The Testimony of Abraham, Part 1 (Hebrews 11:8-10; 13-16; Genesis 12:1-9)
/Abraham testifies that it is only through New Covenant worship that we enter of the heavenly city, which he understood to be the substance of what God promised all along.
Abraham testifies that it is only through New Covenant worship that we enter of the heavenly city, which he understood to be the substance of what God promised all along.
Noah testifies to the fact that the Present Age will come to an end and only those who worship the true God will be safely delivered into the Age to Come.
Enoch testifies that those who eagerly seek God in worship, by faith, are brought into his presence as a foretaste of the Last Day and in the end will be rewarded with full and free access into the God's glorious presence.
Abel bears testimony to the reality that sinners can only enter God’s presence by faith in one who would shed his blood to grant that entrance.
The Old Testament shows us that the purpose of the visible gifts of God to the saints of old was to bear testimony to them of greater things to come, things we have in Christ.
Faith is an enduring refusal to let go of Jesus Christ, knowing that blessing is found in him alone.
To belong to Jesus is to be confident that a heavenly inheritance awaits you, but to reject him is to throw away that confidence.
Those who reject the New Covenant are left with only their sin and the promise of eternal judgment, having spurned the only one who can deliver them.
Each week, as we gather together in worship, we enter into God’s Sabbath Rest, the age to come, through the means of grace, where we find encouragement to walk through our earthly pilgrimage with love and good works.
The result of Christ’s perfect sacrifice is that your guilty conscience has been done away with, which means your fellowship with God does not change from day to day.
Christ, at his first coming, inaugurated the Age to Come and will return to bring it to consummation.
The fact that Jesus shed his blood on the cross means that a new covenant has been enacted, one that provides a solution for the Old Covenant’s demand for death for transgressors.
While the ministry of the tabernacle was a constant picture of mankind’s reality in Adam, Jesus brings a better ministry where he removes the shame of sinners and grants them access to God.
The Old Covenant, because it deals with man’s righteousness ends in God’s neglect of the people, but the New Covenant, because it deals with God’s grace, ends in God’s remembering their sins no more.
Through his death on the cross, Jesus enacted the New Covenant, through which he ministers to his people (in all ages).
Because Jesus ministers in a different tabernacle, you cannot return to the temple (and its worship) and still cling to Christ.
Jesus is able to save those who seek refuge in him, because he is not like them (or the priests of the Old Covenant).
The New Covenant is able to save because it is based upon Jesus who is a perfect priest.
Melchizedek, the king of Salem was a priest, who served as a picture of Christ to come showing us that salvation (that is peace with God), comes by giving us his perfect righteousness and laying down his life for us.
God has given his people a double pledge to encourage them hold fast to the hope of glory they have in Jesus Christ.
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