Latest / Scripture Central / Hebrews 7-13: New Testament with Lynne Wilson (Come, Follow Me)

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Hebrews 7-13: New Testament with Lynne Wilson (Come, Follow Me) · Scripture Central

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Shalom and welcome back to Scripture Central, the old Book
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of Mormon spread central for Come follow me.
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My name is Lynn Hilton Wilson and I am overjoyed to talk about
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the second-half of the Book of Hebrews.
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As I mentioned last week, this is my favorite of all the
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epistles, and this book is packed with imagery.
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We have the promise of the temple and the price of that
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temple. We have 45 Old Testament
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citations. We have so many stories from the
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Old Testament and because of that we assume that it's written
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by someone who really knew their scriptures.
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I believe it was written by Paul, not only from our
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historical writings and our stylometry the the evidence of
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of of computers to determine authorship.
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But I also believe this because of the way he writes the text he
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brings in things that we've read from all of his epistles.
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So whether or not he wrote the final edition, I have no problem
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with, but it is his ideas that are begging attention by his
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people. These these are written to the
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Jewish Christians calling them, as well as perhaps even a
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missionary tractor, those who are not yet Christians calling
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them to come unto Christ. This is a powerful testimony of
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Christ, just as a reminder. Chronologically, this book fits
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quite early, possibly before his Roman imprisonment.
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Letters. It was probably written while he
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was in prison in Caesarea. He's still in Israel, remember,
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He was there for two years. According to the Book of Acts.
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The Pauline epistles were placed in order by length, as we talked
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about earlier, but they weren't exactly sure where Hebrews
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should go. It was in the earliest text, but
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over time people started debating.
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This doesn't sound like Paul. It's completely different.
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He doesn't start the same. He doesn't end the same well.
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It's a different audience in a different language, so you're
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going to hear things differently.
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But whoever the author is, the text is powerful.
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And instead of debating the authorship, let's dive into the
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text. Chapter 7, verse one through 10
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all talk about Christ's superiority and the superiority
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of the Melchizedek Priesthood or the higher priesthood to the
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lower priesthood. So it goes back to Genesis
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chapter 14 where we talk about Melchizedek and just as a
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reminder, that Joseph Smith translation adds 16 verses to
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Genesis 14. So if you really want a good
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scripture study today, in addition to reading the book of
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Hebrews, please go back and read the Joseph Smith translation of
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Genesis chapter 14. The word Melchizedek is
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mentioned twice in our King James of Genesis 14.
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It's mentioned nine times in the New Testament, all in the book
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of Hebrews, chapters 5-6 and seven.
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It's mentioned five times in the Book of Mormon, all in Alma,
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chapter 13. It's mentioned 19 times in the
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Doctrine Covenants, section 68 and 76 and 84 and 107 and 138.
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All these are on my handout. They're on my slides.
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If you want to look at them. My slides should be attached to
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every video. But if you can't find my
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handout, I mean, just go to the Book of Mormon central archives
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under, Come follow me, go down to the New Testament and you
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should be able to get the whole corpus there.
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But in the Joseph Smith translation of Genesis chapter
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14, we find 6. So this little chart just was
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helpful to see how and why this name was taken out possibly, and
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why it was added in. And what evidence do we have
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that this was important? These are all very important
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things. For someone who believes in the
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Restoration, this becomes evidence of the Restoration.
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It was in the Old Testament, it was in the ancient text of the
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Book of Mormon, and it was extremely important in the
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Restoration. We want to know what's
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important, the higher priesthood.
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Look, how often it was restored, how often it was mentioned in
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Restoration scripture. Let's go back though, to just
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talk about who Melchizedek was at the time of Abraham.
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So we're talking about approximately 2000 BC.
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Abraham is told to leave the Ur of Caldese and to come to the
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His promised land and when he gets there it's filled with
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other people. But the city of Jerusalem was
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then called the city of Salem. Melchizedek lives there.
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It's the Prince of Peace and after Melchizedek city is
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translated, which we read about in the Joseph Smith translation,
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the Jesuit bite takes over this area.
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Jeru Salem Shalem is also Shalom for peace, but by the time of
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King David 1000 BC. So just about a Millennium after
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Abraham, King David is there. He conquers it and has this
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become his capital outside of the biblical text.
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It's also interesting to see what others write about
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Melchizedek. So I found him recorded in
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Josephus in the Wars of the Jews.
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He says Melchizedek the righteous king for such he
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really was on which account he was and was called the city
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Jerusalem, which was formerly called Salem.
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This is really interesting because he is using what I
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talked about last week, Malek Zadok, he was the king.
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Malek means king. And just think of all the times
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MLK is used. I mentioned a couple of them
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last week. But I want you to remember in
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the Book of Mormon, the people that come from Jerusalem not
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with Lehigh but with the little baby king, Zedekiah's little
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baby, that baby king, they are called the Mulekites, take out
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the vowels. It's MLK.
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They're the King's people, and we refer to them later on in
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different ways. But this is again, there is so
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much evidence of Hebraic origins in the Book of Mormon.
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And one of those is here with this word, Mulik Melek, Melek
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Zadok moving on back to Hebrews Chapter 7, verse one for this
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Melchizedek. And they spell it differently in
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Greek in the King James than we do.
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The king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, the author of
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Hebrews now goes back to remind you what Melchizedek did.
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Because he's such a small little portion in Genesis, he doesn't
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know if everybody will remember. So he says don't remember that
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Abraham Melchizedek. This is verse one and two.
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Abraham is returning from the slaughter of the kings, and he
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blessed him to whom Abraham gave a tenth of all of his ties.
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So after Abraham and Lot came to the promised land, they grew and
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they prospered and there wasn't enough room for them.
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So Abraham said, Lot, you go over where you want.
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And Lot said, I'm going to take the best property of all.
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If you're giving it to me, I'm going to go down to the Dead Sea
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and I'm going to have this lush, beautiful, fertile soil down
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here. And he establishes himself and
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becomes very wealthy. Kings come and attack him and
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take him captive and all of his goods.
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And they head up north again. And someone escapes and tells
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Abraham your nephew and his family and all of his property
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and his goods have all been captured by these other kings.
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And so Abraham and his 318 men, according to Genesis account,
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chase after these kings. And I think a king is a small
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little village. It's more like a mayor or
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something. He chases them, he he takes them
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all. He gets locked back and he has
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all this booty and he goes down and pays his ties on the booty
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to Melchizedek. But Melchizedek, this is so
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important in the book of Abraham.
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Do you remember? Abraham says, I am seeking the
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blessings of the father. Melchizedek is gathering a city
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of all the righteous ones. That is the blessings of the
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father. It's not the blessings of
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Abraham's father. His dad was wicked.
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It is the blessings of the patriarchs from Adam and Enoch.
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It is those blessings. It's the city of Enoch that was
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translated. People are gathering in this
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area of the Promised Land with Melchizedek as their king to
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become a city who will be accepted into the city of Enoch,
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a city that will be translated. And we learn all this in the Joe
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Smith translation of Genesis Chapter 14.
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And so even though we get a little glimpse of it here in
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Hebrews, we don't get the whole picture unless you go back and
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and read the others. The whole reason why Paul is
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talking about Melchizedek here is to say even our great father
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Abraham the blue blood Abraham, even he had to pay tithes to
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Melchizedek. So we know Melchizedek was
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important. He was greater than Abraham.
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I'd like to add right here the portion of Melchizedek that's
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added in the Book of Mormon. So let's go to Alma, chapter 13,
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verses 17 and 18. Read that Melchizedek's people
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were waxed strong in iniquity that Melchizedek, having
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exercised mighty faith, received the office of the priesthood
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according to the holy order of God.
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That's the higher priesthood did preach repentance unto his
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people and skipping ahead a little bit into verse 18 and
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Melchizedek did establish peace in the land.
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Therefore he was called the Prince of peace and he did reign
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under his father. All these ties, all these
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similarities, I hope you can tie connect the dots to see Christ
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and see Melchizedek as a type of Christ.
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And once his city was taken up to heaven, Abraham was left on
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earth to carry out the seed of the righteous.
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Abraham is sort of like Noah in that regard because Enoch city
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was left with all the righteous and there were only wicked left.
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Then Melchizedek city was taken with all the righteous, and now
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Abraham is the one who is left in the ancient world.
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It's interesting to look at Hebrews Chapter 7, verse three
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in the Joseph Smith translation. I have here on my slide the
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handwriting of I think this is Sidney Rigdon, who is the scribe
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at the time, and he adds this extra sentence or two.
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For this Melchizedek was ordained a priest after the
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order of the Son of God, which order was without father,
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without mother, without descent, without neither beginning of
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days nor end of life. And then Joseph added again
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through revelation. And all those who are ordained
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unto this priesthood are made like unto the Son of God,
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abiding a priest continually. That is a powerful addition.
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So it's not that Melchizedek was without father and mother, that
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Melchizedek was another Immaculate Conception.
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No, no, no. It is the priesthood who which
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is eternal. And remember that most of the
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time the word priesthood means the power of God.
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Most of the time it is not referring to the keys that were
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given only to Aaron in the ancient world, or only to the
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first born if you're time of Adam or only to in our
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dispensation, the priesthood leaders who the prophets and
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apostles will pass them down to. This is a very different meaning
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here. And keep that broader view.
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It is the power of God that is endless, not the man himself.
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And also remember to use the word Melchizedek often as a
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title. It is the kings of
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righteousness. And that's why those who enter
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into the covenants and live worthy of it will receive the
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same blessings as we learn in the oath and covenant of the
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priesthood. Are for men and women, are for
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all righteous children of any age who come unto Christ.
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OK, go back to Abraham now. And in chapter seven we learned
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that Melchizedek receives tithes from Abraham, and in verse six
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that Melchizedek blessed Abraham with the priesthood promises and
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verse 8 that his life will be blessed beyond mortality.
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I want to read another translation also of Chapter 7,
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verse 7. Indisputably the lesser
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priesthood is blessed by the greater.
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Now the greater priesthood is the Melchizedek priesthood.
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This is a powerful addition. Verse 11.
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Actually until verse 28 is this huge chunk 17 verses on Jesus
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being superior to even the king of righteousness, even
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Melchizedek even the man start with verse 11 in the BSB.
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Now if perfection could have been attained through the
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Levitical priesthood, why was there still a need for another
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priest to appear one in the order of Melchizedek?
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So they have this prophecy that there is going to rise up a
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great priest in the order of Melchizedek in their ancient
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traditions. That is not in our current
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bibles, but they had it and Paul is referring to it.
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Why would we need something higher?
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The Levitical priesthood does not have power to save us, is
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what he's trying to say here. Moving on to verse 26 and 27,
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I'm going to read from the JST because this is really helpful
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for such an high priest became us.
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He's referring, of course, to our Savior who is holy,
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harmless, undefiled, separate from the sinners, and made
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here's a change, ruler over the heavens.
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Here's another JST change, and not as those high priest who
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offered sacrifices daily, first for their own sins and then for
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the sins of the people. For he needed not to offer
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sacrifices for his own sins, for he knew no sins, but for the
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sins of the people. And this he did once.
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This is such helpful clarification.
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You know, sometimes we don't have clarifying things from the
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Joseph translation, but whenever we do, make sure you go and read
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them. It's the scriptures are written
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for different generations. We are not living in that
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culture. We don't understand those words.
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They're translated, they're changed.
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And even modern revelation needs pondering and praying and the
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gift of the Spirit. All scripture studies should be
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accompanied by prayer and seeking and questions until it
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makes sense and settles in our heart.
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And then, like the book of Hebrews says earlier, this
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becomes strong and food, meat. This is not baby's milk.
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He's talking about the highest ordinances of the gospel.
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Continuing on in chapter 8. Now we talk about the
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superiority of the new covenant, which is the higher law.
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Verse one says we have such a high priest who is set on the
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right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens.
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And then in verse two and three, it says he's a minister of the
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true Tabernacle. So they're clarifying Herod's
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temple is not the it's just a building on earth.
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If you want to go back to the true Tabernacle, you got to get
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the one in heaven, he says. In verse 3, the Lord pitched
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also to offer, so the Lord has running the show on either side
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the true Tabernacle, whether it was Moses or if it's the one in
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heaven. It's what God has prepared for
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us. Verse four in chapter 8 also has
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a lot of Joseph Smith translations, so let's take a
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look at those. They start out crossing out the
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words from King James and it reads, therefore while he was on
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the earth he offered for a sacrifice his own life for the
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sins of the people. And now every priest under the
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law must needs offer gifts or sacrifices according to the law.
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He's saying Christ fulfilled the law and as the priest had these
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responsibilities. They were just types of Christ.
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Verse five and six I'd like to read in the ESV translation from
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Still in Hebrews chapter 8, they served a copy and shadow of the
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heavenly things. Christ has obtained a ministry
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that is much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he
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mediates is better since it enacted on better promises.
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Our Savior's law is so much greater.
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You know, it wasn't just Esau who sold his birthright for a
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bowl of pottage. I see so many in our day and age
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selling their birthright for something as meaningless as
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lentil soup. And he's begging here to seek
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for Christ, to daily strengthen our testimony.
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You know, our prophet has told us repeatedly, if we do not
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learn the language of the Lord and grasp on to understanding
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personal revelation stronger and seeking it daily in our lives,
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we will fall away. You know, this need for a new
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covenant was not just mentioned here by Paul in Hebrews chapter
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8. It comes back from Jeremiah and
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he's quoting Jeremiah. Jeremiah was the one who is
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prophesying in this. And do you remember where
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Jeremiah falls? He is the prophet in Jerusalem
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who is prophesying of the Babylonian captivity, the
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destruction of Solomon's temple. He's saying don't go with the
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Egyptians. You know you need to go where
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God wants you to go and you are going to be destroyed and taken
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to Babylon. Verse 31 of chapter 31 in
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Jeremiah reads, Behold the days come, saith the Lord that I will
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make a new covenant with the House of Israel and with the
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House of Judah, continuing on in verse 32.
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Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers
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in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of
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the land of Egypt, which my covenant they broke.
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You know he's talking about. You know, I tried to give him
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the higher law there, but they weren't ready for it.
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And now let's look at Hebrews chapter 8, verse 89.
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Behold, the day cometh the saith the Lord that when I make a new
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covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of
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Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with the
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fathers, you know, it's it's very consistent.
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And I just wanted to point this out, even though I've only
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pointed out one or two of them. There are dozens of Old
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Testament references here that Paul is probably reciting.
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I would be very surprised, actually.
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He's in Caesarea. He may have been able to know if
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he's in prison in Caesarea. If this is, if our historical
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information is accurate, he may have had friends bringing him in
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scrolls from the synagogues or scrolls from a private
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collection where he was allowed to copy these things down from
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the book of Jeremiah. Let's move on to Chapter 9.
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Now verse one through 28. The Mosaic ordinances also
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prefigured Christ's ministry. This is our temple text at its
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best, starts out in verse one, the First covenant.
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So he's referring to the Aaronic order.
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Also had ordinances of divine service in a worldly sanctuary.
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So he's talking about Moses Tabernacle or Solomon's Temple.
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There was a Tabernacle made a Candlestick.
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He goes on to verse 3A Table, the shoebread, the second veil,
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and you know these different doorways between the holy place
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and the holy of Holies. He goes through these things and
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now he is saying they are all types of Christ, every one of
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them. The veil, the shoebred, the
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incense altar, the menorah, the branched candlesticks, they all
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represent different aspects of our Saviour.
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I made a chart here with all the books in the Old Testament, how
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they line up with the books in Hebrew when we talk about the
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Holy Place. And on my chart I also have a
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little map of the temple of floor plan of the temple.
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And you can see how the lamp or the menorah is discussed in
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Exodus chapter 26 and Leviticus chapter 10.
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But here it is in Hebrews Chapter 9.
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And then the table of incense is repeated in psalms.
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Then the shoebred is repeated in Exodus and Leviticus and
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Numbers. Then I have the holy place that
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was the holy of Holies. Now the time when Paul is
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writing it was empty. But remember in Moses Tabernacle
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he was told to put the Ark of the Covenant there.
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And so we have some beautiful descriptions of what it should
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have been in the Old Testament, the Ark of the Covenants
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described in Exodus 26 and 30 and 40.
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And on my chart I have, you know, a dozen verses where this
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all fits in to Hebrews Chapter 9, verse four and five.
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But it's also discussed many times in the New Testament
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outside of the Pauline corpus. We get it in the Gospel of John
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as well. And I feel that it types and
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shadows. It prefigures the holiest place.
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Do you remember when the Ark of the Covenant was told to be
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placed in the holy of holies? They put a name on the the lid.
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So inside the Ark of the Covenant, we've got three
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things. We've got Aaron's rod for
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authority. We've got the bowl of manna that
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God, your God, is going to nourish you and feed you if you
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would, but honor and obey him. And then we have the tablets,
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the stone tablets representing the law of God, that we are
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going to be governed by law and that we need to obey God's
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commandments. That's the covenant.
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And then the lid on top of the covenant, they have two angels
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on either side. That lid is called the mercy
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seat. They believe that was the throne
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of God and that the high priest would come and talk to God on
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his throne and it was just a type from the throne.
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They saw in heaven, this golden place that is founded on all
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these principles. Well that mercy seat and what
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Paul is trying to describe here and I think is a prefiguring of
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the empty tomb that John carefully describes as a slab
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with an Angel on either end. And it is the most merciful
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place in all of Christianity. It is the place where Christ
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ascended. It is the resurrection, the
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empty tomb, the place where the body was, is a had been
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foreshadowed by the mercy seat. And now we see the two as a type
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and shadow. But let's move on now to Hebrews
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Chapter 9 verse 11. But Christ.
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Remember Christ is the anointed one or the word Mashiah.
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Messiah would have been written in their Hebrew being come and
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high Priest of good things to come by a greater and more
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perfect Tabernacle not made with hands.
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He is not a Tabernacle that Moses created with a badger skin
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and everything else. He is not a Tabernacle though
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that is made with stone by Solomon or or Zebabel or Herod.
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He his Tabernacle. He is the body of Christ.
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It is his body. He is our temple and we have to
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go through him. We can also read about this in
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Alma Chen actor 25 and Mosiah 13 and 2nd Nephi 25.
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But there's a whole slew of them in my hand out.
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I love these next few verses, Chapter 19, verses 12 to 14.
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I'd like to read them from the DRB translation.
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This is a very old translation. Neither by the blood of goats or
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calves, but by his own blood. How much more shall the blood of
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Christ, who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted unto
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God, cleansed by our conscience from dead works to serve the
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living God? We can all be cleansed.
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Our consciences could be cleansed.
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We can have the guilt removed. We can have the sorrow, the
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sadness and sometimes the pain and suffering is the best thing
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to take us there. But that too it's some time in
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God's great plan will also be removed.
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The blessings of repentance are my favorite blessings that we
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can receive here on earth and in heaven, Chapter 9, verse 15
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reads. In the NIV, Christ is the
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mediator of the new covenant. Then continue on to verse 16, he
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says, Or where a testament is, there must also of necessity be
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the death of a testator. Now there is a great change on
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that as we read other translations and in the Joe
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Smith translation, so I'd encourage you to go to them.
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He's saying we need to have a covenant.
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Remember, testator is covenant. We need to have a covenant, and
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the covenant is going to be intact when we repent of our
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sins and come to he who is our testator.
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It's a beautiful different translation.
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Continuing on to verse 22 without the shedding of blood is
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no remission. That goes back to the Mosaic
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law. It goes back to Adam when he was
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told by the Angel. Why am I having to sacrifice
23:26
animals? Well, it's all to be a type of
23:29
the Son of God. Who will be the Lamb of God, who
23:32
will be represented by these holy lambs who are perfect
23:35
without splot, without blemish and without broken bones.
23:39
They will typify the Lamb of God who will come to the earth and
23:43
suffer for the sins of the world.
23:45
The plan is so beautiful, the tapestry is so complete.
23:49
God has tied all these together. Verse 28 of Chapter 9 reads that
23:53
Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and then it
23:58
continues on in verse 28. And unto them that looked for
24:02
him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
24:08
So Christ appeared the second time to Mary of Magdalene.
24:13
The other women, that's in Matthew's account, all the women
24:16
saw him. And then we hear in Mark's
24:17
account he also appeared to Peter alone.
24:20
We hear in John's account he appeared to the 10 apostles
24:23
together. You know he he appeared
24:25
according to Acts to, you know, over 500 people at once during
24:31
his forty day ministry. But we're talking about another
24:35
time. This is Paul.
24:36
He's writing later. He's writing probably about 60
24:39
AD. Christ is going to come again a
24:41
second time without sin unto salvation.
24:44
I believe that's referring to the second coming.
24:47
Now we move on to chapter 10, verses 1 to 18 all talks about
24:51
Christ's sacrifice and he's sort of summarizing the last three
24:54
chapters. He says in verse one and two in
24:57
the BSB translation, the law is only a shadow of good things to
25:01
come, not the reality themselves.
25:04
If it could, would not the offering have ceased, You know,
25:08
why do we have to do it? Repeated.
25:09
You know, I just had an interesting conversation with an
25:11
Orthodox rabbi a couple of days ago, and he said we have to have
25:16
repeated sacrifice. It is not just one sacrifice for
25:19
all. And I said that's because the
25:21
sacrifice is not perfect. He said no.
25:24
That's because God commanded it to be repeated.
25:27
So without accepting Jesus as the great and last sacrifice,
25:32
without having the Book of Mormon that is written before
25:36
Christ came to other children of Israel, without that
25:40
information, they have missed the way that Jesus of Nazareth
25:45
fulfilled the prophecies of the promised Messiah.
25:48
They miss this. This is so dear and I can't wait
25:51
till every knee will bow and they too will be able to
25:53
receive. The lion will lie down with the
25:56
lamb. Chapter 10 verse five to seven
25:59
in the MIV reads, When Christ came into the World, he said, I
26:05
have come to do your will, my God.
26:09
And that of course becomes all of our pattern, not just on the
26:12
Sabbath day, not just when we're on our knees, but every day,
26:16
every hour we are here to do the will of the Lord.
26:20
Verse 10 said we are sanctified through the offering of the body
26:25
of Jesus Christ once and for all.
26:28
Remember the word sanctification, sanctu,
26:30
sanctified comes from the root for holiness.
26:34
We are made holy through Christ. This is one reason why our
26:38
prophet has asked us to go to the temple more often because
26:42
there we can be made holy. The more we are around holy
26:46
things we become more holy, especially with a broken heart
26:50
and a contrite spirit receiving our Savior.
26:53
Verse 16 to 17 also talks about Christ in the MIV.
26:56
It reads, I will put my laws in their hearts and I will write
27:00
them in their minds, their sins and their lawless acts.
27:04
I will remember no more. It is Christ law that we want in
27:08
our hearts. We want to divorce ourselves
27:10
from our own passions and appetites and all the things
27:13
that we do that are self-centered.
27:15
And we want to ask Christ to put his law in our heart to write it
27:19
in our minds. Verse 19 to 31 now in chapter 10
27:24
have this whole theme about a call to come.
27:28
It's an appeal to hold firm to climb the mountain.
27:31
Remember, he's he's talking about the children of Israel
27:33
down in the foothills of Sinai. He's saying please come climb
27:37
the mountain, enter into the presence of the Lord.
27:40
He says in verse 19, having therefore brethren and remember
27:44
that means brethren and sisters in the NIV and and in Greek with
27:48
boldness to enter into the holy illness by the blood of Jesus by
27:53
a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through
27:58
the veil, that is to say his flesh.
28:02
So this new covenant, it allows us to all become high priest to
28:07
all not just on the day of Atonement, not just one day a
28:09
year, but to enter through the veil.
28:12
And I it's an interesting thing to think about Christ as the
28:15
veil. If Christ is our mediator, if he
28:18
is our advocate with a Father, we have to pass through him to
28:22
enter into the presence of the Father.
28:24
And so he Christ becomes the veil.
28:27
It's beautiful imagery. I want to also translate this in
28:31
the Aramaic Bible. So it says by the way of the
28:35
life who made us new is now within the veil of his flesh.
28:41
Now do you remember back in Genesis when Adam and Eve or
28:45
take of the tree and they have to leave paradise and go into
28:48
the world? It says that God is going to put
28:52
angels or cherubim to guard the way of the tree of life.
28:56
So this Aramaic Bible says the way of the tree of life.
29:01
That's the whole idea of the way of the priest to get the
29:04
priesthood. Your you offer your sacrifice,
29:06
you repent, you're washed, you're anointed, you're clothed.
29:09
You, you know, this is what he's talking about.
29:11
And we have to accept Christ. It is now within the veil, which
29:16
is his flesh. Continuing on in verse 22 of
29:19
chapter 10, let us approach the veil.
29:22
He's talking about the veil with a true heart and the confidence
29:26
of faith, having bathed our bodies in pure water.
29:30
Remember that's the priest's role, to have that washing and
29:33
let us grasp firmly, skipping down a little bit.
29:36
For he who has promised us is faithful.
29:39
If we hold on to the His word, if we hold on to that iron rod,
29:43
we will be led to the tree of life which is the figurative
29:46
menorah and into the presence of God.
29:49
You know everything is tied together.
29:51
All these visions of God and whether we're looking at the
29:54
throne of God there or Paul's here or in in the Book of
29:59
Revelation or the book of Isaiah book of Ezekiel.
30:01
All these visions of God tied together with the same message.
30:05
Chapter 10, verse 24 and 25 Reading the BSB spur one another
30:10
onto love and good deeds and let us not neglect meeting together
30:15
and all the more as you see the day approaching.
30:18
Now capital D is referring to the Second Coming.
30:22
The early Christians thought this was coming immediately.
30:25
Little did they know there had to be two Millennium and a lot
30:28
more than just a short apostasy before the truth was restored
30:31
and before the church was ready. And we are still preparing.
30:36
But we were told years ago that we had to take the Book of
30:39
Mormon more seriously. We had to take the covenants
30:41
more seriously. And now our prophet has said we
30:43
have to take the temple more seriously, the gift of the Holy
30:46
Ghost more seriously, the sacrament more seriously, our
30:48
Sabbath more seriously. We have got to become pure and
30:51
holy in order for Christ to come again.
30:54
But we are promised that the days will be cut short.
30:57
If the Church will live their ordinances, live their
31:01
covenants, as live their promises, then Christ will come
31:04
again, verse 26 in the BSB reads.
31:07
If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received a
31:10
knowledge of the truth and then skipping down to verse 29, one
31:14
deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God.
31:18
So as Latter Day Saints, I we call Paul calls on us as well as
31:24
the early Saints, to stop any form of hatred or animosity or
31:30
contention. Stop your interest in breaking
31:32
the law of chastity in pornography or any other form
31:35
that breaks the law of chastity. Stop your greediness yourself,
31:38
centeredness, you know, put these things away, he says.
31:42
For it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the
31:45
living God. That's verse 31.
31:48
You have got to repent. You have no idea how hard it is
31:51
going to be. And Joseph was taught the same
31:53
thing in section 19 of the Doctrine Covenants.
31:56
Remember all Martin Harris has just lost 116 pages.
32:00
Do you remember this part? And the Lord writes in this
32:03
spanking letter, he scolds him and he says repent, repent,
32:06
repent. I think it's written 19 times.
32:08
And these two letters and or these these two revelations.
32:13
And he says, if you don't repent, you will have to suffer.
32:17
Even as I, which caused I, the greatest of all, to bleed from
32:21
every poor and suffer. I'm just paraphrasing it.
32:24
But this is what Hebrews 10, verse 31 is talking about.
32:28
Verse 35 continues on in the BSB.
32:30
Do not throw away your confidence.
32:33
Now I like to read that. Do not throw away your faith.
32:36
Do not throw away your traditions.
32:38
Do not throw away your hope. Do not throw away your
32:41
testimony. It holds a greater reward, you
32:45
know. Don't listen to the adversary.
32:47
We have this darker side. We have the natural man and we
32:50
have constant temptation. Don't listen to it.
32:53
You're throwing away something that is so much greater.
32:57
You're throwing away a Pearl of great price.
33:00
Verse 37 reads in the NIV of chapter 10.
33:03
He who is coming will come and will not delay, and then he
33:08
continues to encourage them in verse 39.
33:10
I'll read again from the NIV, but we do not belong to those
33:14
who shrink back, but to those who have faith and are saved, he
33:18
says. There will be some who shrink
33:20
back. There are some who can't handle
33:21
the pressure of the of the persecution by those around
33:25
them. And theirs is physical and ours
33:27
is more emotional and scholastic and educational, academic,
33:30
whatever it is. But he's saying, hold on.
33:34
You just worry about yourself. You hold on.
33:37
And then we come to this fabulous Chapter 11 on faith.
33:41
Faith is defined as action. And this is one of the best
33:46
chapters in all Scripture. On faith, you know, there's
33:49
Hebrews 11, Alma 32. Maroni 7 really teaches all
33:55
about what faith can do. This is a place to go if you
33:58
want to increase your faith. So he starts out in verse one
34:00
with a few Joseph Smith translation changes, actually
34:03
just one. He says now faith is the
34:06
assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
34:12
You know, if we are walking by faith, we are not the blind
34:15
leading the blind. We do not have faith in
34:17
outcomes. If I would believe in God, if he
34:20
would just give me what I want, I would believe in God.
34:22
If he would just heal me, I would believe in God.
34:24
If it just fix my marriage, or fix my relationships, or give me
34:27
a marriage or give me a kid, that's not we believe in.
34:30
Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of
34:33
things not seen. When we are following Christ,
34:37
when we are following that great High Priest.
34:40
This great star Joseph Smith taught on this also in that same
34:44
talk known as the King Fault's Discourse at the General
34:46
Conference, April 7th, 1844. This simple and 1st principles
34:50
of the Gospel is to know for a certainty in the character of
34:54
God that we may converse with him as one man with another, and
34:59
that God himself, the Father of us all, dwell on the earth.
35:03
This is powerful. The first principle of the
35:05
gospel is to understand who God is.
35:07
Now you may think, oh, we all know who God is.
35:09
That is not right. I told you, I just had this
35:11
conversation with this wonderful Jewish rabbi that I really honor
35:15
and admire. But when someone asked him, you
35:18
know, we repent to receive forgiveness.
35:20
We come unto Christ to receive forgiveness.
35:22
Do you believe? What is your idea of the nature
35:24
of God? He said we don't understand who
35:26
God is. God is unknowable.
35:28
God is spirit. God is unfathomable.
35:31
We have no idea who God is. No, we don't come unto God in
35:35
that way like you guys do. And Joseph is saying this is the
35:39
first principle. Let us understand who God is.
35:42
So one of the first things published in our first editions
35:45
of the Doctrine Covenants was these lectures on faith.
35:48
They weren't written by Joseph, but he had read them and
35:50
approved them. And in the third Lecture on
35:52
Faith, it reads, the character of God is necessary in order to
35:56
exercise faith in Him until life and salvation, and that without
36:01
correct ideas of his character, men could not have the power to
36:05
exercise faith in him unto life and salvation.
36:08
But that correct idea of his character, as far as his
36:10
character was concerned, in the exercising of faith in Him lay a
36:14
sure foundation. If we understand that God loves
36:18
us, If we understand that our trials are because He loves us.
36:22
If we understand that TaylorMade trials and normal earth life
36:26
trials. If we understand that He knows
36:29
more than we do, we can trust him.
36:32
If we trust God calls a prophet on earth, if we trust that the
36:36
nature of God is such that he will speak to us through living
36:39
prophets, we can't trust our prophets.
36:42
But it all goes back to understanding God.
36:45
And if we can trust our prophets, then we will not trust
36:48
Google or our our cultural whatever the crazy things about
36:54
our society is that says no, this is right, This is right.
36:57
If the prophet differs from culture, let's follow the
37:01
prophet, let's follow God. This is a powerful statement.
37:05
So as we look in Hebrews Chapter 11, let's look for faith in the
37:10
Lord Jesus Christ. Not faith in outcomes, not faith
37:14
in our desires, not faith in wishful thinking, but faith in
37:18
Christ. He starts out saying, I want you
37:21
to have faith like the prophets have faith, he says A faith like
37:24
Abel when he offered before God. This tells us something in the
37:27
Old Testament. We don't know that Abel has
37:30
greater faith than Cain. One's offering a lamb, one's
37:32
offering the fruits of their garden.
37:35
Both are going to be needed later on when they start
37:37
offering them. In the temple, we have the first
37:39
fruits as well as lambs, but it's not following what Adam was
37:43
taught. And so verse four ends up by
37:45
saying it was that through this faith that he was commended for
37:49
his righteousness. And then we go to the prophet
37:51
Enoch and talk about his faith in verse five and six, the faith
37:54
of Enoch that he was translated, you know, to going up to heaven
37:58
and skipping down to verse 6. It's a rewarder of them that
38:01
diligently seek him. And he goes on to Noah, you
38:05
know, it's just like the primary song Follow the Prophet in verse
38:08
7. This is the BSB translation.
38:10
By faith Noah when he was warned about things not seen, he became
38:16
the heir of their righteousness that comes by faith and he goes
38:20
out about the faith of Abraham and Soraya in verses 8.
38:24
It is by faith that Abraham, when he was called, went out not
38:27
knowing whether to go. And then if you skip down to
38:30
verse 11, he talks about the Sarah.
38:32
He says it's by faith that Sarah herself received strength to
38:35
bear this child the promise of these decades of promise as she
38:39
was 90 years old. He talks about more prophets in
38:42
verses 13. These all died in faith, not
38:46
having received the promises because Christ has not died yet.
38:49
You know, Christ has not been resurrected.
38:51
These prophets are before that. So they haven't received that
38:53
promise. But having seen them a far off,
38:56
they believed that their savior could do it.
38:59
They believed that Christ would fulfill that promise and he
39:02
embraced them and he confessed that they were all strangers and
39:05
pilgrims on the earth. We are pilgrims of the earth.
39:08
We are strangers. We have God have faith that
39:11
Christ is running the show, he continues on in verse 20.
39:14
By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau according to the things
39:18
to come. This is a very different story
39:21
than we get in the Bible that says, oh, Jacob was confused.
39:25
He didn't know who he's blessing.
39:26
No, by faith. He's doing it right by faith.
39:29
Jacob when he was dying, he blessed both of those as the
39:32
sons of Joseph, then worshipped it's by faith of Joseph when he
39:36
died. This is now gotten to verse 22.
39:39
He made mention of the departing of the children of Israel.
39:42
You know he's saying all these prophecies are given because of
39:45
inspiration through faith. If we have faith in Jesus Christ
39:49
he can lead us along his path back to him.
39:53
Verse 23 I want to read from the BSB translation by Faith Moses.
39:58
Parents hid him for three months.
40:01
And skipping down. And when he was grown, he chose
40:03
to suffer oppression with the God's people.
40:06
By faith he kept the Passover and passed through the Red Sea
40:10
on dry land. You know all of these have
40:12
parallels to our Savior. Moses was a type of Christ.
40:15
They're all parallel. All the prophets lives we're
40:18
told in the book of Hoshiya have a pattern to look at.
40:21
Our Savior Christ was also an unusual birth.
40:25
He was also taken down to Egypt and brought back.
40:28
He was also, you know, da da, da da da.
40:29
You see parallels through. Then he talks about from verses
40:33
30 to 35 the faith of Joshua and many other Israelites.
40:36
Even does people like Rahab and some of them that we don't think
40:40
are great examples like like Samson, Hebrews 11, verse 39.
40:45
All these prophets having obtained a good report through
40:49
faith, received not the promise they believed, but God had not
40:54
yet fulfilled that. But verse 40 he talks about the
40:58
faith of those who are faithful. And the JST adds a very
41:02
significant addition, starts out with King James, God having
41:06
provided some better things then Joseph Smith adds for them
41:10
through their sufferings. For without sufferings they
41:13
could not be made perfect. So let's remember to get on our
41:17
knees when hard times come fall before the Savior, submit our
41:21
will to His and plead for His help to learn what we need to
41:25
learn in order to become closer to Him, in order to become more
41:29
like Him. You know, I just prayed every
41:32
day on chemo that the Lord would remove the cancers from my soul.
41:36
I am so grateful I had to go through that trial in order to
41:40
know my God better. Now we enter into Chapter 12.
41:45
I'd like to start reading in the MIV we are surrounded by such
41:48
great cloud of witnesses. Let us throw off everything that
41:52
hinders and let us run with perseverance.
41:55
Now that's translated patience. Let us run with patience in the
41:59
KJB. But in the BSB let us run with
42:01
endurance or in the JB steadily. And I love the Neb.
42:06
Let us run with resolutions. The race marked out for us as we
42:11
go through life. Let us be resolute.
42:14
Let us endure. Let us strengthen.
42:16
Stay on your knees every morning until you feel God's love, until
42:21
you feel His confidence and your heart is filled with faith.
42:25
Pray for faith that you will have the strength to carry on
42:28
each day, verse three says in the BSB.
42:32
Consider him who endured such hostilities from sinners so that
42:37
you will not grow weary and lose heart.
42:40
You know, just rely on your savior call on God.
42:44
He has suffered these things. You can you can walk beside him,
42:48
you can share your yoke, your burdens with him.
42:51
As he says, my yoke is easy, my burden is light.
42:54
Moving on to chapter 12, verse five and six, this whole 2
42:57
verses is is very similar to Proverbs chapter 3, verse 11 as
43:00
well as Doctor Kevin in section 122.
43:02
You'll see here that in the BSP it reads, My son, do not take
43:07
lightly the discipline of the Lord and do not lose heart when
43:11
he rebukes you. You know, let's not be proud,
43:14
full, let's not be defensive. But let's remember the counsel
43:18
that the Lord told Joseph in Liberty Jail.
43:20
All these things will give the experience and be for thy good
43:25
if you use them to draw closer to Christ rather than away.
43:29
You know we've got to come unto Christ in all things.
43:33
Moving on to Hebrews chapter 12 verse six and the BSB reads for
43:37
the Lord disciplines one He loves.
43:40
This is very well known scripture from Proverbs chapter
43:44
3, verse 12. It's using more of the language
43:47
of the Septuagint, the Greek translation.
43:49
If you are feeling chastened, rejoice.
43:52
The Lord loves you. He knows your name and He's
43:54
trying to help you. He's refining you.
43:56
If you're feeling like you've been cracked and broken like a
44:00
Shard piece of glass, just realize the Lord wants to refine
44:03
every one of those edges. He wants to make you like sea
44:06
glass or like a polished stone so that you can become pure
44:10
again, Verse 10 says In the BSB, God disciplines us for our good
44:16
so that we may share in His Holiness.
44:19
If you're feeling disciplined, use this as an opportunity to go
44:24
to the House of the Lord and plead for His Holiness to come
44:30
into you. That we can have His heart.
44:32
That our old desires can be changed, and that we can now,
44:36
like the High Priest, where holiness to the Lord on our
44:39
forehead, just as this is on each door in the temple.
44:43
Chapter 11 says no discipline seems pleasant at the time.
44:46
This is the MIB translation, but painful now.
44:49
Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and
44:52
peace for those who have been trained by it.
44:56
You remember years and years ago, a General Authority
44:59
President Packer's talk on the the pruning using this idea of
45:03
God shaping us and pruning us like a tree.
45:06
And when he clips here and cuts there, it's all to produce more
45:10
fruit. It's all for our good.
45:11
So if we have to give away something in our character and
45:14
our nature that is unholy, allow the Lord to prune it so that we
45:18
can become better fruit bearers for him.
45:21
Continuing on now in verse 14 he gives this appeal to holiness.
45:25
In fact for 15 verses. Now he talks, He's all back in
45:28
the temple. He's calling us to enter through
45:31
the veil into his presence. This is the MIV in verse 14.
45:36
Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and be holy.
45:41
Without holiness no one will be able to see God.
45:43
So for these 15 verses, he's saying become peacemakers, which
45:48
is exactly what our prophet is asked.
45:50
The book of Hebrews fits into President Nelson's conference
45:54
through talks over the last five years.
45:56
Verse 16 says, see that no one is sexually immoral or godless
46:01
like Esau. That's the NIV.
46:03
Esau had good things about him. But remember, this is Paul
46:06
writing from his perspective and he's talking about the time when
46:09
he sold the birthright. You know Esau repents and and it
46:12
has a great nation out of him. Chapter 12, verse 18 in the MIV
46:16
reads you have not come to a mountain.
46:19
So he's talking about the temple again going back into the
46:21
presence of God. Remember back in earlier in last
46:24
week in Hebrews, he he said, I I, I want you early Christian
46:28
Saints to be just like the children of Israel who are going
46:30
now back into the Mount Sinai and God is calling you up his
46:35
mountain to enter into his presence.
46:37
I don't want you to be like the children of Israel in the where
46:40
they provoked God. So he's going back to that
46:42
conversation there in verse 18 and then skipping up to verse
46:46
22, he reads, But have you come to Mount Zion, to the city of
46:50
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem?
46:53
You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels and joyful
46:57
assembly. You have the opportunity to come
46:59
back and enter into God's presence.
47:02
Can you please climb the mountain?
47:04
And I believe what he's talking about is making the higher
47:08
ordinances the sacred covenants that we refer to in the temple.
47:12
Continuing on in verse 23 of chapter 12, it reads to the
47:15
General Assembly and the Church of the first born to God the
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judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.
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OK, we understand who God is. We know who the judge of all is.
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We know who the Church of the first born are.
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But who are the just men made perfect?
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Remember, the word perfect is often whole or complete.
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They're finished. Who are these?
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Just men made finished. We're so blessed to have Joseph
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Smith restore so many of these interesting phrases.
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Last week we talked about the rest of the Lord meant entering
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into His presence. So this week Paul uses a phrase
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that most other Christians define.
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Well, no other Christians define it like we do, who are just men
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made perfect. So I looked again at Joseph
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Smith's sermons and found a parallel here.
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It says the Hebrew Church came into the spirit of just men made
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perfect to angels and to God and to Jesus Christ.
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And what did they learn by coming into the spirits of just
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men made perfect? Is it written?
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No. The spirits of just men are the
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ministering servants of those who are sealed up unto eternal
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life. And it is through them that the
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sealing power comes down. When we can read about the
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curling temple, when Elijah brings the sealing power in
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section 110 of the Doctrine Covenants a week after the first
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dedication on Easter Sunday. This is talking about those
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people who have had their calling election made sure will
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receive these gifts and keys to be sealed.
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That's who just men made perfect art.
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This is a really significant instruction from the Lord.
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And then in Hebrews chapter 13, we have a very long chapter on
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all the obligations of Christians.
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And usually now in our church we don't like to make lists of what
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you should do on the Sabbath and what you shouldn't do on the
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Sabbath. But Paul is still a list maker
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and here it goes. Serve God by loving and show
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kindness to others. Verse 4.
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Live the law of chastity. Verse five and six be
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financially responsible, especially with your tithes and
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offerings. I'd like to add there in verse
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seven and eight please sustain your leaders.
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And then in verse 9 to 12 avoid apostate teachings and that
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saturates the last few letters of Paul's writings.
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Verse 15 to 16, he says live the new law of sacrifice.
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And do you remember that's the broken heart and contrite
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spirit. It's it's not an animal
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sacrifice. And then he concludes verse 17
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to 19 with asking them to obey and to support and pray for
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their leaders. And he's saying this so humbly
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because remember, he's in prison at this time.
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We think he's in prison in Caesarea.
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During that that time he's asking for their help.
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And so we conclude with a beautiful passage in Hebrews
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chapter 13, verse 22 and 23. Brothers and sisters, I urge you
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that you bear with my word of exhortation.
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His Timothy has been released, and if he arrives soon, I will
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come with him and see you. And then he sends greetings and
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finishes up. But Paul hopes to visit the
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Hebrew Saints again. He hopes to go back to
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Jerusalem, and whether he's in Caesarea or whether he's in
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Rome, he is so optimistic that he will be able to visit these
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Saints again. I pray that this book of Hebrews
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will lead us closer to Christ, that it will lead us closer to
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the temple, that it will lead us to our knees, that we will lead
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us to become more holy as our Savior is in the name of Jesus
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Christ, Amen.