He is the reflection of God's glory and the perfect representation of His being, and continues to uphold the universe by His mighty word. After He had procured man's purification from sins, He took His seat at the right hand of God's majesty,

For to what angel did God ever say, "You are my Son, today I have become your Father"?

You loved the right and hated wrong; so God, your God, anointed you, with oil of exultation beyond all your companions."

And you will fold them up just like a robe, and they will be changed like the changing of one's coat, but you are the same, and your years will never cease."

But to what angel did He ever say: "Just keep your seat at my right hand, until I make your foes a footstool for your feet"?

how can we escape, if we pay no attention at all to a salvation that is so great? This is so because it was first proclaimed by the Lord Himself, and then it was proved to us to be valid by the very men who heard Him themselves,

You have put all things under His feet!" Now when He gave Him authority over everything, He did not leave a single thing that was not put under His authority. But as yet we do not see everything actually under His authority,

but we do see Jesus, who was made inferior to the angels for a little while, crowned with glory and honor because He suffered death, so that by God's favor He might experience death for every human being.

For both He who is purifying them and those who are being purified all spring from one Father; so He is not ashamed to call them brothers,

Therefore He had to be made like His brothers, so that He could be a sympathetic High Priest, as well as a faithful one, in things relating to God, in order to atone for the people's sins.

to see how faithful He was to God who appointed Him, just as Moses was in all the house of God.

For just as the man who builds a house has greater glory than the house, by just so much is Jesus judged to be worthy of greater glory than Moses.

Where your forefathers found I stood their test, because they saw my works for forty years,

So I was indignant with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have never come to know my ways.'

So in my anger I took oath, 'They shall not be admitted to my rest!'"

See to it, my brothers, that no wicked, unbelieving heart is found in any of you, as shown by your turning away from the ever-living God,

but day by day, as long as "Today" shall last, continue to encourage one another, so that not one of you may be hardened by sin's deceiving ways,

So we see that it was because of their unbelief that they could not be admitted to it.

So let us fear that when the promise for us to be admitted to His rest is still remaining valid some one of you may be found to have missed it.

For we who have believed are being admitted to that rest, just as He has said: "As in my anger I took oath, they shall not be admitted to my rest," although God's works had been completed at the creation of the world.

So a sabbath of rest is still awaiting God's people.

For whoever is admitted into God's rest himself has rested from his works, just as God did.

So let us do our best to be admitted to that rest, so that not one of us may fail through the same sort of disobedience.

For God's message is alive and full of power in action, sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the depths of soul and spirit, to the dividing of joints and marrow, and passing judgment on the thoughts and purposes of the heart.

No creature of His can escape God's sight, but everything is bare and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we have to give account.

So let us continue coming with courage to the throne of God's unmerited favor to obtain His mercy and to find His spiritual strength to help us when we need it.

and so is obliged to offer sin-offerings, not only for the people but for himself as well.

So Christ too did not take upon Himself the glory of being appointed High Priest, but it was God who said: "You are my Son; I have today become your Father,"

I have much to say to you about Him, but it is difficult to make it clear to you, since you have become so dull in your spiritual senses.

For although you ought to be teachers of others because you have been Christians so long, you actually need someone to teach you over and over again the very elements of the truths that God has given us, and you have gotten into such a state that you are in constant need of milk instead of solid food.

So then let us once for all quit the elementary teaching about Christ and continue progressing toward maturity; let us stop relaying a foundation of repentance from works that mean only death, and of faith in God,

and have experienced how good God's message is and the mighty powers of the age to come,

and then have fallen by the wayside -- it is impossible, I say, to keep on restoring them to their first repentance, since they continue to crucify the Son of God to their detriment and hold Him up to contempt.

For a piece of ground that drinks in the rains so frequently falling on it, and continues yielding vegetation useful to those for whose sakes it is cultivated, receives from God His blessings.

For God is not so unjust as to forget the work you have done and the love you have shown His name in the service you have rendered for your fellow-Christians, and still are doing.

so that you may not grow careless, but may follow the example of those who through their faith and patient endurance are now possessors of the blessings promised.

And so by patiently waiting he obtained what God had promised him.

so that by these two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to prove false, we who have taken refuge with Him may have encouragement strong enough to make us seize upon the hope that lies ahead of us.

Now see how great this man must have been that even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of his spoils.

And I might almost say, Levi too, who now collects the tenth, through Abraham paid the tenth,

for the law had never made anything perfect -- and so a better hope is brought to us, through which we have approach to God.

And by so much as He was not appointed without God's taking an oath --

so much the more Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.

Now the main point in what I am saying is this: We have such a High Priest as this, one who has taken His seat at the right hand of God's majestic throne in heaven

For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices; so this High Priest too must have some sacrifice to offer,

and yet they officiate in a sanctuary that is a mere copy and shadow of the heavenly one, as Moses, when he was about to make the tent of worship, was warned, for, said He, "See to it that you make it all just like the pattern shown you on the mountain."

For, because He was dissatisfied with His people, He said: "'See; the time is coming,' says the Lord, 'When I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,

Unlike the one that I made with their forefathers the day I took them by the hand to lead them out from the land of Egypt, for they did not abide by their covenant with me, so I did not care for them,' says the Lord.

So indeed the first covenant had its regulations for worship and its earthly sanctuary.

with its golden incense-altar and the chest for the covenant, completely covered with gold, and in it a golden jar which held the manna, Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets on which the covenant was written;

and above the chest were the winged creatures, the symbols of God's glorious presence, overshadowing the mercy seat, of which I cannot now speak in detail.

For if the blood of bulls and goats and a heifer's ashes sprinkling those who are ceremonially unclean purifies them with physical cleansing,

So not even the first covenant was ratified without the use of blood.

So, on the one hand, the copies of the original things in heaven had to be purified with such sacrifices; but on the other hand, the original things themselves in heaven with better sacrifices than these.

so Christ was offered once for all to take away the sins of many, but again He will appear, without having anything to do with sin, to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him to bring them final salvation.

So, when Christ was coming into the world, He said:

Then I said, 'See, I have come, just as the Scripture writes about me in the book, O God, to do your will.'"

He afterward said, "See, I have come to do your will." He is taking away the first to let the second take its place.

But this One offered up once for all and for all time one sacrifice for sins, and once for all took His seat at God's right hand,

He continues to say: "I will never, never any more recall their sins and deeds of wrong."

Let us continue so to consider one another as to stimulate one another to love and good deeds.

Let us stop neglecting our meeting together, as some do, but let us continue to encourage one another, and all the more because you see that the great day is drawing near.

but only a terrifying prospect of judgment and that fiery indignation which is going to devour God's enemies.

How much severer punishment do you suppose that one deserves who tramples the Son of God underfoot, and counts as a common thing the blood of the covenant by which he was consecrated, and has insulted the Spirit that grants God's unmerited favor?

For we know who it was that said, "Vengeance belongs to me, I will pay back!" and again, "The Lord will be His people's judge."

But you must continue to remember those earlier days when first you received the light and then endured so great a struggle with persecution,

So you must never give up your confident courage, for it holds a rich reward for you.

But we are not of a disposition to draw back so as to perish, but we have faith that leads to the saving of the soul.

Now faith is the assurance of the things we hope for, the proof of the reality of the things we cannot see.

For by it the men of old won God's approval.

By faith we understand that the worlds were created, beautifully coordinated, and now exist, at God's command; so the things that we see did not develop out of mere matter.

By faith Enoch was transplanted from earth, so that he did not experience dying; and he could not be found, because God had transplanted him from earth. For before he was transplanted from earth evidence was given him that he pleased God;

And so there sprang from one man, and that dead as to any prospects for offspring, a people as numberless as the stars in the sky and as the sands beside the seashore.

These people all died victoriously as a result of their faith, although they did not receive the blessings promised; that is, because they really saw them in the far-off future and welcomed them, and so professed to be only foreigners and strangers here on earth.

For he considered the fact that God was able to raise people from the dead; and so from the dead, in a figure, he did receive him back.

By faith Jacob, when about to die, put his blessing on each of Joseph's sons, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.

By faith, Moses, at his birth was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's decree.

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as a son of Pharaoh's daughter,

By faith he left Egypt, because he was not afraid of the king's anger, for he persevered as though he were actually seeing Him who is unseen.

By faith he instituted the Passover and the pouring of blood upon the doorposts, so that the destroyer of the first-born might not touch them.

By faith they crossed the Red Sea as though it were dry land, while the Egyptians, in attempting it, were drowned.

Though all these people by their faith won God's approval, yet none of them received what He had promised,

Therefore, as we have so vast a crowd of spectators in the grandstands, let us throw off every impediment and the sin that easily entangles our feet, and run with endurance the race for which we are entered,

Yes, to keep from growing weary and fainthearted, just think of the examples set by Him who has endured so great opposition aimed at Him by sinful men!

So tighten the grip of your slipping hands; stiffen the stand of your knocking knees;

and keep your feet in straight paths, so that limbs may not be dislocated, but instead be cured.

Continue to live in peace with everybody and strive for that consecration without which no one can see the Lord.

Continue to look after one another, that no one fails to gain God's spiritual blessing; or some evil like a bitter root may spring up and trouble you, and many of you be contaminated by it --

and so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, "I am terrified and terror-stricken!"

to the festal gathering and assembly of God's firstborn sons enrolled as citizens in heaven, to a Judge who is the God of all, to the spirits of upright men who have attained perfection,

to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks a better message than even Abel's did.

See to it that you do not refuse to listen to Him who is speaking to you. For if they did not escape, because they refused to listen to him who warned them here on earth, how much less can we, if we reject Him who is from heaven?

So we can confidently say: "The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can men do to me?"

You must stop being carried away with varied and strange teachings. For it is a good thing for the heart to be strengthened by God's spiritual strength, not by special kinds of food, from which those adhering to them have gotten no good.

So Jesus, too, in order to purify the people by His own blood, suffered outside the gate.

So then, through Christ, let us always offer God the sacrifice of praise; that is, the speech of lips that glorify the name of God.

Continue to obey and to be submissive to your leaders, for they are ever watching in defense of your souls, as men who will have to give account of their trust. Treat them in this way, so that they may work with joy and not with grief.

And more especially do I beg you to do so, that I may very soon be brought back to you.

You must know that our brother Timothy has been released from prison. If he comes soon, he and I will see you together.

God's spiritual blessings be with you all. Amen.