The book of Hebrews chapter 8
says, Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. We have such a high priest who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which
the Lord pitched, and not man. For every high priest is ordained
to offer gifts and sacrifices, wherefore it is of necessity
that this man have somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth,
he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer
gifts according to the law, who serve unto the example and shadow
of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he
was about to make the tabernacle. For see, saith he, that thou
makest all things according to the pattern shown to thee in
the mount. But now hath he obtained a more
excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a
better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if
that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place
have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them,
he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make
a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house
of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their
fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them
out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant,
and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put My laws into their
mind, and write them in their hearts. And I will be to them
a God, and they shall be to Me a people. And they shall not
teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord. For all shall know Me, from the
least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. In that he saith a new covenant,
he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away." Now, the book of Hebrews, of
course, by its very title, lets us know to whom it is written
specifically. And it is an obvious thing, of
course, if you study history and if you look at the unfolding
of the Gospel in the days following the resurrection and ascension
of the Lord, those believers that embraced the Gospel were
primarily Jews because that was the area of the world in which
the Gospel came. And it was a fitting thing that
it was because of the fact that the Lord had prepared those Jews
not in a general sense but in a specific sense. He had prepared
His people to receive the Gospel by the declaration of the truth
which was hidden to the multitude but when the time came was revealed
to the few. And we see that happen on the
day of Pentecost. Now, the Lord revealed Himself
throughout the Old Testament in His dealings with the nation
of Israel. And He did that through many
ways. One of the most primary methods
which the Lord used was the covenant of Moses. which kind of drew
all the Jews, the covenant of law which He gave to Moses, which
kind of drew all the Jews as a nation together. They had a
code by which to follow and they were all in a cohesive unit and
the Lord used that down through the ages to cause that to come
to pass. Now man looking at that, and
thinking that the Lord is dealing with the nation of Israel in
that covenant that He gave to Moses, they view it generally,
and the Jews most especially, as though it was an end or it
had a purpose in itself. That is, if you ask most people
what is the law of God, they will tell you the Ten Commandments. Now the Ten Commandments is a
glorious truth. That is a revelation of the law
of God as He gave it to Moses on Mount Sinai. But the law of
God existed long before it was given to Moses on Mount Sinai,
long before it was set forth in Ten Commandments. So the Ten
Commandments is not the law of God. The Ten Commandments is
the law of God as He saw fit to set it forth to Moses and
to the nation of Israel for the purpose of bringing His people
to the truth as it is in Jesus Christ. Now the law, the Scripture
says the law was given by who? Moses. But grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ. Now grace and truth you won't
find in Moses. You can't find it. Now you can
find some things that are true. But you see, God's people are
not seeking some things that are true. Now this is the way
religion orders the mind, and that is
that men are satisfied with some truth. They give some truth. They write it down. They hand
it out to one another, and they say, this is what we believe.
And religion goes along its way, and men will fight with one another
over, well, this is what we believe. No, here, here is what we believe,
and this, that, and all the other. But grace and truth came by Jesus
Christ and the unfolding of the gospel is given unto the people
of God so that they might have grace and truth. And we know
that that truth is in Christ. There is no truth outside of
Christ. And so that if a man should seek
to embrace truth which is not embodied in Christ, then he has
sought truth in the wrong place. And so it is. That's what the
writer of Hebrews, which I believe to be the Apostle Paul, he said
this, Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. Now when you have a bunch of
numbers and you add them all up and you get down to the sum,
that is the bottom line. If you are wondering whether
or not your business is making money, you can add up what it
costs you to do business and you can add up the money that
comes in and you can put these two together and if the money
that is coming in does not exceed the money that is going out,
you are not making money and the bottom line is you are going
broke. And so the sum tells the tale,
does it not? I mean, we want to know what
the sum is. I mean, cut through all the junk and get down, what's
the bottom line? I mean, you know when you go,
if you deal with a banker or you deal with auto salesman or
any kind of salesman, they're all telling you all these different
things and giving you all the advantages and how great this
is and all that, but what you really want to know is what?
What is the bottom line? I mean, you want to know what
the sum is. That's what you're getting at.
And so that's what the writer says here. To the Hebrews, he
says, now of everything we've said, this is the sum. We're
getting down to the bottom line. If you want to know what the
deal is, here it is. We have such a high priest who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which
the Lord pitched and not man. Now Moses pitched the tabernacle,
did he not? And it was a glorious tabernacle
in its own way. Who could speak bad of it? I
mean, the Lord told Moses to do it. Moses did it. And that's
the way it was. So in that in itself, it had
a certain measure of glory to it. But it was not the tabernacle
which the Scripture speaks about as being the true tabernacle.
the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. That
is the one that God's people are interested in. The Scripture
says, My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow
Me. And then He said something else. He says, And another shepherd
will they not follow. So God's people are not simply
concerned with following the shepherd, they are also concerned
with not following a false shepherd. Because you see, that is the
psalm. The psalm is Christ. And that is the place that I
believe all of God's children want to be. Now, because of the
weakness of the flesh, and because of the foibles of the flesh,
it is often true that there are those who are the true followers
of Christ who wander still in the fog of darkness because it
has pleased the Lord to deal to men a measure of faith, and
that is not always the same thing. But I believe this is a true
thing, that when you get to the sum of what it is that men are
seeking, those who are seeking Christ are seeking Christ. They are not seeking what some
preachers said. They are not seeking what their
religion is telling them. They are not looking off after
all these multitude and myriad of things that there is. They
have one desire, and that is to know Christ and to walk in
His light. and to know Him as He is, for
He is the minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which
the Lord pitched and not man. And then he says this, For every
high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices. Now that
is the function and purpose of a priest, is it not? That is
what he says. He says, if a man is a priest,
he is ordained to this end. That is what the purpose of it
is. So if he is our high priest, if he has been given as a minister
of the sanctuary a high priest who is set at the right hand
of the majesty in the heavens, then it only is logical and it
only is true that he is ordained for the purpose of offering gifts
and sacrifices. You are not going to have a priest
who does not offer gifts and sacrifices. Now, in the religions
of the world, men are satisfied with the offerings of gifts and
sacrifices made by earthly priests. The children of God can be satisfied
with no other offering. than that which this true priest,
this one whom the Scripture says is a minister of the sanctuary
and the true tabernacle. So it is necessary, if a man
is a high priest, that he offer gifts and sacrifices. And so
if that be the case, he says, whereof it is of Wherefore, it
is of necessity that this man have somewhat to offer." So if
a priest, to be a priest, one has to be ordained to make offerings,
and he has to make offerings, so it only follows then that
this man, if he is a priest, he should make an offering. If
he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there
are priests that offer gifts according to the law. Now, this
is speaking about the nature of his priesthood. Now, the Lord
Jesus Christ did not fulfill Moses' law. That wasn't the purpose
that he came. Now, let me back up and say what
I mean by that. Now, he said, I came to fulfill
the law. And in fulfilling the law, he
then fulfilled the covenant of law given to Moses, but he was
not ordained as a priest according to Moses' law. And that's what
the writer says here. It says if he were on the earth,
or if he was of the earth, if he was a priest after a carnal
fashion, there was no priest that arose from the tribe of
Judah. And that's the tribe that he
came from. The priests were ordained to come from the Levitical tribe.
So right there, he's disqualified, is he not? From a carnal standpoint, he
couldn't be a Levitical priest, so how could he fulfill the Levitical
law? Because you see, his law is a
greater law than the Levitical law. The Scripture says he has
more glory than Moses, because he made Moses. So it is of necessity
that he have a higher priesthood. If he were on the earth, he should
not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer
gifts according to the law. So when the Lord Jesus Christ
hung on Calvary's cross, he did indeed fulfill the law. When
he walked among men and he did sin, neither was God found in
his mouth, he fulfilled the law. But the Scripture is not specifically
speaking about him fulfilling Moses' law as though God somehow
or other was bound by Moses' law. Who made the law? God did. It is His law. You see,
Moses' law is God's law, but Moses' law is not the sum total
of God's law. That's the revelation of God's
law that God gave to Moses. The law of God is much greater
than that. The Lord said to Adam in the
garden, In the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. He laid down a law, did he not?
And he also laid down a decree. Did you see? He didn't say, now, if it turns
out that you eat of this tree, if by chance you eat of this
tree, you shall surely die. Is that what he said? He didn't
say if you eat of this tree. He said in the day that thou
eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." Now it is God's purpose,
and you can deal with this however you want to deal with it, you
just have to deal with it. It was God's purpose that Adam
eat of that tree. He made Adam As he did. Now I know the Scripture says
God made man upright and he sought out many inventions and that
is a fact. That's true. I don't dispute
that at all. But neither do I dispute the
fact that God made Adam and he made this decree, you will eat
of this tree and the day you eat of it you will die. Now nobody
else made the world but God and nobody made anything to occur
in the world except that which is ordained by the purpose of
Almighty God. Now whether we like that or whether
it blows our mind to think about it, we are not in a philosophy
class. We're not trying to figure it
out. I don't know. I don't have the answers for
all of it. But I know this, that whatever God ordained to be has
come to pass. And nothing that He has not ordained
to be has ever been. And so it is that if He were
on earth, He should be a priest saying that there are priests
that offer gifts according to the law. And so Jesus Christ
is a high priest forever, the Scripture says, according to
the order of Melchizedek and not of the Levitical priesthood.
And so he could not fulfill Moses' law in the jot and tittle insofar
as man's understanding of it is concerned. Now see, here's
where the difference comes in. He did fulfill the law. He did
satisfy God's law that said, the soul that sinneth shall die.
You see, that's a principle of truth. If you don't believe it's
true, how did the one-third of the angels of heaven get cast
out? Why? Because they sinned. And the Lord cast them out. Now
the difference between the angels that fell and men, we being lower
creatures than the angels, is that God who is rich in mercy
has ordained to make a sacrifice for us in order to satisfy His
own law that He gave in His Son. It is necessary for a priest
to offer sacrifices. But the Lord Jesus Christ did
not come of the Levitical priesthood, so in a carnal sense, he could
not fulfill the law of God, could he? But you see, that is not the
law we are concerned about. See, men are not going to hell
because of Moses' law. Because there are many people
that have never been given Moses' law. The Gentiles, the Philistines,
the Lord didn't come to them and give them Moses' law. They
don't perish because they didn't keep the Sabbath. They perish
because they despised the way of God. They perish because they
will not fall down and worship Him. When they knew God, they
glorified Him not as God. But they made God like four-footed
beasts and all these things. And they said, well, we know
how God is. This is how He is. We'll make
Him like we want Him to be. And we'll say, well, here's God's
attributes and He's got to be like this. And we'll define how
God is. Brothers, you can't define how
God is. God just is. And if you don't
like that, There's nothing that we could say or whatever. I mean, He is who He is, and
He's revealed who He is in Jesus Christ in the manifestation of
His truth. So Jesus Christ didn't come simply
to fulfill Moses' law. Now, insofar as Moses' law is
the expression in a limited sense of the law of God, Jesus Christ
did indeed fulfill Moses' law in its jot and tittle. Because
in Moses' law, a sacrifice was required, a blood sacrifice,
was it not? And the Lord Jesus Christ did
indeed give that blood sacrifice, an offering up of Himself. But
He didn't do it in a carnal sense. I mean, He did. die in the flesh. I don't misunderstand what I'm
saying there when I say he didn't do it in the carnal sense. I
mean, he didn't do it according to the carnal understanding of
men. Because the Jews could say, well,
he's not a priest. Could they not? According to
what Moses' Law says? Well, sure they could. They could
say he's not a priest. And they'd be right. But they
would not be right to say he's not a priest. Why? Because God
made him a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. The
power of an endless life. He is that one who not only is
a high priest, but had whereof to offer. What did he offer? His own life. His own life's
blood. He poured it out. in plain sight
of men, condemned not simply by the Jews who hated to have
this man rule over them, but by the Roman authority which
represents the authority of this world. So it's not just simply
the Jews, but it was the Gentiles as well that rejected his rule
and crucified the Lord of glory. and saw that his blood was poured
out as a sacrifice for sin. Now, he says, so there are priests
that offer gifts according to the law who serve unto the example
and shadow of heavenly things. Nothing that the priest ever
did was an end in itself, when I'm talking about the priest,
I'm talking about the mosaic priest. Not a thing that they
ever did was of any lasting benefit. Because the Scripture says the
law, Moses' law, could never make the comers there too perfect
because the same sacrifices had to be offered again year after
year. Did they not? I mean, it was necessary that
you have a perpetuating priesthood in a carnal fashion among the
Levites so that you could keep offering for sin and offering
for sin and offering for sin, but it never did anything to
take away sin, did it? Because every time a sacrifice
was made, men were reminded that they had sinned. And they knew
that their sin wasn't taken away because they had to go down to
where? To the temple. Year after year after year after
year and have another sacrifice made. But when Jesus Christ came,
you see, He took away sin, not only according to the jot and
tittle of God's law, but according to the conscience. And He has
written in the hearts of His people the knowledge that He
has taken away their sin. Now, we don't always see it clearly. But oh, when we can see Christ,
we know that it's so. You see, when we see Christ and
Him crucified, we don't think it wasn't enough, do we? We know
there is a sufficiency in the blood of Christ to take away
the sin of His people. No, our questionings and our
doubtings have to do with our own selves, not with Him, because
we know who He is. We know what He has done, and
we are satisfied with that. Now, He said that these who Offer
gifts according to the law. Serve unto an example and shadow
of heavenly things." Nothing Moses had was heavenly. Now,
it came from the heavens, but it was established in the earth.
And everything Moses had was carnal. And carnal things pass
away, do they not? I mean, where is the tablets
of the law? Where are they? Who knows? Is the law of God, because the
tablets can't be found, is the law of God somehow not in effect? Of course not. The law of God
is never out of effect. The principle of the law of God
is true throughout all ages. But insofar as the people of
God are concerned, He has made sacrifice. for our sin. Now the angels who sin not, they
are kept by the power and grace of God from sinning. They know nothing of the forgiveness
of sin because they never sinned. They can't have any knowledge
of it. But God's people, how greatly blessed are we, dear
brethren, that the Lord Jesus Christ has not only kept us and
does keep us from falling through the ages to come, He has satisfied
the law in our behalf. And there is no law that could
ever bring us into condemnation. Certainly not Moses' law, but
that is not the law that would condemn us. We are all Gentiles. Moses' law did not have any effect
over us. It never did, but that law which
did condemn us, That Lord has been satisfied
in Christ because He is not a shadow of heavenly things, but He is
that One who is heavenly. He is that One who has come from
the Father, and He has fulfilled it as Moses was admonished of
God when he was about to make the tabernacle. Because he said,
make all things according to the pattern shown thee in the
mount. But listen to what it says here about Christ. But now
hath he, speaking of Christ, obtained a more excellent ministry. Why is it more excellent? Well,
it is more excellent because it has more power, number one,
but it is greatly more excellent because it is thee ministry which
was ordained of God to be performed in the earth which was foreshadowed
in types by the law of Moses. And so it is. The shadow of heavenly
things. As Moses was admonished of God
to make the tabernacle, he said, make it according to this pattern.
Well, what was the pattern? Where did the pattern come from?
The pattern came from heaven. So it would be foolish to think
that the pattern of what Christ did was according to the law
of Moses. What Moses did was according
to the pattern that was set down by Christ before the foundation
of the world. And that which Moses did was
but a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. You see, it was the
purpose of God to put the law of Moses in the earth so that
the children of God, seeing the unfolding of those things, might
be repelled by it. Not by the law itself, but by
the fact that it condemned them that they might embrace Christ.
But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry. by how much
also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established
upon better promises. For that first covenant had been
faultless, and there should be no place for the second." Now
we know that in actual chronological sense, the second covenant precedes
the first. But in the carnal understanding
of men, the giving of the law of Moses, was set forth so that
it would be in contrast to the second covenant, which was actually
predated the law of Moses. And the Lord said, the days are
coming when I'm going to show the truth. And I'm going to show
you that this thing that is first set forth before you is not that
which I shall do. Because He said, the day is coming
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah. Now, some people it seems have the
idea that, well, the Lord gave the law of Moses and He hoped
it would all work out good, Since it didn't, he said, well, it's
not working out like I planned, so I'm going to have to make
another one and this is what I'm going to do later on. No.
No, remember what he says here, that the pattern was given to
Moses. Now, if the pattern was given
to Moses, then the pattern had to be patterned after something,
did it not? It was patterned after that perfect
law. that perfect tabernacle which
was in the heavens, but it could only be seen in part in that
which Moses did. But it is seen, what he says
here, now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum.
Dear brethren, this is the bottom line, that Jesus Christ hath
obtained a more excellent ministry than any of that which came in
Moses' law, and he has satisfied the claims of God's justice forever. Forever. Now, has God ever been
angry with His people? Now, He was angry with the Israelites,
was He not? Moses had to intercede for them,
but this was a pattern, was it not? Because you see, God has
never hated His people. Because he loved them in Christ
before the foundation of the world. And he established the
world with his love for them in mind. And so it was that he
loved them in Christ. And he caused all of these other
things to transpire in order to bring them to the place where
they would see Christ High and lifted up as this glorious Redeemer,
as this merciful High Priest, as this One who has entered in
once into the holy place of God in our behalf. You see, all of
the world has been designed for the purpose of bringing glory
to this One who is our great High Priest. And all of the benefits
that have accrued from that have been given to us. as the sons
of God, made the objects of God's everlasting mercy and shown us
this truth in the gospel of Jesus Christ. For behold, the days
come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according
to the old covenant, when I led them out of Egypt. But this is
the covenant that I will make. I will put my laws in their mind
and write them in their hearts. I'll be to them a God, and they
shall be to me a people." You see, it's not the Lord's
purpose to just simply have a law and say, all right, now if you
all don't follow according to this, I'm going to punish you. Now, don't we have that natural
mindset? We think of God sitting up here
with a whip and He's holding it back and just waiting for
us to mess up. I mean, isn't that how the flesh
thinks? I mean, that's how we think about
God. Now you can be sure of this as
the rite of Hebrews goes on to say, our God is a consuming fire.
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living
God. The Lord chastens those whom He loves. But dear brethren,
He designs the chastening from the beginning to the end. And
He does it because He loves His people. And He brings them in
a path that He marks out, a path that He would have according
to the fulfillment of His purpose. And He would not have us to consider
that He is setting back with a whip in His hand, just waiting
for us to mess up. Because you see, perfect love
drives without fear. And He has caused us to know
in no uncertain terms that there is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but according to The Spirit. Now how does the Spirit guide
us? Right here He said it. And I'll be to them a God, they
shall be to me a people. He said I'll write my laws in
their heart. Now I used to have a view of
that is that it was somehow or other like the Lord put the Ten
Commandments in my heart. The problem with that is that
I find myself breaking the Ten Commandments. So if they're written in my heart
and I'm breaking them anyway, what is it? Well, see, that's
not the law of God. The Lord said, I'll teach them
to love My way. Because, you see, that's the
place. Where was Adam at? He didn't love the way of God.
God said, in the day you eat this, you're going to perish. You see, that man's problem is
that he is walking contrary to the way of God by nature. We
are by nature the children of wrath, even as others. We are
not the children of wrath if we be in Christ. Never have been.
Never been, the scripture says, appointed unto wrath. But we
are by the grace of God, according to His mercy, being shown grace. Why? Because it pleased Him.
And He's written the law of God in our hearts. And He's given
us a love for Christ. And He's caused us to know Him. And that's what He said here,
"...they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man
his brother, saying, Know the Lord." See, the knowledge of
the Lord is not taught by the precepts of men. It's not here
a little and there a little. As you can see on the day of
Pentecost, when the Lord came and He manifested Himself through
the Word of God in the preaching of the Gospel on the day of Pentecost
and He awakened men and they said, Men and brethren, what
shall we do? Oh, we want to know the Lord like
the Ethiopian eunuch when he is riding along in his chariot
and he says, I want to know who this is that did this. And the Lord sent someone to
him to tell him who it was. And he said, well, here's water.
What does hinder me to be baptized? I want to follow Him. I want
to walk with Him. I want to do that thing which
He says, and they shall not teach every man his neighbor. You see,
it doesn't mean that there's no teaching among God's people
or that God's people are unteachable, but the basic revelation of who
Christ is cannot come through men. It will never come through
men. I can't reveal it to you. Nobody
else can, but the Lord does. And when the Lord shows Himself
to someone, not according to their understanding, I'm not
saying every man has God in his own understanding like the universalists
tell us, well, everybody's got a little piece of God in it,
oh no. No, God shows Himself to a man and a man says, I want
to know Christ. I want to know Him who said,
He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. I am not satisfied
with anything else. For they shall all know Me from
the least to the greatest. And listen to this, for I will
be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities.
I will remember no more. What did Moses' law say? It says
if you break this law, God's wrath is going to fall down on
your head. God said, that's not the law that I'm going to write
in their hearts. He says, here's my promise that
I'll forgive their iniquities. You see, because it says over
here, speaking about not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers, Because they continued
not, my covenant, and what did He say? I regarded them not.
Now why did the Lord not have regard to them? Because He said,
if you do these things, I'll have regard to you. They didn't
do it, so guess what? I mean, God's not going back
on His Word, is He? If He says something, it's absolute.
And he said, if you do this, this is what's going to happen.
And when he said to Adam, in the day you eat thereof you shall
surely die, that's exactly what happened to him. He died. And
he said to this nation of Israel, if you don't keep these commandments,
I will not be your God. And sure enough, he said, I regarded
them not. But that's not the covenant. that he said he would make with
the house of Israel. Now, not the descendants of Abraham,
but the true house of Israel, just like there is a true tabernacle.
There is a true house of Israel. He says, I will be merciful to
their unrighteousness, not their sins and iniquities will I remember
no more. In that he saith a new covenant,
he hath made the first old, now that which decayeth and waxes
old is ready to vanish away. Now brethren, this is the psalm
that Jesus Christ is our great high priest. He is the offering
that is made for the sin of His people. He is absolute in that
and complete. And He has accomplished exactly
what He set out to do and what He ordered all of these types
and foreshadows to show. to bring us to the place that
we see Christ and Him crucified as our hope and our expectation.