The title of the message today
is the sum of all grace. The sum of all grace. Now in
Hebrews chapter 8, the beginning verse here, verse 1, this is
where I got my title for the message today, where the apostle
writes, now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. This is the summation. This is
the main point. of all the things that the Apostle
had been talking about up to this point in the book of Hebrews
concerning Christ and salvation by Him. Well, what had he been
saying? What things had he spoken concerning
Christ? Well, he talked about the greater,
superior, more excellent glory of Christ over all things in
the Old Covenant. The greater glory of Christ over
the prophets. The prophets of old spoke of
Christ who was to come. Christ himself is the fulfillment
of all prophecy. He told his disciples that in
Luke chapter 24 when he got them together. And he opened their
understanding to the scriptures, everything that Moses had written,
all of the Psalms and all of the prophets. all those things
that concerned him, his person, who he is, by nature, the God-man,
the Messiah, the Anointed One, sent of the Father to save his
people from their sins. And all that the Old Testament
Scriptures taught concerning his mediatorial offices, his
prophet, Christ our prophet, our priest, our great high priest,
and our king, our sovereign Lord and Savior. And then all that
the scriptures spoke of concerning his atonement, his atoning work,
his finished work, Christ came into the world as the substitute
of his people, his sheep, his church, and he was made under
the law. That is, he obeyed the law perfectly
in every precept, and he went to the cross of Calvary to shed
his blood as payment for their sins, to bring forth an everlasting
righteousness of infinite value to enable God to be just and
justifier. He was buried. He rose again
the third day for our justification. He ascended unto the Father on
high. Having purged our sins, Paul
wrote in Hebrews chapter 1, he sat down on the right hand of
the majesty on high. So Christ is greater than the
prophets. Christ is greater than the angels. The angels were ministering
spirits in the Old Covenant, but they paid homage to Christ. They worshipped Him. At His birth,
the angels bowed down and worshipped Him, said, Glory to God in the
highest, peace on earth, and goodwill towards men. Christ
is greater than Moses. Moses was the mediator of the
Old Covenant, but Moses was a sinner saved by grace. In John chapter
5, the Lord told the Pharisees, you trust in Moses. He said,
had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, for Moses wrote
of me. All the Old Covenant that Moses
was mediator of pointed to Christ. The first five books of the Old
Testament that the Spirit used Moses to write spoke of Christ. All the Old Testament. And then
Christ is greater than the Levitical priesthood of the Old Covenant.
that earthly priesthood that began with Aaron, Moses' brother,
and continued on with the tribe of Levi. For 1,500 years, Christ
is better because he's the fulfillment of that priesthood. That priesthood
was a type. It was a picture, a foreshadowing
of the priesthood of Christ. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. We have such a
high priest, Paul wrote. And Christ is better than the
old tabernacle, that old covenant tabernacle that they carried
around with them in the wilderness, and they would set it in the
middle of the tribes, the center of the camp. That old covenant
tabernacle, which housed the holiest of all, the mercy seat,
and the Ark of the Covenant. It was there where God said He
would meet with sinners with the blood sacrifice. Well, Christ
is our tabernacle. He's our high priest. He's our
tabernacle. He's our altar. He's our Sabbath. He's everything that that ceremonial
law foreshadowed. Christ is the fulfillment of
it. And then Christ is our sacrifice. All the animal blood that was
shed under the old covenant is representative of Christ, the
blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation
of the world. He's better. He's the fulfillment
of all. Only in Christ do we find eternal,
spiritual forgiveness of all our sins. Only in Christ do we
have eternal life. Animal blood could not bring
that about, but Christ did. And that's what Paul's talking
about here. This is the sum, the summation of all that I've
said before, all that I've written, all that God revealed to me,
the sum of all grace, Christ and Him crucified. You want salvation? Come to Christ. You want forgiveness
of sins? Look to Him, whom to know is
life eternal. There is no forgiveness apart
from the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, look at the points
he makes here at Hebrews 8.1. Now, of the things which we have
spoken, this is the Son, and he begins, we have such an high
priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty
in the heavens. Our high priest is in heaven. Now, Christ is God, and He is
omnipresent. He is everywhere. He said, where
two or three are gathered in my name, there I'll be with you.
He'll be with them. He's present in His church. He's
the head of the church. He's present in the hearts of
His people. But as our High Priest, He's in the heavens, at the right
hand of the Majesty, the place of authority, the place of acceptance,
the place of honor. And being at the right hand of
the Majesty on high, He pronounces pardon and forgiveness and justification
for His people. He pleads the merits of his obedience,
his death, his blood. Back during the days of the Sanhedrin,
the high court of the Jewish religion, whenever a man was
accused of a crime, he would be brought before the Sanhedrin,
the court, to be tried, and evidence would be brought against him
or for him. And the judge, the main judge, there was a scribe
placed upon, one sat on his right hand, and one sat on his left
hand. If the man was pronounced guilty,
the scribe on the left hand wrote it down, recorded it on the scrolls,
and that was the pronouncement and the sentence was given. If
the man was pronounced cleared of all guilt, the scribe on the
right hand would write that down and the man was pronounced innocent,
not guilty. And that's why we see Christ
is the high priest of his people. His sheep, His church, all who
have come to Him for salvation, He's seated at the right hand
of the Majesty on high. That's the place where He pronounces
justification for His people. They're not guilty, not because
they're not sinners. We're sinners saved by the grace
of God. but because he himself has removed
our sins by the sacrifice of himself. You see that? That's
the kind of high priest that Christ's sheep have. That's the
kind of high priest that we need over in Hebrews chapter 7. It talked about that in verse
25. Wherefore he is able, Christ is able, to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by him. Because he ever liveth
to make intercession for them, for such an high priest." Paul
wrote it in Hebrews 8.1. We have such a high priest. And
he says in Hebrews 7.26, he says, for such a high priest became
us. He is what we need. He became us. He meets our need. What do we need? We need wisdom.
I don't have any of my own, but Christ is my wisdom. What do
I need? I need righteousness, perfect
satisfaction to God's law and justice. I don't have any of
my own, but Christ is my righteousness. What do I need? I need holiness.
I don't have any of my own, but Christ is my holiness. What do
I need? I need redemption. I don't have
even the first penny to pay the debt that I owe to God's law
and justice because of my sin. But Christ is my redemption.
He paid the price in full. So he became me. He's holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners. And it says, and made higher
than the heavens. So this is the sum, Paul says, the sum of
all grace. We have such a high priest. Oh,
what a high priest we have. I tell you, I feel so inadequate
when I preach these things because I don't feel like I can tell
you in words the value, the power, the excellency of Christ, who
He is, what He did, why He did it, where He is now, all these
things. We have such a high priest, one who sat on the right hand
of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. In verse 2 of
chapter 8, He says, a minister of the sanctuary, a minister
of the holy things, and of the true tabernacle which the Lord
pitched, and not man. In other words, Christ is a high
priest not in that earthly tabernacle that was made by the hands of
men when Moses gave them instructions in the wilderness. He's not a
high priest there. That's under the Old Covenant.
That's the law of Moses. The man had to be from the tribe
of Levi to be a high priest in that covenant, and Christ was
from the tribe of Judah, the kingly tribe. His priesthood
was not after the order of Aaron and Levi, but his priesthood
was after the order of Melchizedek, that eternal priesthood, that
spiritual priesthood, that office that never ends. You see, the
old covenant priesthood had a beginning and it had an end, but Christ's
priesthood is forever. and forever. He's a priest forever. And so his priesthood had nothing
to do with the earthly tabernacle in the wilderness or the temple
in Jerusalem. His priesthood had to do with
a true tabernacle into the very presence of God, the true tabernacle
which the Lord made and not man. Well, what is that tabernacle?
It's his flesh. It's his humanity, the Son of
God. Now think about this. This is
mind-boggling, but it's awesome. It shows us how great Christ
is, how great our mediator is. But the Son of God, the second
person of the Trinity, who had no beginning and has no end,
Alpha and Omega, very God of very God, that's who He is now,
set up from everlasting to be the mediator of this covenant,
the new covenant. The very Son of God came to this
earth and dwelt in human flesh. That was His tabernacle. In John
chapter 1 and verse 1, it speaks of Him as the Word, the eternal
Word. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God. He's the second person of the
Trinity. There's a distinction in the persons of the Godhead,
but not a distinction in nature. One God. three persons. Not three gods. We worship one
God, who subsists in three distinct persons. The Word was with God,
and then he says, the Word was God. He was God. God the Son. You see, there's
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. I can't
explain the Trinity to you. I can tell you what the Bible
teaches about it, and we're to bow to it, as we are to all of
God's Word. Somebody says, well, if I can't
understand it, I'm not going to believe it. Well, then you
better just forget about the Scriptures. Because they're things
we understand by divine revelation as God reveals them to us. But
they're things in the Word that are so high above us. And you
know what? I've thought about that a lot.
I'm glad of that. I'm glad I worship a God who
is so much higher than me. He's infinite. But I'm not. I'm finite. He's unchangeable,
but I'm changeable. Well, this Word, the Word of
God, Christ, the second person of the Trinity, was with God
and He is God. And then down in John 1 and verse
14 it tells us this, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us. Now that word dwelt in John 1,
14 in the original would be translated tabernacled. Christ tabernacled
among us. He dwelt among us. And that tabernacle
was his humanity. You remember the tabernacle in
the Old Covenant? On the outside it was made of
badger skins and different kinds of cloths, and it had no outward
impressive-looking form. In other words, it's not something
like when you would come upon it, you'd be really impressed
with this structure. It was plain on the outside.
It wasn't like, you know, if you go to India to see the Taj
Mahal and you look at that thing, you're really impressed. But
this tabernacle in the wilderness is something that you really
wouldn't be impressed with just by looking at the outside of
it, those badger skins and those dull colors. Well, that represents
Christ's humanity, you see, which, outwardly speaking, He had no
form nor comeliness, had no beauty. Isaiah chapter 53 describes Him. that we esteemed him not. There
was nothing on his outward appearance that would draw men unto him.
But inside that tabernacle there was the Holy of Holies. Oh, what
glory it was! The very presence, the Shekinah
glory of God inside that tabernacle. In the very center of that tabernacle
there was the holiest of all, there was the Ark of the Covenant.
There was the mercy seat, the ark of the covenant overlaid
with gold, the mercy seat of pure gold, the cherubims that
stood over it, Aaron's rod that budded, the pot with the incense,
all of these things, the manna, all of these things, it was glorious.
And that's what we see as representing Christ. Outwardly, in his human
form, he was not impressive. But inwardly, he's God the Son
incarnate. God in human flesh. So our high
priest, this is the sum of all grace now. We have a high priest
who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty
in the heavens, and notice it says he is set. That means he
is seated there. What does that mean? That means
he's at rest. He finished his work. He's not like this counterfeit
Jesus that's being preached today, who's just hanging over the banister
of heaven, up there pacing back and forth, worried that nobody's
going to accept him. Our high priest, this is the
sum. We have such a high priest. He's
seated. He finished his work. He's at
rest. We may be fretting around and
worrying around, but he's at peace concerning his people.
He's going to bring them to the Father, and then He's a minister
of the sanctuary and the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched.
Who created the humanity of Christ? God the Holy Spirit in the womb
of the Virgin. He wasn't born of man in sin
like you and me are. He was born of a Virgin without
sin, but a true humanity that was created by God. So He's pitched
by the Lord and not by man. Now look at verse 3 of Hebrews
8. It says, For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and
sacrifices. Now that's the nature of the
office of a high priest. He's ordained. He's appointed
of God to offer gifts and sacrifices. The gifts had to do with offerings.
The sacrifices had to do with atonement. In other words, the
shedding of blood, the sacrifice had to be made Because that shows
us how sin demands death. You see, law and justice have
to be satisfied. Righteousness must be established.
God must be just when he justifies the ungodly. And every high priest
is ordained to offer that atoning blood and the gifts based on
that. So he says, wherefore, or for
this reason, it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also
to offer. What he's saying here is if Christ
is a high priest, and he is the high priest, then he must have
something to offer. He cannot go empty-handed. You
see, the high priest could not go into the holiest of all empty-handed. He had to have something to offer,
and it had to appease God. It had to fit with God's requirement. So in verse 4 it says, For if
he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there
are priests that offer gifts according to the law. Now Christ,
if he were a priest, and he is, he had to have something to offer.
But now if he were a priest on earth, that is according to the
old covenant law, then he could not be a priest. Because those
priests had gifts to offer according to the law. In other words, their
priesthood and their gifts were all according to the old covenant
law. Therefore Christ, even though
he had to have something to offer, he could not be a priest under
the law of Moses. Because that was according to
the law and he didn't fit it. But what, well, look at verse
5 of Hebrews 8. those old covenant priests who
serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things." You see,
they were examples. They were shadows. They were
pictures. They were types of heavenly things. So they had their place. But
now Christ has His place. His place is not in the earthly
tabernacle. His place is not a priest under
the law of Moses. His place is not to bring the
blood of animals into the holiest of all. That's not His place,
you see. Now, He has to have something
to offer. Well, what was it He offered?
His own precious blood. Christ offered Himself without
spot to God as the representative and substitute of His people.
He had to bring that offering, the offering of Himself, His
obedience unto death, his own precious blood. Now those old
covenant priests and sacrifices, they were examples. They were
shadows of Christ who was to come. And it says, as Moses,
verse 5, was admonished of God when he was about to make the
tabernacle, he says, for see, saith he, that thou make all
things according to the pattern shown to thee in the mount. So
when Moses received instruction from God to make that tabernacle,
God made sure to tell him, now Moses, you make it according
to the pattern that I've given you. Well now, what is that pattern? Or better yet, who is that pattern?
Christ is the pattern of the tabernacle. Everything in that
tabernacle represented, foreshadowed, and pictured something concerning
the person, the offices, and the mediatorial work, the finished
atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So Christ is the pattern. Now the pattern from which the
tabernacle was made has come into this world and we no longer
need that tabernacle, that earthly tabernacle. We have Christ. We
have such a high priest. That's the sum of it. Those things
have been abolished because Christ has come. Now in verse 6 he gives
us three things here that I want you to see. that sums up all
of what he's been saying. He says, but now. Now this is
in comparison with that Old Covenant pattern. You see the tabernacle
that he was given, Moses was given, and he says, but now hath
he. Now who is the he there? That's
Christ himself. He obtained a more excellent
ministry, that's number one, by how much also he is the mediator
of a better covenant, number two. You see, you have a more
excellent ministry and you have a better covenant which was established
upon better promises. That's number three. Three things
there that sum up all of this, that show the greater glory of
Christ. Number one is Christ has obtained
a more excellent ministry. Over in 2 Corinthians chapter
three, the apostle describes this ministry. He talks about
God's ministers under the New Covenant who hath been made able
ministers of the New Testament. That's 2 Corinthians 3 and verse
6. Now, we're ministers not of the
Old Testament, not of the Old Covenant, but of the New Testament. And that New Testament is not
of the letter, but of the Spirit. This New Covenant is a spiritual
covenant. It's not just written down in
books. It's by the Spirit of God. He says, the letter killeth. That old covenant law killed
because it always exposed their sin, but the Spirit giveth life. Eternal life, spiritual life,
is given by the Spirit of God who comes from Christ, who is
our life. Down in verse 8 he calls it,
or verse 7, he calls it the ministration of death. All that animal blood
that was shed for over, for 1,500 years, over and over again, spoke
of death, spoke of guilt. And then he calls it the ministration
of condemnation in verse 9. But you see, now we're under
a ministration of life, a ministration of reconciliation, a ministration
of righteousness in Christ. And it's a more excellent ministry.
We don't speak of one who is to come. We speak of one who's
already come and who's finished the work. And it's a better covenant. It's a better testament. because
this testament is not just rules and regulations and laws that
are imposed upon people who have no heart to obey them. This is
the law written on the heart. It's the spirit within. Israel
as a nation didn't have that. There were individuals in the
nation that had that, the true believers, but as a whole the
nation rejected Christ. But in the new covenant there
is the spirit within, the law written on the heart. And it's
written on the heart as sinners are slain by the law to see our
sinfulness and our weakness and our wretchedness to show that
we cannot be justified before God based upon our law keeping.
And it's written on our heart as we look to Christ who kept
the law for us. Faith establishes the law not
by our works but by looking to Christ who did all the work,
who satisfied law and justice. and then it's established upon
better promises. Under that old covenant, the
nation Israel had a promise of an earthly land, earthly Canaan. But we, under the new covenant
in Christ, we have a promise of an eternal land, a heavenly
land, eternal life and glory, the majesty of grace. Listen,
they had the temporal, civil forgiveness of their sins as
a nation, but it didn't last. It had to come back every year
and slay the blood of an animal. And it did atone for their sins,
not in a spiritual, eternal way, but in a civil way for the nation,
in a ceremonial way, temporally and temporarily. But under the
new covenant, we have a better promise. We have the promise
of eternal forgiveness, complete forgiveness, in Christ by his
blood. Our justification before God
is eternal and complete because it's based on the righteousness
of Christ and not our works. It's not conditioned on us. None
of the promises of the new covenant are conditioned on the sinner.
They are all conditioned on Christ. He met those conditions. He satisfied
the law. He brought in everlasting righteousness. He made an end of sin. He finished
the transgression. All has been accomplished in
him. The Bible says, for all the promises of God in him are
yea and in him. Amen. Under the old covenant,
some of the promises were conditioned on the nation. For example, God
promised them national prosperity in the land of Canaan based on
national obedience. That was from the leaders of
the people and the majority of the people. And then he threatened
a national disaster based upon national obedience. But under
the New Covenant, it's not like that. Our position in the New
Covenant, in Christ, in the household and family of God, is complete,
eternal, and it can never be taken away because Christ is
our High Priest. That's the sum. That's the summation
of all grace. Christ and Him crucified. The
work has been done, it's finished, and we are complete in Him.