Participants: James Rafferty, Ty Gibson
Series Code: BOTB
Program Code: BOTB00009B
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00:01 Thanks for staying with us for our continuing study
00:03 of the book of Hebrews. 00:04 We are in Chapter 9, James, and we left 00:06 off in verse 16. 00:08 We were focusing on the death. 00:11 We are focusing on the sacrifice God has made in 00:14 the person of the Son, Jesus Christ. 00:16 And in that context, we read first 17, and it 00:19 says, "For a testament is of force after men 00:21 are dead: otherwise it is of no strength at all 00:24 while the Testator lives. " 00:26 This is an analogy that Paul is using. 00:28 He is talking about the fact that after someone dies. 00:30 Of course, the will, the testament, 00:33 his living testament goes into effect. 00:35 But in a symbolic sense, we are looking at in context 00:39 of the cross of the Gospel. 00:40 And we recognize that it was by the blood of 00:43 Jesus is by the death of Jesus that force, that power, 00:47 that motive was given to the new covenant. 00:49 Paul says it this way in 2 Corinthians, 5. 00:52 He says, the love of Christ constrains us, the 00:55 love of Christ, friends, is the force, 00:58 is the power that motives us 00:59 to embrace the realities of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 01:03 This is an incredible thing, is an astounding thing to 01:07 realize, that the Bible and Hebrews in particular here, 01:11 is telling us that God has made the sacrifice, 01:15 on our behalf. 01:16 We are going to cover all the verses here in between 01:20 but the same point is emphasized down in verse 26 James. 01:25 That we find up in verse 16, again, he says, that He, that's 01:29 Jesus, God incarnate, has appeared to put away sin by 01:33 the sacrifice of Himself. 01:35 We have already mentioned that biblically speaking, this 01:38 is the definition of love. 01:41 When the Bible says God is love, the Bible means God 01:46 is utterly and completely self-giving and other-centered. 01:51 He literally values our lives more than His own. 01:55 So God seen our situation as fallen sinners in need 02:00 of a Savior. 02:01 It was His immediate, eager impulse to condescend to do 02:07 what ever it would take to save us, and so He did. 02:11 The incarnation was the first step in that condescension, 02:15 and then Jesus went all the way to the cross and the 02:19 language Paul uses here, is the plan of salvation, 02:23 purging of human sin, solving the same problem was 02:28 accomplished by the sacrifice of Himself. 02:32 Self-sacrifice, not the sacrifice a somewhat external 02:37 to God, not God in posing sacrifice on some third party 02:42 victim, but rather, God, knowing that we could not 02:45 accomplish our own salvation, that we could not pass 02:48 through the full ramifications of the sin problem, and survive, 02:53 God said, no, I will provide the sacrifice and that 02:57 sacrifice will be a self-sacrifice. 03:00 You know, it is amazing that when you look at the type 03:03 and the anti-type Ty, you realize what God is 03:06 saying to us here. 03:07 Basically He is saying that sin requires a sacrifice 03:10 because the nature of sin leads to death. 03:12 That is the natural consequence of sin. 03:14 There is no way sin can be remitted. 03:16 It says here in verse 22, without the sacrifice, 03:19 without the shedding of blood, because sin in and 03:22 of itself leads to death. 03:24 God has stepped in and taken responsibility for our sin, 03:28 thereby God has remitted our sins by tasting 03:31 death that we deserve. 03:32 What a powerful beautiful truth, we have in the 03:35 Gospel of Jesus Christ. 03:36 Paul is so emphatic about this. 03:39 I mean, He recognizes the weakness, not only of the 03:42 Hebrew mind, not only of the mind of the Israelites 03:46 the Jews to trust in temporal things and earthly things 03:49 and worldly things, in priests and buildings they can see 03:53 and feel and touch, but our weakness to do the same. 03:56 So in Hebrews 9 Ty, it like he goes over this 04:00 again and again and again. 04:02 I want you to understand that the worldly sanctuary was 04:05 a type of the heavenly. 04:06 That the worldly priesthood was a type of 04:08 of the heavenly priesthood. 04:09 That that was just something that was temporary 04:11 until the reality came in. 04:12 You need to go through a reformation. 04:14 You need to look to the heavenly. 04:16 You need to look to Christ, the earthly is imperfect, 04:18 it goes on and on and on, but Christ has made 04:20 a one-time sacrifice. 04:21 So look to Jesus as the One who can forgive you for all 04:25 eternity, for good. 04:26 This is not merely a Jewish problem, a problem 04:32 of the Hebrew people. 04:33 This is a human problem that he is dealing with. 04:36 He's not signaling out any group of people 04:39 within and indictment of criticism, he simply saying we 04:43 as human beings tend to be self dependent number one and 04:48 in that self dependence, 04:49 we tend to build up systems of religion around ourselves, 04:54 that we can depend on and so human beings down through 04:58 history have done just that. 05:00 And we do that today. 05:02 We turn our attention and our focus to human beings and 05:07 we imagine in our hearts that somehow the sin problem 05:11 can be solved through a religious experience, through 05:16 ceremonies, through a process of confession to 05:21 other human beings. 05:22 But Paul wants us to understand that we need to lift our 05:26 gaze, lift our attention on to the heavenly realities that 05:30 center in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior 05:34 and find strength there. 05:35 This is absolutely vital, in fact, the very center verse of 05:40 the Bible, this is the verse, the chapter of the Bible I 05:44 should say that you come down to when you put an even number 05:48 of Bible chapters on the left and on the right is Psalms 118. 05:52 And when you get to Psalms 118, this is what you read in the 05:55 context of this truth that we are talking about in Hebrews 05:58 this is what you read. 06:00 Psalms 118, verse 8. 06:01 "It is better to trust in the Lord than to 06:05 put confidence in princes. " 06:07 This is, I said, the middle Chapter, it's the middle 06:10 verse of the Bible with an even number of verses to 06:13 the left and to the right. 06:14 "It is better to trust in the LORD than put 06:15 confidence in princes, confidence in man, it is better 06:18 to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes. " 06:21 Psalm 118 verses 8 and 9. 06:23 Now think about this, Ty, because this is one of the 06:26 themes that Paul is developing here in Hebrews. 06:29 Hebrews is talking about the new covenant, knowing the 06:32 Lord personally, trusting the Lord personally, 06:34 looking to His priestly ministry, 06:35 look into His heavenly sanctuary, and having this 06:38 relationship with God, that trust in Him and not to 06:41 putting your trust in man, 06:42 whether it is another human being or 06:43 whether it is yourself. 06:44 Not putting our trust in human flesh. 06:47 There, is no help, there is no strength, there's 06:50 no way to resolve the problem the sin problem within ourselves 06:55 or through any kind of human systems. 06:58 That's why it is so vital that we, by faith, make the 07:03 transition of a central focus on Jesus and His heavenly 07:10 ministry in our behalf. 07:12 Absolutely, verse 27 and verse 28 week we could spend a 07:14 lot of time in these last couple of verses, friends. 07:16 But let's just read them before we do that. 07:18 "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after 07:22 this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear 07:26 the sins of many;" or the many, "and unto them that look 07:29 for him shall he appear the second time 07:32 without sin unto salvation. " 07:35 What a beautiful beautiful powerful summary of everything 07:40 that Paul has talked about so far. 07:41 We are all pointed to die once, and then there is going 07:45 to be a judgment. 07:46 So we need to look to Christ, because Christ is the only 07:49 One as He appears the second time, who can bear our sins 07:53 and bring us salvation. 07:54 Christ was offered, verse 28. 07:57 He was offered once to bear the sins of the many, 08:02 to bear the sins of all according to John 3:16. 08:07 The most quoted verse in the Bible," God so loved the world". 08:11 Every member of the human family and this sacrifice was 08:15 made for all by the God of heaven. 08:19 You know, I want our viewers to say that. 08:22 I want you to say that right now to yourself. 08:24 I want you to say, "once for all" 08:26 Just say that, ONCE FOR ALL! 08:27 Say it again, a second time. 08:29 ONCE FOR ALL! 08:31 Said a third time, ONCE FOR ALL! 08:33 You need to understand that this sacrifice was made 08:36 one time, for all. 08:37 Understanding that truth, excepting this truth as it is 08:40 brought out in these verses is going to give you an 08:42 entirely different religious experience. 08:45 Or if you don't have a religious experience, it is 08:47 going to lift from you a weight of guilt. 08:50 The burden and the oppression of guilt that has kept 08:54 you in bondage and fear for all of your lives. 08:56 It's going to free you from all that and bring you 08:58 into a position before God of acceptance. 09:01 A position before God, where you are bathed in His 09:05 love and His compassion. 09:06 Where your heart and your mind can be free, and He can 09:09 fill you with His Spirit and you can go forth to 09:11 rejoicing in Him once and for all. 09:14 You have been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. 09:18 It's in that setting, is in that context, that the 09:21 second coming of Jesus Christ is brought to view here. 09:25 He says, those who have this new covenant experience, 09:29 those who put their trust in Jesus. 09:32 It says James that they eagerly wait for Him to appear. 09:36 They eagerly look forward to the second 09:39 coming of Jesus Christ. 09:40 They are looking for Him. 09:41 It's not with fear and trepidation. 09:43 It's not with hesitancy, but there is a peace. 09:47 There is a settled state of dependence on Jesus, 09:51 and a confidence that His salvation is complete, 09:54 that He has saved to the uttermost and that we can 09:58 absolutely depend on Him. 10:01 So we are eager. 10:02 I mean, when Jesus comes, we are going to turn our faces 10:05 heavenward "lo this is our God, we have waited for Him. 10:08 He will save us. " 10:10 And this is because we recognizing in this context, 10:12 the judgment. 10:13 And we know in the context of the judgment that none of 10:16 us can stand before a Holy and righteous God. 10:18 That our sins, overwhelm us. 10:21 Our guilt is a burden we cannot carry. 10:23 There is no way that we are going to make it through this 10:25 judgment when everything is assessed by a Holy God. 10:28 When we stand, and as it were, naked before Him, with all 10:32 of our deeds, and all of our motives open before Him. 10:35 There is no way that we can stand in His presence unless, 10:38 unless we have Jesus Christ as our righteousness. 10:41 So, yes, we look to Jesus, we look for Him, we are eager 10:44 for Him, when we accept Christ, we want Him to return. 10:47 And we are longing for Him to come to this earth and to 10:50 take us to be with Him for all eternity. 10:53 Paul said it says here that when Jesus comes the second 10:55 time, that He is going to appear without sin. 10:58 What is that all about? 11:00 Why and what sense does He appear without sin? 11:04 He is no longer bearing the sins of the men. 11:08 He is no longer bearing our sins, in other words, 11:10 there comes a time in the history of the world. 11:12 When everything comes to a close. 11:15 There comes a time when one everyone has chosen 11:16 for or against God. 11:18 When He is no longer needed to mediate, when He is no 11:21 longer needed to deal with sin. 11:23 He is as it were taken those sins and completely 11:26 annihilating and blotting them out. 11:29 There is no more remembrance of them. 11:31 He comes Holy, pure and undefiled, and we are changed in 11:35 a moment in the twinkling of an eye and sin is no more. 11:38 That is a glorious thought that the sin problem is 11:42 completely resolved at this point. 11:44 That it will not raise its ugly head ever again, in the 11:48 history of eternity future. 11:49 Jesus has fully, completely and finally dealt 11:54 with the sin problem. 11:55 He returns the second time, we enter into that final phase 12:00 of our relationship with Him. 12:02 And so shall we ever be with the Lord. 12:05 So let's summarize this Ty. 12:07 We look at Hebrews Chapter 9, and we see that Paul 12:09 has been transitioning us into this greater understanding 12:15 of the heavenly sanctuary. 12:17 The earthly was a type, let's get our eyes off the type. 12:20 You know the whole world now, many of us are focused on 12:22 the Middle East, we're focused on the Jews, we're focused 12:25 on a literal temple there, that's not where our 12:27 focus needs to be friends. 12:28 Our focus needs to be on the heavenly, 12:30 on the true type, that temple is not significant, even if it was 12:34 rebuilt not significant. 12:35 It is the heavenly temple, is the heavenly priesthood 12:37 that's where our focus needs to be, Why? 12:39 Because that earthly type could never cleanse us from sin, 12:42 the earthly sacrifices of animals could never cleanse the 12:46 conscious from sin. 12:47 But Jesus has made a one-time sacrifice for all, once for 12:50 all and that sacrifice is efficient for each one of us. 12:54 Let's get our minds to the heavenly. 12:56 That is where God wants us to be as we transition there. 12:59 We are going to find ourselves entering into an experience 13:02 that we've never had before, free from guilt, free from 13:05 the burden of condemnation and filled with joy and the love 13:08 of Christ, and with our hearts filled with a sense of the 13:11 fact that He sacrificed Himself for us. 13:14 That will according to the Gospel, the teaching of the 13:18 Gospel in the New Testament, well, arose within us, a 13:22 responsive love for God. 13:23 If our focus is on Jesus and His sacrifice on our 13:27 behalf, we will experience an internal empowering, an 13:34 internal motivation to do those things that please God. 13:36 His law will be established in our hearts, not by 13:39 compulsion, but because we willingly, eagerly want to 13:43 serve and please God. 13:44 It's a great experience and the book of Hebrews continues 13:47 to unfold it. 13:48 So we are looking forward to studying with you 13:50 again in the future. |
Revised 2014-12-17