Sunday Oct 19, 2014

The 3 Hebrews “IF’s”And

The 3 Hebrews

“Clean Consciences”

Some of the early Jewish Christians

had a problem!

They were being tempted to revert to Judaism, or to add Jewish

religious practices to the

New Covenant Good News.

(Does this remind anyone of any others who had a similar problem?)

(The Galatians, for example!)

So, God in His wisdom inspired the writing of the Book of Hebrews.

A word you find very often in this book is the word,

BETTER!

Hebrews speaks about:

• A BETTER Covenant

• A BETTER Priesthood

• A BETTER Sacrifice

• BETTER Promises

• A BETTER Hope

In Hebrews, God makes 3 very important

statements that begin with “IF”.

It was crucial to the Hebrews to understand what these “IF” statements taught so they would NOT be tempted to go back to Old

Covenant practices. It’s crucial for US today to understand what they teach also.

Here are the 3 Hebrews “IF” Statements:

The 3 Hebrews “IF’s”!

Let’s state them again:

1. IF the priesthood. . . .

2. IF the first covenant. . . .

3. IF the Old Covenant sacrifices.

The 3 Hebrews “IF’s” show how the Old Covenant was lacking in 3 ways and what

God in His love did to provide

what was lacking.

Let’s look first at Hebrews 8: 7 - 12:

Question: Was the first covenant faultless?

Question: Was the fault with the covenant or with the people?

So, the fault was with the PEOPLE.What was their problem?

What was God’s solution?

God’s solution was a wonderful New Covenant!

In His New Covenant with us, God says He will:

Forgive the peoples’ wickedness,and never again remember their sins.

QUESTION: Can a holy and just God forgive peoples’ wickedness and never again remember people’s sins JUST LIKE THAT?

Or does a just God have to JUDGE and PUNISH all such wickedness and sin AND TAKE IT AWAY from the

people BEFORE he can

“forgive it and remember it no more?”

We know the answer!

God DID have to judge and punish sin and TAKE IT AWAY from the people before He could forgive it and remember it no more.

And this brings us to the other 2 Hebrews “IF’s:

(Heb 7: 11)3 important questions:

1. What is this “perfection” that God intended? (Sinners are made “Perfect; FULLY cleansed from sin.”)

2. Could the Old Covenant priesthood take away the peoples’ sins and make them perfectly holy and righteous in God’s sight?

3. So, why would God

There can be only 1 reason why God

He wanted to establish a priesthood that COULD take away the peoples’ sins and make them perfectly holy and righteous in His sight.

Here is what God goes on to teach

in Hebrews Chapters 7 – 9 about this

BETTER PRIESTHOOD:

Question:

So, HAS the better priesthood of JESUS

ACHIEVED THE PERFECTION IN US THAT GOD INTENDED?

(The perfection that the

Old Covenant priesthood

could NOT achieve?)

HOW did this better priesthood achieve the perfection in the people that God

intended?

By offering to God a BETTER SACRIFICE for sin.

And this brings us to our third Hebrews

“IF”:

(Heb 10: 2)

3 important questions:

1. Could the Old Covenant sacrifices provide perfect cleansing? Could they take away the peoples’ sins and make them perfectly clean, holy and righteous in God’s sight?

2. Did they ever STOP?

3. So why would God establish a better sacrifice, one that DID STOP?

There can be only 1 reason why God established a better sacrifice:

He wanted to establish a sacrifice that COULD make the people perfectly holy and righteous in His sight - a sacrifice

that COULD PROVIDE PERFECT CLEANSING FOR THE PEOPLE

Here are 2 interesting questions for people who have a hard time accepting that ALL sin for ALL time was taken away by Jesus and that His final sacrifice DID provide perfect cleansing for us:

• HAVE THE SACRIFICES STOPPED?

• WHAT DID GOD SAY IT WOULD TAKE FOR THE SACRIFICES TO STOP?

For the sacrifices to STOP, it would take a sacrifice that provided PERFECT cleansing by a Priest who

DID achieve the perfection

in people that God wanted!

And that's exactly why the sacrifices have stopped.

The BETTER Sacrifice by the BETTER Priest (Jesus) has made believers

PERFECT and COMPLETE In Christ.

Here’s what God teaches in Hebrews Chapters

7 – 10 about Jesus’ BETTER SACRIFICE:

TO SUM UP what the 3 Hebrews “Ifs” teach us:

1. God found fault with the people under the Old Covenant, so he implemented a BETTER New

Covenant. In the New Covenant, He remembers our sin and wickedness no more.

2. In the New Covenant, God has provided a BETTER Priesthood, one that CAN make people perfect in

His sight.

3. In the New Covenant, God has provided a BETTER Sacrifice,

ONE sacrifice that has

TAKEN AWAY ALL of mankind’s sin.

A quick note here:

Jesus’ sacrifice took away ALL of mankind’s sin.

But not all of mankind automatically has

Eternal Life – we must COME TO JESUS

and BELIEVE IN HIM

to receive His Life and His Righteousness.

(See TGP’s “Amazing Grace” Course

for more details.)

So! The 3 “IF’s” were written to the early Jewish Christians in The Letter to the Hebrews.

They were being tempted (or even persecuted) to go back to Old Covenant practices.

Do you think that after reading the letter their faith in JESUS and their resolve to continue

trusting in HIM was strengthened?

What about US – are WE understanding more and more what Jesus REALLY did for us?

Is this increasing our JOY!?

THE JOY OF THE LORD IS OUR STRENGTH!

On to:

The 3 Hebrews

“Clean Consciences”

How do you feel after a long day out in the hot sun

on the road, or doing gardening or at a Sports Day somewhere?

And then you have a nice long, cool SHOWER!!

How do you feel NOW!!??

Don’t you feel

NICE and squeaky clean

after all the

dirt, sweat and grime

washes away with that nice SOAP

and that nice

COOOOOOLLLL WATER!!!???

What about when we SIN – does that make us feel dirty on the outside AND

on the inside, in our CONSCIENCES?

Wouldn’t it be WONDERFUL if there was a way for those dirty and guilty

CONSCIENCES to be cleansed just like our bodies were cleansed

when we took our lovely SHOWER?

The bad news is, that in the Old Covenant this inner cleansing was NOT possible: (Heb 9: 9)

The GOOD NEWS is that we are living under God’s wonderful

better New Covenant.

The better priesthood and the better sacrifices that are part of this covenant

HAVE provided this

INNER cleansing of our consciences

for us!

Check it out:

“Clean Consciences” # 1: (Heb 9: 13)

“Clean Consciences” #2: (Heb 10: 2)

This is why God established a BETTER SACRIFICE. He wanted one that would provide PERFECT

CLEANSING. One that would cleanse our CONSCIENCES and make our

feelings of GUILT disappear!

This seems incredible!

REALLY!? God does not want us

to feel guilty about our sins?

For those who would like to check this “Outrageous Teaching” by seeing what the good old King James Version says,

let’s take a look:

“Clean Consciences” #3: (Heb 10: 21-22)

The previous Scripture says it ALL!

When Jesus died the “Sin Curtain” in the temple was torn in two.

This showed that the sin of ALL MANKIND had been TAKEN AWAY by the sacrifice of Jesus.

Sinful people were once separated from a holy God by the curtain.

Now believers live IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD, FREEfrom the PENALTY and the GUILT of ALL SIN.

We have had a “SHOWER” in Jesus’ Blood and our previously guilty consciences have been CLEANSED.

So now the two next BIG questions are:

1. WHY would God NOT want us to feel guilty when we sin?

2. Won’t removing that weight of guilt cause us to go out and sin twice as much?

The answer to question 1 is found right in Hebrews:

The word “worship” here means:

To worship or serve God,

but NOT out of compulsion.

Can you freely worship and serve someone who makes you feel guilty all the time?Can you have a loving relationship with a person like this?What did Adam discover about this? After he sinned, what did he do when God approached?He HID – giving us a perfect example of how a loving relationship is NOT possible when GUILTexists between two people.Does God want us to FREELY worship and serve Him?

This is only possible if there is NO GUILTbetween Him and us!

That’s why God provided the Blood of Jesus, to:

Question 2 is:

Will we sin MORE now that God has taken away all our sin and all our guiltand has declared us to be perfectly righteous in Jesus?

Romans 6: 14, Titus 2: 11 – 14

and the Book of Ephesians,

which we are presently studying,

all clearly answer this question.

The book of Ephesians from

Chapter 4 on is FULL of

teaching and encouragement about how we will live as Blood-washed,

guilt-free believers.

Our new lives In Jesus are NOT lives which are full of sin!

They USED to be, but NOT any more!

Paul tells us: (Eph 4: 17 – 19)

Paul continues:

CONCLUSION!

The world should want what we

Christians have because of our

JOY

May these

3 “IF’s” and 3 “Clean Conscience” TRUTHS

Bring us great

JOY and PEACEas we understand them and

learn to rest in them.

What is heb about?

Quote3 ifs (check diff versions)

Analyze (not in order)

Check kjv for conscious of sin. (10:2) idea: put up kjv with this then nlt so people can see the diff

Eg of melch = not proves we must tithe, proves jesus is better! (check tithing scr in nt)

Check greek/amplified for meaning of “perfect’ later on.

Steve request – eph ok forgiven pp and f so whtdo we do when we sin he says the answer is here.

God’s Amazing Grace frees us from the GUILT and the PENALTY of sin.

Does this Amazing Grace cause us to sin more?

The very book we are currently studying (Eph) teasches us very much about our lives under god’s wond nc grace

Steve request – eph ok forgiven pp and f so wht do we do when we sin he says the answer is here.

• Under the oc we tried to keep thw law

• Under the nc we TRY to bear fruit!