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Speaker 1: Life Audio. Good morning, friends and faithful listeners and faithful members, Thank you so much for tuning into the Bible Explained podcast. I'd like to correct something that I said on the podcast yesterday, and this is the second day in a row that I've had to correct something that I've said. I mentioned yesterday on the podcast that worship services should be entertaining because the definition of entertaining is just to keep one's attention, and I think that when you go to church, it should keep your attention. It should be set up in such a way where you are not bored to tears essentially. You know, I've been to churches in my life where that has unfortunately been the case, and it's not very worshipful if you're sitting there, you know, bored to death. But after the episode was published, I felt kind of convicted because I didn't get to the heart of the real problem. It's not really about entertainment. It's about glory given to God. So if you're going to a church service and it's not as entertaining as some would think entertainment is, but it's very worshipful, it's very theologically sound, then I would argue that that church is going down the right path even if they aren't super entertaining. But on the flip side, if a church is truly being entertaining for the sole purpose of giving glory to God, like being really high tech and doing all of these things with a genuine heart of worship trying to give God the glory, then that's also a really solid and sound church. So I just wanted to qualify that that it's not really about how entertaining a church is exactly, but more so about the heart when it comes to how worship services are set up. And I did not make that clear on yesterday's podcast episode, and I'd like to apologize for that. Before today, we're going to be talking about Hebrews chapter five, the entire chapter before we get into today's episode. As you all know, there is going to be an ad break, and while these ads are playing, this is going to be a great time for you to grab your coffee and also your Bible out of the version that you prefer, or your cup of tea for you crazy tea drinkers, so or if you already have your coffee, you can go take some time to heat it up in the microwave, or grab yourself another cup. So while this ad is playing, go ahead and get yourself cozy and do all those things. Alrighty, With all of that said, let's go ahead and jump into Hebrews chapter five. As always, I'll be reading from the web. Let's give reverence to God's word together. For every high priest, being taken from among men, is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. The high priest can deal gently with those who are ignorant and going astray, because he himself is also surrounded with weakness. Because of this, he must offer sacrifices for sins for the people as well as for himself. Nobody takes this honor on himself, but he is called by God, just like Aaron was so also Christ. It didn't glorify himself to be made high priest, but it was He who said to him, you are my son. Today I have become your father. As he also says in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchisedek. He in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who is able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear, though he was a son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him, the author of eternal salvation, named by God, a high priest after the order of Melchisedek. About him, we have many words to say and hard to interpret, seeing how you have become a dull of hearing. For although by this time you should be teachers, you again need to have someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the revelations of God. You have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who lives on milk is not experienced in the words of righteousness, for he is a baby. But solid fe food is for those who are full grown, who by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern good and evil. I'm not gonna lie. When I was reading the very end of that for you, guys, I was having a hard time not cracking up during the middle of it, because you know, we don't know who wrote the Book of Hebrews. But man, the ending just sounds like Paul where he's like, you guys have made yourselves into babies. You are infantilizing yourselves, and that's not good. And unfortunately I have to speak down to you because you guys are a bunch of children. That sounds like Paul a lot, quite honestly. But starting in verse one, here's what the author says, for every high priest being taken from among men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. And then he continues on in verses two through five with the same kind of idea, explaining what the high priest was supposed to do. Because remember, the Book of Hebrews was obviously written to the Hebrew Christians, the people who believed in Jesus but were born Jewish and understood a lot of things about the high priest and the Old Testament laws and all of that stuff. So the reason he's explaining the office of the high priest is to bring it forward into Jesus and to begin to explain how the office of the high priest has now changed. So he says, every high priest being taken from men is appointed for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. So that right there is the basic function of the high priest. He is appointed by God for the service of the people, so that they can get closer to God. And part of that role of the high priest was to offer gifts and sacrifices to God on behalf of the people. Then in verse two, the high priest can deal gently with those who are ignorant and going astray because he himself is also surrounded with weakness. Now, that is something, unfortunately that the high priest did not have in the days of Jesus, because the office of the high priest had become so politicized. There's so much red tape around it, and it became corrupt. It was all about politicking in the days of Jesus, Whereas, in contrast, when God made the office of the high priest back in the Old Testament, the high priest was supposed to be somebody that could relate to the people who had the same sins, the same struggles, the same weaknesses as the people. And because of that, the high priest then would understand compassion and forgiveness because he himself also struggled with these things. So the high priest was not really supposed to judge the people, but kind of the opposite actually, if you think about it, the high priest was supposed to intercede for the people. He was supposed to help the people seek God and seek forgiveness through the offerings and the sacrifices. Generally, the high priest was not a judge. On occasion that would happen. For example, I believe Samuel, the last judge of Israel, was also the high priest, But generally the high priest was different from a judge. But unfortunately, the high priest never really did what he was supposed to do. He either became a very judgmental person, kind of like in the days of Jesus where the Pharisees were always judging the people and acted holier than now, or the high priest was just going right along with the sins of the people and not doing anything to help them get closer to God. So the high priest never really did what he was supposed to do. But in an ideal world, the way God had it set up, the high priest was supposed to help the people get closer to God by interceding for them. Then in verse three of Hebrews five, because of this, he must offer sacrifices for the sins of the people as well as for himself. Nobody takes this honor on himself, but he is called by God, just like Aaron was. So the office of the high priest was not something that just anybody could become. The high priest was appointed by God, was called specifically by God. It was never supposed to be a political office where people could like vote you in. God himself would choose who the high priest was supposed to be. But again, that is not how things were really done, unfortunately. But then in verse five, after explaining what the high priest was supposed to do, the author goes on to explain how Jesus became the high priest. And we've talked about this concept a handful of times before, already in the book of Hebrews. I believe it was mentioned in Hebrews two and also Hebrews three. And now we're going to get a lot more into this topic in the next few chapters. So he says in verse five, so also Christ didn't glorify himself to be made a high priest but it was he who said to him, you are my son. Today, I've become your father. So Jesus did not glory himself essentially to be come the high priest. Rather, he was appointed to become the high priest. The author brings forward a verse found in the Book of Psalms. You are my son today, I have become your father. Now a lot of people get really confused actually about this verse, because we know that it's talking about Jesus. But we also know that Jesus was not born. He has existed from the very beginning. That is what John chapter one says. He is God. He is the same as God, so he's always existed. How does this make sense that Jesus is the father's son and today the Father became Jesus's father. This verse is not talking about God conceiving Jesus or anything like that. This verse is talking about God showing the entire world that Jesus is his son. And when did this happen? When did this prophecy from the Book of Psalms come to fruition. It came to fruition when Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Because Jesus, with his resurrection proved that he was God, proved that he was God's son. All of the disciples that saw Jesus when he was resurrected now truly and surely understood that Jesus was the Messiah, that he was the son of God. And with his resurrection he was appointed as the high priest. As he says, also in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Malchisedec. Now I'm not going to get into Malchisedek just now, because I believe Hebrews seven is going to go a lot more in depth about Malchisedek, so I'm not going to discuss that now, But essentially, just understand that one of the reasons why Jesus did not have to be a Levite in order to become the high priest was because the order of the Levites is now gone. Jesus is now part of the order of Malchisedec, not the Levites. And I'll get into what that means more in depth once we hit Hebrews seven. But continuing on in Hebrews five, it says he, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear, though he was a son, yet learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him, the author of eternal salvation, named by God a high priest after the order of Malchisedek. So with Jesus's resurrection, he also became our high priest. Human beings no longer needed to be high priests anymore. They were imperfect high priests, as we already know because if you look through the entire Old Testament, they were never doing what they were supposed to be doing. So human high priests are no longer needed or necessary because we have a perfect high priest. And it says right here that Jesus was made perfect through his obedience. So let's talk about that concept a little bit because it's it's confusing. You know, we know that Jesus was a son of God. It says right here that though he was a son, he learned obedience by the things which he suffered. Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him, the author of eternal salvation. So Jesus was the son of God right, meaning before he came to earth, he lived up in heaven in perfection. He was God, and he showed up many times actually in the Old Testament as God himself. Even before Jesus came down to earth. The prophets would talk about the Son of God, the Messiah, the Holy One. So people knew this about God. In fact, in the very first chapters of the Bible, in Genesis, God calls himself We, so people knew. People understood that there was a trinity even back in the Old Testament, and Jesus was the son of God, he was God himself. But still when he came down to earth, he had to learn obedience, is what is said. And this is not to say that Jesus was disobedient until he became obedient, because we know, based upon other things that Hebrews has said that Jesus was without sin, and we know that disobedience equals sin. So Jesus was always obedient. And you might be like, well, then how does this make sense. How did he learn obedience if he was always obedient? Well, think about it this way. Since Jesus was God before he came down to earth, he never had to obey anything. He was the one who was to be obeyed, So obviously Jesus knew what obedience was. And when he came down to earth, he was obedient. But he had to experience obedience for himself, which is not something that he ever had to do. When he lived up in heaven, he never had to obey because he was the one giving all the orders. But now down on earth he had to experience what obedience actually felt like, what it truly meant to obey. Right before he went to the cross in the Garden of Death, semone, he struggled with obedience. He didn't want to die and experience a miserable death, and who knows what else. You know, the suffering I'm sure was not fun, But there was a spiritually dark element that Jesus had to deal with as well. On our behalf, he had to experience the full wrath of God, the wrath of human beings and the wrath of God. Which I'd rather experience the wrath of human beings than the wrath of God. And even Jesus himself said that he told his disciples, don't fear those who can kill the body. Rather fear the one who can not only kill your body, but can also so cast your soul into Gehenna. Jesus experienced both the wrath of man and the wrath of God, and he had to be obedient in order to do that. So Jesus truly experienced what it meant to be obedient. Obedient to the point of death, even death up on a cross, is what scripture says. And all of this obedience that he did proved his perfection. It says in verse nine, having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him, the author of eternal salvation. Now, notice something about that verse. It says he became to all of those who obey him, the author of eternal salvation. Not too long ago, when we discussed Hebrews chapter three, I talked in some detail about James chapter two, where it says that the demons believe in God, and they even shudder at his name and his presence, but they don't have a true faith God. And this verse right here is describing that very thing. Having been made perfect, he became to all of those who obey him, the author of eternal salvation. Not too long ago, my husband and I were discussing this concept of what it really means to be saved. And this is something that I've been pondering myself, especially going through the Book of Hebrews, because growing up in the church that I grew up in, they were really big on the sinner's prayer. Essentially, if you could get somebody to say the sinner's prayer, which was Jesus, I'm a sinner, I accept you into my heart and I believe in you, then that meant that that person was saved. As long as they said the sinner's prayer, that meant they were saved. Other churches might say, as long as you are baptized into that church, you are saved. But is that really what salvation is? Being baptized into a church denomination or saying a sinner prayer. And so this is where I'd like to kind of go through the concept of how to be saved. The easiest answer comes from Acts, chapter sixteen, verses twenty nine through thirty two. This is where Paul is thrown into prison Paul and Silas and they convert this jailer who almost died because he thought that Paul and Silas escaped. So the jailer goes and asks Paul and Silas, how can I be saved? Essentially, so this is Acts sixteen, starting in verse twenty nine. The jailer called for lights, sprang in and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas, and he brought them out, and he said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? They said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household. They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who are in his house. So that right there proves that if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Okay, and the word Christ, there is very important. Which, by the way, the word Christ is not Jesus's last name, which is what a lot of people think. It is. No, the word Christ means Messiah, the son of God. Essentially, if you believe in the fact that Jesus is the son of God, and that he came to earth and he died for your sins, then you, in fact will be saved. So it is true that if somebody is genuinely praying the sinner's prayer, not just repeating after the pastor which is what they always did, but genuinely saying a sinner's prayer and accepting Jesus into their heart, then they will be saved. But a prayer isn't even necessary actually, because Paul says that all you have to do is believe, So you don't necessarily have to say a sinner's prayer or anything like that. In order to be saved. You just have to believe what the Bible says. It has to be true faith on your part, true faith that Jesus was in fact real, that he died for your sins, and that he resurrected on the third day. Those are the basics of becoming. But going back to our passage for today, Hebrews five, it says in verse nine again he became to all of those who obey him, the author of eternal salvation. Faith and obedience go hand in hand. You can't really have faith without obedience, and you can't really have true obedience without faith. For example, if you just obey the principles of the Bible, if you're like a cultural Christian, let's say you think the principles of the Bible are good and you want to obey those things, you're not doing anything different than what the pharisees did in the days of Jesus. And I'm not calling you a pharisee because you might not have the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, but you're not really doing anything different. Then Let's say Paul did before he believed in Jesus. You know, he was always obeying what the law said. He followed the laws to a tee. Actually, it's very possible that Paul wanted to become the next high priest. Actually he was doing these things for himself. He didn't have a true faith. His salvation in his mind, was based upon his works, which is why Paul rebelled very hard against that mindset. After he became a Christian, he no longer believed that works could save Even if you follow the Old Testament to a t, it is not going to save you because works can't save you. So you can have the obedience, but if you don't have the faith, it's just nothing but works. But on the flip side, you can't really have faith without obedience either, because again you become like the people in the wilderness who only believed that God existed and didn't have any of the obedience. So they would go and worship God, and they'd say, yeah, God, you know, I'm going to give you my lip service for today, and I'm going to worship you and offer this thingy for you, and you know, give you all this stuff, and then I'm going to go over to this you know, ash or occult and sleep with a prostitute. They didn't have the obedience. They believed that God existed. They knew that God existed, actually, but they did not have the obedience that came with that understanding. And they also weren't truly saved. Again, what is James chapter two says, even Satan knows that God exists and he trembles at him. Good for you, you believe that God exists. Good, But show me through your obedience that God exists. Show me your faith through your obedience. So faith and obedience go hand in hand. And we're not going to get it perfect every single time either. In fact, obedience is learned because one of the things that Jesus said, right before he has sent it up into heaven was the great commission. He said, go into all the world, preach the Gospel to every creature, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And then the part that a lot of people often leave out, including myself, I usually only quote the first part, teaching them to obey all my words or something along those lines. I don't have that part memorized, but it's essentially teaching the people to obey. So obedience is learned. Even Jesus himself says learned obedience. However, faith and obedience do go hand in hand. And actually the jailer who was told all these things by Paul, you know, to believe in Jesus, he immediately exercised obedience after believing in Jesus. And you know what he did. He brought Paul and Silas out of prison. He dressed their wounds, so he showed love to them, and then he was baptized by them. That was his first step into obedience. And that is something, interestingly enough, that a lot of Christians just won't do. They don't want to get baptized after becoming saved. But that's like the first step to obey Jesus is getting baptized. And I'm not trying to guildt anybody if you are not ready to be baptized, I would never, ever, ever, in a million years, expect you to get baptized. You should not be getting baptized because you feel forced into it. You have to be ready to take that step yourself. But if you are a Christian that's been a Christian for a long time and for whatever reason, you can't take that step into getting baptized when you're just not ready for it, it might be really wise for you to pray on that issue and maybe ask God, like, what is keeping me from getting baptized? Is it? Maybe you know, fear of my family not liking it, fear of being judged, fear that I'm not good enough to be baptized, or fear that I'm not worthy for God's love. Really analyze yourself and ask that question, why have I not taken that step of obedience, that first step of obedience in my Christian walk. But the good news is in order to be saved, all you have to do is to believe in Jesus. You don't have to say a sinner's prayer, you don't have to be baptized into a church. You are saved. I mean, even the sinner up on the cross, though he was not baptized because he couldn't be, he was still saved Jesus told him today you will be with me in Paradise. And we know that that man did not get baptized, so you can be saved without getting baptized. But obedience and faith go hand in hand. And that's what James says as well. He says faith without works, you know the work of obedience. Faith without works is dead. Not saying it's not there, but it is dead. It is not alive. Your faith is not flourishing, it's doing nothing. Here's the thing in a nutshell. Because Jesus became obedient for us to the point of the most excruciating like that is literally where the word excruciating comes from. Is crucifixion, to the most excruciating death you can possibly experience, and also the wrath of God being poured out on him, which is far worse than any excruciating death. If Jesus can do those things for us and become obedient for our souls when he didn't have to be, when he was God, when he could have ordered us to obey him, If Jesus can obey for our sakes, then certainly we should take steps, maybe slow steps, certainly imperfect steps into obedience to Jesus. All right, faith listeners, I'm going to close out Hebrews five by discussing verses eleven through fourteen at the end here. But before I do that, here is the last ad break for today. So in verses eleven through fourteen, the author of Hebrews talks about how the Hebrew Christians became dull of hearing, and he basically calls them babies, and he says the reason he has to start at these rudimentary principles is because the people have lost their ability to understand, and they did it to themselves. Is what the author claims here. It says, you have become dull of hearing. And how they probably did that was by going back to the rudimentary principles of the Old Testament law, trying to be saved through works, or maybe being like the Corinthian Church was. Remember how we talked about the Corinthian Church. They believed they could do anything they wanted because of God's grace. There was two opposite viewpoints that the early Christian leaders were constantly struggling with. Either Christians who said we can do whatever we want because of God's grace, or Christians who kept trying to earn salvation for themselves, but it's neither of those things. Having true faith in Jesus means obeying his word, not trying to work for salvation for ourselves, and also not just going off and doing whatever we want to do. There's a cringey old hymn that you guys might know. I always thought it was kind of cringe as a little kid, and I still think it's cringey. However, the lyrics are kind of true. It says trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus except to trust and obey. It's the truth. Obedience and faith go hand in hand. But even believing in Jesus in and of itself is kind of an act of obedience. So maybe faith and obedience kind of start at the exact same time, where once you give your heart over to Jesus, that's an act of obedience to him. But I'm definitely not trying to confuse you guys or make it seem like there's something more that you need to do in order to be saved. Jesus does the saving work. It says right here in verse nine that Jesus became the author of eternal salvation. So Jesus did the work for us up on the cross and on the tomb, and in order to be saved, all we have to do is believe in Him, humble ourselves before him, take that first step into faith and obedience by truly putting your trust in him. Moving past this baby state the author talks about at the very end here into becoming mature adults in the Christian faith. And how we do that is by taking little steps of obedience and faith, by learning more about Jesus and following the path he wants us to go, basically submitting to His will in our lives. So, faithful listeners, I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I will see all of you guys on Monday. If I don't see you all tomorrow for the Bible explained on Fridays, which, by the way, I forgot to tell you guys, you don't have to go through PayPal anymore if you want to become a member. I set up something on my website. So if you go to www dot p forty ministries dot com and click the more tab, you'll see an option where it says plans and pricing and when you click on that, it will say become a member to gain access to the Friday podcast. And that's a way that you can bypass PayPal if you don't want to go through PayPal, which I've actually had a handful of people reach out to me and tell me that they don't like PayPal and don't want to go through it, but would still like to support me. So this is a way you can bypass PayPal and still gain access to the Bible Explained on Fridays if you would like to do that, So that will be linked in the description of this episode. If you don't want to support me through KOFE, I completely understand. So upgrade from being faithful listeners to faithful members today. All righty guys, have a wonderful rest of your day. I'll see you all on Monday, bright and early, happy listening, and God bless. I just want to take a second to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with me on the Bible Explain podcast. In fact, if you go to lifeaudio dot com you will find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network. They've got shows about prayer, Bible study, parenting, and more.