Jet Tour Of Hebrews (part 2)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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September 7, 2008

Jet Tour Of Hebrews (part 3)

00:02: I've been on so many airplanes lately, I can't count, maybe 15 in the last several of weeks.
00:09: And it's just become common knowledge for me to sit there and hear, in case of an emergency, seats in the upright and locked position, tray tables up.
00:19: And then something that they do in South Africa that I haven't heard them do in the States, they say, bend yourself over like this up against the seat in front of you and get ready with the brace position.
00:31: And I thought, that's not the brace position, that's the pray to God position that you're going to meet Him soon, the brace position.
00:40: This is the position you're going to need this morning when it comes to the book of Hebrews. Why don't you turn there, the book of Hebrews in the
00:46: New Testament. Fasten your seatbelts because we are on this rocket ride through the book of Hebrews while we're waiting to get back into the
00:56: Sermon on the Mount, Matthew chapter 6. Just returned from Africa, bring you greetings for those who weren't here last week.
01:02: If you'd like a new word, greetings in Zulu would be gunjani. So as you're turning to Hebrews gunjani.
01:09: There won't be a lot of time for stories in this message because we have to work through the book of Hebrews very, very quickly.
01:16: How many people were here last week? All right. How many people here who were last week read the entire book of Hebrews in the last week?
01:27: Raise your hand and keep them up. I love this church. Good for you. Thank you.
01:34: Put your hand down, Luke. Good thing you read it. Who's your dad?
01:42: The book of Hebrews exalts Christ Jesus. The book of Hebrews says that Jesus Christ is superior to everyone and to everything.
01:52: And the book of Hebrews is basically a sermon written down to show to everyone who would listen that Jesus Christ is superior to every person, everything, and all entities that have ever existed.
02:06: If I want to go from the greater to the lesser, then Jesus is shown as superior by the writer of Hebrews so that you think
02:17: Jesus is superior to the Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots, your job, your children, your school.
02:32: For even Paul would say for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Jesus is superior.
02:41: And the sooner we can wrap our arms around that concept, the better it is because you see, my friends, we're not in the center of the universe.
02:49: If we're not careful and left to ourselves, we'll think that we are the end instead of the means.
02:55: In other words, we'll think that the universe revolves around us instead of being pleased to be used by God to be used as his means for his glory.
03:06: Jesus is superior and you say, well, so what? I'm having a difficult week. One of the great things about looking at Jesus in the book of Hebrews is it will just increase our praise today.
03:18: We are going to just have lots of reasons to praise Christ Jesus by the end of the day.
03:24: And if you go to the book of Hebrews chapter 1 through 13, we'll only probably get through the second step of maybe four so far.
03:31: I'm expecting in this series that God will increase your praise. I'm expecting some of you who are sitting here today would even get saved during this three to four to five week series, that you would be saved underneath the hearing of the gospel.
03:44: I'm quite confident that many of you here are saved and growing. I'm also confident that maybe 10, 15, 20 percent maybe, 25 percent of you are not born again and need to be saved by the grace of God.
03:56: You must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And as you go through the book of Hebrews, you will be impressed with Jesus.
04:02: And after you've seen Jesus in this book, there's only going to be one option and that is to embrace
04:08: Christ Jesus. There's nothing left to do. There's nothing, no one else to go to. The perfect priest, the perfect sacrifice, the perfect God.
04:17: Now this book, as I said, just to give you a little more introduction, it's like a sermon. It's like a sermon written down.
04:24: Several times I've found in this book which we are speaking, chapter 2.
04:29: We have much to say, chapter 5. And what has been said, chapter 8. We cannot now speak in detail, chapter 9 and chapter 11.
04:38: And what more can I say? Words and phrases that would connote this is a message that was preached out loud.
04:46: And it is a great sermon. So if I can say this morning, just one time, I'm going to preach someone else's sermon this morning.
04:52: I'm going to preach the writer of Hebrews sermon to you. It's not going to be a regular sermon by me. I'm just going to try to make sure your thoughts get wrapped around it and so you can see the logic of it and its movement because it is absolutely brilliant.
05:04: It is absolutely brilliant. I think to myself, if I'm not careful, I just want to slow down and preach this for a couple of years, but I know we must get back.
05:13: Here's this book that shouts, Jesus is Lord. Jesus is superior.
05:21: And as I preach this, any good preacher would say, what are some of the goals that I have? As I preach this sermon, what would
05:26: I like the congregation to respond with? Let me just give you a few. First thing I'd like you to think about when we look at this passage, these passages, is to remember your privilege in Christ Jesus.
05:37: To remember the privilege you have that Jesus is not only your Savior, but He's your priest.
05:43: What a privilege. We are privileged people. Number two, I want you to remember the cost of discipleship.
05:49: People here were getting persecuted to a great degree. We think if someone doesn't promote us at work or doesn't like us as a friend at school, we're getting suffered, we're getting persecution.
06:01: Well, that's certainly persecution. But these people were really getting persecuted, and the writer of Hebrews was saying, there's a cost to discipleship, there's a cost affiliated with following Jesus.
06:12: It will cost you something if you want to follow Christ. Number three,
06:18: I think this message of the book of Hebrews motivates those who have a tired faith. A tired faith, and they've been through health problems, financial problems, other struggles, and so it serves as kind of stilts.
06:31: It serves as a support system. It serves as a way to come alongside and say, I'm encouraged because it's a difficult life, and this book encourages me.
06:41: This book also is directly preached to unbelievers. If you're an unbeliever, you're going to hear things today, and you're going to say, this man up here
06:49: I've never met, but he knows me. Well, I don't know you, but the Spirit of God knows you, and it's going to be like a beeline going right to your conscience, because that's what's happening here, preaching right to the unsaved people.
07:02: So there's lots of different goals today, but my main goal is for you to remember that Jesus is superior.
07:08: The nobility of Christ Jesus, the great Savior, the great High Priest, the great
07:13: Shepherd of the sheep. I want to show you the superiority of Jesus Christ, because I think people are starving for great gospels, great gospel preaching.
07:25: I don't mean my preaching, but hear the preaching in this book. It was Cotton Mather who said in New England 400 years ago, the great design and intention of the office of a
07:35: Christian preacher is to restore the throne and dominion of God in the souls of men.
07:43: That's exactly what Hebrews does. It's exactly. And if you're like me, I look at Hebrews, and I don't study it very much, because it seems too daunting.
07:51: It seems too hard, too many chapters, and all this stuff about Melchizedek and Aaron and everything else.
07:57: I mean, I'm just struggling to get my arms around Jude, one chapter, let alone Hebrews. Well, hopefully today
08:02: I'm going to try to grease the skids a little bit, so you say, I need to study Hebrews more. This is a book that God, the
08:08: Spirit of God, my teacher, wants me to know. Okay, what's the outline in the book of Hebrews?
08:14: My outline is the passage's outline. That's what good preaching should do, not come up with my own outline, but say, what's the outline there?
08:21: And the outline shows five reasons Jesus is superior, with five warnings laced throughout.
08:28: In other words, He's going to show you five, no reason for five. It's not some kind of special numerology kind of thing.
08:35: It's less than seven, therefore imperfect, and none of that. It's just five. Remember, He said in chapter 13
08:41: He was going to write a, what kind of exhortation? Long or short? Brief. It's going to be something brief, so five.
08:47: So there's five reasons that He's going to show Jesus is superior, and then there's going to be five warnings. And even the warnings,
08:54: Thomas Watson said, insightfully, that we shouldn't think of them the wrong way.
09:01: Listen to Watson. God's threats are like the buoy, which shows the rocks in the sea and threatens death to such as come near.
09:10: The threat is a curbing bit to check us that we may not run into full career into hell.
09:18: There is mercy in every threat. That's exactly what the writer does. Five reasons
09:23: Jesus is superior, five warnings. Just to catch us up, the first reason
09:29: Jesus is superior is that, number one, He's superior to the Old Testament prophets, chapter 1, verses 1 to 3.
09:35: We went over this last week, but just so the new people can catch up and we don't get theological bends by going in too fast, going up too fast, let's just quickly look at chapter 1, verses 1 to 3.
09:50: The prophets were great, but Jesus is superior. Chapter 1, verse 1,
09:55: God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets, verse 2, in these last days
10:00: He has spoken to us in His Son. The prophets are great, but Jesus is superior.
10:06: And the writer says He's superior for lots of reasons, that He sustains all things, that He purifies sins, that He sits on the right hand of the
10:14: Father, lots of reasons. But Jesus is superior to all the prophets. Jesus, for implication's sake,
10:22: Jesus and His New Testament, through His apostolic writers, is superior to every other authority, to the
10:29: Koran, to psychology, to mysticism, to subjective things. You take any other standard, to the big book, anything else, we have the words of Christ Himself through His apostolic messengers as well, the highest authority, the highest place of prominence,
10:45: Jesus' word. So much so that Paul says in 2 Corinthians that the promises of God in Christ are yes and amen.
10:54: Number two, why is Jesus superior? You ought to think Jesus is superior, number one, to the prophets, number two, to angels.
11:02: Jesus is superior to angels. Now, if you ever met an angel, what would you do? Well, I think I know what you would do.
11:08: I would be like Zechariah, probably, and I would see the angel and I'd be terrified. I probably would be like John in Revelation 19 and then in 21 and 22, where John sees the angel and what does he do?
11:21: It's so brilliant, this supernatural being is so brilliant that John, the apostle
11:26: John, is on his face worshiping the angel and the angel is saying, get up. Don't worship me,
11:33: I'm created. You can just imagine the Jewish mindset. Oh, the prophets and Elijah and Hosea, they're great, but Jesus is better.
11:45: But the angels, these supernatural beings, and the writer of Hebrews, I think probably
11:50: Paul was the writer, but it doesn't matter, the Holy Spirit is the writer, wants us to know, wants you to know that Jesus is better than any angel.
11:58: I did a little research. For those of you that like numbers, this is specifically to the WPI crowd that always seems to sit right here,
12:03: I don't know why. In the Old Testament, there was one angel that killed 185 ,000 people on one night.
12:12: Remember that? 185 ,000 dead. Jesus, in Matthew chapter 26, has some words for Peter after Peter takes out his knife and tries to cut
12:26: Malchus' head off. Malchus, I'm sure, ducked and got his ear cut off instead.
12:33: And Jesus says to Peter and the men, Put your sword back into its place, for all of those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword.
12:42: Or do you not think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and He will at once put at my disposal more than 12 legions of angels?
12:54: How many is a legion? 6 ,000. Can you imagine if one angel can kill in one night 185 ,000 men, soldiers, and you take 6 ,000 times 185 ,000, what do you get?
13:06: Some of you probably know already, but I have to look. 1 .11 billion, roughly, men.
13:12: One angel can kill. And you have to say, that's impressive. A legion of angels in one night can kill all of India.
13:21: That's pretty impressive. But here Jesus said 12 legions of angels, over 13 billion people, twice as many people that exist on the planet,
13:32: Jesus said, could be killed by angels in one night. Angels were impressive.
13:40: Angels could show themselves to animals before they would show themselves to people, like back in Balaam's day.
13:47: Jews thought angels were impressive, and they are impressive. But angels aren't sons, they're servants.
13:53: Look at chapter 1. Angels aren't sons, they're servants. Verse 5,
14:01: For to which of the angels did He ever say, You are my son, today I have begotten you? Answer, He never says that to angels.
14:10: So Jesus is superior, He's a son. Not a servant, angels are servants.
14:16: Jesus is also called by the Father, God. Take a look at chapter 1, verse 8. Your throne,
14:22: O God, is forever and ever. The Father says that of the Son. Jesus is superior to the angels.
14:29: And if you believe that, the writer says there's a warning. And here's the first warning, chapter 2. Again, still in review.
14:36: Here's the warning. If you know this, for this reason, Do you see it in chapter 2, verse 1?
14:42: For this reason, Jesus is superior to prophets, He's superior to angels. For this reason, we must pay close attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.
14:53: This is serious. You might drift. As a ship gets untied in the middle of the night, and a storm comes in, you wake up and the ship is gone, drifted away.
15:02: It is possible for you to hear the message that Jesus is superior and drift. There's nothing more important than to believe the gospel.
15:10: And if there was judgment sure through the old covenant, how much more will there be judgment sure through the new covenant?
15:17: Verse 2. If the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?
15:30: Answer, we won't escape. Jesus is a Son. He's superior.
15:36: Then you've got to believe it. You just can't go, well, I'm just going to live my life. I know this intellectual knowledge, and I affirm that, but that's it.
15:43: There has to be this deep trust and abiding commitment for belief.
15:50: Now we go back to chapter 2, verse 14. Jesus isn't just a
15:56: Son, but he's a man, and no angel ever cloaked himself with some kind of human flesh and died for us.
16:04: Therefore, verse 14, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same.
16:09: He could be our representative. He might have fellowship with us. That through death he might render powerless him,
16:16: Satan, who had the power of death. That is the devil. Jesus died. He was raised from the tomb three days later, and he has conquered death for all those who would ever believe.
16:28: Verse 16, for assuredly he does not give help to angels, but he gives help to the son of Abraham. When a third of the angels fell, what did
16:36: God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit do? Did he help them? That word for help or assist means to come over and pull somebody out of a pit.
16:43: I remember my grandfather would always walk around with this limp, and his leg came down straight like this, and then his foot was always crooked.
16:50: And he always walked with this crooked foot, and we wanted to go on walks. I can imagine if you're a grandfather, you want to take walks with your kids and all that.
16:58: He could not walk because his foot was like that. I said, Grandpa, what happened to you? And he said, Well, my foot was cut off all the way.
17:04: And then in 1930 they sewed it back on again, and they couldn't sew that well. Back in those days, and so I just have this foot that's halfway on, kind of almost gangrenous over time, and eventually had to be amputated.
17:17: I said, Grandpa, how did that happen? He said, Well, there's a car accident on the bridge.
17:24: And the car accident on the bridge wiped us up against the bridge. And there were these other cars coming.
17:30: I thought the cars were going to hit us. They couldn't see us. And so I quick got out of the car, came around the other side, and pulled your grandmother out of the car and took her down to the side to be rescued away from oncoming traffic.
17:43: I said, But what I didn't know, my foot was already cut off when I got out to go get my grandmother, to go get my wife.
17:50: That's the exact word here in verse 16. Does not give help to angels. Jesus doesn't pull them off the train tracks.
17:58: He doesn't rescue them. He doesn't say, I've got to pull you to safety. When the angels fell, they fell. But Jesus is a great high priest for people.
18:05: He's cloaked with humanity and, therefore, very compassionate.
18:12: He makes propitiation, verse 17. And he was tempted in all areas, just like we were, except he never gave in to temptation at all.
18:22: Jesus is superior to the prophets. He's superior to the angels. Number three, Jesus is superior to, dare
18:28: I say it, Moses. Those are fighting words, almost, if you're
18:34: Jewish. Jesus is better than Moses? Prove it. Okay, the writer says, I'll prove it.
18:39: Chapter three, angels are servants.
18:48: Jesus is a son. Moses was a builder in the house. He was a worker in the house.
18:54: But the architect and the master planner was Jesus. That's going to be the point. And he says in verse seven, if you know that, you better not harden your heart.
19:09: And we come to warning number two. The writer thinks of Moses in the wilderness and now says, you know, there's a bigger wilderness, and that wilderness is eternal destruction.
19:18: Don't harden your heart. If you know Jesus is better than prophets, better than angels, better than Moses, then don't harden your heart.
19:24: Look at what he says, verse seven. Today, if you hear his voice, verse eight of chapter three, don't harden your hearts.
19:31: Because God's not just a God of love, verse 11. He's a God of wrath as well, as I swore in my what?
19:38: Wrath. And then he says, pastorally, can't you see it in verse 12? Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart.
19:47: Show me someone that doesn't believe the gospel, I'll show you a wicked, evil person. They might be nice to their neighbors.
19:55: They might not speed on the interstate. But I will show you someone who says, I don't love Jesus Christ, I hate him, and I would be there crucifying him if I could have, because I will not have this man rule over me.
20:06: That's exactly what he says. Don't do that. You're going to fall away from the living God. Now, this is not some kind of rock.
20:13: This is not some kind of idol. I went to Africa, and as I always do, I always bring home some kind of idol.
20:20: And why? I don't know. If you go to our house, there's a little shrine of idols by the door there.
20:26: Kim usually knocks them down, kind of like Dagon getting knocked down before the Ark of the Covenant, just so they're on their face, not real.
20:34: But I just like to put those little idols there from India and other places, and now there's one from Africa, a fertility goddess.
20:41: And I just like them sitting around the house. Why? Because it gets a laugh out of the congregation. No, that's not why.
20:47: Man, it's hot up here. Woo! I tell my guys in preaching class, never do this and go like that, except when we're going to baptize
20:55: Tom in the front row. You could sit in front of that little idol.
21:03: She's got kind of a big head, and she's got a big belly, and other signs of fertility.
21:09: And that thing doesn't talk. That thing won't talk. That thing would be good to be burned, and Kim would say, amen, but can't do it.
21:20: This is the living God. This is a God who lives. We don't make a God with some of the wood, and then we use some of the other wood and warm our hands.
21:30: Every one of you who hear the message, you will stand before God one day, the living God. The writer of Hebrews says in chapter 3, verse 15, today if you hear
21:40: His voice, it's not too late. If you haven't believed today's the day, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me.
21:48: And here's what provokes God, verse 19, unbelief. They were not able to enter because of unbelief.
21:53: It wasn't that they were too sinful. They were sinful, but they weren't believing in the God who covers sins and counts sinners righteous based on His Son.
22:03: You must believe in Moses.
22:08: Moses can't save you. You have to believe in Jesus, and He says in light of that two things.
22:17: The first thing He says is, you better be afraid. What kind of sermon is this, you better be afraid?
22:22: As Gromacki called it, he calls this theophobia, verse 1.
22:29: Therefore, let us fear, lest while a promise remains of entering
22:35: His eternal spiritual heavenly rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it.
22:41: You can come short of it, you can hear intellectually and still fall short, not make it. Because there's a difference between listening and listening and receiving and hearing the message not just intellectually, but with your heart, soul, mind, will, emotion.
22:55: I believe with all my being that that's true. That's exactly what happens in Hebrews 4 .2.
23:01: For indeed, we have had the good news preached to us. You've heard, you all know. Everyone in this room knows.
23:08: But the word they heard did not profit them. How can the word preached not profit?
23:15: Because it was not united by what? What's the text say? By faith in those that heard.
23:21: One is not enough. You can't just hear, but you have to believe. You can't just say, oh yeah, I've heard it, and I understand intellectually where everything goes with the building blocks of salvation.
23:31: But you have to believe with your whole soul that Jesus died for me. Jesus was raised for me.
23:40: When I hear people talk about non -lordship and you can believe in Jesus as your Savior yet not take Him as Lord, they don't understand these kind of passages.
23:49: You can't just hear, you have to believe. Trustingly. This is a non -negotiable, verse 3.
23:56: For we who have believed savingly enter that rest. The others don't. Believers alone.
24:03: And it's not too late, verse 6. Therefore it remains for some to enter it and those who formerly had good news preached to them fail to enter because of disobedience.
24:12: And He has the theme come back again for all those who are listening today that aren't Christians. Today, if you hear
24:18: His voice, at the end of verse 7, do not harden your hearts. You can just hear the writer of Hebrews act just like Jesus, who would call out to sinners that they must believe.
24:31: Kindly, repeatedly, urgently, you must believe right now. There's nothing more important.
24:37: This is a call to salvation. It's not too late. And then
24:44: He says in verse 11 and following, you are accountable. You know better.
24:50: No one's ever going to stand before God and say, you know what, I didn't know what you required. I didn't know who you were. I didn't know there was a
24:56: God. I was an atheist. Yes, but my parents didn't teach me X, Y, and Z. You are accountable.
25:02: And you shouldn't just fear, but you should also be diligent. Verse 11. Let us therefore be diligent.
25:09: Be attentive. Be quick. Be zealous. Take every effort to enter that spiritual, eternal, heavenly rest.
25:17: Lest anyone fall through following the same example of disobedience.
25:24: You say, but who can tell? Who can tell who here is a real Christian and who isn't? Who can judge?
25:30: Who's the standard? I can't tell. You can't tell, but there's one entity that can tell.
25:37: And this entity here happens to be not a who, but a what. The Word of God can tell. Verse 12.
25:42: We throw this verse out all the time as Christians. That's fine. I understand. We love this verse, and we can apply this verse to our lives.
25:50: There's a principle from this verse for Christians. But what's the first word in chapter 4, verse 12?
25:57: This is not some verse to just be quoted by Christians when we think, you know, I've got my sword. I've got my sword, and off we go for spiritual warfare in Ephesians 6.
26:08: Of course we have spiritual warfare sword in Ephesians 6. That's the big sword that chops your head off.
26:13: This is the smaller hand -to -hand combat sword. And what does this small hand -to -hand combat sword do? It is the thing that determines objectively who is a
26:25: Christian and who isn't. You can hide from other people. You can hide from your parents. You can hide from the elders.
26:30: You can hide from your spouse. You can hide from your neighbors. But the Word of God will find you out.
26:38: The Word of God will find out who's a plain Christian, who's a Christian for their parents or their looks in the community.
26:50: Look at this, verse 12. 4. The Word of God is living. It's quick and active where we get the word energy and sharper than hand -to -hand combat sword, than any two -edged sword piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit.
27:08: There's no difference between soul and spirit, but this can separate the inseparable, both of joints and marrow, and able to judge, or critic is the word in Greek, be a critic to the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
27:21: You take someone who sits there and says, yeah, I believe, but they don't really. The Word of God can be the polygraph to root you out.
27:30: John Calvin said, There is nothing so hard or firm in a man, nothing so deeply hidden, that the efficacy of the word does not penetrate through to it.
27:41: Can you imagine? If you're an unbeliever today, every thought, every deed, every event, every detail that you have had in your life and experience,
27:52: God knows without even thinking. God doesn't have to say, well, this happened and that happened. He just knows everything consciously.
27:59: It's in the forefront of His mind. He knows it all. There are no recesses too dark for Him to know.
28:04: He knows every secret. Every skeleton can't hide.
28:13: The Word is the judgment tool against you. External head bobbing won't work.
28:20: Yeah, I believe. I believe on Sunday, but then I live like hell on Monday. Did you know something?
28:26: Verse 13, There is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
28:36: God knows you inside and out. That word open in the text there, verse 13, is where we get the word gymnastics.
28:44: And they used to do gymnastics naked. And so, they did gymnastics naked, and here we get the word naked from this word gymnastics.
28:53: This means a body without clothing or a kernel of grain that's bare. God sees us.
28:59: And then, to make it worse, He doesn't just see us. And we're laid bare to His eyes. You mean laid bare.
29:06: What's this part of your neck right here? We call it a windpipe, but it's that cartilage, that kind of mucous membrane that's right here.
29:14: It goes from the larynx to the bronchi. I don't know this, but I just looked it up so I could. But here's what
29:20: I do know. I didn't need to be taught this. The same word that we call it, the trachea, is the word that's there in the
29:27: Greek, the trachea. And it's basically, in the old days, when there would be a gladiator, and he would expose the neck of his defeated opponent to the crowd for them to go yes or no, because if they said no, that's where he would cut right there across the trachea.
29:43: If you want to take an animal, and you want to try to kill a little animal that's a year old, how about a year old lamb for a sacrifice,
29:50: I can tell you the way you ought not to do it if you're a parent. You ought not to get all the kids in the backyard and get a knife, and every time that lamb comes by, try to just grab it and jab it.
30:02: What are you going to do? You're going to take that lamb, and you're going to take that lamb across, you're going to put your leg around it, you're going to hold that one -year -old ram's neck back, and you're going to show and expose the neck.
30:14: Actually, the Greek word is where we get the word artery. Translated into Latin, we get trachea.
30:20: And then all of a sudden, there goes the knife. And that's how we are before God. He knows everything. What are we going to do?
30:31: Then, it's fascinating. He gives the fourth reason Jesus is superior. The fourth reason
30:37: Jesus is superior. He's superior to prophets, he's superior to angels, he's superior to Moses, and now he's superior to Aaron.
30:47: You say, Aaron, what's all this about? Watch how this transition happens in chapter 4, verse 14.
30:53: We've gone to the cold steel of some kind of operating room cutting device, scalpel, and now we move to this warm, kind, encouraging, sympathetic priest.
31:07: It's the only hope for people. It's the only hope. Softening. If God knows our heart, we need somebody to stand in our place.
31:17: We need somebody to stand in our stead. And what does the text say, verse 14? Since then, we have...
31:24: Verse 15, we have... We have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens. Jesus, Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession.
31:32: We have a high priest standing, making intercession for us. He's literally the great priest, and he's gone up through the heavens.
31:39: Now, some think it's kind of spatial. You say to yourself, well, there's three heavens, where the birds fly, where the stars are, and where God is.
31:46: And then also they'll say, well, you've got some kind of outer court, holy place, and holy of holies.
31:53: He's not really talking about spatially. He's talking about a transcendent great God. Forget outer space talk.
31:58: He's talking about this great transcendent God, guaranteed his greatness by his transcendency.
32:05: But you know what? He's just not transcendent. He's compassionate, verse 15. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
32:18: Hold fast. Jesus is great, but he's compassionate, so much so that he'll help. One commentator said, in his earthly ministry,
32:27: Christ manifested his compassion over the needs of men constantly. Their lack of guidance, the grief of a widow, the despair of a father, the mental aberration of a demoniac.
32:39: Jesus cared. Jesus knows your weaknesses better than you do. Jesus knows about your sins better than you do.
32:46: Jesus knows and understands better than you do. And yet he is without sin. Therefore, how do we respond?
32:53: Let us therefore draw near with confidence. With confidence means you have freedom to speak. You don't go to God and say,
33:00: I just don't know what to say because I can't talk because everything is sin -laden and sin -ridden.
33:07: No, freedom to speak and to voice our needs. God, I'm weak. I need you. I fall short.
33:13: You are the high priest. To the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and grace to help in time of need.
33:22: Just at the right time. No more throne of judgment but the throne of grace. And now the writer slides into this discussion of Aaron.
33:31: And you say, Aaron? You know, when I first would read this, I think, this is where I get bogged down. Aaron, chapter 5.
33:37: I love chapter 4 there, verse 16. Boy, that's a hot verse. We quote that all the time. Top 10 list of Christians.
33:44: But what about chapter 5? Aaron? How do we get into this
33:49: Aaron talk? Well, let me just back up for a minute. Boy, I am just soaked today. Wow. Get in the brace position.
34:00: By the way, also with airplanes, they all tell you, you know, put on your life jacket but don't inflate it until you get out of the thing, out of the airplane.
34:11: Forget that. World War II bomber pilots knew full well that when you're going to crash, you need to put on your life vest and blow it up because it serves like some kind of crash pad.
34:24: Where do you have those things in your car? What are those called? Airbags. Get the airbag on now.
34:30: So much for submitting to authority. Oh, I was on one of the flights, and I probably shouldn't have done this, but you're like, thank you for the just, there's a barrage from Hebrews now.
34:47: We'll just, but this is planned. This is planned, so now you'll go, okay. Round 2, Hebrews 5.
34:55: There was an older couple coming in, and I could tell they needed help, so I got up and helped them put the big bag up there, it weighed about 95 kilos, and so I put it up there, and then they sat down, but they ended up sitting in my seat.
35:07: Okay, you know, here's my sheet, and you know, but I thought, just okay, let them sit there, so I'll sit over here.
35:13: So I sit over here, then this family, this mother with two daughters, they were probably 24 years old, 26 years old, they came over and said, you're sitting in my seat.
35:20: I said, well, I know, but I was sitting over there, and you know, would you want to all be together? Okay, so then why don't
35:26: I sit in my other seat that's not mine originally, but now is mine. Okay, I'll go do that, and then I don't know why I said it, but I just said, that's okay,
35:32: I'll go ahead and do it, and if the plane crashes, and I live, it's destiny. She's like, what are you doing?
35:40: But I had a smile on my face. Have you read your Bible today? No, because I thought
35:50: I could scare people a little bit. It's good, fear of the Lord is good. All right, is that from my head, or from my, thank you.
36:03: All right, but when the plane took off, though, you know there's some really scared people on the flights.
36:16: The mother and the two daughters were white -knuckling each other's hands, just like that, just hoping the plane would take off properly and land properly, and I thought,
36:25: I just better be quiet about those kind of things. As you walk through this passage, this is not some kind of,
36:39: I mean, it's good to have a laugh in the middle of a sermon and kind of diffuse everything, but coming back to this, there are no jokes in here, there's no comic relief.
36:48: You can tell that this writer basically says, every one of you is going to die, every single one, and then what?
36:55: And without Jesus, the high priest, there is no hope. And I let you up for air for a second, this writer won't do it for 13 chapters.
37:04: You can feel the finger on the sternum, but then you can also feel the arm around the shoulder, sternly, but with compassion.
37:14: You say to yourself, while this Aaron talked, Jesus was not a Levite, so how can you be in the
37:20: Aaronic priesthood? You can hear the Jew, Jesus is from the tribe of Judah, he's not from the tribe of Levi, then therefore he can't be any kind of priest, he can't be a high priest, nor can he be a great high priest, and so the deal's off.
37:36: And so here in the next few chapters, chapter 5, 6, and 7, you're going to hear the writer of Hebrews try to convince you that Jesus comes from a better line of priests, not the line of Aaron, but the line of Melchizedek.
37:50: Chapter 5, verse 1, For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins.
38:00: He can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weaknesses.
38:07: For a priest back in those days, they had to make sure that they were, number one, appointed by God. You couldn't just want to become a priest today if you want to become an elder.
38:17: It's a good thing to aspire to do. But now you can't do that unless you had a genealogical record that says,
38:23: I'm a Levite. You could not say, I think I want to be a priest. I think I want to be a leader. I think that's what I'd like to do.
38:28: You can't do that. You have to be divinely appointed, and you have to be compassionate. In this section, those are the themes.
38:36: Verse 4, And no one takes honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.
38:45: Divine selection only, and compassion had to go along with it. So here we have
38:51: Jesus divinely appointed and compassionate because he cloaked himself with humanity.
38:56: Verse 5, So also Christ did not glorify himself, so as to become a high priest. But he who said to him,
39:02: The Father made him this, Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee.
39:08: Verse 6, Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek, before there was even a priesthood with Mosaic law, here we have a great priest
39:19: Melchizedek, and God the Father said, Like Melchizedek, Jesus, you are appointed as a high priest.
39:26: You say, Melchizedek? What's that all about? Well, we'll get back to Melchizedek in a moment.
39:33: Verse 7, Look at how compassionate this great priest is, Christ Jesus. In the day of his flesh, verse 7,
39:40: He offered up both prayers by the way, that word is used of a leper begging. This is the sweat and toil you remember in Luke 22, like great drops of blood falling.
39:51: Jesus, this priest, what do priests do? They intercede. What is this priest's intercession like?
39:56: With prayers and supplications, with loud crying, and tears to the one able to save him from death.
40:03: He was heard because of his piety. Although he was a son, verse 8, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered.
40:13: Verse 10, Designated by God. What do you do when you say,
40:18: Jesus is better than prophets, He's better than angels, better than Moses, and He's better than Aaron? Well, there's warnings, and now we have the third warning in verse 11.
40:27: Here's the third warning in verse 11. You have to not fall away.
40:34: Don't fall away. Don't fall away. It's the same kind of warning. Here's what's happening.
40:41: True confession. Sometimes I don't like true confessions by pastors. I'll give my true confession. In the old days,
40:46: I'd say to myself, I don't want to learn about Melchizedek, because it's too hard to learn all this Melchizedek stuff, and what's the big deal?
40:55: The writer of Hebrews is going to say right here, I want to keep telling you about Melchizedek, but you're too immature to understand it, so I've got to back off a little bit, and set things straight.
41:06: It's not a sign of righteousness to say, well, I don't want to understand this Melchizedek thing, because it doesn't matter to my daily life.
41:13: It is a sign of immaturity to talk like that, and now the writer of Hebrews is going to address that. We need to know.
41:19: We need to know for lots of reasons. I was in Africa, out in the middle of a Plonsberg State Game Park, looking at rhinos and giraffes and lions, and we went in to buy some necklaces for the kids, and Martin Holt, I was with him, said to the young man who was selling the trinkets, he looked up there with a baby face, open face, and went, have you read your
41:37: Bible today? The man said, I have. Matter of fact, he went over and got it, and he said,
41:44: I've been reading Hebrews chapter 7. It talks about a man named Melchizedek. Do you think you could help me understand who Melchizedek is?
41:50: Wow. I said, Martin's the senior pastor. Go right ahead. Speaking of have you read your
41:58: Bibles today, we went on Monday to the beach, and I went to the toll booth, and the large family was right behind me, and I said, the couple behind us with the kids, say to them, have you read your
42:09: Bible today? She said, you know, somebody just asked me that question just a few minutes ago.
42:14: I finally get to the beach, and Brian Bartlett beat us there, and Brian Bartlett said to the person, have you read your
42:20: Bible today? There's a real danger of apostasy, and now we move from the subjective evaluation of Christ's priesthood to the subjective evaluation of the reader's hearts, and the writer sees some immaturity.
42:41: Look at verse 11 of chapter 5. Concerning Melchizedek, we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, not because it's hard, since you have become dull of what?
42:55: Hearing. Your spiritual life is lethargic, sluggardly, like molasses.
43:03: You've become dull of hearing. For though by this time, it could apply to our church, but certainly to the
43:10: Jews who knew, you ought to have been teachers. You have no need again to have someone teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, who
43:18: God is, man, sin, sacrifices. You have come to need milk and not solid food.
43:25: He says in verse 13, you're a babe. You should have mature food. So then he says, let me kind of say to you, with encouragement, move on.
43:36: Move on. It's not bad to be immature, it's just bad to be immature when you should be mature by now.
43:42: Verse 1, therefore leaving the elementary teaching, chapter 6, about Christ, let us press on to maturity.
43:49: Not going backwards, but going forward. And for the next section, basically the writer says, there's a bunch of things that you could do within Judaism that were not quite up to saving faith in Christ Jesus, and you need to move beyond those.
44:03: You can study this as you want to, but he says in verse 2, instructions about washings, all kinds of ceremonial washings in the
44:13: Old Testament, that's not going to do it. Laying on of hands in sacrifices or priestly blessings, that's not going to save you and mature you.
44:21: The resurrection from the dead, the Pharisees believe in that. That doesn't save them. Eternal judgment, you can believe in eternal judgment and still need to be saved.
44:31: Verse 4, in the case of those who once been enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have been more partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, they can come so close like Simon Magus in Acts chapter 8, yet not believe.
44:46: Then he says something devastatingly, and I say to you, verse 6, and then have fallen away.
44:52: Only time it's used in the New Testament is right here. This is vile, this is gross, this is repugnant, this is as bad as it gets.
45:01: Falling away. For someone who sees Jesus now as this superior high priest, he's better than prophets, he's better than angels, he's better than Moses, he's better than Aaron, and for you not to believe in him, then you're standing by the cross saying, he deserves crucifixion.
45:17: I don't want to believe in this Jesus. My unbelief is going to show that I think he deserves to die.
45:23: He deserves death. He is a liar, he is a heretic, he is a blasphemer. And when people talk like that, is there any hope of salvation for them?
45:34: That's why the text says, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the
45:41: Son of God and put him to open shame. You can know all kinds of things, you can be really close, but if you don't believe, then it's blasphemy.
45:54: Verse 9, look at how his tone changes, look at how kind he is, look at what he says now, speaking of salvation things now.
46:03: Chapter 6, 1 -8, nothing there talking about real saving faith, but now verse 9, but beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany what?
46:14: Salvation, earlier in the chapter they didn't accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way. I'm stern, but I'm your friend,
46:21: I'm coming alongside to tell you the truth, your friends will tell you the truth. Then he says with a great pastoral heart,
46:28: God is an unjust, verse 10, so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown towards his name, have you ministered and still ministering to the saints?
46:39: Just be diligent, he says in the rest of the chapter. God is a wonderful God. He has promises, he has oaths, and you say, yeah, but you can't leave me hanging about Melchizedek.
46:49: What about Melchizedek? Well, look down at verse 19 before we get there, this hope of chapter 6 we have as an anchor of the soul.
46:59: Anchors are firm, anchors are sturdy, anchors keep you steadfast. Kim and I have been to the anchor museum off the
47:06: Sea of Galilee, I think with some of you. They worship anchors.
47:11: They'll say, well, this anchor is this big, and how can it be used in the Sea of Galilee? It can't because it would sink every ship known at the time, but it gave stability so they would worship anchors.
47:20: Here is the only anchor that's ever to be worshipped, both sure, he's indestructible, and steadfast, verse 19.
47:31: Then he says, well, what about Melchizedek? Melchizedek means
47:37: King of Righteousness. Melech Zedek. Melchizedek.
47:44: I heard one guy refer to him as Mel. This is Mel. I just thought, you know, if you're going to teach five -year -olds, fine, but he's not
47:53: Mel, he's Melchizedek, King of Righteousness. He's the
47:59: King of Righteousness. And don't miss this because we're going to see that even though Jesus wasn't from Aaron, he wasn't a
48:08: Levite, he was from a better priesthood, Melchizedek. Okay? Just super fast, and we're done.
48:17: For this Melchizedek, chapter 7, verse 1, King of Salem, wasn't just a king, no, priest of the
48:24: Most High God, who met Abraham as he was returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. So that's who this
48:30: Melchizedek is. Genesis 14, Psalm 110, only mentioned two different times, this priest meets
48:36: Abraham after Abraham went with his 318 men to kill the four kings who had kidnapped
48:42: Lot. And as he's on his way back, Melchizedek comes as a priest and blesses
48:48: Abraham. But he didn't just bless Abraham, he received tithes.
48:53: Look at verse 2, appointed tenth part of all the spoils. And so the writer of Hebrews is going to say,
49:01: I can tell Melchizedek is better than Abraham because Abraham was blessed by Melchizedek and Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek.
49:10: If I'm the one receiving the blessings, the blesser is better. And if I'm the one giving the tithes, the one receiving the tithes is better.
49:19: Got it? Did I get that right? I think I did. If you bless, you're better. If you receive tithes, you're better.
49:25: Melchizedek gave the blessing and received the tithes. And we're going to see something very interesting here.
49:33: Abraham is going to be the forerunner to Aaron.
49:40: The writer of Hebrews is saying, you know, Aaron is going to be in Abraham seminally as a federal headship kind of thing.
49:49: And you say, well, what's that all mean? Let's just keep going. What do we know about Melchizedek? Verse 3, without father, without mother.
49:57: What do you mean without father, without mother? Was he a real human? Yes. But here's what he means, without genealogy.
50:04: He didn't have a genealogy. Did you know you had to have a genealogy once you were in the Jewish system to become a priest?
50:10: Nehemiah chapter 7, they searched among their ancestral registration, but it could not be located, therefore they were considered unclean and excluded from the priesthood.
50:19: You can't be a Levitical priest without some genealogy, yet here is a priest who doesn't have a genealogy.
50:27: So it is possible. He's a priest perpetually. The Levitical priesthood was hereditary.
50:36: Melchizedek's wasn't. And he's better. He received tithes.
50:43: Abraham received tithes. He received blessings. You say, what does this mean at all?
50:52: All right, if you didn't understand that, then I think you can understand this. Melchizedek was better than Aaron because he was a priest forever.
51:02: He gave the blessing. He received the tithes. But also, this law of Aaron is gone.
51:09: Take a look at this. Verse 11. That Levitical system was purposely temporary.
51:16: It was built in obsolescence, just like with cars today. Verse 11. Now if perfection was through the
51:22: Levitical priesthood, if you could get saved through this, by the way, that priesthood was received from the law, what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek?
51:32: If Aaron could save you, then why do you need Melchizedek or why do you need Jesus? Answer, Aaron can't save you.
51:43: He says in verse 14, for it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to Moses that Moses spoke nothing about concerning priests.
51:52: He says, I know he's not from Aaron's line. But he still has a right because he's like a
51:58: Melchizedekian priest. How do you know he's still able to be a priest?
52:07: Because those rules for the priests back then, even though Jesus is better than those rules, those rules are gone.
52:12: Verse 18. For on one hand, there is a setting aside of the former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness.
52:19: For the law, don't forget this, made nothing perfect. Verse 19. On the other hand, there's a bringing of a better hope through which we draw near to God.
52:28: I might have to stop right there. Draw near to God. Underline that. What did the old system do forever and for always?
52:36: Allow the people to draw near to God or kept them away from God as far as they could. What did the
52:41: Aaronic priesthood do? Kept them away. You can't come here.
52:46: You can't get close. Remember with the Mosaic law coming down from Sinai, you can't even let the animals go touch the bottom of that or they're going to get disintegrated.
52:54: Keep them away. Keep them away. Keep them away. That law could never do the right thing. It could never be perfect.
53:00: So it's gone. And now through Jesus we can draw near to better hope. Instead of keeping us away, we draw near.
53:07: And then he just says some great things about Jesus and so I'll say them too. Verse 25.
53:15: This risen King is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him. Why?
53:20: Because He always lives to make intercession for them. He's alive. He's there before the Father's throne now making intercession.
53:27: He's a priest like no other. Remember verse 26. Other priests sometimes were immoral, always sinful. Verse 26.
53:34: For it was fitting that we should have a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens so He could have an uninterrupted ministry.
53:50: He does not, verse 27, need daily, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because He did this once for all when
54:00: He offered up Himself. The priest becomes the sacrifice. For the law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints a son made perfect forever.
54:14: There is no better priest. There is no better priest. Jesus is better than angels, than the prophets, than Moses, than Aaron.
54:28: And all this language here in chapter 5, 6, and 7, so you remember that Jesus isn't like Saul who said, you know,
54:34: I'm a Benjamite and I think I'll be a priest. Kingdom to David. Oh, I think
54:40: I'm Uzziah from Judah and I think I'll be a priest. Leprosy. Jesus just didn't come on the scene and say, you know what,
54:46: I'm from Judah, I think I'll be a priest. God made Him a priest in a better kind of priesthood, a
54:51: Melchizedekian priesthood, not Aaronic priesthood. You say, okay, now what?
54:59: Homework for next week. All this language is about priests and sacrifices, hearken to some book in the
55:05: Old Testament that is important to know even though it's the last book in the Bible we ever read. What's that book?
55:11: Leviticus. If you're willing to take the challenge, Leviticus is the book. Now, as you're reading
55:17: Leviticus, I want you to say this, Lord, teach me about the sacrifices so I can see how imperfect it is so I see how perfect Jesus is.
55:25: Lord, number two, help me to be thankful that I don't have to do what they did back there in Leviticus. Three, God, you want precise worship.
55:34: It's not just made up. We don't do what we want when we want. You prescribe worship perfectly. It's not for us to figure out.
55:40: You have told us what you want with worship. And let's read
55:46: Leviticus. How many chapters of Leviticus? Twenty -seven chapters. It's five a day.
55:52: I know you can do it. I know you can do it. Next week I will not have you read Isaiah or Ezekiel, but just Leviticus.
56:00: Jesus is a great high priest. If you believe that now, you can thank God for him opening your eyes to believe that.
56:07: If you do not believe, there are warnings, but there is grace, and that grace is you've heard the message today, so you should bow your knee to Jesus Christ.
56:15: You don't need a pastor to tell you. You don't need a friend to tell you. You don't need a prayer room. You just bow your head right now and say,
56:22: God, I'm a sinner. I need salvation. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for this day where we can worship you.
56:30: I thank you for these words. Even though there's complications with meaning and it seems hard, yet we know that it exclaims that your son is great.
56:42: We have a high priest. Lord, even in my own heart, I've had experiences where people have said to me,
56:49: I pray for you every day. And, Lord, that encourages me so much. I've also had those who have said that and are now deceased and in your presence, yet they all pale in comparison to Christ Jesus who continually offers intercession for his people.
57:06: Lord, there are times I don't pray for the people here like I ought to, yet I am trusting in what your son has done and is doing now in the present tense for this church.
57:15: And, Lord, we want to have this church exclaim boldly, the Worcester Common, through our missionaries overseas, hear from the pulpit,
57:23: Sunday School, Awana, and all the other ministries that Jesus is superior. Other people ought to be envious of us because we serve such a great king.
57:33: Lord, help us to walk in a manner worthy of our calling. May your spirit remind us often about the greatness of Christ Jesus.
57:41: Even in these technical things, it's here for a reason. It's here for us to know. And we want to be mature and know it.