Jesus is Superior (Part 1) () - August 15, 2011

No Compromise Radio Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author,

Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the

Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the Scriptures, verse by verse, with no compromise.

I have a question for you, listen to it very carefully please. What did you say when you were born?

What did you say when you were born? I did not say what did you shriek, what did you scream, but what did you say when you were born?

I did a quick calculation, it was approximately 18 ,418 days ago

I was born. What did I say? Some of the kids looked at me like, my daughter's going, we don't usually talk that way.

What did you say when you were born? Nobody talks that way. What words did

Jesus say when he was born? I've got a better question since Jesus is the eternal

Son of God. What did Jesus say before he was born? What did

Jesus say before he was born? That's what we're going to look at today in Hebrews chapter 10.

Please open your Bibles as we look at this eternal Son of God. And upon his incarnation, upon this

God who would one day die on behalf of sinners and be raised from the dead, this

God had something to say before he was born. As it were, upon his descent there was something said.

And it was not said to other people, it was said within the Trinity itself.

The Father, Son, and the Spirit talked to one another before Jesus was born.

I wonder what they said. By the way, I can't wait to preach this sermon. Some sermons I'm preaching through 1

Corinthians and I just think, it's great, it's the Word of God, it's inspired, and I will dutifully preach it.

And once I start preaching, I have a great time and I enjoy it and it's a privilege to be able to preach. But this one here, this one's been kind of bubbling and churning.

And as we say in the Midwest, it's been percolating a little bit. And it's just great to consider the eternal

Son of God and that he existed before he was born.

No one else can make that claim. Existence before they were born? After all, this is the

God that, speaking of Jesus in John 1, 1, in the beginning was the Word Jesus and the

Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made.

The eternal, creator, sustainer, sovereign king existed before he was born and he said things and Hebrews 10 tells us some of those things that he said.

Don't you want to know? If I was you, I'd probably quick read ahead, pretending like you were trying to fight

Hebrews 10, but quickly reading because I couldn't hardly stand myself. What did Jesus say before he was born?

And this morning we'll look at this passage because it really has everything to do with the incarnation. Of course,

Luke 1 and 2 are beautiful passages about Christmas. Of course, when we look at Isaiah chapter 9 and Isaiah chapter 7 and Micah chapter 5, we've got all kinds of passages we could go to when it comes to Christmas or the incarnation.

But I think this is fairly under preached and so I'd like to preach this morning Hebrews 10 with these effects.

One, that you'd understand it better. Two, your awe quotient would increase, that you'd think

Jesus existed before he was born. He said things. He fulfilled promises.

And then thirdly, if you're here and you're not a Christian, for you to consider this great God and consider your sins because one day you'll meet this eternal

God. And I want you to meet him forgiven. That's what I want. And so we'll look at Hebrews chapter 10 today asking this question, what did

Jesus say upon his arrival to birth, to earth? What did he say when he was born?

And we will look at Hebrews chapter 10 and we won't go through every verse, but we'll look at enough.

So you'll say to yourself, Jesus, along with the author of Hebrews is majestic.

He's superior. The often quoted word in Hebrews, perfect. He is the excellent savior.

No one is like him. No system of religion, no person is like Jesus. And so that's why we're here today to celebrate

Jesus Christ, the eternal God. Now let's go to Hebrews chapter 10 and let me give you a quick outline.

The outline will answer this question. Why was Jesus born? In other words, why did Christmas have to happen?

And I'll give you several reasons. The first reason why Jesus was born, number one,

Christ had to be born because all other sacrifices for sin were inadequate.

Verses one through four, every other way for sacrifice for forgiveness of sins was inadequate.

Jesus had to be born because all other sacrifices for sin were inadequate.

Now before I jump in here any farther, remember the writer of Hebrews is painting this picture that no matter what you've got,

Hebrew Christians, Hebrew, uh, uh, unbelievers who are thinking about Christ, Jesus is better.

He's better than the prophets. He's better than the angels. He's better than Aaron. He's better than Moses.

He's better than the old Testament, old covenant. He's better. What you have might be okay, but it's going to be obsolete because Jesus is better.

And we now dive into chapter 10 and we see in the first four verses, every other way to try to get rid of sin is not adequate.

Now as I read the first four verses, I want to ask you this question to think about as I read these first four verses.

If something needs constant repetition, just how good is it? If something needs to happen all the time, can it be effective?

Don't you think if something was really effective, it would be one and done. So the writer here is going to try to paint the picture in the first four verses.

Repetition means something's deficient. So let's look at this and we'll see how the old

Testament sacrificial system was not adequate to deal with sin. Verse one,

Hebrews 10 for since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never buy the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year.

Make perfect those who draw near otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered since the worshipers having once been cleansed would no longer have any consciousness of sins.

But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.

Now if you look back at verse one, continually offered of the word means without interruption talking here about the day of atonement,

Yom Kippur sacrifice year after year, day after day when it comes to this feast, this festival time.

It can never take away these sins. There must be some kind of insufficiency if you have to keep doing it every year.

There must be some kind of lack or deficit there. Oh, it's another

Yom Kippur. Daddy, I thought sins were dealt with last year. Well, we have to do it again this year.

True or false? Animal sacrifices don't make the conscience completely clean.

The answer is found in these four verses. They don't. And don't you want a clean conscience? The writer says to the book, to the readers of Hebrews, Old Testament animal sacrifices were ineffective.

Listen to this. By design, they were purposely meant to be ineffective.

People would still say, you know, but my conscience is still killing me. It was all for the pointing to a greater sacrifice that was once for all.

These sacrifices serve a purpose. Look at verse three. There's a reminder of sins every year, a perpetual reminder.

Yes, we're sinful as individuals, as a nation. Yes, we need forgiveness. Yes, we need our conscience cleansed.

But that reminder also was, and yes, this system won't do it. It's inadequate. We can't get there from here.

It's interesting, chapter eight of Hebrews, it says, for I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.

For the real sacrifice, Christ Jesus, no sins to be remembered at all.

In this system, yeah, we keep on being reminded that we're sinful.

Sacrifices were like John the Baptist. Sacrifices were like John the Baptist.

They pointed to a greater reality. John the Baptist didn't come and say, everybody look at me. Hi, I'm the one, me, myself, and I.

Thank you. No, what did he do? He was the forerunner. He was pointing to a greater one.

And so, too, these sacrifices pointed to a greater sacrifice. They did help in one regard.

They showed how bad sin was. The wages of sin is what? Death. Something had to die. Blood had to be shed.

Can you imagine just how serious sin is? If even a temporary, temporal covering of sin required a sacrifice.

God is holy and God is righteous. A sacrifice is needed, but a sacrifice that will last.

The built -in obsolescence of sacrifices were to point to something so someone would say, you know, we need some sacrifice that will last, that will count.

I was thinking about modern -day sacrifices, how people try to get rid of their sins. I'll sacrifice some time during the holidays,

I'll sacrifice some money, maybe I'll go down to the homeless shelter. I think these are all fine things, but if you think those are going to get rid of your sins,

I'll give up something for Lent. I remember we had a, I know this is not a Lent message, but we had a friend come over to our house and he said, it was

Luke's friend, he said, what are you guys giving up for Lent? And I said, well, you know, the Bible doesn't say you're supposed to give up anything for Lent, so I eat extra things during Lent just because everything

God has given us is for consumption. If you're thankful to God, then you're not supposed to give up things for Lent, you're supposed to be eating extra things for Lent.

But anyway, this isn't a Lenten service, so let's just keep going. But that's the human condition where you say to yourself, you know, if I just refrain from something,

I sacrifice time, money, my goods, my service, I'll give something up, therefore

I'll be pleasing in God's sight. And here with these Old Testament sacrifices, it was built in the system.

Yes there had to be a sacrifice, yes there had to be death, but who could save themselves?

Who can make the once and for all sacrifice? My question is this, how can sinful mankind solve his own sin problem?

How can you say, well, my heart's wrong because of the fall and my own sin, but my hands can solve my own problem?

Can't do it. That's why we need a Savior, Christ the

Lord. Why was Jesus born? Number one, because every other sacrifice wasn't good enough.

Number two, now we start getting into the question, what did Jesus say upon his arrival? The second reason

Jesus had to be born is that only Christ's sacrifice obediently fulfilled

God's plan. Verses five to seven, only Christ's sacrifice obediently fulfilled

God's plan. We're going to move into the sacrifice and it's going to have the character and nature of once for all.

Sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice, superior to the Levitical system, superior to Moses, and he's going to use a psalm for his point, and the psalm is chapter 40 in the

Psalms. You know what we get to do? You ever eavesdrop on someone? You ever kind of listen in a little bit?

I used to do that with kids a lot of time. They're in their rooms talking, I want to just kind of listen for a couple of reasons.

One, I want to make sure they're saying the right thing, and number two, if they say something wrong, I want to prove to them that I am omnipresent.

You're like, my dad, there's no way I can run from God. Yes, I am a father figure, I'm like God to you.

I can hear everything, see everything. So you kind of just eavesdrop. We're now going to eavesdrop on the

Trinity talking to one another. How about that? I've heard about FBI people tapping into phone lines before.

We get to overhear, as it were. We have the occasion to kind of put our ear to the wall with a little glass and say, what was the

Trinity talking about before Jesus was born? Now, if you're bored right now,

I don't know what to tell you. I have nothing else to offer. This is amazing.

Right from Psalm 40, we overhear

Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, talking to the

Father, the first person of the Trinity. Verse 5, consequently, when

Christ came into the world, that's just a Jewish way, a Semitic way of saying when Jesus was born.

When Christ came into the world, he said, he's not saying this to the world, he's not saying this to his father,

Joseph. This is the eternal father he's speaking to. When he came into the world, he said, he probably said a lot of things, but this is what we have written, sacrifices and offerings you,

Father, have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me. It's the incarnation.

In burn offerings and in sin offerings, offerings from A to Z, you have taken no pleasure.

Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, oh

God, oh Father, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.

How about that? Before Jesus was born, there was an inter -Trinitarian conversation that we get in on, and that inter -Trinitarian conversation was this, let's go rescue some people.

Let's go rescue some sinners. How do we rescue sinful people? Well, God is a spirit, men have flesh, so how do we represent them?

How do we identify with them? Well, one of us has to take on a human body.

One of us has to take on human flesh. And so the son said to the father, I'll do that, you've commanded me to do it,

I'll gladly do it, I'll take on a body to go live the perfect life and the perfect death,

I'll die. Far from, well this is kind of plan

B, this is kind of flow chart, this didn't really work well, so Jesus was over there.

No, this is before Jesus' birth, this conversation. And of course,

Jesus had this attitude his whole life, but here the text is, when he came into the world.

Why was it a body? Why did God the Father prepare a body for the son? Well, you sacrifice bodies of animals, you sacrifice the body of the son.

It was not an animal body, it was Jesus' body, a person for the people, a living sacrifice.

Literally the text says there, a body was fashioned, a body was sculpted for Jesus, so he could come and fulfill the divine purposes for humanity, because Adam, he failed, and all in Adam, they failed, they couldn't live up to the standard of God, perfect righteousness, everyone has failed, and so there was a system of sacrifice for sins, for temporary covering, but it didn't cleanse the conscience, and so every year we have to do this, yes, every year you have to do it, but then one year, it didn't have to be done.

Jesus took a body so he could die for people. The Father designed the perfect sacrifice, the divine body, a human to represent humans, but a perfect human so he didn't have to die for his sins because he didn't sin, a perfect human so he could die for other people's sins, and a perfect human that was also

God so he could have enough goodness, enough righteousness, enough holiness to give to everybody that he would like to give, not just one, not just two, but all those who would ever believe.

Jesus, the eternal God, had to become the God -man so that he could fulfill the

Father's will and so he could die for other people, other humans. Now let me ask you this, this gets very interesting, do you think there were

Jewish people under the Levitical system, their hearts were wrong, they were disobedient, but they'd make sacrifices anyway?

Well, you know, that's what God said, and we'll do it, but it was an angry heart, a wicked heart, a disobedient heart, they just got done sinning the day before, we don't care,

I don't believe you, I'm glad for what you give the nation, and I'm kind of part of the nation, but if you think I'm going to give an obedient sacrifice, a humble sacrifice, a sacrifice from the heart, no,

God, do you think there are people who sacrifice with bad hearts? So, what had to be designed by God in the eternity past, in the

Trinity? A sacrifice for sins, the wages of sin is death, someone had to die, but also a sacrifice that was given with a perfect heart, an obedient heart, a righteous heart, a willing heart, a holy heart, it was a sacrifice for sins, yes, but an obedient sacrifice, it wasn't just sacrifice, who cares about godly living,

I'll just make a sacrifice, no, it had to be godly living and the sacrifice, true or false, or ask yourself the question, does the

Lord delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the voice of the Lord? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams, 1

Samuel 15 22, I guess you have to say true, it's right from the Bible, true or false, do you believe this

Bible quote, that's what I was doing, theologically you think about obedience, there's two kinds of obedience theologically, active obedience of Christ, He perfectly lived our, the life we should have lived, obeyed

His parents, obeyed the government, obeyed the law of God, that's called active obedience, and then there's something called passive obedience, that He died on the cross for our sins, so God before time gives the son a charge and that charge is go take a body, so you can live the active obedience, be baptized, obey all the law, once a year fast, etc.,

celebrate the Passover, and you had to have a body for passive obedience because the wages of sin is death, there needs to be a sacrifice, a lamb has to be slain, so to be slain, how can an invisible spirit

God be slain, He can't unless He has a body, God says

I want the sacrifice but I want devotion too, I want a devoted servant who sacrifices, a perfect servant who sacrifices animals, who can be the perfect servant, so now

Jesus is the perfect servant and He is not just the servant but He's also the sacrifice, He's the obedient one and He's also the one who is the sacrifice, now here's my question, when did

God devise all this? When Luke 22 it says the son of man is going as it has been determined, when

Jesus says yes this is all going according to plan, when was this plan instigated?

When was this plan initiated? When did it start? Well you know poor Jesus, He started off kind of as a messiah complex,

He had and then He kind of went south and He couldn't overthrow the Roman government so He got you know sadly killed on a cross, when did this all start?

Acts 2 Peter says Jesus was delivered up by the predetermined plan of God, it was already planned in eternity past, listen to Jesus in John 10 talk about eternity past conversations,

I have John 10 18 authority to lay down my life and I have authority to take it up again, this commandment

I receive from my father, I got a commandment from my father in eternity past to go live a perfect life and lay down my life as an offering for sinners, when was that?

It was in eternity past and you said Mike you've already said that half a dozen times, I know but it's so mind -boggling

I'm going to keep saying it, the recurrent theme in the gospel of John is

Jesus was sent by the father, I was going to have you look them up but I'm just going to read you a few, sometime type in sent

John's gospel, for God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through Him, for whom

God has sent utters the words of God, this is the work of God that you believe in Him whom

He has sent, God the father sends the son, my question to you is when? And the answer is before Genesis 1 1, how about that?

I've come down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of Him who sent me, John chapter 6,

Jesus said to them if God were your father you would love me for I came from God and I am here,

I came not of my own accord but He sent me, He sent

Him into the world, Jesus had to be born, why was

Jesus born? Number one, all those sacrifices were inadequate, number two, because He had to obey the father, number three,

Christ had to be born to save people from their sins, verses 8 to 10, lots of reiteration there but we will read verses 8 to 10 and talk about this great salvation, verse 8, when

He said above, excuse me, when He said above, you have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings, offerings from A to Z, these offerings are according to the law, then

He added, behold I have come to do your will, you see the reiteration there, He does away with the first sacrificial system in order to establish the second and by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Bethlehem Bible Church is a

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