I told you I was going to start
on the book of Hebrews this evening. And it opens up with God. It opens up with the word God.
And the last verses of it is where he says, God make you perfect
in every good work and the God of peace. It starts with God
and it ends with the God of peace. And you remember when our Lord
Jesus Christ had his disciples after his resurrection. And he
appeared to them and the scripture says that he opened their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. And I pray that that's
what our Lord would do for us this evening. He'd open our understanding
that we might understand the scriptures. Understand what he
says. Especially as we undertake this
study of the book of Hebrews. And the Holy Spirit, what He
does, He guides us into all truth. And He's to take the things of
Christ and show them unto us. And may He be pleased to do that,
guide us into the truths of this blessed book, and take the things
of Christ out of this book, out of Hebrews, and show them unto
us. Now, I don't know who actually wrote this book. Most people
attribute it to Paul. And there's others that attribute
it to Luke, but it don't make any difference. It was probably
Paul. And the author didn't attach his name to it. This is the only
book in the Scriptures that don't have a name attached to it. And
God meant it to be that way. If he wanted a name attached
to it, the name would have been attached to it. But this is God's
way of doing things. And so I personally believe it
was Paul because of Paul's great understanding of the Old Testament
Scriptures. And I'll tell you another thing
about this blessed book. It's written to Jewish believers. That's the title. Who it's written
to is in the title. The epistle of Paul the Apostle
to the Hebrews. They put Paul up there. To the
Hebrews. Jews. Those who were descendants
of Abraham. Our Lord Jesus take upon himself
the nature of angels, but took upon himself the seed of Abraham. And I tell you, this is written
to Jewish believers, to Hebrews. And these people were called
holy brethren. He called them holy brethren.
These were people who were not young in the faith. He says,
you know, you ought to be teachers. You know, and he opened up with
God and how God spake. And we'll deal with some of those
things next week. I just want to have a little
introduction to it this evening. And these people were not young
in the faith. He says, you ought to be teachers.
You ought to be teachers, but it's neat for me to teach you
again." And they were people who suffered great, great persecution. You remember how the Lord, all
the way through the book of Acts, They start out in chapter 3 after
all those people were converted on the day of Pentecost. After that, Peter, James, and
John were persecuted. Then after that, they persecuted
the whole church. And then after that, Paul the
Apostle, or Saul of Tarsus, he persecuted them greatly that
were at Jerusalem. And so these people had been
under the gun, been under persecution from the time they started believing.
until the Lord came back. He says, you endured a great
fight of affliction. And it was addressed to people
of good size group. He says, obey them that have
the rule of you. And everybody in Italy saluted
all of them. In fact, most people in those
days were Jews. Were, you know, on the dead Pentecost. They were Jews. The 5,000, most
of them were all Jews. And so these were, these Hebrew
Christians here, these Hebrew believers. And what was his purpose? What did he mean to write this
book? What was the purpose of this
book? You reckon he just drew a bow and a venture and said,
well, I'll take a shot at what these fellas need to learn. No,
no, it wasn't a bow drawn and a venture. This book was written
to instruct and to teach the Jewish believers, and oh listen,
and I tell you those people need to be taught this today, even
Gentiles, people like us, to teach these Jewish believers,
these Hebrews, that Judaism was over. It was over. It was a dead religion. Christ
had fulfilled the law and the prophets. Fulfilled every type,
every shadow, every figure. And that from then on, following
Christ and trusting Christ was the only salvation that those
folks would ever have. Forget Judaism. It's dead. It's
gone. Now there's Jews that still don't
believe that. They still worship Him. They still go to the synagogues.
They still go to the rabbis. They still put on their prayer
cloths. They still put on their skull caps. They still do all
of these things. But I tell you what, that's why
Paul wrote this book of Hebrews. He said these people need to
be instructed of how Judaism is not in force anymore that
Christianity has abolished it, has superseded it by a thousand
times a thousand. And I tell you, these converts
were raised in the Jewish religion. Moses. How many times did they
talk about Moses? They talked about Christ. They
said, well, you know, He's your disciple. They said, we're Moses'
disciples. And now the Lord said, if you
were the sons of Abraham, you'd do it. He said, oh, listen, we're
not born of fortification. So they had great, great regard
to Moses. Great regard to Abraham. Raised
in this Jewish religion. Born and raised in the Jewish
religion. And Paul said it was we which are Jews by nature.
Born and raised in it. And that's why he said himself,
he said he was above many his equals in the Jewish religion. Ain't that what he said over
in Galatians? Above many my equals. I excelled and I was a Pharisee
of Pharisees, a Hebrew of Hebrews. I was raised on the feet of the
greatest teacher in that age, Gamaliel. I mean, I sat at the
feet of the best of them. And he said, after the Lord Jesus
Christ apprehended me, he said, I count everything that I knew
and believed and hoped in and trusted in, but none that I may
win Christ. So that's what he's trying to
tell these people right here. And that's what he's going to
teach them. Now I'll tell you what, they were having a hard
time leaving the law. And there's people today that
have a hard time leaving the law, don't they Brad? There's
a lot of folks. I don't know how they do it.
I don't know how they can call themselves grace believers and
all at the same time bring in the law as a rule of life. I
do not understand how that can happen. But there's lots of people
that do that. Lots of people that tell you,
you know, you're saved by grace, but then you're also saved by
your obedience to this law. Well, then what's the purpose
of grace if you've got to have works to go with it? Grace and
works, he says, they don't mix. If it's of works, it's not of
grace. If it's of grace, it's not of works. And that's what
the whole purpose of this Bible is about. And they were having
a hard time leaving the law, leaving his ceremonies, leaving
all their rituals. They're prejudice, you know.
Oh my, you remember when Peter, you know, he was over in Joppa,
and the Lord sent his sheep down three different times. He said,
Peter, rise, slay, and eat. No, no, no, no, Lord. I'm not
going to do it. I've never eaten anything unclean. I'm not going to start now. And boy, when the Lord Jesus
Christ got through with him, he says, what I've cleansed don't
you call common or unclean. And he went up and he had to
be made, three visions it took him, to be made to go over to
preach to a Gentile. And then when he got left that
Gentile's house, Cornelius' house, them Jews was waiting on him
when he got back to Jerusalem. Said, what in the world was you
doing at a Gentile's house? I mean, you talking about prejudice,
they had it. And so Peter had to be made to
go preach to a Gentile. And then the first thing you
know what he said was, I see that God has no respect for persons.
He said, you know, he's going to do this for these Gentiles.
And oh, and at this time it was so hard for him because the temple
still stood. The priesthood still existed.
And there were those who tried to bring Moses and Christ together.
They tried to bring Moses to Christ, and Christ to Moses,
and try to mix them together, and it wouldn't work. That's
what they said. They said, you cannot be saved
except you be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. And that's
why he went on and on and on with these kind of things. And
they tried to bring them together. And Paul says, the whole purpose
of Hebrews is to teach these folks that you cannot mix them.
You can't mix them. And it's hard, it was so hard
for them to grasp and believe that under Christ and in Christ
there's neither Jew nor Gentile. That there's no external differences
in any member of the human race. Being a Jew didn't add anything
to you. Being a Gentile didn't keep you
out. Being a Jew, it had its problems. Being a Gentile had
its problems. And all of them were solved and
all the differences were slain in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that's why I was telling somebody yesterday, I said, you know why
people don't have to tell about their past history and tell about
all what they did and everything like that? Because we already
know. I know everybody's history in here. You know my history. We know why Christ came, why
he died, what he did for us. We all know who we were and what
we were, so you don't have to tell us. Do we? We know. You say you don't know
how bad, yes I do. And I know how good you are sometimes
too. That gets in your brain too. So not only do you get bad,
but it works while you get good. And that's just as bad as being
bad. Being good is even a little worse. And oh, they would try so hard
to bring these Gentile believers into Judaism. You know, told
them all the time, all the time, you all need Moses, you need
Moses, you need Moses. Instead of seeing Judaism being
abolished by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And I tell you how, I mean even
how ingrained this was in the apostles. You remember on the
Mount of Transfiguration, when our Lord Jesus Christ was there
on that mount. And there appeared Moses and
Elijah with him. With our Lord Jesus Christ. And
they were there to talk about the death and what would be accomplished
by his death. Well there they were and the
first thing out of Peter's mouth was, Lord, we need to make three
tabernacles. Moses, oh man, ain't nobody like
Moses. Let's make one for him. And Elijah,
my, that's the greatest prophet that's ever been on the face
of the earth. Let's make one for him. And Lord, we'll make
one for you too. And that's what they tried to
do. They tried to bring Moses and the law and all these things
together, tried to meld them together. And instead of seeing
that every one of them was born to Christ, They tried to bring
them all together, and that's why Paul's writing this book
of Hebrews, saying they can't come together. They can't come
together. It's impossible for them to come
together. And they, and this is what happened to these folks,
by clinging to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, they were
cut off from the Lord's people. Do you remember that they were
going to put that mother and father and the whole family out
of the synagogue because their son, who was born blind, the
Lord opened his eyes and they said, now listen, we can't put
up with this. If you're going to admit that
this Jesus of Nazareth has done all this work and done this great
thing, He said, if you don't tell us who done it, we're going
to put you out. And that's what happened to these folks when
they followed Christ, and they owned Christ, and they trusted
Christ, then they were actually cut off from all their people
and for the hope of Israel's glory they were banished from
the very place that God had chosen where His presence was revealed.
And you go through the book of Acts and see how persecuted they
were. Oh, they were so persecuted. And I'll tell you another thing
about this book is this epistle sets forth all Jews who believed
in Christ And Christ has the fulfillment
of everything these Jews believed in. Everything they hoped in,
believed in, and trusted in from the time they were first taught
that everything they believed in and hoped in, our Lord Jesus
Christ came and fulfilled everything they believed in and hoped in.
And it had the authority of the Apostle Paul and systematically
set forth so they could follow. You see, this is the thing. They
was no doubt wondered was their faith in Jesus of Nazareth a
mistake, a delusion, a sin? They were suffering. Oh, they
were suffering so greatly. I mean, they'd have to take up
offers to give to the poor saints. They wouldn't let nobody let
them work. Then after they'd be scattered out, then there
was a time that they scattered them out and said, everybody's
gotta go. And they'd have to take and give food to them, give
money to them, try to help them, give them places to stay and
things to do. And their suffering was great and
all was against them. But all their brethren who stayed
with Jewish religion, they prospered. So these believers, these believers
in Christ, they had an urgent, urgent need for their faith to
be strengthened. For their understanding to be
in light, they needed a full explanation of what Christ and
Judaism, how Christ fulfilled everything that the Lord Jesus
Christ fulfilled everything they hoped, trusted, and believed
in. So that's the purpose of this blessed book. What's the
theme of it? What's the theme of the book of Hebrews? Well,
it's this. The super abounding excellency. of the Lord Jesus Christ and
Christianity over Judaism. I mean, this is super excels,
super exceeds. I know several Jews. I know several
Jews. In fact, when I go to Ireland
this summer, I'm going to be in a house, staying with a house
with Jews that go to synagogue. And into it, you know, and we
never had an opportunity to talk about it, but the first thing,
when they bring it up, the first thing I want to know is, where's
your priest? You've got to have a high priest,
ain't that right? And you've got to have a sacrifice. If you
ain't got neither one of them, how in the world are you going
to approach God? And we've got both of those in
Christ, and that's why Paul teaches them here in the book of Hebrews.
You know, and I've said this so many times, this book, the
theme of it is that the Lord Jesus Christ is the sum and the
substance. He's the center and the circumference.
He's the life and the life of this blessed book. And everything
and all of it is found only in Christ. The sum of this book,
the substance of this book, the center of this book, the circumference
of this book, the light of this book, the life that we have is
only found in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell you, the Apostles
means to set forth in this blessed book our Lord's superiority over
all things. Over all things. You know, this
epistle takes the things in which the Jews boasted and gloried
in one by one by one by one and sets them beside the Lord Jesus
Christ. He opens up here talking about
the fathers and the prophets. They always talked about their
fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They always talked about
the prophets. And the first thing He tells
them is, is that yes, God spoke to them. But you know what? He quit. He's only got one person
He speaks through now. One person that He's dealing
with this world. And one person that He has spoken
to. The final word. And that's in
His Son. That's in His Son. And I tell
you, He takes everything that they've gloried in. He takes
them one by one all the way through the book. until they set them
beside the Lord Jesus Christ and their hope just fades into
utter insignificance in the sight of it. And let me just give you
a few points about it. First of all, he starts out with
his superiority over the prophets. In verse 1 through 3, he says,
God who has hundred times, different times, And in different manners,
in lots of different ways, visions, dreams, tithes, visions, all the things
that he spoke by, spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets. But, now listen to what it says, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by sun. Not only did He speak to us by
the Son, and that's the final word He's got to say. Our Lord
Jesus Christ, God said, I'm never saying another word. If you ever
hear from Me, you're going to hear through My Son. He said,
I've spoken, spoken in these last days, spoken unto us by
Son. And then He says, He's the point
of the air of all things. And I tell you, He's the One
who made the worlds. And I tell you, He's so close
to me and so glorious in His power and His being. He's the
brightness of His glory. He's the express image of God
Himself. And He upholds all things by
the word of His power. And this Son by whom He spoke
to, so there never was a prophet put away sin. There never was
a father that put away sin. There never was a sacrifice that
put away sin. But when He by Himself purged
our sins, We're the first place they see the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's sitting at the right hand of the majesty of God. So we see his superiority over
the prophets. And then you go on down and you
see his superiority over angels. I mean, they love their angels.
They talked about angels. You know, down there in Luke
5, it says there when they were sitting by that pool, it said
there was an angel that certain seasons would come down and trouble
the water. And they'd watch for that angel to come and trouble
the water. Who got in first got healed quickest. Oh, they loved
their angel. And now it shows the superiority
over Moses. He says, Moses was just a servant
in the house. Christ, He's the head of the
house. And over Joshua, Joshua fought
lots of battles. He was used of God to go and
take Canaan and start delivering all these cities into the hands
of the children of Israel. But I tell you what, all they
didn't get their inheritance, all of them didn't. And Joshua
fought. But our Joshua, he did not give
them rest. They never entered into a rest.
But our Joshua, our Jesus, He defeated all of our enemies. And He gives us rest. Because He sees from His works
and we see from ours. And I tell you what, He is superior
over Aaron. Aaron's the first high priest.
And they thought, boy, I'll tell you what, these high priests,
they're really something. Well, let me, Paul, the apostle says, you
think Brian was a priest? You think Melchizedek was a priest?
And I got one to tell you about. A great high priest has passed
into the heavens. That's where he's at now. Said
them priests on earth, they're not here anymore. But our great
high priest passed into the heavens. That's where he's at. And I tell
you what, He shows the superiority over our Lord Jesus Christ, over
all Jewish rituals, over all ceremonies, all sacrifices. He
shows how great the new covenant is over the old covenant. And
we'll deal with all these things one at a time. And especially
our Lord's superiority over all Old Testament saints. They look
back at those saints and brag on those saints and all they
went through. But you know what it says? It says they all died
in faith. Who was they looking for? You know, they were looking for
one to come. And oh, I tell you what, and
our Lord Jesus Christ, look over here at Hebrews 10, just a minute,
let me show you something. And our Lord Jesus Christ, believers
have the substance and the reality of which the Jews and Judaism
has just shadows and figures. He tells what he says here in
Hebrews 10.1. For the law, and then when he
talks about the law, he's talking about all the whole Old Testament.
He's not talking about just Moses' commandments, the
Ten Commandments. He's talking about all the ceremonies,
all the rituals, all the types, everything. He says, for the
law, having a shadow. Now ain't no substance to a shadow.
Ain't no substance to a shadow. I was talking to somebody today
and we was talking about Mary and what a long, long shadow
she cast. She left a long, long shadow
on all of us. Glorious shadow, good shadow.
But that's what it is now, it's a shadow. She cast a long shadow. Left a lot in her mind, a lot
in her heart. But it's a shadow. Henry Mahan
casts a big shadow, a long shadow. And the law, that's all it had
to offer, was shadows. And they were shadows
of good things that's going to come. In other words, the shadow is going
to be away and some substance is going to come. Some reality
is going to come. Would you rather have a picture
or the person in the picture? And that's what the apostles
say. Would you rather have the picture of Christ in the Old
Testament? Or would you rather have Christ in reality? That's
the difference. And that's what he goes on to
say there. He says, you know, we have the
substance in reality, which they just had the types and the figures
and the shadows. And let me give you just a few
words that you find only in the book of Hebrews.
The word better. The word better. That is used
so many times here. He's called better than the angels.
By Him we have a better hope. We have a better testament. Set
upon better promises. We have better sacrifices. Paul
said we have a better substance. And you know what else he said?
We have a better country than what they had. And he says we
have a better resurrection. Everything's better. Everything's
better. So much better. So much greater.
And another word that he uses is great. Uses great. The word great. Great things.
And the first thing he talks about is so great a salvation.
How are we going to escape if we neglect so great a salvation? Then he talks about a great high
priest, not just a high priest, great high priest. And then he
talks about a great tabernacle, not the one on this earth, that
one in glory. He talks about believers having
a great fight of afflictions. But he also talks about us having
a great recompense of reward. And he talks also about us having
a great cloud of witnesses. And he closes off with saying,
Now the God of peace has brought again from the dead that great
shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. Great, great. And I tell you,
this letter to the Hebrews shows the Hebrews that what they gained
in Christ, gained in Christ, is absolutely nothing to be compared
to what they left. That's what the apostle said,
the thing he said about the sufferings in this present life are not
even worthy. to be compared with the glory
we're going to share. The glory we're going to narrate.
And that's why he said, what you gained in Christ, you've
got a reality. You just left shadows. What you've
got in Christ has substance to it. You just had types over there.
You've got the fulfillment of it here. And I tell you what, another
thing is that one of some of the words that they use is, we
have. And who is it we have? Who is it? Who's we? Everybody
has Christ. And he talks here about we have
a great high priest. We have an anchor of the soul. We have a better and an enduring
substance. We have an altar that nobody else is allowed to
come to. But those who know it And they, Paul encouraged them
to look forward. He said, for good things to come. He said, you know, them fellas,
they was looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. You
start looking for that good city. And he said, and how about a
salvation? He said, you know, there's a salvation ready to
be revealed in the last time. A salvation. And the apostle,
In this blessed book, oh it's just going to be wonderful. Going to be wonderful. The Old
Testament types, Paul unfolds them, he expounds them and teaches
them fully here like nowhere else in all the scriptures. He
starts with the tabernacle. That tabernacle in the wilderness.
He had just a tin on the outside, badger skin. That's where our
Lord was. He just looked like a man on
the outside. But boy, inside Him, He was full
of the glory of God, the fullness of the God that dwelt in Him,
and all the power and the majesty and the grace and the mercy that
was in Him. And then He talks about the priesthood.
He goes all the way through the priesthood. And then he deals
with every sacrifice that they had. Bulls, goats, heifers, ashes,
water, cleansing. Deals with every sacrifice that
they offered. Then he shows them all the furniture.
The furniture that was in that tabernacle. How did that furniture
That spoke of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all the tabernacle,
and the priesthood, and the sacrifices, and the furniture, all found
their fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. All of
them did. And when they opened this book
and started reading it, the first thing they find Him doing, that
no other priest ever did, Nobody who ever offered sacrifice for
sins never did. They never got through offering
the same sacrifices, could never take away sin. So they never
sit down. But the first place they see
our Lord Jesus Christ is sitting at the right hand of the majesty
on high. With all power and authority
vested in Him. You see, beloved, it's a heavenly
Christ. A heavenly Christ that these
Jews and Gentiles must see. A heavenly Christ, a Christ not
of this world, out of this world, in a high and holy place. Not
just a baby in a manger that we drag out every Christmas.
Not a cross on which he was put in outside Jerusalem, and not
a tomb that he was put in. A Christ in glory. A Christ set
down on His throne. A Christ who has all the glory
that God intended to give Him before the world ever began.
And He had with the Father before the world ever began. And we
have to do with a heavenly Christ. That's why the altar calls and
telling people to come down here and accept Jesus. He's not down
here. You can't get to Him. Every one of us where we sit
right now we can go into the holiest of holies where the high
priest was only allowed to go once a year. And he had to offer sacrifice
for himself to be acceptable and then he took in blood for
other people and he went behind that veil. He's not allowed to
do that once a year. And now every single one of us
who trust Christ, believe Christ right this minute, by the blood
and righteousness and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, we can
go right now into the very presence of God Himself. And beloved,
because you know why? Our mercy seat is right there
in the presence of God. And the blood's right there.
Don't need nobody to take us. Don't need no priest. Our priest
is already there. He said, That's where we can
go into the holiest. That's where we are right now.
We can get up and in our heart and soul, we can go where Christ
is right now. You can get to Him in your bed
at night. You can get to Him in your car. You can get to Him sitting by the
riverside fishing. You can get to Him sitting on
a bucket. You can get to Him while you're washing your dishes.
You don't have to stop and go get a priest or go get a rabbi
or go get somebody to offer some sacrifice. You've already got
a sacrifice that's passed into the heavens, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's a heavenly Savior
we're dealing with. And then talk about some other
heavenly things. We have a heavenly calling. That's
what Paul called it. We have a heavenly calling. And
he said he gives us heavenly gifts. And he shows us heavenly things.
And we're going to a heavenly country. And he talked about
a heavenly Jerusalem. And before all these Jews were
confronted with, and all we were ever confronted with, were just
earthly things. Just earthly things. Just altars, and works,
and doing, and dress codes, and places to go and not to go, things
to see and not to see. That's all we knew anything about. Just earthly things. altars,
prayers, and tithing, all the things. That's all we knew anything
about. And then God in sovereign mercy showed us these heavenly
things. And last, last, this book of
Hebrews deals with a life of faith, a life of faith. Hebrews 11, without faith it's
impossible to please God. And it deals with the life of
faith. Walk by faith. Live by faith. Die by faith. And die in the faith. Don't look
at your sufferings. Don't look at your laws. Don't
look at your ceremonies. Don't look at your carnal reasoning.
Don't look at anything. Just keep on walking by faith.
Don't walk beside. Just walk by faith. Don't look
what's going on around you, walk by faith. But you don't know
what I'm going through, walk by faith. And that's what they did. These
all walked by faith. And the Apostle says, all to
who you look to. You look to Abel, you look to
Abraham, you look to Jacob, you look to Moses, and every single
one of these men lived by faith. and he teaches in this book and
this gospel teaches us that you turn from Christ and he's telling
me if you turn from Christ there's no other hope for you because
there's not another sacrifice for sin this sacrifice if he's
not sufficient you'll never find another one you walk away from
him you walk away from everything that God has And that's what
he stressed to him. There's no other sacrifice for
sin. You leave this. You leave this. That's why these
people that think you can be lost and be saved and be lost
and be saved. Every time they do that, the
scripture says they crucify Christ afresh. What they're saying is
that Christ must be crucified and he must make another atonement
for my sin. And that's nothing but Catholicism.
That's all that is. Every time they offer the Mass,
Christ is being sacrificed again, His blood being shed again, and
they got a transubstantiation, they call it. Ain't you grateful
that God didn't leave us in that kind of a mess? He could have. He could have. He meant some
of these Hebrews to understand exactly what it meant to know
Christ. Our Father, in the blessed, blessed
name of our Lord Jesus, thank you for giving us this
privilege, this time, to be together. I ask for your blessings upon
these dear, dear saints of God, and your blessings upon Annie,
and Danny, and Peggy, and Dorotha, and others who are suffering
in their bodies. And we ask, O Lord Jesus, Protect
us and preserve us. Keep us bleeding. Keep us cleaving. We ask these things in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen. Did you hear what Jesus
said to me? They're all taken away. your sins are pardoned and they
are gone they're all taken away they're all They're all Taken away away They're
all Taken away away Your sins are all taken away My sins are
all taken away My sins are all taken away