The Power of the Product
Here is the auto transcript from this week’s sermon on the Gospel to the Hebrews, The Power of the Product
Good to have you with us, great to be here.
It is a little interesting to be in a room that's this high tech.
I need you to understand that this room is so high tech that if I go too long, there's a trap door that'll open it.
But if you think that's good for you, just understand this room is so high tech, it has facial recognition, so if you fall asleep during my sermon, we will know who you are.
That's how high tech this room is.
So this room is way more high tech than I am, that's for sure.
And we are gonna dive in, it is good to be here.
I just wanna add my grateful appreciation to the Westmore community family for allowing us to share this home, to be a part of this home, and to be a blessing to them, and just pray that this will be a very fruitful relationship that will bring blessings to our congregations.
But ultimately, and most importantly, to Jesus our Lord, amen?
Well, we're gonna dive in because I thought this week was gonna be easier than last week, it is not, but I'm just gonna try to move as fast as I possibly can.
I just wanna begin by admitting that the name of my sermon today is a little weird.
The power of the product.
Now you guys know I've been going with power, power, power, power, and there's a reason for that.
But today we're going to talk about the power of the product.
It sounds very mechanical, very strained actually.
But a product is something that comes together when all the parts are correctly placed and put together.
Remember my favorite Greek word?
Someone tell me my favorite Greek word.
Telos, everybody say telos.
So when I ask you to tell me what my favorite Greek word is, you say telos.
Why do I love that word?
Because it kinda has this idea of product.
It has this idea of when everything has come together, is fit together exactly the way it's supposed to be, then that thing has come to its fulfillment.
It's come to its purpose.
Like all the pieces of a bicycle are wonderful, but that's not what you give your children.
You put the pieces together so that they can ride the bike 'cause that's what those pieces, that's how all those pieces of the bicycle come together and are the final product.
Now, this also sounds very mathematical, doesn't it?
Well, it should because it is.
It's an equation designed to bring us to the ultimate product who is Yeshua.
In fact, the Greek word for disciple is the same word from which we get our English word mathematics.
And now you're going, oh man, he's killing my brain cells with the grammar and now we're gonna do math.
It's Saturday for crying out, preacher.
But it's mathematical.
In fact, the word math literally means to think.
Now, this morning we're gonna do, we're gonna start with a midrashic formula, which is, I've shared with you that a midrash kinda compares things and makes connections.
And in some of the Jewish midrash, they would start with one verse and then go to another verse and that's what we're gonna do this morning.
So the verse I wanna begin with this morning before we dive into Hebrews chapter eight is taken from one of the most mathematical Psalms you will ever read and that's Psalm 119.
First of all, it adds up to the longest chapter in the Bible, but also it, well, you know what Psalm 119 is.
Let me begin in verse 158.
That's how mathematical this is.
This chapter has 158 verses.
The Psalmist writes, I behold the treacherous and loathe them because they do not keep your word.
Consider how I love your precepts.
Revive me, O Lord, according to your loving kindness.
The sum of your word is truth and every one of your righteous ordinances is everlasting.
Did you pick up on that mathematical concept in that in verse 116?
The sum of your word is truth.
The English word sum means what?
Well, two plus two equals the sum of four.
The sum is the thing, it's the product.
It's the thing that everything multiplies to or adds up to.
And the writer David writes that the sum of all of God's word is truth.
And Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
I am the truth.
This morning as we take just a moment to prepare our hearts in prayer, I just wanna ask you an honest question.
Will you do the math?
Will you let the writer of Hebrews add it all up for us and bring us to this amazing product, this telos?
That is Yeshua the Messiah.
Let's pray.
Abba Father, thank you for allowing us to be not just in this physical house today, Father, but in your spiritual house, the body of Messiah.
And Father, I pray that this body, this house of your people would be filled with your presence, with your spirit, surrounded by your angels, ministering and serving.
All of this, Father, for your glory.
Father, if there have been pieces that we have struggled to put together, knit them together in our hearts and minds, help us to make the connections so that we can come to the truth of who Yeshua actually is.
I pray this, I believe for this in Yeshua's holy name.
So the Hebrew word that is used in Psalm 119, 160 for some is actually a very familiar word to those who are Torah passionate.
It is the Hebrew word rosh.
It's the root from which the very first word of the Bible, bereshit or beroshit, if I can highlight that.
It's the root from which the very first word of the Bible comes from, and it simply means the head, the chief, or the beginning.
Head is the primary meaning, but it is also used for sum, the thing that everything adds up to.
It's the concept of the summit of a mountain.
What is the summit of our faith?
Yeshua.
David knows that every Hebrew letter is also a Hebrew number and he knows that it all adds up to truth, and Jesus said, "I am the truth."
Now, I believe it was this very thought that the writer of Hebrews had in mind when he begins what we identify as chapter eight.
So I hope you have your Bible on your lap or on your app, and let me say just, I'm a little sidebar.
I know I don't have my Bible up here because I'm old and I put my scriptures in my notes so I can read them, all right, which means I blow them up to 16 font.
But there's a change we need to make as a church, so I'm gonna get up in your business.
It bothers me, just gonna be honest, I mean, Chris slaps your knuckles all the time, so I'm gonna do it once.
It bothers me that I don't see the Bible.
Now, I know we've got our new fangled finger machines, and if that's what you have, but we're gonna put 'em up here, I think, but we need to see the Word because I don't wanna just talk to you about what's in the Word I want you to see what's in the Word as we go through it.
So that's my little, you know, sidebar comment.
More Bible in your lap or on your app.
Let's get there, chapter eight.
How does chapter eight start?
Now, the main point in what has been said is this, let's stop right there with just that phrase.
The writer of Hebrews starts this chapter by saying, now, the main point, the very first word in this sentence in Greek is the word kephalion, and it literally means of the head or the main point.
This is the word that comes from the Greek word kephalion, which means head.
It is the word that is used to translate the Hebrew word rosh, the head, the chief, or the beginning.
If you've ever heard of a kephia, an Arab headdress, same root, same origin.
This word, however, is an issue word in Christianity.
I didn't realize that till I started studying.
I know this is going to surprise you that sometimes Christians have disagreements, but there is a debate over its proper understanding, and I'm gonna tell you where the debate comes from.
We're okay with saying Jesus is the head of the church.
We get that.
It gets a little dicey when it starts talking about how Jesus is the head of the church and the husband is the head of the wife.
Wait a minute, whoa, whoa, whoa.
And so there's a debate over whether the word is to be understood as the source of something or the word is the idea of having power and authority over.
We're not gonna dive into that, but I do want you to understand, you know, sometimes words have baggage, not because of how they were used in the past, but how we kind of understand them in our own culture.
My point today is basically the writer of Hebrews' point, and that is that Christ is the kephile, he's the head of all things, he's the sum of all things that the writer of Hebrews has been saying up to this.
The writer of Hebrews has been laying out point after point after point.
He's making a case of how much greater Yeshua is than everything that has come before.
He is the source and he is the authority.
He is the reality that casts the shadow, and we're gonna spend some time talking about shadows next week.
He is the sum of all God's word because he is the word of God.
And so to keep with our mathematical verbiage, he is the product that all things add and multiply up to.
I mean, he has gone out of his way, just topic after topic, trying to get us to understand you can't walk away from Jesus.
And he's gonna show us a generation that walked away from a covenant.
And the devastating effects, because he's speaking to new covenant believers, to Hebrew believers, and to Gentile believers, and he's saying, "Don't walk away, "and here's why you shouldn't.
"Here's the main point.
"You have every reason to not fall away."
Why?
Because Jesus is the sum of everything, and everything you need is in him.
This morning, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we're gonna look at three things.
We're gonna look at the exalted, the expected, and the eternal product.
So let's dive in.
Number one, let's look at Jesus as the exalted product.
Today, we're gonna take some small bites in scripture as we move through this.
So we're gonna look at the first two verses of chapter eight as we go.
Now, the main or the head point in what has been said is this.
We have such a high priest who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the majesty of heaven, a minister in the sanctuary, and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.
So what is the head point?
We have such a high priest.
I bet you've never sat around thinking about the word such.
It's not a very pretty word, really, such.
It's a demonstrative pronoun.
I know you got up this morning needing to know that, but it's a very important word.
The writer uses this same demonstrative pronoun in chapter seven, verse 26, when he says, "For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, "holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, "and exalted above the heavens."
The point is the writer of Hebrews isn't just saying, "Hey, here's the good news, you have a high priest."
He is saying that you have such a high priest.
What does that mean?
It means that everything that he has described about the high priest up to that point, the greater aspect of his priesthood, his ministry, his service, that's the high priest we have.
There are so many crucial elements in this, we don't have time to talk about all of them.
He says, "He has been exalted to the right hand of God.
"He has taken his seat."
And both of these are repeated emphasis that happen over and over again.
Why?
Why is taking his seat so important?
Because it means he has finished his work.
Do you remember John chapter 19, verse 30, when Christ is on the cross?
What were his final words?
Actually, what was his final, in Greek, it's just one word.
It is finished.
To tell us thy.
What's my favorite Greek word?
Do tell me.
Tell, I will tell you.
I just did.
What do you think this word's built on?
Tell us.
When Christ says, "It is finished."
It is tell us.
The work is completed.
How do we know?
He has ascended and been exalted and has sat down.
The work is completed.
And we have such a high priest.
We don't have a high priest that has to keep going over and over and over and over again to offer gifts and sacrifices.
We have such a high priest who has offered such gifts and such a sacrifice that his work is complete.
He has been exalted.
We have such a high priest who has entered the true tabernacle and true in the context of real, the real thing, the thing that cast the shadow, not the shadow.
A tabernacle that was pitched and erected not by God, but by, not by men, but by God.
Erected not by Bezalel, a man whose name means in the shadow of God, but by a man named Emmanuel, God with us.
So much better.
We have such a great high priest.
So why does this matter?
We have every reason not to fall away, to not lose our standing because he has established himself in heaven.
Let's move on.
Verse three, "For every high priest is appointed "to offer both gifts and sacrifices.
"So it was necessary that this high priest "also have something to offer.
"Now, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all "since there are those who offer gifts according to the law "who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, "just as Moses was warned by God "that when he was about to erect the tabernacle, "said for, he said, 'See,' he says, "that you make all things according to the pattern "which was shown to you on the mountain.
"But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry "by as much as he has also the mediator "of a better covenant, which has been enacted "on better promises.'"
Man, I love God's word.
So now I'm gonna show you another little word.
Necessary.
It was necessary.
I told you, you may be wondering, how come every sermon title has to have the word power in it because that's what the Hebrew writer's talking about.
And he's even talking about it when he uses the word necessary.
I love the Greek language.
I love the beautiful word pictures that it creates, just like the Hebrew.
The Greek word for necessary comes from a Greek word that is the root of arm.
And it has that symbolic meaning of power, that you have to have the strength to do what is necessary.
Think how we have been shown Jesus.
He is at the right hand of God.
We have seen him as the mighty outstretched arm of the Lord.
Why?
Because there was something that was necessary, that needed the power to make it come to pass.
When Israel needed to be set free, God did what was necessary to save them with his mighty outstretched arm.
When we needed such a great high priest of power, because that was necessary to save us, he sent his son, who has now ascended and taken his place where?
At the right hand of God.
Guys, I'm not making up these connections.
This is the beauty of the inspiration of Scripture.
This word for necessary, it has to do with having the power to bring something to pass that is needed.
Did you hear that?
Necessary is a power word. (congregation cheering) And the writer of Hebrews is gonna show us why not only it was necessary for him to offer gifts and sacrifices, but why we needed a new covenant.
In this place of exaltation, he has done and is doing what is necessary for us.
He has offered gifts, he has offered sacrifices of his own blood, but now he performs other necessary ministries on our behalf.
I just wanna highlight just a few of them very, very quickly.
Isaiah 53, 12 prophesied, and he was numbered among the transgressors, yet he himself bore the sin of many and interceded for the transgressors.
Part of the ministry of our great high priest, that ongoing ministry, is that he is constantly interceding for us.
You know, Facebook and all the social media gives us a chance to say, you know, and I saw this, I think it was this week, someone just posted prayer now.
And man, I took that to heart.
I didn't need any detail, but if that's that moment that they were at, they needed prayer now.
I thought, I gotta pray.
And I started interceding at that moment.
I interceded and I cried out to Christ for whatever that circumstance was.
Now, I don't know about you, but sometimes when we intercede, we feel a distance between us and Christ.
But you know what?
There is no distance between Christ and the Father.
Jesus never has the insecurity of distance that we, and disconnect that we sometimes feel.
And when he intercedes for us, all he has to do is turn and say, Father, my children need me.
He's interceding for us.
Romans chapter eight, verse 33, Christ Jesus is he who died, yes, rather he who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.
Luke chapter 12, verse eight.
Man, I love this one.
And I say to you, everyone who confesses me before men, the Son of Man will confess him before the angels of God.
You know, I've gotta be honest with you.
When I went looking for that verse, I had kind of forgot that he confesses my name before the angels of God.
How many of you have kind of glossed past that?
Well, if you confess him before men, he'll confess you to the Father.
That's not exactly what it says, at least not in that verse.
It says he confesses my name to the angels.
Why?
Well, what did Hebrews chapter one, verse 14 tell us?
Are they, angels, not all ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?
Jesus doesn't just turn and talk to the Father like, wow, they're really going through a tough thing down there.
Father, I mean, what should we do?
He turns to the angels and says, that's my child, go.
Go now.
He is so much greater than the angels that when he speaks, they are dispatched to serve those who will inherit salvation.
Now, wouldn't that kind of give you a little bit more kick in your step, especially on a Monday, when the world is just multiplying its issues in your life?
To understand that when we intercede for us, he doesn't just talk about our problems, he instantly acts and invokes the ministry of the angels on our behalf.
Wow.
I mean, I was really happy with him confessing my name before God, but I kind of like the fact that he confesses my name before the angels.
Verse six, he has obtained a more excellent and exalted ministry.
Another cool word, obtained.
He has obtained a more excellent ministry.
This is such a cool wordplay, such a beautiful contrast is set up.
Whenever we think about the definition of sin and we go to the Greek, we look up this word and we see the word is hamartano, it's a Greek word.
Hamartano.
And it means literally to miss the mark.
How many of you have heard that definition?
Sin means to miss the mark.
But when the writer of Hebrews wants to tell us how Jesus has perfectly received this ministry, he has obtained this ministry, he uses a word that the word tigzano, which literally means to hit the mark.
Isn't that cool?
Why do I need such a great high priest?
'Cause I consistently miss the mark.
What is my need?
What is necessary for me?
Someone who hit the mark and obtained the priest service, the position.
I need him to be in because of the situation I'm in.
Are you with me?
Isn't that cool?
Oh, he obtained it, he got it.
This is the word of God.
It's like looking at the beautiful strokes of a master artist and understanding the power of how he made his point.
And I know I'm a word nerd, but I love it.
He hit the mark and obtained a better priesthood, a better covenant built on better promises.
So that's the exalted high priest, that's the product.
But was it expected?
Was that the expected product?
Was there an expectation of a new covenant?
The writer of Hebrews is now gonna take a dive into the new covenant prophecy of Jeremiah 31, 31.
And that's one of those passages where anybody that walks up to you as a believer and says, "Well, where's the new covenant "in the Old Testament?"
You should know that like you know John 3, 16.
Jeremiah 31, 31, parents, teach your children.
This is where it comes from.
Now the writer of Hebrews, I need to warn you in advance.
Sometimes small words have big meanings, but sometimes, and sometimes they also have unexpected revelation.
And sometimes that revelation is uncomfortable.
So let's dive in, verse seven.
"For if the first had been faultless, "there would have been no occasion for a second."
Now, if you have your Bible, if you had a New American Standard like I use, you would actually read, "For if that first covenant had been faultless, "there would have been no occasion sought for a second."
Now the New American Standard, the one I use, used to do something that I really, really appreciated.
I don't think the new one does it anymore, and it's a pity.
It italicizes words that the translators have put in to help the English reader.
But here's the controversy.
The writer of Hebrews did not use the word covenant.
He didn't say first covenant.
He simply said the first.
And now, oh man, cannon fodder for church drama.
Let's fight about it, 'cause that's what we do so well sometimes.
But the truth is the word covenant's not in the Greek.
So what's the big issue?
Christian translators often insert the word covenant because they believe it fits the context of the writer's thoughts.
Please hear me, they are not wrong.
It is helpful, but it can also be limiting.
Torah passionate believers say that this creates a false comparison between the old covenant and the new covenant, and accuse Christians of using it to demean and devalue the Torah, and sadly, they are not always wrong about that.
But here is the fallacy, please hear me, of both positions.
And my wife can testify to this.
I will make both sides mad, just give me a little time.
When I started my ministry, it's the name of my traveling ministry is Maranath Evangelistic Ministries, which abbreviates to MEM, M-E-M, which is kind of the spiritual middle letter of the Hebrew alphabet, and that is exactly where my ministry has been.
People in the Torah passionate movement used to be so upset with me.
Well, he just won't commit, because I was still preaching in churches on Sunday.
And some of the people in church, like, well, why are you there?
I was right where I was supposed to be, right in the middle.
And so what's my position on this?
I'm like a daddy walking into a room with two boys fussing, saying, "Knock it off."
Now, honey, this is where you're supposed to give me the signal to calm down.
All right, all right.
The writer is most definitely making a comparison between the old and new covenants, and is completely capable of doing so without devaluing or demeaning or devaluing the first covenant.
But trying to use the absence of the word covenant to defend the Torah is simply not necessary.
Because that's not his point.
His point isn't to demean or devalue, but to show you why we needed something even better.
He doesn't make the point that the new covenant is better because the old covenant was horrible.
He makes the point we need a new covenant because the first covenant was incapable of doing what I needed, what was necessary.
For me to be atoned and forgiven forever.
As I've stated so many times, the revelation and the value of the Torah remains intact when it is understood in the context of the inspired instruction of Jesus and his apostles.
There's no need to make this an issue because the value of the Torah is not at risk.
And we're gonna talk about this next week.
Shadows are not realities.
That doesn't make them bad.
All right, we'll get there.
There was though a necessity of a new and better covenant.
Within the context of that new covenant, there was a necessity for a better priesthood.
So here's what I believe, all right?
Why didn't the writer of Hebrews use the word covenant?
He could have, but here's what I think.
Because when he limits his words to the first, it encompasses all of the components the writer has been pointing us to.
Has he just been talking about just the covenant?
No, he's been talking about the liturgy.
He's been talking about the lineage.
He's been talking about the legacy.
He's been talking about every aspect, not just the covenant.
Now, all those things are components of the covenant.
But by not using that word, he stays true to how he's making his point.
It's a literary device.
Has Christianity at times used the new covenant to demean and devalue the Torah?
Yep. (sighs) But so is the Torah Passionate Movement.
The Torah Passionate Movement has done exactly the same thing, using the Torah to demean and devalue the new covenant.
Thus my passion, knock it off.
Pay attention to what he's saying and how he's saying it.
I could just sidebar here.
I mean, the worst thing I ever heard from my Torah Passionate friends and believers.
Well, there's nothing new in the new covenant.
Oh, if you believe that, I'm about to make you all kinds of uncomfortable.
Not me, his word.
We have to move beyond the debate to see the genius of the inspired author choosing not to include a word because it fits the point he's trying to make.
Now he's gonna show that the new covenant was needed and expected based on the words of Isaiah.
Now, verse seven, we have an issue over an unused word.
Verse eight, we're gonna run into an issue with a changed word.
So what does verse eight say?
"For finding fault with them, "he says, 'Behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord, "when I will effect a new covenant "with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah."
First of all, note that the necessity for a new covenant comes not just from what the first couldn't do, but what that generation in the wilderness did do.
Did you hear that?
There's two things that necessitated this.
The first covenant was not designed to bring people to Telos.
It's what it wasn't able to do.
But the problem is also based on what that generation of Israelites in the wilderness did do.
What did they do?
They broke covenant.
Let's carry on.
Now, there are actually multiple words in this verse for the word make.
In the Hebrew text, the Masoretic text, which is written 300 or 400 years after Jesus, the Hebrew word make is the Hebrew word for cut.
It's a word that creates the image of sacrifice.
But you could also kind of see the Hebrew word cut as the idea of what is necessary to make a house.
If you wanna make a house, you wanna make something, you have, at some point, you're gonna do what?
You're gonna cut.
You're gonna cut wood.
You're gonna cut timber.
You're gonna cut stone.
That's what it takes.
The process of making always seems to involve cutting.
But in this context, the writer of Hebrews is bringing up the sacrificial imagery of the cutting of the sacrifice, the passing between the parts.
And so that Hebrew word has that imagery of cut.
Now, the Septuagint, the Greek translation, doesn't use a word to translate that word that has that same cut picture.
Instead, it uses a word, dia tithami, which is, again, so many Greek words are a preposition and then the word.
Dia, which means through or thoroughly, and tithami, which is a word you really need to know because it means to set in place.
Something is to set in place and be established.
So now I got a question, Mr.
Writer of Hebrews, just where do you get off changing the word?
Now, you say, "Why do I say that?"
Well, he's writing in Greek.
We already have a Greek version of the prophecy of Jeremiah, right?
All he has to do is use the same words, right?
But he didn't.
Here we go.
Where does he get off doing that?
Now, let me sidebar again.
Why do I take time to show you what I'm about to show you?
Because I want to educate you and I want to insulate you from false accusations made against this book by false teachers and anti-Jewish missionaries who are going to use what I'm about to show you to somehow cause you to doubt the inspiration of Scripture.
Well, that guy couldn't even quote his own Greek text.
There's a reason and it's beautiful.
So where does he get off making such a change?
And let me ask you this question.
If you discovered that a New Testament writer was intentionally changing words, would you consider that to be reason to take his book out of the Bible?
Now, I won't make you raise your hand, but if you're sitting there thinking, yes, you need to open your Bible to the book of Deuteronomy and you need to rip it out.
Why?
'Cause Moses did the same thing.
Exodus chapter 20, verse eight.
I mean the 10 commandments.
You can't mess with the 10 commandments.
Moses did.
God said, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy."
But then when we come to the second time he recounts the Torah to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy chapter five, he changes the word remember from zakor to guard or keep the word shomer.
In Exodus, he says, "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy."
In Deuteronomy, he says, "Observe or guard the Sabbath day to keep it holy."
Are we gonna rip the book of Deuteronomy out of the Old Testament because Moses did it?
Why did he do that?
He did it for the exact same reason what I'm about to show you the Hebrew writer did.
To explain and expand their understanding of what God meant when he commanded them to remember.
It was more than just the mental act of calling a past event to mind.
It was not just an eternal act of remembrance.
It was an outward act of engagement and keeping.
So back to our verse in Hebrews.
What word, since the writer of Hebrews didn't use the Greek word from the Septuagint for make, what word did he use?
He used the Greek word, suntelio.
From my favorite word, what is my favorite Greek word?
Do tell me. - Telos. - I just did.
Telos.
And what does it mean?
To complete, to fulfill.
He literally uses the, in Greek, you have multiple words for to make something.
And he's trying to make a point about the perfection of the new covenant.
And it just so happens there's actually a Greek word in the family of Greek words that literally means to make perfect.
Come on.
Don't tell me this word isn't inspiring.
It's not just inspired, it's inspiring.
I'm not that, I mean, look, all I can do is, well, I'm gonna use the word power every week.
Power, power.
I mean, I'm like a paint by numbers dude.
This is artistry.
This is a thread.
And so he changes one word to amplify, to explain.
He didn't just make a covenant, he made a perfect covenant.
To do what?
Bring telos.
To bring perfection.
To bring perfection.
To bring perfection.
To bring perfection.
To bring perfection.
To bring perfection.
To bring perfection.
To bring perfection.
To bring perfection.
To bring perfection.
To bring perfection.
To bring perfection.
To bring perfection.
To bring perfection.
To bring perfection.
As it goes into the nations and finds Judah and finds the lost sheep of Israel, what does it do?
It reconciles them to him in Christ.
Perfection.
Oh, I gotta skip so much stuff here.
I promised myself I wouldn't do this to you today.
You remember that I've taught you the creation equation, one becomes two so it can become one again.
That's what's going on here.
Heaven was divided, the heavenly waters, that which was one became two.
Why?
'Cause someday it's gonna be one again.
He took Adam, one, took Eve, one became two.
It's not good that a man shall be alone and the two shall become, come on, one flesh.
He did the same thing to the kingdom of Israel.
That which is one became two so that eventually it will be one.
Where does the prophet Ezekiel in 37 say it will happen?
In his hand.
Beautiful.
This is not about your DNA, it's about Jesus.
Please don't go take a DNA test to see if you're a lost descendant of Israel.
It's not about you being a descendant of Abraham, it's about him being the son of God.
It's not about you going and getting blood work done to discover your identity, it's about what his blood work has done for you.
All right?
Moving on, verse nine.
Remember that phrase, one is not like the other?
Notice what is the not like the other, the covenant.
How can there be nothing new in the new covenant when in verse nine he says, "It will not be like the covenant "I made with their fathers."
Now again, I mean, I've loved the Torah passionate movement and I've learned so much.
And some of what I learned was sometimes my Christian friends said some dumb things.
And that's what I discovered about my Torah passionate friends.
We also say some dumb things.
There's nothing new in the new covenant.
You best read again.
It was not like the one I made with their fathers.
Both of this, one is not like the other.
Both in necessity required God's mighty outstretched arm and hand to lead them.
That was what was alike.
But verse nine stresses the relationship between God and Israel.
He took them by the hand because it was necessary.
They were not able to free themselves.
Man, it's so beautiful, but we have a really big word issue here, translation issue.
Because if you go to Jeremiah 31 and you read this text, it is not gonna read like what the writer of Hebrews just quoted.
You see in the Masoretic text, it's going to say that they did not continue in my covenant, though I was a husband to them.
Well, that's beautiful, isn't it?
Now what the Septuagint says.
The Septuagint says that they did not remain in my covenant and I disregarded them.
Wait, what?
That don't sound so pretty.
And then the writer of Hebrews, well, he's just gonna make it all kinds of crazy.
Says they did not continue in my covenant and I did not care for them.
Do you understand how the anti-missionaries have a heyday with something like this?
How in the world did this happen?
How can you have one verse, one person saying it says husband and another group saying it means disregard.
It's how the Hebrew letters are written.
There are two words, ba'alti means my wife or ba'ali means my wife, the word here is ba'alti and it means husband.
The word ba'al, ba'al simply means husband.
God brought him to Mount Carmel to challenge them.
You can't be in covenant with them, you're in covenant with me, I'm your ba'al, choose.
I'm your husband.
But the other word that the Greek translation sees in that word is not ba'alti but gi'alti, which means to disregard or to not care for.
And to not care for doesn't mean, it's not an emotional not caring, it's not a meeting of their circumstance.
It's not caring for their needs.
So where does the variance come?
The first letter of each of these words.
You see the Hebrew letter bet and the Hebrew letter gimel in a written form, and think about the ancient text that they were translating from, can look very, very similar.
If you don't make sure that you show the little arc in the gimel, it can look like a bet.
That's it.
I had to correct a friend when we were in Hebrew school in Israel.
He kept pronouncing this word with a D sound and I had to show him, that's not a dalet, that's a resh.
Why?
They look almost exactly alike.
So that is most likely the origin of the confusion.
The cool thing is that they both are beautiful ways to express the same thought.
The Masoretic text highlights the shame of their violation of the covenant because of their relationship with God as their husband.
That'll preach all day.
Don't worry, I'm not going to, but it will.
Gealti stresses the violation of the covenant that led to the necessity of a new covenant, but it also points toward the action that it resulted in towards that generation.
So let me ask you a question, don't answer out loud because it's a trap.
Did God disregard or choose not to care for them?
The answer is yes.
For that generation, which is exactly the point, is exactly what the writer of Hebrews has been doing from the early part of the book.
He keeps calling our attention to that generation.
You think, well, man, Brent, that's so harsh.
God would never say something like that.
Do you remember the Psalm we read to begin today?
Psalm 119, 158, "Behold the treacherous, "I behold the treacherous and I loathe them, "for they break my word."
Remember Hebrews chapter three, verses seven through 11, "Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says today, "if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts "as when they provoked me in the day of the trial "in the wilderness, where your fathers tried me "by testing me and saw my works for 40 years.
"Therefore, I was angry with this generation and said, "they always go astray in their hearts "and they did not know my ways.
"And I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest.
"And they didn't."
They saw the salvation of the Lord and they didn't cross Jordan.
Why?
They disregarded the covenant.
And God was not obliged to take them into the promised land.
That may be harsh, but that is why the writer of Hebrews keeps bringing us back to focus our hearts and minds on that generation and the resulting action of disregarding the covenant.
And folks, I'm gonna spoil alert, we're moving towards a comparison.
If that's what happened for a generation who walked away from that covenant, how much more severe for those who walk away from the better priesthood, the better promises, and the better covenant, the better king, such a great high priest.
Come on.
What does he say in Hebrews chapter two, verse three?
How shall we escape if we neglect, disregard?
Same word.
He's a genius or the Holy Spirit is genius.
He introduced us to this word before we ever got to Jeremiah.
So what does he say?
What does God will to do?
He says, I will put my law in their minds.
I will write it on their hearts.
The first covenant had shadows, and we're gonna talk about some of those next week, but here he calls to mind the wrapping of the tefalon upon the forehead and on the forearm.
What's new about the new covenant?
It's not something you write and put on your forehead or on your arm, it's something he writes in your mind and on your heart.
And that ain't new.
That's new.
And that's better.
Verse 11, what else is new?
We will no longer teach one another to know the Lord because everybody will know him.
He will be our husband.
We will have relationship with him.
It's when we were in Israel, one of the first things they had to teach us was, you know, not to say, use the word, the Hebrew word to know, yada, when talking about someone we know.
Because if I say, Yodati, I knew her, I knew him, it implies way more than what I'm implying.
You have to use the right word.
Ani makiroto, I know him.
In a friend way.
If I say it the other way, I'm gonna get stoned, all right?
And yet that's the word he uses.
And that's the way he uses it.
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And that's the way he uses it.
But the bottom line is, as every human being discovers, as their life draws closer to its end, the older you get, the more ready you become.
You just reach a point where you need something better. where you need something better.
And you, Lord, in the beginning, And you, Lord, in the beginning, in the Rosh, laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish, but you remain.
They will all become old like a garment, and like a mantle you will roll them up.
Like a garment they will also be changed, but you are the same.
And your years will not come to an end.
The world was literally created as a covenant.
Seven days.
Shavua.
Covenant.
Heaven and earth were created in a covenant, yet there is a time coming when this world, as wonderful as it is, is aging, it's getting older.
There will come a time that God will say, "You know what?
Let's do something even better."
And he will roll this world up like a scroll.
Like a covenant.
Wonderful.
To move on to something better.
I don't know when my transformation day will come, but as this body gets older, my heart and my mind get more willing to accept change.
I pray, "Come quickly, more Jesus," a whole lot more now than I did when I was 25.
My friends, change happens.
I want you to think about this.
We're going to look at this next week.
If God can say even the heavens and the earth will come to a place where there's time for a change, why do we resist the change of moving from a wonderful covenantal revelation of God to an even better one, where we have such a high priest who serves not in the shadow, but in the real tabernacle, not one made by men's hands, but one made by God's hands.
Not where it's the blood of bulls and goats, but it was the blood of the Lamb of God who redeems forever.
Not one that came with imperfection, but one was made for perfection.
We don't have to despise the first, but we do have to embrace the second, because it all adds up to him.
He is the exalted creator and redeemer, our high priest.
He is the expected fulfillment of the new covenant that is necessary, and he is the eternal one.
And unlike the heavens and the earth, and unlike scrolls, and unlike books, and unlike bodies, he will never grow old.
He will be there at the right hand of the majesty in heaven to intercede for us now and forevermore.
What's the main point?
Because of all of that, we have every reason to press on.
And I know life is tough.
Some of you have faced some very difficult things this week.
You have every reason to keep moving forward with God.
I can't pay my bills.
He can.
Just give him time.
We have every reason.
Well, they're coming against us.
Let them come.
They're going to come.
They may even take our lives, but you know what God's going to say?
The master's going to say to the angels, "Go get my children."
How are they going to know whose are his?
He's already told them your name.
That's the high priest.
There are seeds for you.
Fesses for you.
Sends the angels, dispatches them for you, which means there's nothing you're going to face today, there's nothing you're going to face this week that he isn't capable, he isn't able, he isn't powerful enough to meet that which is necessary in your life.
Because he's the real deal.
He's the full package.
He is the head of all things.
Let's press into him.
Let's tell him, let's worship him.
Let's lay down some of those fears and respond to his goodness.
The glory of Jesus.
All God's people said, "Amen." [music]