My subject today is out of the book of Hebrews. I touched on this last week and I don't really mind if I repeat some things here or not. You need it and so do I. Don't think you can ever get, you know, you can hear something one time. I've been around too many people that think they heard it once and they got it and when you query them they, they didn't get anything. But my subject today is a vital one out of the seventh chapter. I'm still kind of hooked on this verse out of the book of Hebrews, “The law made nothing perfect.” Now, you would be surprised. If we don't get this right here━now there's many of you who've been around for several episodes and I say years of teaching through Romans and Galatians, both Dr. Scott and myself, so this will be abundantly clear. But there's plenty of new people and when the subject of the law comes up, there's a lot of confusion. Believe me it's not just for lay people, if you want to really get confused, open up some of the more scholarly work and see how they talk about whether the law has been completely done away with or whether it's still in part━you can just━oh, it's terrible. You don't want to go there. So hopefully, we'll just settle some things here. But to my surprise and in my lifetime, I've met people who have said, “I, I love the law.” Now there's nothing wrong, let me finish that statement, there's nothing wrong with saying, “I love the law,” because the law was given by God. But I'm now reflecting on; goodness, this has to be probably 20 years ago somebody that said to me, “You I know I, I believe, I keep the Ten Commandments.” Now, you know, you remember we used to sing a song, we sung it once here, “When I look back over my life, somebody ought to testify.” I need to testify! There were some bad ideas back there. But here's the thing, even James, believe it or not, even James 2:10, he says, you know anybody who tries to keep law, if you miss just one part of it, it does you no good. So, you think about that; even James in his section of the universe there. Now why should we━I know! But why should we━some of you, you know what I'm saying. Why should we be concerned? Because the law is not limited to the Ten Commandments and I wish to also define what the writer of Hebrews is referring to when he uses the word “law,” because it, it represents two concepts are being put forth, which we'll need to understand as we get into future chapters dealing with parallel simile, similar parallel words like “law” and “covenant” and how do these two interact with each other, how are we to understand these. Ever read something and go, “Well what does that mean, the covenant versus the law?” and in a passage where it could be confusing. So hopefully, if we get this right we'll be able to move on. But before we move on I want to talk about the law. Now please don't raise your hand, but if there's anybody in this room who things that they know the law, the law is 613, a combination of 613 do's and don'ts. And I thought before I get into my text of, “The law made nothing perfect,” I thought I would, I'd just randomly pick some things that I decided for you who think you keep the law, I have here 613 of these, and I just randomly picked some of these to see if you could really be jarred out of your thinking. So, one part says that for men, you must wear what is called tzitzit and tefillin those are the fringes that you see the very Hasidic Jews wearing and the tefillin that's what's wound around the arm and the forehead, that, you know in order to be keeping the law; now I don't see any of you, so I'm just saying right now, it doesn't look too good. The next one here, yes, see, somebody back there got it. The next one; and these are kind of interesting, the law says to not carry tales, and they're not talking about the tails of an animal, they're talking about busybody, gossiping type tales. And you know what? I've had way too many experiences with some people that have come here and they, they fit that to the tee. And then if you want to add that, on addition to that it says that, the law says you are not to bear a grudge. Have you ever had a grudge against somebody? We've got lots of thunderings going on here right now. My next question to you is, have you left the corners of your field for the poor? Never mind. So you'd have to be familiar with what that means. These are good ones. If a woman is suspected of adultery, she should be dealt with as how it's prescribed in Numbers 5:11-31. And that, you know, mark that down and read that in your own time. That's a terrible passage. I don't think that would fly today, by the way. I just don't think that would work. But anyway, she has to drink something that would make her belly swell, so it's kind of a horrible thing. Do not castrate the male of any species, neither man nor domestic, wild beast or fowl. Newman? That's my dog. You are to examine the marks in your cattle to distinguish clean from unclean. I don't know if you did that this morning before you came here. Now, you didn't know that this━there's a whole bunch of these. I need to get to the good parts though, because we just, we haven't even see the good parts here. So we have to, in the law, it says that there must be six cities of refuge established for those who committed accidental homicide. And last time I checked, we have not established that, because the state of California can't even establish a good correctional facility. I like this one, number 311 says do not, to not refrain from putting a false prophet to death. Hey, I'm going across town. Never mind. Do not adopt the institutions of idolaters nor their customs. I, you know, that should include Good Freya, Ishtar and the Christmasa, yes? You know, you say, you know, keep going here. Number 337: do not wear garments made of wool and linen mixed together. Please do not think how you might remove them now; think about that later. Keep your clothes on please. Wait, there's more. I only highlighted a few more, because, as I said, it's 613 there are━that's a lot. Don't say━does anybody think, “I know the law and the law is good”? Now this is number 586 regarding the king. He shall not accumulate an excessive quantity of gold and silver. And I'm wondering what, what did Solomon do? Never mind, because that's Bible right there. Oh, okay, I'm on, I'm on the second to the last page here. Numbers 598, that those engaged in warfare shall not fear their enemies or be panic stricken. That's in the law. How many have ever been afraid? Oh boy. I like these next two here: not to keep alive any individual of the seven Canaanite nations; to exterminate the seven Canaanite nations from the land of Israel. Okay, last page, I'm almost done. You're going to like this one, number 609: to have a place outside the camp for sanitary purposes; some of you husbands are going to start saying, “Well, the law is good!” 610 says to keep that place sanitary. This, the last three are the ones that just like, wow, this is in the law. These are in the last three: always to remember what Amalek did; now we were just told earlier to not to hold a grudge━never mind━that the evil done to us by Amalek shall not be forgotten. And the last one: to destroy the seed of Amalek; any of you did that today? I didn't see a hand go up. Okay, it's all good; tell me again how much you like to keep the law? Silence; wow. So I think I made my point, so now we're going to look at the text and we're going to do some exploring. And there's a couple of questions we're going to ask. The text, I should say parenthetically that you, I cannot treat verse 19 by itself. Why? Because verses 18 and 19 actually belong together; in the writing of the New Testament, there was no chapter and verse. Verses 18 and 19, comprise, make up a total unit. And if you look carefully, you'll see that verses 18 and 19 pretty much bring this, the argument push comes to a close at verse 19, essentially. The writer has made his point, now what comes after that to the end of the chapter through into the eighth will still be building blocks, but you're going to see. We're going to leave Melchisedec behind eventually and now there's just a few things that will be sifted out of great importance to us. So, this is what we're treating, well, I'm going to read verse 18 and 19, chapter 7, “For there is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof. For the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did,” and you can see lots of numbers and italics in your Bible, “by the which we draw nigh unto God.” All right, so as I said, if this is not clear, the rest of the book and other places doctrinally will not be clear. The few questions I've asked, one is, what is the meaning of “perfect” in Hebrews? Do not think that there is a universal understanding of the word, because the writer has very carefully used this word with nuances in this book that are different. And I'm going to give you some examples from other places in the Bible. What was the purpose of the law? And how are we to understand what is the “better hope,” even though it seems axiomatic; if there's something lacking in the text to make the leap to a “better hope”? So, we'll put all these things together. “Perfect,” from the Oxford American Dictionary, defines “perfect” as follows: “complete, not deficient, faultless, blameless in morals or behavior, and entire or entirety.” The Oxford Dictionary of Etymology has “perfect” as “in a state, a faultless state or unalloyed.” And if you were looking up etymologically the word, because a lot of times you have to get clues from anywhere, you start digging and looking for things, which doesn't give us too much of a clue, except for how old: “from the 1300s, from the Middle English, or from the Old French parfit, finished or completed, from the eleventh century Latin perfectus, accomplished or exquisite; two compounds per- and facere,” if that helps any, “completely and to perform.” On the flip side of this, and I'm going to begin by talking about this Greek word, I should that to the equivalent of the Greek word, there are several Hebrew words. And I say this carefully, but I will come back to tell you what the Hebrew words are that carry some weight in another area of understanding in this particular passage. So the Greek word “perfect,” being used in Hebrews is all from the root, all from the Greek word, tele. They all have this tele, and it may be teleoi, teleos, et cetera; teleoo, with diverse endings, depending on if it's being used as an adjective, as a noun or as a verb. The most, I think, the most profound utterance, as I go outside of the book of Hebrews, my mind immediately goes to the book of John, when John19 and the thirtieth chapter, we read of Jesus saying, “It is finished,” and that Greek word, tetelestai. It's the same word that's being translated in Hebrews as “perfect.” When Jesus; three English words, “It is finished”" one Greek word: tetelestai. So you can kind of get an idea. I'm trying to show you outside of the book of Hebrews how this might be understood. And we'll sum up the few I am listing here. The next one is out of Luke's Gospel, how it, in chapter 2 and verse 43, recounts how Jesus, just a boy of twelve, is with His parents and they depart from being in Jerusalem as the days were accomplished or the feast. It says, “And when they had fulfilled,” there's your key word, “when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind them in Jerusalem; Joseph and his mother knew not of it.” That word for “had fulfilled” is a tele word, so you know, you don't have to be a Greek speaker. I just want you to get some principles kind of put down here that we can wrap our minds around. So we have Jesus saying, “It is finished,” we have as the days were “fulfilled,” in Luke's Gospel, and then we have another example. These are my only three, but there's many of them, but these are the only three outside of Hebrews I'm using. Revelation 22:13, where Jesus says, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end,” that's our word, “the first and the last,” the Greek word being used, teleos for “end.” So from the three examples, we can glean the following: John 19:30, a completed, finished, accomplished work; from Luke 2:43, fulfillment in what is, what was required, but only in respect of the days, not as a terminus; and lastly of Revelation that which encompasses a finality of terms: revelation, time, eternity, the world, all understanding. It's all-encompassing. So you can see I've given you shades of the word, now how is it being used in Hebrews? If you want to follow along, in━because I have to go outside of the seventh chapter to show you these examples━we have, if you'll turn to Hebrews 5 and 14, and this will make a good case. And by the way, if you're interested, this, this tele, Greek words occur 18 times in the Greek. The King James has 19, but one of them is added by the translators. Okay, 5:14, we covered this already; I need to read 5:13. The two will be juxtaposed. “For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe,” the Greek word there, napios, “a babe. But strong meat belongeth to them that are full of age.” “Them that are full of age,” all of those words; that's one, two, three, four, five, six words; yes? Only one Greek word for those many English words, and that's a, teleion is the word right there. So the author is using teleion, “those that are full of age” to describe maturity in understanding and things spiritual and he juxtaposes it with napios: child who lacks understanding in spiritual things. So you can see our first example of this tele word has to do with maturity, spiritual understanding. See, a lot of times when you say, “perfect,” people read the Scriptures, I've, I've been in churches and I've been in institutions, “Be ye perfect.” Well, that means━does that mean that? No! And that's why I said you know, I feel, I feel badly when people can't read the Greek and they're not even willing to listen to me, so you can stop frustrating the grace of God and start actually walking in Him, not in yourself, because that's what the bulk of people think they're doing, but they're actually full of themselves. I'm sorry if that offends you, but I'd rather be full of Him and full of the Spirit, than full of myself, yeah, okay. “You've got, you've got a fine way of saying that.” Well, I want to talk to you, I want to talk to you like we're sitting together, side-by-side and this isn't some talk I'm giving to some blanket; no face to look at, nobody to━this is, these are important dimensions of understanding sound doctrine. And there's a lot of people who will not endure that. “Please, tell me how to get money from God. Tell me how to get the blessings. I don't want to know about being perfect.” You know, I'm telling you, all right. Next example, moving on, is found in Hebrews 6:1. He says, “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection.” There the Greek word is teleiotata, a nominal form in a noun. And essentially what this is doing is it's pointing the reader to Christ. So this could be very misleading if not understood aright, “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ,” because it says we're “leaving.” No, no. “Let us go on unto perfection,” that is wanting or needing no other methods than Christ. If that's understood in this setting, then perfection, remember if you read the rest of this, he says, “Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and faith toward God, the doctrine of baptisms,” essentially these had already received the doctrine of Christ. Now, focus on what is not lacking now. This is the concept of perfection being painted here. All right, I have two more examples out of Hebrews, and then we'll, out of the book of Hebrews, and then we'll get to my message. So you can; I'm painting a picture with all of these words. Hebrews 2:10, in 2:10 we read, “For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain,” remember, we covered this, archagos, “the First-goer of their salvation perfect,” there's our word, “through sufferings.” So, “and being made perfect, he became,” and the “perfect sufferings,” if you will, this is━I love this. I mean I'm not going to bore you with grammar, but you know, some of you know how much I love grammar. I'm crazy for grammar; and I didn't say, “grandma,” I said, I said, “grammar.” This is pretty cool, because this one word right here, “perfect,” it's very interesting. The precision of this language; this is an infinitive, so the “perfect sufferings,” there's no limit. An infinitive means there's no limit as to how many people and there's no limit as to time, so when it says, “The First-goer of their salvation, perfect through sufferings,” we're talking about perfect, if you will, perfect in His work that is still open to, not limited to. That means, “Whosoever will,” that means there's no limit as to how many people may come, will come, and there's no time. He decides when it's time. So I love the fact that this is an infinitive. Basically, it's pointing you to an act in the past, this text is, regarding His death and Resurrection. That makes me happy, but there's an even better one than that. And that occurs in Hebrews 5:9. Almost there, folks, bear with me. “And being made perfect,” three English words to make one Greek word, “he became the aitios,” remember that? “The Source of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him,” having been “made perfect” there, we have another verb, and if you'll wrap your mind around this concept, this is the same sense, if you will, in this verse, having been “made perfect,” He became the Source, by His death and Resurrection. If you go and read the book of Acts, they always say, Acts 3 and 4, specifically, “This same Jesus that God raised up,” and this is that same connective verbal structure that's here talking about His, by His being “make perfect” is referring to His death and His Resurrection. By that act, He became the Source of eternal salvation. I love that. I love the fact that you can read that there and then you can go and confirm that in the book of Acts. It's a beautiful thing. Now, all of these I've given you are important to understand our text. So what about our text, now, 7:19? We read “The law made nothing perfect.” This is tough and it's tough for many reasons, because when people read this, there's going to be some confusion come into play. What does this really mean? And we'll find that, for the writer, he has attached the law and the priesthood together. Now it's, it's self-evident if you go back and you read the Old Testament, you see when all of these things are unfolding and when Moses is going up to the mount and he's receiving the revelation from God and he receives, even when he received the first set of tablets; you remember that? And we have Aaron is not yet put into his post, but he's already let the people get away with, essentially with murder by building the golden calf. But you've got a whole history, a whole chronicle of the need to have a priesthood attached to the law. They essentially enforced they were the ones who, as poorly as I say this, they, they mediated the law. They didn't mediate essentially standing between God and man necessarily, but they were the presenters of that, the upholders, if you will, of that law. So for the writer, you'll find that concept in verse 11. He says, “If therefore perfection,” there it is again; see how much the writer loves that word, “perfection, perfect.” “If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood,” and we'll read right there, it says, “(for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should arise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron?” So you can see the writer has these two things attached, which will help us to understand that the law, in this case, although we'll go on to see it used a little bit differently in some upcoming chapters, but right here he's talking about the ceremonial sacrifices. In the Old Testament, a lamb had to be offered morning and night, every single day there had to be this perpetual morning and night offering, for example. We know that this was the law. This was prescribed. God said, “Do this. This is what you're going to do.” So, when it says that under this priesthood they received the law, you've got to almost attach the idea; what has been the point? What have we been studying for all these weeks about the supremacy of the priesthood of Christ? This is why the writer introduced Melchisedec, to tell us that before the law there was another priest and we have a prefiguration of Christ. Melchisedec, as I've said, was not Christ, he was not the Holy Spirit, but we have something as a prototype, all for the sake of making an argument in this book. The purpose of which was to tell the people they did not need to go back. In fact, if they went back to desiring those sacrifices, they would essentially be negating the finished work of Christ. Now if this sounds familiar, I've been going on this and trying to kind of get around this for a while, but there's something I need to add in here, which, I, I'm afraid I will do my usual and fly right over a concept I wanted to make sure I did not miss. And that is for us, I've just given you the definition through a dictionary and through the Greek language, but for the Hebrew mindset, and this is going to be important to grab hold of this, for the Hebrew mindset, perfection encompassed a multiplicity of things. It's very hard to nail done one word. Some of you studying Hebrew with me know the ambiguity of the language, but we've got three words and at least two that represent the concept of perfection. And this is why when we say the law made nothing perfect, I want you to think of two words. One of them is ta'cleeth, and the other one is shalom. The law made nothing shalom; the law made nothing whole. And this is, when I say God has given me like I've got a whole bunch, a stack of things waiting to come out of the shoot here. But you've got to do this before you can go to something else, this is extremely relevant when I begin to talk on the subject of healing, because this is why Isaiah 53 becomes the thing we hold onto. We understand, we appropriate that in such a profound way, because the law could not make anyone shalom. That's not just the exterior, as Martin Luther said, “Hair for hair, skin for skin, garment for garment,” but the inner man, the inner person. So Romans and Galatians, if you're reading that writing, if you've studied and you've been here you'll know that Romans and Galatians, the law could not provide or impute and there the focus is on righteousness. Here, the focus is going to be on perfection. And there, there's the difference. If you're starting to weight out these books, and if you're studying them together, if you like to do what I do, which is I comingle things, you'll see for Romans and Galatians, righteousness is the target. Here in this book it is the concept of perfection. That begs the question of how to understand perfect. And I'll sum it up very clearly and very succinctly. It is based on the sacerdotal, the priestly functions; the people could never be put or made to be in right standing. We'll read on and find out that the inner workings, what's going on inside the believer are more important, but for all of this activity only serve the exterior portion of the person. Now I think what happens a lot of times, we read these things and we think, “Okay, yeah, I know that.” And there's a difference between hearing something and saying, “Yes, I know this to be true,” and then actually saying, “There is an application for me and for you.” What might that be? Well, we'll get to that. I think the most ingenious thing that happens here is going to be in verse 12. Read with me. It says, “For the priesthood being changed, there is made of necessity a change also of the law.” The priesthood changes; law changed. Now that's pretty radical. And then here come the theologians saying, “Well, you know, maybe to some degree, but not all of it,” because they lack the understanding that right now, for the writer, he's discussing the ceremonial━remember, his whole focus has been on the priesthood. He's not talking about morals and ethics. He's talking about the ceremonial portion. This is the thing that I think is my greatest lament, because some people will hear this and they'll say, “That's a great message; it's slightly archaic though, because we don't, we don't do those type of things.” But tell me what is the difference between what I'm describing to you, whether it's sacrifices that these people desired, and as I've said before, people coming into the church and wanting ritual performance in the church of things that do not belong. They're ceremonial in their own way. And people have said to me, “Well, you know, your church would be so much better if did this and you had that.” We're like the first century church here in respect━it's just the word of God with a little bit of music; it's the word of God. And I think that is probably the most important thing going on here is that people will not make the connection: why should I learn about this? Why? Because it will get you to put down your religious baggage and begin having a relationship with Christ. If you miss that and you're still caught up in the “I've got to do this and somehow I've got to, I've got to; well, I've got to act right.” Somebody said to me, “Well, don't you know, as a minister, you're, you're held to a higher standard?” James said that, by the way. But let me ask you something. I'm just as frail and as faulty as you. I make lots of mistakes and the only thing that I can say━somebody will say, “Well, but you ought to know better.” Well, we can say the same thing of a mother or a father. We can say, “Well, mother or father, you should have known better; you should have taken better care of your kids. You're held to a higher standard.” Well, nobody gave you the perfect roadmap, and there's only one perfect roadmap for us as Christians, as the body, and that is Jesus Christ. So when people come up with all these ideas and it, it's very taxing, because there was a prescription given to the people. Oh, I know what the next question's going to be: “Well, why the law? Why give the law?” You know, I know you know the answer. There'll be plenty of you say, “Well, of course I know the answer.” Why give the law if the law cannot be kept? Isn't that a good question? When we read, “The law made nothing perfect,” no one can be shalom'ed or have shalom; wholeness, communion with God, right standing with God. The law demanded perfection, perfection. The law reflects God's own perfection. You can say, “Well, it's an unrealistic thing that God did.” No, no, while He was doing it━you know, you can get so puffy about your understanding, while He was doing it, do you not think that in the back of God's mind; and it wasn't even in the back of His mind; it was in the forefront. He already knew all of these things prefigured Christ. When people say, “Why? Why give the law?” While He was giving the law, think about it; come down from the mount, sprinkle the people with blood. You know, people say, “Oh, you talk too much about blood,” well then, you ought to go back and read what Moses had to do and what they were doing all day long. It was a bloody scene. But this is what I love. Moses comes down from the mount, God says, “Build Me a tabernacle. Take up an offering; build Me a tabernacle.” The first thing He says, “Build an ark; shittim wood covered by gold.” And we know this ark represents, as a type, Christ, the humanity, the wood, the shittim wood the humanity of Christ, the gold the deity of Christ. And in that box with its perfect dimensions that represent and have other━there's all these things that you can keep going on; but in that box put the unbroken━remember the second go around. The first go around he broke them coming down the mount, so ticked off at Aaron, what he saw. The second tablets go inside the ark. You don't think God; you think God just decided one day, “Okay, this is the end of that dispensation”? While He was making them make the ark, and “You put the manna and you put Aaron's rod that budded and the unbroken tablets of stone of the law in the ark. And the ark remains in the holy of holies” in the holy of holies. So think about that. If all this typifies Christ, and God's prefiguration of Christ says, “Only My Son, by the ark, only My Son can keep the law.” And then Jesus comes on the scene, He says, “Don't think I've come to destroy the law; I've come to fulfill it.” All of these things so neatly woven together that━why? Why the law? And this is what I love. There are things that, they start to go off in your mind and you say, “Of course! Of course”" Jesus in, specifically in Matthew's Gospel, you'll find that the most━and I'm going to take you there. I want you to turn with me, because it becomes the most, probably one of the more important things to say about the law. Why give the law if no one's able to keep it? And you've got to start reading 5:17. I believe that, yes, it's 5:17. It's sometimes hard to read my Bible. It's so, it's such a disaster. It's a colorful blur. “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say to you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” And He said He came to fulfill the law. Hold that thought. “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven”" And this is a mindboggling statement He makes here, “If I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed,” italicized by the translators, “the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Now if you could imagine that, these men, we know that they were later reviled, but they were highly respected; they knew the word of God. And if anybody had attained the level of outward appearance of righteousness, it was these men. And then here comes, He says, “You have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shall not kill; whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: but I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in be in danger of hell fire.” And then, we've got a whole series of these: “You have heard it said of old, Thou shalt not commit adultery: I say unto you, Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already in his heart.” And the same thing is true when He talks about divorce, and the same thing is true about swearing before God, and the same thing is true about an eye for an eye, and the same thing is true about loving your neighbor. And the same thing is true, even though it's not spelt out this way in Matthew 6, when He talks about giving, prayer and fasting, and He says, “Make sure that you do not do this before men to be seen: do it privately in secret.” And many people here, they, they know this teaching, but some have taken it and even misconstrued the meaning of this, which was that your Father, your heavenly Father sees the heart. It's no━He's not interested in these outward displays. And this is what the book of Hebrews is going to point out for us. Now this is what's mindboggling. Somebody might say, “Well, why? Why would you even touch a subject like the law? It's so laden with━people don't necessarily want to hear about this.” Well, Paul even says the law was holy, the law was just. The law revealed what nothing else could. You know if, if there was no law and God said, “You're a sinner and you're fallen,” we'd say, “How?” just like those people in Malachi: “How have we fallen? How are we sinners?” But the law laid it bare. This is God's standard of perfection. Jesus comes on the scene, He raises the bar, but there's something very interesting going on here. He says, “Forget about the external, everything now has been internalized.” Later in the eighth chapter of Hebrews, we're going to read, the author of Hebrews is going to quote Jeremiah, how he says, “There's going to come a day when I'm going to write My law on the heart, in the innermost being.” And then, here come the scholars, “Well, that means that the law's not dead, because God's going to write it on somebody's heart,” and they completely miss the point that if Jesus has fulfilled the law, Christ is formed in your heart by faith, and if Christ is in your heart, the fulfillment, the sum total, the perfection of that lives in that person Jesus Christ. Anything else is like saying it, “But I still like to put on my beautifully filthy rags and present them before God, because He might thing they're special.” And believe me, if you think that that's just a façade, it's been done before. All you need to go is go back to the garden after they sinner, they were so busy trying to cover their nakedness with fig leaves, and God had to kill animals then and cover them to show them only His way of covering, not their way. Well, you keep traveling in the Bible and you find the Tower of Babel; “We'll go up and we're going to be like God. We're going to get to heaven.” And God said, “No, not so quick.” He confused the tongues so they couldn't understand themselves. I bet you that put a stop to the building project. I don't know if they had not perfected sign language back then, there'd be real issues going on. So to, really to simplify this, and it's, it is, it is simple, but people will say━you know, if you begin to touch this, you have to equally understand what Paul says in Romans. Romans 10:4 says that Christ is the end of the law, and that has to do with our faithing in Him. It is for our faith in Him that we, we receive righteousness. We are placed in right standing. So, it's in that framework. Now, you'd be surprised at how many people do not read Romans or Galatians and in comes the trouble; and in comes the trouble indeed. Now, I'm back to my text here, and somewhere back to Hebrews, if you've been moving around with me. And the point of all this is to say the law made nothing perfect. The law could not bring wholeness. The law could not bring a state where we could come in and have; boy, you're going to hate me, because we're going to turn to two other places again, but right now, you're back in Hebrews with me. So I want to show you something. See if I can find the right━here we go. I took the Latin, of our text that said, “The law made nothing perfect,” but right before that, the weakness━what is it telling us about the law? “The weakness and unprofitableness thereof.” Erasmus's Latin translation of verse, of verse 18; oh I see, you all read Latin now, do you: imbecillitatem. Do I need to explain that? No. And this word inutilitate, French gets their word initile, “useless.” The Vulgate has infirmitatem, we get our “infirmity,” sickness or weakness, and the same. So you can see there. And there's one language I did want to share with you. I, I'm always very sparingly, because not everybody is a linguist, but here we have the Ethiopic; and somebody who's just here for the first time is going, “Oh my goodness. I don't even; I can't even get past the first thing and now you're wanting me to”━you don't have to read the language. I just want to show you something, so I will do the quickie version of this, because this is somewhat interesting. “And there is also,” I like this word, “an error” waya kawu ne sehetan━I think you take my word that I can read this writing. Otherwise I might just be saying the loop is kicking the other guy, all right. “And there is also an error,” ba “in the ancient” hag “law; in the ancient law,” sorry, “in the ancient law concerning, concerning its weakness since,” asam “since there is not; there is not” or “cannot,” and I like this word, simply “profit.” Very interesting, but it's what comes next, “and,” this negates it “and not perfect,” if you weren't sure, “and nothing,” we're going to have lots of negatives here, “and not perfect and nothing,” this word ort is “Torah,” the law, “and not perfect and nothing the Torah had the capacity” this “capacity” or “power to, to lead us,” and this must be understood: “inwardly.” That's an extremely important part of this translation, “to lead us inwardly through” int whst, “to a better, a better,” I know you believe that that's what it says, “a better hope,” tsf “a better hope that we may approach” or “draw near” le Ebziabher “to God.” I like this, then: “There is also an error in the ancient law concerning its weakness, since there is no” or “not profit, and not perfect and nothing Torah/law the capacity/power to lead us,” this is the key word, “inwardly through to a better hope that we may approach God” or “to God.” So what, what you take out of that is that even in these other languages, and I, I did the translation in several of them, you can see how this is crystal clear. The law is being referred to as “weak and unprofitable.” And you may say I have one more thing to tell you about this “weak and unprofitable.” If a person were so inclined to study these two Greek words, anopheles and asthenes, the word for “weakness” is used for Mathew's Gospel for “sickness,” in Luke's Gospel for “sickness,” in Acts as “impotent,” in Romans, “without strength,” and in Galatians as “weak and beggarly.” So it really does have a very pejorative meaning to it. It's not pretty. The other one is used only one other time and it's “unprofitable and vain.” So that tells you the sum total. So clearly, the argument here being made, it's somewhat interesting. I have a parallel for you, and if you don't what to turn there, you don't have to. But I do have a parallel for you, and the parallel is going to be hinged on━in fact, you just listen. It's probably easier to listen sometimes than it is to turn. And let me read you something Paul said, because it's parallel; it's not the same, but it's parallel. “Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth? For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she be called an adulterous: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” And if you want to take the time in your own time to read Romans 7, Romans 7 and Hebrews 7 have a lot to complement each other with in understanding. So then the last point might be this: what the law cannot do, what the law cannot do is being spelt out for us; weak, unprofitable. But what could the law do? Ah, there is an important question. As I said, in your own time, if you go back and you read you'll see the law could point out or bring an awareness of sin, a condition. Like a shadow, the law could bring an awareness of God's power, of God's purity, of God's righteousness, but was not able to impute or impart. When people say, “Oh, I love the law,” well, if you love the law that much, it means you really don't love the One who fulfilled the law, because in Him all these things are met. And I think there's not a day when I don't think about this. I could have been one of those people wandering out in the world, thinking the law is great, just like the one I told you about 20 years ago who told me about the law, but instead I think about how the curse fell on Him, as Galatians says. And yes, in the big picture, if this is a challenging thing to say, I know from the presentation of this book, there's a crystallization of doctrine that becomes in clear focus. Right, right here, the writer is saying, “Because there was a change in law, there was change in priesthood. Now I'm going to tell you that this Priest, who never dies still lives to make intercession. Now I'm going to tell you about the greatness of His, if you want to call it His performance, what He completed, what He perfected.” That's what's being unfolded here. But if you think it's only the law as in the Ten Commandments, you're mistaken. And he's speaking about this law, the need to bring offerings, the need to━with the priesthood, this particular priesthood required this, demanded that. So I think then I can safely move on to what is the “better hope.” If we, if we look at the text again, “the law made nothing perfect,” the law could not put us in right standing. The law could only look at the outside. The law couldn't fix the inside. And I don't know about you, but I wrestle, even with the great Savior that I have, there are days when I wrestle with the inside. Do you do that? Thank God we're not under the law and we have, if you're going to wrestle it out, better to wrestle it out under the blood of Christ than under the firings and the thunderings of Sinai; no thank you. But if we're going to talk about what the law did here, it made nothing perfect, but it gave the occasion to bring in a better hope. And I, I think that's where people miss the boat; they think, “Well, why did God do this if He knew it was going to be impotent and wouldn't work?” No, it was preparation. The revelation of God's perfection: no one can live. And God is concerned with the inward man and I, I come back to this because, between these books, Hebrews, Romans and Galatians, the thoughts swirl in my mind. He, Paul says in Galatians, “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not know what the law says”" These are staggering things. How many people come into the church and they're told for an act of faith, if you even have a desire to come, for an act of faith and all you have to do is have faith in Jesus Christ and you're saved. And then you're here and you think, “Well, that's all I have to do. It seems like I should be doing more, you know. I need to feel like I'm doing more,” so you go to another church where they make you actually have to walk a certain way or talk a certain way or put you through the perfectionist, fundamentalist━you can never live up to anything they want from you anyway. And then I'd ask you, who are you trying to please: them or God? If the answer is not God, we may part ways. But “the law made nothing perfect,” but a better hope. And it's interesting, we can pass right over these, but inside this book, he chronicles what, what this “better hope” is. In the third chapter he refers to this better hope as Christ who was a Son over this house, whose house we are if we remain in the faith, and two other places where he refers to. The other one is that place of refuge, calling Him the anchor. That is that hope that we run to. Now when I weigh all this out, I think to myself this is not only a much better priesthood and a much better way, because the whole book is about the superiority of Christ over the old dispensation. But a better hope; I don't have to try to perform. I don't have to try and live by something that is impossible; not only impossible, somewhat preposterous, especially, you know, I'll ask you again. Have you killed any Amalekites or any of those Canaanites today on your way here? Or whatever that means for you, I have no clue of what that would mean in the now anyway; except this. I know that if you're feeling sick, the law cannot heal you and I know if you're feeling guilty and sin has just permeated, whether it's━forget about your condition, we're all in a condition. But the things that you actually now are feeling such sorrow for in your soul, the law can on say, “This is what is your doom, your fate,” versus the grace of Christ. The law can't fix that. What about those people who, who say, “Well, I love the Lord and I keep falling down. I desire to walk with Him and I, I never make it, I never stay the course”? The law would say: “Failure, and be cast away.” But the law of grace that comes from Christ says, “Get up, get up again and begin to walk afresh. Today is a new day.” The law never gave us a second chance. You failed: death. Let me ask you something. How many chances are you on and how many chances am I on? Yeah, that's what I said. So when we, when we begin to probe this, I'm telling you one thing that is absolutely certain. When we come, we come just as we are and for our simple faith, not law, not performance, not ceremonies, I receive pardon, receive love, unconditional love and forgiveness and healing just as I am. Many years ago, amongst the many things that I did, I've told you I used to write songs on napkins. And one of those was a little diddly that we ended up singing in the church, If It Wasn't for the Cross What Would I Do. Do you remember that? If It Wasn't for the Cross What Would I Do, and the words are, “Now He's come to set me free, if it wasn't for the cross where would I be?” I pray that you take this as a strong message that the life of faith is not an easy one, but God makes it possible. The law makes everything impossible and makes nothing perfect. It's a simple choice. I don't know what yours is and what your facing, but I know what have made up my mind to do, and that's follow the Lord Jesus Christ. That's my message. You have been watching me, Pastor Melissa Scott, live from Glendale, California at Faith Center. If you would like to attend the service with us, Sunday morning at 11am, simply call 1-800-338-3030 to receive your pass. If you'd like more teaching and you would like to go straight to our website, the address is www.PastorMelissaScott.com
