Audio Transcription
Amen. Our Lord is holy. So I like that song, because comes from the book of Revelation. And the angels sleep scene by night, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Just think about that. He's holy. I don't think we can even comprehend what it means to be holy. We've never been close to it never experienced it. We're so far from that, to think that Jesus is Holy, holy, holy. Today, we will be finishing our series, Jesus is better. We've been about three months in the series, going through the book of Hebrews, and we've been discussing that Jesus is better than all things. In chapter one we talked about Jesus is better than the prophets. That today, God no longer speaks to us through His servants the prophets, but through his servant, the son. We discussed in depth over the last three months that Jesus is better than the old testament sacrificial system. He is better than the Old Testament law, he is better than the priest, and he is better than life itself.
A few weeks ago, we began summarizing the book of Hebrews. And we began talking that Jesus is able to save us to the uttermost, we read that in Hebrews eight, he can save us to the uttermost. We then talked about the difference between the Old Testament law and the New Testament Law, namely, that the Old Testament provides no mechanism for redemption of willful sin. And that is where the New Testament is better is. That's where the New Testament really excels. Where the Old Testament could not, is that the New Testament not only provided a way, but it provided forgiveness for all sins.
Today, we're going to talk about the sacrifice that paid for that forgiveness, we're going to see Jesus as the better sacrifice. And then we're going to spend a couple of weeks after tonight discussing how we should respond to the fact that Jesus is better. We'll talk about the hall of faith next week, we will discuss all of the Old Testament believers who never received the promise, but they had faith. We will discuss the week following in Hebrews 12, running the race responding by running the race set before us because Jesus is better. And then we will finish off three weeks from now on Hebrews 13.
Today if you have your Bibles with you, turning them with me to Hebrews chapter 10. I will begin with verses 11 to 14 and then we will pray for the Spirit to be with us. And every priest standeth [can I get pastor Matt? Can I get these lights off? Yeah, sorry, they I can't actually read the words on my Bible with the glare. Thank you.] And every preist standard daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, for ever sat down on the right hand of God. From henceforth expect until his enemies be made his footstool For by one offering He has perfected forever then that are sanctified. Now who knows what hand God created the heavens and the earth with? It was his left hand, Because Jesus said it on the right hand of God. No, okay, bad attempt at humor.
Let's pray Father, we just ask your spirit to be in this room with us now and ask you to lead us our thoughts and our, our hearts as we hear what you have to say to us tonight, Lord, unlock the meaning of this passage unlock the theme of Hebrews that Jesus is better. And let us see your light your glory. And then let us take that and glorify you in Jesus name we pray, Amen.
As we begin to finish up the series, we remember that Hebrews was written specifically to the Jewish people, to even more specifically to Messianic Jews, to those Jews, who are Christian converts, but oftentimes wanted to relapse back in to the works of the law, they wanted to go back to the works of Judaism, rather than being set free by the gift of Christ. It was, at times difficult for the Jews to accept Jesus as the sacrifice. They were accustomed, they were used to making sacrifices in the traditional ways. Now how they read Isaiah 53, which we discussed this morning, for those who are here, the online church was not, they would have known that Jesus was the sacrifice for our sins. The sacrifice or crucification of Christ would change the course of history. It really in a few short years, Christ took the world and he turned it upside down.
The story of the crucification appears in every New Testament book, except for philemon. And first and second, John. Matthew contains 141 verses about the crucification. Mark contains 116 verses, Luke contains two chapters about this event, the first half of the book of John leads up to the event to the crucification. And this is the prophecy of Genesis 315, being fulfilled the first prophecy that God had a plan for us at the fall of Adam and Eve. So as we read Hebrews, we keep in mind that the entirety of the Old Testament pointed to the Messiah of the New Testament, who would make a new covenant for us, reading verses one through four.
It says, For the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of that things can never wait those sacrifices which they offered, year by year, continually make the comers there unto perfect. For then when they not have ceased to be offered. Because that the worshipers once purged should have no more conscious of sins. But in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance again, made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins. I think we see a recurrent theme here in Hebrews. Paul, we don't know Paul's the author, but the author of Hebrews has continually you know, he habitually almost every chapter discusses the old versus the new. He constantly points out what the old cannot do and what the new can do. We read two chapters ago, that the Old Testament, the law was operating under a shadow of the things to come. It was an image of what Christ will do, but it wasn't the events themselves. So the author repeats himself. Now he says that the law had a shadow of good things to come. The Lord did, did two things. The law showed us our need for a Savior. Romans tells us that for by the laws, the knowledge of sin, by the law, do we know that we are sinful, that we are wretched, and that we are miserable. But the law also showed us how our Savior would provide
Now it tells us that the priest of the Old Testament law have while it had a shadow of it, and not the very image, it's because they had to continually make sacrifices, the temple ran daily. The temple was constantly receiving sacrifices, sin offerings, love offerings, peace offerings. Every year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would have to enter in and offer sacrifice for the sins of Israel. But why? Why was this continuing? Why did they have to do this all the time? Because it could not make the commers there unto perfect. It tells us here in verse four that it is not possible for the blood of bulls and the blood of goats to sanctify us, how can another created being another created creature, whether it's a human or an animal, or some other object? How can it have enough value to pay for our sins? It just cannot. So it tells us in verse two that they had to continually day after day and year after year, offer sacrifice, because if they were made perfect, the sacrifice would have ceased.
Once you were cleansed from all unrighteousness, there is no more need for sacrifice. And so we see that Jesus is superior, and that he only had to sacrifice himself once. verses five through 10. Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he say, sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body has now prepared me in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure, Then said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book, is written of Me, to do thy will, oh, God. Above when he said, sacrifice and above and he said, sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin that was not, neither has pleasure, they're in which are offered by the law. Then said, he, lo, I come to do thy will, oh, God, he taketh away the first, that he may establish the second by, the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. The author of Hebrews communicates clearly why Christ came into the world. He came into the world because the sacrifices of the Old Testament the Levitical system cannot forgive sins. And we see a parallel here in Acts 4:12. The author, Luke says, Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. He came, because there is no other name. There is no other means of salvation. And we see this in the Garden of Gethsemane when Christ is praying, when he knows what's coming. And he prays, he says, Father, if there be any other way, but this cup pass for me, nevertheless, he says, Not my will, but thine. If there was any other way, Jesus never would have died. That was his prayer. Father, let this pass from me. But there is no other mechanism to forgive sin, no other mechanism that can wash the stains. We talked earlier that our works are filthy rags. And there is no other mechanism to have those stains washed from us. Can we see the symbols of the Old Testament that the sacrifices and burnt offerings they do not please, God, they did not cleanse men from sin.
We see and Psalms 53 I think in Sunday school, we read Psalms 53 little bit today. And we saw on Psalm 53. We didn't get there. But I believe it's verse 16. That David when he is praying to God and pleading for forgiveness, He says to God that you don't desire offering, sacrifice burnt offerings. If you did desire them, I would give them but the Lord doesn't desire that. He doesn't desire animal sacrifice, that will never cleanse us. And so David, he knew what God needed. I think it's two verses later there that he says that his sacrifice is a broken heart and a contrite spirit. But that's pointless without a payment without a ransom. While the sacrifices did not cleanse us, while the Lord did not take pleasure in burnt offerings, Romans 10:13 tells us that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. So there is a way it's just not the Old Testament way.
Christ showed his [superb] superiority, tongue tied. In his surrender. He says, in verse seven, then I said, See, I have come to do Your will. He says, I've come to lay down my life, just as the scripture said I would. Know the Old Testament, I love it. There is not a single book, you cannot find Jesus and from the beginning, from Genesis, chapter three, verse 15, there is a prophecy. Then again, in Genesis five, I don't know who is like me, and when they get to the genealogies of the Bible, they're like, "Nope," you know, Adam was 135, when he got Seth and Seth was 130, when he got in Austin, so on any there's this long genealogies. And it's like why? Well, there's reasons they are there. But one of my favorite genealogies is Genesis five. Because those first 10 generations prophesy the gospel message, they teach, that man has appointed mortal sorrow, but the blessing of God shall come down teaching that his death shall bring the despairing rest. If we take the Hebrew meanings of all the names of Adam and set, any nausea and so on, and put it into a sentence, that is what we receive. We continue throughout the book of Genesis to see Jesus, we see the Abrahamic Covenant, the promise to Abraham, and to Isaac and to Jacob that through their seed will all families of the earth be blessed. We see a Christ prototype in Exodus. We continue to see Jesus show up over and over and over again, Moses prophesied of a prophet who would come. The... the whole old testament pointed to Christ. So the Scripture said he would come, but he submitted. Think about that. God, because Jesus is God. He submitted, he humbled himself. And he humbled himself into death. And then it tells us, that He replaced the old with the new verses eight and nine. He says, Above, when he said, sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings, and offering for sin that was not, neither had pleasure there in which are offered by the law, then said, he, lo, I come to do thy will, oh, God, he take it the way the first that he may establish the second. Christ came to replace the old covenant. Now he didn't come to just abolish it to let it go. He came to fulfill it, so that in fulfilling it, we will not have to, we are incapable. The old system was based on our work. So it was based on our ability to keep our side of the covenant with God.
The Mosaic covenant between God and Israel was a if you do, I will do if you will have no other gods before me, if you will not murder if you will not commit adultery, if you will not bear false witness, then I will bless you, your store houses will be full, you will experience prosperity. It was based on their ability to keep the demands of the law. And when they could not keep the demands of the law, at least accidentally. He provided a mechanism by which they could pay for that. But the New Testament is based not on me, not on you. It's not based on how good I can be today. It's not based on whether or not I can meet the measure. But it's based on the work of Jesus Christ, and the finished work of Jesus Christ. We read two weeks ago that he sat down, when we talked about what that symbolized the fact that Jesus not only ascended to heaven, but sat down at the throne of God told us that there is no more work to be done. When he hung from the cross. He said, depending on your Bible translation, it is finished, or it is paid. He did it. We can praise him for that. Hebrews 7:25 tells us that this new system, this New Covenant, based on his blood, is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, being Jesus, seeing he ever live with to make intercession for them. To the uttermost, let me tell you something, I don't care what you've done. I don't care how bad you think you screwed up. I don't even want to know there's people in the Bible who screwed up bad enough. And it's recorded for all of eternity for us to know. And there are some bad deeds recorded. I can think of David, Psalms 53 is all about such an evil deed. I don't care how far gone you think you are what you think you've done. You may think that you have dug a pit so deep, that not even a ray of sunlight can hit the bottom of it. But Jesus can save them who come to him with through him to the uttermost. He can save you completely, wholly from wherever you are.
And then theres sanctification verse 10, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. We don't crucify Jesus daily. We don't crucify him annually, we remember him. But once he died, that we will be sanctified. Now we are sanctified through our life. I'm not a saint yet, I wish. It's an ongoing process. Sometimes it's a painful process. But there is hope because he tells us that he will perfect us He will continue until our perfection. And then in closing, and we have verses 11 through 18. And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God, from henceforth expecting to his enemies be made his footstool, for about one offering, he has perfected forever, then there are sanctified, wherefore the Holy Ghost also is a witness for us or to us. For after that he had said before, this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and then their minds will I write them and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Now where remission of these is there's no more offering for sin. That is a powerful, passage. And meaningful, very meaningful. We see the author of Hebrews once again, he brings the Old Testament priests back in, he makes a comparison that yearly, they sacrifice, they sacrifice the same offerings that could not forgive sins, it makes me wonder why the Messianic Jews would want to go back. Why? But you know, it's funny. Often, we try and go back as well. That makes me wonder why? Why do we try and complicate the gospel. We know what the Gospel says. And yet we try and complicate it, we try and add all these works to it, we try and add all these requirements and measures and checks. But it can't save. It cannot cleanse from sin.
But Christ made the only sacrifice that would cleanse us. And then he sat down in the highest honor. And then we read the method of verses 15 to 18, we see a new covenant that that's no longer the blood of animals, but Christ bought us. He redeemed us or even a more proper term is that he ransomed us. He paid the ransom. Acts 20:28 is specifically talking to preachers, to pastors to shepherds, but there's something in here for you. Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost had made you, overseers, pastor to feed the church of God, which he had purchased with His own blood. I would say that you have value, I would say that you are very valuable, you're priceless. Because the blood of Christ purchased you can't put a higher price on that. And also tells us how deep our sin was. Our sin debt that was so great that it required the blood of God it required his willingness to make this way. And we see the cleansing here.
This is so powerful, the cleansing. He says their sins and iniquities Well, I remember no more. Wow. No more he will remember our sins, and iniquities. In fact, Psalms gives us a bigger picture of this, chapter one on three, verse 12. The psalmist says, As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us? How far is the east from the west? I mean, the Earth is relatively small. So if we left the Earth's atmosphere and started traveling in a direction would I ever reach the West? No. You can never reach the east or the west from the other direction. And as far apart as they are spread hundreds and millions of light years away, just to put it into perspective, is how far apart he's tossed the remembrance of our sins. That's powerful. We can forgive pretty easily sometimes. Sometimes it's hard. But as easily as we can forgive. We often bring it back up, we remember it we look and I remember what you did. I don't know what you did, but I remember. [Yeah, what did I do?]
Right? We remember and we hold grudges. And we will say, Well, I forgave and then next thing you know, we remember, we're hurt, we don't trust. We hold it against them. And we can't even comprehend forgetting something that you've done so horrible to me. But God tosses it into what I call the sea of forgetfulness. And once it's there, it's lost. It's gone forever. And there is no limit to how far he will go to save you to how far he will go to pull you out of the pits. And to how far he will go to make sure that you are saved. He says that where the remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Through the last three months, we have thoroughly discussed Jesus, we have thoroughly discussed the alternatives to Jesus and the alternatives to him as a ransom. We have discussed that there is nothing in this world worth dying for, without him. What good is it? What good would it be to gain the world to gain all the riches, all the popularity, all the treasures that are here, if we lose our soul? I don't think there was any good in that. We can't take it with us. And I know some of you may not have accepted Jesus yet, because you think that you have gone too far. Or you think that for some reason, you need to get your life in mind. You have a checklist, you know, Okay, I gotta fix this, I gotta do that. Maybe I need to go remove this sin from my life before I go to church before I asked Jesus into my life, let me tell you something, you will never do it. You will never, you will never come to a point in your life where you say, Okay, God, I am now good enough for you. Okay, so if that's what you're waiting for, just know that Jesus already did it. He's not waiting for you, to make yourself good for him. He is just waiting for you to let him do it for you. And then the Bible tells us that when the son sets free is free indeed, because you have made it you will be there. You will experience the greatest gift and power of love that you could imagine. Maybe Maybe you haven't accepted Jesus, you havent asked Him into your heart, because you're still unsure. And if that's the case, if you're in this room, and that's the case, I don't know. But Pastor Matt and I will be available after to help you to talk with you about that. Maybe you just been waiting because you think you've got time. But tomorrow is promised to no man. We read in Hebrews nine that men is appointed to die once. And then after that judgment. So if you believe, if you think you believe if, if you're just waiting to live your life so that you can get then you can get saved after doing all the living. Let's not put this off. Let's not wait any longer. The Bible tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And so that means you you have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. But it tells us that whosoever will confess at their mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in their heart that God raised Him from the dead shall be saved.
So if you believe that you are a sinner and cannot save yourself, if you are ready to believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, that he lived a sinless and perfect life for you. That He died on the cross for the remission of your sins and resurrected the third day giving victory over sin and death. And you ready to confess them before your fellow man let me stress that before your fellow man. He says Matthew 10:32 Whosoever will confessed me before his fellow men, I will confess before the Father. Then I invite you here in our closing prayer, the first half of it, just repeat it with me. Ask Jesus into your heart. Admit that you are a sinner, and cannot save yourself. And then come and confess them before your fellow man. Let us know that you identify with the Lord Jesus. And I can't wait to welcome you into the family of God. Let's pray.
Father, I come broken and admit that I am a sinner and cannot say myself. But Lord, Your Word tells me that you died for me, and tells me that your sacrifice was once and for all, and that it would cleanse me from all iniquity, and that you would toss my sin and forget it from as far as the east is to the west. And so Lord, I believe that you are the God man. I believe that you lived for me perfectly and died and rose again. And Lord, I profess you as my God. I asked you into my life. Give me a new heart. Make me new Lord. Lord, I will shout your name from the rooftops I will share your name on the city streets. I will pick up my cross and follow you. And I thank you for what you have done. Jesus, we just thank you. As we come to an end of a series, that you are better that you are better than the prophets better than the Old Testament law better than life itself. We think you that you have so much to offer for us. And we think that you did it as a gift. Lord, I just pray that as we leave we remember that you are better and that there is nothing more valuable in our lives than to have you I pray that you will embolden us empower us to go out and to share your name. You told us that when you light a candle, you don't put it under the bed to hide. So let us not hide but let us go out let us go forth and share your light that you and the Father may be glorified. We love you in Jesus name. Amen.