These verses are among the most confronting in all of the Bible. Hebrews 6:4-8 describes the apostate and the inability of the apostate to repent. What alarms the reader is that the apostate so easily fits into the Christian community and hears the same Gospel, yet, they turn away from Christ and bear no fruit. This passage serves as a warning for followers of Christ to stick close to the Good Shepherd and go on to maturity.

The Reformation concerned the issue of assurance: how can I be sure that I'm in the right with God? The wonderful truth of Romans 3:21-26 is that we're justified not by our own works, but through the imputed righteousness of Christ. Paul explains in this passage that in Christ righteousness is provided, redemption purchased and justice served.

The Christian life is one of growing in Christ and going on in Christ. The congregation addressed in Hebrews, however, had become stagnant. Instead of chewing over, meditating on and savouring the priestly office of Christ, the congregation were immature, still on a liquid diet. They were unable to understand the preacher's teaching because of their lazy hearing. Thus, we're called in Hebrews 5:11-6:3 to grow up and to go on. We're to go on from the elementary teachings of the gospel, building on the foundation and savour the meat of God's Word.

The author, the preacher of Hebrews explains in Hebrews 5:1-10 how Jesus is a priest. First, he is a high priest by the Father's appointment. Jesus' priesthood didn't begin when he came to earth. Neither, is he priest by default. The Father appointed the Son as our high priest in eternity past. Thus, like every high priest was appointed by God, Jesus too was appointed by the Father. Second, Jesus is high priest because He became man. It is in the Son's humanity that He is able to deal gently with us in our sins and is our example to follow in suffering.

If Hebrews 4:13 left us in the position of being exposed before our holy God, how can we enter into His presence confidently? The preacher of Hebrews answers by pointing us to our great High Priest, Jesus, the Son of God. It's in confessing Christ who has clothed us in His perfect obedience and covered our sins through His sacrifice on the cross that we can draw near to God. This ought to inspire our prayers, for we have a mediator and intercessor that uniquely knows our trials, troubles and temptations.

God's rest is the place where believers place all their hope. It is the place where we will finally be freed from sin, live continually in God's presence and enjoy worshipping Him with all His redeemed people. This rest we have a small foretaste of each Lord's Day as we meet for worship. The preacher of Hebrews urges us to continue to fix our eyes on Jesus and strive to enter that promised rest in the recognition that this world is not our home; our citizenship is in heaven.

Jesus became a man in order to destroy the devil and deliver us from death through His own death on the cross. At the cross, Jesus propitiated, extinguished God's wrath that stood against us. He is thus a merciful and faithful high priest who has rescued us from our sin and who can help us in our temptation.

James and John approach Jesus with the request to be given the place of honour in His kingdom. The disciples display the old mark we're born with - the mark of self first; a desire to be served. Jesus, however, teaches His disciples that what identifies a person as His follower is the new mark of a desire to serve. This new mark is given to us because Christ Himself came not to be served but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. As Christ supremely served us, it is our great joy to identify with Him through putting others before ourselves.

Jesus became a man in order to destroy the devil and deliver us from death through His own death on the cross. At the cross, Jesus propitiated, extinguished God's wrath that stood against us. He is thus a merciful and faithful high priest who has rescued us from our sin and who can help us in our temptation.

The preacher in Hebrews tells us that Jesus identifies with us. He knows what it's like to be human, even the process and suffering of death. He knows what it's like to suffer and thus can identify with us in our suffering. He also knows what it's like to be an older brother. He is the trailblazer of our salvation, setting us a path to follow. Most wonderful of all, Christ is not ashamed to call us brothers, His family.

After reminding us of the glory of Christ as the final Word, the Son of God and superior to the angels, the preacher of Hebrews calls us to pay attention to what we have learned. If Jesus is the final word, have we listened to Him? Are we growing more like Him or are we drifting? Hebrews 2:1-4 calls us pay attention to what we have heard, warns us against drifting and assures us that salvation belongs to God.

Due to a possible lean toward angel worship in the congregation and to further demonstrate the superiority of the Son of God over all things, the preacher of Hebrews opens up 7 Old Testament passages. It's here we see who the angels are (ministering spirits created to serve the Son), who the Son is (Creator and King) and who we are (inheritors of salvation in Christ).

The opening of Hebrews gives us a big picture of glorified Lord Jesus Christ. He is the full and final word from God. He is King who rules over us, the Prophet who reveals God to us and the Priest who redeems us through His sacrifice on the cross.

We are often confronted with error in the church. False teachers and their teaching is not something unique to the modern church. Jude wrote to a church to not only warn them about false teaching, but help them to rescue those who are trapped in error. He tells us in Jude 17-25 to not be surprised, passive or afraid when we encounter false teaching in the church.

The most important question to ask is the question of Psalm 15: who can dwell with God? The most difficult answer to accept is that nobody, according to their own goodness and merit, can dwell with God. We have rebelled against God and fallen short of His righteous standard. Jesus, however, is the man who ascended God's holy hill for us. In Jesus' blood and righteousness, we can dwell with God.

In Psalm 14, David identifies a fool as a person who denies the existence of God in the way that they live. As this psalm is directed at Israel, we discovered that this psalm can also describe our lives. We can profess to believe in God, but actually be functional atheists. This foolish fantasy leads to God's judgement. Yet, in Christ, fools are taken from dread to deliverance. It's because of Jesus that we can run to God as our refuge and fortress.

David comes to God in exasperation. He complains that God has forgotten him, his own thoughts trouble him and his enemies are exalted over him. These complaints are very true to our own experience with suffering. We too cry out to God, "How long, O LORD?" David teaches us that we can bring our exasperation to God, calling on Him to consider, answer and light up our eyes - give us hope and energy in the darkness. David also tells us where to find comfort: in God's steadfast love. God's steadfast, covenant love is ultimately displayed in Jesus. Jesus is the answer to the question of "How long?" Jesus suffered, bled and died so that His people would never be alone in their suffering and have the certain hope of future glory, free from suffering, death and pain.

David cries out to God for deliverance from a generation of liars. Deceitfulness, flattery and boasting were just as much characteristic of David's day as it is of ours. God's people are persecuted by perverse words, but it's God's pure words that save and preserve His people. We are saved and guarded through Jesus, the Word made flesh. It is in Him that we can persevere with the paradox of living in a culture that have abandoned the truth with the certainty of the truth of God's word.

When we go through suffering, trials and temptations, we can find it hard to see beyond our circumstance. David finds himself in this position in Psalm 11. His friends urge him to give up and run away. Instead, David finds refuge in God who is reigns over all things, who is righteous and who will judge the wicked. As king, David tells us to take refuge in God. David's greater son, Jesus, tells us to take refuge in Him as our God and King. In Jesus, we are presented righteous before the Father and experience the great joy of fellowship with Him, even in our trials.

In repentance, we take God's words and repeat them back to Him. We ask God to take away our iniquity, to accept our repentance as genuine, to receive our sacrifice of praise for forgiveness, to save us because there is no other Saviour and to show us mercy. We turn from our sin and to Christ. It's through His wounds, His stripes that God has healed us from our apostasy; our sinful rebellion. It’s through Christ paying the price of our redemption that God loves us freely. As God has turned His anger on His own Son at the cross, His wrath has been turned away from us.