12/16/2001

Let’s bow in prayer,

As we look at the Christmas season we know that this is a time of great rejoicing, a time of great blessing, a time of get together’s and a time of parties and gift giving and all those wonderful things that we connect to this time of year. Also, I know that it is a difficult time for some, people who are without loved ones, maybe they are far away, I know our daughter and son-in-law are in Missouri and will be heading towards Texas this week and so they will be along way from home, some of you have loved ones far away or are single or have lost a loved one this year. We know this can be a tough time of year too so I would ask all of you to bow your heads and kind of thank the Lord for the season but also lay some of those burdens at his feet because we do need to rejoice and thank God and set aside our sorrows and our pains and still look to Jesus Christ, who came that we might have life. Father, we thank you that you have given us this wonderful season of the year that we can celebrate your birth and the resurrection and salvation that Jesus brings. Father I thank you also for the love that we have for each other as family members, as church members, as just friends of the neighborhood in a sense that get together and enjoy each others company and enjoy celebrating together. Father we also know that there are hurts this time of year, we know as much joy as are in some hearts there is just as much pain in others. Father we ask that you would bring comfort to those. You said, ‘ You are the God of all comfort and the God of all mercy who comforts us in all our afflictions, so we might comfort others who have the same afflictions’, so Father I pray that you would use us to comfort each other and bring each one to a place where we can truly celebrate this wonderful existence of Jesus Christ, the Savior, who was born this time of year. We don’t know the exact date, of course, but Father we know we celebrate this time of year and we thank you for it. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Get your Bible’s out because we are going to read a whole bunch today and you will need one. Otherwise you will be lost and if you didn’t bring one there is a black one in the pew near you and you can read along in one of the pew Bibles which is the same translation as mine so you will be able to get the real truth as opposed to some of those setting next to you who have different translations who will be getting some other truth.

Since 9-11 I have had more questions raised to me and probably more questions raised to a lot of pastors as to what the Muhammadians or Muslims believe, what is Islam, and all kinds of questions about the person of Christ and also about what other people believe about Jesus. I have had questions about the Jehovah Witnesses believe, what the Mormons believe, what we believe, what beliefs are out there? If you are listening to the New Testament on tape, which many of us our, or CD you will have come up to about the Book of Hebrews this last week and today we are listening to the last couple of chapters of Hebrews and the first chapter of the Book of James. Hebrews is a book that was written for the purpose of teaching us the eminence, superiority, of Christ. The fact that he is the one in whom we must believe. And that his person and the work that he did on the cross and all that surrounds him is superior to anything that has come before and of course anything that has come after. He is the pre-eminent one. This is not the only place that talks about that. Talks about it in Colossians, Ephesians, and other places but Hebrews was written for the very purpose of saying, what was before was temporary and inferior, what we have now is superior and is eternal.

Came across an article the other day, and I thought it kind of highlights what we are talking about here. This is about a church in Los Angeles, called the Agape International Spiritual Center in suburban Los Angeles with 7,000 members. Agape calls itself a church but it makes no pretension of being Christian at all. Rather as its pastor, Michael Beckwith, says it is a new thought combined with ancient wisdom. Combined with all of their singing, which are the same songs that we would sing here this morning, intermixed are the praise songs and ohms of Eastern mediation along with some of the Muslim meditations. They called it the new thought combined with ancient wisdom. We don’t believe your born in sin, he says, we are born into blessing. While some seek salvation we call it self elevation. Agape calls itself trans-denominational but it is really trans-religion. Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists, young, old, rich, poor, we cut across all lines to reach out to what is true. The new age movement has discovered the church growth movement or perhaps religious entrepreneurs are realizing in Christ, as he said, is the ultimate stumbling block. An obstacle to growth in this new cultural climate. In fact that is the message they actually teach. Is that Christ himself who claims to be the only Savior is a stumbling block to real truth. Isn’t that interesting in a so called Christian nation. He defines religious totalitarianism as the view that one faith must reign supreme and can be affirmed and held passionately only if all others are negated. Conservative Christians and Jews hold to this view, he says, as well as Muslims. Can Islam, Christianity and Judaism know that God speaks Arabic on Fridays, Hebrew on Saturday, and Latin on Sunday and he welcomes different human beings approaching through there own history, out of there own language and cultural heritage’. So he is saying we need to mix everybody all together and say nobody is right, we are all right. Well, if everybody is right then nobody is, isn’t that right? Sounds like a lot of rights in there doesn’t? If nobody is right then there is no right. And if we say that there is one way of salvation, one way of eternal life, then we become intolerant and of course in our day and age to be called intolerant is one of the worst slanders you can have against your name. Because the watch word of today is being tolerant. Approving everybody else’s beliefs no matter what they might be.

Well the writer of Hebrews didn’t fall into that trap, he said there is one who is superior to all others. And that is what Christianity teaches. We are truly exclusiveness. We believe that the Bible teaches very clearly that there is one way of salvation, is through Jesus Christ himself and there is no other plan that God has given. We believe that there is not a man made God but actually a God made man. Because God brought Jesus Christ to the earth, God himself came to earth in order to be with us and bring us salvation. The writer of Hebrews nobody knows. Everybody thinks that they know but nobody knows. There are four or five different names that are given Paul, Apollos, Luke possibly. Some think Barnabas wrote it, some think Acalia and Priscilla teamed up on it. Nobody really knows who wrote the Book of Hebrews, in fact, it doesn’t identify anybody. It was probably written about 65 AD, we know that it was written before the fall of Jerusalem because the temple at this point is still in existence and the temple was destroyed in 70 AD so we know it was written sometime is the mid first century probably around 65 AD. It was written for the purpose of explaining that JesusChrist is Superior. That he is the Savior above all else. He is comparing it here to the Jewish belief system. The system of laws and sacrifices and things like that which led to Christ, of course we know that Jesus came up through the Jewish plan in a sense because the Jewish plan was God’s plan. They were God’s chosen people. Chosen to bring Christ through their race. Jesus was born of Hebrew parents, of course. And the tribe of Judea, he was a Hebrew of Hebrew’s, he was definitely a Jew. But it was to complete the plan of salvation he began through the Jews, the sacrificial system. So, the writer of Hebrews compares the old, the system the Jews are familiar with, to the new in Christ. Remember Jesus told the parable, he said, ‘When you make wine, you don’t put new wine into old wineskins. You put old wine in old wineskins because new wine has the ability to ferment and if you put it in old wine skins that are already stretched as much as they are going to the wine will burst the wineskins and you lose both the skin and the wine. So he was talking about the old wineskin which is already set in it’s ways, as it were. The Old Testament system of rules and sacrifices and the old covenant and the new, which is a living relationship with Jesus Christ. And so he says the new is superior to the old. Here he goes through a whole list of things and he says, In Jesus we have a superior being than what used to be.

Notice in Verse chapter one. We are going to go through the whole book today by the way, we have plenty of time, it is not Christmas until a week from Tuesday. We are going to go fast, I can talk fast. If you can listen fast. Hebrews One says, ‘God, after he spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When he had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.’ So he says, long ago God spoke through Prophets, now he speaks through his Son, Jesus Christ, who upholds all things which he created, actually. The Bible teaches in the Old Testament that God created the heaven and the earth, in the New Testament says Jesus created the heaven and earth. So either the Bible is contradicting itself or they are one in the same, which they are. So Jesus is God, so he says, ‘He used to speak through prophets now is speaks through his Son Jesus Christ. Which one is better? Well of course, Jesus is superior. So now if you want to hear the truth listen to what Jesus Christ says because he is speaking the very truth.

Then he says, ‘having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they. For to which of the angels did He ever say, ‘Thou art my Son, Today I have begotten Thee”? And again “I will be a Father to Him, and He shall be a Son to Me”? And when he again brings the first born into the world He says, “And let all the angles of God worship Him.” And of the angels he says, “Who makes his angels winds, and His ministers a fame of fire,” But of the Son He says, “Thy throne O God, is forever and ever, and the righteous scepter is the scepter of His Kingdom. “Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; therefore God, Thy God hath anointed Thee With the oil of the gladness above Thy Companions.” And, “Thou, Lord, in the beginning didst lay the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the works of Thy hands; They will perish, but Thou remainest; And they all will become old as a garment, And as a mantle Thou wilt roll them up; As a garment they will also be changed. But Thou art the same, And Thy years will not come to an end.” But to which of the angels has He ever said, “Sit at my right hand, Until I make thine enemies a footstool for they feet”? Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?’

So he says, here is Jesus and the Angels are down here. They are called to worship him, whose days will never end. He is God; they are the angles, they are ministering servants of his, ministering to us, at his beck and call. There have been a great deal interest in times past, not so much lately but awhile back there was a great deal interest in angels and spiritual beings. There still is to some degree. People tend to raise the angels to almost a divine level. Looking to angels for wisdom, in fact a few years ago, you have read books I’m sure or heard about them where they talked about ascended masters and spiritual beings who would teach you from beyond. Well, those are just supposedly angels which they weren’t. But the angels are lower than Christ, they are sent to minister for him to us but they are called to worship him. To worship Christ so they are not higher than Christ.

You will also find as you read the Book of Hebrews, mixed in with his instructions are warnings or encouragements or admonitions and he says that in Verse 1 of Chapter 2, ‘For this reason we must pay much closer attention to that which we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For if the word spoken through angels proved unalterable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation? After it was at the first spoken through the Lord, it was confirmed to us by those who heard, God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders and by various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit according to His own will.’ So he says how shall we escape if we neglect such great salvation? So he says here is a salvation announced through prophets and angels that came through Christ, what happens to us if we reject the gospel? What happens if we neglect this great salvation? We are in big trouble. If things temporal were punished back in those days, how much more will we be punished if we reject the word of Christ, the gospel of Jesus Christ? So he says first of all accept the gospel as being true, accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. Then he goes on he says he is superior to the prophets, he is superior to the angels and then he goes on and says not only that he is even superior to Moses, who is their greatest of the prophets who lead them out of the nation of Egypt.

Chapter 3, Verse 1 says, ‘Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession. He was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was in all His house. For He has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, by just so much as the builder of the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God. Now Moses was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken later; but Christ was faithful as a Son over His house whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end.’ So he says Moses was good and right for his time but he was a servant of God. Jesus is right and obedient in his time and he is the Son of God. So Jesus far surpasses the work of Moses and Moses brought people out of the land of Egypt. Jesus brings us out of the land of bondage into salvation. So he is much more superior to Moses. Remember he is speaking to the Jewish race here, Jewish people, who

revered Moses, who revered the angels, who revered the prophets, who revered all these things that we are talking about. And he says, No Jesus is far superior to all these things.

So he gives instruction, then he gives some warning. If you look down in Chapter 3, Verse 12, ‘Take care, brethren, lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving heart, in falling away from the living God. But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end;” so he said once you believed don’t neglect this great salvation once you have it, don’t let go of it. Hold fast, hold firm to it, in fact, encouraging each other because we can become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Sin can cloud our thinking, cloud our minds. In fact, what you are finding today, as I just read in this article, there are many, says that they had in that congregation Muslims, Jews, Christians, Buddhists. I don’t know why a Christian would be there. A Christian worships Jesus Christ and God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And to intermix with those who say that there is anyway you want to go to heaven, that is great. I don’t know how a person could do that. What is happening is people are falling away from the true doctrine of the gospel and saying, well we will accept anything. Well, God doesn’t accept anything, He says there is one way. Jesus said the way is wide that leads to destruction, the way is near that leads to life if you find it. He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father but through me.” There is only one way of salvation through Jesus Christ. So when we water down our faith, when we let go of this firm assurance of Jesus Christ we fall to the speculations of men. We begin to accept others doctrines. We begin to say, Well, they worship God, they call him God so therefore it must be the same God as we do. No, we need to discover what their God is and find out they probably don’t serve the God that we serve, the God of scriptures. So we need to be careful that we are not falling away from the assurance of our faith, the assurance of their doctrine that is given to us in scripture. He is not only superior to Moses, he is also superior to Aaron. Remember Aaron was Moses’ brother and the priesthood was formed around Aaron.

In Chapter 5 you will see that he is superior to that. Actually let’s go back to Chapter 4. He gives us superior priesthood and then we can talk about Aaron. Chapter 4, Verse 1 says, ‘Therefore, let us fear lest, while a promise remains of entering His rest, any one of you should seem to have come short of it. For indeed we have had good news preached to us, just as they also; but the word they heard did not profit them, because it was not united by faith in those who heard.’ He goes on down and talks about the rest of the people of Israel should of experienced in the land of Canaan, remember Moses brought them out of Egypt, lead them to the land of Canaan and they refused to go at that moment because they were afraid of the giants in the land. And God said, ‘Ok those of you who refuse to go in, we are going to live here is the desert for 40 years while you die off. And your next generation will go in.’ He said they did not enter because of their unbelief. They believed enough to come out of the lands of Egypt, but they didn’t believe enough to go into the land of Canaan. So he says, be careful that we don’t come part way and not go the rest of the way because of our unbelief.

Verse 14 says, ‘Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are yet, without sin. Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help in time of need.’ That Jesus has actually entered the very holy of holies, the very heaven itself, he has the ability to mediate between us and God because he is us and God. He is God in the flesh. So therefore, we can come competently to him and say, God I need help here. I need help through this temptation, I need grace. (Turn the Tape) A failure because he sinned. He was never completely righteous and so Jesus came who was completely righteous. And in fact it says in Chapter 5, Verse 1, ‘For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is best with weakness; and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself. And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.’ So he said that a human priest offers sacrifices for the people but he also has to offer sacrifices for himself because he is also a sinner. In fact at the Feast of Atonement, which would take place in about in late September, early October on our calendar, the priest in order to go into the celebrations and sacrifices he actually had to bathe eleven times. In order to be completely physically clean but also there were certain sacrifices that were given so he was spiritually clean. And so a human priest had to sacrifice for himself and then also being worthy after that was to sacrifice for the people.

Verse 5 says, ‘So also Christ did not glorify Himself so as to become a high priest, but He who said to Him, “Thou art my Son, today I have begotten Thee”; “Thou art a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Melchizedek is an interesting person. You only come across him here and in Genesis. Abraham came back from winning a battle and Melchizedek it says, a priest of Salem was there and Moses gave him a tenth of the spoils. If doesn’t say anything more about Melchizedek except here. We understand that Melchizedek probably is what we call a theophany. A pre-existent appearance of Christ. Christ coming to earth for some reason, gives a reason here in Hebrews, he comes to earth in human form even though he did not come as a baby until much later. That is called a theophany. And so we believe that Melchizedek was probably actually Jesus in the flesh even before he came as a baby. So Melchizedek in priesthood was forever. Because you could not find any linage for him there was no father or mother listed anywhere for Melchizedek because he came out no where for Moses. And so he said just like Melchizedek had no genealogy, no beginning no end, that is the way Jesus is too as a priest. He has no beginning, he has no end.

So then he comes with another warning. Notice what he says in Verse 11, ‘Concerning him we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food is the for mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil. Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about Christ, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of instruction about washings, and laying on of hands, and the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we shall do, if God permits.’ So he says once we have accepted Christ don’t neglect this great salvation. Don’t let go of it either. He says, If we hold fast our assurance to the end we will receive. Says in the meantime don’t back up in our faith. Don’t have to go back and start over because you have forgot what you learned early. He says you should be teaching high school and you are back going elementary school. He says you shouldn’t have to go back to the elementary things, you should be the mature ones teaching these things to the elementary ones. And so he says don’t go back in your understanding. One of the best ways to go forward is to have to teach somebody else. Because we know that teachers tend to learn more than the students because they have to be prepared to teach. And so be involved in discipleship, be involved in ministry of some sort. He says get going forward, we shouldn’t have to go back and start this elementary stuff again. We should be way ahead of that teaching adults as it were.

Then he says, Jesus not only superior to Moses and Aaron and all these things in the past, the prophets and angels, he is now also superior in the covenant that he brings. There is a covenant in the Old Testament. Remember Abraham was the first one that God brought the covenant to, God said to Abraham, ‘Abraham if you will leave your home here and go to another land which I will show you, I will make you a great nation. I will bless you, I will make all the nations blest because of you. You will have many nations come from your loins.’ And Abraham said that sounds good, I’ll do that. And he did. He left his home and went to Canaan, left the early Chaldeans and traveled to the new place where God was going to show him. Well, that was the covenant. God says I will do this providing you do this. God was always faithful to his part of the covenant even though man was sometimes unfaithful to his part of the covenant. The covenant was then given to Isaac and Jacob and to the whole land of Israel actually eventually. For God said here is what I will do if you will do your part. God says I will give you great blessings, I will make your name great, I’ll make all the world blest because of you. If you will faithfully serve me. That was the covenant, the parts of the covenant also had to do with the sacrifice and things like that. And so the covenant was, there was a covenant of forgiveness in the blood of animals as they were sacrificed. God said I will do this, if you will do this. Well they were used to that covenant. But when one person in the covenant party dies the covenant ends and a new covenant has to be re-established.

So Verse 18, Chapter 7 says, There is a new covenant. ‘For on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. And inasmuch as it was not without an oath (for they indeed became priest without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him.’ Verse 22 says, ‘So much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. And the former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers, because they were prevented by death from continuing, but He, on the other hand, because He abides forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercession for them.’ So he says we have the old priesthood and the old covenant which is temporary and external. We know have a new priest and a new covenant which is internal and eternal. Jesus it says, always lives to make intercessions for us. He never stops interceding before God on our behalf.

He says in fact in Chapter 8, ‘Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, 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 Lord pitched, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, Jesus wouldn’t, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law; who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, “See” He says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.” But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.” So he says the old covenant, the old guarantee, in a sense the old bargain was ok for its time, there is a better one now. The priests were temporary, they were sinful, they had to offer sacrifices for themselves, they died but now we have a priest who lives forever, he always intercedes for you on God’s behalf, he is not going to die. In fact he sits at the very right hand of God. Not like a human priest could do. And not only that the new covenant, it says in Verse 7, ‘For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them, He says, “Behold days are coming, says the Lord, When I will effect a New covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah; not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and I did not care for them, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me.” So he says the old covenant is external, it was a system. The new covenant is a relationship. God will be with us in the form of the Holy Spirit he lives within us. So it is a whole different system, for God now lives within us, in the form of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 13 says, ‘When he said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.” So he says he is better than Moses, he is better than all these things, he is superior in every way to all the old system. In fact in Chapter 9 he talks about the sanctuary, the old sanctuary was the holy of holies. For it reside the glory of God. Now if the temple was a huge structure. In Jesus day it covered most of a city block, at least maybe more. Beautiful white marble temple that Herod was building took 46 years to build, at least until Jesus time, then it took some years after that. The Holy Holies was in the middle of that or one end of it, it was a small place a cubical room by about 15 feet by 15 feet by 15 feet. Only one time a year could the priest go into that Holy of Holies and that was at Atonement time. He went into the Holy of Holies and it was lite not by any human institution, it was lite by the glory of God. The light inside that was the glory of God, it was lighted by the glory of God. The priest had to go in there in a holy manner otherwise he would die on the spot because it was a very sanctuary in the sense of God. It was not God’s whole sanctuary obviously because he owns the whole world and is ever present everywhere. But for the purpose of his people, he gave them a place where they could come into his very presence without dying as long as they were pure spiritually. Some of them weren’t, in fact, eventually they found that some of the priests died in that place and they actually put bells on there robes and a rope around their foot just in case they weren’t holy when they went in there and God struck them dead when the bells stopped ringing they knew that something was wrong and they pulled them back out because they hadn’t gone in with holy hearts. So God said, this is the place where only the Holy can come. Now the Holy of Holies was opened up, remember when Jesus died on the cross, the temple was split in two it says. It was ripped. The temple curtain might have been anywhere from six inches to two feet thick. We are not really sure how thick it was. No person could rip that and interesting is the timing of that. Denny Miller, one of our pastor’s who loves studying this stuff, says at the moment that Jesus died on the cross paying for our sins, the temple curtain was ripped. It would have been at that moment that the high priest for that year would have been standing before that curtain ready to enter the Holy of Holies. To represent the people and the curtain would have ripped before his very eyes. And he would have know exactly what that meant. It would have meant that the Holy of Holies was now open for anyone to enter. That is what it says, there is an old sanctuary, there is a new sanctuary. In fact it says in Chapter 9, Verse 12, ‘And not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.’

Down to Verse 23, ‘Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God.’ So now we don’t have a priest who represents us before God, we can come before him ourselves. Says we can come boldly to the throne of grace and receive mercy and graceful help in time of need. Says all these things are just a shadow. The sacrifice of Christ was superior to the old sacrifices. The sacrifices took place day by day, year by year but it says in Chapter 10, Verse 3, ‘But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.’ Verse 10 say, ‘By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.’ The animals had to be sacrificed yearly, regularly, Jesus did it once and for all time. There is no reason for him to be sacrificed again he did that once. His resurrection set him at the very right hand of the throne of God. So he intercedes for us.

So he says in Verse 18, ‘Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.’ There is no longer sacrifice when there is forgiveness. Forgiveness means the sins are gone. So what is there to sacrifice for? So we don’t need to have sacrifices any longer, we now have Christ who died once for all. So he warns us again in Verse 19, ‘So therefore brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope with out wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more, as you see the day drawing near. For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain terrifying expectation of judgment, and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?’

Verse 31 says, ‘It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.’ So he says if the Jews who trampled on the sacrifices of Moses were punished how much more how much more severe will we who have the true knowledge of Jesus Christ who came in the flesh, and died and resurrected and now sits on the right hand of God and is claimed to be the way of salvation. How much more severe the punishment will be if we say Jesus doesn’t mean anything. He is not the Savior. Any way you want to is good. No, he says how much severe, a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living God when we have rejected his truth.

Now on the basis of what do we call this the truth? On the basis of the fact that it is God’s word. Proven by prophecy, proven by fulfilled prophecy, proven the very truth of the things that he teaches, proven by the very existence of Jesus Christ at death and resurrection. We know it to be the truth and he confirms in our hearts to the Holy Spirit. Tells us in I Corinthians, Chapter 2 that he now dwells within and teaches us the things of God. So they are confirmed, in fact, his Holy Spirit bares witness with our Spirit, that we are children of God. So he says don’t forsake these teachings that Jesus Christ is the way of salvation. Don’t let the New Age Thought and the other religions of the world say oh anyway is good as long as you try to get there somehow, all roads lead to Rome. All roads lead to heaven whatever path of faith you choice is good. It is not. Jesus said there are many ways a person could go but only one narrow way and few will find that way because many will reject the gospel of Jesus Christ. Don’t do that. Don’t do that. In fact he finalizes the whole book by saying, ‘Hold fast, draw near, consider him, don’t forsake him and don’t shrink back.

Notice what he says in Chapter 10, Verse 35, ‘Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay, But my righteous one shall live by faith; and if He shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in Him. But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul.’ Don’t withdraw from what you know. Don’t withdraw from what you believe. Because in the next Chapter he talks about persecution. He talks about those who suffer great things. He says, don’t fall back even in the face of persecution. Don’t fall back in Chapter 12 even in the face of discipline from God. Sometimes we live unpleasantly because God is disciplining us. It says also don’t fall back for any reason at all. Even in the face of temptation. Says we have not resisted to the point of shedding of blood in our resistance of temptation. He says don’t fall back in the face of sin, of temptation, of discipline, even of persecution. Hold fast, he said, your faith to the very end.

Final statement here it says a very interesting in this article. “If the culture indeed is drifting towards a new syncretic religion. Syncretic means accepting all forms and putting them all together. Christians may see churches, quote unquote, like Agape grow bigger and bigger as there own numbers decline. Christians will find themselves demonized as intolerant perhaps our cultures worst form of abuse. Christians have endured martyrdom but can they endure unpopularity?” It is not popular to say there is only one way of salvation and that is to acknowledge your sins, ask Jesus Christ to forgive your sins and enter your life and make you like he is. That is what God wants us to be, like Christ. That is highly unpopular because people are taught today that you are really good inside and you have no need of forgiveness. Because after all you have the best of intent, therefore, God doesn’t have to forgive anything. No the scripture says, No, inside of us is the evil that lurks within us and causes us to sin. We need forgiveness and we can not accomplish forgiveness on our own, it is done by Jesus who is the superior sacrifice. The superior mediator, the superior sanctuary, the superior to all else. Believe him, hold fast your confidence, and don’t give up no matter what. Because he is the truth.

Lets pray,

Father we thank you. We have the truth in Jesus Christ. Father we are exclusive in that. You are the one who said it. No one comes to the Father but through me. Father we don’t want to be called intolerant, we want to be called loving. We know we love people. We love Christians and non-Christians alike. We don’t care what a person is we love them, we have been called to love even our enemies but Father help us to allow that love to shine through. But also the truth of Jesus Christ to shine through that people will see our lives and glorify Christ. They will say, how is it that you believe? What is it that you believe? Then we can tell them about Jesus Christ who is superior to every other attempt at righteousness. Because we on our own part have no ability to be righteous, we are sinners. So therefore righteousness has to be given to us by the God of righteousness, Jesus Christ who died for us. Father if there is anyone here this morning who is tempted to fall back from their faith in Christ and to accept other doctrines or to question their own faith. Help that not to be so, Father because Jesus claims and is the only true way of salvation, of eternal life. He said it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living God by rejecting the truth of Jesus Christ. Let that not be true of any of us here this morning. Help us to hold fast in the face of temptation or persecution even, of the discipline of God, of anything Father help us to hold fast, firm until the end.
In Jesus Name we pray, Amen.

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