Better Things - Hebrews — Anton Bosch

Turn with me please to the book of Hebrews chapter 9, Hebrews chapter 9. And as we've been going through the Bible book by book, week after week, we've come to the book of Hebrews. It's been quite a challenge for me to speak on Hebrews again this morning, since we've just gone through a series on Sunday nights on the book of Hebrews.

I'm not sure, how many is it? Sixty tapes, Leo? Sixty messages? Thirty-four. Thirty-four messages. So it's taken us the best part of a year to get through the book of Hebrews, and we've gone through it verse by verse.

And so this morning we come back to the book of Hebrews, and we gave an introduction in the Sunday school this morning, and I'm going to take one aspect of the book of Hebrews and put it all together, and hopefully it'll be fresh again, even though we've been through it in great detail.

And I'm going to speak about the word better. And thirteen times this word better appears in the book of Hebrews, and we never put them all together in one study when we went through the book, and so it'll be good for us just to see them all together in one go.

And so we're going to read from chapter 9 and verse 16 through the end of the chapter. Hebrews 9, 16,. For where there is a testament there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is in force after men are dead, since it has no power at all while the testator lives.

Therefore not even the first covenant was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you.

Then likewise he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry. And according to the law, almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.

Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has not entered the holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us.

Not that he should offer himself often as the high priest enters the most holy place every year with blood of another. He then would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world. But now, once at the end of the ages, he has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for him he will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.

Jesus Is Better Than Every Alternative

Now let me remind you, in case you've forgotten, that the book of Hebrews is written to people who were tempted to go back to Jewish customs and traditions for various reasons. And while I don't think that there are any Jewish people here this morning, we all have the same temptation to leave Christ and go back to something else, to go back to something that we had come to, come from, or some alternative to Christ.

And, of course, to them it was their tradition, it was their form of religion, and many of us come out of all sorts of other kinds of religions, and so there would be a temptation to go back to those religions, or to substitute our faith in Christ with something else.

And so the book of Hebrews is relevant to all of us. And the writer writes to show that what we have is better than what they had in the Old Testament, showing to the Hebrews that the Lord Jesus is better than the Old Testament system of sacrifices and priests and the temple and all of the altars and all of the things that were part of the Old Testament.

And for us, we would say, well, that really is not relevant to us here. But it is relevant to us, because the way in which he deals with this problem is to show that Jesus is better, that Jesus is better than everything else.

And it doesn't matter whether we're of a Jewish background or whether we have a pagan background or we have a Buddhist background or a Roman Catholic background, the fact is that Jesus is always better.

Now, the question is, is He not the best? Well, of course He is the best. But the argument here is not as to whether He is the best. The argument is whether He is better than anything else that we have.

And if we can be assured of that, then it would be foolish of us to go back to something else that is not as good. Many times in advertising, you see that they will list three different products, and they'll have good, better, and best.

And, of course, the price goes the same way. I'm sometimes not even convinced that one is better or that there is a best one. It's simply expensive, more expensive, and outrageous. That should really be the headings of these things, because the difference mostly is in the price.

Sometimes there may be a difference in the quality. But when it speaks about Jesus as being better, it's not like He's more expensive. One of the reasons why He is better is because He paid the price.

In the Old Testament and any other form of religion, we have to pay the price. But Jesus paid the price. So it's not even a matter of going down to the bottom line, because that's what I do. When I look at these products, I say, well, I can't afford that one.

I have to settle for the good one, or I have to settle for the better one. I can't afford the best one. That's always the question for me. But when it comes to Jesus, that's not even the question. It's not a matter of saying, well, you know, I can't afford Him, so I have to settle for second best.

You don't have to settle for second best, because the best is available to every one of us. And so I'm not going to take all 13 of these things, but I'm going to quickly look through many of them. And in chapter 1 and verse 4, He shows that Jesus is better than the angels.

Hebrews chapter 1 verse 4, having become so much better than the angels. In fact, you'll see that word so much better. Not just a little bit better, but much better than the angels. Now, you say, well, what does that have to do with me?

Well, the amazing thing is that so many people today are beginning to elevate the importance of angels. And I don't know where this comes from. I don't know whether I'm touched by an angel. Remember that series of Della Reese TV programs, whether that was part of it.

But many Christians seem to be fascinated by the angels. And yet the angels are great. The angels are powerful. And one of the things He shows here is that the angels are greater than men. They are more powerful.

They are sinless. They have not sinned like we have. They're in the presence of God all the time. So angels are great. But you know what? Jesus is better than the angels. So why do you want to worship angels?

Why are you fascinated with angels when you can be fascinated with one who is far more interesting, far more powerful, far more wonderful, far more beautiful, far more amazing than any of the angels in the world?

And so we don't minimize angels. We don't say angels are unimportant. They have an important role to play in God's economy. But you know, our relationship is with one who is better than the angels. Better than the angels.

And it's sad when Christians begin to involve themselves with angels and spend more time studying angels and reading books about angels than they do about Jesus. Because you're really leaving something which is better for something that is only good.

Jesus Is Better Than Abraham and Human Leaders

And Jesus is better than the angels. In chapter 7, he shows that Jesus is better than Abraham. Chapter 7 and verse 7. And you have to read the argument, but he's simply saying, verse 7, Now beyond all contradiction, the lesser is blessed by the better.

And so he's simply showing that Jesus is better than Abraham. Now for the Hebrews or for the Jews, this was very important because Abraham is the father of their faith. Abraham is the father of the nation.

He was the beginning of that whole nation. And of course, today the Muslims trace their history back to Abraham also, but not through Isaac, but through Ishmael. But they also go back to Abraham and they say, Abraham is the greatest.

And many Christians are fascinated by Abraham because he is the father of the faith, or the father of the faithful. And Romans shows how great Abraham's faith was. Hebrews shows how great Abraham's faith was.

But he says, Jesus is still better than Abraham. But you know, Abraham does not just represent himself. Abraham also stands for all of the saints that have gone before us. Whether it is Abraham or St. Jude or St. John or whatever saint.

And again, so many Christians are fascinated by the saints. And they say, well, you know, here was this saint who did this great thing. Whether it's a saint in the Bible or a saint who lived after the Bible.

We forget that we're all saints. And the scripture addresses us as saints. If we're born again, we are saints. You don't have to wait to be beatified and to be made a saint. God makes us a saint when we're born again.

But to be fascinated by people who have gone before, it doesn't matter how great those people were. Whether it's Moses or whether it's Abraham. Or whether it's some other great leader of the faith. Jesus is better than all of those.

And you know, again, it's a sad thing of Christianity that many Christians follow some great leader. Whether it's one who's dead or whether it's one who's alive. Many churches' names are attached to that particular leader.

And so they will call themselves, and it's a good church, but you have people who are Wesleyans. Why are they Wesleyans? Oh, because we follow the teachings of John and Charles Wesley. And so we're Wesleyans.

And there are people who connect their name to some great leader. But you know, our leader is Jesus. The greatest of them all was Jesus. And I would rather pattern myself and live following him than following whoever it is.

And yet we've had some great leaders in the Christian faith. Beginning with Abraham. And the New Testament shows that he was a leader in the Christian faith even though he was Jewish. Or even before the Jewish nation was born, he was the beginning of the Jewish nation.

He was great. Moses was great. Paul was wonderful. And some Christians are fascinated by Paul. Peter was great. And there's a whole denomination today who follow Peter. And all of those who descended from Peter as apostles of the church.

But Jesus is better than Peter. Jesus is better than whoever you can name. And you know, we all have our heroes. We all have people that we want to follow. Or people that we admire. People that we're fascinated by.

We say, you know, this was a great Christian. He had so much influence on my life. Or he had so much impact on Christianity. But Jesus is better. Let me be fascinated by him. Let me read his biography.

The Better Hope Beyond the Law

Let me study his life. Let me follow his example. Jesus is better than Abraham. And he is better than anyone else. Then also in chapter 7 and verse 19. For the law made nothing perfect. On the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God.

A better hope. Now, he uses this term better hope in two different ways in the book of Hebrews. Here he's speaking about the fact that the law did not have any hope of being able to bring us into the presence of God.

The law could not make anyone perfect. Unfortunately, people thought that they could become perfect by the law. And remember in Jesus' time, there were many people like that. The scribes and the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Paul, the rich young man who came to Jesus. They all thought that they could become perfect by keeping the law. But in fact, it was a false hope. Because the law could not make anyone perfect. All the law could do was show up the flaws.

Could show up the failures and the sins. But the law could not do anything in a positive sense of making someone perfect. So the best you could do was to avoid all of the pitfalls that the law pointed out.

But that still didn't make you perfect. You see, because the law just dealt with the negative part. Remember when we studied the law, the law says you shall not kill, for example. And so, as long as you don't kill anybody, they believed, you would be fine.

But in fact, all you did was, you stayed out of trouble if you didn't kill somebody. But you still had not fulfilled that law. It still did not make you perfect. What did you have to do to fulfill that command?

You have to love your neighbor. You have to go beyond just not breaking the law. You actually have to do the positive aspect of that law. And this is what they didn't understand. So they didn't do all the wrong things.

But they often failed to do the right things. And therefore, they were still not perfect. But you know, Jesus comes and he says, I can make you perfect. I can make you like I am, absolutely perfect, acceptable before God.

Now, we know that that's a process. And I don't want to get into all the theology of that. I'm not going to bore you with that this morning. But he can make us perfect. He gives us that hope. And it's not just that he speaks about it as a hope, not as a threat.

You see, the law in the Old Testament was a threat. It was a negative thing. Because it was always there telling you how bad you were. Every time you hear the law. When I was growing up, there was no evangelical church in the little town that I grew up.

So I used to go down to the Reformed church. And in this particular church, every Sunday morning, they would read the Ten Commandments. Sunday after Sunday. This was part of their liturgy. And every time I listened as a young boy, I would listen to these Ten Commandments.

I would be convicted of my own failure and of my own sin. Now, that's not a wonderful thing. I never looked forward to hearing the law read. Because it never made me feel that I had any hope. Because every week I come, I just realized how short I come again.

But Jesus ushers in a better hope. The hope that we can change. The hope that we will be changed. The hope that we will be like him. The hope that we can be perfect. Yesterday afternoon, Inna and I were working in the garden.

And the heat got to us, so we went inside. And I watched an interview with Bill Gaither. Some of you know he's written over 600 songs. Many of them we sing here. And the interviewer, Ralph Emery, spoke to him about his depression.

He suffers from depression. And he was talking about the connection between depression and perfectionism. When somebody is a perfectionist, it brings about depression. Because you're never able to realize, you're never able to do what you think you should be doing.

You can never achieve the level of perfection that you feel you should be able to achieve. It's a very negative thing. And that's exactly what the law is. But Jesus brings in a better hope. Jesus is not depressing.

I never come to Jesus and feel depressed. I'm encouraged every time I come to him. Because he reminds me that I can change. He reminds me that he is changing me. He reminds me of the fact that it doesn't matter how many failures I have.

The Better Covenant and Its Better Promises

He is able to forgive me. He is able to cleanse me. He is able to fix me up. And he is able to present me faultless before his Father on that great and glorious day. And so I have a better hope. And then in chapter 7 also verse 22.

By so much more, Jesus has become a surety of a better covenant. A better covenant. And then chapter 8 and verse 6. By now he has obtained a more excellent ministry. And as much as he is also a mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

Better covenant and better promises. Now, when he is speaking about Jesus as being better. And the things that Jesus introduces that or brings about that are better. He is not saying that what they had in the Old Testament was bad.

It was good. But Jesus is better. What the Jews had in the Old Testament was far better than the Gentiles had. They had no covenant. The Jews had a covenant with God. But Jesus comes and he makes an even better covenant.

So why do you want to settle for the bad or for the good when you can have the better? Now, in what respect is the covenant that Jesus introduces better than the covenant in the Old Testament? Well, simply, the covenant of the Old Testament was a covenant which required Israel to do its share in the deal between God, in the contract between God and Israel.

God says, I will be your God. You will be my people. I will bless you if you do these things. If you do these things. There was that condition to it. Every agreement, every contract has conditions to it.

We have entered into an agreement with this new church that will be using our space. And we will give them the use of the facilities if they pay us the rent every month. There is a condition. If they don't pay the rent, they cannot get the use of the facilities.

If you did not obey God, you could not get the blessing. So there was a condition to it. And that made that covenant weak. So the writer to the Hebrews refers to it as weak. It was weak because it required performance on the part of Israel.

It wasn't weak because of what God had said. It wasn't weak because of what God hoped to achieve through the covenant. But it was weak because it required them to do something. And you know what? Whenever we have to do something, we just never deliver.

We just never are able to do what we should be doing. And so Jesus comes and he brings in a new covenant. And the new covenant is better because it says, I will bless you. Not if I will bless you. Not because of what we do, but because of what Jesus did at Calvary.

So the Old Testament required performance on the part of the people. And if the people performed, then God would perform his part of the deal. In the New Testament, he says, well, you can't do anything anyway.

Israel kept messing up. And so in the New Testament, Jesus comes and he says, I will do everything. All you do is come and inherit the blessings. Receive the promises. Receive the blessings. And so that's a better covenant.

Now the illustration that I used of the church that is going to be renting the space, if we wanted to give them a better covenant, a better contract, we have an agreement or a contract or a covenant. If we wanted to give them a better covenant, what would a better covenant be?

We would say, you can use the space. You don't have to pay rent. You don't have to do anything. You don't have to take out the trash, part of the agreement we have with them. You can just use it. I say, well, what kind of agreement is that?

Well, it's an extremely favorable agreement, which puts all of the burden of producing, delivering the service on the one part, and the other party simply just enjoys all of the blessings. And that's exactly what Jesus did.

The Old Testament covenant was conditional. Jesus comes and he says, I'm going to give you blessings. And there are so many blessings. Be sons of the Father, receive grace, receive forgiveness, receive eternity in heaven.

All of these things. He says, not if you do this or if you do that, I'm just going to give it to you. All you have to do, and there's really only one part we have to do, and that is we just have to receive it.

We just have to sign the contract and say, yeah, I'll take that. I'll accept what you offer. And that's the amazing thing is that so many people just don't accept the offer, because it seems to be too good to be true.

Can you imagine if you had a brand new Lexus, and you found the first guy on the street here waiting at the bus stop for the bus, and he said, here's a brand new Lexus. All you've got to do is sign here and say, I receive this Lexus free and gratis and for nothing.

All you've got to do is say, I receive it. I bet you that at least half the people at that bus stop will say, there's a catch here. I don't believe this. Somehow they're going to get me on this deal. And they're going to reject the deal.

And too many people are saying, well, this deal, how can it be true that God is just giving me everything? All I have to do is just accept it. But that's the deal, because it is a better covenant. The Old Testament covenant was great, because it gave to people who were just as undeserving as everybody else, a covenant with God.

The Better Sacrifice Removes Sin

Yet he's saying, I'm going to give you a better covenant, better promises. Chapter 9, verse 23. Therefore it was necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens should be purified with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

Better sacrifices. Now, again, you go back to Israel and their sacrificial system. That was a good system. Because it did what no other religion was able to do. And that was, it was able to cover sin.

But notice I said cover, not remove. It could cover sin. There was no other religion in the world that had any hope of a system of sacrifices that could cover sin. Only the system that God introduced and gave through Moses to Israel.

So that was great. At least they had some way of being able to deal with their sins. But the problem was, it could never remove the sins. It could only cover them for a while. And of course we know the system.

It was a system of animal sacrifices that had to be brought. And when you sinned, you brought these sacrifices. And it could really only deal with the sins of the past. It couldn't deal with the sins of the future.

So you brought your sacrifice to the temple. And you made your sacrifice. And God says, okay, that's fine. We're square now. And you walk outside. And the moment you step outside of the sanctuary, you see somebody else's donkey.

And you say, wow, that's a nice, I wish it was mine. And you're back in trouble again. So you have to start all over again. It could only deal with sins of the past. It could not deal with sins of the future.

And in fact, it only dealt with sins of ignorance. It didn't even deal with sins that you knew you were doing the wrong thing. And so, Jesus comes and he offers a better sacrifice. And we know that that sacrifice is himself upon the cross of Calvary.

And the book of Hebrews goes into great detail. Not the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer, but the blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, poured out upon that cross of Calvary. The one sacrifice that was able not just to cover sin, but to remove it as far as the east is from the west.

Able to cleanse us. Not just able to wash away sins of the past, but able to deal with sins forever. And so we have confidence to constantly come back to God, because that blood is able to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

Now, of course, we wrote about this last week under the issue of grace. Should we then continue in sin that grace may abound? Should we continue in sin because Jesus' blood is going to keep cleansing us?

No, of course not. But at the same time, this is better than what they had. This is the best there is. There cannot be better than that. That he just forgives us. And of course, again, we struggle with this, because we say, well, you know, surely I've got to do something.

I have to pay penance in some way or the other. I have to do something so that God will forgive me. But God says, no, I'm going to forgive you, because Jesus made that sacrifice that was able to cover and to remove and to wash us and to cleanse us and to purify us and to remove our sins so that God doesn't even remember them anymore.

All we have to do is come to him and say, Lord, I sinned. Forgive me. And he forgives us because of a better sacrifice. Now, again, the amazing thing about these people that he was writing to and every one of us is that we have this wonderful thing that God has provided for us, and yet somehow we keep going back to what Paul calls in Galatians weak and beggary elements.

God says, I'm going to freely forgive you. And we say, well, that's great, God, but I'd rather just pay money and do this and do that and read my Bible and pray and hope that somehow if I do these things you'll forgive me.

The amazing thing is right now in the city of Los Angeles, there are thousands and thousands of people who prefer to be under the bondage of the law of their particular church that says you have to do this and you have to do that and you must do this and you must do that if you want to have your sins forgiven.

Then just accept the free offer of grace and forgiveness that Jesus offers. Why do you want to go back to something like that when you have something better? I don't know. I don't understand it. But there's just something about human nature that keeps going back to things that are weak, that are beggary, that are not even close to what God offers to us through Jesus Christ.

The Better Possession in Heaven

And so he has a better sacrifice. Chapter 10, verse 34. For you had compassion on me in my chains, joyfully accepting the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.

A better and enduring possession in heaven. What is the best thing you can have, you can possess in this world? House in Beverly Hills, Rolls Royce, Lamborghini. But he says we have a better possession.

We have a better possession. And you know, we spend so much time looking at what other people have, looking at what the world has to offer when in fact we have, it doesn't matter what it is, we have a better possession.

We have a better possession. It doesn't matter how big the house, it doesn't matter how expensive and how elaborate it is, it doesn't matter how many millions of dollars it costs, we have a better house.

It's like little boys of a certain age, I forget what age, you know, when always their things are better. My dad's better than your dad. Our car is better than your car. Our house is better than your house.

Well, I tell you what, in Jesus, everything we have is better. Everything we have is better. Why do we want to settle for a house down here when we can have a mansion? Why do we want to settle for things that this world has to offer when he has so much more and so much better to offer?

And this adds to the word better, enduring. Reminding us of everything in this world is passing away. Everything in this world is temporal. But what he offers us is enduring. And the amazing thing again is that we will settle for temporal things in exchange for enduring things, for eternal things.

Why do you want to do that? Let's rather grab hold of the things that are internal, that will not fade away, where moths and rust do not corrupt, where thieves do not break in and steal. And at the end of the day, things that are far better than anything in this world.

You know, one of the things and the realities of this life is that it doesn't matter what it is in this world. It is flawed. You can look at the most fancy Lamborghini. We went down to Pasadena on a Friday evening and there was this beautiful yellow Lamborghini.

I didn't look at it closely. I didn't want people to think I wasn't used to anything. But I'm sure that if I looked at it closely enough, I would find flaws in it. Flaws in the paintwork. Flaws in the leatherwork.

Flaws in the engine. It doesn't matter how expensive and how many hundreds of thousands of dollars that thing costs. It is not perfect. And yet what Jesus offers us is perfect. There are no flaws in heaven.

You can spend the rest of your time in eternity looking through heaven, whatever heaven consists of. And you will not find one weakness. You will not find one mistake. You will not find one thing that is broken.

You will not find one thing that doesn't work. It's all perfect. It's all enduring. It's all eternal. So why do you want to settle for things that are flawed when you can have that which is perfect? Why do you want to settle for things that are temporal, that are rusting and passing away when you can have that which is perfect?

The Better Heavenly Country

He promises a better possession in heaven. Then chapter 11 verse 16. Sorry, but now they desire a better that is a heavenly country. That's very relevant to us here in Los Angeles and in America because most people in the world want to come to America.

Why? Because it is a better country. But it doesn't matter where you are in the world, even if you are an American citizen. There is still a better country. There is still a better country and it is called heaven.

It is better in every way. It has no corruption. It has no taxes. It has no crime. There is a thousand things you can name about heaven that is better than America or South Africa or whatever country you think is the best country in the world.

We have a better country. And while we appreciate whatever it is that we have in the free world, there is a better country. And we need to be citizens of that country. We need to be looking to that country.

And folks, it is hard to explain, but when you go to countries like Nigeria, where every citizen, you go to Lagos, 11 million people, as many as in Los Angeles. And every single one of those people, you stop them and you say, do you want a ticket to go to America?

They will say, yes, please. Every single one of those 11 million people want to come to America. But you know, not every one of them want to go to heaven. And yet heaven is better. Folks, we need to fix our eyes on that goal and say, I want to be part of that country.

And you know, just like we see, we see this happen here all the time. People do all sorts of things. They cross the border. They go through the desert. They die in the desert. They pay enormous prices to be hidden in a compartment, in a secret compartment, in a truck or in a van to be able to come here.

But you know what? I don't see people going to the same trouble to get to heaven. That beats me. And while I don't want to break or burst people's bubble about how great America may be, but whatever America is, heaven is better.

The Better Resurrection and Jesus' Better Blood

And we need to be pressing, and Paul uses those words, we need to be pressing to get in there. We need to be saying, what can I do to get there? And so we have a better country. And then we have a better resurrection.

Chapter 11, verse 35. Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Now there's really only two resurrections, and there's no much difference.

There's no big toss-up between these two. The book of Revelation goes into detail, and it says there's one resurrection, which is to hell or to death. And there's another resurrection to life. There's no questions to which one is better.

Sometimes you go to the store and you look at two products, and you're buying a toaster, and, you know, is this one better than that one? Well, this one has this button, that one doesn't have that button.

You know, there's really nothing much between the two. But I tell you what, between the two resurrections, there's no question which one is better. There is no question which one I want to be part of.

We want to be part of that better resurrection, the resurrection to eternal life. And then finally, in chapter 12, verse 24. Chapter 12, 24. To Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.

Now, without having to go into all of that, because Leo told me time's up, but the blood of Abel spoke of revenge. The blood of Abel cries out for revenge. The blood of Jesus speaks better things than Abel's blood.

What does Jesus' blood speak of? Forgiveness. Forgiveness. What a wonderful thing. You know, we speak about the blood of the martyrs. We speak about the blood of the soldiers on the battlefield. And what that represents and what that speaks of.

But the blood of Jesus speaks of something better than all of that. It speaks about grace and forgiveness. Cleansing. Washing away of our sins. And so, is there really a choice between what Jesus has to offer and what everything else and everyone else offers?

Is there really a choice between what Jesus offers and the world offers? Is there really a... Is it really a hard decision to make of saying, I want Jesus? Because, you know, what He offers is definitely better.