Is There Any Hope For Mankind?

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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

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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.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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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

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

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My name is Mike Abendroth. My voice sounds funny to me today. I don't know why

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I have these headphones on when Pastor Steve is in the office here in the study, in the studio.

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They're all the same. He likes the headphone volume lower than I do.

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And maybe that's just because I like to hear myself talk. Maybe that's why I have a radio show. If this is the first time you've ever tuned in, brace yourself.

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Seriously, I like to talk about the Bible. I like to talk about the Lord Jesus. And I, for I guess nine years, have been doing this daily radio show.

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I guess that says something about me and just wanting to talk, but there's so much information out there that's bad that needs correcting.

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But there's so much information that's good that needs highlighting and amplifying and whatever other synonym

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I could think of. I regularly address special circumstances in evangelicalism, evangelificism, and I regularly teach from the book of Hebrews.

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And so sometimes they're jammed together. I said to someone the other day, I think one of the reasons why

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I have the radio show is that if I didn't have the show, then I would jam my critiques of certain evangelicals into every sermon, and then the sermon would be more polemical against stuff than needs to be.

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Of course, when Paul was speaking about something in Galatians, this is what the truth is, and therefore, this is what the truth is not, right, in 1

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John. This is the real Christ, and this is the antichrist. And we have to get used to thinking like that.

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And most evangelicals don't because it's mean, and it's rude, and it's intolerant, and it's not what?

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Loving. They're so unloving. Well, I think you could speak the truth in an unloving way.

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And I also think you could speak the truth in a cowardly way, and I think you could lovingly not speak the truth, right?

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I'm just, it's faux love. It's hashtag love. It's air quotes love, and therefore,

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I can't speak the truth. And maybe it's all summarized when you're around someone and they're dying, and you say to them, and I've said it to them, and you probably have too, are you afraid of dying?

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That's the question. And that's going to lead me to talk about the one who's conquered death.

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And if I don't talk about that one to both believers and unbelievers, then

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I think that's the most unloving thing. When you're at my deathbed, No Compromise Radio listeners, all 16 of you,

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I think we have 14 Patreon helpers, so if you're one of those 14, thank you for that.

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But if you're one of the 15 No Compromise Radio listeners, and you're at the bedside of my bedside when

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I'm dying, then I want you to talk about, not me, I don't want you to talk about,

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I don't know, the grandkids' football games I'm going to miss. I don't know. I'd rather have you talk about, here's who the

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Lord is, and Mike, you're going to go meet him soon. That one that you preached for over 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, 20 years, whatever the year amount is, you get to go see him.

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And here's what he's like. It's like John Knox, too old to talk, and they read him, I believe,

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John 17. And they said, if you believe that message that you preached for all those years, raise your hand.

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He raised his hand three times. Anyway, that's what we do here at No Compromise Radio Ministry.

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And you can listen at 1 .5 speed. I would, if I were you, 24 and a half minutes if you cut out the beginning and the end music.

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And off we go. My thoughts have turned to the failure of humanity and how no one can get it right.

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Of course, it's going to lead us up to talk about the Lord Jesus, but what's the hope for mankind? And if you look around, is it going to be in politics?

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Is it going to be in education? Is it going to be in space travel?

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I mean, what's the hope of humanity? Everyone knows there's a problem, but what's the hope? And is the hope found within us, within our system, within ourselves, or do we have to look for help outside of us?

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Adam, of course, in the garden, perfect circumstances, and he fails.

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He sins and transgresses. As a matter of fact, I think if you look at the passage, I don't think it says he sinned, but everybody knows he does.

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And so, therefore, if you're going to say there's no covenant of works back in the garden because it doesn't say covenant, then is there sin because it didn't say sin?

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Just a little side note for my friends there. Eve, of course, fails. You think about the people that are drowned.

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They all fail. And you say, well, yeah, Noah and the seven family members, they didn't fail. They make it in the boat.

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Well, what happened when they got out of the boat? Failure everywhere. The people of the

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Tower of Babel, it's one colossal failure. You start moving through the

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Old Testament, and you see Lot's failure, and you see even

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Abraham's failure. You see David's failure. And as a whole, you see Israel's failure.

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I mean, where is the hope for mankind? If you're going to try to take the garden and make sure there's going to be no sin or injustice or oppression, it's going to be a wonderful, perfect garden.

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Person after person, nation after nation, including the nation, Israel failed. If you want to summarize it in the book of Judges, you could.

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Everyone did what? What was right in their own eyes. Adam, Israel, at least when it comes to those two main,

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I wasn't going to say characters, but we have a person and a nation, the main person and the main character,

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I mean, nation rather, in the Old Testament from the side of humanity, side of creation, created things and beings.

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A colossal catastrophe, Adam, a colossal catastrophe, Israel. And if there's going to be any salvation, if there's going to be any hope, if there's going to be any remedy, it's going to have to be found in someone who speaks another word, another promise, another command, a good word from God himself, the triune

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God. While man is a covenant breaker, while man is a law breaker,

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God is a covenant keeper. God is a promise keeper. Therefore, in the book of Hebrews, that's what you'll notice in chapter eight.

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You are going to see as the writer continues to display the absolute supremacy of Jesus Christ, perfectly man, perfectly

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God, the great high priest, that there's another word besides failure.

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There's another word besides judgment. There's another word besides doom. There's another word besides a

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Cliff protein bar in my pocket here that's making noise. I don't know, what's your favorite protein bar?

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There's a lot of them out there. I like the ones that taste good, fill you up, have a lot of protein and no calories.

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Hey, life has trade -offs, right? It's like with bicycling. I just bought a new bike the other day.

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Bicycling, what do you do? You think, well, a weight, price, and strength. You can really only have two to your advantage.

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If you're going to have something that doesn't weigh a whole lot and is strong, it's going to cost you, right? If you want something that's cheap and light, it's not going to be very strong.

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See how that works? There's a trade -off in life and therefore, when it comes to protein bars,

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I guess we have the same trade -off. I've always traveled with a lot of protein bars because with my backpack,

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I think to myself, well, if I lose my luggage, I can live in that backpack for a couple of days.

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I had to do that once in Detroit when I was stranded in the snow. This was a long time ago and all that I had was my backpack and some food in there.

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So, if you have deodorant and you have, I don't know, some vitamin

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C and some protein bars and some stuff like that, you can pretty much live. A pair of socks in there and I think you're set.

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Anyway, I'm trying to get to Los Angeles for the Shepherds Conference. I'm going to see my son and my daughter, my friends.

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I think I'm going to make my way down to Escondido to see a few crazy theologians down there.

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Anyway, it's snowing. I'm trying to get out of town. I don't know if I can make it, but I have protein bars everywhere just in case.

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Oh, I have noticed that if you take protein bars to certain countries, they melt.

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It depends on where you go, right? If you're going to go someplace cold, it doesn't matter. If you're going to go someplace hot, you have to be careful.

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The writer, why do I do all this? Because I want to just try to keep your attention. This is ADD radio.

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Jesus portrayed in the book of Hebrews as superior to everything and everyone.

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That's the point. It needs to be said over and over and over again. That's the person that you need to continue to look to and toward because we look at ourselves too much.

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We're inward looking people. We want to trust our own hearts and we are told that we are to walk by faith and therefore this writer wants to make sure he instructs the readers that though they're in difficult times, they need to think about who the

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Lord Jesus is and just consider his ways, consider his works, consider his person, consider his attributes.

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Keep thinking about who God is. That's what's going to get you through. Anything less, it's going to spiral down into all kinds of trouble.

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If you think angels are great, the writer is going to say angels are greater. Even though the second person of the

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Trinity, the eternal son, adds humanity, he's still better than angels.

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He can identify with humans, angels can't. He destroys the devil, angels can't.

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He can deliver saints, ultimately angels can't.

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He can be a high priest and stand as a mediator, angels can't.

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He's better than Moses, he's better than the servant Moses, he's better than the building

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Moses because Jesus is the son, he's the builder. And whether there's defection in the ranks with Israel, this son is going to make sure there's going to be no defections.

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And so in light of that, don't defect, right, it'd be fine to say that. Even though this great high priest isn't from the

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Aaronic lineage, he's not a Levitical priest. There's another priest that David talks about called

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Melchizedek, Psalm 110. And Jesus is a priest after the order of Melchizedek.

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And therefore, whether it comes to prophets and angels and Moses and Joshua and Aaron or anything else and everyone else, the word of Hebrews that highlights itself by repetition is better, better than angels, better hope, better covenant, better promises, better sacrifices, better substance, better country, better resurrection, better thing.

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Jesus is better. Also highlighted in this book is the word great, great salvation, great high priest, great tabernacle, great fight of afflictions, great recompense, great cloud of witnesses, great shepherd of the sheep.

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And if you took those two words, better and great, and thought about the Lord Jesus in light of your circumstances, or your circumstances in light of better and great, things are going to be properly seen.

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That is the key, the vantage point, the outlook, the perception.

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How do you see reality? Right now, I see snow. I see my flight could be canceled.

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I see I'd like to get to California where it's going to rain, I guess, during the whole Shepherds Conference. I see things like that, and I'm on the chat line with the

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JetBlue representative and trying to get the fees waived, and she won't waive it because it's not within the right time frame and all that stuff.

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That's what I see. And that is, by the way, a very, very minor trial.

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Very minor. I mean, we're talking about, you know, you can't even really say the word trial, you just have to say trial.

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What I need is, I need to be reminded, sovereignty of God. I need to be reminded of, don't worry.

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I need to be reminded of, there are bigger issues at play here than how I get to Los Angeles, who

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I might sit by. God is ordaining and orchestrating all these things so I sit by the right person.

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And yesterday, I went to the dentist because I was chewing some kind of jawbreaker kind of thing.

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It wasn't a jawbreaker, but essentially broke my jaw, broke a tooth, chipped it off and had to go in and blah, blah, blah, you're going to need a crown, et cetera.

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I told my kids, they're like, Dad, what does this have to do with anything?

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And oh, and I said, I don't know why they said it. I was trying to work at the same time and they, you know, while they were checking me in and they had my computer and everything, they said, what do you do for a living?

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I said, I'm a Bible teacher. Really? You're a Bible teacher? Huh. Now, if we go.

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So, I needed to see things from God's perspective. Everything's fine a week from now, two weeks from now, a month from now, none of this is all going to matter.

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I'm just trying to plan it out. I know how travel goes, but I need to be reminded about the God who ordains whatsoever comes to pass.

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And this writer, the writer of the book of Hebrews, whether it's Paul or anybody else with the right credentials, whoever this is, he wants them not to be tempted to go back.

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And whether that back is for you, back to Catholicism, back to paganism, back to hedonism, back to whatever, it's not going to be worth it.

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Everything in this epistle is driving toward this great high priest who's such a great high priest.

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It's a privilege to have this priest. It's an honor to have this priest. And this priest has been picked up by God, the

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Father, for you. Hebrews 2 .17, therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation, or sins assuaged,

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God's wrath assuaged, rather, for the sins of the people. And that's the goal, is driving toward an amplification of Hebrews 2 .17.

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And, of course, this is a thumb in the eye to the Jewish people. They loved the Levitical system.

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They loved the priesthood. They loved everything that went along with it. But this writer says there's something better, and it's the

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New Covenant. And so that's chapter 8 in Hebrews, is all about the

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New Covenant. And it says in chapter 8, verse 1, now the point of what we are saying is this. We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven.

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Verse 6, it goes on to say, but as it is, the attention is brought back to Christ now, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises.

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Jesus is the true and final mediator. Better promises, better mediator.

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You think Jesus is better than Moses? He's already said that in chapter 5. What happens in this very short chapter?

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I believe chapter 8 is the shortest chapter in the book of Hebrews. The first half, he's explaining a few things in 1 -6, and then the rest is a quote, almost all the rest, at least verses, the majority of 8, and then all of 9, all of 10, all of 11, and all of 12, is a reiteration of Jeremiah 31,

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God's covenant with his people, that we call that, the new covenant. He is saying in chapter 8, 1 -6, that there's a better ministry that Jesus has.

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Better than who? Better than he? Better than him? Better than whom?

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Better than he? Better than who? Wahoo -dory. Their ministry, the

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Levitical priest, is partial, ceremonial, could be interrupted by death.

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Jesus has a better ministry. As a matter of fact, it's a better covenant. Why is it a better covenant?

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Because there's no condition on man's obedience like we see at Sinai.

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There's no opportunity for disobedience to cause then another new covenant.

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This is going to be a new and final covenant because it's conditioned on the promises of God and the work of the mediator, not the people, not the sinful people, not the frail people.

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And when I think back to what my intro was today about failure of people, I've got to add myself.

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I think I forgot to add myself. I think I forgot to add you, the listener. If there's any hope, it's going to have to be outside of ourselves.

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And this new covenant is established on even better promises. If you think of Exodus 19, this old covenant, and when you think old covenant,

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I don't want you to think Abrahamic covenant, I want you to think Mosaic covenant. If you obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then you or ye shall be a particular treasure unto me above all people.

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Verse 8, and all that the Lord has spoken, we will do. Can you imagine?

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Blessings conditioned upon obedience. This is a better covenant because we know what happens when covenants are conditioned on human obedience.

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How's that working out for you? And here we have this new covenant secured by the sacrifice of Jesus.

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What God desires for sacrifice to do is He desires that it cleanses, and that's exactly what

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Jesus's perfect sacrifice does. Jesus's priestly ministry is better than any

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Levitical priest, and in every way, shape, and form. It's better, and He mediates this great covenant, and He's the one that we can go to when we are in trouble, when we have despondency, when we have despair.

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He's the one that will not change when it comes to our great

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Savior. He doesn't vacillate while we do. Our circumstances change. He's the one who's the rock, who's the fortress, who's the anchor, as Hebrews calls

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Him, or describes His ministry as doing that thing. He is the arbiter.

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He's the arbitrator. We were separated by our sin, and Jesus is the one who has reconciled us to God.

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And when you think about this old covenant, obey, and here's what you get.

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Do this and live. That's the old covenant. And now the new covenant, which is much more gospel -sounding.

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Even though you're sinners, believe and you'll be saved, because you have a great high priest. And we look to the character of the arbitrator and the advocate, and that is a much better focus than looking at ourselves.

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And so everything in this section goes back to the person and work of Jesus that was hinted at even in verse 22 of chapter 7.

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This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. And this covenant mediator we have guarantees that this is going to be fulfilled.

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He secures the debt. The contract will be fulfilled. The true and final mediator between God and man with the new covenant.

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It's more excellent. It's a better covenant. Better promises. Everything about it is better.

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And if you're a believer, you ought to be thanking God for such a mediator, because He's ministering not here on earth.

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He couldn't on earth, because He's not even a Levitical priest. He's ministering in heaven. And if you're an unbeliever,

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I want you to know there's no mediator for you, and you will stand before God without a mediator, and it's not going to be good for you.

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Therefore you need to believe in the mediator. Now this section here in Hebrews 8 verses 7 and following is mainly contained what we call the new covenant.

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If you have a Bible, most likely the Bible, especially if it's a study Bible, you're going to see the indentations.

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You're going to see extra white space in your margins, because it's telling you it's a quote.

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It could be telling you it's a quote. It could be telling you it's poetry, but you'll see that something's different. You'll see that it says in verse 8, for he finds fault with them when he says, and then there's this long quote.

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The rest of verse 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 are a quote from Jeremiah 31, where we have the new covenant.

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It is God who is going to remedy the problem of the people. It is the people's sin that would keep them, and the people's disobedience that would keep them from ever fulfilling a contract or a covenant or a law, hey, as long as I do this, you'll bless me, because it's never going to be done.

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And even if we kind of trick ourselves with a self -righteous doing or cutting some of the corners of doing, we know that God requires perfect, perpetual, personal, entire obedience.

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And therefore, we're not going to make it law -light. It's going to be the full force of the law, because the law reflects who the

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Lord is. And this problem is remedied by God and the new covenant. The writer of Hebrews, like he regularly does, quotes from the

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Greek version of the Old Testament called the Septuagint, the 70, LXX, Roman numerals for 70.

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That's why if you see that, it's the Old Testament version. And there's a few little differences here and there from the quote, but the writer will do that.

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What I would like to draw attention to is not that, but lots of times if there's a quote in Hebrews, there's some exposition.

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There's an explanation. There's some further thought, Psalm 2 quoted,

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Psalm 110 quoted. And you think, oh, Psalm 8 quoted, and then there's a few thoughts about it.

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Here, it's just quoted, right? There's no explanation. There's nothing but the quote, and he quotes some of this again later in chapter 10, does he not, in verses 16 and 17, where he talks about, let's see, let's see, 16, 10, 16, yeah.

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This is the covenant that I will make with them. After those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws on their hearts and write them in their minds.

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And then he adds, I will remember their sins and the lawless deeds no more. For where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

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Therefore, it's fascinating that he just puts this out there. Now, there's different views of this for new covenant, and we're going to talk about that next time.

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And the views are essentially wild dispensationalism, more modern dispensationalism, and more one people of God kind of amillennial.

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So we'll talk about that next time on No Compromise Radio. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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.

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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.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.