Let's open our Bibles, if you
would, to Isaiah chapter 45. Isaiah chapter 45. We'll begin our reading in verse
5. I am the Lord and there is none
else. There's no God beside me. I girded
thee, though thou hast not known me, that they may know from the
rising of the sun and from the West that there is none beside
me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create
evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.
Drop down ye heavens from above and let the skies pour down righteousness.
Let the earth open and let them bring forth salvation and let
righteousness spring up together. I, the Lord, have created it.
Woe unto him that striveth with his maker. Let the pot sherd
strive with the pot sherds of the earth. Shall the clay say
to him that fashioneth it, what makest thou? For thy work he
hath no hands. Woe unto him that saith unto
his father, what begattest thou? Or to the woman, what hast thou
brought forth? Thus saith the Lord, the holy one of Israel
and his maker, ask me of things to come. concerning my sons,
and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me. I have
made the earth, and created man upon it. I, even my hands, have
stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.
I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways.
He shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not
for price nor reward, saith the Lord of hosts." Cyrus is going
to come and do that as a picture of Christ. Let my people go,
because I said so. Because I said so. Because everything
that happens on this earth is under my direct control. He says
in verse 7, I form the light and create darkness. I make peace
and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.
Don't turn here, let me read you this in Amos chapter 3, verse
6. Shall a trumpet be blown in the
city, and the people not be afraid? Shall there be an evil in the
city? And the Lord hath not done it.
If there's evil in the city, the Lord's done it. If there's
darkness there, the Lord's created. He's done it. And that's this
new world in which we're living right now, this pandemic going
on. Now, the Lord's done this. The
Lord's done this. I have absolutely no question
about it. The Lord's done this. I believe,
I love God's sovereignty, and you do too. However, the Lord
has also given us some wisdom and told us to be prudent in
how we conduct ourselves. So I'm going to plan for the
next two weeks that we are not going to have services on Sunday
or Wednesday. I don't think that the few of
us not meeting together is going to stop this thing from spreading
in the tri-state area, but I don't want to see you get it. And I
just think we've got some folks who with compromised immune systems
and so forth will be very dangerous to them. So for the next two
weeks, we're not going to have services here. And what I'm planning
on doing is I'll come over here and Janet, so there's just no
risk of spreading this around. She's going to sit right there
under that camera. And I'll look at her and preach
to her and record messages that I plan to put up on Sermon Audio
on Wednesday evening and Sunday morning. So we can't live stream,
but that way we can kind of all watch together at the same time
and be fed in God's word and pray that the Lord will provide
some wisdom and some understanding of what we're supposed to do
in this. You just won't believe the agony
that I've gone through in trying to decide what to do here. I
feel like no matter what I decide, I'm going to make the wrong decision.
I mean, both are But I feel like this is a little more prudent. Maybe this is less wrong than
putting folks at risk. So just pray for it. Pray about
this situation and the Lord will give us wisdom. You know, I liken
this to there being snow on the road. You know, Sunday morning,
if I know how much snow is on the road, feels unsafe, I can
cancel service. I don't know Wednesday and Sunday
how much snow is going to be on the road. I just don't know. If I made a mistake, I apologize.
I just don't think there's anything more important in this world
than public worship. But it feels like that this will
be prudent. So that's what we'll plan on
doing. And I hate to even say this,
but if this lasts for very long, you probably want to consider
mailing your offerings to Luke because our expenses, even though
we're not meeting, our expenses are not going to go down. I hate
to even say that, but it might be something to consider. So
we'll pray that the Lord will bless us in this way by watching
the videos and just pray and seek His will that He'll deliver
us as soon as it would be possible. All right? So let's stand together. If you can put that out of your
mind now for the rest of this service, I believe the Lord has
given me a message that will be good for us and point us to
Christ. So let's stand together. That's
from the heart. Let's sing this call to worship.
Praise our God. Thou art the way to He alone,
from sin and death we flee. And he who would the Father seek,
must seek Him, Lord, by Thee. Thou art the truth, Thy Word
alone, Thou only can inform the mind
and purify the heart. Proclaims thy conquering arm
And those who have fair trust in thee Nor death nor hell can
harm Thou art the way, the truth, the life Grant us the way to
know truth to keep, that life to win, whose joys eternal flow. Thank you. You may be seated. Let's turn now to 252. Come, every soul my sin oppressed,
There's mercy with the Lord, And He will surely give you rest
By trusting in Him. Only trust Him, only trust Him,
only trust Him now. He can save you, He can save
you, He can save you now. For Jesus shed His precious blood,
It's blessing to bestow Once now into the crimson flood That
washes white as snow Only trust Him Only trust Him Only trust
Him now He can save you He can save you, He can save you now. Yes, Jesus is the truth, the
way, that leads you into rest. Believe in Him without delay,
and you are fully blessed. Only trust Him, only trust Him,
only trust Him now. He can save you, He can save
you, He can save you now. Now let's turn back to page 53,
53. So, How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
in a believer's ear. It soothes his sorrows, heals
his wounds, and drives away his fear. Dear name the rock on which
I build my sealed and hiding place, My never failing treasury
filled with boundless stores of grace. Jesus, my shepherd, brother,
friend, my prophet, priest, and king, my Lord, my light, my way,
my end, accept the praise I bring. Weak is the effort of my heart,
and cold my warmest thought. But when I see thee as thou art,
I'll praise thee as I ought. I would thy love proclaim with
every fleeting breath. And may the music of thy name
refresh my soul Let's open our Bibles to Psalm
46. Psalm 46. is our refuge and strength, a
very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though
the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried into
the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be
troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. There is a river The streams
whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the
tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She
shall not be moved. God shall help her, and that
right early. The heathen raged. The kingdoms
were moved. He uttered his voice. The earth
melted. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Come, behold the works of the
Lord. What desolations he hath made
in the earth! He maketh wars to cease unto
the end of the earth. He breaketh the bow, and cutteth
the spear in sunder. He burneth the chariot in the
fire. Be still. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen. I will be exalted in the earth.
The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah. Stop and Consider that. Let's go to our Lord in prayer. Our God and Father which art
in heaven, Lord, we thank you for this day. Lord, we thank thee that thou
art God. Besides thee, there is none else. Lord, we thank you for your mercy
and for your goodness toward your people. Lord, we thank you
for this opportunity to gather and worship. Lord, bless us with your presence
here this morning. Lord, take that which you've
laid on our pastor's heart and Lord, bless him in preaching.
Speak through your servant here this morning. Bless the preaching. hearing of your word. Lord, we thank you for your many
blessings. Lord, we thank you for your provision,
all that your hand has provided. We thank you for our families,
for our homes, Lord. We thank you for our Savior.
We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ. Pray that you would teach
us more of him. And Lord, in these times of difficulty,
these times of trouble, Lord, cause us to be still. Be still and know the dowered
God. Lord, cause us to look to Thee and to rest in Thee in all
things. Lord, for those of our people
in a time of trouble or time of sickness, we pray that you
would comfort and strengthen your people, or that you would, or turn our hearts to look to
them and rest in them. And again, we thank you for your
many blessings. We thank you again for this opportunity
to worship. Pray that you would bless us
with your presence, comfort us through the preaching of your
word, but in all things, teach us to look to them. In Christ's
name we pray and give thee thanks. Amen. Be thou my vision, O Lord of
my heart, Not be all else to me, save that thou art, Thou
my best thought, by day or by night. Waking or sleeping, Thy presence
my light. Be Thou my wisdom and Thou my
true word, I ever with Thee Thou my great Father, I Thy true
Son, Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one. Riches I heed not, nor man's
empty praise, Thou mine inheritance now and always, Thou and Thou
only, first in my heart. I, King of Heaven, my treasure
thou art. I, King of heaven, my victory
won, May I reach heaven's joys, O bright heaven's sun, Heart
of my own heart, whatever befall. Still be my vision, O ruler of
all. Let's open our Bibles now to
Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13, the title of the message this morning,
A Needed Exhortation. Christ is all. Hebrews 13, our
text is verse 22. And I beseech you, brethren,
suffer the word of exhortation. For I have written a letter unto
you in few words. The writer has now come to the
close of this great epistle. And he closes telling us to suffer
the word of exhortation that he's written to us in this letter.
And the words he uses means he's telling us to hold yourself close
to this word of encouragement. Hold yourself close to this persuasive
discourse that Christ is better. It's better than anything that
you can think of. And believers need this exhortation. That's
why I titled it a needed exhortation. We need to be exhorted because
too often it's too easy for us to become complacent, to become
lazy and lukewarm and spiritual matters. And we need to be stirred
up. We need to have our hearts encouraged. And the exhortation that he's
speaking of here, is everything that he said in this whole epistle. He calls it a letter that he's
written in few words. The book of Hebrews is one of
the longest epistles that we have. It's taken me, I think
it's just a month shy of two years to preach through it verse
by verse. So it's one of the longer epistles,
but it's few words compared to the whole gospel. He's telling
us Christ is better, It's few words compared to the glory and
excellency of Christ, isn't it? It's just a few words compared
to the whole gospel. It's a few words compared to
everything that there is to say about Christ and salvation in
Him. It's few words compared to Christ
is all and everything that that word all encompasses. So the
writer here is exhorting us. Let's hold ourself close. Be
persuaded. by this letter which tells us
Christ is better. If the Lord will enable me one
more time, I want to persuade you this morning, you come to
Christ. Come to Christ because Christ
is better. I want to show you one more time
by God's grace, by His Spirit, the excellency of our Lord Jesus
Christ so that you'll come to Him for the first time. Or maybe
you'll come to him for the thousandth time. Untold unto whom coming. I want to show you this morning
the excellency of Christ. So we'll leave here this morning
trusting him. If I trust Christ alone, I'll
get everything I need. If I'm trusting Christ plus something,
I've got nothing that I need. But if I'm trusting Christ, God
will show me His excellence. So I'll trust Him alone. I'll
have everything I need. I'm telling you, trust Christ. Don't trust your morality. You
know, you are moral people. You've got good moral fiber,
but don't trust your morality. Trust Christ. Don't trust your
knowledge of religion. Don't trust your knowledge of
right, true doctrine. You know, I think you all hold
to some good, true doctrine. I think you've got pretty good
knowledge of Scripture. You're well-taught people by
God's grace. But now don't trust in that.
I mean, I can make our smallest children a Calvinist in no time
whatsoever. Don't trust in that. Trust Christ. If you trust Christ, your doctrine
will be straight. If you trust Christ, your knowledge
of Scripture will be straight. Don't trust the best of men.
The best people that you know, don't trust them. Trust Christ. Trust Christ alone. Don't trust
them, the best, most faithful, gifted preachers you know. Don't
trust your parents. Don't trust your grandparents.
Don't trust people that you know, people of good faith. Trust Christ
alone. Don't look for nor trust in some
fantastic religious experience. Trust Christ. Christ alone. That's what the writer has told
us throughout this whole letter. Now let's just review a couple
of the high points of this mountain range of Christ's glory in this
epistle to the Hebrews. Number one, look at chapter one.
Number one, here's my first point. Trust Christ. Because the Father
has chosen to speak to us by Christ. Chapter one, verse two,
we have verse one. God who at sundry times may die
for us different manners, spake in time past to the fathers by
the prophets. He hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds. Now, one of the names of Christ
in Scripture is the Word. And we use words to communicate
our thoughts and ideas to each other. Well, Christ is called
the Word, the Word of God. That's his name, the Word, because
God uses the Lord Jesus Christ to communicate to men. The way
we know what God's like, and the way we know how God saves
sinners, is by hearing, seeing, and believing the Lord Jesus
Christ. The only thing we will ever see
of the Father, even in glory, the only thing we'll ever see
of the Father is the Lord Jesus Christ, because He is God. He says in verse three, who being
the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His
person, and upholding all things by the word of His power. Christ
is the express. He is the exact image of God
because He is God. He's sovereign. He upholds all
things by the word of His power. And the way we know what God's
like, the way we know how it is God saves sinners, the way
we know what's in the mind and purpose of God is by hearing,
by seeing, by believing the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the Lord Jesus,
He must be something extraordinary. He's extraordinary. He is the
only way God will speak to men. He's the only way God will be
spoken to by men. Oh, He's extraordinary. Now that
tells me sinners can trust Him. You trust Christ and you'll know
God. It really is that simple. Trust
Him. All right, number two, trust Christ. because He has by Himself
purged the sin of His people. He says at the end of verse 3,
when He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down on the
right hand of the Majesty on high. Now the Lord Jesus Christ,
by one sacrifice for sin, by the one sacrifice of Himself,
has put away the sin of His people. Now you can trust Christ. He'll
put your sin away. You trust him. His sacrifice
got the job done. You know how I know that? When
the sacrifice was finished, he sat at the hand of God. Now that's
something the Old Testament priest never did. Of the different pieces
of furniture in the tabernacle, in the temple, there was never
a chair in there. The priest never had time to
sit down. His work was never finished. But Christ's work of
redemption is finished. His work of offering the sacrifice
that puts away the sin of His people is finished. So He sat
down. He sat down in full satisfaction
of a job well done. He sat down accepted of the Father. He sat down in the right hand
of the Majesty on high. He's accepted. He's sitting there
in satisfaction of a job well done. Now you trust Him. You trust Him to put your sin
away. Number three, trust Christ. He's so much better than any
religious, fantastic religious experience. He says in verse
four, chapter one, being made so much better than the angels
as he hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they.
Now angels are created beings. So of course, Christ is greater
than them. He's the one that created them. The creator is
always greater than the creature in me. So, of course, we should
trust Christ more than angels, more than any other of His creatures. And you'd think that this would
go without saying to God's people, wouldn't you? But, you know,
we need to be encouraged in this matter. We need to be exhorted
in this matter. Because angels, you know, I've
never seen an angel, but from what I read in Scripture, they
are glorious beings. And this flesh would love to
see an angel. I mean, we'd love to see an angel. I'm sure that would be fantastic.
But buddy, seeing an angel won't do your soul any good. As a matter
of fact, seeing an angel could be detrimental to you, because
you get caught up thinking about that, wanting to see more of
that, and take your eyes off Christ. See, seeing an angel
wouldn't do your soul any good, but seeing Christ would. Seeing
Christ would. So you trust Him. You look to
Christ. You look for Christ. And you
shall be saved. And the same thing, I use angels
here just as an example of any fantastic religious experience. That experience won't save you.
That experience won't help your soul, but Christ will. So you
trust Him. You trust Him. All right, fourthly,
trust Christ because there is great salvation in Him. Chapter
2, verse 1. Therefore we ought to give the
more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at
any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels
was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just
recompense or reward, how shall we escape? If we neglect, so
great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the
Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. Now
you trust Christ, because he is a great Savior. There is so
great salvation in him. This salvation in Christ is so
great because of the wisdom of it. You know, men have been religious
forever and men make up all kinds of different religions, different
ways that they think up. They think, well, God would be
pleased with this because that would impress me. But there's
no real wisdom in any religion that men have made up. They never
still yet have found a way to really put sin away. Oh, it could
be ignored or we'll pretend like it's not there. You sin less
than I've got to be happy with. I found a way to put sin away.
They still yet have never found a way for God to save a sinner
and still be just. They never have found a way to
do that because men don't have any wisdom by nature. But wisdom
or salvation is in Christ. It's God's wisdom. It's God's
wisdom on display. God found a way in Christ to
be both just and justifier. God found the way. He provided
the way. to enable him to show mercy to
sinners and still be just through the sacrifice of Christ. This
is a great salvation because of the great wisdom of it. This
is a great salvation because of the great cost of it. This
salvation was bought with the precious blood of Christ. It
was bought with the blood of God. Oh, it's precious. Christ
gave himself everything that he is as a ransom for the souls
of his people. It was bought with great cost.
Then this salvation is so great because of the power of it. This
is the power of God unto salvation. Salvation in Christ gives the
dead life. Salvation in Christ makes a rebel
a son, makes him lovingly, willingly bow to Christ. Oh, there's great
power in this salvation. Power to save and power to keep.
Then this is so great salvation because of the difficulty of
it. See, men and their ignorance make up all these different ways,
you know, trying to be saved. And you know why that they can't
find a way to save a sinner? Because it's too difficult. In
order for God to save a sinner, God had to be made a man. God
had to be made a man. He had to become a real man and
still be God. And then in order for God now
to save a sinner, God had to be made sin and still be holy. Oh, great difficulty. But that
was done. God did it that way because sin
had to be put away. Justice had to be satisfied.
And this is so difficult. Only Christ could do it. Now
you trust him. And this is so great of a salvation
because of the freeness of it. There's nothing greater than
God's free grace to his people. What a joy. I mean, what a joy
we have to preach a gospel that's free the sinners. Salvation in
Christ is so great because of the expense of it, the cost of
it. There's nothing more expensive than salvation in Christ. And
yet it's free. Only God could do that. What
is salvation? Now you trust, it's free. You
can't earn it. Come have it for free. And then
this salvation in Christ is so great because it saves great
sinners. Matter of fact, it only saves
the chief of sinners. Now you trust Him. However great
you think your sin is, I promise you it's greater than what you
think it is. No matter how great you think your sin is, you trust
Christ. No sin so great, the blood of Christ can't wash it
white as snow. This is so great a salvation. Now trust Christ
the Savior. Trust Him. Fifth, trust Christ
because Christ makes His people holy through union with Him.
Chapter 2, verse 11. For both He that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause? He's not ashamed to call them
brethren. Now the Lord Jesus Christ was made flesh. Son of God was made flesh. He
became a real man so he could be our older brother, the older
brother of believers. He was made flesh so that he
could obey the law as the representative of his people. His people are
in the flesh. Christ is going to be their representative.
The Son of God is going to be their representative. He's got
to be in the flesh too. So he became flesh. so that as
the representative of his people, he could obey the law for them.
Now you cannot understand the gospel until you understand this
glorious truth of representation. God looks at the whole human
race in one of two men. Adam, the first man created Adam.
He's the federal head of the whole human race. Or Christ,
the second Adam. He's the federal head, the representative
of all his people. And we did, we have done what
our representative did. When Adam sinned, so did we.
It wasn't like we did. We did. We sinned in him. That's
how we got the nature that we've got. That's why we are what we
are. Because we did sin in Adam. We're
guilty in Adam. But God's people, they did what
Christ did. They obeyed the law. That's our
representative so that we did what he did. We are what he is,
holy in Christ. He was made flesh so he could
be the representative of his people, obey the law for them.
But there's a second reason he became flesh. God can't die. God is spirit. God doesn't have
a body to be sacrificed. So the son of God was made flesh.
God prepared for him a body that would be sacrificed for the sin
of his people. Salvation is had through union
with Christ, by doing what Christ did because we were in Him. When Christ obeyed the law, so
did His people, because we're in Him. When Christ died to satisfy
God's justice, we did too, if we're in Him. When He arose from
the dead, we arose in Him too. The newness of life in Him. See,
we can't make ourselves holy by what we do or what we don't
do. You ought not sin. You ought
not lie. But you can't make yourself holy by what you do or what you
don't do. If your hope in any way is attached
to what you've done or what you haven't done, my friends, you
don't have a good hope. I mean, if you're trusting one
thing that you've done, you don't have a good hope. But trusting
Christ is a good hope. Because in Him, His people are
sanctified. Now you trust Him. You trust
Christ. I assure you of this. The Lord
Jesus Christ will never be unholy. Nobody in Him will either. Because
through union with Him, we are what He is. So believers will
always be holy in Christ. Now you trust Him. And this is
the promise of God. The Savior will. He didn't come
to try to save somebody. He didn't come to see how many
people He could save, how many people He could talk into accepting
Him as their personal Savior. Christ came to save His people
from their sin, and He's going to present every last one of
them faultless, perfect, sinless before the Father. Look at verse
13. And again, I'll put my trust
in Him. And again, behold, I and the
children which the Father hath given me. And that last day,
the Lord Jesus Christ is gonna say, Father, I and the children,
which they're all here, they're all here, they're all children.
Every one of them has been made perfect in Christ. That's not
a maybe, that's a promise from God. That's gonna happen. Now
you trust Christ. He's all the holiness you'll
ever need. All right, six, you trust Christ. Because Christ
delivers his people from the fear of death. Chapter 2 verse
14, For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is the devil, and deliver them, who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to bondage. Now this flesh does not want
to die. We've got some dearly beloved
who right now are on their deathbed. And their body is fighting it.
Fighting it. Doing everything the body can
think of to do to try to stay alive. And the best help I ever
got on that was hearing this statement. You know why that
is? You know why you don't want to
die right now? I mean, you know, otherwise you could jump off
a bridge. You don't want to die right now. And somebody who is on their
deathbed, their body's sick, their rack of pain and fever,
and their body's just speeding up the heart rate, slowing it
down, speeding up the respiratory rate, slowing it down. Their
body's fighting to find something to help it live. You know why
that is? Because Almighty God made these bodies for living,
not for dying. There's life in these bodies. The flesh doesn't
want to die. And there's a certain I don't
know if you say fear or uncertainty, you know, about the process of
death, because we've never done it before. But to the believer,
there's no reason to fear death. There's no need to fear death.
There's no need to fear judgment after death, because Christ our
Savior has already died in the place of his people. He's already
died to satisfy justice for his people, so they can never die
the second death. If Christ died for you, your
body is still going to die, but you'll never be condemned. Never. Because Christ was condemned
for you. Your body is still going to die. But when you die, you're
not going to awake before the judgment seat of Christ, worried
that you're going to be found. Am I going to be found guilty
or not guilty? There's no question. There's
no decision to be made. You're innocent. Righteous. Because
Christ put your sin away. So there's no need to fear death.
And you don't have to live your life all the time worried about
dying. I think about dying every day.
I do. I think about dying. I think
about me dying. I think about you dying. What we deal with here from this
word, what we deal with from this scripture every week is
a matter of life and death. I mean, it's life and death.
I have a rather intense personality. I told you a few weeks ago, Janet
has decided during the winter months, she and I are going to
do jigsaw puzzles in the evening. We do jigsaw puzzles. And she
thinks this is relaxing, not to be frank. I'm intense. I'm
intense about it. So I understand that that is
my personality. But I make no apologies for being
intense about this. This is life and death. I think
about it every day. But we don't have to fear it.
We don't have to fear death. Like, well, the Lord's going
to strike me down because I didn't do this well enough or that well
enough. I had earned a nice big mansion in glory. Now I got to
fear death because, you know, I'm going to be in the slums
because I failed the Lord. You don't have to fear death. There is no judgment to the believer. Christ has already been condemned
for you. And when these bodies finally die, we'll live. The believer will then live.
There's no reason to fear that. All right, seventh, trust Christ.
Don't trust the most faithful, gifted men and women that you
know. You know, the old Jews, how they loved and respected
Moses. And he earned their respect, certainly. And you and I have
known over the years, we have known many respected, loved,
faithful men and women. And I'm thankful for them. I
am. You learn what you can learn from them. But don't trust them. Don't put any trust in them because
they're just flesh. Don't ever trust the servant
in the house. Trust the master of the house.
That's what the writer tells us in chapter 3 verse 1. Wherefore,
holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the
apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who
is faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful
in all his house. For this man was counted worthy
of more glory than Moses, and as much as he who hath built
the house hath more honor than the house. For every house is
built by some man, but he that built all things is God. And
Moses was verily faithful in all his house, as a servant for
a testimony of those things which were to be spoken of after. It
wasn't for him, he was speaking of Christ who was to come. Oh,
but now Christ has a son over his own house. Whose house are
we if we hold fast the confidence and rejoicing of the hope firm
to the end? Yeah, Moses was a special servant,
faithful servant of God. But now don't trust him. You
trust Christ. Moses wrote Christ. He told us
of Christ. Moses' trust was in Christ, but
your trust in Christ too. And let me tell you this while
we're on the subject of men. You know, we are to, we're to
love, we're to respect our pastors, our elders, our teachers for
the work's sake. But we're on the subject of men. Now don't,
don't be putting your trust in them. You trust Christ. You only
follow a man as he follows Christ, as he points you to Christ. Don't
ever, ever trust. some religious leader who sets
himself up as a title of a priest. A man who calls himself a priest
is an imposter. I mean, you write that down right
now. That'll be universally true.
A man who sets himself up as a priest is an imposter because
he's putting something between you and Christ. See, God's preachers
take everything out of the way between you and Christ. They
preach Christ and get out of the way. They tell you don't
look at anything else. Get rid of those things. Go straight
to Christ. A man who puts himself up between
you and Christ is an imposter. He's blocking your way to Christ.
And believers don't have a priest on earth. No. Christ ended the
priesthood of Aaron. The priesthood of Aaron was only
ever good as a picture of Christ who was to come. Now the picture's
over. You go to Christ, the great high
priest. The job of the high priest is
to represent you to God. The job of the high priest is
to offer a sacrifice for your sin. That's what Christ came
to do. But you know, he came in the
kingly tribe, the tribe of Judah. He didn't come in the tribe of
Levi. So he couldn't be a high priest according to Old Testament
law, could he? Christ didn't come in the priesthood
of Aaron. In Aaron's line, Christ came as a high priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. You can read about Melchizedek
in chapter 7, but this is what I am confident scripture teaches.
Melchizedek is a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. He's the
king of peace, king of righteousness, and he's the priest. He's the
king priest. He's the only king priest in all of scripture other
than Christ himself. Well, I believe Melchizedek's
a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. He appeared unto Moses
and Moses paid tithes, or unto Abraham, excuse me. And Melchizedek
offered, he didn't offer a lamb, did he? Bread and wine, the Lord's
table. Melchizedek's a pre-incarnate
appearance of Christ and the Lord Jesus Christ is so glorious. Melchizedek had to come first
because Christ could not come a high priest after the order
of any mere man. Christ is so glorious, He can only come a
high priest after the order of Himself. Now you trust Him. Oh, what a great high priest
He is. You can trust your salvation to Him. You can trust His sacrifice
for your sin. You can trust Him to represent
you before God. Trust Him. Put all your trust
in Him. Alright, eighth. Trust Christ. Don't trust any religious ceremony.
Don't trust any religious traditions. Trust Christ alone. In the illustration
I used for that is the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day was part
of the Old Testament law. It was required. The law of the
Sabbath forbid any work on Saturday. The law said you must rest on
Saturday. You can't work. You must rest
on Saturday. This is human nature. If they
told me I have to work, I'm going to say I don't want to work.
I'm going to try to find a way to call off sick or get off early.
If they told me I have to work, I don't want to work. And if
they tell me I have to rest, I want to work. I'm going to
do something. That's human nature, isn't it? The law demanded rest,
and it never provided it. The law required a rest. A Sabbath
of Sabbaths, it required the year of Jubilee, where all debts
were canceled, everybody goes free, the earth rests for a year,
there's a whole year of rest. And I don't know if they ever
observed that or not, but you know, Scripture never one time
says they observed it. Not one time. The law demanded
rest, but it never gave it. But Christ does. Christ says,
are you weary? Come with me and rest. There's
rest in Christ because He finished the works. He's the high priest
who sat down. He's resting. Now you rest in
Him because you rest in Him because the work is finished. If you
believe Christ, just rest. Just quit trying to do everything
that you think you've got to do to make God happy with you
and rest in Christ because the Father satisfied in Christ. Now
rest in Him. Oh, what joy to be able to rest
in Christ, to be able to rest from fear, to be able to rest
from work, and to enjoy everything that God's provided for His people
in Christ. Now you trust Him and have rest
for your soul. I skipped over the reference
to that. Look here at chapter 4, verse 8. I got carried away
here and dropped my notes. Here's where he talks here about
this law of the Sabbath. Or if Jesus, and he's talking
there about Joshua, when Joshua led the people into the land
that God had promised them, if that was the rest, if that was
the purpose of God, then would he not afterward have spoken
of another day? When Joshua led the people into
the promised land, that was just a picture, that was a picture
of true rest in Christ. That's what he tells us in verse
nine. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God.
For he that is entered into his rest, into Christ's rest, he
also has ceased from his own works, as Christ did from him.
Now let's labor, therefore, to enter into that rest, lest any
man fall after the same example of unbelief." Now you mean the
writer's telling me there to work, not to work? He's telling
me to work to rest? Yeah. Yeah, we're going to have
to labor at this thing. We're going to have to work at
resting. Because the flesh is always going to be trying to
bring you back into captivity of the law. Now you resist that
and rest in Christ alone. Put all your hope in Christ and
rest in Him. All right, here's the ninth thing.
Whatever you do, whatever you do, don't trust any of your salvation
to your obedience to the law. Don't trust any, don't think
God's going to be happy with you in any way, even to make
you a little bit better than some other believer by your obedience
to the law. Don't look to the law. The believer
has no relationship with the law whatsoever. The death of
Christ severed the believer's relationship with the law. You
trust Christ because he's so much better than the law. All
the law can do is point out our sin. All the law can do is keep
reminding us and showing us we're guilty. Chapter 10, verse 3. But in those sacrifices, there's
a remembrance again made of sins every year. Now repeating the
sacrifices, repeating the daily sacrifices, morning, noon and
evening, repeating the annual sacrifices on the day of atonement.
When they kept repeating those things, you know what that was
doing? It was reminding them, you know, that last animal sacrifice
we offered didn't put my sin away. It didn't purge my conscience. I still feel guilty. I still
know that I'm guilty. That animal sacrifice did not
put my sin away. If it did, I wouldn't have to
offer it again. When we offer that animal sacrifice over and
over and over again, it's still telling us we need another sacrifice. We need God to send a sacrifice
that will put away sin. See, the law required those sacrifices,
but the law can never forgive sin. The law knows nothing of
forgiveness. The law knows nothing of mercy.
The law knows nothing of grace. In the law, the only thing you'll
ever find is guilt. But if you'll trust Christ, you'll
never find guilt. Because in Christ, there's only
forgiveness. There's only mercy. There's only
grace. In Christ, you'll find nothing
of guilt because Christ took the guilt of his people away.
That's what He tells us back here in chapter 8, verse 8. For finding fault with them,
He saith, Behold the days come, saith the Lord, when I'll make
a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of
Judah. You know that new covenant is really God's old covenant,
His eternal covenant of grace, but it's newly revealed to men.
God gave the covenant of the law first to show us our guilt,
to show us our need of Christ, to make us rejoice when He showed
us His eternal covenant. God's eternal covenant was revealed
second to men, but it's God's old covenant. He says in verse
nine of this new covenant, the eternal covenant of God's grace.
It's not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers
in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of
the land of Egypt because they continue 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'll put my laws in their mind. I'll make them know
and understand. I'll write them in their hearts.
I'll make them love it. The law can never do that. Ten
commandments can never do that, could they? And I'll be to them
a God, and they should be to me a people. And they should
not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord, for they're all going to 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. You never find that in the covenant
of law, the law of Moses. You never find forgiveness, but
mercy. But God says in this covenant, I'll be merciful. In Christ,
I'll be merciful to their unrighteousness. He says in verse 13, in that
he says the new covenant, he makes the first old. He makes
that law, the covenant of the law old. Now that which decayeth
and waxeth old is ready to vanish away, so don't trust it. It's
decayed, it's full of holes, it's moth-eaten. Trust Christ. His righteousness is always perfect.
Look in chapter 10, verse 16. This is the covenant that I'll
make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I'll put my laws
into their hearts and their minds while I write them and their
sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Now where
remission of these is. There's no more offering for
sin where God has put away the sin of his people. There's no
more ceremony. There's no more following the
law. God's put it away. There is forgiveness for sin
in Christ that you can't find anywhere else. There's mercy
and grace from God in Christ. Now you go to Christ and you
trust him, trust him alone. The 10th, trust Christ because
trusting Christ is the only way you can have a clear conscience.
Chapter 9, verse 13. For the blood of bulls and of
goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies
to the purifying of the flesh. How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God? Now, the sprinkling of the blood
of animal sacrifices, that symbolically purged the flesh. God would accept
that because God commanded it. He commanded it as a picture
of Christ. He didn't accept it in the sense that it put sin
away, but he accepted it as a picture of Christ. But now Christ came
and his blood was shed and the blood of Christ doesn't purify
symbolically. It purifies literally to make
his people without sin. Now we say the believers without
sin, it doesn't mean that, um, You know, we don't sin anymore.
Of course, the believer sins. And we recognize our sin. We
don't say, well, I'm holy because I just don't recognize my sin.
No, we recognize our sin. We recognize we're carrying around
this nature of flesh. It's nothing but sin. But even
though we see our sin, the believer has a clear conscience. We have
a clear conscience. Because our sin's been put away.
Your conscience bothers you. if you know you're gonna be punished.
Your conscience bothers you if you know you've done wrong. But
if you trust Christ, your conscience is clear. Because in Him, you're
perfect. Your conscience is clear because
in Christ, your sin's already been atoned for. So you have
a clear, quiet conscience. If you've ever had a guilty conscience,
you know how precious a clear conscience is. You want a clear
conscience? Trust Christ. Trust Christ. Oh,
you'll still work in his service, but it won't be trying to earn
God's favor. No, it'll be from a clear conscience because Christ
has put your sin away. All right, now last. Trust Christ
because in Christ there is a better resurrection, a better resurrection
than those who don't trust him. See, we're all going to die.
I told you, I think about death every day. But you know, that's
not the end, is it? There's a resurrection. He says
here in chapter 11, verse 35, women received their dead race
to life again, and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance,
that they might obtain a better resurrection. Now the resurrection
of the faithful, those who believe Christ, is far better than the
resurrection of those who have no faith in Christ. You know,
everybody's going to be resurrected in the last day, believer and
unbeliever alike. But the resurrection of the faithful,
Oh, that's far better than those who have no faith in Christ.
The wicked who do not believe Christ, they're going to be raised,
but they're going to be raised to God's wrath. The faithful
will be raised to God's love. The wicked, they're going to
be raised for an execution. The faithful will be raised to
life. They're going to be raised to
a wedding feast to be married to Christ. The wicked are going
to be raised to eternal death. the faithful be raised to glorious,
eternal life in Christ Jesus and with Christ. So you trust
him. You trust your body and soul.
Trust to him. Now, that's a very brief summary
of this letter written in few words. You see from that that
Christ is all. He's all, he's everything, he's
all that you need. So let me exhort you one more
time. Trust Christ. Oh, come to Him and trust Him.
He's far better than anything you can imagine. There's no hope
trusting anyone or anything other than Christ. You trust Christ
because Christ is all. He's the way to the Father. He's
the way of salvation. He's the way of forgiveness.
He is the way of life, this great salvation that's in Christ. Now
trust Him. Trust Him because He's everything
that you need. And after we bow together in
prayer, Mike's going to come and lead us in singing that chorus,
Christ is all. May God help us to sing it from
the heart, trusting him to be our all. Let's bow together in
prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for this exhortation that you've given us to trust our Lord Jesus
Christ. God, I pray you bless your word
as it's been preached. Father, bless it to your glory.
Enable us to meditate upon, think upon, feed upon this gospel and
see the Lord Jesus Christ, to see his glory and to trust, to
rest, to put all of our hope in him. Father, we thank you. Father, I pray for our world
and our country at this time, this virus that is causing so
much pain and suffering and uncertainty. Father, I pray that you provide
healing, that you provide some way for this to stop, that you
protect and preserve your people. Father, bring us back together
as a church body to worship you together again as soon as it
could be thy will. Father, we pray it be soon. We
know it will be in thy will, but Father, restore us all the
sooner. Restore us together sooner, that we might lift up our hearts
together in worship and keep this people, Father, keep us
safe and give us the faith to rest knowing this thing's under
your control. You do all things well. Whatever
it is, whatever the outcome, you've done it right and well.
We pray for the faith to rest in thee and to submit to thy
will lovingly and willingly. All these things we ask and we
give thanks in that great name. That name is above every name,
the name of Christ our Savior. I failed to mention this earlier.
I'll try to get news out as soon as we can meet together again.
Watch the Facebook page and spread the word around. Hopefully this
won't be longer than two weeks, but we don't know. So we'll get
the word out that way. Until we meet again, I pray the
Lord bless you. You look on the sermon audio
page Wednesday evening, Lord willing. There'll be a message
for us to hear with our families. After that message, you ought
to be able to sing from the heart. So let's do that. This is Christ
is all. You repeat just as loud as I
did. Christ is all. I don't believe. Christ is all. We'll do better if we stand.
Yeah, let's stand. Christ is all. Christ is all. Then we all say this together.
Christ is all my righteousness. Christ is all my righteousness. On him I'll cast. On him I'll
cast. My weary soul. My weary soul. Then we all say this together.
For time and eternity, He's all I'll ever need. For time and
eternity, He's all I'll ever need. Now let's put the music
to it. Christ is all, Christ is all, Christ is all my righteousness. On Him I'll cast My weary soul. For time and eternity is all
I'll ever need. Now let's sing it again. We know
it, don't we? Christ is all. Christ is all. Christ is all my righteousness. On Him I'll cast my weary soul. For time and eternity is all
I'll ever need.