Hebrews and Limited Atonement

Okay, do you have a deep seat in the proverbial saddle? There you go.

Turn with me to the book of Hebrews. There is almost no book in the

New Testament that is less amenable to speed read than the book of Hebrews, I can assure you of that.

We are not going to attempt to read all of it. Here is the thinking. Christian truth is a fabric of truths, concepts, revelation that is woven together for us in Scripture.

It is not like a technical manual. You cannot turn to atonement in the

Scriptures, and it is under A, and you just have a nice, dry, technical, scientifically accurate definition of exactly what you are supposed to believe.

A lot of people wish it were that way, but that is not how God chose to form

His church, form His people, and give us His revelation. He dealt with us in the nitty -gritty of the world.

He dealt with people like Abraham. He dealt with people like Noah. Noah had some problems. I am not sure if you have read his story, a few family problems, things like that.

But he has been dealing with people like that for a long, long time. And that is the form in which the revelation comes.

And so what you end up with when you have it all completed in the coming of Christ and the writings of the apostles, and they deliver to us what we need for life and godliness, is you have a fabric of divine truth, the story of redemption, and woven through that fabric are different threads.

When you read certain books of the Bible, those threads will keep popping up, and then just like any beautiful piece of cloth, the thread will come up, and then it will go down, and other threads will be there, and then it will come up again later.

So when you look at the Gospel of John, for example, you have all the discussion of seeing, blindness, hearing, not hearing, and it comes up and down, and you will see it in one section, and then in another section, and since it is put into different areas, then you get different aspects of light cast upon that one thread of truth.

And so you are able to appreciate it more deeply. When we are talking about the atonement of Jesus Christ, we find numerous references to the concept all through the

New Testament, and in fact, prophetically in the Old. You have Psalm 22, you have Isaiah 53, but you don't have anywhere as long and extended a discussion of the nature of the purpose of God in the death of Christ than in one book, and it's not

Romans. Oh, sure, Romans has a lot. Romans has a great deal of focus upon justification and reconciliation and all of those things, but it's

Hebrews that gives us the longest extended discussions of sacrifice, atonement, intercession, and I'm firmly convinced that one of the reasons that in the

New Testament church today you have more people who have a sentimental doctrine of the cross than a biblical doctrine of the cross,

I mean, let's just be honest, how many people do you think are more influenced by the hymn, the old rugged cross, in their doctrine of the atonement than they are by Hebrews chapter 9?

I think a large number. And why might that be? Because Hebrews requires us to be very literate in the kinds of sacrifices and temple services that took place in the

Old Testament, primarily revealed in the most popular of Old Testament books,

Leviticus. Yes, that book that has stopped more people from reading through the

Bible than any other. I made it through Genesis. I made it through Exodus. I died in Leviticus.

How many people have said that sometime at the end of January? That's right. You know it's true, because some of you are going, has he been tapping my phone and reading my emails or something?

Yeah, I know. Believe me. I get it. So because of that, and because early on in the history of the church there was a division between Judaism and Christianity, you can see it in the

New Testament, it continues on. Much of that Old Testament content was not first and foremost in the minds of Christians for hundreds of years.

The Old Testament became a closed book. It became a book where it was signs and symbols, but there wasn't a real focus upon the substance of what was being said in those precious words.

And that's why it wasn't for almost 350 years after the birth of Christ before the first full -length treatise is written on the atonement, and we wouldn't look at that full -length treatise today as really being all that good.

It wasn't the first thing that people were thinking about. And you would think, why not? Well, there were other questions that were before them.

In the book of Hebrews, there is a theme. And I have discovered that believers, serious believers, believers that truly have a desire,

I want to know what the Word says, and I want to know what all of the Word says, we come to recognize when people are proof texting.

That is, they're taking one verse here and one verse there, and they're making connections between things.

What I have found is that the most powerful thing for a true believer's heart is to walk through entire texts of Scripture and see how there is a consistency in the presentation of the truth by the author.

You're honoring, you're doing what you know you would like someone to do for you. If you were to write a book, if you were to write an epistle, you would want someone to read you fairly.

You would want them to read from the beginning to the end. They wouldn't want you jumping around and reading something three quarters the way through and then using that to interpret something that you write one quarter of the way through.

And then they read the end and they go back to the beginning, and then they use that to interpret the middle. That's not how you wrote the epistle, that's not how you wrote the book.

That's how most people handle the Scriptures. And so when we start at the beginning and follow the threads and follow the argument and see the development, once we get to the end, we can have confidence that we have honestly been listening to what the author would have us to believe.

And I'm going to try to do that with 10 chapters of the book of Hebrews. You ready? All right.

What's the book of Hebrews about? Well, Hebrew Christians being put under pressure to go back to the old ways.

It's written before the destruction of the temple in AD 70. Go back to the old ways, you've joined a cult.

It's going to come to nothing. You're going against all the old ways, all the major rabbis say you've missed it.

Come back to the old ways, curse this Jesus by offering sacrifice again.

You say he's the final sacrifice, the way to curse him is by offering the sacrifice of a goat, a bull, a calf.

That way you're trampling underfoot his blood and saying he wasn't who he claimed to be.

Come back into the fold. Tremendous pressure being placed upon people.

I believe, my personal theory, as I've mentioned to you before, but we always have visitors, which is my personal theory, is that Paul is the ultimate source of this letter.

But I don't believe he wrote it. I believe he preached it. He preached it in Hebrew or Aramaic, depending on where he was.

And it was so powerful and so encouraging that either he chose to have

Luke write it out in Greek or maybe Luke came to Paul and said, you know, I think there's a lot of people who need to hear that sermon.

Could you sit down and sort of give that to me again? I say this because the theology is

Paul's. The language and structure is Luke's. If you've read

Luke and Acts in Greek, you read Hebrews, they fit perfectly. You read

Romans, Galatians, and you read Hebrews, nah, not the same guy. The theology is the same, the language is very, very different.

And so I think fundamentally, this is Paul, but Paul as interpreted and written by Luke or at least someone in Luke's circle as far as his utilization of language is concerned.

So this is an apologetic letter. It is meant to be a letter of encouragement. It is meant to be a warning.

It is meant to be given to the congregation, a congregation that's under pressure. And so on the one hand, there's going to be warnings.

Don't go back. There's going to be teaching. This is why you shouldn't go back.

Followed by more warnings, this will be what will happen if you do go back. And then every one of those warnings is followed by, but I'm convinced of better things about you because this is what

God is doing amongst you. That's the continuing repetition of the book of Hebrews as the author goes through various Old Testament themes and concepts and says, look,

Christ fulfills it all. There's nothing to go back to. The first chapter, an incredible chapter about who

Jesus is and what does it tell us? It tells us that he is

God in human flesh. The writer takes passages about Yahweh from the Old Testament and applies them to Jesus even as the creator.

But you'll notice that we are told that this one who has sat down at the right hand, there again is that concept of the fact that Psalm 110,

God's favorite Bible verse, we all know it, right? Psalm 110, quoted more often in the New Testament than any other book.

But it is noted in verse 3, when he had made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

So, nothing more said about it, just simply the statement that Christ accomplished something.

This is a statement of fact. He made purification of sins. So, if you're going to want to try to say, well, he made it possible or something like that, well, the first statement that says anything about it is a statement of accomplishment.

He made the purification of sins and sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, chapter 1.

Chapter 2 has an entire section that comes into the discussion very, very often. It starts off with the encouragement, we must pay closer attention to what we've heard lest we drift away from it.

Then we have a description of Jesus. You'll notice how many times there's citations of the text of Scripture, verses 6 through 8, citation from the

Old Testament. But then we have this statement, after the talking about subjecting all things to Christ, but we do not see him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely

Jesus, because of the suffering of death, because we do see him.

I think I said do not, but we do see him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely Jesus, because of the suffering of death.

So here's a reference. Crowned with glory and honor that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.

Well, there you have it. Universal atonement, right there, taste death for everyone.

No one who originally read these words would have come to that conclusion. Our Western idea of universalism would not have been what they were thinking about.

A Jew who would hear this would immediately be defaulting into categories.

What do you mean everyone? You mean Jew and Gentile? Is that what the rest of the text bears out?

Well, let's look at it. For it was fitting for him for whom are all things and through whom are all things in bringing, what, many sons to glory.

So within the next sentence, after saying that by the grace of God, Jesus, the son, might taste death for everyone.

That for everyone is substitutionary language. So mark that one down as well.

There's something substitutionary here. We've already seen that he accomplishes purification of sin, and now we have this reference to bringing many sons to glory.

Not all sons to glory, but bringing many sons to glory to perfect the author of their salvation.

That's going to come up again as well. Jesus is the author. He is the source of their salvation, and he is perfected through suffering.

For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one father, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren.

Very important text. In systematic theology, we think of sanctification.

We think of it positionally. We have been sanctified in Christ. We think of it experientially.

We are being sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit through the sufferings that we go through. What you need to recognize is the verb to justify never appears in Hebrews.

Never appears in Hebrews. Righteousness appears, but to justify does not. In Hebrews, sanctification is coming from the

Hebrew mindset of what God has done that is pictured in the sacrifice and in the cleansing.

And so here, we have the statement, for both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one father.

Again, the Jewish person would understand who is sanctified. Part and parcel, the entire sacrificial system was it was made for a certain people.

When they gathered on the Day of Atonement, those sacrifices were not being made for the

Egyptians. They were not being made for the Babylonians. They were being made for those who drew near to God to worship.

There was no concept of universality in that offering. And so the sanctification that flowed from it was for a specific people.

And so, for both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from one father, for which reason he is not ashamed to call them brethren.

Well, who are the brethren of Christ? You have some texts from Psalm 22, Isaiah 8, that are then given.

And then, since then, the children share in flesh and blood. He himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless.

Him who had the power of death, that is the devil. So why does Jesus Christ have to come in the flesh?

Why does he have to give a human life? Because atonement requires the giving of human life. And since those who are the children, who are to be his brethren, partake of flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same.

You have to have a true incarnation to have a true atonement. If he's not the God -man, you don't have it.

If Jesus only appeared to have a fleshly body, no atonement, no atonement.

But notice that through death he might do what? Render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil.

There is a victory that is won, a victory that is won at the cross. It's not just a potentiality, it's a reality.

And please, if you've ever encountered some of the bad information out there on the internet, when you see words like that he might render powerless, please recognize that in the original language, this is called a subjunctive.

That's a subjunctive of purpose. It's not introducing some kind of, well, we don't know, he can try, no.

It's simply expressing the reason why something happened. The reason or purpose behind why someone does what they do.

That's what you have here. He, through death, might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and might deliver those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

All their lives. He brings about freedom. Is this not John 8? Is this not the sun setting free?

Yes, same concept. Then notice 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, what?

For the sins of the people. So if you put 2 .9

and 2 .17 together, who does he taste death for?

The people who are made up of all kinds of people,

Jews and Gentiles. Jews and Gentiles. That's how the original audience would have understood the words.

For the sins of the people. Chapter three, then speaking to these holy brethren, that he is not ashamed to call brothers, is again a lengthy exhortation drawn from the history of the people of Israel.

Not to take lightly the things that have been revealed to them. Look at the history of the people of Israel, recognize, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked me.

Therefore, chapter four begins, let us fear less while a promise remains of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to have come short of it.

And so chapter four becomes the explication of the promises of God, the wrath upon those who question his promises, and then the whole concept of the

Sabbath rest. The rest of those who by faith accept the promises of God and become the heirs.

Once again, drawing from the history of the people of Israel in warning them against disobedience.

Then he returns back in verse 14 to where he had been before the warning.

Since then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens.

Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize their weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are.

Yet without sin, let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace.

That we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need. So once again, the finished work of Christ, the fact that he has passed through the heavens, he has entered into the holy place.

Now, he hasn't explicated these things. He hasn't explained all these things yet. In these early chapters, he makes reference to things and then it's like the thread comes up for the first time.

Then it goes back under, and it's gonna come back out later on. He's weaving all of this together.

So having mentioned the high priest, now he talks about what the priests do.

He talks about, and again, all of this points to the fact that this was still happening. This is written before the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

The temple is still in operation. And so he starts talking about this concept of the priesthood.

And unfortunately, this is where a lot of people get lost because we, again, that's all that stuff in Leviticus and that stuff about Aaron and Aaron's sons.

And it's just not stuff that is right at the tip of our tongues, but it should be.

And notice in verse six, the introduction of the text in regards to the citation, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

Then the discussion begins of who this son was. And him being designated a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

And then there's a warning. He says, I'm gonna be getting into some deep stuff now. And some of you struggle, because I'm gonna be getting into the meat, and you prefer your babes, you prefer the milk.

Solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. He warns at the end of chapter five, and then we know chapter six.

Almost everybody knows chapter six, unfortunately for all the wrong reasons. Most of us know

Hebrews chapter six because the warning at the beginning, and all the debates we've had staying in a

Christian bookstore with somebody about whether you can lose your salvation. That's not the central aspect of John chapter six at all.

Yes, that's an important aspect, but it's really not difficult to see, because after warning about being enlightened, and tasting the heavenly gift, and so on and so forth, and then falling away.

It's impossible to renew them again to repentance, and say again, crucify themselves the son of God, and to put them to open shame. That's clearly a reference to those who would go back and offer sacrifice.

And then the illustration is given in verses seven and eight. The ground that drinks the rain falls upon it. If it brings forth fruit, that's one thing.

If it doesn't, that's the other thing. It's cursed. Then verse nine, but beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way.

And so what you have is a description of people who are in the congregation. They benefit from the ministry of the spirit of God, but then they go back.

And notice what he says, we are convinced of better things concerning you, things which accompany salvation.

So whatever you do, you can look at the description in verses four and five, and say, well, that must be a

Christian. No, that's a person who's in the congregation, observing the ministry of the spirit of God.

Look, there is a lot of places you could be right now that would be a whole lot worse for your soul than where you are, even if you're an unbeliever.

Not much in the way of temptation right now for you. So you are benefited by being amongst the people of God.

That doesn't make you a Christian. Singing the songs doesn't make you a Christian. Having warm feelings doesn't make you a

Christian. Instead, the writer says that we are convinced of better things concerning you.

He talks about God not being so unjust as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name. Then he starts talking about the promises that have been made through Abraham, and the certainty of those promises.

And then you have this amazing statement, verse 17, in the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose.

Isn't it amazing that the creator of this universe actually desires, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of his purpose.

God wants you to know he is unchanging. God wants you to know that to every person who clings to Christ, it is his unchangeable purpose to conform you to his image and to bring you to glory.

And he has made that revelation clear. He left an empty tomb as one good evidence of it. And then he talks about those so that we who have fled for refuge, we may have strong encouragement, strong encouragement.

You want strong encouragement? Then meditate upon the fact that for thousands of years

God has been working out his purpose. Prophetically in the

Old Testament, through patient men of old, accomplishment in Christ, building of the church since then.

And so that we may have strong encouragement. We who have fled for refuge in laying hope and laying hold of the hope set before us.

We haven't stayed in the world. We have fled for refuge, laying hold of the hope that is set before us.

And what is that hope? And here's one of the most beautiful descriptions you're going to see anywhere in scripture. Hebrews chapter six.

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul.

Anchor of the soul. One of the greatest signs of Christian maturity is that a believer is not blown about by every wind of doctrine, not blown about by every storm and trial of life, because our anchor holds firm.

We have trust. We have confidence. And what is that anchor of the soul?

It is a hope both sure and steadfast, and one which enters within the veil.

It enters within the veil where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

And that's where the eyes glaze over, but they shouldn't. The veil was that thick woven veil that stood before the holy place and everyone outside.

The priest only got to go in there once a year. When Christ died, it's torn, remember, from the top to the bottom, showing that God has opened the way into his presence through Christ.

It speaks to the very presence of the holiness of God, and that's where our anchor goes, and our anchor is

Jesus. He is our forerunner. He is our representative. If you are in him, then you are already seated in the heavenly places, as Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2.

Christ's work on your behalf has already been accepted. What an incredible reality.

And nothing that happens to your body, to your family, to your house, to your job, can possibly enter into the holy place and change the finished reality that exists for you.

That is a hope unchanging. That is a hope that is sure and steadfast.

And then notice he returns back to the concept of the priest of Melchizedek.

Why? Because now he wants to demonstrate that many of those people who were engaging in trying to draw people back, draw people back, were the priests, were the clerics, the

Pharisees, the scribes. And so he wants to demonstrate something.

So chapter 7 begins a multi -chapter demonstration of the supremacy of Christ's priesthood, the

Melchizedek priesthood, over against the Levitical priesthood, and the supremacy of the new covenant inaugurated in his blood with him as the mediator and the old covenant.

This is the essence of the argument that's going to be presented.

And in that process, a number of times, the issue of the work of Christ comes up in some of the most important texts that we will look at today.

So here in chapter 7, you'll notice you have the supremacy of the

Melchizedek priesthood. Why? Well, because of the blessing. Levi was still in the loins of his father.

And so the argument there is the blessing from Melchizedek came before Levi is born.

Therefore, Melchizedek's priesthood is higher than Levi's priesthood. That's the argument that's made at the beginning of the chapter.

Then there is the discussion of the imperfection of the Levitical priesthood. And one of the aspects of that that's going to come up is the

Levitical priest is always kept by death from continuing his office. Jesus is not kept by death from continuing his office because he has defeated death.

That's going to be really brought out fully in 7, 8, 9, and into chapter 10.

And so, notice 21, 720, and inasmuch as it was not without an oath, they indeed became priests without an oath, but he with an oath through the one who said to him, the

Lord has spoken, will not change his mind. You are a priest forever. So much the more also

Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant, a better covenant.

And the former priests on the one hand existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing.

Then look at verse 24, but he on the other hand, because he abides forever, holds his priesthood permanently without successor.

I will not belabor this point, but we are in Mesa, Arizona. And Mesa, Arizona used to be a majority

Mormon town. It's not anymore, but we still have a lot of Mormon friends and neighbors.

And they think they have a priesthood, the Aaronic and Melchizedek priesthoods. Interesting thing is, according to the scriptures,

Jesus holds the Melchizedek priesthood and because he abides forever, he holds his priesthood permanently without successor.

He does not have to pass it on to someone else because he has resurrection life.

So every one of those young Mormon missionaries right now, they're driving cars and not peddling around on bikes.

They're not, this is Arizona after all, but they will be in December.

Each one of them thinks he holds the Melchizedek priesthood. He does not. There is one who holds the

Melchizedek priesthood and he is seated at the right hand of the father and his work is completed. So he holds his priesthood permanently, then verse 25, therefore also, hence also, he is able to save Panteles forever, completely those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

What an incredible assertion. Here you have the power of Christ.

That's what this is all about. Remember, what's this book about? There's nothing to go back to. It's been fulfilled.

The old is passing away. That's right. And here you have the assertion, because he lives forever, he is able to save completely.

Isn't that what we have in John 6, 39? Jesus comes down out of heaven, not to his own will, but the will of him who sent him.

What's the will of him who sent him? That of all that the father has given to him, he lose how much?

Nothing. Nothing. How good do you have to be? How good do you have to be to lose nothing?

You have to be perfect. You have to be powerful. I don't know if you all noticed, some of your visitors, you wouldn't notice, but I walk in today and was a little surprised to see, happy to see, but sort of sad to see in one sense, so happy to see.

The best pitcher that the Japanese baseball world has ever seen, in the back. And so I thought

I might ask him, now that he's here, we've got to use him. We saw what happened a few weeks ago when Jeff did his thing, I'm not going to do that because I can't.

But how good would you have to be to strike out every single batter without ever throwing a ball?

I don't think that's really possible for human beings. Jesus never, ever misses the strike zone.

Everybody whiffs. That's what it's saying. No one can hit him.

Nobody. He saves completely. He loses. Nobody. What would that be?

ERA 0 .00? Is that what you're looking for? There you go. All right. I got confirmation from he who knows.

0 .00. 0 .00. 0 .00. Do we believe that? Let me ask you a simple question.

If you want to have a salvation system where mankind is in control, where mankind has the final decision, is it at all possible to have a savior who saves perfectly?

Of course not. Of course not. All you can have is a savior who makes things possible, probable, potential.

He provides a way. But you can't have these verses.

You can't have Jesus saying, he loses. I will raise them all up at the last day.

Whoever the father draws to the son, I will raise him up on the last day. Okay? What does that require?

That Jesus is able to save completely in and of himself. In and of himself.

And that's exactly what is said here in verse 25. It's exactly what is said in verse 25. But notice what man does.

You know what man does when they're faced these ways? I can't tell you why a

Christian heart would want to do this, but I can tell you the majority of Christian hearts do. Here is a verse about the perfection of our savior's power.

Listen to it again. He is able. Man, that should thrill your heart.

Who is it about? Jesus. He is able to save forever, completely, those who draw near to God through him.

Why? Since he always lives to make intercession for them.

So if you say you're able to do something perfectly because of this, then that this, we need to take a look.

He always lives to make intercession for them. What does that tell you? That when the son intercedes for you, you will be saved.

Can you imagine it being any other way? You do realize that unfortunately, the theology of the majority of people in our land is the father wants to save you.

The son is pleading for the father to save you. They've sent the spirit to try to save you, but it's all up to you.

That's the theology. That's what's out there. Is it not? Think about it for just a moment.

If he is able to save perfectly because he always lives to make intercession for them, then what's the background that has to exist for that sentence to make any sense at all?

That what matters in whether someone is saved is the father and the issue of sin.

Jesus, the son, has dealt with the issue of sin. He intercedes before the father, and therefore, anyone he intercedes for will be saved, period.

End of discussion. That's why the glory goes only to God. You see it?

Are you with me? I know it's 83 degrees in here. Are we still awake? A couple of you are, okay.

I think about a third of the way back, after that, gone, no way there.

But you know what man does with a verse that's all about God's power to save?

Look at that phrase, those who draw near to God through him. That's just a descriptive phrase.

That's talking about, that's taking us back to the day of atonement and the people who would come into the temple, and they'd stand outside, and the high priest would represent them in going into the holy place and offering the blood upon the altar.

But you see what man does is he takes a descriptive phrase of the people who are standing outside and says, see, it's those coming to God.

See, you have the power. You have the capacity. It's that descriptive phrase thing that actually makes

Jesus able to save, but you've got to be the one who comes. Like I said,

I don't understand why the Christian heart, when looking at verses that talk about Jesus's ability, try to turn them on their head to talk about the sinner's abilities instead.

But it happens all the time. It happens all the time. May God by his grace keep any of us from doing this.

For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens, who does not need daily like those high priests to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the sins of people, because this he did once for all.

Please recognize something. This phrase in English can be interpreted in two different ways.

If I say something is once for all, I can be talking distributively or temporally.

Once for all, when we go to the amusement park, if they ever open up again, and I pay for my group once for all, once for everybody in the group.

So I pay and everybody gets to go in. Temporally, once for all means one time, not to be repeated.

Thankfully, in the original language, there is no confusion between those two at all.

None. This is not distributive. It's temporal. Once for all time.

One. One sacrifice, this he did once for all when he, the great high priest, offered up himself.

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.

This was the intention of father, son, and spirit from the beginning. This is not something that came down the line later on.

This is not a second chance salvation system. This isn't, oh, I had hoped to do it one way through the law, and now

I've got to do it this way. No. This has always been the intention of God. Chapter eight, very quickly.

Chapter eight then introduces the whole issue of the new covenant. What is this new covenant?

Who is this one who, now the main point of what has been said is this. We have such a high priest who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens.

You see why this is relevant to Hebrews? You see why the finishedness of the work is relevant to Hebrews?

There's nothing to go back to. That priest who's telling you to come back, he can't save you eternally.

He has to wait for the high priest to go in once per year. Offer sacrifice for himself, and then he's going to die, and then there's got to be another one.

It was pointing to something greater. And so he says, we have one who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister in the sanctuary, in the true tabernacle which the

Lord pitched that man. He doesn't talk about the temple. He talks about the tabernacle. The tabernacle had been designed by God on earth.

It was meant to be an image, a shadow, a picture of what's going on in heaven. And that's where Jesus is.

For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, hence it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer.

Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to law. He wasn't a

Levitical priest. He wasn't of that tribe. Who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle.

This is just a shadow. This is just a picture. But now verse six, he has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant which has been enacted on better promises.

For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second for finding fault with them, he says.

And then you have the lengthy, long citation from Jeremiah.

From Jeremiah. Now I would love to walk through all of this. It's extremely important when we do the series on baptism, which we will get to eventually, we will spend some time in Jeremiah chapter 31.

But the point is that this covenant of which he is the mediator is a covenant that causes

God's law to be written upon the hearts of those who are in it. He will be their

God. They shall be my people. They shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen and everyone his brother, saying,

Know the Lord, for they all shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them.

Why? For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

If you are in the new covenant, your sins have been dealt with.

When he said a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete, but whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

Written just before the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. Then in chapter 9, he continues on.

He says, okay, so now we have this heavenly sanctuary. We have an earthly sanctuary, heavenly sanctuary.

And he describes some of the things that are in the various parts of the tabernacle. And he starts talking about how the

Holy Spirit, verse 8, is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed.

And how was that? Well, verse 7, but in the second only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself, but the sins of the people committed in ignorance.

So the high priest has to have a sacrifice, all right? This is a symbol for the present time, verse 9, accordingly, both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, since they relate only to food and drink and various washings, regulations of the body imposed until the time of reformation.

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, he entered the holy place once for all, temporal, not distributive, once for all, having done what?

Having obtained eternal redemption. Not having made eternal redemption a possibility, not hoping that he has now made it a reality, he enters into the holy place as the possessor of eternal redemption.

It is finished, he said, it is completed. He has entered into that place.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer are sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctified for the cleanse of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living

God? What supremacy to the old ways. And please note in passing, my dear brothers and sisters, the

Trinitarian nature of our gospel. Look at it again. Again, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living

God? The very mechanism by which you can be cleansed is

Trinitarian. The Son provides it, it's mediated by the spirit offered to the

Father. Trinitarian redemption. Can't make any sense of this if that's

Jehovah God, Michael the Archangel, an impersonal act of force like the Jehovah's Witnesses would like to tell you. No, Christian truth is a divine truth, it is a whole truth.

For this reason, he is the mediator of a new covenant, a new covenant.

In order that since a death has taken place, the redemption of transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, who?

Those who have been called. You heard that before?

Two weeks ago you did if you were here. Romans chapter eight, who will bring a charge against the elect of God?

Same root. Those who were called. Romans 828, those who were called.

So those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

This is why he's done what he's done. This is why he's done what he's done. So then you have more description of what takes place when the high priest sprinkles the blood in the book and what took place in the initiation of the covenant, again, way beyond the time that we have today.

And so then you have verse 22, and according to the law, one may almost say all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Therefore it was necessary for the copies of these things, that's in the earthly tabernacle, the copies of these things in the heaven, that is the copies of the earthly tabernacle, to be cleansed with these.

But the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

So you can have the blood of goats and calves and hyssop and all the rest of that stuff in the earthly tabernacle, but the heavenly things require better sacrifices.

For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God, what?

For us. For us. This is, again, the same huperhemon that we have in Romans 8 that we talked about two weeks ago.

This is the one who has entered into the heavenly place in Hebrews 6, for us in our place.

This is what Christ has done, he appears in the presence of God for us. Nor was it that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood not his own, otherwise he would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world.

But now, once at the consummation of the ages, he has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Put away sin. Is it put away?

Is it put away? Whenever you question God's goodness toward you, whenever you question his ability to bring you through, you're questioning whether it's really been put away because the only way you can ever be condemned is if it hasn't really been put away.

Did he nail the decrees that were against us to the cross, or did he not?

We have to be reminded over and over again, he did. It is a finished work.

And inasmuch as it appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of what?

Many. Many. Listen to that word. Where have you heard it before? Where have you heard something about Christ doing something for the many?

Once to bear the sins of many shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await him.

Sins of many. Bear the sins of many. Hearing that?

Where have you heard that before? Keep your finger where we are. Turn back with me to Isaiah chapter 53.

Oh yeah, Isaiah chapter 53. You know it's all about Christ.

You know it's a fantastic prophecy, but I want you to see what it says.

Verse 10, but Yahweh was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief that if he would render himself as a guilt offering, he will see his offspring, he will prolong his days and the good pleasure of Yahweh will prosper in his hand.

As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will do what?

Will justify what? The many. As he will bear their iniquities.

That's something that doesn't just jump out, even in the original language, but I ran into this just this week in preparation for this, and I went, it's sort of fun getting old.

I'm the only one in my family doing it. My wife doesn't do that, but I'm the one that's doing it, so she gets to sort of watch me doing this and stuff.

But I may have known this in the past, but I've forgotten that I did, so it's really fun to find out about it again. It's great.

It's sort of cool, getting old like this. But maybe I didn't, I don't know. But I looked at the

Greek Septuagint, the Greek translation of Isaiah 53. It doesn't jump out because the word to bear on a pharaoh is an old form

Greek verb, which means when it goes from eras to future and stuff, it just looks completely different.

Unless you look really closely. But you're not going to be surprised what I'm about to tell you.

Here we go. The word many, in Isaiah 53, verse 11, and Hebrews chapter 9, verse 28, the word many is the same

Greek word. And yep, you guessed it. It's the same Greek word to bear.

It's in a different tense, so it doesn't just jump out at you. But the writer to the

Hebrews is drawing from the suffering servant passage. And what we have in Isaiah 53 is the promise that that suffering servant will bring about the salvation of God's people.

He will justify the many as he will bear their iniquities. It's exactly what you have in Hebrews chapter 9.

That then leads us in a rush to the final part of the theological argument of this epistle.

Chapter 10, therefore says, well look, if what we've been looking at is a shadow, the law only has a shadow of the good things come, not the very form of these things.

It can never by the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have consciousness of sins?

But in those offerings, there is a reminder of sins year by year. Remember what

I've told you many times before. The word reminder is the Greek term anamnesis, an anamnesis.

What he's saying is, since the Old Testament sacrifices had to be done over and over and over, they were a reminder.

They were pointing away from themselves. They didn't bring perfection. They didn't bring completion. You knew when you came to the temple that you, if you were alive the next year, would have to come back again the next year and the year after that.

And hence, there's a reminder of sin. That's what he's saying. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Then you have the quotation, Psalm 40, which we read earlier. And there he focuses in upon the sacrifice and offerings and whole burnt offerings.

And he talks about the will. I have come to do your will, verse 9. Then he said, behold,

I have come to do your will. He takes away the first in order to establish the second will as in covenant.

And then you have verse 10. By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Once again, temporal adverb, once for all. Well, is it true or not?

By this will, we have been sanctified. We have been made holy.

How? Through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

No more repetitive sacrifices. When we partake of these elements, we are remembering.

This is our anamnesis of our sin bearer, not of our sins. The old covenant only had a reminder of sin.

We have a reminder of our sin bearer. Huge difference. Huge difference.

Every high priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifice which can never take away sins.

But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies who made a footstool for his feet.

This is how the victory takes place. Father, Son, and Spirit consummated sacrifice for by one offering.

He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. One offering.

You can't add to it. You can't add your works, you can't add your sacraments, your pilgrimages, you can't add to it.

Either you're in Christ and you have his righteousness or you do not. He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

Do you see how it is absolutely necessary in the book of Hebrews to recognize this theme that runs from beginning to end is central to the argument that he's making to these people who are under pressure to go back.

What he's saying is there's nothing to go back to. Christ has perfected it all.

He has accomplished it. In other words, particular redemption is a part of the very substance of the argument of the book of Hebrews.

It sure is quiet in here. You're all just going, we don't want to move or we will start sweating.

I found the place, the fan's hitting me, I'm not going to move. I understand.

That's a lot of ground to cover. But what I want you to see is that the weight of walking through this book, going from verse to verse, listening to what the argument is, is why we believe in the perfection of Christ's atoning work.

That it is not merely the provision of a possible way that then needs your activity, your actuation.

This is a Trinitarian action. This is Father, Son, and Spirit glorifying themselves in perfection.

It's glorious. It's beautiful. Last week, I didn't get to listen to everything that Jeff said.

I was actually, I was actually watching some of the sermon last week while stranded at DFW.

That was fun. The masked zombies all around me. When I lost connection to the feed,

I was sitting outside a restaurant. I had to get a cheeseburger from a place that was closing.

And of course, as long as you're eating magically, the virus can't do anything, so you can take your mask off.

So I was eating it very slowly, anyways, very, the slowest eaten cheeseburger ever.

And there, Brother Jeff, who, by the way, we need to be thankful, because what he was doing back there was finishing his, he had his examinations, and some of you may have seen the pictures on Facebook of him receiving his diploma from Whitfield Theological Seminary, Master's of Divinity.

So yes, we are very thankful for that. I know he's worked very hard on that.

Pastor Jeff works very hard in preparation for ministering the Word to us, and we need to be thankful for that.

But he spoke to you of God's irresistible grace. That means his power to save. That irresistible grace works based upon the completedness of the work of Christ on our behalf.

Since Christ has provided that way, then the Spirit can come. And the Spirit brings us to spiritual life, raises us, resurrects us, and so that leads naturally to the conclusion, having done all of that, decreed salvation from eternity past, unconditionally elected a people unto salvation, provided perfect atonement in their past, entered into the presence of the

Father in their place. The Spirit comes in power to raise them to spiritual life, and yet all of that can get messed up because we don't keep our nose clean.

No, we believe in the perseverance of the saints. We do not believe in getting your ticket punched.

We do not believe that it's God's intention to save you and then let you go off into the world and do whatever you want.

There are doctrines of once saved, always saved, eternal security that are grossly unbiblical.

And in fact, I will tell you even now, there is no reason whatsoever to believe in the perseverance of the saints if you don't believe in election.

There just isn't. If you don't believe in the perfection of the work of God, there's no reason to believe that. If it was your free will that got you into it, guess what?

Your free will can get you out of it. That's the way it works. That's the way it works. But that's the last of the points.

I believe it is Jeff's intention to be looking at some of the objections passages. There are a number of them, though we've dealt with many of them in the process.

We dealt with one today in Hebrews chapter 2. But that is where we'll be going as we continue, as the