Well, I invite you to turn this morning to the book of Hebrews as we're making our way through this wonderful book and we are in the section on the high priesthood of Christ and we come today to Hebrews chapter 7. We conclude chapter 7 and look at verses 20 through 28, which is the end of the chapter. I'm going to back up to 15 to set the context. This is the word of the Lord. Beginning at verse 15, 1191 in your Bibles, if you're still looking for that, Hebrews 7, beginning at verse 15, this becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become a priest not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life. For it is witnessed of him, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness and uselessness. Verse 19, for the law made nothing perfect. But on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God, now our text. 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 the guarantor of a better covenant. The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office. But he holds his 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. For it was indeed fitting that we should have a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. 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. 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. And there ends the reading of God's word. The author of Hebrews wants us to deeply appreciate the priesthood of Jesus. That is really the heart of what he is going after here and what he is helping us with to understand and what that means for us. That's the important thing that he's explaining. You have to know what this means and why it's so important to believe this and understand this. We generally are, as we've studied in the book of Hebrews, the challenge that has been presented to us in this book is that we are generally sort of apathetic to these deeper truths of God's word. We're generally more apathetic. And the author is challenging us to appreciate this and to give our minds to understand this because it has immense spiritual blessing and benefit for us. And the way the author is doing this is by way of contrast. Contrast to help them see the great difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. This has not been something that's easily understood or appreciated in our day, and endless debates revolve around this great discussion of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. But as the author will show us here, the differences are great. Very great. And it proves to us, I think, that if you don't understand this, what you can slip into is just that, an old covenant ministry. And that's a really dangerous thing for the church. And we're going to look at that a little bit today. But we want to think about why the author is pressing us on this point and why it is so important for us because he really indeed sees this as a way of making spiritual progress in the faith understanding this they were drifting weren't they think of all the things that we've looked at in the book of hebrews they were some were drifting away therefore you know let him who thinks he stands take he lest he fall therefore we must give the most earnest attention to the things that we have heard lest we drift from it then he went into a long explanation of of hardness of heart to the word of god where really there's no engagement in the mind to process these things there's no interest in the word and he explained that's a pathway to apostasy as we've looked at but but here he wants us and is pressing us to have our minds grow in the gospel to have our minds grow in the faith that is so important for us and it proves that in the first century this was just as much a great problem for them because they had reverted back to, as he saw it, milk. These were mature Christians who actually were regressing back to milk. That's how we misunderstand the whole discussion of meat and milk. There's mature Christians. No, it was the mature Christians going backward. And what he is doing then is pressing them to press on in the faith, to grow in the faith. You can really, if you want to, remain on the surface of the Christian faith. You can remain on the surface of this and never really grow in this. Jesus talked about that in the parable of the soils. And that's why this is so important. But here's the great encouragement today, that it's precisely the purpose in understanding the priesthood of Jesus, understanding that marvelous work for us, that we would have real understanding and have strength given to us and hope given to us and assurance given to us. Those are wonderful blessings that he's been pressing us with. And that's what I want to encourage you with today. The greatness of Jesus' priesthood for you that you would keep your eyes on him especially in the times that we live. Especially in all the confusion of our times. this is a great passage to address that and to address what we've seen and i'm convinced the more that we appreciate this about him the more we will live in confidence in this life and in light of the hope that is set before us of the joy that is to come when we see him as he is there's one great truth we're working with today in this section jesus is living it's an important point and you'll notice he is engaged in exercising a permanent priesthood always for you the great implication being as we'll end up on this note that he cannot fail to save any of his people he will save all of them not one will be lost and that in the struggle of the present he has unlimited resources to help you and that he's ever living to do that for you I don't know if there's a better message for us in the moment so we should greatly marvel at this today in hope and I'm continuing the theme that we have run with that the book of Hebrews continues to present to us that everything about Jesus is better better we have three betters again today a better covenant a better ministry and a much better priest and that's how we're looking at this brief passage this morning now the theme that he is working with here is what he developed last time that he is that very last verse there 19 bringing in a better hope through which we draw near to God he has on his mind the great privilege that you all have to draw near to God. That's what's overwhelmed the author. That is what has been so special to the author. We are not waiting to draw near to God. We're there. We're there. We have passed by looking at the tabernacle structure. We've walked right by the altar of the burnt offering where the sacrifice was made that was the cross and we have passed into the holy places the holy place where the light is and the bread is given of his constant light and care for us and we've come into the most holy place right before the face of god that's what he will say in chapter 10 when he says when you draw near to worship Don't you understand you should come with boldness, having access into the presence of God, into the most holy place? You're not outside kept by a veil. That veil was written too at the cross. That's what Jesus was talking about in worship and spirit and in truth. When you gather as the body all over the face of the earth right now, the heavens are with us. You're before his face. and it's a face of favor when i when i have the great splendid privilege at the end of this service to give the benediction as jesus would give these benedictions and all the ministry always gave these benedictions the apostles when they lifted up their hands they would communicate the smiling countenance and face of god is upon you we're not waiting to find out whether we're going to make it into heaven he wants you to know that that's happened it's just a matter of time and a little bit of space now what i challenged with that was last time to have a better appreciation of worship in this regard we draw near to god we're we're there and i don't think we've appreciated that as we should that's why we've had the worship wars that's why we've thought i want better this and i want better music. Whoa! You're before the face of God. That's how the New Testament explains your worship. You're not kept far. That's why you should come every time that word's preached. But they've not appreciated that. That's why ministry has to be so patient, because people were very slow growing and sheep were very wandering they've not appreciated what the priesthood of jesus has accomplished for them and and what they wanted to do was look back to the moses priesthood the the erotic priesthood that didn't bring in perfection he says remember that last time they were still kept out if you will in that priesthood so what he does now is help them to understand the great arrangement and how this priest gives us access to God and the the blessings of that the heart of this comes down to something that he says in verse 22 here this morning and if you you have your bibles open in um in verse 22 you'll notice that he says here this makes after he quotes psalm 110 again remember that is just a crucial psalm to the new testament authors the lord has sworn and will not change his mind you're a priest forever this makes jesus the guarantor of a better covenant. It's the first time the author's used the little word diatheke here, covenant. He wants us to appreciate how much better the new covenant is than the old covenant. That's what he wants us to understand. This is what the prophets longed to see. This is what the prophets spoke about. And why the author says, that's why, how will you escape if you neglect this? Because this is as good as it gets. Now what are we talking about when we say Old Covenant and New Covenant? Well, we're not talking about the Old Testament. You have your Bibles and you have a break here of the Old Testament and the New Testament. That's how dispensationalists will look at this and say the Old and the New. No, no, no. what we're talking about when we say old covenant new covenant was the old covenant in the arrangement that was given through moses remember abraham looked to something else through the melchizedek priesthood so gospel was already there and it was already foreshadowed and later this promise that hebrews hebrews mentions here But this arrangement under Moses, he makes a sharp distinction in terms of now the new covenant arrangement that was promised to Abraham and that is fulfilled in Jesus. And the New Testament authors are constantly explaining this. They're explaining this powerfully. Think about 2 Corinthians 3. Now, if the ministry of death, carved on letters of stone, came with such glory, that's the law, boys and girls, given on Sinai, that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. That's 2 Corinthians 3. So he sees this great contrast between what happened with the administration with Moses and what we've received today. And the point has been Abraham himself in the covenant of grace looked by faith to the Melchizedek priesthood that foreshadowed Jesus' priesthood, which was of an entirely different order. Now we're back to this issue then of what was wrong with the old covenant. What was different? Because they wanted to go back. That's what they saw as a solution. Why? Because it had more outward glory. You could see when you came up to worship. And you could see, I mean, Jesus, this Jesus we can't see right now. He's already addressed that. He's not seen. We want to see something. We want more power in worship. We want to have a better experience in worship. And so going back to the old would seem to be better for us. Well, last time, remember what he said. Perfection was not brought in through the Levitical priesthood. Under it, the people received the law. the law never brought salvation. But neither did the priesthood, in a sense, did it? Because the blood of bulls and goats could never forgive sins. And what he's doing here is showing the inferiority of the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. Let me make it very clear. The people in the Old Testament were saved the same way we are. They looked by faith to Jesus. They looked for the mediator. They looked to the true priest who was proclaimed in all of these things that foreshadowed him. And that's what Abraham saw in Melchizedek. But the people weren't appreciating how the priesthood did not accomplish what they thought it did. Actual reconciliation with God. Actual reconciliation with God. They were misunderstanding Moses. What is the problem? Well, he says it in verse 23. There were also many priests. Notice it. They were prevented by death from continuing. And then he says in verse 27, notice this, that the high priest, when making sacrifice, had to first make a sacrifice for what? His own sins. And then for the people's. And then in verse 28, he says, For the law appoints high priests men who have weakness. This is such an important point. I don't think we should miss this for our day. It's a really important point. They wanted to go to Moses to look back to men who they thought could bring them to God. But notice the three things said about these men. They died, they were sinners, and they're weak. what do we see in Israel's history there were a lot of good priests there were Samuel there were a lot of really good priests in the ministry but you remember what happened at the initiation of the priesthood well two abusive priests showed up who abused the worship of God their names were Nadab and Abihu, sons of Aaron. They corrupted the worship of God and the Lord had to exercise a severe judgment. That's just like when the law was given. As soon as the law was given, they're out making a calf. As soon as the priesthood was given, they're corrupting worship. There was this great struggle throughout Israel's history with the priests. You had a lot of, I want to make sure I say this, good priests. But you had a lot of abuse. Remember Eli and his sons? I mean, how bad did it have to get, really, think about it. How bad did it get to have the priests stealing the offerings of the people and then laying with the women at the gate who came up to worship? Do you know how bad the discouragement was in Israel with the priesthood at times? People didn't even want to come worship anymore. They had given up. The ministry was such a mess. Good priests were there. But all of them died. All of them were sinners. And all of them were really weak. now why is that such an important point today come on why do you think the battle with jesus was so fierce with the religious leaders of israel well because jesus came and provided a ministry for the broken but what had they done to the ministry well this is why the pharisees you know when jesus walked on earth were so tied to the rules and regulations, thinking that that's how they could conform people to God's law and make them right with God. What an ugly ministry. You need to wash your hands before you eat bread. And they beat everyone into it. They used the law to empower themselves to gain control over the flock. The Sanhedrin was not marked by joy. They were not marked by confidence in God's love. There was no hope. There wasn't freedom given. Rather, the spiritual life of the scribes and the Pharisees and the priests was marked by sorrow, guilt, fighting, and division. They turned it back into a covenant of works to put it in theological language which was supposed to be a covenant of grace. Now let me make really clear we pastors run into this same danger because we're in a moment in our country of massive exposure of tons of corruption and abuse in the church. That's gone on for a long time. I mean, it was just in the SBC. It just rocked with the scandal this week. And it wasn't Rome. Hundreds of pastors and church-affiliated personnel accused of sexual abuse. It all came out. Southern Baptists. All against their parishioners. There's been so much of this that we have been in the wake of a bunch of abused and herding sheep who are bewildered. Is this what the ministry is? How can this stuff even take place? Let me tell you how. What has been the lingering problem in America? Well, we're so into hero worship. We have hero ministries everywhere. And how easy it is to function like the old covenant, as if the ministry is about men conforming people to the righteousness before God by doing the law. And who has been terribly set aside in the ministry in America? We've had an awful problem of corrupting worship. And I'm not apart from any of that. I could easily fall into doing this. Any pastor could. We've put our trust in mortal men for ministry. Look at our conferences. how much of this is really about the gospel? About making Jesus known? Or have legal ministries flourished controlling people, which is our default mode by nature? Not the gospel. Here's what Hebrews is saying. This is what makes the character of the new covenant so great. This is what Abraham looked for. The New Covenant minister has a great aim in the New Covenant. This is why the apostles were so strong on telling us what to do and to keep us in check. Woe is me if I don't preach Christ and Him crucified. That's the heart of it. Sure application follows. Sure sanctification. This is an important point. The heart of everything is the high priesthood of Jesus. And that's what he's saying to us here. Jesus has become, listen to this, the surety of a better covenant. That word surety is huge here in verse 22. A guarantor of a better covenant. It means more than mediator. What he means is, he's become the guarantor of the better covenant. What that word meant at the time was, is that he offers his own life to guarantee you what's promised. The old covenant didn't have that. The fact is, the author is overwhelmed by this point. In fact, he even adds to this and says, listen, the old covenant, about Jesus, he says in the new covenant, and it was not without an oath. He keeps coming back to the promise and oath, two immutable things. 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're a priest forever. Here's what he's saying. The Old Testament priesthood never rested on an oath like that. God can't lie. He finds that to be the most comforting truth for you. This is what makes the new covenant so marvelous. And that's why New Testament writers were so strong on calling us to set people free in the gospel. Pastors, set them free in the gospel. Announce Romans 1, convict of the law like you did. Read Romans 1 and then get to Romans 8. Now there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. An oath was sworn that God would appoint His Son as the perfect priest for you. Who is the Son? That's a marvel of the Christian gospel. The one, Hebrews 1 said, whom He appointed as heir of all things, through whom He also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God. He's the exact imprint of His nature and He upholds the universe by the word of His power. That's your priest. that's your pastor. And afterward, making purifications for sins, purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand on the throne of majesty. In verse 24, guess what? He continues forever and has an unchangeable priesthood for you. That's what Abraham saw. those priests failed. Those priests died. Those priests were sinners. Those priests were weak. Don't ever look to mortal men. We're so dispensable. So, Pastor, God could take me out tonight. But what is the priest of the new covenant that Abraham looked for? What is he like? And he trains his ministers to represent him. Indeed, it was, listen to this, beloved, so wonderful. It was fitting that we should have such a high priest. Listen to how he's described. Holy, innocent, and unstained. The old Geneva is right as you look up the word. It's so powerful in light of everything that I've just preached. Holy, harmless, unstained. Just let that set in. He never had any sin. It was the pure Lamb of God who came here as your priest to make atonement for you out of the great love with which the Father loved you He was given. So that you might be able to draw near to God in confidence today. Knowing His love, knowing His favor. The old covenant had priests appointed by the law and the law did not appoint a priest like this. That's what he's saying. The law never appointed a priest like this. That's why he says it had to change by necessity. You need to remember this today and all the struggles that we have. Sin, the corruption. You know, look at how lost people are right now. You know, this terrible shooting happened this last week. And how many news reports this week helped people in Uvalde look to Jesus? And if the church isn't doing it, what do you get? Nothing. I hear one news report say, look to somebody who can actually help you. Instead, we're talking about, again, the stupid talking points. Gun control. Does anyone listen to the gospel? You have a perfect priest who is holy and harmless and undefiled for you. And the aim of the New Covenant ministry, and he gives faithful pastors, I don't want to think that it's just, Jesus is very concerned to give faithful pastors, is to preach the new reality that has come. He is higher, verse 26, than the heavens. He is risen, and the age of the priest to which all of history looked to has come in Jesus, because when Jesus is heard, when Jesus is preached, what happens? Here's the best news today. Verse 25. We'll close on this. Consequently, he is able to perfectly save those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. What was the great problem? There was not a priest who could do that. There was not a priest who could actually bring in the forgiveness of sins. He could shadow it, could hold up the blood of bulls and goats, but what did that accomplish apart from faith in Jesus? He has. By the power of his own life and shedding his own blood. And that life is indestructible because he's risen. And you get to come today before God, before his face with confidence, and he wants you to know that by the power of his indestructible life, he has saved you completely, perfectly. Nothing left that needs to be done. You belong to him. And he cares for you. Listen to me say that. Don't miss what verse 25 says in the second part. He always lives. to make intercession for you. Somebody is always praying for you. Somebody is always caring for you. Jesus is not done in caring for you. In fact, he saw the greatest blessing is that he would send his spirit to dwell in your hearts, ministry of comfort. And he continues to identify with us and intercede for us so that we don't have a high priest who's unsympathetic with our weaknesses but one who has been tempted in every way as we are yet was without sin. See the difference? Let us then come boldly to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and may find grace to help us at the moment when we need it. Do you need it? How could you not right now? I don't know anyone who this life is not bearing down on and the troubles of this life are not depressing. You know, when you see these things happen like last week, it's immense. You don't even recognize in your subconscious how depressing it is. So come to him. Pray to him. He has all the resource in the world to help you in the heavens. Pray for your pastors that we are faithful in ministering Jesus to you. You need to take that more seriously. What that means is that he has a continual ministry. He doesn't want you to live in doubt of his work and promise of forgiveness and all your struggles. He has an endless supply of power and help to give you. You're never alone. The promise of the covenant of grace is, I have sworn, I have said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. I myself have sworn that, says Jesus. so beloved the marvel of this great truth today the word of god's oath has appointed a perfect son of god who is the surety of a better covenant who is the guarantor so that you might live knowing that as your priest he has saved you to the uttermost and he's done it perfectly what else do you want what other news could i give you that drives our whole life. The gospel's all about. May you be comforted today that by the word and oath, the word of his oath and promise, he is your high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for wonderful words. We realize how much we've taken for granted who our true priest is and how we have looked everywhere else. And this world needs the message of this kind of tender, compassionate high priest, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. Would you encourage your sheep who are discouraged today? Would you encourage the broken? Would you encourage the wayward and help them, Lord, to embrace Christ in faith? Would the hard-hearted be softened? Would the drifting come back? Would the apostatizing be recovered? And remember, O Lord, your precious promises made to Abraham and encourage your people in the eternal high priesthood of our Lord who ministers constantly to us from heaven. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you.