It's a pleasure to be with you.
Nancy and I had the privilege of being here for the second
conference. We were unable to come for the
first conference. I'd been fired from the church
I was pastoring because I was saved. I want to thank everyone for
your prayers, your kind hospitality, your generous fellowship, and
Kathy and John for your wonderful hospitality. We thank you very
much. Would you turn with me to the
book of Hebrews this morning? Hebrews chapter 1. Brother Lance Heller came to
the Dalles a number of years ago, and he spoke several times
for us, and he never left the Book of Colossians. He never
made a reference to the Old Testament or any other book of the New
Testament. I've never been able to do that. But this morning,
there is so much here in the book of Hebrews, I hope I can
just stay right here. The book of Hebrews is the key
to the Old Testament. It's brought out here in so many
ways that it is so much better. Christ is so much better. He is much more excellent than
anything the law had to offer, because of its inability to make
anybody perfect. That's what we're going to find
here in the book of Hebrews. Christ is so much better than any or
all of the law. The participants of the law,
the priests of the law, or the buildings of the law. My dear
friend, up in the Dalles this morning, Mike Baker is bringing
a message on the coverings of the Tabernacle. I just spoke
to him and you know what he's going to do with those coverings?
point people to Christ. Because that's all they have
for us. We don't build our church buildings
with those coverings trying to imitate them because there is
some physical blessings in them. The only blessings we have in
all the types and shadows and pictures in the Old Testament
is how they direct us, point us, bring us to the one Savior,
the Lord Jesus Christ. They speak only of the physical,
but God brings His people to a spiritual blessing. Christ
is so superior to all the types and the shadows and pictures
of the Old Testament or of the Law. For our consideration today,
I hope we can stay in the book of Hebrews. There are several
verses in this book that the author, the writer, led by the
Holy Spirit, I have to remind myself when I talk about the
writers of the books of the Bible, whether it be Moses or whether
it be Paul, that they were only secretaries for the Holy Spirit.
They were only secretaries for God. They were not permitted
to enter into those writings any of their own words. It was such a special book We
call it, and as the Bible does, it was given by inspiration. And that means God breathed out
those words. And these guys sat down, they
were holy men of God, and they spoke as they were moved by the
Holy Spirit, and they didn't alter to the right hand or to
the left hand. Now, every translation has been
translated by somebody that has an interest in the translation.
But in those original languages, there were absolutely perfection. I'm thankful for a translation.
I mentioned this the other day, because I can't read Hebrew and
I can't read Greek. I admire those who can. But that's
far beyond me, so I just have to use this. In the book of Hebrews
chapter 1, beginning with verse 1, it says, God, who at sundry
times and in diverse manners We are not told exactly how God
dealt with all of those writers in the Old Testament, but we
do find out that all of those writings of the Old Testament
were over a great period of time. God is who at sundry times in
diverse manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the
prophets. So those prophets, as they wrote,
they were writing the word of God. Moses was writing the word
of God. Ezekiel a number of times, and
God spoke to me. Those writings were the word
of God. Those writings are the word of God. And we find in those
writings, just as those prophets were speaking and are brought
out in the New Testament, particularly by the mouth of the Lord Jesus,
that those prophets spoke of me. Moses and the prophets and
the Psalms spoke of me. hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son, in these last days. Now when Jesus Christ
was here upon the earth, he was speaking for the Father. He was
speaking, as it goes on to tell us, who he hath appointed heir
of all things, by whom also he is made he made the worlds, who
being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his
person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when
he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on high." Now, when I was in English in high
school, if I'd have written a sentence that long, and we haven't even
come to the conclusion of it, I'd have had red marks on it.
But the author of this book, gets to do that because the the
sentence is not complete yet goes on to say being so much
better than the angels apparently and i think is still true today
among certain peoples there was this aspect that the angel should
receive some honor and yet we find that the writer of this
book led by the holy spirit was to write that Jesus Christ is
far superior to those created beings. Even in their exalted
condition, even in their permission to stand before God and cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy, the Son of God is far superior, is more
glorious than all of those beings that have ever been created.
Those who did not fall, are yet less superior to the Son of God. His superiority is so far above
the angels as we find even ourselves, his thoughts are above our thoughts
as far as heaven is above the earth. So his superiority over
his created beings are so far superior, being made so much
better than the angels, as he hath by inheritance obtained
a more excellent name than they. To which of the angels did He
ever say, My Son? Turn with me, if you would, to
the seventh chapter of the book of Hebrews. Seventh chapter and
verse 19. And Lord willing, we'll come
back to the seventh chapter for a little longer reading in just
a moment. But seventh chapter and verse 19, we read these words,
For the law made nothing perfect. Did you hear those words? The law made nothing perfect
or whole or complete. After how many generations? After how many years of practice? How many slain beasts? How many gallons of blood? How many years? How many high
priests? How many priests of every sort? all of that was said and done,
even up to the time of Christ, guess what? All of that made
nobody perfect. My goodness, and people will
argue with that, Pharisees argued with that, Saul of Tarsus argued
with that, and people argue with it today, and yet the scriptures
plainly say that the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing
in of a better hope did, by the which we draw nigh unto God.
Now there's a hope and there's a better hope. Jesus Christ is
the better hope. Turn with me again here in the
book of Hebrews to the 7th chapter, verse 22, just a little bit further
down there. By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament, a better covenant. The Lord gave the old
covenant to Israel, and he gave it to Moses on the mount. And he came off of that mount,
and he was so bright that the children of Israel put a veil
over his face. And they did indeed fear and
tremble at that. And yet when Moses brought it
to their attention, they all with one accord said, we will
keep it. You know what? They just broke
it right there. There were some of those folks
that said this is impossible to keep. That is the only way. What God reveals to us is this
is an impossible covenant to keep. What is the benefit of
the old covenant then? One of them, for me, is to learn
the holiness of God. It declares the holiness of God.
The number of people who were taken out and stoned to death
for breaking one of those laws demonstrates that God is a holy
God and we'll not approach Him on ourself. We cannot come before
Him on our own. We will not be able to because
we've broken the law and we deserve death. So, we find that there
is a much better... What does it say right here in
Hebrews chapter 7? And verse 22, it says, By so much was Jesus made
a surety of a better covenant. Now that word surety, we don't
use it a lot today, but that word is a person who assumes
legal responsibility for the fulfillment of another debt or
obligation. And the debt, we're the debtors. And there is a creditor and his
name is holy, holy, holy. He's the creditor and we're the
debtor and we don't have any finances to pay the debt because
every day we live, every moment we're alive, every breath we
breathe, we're going farther and farther into debt. I remember
reading Augustus Toplady, and he was figuring out how many
seconds are in an hour and a day, and he says, there's how many
sins we've committed in one day. And it was astronomical. The
debt continues to go on and on and on. And if you took all the
good things that everybody has ever done, and we were able to
give them to one person, The debt would still be so astronomical
that there would be a need for the fulfillment of that, and
that would be death. Religions have got to the point
that if you do some really good things, you can give them to
someone that hasn't done so much good things, and that way it
lifts them up. My goodness, religion goes to
no extreme. There is no end to the extremes
that religion will go to. But we're constantly in debt. But what does it say? He has
a surety for a better covenant. Now, the new covenant, has always
been. It's the everlasting covenant. It didn't start with Matthew. They didn't live under the old
covenant without hope. We find that the 11th chapter
of the book of Hebrews lists the number of people that found
the benefit, became beneficiaries of the new covenant under an
old covenant economy. Because God is faithful to reveal
his son to all his sheep at all time, those folks had Jesus Christ
revealed unto them, and they could cry out, Abba Father, just
like we do today. Their sins were put under the
blood of Christ. They did not depend upon the
blood of bulls and goats to take away sin, but they depended upon
the blood of Christ to take care of it. And to take care of it
completely, because they could not pay the creditor. They were
so far in debt, they were given to a surety. And the surety's
name is Jesus Christ, and this surety had promised to take care
of the entire dead. In fact, he was so assigned before
the foundation of the world that he is called the land slain from
the foundation of the world. The surety had such a great ability
of taking care of the creditors, debtors, and the debtors to the
creditor, that when he went to the cross, every debt was paid
in full, and there shall not be one brought up before God
when we stand before him in that day. Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elected as God that justifieth? Why is that? Because he's a surety of a better
covenant. The covenant of the old covenant,
oh, it is holy, just, and good because it speaks of God. But
there's not a soul in the world that's ever been able to keep
it. And the person who says, just
like those Jews said they could keep it, no one is able to keep
it, and they lied when they said they could. In the 8th chapter
of the book of Hebrews, 8th chapter of the book of Hebrews and verse
6, But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry. My goodness,
if you follow Moses, You follow Aaron. You follow Ezra. You follow Ezekiel. You follow
all of those prophets through the Old Testament. What a ministry
they had. And you know, those folks that
love the gospel, they gathered themselves around these folks
because they had something to say about a Savior that could
actually save them from their sins. People would travel a ways
to come and be with these folks because they were appointed by
God. I'm amazed there at the Dalles
we have people who travel a hundred or a hundred and twenty miles
to church. It's amazing. But now has he obtained a more
excellent ministry. goes on to say, by how much also
he is a mediator of a better covenant which was established
upon better promises. The only promise that the old
covenant had is the sin that the soul that sinneth, it shall
die. And this covenant is based upon
better promises because we have a surety that has taken care
of the problem on the cross for every one of his lost sheep,
and every one of his lost sheep shall have the surety come and
say, I have redeemed you out of the hand of the bondman. I
have taken you out of a pit that you could not get out of your
own, and I have set you on Myself, and I will never, ever refuse
you or send you away. All that the Father giveth Me
shall come unto Me, and he that cometh unto Me I will in no wise,
never, under any circumstances, send you away. Because we're
attached. The head is attached to the body. The head is attached to us. He cannot sever us from Himself. We've been grafted in. We've
been born to Him. We've been found by Him. We've
been given to Him. All of these things. Well, in
the book of Hebrews chapter 12, would you turn there with me?
Hebrews chapter 12. And there in verse 24, Hebrews
chapter 12 and verse 24, and to Jesus, the mediator of the
new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better
things than that of Abel. The blood of Abel cried out for
vengeance. The blood of Christ cries out for forgiveness. Speaks
so much better. The blood of Christ gives us
the forgiveness of sin, the putting away of sin, the payment to the
creditor for all the debts that we owed. I owed a debt I could
not pay, and He paid a debt He did not owe. And that's how I
can stand complete in Him, is He paid the very last farthing. When He said, it is finished,
the transaction was so complete that He would be welcomed back
to the Father's side in glory. And the church says, hallelujah,
because that means I've been accepted back to the right hand
of the Father. In the book of Hebrews, dropping
back to the book of Hebrews chapter 7 for just a moment, would you
turn there with me? Chapter 7. There is such a frailty
among the Old Testament folks, such a frailty. And it carries
on today. That's one reason your pastor
can't get you to Christ. That's why Brother Clay can't
get you to Christ. We preach Him. We preach Christ
and Him crucified. You know, there are times when
I visit with my youngest brother and I said, if I could just get
him to understand this. You know what? We can't do it,
can we? We can't get there from here. It's impossible. You know what the frailty is
that we are marked with? That was marked out every high
priest in the Old Testament, and every priest that ever followed
them, and even the menial tasks that were required under the
Old Covenant. You know what the frailty they
faced? Death! They couldn't get anybody
life because they were faced with death. Aaron died and he
had to have his son, or God had his son come up. That's the frailty
of the Old Testament priesthood. That's the frailty of the Old
Testament priests. That's the frailty of all of
those things. they died. It's such a frailty. You know what we have? We have
a high priest that is not contained under that term. He laid down
his life that he might take it up again, but he is a priest
that ever liveth to make intercession for us. He is so far out of the
category of human beings. He's so far out of the category
of priesthood. He's so far out of the category
that we're so used to thinking about. He is a high priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. Without beginning, without end
of days. That's the high priest that we're
so dependent upon. Chapter 7 and verse 11, the Word
says, If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood,
for under it the people receive the law, what further need was
there of another priest should arise after the order of Melchizedek
and not be called after the order of Aaron? If people could be
saved by that law, what further need do we need anybody else?
But it could not. It only pointed out the fact
we couldn't. For the priesthood being changed,
there is made a necessity a change also of the law. For he of whom
these things were spoken pertaineth to another tribe, of which no
man gave attendance at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord
sprang out of Judah, of which tribe Moses spake nothing concerning
the priesthood. And it is yet far more evident
that For that after the similitude of Melchizedek there arises another
priest who is made not after the law of carnal commandment,
but after the power of an endless life. He has the authority to
be the true high priest. For he testifieth, thou art a
priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. For there is
verily a disannulling of the commandment going before, for
the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. Did you know that the
law is weak and unprofitable? for salvation of any kind? For the law made nothing perfect,
but the bringing in of a better hope did, by the which we draw
nigh unto God. And then, as much as not without
an oath, he was made priest, for those priests were made without
an oath. But they... I solemnly swear
I'll carry out the office of a priesthood with the best of
my ability. It wasn't asked of them. But
this priest, God laid down an oath, said he's a high priest
after the order of Melchizedek and he will accomplish the task
that they could not in the Old Testament, never intended to
be in the Old Testament because they were of the frailty of the
flesh. They were men that had sin and
they couldn't even take care of their own sin. The high priest
entered into the holy place once a year. And what did he do in
the Old Testament, that high priest? What did Aaron do? The first obligation that he
had in that holy of holies was to offer blood for his own sins
and then for the sins of others. That's a frailty in a high priest. That's our problem, brother.
That's why we can't get anybody to do anything spiritual. Only
God can do that. We scatter the seed, as we heard
this morning in that reading. We scatter the seed. It has to
be good seed, but we scatter the seed. And God is the only
one that can prompt a crop. We water, we plant, we water,
but God giveth the increase. Verse 24, but this man became,
he continued, ever hath an unchangeable priesthood, where he is able
also to save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such a high priest
became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate, it from
sinners, and made higher than the heavens, who needeth not
daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice, first for
his own sins, and then for the people's. For this he did once
when he offered up himself." Oh, hallelujah. He offered up
Himself. He didn't have some animal come
through to be the substitute. He had the Lamb of God. The Lamb
of God, the Son of God, is the substitute for His people, and
that is what was required by Almighty God, and that what was
given by Almighty God, and He's the substitute that fulfills
the place that every sinner should have taken. And as we heard preached,
we were in Him on that cross and He paid our eternal death. I just, I don't lie in that brother
play. He paid my eternal death. He fulfilled the promises that
were made. He fulfilled them all. He completed
them completely. He did not need to do anything
else but to fulfill the covenant of grace. Would you turn with
me to the book of Hebrews chapter 9? Hebrews chapter 9. Verse one, then verily the first
covenant had also ordinances of divine service and worldly
sanctuary. There was a tabernacle made,
the first wherein was the candlestick. We have a wonderful description
of what it was like. I challenge you to build something
that is exactly like this because we don't have the ability of
figuring it all out. I've had people say, I built
the tabernacle. We got places, there's a place
in Florida where there's the temple. You can go there and
pay dollars to go through the temple. It's not the temple.
It's not the temple. It's not even, they can't even
follow the instructions of the Bible because they're not made
so that we can follow them. It was revealed on the mount
of the things in heaven. We're not to do that sort of
thing. But it goes on to tell us here the wonderful characteristics
of this, down in verse 14. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without
spot to God, purge our conscience from dead works to serve the
living God? He has just said, neither by the blood of bulls
and goats. And I, you know, if you just count those that were
offered on the dedication of the temple by Solomon, I used to butcher with my dad. You could not butcher without
getting blood on you. Can you just imagine those white
linen coats of those priests? It's just amazing. And it continued
on and on and on. And then it got down to the point
where they didn't want to offer what was required the best. They wanted to offer the halt
in the lane. And the farther religion goes,
it always deteriorates. Christianity has never deteriorated.
Religion is so deteriorated that they begin to offer that because
they can sell the good and they would offer that to God and that's
just a representative of what their God's like. He's blind
and he's halt and he can't do anything. Well, Jesus Christ
is far from that, isn't he? He is far better. In chapter
9 and verse 7, it says, But until the second went the high priest
alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself
and for the heirs of the people. Go back to verse 27 of chapter
7 for just a moment. We read that, but I want to read
it again with that. Who needeth not daily, as those
high priests, to offer up sacrifice for his own sins, and then for
the people's? For this he did once when he
offered himself. What a superior high priest has
been ordered and set and given, and his name is Jesus Christ
the Lord. In closing, would you turn with
me to Hebrews chapter 12, verse 18. As there were those Hebrews that
were still, and those were the Hebrews that followed the apostle
Paul around. You know what they said? Unless
you be circumcised, you cannot be saved. And Paul, Peter, and
all the apostles were preaching salvation by grace alone. without
any of this. They shunned it. They had lived
in it, but they shunned it when God saved them by His grace.
They shunned that works-oriented religion. There was no appeal
in it when God saved them. And yet there were those who
continued to say you must. Well, here we have it. In Hebrews
chapter 12 verse 18, For ye are not come unto the mount that
might be touched, that burned with fire, nor unto the blackness
and darkness tempest. You're not brought here. No one
saved in the Old Testament was ever brought to this. The sound of a trumpet, the voice
of words, which voice they heard, entreated that the word should
not be spoken to them any more, for they could not endure that
which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through in the dark.
Here it tells us in verse 18, you've not come to the mount
that can be touched. And that just simply means this is physical. This is physical. But God doesn't
work in the physical world like this. God's salvation is spiritual
and eventually will take care of the physical. But if you don't
have the spiritual, you'll never have the physical. The spiritual
takes great precedent over anything that we can do or that anybody
can do for us. It must be of God. It's from
above. It's the new birth. And so terrible
was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.
But ye are come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God.
Now, lest we think this is that Zion over in the Old Testament,
let's read the next word. the heavenly Jerusalem, to an
innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church
of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven, who are those whose
names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life, and to the God
of the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect. God alone can make just people. And God alone can make them perfect. The law could not do that. Jesus
Christ is so far superior, so much better, so much more excellent. And yet there are those during
the times of the apostles that went around after the preaching
of the gospel and said, no, it's not enough. You must have this. And all they
could speak about was things in the flesh. And Apostle Paul
was preaching in the Spirit. We must be born of the Spirit. The Spirit of God. Which is so
much better than this first birth that we were given. My dad passed
on something terrible to me. Sin. And guess what? I passed it on
to my kids and their fathers, their grandchildren, their fathers
have passed it on to them. There is no eradication of it
except for the blood of Christ. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins.