All right, take your Bibles and
turn with me to Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. We'll be looking at verses 11
through 28 this morning. Hebrews chapter 7, verse 11. The Scripture says, If therefore
perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the
people received the law, what further need was there that another
priest should rise after the order of Melchizedek and not
be called after the order of Aaron? For the priesthood being
changed, there is made of necessity a change of the law." For he
of whom these things are spoken pertaineth to another tribe,
which no man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident
that our Lord sprang out of Judah, which tribe Moses spake nothing
concerning the priesthood, and it is yet far more evident. For that after the similitude
of Melchizedek ariseth another priest who is made not after
the law of carnal commandments, but after the power of endless
life. For he testifieth, Thou art a
priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. For there is
verily a disannulling of the commandment, going before the
weakness and unprofitableness thereof." For the law made nothing
perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did, by the
which we draw nigh unto God." The order of a better hope. That's
the title of the message. The order of a better hope. Last week we saw the greatness
of this mysterious man, Melchizedek. and how that he appears in Genesis
14 in only two verses of Scripture, and does not appear again until
we read of him in Psalms 110, where God declares that the Christ
would be made after the order of Melchizedek, an eternal order,
an eternal priesthood. And so then Christ, who is the
eternal Son of God, has an abiding eternal priesthood. This is necessary. This is necessary that our priest
be an eternal high priest. And this is only good news to
sinners who need a high priest. Do you need a high priest? Do
you need one to intercede for you? I'll tell you, there are some
who have high priests, and I wouldn't give two cents to intercede for
me. These men are frail, they're
weak, they grow old and they die. I wouldn't want you to be
my high priest, and you certainly wouldn't want me to be your high
priest. Why? I'm not going to be around long.
And neither are you. So what good is our priesthood
if it's not forever? An eternal priesthood. This is
good news for sinners. Remember, the office of priest
is a mediatorial office. In other words, it is a go-between,
a person that stands both between us and God. offering acceptable
sacrifices to God for our sins. That's what a priest does. He offers a sacrifice that is
acceptable. And the only people who need
a sacrifice are sinners. Sinners need a sacrifice. And we don't just need any sacrifice.
We need an acceptable sacrifice. Friends, if our sacrifice is
not accepted of God, then what good is our sacrifice?
You could give your life, but God does not demand your life. Your life is not going to pay
for sin. And what good is it if we offer
an acceptable sacrifice by a priest that God has not anointed? That's
no good either. We need both a priest and a sacrifice. Now, the law of Moses clearly
established that everyone under the law must submit to the priesthood
of Aaron. This is the law, that Aaron was
the high priest. Now, all of the Levites, that
family, were to support Aaron in this work. Now, being a high
priest was not an easy task. It was not an easy job under
the law. They did sacrifices every single
day, at least twice a day. But I know that every time, at
least when the people of Israel were following God, they did
much more than that. They sacrificed every day. It
was a very difficult job, a laborious job, a job that never ended. It was always, always necessary
that this priesthood should continue. This is what God commanded, but
it was never meant to remove one sin. This was never meant
to remove one sin. The only reason for the Aaronic
priesthood was to picture the great priesthood of Christ. It
was a picture. It was the gospel being preached
to them over and over every single day concerning their sin, concerning
a sacrifice that's needed, concerning the offering of blood, This was repeated over and over
again. That's what it was meant for.
It was never meant to take away any sin. It was meant to preach the gospel
of Jesus Christ who would become the sacrifice for sin. That's what it was meant to show.
Look at verse 11 in our text. It says, That's a very important word
in this text. Perfection, or by the Levitical
priesthood, for under it the people received the law. What
further need was there of another priest should rise after the
order of Melchizedek and not be called after the order of
Aaron? He's asking a very important
question concerning the law. He says, if the law was good
enough. If the Levitical priesthood was
good enough, then why would God have to have another order other
than Aaron? Why should the Scripture say,
Thou art a priest forever after the order of Aaron? No. Melchizedek. Melchizedek, of whom he was a
type. A picture! We see that Melchizedek
just comes on the scene without beginning of days, without end
of life. That picture is the eternality
of the Lord Jesus Christ priesthood. And friends, truly, the first
thing we need to see is that the law made nothing perfect.
The law made nothing perfect. The apostle, by this declaration
of Christ's eternal priesthood, after the order of Melchizedek,
usurps, turns over, nullifies, disregards the priesthood of
Aaron. It does away with it. That's
what he's saying. He's saying this order that was
before Aaron is the order That will end the types and pictures
and shadows, the order of Christ's priesthood. The law was never
meant of God to remain, but only to continue until the real shows
up. And friends, the real has shown
up. What further need do we need the order of Aaron's priesthood? The law was never meant to do
anything but to show forth our need of redemption, reconciliation
and perfection. Our need of a substitute by the
blood of another, and therefore, God ordained a priest to bring
an offering for the people. But as I've said before, this
priesthood never perfected anything. If Aaron offered a sacrifice
to God that was perfect, why then would he need another sacrifice?
Why would he have to offer another sacrifice? and another, and another,
and another, and another, because that sacrificing made nothing
perfect. It only pictured one who would
make the law, would perfect the law. It pictured Christ. Look at Hebrews 10. Flip over
there just a couple of pages. Hebrews 10 and verse 1. It says, having a shadow of good
things to come and not the very image of things, can never with
those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make
the comers thereunto perfect. For then would they not have
ceased to be offered, because the worshipers once purged should
have no more conscience of sin." But in those sacrifices there
is a remembrance again made of sin every year, for it is not
possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sin."
You see, if it was perfected, then why in the world did they
have to come year after year to that atonement, to make that
atonement? It didn't make anything perfect.
The law made nothing perfect. is unprofitable to save. I'm talking about right now concerning
this text, the priesthood and the offering of sacrifices. There's
no church I know that offers sacrifices like that. There's
no church I know that has an altar where they kill an animal,
and if they are, they're somewhere else. I just haven't heard of
it. At least not in this country, because the animal rights people
would be all over them. But this is part of the law,
and you have to understand that the law stands and falls together. You cannot have one portion of
the law be disannulled and have the other portion of the law
upheld. Everything is together. He said,
if you change one thing, you've changed the whole thing and it's
worth nothing. You see, people don't like this
idea of the law being one law. You see, they want to say that
the Ten Commandments are still vitally important to a believer's
rule of life. They still believe that the law
in some way has an effect on our relationship to God. That
is not true according to Scripture. The Scripture says that if you
violate one, if you violate one law, you are
guilty of the whole thing. If you want to follow the Ten
Commandments, then you better go over there, knock down that
mosque in Israel, build a temple, build an altar, and sacrifice
on that place, because that's where God said He would meet
the people with the law. He said, I'll meet you there.
But friends, God did away with that. God has done away with
the whole law. He has made us free from the
whole law by the one offering of Jesus Christ. Scripture says,
by His one offering, He hath perfected forever them that are
sanctified. Now that Christ, the High Priest
of God, has come, He has made an everlasting righteousness
by His obedience. Perfection is righteousness.
Righteousness is perfection. I've told you this before, but
I want it to sink in that righteousness is not something that we can
or will be able to perform or something that we will be able
to obtain by our works in any way. Righteousness is something
that's given. And it can only be given by God. The perfection the law demands,
the law could not provide. It can only demand it. Gil, give me a million dollars. I can't. I don't care. That's the law. Give it. That's what the law did. It demanded
what we could not provide. Now, is that right? Absolutely.
Perfect. The law was perfect. The law
was right to demand of us absolute righteousness. It was right of
us. It was right of God to demand
that of us, being our creator, our maker. But praise God, He just didn't
leave us with the law. But before the law, he had already
prepared a priest and a sacrifice. Before the law. And now Christ
has come and provided. He obtained himself as a man
the righteousness of God. I pray that it's clear that when
Christ was born into this world, he was already righteous. He was already holy, but of necessity
as our federal head, He must have acted out perfect righteousness
according to the law so that He may give it to us. He was
doing it for us. Every time He obeyed God, He
did it for the glory of God and so that we would have that righteousness.
So everything He did, I did. Everything he did, you did. All his obedience is our obedience. Friends, that's not fair, but
I like that. I don't want fair. I want mercy.
I want mercy. And God has provided a perfect
righteousness only by this high priest, and therefore, what need
have we of any other sacrifice? Is there any other sacrifice
we could offer to God that would help the sacrifice of Christ? No. If you offer one thing. If you offer one thing, you've
defiled the sacrifice of Christ. You've put sin into the sacrifice
of Christ for righteousness. I like this picture. God said,
when you build me an altar of stones, He said, I want you to
take the stones as they are and build them. I don't want you
to take a tool and I don't want you to carve anything. I don't
want you to make them in any shape or anything. Don't touch
them. Leave them alone. Just stack
them. He said, the moment you put your
hand to it, you've defiled the sacrifice. That's exactly what
it is. You take baptism. And you try to add that to the
sacrifice and the righteousness of Christ, you've defiled it,
made it null and void. We offer nothing. We offer nothing
for righteousness. Why? I am righteous. I am. I am righteous because my high
priest was righteous. And the reason the order of Christ
is better, and there's no need of another priesthood that is
better, is because Christ has been our surety from eternity. Look in your text again. I know I'm not going in order,
but I'm sure I don't have time. Look at verse 22. By so much
better was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. That word testament is a covenant. That's what it means. The priests
of the law were made after a commandment according to lineage. They had
no choice in this. If you were born a son of Aaron,
you had to be a priest. There was just no choice. You
didn't get to say, well, you know, I want to be a plumber.
No! You're a priest! That's it! That's
what you do. But see, the greater order of
this was Christ was always a voluntary High Priest. He was, from eternity, a greater
High Priest made by an oath, the oath of God. I don't know if you...I can't.
I can't wrap my mind around it. The only way I can do is describe
it in a way that we can understand it. God the Father, God the Son
and God the Holy Spirit, when they were by themselves in eternity,
when God existed alone, He was happy, He was satisfied, He was
complete with nothing else but Himself. And in that eternity,
God made a covenant with Himself, the Father, purpose to save a
people to manifest His glory and grace. The Son agreed in
a covenant to be their surety, their guarantee. He said, I will
guarantee, Father, that I will bring them blameless before You.
I guarantee it. I'll secure their redemption.
I'll satisfy the righteous justice that your law demands. I'll be
their high priest." And the Holy Spirit covenanted, agreed, saying,
I swear that I will call them by the gospel. I will keep them
in faith until they are brought before you wholly and without
blame in love. God did that all by Himself. We weren't there. Nothing was
created yet. And yet, I already had a surety. It was guaranteed. There was
no chance that I would not be saved. Is that not amazing? And you know what? There's no
chance that I'll be lost. See, nothing's by chance. Religion
works by chance, accident. God saved me on purpose. God
saved me on purpose. And that's the difference between
true religion and false religion. False religion believes God saves
men on accident. He set up the right circumstances
and maybe, no, God will save His people. He said, I will gather
them from the north. I'll say to the South, give up,
don't you keep them back. I will bring my sons from afar.
I will gather them. And he will, because he made
an oath. And Christ made that oath to
be our surety, our guarantee. Well, how sure is this that we
are accepted? How sure is our perfection? Well,
it's only as good as the one who guarantees it. Isn't that
right? It's only as good as the one who guarantees it. Gil, guarantee
me a million dollars and I'm not going to trust you. Well,
he don't have it. He don't have it. I'm not going
to trust and wait for it. And he wouldn't do the same with
me, would he? I wouldn't be able to give you anything like that. See, a surety is one who takes
the full measure of responsibility. The closest thing we've got is
a cosigner, but that's not really even close. If you have somebody
taken out a loan and then you get somebody else to say, well,
if they don't meet the qualifications, then I'll be responsible. No, Christ didn't cosign our
righteousness. We didn't sign anything. We weren't
there. He said, I'll take full responsibility,
I'll take full measure of responsibility for all their sins and unrighteousness,
and I will make them holy. And he stamped guaranteed. How wonderful is this, that Jesus
had made an oath to reconcile me. Jesus made an oath to redeem
me. Jesus made an oath to make me perfect. And He has. I don't see it yet. Do you? I don't see it yet. But by faith I see it. And one
day my faith will be lost in sight. All other priests who
are trusted to bring men to God or to be a surety for them are
absolutely worthless. They just got rid of another
worthless priest. That was great. He just retired. I'm so glad. I wish they'd all
retire. One, they're worthless. They're worthless. And somebody
else is going to come along and put his hand on a Bible, and
he's going to take an oath. When did he take that oath? A day or so ago, I guess. I don't
know. I don't even know. I'm keeping up with it, I guess.
Maybe in the next week or so, he'll take that oath. What are
they going to do in the meantime? They don't have a priest. They
don't have anybody to intercede for them. I don't have to worry
about that. My high priest has ordained and
took an oath forever, forever. I'm never without my high priest. Every religion who relies on
men to be their high priest, they have no hope, no surety. But my salvation is sure because
my high priest is one of eternality. And he lives eternally. My priest
died as a sacrifice for my sins. But he's not dead. He's not dead. If you look around, you won't
see any crosses, and you especially won't see any crosses with figures
on them. Why? He's not there. He is in glory ruling all things
after the counsel of His own will. Scott, I know you were willing
to be here today. But know this, the only reason
you are here is because God was willing you to be here. That's it. It's the only reason
any of us made it. God was willing. Christ was willing. So that he might bless you. That
you might hear his voice again. That you might be assured and
comforted that your high priest ever liveth to make intercession
for you. He's never going away. And Scripture says that he is
made an high priest forever and that he is able to save us to
the uttermost. That word, uttermost, it means
to make absolutely complete, utterly perfect to full end,
entire He is able to save you to the full end, utterly, completely
and absolutely perfect. No matter how you see now, Christ has made us perfect. And we stand before God as His
children. We stand before God even as one
with Christ, our Redeemer. We have no other need of carnal
rituals, laws, or any such thing. You know why we don't have any
bylaws on the wall? Because there are no laws. There are no carnal laws. Our
law is a law of love. You love Christ and you love
me. There it is! There it is. It's a law of faith. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
no matter what. That's our law. And if we follow that, We won't
have to worry about any bylaws. Isn't that right? If you love me and I love you,
if you forgive me, I forgive you. What need do we have of
laws? God's people, we're to love one
another, even as Christ loved us. God's saints are satisfied with God's goodness
that he has given to them, that he displayed by redeeming us,
by ransoming us, and daily he increases our joy and provides
for all our necessities. Is that not true? Have you not
found that to be true daily? His mercies are new every morning. Every morning. That's good. Because
I need mercy right now. And you know what? I need mercy
right now. And I need mercy right now. And I can continue to say
that throughout the rest of my life. I need mercy. Mercy. Are you a sinner in need of mercy? There's only one surety, there's
only one Savior. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and Him alone. And you as well may enjoy righteousness
and peace, love and mercy forever. Isn't that wonderful? That's
just wonderful. I put it in the bulletin. A man was drowning, another man
could swim, jumped in to save him, but he didn't rush to him
immediately, he waited. He waited until the man stopped
struggling, and then he laid hold of the man, brought him
to shore, and saved his life. The people watching, they said,
Why didn't you grab him immediately? He said, as long as he thought
he could save himself, I couldn't save him. As long as you've got something, Christ's not going to save you. But friends, when we come to
the end of ourselves, it's then He comes and lays hold of us
and saves us. Isn't he wonderful? Christ is so wonderful. His grace
is so amazing. And friend, your salvation is
sure. If you're in Him, your salvation is sure. He's forever
a high priest. I pray that God blesses us. Let's
ask the Lord a blessing. God bless us today. I pray that
You, Father, would be with us and bless the message to our
hearts. Help us to worship and honor Thee. We ask these things
in Jesus' name. Amen.