Hebrews – Part 3 Lawson and Aaron Perdue

  Friends, it’s so good to have you with us today and we are gonna be sharing from Hebrews Chapter 5 and the beginning of Hebrews Chapter 6. We’re gonna be talking about the grace of God and what the result of understanding the grace of God is that you will have faith, and faith will cause you to move in to what the grace of God has provided. So, stay tuned. Tell your friends about the broadcast and you’re gonna be blessed today. Thank you. Friends, it is great to have you with us on the broadcast. We are sharing from the book of Hebrews, and one of my favorite books. Praise God. Wrote a book on it, “Hebrews the Better Covenant”, years ago. I taught this probably close to 20 years ago at a Bible school in Chicago and the director of the Bible School said, “Lawson, that is my favorite book and I heard you teach it.” And that’s the best I’ve ever heard I taught, which was really a nice compliment. But praise God for Jesus and praise God for what he’s done. Amen. And praise God. So we’ve got this teaching and you can get it. Aaron’s got a teaching on “Hebrews Jesus Makes Everything Better.” Mine’s called “Hebrews the Better Covenant” and you can get all of these teachings, audio and video, free on the internet. The book is on Amazon. You can get it on Amazon and get it on our website. It goes through Amazon. But we had to do that because of the laws. But anyway, praise God. Aaron, jump in the word.

 

  Awesome, let’s go to Hebrews Chapter 5. That’s where we’re at right now. So let’s read here in Hebrews Chapter 5. It says, “For every high priest taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. He can have compassion on those who are ignorant and going astray since he himself is also subject to weaknesses.” You know, this is saying that the high priest in the Old Testament, they were appointed from among men because really, a high priest… They can minister to people because they were people themselves. They can relate to people. They knew what they were going through. They dealt with the same types of things. They had the same types of pressures, the same types of things that they were facing. So they could have compassion.

 

  Right.

 

  You know, and I love that Jesus, his ministry, it often said he was moved with compassion.

 

  Amen. I recently did a teaching on him, that Jesus had a ministry of compassion. And when you study the word Jesus, when he ministered many times healing, he ministered through the compassion of God. No matter what was going on around him, no matter how he felt, no matter what difficulties faced in the ministry, he ministered through the compassion of God. He taught through the compassion of God. You know, not only was his ministry and his healing the sick, for instance, and delivering the oppressed and feeding the hungry motivated by compassion, but his teaching was motivated by compassion. It was really the grace of God. And what he’s talking about these priests… You know, I love what you said. They understand because… That Jesus… Because he came in a physical body, he understands. And Jesus really ministers the grace of God, which is the gospel. So, go ahead.

 

  So here in verse 3, it says, “Because of this, he’s required as for the people so also for himself to offer sacrifices for sins.” So in the Old Testament, the priest would have to offer sacrifices for the sins of the people, but even the sins of himself.

 

  Yeah.

 

  And you know, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to do what they were called to do. They had to make a sacrifice for their own sin. It says in verse four, “And no man takes this honor to himself, but he who is called by God, just as Aaron was.” So in the Old Testament, you had to be called by God to be a priest. You couldn’t just be a self-appointed priest. And really in the Old Testament, they had to be appointed through the line of Aaron. Through the Levitical tribe, the tribe of Levi, they could become priests and serve in the tabernacle. They could serve in the temple. Verse 5: So also Christ did not glorify himself to become high priest, but it was he who said to him, “You are my son. Today I have begotten you.” So, Jesus was actually appointed to be priest by the Father, by God himself.

 

  That’s why he’s a better priest than the priest in the Old Testament by the way that he was appointed, the way that he was called. The person that appointed him.

 

  So it says in verse 6… It says, “He also says in another place…” This is Psalm 1:10. You know, the writer of Hebrews quotes Psalm 1:10 several times. It says, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” So Jesus actually set up a different priestly order.

 

  He set up a different ministry of priest. And the priesthood today is actually a priesthood of believers.

 

  Right. And Jesus is the great high priest. And all the Levitical priesthood, like you said, came through the line of Aaron. But Jesus came out of Judah. So he came out of a different family of Israel and he’s a priest after the order of Melchizedek. And you’ve taught a great teaching on that, Aaron, where Melchizedek is my king of righteousness. Melchizedek was the priest king of Salem or the city of Jerusalem and he was a type of Christ. Now go ahead Aaron.

 

  So speaking about Melchizedek here in verse 7, “Who in the days of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with vehement cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death and was heard because of his godly fear. Though he was the son, yet he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. And having been perfected, he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.” I love that. Jesus is the author of eternal salvation to everyone who obeys him, everyone who believes him.

 

  Right.

 

  Really you have to believe to receive that promise of eternal salvation. Jesus is the author of that. Verse 10 says, “He’s called by God as high priest according to the order of Melchizedek of whom we have much to say and hard to explain since you’ve become dull of hearing.”

 

  So he’s saying you need to sharpen your hearing a little bit.

 

  Yeah. Well, what caused them to be dull of hearing is they were trusting in themselves, trusting in their performance, trusting in something other than Jesus. They had begun to move away from the true grace of God and move away from the gospel. And that will cause you not to be sharp, spiritually. Just like sin will cause you not to be sharp spiritually. Legalism will cause you not to be sharp spiritually. And he says this, “For by the time you ought to be teachers,” in verse 12, “You have need that one teach you again the first principles.” Again, they were moving away from the gospel. They were moving away from Jesus. And as Paul said in Galatians 1:6, “I’m marveled that you’re so soon removed from him who called you into the grace of Christ to another gospel which is not another.” And what they were doing is moving away from Jesus, moving into performance, moving into legalism, moving into law keeping. And you know what? You couldn’t be saved by the law before Christ came and you can’t be saved by the law since Christ came. It is purely the grace of God that saves you. And the law was, our school master Paul says in Galatians Chapter 3, to bring us unto Christ. It was a teacher. But you know, Aaron, you’ve graduated not only from kindergarten and grade school and junior high and high school but you graduated… You got a four year college degree and then you got your master’s degree and then you got your doctorate. And it would be stupid for you to go back to kindergarten. And that’s what Paul’s saying when he talks about that in Galatians Chapter 3. To go back to the law to try to be justified after you’ve been saved by faith in Jesus is like going back to kindergarten. It is stupid. And so he says this. He said, “By the time you ought to be teachers…” It causes you to be dull when you trust in yourself and trust in anything but Jesus. “You have need that one teach you again the basic principles of the mouth of God, of the Oracles of God, and are become such as need of milk and not strong meat.” He said, “Listen, you become baby Christians.” Baby Christians are those who have no revelation of the true gospel, those who have no revelation of the true grace of God. And Jesus is the embodiment of the grace of God. He says this in verse 13, “For everyone who uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness.” You know, the true gospel is preaching the word of righteousness. You know, Paul says this in Romans 1:16-17. He says, “I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it’s the power of God to salvation to everyone who believes it.” To the Jews first and also to the Greek. I’m not ashamed of the message of grace for the the grace of God, the gospel releases the power of God that leads to salvation, to forgiveness, healing, deliverance, provision, and peace to all those who believe, Jews and Gentiles. Then he says in verse 17, “For therein, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith.” From the faith of the Jew to the faith of the Gentile. As it’s written, the just shall live by faith. You know what, the gospel is the revelation of righteousness. And when you understand the true gospel, the grace of God, you’re gonna get a revelation that you receive right standing with God by faith in Jesus and by nothing else. It is not by our performance. And so he says, “Everyone who uses milk…” If you are still talking about performance and it’s all about you and it’s not about Jesus, you are unskillful in the word of righteousness. You don’t understand. You don’t have a revelation of grace, the true gospel, for he is a babe. That is the difference in maturity. And he goes on in Chapter 6 verse 1 and said, “Let us go on to maturity. Let us go on to perfection.” Move out of these elementary teachings and begin to understand the gospel is about the finished work of Jesus. And he says this, “But strong meat belongs to those who are full age even by who reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” I think when he talks about good and evil here, what he’s talking about is grace in the law. And it’s good when you understand. Man, it is Jesus and not you. It is not you plus Jesus. It is not Jesus plus you. It is purely Jesus. That is the gospel. I love this song. Mom and I went to hear this concert, Mercy Me, and this guy has a revelation of grace. I love his song. He’s got this one song. Only one name only. It’s Jesus. Man, Jesus completed it. Jesus finished it. And it is not about us. It is about Jesus. And so praise God. We need to get a revelation of that. And you know what? If somebody comes and they are preaching performance… Aaron, you got a revelation of this a long time. I remember when you were a freshman in college and you went to one church, but it was 28 miles away and it was a good church, but you had to ride with other students because you didn’t have a car. And so, you couldn’t get there half the time ’cause these students aren’t like us. We go to church. You know what? Unless we’re dead and then if we’re dead, we go to church and raise you from the dead. Anyway, we’ve had that happen in our church. But you know what? You went and talked to the administrator at the college. He said, “Try this other…” And it was kind of a secret sensitive church. And you went there for five Sundays. And the first Sunday, there was this very legalistic guy teaching and he was teaching that the fear of God keep you out of sin but the love of God won’t. And you call me that afternoon. You’re mad and you said, “Daddy, that’s wrong.” You said, “You know the love of God will keep you out of sin.” And you said this. And this is tremendous, tremendous. I was so excited. My son, Aaron, has a revelation of the gospel, a revelation in grace. But you said, “You know what?” You said, “Daddy, you are my dad and I respect you. And because I respect you, I know you want what’s best. So I wanna do what you want me to do.” And it’s said the same way with God. God is my father and I respect him because I respect him. Amen. I want… And I know that you love me. I know that God loves me. So you said this, “The fear of God grows out of the love of God, out of the grace of God, and therefore the love of God will keep you out of sin.” And that’s exactly what 1 John says. He says in 1 John 5:3, “This is his commandment that we keep his commandments.” This is the love of God that we keep his commandments and they are not grievous. They’re not hard to bear because we love God and we know that God loves us. We wanna do what he wants us to do. And so he says, “Strong meat belongs to those who are full age.” You need to grow up. You need to mature. You need to figure out it is not because of you. The gospel is about Jesus. And it’s about his finished work. We’re gonna be back right after this break and we’ll have some more great teaching on faith. Because when you understand grace, the natural response is faith in Jesus. Stay tuned. Hi, friends. I’m so glad that you’re watching today. I have my son, Aaron, with me and we are teaching on the book of Hebrews. This is one of my favorite books of the Bible. And we have some great teaching available on our website, charischristiancenter.com. It’s free of charge, downloadable. “Hebrews Th Better Covenant”, “Hebrews Jesus Makes Everything Better, and my book also, “Hebrews the Better Covenant”.

 

  I’ll tell you how to get your prayers answered. Jesus actually said this. “If you abide in me and my word abides in you, you will ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.” You’ve taken up residence in him. Let his word abide on you. Praise God and just call on the name of Jesus.

 

  Praise the Lord, friends. I’m glad you stayed with us. Aaron, why don’t you jump into Hebrews 6:1 and let’s take off there.

 

  So it says here in Hebrews 6:1, “Therefore leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go onto perfection. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and a faith toward God.” I love all these things he lists here. He lists several things that he considers to be very elementary, very foundational. So he says repentance. You know, repentance is doctrine. You know, you see it throughout the scripture. You know, Jesus preached to repent. Paul preached to repent. Peter on the day of Pentecost preached to repent. So this is very basic christianity. To repent from dead works and a faith toward God. So he’s saying that this is also elementary.

 

  That’s how you get saved.

 

  Yeah, you put faith in God. Faith in God is very elementary and it’s not about your works. Your works don’t amount to anything. They’re dead. We’re saved by faith in God, of the doctrine of baptisms. Here, the baptisms is plural. You know, a lot of people understand to be baptized, to be immersed in something. You know, a lot of people know about water baptism, but there’s actually several primary baptisms. There’s the baptism of salvation, the baptism into the kingdom of heaven, into the body of Christ.

 

  Yeah, the Bible actually says in 1 Corinthians 12:13 that we’re baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. That’s talking about salvation.

 

  Yeah, and the way to know the difference of these baptisms is to ask yourself who is baptizing and into what are you being baptized. So salvation, the Holy Spirit, is baptizing you into the body of Christ. Water baptism, another believer is baptizing you into water. It’s a baptism of identification. There’s also a baptism into the Holy Spirit. And the person that baptizes you into the Holy Spirit, that baptism of fire, that baptism of boldness, that baptism of just being immersed in the spirit of God, Jesus is the one that does that.

 

  John said, “He who comes after me is mightier than me. I’m not worthy to carry his shoes. And he will baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire.” Man, if you have not been baptized in the Holy Ghost as a believer… You know what? In Acts, when they got born again, most of them just went ahead and took the next step and they were baptized in the Holy Spirit. You know, I’ve traveled on the mission field and we don’t have all these denominations. I mean, they do but they pay no attention. And basically, it’s people are saved and they know Jesus and they just take the whole thing, just like they did in the Book of Acts. And if you’re saved, why don’t you just go ahead and receive the baptism of Holy Spirit? This is a promise to believers. But he talks about the doctrine of baptisms. And then go ahead, Aaron. The laying on of hands.

 

  Yeah, the laying on of hands. You know, if you go to church, there you ought to see some laying out of hands. When you pray over the sick, you’re supposed to lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. You can lay hands on people to raise them up, to ordain them to be ministers of the gospel.

 

  To send them forth, yeah.

 

  To send them forth. There’s actually a bible teaching… You know, the Bible teaches on the laying on of hands of resurrection of the dead. And one time you went to a funeral here in Colorado Springs for a neighbor that passed away and the minister preached that we don’t really know what happens after you die.

 

  Yeah, it’s terrible.

 

  He shouldn’t even be a preacher. He shouldn’t even… You know. This is basic stuff here. Knowing that there is a resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment. Eternal judgment. That means that you’re gonna spend eternity somewhere and you’ll be judged where you’re gonna spend eternity. It’s either heaven with Jesus or hell separated from him.

 

  Right, there is a judgment of believers. It’s called the judgment seat of Christ. That’s written about at 2 Corinthians 5 and Romans Chapter 14. I believe that’s a reward seat where believers are rewarded for what they’ve done with Jesus. There’s also a great white throne judgment of God. And at the great white throne judgment of God… That’s written about in Revelation 20, verse 11 through verse 15. I believe that is a judgment of unbelievers. It specifically says there is another book, which is the book of life, and everybody there is judged according to their works and they’re cast into the lake of fire which the Bible says is the second death. And so those are the two major judgments: judgment of believers at the judgment seat of Christ when Christ comes for his church in heaven and a judgment of unbelievers when they’re cast into the lake of fire, the second death. And that’s… Boy, you don’t wanna be there. Amen. If you’re not born again, you know what? You’re gonna… You can be born twice and die once or you can be born only once and die twice. And if you’re not born again, you need to get born again. You need to make heaven your home. You know, there’s also another judgment that is talking about the judgment of nations. That’s what the Bible’s talking about in the separation of the sheep and goats, how people have dealt with the nation of Israel and how they’ve dealt with the church, and they’ll be judged according to their works. But that’s the judgment of the nation. So that’s a different thing in my opinion. I think I’m right. He says, “In this will we do if God permit for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come.” There are five conditions there. Five conditions. You gotta be enlightened. You gotta taste of the heavenly gift. Salvation. You gotta be convicted by the Holy Spirit. Be saved. You gotta be made partakers of the Holy Ghost. Baptized in the Holy Spirit. Tasted the good Word of God. You gotta have a good revelation of the word, of the promises of God, the goodness of God. And last of all, the powers of the world to come. Operate in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And if you meet those five conditions and you then reject Jesus, there remains… Look at this. He says, “If they fall away, to renew them again to repentance.” Hebrews 10 talks about the same. There remains no more sacrifice of sin. When we get there, we’ll talk about it. That is not talking about just any sin that is talking. That is Hebrews 10:26. It’s talking about rejecting Jesus. And you’ve got to read these scriptures in context. And Hebrews 10:26 says, “If we sin willfully after we received a knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice of sin.” That’s not talking about cussing. It’s not talking about committing adultery. That is talking about rejecting Jesus and counting the blood of the covenant wherewith you we’re sanctified in unholy thing and doing despite to the spirit of grace. But you can’t take that scripture without the context of Hebrews Chapter 6. So if you understand that you’re convicted by the Holy Spirit, born again, baptized in the Holy Spirit, operating the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God. There are very few people that have that close relationship with God, number one. And number two, there are even… There’s very, very few of those people that have that intimate personal close relationship with God that are gonna reject Jesus. But if you reject Jesus in that state, there remains no more sacrifice of sin. So that is a possibility but not a probability. Kenneth E. Hagin said maybe one in a million, and I’m not gonna argue about that. There’s different opinions. You know what? When I teach at Andrew Wommack’s Bible School, Andrew Wommack believes exactly like me. But you know what? There are people there that teach at his Bible school that he approves, that he loves, that teach different. So we’re not gonna get in that. They’ve been arguing over that for 2,000 years. Just stupid to argue about it. And so he says… And some people just leave this out, but I think we need to read the word and see what it says. “For he says the Earth which drinks rain,” the earth is talking about the heart of man, “that comes up and upon it and brings forth herbs sufficient for them by whom it is dressed receives the blessing from God.” Man, if our heart receives a word of God, it brings forth fruit and it brings forth a harvest. He says, “But that which bears the thorns and briers is rejected and is near under cursing whose end is to be burned.” Man, there is a judgment coming and we don’t wanna be… You know? There’s a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. And if you’re gonna make heaven, you gotta believe Jesus and stay at it. Praise God. He says, “Beloved, we are persuaded better things of you. The things that accompany salvation, thus we speak.” In other words, man, if you believe this, you need to let the word work in you. If you’ve received Jesus, you need to let… Jesus is in you. Let him work through you. He says, “For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love where you’ve showed toward His name and that you have ministered the saints and do minister.” You see a lot of people have given up. The Bible says don’t be weary and well-doing. Don’t give up on your faith. Don’t quit believing. And that’s what the writer of Hebrews is saying. Don’t move away from Jesus. Don’t move away from the gospel. Keep your faith in Jesus. Jesus is the grace of God. And the natural response to this is you just believe and keep believing.

 

  Yeah, I love verse 10. You know, God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love. You know, God remembers. You’re not always gonna get the recognition you… You know, you really deserve or you think you deserve from the things that God has called you to do. You know, it might be at your job you’re just working hard and maybe you’re supposed to be there but you really haven’t been recognized. Maybe it’s at your house. Maybe your family hasn’t really recognized you and the things you do for your family. Maybe it’s at church. Maybe you’re a pastor.

 

  Yeah.

 

  And you haven’t really-

 

  There’s a lot of pastors-

 

  You haven’t really… Yeah, and a lot of pastor is burn out and end up quitting.

 

  Did you know, 80% of people who enter into full-time pastoral ministry quit within the first five years.

 

  But God… You have to… If you feel hurt, you have to go back to that place where Jesus can minister to you, where he can heal you, where he can grow you. You always have to come back to your first love.

 

  You know, just don’t burn out by works of labor. That’s what happened with the church at Ephesus when Jesus was speaking to the church at Ephesus in Revelation. They had a lot of great works but Jesus had this against them. They left that first love.

 

  They left it.

 

  They left it.

 

  They did not lose it. They left it. You cannot lose your salvation, but you can reject it. Again, we think that’s very low possibility.

 

  I see people who kinda quit doing what they’re called to do. Maybe they quit church altogether. They quit doing… You know, using the gifts that God’s given them. But you have to come back to that first love. You have to come back to Jesus and let him minister to you. He has to be your primary source of ministry. And if you’re just looking for inspiration and encouragement all the time from people besides Jesus, you’re eventually gonna-

 

  Burn out.

 

  You’re gonna burn out ’cause you’re not always gonna get what you need. Jesus has what you need.

 

  Burnout comes a lot of times because people are focused more on their personal performance and the accolades of men than they are the performance of Jesus and what God says about them. You know what, another person’s head is the wrong place to have your happiness. And you need to realize that Jesus is the grace of God. And then just put your faith in him and keep trusting him and let him be the one who meets your needs. Praise God. Well, I wanna say a great big thank you today to our partners who’ve made this available, this teaching available, and we have hundreds of hours of teaching. These and many others on the internet, on our website, charischristiancenter.com, absolutely free of charge. And you can get this and many others. You can get my book Hebrews. Now my book Hebrews, we have to go through Amazon to fulfill the tax laws, but check it out, and blessings.

 

  In the Hebrews package which includes “Hebrews the Better Covenant” and “Hebrews Jesus Changes Everything”, you’ll learn how the new covenant is better than the old simply because of Jesus. We’d like to bless you with a digital copy of each teaching, a $70-value free of charge. You can also order the book “Hebrews the Better Covenant” for $9.99. Download your free teachings and purchase the book today at charischristiancenter.com.

 

  Friends, the scripture says, if you will continue in the word of God, you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. If you go to our website at charisschristiancenter.com, you can get all of our materials there on the website as you watch them, as you listen, absolutely free of charge. And we’ve done that just to be a blessing to you. And I believe that the word that has freed me will free you. Blessings.

 

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