I have entitled the message today, From Ritual to Relationship. From Ritual to Relationship. And as we get around to the end, you'll see how all of this applies to many of the struggles that people go through today. To refresh your memory, the reason for the writing of this epistle is that these Hebrew people, who had grown up their entire life long with this religion that had been given to them by God, full of ceremonies, full of holy days, full of many different rituals and things that they had to do repeatedly, and often fell into trusting in as a matter of a mechanical, religious lifestyle rather than trusting in God. These people were having a tremendously difficult time separating from that, letting go of that. And as a result, some of those that were really honest to goodness, truly born-again people in the congregation, were beginning to, from the pressure of their Jewish friends, drift back into trusting in the old rituals and ceremonies and all that went on down at the temple and took place in the Jewish life. And the writer is trying to show them that they do not need to go back to that which God has done away with. That really, from God's point of view, there's nothing to go back to. That God has annulled everything that they were given under the Mosaic Covenant And that the covenant now that they have in Jesus Christ by faith and grace alone is sufficient. That Jesus is all that they need. That they don't need an earthly priest to be their go-between. They don't need to go down to the temple and sacrifice another lamb. They don't need to watch the incense burn. They don't need to do any of the rituals and ceremonies they used to do. But again, for the Jew, you must understand it was incredibly hard to let go of something they had held to their entire life. Let's face it. Isn't it true it's incredibly hard to let go of anything you have held to your entire life? So here they are going through this struggle and in the process of the writer being led by the Holy Spirit to unfold to them bit by bit, line by line, truth by truth, how all of this fits together from the beginning to the end in God's great plan of redemption. In the process, we get to be filled in on the big picture of how God works We get to study Jesus every single week as we move through the book of Hebrews. He seems to rise in the center of our thinking the longer we are here in this epistle. And so it becomes a blessed time for us. It becomes a blessed time of learning. We are given, as it were, little pieces to the puzzle each week. And as we continue to move through, you see the picture fill in. And thus you become aware of the fact that the one section may be very difficult to understand. It is of crucial importance to understanding the following section and gaining the whole message and getting the big clear picture of Jesus and having the deep rich fellowship with him that comes about as a result. So you begin to learn in this epistle as you study it that the main thing is to pay attention, the main thing is to learn and that it all in the end fits together and you never know what surprise and application is waiting for you around the corner. And so I'm thrilling at the study here in Hebrews. Quite frankly, one of the most challenging things I've ever done. Ten years ago when I studied it, I thought it was a snap. But I knew nothing then. Now that I know how much I don't know, I find it is not a snap, but a great challenge and yet greatly rewarding to take it slowly and to work hard at it. So let's do that as we continue to move into chapter 7. We've worked our way up to verse 10 and we move on to verses 11 through 19 today. We are studying a section here that really puts us right into the middle of God's great plan of redemption for man. And this passage really connects to so many other passages in the Bible that it actually becomes a key to many well-known sections in the Bible that you may not have understood in their fullness in the past. I want to give you a three-point outline for the remainder of the chapter. We're only going to deal with the first point today, and then we'll cover the next two as we move on. But what I see here in this chapter from verses 11 down to the end, is basically this. The author is showing them Christ as their ultimate, one and only now, High Priest. And he has a couple of different things to say about that. And first of all, that he is legally our priest now. He is legally our priest. Secondly, he is eternally our priest. And third, he is capably our priest. He is very capably our priest as He ever lives to make intercession for us. So He is legally, eternally, and capably our priest. Let's begin by talking about, for this time, the fact that He is legally our priest. What we have here, and this will go on to take on meaning for you, what we have here in this entire passage is an explanation of how the change took place from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. How did we get from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant? from the Old Testament to the New Testament. And by the way, as you hold in your Bible, in your hands, your Bible, much of which is the Old Testament, Testament is just a word for covenant. Same word means the same thing. So if you look at it in this way, the Old Testament is the old covenant that God had with his people. The New Testament is the new covenant that God has with his people that will help you in your thinking. What we have in this passage is an explanation of how the change was made from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. From the old Levitical priesthood that they had under the Law of Moses, with all its sacrifices and ceremonies and everything, to the New Priesthood, which has no religious trappings in that sense, ceremonies like that, rituals and all, and certainly no sacrifices you take down to the temple, but really comes to us in an incredible simplicity and yet gives us a full, complete connection that goes on forever with God. So we see the change here. It is a legal change. And I want to show you some of the elements as we move through here. To begin with in verse 11, here's the first thought. The change was made with a prophecy from God. The change was made with a prophecy from God. In verse 11, we read how that God had basically stated the need for a new priesthood, As we read here, therefore, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need was there that another priest should arise according to the order of Melchizedek and not be called according to the order of Aaron? Now he is basically working off of this prophecy that we have been discussing in some way already for a number of days. The prophecy is found in Psalm 110. I'd like you to turn back there so we have it fresh in our minds as we seek to gain an understanding of this passage in front of us. In Psalm 110, David is writing under the anointing of the Holy Spirit in a prophetic way about the Messiah, something that God had gifted him to do at times. And through David here, God states the need for a new priesthood that will come and go on forever. And so we come to learn how the change was made from a prophecy. Look at verse 1. The Lord said to my Lord, which is an inter-Trinitarian dialogue, if you think about it. God is a Trinity. He is three in one. And here we see that the Lord said to my Lord, that is the first person, God the Father of the Trinity speaking to the second person, Jesus Christ, and they're having a conversation. Now that's something that's pretty lofty, isn't it? So as we enter into an inter-trinitarian dialogue, in verse one of Psalm 110, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. The Lord shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion and rule in the midst of your enemies. A prophecy of the Messiah coming to rule and power. to sit upon His throne of glory. Your people shall be volunteers in the day of your power and the beauties of your holiness from the womb of the morning, and you shall have the due of your youth." And then this, verse 4, the Lord has sworn and He will not relent. He'll never change. This is absolute. It's non-negotiable. It will come to pass. The Lord has sworn and will not relent. You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Now all of that, but especially verse 4, implies the inadequacy then of the old priesthood and the need for a new one and the fact that a new one will come and that it will go on forever, superseding and replacing the old. I think it helps to understand just what might have gone on at this time if you realize that during the time of David, The Aaronic priesthood rose to its absolute peak, its absolute height. David, being a man of God who loved to worship God, a man after God's own heart, by God's own admission actually, David was a great supporter of the priesthood. He helped them in every way possible, even to the point of writing songs for them to sing, much of which we have in the Psalms with us to this day. So under the support and the guidance, as it were, of David, they rose to the highest level of prosperity they ever had. So there was a great emphasis on this Levitical Aaronic priesthood during the time of David. Thus it becomes fascinating to realize that it was through this man who took the priesthood, as it were, with his support to the heights. Through this man comes this word from God that that priesthood will eventually be put aside and replaced and become non-existent. And the word comes through verse 4 where we see that the Lord has sworn and will not relent, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Now that must have raised a few questions, if you can imagine, since David supported them so much to have penned these words and no doubt he went on to talk about these things with people. They must have had some real questions about, well, what do you mean exactly by this, David, this new priesthood coming? It is amazing to me, as you look at verse 4, and then as you look at chapter 7 in the book of Hebrews, to see how much truth can be mined out of one sentence in the Bible. And we are studying here in great detail, so much of which goes right back to this particular sentence. And so the author of the Hebrews continues to mine every bit of truth and innuendo out of this verse. And that's really what we're talking about in Hebrews chapter 7. So I'd like you to go back there now. And I want to draw your attention to a word here in verse 11. It's a word that we find in Hebrews, and it's a very key word. Therefore, if perfection, We're through the Levitical priesthood. Why would there be a need for another? This word perfection, that's the kind of word you can read over in Hebrews. There's so many things you don't understand initially anyway that you can read over and never even see it, not even realize that it's found all through the book and that it is really at the heartbeat of the book in terms of its meaning. So what does it mean? Well, it has to do really with the fullness of salvation. It has to do in the context of Hebrews with a full direct access to God. This word perfection. You remember how Jesus said in John 14 6, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, and no man, what? Comes to the Father but by me. Now that last part was very instructive. Because what Jesus was talking about there was really he was really bringing in the new covenant, replacing the old by that statement. And in the process, he was telling the people, the time has come when you can come directly to the Father. So when you read this word perfection, it is a word of direct access to God. Direct access to God could not be had through the Levitical priesthood for the common man. It is a word about intimacy, a word about access. Think about it. In the Old Testament, Only select individuals could come right up into the glory of God. Only a few. For example, we've talked about how the high priest on the great day of atonement would go into the holiest of holies behind the veil. And there, one day out of the year, he got to experience in its fullness the glory of God. And then the few guys that were working near him outside the veil, they had the blessed opportunity to pull him aside when he got out and say, what was it like in there? Oh man, it must have been something. And when they finished their duty that day, their shift, they probably could have even gone and had some Mediterranean coffee and discussed what it was like. So the guys that were near him, that worked with him, got the thrill of just hearing what it was like to be that close to God. But the other people, the common Levites, as it were, that weren't Aaronic priests, worked with them, they probably didn't even get to talk to the high priest that day. Further, the people that were not part of the Levitical priesthood and Levitical workers in the temple, they never got to talk to that guy. And those people kind of lived out here. The Levites lived in here in relationship to God. The Aaronic priesthoods got closer, and then the high priest got in all the way, only once a year. A select individual had direct access, as it were. Limited, too. Then you see at Sinai, another example of how they didn't have direct access to God. Remember when God met Moses on the top of the mountain, and he was thundering up there, and there was lightning up there? God gave direct commands. He says, I want you to rope off the bottom of the mountain, because I don't want anybody breaking through the barrier and charging up the mountain, lest they die. So what does that say about direct access? You get too close and you die. Now that's not all that inviting, is it? Here is Moses chosen from among the people to have direct access. The common man does not. He must stay at a distance. Even though, at a distance, they had this relationship with the true and living God as his chosen people, right? So there was some kind of relationship, but not direct access. And so you find people like David who is graced with a wonderful relationship with God and a special calling and a special duty. You find Elijah the prophet, Elisha the prophet, Ezekiel, Daniel, some of the other prophets. And yet these are only a handful out of an entire nation of people, many countless thousands and perhaps some millions as well. So when you come to this word perfection that was not gained through Levitical priesthood, What it is saying is that there is now perfection gained in our relationship with God through Jesus Christ, and it is a word about full, direct access into the immediate presence of God. And that's what the rending of the veil was all about. Remember when Jesus died on the cross, signifying that the way into the holiest was now open to all. We learn that later in the book here even. So a great theme of Hebrews is, in fact, the reality that anybody can now come all the way to enjoy a rich relationship with God and enjoy it without all the religious ceremony, with all the incense burning, and all the rituals, and all the holy days, and all of those things. You can have it all without that. And in fact, the message is, get rid of all that, and come into a simple relationship with Jesus Christ as your one and only High Priest. So perfection signifies full access. Furthermore, it is a permanent full and direct access. It also signifies, however, a second thing, and that is full forgiveness. It signifies full forgiveness. So what we're really dealing with here, and we talked about last time, if you remember, how that when they gave those sacrifices, And the blood was shed, that the blood of those animals could not bring full forgiveness for their sins. It only brought a covering, and that's only because God said so. He set it up that way. If they obeyed Him, it brought a covering for their sin. And that's why when they died, because they didn't have full forgiveness, because Jesus hadn't died at the cross yet, that's why they didn't go directly into heaven and into the presence of God. Remember that? They went to a place called Paradise by Jesus on the cross to the thief, and they went to a place Same place, also called by Jesus, Abraham's bosom. All of that is because nobody got full forgiveness or direct access to God through that system. Not even into heaven when you died. When Jesus died and rose from the dead, He took all those people into heaven and ever after, since the cross, you die, you go directly into the presence of God in heaven. And so we're talking about full forgiveness and full direct access in a permanent way here. And all of this we're reading in this context came about, this change was made with a prophecy from God that there was coming a new priest after the order of Melchizedek. Now let's go to a second thought in verses 12 through 14. We find that this change from the old to the new, that this was a change made with a legal move by God. The change was made with a prophecy from God, number one. Number two, the change was made with a legal move by God. So the change was made with a prophecy from God, but secondly, the change was made with a legal move by God. Now follow this. The legal move was concerning the tribe issue. It was a legal move concerning the tribe issue. In other words, the tribe of Levi to the tribe of Judah. To be a priest you had to be from the tribe of Levi, the Mosaic Old Covenant. Now Jesus comes as a priest and he's from the tribe of Judah. And so God makes a legal move here. And I say legal because that's really what's going on here. You see, remember that Israel was a nation called by God, put together by God, with the intention that they would be governed by God, right? That's even what the name Israel means, to be governed by God. So, from the very beginning, it was God's intention that they be a theocracy, a nation governed, literally, by God. Now, God then, being the head of the government, gave them all their laws. That was what the whole thing was with Moses on the top of the mountain. If then, God being the head of their government, felt it necessary as time went on in his plan and being the leader to change some of the laws in his government with the people and how they approached him, then he could do so. In fact, he was the only one who could do so. So then, any change that God would make would be a legal change, right? Now, these people who grew up under this old covenant were so concerned that things were done right under that old covenant that they must be convinced by the writer that this change from the focus in the priesthood from the tribe of Levi to the tribe of Judah, they must be convinced it's a legal change. And furthermore, that the change from the old covenant to the new covenant is a legal change. And what we have here then in all of this is a legal change made by the only one who could do it legally, the head of the nation, God. And so the change was made with a legal move by God and specifically a legal move concerning the tribe. issue. Verse 12, For the priesthood being changed, of necessity then there is also the need for a change of the law, because the law was what governed the priesthood. For he, that is Jesus Christ, of whom these things are spoken, belongs to another tribe, from which no man has officiated at the altar. You see, legally in Israel. If you were not a Levite, it was against their law for you to try to take the office of a priest and go into the temple and offer a sacrifice. That was illegal in Israel, literally. So the point being here that it was illegal for anybody from any tribe other than the tribe of Levi to do that. In the Old Testament, there was a king, you may remember the account, who took it upon himself to go in the temple and offer a sacrifice and God struck him immediately with leprosy. Why? Because it was illegal under God's laws to do that. And so we read here that there must be a change in the law because now there comes a priest from another tribe and it must be done legally so there must be a change in the law. Verse 14, for it is evident that our Lord Jesus arose from the tribe of Judah, implied not Levi, of which tribe Moses spoke nothing concerning the priesthood. And so there had to be a change in the law for that to take place. And so a legal move concerning the tribe. Now verse 15 through 17. Here we find a legal move concerning the focus of the priesthood. concerning the focus. And this is something where the focus shifted from the fleshly to the spiritual. Let me show you how that works out. Verse 15, And yet it is far more evident, and the idea here that there has been a change in the law, it is far more evident, if, in the likeness of Melchizedek, there arises another priest who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life." So here's a legal move concerning the focus from fleshly to spiritual. And here's how it works out. Look at the word fleshly there. This word in verse 16, where we find it a fleshly commandment. This word fleshly carries the thought of all that is mortal and perishable. And really what it means is this. Every single regulation that governed the old priesthood was concerned with the priest's physical body. That's what it means by fleshly commandment. Every single regulation that governed the old priesthood had to do with the priest's physical body. For example, to be a priest, you must, this was a qualification, you must be a descendant of Aaron, out of the tribe of Levi, an even narrower descendant from Aaron. Further, There were 142 physical blemishes outlined in Leviticus, actually in chapter 21, verses 16 through 23 cover some of them. 142 physical blemishes that could disqualify the priest. So they were looking at the physical. In the ordination ceremony, for example, that is outlined in Leviticus 8, This is what they did. It's all concerning the body. First of all, the priest was bathed in water so that he could be ceremonially clean. Then he was clothed with four different items of clothing that made up the priestly garment. There were these leggings that they put on them down by the knees, long linen. And then there were this long linen garment that they put on one piece. And then there was this other garment they wrapped around the breast area And then there was a turban, so it was a four-part outfit of clothing. Bathe in water, put on the four-part outfit. Then they would anoint his body with oil. From there, they would take a sacrifice and take the blood. And from the blood, they would put it on the tip, they would dip the blood and put it on the tip of his ear, his right ear. And then they would put the blood on the tip of his right thumb. And then they would put the blood on the tip of his right big toe. And all of this, you realize, was concerning the body, the physical body. So every single item in the ceremony concerned the body. And then from there, once you were a priest, you had to have these washings all the time. And then you had to have these anointings all the time. You had to cut your hair in a specific way. Everything was fleshly in terms of the commandments regarding the priest. So that when you read here, In verse 16, "...who has come, the new priest, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment." That is what it's talking about. In other words, there's now a shift in the focus, in the priesthood. Now we have a priest where the focus and the qualification is not these fleshly things, but the qualification now and the focus is the power of His endless life. And this is a tremendous thing. Look at verse 16 again. has come not according to the law of a fleshly commandment but according to the power of an endless life for he testifies in verse 17 you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek so here you see under this new covenant the focus of the qualification in order for this new priest to do all that he needs to do to bring full direct access to God to put the life of God into the soul of a man, which is what you get in real salvation, which is what real intimacy is all about, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, there must be the qualification of this endless eternal life. Because Christ Jesus has as His inalienable possession eternal life. Nothing can take it from Him. As our High Priest then, He can freely give out that eternal life to anyone who will come, forsake their rituals, forsake their religion, forsake their ceremonies, to anyone who will turn from their sin and come and trust in Him, He will give the gift of eternal life." Now here's where the great thing about having Jesus as our High Priest comes in. Eternal life is a lot more than a mansion in heaven. It is a lot more than that. We often tend to think of eternal life as, well, yeah, what that means is that I have an address in heaven. I get to live forever on a street that will be paved with gold, in a city lighted by God. Listen, I love that hope! But there's more to eternal life than that. Eternal life is something we get to experience now. It is the life of God ministered to a man or a woman in this life now. It is the experience of God now. So there's more to it than forever in heaven. There is now the practical experience of the living God in your heart, in your life. So that's why the focus had to shift. There must come a priest who possessed eternal life in such a way that he could give it to all those that would come to him and bring them into direct intimate relationship with God. And thus, we find the phrase, the power of an endless life, and the focus is shifted to that. So as the change came, this legal change from the old to the new, there was a legal move concerning the tribe, Levi to Judah. There was a legal move concerning the focus, fleshly to spiritual. Further, there was a legal move concerning the covenant itself, the actual covenant itself. And what God did is He simply replaced it, put it away, got rid of it once and for all. It'll never come back. He even had the temple destroyed so that they couldn't continue their ceremonies and rituals in the temple if they wanted to. In 70 AD, He had the temple in Jerusalem destroyed. They've never had a temple since. But a legal move concerning the covenant itself. And we're going to talk about how this works out if you look at verses 18 and 19 with me. God has put away the old Mosaic Covenant for this reason. It was never adequate. It was never adequate to bring a complete, full salvation and direct access and all of that. Look at verse 18. For on the one hand, there is the annulling of the former commandment because of its weakness and its unprofitableness. For the law made nothing perfect." Here's that word perfect again, nothing complete, incomplete salvation. On the other hand, there's the bringing in of a better hope through which we notice, draw near to God. Here it is again, this intimacy factor of what salvation's all about, the new covenant. Now, look at this word annulling. It is a Greek word, in verse 18, there's an annulling of the former commandment. This word annulling we have here is a Greek word that means an abolition, a disannulling, to put away, or to reject. The thought here is that God has totally put away this covenant forever. Now, we read here in verse 19 that law made nothing perfect, which is really a summary thought of why the law was put away. But I want to draw your attention to this phrase, the law. What exactly is meant Do you think by this phrase in this passage, the law was put away because of its weakness, because of its unprofitableness, what is the writer saying? Is he saying, ask yourself some questions, is he saying that the part of the book, the Bible, the Old Testament, is he saying that's no good? Is he saying it's unprofitable? What is he saying? I think it's crucial that we understand, and to understand we have to realize a couple of things. simply that the law, when you find this phrase, the law, it has several different meanings in the Bible. This phrase is used all over the Bible, but not always used to mean the same thing. So to understand what it means here, you have to understand how it's used in the most sweeping sense. And I'm going to tell you how it's used in the most sweeping sense. It can refer to the whole of the Word of God in general. Oh, how I love thy law! The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. In a sweeping general sense, it refers to the whole Word of God. Now, in a still broad sense, but a little narrower, it is used to refer to the Old Testament, the Old Mosaic Covenant. Further, it is used to describe and to refer to the Ten Commandments, the law, the Ten Commandments. Another way it is used is to signify the required rituals and ceremonies of the Old Covenant. So that's more specific. You see, it goes from way out here sweeping, a little narrow, a little narrow, until where it's even used just to describe the ceremonies and the rituals of the Old Covenant. And I believe that what we have in chapter 7 here in Hebrews is that last usage. So that when you read here that the law made nothing perfect, thus it was set aside, abolished once and for all, it's talking about the law of the ceremonies and rituals that God gave to His people. He gave them those rituals, and He gave them those ceremonies, and He gave them those types. But they were imperfect, and they were that way from the beginning, and He knew it, and He never intended them to be. the real thing, they were only to point to the real thing. And so we're to understand it in that sense, the ceremonial law. And in the sense of that, the Aaronic priesthood, with all of its ceremonies, has been set aside. I think it's important to point out here, and many people get confused on this, and many people abuse this. I think it's important to point out that the law does not mean a moral change, a change, let me back up, This change in the law being put away, the ceremonial part of the law and the old covenant of Moses, does not mean that God's moral law in the Old Testament has been changed. Do you understand what I'm saying? What I'm saying is this. God's moral law of right and wrong in the Old Testament is maintained when you get into the New Testament. If it was wrong in the Old Testament, mark it, it's wrong in the New Testament when it comes to God's moral law. See, God's moral law of right and wrong is a reflection of His nature. His nature will never change. In the Kingdom of God, evil will always be evil. Sin will always be sin. Righteousness will always be righteousness, and those things will never change. In God's economy, Wrong is always wrong. Right is always right. Darkness is always darkness. And light is always light. Now what happens then is we have these people who come along today and they want to tell you, once they name the name of Christ, they want to tell you to leave them alone about their sin. And what they'll say to you is, I'm under grace. You have no right to judge me for this thing that I'm doing. I'm under the new covenant. Man, you're stuck in the legalism of the old covenant. I'm under grace. All that's important now is that God understands that I am a sinner and that He has forgiven me, and He realizes I can't tow the line. That's why I've got grace. So quit judging me. Don't you call me to any holy standard. That's Old Testament legalism. This is the New Testament. This is the New Covenant. What you're saying to me really isn't important. The fact is, if it's sinful in the Old Testament, according to God's moral law, it is sinful in the New. Can I give you some examples? In the Old Testament, adultery is sin. Adultery is still sin in the eyes of God. Doesn't matter what you call it. You can call it an extramarital affair. It is sin in the eyes of God. It is an abomination in the eyes of God. In the Old Testament, stealing was a sin. It is still a sin in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, lying was a sin. In the New Testament, at the very end of the book... The end is on this side for you. In the New Testament, at the very end of the book of Revelation, what does it say about liars? No liar will enter the kingdom. Outside are the liars. So, a life characterized by dishonesty and lying is not a Christian life, you see. In the Old Testament, if coveting was a sin, it is a sin in the New Testament. In fact, what happens is that in the New Testament, the standards of God's righteousness are not done away with. They are, in fact, reaffirmed, and they are, in fact, refocused, crystallized, and made even more evident. So that the sinfulness of sin in the New Testament is much clearer than it is in the Old Testament. You've got to see that. Because if it's a sin in the Old Testament, it's a sin in the New Testament. In terms of these issues we're discussing, I find it amazing to look at the fact that in the Old Testament, take a sin like adultery. If you were caught in adultery in the Old Testament, you were taken out and what? Stoned to death. Executed. If you were caught in homosexuality in the Old Testament, you were taken out and what? Stoned to death, executed. If you were caught in bestiality in the Old Testament, you were taken out and stoned to death, executed. You see, if you raped a person, same thing. Now, we come now to the day and age in which we live in. The United States of America, one nation, abandoning their God, you could say. It's amazing to me that these things for which God executed people under the old covenant, which was a display of His holy nature, a display of His concern, a display of His reaction to those sins, those are the leading edges of entertainment in our country today. Those are the things that are pushed at us repeatedly in the media. Those are the things we're told through the basic innuendos of the advertisement that goes on the media that will make us happy. Those are the things we are told are the way, the truth, and the life. These are the things God executed people for in the Old Covenant. You want to know why He executed them? Not because He was a mean God, but because of the leaven of those sins. Those sins are addictive to such an extreme. They rip down the walls of the very fabric of your being to such an extreme that there's very often no way back once you go down that road. And so you tear down those walls and you'll find that once the wall is gone that was inherently within the fabric of your being, it's almost impossible to get the wall back up. And so that once you've done it, you'll do it again. God, knowing the leaven, wanting to have a holy people separate from the ways of the world, said, if they do it and you find out, kill them. Because I want you to be holy. I want you to know me. I want you to walk with me. And these things will take you away from me. Now, God is gracious under the new covenant. He does not execute people for those sins. But may I say this to you, He doesn't feel any different about them because He is as holy today as He was then. And so there is grace and there is forgiveness for those things. But isn't it interesting that the very things that God manifested He hated the most about man's sinfulness are the very things that our country loves the most today as they've abandoned God. And our country, and our people, and this country are paying a very high price for living that way in these things. But the point I'm making to you is that God's moral law hasn't changed, though the ceremonial law has been put away. We need to understand that. And that's why Jesus in the New Testament, in the Sermon on the Mount said, that you shall not murder, I say to you, if you're angry with your brother, you're in trouble with God, if it's in your heart. You have heard you should not commit adultery, I say whoever looks on a woman to lust has done it in his heart. It is a matter of the heart, the intents of the heart. So the sinfulness was brought to the surface and shown to be, the sinfulness shown to be as black and as dreadful as it really is in the eyes of God. So understand that when God put away the Old Covenant to bring in the New, He did not abandon His moral law. It was difficult for these people to put this away. We have to realize that. That's why you have in the New Testament the Judaizers. Are you familiar with the Judaizers? They're all over the New Testament. They're people who came to believe on Christ, but were so steeped in this religious ceremony stuff, thinking that it got them brownie points with God, that they couldn't let go of it to the point where they pushed it on everybody else. These people, the Judaizers, were a group of people who were a weird hybrid of the new covenant and the old. A weird hybrid of grace and works. And let me tell you, a mixture of the new and the old is not the real thing. The new must stand alone. If you try to drag the old into it and mix it in, it becomes heresy at that point. It becomes a falsehood. What you had with these Judaizers was a lot of half-truth. And you know what half-truth is? You know what a half-truth is? It is a whole lie when it's all done. These Judaizers, they were very, very pushy with getting proselytes, and what they tried to do was get people to come to Christ yet, hold on to all these old ceremonies and rituals, which had never been given to Gentile people anyway, but only to the Jews, and their trouble all over the place. Paul writes to them in Galatians and really deals with them in many different places. But all of that demonstrates the struggle to unleash yourself from these things. Why is that? It's because of this. You give man a ritual, you give man a ceremony, you give man four or five or six holy days throughout the year, And give him the impression that if he keeps these things, he's fine with God. And man, whoo, oh, then I'll just do those outward things. I'll do my routine and forget about the rest. I'll forget about my heart, which Jesus was saying in the Sermon on the Mount, don't ever forget about your heart. That's the real issue. But if you let people think that they can simply trust in the outward ceremonies and be fine with God and ignore the issue of the state of their heart, then they're going to run with that. And they're going to just go through this mechanical thing and they're not going to draw near to God with their hearts. That's why they had such a hard time letting go. Part of it was because it was lifelong, a family issue and all of that, and it had come from God originally. But the other part was that it's so easy to trust in these things of the flesh and stay away from God in all reality. Did you ever realize why Jesus took Peter, James and John to the Mount of Transfiguration? They were his closest disciples, number one. Number two, he wanted to help them through the transition. He wanted to show them, we're closing off the old, we're bringing in the new. So here's Moses and here's Elijah, the two foremost representatives of the old covenant. And there they are standing there, and Peter just gets all excited. Well, let's do something. We'll build a few booths here. Well, anything. I mean, hey, wow. This is the greatest. All three of them together. And a cloud pulls up. It stops. And the voice of God the Father comes out of the cloud. And he says, this, notice, see it. This is my beloved son. Underline in bold, hear him. Transition. This is the old, this is the new. Suddenly they're gone. And the Bible says, and they saw who? Jesus only. And that's the point. In the new covenant, it is Jesus only. It's not the ceremonies, it's not the rituals, it's not the incense, it's Jesus only. It's not the priests getting in between you and God, it's Jesus only. There is no place for a priest, there is no place for the ceremonies or the rituals or the holy days, it is Jesus only in the New Covenant. That's the whole point of the book of Hebrews. And so that very situation on the Mount of Transfiguration was designed by God to help the three men who were the closest disciples of Jesus, who were going to be the leaders of the church to get it straight and make the transition so that they could go on to do the work of God and be freed from all of that. But you know what, as we come to an end of what we're going to be looking at for today, because we're out of time, I want to assert to you that this type of struggle is not unique to that time period. And it is not unique to the people that grew up under the Old Covenant. This type of struggle goes on today. Many people today struggle with the same type of thing. To take, for example, Roman Catholicism. And I'm not out on a hatchet thing against Roman Catholicism. We'll use it as an example. It leads many people right into the heart of this struggle. Because here's Jesus in the middle of all this stuff. Ceremonies, rituals, incense, priesthood. I mean, you name it, it is all there. Statues, the whole thing. beads, stained glass, candles, robes. I mean, you've got ceremony, ritualistic religion to the max. And what it does is it leads you to this struggle. It gives you enough of Jesus to believe in the real Jesus and then so much other stuff that you can't find Him in the middle of it. And it's a struggle to get out of it, even when you hear the truth. Let me do a survey. How many in this room today, listening to this message, grew up with that struggle and have faced it, grew up in Roman Catholicism? Look around, people. A good three-fourths of the group. It was almost everybody in the first service. That's because of the early morning Mass, you know. They got so used to being there early, they're still here early. But it's a struggle, you know, people come in and they go, for the first time, I've talked to many that are here, many of you now, and you say, well, you know, I came in and I'm, stained glass windows, there's no, there's not even a window in this place, let alone a stained glass one, no candles, no incense, no robes, I'm thinking of getting a robe. And it's hard for them to worship because they feel like you can't worship without that stuff. It's not real Christianity. Let me tell you something. That isn't real Christianity to begin with. Christianity is Jesus Christ and Him alone. The Bible tells us in 1 Timothy 2.5, there is one God and there is one mediator between God and man, and that is the man, Jesus Christ. And that's it. He is Christianity. And anything that is added to that is not. Amen? And it's interesting that so many of these traditions, I mean, we could go to the Greek Orthodox, we could go into many of these different areas and we see these traditions and rituals, but let me tell you, there's a main, main difference between what these Hebrew people went through and what the people today go through. And that is that the ceremonies, the rites, the rituals, and the holy days, and all of that, that the Hebrew people had, came directly from God. And when God was done, He folded it up, as it were, which is what Hebrews, this epistle is all about, and He just put it away, because the real thing had come. But the traditions and the rituals and the ceremonies that you have in these other religions of today have not come from God, they have come from man. That's a major difference that needs to be identified. The struggle is very similar, but we do want to realize that there is a difference. And so we see the legal changes made by God to bring in the new covenant. I thrill, you know, to see Jesus, and I want to just leave you with this thought. In the Gospel of John, remember when Jesus met the woman at the well? Here is a woman who was a Samaritan. Samaria was a place that was a hybrid religious place. It was a hybrid of the idolatry of the day, and Judaism. A splinter group had broken off from the main worship up at Jerusalem, said they'd go down there and worship God their way on their mountain. Jesus comes along to this woman, who's just full of religious ceremonial type stuff in her world there, and he says, Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. He said, You worship what you do not know. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, it has now arrived." See, here's Jesus bringing in the new and replacing the old. The hour is coming and now is when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is a spirit. Those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. And the woman said, I know the Messiah is coming who's called Christ and when He comes He'll tell us all things. And Jesus said unto her, that speak unto you, I who speak unto you, I am He." It's time, woman. The new has come. The time has come when you can let go of all the ceremonies and rituals and worship God and spirit and truth and bang, she dropped her water pot. The very reason she had come to the well, she just dropped it, forgot about it, ran back to the city, got all her friends and brought them to Jesus. Why? Because she had found freedom for the first time in her entire life. Freedom from her sins, forgiveness for all those men she had had that Jesus listed off and let her know that he knew about, forgiveness for everything, and freedom from the bondage of all the ceremonies. And now a simple, adequate, full, direct relationship with the living God through Jesus Christ. Do you have it? Do you have it? If you do, rejoice in it. Thank God for it. If you don't have it, then make this the day where you surrender your life to Jesus Christ, where you turn from a life of ritual that cannot save you to a relationship with Jesus Christ which can. Let's bow for a word of prayer. Father, thank you, God, so much. Thank you, Lord, for these precious people who love your word and come to listen to learn more of you. Bless them, Lord, each one. with a very intimate, very real relationship, with a very rich experience of eternal life right here and now, experiencing God in their life. Draw those, Lord, that you would have to come to salvation this day as the truth has ministered to their hearts. Father, we love you and we worship you and we ask that we could take the things we've looked at and continue to think of them The truth might go deeper and deeper and drive us deeper and deeper into you. And we ask these things in Jesus' name.