Thank you, you may be seated.
Do you think about heaven?
I hope you think about heaven.
Heaven, I want to tell you just from the beginning, it's a real
place.
Heaven is a real place.
People are right there right now.
It's going to be incredible when we get there one day.
Are you looking forward to it?
Man, it's going to be amazing.
Here's something you need to know about heaven.
God's there.
And God's perfect.
And it's a perfect place.
Believers proceeding us in death are there.
Who's got some people in heaven?
Yeah, can't wait to see them.
There will be representation from every people group of the
planet in heaven.
It's going to be a very diverse group of people that are there.
And there's some things that aren't in heaven.
Are you ready?
Got a list.
Some things not in heaven.
Pain, crying, cancer, temptation.
You like my list?
Yeah.
Grief, regret, wrinkles, surgeries, cavities.
I'm guessing commercials.
Maybe there'll be commercials.
Only funny commercials.
Okay.
I don't know.
Terrorism, racism, sexual confusion, pornography, traffic,
anger, rage, foul language.
I don't know if this one's the calories.
I put it on my list.
I don't know.
Presidential elections.
We know who's in charge in heaven, amen.
And there's not an election cycle.
He'll be king forever, amen.
Abortions, funerals.
It's not in heaven.
Who likes my list?
There's a whole lot more.
Bullets, drowning, snake bites, dog bites.
Mosquitoes.
No mosquitoes.
At least they won't bite anyway.
My pain is what I'm trying to say really comes from Revelation
chapter 7 where it says there are some former things that will
pass away.
God will continue to make all things new.
All things new.
Look at this passage real quick.
Revelation chapter 21 verse 1 through 7.
This is amazing.
I saw a new heaven and a new earth.
For the first heaven and the first earth will pass away.
There was no more sea and I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem
coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned
for her husband.
You guys know Miles got married yesterday.
Anybody watch that online?
We can watch weddings online now.
He didn't just kiss her once.
He kissed her twice.
Did you see that?
He kissed her when it was time and then they got halfway down the
aisle and he put her over and then he kissed her there too.
And then there's like a part where they're doing the knot and
there's like a lot of hugging.
There's a lot of premarital hugging going on, you know, on the
stage.
Yeah, it was, we'll talk when he gets back.
But anyway, what a beautiful image of a bride adorned for her
husband coming.
And here's what, here's this new heaven, new earth, this bride
coming out of heaven as a prepared for a bride, as a bride
adorned for her husband and I heard a great voice out of heaven
saying, behold the tabernacle, key word in the sermon today,
tabernacle of God is with men.
And they shall be his people and God himself shall be with them
and be their God and God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying.
Neither there shall there be any more pain for the former things
are passed away and he that sat upon their phone said, that's
Jesus.
Behold, I make all things what?
New.
And he said unto me, right, for these words are true and faithful
and he said unto me, it is done.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning of the end and the end.
I will give unto them that is a thirst of the fountain of the
water of life freely.
He that overcomes shall inherit all things and I will be his
God and he shall be my son.
Who is looking forward to heaven?
It's going to be amazing.
What if this life contains some things that really are pointing
us to the next?
I believe that this is the case and I think you're going to see
it in today's text.
C.S. Lewis in his book, mere Christianity put the concept this
way.
Most people if they had really learned to look into their own
hearts would know that what they do want and what acutely
something that cannot be had in this world.
There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give
it to you but they never quite keep their promise.
If I find myself in myself a desire which no experience in
this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I
was made for another world.
Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy but only
to arouse it, to suggest the real thing.
If that is so, I must take care on the one hand never to despise
or to be unthankful for these earthly blessings and on the
other never to mistake them for something else of which they are
a kind of copy or echo or mirage.
I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country which
I shall not find till after this death.
I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside.
I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other
country and to help others do the same.
One of the things that I am trying to do in this series, this is
sermon number I believe 20 or 21 as we have walked through the
book of Hebrews.
What I am trying to do is bridge the gap between the theological
and the conceptual and the everyday.
What I want you to know, the practical, right?
You guys need to live this week, right?
You are going to work and school and you are going to do family
stuff and you are making the choice to live a life right now.
You have a bunch of decisions to make this week, don't you?
You do.
You have a lot of things to live out.
I am trying to help you understand that your everyday life shows
up here in the theological and the conceptual and making it
practical.
What I want you to know is that the point of each passage, the
point I am trying to do is to make the point of each passage the
point of the sermon and to help that impact your life.
Hebrews is all about what God has done in revealing himself to
us throughout the scriptures.
The main point is that what he has revealed in the Old Testament
is bettered or is made greater in the New Testament.
Jesus is central to the whole of scripture and the whole of
history.
Let me say that again.
Jesus is central to the whole of scripture and the whole of
history.
This is a book about Jesus.
It is a book about how we can't meet God's standards and we
can't keep God's law so Jesus came in the gospels and kept the
law we could not keep and died the death we were supposed to die.
But he didn't stay dead.
He rose again.
And because of his sacrifice and because of this new promise, we
can be right with God.
And one day we can go to be where he is.
Jesus really is greater.
Jesus really is better.
And Hebrews has laid out this case and will continue to lay at
this case that Jesus is greater.
And in the last few weeks, we took a break for Mother's Day and we
love the mothers.
We come today continuing through Hebrews chapter 8 and the writer
of Hebrews who has been making a case that Jesus is our great
high priest who has remembered us talking about Jesus as our
great high priest.
And as our better high priest, he's a priest after the order of
Melchizedek, it's a better order, better than that ironic order.
Our priest, our better high priest, because of him, we can have
intimacy with God right now.
You can have a relationship with the God of the universe this
week.
You can commune with God apart from any other person.
You don't have to go to anybody else.
You can go right to God through the person and work of Jesus
Christ.
In that way, we are all kind of priests.
We teach the priesthood of the believer that if you know Christ
as your savior, you can go to God.
You don't have to go through anybody.
I'll pray for you if you ask me.
There are some others here that I'll pray for you.
They are close to the Lord.
But my prayers don't get there better than anybody else's prayer
because I'm the pastor.
Are you with me?
We can live a life of intimacy with God this week.
And one of the things that has been happening in my life here
lately is as I have been kind of reaffirmed in all the things I
am learning, you know what, I learned from what I am studying
and preaching to you.
And I am really helpful.
Thank you for letting me preach to you.
Because I get to preach to me first.
And you know what I come away with on this?
I want you to know that I have not accessed God like I had the
opportunity to.
There have been times when I have not been as prayerful as I
needed to be.
Can anybody get on the boat with me?
I can go to God every day.
Think about all the decisions you have made.
And I thought about this a lot.
All the decisions that I have made apart from seeing what God
had to think about it.
Going to him about it.
We have access to the God of it.
He knows everything.
He owns everything.
He loves me.
He cares about me.
He knows what is going to happen in my future.
I should access that.
So should you.
Are you with me?
He is out there to serve me.
But he has offered himself to me through the person of Jesus.
You guys are not excited.
Come on.
I know I say that all the time.
But I want you to feel this.
We can have victory over sin.
We can have intimacy with God.
We can have direction for life.
Through his word and through prayer because we have access to
him.
Because Jesus is our great high priest.
And he can help you this week.
He can help you today.
And as you enjoy things in his word and learn things from his
word and in this life, know that this life is pointing to the next.
Here is the summary statement of the sermon and the proposition
I am going to make to you today.
We can have, we can live a life of incredible intimacy with God.
And victory from God by living according to the truth that Jesus
Christ is our better high priest.
We can see that he is our better high priest in two ways I am going to
talk about today that come up in this passage.
Sometimes when we have the reading of scripture and I was so
thrilled when you guys got up today without being prompted as
the scripture is being read because I believe this ought to be
honored when we read it.
Amen.
And so thank you for honoring God's word today.
Sometimes when we read it and you just kind of read it for what
it is like, okay, what is he trying to say?
Doc when he heard that he was teaching today and what is the
verses that he is reading, Hebrews 8, the whole thing, yeah,
the whole thing, right?
There is a lot there.
It is amazing when you dig in what you can learn.
And so it is going to talk about how Jesus is our better high
priest and he is going to talk about it in two ways in the text.
The first way that he talks about it and if you want to take
notes in the bulletin, there is a place for you to take notes
and I hope you will follow along there.
First, the first way he is a better high priest is number one,
he is a minister of a better tabernacle.
A minister of a better tabernacle.
Let me explain that.
Verse 1 says, now of these things which we have spoken, this is
the sum.
This is the kind of author, the preacher doing what they do
sometimes what we preachers do is you come to a point and you
go, okay, let's just stop and say what we have already said.
Kind of give a summary.
I like that that is happening here.
We have such a high priest.
What kind of high priest is he about to tell you?
Talking about Jesus.
Who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens.
A minister of the sanctuary and of the, here it is, true tabernacle
which the Lord pitched and not man.
Now here we are given a summary of the kind of high priest we have
in Jesus.
And he is saying, Jesus is a better high priest because he
ministers in a better tabernacle.
That means letter A, Jesus is better because of where he sits.
In verse 1 and 2 we see the place where he serves contrasted with
the ironic priesthood.
Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God.
He is on a throne.
The expression here, majesty in the heavens gives us a picture of
that place.
Isaiah 6 talks about where Jesus, where God is.
Isaiah saw a throne high and lifted up.
It says, in the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting
upon a throne high and lifted up and his train filled the temple
with the Holy Spirit.
And above it stood the seraphims.
Each one had six weens with 20 covered his face and with 20
covered his feet and with 20 he did fly.
And one cried to another and said, holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts.
The whole earth is full of his glory.
And the post of the doors moved at the voice of him that cried
and the house was filled with smoke.
Isn't that an incredible picture of where God is?
And the Lord told us about where Jesus sits and the fact that he
is sitting and Hebrews 1.3 says, who being the brightness of his
glory, talking about Jesus, Jesus reflected the brightness, he
was the express image of his person, Colossian tells us,
right, that Jesus is the brightness of his glory, the
express image of his person and upholding all things by the word
of God.
Where is Jesus?
He is in heaven.
And where other priests never sat down, he has sat down.
We will talk more about that in a little bit.
He is, it says in verse 1, who is set.
He is not having to be up and around.
He is sitting.
It's a place reserved for him.
It's a heavenly place and not an earthly one.
Notice the description, it says it's called a sanctuary.
The word for sanctuary here is hagyon.
It means a holy place or a sanctified place.
It's a place set aside from a common use.
It's a dedicated place.
That's where he's gone.
It's called another description there of the, it says true
tabernacle.
God's commands to Moses and the law was to create a tabernacle.
That tabernacle was a tent in the wilderness wanderings and
eventually became the prototype for the temple later on.
And in that place, I think I showed you pictures before, I
didn't put them on here today.
There's an outer place where anybody could go that was Jewish.
Then there was an inner place, the holy place, and then there
was a holy of holies, the holy of holies.
It was a traveling set of tents made by specific tradesmen.
And these men are described in Exodus 25, 26, 31, 1, and 31, 6
as having the skill to make the tabernacle and everything in
it.
This passage speaks of a true tabernacle.
It's not the one that, it's not that, when it says that it's a
true tabernacle, it's not saying that the one in Exodus was a
false one.
Are you with me?
It's not saying that was a false one, it's just saying it wasn't
the first one.
Are you with me?
The tabernacle up there is in a copy of the one down here.
The one down here is a representation of the one up there.
Do you get it?
We'll see from the future that the one in Exodus is a copy and
not the original.
It's the tabernacle, here's what it says, which the Lord pitched
and not man.
Do you see that in verse 1 and 2?
This sanctuary and true tabernacle is not made.
It was made by God himself.
This is the place where our true high priest ministers right now.
Do you get it?
Right now there is a place where Christ lives, where Christ
resides, where Christ sits.
It's a place set apart in heaven, designed and constructed by
God, where Christ was placed to serve as our intercessory
minister.
Our high priest, where I can go to God at any time to commune
with God, to abide in Christ, to spend time with Him, to find
strength.
Anybody here need strength?
Yes.
He ever lives to make intercession for us, the Bible says.
And to fellowship with Him.
You can fellowship with the God of the universe.
Listen, you talk to me, I don't always understand.
Anybody ever felt that?
Have you ever felt like there's no one that gets me?
Okay, like Doug's saying yes.
Anybody else feel that way?
Teenagers, have you ever felt my friends don't understand
me, my parents don't understand me?
I always felt like girls never understood me.
My wife's trying, she's so sweet, she's trying to get me.
It's hard.
And don't even get me started on getting girls.
I don't get them, I don't get you people at all.
Okay.
Jesus understands.
He gets you.
He made you.
He knows you better than you know yourself.
And He loves you.
He loves you so much He died for you.
And now, those He saved to the uttermost, Hebrews says, He now
lives to make intercession for them.
He sits in a better place.
He's better, He's a better high priest, in a better tabernacle
because of what He does.
Look at verse 3.
He says, for every high priest is ordained to offer gifts and
sacrifices.
Where for it is of necessity that this man have someone else,
someone else to offer.
The old priesthood, the Aaronic priesthood, what they did, what
they did on a daily basis, basically they were butchers.
In terms of what they did, they sacrificed animals.
Those were the gifts and the offer.
It's more than that, but that's what they were doing.
They were offering sacrifices to God on behalf of the people.
That's what they were doing.
And so when you say that Jesus is a high priest, what the
writer of Hebrews is saying is, well, the Jewish person reading
this is going, well, priests, they do a lot of sacrificing.
So if Jesus is a high priest, what's the sacrifice?
And that's what He says.
Verse 3.
Where for it is of necessity that this man have someone to
offer.
For if he were on the earth, he should not be a priest, seeing
that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law.
So He's saying if his priesthood wasn't up in the real tabernacle,
wasn't up in heaven with God, if it was down here, He would, as
the high priest down here, he's still a priest, if he's down
here, he wouldn't be offering, he's not going to do ministry the
way they did.
They were always the ones making these offerings according to
the, it says there are verse 4 into verse 4 what?
According to the law.
They were just doing what they were told to do by God through
the law.
Verse 5.
Who serve under the example and shadow of heavenly things.
What's He saying?
What they were doing was picturing what was going to happen.
Do you get it?
What they were doing was do you get the whole idea of picture of
the real?
Not real, real.
Image, metaphor, picture, real, authentic, forever, eternal.
Temporary, eternal.
Do you get it?
Verse 5.
Who serve under the example and shadow of heavenly things as
Moses was in the mosh of God when he was about to make the
tabernacle for see, sayeth he, that thou make all things according
to the pattern showed thee in the mount.
What he's saying is, that was the whole idea from the beginning
when God gave the plan to Moses to pitch the tent to make a
tabernacle.
And God said, oh, by the way, I made some guys who had the skill
and the reason I made them with that skill was so they could help
me make the tabernacle.
When he said, do all this stuff, this is how he told him to do
it and he quotes, Exodus 2540, which said, quoting God to
Moses and looked at thou make them after their pattern which
was shown thee in the mount.
He's saying, there was a plan.
The plan was to make something that pictured what was up there,
the true tabernacle.
So what does Jesus do?
He has a sacrifice too, right?
Verse 5, wherefore it is a necessity that this man, who is he
talking about, Jesus, have somewhat to offer.
They offered animal gifts and sacrifices in a place that was
patterned after a true place here on earth.
That's what they did.
What does our priest do?
He does something different.
He sits in a true tabernacle making intercession for us, not
based on sacrifices that continue.
That's why we get to number 2.
Not only is he the minister in a better tabernacle, number 2,
he's a mediator of a better testament.
He's a mediator of a better testament.
Look at verse 6.
But now, hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, that he
there is Jesus.
He's got a better, more excellent ministry than the ones that
the priest had down here.
By how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant,
better ministry, better covenant, better testament, same word.
Which was established upon better, what is it?
Promises.
Jesus is greater because of what he does in the tabernacle.
We see this thought continued but in reference to the better
testament or better covenant.
The word here covenant and testament are interchangeable.
Jesus is greater, he has a better ministry, he is mediating a
better covenant.
This covenant is making better promises.
What am I talking about?
He's making this argument to people who have had an affection
for scripture.
Hebrews is written, you understand the name of the book of
Hebrews, is written to Hebrews, right?
Mostly who were saved, some who thought they were saved but it
weren't and some who were not saved.
And people who had grown up with an old covenant system, an old
testament system, a sacrificial system.
And just like we, anybody here have an affection for some of our
traditions.
Come on, who likes fireworks?
Right?
Who thinks it's good that we still celebrate Memorial Day where
we remember people who gave their lives so that we can have
freedom, right?
So if you feel as an American, any kind of an affection for
those kinds of things, thanksgiving, who has an affection
for thanksgiving, right?
And literally the giving of thanks but also turkey and football,
right?
Like that's cool too, right?
So they were like that, they had this affection for this old
system.
Some of them may have even known priests.
Some of the ones he's writing to might have been priests.
There's some people that think, because we all argue about who
the author of Hebrews is, some think that the author of Hebrews
is a guy who used to be a priest.
Kind of interesting.
We'll find out one day maybe.
So he's making this argument to people that had an affection
for the Old Testament, for the past ceremony, for the
Aaronic priesthood, for the past ritual and the past tradition.
It's not that it was wrong, it's that it was incomplete.
Even at the point of the writing of Hebrews, some of this was
still current.
The temple did not come to ruin until 8070 to say that this
thing was better is to infer that the Old Covenant was not
perfect and that's exactly where he was going.
We see here that Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant.
In that we see, A, the failure of the Old Covenant.
The failure of the Old Covenant.
Look at verse number seven.
He says, for if that first covenant had been faultless,
then should no place have been sought for the second.
Pretty simple.
There wouldn't be a need for a new covenant if the Old Covenant
was sufficient.
Okay, you get it.
There's an Old Covenant and a new covenant.
To say that the law was not perfect and that there was a need
for a better priest and a better covenant on its face could
offend some Jews.
Think about it.
They killed Jesus in part because of a defense of their own
authority based on the mediation of the Old Covenant,
the Old Things, the Old Way.
The author of Hebrews did not what had to be done when you
make such a case. He took them to Scripture.
And he had to challenge their thinking with Scripture.
And he did this by quoting Jeremiah chapter 31 verses 31
through 34.
This quote, what he's about to quote in verses eight goes all
the way down through verse 12.
And he's literally quoting, what's written here is a quote
from Jeremiah.
Here's what it said.
Let's read it.
For finding fault with them, he says, he saith.
And here's the quote begins.
Behold the days come saith the Lord.
Okay, here's a prophecy.
There's a day coming.
God declares to Jeremiah to the people of Israel.
When I shall make a new covenant with the house of Israel and
with the house of Judah.
So what's the argument he's making?
Even in the Old Testament, the Old Testament, are you with me?
God foretold that there would be a new Testament, a new covenant.
So the writer of Hebrews is saying, don't get offended,
Jewish people.
I'm not telling you something because I'm trying to entertain
some new thing and get you to get part of my cult.
That's not what I'm doing.
I'm just telling you what God predicted would happen.
What God said is there's coming a day when there's going to be a
new covenant.
And if there's a new covenant, that means that the Old Covenant
wasn't enough.
Can I tell you?
Well, don't get ahead of myself.
Verse 9, not according to the covenant that I made with their
fathers in the day when 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.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, saith the Lord.
I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts
and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people and
they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his
brother saying, know the Lord for all shall know me from the
least to the greatest.
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins
and their iniquities while I remember no more.
End quote.
The first part of this quote in verse 8 declares that there's
going to be a new covenant with Israel.
And as a Gentile, I'm not Jewish, I must be careful in my
reading of these passages because I could be tempted or
confused into reading myself and the church into this in the
wrong way.
So this is a very complex thing and I don't even know, here
comes Sunday, right?
I have to preach this because it's the next passage and I
don't claim to know everything about every passage.
Sorry.
Okay.
What I will say is I know that you have to be careful about how
you read this.
We are saved though by the new covenant.
The blood sacrifice of Jesus for our sins.
Consider the following verses.
I looked this up this week and actually a couple of weeks ago
and I've been thinking through this.
Consider the following verses that are interpreted as new
testament or new covenant.
You literally do a search on the Greek word that talk about
this new covenant and I can pull up with my Bible software, all
the places where that term is used.
Here's a few of them.
Ready?
I want to point something out to you.
Matthew 26, 28.
For this is my blood of the new testament which is shed for
many for the remission of sins.
So you see there blood, the blood of Jesus shed and this idea
of new testament, new covenant.
Mark 14, 24.
And he said unto them this is my blood of the new testament which
is shed for many.
Luke 22, 20.
Likewise also after the cup after suffer saying this cup is the
new testament in my blood which is shed for you.
After the same manner also he took the cup, 1 Corinthians 11,
25 saying this cup is the new testament in my blood.
This do ye as often as you drink it and remember it's a me.
Hebrews 9.15 which we will study next week.
And for this cause he is the mediator of the new covenant,
new testament that by means of death for the redemption of the
transgressions that were under the first testament, they which
are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
And then here's some that refer to new covenant, Jeremiah 31,
31 which we just read.
Behold the days come say to the Lord I will make a new covenant
with the house of Judah and Hebrews 12, 24.
And Jesus is the mediator of the new covenant and to the, what does
it say?
Blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of
able.
What am I trying to point to you?
What am I trying to point out to you?
There's a link in the scripture between the word for covenant
and testament and blood or sacrifice.
Do you see it?
And the Bible says that God was going to make a new covenant or
a new testament with the children of Israel at some point in the
future.
Why?
Because the old one which was begun when they left Egypt and
went into the wilderness has failed to do what needed to be
done.
The old covenant was not perfect.
The old covenant could not save.
He says that this new covenant won't be like the old.
What were the events surrounding the establishment of that old
covenant?
You had the Passover meal.
The children of Israel were told to take a spotless lamb and to
sacrifice it and to take the blood of a lamb and put it on the
doorpost.
And when he saw the blood he would pass over or pass by.
They were told to eat a meal by faith with their sandals on.
They were supposed to have their traveling gear on.
They had their, what do you call those bags?
Fanny packs.
They had their fanny packs on.
They were ready to go.
That was dumb.
Why did I bring that up?
Okay.
They were doing that by faith.
Moses, so then God brought them out of Egypt and he brought them
through the water up to the wilderness.
They made it through the Red Sea to Mount Sinai where God gave them
the law through the Moses.
And Moses received from God instructions about the law, the
Levitical priest and the sacrificial system.
Essentially what he says is that lamb that you sacrificed isn't
the last lamb that you will sacrifice.
I'm going to put a whole system into place.
Priesthood and sacrifices.
Are you with me?
And in verse nine we're given the reason why this covenant was
with the children of Israel failed.
The wilderness generation showed that the old covenant would
never be enough because of their disobedience to it.
They were breaking God's law as it was being given to them.
Do you remember?
The covenant was weak and that it could not be kept, not on
man's side.
That's why it says in verse nine, not according to the covenant,
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 continue
not in my covenant.
And I regarded them not say at the Lord.
You see the contrast in that verse between I took them by the
hand and I said, there's also one important point to be made in
verse eight and nine, okay?
Stay with me.
The word for will make in verse eight is the word santecho,
which means to bring to an end all together to fulfill.
Verse eight, for finding fault with them he says, behold the
day shall come and say at the Lord when I will make a new covenant.
The word made in verse nine, not according to the covenant I
made, there's a contrast, it's the word poeo, which is to make
our do.
Basically in verse nine, he uses a stronger word for the new
covenant than he does for the old.
This indicates that the new covenant will not need a subsequent
new covenant later.
Do you get it?
We won't need another covenant.
What was deficient in the old covenant?
They had to obey it.
And they did not obey it.
More sin meant more sacrifice.
The sin never stopped and the sacrifice must therefore never
stop because it was never enough.
And so those old priests would get in that holy place and just
day after day, year after year, day after day, year after year,
slaying animals to take away the sin.
But that's not the nature, let it be of the new covenant.
Look at verse ten.
He says, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel after those days.
This is Hebrews quoting Jeremiah saying there's a new covenant
coming.
This is the covenant I'm going to make with them.
I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts
and I will be to them and God and they shall be to me a people
and they shall not teach every man as neighbor and every man as
brother saying, know the Lord for all shall know me from the
least to the greatest for I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness and their sins, their iniquities while I
remember no more.
Here's a few things you need to know about the new covenant.
Number one, it's unconditional.
God gives this new covenant by making the covenant without
condition.
He says, I will in those verses some five times.
I will make, I will put, I will be, I will be, I will remember
no more.
When someone puts their faith in Christ Jesus because of the
new testament sacrifice of his blood for their sins, they are
saved.
No more sacrifice has to happen because sacrifice has been
done.
The blood of the spotless lamb has been shed for the redemption
of anybody that's going to come to him.
There is no more sacrifice that needs to be done.
And that's why, okay, let's just say it out loud, that's why
when we do communion, it's a symbol.
It's not the actual body and blood of Jesus because the
sacrifice has already been done.
You don't need those priests and you don't need that communion.
Do you get it?
I don't hate them.
They're wrong.
Because Jesus is the full and final sacrifice.
It's already been done.
It doesn't have to keep happening.
Number two, it's spiritual.
Verse 10, where does he put his law?
He puts it in their mind.
Verse 10, in their hearts.
Those who are part of this new covenant know Christ because his
spirit is put inside of them.
His spirit is put inside of them.
The third person of the Trinity lives inside of those who know
them.
And we keep grieving them because we sin and he can't leave.
Are you with me?
Number three, it's universal.
The new covenant was made like the old to the Jews.
But Jesus said salvation is of the Jews.
They could not break the old covenant but they could disobey
it and not take part of its blessings.
The Abrahamic and Davidic covenants were unconditional but
the mosaic covenant was conditional.
There was a law to be kept to enjoy the blessings.
We can reap the blessings of the new covenant by trusting in
the same blood of Jesus Christ and the Savior who gave his
blood as a new testament, a new promise that shed for many.
He became a propitiation for our sins and not for our sins only
but for the sins of the whole world.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son
that whosoever believeth in him, whosoever believeth in him,
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have
everlasting life.
It's universal.
Number four, it's eternal.
It's eternal.
Verse 13, this is amazing.
In that he saith a new covenant, he hath made the first one old.
Old covenant, new covenant.
Old sacrificial system, once for all sacrifice made by Jesus.
Are you saying that people that sacrificed in the old covenant
didn't make it to heaven because they were relying on the old
covenant?
No, what I'm saying is that God, and Bible says Abraham believed
God and it was counted to him, imputed on him his righteousness.
So when they did that by faith, the blood of bulls and goats
didn't get them to heaven.
God knew what they did not totally understand yet, that there
was another one coming who would die on the cross for their sins
that are past.
And when they were sacrificed and they were just obeying the light
that they had, believing that God would save them, and God did
save them because of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.
Do you get it?
In that he saith a new covenant, he made the first one old.
Now that which decaith and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
And you know what happened?
Exactly that.
That's exactly what happened.
There is no sacrificial system now.
They're going to try to do it again in times.
There wouldn't have to be a new covenant if the old covenant were
sufficient.
God did not fail at the old, get this, this is so important.
God did not fail at the old covenant, and so then we have to
come up with a new.
The new covenant was always in God's plan.
Do you get it?
The old covenant was only sufficient and effective in that
it pointed to what would happen in the new.
What did John the Baptist say when he saw Jesus?
Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world
one day.
In the book of Revelation you see people worshiping the Lamb.
That's Jesus.
What are you saying about that today?
Now that word is finished, the symbol.
Now that that new covenant is finished, the symbol or the
shadow or the picture of that work has become history.
The old sacrificial system has succumbed to the once and for
all sacrifice for sins made by Jesus.
The old Aaronic order is ended because Jesus Christ saves to
the uttermost and ever lives to make intercession for us.
Don't we serve an incredible God?
So what shall we say to such things?
How shall we then live?
Four words will take us out of here today.
Are you ready?
Salvation.
You can repent and believe and be saved today by the blood of
Jesus.
You can have your sins forgiven.
All the things that you did in the past, all the things that
you are doing right now and all the sins you are going to do in
the future can be forgiven.
The price for them has been paid.
You can be saved.
The Bible says repent and believe.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
The thief said to Jesus on the cross, Lord remember me when you
come into your kingdom.
And Jesus said today, you will be with me in paradise.
Salvation.
If you are not saved, you are not getting there by any other way.
There is no work that you can offer up.
God already did it.
Stop trying to do what God already did.
Salvation.
Number two, sanctification.
It's a big Bible word.
Sanctification just means growing, set apart.
You can grow into who God wants you to become by his help.
Because now he ever lives to make intercession for you.
Number three, declaration.
Salvation, sanctification, declaration.
People need to know about what God has done for them through
Jesus.
People need to know what God has done for them through Jesus.
Do you believe that?
People got to know.
And how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they
preach except they be sent.
And by the way, the preacher isn't the preacher.
The preacher is...
You're not dismissed.
You're sent.
You're not sent.
You're not dismissed.
You're sent.
Declaration.
Here's a good news.
Last word.
Glorification.
One day it's going to all be over.
Everything will be made right.
We should be animated by what will happen in the future.
The covenant promises all of them will be fully and finally
fulfilled.
And we will be like him because we will see him as he is.
Heaven's coming.
Jesus is coming back.
Let's labor while it is day the night comes when no man can
work.
Would you bow your head and close your eyes.