And that Ark of the Covenant had within its chest, it had a pot of manna, sustenance God provides.
It had a rod of Aaron that budded long after it was dead. The authority of God given to men on behalf of God for men. And then there was the unbroken word of God, which is Jesus Christ. He never broke the word of God.
But on top, the lid, the two cherubim, that was called the mercy seat. This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Hebrews.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more about Cross Reference Radio. Specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. And now here's Pastor Rick with his study called Destiny of the Saved as he teaches in Hebrews chapter 2. Verse 14, and as much as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death. That is the devil. You ever go to a funeral of a Christian and all they talk about is the one that died and not Christ?
It's very sad when that happens. You go to another Christian funeral where the believers are hot and they're just talking about, Yeah, we miss him. We'll talk a little bit, but he is with Jesus or she is with Christ because of Christ. And if you're here today, this gathering is not about our dearly departed.
It's about you. If you have not taken Christ into your life and if you have taken him into your life, then be stronger because of our magnifying the Lord. We need to be made stronger all the time. Is there any Christian here that says, No, I'm strong enough. I don't need any more. Thanks. I'm good.
That would be foolish. In as much then as the children, that would be the believers, have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same that is coming in flesh and blood. This is the incarnation of Christ, the humanity of Christ, the virgin birth and that which led after. He's making the point that God put on humanity and coming to earth as a human born of a virgin. He did not materialize and just show up one day and start preaching in Galilee. God did not give our Lord, as he did with Adam, a mature body instantly. Christ was not full grown when he came here. Adam was.
And this would answer, this would be an interesting thing. If you were in the Garden of Eden and God breathed life into Adam and Adam became a living being, if Adam chopped down a tree, would it have rings in it of its age? I think so, because I think God created the original creation in a matured state that would account for so many things. If God says, you know, I'm going to create Adam, I'm going to make him, oh, let's say, Rick, how old are you?
You're a good model of this. He said, I'm going to make him, you know, I don't know, 30 years old. And so when I'm going to make a tree, I'm going to make it how old? When I make the mountains and the hills, the stars, you know, how long the light has to take to get to earth from those long distances. So in a matured state, which drives the naysayers wacky.
It's so funny. Anyway, we're not going to, I'm getting off of what we're supposed to be talking about. Anyway, he merged Christ into humanity in the experience of humans, us, from the womb to the tomb, we would say. Hebrews 10, 5, therefore, he's quoting Psalm 40 and Hebrews 10. When he, Christ, came into the world, he said, sacrifice an offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. He continues in verse 14, that through death he might destroy him who had power of death. That is the slanderer, the devil.
We'll talk more about him as we move through the remaining epistles. Christ, our sacrifice and our savior and our high priest who is our mediator, according to verse 17, when we get to the end of this. Christianity has no blood sacrifices with a human or animal.
It's all done now. We need not offer blood offerings to the Lord that speak of sin. Christ has done that.
He is the substitute. This power of death that Satan had came through sin, of course, by way of Satan. And sin has kept us separated from God, separates the righteous even from God. We talked about that before Christ.
We weren't his brethren. When the righteous died, they went to a holding place in the spiritual realm called Sheol, the righteous side of Sheol. The wicked went to the unrighteous side. They still go to the unrighteous side until the great white throne judgment.
We'll talk about that, hopefully, Wednesday. But sin kept us separated and slammed heaven's door shut on sinners, all of us. Without a savior, that door remains slammed shut. But he opened it, Christ did, and in so doing, destroyed the work of the devil.
This work destroyed in the Hebrew is actually to make useless, to void out. So by dying as a sinner, without sin for sinners, he satisfied the debt to the father and that swung the door wide open. John saw that door open in Revelation 4. I saw a door open in heaven.
He never would have seen that door open in heaven without the Christ. And verse 15, And released those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Believers are not supposed to live and die like unbelievers.
Everything about us is supposed to be different, better. Unfortunately, because sin is still here in us as our sinful nature, it's not always the case. And many times Christians fail.
They do actually worse sometimes, some Christians, than unbelievers. Sometimes Christians do not face death so courageously, though we are supposed to face it courageously. Of course, many times we do. Many times we do get the victory over death and life and all these things. And we become the light that shines in a dark world.
So we need to understand the real risks that are around us and we also need to be encouraged. Maybe you are here this morning and I don't want to look at anybody so I'll just look up that way. Maybe you are notoriously a failure when it comes to the Christian walk. What should you do? I can tell you what Satan will tell you and you can tell me what Satan will tell you. Quit! Give up! You'll never get any better.
That's Satan. Christ, of course, nudges you forward. Take courage. Keep moving.
Get up. I'm still with you. I said I would never leave you nor forsake you. Yes, there are others better than you.
You're going to have to learn to live with that part. But right now I want you to be better than you and I'm not giving up. That makes even the weak Christians stronger, of whom I'm one. In Revelation 12, they overcame him by the word of the Lamb, their testimony, because they did not love their lives to the death. Paul, when writing to the Thessalonians, speaking about the rapture, he said we have a hope that is greater than those in the world. We do not face death hopelessly. We do not have the hope that wishes it's going to be so.
We have the hope that knows it is so, and that's what we're laying our hands on. So, if you are one of those Christians and you have a fear of death, face it. Meditate on it. Put some thought into it. When I started working in the steel industry, there was no way I could walk across those beams, not even 10 feet above the floor, let alone 40, 50, 60 stories up. And so, you know, it really bothered me and I didn't know how to overcome it. I tried walking on sidewalk curbs and saying, okay, it's mind over matter. If I can walk, you know, six inches off the ground on this, well, what's the difference between 60 feet?
A lot. 60 feet is what the difference is. So, the Lord just, I think it was the Lord that gave me the idea to just go up on the high rises and expose myself to the height repeatedly. Just be up there. And as a result, it came to me.
I was able to hover by the time I retired. Watch this. So, I don't know what that has to do with anything. Oh, I know. I know.
I got it. So, this fear of death, face it. Don't judge into it. Spurgeon says death is our last enemy.
Let's leave it for last. Good advice. But you have to face it. What is so frightening about death?
Well, judgment. Well, Christ has dealt with that. Act as though you believe the things you find so sweet in Scripture. The unknown, that's probably the most spooky thing about it. Only faith can overcome that.
And that kind of faith comes from exposure to Christ while facing those things that scare us. Then there's the finality. From this side. It's over here.
It's done. There's no more. But not from heaven's side.
Heaven, what do you mean? We're just beginning. The party has just started. Are you going to protest if you have to wear a little party hat when you get to heaven? I'm not. I just want headlights on mine.
I want mine to be better than everybody else's. I'm honest about it. But anyhow, Jesus died in the flesh.
Flesh and blood to rise again. The first fruits to show us it can be done and I've done it for you. It's going to be your turn one day. Do you trust me? I know you love me, but do you trust me? And we want our children to trust us. Just trust me on this. The cookies are mine.
We just want them to trust us. It's okay. Develop this. Have that kind of relationship with Christ where anything that scares you, you take it to him. The worst thing in the world that you can do is become satisfied with it and just say, I'm going to leave it be. I mean, we can reach a time when you've exhausted in his speech to Christ. I'm going to leave it with you for now, Lord. But I'll be back because this really is under my skin. So if you are afraid of death, and I will add, you might not be afraid of death in your youth when you're strong and your vitality is there. But as the years roll by and you say, you know what, I'm getting a little close to those gates.
I couldn't see them before. Now all of a sudden, this is getting serious. I don't mind ankle deep water. Well, unless I'm on a submarine. That could be bad.
But I don't want that water starting to rise very quickly. And so face it. Well, that's enough about that. But he's talking to these believers that Christ has delivered us. Evidently, he knew that there were those who claimed Christ that dealt with the fear of death all their life.
And he's coming along and he's saying, let's walk like we believe the things we claim. Verse 16, for indeed he does not give aid to the angels, but he does give aid to the seed of Abraham. Well, he didn't die for an angel, else he would have come as one. The fallen angels are irredeemable. They will not be saved. The unfallen angels do not need redemption. They're already in heaven. Satan, the fallen angels, Antichrist and his false prophet, the wicked, those who reject Christ consciously, they will suffer a conscious torment forever.
Listen, that's the fact. You don't have to like it. Well, I don't like it that God is going to send people to hell. You don't have to like it. You have to face it, though, whether you want to or not. God's not going to say, oh, you didn't like that one?
Okay, let me change it. He's God. He's not asking permission to set things up the way he has set them up. Matthew 25, he will say to those on their left hand, Depart from me, you cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. Hell wasn't even made for man. But those who reject Christ will end up there nonetheless. As far as this verse where it says the seed of Abraham, that's the faithful.
Galatians 3, verse 7. I won't read verse 9 also, which repeats it, but verse 3, Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham. Remember, Abraham was not a Hebrew. No, he wasn't a Hebrew, but he was not a Jew. In a sense, he'd come from the line of Jacob. And it's just a technicality, and I love to say it. Because people, hmm, what do you mean?
And you have to go back and look and say, oh, that's right. Because Esau was born of Isaac. He was not a Jew.
Jacob was the first one. Well, anyway, back to verse 17. Therefore, in all things, he had to be made like his brethren.
That's us, that's me, I mean that. That he might be merciful, a merciful and faithful high priest, in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people. We are the object of salvation.
That is what he is saying. In all things, pausing his sovereignty to become a human and a servant, subjecting himself to abuse and all the things that he did subject himself to for us. In all things, it says, he had to be made like his brethren. Again, that would be we, the believers.
Which means that originally, he wasn't like us. Originally, he's God Almighty in full sovereignty, full-blown part of the Godhead. Merciful and faithful. God's astounding mercy. There's just nothing like this mercy of God. James says, James 5-11, the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.
You could whisper that in it with thunder. The Lord is very compassionate and merciful. And you read James, you say, wow, for him to come away with that, that is attractive. Mercy is so critical to the expression of the salvation that God has for us. That the holiest place was also referred to as the mercy seat. You know, the old temple, you had the holy place where the showbread was, the golden altar and the lampstand, etc. And then that curtain that separated that chamber from the holiest of all where the Ark of the Covenant sat. And that Ark of the Covenant had within its chest, it had a pot of manna, sustenance God provides.
It had a rod of Aaron that budded long after it was dead. The authority of God given to men on behalf of God for men. And then there was the unbroken word of God, which is Jesus Christ.
He never broke the word of God. But on top, the lid, the two cherubim, that was called the mercy seat. The mercy of God was over the word of God, the authority of God, the sustenance of God. It was the mercy of God. Take the mercy out, there's no salvation.
Mercy is not receiving what you deserve in the negative. The easy one is if you're speeding and a cop catches you and he's registered, you're like, I'll just use a true story. A cop goes, Mr. Gaston, I didn't know cars could go 500 miles an hour. I'm not going to give you a ticket. Why? Because you're so just debonair and suave and distinguished. And I said, that's true. All right, that did happen that way.
It did. Okay, but anyway, he says, I'm not going to give you a ticket. Why? Because I'm just going to be nice to you. That's mercy. Now, if he says, then I'm going to give you $10.
That's illegal. No, that's grace. That just makes a, it's a clumsy point, but you get it. God has done that with us. I'm not going to send you to hell if you come to me.
You don't deserve it, but I'm going to give it to you. And I'm going to give you eternal life that is so unspeakable, the prophets couldn't capture it. That, that is mercy and the grace that flows from it.
God's contact with sinners is all about mercy. He withholds his judgment. It says he is the high priest. Hey, we have to get out of here.
I'm just going on and on like we've got eternity. The high priest, he stood representing the people. God singled him out. From the people, he singles out a high priest to represent the people to God. Jesus has fulfilled the entire Levitical picture of the priest.
So if you have your notes, you'll write these verses down. He is our high priest here in verse 17. In verse, in Hebrews 9 and 14, he is our offering. In 1229 of Hebrews, he is the fire.
You need the fire for the altar and the incense and the brazen altar alike. And in 1310 of Hebrews, he is the altar. He is the complete fulfillment of everything the Old Testament spoke of and these Jews needed to know it and he's doing it. In things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for sins. Propitiation is friendship again. Atonement, forgiveness of sins, having been justified by faith. Romans 5, 1.
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 6 of Romans 5. For when we were still without strength and due time, Christ died for the ungodly. He did not die for godly people because there were none. Verse 8. Well, don't tell that to some unbeliever or self-righteous churchgoer because they actually think that their good deeds does something. God's impressed. Oh, look at that.
You actually tied a – is that a Windsor knot? Anyway, God demonstrates his own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. While you were still messed up, while train wrecks, while shipwrecks, Christ did not wait for anyone to get good enough because it never would have happened. Verse 18. We're almost done.
I see the finish line. For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to aid those who are tempted. Now, the word translated tempted also means tested.
That is significant. I don't believe Christ could have been tempted in the sense of being lured. Satan believed that. Man may have believed that.
But I'll see if I can open again some of the reasons why. If this was an allurement or not an allurement, then it's a matter of establishing fact. In other words, the temptation was not to see if he was going to fall. It was to demonstrate he could not fall. That makes us say he's God. That is the distinction of Christ. Anyone else would have failed. He controlled the fish, the weather, the elements of water and wine, the sea. You mean to tell me you think he could have fallen?
He could have failed? Sin occurs first in the mind. We know that from Matthew.
If you just look at a woman and think that, you've already sinned. James talks about it in James 1.15. It starts in the head. Hebrews 4.11, the discern of thoughts and tense of the heart. Sin starts in the head, which is the heart. Because when the Jews talk about the heart, they talk about the whole body. It's not just the heart beating. It's the entirety of the individual. But when Christ was presented with choices that were outside of his Father's will, there was nothing in his head for it to attach to.
There was no port. He is unlike anyone else and he told us this. John chapter 14, the ruler of this world is coming and he has nothing in me. There's nothing there like you and I. There's plenty there. I mean, if God said, Rick, don't eat Twizzlers, I'm telling you I'm going to sin.
Fortunately, the worse right now I have to suffer with dental issues. But anyway, John 8.29, Jesus speaking, He who sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please him.
Who could ever say that? Only Christ. These things are put out in front of us so we could see them. Now there's another point. So to close that one up, the temptation proves that he is the Son of God who can withstand any onslaught. That ought to encourage us, proving again, he is the one that is faithful and true and worthy to be worshiped. You could have put Daniel on that desert with Satan and Satan would have known what would have gotten Daniel to sin and he would have fallen, not Christ. This does not mean that he did not suffer. I don't want to say he suffered fatigue and other physical things, but spiritually he was a castle.
He also exercised patience in that wilderness. Could you imagine what he wanted to do when Satan said, Bow down and worship me? You know, I'm just going to throw you into the abyss right now. What about, hey, throw yourself down. No, you're going down.
But first, a few slaps. God can know in a way that we cannot. That's another point out of this. So he says he is able to aid those who are tempted. What we tend to think is, okay, he came here and he suffered so that we could see that he knows what it feels like. He did not come here for that. He already knows those things. God can't learn something. We are the ones that need to see him do these things so we can be encouraged so that when we go through hard times, Lord, I know you were here. I know you had to live with that junk, people calling Mary, you know, all sorts of, you know, unfaithful and all of this other stuff, and you had to take this junk from people. You knew that before you got here because you know in a way that we cannot know. And so he brings it into view. It's all he is doing in this state.
It's great. I don't want to trivialize it, but when God is tempted in this fashion, he is simply bringing into view for us his sympathy, his compassion, and he's saying, I know what you're going through. Yes, I walked among you. You need to know that. That's what the Hebrews are learning here in this passage of Scripture.
But as you mature, you say, wait a minute. God knows it all. Christ is God Almighty. He does not have to get leprosy to know what leprosy is about. He doesn't have to get an abscessed tooth to know what that's about. He does not have to be in a difficult marriage or have a bad relationship at work.
He doesn't have to have any of these things to sympathize with me. But it sure is nice to know he was here, nonetheless. You've been listening to Cross Reference Radio, the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel in Mechanicsville, Virginia. As we mentioned at the beginning of today's broadcast, today's teaching is available free of charge at our website. Simply log on to crossreferenceradio.com. That's crossreferenceradio.com. We'd also like to encourage you to subscribe to the Cross Reference Radio podcast. Subscribing ensures that you stay current with all the latest teachings from Pastor Rick. You can subscribe at crossreferenceradio.com or simply search for Cross Reference Radio in your favorite podcast app. Tune in next time as Pastor Rick continues teaching through the book of Hebrews right here on Cross Reference Radio.
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