I want to start with a fundamental
question, and I know it's a question that I often ask, because this
is the whole point of the gospel that we preach. But the fundamental
question is this, how can I be in a right relationship with
God? People that have any interest
in eternity want to be in a right relationship with God. You ask
them, religious people around the world of all sorts of different
faiths, they want to be in what they think is a right relationship
with God. What does a right relationship
consist of? Well it consists of being at
peace with God. Are you in a right relationship
with God? Do you know that you have peace with God? Protection
from God. Safety. These are all things
that we want. Acceptance with God. Blessing
from God. You want to have a good hope
on which to look forward. A good, solid hope. A good, solid
base. You want comforting promises
on the basis of this right relationship. You want to be unafraid of death.
All of these things and many more, no doubt. And there's a
corollary to that question. What is the nature of a good
right relationship with God? How should I relate to God? How
should I worship Him? How should I approach Him? How
should I interact with Him? How should I interact with His
people? If you go and ask religion these fundamental questions,
then religion will tell you exactly what you need to do. And each
different religion has its own recipe for what you need to do
In order to be in a right relationship with God, you need to do this,
you need to go to mass, you need to say prayers, you need to do
this on a certain day, you need to wear these particular clothes
and not wear those particular clothes, all sorts of things.
Religion will tell you what you need to do. But if you ask the
Spirit of God to show you from the Word of God, because to the
law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this
Word, there is no light in them, there is no truth in them, we
ask The scripture, this was the motto of the Reformation, sola
scriptura, the scriptures alone. To what court do we appeal in
formulating our doctrine? The court of scripture alone,
nothing else. The Holy Spirit's enlightening
of the scripture, the scripture is it. And there you see the
phrases like this, speaking of a right relationship with God.
This is what the scripture says of those who are in a right relationship
with God. It says he's blessed us. with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ that's Ephesians
1 verse 3 blessed with all spiritual blessings read Romans 8 21 we
have been delivered from the bondage of corruption which is
the corruption that all by nature are in. We've been delivered
from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of
the children of God. That's what a right relationship
with God is about. The glorious liberty of the children
of God. Glorious liberty. Stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, says Paul to
the Galatians. Glorious liberty. This is what
a right relationship is about. This chapter 8 of Hebrews talks
about a more excellent ministry and a better covenant. Better
covenant and better promises. That's what it talks about. Being
in a right relationship with God. To understand it, you need
to know a bit about covenants. You know what covenants are?
Covenants are agreements between two or more persons. I think
that's what a catechism said many, many years ago. A covenant
is an agreement between two or more persons. And we have legal
agreements, we have testaments, we have wills and testaments. My last will and testament, it's
a covenant. It's signed and it says what's
going to happen. in the scriptures there are covenants
between God and man and several of them but they basically all
boil down to just two the covenant of works and the covenant of
grace In time, the very first covenant was the covenant of
works that God made with Adam in the Garden of Eden. Basically,
God said to him, do this and you shall live. Disobey me, and
in the day that you do, you shall surely die. It was as clear as
that. It was the covenant of works.
That was the first covenant in time. In time and space. Once the clock of the universe
had been set going, In time and space, the first covenant that
God made with man was that one with Adam, the covenant of works.
But even then, as soon as that covenant was broken, and there
was the fall, the covenant of grace was revealed there in the
seed of the woman. You know, when the judgment was
being pronounced on the serpent, and on Adam and Eve, they were
being turfed out of the Garden of Eden, and all those things
that are so symbolical of grace were being done, Even there,
the woman was to have a seed that would crush the serpent's
head, and that was Christ. Speaking of grace in Christ,
and even then However long it was, thousands of years before
Moses came along and was given the law, the Levitical law, the
Mosaic law, the law of the priesthood and the temple, there was animal
sacrifice. For what did God do there in
the garden? Animals were slain and Adam and Eve were clothed
with the skins of an animal sacrifice, even there. And grace was revealed
to Noah. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Abraham was shown grace, get
you out from your country, from your kindred, the family of idolaters,
get out from them, go to a place that I'll show you. And I promise
I will make of you a great nation, a nation of faith. to Isaac,
his son, to Jacob, his son. The same promises of grace were
all given. And then the covenant of Mosaic
law was given at Sinai. You know, when they came out
of Egypt and Moses went up into the mountain and was given all
of the things that had to be done. And we read some of it
back in Exodus chapter 19. But do you know what that was? That covenant that was shown
to Moses was really the covenant of grace in types and pictures
wasn't it? it was animal sacrifices it was
priests to intercede it was temples and symbols and all of these
things in a way it was the covenant of grace in pictures but the
keeping of it was a covenant of works it was a law covenant
you must keep it look at verse six look what in Hebrews chapter
six in Hebrews chapter eight verse six sorry verse five God
said to Moses at the end of that verse see saith he that thou
make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in
the mount The implication is clear. Make sure you don't get
one solitary aspect of it wrong. Everything must be exactly right. You must keep it. If you fail
to keep it, if the lamb is not kept 14 days and observed to
make sure it's without blemish and without spot, it's not an
acceptable sacrifice. He won't accept the blood. The
priest will go in and will be consumed for coming with an unacceptable
sacrifice. Make sure everything is according
to the pattern. This chapter 8 sums up the entire
message of scripture. I put on the bulletin this week
what Robert Hawker wrote in his Poor Man's Commentary on Hebrews
chapter 8. The summary, the reflection,
some of those reflection words. Read those, that's all I had
space for on that quarter of a page. But read what it says.
It's the summary of the entire message of Scripture, and what
is it? It is that Christ is the sum and substance of all revelation,
of all acceptance with God, of all confidence concerning now
and eternity, and He is the basis, the only basis, the sum and substance
of a right relationship with God. How can I be in a right
relationship with God? I must be in Christ. There's
no relationship with God that is comforting in any way at all
outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, but in Him, Jesus my friend,
we just sum. You know? Our God is a consuming
fire. It is a terrible thing, a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Jesus, my
friend. Jesus, my friend. That's a right
relationship. That's a relationship of grace. And this chapter sums up the
whole message of scripture. That Christ is the sum and substance
of all revelation, of all acceptance with God, of all confidence.
Let's look at it. Verse one. now of the things
which we have spoken this is the sum we have such a high priest
who is set sitting on the right hand of the throne of the majesty
in the heavens he's the summary this is all the stuff that he's
been saying right from chapter one about Christ being better
the one through whom God made the worlds but now he's better
than the angels he's better than Moses and the priesthood he's
better than the temple he's better than all of these things he's
a priest after the order of Melchizedek and not after the order of Levi
his is an eternal priesthood after all of these things he
says this is the summary this is the sum we have such a high
priest We have such a high priest. We, believers in Christ, believers
in the gospel of God, we have such a fitting high priest. What
is a high priest? Let me remind you. He's a mediator. He's a go-between. An effective
go-between. An ambassador between. One who
bridges the gap, the chasm that there is between, what were we
reading in Isaiah 57, not very long ago? God is the high and
lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose thoughts are higher than
our thoughts, whose ways altogether different to our ways, and what
are we? The scripture calls us worms. The scripture calls us
mere worms, such low things. Although made in the image of
God, yet by sin so defiled that we're so far short of his glory.
And yet he mediates, our Lord Jesus Christ, our great high
priest, after the order of Melchizedek. He mediates, he intercedes, he
goes between. How does he do it? As the sin-debt
payer, he goes with the currency that has paid the sin-debt of
his people. He goes as the inexhaustible fount of the righteousness of
God for his people and to his people. Not only has he done
it for his people, but he's imputed it to his people. We are the
righteousness of God. If you're a believer, the righteousness
of God in him. And why does it say who is set
on the right hand of the throne? Because he's finished it. Do
you meditate on this? Why is it so important that the
work is finished? Why is it so important that he's
sat down? It's because it is finished.
There's no more to do. There's nothing left to do. He
has accomplished it all. He's finished his work. and he's
God co-equal with the father this is what it means set on
the right hand of the throne of the majesty on high meaning
that he the second person of the trinity is there in that
throne of the majesty on high in heaven we have such a high
priest why would you look to a fallen mere mortal man to be
your priest, to be your intercessor, to be the one who would stand
between you and God, who would be the basis of a right relationship
with God. How do I approach God? Oh, I
must go to this church and do this liturgy and I can only come
in and do what the priest tells me to do. Why would you do that
when the scripture tells us that the children of God, the people
of God, have this glorious high priest who is sat down, his work
finished in heaven, Verse 2, he's a minister of the sanctuary
and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man.
Remember they went around the wilderness and they carried the
tabernacle with them until there was a temple built in Jerusalem
all of the worship of God was in this tent which is described
in detail in the book of Exodus and they would carry all of its
poles and they would pitch it wherever they stopped and camped
and the glory of God would appear there in that tabernacle and
that tabernacle was symbolical of the true tabernacle of God
which is heaven but not only that what is the dwelling place
of God, where does God say he dwells? He dwells in Zion. Where is Zion? It's his church. Glorious things of thee are spoken.
Zion, city of our God. The church, his church is the
tabernacle that the Lord has pitched and not man. Instead
of people pitching a tent, the priests carrying the bits and
pitching the tent in the wilderness that the worship of God might
go on, the Lord has pitched this tent. His true tabernacle, his
church, his people. And verse three, for every high
priest is ordained. Why are they ordained? You know,
they're licensed. They were given the authority
to do these things in the temple worship in Jerusalem, in the
tabernacle. The Levites, the sons of Aaron,
they were ordained to do this job of offering gifts and offering
sacrifices Why? Why did they do that? Gifts and
sacrifices for the appeasement of wrath, of divine wrath. For
the appeasement of divine wrath against sin. Wrath and judgment. To be turned away. To be propitiated. I know that's a long word, but
that's what it means. The turning away of anger. The mercy seat. Propitiated. And he says, wherefore
it is necessary that this man, though in actual fact in the
original it says this person, not man, have somewhat also to
offer. It's talking about Christ, who
is not just a man, he's the God-man. He's the second person of the
Trinity. In the same way as the physical,
Levitical high priest was ordained to offer typical picture sacrifices
and gifts, wherefore it's necessary that the reality, the real high
priest that we have, we have such a high priest, it's necessary
that this one This person, this glorious person, have somewhat
also to offer. What did he have to offer? What was it that he had to offer? You know there's such a fuss
made of Christmas. this time of year and you know
my thoughts on it I've told you many times it's a very very dark
time of year in the northern hemisphere I can't understand
our southern hemisphere brethren who go and sit on beaches and
pretend that it's the darkest time of the year but here we
are in the northern hemisphere it's in this part of the world
It's dark by four in the afternoon, it's not light again till eight
in the morning. If you've got SAD, what is it? Seasonal Something
Disorder, where you like sunlight, then you don't have a good time
at this time of year. It's dark. It's very dark. And
so we put lights on and decorate houses, and I don't have any
problem with that, and it's nice to sing nice tunes and such like.
But you know, this is the key thing. It isn't all of that fuss
in which we remember the birth of Jesus. All the time his true
people remember this. Our high priest had somewhat
also to offer his body and soul. A body was prepared. He became
man. And why did he become man? Because
only as a man could he be our substitute. Only as a man could
he come in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for man to bear the
sins of man, shed the blood of a man, the infinite blood of
that man who is the Son of God. that one who is the priest after
the order of Melchizedek that's what he came that's what he had
to offer his body and soul his humanity for sin which offering
was fully accepted that offering was fully accepted you know as
the priest went in to the holy of holies with the blood of the
acceptable sacrifice and there was the nervousness about was
it going to be accepted because if it wasn't the priest would
be struck dead And you say, oh no, I don't think that they would
be bothered about that. They would have read about Uzzah.
They would have read about the sons of Korah. They would have
read about what God did to those who treated lightly what he had
said must happen. No, his offering was fully accepted,
he was raised from the dead, he's ascended on high, he's seated
in the heavens, and there he is a priest, a high priest forever. After the order of Melchizedek,
not after the order of Levi, not after that ironic priesthood,
but after the order of Melchizedek, he is a high priest forever.
But you know, he must be in heaven, sitting, and not on earth. Verse
four, for if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing
that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law. Now,
when this was written, I don't know exactly when it was written,
but it was certainly written before A.D. 70. When this was
written, the temple services in Jerusalem were still going
on. They hadn't yet ceased. They were still going on. There
are priests that offer gifts according to the law. there were
priests in the temple in Jerusalem that were offering gifts who
were serving, verse 5, to the example and shadow of heavenly
things as Moses was admonished of God. They were still trying
to do exactly what the pattern was of which you read in the
book of Exodus. Now if our Lord Jesus Christ
were on earth he wouldn't be a priest because he's not of
the tribe of Levi. There are those Levitical priests
that follow the picture, follow the types They do it trying to
do exactly what the Mosaic law specifies. But our Lord Jesus
Christ, you know he said, I have to go away. He said, if I don't
go away, I won't send the comforter to you. And you need the comforter. We need the presence of God wherever
we are. There are believers on the other
side of the world now who have the same communion with the same
spirit of God as we do. he said I must go away he's a
priest in heaven in heaven a high priest there with an acceptable
sacrifice somewhat also to offer his righteousness his blood atonement
the sin debt paid in full you know when Zacharias the father
of John the Baptist he was he was a priest and if you read
in Luke chapter 1 as so many do at this time of year because
it's the account of the lead up to the birth of Christ but
Zacharias the husband of Elizabeth the cousin of Mary the mother
of Jesus he was a priest and he was serving on his feet, not
sitting down. Why? Because it wasn't finished.
Because he was just another one in the stream of mortal priests
who came and went according to life and death. And he was serving
at the temple. And you know when the angel came
to him, he went in to the Holy of Holies with the incense, and
the people were waiting outside anxiously. Was it accepted? There was always doubt. Had they
done it right? Had they done it exactly according
to the pattern showed thee in the mount? Had they done it right?
There was always doubt and anxiety. Have we done it according to
that pattern? and you know that when he was a long time in coming
out they were really concerned that there was going to be a
serious problem and you know he came out dumb from that because
he hadn't believed what the angel told him and he remained dumb
until John the Baptist was born and they said call him Zacharias
and he said no his name shall be John he wrote it down and
then his voice was given back to him there was always that
doubt and anxiety but now But now? You see, are you going to
approach God in a right relationship with God through these human
priests, through these pictures, through these types? There's
always doubt there. There was doubt. Was Zacharias,
was he going to come out? Or were they all going to be
consumed? No, now there is a more excellent ministry. Verse six,
but now hath he, our Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest,
obtained a more excellent ministry. by how much also is he the mediator
of a better covenant which is established on better promises,
a more excellent ministry, a seated high priest in heaven and because
of that there is therefore now no condemnation to those who
are in Christ Jesus. That could never be said to those
serving at the temple and the tabernacle with the Levitical
priesthood. That could never be said because
the blood of bulls and goats can never take away sins, it
can only ever be a picture. But there is therefore now no
condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Our infinitely
superior high priest mediates in the confidence of a finished
work. No doubts, it's finished, he's
set down. He has offered perfect currency
to purchase atonement. They didn't, they offered monopoly
money, those priests, when they went into the Holy of Holies.
You go and try and buy something in the shops with monopoly money.
It looks like money, you play the game with it, but it won't
buy you anything in the shops, it's just a picture. He went
in with perfect currency, perfect to purchase atonement. And what
was that? His blood and his righteousness. Do you know him? Are you resting
in him? If you are, you're like the one
that Jesus described in the Gospels in Matthew 13. He's talking about
one finding the pearl of great price. And if you find, you know,
you imagine this box of jewels. And they all look like jewels,
and you look a bit closer, and there you see one. There were
some jewels sold this week, weren't there? Elizabeth Taylor's jewels
went for £70 million, and one was a massive pearl that was
very old, and that jewel is reckoned to be... You put all those jewels
together, and you would say to somebody who really knew, you
know, one of the antiques roadshow experts in jewellery, If you
could only have one thing of everything here, what would you
have? No question. Because this is the pearl of
greatest price. And that's what Jesus said. If
you find this, the truth of being in him, the gospel of acceptance
with God in him, you go and you just sell, you give it away,
you put it on eBay and you don't care what you get for it. You
sell all your cheap imitation religion, And you buy, you buy
this. And how do you buy it? Isaiah
55. Ho everyone that thirsts, come
buy wine, milk. How? Without money, without price. Free grace. Free grace. Doesn't
require anything of you. Free grace. Just believe him.
Just trust him. What shall we do that we do the
works of God? This is the work of God, that you believe on him
whom he has sent. When you've found that pearl
of great price, how worthless the others. Have you found this
pearl of great price, that we have such a high priest, set
on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, that
we have one there with something worthwhile to offer and that
on the basis of that, that is worth so much that everything
else is just a sham picture. What did Paul say? He said all
of that religion that he had, read Philippians 3, he was a
Hebrew of the Hebrews, of the tribe of Benjamin, circumcised
the eighth day, everything, couldn't have better credentials as a
Jew and a Pharisee. absolutely top of his class,
taught by Gamaliel, couldn't have had better credentials,
and what did he say? All of that which I counted so worthwhile,
when he found the Pearl of Greatest Price, when he found the Gospel
of Grace in the Lord Jesus Christ, when he believed the truth, for
the Spirit of God came to him, and the light shined and showed
him, when he believed that, that was the Pearl of Greatest Price.
And all that other stuff, he said, I count it as done, worthless,
you know it was a it was a society in which there were lots of donkeys
and mules and cattle there'd be piles of dung everywhere worthless
worthless of no value he'd found the pearl of greatest price have
you sold all your cheap imitation religion and bought this pearl
of great price without money and without price it goes on
to tell us that there are only ever two covenants, and this
is a new covenant, a better covenant. Look, it says verse six, by how
much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, established
on better promises. And then he goes on to explain.
You see, there are only ever two covenants, works and grace,
as I've already said. Grace is from eternity to eternity,
outside of time. works and in all of its forms
is only ever in time and space. Do this and live, but grace is
from eternity. I don't know if you notice the
words, I hope you do, the words of the hymns that we sing, but
that last little hymn that we sung talked about his people
being his objects of grace before the beginning of time. being
in that covenant of grace before the beginning of time look at
verse seven for if that first covenant had been faultless,
this is the covenant of works with Adam in all its forms, you
must keep the Mosaic covenant then should no place have been
sought for the second The first that was revealed in time was
works to Adam, but it was faulty. It was probationary. Why was
it faulty? Because of the weakness of the
flesh. We're told that elsewhere in the New Testament. The reason
why it was weak was because of the weakness of the flesh. The
flesh couldn't keep the demands of it. Absolutely impossible.
Peter says when he's preaching at the Council of Jerusalem,
I think it was, where he said, about the gentiles he said we
mustn't put burdens on them because he said admit it yourselves to
his fellow jews we couldn't keep we couldn't keep those laws he
said we couldn't we couldn't keep those laws it was just physically
impossible let's not try to pretend that we can get these gentiles
to come and keep those laws that's not what the gospel is about
It was faulty and probationary because of the weakness of the
flesh. They couldn't even keep the picture, the symbol, the
correct way of running the temple and the priesthood, they couldn't
even keep that correctly. No, this is a new covenant. It's
a new covenant in that it's the eternal covenant, the covenant
from eternity that is newly revealed again in the gospel of grace
in Christ. That's what this new covenant
is, newly revealed again in the gospel of grace in Christ. This
covenant was revealed to Noah, to Abraham, to the patriarchs,
to the psalmists, to the prophets, to many in Israel. who waited
for its fulfillment, this covenant was revealed. It was revealed,
surely it was revealed to Simeon, who waited at the temple, that
he might see God's salvation. It was revealed to Anna, it was
shown to her, for she was waiting, 90 years old. It was revealed
to Zacharias, and Elizabeth, and many others, but now to the
church, to his people. Colossians 1.26 says, even the
mystery, this is the gospel, which hath been hid from ages
and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints.
Look at verses 8 and 9. For finding fault with them,
he saith, talking about this old covenant of works, behold
the days come, and he's now quoting Jeremiah, Jeremiah 31, behold
the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant
I will reveal this new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah not according to the covenant that I made with
their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead
them out of the land of Egypt because they continued not in
my covenant and I regarded them not saith the Lord for this is
the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after
those days saith the Lord I will put my laws into their mind and
write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they
shall be to me a people and they shall not teach every man his
neighbor and every man his brother saying know the Lord for they
shall all know me from the least to the greatest for I will be
merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more a new covenant newly revealed in the
gospel of his grace not a covenant of works you're not under law
but under grace This is the clear message of the scripture to the
people of God. You are not under law, but under
grace. You're under gospel laws. You're
under gracious laws. You're under the royal law of
the Lord Jesus Christ, not the law of do this and live, disobey
and die. Not the moral law of right and
wrong written in the conscience as it is in general. You read
Romans chapter one, The moral law of right and wrong is written
in the conscience of all people, so it says that God is just in
condemning. But no, this is talking about
gospel precepts. It's talking about fruitful precepts,
that God will write on the hearts of his people the gospel of his
grace. And verse 10 talks about living
communion with God. A right relationship. That was
the question I asked right at the start. This is about the
basis of a right relationship with him, a sinner and a holy
God, mediated by our heavenly high priest. Not an earthly priest,
a heavenly high priest. So that verse 11, Peter says
this in his epistle and we read it in Exodus chapter 19 about
verse 4 or 5 and there is where God said it. You, he says, Peter
says, you who believe, you who are in this right relationship
with God, through our high priest, our great high priest, our priest
after the order of Melchizedek in the heavens, you are a chosen
generation. You individually are a royal
priesthood. That's why they don't say, know
the Lord, for everyone shall know me. For everyone in Christ
has direct access into the holy of holies. When Christ died,
On Calvary, the veil of the temple that separated the people was
torn from top to bottom. You're a holy nation, a peculiar
people, showing forth the praises of him who has called you out
of darkness into his marvelous light. There you see it echoes,
Exodus 19. We must keep that covenant, but
we can only keep it in the Lord Jesus Christ. And then verse
12, I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins
and their iniquities will up. This is the covenant. This is
the new covenant. God being merciful. to the unrighteous,
not sweeping it under the carpet, but mercy. And their sins and
their iniquities will I remember no more. Why will he remember
them no more? Because he's taken them out of
the way. As Daniel prophesied several hundred years before,
Daniel 9, 24, talks about Messiah coming to make an end of sins. well you say but we still if
we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not
in us but he has taken our sins away as far as the east is from
the west he's buried them in the deepest sea and he's sat
down he's finished that work a new covenant and then finally
very briefly a vanished covenant look at verse thirteen in that
he saith a new covenant he hath made the first old covenant of
works now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish
away remember I said this was probably written I don't know
better historians than me will tell me I'm wrong but somewhere
around A.D. 60 I would imagine certainly before A.D. 70 that old covenant that Levitical
covenant was coming to an end. It was ready to vanish away and
it did vanish away in A.D. 70. I find this one of the most
remarkable facts of history vindicating the word of God. I find given
the scheming of mankind and his ability to build towers of Babel
to try and create his own godless utopia in the way that he thinks
he can get to heaven and reach up to heaven you would think
by now pure religion would have done something to reverse A.D. 70. Do you know what happened
in A.D. 70? Jesus prophesied it in his
ministry. As he was walking the earth and
ministering, he prophesied that days were coming. Read about
Matthew 24 or thereabouts. He was talking about A.D. 70
when the rest of the prophecy of Daniel 9 came to pass. It
was ended. sacrifice and offering was ended. The Roman emperor Tiberius got
fed up with allowing the Jews to run their own business and
he came and he flattened Jerusalem. He destroyed the temple absolutely
destroyed it. And you read, you look at Jewish
history, I looked it up on the internet just to see, am I not
leaping out here on a limb that I'm not too sure about? Why is
there no more animal sacrifice in Jewish religion? Do you know
why? There's no temple. It's a sin for there to be animal
sacrifice anywhere other than in the temple in Jerusalem. Since
A.D. 70 there has not been a temple
in Jerusalem and that is the reason why. Why hasn't there?
because do what they might, mankind can't do anything about it, God
has prevented it he put an end to that picture sacrifice because
the true had come the real had come a new covenant has come
and the first has become old and not only was it then ready
to vanish away we now look back to A.D. 70 and we know that it
did vanish away and the truth is this all imitations and we're
surrounded by them All modern or ever since imitations of the
Levitical Mosaic order are finished too. That's the truth. That is
absolutely the truth. We have no human priests today. As I said at the time the Church
of England was debating about whether it should have women
priests. I said the issue is not should it have women priests. The issue is should it have priests.
There are no priests today, for the true church has our great
high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's all about how we should
worship him, and how we should approach him, and the liturgy
that we should use. How should I relate to God? In
Christ alone, our great high priest. How should I worship
God? Oh, you need to go to this temple
and you can't worship God unless you go to a proper church with
candles and in. Is that what the scripture says?
What did Jesus say? The days are coming when those
who worship God will worship him in spirit and in truth. Spirit and truth. That's it. That's it. What about others
all around us? How do we relate to them by this
law of God? This gospel glow of grace written
in our hearts bearing the fruit of the Spirit in Christ-like
submission to one another. A new covenant, better promises,
a better testimony.