Well, it's good to be back with
you after a week off last week. But we return this week to Hebrews
and Chapter 8, and the first six verses of Hebrews Chapter
8. Let me remind you that Hebrews,
this epistle, was written to Jewish Christians. Jewish Christians? Yes, Jewish Christians. If you
remember, the day of Pentecost, when the Apostle Peter preached
in Jerusalem, There were 3,000 there, at least 3,000 plus, who
were convicted of sin that they had crucified the Lord of glory.
And they all cried out, what must we do? And Peter's answer
was that they must believe and be baptized. They must believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Even those amongst them who had
cried, crucify. You know how fickle is the human
heart and mind at one week on what we call Palm Sunday. They were crying in Jerusalem
as he rode into Jerusalem on an ass's colt. They were crying
out, Hosanna to the son of David, and they were laying palm branches
in his way. And less than a week later, when
the Pharisees and the scribes and the high priest in Jerusalem
stirred up the crowd, they were crying, crucify him, crucify
him. And on the cross, Jesus prayed
this at one point. He said, Father, forgive them
for they know not what they do. I do not believe he was praying
for a general forgiveness for all that had crucified him. He
was praying forgiveness for those for whom he was dying, who would
in a few weeks time on the day of Pentecost cry out, what must
we do to be saved? Even them who had cried out crucify
were amongst them. So this epistle is written to
Jewish Christians in this first century. I don't know exactly
when, 50, 60 AD, something like that. But they had a lot of religious
baggage with them. They were religious people. The
state of Israel, Jerusalem, they were subjugated by the Romans,
but nevertheless, they had their religion continued, their temple
worship continued. They had the law given to Moses
on Mount Sinai and in the wilderness wanderings. They had the temple
made exactly as God had specified in that passage we read in Exodus. Make it exactly as I tell you
in the Mount. They had their priests. They
had the high priest who alone once a year was allowed to go
into the holy of holies of the temple. They had their animal
sacrifices that had to be done in a specific way to be accepted
by God. They had the right of circumcision.
They had huge cultural pressure to retain these Hebrew Christians,
these Jewish Christians, huge cultural pressure to retain and
mix with their faith in Christ this heritage of Jewish religion. So the epistle to the Hebrews,
this book, is written to teach all those Jewish believers, that
that heritage that they had from their Jewish background, that
it's all fulfilled in Christ. That it's not something we need
to continue because it's fulfilled. Paul, who himself was a Jew,
wrote Romans chapter 10, verses 1 to 4. Let me read this to you. Romans chapter 10, verses one
to four. Brethren, he says, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel, the nation of Israel,
is that they might be saved. Saved from what? Saved from their
sins, saved from eternal condemnation, accepted by God. He says, for
I bear them record that they have a zeal of God. They're zealous
for the things of God, but not according to knowledge. You know
you can be zealous for something but it can be an ignorant zealotry. It can be not based on truth,
on knowledge. For they, verse three, being
ignorant of God's righteousness, which we must have, follow holiness,
pursue holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. To
see God, to be accepted in his presence, we must be as holy
as God. Oh, wow, how are you doing to
do that? They're ignorant of God's righteousness and they
go about to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. For, here it is in a
nutshell, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to
everyone that believeth. Do you know it was years after
professing faith in Christ before somebody finally pointed that
verse out to me. And when they did, they made
all sorts of wriggling attempts to make it say, something other
than what it does say. It says, Christ is the end of
the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Do you
know what I think that means? I think it means that Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. And
it doesn't mean anything else that they wriggle around trying
to tell you it really says. No. So anyway, he wrote, I think
it was Paul that wrote Hebrews. That's why he had such a concern.
for his brethren, the Jews, that they might be saved, and I think
that fits very well. Many, many commentators don't
think so. I don't know why, it's just because he didn't say it
was from Paul right at the start. That's the only reason, but everything
else is in the style of Paul. But anyway, come with me to verse
1 of chapter 8. Now of the things which we have
spoken, this is the sum, or this is the main thing. We have such
an High Priest, who is set, who is seated, on the right hand
of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens. The summary.
He's pausing at the halfway point of the epistle, more or less,
give or take. He's pausing about halfway through to say, think
of what we've discussed so far. Think of what I've set before
you so far. This is the summary of it. This
is the main thing. This is the sum of it. Let's
remind ourselves what he has said. In the first chapter, he
showed them that the triune God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Israel,
there is only one God. You shall only worship one God.
Not a polytheistic culture. It was one God. God said he was
one God, one God alone. And so he is, but he is manifested
in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that triune
God who is hidden from us with fleshly eyes, with sinful fleshly
eyes, that triune God is above all manifested in his Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of that blessed Trinity.
The man who was crucified and rose from the dead and ascended
on high, the man that they spent those years with, three and a
half years of his ministry when he was 30 years old, those disciples,
those apostles, the man that they spent that time with, eating
with him, walking with him, sleeping in the same place that he was
sleeping, doing all these things together, hearing him speak the
words of eternal life, seeing him ascend up into the heavens
when he was risen from the dead. The Word of God is his name.
He is the one by whom alone we know God. They saw that this
was God. He is God. Look in verse 11 of
chapter 8. This is speaking, I'm jumping
ahead to what we'll be looking at next week. They shall not,
this is the covenant, the new covenant. They shall not teach
every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know
the Lord. You need to know the Lord. Why?
For all God's people shall know him. What, you mean not just
the chief priests and the chief clerics? No, all of them, from
the least to the greatest. And for all of them, I will be
merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities
I will remember no more. He is God. But then the epistle
went on to show us he's better than the angels. The Jews revered
angels, but chapter one, most of it shows that the Lord Jesus
Christ, our God made man, is better than the angels. But in
chapter two, he was humbled for a little while. He was made for
a little while a little lower than the angels. As a man, our
God became man. And he became man for the purpose
of paying the price of the sins of the multitude he'd loved from
before the beginning of time. And it says in the middle of
chapter two, in bringing many sons to glory. He loved those
many sons before the beginning of time, and in time he had to
come to pay the price of their sin, that the justice of God
might be perfectly satisfied. He is God's messenger from heaven. The Jews revered Moses as the
messenger of God. He brought the first five books
of the Bible. The Jews revered Moses, but this epistle says
that our Lord Jesus Christ is so much greater than Moses. As
John the Apostle said in his gospel chapter one, verse 17,
he said, the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came
by Jesus Christ. I know where I'd rather be. Under
the law that I cannot keep and thus condemned, or under the
grace and truth that came by Jesus Christ, my God. He is the
true Sabbath rest of his people. That's what chapter four has
shown us. He is the true Sabbath rest of his people. And what
that means is, he's not a day. He's not a day of austerity or
deprivation, which is what so many who call themselves Christians
try to make out that Sunday is. They say it's the Sabbath day
in its Christian form, and you must live a day of austerity
and deprivation in order to make God happy with you. No. Absolute
nonsense. The Sabbath day of the Old Testament
was just a picture of the cessation from works of our own righteousness
because Christ has accomplished all. We trust Christ. And in
trusting Christ, who knew no sin and was made sin for his
people, that he might make us the righteousness of God in him,
we rest, we Sabbath. in that rest that we have in
Him. He's done it all. He is the author of eternal salvation. He is the basis of eternal hope. Remember chapter 6 was a lot
about hope, a hope. Not a, oh I hope it might happen
but it might not. A hope which is a confidence,
a certainty, and absolutely cannot be changed. It's an anchor for
the soul in this storm-tossed world, in this storm-tossed life. Whatever might happen of all
the stormy things that come along, this confidence of eternity accomplished
by Christ for His people is an anchor for the soul. So, verse
1, this is the main point. What is the main point? We, believers,
have such an High Priest. We have a high priest who intercedes
with God for us. We have one who makes us right
with God. We have one who will take us
to spend eternity with God. So why would you want to look
for another? You Hebrew Christians, you Hebrew
believers that have got all this heritage of Old Testament law
and priesthood and temple, Why are you looking back to that?
Because we've got the perfect high priest that we need. We've
got the one that we need. We don't need any other. Why
would you look for another? So I have two points this morning.
Earthly metaphors. and heavenly reality. Just those
two things. Earthly metaphors and heavenly
reality. So first of all, earthly metaphors.
What is a metaphor? It's a figure of speech that
describes an object or an action in a way that isn't literally
true, but helps to explain the idea. So let me give you an example,
a very simple example. You do an examination and you
come out of it and somebody says to you, how was the examination? And you say, oh, it was a piece
of cake. It was a piece of, it wasn't literally a slice of Victoria
sponge, but what the metaphor is saying, a piece of cake, a
slice of Victoria sponge is incredibly unnervingly easy to eat. Well,
how was the exam? Oh, it was as easy as eating
a piece of cake. That's a metaphor, that's a typical
metaphor. Now what I'm saying is that the
Old Testament Jewish religion that these Jews were harping
back, these Hebrews were harping back to, is a metaphor for the
truth. In the Old Testament, the high
priests were ordained exactly in accordance with God's instruction.
Look in verse 5. and shadow, not reality, shadow,
you know? If you're on a sunny day like
today, if you're waiting for me to come round the corner,
you might see my shadow as I approach the corner, and I'm not there
yet. The shadow isn't me. It's a good
indication that I'm coming round the corner any time soon. They
serve the example and shadow of heavenly things. As Moses
was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle,
and that's what we read in Exodus 25 verse 9, see that you make
all things according to the pattern showed you in the mount. You've
got to do it exactly in that way, because only in that way
will it picture, will it be the blueprint of, will it be the
pattern of, will it be the type of that which is true eternally
in the kingdom of God. The gifts, the gifts of praise
and worship. You see down there in verse three,
every high priest is ordained, is appointed according to that
Mosaic instruction that was given. Every high priest is appointed
to offer gifts and sacrifices. The gifts were the praise of
God, the worship of God. The sacrifices were payment to
appease offended divine justice. The sin of the people is an offence
to the justice of God. God cannot, cannot remain God
and let sin go unpunished, unpaid for. So the sacrifices were picturing
the payment that would appease, would calm, would soothe, would
propitiate, would turn away the anger of God. But that was just
a metaphor. Because look at chapter 10 of
Hebrews and verse 4. Probably only need to turn over
a page. Chapter 10 and verse 4. Why was it only a metaphor
and not the reality? Why was it just the piece of
cake and not the reality that the exam was easy? Why was it
that? Because verse four of chapter 10, it is not possible that the
blood of bulls and goats should take away sin. The animal sacrifices
were picturing what would take away sin, but they themselves
could not take away sin. And so we have it in the Old
Testament, all the way down from Genesis chapter 4, Abel's lamb. You know Abel, the second son
of Adam and Eve? Abel's lamb was accepted by God. Abel worshipped God, and a lamb
was killed and was brought, and that was accepted by God. Cain
brought the work of his own hands, and Cain's offering was not accepted,
because he didn't come in the way that God had ordained. He
didn't come in the way where he guarded the way to the tree
of life at the end of chapter three of Genesis, he guarded
that way. And there was that shekinah,
that display of the glory of God that said the only way to
come to God is by a lamb. It's by a lamb, it's by the Lamb
of God. Behold the Lamb of God, said
John the Baptist, who taketh away the sin of the world. And
right down through the Old Testament, the animal sacrifices all pictured
the one and only way that sin which separates sinners from
God who is holy, it's the only way that that is removed, and
it's removed for eternity. Now, God, the Son, He's people's
high priest. What is a priest? He's a mediator.
He's a go-between. He's an intercessor between the
holy God and sinners. That must fulfill the picture. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, as
our great high priest, is the fulfillment of the picture which
the Old Testament priests and animal sacrifices all were just
a pattern, were just a blueprint. As I keep telling you, a plan
pictures a house. You can probably look, if you've
got the skills and the mental agility, you can look at a plan
in two dimensions and you can look at it and you can envisage
it and you can say oh I know where that room is and how that's
relating to that room but you can't live in a plan you can't
live in a plan you can only live in the finished house and therefore
The plan of salvation in the Old Testament, priests and sacrifices,
that could never take away sin, as we just read in Hebrews 10,
four. It must be that something that is acceptable is offered.
You see verse three, every priest is ordained to offer gifts and
sacrifices. Wherefore, it is of necessity
that this man, this person, which person? The God man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, God become man, God incarnate. It is necessary
that this man have somewhat also to offer is not a particularly
good translation because the idea there could be taken that
it is an ongoing thing. That really what it says is that
this man has had something to offer, something completed. He
must have had something to offer. The reality that the gifts and
the sacrifices of Old Testament, your worship, you Hebrews, what
that pictured, this man our great God incarnate, God the Son, the
express image of the person of Almighty God, better than the
angels, better than Moses, his people's Sabbath rest, to take
many sons to glory. He must have somewhat to offer
that is acceptable. But not, as it says in verse
four, not as a Levitical priest. This man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
the God-man, He didn't come and take up the role of a Levitical
priest, for that was just the picture. If he were on earth,
he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer
gifts according to the law. Not as a Levitical priest on
earth, because when this was written, the temple worship was
still going on in Jerusalem. And so it did until AD 70. In
AD 70, Who was it? Was it Tiberius?
I think it was. Wasn't it Tiberius? I think it was Tiberius. The
Roman Empire had enough of these rebellious Jews and it was flattened. It was destroyed. The temple
was destroyed. Jesus said to his disciples,
he said, before long Look at these stones, and he said, not
one of them will be there upon another, or it will be flattened.
And in AD 70, exactly as the prophet Daniel had said, and
exactly as Christ had said a few years before, in AD 70, it was
finished. There were still priests on earth
at that time, but the reality which is our Lord Jesus Christ,
his people's great high priest, that cannot perpetuate the picture. He must fulfill it, not perpetuate
it. He must fulfill it, not perpetuate
it. And if it's fulfilled, The pictures,
the metaphor, is ended. You live in the finished house
when it's finished. You don't constantly spend your
time wandering around the plan on the kitchen table. Not at
all. You live in the house. It's finished. Hebrew believers
were drawn back to the picture. Why? Because of fleshly weakness. Are we not weak in so many ways? It's like a childish adult clinging
to a comfort blanket. You know, oh, I don't like to
let go. It was such a comfort to me when I was a little child. It was such a comfort. But now
you've grown up now. It's like a childish adult clinging
to a comfort blanket. But the tabernacle, I'm not saying
the tabernacle religion was foolishly childish. No, it wasn't. Verse
five, they serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things
as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the
tabernacle. See, he saith, that you make all things according
to the pattern. You've got to do it dead right.
No, I'm not saying it was a childish thing. It was exactly what God
had specified. The pattern showed to thee in
the mount, the materials. the layout, the measurements,
the order of service, the price of redemption, the sacrifices
for sin, the feasts and the holy assemblies, all were done, verse
4, according to the law, until, until all was fulfilled in Christ
and taken away in AD 70. Turn with me just for a few moments
to Colossians chapter 2. I just want to go to Colossians
chapter 2. And just read it. You say, why
are you reading such a big chunk of scripture in the middle of
your message? It's because, do you know what I always find is
the best commentary on the scriptures is not the good words that many
people have written, but it's the scripture itself. And let's
read Colossians chapter two. Just follow it along with me,
if you would. He says, Paul writing to the Colossians, the church
at Colossae, and it was not far from the one at Laodicea. He
says, for I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for
you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen
my face in the flesh, that their hearts might be comforted, being
knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance
of understanding. to the acknowledgement of the
mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hid
all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest
any man should beguile you with enticing words. For though I
be absent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit, joying
and beholding your order and the steadfastness of your faith
in Christ. As ye have therefore received
Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye, so live ye in him, rooted
and built up in him, and established in the faith as ye have been
taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Beware lest any
man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition
of men, after the, get where I'm going? After the tradition,
don't be spoiled by the tradition of men, after the rudiments of
the world, and not after Christ. For in Christ, in him dwelleth. Look at the richness of these
statements. In Christ dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. As that couple of hymns say,
don't they? God contracted to a span when
Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea. God, almighty, infinite
God contracted to a span. And he says, and ye, ye with
all your faults in the flesh and your sins, ye are complete
in him, which is the head of all principality and power, in
whom also ye are circumcised, Jewish rite, with the circumcision
made without hands, not as of the Jewish law, but as of God,
in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by that spiritual
circumcision which is of Christ, buried with him in baptism, which
is a picture, of you dying with the Lord Jesus Christ, and also
coming up out of the water, which is a picture of you being risen
with him, through the faith of the operation of God, who has
raised him from the dead. And you, being dead in your sins,
as you are naturally, and the uncircumcision of your flesh,
as you are naturally, hath he quickened, hath he made alive
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, forgiven
all trespasses. blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances. All the handwriting of ordinances
in that Old Testament worship, it was against us, it was contrary
to us, and he's taken it out of the way, and he's nailed it
to the cross, and he's spoiled principalities and powers. He
means demonic, satanic. principalities and powers, and
made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore
judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day,
or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days." Couldn't be clearer,
could it? which are a shadow of the things
to come. In the Old Testament regime they're
a shadow of the things to come, but the reality, the substance,
the sum, the main point, the body, is Christ. Let no man beguile
you of your reward in voluntary humility. and worshipping of
angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen,
vainly puffed up in his fleshly mind. He said, don't let anybody
deceive you by their foolish religious rites and ceremonies
and rituals that don't do anything, and not holding the head, that's
Christ, from which the whole body, by joints and bands, having
nourishment, ministered and knit together, increaseth with the
increase of God." He's speaking of the church, the people of
God. Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments
of the world, why as though living in the world are you subject
to ordinances? Touch not, taste not, handle
not. which all are to perish with
the using after the commandments and doctrines of men, which things
have indeed a show of wisdom, though they look like you're
being so religious in will-worship and humility and neglecting of
the body, not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh."
They don't make any difference whatsoever. The earthly metaphor
of God's salvation is fulfilled. The spiritual heavenly reality
has come. Now, quickly, heavenly reality.
We have such an high priest. A high priest after the order
of Melchizedek. You'll have to go back and listen
again or look again at the previous messages. Psalm 110, verse 4.
Christ is not a priest after the order of Levi. He's of the
tribe of Judah, not of the tribe of Levi. He's a priest after
the order of Melchizedek, an Old Testament appearance to Adam
of himself. Not Levi, not Aaron. You who
believe the gospel of grace in Christ have a mediator with God
who is himself God. You say, I can't understand that. That's illogical. It is illogical.
To human logic, it's illogical. But it's what the Word of God
reveals, that our mediator with the unknowable God is God who
is the manifestation of God, the one in whose body dwelt the
fullness of the Godhead bodily. There is one God and one mediator
between God and man. The man, Christ Jesus. The man
who was also God, Christ Jesus. How does he mediate? How does
he reconcile? Verse three, he has somewhat
to offer. He has somewhat that satisfies
offended divine justice for the objects of his grace. What has
he offered to make his people right with God?
He's offered his human body and soul for sin. Turn over a page
to Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10, verse 9. Verse 8,
God said, sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings for sin thou
wouldest not. That's in the Psalms. God doesn't
want just religious rites. He didn't want those things.
He didn't have pleasure in them, which are offered by the law.
Verse nine, this is Christ speaking. Then said he, lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second, by the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. He came, he came. Lo, I come,
in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will,
he says. He came because God was not satisfied,
couldn't be satisfied with those mosaic pictures of the truth. He had to come in reality and
accomplish it in his own body. As Peter says in 1 Peter 3.18,
Christ also has suffered for sins once. The just for the unjust. Why? That he might bring us to
God. And he is set, look there, verse
one. who is set. What that means is
sitting. He is sitting. Why is he sitting? Because he's not working. Why
is he not working? Because the work is finished.
He has finished the work of redemption. The price of justice is paid. In eternity, before the beginning
of time, God, in electing grace, chose a people, an innumerable
multi-ethnic multitude, to be united with him for eternity. But the fall happened, and sin
and separation and condemnation and eternal death. But Christ
came in that one body to make satisfaction. for the sins of
the people that God had loved, that multitude that he had loved.
He's sitting down because it's done. The price of justice has
been paid. God remains perfectly just. He hasn't changed. He hasn't
changed his mind and let people off. No, it's been paid for perfectly. So he's able to justly justify
sinners. He's able to declare just Because
they are made just, they're made the righteousness of God in Christ,
and so he is a just God and a savior. Our high priest is a king on
his throne. I read this two weeks ago, I
think, in Zechariah, in Zechariah chapter six and verse 12. Speak unto him, saying, Thus
speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is
the Branch, capital letters. and he shall grow up out of his
place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord. Even he shall
build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory,
and shall sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be a priest
upon his throne, and the council of peace shall be between them
both. That's a clear prophecy of Christ,
who is the branch. That's his name, the Messiah,
in Scripture. One who ministers in holy things. Verse two, a minister of the
sanctuary. Ministering in the sanctuary, holy things. In the
true tabernacle. In the true tabernacle. What
true tabernacle? Wasn't the temple the true tabernacle?
The Hebrews thought it was a true tabernacle. No. The one that
the Lord pitched, and not man. In the wilderness wanderings
there wasn't a temple, there was a tabernacle, a tent. And
they had to carry it, and the Levites had to carry it, and
they had to pitch it, and then when they were going to move,
they took it down, and they carried it. But not the one that man
pitched, according to those instructions, but the true tabernacle. that
God pitched. What is the true tabernacle?
Not the metaphor tabernacle or temple pitched, but the one that
is pitched by the Lord. The one that is pitched by the
Lord. Notice it's L, small letters, O-R-D, the Lord. That's Jehovah,
Jesus. That's our Lord Jesus Christ,
not mere man. He is the high priest, Jesus. Our God is high priest of his
sanctuary. And what is his sanctuary? It's
his temple. It's his tabernacle pitched by
the Lord. It's that which is built from
living stones. What are the living stones? It's
his people. It's his church. 1 Peter 2, verse
5. Ye also, says Peter, writing
to those who believe the gospel, as lively stones, as living stones,
are built up a spiritual house. This is his church. This is the
body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 3, 16. Know ye
not, writes Paul to the Corinthian believers, know ye not that you
are the temple of God? You're the dwelling that God
has pitched. You're the dwelling that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the priest in that temple. It's the church
of living stones, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Don't you know that? Ephesians chapter 2, verse 19.
Now therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God,
and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all
the building, in Christ, all the building, fitly framed together,
groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are
builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. The
church is not a building. The church is a group of people. Read what I've tried to write
in the Bulletin article this week. I'm sure I wrote something
similar years ago, but anyway, it's the same ideas. People tell us that we're not
a proper church because we meet as we do here. They're missing
completely the scriptural signs of a true church. Those that
go after great big ornate buildings and altars and priests and robes,
they're most definitely not the true church because they completely
contradict this. No, not a physical building built
by man, no physical attractions. No icons, no images, no priests,
no altars, nothing that the world regards as Christian religion,
but spiritual things. built of living stones, made
alive by God's Spirit. His believing people is the heavenly
reality tabernacle pitched by God. And God, he, God, is manifest
in Christ. He is the minister of that temple,
of that tabernacle, of his church, of his body, built out of living
stones. And he, in it, has a more excellent
ministry. Why? because he's the mediator
of a better covenant. The Old Testament covenant was
do this and live, fail to do it and die. This is a better
covenant, founded on better promises. Why is it established on better
promises? Because God, it's the purpose
of God, and it's the promise of God. God didn't need to make
a promise because God cannot lie, but it says he made a promise
nonetheless to show to our weak flesh that this cannot fail.
The divine purpose of salvation and the divine oath that it will
be accomplished. Now next time, we want to go
on into the second half of chapter 8 and look at that better covenant
which was revealed, he says to the Hebrews, in your Old Testament
writings, back in Jeremiah. God revealed this new covenant,
this better covenant and this better priest. What's the bottom
line of all of this, you might say, as we finish? What's the
bottom line? It's this. We have the one who
alone will take us to eternal glory. The one who will take
us to eternal glory is our God. He is our God. He cannot fail. Nothing can prevent him from
accomplishing the purpose that he made before the world began.
When we leave this flesh, there is no, oh, I hope it will be
like that. It is certain. As Jesus said to that dying thief,
You say you almost quote this every week. I don't care, I'll
quote it every week. He said to that dying thief on
the cross next to him, that thief who was suddenly convicted and
saw the truth of eternity, and he knew that this man was God
become flesh dying in his place. Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. And Jesus said, truly I say to
you, this day you shall be with me in paradise. Amen.