A More Excellent Ministry

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We continue this morning and our studies from the epistle to the Hebrews chapter 8
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Hebrews Chapter 8 we have been working through this epistle for quite some time now and It's not as long as the synoptic
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Gospels, so we will get to the end eventually But we are pressing forward into a very important chapter
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Hebrews chapter 8 where we will be studying today Before we begin let us ask the
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Lord's blessing upon our time indeed our gracious heavenly father We do ask for your spirits presence amongst us to minister to us the very word of life
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We know that apart from his ministration amongst us we can accomplish nothing
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We would ask that you would bless your people to the ministry of your word. We pray in Christ's name
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It is a common element of teaching to have
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Reviews some of you are teachers and Hopefully not any of us are so far out of the experience of learning that we do not remember that the good teachers would provide us with an opportunity to review especially before a big test and it was always
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My practice to listen very carefully at that time many of my compatriots never quite got the idea that Probably the teacher was going to reemphasize the very same things that might end up on the test
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Now I don't recall any particular teacher that had a dead giveaway
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But there were some teachers you could just simply tell by how they handled a review where you need to be focusing your attention for the test and I never could understand my fellow students who
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Found that time period to be a time to goof off or play around or draw pictures or anything else
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They always wondered why I did so well on the tests and they didn't it really wasn't rocket science even in the science class and So when you come to a section where a writer of scripture says now, let me explain
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What the main point of what I've been saying is? You might want to listen up.
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You might want to recognize that probably there's a there's a shift coming there's a
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Situation coming where you you sort of need to understand the argument of this point because there's gonna be some application
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There's could be some new presentation whatever else it might be and that's what we have here at the beginning of chapter 8 chapter 8 starts out
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With our authors saying let me give you the main point the main thrust of what
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I've been saying so that as I make a new application you will be able to Understand that you will be able to follow along with the argument that I'm making.
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So let's read together Hebrews chapter 8 now the main point it was been said is this
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We have such a high priest who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the
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Majesty in the heavens a Minister in the sanctuary in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched not man
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For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices So it is necessary that this high priest also has something to offer
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Now if he were on earth He would not be a priest at all since there are those who offer the gifts according to law
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Who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things just as Moses was warned by God?
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When he was about to erect the tabernacle for see he says that you make all things
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According to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry
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By as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant which has been enacted on better promises
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For if that first covenant had been faultless there would have been no occasion sought for a second for finding fault with them
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He says behold days are coming says the Lord When I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel with the house of Judah Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when
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I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt for they did not continue my covenant and I did not care for them says the
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Lord For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the
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Lord I will put my laws and their minds and I will write them on their hearts I will be their
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God and they shall be my people and They shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen and everyone his brother saying know the
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Lord For all will know me from the least to the greatest of them For I will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more
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When he said a new covenant he has made the first Obsolete, but whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear
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Amen, and so here we have What should be to all of us a text of scripture that we are familiar with especially as?
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Reformed Baptists, but I don't want to rush to that issue, you know that the citation of Jeremiah chapter 31 and the discussion of the
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New Covenant is Exceptionally important to us as Reformed Baptists in light of our beliefs and in light of our regular proper necessary interaction with our
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Presbyterian friends Some of you may remember many many years ago.
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We've kept these sermons posted on the website We did a brief survey of a couple chapters in the book of Hebrews.
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We did a whole chapter at a time and Then we made application especially having gone through chapter 8 in two sermons the subject of Pedo baptism and so when we get to that section of chapter 8 it is important to recognize
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That we need to handle it especially fairly What I mean by that is obviously we
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Recognize when we're talking with someone who has shall we say a pet text of scripture
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You may have talked with someone maybe someone in your family someone You know at work or school or wherever it might be and and they have
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Well, it's their pet subject It's their pet topic. I I know some people
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I know some people even call themselves Reformed and I cannot help but say that well that guy's a one -string banjo
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Now what's a one -string banjo? I? Had a banjo once I'm not sure why my parents got it for me, but it was sort of fun to Pluck around on a little bit.
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I had taken some some guitar so I I Learned how to play dueling banjos on it
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And that was about as far as that ever went I don't even know what happened to it come to think of it It was a nice one But it had more than one string on it.
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You can't do much with a one string banjo There's not too many notes you can play on just one string on a banjo
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But there are some people that are well described as one string banjos. They've got one subject
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They don't have any balance in their theology and have a balance in their study of the Word of God there's just there's just one topic that they just that's all they ever talk about and After you've talked with them about that subject two or three times
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You start avoiding them Because you don't want to talk about that subject anymore. You've gone as far as you're gonna go especially if you disagree with them
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What more is there to say they don't seem to want to talk about? Any of the rest of the
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Word of God there are one string banjo Well, we don't want to be a one string banjo and I'm very thankful that in this church
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We are not a lot of people think that well you all are a bunch of Calvinists every single sermon
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You only got five sermons, you know You start off with total depravity and you finish with perseverance of the
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Saints you start all over again That's all you do in a Calvinist Church, right? Well, obviously that's not the case we believe in handling the entirety of the
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Word of God But we need to recognize that if we recognize imbalance in others we need to be especially careful when we are approaching a text that has special importance to our particular understanding of certain identifying traits of the
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Christian faith and So we will seek to be extremely fair with the context and with the words of Hebrews chapter 8 because we recognize the necessity to do so But before we get to the
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New Covenant remember that the term covenant had first popped up just before this in Hebrews chapter 7
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Specifically in verse 22 when we read so much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant
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Jesus is the guarantee of a better covenant. And so here we have this introduction of the term
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Covenant and this is going to become extremely important here in chapter 8
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And so the writer says now the main point and what has been said is this If you've been confused up till now the writers going to say well what
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I'm saying is this We the Christian people we the
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Christian congregation Have such a high priest high priest after the order of Melchizedek psalm 110 who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle which the
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Lord pitched not man So he wants to emphasize here is the main point
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Remember People under pressure to go back to the old ways In fact, if you were listening carefully, we're going to see an evidence in just a verse or two
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That this book once again just logically had to have been written pre 70 because it makes reference to the continuing offering of The Sacrifices in the
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Jewish sacrificial system But that's what people were being drawn back to come back to the old way commit that act of apostasy
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The act of apostasy that was considered to be the greatest act of apostasy denial of Jesus Christ by the offering of the old sacrifices now that That bothers a lot of people today
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That bothers many many many people today and in what might be called the mainline denominations
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I don't know why they call those groups the mainline denominations because they're the mainly dying denominations today
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They are losing people by the droves because they don't actually believe anything anymore But if you listen to the leaders of those dying denominations, they just cannot conceive of How anyone would believe that Jesus is the way the truth in life the only way the
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Bible's sufficient and this idea that Once you have knowledge of who
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Jesus is then those old covenant sacrifices that To to engage in them is to reject who
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Jesus Christ is Oh, no. No, we just all need to get along and don't say that that there has to be this strong split
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That don't say that kind of thing we that's not loving well, I suggest to you that Someone who would say oh you can you can go along and you can worship any way you want to if you want to offer
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Sacrifices and believe in Jesus and and do this self -help methodology and this kind of spiritualism
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Oh, they it doesn't matter. I suggest to you that shows no love whatsoever
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For God and for his truth and for his revelation for his gospel
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It's a very man -centered way of thinking And so here you have these people they're being drawn back.
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And so what is the main point? Well, you see that high priest on the Day of Atonement and he is so Regally decked out in his in his priestly garments
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But you see we have a high priest and he's not like that high priest
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He's he's no longer under the dominion of death. He conquered death. He's risen from the dead
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And in fact, unlike your high priest who goes in only once per year
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And then he has to come back out then he has to go in the next year and he has to come back out We have a high priest and he has taken his seat
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That means his works finish he's not continually moving about in the in in the holy place making the the sprinkling the blood and and then leaves he has taken his seat and Notice where it is at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens
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Right hand the position of authority the position of exaltation. Remember the the disciples asked
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Jesus Who gets to sit at your right hand Could could we could we sit at your right hand?
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We don't want to be at your left hand We don't want to be lower position. We want to be at the position of authority
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We have such a high priest and he's taken his seat the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens the position of divine authority he's a minister in the sanctuary a
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Minister in the sanctuary he is one who does not have to go in and out in and out
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He's a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched not man
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Now here we need to understand something again Drawing upon our knowledge of the
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Old Testament We know the temple was not the first place of worship that was built
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When God brought the people out of Egypt he revealed to Moses the plans for the tabernacle and the tabernacle was a mobile place of worship and In fact, if you've read through the giving of the instructions, you know that it was an end in essence a tent
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It was mobile it was set up when the people would stop and it
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Represented the presence of God with them, but it also represent the fact that that God wasn't limited to one place
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The ancient religions would very frequently have temples
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But the God became associated with just that location and Frequently that that temple would be at a place where allegedly something very special had happened in the past and In pagan religions that became very important.
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Unfortunately, we see that once the temple itself was built in Jerusalem Well, it was pretty difficult for the people of Israel to avoid the temptations toward idolatry
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And eventually what happens is you have God having to send prophets to stand outside the temple and and say you
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Boast in this place, but the glory is gonna leave this place because you have rejected
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God's law and you've rejected his will for your lives and so many people kept being very religious
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And they'd come to the temple They thought that coming to that temple somehow made themselves
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Right with God God would never allow this place to be destroyed. The tabernacle didn't have that problem the tabernacle moved
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With the people of God and so this is that that sanctuary here on earth
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But notice the contrast is made here In the true tabernacle which the
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Lord pitched not man They're using the language once again of the writer of Hebrews Wants to focus on the tabernacle not on the temple which had become so much a focus
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He he instead says well look what what was given by God and the law was the tabernacle and So you even use the term pitched see man would pitch the tabernacle there were certain people who were entrusted with certain activities in in erecting the tabernacle and Certain people had to carry certain parts of it and the priests were all involved and and all these things and so there was a very complicated process that went was gone through but That's not where our high priest is
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He's not in a tabernacle that is pitched by man He is in the true tabernacle
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Which is in heaven you see the point that the writer is going to make is the earthly sanctuary was simply meant to be a shadow a representation and a lesser picture of The reality which is in heaven
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And so his assertion is we have a high priest He has taken his seat the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens a minister in the sanctuary in the true
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Tabernacle so God is there his presence is still amongst his people in that way
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Which the Lord pitched not man see the supremacy of being a high priest in the true
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Tabernacle what he's saying is look if you go back you're going back to something that is not the true
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Tabernacle it's merely an earthly man -made representation of the divine and Jesus has gone into the divine your high priest can never go there.
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He then sort of spells that out for us For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices
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So it is necessary that this high priest also has something to offer Okay, we know high priest
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He has a task He has a job, it's not just you know the great respect that was shown the high priest was not just simply because well, that's who he is and he gets to wear cool clothes and and Things like that.
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No, he hasn't he has a function in the worship of the people of God He is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices sacrifices for sin the the free will offerings the gifts that people would bring in Thanksgiving to God for His bounteous mercy to them and so This high priest the high priest after the order of Melchizedek It would be necessary that this high priest also has something to offer
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But what does he offer? Well now if he were on earth verse 4 says
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He would not be a priest at all since there are those who offer the gifts according to law and Think about that of what tribe is the
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Lord Jesus? Is he of the tribe of Levi? Is he one of the sons of Aaron?
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No, he's the tribe of Judah and so There is no pretension on the part of Jesus in his teachings
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To be a priest after the order of Aaron or Levi He never goes into the temple
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To offer sacrifices does he if he were on earth?
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He would not be a priest at all Since and here's that indication. Did you catch it since there are those who offer the gifts according to law?
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Now I can't say that it proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt But the use of the present tense there
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Most naturally would refer to the fact that this is something that's going on There are those who offer the gifts according to law
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After Titus got done with Jerusalem in 80 70 There was nobody offering the gifts according to the law in the temple in Jerusalem Because it had been raised to the ground
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And so it would seem that the natural reading of this text would tell us this is probably written
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No later than the 60s Prior to the surrounding of and destruction of the temple in Jerusalem while the temple worship was still a regular ongoing thing
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But the point is of course Jesus did not claim this priesthood.
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He would not be a priest at all there is no question that there were those who had been appointed as the
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Children of Levi to offer the gifts according to law, but where they are offering it notice who serve a copy a copy a shadow of The heavenly things do you see how this fits the argument once again of the book of Hebrews?
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It could have been really impressive. I'm sure what the Apostles were impressed member of Matthew 24 They're on a hill outside Jerusalem at all
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What you would have seen? How the temple precincts would dominate?
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What you would see as you looked at that ancient city of Jerusalem Just as now what dominates the skyline the
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Dome of the Rock The Muslim mosque there what they were so impressed.
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Ah look at the temple We've been very impressive when people come and seek to bring
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Christians into apostasy to fall away from the faith they Yeah, they normally have attacks upon the faith
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But they always try to present something positive some alternative for you to go to and yet the writers saying shadows copies
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Now we've got we've got photocopiers today that are pretty good we've got a photocopier at the office and it when it's working right and I think if you were to go examine brother
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Rich's fingers under his fingernails someplace You'd probably find some evidence that it doesn't always work, right?
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We've got all these different colored things you got to stick in there and it goes poof all over the place
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And it's it's great, but when it's working, right? It does a pretty good job. It looks a lot like the original even when even in color.
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It's pretty nice Most of you remember the days when photocopiers were not that good
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I Remember when I was in school, we'd get photocopied stuff and if there was like a picture or something in it
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It was just a big black blob Remember those kinds and then some of you and I'm not gonna name any names.
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I'm not gonna look at anybody in the eye But some of you remember those days when you made photocopies, so they weren't even photocopies you made copies by Cranking this thing off and they came out blue.
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Remember those things. Oh, yeah I'm old enough to remember that kind of stuff and those copies
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They just didn't you weren't fooled that if someone said here's the original you went really and there's a sense of that here
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You have your high priest, but you know, he's he's only serving in a shadow It's just a copy
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It's an earthly copy made by men. There's a heavenly reality. There's so much greater
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You see that's a continuation of the argument Cuz yeah
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If you lived in the environs of Jerusalem and you saw all the people streaming toward the temple and you see that the
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Sun Shining off that magnificent building. Oh, have
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I been deceived? If I've been led astray beware of the various approaches that the enemy of our soul has
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To get us to question his truth But see quotes from exodus 25 just as Moses was warned by God when he's about to wreck the tabernacle not the temple the tabernacle
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See that you make all things according to pattern which was shown you on the mountain. You see there's a pattern
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God gave it God's the one who created it. God said make it this way and the point is it represents something else
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It's just a pattern it's a copy there's a greater Reality than the physical
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Tabernacle and the Jews understood that that tabernacle the plans had been given by God and that then became
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The pattern for the temple and so it's a lesser ministry so notice verse 6
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But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry
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By as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant which has been enacted on better Promises now we cannot rush by a statement like that.
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We might well say well we all agree with that But we need to understand the importance of this statement
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It's only a few words But a lot is packed into it Notice what it said but now
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He has obtained a more excellent ministry that term ministry again, the danger is that we as Western thinking modern
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Christians Will read that word and we'll go well, you know
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James up there is in the ministry Well true but that's
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Not what the original? readers of this text in their context would have seen in Fact the term that is translated as ministry there has the specific application in the
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Old Covenant understanding of that priestly ministry a
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Ministry it had to do with the worship of God and That is found the very same term is found in verse 2 when he is called a minister
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Very same term this has to do with priestly ministry sacrificial intercessory ministry ministry having to do with the worship of God Now there was the
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Old Covenant ministry In fact, by the way for those of you that are interested in these things.
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This is the term in the original languages from which We get the term liturgy
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Now reformed Baptists as a whole tend to develop in a rash When you use the term liturgy
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For many proper reasons we are very concerned about the abuse of the term liturgy especially in sacramental systems
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But we have a liturgy and it's easy to recognize what our liturgy involves because liturgy simply means the the form and method of worship and So for us, what is the central act of our liturgy?
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Proclamation of the Word of God what we're doing right now Focused upon hearing God speak in the presentation of his truth upon public prayer upon the singing of sound
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God honoring hymns and all doing so in a context of reverence toward God That's our liturgy whether we call that or not doesn't really matter
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It goes back to this very term that refers to this form of worship and ministry worship and ministry in the worship of God Now there are different kinds of this type of liturgy or ministry
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Jesus is said to have obtained a more excellent ministry well immediately we have to stop and we have to face a
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Reality a difficulty and this would have been one of the realities and difficulties that the early
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Christians faced as well Especially in dealing with what we would call today
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Jewish evangelism, but in that day when the vast majority
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Especially in those that first generation of Christians are Jewish There were natural objections that the
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Jewish people would raise to the Christian faith and Clearly one of them that has been addressed over and over again and will be addressed in the next number of chapters repeatedly again
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It's simply this How can you say that Jesus has for example here a more excellent ministry?
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when You also confess that the ministry of the priests Had been ordained by God.
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How is Well, let's use another another example. We're about to encounter here.
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How can you say that there is a new covenant? when the old covenant
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Was given by God It's divine it's in the scriptures
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Moses Abraham how can you say these things and this of course raises all the issues of the
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Relationship between the old and the new the themes of fulfillment and of course all the big questions about continuity and Discontinuity Between the old and the new what is similar?
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What is what is the what are the areas of continuity? And what are the areas of discontinuity between the old and the new?
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How can we say that Jesus has obtained a more excellent ministry if the ministry that we're comparing it to Was divinely ordained?
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well That also that question also will influence
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Our understanding of the term better Notice the use the term better twice in verse 6
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Jesus is described as a As the mediator not a media the mediator of a better covenant and That has been enacted on better promises now we dare not fail to confess immediately
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That the Covenant to which this is being compared was divinely given the promises
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Upon which that old covenant was given divine promise
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But it really isn't that much of an objection to raise this issue if we just think for a moment because the idea that because God has established a covenant that means that's it nothing more
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There can't be anything greater there can't be anymore ignores the very function of what that covenant wants
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The whole point of the author is look these things were shadows. They were types
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They were copies. They were pointing to something greater than themselves and that greater thing would be a
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Better thing now when we say that one thing is better than another sometimes you get into arguments some of you and at this point
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I Hesitate to use this example because I know I'm going to leave our dearly beloved pastor out of the example
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But many of us in this room might get into certain arguments about What the best or better?
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Phone is Pastor Frye doesn't have to worry about that because I have a feeling he picks his up and goes
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So to raise issues about well, I have a droid. Well, I have an iPhone.
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Well, I'm a Sanya guy myself Just doesn't really apply to just a few people but for everybody else
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You know here all the time About arguments about well, you know, my phone can do this and well my phone's 4g and yours is only 3g
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Yeah, but my battery lasts for three days and yours last for three seconds and you know, there's just you know All this kind of stuff.
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Well, I've got this many apps on mine Well, I've got this many apps on mine and and this kind of argumentation goes on all the time amongst people that we generally call geeks but the reality is you're still arguing about phones and you can argue that my phone is better than your phone and Today, it might be in next week.
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It won't be that's just the nature of this particular way of how things are right now But you're still talking about Betterness Within a certain kind of things
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Some phones are better than other phones. There's no question about that I mean I personally think if you can't hold the phone in this hand
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But you have to hold in that hand that causes a bit of a problem in saying that's the best phone you can have But they're all phones and you're arguing betterness within one's spectrum
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But there is also a way of talking about something that's better than something else where you are differentiating on the very level of being it is a simple statement to say
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This diamond is better than this cubic zirconium Now you're not saying that they are the same type of thing.
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They may look like gems but on the level of being there is a superiority of being
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Now when we look at the term better as the writer of the Hebrews is using it. Are we simply talking about?
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The droid being better than an iPhone better or a diamond being better than a cubic zirconium better When we talk about better sacrifices the sacrifice of the
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Son of God In Comparison to the sacrifice of a bull is that better in the same?
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continuum better Or is that better in a completely different level of being better?
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I? Think it's obvious. And so when we talk about a better covenant better Promises, what are we talking about?
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Well notice just one thing. I'm not got time to get into this because We need to look at the term mediator and we're going to need to jump out of Hebrews briefly this evening to even look at this term
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But notice when we talk about a better Covenant notice what the very next verse says for if that first covenant had been faultless
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Literally said it says for if the first for if that first Had been faultless it doesn't repeat the term covenant in the original language
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But that's what it's referring to if that first covenant had been faultless
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There would have been no occasion sought for a second in other words If it had been
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God's intention that that first covenant stand Forever never to be changed if it's not pointing to anything greater than itself
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Despite the fact that we see evidence throughout it that it's pointing to a greater fulfillment
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We ignore all that and say look Moses gave it. That's it. There can be nothing more Can you hear?
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the Jewish apologists of that first century arguing like that I Can we see it in the
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New Testament self? How many times in the arguments of Jesus well
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Moses said to us or We follow after Moses that we believe in sola scriptura.
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They believed in sola Moses, and you can just hear
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How they would have argued and so the idea would have been
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How can you believe in this Jesus? How can you follow after him? How can you put your entire trust and walk away from the religion of your fathers?
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Which of course they wouldn't say they were I Remember Paul's strong words to Philippians.
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We are the true circumcision which worship God in the spirit and yet Here you have the direct assertion
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It was not faultless, and it was not faultless because that's what it was designed to be it was designed to function to point towards something else
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And I would argue that it's faultedness Was not that God tried to do something but couldn't
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Its faultedness is that God did not give to it a power That he intended only to demonstrate in and through the establishment of the
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New Covenant in other words there were great Men who lived under the
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Old Covenant Who experienced God's forgiveness and they experienced the
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Spirit of God and they experienced? regeneration in the whole nine yards but there were also all sorts of men
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Who bore the Covenant signs who were a part of that Old Covenant and their heart was not changed?
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for every one David Who goes out and weeps and repentance at his own sin
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You've got a dozen Ahab's who don't Bearing that Covenant sign did not change the heart it could
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But it wasn't the function of just those Covenant signs to do that And so there's been an occasion sought for a second
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There's something about this better -ness that we have to take seriously better Covenant That doesn't mean the old isn't divine it doesn't mean that we're somehow
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Anti -jewish or anti -semitic or anything else, but there's a better Covenant Which has been enacted?
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legislatively legally by God on better promises now on the one hand
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The one danger that we have to walk a Have to be balanced in this study
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Reformed Baptists, I think have put out a lot of energy To be balanced at this very point
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On the one hand you have those utter discontinuity Cut it off.
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There's there's there's no connection here whatsoever Old Covenant, it's all
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Back there and on the other side You've got people who are so Strong on continuity that they get a little bit
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Nervous when you talk about better Covenant better promises and so they want to emphasize the continuity of God's purposes from the beginning till now the balance is found in between the two extremes
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There is no question that God enacted the Old Covenant. There is no question that God gave promises that the temple worship everything but there has to be a recognition of the function of those things and the fact that we now have a
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Better Cup and that it was prophesied Back in Jeremiah chapter 31.
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So keeping that in mind then What we need to focus on this evening and I invite you back for the ministry of the word this evening
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Is the term mediator by as much as he is also the mediator of a better?
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Covenant, what does that mean? What is
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Christ's role as mediator? You only find it found here in the book of Hebrews To find it once in a single passage.
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We'll look at this evening when Paul writes to Timothy and you'll find the term used in a general sense of a mediator of a covenant in Galatians without making direct application to Jesus, so we'll be looking primarily at the utilization of this term
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In writing to Timothy and then here this evening. We need to understand. How is
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Jesus mediator of this new covenant? What does that mean? What does Jesus mediate? This is where it starts getting not only deep but really foundational to our understanding of Why we have peace with God what the gospel is so many
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Christians will tell you well I have peace with God because of Jesus why well just because of Jesus Now if that's where you start off at great but we should never be complacent and Happy To just stay there if the
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Word of God has revealed to us the why's and wherefores should it not be our glory to dig in To what
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God has revealed to us about how it is That we have peace with him. We've already seen so much of it.
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There's so much more Yet to come here in this tremendous passage
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Indeed our Heavenly Father we do Thank you for your word once again and this promise that we
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Do continue even though it has been so many generations since these words were penned we continue to have such a high priest a
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Minister in the sanctuary and he's still there His blood still avails his work is still perfect and that is why we
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So many years later so far far away Confess the same faith as this writer from long ago.
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Ah, Lord, you have been faithful to your promise. We thank you for that We ask that we would find precious the teaching of your word that our
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Relationship to you our forgiveness that which we know we need so badly.
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We know our own heart that forgiveness Has in no way compromised your justice
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Instead has exalted your justice and has revealed your loving -kindness your mercy and your grace.
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May we rejoice in these truths If there be any here that do not understand and do not find joy
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Knowing what Jesus has done May you bring conviction of sin and reveal to each one who