If you're a Christian, you already have a desire to please God, which explains why you're miserable when you don't.
Dr. Tony Evans talks about our connection to God through Christ. Grace functions by relationship, not by rules. In other words, you keep the rules because you have the relationship.
You don't keep the rules to get the relationship. This is the alternative broadcast featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. It wasn't that long ago when television moved from standard definition to HD, 4K, and even better, bringing with it a clarity, depth, and detail that the old video system only hinted at. Well, today Dr. Evans shows us how God introduced a vibrant living promise to us through Jesus, the expression and fulfillment of a new covenant that transformed old rules into a new relationship and worn out rituals into real renewal. Let's join him as he explains.
The water itself will move you. And so it is. He wants them to keep going.
He wants them to press on to maturity. We saw that in chapter 6. And then we saw last time in chapter 7 about this great priest that we have after the order of Melchizedek. The priest that very few people know about, yet he is the key figure of which Jesus Christ is the continuation.
These Jewish believers were going back to the Levitical priesthood, the Aaronic priesthood. He says that's the wrong deal. That's not the way to go. Jesus doesn't come from that order.
That was a temporary situation. No, there's something greater coming down the pike. There's something greater coming down this highway. And you don't want to miss that by settling for something less because it's easier or appears to be easier. And so he comes to the end of chapter 7, verse 26, who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this he did once for all when he offered up himself. Talking about the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. For the law appointed men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath which came after the law appoints a son made perfect forever. So he says Jesus Christ is this unique person, this one-of-a-kind person, to whom you must affirm your allegiance and not to a weak system that can't help you. And so he comes in chapter 8, and he wants you to know that a better priest is automatically going to bring you a better ministry. A better priest means a better ministry.
Now the main point in what has been said is this. We have such a high priest who has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. So Jesus, the Son, is right now on the right hand of the Majestic, the majesty, God the Father. So Jesus is on the right hand of the Father. The right hand, by the way, in the Bible is the place of power and authority. So when something is on the right hand, it's on the place of strength, okay? So Jesus—but notice his position.
We saw this when we started in chapter 1. He is seated, okay? The high priest in the Bible could never sit because there was no chair.
You could never sit because your job was never done. But what did Jesus say when he died on the cross? It is finished.
Tetelestai. It means it's finished. There is nothing yet to complete. So the important point you need to know here is that you're not trying to get Jesus to do stuff he doesn't want to do. Because everything Jesus is going to do has already been finished. He's operating from a finished position, not a coerced position. You don't have to coerce him to do what he intends to do.
You need to be in relationship with him, but you don't have to coerce him. He is seated. He's chilling because he's finished, seated next to the Father. A minister in the sanctuary, verse 2, and in the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man. He now gets into this contrast between the old tabernacle and the tabernacle or the sanctuary in which Jesus is operating out of now. Because a new priest has a new—he has a new church. He's got a new tabernacle.
He's got a new location. So every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, so it is necessary that the high priest also have something to offer. Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all since there are those who offer the gifts according to the law, who serve a copy and a shadow of heavenly things just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle.
For see, he says, that you made all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain. So God showed Moses in the book of Exodus the pattern for making this earthly tabernacle or tent that would be the center of God's presence and the center of Israel's worship. So he's comparing what Moses did in the Old Testament with our great high priest and what he's doing in the New Testament. He says, but now he has obtained a more excellent ministry. So whatever is in the New Testament is better than it was in the Old Testament.
Whatever Moses set up was good for then. It's not good for now, because you have, I have, we have something better, and that's in Christ, not in Moses. He's obtained a more excellent ministry, but as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which he has enacted on better promises.
Now please notice the flow. Jesus has a better ministry, having enacted a better covenant, which has better promises. So whatever comes from Jesus outweighs anything you read in Moses.
Okay? Whatever stories you like in the Old Testament, whatever great truths, great principles, great learning come from the Old Testament, he says in this new ministry from this new priest based on these new promises, you are better off. So he's telling them, if you go back to Moses, you're going back to an inferior person leading an inferior ministry with inferior promises.
Which means if you go back to him, you're losing out on what's better. So that's why you've got to keep pursuing Christ and this new covenant. So a lot of Christians don't get what God wants to give because they keep stepping back and refuse to move forward. Because he says Jesus is better, the ministry of the covenant is better, and the promises that come through it are better. Some of those promises are in time, some of those promises are in eternity, but all of those promises are in fact better.
So he's trying to get them to keep going. For if the first covenant, verse 7, had been faultless, if it was all that good, there would have not been no occasion sought for a second. So if the Old Testament was all that, you wouldn't need a New Testament, basically, because the word testament means covenant. At the heart of the New Testament is some phenomenal information.
Notice what he says he's going to do. He says in this new relationship, verse 10, I'm going to put my laws in your mind and write them on your heart. If you're a Christian here today, you have a new heart and a new mind. Now, even though you have a new heart and a new mind, it may be an undeveloped heart and an undeveloped mind. Just like when a baby is born, the heart is small and they have a brain, but it has not been exercised yet. So it does not fully realize all that it's gotten into when it is born the first time.
Well, when you're born again, you don't initially understand all you've gotten into. But the ingredients have been placed inside your soul. And so your capacity to handle the new nature inside of you, your body is not able to handle that right now. However, you can handle more than you realize because of the new nature that has been placed inside of you.
Why? Because God has written His laws on your mind and He's written them on your heart. So inside of you is the capacity to experience God. The Bible calls that eternal life. Eternal life is not living forever. That's like everlasting life. Eternal life is your inner capacity to experience God. And every Christian has it, but every Christian hasn't developed it equally. But you have the capacity and it's written—it's already written inside of you.
So often what people are looking for outside of them is already inside of them. So let me compare that to what he's saying to these folk. He's saying to these folk, you're going to a outside location, the tabernacle, to look at outside laws written on stone.
He says, that's old stuff. More from Dr. Evans when he continues in just a moment. First though, the lesson you've been hearing today is just one installment in Tony's 13-part sermon series, Don't Ever Give Up. That's the primary takeaway from this study of the book of Hebrews. But there's so much more we can learn within its pages. We see the role Jesus plays in connecting us with God, how He fulfills and completes the Jewish laws and prophecies found in the Old Testament, the importance of continued faith and perseverance, and so much more.
This complete study is available for your own personal audio library on CD or digital download. And it includes additional material we won't have time to present on the broadcast. In fact, due to scheduling limitations, we'll only be able to share about half of Dr. Evans' Hebrew study on the air. This is a valuable collection of messages. And for a limited time, we're making them all available bundled along with Tony's helpful paperback book, Can God Be Trusted in Our Trials? Get them both as a gift with our thanks when you make a donation toward the alternative broadcast ministry. Do that online today at tonyevans.org.
Details are right on the home page. Again, that's tonyevans.org. Or reach out to our resource center at 1-800-800-3222 for some in-person help. That's 1-800-800-3222. I'll repeat our contact information for you after the second part of today's lesson.
Here's Dr. Evans once again. When I'm working on my sermon and I'm in my study, I have a yellow pad. All my notes are on yellow pieces of paper. Because I have refused to come into the new age of technology and use a computer. The computer would be so much easier because I watch other folks use it.
Okay? If I make a mistake, I gotta scratch it out and write over that and, you know, sometimes papers get mixed up, you know. But I am so tied to the old way that I am not benefiting from the new capacity. And what's interesting is the capacity is right there. I mean, it's right there. All I have to do is call IT and say, I need a computer. And they'll get me a computer.
They'll hook it up. I have, an IT person says, I will train you. I will show you.
He would like the Holy Spirit. I will train you. I will lead you. I will show you. And you know what I do?
I do the same thing y'all do. I said, amen. Okay. All right. I'll do it. This has been years, okay, that I've been offered a computer, offered to be trained on a computer, and have not taken advantage of it. You know what? Because I've been so used to for so long.
Okay. These Jewish believers had grown up in this old system, this old covenant. And he says, if you go back there, if you go back to your yellow pad, after we've already, in this case, already purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, your new life, you're going back to something inferior. Jesus is a better priest. Jesus has a better ministry, a covenant. Jesus Christ, he says, has better promises. So don't go back.
Don't go back. In fact, he concludes chapter 8 by saying, it's obsolete. That's what I'm saying. Obsolete. It's old stuff now.
Okay. What you have, in terms of experiencing God, is inside of you. See, it's inside of you. They were going back to something outside of them, a tabernacle. They were going back to a high priest, an earthly high priest. He says, no, that's backwards. And if you go back there, you're losing out of the benefit of what's in front of you now.
It's obsolete. Or to put it in a way that Paul puts it in Romans 6.14, you are no longer under the law. You're now under grace.
You're now no longer under the stipulations of the 613 codes that were written in the Old Testament. You're not under that stipulation anymore. You're under grace, and grace functions by relationship, not by rules. You keep the rules because you have the relationship. You don't keep the rules to get the relationship.
Okay? So it comes out of the joy of the relationship. So it's already written.
It's been already coded in your mind and on your heart. So that speaks of your thoughts and your desires. You may not know it, but if you're a Christian, you already have a desire to please God, which explains why you're miserable when you don't.
See? A Christian can commit any sin that a non-Christian commits. He just can't commit the same sin the same way. Because what he has done, or she has done, is disturbed the new law that's been written on the heart. Which means—that's why you have to, even what we're talking about in our series— you've got to force your heart closed. You've got to make—you've got to override that thing inside of you that wants to please God, because you already got that God thing operating inside of you, operating inside of your mind, and you've got to kind of override—you've got to push the override button to get rid of it, because it's there.
Okay? And so, I didn't mean to spend all this time on chapter 8, but we have a mediator, and at the core of all of this, he says, I will remember their sins no more. Verse 12, I will remember their sins no more. Now let me tell you the good news of the New Covenant. The good news of the New Covenant is that every sin you have ever committed—but it gets better— even the ones you haven't done yet, okay? Tomorrow's sins, in word, thought, and deed, he doesn't remember.
Okay? This is very important, because it changes how you look at God and how God looks at you. Many people are living their Christian lives trying to keep God from getting mad at them because of their sin, and so they live in fear of punishment. That's what the whole Ten Commandments were. The Ten Commandments were all negative. Thou shalt not, thou shalt not, thou shalt not.
It was a very negative thing, but it revealed God's standard. But God says, I want to flip this relationship with you. I don't want you walking around in fear because I've already forgiven you, and you ain't done it yet. I've forgiven you what you've done, but I've forgiven you for what you haven't done yet, okay? Now, here's the problem with that, because I know you hear the problem with that. I know you hear the problem with that. I know some of you are thinking, well, wait a minute now.
Wait a minute now. If he's already forgiven me for what I think I might do tomorrow, well, why shouldn't I just go ahead and do it, because I know what you're thinking. Don't think I don't know what you're thinking. Not only do I know what you're thinking, Paul knew what you were thinking, because Paul says in Romans 6, verse 1, shall we sin that grace may abound? In other words, shall we sin just because we know God's grace forgives us?
So he knew that you folk were going to be here, and that I was going to say this, and you were going to say, hmm, hmm, okay? While God has forgiven you, you have the authority to bring consequences among yourself. So it's not God coming to get you. It's you making a decision that brings a repercussion back to you. It does not change your standing with God, and nor do you have to manipulate God to get a standing back. But he says, if you really understand how great this grace is, if you really understood that, then your motivation to please the One who loved you so much, He went in front of you to forgive you. He got you from yesterday, but He's even been to tomorrow and has let you know in advance your sins have been covered. See, that's why you have eternal security. That's why you can't lose your salvation. You can't lose your salvation because the stuff you haven't done yet is covered, or else you'd lose your salvation every time you sin and you'd need a new sacrifice. But Christ died once and for all.
He wants the knowledge of forgiveness to be an inspiration to you for a relationship. I don't want to conclude our program without giving our listeners a clear opportunity to become a Christian. A lot of people can listen to Christian messages, but never have a personal relationship with the Christ who is the center of that message.
So let me explain it very simply. You and I are sinners. We can't save ourselves. So God came up with a plan to provide salvation for us for free. He sent Jesus Christ, His Son, to die on the cross as our substitute, validating His purpose by raising Him from the dead. And so all you must do is come to Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and for the gift of eternal life, and He will give it away. He will give it to you if you come to Jesus for it, believing Him to forgive your sins.
Do that right now. God has already made provision through the death and resurrection of Christ. You just have to accept that provision personally. When you do, you are born again.
You get to start life all over again. Why don't you respond right now by receiving Christ into your life? If you're ready to do that, take the time to visit tonyevans.org and click on the link at the top of the homepage that simply says Jesus. Tony has more information there about becoming a follower of Christ, as well as some free resources to help in your journey. Now, if you found today's broadcast helpful, I'd like to encourage you to get the special resource package I mentioned earlier, all 13 full-length audio messages from the Hebrews collection, as well as Tony's popular book, Can God Be Trusted in Our Trials?
a helpful guide that explores how to press on in the face of hard times. These powerful resources can be yours as our thank you gift when you visit tonyevans.org and make a contribution in support of Tony's work here on the radio and around the world. You can also let one of our resource team members assist you day or night by calling 1-800-800-3222.
The number again, 1-800-800-3222. With the Christmas season fast approaching, you and your kids can experience the animated stories from the Storyteller Christmas episode. In The Incredible Christmas Dream, Cam's secret plan to rediscover the true meaning of Christmas plays out in surprising ways, and your kids will enjoy seeing how it all comes together.
You can also check out The Incredible Christmas Dream and all the other episodes of Stories from the Storyteller at tonyevanstv.com. When a car breaks down, no amount of polishing the paint is going to get it working again. The real solution lies in fixing what's under the hood. Our lives are like that too, and tomorrow Dr. Evans talks about how Christ's sacrifice cleanses and repairs our brokenness from within. I hope you'll join us for that.
