The Point of Hebrews (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 ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth and we have the Facebook Live group. If you are listening to the radio show and you say, �Podcast. I always like to hear when people say, �It�s just a podcast.

I know, we used to be on radio. Oh yeah, I forgot, we still are on radio in Alaska. I forgot. Hey, by the way, if you�re listening to Alaska, I forgot the station that we�re on. If you�re listening, would you email me?

Just so I know we at least have one listener in Alaska. I�ve been to 46 states in the Union and I�m missing Alabama, Louisiana, North Dakota and Alaska. Those are the four. How am I going to get there?

That�s amazing. How am I going to get there? Speaking of getting places, R. Scott Clark, Heidelblog with his Heidel dog, with Heidelberg. Heidelmania, he should be at the church here, Bethlehem Bible Church in October 2019.

If you are from North Carolina, Alaska, Louisiana or Alabama, bring some dirt and come to listen to Scott Clark, R. Scott Clark. I�m super excited about that. You know he�s been on No Compromise Radio several times.

In two weeks, or a week and a half, I�ll be in Los Angeles for the Shepherds Conference. That Wednesday, I�m going to drive down to Escondido. I think Carl Truman�s there for a conference, but I should be on Abounding Grace Radio with Chris Gordon and R. Scott Clark.

I don�t know if I�ll be on Office Hours or not. If you have not listened to Pat Abendroth on Office Hours, you ought to. Except Pat was so articulate, I don�t know how I could articulate better than Pat could.

I was listening to Pat, my brother, Omaha Bible Church, preach today a two-part sermon called A Ministry of Distinction. You ought to pull that up. OmahaBibleChurch .org, A Ministry of Distinction, Part 1 and Part 2.

I think I�ll listen to it today at 1 .5 speed. Sorry, Uncle Pat. Anyway, Pat, I think is going to be out at the Shepherds Conference as well. He�ll probably ride his bike every day knowing Pat and then just show up at the Shepherds Conference once in a while.

Maybe he�ll drive by on his bicycle and kind of do the Driscoll McDonald, pulled up and tried to give out books and did all that whole thing. I�m not putting Pat in the same category, but just the drive-by part, that�s it.

If you want to write me, it�s Mike at NoCompromiseRadio .com, or if you want just general information, that�s Info at No Compromise Radio. Spencer takes care of all those emails that go to Info, and I guess we have some person that just keeps writing a bunch of bad stuff.

That never makes it to me, so if you�re listening today and you want to torch me and do a bunch of crazy stuff, I never see it. If you disagree with me, then I see it. If you�re trying to sue me, I see it.

I don�t mind disagreement at all. If you�re just going to be a jerk about it, what did my dad say, he�s a real piece of work. If you�re going to be a piece of work about it, then I�m not going to ever see it because Spencer is going to put it through his Spencer filter.

What else is happening? Oh, I don�t know. I have all kinds of things to say. Oh, there you go. �Pat was on a recent episode Daniel said, �of Echo Zoe Radio. Well, I�m not that impressed. If Pat was on tour with Echo and the Bunnymen, I might be impressed.

I saw Echo and the Bunnymen here in Northampton back in November. It was a great show. If you have not listened to their song called Rust, I like it. I mean, hey, it�s pop music. I have not listened to Pat on Echo Zoe.

I think I was on years ago. What I remember about Echo Zoe, the host, he�s kind and nice and all that, but he gave me a topic or he was interested about a topic that I didn�t know much about. I had to fake it.

If you pull up Mike Ebendroth�s old show years ago, I�m thinking I didn�t even know. Basically, what I did, you�ll think I knew what I was talking about because I studied it the night before. By the way, that�s all you have to do to be a radio host, is just study the night before and just have a little more knowledge than your listeners at the moment.

Hebrews and the Great High Priest

I�m in the book of Hebrews, loving it, kind of planning out where I�m going, and he, the writer of Hebrews, just keeps talking about Jesus all the time. By the way, that�s one of the reasons why I love Pat Ebendroth and his ministry.

I mean, I�d have to love him anyway because you�re supposed to love even your enemies, and of course, he�s my brother, my DNA brother. By the way, if you�re ever around Pat and I at the same time, would you please say these words?

Which one of you is older? Please regularly say that. By the way, I used to be known as Mike Ebendroth, and then they�d say, �Oh, Pat, that�s Pat, his younger brother, Pat. Well, now I�m just Pat�s brother.

It�s kind of like Luke, right, Luke Ebendroth? I�m sure, soon enough, and I�ll be glad for this, this is better than the brother thing, I can say, �You know what? I�m happy to be known as Luke Ebendroth�s dad.

I�m happy for that. Anyway, the superior high priest in Hebrews chapter 8. Remember, we�ve talked on this show before that in France, the book that really was essential to the Reformation. Of course, Romans was a great book, and it was used in Wittenberg and in Geneva to really propel and be a catalyst for the Reformation, but the book that was used by the Lord, Moses, and I would affirm this, in the 1530s and 40s and beyond, was the book of Hebrews.

And you can just imagine what a great book this is for people enslaved to priestly, sacerdotal vestments, offerings, offeratories, did I say incense, gold, glitter, ornate, things like that. This is the perfect book, because Rome so mirrors, not in every way, but so mirrors the Old Covenant, the Levitical priesthood.

And you see this with robes, bells, externals, sensual things. I�m not talking about sexual things, but sensual, like senses, like tactile, like tastes, like smells, like visual, ornate stuff, so close.

And then, therefore, you have a book like Hebrews saying, �That old system�s done. Let me show you who Jesus is. You know, you love angels, and in one sense, if you saw one, you�d be on your face. You shouldn�t be, but you would be.

Let me tell you about who Jesus is, and let�s use Psalm 45, Psalm 102, Psalm 2, Psalm 110, and the list goes on in chapters 1 and 2 to show you how great Jesus is. What does it mean to be a priest, and why do you need a priest, and why is he such a great high priest, and why is he better than all these other people?

And I think so often, we just kind of like add Jesus on, instead of having him front-loaded and having him be the grid that we examine everything in our lives. And so, I�ve been impressed with Hebrews.

I really think, and I could say this, that as I�ve studied Hebrews, I think I started preaching it in 2015. Not fair in one sense. I really haven�t been preaching it for four years, because I�ve taken some sabbatical, and the whole cancer thing, and out of town, and all that stuff.

So it�s not really been a true, whatever, four years, five years, times 52 weeks. But I�ve been in the book for a long time, and been thinking about it a lot, and I can say it�s really revolutionized my thinking.

It�s reformed my thinking. It has rejuvenated my thinking. It has, what�s another R-word, it has radicalized my thinking. And at the heart of it, it�s faith in this Jesus, which leads to faithfulness.

And I think for too many years, I�ve conflated faith and faithfulness, and even going to Hebrews chapter 11 and seeing that this writer wants you to be faithful, well, that�s true, but he wants you to walk by faith.

That takes a greater place in this man�s desire. If I go to Hebrews 8, 1 -6, and want to summarize it, it�s pretty easy. And I don�t always alliterate. Did you get that? Always alliterate. But I like to think different ways for outlines, and if the text lends itself to that, then I�m trying to do it.

So the words that come out in Hebrews 8, 1 -6, which probably aren�t highlighted in a lot of your Bibles by you with a yellow marker or pencil or whichever one, that is, I�d say �seated I�d say �sacrifice and I�d say �shadow.

Those are the three words, because Jesus is seated, he has done his work, and victory was accomplished by Jesus, atonement had been made. He didn�t die for his sins, but for our sins, and he was buried, he was raised from the dead, he ascended into heaven, and he�s exalted, and he�s at the right hand of the Father, a place of honor, majesty, authority, and dominion forevermore, and there he is to minister.

His death has accomplished atonement and forgiveness and reconciliation, and then now he mediates. So his atoning work is done, but his ministerial work is not done. So that�s seated. The next one, sacrifice, and we talked a lot about sacrifice throughout the last four years, and then shadow, because Old Testament was a shadow of all this, but Jesus is a substance.

Now, I could just say substance, but that�s not a word there, but the three words that are there that all start with �s� in English, seated, sacrifice, and substance. So today, I�m just, you know what I�m doing?

I�m kind of just in my mind, reworking part of my sermon out loud and trying to do radio shows at the same time. I don�t really have time to do two separate things anymore. So a lot of no-co, I�ve got to get Steve back here, a lot of no-co is simply practice.

We�re talking about practice. You ever see that Allen Iverson video? Just type in Allen Iverson practice, and how many times he says practice. That�s how many times the word covenant is used in Hebrews chapter eight.

By the way, we�re going to talk a little bit about covenants and covenant theology in the weeks to come. Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? Well, certainly covenants are good, and are there more covenants than the Noahic?

Are there more covenants than the covenant of Abraham, Moses, David, New Covenant? What about the covenant of creation? What about the pact of Seleutis? What about the covenant of redemption? What about the covenant of works?

What about the covenant of grace? What about covenants? I think lots of our listeners probably are thinking the right way about covenants, some maybe not. So we�ll just see. Maybe we�ll have to go and echo Zoe radio, and we�ll talk about that, and study the night before.

Jesus Is Better Because He Is Seated

Number one, Jesus is better because he is seated. So remember the whole thing with all this, you want to be motivated to obey. If it�s just obey, obey, obey, obey, there�s no motivation that goes into grief or despair.

But if your motivation is who Jesus is and your union with him, and how you�re freely forgiven and how your status can never change, and how your legal standing can never change, and how you have power, how you have the Holy Spirit in you to live a holy life, and when you hear the words, �Be holy, for I am holy could I achieve that on my own?

Could I do that? What about sanctification? Is it monergistic? Is it synergistic? Is it polyergistic? What is that? Polyerg? Monoerg, alone working. Sin, S-Y-N, working. Have you ever heard that word synergistic?

It�s like if I just said to you, �monergistic or synergistic You go, �Well, whatever �syner� is, I don�t want to have anything to do with the �synergistic. But if I said �monergistic� or �synergistic�, then fine.

Same as when I first heard the word �exegesis. When you first, as a Christian, heard the word �exegesis what were you thinking? Synergistic exegesis. What do you think of when you hear those words?

Remember when you were a Christian, you first tried to spell the word �hermeneutic I remember. You first tried to spell the word �exegesis. You first tried to spell or pronounce �propitiation. You first read out loud some Bible names, �Shibboleth.

It was kind of fun days, weren�t they? Those days where you think, �You know what? Jesus is all I need. Now, this is leading me into the segue. I�m going to rescue this. That kind of thinking that you had when you were a brand-new Christian, that�s the kind of thinking the writer wants you to have.

That�s the kind of thinking Paul wants you to have all the time. You were enthralled with. You were enraptured with. You were absorbed with. You were conscientious about. You could not get it out of your mind.

You�d wake up thinking about, �I am forgiven. You�re a brand-new Christian, and how long did it take you after you woke up out of bed to think, �I�m forgiven. I�m right with God. I love God because He first loved me.

How long did it take you to think that? For a long, long time, that was the first thing that I thought of. Now, as things go on, I have to be reminded. Now, the point of what we are saying is this. We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, a minister, Hebrews 8, 1 and 2, in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man.

When times are difficult, I need to be reminded of this because I�m not thinking about this. Terry Flood, Herman Nudix, I don�t believe I know him, Joel Osteen. Oh, man. First I thought you were going to say Herman Bavink.

Now, try to spell Bavink when you first are trying to think, �How do I spell Bavink? What am I doing there Terry, good to see you. I can�t see you, but good to see you�re typing there. Hope you and the family are doing well.

Just yesterday, I looked at a picture of us in my office, and of course, my first thought was, �Oh, Mike, you look fat. That was my first thought. There�s a snort on No Compromise radio. But here�s what�s happening.

When you first began to realize reconciliation had happened, and God had made you alive, your new creature in Christ Jesus, and of course, you didn�t think regeneration, redemption, renewal, reconciliation, propitiation.

You pretty much thought forgiven. That was like the one word you were like, �I�m forgiven. I�m cleansed. I don�t have to go to hell. I get to go to heaven. I wonder if God�s ever going to figure out what I did and maybe keep me out.

Those days need to be these days. There, let�s trademark that. Those days need to be these days. That�s the book of Hebrews. He does not want you to forget your great salvation. Just don�t forget it, no matter what.

No matter what the persecution is, don�t forget about your great salvation. Because if you think about your salvation, then you think about your Savior. So don�t forget the Savior. Walk by faith. The just shall live by faith.

And that�s shorthand for the just shall live by faith in the exalted Savior who is seated at the right hand of the majesty. What a great title, the throne of the majesty in heaven. First of all, high priest, Levitical high priest, Aaronic high priest, Roman Catholic high priests, Eastern Orthodox high priests, they don�t sit at the throne.

The Old Testament priests, they never sat in the Holy of Holies because the work was never finished. Jesus finishes and he sits down. But he doesn�t sit down at any old place. He doesn�t just sit down over there on the plush velvet nice kind of place.

He sits down at the throne of the majesty, capital M, majesty in heaven. What a great name for God, majesty. That�s the chief point of this. This is the main point. That�s what he�s saying in chapter 8 verse 1.

And what we�re saying is this, the head point, the chief point is that you are going to receive all kinds of benefits based on the work of another. His humiliation, his exaltation is for you. He is resurrected, he is ascended, he is exalted, and he is the high priest that no one can match and no one can have a greater hope in.

And he just kind of stops, the writer does. I guess I could say it this way, �By this we know, love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. I did a little study on this high point and some people call it a high watermark.

This is the point. This is the head point. A Coverdale translates this main point, this high point, this summarizing point with the word �pith�. P-I-T-H. And I thought, that�s kind of a nice, no-compromise word, �pith.

Now the word we might think of is, what, �pithy. But �pith� means the essential part, the most important part, the core, the crux, the nub. I like that word too, �nub. Once in a while on Twitter, I change the name of the radio show from No Compromise Radio to No Neonomism, No Antinomism, No...

First I did it, Some Compromise, and then I�ve got a Twitter. Somebody is on Twitter and they�ve got their own name, domain, Some Compromise Radio. And I only see them do some stuff once in a while. I wish they�d do more.

I think they used to be the fake Paul Washer people. Now it�s fake No Compromise Radio. But since I�m one one-thousandth known as Paul, I don�t get much traction. The Dutch Common Language translates this word �kernel.

Not like �co but �ke �kernel a crowning argument, the essence of something, the most significant point. If you had to look at the most key point in all the book of Hebrews up to this point, it�s he sits down and he�s a minister of the holy sanctuary.

Remember it�s finished, he did his work of atonement, but now there�s still more ministry to do. And of course that leads us back to Hebrews 7, verse 25, he�s making intercession for us. And this is the capstone, the capital, the pillar, guilt, grace, and gratitude is what we have in light of this.

Other priests, Levitical priests, they�re dead. Instead of having �we have like we can say of Jesus, it�s �we had �we used to have �we wish we had. Terry Flood said that was September 2012.

That�s when you were here? Wow, a lot has changed. Was I just starting Hebrews then? It�s kind of interesting, some writers talk about the high priest that was living during Jesus� time, Caiaphas, he�s the one that helps kill Jesus and then Jesus, because of his death and his intercession, is now the high priest.

W .E. Vine said this, �We have one who embodies in himself all the glories of deity and all the perfections of humanity, one who is almighty in power and infinitely tender in sympathy. He not only knows our every need and feels with us in our sufferings, but has power to sustain us, comforting us in our afflictions, and carrying us right through them.

He is the antitype of Aaron, he has been perfected through sufferings. As the antitype of Melchizedek, he is enthroned in his rightful position of exaltation, a royal priest whose priesthood is both perfect and unchangeable, who is able to save to the uttermost and is entirely suited to us.

That�s good. That�s good to be reminded. And the writer wants these readers, who are tempted to go back. And if you�re ever tempted, �Hey, this is not worth it. Christianity isn�t worth it. I need to go back to paganism or atheism or hedonism or selfism or mycism or whatever it is he�s seated at the right hand of the Father.

I don�t have to kill any more animals to be right with God, I don�t have eternal damnation as a threat because I�m trusting in Jesus, I don�t have to do anything because He has taken His seat. And when I mean do anything to keep my standing, in light of my standing, yes, there�s things I must do.

But these other priests, they used to stand day after day after day after day, and Jesus comes along and it says in John chapter 4, �My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to accomplish His work.

And that�s exactly what Jesus did. So He did all the work. I don�t have to do the work. I get to benefit from the work. Jesus said in John 17, �I�ve glorified Thee on earth having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do.

It�s finished. Here�s what I want you to do, son, go rescue the elect. And He did it. And then now He is exalted. You can think of Philippians 2 kind of language, He�s exalted in heaven. Here He gets to sit down at a place of honor and authority and judgment for people.

Not for us, but judgment for other people. He has paid in full everything, Christian, that you deserve to pay on your own, but somebody paid it for you. What a blessing. I know it sounds dumb, but if you ever are at a place and you�re eating, somebody says, �Oh, let me pick up the tab today.

You�re like, �That was nice. Paid in full, done. Somebody else paid. And you�re like, �Wow, that was a free lunch. I should have ordered dessert, something else for an appetizer. Seated sacrifice shadow.

The shadow has been fulfilled. And Jesus sits down, this great name for God, majesty on high. And don�t you dare start singing, �Majesty, worship His majesty. My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio.

Write me, Mike, at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

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.

So 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.