Well, good morning, everyone. Good to see you all this morning and some guests today. Nice to have you with us. 

We're going to begin a long series on the book of Hebrews. I look back in my files. I preached through Hebrews here once before and began all the way back in 2009. It was a little longer than I thought, but it looked like it was a little over two years. So you can kind of plan on something in that neighborhood. 

So as we begin our study of this really amazing and profound epistle, the letter to the Hebrews, I have to confess that I have a couple years' worth of messages in my head from studying over this book. So I'm going to do my best to bring it down in a coherent verse-by-verse study of these words while keeping the intent, hopefully, and the central message of the book in view as we move slowly, step-by-step through the book. 

God has a tremendous message for us in this epistle, and it's a message that should give us great confidence and assurance concerning our faith in Jesus Christ, because that's really the author's intent for the believers that he's writing to. The central message from beginning to end is that Jesus is better. He's better, he's over, he's first, he's preeminent above all things. And we see that right away in our first verses, that Jesus is preeminent over all things, he's better than all things. 

And the author just expands in detail from there, explaining to these Hebrews who were in danger of turning back to legalistic Judaism, to the pictures, to the shadows, from the substance that is Jesus Christ. And he goes into great detail as to why Jesus is better than every facet of the old covenant law of Moses. And that's the main message of the book; that's the central point, a clear distinction between the old covenant and the new covenant. 

And this is not just my thought, we don't have to wonder about this, I would ask you to turn to chapter 8 with me, please, as we begin, because this is central to our understanding of the whole book, Hebrews 8:1. The author writes, "Now this is the main point of the things we are saying." The author tells us, this is the main point of the whole book, this is the message I want to convey, I want you to take hold of for yourself and cling to. 

He says, "We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, therefore it is necessary that this one also have something to offer. 

For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law, who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For he said, "See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain." 

Now watch this, please give your full attention to the next words in verse six, it says, "But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry inasmuch as he is also mediator of a better covenant which was established on better promises." For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 

Because finding fault with them, he says, "Now here, he says, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will 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 the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I disregarded them, says the Lord. 

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. None of them shall teach his neighbor and none his brother saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. 

And verse 13 sums up the message, the main point of the things he is saying, in that he says a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. 

I want for you to get hold of this truth right now, my brother, my sister in Christ, because it's so important and so neglected and misunderstood in the church today, in that he says a new covenant, he's made the first obsolete. Jesus is better, because he is the mediator, our great high priest ministering in heaven, interceding for us, he's the mediator of a better new covenant built on better promises. 

This is a truth that we will work toward in the first seven chapters of the book of Hebrews and we will look back on as we march forward through and beyond the eighth chapter to the end of the epistle. I just pray that we will gather up this main point of what the author is saying and set it firmly in our hearts and our minds and apply it daily in our walk with Jesus Christ. 

Well today we're going to just give an introductory message and we're really not even going to get to the first three verses that pastor read this morning; we'll get to those next time, but let's read these amazing first three verses together. 

God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by His Son whom he has appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the worlds; who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person and upholding all things by the word of His power when he had by Himself purged our sins sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. 

For our message today, I want to look at four main points outlining the book of Hebrews and hopefully capturing the essence of the author's intent. First, we're going to look at God's salvation plan. Second, the fault of the old covenant. Third, all mixed up. And fourth, the fullness of Jesus Christ. 

I'd like to take a little time to look at the scriptures, the revelation of God and his salvation plan kind of from a bird's eye view. The way that God's salvation plan is revealed in the Bible starts with a promise. We see all the way back in Genesis, in the beginning, the fall of man, the sin of Adam that brought death and the curse to the world. But even in this, at the very beginning, at the point of the fall, the subjection of the whole creation to the curse, we see hope; we see a promise. 

And the promise is of redemption, a savior, a sacrifice provided by God. Turn back to Genesis 3 and let's look at that account. Genesis 3, and we'll begin at verse 13. 

And the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." So the Lord God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field. On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. 

To the woman, he said, "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception. In pain, you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." Then to Adam, he said, "Because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you saying, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil, you shall eat of it all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles that shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. 

In the sweat of your face, you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you shall return." And Adam called his wife's name Eve because she was the mother of all living. Also, for Adam and his wife, the Lord God made tunics of skin and clothed them. 

Well, because Adam and Eve chose to disobey God, to sin against God, the curse came on the whole world, on all creation, and death came into the world, and everything began the process of dying. We see the New Testament affirm this monumental historical moment in Romans 5 and Romans 8. 

In verse 12 of Romans 5, it says, "Therefore just as through one man sin entered the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men because all sinned." Romans 8:18, a passage you're familiar with, says, "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us, for the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope, because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. 

And not only that, but we also who have the first fruits of the spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body, for we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. 

Man sinned against God bringing the curse on the whole of creation. But even in this, we see all the way back in Genesis 3 that God made a promise of redemption. Through the woman's seed, God would crush the head of Satan. Death and hell would be defeated through the promise of a deliverer, a savior from sin and the wrath of God to come. 

As we move on through the scriptures, we see further clear revelation of this promise of God, a substitute, a sacrifice that would bring a blessing to all nations. In Genesis 12, God made promises to Abraham, unconditional promises of a nation, a people, of a land, of a blessing to all nations through his seed. 

The nation, God's own special people set apart for blessing, chosen to be a channel of God's grace to all nations. Israel would come from the loins of Abraham. They would be as the sands of the sea and the stars of the sky. The land, the promised land would be for his people. The promise to deliver the seed would be in the lineage of Abraham. And we see this promise reiterated again and again as we move through the scripture specifically to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to Israel. 

So in God's salvation plan, we see the nation Israel come into being through Abraham and the promise of God, and from that nation would come the seed. In Exodus, we see God deliver his people from bondage in Egypt, and he gives to them the law, another monumental moment in the history of God's revelation of his salvation plan. The law was given to Moses at Sinai, and it was given for a very specific purpose. 

But Israel would come to value that law. That covenant made by God with Israel was a conditional covenant, promises based on obedience, unlike the covenant made with Abraham. The law, with its civil, ceremonial, and moral aspects, was meant to be a picture, a representation, a foreshadowing of the things to come. And we'll get into the width and the breadth of that as we work through the book of Hebrews. 

But every aspect of the tabernacle, of the law system, of the sacrifices, all the rites and rituals followed, the very design of the whole thing, was to point us to the promise, to the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. And the law was given to show us our sin and our need for the Savior. This is made so clear in the New Testament writings as well. 

In Romans 3:19, Paul says, "'Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, in order that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in its sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.'" This is so important, but so misunderstood so often. 

Turn over to Galatians 3 with me, please. A super clear passage on this. Galatians 3:19, Paul asks the very question, "'What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made. And it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator.' He says, 'Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not. For if that had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor.'" 

Tremendously clear words about the purpose and the intent of the law, why it was given. But Israel over time began to forget that purpose, that meaning, that vivid resolve of the law to show us our sin and point us to the Savior. They began to think and teach and develop a legalistic system that said that the law was the means of salvation, that even just having the law made them right with God and gave them an inheritance among the saints. 

This became so perverted and twisted that by the time of Christ, the Jews had completely forsaken the whole reason for which they were chosen to be a city on a hill, to be a light to the world, to be a channel of blessing to all nations, and rather they despised the Gentiles and excluded them. Israel did not understand the faults of the old covenant law. 

We read earlier in Hebrews 8 that the law had fault. They said if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second but finding fault with them. He says, "Finding fault with them." The law was not the problem. The old covenant was not bad or wrong in any way. Remember it was given for a specific intent. The problem comes when men try to use it for that which it was not intended, specifically as a means or way of righteousness or holiness. 

The Jews thought that the law was their way to holiness, their means of acceptance with God. It's the same with religion today and even true gospel preaching churches today; systems of men within Christianity, we see this mistake of trying to apply the law as a rule of life to the believer as a means unto holiness. 

I want you to turn to 1st Timothy 1 with me, please. Just a tremendous statement by Paul in writing to Timothy. 1st Timothy 1, we'll begin at verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ our hope. To Timothy, a true son in the faith, grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, remain in Ephesus that you may charge some that they teach no other doctrine, nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies which cause disputes rather than godly edification which is in faith. Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith, from which some having strayed have turned aside to idle talk, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they affirm. 

Look what he says here in verse 8. But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers, murderers of mothers, for manslayers, fornicators, sodomites, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and if there's any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine, according to the glorious gospel of the blessed God which was committed to my trust. 

Using the law for a purpose other than that which God intended, that is to show us our sin, to lead us to Christ, to point us to Him and His sacrifice, His death in our place, using the law as a means of holiness or to establish our own righteousness, is to fail to see the fault of the Old Covenant. Not that the law is bad, it is holy and righteous and good if we use it lawfully, but rather the fault of law, the weakness of the law, is in indwelling sin in men. 

Paul said in Romans that the law was weak through the flesh. It's such a good clear passage in 8 too, he says, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit." 

You see, my brothers and sisters in Christ, God has been unveiling, working out His salvation plan all through history, and it's always been based on His grace, on His promise, and that promise has always been the person and work of Jesus Christ. It has been, it has come to consummation, it has come to completion in Christ, and if we're going to rightly divide the book of Hebrews, if we're going to get the central message of this book for us, for believers in Jesus Christ, then we must understand God's salvation plan. 

We must understand the continual revelation of God, the working out of His plan through picturing, pointing, teaching His people by promise, by faith, through the law leading them to a place of need and desperation for the coming Savior, and this was the anticipation of the people of God. This was their hope, this was the promise of Messiah. 

But they had become all wrapped up in their religion, in their system of law and works and rites and rituals to accomplish their own righteousness rather than submitting to the righteousness of God, and this system had become their very lives, their legal civil authority, their religion, their worship, their festivals, their economic system, and it was so ingrained in their culture that it was an overwhelming thing to forsake it, to leave it, to go on to perfection in Christ. 

I thought about that when I was down at my mom's funeral, you know, it always stunned me as I would ponder on it that my mom was 70 years old when she became a believer, and God allowed me to have the privilege of being involved in that. 

I can remember we were at our house in Pence, I probably told you this before, but I was a new, fairly new believer. My mom came to visit for a week and, man, I was ready, you know, and I was on her. And I remember her going through the living room going, "I believe, I believe, leave me alone," you know, but she did come to believe. 

But think about what she had to forsake. She'd raised six kids in the Catholic Church, she'd buried her parents in the Catholic Church, she'd buried her husband's parents in the Catholic Church, she'd gone to First Friday Masses with her husband while he was dying of cancer so he wouldn't have to spend so much time in purgatory. She had to forsake that. She had to admit that that was all wrong and turn to Jesus in faith. 

When Jesus came, when he preached and taught and brought the gospel message, when he died and was buried and rose again the third day, and when he appeared to his witnesses and sent them out with power, some of those witnesses traveled to the east of Jerusalem and brought with them the good news message that the Savior of Israel had finally come. 

And they evangelized these Jewish communities to which this letter was written. And my friends, some believed, some were convinced, some rejected, as is always the case, and those who believed had progressed in their faith had surely been on fire for a while. But there was a pressure from the Jews, from the culture and religion, from family members, and even those who would coerce and persecute them demanding that they go back to Judaism. 

We see this type of persecution everywhere the gospel went. James wrote about it to his very Jewish audience, Peter as well. There was a special hatred and aggression among legalistic Jews for those who would, in their eyes, forsake their nation and turn to Jesus in faith. 

As a result of this, we see that these believers had become all mixed up. And I mean this in a most specific way; they had tried to hold on to their Judaism, they'd tried to keep the old covenant practices and tried to mix Christ and the new covenant together with the old. They did not fully understand the purpose and intent of the old covenant summarized in Galatians 3, that it was meant to lead us to faith in Christ, but after faith has come we are no longer under the law. The tutor has served its purpose well. 

I would submit to you, my brothers and sisters, that this is the error that plagues the church in so many ways and facets even today. Certainly it was the great concern of Paul in his writing to the Galatians. It's the very focus of this book before us this morning. It's a lack of clear distinction between the old and the new covenants that brings so much confusion to the church today as well. 

Let me give you a couple illustrations just to explain what I mean. It can be a tremendous error that threatens the gospel like we saw in Galatia, or such as we see in the so-called Christian denominations today, where they still to this day have a mediating priesthood and a true and real sacrificial system on an altar for the expiation of sins, and yet they mix this with the risen Christ and the new covenant truths. 

Or it can be more subtle, as we see those who preach the true gospel try to place the law of God on the believer as a rule of life, as a means of holiness that leads only to disappointment. And it permeates in even more subtle ways. Think about something as simple as understanding giving in the church today. So many apply the law of tithing to the believer, bearing down on church members to give a tenth of all that they earn in obedience to God. 

But that's an old covenant principle. The new covenant is clear that we are not limited to a mere 10% to give. Each man is to give as he purposes in his heart. He's to have a council meeting with God and determine what God would have him to give. And this internal working is a much higher standard than the law, the external requirement. 

Or let me ask you this, why do we pray in the church today, "Lord please be with us this morning"? Or "Holy Spirit please come down on us"? These are nonsensical prayers in the new covenant where Jesus lives in us, where the Holy Spirit indwells us permanently and he himself has promised to never leave us or forsake us. 

The mixing up of the old and the new is far more pervasive than we realize in the church today. And the lack of understanding of the distinction between the old and the new covenants has far greater implications than what we understand as well. 

Now here's where we get to the meat of the matter. The answer to this misunderstanding, to this misapplication and mixing of the old and the new is to gain an appreciation for the fullness that is in Christ. God had promised all through his progressing more specific, more clear revelation to us a deliverer, a Savior, a sacrifice that would stand in our place and make full payment, propitiation for our sins. 

He gave the law to show us our sin and lead us to faith in that Savior. And the method of the author of Hebrews and the message he has for these Jewish believers who were mixing things up, as well as those who had come up to the point of faith in Christ, and even those who were not yet convinced is that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise, of the pictures, of the prophecies. 

Jesus is the perfect sacrifice, the perfect priest, the perfect fulfillment of God's salvation plan. Jesus is better. He's a better prophet. He's better than angels. He's better than Moses. He's better than Joshua. He's better than the Levitical priesthood. He is a better high priest. He ministers in a better sanctuary, is a mediator of a better covenant built on better promises, and he's a better sacrifice. 

But it's even more than all this. Christ and His sacrifice produce better fruit, holiness, righteousness through a better means of service, of sanctification. Romans 7:6 says that we no longer serve by the letter, the law, but by the Spirit. 

Hebrews 9:7, turn over to that passage with me please, Hebrews 9. It's an amazing chapter, I've been studying it a lot recently. Hebrews 9:7, it says, "But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit indicating this that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. 

It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience, concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of Reformation. But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is not of this creation, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. 

Look at verse 13, "For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" 

You see the law, the Old Covenant, was in its very nature and essence external. Thus it gave a set of codes, prescriptions, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, Paul says in Ephesians. But the New Covenant is an inside job. It is an internal recreation. 

In Hebrews 9:10, he says, "Until the time of Reformation." You could translate that word, regeneration. Regeneration is associated with the New Covenant, my friends. It's a promise of the New Covenant. Ezekiel 36, listen to these words, this promise all the way back in Ezekiel. 

"For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 

I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them. Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. And you shall be my people, and I will be your God." 

This is a promise of the New Covenant. Just as Jeremiah 31 is quoted in Hebrews 8 where we started this morning. God promises a new covenant with the house of Israel, not like the Old Covenant, not a conditional covenant, but an unconditional covenant based on the promise of God, the promise that goes all the way back to Genesis 3 and runs through all of the Scriptures. 

Realized in the promises to Abraham in Genesis 12, and ultimately realized in the nation of Israel. You see, the promises of Ezekiel, of Jeremiah, these covenants are made with the house of Judah. God never made a covenant with Gentiles. And ultimately, God will fulfill His promises to the nation Israel. 

But the amazing, unbelievable good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ, of the message of Hebrews 8, the central message of the book of Hebrews, is that we are now in the church, blessed out of this New Covenant made with Israel. 

The promises, the internal recreation promises of Ezekiel 36, a new heart, a new spirit, the very spirit of God, the person of Christ, living in me, indwelling us permanently, are being pre-filled in the church. And now God has brought to pass, to fulfillment in Christ, not only all these betters that we listed before, but also a better way to holiness, a better way to living a life worthy of our calling, of bringing glory to God and men to Christ, a new internal recreation that is manifest outwardly as we abide in Christ one day at a time, as a branch abiding in the vine, walking by faith, for the just shall live by faith. 

The Old Covenant said, "Obey, and I will bless you." The New Covenant says, "I have blessed you." And now our life as a life of obedience is the strong desire of our new heart, and the thankful service of a bond slave having been redeemed from his former master of law and sin and death, and now delivered to grace and righteousness and life, we long to serve our loving, faithful master Savior, Jesus Christ. 

This is of ultimate importance in the book of Hebrews, my brothers and sisters. The salient message, the vital application of the truth that Jesus is better. Jesus is our hope. Jesus is our Savior. He's the promise, and in Him, all the promises are yes. Jesus is our life, our sustenance, our all in all, and for Him we live and by Him we live as He lives in us. 

Now we didn't even get to all I wanted to say in the way of introduction to this book, and we'll talk about hermeneutics in the audience and the author when it was written next time and maybe even get to verses 1 to 3. We're in no hurry, my friends. We'll just keep going. 

Let's close in prayer. Father, we're so thankful for Your Word, Your revelation to us. We're thankful for the promise that runs through it from Genesis to Revelation, the promise of Jesus, the perfect Savior. We thank You for this book of Hebrews that so clearly shows and explains why He is better. Help us to believe You, to know Your Word, to reckon it to be true, and to trust You, living by faith one day at a time. In Jesus' name we pray.