Hebrews 9 And The Death of Jesus (Part 2)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry.

Faith in Christ and the Righteousness Outside Ourselves

My name is Mike Abendroth. I don�t know if this Facebook Live thing, I don�t know if anybody cares, probably in the old days I want to make sure I use all the social media I can to get the greatest breadth of reach and arbitron ratings or who knows what.

So if you think it�s dumb, just tell me you think it�s dumb. If you think it�s interesting, I remember watching Todd Friel, he�d do radio and you could watch him at the same time. Here it says, �Connection Available.

I don�t know what a connection available is. I thought I�d probably be on here. We, today, are talking on No Compromise Radio about the book of Hebrews and if you�re going to talk about the book of Hebrews, written by a Hebrew to tell other Hebrews to stop being Hebrews and to believe in the one true Hebrew, this show is for you.

I stole that from somebody. Basically, my life on the radio and life in general is I�ve had a lot of great teachers and some dead, some living and I just take what they say and abendrothize it. That�s it.

So I don�t really have any original thoughts, can�t think of anything clever that I�ve come up with. I don�t think I�m going to patent Taku Tuesday anytime soon, our trade market. Was that really true?

Did LeBron really try to, how do you trademark Taku Tuesday? So if I say that on the air, I owe him money? How does that work? But anyway, you can either listen to the show, nocompromiseradio .com. You can pull up the podcast.

I know someday I should have an app, but it just, it is what it is and we�re still waiting for those million dollar, the millionaires to give right for nine years, I�ve said. I�m not going to say, we�re going to ask for money unless you�re a millionaire.

So if you think Facebook Live is dumb, tell me. I don�t have to turn on the thing. I can just talk. It�s probably better because I look, when I�m doing Facebook Live, I look at you more often versus looking at my notes and on radio, then you can just, you don�t have to establish eye contact.

The book of Hebrews is talking about faith in the Lord Jesus and that is a faith outside of yourself. And it�s not faith in faith, it�s a faith outside of yourself. It is a faith in the Lord Jesus, trusting for a righteousness outside of yourself.

You need perfect righteousness, perfect obedience to the law in order to be seen right in God�s eyes. Right? So think about a car. Adam�s in the garden before the fall. God places him there and Adam�s in neutral.

If you�re thinking about driving a car, you�re in neutral, Adam. And I want you to go forward. Do this and live. Don�t eat from that tree, be fruitful, multiply, etc. Go forward. Do. And of course, Adam sins and what does Adam do?

He goes backwards. He puts it in reverse. Therefore the Lord, God, slays some animals and covers Adam and Eve and he gets them back to neutral, right, because their sins are forgiven. But they�re still going to need a perfect righteousness because God has told them to go forward to obey.

And that�s why when you think of the Lord Jesus, you need to think about how He, the Lord Jesus, is the one who in fact, somebody�s knocking at the door, who was in fact the God-man. So He dies on the cross for our sins, but He also lives for our righteousness.

Righteousness means law-keeping. You get right standing by keeping the law. So I got distracted, but here�s my point. If you only believe that Jesus dies for sins, then you�re back to neutral. But you need to have Him live for righteousness to fulfill the law to get you to go where God originally wanted Adam to go.

So in spite of the knocking at the door, I didn�t put my sign up doing the radio, but in fact, that�s what I�m doing. Jesus is a great prophet, Jesus is a great king, and the book of Hebrews focuses on His priestly work as making intercession and making sacrifice.

And the writer wants you to trust in this Jesus, to believe in this Jesus, to understand that He is a better sacrifice, and it�s a better country that He�s going to take you to. It�s a better hope, better promises, better substance, better resurrection.

Those are all the words for better and more found in the book of Hebrews. In chapter 9, we�re coming up to chapter 9, and essentially, he�s talking about the death of Christ in detail. Now, if you think like a Jew, you can understand Hebrews better.

Think like an Old Testament Jew, you can understand Hebrews even better, better, more better, better, better, best. It�s interesting, with the book of Hebrews, it�s not good, better, best, it�s just good and better, because you only have two things to compare.

The Old Testament, the Old Covenant, the old rituals and ceremonies in the Mosaic law. Those were good. Right? The author, the law giver, he�s good, he�s going to give good laws, but they were temporary, they�re pointing to something.

They were not the best, because the best has come, and He, Jesus, makes obsolete the Old Testament. I should call it the Old Covenant, that�s a better way to say it. And then He inaugurates the New Covenant.

The Better Promises and Eternal Inheritance of Hebrews 9

And the New Covenant will have things, like chapter 8, where you look and you see things like this. �I will be their God, and they shall be My people. I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

This is language that reminds me of Psalm 103, �As high as the heavens are above the earth. Right? So if you�re struggling with sin, and you�re thinking, �You know what, I just sinned my way out of the kingdom, and I�ve been trusting the Lord Jesus for 20 years, and I just did this really stupid thing, what do I do now

Well, my suggestion is you go outside at night and tell me how high the heaven is above the earth. And that�s a good picture of just how great God�s love is for His people. Was it not last night, Friday the 13th, and a full moon?

How did that all work out? Are we alive? Is this an alternate universe? I�m not sure. Chapter 9, verse 11, and chapter 9, verse 28, give the bookends. If you have your Bible, sometimes you can look at it, and you can see they�re talking about the first appearance of Jesus and the last appearance.

The first time He comes to die, the second time He�s coming to bring salvation to His believers. Of course, we know He�s coming to bring judgment to the unbelievers, but He�s writing to believers here and those who are adherents, and He says the first time He comes to die, the second time He comes to bring salvation.

And He wants them to begin to think in a way that I think is apropos for us today. We live in our best life now type of world, and even though we might slam Joe Osteen and talk about how awful that is, we too, you too, I too, me too, us three, the four people who are watching now, and myself, so that�s the five of us.

I think Vicki dropped out. We left to ourselves believe in the theology of glory, and we want glory now, and we want our best life now, and we want health now. Think about Jesus getting tempted by Satan, and you can have all these kingdoms now.

You don�t need to go to the cross. That�s called the theology of glory. Peter saying to Jesus, �No, you�re not going to go die. And Jesus says to Peter, �What? Get thee behind me, Satan. I must have some King James still in my mind.

He, the Lord Jesus, understands that the theology of glory will come after suffering. So the theology of the cross is suffering, then glory, not glory alone bypassing the suffering. Vicki�s still here.

Good. For all of us, I think we�re tempted to think that this world contains everything that we need and have, and I do want to say that it�s wonderful, and there�s great things that we can enjoy, and the Lord is very good to us.

Romans 8, 32, we get the best thing. Doesn�t He give us the lesser thing? That�s true. But if you take a look at your Bible here, in Hebrews, there�s something more important than the here and now. Verse 15, Hebrews 9, �Therefore He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.

Now, think like a Jew. Sometimes this kind of goes to gray. How does that work? Why is that doing that? Think like a Jew. Inheritance. If I were to say to you inheritance, and you were thinking back in Bible terms, you�d be thinking what?

Land. That�s what you�d be thinking. You�d be thinking land. Here we have Genesis 17, the promise to Abraham, �I will give to you and your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan.

And while the land promises for Israel were wonderful, He�s getting them to think that there�s something better than that. There�s an eternal inheritance. There�s a future country, a better country.

Something�s better than what you have now. Now, frankly, when I think about myself and my life, I have had, and maybe you have had as well, a great life. I mean, there has been struggles and pain and loss and sorrow and cancer and all these other things.

But generally, I�m thinking to myself, �This has been a great life. And I just think about some of the things that you�ve enjoyed in this life. And even if you�ve had a horrible life and lots of bad things have been done to you, I think you can still think of some things.

You just sit back and think about, to me, I think about my mom, I think about my siblings, I think about vacations with the family, I think about food, I think about moving on from my growing up years, I think about my wife and my four children, ministry opportunities, seeing people get saved, seeing people learn and grow.

I mean, I could just keep going on and on and on. I�ve really had a great life. I don�t want to exchange it for anyone�s, except what�s that rich guy�s name? We grew up pretty poor, but when my dad was sitting around doing something really good, one time he got to go in a litter jet or something like that with my mom, somebody did him a favor.

And then he�d always say, �Wonder what the poor people are doing today. Because he was always poor, then he got to do something good. Anthony Miller said, �Food, that�s exactly right. I mean, when I have a tenderloin, when I have a fillet and I�m barbecuing that on the grill or whatever, and of course I want it extra raw, I mean, barely cooked, two minutes a side, and I�m eating it, doesn�t eat anything.

I probably just put some salt on it. I actually think even the richest people in the world, this is the best that they could eat, right? There�s nothing greater than this. I can eat, I mean, I can�t do it all the time, but this is the greatest ever.

And you just think about, you know, �Praise God from whom all blessings flow. And you kind of think of the old, you know, tent revival songs, and �Count your blessings, name them one by one, count your blessings, see what God has done.

Let�s say, �Count your blessings, name them one by one. And you know, that kind of thing. We are blessed people. And I think, maybe you don�t struggle with this, maybe you�re really like, you know, �This is just so bad, and I�m hurting, and I have affliction, and I�m suffering with pain.

I would understand that. But for a lot of people listening today, I think you probably struggle with what I struggle with, and that is, this is a great life. I mean, I don�t want to die for lots of reasons, I know I�m going to, but there�s so much more to enjoy here, and then you think about the future, and you think about grandkids, and you think about other pleasures, and maybe you want to go see trips, and people have bucket lists, and all these kind of things.

And you�re tempted if you�re not thinking rightly, if you�re not walking by faith. And the life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. If you�re not thinking rightly, you�re thinking the theology of glory.

We are deep down little Joe Osteens, come to think of it, most of us. You aren�t going to be longing for the better country, because this is so great in our minds. Now once we get there, and you know I�m not a huge Jonathan Edwards fan, but Edwards would say things like this, which I think is fascinating.

�When you get to heaven, dear Christian, heaven will be so great, the best things that happen to you on earth will seem like hell, veritable hell. Sadly, for the unbeliever, what was worst on earth, when they�re in hell, they�re thinking the worst thing on earth would be, by comparison, a veritable heaven.

For us as Christians, it�s going to be great. And he, the writer of Hebrews, wants you to think, dear Jewish reader, and now for us by implication, there�s something better. There�s something better. So when you�re tempted to run back, you�re getting persecuted, life is difficult, you don�t want to deal with things, it�s hard, life is difficult, Christianity makes your life difficult, well there�s something better coming.

A better promised inheritance. Do you see that? Isn�t that, that�s amazing to me. And it�s guaranteed, here the context is, it�s guaranteed by the death of Christ Jesus. How do you get this contract? How do you have this covenant?

The covenant, think Genesis 15, is by the death of the Lord Jesus. Our inheritance isn�t land. I hope you�re not thinking, I can�t wait for that land inheritance. Our inheritance should be hell, that�s what we�ve earned, but because of the Lord Jesus, our inheritance gets to be heaven forever.

And every pleasure that you�ve had on earth is just a shadow or a glimmer or a foretaste or a dull view of what�s really going to happen when you�re in the presence of Jesus and the angels and the saints swirling around with antiphonal singing, �Holy, holy, holy, and worthy is the Lamb that was slain.

I can�t really grasp that, because in my mind I�m thinking degrees. If ice cream tastes good, then what must gelato taste like? But when it comes to earth and heaven, I don�t think it�s a matter of degrees, it�s a matter of essence and nature, and therefore we don�t have to walk by sight anymore.

You can just see Jesus. Think about the top of the Mount of Transfiguration, and Jesus, the Shekinah glory is streaming out of Him. Are He is that, and the veil of the flesh is taken away, and Peter, Paul, and Mary see Him.

That�s actually what went through my mind, Peter, James, and John, but what went through my mind was Peter, Paul, and Mary. That is so stupid. I do so many episodes, write radio episodes, and then I�m reading something, and I always think this is another episode of I Am Dumb, when I can�t figure out things, so I have to have a drink of this Beats coffee.

It�s crazy. I get these emails, and they�ll say, �You�re not supposed to drink any liquids when you do a radio show. Okay, I never got the memo. I never understood it. Chapter 9, verse 12, �Eternal Redemption.

Chapter 9, verse 14, �Eternal Holy Spirit. Chapter 9, verse 15, �Eternal Inheritance. We�re talking about eternal things. What do you have in your life that�s eternal? I just bought some shingles for the roof, and had the house reshingled about 30-year shingles.

Vicki said, �I like Puff the Magic Dragon. Yeah, because that comes from the drug culture, right? I don�t know if that was� Now, they just go down to the store and buy the CBD stuff. I should probably do a show on CBD and how that all works and THC and should Christians have it.

I�m not talking about if there�s no other options for your chemo. Slurp the coffee like Rome. Okay, Mike just emailed, whatever you call this, IM�d, and there�s law and gospel. He just gave me law. There you go, Mike.

That�s for you. I like to obey, to keep my status before my listeners like Mike, Vicki, and Anthony. A lot of things we have that�s just temporal. They just fade away, the 30-year shingles. I bought a few other things for the house, like an oil burner and a furnace type of thing, and that will probably last 15 years.

I�m thinking I�m 59. That�s probably going to last until I�m dead, right? I�m buying now things. I just bought a bicycle. I buy a bicycle about every 10 years. I probably won�t be riding past 70. You never know.

I mean, it could be today or it could be 20 years, but I�m thinking this could be the last bicycle I buy. Vicki said, �Heaven is not greater in degrees like dark chocolate over milk chocolate. Vicki, good on you because when I go to some place and they�ve got the Hershey�s milk chocolate, I just would rather not waste my calories on that.

When Kim and I would take the kids to the beach, they had a really cool place we called the Cove in Santa Cruz, and you could have a fire there until 10 at night, and we�d bring the kids. We had the adult s'mores and then we had the kid s'mores.

The kid s'mores, graham crackers, cheap ones, Hershey�s, and then I guess you can�t really buy gourmet marshmallows now, can you? For us, the adult s'mores, we had some type of European dark chocolate with probably a little bit of chili, something spicy in there, some kind of hot taste.

Then we had the Trader Joe�s super heavy one pound each cinnamon graham cracker kind of thing. Those are called the adult s'mores. The kids want to know how old they have to be before they want the adult ones.

Christ’s Death as the Basis of the New Covenant

Because of the death of Jesus, we have this eternal inheritance. The writer wants every reader, whether you�re Jewish or not, to make sure you don�t go running back. Now, can you imagine when he�s talking about this, what must a Jew be thinking?

A Jew must be having their minds blown. Why? Because the way he phrases this is with the transgressions under the first covenant. Here�s what he�s saying. Hagee�s dark chocolate? I don�t know. I didn�t know about Hagee�s.

Well, I�m not going to come back to Ohio until May, I think, so you have to send me some or something. Come on. For the Jew, he�s saying to the Jew, without the death of Christ�now, listen, this is worth tuning in today�without the death of Christ, none of those sacrifices in the Old Testament meant anything.

They�d be void, null, empty, zero, they don�t count for anything. Every time you slaughtered an animal, back in those days, a goat, a lamb, a pigeon, it didn�t mean anything if Jesus wasn�t slain as the ultimate sacrifice.

One writer said, now, you have to realize how absolutely shocking that would be to say to these folks from a Jewish background. He is saying something to you, all that sacrificial slaughter meant absolutely nothing apart from Christ.

That�s amazing, meaningless without Jesus, but with Jesus, it�s efficient, it�s effectual. Even Abraham, even David, no matter what the sins were, even Sarai, sins forgiven based on the future Messiah to come, and they too receive the eternal inheritance.

I know for most of you, you�re not talking about Jesus� death only on Good Friday, and I�m glad for that, because everything here in the book of Hebrews is linked, in this particular case, because of the sacrificial system, is linked to the death of Christ.

Since a death has occurred, boy, what an understatement that is, since a death has occurred. It�s kind of like the Genesis 1 passage with the stars, you ever go out and look at the moon and the stars and the sun, and God makes all these things, and then, and the stars also.

I know it�s not a throwaway line, but it�s almost a seemingly like one. Oh yeah, I made the stars too, yeah, how? Evolution shows you how bad our hearts are, right? We�ll believe anything, as long as it allows us to justify our behaviors.

Crazy. Since a death has occurred, that redeems them, right, buys them out of slavery from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. It has to be Jesus, as we apply his death back to those types and figures of people who would do that.

And by the way, this inheritance, it is, as I said earlier, eternal. It is not going to go away. By the way, when I say something like this, this helps me think through Hebrews 9. This is the blood of the covenant which is poured out for many, right?

So Jesus, before he institutes the cup, the Lord�s Supper, this is the blood of my covenant which is poured out for many. So today on El Compromise Radio, I�m talking a little bit about the book of Hebrews, and I�m talking about the death of Jesus.

And it was, friends, not enough for Jesus to just come and live as an example. It was not enough for Jesus to come and just be a great teacher. He had to come to die, right? He had to come to live, he had to come to die, he had to be resurrected to prove that his life was blameless and that his death was atoning.

But Jesus couldn�t just be a good teacher. He couldn�t just be an example. And of course, you know, we get those little braces, what would Jesus do? Remember those WWJD things that we�d wear for years?

I don�t think I ever wore one. What I wear now is, it�s not a WWJD, it�s got my inflammation on it for if I get in a bike crash. You know, the biker�s worst dream, worst nightmare is, you know, you get hit by a car and then, this is a nightmare by the way, you get hit by a car and then they leave your bike on the side of the road.

I mean, if it�s life or death, fine. But if I�m awake enough and my bike�s still okay, I might say, �Could you put my bike in the ambulance Dear Christian, can you imagine? Nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

And by the way, I regularly say �Dear Christian� because if there are unbelievers there, I don�t want you to be thinking this way, but for the Christian, the Bible grants assurance and pardon and understanding that Jesus dies for the sins of sinners and he also died for the sins of Christians.

He also died for the sins of pastors and the sins of those who might even watch No Compromise Radio. I�m going to do one more Facebook Live in just a few moments.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God�s Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6. We�re right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.