body is a temporary house for that soul. The soul is always the issue.

The word “who” is the nominative singular from the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] and its antecedent is the Lord Jesus Christ, and referring to Him now in a classical example of what He did so that we might face this issue of doctrine in the soul.

The only people graduating from Dallas Theological Seminary are those who have gone to Berachah Church.

Most people cannot read Hebrews, because there is so much Attic Greek.

“for the joy” — this is a pure Classical Greek prepositional phrase. There is no Koine Greek in it at all. We have the preposition anti plus the ablative of chara (χαρά) [pronounced khahr-AH]. This is a substitutionary prepositional phrase. One thing is replaced by another and therefore it is translated, “who instead of his happiness.” We also have the possessive pronoun here. It is a possessive pronoun based upon the intensive pronoun autos. Autos in Classical Greek is not an intensive pronoun, it is simply a demonstrative pronoun. In Classical Greek they have no real intensive pronouns and autos therefore is used as a floating pronoun. It is demonstrative in form but it can be used as a possessive pronoun. So we have Classical Greek with great emphasis, “his happiness.” The word “his” being Classical Greek autos gives great emphasis — his and only his happiness. In other words, we are talking about the +H of the deity of Christ. There was a time when the +H of the deity of Christ was set aside — “who instead of his happiness.” The word “his,” by the way, is dative of possession, there is no exact equivalent in English.

But that is not all of it, we actually have something else here, a present active participle mistranslated “that was set before him.” This, too, is Classical Greek. This is the present active participle of the verb prokeimai (πρόκειμαι) [pronounced PROHK-i-mahee]. Going back to the ninth century BC, Homeric Greek, right up to the fifth century BC Attic Greek of Athens, a participle often is used simply as an adjective or a substantive. Here we have the ascriptive use of this participle. It is actually in quality a noun or it is going to modify the noun. So here is ascribes a certain quality to the noun and prokeimai (πρόκειμαι) [pronounced PROHK-i-mahee], present active participle, ascriptive use, simply means “present” — “who instead of his present happiness.” This is a reference to the happiness of the Lord Jesus Christ. In His deity He is +H; in His humanity He had maximum doctrine and therefore had an ECS, and in the top floor of that ECS He had +H. Now there has to be a substitute for His +H and so the +H that is mentioned here is only His human +H. His divine +H cannot be removed or taken from Him, or even used in substitution. But in His human soul where He had perfect happiness the Lord Jesus Christ at one point in His life had to have a substitute for that happiness. So we have Christ substituting the misery of the cross for that happiness. The substitute was the misery of the cross bearing our sins.

All the time that He was being tortured and all the time that He was under physical pain on the cross this did not require the removal of +H. In fact, +H was a part of the doctrine that sustained Him. But once He started to bear our sins, once He began to provide our salvation (for three hours He was on the cross in great excruciating pain) then +H had a substitute, and that was total misery. He had great misery instead of happiness — “who instead of his present happiness.”

Remember, this preposition anti also has a Koine Greek use, such as in Matthew 20:28 — “Just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve” — He came to serve in the sense of providing salvation — “and to give his soul a ransom” — and then we have anti — “in exchange for the many.” So anti is used two ways in the scripture. The Koine anti is used for the substitution, Christ bearing our sins in His own body on the cross. The Classical Greek anti is used for the fact that Jesus Christ was on that cross with +H in His humanity and that He had to substitute misery for it as He bore the burden of our sins.

What caused our Lord to exchange His eternal and present happiness for the misery of the cross? And what motivated His substitution? The answer is found in Bible doctrine resident in His human soul. Bible doctrine resident in the soul oriented Him to the plan of the Father. It was the plan of the Father that He bear the sins of the world, that He become the only Savior. He was unique in His entrance into this earth through the virgin birth. He was unique in His life upon this earth. In His humanity He was perfect and He was the God-Man in hypostatic union. So the objective of this first advent was the cross. Bible doctrine motivated Him to keep going. Just as we have an objective today, the high ground of supergrace, so he had an objective. His objective was to get to that cross, to bear our sins. Bible doctrine motivated Him not only to go but to stay on that cross. So doctrine resident in His soul motivated Him to endure the cross. Just as doctrine motivated Christ to advance so now doctrine is designed to motivate us to advance to the high ground of supergrace.

Now we come to that very important word which we find in both verbal and noun form. The verb form is “endured,” the aorist active indicative of the verb hupomenô (ὑπομένω) [pronounced hoop-om-EHN-oh], meaning literally to stay under or actually to endure. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. it takes the occurrence of Christ on the cross being judged for our sins and gathers it up into that entire three hours when our Lord was bearing the sins of the world. The active voice: Christ on the cross produced the action of the verb and He did it through motivation of doctrine resident in His soul. The indicative mood is declarative for doctrinal dogmatic historical reality and certainty.

The verb hupomenô (ὑπομένω) [pronounced hoop-om-EHN-oh], is a reminder of the prepositional phrase in the previous verse where we had dia plus the noun hupomonê (ὐπομονή) [pronounced hoop-ohm-ohn-AY],. Hupomonê (ὐπομονή) [pronounced hoop-ohm-ohn-AY], was translated “let us advance on the run with endurance.” With endurance is Bible doctrine in the soul. Throughout this passage endurance is technical for doctrine in the soul. So the verb to endure — doctrine in the soul; the noun — doctrine resident in the soul. This word “endure” in this passage always has the same technical connotation. it means Bible doctrine in the soul meeting every exigency, every problem, every heartache, every adversity, and every blessing. That same Bible doctrine is the capacity for blessing as it is the ability to endure adversity.

Now here is our Lord on the cross, and again the indicative mood is declarative, the doctrinal and historical reality. Our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross is the illustration of endurance. Why did He endure the cross, why did He stay on the cross? And the answer is, Bible doctrine in His soul caused Him to endure the most awful three hours in history, the three hours when he was bearing our sins and taking our place. So endurance must be defined as maximum doctrine resident in the soul plus maximum pressure in life producing victory in the angelic conflict. The royal family must have endurance. Endurance comes from doctrine resident in the soul.

“the cross” — the accusative singular direct object of the noun stauros (σταυρός) [pronounced stow-ROSS] which refers to the saving work of Christ on the cross: propitiation, reconciliation, redemption.

Next we have the word “despising” — the aorist active participle of kataphroneô (καταφρονέω) [pronounced kat-af-ron-EH-oh] which means to disregard, to treat with contempt or disregard. It should be translated here, “having disregarded.” This again is the constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. it takes those same three hours and gathers them up into one entirety. Because of doctrine resident in His soul the Lord Jesus Christ disregarded the shame. The active voice: Christ produced the action, He endured the cross, he disregarded the shame. The participle is circumstantial and has simultaneous action with the main verb.

The word for “shame” is the objective genitive singular of the noun a)isxunh and it means shame, disgrace or ignominy. Here it means disgrace. He disregarded the disgrace.

“and is set down” — “and” is an enclitic particle te used to connect a couple of clauses. it is used to connect clauses where there is a very close relationship. There is a close relationship between the cross and Jesus Christ being seated at the right hand of the Father — “is set down” is the perfect active indicative of the verb kathizô (καθίζω) [pronounced kahth-EED-zoh] which means to sit down. It is a verb that is used only of people. It is never used of animals sitting down. “Sit down” refers specifically to the humanity of Christ. Christ sat down in hypostatic union, but like everything else in hypostatic union you have to explain what is what.

Deity is omniscient, imminent and transcendent, and doesn’t sit, whereas the humanity of Christ sat right down at the right hand of the Father. This is the quintessence of victory in the angelic conflict and obviously you put it in the perfect tense. This is a dramatic perfect which is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. In the intensive perfect you simply have an action completed and the results go on forever. The active voice: Christ produced the action of the verb, completed it, and the results go on forever. He completed strategic victory and we are a part of the results. The declarative indicative mood represents the verbal idea from the standpoint of dogmatic historical and doctrinal reality. He sat down in the past with the result that He remains seated in the highest place of honour, i.e. at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:2 is given around the 8 or 9 minutes left mark.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #205

205 09/19/1974 Hebrews 12:3a Doctrine of ascension and session (cont.); doctrine

of mental attitude

6 minutes of this doctrine is on #204 (points 1–3); because most of it is #205, I will place the entire doctrine with lesson #205.

Wilson Douglas Wallace. At IWO Jima, volcanic islands. Killed 60 Japs before his platoon caught up to him.

Robt. T. Wau. Took 2 pill boxes. He broke the Guestoff line. Killed 30 enemy and captured 21 others.

The Doctrine of Ascension and Session (revised)

1. Definition.

a. The ascension is that doctrine of Christology pertaining to the change of residence of Jesus Christ after the resurrection when He went from earth to heaven in resurrection body.

b. The session is that doctrine of Christology pertaining to the glorification of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union being seated at the right hand of the Father.

c. These doctrines are closely related to and based on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

d. Both ascension and session were accomplished in resurrection body.

e. These two doctrines form the climax of the strategic victory of Jesus Christ in the angelic conflict.

2. The capabilities of the resurrection body. The resurrection body of Christ was capable of horizontal and vertical travel. In horizontal travel He could go through walls or open doors. The atomic structure of the resurrection body is of such a nature that it passes through walls or closed doors without any trouble. Vertically the resurrection body has unlimited ability to travel anywhere in the universe without any damage to body at all. Our Lord Jesus Christ traveled through the outer atmosphere, the stellar universe, and then entered the third heaven, the throne room of the Father, the abode of God. There is more space in walls and doors than solid.

3. The historical account of the ascension — Acts 1:9-11. And after He had said these things, He was lifted up, while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And as they were gazing intently into the sky, while He was departing, behold, two men in white clothing stood beside them. And they also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into the sky? This Jesus, Who has been taken up into heaven, will come in just the same way as you have watched Him go into heaven.” [This is where lesson #204 ended]

4. The significance of the session of Christ.

a. The first significance has to do with the prophecy of the session. It was so important that it was prophesied in the Old Testament as an integral part of the angelic conflict. The prophesy is found in Psalm 110:1 — “The Lord said unto my Lord,” — the first use of Lord is for deity, the second use of Lord is for deity — “Sit down at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool for your feet.” This particular prophecy indicates the strategic victory of angelic conflict, so the session is related to that.

b. The session and the authority of Jesus Christ — Romans 8:34, “Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is he who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” The Lord Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father is the only one who has the ability to condemn. We stand or fall through Jesus Christ . He has appointed the scripture as the means of giving us standards whereby as believer priests, members of the royal family of God, we can condemn ourselves, which is what we do every time we use the rebound technique.

c. The session and the ministry of the Holy Spirit — Ephesians 1:20, “Which power [of the Holy Spirit] has been operational in Jesus Christ” — Jesus Christ was indwelt by God the Holy Spirit in His humanity during the first advent, during the time of His hypostatic union on earth — “the Father having raised him from the dead, and having seated him at his own right hand in the heavenlies.” The ministry of God the Holy Spirit is related to the death, burial, resurrection and session of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, since God the Holy Spirit sustained the humanity of Christ during all of these things there is a relationship between the session of Christ and the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. In fact it sets the pattern for the royal family in relationship to the Holy Spirit in the dispensation of the Church.

d. The session and mental attitude — Colossians 3:1,2, “If, therefore, you have been raised in Christ, keep on desiring to possess and endeavouring to obtain the above things” — referring to doctrine — “where Christ is sitting at the right hand of the Father. Keep thinking about above things [doctrine], not things on the earth.” Due to the fact that Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father we have the privilege of mental attitude dynamics divine viewpoint, and this of course is related to doctrine.

e. The session and the celebrityship of Jesus Christ — Hebrews 1:3, “Who being the radiance, the flashing forth of the glory, and the exact image of his essence, also sustaining all things by the verbal expression of his power, having himself accomplished purification of sins, was caused to sit down at the right hand of the majesty in high places.” In other words, the Lord Jesus Christ is portrayed during the period of His hypostatic union the manifestation of the members of the Godhead, He was deity, He was the exact image of His essence, He sustained all things by His verbal expressions. While He was on earth he held the universe together, He accomplished eternal salvation at the cross, finally entering into the heavens and the very presence of God, and was seated. All of this is related to His celebrityship.

f. The session and the angelic conflict — Hebrews 1:13, “But to which of the angels has he said at any time, Sit down at my right hand until I appoint your enemies the footstool for your feet?” No angel was ever told to be seated at the right hand of the Father, once again the significance of the doctrine of session. Jesus Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father as a man and the moment He was He became superior in His humanity to all angels. As deity He is infinitely superior to all of the angelic creatures, and as humanity He was raised to that high station and at that point He became superior forever to the angelic hosts. Because of this we are members of the royal family of God and in our resurrection bodies we will be superior to angels also. At the present time we are inferior creatures to the angelic hosts but all of that is going to change in resurrection.

g. The session and the priesthood — Hebrews 8:1, “Now the main point on what is being communicated is this: We have such a category of high priest who is sat down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens.” In that particular passage Jesus Christ is pointed out to be superior to all Levitical priests of the past and all high priests. They dealt with shadows; He dealt with the reality. They could only offer animal sacrifices; He offered Himself. They never sat down in the tabernacle, and therefore Jesus Christ by sitting down is pointed out to be infinitely superior to all. So the session is used to show the superiority of Jesus Christ as our high priest.

h. The session and the sacrifice — Hebrews 10:12, “But this one [Jesus Christ], when he had offered a unique sacrifice on behalf of sins for all time, sat down on the right hand of God.” To indicate that the sacrifice of Christ was totally efficacious and that it is the only way of eternal salvation the Lord Jesus Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father. This demonstrates the principle “it is finished,” and indicates the fact that what was finished was totally and completely efficacious, so that anyone at any time in any part of the world who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ immediately enters into the palace forever. The baptism of the Holy Spirit makes every believer a member of the royal family of God forever.

i. The session and occupation of Christ — Hebrews 12:2.

j. The session and strategic victory — 1Peter 3:22, “Jesus Christ who is at the right hand of god, having gone into heaven after the angels and authorities and powers had been subordinated to him.” All angelic forces, evil type, all types of demons, have been subordinated to Him. The Lord Jesus Christ is infinitely superior and has dominion over all creatures. This is demonstrated by the session.

5. The session, therefore, confirms the celebrityship of Jesus Christ. The ascension and session of Jesus Christ completed His glorification and the second person of the Trinity in hypostatic union has received the maximum glory — Acts 2:33, “Therefore, having been exalted to the right hand of God.” Acts 5:31, “He is the one exalted at his right hand the Prince and Savior.” Philippians 2:9, “Therefore also, the God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name.” As eternal God Jesus Christ is pre-eminent. As the God-Man at the right hand of the Father Jesus Christ is unique, overwhelming. He has the distinction of highest nobility and the most illustrious of all celebrityships. His eminence and prominence defy hyperbole.

6. The strategic victory of the angelic conflict. The ascension and session of Christ form the basis for strategic victory of the angelic conflict. Hebrews chapter one teaches this principle. Furthermore, the ascension and session of Jesus Christ begin a new sphere of the angelic conflict — Ephesians 1:20–22, “Which power has been operational in Christ, the Father having raised him from the dead, and having seated him at his own right hand in the heavenlies, over and above all principality [the super demons], and authority [the commissioned demon], and power [the gifted demons], and lordship [the ruling demon],” — in other words, Jesus Christ is superior and over all of these categories of demons — “and every name that is named [rank and file demons], not only in this age but also in the one to come; and he has subordinated all demons under his feet, and has given absolute sovereignty over all the royal family of God with reference to the Church.” And there lies the intensification of the angelic conflict, the demons who have been strategically defeated and are still tactically resisting, and the Church, the royal family of God. The same concept is amplified in Ephesians 4:7–10. This means that the Church Age is the dispensation of the intensified stage of the angelic conflict. The royal family of God is therefore subjected to the most unusual types of pressures throughout this dispensation.

7. The ascension and the royal family of God.

a. Jesus Christ is a resurrection body is seated alone at the right hand of the Father.

b. It is not good that the last Adam should be alone. This is what was said about the first Adam.

c. Therefore the Age of Israel is interrupted and a new dispensation is inserted or intercalated.

d. The Church Age is destined to call out the royal family of God so that in eternity the last Adam will not be alone. And the royal family is the basis for providing a bride for the last Adam.

e. In eternity the palace of heaven will be filled with royal family and/or the Church Age believers.

f. The royal family is formed by means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, as mentioned by Jesus Christ in Acts 1:5.

g. For the first time in history, then, God the Holy Spirit actually takes up His residence in the body of every believer. That is because we are royal family of God — 1Corinthians 6:19-20.

h. This could not occur until Christ was glorified — John 7:37–39.

8. The ascension and the new priesthood.

a. The ascension and session of Christ abrogates the Levitical priesthood. The Levitical priesthood was a specialized priesthood, they had special holy days related to this priesthood, a lot of special activity, but they did not have the effectiveness that we have today.

b. There are no laymen in the Church Age.

c. The Levitical priesthood is replaced by the royal priesthood of the Church Age — 1Peter 2:9, “You are a chosen race [a race of election], you are a royal priesthood, you are a holy nation, a people of God’s own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light ” Cf. Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6. Therefore the Lord Jesus Christ at the right hand of the Father is the new high priest — Hebrews 10:1–10 — and our high priest even makes intercession for us — Hebrews 7:25.

9. The ascension verifies the efficacy of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross — Hebrews 9:23, 24, “Of necessity, therefore, on the one hand that the copies [or models] of things in heaven be cleansed with shadows; but on the other hand the heavenly realities themselves with better sacrifices than these” — the work of Christ on the cross is superior to animal blood on the altar — “For Christ has not entered into a holy of holies made with hands [the tabernacle], a model of the reality [heaven], but into heaven itself to appear in the presence of God on behalf of us.” The Levitical priesthood dealt with shadows; our priesthood deals with realities. However, these realities are not realities apart from Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

10. The ascension and the ultimate defeat of Satan. The ascension and session of Christ begin operation footstool, according to Psalm 110:1, quoted in Luke 2:42–43, and quoted again in Acts 2:33,34 and Hebrews 1:13. The quotation of the prophecy in those three passages indicates the fact that operation footstool began with the session of Christ. The second advent terminates operation footstool. Christ will superseded Satan as the ruler of the world at that time — Daniel 7:14 describes that, “And to him was given dominion, glory and sovereignty, that all peoples, nations and languages might serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, furthermore his kingdom is one which shall not be destroyed.” Zechariah 13:2, “And it will come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of armies, that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered; furthermore I will also remove the false prophets and demons from the land.” The removal of demons means that they are bumped off the earth as it confirmed by Revelation 20:1–3. Colossians 2:15 describes the same thing, “Having disarmed demon archons … he made a public display of them, having celebrated a triumphal procession over them by means of him [His victory].”

Heb 12:3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

Verse 3 — this is the third paragraph now: the enemy forces: reversionism. Once again we begin with the particle which always connects things up in the Greek language, gar. This particle is an explanatory epexegetical one which means now we are going to get a reason for all of this. Why are we commanded to advance? Why are we commanded to strip for action? Why are we commanded not to be distracted? Why are we commanded occupation with the person of Jesus Christ? Because we have opposition, the most intense opposition in all of human history. With the royal family on earth we are now in Satan’s territory. We are the aggressors.

Our next word means that when you are aggressive you have to think. You have to think in any kind of an aggressive action. Aggressive action demands the best possible mentality. As has been demonstrated in military history, the smaller, better-trained army that advances destroys the larger army. We are in the aggressive part of the angelic conflict, and being in it obviously there is great pressure and great intensity. Therefore you have to have a good mental attitude.

You cannot win a war fighting defensively. We set up such places all over, sitting there, waiting to be attacked. Stupidest policy ever. We lost the war in effect. We had great troops with a stupid asinine policy. Our leaders are mediocre. What would have happened if we had all of our men in North Vietnam?

We are in the devil’s territory and we are the aggressors. We are going to win. When you are aggressive, then you have to think. You needed the best mentality.

Bob talks about being the aggressor in the ring.

The smaller aggressive army will defeat a small, reactionary army.

Once and awhile the media does the right thing and lets a coach speak. The high school coach of Spring Branch. He talked about the mental attitude of their kids. Bob said mental attitude is important in sex as well.

The next word is “consider” — aorist middle imperative of analogizomai (ἀναλογίζομαι) [pronounced an-al-og-IHD-zom-ahee]. Aná (ἀνά) [pronounced aw-NAW] means again and again; logizomai (λογίζομαι) [pronounced log-IHD-zohm-ai] means to think. It means to think again and again, to weigh in the mind, to ponder, consider. In other words, it means heavy thinking. “For begin thinking about.” You have to realize that once you are on the offensive and you are the aggressor you have to be sharp, you have to think, you have to have a mental attitude. The aorist tense is an ingressive aorist in which the action signified by the aorist is contemplated at its beginning. That is why we translate it “begin thinking.” It denotes entrance into a state of learning doctrine.

You begin thinking as an aggressor the day you start learning Bible doctrine, and the more doctrine you accumulate the more your mental attitude improves. The more your mental attitude improves the greater becomes your aggressive ability in the great spiritual conflict, the angelic conflict. At the same time we must come to know and love Jesus Christ, and it is in that order. We do not love Jesus Christ until we know Him. Capacity for category #1 love is based on maximum doctrine resident in the soul. So, “begin thinking about.” In the previous verse we had a command to be concentrating on Jesus Christ, now we are told to begin thinking about. And in that we also have a middle voice, the permissive middle. It represents the agent or the believer as voluntarily yielding himself to the results of the action or to secure results of the action in his own interest. In other words, “thinking about” is the utilization of doctrine. The imperative mood is a command. “Keep thinking about him.”

Self-consciousness is very important. This is what separates us from the animal kingdom. We can look in a mirror with 5 other people and pick ourselves out 4 out of 5 times.

The heart refers to thinking, not to emotion. We all must have a vocabulary, so that we can understand what is being said, such as, what is found in the Bible. We need a vocabulary in order to have a conscience. The heart is the man of the soul; and the emotions are the woman of the soul. There is volition and there is the sin nature.

First 2 points of the Doctrine of mental attitude is covered (the doctrine is below). Returned to this doctrine below.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #206

206 09/20/1974 Hebrews 12:3b Doctrine of mental attitude (cont.) (I will leave it with lesson #5. We got 2 points into the doctrine of mental attitude; and will pick up with point #3.); doctrine of reversionism (revised).

After salvation, we survive by means of living grace. All of the spiritual principles by which we are alive. Class is now in session; the textbook is the Bible and Bob is the teacher.

Seize and hold is the first of 2 sets of blessings. Temporal blessings like great wealth, economic prosperity, material prosperity, leadership dynamics. The 3^rd category is dying grace, going from time to eternity.

The other road is the road to reversionism. Warning discipline, dying discipline, the low crawl through 1000 yards of ground glass.

Point #2 reviewed. Now to point 3 of the Doctrine of mental attitude.

Vocabulary. You must teach vocabulary in order to teach doctrine. We must have vocabulary in common in order to teach.

The Doctrine of Mental Attitude (2)

1. Definition.

a. Mental attitude is the function of the right lobe or the heart of the believer.

b. The sum total of all thought impulses which emanate from the launching pad of the believer’s right lobe are called viewpoint.

c. If the thought emanating from the right lobe is human viewpoint then it is an expression of cosmic norms and standards of life. It is an expression of the Satanic side of ruling cosmos diabolicus.

d. The antithesis is divine viewpoint or the expression of biblical norms and standards of life.

e. Every thought impulse of the believer can be categorized basically as divine or human viewpoint.

2. The real you is what you think. What a person thinks in the right lobe of his soul is what he really is. Mental attitude, therefore, determines both the character and the life of any individual. Mental attitude determines both your character and capacity for life. To think you must have a vocabulary. Thinking is the real personality — Proverbs 23:6,7 (Do not eat the bread of a selfish man or desire his delicacies. For as he thinks in his soul, so he is. He says, ‘eat and drink,’ but his soul is not with you.). The real person is not what he gives you or what he says; but what is in his soul. Make a person mad, and you will find out what they really think. He calls you a son of a bitch and you want to run home and read your birth certificate.

a. The passage portrays hypocrisy as the background for principle. In a person a person thinks hatred, implacability, but he or she invites you to sit down and eat. The real person is not the one who offers you the hospitality but the one who thinks hatred and implacability toward you.

b. A person can appear to be on the surface to be hospitable, gregarious and nice, and inside to be a vicious person. Thinking is the real personality.

c. We are lucky that there is no glass view of the soul. Our soul is covered so that we have privacy of the soul.

3. The conflicts of mental attitudes in the believer. Every believer is a walking battlefield. This often explains why, at least for a while, some Christians are quite kooky, get mixed up in a hurry. It is because they have an inner conflict of mental attitudes. This is described for us in Isaiah 55:6–9 — “Seek the Lord while he may be found [positive volition toward doctrine in time], call upon him while he is near” — the principle of prayer and other spiritual dynamics related to the believer — “Let the reversionist forsake his way [negative volition toward doctrine], and the unrighteous man [reversionist] his thoughts [human viewpoint], and let him return to the Lord [reversion recovery], and he will have compassion on him; and to our God; and to our God; for he will abundantly pardon.”

a. Bob talks about mental attitude and the traffic in Houston. Many men are in the military, but there are many problems with today’s army. We have more misconceptions today than ever. Labor unions are destructive. They take a person with skill or ability. The labor union guarantees that someone with less skill will get the same amount of money. The labor unions are not qualified to set any sort of policy. The best policies are set by military men. Everyone is complaining, everyone is bitching and they want to hook up with some sort of system for a better deal...they don’t think about working.

b. The reversionist has a bad mental attitude. He is full of mental attitude sins and he is a complainer. if anyone ought to forsake their way it is the reversionist. What is his way? Negative volition toward doctrine producing complicated results in his life. “And the unrighteous man his thoughts” — the most dangerous thing in your soul are your thoughts when you are in reversionism. The thoughts go through and through until they make you a kook, and all of the psychotic problems and the neurotic problems that exist right now, and all of the people who are truly mentally ill are mentally ill because of the thoughts that course through the soul.

c. Bob sees strangers sitting down next to each other. And one with problems is sitting next to someone else with much greater problems. But complaining and being miserable does not add anything to a person’s life.

d. The most dangerous things in your life and soul are your mental attitudes. Malfunctions of the emotion, of your vocabulary, of your left lobe.

e. In the United States, there is more unhappiness than ever before; but of these things which are supposed to make us happy, we have far, far more of these things.

f. You have been brainwashed by ads. What’s wrong? Why are we so mixed up? Our mental attitude is soft. We are soft on labor unions. Soft on communism.

g. Bob’s best time at the movies is at Berachah Church and there are no commercials and the legalist missionary gets booed.

h. Isaiah 55:8 “For My thoughts [divine viewpoint] are not your thoughts [human viewpoint], neither are My ways [the ways of God] your ways [reversionism].”

i. When Nixon resigned, people thought that we will have a much better president. We have had traitors and those catering to traitors.

j. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

4. The command to divine viewpoint.

a. Since doctrine is the mind of Christ, as per 1Corinthians 2:16, attitude toward doctrine determines viewpoint of life — Philippians 2:5, “Keep on having this mental attitude in you which was also in Christ Jesus” — a reference to His humanity and a reference that He had a maximum saturation of doctrine. This command is obeyed by the consistent and daily function of GAP. Maximum doctrine in the soul is the only source of divine viewpoint and our only protection. It can be like an oasis in the desert when we get a little divine viewpoint.

b. 2Corinthians 10:4–6 tells us what our attitude and what our concept in the royal family should be — “(For the equipment and the weapons of our conflict are not human attributes” — we are fighting in the greatest of all warfares, the angelic conflict, older than the human race, and we are not fighting it with human attributes. The power is in the soul — “but the attributes of power [resident doctrine in the soul] through God against the destruction of fortifications)” — Satan’s fortifications, Satan’s concepts. Satan has many fortifications in the world today, e.g. the United Nations, the concept of socialism, communism, the ideologies of the day. Therefore these fortifications cannot be destroyed by a good punch or counter punch, these things are in a greater warfare and a warfare that demands the skill of the soul. The skill of the soul is our mental attitude based on doctrine resident in the soul — “assaulting and demolishing cosmic thoughts [human viewpoint], and every obstacle of pride which attacks against the objective of knowledge of God [divine viewpoint], and makes a prisoner of every human viewpoint system of thought to the authority of Christ;” — in other words, your greatest fighting capabilities in the angelic conflict are in your soul. You can have a weak body and be totally out of it as far as your physical body is concerned and you can have the most dynamic powerful attack. You possess in your soul the great capabilities for fighting. However, like any good weapon, the soul has to be loaded; and loading and locking is Bible doctrine in the soul. You have to load the weapon — “holding in readiness to punish all deviation from obedience [reversionistic human viewpoint], when your obedience [daily function of GAP] has been fulfilled.” So the whole principle is that we must load up this great weapon that God has given us, the human soul.

5. Rapport in the royal family is also based on divine viewpoint — Philippians 2:2, “Fill up the deficiency with inner happiness, that you keep on thinking the same thing [divine viewpoint], having the same love, soul rapport, in thinking.” Love is a mental attitude. Soul rapport in thinking is the basis for love. What is love? It is soul rapport in thinking. So the power of anything that is great in life, the dynamics of everything that is wonderful in life, is based upon what goes on in the soul.”

6. The function of the royal priesthood, therefore, demands a new mental attitude — 2Timothy 1:7, “For god has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power [resident doctrine], love [the capacity for life which comes from that doctrine], and stabilized mentality” — nobility is based upon stabilized mentality. Romans 12:2 — “”And stop being conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, namely that the will of God is good, and acceptable, and perfect.” Rom. 12:2 Stop being...

7. Divine viewpoint from doctrine produces confidence — 2Corinthians 5:1, “For we know that if the earthly tent which is our house is torn down [physical death], we have a building from God [resurrection body], a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” Verse 6 — “Therefore, we keep having confidence, and knowing that, while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord.” As long as we live in this life we can have great confidence based upon knowing. Verse 7 — “(For we walk by doctrine [our confidence] resident in the soul, and not by sight). Our whole instrument system is doctrine resident in the soul. Verse 8 — “We keep having confidence, and take mental delight in the fact that to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord.” So consequently, everything in life that is important for the member of the royal family of God, his nobility, his impact, his dynamics, his glorification of the Lord, is related to what goes on in his soul, what he thinks in his mind. One thought can make or break you.

8. The areas of life involving mental attitude. Bob’s translation given on the lesson.

a. Stability is a mental attitude — James 1:8.

b. Prosperity is a mental attitude — Philippians 4:7.

c. Giving is a mental attitude — 2Corinthians 9:7.

d. Worldliness is a mental attitude — Romans 12:2; Colossians 3:2.

e. Evil is a mental attitude — Matthew 9:4.

f. Arrogance is a mental attitude — Galatians 6:3.

g. “Therefore, as many as are mature, let us continue objective-type thinking [the result of being spiritually mature], and if you think differently in anything at all [and you do], this also will God reveal — Philippians 3:15.” In other words, the answer to divine viewpoint, the answer to the dynamics of objective thinking is all bound up in Bible doctrine.

Heb 12:3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

Hebrews 12:3 “For begin thinking about him,” the accusative singular of the definite article is used as a part of the articular participle, but more important, the definite article is used here as a demonstrative pronoun to call special attention to an important object or person. It is used for what is relatively near in thought, such an immediate demonstrative. Therefore “him” can be translated “such a person as Jesus Christ.”

“that endured” — one of the key words that we are finding throughout this passage is the verb hupomenô (ὑπομένω) [pronounced hoop-om-EHN-oh], and its cognate. The noun that goes with it, the substantive, is hupomnêsis (ὑπֹόμνησις) [pronounced hoop-OHM-nay-sis]. Both the noun and the verb refer to persistence in taking in doctrine no matter what distractions, what problems, what adversities come your way. In other words, enduring is the consistency of positive volition, building up residency of doctrine, so that as life gets more and more complicated so you can meet and overcome every problem, every difficulty in life. So it was with the Lord Jesus Christ — “having endured”, perfect active participle of hupomenô (ὑπομένω) [pronounced hoop-om-EHN-oh],. The perfect participle is very strong.

“such contradiction” — the word “such” is a correlative demonstrative used as an adjective, toioutos (τοιοτος) [pronounced toy-OO-toss]. Toioutos (τοιοτος) [pronounced toy-OO-toss] means that the opposition that He took was greater than any opposition or pressure that we would ever face; “contradiction” is the accusative singular direct object from the noun antilogia (ἀντιλογία) [pronounced an-tee-lohg-EE-ah]. Satan threw everything against Him, from religion down to the very form of death which He died — “having endured such opposition.”

“of sinners” — this is a prepositional phrase, hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus the ablative plural of hamartôlos (ἁμαρτωλός) [pronounced ham-ar-to-LOSS]. Sinners here refers to the fact that all who were opposed to him were evil. It is to take the opposition to Christ from religion, politics, and buffoons, and gather it all up into one antagonism.

“against himself” is eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of the reflexive pronoun, heautou (ἑαυto) [pronounced heh-ow-TOO], and it means “against himself” as translated. Ordinarily it would mean “with reference to himself” but we learn from Luke 12:10 from the Greek there — eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] ton huion, which means “against the Son.” “Who will speak a word against the Son” is the phrase. The MSS that have been recovered from the papyri and other sources indicate that eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] can be used as “against” where ordinarily we have another preposition — anti. When eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] is used instead it indicates that the opposition was so great and so well defined that it doesn’t need the ordinary preposition, they are merely referred to as a pressure overcome. The implications of the use of this preposition indicate the fact that the pressure against Jesus Christ on the cross was overcome.

The word “lest” is the conjunction hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] plus the negative mê, used for a final clause. The combination of these two words introduces a negative final clause which denotes purpose, aim, or goal — “in order that you do not become weary” is wrong — the aorist active subjunctive of kamnô (κάμνω) [pronounced KAM-no] which means to be fatigued or exhausted. This means not to be weary but to be exhausted, a much stronger word. This is the fatigue of reversionism, however. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. In other words, the various stages of reversionism. The active voice plus the negative means that the royal family is forbidden to have a tired soul. The subjunctive mood plus the negative mê is prohibitive, and this then becomes a command. You are commanded not to have a tired soul.

The word “and” is not found here but the word “faint” is, a present passive participle from ekluô (ἐκλύω) [pronounced ek-LOO-oh] which means to become feeble or to faint. This is a retroactive progressive present which denotes what was begun in the past and continues to the present time. Taking it in its context it means that the believers in Jerusalem in AD 67 were fatigued, exhausted in their souls and they had fainted. That is reversionism. the passive voice: the believer who is reversionistic becomes fatigued, despondent, discouraged, fainting in his soul. A tired body is okay; a tired soul is not okay.

“in your minds” is an incorrect translation. We have the locative plural plus the definite article used as a possessive pronoun, and then we have psuchê (ψυχή) [pronounced psoo-KHAY] which means “soul”.

Hebrews 12:3 For begin thinking about such a person as Jesus Christ having endured such opposition by the sinners against himself, in order that you do not become exhausted [or fatigued], fainting in your souls.

The fatigue and the fainting is in the soul. This deals with the doctrine of reversionism. We started with reversionism in lesson 206 (only point #1), but began from the beginning in #207:

1972 Hebrews Lesson #207

207 09/22/1974 Hebrews 12:3; Gal. 5:4 Doctrine of reversionism (cont.)

Reversionism is fainting in the soul. This is soul-fatigue.

Bob begins reviewing at point 1 of reversionism.

The Doctrine of Reversionism (Revised)

1. Definition.

a. Reversionism in its simplest terms is a negative status toward doctrine in phase two. It means to resist doctrine, to reject doctrine, to undergo the spiritual changes and the decline that comes from neglecting Bible doctrine.

b. It is characterized by two principles: negative volition toward Bible doctrine resulting in failure to function under GAP, and secondly, perpetual carnality resulting in a life of perpetual divine discipline.

c. Reversionism, then, is recession from any stage of spiritual growth, partial or completed. It is retreat from supergrace status.

d. Reversionism is lack of spiritual growth, neglect of Bible doctrine. In effect, both are these are true and interchangeable.

e. While supergrace is the progressive state of the believer in time, reversionism is retrogressive in time.

f. Reversionism in the believer becomes analogous to apostasy.

g. Reversionism in the unbeliever is rejection of or departure from the laws of divine establishment.

h. Reversionism must be distinguished from carnality in the same way that reversionism is distinguished from supergrace.

i. Spirituality is an absolute status of the Holy Spirit controlling the soul of the believer. Supergrace is a relative status of maximum spiritual growth or maturity.

j. Carnality is an absolute status of being out of fellowship through sin. Reversionism is a relative status of varying degrees of spiritual failure.

k. The carnal believer is positive toward doctrine but the reversionistic believer is negative toward doctrine and rejects rebound.

l. Therefore the carnal believer rebounds and continues to grow. He is positive toward doctrine. The reversionist does not rebound and continues to move toward the sin unto death.

2. The mechanics or stages of reversionism.

a. The reaction stage. We have the presence of reactor factors in the life. These include discouragement, boredom, disillusion. Each one is a different facet of reaction. Discouragement is a reaction to circumstances. Boredom is a reaction to a combination of circumstances and people. Disillusion is a reaction to people. A reversionist in a reaction stage has all of these. Boredom is the lack of capacity for life. It has to do with soul fatigue, not physical fatigue. Out of these three come three more: inability to cope with loneliness, self-pity, frustration.

b. Rejection of authority is another primary factor reaction. All reactors reject authority at some point.

c. Reaction includes mental attitude sins. Mental attitude sins include pride (which is rejection of authority) jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, implacability, self-pity or a guilt complex. All of these lead to some form of subjectivity and reaction toward Bible doctrine.

d. Operation vengeance is another factor in reaction. This is a secondary factor whereby the individual seeks to build his happiness by setting someone else down. The principle is, you cannot build your happiness in someone else’s happiness.

e. The reaction stage includes also distractions. Distractions are both primary and secondary. For example, distractions which lure the believer from the routine of consistent intake of doctrine. These are first of all social and sexual distractions. Secondary distractions come from that — pleasure, entertainment distractions, family distractions, health distractions, gossip distractions, policy distractions (erroneous concepts of giving, for instance); and so on. Some people have difficulty with Bob’s authority in Berachah Church. They do not like the idea that someone is going to run the show.

Best administration in Berachah Church. In the military, Bob sat on group who oversaw all of the training in the air force. Command of 300 to 400,000 men and never a problem.

Most of you think that a minister should be giving sweet nothings and you think he should be a dog to kick around. These things start in heading you towards reversionism. You could bother Dr. So-and-so at any time, day or night; and some of you know that Bob has hung up on you.

Reaction stage is vibration; you are out of sorts, our of joint. No one recognizes you for your great talents. You have been waiting, standing around with your music for two years, and you are only going to give one more.

Stage two of reversionism is the frantic search for happiness. The function of the reactor factors in the lift cause you to go on a frantic search for happiness. Maybe you are distracted by the lack of a choir, certain formalities or lack thereof.

Five Different Concepts of Frantic Search for Happiness.

1. The function of the reactor factors in the life result in a frantic search for happiness. In other words, you may be discouraged, bored, disillusioned, unable to cope with loneliness, overcome by self-pity. You may be bitter, vindictive, implacable, jealous, arrogant. You may find that you are in some kind of a personality conflict. There are various things that lead to reaction but reaction always results in moving to the opposite trend.

2. The frantic search for happiness becomes the alternative to the daily function of GAP. You react against the system for communicating the Word of God. The reaction leads you in the opposite direction. The accepted solution to the frustration is your brand of happiness. Maybe there is pleasant environment that you search out.

3. The frantic search for happiness follows the trend of the old sin nature. We were born with Adam’s original sin; and we are open to some areas of sin and some areas of strength. There is the lust pattern. There are trends to a sin nature. Every sin nature has a series of trends. Some have a trend towards asceticism.

4. The trend toward asceticism leads to a frantic search for happiness. It leads to a false emphasis on experience — the victorious Christian life conferences, throwing a faggot on the fire, etc. The tongues movement is a frantic search for happiness, and it is a devastating one. It is very harmful to the emotion of the soul. It destroys the emotion as a responder to good things. Then there is the frantic search for happiness in the field of asceticism through legalism. In legalism you give up things for God — good whiskey, smoking, cards, etc. It makes you feel good to give these things up.

a. The holy rollers are another frantic search for happiness; without any relationship to the truth.

b. Frantic search for happiness in the realm of legalism.

c. Works system; they work with some program.

d. An emphasis on taboos; and others get into loving everyone. The indicates that you are very close to a moron.

5. The trend toward lasciviousness. It includes drunkenness, debauchery, chasing, seduction, becoming a user of narcotics and drugs apart from medicine, nymphomania, homosexuality, etc. A person follows his trend. These, too, are frantic search for happiness but in another area.

So the point is, when a person gets away from doctrine by reaction he follows his trend toward asceticism or toward lasciviousness and winds up in stage two, the frantic search for happiness. This leads to stage three (in the stages of reversionism) …

Stages of Reversionism (2):

1. Reactor factors.

2. Frantic search for happiness

3. Operation boomerang. In other words, the frantic search for happiness intensifies the original reactor factors. No matter which way you go, toward asceticism or toward lasciviousness, frustration is the order of the day and eventually you are brought back to an intensification of whatever disturbed you in the first place.

4. Emotional revolt of the soul. The emotion is simply a responder to what is in the right lobe. But when the emotion takes over the soul, the emotion cannot think, cannot reason, has no common sense, has no norms or standards, and that is when the soul is in trouble. We call this the emotional revolt of the soul. This is when people become neurotic, psychotic, and when people get into some terrible soul illness of some kind.

a. The emotion is the female part of the soul designed to respond to the right lobe or heart, the male part of the soul.

b. The heart or right lobe of the soul is equivalent to the right man whole the emotion is equivalent to the right woman. Therefore the emotion is designed to be subordinate to your thinking.

c. Emotional revolt of the soul is tantamount to emotion fornicating with the old sin nature instead of responding to her right man, the mentality of the soul. The emotion comes under the domination of the old sin nature rather than under domination of the heart or the right lobe of the soul.

d. First of all, emotion has no doctrinal content, no mentality, no character. It can only respond to what doctrine is found in the right lobe. So emotion is our of sorts in this revolt.

e. Once the emotion revolts it becomes the aggressor, loses capacity for life, becomes distorted and the tool of the old sin nature. A person in emotional revolt, whether a believer or an unbeliever, has absolutely no capacity for life and is always miserable and in trouble.

f. Revelation 2:23 describes emotional revolt of the soul. “And I will kill her children with death [the sin unto death]; and all the churches will know that I am he who searches the emotions and the right lobes; and I will give each one of you according to your function.” In other words, if the right lobe dominates there is blessing. If the emotion dominates the soul there is cursing.

g. The emotion and reversionists in reversionism resist Bible doctrine and Bible teaching — 2Corinthians 6:11–12. “O you Corinthians, our mouth is open to you [in Bible teaching], our heart is enlarged [maximum doctrine in the soul to communicate]. You are not hindered from learning doctrine by us, you are hindered by the emotions of your soul.”

h. This is why believers are commanded to separate from reversionistic believers involved in emotional revolt. Romans 16:17–18: Now I urge you, brothers, keep your eye on those who cause dissensions and offences in opposition to the doctrine which you have learned. [these are real nice sweet believers who are full of dissension] and avoid for they are such as serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but they serve their emotions. And by smooth and flattering speech, they deceive the right lobes of the stupid.

i. Emotional revolt of the soul causes the emotion to respond to the old sin nature. The result is obvious. When emotion is responding to the old sin nature — which means revolt against the heart of the right lobe — then certain kinds of sins are produced. Mental attitude sins: always jealous, always arrogant, always implacable, vindictive, and occasionally bothered by guilt reaction which is another type of sin. Approbation and power lust; often the source of revolution. Doctrine begins to fade out of the soul. A value in the memory seize up. Human viewpoint begins to be found on the launching pad. Emotion becomes a tyrant, a nagging bitch. Shuts down every part of the soul. But the person is also motivated by mental attitude sins to commit sins of the tongue — is a gossip, a maligner, a judger, constantly picking at other people, constantly dissatisfied.. At the same time the area of strength is producing human good, trying to solve the problems of life by legislation, becoming involved in organizations that seem to be doing something for the downtrodden, and so on. So the area of strength produces human good which is rejected by God. The lust pattern is up under emotional revolt, and approbation and power lust are especially very prominent. This is really the source of any kind of revolution. So the emotion takes over the dictatorship of the soul, becomes the aggressor, neutralizes Bible doctrine, and the heart or the right lobe is put down. This means immediately that doctrine begins to fade out of the soul. The believer who lives by emotions or uses emotion as the criterion becomes apostate, disoriented, degenerate, reversionistic, and eventually enters into warning discipline, then intensive discipline, and finally dying discipline.

5. Negative volition toward doctrine. As a result of reactor factors, frantic search for happiness, intensification of reaction and emotional revolt, the believer becomes confirmed in a strong negative attitude toward doctrine. The characteristics of this negative attitude are several.

a. Indifference or apathy toward Bible teaching.

b. Too busy for Bible teaching or Bible class.

c. Antagonism or personality hang-ups regarding the pastor and his authority.

d. Antagonism or personality conflicts with members of the congregation.

e. Failure to utilize grace provision — the provision of a local church, failure to rebound, lack of respect for authority, poor manners, lack of concentration, no poise or objectivity as members of the royal family of God.

f. Inability to handle prosperity. Some people get into confirmed negative volition because the are in the other stages of reversionism in a period of prosperity. Remember that the warning stage of reversionism includes periods of prosperity. These periods of prosperity are very important because they do several things. They cause your friends to say it doesn’t make any difference if you neglect doctrine, look at so and so, they’re happy. But these periods of prosperity are set-ups for divine discipline in the warning stage. This is not prosperity from doctrine, it is prosperity permitted by God to set up for divine discipline.

g. Disorientation to factors of living grace. Under living grace God keeps a believer alive in the devil’s world providing food, shelter, clothing, transportation, and disorientation is failure to appreciate these factors.

h. Active campaigning to discredit, to remove, to destroy anyone’s ministry who is teaching the Word.

6. Confirmed negative volition starts an attack upon the left lobe of the soul where objectivity of information exists. A vacuum is opened up by this negative volition — mataiotês (ματαιότης) [pronounced mat-ah-YOHT-ace]. Through this vacuum comes false doctrine, false doctrine about everything. None of these things exist in the soul until a person reaches this stage of reversionism. So we have then the blackout of the soul. Negative volition produces a vacuum. This vacuum is called mataiotês (ματαιότης) [pronounced mat-ah-YOHT-ace] or “vanity” in Ephesians 4:17. Through this vacuum come the doctrine of demons of 1Timothy 4:1. These include religionism, liberalism, plus human effort to solve the problems of life. This is known as demon influence in contrast to demon possession. Once the doctrines of demons enter the left lobe of the soul you have demon influence. No believer can be demon possessed, he can be under demon influence which is an attack upon the soul.

7. Scar tissue of the soul. Scar tissue affects the right lobe of the soul. This refers to the freezing of the valves of the right lobe or the heart so that doctrine no longer functions in the frame of reference or in the memory centre, and this means that vocabulary and the categorical storage of doctrine is out, and it means that the believer is no longer capable of seeing life from the divine viewpoint. This is mentioned as a part of the blackout of the soul in John 12:40 — “He has blinded their eyes, and he has hardened their hearts; lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive by means of their hearts, and be turned around and I restore them.” In other words, the Lord is dealing with a reversionist here and He describes his condition. He said to be blinded in his perception — blackout of the soul; hardness of the heart — scar tissue of the soul. This condition has made it impossible for him to be restored or turned around. Scar tissue of the soul or hardness of the heart does a lot of things that are obvious from the scripture. One of the first is it rejects military preparation and de-emphasizes national defense. This has been a characteristic for thousands of years of the reversionistic believer — Proverbs 21:29-31. Scar tissue of the soul is also revolt against the Lord personally — Nehemiah 9:16,17. “Hardening the neck” is scar tissue of the soul. It includes revolution, reversionism, rejection of authority. Cf. Jeremiah 7:25–27. Since the days that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent my prophets my servants early rising and sending them to you [God has always had communicators of the Word]. However, you did not listen to Me or incline your ear but hardened your necks; they did evil more than their fathers [In other words, the Jews were taken out by the fifth cycle of discipline because they rejected Bible doctrine, they rejected the communication of the Word and they are described as being disciplined in this 7^th stage]. And you, Jeremiah, will speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them but they will not answer you [this is the fifth cycle of discipline coming up].”

8. Reverse process reversionism. This final stage of reversionism is the antithesis of supergrace. The believer under reverse process reversionism cannot be distinguished from an unbeliever. The believer become enamoured with pseudo objects compatible with his spiritual condition. For example, in category #! love he should be occupied with the person of Jesus Christ, but instead he is occupied with pseudo objects — in the Old Testament it might be Baal, or now with his own self-projects, whatever it is. But in category #1 love he reverses the object of love. In category #2 the right man is occupied with a wrong (pseudo) woman instead of his right woman. Under category #3 love there is the true friend and the pseudo friend.

Some of these points have information which came from another study or elsewhere in the study of Hebrews.

These individual doctrines are actually a portion of the overall doctrine of reversionism.

Divine Discipline of the Reversionist.

God keeps believers alive to spank them. In fact God keeps every believer alive for one of two reasons: to either bless him because he is positive toward doctrine or to discipline him because he is negative toward doctrine.

1. The warning stage. The warning stage of discipline is designed by God to warn the believer regarding his spiritual condition. That is, negative volition toward doctrine has moved him away from the plan of God for time — phase two. This type of discipline is generally found in the first four stages of reversionism, that is, when a person is reacting, when a person is in the frantic search for happiness [operation boomerang], or the emotional revolt. This stage includes birth adversity and prosperity. However the removal of prosperity is a part of warning discipline. Warning discipline is mentioned in Revelation 3:20.

2. The intensive stage. For those who reject the knocking on the door by discipline, by the removal of prosperity, there is a second stage. The category of discipline is generally found in the last four stages of reversionism — negative volition, scar tissue of the soul, blackout of the soul, and reverse process reversionism. This stage is described in Psalm 38:1–14. This is the category of strong delusion found in 2Thessalonians 2:11.

3. The dying stage — the final stage. This is the sin unto death, and this reversionism is caused by remaining in reversionism. This is the most horrible thing that ever happened to anyone.

a. Heb 12:3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

b. Gal. 5:4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace.

4. The principle of reversionism — Galatians 5:4.

“Christ is become of no effect, whosoever of you are justified by the law; you are fallen from grace.” This KJV translation is incorrect, it ignores the Greek text here completely. The first word, katêrgêthête is the aorist passive indicative of the verb katargeô (καταργέω) [pronounced kaht-ahrg-EH-oh] which usually means to be useless, to be neutralized, and it refers to a believer becoming a casualty in time in the angelic conflict. The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. The Galatians had entered into legalistic reversionism, and it gathers up into one entirety the fact that some of them were in the reaction stage, some of them had already gone to the frantic search for happiness, some were in operation boomerang, some were in emotional revolt of the soul. It simply gathers up into one ball of wax the stages of reversionism which are expressing themselves in legalism. Legalism here is salvation by keeping the law. Here we have the fact that they had become casualties. “You have become a casualty” is the way you translate katargeô (καταργέω) [pronounced kaht-ahrg-EH-oh]. The passive voice: the reversionistic Galatians receive the action of the verb, they have become casualties to the angelic conflict. The indicative declarative mood is historical for an historical reality. “You reversionists have become a casualty” — ineffective, useless, neutralized. Then the word “Christ” occurs as the object of the preposition — apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the ablative of Christos (χριστός) [pronounced krees-TOSS] which means “from Christ.” This is a believer, he hasn’t lost his salvation but he is a casualty as far as being effective as a member of the royal family of God. In other words, this verse is saying that he is on the road of reversionism instead of on the road to supergrace. Being on the road to reversionism is to become a casualty in phase two.

The next word gathers up all of those who are so involved in Galatia. “Whosoever” is a nominative masculine plural from a relative pronoun hostis (ὅστις) [pronounced HOH-stihs]. This is a qualitative relative pronoun and it is therefore referring only to a certain category of believer, not all believers. The words “of you” are not found in the original at all. It is simply, “Whosoever are being vindicated [or justified]”, the present passive indicative of the verb dikaioô (δικαιόω) [pronounced dik-ah-YOH-oh] which actually means to be vindicated. Sometimes it refers to spiritual vindication or salvation and sometimes it refers to vindication in time — God vindicating a believer. They are seeking to be vindicated by keeping the law — “by means of the law.” The historical present plus the passive voice indicates it was going on at the time that Paul wrote to them.

Now we have the problem — “you are fallen” is the aorist active indicative of the verb ekpiptô.(ἐκπίπτω) [pronounced ehk-PIHP-toh] which does not mean to fall here. It is used in a navigational sense. it was used in the ancient world for nautical navigation and it means to drift off course. They haven’t fallen, they have drifted off course. The line that glorifies God is from saving grace to living grace, from living grace to supergrace, then the high golden bridge of dying grace, and then on the other side, surpassing grace. That is the road to glory. God is glorified when you reach the high ground in time, He is glorified when He can give you eternal reward and blessing over and above your resurrection body. At this point the apostle has said that the Galatians have drifted off course. So literally, “you have drifted off course.” The active voice: the reversionist produces the action of the verb. The declarative indicative indicates the historical reality.

“from grace” — the ablative of source from the noun charis (χάρις) [pronounced KHAHR-iç]. Charis (χάρις) [pronounced KHAHR-iç] or grace is used here for one reason only, to portray the road to glory from salvation to supergrace, dying grace and surpassing grace.

Galatians 5:4 You reversionists have become casualties [ineffective] from Christ, whoever are being vindicated by means of the law; you have drifted off course from the grace.

The principle of reversionism is drifting off course from grace. Reversionism is the rejection of God’s grace, rejection of God’s plan by ignoring Bible doctrine.

A Few of the Categories of Reversionism.

1. There is lascivious or phallic reversionism — 2Corinthians 12:21; Ephesians 4:19; 5:5; Colossians 3:5; Revelation 2:14, 20–23.

2. Legalistic reversionism — Galatians 5:4; Colossians 2:16–18; Hebrews 5:11; 6:16.

3. Monetary reversionism — Ecclesiastes 5:10–16; James 4:13,14; 5:1–6; Revelation 3:14–20.

4. Alcoholic and narcotic reversionism — Isaiah 28:1–9 and Galatians 5:20.

5. Anti-establishment reversionism. The person who ran away from the draft because he said it wasn’t biblical, etc. — Romans 1:18–32; Hosea 4:1–7.

6. Mental attitude reversionism and verbal reversionism. These simply take reversionism when you drift off course and people get their happiness from hating people and vengeance, or they get their happiness from verbal reversionism, running down others. The two go together.

Reversionism (The Doctrine Seen as a Whole)

1. Definition

2. The mechanics or stages of reversionism

3. Divine Discipline of the Reversionist

4. Five Different Concepts of Frantic Search for Happiness

5. Stages of Reversionism

6. A Few of the Categories of Reversionism

7. Nomenclature. How is reversionism described in the Bible? It is described in at least nine ways, including the one we have just considered in Galatians 5:4, “drifting off course from grace.” Or, being an enemy of the cross in Philippians 3:18, or uncircumcision of heart — Jeremiah 9:25,26, or failing of the grace of God in Hebrews 12:15. The reversionist is also described as a tortured soul in 2Peter 2:7,8 and as an unstable soul in 2Peter 2:14. He is also described in Revelation 2:4 as having left his first love, or “fallen” in verse 5, or in Revelation 3:15,16 as lukewarm. So we have a number of different descriptions of reversionism in the Bible.

8. The profile of reversionism — Psalm 7:14–16. “Behold, he travaileth with iniquity, and hath conceived mischief, and brought forth falsehood. He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made. His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate.” The word “mischief was considered to be evil in its connotation some 300 years ago. So obviously we cannot derive too much information from the King James version. Therefore we must go back to the original Hebrew here to discover what is meant by the “pate”, by “mischief”, and other words which in their antiquity have lost their meaning to us. Weird concepts about the KJV. The Koine Greek was a very common language which was able to communicate. Men don’t give birth. Piel imperfect of chabal, which means, to have labor pains prior to birth. When referring to a male, this means that we are dealing with an analogy. The first 4 stages are the warning stages for discipline, and it is given by this word chabal. Now we are in the notes below.

1972 Hebrews 12:15, 3 Lesson #208

208 09/22/1974 Hebrews 12:3; Psalm 7:14–16 Doctrine of reversionism (cont.). Picking up with point #7 (above; Bob has it as point #6).

Heb 12:3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.

Psalm 7:14 Behold, the wicked man conceives evil and is pregnant with mischief and gives birth to lies.

Verse 14 — the first word is “Behold”. In the Hebrew it is hineh and it is one of those words used to focus attention on a subject.

“he travaileth” is the piel imperfect of the verb chabal which means to have labour pains prior to giving birth. The piel emphasizes the intensity of the pains. Whenever we find a male having labour pains obviously we are dealing with an analogy. Obviously also the third masculine singular suffix which brings out the correct translation, “he shall have labour pains” is referring to some analogy to the spiritual life. It is figurative, euphemistic rather than being literal. And immediately we discover what causes the labour pains: reversionism.

“with iniquity” — the noun awen means vanity or nothingness. It describes the way in which the believer becomes negative toward doctrine, and “iniquity” is quite technical here for the first four stages of reversionism: reaction, frantic search for happiness, intensification of reaction and/or operation boomerang, and emotional revolt of the soul. In other words, reversionism rarely begins with negative volition toward doctrine consolidated. Reversionism always begins with some form of reaction. Therefore the first four stages of reversionism are described as vanity or emptiness. These are labour pains, the situations which accompany warning discipline to the reversionist. So whatever system makes the believer distracted or makes the believer react toward doctrine the first four stages plus the warning stage of discipline are involved in having labour pains. The third masculine singular is used because in all languages often the masculine gender is used for all both sexes in the human race.

“and he hath conceived” — the qal perfect of harah means to become pregnant, and it should be translated “because he has become pregnant.” To become pregnant means to become reversionistic. And we also discover he has become pregnant with something …

“mischief” — the noun in the Hebrew amal means frustration. Frustration here refers to misery from frustration. Pregnancy, then, is reaction to people, to authority, to a pastor, disenchantment, boredom, apathy, self-pity, bitterness, jealousy, loneliness, any of the reactor factors. Pregnancy illustrates the reaction stage of reversionism. Frustration is the misery that comes from frantic search for happiness boomeranging or failing to produce the desired results in the life.

“and brought forth” — the qal perfect of the verb jalabh. Jalabh plus the inferential waw should be translated, :”therefore he has given birth.” Birth is analogous to the fifth stage of reversionism or the negative volition stage.

“falsehood” — literally, “deceit.” The word sheqer means a lie. He has given birth to deceit or a lie. It refers to a life of deceit. It refers to the blackout of the soul, scar tissue of the soul, and the function of reverse process reversionism. In other words, every reversionist lives a lie. He is born into a life of duplicity and deceit, his soul is dishonest and his life follows suit.

Psalm 7:14 Behold he shall have labour pains [warning discipline] of vanity [first four stages of reversionism], because he has become pregnant [reaction] with frustration [intensification of reaction], therefore he has given birth to a life of deceit [negative volition, blackout of the soul, scar tissue of the soul, reverse process reversionism].

This is a profile of reversionism with all 8 steps included in it.

Note the sequence of the analogy: a) Pregnancy is a reaction stage of reversionism. Labour pains of vanity include the first four stages of reversionism. b) Birth of a deceitful life is a believer in the last four stages of reversionism. Negative volition toward doctrine, blackout of the soul, scar tissue of the soul, and reverse process reversionism. c) All of this is accomplished through the free will or the volition of the individual believer. d) Every reversionist, therefore, lives a lie, he is born into a life of hypocrisy and duplicity, a life of deceit, and through his own volition he digs his own grace.

Psalm 7:15 He makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole that he has made.

Verse 15 — “He made a pit” is the qal perfect of karah and it means to dig your own grave. The qal perfect means he has already as a reversionist dug his own grave. The digging of a pit or a grave is the intensive stage of divine discipline and it comes from the free will of the reversionist. The key to the fifth stage of reversionism is obviously negative volition toward doctrine. As free will turns down Bible doctrine eventually this fifth stage of reversionism corresponds with the second stage of discipline which is the intensive stage.

“and digged it” is not quite correct. We have the qal imperfect of chapar means to explore — “and he explored it.” The exploration of the grave refers to the function of the last three stages of reversionism, and every believer in the last three stages of reversionism is actually exploring his own uncomfortable grave. And he becomes more and more aware of the fact that he is going to die and he is going to die horribly the sin unto death.

“and is fallen” — the qal perfect of nâphal (נָפַל) [pronounced naw-FAHL] plus the inferential waw is “therefore he has fallen.” This is a reverence to the sin unto death. He falls into the grave which he constructed.

“which he made” — the qal imperfect of paal which means to construct it all by yourself.

Psalm 7:15 He dug a grave, and explored it, therefore he is fallen into the grave which he has constructed.

The reversionistic believer manufactures by negative volition and the various stages of reversionism his own torture chamber and he follows it up with a miserable death. He must take the responsibility for rejecting grace and blessing which is the road to glory.

Psalm 7:16 His mischief returns upon his own head, and on his own skull his violence descends.

Verse 16 — “His mischief” takes us back to amal which is his misery, self-induced misery. His misery is frustration. This refers again to operation boomerang or the third stage of reversionism.

“shall return” — the qal imperfect of shubh indicates the intensification of reaction, and it indicates operation boomerang. Returning here is the frantic search for happiness coming back to intensify the original reactor factors — “on his own head.”

“and his violent dealing” — this is the noun chamas which means violent oppression. It refers to the reversionistic believer refusing to take the responsibility for his own failure plus his ability to make other people around him miserable.

“shall come down” is better translated “shall descend”, it is the qal imperfect of jaradh. It means to come down as a heavy weight or something that hurts.

“upon his own pate” — the word “pate” in the Hebrew is qadqodh which means the top of his head, the crown of his head, and the whole principle is that no reversionist can ever build his happiness on someone else’s unhappiness, and the club that he uses to hit someone else always bounces back and hits him.

Psalm 7:16 His frustration shall return to his own head, his violent oppression of others shall descend upon the crown of his head.

Here is the whole principle of self-induced misery.

Summary of Psalm 7:14–16

1. Every believer must take the responsibility for his own decisions which are contrary to doctrine. That is why God has the systems of discipline.

2. God Himself will take the responsibility for all decisions made in compatibility with doctrine.

3. The reversionist must take the responsibility for his own negative and sinful decisions. This is why he gets warning discipline followed by intensive discipline and eventually dying discipline.

4. God sponsors the consequences of decisions which are positive toward doctrine.

8. The contamination of reversionism — Hebrews 12:15.

“Looking diligently” is the present active participle of the verb episkopéō (ἐπισκοπέω) [pronounced ehp-ee-skohp-EH-oh] which means to be an overseer, to be the foreman of a ranch, the manager of a business. It means also to take responsibility when used of an individual believer. You must take the responsibility yourself for certain things. This is the imperative use of the participle which is peculiar to Koine Greek and the papyri of Patristic Greek. The present is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. The active voice is a command to all believers related to the imperative participle. So the best way to translate something like this is, “See to it [take the responsibility yourself].”

Next we have the first of two negative purpose clauses introduced by the word “lest” which is merely the Greek negative mê and, of course, something is left out. We do not have, for example, hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] the conjunction. Nor do we have eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] in the present subjunctive. Instead we merely have the negative mê, but we can expect that now because the writer of Hebrews was a student of Classical Greek and he often goes back to Classical Greek in some of these forms. The omission of any conjunctions here merely gives great strength to these negative clauses. We will have to translate this, “See to it that there be no one” or “See to it that no one.” The particle tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] is an indefinite pronoun and is very impersonal.

“fail” — the present active participle of husteréō (ὑστερέω) [pronounced hoos-ter-EH-oh] means to fall short, it also means to fall back, to fail with regard to some standard, to be substandard or below standard. The tendencial present tense here represents what is inclined to occur or tends toward realization. The active voice: the reversionistic believer tends to produce this. We have a circumstantial participle. All reversionists have a tendency to fall back from grace. They are alive by grace but they fall back from supergrace.

“of the grace of God” is the preposition apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the ablative of charis (χάρις) [pronounced KHAHR-iç] — “from the grace of God”, therefore “falling back from the grace of God is the best translation.” Reversionism falls back from the grace of God in this sense. The reversionistic believer has trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, has received Him as his Savior. He functions under living grace because he is alive, he has food, shelter, transportation,. whatever it takes to stay alive. Also available to him is Bible doctrine. There is somewhere his own right pastor, his right local church and the text book, the bible. Now he has fallen back because he has failed to follow the colours — the function of GAP, assembling himself, listening to the teaching of the Word of God, growing in grace, receiving maximum resident doctrine in the soul. So he has fallen back from the high ground, SG2. SG2 was designed for every believer in eternity past.

The second negative purpose clause starts out “that not one”. We have mê tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] again, only this time tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] is in the neuter — “that not one root.” The word for “root” is the root of a tree, rhiza (ῥίζα) [pronounced HRID-zah]. It is something that is developed, as it says in 1Corinthians 15:36, by a seed dropping into the ground. Below the ground the seed dies, and by dying it sprouts, and from that comes a root, and another root and another root, and so on. Soon there is something above ground and eventually you have a tall tree. But the root always comes from the death of a seed. The seed dies before the root can sprout and that is exactly what we have here. The seed refers to sin. What has actually died here below the ground is the sins and failures of reversionism. That means that there are roots now and that there is a supergrace life — the ECS and then eventually the high ground of supergrace. So the sins died, they are no longer an issue, they have been rebounded, they are past. Yet, there is a great danger to anyone who is advancing toward the high ground, that they remember something that has been buried below the ground. They remember something that someone did, for example, and as they remember they become bitter, vindictive, and from there they go to operation vengeance, and from there they fall down and go back into reversionism.

“bitterness” is a descriptive genitive singular of the noun pikría (πικρία) [pronounced pihk-REE-ah] which really refers to a cluster of mental attitude sins. First of all there has to be jealousy or arrogance. With these there is vindictiveness, implacability, then antagonism, pettiness, and all of these work together to start a war against someone, to start operation vengeance. The “root of bitterness”: the sin is dead, bitterness has come out of a sin that has been forgiven and cleansed.

“sprouting up” — the present active participle of phuō (φύω) [pronounced FOO-oh]. We now that it means to go up because we have with it the adverb anô (ἄνω) [pronounced AN-oh] which means to go upward. We have a retroactive progressive present here denoting what has happened in the past and continues into the present time. It denotes the first four stages of reversionism. The active voice: the reversionist tried to move up the hill and has failed in this way and is producing the action. The participle is circumstantial, he is now in root of bitterness status.

“trouble you” — the word “you” is not here. We do have the present active subjunctive of enochléō (ἐνοχλέω) [pronounced ehn-ohkh-LEH-oh] which means to cause trouble, and it causes trouble for the individual — that is what en (ἐν) [pronounced en] means, “inside”. This is self-induced misery. This is a customary present to denote the fact that this habitually occurs when people have mental attitude sins as a reaction to a sin that is dead. The active voice: the reversionist produces the action causing the trouble. The subjunctive mood is potential depending upon whether the recovery is complete or partial.

“and thereby” — literally, “and through this”; “the many” hoi polloi, “be defiled.” The word miainô (μιαίνω) [pronounced me-AH-ee-noh] does not mean to defile exactly. In the ancient world it meant to dump a chamber pot on someone and contaminate them. The word “defiled” means to be contaminated with sewage. The stench of being such a victim made one socially unacceptable, therefore the person who had sewage of bitterness in his soul was unacceptable. In this way reversionism dumps sewage in the soul, and the soul that is filled with the sewage of mental attitude sins always overflows to others. The constative aorist gathers into one entirety the reversionistic believer polluting by the reaction in his soul and contaminating others. The passive voice: other believers become the victims, they receive the sewage. The subjunctive mood is potential, depending on whether you contact them or not.

Hebrews 12:15 See to it that no one falls back from the grace of God; and that not one root of bitterness sprouting up causes trouble, and through this the many be contaminated.

9. Psychosis and reversionism — 2Peter 2:15–19.

2Peter 2:15 Abandoning the straight road [the road to glory], they have been deluded [all reversionists are under delusion], having pursued the road of Balaam of Beor, who loved the reward of wrongdoing.

The straight road is the one going from living grace to supergrace to dying grace to surpassing grace. The reversionist does not follow this straight road.

2Peter 2:16 But he received a rebuke for his own transgression: the dumb ass having preached eloquently with the voice of a man had forbidden the psychosis of the prophet.

2Peter 2:17 These [reversionists] are wells without water [doctrine], clouds being driven along by a squall line [they are unstable]; for whom the blackness of darkness [blackout of the soul] has been reserved.

2Peter 2:18 For bombastically speaking arrogant words from the source of the vacuum [mataiotês (ματαιότης) [pronounced mat-ah-YOHT-ace]], they keep enticing unstable souls by lust, by lasciviousness, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error.” In other words, one reversionist captures another.

2Peter 2:19 Promising them [the intended victims] freedom, when they themselves exist as the slaves to corruption: for by whom anyone has been defeated, this same one [the reversionist] has become enslaved.” All reversionists are slaves to something.

Last Few Points on Reversionism

8. The contamination of reversionism — Hebrews 12:15.

9. Psychosis and reversionism — 2Peter 2:15–19.

10. Reversionism eliminates special blessing paragraphs for time and eternity — Hebrews 3:10–12.

11. Reversionism in the book of Hebrews. Various epistles in the New Testament emphasize different types of reversionism. For example, we have legalistic reversionism in Galatians, phallic reversionism in Corinthians, monetary reversionism in James, religious and ritualistic reversionism in Hebrews — Hebrews 5:11,12.

12. Reversionism leads to perversion — Romans 1:26,27.

13. Reversionism intensifies suffering — Psalm 77:1–10.

14. Reverse process reversionism, to be covered at another time.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #209

209 09/23/1974 Hebrews 12:4 Doctrine of the old sin nature

In Hebrews 12:4–15 we have the alternative to supergrace or the divine discipline of the believer. In verse 4 we immediately see the problem of it all, the problem of the old sin nature.

Bob was discussing things with a couple of police officers in SF. One of them understands the sin nature now, and it has helped him.

Heb 12:4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

Verse 4 — “ye have not yet resisted” is the aorist active indicative of a military verb, antikathístēmi (ἀντικαθίστημι) [pronounced an-tee-kath-IHS-tay-mee]. The word means to be in an organization that is trained for warfare. It means to oppose, to resist, or resist and oppose in line of battle. We also have with this a negative adverb of time, oupô (οὔπω) [pronounced OW-poe]. The combination of the two words means “not yet have you resisted.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, which means that in the course of your life you have not yet resisted to, as we will see in a moment, “being wounded.” The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a doctrinal reality. This verb says that the believers to whom this was originally addressed, i.e. believers living in Jerusalem in AD 67, had not yet been combat tested. The reason is obvious from Hebrews chapter six. They have been constantly plagued with reversionism. The adverb of time oupô (οὔπω) [pronounced OW-poe] begins the sentence rather than coming after the verb. And since it begins the sentence it indicates the principle of living grace, they are still alive even though they have not yet been successful enough to send to combat.

“unto blood” — the adverb mekrij is used as a preposition. This is called an improper preposition. With this we have the genitive singular of the noun haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah] which means blood. The actual prepositional phrase mekri actually has three connotations: space where it means “as far as”; time where it means “until”; degree where it means “to the point of.” Number three is pertinent here. This is mekri plus the genitive for degree. it should be translated, therefore, “to the point of blood” or “the point of being wounded.”

“striving” — the present middle participle of antagōnízomai (ἀνταγωνίζομαι) [pronounced an-tag-o-NIHD-zohm-ahee] which means to be in combat, to contend or to fight as a part of a military team. The progressive present signifies action is a state of persistence. It is also known as the descriptive present tense or the pictorial present which presents to the mind a picture of events in the process of occurrence. The middle voice is the indirect middle emphasizing the agent as producing the action. The participle is an instrumental participle indicating the means by which the action of the verb is accomplished. It should be translated, therefore, “by struggling” or “by fighting.”

“against sin” — pros plus the accusative of hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah]. Hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah] is in the singular and in the singular it refers to the old sin nature.

Hebrews 12:4 You have not yet resisted to the point of blood by fighting against the old sin nature.

In other words, in reversionism they were not successful in combating the old sin nature and its problems.

The Doctrine of the Old Sin Nature

1. Definition.

a. The old sin nature is that which was acquired by the fall of man. The old sin nature was not a part of man’s creation, it was acquired by negative volition toward God’s command.

b. Subsequently the old sin nature comes through physical birth, except in the case of the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ where there was no old sin nature.

c. The OSN is the centre of rebellion against God and the source of spiritual death.

d. It is also the source of all personal sins in the life. However, the OSN is not the source of personal sin in itself, it requires volition.

2. The essence of the old sin nature. Romans 6:6 — “Knowing this, that our old man [OSN] was crucified with him, so that the body of sin might be neutralized, in order that we should no longer be slaves to our old sin nature.”

a. The word sōma (σμα) [pronounced SOH-mah] [body] indicates essence. There are at least four parts to the OSN. “The “body of sin.”

b. The first part of the essence of the OSN is the area of weakness. This area of weakness is the source of personal sins. There are three basic categories of sin from the area of weakness: Mental sins, Verbal sins, Overt sins.

c. The OSN also has an area of strength. This is the source of socialism, all of the economic panaceas, trying to purify the air, etc. Man by man’s efforts cannot solve anything. The area of strength is a producer of good things — Isaiah 64:6. Romans 8:8 — “Those who are in the flesh [under the control of the OSN] cannot please God.”

d. The third characteristic in the essence of the OSN is the lust pattern. All lust is in the OSN. For example, there is approbation lust, the desire to be recognized. Approbation lust constantly keeps people off balance. Power lust is a more serious offense because people get hurt besides yourself in power lust. Power lust is what causes revolutions, warfare. It is involved in crime and in almost every kind of violence. Then there is lasciviousness or sex lust. There is also killer lust and materialistic lust. Romans 7:7.

e. The next area of essence of the OSN are the trends. There is the trend toward asceticism and the trend toward lasciviousness. There are also some other trends: the trend toward seeking power, the trend toward approbation. These are always linked with the volition and they are always linked with the lust pattern.

3. The biblical nomenclature for the OSN. The Bible describes the OSN under many titles. It is called “flesh” in Galatians 5:16; Ephesians 2:3. It is called the old man in Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9. It is called carnal — Romans 7:14; 1Corinthians 3:1–3. It is also called sin in the singular in Hebrews 12:4; Romans 5:12; 7:14; 1Corinthians 15:56; 1John 1:8. There are even some passages where the word “heart” is used for the old sin nature, instead of for the mentality, the right lobe of the soul — Jeremiah 17:9; Matthew 12:34,35; 15:19; Mark 7:21–23.

4. The origin of the old sin nature. It is best described in Romans 5:12 — “Wherefore, just as through one man [Adam] sin [OSN] entered into the world, and death [spiritual] through sin [OSN], so spiritual death spread to all men, because all sinned.” We were all in Adam. When Adam sinned, we sinned.

5. Summary

a. Although God created man he did not create the old sin nature in man.

b. By His very essence God cannot sin or solicit to sin.

c. God is not the author of sin.

d. Sin originated in mankind the same way that sin originated in the angelic creation. It originated by negative volition in creature free will.

e. Satan is the original sinner; Satan is the author of sin.

f. Note, for example, that man was tempted by Satan but he was tempted under the guise of a serpent.

g. By disobedience or negative volition toward divine prohibition in the garden the old sin nature was formed in man with resultant spiritual death. The wages of sin is not physical death.

h. Man from the volition of his own soul manufactured and perpetuated the old sin nature.

i. Through copulation the old sin nature is perpetuated in the human race.

6. The perpetuation and consequences of the old sin nature. 1Timothy 2:13,14 — “For it was Adam who was first created, then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into the transgression.” Because of this the OSN is passed down through the man in the perpetuation of the human race. Hence, the virgin birth means to be born without a sin nature. Cf. Psalm 51:5; 58:3. Therefore the old sin nature is the source of spiritual death in the human race — Ephesians 2:1,5. Furthermore the believer continues to have an OSN after salvation — 1Corinthians 3:1, “men of the flash.”

7. The OSN is the source of transitory pleasure in life — Hebrews 11:25.

8. The frustration of the OSN — Romans 7:15. “For” is the explanatory use of the particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] — “For you see.” He is explaining the frustration of the OSN.

“that which” — the nominative neuter singular of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. But in the neuter you have to show it is neuter, so it is “that which.”

“I do” — the present middle indicative of (κατεργάζομαι (katergázomai) [pronounced kat-er-gad’-zom-ahee]. The word means to produce something from down inside of yourself, to create, to achieve, to accomplish. The present tense is a present tense of duration or a retroactive progressive present for what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. The middle voice: this is a deponent verb, it is middle in form but active in meaning. Paul produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is the reality of the function of the OSN in each one of us.

“I allow not” is the present active indicative of ginôskô (vινώσκω) [pronounced gih-NOH-skoh], one of the verbs to know, plus the strong negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. It means “I do not understand.” “For that which is inside and comes out of me I do not understand.” “for what I would” — the explanatory gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] plus the nominative neuter singular from the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] plus the present active indicative of the verb thélô (θέλω) [pronounced THEH-loh], mistranslated “would.” It should be translated, “what I keep on desiring.” This is an iterative present tense describing what recurs at successive intervals, or the present tense of repeated action.

“that” is a nominative plural again, the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] emphasizing a designated object.

“I do not” — “I do not practice,” the present active indicative of prassw. The retroactive progressive present indicates what has begun in the past and continues into the present time, and it should be translated “I am not practicing.”

“but” is a very strong adversative conjunction allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH] which sets up a contrast.

“what I hate” — in this case it is sin. The present active indicative of misew means to detest — “the same”, houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] again, “I do,” the present active indicative of poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh].

Romans 7:15 For what I produce I do not understand; for what I keep desiring, these things I am not accomplishing; but what I detest, these things I keep doing.” This is the frustration of the old sin nature.

Doctrine of the Sin Nature Continued

8. The frustration of the OSN — Romans 7:15. He is explaining the frustration of the old sin nature. Romans 7:15 For what I produce I do not understand; for what I keep desiring, these things I am not accomplishing; but what I detest, these things I keep doing.” This is the frustration of the old sin nature.

9. Divine judgement solves the frustration of the old sin nature. There are three phases to the plan of God: phase one is salvation; phase two is the believer in time; phase three is the believer in eternity. There is a judgement for each phase. The problem of the old sin nature is solved in phase one by the judgement of the cross. Our sins are poured out upon Christ and judged — 2Corinthians 5:21; 1Peter 2:24. Our sins are judged in phase two by means of rebound — 1John 1:9. Our old sin nature’s human good is judged in phase three by the judgement seat of Christ — 1Corinthians 3:12–16. The unbeliever’s human good is judged at the great white throne — Revelation 20:12–15. So it is divine judgement that solves the problems of the old sin nature.

10. Doctrine resident in the soul is the means of combating the old sin nature. That brings us around in focus with our passage, Hebrews 12:4. This is also taught in Psalm 51:5,6. “Behold, you desire doctrine in my inward parts, and in the hidden part [the invisible soul] you caused me to know wisdom.” The antidote to the old sin nature is doctrine resident in the soul. Therefore the supergrace believer with maximum doctrine resident in the soul combats the OSN the best. On the other hand, the reversionist has not and does not properly handle the OSN. That is why in Hebrews 12:4 we have a reference to this fact. The original people to receive Hebrews were reversionists.

11. The OSN is not found in the resurrection body of the believer. This is the concept of ultimate sanctification or phase three sanctification — 1Corinthians 15:55–57; Philippians 3:20,21.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #210

210 09/24/1974 Hebrews 12:5a; Prov. 3:11–12 Child rearing, discipline, good manners

Heb 12:5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.

We now go to the principle of divine discipline in verses 5 and 6.

Verse 5 — the principle of divine discipline starts out with an expletive use of the conjunction kai. This expletive is used for the purpose of explaining what has gone before. Generally translators use the phrase “And so.” “And so” means that obviously from verse 4 the believers involved, the original readers of this passage, had failed and become casualties in the angelic conflict. We might be removed from this life at any time.

As members of the royal family of God they were not doing too well. Often we fail and we do not do too well because we forget. Therefore we have a very important verb as far as life is concerned and as far as the Christian way of life is concerned. We have a way of forgetting things. We forget the each one of us is here on this earth by courtesy of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are only here until He sees fit to remove us, and that can be done at any time. Whatever makes us arrogant or proud, whatever the source of our vanity, it can be removed very rapidly. So we often forget that the source of everything that we have, the source of everything that we are, is totally dependent upon who and what Christ is. Therefore the very thought of neglecting the source of everything that is wonderful to us is ludicrous. One thing that should characterize the life of every believer is the simple phrase, “no regrets.” By “no regrets” is meant that if you look back on your life you may regret the fact that you did not spend more time with someone you love, or that you did not understand someone who was in your life until you had enough moxy and enough sense and enough maturity to appreciate them. Whatever it is, people generally have an area of regrets. One of the things that is so important is to have no regrets in life. No regrets means the sooner you grow up, the sooner you have capacity for life — in other words, the sooner you have maximum doctrine in your soul — the better off life will be.

Bob asks the organist to play several pieces, whether you like it or not.

We should not spend our lives upset about things that people have done to us; nor should we be plotting their revenge.

So we have the phrase, “And so you have forgotten.” You have forgotten your lessons. The word “forgotten” is the perfect middle indicative of eklanthánomai (ἐκλανθάνομαι) [pronounced ek-lan-THAHN-ohm-ahee]. This is a very bad word when used in this context. It is a very good word when used in Philippians 3 about forgetting those things which are behind — past failures. But here it has a different connotation related to reversionism and it means to forget altogether. It means a total blackout of memory on some point. It means to forget something entirely and it is like not knowing it in the first place. The verb is an obvious result of reversionism. The writer of Hebrews is back on the subject of reversionism as of this point. We have a consummative perfect tense in which the action is completed. But there are basically two kinds of perfect tenses. One is where the action is completed at point X and the results go on and on and on. That is called an intensive perfect. Then there is the consummative perfect where the action is completed but you go back and look at the process by which the action was completed. The perfect tense always sees the action of the verb from the standpoint of completed action.

But the process is emphasized here, and the process by which the believer has forgotten doctrine is the various stages of reversionism. The middle voice is the indirect middle which emphasizes the agent as producing the action of the verb, and that means reflexive in the production of the action of the process. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality, i.e. reversionism causes the believer to forget Bible doctrine, forget Jesus Christ, forget grace, forget everything that is important, and get involved in an entirely new thought pattern. The soul undergoes a phenomenal change in reversionism. The things you ought to remember you forget and the things you ought to forget you remember. So as a member of the royal family of God you become petty, vindictive, implacable, a frantic search for happiness type, all of the things whereby you are no longer worthwhile in life.

Then the object is “the exhortation” — the objective genitive singular of the noun paráklêsis (παράκλησις) [pronounced par-AK-lay-sis]. The ordinary case for the object of a verb is the accusative case. The genitive case is a descriptive case. It is a possessive case and a modifying case. Therefore when you have an objective genitive when the genitive case is the object of a verb it means you are describing something very important. Therefore the accusative wont cut it, you have to go to a case that is even stronger for an object case. So the objective genitive indicates the fact that whatever the noun is, whatever the substantive is, it is something that is extremely important to your life.

The exhortation is very important. We have forgotten the most important thing of all when we are in reversionism, and the important thing is called in terms of reversionism “doctrine” but it is doctrine in terms of instruction. The noun paráklêsis (παράκλησις) [pronounced par-AK-lay-sis] means hortatory instruction, principles of doctrine shouted at you, principles of doctrine ground into you with devastating illustrations, principles of doctrine that hit a nerve centre and make you scream. Paráklêsis (παράκλησις) [pronounced par-AK-lay-sis] means someone standing beside you and shouting at you, it means to be braced by doctrine.

“which speaketh” — the present middle indicative of dialégomai (διαλέγομαι) [pronounced dee-al-EHG-ohm-ahee], and with it we have a qualitative relative pronoun hostis (ὅστις) [pronounced HOH-stihs]. Hostis (ὅστις) [pronounced HOH-stihs] means whatever is about to be presented is of extreme importance; dialégomai (διαλέγομαι) [pronounced dee-al-EHG-ohm-ahee] means to teach — “which teaches.” The present tense is a static present. In other words, principles of doctrine always teach. The middle voice is a dynamic middle emphasizing the part taken by the agent in the action of the verb. The agent is the principle of doctrine. The reason we have to emphasize this is because the agent, the point of doctrine here, is Proverbs 3:11,12. And Proverbs 3:11,12 does the teaching. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality, and reality here is a dogmatic unqualified assertion of Bible doctrine.

“you” is a dative plural and this is an indirect object from the personal pronoun su. It indicates the one in whose interest the act is performed. It is to our benefit to have the daily teaching of Bible doctrine.

“as unto children” — this is a comparative particle hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] plus the dative of advantage huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS], and it should be translated “as sons.” “As sons” brings into focus the entire concept of humanity, divine institution #3, the parents training the children. We have up to this point: “And so you yourselves have forgotten the point of doctrine which teaches you as sons.”

We have a whole generation of people without manners. This is why they run off to Canada. No society survives the destruction of the male population. Males are not instinctively gentlemen. It is not degrading to say, yes, mam; no mam. A whole generation of people who just smoke without considering anyone around them.

The toughest people that Bob has known had manners. Toughness is not the same as being crude. Vulgarity does not make a person a man.

It was an accident that Bob ended up back in Texas, after spending two years there. Good manners, poise and concentration. This place is a Mecca compared to the outside. This is because thousands of mothers have properly trained their sons. There was never a true Texas judge who gives the children to the father in a divorce.

The first concepts a child learns comes from their mothers. Mothers are always there. No greater part of the laws of divine establishment than the southern lady in her home training her children. Any time a child turns out right, a large portion of that credit of that goes to the mother.

Now we have a quotation — Proverbs 3:11,12.

Prov. 3:11 My son, do not despise the LORD's discipline or be weary of his reproof,...

Verse 11 — “My son” is bên (בֵּן) [pronounced bane] in the Hebrew and it refers to Solomon. David was teaching his son doctrine; “despise not” — the qal imperfect of the verb mâʾaç (מָאַס) [pronounced maw-AHS] means to refuse, to reject, to despise, to melt away. Hence, to melt away in the sense of rejecting the purpose of divine discipline. Discipline is designed to put us back on the road to glory. Ultimately discipline is always designed to improve, to better a situation, to reach an objective, and discipline is really a matter of the soul. Children are tender when they are young, they have tender souls, and that is the time when discipline pays off. Discipline is designed to put the royal family on the road to glory.

The mother carries the ball up to about age 9 or so, with about 75% attributed to the mother. No man is worth his salt if he ever lets a child sass his mother. The son should be slaughthered for doing it. The first thing the child must learn is respect for the mother. Without this respect, they have trouble all of their lives.

Some learned their first authority in Berachah Church.

David taught his son so well that he reached supergrace in his life. He did not do very well with several of his sons, but he did well with Solomon and Nathan.

“the chastening from the Lord” — mûwçâr (מוּסָר) [pronounced moo-SAWR] Adonai. “Mûwçâr (מוּסָר) [pronounced moo-SAWR]” means discipline. This is a reference to the various stages of discipline in reversionism — the warning stage, the intensive stage, the dying stage. Each stage is designed to warn the believer that he is off of the road to glory. Each stage is designed to warn the believer of his apostate status and to motivate a change of attitude toward doctrine, the use of rebound, and the daily function of GAP as the only recovery. “My son, do not despise discipline from the Lord.” “Son” means any believer.

Discipline is designed to let you know that you are off the road.

Discipline is always designed to teach. When discipline is used to harm someone, they are a bully. Discipline is never designed to abuse others. A child who is raised as a monster will not have success in the military or in marriage. All of this is related to discipline.

Son means any believer.

“neither be weary” -- the qal imperfect plus the negative of the verb qûwts (קוּץ) [pronounced koots]. Qûwts (קוּץ) [pronounced koots] means nausea. It is used here in the sense of being warn out and exhausted and nauseated. From the concept of throwing up it came to mean to loathe or abhor.

“his correction” — the noun is tôkachath (תּוֹכַחַת) [pronounced toh-KAH-khath] which means his strong punishment.

As the training in the home goes, so goes the person in life. God loves us by blessing in supergrace; and by punishment when you are needing it. Sometimes this is why children are confused by their parents. Sometimes sweet, sometimes difficult.

Every child in the home has weaknesses. You need to know your child as a young person and as an adult. A parent should be smarter about his children than anyone else.

Bob has been so hard on his child that even his mother wept and asked him to stop. You spoil a child by not training him. You don’t train him by giving him things.

Bob will toast his son at age 25. He found out that Bobby was stubborn. No idea where he got that.

Proverbs 3:11 My son, do not despise the discipline of the Lord, and do not loathe his very strong punishment. Loathing here has the connotation of thinking it unfair, thinking you are being treated unjustly.

Prov. 3:12 ...for the LORD reproves him whom he loves, as a father the son in whom he delights.

Verse 12 — “For whom the Lord loves” — the qal imperfect of ʾâhêb (אָהֵב) [pronounced aw-HAYV^B]. Most people think that when parents are strict they are unkind. They think that those who are permissive are somehow loving. A permissive parent is stupid and not loving. The qal imperfect means that God keeps on loving us. He always will love us. He loves us in reversionism, He loves us in supergrace. The only difference is that His love manifests itself in a different way. He loves you by blessing you in supergrace; He loves you by discipline and punishment in reversionism, but the love is there.

“he correcteth” — the word “correcteth” is really much stronger than that. Yâkach (יָכַח) [pronounced yaw-KAHK] is much stronger than appears on the surface. In the qal stem it means simply to be straight, in the niphal stem it means to be convinced, in the hithpael stem it means to dispute or argue, in the piel stem it means to set right by punishment, but in the hiphil stem here it means to judge by punitive action. “For whom the loves he judges [disciplines] by punitive action.”

“even as a father the son” — the son is growing up and now the father handles the discipline. The father loves his son but he disciplines his son, he prepares him for life by doing so. The father can do for his son is prepare him for life and this means lots of discipline.

“in whom he delighteth” — the qal imperfect of râtsâh (רָצָה) [pronounced raw-TSAWH]. Râtsâh (רָצָה) [pronounced raw-TSAWH] means to take pleasure in a person.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #211

211 09/25/1974 Hebrews 12:5b-6 Doctrine of divine discipline (revised)

Proverbs 3:11 My son, do not despise [or, reject] the discipline of the Lord; therefore, do not loathe his very strong punishment.

Proverbs 3:12 For whom the Lord loves, He judges with punitive action, like a father to a son in whom he delights.

Heb 12:5 And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.

We are now ready for the Greek quotation of Proverbs 3:11,12. “My son” — u(ie mou, a vocative from huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS] which is the word for “son,” plus the possessive genitive of mou.

“despise not” — the present active imperative of oligōréō (ὀλιγωρέω) [pronounced ol-ig-oh-REH-oh] which means to think lightly of something, to make light of something. Whether it is thinking lightly or making light of it is not correctly translated here as “despise.” It isn’t quite that strong. We also have the negative mê with it, and it is “My son, do not make light of.” The present tense is an iterative present which prohibits what recurs at successive intervals. It is the present tense of repeated action forbidden. The reversionistic believer is prohibited from lightly regarding or making light of divine discipline. The imperative mood expresses a strong prohibition. Never, never make light of discipline.

“the chastening” — the objective genitive singular of paideia (παιδεία) [pronounced pai-DEE-ah] means discipline. “My son, do not make light of the corrective discipline ...”

“of the Lord” is the ablative of source from kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss] and it should be “from the Lord.” All discipline in the life of the believer has the absolute source of the Lord Himself.

“nor faint” — this time the present passive imperative from ekluô (ἐκλύω) [pronounced ek-LOO-oh] which means to faint. In the passive it means to become weak or feeble, and therefore fainting. Becoming feeble means to enter reversionism. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs to the reversionist, he faints in his soul. The passive voice: the reversionistic believer receives the action of the verb. The imperative mood of prohibition is expressing a negative command. “Nor be fainting [which means to become discouraged in the passive] when you are rebuked.” The word “fainting” is fainting of soul and it means to become discouraged here.

“rebuked” is “reproved” here which isn’t quite as strong — the present passive participle of elegchô (ἐλέγχω) [pronounced ehl-EHNG-khoh]. Elegchô (ἐλέγχω) [pronounced ehl-EHNG-khoh] means to reprove here rather than to rebuke. It is a retroactive progressive present indicating the fact that as long as a person is in reversionism there are various types of discipline. The passive voice: the reversionistic believer receives the action of the verb. This is a temporal participle, therefore you translate a temporal participle by a small temporal clause — “when you are reproved by him” — hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] plus the ablative of autos. hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] is a preposition of authority. It means originally “under” — under the authority of. Plus the ablative of autos means “by him.” Autos is an intensive pronoun with demonstrative force to emphasize the nearness of God the Father in this context.

Hebrews 12:5: And so you yourselves have forgotten the point of doctrine which teaches you as sons, My son, do not make light of corrective discipline from the Lord, nor become discouraged when you are reproved by Him. (Proverbs 3:11–12)

Heb 12:6 For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

Verse 6 — here is the reason why you should not become discouraged. “For whom.” “For” is the explanatory use of the particle gar, plus the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] whose antecedent is the reversionistic believer.

“the Lord” — here is one of those places where we have a direct quotation from the Old Testament. Kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss] is used in two ways in the New Testament. It is used for a husband. To the wife the husband is kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss], and kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss] meant originally absolute authority and is used only of God or the husband. Here it is used for God. It is a direct quotation from Adonai, the tetragrammaton in the Hebrew, and therefore it refers to God the Father. “loves” — the present active indicative of agapaô (ἀγαπάω) [pronounced ahg-ahp-AH-oh] which is the verb of mental attitude love. This is the more general concept of love, the low key relaxed mental attitude type of love. God is the subject here and therefore it is the total love that emanates from the essence of God. The static present represents a condition as perpetually existing, therefore taken for granted as a fact. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic reality, and the dogmatic reality is the fact that God loves you even when you are in reversionism. The active voice: God the Father produces the action that goes with this dogmatic declarative for a point of doctrine.

“he chasteneth” — present active indicative of the verb paideúō (παιδεύω) [pronounced pahee-DYOO-oh]. The cognate is paideia (παιδεία) [pronounced pai-DEE-ah] which is corrective discipline. Both the verb and the noun have as their basic root pai which comes from paij which means a child. It is used in the sense of teaching or training a child by discipline.

So we have” “For you see whom the Lord loves he disciplines.” The aoristic present is used here for punctiliar action in present time. The people to whom this was originally addressed were being disciplined at the time of the writing of Hebrews. The active voice: God the Father produces the action. The declarative mood is the for dogmatic historical reality that goes with the aoristic present. Right at that time they were being spanked.

“and scourgeth” — mastigóō (μαστιγόω) [pronounced mas-tig-OH-oh] means to flog or skin alive with a whip. We can translate this here as “punishment.”

“every son” — pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] plus huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS], both in the accusative, they are direct objects. pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] means every believer and huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS] us used for the believer in the sense of an adult son, which we are by the baptism of then Spirit.

“whom” is the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]; “he receiveth” — present active indicative of paradéchomai (παραδέχομαι) [pronounced par-ad-EHKH-ohm-ahee]. Paradéchomai (παραδέχομαι) [pronounced par-ad-EHKH-ohm-ahee] means to accept, to acknowledge, but here it has to correspond with what it is quoting, the qal imperfect of râtsâh (רָצָה) [pronounced raw-TSAWH] which means “in whom he delights.” So it means here to welcome home or to receive favourably. The static present represents the situation as perpetually existing, and the whole point is that God welcomes us home.

Hebrews 12:6 For you see, whom the Lord loves He disciplines and punishes [and scourges with a whip] every son whom He welcomes home [also, in whom He delights]. (Proverbs 3:11–12)

(Bob reads all 6 verses)

Some of you who have not eaten know that, when people start looking for their notes, in the rustling, you know you can open up a baby ruth and eat it.

The Doctrine of Divine Discipline

1. Definition.

a. Divine discipline is the sum total of punitive measures by which God corrects and judges the believer in time.

b. Discipline is the alternative to blessing. Bob uses judgment to refer to the unbeliever; and discipline in its technical sense to apply to the believer.

c. Two areas of divine discipline exist in phase two. In the sphere of carnality there is divine discipline and in the sphere of reversionism there is also divine discipline.

d. Discipline for carnality is temporary and cancelled by the rebound technique.

e. Discipline for reversionism is permanent in time and terminates in one of two ways: either in the sin unto death or reversion recovery.

f. However, no matter how extreme divine discipline may be it never implies loss of salvation.

g. Inasmuch as there is no divine discipline in heaven all discipline to the believer is confined to time.

h. The purpose of divine discipline in time is to correct the believer and bring him to the point of either rebound or reversion recovery.

2. The principle of divine discipline — Hebrews 12:5,6. Note that the punitive action from God is for the believer only. It is “My son.” Also notice that divine discipline is based on God’s love for the believer.

3. The purpose of divine discipline — Revelation 3:19. Those whom I love I punish and correct by discipline; therefore, get hot and change your mind.

4. Divine discipline does not imply loss of salvation — Galatians 3:26 (For you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus). Once a son, always a son, whether a good son or a bad son (or a mediocre son). 2Timothy 2:11–13 amplifies this. Faithful is the word; for if we died with Him we will also live with Him. If we endure, then we will also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He will also deny us (SG2, dying grace, and SG3); for if we are faithless, He remains faithful for He cannot deny Himself.

5. Divine discipline is confined to time — Revelation 21:4.

6. Discipline turns cursing into blessing — 1Corinthians 11:30,31 [For this reason, nany among you are weak (warning discipline) and sick (intensive discipline) and a number sleep (dying discipline); but if we should just ourselves, then we will not be judged (rebound generally cancels discipline; but suffering can continue as a blessing)]; Job 5:17,18.

7. Divine discipline of reversionism always includes self-induced misery — Psalm 7:14–16. Psalm 7:14–16 Behold he shall have labour pains [warning discipline] of vanity [first four stages of reversionism], because he has become pregnant [reaction] with frustration [intensification of reaction], therefore he has given birth to a life of deceit [negative volition, blackout of the soul, scar tissue of the soul, reverse process reversionism]. He dug a grave, and explored it, therefore he is fallen into the grave which he has constructed. His frustration shall return to his own head, his violent oppression of others shall descend upon the crown of his head. Bob spends some time talking about pissing against the wall (this designates the male of the species). Now he talks about labor pains and whatever he is drawing elicits a great deal of laughter.

8. The principle of triple compound discipline. Triple compound discipline combines self-induced misery with divine discipline. The intensification of divine discipline can occur under the following circumstances:

a. Mental attitude sins motivate verbal sins.

b. Verbal sins are the basis for further punitive action from God — Matthew 7:1–2; Psalm 64:7–8 they make their tongues a stumbling for themselves. This stage become intense. Their tongue is against them. When you begin to bad rap or judge others, their own tongue becomes their own enemy. James 5:9

c. The third stage, whatever you gossip or malign and attribute sins to Charley Brown, whether these are true or false, the discipline which goes with those sins is taken by God are turned around right back on your head.

9. Three categories of discipline in reversionism:

a. The warning stage — Revelation 3:20. The warning stage involves a relatively simple recovery. It involves rebound and the persistent function of GAP. In the warning stage too much doctrine has not been lost and therefore the recovery is relatively easy.

b. The intensive stage — Psalm 38:1–14.

c. The dying stage — Revelation 3:16, the sin unto death. Lukewarm means reversionism. Cf. Jeremiah 9:16; 44:12; Philippians 3:18,19.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #212

212 09/26/1974 Hebrews 12 via Phil. 3:19 Doctrine of the sin unto death

Php 3:19 Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.

Philippians 3:19 — “Whose end is destruction.” The relative pronoun in the genitive plural from hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] refers to the reversionist in the previous verse who is said to be an enemy of the cross. Anyone in reversionism is the enemy of grace and therefore the enemy of the cross. The word “end” is a noun, telos (τέλος) [pronounced TEHL-oss], and it means the end or the termination of phase two for the reversionist. Death is the termination of phase two for anyone in reversionism, but not ordinary death, the sin unto death. Therefore it is described as “destruction” — the noun apôleia (ἀπώλεια) [pronounced ap-OH-li-a]. The word is used technically here for the sin unto death.

The Doctrine of the Sin unto Death (2)

1. By definition the sin unto death is the means by which the reversionistic believer is transferred from time to eternity. It is dying by means of maximum punitive discipline. The dying is painful, horrible, miserable, anything that is the exception to dying grace. Psalm 118:17,18; 1John 5:16

2. The cause of the sin unto death: prolonged and unchecked reversionism. No one ever dies the sin unto death without going through the three stages of discipline. Jeremiah 9:13–16 (And the Lord said, because they have disobeyed My teaching and disobeyed My doctrine nor walked according to it but have walked after the stubbornness of their right lobe and after their Baals as their fathers taught them. Therefore, thus says the Lord of the armies, the God of Israel; therefore, I will feed these people with wormwood and give them poison water to drink and I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known;...); 44:12 (I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to come to the land of Egypt to live, and they shall all be consumed. In the land of Egypt they shall fall; by the sword and by famine they shall be consumed. From the least to the greatest, they shall die by the sword and by famine, and they shall become an oath, a horror, a curse, and a taunt.).

3. None of us are exempt from death. No matter how good one feels or how discouraged or any other factor, all of those are signs of being alive. Dying can be the best thing that happens to us; or the worst. Abraham checked out in great sexual prosperity in supergrace. But dying is even greater than his sexual blessing. Falling by the sword is not military; this is legal action. Bob thinks we should legislate that all football games end in a tie and they will play until they are at a tie. That is legislating equality. Those in Jeremiah’s generation, if they went to Egypt to avoid discipline in Judah, then they would die the sin unto death there. Rev. 3:15–16 You don’t want lukewarm coffee or lukewarm tea. You drink something lukewarm, you vomit it up. The reversionist dies in the framework in the area of his area of reversionism. Suppose you are low class and it bothers you? Nothing worse and sometimes the person tries to better himself to be a high class super-ass.

4. The sin unto death does not mean loss of salvation — 2Timothy 2:11–13, “… if we deny him he will also deny us” SG2 and SG3, but we do not lose our salvation — “if we are faithless he remains faithful.” These wreathes or crowns will be a very big deal in heaven.

5. There are four ways to transfer from time to eternity: a) the sin unto death which is for reversionists only; b) dying grace which is for supergrace believers; c) PCS (Permanent Change of Station) under paragraph SG3. Occasionally you will find someone like Enoch. In his paragraph SG2 he did not have any dying blessing. In fact, the first category of his SG3 was his dying blessing. And since SG3 is eternity and you can’t die, therefore Enoch walked across that golden bridge in his body. He literally left this life in his body and there was no burial of a body. The PCS is associated with SG3 rather than SG2 — Hebrews 11:5; d) resurrection as per the Rapture generation. There are three kinds of believers on the earth at the point of the Rapture. First of all, there are supergrace believers. Secondly, there are those who are growing. Thirdly, there are those in reversionism in all of the stages. Even the reversionist will go up with the rest of the believers — no pain, blessing by association. The entire Church must be removed. The royal family has to be withdrawn before the Age of Israel can be concluded. Spiritual Low order of brethren. You don’t have to have money in order to love it. Sometimes, you have a great desire for that which you do not have. People associate money with security. We are in a jam, but the British are in a much greater jam. They have nationalized almost every industry out of existence.

6. The case histories of the sin unto death.

a. For monetary reversionism we have Ananias and Sapphira. They gave the appearance of giving all of their money when they held back money because they loved money. Tithing in the Old Testament was strictly an income tax for that era. That ought to be our income tax today. We have a lot of immorality in government and with taxation. Tithing teaches us the best way for a nation to tax itself. Tithing has nothing to do with the church.

b. Phallic reversionism. Here it is incest — 1Corinthians 5:1–5. Incest was not an uncommon Greek sin. A Corinthian having sex with his mother and he was turned over to Satan. He was under such discipline that he rebounded and got out of it. The first half of 2Corinthians is Paul telling the Corinthians to let the man back in.

c. Ritual reversionism — 1Corinthians 11:30,31, participation in the communion service minus rebound.

d. Mental attitude reversionism — jealousy, vindictiveness, implacability, bitterness, etc. Saul refused to kill and enemy because of mental attitude sins — 1Samuel 13:9-14; 1Chronicles 10:13,14.

e. Verbal reversionism — 1Timothy 1:19,20, Hymenaeus and Alexander.

f. Anti-establishment reversionism — human viewpoint foreign policy of Hezekiah in Isaiah 30:1–3; 31:1–3 cf. Isaiah 38.

7. Rebound is a factor in reversion recovery. 1Corinthians 11:31. James 5:20.

8. The consistent function of GAP is necessary for reversion recovery — James 4:4–8 You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #213

213 09/27/1974 Hebrews 12 via Ps. 30:1–4 Psalm of celebration

Saint Petersburg newspaper. Communists plan to conquer the United States using drugs. Vast smuggling network from China. Comes through Vancouver and Cuba. 72 factories running in China and more than 9000 acres are cultivated. Bible doctrine is the great deterrent to China and communism.

First 6 verses read:

First stage is saving grace, second stage is living grace (aka logistical grace). There is an objective, which is to reach the high ground of supergrace. Spiritual blessing, which is occupation with Christ. Temporal blessings, promotions, success, etc. Then dying grace followed by surpassing grace. The OT believer has the concept of the house; the NT believer has the concept of the wreath. Wreath, crown or stephanos is SG3.

There are many believers who go negative. Emotional revolt of the soul, negative volition toward doctrine, blackout of the soul, reverse process reversionism.

Some of you may have returned to find out, is there a way to get out of dying horribly. Dying grace is even better than sexual prosperity.

Psalm 30 is the shortest passage on rebound recovery. The writer is David. He had taken Jerusalem and decided to have a dedication. As far as David was concerned he was going to live in one home on this earth and this was it. At the same time he got to thinking about the grace of God. He thought about all of the times he had failed and how horribly he had failed and how God in His grace permitted him to have the time for reversion recovery. As a result of it he sat down and wrote a beautiful song: “A Psalm and song at the dedication of the house of David.”

The word for “Psalm” is mizmor, and it simply means a hymn of praise, a hymn of worship, or a hymn of celebration and worship. This is David’s celebration in retrospection. Not only does he have a beautiful home on a high hill, but that hill means more than simply occupying a beautiful home, it means he also has a most wonderful relationship with the Lord for he is on the high ground of supergrace. Therefore he puts it all together and decides to write a psalm and dedicate it. The word “psalm” is followed by the word “song” and that is the word shir which means a song accompanied by musical instruments. It means a song where your voice is drowned out by the musical instruments. So it is a psalm and a song of dedication. The word for “dedication” is chanukah which is a real wing-ding of a celebration. Then it says “the house of David” but it means the castle of David. The name of the fortress is Zion. It is a word that occurs many times in scripture. Zion is the western escarpment of Jerusalem and was the location of this famous fort. This fort is described in 2Samuel chapter 5, and the capture of it in 5:7. In 5:9 it became the very basis of his prosperity, an expression of it. So it is fitting that he should dedicate it and in verse 1 we have the beginning of his wonderful song. David found out that with his many wives, he was facing a half dozen interior decorators, all with different ideas.

Psalm 30:1 A Psalm of David. A song at the dedication of the temple. I will extol you, O LORD, for you have drawn me up and have not let my foes rejoice over me.

Verse 1 — In effect, he is doing two things here. He is being retrospective and at the same time he is recognizing that everything that he has, everything that he will ever have, everything that is wonderful in his life, he owes it directly to the Lord. This makes David one of the greatest men who ever lived.

Zion is a specific section of the mountain David wanted to build his home on.

“I will extol” — the pilel imperfect of the verb rum (pronounced room). Here is one of those words that can mean a lot of different things depending on the stem. For example, the qal stem of rum means to raise up, the hithpael means to be proud in the sense of raising yourself up, the pilel stem which we have here means to exalt and it is intensive, it means that David is concentrating on who and what the Lord is and the pilel stem tells us that he has occupation with the person of Christ. Occupation with the person of Christ is maximum category #1 love. Occupation with the person of Jesus Christ, in addition to that, is maximum capacity for life and maximum capacity for love in every area of life. In other words, everything that is wonderful in life is related to the principle of occupation with Christ.

David has just completed his new home, he has just moved in and he is having a celebration. He is surrounded by all those whom he loves. He celebrates by starting out with what is more important than anything else in life. There is nothing more important than who and what Christ is. You cannot force yourself to love Jesus Christ, it can only come naturally as you take in doctrine on a daily basis. To extol or to praise or to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ requires maximum doctrine in the soul. That is exactly what David had. “O Lord” — this is a reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no way that we can ever take credit for anything ourselves.

Pray for God not to give you these various blessings until you have the capacity to enjoy them. You cannot get away from yourself in life. If capacity comes first, you will never get burned.

Bob talks about Bobby and that it has been fantastic and phenomenal blessing having a great son for 25 years. He was about to get married in a couple of days.

“for you have lifted me out of the depths” — the piel perfect of the verb dâlâh (דָּלָה) [pronounced daw-LAW] and it is the highly intensive piel stem. It means to lift up, to draw from the bottom of a well. It is used here for reversion recovery. David is saying that God has lifted him up in the most wonderful and profound way. The piel stem means that he has responded to Bible doctrine. In fact he will use the word “healing.” The healing for reversionism is Bible doctrine in the soul.

“you have not let my enemies get the best of me” or literally, “you have not permitted my enemies to rejoice over me.” The piel perfect of the word to rejoice here is samach and it really means to gloat or to celebrate — “you have not permitted my enemies to gloat over me.”

Notice the way he is approaching this. First of all he is occupied with the person of Jesus Christ. Category #1 love in its maximum expression is a sign of full recovery from reversionism. He is occupied with Christ and he cannot help but think of the ways in which he has been blessed.

David had a fantastic magnetic personality. You either hated him or you loved him. People did not have a lukewarm attitude toward him. The first thing that comes to his mind is his enemies. David always had many enemies but his enemies were never permitted to gloat over him. David was not a petty man. He did not use his power to crush his enemies. And David never in all of his life permitted himself to use his power in a personal vendetta.

Robert E. Lee was one of the greatest American generals. He never used his power to avenge himself.

Psalm 30:1 I will exalt you, O Lord; for you have lifted me out of the depths of reversionism, and while doing so you have not permitted my enemies to rejoice over me.

Bob has enemies all over the world now. He had 3 or 4 secretaries there who spend there time filing them. God protects us from our many enemies.

Principle: Any person who is going to do anything in life and has any kind of an opinion is going to have enemies. And what keeps your enemies from closing in? You can’t always guard your back, you can’t always be alert. What protects a person from his enemies? God’s wonderful and matchless grace.

Psalm 30:2 O LORD my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.

Verse 2 — he begins to think back on some things, and the first thing he thinks about is the turning point of his life. “I cried” — but he didn’t cry. This is the piel perfect of the verb shawa. The piel stem means to shout for help — “I shouted for help.” In other words, all of us at some time in our lives have been totally down and depressed, totally discouraged, so that life looks completely hopeless. This is what happens to any believer when he gets far enough along in reversionism.

“to you, and thou hast healed me” — the qal imperfect of râphâʾ (רָפַא) [pronounced raw-FAW]. This is a spiritual healing, there is nothing wrong with him physically, and the healing has to do with Bible doctrine in his soul. He made the recovery — “you have healed me from reversionism.” No person is truly great until he is totally down and he picks himself up and moves on.

Psalm 30:2 O Lord, my God, I shouted for Your help; you have healed me from reversionism.

Psalm 30:3 O LORD, you have brought up my soul from Sheol; you restored me to life from among those who go down to the pit.

Verse 3 — “O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave” — he was down so low that he was under the sin unto death. This is the hiphil perfect of alah, “you have caused my soul to come up.” He was dying, he was going out under the sin unto death.

“you have kept me alive” — the piel perfect of châyâh (חָיָה) [pronounced khaw-YAW] which means to live, but it is stronger than that. In the qal stem it means to be merely alive, in the piel stem it means to be alive and happy and well and moving right along.

“that I should not go down to the pit” — going down to the pit is the grave.

Psalm 30:3 O Lord, you have brought my soul up from Sheol; you made me alive from among those who went down to the pit.

Psalm 30:4 Sing praises to the LORD, O you his saints, and give thanks to his holy name.

Verse 4 — he is ready to start singing now. He is alive and well. “Sing” — the piel imperative of zamar, “Make music to Jehovah.”

“O ye saints” — “You men of grace” literally. Men of grace always recognize that when they fail they know what to do about it.

“give thanks” — the hiphil imperative of yâdâh (יָדָה) [pronounced yaw-DAWH] means “confess.” It has to do with rebound.

“at the memory of his holiness” — in other words, every time we confess we say in effect that God is perfect and has provided a way to forgive us — the cross. So men of grace have something to sing about, and men of grace have something that keeps them men of grace. The first thing men of grace to is to sing about it, the second thing they do is to confess, that is the way they maintain that grace. Grace has to be maintained is the principle. So when it says, “Rebound at the memory of his holiness” it doesn’t mean when you think about His holiness, it means His holiness is the perfect standard. When we commit a sin we violate His holiness, we fall short of His holiness. As a result we have to rebound. The principle is, men of grace maintain grace by a grace system — the rebound technique.

Psalm 30:4 Make music to Y^ehowah, men of grace; confess at the memory of His holiness.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #214

214 09/29/1974 Ps. 30:5–12 Supergrace vs. reversionism

This is David and his men who have been with him for a long time. There were the Jebusites in the mountain that David wanted. He turned a small number of men into a Ranger battalion.

David looked around at this spot and realized that he never had a permanent home, and he decided, “I am going to have one now.” This is the psalm of going from reversionism to supergrace. Our attitude toward Bible doctrine after salvation determines which direction that we will go. Saving grace to living grace to supergrace to dying grace to SG3.

This would be David’s permanent home.

Psalm 30:5 For his anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning.

Verse 5 — “For his anger.” The word “anger” here is an anthropopathism. We have a preposition followed by the noun ʾaph (חּאַף) [pronounced ahf]. God doesn’t really get angry but to express His punitive action in terms of human activity we have such phrases. God’s anger refers to the fact that God spanked David since David was one of His sons. “Anger” expresses God spanking or disciplining the believer.

“endureth but a moment” — the words “endureth” and “but” are not found in the original and it is literally, “his anger lasts for a moment.” That means that no matter how intense the discipline, no matter how discouraged the person may be, it is temporary; for God in His grace has designed discipline like everything else, to be a blessing, to get us back in line, to get us on the track. The objective is to get us back on doctrine.

“in his favour is life” — a pitiful translation. We have a prepositional phrase. The object of the preposition is râtsôwn (רָצוֹן) [pronounced raw-TSOWN], and râtsôwn (רָצוֹן) [pronounced raw-TSOWN] is “grace benefit.” It should be “a lifetime in grace benefit.”

“Weeping may endure for a night” — the word for “weeping” here stands for every principle of discouragement. Here it means adversity, tragedy, heartache, disaster, frustration, everything that is involved when a person is down. He uses the beautiful illustration of night in the sense of darkness and uncertainty.

“but joy” — the word joy in the Hebrew is rinnâh (רִנָּה) [pronounced rin-NAW], a good strong word for celebrating. It means celebrating in happiness, it means stimulating celebrating. It means having a maximum capacity for life and using that capacity to celebrate.

“cometh in the morning” — “morning” refers to the daylight, when everything clears up and you can see, and so on. The supergrace status is morning. The morning is that persistent, consistent staying with doctrine until you reach the high ground of supergrace.

Psalm 30:5 His anger lasts but a moment; but a lifetime of supergrace benefit results. Weeping shall pass in the night, but celebration happiness in the morning.

This verses sets up a contrast between misery and happiness, supergrace and reversionism. David is occupied with the person of Christ. He has phenomenal blessings in his soul. He has lots of doctrine. Therefore, he wants you to know that not only does it mean occupation with the person of Christ, not only does he have a great relationship with the Lord and the capacity to love the Lord, but that same soul capacity goes in other directions in life. He has the capacity to love a woman, he has the capacity to stand by his friends and to demonstrate great friendship, he has the capacity for greatness, for rulership, he has the capacity to move through life and to see situations as they are and to make right decisions and to really get on top of life.

Psalm 30:6 As for me, I said in my prosperity, “I shall never be moved.”

Verse 6 — he now mentions his prosperity. He is ready for prosperity. Once a person has the capacity of soul prosperity is meaningful. Without doctrine in the soul prosperity is miserable. “And in my prosperity” is a reference to the supergrace life, paragraph SG2, to all of the blessings that were his.

“I said, I shall never be moved” — we have the niphal imperfect of the verb môwţ (מוֹט) [pronounced moht], and mot means to totter or to waver. “I shall not waver,” and then he adds “forever.” What a wonderful statement to be able to make in a period of prosperity under SG2. It means, “All of my life in eternity I will never totter, I will never waver, I will never have a bad moment. And while in this life I’m going to have a few bad moments I am equipped for them, I have maximum doctrine in my soul. But forever and ever I will never waver.” So he has something that people lose track of, the only kind of security that counts. The only kind of security that really counts is the kind that you have as a member of the royal family of God, and you have security forever and ever and ever. This security is based upon the character of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. It is as perfect as God is perfect, it is a security you cannot lose. And that is what David means when he says, “I shall not totter forever.”

The old man did not trust the banks, and they had a bunch of gold; and he buried this gold as security for his family. After his death, his family found some of the gold.

In life with doctrine you have perfect security.

Psalm 30:6 As for me, I said in my [capacity for] prosperity, “I will never be totter, I will never waiver.

Psalm 30:7 By your favor, O LORD, you made my mountain stand strong; you hid your face; I was dismayed.

Verse 7 — “Lord, by they favour” — again we have râtsôwn (רָצוֹן) [pronounced raw-TSOWN] which is “grace benefit.”

“thou hast made my mountain to stand strong” is literally, “you have caused to stand forever my mountain.” The mountain refers to the mountain on which that fort stood, the fort that was converted into a beautiful home. So “my mountain” is a reference to the dynasty of David, it is a reference to his home, it is a reference to the fact that even in life where everything is uncertain, in life with doctrine where you understand and appreciate the Lord you have perfect security. His security was not in the mountain but in the relationship of being on a mountain and having the Lord.

“strong” — literally, “to stand powerful.”

“thou didst not hide your face” — the word “hide” is the hiphil perfect of the verb sathar and it means to walk by someone and cover your face. In the ancient world covering the face was an idiom of disregard. The Lord had never disregarded David even though David had failed, He always stood by him in trouble.

Psalm 30:7 O Lord, by means of grace benefit you have caused my mountain to stand powerful; you did not cover your face when I was neutralized with trouble and fear [reversionism].

Despite all of his failures, God never turned His back on David.

Psalm 30:8 To you, O LORD, I cry, and to the Lord I plead for mercy:

Verse 8 — “I cried to thee, O Lord, and unto the Lord I made supplication.” The words “made supplication” is the only part that is incorrect in this verse, it is a hithpael imperfect of the verb chânan (חָנַן) [pronounced khaw-NAHN]. The hithpael is both reflexive and passive and it should be translated, “I sought grace for myself.”

Principle: All of us when we have failed must seek grace for ourselves. That means rebound, get back in fellowship and stay there, get back with Bible doctrine. You have to do it for yourself, no one can do it for you. Here is the greatness of David, “I sought grace for myself.” He kept making those decisions to recover from reversionism — rebound decisions, decisions to take in doctrine — and he sought grace for himself. These are the decisions which we must do ourselves.

Psalm 30:8 To you, O LORD, I made supplication [to You], and to the Lord I sought grace for myself:

Psalm 30:9 “What profit is there in my death, if I go down to the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it tell of your faithfulness?

Verse 9 — “What profit is there in my blood.” This is an idiom which means, “What advantage is there in killing me before my time.” I was about to go before my time, I would have missed this party and missed all of these great things. There is no profit in going before my time. So, “What profit in my blood if I had gone down to that pit [grave]” — dying before his time. “Dust can’t praise you.” As a dead and disciplined believer I can’t glorify you, I would be dust today. Principle: Your blessing glorifies God. God keeps you alive to bless you, to prosper you, to give you the benefits of your very own SG2 paragraph. If God has to put you up against the firing squad of the sin unto death your dust doesn’t glorify Him.

The premature death of a believer does not glorify God. God is glorified by our lives empowered by Bible doctrine. When Solomon inherits his fortune, this will be the greatest fortune to be inherited in that day.

David realizes that he could have been dust on the ground; but he sought God.

“Shall it declare thy truth?” Literally, “Shall doctrine declare?” So we have the principle of the declaration of doctrine, the importance of Bible doctrine.

Psalm 30:9 What profit is there in my death [dying before my time], if I go down to the grave? [I would be dust by now] Will the dust praise you? Will it [my dust] tell of your doctrine?

David almost blew it, but he didn’t. Because of grace and grace benefit, he remains alive.

Psalm 30:10 Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me! O LORD, be my helper!”

Verse 10 — “Hear, O Lord, and have mercy on me.” Now he is looking forward to the future. When he says “Hear” he is actually commanding the Lord to do so. He can do that because they have a personal relationship. The words “have mercy” — the qal imperfect of chânan (חָנַן) [pronounced khaw-NAHN] means “be gracious” — “and become my helper.” David says “I need help as long as I live.”

Psalm 30:10 Hear, O LORD, and be gracious to me! O LORD, be my helper [I need Your help all of my life]!”

Psalm 30:11 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,...

Verse 11 — “Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing.” The word for “turn” here is haphak which means to convert something into something else. So he says literally, “You have converted my despondency, my discouragement, my failures, into dancing.” There was dancing and music in the castle. Not all the people in the palace are supergrace believers but they are blessed by association with supergrace.

“thou hast put off my sackcloth” — the sackcloth represents his disgrace, his reversionism, his discipline. Literally, “You have torn off my sackcloth.”

“and have clothed me with gladness” — the word “gladness” is sim^echâh (שִמְחָה) [pronounced sim^e-KHAW], which is great happiness, the enjoyment of happiness, happiness as a state of soul, happiness with great enjoyment involved.

Psalm 30:11 You have converted my discipline [despondency, discouragement] into dancing [a picture of supergrace blessing]; you have torn off my sackcloth of disgrace, and you have clothed me with grace happiness.

Psalm 30:12 that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

Verse 12 — he concludes in the only possible way that any of us who have ever been blessed by the Lord can conclude. “To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee.” The word “glory” is not correct here. It is kâbôwd (כָּבוֹד) [pronounced kaw^b-VODE] and it really means his honour. He is in a state of honour, he has been honoured by the Lord in all of these blessings — “To the end that my honourable estate might make melody to you.” I have to express what is in my soul.

“and not be silent” — the qal imperfect of damam. To pronounce the “m” you have to close the lips.

“O Lord, my Elohim, I will be caused to praise you forever,” literally. Yâdâh (יָדָה) [pronounced yaw-DAWH] in the hiphil stem. The hiphil stem is causative active voice. What causes him to praise God forever? Doctrine in his soul!

Psalm 30:12 ...that my honor may sing your praise and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

1972 Hebrews Lesson #215

215 09/29/1974 Hebrews 12:7–8 Doctrine of divine establishment

In this paragraph of Hebrews 12, which is verses 7,8 we have an emphasis now on the recipients of divine discipline, or the dissertation on the concept of sonship.

Heb 12:7 It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?

Verse 7 is broken down into three separate sentences. In the KJV it seems to be all one sentence and a question at that. The first sentence begins with the phrase, “If ye endure chastening.” That isn’t exactly what it says in the Greek. We have eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] paideion hupomenete. The eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus paideion should be translated “Because of corrective discipline” — the preposition eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative of paideia (παιδεία) [pronounced pai-DEE-ah]. Remember that divine discipline is a part of living grace and the only hope for the believer to recover from reversionism. When a believer is in reversionism and will not heed the usual warning signals then the only hope is to shock him out of it. In a sense discipline is shock treatment in order to correct a difficult or a bad situation. Since corrective discipline is a part of God’s love for the believer it is to be endured. The principle is that discipline must be endured. So from the endurance comes the profit of discipline because believers who are not teachable by doctrine must be teachable by something stronger. It is always a sign of stupidity when before you understand a principle you have to be hurt, you have to undergo some kind of shock. That is the concept here. “Because of corrective discipline...” is the beginning of the first sentence in this verse.

Then comes the command “endure,” the present active imperative of the verb hupomenô (ὑπομένω) [pronounced hoop-om-EHN-oh],. The verb has been previously used in verse 3 with reference to the Lord Jesus Christ who endured opposition of sinners against Himself. Always in this passage when we have this verb it refers to using Bible doctrine which is resident in the soul. Many times in life it is very pleasant and very wonderful because of who and what Christ is and because of His provision of doctrine and because of blessing from paragraph SG2. But many times life is unpleasant and difficult, and just as we can and do enjoy the pleasant times we are also to endure the bad times. Endurance means not to be discouraged, not to waver, not to fall apart, not to get into some negative attitude or some negative situation; in other words, to face adversity with calmness, stability, clarity of thought, with realization that this is a part of the package, and God has designed provision for adversity just as He has for prosperity. Obviously, in prosperity the principle of doctrine is not always in focus but in time of adversity when things are going wrong, when there are troubles and pressures, disasters and catastrophes this is the time when we must call upon resident doctrine in the soul. If that doctrine is not resident, if there is not doctrine or very little, then obviously we fall apart. And in the hurting of falling apart, in the tremendous trauma, the shock of not being able to cope with the situation in life, this in itself reminds of us of who and what Christ is and what His plan is. It reminds us that we are on the wrong road and therefore we need to get back on the right road.

The present tense of hupomenô (ὑπομένω) [pronounced hoop-om-EHN-oh], is a tendencial present used for an action which is purposed though not actually occurring at the moment. In other words, the people to whom this was originally written were in reversionism, they were not therefore able to endure or to cope with any kind of disaster. The active voice: the believers are commanded to produce the action of the verb which is to endure. This can only be fulfilled by doctrine resident in the soul. It is impossible to endure such as the command is given unless there is maximum resident doctrine. The imperative mood speaks for itself. We actually have a command to all believers of the Church Age, to all members of the royal family of God. In verse 1 the believer is commanded to advance on the run with endurance. That means with the use of Bible doctrine in the soul. This can only be accomplished through resident Bible doctrine. There is no other way to accomplish it, no other way to do it. Sometimes it takes divine discipline to motivate the believer toward consistent positive volition necessary for the advance. And, therefore, because of corrective discipline, advance; because of corrective discipline, recognize what is really important; because of corrective discipline, never let a day go by without the intake of Bible doctrine, for it is through Bible doctrine that we actually have individual and collective solutions to everything in life — personal solutions for you as a member of the royal family and solutions to every problem our nation faces as well as the world itself.

The first sentence, then, is a very short one — “Because of corrective discipline, endure.” Endurance, again, is defined in terms of doctrine resident in the soul. The utilization of resident doctrine is endurance for hard times.

The second sentence begins with God Himself — Ho Theos, “The God,” referring to God the Father who is the author of the plan of grace. When we are on track discipline is not necessary, when we are off track this is that warning beep that tells us we are off track and that we are going in the wrong direction. So operation grace, planned in eternity past, is designed for each one of us. It demands at this stage that we endure whenever there are problems or adversities or pressures. “The God,” the one who has provided for adversity.”

“dealeth” — present passive indicative from prospherô (προσφέρω) [pronounced pros-FER-oh]. When you say “deal” in the English language you are talking about all kinds of things. You are talking about business deals, dealing cards, some adversity in life called “a bad deal,” or a “good deal.” Here it doesn’t mean to deal, it means to bring, to offer, to present an offering, to bring someone to someone. However, these are all active voice meanings. The passive voice has its own meaning in this verb is to meet with or to deal with. The present tense is the static present for a condition which perpetually exists. God perpetually meets with us as with sons. We are always His children. He meets with us as sons. The situation is status quo forever, nothing can ever change it. Therefore He meets with us or deals with us as sons, no matter how difficult the situation may be in discipline. This passive voice has the deponent concept: passive in form but active in meaning. God produces the action of the verb, He deals with us as with members of the royal family of God. The indicative mood is declarative, it views the action of the verb from the standpoint of dogmatic and doctrinal reality.

“as with sons” — we have had this phraseology in verse 5, “doctrine which teaches you as sons.” Now in verse 7: “The God deals with you as with sons.” Note the contrast. God deals indirectly with the believer through doctrinal teaching but directly through divine discipline. You have the indirect and therefore the blessing type approach, but He deals directly with you when it comes to discipline. Now, why this contrast? When God deals with you indirectly it means that you are on the blessing side of things. The indirect dealing has to do with the fact that God deals with you through a pastor-teacher. There is also a very direct method and that is the method of cursing. If you go negative toward doctrine, and if you reject your pastor-teacher and his ministry, then God will deal with you directly. So it is better under the plan of God on earth to be under the indirect concept than the direct concept. It also should be a reminder of something else: God has not appointed the pastor or any believer to be your disciplinarian. “The God deals with you as sons” is the second sentence in this verse.

Let’s say that 50 believers in Berachah were up for punishment. Would Bob be in charge of disciplining them? He is designed to teach the Word of God; he is not designed to administer discipline.

the third sentence says: the Greek tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] is used for an interrogative sense and it is correctly translated. “For what son” “Son” is the nominative singular huios (υἱός, ο, ὁ) [pronounced hwee-OSS] and it is used in the sense of an adult son for a permanent relationship here, and it is actually the predicate nominative — “For what one is a son” is the best translation. We have the verb to be, the present active indicative of the verb eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME].

“whom” — the accusative masculine singular of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]; “the Father” — the nominative singular of patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR], minus the definite article. It is translated because of convenience of smooth English but there is no definite article but there is no definite article. However, in the Koine Greek the absence of the definite article is really the same as the use of our definite article. We say “the Father” to emphasize the noun; they leave out the definite article to do the same thing. So the absence of the definite article places a qualitative emphasis on the substantive rather than identification. Therefore, to correctly translate this we have to include the definite article which the Greeks leave out. It is a reference to God the Father.

“chasteneth not” — the present active indicative of the verb paideúō (παιδεύω) [pronounced pahee-DYOO-oh] plus the negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook], and it means, “For what one [member of the royal family] is a son whom the Father does not discipline.” The present tense is a customary present, it indicates that God the Father, whenever He deals with us directly in this dispensation, deals with us by spanking us. And when He deals with us indirectly, the blessing route, He does so through the communication of the Word of God through pastor-teachers. The active voice: the Father produces the action. The indicative mood in dictates the doctrinal reality of the principle.

Here are the three sentences in this one verse: a) “Because of corrective discipline, endure.” The first sentence is a command. b) The second sentence is an explanation: “For God deals with you as sons.” c) The third sentence is a question: “For what one is a son whom the Father does not discipline.”

Hebrew 12:7 Because of corrective discipline, endure. The God deals with you as sons. For what one is a son whom the Father does not discipline?

Bobby took a couple boys to a toy store and allowed them to pick up a toy each. Each thanked Bob, and Bobby said, “That you, dad.” Because of the discipline, Bobby could identify Bob. We can learn the blessing way or we can learn the way of discipline.

God the Father, after we have believed, is always our father.

Heb 12:8 If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

Verse 8 — “But.” We have a particle here, de, which connects one clause with another where some contrast is intended.

“if” — we have now a conditional particle which introduces a first class condition, ei. And whatever follows is either true, reality, or a supposes. Here we have a first class condition of supposition. The supposition illustrates the point of the previous verse — “But if.”

“ye be” is “you are” — present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]; “without chastisement” — the adverb chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE], used here as an improper preposition. With the genitive of paideia (παιδεία) [pronounced pai-DEE-ah] means “without discipline” or “without corrective discipline.” We are to understand, of course, that all discipline is designed to be a blessing.

“whereof” — the genitive singular from the relative pronoun “which” — “of which”; “all” — and this nominative masculine plural of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] refers to all members of the royal family of God.

“all” — not “all of”, we have a different verb here, the perfect active indicative of ginomai which means to become, it is distinguished from eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] in this way. Here we have the perfect tense which is a consummative perfect indicating a completed action but emphasizes the process in which the action was completed. The active voice: all members of the royal family are disciplined, either for carnality or reversionism. The indicative mood is declarative for a doctrinal and dogmatic reality. It is translated, “But if you are without discipline of which all believers have become.”

“partakers” — better yet, “participaters, the predicate nominative plural of metochos (μέτοχος) [pronounced MET-okh-oss]. It means a partner or a participator. Here is the supposition used to illustrate the principle of the previous verse. If you are without discipline then you don’t have a heavenly Father, because we all sin, we all fail. We get into disaster situations, we are spanked, we are hurt.

Following the supposition that you do not get discipline when you are out of line, it also follows immediately that you are a bastard. That is what is coming up.

“then you are” — present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], and this is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. It is used to draw a momentary conclusion from the first class condition of supposition to illustrate the point. All believers should like discipline, it indicates that they are members of the royal family of God. So when a parent spanks a child it is comforting to know “that’s my father, he is the one who spanks me and because he is my father he does this.”

“bastards” is in the plural. It is the nominative plural of nóthos (νόθος) [pronounced NOHTH-oss]. It does mean “bastard,” it also means spurious. it has another meaning too — illegitimate. “Bastards” is the obvious use here because we are talking about family relationship. The word is used to illustrate, it is not used for the reality. In other words, you are not really being called “bastard” you are being comforted by the doctrine of bastardship. You are not a bastard, that is why you are going to get spanked when you are out of line. There are no bastards in the family of God. When we become members of the family of God, we can count on discipline because we are not bastards.

“and not sons, kai ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] huioi as translated in the KJV.

Hebrews 12:8 But if you are without discipline, of which all believers have become participators, then you are bastards, and not sons.

Then we will go on to see an illustration from establishment in verses 9 and 10. The laws of divine establishment in every phase have disciplinary or punitive activity.

The laws of divine establishment.

Definition: The laws for the orderly function and survival of the human race during human history, or the period of the angelic conflict. These laws operate from the fall of man to the second advent of Jesus Christ, they apply to believer and unbeliever alike. They provide blessing and protection of the human race. They guarantee the perpetuation of the human race throughout history.

The divine institutions as related to the concept of discipline:

The first of these laws is volition. Here we have the principle of human freedom. Free will guarantees two things, both privacy and human freedom. This freedom of choice and the right to live gives the human race the right to make decisions, the right too pursue a course of action, called the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, provided of course that it does not violate criminal or common law. While there are variations in human abilities — some inherent and some acquired — all members of the human race are free to believe in or to reject Jesus Christ as Savior. Freedom is the basis for true evangelism. Volition is the issue. Man was created to resolve the angelic conflict and therefore he was given volition. Here is the whole basis of divine discipline. Every time you sin it is from the area of weakness of your old sin nature, but it involves volition. All sins hook up volition with the old sin nature, and even when you don’t know it is a sin you still wanted to do it so it is a sin whether you know it is a sin or not. Ignorance is no excuse because you still wanted to do it. Therefore you are guilty. The point is that since of your own free will you broke out into some kind of sin then that free will is disciplined by God in order that there will be some restraint and you will not be as inclined to do that the next time. So we have immediately the concept of divine discipline in divine institution #1.

In divine institution #2 we have marriage which is the basis for right man/right woman relationship, marriage being the framework for protection for category #2 love, it forms the basis for stability in society. Again, whenever there is any failure in this area there is also the natural laws. Without even realizing it there are tremendous laws of unhappiness because of failure in this area.

The same thing is true in the family, divine institution #3. Physical birth of mankind finds the baby helpless and he has to be provided for, he has to have protection, training, and again we have parental authority.

In each one of these relationships notice the principle of authority. Divine institution #1: volition is the authority; divine institution #2: the man is the authority; divine instruction #3: the parents are the authority. When you violate your own volition through the old sin nature there is discipline. When the woman disobeys the man there is unhappiness in the home. When the children disobey the parents, likewise. So that every system of discipline has the principle of recognition of authority, and when you fail to recognize that authority then you suffer. That authority disciplines you, or you are disciplined by rejection of that authority.

On a greater scale this is amplified in divine institution #4 or nationalism. Under this divine institution we have a number of areas of discipline in life and also penalties in which there is punitive action for failure to recognize authority. Authority in a national entity is vested under its system of government in leadership. Leadership is clearly defined in a monarchy, less clearly defined in a representative government or democracy. This authority is broken down into local government, national government, and so on. But the leadership is also under authority, the authority of the laws of the land. So the laws of the land become the ultimate authority because whether you have leadership or simply citizens all are under the law of the land.

Nixon was moved out of office which was purely political. But pretty much every president should have been impeached over kowtowing to Russia. Congress can pass laws to violate laws. They are a revolutionary rabble. They pass laws to legalize their own opposition to our Constitution. Leadership is subject to the laws of the land.

Bands and orchestras. Great systems of discipline. You can be fired for disobeying the requirements of the orchestra. Tommy Dorsey was a great band leader.

1972 Hebrews 12:9 Lesson #216

216 09/30/1974 Hebrews 12:9 Respect for authority

Vito R. Vertodo (Vertola?) of 242^nd infantry. 10 January 1946. Assault from a powerful infantry and armored force. Remained in the street for almost 12 hours, to stop them. Then into a building, and he stood steadfast against tanks only 75 yards away. He fought for 48 hours, without rest, killing more than 40 enemy soldiers.

The passage here has a great deal to do with the subject of capacity for life and yet very few people seem to realize it. It has as its basic background what we have been studying — blessing in life and capacity of life based upon respect for authority. Principle: God’s Word teaches that the soul is designed to run on the system of discipline. Principle: Lack of respect for authority not only destroys capacity for life but great capacity for happiness.

The passage we have been studying deals with the concept of divine discipline. We have seen divine discipline as it relates to reversionism, we have studied the doctrine of divine discipline, revised. We have studied the doctrine of the sin unto death, revised. We have studied the recovery from reversionism from Psalm 30. And now again as we resume with our passage by way of background we are going to have an illustration from establishment. We have studied the relationship between the laws of establishment and the principles of authority. Now by way of anticipation of verse 9 it is imperative to understand a principle because fundamentalists are famous for ignoring this principle. Every “fundy” is a law unto himself and is famous for having no respect for authority. They are famous for giving their pastors a hard time.

Children occasionally think or sometimes think that their parents are unfair. That is perfectly normal. Children are often aided and abetted in thinking that way. And the child who constantly thinks that his parent is unfair because he has disciplined him, even when the parent is unfair, is a child who is not going to have a very happy life. The reason is that it always starts in the home, and it is inevitable that children who have flaunted their parents’ authority, who have resented their parents’ authority, who have worked around their parents’ authority by being sneaky and dishonest, will inevitably grow up to reject every authority in life. As a result they are tragic, tragic cases. And many of the problems in life, outside of the old sin nature itself, are based upon lack of self-discipline on the part of the individual, and with that lack of self-discipline failure to respect any type of authority.

Definition of arrogance: Arrogance is the rejection of every authority but your own. Humility is respect for authority, even though you may think the person as being gross, unfair, and a jackass.

Children are not spoiled by having things; but by a lack of discipline in their souls.

A young man in Berachah is brilliant, but he respects his own brilliance too much, and will never be a plodder, something which is necessary.

Greatness emerges from the cocoon of authority. It starts with the authority of the parents. And not only greatness but just general happiness in life and ability to cope. It goes to academics, it goes to authority in business, it goes to authority of the law, it involves the authority of groups in any kind of a group situation. Whether it is society or whether it is any activity in life there is some type of authority. It involves the military concept, it involves relationships. There is authority in wisdom, in government, local government. You meet these authorities at different points and you either emerge a great person or you emerge a person who will never be happy, who will be psychotic, neurotic, miserable, or will come to a tragic end because of rejection of authority. You emerge one or the other, and this is true of all people. You add to this the spiritual principles, the authority of the Word of God, the authority of the pastor-teacher, and you have either a reversionist or a person who is going to the high ground of supergrace. Inevitably, God has set up every system of authority. While you might not like the authority but you recognize God’s sovereignty and His right to set up authority. You recognize His fairness because He is perfect righteousness and perfect justice. You know that He loves you. You recognize the principle that you are going to be with Him forever and that time is a small drop in the bucket, and that He is the ultimate in wisdom with His omniscience, and that He is able to inspect at all times and keep track with His omnipresence, and that He has the ability to back His authorities in any field of life, and that He is totally stable because of His immutability, and that all the authorities that He sets up are based upon His veracity and His integrity. It is inevitable that God must set up systems of authority in life or the human race would self-destruct. There is no question about the fact that each member of the human race with his old sin nature is a self-destructing potential and the only thing that keeps us from self-destruction are the authorities in life. These authorities must inevitably be for the entire human race because God is fair, therefore some of these authorities are related to divine establishment and some of these authorities are related to spiritual establishment because the royal family of God is a special entity, it is, as it were, an invader entity into the devil’s world.

Bobby dealing with a fight between two soldiers. One was pushed into it, taking the first punch and ending up on the ground. He got up and whipped the other guy and bit off his ear. When you have an enemy, you want him to remember you. Bobby had to deal with the one pushed into the fight. He said, “There are two rules: don’t fight with anyone in this platoon and if you fight someone outside, then you must win. You fulfilled both, so here’s a 3-day pass.”

For all of us in life, to enjoy life, to have capacity for life, to become just simply mature individuals, there must be authority. Those who resist it and those who reject it are arrogant, and their arrogance will start in childhood when they get away with it. Impudence becomes arrogance, arrogance becomes instability, and when you are a law unto yourself there is no way that you can survive the traumatic experiences in your soul and you will make your own misery as long as you live. Then add to that everything that we have been studying about reversionism and you can see the awful mess that we face in this life.

No person has naturally thoughtfulness . Thoughtfulness is a matter of training, thoughtfulness comes with respect for authority, thoughtfulness is something no one is born with. Babies are not thoughtful, children are not thoughtful, and if they are not properly trained and not properly disciplined, they grow up as thoughtless creatures and thoughtless creatures are a thorn in the side of everyone in their periphery in society. They are not respected, they are despised, and yet, on the other hand, just thoughtfulness in little things become such a tremendous thing.

Bob will never again have a double-ring ceremony. The ring represents the authority and the man is the authority in marriage.

Heb 12:9 Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?

Verse 9 — “Furthermore” — the adverb eita (εἴτα) [pronounced Ī-tah] used as a transitional point. The best translation is “another point.”

“we have had fathers” — this is the law of establishment. The imperfect active indicative of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] means to have an to hold. The imperfect tense is the customary imperfect which denotes what regularly occurred in past time. Therefore it is going to be translated “we used to have.” “We used to have parents” — the active voice: the human race produces the action of the verb under the laws of divine establishment. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of divine institution #3. The word “fathers” is the accusative plural of patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR], and in the accusative in the plural patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR] does not refer to fathers as translated, it means “parents.” You have to remember that whether it is a mother or a father or both, they represent authority. Mother may not be able to cope with a big overgrown oaf by boxing his ears but by the time he is big and old overgrown he should have wonderful respect for his mother that it would never occur to him that she would ever have to do anything but softly explain to do something and he is most happy to oblige his mother. And the little snotty-faced girl who runs down her mother is just as bad. Mother is still mother and should never be a source of embarrassment but a source of thankfulness that God has provided this authority for everyone. As goes childhood, so goes adulthood.

“of our flesh” — this is a descriptive genitive of sarx (σάρξ) [pronounced sarx] and this is an idiom. sarx (σάρξ) [pronounced sarx] plus egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH] together mean “human.” We have a personal pronoun in the genitive plural, we have a descriptive genitive of sarx (σάρξ) [pronounced sarx], and it should be translated with patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR], “our human parents.” The only thing that offsets the trends set up in childhood is Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

The person who runs down his parents is going to be miserable in life. The children should honor their parents whether they are perfect or not.

A person who screws up with his parents can offset this with salvation and spiritual growth. Some kids are allowed to get away with it. God’s omniscience.

Granted, all parents are not wise and not all of them are fair. You do not have to be wise or fair to become a parent. All you need is the right equipment. That is okay, otherwise we would not have so much fun during the Angelic Conflict.

“which corrected us” — we have the accusative plural of paideutês (παιδευτής) [pronounced pahee-dyoo-TAYCE] which is an adverbial accusative of manner, and that means it should be translated, “for discipline.” What are parents for? For discipline, for training. They are their only hope for reaching maturity and joining the human race with some kind of capacity for life. “Another point, we used to have our own human parents for discipline.” Parents are for training.

If little Johnny does not listen to his mother, he will grow to be a horrid adult.

“and we gave them reverence” — this should be “and we respected them.” Children are not required to bow to their parents and worship them, so the KJV version is incorrect. We have the imperfect middle indicative of entrépō (ἐντρέπω) [pronounced en-TREP-oh]. The active voice of entrépō (ἐντρέπω) [pronounced en-TREP-oh] means to make someone ashamed of themselves. The passive voice of entrépō (ἐντρέπω) [pronounced en-TREP-oh] means to put to shame. The middle voice means to turn toward someone with respect, to regard someone with respect. The imperfect tense is the customary imperfect for what ordinarily occurred in past time. The middle voice: the subject participates in the results of the action, that is, benefit being disciplined, trained and corrected. The indicative mood is the reality of the function of divine institution #3, good discipline from parents. Principle: Respect for authority is the basis for learning from discipline. Furthermore, discipline develops respect for authority.

The believer can respect God’s authority in two ways: direct or indirect. God can deal with us indirectly. That means through a pastor-teacher communicating doctrine in a local church. The result of the indirect system is blessing for the believer. Or He can deal with the believer directly and that means discipline. So the difference between discipline and blessing is whether God has to deal with you directly or indirectly. Illustration: A parent speaks to his child and the child obeys. That would be the indirect method. Or, a parent speaks to the child and the child disobeys so he spanks the child. That is the direct method. Instead of speaking to the soul, indirect, he has to go to the gluteus maximus direct, and make it hurt. The hurting on one end stimulates the other end to begin to understand life. You can respect God’s authority in two ways. He can respect God’s authority and get blessing by respecting Bible doctrine and putting yourself under your pastor-teacher and taking it in daily. Or you can respect God for His tremendous ability to make you hurt in such subtle ways, in such tremendous ways. God has the phenomenal ability to know just exactly what hurts you the most and when and how to apply it under circumstances that are only totally fair. So the believer can respect God’s authority in two ways, from Bible doctrine or from discipline. And he has a choice!

“much rather” — this is the beginning of the application, polu mallon is an idiom, it is used for the application of a principle of establishment to the spiritual realm, and “much rather” is not the best translation and doesn’t even come close. Polu means “much”; mallon (μλλον) [pronounced MAL-lon] means “rather,” but it is an idiom which means “to a greater degree.” If our parents can get us straightened out for life by using their authority properly and we respond to the authority of our parents, how much to a greater degree can God do the same thing as the perfect parent?

“shall we not be in subjection” — the future passive indicative of hupotassô (ὑποτάσσω) [pronounced hoop-ot-AS-so] plus the negative. Tassô (τάσσω) [pronounced TAS-soh] means to be in ranks; hupó (ὑπό) [pronounced hoop-OH] means to be under the command of someone as you are in ranks. It was a military term which eventually came to me to become subordinate or to obey. The future tense is the imperative future expressing a command. Since a command involves futurity this becomes a very neat Greek idiom. While this idiom is also found in the Hebrew it occurs in the Attic Greek as well. The passive voice: the subjects becomes subordinated, therefore obeys. The indicative mood: reality of the command of subordination to God the Father and His perfect plan, operation grace. The future imperative says that whether you know it or not or whether you like it or not you are under God’s authority. And you have a choice. You can either be under His indirect authority through a pastor-teacher communicating doctrine to you, and therefore have great blessing. Or you can be under His direct authority and spend a long life in great misery — “to a greater degree you will obey” is the best way to translate the future imperative.

“to the Father” — the dative of indirect object and it refers to the first person of the Trinity, God the Father, patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR] again. The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the obedience is performed. It is in God’s interest to have His royal family under His authority. Why? Because we are in the devil’s world, we are in hostile territory. We are up against greater power than we can handle. We can’t cope with the tremendous genius and power of Satan and the millions of demons under his command. We are incapable of handling that. Therefore, we must be under His authority and under His command. He provides, then, the support to handle the situation.

It is interesting to note here that He is called “the Father of spirits,” the genitive plural of pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] Why? Pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] refers to the human spirit. Why isn’t it “Father of souls”? Because God controls the unbeliever through the laws of establishment and He is the Father of their souls, but He controls the believer by the spirit which is given to the believer at the point of salvation and controls him by doctrine. The believer is both under establishment and doctrine, anything of the Word of God. So He is called “the Father,” but not “of spirits.” The definite article is used as a possessive pronoun and it is “the Father of our spirits.” It is a reference to the human spirit acquired at salvation and used as a storage place for doctrine, therefore providing a principle that our capacity for life comes from resident doctrine in the soul and the spirit.

“and live” — the future active indicative of the verb zaô (ζάω) [pronounced DZAH-oh]. The future tense this time is a progressive future, it denotes the continuation of something in future time. The active voice: the reversionistic believer learns from divine discipline to become subordinate to the Father and continue to live. But it also means that the supergrace believer learns from doctrine and has capacity for life. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of our life in time and the importance of authority in our life in time. And so it should be translated “and continue living.”

Hebrews 12:9 Another point, we used to have our human parents for corrective discipline [when we were young], and we respected them: to a greater degree you will become subordinate to the Father of our spirits, and continue living.

Principles

1. The reversionistic believer subordinates himself to God the Father by reversion recovery. But if he doesn’t recover from reversionism, then he will live a long life of misery. God will spank him.

2. Reversion recovery includes not only rebound but daily decisions with regard to Bible doctrine plus the avoidance of the former distractions which kept the believer away from doctrine.

3. Reversion recovery means the avoidance of the sin unto death or dying discipline. It means continuation in time until the believer has reached the high ground of supergrace status.

4. It means the believer can seize and hold by what he has developed on his way up. And he crosses that high golden bridge of dying grace, he transfers from time to eternity, he salutes his SG3 on one end of the bridge and embraces it on the other.

Since we have an analogy set up between divine institution #3 and God’s relationship with us it is continued in one more verse.

1972 Hebrews 12:10 Lesson #217

217 10/01/1974 Hebrews 12:10 The thinking parent

Sando M. Vargas, Jr. from AZ. Covers 4 days. Relocated his company under heavy fire. Johnny Warren, Jr. distinguished himself while giving his life.

Heb 12:10 For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.

Verse 10 — we have an expanded, explanatory epexegetical particle gar. This is the great connective link which so often indicates the whole perspective of the passage — “For they”, the nominative plural of the definite article followed by the word “verily” which is simply the affirmative particle men . It is used here in the sense of the Attic Greek, it is simply a particle to point out something and it should be translated “on the one hand.” “For they on the one hand.” This introduces a concessive clause which will be followed by another clause with an adversative particle. This is strictly Classical Greek.

“for a few days” — we have a prepositional phrase, pros plus the accusative of two words, oligos (ὀλίγος) [pronounced ol-EE-gos] and hêmera (ἡμάρα) [pronounced hay-MEH-raw]. And while it is literally, “for a few days” it is actually translated “for a short time.” It is an idiom. “For they on the one hand,” referring it back to parents, “for a short time” — childhood is short. This is the time when the parents discipline the children. Parents have a limited amount of time during which to train their kids.

Any momma’s boy who cannot think for himself should be avoided. Parents have no control over their children once they have reached the age of majority.

“chastened” — the imperfect active indicative of paideúō (παιδεύω) [pronounced pahee-DYOO-oh] meaning to educate, to train, or to discipline. The customary imperfect denotes what occurred in the past time on a regular basis. The active voice: parents produce the action of the verb under divine institution #3. The indicative mood is declarative indicating the reality of the fact that parents discipline children. “For they on the one hand disciplined us for a short time.”

The next phrase is not correct as it is translated in the King James version — “after their own pleasure.” We have katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] to dokoun, a prepositional phrase. katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] is the preposition, to is the definite article in the accusative singular neuter. It is part of an idiom and it is probably best translated “best.” Parents do the best that they can. They use their best standards. Sometimes they have standards passed down for many generations. Traditional standards.

The accusative singular present active participle of the verb dokéô (δοκέω) [pronounced dohk-EH-oh] comes next. And with this we also have the dative plural of the intensive pronoun autos. Again, we are looking at an Attic Greek idiom. It should be translated, “according to what seemed best to them.” In other words, parents do the best they can. Most parents try to do right by their children, according to the standards of the conscience of their souls. Sometimes a parent has gone to college and learned some bad standards. Some fathers only know brutal punishment.

Remember that God is our perfect parent and this explains the corrective discipline toward reversionism. Whenever God spanks it is perfect. When anyone gets in the way of God’s discipline it is perfect what happens.

So we have the principle, then, coming up on the other side of the analogy. The analogy is set up and divided by the adversative particle de, but de is used in connection with the particle men, and men de means on the one hand and on the other hand — “but he on the other hand,” referring to God. The contrast is between the human thinking of parents and the perfect omniscience of our Father, the first person of the Trinity. The standards by which the royal family is corrected and disciplined are perfect standards from God. Now God the Father concentrates on you, you are His child.

A parent being strict can be very beneficial in the long run; being overly permissive is actual problem. You should be able to out-think your children up to age 3 or 4 at least. Great misery for the parent whose children turn out wrong.

“for our profit” — here is one of the things that must be remembered about the hard knocks of life. All tough times in life are designed for your profit. Profit isn’t making money, profit is being blessed and being trained by discipline — epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the accusative singular of the present active participle sumphérô (συμφέρω) [pronounced soom-PHER-oh]. When the participle is not accompanied by a noun in a prepositional phrase it often functions as a substantive. The definite article is used here as a possessive pronoun. The preposition epí (ἐπί) [pronounced eh-PEE] plus the accusative emphasizes direction, and the direction is “our profit.” Bringing out the best in divine institution #3, the parents training the children, this becomes an analogy to something that is perfect, the Father’s discipline of His children, each one of us. “For our profit” is the objective of discipline. Principle: Divine discipline is designed for profit and the blessing of the royal family in time. There is not discipline in heaven, all discipline is confined to time.

“that we might be partakers” — we have another prepositional phrase, eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the aorist active infinitive of metalambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh]. The infinitive is the object of the preposition and that indicates a purpose prepositional clause. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the event of profiting from discipline in its entirety but emphasizes the existing results. The result of discipline is to turn us toward doctrine and move us toward SG2 and SG3. The active voice: the believer who profits from discipline to the point of reversion recovery produces the action of the verb. The infinitive with the preposition indicates purpose. It should be translated, “in order that we might receive a share.”

“of his holiness” — we have both the objective and descriptive genitive of the noun hagiotês (ἁγιότης) [pronounced hag-ee-OHT-ace] plus the possessive genitive singular of the intensive pronoun autos emphasizing both the identity of God the Father and the source of every blessing in life.

Hebrews 12:10 For they [parents] on the one hand disciplined us for a short time according to what seemed best to them; but he [God the Father] on the other hand disciplines us for our profit, in order that we might receive a share of his holiness.

Summary

1. The share of God’s holiness includes the road to glory — supergrace, dying grace, surpassing grace. Every blessing that you will ever have is courtesy of divine discipline, something that woke you up and shocked you into realizing that there is only one way to live in this life and that is to take in doctrine today, tomorrow, the next day, the next and the next. God is perfect in His wisdom, perfect in His discipline, and His wisdom and His discipline meet at a point to bring us back into line, to keep us on the road to glory, and the road to glory is filled with phenomenal blessing.

2. God the Father is perfect, therefore the happiness He provides is perfect, it is His own.

3. God the Father is perfect, His blessings for you are perfect. He has designed for you personally a special paragraph SG2 for blessing in time, a special blessing SG3 for blessing in eternity. He is perfect, His blessings for you are perfect. How does He steer you to them? You have to stay positive toward doctrine and discipline does that. With discipline you soon learn it just doesn’t pay to get off the road. So you owe a lot to the Father’s perfect discipline.

4. Discipline is a source of blessing and a source of glorifying God. Grace has found a way to bless a believer and at the same time to glorify God in time. We receive blessing in time God receives glory in being able to give us that blessing.

5. This is called “sharing in God’s holiness.” Sharing in the holiness of God is receiving blessing from God on the basis of doctrine resident in the soul.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #218

218 10/02/1974 Hebrews 12:11–12 Benefits from divine discipline

Heb 12:11 For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

.Verse 11 — the words “now” and “but” are a Greek Classical system, the use of particles men and de. It is traditionally translated “on the one hand; on the other hand.”

The words “no chastening” is wrong. We have the nominative feminine singular of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] plus paideia (παιδεία) [pronounced pai-DEE-ah] meaning “all discipline” rather than “no chastening.” On the one hand all discipline” is the correct translation.

“for the present” is also Classical or Attic Greek. It is an idiom, it includes a preposition, pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs], plus the present active participle of pareimi (πάρειμι) [pronounced PAR-i-mee]. Pareimi (πάρειμι) [pronounced PAR-i-mee] means to be present, but here the participle is ascriptive, used as a substantive, and it should be translated, “On the one hand all discipline for the present” or “while in progress.”

“seemeth” is the present active indicative from dokéô (δοκέω) [pronounced dohk-EH-oh] plus the negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. Dokéô (δοκέω) [pronounced dohk-EH-oh] is used here for subjective thinking. This conforms with the intransitive use of the verb, namely to seem or to appear. The present tense is a customary present for what may be reasonably expected to occur. When you are under divine discipline you can expect to be uncomfortable, miserable. The active voice: all discipline produces this comfort. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of unpleasantness, misery, under conditions of divine discipline.

Next we have the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME]. This is an infinitive of result. The present tense is linear aktionsart, indicating that this is always true. And we have the word “joyous” which is the objective genitive singular of chara (χαρά) [pronounced khahr-AH] and means an occasion for happiness. With the negative it is not an occasion for happiness.

The problem here is that the original translator tried to make the passage conform to the Koine Greek, but this is strictly a Attic Greek passage. The Attic or Classical Greek takes the negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] and puts it with the noun chara (χαρά) [pronounced khahr-AH] to imply unhappiness. Hence, good English demands the followingTranslation: “On the one hand all discipline while in progress appears to be not an occasion for happiness.”

“but” — the strong adversative conjunction allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH] setting up a definite contrast; “grievous” — lupē (λύπη) [pronounced LOO-pay], an objective as well as a descriptive genitive singular and it should be translated “but an occasion for sorrow.” While in the process divine discipline cannot be pleasant. As long as God is perfect the discipline is perfect. God knows exactly how to discipline every believer. Effectiveness means that discipline will hurt. So the believer under discipline has sorrow, grief, frustration, sadness, so that discipline will be beneficial to that member of the royal family, and accomplishes purpose, the purpose being to recover from carnality by rebound or to recover from reversionism by rebound and changing the attitude toward doctrine.

The word “nevertheless” is the particle de used in the Classical Greek style for “on the other hand.”

So far we have, “On the one hand all discipline while in progress appears to be an occasion not for happiness, but an occasion for sorrow; on the other hand, however...”

“afterward” — here we have an adverb, husteron (ὕστερον) [pronounced HOOÇ-tehr-ohn], which refers to reversion recovery, including rebound, repentance, and the consistent function of GAP.

“it yieldeth” — present active indicative of apodidômi (ἀποδίδωμι) [pronounced ap-od-EED-o-mee]. It means to pay back with interest. The interest includes the special blessings of paragraph SG2 and SG3. The verb also means to refund. But here it means to pay back with interest. The interest is the blessing part that results from responding to discipline and authority. The present tense of apodidômi (ἀποδίδωμι) [pronounced ap-od-EED-o-mee] is the aoristic present, punctiliar action in present time. It expresses the idea of a present fact without regard to its progress. It is used here to state a point of doctrine related to reversion recovery. The active voice: divine discipline when alerting the believer to his true condition of reversionism refunds, pays back with interest, in terms of grace blessing. The grace blessing means that by staying with the recovery system you are going to follow the colours to the high ground of SG2. The interest includes the spiritual blessings of occupation with Christ, doctrine resident in the soul to handle any adversity in life, all of the concepts of sharing God’s happiness. The second area are the temporal blessings — promotion, success, great wealth, prosperity, etc. The third area is dying blessing. This is the interest that comes from responding to discipline, learning from discipline, recovering from reversionism. The active voice: divine discipline produces the action. The indicative mood is the dogmatic reality of the doctrine.

“the peaceable fruit” — the accusative singular direct object from the adjective eirēnikós (εἰρηνικός) [pronounced i-ray-nee-KOSS] which means “prosperous.” The adjective connotes that which relates to prosperity or welfare or harmony. The word for “fruit” is the accusative singular direct object karpos (καρπός) [pronounced kahr-POSS]. While it does mean fruit it also means profit or advantage. Here it means the prosperous gain or advantage “of righteousness” — the ablative singular of source from dikaiosunê (δικαιοσύνη) [pronounced dih-kai-oh-SOON-ā or dik-ah-yos-OO-nay] which refers to the righteousness involved in the supergrace status and it should be translated “prosperous gain [or advantage] from righteousness.” This describes seizing and holding the high ground of the supergrace life. So the prosperous gain from righteousness includes the blessings of paragraph SG2, dying grace, and the blessings of paragraph SG3. “Righteousness” or dikaiosunê (δικαιοσύνη) [pronounced dih-kai-oh-SOON-ā or dik-ah-yos-OO-nay] here describes the believer in supergrace status.

“unto them” is a dative plural of the definite article and it is used as a demonstrative pronoun emphasizing that the believer recovering from reversionism is in the sphere of advantage.

“which are exercised” — perfect passive participle of gumnazô (γυμνάζω) [pronounced goom-NAD-zo] which means to train, to exercise, and obviously any type of beneficial exercise hurts while you are doing it or it is not benefitting you. For people who exercise all of their lives the benefits are in the self-discipline of soul, the good health, the posture, all of which contribute to good concentration under difficult periods and times. The perfect tense is the intensive perfect emphasizing a past completed action and existing results. The existing results are being training by divine discipline. Discipline hurts; exercise hurts. Discipline produces benefits; exercise produces benefits. When you are under divine discipline you hurt, but if you learn from being hurt it is beneficial.

The Greek words agonazô and gumnazô; we get the English words agony and gym.

Building up your body does give you some peace and quiet, because many people won’t bother you.

Once we focus our attention on God and on the principle of the daily intake of doctrine we benefit by it just as a person who works out consistently benefits by the physical exercise. The passive voice: the believer receives the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. It should be translated, “to those who have been trained thereby.”

“thereby” is dia plus the genitive of the intensive pronoun autos, and it doesn’t mean “thereby,” it means “by it” or “through it,” i.e. by divine discipline.

Hebrews 12:11 On the one hand all discipline while in progress appears to be an occasion not for happiness, but for sorrow; on the other hand afterward it pays back with interest prosperous gains [supergrace blessings] from righteousness [supergrace status] to those who are trained by it.

The Benefits from Divine Discipline

1. When you are under divine discipline you have the encouragement of knowing that you belong to God. It is a sign of sonship, it is encouragement in the field of eternal security. God only spanks His own children.

2. It is a sign of reversionism, it is a warning to you as a believer, as a child of God, that you are off the royal road to glory. So God graciously warns His children by discipline.

3. Discipline is a teacher and a corrector. The growing believer is taught and corrected indirectly by Bible teaching. The reversionist is taught and corrected directly by discipline.

4. A motivator of positive volition toward Bible doctrine. It motivates to get positive toward doctrine.

5. It is the hard way of attaining spiritual maturity.

Heb 12:12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,

Verses 12 and 13 start a new paragraph where we have the result of divine discipline amplified. Reversion recovery is the basic result of divine discipline just as reversion recovery is the purpose for divine discipline.

Verse 12 — we have a quotation from Isaiah 35:3. It begins with the word “wherefore,” an inferential conjunction dio (διό) [pronounced DEE-oh] (διό) [pronounced DEE-oh]. In modern English inferentials are usually translated “therefore.” This is called a self-evident inferential conjunction. “Therefore” — in other words, we have learned the lessons of the previous paragraph, verses 10, 11. Since we have learned that discipline hurts and since we have begun to understand the five different benefits of divine discipline — “therefore,” and inferential which means “Therefore, get with it.” That means recover yourself, rebound, turn positive, start being consistent in taking in the Word of God.

“lift up” — the hands hanging down means a shot-down person. The command is an aorist active imperative from anorthóō (ἀνορθόω) [pronounced an-ohrth-OH-oh] which means to rebuild or to restore, to strengthen, to restore to straightness. “Therefore restore.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety regardless of how long it takes to fulfil it. This includes rebound plus repentance plus GAPing it daily, and it gathers it up into a single whole, going from whatever stage of reversionism to whatever stage of maturity or supergrace. It takes the occurrence of reversion recovery and regardless of its extent or duration gathers it into a single whole. The active voice: the reversionist under divine discipline produces the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command — “Therefore restore to power.” It doesn’t mean lift up at all.

“hands which hang down” are weak hands, so to restore the hands to power means to build up their strength. This involves several things. It involves repentance, if you understand what repentance means. It means a change of mind, it does not mean to feel sorry for sin. So we have repentance or changing the mind toward Bible doctrine, we have the rebound technique involved, we have positive daily decisions necessary for the daily function of GAP under the authority and leadership of the right pastor and being consistent.

“hands” — the accusative plural direct object from cheir (χείρ,χειροός,ἡ) [pronounced khīr]. The hands are said to be “hanging down” — the perfect passive participle of paríēmi (παρίημι) [pronounced par-EE-ay-mi] which means to be weakened, listless, or useless. The problem is that hands that are attached to weak arms, weak chest, weak shoulders, and so on, are useless. The point is that the hand has to be attached to something that has some strength, and hands that hang down are simply weak. Hands hanging down means literally, “listless hands.” The perfect passive participle is used in the sense of an adjective. This is the adjectival use of the participle by which is qualifies or limits a noun. Almost any hand can pick up a bottle, even a listless hand. But progressively it gets more and more difficult to pick up something and the point is that you have to have something between the hand and the body to do this. A listless hand is a weak hand and a weak hand means no exercise. No exercise means weakness. The members of the royal family are to be spiritually strong. and spiritual strength comes from muscle in the soul. Muscle in the soul is Bible doctrine in the soul. To restore to power the listless hands means to start taking in doctrine today, tomorrow, the next day, and the next, and so on. Keep doing it. You don’t build up your strength by saying you are going to get in shape and then work out for two days and quit. You work out consistently. That is the way you restore strength. You restore strength in the spiritual realm by your consistence in the intake of Bible doctrine. There is no substitute for consistency.

The listless hands might be compared to the first four stages of reversionism. Stage one is the reaction stage, and in the reaction stage you have such things as discouragement, boredom, disillusion, loneliness, self-pity, frustration, mental attitude sins, distractions, mental illness, drug addiction, and so on. The second stage which comes out of this is the frantic search for happiness. The third stage, operation boomerang, the intensification of the reaction by frantic search for happiness. The fourth stage is emotional revolt of the soul.

“and the feeble knees” — this refers to the next four stages of reversionism. The word for “feeble” is the perfect passive participle from paraluô (παραλύω) [pronounced par-al-OO-oh] which means to weaken, to disable. Paraluô (παραλύω) [pronounced par-al-OO-oh] is used as an adjective and it should be translated “disabled.”

“the knees” — the accusative plural gonu (γονύ) [pronounced gohn-OO]. The knees are very strong and a very key part of the anatomy in weightlifting, in any type of running sport, they are extremely important. Anyone who plays some real football has the problem of feeble knees. So feeble knees refers to another phase of reversionism — negative volition toward doctrine, the opening of the mataiotês (ματαιότης) [pronounced mat-ah-YOHT-ace], the blackout of the soul, the scar tissue of the soul, and reverse process reversionism. So that in this verse we have a command to pull out of reversionism.

Hebrews 12:12 Therefore restore to power the listless hands and the disabled knees.

Summary

1. Obviously this is a command to reversion recovery.

2. Reversion recovery begins the process of moving toward the high ground of supergrace.

3. Note the fact that the disabled knees keep the believer from advancing on the run (as commanded in the first part of the chapter) to the high ground, while the listless hands connote failure in such fields as production or the utilization of doctrine.

4. Reversionism hinders reaching our basic tactical objective of phase two which is the high ground — supergrace, maturity. This is why we remain in this life in order to have a share in the great strategic victory of our Lord seated at the right hand of the Father.

1972 Hebrews 12:13 Lesson #219

219 10/03/1974 Hebrews 12:13 Perpetuating chain-sinning

Heb 12:13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.

Verse 13 — the word “and” is simply the connective use of the conjunction kai, introducing a quotation from Proverbs 24:6, but a Septuagint quotation not taken from the Hebrew; “make” — the present active imperative of poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] is a little better translated “be making.” The present tense is a tendencial present, it is used for an action which is demanded but not actually taking place at the moment in Jerusalem in the original address of this passage. The active voice: the believer in reversion recovery produces the action of the verb. Making straight paths means to recover from reversionism and start moving toward the first main objective in the Christian way of life — to reach the high ground of supergrace which is tantamount to maturity. The imperative mood is a command.

“straight paths” — the accusative plural direct object from trochiá (τροχιά) [pronounced trohkh-ee-AH] which means a wheel track. With it is the adjective orthós (ὀρθός) [pronounced or-THOSS] which means straight, orthodoxy, and so on. “Be making straight tracks.” Actually the tracks are there and it means to follow the tracks, stay on the tracks. This is an idiom for staying on the tracks. You don’t make tracks, they are there, the tracks lead to the high ground of supergrace, and you just get on the track and stay. The track refers to GAP, the daily intake of Bible doctrine.

“for your feet” — the feet are used as a metonym (where you use one word for another) for the volition of the believer. There must be consistent positive volition if you are going to recover and if you are going to fulfil the first objective. So attitude toward Bible teaching is always the issue for each member of the royal family of God as long as he is in time. “And be making straight tracks by means of your feet.”

The word “lest” is the conjunction hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] introducing a final clause. A final clause in the Greek indicates purpose or objective or goal. We also have a negative mê with it and so it is a negative purpose clause.

“that which is lame” — the nominative neuter adjective chôlos (χωλός) [pronounced kho-LOSS] means “crippled.” It should be translated “in order that the crippled one.” The crippled one is the reversionist.

“be turned out of the way” — literally, “dislocated.” We have the negative mê plus the aorist passive subjunctive of ektrépō (ἐκτρέπω) [pronounced ek-TREHP-oh] which means to be out of joint. In other words, when you are in the process of reversion recovery it is easy to slip back into reversionism. That is what this passage is emphasizing. Reversion recovery is much more difficult than simple growing. If go from salvation and start out with doctrine and stay with doctrine, that is simple. But when you peel off into some form of reversionism, then reversion recovery and moving up to the high ground is a much more difficult process. Reversion recovery has the possibility of relapses. The old and new distractions tempt the believer away from constant exposure to Bible teaching. So it is a very difficult road to recovery. Positive volition must be strong, consistent, and unwavering, and the way to recovery often has many setbacks. This is actually a constative aorist which gathers up into one entirety every distraction you will ever face to take you off the road to supergrace.

Seven Ways of Chain Sinning

1. The mental attitude sin of jealousy or bitterness motivates revenge tactics. In other words, you can start from two different mental attitude sins. Both of these lead to a series of activities whereby jealousy must be expressed or bitterness must be expressed. Bitterness and jealousy always have an object and when you express either of them toward an object you intensify the sinning, you produce other kinds of sins — vengeance, various types of social sins. In effect, all of these are trying to build your happiness on someone else’s unhappiness.

2. The function of guilt complex by which every new suffering in life is associated with a past sin or failure. People are often impressed by their past sins or their failures. They are impressed to the point that even though these sins and failures have been forgiven and God has blotted out the sins or the failures. And any time there is any pressure, any suffering, any disaster, it is related back to a past sin or failure. In that way you set up chain sinning retroactively. Such reaction is called guilt complex.

3. Public confession of sin. This is sort of an offshoot of a guilt complex. Public confession of sin is not victorious living, it is insanity. This is also called sharing and the so-called sharing adds sin to sin.

4. The superimposition of human volition over the divine prerogatives of judgement and condemnation. In other words, judging other believers. Judgement belongs to the Lord. Our lives as members of the royal family must be evaluated by the Lord Himself, therefore we do not have the right to judge other believers.

5. “Operation patsy” in which the believer avoids the responsibility for his own sins and failures and always finds someone else on which to blame them. This is failure to face up to the responsibilities of your own free will. The principle is that we must all learn to take responsibility for our own decisions, good and bad, for our own failures, and above all for our own sins. Remember that volition was involved in every sin that was ever committed in the course of the human race. Patsies often start early in life. Guy on a barstool saying, “My wife does not understand me.” Usually, she understands him too well. Or the person who kicks the dog when he has had a bad day. Volition is involved in every sin that has ever been committed.

6. The manufacture of controversy by failure to isolate your differences with other believers, relatives, or friends. Women who will run down their husbands, and she talks about him. He walks into a room with these women, and they are glaring at him, and he has no idea what has happened. If you have a controversy with someone, you isolate your controversy. Only a weak sister needs the sympathy of others.

7. The function of hypocrisy in pseudo love, implacability developing into vindictiveness. This, again, causes others to be hurt and chain sinning results.

Someone asked Bob for a job recommendation and Bob was honest, saying, I wouldn’t hire this man if he were the only person available. Better to hire a baboon.

You cannot have two sets of standards for your organization, one for Christians and one for unbelievers. They both must meet the standards. Evaluating a person in certain situations is not judging.

Judging is assigning a sin to a particular person. Does not matter if they committed it or not.

Worst is the little Miss Goody Two-shoes, who talks about the sins of others, sins which bother her. Our privacy is better protected at Berachah Church than anywhere else. Bob sometimes needs to get rid of people who are trouble-makers who makes other people’s sins known to those who will listen.

“but” — the Greek particle de emphasizes a contrast. Here is a contrast between relapse into reversionism and pressing on to the high ground of supergrace by ignoring distractions.

“rather” — the comparative mallon (μλλον) [pronounced MAL-lon] means “more” or “rather” but de mallon (μλλον) [pronounced MAL-lon] is an idiom, it introduces an expression or a thought that supplements and corrects what has been preceded.

“let it be healed” — the aorist passive subjunctive of iaomai (ἰάομαι) [pronounced ee-AH-om-ahee]. It means to heal, to cure, and figuratively it means deliverance from the ills of reversionism. Here it means to be restored or to become recovered — “rather let is be restored [or healed].” The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the action of reversion recovery in its entirety and regards it from the viewpoint of existing results. The passive voice refers to the listless hands and the disabled knees, and they receive healing. The subjunctive mood is potential depending upon your attitude toward Bible doctrine.

Hebrews12:13 Be making straight tracks by means of your feet [positive volition toward doctrine], in order that the crippled one not be again put out of joint; but rather let it be healed.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #220

220 10/04/1974 Hebrews 12:14 Doctrine of sanctification

The road to glory sets up a system of actions leading us into the supergrace life. The first objective is to take the guide on for the supergrace life. God is glorified by maximum doctrine in the soul.

Bob has had all kinds of interesting responses. Did not expect all of them. Some said, “I will never have children.” Bob said, “I won’t be here in the next 25 years” but he was slightly off.

Sex is coming up on Sunday morning. Why don’t we lose some of these people? The shock alone should do it.

Attacks have been made against all divine laws.

Heb 12:14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

Verse 14 — “Follow” is the present active imperative of the verb diôkô (διώκω) [pronounced dee-OH-koh] which means to pursue or to press toward an objective. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, called also the present tense of duration. It indicates the fact that no matter how we were, no matter how unstable, no matter how mixed up and confused our life happened to be, that we are to be consistent about one thing always and that is the intake of Bible doctrine. So the retroactive present denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. The active voice: this is the royal family producing the action of the verb. The Church Age believer is royal family forever and he has objectives in remaining on this earth. None of us are left here by accident and God never slips up and allows someone to stay on this earth when not under God’s plan. He always knows what He is doing and He has seen fit to leave us here—for divine discipline or for divine blessing. The imperative mood is a command here. The word “follow” should be translated “Keep pressing toward the objective.”

“peace” is the accusative singular direct object of the noun eirênê (εἰρήνη, ης, ἡ) [pronounced eye-RAY-nay]. The word actually means several things — peace, health, welfare, harmony, but here it means prosperity. The prosperity is the content of your own paragraph SG2. Our purpose is to keep pressing so that we have them, retain them, and move to our second objective which is dying, and there is nothing better in life than to die well. The only possible way to die happily and honourably is to die under the principle of dying grace. Dying grace is only for believers transferring from time to eternity on the high golden bridge.

“with all” is a prepositional phrase, meta plus the genitive plural of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs]. What does a prepositional phrase like this mean? it means all members of the royal family have the same general objective, and “with all” is what we are doing right now. It means to be shoulder to shoulder in an assembly. All advance in the spiritual life is based upon the intake of doctrine and the only way that God has ordained for the intake of doctrine is in a group, in the local church assembly. “With all” means in a local church under the authority of the pastor-teacher communicating the Word of God. “With all the royal family” is what it really means. Actually, “with all” comes first in the sentence, so this is the way it should sound really, “With all the royal family, keep pressing toward the objective prosperity.”

Pastors establish their authority through teaching the word. This will drive some people off and attract others. Bob will be teaching in Berachah in 25 years in May.

A young guy memorizes much of what Bob teaches and teaches it as his own at his newly established church. If these people had an ounce of humility, they would not try to establish worldwide tape ministries from the beginning.

Along with that we are to press toward something else which is called “and holiness” — the conjunction kai plus the accusative singular direct object of hagiasmos (ἁγιασμός) [pronounced hag-ee-as-MOSS]. Hagiasmos (ἁγιασμός) [pronounced hag-ee-as-MOSS] means holiness, sanctification. We are to press toward a sanctification objective, not only prosperity. The big problem here is what sanctification means.

You are not fit for the glue factory if you are hooked up with the tongues movement. This was a gift of evangelization. A gift of speaking a foreign language that you did not know yourself. They have the worst arrogance. They are not holiness.

Unbelievers can live a moral life; but this is not sanctification. Gregariousness is not sanctification.

The Doctrine of Sanctification (2)

(Sanctification and holiness are synonymous terms)

1. Definition. Sanctification or holiness means to be set apart as belonging to God, to be consecrated to God, to be related to God in some way that He has defined through His Word. More than that, it means to be under contract to God forever. Holiness, for example, in the salvation stage is to be under contract to God forever. The actual death of Christ set aside the old contract, the Mosaic law or the shadows, and since the old contract is cancelled, annulled or abrogated, the new contract or the new covenant for the royal priesthood sets us up immediately as being sanctified or holy. So in the strictest sense of the word sanctification or holiness means the believer in the Church Age under a new contract from God. This new contract is a forever contract, that is why you have to be saved to be in it. The contract is provided on the basis of the efficacious, once and for all work of Christ on the cross. In effect, we signed the contract the moment we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Once we have sinned it the new contract is inviolable and those in the contract are all members of the royal family of God forever, and at that stage in one sense of the word everyone is said to be holy or in holiness or sanctified.

2. The etymology of the word from the Bible. We have a number of words in the Bible that start out hagi or hago and they all connote separation.

a. For example, one of these words is hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss]. This word is translated in the Bible by “saint” or “holy.” It is used to describe the one who in under the new contract forever and it refers to anyone who has believed in Jesus Christ. So all of these words relate to the fact that you are a saint, and a saint means set apart unto God forever.

b. The word “holiness” itself is hagiotês (ἁγιότης) [pronounced hag-ee-OHT-ace] and it means holiness or the state of being under contract to God. It means, therefore, to be in status quo member of the royal family of God forever. That contract is the New Covenant.

c. Then there is another word for holiness or sanctification: hagiôsunê (ἁγιωσύνη) [pronounced hag-ee-o-SOO-nay]. This word, again, means sanctification or holiness, and, again, it means a state of being under contract to God. The contract is the new covenant.

d. The word hagiasmos (ἁγιασμός) [pronounced hag-ee-as-MOSS], the one in context, is next. It means “sanctification” or “holiness,” a state of being under contract to God.

e. Then we have with this a verb, hagiazô (ἁγιάζω) [pronounced hawg-ee-AD-zoh], which also means to be under contract to God, it means to be set apart, to be dedicated to God. All of these words have to do with being saved and not with some particular status of salvation by experience.

3. Phase one sanctification. This is a reference to the fact that the day that we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ we are different from all people in the Old Testament who believed in Christ. It is true that they received Christ as Savior and they were immediately born again. They were born again and were family of God. When we believe in Christ we are born again and we are family of God. But there is a difference. We in the Church Age are royal family. So the word “holiness” or the word “sanctification” is used to designate that part of the family of God known as royal family. “Family of God” starts with Adam and Eve and goes down to the last Millennial saint, but in that there is one unique group. We are family of God in the Church Age but we are unique, we are royal family of God. So we must learn to distinguish between family of God and royal family of God, and it is royal family of God that are designated “saints,” “holy,” “sanctified,” or under the category of holiness. Holiness designates believers in the Church Age in distinction to others, and the distinction is based upon special ministries of God the Holy Spirit. God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation was always the agent of regeneration. When we are born again we are always born again by the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. He actually puts us into the family of God. But now something has happened that never happened before — the baptism of the Holy Spirit, whereby at the point of salvation God the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Jesus Christ. That is where the word “saint” receives its derivation. We are in union with Christ forever, we are set apart as special, we are in a higher class of royal family. We live in the palace forever. That is true of all members of the body of Christ. Another ministry of the Holy Spirit: He came to indwell our bodies. That never occurred before. Then there was a fourth ministry, the sealing of the Holy Spirit. So our sign of royalty is indwelling, our security of royalty is sealing. Then, in this Church Age, while we function on this earth as members of the body of Christ each one of us has a special function in life. So God the Holy Spirit gives each one of us a spiritual gift. So God the Holy Spirit does five things for each one of us and these five things lead to phase one sanctification. But the special one is the baptism of the Spirit which gives us the title “saint”; this makes us royal family of God forever.

4. We also have a phase two sanctification. This is seizing and holding the tactical objective which is the high ground of supergrace. Supergrace is a synonym for spiritual maturity and we are to seize and to hold that high ground. Therefore the only manner in which it can be done is the filling of the Holy Spirit plus Bible doctrine in the soul. The filling of the Spirit plus the function of GAP equals reaching supergrace.

5. There is also an ultimate sanctification or phase three. Ultimately the believer, member of the royal family of God, will be in resurrection body, minus the old sin nature, minus human good, and minus the lake of fire. So this is an ultimate stage of sanctification.

6. The agents of sanctification. There are three agents involved in entering us into this state.

a. The Son of God is an agent of sanctification — Hebrews 10:10,14;

b. the Holy Spirit is an agent of sanctification — Romans 15:16; 2Thessalonians 2:13;

c. the Word of God is an agent of sanctification — John 17:17; Ephesians 5:26.

7. All phases of sanctification are related to the angelic conflict. Phase one or salvation: regenerate mankind or the royal family of God is positionally higher than angels. Phase two: the supergrace believer occupied with Christ glorifies Christ and this is tactical victory in the angelic conflict. Phase three: the royal family in resurrection body is physically superior to all angels.

8. Conclusion. We have the principle that sanctification is the uniqueness of the Church Age believer and the member of the royal family of God. Our sanctification is based upon the efficacious sacrifice of Christ on the cross, His resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand of the Father. This is called in Hebrews 9:26 the conjunction of the ages. The necessity of a royal family means the necessity for being set apart in the palace. To be set apart in the palace is to be holy or to be under holiness and in sanctification. The Holy Spirit provides these things for us at salvation. They are unique.

9. The purpose of our phase two sanctification is to reach the high ground.

The objective, holiness, is the supergrace life. Holiness means the road to glory which is often described in terms of sanctification. It begins with phase one sanctification — salvation grace. It continues with phase two sanctification — living grace, supergrace, dying grace. It concludes with phase three sanctification which is paragraph SG3 in eternity. Phase one sanctification, however, is in view in this passage.

The conjunction kai is used as an adverb and demands the repetition of the use of the verb diôkô (διώκω) [pronounced Dee-OH-koh]. So we can translate it: “Likewise aspire to saving grace [sanctification].” This is addressed obviously to unbelievers who were located in the local churches in Jerusalem.

“without which” — we have the adverb chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE]. Kai plus chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE] is a Classical Greek idiom, it demands the repetition of the verb. We have chôris (χωρίς) [pronounced khoh-REECE] plus the genitive singular of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] — “without which saving grace.”

“no man shall see the Lord” — oudeís (οὐδείς) [pronounced oo-DICE], “no one”; “shall see” — the future active indicative of the verb horaô (ὁράω) [pronounced hoh-RAW-oh]. The future tense is a gnomic future for a dogmatic statement of fact in future time. Unless a person believes in Christ he will not see the Lord in the eternal future. The active voice: any member of the human race who does not believe in Jesus Christ will produce the action of this verb. The declarative indicative mood is for a dogmatic statement of doctrine.

Hebrews 12:14 With all the royal family keep moving toward the objective, prosperity [SG2]; likewise [you unbelievers] aspire to [phase one] sanctification, without which no one will see the Lord.

Seven Ways of Chain Sinning (reviewed)

5. “Operation patsy” in which the believer avoids the responsibility for his own sins and failures and always finds someone else on which to blame them. This is failure to face up to the responsibilities of your own free will. The principle is that we must all learn to take responsibility for our own decisions, good and bad, for our own failures, and above all for our own sins. Remember that volition was involved in every sin that was ever committed in the course of the human race. Patsies often start early in life. The woman who gathers with other women to complain about her husband. The guy who tells about his wife at the office.

7. The function of hypocrisy in pseudo love, implacability developing into vindictiveness. This, again, causes others to be hurt and chain sinning results.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #221

221 10/06/1974 Hebrews 12:15–16a Doctrine of fornication. Biblical grounds for divorce: desertion and adultery

The siege of Jerusalem is one of the most well-documented historical incidents. 9 months casualties 900,000 people. This was a divine judgment on the city of Jerusalem, the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline.

Jesus was looking over the city of Jerusalem, and He wept over it; and then gave this prophetical warning.

Believers with doctrine got out of there.

Heb 12:15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;

Verse 15 —the contamination from reversionism. This is a chain sinning problem. this is the last verse delivered to the believer. Verses 16,17 are addressed to the unbeliever and deal with the subject of Esau. As we conclude this particular paragraph dealing with reversionism there is a warning which was given originally to believers living in Jerusalem in AD 67, three years before the great catastrophe of the siege of Jerusalem, one of the most awful periods of history. One of the most well documented events of the ancient world was the siege of Jerusalem of 70 AD. Certainly there is a reason why we are so well aware of the great suffering that occurred. First of all, those who were supergrace believers got out of Jerusalem in time. They had enough doctrine to know it was time to leave and that at this time the Jews were out of line in their fight against the Romans. Therefore they were out of the periphery of danger as those who had enough doctrinal resources to make the correct decisions. For those who were left behind we have two categories. One million people were bottled up in the city of Jerusalem for over nine or ten months of a very intense siege held by three Roman legions fighting vigorously on the walls and also terrible civil war and crime at an all-time high inside of the city.

Out of that population of one million people some were reversionistic believers who did not heed the message of the book of Hebrews given to them just three years before this great disaster. That, in effect, was their last warning. Because they did not heed the Word of God they remained behind with the unbelievers to die or to be enslaved, whichever was the will of God for the individual. It was a most awful period in history and the casualties over nine months amounted to 900,000 people. They either starved to death or were brutally and horribly massacred. Many were tortured to death, many died gallantly on the walls fighting the Romans, but the accumulation of disaster was fantastic and it became a divine judgement on the city of Jerusalem, on the southern kingdom of Judah, it was the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline which was prophesied by Jesus Christ.

As we come to this passage we have another prophetical warning. Under this passage we have a special warning for those who were reversionistic believers, that is, they were in some stage of reversionism.

“Looking diligently” — the present active participle is actually a very strong command. Occasionally the participle is used for the imperative mood and this is a case of that. This is peculiar to the Koine Greek. For the moment our writer departs from the Classical or Attic Greek in order to bring this message. We also have the present active participle in the verb episkopéō (ἐπισκοπέω) [pronounced ehp-ee-skohp-EH-oh]. episkopéō (ἐπισκοπέω) [pronounced ehp-ee-skohp-EH-oh] means to be an overseer, to be an administrator, to be an inspector, to have authority and responsibility. In this case the individual must have the authority and responsibility over his own soul. This is the command. It is an aoristic tense for punctiliar action in present time and the implication of the aoristic present is that unless there is maximum doctrine stored in the right lobe, the heart, and in the human spirit there is no true divine viewpoint of life and if there is not then there is no way for the individual to handle the administration of his own soul. Where the individual does not handle the administration of his own soul that means other factors begin to dominate. There is the old sin nature with its area of weakness producing sins, the area of strength producing human good, the lust pattern providing motivation in life, the trends of the old sin nature. These are related to the volition in doing that which is contrary to the will of God. This leads to emotional revolt. Putting it all together we have a command, “See to it” which means in effect, take personal responsibility for your own soul. This is a command to every believer priest regardless of his status, whether he is in supergrace, reversionism, advancing and progressing, or whether he is retrogressing. All of us have the responsibility for the administration of our own soul.

“lest any man” — literally, “that there be no one.” The word “that” is translated “lest” which is an old English way of translating a negative purpose clause. This is the first of two negative purpose clauses and the clause is actually introduced with the subjective negative mê. The words “any man” is the indefinite particle tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] and in the Classical Greek mê plus tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] indicates the introduction of a negative purpose clause, and it is a general clause, a general warning to all believers regardless of status. It is possible, therefore, for a progressing believer, for a mature believer, for any spiritual status, to fail in the manner in which is prescribed here.

“fail” — the present active participle of husteréō (ὑστερέω) [pronounced hoos-ter-EH-oh]. The participle is circumstantial for the tendency of reversionism especially to fail or to fall short of the grace of God. Husteréō (ὑστερέω) [pronounced hoos-ter-EH-oh] really means to fall short or to be below standard, to fall back from something. The present tense is a tendencial present for what is inclined to occur or tends toward realization. The active voice: the reversionist produces the action of the verb, and there is the falling short of the grace of God — “that no one falls back from the grace of God.”

The word “grace” is a part of a preposition phrase. We have a preposition apó (ἀπό) [pronounced aw-PO] plus the ablative of charis (χάρις) [pronounced KHAHR-iç]. This means deviation from the grace road.

Then there is a second negative clause introduced in the same Classical or Attic Greek form — m (μή) [pronounced may] plus tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç]. This second negative clause should be translated, “that not one root.” We have the noun rhiza (ῥίζα) [pronounced HRID-zah] for “root.” It refers to a specific type of root, it is a root of a tree, and 1Corinthians 15:36 tells us all about this root. This root is derived from seed going into the ground. The first thing that seed must do is to die and when it does the root begins to sprout, and eventually there is the trunk of a tree from these roots. The point is that at this point we have a root of bitterness. The root of bitterness indicates the principle that a dead seed is analogous to a sin confessed in the past.

When you are in fellowship you are filled with the Spirit. When you are out of fellowship through sin you are said to be carnal. When you confess that sin or sins He is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness so that you are back in fellowship. Whatever sins were committed are blotted out. Sometimes these sins become a major skeleton in the closet. The problem is that the sin is dead because it has been confessed, because the time has elapsed and the past is dead. So that sin is dead, confessed, forgiven, and it should be forgotten. But occasionally from a past sin or failure comes a mental attitude sin. The one in context is bitterness . Sometimes it is hatred, sometimes it is implacability, jealousy, arrogance, and so on. Sometimes it is guilt complex, but whatever it is refers back to a sin that has been forgiven and blotted out by God. When God has forgiven and God has blotted it out that is the end of it. Many believers spend the rest of their life being off balance because they constantly refer back to a past failure. They refer back to a past sin with a guilt complex and they assume that the reason for a current disaster is because of that past sin. They have failed to recognize that what has been forgiven has been blotted out, and the result from that sin is the root, and the root is bitterness or guilt complex, or implacability, etc. Whatever the root is it sprouts into the chain sinning that we have studied.

So we have “that not one root of bitterness.” “Of bitterness” is a descriptive genitive of the noun pikría (πικρία) [pronounced pihk-REE-ah] describing a category of sins as well as a personal sin. The category of sins is mental. Mental sinning causes the perpetuation of chain sinning. That “one root of bitterness” indicates a relapse, it indicates taking some past sin or failure and making it the source of mental attitude reaction. “springing up” — the present active participle of the verb phuō (φύω) [pronounced FOO-oh] which means to sprout. With it we have an adverb anô (ἄνω) [pronounced AN-oh] which means “upward.” The present tense here is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has happened in the past and continues into the present time. It denotes the first four stages of reversionism” the reaction stage, the frantic search for happiness, intensification of reaction, and the emotional revolt stage. The active voice: a believer who has allowed his past failures to become the source of present sinning produces the action. Here, of course, we are referring in context to a reversionistic type believer. The sprouting upward is any reaction to a past sin forgiven and blotted out which has devastating results.

“trouble you” refers to revolution of the soul. You have lost control of your own soul. There are a number of ways you can lose control of your soul — through reversionism, chemically through drug addiction, through alcoholism. Volition is the real you in the soul and volition is designed to control your soul. You can lose control chemically, you can lose control spiritually, you can lose control from the standpoint of establishment. The command given in the first part of this verse is to have control of your soul. Having control of your soul means capacity for life, capacity for love, capacity for happiness. If you cannot control your soul you cannot enjoy the great things of this life. Therefore it is imperative that each one of us have control of his soul. The word “bitterness” here indicates a revolt in the soul, it means that the old sin nature has taken over the soul. Bitterness goes into the mentality of the soul and changes one’s attitude toward life. One reason we have revolution, why we have so many disasters in our day, is because we have very few people who have control of the soul. Control of the soul is necessary for the function of the laws of establishment. Control of the soul is necessary in any organization.

“trouble you” is a present active subjunctive of the verb enochléō (ἐνοχλέω) [pronounced ehn-ohkh-LEH-oh] which means to cause trouble — “that not one root of bitterness sprouting upward cause trouble.” That is, a relapse into reversionism, a revolution in the soul whereby you are not in control of your soul. The present tense is a customary present denoting what habitually occurs when a believer is trying to move upward again to recover from reversionism. He releases into reversionism because of some mental attitude sin like bitterness or guilt complex. The active voice: a recovering believer produces the action of the verb. He loses control of his soul, he associates everything with his past failures, and therefore he has had it until he can recover from that. The subjunctive mood is a potential concept indicating the potential danger while the believer is trying to move to the high ground. There is always the possibility of distraction, there is also the possibility of relapse.

The second result starts out with the phrase, “and thereby” — the connective use of our conjunction kai plus a prepositional phrase, dia plus the genitive of the demonstrative houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. It should not be translated “thereby” but literally, “and through this.” That is, through this relapse others around you are hurt.

“many” — hoi polloi, “the many,” referring to those in the periphery of our life. it refers to the fact, then, that a relapsing believer causes misery to all around him.

“be defiled” — the aorist passive subjunctive of miainô (μιαίνω) [pronounced me-AH-ee-noh], a Koine Greek word which has to do with sewage. The Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written and in the ancient world sewage was collected in chamber pots and dumped over balconies or out of windows into the streets below. If at any time a person was hit by the sewage from the floors above it was called miainô (μιαίνω) [pronounced me-AH-ee-noh], and he was immediately called miainô (μιαίνω) [pronounced me-AH-ee-noh]. And immediately everyone avoided him! So miainô (μιαίνω) [pronounced me-AH-ee-noh] becomes a perfect word for the defilement of the soul and that is exactly what we have here. The constative aorist gathers into one entirety reversionistic relapse or soul revolution. Your soul becomes miainô (μιαίνω) [pronounced me-AH-ee-noh], you are hit by the sewage of mental attitude sins. The passive voice: other members of the royal family of God and those in your periphery are the victims of your relapse and soulish revolution. The subjunctive mood is potential, this does not have to happen if you remain positive to doctrine.

Hebrews 12:15 See to it [take the personal responsibility for your own soul] that no one falls back from the grace of God [relapse into reversionism during recovery]; that not one root of bitterness sprouting upward causes trouble [relapse into reversionism], and through this relapse many be contaminated.

This ends the paragraph of one subject and begins a new one.

Heb 12:16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

In verse 16 we begin a new subject which lasts for two verses and deal with a famous unbeliever, a reversionistic unbeliever. So we have the alternative to saving grace. In the previous paragraph we have had the alternative to supergrace. Now we are back to the unbeliever and the unbeliever is a case history — Esau.

Verse 16 — we start out with a third negative purpose clause. We have that same Classical Greek idiom mê tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] — “Not anyone,” and again we have the omission of the conjunction, the omission of the verb to be, and yet it should be translated “That there should be no fornicator.” The predicate nominative pornos (πόρνος, ου, ὁ) [pronounced POHR-nos] is used in the Attic Greek in a very special way. It referred to a catamite (boy kept for pederasty). But as it came into the Koine Greek it changed from a catamite to fornication in general, anyone who practiced any form of sexual immorality. Sexual immorality is not the issue here. It will be when we get to chapter 13. It is not an issue here because we are talking about spiritual fornication in this case. Whether Esau was personally a fornicator or not is not revealed, but that he was spiritually one is very definitely brought out by this passage and all passages dealing with him.

Since we have the subject brought up and since it is a literal case in the next chapter and a spiritual case here, we will summarize the doctrine of fornication.

The Doctrine of Fornication

1. Defnition. It refers in most cases in the literal passages to sexual activity outside of marriage. The spiritual meaning refers to reversionism. In that sense it should be understood that sex was designed to be an expression of love between right man and right woman. And sex was designed by God. Its perversions are sin but its design was by God as an expression of the soul love between a right man and a right woman. It is an extension of soul love. As an expression of category #2 love sex is both legitimate and beautiful, for it expresses coalescence of soul and body. Adultery may be categorized as fornication. Fornication is seduction of a member of the opposite sex in contrast to abnormal fornication which includes incest, homosexuality, lesbianism, bestiality, molestation of children, indecent exposure, as well as certain types of masturbation, voyeurism.

a. Bob wants rapists and child molesters to be publically executed, beginning with their genitals being removed.

2. The prohibition of fornication.

a. Exodus 20:14 forbids it. The prohibition is repeated in Deuteronomy 5:18.

b. In the New Testament there are several very dramatic prohibitions — 1Corinthians 6:18; Colossians 3:5; 1Thessalonians 4:3.

c. Mental adultery is forbidden — Matthew 5:27,28.

d. Incest is forbidden — 1Corinthians 5:1–7; Leviticus 18:6–17; 20:14; Deuteronomy 27:20.

e. Homosexuality is regarded to day as a psychological problem. It is not, it is a sin and should be treated as such — Leviticus 18:22; 20:13; Romans 1:26.

f. Bestiality is also forbidden — Leviticus 18:23; 20:15.

3. Skipped point.

4. Phallic reversionism has an effect upon the soul — Proverbs 6:32.

5. Fornication and the frantic search for happiness is emphasized in Ephesians 5:3.

6. The destructive force of promiscuity is brought out in such passages as 1Corinthians 6:13–18.

7. Adultery is a bona fide basis for divorce — Matthew 5:32; 19:9; Luke 16:18. People can divorce for being incompatible, physical abuse, etc. does not give the right of remarriage. Divorce, another marriage, means no remarriage with the original partners.

8. Adultery or fornication is often used in a spiritual sense to describe both reversionism and apostasy, and that is the sense in which it is used in our passage in Hebrews 12. This is true in Jeremiah 3:8–10; Ezekiel 16:23–43; 23:24–28; Revelation 17:1–5; Hebrews 12:16.

9. The sanctification of category #2 love is marriage — 1Thessalonians 4:3,4. This is the description of right man, right woman relationship.

10. The glory of category #2 love is described in spiritual analogies — 1Corinthians 11:7ff.

11. The biblical application of category #2 love to the single person.

a. The right man and the right woman were designed by God in eternity past, therefore there exists for the single person an opposite number of divine design. That in the only one for you, there is no other. There is a great variety of sexual activity between right man/right woman.

b. There are some exceptions to right man, right woman. There is the rare case of celibacy or function under the law of supreme sacrifice — 1Corinthians 9:5; Jeremiah 16:2. The law of supreme sacrifice is a normal person refraining from sex. It is designed by God for maximum concentration and production under a special type of a program, like Paul was an apostle, the activities of his apostleship precluded having a category #2 relationship.

c. Every believer under grace in the plan of God will eventually meet his opposite number. At the right time and in the right circumstances God will bring together right man and right woman. If you are single, wait and don’t settle. Don’t get married in your teens. When child labor was abolished, this made maturity in your teens impossible.

d. However there is no benefit in meeting your right woman or right man unless you have waited on the Lord in faithfulness to that principle. This means from the negative standpoint the avoidance of fornication. This means from the positive standpoint the capacity for category #2 love — that means take in doctrine, take in doctrine.

e. Consequently the thought and life pattern must be based on the doctrinal principle that there exists on this earth your right woman or your right man.

f. Fornication or adultery is accepting a cheap substitute in order to gratify an emotional or biological urge. Fornication or adultery is a part of frantic search for happiness in the second stage of reversionism.

g. The antidote to temptation in the area of fornication is found in spiritual growth, in the intake of Bible doctrine. Supergrace, the erection of the ECS, maximum doctrine resident in the soul, rejects the concept of frantic search for happiness in the field of sex.

h. Under phallic reversionism fornication builds scar tissue of the soul while destroying the physical responses and capabilities of the human body in the field of sex. This is why fornication or adultery is prohibited, it has both physical and spiritual repercussions.

i. Maximum doctrine resident in the soul plus abstinence from sex becomes the basis for maximum pleasure from sex in category #2 love. The persistent and daily function of GAP translates the principles of doctrine into the pleasures and realities of a great future happiness in the field of sex relationship.

j. Therefore, preparation for life is persistent and daily function of GAP. This is the way to attainment of supergrace status, the way to have great capacity for life, and this capacity for life overflows so that when you finally meet right man or right woman your paragraph SG2 will include that great principle of sexual prosperity.

In Hebrews 12:16 fornication is used as an analogy to reversionism in the unbeliever. Here is the unbeliever in the pattern of 2Peter 2:20,21. Fornication, then, is synonymous with unbeliever reversionism. Our verse says, “That there be no fornicator.”

1972 Hebrews Lesson #222

222 10/06/1974 Hebrews 12:16b Esau to shame unsaved Jews

Heb 12:16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

Esau was an unbeliever and a perfect illustration to the Jews. He is immediately called a reversionist in the phrase “that there be no fornicator.” Fornication in this passage is dealing with spiritual fornication or reversionism, the concept of apostasy, the concept of being away from that which is true and being connected with something which is completely and totally false. This is also brought out by the next phrase.

“or profane person” — we have a disjunctive particle, h. A disjunctive particle is designed to separate related and similar terms. After the disjunctive particle we have a predicate nominative bebêlos (βέβηλος,ον) [pronounced BEHB-ay-loss], which means Godless, irreligious, unhallowed. And “profane” is a good word as long as it is understood that profane means an unbeliever. It is a predicate adjective actually, rather than a noun, and it is used for the unbeliever. Perhaps as an adjective it is best translated by the word “unhallowed,” unhallowed in the sense of being outside of God’s plan.

“as Esau” — the comparative particle hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] is used as a conjunction to denote that he is the illustration. And why is he such a perfect illustration? Because no one can be closer to being a Jew without ever being a Jew than Esau was. Remember that the people to whom this was originally addressed were Jews living in Jerusalem in the year AD 67. They knew all about Esau, they knew all about origin. Esau is a beautiful illustration to the Jew of an unbeliever type reversionist. He is actually described as such in three areas of scripture. The first time he is so used is in Malachi 1:2,3. Always he is used in a grace appeal and there is a grace appeal here in Hebrews, there is also such a grace appeal in Romans.

Malachi 1:2–3 — “I have loved you, saith the Lord, But you say [in reversionism], How have you loved us?” — they are questioning God’s love — “Was not Esau Jacob’s twin brother? saith the Lord; yet I have loved Jacob. But I have hated Esau, and made desolate his mountain [the nation that came from Esau, the Edomites] and his heritage is left for the jackals of the desert.”

The anthropopathism which occurs at the centre of this passage has to do with God hating one twin and loving the other. We understand from the character of God that God is love. But God is also sovereignty, absolute righteousness, justice, love, eternal life, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, immutability and veracity. An anthropopathism is ascribing to God a human characteristic which He really doesn’t possess, but in order that a point of doctrine might be communicated to us it has to be expressed in human terms, and the human terms here are hatred and love. God does not hate in the absolute sense of the word, it is incompatible with His character, but it does express to the maximum His disapprobation with one twin whereas love expresses His acceptance with the other. God did not approve of Esau but He did approve of Jacob.

Bob believes that Esau was an unbeliever and Jacob was a believer. To insult or shock the Jew is to compare him to Esau. This insult is designed to shock the Jewish unbeliever.

These twins were separated in life but they are separated forever, for Jacob is going to spend eternity in the presence of God and Esau will spend eternity in the lake of fire. However that is not our subject, it is merely to demonstrate something. If you want to shock Israel compare them to someone like Esau, for the Jews did not like Esau, he was too close, he was a relative and one in whom they were completely ashamed traditionally. Therefore to compare any Jew to Esau is to offer him the highest type of insult. The insult is designed to shock him into believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 9:6–13 is a second reference to Esau in the context of the illustration. The anthropopathism of hatred is used really for the divine attitude toward the unbeliever in the sense that the unbeliever has rejected God’s grace, His so great salvation.

“But such is not the case, the word of God always stays on course. For they are not all Israel who are descendant from Israel; neither are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but, through Isaac your seed will be called.” The spiritual heritage of Israel which is the true heritage of Israel comes through Isaac. It is the heritage of regeneration. Abraham had many descendants; but the true heritage of Israel comes through Isaac.

“That is, It is not the children of the flesh [unbelievers] who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are imputed as seed.” The children of the promise in the founding of Israel are those who believe. And it was always a younger son. For example, Isaac was younger than Ishmael and Jacob was younger compared to Esau.

“For this is the doctrine of the promise, At this time I will come, and Sarah will have a son. And not only this, but there was Rebecca also, when she had conceived twins , by one man, Isaac.” Again, it is the same principle, an appeal to the Jews to believe in Jesus Christ on the basis of their true heritage.

“(For though the twins were not yet born, and had not yet done anything good or bad, in order that God’s promise according to the election of grace might stand, not because of works, but because of him who does the electing), it was said of her, The older will serve the younger. Just as it stands written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.”

The emphasis is on regeneration.

Once again, as in Malachi so in Romans, the emphasis is on regeneration, on the fact that all Jews, if they are ever going to measure up to their true heritage, will personally believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The same thing is done again by the writer of Hebrews. There is no question that he was a Jew. He is also unknown to us. He is a graduate of the university of Alexandria and he is one of the wisest and smartest of men who ever wrote in the scripture. He was not the apostle Paul but whoever he is he had a fantastic education on Classical Greek Now this anticipates Hebrews 12:16,17.

Summary: “As Esau”

1. In eternity past in the doctrine of divine decrees the plan of God was formulated on the basis of man’s volitional function in time. Man’s volitional function in time was known to God in eternity past, that is the function of omniscience. Therefore in the divine decrees every decision made from free will was anticipated.

2. For example, it is God’s sovereign will and purpose to save all mankind. When Christ did on the cross He died for all members of the human race, therefore the principle of unlimited atonement.

3. However, mankind is free to reject Christ as Savior and often does. Such is the case of Esau.

4. God knew billions of years ago the attitude of each person toward Christ as he would live in time and as he would be presented the gospel. He knew the attitude of Esau, He knew the attitude of Jacob. So while the twins were still in the womb, before they were people, God said, “Esau have I hated but Jacob have I loved.” In other words, before they had done anything the anthropopathism anticipates which one would go with regard to the gospel. This does not mean that God coerced the volition of either one, for He did not.

5. Therefore the anthropopathism of hatred is used to describe Esau’s rejection of Jesus Christ as Savior.

6. God loved Esau in the sense that Christ died for his sins, but God hates Esau in the sense that Esau rejected this so great salvation.

7. Therefore the twins of Rebecca were divided in time as well as in eternity.

8. They were born twins. One was a Gentile and one was a Jew. One was unsaved, one was saved. One came under the covenants of Israel, the other comes under the principle of the lake of fire.

So far in our passage we have: “That there be no fornicator or unhallowed type like Esau.” We now have the development of Esau at this point in this passage in compliance with the general principles taught here. This is not an attempt to teach everything about Esau, this is merely emphasizing certain things that belong to the passage, certain means by which the writer is trying to shock the Jews into accepting Christ as Savior. Certainly it is a shock for any Jew to be compared to Esau.

The nominative singular relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] refers to Esau — “who”; “for one morsel” — we actually have a prepositional phrase here. We have the preposition anti plus the ablative of brôsis (βρσις) [pronounced BROH-sihs]. The ablative and anti are used here in the Classical Greek sense. In Attic Greek the translation would therefore read, “who in exchange for.” Brôsis (βρσις) [pronounced BROH-sihs] means not food in itself but in one act of eating, one meal in the sense of actually eating — “who in exchange for one act of eating. That means, of course, one meal. This is a reference to Genesis 25:27–34.

“When the boys grew up; Esau became a skillful hunter, a man of the field; but Jacob was a complete man, dwelling in tents.” (“Complete” means he was self-sustaining. He had his own flocks, he cooked his own meals, he made his own clothes, and he was a complete man.) So immediately we notice something. The older boy was dependent upon others for everything whereas the younger one, Jacob, had learned to become self-sustaining.

“Now Isaac loved Esau, because his game was in his mouth” — Isaac always loved various types of game that came from the field and therefore he loved game-type food. His son was always bringing him home something he enjoyed — “but Rebekah loved Jacob.” So each parent had their favorite.

“And when Jacob cooked a stew, Esau came in from the field and was very weary [or hungry]. Therefore Esau said to Jacob, Let me have a taste of that red stuff cooking there; for I am hungry: consequently his name was called Edom [or red].”

“And Jacob said, Sell me your birthright.”

“And Esau said, Behold, I am about to die: what good is a birthright to me?” He is very hungry, very tired. “And Jacob replied, Today make me a solemn promise; therefore he promised him his birthright: and he sold his birthright.”

“The Jacob gave Esau bread and lentil stew; and he ate and drank, and rose up, and departed: consequently from that time on Esau despised his birthright.” It was so unimportant to him that he was willing to sell it for a good meal.

In Hebrews 12:16 the word “sold” is an aorist middle indicative of the verb apodidômi (ἀποδίδωμι) [pronounced ap-od-EED-o-mee]. Apodidômi (ἀποδίδωμι) [pronounced ap-od-EED-o-mee] means to sell or to barter, it means sometimes to give away. However, in the middle voice it means to sell.

Next we have the accusative singular direct object of the noun prōtotókia (πρωτοτόκια) [pronounced pro-toht-OHK-ee-ah]. It comes from a noun, prôtotokos (πρωτοτόκος) [pronounced proh-tot-OK-oss]. It means the right of primogeniture. In other words, it means that the oldest son receives all of the money, all of the property from the parents, all of the wealth. He receives the family priesthood and the family rulership. All of these things belonged to him by right of birth as the eldest son. The aorist tense of “sold” is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the occurrence of Genesis 25:27–34 and gathers it up into one entirety. Everything is gathered up in the word “sold” in the constative aorist. The middle voice is an indirect middle emphasizing the agent Esau as producing the action of the verb rather than as participating in its results. The middle voice is reflexive and in a sense condemns him. Esau himself did it. He didn’t have to do it but he did it. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality of the situation.

Hebrews 12:16 That there be no fornicator [reversionist], or unhallowed [unsaved type], like Esau, who himself sold his birthright for one meal.

Esau Compare to Negative Jews

1. From the reversionism of the Jewish believer in Jerusalem in AD 67 this passage moves to the unbeliever reversionism among the Jews.

2. The unsaved Jew is compared to Esau, which is as great an insult as the Jew of that day could receive. To compare him to Esau is maximum doctrinal trauma.

3. Furthermore, for religious Jews to be called fornicators is to imply that their religious tenets were wrong, that they were apostate, and therefore were a denial of their spiritual heritage.

4. Esau sold the rights of the firstborn for one meal. For the pleasure of satisfying his taste buds Esau sold or betrayed his heritage. And that is the issue in this context. The true heritage of every Jew is to be born again. Esau disregarded his heritage. He thought so little of it that he was prepared to bargain his entire heritage for one good meal. In a sense, then, Esau betrayed his heritage.

5. Therefore, Esau’s hunger is like reaction to the gospel, while selling his birthright for a meal is like a frantic search for happiness in the field of religion. That is the analogy implied.

6. Furthermore, following 2Peter 2:22 it is the dog returning to his vomit, the pig returning to the mud. The rejection of the gospel caused Esau to return to the vomit of religious apostasy.

7. The analogy, then, is obvious to the Jew of that time. Religious apostasy would destroy Judah in three years. In AD 70 the Romans would apply the coup de grace, the fifth cycle of discipline to the same apostate Esaus.

8. Negative volition toward the gospel creates a vacuum by which Satanic viewpoint enters the soul of the unbeliever, producing again the status of the dog returning to his vomit. Here is the pattern of 2Peter 2:17–22.

9. The resultant blackout of the soul and scar tissue produces spiritual fornication or religious apostasy.

10. Judaism is AD 67 was a system of legalism, of dead works, and it is comparable to the one meal. The Jews had sold out their heritage for one meal. The one meal in this case, which makes them analogous to Esau, is Judaism of 67 AD — keeping the law as a system of salvation.

11. The Jews are compared to Esau eating one meal, Judaism, and forfeiting their birthright of the divine election of grace.

12. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were all born again believers. The true heritage of Israel is a spiritual heritage. This is brought out by the Abrahamic, Palestinian, Davidic, and New covenants to Israel. Regeneration is the heritage of Israel and from regeneration the road to glory. The writer is greatly disturbed because they are missing out on their true heritage.

Review of first 16 verses.

Example of a person who rejects JW teaching and he rejects it. But then he rejects the gospel later, and then goes back the JW kingdom hall and believes it. He is the dog returning to his vomit.

In verse 16 Esau is the rejecter of grace; in verse 17 Esau is rejected by grace. The rejecter becomes the rejected is the tragedy of reversionism as far as the unbeliever is concerned, for the unbeliever’s alternative is eternal divine judgement.

1972 Hebrews 12:17 Lesson #223

223 10/11/1974 Hebrews 12:17 Doctrine of the Last Judgment

Bob was in Florida for a conference. Began with someone meeting him at the airport and a Berachah person going up to them, and asking, “Who are you waiting for?” Bob excoriates her.

Bob was at his hotel and it was the Christian Business Association convention.

Bob in the elevator, and many on the first floor got on to go up. “Finally, praise the Lord” “Halleleua.” They pressed all these various buttons to go up, and the elevator went down to where Bob was going. Bob held the door open and said, “You see, another illustration of where the majority is always wrong.”

First 16 verses reviewed.

Heb 12:17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

The rejecter will become the rejected.

Verse 17 — “For” is the continuative use of the conjunctive particle gar, and it correctly translated.

“ye know” — this is an Attic Greek verb. The form is ísēmi (ἴσημι) [pronounced IHS-ay-mee], the Attic form of oida, a perfect tense used as a present tense for knowledge of doctrine in the frontal lobe. It is used here in the Attic Greek sense of having perfect confidence from what you know — knowing it, applying it, having confidence in it, good common sense, and so on.

“how that” — the conjunction hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] used after verbs of thinking is simply translated “that”; “afterward” — an adverb, metépeita (μετέπειτα) [pronounced meht-EHP-ī-tah]. It means “even afterward.” We also have with it the ascensive use of the conjunction kai. We have so far, For you know that even afterward.”

“when he would have” is literally, “even when he kept desiring,” the present active participle of thélô (θέλω) [pronounced THEH-loh]. Nearly every word here is just a little off in the translation of the KJV. Because of that what is here is misunderstood. The retroactive progressive present of thélô (θέλω) [pronounced THEH-loh] denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time, that is, up to the time that Esau started crying. The active voice: Esau produces the action. This is a temporal participle and it should be translated, “even when he kept desiring.” He didn’t always desire it but he finally came around to desiring his right of primogeniture back.

Next we have an aorist active infinitive of klêronomeô (κληρονομέω) [pronounced klay-ron-om-EH-oh], which means to inherit but we translate the infinitive “to inherit” rather than “have inherited.” It is an ingressive aorist which denotes entering into a state or condition. The active voice: Esau desired to enter into his inheritance. He sold it but he wanted it back.

“the blessing” here refers to his right of primogeniture. The accusative is a direct object and goes with the infinitive, it is the object of the infinitive. It is in the singular and the noun is e)ulogia. The blessing refers to his right as the firstborn to have the estate. By analogy it refers to the blessings of God’s grace. The alternative to that grace plan of God is for the unbeliever eternal judgement, and for the believer divine discipline.

“he was rejected” — the aorist passive indicative of apodiorizô (ἀποδιορίζω) [pronounced ap-ohd-ee-or-IHD-zoh]. It means to reject or to declare useless. The culminative aorist views the event in its entirety but regards it from the standpoint of its existing results. These existing results are important.

Esau made a deal and now he wants to Welsh on that deal. Lowest thing a person can do, according to Bob’s upbringing.

Principles

1. The entirety of the aorist includes the entire panorama of unbeliever reversionism.

2. This means every rejection of the gospel plus the resultant strong delusion is synonymous with unbeliever reversionism.

3. Just as it was too late for Esau to acquire his inheritance so it is too late for the unbeliever to be saved in eternity. He is outside of the grace of God, therefore he is rejected. The whole point of the illustration is that for one meal you sell your birthright. The birthright is unlimited atonement, Christ died for the sins of the world. Therefore when a person rejects Christ he actually rejects the heritage that God has designed for every member of the human race.

The passive voice here: Esau received the action of the verb, he is an illustration of all of those Jews in Jerusalem under siege. These Jews are getting a last call here in the field of evangelism. But they are getting more than a last call, they are getting a perfect picture of their situation. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the unbeliever being rejected in eternity. He rejects Christ in time, he is rejected in eternity. The principle: You reject Christ in time, He rejects you in eternity. Two doctrines here, the Last Judgment and the Revised Doctrine of Crybabies.

The Doctrine of the Last Judgement (3)

1. Definition. The last judgement is the alternative to salvation. This judgement is the expression of righteousness and justice from the essence box. God is perfect in His righteousness and perfect in His justice. God has found a way in time to keep His righteousness and justice from being compromised — doctrine of propitiation.

a. God must judge the unbeliever in eternity. If He doesn’t then He would compromise His righteousness and justice. And just as the cross propitiates the Father so the last judgement keeps the Father’s character intact. If God didn’t judge the unbeliever with the lake of fire then He wouldn’t be God and this is no God. Of course, that is not the case.

b. Everyone who rejects Christ as Savior is included in this last judgement, it is the culminating judgement of history in which the unbelievers of the human race are judged and sentenced to the lake of fire forever. It is called the second death, it is called the great white throne, it is called the last judgement.

c. If there is no last judgment, then there is no God.

2. The basic categories of the human race are based upon the last judgement — John 3:36, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life”: believers in the Lord Jesus Christ; but, “he who does not believe in the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him”: unbelievers, with emphasis on their eternal future, the wrath of God abides on him. The abiding of the wrath of God on the unbeliever indicates that God keeps His righteousness and justice intact.

3. In the last judgement the unbeliever is under indictment. The unbeliever’s indictment is based on his rejection of Jesus Christ as Savior. “He who believes in him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the unique Son of God.” John 16:9 tells us that it is the unbeliever who is under indictment — “Concerning sin because they believe not on me.” They have rejected the propitiation of the cross. Revelation 20:15 — “Therefore if anyone was found not written in the book of life he was cast into the lake of fire.” The book of life in eternity was a registry of all people and when one dies without accepting Christ his name is blotted out. So that in eternity at the last judgement the book of life has the names of believers only.

4. The believer in Christ is never involved in the last judgement — Romans 8:1.

5. The unbeliever has two appointments with God. The first is with the sovereignty of God which decides when the unbeliever will die — physical death. The second appointment is judgement — “It is appointed unto man once to die, after that the judgement” — Hebrews 9:27,28.

6. The second appointment of judgement is kept by a second resurrection. God takes all unbelievers and resurrects them at the end of time, at the end of the Millennium, after the Gog revolution — John 5:24–29.

7. The resurrected unbeliever at the last judgement is condemned on the basis of his human good — Revelation 20:12,13. He is judged from the books according to their deeds. The point is a very simple one. At the cross the sins of the old sin nature were poured out upon the cross and judged but the human good from the old sin nature was rejected. So God has an attitude toward all manifestations of the old sin nature. The sins: judged; human good: rejected. For those who reject Christ as Savior they have their human good written in a book according to their deeds. At the last judgement their sins are not mentioned — law of double jeopardy, you can’t be judged twice for an offense, therefore no sins will be mentioned at the last judgement — it is good deeds that will be mentioned. They will be the basis for the indictment. Those who stand there have rejected Christ as Savior, therefore they are under indictment. Having rejected Christ as Savior they have rejected the cross. But there sins were judged at the cross too. What was rejected at the cross was human good and therefore their human good was accumulated in a book and it is brought up before them to demonstrate that when their human good is all added up it amounts to -R, and -R cannot have fellowship with +R. If God accepts one -R into heaven He has compromised His character and their is salvation for no one. Since the unbelievers stand there at the last judgement minus imputed righteousness they have only their own. Their own righteousness is trotted out, brought up before them, they are cast into the lake of fire, and God’s righteousness is not compromised.

8. The eternal status of the unbeliever.

a. First of all, it is the lake of fire — Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:14,15.

b. A second description of the unbeliever in eternity is the second death — Revelation 20:14.

c. A third is “dying in your sins” — John 8:21,24.

Translation of verse 17 so far — “For you know that afterwards, even when he kept desiring to inherit blessing, he was rejected.”

Then we have “for,” the explanatory use of the epexegetical gar; “he found not” — aorist active indicative of heuriskô (εὑρίσκω) [pronounced hyoo-RIHS-koh] plus the negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] — “for he found not.” The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The unbeliever by constantly rejecting Christ as Savior builds up an accumulation of scar tissue of the soul until he passes the point of no return which is strong delusion. The active voice: Esau is the unbeliever who produced the action of the verb. It is Esau who constantly rejected Christ as Savior and accumulated the scar tissue. Therefore he could not enter into the heritage of Israel which is regeneration. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality of the fact that Esau was an unbeliever and as unbeliever he is also the perfect illustration of selling out his right of primogeniture for one meal, the perfect illustration of the unbeliever in his reversionism.

“a place” — the accusative singular direct object of topos (τόπος) [pronounced TOP-oss] means here opportunity. Topos (τόπος) [pronounced TOP-oss] does mean “place” in Koine Greek but in Classical Greek it means “opportunity.”

“of repentance” — a genitive singular of time from metánoia (μετάνοια) [pronounced met-AHN-oy-ah] and it means change of mind, a complete reversal of decision.

“For He Did Not Find an Opportunity for Repentance”

1. Perpetuation of negative volition toward the gospel pushes the unbeliever into strong delusion.

2. Strong delusion means passing the point of no return.

3. It is the unbeliever involved in the blackout of the soul and scar tissue of the soul who passes the point of no return. Esau was such an unbeliever but he also did something in his life which illustrates that. He sold his birthright for one meal.

4. Like Esau eating one meal the unsaved Jew of AD 67, by eating one meal of Judaism, could not find a place where he could change his mind about Christ.

5. Repentance (metánoia (μετάνοια) [pronounced met-AHN-oy-ah]) is the condition which immediately precedes or is coterminous with faith in Christ. “Believe” is the decision side of salvation, but on the other side we have what leads up to believing — information about Christ, called the gospel. Information causes the individual to change his mind or to repent. So he changes his mind about Christ resulting in believing in Christ, so the two are coterminous.

The next word is “though” — the conjunction kaiper (καίπερ) [pronounced KAH-ee-per], which literally means “although”; “he sought” — ekzêteô (ἐκζητέω) [pronounced ek-zay-TEH-oh] means to search for something with great sincerity. Zêteô (ζητέω) [pronounced zay-TEH-oh], means to search; ekzêteô (ἐκζητέω) [pronounced ek-zay-TEH-oh] means to search out and to be very sincere about it all. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, viewing the action of the verb in its entirety. He passed the point of no return but sincerely sought salvation. The active voice: the reversionistic unbeliever, Esau, produced this action historically, and it becomes an illustration for a circumstantial participle. The circumstantial participle is in the aorist tense which has antecedent action to the main verb. The main verb: “he was rejected.”

“it” — the accusative singular direct object of the intensive pronoun autos. “It” refers to salvation.

“with tears” — the preposition meta plus the genitive of dakru/dakruon (δάκρυ/δάκρυον) [pronounced DAHK-roo,DAHK-roo-on], and it is correctly translated “with tears” here.

Hebrews 12:17 For you know that afterwards, when he kept desiring to inherit the blessing, he was rejected: for he did not find an opportunity for repentance, though having sought the same blessing with tears.

1972 Hebrews 12:16–17 Lesson #224

224 10/13/1974 Hebrews 12:16–17 Doctrine of weeping (review)

Few realized that the birth of the twins Isaac and Jacob would be the basis for so much doctrine. Abraham was the beginning of the Jewish race. He had a brother who was not a Jews. Then Ishmael, the eldest son. But he was not born a Jew. His younger half-brother Isaac was born a Jew.

Esau is the pattern for the reversionistic unbeliever. Bob gives the example of a person born with establishment ideas. The person hears this at first and rejects it. However, after hearing the gospel, he rejects the gospel. After rejecting the gospel, he accepts the false teaching of the JW’s.

Anthropopathism from Esau and Jacob; Jacob I have loved, but Esau I hated. Eldest son was the leader of the family; he was the priest for the family; and he was given a double portion when it comes his inheritance. Esau should have known to value his position as the firstborn, but he did not. His norms and standards were related to pleasure.

In exchange for one meal or one act of eating, Esau sold his birthright. He cared little for his position in the family and all that was given him.

God character cannot be bent or changed.

Heb 12:16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.

Heb 12:17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

Esau was sincere; he wanted this.

The Doctrine of Weeping

1. Weeping is the emission of liquid from the tear ducts of the eyes. It is used to express many things of the soul. It is used, for example, to express sorrow, lamentation, emotional stimulation, happiness, frustration, pain. In the Bible weeping is found as the expression of all of these things. This can be an expression of strength or weakness, nobility or crassness. Sincerity is not a Christian virtue and it is indicative of weakness, which describes Esau.

2. Weeping as an expression of reversionism is what we have in this passage, and therefore it is also found elsewhere. Recall when the children of Israel were afraid to go into the land that they wept all night — Numbers 14:1,2. Weeping is always an expression of reversionism where the soul is involved in such activity. After Moses chewed them out, they decided to attack, even though Moses said, “Don’t.”

3. Weeping is also an expression against reversionism. The apostle Paul wept because of reversionism — Philippians 3:18,19.

4. Weeping because of the practice of reverse process reversionism, the eighth stage of reversionism — a believer in James 5:1; the unbeliever, Esau — Hebrews 12:17.

a. This is a negative when a pastor weeps from the pulpit. He reveals his own reversionism.

b. Do not envy a reversionist who is prospered. God may be doing this to take it away from him as a part of divine discipline.

5. The weeping of regret —

a. 2Samuel 14:23,24,28. Absalom was just like David and in many ways; and he was his favorite son. He was much more like David than Solomon. David failed to forgive as Christ forgave. He failed to follow the principles of grace and he refused to see Absalom face to face. David was wrong in all of this; and he regretted his interactions with Absalom.

b. Colossians 3:13. Forgiving is divided into two parts, restoring and an accompanying mental attitude. A half forgiveness equals no forgiveness. 2Samuel 19:1–4 — the king failed because there was not enough forgiveness in his soul to forgive the one son he loved more than all the others. David had regrets.

c. A half-forgiveness is not enough. Absalom eventually led a revolt against his father, the great Absalom rebellion. Joab would not allow David to go into battle. Absalom was killed in battle, although David gave orders not to.

d. The soldiers who won this battle hear that David is sad about this victory and this victorious army had to quietly return to the city. Again, David was wrong.

e. The beauty of Auld Lang Syn. God has designed our lives on the basis of grace. There should be no regrets. This is a failure to operate apart from grace.

6. The weeping of disaster — 1Samuel 30:4; Psalm 42. This is a helpless weeping. It expresses the total helplessness of the soul to cope with a disaster, to understand it, to meet it with great courage. Weeping in this case is a negative expression, an expression of the failure of the soul to utilize resident doctrine.

7. The weeping of reversion recovery — Psalm 30:5, 11. “His anger is but for a moment, resulting in a lifetime of grace benefit.” Reversion recovery inevitably means moving to the high ground of supergrace. “Weeping may last for the night, but celebration type happiness comes in the morning.”

8. The weeping of sour grapes — Ezra 3:12,13. This was the scene of the building of the second temple. Old men who had seen the first temple wept with loud voices because it wasn’t as good as the “good old times.” This was weakness type weeping which was drowned out by the shouting of those who had doctrine in their souls.

9. The weeping of drunks in national disaster — Joel 1:5,6 (Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation has come up against my land, powerful and beyond number; its teeth are lions' teeth, and it has the fangs of a lioness.).

a. A great amount of drinking in coconut grove when Bob was at the end of his high school. There was a night where many of the gals there got skunk drunk, crying drunk. Bob would come home at 5 or 6, which was not unusual. Bob’s father was there having his scotch and egg. He recommended to Bob not to spend his time with females who are drunks. He had to drive them all home.

b. “Get up drunk and drink your last before you go into slavery after military defeat.”

10. The weeping of patriots in national disaster — Isaiah 22:3,4;

a. Jeremiah 9:1 (Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!); Jeremiah wept over great patriots who made up the army who were not properly trained.

b. Lamentations 1:16. He wept for those who went into slavery.

11. The weeping of bitterness. Weeping can express nobility of soul; weeping can express sinfulness of soul. Bitterness is a mental attitude sin — 1Samuel 1:10. Remember that weeping expresses what is in the soul. It expresses the principle of the emotional revolt and sometimes it expresses the principle of great doctrine residing in the soul.

12. Weeping of grief and sorrow — John 11:33. Here is the weeping because of a loved one departing from this life. This expresses capacity for love.

13. The weeping of judgement. It is the weeping of great soul pain, the weeping of physical pain, the worst weeping the world has ever known, and it belongs to those who have rejected Jesus Christ as Savior. It is something they will do for all eternity. A weeping and gnashing of teeth. Matthew 25:30; Luke 13:28.

14. The weeping of our Lord Jesus Christ stands unique. Since Jesus Christ was perfect in His humanity, and obviously perfect in His deity, any type of weeping that He did is not only right but highly commendable. There are three occasions where our Lord is recorded as having wept. He wept at the tomb of Lazarus. This is the weeping of bereavement — John 11:35. He wept for many reason. He wept because He had great capacity for love, and Lazarus was a true friend. Luke 19:41 — the weeping of patriotism. He saw the prophetic reality of the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The third time that our Lord wept was at the cross — Hebrews 5:7, the weeping of maximum sacrifice providing for our so great salvation.

a. The weeping of patriotism, the generals who wept at Appomattox.

15. The cessation of weeping. Weeping expresses many kinds of sorrow, pain, and nobility of soul. But there comes a time when weeping will be terminated — Isaiah 30:18–20, a Millennial prophecy; Revelation 21:4 — the cessation of weeping in eternity. Notice the causes for weeping: death, sorrow, bereavement, pain. Everything that could produce weeping is removed in eternity. All the weeping that we can do must be done in time, because we will not do this in eternity.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #225

225 10/13/1974 Hebrews 12:17b-18 Doctrine of weeping (cont.) First 10 points covered last lesson; last 5 points covered here (I kept them with the previous lesson).

Heb 12:17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.

In verses 18–29 we have one of the more difficult paragraphs to interpret in the Bible. Interpretation means everything in the scripture. If you don’t interpret then you don’t apply. If you don’t apply then you don’t bring it down to the level of utilization. So it becomes imperative that the interpretation be correct.

There are several problems in the interpretation of this paragraph. The first of these has to do with the exegesis. This is almost straight Classical Greek which is entirely different language from the Koine Greek of the New Testament. In addition to that we have seen from Esau how God used him to shock the Jews in AD 67, to shock them to the place where they would be ready to accept Christ as Savior and therefore survive the terrible disaster of 70 AD. All of these things put together are very simple. It is easy to see that Esau was a Gentile and his brother was a Jew. It is easy to see the evangelistic thrust in talking about Esau in verses 16,17. But when we get down to the two mountains this becomes a very tangled up and very difficult passage.

The problem is this. This is a challenge to Jews, to unsaved Jews living in AD 67. It is a challenge to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and it is also a challenge to those who are believers but in reversionism. Jerusalem where the Church had started was now the most apostate, legalistic place for believers of the ancient world. As a result the appeal of the writer is absolutely a stroke of genius under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Not only is it a stroke of genius but it is an expression of genius. Whoever the writer of this paragraph was he was a genius, and the problem is to understand a genius.

People of genius in the nuclear field can speak and Bob could not understand them; it is Greek to him.

Bob stopped on channel 8 for a marvelous ballerina and the person who did this was a genius in music and choreography. Bob does not know about the male dancers; he does not trust them ever. Genius that he is able to tell the story without any dialogue was genius. The dances steps are difficult, but the story can be understood.

There are two mountains in this passage. One is Mount Sinai. That represents religion and legalism. Mount Zion is the place of supergrace and blessing. And this passage says you can go one of two ways. For example, saving grace has been emphasized with Esau. That is the first stage of grace. Next is living grace which represents everything that God does to keep us in the devil’s world. Then we have supergrace, paragraph SG2, and the last part of paragraph SG2 is dying grace, the high golden bridge between time and eternity. We go over this bridge to our paragraph SG3, the surpassing grace. The challenge is to stay on this road to glory, and the danger is to neglect doctrine and take the road of reversionism where you have warning discipline, intensive discipline, and dying discipline. You have a choice, and Mount Sinai, in effect, is reversionism, and Mount Zion represents the road to glory. That is the utmost simplicity of this passage. So why go into the details of this? Because like everything else in the scripture the details are designed by God the Holy Spirit to give confidence to members of the royal family of God, to give confidence, spiritual strength and nobility of soul and everything that is wonderful. So we are now ready to tackle the challenge to reversionism in verses 18–29.

Heb 12:18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest

Verse 18 — “For” is a continuative as well as the explanatory use of the particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] that pulls together the thought pattern in any part of scripture.

“you are not come” — the perfect active indicative of proserchomai (προσέρχομαι) [pronounced pros-ER-khom-ahee], which with the negative means “you have not gone to.” This is addressed to believers, believers who have not gone to Mount Sinai. The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect which is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. The intensive perfect is a completed action with results that are perpetuated from that completed action. The dramatic perfect merely is a rhetorical use of it, In other words, the emphasis is on the result. When you accepted Jesus Christ as Savior you did not go to Mount Sinai. In other words, you didn’t go to the ten commandments for salvation. You learned the story of Galatians 2:16. You did not go to Mount Sinai but you did go to the cross with the result that you are eternally saved. The active voice: reversionistic Jews who are believers in Jesus Christ, living in Jerusalem in AD 67, did not go to the Mosaic law for their salvation. The whole point is: You Jews, if you did not go to Mount Sinai for your salvation where the ten commandments were given but went to Mount Zion (representing grace), why, now that you are saved, are you doubling back to Mount Sinai? Why have you become legalistic reversionists? This is the challenge that comes from the dramatic perfect. The indicative mood plus the negative means historic reality in their salvation through faith in Christ rather than in keeping the Mosaic law. The implication of this entire verse is that these Jewish believers have now reverted. They went to Mount Zion, representing grace, for salvation but they haven’t stayed in the grace pattern, they have gone back to legalism, to mount Sinai, in order to live their life as believers.

“the mountain” — the dative singular for the word “mountain,” oros (ὄρος, ους, τό) [pronounced OH-ross], representing Mount Sinai. This dative is not actually found here, it is found later on in the passage. However, it is included because it is implied.

Mount Sinai Versus Mount Zion

1. This is the beginning of the two-mountain dissertation. From this dissertation comes a challenge to Jews who are about to die the sin unto death. Within three years they will be faced with the sin unto death unless they repent and move out of their reversionism.

2. The two mountains in the analogy are Sinai representing the principle of works, legalism — salvation by works, spirituality by works, reversionism by works — and Zion representing the principle of grace, the road to glory.

3. The first Mountain, Sinai, is going to be given in verses 18–21.

4. While these reversionistic believers were not saved by keeping the Mosaic law they have reverted to the law in order to impress God. This is their background. This is the background from which they came, and having been saved and having rejected doctrine it is inevitable that they go back to their heritage — their academic training, their life in which they were reared in Judaism, under the Mosaic law. This is their entire background and therefore if they reject doctrine there is only one way they can go — revert to their background. In other words, if you reject Bible doctrine after salvation you revert to something that is familiar to you, something in your human frame of reference. These Jews went back to the Mosaic law, this was their human frame of reference. Neither Esau nor the rich young ruler were saved by their works. Yet, the Jewish believers go back to there.

5. You cannot go to the mountain (Mount Sinai) and find salvation, nor can you go to Mount Sinai and find spirituality.

6. These Jewish believers began in grace but reverted to legalism and the two mountains are the analogy to challenge them just as Esau challenges the unbeliever reversionism. There is unbeliever reversionism in Jerusalem, the challenge is Esau. Now we go to the mountains for challenging the believer; they are challenged to be consistent. The first principle is obvious: we are saved by grace, we must live by grace. But to live by grace you must be taught grace, and to be taught grace it is contrary to your background, it is contrary to your energy, to your human abilities, and to all of the false teaching that is so prominent today.

“that might be touched” — the mountain is going to be described in very strange and unusual terms. First of all, the mountain is called the mountain that might be touched, the present passive participle of yshlafaw which means to feel about you for something, to grope, to touch. The word also means something that is in the dark to you but something that is tangible. You are blind when you reject doctrine as a believer and your blindness causes you to grope across a dark room to your frame of reference. It is a picture of a person with no confidence, a picture of a person who is staggering around and stumbling over things. It is a picture, then, of something tangible but something that is now darkness. “For you have not gone to a touching and burning fire” is what the actual Greek says. The present tense of “touching” is the aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. The passive voice: Mount Sinai is the subject and receives the action of the verb. That is, Mount Sinai is touchable but when you come to Mount Sinai after you are saved you are going to it in darkness. The Jewish believer who is in reversionism comes to Mount Sinai, he touches Mount Sinai, but he does so in darkness. Darkness portrays reversionism. The participle is ascriptive. In other words, the participle is used as an adjective and it modifies the fire — “but you have not gone to a touching and a burning fire.” The phrase emphasizes that salvation was not by works, and you understood that, you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that you have believed in Christ you are groping around in the dark, you are reaching out to touch Mount Sinai, you have gone back to keeping the law.

“and that burned” — the perfect passive participle of kaíō (καίω) [pronounced KAH-yoh], another ascriptive participle and used as an adjective. This participle is a consummating perfect, it is a tense of completed action but it emphasizes the process. The process is stumbling and groping in the dark, it means that you can’t see where you are going but you are going to something that really exists. God didn’t save you and leave you on this earth so that you could grope around and stumble around in darkness. He left you for great confidence, He left light, and the light in your soul is the basis for confidence, for blessing. All of these things are related to Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

Notice that this is a description of Mount Sinai, it is called “a touching and a burning mountain.” In Exodus 19:18 we are told that this is Mount Sinai. Cf. Deuteronomy 5:23.

The phrase “with fire” is a dative singular used here as the indirect object. The word itself is pur.

“nor darkness” — gnóphos (γνόφος) [pronounced GNOHF-oss] which is extreme darkness, a darkness where you can’t find your way; “nor unto blackness” — zophos (ζόφος) [pronounced DZOHL-oss] means gloomy darkness, the kind of darkness that you get hurt in. So he is describing the reversionism of these saved Jews. They are in darkness because they have rejected Bible doctrine. They are minus doctrine, they are minus the balance of residency in the soul; “and tempest” — the word means a whirlwind. This is another dative, thuella (θύελλα) [pronounced THOO-ehl-lah].

In their legalism these Jews are walking around in darkness, but it is a darkness which is zophos (ζόφος) [pronounced DZOHL-oss], it hurts. They are stumbling over things, they are bumping into walls, and they are getting hurt by discipline. Then, it is also a storm, a whirling storm, they are off balance completely and totally. Cf. Exodus 19:16; 20:18. The writer of Hebrews is telling the Jews that they were approaching something that their ancestors had sense enough to fear.

Hebrews 12:18 For you have not gone to the handling and burning fire of Mount Sinai, nor to the darkness, even gloomy darkness, and the storm.

So this passage is connected legalism and with the giving of the law. It is connected here with legalism — Deuteronomy 5:22–23 (“These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly at the mountain out of the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and he added no more. And he wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me. And as soon as you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, all the heads of your tribes, and your elders.). This verse represents the background for the giving of the ten commandments and, in effect, the entire Mosaic law. The writer is saying to the Jews of AD 67 that they did not go to the law or the ten commandments for salvation, but in effect they have now reverted to the law. He is warning them that even their ancestors were smarter than them, they didn’t go near that mountain.

1972 Hebrews 12:18–21 Lesson #226

226 10/14/1974 Hebrews 12:18–21 Jews' attitude toward Mount Sinai

We might live the same amount of time, whether positive or negative towards Bible doctrine; but God’s love towards us is expressed in different ways...discipline or blessing.

You can learn from Bob as our pastor, from discipline and then in heaven.

Everything which keeps us alive in the devil’s world is living grace. We follow the colors to the high ground, then the high golden something, and then SG3.

Not as rosy a picture if you are in reversionism. Discipline becomes intensively stronger; going to dying discipline. This is the most painful of life.

The passage we are studying is classical Greek and it almost defies any good translation.

Heb 12:18 For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest

All of these words have a good explanation. Bob is very well-oriented at night and he can walk all over his house in complete darkness without problem or difficulty. Bob took a course in night fighting. The Japs fought dirty, they fought at night, and under any conditions; but the British were fighting according to some sort of rules. Bob took a course in this and he learned to get up and squeeze his eyes together. Sometimes Balderdash moves a chair. He might fall, and he has a mouthful of dirt. When you go to Mount Zion you get hurt in the dark.

The 3 words here represent the 3 stages of discipline. The last word, the whirlwind, takes you out. Darkness, gloomy darkness, whirlwind.

Hebrews 12:18 For you have not gone to the handling and burning fire of Mount Sinai, nor to the darkness, even gloomy darkness, and the [whirlwind] storm.

Verse 18 deals with the subject of being consistent. It is imperative that we have consistency. Consistency means you are saved by grace and you live by grace. You are not supposed to be saved by grace and then live by legalism. Romans 3:20–28 is a great summary of what this verse is saying:

“Because by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified in His sight; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.”

The law can teach me that I am a sinner but the law can’t save me as a sinner. The law can show me that I am wrong but the law can’t make me right. It takes something greater than the law to save me. In fact the law wasn’t designed to save, the law was designed to show me that I am a sinner and need a Savior.

“But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets [= the Old Testament Scriptures], even the righteousness belonging to God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction.”

“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom the God has predetermined the place of propitiation [the cross] through faith by means of his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness because of the passing over of the previously committed sins by the clemency of the God.”

In other words, during Old Testament times people were saved by believing in Christ and their sins were passed over until they could be judged at the cross.

“Therefore where is boasting? It has been shut down. Through what law? Of works? No, by no means, but through the law of faith.’

For we conclude that mankind receives justification by means of faith apart from the works of the law.

There was a blast of the Trumpet, that must have traveled for miles. They saw the mountain in flames and smoking, but the trumpet blast is what woke them up. “You ancestors who wandered around for 40 years, they were not even afraid of God, but they were afraid of Mount Sinai. They were too scared to go near the mountain. But here you are, many generations, and you run to Mount Sinai and they are trying to be spiritual by keeping the Law. That is your natural background, but that has nothing to do with your spiritual advance.

Heb 12:19 and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them.

Verse 19 — the description of Mount Sinai continues. We have the dative singular indirect object of ēchos (χος) [pronounced AY-khos] plus the descriptive genitive singular from the noun salpivx (σάλπιγξ) [pronounced SAL-pinx] — “blast of a trumpet” — plus the adjunctive use of kai, meaning “also.” “Also the blast of a trumpet.” The trumpet blast is recorded in Exodus 19:12, 16. It was used to get the congregation’s attention, and it did.

“and the voice of words” — referring to Exodus 19:19, is “and the sound of words.”

“which” — genitive singular from the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] which refers back to hrma (ῥμα, ατος, τό) [pronounced HRAY-mah] or “words.”

“they that heard entreated” — the words that they heard were the words of the Mosaic law, and they were frightened when they heard the words. “They that heard” is the aorist active participle of akoúô (ἀκούω) [pronounced ah-KOO-oh]. The aorist tense is a constative aorist gathering into one entirety the action of the verb. They all heard it — Deuteronomy 5:25. The words of the Lord were so strong that they didn’t know which way they were going to die for all of their failures. The people of Israel heard the voice of God as well as the blast of the trumpet, says this aorist active participle. The temporal participle can be translated “which words when they heard them.”

“they entreated” — the aorist middle indicative of paraitéomai (παραιτέομαι) [pronounced par-ahee-TEH-ohm-ahee] which means to beg. “Entreated” is the main verb. The aorist participle has action which precedes the action of the main verb. They begged God the let them out of there. They were scared and wanted to put miles between themselves and that mountain. That was in BC 1441 and now it is AD 67. So 1500 years later their progeny are not afraid of that mountain at all. In fact, they are hanging around that mountain as if it was spirituality. The active voice: the people of Israel heard the voice. The middle voice is a deponent verb, middle in form but active in meaning, and the Jews produced the action. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality.

Now comes an accusative of general reference. The noun in the accusative case is logos (λόγος, ου, ὁ) [pronounced LOHG-oss] and it is the subject of the infinitive. And we have the aorist passive infinitive of prostithêmi (προστίθημι) [pronounced pros-TITH-ay-mee]. The word is a combination which means that no words should be added to them. We have a negative here. We have an intensive pronoun, the indirect object in the genitive autos. This is a very unusual and strong phrase and what they are saying is, “No more, if God gives just one more commandment I’ll die of just shock.” They begged that not one more word would be added to them.

God set boundaries around the mountain, to keep the people out of it or away from it. Moses drew a line and said, don’t cross over this line to touch the mountain. The people were just scared to death.

The fifth century Greeks were much different from the Jews of the desert-wilderness.

Hebrews 12:19 Also the blast of a trumpet, and the sound of words; which when they heard them they begged that no word should be added to them.

Heb 12:20 For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.”

Verse 20 — we start out with the explanatory use of the epexegtical particle gar, “For.” (Epexegetical means an additional explanation). There are more and more explanations. The Jews in the Exodus generation were afraid of Mount Sinai; but the Jews during a.d. 67 were not afraid of Sinai; they wanted that mountain.

“they could not endure” — the imperfect active indicative of phérô (φέρω) [pronounced FEH-row] plus the strong objective negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. The imperfect tense is a progressive imperfect of description. It denotes continuous action in past time and the process is vividly represented as progress in past time. The active voice: the Jews who were standing before Mount Sinai produced the action, and they kept on producing it, says the imperfect tense. They were not only frightened when they were awakened by the blast of the trumpet but they were frightened when it was dark outside. Then they were frightened when they saw the fire in the sky, and again when they heard the words of the Lord. And they were frightened when Moses drew boundaries around the mountain, so everything has frightened them. We are to understand that they could hardly stand it any more, they had been frightened so many times. The active voice: the Jews who were standing there produced the action which was continual fear. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of their reaction to what was going on.

“that which was commanded” — the present passive participle of diastéllomai (διαστέλλομαι) [pronounced dee-as-TEHL-lohm-ahee]. The word means command, a command that must be obeyed. The static present represents a condition which is assumed to perpetually exist. In other words, the ten commandments and everything else that was given is here to stay. The passive voice: the ten commandments receive the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. So we translate it, “For they could not keep on bearing what was commanded.”

Now we have a quotation from Exodus 19:13 — “And if” is made up of kai and a)eon — kan. This is a conditional particle which goes with a conditional clause — “Even if.”

“so much as” — not found in the original; “a beast” — qhrion is an animal; “should touch” is the aorist active subjunctive of thingánō (θιγγάνω) [pronounced thing-GAHN-oh], and the aorist tense is ingressive, “should begin to touch.” The active voice: the animal produces the action. The subjunctive mood is potential. It is part of the third class condition; “the mountain” is the objective genitive of oros (ὄρος, ους, τό) [pronounced OH-ross], referring to Mount Sinai; “it shall be stoned” — future passive indicative lithoboléō (λιθοβολέω) [pronounced lihth-ohb-ohl-EH-oh]. The future tense is an imperative future, this is a command. The passive voice: the animal by merely touching the mountain is to receive death. The indicative mood is declarative which goes with the future tense as a command. “It will be stoned” is the way it is translated; “or thrust through with a dart” is not found in the original manuscript.

Hebrews 12:20 For they could not keep on bearing what was commanded, Even if an animal should touch the mountain, it will be stoned.

Bob talks about long hair for a bit.

Summary

1. The standards of God are perfect. We are related directly to God; His standards are perfect. They reflect His divine essence.

2. The presentation of the ten commandments is in view in this passage. The ten commandments represent a perfect standard of establishment. They demand freedom, privacy, the right to own property, free enterprise, respect for the property and rights of others, and they demand it in a perfect way.

3. The ten commandments were more than the Exodus generation could bear. The word for “bear” is phérô (φέρω) [pronounced FEH-row] which means to bear or to carry. Illustrated by trying to lift weights. The Exodus generation knew that they could not do this, but the a.d. 67 generation believed that they were able to lift up these commandments.

4. By the time the tenth commandment had been given the Jews were so totally indicted by the function of their old sin natures that they were totally discouraged. Therefore they could not bear to hear any more at that time.

5. So much, then, for the first sentence in this verse: “they could not keep on bearing what was commanded.” In the second sentence we have a further reason for avoiding Mount Sinai.

6. The further reason: Animals represented money or wealth in an agricultural economy in the ancient world.

7. If any animal or any type of cattle came near the mountain he died by stoning.

8. So terrible was the condemnation by the law that the Jew could not bear it and he was constantly afraid that his animals would be killed. He was afraid of losing his wealth, wealth that he had brought out of Egypt. The interesting thing is that their progeny living in AD 67 were trying to keep their wealth by living on Mount Sinai. In effect, one generation tried to save its wealth by getting away from the mountain and then this generation tried to save its wealth by getting on the mountain. If you lived in Judah and you made any type of talk about separation from Judaism you were going to be dispossessed.

This man who wrote Hebrews has a keen sense of humor with a classical Greek education, and if he is Jewish, he laughs at himself and to laugh at the Jews trying to keep their animals away from the mountain.

So according to Exodus 19:12, 13 even touching the mountain meant loss of life and execution. And of the Jews of 1441 BC were afraid to approach the mountain why shouldn’t the Jews of AD 67 be even more fearful? Mount Sinai and all it connotes is never a substitute for grace. Mount Sinai condemns; Mount Zion delivers from that condemnation. They have just gone to the wrong mountain.

Heb 12:21 Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.”

Verse 21 — we start out with the adjunctive use of kai, “Also”; “so terrible” — terrible in the sense of fearful, phoberos (φοβερός) [pronounced fob-er-OSS] means “fearful.”

“was its sight” — the word “sight” is a present passive participle from the verb phantázō (φαντάζω) [pronounced fan-TAHD-zoe]. It is used as a noun or a substantive and therefore it means “appearance.” We have a definite article used as a possessive pronoun and it should be translated “its appearance.”

“that Moses said” — the aorist active indicative of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] is a quotation of what Moses said in Deuteronomy 9:19. This is another detail not recorded in the Old Testament. Moses spoke in Deuteronomy 9:19 but something was added that was not said at that time.

“I exceedingly fear” is wrong. It is “I am ékphobos (ἔκφοβος) [pronounced EHK-fob-oss].” This is the present active indicative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], “I keep on being (ékphobos (ἔκφοβος) [pronounced EHK-fob-oss]) terrified.”

“and I shake” — this is a double predicate nominative éntromos (ἔντρομος) [pronounced EHN-trom-oss], “I tremble.”

Hebrews 12:21 Also so terrible was the (Mount Sinai’s) appearance that Moses said, I am terrified and trembling.

Mount Sinai perfectly emphasizes the fear produced by condemnation. The Jews in the 1441 BC generation understood the impact of Mount Sinai. The Jews of AD 67 had rejected grace blessing. They were saved, they came to the cross for salvation, they had rejected grace blessing; now they are climbing Mount Sinai. The reversionistic believer has gone up the wrong mountain. He is in the mountain of religion, the mountain of legalism, he is therefore avoiding blessing. The reversionistic Jewish believers of AD 67 have moved in where angels feared to tread, where their forefathers feared to tread. The first illustration of this section, Esau, was a challenge to the unbelievers, and that was a shock to be compared to Esau. but this is a greater shock, the believing Jews are compared to their forefathers. Their forefathers were afraid to go up that mountain and here they were walking all over it.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #227

227 10/15/1974 Hebrews 12:22–23a Doctrine of the Church

The a.d. 67 Jews were not afraid of Mount Sinai; they were perched upon it. They did not understand how Moses feared Mount Sinai.

The Jews were to pursue Mount Zion, but they kept going back to Mount Sinai.

Heb 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,

Verses 22–24 — the mountain of grace blessing.

Verse 22 — we have the adversative conjunction allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH] which sets up a strong contrast between Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. It says that they are as different as two mountains could be. The principle is quite obvious: the contrast between grace and legalism. One is the place of legalism and one is the place of blessing. When we are left in this life after salvation we are left to climb Mount Zion which is the supergrace principle. We are left here for blessing, that is the purpose of keeping us here. But if instead we go over to Mount Sinai it is cursing or divine discipline. The same contrast of these two mountains is found in Galatians 4:19-31. There it is the problem of grace versus legalism, just as here.

After this conjunction there are seven datives of indirect object. They go with the verb proserchomai (προσέρχομαι) [pronounced pros-ER-khom-ahee], “ye are come” is literally, “you have come.” The perfect tense is the intensive perfect for past completed action [they had already been saved] and the existing results — they are alive. The active voice: the Jewish believers of AD 67 produced the action of the verb by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. The issue is not evangelism here but their attitude toward doctrine. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality of their salvation. They came to Mount Zion for salvation, they should stay on Mount Zion for grace blessing.

“to mount Sion” — an indeclinable proper noun. The word “mountain” is oros (ὄρος, ους, τό) [pronounced OH-ross] and it is a dative of indirect object, the first of seven.

What Is Mount Zion?

1. The literal Mount Zion is a rock escarpment on the western side of Jerusalem. An escarpment on the eastern side and western side; and this is the western.

2. Mount Zion is famous because on this mountain was built a fort called Fort Jebus, the most impregnable fortification in the ancient world. It stood up to 500 years of siege. 2Samuel 5 David captures it.

3. Zion became associated with grace blessing, the story of Psalm 30. This is a grace monument to David’s life and God’s grace.

4. It depicts therefore at this stage all of God’s grace planning for us. That is why the writer says you have already gone to Mount Zion. Mount Zion represents grace. They were saved by grace and were under living grace at the time of 67 AD, even though they were climbing Mount Sinai.

5. While those originally addressed in this epistle were Jews, many of them living on the sides of that same hill, this is actually addressed to all the family of God. It is addressed to us.

6. Therefore Zion is defined in terms of the royal family, in terms of the heavenly home which we possess right now. It represents the heavenly home of the royal family. We have this great mansion in heaven waiting for us.

Bob would have a walled driveway, surrounded by walls. He’d have a trophy room, a gun room; and far away are the guest rooms; and a quadrangle 100 yards long by 100 yard; and loopholes to keep the Apaches out. Lawn would not get done.

We have seven datives of advantage in this passage, Mount Zion is the first. It is to our advantage to have a home. We all have a permanent home in heaven. The second dative of indirect object will be myriads of angels (elect angels will be our servants). So we have servants. When you have a society where servants want to be rulers, you have a weak society. Servants often live very happy, tranquil lives. Bob would rather be a good servant than a lousy president.

The third will be the Church of the firstborn. God the Father is also going to be one of the datives of indirect object, “the spirits of the justified ones,” “Jesus Christ the mediator,” and the efficacious blood.

“and” — should be “even.” This is the ascensive use of the conjunction kai plus the dative singular indirect object from “city”, polus,polos (πολύς,πολλός) [pronounced poll-OOS]. Polus,polos (πολύς,πολλός) [pronounced poll-OOS] indicates SG3.

“of the living God” — the word “living” is the present active participle of zaô (ζάω) [pronounced DZAH-oh] but the participle is ascriptive. That means the participle is used as an adjective, and that is how it is translated: “living God.” The word for God is a descriptive genitive — “even to the city of the living God.”

“the heavenly Jerusalem” — again the city is identified with paragraph SG3, the ultimate and temporal victory of supergrace is the eternal reward and blessing of surpassing grace. The second dative. We have a permanent home. When you have a permanent home this us used as a sign of security. The only security you have is eternal security. You have a permanent home.

“and to an innumerable company of angels” — again this is dative, the dative plural indirect object of muriás (μυριάς) [pronounced moo-REE-ahs], translated “company.” The dative plural indirect object means not company but ten thousand time ten thousand. That is why it is translated “innumerable.” “Myriads” is a little closer in translation. It means millions and even billions. These are elect angels, they are the recipients of grace, they are in phase three. Our home is already prepared, the servants are already waiting for us. This is a reference to the angelic conflict and the ultimate victory of Jesus Christ. He already has attained the strategic victory, we are left behind for tactical victory. When we go over the high golden bridge of dying grace we will see the total victory for the total victory is in heaven. The angelic conflict started in heaven, its centre is in heaven, it was extended to the earth by God Himself in creating man in order to make us the extension of it and the end of it. So man is the extension of the angelic conflict, he is part of the angelic conflict, and he is the end of the angelic conflict.

Man is a nothing compared to angels and God is going to take a nothing, give him eternal life, give him a resurrection body, give him a castle in heaven, and give him angelic servants. That is the end of the line in the angelic conflict. So the strategic victory of Christ at this stage has intensified the angelic conflict because we live in the royal family age. The Church Age is the royal family age. Since the Lord Jesus Christ has been seated at the right hand of the Father, the dispensation of Israel has been interrupted, the demon target has changed from Christ to members of the royal family on the earth. Since all of these things have occurred we live in a very intense spiritual conflict, the most intense spiritual conflict of history. So while we live in challenging times and great times, and while we are said to have some advantages like plumbing and air conditioning, we also have some intensities that have never existed before and never will exist again.

Even the Tribulation, while a spectacular and horrible time historically, will never be as great in intensity of pressure. The Tribulation will be difficult for the entire population of the world but the pressure today is focused on those who are members of the royal family of God. Therefore each one of use must have in our own battlefield, resident inside of us, our own ammunition — resident doctrine in the soul. That is why since each one of us is fighting his own spiritual battle the doctrine in the Bible is no good to us, neither is the doctrine that someone else has in their soul. When you go to someone else what you are trying to do is to get into someone else’s battlefield. But you have 50,000 fallen angels shooting at you, therefore you get your own ammo. You can’t fight your battles with someone else’s ammo, it doesn’t fit your weapon. Whatever your gun is spitting out it has to be your very own ammo. That is the point. That is why we have Bible class, because the life of each believer is a battleground and each believer in that sense must go it alone. You don’t start leaning on other people. We arm ourselves for our own personal battles. We all have personal battles. Remember, the ammunition is not interchangeable therefore you must be prepared for your won personal conflicts, you must be spiritually self-sustaining.

Hebrews 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion [grace], even to the city of the living God [royal family], the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels.

Heb 12:23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

Verse 23 — “To the general assembly” is a locative singular of sphere from panêguris (πανήγυρις) [pronounced pan-AY-goo-rihs]. The word means a festive convocation, a great party. This is still a part of verse 22 and it should be translated “to the myriads of angels in festive celebration.” Panêguris (πανήγυρις) [pronounced pan-AY-goo-rihs] is an Attic Greek word, it isn’t used in the Koine Greek. Those at this party are celebrating the victory of Jesus Christ. They are also celebrating the fact that they are going to serve us in those castles in heaven. Heroditus and others in ancient Greek use this word. There is a Greek verb cognate which means to celebrate a great party. The angels are having a great 2000 year party since Jesus gave Himself for our salvation. In festive celebration or in holiday celebration.

Now we come to the third dative of indirect object, “and church.” It should be “and to the church” — dative singular indirect object ekklêsía (ἐκκλησὶα) [pronounced ek-klay-SEE-ah].

The Doctrine of the Church

1. The word ekklêsía (ἐκκλησὶα) [pronounced ek-klay-SEE-ah] is used many ways in the ancient world. It was used in three very special ways in the Bible, but before it was used in a biblical sense ekklêsía (ἐκκλησὶα) [pronounced ek-klay-SEE-ah] was used in Classical Greek, it is a Classical Greek word. The Classical Greek word ekklêsía (ἐκκλησὶα) [pronounced ek-klay-SEE-ah] means the assembly of the Athenian citizens to conduct the affairs of state. The Old Testament saints used to assemble and in Acts 7:38 we actually have the Classical Greek ekklêsía (ἐκκλησὶα) [pronounced ek-klay-SEE-ah] talking about the Jews assembling in the wilderness. The assembly of Jews in their synagogue in Matthew 18:17 is not “church” as translated, it is ekklêsía (ἐκκλησὶα) [pronounced ek-klay-SEE-ah] or assembly. Ekklêsía (ἐκκλησὶα) [pronounced ek-klay-SEE-ah] really means assembly. Then in the New Testament, the Koine meaning, it means “church.” Under Hellenistic culture (during the days of Alexander) (when he died, his generals divided up the region he controlled into various states, each of which had a Hellenistic culture) and government the assembly of the government in a city state is called ekklêsía (ἐκκλησὶα) [pronounced ek-klay-SEE-ah], and this use is found in Acts 19:25.

a. So we have four non-technical uses of the word all found in the Bible. The one apart from the Bible is the Athenian assembly. These are non-technical. You have to be careful because occasionally in the Bible you have a non-technical ekklêsía (ἐκκλησὶα) [pronounced ek-klay-SEE-ah] and the translators sometimes translate them “church.” There is a system of theology called “Covenant Theology” that is all mixed up and anti-dispensational. It starts the Church in Abraham’s tent. Some of them start it in the garden, but they start it in Old Testament times. Covenant theology has this great problem and so you get a covenant theologian trying to translate ekklêsía (ἐκκλησὶα) [pronounced ek-klay-SEE-ah] every time as “church.” So he has the church out in the desert in the days of Moses and the church is Greek city states. Obviously those are non-technical. Our interest is found in the technical use of ekklêsía (ἐκκλησὶα) [pronounced ek-klay-SEE-ah] in which there are two meanings. The first is universal and the second is local.

b. First technical use. The universal Church is made up of all believers. Why? Because we are all members of the royal family of God and at the point of salvation God the Holy Spirit entered us into union with Christ. Union with Christ and/or universal Church equals royal family. So we are all in union with Christ. The Church universal refers to all believers. The universal Church is technical and it means all believers, it has nothing to do with the local church or what we call church membership today — Ephesians 1:22,23; 5:25,27; Colossians 1:17,18 are all references to the universal church, not a local church.

c. But the Church on earth must also have a classroom and the classroom is the local church. (There is no such thing, technically speaking, as church membership) In this classroom we have one professor, the pastor-teacher, and he is the final authority. He is not the only authority but he is the final authority and the highest. When he stands up to communicate the Word of God then the whole royal family is in a state of submission to his authority. So you have one person teaching — monologue, no dialogue — and you have the rest of the royal family in that classroom. Basic worship is Bible teaching. One person is teaching and the rest are assembled and learning. The local church is not supposed to be designed for evangelism, but not enough believers witness on their own outside of the church. No such thing as a church filled with elders. Those are a group of arrogant. One group left Berachah, and they said they knew as much about the Bible as Bob did; and came by to tell him that they were leaving. Bob bid them godspeed. The purposes of the administration is to carry out the policies of grace, which are primarily determined by the pastor. The special choir days go back to the Levites. That is a different dispensation.

2. Dispensational orientation is important when dealing with the doctrine of the Church. Dispensational orientation recognizes the fact that the Church is the age of the mystery. The mystery is declared in Romans 16:25,26; Ephesians 3:1–5; Colossians 1:25–27. In these passages we have the mystery concept and it simply means something that was unknown in previous dispensations and something that was unknown in the Old Testament scriptures. The first prophet of the Church was the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and His first prophecy of the Church in any detail was the upper room discourse, followed by the Gethsemane discourse. This means that all of the eschatology in the Old Testament dealt with all of the problems of the fifth cycle of discipline, gave prophecy all of the way to the cross, resurrection of Christ, ascension, and session, because none of these things occurred in the Age of the Church, they all occurred in the dispensation of Israel. So they are prophesied as a part of Israel’s eschatology. Then you have prophecies skipping over the Church Age and starting in with the Tribulation. The Old Testament has a great deal about the Tribulation, a great deal about the second advent, the Millennium, and even some things about the eternal state. There is nothing mentioned about the Church, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of Christ, the universal priesthood of the royal family of God, etc. They are therefore called mystery. Mystery does not mean unknown, it means not known to those on the outside. Mystery refers to the doctrine of an ancient fraternity. They called their doctrines mysteries and you had to be initiated into the fraternity to know anything about those doctrines. Therefore, mystery simply means that Moses and Isaiah and all of the writers of the Old Testament knew nothing about the Church Age, it is not even mentioned once. Mystery means it is peculiar and unique to the royal family.

3. The beginning of the Church Age. The interrupting of the Jewish Age seven years short of its completion because of the calling out of the royal family gives us some clue as to when the Church Age begins. It begins at the point of interruption. No interruption would mean no royal family. The reason for the interruption of the Jewish Age is the fact that Jesus Christ had just completed the strategic victory in the angelic conflict by being seated at the right hand of the Father. All of the Old Testament saints were members of the family of God but there was no royal family to celebrate the seating of Jesus Christ after His resurrection or to commemorate. Our salvation and our dispensation commemorates strategic victory. The baptism of the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Christ at the right hand of the Father. The baptism of the Spirit never occurred until the Day of Pentecost in 30 AD. It is a commemorative act, an act which commemorates the strategic victory. So in effect, you are a museum piece, a commemoration of the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. The only possible way that we could be a commemoration is to be in union with Christ, and to be in union with Christ makes us royal family of God, not merely family of God. For that reason we have a very unique type of situation.

a. So the Age of Israel has to be interrupted. If the Age of Israel had completed its last seven years it means that there would be no royal family to commemorate, and therefore could not be completed. It had to be interrupted and it was interrupted by the activity of the Day of Pentecost — the baptism of the Holy Spirit which occurred for the first time.

b. Matthew 16:18 — “I will build my church,” future tense. The Church is future to the public ministry of Jesus Christ. The key to the beginning of the Church Age and the interruption of the Jewish Age is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The only time the baptism of the Spirit occurs is in the Church Age. It is unique, its purpose is to form the royal family of God in contrast to the family of God.

c. In this dispensation only God the Holy Spirit does five things for each believer at the point of his salvation. Regeneration: family of God; baptism of the Holy Spirit: royal family of God; indwelling of the body of the believer: the sign of royalty. No believer in the past and no believer after the Church Age will be indwelt in his body, that is for the Church Age only; we are sealed: the security of the royal family; we are given spiritual gifts: the function of the royal family that replaces human talents.

d. The Church Age begins when the baptism of the Spirit occurs for the first time — Acts 1:5 was a prophecy of the baptism of the Spirit, so obviously the Church did not begin in the first chapter of Acts. It began in 30 AD. Human voting never accomplishes anything in the plan of God. The guy who “won” should have stood up and said, “This is a farce. You can’t elect me an Apostle; only God the Holy Spirit can do that.” We never hear from Matthias again. The calendar was out of whack back then. Some say a.d. 30, some say 32.

4. The termination of the Church Age. The Church Age is still going on today. The idea that the Rapture could occur at any moment is not based upon what is going on in Palestine, it is based on the doctrine of the imminency of the Rapture. Paul said in his day that the Rapture could have taken place then, and that is true. The imminency means there is no unfulfilled scripture. Peter and Paul both said that the Rapture could have occurred in their day at any moment. Paul was so good at teaching the Rapture to the Thessalonians that they thought it was going to occur. It could occur tonight. The point is that the is no prophecy to be fulfilled. No one knows when the Rapture will occur for the simple reason that only God knows when the royal family is completed.

a. The resurrection or the Rapture of the Church is taught in 1Corinthians 15:51–57; Philippians 3:21; 4:13–18; 1John 3:1,2.

b. By comparing certain texts in the scripture from the original there appears to be a good reason to believe that the number of people in the body of Christ or the number of people in the royal family will be equal to the number of demons operating on the earth. Because of Colossians 2:15; Revelation 19:6–8; Zechariah 13:2 cf. 1Thessalonians 3:13 it seems to be quite obvious that the royal family of God will be equal to the number of demons operating under Satan’s command to day. All fallen angels are not operational today. A great portion of the fallen angels are incarcerated in Tartarus but there are, of course, a great portion of the fallen angels which are functioning today under the title of demons. They are invisible but the time will come when every believer in a resurrection body will knock a demon off of the earth. It would appear that each believer will have his very own demon to throw off of the earth and this certainly would regulate the number of people who are in the royal family of God. Whenever that number is reached the Rapture occurs immediately.

c. The rapture is imminent. It can occur at any time. Many different groups of people have thought many different times when the rapture is about to take place. This is in keeping with the rest of the Church Age. It is in keeping with the privacy of the priesthood. Nosey people belong in the dispensation of Israel.

d. At the time of the termination of the Church Age the bride is prepared in heaven while the Tribulation occurs on the earth, and this preparation includes receiving a resurrection body, the removal of the old sin nature, the destruction of all human good accumulated during the Church Age.

5. Some synonyms of the Church. The relationship between Christ and the Church is mentioned under seven synonyms. Each one of them emphasizes an area of Bible doctrine.

a. The last Adam and the new creation. Jesus Christ is the last Adam and the royal family of God is a new and a unique creation — 1Corinthians 15:45,47; 2Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 6:15. Remember that the Church Age as royal family is absolutely unique.

b. The head and the body. Christ is the head, we are members of the body. This emphasizes our function under spiritual gifts and is taught in Ephesians 1:22,23; 4:4,5; 5:23; Colossians 1:18,24; 2:19, etc.

c. The Shepherd and the sheep, found prophetically in John 10, found doctrinally in Hebrews 13:20 and 1Peter 5:4. We as members of the royal family on this earth are totally helpless, we need every grace provision that God has provided, and God is called the Shepherd in the sense of His provision for the royal family on the earth.

d. The vine and the branches of John 15. This particular analogy is related to the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the uniqueness of the royal family.

e. The chief corner stone and the stones of the building — Ephesians 2:20; 1Peter 2:4–8.

f. The high priest and the royal priesthood. Every believer is a priest — Hebrews 7:25; 10:10–14; 1Peter 2:5,9.

g. The groom and the bride. Jesus Christ is the groom and the royal family is called the bride — 2Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:25–27; Revelation 19:6–8.

6. The uniqueness of the believer in the Church Age. His uniqueness is based upon:

a. The baptism of the Spirit which is a unique function of God the Holy Spirit and the means by which the royal family of God is formed. The uniqueness of the baptism of the Spirit leads to the uniqueness of our royalty. In history royalty comes and royalty goes but our royalty is permanent, it is based upon God’s work and God’s plan and is as permanent as the essence of God.

b. The fact that every member of the royal family of God is his own priest — the universal priesthood of the believer. We represent ourselves before God; this is why we have the privacy of the priesthood. This is why minding one’s own business is extremely important.

c. We are all in full-time Christian service. For women, this might be keeping your home clean and staying out of trouble. For a man, it is your job; you do it as unto the Lord.

d. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit indwells the body. God the Holy Spirit before the Church Age never indwelt any body of any person and the filling of the Spirit in the past was always the soul being controlled by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit left the soul and came and went under a sovereign situation. It is the soul only where the filling of the Spirit resides. The Holy Spirit never leaves the body and that is unique to this age only. You are never commanded to be indwelt, you are commanded to be filled with the Spirit — Ephesians 5:18 — and being filled with the Spirit has to do with the soul. The Holy Spirit only indwells the soul when the believer is in fellowship. No one had the indwelling of the Holy Spirit until the Church Age.

e. The royal family can read. One of the signs of royalty in the ancient world was that royalty could always read. We don’t understand this because we have so many people who can read today, but in the ancient world the only people who could read and write were royalty or the clergy. Therefore in order to conduct any kind of business you had to have a member of the royal family around because he was the only one who could read. This was the way business was often conducted and the whole point is that royalty has its instructions in writing — the Bible. What does that mean? There is no such thing as extra biblical revelation. God speaks through His Word to the royal family, He does not speak to them through voices as He did to Moses and other people. The Bible was not completed until a.d. 96. If you hear voices, then you are psychotic; you are not hearing the voice of God. No dreams, visions or conversations with God.

f. We have a supernatural way of life with a supernatural means of execution. The supernatural way of life is delineated in Church Age doctrine and the supernatural means of execution is the indwelling plus the filling of the Holy Spirit — indwelling the body, filling of the soul.

g. Each one of us has a life of definite purpose because each one of us personally is the ambassador of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is at the right hand of the Father, therefore He is represented on this earth by every believer. Every believer on this earth is an ambassador for Jesus Christ. So no matter how inconsequential your life may seem to you, you are still the ambassador of Jesus Christ and your life, therefore, has great meaning and great purpose.

7. The objective of the Church Age, the objective of each believer. The objective of each believer is to grow up, to stay on the road to glory.

Some people are very good putting together typology.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #228

228 10/16/1974 Hebrews 12:23b Doctrine of the Church (cont.)

Asides from the doctrine of the church:

People are impressed by majority voting. God’s plan does not even call for human confirmation. If you want to see terrible results from majority voting, there is Garfield, one of the worst presidents ever, leading the radical Republicans. Johnson, the president after Lincoln, had sense. He was going to ship Africans back to Africa and continue Lincoln’s policies. Johnson wanted to save the south. He brought Hancock to New Orleans and he issued general order #20 and he turned the government in the south to the people of the south. Republicans hated him and Grant looked to take his place. The carpetbaggers were fired, along with the southerners who went along with this,

Hancock felt the south was maltreated and they needed to be able to have self-determination. Everyone hated him for it. The majority of people voted the worst president and voted down the most brilliant man of that era. He could have been the greatest president in US history.

The early church was wrong. You don’t vote in Apostles. In fact, back then, they did not even vote in pastors. Paul appointed Timothy; and other pastors appointed by the Apostles.

Napoleon took the hat from the Pope in his day, saying, “I earned this, you did not.” People thought Napoleon was the antichrist because of this.

The doctrine of the church is above. The previous lesson covered the first two points. This takes up 47 minutes of this lesson (but is placed with the previous lesson in these notes).

Heb 12:23 ...and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,...

Our third dative in verse 23 — “To the Church of the firstborn.” The word “firstborn” is a descriptive genitive plural prôtotokos (πρωτοτόκος) [pronounced proh-tot-OK-oss]. Prôtotokos (πρωτοτόκος) [pronounced proh-tot-OK-oss] presents the believer of the Church Age in union with Christ. It emphasizes the fact that the moment we believe in Christ we enter into union with Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father. He is eternal life, we share His life; He is the Son of God, we are the children of God; He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, we share His royalty; He is elected, we share His election; He is destined, we share His destiny; He is the high priest, we share His priesthood. So union with Christ is in view here. Christ is said to be the firstborn, He has the right to primogeniture.

Primogeniture means three things: the rulership of the family, the priesthood of the family, and the double portion of the family or all of the family estate. The Lord Jesus Christ has all of these. As the firstborn He is the ruler of the Church, He is the ruler of Israel, He is the future ruler of the world, replacing Satan at the second advent. Jesus Christ is the high priest of the royal priesthood forever. The double portion: Through Jesus Christ there is eternal reward for each member of the royal family, the paragraph SG3. Obtaining that eternal reward has to do with your attitude toward doctrine.

Now the royal family shares in this, we are called “the church of the firstborn.” We share the rulership. Believers are going to rule with Christ in the Millennium, and for some SG3 will have a rulership paragraph. The priesthood: Every believer is a priest so we share His priesthood. The double portion are the special blessings we receive under the principle of paragraph SG2 or supergrace. So “firstborn ones” refer to the royal family. We are not only firstborn ones, we are also first resurrected ones.

“which are written” is literally, “who have been registered.” Royalty has a registry, and the word for “registry” here is not graphô (γράφω) [pronounced GRAWF-oh] which means to write but apographô (ἀπογράφω) [pronounced ap-og-RAF-oh] which means to register. This is a perfect passive participle. The dramatic perfect is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. The intensive perfect is a past action which is completed and the results go on forever. We are registered as royalty forever. The passive voice: the royal family of the Church Age receives the registration. This is a circumstantial participle which includes every believer.

“in heaven” — the registration is in heaven, en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of ouranos (οὐρανός) [pronounced oo-ran-OSS] means in heaven itself.

In the third dative in this segment we have come to the royal family registered in heaven. In other words, this is held up in contrast to Mount Sinai. Mount Sinai represents legalism, Mount Zion represents grace, and we have come to Mount Zion for salvation so let’s keep climbing Mount Zion. Those are the orders for us after salvation. At the top of Mount Zion is supergrace and paragraph SG2. But the Jews have left Mount Zion and have moved over to Mount Sinai, this is reversionism. Reversionism goes to Mount Sinai, some form of legalism, some form of apostasy.

Our fourth dative of indirect object is “and to God the Judge of all.” It is much better to go to Mount Zion where grace finds God the judge and evaluator of all than to go to Mount Sinai where you feel God’s judgement. “To God” is, again, the dative of indirect object. With it we have the conjunction kai plus theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] — “and to God.”

1972 Hebrews Lesson #229

229 10/17/1974 Hebrews 12:23c-24a Doctrines of sanctification, mediatorship

Heb 12:23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

The word for “judge” here is the dative singular of apposition. There is no definite article and it is “to God judge of all” actually. The word is kritês (κριτής) [pronounced kree-TACE] the Greek word from which we get the English word critic. Kritês (κριτής) [pronounced kree-TACE] plus the absence of the definite article calls attention to the quality of the noun. There is only one critic in our lives and that is God Himself, the perfect critic who is objective and who can evaluate and be helpful. In His sovereignty whenever He evaluates He always accompanies that evaluation with either grace blessing or grace cursing. So in His perfect sovereignty His criticisms are always excellent and accompanied by whatever is necessary. Because God is absolute righteousness He is an objective critic. God is fair, it is impossible for God to be unfair. Because of His perfect justice He also, when He becomes the critic or the judge in any case, has all of the facts and therefore makes a perfect decision. Because God is love He also is able to perform whatever criticism is necessary on the basis of the objectivity of His perfect love. In addition to that He is eternal life which means that in eternity past He knew the facts and therefore as a critic He knew the facts before they occurred. This is also bound up in His omniscience. His omnipresence: He is on the scene so He is the observer of the facts. He is both judge or critic and witness. His omnipotence: He has the ability to take the facts and to make a proper evaluation and disposition of every individual situation. Immutability: He is incorruptible as a judge or critic. Veracity means that He always relates everything to truth, no false evidence is ever inserted in any of His criticisms or judgements.

God evaluates us, which means an observation of supergrace or reversionism or someplace in between.

“of all — the genitive plural of the adverb pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] includes angels, both elect and unsaved, peoples saved and unsaved. So God is the judge of all, and “all” here, or pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs], refers to creatures.

God has already judged the angels and they are divided into two general categories, the elect and the non-elect or unsaved. God judges believers in time; God has not judged the unbeliever as yet. Time is really designed to judge the believer and to warn the unbeliever, and God’s judgements are the evaluation of the believer. God judges the unbeliever in eternity by means of the great white throne. God evaluates the believer in eternity by means of paragraph SG3. So God is the judge or the evaluator of all. And when we come to Mount Zion we come to the mountain of grace and therefore we come to evaluation resulting in blessing. All of the criticism of God results in blessing when we are climbing Mount Zion or following the colours to the high ground of the supergrace life.

The fifth dative of indirect object which goes with our verb proserchomai (προσέρχομαι) [pronounced pros-ER-khom-ahee],: “and to the spirits” — dative plural indirect object from the noun pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] Pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] in the singular means “spirit, breath, air,” in the plural it means “spirits” and we must have other words to identify what is meant by spirits. But here we have the spirits of justified ones. So this is a convocation of born-again believers.

“just men” is incorrect, there is no noun anthrôpos (ἄνθρωπος) [pronounced ANTH-row-pos] for man, it is simply the possessive genitive plural dikaios (δίκαιος) [pronounced DIH-kai-oss] and it should be translated “justified ones.”

“made perfect” — the perfect passive participle of teleioô (τελειόω) [pronounced tehl-i-OH-oh] means having been completed. It is a reference to ultimate sanctification whereby God brings to completion His objective with every believer. God’s objective is to make every believer exactly like Himself. So this is actually a statement of sanctification.

Hebrews 12:23 Also to the church of the firstborn ones [the royal family], who have been registered in heaven, and to God Judge of all, and to the spirits of justified ones having been perfected.

Heb 12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

The Doctrine of Sanctification (3)

1. By definition, sanctification means to be set apart as sacred, to be consecrated to God, to be set apart as being in His plan. The word itself has to do with the plan of God and it has to do with the royal family of God. More than that, it means to be under contract to God forever. The actual death of Christ set aside the old covenant, i.e. the Mosaic law. It also set aside all of the shadows of the Mosaic law. The old contract was abrogated, cancelled and annulled by the cross, and the new contract or the new covenant is for the royal family of God only. So sanctification is a word that belongs to you and it relates your life to God’s plan and purpose, therefore it gives your life meaning and purpose. You are in the process of divine sanctification forever. Sanctification means a contract broken down into three parts. It is provided on the basis of the efficacious, once-and-for-all sacrifice of Christ on the cross, fulfilling all of the Levitical shadows. We sign the contract the moment we believe in Jesus Christ. The contract is inviolable. Those in the contract are all members of the royal family of God.

2. We have certain words that are found in the New Testament which refer back to the contract or to the principle of sanctification.

a. The first of these is a noun, hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss]. It is translated in the New testament as “saint” or “holy.” These are used to describe those who are in the contract.

b. The second word hagiotês (ἁγιότης) [pronounced hag-ee-OHT-ace], “holiness,” means the state of being under the contract or being under the new covenant to the church or it is our status quo as members of the royal family of God. We are said to be therefore “holiness,” we are said to be therefore under contract forever and ever.

c. The third word, hagiôsunê (ἁγιωσύνη) [pronounced hag-ee-o-SOO-nay] is our word “sanctification.” The word really means the state of being under contract to God. The contract is the new covenant or the new testament, and in this contract there are three stages.

d. The fourth word is hagiasmos (ἁγιασμός) [pronounced hag-ee-as-MOSS], a synonym for the last one. It means consecration or sanctification, or the state of being holy or under contract to God. Finally, the fifth word we have is a verb, hagiazô (ἁγιάζω) [pronounced hawg-ee-AD-zoh], which has the meaning to be set apart under contract, to be set apart under grace contract to God.

e. In addition to these words being used for believers of the Church Age, Jesus Christ is called hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss] tou theou. It means “the saint of God,” or “the set apart of God.” This title is used in John 6:69 for the basis of our grace contract.

3. The first part of the contract is the entering paragraph. It is called phase one sanctification, a reference to how God proposes to take the unbeliever and at the point of his salvation enter him into the royal family, making a distinction between him and all of the Old Testament believers. The Old Testament believers were simply born again, a ministry of the Holy Spirit in regeneration. That happens to us at the point of salvation but in addition we are entered into union with Jesus Christ and that is called positional sanctification. In other words, the moment we believe in Jesus Christ the baptism of the Spirit occurs by which each one of us is entered into union with Christ, each one of us becomes immediately royal family. Paragraph one of the new contract, the grace contract, makes each one of us royalty at the point of salvation. That ought to be one evangelistic approach. Christian is a slang word meaning, little Christ. The principle of this is found in many passages. — e.g. 1Corinthians 1:2,30; 6:11; Hebrews 10:10,14.

4. Phase two sanctification, the tactical objective of the royal family in time which is supergrace status. The objective of God in keeping us alive is that we might enter supergrace, that we might climb to the top of Mount Zion, that we might seize and hold the until the point of transfer and/or dying. Therefore there is a second paragraph which deals with the believer or the royal family in time. It commands certain things like the filling of the Spirit, 2Thessalonians 2:13, it demands the daily function of GAP, John 17:17; Ephesians 5:26, and the objective is to reach the high ground of supergrace. The paragraph also states that in case you are otherwise minded and negative toward Bible doctrine God will still keep you in time but He will make sure that your life time on earth is totally miserable. That is the beauty about the royal family on earth, it is either feast or famine, either +H or total misery, there is no in between.

5. Phase three sanctification or the third paragraph. God guarantees that beyond death there will be for you a resurrection body. Your resurrection will come up at the resurrection of the Church. Also you will lose the old sin nature and, furthermore, you will not have to be embarrassed in heaven with the rags of human good. All human good will be burned up prior to entering into heaven. Hopefully, with Bible doctrine, we will have very little Cf. Romans 8:29; 1Corinthians 1:8; Philippians 3:21; 1Thessalonians 5:23; 1John 3:1,2.

6. In undertaking all of these things for us God has set up the agencies in the contract, and in this new covenant or new contract, the grace contract, God has actually set up three agencies. The Father is the author of the contract, the author of the plan for us, operation grace.

a. The first of these agents is the Son of God — Hebrews 10:10,14.

b. The second agent is the Holy Spirit — Romans 15:16; 2Thessalonians 2:13.

c. The third agent is the Word of God, Bible doctrine — John 17:17; Ephesians 5:26.

d. Significantly absent, the believer is not said to be an agent. The believer is an ambassador, a royal priest, but the believer in Jesus Christ is not an agent. That is grace.

7. The contract or sanctification is related to the angelic conflict. Inasmuch as man was created in order to resolve the angelic conflict, and inasmuch as this has been accomplished by the plan of God, each one of the paragraphs is related to the angelic conflict.

a. For example, paragraph one: Mankind or the royal family is positionally higher than angels. God the Holy Spirit takes us and enters us into union with Christ seated at the right hand of the Father. Christ at the right hand of the Father is higher than angels. Inasmuch as He is higher than angels and we are entered into union with Him, positionally we are higher than angels from the very start of the contract.

b. In the second paragraph of the contract the supergrace believer occupied with Christ glorifies God and results in a tactical victory in the angelic conflict, and the believer on the top on Mount Zion or the believer on the high ground of supergrace is in a place of tactical victory and that tactical victory includes victory over angels. That is the whole purpose of that tactical victory. That means that all fallen angels, unseen, are defeated by the supergrace believer.

c. The third part of the contract: The royal family is in a resurrection body physically superior to all angels. All phases of sanctification indicate and relate to the angelic conflict.

8. Conclusion. Sanctification is the uniqueness of the Church Age and the royal family of God based upon the efficacious sacrifice of Christ on the cross plus His resurrection, ascension, and session. The word “sanctification” is very meaningful, a reminder of our contract. It demonstrates how God has taken us in grace all the from spiritual death and sinfulness to the point of royal family of God forever. He has accomplished the whole thing Himself. So in effect, then, the conjunction of the ages occurs in the Church Age — cf.. Hebrews 9:26. We are, in effect, the conjunction of the ages and no set of believers in any period of history has ever had more importance in the plan of God than believers in the Church Age.

9. Sanctification, then, is the baptism of the Holy Spirit plus positional truth by which the royal family are going to live in the holy of holies forever and ever — Hebrews 10:19,20.

10. Therefore the challenge of sanctification, the challenge of our contract, is time. We are saved totally apart from works — phase one sanctification. In our salvation we are entered into union with Christ, we are royal family forever. After resurrection or phase three sanctification we have that resurrection body minus the old sin nature, minus human good, plus the blessings of SG3, but the challenge period is time because this is the period where our constant use of volition leads to our personal tactical victory in the angelic conflict. The challenge is to stay with doctrine on a daily basis, to grow in grace regardless of all distractions which lead us away from doctrine, which lead us away from Bible teaching, and to glorify God by being blessed in time.

Verse 24 — dative of indirect object #6. This one brings us face to face with our Savior the Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest, the King of kings and Lord of lords. We are still operating on one verse, verse 22, “but you have come,” the verb proserchomai (προσέρχομαι) [pronounced pros-ER-khom-ahee],. This is still the verb although we are in verse 24 we are operating on a verb we had in verse 22.

Notice Again the Five Datives of Indirect Object Through Which We Have Come.

a) Mount Zion, the city of living God.

b) The myriads of angels in festive convocation.

c) The church of the firstborn ones, the royal family of God.

d) God the Father evaluator of all.

e) The spirits of the justified ones in phase three.

Altogether there are seven datives of indirect objects and we have now come to #6.

“and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant” — the word “mediator” is the dative singular indirect object and the noun is mesítês (μεσίτης) [pronounced meh-SEE-tays].

The Doctrine of Mediatorship (2)

1. The concept is from the word “umpire.” The word comes from Job 9:2,32,33 — “daysman.” The Hebrew word in Job 9:33 is mokiach which means “umpire.” It comes from the verb yâkach (יָכַח) [pronounced yaw-KAHK] which means to arbitrate. In the case of the umpire in Job chapter nine he has to be equal with both parties. There is a problem here. Party of the first part is God the Father, the Son and the Spirit, each having perfect essence. Party of the second part is man. Man has a soul plus the old sin nature plus spiritual death at birth, plus the imputation of Adam’s sin. So we have a problem here. There is no way that you can bring together in contract the two except to handle this problem in grace. There has to be someone who is equal with God and who is at the same time truly a man to arbitrate or to be the umpire. There is where the Lord Jesus Christ comes in. He is the second person of the Trinity and is therefore God. Through the virgin birth the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world minus the old sin nature, minus spiritual death, minus the imputation of Adam’s sin, and He lived 33 years minus personal sin. Therefore He was qualified on the manward side to solve the problem, but it must be the God-Man. Whoever brings God and man together in a grace contract must be equal with both parties. Jesus Christ is equal to man in the sense that He is true humanity but He is superior to all men. He is also equal to God in the sense that He has exactly the same essence as the Father, the same essence as the Holy Spirit. Therefore He is qualified.

2. Definition. A mediator removes disagreement and estrangement between two parties and brings them to a common goal. He interposes between two parties as the equal of each. That is important: a mediator is the equal of each. By so doing reconciliation is established and a contract is made. To accomplish this the Father must be propitiated and man must be reconciled. So the key in bringing everyone together: God the Father must be propitiated, man must be reconciled in the contract, and therefore the mediator must redeem. There you have redemption, reconciliation and redemption which is the basic system of our so great grace salvation. The Father is propitiated by the mediator, man is reconciled by the mediator on the cross, and the mediator accomplishes the whole thing by redemption.

3. The mechanics of mediatorship are found in 1Timothy 2:5,6 where the two parties, God and man, are revealed and the mediator, Jesus Christ in hypostatic union, equal with both parties brings them together, and the basis of bringing them together is propitiation, reconciliation, and redemption.

4. The relationship to the Mosaic law is found in Galatians 2:19,20. The Mosaic law was a temporary contract until the mediator went to the cross. In the meantime the Mosaic law under the supervision of the mediator was taught by angels to Israel.

5. We have the identification of the mediator in the new contract — Hebrews 9:15,16 plus our passage. Christ is identified as the mediator and He accomplished mediatorship through the uniqueness of His person: the God-Man; through the uniqueness of His work: redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation.

6. Therefore there is a relationship between mediatorship and the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ equals redemption plus reconciliation plus propitiation. In Hebrews 12:24 we find the relationship between the mediatorship of Christ and the blood of Christ. The blood of animal sacrifices were shadows portraying redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation, and the blood of Christ is the reality of the fulfilment of these things. Therefore the obvious conclusion is found in Hebrews 8:6 — Christ our high priest is the mediator of a perfect contract between man and God.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #230

230 10/18/1974 Hebrews 12:24b Doctrine of the blood

We are comparing Mount Sinai to Mount Zion.

A mediator brings together two parties which are estranged. Christ is God and He is true humanity. Redemption is towards sin, reconciliation towards man and propitiation towards God.

God made a contract with man. Now we have a new contract; in fact, we have a new contract. Royal family; rank has its privileges.

Mount Zion, festive congregation, Father, spirits of justified ones, mediator of a new covenant.

Number 7, and the last of our datives of indirect objects, is “and to the blood” — dative of indirect object plus the dative of advantage from the noun haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah]; “the blood of the sprinkling” brings us face to face with two doctrines. The first of these is the doctrine of the blood itself.

Heb 12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

The Doctrine of the Blood (4)

1. We must begin with animal blood which is the concept of haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah], literal blood. The literal blood in the scripture always refers to animals. Blood is the eat of animal life — Leviticus 17:10–14. When it says that the life of the flesh is in the blood it never refers to human beings, it refers to a lower creation, to the animal creation. The life of mankind is in the soul; the life of the animal is in the blood. Reason: the animal as we know him does not have a soul. The Bible talks about the life of the animal but never about the soul of the animal. From the coats of skins in Genesis 3:21 down through the Levitical offerings of Leviticus chapters 1–5 animal blood was used to represent something else, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ before Jesus Christ accomplished that sacrifice. In other words, animal blood is literal blood and when that animal is sacrificed on the altar that animal blood is the basis of his literal physical death. But that animal blood which is real and literal represents the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. The animal blood represents something figurative. So animal blood of the Old Testament portrays the redemptive work of Christ on the cross — Hebrews 9:22.

a. Bob does need to quote Arndt and Gingrich, but he doesn’t need to do that because he gets this stuff out of his head because he is smart. They say this is a figurative use.

b. Kittle the ideas that the NT links with the blood of Christ, it is used simply as a pregnant verbal symbol for the saving work of Christ.

c. Jesus was alive and breathing and speaking when He said, “It is finished.”

d. Jesus was alert on the cross for 6 hours.

2. The blood of Christ is now in focus for definition. The doctrine of the blood essentially deals with the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ is not literal, it is figurative. The blood of Christ is redemption, reconciliation, propitiation. The blood of Christ is the saving work of Jesus Christ on the cross, and the reason it is called “blood of” is because all of the animal sacrifices of the Old Testament involved the shedding of blood, and God wanted to make it very clear to the human race that while Christ did not die in Old Testament times every time an animal sacrifice was offered it portrayed redemption, reconciliation, propitiation. And every time God permitted an animal sacrifice and even ordered it, as He did under the Levitical code, it meant very simply a guarantee that Jesus Christ would bear the sins of the world. So to link the historical sacrifices to the historical literal death of Christ bearing our sins, His spiritual death, the phrase “blood of Christ” covers the entire thing.

3. The phrase “the blood of Christ” is a representative analogy. Under this concept there are several things that must be known.

a. The animal blood of the Old Testament sacrifices was real and literal. The animal literally bled it out when his throat was cut with the sacrificial knife.

b. However, the real and literal animal blood represented the spiritual death of Christ on the cross — Colossians 1:20; Hebrews 10:19; 13:20; 1Peter 1:2.

c. A real analogy would be a literal death compared with a literal death. If we had a real analogy it would be a real death of an animal compared to the real death of Christ which would be His physical death. But we do not have a literal or a real analogy.

d. In a representative analogy one thing represents another, and in this case we have the physical death of the animal representing the spiritual death of Christ on the cross. Christ did not die by bleeding to death, therefore we have a representative analogy whereby the physical death of the animal represents the spiritual death of Christ on the cross.

4. Christ did not die on the cross by bleeding to death. When He did die physically He did not bleed to death. This is taught in John 19:30–34 in which we find that the physical death of Christ on the cross occurred from His own volition, not from bleeding to death. He had the option that when His work was finished He could dismiss His spirit to the Father. He said that this was the way He would die in John 10:18. Jesus was in perfect physical condition on the cross. He was perfectly healthy.

5. What is the blood of the animal then? The blood of the animal sacrifice was a shadow to portray the death of Christ to every generation before Christ went to the cross. It was the shadow pointing to the reality — Hebrews 9:12–14.

6. Therefore the blood of Christ depicts His saving work on the cross. Four doctrines of soteriology are used to express this. One covers the entire blood of Christ in His spiritual death: expiation — Revelation 1:5. Redemption, reconciliation and propitiation describe the direction of the blood of Christ. Jesus did not bleed to death; and His literal bleeding had nothing to do with our salvation.

a. The wages of sin is not physical death. Adam and the woman died when they ate the fruit. Not physical death; spiritual death.

b. Gen.2:17 tells us how Adam and Eve tried to get right with God by getting right with one another.

c. God commended His love for us that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

d. Jesus said that, “No man can take My life; I lay it down myself.”

e. People cannot figure this out because they are blinded by religion.

f. Students who are familiar with the levitical offerings should understand this.

7. The blood of Christ in expiation is the basis for the rebound technique — 1John 1:7 cf. 1John 1:9. What is the blood of Jesus Christ? It is propitiation — God the Father is satisfied with Christ bearing our sins and the person who does it; reconciliation — the barrier is removed between man and God because Christ bore our sins; redemption — Christ paid to free us from the slave market of sin into which we were born by bearing our sins. So the blood of Christ is redemption: sinward; reconciliation: manward; propitiation: God ward. The blood of Christ is all three of these, and the blood of Christ handles known sins and unknown sins.

8. The true meaning of the blood of Christ is found in the directions of the doctrines of soteriology. And Christ is the mediator, He brings God and man together by His work on the cross.

“and to the blood of the sprinkling” — the sprinkling has to do with the day of atonement, sprinkling it on the mercy seat. The noun for sprinkling, rhantismós (ῥαντισμός) [pronounced hran-tihs-MOSS], is a descriptive genitive. This is a beautiful word because, where did the sprinkling occur? In the holy of holies. And where is our home as royal family? In the holy of holies. Sprinkling was added by God the Holy Spirit, speaking through this writer, to remind us of our special privileges. We are royal family and we live in the holy of holies forever, and this “speaks” — present active participle of laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh] which means to communicate. The present tense is the present tense of duration, which means it always communicates. The active voice: the efficacious blood of Christ produces the action. The participle is circumstantial. The phrase says, “and to the blood of the sprinkling which communicates better things.”

1972 Hebrews Lesson #231

231 10/20/1974 Hebrews 12:24c-26 The whirlwind of history

Heb 12:24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Verse 24c — “better things than that of Abel.” Abel is mentioned for the simple reason that he is the first Old Testament believer who was born into the world. Adam and the woman were created by God. While they did believe in the Lord Jesus Christ they were created beings. Then came those born into the world, Cain and Abel. Cain was an unbeliever, Abel was the first believer born into the world and becomes the pattern for the Old Testament saint. And we have something better than Abel. “Better things” refers to the fact of the efficacious sacrifice; but more than that, the resurrection, ascension and session of Christ which interrupts the Jewish Age and calls out the royal family. For the believers in this particular age in the royal family and are under a new contract with God. The new contract is entered into by means of faith in Jesus Christ, but in the first paragraph of the new contract we have the baptism of the Spirit which never occurred before and sets up a registry of royal family in heaven. While we live on the earth the registry is in heaven, and while the registry is in heaven and we are on the earth the challenge is to live up to the “blue book” in heaven. Therefore, we have something that never existed before. The whole system of “better things” which begins with the baptism of the Spirit gives us a classroom which never existed before, gives us a textbook which never existed before, gives us the spiritual gifts which have never existed before, all of which are designed to take us rapidly to the high ground, to keep us on Mount Zion and away from the problems of Mount Sinai. Therefore, with all of these things in mind we have had the challenge of the royal family. The final challenge is given at the end of this verse, we have better things than Abel. There never was and never will be a system better than that which exists in the Church Age, there never will be a more clearly defined line and function of grace.

Hebrews 12:24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and the blood of the sprinkling, which communicates better things than Abel’s sacrifice.

Now having finished our study and challenge of the two mountains we move back to the same principle we had before. First of all a challenge to the unbelievers and then a final challenge to the believer who lives in an unshakable kingdom. The evangelistic appeal to the Jewish unbeliever to come to Mount Zion for salvation instead of Mount Sinai, is given in verses 25, 26. Everything from this point on is taken from the study of mountains which we have had portrayed in this passage. We have seen all of the blessings of Mount Zion and its significance and the cursings which come from Mount Sinai.

Heb 12:25 See that you do not refuse him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven.

Verse 25 — “See” is actually “Beware.” It is addressed to unbelievers living in Jerusalem in AD 67. They are on the eve of one of the greatest historical catastrophes of history. This historical catastrophe should never overtake them as unbelievers. The disasters in time plus the lake of fire is the most awful possible judgement that could occur. This, therefore, is an evangelistic appeal. As we have observed in this chapter in the various evangelistic appeals we have the concept of how witnessing should occur. We have seen witnessing by love and kindness, witnessing by shock, and fair and square dealing, and now we see the final means of witnessing to those who are without Christ on the eve of historical disaster.

The present active imperative blepô (βλέπω) [pronounced BLEHP-oh] recognizes the fact that the people to whom this was addressed understood the gospel. At various points in history and with various groups of people this is not true, but it is true in this case because they have grown up with every type of a depicting of the gospel message. The point here is not do you understand the gospel? The point here is see that you do not reject it. The word “refuse” is the aorist middle subjunctive of the verb paraitéomai (παραιτέομαι) [pronounced par-ahee-TEH-ohm-ahee] means to ask for something you know about. With the negative it means to request something that you know about but to avoid or decline something you do not quite understand. When you put it all together it means that they understand the issue of salvation but they do not understand the historical repercussions about to occur in the history of the southern kingdom. Therefore “refuse not” is a good translation. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, contemplating the action in its entirety, and means that these people have heard many times many grace approaches and they still turn down the gospel. The middle voice is that of a deponent verb middle in form and active in meaning, which means that the Jews who are about to enter this great historical catastrophe have turned down the gospel repeatedly. The subjunctive mood plus the negative expresses a prohibition. The only prohibition that the Jews face at this time is, Do not miss the gospel, do not miss the grace of God, this is your last call.

“him” is simply an accusative singular direct object and it is an article used as a pronoun. The reason that the article can be used as a pronoun is because by now those who have been going along with this message who are unbelievers understand exactly to whom the definite article refers. In this way it is a dramatic way of portraying the Lord Jesus Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us, and who has been so perfectly portrayed in this passage. As the Savior He must never be neglected. As the ruler of the Church He cannot be neglected. This has been the message of this particular chapter.

“that speaketh” — the word for speaking here is communicating and it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ who communicated the ten commandments on Mount Sinai as well as grace on Mount Zion. The word for speaking or communicating is an historical present tense and it views the action of portraying doctrine from Mount Sinai and from Mount Zion as a past historical reality. But it is such a dramatic moment and has been so dramatized by the passage that now it becomes a present tense dealing with a past event, a very dramatic way of presenting it. The active voice: Jesus Christ as Jehovah fulfils the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial. It reads, “Beware that you do not reject the one who is communicating.”

This demands an explanation, and the explanatory use of the conjunction gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] plus the conditional particle ei (εἰ) [pronounced I] gives us our explanation. This is a first class condition — “For if.”

“they have not escaped” — the aorist active indicative of the verb ek pheugô (φεύγω) [pronounced FYOO-go] plus a very strong negative, ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. They did not escape in the past, you will not escape in the present of history. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. There was no escape for those in Moses’ day who rejected the message. The active voice: Jews who rejected the message of Moses on Mount Sinai produced the action — no escape. The indicative mood is declarative used to indicate a first class condition, but more than that, used to indicate the principle that at any time that anyone neglects the grace of God historical catastrophe is a part of the discipline. For the unbeliever who rejects the gospel, as we have already seen, there is the historical disaster, the catastrophe of the fifth cycle of discipline. The nation was destroyed and enslaved. For those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ and they, too, have rejected the words of Bible teaching, the function of GAP, and have gone into reversionism, are caught up into historical catastrophe. So the first class condition, in effect, is a whirlwind, the whirlwind which we studied in connection with Mount Sinai. It is a whirlwind that catches us up in disaster.

Rhodesia and South Africa are the greatest countries in the world. We are losing our freedoms here. Australia and New Zealand have lost their freedom to socialism.

Jesus Christ in controlling history must punish reversionism, and He punishes reversionism in the same principle that He blesses the supergrace believer. Jesus Christ always looks at a nation on the basis of its believers, and in the control of history one of the factors which must be regarded very carefully is the salt of the earth principle. Jesus said, “You are the salt of the land.” If the salt preserves its savour then, of course, the land is preserved and blessed. Salt was used as a preservative in the ancient world. So the believer is salt, and as goes the believer so goes the national entity. There is a double blessing for any nation. The fist blessing is based upon the laws of establishment, the second blessing is based upon the laws of spiritual growth. The combination of the two makes double blessing for such countries.

There were just a few supergrace believers in Jeremiah’s day when the fifth cycle of discipline was administered. This is the principle of the whirlwind of history. The whirlwind of history operates in numerous ways. It operates in economic conditions. Economic depression brings the whirlwind of history. It means that today and throughout the world there will be many people starving, mass population starvation. In addition to that the whirlwind of history means loss of freedom through military defeat. It means the loss of the right to fulfil the principles of establishment. “If they have not escaped” is a first class condition. It indicates that historically God uses the whirlwind. In the past people have not escaped the whirlwind. Why do we think that we can escape? We are deceived by circumstances. Principle: Do not draw truth from your circumstances. Doctrine and truth must be drawn from the statement of the Word of God.

We get more socialism and more destruction of our nation. All of this could change radically. The demand for the word has been so great, they stopped doing the “scrambles.” Bible doctrine could turn things around in less than a generation.

Great decadence in our country. Worst trash now in the United States. The whirlwind is just right around the corner from us.

“they” is a demonstrative pronoun, it is in the plural, it is the word ἐκενος. It is a demonstrative pronoun for something distant from the context. It refers back to the Jews in the days of Moses. Disaster overtook them, the whirlwind of history overtook them. “When they rejected the one who communicated the divine oracles, then how do we expect to escape” is the principle that is being taught.

“who refused” is an aorist active participle, paraitéomai (παραιτέομαι) [pronounced par-ahee-TEH-ohm-ahee] again. It is the constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It indicates negative volition toward doctrine after enjoying freedom. It is one thing to enjoy freedom, it is something else to have the capacity for freedom. The Jews were slaves for 400 years, they had freedom while in slavery. For the four great generations of Jews that were in slavery to Egypt they still had freedom in their slavery, they still had doctrine, and they lived as free people so that one family of twelve children went into slavery but two million plus came out of slavery. How do people multiply in slavery? By living normal lives in abnormal circumstances. That takes Bible doctrine. But the tragedy is that the first generation of free Jews, freed under the ministry of Moses, were minus doctrine in freedom and therefore were slaves to discipline. Whereas their ancestors were in slavery but plus doctrine in slavery and were free.

“him that spake” — the articular present active participle from chrêmatizô (χρηματίζω) [pronounced khray-mat-IHD-zo]. The last time we had the Lord communicating from the mountain we had the verb laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh] which means to communicate. This time we have the verb chrêmatizô (χρηματίζω) [pronounced khray-mat-IHD-zo] which means to utter divine oracles, to utter doctrine beneficial for time and eternity. The definite article is the accusative singular, indicating that this participle is a direct object. The historical present tense in the participle sees a past event with a past event with the vividness of a present occurrence. The active voice: Moses was the spokesman for God in the communication of doctrine. The participle is circumstantial. And these things are said to have occurred “on the earth.” The first class condition indicates that they did not escape.

“much more” — polu mallon is Classical Greek, not Koine Greek. It means “to a greater degree.” Always this is the responsibility: If there is a saturation of doctrine there is greater responsibility. The greater the responsibility the more ferocious the whirlwind of history that destroys a people or a nation that is reversionistic.

“we” — the writer identifies himself with the Jews of AD 67 three years before the great historical catastrophe.

“will not escape” — if in the past God has punished reversionism, He has punished unbeliever reversionism, He has punished believer reversionism; if all of the cycles of discipline have existed in the past, why do we think that they are suddenly going to stop? There was a great deal of attitude among the Jews that everything was all right, that there would be no problem of any kind.

“if we turn away” — the present middle participle of the verb apostréphō (ἀποστρέφω) [pronounced ap-os-TREHF-oh] is used for reversionism. It means to turn away, to reject. In the middle voice it means to repudiate. The present tense of the participle is retroactive progressive present and it indicates that the people to whom this is addressed have been negative toward doctrine. Believers have been negative toward Bible teaching. “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together” was addressed to these same believers. The unbelievers had rejected the gospel though they understood it very well and the holy city is about to be caught up in the whirlwind of divine history. It is about to be destroyed under one of the greatest recorded catastrophes in all of recorded history. So the Jews to whom this was addressed had rejected Christ in the past and they continued to do so. The believers had rejected doctrine in the past and continued to do so. The middle voice of the participle is indirect, it emphasizes the agent as producing the action with reflexive force, and the verb means to turn away someone from something, hence to turn one’s self from the means of salvation to repudiate the only deliverance for the nation, the only basis for prosperity for the nation, as well as eternal blessing and prosperity. The participle is a conditional participle, it functions and the protasis of a conditional clause in this case. Therefore it is correctly translated “if we ourselves reject him that speaketh from heaven.” “Him that speaketh from heaven” is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ for the last 37 years has been seated at the right hand of the Father. He has interrupted the Jewish Age, He has started the Age of the Church, the age of the registry in heaven of the great royal family. Never was doctrine more meaningful, never were things better, never was there a greater opportunity for those who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ during their life upon earth. And believers have become negative toward doctrine, they are minus doctrine. The result is unbelievers are minus the gospel, they are minus doctrine, and the total reversionistic picture is like a great vacuum drawing in the great whirlwind of divine judgement, historical judgement. The principle again: Jesus Christ controls history.

Hebrews 12:25 Beware that you do not reject the one who is speaking. For if they [the generation of Moses at Sinai] have not escaped when they rejected the one who communicated divine oracles on earth, to a much greater degree we shall not escape if we ourselves reject the one from heaven [the Lord Jesus Christ].

Heb 12:26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.”

Now we have one more reference to Jesus Christ relating salvation to judgement. We have already seen that propitiation is designed by God to save mankind. The only reason that God can save mankind is because His character is consistent, intact by the salvation which He has planned. He planned a salvation that would not compromise His righteousness or justice for the very key to the Father’s whole character is found in His righteousness and justice. Therefore, when Jesus Christ was on the cross He was +R, satisfying the righteousness of the Father and keeping the Father’s righteousness from compromise. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree, satisfying the justice of the Father who said that the wages of sin is death, spiritual death, and therefore sins had to be judged. The old sin nature came by man’s disobedience and fall, the OSN produces sins and all of those sins were judged upon the cross. Therefore the Father is able to save all who come to the cross and believer in Christ because His righteousness and justice are satisfied by the cross. So the cross is the way of salvation. And when it says, “God commendeth his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” it is referring to His first death on the cross, His judgement for our sins. Therefore we have believed in Christ now, we have passed the point of propitiation and God the Father is free to love us with maximum love.

Now the point is this. For the unbeliever, for these Jews in AD 67 who are living in Jerusalem as unbelievers, they have rejected the propitiatory work of Christ. The issue with them is a very simple one. They must face the fact as unbelievers that on the cross their sins were also judged. Their human good, with all human good, was rejected. They had rejected propitiation and therefore they must face the fact that God still has His righteousness and He still has His justice, and if God lets them get by with anything as unbelievers then His righteousness and justice is compromised just as much as it would be apart from the cross. Therefore they must face the issue that righteousness and justice were propitiated by the cross and if they reject the cross they reject propitiation, and if they reject propitiation God can only be consistent by bringing about judgement. Therefore the righteousness and justice of God are expressed in judgement because of the rejection of propitiation.

Verse 26 — “Whose voice shook the earth.” “Then” refers to the time of the giving of the ten commandments. Everything we are studying goes back to Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. This is a correlative adverb of time, tote, and it goes back to Mount Sinai. The illustration for this principle is found on Mount Sinai.

“Whose” is a possessive genitive singular from the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] and it refers to the Lord Jesus Christ; “voice” — phônê (φωνή) [pronounced foh-NAY] refers not simply to the voice but the fact that the voice uttered words that could be understood. In fact the words were so clearly understood that the people said stop, we can’t take any more. So Christ in giving the ten commandments to Moses “shook the earth.” His voice was so strong that it then shook the earth.

“shook” is the aorist active indicative of the verb saleuô (σαλεύω) [pronounced sal-YOO-oh]. This is a very interesting word used for earthquakes, earth tremors, for the earthquake principle which we understand. But what is not understood is this. We remain on this earth by divine law. We are in the gravity field so we stick to the earth. We are held there by a divine law — gravity. Earthquake is used as an illustration of divine judgement in history. It is used in the same sense that the whirlwind is used. The voice of God shook the people, there was a little earthquake but it shook their souls too because they simply could not take the divine standard. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The action of the verb in its entirety or the constative aorist is found in Exodus 19:18. The active voice: the Lord Jesus Christ by His words shook the earth. The indicative mood is declarative for historical reality. The historical reality was an earthquake on Mount Sinai which caused the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ to be understood in terms of judgement.

“but now” — “now” takes us from Mount Sinai in 1441 BC to Jerusalem in AD 67. We have the adverb of time, nun, designated the eve of great historical judgement.

“he hath promised” — this is a dramatic perfect tense which is the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect. He has promised in the past with the result that He keeps His promise, and we are going to have a quotation from Haggai 2:6. In the middle voice of this verb the subject acts with a view toward participating in the outcome. This is called the indirect middle in which emphasis is placed on the agent as producing the action with reflexive force rather than participating in its results. And Jesus Christ Himself as the whirlwind of history will produce the action. The indicative mood is the reality of the fulfilment of Haggai 2:6 prior to the second advent of Christ and the regathering of Israel.

“saying” — the present active participle of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] is used to introduce and to quote from Haggai 2:6. This is the gist of Haggai 2:6 — “Thus saith the Lord of the armies, Once more in a little while I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land.” Now you can see why it was quoted at this point. There was an earthquake at Mount Sinai and this introduced the fact of historical disaster coming to the Jews in 39 years of their discipline. So the earthquake on Mount Sinai not only was the means of communicating the doctrine to the Jews but it was a warning. The shaking of the earth a little bit in that particular area warned them of coming historical disaster. The Sinai alumni with the exception of four people all died in the next 39 years. They died horribly, they died under disaster in the desert. The whole point is that the great historical disaster which was warned by the earthquake is nothing compared to the historical disaster at the end of the Tribulation, the great Armageddon campaign. In the Armageddon campaign the entire earth is going to be shaken, not just a portion of the earth. Haggai 2:6 describes events which accompany the second advent of Jesus Christ.

“Yet once more” — éti (ἔτι) [pronounced EH-tee] hapax (ἅπαξ) [pronounced hap’-ax] which means one time only will there be such a colossal disaster; “I will shake” — the future active indicative of saleuô (σαλεύω) [pronounced sal-YOO-oh]. This is the predictive future tense which predicts an event which is expected to occur in the future time. It is a reference to the sixth seal of Revelation 6:12–17 which is a summary fulfilment of Haggai 2:6. Weirdos seem to crop up out of nowhere when Revelation is mentioned.

Rev. 6 is a summary of the entire Tribulation; each seal is broken and another part of the Tribulation is revealed. The Jews would summarize everything that they were going to give you with very little detail. This is Rev. 7–22.

Haggai 2:6 For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land.

Germans learned their tactics from Stonewall Jackson.

Rev 6:12–14 When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

Rev 6:15–17 Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”

The wrath of the lamb is the baptism of fire.

Hebrews 12:26 Whose voice at that time [on Mount Sinai] shook the earth: but now he himself has promised, saying, Yet once more [at the second advent] I will shake not only the earth, but the heaven also.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #232

232 10/20/1974 Hebrews 12:27–29; Matt. 24:36–40 Doctrine of the baptism of fire

Heb 12:27 This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.

Verse 27 — in the next two words we have the articles to de, the definite article and a particle. These two words are used in Classical Greek to refer back to what is quoted. It is translated “And this.” But it means “reference to.” Again, in Classical Greek it is a reference to the previous verse and to Haggai 2:6 which has just been quoted. “Yet once more” — notice that these words are quoted in verse 26 also. “Reference to, Yet once more.” On other words, the writer is not yet through with the quotation from Haggai 2:6. It goes back once more to make sure that we understand that this is the time of the baptism of fire.

The Doctrine of the Baptism of Fire

1. Definition. The baptism of fire is the judgement of the Tribulational unbelievers at the second advent of Christ. It is introduced as an illustration at this point for a very strange reason. The Jews in Jerusalem know more about the past, their spiritual heritage in Israel, and eschatology, than they do about the time in which they live. Therefore the writer illustrates what is about to happen to them by going from Esau, Mount Sinai versus Mount Zion, to the second advent and the baptism of fire. The Tribulational unbelievers at the second advent are removed from the earth and placed in fire for 1000 years until the last judgement or the great white throne. Both the Tribulational unbelievers, Jew and Gentile, are involved in this second advent judgement which results in beginning the Millennium with believers only. The Jew of Jerusalem in AD 67 are about to lose their pseudo prosperity in 70 AD, and they will lose everything else — their national identity, their lives, they will enter into slavery — and there is some way in which this must be illustrated. So we have an eschatological intrusion to show them that you cannot depend upon pseudo prosperity.

2. The concept of orientation. The baptism of fire is one of seven baptisms found in the scripture which are divided into two categories.

a. The first category is what is called a real baptism and the second category is known as a ritual baptism. A ritual baptism is easily distinguished because it always deals with water and a ceremony related to water in which the candidate, and in some cases the victim, is identified with water.

b. Real baptisms bring out the true meaning of the word baptism. Baptism means identifying something with something else. For example, in the first baptism in the scriptures, the baptism of Moses, the Jews were identified with Moses as the Red Sea was parted and they went through on his identification — 1Corinthians 10:2. At the time of the Red Sea incident God was only pleased with one person in Israel. The rest of them were falling apart. As the Red Sea was parted they saw for the first time their deliverance. They went through because they were identified with Moses who shouted to them, “Stand still and watch the deliverance of the Lord.” So God took the erroneous hysterical majority and identified them with one person, the minority, and delivered them all.

c. The second great baptism is the greatest of all. It is the baptism of the cross. In this case we have identification portrayed in the most wonderful way possible. All of our sins, past, present, and future, were poured out upon the Lord Jesus Christ and judged.

d. Then there is the baptism of the Spirit whereby we, members of the body of Christ, those who are believers in the Church age, are members of the royal family forever. God the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Christ seated at the right hand of the Father, making us permanent royalty.

e. The baptism of fire is the fourth and final real baptism. There is the baptism of the Spirit for the Church Age, the baptism of fire is for the end of the Jewish Age. The Jewish Age, like most ages, ends in great judgement.

f. There are also three ritual baptisms. There is the baptism of John which was a ritual whereby the water portrayed the kingdom, and those who entered into the water were those who were believers and were a part of the kingdom of God. The baptism of Jesus in which the water represented the will of God, going to the cross, and Jesus acquiesced to the will of God by entering into the water. Then there is water baptism for believers in this age, and this time it represented the baptism of the Spirit or being members of the royal family of God forever, and we are identified with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.

g. These are the seven baptisms which are found in the scripture.

3. The time of the baptism of fire is very clearly delineated as the second advent of Christ. This is very true for many passages but especially 2Thessalonians 1:7–9 (...and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, ...).

4. The announcement of the baptism of fire was given to John the baptist. John the baptist was raised up of God to have a very critical ministry of religion. No one ever criticized religion the way that John the baptist did. To criticize religion he had to move out into a place where there was no religion, the desert. Religion was concentrated in the temple in Jerusalem, and to criticize religion and to take a stand against religion John had to be separated. His ministry was one of judgement and identification. He identified Christ as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He judged the religious generation in which he found himself. Matthew 3:11–12 (“I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”) — John is the one who foretold the two coming baptisms. The first of these baptisms has to do with the formation of the royal family of God. The baptism of the Spirit never occurred in Old Testament times. But even greater is the power of our Lord Jesus Christ to baptize in fire, i.e. to remove from the earth all unbelievers as a part of operation footstool. The baptism of fire takes care of the unbeliever on the earth during the Tribulation just as operation footstool takes care of the fallen angels.

5. An analogy to the baptism of fire is found in Matthew 24:36–41 (“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left.). An analogy goes back to the historical flood. Most analogies of this type are based upon something well established in the scripture historically. The problem is the normal day-to-day living. The people were getting physical food; but not spiritual food.

6. There are some parables which also teach the baptism of fire. The parable of the wheat and tares — Matthew 13, the good and bad fish in Matthew 13, and the ten virgins of Matthew 25. None of the parables apply to the Church Age, except one, the pearl.

7. We have the Jewish baptism of fire mentioned in Ezekiel 20:34–38.

8. The Gentile baptism of fire is in Matthew 25:31–46. The baptism of fire used to evangelize Jews in the Church Age is found in Hebrews 12:27.

“Reference to, Yet once more.” Now we are going to get what Haggai 2:6 means here. It signifies something and so we have the word “signifieth” — the present active indicative from dêloô (δηλόω) [pronounced day-LOH-oh] which means to explain or to denote. The aoristic present is punctiliar action in present time. The punctiliar action is a brief explanation of Haggai 2:6. The active voice: the quotation from Haggai 2:6 produces the action of the verb. This is a declarative indicative mood used for the quotation denoting the baptism of fire.

“the removing” — the accusative singular direct object of the noun (μετάθεσις) [pronounced meht-ATH-ehs-iss] and it should be translated “the removal.”

“of those things that are shaken” — the things that were shaken were the people who got into caves and said “Fall on us” — Revelation 6. For the third time we have the present passive participle of the noun saleuô (σαλεύω) [pronounced sal-YOO-oh]. Once again, the verb denotes the removal of those who are unbelievers at the end of the Tribulation. The word “removal” refers to the fact that they are judged and are cast into fire at the second advent.

“as of things that are made” — once again we are dealing with Classical Greek and we have the problem of translators trying to stay with Koine Greek. What we have is the comparative particle hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] which is common to both Classical Greek as well as to Koine Greek. But hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] plus the perfect passive participle of poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] which means to do or to make is a Classical Greek idiom, an ascriptive type particle, and it should be translated “like discarded things.”

Translation so far: “Reference to [Haggai 2:6], Yet once more, this explains the removal of those things which are shaken [baptism of fire], they are removed like discarded things.”

The unbeliever at the end of the Tribulation is discarded, placed in the baptism of fire awaiting his final judgement at the great white throne. And the fact that God can do this, as noted in Haggai 2:6, becomes the last appeal to the unbeliever Jew in Jerusalem in AD 67. They only have 3 years remaining. Their prosperity is being removed, but the destruction is about to level them.

“that” — the conjunction hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] denotes a final clause. It means purpose here and can be translated, therefore, “in order that” — “in order that those things cannot be shaken” — once again we have the present passive participle of saleuô (σαλεύω) [pronounced sal-YOO-oh] plus the negative mê. These things not being shaken refers to believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, believers in the Tribulation. This is a static present tense representing a condition which is assumed as perpetually existing. In other words, once you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, regardless of the dispensation, you cannot be shaken, you cannot lose your salvation. The passive voice: the believers of the Tribulation receive the action of the verb. They don’t run into the caves and shout to the rocks to fall on them. The passive voice: the believer with doctrine in the Tribulation receives the action of the verb. He is not shaken. The participle is circumstantial, indicating the fact that believers can endure the greatest disasters of history without being shaken.

“might remain” — the aorist active subjunctive of ménô (μένω) [pronounced MEH-noh],. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist, it views the event in its entirety but emphasizes the existing results. Even though there is great historical disaster it never shakes the believer, the one who is born again, the child of God. The subjunctive mood denotes the divine purpose for the believers living in the Tribulation, they are a demonstration of the greatness of Bible doctrine resident in the soul under most disastrous conditions.

Hebrews 12:27 Reference to [Haggai 2:6], Yet once more, explains the removal of those things which were shaken [baptism of fire], like the removal of discarded things, in order that the ones not being shaken [believers of the Tribulation] might remain [on the earth for the Millennium].

Heb 12:28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe,

Verse 28 — one final appeal to the reversionistic believer. This verse is a parenthesis. “Wherefore” — the inferential conjunction denoting the obvious and therefore should be translated “Therefore.”

“we receiving” — present active participle of paralambanô (παραλαμβάνω) [pronounced pahr-al-am-BAHN-oh] which means more than to receive, it means to receive to ourselves. It is something very personal, very strong, something that we will appreciate always. The present tense is the historical present that views the past event of salvation by faith in Christ with the vividness of a present occurrence. The active voice: these reversionistic believers living in Jerusalem in AD 67 produce the action of the verb. They are in apostasy but they still have been under grace and are still under grace. The participle is a causal participle, it denotes the ground or action for the main verb. The main verb is “let us have grace.”

“a kingdom” — incorrect. We have the accusative singular direct object of basileia (βασιλεία) [pronounced bas-il-Ī-ah] which does not mean a kingdom. it is stronger than that. It means a royal kingdom, it means a kingdom with nobility. We are the nobility of that kingdom. The kingdom of God for the Church Age is made up of royalty only.

“which cannot be moved” — asáleutos (ἀσάλευτος) [pronounced as-AL-yoo-toss] means “unshakeable.” “Therefore because we have received to ourselves an unshakeable royal kingdom.” This applies to every reversionist.

“let us have grace” — we already have grace because we were saved by grace, Ephesians 2:8,9. But this goes right back to Mount Sinai and Mount Zion. Mount Zion is grace, Mount Sinai is legalism. Again, this finds them trying to climb Mount Sinai. But the writer is saying let us get back to Mount Zion. The present tense is a tendencial present, it is used for an action which is purposed though not actually taking place. It is not taking place because the believers in Jerusalem are in the eight different stages of reversionism. The active voice: the believers are commanded to produce the action of the verb. This demands both reversion recovery and advancing to the high ground. We have a hortatory subjunctive in which the writer identifies himself once more with the readers and invites them to join him in a course of action. But the invitation is a string command to get back to grace.

Hortatory subjunctive is won’t you join me; the imperative is, move out!

“grace” is the accusative singular direct object of charis (χάρις) [pronounced KHAHR-iç] — “let us have and hold grace.” We have the present active subjunctive of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] which says we already have it, now let’s hold it [grace]. You started in grace and you moved down through living grace. You are still alive but you haven’t climbed that hill yet, you haven’t followed the colours to the high ground. Instead, you have peeled off.

“whereby” — this is a prepositional phrase, dia plus the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç], which means “through which grace.”

“we may serve” — the word for service is simply a word used for the Levitical priest serving before the altar, the present active subjunctive of latreuô (λατρεύω) [pronounced lat-RYOO-oh],. It means to perform duty as unto God. The customary present tense is for that which may be reasonably expected from any member of the royal family of God. The active voice: the supergrace believer actually produces the action. He is the one who stands before the altar. The standing before the altar, latreuô (λατρεύω) [pronounced lat-RYOO-oh], will be emphasized, beginning in verse 10 and going through verse 19 of chapter 13. The potential subjunctive here: service depends upon doctrine in the soul. This doesn’t mean running around doing things, it is a mental attitude, a stage of growth, the life as a priest in the devil’s world facing the invisible enemy successfully.

“God” — dative of indirect object of theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] plus the definite article, “the God,” the one and only God, God the Father, the one who designed the plan.

“acceptably” should be translated “in an acceptable manner” — “through which we might render the priestly service to the God in an acceptable manner with reverence and godly fear” — meta plus the genitive of eulábeia (εὐλάβεια) [pronounced yoo-LAHB-i-ah] is occupation with the person of Christ. Translated “reverence” godly fear means awe or respect for God.

Hebrews 12:28 Therefore because we have received to ourselves an unshakeable royal kingdom, let us have and hold grace, through which grace we might render acceptable priestly service to the God with reverence and respect [occupation with Christ].

Heb 12:29 for our God is a consuming fire.

Verse 29 — back to the unbeliever. “For” is the explanatory use of the epexegetical conjunction which picks up where verse 27 left off; “also our God (there is no verb here at all) a consuming fire.” This describes what happens after the baptism of fire, and the baptism of fire becomes a frame of reference to remind them once more that this is their last call.

1972 Hebrews 13:1 Lesson #233

233 10/21/1974 Hebrews 13:1 Doctrine of category #3 love

Chapter 13

We need to realize the fact that every believer is in full time Christian service. The meaning and purpose of your life before the Lord is very definite. There are no exceptions. You are left on this earth for a very definite purpose and full-time Christian service is something you do not decide to get into, you do not make a decision, you do not “come forward,” you do not “surrender to preach,” you do not dedicate yourself to full-time Christian service, etc. What you do is simply to be born again and you are in it. You are in full-time Christian service and there are two principles involved. The first is ambassadorship and the second is priesthood. Ambassadorship is emphasized in the book of Corinthians whereas in this passage we have priesthood.

The outline of this chapter is a very simple one. In the first nine verses we have the function of the royal priesthood. In verses 10–19 we have the sacrifices of the royal priesthood. In verses 20–25 we have the conclusion.

Sacrifices Pleasing to God

Hebrews 13:1 Let brotherly love continue.

We have in verse 1 the extension of category #3 love. Brotherly love in not what most people think it is at all. Brotherly love is an extension of category #3 love under certain conditions that are specified in the Word of God. The idea of running around and trying to be helpful and being filled with altruism, that is not the Christian life.

The Doctrine of Category #3 Love

1. Definition. For the royal family of God love comes in three categories. Category #1 is toward God, category #2 toward right man or right woman, category #3 toward friends. In addition to this there is an obligatory mental attitude love toward the entire royal family of God. It is known as “loving the brethren.” It is called in our context “brotherly love.” Category #3 love, therefore, refers to the function of love in friendship. It is restricted to those who are truly friends, not just acquaintances. This type of friendship or love is based upon mutual soul rapport. The principle of category #3 love is found in Proverbs 17:17 — “A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity”; 18:24 — “A man of many friends is broken in pieces, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”

a. Category #3 love is a non-touching love.

b. It can be any combination of genders. However, if you have a very jealous wife (or husband), then that knocks out friendship with the opposite gender.

2. Category #3 love provides pleasant and relaxing environment — Proverbs 10:12, “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all transgressions.” There is no true friendship or category #3 love where mental attitude sins exist. The one mentioned here is hatred, it could just as easily be arrogance, jealousy, vindictiveness, etc. Psychosis makes it impossible to have true friends. Romans 13:10 — “Love works no evil to a neighbour; therefore, love is the fulfilment of the law.”

a. Psychosis makes it impossible to have true friends.

b. Those who are selfish from youth up, they will never have true capacity for love.

c. You can relax around your true friends, you don’t have to be on your guard, up tight, etc. If you can’t relax around them, then are they truly your friends?

d. Your friends are not competing with you, therefore your friends do not stab you in the back socially or economically.

e. Your friends guard your privacy.

f. Friends never gossip about you or malign you to others.

3. Therefore, category #3 love is free from hypocrisy. Romans 12:9 — “Let your love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil; cling to that which is good.” This is the basis for setting up true friendship. This sets up the principle of soul rapport.

a. In the avoidance of hypocrisy true friendship is often established. In other words, you can be honest with your friends.

b. When you have a true friendship, friends are not designed to be deceived. Don’t deceive your friends.

c. Anyone you seek to fake out, or anyone to whom you must give a false impression, can never truly be your friend. The person who lives in hypocrisy cannot have true friendships.

d. Some people never have friends because all of their lives they are arrogant and are proud of their hypocrisy, their ability to fake people out, to deceive people. These people are to be avoided.

e. Women like to take arrogant people and lead them on and laugh behind their backs. Such have no capacity for friendship with them.

f. They are impressed about their own ability to put on a false front.

4. Therefore category #3 love is outgoing and objectivity rather than subjective and hypersensitive. 2Samuel 1:26, David’s lament of Jonathan — “I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant hast thou been unto me. Thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women.” The words “distressed for thee” is an idiom that means “I grieve for you”; “very pleasant” should be translated “very kind”; “wonderful” means “extraordinary.” The principle is found also in Galatians 5:13 — “For you were called to freedom, members of the royal family of God; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the old sin nature, but through love serve one another.” Category #3 love is very clearly portrayed under the principle of freedom. You must be free to love and not use it as an opportunity for the function of the old sin nature.

a. Capacity for category #3 love through doctrine resident in the soul is the basis for a relaxed mental attitude toward all believers.

b. You will have few friends but you are commanded as royal family to have a relaxed mental attitude love toward all believers, including the worst stinkers in the family of God.

5. Category #3 love is a function of the soul — Proverbs 27:9,10, “Oil and perfume give happiness to the right lobe; so a man’s soul is sweet to his friends.” In other words, the perfume or the oil which has a very fragrant odour is what a friend does in your own life. “Therefore do not forsake your own friend, or your father’s friend” — some of the best friends you will ever have you father made for you — “therefore do not go to your brother’s house in the day of adversity; better is a friend who is near than a member of the family who is far away.” Category #3 love is not only the function of the soul but it is the function of an adult person in the human race.

a. Of keen interest in Proverbs 27:9,10 is the fact that we inherit friends. This is a most unusual principle of doctrine.

b. Some of the best friends you will ever have in your life time are inherited from your father or your mother. Sometimes you take the place of your father when he passes away.

c. Category #3 love overlaps generations.

d. Under category #3 love there is no generation gap. (There is no such thing as a generation gap)

e. Note also that category #3 friendship is closer than family love.

f. As perfume is sweet to the senses, so category #3 friends are to your soul.

g. To be socially unacceptable is stupid today. Not smelling is simply having consideration for those who you come close to.

6. Jesus Christ commands love in the royal family as an extension of category #3 love — John 15:11–17. Loving the brethren is not category #3 love. Category #3 love is restricted to a few real friends. But we are also commanded to love the brethren — all members of the royal family — as an extension of category #3 love. While Jesus Christ loves all believers we are not all His friends. Philos theou applies to those believers who reach supergrace, as illustrated by Abraham — “Friend” or “Lover of God.” God loves all believers with maximum love — application of propitiation — but all believers are not the friends of God. In other words, God has a few friends in every generation and a lot of believers. “You are my friends if you do what I have commanded you.” He has commanded that they get into doctrine and stay with it.

a. The love which is commanded here is directed to all believers.

b. it is not category #3 friendship, which is limited to a few, but an extension of category #3 love directed to all members of the royal family of God.

c. This extended love to all members of the royal family is strictly a mental attitude, not a social obligation.

d. It is a relaxed mental attitude which comes from the balance of residency in the soul, the balance between doctrine resident in the soul and the filling of the Holy Spirit.

7. Grace dynamics often involve an appeal to category #3 love rather than divine command. The illustration is taken from Philemon verses 8,9. Paul is speaking to his dear friend Philemon, a person who is a category #3 friend. He is basing his request now upon friendship rather than on rank. So he makes an appeal rather than make a direct order as an apostle.

a. As an apostle Paul can order his friend Philemon to free One simus.

b. He prefers to appeal to category #3 love and the friendship between two ambassadors.

c. In this way the freedom of Onesimus becomes a grace function rather than an obedience to a direct order from higher authority.

d. Remember that friendship in category #3 love is limited to a few.

e. It takes both energy and sacrifice to have true friends.

f. The energy and sacrifice is compensated by desire in the soul plus soul capacity.

g. In one life time you will have many acquaintances but few real friends who qualify under the biblical standards of category #3.

h. Learn to distinguish between loving the brethren and category #3 love. They are related but they are different.

i. As previously seen, loving the brethren is an extension of category #3 love but not the same.

j. However loving the brethren has the same source as category #3 love.

8. Category #3 is a giving love — 1Samuel 18:1–4.

9. Category #3 can be neutralized or destroyed. It can be destroyed primarily by mental attitude sins — Job 19:19,22; by verbal sins — Proverbs 16:28; 17:9; by national disaster — Jeremiah 20:4. National disaster breaks up friendships, though it starts new ones.

10. Counterfeit category #3 love or pseudo category #3 love is taught in Proverbs 19:6,7 (Many seek the favor of a generous man, and everyone is a friend to a man who gives gifts. All a poor man's brothers hate him; how much more do his friends go far from him! He pursues them with words, but does not have them.).

a. Generous people are often subject to pseudo friends.

b. At one time, everyone took care of their own. Bob’s grandfather took care of many members of the family.

11. Loss of category #3 love is a part of intensive discipline — Psalm 38:11; Psalm 88:18.

Hebrews 13:1 in the Greek is slightly different to the KJV translation. It says, “Brotherly love [royal family love] must keep enduring.” The words Let continue” is the present active imperative of the verb ménô (μένω) [pronounced MEH-noh], which means to endure, to abide. The suffix, third person singular, applies to the noun philadelphía (φιλαδελφία) [pronounced fil-ad-el-FEE-ah] — the present active imperative plus the noun. The word means “brotherly love” or, in this case, love in the royal family. The nominative singular of the noun philadelphía (φιλαδελφία) [pronounced fil-ad-el-FEE-ah] makes it the subject. Hence, love in the royal family of God is in view in this verse. This is the first function of the royal priesthood. The object of category #3 love are a few real friends; the object of philadelphía (φιλαδελφία) [pronounced fil-ad-el-FEE-ah] are all members of the royal family. We have the customary present tense indicating that which is expected to occur or what habitually should occur in the royal family. The active voice: since philadelphía (φιλαδελφία) [pronounced fil-ad-el-FEE-ah] it produces the action of the verb. The imperative here is the imperative of entreaty. This imperative does not convey the finality of a command so much as the force of an urgent request. “Brotherly love must keep enduring.” Why? Because we are all members of the royal family of God and there must never be any chink, any crack, in the defences of the royal family. We are all in the same priesthood, we all have the same objective. We are commanded to be relaxed toward each other. It is not social life that is involved here.

Hebrews 13:1 Brotherly love [royal family love] must keep enduring.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #234

234 10/22/1974 Hebrews 13:2–4a Illustration of category #3 love

Some guy stood up and blocked people in the middle row; Bob was considering soiling his knuckles on him.

Some people think that they are very knowledgeable about friendship, because they have a lot of friends. People know that friendship and sex exist (cat 2 & 3 love); but they don’t really have this information sorted out in their thinking.

Philadelphia is not category #3 love, but it is an offshoot from it. Cat 3 love is a non-touching love.

Bob reviews the doctrine of category #3 love.

Bob teaches about back-to-back in a bar, if there is about to be a front. How some first learned about the barmaid’s kiss in church.

Next time we will talk about a woman faking a man right out of his shoes. Hypersensitive people can make acquaintances, but they are too worried about how others see them.

A woman ought to consider the friends of a man; take a very good look at these people, because she is about to inherit them as friends.

Cat #3 love can have intergenerational friendships.

W. C. Fields tombstone, “I’d rather be here than Philadelphia.”

We have two illustrations of philadelphía (φιλαδελφία) [pronounced fil-ad-el-FEE-ah], one in verse 2, the principle of hospitality, and one in verses 3, the principle of intercessory prayer. Each in its way illustrates the principle when you understand that hospitality does not mean to entertain your friends. Hospitality means to entertain people who are comparative strangers, people that you know casually, people that you do not know very well, or people that you have never met before. Intercessory prayer often is the same. It is praying for people who are strangers, people you do not know well, people with whom you are not too familiar. The beautiful thing about intercessory prayer is that you can pray for people you do not know at all — and you are commanded to do so.

Both of these illustrations deal with category #3 love extension in the field of brotherly love. Brotherly love is not friendship. Brotherly love is an extension of it but it is simply God’s policy toward the relationship between members of the royal family on the earth. It is God’s policy for the Church, it is God’s policy for the body of Christ. And what is His policy? That all members of the royal family of God while living on the earth will have a relaxed mental attitude toward each other. You don’t have to like believers but you are commanded not to dislike in the sense of having mental attitude sins. You don’t have to speak to believers, you don’t have to have social life with believers. Believers do not have to socialize together. That is lunacy. We are often accused of being lunatics, but we don’t have to live that way.

God does not give a damn whether we like the personality of this or that fellow believer. Some of you have tried to change your personalities, thinking that this is somehow related to spiritual advance. Some people are naturally sweet; we used to have some of these people in this congregation. There are whores who are sweet, and whores who are horrible; kings who are sweet and some who are horrible. There was a gal around Berachah who was naturally sweet. Bob visited this woman’s mother in another city, and the mother said that this daughter was pretty much snotty. Many thought that she was spiritual; and they whispered when saying her name. “Isn’t she spiritual?” Your personality has nothing to do with your spiritual advance.

The first illustration is the principle of hospitality. What really complicates this passage is what is not taught here. There is a spiritual gift of hospitality. Some couples have this gift; a gift that some women have. A gift exercised for the pastors conference. You don’t know them; we don’t know them; and some of you take them into your home. You never know what you are going to get. It is amazing to see how some people actually love doing this. Often they are Yankees and they are unfamiliar with southern hospitality.

Hebrews 13:2 Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

Verse 2 — “Be not forgetful” is the present middle imperative of the verb epilanthánomai (ἐπιλανθάνομαι) [pronounced ehp-ee-lan-THAN-ohm-ahee], it means to neglect or to forget. Here we have the negative mê with it, so it means “Don’t be neglectful, do not forget.” We will use the word “neglect” because this is the word which best represents the present middle imperative. The present tense is an historic present, it views the past historical event with the vividness of a present occurrence. The middle voice is the indirect middle, emphasizing the agent, the member of the royal family of God producing the action rather than participating in its results. The imperative mood plus the negative is called the imperative of prohibition and it should be translated “Stop neglecting.”

“to entertain strangers” is a noun, not an infinitive, and it is in the objective genitive. The noun is philonexía (φιλονεξία) [pronounced fil-on-ex-EE-ah] which means hospitality. It should be translated, “Stop neglecting hospitality.” Why? Hospitality illustrates grace function. Hospitality depends on the character of the host rather than the merits of the stranger. Hospitality is an application of loving the brethren, it is a demonstration of mental attitude love or the relaxed mental attitude of grace orientation.

“for thereby” — this is the explanatory use of the particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] followed by the prepositional phrase dia plus the demonstrative houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos] for something near at hand. It should be translated, “for you see through this [or “through it”].” In other words, you are to understand that there are some real blessings involved here. The demonstrative refers to hospitality.

“some” — the nominative plural of the indefinite pronoun tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] which often expresses a substantive idea in the general sense as representing a category — some in this category, some who have exercise hospitality have actually ..

“have entertained angels” — this is a reference to Abraham entertaining the Lord Jesus Christ as the angel of Jehovah and several angels accompanying Him. It refers specifically and historically to Genesis chapters 18 & 19. It also refers categorically to the fact that you never know that sometimes in entertaining a stranger you are going to have a lifetime friend, you are going to have great blessing in the relationship with the person you have entertained. “Have entertained” is the aorist active participle of the verb xenízō (ξενίζω) [pronounced xen-IHD-zoh] which takes its derivation from an Attic Greek word meaning a stranger, but it can mean either a guest or entertaining a stranger. “Angels” is the usual word for angel, the accusative plural direct object of the noun aggelos (ἄγγελος) [pronounced AHN-geh-loss].

“unawares” is the aorist active indicative from the verb lanthanô (λανθάνω) [pronounced lan-THAN-oh] which is Classical Greek again. It should be translated “they escaped notice.” Lanthanô (λανθάνω) [pronounced lan-THAN-oh] means to escape notice. The third person plural suffix indicates the category of people who are entertained as a blessing escape notice as being something wonderful. The Classical Greek idiom here cannot really be translated “they escape notice,” and this also tells us something about that aorist participle, it is a temporal aorist participle and should be translated “when.” That is, when you are entertaining these people. Therefore the whole Classical Greek idiom undergoes a tremendous change. A temporal participle followed by an actual aorist indicative type verb goes like this:

Hebrews 13:2 Stop neglecting hospitality; for through it some without knowing it have entertained angels.

That is the correct way to translate this entire Attic Greek verse. There is no Koine Greek here at all.

Hospitality, The Gift of

1. Hospitality is not only a blessing to others but becomes a blessing to the grace oriented or supergrace believer who possesses such a modus operandi.

2. Hospitality is another form of generosity in which the believer host merely expresses the doctrine in his soul rather than seeking to gain something by exercising hospitality.

3. A generous person gives without strings or hope of gain.

4. The hospitable royal priest exercises the grace function of host to strangers without desire for reward or without motivation of gaining something.

5. While hospitality brings the stranger into your home intercessory prayer takes you to the stranger in adversity. Hospitality and intercessory prayer are two sides of the same coin. On one side the stranger comes to you, on the other side you go to the stranger.

Hebrews 13:3 Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body.

Verse 3 — again we have a verb for calling to mind. “Remember” is the present middle imperative from mimnêskō (μιμνήσκω) [pronounced mim-NACE-koe]. It is middle and passive in form in the New Testament and here it has a reflexive meaning and it means to call to mind, to keep in mind. It comes to mean in the middle voice to be concerned about. To be concerned about strangers without intruding into their privacy demands that you are aware of their adversities. The present tense is the customary present denoting what habitually occurs to the growing believer. The imperative is a direct command.

“them that are in bonds” — the noun desmioj plus the definite article. It means “prisoners,” it is in the plural. This is the objective genitive plural of the definite article plus the objective genitive plural of the noun desmioj and it should be translated simply “the prisoners.”

At the time of writing the Roman empire was at a state of great upset. This is the last year and a half of the reign of the present Caesar. The phrase “the prisoners” is a reference to the persecutions of the royal family of God by the reigning emperor in Rome in 67 AD. This concern would be expressed in intercessory prayer, but remember this is prayer for people you have not seen. You do not have to know the believers personally to pray for them but you must know your rights and privileges as a royal priest. You have to understand the doctrine of prayer, how it works and how it functions, as a member of the royal family of God.

Lucius Domitious Hannibarbas he had a long aristocracy background. His uncle Claudius adopted him. He gave him a long name, but we call him Nero. Bob gives some background on Nero, including his two attempts to kill his mother; and he killed the Apostle Paul. After being king, he went to Rome to participate in singing contests. He won, but his general Vespacion went with him and was honest and said, “I have been told you are the worst singer.” Nero put him in command of the Jewish troops; and this is they way that Vespacion became emperor of Rome. Nero needed light for his cocktail party. He would tie these Christians from the jails, who would be hung up and covered with tar. At various times, they would be lit up and burned for light.

This is why people prayed for such believers.

“as bound with them” — the comparative particle hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] is used as a conjunction to express comparison. And with this we have the perfect passive participle of sundew. It means “as fellow prisoners.” The participle is used as a noun. While the Jews in Jerusalem are not imprisoned by the Romans as yet, they are members of the same royal family of God, members of the body of Christ. They belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, they are in union with Him. All believers are in union with Christ, the believers in Rome are being imprisoned, believers in Jerusalem are still free. So we have a principle here: All believers are in the same royal family. The principle is also found in 1Corinthians 12 under the doctrine of the body. But here, intercessory prayer for those unseen and unknown is a means of expressing brotherly love or philadelphía (φιλαδελφία) [pronounced fil-ad-el-FEE-ah]. Intercessory prayer is grace support for suffering members of the family of God. So, “as fellow prisoners.” Why are they called fellow prisoners? Not because they are in prison but because the word dew in the verb sundew means to be bound with them. They are bound together as members of the royal family.

“them which suffer adversity” — we have an articular participle, kakouchéō (κακουχέω) [pronounced kak-oo-KHEH-oh] [kakô means bad; oukeô means torture, maltreatment, incarceration, etc.] So we can translate it, “those who are being maltreated.” The historical present views a past historical event with the vividness of a present occurrence. It is just as vivid to us now as it was during the time in which it was happening in AD 67. The passive voice: the believers receive maltreatment, torture, persecution, from Nero. The participle is a temporal participle. And with this we supply once again mimneskomai — “remember the ones being maltreated.” Remember them in prayer, that is the only way they can be remembered.

“as being yourselves also in the body” — this part of the verse is correctly translated.

Hebrews 13:3 Be concerned about prisoners, as fellow prisoners; be concerned about those who are being maltreated, as being yourselves in the members of the body.

We are all in this together. All believers on the earth are on the same team.

Hebrews 13:4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Marriage, whether good or bad, is still a contract, a divinely ordained contract.

Verse 4 — “Marriage” is ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] gámos (γάμος) [pronounced GAM-oss]; “is honourable” — whether it is a good one or a bad one the principle is there. There is no verb here. We have a predicate nominative, tímios (τίμιος) [pronounced TIHM-ee-oss], which means to be held in honour or noble. When you have a very strong construction like this, the omission of certain words — we are still in Classical Greek — allows the bringing in of one word. It is understood every time, it is an idiom. This word is never expressed but it is always understood. The word is estô, the present active imperative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] and it is translated “Let [the divine institution of] marriage be held in honour [or respect].”

“in all” is incorrect. It is “by all” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs], and “by all” means by all the human race.

“and the bed” — the word for “bed” in the Greek is koítē (κοίτη) [pronounced KOY-tay], and it doesn’t mean the bed for sleeping. It is a reference to sexual intercourse. Why did the Greeks use the word “bed” here for sex? This is a euphemistic word, so it is used euphemistically for sexual intercourse from the time of Homer in the 9th century BC. Therefore the bed was used euphemistically for sexual intercourse. So we translate this, “and the sex act.” God designed it to be one of the great institutions of life. Sex, as a part of divine institution #2, is a divine institution in itself.

“undefiled” — amiantos (ἀμίαντος) [pronounced am-EE-an-toss]. a means “no”; miainô (μιαίνω) [pronounced me-AH-ee-noh] means sewage. We can be euphemistic and say something like “not covered with sewage” or “unsoiled.” Miainô (μιαίνω) [pronounced me-AH-ee-noh] here, which seems to cover it, is going to be discussed under the principle of adultery or fornication, which is covering the act with sewage. “And the sexual relationship of marriage unsoiled by fornication” is what it means.

1972 Hebrews 13:4 Lesson #235

235 10/23/1974 Hebrews 13:4 via Prov. 5:1–23 Doctrine of adultery

Hebrews 13:4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

One of the most important things that every believer needs to understand is morality and spirituality. First of all, you need to understand that they are not the same, that while spirituality and morality are both found in the scriptures they cover different areas, although there is some overlap. Morality is best defined as the means by which the divine institutions function, whereas spirituality is the means of functioning in doctrine. Unbelievers can have morality but they do not have spirituality. On the other hand the believer with doctrine has both morality and spirituality. The reversionistic believer has neither. Spirituality functions through the power of the Spirit; morality functions through the volitional and mental aspects of the soul. Hebrews 13:4 is one of those areas where morality and spirituality are both enjoined as far as the royal family of God is concerned.

In the first part of this verse we have already seen ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] gámos (γάμος) [pronounced GAM-oss], “the marriage,” is held in honour. “Let the divine institution of marriage be respected [or held on honour] by all.”

“but” is the adversative conjunction, but it isn’t really a conjunction at all. Instead, it is an epexegetical conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] and it should be translated “for.” And next we have two old English words “whoremongers and adulterers.” So we go to the Greek of this passage to discover exactly what we have. The word “whoremonger” is the accusative plural direct object of the noun pornos (πόρνος,ου,ὁ) [pronounced POHR-nos], and pornos (πόρνος,ου,ὁ) [pronounced POHR-nos] has a very definite technical meaning. We will translate it with its plural, “fornicators.” That doesn’t tell us what it means, that simply is the translation.

We next have an accusative plural direct object word which is not synonymous, moichós (μοιχός) [pronounced moy-KHOSS]. We can translate these “fornicators and adulterers” provided that it is understood what they mean. A fornicator is a person having illicit premarital sex. Moichós (μοιχός) [pronounced moy-KHOSS] refers to illicit post-marital sex. The only thing these two have in common is “illicit.”

The battalion over at T&P answers a great many calls before Bob gets to them.

Instead of covering a doctrine, Bob is going to cover a chapter in Proverbs.

Proverbs 5

Pro 5:1 My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding,

Verse 1 — “My son” has two connotations. In the original passage it was David teaching his son Solomon, but it is also used in the sense of members of the class or students. “My students, concentrate on my doctrine, extend your ear to my understanding,” — a Hebrew idiom which means to concentrate.

If you can be objective regarding sex, you can be objective to almost any topic.

Pro 5:2 that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.

Verse 2 — Why? His objective: “To guard against feminine divisiveness, as for knowledge that your lips may guard it.” This is something that you must learn and some day you will have the privilege of passing on this information to someone in need somewhere.

Pro 5:3 For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil,

Verse 3 — the divisive female. “For distilled honey [flattery, the way she sets you up] drips from the lips of her that is the reversionist, and more flattering than oil is the inside of her mouth.” The inside of her mouth is the most dangerous part, her tongue.

Distilled honey is the flattery a woman uses to caress the male ego in order to set him up. the man's very arrogance about his attractiveness or success; and he is vulnerable to those who will use him. He cannot blame the woman who flatters him and appeals to his arrogance. It is his own mental attitude sins that makes him vulnerable.

Pro 5:4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

Verse 4 — “However entanglement with her becomes like wormwood” — wormwood is a word for cheap wine. With cheap wine you may get some kind of a rosy glow but the hangover you are going to get is unbelievable — “sharp as a double-edged sword.”

Pro 5:5 Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol;

Verse 5 — At the time that this was written one of the great sex symbols in the woman was the foot. The foot was often the only part of the body that could be seen. So, that bare skin was very stimulating to the male of the ancient world.

“Her seductive feet are going down to death [the sin unto death or reversionism]; her sexy mincing steps embrace the grave.” In this verse the sexual attractiveness of the woman’s foot in the ancient world is used in the analogy.

Pro 5:6 she does not ponder the path of life [her manner of lives]; her ways [lifestyle] wander [waivers back and forth], and she does not know it.

Verse 6 — “Perhaps you should consider her manner of lives” — a woman who is promiscuous , on the prowl, doesn’t have a manner of life, the Bible says she has a manner of lives. In other words, she lives a life in each sexual encounter. This means that a promiscuous woman will have a number of sexual encounters with different men, she is not faithful to one man.

Therefore she is unstable — “her manner of life wavers back and forth” — she is with you now, she is going to late-date you later on with another one — “you do not know her.” An arrogant man does not know any woman. Never understands her; never will.

Pro 5:7 And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

Verse 7 — “Listen to me, my sons [class], and do not depart from the words of my mouth.” At this point he stops and repeats what he said in verse 1: “Listen”. Why? After six verses he has stepped on someone’s toes. So there is the distraction of getting into your own problems and failing to get the next point. Already you remember things which have happened; and your focus is on yourself and no longer on the teacher. It means regroup now, get away from your problems.

Pro 5:8 Keep your way [sex life] far from her, and do not go near the door of her house,...

Verse 8 — “Remove your sex life from her, do not come near the door of her house” — when you happen to be in the vicinity and you come to her door, keep moving. Move right on by.

Where men are smarter than women, they are not in this area. Weakness and strength is in the soul, not in the body.

Pro 5:9 ...lest you give your honor [this is a man’s sexual glory] to others and your years to the merciless [or, your years of sexual performance to the wrong women],...

Verse 9 — “Lest you give your glory” — Every man has been given from God the ability to produce in his body that which is called glory. Glory is the male in sex. While the male lion has a mane the male in the human race has sexual glory. And a man gives his sexual glory. The principle here is a very simple one: Do not give your glory to a pseudo, to a phony woman. A man has glory in two ways. The glory of his sexual capabilities which are designed for his right woman. He has them on a momentary basis and he has them over a .long period of time. In the second line of verse 9 we have the long period of time — “and your years of sexual vigour to the vindictive.” In other words, some people make it a lifetime of messing around with every female who bats her eyes. Promiscuous men dissipate and destroy their glory.

The word “sex” is used in the term of “glory” for one person only, the right woman. Therefore dissipating or giving your glory to someone else is not only fornication or adultery but more than that it is the dissipation of something that God designed for one person only. All promiscuous women are vindictive.

Pro 5:10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength [lest promiscuous women become satiated with your vigor in sexual performance], and your labors go to the house of a foreigner [a whorehouse]...,

Verse 10 — “Lest promiscuous women become satiated with your vigour in sexual performance” — in other words, you are giving away your glory to something that is not worthwhile — “and your human male body be shattered in a whorehouse.” In other words, the man and the man’s sex apparatus is very delicate. The man’s sexual glory can be destroyed soulishly or physically. Soulishly it is destroyed with words and physically it is destroyed with promiscuity and the various types of venereal diseases. Here is verse 10 the man is portrayed as the total sucker.

Pro 5:11 and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,

Verse 11 — “And in distress you groan at your end — the end here is impotence, no sex, failure to utilize your glory with your right woman — “when your body and your phallus are ruined.”

Pro 5:12 and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

Verse 12 — “And you say, I have hated disciplinary warning” — that means that the various types of discipline in reversionism didn’t succeed — “also my right lobe despised and ridiculed corrective discipline.”

Pro 5:13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.

Verse 13 — “Furthermore I have not listened to or obeyed the voice of my pastor, nor concentrated on the message of those who taught me!” Therefore it is a spiritual problem: failure to take in doctrine.

Pro 5:14 I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.”

Verse 14 — this man goes on to explain that when he neglected doctrine, when he ignored warning discipline, “Shortly after that I was in every kind of trouble, both in the worship assembly and in the function of the nation.”

Now he has learned his lesson, so in verse 15 there is some advice:

Pro 5:15 Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.

Verse 15 — “Drink waters of pleasure from your own cistern” — the cistern here is a covered well which refers to one’s right woman. She is a well that only uncovers for you. She is covered, you are the only one who has the right to drink there. She is waiting for you, you are waiting for her — “and flowing waters [good sex response] from your own well.”

Pro 5:16 Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?

Verse 16 — “Your fountains [sexual acts] should not overflow to other women,” — that causes revolution — “in the streets the dividing of waters.” In other words, the instability of the nation comes from the instability of a nation’s sex life.

Pro 5:17 Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.

Distortion that oral sex is not a problem with a relationship outside of marriage. When you do that, you have something to confess. The idea that this is permissible and is not sin. That is as screwball as you can get.

Is it worth it? How much can you teach an idiot.

15 things you can do on a date; that is idiocy.

The jungle music indicates that spiritual state of us. The problem of literature. If the society is straight, there is no market for pornography. If the society is confused, then there is a market for it.

One ass is trouble; two are confusion.

Pro 5:18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,

Verse 18 — “ … “therefore take pleasure in the woman of your sexual vigour.”

Pro 5:19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.

Verse 19 — “Who is an amorous sexy doe” — the word “doe” is used because of the grace of the doe, and therefore amorous, sexy means she is a graceful person and that her physical body conforms to the physical body of her right man. She is called a “wild she goat of grace” which means a very, very responsive person to you. She responds with abandon — “her breasts shall intoxicate you at all times, you shall always wander up and down her body in the area of her love.”

The mountain goats go all over the mountains and never loses their step. Like the right woman.

Pro 5:20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?

Verse 20 — “So why, my son, should you wander up and down the body of a promiscuous woman, or embrace the genitals of a nymphomaniac.”

Pro 5:21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths.

Verse 21 — “For before the eyes of the Lord are the ways of a man, and God weighs all of his tracks” — the tracks to the doors.

Pro 5:22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.

Verse 22 — “His own reversionism will trap him with a reversionistic woman, furthermore he will be seized and bound with the chains of his own feminine idol.” A man makes an idol out of a promiscuous woman and he chains himself to that idol.

Sex with the wrong woman

1. By having sex with the wrong woman the reversionistic believer is binding himself to an idol he has fashioned with his phallus.

2. But this idol of man’s adulterous manufacturing is not the right woman created for him by God.

3. Man in fornication has intruded on God’s perfect design, so fornication or adultery is blasphemy.

4. Every act of fornication is another chain or rope binding the reversionist to an idol called sex.

5. Every inconsequential person taken to bed is another link in the slavery to sex.

6. Once the right woman comes along the phallic reversionist is so bound to his sex idol that he has no capacity for category #2 love.

7. The idol cannot satisfy, only the reality. The fornicator who does not wait for the real thing will never know the happiness designed for category #2 love.

Pro 5:23 He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray.

Verse 23 — “He [the reversionist] shall die without doctrine, and in the magnitude of his folly he shall go astray.”

1972 Hebrews Lesson #236

236 10/24/1974 Hebrews 13:4 via Prov. 6:20–32 Doctrine of category #2 love

Hebrews 13:4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

Proverbs 6:20 My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching.

Proverbs 6:20 — the words “My son” refers to students. In the original concept it was David instructing Solomon in the area of divine institutions, but it comes to mean students, those who are in the classroom.

“guard and preserve the commands of your father, and do not abandon the law of your mother” — the principles that we have studied in Proverbs 5 should be taught in the home. The fact that they are not taught in the home is indicative of the failure of parents to properly train their children for life and the result is tremendous reversionism. They are also related to doctrine in verse 21 …

Proverbs 6:21 Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck.

Verse 21 — “Tie them [the doctrines] to your right lobe [the function of GAP] always, fasten them around your neck” — fastening around the neck has to do with the ancient notebooks. The phylactery or the notebook was tied around the neck and inside were written portions of the scripture, and when you had time you simply opened the pouch and read them, learned them, studied them.

Proverbs 6:22 When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.

Verse 22 — “Wherever you go, she [doctrine] will guide you; when you lie down to sleep, doctrine will guard you; when you wake up, doctrine will converse with you.”

Proverbs 6:23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

Verse 23 — “For happiness is the commandment, and the law is prosperity, and the way of life is the discipline of doctrine.” These few verses emphasize the importance of knowing Bible doctrine and having it resident in your soul, and being very familiar with the principles involved.

Proverbs 6:24 to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

Verse 24 — the purpose is now given in regard to our subject. “To guard you from a reversionistic woman, from the flattering tongue of the wrong woman.” This refers to the fact that every man is vulnerable in time of pride, that the male is very vulnerable when it comes to flattery, and the only protection is Bible doctrine in the soul.

Proverbs 6:25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;

Verse 25 — “Do not lust after her beauty in your right lobe” — notice that the frame of reference in the right lobe is hooked up with the old sin nature and is the basis of lust. Man is weak through his lust. Pride as a mental attitude sin plus lust weakens the man in the place where strength or weakness is measured. The soul is the area for the measurement of strength or weakness — “and not let her arouse your passion with her eyelashes.”

Proverbs 6:26 for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life.

Verse 26 — “Because for the sake of the fornicating woman the right man comes to the smallest piece of bread [crumbs] — he comes to poverty — “and the right woman of the right man will hunt for him for his precious soul.” The implication is she will not find it because he is down where the crumbs are and she isn’t.

Proverbs 6:27 Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned?

Verse 27 — “Can a man drop a hot coal in his pocket, and his clothes not be burned?”

Proverbs 6:28 Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched.

Verse 28 — “Can a man walk on hot coals, and his feet not be burned?”

Proverbs 6:29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife; none who touches her will go unpunished.

Verse 29 — “So the once going to seduce his neighbour’s wife, the one touching her will not remain unpunished.”

Proverbs 6:30 People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry.

Verse 30 — “They do not despise a thief when he steals to satisfy his appetite, or when he is starving”

Proverbs 6:31 but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold; he will give all the goods of his house.

Verse 31 — “If he is apprehended, he shall restore seven times the value of what he has stolen; he shall give up the entire wealth of his estate.” This is the way they dealt with a thief in the ancient world. In other words, a thief did not lose his life.

Proverbs 6:32 He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself.

Verse 32 — “The one who keeps on fornicating with a wrong woman is destitute of right lobe, he that seduces her corrupts his own soul.” So he punishes himself.

Hebrews 13:4 — “for fornicators and adulterers.”

Summary

1. Inasmuch as marriage is a coalescence of body and soul it is imperative that all who are single wait for the right man or the right woman.

2. While waiting premarital sex is ruled out. Sexual experience, contrary to popular belief, does not improve marriage. Sexual experience does not improve sex, much less marriage. Therefore premarital sex is not necessary to be great in expressing one’s category #2 love toward one’s opposite number. You can be a terrible lover in category #2 love because you have been promiscuous prior to marriage. The idea that you need training before marriage is ludicrous.

3. Premarital sexual experience is neither necessary nor desirable, in fact the Word of God says it is forbidden.

4. It is forbidden because it destroys the soul part of sex, which is the most important. The ignition for sex is in the soul, not in the genitalia.

5. The blessing and happiness of sex is designed by God in eternity past between one right man and one right woman.

6. There must be a coalescence of souls so that the ignition must not be fouled up. There must be the ability to respond.

“God” — ho Theos, “the God”; “will judge” — future active indicative of the verb krinô (κρίνω) [pronounced KREE-no]. The gnomic future here is unusual. It is a statement of fact or performance which is to be rightfully expected under normal conditions. The reason it is a gnomic future is because occasionally there are exceptions. When people rebound and get with doctrine they become an exception to the rule. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb, prohibiting illicit sex before marriage as well as during. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality and certainty.

Hebrews 13:4 Let the divine institution of marriage be held in honour by all the human race, and the sexual relationship of marriage unsoiled by infidelity: for the God will judge fornicators and adulterers.

Principles

1. The first principle is a reminder to learn to distinguish between fornication and adultery. Fornication deals more with the ignition system whereas adultery deals more with the physical system of the body.

2. Fornication, then, is premarital infidelity to a future right man or right woman, hence premarital sex is infidelity to an ideal.

3. Adultery is post-marital infidelity to right man or right woman and therefore is unfaithfulness to a person.

Any sex relationship outside the marriage bond is illicit.

The Doctrine of Category #2 Love

1. For the royal family of God love comes in three categories: a) toward God; b) right man-right woman; c) friendship. In addition to these three categories there is an obligatory relaxed mental attitude toward all members of the royal family. This is not category #3 love, it is simply an extension of category #3 love. Category #2 love refers to the soul and body relationship between a right man and a right woman. It is a touching love, it is a touching of the souls as well as the bodies. It therefore consists of a soul and body rapport. Sex is the unique expression of this love.

2. A panoramic view. Song of Solomon 8:6,7. This passage, by way of background, is the story of Solomon’s divine discipline for his failure to wait for his right woman. First of all there was infidelity to the ideal as indicated by his extensive conquests. Then there was infidelity to the right woman when he finally found her, for he put her immediately in a harem with hundreds of others. However, his right woman was not his right woman, she was merely the most beautiful woman of her time. She is called the Shulamite woman. She had a shepherd lover who was her right man. The shepherd lover, the right man, has rescued the Shulamite woman from the harem, and Solomon the villain of the passage has been frustrated. They are traveling in his chariot and are having a conversation. The conversation deals with the subject very close to both of them, category #2 love. The man speaks to her and as he speaks to her of the subject there emerges the panoramic category #2 love principle — one man designed for one woman in eternity past.

a. The first thing he says to her deals with the soul relationship. The first thing that must be emphasized is soul relationship. He says first of all, “Set me” — the qal imperative of the verb sum which means to impress, like on wax. In the ancient world you didn’t write your signature, you merely had someone etch it on a signet ring, and then you simply had soft wax at the bottom of the paper, took off your signet ring and pressed it into the wax. You had sinned. So “set me” means to impress with your signature.

b. “as a seal” — this is to indicate what kind of impression we have in the analogy. The word for “seal” is a signet ring really, chotham. When a man was engaged to a woman he gave her a ring. She wore it around her neck, suspended between her breasts, and it meant she had already discovered her right man, that she belonged to him, she was wearing his signet ring. She wore it to portray the fact that she belonged to her right man and no other. This is the same concept as the woman today in the 20th century wearing an engagement ring. So “Set me as a seal” means “take my signet ring.”

c. “upon thine heart” means that the identification of right man, right woman must be made in the soul and it must be the identification of one soul to another. The body is secondary. Right man and right woman identify each other in the soul, not in the body. The right man must be engraved in the woman’s soul — stamped with the signet ring. The fact that she wears the ring around her neck suspended on a cord or a chain merely means that in her soul his name, representing his person, is stamped in her soul forever. That is divine design. The signet ring signifies waiting for the right man. The signet ring must be in the soul before it is placed on the finger — the 20th century meaning. Soul love must precede sex love. The first thing you notice, then, in the panorama of category #2 love is the soul relationship.

d. “as a seal upon thine arm” — this takes us to the sexual or the physical relationship between a right man and a right woman. It is really a signet rather than a seal. “Upon your arm” here means “on your strength.” When the right man in sex fulfils the right woman’s body he becomes her strength. A woman is never stronger than when a man has given his glory to the woman — he has completely satisfied her in the sexual relationship. At that moment he may be totally weak but she is totally strong.

e. The third part of the panorama is the principle of category #2 love — “for love is as strong as death.” Category #2 love carries the strength, the power, the influence of death. Death is a motivator in life. People do a lot of things because they are afraid of death. They do a lot of things by overcoming the fear of death. Category #2 love is also a strong motivator in life. The power of category #2 love is related to death as an analogy, and it introduces a great enemy — “jealousy,” qinah. It is used here for the mental attitude sin.

3. While category #2 love is as strong as death and cannot be quenched by any pressures of life, death does destroy pseudo category #2 love and its resultant mental attitude sins — Ecclesiastes 9:5,6: “For the living know that they will die; but the dead do not know anything [anything about the living and what is going on in time] and do not have any longer a reward; for their memory is forgotten” — they cannot go back and remember the difficulties of life on earth. There is a purpose for bringing this out and it is found in verse 6 — “Consequently their pseudo love” — these are people who did not live well and died poorly, people who in life were full of mental attitude sins, and therefore could not, even if they found right man or right woman, enjoy, they didn’t have the capacity. They were filled with jealousy, bitterness, vindictiveness, hatred, arrogance, etc. — “their hate and their jealousy have already perished” — when you try to build category #2 love on mental attitude sins the only thing you have to look forward to is dying because in dying you get away from the illusion that you can love someone under category #2 and at the same time entertain mental attitude sins — “therefore they will no longer have a share in all that is done under the sun” — they are dead, they missed the boat is what the passage is saying. Category #2 love is available even to unbelievers, and unbelievers in time when they find the right woman or the right man, and they have the capacity, it is wonderful. But death cuts off the possibility of ever knowing how wonderful category #2 love can be. The only chance of ever knowing how wonderful category #2 love is is to be free from these mental attitude sins.

4. Category #2 love is designed for one person of the opposite sex. All other are excluded. Proverbs 5:15–19 Drink waters of pleasure [sex] from your own cistern [covered storage, your own right woman is covered and only for you uncovered], and flowing waters [sexual response] from your own well [your own right woman]. Your fountains [your sex acts] shall not overflow to other women; dividing of waters in the streets. Let them [sex acts] be reserved for your one and only [right woman], and not for a reversionistic promiscuous woman. Your fountain [sex life] shall be permanently blessed, therefore take pleasure in the woman of your vigour [right woman], who is an amorous, sexy doe, a wild she-goat of grace [she is totally abandoned to you]; her breasts shall intoxicate you at all times [“That’s how some people get off the bottle”], and you shall wander up and down her body in the area of her love. Anything goes, if there is mutual agreement.

5. Category #2 love is the provision of God’s grace — Proverbs 18:22, “Whosoever finds his right woman receives grace from the Lord.” The source of right woman is divine design in eternity past.

6. God has set aside time in each life for category #2 love — Ecclesiastes 3:8. However, certain functions of life can destroy the allotted time to love. Mental attitude sins like jealousy, others things which include promiscuity, drug addiction — the chemical destruction of the soul destroys capacity for all categories of love. Chemicals destroy the soul and love response. You get on hard narcotics and you destroy the ignition of the soul.

a. At a party, a guy said he was going to stop drinking, and he said that he will quit because his father is a drunk and he can’t have sex. And this guy likes sex.

b. Too much alcohol in the blood means you are no longer a red-blooded good American boy.

c. Unfaithful to the principle of rm/rw, you can destroy your sexual response as well.

7. Category #2 love is more important than circumstances of life — Proverbs 15:17 Better is a dish of herbs where love is, than a fatted ox and hatred with it.

a. Bob understands that they do not call horses Black Beauty anymore.

8. Category #2 love is protective in absence and in presence. In absence we have the sealing of the soul, the impressing the soul with the signet ring, and with that sealing of the soul we have the fragrance of memories — Song of Solomon 1:13; 4:6. The presence protection is Song of Solomon 2:4 — He has brought me to the house of wine [she is perfectly safe], his banner of love is over me. In other words, she is protected by his love.

9. Women must be taught to love under category #2. Everything that women do well they have to be taught. The women must teach the other women how to love. Women are responders by divine design in their souls, and since they are responders all responders must be taught. Who teaches them? A woman who has learned.

a. Bob learned the basic doctrines from someone else.

b. To learn to love, a woman requires a lot of training.

c. Everything in life requires training.

d. Women learn how to love their husbands from another woman (usually the mother), but she learns sex from her husband.

Points 3–9 are lesson #237.

I separated out this doctrine, which was given earlier in the doctrine of category #2 love.

Jealousy, the Great Enemy of Love

1. Mental attitude sins of all kinds destroy category #2 love.

2. Jealousy is the strongest of all mental attitude sins [pride is the worst] — Proverbs 27:3,4.

3. Jealousy always motivates persons to revenge tactics — Proverbs 6:34.

4. Reversionism as a spiritual maladjustment is always characterized by jealousy — Romans 1:28,29; James 3:14,16.

5. Jealousy rejects Bible teaching and Bible doctrine — Acts 13:45; 17:5.

6. False doctrine, therefore, produces jealousy — 1Timothy 6:4.

7. Jealousy motivated the brothers of Joseph to sell him into slavery — Acts 7:9. Therefore jealousy is a motivator that destroys category #3 relationships.

8. Jealousy and all mental attitude sins destroy the soul, producing mental illness — Job 5:2; Proverbs 14:30.

9. Jealousy destroys category #2 love — Song of Solomon 8:6.

10. So great a sin is jealousy that under the Levitical code an entire chapter and an entire sacrifice was devoted to it — Numbers 5:11–31.

11. Jealousy causes revolution. The jealousy of Ephraim split the nation of Israel — Isaiah 11:13.

12. Jealousy motivated the religious leaders in our Lord’s day to crucify Him — Matthew 27:18; Mark 15:10.

I kept all of this doctrine with Lesson #236. From point 3 forward in the Doctrine of category #2 love, we are on lesson #237.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #237

237 10/25/1974 Hebrews 13:4–5a; Eccl. 9:5–6 Doctrine of category #2 love (cont.)

In San Jose, a man snatched a purse; and he was nearly hit by a truck in pursuit. He was shot at by another guy. 3^rd person had a knife and opened up the garbage can where he was hiding and held the knife to him and waited for the police.

We are hearing a lot from the new president, off to a bad start by offering amnesty to deserters. By next summer, we might be out of food. The president is saying a lot of things, but they all do.

1918 is the last president who made any sense. The men not willing to die for their country are not worthy to live in it. (Teddy Roosevelt)

We live in a time....darkies run the country. Pushed all over the place in buses, taking over every major city, making sure that we have concrete jungles. They are lawless and evil. Someone who calls himself an African American, he should be sent to Mozambik. Bob hates the advertising and liked Amos & Andy. Bob liked the honesty of Indians who went after a man’s scalp if they interfered with their hunting ground.

When conditions are similar to those in the past, and there is a solution offered, we should take that spiritual solution.

We live in a challenging period of time, when our need for doctrine is greater than it has ever been before. Our attitude towards doctrine should be intensified.

We have begun the Doctrine of Category #2 love. Bob begins to review this and goes back to completing.

Almost the entire lesson is spent completing the Doctrine of Category #2 Love (points 3–9).

I am not sure of what notes below, how much are with Lesson #237. Bob is going to pick up with money on Sunday. The next verse (v. 5) is all about money. Money is a problem, it is a way of life, it is a lot of things.

Hebrews 13:4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.

“jealousy is as cruel as the grave” — the grave is cruel in that it robs us of loved ones. So jealousy has the same cruelty, it robs us of the one we love the most in category #2. Jealousy can destroy with finality the love between a right man and a right woman.

Next in the panorama is the illustration of category #2 love — “its coals are coals of fire” should be “her flames [of her love] are the flames of fire, the flame for the Lord.” Fire is used here in the sense of passion, power, intensity of category #2 love. So great is the soul and sexual relationship of category #2 love that nothing in life compares to it, it is unique and overpowering like the flames of a fire.

Translation: “Stamp me like a signet ring on your right lobe, as a signet ring on your strength; for love is as strong as death, jealousy is as cruel as the grave; her flames [of love] are the flames of fire, this flame is from the Lord.”

Verse 7 continues the panorama with the durability of category #2 love. Having expressed the passion of category #2 love in terms of a fire, the flames that get greater and greater and stronger and stronger as the fire burns, many waters can’t put out the fire. “Many waters” refer to the pressures, the disasters, the many problems which confront category #2 love. God did not bring the Shulamite woman to her shepherd lover until He had used her to punish Solomon for his failure to comply to Proverbs chapter five, which was originally given by David to Solomon.

“cannot quench love” — “are not able to extinguish the love”; “neither can the floods [lit. flood waters] drown it.” There is no water of human pressure or adversity that can extinguish the flames of category #2 love.

The last picture in the panorama: Category #2 love cannot be purchased. The literalTranslation: “If a man were to give all the wealth of his estate for love, it would be totally rejected.” In other words, a millionaire could give all of his money and his love would be totally rejected. You can’t buy category #2 love.

Translation: “May waters are not able to extinguish the fire of this love, nor can floodwaters inundate it. If a man were to give all the wealth of his estate for [category #2] love, it would be totally rejected.”

Principle: Category #2 love cannot be purchased with all the money in the world. Money cannot buy what was designed by God in eternity past. God’s grace design in category #2 love is a fire which cannot be extinguished by any adversity or by any hardship in life. You yourself can destroy it by promiscuity or mental attitude sins, but it cannot be destroyed from the outside. Category #2 love is not for sale, it is the most common form of legalism to seek to purchase what can only be provided by the grace of God.

Hebrews 13:5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Hebrews 13:5 — the supergrace perspective. “Let your” is not found in the original, and yet it does belong here. “Your conversation” is ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] tropos, and it means way of life, modus vivendi, lifestyle — “let your lifestyle.” It is the thinking that is the life of the individual. Your living depends upon your ability to think, and if you have a limited vocabulary you have a limited life — limited by your vocabulary. This is why this was translated in the KJV “conversation", because conversation is the formation of words. The formation of words means the development of thought. Your ability to think depends upon your vocabulary.

The word “be” is not found here. This is Classical Greek in this passage, so we add estô, the present active imperative of eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME] which is used to translate a Classical Greek idiom into English. So it should be “Let your lifestyle be.”

“without covetousness” is a predicate nominative in an Attic Greek phrase — aphilárguros (ἀφιλάργυρος) [pronounced af-il-AR-goo-ross]. The a (alpha) is negative; philos is love; argureos (ἀργύρεος) [pronounced ar-GOO-reh-oss] is silver. It means love of money. “Let your lifestyle be free from the love of money.”

Some of the full translations above need to be added into this overall study.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #238

238 10/27/1974 Hebrews 13:5a Doctrine of money (pts. 1–6)

The purpose of Hebrews is to bring us to maturity.

We have already covered the major concepts of doctrine and the last chapter of Hebrews brings a phase of application, of applicatory doctrines. These doctrines are the links between that which is resident in our soul and the dynamics of our life as members of the royal priesthood in this life. Therefore our handling of friendship, of sex and love, of money, all relate to the subject and indicates once again that the Bible is very practical and very unusual in this regard. We have before us a very interesting passage which covers two verses and changes the subject.

Average stock is worth about a third of what it was a year ago. This is a worldwide problem. Some quotes from those who are expecting a depression. The most serious of our problems is worldwide inflation. Money is tight; bankruptcies are up. More and more consumers and others scramble for money. Interest rates at record levels. A trend towards shorter working hours throughout the week. England was unable to pay its fuel funds to the Middle East. England has been rocked by mammoth payment deficits.

Bob spends 10 min. or so on the troubles that we are in financially speaking.

The place to start here is not to be afraid what man can do to us. If you are a believer in this world today where you are in great debt, then perhaps you are in trouble. However, we are going to study money; and we are not to worry about money. That does not mean to be stupid about money.

Hebrews 13:5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

“Let you conversation be without covetousness” is not quite a correctly translated phrase. The word “conversation” is tropos (τρόπος) [pronounced TROP-oss] and it means “lifestyle.” It means manner of life and manner of life always begins in the soul. Manner of life is what you think. What you think is formed into words and so the translator used the word “conversation", but today it means way of life, modus vivendi, or lifestyle; “without covetous” — aphilárguros (ἀφιλάργυρος) [pronounced af-il-AR-goo-ross] which means love of money. This should be translated correctly from the Classical Greek idiom, so it actually means, “Let your lifestyle be free from the love of money.”

Philippians 4:11,12 — “Not that I speak with reference to poverty; for I have come to learn, in whatever circumstances I am, to keep on being content.” The apostle Paul through his own spiritual growth was content in every circumstance of life. “I know how to live in poverty, and I know how to live in prosperity; in all places and in all circumstances I have been taught the secret both how to be well fed and how to be hungry.” Here is a man who because of doctrine in his soul knows how to be hungry, knows how to be well fed, whose capacity for life is so great that his circumstances are inconsequential and he enjoys all kinds of circumstances — both how to prosper and how to be in poverty.

Circumstances in life vary, this is the devil’s world, it is inevitable that life will be unstable from the standpoint of overall circumstances. The only stability we have in this life comes from our Lord Jesus Christ who is the controller of history and who permits the devil to go just so far and then He rectifies whatever situation is necessary in order that the angelic conflict might be perpetuated from one generation to another.

The Doctrine of Money

A. Definition.

1. Our English word “money” is derived from the Latin word moneta which actually means a mint. A moneta in Rome was where they coined the money, manufactured silver coins. So it refers to a stamped coin of gold, silver, or other metal used as a medium of exchange.

2. Therefore money, by the very use of our Latin word, is the medium in which prices are expressed, debts discharged, goods and services paid for, and bank reserves held.

3. The term “money” is synonymous with circulation and a circulating medium and may be regarded as comprising demand deposits in common money or currency — coins, bank notes, paper money issued by a government.

4. The British economist Ralph Hautry states: “Money is one of those concepts which is like a teaspoon or an umbrella but unlike an earthquake or a buttercup.” He means they are definable primarily by the use or purpose which they serve. Therefore money must be defined in terms of its function and related to its value.

5. Money is a medium of exchange whereby goods and services are paid for and debts are discharged. Money is the means of stating the prices of goods and services as well as expressing the debts, the salaries, the wages, the rents, the insurance obligations, and innumerable contracts of this type.

6. Money serves as a reserve for ready purchasing power. Money is the only complete liquid asset. In the ancient world money was used as a store of value. The rise of commercial banking and central banking resulted in a corresponding increase in the importance of money used as reserves for a banking system. Money is unique among economic goods, it is regarded not as wealth but as a device for exchanging and measuring wealth. So money was never regarded historically as wealth in itself but as a device for exchanging and measuring wealth. An increase in the quantity of money in a country does not necessarily constitute an increase in the country’s wealth. There is a shortage of money, so a nation simply prints more.

B. The history of money

1. Different objects have been used as a medium of exchange. Slaves were used that way, gunpowder, and in some primitive societies the jawbones of pigs. The ox of Homeric times was used in that sense. The elephant in Ceylon was considered to be money in that area for many hundreds of years. Wool, barley, wheat, timber have all been used for money. The most widely known monetary standard is gold and silver. Before coins were invented money was measured in terms of rings and ingots as well as bars or shekels. Coin type money was invented by Creasis, King of Lydia.

2. Solon the lawgiver was not impressed by Creases.

3. The second coin was a derrick by...

4. Jews did not like having coins with images on them.

5. Three kinds of coinage existed in the time of the New Testament. The imperial coinage was the best. There were the provincial coins which were minted at Antioch and Tyre, and they were based on the Greek standard of drachmas. Then there was the local Jewish money coined in Caesarea and it had wide circulation because the Greek became great loaners of funds.

a. Krugerond is the best gold coin today and South Africa has tons of it. Apparently illegal is the US.

b. Taught that God wants us to give, give, give.

C. The legitimate functions of money.

1. Monetary transactions are a legitimate function of life all the way from Genesis 29:3 to Jeremiah 32:44 and throughout the scripture. It is legitimate for believers to enter into business and into monetary transactions. To carry on monetary transactions the believer must have money or credit, therefore if he gave it all to the church he couldn’t engage in business and his children would starve and he would be worse than an infidel.

2. Money was used to pay taxes by Jesus Himself — Matthew 22:17–22; Mark 12:13–17; Luke 20:20–26.

3. Money is necessary for the function of an economy, therefore it is not wrong or sinful to possess and use money.

4. However, you should know that as a member of the royal family of God money is a very useful and helpful servant but it is a cruel and harsh master — Jude 11. The word for “deceit” is Jude 11 is the word planh. It connotes three areas of deceit regarding money. When a person gets into monetary reversionism there are three areas of deceit:

a. That money will bring happiness. Many people abandon doctrine and try simply to make money. It is all right to make money so long as you don’t abandon doctrine, but when you abandon doctrine and simply go out for money the first objective is that money means happiness. There is no happiness in money or in any of the details of life apart from doctrine resident in the soul.

b. That money is security. Security for the believer is provided through the grace provision of God in eternity past. It is provided through the principles of living grace and supergrace, not through monetary principles — Matthew 6:24–33.

c. That money can buy anything. That is erroneous. Money cannot buy salvation, category #2 love, security, or even peace of mind, happiness or stability. While Balaam is the illustration of monetary reversionism the emphasis in Jude 11 is on the point of doctrine that money does not provide happiness, security or love.

5. Consequently money is legitimate; its accumulation and its use is permissible. It is not carnal for the believer to possess money.

6. The believer with wealth is not required to give all of his money to the church. If the funds stop coming in, the Bob will personally nail the doors shut.

7. There are also some illegitimate uses of money — bribery, to buy power, to buy fornication, to corrupt character; these are forbidden to the believer. This does not make money evil, it just confirms the old sin nature’s evil. There is nothing wrong with money, the problem is always the love of money.

D. The dangers of money to the unbeliever.

1. We anticipated this with the quoting of Mark 8:36,37. Salvation cannot be purchased with money, and a person who has a lot of money thinks he can buy anything. He buys celebrityship, he buys affection or friendship (or thinks he does), he buys people, situations, power. In other words, he is in the field of purchasing things that he could not get any other way. He has to get everything through money and therefore he assumes that he can buy salvation. Money causes the rich man to put his faith in the wrong object, says Mark 10:25. Therefore, Jesus concludes that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. This does not mean that a rich man cannot be saved but it is just very difficult for them to be saved because they have a tendency to depend upon their money for security and they have a tendency to try to buy their way out of every kind of trouble.

2. Money hinders the unbeliever from seeking salvation, according to Luke 16:19-31, and we must understand always that money has no credit with God. If there is such a thing as credit with God it is only found in the inner residency of Bible doctrine.

3. Note some of the passages dealing with this subject: Proverbs 11:4 — “Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness imputed delivers from the second death.” In other words, you can’t buy salvation. Proverbs 11:28 The one who trusts in his riches will fall, but the believer will flourish [or prosper] like the green leaf. Money does not mean capacity for life — Proverbs 13:7 There is one who pretends to be rich, but he has nothing in his soul; there are those who are in poverty but have great wealth [of doctrine resident in the soul].

E. Believers have succumbed to the various temptations related to money. Solomon had monetary reversionism in Ecclesiastes 5:10–6:2; Balaam in Jude 11; Ananias and Saphira in Acts 5:1–10; 1Timothy 6:3–17 (translation given); James 4:13,14; James 5:1–6. Come now, you rich ones, burst into weeping, continue screaming over the miseries coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted and your clothes have become moth-eaten. Your silver and gold have become tarnished shall be for evidence against you and it will eat your pieces of flesh like a fire. Behold the wages of the workers who have harvested your fields....keep screaming...you have condemned the innocent...

F. Monetary prosperity is part of supergrace blessing under paragraph SG2. Under paragraph SG2 God has provided as a part of spiritual advancement great supergrace blessing in the field of money. Men like Abraham, David, Solomon, were blessed by monetary prosperity as a part of their supergrace blessings. Often great wealth and business success is a sign of supergrace or spiritual maturity — Proverbs 13:8 (Isaiah 30:18, God is waiting to provide you great wealth); Proverbs 13:13 (The one who despises doctrine will be in debt is, ...will be rewarded by it),18 (Poverty and shame will come to him who neglects teaching...); 11:18 (The reversionist sows...).

1972 Hebrews Lesson #239

239 10/27/1974 Hebrews 13:5b Doctrine of money (cont.); doctrine of divine faithfulness

Back to point #5 and James 5.

The Bible does not support labor unions. Labor unions take away legitimate authority. Those children who worked in coal mines won wars and became millionaires. You don’t learn anything in high school. You learn revolution. Capital failed to recognize its responsibility to labor, and that is why labor unions occurred. But this is not all CEO’s. Johnny Mitchell made certain that no one was not taken care of. Bob’s grandfather was very similar. No labor unions broke in to those two companies.

A man who hires others for his company needs to have a responsibility to his people. Labor unions have kept God from spanking people who needed it.

God could drop a million dollars into your lap. It is no problem for Him to do that. He can make every believer a billionaire many times over. But there are hindering factors. He distributes wealth based upon capacity for life. God is tapping His foot waiting to provide us with great wealth. God ransoms us in supergrace by providing us with great wealth. The poor hears no rebuke.

Hebrews 13:5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Hebrews 13:5b — “and be content” .Now we are getting down to the secret of the supergrace life, total contentment based upon doctrine resident in the soul. We have the present middle participle of the verb arkeô (ἀρκέω) [pronounced ar-KEH-oh]. The word means to be content, it has several other meanings that are related but this is the one that is correctly translated in this passage. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has begun in the past and continues to the present time. It is called the present tense of duration. Like most but not all of the uses of the present it has linear aktionsart. It should be translated, “keep on being content.” This doesn’t say keep on being rich, keep on being successful, keep on being happy; it doesn’t say keep on being anything except content. Content has to do with Bible doctrine resident in the soul. Contentment has to do with the status quo of divine happiness in every circumstance of life. The middle voice: the subject who is the supergrace believer plus those who are positive toward doctrine participate in the results of the action. The middle voice relates the action more intimately to the subject and the permissive middle is one in which the subject yields himself to the results of the action in his own interest. The action is GAP, the results of the action SG2 — wealth, success, prosperity.

“with such things as ye have” — this is an articular participle. The definite article is in the dative plural, it is the dative of advantage. It is to your advantage to have anything from God on the basis of grace. The masculine gender of the definite article applies to either persons or things and that is why it is used instead of neuter. If it was in the neuter it would simply refer to inanimate things but being in the masculine gender it includes all of those things and persons. The present active participle of the verb pareimi (πάρειμι) [pronounced PAR-i-mee] goes with the definite article. It means here to have in possession or to be present, and the ascriptive use of this particle means that the participle is going to be translated like a noun. It should be translated “with what you possess.”

Circumstances changes as you continue; but people with doctrine remain the same way because they are grounded in doctrine.

“for” is the illitive use of the conjunction gar, it expresses a ground or reason why you should be content under all circumstances. At the same time with this we get a reflexive pronoun autos — intensive used as a reflexive pronoun — “for he himself.”

“hath said” — the perfect active indicative of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh]. This introduces five quotations from the Old Testament, all of which say the same thing. These five passages should be familiar to all believers because of their importance in their lives — Genesis 28:15; Deuteronomy 31:8; Joshua 1:5; 1Chronicles 28:20; Isaiah 41:10. The imperfect tense of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] is the intensive perfect, it indicates a completed action with emphasis on existing results. The existing results are these five passages. They stand written in the scripture forever. They are a part of the Word of God which endures forever and their message is one which we need constantly in our lives. The active voice: since all doctrine is the mind of Christ — 1Corinthians 2:16 — Jesus Christ, in effect, produces the action of the verb. The declarative indicative represents the verb from the viewpoint of historical reality. “For he himself has said in the past with the result that it stands spoken forever.” Now we are dealing with something that is dogmatic, something that is permanent, something that is right, something that is absolute, something you can hang your life on, something that you can take with you as emergency rations for every circumstance of life.

Now we have the quotation of part of these five passages — “I will never leave thee”, a very strong passage in the Greek: ou mê se anô (ἄνω) [pronounced AN-oh] ou mê se. Ou means no; mê means no. So we have “no” twice. Se is the accusative singular direct object of the personal pronoun su for “you.” The word anô (ἄνω) [pronounced AN-oh] is the aorist active subjunctive of aníēmi (ἀνίημι) [pronounced an-EE-ay-mee], a word which means to abandon or to desert. The negative ou denies the fact; the negative mê denies the idea. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It means that from the time that you were saved to the time that you depart from this life He will never abandon you or desert you. he will not only not desert you but He will not ever desert you — not ever abandoned. The active voice: God the Son produces the action of the verb, but all members of the Trinity do. The subjunctive mood is the subjunctive of emphatic negation. In other words, it is stronger than the indicative. So God never deserts any believer, not matter how he fails, no matter what his problems are or what disaster he faces or what his situation is. There is no such thing as being deserted by God.

“nor” — we go back to a negative adverb, oude (οὐδέ) [pronounced oo-DEH], which means “neither”, or in this case, “nor.”

Holy rollers are divisive and troublemakers. God won’t desert them, even though Berachah Church throws them out.

“forsake thee” — the trouble is that between “nor” and “forsake”, between oude (οὐδέ) [pronounced oo-DEH] and the verb, we have another double negative. The verb for “forsake” is egkataleipô (ἐγκαταλείπω) [pronounced eng-kat-al-Î-po]. The word means to abandon or forsake, to desert, to go awol. The aorist tense is constative, it expresses the faithfulness of God. The active voice: all members of the Godhead are producing the action. Again, we have the subjunctive of emphatic negation. We also have the accusative singular direct object of the personal pronoun su which comes in at this point.

Hebrews 13:5 Let your lifestyle be free from the love of money; keep on being content with what you possess: for He Himself has said in the past with the result that it stands spoken forever, I will not ever abandon you, neither will I ever desert you.

The Doctrine of Divine Faithfulness

1. Definition: Divine faithfulness is God’s grace expression to the believer, using His perfect character as the basis for expression. God has never been inconsistent; He has never sponsored sin; He has never tempted to sin. His perfection demands faithfulness. How can God be faithful to all kinds of believers, carnal, reversionistic, growing, etc. God cannot let us down. He has found a way to be faithful to us. It is manifested as discipline to reversionistic believers; blessing to growing believers. He will never abandon us or desert us. We have His attention for blessing and for cursing.

2. God’s faithfulness to the believer is never more obvious than to the new believer who discovers rebound. God is faithful to the believer in the principle of rebound — 1John 1:9. When we acknowledge a sin, this is a sin that God knew about millions of years ago. This is one of the sins judged by God on the cross. When we name or cite the sin, and we may feel good or guilty about it. God could care less about how we feel. There is no merit in confession of sin. There is no way that we can lose the faithfulness of God. Don’t take this as a challenge.

3. God’s faithfulness is manifest in a perfect plan — 1Corinthians 1:9.

4. God’s faithfulness is manifest in provision and blessing — 1Thessalonians 5:24.

5. God is faithful to us in time of testing — 1Corinthians 10:13.

6. God is faithful to the royal family of God — Hebrews 10:23. This includes our home in the holy of holies plus supergrace blessings in time.

7. God is faithful to the reversionistic believer — 2Timothy 2:13.

8. God is faithful to the believer in the realm of the angelic conflict — 2Thessalonians 3:3.

9. God’s faithfulness is a reality in supergrace status — Hebrews 11:11.

10. The principle of conclusion: Faithfulness is the consistency and stability of God. God cannot be inconsistent with His own essence, He cannot change His essence, He cannot be unfair, he is consistent with Himself. Therefore, He is consistent and faithful to us.

1972 Hebrews 13:6 Lesson #240

240 10/28/1974 Hebrews 13:6 Doctrine of category #1 love

Hebrews 13:6 So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?”

The Doctrine of Category #1 Love

1. Love comes in three categories for the royal family of God: category #1, toward God; category #2, right man, right woman; category #3, friendship. In addition, there is an obligatory relaxed mental attitude toward all members of the royal family called “loving the brethren.” Category #1 love is the believer’s capacity to love God and to respond to God’s love. It is based upon Bible doctrine resident in the soul and, furthermore, when the believer reaches maturity [supergrace status] this category #1 love is known as occupation with the person of Christ. The command to category #1 love is found in Deuteronomy 6:5 — “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your right lobe, and with all your soul, and with all your power.” The power is both capacity based on doctrine resident in the soul and general capacity for life. Category #1 love is the most difficult one of all because consistency in the intake of Bible doctrine.

2. The means of category #1 love.

a. Since God is invisible and since at the same time God is the object of category #1 love we must see and love Him through the Word — through Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

b. The reversionistic believer is incapable of category #1 love. he is incapable of loving God because he lacks doctrine resident in the soul.

c. The immature believer does not love God because he lacks doctrine, and therefore no one can love God without doctrine resident in the soul.

d. You cannot love God unless you know God. 1Peter 1:8 says, “Even though you have not seen him you love him, and though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with happiness inexpressible and full of glory.” This verse does not apply to all believers, all believers do not love God. Ephesians 3:18,19 also describes category #1 love — a “surpassing knowledge love.” Hebrews 6:10 relates this to the pastor-teacher whose job is to communicate Bible doctrine so that Bible doctrine resident in the soul will produce category #1 love. 2Timothy 1:13,14 — “Retain the standard of sound teaching which you heard from me in the sphere of doctrine, and the love of those who are in Christ Jesus. Guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us the deposit of doctrine which has been entrusted to you.”

3. Category #1 love sets up the standard for grace. As you have the capacity to love God [through resident doctrine] you also have the capacity to be grace oriented and to live by grace. Psalm 119:132; 31:23.

4. Category #1 love is the basis for supergrace blessing — 1Corinthians 2:9; Psalm 37:4,5. God is eternal energy. We make our lives too complicated. God makes our lives simple. We are here to love God, and God makes this possible with Bible doctrine.

5. God must discipline the reversionist; if He does not, God is not God.

6. Category #1 love is the basis for both personal and national blessing — Deuteronomy 30:15,16. If you love the Lord you walk in His ways and you keep His doctrines. Verse 20 gives the conclusion.

7. Category #1 love motivates combat courage and military victory — Joshua 23:10–11 (One man [supergrace believer] of you puts to flight a thousand [enemy soldiers], since it is the LORD your God who fights for you, just as He promised you. Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God.).

a. It is election time and Bob knows of no candidate suggesting that all of our federal budget be spend on our military.

b. We are at an all-time low. The communist attitude is to let their people starve because they need more people in the military.

c. Vigilantism is one man saying “I am the law.” Bob likes Charles Bronson, but he would not go out to see “Death Wish.” People cannot be the law; the law must be the law and enforced.

d. Our judges have gone soft.

e. Our laws are not protecting the innocent.

f. Bob enjoys Doug Johnson on televison.

g. None of can take the law into our own hands.

h. The UN is the spy headquarters of the world, and we pick up the tab for it.

i. One day, we will wake up and we are at war.

j. The greatest weapon that we have in the United States is believers taking in the Word of God and growing in grace.

8. Category #1 love provides strength for adversity and pressure — Hebrews 11:27.

9. There is a special curse on believers who fail under category #1 love — 1Corinthians 16:22 (If anyone does not love the Lord, let him be anathema maranatha [the 3 stages of divine discipline]], .

10. Witnessing must be motivated by category #1 love — 2Corinthians 5:14.

11. Description of category #1 love — 1John 4:15–19. God is love, which the background for this is propitiation. The believer who is in supergrace abides in God’s love.

Hebrews 13:6 — the supergrace application of category #1 love. “So that” — the conjunction hôste (ὥστε) [pronounced HOH-steh] can be either inferential or result. When it is inferential it introduces an independent clause, but when it is resultant it introduces a dependent clause. This is an actual result here, and because it is what we have is a dependent clause brought out by the accusative with the infinitive.

“we may say” — when you say something it is because you think it. When you think it it is because you have a doctrinal basis for thinking it. Therefore what we say here is very important, and how we say it is important. Not only do we say it but we say it boldly. “We may say” is an accusative of general reference. We have the accusative plural of the personal pronoun egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH], and it is translated “we.” It is the subject and that is the correct way to translate the accusative of general reference. With it we have the present active infinitive of the verb légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] which means to say, to form words that are in the mind.

This is an actual quotation from Psalm 118:6. The present tense is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. It is used to express the quotation at that moment. The active voice: all supergrace believers, in effect, say Psalm 118:6 at a certain point in their category #1 love relationship. The infinitive expresses result. “So that we say.”

But we must first look at a present active participle of tharrhéō (θαῤῥέω) [pronounced thar-HREH-oh] which is translated like an adverb. The word means to be confident. The static present takes confidence in supergrace for granted as a fact. The active voice: the supergrace believer produces the confidence in category #1 love. This is a causal participle, and it can be translated “since being confident” .But since we already have a result clause we will translate it “So that being confident we say.”

What we say is found in Psalm 118:6 — “The Lord is my helper.” The word for “Lord” here, kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss], is a title for deity. It is equivalent to the Hebrew tetragrammaton which we translate “Lord” or “Jehovah.” In this verse therefore we have a reference to the deity of Christ. We also have a reference to relationship with Christ in the supergrace status, and here is occupation with Christ or the expression of our category #1 love. This what we say when we truly love the Lord. We have come to know Him, we have Bible doctrine resident in the soul, and now we are able to come to a conclusion. “The Lord is e)moi boēthós (βοηθός) [pronounced bo-ay-THOSS],” a Classical Greek phrase. The e)moi is a dative of possession of the personal pronoun egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH], translated as a part of the Classical Greek idiom, and it means “to me” literally; and then, boēthós (βοηθός) [pronounced bo-ay-THOSS] means “helper.” The Classical Greek is an idiom and is correctly translated “My helper.” There is no “and” here. It simply says, “I will not fear” — future passive indicative of the verb phobeô (φοβέω) [pronounced fob-EH-oh] plus the negative mê. The future tense here is a gnomic future which states a fact which may be rightfully expected under conditions of being a supergrace believer. This is normal for the supergrace believer, says the gnomic future. The passive voice: the supergrace believer receives the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality of the fact that the supergrace believer is occupied with the person of Jesus Christ, and he expresses it by saying, “I will not be afraid.”

“what” — the interrogative tís (τὶς) [pronounced tihç] is used as a relative pronoun. The accusative singular neuter is used as the direct object; the word “man” is anthrôpos (ἄνθρωπος) [pronounced ANTH-row-pos] which means mankind.

“shall do” — the future active indicative of the verb poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh]. The future tense is a predictive future used to predict an event which is expected to occur in future time. It is also known as a deliberative future used for questions of uncertainty which are expressed, therefore, in the future tense. While the writer does not know what will occur in the future he is already of the fact of doctrine resident in his soul causing him to love the Lord. The issue of love is always settled in the soul, it is not settled in the body, it is not settled in attraction, it is not settled in the desire to use a person, to gain something from a person. Again, the writer does not know what will occur in the future but he is ready because of doctrine resident in his soul. All supergrace believers are prepared therefore for future adversity or for future blessing, they already had the preparation — doctrine in the soul. The active voice: unknown persecutors of the future produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is a potential indicative because it has the negative mê in the previous phrase, and it presents the idea of contingency.

Hebrews 13:6 So that being confident [from maximum doctrine resident in the soul (category #1 love)] we say, The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid of what man will do to me. (Psalm 118:6)

Principle of this Hebrews 13:6

1. The supergrace believer is characterized by all categories of courage and nobility.

2. He has great moral courage so that he ignores all detrimental consequences and stands by the truth no matter what the cost to himself.

3. He has courage of integrity and nobility of soul.

4. He has capacity for life type courage. This means no circumstances of life frighten him. No fear in combat, no fear in social defamation, being discredited in business, or even in traffic.

5. Courage is a part of both capacity for life and enjoyment of life. A person is not always looking over his shoulder. Courage gives the soul freedom to enjoy life. Courage is developed from doctrine resident in the soul.

1972 Hebrews 13:7 Lesson #241

241 10/29/1974 Hebrews 13:7 Doctrine of the pastor-teacher (pts. 1–2)

Hebrews 13:7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

Verse 7 — what this passage is saying is not to remember those who are ruling you but remember them because they rule you and teach the Word of God. You don’t follow their faith, the word “faith” is doctrine, and you don’t consider the end of their conversation because if they do their job right there is no end of their conversation! This is one of those passage so close and yet so far off that we must go to the original language to understand what is said here.

The word “remember” is correctly translated, it is the present active imperative of the verb mnēmoneúō (μνημονεύω) [pronounced mnay-mon-yoo’-o]. It means to remember, to keep in mind, to think of or to fix your thoughts on something. It really connotes concentration with emphasis on the memory centre. The present tense is a customary present denoting what habitually occurs or may be reasonably expected to occur. In the use of the temporal element it is very remote here since the act or state is assumed to be true in the past, present, as well as the future. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb as a member of the royal family of God. Concentrating on the teaching of doctrine is in view here. The imperative mood is a command to that effect, we are to concentrate on the teaching of Bible doctrine. So we will translate is, “Be concentrating on them.”

“them” — the objective genitive plural of the definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun. The demonstrative pronoun calls attention with special emphasis on a designated object which in this case is the pastor-teacher. Every believer has his own right pastor. Using it as a demonstrative pronoun it should be translated, “Be concentrating on those [pastors].”

Most new pastors have no idea how to exercise authority. They need to tiptoe in and quietly teach the Word. The first things that these young pastors do is come in and throw their weight around. Their arrogance keeps them from exercising their authority correctly. So many pastors misunderstand their position. You cannot rule until you have spiritual maturity; until you have wisdom.

No matter what a dumbbell the preacher is, someone is going to tell him what a great sermon he preached. Bob did not have that problem. He stopped standing at the door because people walked right by him, snubbed him.

Pastors are as bad as lover boys; lover boys think that they are a gift to women; and pastors think that they are a gift to the world. Some thought that they will start out by teaching every day. Another guy memorizes Bob’s tapes, and gives out the doctrine second hand. Remember, the pastor in front of you has the rule over you. Bob was not unanimously called to Berachah.

The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. The middle voice is the indirect middle, it emphasizes the pastors as the agents producing the action of the verb — this means ruling. The participle is a circumstantial participle for pastors having authority over the local church. “Be concentrating on those [pastors] who themselves are ruling,” is the corrected translation.

When you leave, the way you go is quietly. Tiptoe out.

“over you” — an objective genitive plural from the personal pronoun su, and this refers to the congregation; “who” is a nominative masculine plural. A pastor-teacher is male. There are tons of female pastors on the television. Bob did not invent this idea. It is a qualitative relative pronoun hostis (ὅστις) [pronounced HOH-stihs] which means here “of such a kind” or “such a category.”

“have spoken” — aorist active indicative from the verb laléô (λαλέω) [pronounced lah-LEH-oh] which means to communicate, to teach doctrine. It is one of the synonyms for teaching the Word of God. The constative aorist gathers into one entirety the faithful and consistent teaching of the pastor of the local church. This, by the way, he establishes his authority, the way he grows up himself, the way he establishes leadership ability; it is the whole secret to everything. The active voice: pastors do it. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. The pastor establishes his authority, he establishes his policy, he establishes his rule through Bible teaching.

“unto you” — dative plural indirect object from the personal pronoun su. The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the Bible teaching is performed. This also becomes the dative of advantage, it is to the congregation’s advantage to hear Bible teaching every day so that the high ground of the supergrace life can be reached. It is also to the advantage of every believer to have his own right pastor communicating to him Bible doctrine. We have with this “the word of God,” ton logon tou theou — “the word” is the accusative of direct object, this is what is communicated, plus the ablative singular of source of theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS], and it should be “the word from the God.” The pastor teacher is the means of communicating the Word from the God. The local church is the classroom and this is accomplished under strict academic discipline.

“whose faith follow” — the present middle imperative miméomai (μιμέομαι) [pronounced mim-EH-ohm-ahee] which means to follow, to imitate, to emulate. The present tense is a progressive present of description to indicate what is now going on or should be going on. It is also known as the pictorial present which presents to the mind the events in the process of occurrence. The middle voice: this is a deponent verb, middle in form, active in meaning. Believers must produce the action of the verb. The imperative mood is a command to keep doctrine in one’s own life. The verb miméomai (μιμέομαι) [pronounced mim-EH-ohm-ahee] means to follow, to live up to, it means a willingness to take the same way without surrendering your individuality.

The verb miméomai (μιμέομαι) [pronounced mim-EH-ohm-ahee] came into existence about the sixth century BC, it was used in both prose and poetry. It originally meant to imitate, to mimic, that is, to do what is seen to be done by someone else. It connotes learning by observation. It also means watching the example of someone else and learning from it. The noun mimos which came from the verb means an actor. It is also the source of our English word “mimic.” So to imitate means to learn, but it means to learn without surrendering your individuality. An actor plays a part on the stage but he does not surrender his individuality. So it doesn’t mean to imitate the personality of the pastor. It does mean to learn by emulation. So “to emulate” is a good translation of miméomai (μιμέομαι) [pronounced mim-EH-ohm-ahee] — “be emulating.”

Next we have the definite article in the accusative singular, used for a possessive pronoun, plus the accusative singular direct object of the noun pistis (πίστις) [pronounced PIHS-tihs]. It means doctrine — “be emulating their doctrine.”

“considering” is the present active participle of anatheōréō (ἀναθεωρέω) [pronounced an-ath-eh-o-REH-oh] which means to view again and again, to observe carefully, or to concentrate. The present tense is a futuristic present denoting what has not yet occurred with the reversionist but is regarded as so certain in thought that it is contemplated as coming to pass — “be carefully considering” or “be concentrating.” The active voice: the believer produces the action. The participle is an imperative, and the imperative is used here in the sense of a command.

“the end” — the accusative singular direct object of ékbasis (ἔκβασις) [pronounced EHK-bas-iç] which does not means the end, it means the issue; “of their conversation” — the descriptive genitive singular anastrophê (ἀναστροφή) [pronounced an-as-trohf-AY], which means “way of life.”

Hebrews 13:7 Be concentrating on them [your right pastor-teacher] who themselves are ruling over all of you, [pastors] who have communicated to you the word of God; [pastors] whose doctrine be emulating, be carefully considering the issue of their way of life.

They present to you daily an issue, the grace way of life.

The Doctrine of Pastor-teacher

1. Definition and concept.

a. Since every believer is a priest as well as member of the royal family of God it is important to understand the system of authority which God has ordained, authorized for spiritual growth and progress in this life.

b. There are two basic categories of authority in the dispensation of the church. This refers, of course, to the spiritual authority in the royal family. There is overt authority which includes divine delegation of authority to the royal priest in the form of the Word of God — our first authority. The pastor-teacher is the communicator authorized by God to disseminate doctrine, so he a part of overt authority. Then secondly, there is the inner authority which is the function of the believer’s volition of soul compatible with the sovereign will of God as expressed in the scripture.

c. The function of the pastor-teacher brings together the two basic systems of authority. Bible doctrine is transferred to the individual soul by means of the pastor teaching the Word of God.

d. Consequently the pastor-teacher is a spiritual gift sovereignly bestowed by God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation, a gift bestowed totally apart from human merit.

e. The spiritual gift provides both the ability and the authority to communicate doctrine to the congregation via monologue — one person speaking, everyone else listening.

f. The gift of pastor-teacher, like all spiritual gifts, is bestowed on the principle of grace at the moment of salvation.

g. The gift is extended to males members of the royal family and is based on the sovereign decision of God without regard to any stereotyped personalities.

h. There is therefore no such thing as “surrendering to preach” or dedicating yourself to full-time Christian service. The people who do this say in effect that God the Holy Spirit didn’t know what He was about. In effect they say they are overruling the Holy Spirit. In effect, therefore, no one has ever surrendered to preach without blaspheming.

i. What therefore is the way, the basis for discovering if you have the gift? All you have to do is quit worrying about the gift and grow up spiritually. It is inevitable that at a certain stage of your spiritual growth that Bible doctrine resident in your soul will make the gift a reality if it is there.

2. Nomenclature for the pastor-teacher actually revolves around four words found in the Greek New Testament. Each one of these words emphasizes a different facet of the pastor’s function, ministry, person, and so on. In other words, a pastor is a four-faceted person, according to the Bible.

a. The first of these facets is presbuteros (πρεσβύτερος) [pronounced pres-BOO-ter-oss] which is generally translated “elder” .However, it means the leader, the ruler. This word emphasizes the authority of the pastor. One church has one elder. There is a false doctrine called plurality of elders. There are pluralities of elders in a city but each elder has a different church. Wherever you find elders in the plural you simply are referring to a geographical locality which has more than one local church. There is one elder for one local church. His power is distributed for administrative function of the policy of the local church. The pastor is also called diakonos (διάκονος) [pronounced dee-AK-on-os], and when he is the translators cautiously translated “minister.” But when they talk about administrators in a church they transliterate it “deacon.” 1Timothy 5:17,19; Titus 1:5; James 1:5; 5:14; 1Peter 5:1.

b. The second area of nomenclature is the function of the pastor-teacher — poimên (ποιμήν) [pronounced poy-MANE] (shepherd) kai didaskalos (διδάσκαλος) [pronounced did-AS-kal-oss] (teacher) — Ephesians 4:11. Under the word pastor his function is ruling, the pastor rules the sheep; the shepherd rules the flock. Pastor means shepherd. Under teacher we have the whole reason for the gift: to take the doctrine from the Word, from the Canon of scripture, and transfer it to your souls by way of Bible teaching in the local church. Why in the local church? You have to be organized. The point is that the only place Bible doctrine can be taught is where there is a clearly defined, well disciplined organization. That is what the local church is.

c. The pastor is also a policy-maker. His policy-making noun is epískopos (ἐπίσκοπος) [pronounced ep-IS-kohp-oss], from the which get Episcopal, and it means an overseer. The word was used for working slaves and getting the most out of them. The reason it is used in the Word of God is very simple. It is used because it means that a person who is a boss has to have a policy to get the job done. The pastor has the authority to set the policy. This doesn’t mean that he handles every policy in the church, it means that he handles the overall policy. Because he has the wisdom to know that there are other supporting gifts he delegates certain responsibilities.

d. A pastor is an administrator under diakonos (διάκονος) [pronounced dee-AK-on-os] which is used for both the pastor and the deacons. Diakonos (διάκονος) [pronounced dee-AK-on-os] used as the “minister” is found in 1Corinthians 3:5; Ephesians 3:7; Colossians 1:7,23; 4:7; 1Thessalonians 3:2; 1Timothy 1:12; Hebrews 6:10; Acts 6:4.

3. The purpose of the pastor-teacher — Ephesians 4:12,13, “For the purpose of training and equipping the saints [royal family] for combat [the angelic conflict], for the purpose of the vocation of the ministry [the general ministry of all believers], for the purpose of the edification of the body of Christ [spiritual growth], until we all [members of the royal family] have attained the goal of supergrace, because of the consistency of doctrine, and the full knowledge epignôsis (ἐπίγνωσις) [pronounced ehp-IHG-noh-sis]] of the Son of God, with reference to a mature nobleman [a supergrace hero], to the standard of maturity which belongs to the fullness of Christ.” The purpose of the pastor-teacher, then, is defined in terms of training, teaching, preparation for the angelic conflict, and above all, the spiritual growth which gives us the tactical victory and glorifies Jesus Christ in this dispensat2ion.

4. The function of the pastor-teacher — Ephesians 3:20–21 But you [members of the royal family of God] have not been taught in this manner the Christ, inasmuch as you have begun to hear Him, and have been taught by Him, since doctrine is in the Jesus. This is the function of the pastor-teacher in terms of teaching. The function can be summarized by a few sub points:

a. The pastor-teacher derives his function from the various derivatives of the verb didaskô (διδάσκω) [pronounced did-AS-koh] which means to teach, and its cognate didaskalos (διδάσκαλος) [pronounced did-AS-kal-oss] which means good teacher or noble teacher.

b. The public assembly of the local church is the classroom of this dispensation. The pastor is the teacher and the congregation are students without portfolio.

c. The pastor establishes authority by the faithful teaching of the Word of God under the ICE principle — Isagogics, Categories, Exegesis.

d. To do so the pastor must have the proper credentials, and this means he must have the spiritual gift which is bestowed at the point of salvation by God the Holy Spirit, he must have spiritual maturity, he must have academic preparation, he must have strong self-discipline and good study habits, and he must have academic honesty and moral courage.

e. The public assembly of the local church is designed by God to provide privacy for each member of the royal priesthood.

f. The believer is assembly is called in the New Testament Greek mathêtês (μαθητής) [pronounced math-ay-TAYÇ]. The word means a student, a learner without privileges. It is mistranslated in the KJV “disciple.” The purpose of the student is manthanô (μανθάνω) [pronounced mahn-THAHN-oh] which means to learn.

g. Since every believer is royal family he must be taught under conditions of perfect privacy, which means that all authorized teaching of the Word of God is monologue.

h. This means that personal time with members of the congregation is an intrusion upon their freedom and privacy — unless it happens to be a social situation agreeable to all parties. The pastor is not to make decisions for anyone else in his congregation.

i. Pastors are not to compromise their time.

5. The appointment of the pastor-teacher. All pastor-teachers are appointed at salvation. His function takes place when he actually becomes the pastor of a local church. Between the two there are years of preparation. The function of the pastor-teacher is to teach the Word of God, everything else is relative to this; but his appointment occurs at salvation. There is a casualty rate. Everyone who is appointed doesn’t get there. And many who get there are not prepared to be there. Those who make it are those who do the following things:

a. They get under their right pastor who teaches them the Word and they have normal spiritual growth from babyhood to adolescence to maturity or supergrace. Somewhere between adolescence and maturity they discover that they have this spiritual gift.

b. Once they discover it they are then involved in preparation that can involve the military, academic life, the period of waiting patiently for the right congregation, waiting for the Lord’s appointment. But the appointment is the issue now and the appointment occurs at salvation. It is the function of the Holy Spirit to decide who is to have the gift and who isn’t. The gift is imparted at salvation totally apart from human merit, therefore compatible with grace. The gift is recognized by spiritual growth and once there is recognition there is the necessity for preparedness. The gift is not acquired by human volition or dedication and the gift is a permanent one. The principle of appointment is found in such passages as 1Corinthians 12:11,28; Ephesians 4:11.

6. The principle of the right pastor, right congregation is found in 1Peter 5:2 — “Shepherd the flock of God among you” — this command is given to a pastor under the principle that he has a right congregation — “do not do it from compulsion, do it voluntarily according to the grace; not for gain, but from enthusiasm.” When you have a combination of right pastor, right congregation the pastor does have an enthusiasm, and the last word here is one of the most beautiful keys of all. A pastor will be enthusiastic.

7. The concept of the pastor as the total product of grace is very important. This will keep you from falling into that trap of somehow thinking of the pastor as being so close to God he is next to God and he is absolutely perfect. The pastor is not the pastor because he worked for it, because he earned it; the pastor is the total product of grace — 1Corinthians 15:10; Ephesians 3:7; 1Timothy 1:12–16. You don’t have to be on a pedestal in order to exercise authority.

8. The biblical documentation for the pastor. There are three great passages in the scripture — Ephesians 3:7–13; 4:11–13; Colossians 1:23–29; 1Timothy 2:24–26; 3:1–9; Titus 1:6–9. Someone who believes that they have the gift needs to go to the tapes and hear the exegesis on those passages.

9. The authority and concept of the pastor. There are two specific passages on this subject — Hebrews 13:7, 17.

10. The reward of the pastor-teacher is found in Hebrews 6:10.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #242

242 10/30/1974 Hebrews 13:7, 17a Doctrine of the pastor-teacher (continued above)

The remaining points of the doctrine of pastor-teacher are above. Nearly the entire lesson was given over to the Doctrine of pastor-teacher.

Hebrews 13:7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.

Hebrews 13:17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.

Hebrews 13:17a — the word “obey” obviously sets up a system of authority. This is the present middle imperative of the verb peithô (πείθω) [pronounced PIE-thoh], it should be translated “Keep obeying.” The principle here is a very simple one. Since every believer is a royal priest he has the top rank. He is superior to believers in past dispensations and in future dispensations. This superiority is misleading because there must be authority over you. Our equality is in the field of the universal priesthood of the believer. All believers are royal family of God and there must be a system of authority over the priesthood in time, and this verse brings it all together. The word “obey” sets up a system of authority in the spiritual realm and it indicates the fact that certain royal priests have more authority than other royal priests. In effect, that is what we have at this point. There is also a principle of human maturity in this word “obey.” It is a sign of human maturity in your ability to recognize authority in others. No one really grows up until he has the ability to recognize the authority of someone else and to respond to that authority objectively. The principle of maturity is related to your volition and your free will. Human maturity is the ability to assume your responsibility for your own decisions and to recognize authority where authority exists.

“them that have the rule” — is a dative case, present middle participle of the verb hêgeomai (ἡγέομαι) [pronounced hayg-EH-ohm-ahee] which means to guide, to lead, to govern, to rule. The retroactive progressive present denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time, meaning that God has provided pastors to be the authority in the royal priesthood on earth. The indirect middle emphasizes the pastor as the agent producing the action of the verb. This is a circumstantial participle for pastors having authority over the local church. This authority, as previously noted, is established by the faithful teaching of the Word of God. The definite article is used as a demonstrative pronoun to emphasize the pastor as the authority over the local church and it should be translated, “Keep obeying those pastors who themselves are ruling over you.” The words “over you” is the objective genitive plural of the pronoun su, used for all members of the royal family of God on earth. Again, the universal priesthood must have authority. We are all members of the royal family of God; but we do not all have the same rank.

“and submit yourselves” — the word to submit here is the present active imperative of hupeíkō (ὑπείκω) [pronounced hoop-Ī-koe], a very strong word which means to submit to the authority of those who are authorized to be over you. The present tense is extremely strong linear aktionsart. It is a static present. The active voice: every believer fulfils the action of this verb to grow and to glorify God in time. The imperative mood is a command. The word “yourselves” is derived from the middle voice of peithô (πείθω) [pronounced PIE-thoh].

The key to learning doctrine is amenability to discipline. Because if conflicting personalities, doctrines and viewpoints which oppose and criticize the believer discipline becomes the factor in your learning. But this authority also means maximum privacy for each believer, and for the local church as the public teaching of doctrine one person is in authority and this guarantees your privacy.

The Factors Necessary for Learning Bible Doctrine

1. The believer must have positive volition toward the Word of God and realization of the importance of Bible doctrine resident in his soul. This comes through some exposure to teaching, through adversity in experience, divine discipline, it comes in many ways.

2. The expression of positive volition in regular and consistent attendance at the local church where doctrine is taught. This involves positive identification of your own right pastor.

3. The filling of the Spirit which is provided in grace through the rebound technique.

4. Objectivity with regard to personality, grooming, public speaking, and the character of the pastor.

5. Objectivity with regard to the content of the pastor’s message. The content may seem irrelevant for the moment. The content may be critical of you personally and even intrude upon your present lifestyle. The content may not be euphemistic enough for you, therefore you don’t think it is spiritual. You associate spirituality with euphemisms and therefore you are personally offended. Or the content may have no personal interest for you at the moment. All of these must be approached with objectivity and you must concentrate in spite of these. This requires some measure of growth.

6. The believer must have patience in hearing doctrine he does not understand.

7. The believer must have privacy in public assembly of the local church and he must give privacy to other members of the royal family of God. This is application of the principle, live and let live. Therefore the believer must avoid gossip, maligning, critical attitude toward other believers.

8. The believer must have good manners which, in effect, is thoughtfulness toward others in the congregation. The believer must not create a disturbance through body movement, must not talk and discuss while the pastor is teaching. Believers are not to get up and wander about during the message.

9. Believers must exercise maximum self-discipline by concentration on the message.

10. Believers must understand the grace principle of giving and be willing to give without coercion to support the administration of their local church.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #243

243 11/08/1974 Hebrews 13:8 Doctrines of the hypostatic union, High Priesthood of Jesus Christ

Bob went to Hawaii, perhaps for a conference. He was never much of a tourist. He liked being with a number of Christians. Larry Braden was the civilian. He is a free fall man. They jump off of cliffs in Hawaii holding on to these kites. He tried it, but returned to free falling, because the kites are too dangerous.

Relaxed group. Some drank champagne, but those who did not were not bothered about it. Those drinking champagne did not care.

SamAmmons might have the spiritual gift of tour guide.

Berachah Church has a number of items taken from dead enemies.

If this is your first time in Berachah, you’ve picked a helluva day to start.

Dallas Theological Seminary promoting sharing; and there is a church where they gather and share. Do you want your doctor to get with you and share your ideas?

Personality imitation is a sign of weakness and stupidity; we are here to emulate the doctrine.

Very fine believers in that area.

We now have the function of stability in the royal priesthood in verses 8,9. Firstly, the stability of our high priest, Jesus Christ. Secondly, the stability of the royal priesthood which means each one of us as believers in the Lord Jesus. It is very important that we understand the issue of consistency, the issue of stability. Stability and consistency is the only way that any believer ever becomes mature.

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

Verse 8 — “Jesus Christ.” He is King of kings and Lord of lords. We are in union with Him, therefore we share His royalty. He is the high priest forever, we share His priesthood. Therefore as members of the royal priesthood forever we have the wonderful privilege of focusing our attention on who and what Jesus Christ is.

The Road to Glory is SG3 leading to dying grace and to great rewards in heaven. Our special blessing paragraphs.

This verse is memorized and isolated for that reason. But it has a context. There must be consistency in order to have any sort of success in life. Loss of weight comes through consistency. The very air that we breathe is the consistent intake of Bible doctrine.

We start out with the very words, Iêsous (̓Ιησος) [pronounced ee-ay-SOOCE], Christos (χριστός) [pronounced krees-TOSS], the perfect example of consistency. The word “Jesus” before “Christ” emphasizes His humanity. There are three words used in the Greek to emphasize the person of Christ. The first is kurios (κύριος) [pronounced KOO-ree-oss]. This emphasizes His deity. Then we have Christos (χριστός) [pronounced krees-TOSS] which emphasizes His mission and His future appointment and our relationship to it. This means “commissioned one, appointed one, Messiah.” The Hebrew “Messiah” and Christos (χριστός) [pronounced krees-TOSS] are synonymous terms. Then we have Iêsous (̓Ιησος) [pronounced ee-ay-SOOCE], which actually means the humanity of Christ.

We have the omission of “Lord.” We have simply “Jesus Christ,” emphasizing His humanity. In the scripture, when Lord comes before Jesus Christ it emphasizes His deity. If Jesus comes first it emphasizes His humanity. When Christ comes first it emphasizes God’s purpose and plan for the Lord Jesus Christ, related to the purpose and plan for each one of us. Here the emphasis is obviously on the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Jesus” emphasizes the hypostatic union; “Christ” emphasizes the high priesthood of the Lord.

The Doctrine of the Hypostatic Union 3

1. In the person of Jesus Christ are two natures, inseparably united without mixture or loss of separate identity, without loss or transfer of properties or attributes, the union being personal and eternal. The hypostatic union will exist forever. Jesus will remain as the God-man forever.

2. The scriptures dealing with the subject and developing the theological concept — John 1:1–14; Romans 1:2–5; 9:5; Philippians 2:5–11; 1Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 2:14.

3. The incarnate person of Christ includes His deity. Jesus Christ is God, always will be God, there never was a time when He wasn’t God. He is co-eternal with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. He does not diminish or compromise His Deity.

4. The incarnate person of Jesus Christ is also true humanity. He is bona fide humanity with a body, soul, and spirit. He is trichotomous in His humanity. He has no association with sin in His humanity (apart from the cross).

5. The two natures of Christ are united without transferring the attributes of one to the other. The attributes adhere to their corresponding natures, they never cross over and become involved in the other nature. The attributes of deity adhere to deity; the attributes of humanity adhere to humanity. The essence of deity cannot be changed — immutability; the infinite cannot be transferred to the finite. To rob God of even one attribute of essence destroys His deity. To rob the humanity of Jesus Christ of a single attribute of His humanity would destroy His humanity. He is true humanity, He is undiminished deity in one person forever.

6. No attribute of essence of deity is changed by the incarnation. In fulfilling the purpose of the first advent the Lord Jesus Christ maintained all of His attributes of deity. This does not imply that He used them every moment but they were there. As a matter of fact they were not surrendered, they were not destroyed, as per the false doctrine of Kenosis. The true doctrine of Kenosis says that Jesus Christ during His incarnation voluntarily restricted the independent use of certain divine attributes in keeping with the plan of the Father for the first advent. If the Lord Jesus Christ had used all of His attributes of deity all of the time He would never have been taken to the cross. Those who tried to seize Him would all have been killed and no one would have been able to move Him from the spot where they came to arrest Him. During the incarnation the Lord Jesus Christ gave up the independent exercise of certain attributes in order to fulfil the Father’s plan for coming to the earth and taking upon Himself the form of man.

7. Therefore the union of divine essence and the human nature of the incarnate Christ are hypostatic and personal. “Hypostatic” comes from the Greek noun hypostasis (ὑποστασις), it means standing under, it means the essence of taking on an essence other than the one essence that a person has. Jesus Christ as God took on the essence of man. He already possessed the essence of deity and there never would be a time when that would change. This is emphasized in Hebrews 1:3. Hypostatic, therefore, refers to the whole person of Christ as distinguished by His two natures, divine and human. It refers to the fact that in one person He is God and man without compromising either one by the union of the two. Personal in hypostatic union refers to the emergence of a unique person. The person of the Lord Jesus Christ is absolutely unique. As deity He is equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, but different from then in that He is man. As man He is perfect man, greater than any man who ever lived, but true humanity and greater. He is also God. He is the unique person of the universe.

8. There is also a false interpretation that should be recognized. This implies that deity possesses humanity or that the deity of Christ indwells the humanity of Christ. The union, however, between deity and humanity is more than that, it is more than harmony or sympathy, it is personal. There are two natures, divine and human, which have been combined in one hypostasis or one essence forever.

9. Therefore, Jesus Christ the God-Man has one hypostasis, one essence, forever. The attributes of both the divine and human natures belong to one person. The characteristics of one nature are never attributed to the other nature. This means that during the first advent Jesus Christ could be simultaneously omnipotent and weak, omniscient and ignorant. In His deity He was omnipotent; often in His humanity He was weak. When the baby in the cradle was born He was omniscient God, He knew the end from the beginning, He knew everything that ever was or ever would be, His omniscience was not in any way changed. However, the baby was ignorant. By the time the baby had grown to twelve years he had reached supergrace, but He had to follow the usual GAP procedures in His humanity in order to mature spiritually. He did mature spiritually, as taught in the first chapter of John as well as in the second chapter of Luke. So His maturity came through overcoming His ignorance, the same way in which our spiritual maturity is attained. The ignorance of His humanity was quickly overcome by the daily function of GAP — Luke 2:40; John 1:14.

10. The necessity for the humanity of Christ, therefore the necessity for the hypostatic union is found under four categories:

a. The Saviorhood of Jesus Christ — Acts 4:12. Jesus Christ as eternal God cannot die on the cross. As sovereignty He is not subject to death. As eternal life He cannot die. As immutability He cannot change. As omnipresence He can’t reduce Himself to one point. So the deity of Christ cannot go to the cross and die for our sins. However, by becoming true humanity and by remaining perfect humanity He is qualified to go to the cross and our sins were poured out upon Him and judged in His humanity. Philippians 2:7,8; Hebrews 2:14,15.

b. The fact of mediatorship. A mediator or an umpire has to be equal with both parties in the mediation. Party of the first part is the Trinity. Party of the second part is mankind. Whoever mediates between the two must be equal with both parties. Therefore Jesus Christ qualifies because He is God and because He is man. He had to be the God-Man, and therefore the necessity for the hypostatic union — Job 9:2,32,33; 1Timothy 2:5,6.

c. The priesthood. The priest must be a man representing man before God — Hebrews 7:4,5,14,28; 10:5, 10–14.

d. In order to be the King of Israel forever. He had to become David’s greater son. He is born directly into the line of David and as David’s son He will reign forever and ever.

11. Everything verbally communicated by Jesus Christ during the incarnation had to come from one of three sources:

a. His deity — John 8:58, the Lord Jesus Christ as God always existed;

b. His humanity — John 19:28, “I thirst.” Deity doesn’t thirst;

c. The combination of His deity and His humanity, His hypostatic union — Matthew 11:28; John 14:6 (I am the Way, the Truth and the Life), He had to be the God-Man to be our Savior.

12. This is more complex and is not covered every time.

The word “Christ” refers to His high priesthood. It refers to why He came. He came to save, but He did so as the high priest. He came to provide a royal family forever and He does that as the high priest. When Jesus Christ was on the cross He offered Himself a sacrifice of the priesthood. It was the priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ which was so important in the function of the hypostatic union. Therefore the word “Christ” means His priesthood. We are reviewing this doctrine, again.

The Doctrine of the High Priesthood of the Lord Jesus Christ 4

1. There are three bona fide priesthoods in the Bible. The first of these occurred during the dispensation of the Gentiles. This is known as the family priesthood. The firstborn in every family was the priest of the family. Abraham, Job, and Melchizedek are classical illustrations of the family priesthood of the Age of the Gentiles. In the dispensation of Israel we have the Levitical priesthood. This is the family of Aaron from the tribe of Levi. They were appointed. The eldest surviving son was the high priest, the other male members of the family were priests. In the dispensation of the Church we have the unique priesthood. We have the priesthood of Christ. Jesus Christ is the high priest and every believer is a member of this priesthood — 1Peter 2:5,9. This is a royal priesthood, the same as Melchizedek in the family priesthood era.

2. As a high priest the Lord Jesus Christ is the minister in spiritual things — Hebrews 5:1. All of the spiritual things which pertain to us as royal family came to us through the Lord Jesus Christ.

3. Jesus Christ is appointed high priest by God the Father — Hebrews 5:4–10; 6:20.

4. Jesus Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice of the priesthood — Hebrews 9:26,27.

5. Christ has an eternal and untransmissable priesthood. — His priesthood cannot be abrogated. Hebrews 7:20,21,24.

6. Because of positional sanctification — union with Christ — every believer is a priest, a royal priest, and that is why each one of us has the privacy of the priesthood, and that is why each one of us is in full time Christian service, and each one of us must live his life as unto the Lord — 1Peter 2:5,9; Revelation 1:6; 5:10; 20:6.

7. Jesus Christ as high priest performs the ministry of intercession for every believer on earth — Hebrews 7:25.

8. The believer priest in phase two possesses a different sacrifice from the Levitical code.

“the same” — we have a predicate nominative of the intensive pronoun ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] autos. This is the attributive use of the intensive pronoun. Remember that the function of the intensive pronoun is to emphasize the identity of the important person in a context. The VIP here is the Lord Jesus Christ. The other emphasis on the uniqueness of His person is the omission of the verb to be. There is no verb here. it is simply, “Jesus Christ the same.” This is the Classical Greek idiom which indicates a predicate nominative. The stability of Christ is coming up next, but first of all the identity of the one who is stabilized. How do you know a stabilized person in the royal priesthood on earth? They are identified very easily because they are supergrace believers, they are mature believers. So the one who is the most stabilized of all is identified by the intensive pronoun. Jesus Christ is the same.

This is followed by an adverb, chthés (χθές) [pronounced khthays], and it refers to the incarnation. It refers to the moment when Jesus Christ became the God-Man, and once again, it refers to the hypostatic union. The stability of the Lord Jesus Christ during His first advent is in focus here. “Yesterday” refers to the Lord Jesus Christ during the first advent. The stability of Christ during the first advent continues into the Church Age, for the next adverb brings out that point — “today.” The word is sêmeron (σήμερον) [pronounced SAY-mer-on]. It refers to the Church Age and the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is now at the right hand of the Father. The great strategic victory of the angelic conflict came with the resurrection, ascension and session of Jesus Christ, and at the right hand of the Father He is still perfect ability, perfect consistency, perfect stability. he has the ability to function as a high priest, He has the perfect stability to be perfect high priest. He also has the ability to be the eternal victor of the angelic conflict. So at the right hand of the Father Jesus Christ remains in hypostatic union.

The next word is “and” which is not correctly translated. The conjunction kai can be translated that way, and frequently is, but that is what is called the connective use of the conjunctive particle. What we have here is the adjunctive use which means “also.” “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, also forever.” “Also” means that forever He will be unique, forever He will be the God-Man, forever He is eternal God and true humanity in resurrection body, and that will never change. This is a prepositional phrase, eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative plural of the definite article plus the accusative plural of the noun aiôn (αἰών) [pronounced ī-OHN], and eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus aiôn (αἰών) [pronounced ī-OHN] is a very old Greek idiom for eternity. It can be translated literally, “unto the ages,” or “to all eternity,” but it actually means “forever.”

Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same one, yesterday, today, also forever.

Summary Hebrews 13:8

1. Jesus Christ remains in hypostatic union forever as a memorial and commemoration of his strategic victory in the angelic conflict.

2. Throughout human history the method of worship changes, but the object of worship never changes. Methods of worship changed after the hypostatic union, they changed after the session of Jesus Christ, but the object never changes. The object of worship for man has always been the second person of the Trinity, the manifest person.

3. For example, in the dispensation of Israel the Jews had shadow forms of worship under the Levitical code. These shadow forms included animal sacrifices, holy days, sacred furniture, buildings that were sacred [the tabernacle and the temple], and a specialized priesthood.

4. But the hypostatic union of Jesus Christ as a part of His first advent resulted in the fulfilment of these shadows. The real image removed Old Testament shadows.

5. While the reality of Bible doctrine in a completed canon of scripture replaces the Levitical shadows the object of worship has always been the same whether it is the Levitical priesthood, the family priesthood, or the royal priesthood of the Church Age. The object has always been ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] autos, “the same one.”

6. Jesus Christ as God is immutable, therefore unchangeable. Jesus Christ was also perfect man and stabilized man.

7. In hypostatic union the God-Man was and is unchangeable, consistent. His consistency is perfect, His stability is absolute.

8. Therefore it is impossible for Jesus Christ to be unfaithful to any member of the royal family ever.

9. Furthermore, since Jesus Christ never changes truth or doctrine which comes from Jesus Christ never changes. Therefore both the living Word and the written Word abide forever — Matthew 24:35 cf. Hebrews 13:8.

1972 Hebrews 13:9a Lesson #244

244 11/10/1974 Hebrews 13:9a Doctrine of grace (revised)

We would be in slavery if we depended upon politicians.

V. 8 is all about the stability of the Lord Jesus Christ, which overflows to the royal family in v. 9.

Principles of Introduction to Verse 9

1. The stability of our great high priest overflows into the royal priesthood.

2. Positive volition toward Bible doctrine results in the daily function of GAP, resulting in maximum doctrine resident in the soul. This is the equipment of the royal priesthood for this dispensation.

3. Maximum doctrine resident in the soul produces priestly maturity and the normal function of the supergrace life.

4. Supergrace status results in maximum love of Jesus Christ plus the stability of life based on maximum doctrine resident in the soul.

5. The exception to all of this is reversionism characterized by negative volition toward Bible teaching.

6. Therefore the warning against become seduced by false doctrine. When this occurs the believer is negative toward Bible teaching and he is unstable. There is nothing worse than the instability of the royal priesthood in time. Therefore the first command… (of v. 9)

Hebrews 13:9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.

Verse 9 — “Be not carried about,” the present passive imperative from the compound verb periphérō (περιφέρω) [pronounced per-ee-FEHR-oh]. In the imperative mood it means to be carried or to be led away. Here it means to be seduced. We have a negative mê with it and it means “Do not become seduced.” The present tense is a retroactive progressive which indicates that reversionism has begun in the past with the result that it continues into the present time. There is special emphasis placed here on the fifth and sixth stages of reversionism, which are negative volition with the opening of the vacuum and the resultant blackout of the soul. Negative volition toward doctrine opens a vacuum into the left lobe. Through this vacuum comes Satanic doctrine, false viewpoint, human viewpoint, and this causes the blackout of the soul which results in scar tissue of the soul in the right lobe. These are the conditions that immediately precede reverse process reversionism. The passive voice: the royal family receives the action of the verb, namely being seduced or deceived by false doctrine. The imperative mood plus the negative mê is the imperative of prohibition which expresses a negative command. Altogether it should be translated, “Do not be carried away” or “Do not be seduced with divers and strange doctrines.”

The word for “divers” is an instrumental plural of the adjective poikilos (ποικίλος) [pronounced poy-KEE-loss] which means various kinds, various categories; the word “strange” is a second instrumental adjective which means “foreign” or “alien” — xénos (ξένος) [pronounced XEHN-oss]. The two adjectives together describe false doctrine which seduces the believer in reversionism. Literally then, “Do not be carried away [seduced] by means of diversified and strange doctrines.” This is a reference to false doctrines which infiltrate the soul when the believer is negative toward doctrine. This vacuum only opens when the believer is strong in his negative volition. In other words, when he has entered into some form of reversionism. The negative volition toward doctrine is characterized by several factors. The first of these is indifference or apathy toward Bible teaching. The second is indifference or apathy toward anyone who is teaching Bible doctrine, antagonism or personality hang-ups toward other members of the congregation, too busy or too bored for face to face teaching, or failure to appropriate grace provision of GAP [assembling for Bible class], failure to rebound.

Weapons in the hands of law-abiding citizens is a great principle in crime control. That way, the police come by, find the body of the thief dead. They write up a report and the matter is disposed of.

Believers today have a lot of idiotic ideas which have come from reversionism but not from the Bible. So much so that today when anything is clearly taught from the Word of God people are shocked. They do not think that is Christian at all. It has now become so bad that people assume that whenever something is said with regard to the laws of divine establishment or some principle of grace is enucleated people immediately assume that that is not Christian doctrine. They think that Christian doctrine is becoming liberal and becoming involved in a lot of idiotic panaceas.

The explanation of this comes next with the word “For” — the illitive use of the epexegetical particle gar, which gives a ground or reason for the previous statement. Then, after this, you have to have the verb to be. This is going to be idiomatic — “For it is.”

“a good thing” — a predicate adjective from the adjective kalos (καλός) [pronounced kal-OSS] which means here “a noble thing” — “For it is a noble thing.” The word “thing” is thrown in because kalos (καλός) [pronounced kal-OSS] is in the neuter gender.

“that the heart be established” — the establishment of the heart is an accusative of general reference. The accusative of general reference always has first of all a noun in the accusative case plus an infinitive. The accusative case noun acts as the subject of the infinitive rather than its object. Now the accusative singular definite article plus the accusative singular of the noun kardia (καρδία) [pronounced kahr-DEE-uh]. Kardia (καρδία) [pronounced kahr-DEE-uh] means heart in the sense of the right lobe, heart in the sense of where you live. The right lobe of the soul actual handles all of the processing of doctrine and everything else that you think in life. The left lobe merely processes information and keeps your objectivity together. The right lobe has a frame of reference into which everything that you have ever learned enters. You have never learned anything but what was first of all in the frame of reference, then it went into the memory centre. You cannot think beyond your vocabulary. All members of the human race think with words, and when you start thinking apart from words you are either emotional or you may be very clever but you are not smart at all. It takes vocabulary to think. Vocabulary eventually develops categories. Then we have norms and standards. And then there is the launching pad. Everything you ever applied to life goes from this launching pad into your own personal experience.

This is the word “heart” .The word is never used in the Bible for the physiological pump that handles the blood of the body, it is always used for the thinking process of the individual. The individual’s heart therefore refers to the right lobe of the soul and this is where you do all of your thinking. “As a man thinks in his heart [right lobe], so he is.”

“that” — the word “that” is used for translating purposes but it actually is not found in the original. While the accusative is used with the infinitive it is not really the subject, it describes what the person or thing connected with the action in the infinitive will do. Therefore it is always translated like a subject and it is much easier to explain it by saying it is a subject.

Now we have a present passive infinitive of the verb bebaióō (βεβαιόω) [pronounced beb-ah-YOH-oh]. The word means to be stabilized. The present tense is a customary present denoting what habitually occurs when believers have maximum doctrine resident in the soul. The passive voice: the believers right love receives the action of the verb — stability from resident doctrine. This is an infinitive of purpose.

“with grace” — the instrumental singular of the noun charis (χάρις) [pronounced KHAHR-iç], and it should be translated “by means of grace.”

So far we have:

Hebrews 13:9a Be not carried away [into reversionism] by means of diversified and alien doctrines. For it is a noble thing that the right lobe be stabilized by means of grace.

The laws of divine establishment in this era prevail. We are to destroy our enemies; not build up their military.

The Doctrine of Grace

1. Definition.

a. Grace is all that God is free to do for man on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.

b. Grace is God’s freedom and consistency to express His love to mankind without compromising or jeopardising His essence.

c. No one can truly give and rightly give apart from freedom. God gives out of total freedom because of the cross, because of propitiation.

d. Consequently grace is the plan of God on behalf of man beginning at the cross. Grace is actually a one-word description of God’s plan.

e. Therefore, grace is also God’s policy. God’s policy in dealing with the believer is always in grace.

f. Grace in summary is the plan, the policy, the function, the mechanics of divine modus operandi. Under grace God does all the work, all of the providing, and man does all of the receiving and all of the benefitting totally apart from human merit.

g. The concept: Grace depends upon the essence or the character of God. Therefore, grace depends on who and what God is. Grace is what God can do for man and be consistent with His own character. Grace is God’s relationship with the believer as well as God’s way of salvation. So that under its concept grace is all that God can do for man from salvation to eternity, totally apart from man’s merit, man’s ability, man’s talent, man’s planning.

h. This brings up an issue: The great enemy to grace is legalism. Legalism is simply, by definition, man’s intrusion in the plan of God with his own works, his own ability, his own talent, his own schemes, and using these in order to gain the approbation of God. Legalism has many forms. One form of legalism is religion: man by man’s efforts seeking to gain the approbation of God. One thing Christianity is not is religion. As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ you are in the plan of God, the plan of God is grace.

i. Grace excludes religion, grace squeezes religion out of your soul like a strong man squeezes a sponge and squeezes the water right out of it. Religion is the worst enemy of man. Religion is the devil’s ace trump — Satanic systems of human ability and works used as substitutes for God’s works in grace.

ii. The believer must learn to sort out the difference, then, between grace and legalism, between grace and religion. The believer often clings to some talent or some ability, some plan, some gimmick, and actually tries to infiltrate into the plan of God with this gimmick. But anything that man adds or throws into the plan of God, if accepted, would destroy operation grace.

iii. The plan, operation grace, is never destroyed or neutralized because grace rejects all energy of the flesh, all human talent, all human ability, and all human viewpoint ideas. Therefore you must understand the issue that legalism and grace can never coexist.

iv. One entire book is devoted to this, the book of Galatians. Great portions of the book of Romans are devoted to this subject, and throughout the Word of God you will constantly see references to the fact that grace and legalism are mutually exclusive. In other words, a little leaven of legalism leavens the entire lump.

2. Grace and the new contract for the Church.

a. The glorification of Christ by resurrection, ascension and session is the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. When our Lord was brought back from the dead and ascended into heaven and seated at the right hand of the Father, that point is the strategic victory of the angelic conflict. The reason it is related to the angelic conflict is brought out by Hebrews 1: now Jesus Christ as a man in a resurrection body is higher than all angels. He is supreme and superior to all angels. He sits there as the God-Man in hypostatic union forever. Now He is higher than the angels and some day we in resurrection bodies will be physically greater than angels. In the meantime we are positionally greater than angels. This is the strategic victory that broke the back of Satan in his great angelic revolution. This dramatic victory interrupts the Jewish age in order that the royal family of God might be formed. Until Jesus Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father there never was a royal family. All believers were family of God, now we are royal family.

b. Positional sanctification is a part of God’s grace plan.

i. Under positional sanctification the greatest thing that God the Father could do for the believer is to make him like His Son, Jesus Christ.

ii. This is accomplished positionally at the point of salvation by means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

iii. All the Old Testament believers were regenerated by the Holy Spirit at the moment of faith in Christ.

iv. This act of regeneration is tantamount to being in the family of God forever.

v. The same thing was accomplished at salvation for every believer in the Church Age.

vi. For the first time in history the baptism of the Spirit occurred through which every believer was entered into union with Christ. This is what God did when Jesus Christ was seated at the right hand of the Father. He began the great process of calling out a royal family. By being entered into union with Christ immediately, at salvation, you became superior to all angelic creatures.

vii. Man was created to resolve the angelic conflict, therefore when the first Adam failed through sin Jesus Christ became true humanity and won the victory at the cross, according to Colossians 2:14; Hebrews 2:14. So that believers in union with Christ have two factors of grace: (1) positionally all Church age believers are higher than angels, (2) and all Church Age believers are royal family of God forever. Therefore, paragraph one of our new contract is called the new covenant to the Church or the new contract.

c. We are in a new grace contract, and in this new grace contract paragraph one is the entering paragraph. It provides for royalty plus the fact that each member of the royal family is positionally higher than angels. This is grace, we don’t earn it or deserve it. In addition, the royal family all have the indwelling of God the Holy Spirit as a sign or as the escutcheon of the royal family. The sealing of the Spirit is our security.

d. The second part of the paragraph deals with experiential sanctification. Paragraph two of the new contract provides for the tactical victory of the angelic conflict. This is, again, a strictly-speaking grace provision of God where He has provided numerous things for tactical victory:

i. The principle of living grace by which the believer remains alive in the devil’s world. What good to have a contract unless you could stay alive? Satan would like to destroy you and all royal family. Satan would like to rid the earth of the royal family of God, even as he would like to rid the earth of the Jew. The Jew must be destroyed, says Satan, because God has unconditional promises to the Jew. And God is going to keep the Jew alive in spite of Satanic efforts. The same thing is true of the Church or the royal family of God. God guarantees under paragraph two of the new contract to keep us alive in the devil’s world for a determined length of time. The length of time is strictly a matter of the sovereign policy of God. How long we live is strictly up to Him.

ii. He has provided for us a pastor-teacher. He has provided the local church as a classroom, and the Bible as a text book. In other words, He has provided spiritual factors for the spiritual growth of the royal family. He has provided factors in life that we might grow physically; He has also provided the spiritual factors for growth.

iii. He has provided a grace apparatus for perception whereby Bible doctrine can be transferred from the page of the Bible to the soul of the royal family, and the system is a grace system of perception, it has nothing to do with human IQ.

iv. Through GAP, the filling of the Spirit, and academic discipline, the local church exists for your spiritual growth. It is the only place for spiritual growth. There were no visitor cards; and you will not get a hypocritical letter from us. That is incompatible with God’s plan and God’s Word. If there is someone claiming to be official asking for your name and number, he is not. What is key is the doctrine that you walk away with in your soul.

v. So in paragraph two we have the perpetuation of supergrace status through God’s grace provision. Experiential sanctification, therefore, or paragraph two, is designed to take you as a member of the royal family of God on earth to take you from salvation to the supergrace status. That is where the normal function of the royal priesthood begins. And your tactical victory compliments the strategical victory of Christ seated at the right hand of the Father. The supergrace blessings that you receive as you reach SG2 are in three categories: spiritual blessings, temporal blessings promoted by God, and dying grace.

e. The third and final paragraph of the new contract has to do with ultimate sanctification. This deals with eternity.

f. All three paragraphs in the new contract: paragraph 1, salvation — all that God does at the moment we are saved, the moment we believe in Christ; paragraph 2 — all that God does for us in time; paragraph 3 — all that God does for us in eternity. These paragraphs all form the new contract to the church. This is the contract under which we live and in all three paragraphs there is no room for human merit or human ability.

3. The five stages of grace, also known as the Road to Glory:

a. Stage one is saving grace. Every believer hast tasted the grace of God at least once, and that was the point of his salvation — Hebrews 6:4; 1Peter 2:3. The moment of salvation brings the believer 36 irrevocable items of grace. These cannot be cancelled and they cannot be destroyed. Because of propitiation every believer is also under maximum love from God — 1John 2:2. Maximum love frees God to pour out maximum grace, but grace can only benefit where there is a capacity for grace. The capacity for grace, like capacity for life is based upon the amount of doctrine resident in the believer’s soul. However, the believer is saved by grace which is all the Trinity has accomplished for our salvation — Romans 3:23,24; 4:4 (wages are calculated on the basis of work); 5:20 (abounding in grace); Ephesians 2:8,9.

b. Stage two is living grace. Living grace is all that God must do to keep the believer alive and on the earth in this dispensation. Under that principle God provides everything.

c. Stage three is supergrace, which is equivalent to maturity in the spiritual life. In 1Timothy 1:14 supergrace is described as the abundant life. Supergrace is the adult stage of spiritual growth, attended by maximum blessings from God which glorify God. Supergrace is the ultimate in spiritual growth in time and the basis for the normal function of the normal priesthood. Supergrace is the sphere of life in which the royal family reaps what God sows in eternity past. Therefore the fulfilment of Romans 8:28. James 4:6 says, “But he gives greater grace [or supergrace], and therefore he says, God opposes the arrogant [reversionist] but gives grace to the humble.” Ephesians 1:6 — “Resulting in the recognition of glory from the source of his grace, from which he has pursued us with grace in then beloved.” Cf. Ephesians 3:20,21 (that He might give you according to the riches of His glory); 1:16–19.

d. Stage four is dying grace. This is the permanent change of station from time to eternity, the greatest blessing that can exist in life, the highest decoration of life. Dying grace is the experience of physical death under special grace provisions whereby no matter what the type of death may be it is nothing but blessing all the way. The principle of dying grace links the supergrace blessings of time with the surpassing grace blessings of eternity — Hebrews 11:13. Therefore dying grace is the extension of the glory road over the chasm between time and eternity. It is that high golden bridge by which we go from paragraph SG2 to paragraph SG3. Cf. Psalm 33:18,19; 116:15; Philippians 1:20,21. Even Socrates saw the how you died was more important than how you have lived; but how you die is dependant upon how you lived.

e. Stage five is surpassing grace. This is the second of the special blessing and reward paragraphs for the believer. This one lasts forever; this one is in eternity. This is above and beyond the normal blessings of heaven which belong to all believers. Beyond these normal blessings of heaven are the special blessings and rewards for the mature or supergrace believer — Ephesians 2:7. Again, God is glorified forever for those believers who are decorated in eternity.

4. The modus vivendi of grace.

a. Grace is the means of growth — 2Peter 3:18. All growth comes through knowledge of doctrine. Knowledge of doctrine gives us love for Jesus Christ.

b. Grace is the basis for stability in life — Hebrews 13:8,9; 12:28; 1Peter 5:12.

c. Grace is the basis for production — 1Corinthians 15:10; 2Corinthians 6:1.

5. The failure to utilize grace. This is describes as reversionism — Galatians 5:4, reversionism is defined as drifting off course from grace; Hebrews 12:15, reversionism is described here as falling back from the grace of God. Whichever definition you use they all add up to neglect of Bible doctrine.

6. Grace and suffering. 2Corinthians 12:7–10, we have the importance of the grace apparatus for perception [GAP], the importance of the constant and daily intake of Bible doctrine. The grace principle meets every exigency of life.

7. The axioms of grace.

a. God is perfect, therefore His plan is perfect.

b. A perfect plan can only originate and function from the source of a perfect God.

c. If mankind can do anything meritorious in the plan of God it is not longer perfect. Why? Man is imperfect, he cannot contribute to a perfect plan. His imperfection only contributes imperfection, therefore man’s contributions are excluded.

d. A plan is no stronger than its weakest link. There are no weak links in God’s plan.

e. Grace excludes, therefore, all human merit, all human ability, all human good, all legalism, all self-righteousness and arrogance.

f. Legalism, therefore, is the enemy of grace. There is no place for legalism or human good in the plan of God.

g. All legalism and human good is associated with the greatest of mental attitude sins which is pride. Arrogance has no place in God’s grace plan.

8. The four areas in which pride or arrogance reject God’s grace.

a. The pride of the believer who rejects the doctrine of eternal security. The believer who rejects eternal security thinks that his sins are greater than the grace plan of God. This is the quintessence of arrogance.

b. The pride of that believer who succumbs to pressure and adversity. He assumes that his sufferings and adversities are greater than the grace provision of God.

c. The pride of reversionism. The reversionist assumes that his form of reversionism is greater than supergrace blessings. He assumes that his emotions, his ecstatics, his experiences, his legalistic functions, or even his phallic stimulations are more important than Bible doctrine, the daily function of GAP and the resultant supergrace blessings.

d. The pride of pseudo-spirituality. The pseudo-spiritual believer thinks that his system of spirituality, his system of energy of the flesh, is greater than the true function of God the Holy Spirit in his life and in the life of the royal family. In his arrogance he becomes a holy-roller, becomes involved in the tongues movement, he ejaculates verbal nonsense which he calls tongues, or enters into spiritual functions like witnessing and prayer in the energy of the flesh, or observes the taboos in the name of asceticism, or functions under some point program which impresses him and impresses his friends. He changes his personality to become sombre, or he changes his personality to be one of the ‘happy boys’, but whatever he does it is pseudo and it is phoney. 28:00

[From #244] Withholding federal funds for not reducing the highway speed is wrong. The federal government is supposed to be an administrative body.

God does not give us a number, He thinks of us as an individual. The sealing of the Holy Spirit does not involve any numbers. We are in the new contract; we are a person sealed by the Spirit.

I think the first 2 points are covered in Lesson #244; and picked up in #245 for point 3.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #245

245 11/10/1974 Hebrews 13:9b Doctrine of grace (cont.)

Basic review of first 2 points. Back to point #3, in the previous lesson’s notes.

Hebrews 13:9a Be not carried away [into reversionism] by means of diversified and alien doctrines. For it is a noble thing that the right lobe be stabilized by means of grace.

Hebrews 13:9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them.

Hebrews 13:9b — “not with meats”, the strong negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] plus the instrumental of brôma (βρμα) [pronounced BRO-mah] which means food. It is in the plural here and it should be translated literally, “not by means of food.” This is a reference to the food taboos of Judaism which are mentioned in Romans 14:1–4. It means a system of pseudo spirituality here. Our spirituality does not depend on what we take into the mouth, it is what we take into the soul that counts.

Extensive food taboos like pork and shrimp. They were forbidden as a part of the health program. In the ancient world, their preparation left a lot to be desired. Bob does not like vegetables or some of them, but that does not prevent him from being objective about them. Green vegetables do not appeal to him; this type of thing is pretty grim. But that is his personal taste.

Eating some foods or not eating some foods is not related to spirituality. Bob like soybeans cooked like baked beans and has had chocolate made from soybeans, which is very good and very healthy. But unrelated to the spiritual life.

“which” is a prepositional phrase — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. It should be translated “in which.”

The next phrase “have not profited” is the aorist passive indicative of ôpheléô (ὠφελέω) [pronounced oh-feh-LEH-oh] which means to profit. Here it has the negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook], so “they have not been profitable” or “they have not been benefitted.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist contemplating the action of the verb in its entirety. It means that there is no spiritual benefit in observing certain food taboos; health to the body but no spiritual blessing to the life. The point is that the issue is found in spiritual food, not in physical food. The passive voice: legalistic believers who are observing food taboos for spirituality are not benefitted [spiritually] by these taboos. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Food is very important to your health but of no importance in your spiritual life.

“that have been occupied therein” — the word “therein” is not found in the original; “that have been occupied” is a present active participle of the verb peripateô (περιπατέω) [pronounced per-ee-paht-EH-oh] which means to walk, and the linear aktionsart of the present tense indicates that people have kept walking. It doesn’t mean occupy, it means to walk. They have walked in a system or a pattern of life where they used food taboos as a system of spirituality. But they are not benefitted by food taboos — much better that they get on Bible doctrine.

Hebrews 13:9 Do not be carried away [into reversionism] by means of diversified and alien doctrines. For it is a noble thing that the right lobe be stabilized by means of grace; not by foods in which those who keep walking were not benefitted [spiritually].

Conclusions

1. Taboo reversionism is a form of legalism in total opposition to God’s grace plan.

2. Jewish taboos failed to stabilize the soul.

3. Only Bible doctrine resident in the soul of the believer can stabilize and add to the spiritual life of the royal family.

4. In the Church Age each member of the royal family must function under his own priesthood and totally reject any form of legalistic dictatorship. When Bob was first saved, he was given a list of what not to do. That completely shut down his life. Bob is not advocating or not any of these taboos. You women look like hell with a cigarette hanging from your lips. Bob has noticed that most women who smoke have very bad manners. However, if you give up smoking, you won’t be more spiritual.

5. The only legitimate taboos in the life of a believer are those things which you give up as a result of taking in doctrine and growing up spiritually.

a. All of us have taboos, a scale of values, things we like or dislike. Bob cannot stand long hair; but this is a decision that every person needs to make for himself.

b. You girls need to learn to say no.

c. Do not ever give a testimony about how you have given up this or that.

d. It was always in codex 3 of the Law where some foods were forbidden. Nothing to do with the spiritual life.

6. Under these conditions of spiritual growth Bible doctrine will dictate certain taboos and spiritual growth causes one to change his scale of values and his lifestyle. But don’t get saved and give up something immediately because what you give up and what you take on is going to be based upon the values that will develop in your life. That scale of values will come with Bible doctrine.

7. Any change in your lifestyle is based upon doctrine resident in the soul and the filling of the Spirit applying this doctrine. Taboos are not the result of legalistic bullying but spiritual growth and the attainment of the supergrace status.

8. Anything forced out of the life by doctrine is certainly legitimate. So here is the great principle. The royal family must function on the basis of doctrine in the soul causing the believer to be spiritually self-sustaining in his priesthood and stabilized by the grace of God. The congregation of royalty must concentrate on the teaching of doctrine, the message of the pastor-teacher, recognizing his authority in the pulpit, and as a result, taking in doctrine. In other words, you develop your own dictator. Doctrine in your soul is your absolute dictator. The kingdom of royal priests does not exclude authority but emphasizes becoming spiritually independent and grace oriented. Therefore it is extremely important that you continue to be consistent in your intake of doctrine in order that inside of your soul might be the absolute dictator of your life — Bible doctrine. When doctrine in your soul becomes the absolute dictator you are doing the will of God.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #246

246 11/11/1974 Hebrews 13:10–11 Altar of Church Age believer.

The canon club of retired officers. Everyone is well-groomed and well-dressed. Bob noticed a number of people there that he knew. There are always those who hold the line when it comes to the military.

Bob goes through some things which he remembers. Tim Horton said how lonely it was being away from Berachah Church. No incompatibility between being a good soldier and being a Christian. Hanes commander of the Pacific during the time of Vietnam. He was burdened by the war that continued after the US withdrew.

Someone who said that the Vietnamese would be licked, if we continued to press.

CBS is examined regarding its coverage of Russia and the US; there is a book on this. 17x as much time spent calling for less funding for the military. 50% of Russia’s budget goes to their military. The book is by LaFavor, LaFever?

We begin a new paragraph: the sacrifices of the royal priesthood, verse 10–19.

Hebrews 13:10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat.

Verse 10 — the altar of the royal family of God. The royal family has an altar and it is presented in this verse. We go now from the importance of our Lord and Savior to the importance of the function of His priesthood on earth. This is a royal priesthood and verse 10 tells us immediately that we do have an altar.

“We have” — present active indicative of the verb echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] which means to have and to hold. The present tense is retroactive progressive present, it denotes what has begun in the past [beginning of the Church Age] and continues into the present time or the duration of the Church Age. The active voice: the royal priesthood of the Church Age produces the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact and a dogmatic concept of theology. “We keep having and holding an altar.”

“an altar” — the accusative singular direct object from the noun thusiastêrion (θυσιαστήριον) [pronounced thoo-see-as-TAY-ree-on]. The word means an altar but it means an altar where there is a function of worship. It is an altar that connotes worship, not merely sacrifice. The altar here refers to the function of the royal priesthood in contrast to the function of the Levitical priesthood before the brass altar.

This altar represents the entrance into the plan of God by way of the cross. It also represents the five categories of sacrifices which were offered in the Levitical activity of the past — the burnt sacrifice, the food or meal sacrifice, the peace, the sin and the trespass offering. However, it presents them from a slightly different standpoint from what we have studied before. For example, the burnt offering represents the Lord Jesus Christ as the propitiator, it emphasizes His work in propitiation. The food offering represents propitiation with emphasis on His person. So His person and His work are emphasized in the first two offerings. The whole point of the royal family altar is this. The brass altar of the Levitical priesthood was designed to look forward to the cross and to look forward to grace, and to teach grace. The altar of the royal family of God not only looks back to the cross but it also looks to the fact that is was designed to make us consistent, stabilized and operational to the glory of God. The peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering are all related to this. The answer is very simple. Always the key to our altar is grace, and grace is portrayed by reconciliation or the peace offering. The sin offering and the transgression offering both represent the principle of rebound, and rebound is also a grace principle. The whole concept is, how can a perfect God design a perfect plan and have imperfect creatures involved, and still make the plan work. The answer to that is the altar of the royal priesthood. So we have and we possess an altar.

The historical events of the cross fulfil the Levitical offerings. Therefore the brass altar of the old priesthood is removed. It is replaced by the historical cross and by the royal priesthood and by a new altar. The new altar is related to grace. The shadow sacrifices of the brass altar are replaced by the real doctrines of the Church Age reduced to writing.

Here is the issue. We have a royal priesthood but a royal priesthood must have a dictatorship, and the dictatorship of the royal priesthood is Bible doctrine resident in the soul. If you do not have a dictatorship in your soul — maximum doctrine resident there — you are not living a normal Christian life, you are not functioning under a normal priesthood. You must have a dictatorship in your soul. This dictatorship is developed by the transfer of Bible doctrine from the Word of God to your individual soul. Doctrine in the Bible does not constitute a dictatorship, only doctrine which is resident in your soul. So we have an altar. It is an altar that is constructed just as definitely as the altar in Israel was constructed. You an I must have an altar in the soul. If we are going to function as a royal priest we must have a helm, we must have some system of guidance, we must have power. All of these things come from doctrine in the soul, and you are not living a normal life if someone else is dictating your course of life. If your lifestyle is influenced by those around you, by trying to please someone, by trying to get ahead, by ambition, by lust, by desire for happiness or blessing apart from God’s plan, whatever it is, it is going to destroy you just as certainly as a ship without a rudder is going to crack up. You must be able to answer questions for yourself, you must be able to face life and not have to rely on someone else — “What do I do now?” You cannot use other people as crutches. We have stability when we build in our souls an altar, and that comes by the daily function of GAP.

You cannot think beyond your vocabulary. You need a complete vocabulary which leads to categories. When you are in supergrace status, your soul filled with doctrine becomes the dictator of your life.

The altar in our soul is constructed out of doctrine. Whatever influences you destroys you. You become a plane without power; or a boat without a rudder. You must be able to answer your life’s questions. You cannot use your friends to solve your problems; or your psychiatrist or your pastor.

At some point, you need answers. Captains of ships do not have answers; psychiatrists do not have answers. The Lord Jesus Christ becomes the Living Word,

The Jewish altar was a literal brass altar, it was historical. It is replaced by the altar of the royal family which is not a literal altar — it is literal in the sense that Bible doctrine is real but it is not a visible altar in that Bible doctrine resident in the soul is not visible to others around you. While the Jewish altar was composed of literal objects representing future events the altar of the royal priesthood is composed of literal words representing both past historical victories as well as victory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our altar is made up of words and thoughts and categories and principles and promises. The altar of the past priesthood was made up of literal objects.

This passage is a challenge therefore to us as members of the royal family of God to come as quickly as possible to the point where we have an absolute dictator, whereas in our soul is a control centre, Bible doctrine, telling us what is right and what is wrong, telling our volition this is God’s way and this is the way of cosmos diabolicus.

The original recipients of this letter were dabbling in the shadows, going back to the rituals of the Old Testament. But Jesus had already come in the flesh.

The only consolation that Bob will have is, “I told you so.”

Bob is disappointed that he won’t be able to watch the fear in people’s eyes who have neglected doctrine. Many woke up too late to find that the brass altar had been melted down. Many of the people ran into the Temple, and they were skewered by the sword in the Temple wielded by well-trained Romans.

Animals were used on the Jewish altar, and to continue offering animals on a Jewish altar when there is a new altar is blasphemous, and that is exactly what reversionism is, it is a state of spiritual blasphemy.

The word “whereof” is a preposition, ek, plus the ablative singular of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. It means “from which.”

“they” — the Levitical priesthood, the Old Testament saints; “have no right to eat” — fagein ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] exousin = exousia (ἐξουσία) [pronounced ex-oo-SEE-ah]. The word exousia (ἐξουσία) [pronounced ex-oo-SEE-ah] means no authority, no right. The strong negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook] plus the accusative singular of exousia (ἐξουσία) [pronounced ex-oo-SEE-ah] means no authority or no authorization. They were not authorized to eat at the brass altar. The words “to eat” is the aorist active infinitive of esthiô (ἐσθίω) [pronounced es-THEE-oh] and it refers to the Levitical priesthood of the dispensation of Israel eating certain portions of the animal sacrifices. This was their means of living. We as royal priests do not literally eat animals, we as members of the royal priesthood live on spiritual food, Bible doctrine which becomes our altar as that doctrine enters the soul. Our altar which we keep having is the daily function of GAP resulting in doctrine resident in the soul. The aorist tense of the verb to eat is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It is a reference to the spiritual feeding of the royal priesthood. The Levitical priesthood ate animals to stay alive physically, we eat spiritual food in order to fulfil the very basis for our royal priesthood. The active voice: the royal priesthood produces the action of the verb. The whole point of this constative aorist is, Jesus Christ is the same one yesterday and today, also forever. He is consistent, and the only way that we as believers can be consistent is to GAP it today, tomorrow, the next day, the next, and so on. The infinitive denotes the purpose of the royal priesthood and so functioning at the altar of GAP so that each believer attains supergrace through maximum doctrine resident in the soul. supergrace is the place of tactical victory, the place of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ. So we do not eat at the altar of the Levitical priesthood because we would eat animal sacrifices. We eat spiritual food.

Why is it called an altar? An altar always connotes sacrifice. GAPing it is a sacrifice. There are many sacrifices necessary to be consistent. The constative aorist gathers every sacrifice into one entirety, resulting in the supergrace life, and that is exactly the concept we have here. You have to come to the altar to build that inner dictator. In order to glorify God you have to take in doctrine on a daily basis. It is a sacrifice to constantly GAP it. It is a sacrifice to do a lot of things related to the function of GAP.

The next word is a participle: “serve” — the articular present active participle of latreuô (λατρεύω) [pronounced lat-RYOO-oh], which is used for spiritual service as a function of the royal priesthood. The definite article is used as a relative pronoun referring to the Levitical priesthood in contrast to ours. The present tense is a customary present for the function of the Levitical priesthood at the altar of the tabernacle, later on the altar of the temple. The active voice: the Levitical priesthood produces the action of the verb as authorized by the Mosaic law. The participle is circumstantial for a past activity when the Levitical priesthood functioned within its own dispensation.

Hebrews 13:10 We [royal priesthood] have an altar, from which they who serve the tabernacle [Levitical priesthood] have no authorization to eat.

Summary

1. The Levitical priesthood authorized by the Mosaic law had the right and the privilege to serve in the tabernacle and later on in the temple.

2. However, in the Church Age they have no authorization to function since their contract and their dispensation have both been abrogated. We have a new contract and a new dispensation.

3. Under the new contract and new dispensation we have the royal priesthood of the Church Age replacing the Levitical priesthood at the altar, and we have a new altar replacing the old. Instead of the old brass altar we now have Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

4. The Levitical priesthood was limited and based on physical birth. The royal priesthood is universal to all believers in the Church Age and based on regeneration.

5. The Levitical priesthood ate the flesh of animal sacrifices offered on the altar, while the royal priesthood partakes of doctrine offered by the pastor-teacher in the classroom of the local church.

6. The Levitical priesthood was physically sustained by eating a portion of the animal sacrifices. The royal priesthood is spiritually sustained by eating doctrine — the function of GAP.

7. From eating animal sacrifices the Levitical priesthood possessed physical energy to carry on. From partaking of Bible doctrine the royal priesthood has the spiritual energy to fulfil the tactical victory, the purpose for which we remain in this life.

Remember this. We have a dictator. Our dictator has to be Bible doctrine. You must have a dictator, a ruler, an authority, and Bible doctrine is not your authority as located in the canon of scripture. Bible doctrine only becomes your authority and your dictator as you have it in your soul. The more doctrine you have in your soul the more you are free to live your life as unto the Lord.

Hebrews 13:11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.

In verses 11 and 12 we have a contrast to sacrifices. To set up the analogy a brief comment on the disposal of the bodies of animal sacrifices on the day of atonement is necessary. Our next portion of this study depends upon your understanding of what happened to the body of the animals on the day of atonement. What happened to the sacrificial goat? There were two goats. One went wandering out into the wilderness, the other was sacrificed. What happened to the sacrificial lamb and the sacrificial calf? What disposal was made of the bodies of these sacrifices?

We know what happened to the blood, the blood of the goat and the calf was sprinkled in the holy of holies on the mercy seat. But the blood of the other animals was not sprinkled. The burning of the bodies of those sacrifices outside of the camp, the sprinkling of the blood, are all a part of the analogy coming up in the next two verses.

Verse 11 — we begin with the illitive use of the conjunctive particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] expressing a ground or reason for our new altar, and the difference between our royal altar and the altar of the Levitical priesthood. The word “bodies” is not found in the original manuscript, it just simply says, “For with reference to those animals.”

“of those beasts” is the genitive plural of the noun zôon (ζον) [pronounced DZOH-on], meaning animals or living creatures. I is a descriptive genitive as well as a reference type genitive, it refers to the animals used for the sacrifice on the day of atonement — the bullock plus the two goats and the ram. These sacrifices are well documented in Leviticus 16:5–28; Numbers 29:7–11. The ram was used for a burnt offering. The young bull or bullock was used for a sin offering for the priests — Leviticus 16:3. Then came the two goats of Leviticus 16:5 offered for the people’s sins, plus one ram for a burnt offering for the people. And remember that the offerings fell into two general categories: the offerings for the priests and the offerings for the people. Since the day of atonement was a Sabbath the usual Sabbath offerings were also offered at the same time.

“whose” — the genitive plural from the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]; “blood” — the nominative neuter singular of both the noun and the definite article, to haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah]. This refers to the literal animal blood which was shed on the day of atonement. It has nothing to do with the blood of Christ, it is the blood of animal sacrifices. The blood for the royal priesthood was animal blood sacrificed on the altar, the blood for the royal priesthood are words, doctrines. The blood for the royal priesthood is reconciliation, redemption, and propitiation. Our altar is made up of doctrines. The blood of Christ are the words, the doctrines pertaining to the death of Christ on the cross. Whereas the blood of animals belongs to one priesthood the blood of our altar are the doctrines pertaining to salvation, doctrines pertaining to Christology. They had al altar of brass upon which they placed animals, but our altar is an altar of doctrine and on our altar the blood of Christ are all of the doctrines pertaining to salvation, His saving work on the cross. But here we have the animals at this point, and the blood of animals was literal blood which was shed during the ritual of the day of atonement.

“brought into the sanctuary” — the present passive indicative of eispherô (εἰσφέρω) [pronounced ice-FER-oh], and it means to be carried in. The customary present tense is used for what habitually occurred on the day of atonement. The passive voice: the blood receives the action of the verb, namely it was carried into the holy of holies by the high priest. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality, they did the same thing every year. The word “sanctuary” here is eis (εἰς) [pronounced ICE] plus the accusative plural of hagios (ἅγιος) [pronounced HA-gee-oss]. Hagios in the plural always refers to the holy of holies. It should be translated “into the holy of holies.”

“by the high priest” — dia plus archiereus (ἀρχιερεύς) [pronounced ar-khee-er-YUCE] which means the high priest, the ruler priest. Dia plus the genitive means by means of or through; “for sin” — peri plus the genitive of hamartia (ἁμαρτία, ας, ἡ) [pronounced hahm-ahr-TEE-ah] means on behalf of sin. It connotes substitutionary concepts and it means “on behalf of sin.”

The whole point here is what happened to the bodies of the sacrifices afterwards. The great emphasis in this passage is on the burning of the bodies of the animals. The blood was extracted but the bodies were burned.

“are burned” — present passive indicative of katakaiô (κατακαίω) [pronounced kat-ak-AHee-oh] which means to burn up completely. This burning up of the bodies of animals occurred after the blood was sprinkled on the mercy seat to commemorate propitiation. This leads to the principle that once we have passed the point of propitiation we are to go outside the camp. Going outside the camp is the daily function of GAP.

“without the camp” — the adverb exô (ἔξω) [pronounced EHX-oh] is used as an improper preposition. It means “outside.” With it we have the genitive of parembolê (παρεμβολή) [pronounced pare-em-boh-LAY] for the camp or the bivouac of Israel. In other words, this is a paraphrase of Leviticus 16:27 dealing with this same day of atonement — “But the bull of the sin offering and the goat of the sin offering, whose blood was carried in to make atonement in the holy of holies, shall be taken outside the camp, and they shall burn their hides and their flesh and their dung in fire.” The whole point is this. It took a great sacrifice for Jesus Christ to be the same yesterday, and today, also forever. Jesus Christ was totally consistent. And to do that, to go to the cross, He went outside the camp. He went outside of Jerusalem, He was crucified outside of the gates. And for the royal priesthood, we are told to follow suit, we are told to go outside the camp. We are told to build an altar outside of the camp. The cross is an altar outside of the camp.

Two football games yesterday which did not conflict with Bible class. Bob glad that OJ Simpson got hit hard.

Summary

1. The function of the royal priesthood does not cease after passing the point of propitiation, it begins.

2. There is the burning of the animal corpse outside of the camp. The burning of the body portrays the physical death of Christ outside of the gates of Jerusalem, outside of where the temple was located. Just as the sprinkling of blood portrays the spiritual death of Christ on the cross, so the burning of the bodies of the sacrifices outside of the camp is a picture of Christ dying outside of religion, condemned by religion. Christ died twice on the cross as depicted in the shadows of the feast of atonement. The significance of the blood being shed, then collected, carried into the holy of holies and sprinkled on the mercy seat, is a portrayal of the doctrine of redemption, reconciliation, and propitiation — or the spiritual death of Christ or the blood of Christ. However, that is only half of the picture. The burning of the animal carcasses outside the camp portray the physical of the Lord Jesus Christ and the challenge of His last words. His last words were for us to get with Bible doctrine.

Hebrews 13:11 With reference to those animals whose blood is carried into the holy of holies on behalf of sin by the high priest, and whose bodies are burned outside the camp.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #247

247 11/12/1974 Hebrews 13:12 Physical death of Jesus Christ

Our altar is made up of words, principles, concepts, which are stored, resident in the soul. Verse 11: the blood is the holy of holies — the spiritual death of Christ on the cross; the burning of the animal carcass outside of the camp — the physical death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. It is now our objective to relate the burning of the carcass to the altar. In other words, the physical death of our Lord was the last challenge in relationship to that altar which we are to construct.

Isaiah 53:12 — “Therefore” — laqen is a combination of a preposition and an adverb. It calls for a conclusion based upon the context of Isaiah 53:11— ‘By knowledge of him [Christ] my righteous servant will justify [vindicate] the many; for he [and he only] will bear the punishment of their sins’ — now the conclusion: Because Jesus Christ went to the cross, because He was judged for our sins, because He rose, ascended, and was seated at the right hand of the Father, “Therefore will I divide” — the piel imperfect chalaq of means distribution of spoils — “to him [Jesus Christ] with the great” — the Hebrew here is a prepositional phrase meaning ‘because of the many’ [supergrace believers, and to us the supergrace believers of the Church Age] — “the spoils [the plunder of victory because of the many supergrace believers]” — The spoils or plunder are also described in Hebrews 4:8–12. The strategic victory of the Lord Jesus Christ demands the distribution of plunder — “with the strong [supergrace believers in the royal family of God]” — the distribution of the spoils of victory includes pastor-teachers to communicate doctrine to the royal family so that each member of the royal family can reach the supergrace status. When this is accomplished a distribution is made — “because he has poured out his soul to death” — the word for pouring out the soul, arah in the hiphil stem, means to uncover the soul and refers specifically to physical death. The physical death of the Lord Jesus Christ is portrayed in Hebrews 13:11 under the principle of burning the carcass outside of the camp. The blood was sprinkled in the holy of holies (redemption, reconciliation, propitiation), the burning of the carcass outside of the camp refers to the physical death of the Lord Jesus Christ. In His physical death He provided for us a new altar which is Bible doctrine in the soul, the dictatorship of the soul.

Matthew 27:50 — the last words of our Lord Jesus Christ before He died physically. This verse emphasizes the sound of His death. The word “cried” is the aorist active participle of the verb krazô (κράζω) [pronounced KRAD-zoh] and it means to scream, a very loud scream. The constative aorist indicates the fact that when our Lord exhaled His last breath it was a loud sound. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety and during that last exhale of the sentence it was a very loud scream. The active voice: Jesus Christ produced the action of the verb. The participle is both circumstantial for the dying breath of Jesus Christ as well as having antecedent action.

“yielded up” — the aorist active indicative of aphíêmi (ἀφίημι) [pronounced af-EE-ay-mee] means to dismiss or send away. The culminative aorist indicates that at the end of that scream He died. He dismissed or sent away His air. This can be His human spirit or air — pneuma (πνεμα) [pronounced PNYOO-mah] He shouted a sentence but Matthew doesn’t describe the sentence. Matthew is more impressed with the noise of the scream.

Mark 15:37 describes the same incident but with a different emphasis. It starts out by saying, “And Jesus cried.” But that is incorrect. This is the aorist active participle of the same verb, aphíêmi (ἀφίημι) [pronounced af-EE-ay-mee]. Mark picks up where Matthew left off. The literal translation is “Jesus having exhaled.” While Matthew emphasizes the sound as a loud noise or a scream Mark emphasizes the exhale of air. The main verb here in Mark is “gave up,” the aorist active indicative of ekpnéō (ἐκπνέω) [pronounced ek-PNEH-oh]. This is a constative aorist meaning at the end of His exhale He stopped exhaling. So Matthew emphasizes the sound; Mark emphasizes the breath. The culminative aorist views the event in its entirety but regards it from the standpoint of existing results: Jesus Christ died physically, He never inhaled again after that moment. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of the physical death of the Lord Jesus Christ and the manner of it. So Mark says literally, “And Jesus having exhaled with a loud voice, expired.”

Luke 23:46 — Luke is the only one to emphasize that the last scream, that last breath, was actually made up of words. Matthew said it was a scream, Mark said it was the exhale of air, Luke says that the scream and the exhale of air was formed into words. “And when Jesus cried” — and again we have the aorist active participle, but this time the verb is fwnew, and indicates that it is broken up into words. Jesus enunciated while He screamed, while He exhaled for the last time. The aorist tense, again, is a constative aorist gathering up into one entirety the action of the verb. Each time we have a constative aorist followed by a culminative aorist. The same syntax is found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb, enunciating words in His last breath. The participle is circumstantial and it expresses a coterminous action with the main verb rather than an antecedent action. The main verb is “he said.” In other words, the exhale of air was coterminous with the uttering of the sentence. So we could actually translate the aorist active indicative of légô (λέγω) [pronounced LEH-goh] here, “he enunciated.”

This is what He said: “Father, into your hands I commend.” “I commend” is the present middle imperative of the verb paratithêmi (παρατίθημι) [pronounced pahr-aht-IHTH-ay-me]. The imperative mood is very important here because it is called the imperative of mild exhortation. In other words, He is exhorting the Father, not in a direct command but in an exhortation to receive His spirit. Actually, it does not mean to commend or to receive, it means to deposit. The present tense is the aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. He is demanding the deposit of His spirit at the time He spoke. The middle voice is the indirect middle which emphasizes Christ as the agent producing the action of the verb in His own behalf. And, again, a very mild imperative. “and having said this, he expired” — the aorist active indicative of ekpnéō (ἐκπνέω) [pronounced ek-PNEH-oh]. Again, this is a culminative aorist, at the end of the sentence Jesus Christ did not inhale again.

Notice that Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the synoptic writers, all have the same pattern but different words. They each have a constative aorist participle followed by a culminative aorist which is the result. John emphasizes the fact that Jesus delivered over His spirit to God the Father. He uses the word paradidomi which means to deliver over — John 19:30, “When Jesus, therefore, had received the issue wine [cheap wine (o)coj) which was issued every day to the Roman soldier], he said, Tetelestai,” which is the perfect passive indicative of telew, indicating that salvation was completed. This refers to His spiritual death on the cross. We have a dramatic perfect, the rhetorical use of the intensive perfect which means finished in the past with results that go on forever — our salvation. In addition to that we have the passive voice, the subject (salvation) receives the action of the verb, namely completion. Salvation was completed while our Lord was still very much alive. The declarative indicative mood is used for a dogmatic and absolute statement: salvation has been completed in the past with the result that it remains completed forever, with the result that we have eternal salvation by believing in Christ. This was the sixth cry on the cross, not the last.

John does not mention the seventh cry, “Father into thy hand I deposit my spirit.” He only mentions number six because John is emphasizing the spiritual death of Christ, whereas the synoptics in their account emphasize the physical death. All of the writers mention both but each has a different emphasis.

“and he bowed his head, and delivered up the spirit” — the bowing of the head emphasizes the body posture.

Luke 23;46 is very helpful on burning the body of the sacrifice outside of the camp, and for this reason that follows. What our Lord said is actually a quotation from Psalm 31:5, the entire quotation. None of the gospel writers were permitted to give the entire sentence. Outside of Mark they were all at the cross. We do not know if Mark was there but we do know that Peter dictated the gospel of Mark to Mark. Matthew, Peter, Luke and John were all there, they all heard what was uttered. Luke had to stop in the middle of a sentence. What was the entire sentence? This entire sentence becomes, in effect, the challenge for each member of the royal priesthood to build an altar in his own soul, the altar of resident doctrine.

Psalm 31:5 — “Into your hand I deposit [not ‘commit’],” the hiphil imperfect of paqadh means to deposit — “my spirit;” — and then he goes on to say what was not recorded, “for you have delivered [the qal perfect of padah] me, [Adonai El emeth] Jehovah, God of doctrine.”

Jehovah God of doctrine has two concepts, two types of significance. First of all, doctrine resident in the soul of the humanity of Christ kept His head up, kept Him on the cross, kept Him in there bearing our sins until every sin in the human race was judged. What sustained Christ on the cross? Bible doctrine resident in His soul. Jesus Christ is our high priest, He offered Himself as the sacrifice. The high priest of the Old Testament carried the blood into the holy of holies. He didn’t carry his own blood and he didn’t offer himself on the altar. Jesus Christ offered Himself on the altar, and when He did He called Himself the sacrifice. The basis for His doing all of this was because He was occupied with Adonai El emeth, Jehovah the God of doctrine. He was sustained in His humanity by Bible doctrine resident in His soul. As out high priest He set the pattern. Doctrine resident in His soul kept Him on the cross bearing our sins until salvation was completed, and doctrine in the soul becomes the altar of the royal priesthood. Every royal priest must build his own altar, and he builds his altar by means of doctrine resident in his soul.

Hebrews 13:12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

Hebrews 13:12 — “Wherefore Jesus also.” “Wherefore also” is a combination of things. We have an inferential conjunction dio (διό) [pronounced DEE-oh] which is generally translated “for this reason.” With it we have the adjunctive use of kai which is correctly translated “also.” Then put in the word “Jesus.” Because of the shadow Jesus had to fulfil the reality by suffering outside of the gate. Jesus Christ Himself died outside of Jerusalem. Why? The temple was still standing in Jerusalem. The temple which spoke of Christ was becoming a desecration and a blasphemy, therefore the temple was in Jerusalem. Christ is outside of Jerusalem. Our priesthood has nothing to do with the temple, nothing to do with a sacred building. Our priesthood in itself has its own sacred building, the body of every royal priest.

“that” is the conjunction hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] introducing a purpose clause; “he might sanctify” — aorist active subjunctive of the verb hagiazô (ἁγιάζω) [pronounced hawg-ee-AD-zoh]. This verb is a very important one because it refers to the first paragraph of the new contract, the entrance paragraph. We have a culminative aorist, it gathers up the action of the verb in its entirety but always emphasizes the results of that action. Result has the emphasis here: the fulfilment of redemption, reconciliation and propitiation results in sanctification or the establishment of a royal priesthood. We are in that royal priesthood. The glorification of Jesus Christ is being seated at the right hand of the Father is the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, and because Jesus Christ is the only royalty He must have a royal family. The Age of Israel was interrupted for that purpose. The result of the historical cross is the interruption of the Jewish Age and we might call the Church Age the dispensation of sanctification or Jesus Christ provided with a royal family. The royal family is provided on the basis of the baptism of the Spirit. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action of the verb through His two deaths on the cross. The subjunctive mood goes with the conjunction hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na] to express a purpose clause.

“the people” — the accusative singular direct object of laos (λαός) [pronounced lah-OSS]. It has with it a definite article used as a possessive pronoun and it should be translated “his people.” This is a reference to the Church, the body of Christ, the royal family. Laos (λαός) [pronounced lah-OSS] is used for believers in the Church, not only here but in Acts 15:14; 18:10; Romans 9:25; Hebrews 4:9. But nowhere is laos (λαός) [pronounced lah-OSS] more evident for the royal family than in 1Peter 2:9,10.

This is accomplished “through his own blood” — dia plus the genitives of ídios (ἴδιος) [pronounced IH-dee-os] and haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah]. This time it is not animal blood, it is a reference to the blood of Christ which is the spiritual death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross bearing our sins and taking our place.

“suffered without the gate” — this is actually in the middle of the Greek sentence. The translation should be:

Hebrews 13:12 For this reason also, Jesus suffered outside the gate, in order that he might sanctify [or set apart] his people [the royal family] through his own blood.

The word “suffered” is the aorist active indicative from the verb paschô/pathô/penthô (πάσχω/πάθω/πένθω) [pronounced PAHS-khoh/PATH-oh/PEHN-thoh] and is a reference to the historical death of Christ on the cross. The historical death here includes both His spiritual death and His physical death. Christ was crucified outside of the gates of Jerusalem.

“without the gate” is the adverb exô (ἔξω) [pronounced EHX-oh] used as an improper preposition. In other words, it wasn’t originally a preposition, it was an adverb, but it becomes a preposition meaning “outside” with the genitive of the substantive pulh for gate — “outside the gate” [the gate of Jerusalem].

Maximum doctrine resident in the soul not only means an altar for the new priesthood but it means the function of separation from anything that might be connected with cosmos diabolicus.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #248

248 11/13/1974 Hebrews 13:13a Doctrine of separation (pts. 1–4)

Hebrews 13:13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.

Verse 13 — the royal sacrifice of perspicacity and separation. We begin with the verb “Let us go forth", the present middle subjunctive of the verb exerchomai (ἐξέρχομαι) [pronounced ex-EHR-khoh-mai]. The word means to go out and obviously it refers to going outside of the gate or going outside of the camp. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what is expected of the royal priesthood while we live on this earth. We are expected to grow in grace, we are expected to function under GAP, we are expected to accumulate maximum doctrine resident in the soul. In other words, we are expected to build an altar and keep it. Remember that the altar for the royal priesthood is Bible doctrine resident in the soul. This Bible doctrine resident in the soul is not only our altar but it becomes our dictator. We do not live a normal priestly life until we come to the place where Bible doctrine is the dictator of the life. Bible doctrine has to be on the throne to be the dictator and the only way that Bible doctrine can be on the throne is to be accumulated in the life. This accumulation only comes through the daily function of GAP. The principle of the customary present is that we must constantly go outside. We go outside when we take in Bible doctrine through the function of GAP. When we do, eventually we build that altar; once we have the altar we have supergrace, the normal function of the royal priesthood. The middle voice is a permissive middle which represents the agent, the royal family, as voluntarily seeking to secure the results of the action in his own interest. It is to our benefit, it is to our interest, it is to our advantage as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ to take in Bible doctrine every day. The subjunctive mood is not potential, it is hortatory. The hortatory subjunctive is a command but it is a special kind of a command. It is a command in which the one who is writing the epistle has already obeyed and he invites the readers to join him in the action. The purpose for all of this is to construct as quickly as possible that altar.

Next we have the inferential particle toínun (τοίνυν) [pronounced TOY-noon] which is correctly translated “therefore” .This inferential actually comes first in the sentence and it is a little better to translate this one “hence.” It should be translated this way, “Hence, let us be going outside.”

“unto him” — this is a prepositional phrase, pros plus the accusative of the intensive pronoun autos, and it means face to face with him or simply to him. The intensive pronoun emphasizes the identity of the Lord Jesus Christ as our great high priest.

Summary — this takes into consideration everything that we have had from verse to this part of verse 13.

The Royal Priesthood—introductory Concepts

1. The altar of the royal priesthood, Bible doctrine resident in the soul, is always constructed outside the camp, outside the gate — outside the gate of Jerusalem, a religious city; outside the camp of legalism.

2. The first function of the royal priest is to construct in his soul through GAP the altar. Maturity, in effect, is getting every signal for every play, every bit of strategy, every tactic, strictly from inside your soul. In other words, your soul loaded up with doctrine must be calling the plays.

3. The entire phrase (“Hence, let us be going outside to him”) connotes the first sacrifice of the royal priesthood during the Church Age, namely the daily function of GAP, following the colours to the high ground of supergrace.

When you are a new believer, the plays are called from the bench. But as a mature believer, you call the plays.

Women do not understand follow the colors. There is some kind of a flag or some kind of a standard. They move in the front. For hundreds of years, soldiers could not read, but they were taught to recognize their standards. The analogy in the Christian life is, you follow the pastor-teacher. You gap to get to the high ground; and you continue to gap it in order to maintain what you have. You have a dictator in your soul. The colors are the authority in battle. Following the colors is doing what the commanding officer demands. The standard bearer merely moves to where he is told to go (in the analogy of follow the colors). Follow the colors or build the altar; both of these are analogies which say the same thing. All of this is done outside the camp.

“outside the camp” means totally apart from religion, totally apart from legalism, totally apart from everything that is anti-grace. The adverb exô (ἔξω) [pronounced EHX-oh] is used as an improper preposition with the genitive parembolê (παρεμβολή) [pronounced pare-em-boh-LAY]. Parembolê (παρεμβολή) [pronounced pare-em-boh-LAY] is a bivouac, it is a military term. Being outside of the camp not only connotes the daily function of GAP, the accumulation of doctrine in the soul, but whenever you accumulate doctrine in the soul you automatically begin to form a separation in your life. It is not a forced separation or an enforced separation but you begin to separate from an awful lot of things.

All of the points for the next doctrine are placed with lesson #248; but points 1–4 belong with lesson #248 and points 5–7 go with the next lesson.

The Doctrine of Separation

1. Definition:

a. Separation is a decision or an action which stems from the control centre of the soul. The control centre is composed of whatever doctrine is resident in the soul. In other words, it is a decision or an action that comes from the altar.

b. The decision or action of separation demands the balance of residency in the life of the royal family. The filling of the Spirit with no doctrine means the believer is off-balance. The filling of the Holy Spirit doesn’t mean a thing as far as function is concerned until you have doctrine in your soul. You must be balanced. The filling of the Holy Spirit functions in the intake of doctrine but the Holy Spirit does not produce any significant action in your life until you have balance of residency. The decision or action comes from balance of residency in the royal family of God. Separation comes after the doctrine, then the doctrine does all of the dictating as to how you separate.

i. There must be a balance of residency in the soul.

ii. The basic function of the Holy Spirit is so that you can deal with the doctrine, whether it is a problem for you or not.

iii. Separation comes after taking in doctrine. Your dear, favorite pastor who tells you, “Be separate from the world;” he’s still an ass.

c. Separation, therefore, is produced by the activation of the altar in the soul.

d. Separation, therefore, must be related to the construction of the altar of the royal priesthood. Separation must be based on doctrine. Perspicacity precedes separation.

2. The first place where you learn to separate is from other believers. You love [RMA] all believers but you don’t associate with all of them. There are several categories:

a. There are certain types of carnal believers from whom you must separate or become involved in their carnality. 1Corinthians 5:10–11 is the classical illustration.

b. Separation from reversionistic believers. If you stay with them, you will also go the same direction. One rotten apples spoils them all; a little leaven leavens the whole lump. This speaks of relationships, not of proximity. 1Samuel 22:1; 2Thessalonians 3:6,14,15.

c. Separation from religionism, emotionalism, and legalism.

d. Separate from religious types — Hebrews 13:13.

3. Separation must also be related to social life. Basically there are two areas:

a. Separation from the fast crowd. — Proverbs 1:10–19; 1Peter 4:4. The poor dumb bunnies who claim to come for face to face, so to speak. There are some real experts in working those gals. Some claim to be preacher boys; some say they are in supergrace and “You’re might tight woman.” We cannot run around and protect all of these dummies. Who gets blamed; Berachah Church, but that is too vague. Bob has a list; Katie Tapping has it; talk to her. “Just because I speak to someone, that does not make them okay; I can handle myself with them; you can’t.”

b. Separation from the superficial social crowd — Jeremiah 15:17. Just separate yourself from everyone until you get some moxie.

4. Separation from the unbeliever. The believer is in the world but not of the world, therefore we live with and among unbelievers. The principle of separation which applies is very simple. We don’t separate from all unbelievers, far from it. We work with unbelievers, we work under unbelievers, we have some social life perhaps with unbelievers, we have friends who are unbelievers, parent who are unbelievers, children who are unbelievers. You don’t separate from them. You never separate from an unbeliever unless doctrine is compromised. That is when you separate from an unbeliever. Example: a believer should never marry an unbeliever. Doctrine says no! “Don’t look sad, honey; it’s the Word.” Cf. 2Corinthians 6:14; Hebrews 13:13.

a. Bob did not join the FIJI’s (some fraternity); and his dad was famous there. It would have been a compromise, and Bob did not join. His father cut off his allowance.

b. He did join the Phi Beta Kappas.

c. Bob has been offered all kinds of memberships, from the River Oaks Country Club to the Ku Klux Klan. If Bob was going to join a country club, that would be the one for him.

d. End lesson #248 and begin #249 here.

5. Separation from worldliness. Worldliness is not something you do. It is not going to a night club, it is not having a good time and laughing and playing, it is not enjoying life. Worldliness is actually lack of Bible doctrine in the soul producing human viewpoint. Worldliness is something you think, not something you do. Romans 12:1,2 says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice [rebound technique], holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable worship. Be not conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, namely that it is good and acceptable and perfect.” Being transformed from the world or from worldliness is the renewing of the mental attitude. Worldliness is a mental attitude human viewpoint. You can be worldly doing a lot of things: reading your Bible, going out in the morning to get the paper, having a good time, having a bad time. You can be worldly and miserable at the same time. Worldliness is not sophistication, dancing, etc., worldliness is something you think. It is what you are thinking, not where you are. Separation from worldliness can only be accomplished by all building an altar. The altar of the royal family is maximum doctrine resident in the soul, or in terms of the sixth chapter of Ephesians, putting on the full armour of God. Both of these are tantamount to following the colours to the high ground of supergrace. Worldliness is lack of doctrine in the soul and the answer to worldliness or separation is maximum doctrine resident in the soul so that you think divine viewpoint.

6. Separation from religion and apostasy — 2Corinthians 6:17; 2Timothy 3:5; Hebrews 13:13. These passages all demand that the believer separate from any group that separates him from his right pastor and the ministry of his right pastor. Separation from religion and apostasy comes from staying under the ministry of your own right pastor.

7. Separation from members of your own family over doctrine.

a. This does not give us the right to divorce your spouse.

b. Bob’s sister was the most bull-headed woman that he has ever known. Bob has been in the family circle where you don’t all hold hands and sing songs. Bob is particular with whom he holds hands. He could never see the point of standing in a circle and pray. Or sing, “God be with us.” But God is with us no matter what.

c. Doctrine resident in the soul is more important than family relationships. If there is true family love, then there is family loyalty. No epigram is going to change anything. Matthew 10:34–39 — “Think not that I am come to send peace on the earth, I come not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a man’s foes shall be they of his own household. He that loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he that loves son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not his cross and follows after Me, is not worthy of me. He that finds his life shall lose it; and he that loses his life for My sake shall find it.” This is a relatively simple passage at the beginning. But the latter portion is difficult.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #249

249 11/14/1974 Hebrews 13:13b; Matt. 10:34–39 Doctrine of separation (pts. 5–7, found above)

Hebrews 13:13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.

Translating the Matt. 10:34–39 The problem with that passage is poor translation. “Think not” is the aorist active subjunctive of the verb nomizô (νομίζω) [pronounced nom-IHD-zoh] plus the negative mê. Nomizô (νομίζω) [pronounced nom-IHD-zoh] is used for arrogant people, for liberals who are always arrogant. They assume that they have answers to the world’s problems and they are totally arrogant in their assumption. Liberals, therefore, in their arrogance are presumptive and this verb is designed for them. In effect, this tells you, do not be a theological liberal and do not be a political liberal. If you do you are incompatible with your salvation and your relationship with God.

God is a conservative; all divine viewpoint is conservative.

So what this says to each one of us as believers is “Do not presume.” This is a verb of presumption. Presumption is arrogant thinking. The ingressive aorist contemplates the action of the verb at its beginning. Jesus is catching His disciples before they go too far with this. The active voice: the disciples in their arrogance and in their liberal philosophies have made a presumption. The subjunctive mood is the subjunctive of prohibition, it is a strong command, a negative command.

“that I am [have] come” — “that” is the conjunction hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] after verbs of presumption, thinking, or conclusion. Hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee] merely indicates the content of the presumption that is now forbidden. “I am come” is the aorist active indicative of the verb érchomai (ἔρχομαι) [pronounced AIR-khoh-my] and obviously it refers to the first advent of Christ. The constative aorist contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The action of the verb in its entirety covers the period of the first advent with emphasis on the public ministry, the last three years of the first advent. The active voice: Christ produces the action. The indicative mood is the historical reality of the first advent of Jesus Christ.

“to send” — aorist active infinitive of bállô (βὰλλω) [pronounced BAWL-low] which means to throw or to hurl. The gnomic aorist regarded the thinking of the disciple as so real as to be described as an actual occurrence. The aorist goes with the constative and it means that He did not come to thrust or to hurl, but the disciples have assumed that He has and therefore they regard His ministry, in the gnomic sense and erroneously, so as to bring peace — just like the liberals today. So the gnomic aorist takes up the thinking of the disciples and makes it very real but erroneous; this is their real thinking but it is wrong. The infinitive denotes the erroneous purpose in the thinking of the disciples.

“peace on earth” is a reference to world peace, cessation of warfare here, and this is the erroneous conclusion of the disciples and their failure to distinguish between the first and second advent. When Christ returns He will establish world peace and abolish warfare. But this is a presumption for the first advent, it is arrogance and liberalism.

Jesus is the most divisive Person in human history. He divides people; He divides families, He divides nations.

“I have not come” — aorist active indicative of érchomai (ἔρχομαι) [pronounced AIR-khoh-my], and this time we have the strong ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook], the objective negative; “to send” — bállô (βὰλλω) [pronounced BAWL-low]; “peace, but” — the adversative conjunction allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH] gives the truth in contrast to the false, it sets up a contrast between the arrogant false thinking of the disciples and the true purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“I am come to hurl [thrust] a sword into the world.” He means that the angelic conflict will be intensified by His coming. The coming of Jesus Christ means strategic victory at the right hand of the Father. The strategic victory intensifies the unseen conflict, but more than that, the first advent of Christ also sets up a system of and a pattern of history: Jesus said, “There will be wars and rumours of wars until I return.” In other words, the pattern of history is going to be warfare. The protection against warfare is a strong military establishment under the laws of divine establishment. Anything else is no protection at all, except for one additional spiritual factor which is a maximum number of supergrace believers in a national entity acting as the salt of the earth and the security of a nation. So this means there will be warfare until the second advent, it means that the angelic conflict intensifies during the Church Age, but it also means something else. The third factor is the one that our Lord is going to develop. It means that the Lord Jesus Christ will become a divider of people.

Matthew 10:34 Do not presume [arrogance in thinking] that I have come to hurl peace upon the earth; I have not come to hurl peace, but to hurl a sword.

The cross and doctrine will always divide people. The rift is no respecter of families, and families are divided over the cross and over the Lord Jesus Christ, and over the doctrine or the written Word. The Lord Jesus Christ in hurling this sword indicates there will be a royal family, and that will be divided by erroneous concepts from reversionism and apostasy. And then there will be human family, and Jesus chooses here to use human family as His illustration since royal family is a prophetical subject reserved for the upper room discourse and the Gethsemane discourse. So it is human family that comes into focus at this point.

Matt. 10:35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

Verse 35 — “For I have come.” “For” is the conjunctive particle used in an explanatory means here, gar. He is now going to explain the hurling of the sword in terms of human families; “have come” — the constative aorist of érchomai (ἔρχομαι) [pronounced AIR-khoh-my] again contemplates the action of the verb in its it entirety, it gathers into one entirety the first advent of Christ, including His strategical victory of His resurrection, ascension and session. The active voice: Jesus Christ produces the action. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. It is the mood of unqualified assertion, it is the dogmatic statement of fact, there is and was a first advent.

“to set a man at variance” — the aorist active infinitive of dixazw, a word which means to disunite, to cause one to turn against another. The culminative aorist views family schisms in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of existing results — because of the first advent of Christ it will result in schisms, in family dissension, and eventuating in family separation. The active voice: Jesus Christ is separating these families. The infinitive expresses the purpose as well as result. So we have “to set a man at variance” or “to disunite, to turn a person against,” and the word “man” is anthrôpos (ἄνθρωπος) [pronounced ANTH-row-pos] in the sense of a person, “against his father” — katá (κατά) [pronounced kaw-TAW] plus the genitive of patêr (πατήρ) [pronounced pat-AYR].

Matthew 10:35 I am come to turn a person against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

Families will be sitting around a table and someone says something of divine viewpoint. Then they are jumped on by those with cosmic thinking standards. In this was, Jesus divides family.

In other words, the impact of the first advent, the glorification of Christ, is to disunite and divide families. This must be related to the last sentence on the cross. In His quotation of Psalm 31:5 He emphasized the importance of Bible doctrine resident in the soul, and when some members of the family have resident Bible doctrine and other members of the family do not have resident Bible doctrine family schism is inevitable. There is one of the great problems of all time — those with doctrine, those without in the same family and the antagonisms which inevitably result from divine versus human viewpoint. In this way Jesus Christ divides families. Now, where there is a family of unbelievers and they are all pro-establishment that family will be united. A family that is pro-establishment in its thinking lives together, loves together, and has a great life. A family made up of believers where they have the altar — each one has his own altar in his soul — will have the most phenomenal relationship. But harmony in families depends upon two divine laws. For the unbelievers it depends upon establishment. With believers the issue is not establishment but resident doctrine in the soul. Where there is resident doctrine there is great family rapport and great family relationship.

What causes disunity in families? A family of part believer and part unbeliever; a believing family which is part reversionist, part supergrace; an unbelieving family, part liberal, part conservative. Bringing into this, therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ, He says that He Himself is the divider of such families. By that He means that where there are believers with maximum doctrine in the soul it is inevitable that they will pull apart, that there is nothing that can hold them together. It is inevitable that when a member of the royal family builds an altar of Bible doctrine in his soul or, if you prefer, follows the colours to the high ground of supergrace, a supergrace believer cannot indefinitely remain in close contact with members of his family who are anti-doctrine. They may be believers who are reversionists, they may be unbelievers who are liberal.

In real life the basis for compatibility has to be in the soul. That was always true. But compatibilities of soul must be defined. They are related to doctrine and to the laws of divine establishment, and because the Lord was going to bring a new family into the earth, a new dispensation (the dispensation of the royal family), and because the Lord demands our undivided concentration, it is inevitable that in everything that takes us away from this concentration on the Lord, anything that takes us away from occupation with Christ, inevitably leads to conflicts and conflicts inevitably lead to separation or succumbing. If you succumb you become a reversionist, if you separate you maintain your supergrace status. This, in effect, is what our Lord says in this passage.

Verse 36 — the Lord is quoting now from Micah 7:6, “And a man’s enemies are the members of his own household.” It is possible that some of the greatest enemies you will ever have will be your own flesh and blood.

Jesus Christ demands our attention. The whole objective of the Christian way of life is to advance to the high ground. The objective is to reach the high ground of supergrace and hold until dying grace. This is the place of supergrace blessing, this is the place where we glorify God. So it is inevitable that one of the conflicts in life can very possibly be a family conflict — loving a member of your own family more than the Lord. The Lord therefore puts out the challenge in verse 37 — “the one loving father or mother more than me.” He is referring to Himself and he is referring to a reversionist believer.

“is not worthy of me” — this doesn’t mean he is not saved, it refers to the state of reversionism. The state of reversionism is the state of unworthiness, the state of supergrace is the state of nobility. So it’s nobility versus unworthiness. The issue is, what is more important to you, Bible doctrine or family ties? Bible doctrine is tied up with the living Word, Jesus Christ, since Bible doctrine is His thinking. The problem is a part of a greater principle of the details of life versus doctrine. The details of life include many other things beside family but family is included. The details of life include money, success, pleasure, family, social life, friends, health, sex, materialistic things, status symbols, and so on. All of these details can hinder the function of GAP or the intake of doctrine, and therefore hinder the objective for which God keeps you alive. When anything is more important than Bible doctrine you are in a state of reversionism.

Verse 38 — “And he that taketh not his cross.” “He that taketh not” is the present active indicative of lambánô (λαμβάνω) [pronounced lahm-BAHN-oh] plus the objective negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. The descriptive or pictorial present tense depicts events in the process of occurrence. The only person who does not take up his cross is the reversionist. The active voice: the believer produces the action in reversionism by not taking up his cross. The potential indicative is used to denote an obligation.

But to what does the cross refer? It refers specifically to failure to take up Bible doctrine. The brass altar in the Old Testament on which animal sacrifices were offered, and which stood in front of the tabernacle or in the forecourt of the temple, refers to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we have a different altar because we are not under the Levitical priesthood, we are a royal priesthood and our altar is Bible doctrine resident in the soul — the balance of residency or Bible doctrine. We cannot pick up the Lord’s cross, all we can do is pick up our cross.

Notice all of the synonyms we have had with regard to supergrace: follow the colours to the high ground, which means in this case a until advancing from the authority. The colours is the right pastor-teacher, and under the ministry of the right pastor-teacher reaching your paragraph SG2; the altar of the royal priesthood made up of words and sentences, categories, principles, Bible doctrine resident in the soul. The altar, then, is doctrine transferred through the function of GAP; we are going to have a third one called in the Greek panoplia, it refers to the full armour of the Roman infantry soldier, and to pick it up and put it all on is also to reach supergrace. But the one we have now is taking up your cross. To pick up your very own cross is to GAP it daily, no matter what the cost. So to pick up the cross is to take up Bible doctrine, to GAP it daily, and to think more of doctrine than you do of father, mother, etc. The picking up of the cross is the daily function of GAP. The present tense indicates that you do this every day, you do it consistently. And to follow the Lord is to GAP it daily — the present active indicative of akoloutheô (ἀκολουθέω) [pronounced ak-ol-oo-THEH-oh]. The pick up the cross means that you as a believer must put doctrine first. That is putting the Lord first. And when you reach the high ground the Lord is first because of doctrine resident in your soul. Following the Lord is the other side of the coin, it is your daily function of GAP. Taking up the cross is coming to Bible class instead of watching football on television. “Is not worthy” describes the reversionist who is negative, who is inconsistent, who is unstable in his attitude toward Bible doctrine.

The only cross you can pick up is learning Bible doctrine, only through learning Bible doctrine do you follow the Lord. And when you follow the Lord you automatically separate yourself, you automatically separate from things. You don’t have to have someone beat the drums: “Separate” from something. When you have doctrine resident in your soul then you will make your own decisions about separation.

Verse 39 — is not “He that findeth his life", it is “The one having made the intellectual discovery of his soul.” The word for “life” is psuchê (ψυχή) [pronounced psoo-KHAY] or soul. Some of you discover your own souls when you get doctrine in there. The word for “findeth,” heuriskô (εὑρίσκω) [pronounced hyoo-RIHS-koh], means to discover, to make an intellectual discovery based upon investigation, observation and reflection. Or, you could even say, “The one having gained doctrine for his soul.” So to discover or to gain doctrine for the soul means building up as a royal priest the altar in the soul, resident doctrine, or following the colours to the high ground, or taking up your cross and following the Lord.

When you do this, you lose something. The word “lose” is the future active indicative of the verb apollumi (ἀπόλλυμι) [pronounced ap-OL’-loo-mee] which means to destroy. It means the one having discovered his soul through the function of GAP shall destroy it — not the soul but the former content. It means that doctrine resident in the soul voids you old scale of values. You have a new vocabulary, you destroy your old. You have new categories, you destroy old categories of panaceas. You have old norms and standards that are destroyed and replaced by new ones. You had human viewpoint before, that is destroyed and now you have divine viewpoint on the launching pad. In other words, the old content of the soul is destroyed. The progressive future tense is one in which the idea requires the future to denote the fact that you have made progress. The active voice: the believer accomplishes this through the consistent function of GAP. The indicative mood is potential, depending upon the consistent intake of doctrine.

“he that loses” is the aorist active participle of that same verb, apollumi (ἀπόλλυμι) [pronounced ap-OL’-loo-mee], and it means to destroy or void — “the one having voided his soul for my sake.” Apollumi (ἀπόλλυμι) [pronounced ap-OL’-loo-mee] means to void the old content, or to abrogate. All of the human viewpoint that used to reside there is abrogated or voided, and replaced by divine viewpoint.

“shall find” — the future active indicative of heuriskô (εὑρίσκω) [pronounced hyoo-RIHS-koh] and it should be translated “shall discover it.” He shall discover his capacity for life, he will discover the Lord Jesus, he will discover everything related to his paragraph SG2. This is true separation in its best sense.

Matthew 10:39 The one having discovered his soul [through the daily function of GAP] shall void it [of the old things]; and the one having voided his soul for my sake shall discover it.

Back to Hebrews 13:13: the one bearing (or carrying) his reproach

So it is a brand new discovery, it is a new world, and in the process of doing that he separates himself from his family.

We have one more phrase in Hebrews 13:13 — “bearing his reproach.” The word “bearing” is the present active participle of the verb phérô (φέρω) [pronounced FEH-row] which means to carry. It is the same thing as taking up our cross, only this means to carry rather than to pick up — “carrying his reproach.” The word for “reproach” is the accusative singular direct object of the noun oneidismós (ὀνειδισμός) [pronounced on-i-dis-MOSS], and it has the same idea as picking up the cross, only in this case “his reproach” is the antagonism of Judaism, the antagonism of religious legalism, the antagonism of the apostates, and antagonism of family and former friends.

Hebrews 13:13 Hence, let us be going outside the camp to him, bearing his reproach.

Bearing his reproach means the inevitable. It means that as you GAP it and GAP it you will drop old friends, old relationships, your old scale of values will change, your capacity for life will develop, you will see your content of soul being destroyed and a new content of soul taking its place.

Concepts

1. In our context religion and legalism have captured the city of Jerusalem in AD 67. The former headquarters on earth of the Church has succumbed to legalistic reversionism.

2. Therefore the headquarters of the Church on earth is any command post where supergrace believers have separated from legalism and religionism.

3. For religionism, legalism and reversionism insult, reviling, censor, reproach, is the order of the day against all grace function and grace principle. So “reproach” here means to be insulted, to be censored, to be reviled, to be ridiculed, to be rejected by religion and by legalism.

4. Therefore, bearing the reproach means a supergrace believer, having picked up the cross and having carried it to the point of supergrace, is now automatically separated from ant-grace groups, individuals, or things.

5. the reproach of Christ means that you are totally separated from religion and legalism, it means that you are separated from anything else that distracts you from occupation with the person of Christ.

6. Such separation or bearing the reproach also results in great Satanic antagonism. It also means censor and rejection by cosmos diabolicus and sometimes means rejection or active persecution.

7. Why? Because religion cannot tolerate the principle of live and let live. Religion despises the principle of freedom and privacy. Religion encourages nosiness along the line of the doctrine of demons. Religion is always antagonistic toward Bible doctrine. Religion is therefore antagonistic toward grace, toward privacy, and toward freedom. The grace-oriented believer finds himself, therefore, forced outside of the camp of religion, outside of the camp of this world. The altar of Bible doctrine resident in the soul is in direct opposition, therefore, to the altar of religion and legalism. In this way we come to share the reproach of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we do not share this reproach until we have taken up our cross over that period of time necessary to develop supergrace.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #250

250 11/15/1974 Hebrews 13:14–16 Doctrine of divine good; 2 Jerusalems

Hebrews 13:14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.

Verse 14 — the tale of two cities. We start out with the word “For”, a post-positive enclitic particle gár (γάρ) [pronounced gahr] which is explanatory in its connotation. To be explained is the fact that the city of Jerusalem has been captured by reversionism. The capture of the city of Jerusalem by reversionism means that the headquarters at the beginning of the Church Age has been taken over. The fact that the city has been taken over by reversionism, however, has not destroyed the eternal headquarters of the Church which is the heavenly Jerusalem. So we are looking at two cities, both called Jerusalem. There is the earthly Jerusalem of AD 67, now apostate and reversionistic and on the verge of being destroyed by the Romans. And we have the eternal heavenly Jerusalem of Revelation 21:2, 9-11.

The word “here” is the adverb of place hôde (δε) [pronounced HO-deh] referring to the city of Jerusalem in AD 67. We are told in this verse why we must go outside the camp, why we must separate from religion. The Church no longer has Jerusalem as the headquarters of Christianity, it has been captured and taken over by reversionism, and three years after this was written it was captured and destroyed by the Romans.

“we have no” — present active participle of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] plus the negative ouk (οὐκ) [pronounced ook]. The present tense is a historical present which views the past event of Jerusalem’s apostasy and reversionism with the vividness of a present occurrence. Jerusalem will never again ever be the headquarters for Christianity. The royal family of God produces the action of the verb under the active voice. We do not have Jerusalem as a grace centre, as a headquarters for the royal family, nor do we have it as a holy city for the Church. The participle is circumstantial. It should be translated, “For here [in Jerusalem] we do not have.”

“a continuing city” — the word continuing a present active participle of the verb ménô (μένω) [pronounced MEH-noh], which means to abide. The ascriptive use of the participle means that it is now used as an adjective and means abiding. Then we have the word polis (πόλις, εως, ἡ) [pronounced POH-liss] for “city.”

Principles

1. Jerusalem is not an abiding city.

2. It has been captured by Satan and destroyed by legalistic reversionism. All of its local churches are apostate. There are some non-apostate types in these churches but they are making no advance because they are starved to death spiritually.

3. It was about to be overtaken by the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline, therefore destroyed.

4. Therefore, the Church, the royal family of God, must look elsewhere for its headquarters.

5. The first capital of the Church Age has become the headquarters of legalism and reversionism.

6. Until the end of the Millennium and the beginning of the eternal state the Church will not have a holy city on earth. In the Millennium it will have one suspended above the earth.

7. In the meantime, as always, our headquarters is in heaven, the throne room of God, where Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father. In other words, the holy of holies is our permanent home, our permanent residence, and our headquarters. We have an altar inside of us, which is Bible doctrine.

“but” is the adversative conjunction allá (ἀλλά) [pronounced ahl-LAH] which sets up a contrast between the two cities. One city, Jerusalem, is the city of apostasy. The other city is the third heaven which is the headquarters for the believer in this dispensation.

“we seek” — present active indicative of epizētéō (ἐπιζητέω) [pronounced ep-eed-zay-TEH-oh] which connotes here and intensive search or an intensive desire. for something. Here it means an intensive search and an intensive desire all put in one ball of wax — “but we keep on desiring.” The retroactive progressive present denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. It is also called the present tense of duration. The active voice: the royal family who are positive toward doctrine fulfil the action of this verb. They desire the residency of their real home, they desire their future headquarters. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality. Our desire for our permanent headquarters is because it is the residence of the Lord Jesus Christ, and once we have maximum doctrine in the soul we have occupation with the person of Christ and maximum category #1 love.

“one to come” — the articular present active participle of mellô (μέλλω) [pronounced MEHL-low], which means “one coming.” The definite article is used as a demonstrative pronoun to emphasize the future reality of the eternal city which will be the headquarters of the royal family forever. The present tense is the futuristic present to denote an event which has not yet occurred but is regarded as so certain that in the mind of the writer it is already a reality. The active voice: the eternal holy city produces the action of the verb. The participle is circumstantial.

Hebrews 13:14 For here [in Jerusalem] we do not have an abiding city, but we keep desiring that one which is coming.

The article used for the demonstrative pronoun refers to the eternal holy city. It is found in Revelation 21:2. This holy city is in contrast with the Jerusalem which was destroyed in 70 AD as a part of God’s judgement against Israel and against reversionism. This holy city must also be distinguished from the Millennial Jerusalem. Our headquarters will be above the Millennial Jerusalem, not right on the earth.

The Difference Between the Millennial Jerusalem and the Eternal Jerusalem

1. The Millennial Jerusalem is described as having natural light, whereas the eternal Jerusalem is set to have supernatural light in Revelation 21:11,23; 22:5.

2. The Millennial Jerusalem has no walls — Zechariah 2:4,5. The eternal has walls and pearly gates — Revelation 21:12.

3. The Millennial Jerusalem has a temple — Ezekiel chapters 40–48. The eternal Jerusalem has no temple — Revelation 21:3, 22.

4. The Millennial Jerusalem has animal sacrifices used as a memorial to the death of Christ — Ezekiel chapters 40–48. There are no animal sacrifices in the eternal Jerusalem.

5. The Millennial Jerusalem has unsaved people living in the city — Zechariah 12:6; 14:11. Only saved people live in the eternal Jerusalem — Revelation 21:24,27; 22:14.

6. There are living waters coming from the temple in the Millennial Jerusalem — Ezekiel 47:1. In the eternal Jerusalem the water of life comes from the throne of God — Revelation 22:1.

7. In the Millennial Jerusalem there are trees for food and healing — Ezekiel 47:7–12. In the eternal Jerusalem there is only the tree of life — Revelation 22:2.

Troy and Constantinople, as Jerusalem, have been destroyed and rebuilt many times.

Hebrews 13:15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.

Verse 15 — the sacrifice of praise, one of the sacrifices of the royal priesthood. “By him” is the preposition dia plus the intensive pronoun autos. The function of the intensive pronoun is to emphasize identity. It therefore has demonstrative force. This is the attributive use of the intensive pronoun so it should translated literally, “Through the same one,” i.e. through Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ as our great high priest is in view here. The specialized priesthood in Israel in the past offered special shadow sacrifices while the universal priesthood of the royal family offers spiritual and real sacrifices. They offered their shadow sacrifices on an altar and they offered an animal. We offer ours on an altar, Bible doctrine resident in the soul, but instead of an animal we offer the sacrifice of our lips which is praise. Praise is an expression of your category #1 love, therefore it varies with the individual. Doctrine in the soul is what becomes the sacrifice of praise or the sacrifice of your lips.

“therefore” — the inferential particle ὀυν is used to denote what is introduced as a result of what precedes; “let us offer” — the present active subjunctive of anapherô (ἀναφέρω) [pronounced an-af-EHR-oh] which means to offer up. It was used in the Septuagint for the offering up of the Levitical sacrifices. The present tense is a customary present denoting what habitually occurs in the royal priesthood when the believer is positive toward doctrine, when the believer begins to build inside of his soul his own altar. The altar is Bible doctrine resident in the soul. This produces the action of offering praise. The royal priest in the Church Age only offers praise when he is filled with Bible doctrine. The subjunctive mood is a hortatory subjunctive in which the writer invites the readers to join him in a course of action. it therefore carries the weight of a command — one in which the writer intends to obey and he wants the readers to join him.

We are familiar with the sacrifices of the Levitical priesthood. They offered animal sacrifices, food sacrifices, at a specific altar under specific conditions. In verse 10 of this chapter we have seen the new altar which is composed of Bible doctrine resident in the soul. In order for that doctrine to be there, there must be that constant use of the rebound technique. The rebound technique is comparable to the last two of the Levitical sacrifices, the trespass offering and the sin offering. So the first sacrifice of the royal priesthood we might call the use of rebound. it is the basis for the filling of the Holy Spirit which is the basis for balance of residency or Bible doctrine resident in the soul of the believer. Verse 10, then, implies our first sacrifice.

Then we have in verses 11 and 12 of our paragraph the contrast between the sacrifices of the Levitical priesthood — actual animals — and the sacrifice of our priesthood which is, of course, Bible doctrine resident in the soul producing certain things.

In verse 13 we had a specific sacrifice mentioned again, the royal sacrifice of perspicacity. That is the function of GAP. GAP is a part of the sacrifice of the priesthood. In that same verse we studied separation as a sacrifice of the priesthood. But notice that separation is in the third place, it cannot come before rebound and GAP. There is no separation until you are filled with the Spirit and have doctrine in the soul as the basis for making your separation.

Now we come to the next one, the sacrifice of praise. It is called a sacrifice, the accusative singular direct object from the noun thusia (θυσία) [pronounced thoo-SEE-ah, the regular Greek word for sacrifice. Thusia (θυσία) [pronounced thoo-SEE-ah is used here in contrast to the shadow offerings of the Levitical code. There are real offerings based on Bible doctrine resident in the soul. The word thusia (θυσία) [pronounced thoo-SEE-ah is minus the definite article because of the emphasis on the quality of the sacrifice. The quality of the sacrifice is the highest and the noblest. The quality of the sacrifice of praise is based upon Bible doctrine resident in the soul. The word “praise” itself is a descriptive genitive singular from the noun aínesis (αἴνεσις) [pronounced AH-ee-ness-iç]. The sacrifice of praise is the believer’s doctrinal response, specifically to the Lord Jesus Christ as the revealed member of the Trinity, but also to the other members of the Trinity. Therefore, by way of analogy, as sex is an expression of category #2 love so praise is the expression of category #1 love. Praise is the soul’s appreciation of Jesus Christ expressed verbally or vocally from altar inside — Bible doctrine resident in the soul. It comes at intervals. You have to brush your teeth and do other things along the way! So keep it balanced. Praise in the soul, then, is the appreciation of the Lord Jesus Christ from your inner altar. The altar must be built before you can praise God. Capacity for love is expressed in praise.

There are intervals in between having sex in category #2 love; just as there are intervals between praising God. The latter does not happen every few seconds; nor is it saying, praise the Lord, over and over again. You cannot utter praise from an empty soul. Just wait until it occurs naturally.

“to God” — dative of indirect object from the noun theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS]. The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the act of praise is performed. It is with the definite article to indicate a very well-known person. God here is Jesus Christ.

“continually” — a prepositional phrase, dia plus the genitive of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs]. It is a Classical Greek idiom of extended time and it means “always.”

“that is” — tout estin (ἐστίν) [pronounced ehs-TIN], a phrase use for apposition. Estin (ἐστίν) [pronounced ehs-TIN] is the present active indicative of the verb eimi (εἰμί) [pronounced eye-ME], and tout is the nominative neuter singular of the demonstrative pronoun houtos (oτος) [pronounced HOO-tos]. So in apposition to the sacrifice of praise we have “the fruit of our lips” or literally, “fruit of lips.” We have the accusative singular of karpos (καρπός) [pronounced kahr-POSS] used as a Hebrew idiom for the praise offering of the royal priesthood. Karpos (καρπός) [pronounced kahr-POSS] explains what is meant by praise by setting up apposition. Praise, in other words, is speech. It is homage to God, eulogy, approbation, verbal worship, based on doctrine resident in the soul. “Of lips” is the genitive plural dual of the noun cheîlos (χελος) [pronounced KHĪ-loss]. There is no definite article here. The absence of the definite article emphasizes the quality of the fruit of the lips, namely production based on doctrine resident in the soul.

“giving thanks” — present active participle of homologeô (ὁμολογέω) [pronounced hoh-moh-loh-GEH-oh]. The only problem is that homologeô (ὁμολογέω) [pronounced hoh-moh-loh-GEH-oh] doesn’t mean to give thanks, it means to acknowledge. The present tense is an iterative present describing what recurs at successive intervals. In other words, we don’t praise God all the time, it occurs at successive intervals, at regular intervals. This is sometimes called the present tense of repeated action. The active voice: the royal priest produces the action of the verb from doctrine resident in his soul. The participle is a modal participle signifying the manner in which the action of the main verb is accomplished. The main verb is “be offering up.”

“to his name” is the dative singular of onoma (ὄνομα, ατος, τό) [pronounced OHN-oh-ma] meaning name or celebrityship. With it we have that intensive pronoun used in a possessive sense — “acknowledging his fame.” The dative of indirect object indicates the one in whose interest the function of the priestly praise is performed.

Hebrews 13:15 Through the same one [Jesus Christ], let us continually be offering up a sacrifice of praise, that is, a fruit of lips acknowledging his fame.

Principle: the Royal Priesthood Offers its Own Sacrifices

1. The sacrifice of rebound producing the filling of the Spirit.

2. The sacrifice of GAP — the filling of the Spirit producing doctrine resident in the soul.

3. From this a result: the sacrifice of separation, rebound plus GAP, results in the altar in the soul. The altar in the soul is the place of sacrifice. There we offer two sacrifices on that altar. The first is separation, the second one is the sacrifice of praise.

4. When you have an altar in the soul it means that you have systematically rebounded, that you have systematically been positive toward doctrine, that you positive volition toward doctrine has produced inside of your soul this wonderful altar of the royal family, and with it you produce the sacrifice of separation, the sacrifice of praise, and the sacrifice of divine good.

Hebrews 13:16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Verse 16 — the conjunction which begins the verse should be translated “also.” It is a post positive conjunctive particle de. It is used in the transitional sense without any contrast intended.

“to do good” — this is a noun, the objective genitive singular of eupoia (εὐποιΐα) [pronounced yoo-poy-EE-ah] which means the doing of good. It has a definite article which means that it was well understood by the people to whom this was written, they understood the issue of divine good — “Also the doing of good.”

“and to communicate” — the objective singular from the noun koinônia (κοινωνία) [pronounced koi-nohn-EE-ah] which means generosity here.

“forget not” — the present middle imperative from epilanthánomai (ἐπιλανθάνομαι) [pronounced ehp-ee-lan-THAN-ohm-ahee] means to neglect. With the negative mê it means “stop neglecting.” The present tense is a descriptive present indicating what the believers in Jerusalem were doing. They were neglecting the production of divine good. The middle voice of epilanthánomai (ἐπιλανθάνομαι) [pronounced ehp-ee-lan-THAN-ohm-ahee] is an indirect middle emphasizing the agent as producing the action of the verb, rather than as participating in its results. The imperative plus the negative is an negative command or the imperative of prohibition.

They have been neglecting divine good because they are negative toward doctrine, negative toward rebound. Obviously these believers were in reversionism. To produce divine good requires doctrine in the soul. Grace generosity always demands the altar in the soul, and they have not constructed the altar through the function of GAP. The neglecting of these priestly sacrifices means the failure of rebound and the failure of the function of GAP. In other words, they are negative toward Bible doctrine. The neglecting of doctrine means the neglecting of the normal function of the priesthood. These sacrifices are offered in a normal way when the believer has reached supergrace.

The Doctrine of Divine Good

1. Definition. Divine good is the production of the royal priesthood based upon an altar in the soul, i.e. doctrine resident in the soul. Therefore divine good is the production of doctrine resident in the soul.

2. The source of divine good. Divine good originates from the balance of residency in the soul, therefore from three sources. The balance of residency includes the filling of the Holy Spirit, doctrine resident in the soul or the altar, and supergrace status.

3. The believer in time is the recipient of grace. Consequently he is designed by God for the function of divine good — Ephesians 2:10.

4. The grace principle of divine good — 2Corinthians 9:8. The abundance for the production of divine good is Bible doctrine resident in the soul or the altar of the royal priest.

5. In the grace perspective of GAP and the resultant altar in the soul this is the means of the production of divine good — Colossians 1:9,10; 2Timothy 2:21; Titus 2:7.

6. Divine good produced by grace is both mental and verbal — 2Thessalonians 2:16,17.

7. Divine good resolves the angelic conflict — Romans 12:21.

8. Divine good will be rewarded under the principle of surpassing grace — 2Corinthians 5:10.

“for” — the explanatory use of gar, a post positive particle; “with such sacrifices” — the instrumental plural of cause from the categorical Attic demonstrative toi outos, plus thusia (θυσία) [pronounced thoo-SEE-ah means “because of such sacrifices;” “God” — ho Theos, “the God,” God the Father, author of the divine plan, source of grace.

“is well pleased” — present passive indicative of euaresteô (εὐαρεστέω) [pronounced yoo-ar-es-TEH-oh], and it means to be pleased. It is a static present for a condition which always exists under these conditions. The passive voice: God receives delight when the royal priesthood in supergrace status produces the sacrifices. The indicative mood is declarative for the statement of a simple fact. It represents the verbal idea from the viewpoint of absolute dogmatic certainty, God is always pleased with the function and the operation of the supergrace hero.

Hebrews 13:16 Now stop neglecting the doing of good and generosity: for because of such sacrifices the God is well pleased.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #251

251 11/17/1974 Hebrews 13:17a Doctrines of royal sacrifices, DIDASKO

The Doctrine of the Royal Sacrifices

These sacrifices are the many sacrifices that are offered on the altar of Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

1. Definition: The royal and universal priesthood of the believer demands priestly function in the field of sacrifice. The Levitical priesthood of the Old Testament and of Israel offered animal sacrifices on a brass altar in front of a tabernacle or in the forecourt of the temple after it was constructed. The royal priest of the Church Age does not have a metal altar, an overt altar that can be seen, but an altar in his soul. The altar in the soul of the royal priest is the accumulation of Bible doctrine which becomes resident there. This accumulation is based upon his consistent daily function of GAP. The sacrifices of the royal priesthood of the Church Age, therefore, all come from Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

2. The sacrifice of the rebound technique is mentioned specifically as a priestly sacrifice in Romans 12:1 where the living sacrifice is the rebound technique. This is the way in which we present our bodies. This is comparable to the fourth and fifth Levitical sacrifices which portrayed the rebound technique. The sin offering of Leviticus chapter four emphasized rebound on the unknown sins and the trespass offering of Leviticus chapters five and six was rebound with emphasis on the known sins of the believer. The rebound technique of 1John 1:9 and 1Corinthians 11:31 is the means of the filling of the Spirit, the filling of the Spirit is the means for the daily function of GAP and therefore the means for the construction of our priestly altar in the soul.

3. The sacrifice of the daily function of GAP — Hebrews 13:10 mentions this under the construction of an altar. The altar of the royal priesthood here is in contrast to the altar of the Levitical priesthood. Remember that the Levitical priesthood was specialized, belonging to one family, the tribe of Levi, the family of Aaron. They functioned at a definite brass altar. However, the royal priesthood of which we are a part has its altar in the soul and, again, it is the accumulation of Bible doctrine resident there. They royal altar of the believer, then, is constructed by the daily function of GAP and all of the offerings are based upon doctrine resident in the soul. Therefore our basic priestly function as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ is our daily intake of the Word of God. The result of this is maturity or the supergrace life.

a. Following the colors.

b. Construction of the altar in the soul, made up of Bible doctrine.

c. The taking up of your cross and following Christ. This is disciple; a disciple is just a student.

d. Putting on the full armor from God (which anticipates the Thanksgiving conference).

4. The sacrifice of separation — Hebrews 13:13 — is the result of maximum doctrine resident in the soul. Doctrine in the soul is the dictator that gives us wisdom with what we associate and what we do not. All separation is the principle of choosing your own associations.

a. Separation is a way of life for any intelligence.

b. This simply means to choose your own associations.

c. Even the unbeliever chooses their own associations.

5. The sacrifice of praise — Hebrews 13:15. This is the mental and verbal expression of category #1 love or occupation with the person of Jesus Christ.

6. The sacrifice of divine good — Hebrews 13:16. This sacrifice, again, is the result of the construction of the altar in the soul, and this sacrifice is the attainment of the supergrace life and the normal function of that life. The normal function of the supergrace life produces divine good.

7. The sacrifice of academic discipline, and that brings us to verse Hebrews 13:17, the sacrifice of your recognition of your right pastor and consistently assembling to learn doctrine under his ministry. This sacrifice demands maximum objectivity. From the ministry of God the Holy Spirit this is possible and this sacrifice demands maximum concentration on teaching.

Verse 17 — anyone who is a student obviously must live under the principle of sacrifice. The word “obey” is the present middle imperative of the verb peithô (πείθω) [pronounced PIE-thoh]. It means to obey in the present tense. This is a pictorial present tense, it has the distinctive force of presenting to the mind a picture of events in the process of occurrence. The picture is one of the believer priest, a member of the royal family of God forever, sitting in a classroom and concentrating on the teaching of Bible doctrine. This is also called a customary present to denote what is reasonably expected of any member of the royal family of God. Every member of the royal family has a right pastor and that is your academic authority. The middle voice is the permissive middle, it represents the agent, the believer priest, as voluntarily yielding himself to the results of the action of the verb, or seeking to secure the action’s results in his own behalf. In other words, you as a member of the royal family of God are sitting in Bible class and listening to the teaching of the Word of God in order that you might reach supergrace and the blessings of paragraph SG2, the place where God is glorified. The imperative mood is the imperative of command. This is a command to all members of the royal family of God.

Principles about the word “obey”

Since every believer is a priest and since every believer is royalty it is important to understand the system of authority authorized by God for the universal priesthood. Two basic principles of authority exist in the royal family of God, one is overt and one is inside. The overt makes it possible to have the inner authority. The overt authority in the royal family is the gift of pastor-teacher and, again, every priest has his own right pastor who communicates the Word of God. In his communication he is the authority, he speaks in monologue and everyone else listens. But the whole purpose for the overt authority is to make the believer spiritually self-sustaining, to give him an inner dictator of his soul. So there is an inner authority. Bible doctrine resident in the soul must become the dictator of the believer’s life. This is only possible by reaching the supergrace life, this calls for a lot of recognition of the authority of your right pastor so that you can grow up spiritually and become mature. These are the two systems of authority which exist in the royal family — the overt, including the divine delegated authority of the pastor-teacher as the communicator of the Word of God; the inner authority, consisting of the believer with Bible doctrine resident in his soul. This demand (obey) brings together both systems of authority in the royal family: the right pastor plus the function of your own free will in positive volition toward doctrine.

There is a very important biblical principle here. A sign of human maturity is your ability to recognize whatever authority exists in your general life, and your ability to respond to that authority with objectivity is a sign of your maturity. All principles of maturity are related to volition and to free will. For example, human maturity is the ability to assume the responsibility for the decisions of your free will. That is true as far as the royal family is concerned. The believer priest must take the responsibility for his attitude toward doctrine. If it is positive there will be great blessing in his life; if it is negative there will be great discipline. There is no middle ground for the royal family. You are going to come to the place of great blessing or you are going to come to the place of great discipline. You must decide, but remember this: in your decision you must take the responsibility for that decision.

“them that have the rule” — this is a dative case, present middle participle of the verb hêgeomai (ἡγέομαι) [pronounced hayg-EH-ohm-ahee]. Hêgeomai (ἡγέομαι) [pronounced hayg-EH-ohm-ahee] means to guide, to lead, to govern, to rule. It means to guide in the sense of knowing what you are doing and taking along people who don’t know what they’re doing. It also means to govern and rule those who understand the issue, so that would take care of the more mature people in any congregation. But it does mean to rule. “Keep obeying those who themselves are ruling.” This is a present middle participle. The retroactive progressive present tense denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. God has provided for every believer in this life his right pastor-teacher, and for those who are positive toward his ministry they are going to grow up. Those who are negative are called reversionists because they have reverted from the normal function of the royal family of God. The middle voice is an indirect middle which emphasizes the pastor as the agent producing the action. The pastor has the rule over the congregation. The participle is circumstantial for pastors having authority over one local church. This authority is established on the basis of faithful Bible teaching. And when the pastor is the ruler of a congregation it should be very definitely understood that he does you a favour by being the ruler because the sooner you get Bible doctrine, the sooner you have an altar in your own soul, the sooner you will find the control centre dictates your life. In other words, you become spiritually self-sustaining. On the basis of Bible doctrine in your soul you are going to handle your own life. We also have the dative case which is the dative of advantage. it is to your advantage to have authority as a member of the royal family.

We also have a definite article used as a demonstrative pronoun to emphasize the pastor as the authority over the local church. The corrected translation of this portion of the Word says, “Keep obeying those [pastors] who themselves are ruling over you.”

“over you” is an objective genitive plural from the personal pronoun su — “you all.” it is more than one person. A pastor cannot rule one person, that is dictatorship. He has to be ruling a group of people, two or more. So the objective genitive plural is used for all members of the body of Christ or the royal family of God on earth. In the universal priesthood of the believer the pastor-teacher is the ruler of the sheep, and this authority is necessary for the teaching and communicating the Word of God so that the believer might build within himself his own altar. This is the only way we fulfil the purpose for which God leaves us in this life. He leaves us here to glorify Himself. He leaves us here for the purpose of glorifying Him through growth, through the attainment of maturity. The only way that you will ever glorify God is to be on the high ground of supergrace, and the only way you get there is through learning Bible doctrine. Therefore, only through doctrine resident in the soul can a royal altar be constructed in your soul. The responsibility for the transfer of doctrine from the canon of scripture to your soul is the responsibility of your pastor-teacher. No pastor can effectively communicate Bible doctrine apart from strict academic discipline.

An evangelist often tells those who come to the meetings, read the Bible everyday. You cannot grow spiritually from this.

The Doctrine of Didaskô (Διδάσκω) [Pronounced Did-as-koh]

Didaskô is one of the many designations for the pastor-teacher. Didaskô (διδάσκω) [pronounced did-AS-koh] means “teacher.”

1. The public assembly of the local church is the classroom in which didaskô (διδάσκω) [pronounced did-AS-koh] operates. It operates in the classroom only. There must be a local church and it must be organized according to biblical principles.

2. The pastor-teacher must have complete authority as well as the proper spiritual gift. He must, along with the spiritual gift, study, prepare, teach. And he must have along with his study and his preparation that which is lacking to day among pastor-teachers — moral courage and academic honesty. Moral courage keeps the pastor-teacher objective in the communication of all subjects in the Word of God.

3. The public assembly of the local church is designed for the privacy of the royal family. The reason that the local church is the way God has ordained is because as royalty it gives you privacy. When the believer is in the local assembly he is called mathêtês (μαθητής) [pronounced math-ay-TAYÇ]. It is translated in our English Bibles “disciple,” but mathêtês (μαθητής) [pronounced math-ay-TAYÇ] means “student.” The one who teaches is called manthanô (μανθάνω) [pronounced mahn-THAHN-oh] which means the teacher of the disciples, the students. He is also called didaskô (διδάσκω) [pronounced did-AS-koh] which is the same as manthanô (μανθάνω) [pronounced mahn-THAHN-oh] except that didaskô (διδάσκω) [pronounced did-AS-koh] carries more authority. Didaskô (διδάσκω) [pronounced did-AS-koh] emphasizes the authority; manthanô (μανθάνω) [pronounced mahn-THAHN-oh] emphasizes the function.

a. This allows for spiritual growth in privacy; and with objectivity.

4. Therefore, only in the public communication of doctrine in the classroom of the local church does the believer have the necessary privacy for learning Bible doctrine, its personal application, and living his life as unto the Lord — Colossians 3:16,17.

5. Personal time with the individual — one on one — is an intrusion upon the freedom and privacy of the royal priesthood. It violates freedom, it becomes a system of dictatorship, it becomes bullying.

a. The didaskô is supposed to give you privacy.

b. The pastor is not a psychiatrist or a counselor; that violates your privacy.

c. Royalty does not depend upon the opinions of others; we depend upon the code found in Scripture which has to be in your soul.

d. The pastor is not a social pimp.

6. Primarily the pastor is the teacher, a policy-maker, a super-student of the Word, an administrator and a spiritual leader. By administration is meant finding those in the congregation who can do it. All of these are accomplished without intrusion upon the privacy of other members of the congregation.

7. The pastor, therefore, must have absolute authority in teaching. His authority is derived from the spiritual gift and the authorized authority by God Himself. His objectives in teaching are to construct the inner altar of the royal priesthood — Bible doctrine resident in the soul; and secondly, the lead the believer to the tactical victory of supergrace; thirdly, to accomplish this by equipping the believer with the full armour from God; fourth, to challenge the royal family of God to pick up the cross and follow the Lord Jesus, which means constant consistent coming to Bible class.

Hebrews 13:17a “Keep obeying those [pastors] who themselves are ruling over you.”

Next, “and submit yourselves” — first of all we have the connective use of the conjunction kai, plus the present active imperative of the verb hupeíkō (ὑπείκω) [pronounced hoop-Ī-koe] which means to submit to someone’s authority. The present tense has very strong linear aktionsart, which means as long as you live you will always have a right pastor. It indicates a static present for a situation that perpetually exists. The active voice: every believer must fulfil the action of the verb and grow up to glorify God in time. The imperative mood is a very strong command. The word “yourselves” is derived from the middle voice, there is no reflexive pronoun here.

And Submit Yourselves” Means…

1. The key to learning doctrine is amenability to discipline.

2. Because of conflicting personalities, conflicting doctrines and viewpoints, which you often possess when you come to class discipline becomes the factor of cohesion, listening in spite of your own personal disagreement.

3. We all have a frame of reference, often one which includes a great deal of human viewpoint. The human viewpoint has to be smashed.

4. Bob speaks thousands of sentences each week, and he is going to say something which you disagree with. You maintain your objectivity.

5. Discipline provides the cohesion for class.

6. This authority also means maximum of the believer priest. Bob throws out any gossiper from his church.

7. With the local church as a place for public teaching of doctrine plus one person in authority you are guaranteed the privacy of your priesthood in learning doctrine.

We have come to the first of several classifications of doctrine which amplify the translation. The doctrine before us at the moment:

1972 Hebrews Lesson #252

252 11/17/1974 Hebrews 13:17b Necessary factors for intake & grace provision for learning Bible Doctrine

Bob lays down the rules.

The Factors Necessary to Learn Bible Doctrine

1. Positive volition toward the Word of God and the realization of the importance of doctrine resident in the soul. You have to have strong motivation to be consistent in the function of GAP. You have to understand the importance of the transfer of doctrine from the Word, from the printed page, to the thought content of your soul. You have to understand the importance of the royal priesthood, the importance of the altar, and how the altar is constructed on the daily function of GAP.

2. The second factor is the expression of positive volition in a stabilized attendance of your own local church. The expression of positive volition in regular, consistent attendance involves the positive identification of your own right pastor, and therefore your own local church.

3. The filling of the Holy Spirit which is provided in grace through the rebound technique. No one can learn doctrine apart from the Spirit’s ministry.

4. Objectivity with regard to the personality, the grooming, the public speaking, and the overt character of the pastor. Included in the objectivity are the preconceived notions as to what you expect from a pastor. You must in your objectivity learn to focus attention on the teaching of the Word of God.

5. Objectivity with regard to the content of the pastor’s message. This often becomes a hang-up to people. They can’t stand the language of the message and the subject. There are several problems in this area. The content, for one thing, may seem to be irrelevant for the moment. The content may be critical of you and may even destroy your lifestyle temporarily. The content may not be euphemistic and therefore offensive to you personally. The content may have no personal interest for you.

6. The believer must have patience. The believer sitting in a congregation, listening to Bible teaching, must be very patient with the pastor and patient in hearing doctrine. The reason is that he will not understand everything at once.

7. The believer must also have privacy in public assembly, and therefore he must give privacy to other members in public assembly. The believer also in the assembly must avoid gossip, maligning, and a critical attitude toward other believers.

8. The believer, in order to learn doctrine, must have good manners. But you expect good manners because royalty have good manners. Good manners makes it possible for the entire congregation to concentrate. Believers must not create a disturbance through body movement.

9. The believer himself must exercise maximum mental self-discipline by his concentration on the message.

10. The believer must understand the grace principle of giving, and being willing to give without coercion, to support the administration and the function of the local church.

Bob was really impressed by a neighbor kid who had excellent manners.

All of these functions come through spiritual growth and progress coupled with the filling of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 17b — “for” is the illitive use of the conjunctive particle gar. It is used to express a reason.; “they watch” — “they” refers to pastor-teachers as a classification, as a group of people station throughout the world. “They watch” — present active indicative of agrupnéō (ἀγρυπνέω) [pronounced ag-roop-NEH-oh]. The word means to be awake. Not just awake, however, you can be awake and be asleep. This means to be awake and be vigilant, to watch while others sleep. So we translate this, “For they keep watching.” The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what habitually occurs with the type of pastor who teaches Bible doctrine. He loses sleep to prepare but his preparation and communication provides a guard or a watch over your soul. The active voice: the pastor who teaches doctrine produces the action of the verb. In other words, at a time when he ought to be sleeping he is mounting guard. The indicative mood is the potential indicative, it has the idea of contingency. This is called the potential of obligation. The pastor is obligated to be alert when others sleep. In other words, long hours spent in studying.

The nominative plural actually belongs to an intensive pronoun, autos. This is the subject of the verb. It is the intensive pronoun used here as a demonstrative and it refers here to pastor-teachers. This is the attributive use of the intensive pronoun and in its demonstrative sense it can be translated “they", but it is literally, “for these same ones.”

“for your souls” is a prepositional phrase, u(per plus the ablative of psuchê (ψυχή) [pronounced psoo-KHAY] — “for the benefit of your souls.” We also have a personal pronoun here in the genitive of possession meaning “your souls.” This means that every pastor who teaches doctrine is constantly alert for the benefit of the souls of those in his congregation.

The Pastor’s Alert

1. The pastor’s alert is his constant and daily study of the Word of God through which he exegetes every passage, relates it to its historical setting, and categorizes its pertinent doctrine.

2. This is known as the ICE approach — Isagogics, Categories, Exegesis.

3. The pastor’s alert includes the use of his authority to rule the congregation.

4. This means that he must protect the privacy and the rights of all members of his congregation.

5. This includes the right to exercise authority in removing from the congregation those believers who are unruly, gossiping, maligning, intruding upon the privacy of others.

6. Therefore this verb suggests that the pastor-teacher is on a lifetime red alert.

Principle

1. The true function of the pastor-teacher is the benefit of the souls of his congregation.

2. The pastor’s ministry is too vital to be ignored, rejected or distracted, and therefore there is always the process of some staying and some departing. In this way the souls of the ones who remain will be benefitted. The soul is where Bible doctrine must reside for grace benefit in your life.

3. The soul of the believer is the battleground for the angelic conflict. It is the place for residency of Bible doctrine which leads to growth and the attainment of all objectives, including supergrace.

4. The pastor is the means of transferring Bible doctrine from the page of the canon of scripture to the soul and the spirit of the individual believer.

5. Therefore the pastor is a part of the grace provision for learning Bible doctrine.

Grace provision for learning doctrine started in lesson #252 and completed in #253.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #253

253 11/18/1974 Hebrews 13:17c Grace provision for learning doctrine (cont.) Although this doctrine was started in #252, all of it is placed in #253.

Grace Provision for Learning Bible Doctrine

1. The formation and the preservation of the canon of scripture. This includes the mechanics of inspiration as well as God’s faithfulness in protecting the written canon from Satanic destruction. Satan is constantly attacking the Word of God. The 20th century believer has the canon intact, preserved in the original languages, so that the meaning of any passage is as perspicuous today as it was in the time when it was written by the apostles or any other writer of scripture. This is grace.

2. Divine authorization for the local church. The local church is the classroom for learning doctrine and therefore the place of assembly of all believers. The prescribed organization is very simple. It includes the pastor as the absolute ruler, deacons as the administrators, and a congregation of believers who are positive toward Bible teaching. All worship is centered around learning doctrine, and therefore there must be strict academic discipline. The royal family assembled in the local church are students without portfolio. The only right they possess at that moment is the right to learn. The continued existence of local churches where doctrine is taught is a matter of grace in every generation of the Church Age.

3. The provision of your very own right pastor. All born-again believers have a right pastor. They may not be aware of it, but they do. The spiritual gift of pastor-teacher provides ability and authority to communicate the Word of God via monologue. The spiritual gift of pastor-teacher, like all spiritual gifts, is a grace gift from God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation. [End lesson #252; begin lesson #253]

4. The royal priesthood of the believer. Every believer is his own priest. This is the royal priesthood of the believer as a grace provision for learning Bible doctrine. In this dispensation there exists for the first time, and the only time in history, the universal and royal priesthood of all believers, those who are saved in this dispensation. The purpose of this priesthood is for privacy and reception of Bible doctrine. Each believer must have doctrine resident in his own soul as a priest must have his own altar. Your own altar is made up of the amount of doctrine you have assimilated in your spiritual life. Each believer must grow in grace through knowledge of doctrine. Therefore each believer priest must live his life as unto the Lord.

a. There is no 1 on 1 teaching or discipling. Anytime you have something like this, you have problems.

5. The ministry of God the Holy Spirit. The aristocracy of the believer’s priesthood is inevitably related to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit who at the moment of salvation accomplishes five things for every believer.

a. Baptism of the Holy Spirit by which we become royal family in distinction from all people to all people who are born again in previous dispensations and future dispensations. The Church Age is the only dispensation in which the baptism of the Holy Spirit occurs at the point of salvation for each believer. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is every believer entered into union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Being in union with Christ gives us our royalty.

b. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit. It must be understood that this is indwelling of the body of the royal priest.

c. The sealing of the Holy Spirit which is the security of the royal priest.

d. Regeneration or being born again.

e. The sovereign giving of a spiritual gift. The spiritual gift is a part of the function of the royal priesthood in this dispensation.

f. So the aristocracy of the believer’s priesthood is related, then, to the ministry of God the Holy Spirit, and at the moment of salvation these things which are provided also become the basis for learning Bible doctrine. The Holy Spirit, therefore, not only regenerates the Church Age believer but simultaneously performs these other four ministries. For the first time in history the believer’s body is indwelt by the Spirit, he is in union with Christ, he is sealed to the day of redemption, he possesses at least one spiritual gift. All of this adds up to one of the titles that every believer possesses, ambassador for Christ. Every believer is the personal representative of the Lord Jesus Christ on the earth. So we have royal ambassadorship.

g. In addition to these five ministries at the point of salvation God the Holy Spirit also controls the soul under the subject of the filling of the Spirit in order that we might learn Bible doctrine. It is impossible for us to taker in doctrine apart from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is imperative that each one of us be in fellowship during the teaching of the Word of God. This is also proved for by means of grace. We have the rebound technique which is strictly a grace operation.

6. The provision of the human spirit. We not only have the third person of the Trinity to make it possible for us to learn doctrine but we are provided at the point of salvation a human spirit. Remember that we are born into this world dichotomous — body and soul, we do not have a human spirit. When the soul is saved at the point of regeneration we receive a human spirit and become trichotomous. The human spirit is that immaterial, invisible part of the believer by which doctrine is stored for the purpose of processing and construction. The human spirit is the first target for doctrine in the function of GAP, doctrine is stored in the human spirit. From there is flows into the heart or the right lobe, and there is becomes the basis for the construction of the edification complex of the soul. The principle of perspicacity by means of the Holy Spirit teaching the human spirit is found in Romans 8:16,17. The human spirit and the Holy Spirit are both necessary and grace provision for learning Bible doctrine.

7. God’s provision of the laws of divine establishment. Under the laws of divine establishment the nation is responsible for protecting the freedom and the privacy of the local church. Here is the importance of the principle of freedom through military victory as well as the importance of true law enforcement in the national entity. There is no local church without a strong military to protect the freedoms of a nation. The system of authority which exists throughout the laws of establishment is the basis also for the orderly function of the local church. The believer who rejects the authority of the police officer will also reject the authority of the pastor-teacher. If you are a serious student of the Word of God, you will keep your mouth shut when in Bible class.

8. The principle of grace in human anatomy. None of us could learn any doctrine unless we have some normal function within the framework of physiology. In our physiological being we have the perfect illustration of grace because all kinds of people, regardless of merit or demerit, have the ability to think. All ability to think, all ability to draw erroneous conclusions or good conclusions comes from human anatomy. In the anatomy of grace there are certain non-meritorious functions of the human body which provide the ability to think and to concentrate, thereby contributing the assimilation of Bible doctrine. Two things are necessary for thinking from the standpoint of body function. There must be oxygen in the blood and there must be energy in the neurons of the brain. Both of these are provided on a grace basis. These grace processes all go to make it possible for the believer to learn doctrine and to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

There was a little incident, and Bob almost smashed his face into the wall, when someone came in and complained. Bob restrained himself. Talking when anyone else is speaking is a mark of arrogance.

How did people come here without anything at all and became millionaires? Establishment, non-establishment does not. The great change in the student body in Lee High School. They think they have the right to throw coke bottles and such at police officers. This discipline must start at home. And if faculty members watch this, that is a problem as well.

The only reason to have flowers in a church is to eat up the CO₂; but the AC system takes care of that. The AC is deliberately kept low for a constant turnover of air.

Hebrews 13:17a-b Keep obeying those pastors who themselves are ruling over you, and submit to their authority: for these same ones [pastors] keep watching for the benefit of your souls.

Next is the comparative particle hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç] used to introduce a comparative clause — “as.” it is used to explain what has just preceded. There is an explanation for this. The pastor has responsibility before God, both now and in eternity.

“they must give an account” — the future active participle of apodidômi (ἀποδίδωμι) [pronounced ap-od-EED-o-mee] means to “render an account.” The future tense is the predictive future, pertaining to the judgement seat of Christ which occurs after the Rapture where pastors lose or receive decorations based upon your spiritual advance in life. The active voice: every believer who has the gift of pastor-teacher and has a congregation will have to render an account with regard to that congregation at the judgement seat of Christ. The telic participle denotes purpose. The pastor has no worries as long as he is faithful in teaching the Word. The rest is up to the congregation’s volition. So this should be translated “as those having to render an account” — 1Peter 5:4; 1Thessalonians 2:19,20.

Summary

1. In this last phrase the crown or wreath of glory is the highest eternal decoration available to the pastor-teacher in his paragraph SG3.

2. This reward is given for his faithful and consistent teaching of doctrine under the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher.

3. While other rewards and decorations are open to the pastor this one is presented for everyone in his congregation who gets to surpassing grace.

4. When any number of the congregation persist in the function of GAP under the pastor’s ministry, reaching the high ground of supergrace, transferring to eternity by dying grace, decorated under surpassing grace forever, such members of the royal family becomes the pastor’s present happiness and future reward.

5. This future reward is called in 1Peter 5:4 the wreath of glory.

6. Here, then, is the explanation and motivation for a pastor studying and persisting in Bible teaching. People do not appreciate the work involved here, to beat your brains out day after day studying and then teaching it to people who could care less and are just thinking about what they are going to do next.

7. No congregation ever grows on programs, devotionals, evangelistic messages, and textual sermons.

“that they may do it” — the conjunction kai introduces a final clause. This is a rare use of kai. The futuristic present tense denotes judgement, the judgement seat of Christ, evaluation. We have the future tense of the verb poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] for “do it.” It is a futuristic present which denotes the judgement seat of Christ, an event which has not yet occurred but which is regarded as so certain to happen that it is put in the present. Therefore the futuristic present indicates the reality that every pastor will stand before Jesus Christ after the Rapture and give an account of his congregation. The active voice: each pastor produces the action of the verb at the judgement seat of Christ. The subjunctive mood is potential, it is used in a subordinate clause to imply a future reference.

“with joy” — meta plus the genitive of chara (χαρά) [pronounced khahr-AH] which means “with happiness”; “and not with grief” — remember the pastor is in his resurrection body, the Rapture has occurred. He can be miserable once in his resurrection body. The word “grief” is the present active participle of stenázō (στενάζω) [pronounced sten-AD-zoh] and it means “groaning.” The participle is used as a substantive here.

“for” is the explanatory use of the post positive particle gar; “that” — the nominative neuter singular of the demonstrative pronoun autos. This refers to the pastor’s groaning because of the failure of his congregation to respond to his teaching. So not only does the pastor groan in time for negative volition but he groans at the judgement seat of Christ.

“is unprofitable” — a nominative singular neuter from the adjective alusitelês (ἀλυσιτελής) [pronounced al-oo-sit-ehl-ACE] which means “disastrous or unprofitable”; “for you” — the pastor only has to groan, the disaster belongs to the congregation.

Hebrews 13:17 Keep obeying those pastors who themselves are ruling over you, and submit to their authority: for these same ones [pastors] keep watching for the benefit of your souls, as those having to render an account. Keep on obeying in order that they may do this accounting with inner happiness, and not with groaning: for this accounting with groaning is disastrous for you.

Spiritual Maturity Synonyms

The faithful teaching of doctrine from the pastor results in the spiritual maturity of the congregation. This spiritual maturity is described under four great synonyms in the Word.

1. Tactical victory, following the colours to the high ground of supergrace — Philippians 3:12–15; Hebrews 12:1,2.

2. The royal priest building an altar in his soul — Hebrews 13:10.

3. Taking up the cross and following the Lord — Matthew 10:38; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; 14:27.

4. Putting on the full armour of God — Ephesians 6:11,13.

All of these synonyms are related to the daily function of GAP and the resultant Bible doctrine in the soul of the believer. Therefore each one demands that we spend time under the ministry of our right pastor every day.

We have an altar made up of doctrine, and from this altar we make our royal sacrifices.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #254

254 11/19/1974 Hebrews 13:18a Doctrines of royal sacrifices, prayer

We have an altar made up from doctrine.

Doctrine of the Royal Sacrifices

As a believer in the Church Age, we are a royal priest. The accumulation of doctrine brings us to the supergrace status.

1. The royal and universal priesthood demands royal sacrifices. Go back to the Doctrine of the Royal Sacrifices back in Lesson #151.

Hebrews 13:18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.

Verse 18 — the sacrifice of prayer. Prayer is one of the sacrifices and of all of the things that functions of the priesthood which requires maturity prayer is tops on the list. Prayer actually requires more concentration and good prayer is hard work. The only people who are really free to spend any lengthy time in prayer are people who really have nothing else to do in life. They are confined to an area, they develop a tremendous maturity, they develop their altar and they become great prayer warriors. Prayer is the hardest work in the Christian life. The ability to concentrate, the ability to be consistent in prayer is the most difficult thing, the least spectacular and yet the most important factor of the teamwork of the body of Christ on earth.

“Pray for us” — the present middle imperative from the verb proseuxomai. Pros means face to face. When you are praying you are face to face with God regardless of your posture. The present tense is a tendencial present for an action which is purposed and commanded of all royal priests but is not actually taking place with the ones to whom this was originally addressed. They original recipients of Hebrews weren’t praying, they were in reversionism. The tendencial present tells them they ought to be doing it but they’re not. The middle voice is simply a deponent verb, middle in form but active in meaning. The Jewish believers living in Jerusalem in AD 67 were guilty of neglecting prayer as a part of their function of the priesthood. In addition we have the imperative mood of command. They writer is demanding that they wake up and start praying and using their priestly function, and he asks that he be placed on their prayer lists. The words “for us", peri plus the genitive plural of the personal pronoun egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH], should be translated “about us.” It means for us or about us or concerning us.

Some of the Ground Rules for Prayer

You must remember that prayer is maximum concentration.

1. There are three categories of prayer received by God the Father.

a. The first category comes from the greatest prayer warrior of all, the Lord Jesus Christ our great high priest — Hebrews 7:25 describes His prayer life on our behalf.

b. The second area is the “emergency prayer.” God the Holy Spirit does all of the emergency praying — Romans 8:26,27.

c. The third category is the prayer from the believer priest, as per Hebrews 4:16.

2. How to approach God in prayer.

a. All prayer must be addressed to God the Father — Matthew 6:9; Ephesians 3:14; 1Peter 1:17. Dear Jesus is phony and hypocritical. Who do you think you are?

b. The channel of approach is through our high priest, Jesus Christ — John 14:13,14. “I know a little about prayer, more than you, of course.”

c. The power of approach of prayer is the filling of the Spirit — Ephesians 6:18.

3. We should understand that God has encouraged us to pray through promises. An extrapolation of prayer promises falls into three categories: Those related to the faith-rest technique, like Matthew 18:19; 21:22; Mark 11:24; or the Old Testament promises of prayer which are somewhat different from the New, but just as valid — Psalm 116:1,2; Isaiah 65:24; Jeremiah 33:3. Every legitimate prayer that ever was uttered in history was heard in eternity past, and if it was a legitimate prayer it was included in the plan. Then there are the New Testament promises, like Matthew 7:7,8; John 14:13:14; 15:7; Ephesians 6:18; Philippians 4:6; 1Thessalonians 5:17; Hebrews 4:16, etc.

4. The eight principles of prayer.

a. Prayer effectiveness increases as Bible doctrine becomes resident in the soul. It is based upon the consistent function of GAP and the resultant doctrine in the soul. Prayer becomes more effective as the believer puts on the full armour from God, as he follows the colours to the high ground, as he constructs the altar of Bible doctrine in the soul. This principle is taught in John 15:7; Ephesians 3:16–19.

b. Prayer is an extension of the faith-rest technique. It is a soul exhale toward God — Matthew 21:22. The correct function of the faith-rest technique demands for its fuel the intake of doctrine on a daily basis.

c. Prayer demands cognisance of the will of God and therefore demands maximum doctrine in the soul — 1John 5:14.

d. Generally prayer must be offered under the filling of the Spirit — Ephesians 6:18. The exception is the rebound prayer. Prayer was not designed for your personal vendettas.

e. Mental attitude sins resulting from both carnality and reversionism destroy any possibility of an effective prayer life — Psalm 66:18.

f. Efficacious prayer exists to the extent that the believer is grace oriented. Therefore prayer begins to be effective when the believer has constructed the first floor of the ECS — Hebrews 4:16.

g. The eternal decrees took cognisance of all prayer in time and incorporated the answers before history began. Before there was any human history all of the prayers that would ever be uttered in human history were known to God through His omniscience, and as a part of the divine decrees they were incorporated into history long before history existed — Jeremiah 33:3.

h. Prayer effectiveness reaches its zenith at the time of supergrace status, and from then on if the believer holds the high ground he will become a great prayer warrior — Psalm 116:1,2.

5. Private prayer. Organization is one thing that is absolutely necessary in an effective prayer life. So you need an agenda, and the Bible suggests a fourfold agenda for your private prayers.

a. Confession of sin is the first function of private prayer — 1John 1:9; 1Corinthians 11:31.

b. Thanksgiving — Ephesians 5:20; 1Thessalonians 5:18. Thanksgiving is grace orientation, it recognizes the source of all blessing.

c. Intercession (Praying for others) — Ephesians 6:18.

d. Petition.

6. The doctrine of intercession.

a. The dynamics of intercessory prayer are mentioned in 1Kings 18:42–46; James 5:16–18.

b. The power of prevailing prayer — Acts 12.

c. The prayer for the unbeliever — Romans 10:1. (That the issue be made clear, that doctrine will be presented, that the witnessing and the evangelism will be so lucid that they will understand the issue)

d. The prayer for the unknown believer — Colossians 1:3–11.

e. Prayer for the known believer — Ephesians 1:15–23; 3:14–21.

f. The true Lord’s prayer in John 17 — the dynamics of the Lord’s prayer.

7. The four categories of petition in prayer.

a. Positive-negative (Each petition is divided into two parts, the petition which is what you actually say; the desire, which is what you really want) in which the petition is answered with a positive but the desire behind the petition is not answered — 1Samuel 8:5–9; 8:19,20. The Jews asked for a king so that they could be like other nations, and God gave them a king — Saul — but they weren’t like other nations, they had more trouble than all the others.

b. The negative-positive, where the petition is not answered but the desire is — Genesis 17:18; 18:23–33; 2Corinthians 12:7–10. This is where God says no to the petition but He gives you the desire behind it.

c. Positive-positive, the ideal prayer, where the petition is answered and the desire is also answered — 1Kings 18:36,37; Judges 16:28; Luke 23:42,43; John 11:41,42,45.

d. Negative-negative, the worst prayer of all where neither the petition nor the desire is answered.

8. Nine reasons for negative-negative — why prayer is not answered.

a. Carnality or reversionism or both causes failure to be filled with the Spirit. Failure to be filled with the Spirit means failure in prayer — Ephesians 6:18.

b. Mental attitude sins caused by either carnality of reversionism hinder prayer — Psalm 66:18.

c. The specific Satanic sin of pride and resultant self-righteousness. This is not just the mental attitude sin but what comes from it. Job 35:12,13 says this person is dead when it comes to prayer.

d. Lust type selfishness — James 4:2–4.

e. The malfunction of faith-rest — Mark 11:24. This means negative volition, toward doctrine, one of the maladies of reversionism.

f. A general lack of obedience or a lack of subordination to divinely constituted authority — 1John 3:22.

g. Insubordination to the known will of God — 1John 5:14.

h. Malfunction of marriage. Lack of domestic tranquillity — 1Peter 3:7.

i. Reversionistic lack of compassion and grace orientation. If you are legalistic your prayer life is ineffective. Proverbs 21:13.

9. The principle of grace in prayer.

a. The scripture tells us that grace is a principle in prayer — Hebrews 4:16; 1Peter 1:7.

b. Prayer is the privilege of the royal priesthood, and since grace is the basis of prayer no believer can come to God in prayer and expect to be heard on the basis of his human merit, ability, or any other human success story.

c. In other words, every believer approaches God on the basis of the merits of Jesus Christ. The Father has already been propitiated with Christ and since He is no respecter of persons as far as we are concerned He accepts and hears our prayer on the basis of the fact that we are in Christ. In other words, God doesn’t answer prayer because I’m good, because I’m benevolent, because I’m sincere, etc. God hears and answers prayer on the basis of who and what Christ is.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #255

255 11/20/1974 Hebrews 13:18b Doctrine of conscience

Bob goes over the ground rules for Berachah.

Hebrews 13:18 Pray for us, for we are sure that we have a clear conscience, desiring to act honorably in all things.

The first phrase of verse 18 says, “Be praying about us.” Next we have why the unknown writer has requested prayer from the recipients of this epistle.

“for” — the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar. The explanatory particle indicates a demand for intercessory prayer, and such a demand requires explanation. The readers are mostly reversionists and so it seems at this stage to be a rather strange request, and he is not merely asking for prayer but since he is talking to those who are in reversionism and since he has challenged them to recover from reversionism he is actually doing something else. Apparently the writer has been under a tremendous amount of criticism from these readers. He is unknown to us but he was well-known to his readers. In effect, he is not only requesting prayer on behalf of himself but he is requesting prayer as a substitute for criticism. But more than that there is a principle here. All of us are inclined periodically to be critical of someone else. It is very easy to be critical of someone else that you do not know but whose appearance is offensive to you, or it may be something else; in other words, an in-built antagonism. We all have the temptation or we give in to the temptation and we roast someone at some time — unfairly, unjustly. Now the writer is saying, “Pray about us” for another reason, in fact two reasons: a) You need to pray to rebound, so obviously he is suggesting that at the beginning of their recovery they will have to begin with rebound and then move to a more positive attitude toward doctrine. b) But he is also saying that when you pray for someone you can’t be critical of them at the same time.

Bob used to get prayer requests all of the time. But, he can get through no better than anyone else.

It is one thing to open your mouth and babble out some words; and another thing to pray and make a real prayer.

Apparently the writer has been under a great deal of criticism from this church and he is requesting prayer from them as a substitute for criticism. There is a cluster of mental attitude sins which include judging, gossiping, etc. This boils down to, pray for the people that you want to criticize. It will make some great principles in your life.

“we trust” — the present middle indicative from peithô (πείθω) [pronounced PIE-thoh]. Peithô (πείθω) [pronounced PIE-thoh] means many things, it means to be trusting, to obey, in the perfect tense it means to have confidence, it means with the middle voice here to be persuaded — “for we are persuaded.” The historical present tense is a past event viewed with the vividness of a present occurrence. It is both a Classical Greek and a Koine Greek idiom. The middle voice is a direct middle in which the agent performs the action of the verb with the idea of gaining from the results of the action. The indicative mood is declarative for the historical reality of the persuasion here. “Be praying for us: for we are persuaded.” It is a little stronger than simply being talked into something, this means to be persuaded that something is true, axiomatic, a dogmatic irrevocable fact from God Himself

“we have” — the present active indicative of echô (ἔχω) [pronounced EHKH-oh] which means to have and to hold. There is a word found in the original but not found in the translation of the KJV, it is the conjunction hóti (ὅτι) [pronounced HOH-tee]. It is merely used as a means of indicating the concept of the persuasion. It is used after verbs of mental activity or perception or conclusion to denote the content of the persuasion or the conclusion — “that we keep having” is the way it should be translated. The retroactive progressive present denotes what was begun in the past and continues into the present time. The unknown writer of Hebrews produces the action of the verb which is confidence about his own modus operandi which has been subject to a great deal of criticism by his readers. The indicative mood is declarative, simply stating a dogmatic fact.

“a good conscience” — in other words, the original recipients of this epistle in Jerusalem have been highly critical of the one who is writing them this epistle, they have apparently maligned him, and yet he has an honourable conscience. This is another way of saying he is right, they are wrong. He has to say this for another reason. The believers who receive this epistle were reversionistic, and being so and long out of fellowship, under divine discipline, this was designed to awaken them to their need. The word for “good” is the adjective kalos (καλός) [pronounced kal-OSS] which has many translations than any Greek word in the Homer, Patristic, and two others (52 definitions). The best general one is honourable or noble.

The word for “conscience” is suneidêsis (συνείδησις) [pronounced soon-Ī-day-sis], the perfect tense form of oida which means to know. Sun is the preposition “with.” It means to know with. In other words, it means to have a standard of knowledge in your soul. The writer himself is a supergrace believer and he does possess an honourable conscience.

The Doctrine of the Conscience

1. Definition: A conscience is a norm or standard residing in the right lobe of the mentality of the soul. The conscience is located in the heart or the right lobe of the soul — Romans 2:15; Titus 1:15.

2. The conscience establishes norms for both human and divine relationship — Acts 24:16.

3. The conscience also has a part which is designed to establish concepts of wrong or right. The conscience, therefore, convicts of wrong or evil — John 8:9.

4. The conscience establishes norms for morality, for laws of establishment, for relationship with God — Romans 2:15.

5. False norms and standards in the conscience produce legalism or self-righteousness — 1Corinthians 8:7.

6. The law of liberty and freedom, and certain superseding laws for the believer — love, expediency, supreme sacrifice, are also related to the function of the conscience — 1Corinthians 10:24–29.

7. Conscience is the basis for patriotism and establishment — Romans 13:5.

8. Human happiness in the field of neutral H, which is legitimate happiness, is based on compliance to the standards of one’s own conscience — 2Corinthians 1:12. No person is a happy person who is violating his own standards.

9. Norms and standards reside in the conscience for the communication of doctrine — 2Corinthians 4:2. By having these norms and standards in the conscience we avoid intellectual dishonesty as well as academic snobbery.

10. The function of GAP builds up the divine standards in the human conscience — 1Timothy 1:5,19; 3:9.

11. The conscience can be distorted or destroyed by negative volition toward doctrine. Great destruction of the conscience is wrought by blackout of the soul and scar tissue of the soul.

12. Conscience establishes norms and standards for serving God — 2Timothy 1:3; Hebrews 9:14.

13. Conscience containing doctrine is the basis for meeting the exigencies of life, handling all the problems of life during maltreatment, misunderstanding, and is directly related to capacity for life — 1Peter 2:19; 3:16.

There are certain things that feed the conscience, like the original environment. Environment is no way of explaining away your failures, your maladjustments in life, your bad personality. But it is true that your original norms and standards are based upon your early environment. We also acquire a conscience from our early environment, whatever it may be. For this reason a stabilized early environment gives you your first great thrust in life which is a good strong conscience. So the environmental factor is a contributor to the conscience whether it is good or bad.

These norms and standards are standards you carry for life, and unless there are some radical changes you pretty well have the same norms and standards that you had when you left school. Bible doctrine can change that, it si the greatest factor in adding dynamics to conscience, but outside of that there isn’t much hope. As a generation is influenced in the elementary high school stage of its life that is the way the generation will shape up or ship out, and the only thing that will ever change it is a radical disaster whereby a maximum number are destroyed in a shocking manner and the survivors have to undergo a complete change of norm or standard to survive.

Here we have the best type of a conscience in our passage, the honourable conscience. It belongs to the supergrace believer. “Be praying for us: for we are persuaded that e keep having an honourable conscience in all things.” The “all things” refers to every factor of life, nothing is left out. Here is a man who is so dogmatic from his supergrace status that he says he has an honourable conscience in every facet of life.

“willing” is a present active participle from the verb thélô (θέλω) [pronounced THEH-loh] and it means desiring. It means the use of the volition of the soul. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present denoting what has begun in the past, continuing into the present time. It is also known as the present tense of duration in the Greek. The unknown writer of this epistle produces the action of the verb. This is a telic participle expressing purpose.

“to live” — present middle infinitive of the verb anastrephô (ἀναστρέφω) [pronounced an-as-TREF-oh], which doesn’t mean to live so much as it connotes lifestyle. It therefore connotes modus vivendi. We have the transitive connotation of the verb, not used here, which means to be overturned or upset. This is called the reflexive concept of the verb and it means literally to go back and forth, to get into a rut, and eventually comes to means to have a lifestyle. The present tense is the customary present for habitually occurs from a standard of norms, from a conscience which is completely based upon Bible doctrine. The middle voice: the agent produces the action for his own benefit, he has norms and standards based on doctrine resident in the soul.

“honestly” — the adverb kalos (καλός) [pronounced kal-OSS] meaning nobly or in compatibility with royalty.

Hebrews13:18 Be praying about us: for we are persuaded that we keep having an honourable conscience in all facets of life, constantly desiring to have a lifestyle in a royal manner.

1972 Hebrews Lesson #256

256 11/21/1974 Hebrews 13:19-20a Doctrine of reconciliation

Hebrews 13:19 I urge you the more earnestly to do this in order that I may be restored to you the sooner.

Benediction

Hebrews 13:20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,

Verse 19 — we begin with the transitional use of the particle de, and it should be translated “now” or “then”; “I beseech” is old English, and is the word parakaleô (παρακαλέω) [pronounced pahr-ahk-ahl-EH-oh] in the Greek, a word which has many meanings. It means to comfort, to encourage, to urge. “I urge you” would be a good translation in modern English. The present tense is descriptive for what is now going on. The active voice: the unknown writer produces the action of the verb by urging his readers into a course of action. The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of encouragement; “the rather” — should be translated “even more.” The Greek word is the comparative of perissos (περισσός, ή, όν) [pronounced pair-ihs-SOSS]. — “Now then I urge you even more.” The writer has been dealing with the subject of prayer.

“to do” is the aorist active infinitive of poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] which means to do. It is an ingressive aorist, contemplating the action of the verb at its beginning, or beginning to do something. In other words, in the concept of the aorist tense the writer encourages the reader to produce the action of the verb, which is intercessory prayer for him. The infinitive is used as an imperative of command — “that you do this,” the accusative neuter singular direct object of the intensive pronoun autos, used as a demonstrative pronoun to emphasize the importance of prayer. This demonstrative pronoun places special emphasis on the designated object in context which is prayer; “that,” a conjunction introducing a final clause — hina (ἵνα) [pronounced HEE-na], denoting a purpose, aim, or a goal. The purpose: He wants them to pray for something specific. He has even specified what it is so that they will be praying according to his own instructions, and therefore according to the will of God in this manner. But it also tells us something about the unknown writer of this book. Everyone has an idea as to who wrote this book, and some will argue vehemently about it.

“that I may be restored” — the aorist passive subjunctive of apokathistêmi (ἀποκαθίστημι) [pronounced ap-ok-ath-IS-tay-mee] which means to restore, to bring back, or to re-establish a former relationship. Actually the verb connotes restoring a thing to its former state. We do know from this verb plus what we have in verse 24 that whoever the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews is he was at one time a pastor in the Jerusalem church and parted from the congregation which was negative.

The message buried in this passage is a very simple one. What do you do when you are entirely wrong, when you wake up one day and realize that you are completely and totally out of line, and whoever has been in the altercation with you is one hundred per cent right, and it is the first time in a thousand years that someone has been completely right and you completely wrong? Apparently that is what was beginning to happen in the local church to whom this was originally addressed. They are beginning to realize that there pastor who left them was entirely right and they were entirely wrong.

What do you do in this situation is get in fellowship. The next thing you do is start a vigorous prayer life for the person you have wronged. You pray for them, about them. This is to recover your poise, to recover in your spiritual life, to recover from reversionism. You begin to pray for the person that you have wronged in your reversionistic function, and you pray that you might be restored to them. That is the verb apokathistêmi (ἀποκαθίστημι) [pronounced ap-ok-ath-IS-tay-mee] here. The aorist tense is a dramatic aorist, it states a present reality with the certitude of a past event. The idiom is a device for emphasis and it is used here for a state on the point of being accomplished. The unknown author lives in Italy at this time, he is absolutely right and his congregation were 99% wrong. Therefore, he desires to return to them and in order to alleviate their embarrassment he has put them on a project on how to recover poise when totally wrong — begin to pray for the person who is totally right. In this way, they relate themselves to that person by prayer. The dramatic aorist indicates the principle of restoration. The passive voice: the human writer of the epistle receives the action of the verb, being restored to the congregation in Jerusalem. He will be restored by their prayers. They will pray that God will find a way to bring him back, and when he returns they will have entered into such an extensive prayer life they will be very happy to see him, their poise will be excellent, and no more will be said about their differences.

Point of doctrine: It is inevitable that you will have fights with your friends, it is inevitable that you will have misunderstandings with people to whom you are related, and it is inevitable that you will wake up one morning and realize you were wrong. The answer is to recover your poise, but your poise is your spiritual life so in effect it means to recover your spiritual life. When you suddenly realize that you were wrong and you have failed, of you can summarize the whole thing to God in five or ten minutes, you can be back in fellowship and then starting to take in doctrine. And always make it a point to pray for the person whom you have wronged. Don’t ever be critical of them again, pray for them.

The passive voice here: the human writer is going to receive restoration. The subjunctive mood is the potential subjunctive which qualifies the whole situation with the element of contingency. The element of contingency is the involvement of more than one volition.

“to you” — the dative plural of the personal pronoun su — “to you all.” He is coming back to all of them. This is the dative of indirect object which indicates the ones in whose interest the act is performed, the restoration to Jerusalem of this unknown writer of Hebrews is in the best interests of all involved. It is therefore a dative of advantage to all members of the royal family who have been involved in the controversy.

“sooner” — is a defective spelling of a comparative taxion, a comparative of the adverb taxewj, and it should be translated literally, “without delay.”

Hebrews 13:19 Now then I urge you even more that you do this, in order that I might be restored to you without delay.

Summary of Hebrews 13:19

1. Noted in the original language is the principle of urgency. This urgency is based on the fact that Jerusalem only has three more years before it is destroyed.

2. The writer wants to stand by his congregation in his time of disaster, and he knows it is coming.

3. The doctrine he has presented in this epistle is most pertinent but there are many things he needs to add to what he has taught in Hebrews.

4. Furthermore, if even a few of his former congregation respond the terrible disaster of the fall of Jerusalem can be avoided for those particular individuals.

5. The writer has the same attitude as Jeremiah possessed in similar circumstances. Jeremiah was around Jerusalem at the time of the first administration of the fifth cycle of discipline. This is the second administration and therefore this unknown writer and Jeremiah has a great deal in common, they faced similar circumstances. Both were great Bible teachers, both were rejected by their contemporaries and yet both wanted to be right there on the spot when the disaster occurred. Jeremiah was there and the implication is that the writer got back there in time.

6. According to verse 24 the human author of this epistle is now living in exile in Italy.

7. However, he is ready to return and to share with his former congregation the adversities of the great historical catastrophe about to descend on Jerusalem.

This brings us to the third major subject in this closing chapter, the dramatic conclusion of the epistle. This is the supergrace orientation. It had a dramatic beginning and it will have a dramatic end. It includes two verses of royal benediction, verses 20–21.

From the KJV:

Heb 13:20 Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

Heb 13:21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Final Greetings

Heb 13:22 And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation: for I have written a letter unto you in few words.

Heb 13:23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty; with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you.

Heb 13:24 Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy salute you.

Heb 13:25 Grace be with you all. Amen. Written to the Hebrews from Italy, by Timothy.

The note here is, this was written to the Hebrews by Timothy. Everyone has to be an expert. That is just an attack of arrogance. The Bible is silent on the author. Typical of arrogant people to be concerned with what is unimportant (the name of the author). Arrogant people always want to solve the silence of the Bible.

As of tomorrow, there will be no other tapes of Hebrews available except for the ‘72 series.

Verse 20 — “Now” is the post positive conjunctive particle de, used here is the rare emphatic or intensive use. It is translated usually “indeed, really, in fact,” and introduces the basis for the grace contract or the grace covenant which the church possesses. We will translate it “In fact.”

“the God of peace” — the nominative ho (ὁ) [pronounced hoh] theos (θεός) [pronounced theh-OSS] refers to God the Father. Remember that every blessing you ever have, God the Father is the one who planned it. They come through Jesus Christ but God the Father has done all of your blessing. We have with this the descriptive genitive singular of the noun eirênê (εἰρήνη, ης, ἡ) [pronounced eye-RAY-nay]. The word means prosperity, blessing, or even hello. It only means hello because the Hebrew word Shalom also means hello. So we have to decide in every context whether it is prosperity or no antagonism between us. Which connotation applies? The only way that you can tell is by other words in the context. Here we have “the God of the peace” and that means no antagonism between us. So eirênê (εἰρήνη, ης, ἡ) [pronounced eye-RAY-nay] here is used in the technical sense of reconciliation. There is no antagonism between us. “Now the God of the peace” introduces the principle of reconciliation, and you must remember that there is no antagonism between you and God.

Bob explains how to approach a horse.

God has to discipline us from time to time, but this is not with antagonism.

The Doctrine of Reconciliation (2)

1. By way of definition, redemption is directed toward sin, propitiation toward God, and reconciliation toward man. Reconciliation is the removal of antagonism between perfect God and sinful man. Reconciliation is the removal of the barrier between God and man and therefore is classified under the phrase “peace.” The word “peace” is used for reconciliation in Ephesians 2:16; Colossians 1:20,21; 2Corinthians 5:18.

2. Reconciliation is a part of the blood of Christ. Three words are used to described the blood of Christ. The blood of animals is literal blood. The blood of Christ is His saving work on the cross which is divided into three parts — redemption, reconciliation, propitiation.

3. Reconciliation and mankind. In the concept of reconciliation mankind is regarded as the enemy of God — Romans 5:10; Colossians 1:21.

4. Peace is a synonym for reconciliation. Reconciliation finds man the enemy of God but the saving work of Christ on the cross makes peace between man and God — Ephesians 2:14 cf. 2:16; Colossians 1:20; Hebrews 13:20.

5. Reconciliation is portrayed in the Levitical offerings. It is the peace offering of Leviticus chapter three. it depicts the entire doctrine of reconciliation as it was portrayed in Old Testament times. It portrays Christ as removing the barrier between God and man. Also taught in Leviticus 7:11–38; 8:15.

6. The application of reconciliation to the royal family. Every member of the royal family of God, every Church Age believer, is an ambassador representing the Lord Jesus on the earth. Therefore each member of the royal family has the ministry of reconciliation — 2Corinthians 5:18–20.

7. The prophecy of reconciliation is found in Isaiah 57:19.

8. The mechanics of reconciliation. You have a barrier where man is on one side and God is on the other. The barrier is composed of six basic items — sin, the penalty of sin, the problem of physical birth, the problem of relative righteousness, the problem of the perfect character of God, the position of man — “in Adam all die.” Each one of these items is resolved by the work of Christ on the cross, and that particular facet of the work of Christ on the cross is one of the major doctrines of soteriology.

a. For example, sin. Two major doctrines are involved here, the doctrine of unlimited atonement in which Christ bore the sins of all the human race — 2Corinthians 5:14,15,19; 1Timothy 2:6; 4:10; Titus 2:11; Hebrews 2:9; 2Peter 2:1; 1John 2:2. The doctrine of redemption also cancels out sin — Galatians 3:13; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14; 1Peter 1:18,19. The penalty of sin is removed by the doctrine of expiation — Colossians 2:14; Psalm 22:1–6.

b. The problem of physical birth is removed from the barrier by regeneration. At the point that we believe in Christ God the Holy Spirit regenerates all those who believe and this removes the problem of physical birth — John 3:1–18; 1Peter 1:23; Titus 3:5.

c. The relative righteousness problem or the human good problem is removed from the barrier by two major doctrines of soteriology which describe the work of Christ on the cross. The first is the doctrine of imputation — Romans 3:22; 9:30–10:10; 2Corinthians 5:21; Philippians 3:9; Hebrews 10:14.

d. Under the principle of imputation God wipes out the sin that man has committed [redemption and unlimited atonement] and credits to his account +R. The crediting to the account of the new believer +R is called imputation of divine righteousness. Then, having imputed to us His very own righteousness He immediately says “vindicated,” translated “justification” in the Bible — Romans 4:1–5,23; 5:1; 8:29,30; Galatians 2:16; Titus 3:7. The fifth item in the barrier is God’s perfect character cannot have fellowship with man’s sinful person. This item is removed by propitiation — Romans 3:22–26; 1John 2:1,2. In this, of course, God the Father is satisfied with the work of God the Son and He is able to save man without compromising His character.

e. The final principle, the problem of position in Adam is removed from the barrier by positional sanctification — 1Corinthians 15:22; 2Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 1:3–6. Between man and God there is no barrier, the cross has removed the barrier and man simply walks over the line. But whether man walks over the line by believing in Christ or not he is still reconciled to God because there is no barrier. All he has to do is believe, it is up to him now, the barrier has been removed. Stepping over the line is a picture of Ephesians 2:8,9.

1972 Hebrews 13:20b Lesson #257

257 11/22/1974 Hebrews 13:20b Doctrines of resurrection, Christ the Shepherd, the blood

Hebrews 13:20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,

Verse 20b — “that brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus” is the next consideration; “that brought again” is the articular aorist active participle from the verb a)nagw which means to bring back or to restore. The aorist tense contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The action of the verb is resurrection; this is a constative aorist. So the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is viewed in its entirety, it takes the occurrence of our Lord’s resurrection and gathers it into a single whole. This constative aorist, therefore, refers to a momentary action. The active voice: God the Father produces the action of the verb by bringing back from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ. The circumstantial participle plus its antecedent action takes us back to the phrase “make you perfect” which we will see later. “In fact the God of peace [reconciliation], who has brought back [restored] from the dead.”

“from the dead” — the preposition ek (ἐκ) [pronounced ehk], plus the ablative plural includes both spiritual and physical deaths because nekros (νεκρός) [pronounced nehk-ROSS] here includes two deaths, it is in the plural. Nekros (νεκρός) [pronounced nehk-ROSS] is in the ablative plural — “from deaths.” This refers to the fact that Jesus Christ died twice on the cross, and the two deaths of Christ are related to salvation and the completion of His work on our behalf, and it should be translated “out from deaths.”

“our Lord Jesus” — the accusative singular direct object plus the possessive genitive for “our,” and it should be translated “Jesus our Lord.” The Lord Jesus Christ belongs to every member of the royal family of God forever.

The Doctrine of Resurrection (5)

1. Resurrection is bringing back humanity from the dead — it was the humanity of Christ brought back from the dead, deity doesn’t die. When a person is brought back from the dead in resurrection he is no longer subject to death. He is in a new body of incorruption and he will never die again. Therefore, it is imperative that we understand the difference between resurrection and resuscitation. Resuscitation means to bring someone back from the dead but they subsequently die, e.g. Lazarus. It is not resurrection. When someone is resurrected they have a body of incorruptibility, a body not subject to death, a body that will last forever. In resuscitation a person is brought back from the dead in a body of corruption and therefore dies again, but in resurrection a person is brought back from the dead never to die again.

2. The resurrection is definitely a part of the gospel. The boundaries of the gospel are very clearly delineated in 1Corinthians 15:1–4. Witnessing does not include the fact of sin. It is s true fact but it is not a part of the gospel. The gospel has definite boundaries. The emphasis is on the fact that Christ did something about sin, and because of what He did there is nothing we can do about it except to believe in Jesus Christ.

3. The difference between a theophany and a Christophany should also be noted in getting into the subject of resurrection. These are technical theological terms. A theophany is an appearance of Jesus Christ prior to the first advent. Jesus Christ appeared many times, generally as the angel of Jehovah. Occasionally he appeared as a man. For example, He was the man who threw Jacob at Bethel. On the other hand, a Christophany is a resurrection appearance of Jesus Christ. After His resurrection and before He ascended our Lord made a number of appearances — Mark 16:9-14; Luke 24:13–43.

4. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a part of the strategic victory of the angelic conflict — 1Corinthians 15:20–25.

5. The resurrection is necessary for the perpetuation of the Davidic line — Romans 1:3,4; 2Timothy 2:8. In effect, these verses say that Jesus Christ came as the son of David. As the son of David He came to fulfil a promise. He came to offer the Jews their King. The Jews said no and therefore the crucifixion would means that God does not keep His word, but the resurrection and the return of Christ means that God does keep His word. Jesus Christ will return and will fulfil that tremendous promise called the Davidic covenant. God promised David unconditionally that he would have a son who would reign forever.

6. The resurrection of Christ is also the basis for the believer’s confidence in the future — 1Peter 1:3–5,21. Our whole confidence in the future is based on the fact that we have a resurrection body coming up exactly like our Lord’s .He is called the firstfruits of them that slept. That is a guarantee of the coming harvest.

7. The resurrection of Christ indicates the completion of the ministry of justification — Romans 4:25. He was not raised for our justification as it says in the KJV, He was raised on account of our justification. We were justified by His work on the cross. Because of that He has to be raised.

8. Identification with Christ in His resurrection through the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the motivation for the tactical victory of the supergrace life — Romans 6:4. Therefore, tactical victory is the heritage of the believer priest — 1Corinthians 15:57–58. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ makes it possible for a new dispensation of the royal family. When we believe in Christ we are taken by God the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation, entered into union with Christ, and we become not merely family of God forever but royal family. We are a royal priesthood and therefore a new dispensation is begun. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father as King of kings and Lord of lords. He is seated there is resurrection body, He got there by resurrection and ascension, and that was the strategical victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. To honour the strategical victory God gives the Lord Jesus Christ plunder, He gives Him a royal family. There has never been a royal family of God before. All of the Old Testament saints are merely family of God, there was no royalty until our Lord was seated at the right hand of the Father. Once He was seated there we now have royalty, you are it.

9. Two general categories of resurrection are found in the scripture.

a. These are general categories, the first of which are believers — Daniel 12:2; John 5:24–29; 1Corinthians 15:20–22; Revelation 20:6,13. This is for believers only and it is called the first resurrection.

b. There is a second category, a resurrection for unbelievers — Matthew 25:41; 1Corinthians 15:24; Revelation 20:12–15. The second resurrection is the last judgement.

10. The first resurrection is broken down into various groups. There are intervals, everyone is not resurrected at the same time. In the second resurrection all unbelievers are resurrected at the same time, judged at the great white throne and cast into the lake of fire. The first resurrection occurs over a long period of history. For example, the Rapture of the Church at the end of the Church Age. For example, the resurrection of the Old Testament saints at the second advent. That means seven years interval between the Church and the Old testament saints. For example, the resurrection of the Millennial saints at the end of the Millennium. So we have 1007 years as the interval in resurrection. Therefore, we have echelons to the first resurrection. Basically, there are four echelons. Alpha company: Christ the firstfruits. In 1Corinthians 15:20–24 the whole picture of resurrection is taken like a battalion review. In this battalion there are four companies — Alpha, Baker, Charlie and Delta. Alpha has already passed the reviewing stand, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. Next will be Baker company which will pass at the Rapture of the Church. Royalty comes first in resurrection. John 14:1–3; 1Corinthians 15:51–57; 1Thessalonians 4:16–18; 1John 3:1,2; Philippians 3:21. Then Charlie company will come next at the end of the Tribulation. These are the Old testament saints and the Tribulational martyrs — Daniel 12:13; Isaiah 6:19,20; Matthew 24:1; Revelation 20:4. Delta company brings up the rear, the Millennial saints get their resurrection bodies at the end of the Millennium.

11. The agents of resurrection. The agents of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The first is God the Father — Colossians 2:12; 1Thessalonians 1:10; 1Peter 1:21. Secondly, God the Holy Spirit is an agent of regeneration — Acts 2:24; Romans 1:4; 8:11; 1Peter 3:18.

12. Resurrection is necessary for the advance of the plan of God the Father — Isaiah 53:10. The advance of the plan of the Father depends upon resurrection, ascension and session.

“that great shepherd of the sheep” — Jesus Christ is given a title, ton poimena probatwn ton megan.

This is literally, “the shepherd of the sheep, the great one.” It can be translated as has been translated in the KJV, “that great shepherd of the sheep.” The Lord Jesus Christ is not only King of kings and Lord of lords. He in not only the great high priest, not only God the second person. he is not only the unique person of the universe, being truly God and humanity in one person forever — hypostatic union. He is not only David’s greater son who will rule Israel forever. He has many titles, many functions, there are many glories which are related to the Lord Jesus Christ. The one we have before us is the one for supplying the needs of the royal family. You have to be a great shepherd to take care of royalty. Royalty demands so much more, royalty needs so much more. You and I are members of the royal family of God and, therefore, where we are concerned He is that great shepherd of the sheep.

The Doctrine of Christ the Shepherd

1. The shepherd of phase one — John 10:11, 14–16. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. This refers to Jesus Christ dying on the cross. This is talking about His spiritual death.

2. The shepherd of phase two — Hebrews 13:20, which in its complete translation says, In fact the God of peace, who has brought back from deaths our Lord Jesus, the shepherd of the sheep, the great one, with the blood of the eternal covenant.” The great shepherd provides for the royal family in phase two. The great shepherd also emphasizes the blessings that God has for the supergrace believer. The Lord Jesus Christ is the basis for the distribution of supergrace blessings.

3. The shepherd of phase three — 1Peter 5:4, “And when the chief shepherd appears [Rapture].” He is called the good shepherd in phase one; the great shepherd for phase two; the chief shepherd for phase three. While the passage is addressed to pastors of the Church Age it refers to the principle of the chief shepherd providing eternal blessing and reward of phase three.

“through the blood” — the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental of haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah]. Haima (αἵμα) [pronounced HI-mah] can refer to lots of kinds of blood. it should be translated “with the blood.”

When you come to town, you put your sheep into a particular place, and they stay there until you come back for them. They could be mixed together without being branded; and they heard the shepherd’s voice and they would follow that shepherd.

The Doctrine of the Blood (5)

1. Animal blood defined. Animal blood is the seat of animal life — Leviticus 17:10–14. The life of a human being is in the soul. The animal does not have a soul. From the coats of skins in Genesis 3:21 down through the Levitical offerings of Leviticus chapters 1–6 animal blood is used to represent the figurative blood of Christ in His saving work on the cross. In other words, animal blood in the Old testament portrayed the redemptive work of Christ — Hebrews 9:22.

2. The blood of Christ defined. Jesus Christ in His humanity had blood flowing through His arteries and veins. Arndt and Gingricht — “Blood and life as an expiatory sacrifice, especially of the blood of Christ as the means of expiation.” The blood of Christ is a figurative term for His saving work on the cross. So what Thieme has developed is not original. G. Kittel “The New Testament, the blood is a pregnant symbol of the saving work of Christ.”

3. A representative analogy emerges. While the animal blood was real and literal in the Old Testament as it was used to represent the spiritual death of Christ on the cross, a real analogy would be a literal death compared to a literal death. The animal blood was real and literal but it is part of a representative analogy. The literal death of the animal portrays the spiritual death on the cross. Christ did not die by bleeding to death. When Christ did die physically He died by an act of His volition. He dismissed His breath. The saving work of Christ was accomplished while He was alive physically.

4. Christ did not die on the cross by bleeding to death. The principle is found in John 19:30–34.

5. The blood of animal sacrifices was a shadow pointing to the reality of the cross — Hebrews 9-12–14.

6. Therefore the blood of Christ depicts the saving work of Christ on the cross.

7. The blood of Christ in expiation is the basis for the rebound technique. This is taught in the shadow offerings of the Levitical principle. The non-sweet savour offerings: Leviticus four, the sin offering; Leviticus five, the trespass offering. The two offerings together taught the rebound technique.

8. The true meaning if the blood of Christ, therefore, is important. It is found in the direction of the doctrines of soteriology — redemption, reconciliation, propitiation.

“through the blood” — en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the instrumental is translated “with the blood.”

1972 Hebrews Lesson #258

258 11/24/1974 Hebrews 13:20c-25 Corrected translation.

Hebrews 13:20 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant,

Hebrews 13:20 In fact the God of that peace [reconciliation], who has brought back out from deaths Jesus our Lord, the great shepherd of the sheep, with the blood from the eternal covenant [the new covenant to the Church].

Hebrews 13:21 equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Verse 21 — “Make you perfect” .If there is anything you will never be in time it is perfect. None of us will ever be perfect as long as we possess an old sin nature. Obviously the aorist active optative does not mean to make perfect. The verb is katartizô (καταρτίζω) [pronounced kat-ar-TID-zoh] which means anything but perfect. The word actually means three things. The mechanical usage is found in 1Corinthians 1:10 where it means to tune up a machine. The fishing connotation is found in 1Peter 5:10 where it means to mend a broken net. Medical usage is found in Galatians 6:1 where it is translated “setting a broken bone.” The naval usage is found in 1Thessalonians 3:10 where it means to supply a fleet for combat operations. The military usage is found in 2Corinthians 3:11, and in this passage where it means to train and equip an army for combat. This is the meaning here. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which gathers the action of the verb into one entirety. It views the action of the verb from the total function of GAP resulting in the supergrace status. It indicates everything that is necessary in order to grow spiritually. It starts out with the fact that you have to make your way to the local assembly which is the classroom ordained of God for the Church Age. The active voice: the royal family of God, the Church Age believer, produces the action of the verb. This is the optative mood, the voluntative optative which expresses a wish or desire. The optative is the mood of very strong contingency, the mood of possibility. it contains no definite anticipation of realization but presents the action always as conceivable. Therefore it expresses a wish for the future. Therefore it should be translated in a strong way. Having to do with the equipping of a military it should be translated “Equip you all in all intrinsic good.” It means to equip in the sense of training and providing for a military organization.

“in every good work” is not quite correct. It is the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] and agathos (ἀγαθός) [pronounced ag-ath-OSS]. It should be “in all intrinsic good.” This actually refers to Bible doctrine resident in the soul. When the Lord Jesus Christ commands the believer to take up his cross and follow Him, taking up the cross is the royal family assembling in the local church. Following Him is consistency in the intake of doctrine.

“to do” — the aorist active infinitive of poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh] is preceded by the preposition e)ij. This is a very common type of Greek idiom used in order to express an intended result, that is, when the result is indicated as fulfilling a deliberate aim of goal. It is a blending of the purpose and result, and that is why we are here. We are here to do His will and we do His will by the intake of doctrine, it all goes together. The aorist tense is a culminative aorist which views the function of GAP in its entirety but emphasizes the existing results. The existing results: the execution of the will of God and the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. The active voice: the believer is producing the action of the verb.

“his will” is the accusative singular direct object from thelêma (θέλημα) [pronounced THEHL-ay-mah] referring to the plan of God in eternity past for the believer in time; “working” — poieô (ποιέω) [pronounced poi-EH-oh], this time a present active participle. We have a progressive present of continuing the existing results. As a result of doctrine resident in the soul we continue to execute the will of God. We are doing the will of God by having that doctrine resident there. The basic will of God after salvation is the daily function of GAP. The active voice: doctrine resident in the soul of the royal priest produces the action of the verb which is the execution or the obedience of God’s will. This is called a modal participle, it signifies the manner in which the action of the verb katartizô (καταρτίζω) [pronounced kat-ar-TID-zoh] will be accomplished. In other words, we are equipped by Bible doctrine in the soul.

“in you” is incorrect. We have the preposition en (ἐν) [pronounced en] plus the locative plural of the personal pronoun egó (ἐγώ) [pronounced eg-OH], and it should be “in us.”

“that which is well pleasing” — the accusative singular direct object from the adjective euárestos (εὐάρεστος) [pronounced yoo-AR-es-toss] — “doing within us the well pleasing.”

“in his sight” — literally, “in the sight of the same one [God the Father].” We have an adverb here, e(nwpion plus an intensive pronoun autos; “through Jesus Christ” — dia plus Christos (χριστός) [pronounced krees-TOSS] plus Iêsous (̓Ιησος) [pronounced ee-ay-SOOCE],.

“to whom” — the dative of the relative pronoun has as its antecedent the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the dative of indirect object indicating the one in whose interest glorification is performed. Jesus Christ is obviously the one who is glorified; “the glory forever and ever.”

Hebrews 13:21 Equip you all in all intrinsic good [doctrine] to execute his will, doing in us the well-pleasing [doctrine in the soul] in the sight of the same one [God the Father] through Jesus Christ; to Whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.

Since the intrinsic good is doctrine in the soul this is what makes it valuable. Doctrine is valuable wherever you find it. It is valuable in the Word but it is not valuable to you personally. It has to be transferred to your soul before it is usable and before you can execute the will of God and do that which is wellpleasing. So the intrinsic good here refers to the basic function of the royal priesthood. This same doctrine resident in the soul is the basis for pleasing God, glorifying God, for growing up. Everything must be related to doctrine resident in the soul.

The next closing out, principle is the importance of this epistle.

Final Greetings

Hebrews 13:22 I appeal to you, brothers, bear with my word of exhortation, for I have written to you briefly.

Verse 22 — “And” should be translated “Now.” The post positive conjunctive particle is used as a transitional and continuative particle.

“I beseech” — the present active indicative of parakaleô (παρακαλέω) [pronounced pahr-ahk-ahl-EH-oh] means to urge or to request, the verb means to comfort. The present tense is retroactive progressive present denoting something which has happened in the past and continues into the present time. This is a former pastor who has separated from his congregation and for a long time he has constantly urged them along the line of action reported here. The active voice: the unknown writer to the Hebrews produces the action by urging once more. This is a declarative indicative for the historical reality of the fact that a pastor to do his job right must constantly stay on the back of his congregation.

“brethren” — the royal family of God. This brings into focus the purpose of the epistle:

The Purpose of the Epistles to the Hebrews

1. To warn believers of the royal family of God regarding the dangers and evils of reversionism, and to encourage them in reversion recovery.

2. To lead believers to maturity and toward the tactical objective of supergrace living, which involves the consistent function of GAP.

3. To prepare believers living in Jerusalem in AD 67 for the catastrophe of the Roman conquest and the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the province of Judah. In other words, to prepare the believer for catastrophe.

4. To clarify the relationship of the royal family of God to the angelic conflict. In other words, to relate the strategic victory of Christ at the right hand of the Father to the tactical victory of the royal family of the Church Age.

5. To reveal the glory of them person of Christ and to increase our category #1 capacity.

6. To bring the believer to supergrace resulting in the normal function of the royal priesthood.

“suffer” — the present middle imperative of anechomai (ἀνέχομαι) [pronounced ahn-EHKH-ohm-ahee] and it means to listen willingly, rather than to suffer. The present tense is a customary present, it denotes what is reasonably expected of any member of the royal family of God who is ever going to grow up. The middle voice is the permissive middle representing the agent, the royal family, as voluntarily yielding himself to the results of the action in his own interest. In other words, you attend Bible class for your own benefit. The imperative mood here is a command, so it should be translated, “Be listening willingly to this word.”

“the word” — should be “this word.” We have the objective genitive singular of logos (λόγος, ου, ὁ) [pronounced LOHG-oss] which refers to the Word or doctrine and the definite article is used as a demonstrative pronoun and it should be translated “this doctrine.”

“of exhortation” — the word “exhortation” is encouragement, so we have “the doctrine of appeal and encouragement.”

“for also I have written” — the aorist active indicative of epistéllō (ἐπιστέλλω) [pronounced ep-ee-STEHL-low] means to teach by letter, to teach by writing rather than to simply write. So, “I have taught by writing a letter unto you.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. It takes the writing of Hebrews and regardless of how long it took the writer it gathers it up into a single whole. The action of the verb probably extended over a relatively short period of time. it is much quicker to write this than it is to explain it. The active voice: the human writer under God the Holy Spirit produces the action of the verb in compatibility with the doctrine of verbal plenary inspiration of the scripture. The indicative mood is declarative for an unqualified assertion of a dogmatic doctrine.

“letter” — refers to the epistle to the Hebrews; “unto you” is dative of advantage. Obviously it is to our advantage for us to have this great epistle.

“in few words” — dia plus the genitive of brachus (βραΧὺς) [pronounced brahk-OOÇ] means “through a few words.” The relative shortness of the epistle demands intense concentration and careful attention to its contents.

Hebrews 13:22 Now I keep urging you all, brethren, be listening willingly to this doctrine of appeal and encouragement: inasmuch as I have written to you briefly.

Hebrews 13:23 You should know that our brother Timothy has been released, with whom I shall see you if he comes soon.

Verse 23 — whoever the human writer is he has been associated with Timothy. “Know ye” — present active indicative should be translated “Do you know that.” This is the historical present which views a past event with the vividness of a present occurrence. The verb ginôskô (vινώσκω) [pronounced gih-NOH-skoh] means to have the experience of knowing something. The active voice: the writer intends that the readers produce the action of the verb by becoming aware of the fact that Timothy has been released from prison. The indicative mood is the interrogative indicative, it assumes that there is an actual fact which may be stated in the form of a question. It is a fact he has been released but it is stated in the form of a question, he doesn’t know if they are aware of the fact or not. So it should be translated, “Do you know that.” So it carries the force of a rhetorical question to indicate the circumstances under which the author is residing in Italy and now wants to make a trip back to Jerusalem.

“our brother Timothy” simply means another member of the royal family of God.

Timothy

1. This phrase would indicate that Timothy, in response to Paul’s last request, made it to Rome before Paul died — 2Timothy 4:11,21.

2. As a result of the association with Paul, obviously Timothy made it but he was also briefly imprisoned and then released.

3. There is a principle here. God had a plan for everyone involved — for Paul, for Timothy, for the unknown writer of this epistle. Paul is dead, Timothy is alive, and God has a plan for each one, and no one is in exactly the same category.

God’s personnel changes are always right; so we never question when one person dies and another lives.

“is set at liberty” — the perfect passive participle of the verb apoluô (ἀπολύω) [pronounced ap-ol-OO-oh], and it means to be released. This is the dramatic perfect tense. It is a rhetorical use of the intensive perfect, the action is completed in the past, the results continue. Timothy will continue to function as a pastor on earth for another twenty years. The passive voice: Timothy receives the action of the verb, he is released from prison in Rome after the death of Paul. The participle is circumstantial.

“with whom” — meta plus the genitive of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) [pronounced hohç]. The antecedent of that relative pronoun is Timothy; “if” — a third class condition; “he comes” — present active subjunctive of érchomai (ἔρχομαι) [pronounced AIR-khoh-my]. This means if he comes to Jerusalem. This is a tendencial present tense for an action which is purposed but is not actually occurring. The active voice: Timothy produces the action of the verb, which indicates his release from the Roman prison and the possibility of his coming to where the writer is residing in Italy. The subjunctive mood goes with the third class condition here; “shortly” means without delay.

“I will see you” — the future tense here is a predictive future describing a potential event anticipated in future time. The unknown writer of Hebrews will produce the action. The indicative mood is the potential indicative. It is a good possibility that he will be coming but it isn’t definite or certain as yet.

We find out here that Timothy is in prison, something that we are not told elsewhere in the Scriptures.

The writer of Hebrews lives outside of Rome and wants to come to Jerusalem.

Hebrews 13:23 You should know that our brother Timothy has been released [from a Roman prison], with whom I shall [hopefully] see you if he comes soon [or, without delay].

Hebrews 13:24 Greet all your leaders and all the saints. Those who come from Italy send you greetings.

Verse 24 — “Salute” is the aorist active imperative of aspazomai (ἀσπάζομαι) [pronounced as-PAD-zom-ahee]. At the time of writing a salute was not as we have it. The salute at this time in the Roman army was to take your fist and throw it right across the breastplate. Salute means to pay one’s respects to or to greet.

“all” — the masculine accusative plural of pás (πάς) [pronounced pahs] which refers to the numerous pastors who were located in Jerusalem in AD 67; “of them that have the rule” — there is not one pastor in Jerusalem. All of the large cities of the ancient world by this time had numerous pastors, each one having his own congregation. Note that the human writer of Hebrews respects the authority of those local pastors, even though as the writer of scripture he carries the authority of an apostle which ranks above a pastor in the year 96. The principle here: Those who have authority respect authority in others.

“over you” — the objective genitive indicating authority over; “and all the saints” — the word “saint” refers to the royal family.

`This is a courtesy verse where courtesy is extended in two principles. Courtesy is first of all thoughtfulness of others, and secondly, courtesy is a recognition of authority. So courtesy always recognizes certain principles. “They of Italy” is literally, “This from Italy.” It is a reference to believers living in Italy and obviously this epistle was written in Italy.

“salute” — aspazomai (ἀσπάζομαι) [pronounced as-PAD-zom-ahee], pay respects. The aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. The principle is mutual respect is implied. Mutual respect is something that can happen when believers have grown up spiritually, where they have doctrine resident in the soul.

Hebrews 13:24 Pay my respects to all those who rule [pastor-teachers] over you, and to all the royal family. Those from Italy pay their respects to you also.

Mutual Respect Principles

1. Mutual respect must exist between all members of the body of Christ or the royal family of God. This is a part of being royalty.

2. This mutual respects from maximum doctrine resident in the souls of supergrace believers.

3. This mutual respect includes respect for authority and that necessary academic discipline to reach the high ground of supergrace. Once you have submitted yourself to discipline you usually become a very well-mannered type of person.

4. Respect for authority in the royal family leads to mutual respect and royal family love which was commanded in verse 1 of our passage.

5. When Bible doctrine resident in the soul becomes the dictator of each life, then this mutual respect and mental attitude love is formed.

6. The royal family in Italy had progressed through consistent function of GAP. As supergrace believers they will last for another 500 years, while the reversionistic Jewish believers to whom they were sending greeting would be wiped out in three years. And there lies the tragedy of this verse.

Hebrews 13:25 Grace be with all of you.

Verse 25 — the plan of God is stated. Ho charis (χάρις) [pronounced KHAHR-iç] — “The grace.” The definite article is used actually as a possessive pronoun. It can be translated “His grace.” There are abundant uses of this is the papyri which indicate the definite article is so used.

“with you all” — the principle here is that as members of the royal family of God we have the privilege and the right to share in the provision of God which is classified by the word “grace.”

Hebrews 13:25 Grace be with you (all) [royal family of God]. Amen [I believe it]

END OF SERIES

Links for the Enhanced Notes of 1972 Hebrews
Index to Bob’s Corrected Translations in 1972 Hebrews	Index to Doctrines from the Book of Hebrews	Lesson summaries of 1972 Hebrews
Lesson #1 (beginning of enhanced notes)	Nixon crisis	Bob Thieme’s corrected translation of the Book of Hebrews

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Bob Thieme’s corrected translation:

Hebrews 1:1 “In many parts [of the Old Testament] and in many different ways of old, the God, having communicated to the fathers by means of the prophets,...”

Hebrews 1:4 “By so much [ascension and session], having become more prominent than angels by so much as he has inherited a more superior reputation by the side of them.”

Hebrews 1:6 “But on the occasion when he [God the Father] again introduces the firstborn [Jesus Christ at the second advent] to the civilized world, he said, All the angels of God worship him.”

Hebrews 1:9 “You have loved the justice of establishment, and you [Christ] have hated lawlessness [of anti-establishment]; because of this the God [the Father, the author of the plan] has anointed you [Christ] with the oil of ultimate happiness above and beyond your [angelic] associates.”

Hebrews 1:10 You and only You with reference to beginnings, O Lord, the earth You have founded and the heavens keep on being the works of Your hands.

Hebrews 1:11 But You, and emphatically You (Jesus Christ) will remained unchanged; but they all (the heavens) will be superseded, like a garment....

Hebrews 1:13 And to which of the angels has he ever said, "Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet"? (Psalm 110:1)

Hebrews 1:14 “Are not they [the elect angels] all subordinate servants, spirits being sent into action for the purpose of ministry because of them [believers] being about to inherit deliverance.”

Hebrews 2:1 “For this cause it is necessary for us to pay more attention to the things having been heard [the doctrine, not the ritual], lest at any time we might drift past them.”

Hebrews 2:5 “For he has not put under [or, subordinated] the authority of angels the coming civilization [or, world].”

Hebrews 2:5 “For he has not put under the authority of angels the coming civilization, concerning which we communicate.”

Hebrews 2:6 It has been testified somewhere, "What is man, that you are mindful of him, or the son of man, that you care for him? (ESV)

Hebrews 2:9 “But having become inferior to angels for a brief period of time because of the suffering of the death, we see Jesus having been crowned with glory and honour.”

Hebrews 2:12 ...saying, I will proclaim Your name to my family for their advantage in the midst of the assembly (of Israel) I will bring praise to you. (Psalm 22:22)

Hebrews 2:15 “And released [from Satan’s kingdom] those persons as many as by means of fear from the source of death [spiritual] through all the functions of life were held in slavery.”

Hebrews 2:16 “For obviously he did not assume the nature of angels; but he did assume the seed of Abraham.”

Hebrews 3:1 — For which reason, holy members of the family of God, associates of the heavenly vocation, concentrate on the Apostle, even the High Priest of our acknowledgment, Jesus,...

Hebrews 3:2 — Being faithful to the one having appointed Him, as also Moses in his entire house [this dispensation of Israel].

Hebrews 3:3 — For example. this One [Jesus] has been permanently evaluated deserving of more glory than Moses, by so much as the one having constructed and furnished the house keeps having more honour than the house [the dispensation of Israel].

Hebrews 3:4 — For every house in constructed and furnished by the agency of someone; but the One [Christ] having constructed and furnished all things God [the Son].

Hebrews 3:5 — Now Moses, in fact, was faithful [dependable, trustworthy] in all his house, as a noble servant [supergrace hero in the dispensation of Israel], for evidence of things which are about to be communicated.

Hebrews 3:6 — But Christ as an adult son over his house [the Church age]; whose house are we, if we hold fast [if we have in full and secure possession of or if we steer and maintain our course of confidence] our confidence [in doctrine] and the object of boasting [Christ our only celebrity] of the expectation [phase three bride-ship] stabilized [by supergrace] until the end [of phase II; death or resurrection].

Hebrews 3:7 “For this reason therefore according as the Holy Spirit communicates, This day if you will hear and concentrate on his voice”,...

Hebrews 3:8 ...do not go on hardening your hearts as in the reversionistic revolution of the Meribah on the day of testing in the desert...

Hebrews 3:9 ...in which place (Meribah) your reversionistic fathers (the Exodus generation) began testing (to determine good of evil) in Him (God) by means of approving Him after testing [if God could pass the test set up by reversionist]. And they had a panoramic view of my grace provision for 40 years.

This is all idiomatic in the Greek, so that, if God should pass the test (whatever they make it out to be), that they would recognize it.

Heb. 3:11 “In keeping with the facts, I promise with a solemn oath in my disgust, My name is not God if they shall enter into My rest [which is the supergrace life].”

Heb. 3:12 Beware, members of the family of God, that there not be in any one of you a malignant heart of unbelief by revolting from the always living God,...

Hebrews 3:13 But keep on encouraging self and others on each successive day, as long as long as in whatever place you are located it is called This day; that not one from among you become hardened by the delusion from the sins [the practice of reverse process reversionism].

This verse will change things up like you cannot believe. Never miss an opportunity to come to Bible class. The exegesis of that will stand you up on your ear.

Hebrews 3:13 Keep on encouraging self and others on each successive day, as long as it is called This day; that not one from among you begin to become negative by delusion from the source of sin.

Hebrews 3:15 “So long as it is being said, Today if you will hear his voice, stop hardening your right lobes, as in the reversionistic revolution.”

Hebrews 3:16 For who, having heard, revolted? Did not all coming out of Egypt through Moses?

Hebrews 3:17 Then with whom was he disgusted forty years? Was it not with the ones having missed the mark [reversionism]? Whose dead bodies had fallen in the desert? Affirmative.

4 rhetorical questions up until now.

Hebrews 3:18 Then to whom did he promise with a solemn oath that they should not enter into his rest? Only to those having been obstinate.

Hebrews 3:19 So we perceive that they were not able to enter in because of unfaithfulness [or a lack of faithfulness].

Hebrews 4:1 Therefore let us fear, lest at any time a promised blessing being unclaimed of entering into his rest, anyone from among you should think subjectively to the point of defaulting [this is reversionism].

Subjective thinking is having mental attitude sins; reacting to situations in his own life.

Hebrews 4:2 The one having looked intently [concentrated] on the perfect law of freedom [Bible teaching], and having persisted, the one having become not a hearer of oblivion, but a doer of work [Bible doctrine going into the various areas of the soul where growth in involved], this one shall be happy in the action of doing [happiness in the function of GAP].

Hebrews 4:2 “For we also have been permanently evangelized, even as they also [the Exodus generation] were permanently evangelized: but the word of hearing [hearing doctrine] did not benefit them, not having been blended with faith [the faith] on the part of the ones having heard.”

Hebrews 4:3 For the ones having believed are to enter into the rest of supergrace, as He has said in the past with the result that it stands perfectly communicated forever, In keeping with the facts I have made a solemn promise in my disgust, I am not God if they shall enter into my rest [supergrace blessing]: and yet the works [supergrace blessings] have been brought into existence from the ultimate source of [or, before] the foundation of the world.

Hebrews 4:4 For he has communicated somewhere concerning the seventh day in the following manner, And the God rested on the seventh day from all of his works.

God rested because He had completed His work.

Hebrews 4:5 And in this passage again, “I am not God if they shall enter into my rest.”

Hebrews 4:6 Since therefore it [supergrace blessings] is left over for some [positive types] to enter into it, and they [the Exodus generation] to whom the doctrinal good news was first communicated did not enter in because of obstinacy [= maximum negative volition].

Hebrews 4:7 Again, he decrees a certain day [supergrace life], communicating by means of David [human author, quotation: Psalm 95], Today, after so long a time elapsed; as has been previously cited in the context, Today if you will hear [and recognize the authority of] and concentrate on his voice, stop hardening your right lobes.

Hebrews 4:8 For if Joshua had caused them to rest [but he didn’t], then concerning another day [of supergrace opportunity] He [the Holy Spirit speaking to David in Psalm 95] would not be speaking after these things [after the failure of past generations].

Hebrews 4:9 Therefore there is left over a sabbatical rest [supergrace blessings] with reference to the people of the God.

Hebrews 4:10 For you see, he that is entered into His rest...

Hebrews 4:11 Therefore let us begin to be diligent to enter into that specific rest [supergrace] lest anyone begin to fall with reference to the same example of obstinacy.

Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God keeps on being alive, and effectual, and more cutting than any maxaira, for it penetrates so as to separate soul and spirit, both joints and marrow, and a judge of cogitations and intentions of the right lobe.

Hebrews 4:13 Neither and there is not from his sight all things are naked unto the eyes of him face to face with whom we have an account, or our doctrine. (needs to be proofed)

Hebrews 4:14 Having therefore a great high priest, who having traveled through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us take possession of the acknowledgment.

Hebrews 4:15 For we have not a high priest unable to sympathize with our weaknesses; but having been tempted in all things in quite the same way, apart from sin.

Hebrews 4:16 Therefore let us be approaching to the throne of grace with confidence, that we may receive grace in action and discover grace with reference to seasonable help.

Hebrews 5:1 For every high priest taken from the source of mankind is ordained on behalf of men with reference to things [doctrines] face to face with the God, that he might offer both gifts and sacrifices on behalf of sins.

Hebrews 5:2 Able to be compassionate to the ignorant ones, and the ones being deceived; in as much as he himself also is encumbered with weakness [frailty, imperfection].

Hebrews 5:3 And because of it [the old sin nature] he is under obligation, even as concerning the people, so also concerning himself, to offer concerning sins.

Hebrews 5:4: No one takes the state of honour to himself, but the one being called by God, just as even Aaron was.

Hebrews 5:5 In this manner also the Christ did not glorify himself to become a high priest; but the one [God the Father] having communicated face to face with him [the decrees, as per Psalm 2:7], “My Son you keep on being, I today have begotten you.”

Hebrews 5:6 Even as also in another place, “You [Jesus Christ] a priest forever in [or, according to] the same priesthood [or, battalion, outfit] as Melchizedek.”

Hebrews 5:7 Who in the days of his flesh [incarnation and 1^st advent], having offered up both prayers supplications associated with scream and tears face to face with the one [God the Father] who was able in the past and keeps on being able to deliver him out from death, and his petition having been heard because of his recognition of divine authority.

Hebrews 5:8 Although being a Son, He [Christ] entered into learning obedience to authority from the things which He had suffered.

Hebrews 5:8 Although being a Son, He entered into learning obedience to authority from the things which he suffered. (done out of order in the notes)

Hebrews 5:9 And having competed the disciplinary training [to learn obedience], He became to all the ones obeying Him the source of eternal salvation.

Hebrews 5:10 Having been designated by the God, High Priest, according to the battalion of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 5:11 Concerning whom [Christ] we have many doctrines to communicate, and hard to explain, because you have become apathetic in the sphere on hearing.

Hebrews 5:12 For also because of the time [national crisis] being obligated to be communicators of divine viewpoint [in time of crisis], you require once more teaching of certain things, the elementary principles of the doctrines from God; and you have become ones having need of milk, and not of solid food.

Hebrews 5:13 For everyone partaking of milk is ignorant of doctrine pertaining to royal righteousness because he is immature.

Hebrews 5:14 But solid food [advanced doctrine] is belonging to the mature [the growing believer or the one who has reached supergrace], the ones because of self-discipline keep having their perceptive faculties well-trained with reference to differentiating between both the honourable and the evil.

Hebrews 6:1 Therefore having graduated from the elementary doctrines of the Christ — the incarnation, the hypostatic union, the King-priest, the sacrifice of Himself on the cross, the perpetuation of His priesthood in resurrection, ascension and session, the strategic victory of the angelic conflict, our relation to the strategic victory through the baptism of the Spirit and subsequent positional truth, and many other classified areas of Christology and soteriology — let us advance ourselves towards maturity, not laying down again the foundations of (1) a change of mind away from dead works and (2) of faith towards God.

Hebrews 6:2 (3) and a doctrine of baptisms, (4) as well as of laying on of hands, (5) resurrection out from the source of deaths, (6) and of eternal judgment.

Hebrews 6:3 And this we will begin to do if only the God gives permission [that is, permits us to live long enough].

Hebrews 6:4 For you see, impossible for those having once been illuminated, and having tasted for themselves the gracious gift from heaven, and having become partners with the Holy Spirit.”

Hebrews 6:5 ...and having tasted for themselves noble doctrines from God and His inherent abilities of the coming age... [this is the supergrace life where is God doing the pouring],

the royal priesthood feeds on royal food. 4^th participle.

Hebrews 6:6 And having gone astray in to reversionism, for you see impossible to restore them again with reference to the basic list [repentance]; so long as they again and again crucify to themselves the Son of God, even exposing Him to public shame and contempt.

This is a royal priest putting himself under the authority of a Levitical priest.

Hebrews 6:7 For the ground [the believer positive toward doctrine] having drunk the rain [the believer GAPing it; the rain is doctrine] coming many times upon it, and producing a harvest of crops by them [the Trinity], because of whom [the Trinity] it [the ground] is also cultivated, obtains blessing [supergrace] from the source of the God.

Hebrews 6:8 But when it is producing [growing] thorns and thistles it becomes worthless, and near a curse; whose end is for burning [= the sin unto death; the thorns are burned up].

Hebrews 6:9 But, beloved ones, we have been convinced of better things concerning you, and things attached to salvation, if also in this manner we habitually communicate [doctrine], [and we do].

Hebrews 6:10 For the Lord is not unjust to disregard your occupation [pastors], also the love which you yourselves [pastors] have demonstrated with reference to His Person, having ministered the word with reference to the saints, and continuing to minister [the Word].

Hebrews 6:11 And we [pastors] continually desire each one of you believers individually to demonstrate the same devotion [to doctrine], moving face to face toward the full assurance of the confidence [supergrace status] until the end [of your life].

Hebrews 6:12 Lest you become apathetic [toward doctrine], but instead become imitators of them [supergrace heroes], the ones who through faith and persistence [in GAPing it] acquired possession of the promises [supergrace blessings].

Hebrews 6:13 For the God when He Himself had promised to Abraham, because He had no one greater by whom to take an oath, he took an oath on the basis of His Own Person [or, in the name of Himself].

Hebrews 6:14 When He was saying, Assuredly just as I am God, blessing I intend to bless you, and multiplying I intend to multiply you.

Hebrews 6:14 When he was saying, Assuredly [or, decidedly] just as I am God, blessing I intend to bless you, and multiplying I intend to multiply you.

Hebrews 6:15 For the God when He Himself had promised to Abraham, because He had no one greater by whom to take an oath, he took an oath on the basis of His Own Person [or, in the name of Himself].

Hebrews 6:16 For mankind customarily takes an oath by the greater [by God]: and to them [the opposition] such an oath with reference to guaranteeing security is the termination of all opposition.

Hebrews:6:17 By means of which oath the God, sovereignly decreeing even more to demonstrate in addition to the decree to the heirs of the [royal priesthood] promise [of supergrace blessing] the unchangeableness of his decree [regarding supergrace blessing], he guarantees it [supergrace blessing] by means of an oath.

Hebrew 6:18 In order that by two immutable things [the oath and promise of God], in the sphere of which it is impossible for God himself to lie, we [the royal priesthood] might have strong encouragement [doctrine by which we advance to the tactical objective], so long as we take refuge [in doctrine] for the purpose of attaining the objective [supergrace blessing] constantly placed before us.

Hebrews 6:19 Which hope [doctrine] we have as an anchor of the soul, both stabilized and dependable, and having entered into the room [the holy of holies] behind the curtain.

Hebrews 6:20 Where the advance guard [our high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, the anchor within the veil] has entered on behalf of us according to the battalion of Melchizedek.

Hebrews 7:1 For this, Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, the one having met Abraham, returning from the slaughter of the kings, and the one having blessed him.

Hebrews 7:2 To whom also Abraham apportioned a tenth [or 10% taxes] from all the spoils; first [superiority] when Melchizedek being interpreted King of righteousness, and second, [superiority] also King of Salem, which is being interpreted, King of tranquillity [= peace and security].

Hebrews 7:3 Without recorded father, without recorded mother, without genealogical record [to support his claim to kingship], having neither birth certificate nor death certificate; having been caused to resemble the Son of God who remains a priest perpetually.

Hebrews 7:4 Now observe how distinguished this one to whom Abraham the patriarch had paid a tenth from the best part of the booty.

Hebrews 7:5 And those indeed from the sons of Levi, receiving their priestly office, have a commandment to collect a 10% [income tax] from the people according to the law, that is, from their fellow countrymen, even though having come out of the genitals of Abraham.

Hebrews 7:6 But, by way of contrast, this one [Melchizedek] whose genealogy is not traced from them [the Levitical priests] collected tithes [= 10% income taxes] from Abraham, and blessed him [through doctrinal teaching], the one possessing the promises.

Hebrews 7:7 And without any dispute the inferior [Abraham] received blessing [the teaching of doctrine] from the superior one [Melchizedek].

Hebrews 7:8 And under these circumstances [of verse 5] mortal men [Levitical priesthood] received tithes; but in that place [verse 3 plus Psalm 110:4] He [Jesus Christ] received attestation [or testimony] that he lived.

Hebrews 7:9 And so to speak, Levi also, the one receiving tithes, had paid tithes through Abraham.

Hebrews 7:10 For he was still in the reproductive organs of his ancestor [Abraham], when Melchizedek encountered him.

Hebrews 7:11 Now if therefore a process of completion [of Christ] was through the Levitical priesthood [2^nd class condition: but it was not], (for on the basis of it [the Levitical priesthood] the people had received the law); what further need would there be for a different category or a different battalion of priests [Melchizedek?] to be activated according to the battalion of Melchizedek, and not be assigned according to the battalion of Aaron.

Hebrews 7:12 For when the priesthood is changed [replaced], from necessity also a change of law must occur.

Hebrews 7:13 For the one toward whom [Jesus Christ] these things are spoken belongs to another of a different kind of tribe [Judah], from which no one has officiated at the altar [of burnt offerings].

Hebrews 7:14 For known to all is the fact that our Lord has descended from Judah; with reference to which tribe Moses has communicated nothing (s).

Hebrews 7:15 And it is still much more evident: that according to the similarity of Melchizedek another of a different type of priest arises.

Hebrews 7:16 Who has become a priest, not according to the law of physical requirements, but according to the power of indestructible life.

Hebrews 7:17 (Translation, quoting from Psalm 110:4) — “For You and only You, a priest for ever according to the battalion of Melchizedek.”

Hebrews 7:18 For on the one hand a former commandment [the Mosaic law] becomes annulled because of its powerlessness and uselessness.

Hebrews 7:19 for the Law accomplished nothing; for on the other hand, an establishment of a better confidence thought which we approach the God.

Hebrews 7:20 And inasmuch as not without the taking of an oath our royal priesthood was appointed.

Hebrews 7:21 (For in fact they [Levitical priests], without the taking of an oath, have become priests; but He [Jesus Christ] with the taking of a solemn oath through the One saying, face to face with Him [God the Father], The Lord made a solemn oath and will not change His mind, You are a priest forever.”)

Hebrews 7:22 By so much doctrinal evidence, Jesus has become a guarantee of a better covenant than the Mosaic code.

Hebrews 7:23 And they [Levitical priests] on the one hand, many in number, had become priests because they by means of death were prevented from continuing.

Hebrews 7:24 But He [Jesus Christ] on the other hand because He remains forever, He keeps on having a permanent priesthood.

Hebrews 7:25 For which reason also he is able to save forever the ones approaching to the God through Him, always living [at the right hand of the Father] for the purpose of making intercession on behalf of them [those who have believed in Him and approach near to Him].

Hebrews 7:26 For it was also fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, impeccable, moral, having been separated from the sinners [through resurrection and ascension], and having become more elevated than the heavens [seated at the right hand of the Father as the God-Man].

Hebrews 7:28 For the law appoints men [high priests] having weaknesses [old sin nature]; but the word of the solemn oath by God the Father, which came historically after the law, authorizes the having been perfect Son forever.

Hebrews 8:1 Now the main point on what is being communicated is this: We have such a category of high priest who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.

Hebrews 8:2 A minister of the holy places, and of the tabernacle, that is, the real one which the Lord put together, and not man.

Hebrews 8:3 For every [Levitical] High Priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; therefore, it is concluded necessary that this one [that is, Jesus Christ] also have something that He might offer.

Hebrews 8:4 If indeed He were on earth [but He is not; 2^nd class condition], He would not even be a priest of the Levitical order (the Levitical order has been disestablished); while there are ones offering the Levitical gifts according to the Law [which is the authorizing agency].

Hebrews 8:5 Who [Levitical priesthood] perform worship services as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, since Moses had received divine instruction when he was about to construct the tabernacle: for He communicates, “Be taking note [quoting from Exodus 25:40], you shall make all things according to the blueprint having been explained to you on the mountain.”

Hebrews 8:6 But now He has obtained a more excellent [priestly] ministry, by so much as He also is the mediator of a better covenant, which category of covenant has been enacted [or, ordained] on the basis of better promises of blessing.

Hebrews 8:7 For if that first [the Mosaic law] had been faultless [but it wasn’t], a place would not have been sought for the second.

Hebrews 8:8 For when finding fault with them, he [God] communicates, “Behold the days come, says Jehovah, in reality I will carry out a new covenant to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.

Hebrews 8:10 Because this is the covenant which I will assign to the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: causing to give My doctrines for the purpose of their thinking, even upon their hearts I will engrave them: also I will be to them for a God, and they shall be to Me for a people.

Hebrews 8:11 Also they shall not teach each one his fellow citizen, and each one his intimate friend, saying, Know the Lord: because all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest of them.

Hebrews 8:12 Because I will be gracious in the sphere of their unrighteousness, and I will not remember their sins any more.”

Hebrews 8:13 In his citation of the new he has made obsolete the first [the Mosaic law]. Now the one [Mosaic law] becoming obsolete and growing old is near destruction.

Hebrews 9:1 Even so therefore the first [Mosaic law] used to have regulations for worship, and its sanctuary [the tabernacle, Temple] was right here in the world.

Hebrews 9:2 For the first tent was constructed in which there was both the golden lampstand and the table and the prosthesis bread [way of thinking loaves]; which categorically is designated the holy place.

Hebrews 9:3 And behind the second curtain [or veil], a tent which is called [or designated] the Holy of holies.

Hebrews 9:4 Having belonging to it [the holy of holies] the golden altar of incense, the ark of the covenant having been plated on all sides with gold, in which was the golden urn having the manna, and Aaron’s rod having germinated and sprouted, and the tables of the covenant.

Hebrews 9:5 And above it the cherubs of glory overshadowing the mercy seat; concerning which [Mercy Seat] the items of the Tabernacle and the mercy seat, it is not now time to teach in detail” — or, “there is no time to teach in detail.

not sure about this v. 6

Hebrews 9:6 Now when these things had been constructed in this manner, the priests constantly entered into the first tent (the holy place), performing the sacred functions.

Hebrews 9:7 But into the second [the holy of holies] once every year [that is, the Day of Atonement] only the high priest alone, not without making use of blood, which he offers on behalf of himself, and on behalf of the people their sins of ignorance.

Hebrews 9:8 The Holy Spirit revealing this, namely that the entrance [or, way into] into the holy of holies had not yet been revealed, so long as the original tabernacle kept having existence.

Hebrews 9:9 Which [tabernacle] was a type with reference to the present dispensation [that is, the Church Age], according to which type both gifts and sacrifices which were being offered were not able to bring to the goal of maturity [that is, to supergrace status] with reference to the conscience of the one performing the worship.

Hebrews 9:10 This applied only to foods and beverages, and various washings, and regulations pertaining to the body, being imposed until the dispensation of the new order (which is the Church Age).

Hebrews 9:11 But when Christ Himself had appeared a high priest of the good things having come to pass [in the Church Age], by means of a greater and more perfect tabernacle [third heaven] not made [or, constructed] by human hands, that is, not of this creation.

Hebrews 9:12 And not by means of the blood of goats and of young bulls, but by means of his own blood once and for all, He [Christ] has entered the holy of holies, having secured [or, procured] eternal redemption.

Hebrews 9:13 For you see, if the blood of goats and of bulls, and the ashes of the red heifer (when sprinkling one who has become ceremonially unclean), continue purifying with reference to ceremonial cleansing of the flesh [and they do exactly that].

Hebrews 9:14 How much more shall the blood of the Christ, Who through the instrumentality of his eternal spirit [divine essence] has offered Himself without blemish to the God [the Father], purified by an expiatory offering our conscience from dead works to function as a royal priest to the living God.

Hebrews 9:15 And because of this by means of a new covenant he is mediator, (a death having occurred for the purpose of redemption of the transgressions against the first covenant) in order that they [the royal family] having been called may receive into their possession the promise of eternal inheritance.

Hebrews 9:16 For where a covenant exists, of necessity death must be brought in of the one having made the covenant.

Hebrews 9:17 For a covenant is valid upon deaths [the two deaths of the cross]; because it is not even valid as long as the one having made the covenant lives.

Hebrews 9:18 From which fact not even the first covenant [Mosaic law] had been inaugurated without blood.

Hebrews 9:19 For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, after he had taken the blood of young bulls and goats, and with water and scarlet wool, and hyssop, he sprinkled both the written scroll, and all of the people.

Hebrews 9:20 Saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which the God has commanded pertaining to you.” [You Jews are responsible from now until the cross to portray who and what Christ is by means of these shadows. You must be faithful in the function of these shadows, but you can’t be faithful unless you have doctrine in your souls.]

Hebrews 9:21 Also he sprinkled with that same blood the tabernacle, and all of the equipment of the priestly ministry.

Hebrews 9:22 And according to the law nearly all things are cleansed with [animal] blood; and without the pouring out of [animal] blood pardon [or forgiveness] does not happen.

Hebrews 9:23 Of necessity therefore, on the one hand, that the copies of the things in the heavens be cleansed with these shadows; but on the other hand the heavenly realities themselves with better sacrifices than these [shadows of the animal blood].

Hebrews 9:24 For Christ had not entered into a holy of holies made with human hands, a copy of the reality [the third heaven]; but into heaven itself to appear in the presence of God the Father on behalf of us.

Hebrews 9:25 And not that He [Christ] should offer Himself many times, just as the [Levitical] high priest enters into the holy of holies year by year by means of alien [animal] blood.

Hebrews 9:26 Because if that were true [but it is not] then he would have needed to have suffered many times from the beginning of the world. But now once for all at the conjunction of the ages He has been revealed for the purpose of annulling of the sin [imputation of Adam’s sin] through the sacrifice of himself.

Hebrews 9:27 (And inasmuch as it is destined for mankind to die, but after this [physical death] the act of judgement [the second death].

Hebrews 9:28 So the Christ also having been offered once and for all for the purpose of taking away the sin of the many) a second time apart from sin shall He appear to the ones eagerly waiting for Him [through doctrine resident in the soul] resulting in their deliverance.

Hebrews 10:1 For the law possessing a shadow of the coming good things [pertaining to salvation], not the real image of the events [of the cross], that is, the law is never able by means of those sacrifices which they offered year after year perpetually, [never able] to cause perfection to those who approached the altar [with a sacrifice].

Hebrews 10:2 Since if they really did perfect [animal sacrifices] [but they don’t] then they would not have ceased being offered, because the worshipers having been once and for all cleansed, not one no longer would be having a conscience of sins.

Hebrews 10:3–4 But in those Levitical offerings a reminder of sins year by year. Therefore, impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Hebrews 10:5 Therefore when He [Christ in His incarnation] entered the world, He said, [Psalm 40:2–6] “You [God] did not desire sacrifice and offering, but you [Father] have prepared for Me a human body.”

Hebrews 10:6 You have not been propitiated by burnt offerings and concerning sin offerings

Hebrews 10:7 At that time [in the cradle] I said, Behold, I have arrived (in the scroll of a book it stands written concerning Me) to accomplish Your plan [Your purpose, Your design], O God.”

Hebrews 10:8 Above [when He was citing Psalm 40] [Jesus is quoting this from the cradle], Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and concerning sin offerings you did not desire, nor have you been propitiated by them; which category of shadows are being offered according to the law.

Hebrews 10:9: At that time He said (in the past with the result that it stands spoken forever), “Behold, I have arrived to accomplish Your plan [Your purpose and Your design].” He has abrogated the first [the old covenant] in order that He might establish the second [the new covenant to the Church].”

Hebrews 10:10 By means of which will [purpose, design] we have been sanctified in the past with the result that we remain earmarked [or, separated] as royalty to God forever through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ at one time.

Hebrews 10:11 And to be sure every priest has stood up day after day publicly officiating, and offering time after time the same sacrifices which [category of offerings] never have the ability to make expiation for sin.

Hebrews 10:12 But this One [Jesus Christ], when He had offered one unique sacrifice on behalf of sins for all times, sat down on the right hand of the God.

Hebrews 10:13 From that time on waiting until His enemies have been allotted the footstool of His feet.

Hebrews 10:14 For by means of one (unique) offering He has perfected for all time [while on this earth] the one’s being sanctified with the result that they keep on standing perfected forever.

Hebrews 10:15–17 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us, for after having said [in Jer. 31:33–34], ”This is the covenant that I will ratify with them [the Jews of the Millennium] [this is the New Covenant to Israel] after those days [the days of the Tribulation], says the Lord, “When I will give My doctrines into their right lobes; and into their thinking I will engrave them, both their sins and violations of the Law, I will not remember anymore.

Hebrews 10:15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us: for after having said....

Hebrews 10:16 This is the covenant which I will ratify with them [Jews in the Millennium] after those days [Tribulation], saith the Lord, when I will give My doctrines into their right lobes, and in their thinking I will engrave them [the doctrines].

Hebrews 10:17 Both their sins and their violations of the Law I will remember no more.

Hebrews 10:18 Now where there is forgiveness of these there is no further animal or shadow sacrifice concerning sin.

Hebrews 10:19 Therefore, royal family of God, since we have confidence with reference to access into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus

Hebrews 10:20 Which access [entrance into the holy of holies] he has dedicated a newly-slain [blood of the cross] yet living [resurrection, ascension and session] way for us, through the veil, that is, his flesh.

Hebrews 10:21 Even an illustrious Priest over the House of God.

Hebrews 10:22 Let us approach God with a dependable right lobe by means of full confidence of doctrine, our right lobes having been sprinkled from a conscience of sinfulness, and our bodies washed with pure water.

Hebrews 10:23 Let us keep holding fast the confession of our expectation [the whole promise of supergrace blessing and victory] unbending [a fixed positive volition toward doctrine]; because the One having promised is faithful.

Hebrews 10:24 And let each of us concentrate on each other for the purpose of encouragement from the source of love and from the source of noble production.

Hebrews 10:25 Stop forsaking [neglecting, retreating] from the assembling together of yourselves, as is the habit of certain ones [reversionists]; but by being an encouragement, even so much the more as you see the day of the Rapture approaching.

Hebrews 10:26 For if we deliberately continue sinning [rejecting Christ] after having received the full knowledge of the gospel, no more sacrifice on behalf of sins is left behind.

Hebrews 10:27 But a certain terrifying expectation of judgement and fury of fire, being about to devour your enemies.

Hebrews 10:28 Anyone having rejected the law of Moses died without pity on the basis of the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Hebrews 10:29 By how much more severe punishment do you think he shall be deserving who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has considered unclean the blood of the covenant by which he has been sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?

Hebrews 10:30 For you see we know the God having said, Punishment belongs to Me, I will repay. And again, The Lord shall judge His people.

Hebrews 10:31 A terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the Living God.

Hebrews 10:32 But keep remembering again and again to yourselves the former days, in which, after you had become enlightened [that is, you had some doctrine in your souls], you held your ground in a great conflict of pressure [or, sufferings] [these are the pressures which keep them from gathering together].

Hebrews 11:33 Partly, when being publicly abused both by visual and verbal insults, and by other pressures; and partly having become companions with those who are being treated in this manner.

Hebrews 10:34 For you even demonstrated compassion toward the prisoners and you accepted to yourselves with happiness the plundering of your material possessions knowing that in yourself [that is, resident in your souls] you have a better possession (Bible doctrine in the soul) and one which is constantly enduring.

Hebrews 10:35 Therefore do not throw away as worthless your confidence in doctrine, which confidence keeps having rich distribution of rich materialistic blessings [that is, supergrace blessings].

Hebrews 10:36 For you keep on having need of perseverance [persistence], in order that, when you have accomplished the will of God [the daily function of GAP], you might carry off for yourself the promise [of supergrace blessing].

Hebrews 10:37 For yet a little while, how short, how short, He Who is coming will arrive, and will not delay His arrival.

Hebrews 10:38 Now My justified ones [the royal family of God] shall live by means of doctrine: consequently if he himself retreats [fails to follow the colors; negative volition towards doctrine], My soul shall not have pleasure in him.

Hebrews 10:39 But we are not the retreating type designed for the purpose destruction [that is, the sin unto death]; but we are the doctrinal type for the purpose of doctrinal possession of the soul. [which is the supergrace status]

Hebrews 11:1 In fact, doctrine is the reality from which we keep receiving confidence, the proof of matters not being seen.

Hebrews 11:2 For by means of doctrine (resident in the soul) men of old gained approval.

Hebrews 11:3 By means of doctrine we learn that the ages (or the dispensations) have been put together by the decree from God, with the result that what is being seen (the unfolding of history) has not come to pass from what is visible in history [people, visible leaders, power structures, events, enemy powers].

The chapter break should occur at 11:4. Bob will come back to this. What follows appears to be parenthetical. Not sure I see that.

Hebrews 11:4 By means of doctrine [resident in the soul] Abel had offered to the God a greater sacrifice than Cain, through which offering he received confirmation [or approval] that he kept on being righteous [justified, vindicated], the God approving his sacrifice; and through the same [sacrifices, with resident doctrine] while he was dead, yet he still speaks [communicates to us the importance of Bible doctrine].

Abel’s impact comes after death.

Hebrews 11:5 By means of doctrine resident in the soul Enoch was transferred with the result that he should not see physical death; and he was not found because the God had transferred him: for before his transfer to heaven he had obtained the testimony in the past with the result that the deposition stood, that he had pleased God.

Hebrews 11:6 And without doctrine resident in the soul it is impossible to please God; for when one is occupied with the God he must be convinced by doctrine resident in the soul that he is [that God is the source of blessing essence and Trinity], and that He Himself becomes a rewarder to those who diligently seek Him.

Hebrews 11:6 And without doctrine resident in the soul it is impossible to please God: for when one is occupied with God he must be convinced [by the inner resources of resident doctrine] that He is, and that He becomes a rewarder to those who diligently seek Him.

Hebrews 11:7 By means of doctrine resident in the soul, Noah having been warned about things not being seen [the destruction of the earth by water], having been motivated by reverence [occupation with Christ], he had constructed an ark for the purpose of the deliverance of his family; through which doctrine resident in the soul he had condemned the world [the antediluvian population], and had become the heir of the righteousness pertaining to doctrine.

Hebrews 11:7 By means of doctrine resident in the soul, Noah having been warned of things not being seen [the destruction of the earth by water], having been motivated by occupation with Christ, he had constructed a box for the purpose of the deliverance of his family; through which [doctrine resident in his soul] he had condemned the world [antediluvian population], and had become the heir of the righteousness pertaining to doctrine.

Hebrews 11:10 For he himself kept waiting with anticipation for a city having the foundation, whose designer and builder is God.

Hebrews 11:11 By means of doctrine resident in the soul even Sarah herself received sexual ability for the deposit of seed (sperm), though she was beyond the time of life for conception, because she concluded faithful the One Who had promised [her in eternity past] .

Hebrews 11:13 According to doctrine resident in the soul, all these died [under the principle of dying grace] not having received the surpassing grace promises, but having seen the same from a distance, and having saluted and embraced them, also having acknowledged that they were strangers and passing-through types [or, transients] from grace to grace, from glory to glory, on the earth.

Hebrews 11:14 For they who says such things as these make it clear that they keep striving for a heavenly country.

Hebrews 11:16 But on the other hand as a matter of reality they themselves desire and strive for something better, that is, heavenly blessing and reward: therefore the God is not ashamed of the same ones to be designated their God: for he has prepared a city for the same ones.

Hebrews 11:8–16 corrected translation at the beginning of Lesson #175 & Lesson #177.

Hebrews 11:18 Toward whom [Abraham] it had been communicated, In Isaac your sperm shall be designated.” That means that Isaac has to live to have children. It means that God will see to it. If God gives an order that seems to contradict that promise then God has to see to it.

Hebrews 11:19 Having calculated that the God also was able to raise up Isaac out from the dead; for which reason also he recovered him by means of a comparison.

Hebrews 11:20 By means of doctrine resident in the soul, even concerning things destined to be [come] — the fulfilment of the Abraham covenant.

Hebrews 11:21 By means of doctrine resident in the soul Jacob, while he was in the process of dying, blessed each one of the sons of Joseph, and worshipped leaning on the top of his sceptre.

Hebrews 1:22 By means of doctrine resident in the soul Joseph, when he was in the process of dying, recalled to mind about the Exodus of the sons of Israel; and gave orders concerning his bones.

Hebrews 11:24 By means of doctrine resident in the soul, when Moses had become great, he refused to be proclaimed heir apparent [or the crown prince], the son of the daughter of Pharaoh.

Hebrews 11:25 Rather having chosen to endure maltreatment with the people of the God, than to keep having temporary pleasure from sin.

Hebrews 11:26 Having concluded on the basis of doctrine resident in the soul that the reproach from Christ [divine discipline] greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for you see he kept on concentrating on the reward.

Hebrews 11:29 By means of doctrine resident in the soul they [the Hebrew people] passed through the Red Sea as through dry land: which they, the Egyptians, in attempting to pursue were drowned.

Hebrews 11:30 By means of doctrine resident in the souls of supergrace believers the walls of Jericho fell down, having been encircled for seven days.

Hebrews 11:31 By means of doctrine resident in the soul Rahab the prostitute herself did not perish with the unbelievers, having welcomed the reconnaissance team with peace.

Hebrews11:32 And what more can I say? For time would fail me while I go on telling about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah; both David and Samuel, also the prophets.

Hebrews 11:33 Who, themselves, by means of doctrine, resident in the soul, conquered kingdoms, accomplished righteousness, attained promises, shut the mouths of lions,...

Hebrews 11:34 ...neutralized the power of fire, escaped from the mouths of the sword, from weakness, were made strong, became courageous in battle, put to flight the hostile invading armies.

Hebrews 11:36 And others received testing-type experience, that is, torture by ridicule and impudence [soul torture], and floggings [torture of the body], and in addition shackles and incarceration.

Hebrews 11:38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) while they themselves wandered about over deserts, and mountains, both in caves and holes of the earth.

Hebrews 11:39 And so all these [supergrace heroes], having received approval [SG2] by means of doctrine resident in the soul, did not receive for themselves the promise [SG3]...

Hebrews 12:1 For this reason therefore, since we also keep on having such great supergrace examples, a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, having removed every impediment and the easily ensnaring sin, let us advance with endurance to the present objective [that would be the supergrace life].

Hebrews 12:1 For this reason, therefore, since we also keep on having such great supergrace examples a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, having removed every impediment and the easily ensnaring sin; let us advance (on the run) with endurance in the conflict, to the present objective [that would be the supergrace life].

Hebrews 12:1 For this reason therefore, since we also keep having such a great battalion of witnesses supporting us [Old Testament saints reaching spiritual gift status], having stripped for action every impediment, and the easily ensnaring sin, let us advance on the run with endurance in the conflict to the present objective. The present objective is the supergrace life.

Hebrews 12:2 Be looking away toward Jesus our ruler and the one who brings us to the attainment of the supergrace objective by doctrine; who instead of his always-present happiness, having disregarded the ignominy he endured the cross, at the right hand of the throne of God he has sat down with the result that he remains seated in the highest position of honour.

Hebrews 12:2 Be looking away toward Jesus our prince leader and the one who brings us to the attainment of supergrace objective [by the doctrine]; Who instead of His always-present happiness endured the cross, having disregarded the ignominy [shame, disgrace], at the right hand of the throne of God He has sat down with the result that He remains seated in the highest place of honour.

Hebrews 12:2 Be concentrating on Jesus, even our Prince Ruler, even the One bringing us to our supergrace objective [concentrating on our supergrace objectives by means of doctrine resident in the soul]. Jesus, instead of His present happiness, endured the cross, having disregarded the shame; and He has sat down in the past (with the result that He remains seated) in the highest place of honor, at the right hand of the throne of God.

Hebrews 12:3 For let yourselves begin thinking about such a person [Jesus Christ] having endured such opposition by sinners against Himself, in order that you do not become fatigued, fainting in your souls.

Hebrews 12:3 For let yourselves begin thinking about such a person [Jesus Christ] having endured such opposition by the sinners against himself, in order that you do not become fatigued in your souls.

Hebrews 12:3 For begin thinking about such a person [as Jesus Christ] having endured such opposition by the sinners against Himself, in order that you do not become exhausted [or fatigued (by reversionism)], fainting in your souls.

Hebrews 12:4 Not yet have you resisted to the point of blood by fighting against the sin nature.

Hebrews 12:6 For you see, whom the Lord loves He disciplines and punishes [and scourges with a whip] every son whom He welcomes home [or, receives]. (Proverbs 3:11–12)

Hebrew 12:7 Because of corrective discipline, endure. The God deals with you as sons. For what one is a [royal] son whom the Father does not discipline?

Hebrews 12:8 But if you are without discipline, of which all believers have become participators, then you are bastards, and not sons.

Hebrews 12:10 For they [parents] on the one hand disciplined us for a short time according to what seemed best to them; but He [God the Father] on the other hand disciplines us for our profit, in order that we might receive a share of his holiness.