 You're listening to the Naked Bible Podcast. To support this podcast, visit nakedbiblepodcast.com and click on the support link in the upper right-hand corner. If you're new to the podcast and Dr. Heizer's approach to the Bible, click on newstarthere at nakedbiblepodcast.com. Welcome to the Naked Bible Podcast, Episode 198, Hebrews Chapter 12. I'm the layman, Trey Strickland, and he's a scholar, Dr. Michael Heizer. Hey, Mike. How you doing? Well, pretty good. Another busy week, but doing fine. Well, on our last show, Mike, we had a little side bet, I guess, or whatever you want to call it about you going over 50 and a half, saying the word faith, and I'm happy to report thanks to Brenda that you went way over. Now, I counted 26 faiths in the chapter after we said that, so I figured it'd be going way over, but I think you went, what, 65 or 70 eventually? I don't know what her count was. It was pretty high, though. Yeah. So looks like I win that. I guess we won't do anything for it, but just for those folks out there wondering, I don't know what you got for that. Yeah, didn't want to take time to count it. We'll go ahead and say you went way over. So yeah, it was a lot. Happy. It was a lot. Yeah, I'll take a win wherever I can get it since I didn't win fantasy football and then pretty desperate. And then I understand, Mike, we want to talk about one of your speaking engagements coming up in Spokane, Washington that we're doing. It's a naked Bible seminar. It's three days with you and you can purchase tickets on DrMSH.com. Go to the events page and you see Spokane there and you can buy tickets. It's forty five dollars a ticket. And can you give us an idea of what you're going to be covering during those days? Yeah, for people who are on the website, like you said, just DRMSH.com. On the right hand side, there's a calendar. You can click, you know, on the Spokane, it's March second through fourth. And if you get to that page, like Trey said, you can register. But there's also a schedule there. So the first day is going to be really focused on you know, how I look at scripture. The topic, the theme is, you know, can we trust our Bible? You know, that sort of thing. And my answer is, yeah, we can. But the Bible sort of becomes a big question mark for a lot of people, even even believers, even people within the church, largely. Again, in my view that the problem isn't the Bible. The problem is how we're taught to think about the Bible, which has some serious flaws and we were taught in a very simplistic way. And we wind up making scripture vulnerable in all sorts of ways. So we'll spend the first day talking about that kind of stuff. The second day is going to be a Divine Council stuff. Divine Council worldview, two powers in heaven, that sort of thing. And then the third day is going to take the material of the second day, the Divine Council stuff and basically relate that to the gospel, to the Christian life, to sort of kingdom thinking, ministry thinking. You know, what how should we now live? You know, what should we be doing in response to that material? So, you know, it'll cover the gamut in those three days. So we're hoping that the church in Spokane that came up with this idea and really has promoted as being pretty aggressive. You know, we I hear a lot from from people and it's legitimate. You know, oh, my church doesn't teach this. You know, I don't learn anything. Well, here you have a church in Spokane that has stepped up to the plate. And I just think they should be supported. So I'm hoping that we fill the place. It's not, you know, a huge church. I've been there. I've seen the facility and I have room for a few hundred people. I'm just hoping that this audience will we will fill the building. And again, as a show of support, really, for them in their their effort to try to do something about providing not only their people with good content, but just, you know, people in the area with good content. So let's let's stop complaining about it and do something about it. I think that's the most blood I could be. I'm just hoping that that we really make it worth their while and that their their effort is rewarded. Absolutely. We want to thank Rich Baker for organizing that. And then also, Mike, that again, that event is on March 2nd through the 4th. Yeah, 2nd through the 4th. So we've got plenty of tickets on sale now. So please get your head up to the website. And the website's my home page, d r m s h dot com and click on the event in the calendar and you'll you'll get to where you need to go. All right, Mike, that will be a good event. So look forward to seeing everybody there. Mike, we're almost done with Hebrews. We're on Chapter 12 here. And of course, we'll finish up next week with Chapter 13. Yeah, yeah, we're at the tail end here. So it seems like it went fast. Maybe that's because we had all that milk as it exited up earlier. But yeah, we're here at the end and Hebrews Chapter 12. I mean, 13 is a fairly short chapter. This one is a little bit of a little bit of length. So we're right on the heels of finishing up. And then I'm sure we'll get to talk a little bit about what we're going to be doing afterwards. But let's just jump into the chapter here. Hebrews 12, here's a profound observation, follows on Hebrews 11, Hebrews 11, you know, the so-called Hall of Faith. And I point out something so obvious because it actually is important for reading this chapter, for understanding this chapter. And it's one of those obvious sorts of things that flies right out the window or right out of people's heads when they get to Chapter 12. Why again, why bring it up? Well, again, we need to read Hebrews 12 in light of Hebrews 11. If we do that, that's going to prevent us from taking certain things in Hebrews 12 out of context. The writer doesn't follow the Hall of Faith chapter chapter 11. With a treatise then on how moral imperfection, i.e. sin will result in keeping someone out of the kingdom of God. Okay, he doesn't talk about faith in Hebrews 11, you know, umpteen times and then transition to chapter 12 into saying things like, well, don't commit this sin or don't do that sin too often or you're going to lose your salvation or you're not going to be saved or you're an unbeliever. Okay, those things are contradictory. So we need to read Hebrews 12 in light of Hebrews 11. Again, a lot of readers just sort of lapse into that thinking when you get to Hebrews 12. They do it in Hebrews 6, they do it in Hebrews 12. In this episode, again, we're going to read Hebrews 12 in light of Hebrews 11. And of course, you know, other things that have come before in the book. And we're going to reaffirm in Hebrews 12 that salvation is about something done for us, not something we do. It's about the obedience of Jesus, not our obedience. Okay, we don't earn salvation. The message here is not going to be any different. For Hebrews 12 than it was for Hebrews 11 and it's been the whole time through the book. So with that in mind, the passage is going to turn on several things. So there are going to be a few key elements in the chapter that we're going to need to think carefully about and then relate them not only to Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, but also other things that we've already covered. So I'm going to jump in here and read the first three. Well, yeah, first two or three verses. Let's just start with the first two verses. And, you know, I'm reading from the ESV again. We read therefore. Again, first word's important. Therefore, well, what is he just tells you right there because of Hebrews 11, therefore, again, all this emphasis on faith, 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 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. Now, I'll stop there. Those are the first two verses. This cloud of witnesses thing, again, he's actually going to pick up on that thought, like, well, you know, who are the witnesses here? A little bit later. So I'm going to reserve comment on that. I've sort of telegraphed it in earlier episodes. Again, the cloud of witnesses are, you know, those who have gone on before us, you know, the believers, you know, examples of which are in Hebrews 11, and also, you know, other members of God's family, which includes the members of the heavenly host. So I take this as a divine counsel reference, but we'll get back again to that language. What I want to focus on here are a few other things. So again, the passage is going to turn on several things, and we hit one right away, right up front. He says, therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin, which clings so closely. Now, that's the ESV. Let us lay aside sin, okay, which clings so closely. It makes it sound like just a generic sin reference, like, hey, you know, let's stop sinning. Let's not sin anymore. And if we don't sin anymore, then, you know, we're going to be in heaven. You know, we're going to be better off. You know, again, if you just translate generically like that, you run a bit of a risk with, again, linking moral imperfection with loss of salvation and then moral perfection with being secure in salvation. And it has nothing to do with our performance. It has everything to do with the performance of Jesus. And that's verse two, but a lot of people get stuck already in verse one. You know, I got to lay aside sin. Got to get rid of sin, and then God's going to be happy with me. Well, we have a problem right here because in the Greek text, there's a definite article. Okay, the definite article is the word the. So there's a definite article before the word sin, but it's not reflected in the translation in ESV. We're going to quibble with ESV in a few places here in this episode, but the Greek definite article matters here, the sin. Okay, the writer's talking about a specific sin which clings so closely. Now, again, just think about the wording. Let us lay aside the sin which clings so closely. Are the writers telling his audience to do this? So are we supposed to read this now that, well, everyone has one of those problem sins? Everyone has one of those, that sin which clings so closely. Is that the way we're supposed to read this? Like everybody's got a different one of these. And that's the way this is preached. I mean, trust me, I've heard sermons on this and it's very easy for preachers to look out over the crowd and say, start listing off sins. No, and then he's going to hit some targets here, going through the grocery list. And that's going to prompt people who are listening to the sermon to think about a specific behavior on their part that, oh, I've got to get rid of that. Or, oh, I've got to start doing that. And if I don't do that and if I do do this other thing, then God's going to be happy with me. Then I can feel secure about my salvation because my behavior has improved. Okay, that is not accurate. That that's not a good reading of this idea in this passage because it links your security with your behavior. And that is contrary to the theme that we have covered in Hebrews that the writer has hammered on has tried to bead into our heads all the way to this point. And we just had 40 verses of by faith. And now we are prone mentally to make it about behavior. We're not even out of the first verse. We've run into the problem already. So this phrasing, let us lay aside the sin which clings so closely or King James has which does so easily beset us. That kind of thinking, that kind of, you take that rendering and then make it about some individual behavior problem. It presumes the phrase sort of means, well, the sin that trips you up on an individual basis with painful regularity. But what if he's warning? What if the writer is warning his audience in a different way? What if the point of the sin which clings so closely is this? What if the point is he's talking about the sin that's a constant threat to all my readers, the sin that's a constant threat to obstruct us in terms of the context, in our faith, in our believing. Because after all, this is Hebrews verse one, 12 verse one, therefore, in light of verse, light of chapter 11, excuse me, in light of chapter 11, all that faith stuff, we need to lay aside this sin. We need to stay away from it, get rid of it, shrug it off, okay? This particular sin that everyone is threatened by, that's a consistent regular obstacle that's just a lingering threat to us, to all of us. And if you take that in context that way, then the sin that he's talking about has something to do with obstructing or ensnaring, harming our faith. Now, the word here, again, this clings so closely, that's basically what it means. It means to ensnare, to obstruct, to constrict. You look out up in B-DAG or some other lexicon, that's what you're gonna get. So it's this thing that's just sort of always in the air. And the potential is great for this to get in the way or harm or obstruct our faith, okay? It's not a specific point of behavior for each one of us and it can vary broadly. Again, what I'm gonna suggest here is that it may be more coherent to argue that the sin he's talking about is actually unbelief. He's talked about that sin before a lot. But here's a question, rather than me just inserting that thought, here's a question, what's his solution? What's the writer's solution to this sin that he's talking about? Well, he follows that right there in verse one. So let us lay aside every weight and the sin which clings so closely. And here's what we should do instead. Let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us. 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. He doesn't say, well, let's lay aside every weight and the sin which clings so closely and let's stop sinning and let us perform better. Basically what he says is, don't give up, don't lose faith. Look to Jesus. He is, he's the example not only of the, he quote, obedience of faith, okay? He obeyed God and because he obeyed, then we have salvation. Again, salvation is about something that someone else, i.e. Jesus does for us, not our own moral perfection, okay? So looking unto Jesus as both the source, the point of origin, the security, the basis for salvation. Let's in an enduring way, keep looking to that. And again, if you parse the first two verses that way, then the problem, I think comes in a more clear focus. The problem is losing faith. That's what's just lingering in the air all the time, especially for the people he's writing to. We've talked about this before. They're under persecution. They're just always under threat. I mean, the last chapter we talked about and the chapter before, the episode before, they're losing their property, they're under persecution. All sorts of things are happening to them. He's gonna talk here about, you haven't yet struggled against sin to the point of shedding your blood. I mean, now it's martyrdom. I mean, they're just having a rough time. So I think the context, both before and in this passage, and of course, before meeting chapter 11 and even more remotely before, is really about the problem of losing faith. That is, I think, the sin he's zeroing in on here. The thing that, again, this lingering threat to ensnare us, to obstruct us, it's just always there. And his solution to it is not correcting a specific point of behavior. His solution to the sin he's talking about is running with endurance, enduring, and looking to Jesus. Okay, the solution, I think, helps clarify what the problem is. Well, let's look at it another way. Ask yourself which of the above, which of the above possibilities that the sin he's talking about is some moral violation that I'm prone to and somebody else can be prone to a different one. If what he's talking about is some moral, specific moral violation, as opposed to the more general sin of unbelief, okay? Which of those two options makes more sense in light of verse four, okay? So let's jump in. In verse three, okay, we've read the first two verses. Let's jump into the verse three and up, but then pay attention, especially to verse four. So he says, you know, endure the race, look to Jesus in verse two. Then verse three, it says, consider him who endured from sinners. He's still talking about Jesus, such hostility against himself. So that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted again. He's just like, you gotta keep believing. You gotta keep enduring, okay? Then verse four, okay, don't grow weary or faint-hearted. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Let me just read the first four verses together just to get the flow. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and thus in, which clings so closely. And instead, let us run with endurance and look at the race that is set before us, 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. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point that's the first four verses. Now, the reference to the shedding of your blood, I mean, basically in your struggle against sin, you've not yet resisted to the point of being martyred. How in the world does that make sense if the sin he's talking about is something like stealing or lying or being sexually immoral or not sharing the gospel or embezzling? I mean, just put in any behavior. So in your struggle to not lie, you've not yet struggled so hard that your blood has been shed. Like who's gonna kill you for that? Who's gonna kill you for, you know, somebody gonna come along and say, boy, that guy's really trying hard not to be a liar. I'm gonna kill him. It just doesn't make any sense. You know, oh, that guy's really trying hard, you know, not to commit adultery. Why? I hate that guy. I'm gonna kill him. It just doesn't make any sense. But if the struggle, if the sin, this lingering threat has something to do with surrendering faith, that makes a whole lot more sense because your enemies, that's what they're trying to do to you. They're trying to get you to recant. They're trying to get you to not be a Christian. What they hate is the fact that you won't worship their God or you won't worship their way or you don't believe that salvation comes from any other source. That's what's making them angry. Not the fact that you're struggling with not embezzling or something or, you know, watching porn or whatever, you know, like you could do that in the ancient world. You know, I mean, it's not a specific point of behavior. What the writer of Hebrews is trying to get them to endure about is to stay in the faith because the threat to them is that it's not any specific point of moral behavior. They are being pulled and pushed and persecuted because of something they believe. And that something they believe is the cross event, is salvation through the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the thing that the pressure from outside wants to destroy, wants to do away with. And what the writer's saying is here, look, I know this is hard, but in your struggle against sin, and by the way, the word sin here is the same as in verse one, and it also has the definite article. In your struggle against this particular sin, you haven't yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. You haven't given your life yet. You haven't lost your life. That only makes sense. That kind of language only makes sense if the thing that's threatening you, the thing that again, this lingering threat is being forced to recant your faith, to give up, to turn your back on the cross. That is what he's concerned about. It's what he's been concerned about in the entire book. But instead, typically when we get to Hebrews 12, and again, preachers have a real easy time with us, they'll make it about some point of moral behavior. And that I'm suggesting is to misuse the passage. It's frankly to abuse the passage. It's frankly to manipulate the people listening to you. It's frankly to take the gospel. Again, the fact that I have salvation, not because of anything I do or anything I abstain from, I don't do. I have it because of what somebody else did, namely Jesus, and I am putting my faith, my believing loyalty exclusively in that. Okay, that is the focus. That is what the enemy wants to undermine and do away with. And that is what the writer of Hebrews wants his readers to stick to, to endure. The writers comment about being under threat of death from some opposing force. For anything else just doesn't make much sense. It makes a lot of sense if he's talking about the pressure to recant the faith. So I would suggest to you again, that the sin, what he's talking about here, that the sin that is his focus here in chapter 12 is quitting, it's quitting the faith, it's recanting. It's the sin of unbelief. It's the sin of turning their back against the gospel, becoming apostate, okay? Leaving the faith, however we want to put it. I'm sure somebody out there is gonna say, well, Mike, you know, or well, whoever you were that wrote Hebrews, if God isn't punishing us with the threat of martyrdom for doing a specific sin, then why are we suffering? You answer that. Well, the writer does answer that. He does answer that. Oh, and we get to hear into verse five. Let's just read a few more verses. Let's just read five and six. Well, I'll go back to verse three. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself so that you may not grow weary or faint-hearted. In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Verse five. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? He's gonna quote from the Old Testament. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reprude by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastises every son whom he receives. Again, son can be translated child as well. You know, it's both male and female. So again, back to the question. Well, if God isn't pun... This doesn't sound like, you know, we're like under the threat of death, you know, and you're saying that we're under the threat of death because, you know, our problem that we're struggling against is not becoming apostates and clinging to our faith. And, you know, it would make more sense if God was, you know, through this kind of threat because he hated something we were doing. Well, I would suggest, no, that doesn't make more sense. What the writer is really getting at and what I'm gonna say is gonna hinge on a few things. How you process, how you the listener process a few things, there's three of them. One, you have to understand that chastening, trials, suffering is not always or only due to sin. It just isn't. Job is the most obvious example. He was blameless, but he suffered like nobody's business. Better, I would say, is the passage in James, chapter one, first four verses. James and Hebrews, again, are part of this of what we call the general epistles. Again, written, you know, broadly to believers and likely Jewish believers, you know, scattered in the diaspora. Here's what James writes. James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes in the dispersion. Greetings, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. So to process what's going on here in the first six verses of Hebrews 12, we need to remember that suffering, trials, you know, even a trial like the threat of martyrdom isn't dished out by God because he's angry. Okay, you know, sure, God could be, you know, you could be being chastened because of some sin you're doing. You could also be under threat, under chastening or under, you know, you could just suffering. Just let's use the most generic term here, suffering. That could also be the case for other reasons. We'll get to that, you know, what some of those other reasons might be. James has already hinted at it, but the writer of Hebrews is gonna get into some, into the language himself as well. So we shouldn't interpret hardship and suffering as God's hammering me because I'm just, you know, I have this sin problem. Again, that might be in our lives or we could all probably point to those things, but it doesn't have to be. That's not the only way to process this kind of thing. Second thing that we need to sort of get in our heads. We need to understand that there is such a thing in New Testament theology as quote, the obedience of faith. Paul talks about this in Romans one verse five, he actually mentions this twice. I'll read both passages. Romans one five says, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all nations. And then Romans 16, 26. But now has been disclosed and through the prophetic writings has been made known to all nations according to the command of the eternal God to bring about the obedience of faith. Okay, the obedience of faith is believing the gospel. It's choosing to follow the true God and then staying put with that decision. It's not a work that earns merit. The obedience of faith is believing the gospel and sticking with it. It's doing what God wants you to do in response to the whole salvation issue. God doesn't ask you to work, to do lots of works or abstain from bad works so that at the end of the day, the scales tip in your favor and you merit salvation. You've earned it, good job. God doesn't ask you to do that. He asks you to believe in something Jesus did for you. Okay, if you believe that, that's the obedience of faith. Third thought is gonna come from something in verse 15. We're gonna have to improve upon a point of translation in verse 15 that has, again, something to do with all of this. And if I could just telegraph it a little bit. The way the ESV puts it, it's gonna sound like the writer is afraid of people. The phrase he uses is obtaining the grace of God which really sounds odd. Frankly, it's a contradiction. That is not what the text really says. But we'll get to that point anyway. So back to, again, verses three through six. Okay, he's getting after them. Don't quit. Don't quit. Consider, you know, Jesus, you know, look unto Jesus in verse two. Consider, you know, Jesus in verse three, who endured from sinners such hostility against himself. I mean, Jesus was there before you. You know, I know you're under persecution, but don't quit. Don't stop believing. Don't grow weary. Don't, you know, become faint-hearted. In your struggle against sin, you've not yet resisted the point of shedding your blood. And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? Here's a thought. When God allows these believers, when he allowed these believers, are any believers even today to suffer for their faith? Okay, there are lots of examples, Africa, you know, these kind of churches, you know, in Egypt and elsewhere under the threat. You know, legitimate threat of martyrdom, you know, from ISIS or whatever group, you know, who hates them for their faith. When God allows that, he's not allowing it, because, oh, I looked down at your church and there's like two guys in there that just can't give up this sin, so I'm gonna hammer you all. That is really a gross way to process this kind of threat. Okay, they're suffering because Jesus suffered. You know, Jesus said, Marvel not, if men hate you, you know, for my name's sake. Okay, this is going to happen. And when the writer in Hebrews is addressing people who are, they're in that situation. It's illegitimate for us to come, you know, to the letter, you know, okay, it's 2,000 years later, but it's illegitimate for us to come to the letter and then start inserting specific points of behavior. Okay, let's try to keep it in its context. He's concerned that they're going to be pressured to the point where they surrender their faith. It's a lingering problem. It's an ever-present, clear and present danger to them. And he says, look, you're God's children. My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves and chases, chastises every son whom he receives. He's talking to believers. Okay, he's not talking to unbelievers. Let's just keep reading it and we'll come back or we'll stick with the point. We'll add a few nuances here. Verse seven, 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? If you are left without discipline in which you have all participated, then you are an illegitimate children and not sons. 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? 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. Now, some thoughts. Obviously, believers are in view of God's children. He's not talking to people whose sins are resulting in the loss of salvation. Frankly, the writer never actually mentions the commission of sins in this passage. He never mentions that. He just mentions discipline. Now, here's a question for you. Did your parents only try to teach you lessons in response to rules you broke? Is that the only time you put your kids in a situation they don't like or that they need to endure? Do you only do that when they break rules? You know, I would suggest to you that, you know, if you had decent parents, I mean, nobody's a perfect parent. If you had decent parents, sometimes they do things because you just need to learn something about life. It's not because you did anything bad. It's that you just need to learn something. This is good for you. I know it's gonna hurt. I know it's gonna be irritating. I know it's gonna put you in a grumpy mood, but you just need to learn this lesson. Maybe we should be reading this passage again since the writer never actually mentions a specific sin other than the unbelief problem earlier. He never actually points out anything specific, like some moral violation. Maybe we should be reading this passage as something like this, folks, you're faced with life and death persecution now under the sovereignty of God. He is allowing this to happen to you, to build you up. Notice verse 10, he said, he disciplines us for our good. Verse 11, let's just keep reading. 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. Therefore lift up your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees. Notice he doesn't say, therefore improve your moral behavior. Therefore abstain from X, Y, Z. You know, he says, he goes back to the language of endurance. Therefore lift up your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees and make straight paths for your feet. Keep going, just keep going, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone. By the way, there's another clue that the sin is connected to someone hating on them. Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Now, do we read and for the holiness that will certainly certify that we're going to heaven? Is that how we should read that last line? Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness that will certainly certify that you're going to heaven. You've earned it, good job, high five. Is that how we're supposed to read that? Being so holy, God can't say we don't belong there. Is that what the writer wants them to do? Strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness that when God sees it, he's just going to say, look, this is a no brainer, you're in. Is that really how we're supposed to read that? Well, I've heard it preached that way. I've heard it preached that way. Again, that's just, that's a misunderstanding of the gospel. Maybe we should read the reference to holiness here in verse 14, this is just a suggestion. Maybe we should read the reference to holiness here. In light of the reference to holiness, two verses earlier, in verse 10, for they, our human fathers, disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he, God, disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. What does share his holiness mean? Does it mean to share God's living space? You know, like the aura of the spatial place where he is. Okay, does it mean sharing his living space? God disciplines us so that we end up in heaven? Does it mean share his character? God disciplines us so that we become more like him, or specifically more like Christ, who quote, to quote Hebrews again, Hebrews 5.8, who quote, learned obedience through what he suffered. Again, I would suggest, I would suggest that the holiness line here is about God's character. And we won't have God's character, we won't be conformed to Christ unless we believe. So back to verse 14, strive for peace with everyone. Strive, you know, for peace with everyone. You know, like, again, I just hate to keep our habitually here, but so again, if we make the sin of a specific moral behavior, well, you know, good grief, I'm gonna try to not cheat on my wife so that I have peace with everyone. Does that make any sense? Does it make any sense? If the problem though, is that people hate you for what you believe, then it makes sense to, okay, look, be kind to your enemies. Try to live peaceably among all men, as Paul said elsewhere. You know, live peaceably with all men, you know, as you're able. You know, again, that makes a whole lot more sense than some specific point of stopping doing some immoral thing or adding some moral thing to your life, you know, this performance idea. But anyway, back to verse 14, strive for peace with everyone and strive for the holiness, strive for the character of Christ without which no one will see the Lord. Again, I'm suggesting to you that you can't have the character of Jesus, you can't have the holiness of Jesus unless you are a believer, unless you are in Christ, unless you're a member of the body of Christ. Let's ask ourself this question. How did Hebrews, or how has Hebrews talked about or defined holiness earlier or elsewhere in the Epistle? Hebrews 3, 1, let's go back to, again, this is a ground we've already covered, but it comes into play here. Hebrews 3, 1, and then following, it says this, therefore holy brothers, and of course ancestors, you're a holy brethren, you who share in a heavenly calling, isn't that interesting? You're holy because you share in a heavenly calling. Consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, in other words, Jesus obeyed. His obedience is the focus of our heavenly calling. Frankly, it's the only obedience God can count on. You can't count on your obedience against salvation is not by works. Therefore, holy brothers, holy brethren, and you who, those of you who share a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful to him who appointed him, skipped to verse five, Hebrews chapter three. Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, but Christ is faithful over God's house as a son and we are his house. If indeed we eliminate a specific sin, if indeed if we spend X number of minutes in church a week or read our Bible enough or witness enough, or again, if indeed we perform better. Now that's not what it says. It says now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, 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. Who's our confidence and our hope in the book of Hebrews? I mean, how many episodes have we talked about this? Who is that? It's Jesus. Again, it has nothing to do with performance stuff. So let's try to not insert performance into Hebrews 12. Let's try not to do that. And my point here is we have to parse this holiness talk and the sin talk in light of what's preceded in the rest of the letter. All that stuff we've been talking about for weeks now. The threat, the sin that the writer is worried about is the sin of turning your back on the gospel, becoming apostate. It is a lingering ever present danger in their circumstance. That's why he says what you should do instead is endure. And your example of endurance is Jesus. He walked this road before you ever got here. And you have to remember, if God allowed Jesus to suffer, even to the point of death, and he was sinless, he might be allowing you to suffer even to the point of death, not because of any bad thing you've done, but so that your character becomes like his, so that you are conformed to the image of his son. And that would make sense because you share in Christ's holiness. Okay, you are part, you are in him. Any holiness that you can talk about having is his because holiness isn't based upon your moral batting average. It's based upon what Christ did. Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in heavenly calling consider Jesus who was faithful. Again, Hebrews three that I just read there, the obedience of Jesus is the issue. The moral performance of Jesus is the issue. It's the only obedience, the only performance God can count on. He can't count on yours, but he does count on Jesus. And that's the one that matters because all through the book of Hebrews, he is pointing to him as saying, this is the basis of your salvation because Jesus was not only God's son, he's not only your brother, Hebrews chapter two, he is the great high priest. In fact, he's the sacrifice, he sacrifices himself. I mean, everything, all roads lead back to the cross event. This is the issue, not performance. So let's try to read Hebrews 12 in light of what has preceded. Verse 15, see to it. If you remember back to the three things I said we need to process, here's number three, there's a point of translation, it's gonna show up here. See to it, the writer writes, 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. That no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau who sold his birthright for a single meal. For you know that afterward when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected and before he found no chance to repent though he sought it with tears. Now the Esau issue is basically trading that which is eternal to get, if I could put it this way, to get relief in a temporary circumstance. Okay, there under persecution he's telling him, look, you gotta think about Esau. Esau took the easy path, he traded his birthright to quote relieve his suffering, he was hungry, so short-sighted. He's saying don't do that, don't do that. Let's go back to verse 15, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. Now we have a problem here, because I could see someone listening to this saying, well surely, I mean that kind of language has something to do with works mattering for salvation. And therefore our works being part of keeping our salvation. No, the ESV says see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. But guess what? The Greek text doesn't have the words to obtain in it. The Greek text says see to it that no one fails from the grace of God, that no one falls away from the grace of God or no one forfeits the grace of God. You can translate the verb there in several different ways. The point is that the words to obtain are not in the Greek text. Then when you put them in, it makes it sound like there's performance going on. I gotta work hard enough, I gotta work good enough, I gotta be more good than I am bad so that I obtain. I earn, I merit, I achieve the grace of God. All those thoughts are contrary to grace. Now, we kind of know that, but when we see those words in this translation or other translations like it, it again, it marrs and I would say undermines the whole approach of faith. The text, the Greek text says see to it that no one fails or falls from, falls away from the grace of God. Now, if you look at it that way, frankly, the whole thing just falls into place. It is not about obtaining, achieving anything. It's about sticking with it. It's about not giving up the faith. It's about enduring. So again, back to verse 15, just to sort of get the feeling here. See to it that no one falls away from the grace of God. Again, I've made that little adjustment there. See to it that no one gives up. See to it that no one falls away from the grace of God so that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble. See to that. And by it, if this root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, many become defiled. Now, commentators will say this refers back to the Moses episode with Miriam, the Mara bitterness and all that kind of stuff. And it might, I mean, if you think about it, she, there could be a connection point there about her attitude toward what God was doing, maybe. Again, I tend to think in the context here though that it's better about falling away from the grace of God. See to it that no one surrenders their faith because you could have someone that would think this way. Well, I had life pretty good until I became a Christian and it sucks now and I'm bitter. So I'm just gonna chuck it all. I wanna get these people off my back. I don't wanna live under threat all the time. I don't want my property confiscated. I'm outta here. Again, that's not an unfamiliar thing today. I mean, in this context, that makes a lot of sense to talk about bitterness here, but see to it that no one falls away from the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it many become defiled. I mean, people around you, other believers around you, you hear you talking like that, see that you're doing, that can be real problems. They might follow you. That no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau who sold his birthright for a single meal. Again, he's not talking about performance. Well, if I don't commit sexual immorality, then I'm in. Okay, that's easy. Check that box, okay? Now he's talking about people giving up the faith and just living like the world. Okay, just I give up, so I'm gonna do what I want now. Okay, I don't need to even worry about what God says about anything because I don't believe any of this stuff anymore. Now, we all know people like this who have given up their faith and then because they're bitter in response to this thing they're rejecting and spurning, i.e. salvation by faith, they sort of like run the other direction and go off and do X, Y, or Z to sort of like just prove a point. I'm gonna go and join myself now. Like, salvation by the grace of God was such a burden and frankly, maybe it was a burden, maybe because of the way they heard the gospel or heard it misarticulated. Maybe it felt like the gospel, something given to you free should be the last thing in your life that's a burden but the way salvation gets talked about in church, the way it gets linked to performance, I know people personally that were just be blunt. I mean, they were good souls, they were believers, they were sincere, understood the gospel and week after week after week of being bludgeoned by Christian talk that took sanctification, that's where the moral issues are concerned, sanctification, living a certain way because you love God, because you're grateful that he saved you because you wanna be a good testimony to somebody else because you don't wanna destroy your life and the life of others. There's lots of reasons to live holy. Earning salvation isn't one of them but that's how it gets preached, that the two things get connected in the wrong way. Living holy should be a response of gratitude and wanting to be useful to the Lord. It should be a response of gratitude for something given to you freely. It shouldn't be, okay, I gotta keep remembering to do this or not do that so that God loves me now and God loves me enough when I die, I'll get to heaven. Okay, it is not that. Holiness is about a lot of things. Earning your ticket to heaven is not one of them but that is the way when those two things are preached in tandem and you don't take care to articulate their relationship correctly, they get blended in people's minds and salvation, the freest thing in the world becomes an unbearable burden and that is what he's talking about here in Hebrews in this chapter right here. He's afraid people are gonna fall away from the grace of God. He's afraid that they're gonna become bitter against it and when they do, when they start talking about it like it's a burden, they're gonna go off the deep end and again, we all know people that this has happened to and it's just, it's crushing, okay? It's crushing to see this happen to somebody and to know why it's happening because they can't mentally parse these things, the relationship between these two things in the right way and the freest thing in the world becomes the most binding, crushing weight on them and when they quit, they just say, I am gonna go have some fun. I'm gonna get rid of this burden and I'm gonna just, I'm gonna please myself, I'm gonna go out and do this, that and the other thing, okay? That is what he's talking about. He's saying, don't act like that. Don't go off into immorality and just this lawlessness, like Esau who good grief sold his birthright for a single stinking meal. All he cared about was the moment of gratification. All he cared about was having that need met and he saw the obstacle to it or this whole birthright or anything, that was his tool, that was his ticket to get that thing that he wanted. Well, to get what I want, all I gotta do is trade in the gospel, all this theological mumbo jumbo nonsense. Hey, if I just reject that, I can go off this is what he's concerned about. He's not concerned that they behave in such a way that they don't earn their salvation. He's concerned about them rejecting the gospel and just going off the deep end because the gospel to them has become a burdensome thing. That is what scares the writer. And frankly, I get that because I've just seen that happen to people. People become bitter because it becomes a millstone around their neck. And it becomes a millstone instead of the light burden that Jesus talked about, his yoke is light. Instead of that, it becomes a millstone around his neck because people tie it. They tie a free thing to behavior. They make the free gospel about works. Oh, you can have it for free, but to maintain it, to keep God positively predisposed to you you got to do this, that checklist, and times, and abstain from this. Okay, that is Judaizing in its best form. I mean, in its worst form, I'd have other terms for it. That's what's freaking the writer of Hebrews out and what he doesn't want to see happen. So again, it's important to see this kind of language in light of, again, the rest of the stuff in the book. You know, he doesn't want them, again, to become, you know, he doesn't want the whole thing to just sort of, you know, go to hell in a handbasket. He doesn't want to just turn in a burst into flames in front of his whole eyes. You know, this community that he's trying to nurture through the letter, trying to get them through severe persecution, trying to get them to not give up, he doesn't want a domino effect here. That's what's scaring him. Again, a lot of this goes back to Hebrews 6. If somebody abandons faith in the gospel after having understood it, honestly, as we've said before, as the writer said before, there remains no sacrifice for sin. There's no other way. It's that serious. Esau's case, you know, I mean, it's a decent illustration. In Esau's case, it was culturally irreversible. In other words, the right of the firstborn can only be given once and to one person. Isaac couldn't take it back. Even after Esau regretted it, he couldn't take it back because then two people would have the same blessing and you can only have one firstborn. You only have one firstborn blessing by definition. So, I mean, it was culturally irreversible. Here, you know, the gospel, it's not quite the same but it's still an effective illustration because its benefits aren't restricted to one person. Again, the point being made is it's this serious. So this whole thing about, you know, Hebrews 6, you know that, man, if you have somebody who understands the gospel and believes it and then they just chuck it, they just turn from the faith, they say, I do not believe. What else are they gonna go to? There is no other way of salvation. Again, it's just that severe and that's why the writer says in Hebrews 6, you know, for people in this boat, it's nigh on to impossible to have this person come back. Again, we talked about the impossibility language there that it's not totally impossible. You go back to listen to the Hebrews 6 podcast but it's that big of a deal that it, you know, the writer frankly just does not hold out too much optimism. Again, back in Hebrews 6, he doesn't shut the door entirely but there's just a crack there. And we're grateful for the crack but he's saying it's just this serious. Let's just, let's go back to verse 18. I don't wanna rabbit trail too long on that but the writer keeps going with Old Testament kind of analogies or scenes. In verse 18, he says, for you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest. These are Sinai images by the way. This is Exodus 19, 18, 2018. They referred to in Deuteronomy 4, 11 and 522 again but he's saying, look, you know, don't lift up your drooping hands, strengthen your weak knees, you know, keep going, keep enduring. Strive for peace with everybody, try to get along even though they hate you because of what you believe. You know, strive for peace with everyone and for the holiness, for the character of God, have the character of God, have the character of Jesus who was willing to suffer because of the glory that would come. This is what the writer of Hebrews wants them to do, how he wants them to respond, see to it that nobody falls away from the grace of God, becomes bitter and it infects everything and then people just go off on the deep end. Okay, for you know that afterward, you know, after Esau did this, how hard, you know, it was basically not even possible in his situation, it really was, to come back. And then he says, for you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest. Verse 19, the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. Again, it's all that Sinai language too, the trumpet, you know, the voice so loud as a trumpet and then the listeners say, please, you know, make God stop talking, we just can't handle it. It's Exodus 19 verse 16, Exodus 20 verse 19, Deuteronomy 5, Deuteronomy 18, we don't need to go through all the passages. This is the Sinai scene. His point here is that you've not come to the old covenant, you've not come to the old covenant. Verse 20, for they could not endure the order that was given, if even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned. Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, Moses said, I tremble with fear. Again, the point here isn't that when the people were commanded not to touch the mountain back at Sinai, that they just couldn't resist touching it. I mean, we don't read about people just, you know, going up there and touching it and dropping it over dead and droves. That isn't the point of the wording here. Okay, when he says, look, you haven't come, you know, to the old covenant situation where, you know, you're just not able to do enough works. You're just not able to keep the commandments that bring salvation. That's not what he's saying. His point is about enduring. His point is not, you know, again, them not being able to do enough. They just wanted it to stop. You say, well, how does that tie in, you know, how does that tie in with what's come to this point? What he's gonna do here is he's setting up another thought. He's setting up, look, you're under such duress and most of you are Jewish Christians. And if you're not, you know what we're talking about here. This idea of they want you to recant your faith and come back to Judaism. They want you to apostatize from Christianity. But he says, look, look, you're not being offered a Sinai covenant. This isn't like the old covenant where you had this terrifying scene. Again, and you were again put under, you know, a burden that if you got out of line, God was gonna zap you. God was so frightening that you just wanted him to shut up. Okay, you've not, this isn't your situation. The writer of Hebrews is saying, you know what your situation is, verse 22? Instead of coming to the mountain and getting the, you know what, scared out of you. Like that's the God that you're gonna be related to. Okay, you have something so much better. Verse 22, you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and to innumerable angels in festal gathering. Kind of an interesting combination, Zion, heavenly Jerusalem and angels. It's a little rabbit trail here, but it shows the non-literalness on one hand and how these terms, you know, really add up to the presence of God. You know, you've come to God's own abode with his council family. Again, the point is terms like Zion and Jerusalem can refer to non-terrestrial, non-literal, non-earthly realities. Again, if you can only think about the Bible, literally you're gonna be handicapped understanding a lot of it, then this is a good example. He's saying, look, this isn't like the old covenant that was gonna make demands on you that was fearful. You step out of line, you're gonna get hammered, you're gonna get zapped, you're gonna die, you're gonna be stoned, okay? It's not like that. You have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem to innumerable angels in festal gathering. It's a celebration. And verse 23, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled to heaven. This is what awaits you. What awaits you is life in the heavenly Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem with angels, with the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. Again, this is another divine council reference idea. You know, he hit on some of this in Hebrews chapter two. Enrolled here is the term for registered. It's the same word as when Joseph and Mary have to report and the census of Corinius and all that when she's pregnant with Jesus. It's the same thing that to be written down it harkens back to the book of life idea. When we did a whole episode on that in the podcast, he's saying, you're destiny, the covenantal relationship here that you have in Christ is not a fearful one. It's so much better. So he's using this. He's using the contrast of this terrifying scene at Sinai with again, the heavenly realities of being a member of the family of God. He's using that to get to help them to not quit. He's saying, you gotta take the long look. You have to endure this because this is what's coming down the road. Heavenly Zion, heavenly Jerusalem, innumerable angels in festal gathering. They're glad to see you. They're rejoicing. They love it. They can't wait to see you and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven. They're registered there. Well, who are they? What's the assembly of the firstborn? Firstborn here is in Jesus because the noun is plural. You know, other times in the book of Hebrews and other places, firstborn is a reference to Jesus but it's plural here. And it's the same with the following participle. Those who are enrolled, it's plural. We're talking about believers here. People who have already gone on to glory. We're talking about the people in Hebrews 11 and lots of other people. Okay, again, he's picking up this council language. This is the cloud of witnesses from the very first verse. This is what's awaiting you. I'll just keep going here and finish verse 23. 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. And to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant. It's not like the old one. That's Sinai, that's scary stuff. Mediator of a new covenant and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Now look at the list in these couple verses. Here's what those who believe have to look forward to. Living in the heavenly Zion, heavenly Jerusalem, innumerable angels, you live with them, with God, with those who are enrolled, the assembly of the firstborn, the spirits of the righteous made perfect and Jesus himself. And by the way, the spirits of the righteous made perfect is not angels. They've already been listed, the innumerable angels. This follows on the heels of those who are enrolled in heaven. Okay, this is believers who have made the journey before. It's redeemed souls. And by the way, spirits of the righteous made perfect. It's passive in Greek. In other words, they're righteous because something was done to them, not because they performed well. They're not perfected by their own merit. And you can drill down the text in all sorts of ways to make the same point. This is what awaits. This is why he wants them again to take the long look. This is why you need to endure. Because frankly, if you reject all this, the only people who we're gonna find in heaven are believers. We're not gonna find, you're here because you achieved it because of your moral performance and we're not gonna find unbelievers either. We're gonna find believers. Now, Lane's commentary in the word biblical set, he quotes BF Westcott here. And I couldn't resist, I like the Westcott quote, but Westcott of course gets demonized by King James only people. But Westcott has a really nice thing to say here. He says, Lane says, what is striking as Westcott previously noted is that here angels and the people of God are no longer separated like they were at Sinai. Remember that the scene at Sinai and the angels bear witness to the little law given. If you've read Unseen Realm, this is familiar to you. They're no longer separated from us at Sinai, but they're united in one vast assembly. It's a good observation. Lane goes on after he quotes Westcott there to say this, Lecure has shown that the entire formulation of verse 23A, he's talking about verses 23 and 24 here, is rooted in the description of Israel in the Pentateuch. This is interesting. The Israelites are designated as the congregation in Deuteronomy 410 in 1816. While the occasion when God addressed the people at Sinai is called the day of the gathering in Deuteronomy 410, 910 and 1816, the title firstborn was given to the Israelites when God brought them out of Egypt in order to lead them to Sinai. Exodus 4, 22 and 23. Moreover, their names were written in the heavenly register. It's Exodus 32 verses 32 and 33. Couple of references in Isaiah, Isaiah 4, 3, Daniel 12, firstborn in the plural is an apocalyptic title applied to the redeemed community in Second Temple Jewish texts, Jubilees 220, 4th Ezra 658. The fixed metaphor of a heavenly book or register into which the names of people are inscribed or blotted out is rooted in the Old Testament. Now we know this because we did a whole episode on this, but you have Exodus 32, 33, in that case, Isaiah 44, 13, Daniel 12, verse one. This is rooted in the Old Testament and is common in apocalyptic literature. He refers to Jubilees 220 again, 1st Enoch 47 verses three and four, 1st Enoch 104 verse one and 108 verse three. Again, we went over a lot of this in that other episode. So it's rooted in Second Temple literature, specifically apocalyptic literature, which is the visions of the end. It's also in the New Testament, Luke 10, 20, Philippians 4, 3, Revelation 3, 5, so on and so forth. In verse 23b, the expression, the spirits of righteous persons, again made perfect, refers to those who have died, but who now inhabit the heavenly city that is the goal of the pilgrimage of godly men and women under both covenants. This is where everybody wants to wind up. Back to Lane, the choice of this designation for those righteous persons who have died and who now enjoy the divine presence is consistent with the writer's use of the old biblical expression, the father of spirits, back in verse nine, comes from, he has a cross reference here to number 1622 and 2716 in the Septuagint. That description contemplates God in his character as the one to whom the heavenly realm is subject. The formulation in verse 23 has a distant parallel in 1st Enoch 39, 4 through 8, which speaks of the dwelling of the righteous and the heavenly world together with the righteous angels under the protection of the Lord of spirits. That's the end of his quote. So this language, he has this language here, father of spirits and so on and so forth, all these phrases and even the whole concept about us living in the heavenly house of God Zion, that's the mountain Jerusalem, again, that's the city. You've got enumerable angels, God himself, Jesus, the spirits of the righteous made perfect that are enrolled in heaven. Again, he's saying all of that is gonna be something that is familiar to them, both from the Old Testament and Second Temple period Jewish literature. Again, if you've read Unseen Realm, the whole divine counsel thing, and if you haven't, you can go back and listen to the episode on Hebrews 2, where Jesus introduces us to God and God to us. In the quote congregation in the council. So he's saying, look, this isn't like Sinai. Not only is this not the scary place, the scary scene and all that kind of, where the people say, oh, good grief, we don't wanna be anywhere near this, make God stop. He's saying, look, what you have to look forward to, you're not gonna have that reaction. Let's get out of here, make it stop. You're never gonna want it to end. It's gonna be everything that you can possibly conceive and so much more. He's trying to get to use some of these phrases, some of these images that they are gonna know from Old Testament passages that are not scary ones, but they're wonderful ones. And then also the Second Temple stuff. This is, you're gonna be part of God's family. I mean, what more could he say? Verse 25, see that you do not refuse him who is speaking, okay? Now he's gonna say that, listen to God, listen to God. Now, for if they did not escape when they refused him to who warned them on the earth, much less will we escape if we reject him who warns from heaven. 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. In other words, God is telling you how to be saved, how to be part of his family. And if people didn't listen to him in the Old Covenant, there was a price to pay. And the price to pay now is you're gonna lose it all. God is telling you how to be saved. What the basis for your salvation is. It's not something you do, but something done for you by the mediator of the New Covenant who is Jesus. So listen, he's warning you not to turn away or to turn to something else. There's not only no other option, but look at what you're gonna miss. Look at what you're gonna give up. Verse 27, this phrase, yet once more. Got yet once more, I will shake the heaven, the earth, but also the heavens. This phrase, yet once more, indicates the removal of things that are shaken. That is things that have been made in order that things that cannot be shaken may remain. It's kind of an interesting phrase. I'll just finish the chapter here. Therefore, let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom. Let us be grateful. It doesn't say let us work harder. Let us be more perfect. No, 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 for our God is a consuming fire. Now the first shaking of the earth, that's the Sinai language there, is consuming fire imagery. It's gonna make them think about Sinai. The first shaking of the earth as awesome as that was, it just proves that the earth, the old covenant was impermanent. It didn't remain. It didn't work, didn't stick. Israel did apostatize. Okay, we now though have a kingdom that cannot be shaken. In other words, there's nothing that's gonna come after this that's better. See in the Sinai situation, something did come after it that was better and set it aside, made it secondary, made it obsolete. As awesome as it was, as fearsome as it was, all the things that it was, as awesome as it was, it was obsolete. It could be replaced. We have a kingdom that cannot be shaken. It's permanent. Let us come to God then with acceptable worship. Believe what he tells you. Believe that what he tells you that will grant you access to him and his family. Believe in what that is. Again, it's Jesus. Believe that what he tells you will grant you access and then avail yourself of it. In other words, believe the gospel. The warning still applies. God will judge those who reject the permanent salvation he offers. If you reject this kingdom, again, there's nothing that's gonna come later that's gonna make this one obsolete. There won't be a better deal. Okay, this is the end of the road. Only one more time is God going to shake the earth and also the heavens. God's gonna have his way one more time and there's not gonna be anything else that follows it. So if you reject that, if you reject the permanent salvation, the permanent kingdom, instead of being grateful for it and accepting it and taking it, believing it, if you reject the permanent salvation he offers, there's gonna be a price to pay and he is a consuming fire. There is no other way. There is no other chance. So again, he's using this language to convey seriousness, to convey how much better they have it why because he doesn't want them to fall away from the grace of God. That's what scares him. He doesn't want them to succumb to the threat, the specific sin that is just always hanging over their heads. Namely, succumbing to the temptation, a sinning in the sense of rejecting the gospel. That's the thing that he once avoided at all cost. And again, that is the focus of Hebrews 12 and that is entirely consistent with Hebrews 11 and the rest of the book. Mike, going back to verse eight, let us offer to God acceptable worship, sum that up in five sentences. I think it's about response. Acceptable worship is to give God the credit, assign to him the worth that he deserves. And the credit here is providing a means of permanent salvation, providing the means to secure it all. This is back to Hebrews 10 where Jesus and God, the second and first person of the Trinity have that conversation about, okay, if we're gonna do this, you have to go there and I've prepared you a body. Okay, recognizing all of that and worshiping God because of it, giving God all the credit, giving God all the credit and resting in what he has done. That is what God wants in return. All right, there you go. That sounds good. One more chapter to go and then don't forget people, go get your tickets at drmsh.com, look for the Spokane event and get your tickets for the March 2nd through 4th Naked Bible Seminar with Dr. Michael S. Heiser. And Mike, you have anything else you'd like to add? No, again, I just encourage people to come. Again, it'll really, it'll bless the people that have put in an effort into organizing everything and that really want it to be a good event. Okay, with that, I just want to thank everybody for listening to the Naked Bible Podcast, God bless. Thanks for listening to the Naked Bible Podcast. To support this podcast, visit www.nakedbibleblog.com. To learn more about Dr. Heiser's other websites and blogs, go to www.brmsh.com.