And we will sing that real often,
for a while anyway. Great, great hymn. Turn with
me, if you will, to Hebrews chapter 10. Now there are a great many things
recorded in Jewish history, in the Jewish rabbi's writings of
ancient times, that are passed on by tradition, as has been
much of history throughout the ages of history. And we have
no way of knowing whether these things are historically accurate
or not. But the ancient Jewish writers
often give little tidbits from their traditions and customs,
from their oral history anyway, which are both interesting and
instructive. One such report from Jewish rabbis is that when
Joseph was established in Egypt as the prime minister of Egypt,
once he had gathered the storehouses full of corn. He had the Egyptians
to take the shucks, the corn stalks, the chaff, and cast them
into the Nile so that as the empty shucks would float down
the Nile River, the people in neighboring villages and towns
and other nations would know by the floating of those empty
shucks there was bounty somewhere up the river. There was plenty
somewhere up the river and would be drawn to Egypt for their provision. Now whether that's so or not,
I don't know, but I do know this. I know that our great Joseph,
the Lord Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, has cast for us on
this earth many, many things that are, by comparison, just
chaff. By comparison, just that which
would be cast aside. Many things. to draw our hearts
up to Him and to glory. He's cast down here for us in
this wilderness many good things to turn our hearts not to those
good things we enjoy here, but to Him and to heaven above, so
that we might be inspired to set our affection on things above,
not on things on the earth, but on things above where Christ
sits on the right hand of God. If the blessings we enjoy here
are amazing, just imagine what the blessings we will enjoy there
shall be. If the Lord's footstool appears to us glorious, how much
more glorious shall his throne be. If we enjoy bounty now, what
amazing bounty we shall enjoy when our Lord comes. Now turn
with me here to Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 9. The title of
my message this evening is Best Things Last. You'll remember
when our Lord was in the marriage feast at Cana of Galilee. He
was a guest at the feast. He and his disciples and his
mother and his brethren. And they ran out of wine. And
the Lord Jesus turned the water into wine and gave it to the
governor of the feast. And the governor of the feast
tasted the wine that he had made. And he said to the bridegroom,
He said most men serve that which is worse and then that which
is better. In fact the very words are every
man at the beginning doth set forth the good wine and when
men have well drunk, that is when their senses are so stupefied
they can't really tell the difference, that which is worse. Now that's
the way of Satan. That's the way of this world.
Always gives you what's best first and holds the bitter for
last. That's the way of this world's
religion. But that's not the way of our God. The governor
went on to say, thou hast kept the good wine until now. That's the way of our God. He
keeps the best things for the last. Both in this world and
in the world to come, the Lord Jesus Christ, our God and our
Savior, our great Joseph, keeps the best things to last. This is exactly what we're taught
here in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 9. The Lord Jesus is speaking
here of his coming into the world. He says, Then he said, Lo, I
come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second. The Lord Jesus, as he was coming,
said, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. And then the Holy Spirit
gives this word of interpretation to those words. He taketh away
the first that he may establish the second. And I trust that
God the Holy Spirit will graciously rivet those words into our hearts.
He taketh away the first that he may establish the second.
I want no more than to just lead you to roll those over and over
and over in your mind and in your heart. And let me show you
three or four things from the scriptures, from this text of
scripture, from these words, so that we might be led to worship
our God and adore him. Now the first and most important
thing is this. What does this mean in the text
we have before us? Let me show you the meaning of
this statement in this 10th chapter of Hebrews. He taketh away the
first, that he may establish the second. Here, the Holy Spirit
is showing us the purpose of God in the incarnation of his
Son. He's declaring to us that the
Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, our God and our
Savior, is the only sin-atoning priest there is. The only true
sacrifice who can take away sin. He is declaring to us throughout
this chapter that the Lord Jesus has finished the work of redemption,
he has put away our sins, he has perfectly fulfilled all that
was typifying and portraying him in the days of the Old Testament.
First, God gave Israel the law and the priesthood, the sacrifices,
the altar, the tabernacle, the temple, and all the ceremonies
of the Old Testament. And then Christ came. Christ
came to fulfill the types. Christ came to fulfill the pictures. Christ came to do what those
things could never do, to open up a way of access for sinners
to God, by which we not only could come to God, but by which
He would bring us effectually to God by the power of His grace. Now begin reading with me in
chapter 10 in verse 9, and let's read a few verses. Let me show
you exactly the context here. Then said he, the Lord Jesus,
Lo, I come, to do thy will, O God. And then the explanation is given.
He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.
And then the explanation goes on. Look at verse 10. By the
which will? That is, by the doing of God's
will by God's Son. We are sanctified, set apart,
and made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. When Jesus Christ died as our
substitute at Calvary, justice was satisfied, and as our sins
were imputed to him, and he was made to be sin for us, we now
have been made the righteousness of God in him. And every priest
standeth daily, ministering and offering oftentimes the same
sacrifices, which can never take away sin. They can never put
away sin. But this man, this man who is
God, come in human flesh. This man, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of
God. Sat down because his work was
done. From henceforth, sitting upon the throne of God in heaven. From henceforth, expecting, expecting. This is what he's expecting as
the reward of his obedience. that his enemies be made his
footstool, and they all shall, one way or another, either by
the triumph of his grace or by the triumph of his wrath, all
his enemies shall be made his footstool. For by one offering
he hath perfected, look at that, what a word, he hath made complete,
entire, total, He hath perfected them that are sanctified, those
who were set apart by God in covenant grace in election before
the world began, Jesus Christ hath by his one sacrifice made
perfect before God. So that we are already made perfect
in God's sight before we ever come into this world, before
we ever draw our first breath. It was done when Jesus Christ
finished the work for us. We come to experience it, we
come to enjoy it, but our standing before God does not change when
we come to believe. We simply enter into the joyous
privilege and knowledge of it. Read on. Verse 13. I'm sorry,
verse 15. Wherefore the Holy Ghost also
is a witness to us. For after he had said before,
this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord. I'll put my laws into their hearts and in their
minds will I write them. This is what he promised. Not
only is he going to make us perfect judicially, he's going to give
us a new nature. Put his law in our hearts and our minds.
And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Oh,
bless God, he remembers not our sins against us forever. He will not impute iniquity to
those for whom Christ died. Now where remission of these
is, there's no more offering for sin. Once it's forgiven,
no need to make any other offering. Having therefore, brethren, boldness,
the word is confidence, to enter into the holiest by the blood
of Jesus, only by his blood. by a near and living way which
he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say through
his flesh. And having a high priest over the house of God,
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith."
What a word! Sinners, come on to God, trusting
his son with this absolute confidence. You cannot come to God trusting
his son and not be accepted of him. With full assurance of faith! How is that? Having this full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience, believing on him, having the blood applied to us
by his spirit, and our bodies washed in pure water. That is
us being born of his spirit, that which was symbolized in
the various purifications with water in the Old Testament. He
taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. That's
the doctrine we just read here in Hebrews 10. Our blessed Lord
Jesus took away all the old ceremonies, all the old rituals, all the
old sacrifices, all the old priesthood, all things pertaining to the
legal carnal worship of the Old Testament, so that he might bring
us to enjoy that which is better. Our Lord Jesus took those things
away because they're no longer needed. He took those things
away because to observe those things now is forbidden. To go
back to those carnal ordinances is totally contrary to the spirit
of the gospel. We are forbidden to do so. Our
Lord, when he cried, it is finished, and he bowed his head and gave
up the ghost, there was a veil in the temple that was rent from
top to bottom. He opened up a new way. And once
that veil was rent, we must never endeavor to stitch it back together
again. Not at all. Turn to Colossians chapter 2.
Colossians 2. I've thought this over carefully
and studied it for a long time. I say that because I want you
to understand I make this statement with serious consideration. I
am fully convinced there is nothing more beguiling in the world than
legal, carnal religion. Nothing more beguiling in the
world. Colossians 2 verse 10. You are complete in him. Complete
in him. That's a pretty good statement,
isn't it? Complete. What you gonna add to what's
complete? Any addition takes away if it's complete. You're
complete in him. which is the head of all principality
and power, in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision
made without hands." And he's not talking now about water baptism.
He's talking about the new birth. He's talking about the putting
off of the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision
of Christ, the cutting away of the foreskin of the heart in
the new birth. Symbolized in this, buried with
him in baptism. Wherein also you are risen with
him through faith. That faith which is of the operation
of God, that faith which you get only because God gives it
to you and God works it in you, who hath raised him from the
dead, symbolized in us rising up out of the watery grave. Read
on. And you, verse 13, being dead
in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened
together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. blotting
out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his
cross, and having spoiled principalities and powers, made a show of them
openly, triumphing over them in his cross." Verse 16. Now folks say, well that's talking
about the Ten Commandments. Listen carefully. Listen carefully.
If you read the paper, you read legislators and all that, they
won't hang Ten Commandments on schoolroom walls, and I reckon
that's alright, but listen to me. Listen to me. You can't separate
the Ten Commandments from the rest of God's law in the Old
Testament. It can't be done. It's never spoken of as the Ten
Commandments. It's never spoken of as the moral
law. The law of God is one. And the
commandments given in those 10 words of law are but a portion
of the law. And Paul goes on to show us that
you can't separate them. Look at what he says now in the
next line, verse 16. Let no man therefore judge you
in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, all those things
pertaining to the commandments of the Old Testament, or of the
new moon, or of Sabbath days, which are a shadow, all these
things just a shadow of things to come, but the bodies of Christ.
Let no man beguile you then of your reward in voluntary humility
and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath
not seen, vainly puffed up in his fleshly mind. That's what
legalism always is. Men vainly perked up in their
fleshly minds, intruding into things they have no knowledge
of, intruding into things which they have absolutely no understanding
of, just as much as those who would dare to think about worshipping
angels. Verse 19, and not holding the
head. If you're holding Moses, you're
not holding the head. If you're holding to Sinai, you're
not holding to the head. If you're holding to the law,
you're not holding to the head. From which all the body, by joints
and bands, having nourishment, minister, and knit together,
increases in the increase of God. Wherefore, if you be dead
with Christ," now look at this, from the rudiments of the world,
the rudiments, the rudiments, just the ABCs, the elementary
rudiments of the world. If you're dead with Christ from
all things pertaining to the law and the ceremonies and the
sacrifices and the rituals of the Old Testament, which is what
we say when we confess we were crucified with Him. If you're
dead with Him from the rudiments of the world, why as though living
in this world are you subject to ordinances? What ordinances
is he talking about? Touch not, taste not, handle
not. The ordinances of carnal religion. Men think they improve
even on God's law, for they add ordinances of their own. And
the whole of religious society, the whole of religious society,
be it liberal or conservative, fundamentalist or modernist,
it doesn't matter, the whole of religious society is built
around what you can touch and can't touch, what you can do
and can't do. Now look what Paul says about it. which are all to perish with
the using, after the commandments and doctrines of men, which things
indeed have a, look at the word, show, a display. So men look at you and say, my,
isn't Bob Duff something else? Boy, he's a fine Christian. A
show of wisdom in will worship. a show of wisdom in humility,
a show of wisdom in neglecting the body and not any honor to
the satisfying of the flesh. Our Lord came to take away the
first and establish the second because the first is no longer
needed and to go back to the first is to deny the establishing
of the second. When our Lord Jesus took away
the types, he brought in and established something far better
than the types. He brought in real, perfect,
complete, everlasting atonement. Our Lord Jesus, by his one sacrifice,
has put away the sins of his people. He has, by his blood,
consecrated a human living way of access unto God. He took away
the first, that he might establish something far, far better. Let
me show you what I mean. Aaron was, boy, Aaron was something
else. You read in the Old Testament,
and we will, the Lord willing, shortly begin in Leviticus, but
you read in the Old Testament about the garments of the priesthood,
the mitre, the ephod, the breastplate, all those things connected with
Aaron, and the gorgeous priestly apparel, and all those things,
all the responsibilities given to Aaron, but don't ever get
to thinking too much about Aaron. That's a mistake. When Christ
has come, My soul don't need to talk too much about Aaron,
except just as Aaron pictures him. Who wants Aaron when we've
got the Savior, got the real priest. Once we have seen the
simplicity of the gospel, the utter simplicity of faith in
Christ, the utter simplicity. How does a man come to God? Believing
his son, that's all. What do you do? Believe. What?
Believe! Trust the Son. The utter simplicity
of life by the sacrifice of a substitute. He will not return to the entanglements
of the mysteries of the bondage and intricacies of the law. If
ever a sinner comes into the holy place, I mean comes into
God's acceptance. finds a way by which he can enter
into and be accepted with God so that his conscience is at
peace in the presence of the thrice holy God. He won't be
stitching that veil back together. He takes away the first that
he may establish second. No one who's experienced the
liberty and freedom of grace pines after the bondage and terror
of the law. Read these words again. Here
the Holy Spirit gives us a word of assurance and a word of warning. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. Now here's the assurance. Justice is satisfied. Redemption
is done. Sin is forgiven. He's taken away
the first. He's established the second.
Here's the warning. We dare not turn again to the
first. We dare not. For to return to
the weak and beggarly elements of the law is to declare that
Christ has not fully met all the demands and requirements
of the law. Alright, now second, let's take just a few minutes
and let me show you some examples of this great truth in Holy Scripture. We won't look at the text, I'll
refer you to them and you can jot them down, look at them later.
There are numerous examples of this. He taketh away the first,
that he may establish the second. Let me give you just four of
them. Rex read about some of them in 1 Corinthians 15. First,
the earthly paradise was destroyed. The earthly paradise, Eden, the
garden of God, was taken away, ruined by the sin of man. But
it was taken away. in God's good providence, that
he may give us a better paradise, and a better inheritance, and
a better life. They that hate me without a cause,
our Lord said, are more than the hairs of my head. They that
would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored that which I
took not away. We, by our fault, by the sin
and fault of our father Adam, destroyed and marred and ruined
all the beauty of God's creation, and it shall be burned at last.
But God Almighty creates all things new and gives us something
better. The first man Adam was a representative man, a covenant
head. That's the reason he's called
the first Adam. That first man Adam was a miserable, total failure. A total failure. A total failure. The Lord God committed to him
everything. Everything. All his creation.
Committed to him all the sons and daughters of his posterity
for all time to come. And Adam ruined it all. Ruined
it all. But he ruined it all and God
takes away the first. and establishes a second Adam,
a last Adam, another covenant man, another substitute man who
does everything perfectly. The Lord Jesus Christ is given
the will of God as our representative. The representative of an elect
race chosen out of Adam's fallen sons and daughters. And the Lord
Jesus Christ fully obeys all the demands of God's law, magnifies
his law, makes it honorable, satisfies his justice, and declares
and assures us that he will bring every one of his sons and daughters
with him into his heavenly kingdom in glory. Thirdly, the first
covenant, that legal covenant of works, was broken and is forever
cast aside. That's what Hebrews 10 is talking
about. We broke the covenant and God
has forever put it to an end that he might establish a second,
a new everlasting covenant, a covenant of grace, not according to the
covenant that I made with your fathers when I took them by the
hand and led them out of Egypt. He said, I'm going to make another
covenant, but it's not going to be a covenant that works that
depends on you. It's not going to be a covenant of law which
you can either break or not break, which you most certainly would
break if it were up to you. But rather a covenant of pure,
free grace. Ordered in all things and sure.
And I will put my law in your heart. And I'll write on your
minds. I'll be to you a God and you
shall be to me a people. And I will see to it that you'll
walk in my way forever. That's what it said, Jeremiah
chapters 31 and 32. And then fourthly, He took away
the first temple. Oh, you remember when our Lord
talked about his second coming and the disciples, they're standing
there looking at the temple and the gates and the doors of the
temple. Oh, that splendorous, magnificent, wondrous building,
the pride of Judaism. Had been for years, the pride
of Judaism. And those disciples look back
at that thing just, oh, look at the temple. And our Lord said
not one stone of this building will be left on top of another.
I'm going to destroy this thing. I'm going to destroy this thing.
But he built another temple. He's in the process of building
a temple which is a habitation of God through the Spirit called
his church. And we shall be his temple forever
in whom he makes known his glory and by whom the world will behold
the glory of God. Not a temple made with bricks
and mortar, but lively stones built up, a spiritual house,
holy and acceptable unto the Lord. Now then, thirdly, not
only has our Lord declared this in our text, and give us examples
and examples and examples of it in scripture, but we experience
this in our lies on this earth, and it's a painful experience.
He takes away the first, that he may establish the second. You mamas remember taking away
your baby's bottles? I don't suppose there's ever
been a mama, unless she was fool enough to let her babies go to
school carrying their bottles, who took a bottle away from the
baby and didn't hear the baby cry, because they loved that bottle.
They've had it all their lives, got to have that bottle. And
when you take it away, they just squall, you think he's going
to kill them. But they've got to get rid of the bottle. Got
to. And we've got a lot of bottles. And God's going to take them
away from us. He's going to take them away from us. We lived all
the days of our rebellion in imaginary righteousness. All
unbelievers, all unbelievers, all of them. Every man, woman,
and child in this world by nature presumes he's good. Presumes
that he's righteous. Now none really would come up
and say now I know I'm perfect and I know that God in heaven
must look upon me and smile favorably at me because I'm so good. But
that's exactly what men by nature believe. Men by nature believe
they are indeed good enough to win God's favor and keep it. We all vainly think we're better
than the fellow sitting next to us. Every last one of us.
That's our nature. Until he comes and takes away
our righteousness. Most painful thing in this world
is for God Almighty to strip away your fig leaves of self-righteousness
and have your nakedness exposed to your shame. Most painful thing
in this world, oh but what a blessed pain, for when he comes and strips
off your fig leaves, he brings the garments of salvation. of the blood-stained garments
of his darling son, the Lamb of God, and close us with perfect
righteousness that can never be taken away." Paul said, I
was alive without the law once, but then the commandment came,
sin revived, and I died. Men live in peace, relative peace. People all the time say to me,
I don't believe any man has any peace who doesn't know Christ.
Oh yes he does. If he didn't have any peace, he'd seek peace.
But we all find refuge somewhere. And then the Lord God comes and
destroys our peace. Dashes it in pieces. I make it
my pointed effort. In preaching the gospel to do
everything I can to destroy every prop a man may have for his soul. To destroy every crutch on which
you might lean. To destroy every refuge of lies
which you build for yourselves. Because I'm fully aware you will
never flee for refuge to Christ until you have nowhere else to
flee. He comes to destroy our peace. Ah, but when he destroys
that peace, he brings us into blessed refuge where there is
peace everlasting. We all presume we're strong.
Man thinks he's got lots of strength. I'm talking about spiritual things
now. God gave his commandments to
Israel. They said, Moses, you go tell us what the Lord said.
Moses said, this is what he said. Well, we can handle that. That's
a piece of cake. We can do that. All he wants is perfection. Well,
we can handle that. Just stand back and watch us,
Moses. We'll take care of that. And we who have had our strength
destroyed in that sense, And fled away to Christ and looked
to Him for our strength in all things. Still struggle with this
proud, proud flesh. And presume we're strong. Well,
I don't see it. I can't understand anybody. Hang on. God will break your
proud strength. And when he makes you to see
that you have absolutely no strength, that you're utter weakness, then
you're strong. What Paul said, isn't it? When
I'm weak, I'm strong. His strength is made perfect
in my weakness. Because when I recognize I have
no strength for anything, to do anything, to resist anything,
then I look to him and he is my strength and my salvation. He takes away carnal joy. I remember it. Oh, I was a happy-go-lucky, free-spirited
young man, so I thought. And all those things in which
I led men, reveling against God Almighty, I spent my days and nights lying
to myself and lying to everybody around me. Trying to convince
everybody that the way of rebellion was the way of happiness. I go
to bed at night tormented in my soul. Tormented. With no joy
and no peace. It's all a fake. It's all a facade. Nothing real. Nothing substantial.
And the Lord God came in his grace, revealed Christ to me.
And he destroyed my joy. He turned everything I thought
was happiness into bitterness. Everything I thought delightful
into misery. And then he gave me joy. The
joy of full forgiveness. The joy of sins taken away. The joy of righteousness and
acceptance with God forever. The Lord Christ took away my endless meaningless
wandering and he brought me into his way
and graciously has kept me in his way, leads me by his right
hand and promises to do so forever. Let me show you one more thing. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. Here's the hope we have of better
things to come. He takes away the first, that
he may establish the second. On one of his great expeditions,
Alexander the Great gave away all his gold and all his property.
And when someone asked him why he did such a thing, thinking
that's so foolish, Alexander the Great responded, I did it.
For the hope of greater and better things. I give it all away because I'm
looking for something greater and something better. Oh God
give me grace to let go everything here. Everything. For something greater, something
better. This body of flesh is decaying
and dying. With Milton Howard and I were
talking this morning his mother-in-law dying and we chatted a little bit and
I said well we're at the age we're going to bury a lot of
folks or somebody's going to bury us one of the two because we're
dying we're dying flesh oh but thank God this earthly house
of this tabernacle is dissolving this is not my abiding home Oh,
but when this house is dissolved, then we have a building of God,
a house not made with hands eternal into heaven. This world is passing
away. Passing away. Try to get a handful
of it, it's like trying to hold a handful of water. It's passing
away. Oh, but God Almighty takes away
the first because he's determined to create a new heavens and a
new earth and he establishes something better. Our earthly
families are being broken up and taken away. We raise our children, we instruct
them and teach them, educate them, pray for them. Try to raise
them up to be mature, responsible adults, and then when they start
to leave the house, we start to go crazy. That's exactly the
way things ought to be. That's exactly the way they ought
to be. But the pain is, when you give that daughter away,
some of us have done so. You know you're giving that daughter
away. She's gone. she'd go, she belongs to another
man permanently and that blessed relationship is beginning to
be dissolved and God in his providence breaks
up the families little by little, little by little until at last
he brings us to the graveside and we kiss these loved ones
goodbye one at a time And it's not easy. It's not easy. It's not easy. Even if they're
believers, David, it's not easy. Oh, but listen to me. He's taken
away the first, that he may establish the second. And oh, what a family
this is. No sorrow, no parting, no tears. Our lives are ebbing out. change and decay in all around
me I see, O thou who changes not abide with me. But this little ebbing of life,
it ebbs out into that vast ocean of eternal life in Christ Jesus. Everything here is being taken
away and so it must be, but soon we will fully and perfectly possess
Christ who is all. I've been preaching that for
a long long time, Christ is all. And I haven't begun to commence
to understand what I'm talking about. But soon, when all is
gone, we shall possess Him who is all. And that's good enough. That's
good enough. Amen. Alright, let's listen to
him if you will. Last we sing this hymn, come
up here and pray for us please.