Cuba Sutter Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Rick
Warda. We currently meet at the Yuba
County Library located at 303 2nd Street in downtown Marysville,
California on the corner of 2nd and C Street. Weekly services
are held on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the library. For more information,
visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Rick Warda. I would like to bring a message
to you today from the book of Hebrews. The book of Hebrews
declares to us God's final message to man. This fact makes the book
of Hebrews of ultimate importance. I want to therefore preach a
series of sermons from this book in the Bible because this is
God's message to be declared by His authority for His glory
to sinners of every nation under heaven that they might be saved.
To understand what the book of Hebrews is about, we have only
to look at the beginning and the end of it. In the beginning
of the book, God declares to us that he has spoken in these
last days by his son. In the end of the book, God tells
us that in believing the gospel, we have come to Jesus Christ,
the mediator of the new covenant. In the beginning and the end
and throughout the book God tells us that the covenant is a covenant
made in Christ's blood. He says this covenant is an everlasting
covenant in the blood of Christ. Hebrews 13 verse 20. Taken together
we can plainly see from the beginning to the end of Hebrews that the
message of the book of Hebrews is the Son of God the Lord Jesus
Christ appointed and anointed by God as the one mediator between
God and men and that this covenant God has made was established
in the very blood of His own eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. I have therefore entitled this
series of messages, The Mediator of the New Covenant, because
this is what the book of Hebrews is all about. It is a book about
the mediator of the new covenant, a covenant made by God before
time, a covenant made in the blood of Christ. In fact, this
is the message of the entire Bible. The Bible is God breathed,
2 Timothy 3.16. Its message is about God's own
dear son. It is about how God determined
from eternity to make known His great name throughout time and
eternity by the eternal achievements of His Son in His death to save
His people from their sins. God made the everlasting covenant
with His Son and with His chosen people. In that covenant, God
chose and gave a people to His Son to be His own people. They
were chosen by God the Father before time began. They were
predestinated by God the Father to be His sons in eternal adoption. Ephesians 1 verse 4 through 6.
They were predestinated to be God's sons by the redeeming blood
of Christ. Galatians 4 verses 1 through
6. And they were predestinated to be the sons of God by spiritual
birth into His kingdom. James 1.18 and 1 Peter 1.23. God committed His chosen people
into the hand of His Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
God made Christ the head in His everlasting covenant. All God
required of His people, He forever looked to His Son to fulfill.
And all blessings God gave to His Son, He also gave to those
named in His covenant of grace. Every condition in this covenant
was laid upon Christ, and Christ fulfilled all conditions in that
covenant when he offered himself to God for the sins of his people. By that one offering of himself
to God for the sins of God's elect, Christ forever made God's
people holy to God. He perfected them forever at
that time on the cross, having fulfilled God's law in consummate
perfection as their covenant head, their covenant representative,
their surety, who did all that he did in their place and in
their name to answer all God required on their behalf. Christ's
one offering for His people accomplished all of the work required to save
them from sin and the wrath of God, from Satan and the curse
of God's law, from this present evil world, and from death and
hell. Christ's one offering made them
holy and presented them to God as blameless, perfectly righteous
in His own obedience, which was credited by God to them and counted
as theirs. all was accomplished by the Lord
Jesus Christ in his death. On one day, Jesus Christ forever
removed all of the sins of his people before God. He cleansed
them from their sins before the Lord by his sin-atoning blood
in his substitutionary death. In so doing, He made them holy
and perfect, because all that Christ did as the Covenant Head,
He did in answer to God, for His people, against every accusation,
and in fulfillment of every demand of God's law, to obtain every
promised blessing of salvation and eternal life. He did all
in the name of His people, those God the Father gave Him before
time began in the covenant of grace. In 2 Timothy 1, verse
9, the Apostle Paul told Timothy that God the Father has saved
us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Now, all that
I have said by way of summary here is powerfully developed
in great detail in the book of Hebrews. It is written with unparalleled
explanation of all of the Old Testament scripture in concise
and elegant language, unsurpassed in all the word of God. The book
of Hebrews stands out in a special way because it explains the entire
Old Testament in a compact form. with the most impressive organization
and elegance. Every time I read it, I am astounded
that God has given this great treasure to us. It makes me long
to be found only in Christ, not having my own righteousness,
but His alone, saved by His redeeming blood, having fulfilled God's
holy law by His obedience, saved according to God's holiness,
to His great glory alone, and given faith by God to receive
his word concerning Christ as the very truth of the way things
are between my soul and God. The message of Hebrews is not
meant merely for academic study. It is meant for sinners. It teaches
sinners about Christ. The book of Hebrews is the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the gospel of Christ explained
as the fulfillment of the Old Testament. No wonder our hearts
burn within us when we are given grace from God to read this book
as sinners with eyes of faith to see Christ as all of our salvation
from Old Testament scripture. To see that all God said and
required before is now fulfilled in Christ gives us the greatest
confidence that it is God who has spoken here. It gives us
great confidence and full assurance of faith to know that by the
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, God has always accepted His people
as He accepts His Son. God's everlasting covenant of
grace is the Gospel, and the message of Hebrews is therefore
of utmost importance. It is of utmost importance because,
first, it is God's message to men about His only begotten Son
and His glorious achievements for sinners. And it is of utmost
importance because it is God's final message to men in the history
of this world. It is also of utmost importance
because it is the message of eternal salvation, and it is
the message about the shed blood of the Son of God, whose blood
made full remission for the sins of God's people, obtained their
eternal redemption, made them holy to God, and perfected them
forever to give them eternal blessings which were purchased
by His own blood. Hebrews is of utmost importance
because it reveals God's glory and because it is the message
of salvation, which if we neglect in indifference and in the pride
of our own unbelief, we will be eternally lost. We must hold
fast God's glad tidings of Christ's work in salvation. We must continue
believing Christ as our complete and only answer to God. We must
not fail in this faith. And yet, faith itself is God's
gift. He alone gives it, and He alone
sustains it. Hebrews 12, 2 says, Jesus Christ
is the author and finisher of our faith. There is no more important
message found in all the Bible that is found in the book of
Hebrews. Now, Hebrews was written to those people who were named
Hebrews because they were descendants of Abraham's great ancestor,
Eber. Hebrews are Jews. When God speaks
in the Bible of either Jews or Hebrews, He speaks of that physical
nation of the Jews. but not of that physical nation
only, but of that physical nation as a picture of the spiritual
nation that is called the Bride of Christ, the Church of the
Living God, the elect of God, those redeemed by the precious
blood of the Lamb of God, and given the Spirit of God to live
by faith upon Christ and Him crucified to the glory of God's
great grace. The Apostle Peter said this about
those who were called spiritual Hebrews in the Bible, And this
is true of every believer in Christ. In 1 Peter 2, verse 9,
Peter said, You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a peculiar people, that you should show forth the
praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. Thus, the book of Hebrews, though
it was written to those who were the physical children of Abraham,
those who grew up under the law of Moses, and all the sacrifices
and ceremonies of the Old Testament, it was actually written to all
those who were given by God the Father to Christ in His everlasting
covenant of grace. See Ephesians chapter 1 verse
4 and John 17 verse 2. These are the chosen generation,
the holy nation, because they are set apart by God's choice
from eternity, redeemed by Christ's blood at the cross, and sanctified
by spiritual birth into God's kingdom by the Spirit of God
to believe Christ crucified with God-given faith. They are Hebrews
in a spiritual sense, whether they be Jews or Gentiles in a
physical sense. The spiritual sense is the only
true sense in which any person may be called a Jew. Romans 2.28
says, He is not a Jew, which is one outwardly. Neither is
that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew,
which is one inwardly. And circumcision is of the heart,
in the spirit, not in the letter. It doesn't matter who our physical
parents are. It doesn't matter if we can trace
our ancestry to Abraham or to any other man. Our physical parents
contribute nothing to our spiritual birth. Spiritual birth is by
the sovereign spirit of God alone. Only those born of God are God's
sons. Entrance into God's kingdom is
by the blood of Christ, and by the birth God gives to us through
His Spirit, which comes to us because of Christ's redeeming
blood. The Apostle John said, Our spiritual birth is not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God. John 1. God gives His Spirit
to those whose sins are washed from them, and who are made holy
by the blood of Christ. God ordained all of these to
eternal life. He gives His Spirit to them,
that they might live in believing Christ, and know God as their
Father, and Christ as their great God and Savior. Therefore, the
book of Hebrews was written to God's people from every nation
under heaven. God's people believe Christ.
This is the great point of distinction that God makes in our lives.
Like Abel, they come to God looking to Christ to be accepted by God
for His sake alone. Those who are not God's people
are distinguished because they do not come to God by Christ
alone. Instead, they come by their own
works and think to boast in their works before God and men. They
trust themselves. They trust something about what
they do. Like Cain, they add to God's work with their own
work and present their work to be accepted by God. By their
free will, by their decision, by their claiming to accept Jesus,
they add to what Christ did. Their response to God becomes
the deciding factor on which they depend for God's acceptance
and salvation. All who do not believe Christ
and come to God to be accepted by Him for Christ's sake alone
actually reject the Son of God and the message of the book of
Hebrews. In this book, God says all such will receive the just
reward of their sins. See chapter 10 verses 26 through
29. But all who come to God looking
to Christ alone will receive the just reward of Christ's obedience
because they have been given the grace of life and faith by
God the Holy Spirit. Therefore, their believing is
the evidence that they are born of God. All who are born of God
were born because Christ died for them. They have been redeemed
by His precious blood, Galatians 4, verses 4-6. And all who were
redeemed by Christ and born of His Spirit were given to Christ
by God the Father in the everlasting covenant of grace. If you read
the Gospel of John, chapters 10 and 17, you will see clearly
that there is no uncertainty in the salvation of God's people.
All will be saved for whom Christ died. Not one of his sheep will
perish for whom he laid down his life. He must bring all of
them. He will have them. He will call
them and they will hear his voice. They shall follow him. He will
lose none of them. No one is able to pluck them
out of his hand, and no one is able to pluck them out of his
father's hand, to whom the sheep belong equally, and who is stronger
than all. See John chapter 10 verse 27
through 29. Now, what I have said here by
introduction is the message of the book of Hebrews. That message,
again, is Christ, the mediator of the everlasting covenant of
God's grace, by whose blood that covenant is fulfilled and made
certain to all for whom he died and obtained eternal redemption. Hebrews was written to all who
are in that covenant. They are called Hebrews in a
spiritual sense because they are in Christ as their covenant
head by God's act of eternal election. With this introduction,
let us now begin with the first verse of the first chapter of
the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 says,
God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son. The first thing we learn here
is that the God who spoke in the Old Testament is the God
who speaks in the New Testament. We also learn that the message
of the Old Testament is the message of the New Testament, but that
message is concealed in the Old Testament in laws and sacrifices
until Christ came. As someone once said, the New
Testament is in the Old Testament, concealed, and the Old Testament
is in the New Testament, revealed. Therefore, the same God who spoke
in times past now speaks. The 19th chapter of the book
of Revelation makes this truth very pointedly. In Revelation
19.10 it says the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. In other words, the message of
scripture has been Christ crucified from the beginning. He is the
lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Revelation 13.8
But that message was not as clearly revealed in the Old Testament
as it is now revealed in the New. Yet, from the beginning
of time, all those God saved were given to believe Christ.
God promised Adam and Eve that Jesus would be the seed of the
woman who would destroy the works of the devil. Genesis 3 verse
15. We know that Old Testament saints believe Christ because
there is only one name under heaven, given among men, whereby
we must be saved. Acts 4.10-12. None are saved
who do not come to God by Christ's precious blood. Adam and Eve
were clothed in the skins of the animal God sacrificed for
their covering, Genesis 3, verse 21. Those skins testified of
Christ, the Lamb of God, slain to cover our sins by His righteousness. And Abel believed Christ. That
is why he brought a lamb to God. He believed God's testimony of
his son, that in the sacrifice of God's substitute, God justifies
ungodly sinners. And in the days of Enos the son
of Seth men began to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Genesis 4 verse 26. Because all
who call in faith on the Lord call on the Lord in Jesus Christ
who is Lord of all and God over all. See Joel chapter 2 verse
32. Then after the flood Noah offered
to the Lord of every clean beast. Later, Abraham told his son Isaac,
in Genesis 22, verse 8, my son, God will provide himself, the
Lamb, for the burnt offering. Therefore, throughout the Old
Testament, the priests offered gifts and sacrifices for sin.
And all of these sacrifices were God's testimony of the sacrifice
of Christ, the Lamb of God. Christ was ordained as the Lamb
of God before the foundation of the world. 1 Peter 1.20 and
Revelation 13.8 His blood was shed and his people
were justified by his blood in the purpose of God from eternity
before time began. That is why in Romans 8.33 it
says, Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Because
as long as they have been God's elect, no one could lay charge
to them. Christ crucified is therefore
the testimony of all of Scripture. He is the life-giving message,
the spirit of prophecy. Therefore, in the days of the
Old Testament, God spoke by the prophets, and His message was
Christ and what Christ would do to save His people and glorify
God. but in these last days these
last days god has spoken to us also only this time he has spoken
to us by his son the message is the same but now that message
is fulfilled and god has sent his son who himself has told
us the message from heaven The message is about Him. It is about
Christ, that He is the eternal Son of God and the eternally
ordained Son of Man, eternally ordained to shed His precious
blood, to fulfill God's covenant of grace, to save His people
from their sins, those people who are Hebrews by God's choice
and by Christ's redeeming blood and by the sanctifying work of
the Spirit of God who gives us life from the dead to believe
and know the Son of God. That was the message of the Old
Testament, and that is the message of the New Testament. As one
preacher put it, the Bible is a hymn book. It's about Him,
the Lord Jesus Christ. In these last days God has spoken
to us by His Son. God's message is always authoritative. But the authority of the message
is proportional to the dignity and the authority of the messenger.
The word the prophets spoke was authoritative because God sent
them and they spoke God's word. But when Christ speaks, it is
God Himself speaking. In these last days a son of God
has come in human nature and he has spoken to us. He has spoken
God's message and the message is about himself. It is about
what God his father gave him to do. It is about what he actually
accomplished by himself by all that he did. The One who speaks
to us in these last days is the Lord from heaven. Let me read
what the Apostle John wrote of Christ in the Gospel of John,
Chapter 3. He that cometh from above is
above all. He that is of the earth is earthly,
and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is
above all. And what he has seen and heard,
that he testifieth, and no man receiveth his testimony. He that
hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true. For he whom God hath sent speaketh
the words of God. For God giveth not the Spirit
by measure unto him. The Father loveth the Son, and
hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. These
words from John chapter 3 repeat what God has said in Hebrews
chapter 1 verses 1 through 2. Christ is from heaven. He is,
therefore, above all. His word is, therefore, of ultimate
authority. He speaks God's words. He was
sent by God the Father. His words are, therefore, true
and authoritative by a double witness. He speaks God's words,
and He who speaks is God Himself, God the Word. Yet no man receives
His testimony. And yet, some do. Those who believe
have been given grace from God. They hear Christ's words as the
whole truth about the way things are between them and God. And
they believe what God has said about their own sinful heart.
They believe what God has said about His Son. The Father loves
His Son. Whoever believes the Son has
everlasting life. Whoever does not believe the
Son of God shall never see life, but the wrath of God remains
upon him. God must therefore grant us repentance
to believe Christ to everlasting life or we will perish. We will
perish if we refuse to believe the Son of God. He has come in
these last days. He has come in our human nature.
He spoke the message of God because he was full of the Spirit of
God. He is God, one with the Father and the Spirit. He is
God's messenger of the new covenant. Malachi chapter 3 verse 1. He
is God's messenger of the New Covenant and He is Himself the
message that God speaks. His message is therefore of the
highest authority. He cannot lie. His word cannot
fail. To reject His message is to reject
life and to love death. But notice, God has spoken by
His Son in these last days. No one leaves this world without
dying. All men die. God has appointed
the day of every man's death. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27 says,
It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. The day of our death is our last
day on this earth. The next thing we know after
death is judgment. We all live until our last day,
but yet there is also a last day for this earth and the universe. There is a day when God will
judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ, that man whom
he hath ordained to be judge of both the living and the dead.
The last day of this earth is coming. Here in Hebrews chapter
1 verses 1 through 2, God has said that Christ has spoken to
us in these last days. We are therefore living in the
last days. God has said so right here in
His Word. But what does this mean? It means there is no other
Savior coming. God has no other message. If
we refuse to hear and believe Christ, if we do not come to
God as sinners, needing all and finding our all in Christ, then
we forsake our own mercies. Jonah chapter 2 verse 8. We must
learn this. Salvation is of the Lord. It is of God. It is not of man. It is in Christ alone. Only those
in Christ will be saved. Christ alone accomplished this
salvation. We contribute nothing. We must
therefore give the more earnest heed to what the Son of God has
said to us in these last days. He has spoken the gospel, the
gospel of His glorious eternal achievements for sinners. We
must come to Him in faith as sinners, asking Him to save us
from our sins and trusting Him alone to do so according to His
promise. We must trust Him who has said
that He obtained eternal redemption for His people by His redeeming
blood on the cross. Before God destroyed the earth
with water in the days of Noah, before Noah entered into the
ark, the Lord Jesus Christ by His Spirit spoke through Noah
to the souls then living. Those souls are now in hell,
in the prison of hell. They are awaiting final arraignment
before Christ on His throne of judgment. They refused to hear
the spirit of Christ when Noah preached to them of his righteousness.
But God has sent a greater than Noah to us in these last days.
God judged the world in Noah's day. But there is another judgment
coming in these last days. That judgment will be the final
judgment. There will be no second time in which God will save men,
in which men will be allowed to flee to Christ. We must hear
God's Son today. This is the message God has given
to us of His Son. In 1 John chapter 5 we read,
If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God,
which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the
Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not
God hath made him a liar, because he believeth not the record that
God gave of his Son. And this is the record that God
hath given to us. eternal life, and this life is
in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life,
and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that
you may believe on the name of the Son of God." 1 John 5, verses
9 through 13. The book of Hebrews is about
Christ, the mediator of the new covenant in his blood. This is
the most gloriously glad news in heaven and earth and for all
eternity. Those who hear and believe Christ
by this message are born of God. God made the difference between
them and others. The difference God makes is seen
in the cross. What do you think of Christ and
Him crucified? Do you come to God by Him? In
Hebrews chapter 10, God says we are to come boldly to the
throne of grace by the blood of Jesus. He says that the just
shall live by faith. All who come to God, therefore,
believing Christ's blood and righteousness as all of their
righteousness before God, are righteous by the imputed righteousness
of Jesus Christ. Though in themselves they are
yet sinners, yet in Christ they are without blame, holy, perfect
before God. The Son of God has come. These
are the last days. Do you hear Him? Do you believe
His word? Do you trust Him who sits on
the throne of glory to save you to the uttermost by His almighty
grace alone? Are you persuaded that you can
be accepted by God only in the Lord Jesus Christ, your High
Priest, your King, your Mediator, your Surety, your Advocate, your
Covenant Head? God says all who rest from their
own works and look to Christ's work alone, who come to God trusting
His blood and righteousness, are holy brethren. They are made
holy by the blood of Christ. You've just heard a sermon by
our pastor, Rick Warda. You may contact us by email or
by phone, or download a copy of this sermon by visiting our
website at YSGraceChurch.com