The Centrality of Christ

Hebrews 9 and the Supremacy of Christ

Turn with me, please, to Hebrews, chapter 9. The epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 9. We will continue, Lord willing, in guiding our study of this tremendous testimony to the supremacy of Christ. But before we do so, let us ask the Lord to bless our time together.

Indeed, our Heavenly Father, we once again open your Word and we ask that your Spirit would guide and direct. Without His ministry amongst us, we can do nothing. So, we would ask that you would protect us from distraction.

You would help us to focus upon your truth. Be glorified in this hour, we pray in Christ's name. Those of you who are with us regularly know that when I have the opportunity to stand behind this pulpit, we have been studying through the epistle to the Hebrews.

And we are in the ninth chapter. At the last time we were together, we worked through the 14th verse of Hebrews, chapter 9. This is a very difficult book to divide into sections that fit into sermons.

Let me assure you of that. And what we generally have been doing is we get as far as we can go and then finish up Sunday night. So, I can pretty much assure you that this morning I will try to find a meaningful place to end at a reasonable time.

And then we will press on this evening. So, I would encourage you to, if you can in any way, shape, or form, be here this evening. This ninth chapter is indeed entering into that very hallowed portion of the epistle discussing the death of Jesus Christ, His sacrifice.

And so, I would encourage you to think about being with us again this evening as we open the Word of God. It also is difficult to read just a portion of it because it is a running argument. And so, I think to get the context fresh in our minds, if Pastor Fry goes back to the beginning of the chapter and that's pretty much every week except for the last Sunday of the month, I certainly can't expect that you remember the context overly clearly from chapter 9 from a month ago.

So, let's read together Hebrews chapter 9 as our scripture lesson this morning. Now, even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship in the earthly sanctuary. For there was a tabernacle prepared, the outer one, in which were the lampstand and the table and the sacred bread.

This is called the holy place. Behind the second veil, there was a tabernacle which is called the holy of holies, having a golden altar of incense and the Ark of the Covenant covered on all sides with gold in which was a golden jar holding the manna and Aaron's rod which budded in the tables of the covenant and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat.

But of these things, we cannot now speak in detail. Now, when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle performing the divine worship. But in the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance.

The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing which is a symbol for the present time. 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 for the body imposed until a 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 cows but through his own blood, he entered the holy place once for all having obtained eternal redemption.

For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who've been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more 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.

So here we are, the first portion of this chapter, this is the context that brings us up to where we are today but since it's such a long chapter let me just stop just for a moment and remind us of what has been said up to this point that gives us the context, especially for the beginning the primary verse we're going to look at today, verse 15.

Notice that all of this, which again required a knowledge of the Old Testament, an intimate understanding of the Levitical priesthood which again goes to the purpose of this book. It is an exhortation to those Jewish believers who are being put under pressure to go back to the old ways.

It's demonstrating the supremacy of Christ. There is nothing to go back to. And the author talks about the worship that is going on in the temple. That's why I believe very clearly that the book of Hebrews is written before the destruction of the temple by Titus and Roman legions in A .D. 70.

He talks about the fact that we have all this earthly shadow that is but a copy of the heavenly reality and that Jesus now, not through the blood of goats and cows but through his own blood has entered the holy place once for all having obtained eternal redemption.

And we emphasize very strongly, and I've lost count how many times we have made reference to this particular verse in the preceding chapters because it so summarizes the whole reason why there's nothing to go back to and that is because we have a high priest who does not take the blood of sacrifices in a bowl once a year through the veil into the holy place.

But we have a high priest who does not take the blood of goats and cows but through his own self-giving he has entered the holy place, the holy place in heaven itself, the true holy place once for all, one time, not once for every person but once for all.

It's a temporal adverb, one time and having obtained eternal redemption. Not having made it a mere hypothetical possibility. Not having made a reservoir of grace that now you have to go to various sacraments to avail yourself of these things.

No, he has obtained eternal redemption. Not a short period of time of redemption, eternal redemption. This is the act of the God-man. And then he says, if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh drawing from a number of the Old Testament types and shadows and the types of cleansing that was done to people who, for example, had touched a dead body or things like that.

If that kind of sacrifice and that kind of ceremony could sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Mashiach, Messiah, the One who was to come, the very fulfillment of the prophetic hopes of the Jewish people.

How much more will the blood of Messiah who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. See, the supremacy in the fulfillment, the supremacy of the New Covenant in the fulfillment of the Old, this then becomes the background of our portion of the chapter this morning.

The Mediator of the New Covenant and the Eternal Inheritance

So, beginning at verse 15, for this reason, He is the mediator of a new covenant. So that since a death has taken place, the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called the called ones may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never enforced while the one who made it lives. Therefore, even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood, for when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people saying, this is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.

And the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood, and that 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 the things in heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 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 for us.

Nor was it that he would offer himself often as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is 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. And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him.

So, we now see in this last half of this ninth chapter what we are heading toward. I will admit that probably the end of this chapter and the beginning of the 10th chapter, probably the highlight, in my opinion, as I was looking at the book of Hebrews now a number of years ago and considering working through it, not that, well, after this, it's all downhill, but as far as the form of the argumentation and the depth of the theology, we are truly entering into it here.

And yet, once again, I remind us, I think one of the reasons that we see so much of a shallow understanding of the work of Christ in much of what calls itself evangelicalism today is because here is where we find the heart, the depth.

And yet, what's the context? Ah, Levitical sacrifices and priesthoods and Moses doing stuff with blood. And let's just be honest, in our day and age, especially with the younger generation, that's just not overly exciting.

In fact, that's a little bit creepy. I mean, if you're trying to create a culturally cool Christianity, this is not the book to be preaching from and this is not the tie to be wearing. But you know what?

That's not what we're trying to do here. A culturally cool Christianity is not what we're trying to create here because that's not a Christianity that lasts. At the speed our culture is changing, I don't want a Christianity that's matched to our culture because it's gonna be different next week when someone is truly touched by the Spirit of God and they desire His truth and they desire to know that they're right with Him.

They're not gonna be looking for culturally cool Christianity. They wanna know what God has said and what hasn't changed. What won't change next week or next year? What's gonna be firm and unchanging?

And here we have a letter and people say, well, but I don't know any Jewish people that are under a lot of pressure right now to go back. Well, there still are a lot of folks like that, by the way. If you are engaged in Jewish ministry, the book of Hebrews is a place you go all the time.

But people say, you know, the temple was still operating then and there's no temple today and how can this be relevant? And yet when you think about it, you have here a people who are being put under pressure to walk away from their commitment to the centrality and meaning and purpose of Jesus Christ.

And is that pressure not against us every single day? And is it not an in-depth understanding of what God has accomplished in the cross? Is not the cross the very center point of history itself? And so if we really want to ground people in the truth, if we want to see the fulfillment of Paul's prayer in Colossians, that we be grounded and firmly rooted in him, then what will we make sure that each one of us, not just our young people, but what will we make sure that every one of us understands?

What is the basis upon which you stand before a holy God? And it's easy to say the sacrifice of Christ, but why? Why is that enough? Why one time? Why is it such a horrible, soul-destroying thing to think that Christ, His sacrifice, is something that's repetitive?

Or it's something that only provides a certain amount of grace or a certain amount of forgiveness? Why is that so important to say, no, no, no? Well, it's right here. It's right in front of us. Verse 15, for this reason, He, Jesus, is the mediator of a new covenant so that since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

Now, you might say, if you've been listening very carefully over the course of this study, well, there's nothing new here. We've already been introduced to Jesus as mediator. In fact, you may recall, last year sometime, I think, we even stepped out of Hebrews one night just simply to look at this term mediator and to look at how Jesus is a mediator and what a mediator does.

So you might say, well, chapter eight, new covenant, mediator, death, nothing new here. But you see, what the author is doing is he's establishing the elements of his argument. And now he's taking all these things that he's established, that he's proven in the past, and now he is weaving them together into that cord, that gold and silver and all of the cords that come together to form the beautiful message of the sufficiency of Christ.

And so he says to his readers, for this reason, he is the mediator of a new covenant. His death is sufficient. He, through the eternal spirit, offered himself without blemish to God. For this reason, he's the mediator of a new covenant.

Because you see, the old covenant did not have a mediator like this. Remember, just a few months ago, I went through, if I recall correctly, 17 points where the, don't worry, I don't have 17 points this morning, but they were short points.

We blame John Owen for it. It's very easy to blame those who have gone before us when our sermon outline is way too big. But 17 points where the new covenant is unlike the old and is, in fact, better than the old.

And we looked at the issue of the mediator of the covenants. And here we have one who is uniquely qualified to be the mediator of the covenant whereby the triune God will glorify himself. That is the God-man.

It's not surprising to me that in what the world calls the mainline denominations today, I'm not sure why they're called the mainline denominations. They are the dying denominations. They're denominations where millions of people have left over the past number of decades.

But it does not surprise me that in the mainline denominations, once they abandon a belief that Scripture is consistent with itself, then they abandon a high view of who Christ is. And while they may say that he's a wonderful example, they don't really believe that even if there was a man named Jesus of Nazareth, that he was truly deity, that he was virgin-born, that he was God in human flesh.

And once they've abandoned that, the whole message of the cross, and especially all this blood stuff in Hebrews, must seem extremely strange to them. I can understand why they have to replace a social gospel for the real gospel, because you see, it all hangs together.

You cannot have this kind of expansive, universe-changing death of Christ that Paul says in Colossians is the means by which reconciliation takes place. That doesn't mean that every creature is reconciled, but that every creature is justly dealt with.

Or as he says in Ephesians, the summing up of all things in Christ. You can't have that if Jesus is just a guy that sort of was a peasant, and he sort of walked around Galilee, and he said nice, pious platitudes about being nice to your neighbor, and everybody being loving, and that's about the extent of it.

How does his death provide you a foundation for something that Paul says has cosmic ramifications? It's just not possible. So once you start taking out the foundation stones, it's not gonna stand up. What's left is just a shell.

There's no meaning to it. And so this mediator of a new covenant, we need to understand why is he capable of doing this? Why should we be worshiping this man? 2 ,000 years later, the world says we're nuts.

The world says we are deceived that we are wasting our lives worshiping this man. Why do we? What's the basis? And when we look at him as the mediator of a new covenant, why should we care? Why should that verse that we just read, thrill your heart?

If it didn't, read it again. Because you know how, see how it ended? I mean, maybe when you got to the end you saw it. Those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. Why are God's promises for you firm, and true, and reliable, and trustworthy?

Even in the midst of your worst circumstances, your deepest pains and anguish? Why have the people of God down through the centuries found such solace in faith in Christ? Is it what the world says? We just, we're mind-numbed?

We turn our critical thought processes off and it's just a mantra we repeat? I mean, there are people who can be very calm in difficult circumstances. They meditate and they repeat mantras over and over again, and you can calm yourself down.

Is that the same thing that the martyr has as he faces his own death? Is that the steadfastness of our brothers and sisters this day who languish in prisons and foreign lands, and they could be out in a moment if they would just deny Christ?

Is that what gives them that strength? Where does it come from? What makes those aged saints that we look to and we just sense in them that godliness and that consistency and that nearness to Christ? Where does it come from?

I would submit to you that it comes from the work of the Gospel, and here it is. Here it is in plain words. It is God's intention through the death of Christ to bring about the redemption of the transgressions that are committed in the first covenant.

Aren't all those who committed sins in the first covenant glad to hear that? That's what Paul talks about in Romans 3. He talks about God looking over those things because of the certainty of the coming of the cross.

God didn't treat those under the old covenant unjustly, but the blood of goats and cows has never been, it's never been its purpose to actually bring eternal redemption. It was always pointing away from itself.

And so, that death has taken place. The redemption of the transgressions are committed in the first covenant. Thanks be for that. So that those who have been called... See, not everybody under that first covenant had been called.

I mean, every Jewish person of the day knew that. There was a huge dispute going on and those in the church realized they were a minority of the Jewish people. But those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

Isn't this exactly what Peter had pronounced on the day of Pentecost? We just about got to it. If I had read all of chapter 2, we would have gotten to it. We'll get to it next week. The promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off.

What? As many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself the calling of God. The golden chain of redemption. Romans 8. Predestined. All God's work. Here's the foundation. Why is it that you can come to Christ and you can bow the knee and you can seek forgiveness and a promise is given to you?

A promise of an eternal inheritance. Is that not the very promise that believers have held to in their darkest hours? At the bedside? In the face of death? That there will be resurrection. It will not be a resurrection unto damnation, but a resurrection unto life.

Jesus' promise. As many as hear the voice of the Son of God, if they've believed in Him, resurrection of life shall not come into judgment. They've already passed out of death into life. This is the eternal inheritance.

This is the promise of the eternal inheritance. And how is it that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance? Especially since every single one of those who knows Jesus Christ knows their own sin.

How can a holy God promise me an eternal inheritance? How can this be? Isn't it possible that I'm going to die and then stand before God and all of a sudden, all my sins are going to be brought forward and I won't have a word to say?

How is it that we cannot fear that kind of condemnation, knowing our own hearts? What's the foundation? Why is it so that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance?

That's what God wants to accomplish. That's His end. That's His purpose. What's His means? Well, that's why Christians are so focused upon Christ, His person, the centrality of His work. And that is why over and over again, the New Testament writers warn us all, do not let anyone deceive you.

Do not let anyone lead you astray. Do not let anyone fool you with words of wisdom and draw you away from Christ and His Gospel. Because you see, the means by which we who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance is to be found in the work of the Mediator and this New Covenant, which is founded upon His completed work.

It's not because the New Testament writers are just all afraid that you're going to think independently or things like that. God has revealed His Gospel. And the enemy of our souls will do everything in His power to get us to hold on to something else rather than with an empty hand reaching out for the only thing that can truly save.

He is the Mediator of a New Covenant. He and He alone. There is only one New Covenant. There are not many New Covenants. There are not many Mediators. There are not many ways. The one that you talked to today, unless they've come from someplace else, unless they've come from a non-Western land, pretty much now, unless you're talking to pretty elderly folks, if you're talking to my generation and below, this kind of thing, this kind of revelation, this kind of claim, immediately raises objections.

That's not fair. God's a loving God. And God would allow many ways to Him. And God honors many ways to Him. This is the religious orthodoxy of our society, is it not? This is what the educational system today crams into everyone's mind.

If you believe there is one way, you're a narrow-minded, hate-filled bigot. And that's what you're going to hear when you talk about Christ as the only way. But you see, there is no way to read anything in the New Testament in such a way as to allow for all sorts of different ways to God.

There's just no way. Just look at this. He is the Mediator of a new covenant. So what? It might be good for you. Maybe it's not good for somebody else. Somebody else has their own way. Or maybe I want to have a different kind of Mediator.

No, God is the one who determines what is pleasing in His sight. God is the one who determines who comes before Him. And that's the real problem. People do not believe that. Because they've been given a view of God where He's that great Grandfather in the sky.

And He just wants to have everybody. He just wants to have all of His little grandchildren around Him. And He doesn't care about holiness. He doesn't care about His law. And the Christian has to say, that's not my God.

And the person in the world says, yeah, and I don't want your God. Yeah, you don't. You know He's there, but you don't want Him. It is a slap in the face of Christ for anyone to say, outside of Him, you can have peace with God.

It's a slap in the face of the triune God. Think of what the Father put the Son through needlessly if there is a means of justification outside of faith in Christ. Think of Him in Gethsemane. Think of Him in the Roman Praetorium, robed in purple, being spat upon and beaten and mocked by the Roman soldiers.

Think of Him carrying His cross. Think of Him on the cross. All for what? Well, many today would say, all it was was to show the love of God. It wasn't anything about God's law. It wasn't anything about justice.

It wasn't anything about punishment. No, we don't want a God like that. That's not how His followers understood it. And where did they get their ideas? Well, the Gospels tell us, God from Jesus. What was He doing after His resurrection, but showing them, opening their minds to the Scriptures, showing them what the prophets themselves had prophesied about how the Messiah must suffer and die and be raised the third day.

To say that there is some other way is to make a mockery of the Christian faith. He is the mediator of a new covenant. So that since a death has taken place, a death has taken place. Jesus' death was real.

That's why He had to be truly man. If He was not truly man, if He was like the Gnostics said, and the Gnostics are very popular today. They're dead and gone, but they're very popular. People have dug them up out of the sands of Egypt and have rehabilitated them, resuscitated them, and made money off of them.

But the Gnostics were right, and Jesus wasn't really a man. He was only play acting. Then a death did not take place. There was no giving of life. There is no transaction that takes place legally from God's perspective.

Notice how for the writer, the Gospel is grounded in historical reality. It's not just some cosmic story. It's not just some bedtime tale. Since a death has taken place... Now, there wasn't anybody denying that back then.

Not yet anyway. But the time would come in not very many decades before people would start denying that. Once they got far enough away from the eyewitnesses, I saw that. A death has taken place, but it was a death that brings about redemption.

We are told by many people today that our view of the atonement, and I'm not talking about particular redemption here. I'm not talking about issues of Calvinism. But the whole idea of viewing the atonement, the death of Christ as an atonement, as a propitiatory sacrifice, having something to do with the law of God.

We're told, oh, you've missed it. This is all just about the love of God. Well, don't hear me wrong. There is no place where we see the love of God more clearly than the cross. But my friends, there is no place where we can get a more distorted view of the love of God than if we look at the cross outside of the context in which the Bible itself presents it.

If you look at the cross apart from the categories of sacrifice, wrath, law, redemption, and atonement that the Bible itself uses, you end up with a sentimental God engaging in child sacrifice and little more.

And that's not much of a message. But when you look at it as the Bible reveals it, you realize who is on the cross. The perfect servant who is truly man, yet the Son of God. The God-man, perfect and blameless, accomplishing God's purpose.

The triune God's purpose from eternity past. And there is purpose in this atonement because there is a union of a people with Christ in His death. Remember the nature of the New Covenant? Proceeding chapter?

All those who are in it... what? Know God. His law is written upon their hearts. These are the called ones. You see the connection here? This is an argument we have with some of our fellow brethren. But you see, for the writer of Hebrews, New Covenant, those who have been called, called, New Covenant, same thing.

There's nobody in the New Covenant that isn't of the called, the elect, because their mediator is Christ. And Christ only mediates what His death provides. And who does that go to? To those who receive eternal life.

They receive the eternal inheritance. You see the consistency? It's all right there. But those who would tell us, well, you've missed it. Modern people don't want to hear about a wrathful God. They don't want to hear about a bloody cross any longer.

That just doesn't resonate. Yeah, I can understand why. We teach our young people they're nothing but the random accident of natural causes. No different than a dog or a cat or a fish. Might have existed, might not have existed.

No transcendent meaning. Not created in the image of God. Someone who's had that soul-destroying, mind-destroying, spirit-destroying kind of upbringing, the first thing they're thinking about is not really about how they should relate to their Creator God.

Now, it's funny, you can teach kids until the cows come home. That there is no God. There is no Creator. And they can just do with their lives as they wish. But you know what? They still look around when they do something wrong.

Watch them on closed circuit TV sometime when they don't know the camera's there. And they'll look around when they start to steal something. Their conscience bothers them when they lie, when they cheat, when they betray others.

They know. Our educational system cannot wipe out the image of God that God has placed there. Yet, we have to deal with where God places us. How do we take this message? This message that because of the death of Christ, He's the mediator of a new covenant.

Since that death has taken place, there's forgiveness of sins. Those who are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance. And this is the only way. How do we take that? Without compromise. And communicate it clearly.

You see, that's the line that we're having to walk, folks. The line we have to walk. See, you're the ones that have to take this message. Fathers, this is what you have to teach to your children. Mothers, this is what you have to teach to your children and explain to your children.

Young people, this is what you have to take into. And I know you're going to be mocked. I know. But this is the message you have to take into your school. Well, how do we do that without compromise? There's a vast difference between understanding your audience and using language they can understand and editing your message so that you remove what is offensive in it.

Huge difference between those two things. And unfortunately, a lot of folks don't see what the distinction is. It seems very clear to me that we have apostolic example of the apostles using the language of the day to communicate to a particular audience.

The apostle Paul had no problem borrowing the language of the Gnostic heretics, the proto-Gnostic heretics. Gnosticism was just developing at that time. But using their language against them. Didn't have any problem with that.

He used words that would automatically make them go, what did you say? Jesus is actually not just one of many deities, but He's the one true God. All deity dwells in Him. Wow, that's different than what we believe.

He didn't have any problem communicating with clarity. He didn't say, well, I don't like this Greek language thing. There's just too much secularism in it, so we're going to stick with Hebrew. Aramaic, in fact.

Well, that would have helped a lot. Great on missionary trips, you know. What did he say? Don't know. Don't know that language. We'll move on from here. He didn't do that. And so we can't be so crusty in our traditions that we insist that the exact same words we used 60 years ago, we have to use the exact same words today.

Unfortunately, some of those words wouldn't make sense to some folks today. Have you noticed the Oxford English Dictionary is getting sort of odd? It's the language out there. But there is a vast difference between saying, I will communicate.

I will understand how people are thinking today. I will express myself in such a way they can see exactly what it is I'm saying. That's one thing. It's completely different to say, now I know that they're pretty offended by the wrath of God, so I'm just, I'm going to take that out.

Can't do that. Because they know God's wrath is real. They see it around them. God's wrath is being revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness of men. And when we don't tell people that, we're not doing them or ourselves or God any favor.

So you see this one verse. Yeah, it's a summary. It sort of wraps a number of things up. But it touches upon so many important truths that are under attack today. And it proclaims to us the very basis upon which we can have confidence.

Confidence that if we are amongst those who have been called, if we have received that calling in our life, we've bowed the knee to Jesus Christ, we have a reason for believing that we will receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

God has invested Himself. He has made a guarantee, and He did so publicly, in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. So when people ask us, how do you know? We can look to texts like this.

We can look to the fact that this took place in history and say God has demonstrated these things. When He raised Christ from the dead, was He lying? Or was that not the very vindication of everything He had taught?

And everything the New Testament tells us about the significance of His death? We are not a people who have checked our brains at the door. But we are a people who recognize that God has made us dependent upon Him and dependent upon His revelation and dependent upon what He has done in history.

We do not stand in judgment of that. And the message that we have is one of a mediator of a new covenant. And down through the years, Christ has been building His church. He has been drawing those who have been called in.

And He's been saving them perfectly. He's doing that today. As you sit here this morning, I simply have to say to each one, how are you related to this mediator? What do you think of this death that has taken place?

How are you going to have your transgressions redeemed? If you've heard about Christ, and you've heard this Gospel message, and yet you continue to love your own sin, your own way of doing things, why doesn't the promise of an eternal inheritance mean anything to you?

Are you so foolish that you do not realize that not a one of us has a promise of tomorrow? I mean, how are most of us leaving this property today? We're getting in metal-encased, internal combustion engine-driven vehicles, and we're going out there.

And I think sometimes in our minds we just turn off the things we've seen. But anybody who is so foolish as to think, I don't have to worry about these things now. I've got plenty of time. I'm young. For you, is if you have not dealt with Christ, if you have not bowed the knee in repentance and faith toward Him, and called out for mercy from Him, that God would deal with your heart and show you that today is the day of salvation.

If you have sat in the pews of this church, and you have heard His Word open to you over and over and over again, I pray that God, by His Spirit, will cause you to realize your sin, your need of a Savior, and give you a consuming desire to have an eternal inheritance.