Turn with me back to Hebrews
chapter 11. Hebrews chapter 11. So the first hour, as some of
you know, most of you know, we were looking at verses 32
through 40. titled that message, Some Better
Thing, and decided to cut that short because I never have preached
an hour before or longer than an hour. And normally people
start dozing if you do that, just facts. So I didn't want
to make everybody tired, but also I felt led to do so. So
we're going to continue where we left off. Let's just read
the text again to get started. Hebrews chapter 11, verse 32
through 40 says, And what shall I more say? For the time would fail me to
tell of Gideon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthah,
of David also, and Samuel, of the prophets, who through faith
subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the
mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the
edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant
in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received
their dead raised to life again, and others were tortured, not
accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection.
And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea,
moreover, of the bonds of imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn
asunder, They were tempted, they were slain with the sword. They
wondered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute,
afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They
wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the
earth. And these all having obtained a good report, through faith,
received not the promise, God, having provided some better thing
for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. I would remind us in the first
hour, we were looking at some better thing he mentioned there,
God providing some better thing for us. And what is that better
thing? Well, we have actually received
the promise we have And they had been given the promise of
the Lord, but we have its fullness, the fullness of the promise of
God fulfilled, completed in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Just as Al was reading about where it started at, at his birth.
That's the fullness of the promise. All these that are here in chapter
11, they were looking forward to the Lord Jesus Christ being
born. So whenever they did the works
that they did, they were doing them by faith under the Lord.
They weren't doing the works by trying to establish a righteousness. Just as you and I, we come together
or sometimes we have a work day here. Why do we do that? Well, we want to tidy up the
place and make the place look good. Keep it going. Why? Well,
we're looking and hoping that the Lord, as Al said, he'll raise
up a, a lighthouse here, a candlestick here that the Lord's Word may
go forth in free course. We're doing it by faith. We're
looking unto Him to order and provide. We're looking to Him
to bless it. And that's what these men and
women did. They lived their lives by faith, not looking to the
old law as their righteousness. but looking to the law, looking
to the covenant of grace, not the covenant of the law, not
the covenant of works, but the covenant of grace. There's only
two covenants that ever have been or ever will be. The law
and grace. The covenant of works, do and
live, and the covenant of grace, I have done and you shall. It's
a big difference, isn't it? Covenant of grace far proceeds
and exceeds the covenant of works. It's an eternal covenant. It's
an everlasting covenant. The Lord called it an everlasting
covenant to Abraham. He called it the everlasting
covenant to David, the sure mercies of David, the everlasting covenant.
David on his deathbed said, although it be not so with my house, yet
the Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant. I mean,
it never had a beginning and it never had an end. He just
found out about it. David just found out about it in time. And
that's what he does for his people. He shows us the covenant of grace
whereby we must be saved. If we're not saved by the covenant
of grace, then we're not going to be saved. The covenant of
works was between God and man. God and man. He said, you do
this and you'll live. But man realized they couldn't
fulfill the demands of the law. They couldn't, not for righteousness,
so they obeyed God out of faith. The ones that were His, the elect
of God in the Old Testament, the ones that were His. They
obeyed by faith, looking unto Christ, looking unto the Lord
for His Messiah. When they would go to worship
and they took that lamb, they were looking to the Lamb of God
as their righteousness. When they took the blood and
put it up on the lintel in the doorpost in Moses' time, they
did that by faith unto the Lord, looking to the blood as all their
hope of eternal life. It's the same gospel from Genesis
to Revelation. It's the Lord Jesus Christ is
all. And it's all by this covenant
of grace that was established, not between God and man, but
between God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
The Lord said, I, the Father said, I will elect a people.
And the Son said, I will redeem those people. And the Spirit
said, I will regenerate those people in the fullness of time.
And why would they do that for anyone? All by His glorious grace,
all by His glorious purpose, all for His glory. All for His
glory according to His will and His determinate counsel. And
that's what He does for each one of His children. Covenant of works is the covenant
of death. The covenant of grace is the
covenant of life. Covenant of works is the covenant,
well it works, isn't it? Covenant of Grace is the covenants
of rest. It's finished. You know, resting
is not a work. By definition, it's not a work.
If you're resting, you can't be working. If you're resting,
you can't be working. And to the contrary, if you're
working, cannot be resting, there can't be both. These are so simple
truths that so many people twist and contort to make it something
that it's not. Either we're resting or we're
working. Either we're running to the old
covenant, hoping to establish a righteousness before God, saying,
look at me, look what I've done in some way, shape, or form.
Or we're completely, 100% resting in the finished work of Christ
alone, alone. Now God has only saved his people
one way, ever, one way, by the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's how, the only way he saved them, the only way he saved them,
looking to the blood on their behalf, choosing them unto salvation
and then saving them. That's the only way anyone can
be saved and it's by grace alone. Those in the Old Testament, Whether
we're talking about Adam, to Noah, to Abraham, Moses, keep
going through all of them that he mentions in chapter 11. They
were saved by one thing, by one reason, the Lord Jesus Christ. They were not saved because of
their works. Their works were done because
faith was given to them to believe God, to believe the Lord Jesus
Christ. So we see that faith, I'm gonna
say it this way, faith doesn't, I don't wanna say faith works,
I guess that would be an okay way to say it, but faith acts.
And what does faith do? Let's say it that way, what does
faith do? It looks to Christ. It causes the one that has it
to look to Christ in all things. In all things, it's in Him we
live and move and we have our being. This is good news because
if He's requiring something of me for my salvation, I have no
hope. We're shown that our works can't
save us, just like the Old Testament. They saw their works couldn't
save them, but they and us look to God in obedience by faith
alone. Those that look to God by faith and obedience are looking
to the new covenant, the better, as it says right here, the better
thing, some better thing, the new covenant of grace, the fullness
of the promise received, revealed, and established, finished on
the cross of Calvary. That's what we look to. We're
not looking for the Lord to do something else. As far as salvation
goes, it's finished, isn't it? We're not looking to Him to pass
by and maybe call upon you and I and then give us a decision
to give Him our heart or to cause us to say a certain prayer or
to, I say this and I'm not joking, but eat a cookie or something
that men do and they say, okay, I know that I've done that, I've
marked that off, I'm saved now. We're not looking for that. No,
we believe it is finished. What we're looking for is for
Him to come by and say, live. live, regenerate me. And that's
why he says in 2 Timothy 1.9, God saved us and then called
us. The salvation of the Lord's already
been established and accomplished. This is the better thing. This
is the better thing. And then in time, he calls us
out of darkness into light. And all those that he saved,
he will call in time. And there are those that go to
the law instead. They believed the covenant of
works. And it's not that we go to the
law as in just the Old Testament law. And I want to be clear on
this. So many times we hear the word law and we think of the
Ten Commandments, but the way some people's law, brethren,
some people's law is the way they treat people. Did you know
that? I'm a good person. I'm a good person because I treat
people this way. I know people I work with, they
believe in themselves that they are a good person because they
treat people a certain way. And they truly believe, well,
I believe God will let me into heaven because I'm a good person.
I said, what do you mean by being good? I was wanting the definition
of that. And they said to me, they said to me, I treat people
kindly. I'm a good person, I'm not a
bad person. And I said, well, what's a bad
person? They said, well, you've been around them before. They're
rude, they're mean, they're this, they're that. And I said, what
if I told you what God said? And she said, okay, what does
he say? He said, there's none good, no, not one. Being a good person is not establishing
a righteousness by the law. To the contrary, it's establishing
a false righteousness, a self-righteousness that's of the law. to our own
demise, to our own damnation. It's not gonna save us. What
about living morally, that law? Well, I live a certain way, not
just how I treat others, but I really cleaned up. I don't
dress like I used to, I don't talk like I used to, maybe I
don't eat or drink what I used to. I know people that they quit
smoking, they quit doing all kinds of stuff. They said, okay,
now I know that I'm saved because I've done all this. That's a
law, that's law living. Now am I preaching we'll be lawless?
No, I'm preaching look to Christ as your righteousness. Look to
Christ as your only hope of salvation, not what you're doing. Lord will
teach you how to live. Lord teaches his people how to
live, not for righteousness, but out of love, doesn't he?
He teaches us how to live. Looking unto Jesus, looking,
that's how we live. Don't go to the law thinking,
There's many other laws, I mean, and the funny part, it's not
funny, it's just, it is ironic that people go down the line
and they'll say, well, I don't do this, and I don't do that,
and I don't do this, I used to do this, and I used to do that,
and I used to, but I don't do this anymore. How many times
did they break a speed limit? Broke the laws of the land, they
broke God's law. God says obey the laws of the
land. I mean, that's how serious God's law is. It's holy, and
anything you do, that's one time broken. It's forever broken,
and we can't unbreak it. We can't unbreak it. These here
in this chapter 11 knew that the only hope of their salvation
was to be saved by grace through faith, and it's the gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast. That's their hope. That's
their hope. We're all guilty. We're all guilty
before God and I need to be saved from myself and my sin, not just
from what I do. Sin's not what we do. Sin is what we are. Sin's what
we are and we need to be saved from what we are. No, we can't. Can't be like Cain
and bring the works of our hands, that's the Offering the works
of your hands, they were coming with a sacrifice. And I've told
this account many times. They were coming with a sacrifice
unto the Lord. And Cain brought the very, very
best that he had. And how many of us would bring
the very best we had if it was a requirement? We would, wouldn't
we? We wouldn't skimp on it. We would bring the best that
we had, just like him. But the Lord's not looking for
that. Because our best is still just filthy rags. Cain brought
the best of his hands unto the Lord, and the Lord had no respect
for Cain's sacrifice, his offering, or to Cain. Why? Because Cain
was offering Cain's sacrifice and Cain. And there's the problem. Men offer themselves unto God
in hopes God will save them. I'm good enough because I've
done fill in the blank. It's not true. It's not true. I can't be good enough for God
in and of myself. I heard somebody say this week
to me, well, God's on everybody's side. You know, he just waiting
on you to make a decision that God's not on everybody's side.
God's on Christ's side. And if I'm not in Christ, he's
not on my side. That's simple, isn't it? I've got to be found
in him. No, I can't please him and in myself. The scripture
does say this. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. We just looked at that a couple
weeks ago, didn't we? If the Lord gives you faith to look
to Christ, he's pleased with what we're looking at, the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's all of our wisdom, all of
our righteousness, all of our sanctification, all of our redemption.
Why? Because he's the fulfillment of the new everlasting covenant. And calling it the new everlasting
doesn't make sense, but you understand what I'm saying. The first one
passed away, so there's a second one, that's the new one. The
everlasting covenant, he established it. He established it. To approach God by works is to
discredit the work of Christ. That's why it says here in our
text, and this might sound confusing, but it says right here, the very
last part of verse 40, that they without us should not be made
perfect. They without us should not be
made perfect. What do they mean by that? That there was no righteousness
in the law and under grace. For by grace are you saved through
faith and not under yourself. He's saying here, well understand
what I'm saying here. The Old Testament saints, they're
perfectly justified. They are perfectly sanctified,
perfectly glorified, just as we are in Christ Jesus, they
are. But their perfection was not
the law which made them perfect. The law had nothing to do with
their perfection. So running to the law, what I'm
saying is, is the Lord only saves one way and it's by grace alone. By grace alone. So they that
are without us, meaning those that have been saved by grace,
they that are without us, they're not made perfect. Only those
who are saved by grace are made perfect. Hebrews 10.1 says, for
the law having a shadow of good things to come and not the very
image of the thing can never, with those sacrifice which they
offered year by year continually, make the comers thereunto perfect. The Old Testament righteousness
and the New Testament righteousness comes only through and by one
way. the precious blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the precious righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the
precious finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
righteousness in the Old Testament and the New Testament. If you're
gonna be righteous, you have to be found in Christ in the
Old Testament and the New Testament. Well, how could that be if Christ
hadn't came yet? Because the scripture says that
he was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, that
we were given to him in Ephesians chapter 1-4 before the world
ever began, he saw his people in the Lord Jesus Christ. Their
righteousness was not by the law and the law keeping, their
righteousness was looking to God's promise. Looking to God's
promise. And our righteousness is the
same. It's not any different. We're
looking to the promise of God by faith. Christ Jesus is our
righteousness. Christ Jesus is our righteousness.
That's our only hope. That's our only hope. We just know that the promise
has been fulfilled. That's the difference. That's
why this is the better. That's why this is the better thing,
because the promise has already been fulfilled. Scripture says
in Hebrews chapter 10, for by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Therefore they are not made perfect
without us, meaning justification, sanctification, and righteousness
comes by through in one way, through one way in Christ alone.
Our sins and their sins were put away the same way, by the
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus alone. Without his sacrifice, there
would have been no remission of sin. I said this the first hour, but
I wanna repeat this, because this is important, and it's actually
kind of a controversial issue, because there's so many people
that don't believe this, but this is scripture. First of all,
I'll preface it by saying this, the scripture says they that
are all of Abraham are not of Abraham, meaning that they're
seed of promise, not his physical seed. The Jews believed that
they had the promise of God, therefore they were all elect
of God. They were all chosen unto salvation. That's not true. God's chosen people are from
every nation, every tribe, every kindred, every language. It's
very clear in Scripture. He's talking about the seed of
faith given to the Lord's people. The promise came to Abraham first,
and then he passed it down to Isaac, and Isaac to Jacob, and
to so on. And the Lord chose to allow that
faith to be passed down just to you and I. And that's how
that works. So our hope is not in our bloodline. It's not in our heritage. It's
not in what we do or what we are. Our hope's in the Lord Jesus
Christ and His choice in salvation alone. Therefore, the elect Jews
of the Old Testament, the elect children of God in the Old Testament,
and the elect children of God in the New Testament, we're all
one church. We're all the bride of Christ,
every one of us. This is why they couldn't be
perfect in themselves or without us. We're all perfect together
in Christ, that's the point. That's the point. I know that's
what he's saying there. I know that's what he's saying.
For God having provided some better thing for us that they
without us should not be made perfect. See, we've seen it accomplished
and we know that's where our perfection lies. So without what
God has given us in Christ, no one is made perfect. No one is
made perfect. Thank God all the Lord's people
are chosen, elected and justified, made perfect all in one, all
in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the good report actually
mentioned in verse 39. Look at 39, and these all having
obtained a good report through faith received not the promise. They had the good report that
it was coming, but you and I are able to look back to the cross
by faith, obviously, but we have it written down right in front
of us, and we know that it happened. We believe it by faith. We have
the fullness of it, what transpired. This is the better thing, some
better thing mentioned in verse 40. The good news of the gospel
is not God saying, if you do, I will. That's not good news
to me. That's not good news to me. The
good news of the gospel is if God says, I will, and you shall. And that's the difference in
these two covenants. The first covenant is, if you do, I will. The second covenant is, I will
and you shall. I will save you and you'll believe.
I'll die for you and put away your sin and your sin will be
gone. I'll elect you into eternal life and never lose you and you'll
be saved. That's what the Lord did for His people. That's the
difference between the two covenants. And there's only two covenants.
There's not three. There's not four. There's only
two. And there is no hybrid of the two. There is no grace and
works. The scripture's very clear on that. If it's by grace, it's
no longer works. And if it's by works, it's no
longer grace. It's that simple, isn't it? It's that simple. Salvation
was by the law. Christ would have never needed
to come. Turn with me to Galatians chapter two. Look at verse 16. Knowing that
a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the
faith of Jesus Christ. Not your faith in Christ. Notice the difference there.
It's not that you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ by your
faith. It's that he's given you faith to believe him. By the
faith of Christ, not by the works of the law, For by the works
of the law shall no flesh be justified. Let's read that again,
I think I skipped a part there. Knowing that a man is not justified
by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ.
Even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law. For
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. But if
while we seek to be justified by Christ, we find we ourself
are also found sinners. Is therefore Christ the minister
of sin? God forbid, for if I build again
the thing which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor,
for I through the law and dead to the law, that I might live
unto Christ. And here's why. I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness
came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Here he plainly
tells us. plainly tells us that justification
is by the faith of Christ, meaning it's not in ourselves. Meaning
if you have faith to believe God, it's because you've been
justified. He gives faith to those that
are his to believe him, to believe him. We're justified freely by
his grace alone. He's clearly declaring that it's
not of self and not the law. Then he tells us that no flesh
is justified by the works of the law. By the works of the
law shall no flesh be justified. There is no clearer example that
I can think of that tells us there is no justification that
comes through and by what we do. There's no clearer example. No flesh is justified by the
works of the law. Any law, whether it's man's law,
whether it's God's law, whether it's moral or ceremonial or social,
doesn't matter. Then Paul gives us our hope and
his hope both. We are crucified with Christ.
We are dead to the law. The debt that we owed under the
law has now been put away. The sin that we were guilty of
has now been put away by the sacrifice of himself and his
people have been justified freely by his grace. There's the good
news of the gospel. We're crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live. How? Well, it's not I, it's Christ
that liveth in me. In the life that I now live in
the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. His elect died in him to self,
buried with him and raised again to live a life anew. Why? He bore our sorrow on the tree.
He bore our grief on the tree. He bore our sin in his own body
on the tree, and his people now have been justified freely by
his grace, freely by his blood, because he put all of that away.
All of the sin, all the sorrow, all the guilt, all the shame.
And he sums it up in verse 21. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. We now live in him. We now live by him. We live, move, and have our being
in him. Why? Because Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Christ
is the end of the law. The old covenant is gone. Let's
go back to our text in closing. Look at the reason for all this.
I wanna preface what I just said. Look at the reason this was all
necessary. Look at the reason, this is such
a clear example right here of why Christ had to come to do
away with the first covenant, because righteousness could not
be established by it. But why couldn't righteousness
be established by it? Look at verse 34 with me. They
quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword,
out of weakness were made strong. Out of weakness, that's why. because the flesh is weak. The
flesh is enmity against God. The flesh cannot please God.
Out of our weakness, they were made strong. What does that mean?
Well, if we're never made weak, we'll never need His strength,
will we? They that cried upon the Lord cried when they were
at the weakest point. They that cried upon the Lord
cried when they were in the most vulnerable point. You better
believe Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego was crying out to the
Lord when they were throwing them into the fiery furnace,
wouldn't you and I be? Certainly, Lord, save me. Lord, save me. Even our own Lord is an example.
As our example said, Father, let this cup pass through. Nevertheless,
not my will, but thy will be done, as an example. Oh, they
cried out unto the Lord. Lord, have mercy on me. I'm weak. I can't beat this. No, we can't
beat the fiery furnace of the Lord's wrath. We can't fight
the fiery furnace of hell. Lord, you're going to have to
save me from my sin and from myself. And I can't run to the
law if it's hurting death, if I do. Oh, I need the new covenant
of grace. I need the covenant of grace
to be given to me. Here's what the Lord said. My
strength is made perfect in weakness. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. Are you weak? Oh, His strength's
made perfect You can take that as far as you want to. In salvation,
you can take that as far as you want to. In life, my strength
is made perfect. In weakness, the Lord's strong
when we're the weakest. Victory normally doesn't, doesn't
reveal faith. Did you know that? That was in
the next message. We're never going to get to that today, obviously.
Unless you want to have three. I'm just kidding. We're not doing
that. Victory doesn't normally reveal
faith. Sorrow does. Trouble does. Trials do. When you're at your
most vulnerable point, whenever you have no way out, when you're
drowning, when you're literally drowning, when you see yourself
as lame, when you see yourself as impotent, that's when faith
reveals itself. Doesn't reveal itself whenever
you're on top of the mountain, everything's fine, we're good,
got plenty of everything right now, no problems are happening.
Every believer that's in here and every believer that I've
ever known will confess the same thing. You're either in a trial,
you're coming out of a trial, or you're going in a trial. That's
the life of the believer. You do that hundreds of times,
then you die. That's the life of the believer.
People say, well, it's gonna get better. It's gonna get better.
No, it's not. Not in this life, one day it
will. Not in this life, we're not promised a bed of roses and
rainbows, but what we are promised is if we're in Christ Jesus,
fear not, little flock. Fear not, little flock, I've
put away your sin by the covenant of grace that me and my father
entered into. I've put away your sin, you've
been redeemed, you've been saved, and you will not do without.
David said, I was a young man, now am I old. Never have I seen
the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread. Oh, the good
news is, is in our weakness, His strength is manifest unto
us. He's seen, and our faith believes
Him that He's given. My strength is made perfect in
weakness. This is why they endured all these afflictions. Can you
imagine, don't enter into it too far, but what he's saying
here about being persecuted to the point of death, they literally
were dying. All you have to do is just renounce
the name of Christ. First time around anyways, Peter,
he never did deny who the Lord Jesus Christ was, did he? His
faith couldn't fail. The Lord said, I pray that your
faith doesn't fail. But he prayed, but Peter said, no, I don't know
him. I don't know him. He never denied
that thou art Christ, the son of the living God. If they put
us on a burning pole, I pray the Lord give us faith, His faith. If they say, I need you to, you
have to denounce that Christ is the Lamb of God who successfully
redeemed His people. Can't do it. Can't do it. I pray it doesn't come to that,
but I pray if it does, the Lord gives us the faith and the grace
to endure such things. The reason that faith is revealed
in sorrow and hard times is because we lose confidence in ourself
in hard times. We don't have it all together
anymore. We lose confidence more and more in self and believe
Him more and more. They that live godly, the scripture says,
in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. What does that mean,
live godly? Anybody know? That means live looking unto
Jesus. To live godly is live looking unto Jesus. Take heart, brethren. Be of good
cheer. Christ overcame the world. His
faith cannot fail. He's giving us some better thing. We know that it is finished.
The area of the Old Testament knew it was going to be finished
and that God was God, so in a way it was finished. You and I have
the fullness of the scripture that clearly declares it is finished. We're not going back to the old
covenant anymore. We have the new covenant of grace. He's given
us something, some better thing. What's that better thing? For
by grace are you saved through faith in that not of yourself
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. You
know what that means? You can't mess it up. And I can't
mess it up. Can't mess it up. But the law
could not do that it was weak through the flesh. God sent forth
his son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin
in the flesh. It's given us some better thing,
hasn't it? Let's pray. Father, we ask that
you would bless this to our understanding for your glory. I ask that you
would cause us to rest in grace, in your grace, in Christ's name,
amen.