Jet Tour Of Hebrews (part 1)

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Jet Tour Of Hebrews (part 2)

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Well, listen, before I get to the sermon, thank you for praying for me. Thank you for your encouragement. I've been gone now for about 21 days, a few different countries in South Africa, teaching pastors and preachers.
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And so, I know I've been gone a lot lately with the sabbatical and with this, but we as an elder board want to make sure that when
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I have an opportunity to influence pastors, in this particular case over 400 pastors, to have them preach the
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Bible expositionally, so Christ might be exalted. We want to have me be able to be loaned out, so thank you for letting me do that.
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The other men were certainly faithful here in the pulpit. I had a goal, and that goal was to teach people to look at Christ's life more so that they might preach more like Jesus.
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And so, I'd go to these seminars called the School of Preaching, and I'd ask people, just like you sitting in the congregation, I'd say, who's your favorite preacher?
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Spurgeon. Who's your favorite preacher? Lloyd -Jones. Who's your favorite preacher? MacArthur. And around we would go in every single city.
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What cities? I don't know. I would just wake up, fly to a city, and then they'd wind me up, and I'd grab my notes, and I'd teach.
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I think I taught over 50 different messages. Flew about 25 ,000 miles in about 20 -some days.
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And then I would teach about Jesus Christ, that he was the ultimate preacher. If there's any preacher that was the greatest preacher who ever lived, it was
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Christ Jesus. So then at the end of every seminar, after six hours of teaching, I'd ask the same people, who's your favorite preacher?
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Jesus. Who's your favorite preacher? Jesus. Who's your favorite preacher? And that's really the goal.
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Someone read the book and flew me over there. We want to make sure that we like preaching that is like Jesus'.
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If you like preaching that's not like Jesus', then we want to encourage you to change your preferences in what you like about preaching.
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So anyway, one of these Sunday nights, we'll have the Mozambique team give their slideshow and tell you what they did there.
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And then after a couple weeks, I'll do the same thing and just give you an update on what happened. I was in Zambia, London, South Africa, and it was just a wonderful time of ministry.
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They want the word there. I could just walk up to people in the street, walk up to the coffee shop people, and I would say this.
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I learned this from Martin Holt. Just a smile and move your face in and say, have you read your Bible today? They would answer.
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I mean, I thought if this is New England with the Dunkin' Donuts people, I would get a backhand of the face. I thought, wow, this is kind of nice.
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And they would say, no, you know, I haven't. Or one person said, yeah, I did. And by the way,
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I've got a question, and it's Hebrews 7. Can you tell me a little bit about Melchizedek? I thought, wow,
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I mean, the Lord has just opened these doors. You know, apartheid was there in South Africa, and now things are right side up still with governmental problems, but they want to learn about the gospel.
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They want to learn about Jesus Christ. And I thought, how refreshing is it? So I'm going to try that in the next several weeks here in Massachusetts.
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And I'm going to look at people, and I'm going to say, with a nice open face, you know the kind of face that when you see a baby in a crib?
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You know, it's not like this. With an open face, when you just think baby face. Open your face up real big and look at people and say, have you read your
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Bible today? Because off we go, because it's not are you born again, are you going to turn, are you going to burn?
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It's just something where we can just start, have you read your Bible today, and see what happens. You're all looking at me like, go back to South Africa.
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I just might. Have you read your Bible today? All right.
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Well, it was a whirlwind trip. I don't have any plans to travel through the end of the year, at least on a
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Sunday. And so we'll get back to Matthew chapter 6, the Sermon on the Mount, in just a few short weeks. I want to have a little interlude, mainly because with all the flights and jet lag and all that,
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I just did not get back to Matthew chapter 6. So I'd like to indulge you a little bit, and I want to focus on a book of the
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Bible that's just a, it's a brief Bible book. It's briefly addressed.
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Matter of fact, it says in the 13th chapter of this book, this is just a brief letter of exhortation.
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And what we're going to do is we're going to focus in on this book this week, maybe next week, and maybe the week after that, because I want you to be absorbed in the person of Christ Jesus.
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I want you to be engrossed in this person. If you think of the word engrossed, to be placed into a gross, a gross has 144, it's a lot, to be placed into this large measure so that you might remember who
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Christ is. Everyone has problems, issues, things going on in their life. And so what we want to do is we want to raise our gaze to this person who we call our
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God and King, who is exalted by the Father and certainly promoted by the Spirit.
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I want you to think about the superiority and the supremacy of Christ Jesus. And I'll tell you up front with my preaching style,
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I dare you for the next hour to think about your problems. If you'll focus on this text, if you'll focus on this brief exhortation, this brief epistle,
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I think you'll slowly see yourself forgetting about your troubles and focusing on this great
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God and King. We're not Christian scientists who say, well, we just ignore our trouble. But for this morning, we want to give worship.
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We want to think about who Jesus is. And we'll go right into this brief letter that'll take us the next two or three weeks to get through, okay?
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So let's turn to the brief letter of exhortation, the book of Hebrews. You say, that's not brief. The writer calls it a brief letter of exhortation in chapter 13.
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We're going to look at Hebrews. I started doing this several Resurrection Sundays ago, and we didn't get too far.
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So now we're going to look at the whole book of Hebrews in a kind of jet tour, rocket ride presentation, the book of Hebrews, so that we can understand this critical, critical book, the book of Hebrews.
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And I'm going to want you to see this Christ, Jesus, afresh. I want you not to just say to yourself as we look at this book,
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I'm trusting in God to save me from my sins, but I also want you to think, I'm now going to try to experience the joy of the
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Lord that this great God has given me. Trusting God for an abundant, full, satisfying spiritual life.
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The full blessings found in this person, because we are in Christ. And as we look at the book of Hebrews, we should be not just focusing on who
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Christ is, but we'll then figure out slowly as we work through the book that we are in Christ and we have received every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
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So that's what we want to do. We're going to look over the book of Hebrews very quickly. Someone in the front row,
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I won't mention his name, Lenny, said to me, I thought you were preaching Psalm 117, that's good for about three or four weeks, don't you think so?
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And you can just imagine, how long will it take us to get through the book of Hebrews? Remember, this was a book written so you would read it through in how many different settings?
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Probably read it through from front to back the first time. And we want to just kind of get an overview.
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I believe that expository preaching can dive in deeply, and we can go slowly and methodically, but also it's good to just step back and let her go.
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All right? I haven't preached to you for a few weeks now, and so I am ready. And I'm ready
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Africa -style. And Africa -style is I said to every single pastor, how long can I preach for? And every single one said, and it's like a refrain, how long can
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I preach? Until you're done. How long can I preach? Until you're done. How long can
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I preach? Until you're done. And I thought that's exactly right. And so how long am I going to preach today? Until I'm done.
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I dare you to focus on your problems today as you try. Have your Bible open to see this book that has one main theme, and that theme is
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Jesus the High Priest is Superior. The High Priest Jesus Christ is
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Superior. We're going to look at this book that doesn't necessarily focus on the substitutionary atonement, although we believe in that.
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The penalty that Jesus bore in our place on his body, on the tree, the wrath of God assuaged by Christ.
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But this focuses on something that's not mentioned many other places, and that is the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ.
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You say, well, it's a hard book. Yes, but it's there for our learning. The school of the
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Holy Spirit has put this book in the text so we might learn it. P .E.
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Hughes said, we neglect such a book to our impoverishment. So God wants us to know this book, this brief exhortation.
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And you say, well, I want to know who you think wrote it. I think Paul wrote it.
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We don't really know. Paul probably let Luke translate it. Paul writes it in Hebrew.
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Luke writes it into Greek. Paul is saying a lot of things even though he's a missionary to the
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Gentiles. He says this to the Jews. And I think Paul is even referred to in this book when it comes to 2
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Peter saying he's written many things that are difficult to understand. And it could be this book is that difficult thing to understand.
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But it doesn't matter who wrote it because the purpose is not to say, here's Paul, the apostle, writing to you in a regular letter.
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The purpose is to remember the great high priest, Jesus Christ, right? That's the purpose.
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Did you know this writer? He doesn't even say David said in the Psalms, Moses said in Torah. He doesn't even quote people from the
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Old Testament. So we shouldn't be surprised when he doesn't quote himself or address himself or say, Paul, our
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Barnabas, our Apollo, here I'm writing to you. He just wants to pull back and say, everybody get ready.
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It's going to be brief, but we are going to see the priesthood of Christ Jesus. As a matter of fact, before we go there, if you had two verses that would summarize the entire book, go to Hebrews chapter 7.
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Hebrews chapter 7, this great God, Jesus Christ, and as we study him, it should make our hearts swell with praise, adoration, thanksgiving, wonder of wonders that this could be our
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God. Hebrews chapter 7, verse 24 and 25, give us this theme or this overview, two verses that could, in a sense, summarize this entire brief exhortation.
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But Jesus, Hebrews 7 .24, on the other hand, because he continues forever, holds his priesthood permanently.
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Therefore, he is able to save forever those who draw near to God through him. Listen, since he,
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Jesus, always lives to make intercession like a priest for them.
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That's the theme. That's what you underlined. That's where we're going. Jesus is the great high priest and he's superior to anything, anyone in the universe.
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You say, well, when was this book written? We don't really know, but it's got to be before 70
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A .D. Remember what happened in 70 A .D.? You have Titus coming through and he just sacks and ransacks and pillages
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Jerusalem and destroys the whole thing. I think the writer would have said, by the way, you better worship
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Jesus now because the temple's been destroyed and you're forced to worship Jesus. He doesn't say that because it's before 70
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A .D. Matter of fact, he even talks about the Levitical system, all the sacrifices, in what tense?
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Do you think the past tense or the present tense? It's present tense. This is still going on.
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So we have some time before 70 A .D. This writer wants to write to the Jews and he says, some of you
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Jews are saved, believers in Christ Jesus. Some are on the borderline and some have never heard.
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And there's a message for every one of those three categories here as we write to the Hebrew Christians, to the
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Hebrew people who are close to Christianity and those who have never heard about Christianity. Let me tell you that Jesus is superior.
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So he writes to these different audiences and he is going to say that Jesus is better, greater, and more superior and he is worthy of your praise.
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And I want to have you this morning just be absorbed in this. I think the best illustration that I could have is this.
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I was in South Africa and even though it's winter time, it's still hot and it's on the other side of the equator.
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And there's a swimming pool there. And when you jump into the swimming pool, can you just imagine in your mind how if you go in a little toe first, kind of slowly down the ladder, it's not that big a deal.
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But when you just jump in, you're going to do the entire plunge, the full baptismal, and you just jump right in.
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You can just feel instantly every one of your pores does what? I mean, it's noticing. It's just your pores are open.
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I even looked up a definition of absorb, to take in through or as through pores, to soak up, to soak in.
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And then it would eventually become to be known as to occupy the full attention or interest. That's what the writer wants.
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That's what I'm after today, that you'll be fully engrossed in this passage. And you say, that's great. We already are going into the passage.
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I know, but I'm just trying to work my way through here. Listen, we have lots of things in our lives that buy for attention.
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Pay attention, pay attention. Look at me. I'm superior. Buy this. Do that. Think this way.
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I don't believe in attention deficit disorder. I believe in attention surplus disorder. There's so much out there.
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What do we focus on? And if we focus on something, what's the right priority? And so here the writer of Hebrew says, here's who you're to focus on.
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Lay good claim. Take a stare. Take a photo and make sure you realize Jesus is superior.
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He's better. Thirteen times in this brief exhortation, Jesus is better.
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And therefore, you have a superior position in Christ Jesus as well. Jesus is better than angels, better than hope, better than covenants, and the list goes on and on.
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Let's dive in to chapter one. Now this is a sermon.
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This is a homily. And like all good sermons, he wants to do two things. He wants to say, here's who
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Jesus is. Then he wants to say, here's how you're to respond. Jesus' indicative statements, true statements, he's superior.
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And if Jesus is superior, then it should change the way you live. What you believe about God determines how you live, just like in Colossians.
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First two chapters, in general, theology. Next two chapters, how we live, doctrine, duty.
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The book of Ephesians, in general, the first three chapters. Here's what our creed is. There are four, four, five, and six of Ephesians.
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This is what our conduct should be. Romans 1 -11, this is what we believe about God, the
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Father, the Son, and the Spirit. And in light of that, chapter 12 -1, it should change the way you live, the way you think.
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And it's no different here. Hebrews 1 -10. These are the doctrines.
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Therefore, in light of that, in the middle of 10, and then 11, 12, and 13, here's how you should respond.
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All right? Ready to go? It's different for me now that I'm preaching to you, because you already know this. When you go across the
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Atlantic and you preach, I don't know what the people know. You probably say, we already know that.
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You already taught us all that. All right. The goal is to cling fast to this
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Messiah, the superior, preeminent Christ Jesus. Why settle for fluff when you can have tenderloin?
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I couldn't use that illustration in South Africa. And I believe people are starving for the greatness of God, like Cotton Mather said.
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They're starving for something great, for something transcendent, for something eternal, for something, for someone who is greater than they are, above them, someone worthy of worship.
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That's exactly this person, Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus in this book is called Author, Apostle, Captain, Christ, Finisher, Firstborn, God, Heir, High Priest, Lord, Mediator, Shepherd, Son, and Surety.
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And the writer at the very beginning basically says, behold your God. Five specific reasons why
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Jesus is superior. That's what the author does. If it's Paul, it's Paul. It doesn't really matter who it is.
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It's in the canon. But here, Paul is going to say, the writer of Hebrews is going to say, there's five people and systems and entities that Jesus is better than.
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Five of those. And then he mixes into those five, five warnings. It's almost like, how can you believe these without being warned?
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So there's five and five. Five people and entities and systems that Jesus is better than, and then five warnings tucked in.
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Okay? Five and five. Every time you drive down the street now, 55 miles an hour,
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I want you to think of Hebrews. Five, five, double nickels, 55 miles an hour. I'm so glad I don't have to calculate anymore because everywhere overseas,
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I have to take the mile, 60 times .6, and figure out that's now 36 miles because it's kilometers to miles.
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Clear demonstration that Jesus is superior. Number one, and I'll turn this to you because I'm going to preach to you.
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I can't just explain the Bible. Preaching is saying that I'm now the herald and I'm going to tell you to believe these things.
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All week, God has told me to believe them. Now I tell you to believe them. Number one, you must believe that Jesus is superior to the
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Old Testament prophets. That's what the writer wanted, and that's what now we want from you.
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Here we have this transcultural, transchronological word, and you've got to believe that Jesus is better.
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Now initially, it's going to have more of a context to the Jewish people, but it will help us as well to remember this great high priest.
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He's going to brook no rivals for his allegiance, and here the writer is going to systematically give these.
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Number one, Jesus is superior. He's preeminent to. He has superiority over the
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Old Testament prophets, verses 1 through 3. If you're worried that I'm going too slow already, we'll speed up as time goes on like every preacher does.
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You spend more time in the beginning than the end, and here this preacher starts off with this sermon, we think, with this homily that says, first word, grace and peace to you.
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I, Paul, an apostle. How does he start off with? This is one of those spring -loaded things.
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We've got the little jar of fake peanuts at our house, and you have to jam this springy kind of worm thing down in there and quickly put the cap on, and you wait for some unsuspecting prey to come over, and you say, hi, how are you?
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You think I'm a pastor, but you've got another thing coming because right now I'm just a dad, and you open that thing up, and what happens to that?
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It comes flying out of there. That's the kind of force here. God. God. We're going to see in this first reason that while God may have used other prophets, here the final word, the ultimate revelation of God is found in a person,
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Christ Jesus. He is the final word, and He is going to supersede anything else that is written.
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He will have superiority, too. Even though we have no fault with the prophets, here we have, without address, without greeting, this sharp
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God. Plunges straight into this theme,
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Jesus is superior. And you can almost hear this steady drumbeat of God through the book of Hebrews, 68 times, every 73 words,
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God chomping through here, stomping through one after another, making sure as we hear about Jesus that He is
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God. And it says, After God spoke, verse 1, long ago in the fathers and the prophets in many portions and ways, these last days
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He has spoken to us in His Son. It's not that the prophets were bad, or not the prophets what they said as God the
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Spirit inspired them and breathed through them was somehow sinful, but here we have the final word, and Jesus is the final word.
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I'm first of all glad that God spoke through the prophets, aren't you? How would you like to not know anything about God except looking outside and say,
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He's wise, He's powerful, and He's transcendent. But He specifically has told us
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His mind. He doesn't have to tell us any details, yet He has told us His mind. And He did it in a very wonderful way.
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Just as there are millions of flowers out in the world and all the colors I saw in Africa, there's a myriad of ways
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God has spoken throughout time. Long ago, He spoke to the fathers. He spoke to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David.
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He's not some speechless, dumb idol. And He spoke in many portions, bit by bit, here a little, there a little.
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Not one person wrote the entire Old Testament canon. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel.
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And in many ways, do you notice the text? Think of some of the ways. Dreams, visions, direct communications, law, written on stone, small voices, pillars of fire, pillars of smoke.
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And the prophets did it in a different way. Amos is a crier for social justice. Isaiah says,
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I understand the transcendent holiness of God, yet He could be our God. Westcott said, what is communicated in parts, sections, fragments, must of necessity be imperfect.
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And so also a representation which is made in many modes cannot be other than provisional.
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Verse 2, in these last days He has spoken to us in His Son.
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You could say in the Son, this particular Son. Or you could say He's spoken to us in Son, focusing on His person.
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And that's what the text says here. Of course, He spoke through the Son, His only Son. But the writer here is saying
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He had a Son. And this is going to filter its way through the rest of the book. If there's a servant or a son, you go for the servant?
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No, the son. If there's a builder or a bricklayer, an architect or a bricklayer, who do you trust?
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And here it's all about the son. The prophets were great, but they weren't a son. Here's the nature of the son to the father.
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He spoke in His Son. And now look what the writer does. This is great. He gives seven statements that show that Jesus is better than prophets.
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You see, there are some pretty great prophets. I mean, can you imagine? Fire coming down from heaven kinds of prophets. Some prophet getting told, go up,
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Baldy. Go up, Baldy. And some bear comes over for the mass attack. There's all kinds of different issues with prophets.
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But here, this is Jesus. Look it. He, number 1. Verse 2, He's appointed heir of all things.
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Are the prophets heirs? No. Here's only one son. And if God has one son, who is the heir of all that God has?
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Answer, only that son. All things have been handed over to me by my father, Matthew 11, 27.
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This is full of dignity. It's a wonderful title for Jesus. He gets everything.
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By the way, how much did Jesus have materially? He didn't have a place to lay his head.
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Boxes have a hole. They have a home. Birds of the air have nests. They have a home. But the son of man didn't have a home to lay his head on.
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You can't lay your head on a home, can you? You know what I mean. He didn't have a home in which inside there was a place to lay his head.
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He's also a creator. And you know what? The prophets aren't creators. Verse 2, Through whom also He made the world.
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Did the prophets make Niagara Falls? Did the prophets make Grand Canyon? Did the prophets make the
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Milky Way? Did the prophets make time? No.
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Only God creates. Jesus is the creator. He's also something else that the prophets aren't.
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He, verse 3, is the radiance of His glory. Are the prophets the outshining, the effulgent glory of God the
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Father? Do they admit Shekinah out of their body like Jesus does? When you see a prophet, does this
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Shekinah glory of God shine out from them? And so when you see that outshining through a prophet, you say,
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That's who God is? No. It's a deity of Christ externally.
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But also, here's the deity of Christ internally. He is, verse 3, the exact representation of God's nature.
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Not the prophets. If you take a stamp and you take some wax, and here's the imprint on the stamp, and it goes into the wax, and now you look at the wax, this perfect, exact stamp emblem is on there.
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Exact replica of God's essence. That's Jesus, not the prophets. By the way,
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I think when you're in heaven, you're not going to see somehow two orbs, God the Father, God the
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Spirit, and then Jesus in His glorified body. I think you're going to see Jesus. Strong said that.
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In heaven, Christ will be the visible God. We shall never see the Father separate from Christ. No man or angel has at any time seen
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God, whom no man hath seen nor can see. Well, that may be debatable, but what's not debatable is this.
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Prophets aren't better than Jesus. Who upholds the universe? Look at verse 3.
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Jesus, not the prophets, and upholds all things by the word of His power.
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Here, this providentially wonderful God, Christ Jesus, this high priest, upholds the universe, and the text is like this.
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He upholds it here, and He brings it to completion. There's an end. He upholds it, controls it.
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It's not like Atlas sitting on His back, but it's marvelously, hands -on, every little detail, providentially taken care of the world as He maintains and sustains the world.
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I think that makes Jesus superior, don't you? But there's something greater than creation. It's redemption.
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Look at verse 3. Prophets don't purify our sins, do they? Saints can't make us forgiven, can they?
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No. So the writer of Hebrews says, I want to show you Jesus. He's better than the prophets. When He, verse 3, had made purification of sins.
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Maybe what's more grand for us experientially than all the other ones? Maybe it's this.
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It must be this. He has made purification completed. The tabernacle's always busy making purification, making purification possible, slaying the animals, taking care of all these things.
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Here, past tense, made purification of sins. People always ask me, do you believe in purgatory,
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Pastor? I do, right here, where He purged all our sins at Calvary.
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Right? This is purgatory right here, where He purged. This is the only language you'll find in the
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Bible about that. Purification for all our sins. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from sin.
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I wonder if God accepted that sacrifice. Verse 3, Prophets, where do they sit?
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They may be in heaven, but they're not at the right hand of the Father. But Jesus, verse 3, sat down at the right hand of the
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Majesty on high. Full honor, full authority. Priests have to do their work.
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There's no place to sit down. There's no lounge chair in some kind of tabernacle. They never, ever finish their job, but Jesus' job is done.
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And then He gets the seat of honor and authority. Not the prophets. He is seated on the
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Majesty on high. Literally, you'll like this, the highest high, Jesus is preeminent.
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So, the writer of Hebrews says, if you want to see Jesus as superior, you'll like the prophets, because they have spoke for God.
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But Jesus is better than the prophets. Number two, number two,
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Jesus is superior to Old Testament prophets, number one. Number two, Jesus is superior to angels.
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Chapter 1, verse 5 through 2 .18, Jesus is superior to angels. Now, just think like a
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Jew for a minute. What were angels like? Not like we think of angels today.
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Can you think how many people could one angel kill? What could angels do?
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What could Satan, an evil fallen angel, do? How much power? I believe that if a real angel came here and showed himself to us,
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I believe we'd want to worship him. We'd be told not to. But we're not talking about some kind of little pin on a lapel, you know, kind of touched by an angel kind of thing.
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We're talking about a Jew thinking about angels. And you're thinking angels are wonderful and they've been used by God and they're fabulous creatures, but they aren't to be worshipped and somebody's better than an angel.
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And so here, the writer says, Jesus is superior to angels.
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I have to say this before we get into the text. This is a good message for today with all the people who are into angels.
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There are angel focus groups I read about. There are angel workshops.
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I mean, why do people get into angels so much? I'll tell you why. Because Jesus is a judge.
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He's a creator and judge, thankfully Savior. But angels are kind of, they don't judge people.
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They're just kind of nice and nonjudgmental and kind of just sweet and kind. Time magazine said,
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For those who choke too easily on God and His rules, angels are a handy compromise, all fluff and meringue, kind and nonjudgmental.
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And they're available to everyone, like aspirin. I think time is right.
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Even a broken clock is right twice a day, right? 32 % of Americans said that they have felt an angelic presence at some time in their lives.
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Who wants a punitive, jealous God when you can have a sweet, loving angel who will unconditionally love you?
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I read about angelic listenings. You can offer prayers to angels on angel altars.
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You can visualize angels while you hold crystals. And you can even write letters to angels.
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All one has to do, quote, is to date your letter and write, Dear Angel. And just let the words flow.
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Then sign it at the end as you would a letter to a friend. You can actually mail this letter by placing it on a meditation altar under one's pillow, or perhaps one may even burn it.
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That's the best idea, but that's not what they mean. Sending the message up to heavens with the rising smoke.
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And did I forget that if you want to attract angels, it's all about your color scheme?
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Guardian angels, one writer said, like rose are pink and soft green. Healing angels like deep sapphire blue.
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Seraphim angels like crimson red. Cherubim angels like blue. Michael the archangel likes deep green.
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Vivid blue, gold, and rose. Gabriel's attracted to tans, browns, and dark greens.
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For Gabriel, brown is a new black. I don't know how that works. That kind of thinking about angels would not enter into the minds of the people who would originally receive this letter.
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Angels were transcendent. They were created by God, but they were glorious, and they were awesome, and you would worship them if left to yourselves.
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And the writer says, Jesus is better than the prophets. He's also better than angels.
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Look at verse 4 of Hebrews 1. Having become as much better than the angels, and He, Jesus, has inherited a more excellent name than they.
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What's that name? Verse 5, For to which of the angels did He ever say?
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Which of the angels did He ever, ever, ever say? Thou art my
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Son, today I have begotten Thee. Which of the angels, Gabriel, Michael, Lucifer, did
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God the Father ever say, I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me? Never to an angel.
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But He said that of Jesus. Verse 7, And of the angels He says, Who makes
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His angels winds, and His ministers a flame of fire. Angels are ministers, not sons.
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Angels are servants, not sons. Angels do what God tells them to do. They aren't part of the family.
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By the way, true or false, angels worship Jesus. So we can kind of look at the pecking order.
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We're not to worship angels, but angels worship Jesus. This is fascinating. Verse 6,
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And when He again brings the firstborn into the world, He says, And let all the angels of God worship
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Who? Him. Worship Him. And then here's how
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God the Father talks to the Son. And you'll never hear Him talk this way to angels. Verse 8, But of the
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Son He says, This is God the Father to God the Son. For those who don't believe in the deity of Christ, I go right here.
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Thy throne, God the Father now calls God the Son, O what? God. I thought
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I won't give my glory to another. But here is this triune
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God. The Father says, Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.
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God saying to the Son, Verse 9, Thou hast loved righteousness, hated lawlessness. Therefore, God, thy
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God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy companions. Verse 12,
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It says, And as a mantle thou wilt roll them up. As a garment they will also be changed. But thou, the
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Son, are the same, and thy years will not come to an end. Verse 13,
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But to which of the angels has he ever, ever, ever, ever said, Sit at my right hand until I make thine enemies a footstool for thy feet.
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Are they not? They're not sons, but they're not all here ministering spirits. They minister.
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They're not sons sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation. Jesus is better than the prophets.
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He's also better than angels. And now here the writer gives the first warning. Punctuated with words in the
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English language like, Lest. Be careful. Here's a warning.
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Tucked right here where Jesus is superior to angels. And he says,
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Verse 1 of chapter 2, For this reason we must pay close attention. For this reason we just read about in chapter 1.
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Close attention to what we have heard. Lest we drift away from it. You can just imagine some boat in the ocean and the guy doesn't tie up the boat onto the moorings.
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He just kind of loosely throws it over that and then goes away for the day and comes back and you can just see that rope kind of sliding slowly with every wave down to the ground and then the ship just floating away.
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And this is all language to say this is this great God Jesus Christ. You better worship Him. You better not drift away from what you've been taught.
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Verse 2. It's intense. It's a warning. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable.
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While we're talking about angels there was a judgment mediated by the angels. And if that's true, proved unalterable and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense.
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How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Answer. We won't.
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After it was at first spoken through the Lord it was confirmed to us by those who heard. God also bearing witness with them both by signs and wonders by various miracles and by gifts of the
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Holy Spirit according to His own will. When God speaks through a man
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He confirms that message. He confirms the messenger. I believe that. I believe that's what the
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Bible's teaching here. But the focus is don't drift away. Jesus is superior to prophets. He's superior to angels.
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And don't just go, whatever. I'll wait till I'm older. I'll wait till the kids grow up. I'll make myself right with God later.
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I'll take care of business then. I've got a life to live business to take care of. And I'll just wait till I'm older.
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Don't drift, He says. You can't do that. You can't do it. If angels mediated a judgment what about the judgment that's going to come from God Himself?
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Run! To Christ. Now He resumes
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His talk about angels here. And why is Jesus better than angels? Well, why would Jesus be better than angels?
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Jesus is also not just God but He's also man. What angel is fully angelic and fully human?
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Sometimes I might take on the form of flesh but here Jesus can identify with us. He can die in our place.
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He's sympathetic. He is not just God. He is man. Look at chapter 2, verse 5.
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For He did not subject... For He did not subject to angels the world to come concerning which we are speaking.
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But one has testified somewhere, saying, What is man, that thou rememberest Him? Or the Son of Man, that thou art concerned about Him?
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Thou hast made Him for a little while lower than the angels. Thou hast crowned Him with the glory and honor as appointed
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Him over the works of thy hands. What men could not do as they tried to dominate the earth
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Jesus can do. Jesus has done. And He will, verse 8, put all things in subjection under His feet.
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Jesus is superior because He's got flesh and flesh can identify with the human race. Look at verse 10.
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For it was fitting for Him, Jesus, for whom are all things and through whom are all things and bringing many sons to glory to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings.
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He could suffer in our place because He was fully man. Verse 11. For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one
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Father for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Same. I will proclaim thy name to my brethren.
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In the midst of the congregation I will sing thy praise. Jesus is fully God, yet He's fully human.
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And He became human for lots of reasons. One was to identify with us. Another was found in verse 14 so He could slay the devil's power.
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Since then the children share in flesh and blood. He himself likewise also partook of the same that through death
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Jesus might render powerless him who had the power of death. That is the devil.
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And then He has to be human to be a high priest. Verse 17. Therefore He had to be made like His brethren in all things that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
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Verse 18. For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.
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All right. Let's back up and think through this. Jesus is superior. The idea is that you must believe in Him.
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I could say to you today you must believe in Christ Jesus. Turn from your sins. Repent. You must be born again.
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This is the only Savior you have. And for the Jews they had all kinds of things in their background. They thought the prophets were great.
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The writer says Jesus is better. The angels are great. Jesus is better because He was a
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Son and He also had human flesh. What else?
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Number three, we're going to work on this one and then we're going to be done. The third reason Jesus is superior.
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The third reason you must believe Jesus is superior is that He is more superior than Moses.
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Can you imagine how touchy this would have been? How delicate this would be? He's now saying this to Hebrews.
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How am I going to say that Jesus is better than Moses? As we would say in our family, those are fighting words. You might want to talk about my father that way, but you're not allowed to.
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We can't do that. And here, delicately, sensitively, the writer says Jesus is better than Moses with this motif.
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Jesus is a son. Moses is a servant. Jesus is the architect here. Moses is the builder.
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Who's better, son or servant, architect or builder? Without alienating, he says, verse 1 of chapter 3,
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Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider, stop, look.
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This is the word consider. Careful attention. Get your magnifying glass out. Don't go too fast. One of the problems we have is we read through the
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Bible too fast. Think about these things too fast. He says, just stop. What do you do if you're a kid and you're on fire?
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Stop, drop, and what? Roll. All right, just stop and drop then. I don't know if that ever works.
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I was on fire one time. My leg was on fire, and I couldn't get it out, and I never thought of stop, drop, and roll, even though that was taught to me like 500 times as a kid.
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Somebody had to come over with a blanket and put the fire out. Moral of that story is children, stay away from drugs.
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And I'm not kidding. All right. Where am
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I? It's not supposed to be a joke. Say la.
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We don't know exactly what that means. You guys, Pastor Steve is holding his head down.
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Jeremy's over here laughing. He's like, well, Mike's back in full force. At least you already know that I'm crazy.
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You know, I travel the world. People come up and ask me for my autograph. Thank you.
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Can we chauffeur you around? Would you like to have some mint julep without the julep? And all these kind of things.
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They just do whatever. And I come here and it's, you know, just don't get any respect. And you know what?
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That's the way I like it. Who are you?
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They say. We don't know exactly what say la means, but we think when you read that in the
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Psalms. Craig in his word commentary says it could just mean to just stop and think. Just stop and let that sink in.
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Pause for a minute before you just keep zooming through. And now he's going to say something very delicately, but he wants them to think.
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Holy brethren, consider Jesus. Who is this Jesus? The apostle.
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He's sent by God to represent God to us.
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But he's also the high priest for our confession. The one who represents us to God.
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Think about that. Moses didn't do that. Moses isn't the apostle. Moses isn't the high priest.
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Here's this God, Jesus Christ, who has your best interest in mind. Who can do something about it eternally.
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Certainly Moses verse two is faithful to him who appointed him. As Moses was also in all his house.
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He has counted more worthy of glory of Moses by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house.
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Moses wasn't sinful, but he wasn't the son. He was a builder. For every house is built, verse four, by someone.
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But the builder of all things is God, the son. Now Moses, see he's still being kind and nice.
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Was faithful in all his house as a servant. For the testimony of those things which were to be spoken later.
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But Christ was faithful as a what? Son. Over his house. Whose house we are if we hold fast confession and the boast of our hope firm until the end.
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Moses was like a subcontractor. You don't go look at a house or a building. You don't go to Europe or South Africa and say look at that awesome building.
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I mean they've got great subcontractors, don't they? You wouldn't talk that way. Moses did not die for sinners.
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Moses was not raised from the dead. Moses will not judge us. Moses will not give us hope.
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Hardy said has anyone cheated death and proved it? Yes, but it wasn't Moses. Moses did not say in John 11
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I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me shall live even if he dies.
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And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. It was not Moses who then said do you believe this?
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And then lastly for today there's warning too. So remember here we've got Jesus is superior.
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He's the superior high priest. He's greater than prophets. He's greater than angels. He's greater than Moses.
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In the midst of all that don't drift away. You can't turn your back on Jesus. There's no other hope.
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You'll die one day and stand before God naked. And then what? I've already said no to your son.
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And I'll cling to the prophets. I'll cling to myself. We just sang that song, didn't we?
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By grace alone. The strictest life would fail us.
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Can't do it. So he gives a second warning while he's talking about Moses. Don't harden your hearts.
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Oh, it's so easy to hear these things. And just have the word of God almost callous your heart.
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It's almost like Isaiah 6. The more Isaiah preached, the more people just said you know what? I can't live underneath this holy
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God. I can't say that Jesus is the only way. And so I just have to put up some barrier.
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And the barrier is my heart just calloused over and over and over. So the next time that pointy needle of the word comes to my heart, it's got a callous there, and it just doesn't hurt as much.
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I mean, what's easier, to get stuck by a needle on a callous of your finger on the bottom of your foot?
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And here we just have this word of God coming and coming and coming with God's goodness, yet dealing with our sin.
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The writer says don't harden your hearts. He thought of Israel because he thought of Moses.
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He says in verse 6, if we hold fast our confession and boast of our hope firm until the end, therefore just as the
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Holy Spirit says, today if you hear your voice, I say to you today, if you're here, do not, verse 8, harden your hearts as when they provoked me.
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There was a day back in Israel's time when Moses was a leader, the same thing happened that could be happening in your hearts now.
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Think, I'm going to heaven because my dad's a Christian, my friend's a Christian, I pray the sinner's prayer, and I have a few words for you.
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Don't harden your heart. If you can't look back and say, you know,
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I'm a different person now based on the changing work of Christ Jesus, and I stake my eternal salvation on the work of God, that's it.
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That's all I do. I can't earn my way to heaven, I'm not better. And if I die today, my only hope is to stand before a thrice holy
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God and say, I don't deserve to be here, but God, you have given me repentance and faith, and I trust in Jesus.
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He died for me, He was raised for me, and now I stand here with nothing in my hands, but I'm going to believe your word that you have saved me based on the work of another.
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And if that's not what you're thinking, then your heart could be hardened. Don't. As in the day of trial in the wilderness where your fathers tried me by testing me.
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You don't believe God's word, you're testing Him. I don't believe you, God, and saw my works for 40 years.
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Therefore I was angry with this generation and said, they always go astray in their heart and they did not know my ways, and I swore in my wrath,
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God said, they shall not enter my rest. So I say to you, congregation, take care, brethren, verse 12, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart.
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When you don't take Christ at His word, when you don't take God at His word, when you don't think He's the ultimate high priest, superior over everything, you are evil.
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You have an unbelieving heart. Run from that and you would fall away from the living God. Encourage one another day after day, as long as it's called today, lest any one of you be hardened by what?
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The deceitfulness of sin. It's deceiving. Oh, I'm okay. God will accept me.
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I've been baptized. I've been catechized. I'm okay. Israel sinned and God judged them and they weren't allowed to enter into the rest.
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But, friends, that rest was temporal. True? Here we have this great high priest,
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Jesus Christ. And if you don't believe in this high priest, you won't enter into the rest of God eternally, spiritually.
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The stakes are much higher. Moses couldn't bring them into God's rest, but Christ can.
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Well, you're supposed to preach until you're done. I'm pretty much done. Jesus is
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God. Jesus is superior high priest. Hebrews 7, verse 24 and 25 show us the theme of this book.
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And this whole book is taught for a reason, and that reason is not just intellectual knowledge. It's taught so that you might know and then respond.
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So what would some of the responses for our church be? Number one, if you're a Christian and you've been saved by the grace of God, our response should be,
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I can't believe you saved me. God knew everything about you, every sin you'd ever commit, and he said,
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I'll punish those sins on my only son, the high priest, in your place, and I'll do it because I love you.
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It's fascinating. It's absolutely amazing. And we should say, God, thank you. I'll serve you.
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I'll do whatever. We should be like Isaiah, who, once he knew he was forgiven of his sins and called by God, he said, you send me anywhere and I'll go.
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And for Isaiah, it wasn't some Sunday only thing. What would be another response? Let's say you're on the edge of Christianity.
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You don't really know if you should go over the edge or not. You don't know if you should believe. Well, this passage here will show you who the
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Savior is. Don't harden your heart. You can't drift away. There's no other
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Savior to go to in spite of everybody in the world saying there's many ways to God. But the interesting thing about what we should do is found in later chapters, and I can't go there now, so we'll go there later.
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Well, I made a dare this morning. I dared you if you would pay attention and listen to the sermon, you might not think about your own troubles for a while.
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You think about Christ Jesus. I didn't think about my troubles. I didn't think about the things that I have gone through.
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This is a very difficult life. I don't mean the ministry. I mean as we live together. Fallen, cursed world, and yet God has given us so much.
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And if God gives us the greatest gift, Jesus Christ, he'll certainly give us everything else. How about when you go home today, you say,
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God, thank you for giving me Christ Jesus, but thank you for my wife. Thank you for my kids. Thank you for my ministry.
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Thank you for my food. Thank you for all these good things that we are meant to enjoy. Did you know God wants you to enjoy your life?
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You say, Pastor, you're going on to another sermon. I know. Your homework assignment for this week is to read the brief exhortation letter called the
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Book of Hebrews, 13 chapters. Now, next week, I'm going to tell you, congregation, when you come in at Sunday morning and I come up to preach,
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I'm going to say how many people read the Book of Hebrews by hand. I'm going to ask you. Okay?
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By hand. I'm going to make you keep your hand up, and if you didn't read it, I'm going to make you stand up and go to the balcony. No, just kidding.
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That part's not true, but I am going to ask you by hand. Did you read the Book of Hebrews? And my prediction is as you're reading it, you'll say to yourself, this week
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I've let all my problems in life become too large, and I need to see my problems in light of who
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Jesus is. So sit down with your Bibles and make sure you get things in the right perspective.
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Jesus is superior. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you this day, and as your
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Son has taught us, we say, Our Father, thank you for that, Lord. Thank you that it's about your will being done.
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It's about your Son being hallowed. And certainly this rider has hallowed your Son's name.
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That's what we want to be as a congregation when we talk to unbelievers, to extol the greatness of Christ Jesus. When we talk to hurting
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Christians in our body, to remind them that Jesus Christ is a friend of sinners and a very close brother in times of trouble.
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Lord, help us by your Spirit's power to hold fast these words in Hebrews that we might remember that we get to serve a living and true
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God. And Lord, how could we be chosen amongst all the billions of people on the earth to have the privilege to worship