What a joy it is to be able to
sing that from the heart and to believe it. What a hope we have in Christ.
We're going to be in the book of Hebrews this morning looking
at several different verses. If you'd like to find that with
me. Hebrews chapter 2 actually will
be the very first passage we'll look at for our Bible study this
morning. It's so good to have Fred and
Mary Jane back. We miss them when they go away
for the summer, but glad they were able to come back a little
early this year. And Jerry Salzberg's been out for three or four weeks.
Over in England, six weeks? Really? Okay. Well, time flies
when you're getting old, brother. We're glad you're back, Jerry. Let's ask the Lord to bless His
Word to our hearts. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we're so
very thankful for the hope that we have in Christ of an eternal
home and how we're made to understand that
this life truly is brief and it is full of vanity. We ask
that your Holy Spirit would enable us now to set our affections
on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of
God. Lord, that we'd be able to join our hearts and voices
with Solomon in declaring all that is in this world as vanity
of vanities. That, Lord, the pearl of great
price, the Lord Jesus Christ himself, would be purchased with
faith and Lord that you would give to us that faith. We thank you for his accomplished
work. We thank you Lord that the law has been fulfilled and
your justice has been satisfied and we have freedom in Christ. We pray that you'd bless your
word now to our hearts and that you would cause us to rejoice
in those things that you call great. For we ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. I've titled this study,
Seven Great Greats. Seven Great Greats. As you know,
the number seven in the word of God is the number for perfection. and completeness and rest. The Lord rested on the seventh
day because He was finished with all of His work. We rest in Christ
on this Lord's day knowing that the work of redemption has been
completed in Christ. In the book of Hebrews, there
is a word that is, by the Spirit of God, repeated seven times. And it's the word great. Great. Now we are prone to exaggerate
in our use of language, are we not? We call things wonderful
that really aren't full of wonder. And of course it's very popular
now to use the word awesome to speak of things that really aren't
breathtaking and that really aren't worthy of worship, which
is what the word awesome really means. And so it is with the
word great. We talk about a car being great,
or a person being great, or a meal being great. And we might even
use the word great facetiously to express our disappointment
when we say great. God's not prone to do that. The Lord's very precise and very
accurate in his language and when he uses the word great it
means that it's great to him. Now I want to know what's great
to God. What does he consider to be great?
He doesn't exaggerate and he doesn't underestimate when he
speaks. He speaks the truth in clarity
and in simplicity. And so seven times now in the
book of Hebrews, the Lord tells us what he considers to be great. And so I've titled this, Seven
Great Greats. These are things that stand out
to God as exceptional. Things that are extraordinary. Things that are unique, tremendous,
larger than life itself. God calls something great, it's
great. In Hebrews chapter 2 verse 1, therefore we ought to
give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard,
lest at any time we should let them slip We need to give our
undivided attention to the things that God has spoken, lest we
lose sight of them and lose faith in them. For if the word spoken by the
angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompense of reward." He's speaking of those
Old Testament saints that did not, or the Old Testament Israelites,
forgive me, that did not believe the word of God and how the Lord
recompensed them with judgment because of their unbelief. He
says now we have a much more sure word of prophecy. We have
the Lord Jesus Christ himself. This book starts out, you remember,
in verse 1 of chapter 1. God who at sundry times and in
divers manners spake unto our fathers by the prophets in the
in the times past has in these last days spoken unto us by His
Son. So this is the very Word of God
spoken by the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's saying
if God recompensed those Old Testament Israelites who received
the message of God by prophets and by angels and by Moses, how
much more will he recompense those who have heard the very
Word of God through the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ. Give
earnest heed to this word. This is God speaking Himself. Now look at the next verse. How
shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? The first great in the book of
Hebrews, in the seven greats, is that God says salvation is
great. It's great. It's great in its
origin. Salvation was purposed by God
in His own heart and mind before the world ever began. And as we said last week, God
has never had a new thought. Jim Resenti and I were talking
afterwards and he said to me, he said, he said, has it ever
occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God? That's a profound statement.
You think about it. Has it ever occurred to you that
nothing, nothing has ever occurred to God? He's the same. Yesterday, today, and forever. He's never had a new thought.
He's never changed. He said, I am the Lord and I
change not. And that's the only reason that
you sons of Jacob are not consumed by me. Because I have established
a great salvation in my own heart and mind and that can't be changed.
It can't be changed. And it always has been. He said,
I've loved you with an everlasting love. There's never been a time
when God hasn't viewed his elect in Christ and loved them with
a perfect love. Now that's a great salvation.
A great salvation is a salvation that has its origin in God and
it cannot be changed. You can't add to it, you can't
send your way out of it, and you can't work your way into
it. God has established it according to his own will and purpose before
the world ever began. What a great God we have who
has established a great salvation. It's great in its purpose. The
purpose of our salvation is not our salvation. You got that? We're gonna look at Psalm 115,
the second hour, and David says in Psalm 115, not unto us, O
Lord, not unto us, but unto thy glory, unto thy name be glory,
for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Our salvation is not about us.
It's about God. That's a much higher purpose.
That's a much higher purpose. It's a much more wonderful salvation
when you see that the salvation of sinners is not primarily and
ultimately about the sinner. It's about the glory of God.
That's what makes salvation so great. It's great in its origin,
it's great in its purpose, it's great in its revelation. Look
what he says in verse three, how shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken
by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.
God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and
divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his
will. This gospel was revealed through the great gift of revelation,
divine revelation. He's saying that it's not by
private interpretation. Holy men of old spake as they
were moved by the Holy Spirit. This great salvation is great
in its revelation. The Lord has revealed through
the gospel the greatness of His salvation. And that revelation
cannot be heard or seen by all men. It's great in the way in
which God opens the eyes of our understanding. He gives to us
a new heart. He regenerates our very soul
and gives us the ability to hear and to believe the truth of the
gospel. What a great gospel. What a great,
great salvation. It's great in its application,
in its divine calling and in regeneration, the gospel, the
salvation of sinners. This great salvation is great. And it's great in its reward. It's great in its reward. And
its reward is as we sang in the opening hymn of this service,
eternal glory, being with the Lord, but that is ultimately
to His glory, to His glory. He's going to be glorified for
all eternity in the salvation of sinners, parading those sinners
before all of creation as His trophies of grace and the greatness
of His glory being enjoyed by those that He has greatly saved. Is salvation great to you? I don't mean great in the sense
in which we use that word so loosely in conversation. I mean
great in the sense that God says it's great. It's great. Look with me to chapter 4 of
Hebrews. Chapter 4. Verse 14, seeing then that we
have a great high priest. Oh, he's not just any priest.
He's the great high priest. What makes him so great? Well,
look at the verse. He's passed into the heavens.
When the Lord Jesus Christ ascended back into glory, the Father rewarded
His work of obedience by giving Him His rightful place at the
right hand of the Majesty on High. He passed into the heavens
and His work went before Him and recommended Him to God. And
God was obligated to receive Him based on His faithfulness.
That can't be said of you. And that can't be said of me
unless we be found in Christ. If we're found in Christ, then
the same thing's true, but only to be found in Christ. Not having
our own righteousness which is of the law, but that righteousness
which is by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ who
has passed into the heavens. He took with him when he entered
into glory the names of those for whom he lived and died. And
he ever lives at the right hand of God, making intercession for
us. We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, who has passed into the
heavens. What a great high priest. We
don't practice priestcraft in our religion. We don't look to
a man and call him a priest. We don't set up another man.
And you know, it's done in every religion. Priestcraft is practiced
in every religion. In some religions, they actually
dress him up in a special uniform and call him priest. In other
religions, they just depend upon him to intercede on their behalf,
or they submit to him in some fashion or another, or give to
him authority to rule over them. But priestcraft is very popular.
It's very popular in religion. And the reason why it's popular
is because the priest likes it. It gives him power. And the people
in the pew like it because it relieves them of responsibility. And so priestcraft is very popular.
It's practiced in every religion, except in Christ, in the gospel. We don't look to a man as our
priest. We have a great high priest who has entered into the
heavens and intercedes on our behalf. And we have access to
the Father directly through Him. Look what else he says about
our great high priest, he's passed into the heavens. Jesus, that's
what makes this priest great. You shall call his name Jesus. Why? For he shall save his people. His name is a declaration of
his accomplished work. He accomplished the salvation
of his people. He didn't die for everybody.
He's not in the heavens wringing his hands, wishing that men would
let him have his way and invite him into their hearts. That's
blasphemy. That's blasphemy. That's not
a great high priest. That makes me great. That's all
that does and makes him dependent upon me to let him have his way
in my life. No, he is the great high priest,
his name is Jesus. Why? Because he saved his people
and he's passed into the heavens and look what else it says, he
is the son of God. How is it that he was able to
save his people? How is it that he was able to
accomplish the work that he set out to do? the will of the Father,
as He said Himself. How is it that He was able to
bow His mighty head on Calvary's cross and declare it to be finished? Nothing left to be done. I've
accomplished it. I've completed it. How is it? I'll tell you how it is. Because
of who He is. He's the Son of God. He's the
Son of God. Is there anything too hard for
God? If He's God, then how can He be limited? Let us hold fast our profession. Our profession. What is our profession? Our profession is the same as
Paul's profession. I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I've entrusted
or committed or deposited into Him against that day. I'm persuaded
of it. He is my profession. It's like the Ethiopian eunuch
said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe
what you've said to me about Him. He's great not only because He's
passed into the heavens, not only because He's the successful
Savior and He's the Son of God, He's great because of our profession
of Him. Our profession declares His greatness.
Look at verse 15, For we have not a high priest which cannot
be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin He's great. in that he feels our pain. He really does. He really does. There's nothing that we go through
that he doesn't experience and that he hadn't experienced. He
came into this world and suffered the contradiction of men. He
stood up to all the temptations of Satan. He knows. He knows by experience. You say, well, but he doesn't
know the shame and the guilt of sin. Because it says that
he's sin not. Oh no, don't misunderstand that. Don't misunderstand that. When
he hung on Calvary's cross, God piled on his back every sin of
every one of God's elect and forsook him as the sinner's substitute. He knew when he cried, my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He knew the guilt and the
shame and the pain and the agony of sin. He knew it better than
you and I have ever known it. Everything that every believer
has ever done, every child of God has ever done, was put on
Him. Yet He's great. He's a great
High Priest because those sins were taken willingly. They were
taken willingly. They weren't committed by Him.
But He took them. And God made Him, who knew no
sin, to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness
of God in Him. What a great priest we have.
Why would we want to call a man a priest? Why would we want to
look to anybody else as our priest? We've got a great high priest
who's passed into the heavens. Jesus, who is the Son of God.
Here He is. And He knows everything that
we experience. He's sympathetic. He's touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. Do you believe that? What a great
priest. If you do, look what happened.
If you believe that, then you will come boldly, confidently. to the throne of grace to find
help, to find grace in your time of need, to find mercy in your
time of need. You see that? If you believe
that this is your priest before God, then you will flee to His
throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in your
time of need." A great salvation, a great high
priest. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
7, verse 4. Hebrews chapter 7, verse 4. Once again, an italicized word
just needs to be taken out It doesn't belong there. Look at
verse 4 of Hebrews chapter 7. Now consider how great this man. Not was, he is the one who was
and is and shall forever be. And he hasn't changed, remember? So just consider how great he
is. Who is he? He's the God-man.
Now the Lord gives us this picture from Genesis chapter 14 of Abraham. You remember when the kings invaded
Sodom and took Lot and his wife and children into bondage and
Abraham got together his servants and they went to battle against
the kings and they defeated the kings and delivered Lot and after
the deliverance of Lot this priest shows up. The scripture says
that he's the priest of righteousness, and he's the priest of Salem.
And his name is Melchizedek. Look what he says in verse 1. For this Melchizedek, king of
Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning
from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him. Now the greater
always blesses the lesser. Always. The lesser never blesses
the greater. The greater always blesses the
lesser. Now in Judaism, Abraham was considered the greatest man.
We be children of Abraham. Well, the Lord say, God can raise
up from those stones children of Abraham, which is exactly
what he did when he saved you and me. He raised up from the
stones, living children of Abraham. And the Lord Jesus Christ said
before, Abraham was, I am. I've had Jewish people today
tell me, I'm a child of Abraham. As if that secured their salvation. I'm a child of Abraham. What the Lord's doing here is
He's comparing the man that the Jews thought was the greatest
man who ever lived to the one that is greater than him. And
here his name is Melchizedek. Verse 2, to whom also Abraham
gave tenth part of all, first being by interpretation king
of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is
king of peace. That's what his name means. The
appearance of Melchizedek in Genesis chapter 14 is a pre-incarnate
appearance of none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
the one who is king of righteousness. He is the one who is king of
peace. He is the one who is without
natural descent, without natural father or natural mother. You
see that in verse three, without father, without mother, without
descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life. but
made like unto the Son of God abideth a priest continually." Consider how great this man. Forget about Abraham. Consider
this man. He's a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. He's the king of righteousness.
He's the king of peace. He's the one to whom Abraham
received a blessing and he's the one to whom Abraham paid
a tithe. Abraham acknowledged Melchizedek
as greater than him. Consider this man. There's no
greater man. the God-man, the one man who
intercedes between God and man, the one God's perfect man and
man's perfect God, the only man that is able to touch us and
not be defiled and touch God and not be destroyed. He's the
only man. Consider this man and how great
he is. We have a great salvation. We
have a great Savior. Turn with me to chapter 10. We have a great salvation, a
great high priest, a great man who intercedes on our behalf.
Look at chapter 10. Here's the fourth great of the
seven greats. Verse 32, But call to remembrance
the former days, in which after you were illuminated, you endured
a great fight of affliction. Do you remember what you experienced
when God first saved you? Do you remember how your religious
friends and family members didn't want anything to do with you
anymore. They ostracized you. They thought you had joined a
cult. They thought you had gone over
the edge. Out of the way. Some of us lost our jobs over
it. Some believers have lost their marriage because of the
gospel. Spouse just decided, I'm not having that. And they
left. It's a great fight of affliction. Don't come to Christ unless you
expect, unless you know that this is going to be a great fight
of affliction. That just goes with it. It goes
with the gospel. You're going to find yourself
at odds with everything in this world if you come to Christ.
Everything in this world. all the values of this world,
all the dreams of this world, everything in this world, if
you come to Christ, you are going to be at odds with everything
in this world. And the Lord's writing to these
Hebrew Christians, these Jewish believers who were proud of their
families. I mean, I understand in Judaism
they still do this. If you're a Jew and you profess
Christ, Your family gets together and has a burial service for
you. And they pronounce you dead. It's not any different. They
may not go through the formality of a burial service for those
of us who didn't come out of Judaism. But the result's the
same. The result's the same. A great
fight of affliction. Not only is it great in the affliction
that we suffer, but it's great in that God ordained it for our
good and for His glory. What better grace can there be
than for the Lord to separate us from this world? That's what
saint means. That's what holy means. We're
separated from this world. We're not like this world. We're
strangers in this world. We're pilgrims in this world.
And that's the only thing that's going to cause us to set our
affections on things that aren't of this world. As long as we're
mindful of the things of this world, we're not going to be
mindful of the things of God. Friendship with the world is
enmity with God. You can't have it both ways.
It's one way or the other. And so this great fight of affliction
is a great affliction, but it's great in the result that it produces. It's great in that it causes
us to set our affections on things above where Christ is seated
at the right hand of God. It's great in that it causes
us, like Abraham, to seek a city whose builder and whose foundation
is God. It's great in the hope that we
have in knowing that this affliction is but for a brief time. Oh, it's so brief. It's so brief. It's so short. It's only a few
days. Compared to eternity? compared to eternity? You see,
that's what believers do. That's what faith does. It compares
everything to eternity. Verse 33, "...partly whilst you
were made a gazing stock, both by reproaches and afflictions,
and partly whilst you became companions of them that were
so used." Oh, they just looked down their nose at you. They
thought you had lost it. Partly because of what you were
saying, and partly because of who you were following. Oh, that
guy. Yeah, we know him. You associated
with that church? Chapter 10, verse 35. cast not away therefore your
confidence which hath great recompense of reward." Are you confident? Now, you know,
we've all got insecurities, but every single one of them are
rooted in fear of man. Every single one of them. Some
people's insecurities come out in timidity and fear. Some people's
insecurities come out in arrogance and egotism and narcissism. But it's all based on insecurity
because of fear of man. And the psychologists love to
give up names, don't they? Well, he's a narcissist. He's got this problem. I can
relate to all those names. I can relate to every one of
them. Because there's some of that in me. It's just that some
people have more of an extreme example of one particular thing.
But believers can relate to arrogance. Believers can relate to fear. Believers can relate to narcissism. Why? Because when I fear men,
all of those insecurities surface in my life. But when I fear God, The fear
of man goes away. The fear of man goes away. You're either going to fear man
or you're going to fear God. One or the other. Cast not away therefore your
confidence. What is our confidence? It's
not in ourselves. It's not in another man. Our
confidence is not in the flesh. Our confidence is in Christ.
We're completely confident that He is able to save to the uttermost. Look, recompense a great reward
for you have need of patience that after you have done the
will of God you might receive the promise. What is the will
of God? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. We have the promise of God. Two more greats. We'll save them
for another time. Let's take a break.