Audio Transcript
Sometimes that intro feels a little long, especially after worship, and then everything is loud. And then all of a sudden, it's super, super quiet. So today we're gonna continue our series through the book of Hebrews. We're in Chapter Eight this week, for those following along in their Bible, we're gonna continue talking about Jesus is better. And why are we talking about that? Because Jesus is better, because he is better than anything that the world can offer. And he is better than anything that Satan can offer. And we have been going through the last several weeks, and we've been proven that he is better than anything else that we can offer. And he is even better than what the old covenant the Old Testament could offer. And we'll talk more about that later today. In fact, verse one, I'll just read verse one, before we go much further, it says that now other things which we have spoken, this is the sum, we are such and high priests to a set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.
Now I have to ask everyone a question, who knows what hand that God used to create the heavens in the earth? For anyone who doesn't know he used the left hand. And how do we know this? We know this, because Christ sits on the right hand of God. So he didn't have a right hand to create the world with. Sorry. I'm being cheesy. I know, bad jokes. The correct answer is he used his Word to create the heavens and the earth.
Verse eight, it begins with it says that the sum of everything we've spoken. So chapters one through seven, everything we've talked about the last two months, it all accumulates in this that we have a high priest, who speaks to us. Remember, two months ago, we started the series. And the very first book, not book... verse, sorry, the very first verse in this book of Hebrews says that in times past, God spoke to us through the prophets. But now he speaks to us through His Son. So we have a priest who speaks to us, we have a priest who lives forever. We talked about that last week, the reason that he can save us to the other most is because he lives forever, he never dies. And he always was. So that is the basis of the hope that we have. And unlike the other high priests, The Old Testament, the Levitical, high priest, who could only enter and behind that veil on the holiest of holies, in the tabernacle, once a year, our High Priest sits at the right hand, or the throne of the Majesty on high. And that kind of sums us up here.
And we'll continue to summarize a little bit here, verse two, says, a minister of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle. Now this is kind of hurtful here. We'll get to that in a minute, which the Lord pitched and not man. This, this brings two images to mind immediately, the very first image that comes to mind, and it's because of where I live, are the temples, ok, the specifically. There are actually several religions that build temples today, but they're all based off of the LDS theology. And that's, at least in Christianity, all the major religions that build temples are based on LDS theology and the splits and it makes me think of the Lord is the leader of the true tabernacle, which he pitched not man. So no building built by the hands of man is the house of the Lord. But only the tabernacle which he pitched. But also brings to mind the Old Testament. Now, the reason the Old Testament doesn't come first to mind is I don't live 3000 years ago I live today, and how these temples all around me. But the second thing that should pop into our head, and the first really is the Old Testament tabernacle. Remember that Moses when they were at Mount Sinai, and he received the law, God gave him instructions to build a tabernacle.
Now, the thing about that tabernacle is it was very, very symbolic. And so God was intentional to tell Moses to take care of that he built it to the exact specifications, because of how symbolic it was because of everything that it meant. But not even the Old Testament tabernacle, of which God, filled with His presence is the true tabernacle of the Lord. But the true tabernacle has as its leader as the Minister of the sanctuary, Jesus Christ. But as we continue, verse three, it says, that every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices. Wherefore it is of necessity that this man has somewhat also to offer. You know, what was the job of the priest and the high priest there, they really only had one job, and that one job was to offer sacrifice to atone for sin. Now they offer goats and, and doves, rams, sometimes cattle, right? They offered that daily all the time. But in order for Jesus to be a high priest, his priesthood would be worthless without something to offer without a sacrifice. Now where the high priest of the Levitical priesthood, and even the priest and the Levitical priesthood were they offered animal sacrifice, Jesus offered himself.
God offered himself upon the altar, to do what the Levitical priesthood could never do. We'll talk about that in a minute. Verse four says, For if He were on earth, he should not be a priest, saying that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law, who served on to the example, and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle. Now, I briefly touched on that Moses was admonished of God to be very particular in the way that the tabernacle was built, and the design and the function and all of it because the Levitical priest operate in the shadow of the priesthood of Christ, they operate, they operated to point us to Christ, because they couldn't do it, he could.
So why is Jesus better? Well, he is better because everything in the Old Testament points to him. The law, the Old Testament, reveals sin, and points us to him. The sacrifices in the Old Testament, reveal how our sin is paid for, pointing to Jesus Christ, who offered himself for our sin. All of the prophets of the Old Testament pointed to Jesus, it was all about him, they all operated in the shadow of him, because he was what was better to come. But he also has to Christ has to operate on the heavenly realm. If you were on Earth, we don't need priests on Earth, we have we had those. We don't need them. What we need is a priest in heaven. The rest of us five says for see, say if he that they'll make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount. Verse six, but now hath ye obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
So now we're finally we're getting to the meat of this chapter here. Verse one told us that all things that we've spoken up to this point has the some of this and the some of this is that he is a mediator of a better covenant, which is established upon better promises. That is, everything we've talked about that is, what it what it is. Okay, so let's talk about the covenant we had the old covenant and the New Covenant. What did the old covenant do? What the Old Covenant provided that if you could live perfectly, which no one can, then you would be fine. It provided sacrifices to atone for sin.
But the sacrifices could not atone for all sin. It provided a set of laws to live by that would please God, but also set a punishment for breaking those laws and that punishment is death, eternal death. So the old covenant is the worst covenant. Because there is a flaw and the flaw is us. We are the flaw that makes the Old Covenant fail, because we are not perfect beings. But Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant. The better covenant, the New Covenant, or the New Testament of his blood, as it's called in the Bible, is perfect. Because it relies solely upon a perfect being. It takes us out of the equation. And instead of being under the law of sin and death, we are under the law of grace. Okay, so it's established upon better promises. The old covenant established that if you did this, and you did that, and you follow the statute, and that statute, I would bless you. The new covenant established that if you belong to me, I will bless you. We are taken out of the equation. And Jesus fulfilled the law on our behalf. Now, that is not a license, because I know some people will listen to this and, and take this as a license to just go all willy nilly and do whatever they want. That's not a license to do so. Instead, it is a promise that we cannot be condemned for what we've done. When we get to verse 12, we'll really start talking more about this. But we need to get there first.
So let's continue building upon the message here, verse seven, says, For at the first covenant had been faultless, there should be no place to have sought for the second. Okay, so in the, if the Old Covenant could fulfill everything that we needed, why do we need a second covenant? We need a second covenant because the old covenant cannot fulfill our needs. And there's a there's Verse eight is going to, quote, some Old Testament prophecy, it says we're finding fault with them, now says finding fault with them not with the covenant with them being the people, finding fault with the people, the the Old Covenant was a two way covenant. God said he will do this, if we did that was a two way and finding fault in us in our part. He says, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Okay, so because there is fault with us, God is not going to just abandon us and leave us in the in, in the dust, he is not going to just leave us condemned to the pits of hell, but he will make a new covenant not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day, when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. Because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not saith the Lord.
So this new covenant is not going to be the same as the old. It's not going to be according to the same principles as the old, it's gonna be better. It's based upon Jesus. And it's based upon the work that he would do. And this is what he will do in the New Covenant, verse 10, for this is the covenant that I will make at the house of Israel after those days saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me, a people. That is a wonderful promise. What makes us faultless what makes us the issue or not fault? fault? That's what makes us faulty. I knew what I wanted to say my tongue just didn't agree What makes us faulty Is that the law of God before we are saved is not written on our hearts. The Law of God is not scribed onto into our minds. But the law of the flesh and of sin and corruption is what's inscribed into our hearts. And when we are saved and born again, what does the New Testament tell us? Paul says, Behold, you are a new creation. We are born a new in our flesh, our these fleshly desires are replaced with the laws of God and a desire to follow the laws of God. And he says, I will be to you a God, and He will be to me a people. That's a special relationship with God. Okay, for we are not just people, but we are His people. And he's not just a God, He is our God.
Now, verse 11, says they should not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. Now, let me clarify here when all shall know him from the least to the greatest. This is both awesome, and terrifying at the same time. Every knee shall bow, and every tongue will confess Jesus Christ. Whether you want to confess them today or tomorrow, sometime before you die, or after you die, you will confess Him as Lord. Every person from the least to the greatest person outside of Christ to ever live will know Him and confess Him as Lord, but only those who do so in the appointed time, which is before their death, will actually have a relationship with Christ. But all will know him from the least to the greatest.
But verse 12, I really, really want to focus on verse 12. He says, I will be merciful to their unrighteousness in their sins, and their iniquities will I remember no more. Ok, Jesus is better. When we look at this chapter it all culminates to the fact that this New Covenant replaces the old and is better in every way. Because the New Covenant, it picks up where the Old Testament never got to the Old Testament never reached this place at any point in time, even for a moment where God could say, I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. The old covenant could never do that. It never would. Because the Old Testament provided no way for the forgiveness of intentional sins of willful sinning. And provided there are four exceptions to that, and provided a way to [conceal] forgiveness for willful concealment of knowledge as a witness. So that say, there was a trial, let's make it today, you know, that there's a courtroom, somebody is on trial for murder, and you're a witness called to the stand and you willfully withhold knowledge. The Old Testament provided a way to be forgiven, that it provided a way to be forgiven for a lie, for perjury, or for a sin of uncleanliness. But for all other sins that were willful, for all other sins that were intentional, the Old Testament provided no mechanism to be forgiving of that. There was no sacrifice that could atone for that. And David, he makes a reference to that. Remember in the Chronicles that David, what did he do he he went out on his balcony in the middle of the night. And he's looking out across the city right in the moonlight. And there's this beautiful lady named Bathsheba bathing on a rooftop, right? And what does he do? He sends Bathsheba his husband to be murdered so that he could have her as his wife. And actually first he committed adultery with her and got her pregnant and then to hide all that and conceal that murdered his best friend. This was intentional. This was thought out. This is what we would call today murder in the first degree. He plotted his friends murder. And the Old Testament provided no way for that... in Psalms 51:16 David It says that no desire is not sacrifice else I would give it. Psalms 51 is David's prayer of repentance several years later, David's heart is just torn apart and he is pleading with God. He is pleading to be forgiven and be restored from the sin. And he tells God he says, Look, I know you do not desire a sacrifice, but if you did, I would give it but you don't even want a burnt offering for this. David knew that he had, he had gone too far. He went further than what the law provided a way to atone for. And this is where the New Testament picks up. Because the New Testament, it offers the full, free forgiveness for all of our sins, both known and unknown sense that we intentionally committed, there is for forgiveness, that is free, for all of our sins.
The Old Testament never did that. And so Jesus is better. Ok, no Old Testament prophet or testament priest, Old Testament sacrifice or Testament law could ever forgive you of all your sins and because of the new covenant. He says that he will be merciful to our unrighteousness He will have mercy on us. What does that mean? Instead of giving us what we deserve, he will extend mercy and forgive us. And then he says, their sins, your iniquities, I will not remember, okay, he doesn't just forgive our sins and say, I know what you did, but I forgive you. He says, I don't remember it, it's gone. That is wonderful.
Summarizing, everything that we have kind of talked about, and I have a list of everything here that the the book of Hebrews says is better, or that we have regarding salvation. But I'm only going to touch base on the ones that we've already discussed. The ones we haven't discussed, I'm going to wait till we reach that. Okay, we have a better covenant that says it says we have a better covenant based on better promises. And because of this better covenant and better promises, we have a better hope. We have hope. Because we know we are not condemned, we have hope, because we know we are going somewhere better and we will be restored and we will be made perfect. We're not perfect yet, but we will be made perfect. We had the better covenant that provides for the full forgiveness of sins wilfull, you know, intentional or not. We have the better promises, promises based upon Jesus Christ and what he did. And as long as he lives forever, and as our High Priest, those promises are guaranteed.
What do we have? Okay, because of the new covenant, we have a great high priest. We have a high priest, not base not not, who did not receive His priesthood, according to the law, but he received it according to eternal life. We have a strong constollation, and a cheering hope. And then regarding salvation, what do we have? We have a name, heirs of salvation. Hebrews 1:14 tells us that we are heirs of salvation. We are not just saved, but we become children of God. And by becoming children of God, we become heirs with Christ. Where in the Old Testament and the Old Covenant, or you call an heir with Christ. It says that we don't just have salvation. But chapter two of Hebrews said, so great, of a salvation that we have. We have a great salvation. Remember, it talks about our peril. Wow, okay. Yeah, I'm not saying the word. Moving on. Ok, chapter two, verse three, it says, See, and then that they have so great salvation, how shall we escape? Ok, remember how shall we escape the depths of hell? If we neglect the salvation that Christ offers us seeing that it's so Great and it's available for free. Okay, there's a question here. What must I do to be saved? You know, what must you do to be lost? Okay? Let me ask that to be lost, what do you need to do? Keep doing what you're doing. If you're not saved, don't do anything at all, you'll be lost. But what do you have to do to be saved? You have to accept it, you have to take it. Being lost is simple. You don't have to reject salvation to be lost. Okay, you don't even have to treat it with content. You just have to neglect it. You just have to neglect to ever take the salvation to ever take the gift. And how shall you escape if you do that, but we also have a great salvation. We have a captain of our salvation. Okay, a benefactor and author and originator of our salvation.
And how great is that? We're not on some blind road trip. Okay, we're not some people who hopped in the car and said, I don't need a map, I know where I'm going. Right. And you're on this blind road trip all the way across the country and you get lost and you don't know where you are. And you run out of gas. Everything is going towards like it's the end of the world. And, and you don't know what to do anymore. We're not on that type of road trip. We're on a guided trip. Because he's our captain. You know, when you get on a cruise ship, I bring this up because I've been there. And I know some other people here have been on a cruise ship. You're not really worried about where you're going? You know, okay, I'm going to Cozumel. Right, I'm going to Chiza Niza. So I'm going to wherever you're not worried about how to get there. You're just you're there. And you have a captain that pilots that ship to those ports. And we have a captain of our salvation. How we get there is up to Jesus and how he already did it. He already lived a lot he already died for us, he already rose from the grave. He is the captain of that. And we follow Him. We have a destiny of eternal salvation. Our salvation is not temporary. Our salvation is not just well, for 1000 years or 2000 years, and then we'll see our salvation is eternal. According to chapter five, verse nine. We have other blessings that says and things in the heavenly realm that accompany salvation. And for those who are not saved and listening to this, and we touched based on on this last week, but I'm going to say it again tonight as we come to an end, you can be saved to the uttermost. Just like we all can.
What is being saved to the other most mean? Well, it means that you can be saved to the end. Up until you die, you can be saved. And until then, it doesn't matter how far down the drain you've gone. It doesn't matter how wide and deep of a pit you've dug for yourself. Because some of us can dig very great and deep pits. It doesn't matter. If you have reached the very end of that rope, and you're just holding on, you can be saved from wherever you are. You can be pulled out of that pit. You can be pulled up the rope. You can be redeemed. Because we have a great high priest, we have a great God, and we have a better covenant and better promises. If you want to be saved when in chapter seven, where it tells us that he can save to the uttermost also tells us whom he saves. He saves those that come. So I invite you today if you can hear my voice, and you have not come to Christ, if you don't know him. He saves those who come to him.
So I'm calling you to him right now. I'm asking you to accept Jesus because He is better. The wages of sin is death. And we are told that all have sinned and fall short the glory of God. So if you can hear this, you have sinned. Congratulations, you are man. And you have an option, you can choose your destiny, your your eternal location right now, and I beg with you to choose Christ. It begins with coming to him and acknowledging that he is the Lord God Almighty, in the flesh, that he lived perfectly for you because he loved you, fulfilling the law and that he died as a sacrifice to pay for your sins, but that he resurrected the third day. It means agreeing that you're a sinner that our ways are flawed, that they're sinful, that they're an abomination to God. And wanting him not just to be your savior, but to be your God accepting him as your God, and being willing to follow Him and do what He would ask you to do. And if you're ready to do that, I'll help you right now in the closing prayer, where we will do those things. And then after we do those things, Christ tells us that those who are saved will confess some before their fellow man, he says, if you will confess Me before your fellow man, I will confess you before the Father which is in heaven. So after you do those things, please confessing confessing to your family, confessing to your friends, your co workers, confessing to us, let us know that you have confessed Him and we will welcome you into the family of God, let's pray.
Father, God, or Jesus Lord, I admit that I am a sinner and cannot say myself. But Lord, Your Word tells me that you came down from heaven as God in the flesh, that you lived perfectly for me, that you died as a propitation for my sins, and that you resurrected the third day. Lord, Your Word tells me that if I would call upon your name, and believe in you, and follow you that I would be saved. So Lord, I believe I believe with all my heart that you are who you say you are, I believe that I need you. And I confess You as Lord over my life, I'm ready to follow you. I'm ready to pick up my cross and go after you.
Father, as we depart tonight, we just thank you for the better covenant. We thank you for better promises that are not based on us, because we are flawed, but they're based on you and so God we praise Your holy and beautiful name. And we thank you for that. And we love you and we ask you to be with us until we meet again. In Jesus name we pray, amen. Amen.