this Saturday morning. If some
of you men could help get that set up after services. And Grayson
Clark Grubb was born last night. We're all excited about that. I've entitled this message, The
Mediator. Now what do you think of When
you think of a mediator, what comes to your mind? When I think
of a mediator, I think of a person who seeks to bring two contending
parties together to a mutual agreement. And in order to do
so, this mediator negotiates with both parties to make concessions. and agree on compromises until
both parties can agree. That's what we think of when
we think of a mediator. The example that came to my mind,
I'm a baseball fan, and there's what is called the year of arbitration.
Everybody has a year of arbitration, and that's when the player thinks
he should get $10 million The management or the owner of the
player or of the team thinks he should get $8 million. And
so an arbitrator or a mediator meets with both and they come
up with compromises and concessions that they could agree with. The
player accepts $9 million, poor fella. And he had to make some
concessions to take that $9 million. Man who thought he was only worth
8 million, he had to make some concession to give him 10 million,
an mediator. Christ the mediator is nothing
like that. God does not negotiate with sinners. God does not compromise. God does not make concessions. First Timothy 2.5 says there's
one God and one mediator between God and men. The man, Christ,
Jesus. Now through this mediator, the
second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, the God
man, the man Christ Jesus, Through Him, a holy God and sinful men
are brought together. Through Him, God can embrace
somebody like me or you without compromising His character and
without lowering His requirements. There's no concessions on God's
part. There's no compromise. The mediator has made the way
for God to be just and justify the ungodly. I hope that never
becomes dull to us. I hope that never becomes, well,
I've got that down. I hope we never lose being amazed
by the gospel. what our mediator can do for
us. Now there is so much in this
one verse of scripture, so much packed in. I pray the Lord will
be merciful and allow us to see what it says. Now notice verse
15 begins, and for this cause, for this cause, he's the mediator
of the new covenant. Now, what is the cause that he's
speaking of? Back up to verse 11 of Hebrews
chapter 9. But Christ being come and high
priest of good things to come. Now, I wish I could say everything
that ought to be said about that, but oh, the good things to come. Being sinless. being perfectly
conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, beholding his face in
righteousness, being in heaven. And everything from now to then
is working together for my good, so those are good things to come,
everything. Now he's the high priest of good things to come. by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building. Now, Christ the high priest doesn't
perform his office in a physical tabernacle that men have made,
like the tabernacle that God described that they were to make
exactly as he said in the wilderness. He's in heaven itself, and he
is the tabernacle. The Word was made flesh and tabernacled
among us. I love to think of this. Jesus
Christ is the tabernacle. He's the priest. He's the altar. He's the sacrifice. The Word
was made flesh and tabernacled among us. Verse 12, it says,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood.
He entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. Now, every Levitical priest would
offer what? The blood of bulls and goats.
The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin, but
he presents to God the Father as the priest his own blood. He died. He's presenting the
blood of his death as the living Christ presenting it before God. And listen to what his blood
accomplished. Look what verse 12 says. Having
obtained eternal redemption for us. for everybody he died for. He obtained eternal redemption. Verse 13, four, if the blood
of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling
the unclean sanctifies to the purifying of flesh. Now this
is what they do symbolically. They don't sanctify, they don't
purify the flesh in and of themselves, but it's a symbol, it's a type,
it's a picture of what the Lord Jesus Christ did by his death. Verse 14, Now, if those things
did this symbolically verse 14, how much more shall the blood
of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God. As you can, as the Lord enables
us, picture that happening in your mind. I know there's a sense
in which we can't see figures, but to think of Jesus Christ
coming into the presence of God with his own blood and offering
himself without spot, without blemish to God. Now, what does
he say with regard to all this? And I hope you and I can learn
to do this. Purge your conscience from dead works. to serve the
living God. Now turn across, turn the page
to Hebrews chapter 10. Verse 17, and their sins and
iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of
these is, there is no more offering for sin. Don't try to bring one. Under
any condition, don't try to bring something as an offering for
your sin. Making up for your sin. Purge your conscience from dead
works, dead works or anything that have my flesh in it. Don't
try to bring that as an offering for sin. The offering has already
been made, accepted, complete, and to bring something else is
an insult to God. purge your conscience from dead
works, everything that has your flesh in it. You look to Christ
only as the reason for the remission of your sins. Back to verse 15. And for this
cause, because of what he accomplished as our great high priest, as
our mediator, for this cause, He is the mediator of the New
Testament. Now, turn to Hebrews chapter
8. Let's see what we can learn about the New Testament. You'll
notice in this verse, we read both of the New Testament and
the First Testament. Look in verse 15 before we go
to Hebrews chapter 8. Look at verse 15 again. For this
cause, he's the mediator of the New Testament. that by means
of death for the redemption of the transgressions that run to
the First Testament. So we read of a New Testament
and we read of the First Testament. Now look at Hebrews chapter eight,
verse six. But now hath he, the Lord Jesus
Christ, obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also he is the mediator,
there's the word again, of a better covenant, which was established
upon better promises. What promises is better? God
saying to you, I promise you salvation. If you fill in the
blank or if God says, I promise you salvation, because my son
did all that's required for you. What's better. What's better. verse seven, fourth, the first
covenant. Remember he was talking about
the first testament, the first covenant, that's talking about salvation
by works. It was made first with Adam in
the garden. If you refrain from eating this,
well actually he didn't say that. He said in the day you eat thereof
you will die. Now if he hadn't of eaten, he
wouldn't die. But God said in the day you do
eat thereof you will die. Death was caused by his disobedience. His standing before God was in
something he did rather than what Christ did. And the covenant
of works, it goes on. It's the 10 commandments. It's
any aspect of salvation dependent upon something you do. If it's
in any way dependent upon something you do, it works. Now look what
he says. Verse seven, for if that first
covenant had been faultless, Now why was it faulty? It couldn't
save. It couldn't save. For if the first covenant had
been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the
second. For finding fault with him, and this is God finding
fault with him, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,
when I'll make a 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 when I took them by the
hand to lead them out of Egypt. Now, I can take a child by the
hand and lead them anywhere I want to. They may be unwilling, they
may be angry, they may not want this to take place, but I can
lead them any way I want to. Somebody says, well, they won't
do it. I can make them. I can make them. God took Israel
by the hand, and he led them out of Egypt. God's able to do
that. But you know what? All he had
was their hand. Their heart was no different,
just as bad. And God says, they continued
not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For
this is the covenant that I'll make with the house of Israel
after those days, saith the Lord. I put my laws into their mind
and write them in their heart. That's talking about the new
birth. I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.
And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man
his brother, saying, know the Lord, for all shall know me. In this new covenant, everybody's
going to know God. I mean, they're going to know
him. I don't mean know about him, I mean they're going to
know him, they're going to know who he is. They're going to recognize when
he's not being preached because they know him. All shall know
me. from the least to the greatest,
and here's why, for I will be merciful. I will be merciful. I will be propitious to their
unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. I don't know of anything more
thrilling to me than to think of me being in heaven and me
not remembering my sins. I can't even imagine that. God
not remembering my sins. And the reason he doesn't remember
my sins is because there is nothing there to remember. That's how
powerful the blood of Christ is. It made him not to be. That's
the gospel of the new Testament. Okay. There's the old Testament
and the new Testament. Let's go back to verse 15 of
our text, Hebrews chapter nine, verse 15. And for this cause, he is the
mediator of the New Testament that by means of death. This is talking about the cross.
This is talking about him being nailed to a cross. Dying, why
did he die? Because the sins of his people
became his. God transferred them to him when
he drunk that cup in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was drinking
my sins and taking them into his own body on the tree. That is why he died. And by means of death, for the
redemption, that's the sin payment, the ransom of the transgressions
that were under the First Testament. Now there we have this First
Testament, and I thought of the transgressions in the First Testament,
the first thing I thought of was Adam eating the fruit, dying,
and all of us dying in him. Now you'll find it interesting,
when Eve ate the fruit, nothing happened. Why? Because Adam was
the representative. When Adam ate the fruit, he died,
I died, you died. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
put all that away. Now you think about my sins,
my sins, my individual sins, and let's just go with the Ten
Commandments. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. Failure. Thou shalt not make any idols.
I'm not quoting the whole verse, but wrong conceptions of God.
Failure. Failure. Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. Failure. Every time I take his
name, there's certainly a reverence that is evil because of me doing
it. Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. Failure. Thou shalt honor thy mother and
thy father. Thou shalt honor all authority.
Failure. Thou shalt not kill. Failure. Well, I've never killed anybody.
Yeah, you have. You murdered the character. Failure. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Failure. Thou shalt not steal. Failure. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Failure. Thou shalt not covet. Failure. Now those are the transgressions
that were under the first Testament. You know what Christ did? By
His redeeming death, He made all of them to be removed, gone,
not to be, so that God doesn't remember them because there's
nothing there. He put them away. Now once in the end of the world,
hath He appeared to put away sin? It's gone. He said, For this cause, he's
the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of his death, the
bloody cross for the redemption, the sin payment, the ransom of
the transgressions that were under the First Testament, they
which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Now, his death was a redemption.
It was a redeeming death. Listen to this scripture, Romans
3, 24. being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption, the ransom payment. The Lord
said He gave His life a ransom for many. His death redeemed. Ephesians 1, 7 says, in whom
we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of
sins. Now, everybody He died for is
redeemed. Everybody he died for is redeemed.
He didn't make an attempt at redemption. He doesn't offer
redemption. He redeemed. He was delivered
for our offenses. He was raised again for our justification. He redeemed. Now, who did he
do this for? Very important question. Who
did he do this for? Look what it says. They which are called. they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal inheritance. Who did he redeem? They which
are called. Now I've heard preachers speak
and I have spoken of a general call and an effectual call. you've probably heard that before,
a general call and an effectual call. And the way preachers present
the general call, God invites everyone to be saved. He offers salvation to everyone. It's a sincere offer and invitation
on his part to all men without exception. Is that in the Bible? Now, all men are commanded to
believe. All men are commanded to repent.
All men are commanded to come to Christ. You know, the scripture
says God commands all men everywhere to repent, so yes, in that sense
it's in the Bible, but to say that God is offering salvation
to people, but He's only saving the elect That just sounds wrong,
doesn't it? It doesn't even sound sincere.
I'm offering you salvation, but I'm not going to save you. No,
I don't believe that that's what the scripture teaches with regard
to the call. There is a call for, there's
a command for everyone to believe and repent, but it's not an invitation
the way men make it out to be. Would you turn with me for a
moment to the book of Esther? Now there's the effectual call,
it's when God calls and you hear because he gives you life and
draws you to himself. Now let me give you some background.
This Esther is right before Job and I think that this gives us
some understanding of what this call is. Let me give you the
background of what was going on here. King Ohasuerus, this
was while the Jews were in Babylon. There was a king called King
Ohasuerus, and he just decided to have a party. And he had all
of his buddies out, and he had a really beautiful wife, and
he wanted to bring her out and parade her before everybody and
show her off, and she wouldn't do it. She refused. I don't blame her. She refused.
I'm not going to have a part of this. So the king's buddy
said, you need to do something about this. Because if you let
her get by with this, our wives are going to do the same thing
to us. And we're going to be despised. And the women are going
to start controlling everything. And so we need to get this stopped.
And so you need to get rid of your wife. And he did. He got
rid of her. And he started getting lonely. And so they said, let's have
a beauty pageant and let's find the most beautiful person in
all the land and she can be your wife. And so they had the beauty
pageant and a man by the name of Mordecai had his niece Esther. That's where the book of Esther
comes from. She comes in and the king falls in love with her. He was just totally in love with
this woman. He didn't know she was a Jew.
but she was now his queen. But he didn't know she was a
Jew. Now in the meantime, her uncle Mordecai, Mordecai was
a Jew, and there was a man by the name of Haman that Ohasuerus
had promoted, and Mordecai, when Ohasuerus would come, I mean,
when Haman would come by, Mordecai wouldn't bow down. And it infuriated
Haman. And he thought, I know what I'm
going to do. I'm going to get this man taken care of. I'm going
to get to the king. I'm going to tell the king, look,
the Jews are a problem in our province. They're causing problems.
There are bad people. There are going to be nothing
but trouble. And here's what you need to do. You need to kill
all the Jews, exterminate them. And the king said, OK, we'll
do that. He actually gave a date for all the Jews to be destroyed.
Well, Mordecai hears about this. And he comes to Esther. And he
says, Esther, you've got to go to the king and do something
for us. We're in trouble if you don't
do it. Now look in Esther chapter four. Now this is after Mordecai has
given Esther these words. And Esther spake unto Hathak
and gave him commandment unto Mordecai. And this is what Esther
says, all the king's servants And the people of the king's
provinces do know that whosoever, whether man or woman, shall come
unto the king into the inner court, who is not called, who is not called. There's one law of his to put
him to death. except the king shall hold out
the golden scepter that he may live. Now, this story is given
to teach us something of the gospel. Do you think you can
just waltz into God's presence without being called? No, you
can't. Not who you are and who I am
in and of ourselves. There's only one person, if they
come into the king's presence, that will find mercy if they
haven't been called. The one the king puts out the golden
scepter to. Now she says, but I've not been
called to come into the king these 30 days. And they told
Mordecai Esther's words. Then Mordecai commanded to answer,
Esther, think not with thyself that thou shalt escape the king's
house more than all the Jews. For if thou altogether holdeth
thy peace at this time, then shall their enlargement and deliverance
arise to the Jews from another place. But thou and thy father's
house shall be destroyed. And who knows whether thou art
come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Then Esther bade
them return Mordecai this answer, go gather together all the Jews
that are present in Shushan and fast ye for me and neither eat
or drink three days, night or day. I also and my maidens will
fast likewise. And so will I go unto the king,
which is not according to the law. If I perish, I'll perish. So Mordecai went his way and
did according to all that Esther had commanded. And it came to
pass on the third day. What's the significance of that
Esther's type of is a type of Christ. He came to pass on the
third day that Esther put on her Royal apparel and stood in
the inner court of the King's house over against the King's
house. And the King sat upon his Royal
throne in the Royal house over against the gate of the house.
And it was so when the King saw Esther, the Queen standing in
the court. that she obtained favor in his
sight. And the king held out to Esther the golden scepter
that was in his hand. So Esther drew near and touched
the top of the scepter. Then said the king unto her,
what wilt thou, Queen Esther? And what is thy request? It shall
be given thee to the half of the kingdom. Now that's Our Redeemer
coming into God's presence on our behalf. And that's his answer
to his son. And that's how every believer
can now come into his presence. Now let's think about this thing
of being called. He says it's the called that receive the promise
of eternal inheritance. Let me give you these scriptures.
Romans 8, 28 says, and we know that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to them who are the called. them
who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8.30,
moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. Romans 9.11, for the children
being not yet born, either having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God, according to the lecture, might stand not
of works, but of him that calleth. We preach Christ crucified under
the Jews, a stumbling block and under the Greeks foolishness,
but into them, which are called both Jews and Greeks. When Peter
was preaching on Pentecost at great message where 3000 people
were brought, savingly brought to Christ. He made this statement
at the end of his message for the promises to you and to your
children and to all that are far off, even as many as the
Lord, our God. shall call." Listen to this scripture. Revelation chapter 17 verse 14. He's King of kings and Lord of
lords. And they that are with Him are
called. Called. Chosen. And faithful. It's the called that are going
to receive the promise of eternal inheritance. So the question
that comes to my mind, and I'm sure it comes to your mind too,
how can I know if I've been called? I want to know, don't you? Have
I been called? Has God called me? Am I just going through religious
motions trying to fool myself, or has God called me? 1 Corinthians 1, 23 and 24, we
preach Christ crucified. unto the Jews a stumbling block."
They hear the gospel and they say, well, that's an excuse for
sin. To the Greeks, foolishness. How's that gonna help me? How's
that gonna improve the economy? How's that going to help our
nation? That's foolishness. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God. And Christ, the wisdom of God. Now let me tell you this, if
you see Christ as the very power of God to save someone as sinful
and weak as you, If you see Christ as the wisdom of God, how God
in his wisdom made a way to be just and justify the ungodly. You see, Christ is the power
of God to put away your sins. Christ is the power of God to
make you acceptable on judgment day. Christ is the wisdom of
God, how God did all this. You know what? God's calling
you. He's calling you. Turn to 1 Corinthians 1, verse
2. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 2. Under the church of
God, which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ
Jesus called to be saints with all that in every place Call
upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours.
Now, you know what those who are called to be saints do? They
call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the
call do. They call, Lord, save me. Have you ever asked the Lord
to save you? Someone says, I'm afraid I'm
not saved. Have you ever asked him to save you? Ask and you
shall receive. The called call. That's what
they do. They call. Calling on the name
of the Lord, it doesn't simply mean audibly articulating his
name. You know the person behind the
name. You call upon his holiness to
save you. You call upon his power to save
you. You ask his sovereign will, save
me as an act of your will. Will my salvation Save me by
your grace. Save me by your mercy. Save me
by your wisdom. You're calling upon all of his
attributes to save you. You call upon the name of the
Lord. There's one reason. He's calling you. And this is
the effectual call. He never calls in vain. Everybody he calls, he saves. Now, somebody may be thinking,
well, I've asked him to save me and he hadn't done it. Maybe I'm somebody who wants
mercy, but he says, no, you don't get any mercy because you're
not called. That's never happened. That's never happened. Anybody
who seeks his mercy does so because he's called them. Thank God for His call. Now, in closing, let's look at
what we're called to do in Hebrews 9. For this cause, because of what
He's done in verse 15, He is the mediator of the New Testament. That by means of death, speaking
of His bloody cross, And here's why he died, for the redemption
of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they
which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Now let's consider inheritance. What is an inheritance? It's
not something you earn. How many people have you known
that were relatively, humanly speaking, worthless people that
received a huge inheritance. I mean, they didn't get it because
they deserved it. And you think, if I was his mom
or dad, I probably would have cut him out of the will, you
know, I mean, but they didn't. And now all of a sudden, these
people have tons of money. And they have it for one reason.
because of their connection with the one who died. No other reason. The inheritance, because of the
death of Christ, the called are heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ. All that Christ is an heir of,
they are an heir of. Now, I want you to think about
your inheritance right now. You know, you may be having a
hard time, but it's a light affliction, isn't it? And it's not going
to last very long. You're going to enter into the
joy of your Lord and not very long, not very long. And notice
he calls it an eternal inheritance. And I love the way the Bible
always uses this word eternal. You see, God is the eternal God
and everything he does is eternal. This inheritance never had a
beginning point. And this inheritance will never
have an ending point. It's an eternal inheritance. And don't miss the word promise,
the promise, God's promise. Now I can make a promise and
I hope I'm gonna be good to my word. But I can make a promise
and I don't foresee what's going to take place and it could be
that I'm not able to keep that promise. Now we all ought to
keep our promises, be good to our word. But we're weak, sinful
men and women. We don't know what's gonna happen
tomorrow. I might be dead, might not be able to perform the promise.
But this is God's promise. If the inheritance were the law,
Galatians 3, 18, if the inheritance were given you according to your
merit, the law, it would no more be a promise, but God gave it
to Abraham by promise. God's promise. All the promises of God and Him
are yea and amen. And what are the called to do? They which are called might receive. Receive. The promise of eternal
inheritance they receive. Now, have you received what I've
just preached as good news? Have you received it? You know
why? Because it was given to you. That's why. If you don't receive
it, it was never given. If you receive it, God Himself
has given this to you. And this is equally true, whatever
you receive, you're going to ask for. If you're forgiven of your sins,
it's not because you asked for it. It's because Christ died
for your sins. But you know what you're going to do? You're going
to ask for it. He that asketh, receiveth." Whatever we ask for, by His grace. we receive, and it's because
it's already been given. I know that religion makes the
act of reception the act of salvation. God wants to save both men, one
accepts the gift, the other rejects the gift, so it was the difference
in the salvation was in the acceptance over the rejection. That's just
salvation by works is all that is. It's not your receiving that
saves you. If he gives though, you will
receive. Now, one last scripture, John
chapter one. John chapter one. What does it
mean to receive Christ? What's it mean? I wanna know.
I wanna, whatever that act is, I'd like to do it right now,
wouldn't you? John chapter one. Verse 11, He came unto His own,
speaking of the Jews, His own received Him not, but as many
as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of
God. Even to them which believe on
his name Now you want to know what it is to receive Jesus Christ
the Lord? It's to believe on His name You believe he is
who he says he is in his word and You believe He did what He
said He did in His Word, and you trust Him to save you. You don't have anything else.
You don't have a plan B. You don't have any other thing
you're looking toward. You're looking to this one thing.
You're trusting Him because of who He is and what He did. You're
trusting Him to save you. You know what that is? That is
to receive the Lord Jesus Christ. I've received Him who is the
Mediator of the New Testament. He brings me to God as my Mediator. I love His name, Emmanuel, which
being interpreted is God with us. What a Mediator. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for our
mediator that brings us through his death into your very presence
and makes us holy and unblameable and unreprovable in your sight. Lord, we stand amazed that you
provided your son to be our mediator, to save us by what he did. We give thanks. We ask that you'd
bless this message to our understanding, for your glory. In Christ's name
we pray, amen.