Twentieth Century New Testament - 42 - Hebrews Chapters 10-13

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
The Letter to the Hebrews, chapters ten through thirteen, from
the twentieth century New Testament. This is a LibriVox recording.
All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
by Ja Carter www dot authentic light dot org. The

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twentieth century New Testament by a company of about twenty scholars.
The Letter to the Hebrews, Chapters ten through thirteen. Chapter ten,
the Law, though able to foreshadow the better system which
was coming, never had its actual substance. Its priests, with
those sacrifices which they offer continually year after year, can

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never make those who come to worship perfect. Otherwise would
not the offering of these sacrifices have been abandoned, as
the worshippers, having been once purified, would have had their
consciences clear from sins. But on the contrary, these sacrifices
recall their sins to mind year after year. For the
blood of bulls and goats is powerless to remove sins.

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That is why, when he was coming into the world,
the Christ declared sacrifice and offering. Thou didst not desire,
but thou dost provide for me a body. Thou dost
take no pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin.
So I said, see, I have come, as it is
written of me in the pages of the book, to
do thy will O God. First come the words thou

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dost not desire, nor dost thou take pleasure in sacrifices, offerings,
burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, offerings regularly made under
the law. And then there is added, see I have
come to do Thy will. The former sacrifices are set
aside to be replaced by the latter. And it is
in the fulfillment of the will of God that we

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have been purified by the sacrifice once and for all
of the body of Jesus Christ. Every other priest stands
day after day at his ministruations and offers the same
sacrifices over and over again, sacrifices that can never take
sins away. But this priest, after he had offered one
sacrifice for sins, which should serve for all time, took

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his seat at the right hand of God, and has
since then been waiting for his enemies to be put
as a stool for his feet by a single offering
he has made perfect for all time those who are
being purified. We have also the testimony of the Holy Spirit.
For after saying this is the covenant that I will
make with them. After those days, says the Lord, I
will impress my laws on their hearts, and will inscribe

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them on their minds. Then we have, and their sins
and their iniquities I will no longer remember. And when
these are forgiven, there is no further need of an
offering for sin. Therefore, brothers, since we may enter the
sanctuary with confidence in virtue of the blood of Jesus,
by the way which He inaugurated for us a new

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and living way away through the sancture, a curtain that
is his human nature. And since we have in him
a great high priest set over the House of God,
let us draw near to God in all sincerity of
heart and in perfect faith, with our hearts purified by
the sprinkled blood, from all consciousness of wrong, and with
our bodies washed with pure water. Let us maintain the

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confession of our faith unshaken, for he who has given
us his promise will not fail us. Let us vie
with one another in a rivalry of love and noble actions.
And let us not, as some do, cease to meet together.
But on the contrary, let us encourage one another. And
all the more now that you see the day drawing near, Remember,

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if we sin willfully, after we have gained a full
knowledge of the truth, there can be no further sacrifice
for sin. There is only a fearful anticipation of judgment
and a burning indignation which will destroy all opponents. When
a man disregarded the law of Moses, he was, on
the evidence of two or three witnesses, put to death
without pity. How much more then, think you will be

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the punishment deserved by those who have trappled under foot
the son of God, who have treated the blood that
rendered the covenant valid, the very blood by which they
were purified, as of no account, and who have outraged
the spirit of love. We know who it was that
said it is for me to avenge. I will requite,
and again the Lord will judge his people. It is

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a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
living God. Call to mind those early days in which,
after you had received the light, you patiently underwent a
long and painful conflict. Sometimes in consequence of the taunts
and injuries heaped upon you. You became a public spectacle,
and sometimes you suffered through having shown yourselves to be

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friends of men who were in the very position in
which you had been. For you not only sympathize with
those who were in prison, but you even took the
confiscation of your possessions joyfully, knowing as you did that
you had in yourselves a greater possession and a lasting one.
Do not therefore abandon the confidence that you have gained,
for it has a great reward awaiting it. You still

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have need of patient endurance in order that, when you
have done God's will, you may obtain the fulfillment of
his promise. For there is indeed but a very little
while ere He who is coming will have come without delay,
And through faith the righteous man shall find his life.
But if a man draws back, my heart can find
no pleasure in him. But we do not belong to

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those who draw back to their ruin, but to those
who have faith to the saving of their souls. Chapter eleven.
Faith is the realization of things hoped for, the proof
of things not seen. And it was for faith that
the men of old were renowned. Faith enables us to
perceive that the universe was created at the bidding of God,

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so that we know that what we see was not
made out of visible things. Faith made the sacrifice which
Able offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain's, and
won him renown as a righteous man God himself, establishing
his renown by accepting his gifts. And it is by
the example of his faith that Able, though dead, still speaks.
Faith led to Enoch's removal from Earth that he might

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not experience death. He could not be found because God
had removed him, for before his removal he was renowned
as having pleased God. But without faith it is impossible
to please him, for he who comes to God must
believe that God exists and that He rewards those who
seek for him. It was faith that enabled Noah, after
he had received the divine warning about what could not

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then be foreseen, to build in reverent obedience and ark
in which to save his family. By his faith, he
condemned the world and became possessed of that righteousness which
follows upon faith. It was faith that enabled Abraham to
obey the call that he received and to set out
for the place which he was afterwards to obtain as
his own, and he set out, not knowing where he

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was going. It was faith that made him go to
live as an emigrant in the promised land, as in
a strange country, living there intense with Isaac and Jacob,
who shared the promise with him, for he was looking
for the city with the sure foundations, whose architect and
builder is God. Again, it was faith that enabled Sarah
to conceive, though she was past the age for child bearing,

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because she felt sure that he who had given her
the promise would not fail her. And so from one man,
and that when his powers were dead, there sprang a
people as numerous as the stars in the heavens, or
the countless grains of sand upon the shore. All these
died sustained by faith. They did not obtain the promised blessings,

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but they saw them from a distance and welcomed the sight,
and they acknowledged themselves to be only aliens and strangers
on the earth. Those who speak thus show plainly that
they are seeking their fatherland. If they had been thinking
of the land that they had left, they could have
found opportunities to return. But no, they were longing for
a better, a heavenly land, and therefore God was not

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a shame to be called their god. Indeed, he had
already prepared them a city. It was faith that enabled Abraham,
when put to the test, to offer Isaac as a sacrifice,
he who had received the promises, offering up his only son,
of whom it had been said, it is through Isaac
that there shall be descendants to bear thy name. For

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he argued that God was able even to raise a
man from the dead, and indeed, figuratively speaking, Abraham did
receive Isaac back from the dead. It was faith that
enabled Isaac to bless Jacob and Esaw, even with regard
to the future. Faith enabled Jacob, when dying, to give
his blessing to each of the sons of Joseph, and

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to bow himself in worship as he leant upon the
top of his staff. Faith caused Joseph, when the end
was near, to speak of the future migration of the
Israelites and to give instructions with regard to his bones.
Faith caused the parents of Moses to hide the child
for three months after his birth, for they saw that
he was a beautiful child, and they would not respect

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the king's order. It was faith that caused Moses, when
he was grown up, to refuse the title of son
of a daughter of Pharaoh. He preferred sharing the hardships
of God's people to enjoying the short lived pleasures of sin,
for he counted the reproaches that are heaped upon the
Christ of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, looking
forward as he did to the reward awaiting him, Faith

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caused him to leave Egypt, though undaunted by the king's anger,
for he was strengthened in his endurance by the vision
of the invisible God. Faith led him to institute the
passover and the sprinkling of the blood, so that the
destroyer might not touch the eldest children of the Israelites.
Faith enabled the people to cross the Red Sea as
if it had been dry land, while the Egyptians, when

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they attempted to do so, were drowned. Faith caused the
walls of Jericho to fall after being encircled for seven days.
Faith saved Rehab the prostitute, from perishing with the unbelievers
after she had entertained the spies with friendliness. D I
add anything more? Time would fail me if I attempted
to relate the stories of Gideon, Barrack, Samson and Jephtha,

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and those of David, Samuel and the prophets. By their faith,
they subdued kingdoms, ruled righteously, gained the fulfillment of God's promises.
Shut the mouths of lions quelled, the fury of the
flames escaped, the edge of the sword, found strength in
the hour of weakness, displayed their prowess in war, and
routed hostile armies. Women received back their dead, raised to life.

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Some were tortured on the wheel and refused release in
order that they might rise to a better life. Others
had to face taunts and blows, and even chains and imprisonment.
They were stoned to death, they were tortured, they were
sawn asunder, they were put to the sword. They wandered about,
clothed in the skins of sheep or goats, destitute, persecuted,

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ill used, men of whom the world was not worthy,
roaming in lonely places and on the mountains, and in
caves and holes in the ground. Yet though they all won,
renowned by their faith, they did not obtain the final
fulfillment of God's promise. Since God had in viewed some
better thing for us, that they, apart from us, should
not attain perfection Chapter twelve. Seeing therefore that there is

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on every side of us such a throng of witnesses,
let us also lay aside everything that hinders us and
the sin that clings about us, and run with patient
endurance the race that lies before us. Our eyes fixed
upon Jesus, the leader and perfect example of our faith, who,
for the joy that lay before him, endured the cross,

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heedless of its shame, and now has taken his seat
at the right hand of the throne of God. Weigh
well the example of him who had to endure such
opposition from men who were sinning against themselves, so that
you should not grow weary or fainthearted. You have not, yet,
in your struggle with sin, resisted to the death, and
you have forgotten the encouraging words which are addressed to

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you as God's children. My child, think not lightly of
the Lord's discipline. Do not despond when he rebukes you.
For it is him whom he loves that he disciplines,
and he chastises every child whom he acknowledges. It is
for your discipline that you have to endure all this
God is dealing with you as his children. For where

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is there a child whom his father does not discipline.
If you are left without that discipline in which all
children share, it shows that you are bastards and not
true children. Further, when our earthly fathers disciplined us, we
respected them. Shall we not then much rather yield submission
to the Father of souls and live. Our fathers disciplined

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us for only a short time, and as seemed best
to them. But God disciplines us for our true good,
to enable us to share His holiness. No discipline is
pleasant at the time. On the contrary, it is painful,
but afterwards its fruit is seen in the peacefulness of
a righteous life, which is the lot of those who
have been trained under it. Therefore, lift again the down

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dropped hands and strengthen the weakened knees. Make straight paths
for your feet, so that the lame limb may not
be put out of joint, but rather be cured. Try
earnestly to live at peace with every one, and to
attain to that purity without which no one will see
the Lord. Take care that no one fails to use
the loving help of God, that no bitterness is allowed

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to take root and spring up and cause trouble and
so poison the whole community. Take care that no one
becomes immoral or irreligious, like Esau, who sold his birthright
for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards,
when he wished to claim his father's blessing, he was rejected,
for he never found an opportunity to repair his error,
though he begged for the blessing with tears. It is

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not the tangible flaming fire that you have drawn near,
nor to gloom and darkness and storm, and the blast
of a trumpet and an audible voice. Those who heard
that voice entreated that they might hear no more, for
they could not bear to think of the command. If
even an animal touches the mountain, it is to be
stoned to death. And so fearful was the sight that
Moses said, I tremble with fear. No. But it is

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to Mount Zion that you have drawn, near the city
of the Living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to countless hosts
of angels, to the festal gathering and assemblage of God's
eldest sons, whose names are enrolled in heaven, to God
the judge of all men, to the spirits of the
righteous who have attained perfection, to Jesus, the intermediary of

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a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that tells
of better things than the blood of Abel. Beware how
you refuse to hear him who is speaking. For if
the Israelites did not escape punishment when they refuse to
listen to him who taught them on earth, the divine
will far worse will it be for us if we
turn away from him who is teaching us from heaven.

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Then his voice shook the earth. But now his declaration
is still once more. I will cause not only the
earth to tremble, but also the heavens. And those words
still once more indicate the passing away of all that
is shaken, that is, of all created things, in order
that only what is unshaken may remain. Therefore, let us,

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who have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken, be thankful,
and so offer acceptable worship to God with awe and reverence,
for our God is a consuming fire. Chapter thirteen. Let
your love for the brethren continue. Do not neglect to
show hospitality, for through being hospitable men have all unawares

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entertained angels. Remember the prisoners as if you were their
fellow prisoners, and the oppressed, not forgetting that you also
are still in the body. Let marriage be honored by all,
and the married life be pure. For God will judge
those who are immoral and those who commit adultery. Do
not let your conduct be ruled by the love of money.

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Be content with what you have, For God himself has said,
I will never forsake you, nor will I ever abandon you.
Therefore we may say with confidence, the Lord is my helper.
I will not be afraid what can man do to me.
Do not forget your leaders, the men who told you
God's message. Recall the close of their lives, and imitate

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their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and to day,
yes and forever. Do not let yourselves be carried away
by the various novel forms of teaching. It is better
to rely for spiritual strength upon the divine help than
upon regulations regarding food. For those whose lives are guided
by such regulations have not found them of service. We

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are not without an altar, but it is one at
which those who still worship in the tabernacle have no
right to eat the bodies of those animals whose blood
is brought by the High Priest into the sanctuary as
an offering for sin, are burnt outside the camp, and
so Jesus also to purify the people by his own blood,
suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go out to

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him outside the camp, bearing the same reproaches as he.
For here we have no permanent city, but are looking
for the city that is to be through him. Let
us offer as our sacrifice continual praise to God and
offering from lips that glorify his name. Never forget to
do kindly acts and to share what you have with others,

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for such sacrifices are acceptable to God. Obey your leaders
and submit to their control, for they are watching over
your souls as men who will have to render an account,
so that they may do it with joy and not
in sorrow. That would not be to your advantage. Pray
for us, for we are sure that our consciences are clear,
since our wish is to be occupied with what is good,

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and I the more earnestly ask for your prayers that
I may be restored to you the sooner. May God,
the source of all peace, who brought back from the dead,
him who, by virtue of the blood that rendered valid
the unchangeable covenant, is the great shepherd of God's sheep, Jesus,
our Lord. May God make you perfect in every thing
that is good, so that you may be able to

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do His will. May He bring out in us all
that is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to
whom be all glory forever and ever. Amen. I beg you, brothers,
to bear with these words of advice, For I have
written only very briefly to you. You will be glad
to hear that our brother Timothy has been set free.

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If he comes here soon, we will visit you together.
Give our greetings to all your leaders and to all
Christ's people. Our friends from Italy send their greetings to you.
May God bless you all. End of the Letter to
the Hebrews, Chapters ten through thirteen. End of the Letter
to the Hebrews.