Perfect Forever
Hebrews 7:23-28
September 13, 2015
If you’ve been worshiping with us the last few weeks,
You know that we’ve been dealing with a pretty heavy subject.
The writer himself told us that this topic would be considered “meat”.
This wasn’t a study for the lazy or immature.
Grasping the heart of this doctrine would require commitment and focus.
One of my favorite passages is found in Proverbs.
(It describes how a person should study the Scriptures)
Proverbs 2:1-5 “My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will discern the fear of the LORD And discover the knowledge of God.”
That is the attitude the writer of Hebrews wanted us to take
In regard to the study of one particular passage of Scripture.
This writer had done this very thing in regard to a verse.
• He had taken one Old Testament verse and received it.
• He had treasured it.
• He made his ear attentive to it.
• He inclined his heart to understand it.
• He cried out for discernment, and prayed for understanding.
• He sought for the truth it contained like he was searching for hidden treasures.
And the result of his study was a truth so precious
That it inspired the entire letter of Hebrews.
You know that the verse he studied was Psalms 110:4
Psalms 110:4 “The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind, “You are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek.”
The writer didn’t just read that verse and keep going.
• He stopped and camped there a while.
• He pondered who Melchizedek was and why he was important.
• He prayed and begged for discernment.
• He searched for the ramifications of what a statement like that meant.
Who was this Melchizedek?
Well, he only shows up for about 4 verses in the Bible.
After Abraham rescued Lot, he returned to the king of Sodom with the refugees and the spoil and this Melchizedek met him.
• Genesis said he was “king of Salem and priest of the Most High God”
• Genesis also said that he blessed Abraham.
• And Genesis said that Abraham gave him a tenth of the choicest spoils
But why was that important?
Because God said He was going to appoint a priest like him.
Well, what was the Melchizedek like?
• He was priest and king
• He was greater than Abraham
• He deserved tithes
• We don’t know where he came from or where he went
So a priest like Melchizedek
• Would be a king too.
• Would be great and worthy.
• Would not have a beginning or an end.
That’s interesting study.
Certainly we should be on the lookout for a priest like that.
But then the writer returned to Psalms 110:4 and noticed that
This was a pretty important issue to God.
Not only did God promise that a new priest like that was coming,
But God swore to it and promised that He would not change His mind.
This is a done deal.
And that prompted then another question from the writer.
Why would God be so adamant about replacing the existing priesthood with a new and different one?
(Are you following his quest yet?)
The writer obviously did this kind of seeking.
And the reality of the truth he found inspired the entire book of Hebrews.
In fact, it is that very information
That he has been walking us through here in chapter 7.
• He reminded us about who Melchizedek was and how great he was.
• He reminded us about God’s decision to leave the order of Aaron for a priest
like Melchizedek. (even though this was no small decision)
• Then he started to reveal the answer to the question he had wrestled with.
Why would God be so adamant about replacing the existing priesthood with a new and different one?
He sat the two priests side by side and the reason became obvious.
Hebrews 7:18-19 “For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.”
God announced a change in priesthood for two reasons.
1) To eliminate what was weak and useless
2) To establish what was strong and effective
God made the oath because He desired to replace the weak with the strong and to replace the useless with the effective.
The Law and the priesthood never made anyone perfect,
And so it never allowed anyone to draw near to God.
As long as that system was in place, the veil remained.
But this new priest and His new system (which you’ll see in chapter 8)
Did make men righteous and therefore allow them to draw near to God.
God changed priests because they weren’t effective.
And the writer learned all of this through careful study of Psalms 110:4
(As a side note, next time you come across a passage that baffles you a little,
Maybe you ought to camp there a while and beg for understanding,
The result might blow your mind)
So the writer has done careful study into the “meat” of God’s word
And he has been laying it out for us.
THIS MORNING he continues laying that truth before us.
He continues answering that question as to
Why God would replace the old priests with this new one.
And this morning he focuses in on his FAVORITE WORD in Psalms 110:4
When the writer reads Psalms 110:4, there is one word he circles.
There is one word that jumps out to him above all the rest.
One word that means the most
One word that he holds dearer than all
Do you know which word it is?
“forever”
He loves that word.
• It is a word of permanence and security
• It is a word of rest and peace
He loves the fact above all others that
This new priest God promised will be the priest “forever”.
(In fact God swore to it)
But “forever” is what he loves.
Namely because they never had that word before.
He’s had many priests, but never had one forever.
And in the finishing parts of chapter 7
He is going to show you his most important reasoning
In regard to why this new priest is better than the old ones.
The old priests had two glaring limitations.
The old priests had two problems that made them utterly ineffective.
Let’s look at them.
#1 DEATH
Hebrews 7:23-25
May I take you to a dark day in the history of Israel?
Numbers 20:22-29 “Now when they set out from Kadesh, the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor. Then the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron at Mount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying, “Aaron will be gathered to his people; for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the sons of Israel, because you rebelled against My command at the waters of Meribah. “Take Aaron and his son Eleazar and bring them up to Mount Hor; and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar. So Aaron will be gathered to his people, and will die there.” So Moses did just as the LORD had commanded, and they went up to Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. After Moses had stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar, Aaron died there on the mountain top. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. When all the congregation saw that Aaron had died, all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty days.”
Of course read through to the next book in the Bible and in Deuteronomy 34
You can read about the death of Moses.
Collectively they represented the Law and the Priesthood
And neither could take Israel into the Promised Land.
(Neither could take Israel all the way to salvation)
They died.
• Moses was the greatest leader Israel ever had.
• Aaron was their first great priest.
But they died, and a whole slew would follow.
You can read through the Old Testament and Israel had many leaders and many priests. Some good, some bad, but they all died.
And that is the point the writer makes here.
(23) “The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing,”
You may have heard the phrase, “There is strength in numbers”
But that certainly wasn’t the case in regard to a priest.
There was a bunch of them, but that wasn’t to make them better.
It was because they kept dying.
They faced a barrier to service that they just couldn’t seem to get past.
Death
This is one of the ways our new priest is far superior.
Melchizedek had neither beginning of days nor end of life.
Melchizedek remained a priest perpetually.
And that is precisely the pattern Jesus follows.
(24) “but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently.”
• Jesus did in fact die.
• But He also rose from the dead.
• He ascended to the Father and He will never die again.
• He is eternal
• He will continue forever
And because Jesus will never die again
He “holds His priesthood permanently”
Now you can go ahead and ask the question:
WHY IS THAT SO IMPORTANT?
Why does it matter that we have our priest forever?
Well that is the benefit the writer explains in verse 25,
One of the absolute best verses in the Bible.
(25) “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
Wow, what a verse!
Let me remind you, what does a priest do?
Hebrews 5:1 “For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins;”
• It was the job of the priest to negotiate atonement before God.
• It was the job of the priest to stand in the gap and negotiate forgiveness.
In short, the priest’s job was salvation.
That is what he did.
He offered the atoning sacrifice
He offered the prayer of intercession
He purchased the pardon
The priest’s job was salvation
But it never lasted
And even if there had been a priest so good
That he only had to do it once in his life,
It still wouldn’t have lasted because even that priest would have eventually died.
But since Jesus lives forever He is able to do what?
“save forever”
JESUS IS ABLE TO SAVE FOREVER!
Do you realize that that statement can’t be said or made about any other person at any other time…ever?
Only Jesus can save forever.
It is important to ask, who does He save forever?
“those who draw near to God through Him”
• Those who trust in His atoning sacrifice
• Those who submit their lives to Him
• Those who place their faith in His death and resurrection
• Those who by reason of Christ’s work come boldly before God
Those who come to God on the basis of faith in Christ.
And the writer says that Jesus is able to save those people forever.
Now a good question at this point would be “WHY?” or “HOW?”
Why is able to save them forever?
This is a question that some have gotten wrong over the years.
One religion that has gotten this wrong is Catholicism.
• In Catholicism Jesus isn’t your priest, your priest is your priest.
• You go and tell your sins to your priest.
• You then participate in Mass
Mass is not like the Lord’s Supper that we celebrate.
• In the Catholic Mass the priest commands Jesus to come down and offer his body as a payment for sin again.
• They believe the wine and the cracker are transformed into the body and blood of Jesus (so much so that a devout Catholic should bow when the “host” is passed)
• Furthermore any wine or bread left over the priest must consume because could you imagine pouring Jesus down the drain?
• But the point is that in Catholicism they think Jesus continues to save by continuing to suffer. (That’s why they keep Him on the cross)
• He is the perpetual whipping boy, continually being called down to pay for our sins, over and over and over.
And that is how Catholicism reasons that Jesus can save you forever.
Because according to them He just keeps paying for your sin.
But that is not what the Bible teaches
And it is not what the writer of Hebrews teaches.
The writer of Hebrews explains why Jesus can save you forever,
And it is not because continues to suffer.
What does it say?
“since He always lives to make intercession for them.”
Do you know why Jesus can save you forever?
• Because He always lives
• And because He always intercedes
This friends is the epitome of the security of the believer.
I really have no tolerance for those who preach or teach that
A genuine believer can lose their salvation.
From their perspective Jesus died, rose, ascended and now does nothing.
(He just leaves the ball in your court)
But that isn’t true, He’s hard at work.
He lives to intercede.
And this, above all else, is why a believer’s salvation is secure.
This is why those who draw near through Jesus are saved forever.
Romans 5:6-10 “For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
Be sure and catch what Paul is saying there.
We were enemies and Christ died to reconcile us (bring us to) the Father.
But Paul didn’t stop there.
Did you catch the “much more” statements?
Paul is going to tell you that Jesus did “much more” than just bring you to God.
Jesus also keeps you there.
“Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.”
Paul said we are going to be saved. It’s going to happen through Jesus.
What do you mean “shall be saved” Paul?
Well, let him say it another way.
“For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
Let me ask you a couple of questions.
• Which is harder to save an enemy or a child?
(an enemy)
• Which is more powerful a dead person or a living one?
(a living one)
Well if Christ is strong enough to save an enemy (the harder) through His death (the weaker)
Then don’t you think He is strong enough in life
To save God’s children?
OF COURSE HE IS.
Paul is referencing that Jesus is now alive, seated by the Father,
Where He intercedes for us.
If His death gets us saved, then His life certainly keeps us saved.
That is what the writer of Hebrews is saying as well.
“He is able also to save forever”
Romans 8:33-34 “Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”
There it is again.
• Who can condemn you?
• Who can accuse you?
Christ Jesus sits at God’s right and intercedes.
He always does that.
1 John 2:1-2 “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”
Yes, the objective is not to sin (and no believer would seek to)
But when we do “we have an Advocate with the Father”
Do you see it?
That is the very essence of security.
He keeps us saved.
“He is able also to save forever…since He always lives to make intercession”
Anyone who says that genuine believers can lose their salvation
Is simply saying that Jesus isn’t able to save them forever.
BUT HE IS.
He (unlike other priests) lives forever and therefore He can save forever.
Do you see why the writer loves that word “forever”?
It’s an awesome word!
So you see the first weakness in the old priests: DEATH
Let’s look at the second
#2 DEFILEMENT
Hebrews 7:26-28
Let me tell you about another problem that the old priest had.
They were human, which meant they were sinful.
In fact, we already read:
Hebrews 5:2-3 “he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness; and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself.”
See priests were just as sinful and fallen as the people they served.
• They were just as unclean and defiled as the next person.
• And they lived right in the middle of sinful people.
• Constantly tempted,
• Constantly coerced,
• Constantly defiled
Because they lived right there in the middle of it all.
And that is why before a priest could even atone for you,
He first had to atone for himself.
We won’t read it, but write down Leviticus 16:1-14 in your margin
So you can see that before Aaron could even think about
Atoning for the people he first had to atone for himself.
Those priests had to daily offer atoning sacrifices
For themselves and the people.
It was just a reoccurring reality of failure and defilement.
BUT THAT IS ANOTHER WAY THAT JESUS IS BETTER.
(26-27) “For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.”
• Jesus wasn’t sinful He was “holy”
• Jesus wasn’t guilty, He was “innocent”
• Jesus walked this earth, but was never “defiled” by it.
And now, He doesn’t dwell on earth where He can be continually tempted.
He dwells in heaven
“separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens”
POINT BEING, there was always a risk that your priest could blow it.
He was human, he was sinful and he lived amidst temptation.
I mean that’s why you’re afraid to send your kids off to college. You know what the environment is like, and you’re afraid of the influence and corruption.
It was the same with the priests.
They lived among sinners and they sinned.
Some even sinned to the point of disqualification before God
And God removed them from office.
Aaron and Moses were disqualified from entering the Promised Land.
Do you remember why?
Numbers 20:12 “But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, “Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.”
Moses struck the rock and didn’t treat God as holy.
(The people frustrated him and he snapped) – He was defiled.
But they aren’t the only ones.
Need some more examples?
Aaron’s sons;
Leviticus 10:1-2 “Now Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took their respective firepans, and after putting fire in them, placed incense on it and offered strange fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. And fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD.”
Or Eli’s sons
They used to take the portions from the people which belonged to the Lord.
They used to also lay with the women who served at the door of the tent of meeting.
And listen to what God said about their defilement.
1 Samuel 2:34-35 “This will be the sign to you which will come concerning your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: on the same day both of them will die. ‘But I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart and in My soul; and I will build him an enduring house, and he will walk before My anointed always.”
(Incidentally, who do you think that new priest would be?)
THE POINT? EARTHLY PRIESTS COULD BE DEFILED AND CORRUPTED.
But there is no risk of Jesus disqualifying Himself from service.
Not only did He remain undefiled while on earth.
But He now dwells where temptation is even a possibility.
And He “does not need daily, like those priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.”
There is another reason why we don’t have Catholic Mass.
Jesus doesn’t have to keep suffering,
His one act of atonement was sufficient.
He did it “once for all”
Hebrews 10:11-14 “Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins; but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, SAT DOWN AT THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, waiting from that time onward UNTIL HIS ENEMIES BE MADE A FOOTSTOOL FOR HIS FEET. For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.”
The word here would be EFFECTIVE
What Jesus did in that one offering
Is sufficient to save everyone who comes to God through Him.
It reached BACKWARD to the Saints who lived before His time
And it reached FORWARD to every future believer there would ever be.
His death was sufficient to
Wipe out all the sin of all God’s children for all the ages.
No priest could ever do that.
MercyMe has a song that I love called “Greater”.
“There’ll be days I lose the battle, grace says it doesn’t matter, ‘cause the cross already won the war.”
And that’s true.
It’s not that we are looking for a license to sin, obviously not.
But we understand that when we do sin,
What Jesus did on the cross was enough to cover it,
And what Jesus does today interceding for us with the Father
Keeps me saved.
Jesus was and is effective.
All of this the writer gleaned from studying Psalms 110:4
Do you want the summary?
(28) “For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever.”
That was the real problem with the old priestly system.
Priests weren’t perfect and they didn’t last.
But Jesus is “perfect forever”
And that is the summation of what the writer learned from his study of Psalms 110:4
• The old system was flawed and weak and useless.
• God would appoint a new priest, a better priest, a Son
• One who would live forever and one who would save forever
And because of that you can be saved and saved forever.
• Why would you want to return to that old priestly system?
• Why would you want to return to a system that requires continued repetition?
Instead draw near to God through Jesus Christ
And experience the assurance of a hope that will never fade away.
Jesus is a priest like Melchizedek.
Hebrews 5:8-10 “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.”
