Turn back in your Bibles to Hebrews
chapter 8. Hebrews chapter 8. If you have
your Bibles in Hebrews chapter 8, the title of our message is,
Destroy This Temple for the Last Time. Destroy this temple for
the last time. We have stated that the mediator
of whom we have been meditating upon, the mediator is the person
that stands between one person and another person to seek to
reconcile or resolve conflicts between the two. And we have
stated repeatedly that mankind needs a mediator, doesn't he?
and that fundamental to our salvation and the security of our souls
is a fit mediator to stand between us and God to make sure that
we are indeed reconciled to God, restored to God, and brought
into a right place with God so that we can enjoy him and he
can enjoy us forever. It is for that cause the Hebrew
writer has drawn our attention to the work of the high priest,
Jesus Christ, in the office or order, primarily office of Melchizedek,
of whom we have been contemplating for a number of weeks now in
understanding this reality, that to the extent that our faith,
our faith, our God-given faith is fixed on Jesus Christ, who
is our mediator, to that extent our faith is strengthened Our
faith is confirmed and our faith is brought to full fruition in
terms of the purpose for which God gives you and me faith. Our
faith will not grow nor bear the fruits of righteousness thereby
if we neglect to fix our understanding, our thoughts, our gaze, our full
contemplation on all that Jesus is and all that Jesus did. to resolve the salvation issue
for our souls. Our faith will suffer, it will
suffer weakness, it will manifest itself in ways of impotence if
we neglect to spend much time considering our great God and
Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. As the Hebrew writer says, let
us consider Him who is the Apostle and High Priest of our people.
And when we get to chapter 11, rather chapter 12 he will say
it again looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith
and I think sometimes we might we might take that imperative
that command a little bit too lightly and and as a consequence
we can trouble our soul when our faith is turned from Christ
to something else When your faith and mine is fixed on who we are
or what we're doing or our circumstances, your faith will be proven to
be insufficient to keep you in a place of assurance and comfort
before God. You've struggled as I have, haven't
you? You've struggled with trials
and difficulties. You've struggled with choices
and decisions. You've struggled with the future.
You've struggled with what God's will is for your life. You've
struggled with the whole gamut of complexity that comes into
your life with regards to your welfare and being. And let me
say it so that it comes home clearly. If you want to enjoy
the highest level, the highest level of comfort in your soul,
fix your eyes on Christ. and let Him be your counsel,
and let Him be your wisdom, and let Him be your might, and let
Him be your righteousness, and let Him be your sanctification,
and let Him be your all in all. There your faith will grow and
abound, and it will rest in the righteousness of God in Christ,
and it will do for you what faith is meant to do for you, live
according to the goodness and glory of God. For by faith we
live. Isn't that right? By faith we
live. We live by faith. The just shall
live by faith. And it's only as we enter into
the blessed revelation of the God-man Jesus Christ for our
soul. And we began to contemplate how critical it is in this new
covenant of which the Hebrew writer is explaining and developing
and progressing in his development of this truth, how critical it
is for us to understand that the key to the covenant is whom?
The mediator. The key to the covenant is the
mediator. And if you were to go back and immerse yourself
in Old Testament writing, this is what you would learn. That
God, having a covenant to bestow upon his people and bless them
with all the riches of that covenant, first must provide a mediator
who opens the covenant up to us and allows the blessings of
that covenant to flow out to us. And Jesus is the key to that
covenant. There are many passages we can
use to affirm that. But as the Hebrew writer is wanting
to move into an explanation of how the covenant is affected,
he has begun to tell us about the better nature of the covenant. Remember what he said in chapter
7 verse 22, these words, by so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament or a better covenant. What the writer has
demonstrated thus far is the superiority of Jesus Christ in
his Melchizedekian order over against the Aaronic and Levitical
priesthood, as we read over in chapter 7, the earlier part,
that the priesthood of Aaron could never bring the people
of God to the place where the people of God need to be. And
that is perfect before God. But Jesus being a surety, you
guys remember what a surety was? It's a vouchsay. It's someone
who stands in your gap and takes over the responsibility for you
if in fact you defect on the contract. The vouchsafe is the
person who becomes for you the obligatory party to make sure
that all of the conditions of the covenant are met. And for
you and me who trust in Jesus Christ, we are sure of eternal
life, not because of our performance or our good works or anything
we will do, good or bad, but because Jesus has already perfected
forever our eternal redemption with God the Father. Now, what
we do with that key, that security, that surety, that vouchsafe,
what we do is begin to understand the connection Between him and
the covenant and that's what I want you to grasp today. Here's
my here's my um, here's my proposition to you that the covenant blessings
that pour out to you and me as wonderful as they are in their
statements and in their proposals Only really affect us in the
highest and the most favorable fashion to the degree that we
understand those Promises as being connected to Jesus. So
in Hebrews chapter 8 notice what it says over in verse 6 He says
but now hath he who was the he? obtained a more excellent ministry
If you want to know what that is go back and listen to the
CDs read chapters 5 through 8 and you'll understand the more excellent
ministry By how much also he is the mediator of a better? Covenant a better covenant Saints
didn't we learn that the word better is the word more superior
mighty powerful efficacious that's what the word better means it
means that in terms of the objectives of God Almighty for the people
of God the new covenant is better and that it actually brings them
to God so the word better here must be understood in terms of
qualitatively better and Terms of its objectives and we read
some of the terms in that covenant God has purposed to take out
our stony heart Give us a heart of flesh purpose to write his
laws in our hearts in our mind purpose to place his spirit within
us Purpose to make us to know him in a way in which when you
know him by his work No one needs to tell you about God He has
purpose to put away all your sins forever Now, there are three
doctrines elucidated by those three verses in chapter 8, verses
10 through 12. Three doctrines, the first of
which is the doctrine of regeneration. The second doctrine is the doctrine
of illumination. The third doctrine is the doctrine
of justification. We won't get into that much.
Needless to say, those are glorious promises, aren't they? Glorious
promises over against the law of a carnal commandment that
gave the people of Israel two stone tablets with God's will
on it on the outside of their lives, which never ever penetrated
their soul to change them or make them to love the God that
delivered them out of Egypt. That was a weak covenant, a flawed
covenant. The Hebrew writer calls it a
faulty covenant. A covenant that never did the
job that it was supposed to do because it was a conditional
covenant. The people had to do their part. God said, if you
do your part, I'll do my part. If God leaves you under a conditional
covenant like that, you are doomed. But it was a conditional covenant
and it was a conditional covenant and faulty in many ways going
all the way up to the priesthood. Remember, even the mediator was
flawed for not only was he a sinful man, but he died. and there were
repeated priests that rose up after him only perpetuating the
same flawed covenant which left the people in jeopardy all the
time and from season to season the whole nation was brought
under the wrath of God over and over and over and over again
and except the Lord had left a remnant they would have been
all together like Sodom and Egypt but because he had an elect people
in them he kept them right because his promise ultimately was not
with them it was with whom Jesus And so we come to the New Testament
where our master has entered into the world and we so gloriously
thank God for that reality because he has now affected this new
covenant of which the Hebrew writer says a new covenant predicated
upon better promises, better promises, which was established
upon better promises. Now I'm asking you the question
according to this text and I want you to think it through with
me because he wants you to be persuaded as he's seeking to
persuade the people of the first century, those Jewish Christians,
we have a better covenant which is established upon better what? But what are those promises? What are the promises that he's
speaking of? Is it the promise of, I will write my laws in your
heart and your mind? Is it the promise of, they shall all know
me? Is it the promise of, I shall remember their sins no more?
Glorious as those promises are, are those the promises? And the
answer is no. I want you to look at the way
the last line develops itself so that we can begin to think
about something critical to those promises. The last line says,
which were established upon better promises. There was a better
covenant, which were established upon better promises. So the
covenant has within its own content promises. But they themselves
are established upon other promises that makes the covenant effectual
to us. I want to know what those promises
are, don't you? Because those promises are actually the promises
that affect the promises that you and I have just rejoiced
in a moment ago. The work of God, by the Spirit of God regenerating
us, illuminating us, and as it were, justifying us. What promises
did God promise to bring about this kind of covenant blessing
to you. Well, I would assert to you that
it is the promises that God made, not to us inherent in the covenant,
but to Christ in order to affect the covenant. I want you to think
with me a little bit. Now you can follow me in your
outline point number one, and here's the proposition, the promises
of God, the father to Christ. See, it's critical to understand
that this new covenant with all of his blessings and promises
had to have promises itself in order for those promises to be
affected to us. And that's what he wants us to think about. Remember
what I said earlier? The blessings of God to you and
me really only have their strength and vitality to the degree that
you and I understand what God the Father did for us in Christ,
right? So we're still following that line. Because even though
God says, I will do this, I will do that, and I will do the other
thing. Do you know we are such hard-headed
people? Such stubborn people? Such dull
of hearing people, such dim-witted people, that the direct promises
of God to us don't affect us until we see their security and
their assurance and their immutability in our head, Jesus Christ. Do
you understand what I'm saying? And this is what the Hebrew writer
wants you and I to be able to contemplate. The promises that
what God is going to do for us or has done for us and will do
for us really are based upon the promises that God did for
his son. Now what did he do for him? Hebrews
chapter 6 verse 17 through 20. Let me remind you of what he
said. Now Christ at this point as we contemplate him is our
what? Mediator. He's our high priest. the one that stands between us
and God let me remind you in chapter 6 verse 17 through 20
of what our God says with regards to the old we're in God willing
more abundantly to show unto the what heirs of what the immutability
of his counsel confirmed it by an old and That by two immutable
things in which it was impossible for God to lie We might have
a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay a hold
upon the hope which is set before us Now watch this which hope
we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast And which
entereth into that within the veil mark verse 20 now here it
is. Here's the promise Here's the
promise whither the forerunner is for us entered even Jesus
made in high priest what forever after the order of Melchizedek
might I assert to you that if you understand this statement
that this is one of the anchoring promises that makes the new covenant
sure to you and me that Jesus is already in heaven that Christ
is already established as a high priest over our souls and that
his Priestly ministry is that of Melchizedek with all of its
implications now mark this and he is a priest forever of this
order for us He is a priest forever of this order for us if I was
to simplify it as much as I possibly could to the degree that you
can settle on a who it is that is your mediator with all of
the covenant blessings that flow from it, constituently, you are
good to go. If you can rest on the reality
of who Christ is in his mediatorial role as your high priest, and
God says he's our high priest forever. Do you understand what
that means? We never ever have to worry about
the covenant going faulty. We never ever ever have to worry
about the blessings of the covenant coming short We don't have to
worry about somehow of them being aborted because of some flaw
in our mediator That the blessings of the covenant are sure to us
not because of us but because of him Are you guys hearing what
I'm saying? It is therefore imperative upon
the believer to know as deeply and profoundly as he or she or
they possibly can who this mediator is because the promises are given
to him first and then they flow out to us. The promises of God
the Father are that he would be a high priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. Contemplating that a while back,
we go over to verse 16 of chapter 7. And notice what it says, Jesus
is made. Jesus is made not after the law
of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless
life. Do you see that? The high priest
that we are dealing with is not a person who has been brought
into that appointed position by law, like the Old Testament
system. If you are understanding biblical
history in light of the doctrine here of the priesthood, here's
what you remember. God brought Israel out of Egypt
to make them his people, remember? And then he brought them out
by a man named who? Moses. Moses represent for us
what? The law. But he didn't bring
them out by Moses alone. He brought them out also by whom? Aaron. Aaron becomes for us what? The priesthood. It is both the
law and the priesthood that brought the people out, because as God
is judge and righteous and holy, and bestows upon us commandments
to obey Him, He knows that we are anything but just, righteous
and holy. And unless Aaron has a priest
along with him, Moses has a priest along with him as a leader, the
people of God would be destroyed for sure. So in the wilderness
as God is teaching the people of God how to worship him and
how to walk by faith and how to embrace the promises of God,
you know what he's doing? He's establishing and erecting
a priesthood Coupled with over against the system of the law
To make sure that when we transgress there is some way of expiating
our sin to lead us into the promised land Aaron becomes a type of
the priesthood and Moses becomes a type of the law. It is all
part of a carnal commandment made by the law. God told Moses
to tell Aaron and his sons, you guys are going to be separated
unto me. You're going to do this. You're going to do that. You
guys are going to mediate between you and the people of God before
me. This is what God told them through
Moses. This was a law that was laid
upon them. But the Hebrew writer is telling us this. This isn't
the way that Jesus was established. Jesus was not established through
the law of a carnal commandment given by men. He was established
by an oath given to him by God, his father. Look at the last
verse of chapter 7. I think it's verse 28. Here's
what it says. For the law maketh men high priests,
which have what? That means they're sinful. Hold
on for a second. I want to work with you on that.
This is why I ask you, who is your mediator? You see, if your mediator is
a sinful person, you're in bad shape. Didn't we learn last week
as I closed out the message, the beauty of God in the book
of Zechariah chapter 3, when Joshua the high priest stood
before God and on his right hand was the devil, Satan, seeking
to accuse him of all kinds of sin and evil and rebellion against
God. Remember that? Zechariah chapter 3, verses 1
through 10. And I saw Satan at the right hand of God's high
priest accusing him. Why was Satan accusing him? Because
he was the mediator. of a whole host of people who
truly had sinned against God. And even the devil knew, if I
could get the mediator, I've got the people. And didn't we
rejoice when our God stood up for Joshua and said, Satan, I
rebuke thee, the Lord rebuke thee, the Lord rebuke thee. There's
a bram plucked out of the fire. Didn't we rejoice in the fact
that God defended him? took off the filthy clothes of
our sinfulness and put on the garments of righteousness and
declared him to be the high priest of his people. Didn't we rejoice
in that? Well, we rejoiced in that because
we saw our high priest, typified in Joshua, overcoming Satan's
accusations against him which were really his accusations against
me But in as much as Christ prevailed, you know what I hear Romans chapter
8 who shall lay anything against the charge of God's elect It's
Christ that died. It's God that Justifies Christ
rose again as even at the right hand of God the father. Can you
guys see that picture? What's the point? It's critical
to know who your mediator is and If your mediator is a flawed
human being full of sin, that's who you are Hallelujah, I'm so
glad I got a mediator. That's just like God and just
like me But only better and this is where my confidence lies.
I enjoy the promises of God that are poured out to me. I And you
should too, children of God, because they are efficacious
in making us born again and causing us to enjoy the promises of God.
Isn't that true? You can rejoice in regeneration.
When a person is born again, they never, ever, ever, ever
have to be born again. You can rejoice in the illuminating
work of the Spirit of God. When God opens your eyes and
you see the beauty of Christ and the fullness of Christ and
the glory of God in Christ, there's nothing like that. Ain't no apple
pie in the world tastes as good as the glory of God in Christ.
Nothing. And when you can hear in your
soul the testimony of the Holy Ghost in John 16, 8, and the
judgment is gone, There is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus. That's good to the soul, isn't
it? But tell the truth now. Tell the truth. I just need some
honest folks. Honest folks don't go to hell. Even knowing the
doctrine of regeneration, even knowing the doctrine of illumination,
even knowing the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins in the
doctrine of justification, don't we struggle with our faith? Don't
we struggle with God? Aren't we struggling frequently?
You know what the problem is? It's us. The problem's not God. All the promises of God are good.
The problem is me. That's why we must have a faith
informed by a knowledge of Christ, our mediator. That's where our
strength comes in at. Are you hearing me? For to the
degree that we see who Christ is, we also truly see who we
are in him. And if by faith you can get a
hold of who you are in Christ, you can make it through the storms.
And listen, listen, I know why you don't make it sometimes through
the storms. You are stuck on you. I'm telling the truth. You are stuck on you. You have
failed to realize that the gift of faith is for you to turn from
yourself to Christ your mediator and find in him every hope of
salvation and promise. That's what faith is designed
to do. Now, I know that's radical, but that's what God meant. Look
unto me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved, said the Lord,
because I'm God, and besides me, there is no other savior
in the world. So faith is designed to look
to Christ, and that's what we're doing one more time today, looking
to our mediator. We wanna know just a little bit
more before we get into the covenant contemplation, exactly who this
glorious mediator is. The promise that God the Father
gave him is that he would be an high priest after the order
of Melchizedek forever forever Listen again to verse 26 For
the law makes men high priests which have infirmity, but the
word of the what? Oh God swore to his son The word
of the oath which was since the law maketh the son who is consecrated
forever You see that Here's what the writer in the text is saying.
In the year 1500 BC, God spoke through Moses to Aaron. In the
year 1000 BC, God revealed to King David by revelation what
he had said to his son before the world began. Are you hearing
me? So that a thousand years before
Christ, David wrote down the promise that God the Father made
to God the Son in eternity. So first the law came and then
grace came. So Moses brought you the law
and grace and truth comes by whom? Jesus Christ. Do you see
the biblical theology there? You see the progression chronologically
there? Sure, the covenant was, as it
were, affirmed in eternity past. We know that, but it had to manifest
itself and be confirmed in time. Hence, our high priest is the
key to your security. It's the key to your assurance. It's the key, in fact, to all
the blessings that you and I are to enjoy. Point number two, the
nature of Jesus, our mediator. I thought I'd just call your
attention to that briefly. Now that most of you are persuaded
to look to Christ, are you looking to him right now? Are you contemplating
your mediator? Are you persuaded that you need
one? Are you persuaded that Jesus is the only mediator in the universe
between God and man? Are you persuaded that he is
a mediator able to bring you to God? Then keep your eyes on
him because that's critical. Now listen to point number two,
the nature of Jesus, our mediator. So the Hebrew writer has spent
quite a bit of time developing and explaining the role of this
high priest. In Hebrews chapter 5 verse 9
and 10, he says this with regards to him. Listen to what it says.
Verse 8, though he were a son, that is Jesus, yet learned he
what? By the things which he suffered.
Christ had to come as the last Adam, as our representative,
as our mediator, and he did in his human nature learn obedience,
didn't he? He experienced the things that
constituted our salvation. Verse 9 says, and being made
what? There's another word that you can take out, you can draw
out, lift up, and attach to your mediator in terms of his superlative
nature. Jesus is a perfect mediator. That means he has come to the
full maturity of all that God meant for him to be. The word
perfect means a lot of things, teleos. This word here means
that he has come to full fruition. He has come to complete growth
and maturity and all of his qualifications for being your high priest. God
calls him perfect. You know what that means? I'm
perfect. Everything that he is, I am in
him. See the security, how it's rooted
in Christ. He's a perfect high priest. He's
eternal high priest. He's an high priest after the
order of Melchizedek. He lives forever. And by the
way, living forever means his resurrected life. That's a qualitatively
different life than merely living physically forever. It means
also he actually did accomplish eternal redemption for us. For
him to be living forever means he actually put away our sins
by his death at Calvary and rose again to justify us. You know
what that means? If he lives forever, guess what?
I live forever. Isn't that good? I live forever. I'm perfect. I am everything
that he is for me. This is what I'm getting at.
And see, what you're about to struggle with as you continue
growing in Christ is seeing yourself as God sees you and then being
able to walk in the blessed privilege of sonship according to Christ. This is glorious. Now watch what
he goes on to say. As we contemplate the nature
of our mediator, Jesus Christ, verse 10 tells us in chapter
five, these words, he is called of God and high priest after
the order of Melchizedek. Now the Hebrew writer is going
to say that many times to drive it home to you. Do not look back
to that Old Testament system. Do not covet the Levitical Aaronic
priesthood. I don't know. I really don't
know why this generation of church folk that I'm a part of are so
enamored with the Old Testament law and the Levitical priesthood
and the Aaronic Covenant and the old temple and the old sacrifices. That stuff has been dead for
almost 2,000 years now. That's going to be the force
of this argument at the end of chapter 8. Why are we seeking
to raise the dead? Why are we going back to that
which is evidentially flawed? Why are we going back to a first
that God got rid of for a second? Why are we cleaving to an old
when we have been ordained to be part of a new? Am I making
some sense to you guys? Why? Because we do not see and
we are not persuaded of what God said he has done for us in
Christ. We don't believe it. We don't
believe it. And therefore, as Paul had to
argue all through his epistles, ye who would be justified by
the works of the law, you have fallen from grace. Isn't that
what he says? You who are driving yourselves
back to performance based religion, where you are seeking to be accepted
with God on the grounds of something you do, you have utterly abandoned
the full scope and beauty with all of its implications of the
gospel of grace. I'm sure the elect won't do that.
I'm sure you who are children of the living God for real won't
do that. Can I tell you why? Because the nanosecond, they
also have what are called picoseconds. Now those are shorter than nanoseconds.
The nanosecond that you leave off looking to Christ, you corrupt
so bad. yourself you fall apart so quick
in yourself you start to dissolve so quick in yourself you get
so helpless and so weak and so flawed in yourself that you are
persuaded that my problem is that I'm looking to myself and
back to Christ you start looking am I making some sense and then
after a while you'll get good at looking to Christ even though
the world would be tempting you to look to yourself and you'll
say no no no I've been looking to myself way too long ain't
nothing going on with myself chapter 7 verse 24 through 26
also develops this as we contemplate the nature of Jesus our mediator
in the superlatives of his nature, his humanity, this perfect priest.
Now this one here is just going to be a wonderful, wonderful
contemplation. I thought about this about three weeks ago, didn't
get a chance to develop it, but I just want you to think about
this with me. Verses 24 through verse 26 more
particularly. Think this through with me. But
this man, talking about Jesus, because he continues what? Forever. Have an unchangeable priesthood. Now we already are persuaded
that he's eternal, right? Not just as God, not just divine
in nature, but also as a human being having risen from the dead.
He is eternally existing in a resurrected glorified state as our representative. But in terms of his priestly
office, watch this. It's an unchangeable priesthood.
The technical term for unchangeable means indestructible. That means
his priesthood will never ever be, what's the word? Destroyed. I'm going to give you a little
bit of the end while we're in the middle of it. Destroyed this
temple for the last time. For the last time. The Hebrew
writer says he has an unchangeable priesthood. and an indestructible
priesthood. And it's so because of the nature
of his Melchizedekian order. It's so because of the oath of
God. It's so because God raised him from the dead. It's so because
he is a glorious mediator in terms of his nature as a man. Look at verse 25. Wherefore,
he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God
by him. Do you see that? Here's another promise to you.
He is able to save you to the uttermost. Now what if you had
a Savior that could save you to the almost, but not to the
uttermost? What kind of Savior would He
be if He brought you to the brink of salvation and said, I almost
did it, but the rest of it is left up to you, like this religious
generation would do? No, He's not an almost Savior.
He's an uttermost Savior. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And it's critical for you to understand this. When you get
to your last leg and you have no strength in your faith, you
have to believe God for you. Got to believe. You got to believe
you got a mediator in glory praying for you. Have you ever, have
you ever had this situation where you were so weak because you
got messed up for so long that you couldn't even pray to God?
Have you gotten to that place? Now, I got a few real folk in
the house still, most of y'all still playin' religion, but have
you ever gotten so weak where you couldn't even pray to God?
You actually have asked other people to pray for you, and I
told you, do that, because some people are in better shape on
a practical level than you are, and it's another form of faith.
I don't care how weak it is, it's a form of faith. When you
go to somebody that know they're doing all right, a little bit
better than you, pray for me. Pray for me. See, this is what
Job's three friends initially were designed to do, because
the trouble that Job went through brought him so low that he couldn't
even look up. He needed friends praying for
him. But I'll tell you what he really needed, and he had it
according to Job chapter 33. He needed a mediator who had
already found or provided a ransom for his soul. See, it doesn't
matter how deep you go, even to the point of where you can't
pray for yourself, Christ ever lives to make intercession for
us. He's not waiting on you to pray
before he prays. Are you hearing me? Again, the
subject of prayer with regards to our post-resurrected, exalted,
seated Christ is a whole nother lesson in itself, of which I
think we'll get into when we get into chapters 9 and 10. But
the Hebrew writer tells us again, he is such a person that is able
to save us to the uttermost. Now notice what he says in verse
26. I want you to look at some of these attributes of his human
nature, which makes him such a superlative high priest. And
I thought about this. For such a high priest became
us, who is, what's the first word? Holy. Holy. The Son of God was holy, was
he not? The angels called him the holy
child. Peter called him the Holy Child. He was a holy son of God. He was a holy man. Christ was
holy from the time of his conception to the time that he went to glory.
Holy. Now stay with me now. You know
what holy means? Holy means completely and totally set apart, never
ever bleeding over into that rim of dimension of which you
are not supposed to operate out of. When a person is placed in
an office or a position that is a sanctified place, So Aaron
and his sons were set apart by God and made holy in their office
of priesthood, and thus they had to wear particular garments
that demonstrated their holy office. But they also had provision
among them that if any of one of them had touched a dead body
or had defiled themselves or contaminated themselves, which
means they would not have been holy, they would have had to
rectify that problem. And you and I can be sure that
Aaron and his sons from time to time had to offer sacrifices
for themselves because they did not maintain their ceremonial
holiness. But Jesus Christ is not that
kind of separated consecrated mediator. He was holy in his
nature. Now, do you know what that's
like? No, you don't. Do you know what that's like?
No, you don't. Let's see if we can get this
group over here to tell the truth before we get started. Do you know what
that's like? No, you don't. Listen, you don't
know what it's like to think right and have the right motives
and then align both your thinking and your motives with your actions
to perfectly obey God at all times, incessantly. That's the
kind of intrinsic, comprehensive, pervasive, total holiness this
man had. He was wholly set apart from
God. And you know what blows me away about this? This brother
hung out with sinners in a way that blows us away. We have learned
that true evangelism is being able to remain in your position
while hanging out with folks who as bad as you, who need the
God you know, He was such that the scripture says he ate and
drank and received sinners to himself and yet at all times
he remained holy. Do you understand what kind of
power it takes to keep your mind right when you're hanging out
with your buddies, when you're hanging out with your friends,
when you're hanging out with temptation? when you're hanging
out with allurement, carnality, worldliness, fleshliness. In terms of that, we feel that
all the time. This is what I mean by us not
being holy in that sense, right? Can I tell the truth? I mean,
that magnetic pull gets you from hundreds of feet away, let alone
being right up on you. It pulls you right out of line.
He was holy. And then the text says he was
harmless. Some translations have it blameless. I love both of
them. As we are contemplating the superlative
nature of the God-man Jesus Christ, particularly in his humanity,
because in his humanity he becomes qualified to be a representative
for me. Harmless. Harmless. Harmless. Do you know what harmless
means? It means never ever at any time bringing evil upon anyone. Never. Harmless means you don't
say anything or do anything that inadvertently Unintentionally
or intentionally brings harm or hurt or cause stumbling to
anybody else. Let me ask you a question. Are
you harmless? Are you kidding? Do you know how many people you
hurt all the time? Even in your attempt to be harmless
you harm people I'm seeking to fix your eyes
on the intrinsic qualities of the God-man of whom you are and
will be just like one day. Holy and harmless. And when I contemplate his harmlessness,
you know what I contemplate? Him preaching and teaching with
the kind of boldness that is ten times exponentially greater
than mine. People get mad at me because
you're so tough, you're so mean, you're so hard. Why don't you
just soften up, pastor? Just soften up. The only reason
I don't soften up is because we're hard-headed sinners. Hard-headed
sinners need to be spoken to. People don't listen until you
tell it like it is. Listen, I'm here to tell you,
people don't listen unless you tell it like it is. See, once
you fall prey to this very politically correct age of softening the
truth, all you're doing is aiding and abetting the rebellion of
this present culture. I remember times when the disciples
came to Christ and said, master, don't you, don't you know you
offended them? Don't you know, you know what
you said to me and you just offended the Pharisees. You know what
he said? Every tree that my father, my
heavenly father did not plant is coming up. Did you get that? Now, I want
you to grasp this now. I want you to grasp where Christ's
integrity lies. It lies in him understanding
this, that if you are God's elect, there will be nothing said in
the Word of God, no matter how hard it is, that will uproot
you from God's purpose of grace. Nothing. And everyone else will
be uprooted whether it's by a viper with the most venomous bite or
a cottonmouth kissing you with the kisses of death. You're going
to be uprooted because the gospel is going to offend you at some
point. This is where God's servants find their confidence that God's
elect will never defect. No matter how hard the truths
are, we have to teach. That's why we don't have to variate
from telling the truth about Christ. So here's what I'm saying. When it says he was harmless,
it does not affirm a milquetoast mentality or a milquetoast demeanor
on the part of Christ. He didn't avoid controversy.
He didn't avoid saying what was needed to be said. As we learned
in Sunday school, I'll tell you what, you've got to be something
to go into the temple that you believe is your father's temple
and put together a bunch of switches to whip some grown men. Some
grown men. I'm talking grown men. You have
to have a zeal to whip grown men. Did y'all get that? So what I have been arguing for
for a long time is that my master is never to be depicted as this
skinny, effete, impotent, weak-handed. Please! There's nothing in the
narrative of Scripture that would endorse that. Okay, if there's
nothing and yet at the same time there be no one who could ever
say he sinned or even caused them to sin. That's what we mean
by blameless and harmless. That's what we mean. That's why
he could say which one of you convinced me of sin. See it's
one thing for you to tell the truth and tell it in such a way
that people get it even though they don't like it and don't
stumble over you. So you and I can tell the truth
and we can still cause people to stumble. Am I making some
sense? But Jesus told the truth and
no one stumbled over Jesus for the truth that he's told as a
consequence of a defected delivery on his part. His communication
was perfect. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
They stumbled because they didn't like what he said and they stumbled
because they were not his sheep. But he's holy. He's harmless. And then the next one is what?
Undefiled. Undefiled. You know how we understand
this term undefiled? It's impeccable. The word impeccability
is also a theological term, but you might as well get it. It
means that you cannot be penetrated. It means that you cannot be permeated
with the contamination of the exterior environment, that the
exterior environment can't change the quality of who you are. Now,
Jesus was qualitatively a complete man. and he was completely righteous
in every aspect of his being. We have already affirmed the
fact that he would think right, he would talk right, he would
act right. But we are now affirming that even when he was assaulted
by the temptation of the devil in the wilderness and the temptation
of the scribes and the Pharisees and even the temptation of his
own disciples, he remained impeccable. Are you hearing me? Impeccable,
undefiled. Isn't that good? You know what
that means? That's who we are in him. I want you to get it
about your mediator. Holy, harmless, undefiled. And what's the next one? Separate
from sinners. Now, this is on the surface an
oxymoron, but it is gloriously true. On the surface, it's an
oxymoron because you are thinking in terms of separation from sinners,
spatial separation. as if somehow he said, don't
come near me. I am holier than thou. Right,
right, right. That's that's the way you would
think of it. That's what the Pharisees were. That's what their
name meant. Separated. That's what the word
Pharisee means. And so pharisaical people will
privately believe that they are better than you. And pharisaical
people will privately believe that they are superior to you.
in their character, in their conduct, in their attributes,
in their gifting, whatever the case may be. A Pharisaical mindset
separates itself from the people and carves out its own distinctives. Are you hearing me? That's a
haughty spirit. That's a haughty attitude. It's
a delusion. You do know that, right? But
it's a haughty delusion. Somehow you have embraced the
notion that you have the gift of discerning what is superior
in quality than something else. When all of our judgments as
to what's righteous must come from the outside of us from God
to tell us what's right and even the measures thereof. You know
what the scriptures have told us? That you and me and the whole
of us, the whole human race, we're all sinners. There's nothing
of separation between me and the lost sinner. Are you hearing
me? Intrinsically, in terms of experience,
there's nothing of separation between. Listen, I think just
like the lost sinner. Listen, I'm talking about the
man up here. I think just like the lost sinner. I have the same
thoughts he does. I know what he's thinking. I
know the vile objectives and the vile goals and the vile agendas. And I know the blasphemy in his
heart. I know the rebellion in his heart against God. I know
it. I know what he would love to
see happen to this world if he could, because he's owned by
the devil. And I used to be a slave too. So I got that memory card
in my bank. I know exactly how he thinks.
And this is what's designed to make me be able to empathize
with the lost sinner. I can empathize with him because
he's a slave to his darkness. He's a slave to his evil. He's
a slave to his enmity against God. And I knew it. I knew it
with all of my natural carnal being. You do too, if you would
be honest. It causes us to identify with
them. But our Lord was separate from sinners, not in the physical
sense. He came unto his own. and his own received him not.
He was in the world and the world knew him not. He hung out with
them. So it's not spatial in that sense. He was separate from
sinners in that God declared him to be perfectly righteous
through and through, which means all the rest of us who are sinners
are separated from him. You got that? We are separated
from him. because of who he is uniquely
and solely all by himself he is of such righteous nature when
the rest of us there's none good there's none that understand
God there's none that seeketh God there's none righteous no
not one with the exception of God's holy son Jesus Christ are
y'all following me so he's in the world but he's separate he's
separate by the qualitative nature of his personhood Now, I want
you to think about this as we get ready to move. Didn't this
make you feel good about your Savior? I want you to think about
this. Now, you've got a holy Savior. You've got a harmless
Savior. You've got an undefiled Savior. You've got a Savior that's
separate from sinners. And all of these attributes are
only things that you and I can imagine. They're just things
we can imagine. All I can do is imagine His holiness. That's all I can do is imagine
his harmlessness. I'd be wanting to beat up people
every day. All I want to do is all I can do is imagine. Listen,
just imagine his impeccability. The arrows of the devil shoot
through me all the time. I need healing every day. I mean,
I get bit by the serpent all the time, don't you? Don't you
come under delusions for a minute? Don't you lose your mind for
a second? Don't you drift off into carnality land from time
to time? Don't you take trips to the other
side from time to time? No, not you. Okay. So see, here's
what I'm saying. I can only imagine. And that's
a gift of grace. Because before conversion, I
couldn't even imagine it. But after God saved me, and fill
me with the spirit. I can think his thoughts after
him and I can yearn for that which is mine in Christ. And
I can wait by his spirit until he gives me the hope of righteousness,
which is by Jesus Christ. Am I making some sense to you?
We have a glorious Savior who is wholly harmless, undefiled
and separate from sinners qualitatively, but he is indeed, this is the
last point here, separate from sinners spatially. Hallelujah
God brought him into the world Kept him by the Holy Ghost From
the soles of his feet to the crown of his head Led him through
this world raised him up to manhood and put him into ministry appointed
him to ministry He worked for three and a half years telling
everybody everything that was right about his father He suffered
on Calvary's cross died under the wrath of God at the hands
of sinful men. I and he never once broke. They put him in a tomb. He rose
again the third day. That holy man, God took, this
is what we mean by perfect. God took him out of this world
and separated him from sinners by seating him at his own right
hand in the heavenlies so that we have for security a man who
made it. A man who made it. He's separate
from sinners. Will you hear me? He's separate
from sinners. That means no more threat. No more possibility of contamination.
No more possibility of a soul. No more possibility for he has
passed through the heavens and is seated at the right hand of
God. This secures our vows safe. It secures our eternal life.
It secures our glory. Are you guys hearing me? More
than that, where he is now, as chapter 9 and 10 are going to
develop it, he's in heaven, the true sanctuary, the true temple,
ministering for us. This is so good. I'm actually
ready to go into chapter 9 with you and deal with chapter 10.
There was a high priest in the Old Testament. You know what
he did? He stayed outside of the temple all the time. He never
went into the Holy of Holies, except once a year. Are you hearing
me? You know what that means? He
was just as vulnerable to and subject to all of the conditions
of nature and the contaminations of sin as the rest of the people.
God says, hey, after Aaron, after your two boys, after your two
boys tore it up, thinking they could come into the temple anytime
they wanted to, the holy place. Listen, the high priest only
comes in once a year. Are y'all hearing me? Once a
year does he get to go in as a representative of the people
only after he qualified himself for it. And the people shook
in their boots as he went in once a year because they knew
if he wasn't accepted, they weren't accepted. Are y'all hearing me?
It's called the day of what? Yom Kippur. Now watch this. On the day of Yom Kippur, they
shook in their boots. He went in and if he came out,
they said, And immediately they realized
we got to meet God again next year this same way. You know
why? Will you hear me? Because he
had to come out. Christ doesn't ever have to come
out. He never has to come out. He
can stay there. He can stay there as our permanent
and eternal acceptance before God. We never ever have to worry
about Him being tempted, being tried, being contaminated, being
harmed or hurt or defiled ever. He is a high priest in the holy
of holies, in the presence of God, permanently. That's good stuff, isn't it?
Isn't it wonderful to contemplate that? See, you would be in trouble
if you had a high priest coming in and out, in and out. In and
out. The devil can't wait for him
to come out. The devil can't get to him now. That's good. Yes, it is. That's good. See,
what I'm saying is the more I understand the role of my mediator, the
more I understand why God can tell me I can trust him concerning
the blessings of the covenant that are poured out to me. In
our outline, point number three, briefly, I want to rush through
this. Illustrations of the faulty Aaronic Levitical system and
covenant temple in chapter 8 verse 7 and 8 It says for if that first
covenant had been faultless that covenant of works that covenant
of law Then should no place have been sought for the second, right?
Why make a new covenant if the old one works? That's why the
Jewish people do not believe in a new covenant. They don't
believe the old one is old But for the record take the word
old. Oh L D. Oh L D and think like this Oh,
OK, I just want you. Oh, OK, I just want you to keep
that in your head for a moment. Now watch this for finding fault
with them. That is the people of God. Behold,
the days come, said the Lord, when I will make a what new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in
the day that I brought them out. because they did not regard my
covenant. We have in the Old Testament
history of Israel the evidence of what the writer to the Hebrew
calls a faulty covenant. In chapter 7 verse 11, here's
what he says about this faulty covenant. Here's the fault of
it in verse 11. If therefore perfection were
by the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received
the what? What further need would there be for another priest that
would rise up after the order of Melchizedek and not after
the order of Aaron? See his argument? What? That
long covenant and that priesthood could never make the people what?
Perfect. And he argues for the faultiness
of the covenant, but he also argues for the faultiness of
the man He argues for the faultiness of the people. This is what you
and I have been looking at for the last hour Look at verse 16
verse 16. This is i'm. Sorry. This is concerning
christ verse 18 and 19 No, I want to know here it is verse 18 and
19 for there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before
because of the what weakness and unprofitableness thereof
for the law made nothing what the Hebrew writer is arguing
that from the priest to the priesthood, to the ministry of the temple,
to the covenant, to the people of the covenant. It all was faulty
and all flawed. And it was fundamentally faulty
and flawed because of sin, both in the people and their mediator. This is what made them culpable
for the judgment of God. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? This is what made them culpable. Now there are two major
events that circumscribed this as a compendium that God was
rejecting that weak and flawed system. Shiloh was the tabernacle
in the Old Testament in the wilderness that got carried over into the
land of Canaan during the days of Samuel. This would have been
about 2200 BC. Remember Shiloh? Shiloh is where
you came to worship. It was that flimsy tent. that
God had told Moses to build. The temple was carried over into
Shiloh, which was over by Gilgal. And you had to come to that tabernacle
in order to worship God. Well, Israel had sinned and the
priesthood had sinned and corrupted the covenant so bad, God destroyed
Shiloh. In the days of Jeremiah, he would
say to Jeremiah, Jeremiah, tell these people, remember Shiloh. How bad was the wickedness of
Israel in the days of Shiloh? Remember the sons of Eli, Aphni
and Phinehas, and the evil they did in the temple? The stuff
that's going on in the church today. Are you hearing me? Do you remember those two Naquoib
boys? How they perverted the sacrifice, distorted the offering,
took that which belonged unto God, and slept with women in
the very temple? and cause people to despise the
worship of God? People will not honor God if
the people of God are living like hell and especially in a
blasphemous way against God and his gospel? Am I making some
sense? You know what God did? He destroyed
it. He had to. But you know what he did in about 967 B.C. to 931 B.C.? You know what he
did? He built a temple. Under whom? Solomon. Glorious
temple. You know what he was anticipating?
The coming of Christ. One temple was destroyed, another
temple was raised up. The destruction of one, the raising
up of the other, right? And do you know what the people
did? They got so proud of that temple. Jeremiah chapter 7 through
9, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord of these.
This is how folks get when they start getting real estate and
getting money and thousands and thousands of people and ornate
edifices and all kinds of ministry work going on. And they get to
being puffed up about what they have instead of who they are. And these folks were saying,
we were delivered to do all these abominations and our security
lies in this. We've got this massive solonomic
temple. to show for it that God is with
us. Huh. Do you know what God did
to that temple in 587 BC? He utterly destroyed that temple. Didn't he? Utterly demolished
that temple. What was he saying? Sinful, corrupt,
broken, vile, defiled. And then what did God do in his
mercy? He started restoring that same temple under the Heronian
Kingdom dynasty. And this is where our Lord is
born into the world. This is where chapter 2 comes in at.
This is where I'm going to end for time's sake. Our master comes
into the world with the third temple being raised up, right?
And guess what the people are doing at this time? Boasting
in that piece of metal. Remember what the disciples were
saying in Matthew 24, Mark 16, and Luke chapter 17 and 19? Lord,
look at all these buildings. They were enamored by the external
beauty of that outward edifice called the temple. Do you know
why? Because they mistook the temple as the approval of God's
presence. Now that's what happens when
you and I get caught up in the material instead of the spiritual,
the earthly instead of the heavenly, the temporal instead of the eternal. Anything other than Christ is
going to be destroyed. Here's what our Master said.
John chapter 2 verse 19 destroyed this temple Destroyed this temple
and in three days, I will raise it up. Do you guys remember that?
I think that's the text that we're dealing with yet Then he
answered unto them. You know what they were saying
to Jesus show us a sign Tell us help us to understand that
you're the Messiah And I wanted you to watch this truth Here's
what our master said, destroy this temple. He spoke in what
we call an imperative command voice to them to do it. He told
them to do it. And then he says, I will raise
it up. A very emphatic intentionality
on the part of Christ to raise up the temple. You know what
those knuckleheads thought? He was talking about that physical
temple in Jerusalem. This is the way Matthew puts
it in Matthew chapter 14 verse 58 when two witnesses suborned
against Christ rose up and said, he said that he would destroy
this temple and then build another temple. They were lying because
they did not understand his words. Now, let me tell you the basic
truth of what he was saying. Literally, he was saying, kill
me. And I'm going to rise again the
third day. What he was saying in the larger redemptive sense
is, I am the temple of God. Are you hearing me? I am the
temple of God. I am the true temple of which
every other temple was but a shadow and a type. They were a facsimile,
a weak, flawed facsimile. Therefore, they had to be destroyed.
He spoke in the command voice, kill me, destroy this temple,
and I will rise up again. He was speaking prophetically.
of the destruction of that very temple in AD 70. Are you hearing
me? But when he said, and I will
raise it up again, you know what he was speaking to? First, in
the context, his body. Second, in the larger redemptive
sense, the true church. which is the body of believers,
which are his members, bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh,
every joint, marrow, bone, socket, every one of us who are his would
have been raised up together with Christ according to Ephesians
chapter 2. See, in other words, when he
rose again, I rose. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
Even 2,000 years ago, God in Christ raised me from the dead. Set him at his own right hand
and you know what he's doing by the Spirit of God calling all
of his members from the dead Putting them into the body the
church Placing them stone by stone into the body fitly joined
together. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
This is what Peter says a Spiritual temple growing into a holy temple
by the Spirit of God through the gospel are the members of
his body being brought in Are you Christ? Then you're a member
of his resurrected body. I He raised you from the dead.
You know why? Because you died with him. That
temple being his physical body was destroyed on the cross 2,000
years ago and all sin and all unrighteousness and all the curse
of the law died. We talked about that for the
whole sermon. When Christ rose, he guaranteed the resurrection
of his temple. And ladies and gentlemen, he's
putting his temple together right now. Person by person, family
by family, Church by church that's faithful to the truth of the
gospel. Are you hearing me? Because he can't lie, change,
or fail, there will be a tabernacle where the Spirit of God dwells
all over the world. There will be people who will
be, for God, the habitation of God through the Spirit. They
will be a witness in the world, telling the truth about Christ.
They will be members of his body. He will preserve them. He will
sanctify them. He will use them to bear record
in this world of his glory. This will occur until the last
day. And simultaneously to it is my last point. Chapter 8,
verse 13 of the book of Hebrews simultaneous as we prepare to
contemplate the manner in which Christ affected the covenant
next week and the subsequent weeks thereafter. Here's what
the Hebrew writer wants the people of God in that first century
to understand. You already understand it. Chapter 8, verse 13. Let
me start at verse verse. Yeah, I'll start at verse 13
in that he said a new covenant. He hath made the first what?
Now, you guys remember what I told you? Think, oh. So stay with me for a minute,
because I want to make this good. He hath made the first old. And
then he goes on to say, now that which is decaying, see what old
is? Decaying. Y'all know what that's
like, old people. Y'all know what that's like,
right? So stay with me, old people, because see, I'm part of that
old people stuff. You young people don't get this shit, but us old
people get it. See, he made the first old, and so it is decaying. It's decaying. It was decaying
while the writer to the Hebrews was developing that gorgeous
doctrine and treaties of the New Covenant. It was decaying.
It was decaying. You know how the New Testament
uses the term decay there, that particular Greek term? It uses
it as the word to disfigure. Disfigure. I'm just gonna give
you a couple of illustrations of that. Disfigure. It's used
in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6, where Jesus said concerning
the Pharisees, who loved to get the applause of people, so when
they start fasting, they put on sackcloth, and they disfigure
their face, so that everybody can see them suffering for God. Don't you do that. See, they're
part of the Old Covenant, so they need to disfigure. But the
old means to start dissolving, losing its beauty, losing its
power, losing its efficacy. Literally, the term means to
be disannulled as a contract so that it's void and therefore
has no vitality. And like as when a body is separated
from the spirit, the body immediately starts to go into meta, I mean,
what is it called? Rigor mortis. and then starts
to decay, it starts to get rigid and hard and then starts to decay,
right? Well that's how that old covenant
was. So think of it like this as we close. Because the Hebrew
writers persuaded that those who are part of the new covenant
will so experience the grace of God in continual renewal,
in continual grace, in continual growth, that they will never
be tempted to fall back to that legal system which is decaying.
But I think about my brothers and sisters in the Middle East.
And here's a good example of it. It also means to vanish away.
Because eventually that old vanishes away. I'm talking about not only
the old covenant. I'm talking about as the temple
was destroyed in 8070 I'm talking about everything that's legal
everything that's old testament I'm talking about our old man
our old sin this old world is dissolving under the old covenant
paradigm Do you see the big picture? It's all dissolving before our
face because it's part of the old The new covenant has a new
mediator with a new temple and a new people and a new world
for all eternity. Are you hearing what I'm saying?
This here is your Jerusalem paradigm in Jesus Christ. But here's what
I'm getting at. That old is waxing, disfigured,
and so obsolete. Don't you think it's kind of
funny when you see people offering chickens and lambs and bulloxes
over in the Middle East? Don't you think that's kind of
like anachronistic, kind of old? It rubs you like, that's ridiculous,
right? Isn't that true? Like, what in
the world are they doing? Can I tell you why? They are
still stuck in an old paradigm. And we have been blessed with
New Testament revelation for 2,000 years, and we understand
in terms of new paradigms. For us, it would be ridiculous
to replace Jesus, whom we have just talked about in such a gorgeous
way, with a lamb, or a bullock, or a goat. Are you hearing me? Our mediator and our high priest,
our lamb, our sacrifice is so much more glorious. And all of
the blessings that come with it, including the covenant that
we are going to get into, that I want to persuade you to keep
your eyes on Christ. Amen.