Norman McNulty: The Book of Hebrews

Norman McNulty

Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Hebrews 12:5-29 “The Highway to Mount Zion”

Father in heaven, we thank you for this Sabbath day.

Help us to learn things that will open our eyes.

Alright, so again We're going to be picking up in Hebrews chapter 12, and as a brief review from last week, we covered the concept of verses 39 and 40 in Hebrews 11, where it talks about the heroes of faith, how they all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

And just by brief way of review, these all, including Enoch who was translated, Moses who was resurrected, have received not the promise, what is that?

That they without us should not be made perfect.

The word perfect is tied to the word perfect in Hebrews 10, which describes the blotting out of sin.

And so even Enoch and Moses who are in heaven have not had their sins blotted out because that's what happens at the end of the judgment in the heavenly sanctuary on the day of atonement.

And so then in verses 1 through 4, we are given the exhortation to run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

When we get to the end of that race, we'll have the same faith that Jesus has.

We run with patience, and Jesus, who is seated at the right hand of God, He's the author and finisher of our faith, but He's also described as our high priest at the right hand of God in Hebrews 8, and as our high priest, He writes His law into our hearts and minds, and If He writes His law into our hearts and minds, that means we will be an obedient people.

We run with patience and at the end of the race we have the faith of Jesus.

So that combination, you see the 144, 000.

That's the group of people who are translated without seeing death.

And they are the group of people that because of them all those who obtained a good report through faith will receive the promise of being made perfect or in other words having their sins blotted out in the judgment.

So that's a brief review of what we looked at last week.

And I think I'll pick it up in verse 3 this week.

And there's some interesting, some very interesting points in the remainder of Hebrews chapter 12.

Of course, we spent a lot of time talking about verses 1 through 4, but we're going to look at what the rest of the chapter describes.

So picking up in verse 3 it says, For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds, ye have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin." So when we run this race with patience, there is going to be plenty of opportunities to become weary and faint in our mind.

And what Paul is exhorting us to do is to consider him, consider Jesus.

Look at what Jesus went through when he inured such contradiction of sinners against himself.

And when we consider Him, when we look to Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith, He will help us to resist unto blood striving against sin.

Now I almost forgot to mention this again, but some of you have asked, You know, where does Ellen White say that Paul is the author of Hebrews?

And I was going to say this last week, and I'll just mention it this week.

This is 1 place, there's probably other places.

She's specifically referring to Hebrews chapter 12, verses 1 and 2.

This is found in Review and Herald, October 18, 1881, paragraph 6 if you're on the CD-ROM, and she refers to running the race and how Paul exhorts us to run the race, And then she goes to 1 Corinthians 9, 24 through 27.

And then she goes to the passage in 2 Timothy where Paul says, I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course.

And she connects those 3 passages together, Hebrews 12, 1 Corinthians 9, and 2 Timothy about running the race.

So very clearly if you believe Ellen White is inspired then you'll believe that Paul is the author of Hebrews.

So we Consider Jesus who endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself.

And Paul says, look, you have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin.

So the moment you become weary and faint in your minds in this pathway of life, you sin.

And if we look to Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith, He will help us in our fight against sin in this life as well.

Now we're going to continue on here, picking up in verse 5.

It says, And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children.

My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.

For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

If ye endure chastening, God dilleth with you as with sons, for what son is he whom the Father chasteneth not.

Now when you look at those 3 verses, there are 5, 6, and 7, does it make you think of any other passage of Scripture?

Revelation chapter 3, Jesus gives a chastening message to the Laodicean church.

He says, we think we're rich and creased with goods, have need of nothing, but actually we're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked.

And then in verse 19, he says, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, be zealous therefore and repent.

You see the similarity in language to Hebrews 12?

So who Jesus loves, he rebukes and chastens.

And in Hebrews 12, Paul is saying, look, my son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.

So it's interesting when you look at the passage earlier, it says, consider him when you endure such contradiction of sinners against yourself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds.

And in verse 5 it says, faint not when you're rebuked of the Lord.

So sometimes when we're called to run this race with patience, that means to endure the chastening of the Lord.

And the Lord allows us to be chastened or to be tried by having to deal with people who try our patience.

Look, Jesus endured the contradiction of sinners against himself.

What do we do when we are placed in trying circumstances and we're with people that, let's say, they get on our nerves, and we feel like giving them a piece of our mind, so to speak.

Do we consider Jesus who endured the contradiction of sinners against himself, he opened not his mouth but committed all to God that judges righteously, or do we speak up for ourselves and fight for our rights?

That's 1 of the ways, it's not the only way, but that's certainly 1 of the ways that the Lord allows us to be chastened.

Of course, He also rebukes us, and that rebuking message is the Laodicean message that we think we are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.

And that is in essence spiritual language because Jesus says, you know not that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked.

And we've talked about this before, but the word wretched is also found in Romans 7, described the man of Romans 7 who doesn't do the things he wants to do and he does the things he doesn't want to do and at the end of the chapter he says, O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death.

And the word miserable in the Laodicean message is found in 1 other place, that's 1 Corinthians 15, that describes the man who in this life only has hope in Christ.

And many in Laodicea think that in this life that they're on their way to heaven, but actually it's only a hope in this life because they're going to find out in the resurrection that they came up in the wrong resurrection and that their hope in Christ was only in this life on earth but not for eternity.

So that's a spiritual message and it's a message of rebuke.

But Jesus is saying, look, I love you and I want you to be with me.

And Paul is saying, look, if we are sons of God, we should be able to endure the chastening of the Lord, and we should not faint when we are rebuked of him, because the Lord loves whom he chastens.

And if we endure chastening, then God dealeth with us as with sons.

And then continuing on, verse 8, but if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons." So it's like, if a father has a son and then there's someone that doesn't belong to him, more than likely he's going to deal with his son and get his son in shape and he'll let whoever's in charge of this other child deal with that person.

So if God isn't chastening us, then we aren't really his children.

And we should be thankful that He chastens us because that shows that He loves us and we're His children.

So we should be thankful for the trials that He allows us to pass through.

Proverbs 3, 11 says, My son despised not thou the chastening of the Lord.

Verse 9, continuing on says, Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence.

And I would think it would be fair to say that, you know, we think back to our fathers, probably more often than not, the fathers are the 1 who come across as being maybe a little bit more stern, and they give a little bit more discipline, the mothers give a little bit more of the love.

Of course, it's love from both angles, just a different flavor of it.

But when we think about our fathers, we look back and you're like, I'm so glad that My dad told me that the way I talked in front of those people when I was 7 years old was inappropriate and he spanked me for it.

Because if I had developed a habit of continuing to do that, I would be a complete jerk today.

I'm thankful for my father keeping me in line.

And we're like, man, I'm so glad for my father, how he appropriately disciplined me.

And so we give them reverence and we think back and we say, you know, my dad did the best that he could and I'm thankful for how He loved me and took care of me and kept me in line, so to speak.

So if we give our fathers that kind of reverence for disciplining us in that respect, shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits and live?

So if we give reverence to our earthly fathers, shouldn't we also feel that way about God the Father?

That He chastens and rebukes us because He wants us to be with Him in heaven forever.

So He allows us to be chastened and to be rebuked, to prune or purge the things in our lives that would keep us from being with Him forever.

Verse 10, for they, our earthly fathers, verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure, that he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness." So why does God allow us to be chastened?

So that we might be partakers of His holiness.

Verse 11, now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous.

Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

Danny Kwon

Perfect in Weakness

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I want to thank you for this Sabbath day.

And Lord, as I share my testimony here this morning, Lord, may your Holy Spirit speak through me and anoint my lips, and may you be glorified in everything that is said, and what doesn't need to be said, please let it not be said.

Please turn your Bibles to 2 Corinthians 12, chapter 12.

2 Corinthians 12, And we will be reading verses 9 and 10.

But he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

That is why, for Christ's sake, I delighted weaknesses in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties, For when I am weak, then I am strong." I really like these 2 verses.

I think they're extremely eloquent and they really summarize the character of God and his power and how he operates.

You know, going back to the beginning, I guess, of my life, if it's true that addictions are hereditary, I probably took after my grandfather.

While my father was the picture of perfect discipline and very industrious and hardworking, my grandfather was known in his town to be quite the womanizer and drunk.

And being an executive for the local tobacco company, he died at a fairly early age of lung cancer.

And I was just always very mischievous and curious and loved to take risks.

And if it meant that my life was in danger or there was like a thrill involved, I wanted to do it.

Now I was raised in an Adventist home by good Adventist parents.

My parents, They immigrated from Korea when I was 2 years old.

My mother was a nurse, my father was an accountant.

And they graduated from the Adventist College in Korea.

And my name is Danny because my favorite Bible character was Daniel.

And I needed an English name because my Korean name, Hyojoon, was too hard to say, they said.

So I've, you know, but growing up, you know, it just seemed like, especially in the academy that I was attending and in the church I was attending, it just seemed like there was just no way that I could be perfect.

There was no way that I could, by myself, become the ideal Adventist young man.

And so my approach was just to say, forget it.

You know, I don't really want this anymore.

And you know, I was the typical, prototypical lukewarm Christian.

I would go to church because I had to, but would just live my life any way I wanted to for the rest of the week and for the rest of the day on Sabbath after church.

And you know, The Lord was still alive and working in my life, and I never really paid attention.

And looking back, 1 of my first experiences that I should have really known that God was trying to get my attention was when I got into trouble in Michigan.

I was attending Cedar Lake Academy and I went for a home leave at Andrews University and I got involved with a group of friends and we stole like over $5, 000 worth of computer equipment And we got arrested.

We thought we'd be really smart and we would just take all the computer equipment back to our dorm rooms and use it and nobody would like suspect anything was so strange.

And so we got caught and I spent a month in a juvenile detention facility in Benton Harbor.

And if any of you guys have been to that area, it's a pretty scary, Benton Harbor's a pretty scary town.

And I was in the juvenile lockup facility there.

It was like a kid's jail, but there was cells where the doors opened, you step forward, cell closed behind you, cell open in front of you, you went into population and they only fed, you could only use a spoon because people would make shanks out of forks and knives and things like that.

So it was a pretty scary place and within the very first day, you know, guys were trying to figure me out because I was the only Asian guy there and I was really skinny and they couldn't figure out why I was in there.

I was surrounded by murderers, rapists, you know, thieves and So they were coming up to me and they were like, yo man, teach me some karate.

And because they figured he must know something.

And so I was sitting there 1 day reading a comic book.

And the alpha male of the whole group, this really large young man, he took the comic book out of my hands and started hitting me in the face with it and said, yo man, teach me some karate.

And so stupidly, I swore at him, you know.

And next thing I knew, a fist came flying and hit me.

I turned my head to try to, you know, my glasses flew off.

I flew to the ground, and I'm not a very good fighter.

I knew that I was gonna like just be like torn to bits.

But I was dazed, I could barely move, I was on the ground, and he was just sort of standing there, and then the guards jumped on me, jumped on him, and I spent the rest of the day locked up in my cell, and then I came for supper, they let me back out.

And I saw him in the cafeteria, and he had a cast on his hand.

And he came over to me, and he was like, yo, man, you got 1 hard head.

And I may be hard-headed, but I don't have a hard head.

And so, you know, an angel must have, you know, helped me out there.

And so he became my friend, and he, and I did all his homework, and I survived.

And so, but you know, my heart was still really stubborn.

And after I got out of there, I, you know, just continued to, like I said, whatever was exciting and interesting, I gravitated towards that.

I gravitated towards friends that were not good for me and I knew weren't good for me.

And I started smoking marijuana and cutting class.

I play the cello, so I had a scholarship to go to Southern College, Southern Adventist University as it's called now.

But I didn't go to class, I was smoking weed every single day and I got kicked out, not once, but twice from Southern College.

And I wanted to be in a rock band, and I wanted to just live my life.

And The church that I attended in Winnipeg had a large West Indian population, and these were friends that I grew up with.

They were partying by this time, stage in life, and I was hanging out with essentially what I guess the police would refer to as the Jamaican gangs.

And we were all into, they were into drugs and prostitution primarily.

And so it was just a great, if you're like looking for excitement, scene to be part of.

And you know, I started dealing drugs and I started dealing cocaine.

I figured I knew how to make money at it and be good at it.

But the way sin is, is that the more you dabble in it, the more you play with it, the more it will just destroy you.

And before you know it, I wasn't dealing it anymore, I was using it, and 1 thing led to another.

And, you know, when I finally realized I needed to check into rehab, and when I checked into drug rehab, I weighed 115 pounds.

I weigh 175 pounds now, so you can imagine how skinny and pathetic I looked.

You know, 30 days in rehab, I regained a lot of weight, a lot of strength.

But within 6 hours after I left, I was using again.

Without God, you know, your weaknesses become even more amplified.

And, you know, within a few months of that, I was really bad, you know.

I was using needles, it was really bad, and I owed money to everybody.

I even owed money to a loan shark who was trying to break my legs.

And so I realized I needed to get out of the city.

And I saw an ad in the newspaper that said, sell air purifiers, you know, and come for this meeting at this hotel.

So I went to the hotel, and it was out of town, so that was the key, that they would pay for your expenses and take you out of town.

So I went to this meeting, and it was just this really clever demonstration on air purifiers that also doubled as vacuum cleaners.

So I got involved in vacuum cleaner sales and moved to Alberta and went to a small town called Grand Prairie, Alberta and trained for 2 weeks and memorized the spiel and everything and there was about 40 of us, and we were having a great time.

But I was away from the hard drugs, but I was still drinking, and we were smoking weed, and it was a partying bunch.

But by the end of those 2 weeks, we started sales and we hit the town.

And you know, it was door-to-door sales and there was a competition for 30 days.

Whoever sold the most in that 1 month would win the prize.

Hebrews 11:39-12:4 Jesus and the Last Generation

So as Stephanie said from up front, we're continuing our study through the book of Hebrews, and this week is probably 1 of the high points of our study in this book.

We are concluding Hebrews chapter 11 and studying the first few verses of Hebrews chapter 12, And this really is 1 of the climaxes of the book of Hebrews.

So 2 weeks ago, we went through most of Hebrews chapter 11.

And 1 of the key points to take away from Hebrews chapter 11 is that those who live by faith are pilgrims and strangers here on this earth.

You can tell that those who are living by faith don't belong here on this earth.

And in verse 14 it says, they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

And it's a good reminder to us, if we ask ourselves the question, do our lives declare plainly that we're seeking the heavenly country, or are we fitting in nicely here on this earth?

Because there is a difference when we live by faith and we see some of the examples, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and there's a whole list of other characters.

And When you get to the end of Hebrews chapter 11, it talks about people who escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, women received their dead, raised to life again.

Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.

And verse 37 is 1 of the interesting verses in this chapter.

Verse 37 says, they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with a sword.

They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented." And then notice the first part of verse 38.

It says, "'Of whom the world was not worthy.'" And we should ask ourselves the question, is the world not worthy of us, or are we very worthy to fit right into this world?

Because those who live by faith, the world was not worthy to have these people walking on the earth.

They were really as if they were already living in heaven and the world was not worthy to contain them here because these people were so faithful.

And it's interesting, some people escaped death, God delivered them, other people did not.

And in both instances they demonstrated faith.

So sometimes when you exercise faith you don't know what the end result is going to be until you get to the other side.

It may be deliverance, it may be death so that you may obtain a better resurrection.

And some of the key characters, of course, through chapter 11 of Hebrews, there's of course Abel, Enoch, Noah, we've talked about Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah, Moses is mentioned here, and there's a list of other people that are mentioned in passing.

And when we think of these people, you know, we do think about the heroes of faith.

We think about Abraham as the father of the faithful.

So It's a very poignant chapter describing faith.

Abraham leaving his home country, he doesn't know where he's going, but he just follows God.

Abraham and Sarah have faith to conceive Isaac, even though they're past childbearing age.

Moses, by faith, turns away from the riches of Egypt and he chooses rather to suffer affliction with the people of God.

Now, we basically got to the end of chapter 11 last time, but we didn't have time to really spend really any thoughtful time on verses 39 and 40.

This is where we're going to pick things up today and we're going to go into chapter 12.

Back to Menu

All Teachings

Hebrews 12:5-29 “The Highway to Mount Zion”

44m

Perfect in Weakness

34m

Hebrews 11:39-12:4 Jesus and the Last Generation

39m

The Great Omission

42m

The Most Important Sermon Jesus Ever Preached

33m

Hebrews 11:8-40 Pilgrims and Strangers

43m

Avenues of the Soul

40m

Are you at the place?

32m

As You Think

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Picking Up the Pieces: Learn the Lessons, Get it Right

1h

The Door Was Open: But We Didn’t Go Through

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Kellogg vs. the Ministry: A Century of Collateral Damage

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Sound Doctrine