Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. Now, today I'm going to be preaching from the
book of Hebrews chapter eight. I started this message last week
from Hebrews chapter eight in the New Testament in the book
of Hebrews. And the title is the gospel summary. And I took
that title from verse one where the Lord's word tells us, now,
of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. Now, I mentioned
last week how this book of Hebrews is such a fascinating book because
it's sort of a commentary on the old covenant, explaining
how the old covenant that God made with the nation Israel at
Sinai through Moses, how that covenant has been abolished by
way of fulfillment in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That old covenant lasted from Sinai, Mount Sinai, when Moses
brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, or God brought
them out through Moses, and he established that covenant with
them on Mount Sinai. And it lasted from that time
to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, about 1500 years. And
it was indicated, the fulfillment of it, the abolishment of it,
was indicated by the veil being rent torn in two from top to
bottom, Matthew chapter 27. And so, here in the book of Hebrews,
the Lord, in his inspired word, is giving Jewish believers the
motivation and inspiration for persevering in the faith and
not going back under the law, which is deadly. You see, that
law was given not to save them, but to expose their sin and their
depravity and their need of salvation by grace through the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some were being coaxed into renouncing
the gospel renouncing Christ, apostatizing from the faith.
Some were being tortured. But he says to do that is deadly. And those who did apostatize,
fall away, turn back to the law, they were never saved to begin
with. But one of the ways that he has encouraged them is showing
them how much better Christ and salvation by God's grace is.
And that's what he's talking about. Let me read the first
three verses. He says in verse one, now of the things which
we have spoken, this is the sum. We, now who's the we there? That's
sinners saved by grace. This is, listen to me, there
is a universal need of salvation by grace, but this is not universal
language. This is language that only applies
to those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as he's identified
and distinguished in the word. The gospel. And he says, we have
such an high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne
of the majesty in the heavens. Christ is the high priest, the
one and only high priest of God's people under the new covenant.
I talked about that last week, the old covenant. and the New
Covenant. And I'll be explaining more about
the New Covenant. The New Covenant is established
in the death of Christ. And when he instituted the Lord's
Supper, he told his disciples, this is my blood, blood of the
New Testament or the New Covenant. The New Covenant is the establishment
in time of the terms of the everlasting covenant of grace made before
time. You see, before time began, the
Bible teaches that before time began, before this world was
created, God made a covenant, the Father, the Son, and the
Spirit of redemption, of salvation for his chosen people. God chose
a people and gave them to his Son. And his Son, the second
person of the Trinity, God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ agreed
to do what was necessary to save them and secure them for eternal
life and glory. What did he have to do? Well,
he had to become a man. You see, he had to take upon
himself the likeness of sinful flesh, yet without sin. That's
his incarnation, his birth. the word made flesh, Emmanuel,
God with us. And he had to keep the law perfectly
unto death because the wages of sin is death. And when he
did that great work, he finished it, he fulfilled it, he perfected
it, he paid the debt in full, the sin debt for his people,
and brought in everlasting righteousness. And that's why he sat on the
right hand, the right hand of judgment, The right hand, and
God the Father judged that sin was paid for. Righteousness was
established. The right hand of acceptance.
And he said on the right hand of the throne of the majesty
in the heavens, verse two, he's a minister of the sanctuary.
You might have in your concordance there, if you have a center concordance
or an inverse concordance, the holy things. He's the minister,
he's the servant of his people. And he's Lord, he's King. We're his servants, bond servants
if we're believers. But he served his people in the
sense that he did for them what was required to save them and
that he keeps them. He saves them, he keeps them,
he blesses them, he cares for them. and he'll bring them to
glory. And it's of the true tabernacle,
which the Lord pitched, not man. It's not a physical building.
It's not a physical structure. It's his church. He redeemed
his church with his own blood. His church is his bride, who
are clothed in the wedding garment of his righteousness, imputed,
charged, accounted. That's the righteous robe that
he made for his bride. It's not a righteous robe that
we make for ourselves because we can't do anything that equals
righteousness. The only righteousness God's
people have is in Christ and it was established by His death
on the cross. He did it all so that He is my
righteousness. And then verse three says, for
every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices.
Now, under the Old Covenant, the Jewish high priest, who was
of the line of the tribe of Levi, but the high priest was of the
line of Aaron, who was Moses' brother, the first high priest.
He was ordained of God to go into the tabernacle or the temple,
later on, and offer gifts and sacrifices. And the gifts have
to do with the thank offerings. The sacrifices have to do with
the blood offerings. You see, there had to be a blood
atonement. Blood had to be shed. But that
was animal blood, the blood of bulls and goats and lambs. Later
on in Hebrews, we read in chapter 10, the blood of bulls and goats
could never take away sin. That's not what they were ordained
for, but they were pictures. They were types, they were shadows.
But it says here in verse three, for every high priest is ordained
to offer gifts and sacrifices, wherefore, or for this reason,
it is of necessity that this man, now this man here speaking
of Christ, the God-man, it is of necessity that this man have
some what to offer. In other words, the high priest
could not go in and approach God on behalf of the people without
an offering, without a sacrifice. That would be a travesty, that
would be an abomination. And not only that, it had to
be the right sacrifice, the right offering. I mentioned this several
times, going back to Cain and Abel. Cain brought an offering,
but it wasn't the right kind. Cain brought the works of his
hands. Cain brought his own faith. But
now Abel, he brought the right offering, the blood sacrifice,
which pictured and typified and foreshadowed the Lord Jesus Christ. So it says in verse four of Hebrews
eight, 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,
what does that mean? In other words, if Christ were
on earth, at the time of that old covenant, he would not be
qualified to be a priest under the old covenant. Now, why is
that? You mean the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God would not be qualified, would not be lawfully a priest
for Israel under the old? No, why not? Because the tribe
of Levi was ordained to be the priest. And the high priest had
to come directly from the line of Aaron, the first high priest. That's the Levites, the book
of Leviticus. What tribe was Jesus Christ born
into? He was born into the tribe of
Judah, the tribe of the kings, you see. So he could not have
been a priest under the old covenant. And in Hebrews, back in chapter
seven, there's a lot made of that concerning how Christ is
a priest after the order of not Aaron, but of a man named Melchizedek. Now, Melchizedek was a priest
before the Old Covenant. He was a priest during the time
of Abraham. He was a God-ordained priest, but he was not from the
tribe of Levi. Listen, that Old Covenant and
the Levitical priesthood had not been established yet. So
he's talking about a priesthood that's outside of the Levitical
law. And he says, Melchizedek, well,
Christ's priesthood was outside the Levitical law. And you know
what that indicates? The law's over. There is no more
Old Covenant. I hear some of these people who,
dispensationalists, who talk about the rebuilding of the temple
in Israel and how they're going to reestablish the priesthood,
and they're trying to find the line of the high priest, and
they're trying to do it by DNA. My friend, that's a travesty.
That's over. Christ is the high priest of
the church. There's no other high priest.
And to bring in another high priest is to deny Christ priesthood
and the finished work that he did as the high priest in offering
himself without spot to God. Look to Christ, not to the earth,
not to an earthly tabernacle. So in other words, verse five,
now look at Hebrews eight and verse five. Well, let's read
verse four with verse five. 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. The law of Moses, says Levi. Verse five, who serve unto the
example and shadow of heavenly things. As Moses was admonished
of God that when he was about to make the tabernacle, he said,
for see, saith he, that thou makest all things according to
the pattern showed to thee in the mount. Now what he's saying
here is this. Moses, the tabernacle that was
built under the law, it was not Moses' idea. It wasn't Moses'
pattern. It was God's pattern for this
purpose, to show forth in picture and type something much better,
someone much better. That was the purpose of it. It
was never set down and given by God or ordained as an end
in and of itself or to continue forever and ever. It was always
an earthly type and picture, a pattern of someone better to
come, and who is it? Look at verse six. He says in
Hebrews 8, six, but now hath he, that's Christ, the great
high priest, the one true high priest, the high priest of the
church. But now hath he obtained a more
excellent ministry. Oh my soul, more excellent than
that earthly priesthood. By how much also he is the mediator
of a better covenant. The new covenant, the covenant
of grace. You know, that old covenant,
it was a glorious thing. but it had no glory compared
to what the church, the true believers have in Christ. No
glory at all. The Apostle Paul was inspired
to write about that in 2 Corinthians chapter three. You see, this
is a more excellent ministry, Christ's ministry. The ministry
of Moses in and of itself could not save
any sinner. The ministry of Aaron and all
the high priest of Israel could never save a sinner. The ministry
of blood sacrifices of animals over and over again could never
take away sin. The ministry of that old covenant
could not save sin, but the ministry of Christ saves all God's elect. every sinner for whom he lived
and died was buried and arose again the third day shall be
saved. He said it in John 6, 37. He
said, all that the father giveth me shall come to me. And him
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. And he went
on to say, this is the will of him that sent me that of all
which he hath given me, I should lose nothing. but raise it up
again at the last day. That's the greater, more excellent
ministry. Also, he's the mediator of a
better covenant, that new covenant. The old covenant was conditioned
on the people. They failed. So would we. The
new covenant is conditioned on Christ, who does not fail. He's able. to save to the uttermost
them that come unto the Father by Him. You know, to be a proper
mediator, three things were required. Number one, had to be ordained
of God. Now, under the Old Covenant, God ordained Moses to be the
mediator, but that was a temporal thing. That was a conditional
thing. And it was a failure as far as
salvation goes, and it was intended to be. to show them their sin
and depravity, their need of salvation by grace. But you had
to have a God-appointed mediator. Well, who's the mediator of the
new covenant? Christ is. No preacher, no human being calling
himself pope or cardinal or priest or pastor or reverend is the
mediator. Christ. There's one God, one
mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. God appointed
him. That's what the word Messiah
means, the anointed one. God anointed him, he appointed
his son before the foundation of the world. Secondly, to be
a proper mediator, the person had to be willing to do what
was required. Well, is Christ willing to be
the savior of his people? Well, it says in John chapter
13, and I believe it's verse 1, he loved his own until the
end. He loved his sheep to the finishing
of the work. He was willing. He told them,
he said, no man takes my life from me, I lay it down of myself.
He voluntarily, willingly, for the joy that was set before him,
for the glory of his father and the salvation of his people,
agreed to do what was required. And then the third thing is this,
he had to be able to meet the conditions. Was Christ able? Well, as God in human flesh,
the word made flesh, tabernacling among us, he kept the law perfectly
without sin, And as the surety and substitute of his people,
he went to the cross and suffered unto death to fulfill all the
requirements of their salvation. He put away the sins of his people
by the shedding of his blood, redeemed by the blood of Christ. And in his death, he brought
forth righteousness. by which God could justify them
and still be a forgiving, loving, gracious father. God is both
a just God and a savior because of this mediator of this better
covenant. Christ met all of the conditions
of the covenant of grace that would secure and that would save
and secure his people forever and ever and ever. And so verse
six of Hebrews eight says that this covenant, which was established
upon better promises. The new covenant has much better
promises than the old. Now the old covenant, for example,
it goes back to Abraham. God made a lot of promises to
Abraham. Some of them were temporal and
applied to Abraham's physical descendants. Some of them were
spiritual and applied to Abraham's spiritual descendants, the church.
But think about Israel under the old covenant. They had the
promise of an earthly land, okay? And to continue in that land
as long as they obeyed God. they were sinners, as we all
are, and they lost it. So that promise, even though
as great as it might sound to a self-righteous person, that's
no promise at all as far as we're concerned. But that's why God
gave it to them, to show them that. But now in the new covenant,
Second Corinthians 1.20 says it. All the promises of God are
in Him, in Christ, yea, and in Him, in Christ, amen. Ephesians 1.3 says, blessed be
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Do you see that? Sin brings death. Righteousness
brings life. Where do I find righteousness?
In Christ. That's the better promises. It's
the promise of eternal life and glory, of all blessings in Christ. Now beginning in verse seven,
he gives a contrast of the old covenant and the new covenant.
And listen to what he says in verse seven. For if that first
covenant, that is the old covenant first in time, if that first
covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been
sought for the second. If the old covenant could provide
salvation for sinners, if the law covenant or if the law could
accomplish the salvation of sinners, then there would have been no
need for the new covenant. There'd been no need for Christ
to come and be the savior of his people. Paul wrote in the
book of Galatians, he says, for if righteousness come by the
law, Christ is dead in vain. Then Christ died in vain. If
I could be, if I could be cleansed from my sins by animal blood,
then why do I need the blood of Christ? If I could be made
righteous by my keeping the law, then why did Christ have to come
and die? You see what I'm saying? So in
other words, a person who seeks salvation, who seeks forgiveness,
who seeks acceptance with God, who seeks righteousness before
God, by their works, they're denying Christ. Now, one of the
problems that people have since the New Testament times, and
we're living in the New Testament times now, but since the church
was inaugurated at Pentecost and Christ is being preached
throughout the world, one of the problems and one of the deceptions
is the deception of what I call Christ plus religion. Is your religion a Christ plus
religion? In other words, do you claim
to be saved based upon what Christ did plus what you do? Because if you do, then that's
the same as saying Christ died in vain. It's not Christ plus
anything or anyone. It's not even Christ plus my
faith. That's why these people who talk about Christ died for
everybody and his death made salvation possible, if you'll
do your part. My friend, that's not the gospel.
That's not a gospel summary there. That's a summary of heresy. You
see, Christ, the salvation of my soul is not dependent upon
what I do for him. It's totally dependent upon what
he did for me. And if he did it for me, It's
guaranteed in the scripture that I will come to faith in him.
Faith is necessary for salvation, but not as a condition that I
must meet in order to attain and maintain salvation. It is
necessary as the fruit of what Christ did and accomplished in
establishing righteousness on my behalf. And that's the glory
of the new covenant. Now that old covenant could not
provide it. For example, the law. The law could give the standard
of righteousness, but it couldn't make a sinner righteous before
God. The law could show the reality of sin, but it couldn't wash
sins away. So he goes on, he says in verse
eight of Hebrews eight, for finding fault with them, he saith. Now
he's gonna quote from the book of Jeremiah chapter 31. And I'm gonna go into this more
detail next time. In Jeremiah, the prophet Jeremiah,
Jeremiah prophesied in Jerusalem just prior to the days before
Jerusalem and the temple were conquered and destroyed by the
Babylonian empire under a king named Nebuchadnezzar. And Jeremiah
in his ministry, by the time that that happened, Jeremiah
was an old man. But he knew God's judgment was
coming down upon the southern kingdom, Judah. The northern
kingdom had already been destroyed and dispersed by the Assyrian
empire. So Jeremiah, and there were other
prophets in that day, but Jeremiah knew that God's judgment was
coming down upon Judah, upon Jerusalem and the temple, because
they had profaned it. They'd turned it into a legal
system of works religion and they'd allowed idolatry. It was
an awful situation. So God was coming down on them.
But Jeremiah the prophet, even though he's sometimes called
the weeping prophet or the prophet of doom, he did have a message
of hope. And the hope of Israel was not
to be found in the earthly Jerusalem. It was not to be found in the
earthly temple. It was not to be found in the
earthly priesthood or sacrifices. It was the promise of God in
the future to send Christ. to fulfill all the conditions
according to the terms of another covenant, a new covenant, a covenant
of salvation, which would ensure the salvation of every sinner
who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ, who rests in Him for
all salvation, who stand in Him washed in His blood and clothed
in His righteousness. And we'll get to that next time.
I hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's
Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
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at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.theletterofgrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.