A Greater Guarantee
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Good morning, church. Good to see all of you this morning. We’re still in the book of Hebrews. We’re in the latter part of chapter seven today; we’re happy to be there today. I spent most of this week in Atlanta.
I was there with a gathering of pastors from across the nation with a group called, “Christ Together.” And we’re working on strategies of collaboration in our cities in order to make sure that every man, woman and child has repeated opportunities to see, hear, and respond to the gospel in our respective cities. And we recognize that there’s really only one church in our cities and that’s the Church of Jesus. But there are many varieties of churches represented in each city. So it’s important that we don’t compete, but we collaborate.
And so I was there with two of our pastors in Wilson – pastor Rusty from Peace Church and pastor Sherman from Mount Moriah Community Church. And so, the three of us spent the week studying together and strategizing. It’s been a very meaningful week. But I’m happy to be back with the family, back with you today.
And so, we’re back in the book of Hebrews, and in this series, we’ve entitled it, “Jesus is Greater.” We get that from the first chapter. As I say, if you look under the doormat here, you find the key. Here’s the key to the book. It’s in Hebrews 1:4 (NLT) “This shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him is greater than their names.”
Jesus is greater. He’s greater than anything you’re facing today. That’s the theme of the book. And this week, we’ll be in the latter part of chapter seven.
We’ve entitled this message, “A Greater Guarantee,” because Jesus offers the greatest guarantee. He is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. He’s the fulfillment of all of the sacrificial laws and all of the temple worship. He is the one Who says, “It is finished. He has finished the work of redemption so that we can believe in Him by faith. He offers a greater guarantee than any other for salvation.
Now, when we think about guarantees, we think about promises; we think about warranties. For instance, how many of you get those phone calls, calling about an extended warranty on your car. It’s about to run out, right?
You see a lot of memes on this; they can find you no matter where you are, no matter if you change your phone number. They’re always calling. It always begins with a “robo call;” when you answer the phone, no one’s there. Then, you hear a kind of click and then a real person comes on and that’s kind of your fair warning. Go ahead and hang up, unless you just want to deal with a long conversation about your extended car warranty that’s about to run out.
I saw a meme recently; it was a meme of Star Trek. Commander Worf says, “Captain Picard, you have a message from Earth.” The captain says, “Put it up on the screen, mister Worf.” It comes up on the screen: “Your extended warranty on your starship is about to run out.” We think of warranties, we think of guarantees, we think of these things and we think, Now who’s going to back it up? Who’s going to make it good?
You always hear this voice where somebody says that at the end; it’s all of the reasons that they’re not going to keep the warranty. But what we have in Jesus is a greater promise, a greater warranty, a greater guarantee. Wouldn’t you be pleased to know that today that you can always count on Him? In the book of Hebrews, the latter part of chapter seven, we will continue to hear the author explain to Jewish background believers in this sense this week how Jesus is a greater guarantee for our salvation.
I think as we look at the text today, we’ll see the three reasons that the author gives, so let’s dig in. We’re in Hebrews 7:18-28 (ESV) 18 “For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness 19 (for the law made nothing perfect); but on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to God.
20 And it was not without an oath. For those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath, 21 but this one was made a priest with an oath by the one who said to him: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever.’” 22 This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. 23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever.25 Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. 26 For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. 28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.”
This is God’s word. Amen. We’re looking at three reasons that Jesus is a greater guarantee of salvation. Here’s the first reason:
1. Because Jesus is our promised guarantor.
Jesus is our promised guarantor. Look at verse 22. Circle the word, “guarantor.” Do you see it there?
It’s right there in the text. He is our promised guarantor. He’s the one that the old covenant, which is the Old Testament, was always looking forward to. He’s the one who is the backstop for all of those sacrifices. He’s the one who fulfills them.
He’s the guarantor. Whenever my children were going to college and they were getting student loans, I always had to co- sign those things. I had to be the “guarantor.” In case they didn’t pay, I would pay. I was the “guarantor,”
the backstop, the warranty, if you will, that the bank wanted. They wanted someone who had a good credit history to pay those loans if they failed to do so. And that’s basically what Jesus is in this sense. That which I have been unable to pay, you have been able to pay because we have been unable to keep the law. We’ve been unable to fulfill God’s requirement for holiness because of our sinfulness.
And even all those sacrifices that the old covenant brought to bear were unable to perfect us because it was all external. It could not change us. One had to come to fulfill it. We needed a guarantor, one who could make all of that good. A backstop, one who could say, ‘I am able to pay.’
And so He did. On the cross, He became our redemption. He was able to pay. He’s the guarantor of our salvation. Let’s go verse by verse, which is our habit, as we go through the book of Hebrews.
Let’s look at verse 18. He uses a turn of phrase here on the one hand, and then on the other hand, he talks about the former commandment. What’s he talking about? He’s talking about the Old Testament.
So on the one hand, the Old Testament is set aside. It’s not put away; it’s just set aside. It’s set aside
for three reasons: (1) because of its weakness (2) because of its uselessness. And then in verse 19, (3) because it made nothing perfect. Let’s talk about that for a second.
The law is written on paper for us today. In those days, it was written on stone tablets. It could not empower the people to keep it. It was weak in that sense. It was written down, you could see the standard, but it couldn’t empower them to keep it.
It was weak in that regard. It had no power for them to keep it. It could only tell them what the standard for righteousness was. It was useless, not in the sense that it was not good, because it clearly was God’s description of what holiness and righteousness looks like, but it was useless in the sense that you couldn’t use it in order to keep it.
It couldn’t make anything perfect. The idea here being the Greek word, therefore, “perfect” is “teleioō,” which means to complete, to bring to maturity, literally to bring to an end. And so the law was unable to make us like God needed us to be. It couldn’t change the human heart. It was written on stone tablets, not written on human hearts.
And so this is not saying that the law is not good, because it is good, but it was unable to bring us to perfection. And what is this perfection that we’re talking about? It means it was unable to make us like Jesus, bringing us to that place of maturity, so that we fully please the Father. And so he says, on the one hand, okay, the Old Testament’s good. We really need it.
It teaches us a lot, but it can’t save you.
It can’t perfect, it can’t bring to completion. Okay, that was “on the one hand,” “but on the other hand,” okay, now we’re in verse 19, the latter part. “But on the other hand,” now we’re going to talk about the New Testament. A better hope, a greater hope is introduced through which we draw near to God. Now, you remember in the Old Testament, only one person could go into the Holy of Holies, where the mercy seat of God was.
That was the high priest, according to the house of Aaron, which was according to the tribe of Levi. So you had to be born under Aaron and you had to fulfill all these requirements. And then, you could only go in there one day a year, on the day of atonement, and then you had to come in carrying the blood of the lamb to spread upon the mercy seat, which was the lid of the ark of the covenant. And then you better get out of there because you’re only allowed in there one day a year to draw near. But now, through this better covenant, this better hope, all of us are able to come into the very presence of God.
What happened at the moment of Christ’s crucifixion? Whenever He said, “It is finished,” it says that there was an earthquake. And the curtain that separated the holy place was torn from top to bottom, revealing the ark of the covenant and revealing that we can all draw near. You want to be near the Lord. You want to be drawn.
You want to come near to the Lord, you must come through Jesus. He is the guarantor. He is the promised guarantor. He’s the one that pays for our access. He’s a better hope.
We keep reading through the verses here. We’re gonna cover up through verse 22. But notice this in verse 20. It was not without an oath that he came, so he came, this better guarantor, this greater. He came with an oath.
For those who were formerly priests, there was no oath from God. For them, there was a law, but no oath. But this one, this Christ, was made a priest with an oath. Now, here’s what he’s doing. He’s been preaching from one verse of the old Testament for a couple of chapters.
Now, that’s Psalm 110:4. Earlier in this chapter, he made a big deal about how Jesus was a priest, according to the order of this mysterious figure named Melchizedek. He worked all that out last week. If you weren’t here last week, you can watch it online.
We already talked about that. But he’s not finished with the verse. The verse has still got more meat on the bone. ‘Let’s chew on it,’ he says. Let’s chew on the rest of what’s on the bone here.
He says, “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, ‘You are a priest forever.’” That’s his home text. He’s still preaching from that, except now, he wants to talk about this oath the Lord has sworn.
What has the Lord sworn? That he’s a priest forever. That’s what he wants to focus on. The Lord established through the law. The Levites would be the tribe that belonged to him.
They would be the priest and Aaron. All those sons born to the line of Aaron would qualify for high priests. That was set apart by the law of Moses, given to him by God. But this Jesus, he was set apart by God’s oath. This is what he’s saying, that he’s unique.
Only this one has the Lord sworn by himself about this, that and what is it he has sworn that Jesus is the guarantor of a better covenant, a greater covenant. Now, we almost called this message today, “A Greater Covenant,” because it says a better covenant right there. But then we looked at chapter eight and found out he’s actually going to talk more about the covenant in chapter eight. So we “backed up the bus” and said, ‘Well, let’s call it a better guarantee, because that’s what Jesus is. He’s the guarantor of this.’
Now, if the law can’t save, why the law? Why did God give it? I mean, that’s a lot of books back there. There’s more books back there than there are up here. Why did he give it?
Well, Paul starts to work this out a little bit. In the book of Galatians, chapter three, hopefully you have this in your notes. You can watch it on the screen. Galatian 3:23-25 (NLT) 23 “Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. 24 Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. 25 And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.” Before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law. So, like, the law is like a guard rail that keeps the people of God in the area of blessing so that you don’t run off a cliff.
Basically, it’s a guard rail. So the law is good as a guard rail. You know better than to kill someone, you know better than to steal. You know, you should honor your father and mother because it could limit how long you live if you don’t honor them. These are guard rails.
So, like, the law protects you in a sense. It doesn’t empower you. You can still close your eyes, go to sleep and bang off of a guard rail and go over the cliff. It doesn’t keep you from going over the cliff. It just gives you a guard rail and kind of a warning track.
Have you ever been driving on the interstate, but hopefully this has never happened to you and felt yourself dozing off? They’ve started putting these little bumpy things on the side of the road before you hit the guardrail. Boy, that’ll wake you up. That’s better than hitting the guardrail. That’s kind of like what the law is. It’s like a warning track and a guardrail.
Okay, so I’m not supposed to be preaching Galatians right now, but I can’t help myself. I’m kind of preaching Galatians a little bit, okay? We were kept in protective custody, so to speak. He says, “until the way of faith was revealed.” Then, in verse 24, he says, “Let me put it another way.” He’s going to give us another illustration.
24 “Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. 25 And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.” So it’s like a guard rail. Do you know what else the law is like?
It’s like in a rich man’s house, he hires a guardian to watch over his children and to teach them. And so the guardian is a servant of the rich man, but the son is under the guardian until he comes to maturity. Now, the law, the guardian is now a servant of the son, like that. And so it’s temporary.
So the law was always temporary, like a guardian in a rich man’s house. It was only designed to teach the way of righteousness but not able to empower it. And it was always temporary, something you would outgrow when you came to maturity. Okay, those are two pictures he gave in the book of Galatians. So why was the law given?
It was like a guardrail, like a guardian. Those are good things. But we need a guarantor to come. We need one that would fulfill it.
And he offers a better hope. You know, it says in the book of 1 Timothy that there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men. The man, Christ Jesus is the mediator. He’s the better guarantor. Now, when I was a little boy, my father worked at Sears and Roebuck in downtown Bristol, Virginia.
It was a three- story building in those days, before Sears started moving out to malls and such. We would go downtown; my father was one of the managers. I loved going downtown. You could smell popcorn as you walked in the door.
It just made you want to eat popcorn. My father worked there for many years and I remember that he got a discount at Sears, so he always bought Sears products. One of the products that he really raved about was Craftsman tools.
He loved those Craftsman tools. We’d be working on something at the house and my dad would go to his metal Craftsman toolbox and he would pull out something. I remember the first time I saw a ratchet. I was like, what is that? That’s the coolest looking tool I’ve ever seen.
He says to me, “Gary,the reason I buy these Craftsman tools is not just because I get a discount at Sears. It’s because they have a lifetime guarantee. They have a lifetime guarantee, so always buy Craftsmen, my son.” He passes this on to me.
I looked this up this week. You know, Sears bought the name, Craftsman, from the Marion Craftsman Tool Company in 1927 for $500. Of course, Sears never made things. They were a retailer. So if you wanted a washer, dryer or a refrigerator, I think Whirlpool made most of the Kenmore stuff.
It turned out that Stanley tools made most of the Craftsman hand tools, but they had to make them in a certain precise way so they could keep this guarantee of this lifetime warranty. Sears was the biggest retailer in the world at one time. They had 3,500 stores across the United States. Do you think there’s any more Sears today?
Can you find one today? There happened to be, according to my reading this past week, ten left. Ten Sears stores left. There’s some in California, some in Florida, there’s a couple in other states, but there’s none in North Carolina. So if you have a Craftsman tool today, who’s the guarantor?
Here’s what Sears did in 2017. They sold the name to the Stanley Black and Decker company. Stanley had been making the tools, I think, anyway, a lot of the hand tools. Do you know how much they paid for the Sears $500 investment?
Remember in 1927, they paid $500 for the name? They paid $900 million for the right to use the Craftsman name. They’ve distributed it out now to companies like Lowe’s. So, you can go to Lowe’s now. You don’t have to go to Sears and get Craftsman.
And did you know if you go to the customer service desk at Lowe’s, they have to honor it because if someone doesn’t back it, the warranty is no good. Lowe’s, in order to carry Craftsman tools, has to guarantee a lifetime use of these hand tools. If you go in with a chipped Craftsman screwdriver and you go to the customer service desk, you can put it on the counter and say, “My Craftsman’s screwdriver is broken,” they’re supposed to say, (I haven’t tested it yet) ‘Well, go get another screwdriver, bring it back here.’ If it matches, you don’t have to have a receipt or anything.
That is the power of the lifetime warranty. But every warranty has to have a backer, a guarantor. And here’s what we have. You want to be sure of heaven, you want to be sure of eternal life. You want to be sure of salvation.
It is not by works. It is not by your sacrifice. It’s by one sacrifice that Jesus kept when He said, “It is finished.” It is paid in full. He is the guarantee for your salvation.
He is our ultimate promise of salvation. Now, here’s the second; here’s the second reason. The first is because he is the promised guarantor.
2. Because Jesus is our eternal priest.
Jesus is our eternal priest. We’re on verse 23 and following, we’re going verse by verse. Look at verse 24, circle two words in verse 24 if you’re taking notes, “permanently” and “forever.”
”Permanently” and “forever.” And then in verse 25, the phrase, “always lives.” Put those together and you get an eternal priest. He’s permanent.
He’s forever. He always lives. Let’s “unpack it.” In verse 23, “The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office,” The former priests, that’s speaking of the Old Testament priests, were many in number because they had a problem –
they kept dying. They had a death problem. They were mortal. They were prevented by death from continuing in office. So you’d have a high priest and then he would die
and you got another high priest. So, they had a death problem. What they needed was a priest that didn’t have a death problem, one that could defeat death. But verse 24 says, “but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever.” But He, not those former priests, but He, Jesus, holds His priesthood permanently because He continues forever.
Forever. He’s the permanent high priest. And then, one of my favorite verses is verse 25, “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” Consequently, because ofHis permanence, because of this, because He continues forever, He is able to save to the uttermost. He doesn’t partially save.
He completely saves to the uttermost. He’s able to save. Now, the word “able,” I like this word, “able,” in the Greek. It’s the Greek word, “dunamai.” It’s where we get the words, “dynamic” or “dynamo.”
It means “power.” It’s the kind of explosive power that’s able to save to the uttermost. He’s like dynamite power, “dunamai.” He’s able. Whereas, the law was unable.
He is able to save us to the uttermost. And then it goes on, “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God.” Remember how the high priest could only go in there one day a year? Nobody else was allowed to go in there, and he was only allowed to go in there if he carried the blood of the lamb.
But now, because Jesus has already paid in full, because He is the perfect, eternal high priest, we, every one of us, each of us can draw near to God. We can lean all the way in. We can come right into His presence through Jesus, because He is our eternal, permanent high priest. He’s able to save. How much is he able to save us?
To the uttermost. To the uttermost. Now, you think about salvation. You think about Ephesians 2:8-9, 8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from you; it is the gift of God; 9it is not from works, so no one may boast.”
Inside that Greek verb, there’s the sense of something that happened once in time and has continuous effect into the future. In theology, when you’re studying that kind of Greek word, it says it has punctiliar action with continuous result. That’s kind of a heavy duty sounding verb, isn’t it? But here’s what it means. Let me “put the cookies on the bottom shelf” for you here.
It, first of all, l means that when you receive Jesus, you have been saved. You have been saved from sin’s penalty. In theological terms, that’s called justification – “just as if I never sinned.” Your slate’s been wiped clean because Jesus took your sin and offers His righteousness.
You have been saved. But it also means in that Greek word that it has continuous action. You are being saved from sin’s power. He’s able; He’s able to save to the uttermost. So in the present, if you’re a believer in Jesus, you are being saved from sin’s power, which is sanctification.
That’s the big theological word. And then in the future, that arrow that goes out says, you will be saved from sin’s presence. There’s a day coming when sin will have no effect upon you. That’s called glorification.
He can save to the uttermost. He can save to the uttermost. He’s able to do that. Verse 25 continues, “those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” He’s always praying.
He’s always advocating for us. He’s always doing this. He’s a perpetual high priest. He’s always pulling for us. It says in
Hebrews 4:14-16 (ESV) 14 “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” He’s not a distant advocate. He’s not like a lawyer that you call up on an 800 number, in order to represent you on some speeding ticket or something else like that.
This lawyer will represent you, but he doesn’t know you and he doesn’t emotionally connect to you. But here’s Jesus, Who lives forever. He’s been tempted just as you, yet without sin. He understands you. He sympathizes with you and He lives forever to intercede for you. That is continuous access that He offers as a priest. And then Paul says this in the book of Romans about how He gives us this access. He says, in Romans 5:1-2 (ESV) 1 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” We’ve obtained access by faith through Him. He says in John, chapter ten, “I am the door. I am the gate.” He’s the entry point into access with the Father.
Now you might be asking, ‘Okay, the law is not able to do these things. Why did God give us all of this if it’s not able to save? How did Old Testament saints get saved?
What was the way? Wasn’t it by works? Wasn’t the old covenant they had to keep the law in order to be saved?’ No, faith has always been the means of salvation.
It’s never changed. That’s a constant. Here’s what Charles Ryrie says in his theological book. He says, ‘The basis of salvation in every age is the death of Christ; the requirement for salvation in every age is faith; the object of faith in every age is God; the content of faith changes in the various dispensations.’”
The object of faith in every age is God; It’s always been by faith. Let me tell you a quick story. There was this man named Abraham, who God gave him a promise of a son and He gave him Isaac. And then God tested his faith because when God promised Abraham Isaac, it says that Abraham believed God.
He believed the promise and God credited it to him as righteousness. It was his faith in the promise that God gave him credit for righteousness. It wasn’t works. Abraham lived before the law. Okay.
And then later, (that was in Genesis chapter 15) in Genesis, chapter 22, Isaac is growing up. He’s probably twelve or thirteen years old. I don’t know how old he is, but he’s a young man. God tells Abraham to go and offer his son as a sacrifice. Well, Abraham knows that this is his promised son, but he goes by faith and he takes him up on the hill.
And the little boy, Isaac, says to him, ‘Father, you know, we’ve been doing sacrifices before. And I see that we’ve brought wood, and I see that we’ve brought fire, but where’s the lamb?’ And Abraham says, “God will provide the lamb.” God’s gotta make provision here. God’s going to have to make this good.
And so he goes up and he gets ready to sacrifice his son, Isaac. And then an angel of the Lord prevents him and says, “Look, there’s a ram with its caught in the thicket.” God provided the lamb. And then, when Abraham came down the hill, the Lord spoke to him that there would be fulfillment on this mount. There would be fulfillment on this mountain.
I believe that Mount Moriah, the place where Abraham went to offer Isaac, is actually the hill called Golgotha, where Jesus actually paid in full the price. It’s the same area, the same hill. God provided the Lamb. This is what John the Baptist said when he saw Jesus coming to the Jordan river. He says, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.”
So, Gary, how did the Old Testament saints find salvation, through faith in God’s provision? Okay, I’m going to tell you a metaphor for this. Older people, explain this to the younger people later. There used to be this thing called a “checkbook.”
It was a book full of sheets of paper that you could tear off. Parents and grandparents, our kids and grandchildren are coming to us; they’ve got this thing called “fundraisers” at school. And so, here’s a check to little Johnny. You write the name on the check, “John Smith,” the date, and the amount of $25. It used to be $10, but now everything’s a lot just for candy bars. You have to write it out.
And then, below, you write “for a fundraiser for my grandson.” Then, you sign your name. Now, what makes that sheet of paper good? Is that a valuable sheet of paper? No, it’s a worthless sheet of paper. What makes that sheet of paper good is the name of the bank and the name of the guarantor that signed it.
That’s what makes it good. You could tear off one of these checks and hand it to someone; you just paid them. I know, explain it to the young people later. That’s a sheet of paper that has no value unless it is guaranteed that if you present it to a bank, you could actually get that $25. Do you understand the checking system now? Do you understand that the check has no value;
it’s the name of the bank and the name of the person that you’re putting your faith in, that this is legal tender, that it actually pays. Now, that’s what all of these sacrifices were; those lambs had no value. Those bulls, those goats and all those offerings that they had to keep making over and over again, 365 days a year, were worthless sheets of paper, but all of them were signed with a guarantor that God would provide a Lamb. Then He did; 2000 years ago. So all of those people were “writing checks” and believing that God was going to make it good.
I used to be able to do this, I don’t think you can do this anymore, but I used to write checks on Friday when we first got married and I was young and broke. I’d write a check on Friday, knowing that I had until 2:00pm on Monday to make it good, right? I would get paid Monday morning; I had just enough time to make it good. Well, they were writing checks on these sacrifices, by faith, that God would make it good.
Jesus paid it in full. He made it good; He made the payment. Here we are in the present and we’re looking back. They were looking forward, we’re looking back and we’re doing the same thing. We’re placing our faith that the “check” that He wrote, that He signed with His own blood, is good. It’s good. It’s perfect. It’s all that we need.
He’s the guarantor. We place our faith in God that His provision is good. Salvation has always been by God’s grace, through our faith in His provision, which leads us to the final reason. We’ve said that, number one, Jesus is our guarantor. He’s our promised guarantor and second, He’s our eternal high priest. And then finally:
3. Because Jesus is our perfect sacrifice.
This is the third reason he gives. We’re in the final verses, verses 26 through 28. I want you to look at the last words there in verse 28, “For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.” Now it begins to talk about the sacrifice that this priest offered. He’d been talking about him being a priest, but now the perfect sacrifice, He’s been made perfect.
It’s complete here. “Perfect” is, again, the idea of “paid in full.”It’s complete; perfect. So let’s “unpack” these verses. Verse 26, “For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest…”
It was fitting because all of this old Testament stuff had been pointing to Him that God would provide. It was always pointing to Him. And here are some attributes of this perfect sacrifice and this perfect priest: He’s holy. There’s no one like Him.
He’s set apart. He’s innocent, which means He’s never sinned. He’s innocent; even in His thought life there’s no thought of sin. He’s unstained; He’s never had the stain of sin on Him. He’s separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens.
These are the perfect attributes of this high priest, who offers Himself as a sacrifice. Now, you could say that all of those things are true – holy, innocent, unstained and separated. 2 Corinthians 5:21, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” So this unstained, innocent, holy, set apart from sinners, Jesus, on the cross, He took it all upon Himself.
He took what we had incurred, our debt. He took it on and became the backstop, the guarantor of our unpaid debt. He took our death. The wages of sin is death. He took our sin upon Himself.
He who knew no sin became sin. The scripture says, “…so that the father turned his back on the son. And the son cried out, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” He who knew no sin became sin. So, He took my death; He took my sin.
And then He took my separation from the Father.
’Why have you forsaken me, father?’ And then He offers, in place of what He took upon Himself; He took my death and He offers his eternal life. He took my sin. He offers His righteousness. He took my separation.
He offers His sonship so that we have immediate access to the Father. And not just through a door, but as a son, as a daughter, as a child of God.
So He is fitting. He’s the one who offers these things. Verse 27, “He has no need,
like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.” Those other priests were the ones who had the dying problem, the ones who had to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins because they were sinners. So when they offered the blood, they were, first of all, offering the blood for their own sin. Then they were offering it for the people. It says that He didn’t have to do all that because He wasn’t sinful. He didn’t have to offer it over and over and over again because He paid the ultimate once for all. It says, “since he did this once for all when he offered up himself.”
So now, the sacrificial system is no longer needed because all those checks have been paid in full. They’ve been paid in full. He did it once for all. It no longer needs to happen, for the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests. But the word of the oath, the one found in Psalm 110:4, speaking of what God said, he swore by himself that this one, according to the order of Melchizedek, would be a priest forever.
He does not change His mind.
He swore that this was the perfect sacrifice. He appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever. He’s the perfect sacrifice, this Jesus. He’s the only one we need. It might be that as I’m preaching this, you might say, ‘Gary, we knew most of this; how does the Old Testament fit in?’
Maybe this helped you today. Maybe this helped you. Or maybe you’ve been thinking, ‘Well, isn’t it about religion? Isn’t it about doing good? Isn’t it about good works?’
No, it’s about Jesus, Who already paid the way. What the law showed us is that no one is good enough. The purpose of the law was to reveal the law. I said it was like a guard. And like a guardian, there’s one other thing that the law is good for.
It’s a good mirror. You look in the mirror and you see something.
You need to fix that right there. It’s a mirror. So you look and you see the imperfections of your life. So it’s good for those things. It’s a guard.
It’s a guardian. It’s a mirror, but it has no power to save. But this Jesus offers a perfect sacrifice, and He’s able to save to the uttermost. It says in the book of Ephesians 5:2 (ESV) “And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
It says in 1 John 4:10 (NIV) “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” He’s the perfect sacrifice. Do you remember the night of the Lord’s Supper, when Jesus was speaking to the disciples and they were remembering the Passover meal? He says something to them that changed the way they grew up. They grew up
memorizing all of the words to the Passover. Jesus said to them, “Do you see this cup?” He’s saying something different here. “This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” What was He saying?
There’s a New Testament coming; it’s the fulfillment of the Old Testament. We still need the Old Testament because it is the undergirding for the New Testament. But the New Testament is the fulfillment of the Old Testament. Jesus says, “This cup is a new covenant in my blood.”
And this is why we offer the Lord’s Supper at our services. We remember this, that the bread represents His body broken for us, and the cup represents His blood, shed for us. Luke 22:20 says, “In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you'”. You might be trying to live the perfect life. The law says you’ll fail, but the New Testament says through Jesus, He fulfilled it for you. This is true Christianity.
It’s not about religion. It’s about a relationship with a person named Jesus. He’s the greatest guarantee. He’s the one who guarantees for you eternal life and a right relationship with the Father. Some of us struggle with perfectionism.
Some of us struggle with wanting to plan every detail and to stay in comfortable places. One of the things that this perfectionist in the past that God has often dealt with me is what the scripture says, “Man makes his plans, but God determines his steps.” Every time you’re trying to be too perfect, you always fall short. And then you become self judgmental.
You become judgmental of others. And this is the path of legalism. It’s the path really to destruction. But the good life, the blessed life, the life trusting in Jesus, leads to a place of liberty, a place of love, where you can actually say,”You’re God and I’m not.”
Even if my plans don’t come to pass, I know that, through Jesus, I have a guarantee that I’m right with You, Father, and I’m forgiven and I have eternity to live with you forever. Oh, it’s better than trying to earn your way, which will always fall short. Let us trust in Jesus as our promised guarantor, our eternal priest, and our perfect sacrifice. Let’s pray. Lord, thank You for Your word.
Thank You for Jesus. I pray for that person, here this morning, who has never committed their life to Jesus. Would you do it right now? Maybe you’re watching online or in the next room. Wherever you are right now, fully present, listening, would you say, ‘I’m a sinner.I have fallen short of God’s law.
I have fallen short of His righteousness. I admit that. I confess it and I repent. I want to turn from that and I want to follow Jesus. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me, that He was raised from the grave and that He lives today.
I believe that. Lord Jesus, come into my life. Forgive me of my sin, adopt me into Your family. Make me a child of God. I want to follow You all the days of my life as my Lord and Savior.’ If you’re praying that prayer of faith, believing, it’s faith in His gift that saves.
It’s faith in that grace that God offers in Jesus. Others are here today and you’re a Christ follower, but you’ve been falling into some things lately where you’re just trying to have a perfect life and things aren’t working out. You’re struggling with things and you’re frustrated. There’s anger just below the surface sometimes that things don’t work out the way you planned. Would you just relax right now? Would you say, ‘Lord, forgive me for trying to be God of my own life.
Forgive me. I say right now that You’re God and I’m not. Help me to dwell on the person of Jesus, Who has paved the way. He’s the answer. Help me to rest in Him, no longer weary and heavy laden.
Help me to come to Jesus, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light.’ May you know this peace today. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
Read transcript
Good morning, church. Almost forgot something important. I was going to have to scream at y’all there for a second. I was thinking about a lot this morning. Thankful.
So thankful for my worship team this morning. Thankful for all the players. Thankful for those two gentlemen that came up from our Wilson campus. Thankful for my. My boy Nate, who I don’t know how he played.
I kind of had him low in my mix. It might have been a big mess. I don’t know, but I liked it. I hope y’all like it. We’re trying to raise up more worship leaders.
I learned something this past week, something that I was kind of somewhat aware of. But the need for worship leaders and the need for worship pastors is at maybe an all time high over the last, like, 20 years. If you check in with some of the local seminaries, you’ll find out they are. There’s like 40 churches on a list for somebody that can do that. So here’s what I’m hoping to do at our church.
If you got young un’s, we’re gonna teach them some stuff. I don’t know if the Lord will call them. That’s up to him. But at least we can try to figure out how to help them play a guitar or a piano or maybe sing. So.
And if you’ve got some of these gifts, as I used to sing back in the day, why are you hiding it under a bushel basket? You gotta let that light shine. So we’re in Hebrews chapter seven today. I’m so thankful for you. I’m so happy to be continuing in this series that was appropriately named Jesus as greater.
In fact, I wasn’t sure of it at first, but every single week, it’s becoming super obvious. This is the writer’s intent, that you would learn that Jesus is greater than all other things. He’s the greatest salvation. He’s the greater priest. He’s the only salvation.
I mean, he’s just greater. His name is greater. He’s better than the angels, better than Moses, better than the law. Jesus is greater. That’s the point of Hebrews.
And so, if nothing else, if anyone ever asks you, hey, you sat through a whole series on Hebrews. What’s it about? Well, I know one thing. Jesus is greater. That’s what I know with confidence.
The theme verse for the whole series is out of Hebrews one, where it says, this shows that the Son is far greater than the angels, just as the name God gave him, a, is greater than their names. That’s really the whole idea. Now we’re gonna dive in today into the back half of chapter seven, where we’re dealing with what we’ve called a greater guarantee that in Jesus we have a greater guarantee, really, of salvation. The author here is writing to jewish background believers who are trying to figure out their faith. They’re trying to understand what it means that Jesus is a new priestly order, that something has drastically changed in the way we worship God, that something important has occurred when it comes to this, especially this idea of salvation.
We live in a world that we’re constantly looking for assurances. In fact, I would argue, at least for american culture, I’m not sure about the rest of the world, but in our culture, everywhere you look, you’re going to get a guarantee. You’re gonna get a lifetime warranty. They’re trying to sell you insurance on every single thing. There’s constant promises and promises in our culture.
It’s because they know full well something about the human condition, and that is we are looking for things that last. We are looking for things in this life that will be a guarantee to succeed. Because so much of what we deal with is uncertainty. There’s so much doubt. And so when something says lifetime warranty, we’re like, yes, that’s mine.
I’m getting that over something else. We feel a lot more comfortable with that. We’re going to buy a vehicle with an 100,000 miles powertrain warranty. It’s sad when that warranty runs out at 101,000 miles, which it seems like most vehicles are built to bust right at 100. 101.
That’s the dangerous part of our society. What about the small print? What about the small print? What about the end of that commercial where the guy starts talking so fast, you can’t understand a word he’s saying? And that’s the part where he’s telling you, here’s what’s going to break.
Here’s all the side effects. And you’re like, wait a minute. Did you say death? Wait a minute, hold on. I thought we were trying to solve my acid reflux.
I don’t want to die over it. That’s funny, huh? We’re looking for that kind of stuff. And when we read the small print, we find out, wait a minute, there’s some problems here. What if that job that promised you a raise fires you instead, man?
What if he doesn’t stick around until death do you part? What if the operation that you read and we’re told it’s 95% success rate, but it fails? What about those? We got all kinds of guarantees in this life, and a whole lot more broken ones. Too many of us are painfully living through this, this life of unfulfilled guarantees, promises broken, desperate for someone or something to follow through.
I pray this message is a blessing to you, that you would be pleased to discover that in your area of greatest need, in your area of greatest need, hear this church, you have a guarantee that’s totally certain, perfectly sure. Do you understand what that means? In an area where you couldn’t do anything about it? Your greatest need? You have certainty.
Our salvation, our spiritual access to God, our communion with him is certain, guaranteed by the savior Jesus. That’s what this verse is all about today. I pray it encourages you. As we dig into hebrews 718 through 28, we see the author explained here, this greater guarantee of salvation, and I pray we can understand it too. Why is Jesus a greater salvation?
This is an argument that the writer is pouring out for us. So I pray that the text will show you three very clear reasons. Jesus is a greater guarantee of salvation. So let’s dig in together, Hebrews 718 to the end. For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law made nothing perfect.
But on the other hand, a better hope is introduced, through which we draw near to goddess. And it was not without an oath, for those who formerly became priests were made such without an oath. But this one was made a priest with an oath, by the one who said to him, the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever. This makes Jesus this is really the key sentence of the whole section. This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.
The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death for continuing in office. But he holds a priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Oh, man. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, exalted above the heavens.
He has no need, like those other high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once and for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests. But the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a son who has been made perfect forever. God bless the reading of his word. Amen.
If this does nothing else for you today, but encourage you. I will feel like it’s done enough. But I pray it does challenge you in some ways too, that you would begin to understand that you’re putting your faith in a lot of broken things and a lot of lifetime warranties that have no guarantee that you’re putting your faith, as these jewish background believers did in some things that are no longer important in Christ Jesus. Here’s the reason. Jesus is greater, the greater guarantee of our salvation.
And that’s because, first of all, he is our promised guarantor.
Therefore, our faith now is not in a thing or a set of rules or a set a law, if you will, which was good. In fact, Jesus argues that, Paul argues that it was good, but it was imperfect. We couldn’t follow it. But no longer are we looking to salvation in a thing. We’re looking to it in a person.
The person of Jesus Christ 22 says this plainly. Verse 22, it says, he is the guarantor. Now that’s not a word we use a whole lot. The King James says assurity. I think one translator even said he’s like a bondsman.
And to be fair, that might be the best translation, that he’s the one who made the contract and ensures that the debt is paid. One commentator writing on this says, when a contract’s made debt contracted, a note given a friend often becomes the security in the case and is himself responsible if the terms of the contract are not complied with. This is what Jesus has done. Jesus has looked at you, Adam. Jesus has looked at you back here in this corner and in this corner and all up the middle, Jesus has looked at you and said, you’re saved.
I’ve set you free. When you receive it, by faith, I have set you free. And the guarantee is me, the bondsman, the one that makes sure the debt gets paid, that’s me. He’s like, hey, I don’t know if you ever watched this terrible show. It wasn’t great, but some of you watched it a lot.
Dog the bounty hunter. Some of you just go ahead and admit it. You know you did. You know who you are. I watched it some.
Why? Because my dad liked it. It’s weird. Not normally his cup of tea, but Jesus is like the ultimate dog bounty hunter, if you will. But he’s not having to hunt us down, right?
Instead, he’s done something way greater. He says, you know what? Even all the stuff that you do, I’m paying for all that future stuff too. It’s wild, this deal he’s made. The hebrew writer here he says the guarantor, that is, he has stepped in and paid the debt, and he is responsible for your salvation.
Now, we could go into a lot of detail on that. That means probably a whole lot of stuff theologically that I’m not getting into today because I have enough to cover. But if Jesus is the guarantee of my salvation, then my brokenness isn’t going to stop him. Then my future unsuccess is not going to cause suddenly my salvation to fail. Do you understand what I’m saying to you?
Jesus, therefore, is the guarantor, not me. And praise God for that. Aren’t you thankful you’re not your goodness? This was the problem with the whole Old Testament. This is the problem that they’re facing.
They realize the law is good. What God is teaching is good. Unfortunately, we are not good. And our priests who are supposed to be interceding on our behalf are just as messed up as us. You can read some of these.
Some of them are worse than the people you can look in our society today and find out, you know what? There’s a couple of pastors and preachers that are doing way worse than you. They’re a hot mess. Why? Because they’re not the guarantors.
Jesus is. I’m so thankful for that good news. He goes on in that section of scripture, verses 18 through 22, he says, there was this former commandant, and this probably doesn’t bother us much. It would bother them to hear this for the jewish person trying to figure out their new walk in Christ, for the writer to say, guess what? The old law, the former commandment, it got set aside.
Why? Oh, he doesn’t hold back. I would have chose different words. Personally, I’m just fearful. Maybe I try to be courageous, but I don’t want you guys to not like me.
I kind of want to be like this. Writer’s like, pump that. Here’s what the law was. It was weak. It was useless.
Useless? Why? Because verse 19 says it made nothing perfect. The law didn’t have power to make anything the law couldn’t make. It could only reveal brokenness, just like our laws today.
They can only tell you what right and wrong look like. They can’t make you do it. He says it’s weak. Man, that’s tough. And these people are hearing it and having to decide, okay, what does that mean for me now?
That means I’ve got to move on from thinking. I’ve got to follow the levitical priesthood and the laws of Moses. And it’s not that I put all this stuff aside, it’s that I do the very thing Jesus said he’s done. He said, I didn’t abolish it, but I fulfilled it, which means now I’m following the man, Christ, who is going to supersede all of this stuff anyway. He’s already done that in his message.
Go back and look. These people are following the law in that, you know, I shouldn’t commit adultery. But Jesus takes it another step and he says, if you’ve lust for her in your heart, you’ve committed adultery in your heart. That means following Christ is superior to the law because he’s not just working on my outer activity, he’s working on my heart. This is more Galatians three, in fact, says, before the way of faith in Christ was available to us, we were placed under guard by the law.
We were kept in protective custody, so to speak, until the way of faith was revealed. Let me put it another way. The law was our guardian until Christ came. It protected us until we could be made right with God through faith. And now that the way of faith has come, we no longer need the law as our guardian.
It was merely a guard. And a guard is not enough to help you act. It’s not enough to help you be responsible. It just tells you what right should look like. No, there’s a better hope.
Verse 19 tells us why there’s this better hope. Why? Because we can personally draw near to God now, he being our greater guarantee, he being the guarantor, the promised guarantor of our salvation. Now we can come before a holy God every moment of every day. We can draw near.
Why? Well, he makes a claim here that’s kind of interesting. I wouldn’t have thought of this necessarily, but he’s saying, look, the priest, Christ, who is the priest now forever, was made so by oath, and none of the previous ones were. And the oath is there in verse 21, which goes back to psalm 110. It goes also back to that story of Melchizedek.
It says that the Lord has sworn and won’t change his mind. One translation says he won’t repent. This word here means to care, to regret, to repent oneself. God’s not going to change his mind on this. He has set aside Jesus as the way, the truth and the life.
Jesus is it. And God’s not going to change his mind. There’s not going to be new revelation. Boy, man, I could jump all kinds of great topics today. As I get up here.
I’m thinking, man, do you know there’s new world religions that are occurring time to time. Like even in the modern centuries, like we’ve gotten new versions of Christianity that now will say things like Jesus and Lucifer are brothers and you can research some of this stuff and find out that it’s a very main religion. I won’t get into that. But however, all of this wild stuff’s occurring and God has clearly said in his word he’s not gonna change his mind on who this Jesus is. So any new version of Christianity you hear about, just know this.
If it’s changing who this Jesus is, it’s cult, it’s not real. He’s not gonna change his mind. He’s not gonna send new revelation that totally changes who Jesus is to us. He’s the priest forever. He’s the guarantor of a better covenant.
Now verse 22 is really the key under the doormat for today’s text, but it’s also the start of where we’re going to be over the next few weeks. For several weeks he’s going to be talking about covenant, covenant, covenant. We’ve talked about how he’s greater than angels, greater than the law, greater than Moses, greater than Joshua. Now he’s about to talk about how the old covenant has been replaced by the new covenant. The new covenant in the blood of Christ, a better covenant.
This is true because Jesus is the only mediator between God and humanity. I could have gone to a bunch of scriptures. The clearest one I could find was one Timothy two, where it says there’s one God, one mediator between God and men. The man Christ Jesus, he’s it. God’s not going to change his mind on this.
You want to know how to be made right with Goddesse? Seek Jesus, spend time with him in prayer, and walk with him in his word.
This kind of wild story came to my mind this week. Talking to my dad in study more than anything, kind of brought this to our awareness. But my dad is a craftsman, tool man. I know this is going to sound foreign for just a moment, but follow me. He’s a craftsman, tool man.
His dad was a craftsman tool man. My granddad was a Sears and Roebuck manager back when Sears meant something. Sears was Amazon before Amazon was ever born. You could buy a bride on the Sears calendar back in the day. Did you know this?
A mail order bride. That’s not a joke. That’s a real thing. And Sears did this wonderful thing in 1927, bought the rights to craftsmen for $500 and immediately put a lifetime warranty on them. I got good news.
Craftsmen in the room that warranty is still good, but it was looking real shaky for a little while there. Those of you who have looked for a Sears lately, you won’t find one. You won’t find one. I don’t think there’s one in North Carolina. Did you know that Sears went from being the world’s largest retailer, somewhere around 3500 stores around the world, to having, as of July 10?
I’m shocked. There’s ten. I thought the place was done. One of them’s in like Puerto Rico, and I guess they like their sears there. So it’s real shaky.
Starting to look really uncertain whether or not those craftsmen in the room, whether or not you were going to get that lifetime guarantee. But thankfully for you, Sears sold that name and now that guarantee is honored all over the place. Lowe’s, Home Depot, all kinds of places. Craftsmen still hanging in there. But it was shaky.
Why? Why was it shaky? Because the guarantor was imperfect. Because Sears messed up big time. Sears should have been Amazon.
All they had to do was figure out how to make their catalog become digital and they couldn’t figure it out. Oh, the Internet’s spooky. I don’t think anybody’s going there.
When the guarantee is made by an imperfect guarantor, you have no certainty. That’s the argument there in that illustration. Anything you buy in this life, any person that you trust, and you probably fell in love with somebody, you’re probably taking care of some people, there’s probably folks in your life that you would assume there’s nothing that could possibly happen that would make them to fail me.
And maybe there are some unique people like that in your life, but it’s doubtful there might be some scenario that would cause them to run. Because people, for all of their efforts, struggle with unconditional love. But Christ God does not. Do you understand this point? The promise is based on a person who is perfect on the divine.
It’s based on someone who has never failed and will never fail. This is why your guarantee is better Christian. It is better in Christ Jesus than any other world religion, than the Old Testament, the old law. It is greater in Christ Jesus because he is the promise, he’s perfect and he won’t fail.
The second reason is this, because Jesus is our eternal priest. Now this deepens the idea. Verse 23 through 25. Make very care, pay very careful attention to this fact that the priests of old, they were many in number. There were a lot of them.
I didn’t do any research on this this week, but there were centuries and centuries of priests and some of them lived well. Some of them, not so much. They were many in number, but every single one of them tells the same story. They were prevented by death, as it says in verse 23. They couldn’t continue to do ministry.
Some of my heroes of the faith, they’re not here anymore. They’re gone. One of my favorite people to read. Y’all probably know this, if you’ve been attending for a while, is who. Does anyone know who’s my.
One of my. I quote him all the time. Anybody? Spurgeon? Some of y’all been paying attention.
And you love me. And I love you, too. He’s gone. He’s been gone for a long time. There’s all these wonderful people.
I like to read and study that. They’ve been gone for centuries. They’ve been gone for decades. Priests of old, imperfect. Why?
Because they were prevented by death. This is this unique thing. This is why. And I don’t know if you’ve ever paid careful attention to this. This is why the resurrection is so, so important.
This is why Paul, when he writes on it, he says, we are a pitiful people. We are a people to be pitied if the resurrection isn’t legit. Do you understand how important this piece is to our faith? Not only does it quantify or qualify, if you will, that the crucifixion actually did what it claimed, because if jesus didn’t get back up, how could any of us really say, I guess that was for my sin. I mean, I guess.
I guess he died for me. But I can go see him in the tomb. No. His resurrection not only puts quality to the death, it also reminds us of something, that this God we serve is permanent. This God we serve is eternal.
He has always been and will always be. Now, those of you like me blocked in by time. That’s a mind exploder. When you start to consider something that has been and will always be, you go, owie. I don’t get it completely.
What’s really hard for me is to consider that in Christ I will always be and so will you. In Christ, there’s something eternal that’s happened for us as well. This is a fascinating feature, and he wants to make careful note of this, that Jesus is different than every priest before. Why? Because he rose from the grave.
And here’s the features that he can do that no one else has done before or will ever do again. This is why he’s a greater guarantee in your life. Whatever you’re putting your faith and trust in, that’s fine. But if it’s not Christ, you’re missing some very important features. Here’s a few of them he lists.
Verse 25 has them all. First of all, he’s able to save. The greek word there is Dunami. That means capable, power. That means power in action.
Dunhamai, able to save, to keep safe. He’s strong enough to do it. Nothing else. Nothing else. I love this one, he says, and goes on to say and draw near to God that we can visit, we can worship, we can draw near, spend time, assent to.
This is something we really take for granted, that we can speak to the living God like we could speak to our spouse, that we can speak to the living God like our friends and neighbors. We take this for granted because we didn’t experience anything else. You realize how blessed you are in Christendom? Yeah, America’s changing. It’s not what it was.
But know this, we’re still a lot more churchy than much of the world. We’ve grown up knowing that we have access to God. We’ve been around people, most of us, our whole lives, that would just pray at the drop of a hat. Pray.
We don’t know what it would be like to consider that, hey, we’ve got to go to a mediator, and he’s got to go before God, and we’ve got to go once a year to do these sacrifices. And just once a year, this high priest can go into the holy of holies. We don’t know what that’s like. We take this for granted, and we ought not. We ought not take it for granted that we in Christ Jesus, by this eternal priest can draw near.
Rather than just say something flippant about that, let’s use it constantly. This access shouldn’t make us feel like, well, this is just elementary. This is just a minor thing. It’s huge. And because of that, we ought to be doing it all the time.
We should never tire of the opportunity to be with the living God in prayer. And verse 25 goes on to remind us of this very important thing, that he always lives and always lives to do what? Make intercession for us. Boy, I’m thankful for that piece of. We don’t use that word a lot, but I’m glad that there’s someone up there that’s right there at the judge’s booth saying, I know he did that, but I paid for that, too.
That’s what this is talking about, that Jesus is there not only interceding for us and reminding us of things that God is doing and things that he has taught, but also acquitting us again.
How wonderful. What a better covenant. The eternal high priest, this new covenant in Jesus. We read this earlier in Hebrews. This was actually last year in our study, Hebrews four.
It says, since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the son of God. Let us then hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then, with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. We can draw near. We have access.
Let’s not take that for granted. Let’s instead take every opportunity to be with him. Romans five, in fact, says, therefore, since we’ve been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. When reading on this topic this week, a question kind of came to mind.
And one of my, one of the comments, I was reading several different commentators this week, one of them was Chuck Swindoll, who I had recently said I had heard he was never going to retire, but anybody following this, he just recently announced he’s going to retire at almost 90.
Well, okay, buddy. Didn’t quite hit the 90. Wow, you’ve done enough, my friend. But he writes a question that I began to ask, and that is, how then were the Old Testament saints eternally saved? This is something I thought I wanted to bring up to you, something of importance, just really for your clarity.
Some of you are learners in the room, but this is an important thing because the Bible makes it clear again and again and again that eternal salvation has always come by grace through faith. Okay, they didn’t have Jesus. What do we do with this? Eternal salvation has never been earned by works, by obedience to the law or by animal sacrifices. It has always been according to the atoning work of Christ.
Okay, what about all these old saints then? They couldn’t have known any of this. The Old Testament saints were under the mosaic covenant and didn’t have the full story, the full revelation of Jesus, the incarnation, the crucifixion, the resurrection. They had prophecies, some of them. They saw some of this coming.
They didn’t know exactly what that would look like.
So their salvation. And here’s what Swindahl writes, and he’s about to quote something that really helped me. Their salvation, like ours, was by grace, through faith and not by works. They had a faith in the fact that God would provide, the one who would make all this law stuff make sense, that when Abraham says God will provide a lambda, he meant it. He knew in that moment when he was called to sacrifice Isaac and God stopped him and there was a big opportunity there for God to speak into his life.
But even in the midst of that, Abraham is already saying something. By faith and not by works, God will provide a lamb. This has always been what saved them, not their diligence to make sure they did every obedience to the law, but the faith that’s underneath it. This led theologian Charles Ryrie to put the basis of salvation in every age is the death of Christ. The requirement for salvation in every age is faith.
The object of faith in every age is God. And the content of faith changes in the various dispensations. So God, as God reveals himself, your faith grows and the content of your faith becomes more clear. But it’s always been about faith. We’re going to get into this in Hebrews eleven, that by faith, by faith, by faith.
It’s the by faith chapter of the Bible. I want you to understand this clearly for yourself. What does this matter for me? He’s the eternal priest on your behalf, which means walking with him by faith is what’s important, my friend. It’s not that you live flawless because guess what?
You can’t, you can’t. You can try. I would argue to you that’s not the greatest goal, your goal to be. I want to be the perfect man. What does that even mean?
What does that even look like? I’m never going to have another bad thought.
Man, that’s tough. That’s a tough one to keep going. The great news is this, my friend, that wouldn’t save you even if you could do it. If somehow from the womb you had always done right, you had always thought right and none of us have. So this is a straw man.
It still wouldn’t be enough to save you. Because what brings you to a holy God is faith, not obedience to the law. Now faith, don’t go too far with this church because some of you are a little wild. All right, don’t go so far and say, well, it’s all about faith. So I’m just going to do crazy stuff, but I still have faith.
Well, that’s not really genuine faith at all, is it? Because genuine faith loves God. Genuine faith wants to please God. And if you want to please him, you’re going to walk with him and do the things he’s called you to do. And guess what?
It’s a mutual benefit, because it’s the best way to live. When you do the things God has called you to do, you will have real joy, real peace. All right, I’m gonna get off that. Let’s finish this final point. The third reason is because Jesus is our perfect sacrifice.
He’s the guarantor, the promised guarantor. He’s the eternal priest. And last but not least, the perfect sacrifice. He finishes here by giving us this. It’s like the lists are growing.
The first list, about the law, was three. The second list, about how great of a priest he is, is four. And then the final list, about how he’s perfect, is five. I don’t know if that was purposeful, but that’s what I saw. It says in verse 26, it’s indeed fitting that this priest, this sacrifice, is just better.
Why? First, it’s holy. It’s undefiled by sin. It’s free from wickedness. Do you understand?
There has never been a sacrifice given other than Christ that was holy. Oh, sure, they set apart the paschal lamb, the Passover lamb, without blemish, but I guarantee you, at least once, a bug landed on that thing. At least one time. Maybe it stepped just slightly into some mud, I don’t know. I know they were really careful to try to protect it.
He’s saying, this is a. This sacrifice, this Jesus is the only holy one, the only one undefiled, free from all wickedness, pure. And then it goes on in 26 to say, innocent, free from guilt, without fraud. That’s the word akakos, which literally means not evil, not bad. Unstained.
It says in verse 26, unspoiled, not deformed. 26 goes on, separate from sinners. Oh, he walked among us, but he wasn’t like them in their brokenness. And then lastly, exalted above all things, an influence lofty, high above imminent. Why are these things true?
He goes on to say this very important line, which might be the coolest thing about us getting to walk with Christ Jesus. And that is, God has no need. God needs nothing. He is perfectly content in himself. Why did he make us thin?
You might say because he’s just cool. Because God’s creative. Why are you creative, my friend? You ever asked yourself that? Why are some of us painters?
Why some of us like music? Well, all of us like music. Some of us can play it better than others. Why do we like to make foods? Why are we.
Why don’t we just eat the same stuff every single night? Let’s find the most nutritious couple of items. And that’s all we eat? No, because it’s boring. Because we’re creative.
Why? Because we’re made in the image of God. Some of you are more creative than others. Some of you, when I get to visit your house, I’ll look around and go, there’s not an opening on the wall anywhere that doesn’t have something colorful going on. Some of you go in my house and go, I guess he’s going for a minimalist look.
I’m not. I just don’t know what to hang. I don’t have that in my. I love music. I love creat.
I love doing this. This is a creative element of my personality. But hanging pictures on the wall, I need help. Church. Some of you have no lack there.
Well, God has no need. He has no need. And this part is obvious to me, but maybe wasn’t obvious to him. Guess what? Jesus doesn’t have to ever do again.
He doesn’t ever have to sacrifice ever again. The sacrifice of himself was once for all, forever. It will always be sufficient. It will always be enough. And it will say, as this writer put save you to the uttermost.
There’s nothing you can do. That would be too much. Oh, that was. That was too far. Can’t save you now.
There’s no such thing.
His sacrifice is perfect. And this appoints, as it says in verse 28, that means no longer are men appointed in their weakness, but in Christ, appointed in his perfection. Why did Jesus do this? Why did God do this whole story? These are crazy questions I ask sometimes cause I’m a little weird.
Why did God make. Cause he’s creative. Why did he make this? Because he loves. I don’t know how else to say it perfectly, other than that God wanted to tell a love story with us.
I’m sure you could break this down more theologically, but in my heart of hearts, I think this is what’s really going on. Goddess wanted to express his perfect love for his creation. I could go to several places in scripture to defend that idea. Ephesians five, it says, and walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us. A fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
First. John four. It says, this is love. Not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Oh, there’s a lot of reasons that God did what he did.
He wanted to show off his justice he wanted to show off all of these attributes, but I think maybe above all, he wanted to show this wonderful love story, which is why, deep in our hearts, every single one of us like a good, sappy love story. Now, the men I know you’ll go, it’s not true. It’s not true. You know how I know? Cause of that girl sitting next to you.
Now, you don’t all have that girl sitting here next to you yet, but some of you who don’t have that are like, I wish she was. Why? Because you ache for a love story, and the women certainly do. I don’t know if this is true for all ladies. I had heard this, that a lot of girls start picturing and processing their weddings when they’re, like, really small.
Is this generally true? Yes. No. It seems to be somewhat true. Men, I got news for you.
This part is, we’ve never thought until we go get married, we’re like, there’s a lot of details. This is a lot of work. Thought we was just, you know, me and you forever kind of stuff. Yeah, we hadn’t thought a lot about it. God wanted to tell a love story.
He wanted to show us the perfection of his love. And this is, in fact, what he’s now doing in Christ Jesus is showing us the final iteration that perfected love. This is what he says, in fact, at the Lord’s supper, Luke 22, it says, likewise, the cup after they had eaten, a saying, this cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood, the better covenant, of which I am the guarantor. Now, let me end with this thought. I started this idea for you already, but some of you in the room need to hear it again.
I’m just gonna keep poking on it until hopefully you get it. Some of us in the room are what you might call perfectionists. You know who you are. You don’t have to raise your hand if it’s you. Most of us, if we know you, we know because although you do great quality work, you’re difficult.
I know this because in certain areas, I am a perfectionist. Not in everything, but in certain things. And we’re so driven by this that they had to make a. They had to make a term and a definition for people like us. All right, I.
Here’s what you are. Those perfectionists in the room, you set extremely high standards for yourself and for others, striving for flawlessness in everything that you do. I like that definition. I would like more of my life to be flawless, but I’m becoming more aware of something that I bet many of you are aware of, and that is, it is an impossibility to be flawless.
The moment I think I’ve got my piece figured out, there’s this crazy thing going on around me. There’s other people and they don’t do what they’re told or they’ll do what they’re told, but not the way I thought it should have been done. It’s a wonderful thing to be in leadership of anything, a family, an organization. It’s a wonderful thing to be in leadership and go. The best thing I can do right now is coach and train and delegate.
But I’ve got to somehow put this piece aside that says they’re going to make a mess. It’s not going to look like I would do it, but that’s going to, in the long run, that’s going to be okay. God, that’s going to be okay, right. If I put my son on stage who’s very nervous, he’s going to do okay. Right?
God, that’s what I did today. It’s a test again of my flawlessness. Now, I’ve been working on this for a long time. Those of you who are on this team with me know I’ve really, I tried to put this piece aside, but there was an older version of me that if somebody played a bad note, I was gonna be a little ticked. I’ve about killed it.
I’ve about killed it. I still do this with me, though, and I don’t always show it, but I get angry when I mess a note up. I get angry that I’m gonna sing a song at the end of service today that vocally I might do something weird. I’m already thinking about it. Why?
Because, flawless, man. It’s not a good objective. The fact is we’re living lives far from perfect. You might be able to control your tongue on the outside, but inside you’re letting them have it. You don’t have to be a perfectionist for these things to be true.
Oh, I’ve got, I’m keeping my mouth shut, but inside, and that’s probably most of us. Oh, I want to act like a Christian, but am I, what’s my heart doing? Who am I in here? Oh, you might never act out in adultery, but you’ll let your eyes lust and tell a whole different story. That’s a lot of us.
Don’t feel personally guilty. Just know that if you’re trying to achieve perfection apart from Christ, you’re way off. You’re way off and that’s okay, my friend. Cause so am I. The rub in all of this, the hard part in all of this is, although perfection is impossible, perfection is required.
This is why we had to have a perfect sacrifice. I don’t know. However you walk out today, hopefully you’ll remember one thing. I needed Jesus. There was no escaping it.
There was no matter of living great that I could do. I needed him desperately. I needed his perfect sacrifice, because perfection is what God requires in his justice, but it’s also what he’s already received in the cross of Christ. My friends, we ought to spend the back half of today’s service in some serious worship for a God who saved us, saved us in spite of us. Wow.
We often like to carry the weight of our mistakes. Feeling unworthy, feeling inadequate. I’m asking you, my friends, to lay that stuff at his feet. He never expected you to be perfect.
He didn’t have any confidence that you would do that. All of his justice, all of his love, all of his mercy, he’s poured out. He knew he would have to do it. He knew. He knows your mess.
He knows the stuff that you try to hide from us here at church. I know. I do it, too. We come here, we put nice clothes on, we put nice faces on. Sometimes we have trouble with the nice face because stuff is really hard.
But most of the time, we’re putting a good face on. But God knows he’s not surprised. He doesn’t expect you to be perfect. He does, however, desire faith. Would you put your faith in the one who’s perfect?
Set aside all the weight of your unworthiness and inadequacy. All the things, all the areas that you, even as believers, will say, I just can’t get over this, and I just can’t move on from this. I can’t be the person I want to be. Would you set that at his feet and say, God, just help me to walk with you. I just want to be like Jesus.
Guide me. Be the perfect sacrifice. Intercede for me forever. Help me in my current course to not feel the weight which you’ve already paid for. As we reflect on this greater guarantee, would you remember these three important things?
He’s our guarantor. He’s our eternal priest and our perfect sacrifice. Let’s pray now together. Church. Heavenly Father, we praise you.
First of all, praise you, that you are a God who loves, that you are a God who in the midst of your justice saves, that you had no expectation of our perfection. In fact, from a very early point in the history of humanity. We messed up big time. You knew this from the foundations of the earth. You knew this and you were ready to save.
You were ready to show not only your creativity in us, but also your love, your mercy, your grace, your justice. You were ready to show us so much of your character. Why? I guess at the end of the day, God, you want us to really, really know you. So you made an opportunity for us to see you in all of your aspect and every part of your every attribute of your character.
I’m so thankful for that. God, I know there’s stuff in this life I could complain about, and some things are really hard. But, God, I know that you’re at work. I know that you love me. I know that in all of these things, you’re trying to do two things at once, trying to help me know you better and make me look more like Jesus.
I’m yielding to that. Good times or bad times? I’m yielding and abiding to that. Lord, I pray for your people. Would you help us to walk in faith?
Walk in faith above all other things, that we wouldn’t sit and beat ourselves up because our works aren’t right, because our obedience isn’t always right. We wouldn’t beat ourselves up and get into some kind of hole and think, God, you’re far from us because we made some mistakes. God, help us instead to set that stuff at your feet. You’re a good and perfect father. You don’t want to spend time apart from us, no matter how big of a screw up we can be.
God, no, you want to spend time with us. You’re ready for us to lay that stuff down and say, God, I’m sorry for this, but let’s be together. I’m that way as a parent. I know God is better than me. I don’t want to have separation from my family just because of mistakes.
No, I don’t want that. He certainly doesn’t. God, I thank you for who you are. Help your people, help your church here to really, really represent you well, that we would look at you and know you’re the greatest guarantee of all things. You are the true lifetime warranty.
You are better. You’re the only promise I can be sure of. God, give us that encouragement today. Lord, bless your people. We pray in Jesus name.
Amen.
