Spurgeon's notes on HEBREWS
"Unto the Son He says, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever."
We have now reached that wonderful part of Holy Scripture which is found in the epistle to the Hebrews. Fully to understand it we ought to study closely the Book of Leviticus. Diamonds only will cut diamonds; the Word of God is its own expositor; the New Testament is the key of the old.
The epistle opens with the declaration that whatever was
communicated by the prophets was spoken by God. He spoke whatever was
uttered by his prophets. The Scriptures are very jealous on this subject;
how different from the language of many who seem desirous to exclude God
from being the author of his own word!
Hebrews 1:1, 2
Ours is the clearest of all revelations. In Jesus we see far more of God than in all the teachings of the prophets.
Hebrews 1:3
The priest stood while he performed service, and only sat down when his work was done. Jesus enthroned in glory enjoys the honors of his finished work.
Hebrews 1:5
But he does say this to Christ in the second Psalm.
And again speaking to Solomon as the type of Christ in the Second Book of Samuel 12:14
Hebrews 1:6
Or "worship him all you gods," Jesus is by nature infinitely superior to the noblest created beings, for he is essentially God, and to be worshiped as Lord of all.
Hebrews 1:7, 9
And of the angels in Psalm 104:4
Hebrews 1:7, 9
Psalm 45:6, 7
Angels are servants and not kings, they fly upon the divine errands like flames of fire, but they do not sway a scepter, neither have they a throne existing forever and ever. Jesus is the anointed king, and though we share in the anointing yet is he far above us. Christ is infinitely greater than Christians. We are right glad to have it so.
Hebrews 1:10-12
again we read in Psalm 102:25-27
Since the Messiah is thus described as immutable and eternal he must be divine, and to deny the Godhead of the Savior is a deadly error. Dr. Owen most comfortingly remarks:—"Whatever our changes may be, inward or outward, yet Christ changing not, our eternal condition is secured, and relief provided against all present troubles and miseries. The immutability and eternity of Christ are the spring of our consolation and security in every condition. Such is the frailty of the nature of man, and such the perishing condition of all created things, that none can ever obtain the least stable consolation but what arises from an interest in the omnipotence, sovereignty, and eternity of Jesus Christ."
Hebrews 1:13, 14
They are servants of God and our willing guardians; but they are not to be worshiped. Jesus is Lord of all, and we are bound to adore him, and him only.
Hebrews 2:1
As if our apostle had said,—Seeing Christ is so excellent in his person, and seeing the gospel has such a glorious author, let us take great care that we esteem his person, revere his authority, reverence his ministry, and believe his message; and let us take heed that our memories be not like leaking vessels, suffering the word at any time to slip or run from us.
Hebrews 2:2-4
Let that question ring in our ears, "How shall we escape?" There will be no escape, there can be none if we refuse the Lord Jesus. Do we mean to be lost? Dare we continue to neglect the great salvation?
Hebrews 2:5-9
Jesus died that to all men the message of salvation might be delivered, and that each one might be assured that upon his believing he will be pardoned. None are excluded from mercy but those who exclude themselves.
Hebrews 2:10-12
This passage occurs in Psalm 22, a psalm of Christ's sufferings, entitled "Upon Aijeleth Shahar," that is, The morning-stag, such an one as the huntsman singles out to hunt for that day. Christ thus hunted, praying for deliverance, promised to praise God's name amidst his brethren.
Hebrews 2:13
All of which expressions denote nearness of relationship and likeness of nature, kindly recognized by the great head of the household of God.
Hebrews 2:14-18
That he might be able to sympathize with downcast souls, and bear with their infirmities, Jesus himself became a man like ourselves. Troubled hearts should think of this, and be of good cheer. The Holy Spirit speaks of him most sweetly in—Hebrews 2:14-18.
Hebrews 2:16
For truly he took not on him the nature of angels or he took not up angels
Hebrews 2:16
but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Angels were passed by and men redeemed. Wondrous sovereignty this!
Hebrews 2:17, 18
Here is delightful encouragement to put our whole trust in him, and approach him without fear. Let us draw very near to him in prayer.
Hebrews 3:1
This will be the most profitable subject upon which the mind can fix itself; profitable for instruction, consolation, and example. Our Lord combined in his own person the official characters of Moses and Aaron, and discharged both offices most fully.
Hebrews 3:2
Having taken the servant's place, he was as faithful as the best of servants could be; nay, he excelled them all.
Hebrews 3:3, 4
Jesus is the builder of the church, Moses was but a pillar in it. Jesus is God, Moses was but man. Yet the Jews greatly reverence Moses; shall we not much more honor and reverence our Lord?
Hebrews 3:5, 6
The superior relation of Christ to God as a Son, places him far above Moses, and also raises believers far above those who are under the law! We should walk in faith, and rejoice in hope; for only in holding fast both of these can we realize our honorable position as the household of the Son of God. So shall we experimentally know how far the Lord Jesus excels Moses.
Hebrews 3:12
No good ever comes of carelessness. He who never examines himself is sure to be self-deceived.
Hebrews 3:13
Sin slyly insinuates itself and by slow degrees prevails, therefore must we carefully guard against it.
Hebrews 3:14, 15
Continuance in faith is necessary to salvation, and only those who persevere to the end are indeed saved.
Hebrews 3:16-19
Want of true faith causes the religion of many to be short-lived. Those who are not sustained by faith soon weary of holiness and provoke the Lord.
Hebrews 4:1-6, 9-16
Hebrews 4:6-9
nor did Joshua lead the next generation into rest, or else David would not have spoken of another day
Hebrews 4:6-9
Sabbath rest to the people of God.
Hebrews 4:6-9
It is clear that there is a rest of God, and that some are to enjoy it, and as Israel did not attain to it, it still remains for God's people. Oh, that we might by faith be of that number!
Hebrews 4:10
Resting in the finished work of Jesus we feel that our warfare is accomplished. The work we now do is of another kind from our own self-righteous work of former years. Our faith has introduced us into joyful rest.
Hebrews 4:11-13
We should earnestly labor to be right, for no deceptions will avail. The Lord's word lays us bare and opens up our secret selves. Oh, to be clean before the Lord! This we can never be except by faith.
Hebrews 4:14
Since salvation work is complete, let us hold to it and enjoy the consequent blessings. We should be foolish indeed to leave such riches of grace.
Hebrews 5:1, 2
An angelic priest for men would be out of place. Men need forbearance and sympathy, hence the priests of old were men of like passions with the people. This also is true of our Lord Jesus, who is most certainly and really a human being like the rest of mankind in all things except sin—that stain never defiled his holy nature.
Hebrews 5:3
This refers to the typical high priest, but our Lord had no sin of his own; he bore our sin, but in him is no sin.
Hebrews 5:4-6
He was no unauthorized priest, self-appointed and unordained. What he does has the Father's decree to back it. "It pleased the Father to bruise him," and "it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell." What solid ground we have for depending upon Jesus, the elect messenger of God, the ordained surety of the everlasting covenant!
Hebrews 5:7
The cup was not removed, but he was strengthened to drink it. If the Lord does not answer his people one way he does another. Jesus understands our feelings in prayer even when we cannot express them except by strong crying and tears. Experience has made him the ready interpreter of anguished hearts.
Hebrews 5:9
A perfected Savior presents all believers with a perfect and everlasting salvation. He was always perfect in character, but his sorrowful life below gave him a complete qualification for the office of Savior, which nothing else could have obtained. Who would not obey a Master who has undergone all kinds of sorrow that he may be able to sympathize with his servants? Who would not possess a salvation won for us by such condescending love.?
Hebrews 5:10
Here the apostle rises to a great height, and then suddenly pauses, remembering how unsuitable men's minds often are for the reception of mysterious truth.
Hebrews 5:11
Of whom namely, Melchizedek
Hebrews 5:12
Too often we learn and unlearn. Our progress is slow, and we remain babes when we ought to be full grown men in Christ. We draw upon the church's strength when we ought to be contributing to it.
Hebrews 5:13, 14
We should desire not only to be saved, and to know the elementary truths, but to be advanced scholars in Christ's school, so as to handle the deeper doctrines, and teach them to others. Good Master, have patience with your servants, and teach us still!
Hebrews 6:1, 2
Children are to learn their letters in order that they may go on to higher brandies of education, and believers are to know the elements of the faith, but are then to advance to the higher attainments, and endeavor to understand the deeper mysteries.
Hebrews 6:3-6
If once the real work of grace fails it cannot be commenced again, the case is hopeless forever. Hence the absolute necessity for persevering to the end. To draw back totally would be fatal.
Hebrews 6:7, 8
When all that is possible is done for a piece of land, and yet it bears no harvest it must be given up. If, after all, the Holy Spirit's work in a man should prove fruitless, he must be given over to destruction, nothing else remains. Will any truly regenerated man ever come into this condition? The apostle answers this question in the next two verses.
Hebrews 6:9-10
But this perseverance demands earnestness on our part, hence he adds—
Hebrews 6:11, 12
Those promises we shall inherit most surely, for we shall by grace be enabled to remain faithful until death.
Hebrews 6:13-20
The most solemn warnings against apostasy, and the declaration that total apostasy would be fatal, are not inconsistent with the great truth of the safety of all true saints. Safe they are, for the covenant promise and oath guarantee their security, their hope is placed where it cannot fail, and in their name Jesus has gone to take possession of Heaven. Has he gone as a forerunner of those who may after all perish on the road? God forbid. Where our Head is, there must the members be before long.
Hebrews 7:1-25
It would be unwise to pass by the story of Melchizedek without noticing its typical meaning. This is fully expounded to us in—
Hebrews 7:1-3
No ancestors, or predecessors, or successors to Melchizedek are mentioned, and the apostle finds a meaning in the silence of Scripture. Some will not learn from what the Bible plainly says; but the apostle could learn even from what it does not say. In Melchizedek the regal and priestly offices were united, and he received his priesthood not by inheritance, but by an immediate divine ordination. In. these things he was eminently a type of our Lord Jesus.
Hebrews 7:13, 14
Therefore our Lord did not receive the priesthood by descent, but, like Melchizedek, his ordination was direct from God.
Hebrews 7:15-17
This is the inspired testimony of David in Psalm 110., where he speaks of the Lord Jesus as his Lord, and salutes him as king and priest.
Hebrews 7:20-22
The priesthood of Jesus therefore deals with sure things which cannot pass away or change, since the oath of God confirms them.
Hebrews 7:23-25
Jesus resembles Melchizedek in being both king and priest, in having no predecessor or successor in office, and in being greater than the Levitical Priesthood. He is a priest forever by the oath of God, and we who trust in him have this sweet consolation that our Great High Priest ever lives, is always in power, is always accessible, and always ready to perform his office on our behalf.
Hebrews 9:1-14
After the giving of the law upon Sinai, Moses received instructions as to the institution of public worship and sacrifice. As all that which was then appointed was typical of spiritual things, we will read the New Testament summary of it, contained in
Hebrews 9:1
and a worldly or material
Hebrews 9:2
For there was a tabernacle made; the first or outer tabernacle
Hebrews 9:2
which is called the sanctuary or holy place.
Hebrews 9:3-5
Holiest of all or Holy of Holies
Hebrews 9:7
The greatest of the Jewish high priests had to admit that they were sinners themselves, for they had to present sin-offerings on their own account, but our Lord Jesus has no sin of his own; hence in part his ability to bear our sin.
Hebrews 9:8
The Holy of Holies was not open to all men, but only to Jews; and not to all Jews, but only to priests; and not to all priests, but to the high priest alone; and not even to him at all times, or indeed at any time, except upon one solitary day in the year:
Hebrews 9:9
They could not expiate sin, and consequently could not give the conscience peace.
Hebrews 9:10
The appearance of the substance and the putting away of the shadows, was a reformation, or emendation. Is it not wonderful that any should wish to undo this reformation, and go back to the beggarly elements of the law? Nay, worse, they would even revive the follies of old Rome.
Hebrews 9:12
Our Lord's offering is never to be repeated. It has been presented once, and has effectually secured the eternal redemption of all for whom he bled as a substitute. O what joy to see Jesus within the veil with a perfect offering, and to know that the one sacrifice has saved us.
Hebrews 9:13, 14
Who can answer this question, "How much more?" It amounts to a solemn affirmation. Jesus can most assuredly remove our sins. Beloved, has he removed yours? Answer as before the living God!
Hebrews 9:15
It was absolutely needful that guilt should be atoned for, and, therefore, Jesus became a mediator. Nothing short of this could secure the eternal inheritance for those who are called. Take away the atonement and you have robbed our Lord of his greatest reason for being a mediator at all. We love and live upon the truth of his atoning death.
Hebrews 9:16
Or it may be understood that a covenant is not of force until the victim is slain to ratify it with blood. In either sense the death of Jesus was necessary to secure to us the blessings of the gospel
Hebrews 9:18-21
Blood was seen on all sides under the law, it was vital to its teachings. The blood of Jesus is the very life of the gospel; a ministry without the blood of Jesus in it is dead and worthless.
Hebrews 9:22
This solemn truth needs to be well learned and remembered. Nothing can cleanse us but the blood of Jesus. Sacraments, prayers, repentances are all useless as a substitute for faith in the blood.
Hebrews 9:23
The blood of bulls would suffice to purge the types, but the realities must have a richer sacrifice to cleanse them.
Hebrews 9:24-26
Once has Jesus offered sacrifice, and only once. All attempts to offer him again, as the priests pretend to do in the mass, are blasphemous, and are an insinuation that the one offering was not sufficient. As for us, let us rest on the once offered atonement, and in humble faith know that we are fully accepted.
Hebrews 9:27, 28
shall he appear the second time without sin or without a sin-offering
Every man's death day is his doomsday, all is settled then. So Jesus, when he died, finished his atoning work, and nothing remains for him but to come a second time, no more to die, to take his great reward.
Hebrews 10:5-7
he who is, Jesus
Hebrews 10:15-17
The Holy Spirit bears witness to the perfection of our Lord's sacrifice, for he declares that the believer's sins will be remembered no more.
Hebrews 10:18
no more offering for sin and no need of any
Hebrews 10:19-27
If we reject the atonement of Jesus now, there is no other sacrifice, and we must of necessity perish.
Hebrews 11:5, 6
Faith was the spring from which his communion was derived. Works do not make us walk with God; but faith brings us into his presence, and keeps us there. It is very likely that Enoch's pious conversation did not please men, but that little mattered since it pleased God.
Hebrews 11:8-10
Abram had to come out from idolatrous Chaldea, and so must we be separate from the world which lies in the wicked one. He became a pilgrim and a sojourner, and so must we. This is not our rest, ours is a pilgrim's life, we are wanderers until we reach the city which has foundations. He pitched his tent and wandered up and down in the land as a stranger, but he was no Canaanite: here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. He who finds a rest here has none in Heaven.
Hebrews 11:8-19
The portion of Scripture we shall now read gives us a retrospect of our former reading, and shows us what it was which sustained the patriarchs in their wandering and separated life.
Hebrews 11:8
Faith is a better guide than mere reason, if it be faith in God. Our knowledge is partial and may mislead us, but trust in the omniscient Lord gives us an infallible guide.
Hebrews 11:9-10
His eye saw into the far off future, and his hope was set upon eternal things. Are we also looking beyond this world for our portion? Shame will one day cover our faces if it be not so, for all the things which are seen will melt away like the mist of the morning. Heaven has a foundation, earth has none, for Job tells us concerning the Great Creator, "he hangs the world upon nothing."
Hebrews 11:12
Abraham himself was so aged as to be long past the years in which children could naturally be born to him; and therefore his body was as dead. Yet the father of the faithful staggered not at the promise of the Almighty God. There is no exaggeration in the description of the patriarch's descendants, for not only the Jews, but all believers, are reckoned as the seed of Abraham. The spiritual seed are countless and glorious as the stars; and the natural or earthly seed are a great host like the sand of the sea shore.
Hebrews 11:14
Even thus at this day we are here as strangers and foreigners, and we seek a city out of sight. "Jerusalem the golden" is the desire of our hearts, but here we have no continuing city. This is to walk by faith.
Hebrews 11:15
Correspondence with the old country was easy, and the temptation to seek their fatherland was a strong one, but they persevered in the pilgrim life, and so must we. Opportunities to return to sin are legion, but we must by the power of the Holy Spirit continue to walk with God.
Hebrews 11:19
Isaac lived as if he had been raised from the dead, for he was dead in Abraham's intent and expectation. In this way he became to the patriarch a living type of the resurrection. The faith of Abraham was tried in many fires, and so must ours be. Will it stand the test? Are we resting upon the faithfulness and omnipotence of God? Any pillars less strong than these will give way beneath us. The faith of God's elect, which is the gift of God, and the work of the Holy Spirit, will endure and overcome and land us safely in the promised inheritance. Have we this faith or no? May the Lord grant us this most precious grace.
Hebrews 11:24
He had been so called in his youthful days, but when he could choose for himself he declined the highest rank as an Egyptian, and took his place with persecuted Israel.
Hebrews 12:2
The eyes of onlookers stimulate the runners in a race, therefore since all Heaven looks on, let us not flag until the goal is reached.
Hebrews 12:3
Let the grandest of all examples nerve us. Think how Jesus ran the race!
Hebrews 12:4-6
Our trials are little compared with those of the martyrs of the olden times. Courage, brethren, these are small matters to faint about! Moreover, our chastenings are love tokens from God, let us not be alarmed at them.
Hebrews 12:8
Yet no one should pray for troubles, or be anxious because he is without them: they will come fast enough and thickly enough before long, and when they do, a blessing will be in them.
Hebrews 12:9-11
While we are smarting, we cannot expect to feel the good result, but afterwards it will be seen. Let us wait and pray.
Hebrews 12:15
We are to watch lest any of us who profess to be children of God should fall short of grace, like an arrow which does not quite reach the target. To fail to possess grace in the heart is a fatal thing.
Sin is a bitter root, and brings forth sorrow and shame.
Hebrews 12:16
It is a profane thing to compare the priceless blessing of God to a merely sensual enjoyment. It is an acted blasphemy.
Hebrews 12:17
The deed was done, the blessing had been given to Jacob, and Isaac could not withdraw it from him. If men sell their hope of Heaven for the joys of earth they will in the world to come repent of their bargain, but there will be no repentance with God. He who is filthy must be filthy still.
Hebrews 13:10
Of our spiritual altar formalists cannot partake.
Hebrews 13:12, 13
Calvary was outside Jerusalem.
Hebrews 13:14
Our holy faith makes us a separated people, because our Lord in whom we trust was separated, and covered with reproach for our sakes. Mere going out from society is nothing, going forth unto him is the great matter. With joy do we follow him into the place of separation, expecting soon to dwell with him forever.
Hebrews 13:16
Give help in money, in comfort, and in instruction, as men require it.
Hebrews 13:20, 21
A rich blessing, fitly closing an epistle, in which the prominent theme is the perseverance of the saints. Lord, fulfill this blessing in us.