======================================================================== HEBREWS 8 by Don McClure ======================================================================== Summary: Jesus is our greater high priest who mediates a new covenant based on better promises, giving us the power to fulfill the law through the Holy Spirit. Duration: 34:10 Topics: "New Covenant", "Spiritual Transformation" Scripture References: Jeremiah 31:31-34, Hebrews 8:1-9 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ In this sermon, the preacher begins by sharing a story about an old violin that was undervalued at an auction. He then relates this story to the worth of a soul and the transformative power of the touch of the Master's hand. The preacher emphasizes that we are not meant to play our own instruments, but to allow God to play us. He highlights the message of Hebrews, which speaks of a greater covenant, a greater sanctuary, and a greater sacrifice through Jesus Christ. The sermon concludes with a call to open our hearts and allow God to transform us. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Now of the things which we have spoken unto you, this is the sum. We have such a great high priest that is set at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, and not man. For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices, wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law, who serve unto the example in the shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle. For see, saith he, that thou makest all things according to the pattern shown to thee on the mount. But now he hath obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if the first covenant had been faultless, then there should no place have been sought for a second. But finding fault with them, he saith, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant, as I regarded them not, saith the Lord. Hold it there. Well, let's pray. Lord, we ask that you would teach us your word. Lord, these wonderful things that we read of right here, that you would enable us, Lord, to understand and to apply them to our life today. So we just commit it to you, in Jesus' name, amen. Well here as we have been, of course, going through this wonderful book of Hebrews, wanting to explain to us, not just to the Hebrew Christians who had now come to Christ and were under pressure to come back to Moses, back to the law, back to Judaism, back to the tabernacle, back to the sacrifices, back to all of these old things that were foreshadowing and preparing for Christ. But essentially, when we look at this, hopefully we see that for all of us, whether or not we grew up in a Jewish tabernacle, we all grew up in some form of a tabernacle, whether we know it or not. We all grew up under some Moses, or some law, or some rule, or some regulation, or some standard that we were not able to fulfill. It may have just been a legalistic New Testament system almost. It may have been just, you know, our own structure that we were in where we were just told, you know, by others, our parents, school teachers, police departments, you know, school principals, all sorts of people, you live this way, behave this way, act this way, this is what it is. But these are all external things, all external people, all external relationships, all of which can set a standard for us and tell us how we ought to be, but none of which have the ability to impart to us the power to fulfill that which they say. Have you ever noticed there is a parent yourself? You can look at your children and you can give them the law. You can tell them, this is the standard, this is what I want, this is the expectation. But how do you give them the ability to do it? You know, you just tell them this is it, and then what do you do? You spank them when they don't. You discipline them, you know, with the, whatever it is that you do to try to get them to do it. But whether it's our own growing up structure in our home, going to school, going to work, we have all these standards, this is what the expectation is, this is how many sales we want you to make, this is what the productivity we want. Anybody in virtually all of life, wherever we go, there are standards that are set. There are, you know, responsibilities that are, you know, laid out. There are commandments there for us, whether it is a little child or going to school or going to work or driving on the street or functioning in society. But none of those structures out there have the ability to put it within us to do it. And one of the most wonderful things to stop to realize that is so different about a Christian is that he isn't somebody that just looks and he grits his teeth and he tries hard, you know, to do these things. He has come to the realization that what Christianity is, is it's Jesus Christ invading our hearts and our lives by the power of his Holy Spirit, living within us and empowering us to do these things that we could not do before. And this is what he is continuing on with here as he goes on through the book of Hebrews, wanting to tell us as if you were with us last week in chapter seven on how Jesus is a priest for us, the great high priest. He has a greater order, a greater priesthood that we looked at last week. We'll comment on that in a moment. But here in chapter eight, he has a greater or a better covenant that he is now making with us that we will be looking at today in chapter nine. He has a greater sanctuary in which all of this is played out and operates within. We'll see more of that when we get to it, obviously, and in chapter 10, and it's all because he has a greater or a superior or more wonderful or a better sacrifice through which it is all completed. But here as he gets into chapter eight this morning, he tells us here that Jesus, first of all, he is as just almost recapitulates the previous chapter there in verse one of chapter eight. He says, now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. He said, hear what I've just laid out for you in the previous chapter that we looked at in the previous message. He says, we have such a high priest who is set at the right hand of the throne of majesty in the heavens. And here is he, he just kind of summarizes there essentially, that's what he says. This is the summation of what it is that I've been wanting to say. We have a great high priest and one there he has sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. You know, in the old Testament, none of the Aaron or none of the high priests or none of the priests in their duties ever sat down. There was never even a chair. There was never even a place designed within the sanctuary for the high priest to ever sit down because his work was never done. It was never finished. We don't realize sometimes how wonderful the words were when Jesus hung upon the cross and he said, it is finished. The work of salvation finished. The work of forgiveness finished. The work of atonement finished. The work of our redemption and acceptance before God, it is finished. And here when, you know, we don't think of it as maybe like the Jew may have think of here that they have a high priest. He has sat down. He is having to come back and go over and over and over again, offer sacrifices for himself again and again, offer sacrifices for the people, hope we can get them all cleansed again next month, next year. You know, at the next time as we go into the Holy of Holies, this is something that was done that when Jesus sat down, it was finished and he sat down and there that was a powerful thing to somebody that had never seen a high priest sit down, that had grown up in a situation in a society where the work was never ever done. It was just temporarily kind of, you know, dealt with a little bit to have to be dealt with again and again and again. But here the wonderful thing is, is that we have Jesus now and when we look at him, we have such a high priest that is set down at the right hand of the throne of the majesty on high. And again, just as he recaps what we looked at last week, we have a greater high priest, a greater mediator, a greater one that goes between us and God. He then goes on to tell us there that we not only have a greater high priest, but we have a greater high priest that mediates a greater covenant and he does it in a greater place. Here as he tells us in verse two, he says that he is a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pits to not men. For every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices, wherefore it is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law, who serve under the example in the shadow of heavenly things as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the temple for seas, saith the Lord to Moses. He says that thou make all things according to the pattern shown unto thee on the mountain. But now he hath obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also he is a mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. But here he tells us very simply here that Jesus Christ is not only a greater high priest, but he is a greater high priest that now as he says, he mediates a greater covenant and he does it in a greater place. Jesus didn't come from the tribe of Levi. He didn't even have the right to ever even become, you know, a priest or let alone the high priest, essentially, according to the Old Testament law. And he couldn't even really be considered a priest. And though Jesus on one hand, he was around the temple and he was in the courts of the temple, interestingly enough, in his entire life in ministry, all through Jesus's ministry, he never went into the holy place. He never went into the whole, much less the holy of holies, because of the fact that he had a greater covenant, he had a greater sacrifice, he had a greater temple, and we'll be seeing that more of that as we get into the chapters, but this is kind of drops a little suggestion here, something that we're going to see more, but he had a much greater ministry. Jesus never even had to go into the holy of holies to minister for us on earth, because he acknowledged the greater holy of holies in heaven, where he dwelt and ministered every day before God. He did all of his ministry out in the highways of life, the byways of life, in the towns, in the villages, wherever people were, there was a sanctuary that Jesus had that was far greater than where the high priest, in order to do his ministry, if he was out and you ran into the high priest, if you even ran into Aaron, the great high priest of the Old Testament, if you ran into him out in the streets, and he's just walking down the streets and, oh, could you bless me, and say, well, no, no, I haven't got the outfit on, I got to go get washed up, I'd have to go get a sacrifice for myself, I'd have to get a sacrifice for you, I'd have to go into the temple, we'd have to go through it all there, but outside, essentially just walking around, he was restricted, he was like you or me, it was when he went into the temple and he put on all this garb and outfit, it was all something that was a shadow, all of a greater high priest had come that one day would be able to walk out in the highways and the byways and the streets and the towns and everywhere that you could just come up and he could open up the veil, he could take you right into God's presence without having to go through this process, into this temple, through these sacrifices, but just by virtue of being in his presence, he immediately could bring you into his father's presence, he immediately could deal with you and minister to you and help you so wonderfully and so gloriously, and here in the Old Testament, it was just a shadow, as he says there, of things to come, it was just a picture of the greater sanctuary that when Jesus would come, he would bring us into, we'll see that more in the next chapter, but then he goes into the major portion of the section of here, chapter 8, that's important I think for us to see as well today, that not only today to you and to I, if we really understand what the Bible has to say about Jesus as our high priest, we realize that right now, you have a greater high priest, and I do too, who ministers a greater covenant and he ministers it in a greater place and he does it with greater promises, essentially. In verse 6, he says for us, he says, And now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant which was established on better promises. For if the first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for a second, but finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. Here is something there, that now he looks there and he says, we not only needed a greater high priest than Aaron ever was, and we not only needed a greater sanctuary, you know, that God has planned, then was just limited to this little structure there where things could go on. We also, he says, we needed a better covenant and we needed better promises. As he tells us there at the end of verse six, he says, a better covenant, which was established upon better promises. And here the wonderful thing is, is that that's exactly what you and I have today. When we stop to think, I have a high priest, a greater one, and I have a greater covenant, and I ought to have as an understanding that I have greater promises. And here the wonderful thing is, is the Lord took the old covenant and he was done with it, and he gives us new promises. Back in Jeremiah 31, 31, some of these promises, it says there, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, which my covenant, he says, they break, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord. Here this same, you'll notice, same verses given to us in Hebrews, just quoting it there from Jeremiah. And he says, but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my law in their inward part and write it in their hearts, and I will be their God and they will be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every one his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall know me from the least of them, even under the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more. Here the Lord says, one day I'm going to come and I'm going to give you a new covenant. And in this new covenant that I'm going to come and bring, he says, the difference of it is, is as opposed to the old covenant and the law, which here is the Lord gave to them under Moses, he says, this one, I'm going to actually write on the tablet of your heart. And he says, and when it's really written on the tablet of your heart, no one will have him to go to his friend or his brother and say, no, the Lord, no Lord, you know, I mean, just drop the law. He says, when this new covenant happens, they will know me. It won't be under a legalized situation. It won't be under a condemning structure that said, are you doing this? Are you keeping a standard? Are you living as you want to live? It'll be one there that when people understand this new covenant, I will write what I want in their heart, upon their heart, the tablet of their heart. And Jesus gives us, there's a wonderful promise here, you know, in this whole thing of a whole new sense of grace that he gives us. He says, I will be the mediator. Notice this in verse six. It says, but now the Lord, but now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry by now much also, he is the mediator of this covenant. Jesus wants to look to you, to me and me today and say, listen, this is my job. I'm the mediator of this. I am the one whose job it is to make this work within your heart. I'm not here to write laws. I'm not here to write commandments. I'm not here to condemn you. I'm not here to bring you down. I'm not here just to be one of those other structures that was out there, whether it's our parents, whether it's our teacher, whether it's, you know, a school coach, whether it's, you know, the school vice principals, whether it's the police, whether it's an employer that just says, do this, do this, do this. I can actually take your heart. If you'll let me have it and I can write on the tablet of your heart within and under your own skin, I can put within you the desire and the power and the capacity to do these things. I am the mediator of it. Notice here in verse 10, it says for this covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. Notice there in verse 10, he says, I will make it. And he says with the house of Israel in those days, saith the Lord that I will put my laws into their mind and write them upon their heart and I will be unto them a God. They should be into me a people. Verse 12, I will be merciful under their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities. Will I remember no more six times here? The Lord says, I will do this. You don't, I'm not looking to you now as he did in the old Testament. I'm not looking there and say, you must do this. You must do this. You must do this. You must do this. That's what the old Testament was in the old Testament. God wrote the law on a hunk of stone and he gave him the stone. He says, here, carry this around with you. Thou shalt, thou shalt, thou shalt, thou shalt not. God wrote it down for them. And he says, here, you want to know the standard here? And how would you like to carry around, you know, the 10 commandments all day, tablets of stone lugging them. I will, I will, I will. I'll try. And it fails all the time. Now you can't do it. Never. By the way, there was never anything wrong with the law. Never anything wrong with that. Bible makes that very, very clear. Paul tells us in Romans that the law is spiritual, but we are carnal sold under sin. The law was very, very good. Paul says in Romans, the law is wholly just and good. But the problem is, is that it becomes weak through our flesh. The law is a very wonderful standard. Don't ever try to mess with that. The problem was, is that we did not have the power or the ability to fulfill it. And we couldn't do it. So, so we're given these things and now it just condemns us when we can't. That's all the law does. In Galatians 3, 10, it says, for they that are under the works of the law are under a curse. For it says, curse it is everyone that continue with not all that is written in the law, both to do them. Under the old Testament, what happens with the law as if when you came there and you said, okay, God, I'm going to do your law. I'm going to really be good. I'm going to try hard. God says, oh, really? Let's see how you do. And then if you did good, it didn't reward you. There was no reward in the Bible for doing good, particularly. There was just condemnation for not doing it. Cursed is everyone that continue with not in all that is in the law, both to do it. Every, all that happened is that every time I failed, it condemned me. That's the way the law is. I don't know how many of you, you know, I mean, if police have ever rewarded you, you ever drive down the street and you come up in there and, and there's a stop sign, there's somebody walking across it. And, and so you wait there and you put on your blinker and then you turn and, and you do everything just right. And then just, you're doing it. You look over and there was a cop there, saw the whole thing, but fortunately you stopped. You didn't get into the sidewalk. You had your blinker on, you turned, but how often when you turn over there and you just want the guy just staring at you, just where's the line, watching the whole thing, seeing, and you're just, but as you go by the guy doesn't say, all right, you did good. You stop far out, pull over here. Here's a free dinner at any steakhouse of your choice. And no, it doesn't reward you for doing good. It just condemns you when you do wrong. When you fail, it is his job. That is the structure of a legal system. When something goes wrong, it convicts or it condemns or a judges or a chastises. But here is something there where God looked there and he realized this is the structure, but you can't do it. It isn't the ability to do it. But here, the wonderful thing is, is now the Lord says, I will, I will do all this. I can write this in your heart. I can write it on the tablet of your heart. I can give you the new nature and a new power, a new heart, a new desire, a new strength. And then when you, when you fail, I won't remember your sins anymore. You know, I will be verse 12, you know, merciful under the unrighteous and the unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities. Well, I remember no more, but not only there is Jesus, he gives us greater mediator and a greater high priest. And he has greater promises now of grace, but he has also the greater promise of a new heart for in verse 10. You know, he says there, he says, for this covenant that I will make with the house of Israel in those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind and write them into their hearts. I will be into them a God. They'll be my people here. He says, I'm going to be a greater mediator and I'm going to give you greater grace. And I'm going to give you a greater heart to think today that the Lord looks at you and he says, I can give you a heart. I can take your stony heart. I can take out of you this stony heart of hostility or frustration or unbelief or of anger. I can take out that heart. As he says in the Old Testament, I can give you a heart of flesh to think there that God, we can, this is hopefully one of the reasons we come to church and say, Lord, I need one of those. I need a soft heart. I need a new heart. I need a fresh heart. That's the wonderful thing that he comes there. And as he says as well, back in Jeremiah 31, 33, he says, but this will be the new covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inner parts, right in their hearts. They'll be my God. I'll be their God. They will be my people. Here was something there where the Lord just writes it. He within us, he can come by his spirit and fill me, empower me, anoint me, encourage, soften my heart. We sing these songs, you know, what does it soften my heart? Oh God. And renew my heart. Fill me all these things. The wonderful thing. That's what Jesus wants every moment of every day. A third thing that he tells us here, a third wonderful promise that is a greater mediator of a greater covenant because he has a greater promise. It has one there essentially of unlimited blessing for it says in verse 11, he says, they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man is a brother saying, know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. Here he looks there. That's out of Jeremiah 31, 34. This is just a prophetic promise. Now told us in the new Testament that that which was promised by Jeremiah, it's now happened. It is done in Christ and the old Testament. They said, you do this and you've got to, and if you don't, you're in trouble. But he says, now here we have a much more wonderful and greater blessing there that I don't have to go out and live under the law today. I don't have to. And the Bible doesn't sit there and tell me the husband, you love your life lover. It does say that. Don't get me wrong. But before it says that, before he says, husband, love your wife, before he says, wife, submit your husband. I don't want to touch that one. But anyway, but I mean, before these things happen and the Bible does say that in the old Testament would just say, husband, love your wife. And in the old Testament, would you say, wife, submit your husband. In the new Testament, it says, be not drunk on wine, whereas in excess, but be filled with the spirit, speaking yourselves in Psalms and hymns, spiritual songs, singing and making a melody in your heart unto the Lord, giving thanks always unto God, the father in the name of the Lord Jesus for all things, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. And now wives submit your husband, husband, love your wife. He says, first you be filled with the spirit. You walk in the spirit. You let God put that new heart within you. You let him fill you. You let him empower you. And now one of the, the not laws that would condemn you, but one of the delights now that can fill you is husband. Now you can love your wife. You may have wanted to under the old Testament law, but we're unable to, but now in the filling of the spirit, you can do it. I'll write it in your heart. I can put it in your heart by my spirit. The wonderful things. Maybe today you're having a tough time loving your wife. Well, you're probably having a tough time. First of all, with Christ, letting him soften your heart, letting him put a new heart within you, letting him write himself and his presence into your heart on the tablets, on the walls of your own heart. But when I can sit there and say, Lord, right, right on my heart, I want my heart to be a tablet that you can just write and just pull whatever you want to it. And then when he, when he writes there and he fills it with himself and he says, now here's your wife, I love her as I love her. Let me love her through you. And he says, their wife submits yourself to your husband. I submitted to my father. I went to the cross. I did all sorts of things. It was my glory. You submit to him. I'll give you the power. I'll give it to you. The wonderful work that he does is he is this great blessing of writing. You know that all shall know me people there. He says under this new covenant, they will know me. It'll be this wonderful floodgate of power and of love and of life that the spirit of God, he shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy spirit who is given to us. The love of God is shed abroad. Now we ought to know that. And then fourthly, notice as well, the wonderful covenant. Now that he tells us there in verse 12, the promise that the mediator gives to us, he says, for I will be merciful under their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities. I'll remember him more right now. Think of this. When you and I come before Jesus Christ, though in the old Testament itself tells us the blood of bulls and goats could never cover sin. The sins were only, they were just, they were never really blotted out. They were never gone. They were ever never out of sight. Really? They were never out of mind. It was just this ceremony that suggested someday that it would happen that they could be forgotten. But now when Jesus Christ came to the cross, when he died there in our place, the power of his love for you and for me is one there that now to think you have a mediator, when you come to him, you have one who says, you know, I'm merciful under your unrighteousness right here to, you know, you just, you didn't stop, you know, there, you know, and you ran over the pedestrian, your husband, your wife, your kids, you know, your boss, whoever it was, you didn't turn on your blinker, you cut off another car there, you know, you just killed four people and caused three wrecks. And, and now he comes over to you and walks up and says, what do you have to say for yourself? Say, I'm sorry. Okay. I forgive you. Let's go to dinner. I've got a free one for us both. Let's get back in the car of life together. And I wash you. I forgive you. I don't remember it. Imagine that. Imagine rather there than somebody that you're with whom you have to do being the law, the one that condemns you now comes there to say, do you realize that when you take the wheel, you'll run over people, you'll cut off people, you'll cause accidents. Now, let me get in the car with you. Let me write it within your own car, within the tablet of your own, you know, heart, let me take the wheel and then let's go for the real problem. Wasn't all the things you did. The real problem was, is I was not letting him feel me. Isn't that it? Isn't that your problem? When you, as a Christian, you realize my problem wasn't what I did to other people. David one time after here, he, you know, he sins with Bathsheba, has her husband killed, sends him off and lying in a battle where he's killed in a bunch of his men ended up bringing judgment upon the whole nation over this whole thing. And then in Psalm 51, David, looking back at his sin with Bathsheba, he says these amazing thing he says against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Now, if I was Bathsheba, excuse me, if I was Uriah, excuse me, I'm kind of dead over this thing. You know, if I was one of Uriah's men, I kind of was a little offended there, kind of ruined my family life. My kids grew up without a father. The whole nation could say, excuse us, David, you're a little simplistic in your thinking. But David looked there and he realized no, against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. There was one sin I broke communion with God and symptomatic of a broken fellowship. All of these other cards fell with it. All the other dominoes went down, but where the sin happened singular was I broke communion with God and that just set in action the other things. So often we think that my sin was I said this to my wife or I did this here. I did it. The Lord says, no, you didn't let me fill you. You didn't let me be your mediator. You didn't let me write on the tablet of your heart. My love, you weren't letting me watch over you in power. And then lastly, Jesus gives us, he's a greater mediator, a greater high priest. He has a greater covenant with greater promises because he also has eternal blessings. In verse 13, he says in this, in that he has said the new covenant, pardon me, hath he made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxes away is old already vanishes away. Here the Lord looks and he says, I have a new covenant. The old is vanishing away. It is done. And this is a new complete total covenant. This is for time and eternity to think there that right now, the Lord looks at you and me and he says, I feel, I love you and I forgive you. Your sins washed away. He takes them. The Bible says, removes them as far as the east from the west, buries them in the depths of the sea, hides them behind his back. And he says, behold, I'll remember them no more. Now let me feel you. Let me touch you. Let me work within you. This is just how I did. I don't know about you, but what a stop in the pond of this. Is this why you are here today? Is this why I'm here today? Am I here to say, Lord, I want, I want my greater mediator. I want my, this greater covenant. I want this greater love. I want these greater promises to think right now. All I need do is let you touch me. It's to let you touch my heart, soften my heart, fill my heart, to turn it over to you, to let you do what I cannot do myself, make me new, make me fresh, touch me with this covenant, with this love, with this, this power, how wonderful it is. An old poem that I think is one of the most beautiful ones that it says so much. It's just a simple one, but it says was battered and scarred. And an old auctioneer thought it scarcely worth his while to spend much time with the old violin, but he still picked it up with a smile. What am I bidding? Good folks, he cried. Who will start the bidding for me? A dollar, a dollar. Who'll make it two? Two dollars. Who'll make it three? Well, three dollars once, three dollars twice and going and going. But no, for from the room far back came a gray haired man and he picked it up with the bow and he dusted off the old violin and he tightened its loosened strings. And then he played a melody as pure and sweet as a caroling angel sings. And the music ceased and the auctioneer in a voice that is quiet and low, he said, now what has been good folks? He cried. A thousand dollars. Who'll make it two? Two thousand. Who'll make it three? Three thousand once, three thousand twice and going and going and gone, said he. And the people cheered and some of them cried. We don't understand what changed its worth. But quick came the reply. Why, it was the touch of the master's hand. In many a life, many a man with life out of tomb, battered and scarred by sin, he's auctioned cheap by the thoughtless crowd, much like that old violin, a mess of pottage, a glass of wine, a game he travels on. He's going once, he's going twice, he's going and almost gone. But the master comes and the people still don't quite understand the worth of a soul and the change that is wrought by a touch of the master's hand. And the wonderful thing, when I'm here today, I'm not here to be touched by the law. I'm not here to be dusted off and cleaned up by some structure or promise. I'm here, hopefully, to open my heart and say, Lord, would you just pick up this dusty old out of tomb instrument of our human heart and can you dust it off and can you tighten the strings and can you take my life and will you play it? I cannot play a note, but you take my heart, you write it within you. And this is the wonderful thing that here Hebrews is telling us. Jesus said, don't try to play your own instrument. You were made to be played by God, to be filled with him. May that be your joy today. Father, we thank you for your love. Lord, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you that today you come to us and say, I will do all of this. I am a great mediator. I have great promises and I am the one that will write it. I will do it. I will fill it. And then when you fail, I will forgive. When you can just come and bring your heart and let me wash it and make me cleanse it. Lord, may today each one of us come before you and say, Jesus, be this greater high priest to me. Bring these greater promises of this greater covenant that goes with me out of here today, out of this building and fills me and empowers me that I don't go out under a legal structure that says I must do this and I must do that. We just open our heart to your spirit, let it fill, and now say, Lord, you write in the tablet of my heart. You take the wheel. It seems like every time I get behind the wheel, I slam on the brakes or don't know which way I'm going, run people off the road. But Lord, just to be able to slide over and let you take the wheel, control it. Lord, just wherever you want to go today, you write it. I just want to spend the day with you. And as you want to love, as you want to care, as you want to set up any structure, Lord, you will also be the one to fill the tank and drive the car and get us there safely. Lord, may that be the attitude of our heart. May you today be our strength. May you and your power be our hope. Jesus, in your wonderful name we pray. Amen. ======================================================================== Audio: https://sermonindex1.b-cdn.net/8/SID8814.mp3 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/don-mcclure/hebrews-8/ ========================================================================