Promised Messiah: Mediator of a New Covenant

WEBVTT 1 00:00:01.879 --> 00:00:04.879 Brothers and sisters. Let's turn to God's word in the book of Hebrews, 2 00:00:04.960 --> 00:00:34.380 Hebrews Chapter eight versus, beginning at verse six. Hebrews Chapter Eight, beginning 3 00:00:34.420 --> 00:00:40.289 at verse six. This morning I reflected with you, preached to you from 4 00:00:40.329 --> 00:00:45.929 God's Word on health, from the Promised Messiah of the Old Testament. WHO 5 00:00:45.969 --> 00:00:50.840 IS JESUS CHRIST? As we discover in the new he is the last word. 6 00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:55.960 That was our focus this morning from Hebrews Chapter One. Tonight we want 7 00:00:56.079 --> 00:01:00.679 to delve into that a little more and understand who he is as the word, 8 00:01:00.520 --> 00:01:06.790 in particular his coming as the mediator of a new and better covenant. 9 00:01:06.829 --> 00:01:11.349 That's our focus this evening, and who he is as the Promised Messiah. 10 00:01:12.510 --> 00:01:17.750 So let's hear God's word now from Hebrews Eight. I'm beginning at verse six 11 00:01:18.310 --> 00:01:25.180 and I'll read through chapter nine, Verse Fifteen. But as it is, 12 00:01:25.459 --> 00:01:30.219 Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as 13 00:01:30.299 --> 00:01:36.370 the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. 14 00:01:37.370 --> 00:01:41.450 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion 15 00:01:41.730 --> 00:01:46.129 to look for a second, for he finds faults with them when he says, 16 00:01:46.689 --> 00:01:49.200 behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will 17 00:01:49.239 --> 00:01:53.359 establish a new covenant with the House of Israel and with the House of Judah, 18 00:01:55.120 --> 00:01:57.599 not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when 19 00:01:57.599 --> 00:02:00.909 I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, 20 00:02:01.510 --> 00:02:05.829 for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no 21 00:02:06.069 --> 00:02:09.590 concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I 22 00:02:09.629 --> 00:02:14.189 will make with the House of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. 23 00:02:14.750 --> 00:02:17.340 I will put my laws into their minds and right them on their hearts, 24 00:02:17.379 --> 00:02:22.819 and I will be their God and they shall be my people, and they 25 00:02:22.860 --> 00:02:24.900 shall not teach each one to his neighbor and each one to his brothers, 26 00:02:24.979 --> 00:02:29.699 saying know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least 27 00:02:29.740 --> 00:02:34.009 of them to the greatest, for I will be merciful toward their iniquities and 28 00:02:34.090 --> 00:02:38.449 I will remember their sins no more. In speaking of a new covenant, 29 00:02:38.449 --> 00:02:45.080 he makes the first one obsolete, and what is becoming obsolete and growing old 30 00:02:45.319 --> 00:02:50.960 is ready to vanish away now. Even the First Covenant had regulations for worship 31 00:02:51.319 --> 00:02:55.719 and an earthly place of holiness, for a tent was prepared the First Section, 32 00:02:55.879 --> 00:02:59.590 in which were the lamp stand and the table and the bread of the 33 00:02:59.669 --> 00:03:04.789 presence. It is called the holy place. Behind the second curtain was a 34 00:03:04.990 --> 00:03:08.669 second section, called the most holy place, having the Golden Altar of incense 35 00:03:08.949 --> 00:03:13.939 and the Ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which 36 00:03:14.099 --> 00:03:19.180 was a golden urn holding the manna and Aaron staff that budded and the tablets 37 00:03:19.219 --> 00:03:23.219 of the covenant above it, where the chair Bim of glory overshadowing the mercy 38 00:03:23.259 --> 00:03:30.770 seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. These preparations having 39 00:03:30.889 --> 00:03:35.490 thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section performing their ritual 40 00:03:35.530 --> 00:03:39.009 duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but 41 00:03:39.169 --> 00:03:44.360 once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself 42 00:03:44.520 --> 00:03:47.840 and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this, the Holy Spirit 43 00:03:47.960 --> 00:03:53.159 indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as 44 00:03:53.199 --> 00:03:58.789 the first section is still standing, which is symbolic for the present age. 45 00:03:58.830 --> 00:04:05.110 According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscious 46 00:04:05.189 --> 00:04:11.580 of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings regulations 47 00:04:11.780 --> 00:04:17.139 for the body imposed until the time of reformation. But when Christ appeared as 48 00:04:17.220 --> 00:04:21.420 a high priest of the good things that have come, then, through the 49 00:04:21.740 --> 00:04:27.769 greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands that is not of this 50 00:04:28.050 --> 00:04:33.410 creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means 51 00:04:33.569 --> 00:04:38.569 of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, 52 00:04:39.279 --> 00:04:44.720 thus securing an eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and Bulls 53 00:04:44.800 --> 00:04:48.759 and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the 54 00:04:48.800 --> 00:04:54.509 purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who, 55 00:04:54.629 --> 00:04:59.670 through the eternal spirit, offered himself without blemish to God, purify our 56 00:04:59.790 --> 00:05:04.509 conscience from dead works to serve the Living God? Therefore, he is the 57 00:05:04.709 --> 00:05:11.300 mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised 58 00:05:11.339 --> 00:05:16.779 eternal inheritance, since a death that has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions 59 00:05:16.899 --> 00:05:23.930 committed under the first covenant, since the Reading of God's word, I mean 60 00:05:24.009 --> 00:05:32.730 he bless it to us. Well, if you're not very familiar with the 61 00:05:32.810 --> 00:05:38.959 Old Testament. It this, a passage like this can be difficulty and to 62 00:05:39.079 --> 00:05:44.199 understand. It quotes the Old Testament, it relies on a lot of explanations 63 00:05:44.360 --> 00:05:47.839 that are drawn out of the Old Testament. Now, this likely wasn't a 64 00:05:47.959 --> 00:05:51.829 problem for the of hearers, the first hearers of this passage. They were 65 00:05:53.189 --> 00:05:58.189 very familiar with the Old Testament, with its sacrifices, it's Tabernacle, its 66 00:05:58.269 --> 00:06:02.629 priesthood, it's holy places, because the first hearers were very likely Jewish Christians 67 00:06:03.379 --> 00:06:09.459 who, until very recently had been active and worshiping God under the Old Covenant. 68 00:06:10.259 --> 00:06:14.860 Perhaps they brought sacrifices, perhaps they knew the names of particular priests. 69 00:06:16.180 --> 00:06:21.569 These Christians, then, are straddling in a way to covenants. We have 70 00:06:21.769 --> 00:06:28.370 that sense on this mark of history. In verse thirteen, in speaking of 71 00:06:28.410 --> 00:06:31.769 a new covenant, the Word Says He makes the first one obsolete, and 72 00:06:31.959 --> 00:06:38.240 what is becoming obsolete is growing old and ready to vanish away. This is 73 00:06:38.319 --> 00:06:43.319 perhaps a remark, a mark, that that points out that the temple was 74 00:06:43.680 --> 00:06:47.509 still standing at this point, which eventually fell in seventy eighty. So the 75 00:06:47.629 --> 00:06:51.589 Lord had come, the Lord had died, the Lord had risen from the 76 00:06:51.670 --> 00:06:56.509 dead. He was establishing his church. The new covenant had been established and 77 00:06:56.629 --> 00:07:00.470 yet the old covenant in a way still remained a little bit. And so 78 00:07:00.670 --> 00:07:04.060 these Christians were they were. There was a transition phase in which there was 79 00:07:04.220 --> 00:07:09.180 teaching and understanding. How do we think of the New in light of the 80 00:07:09.259 --> 00:07:13.779 old? And these Christians in particular seem, as we read the book as 81 00:07:13.819 --> 00:07:17.610 a whole, seem to have be tempted to go back to to leave Christ 82 00:07:18.329 --> 00:07:24.449 to go back to the practices that were so familiar to them. And one 83 00:07:24.490 --> 00:07:28.290 of the things that the author to the Hebrews wants to emphasize is that that 84 00:07:28.730 --> 00:07:33.079 is a very, very bad idea, not because the old covenant was not 85 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:38.560 from God, not because it wasn't good and righteous, but because the new 86 00:07:38.839 --> 00:07:42.839 was better. The new was the fulfillment of these things, and to go 87 00:07:43.120 --> 00:07:46.870 back to the old after the new had come would be, in a way, 88 00:07:46.910 --> 00:07:50.709 to reject the old itself. I'm getting into more of the book than 89 00:07:50.790 --> 00:07:57.949 is in our passage here. The focus I want for us to have this 90 00:07:58.269 --> 00:08:05.459 evening is the explanation that he gives of who Jesus is, this promised Messiah, 91 00:08:05.500 --> 00:08:09.740 this one that had been anticipated in the old covenant. A new covenant 92 00:08:09.779 --> 00:08:13.050 had been promised, a new mediator, someone to come. Who is this 93 00:08:13.329 --> 00:08:20.209 Jesus? Who is he as he fulfills the Covenant and fulfills the Covenant and 94 00:08:20.290 --> 00:08:28.399 Establishes the New Covenant? From our passage, perhaps the clearest summary of that 95 00:08:28.600 --> 00:08:33.840 is in verse six, which we began Christ, that anointed one, that 96 00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:41.590 Messiah. He is the one who has obtained a ministry that is much more 97 00:08:41.870 --> 00:08:48.950 excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is 98 00:08:48.029 --> 00:08:54.860 enacted on better promises. For anyone attempted to return to the old covenant, 99 00:08:56.259 --> 00:09:00.580 towards to stay in the old covenant, this was a passage of warning. 100 00:09:01.539 --> 00:09:07.539 This is a passage of invitation. It's a passage meant to gold believers into 101 00:09:07.980 --> 00:09:11.370 seeing Christ as he really is, seeing the Messiah as he has come, 102 00:09:11.809 --> 00:09:18.330 and to continue to put their faith in him. And though, as many 103 00:09:18.370 --> 00:09:24.480 of us here are gentiles who are perhaps not tempted to go back to the 104 00:09:24.600 --> 00:09:28.440 old covenant, to go backwards, to reconstruct the temple, the priesthood that 105 00:09:28.519 --> 00:09:35.039 that that provisional kingdom, it is still important for us to hear these things. 106 00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:39.470 One because it reminds us who Christ is. It explains who he is, 107 00:09:39.710 --> 00:09:43.990 what he has done. The new covenant and his promises are very much 108 00:09:43.990 --> 00:09:48.190 in the context of the old. So it's important for us to understand those 109 00:09:48.230 --> 00:09:54.220 things also, or I should say, and in addition to that or with 110 00:09:54.379 --> 00:09:58.659 greater explanation, it is the old covenant that gives the language, in the 111 00:09:58.779 --> 00:10:03.620 categories for the life and the new covenant that we have now in Christ. 112 00:10:03.659 --> 00:10:07.450 So we are right to pay attention to it and understand it so that we 113 00:10:07.529 --> 00:10:13.850 might understand him. So let's begin. I'm looking at this passage and trying 114 00:10:13.889 --> 00:10:18.889 to understand that more of our savior, to know him better, by first 115 00:10:18.090 --> 00:10:24.559 just defining covenant. A covenant is a solid promise that establishes a relationship. 116 00:10:26.240 --> 00:10:30.159 That's what a covenant is. It's a solemn promise, a serious promise, 117 00:10:30.200 --> 00:10:35.870 I'm a promise that is full of earnestness and wait, a promise made by 118 00:10:35.029 --> 00:10:41.070 one person to another and in which in a relationship between those two people or 119 00:10:41.149 --> 00:10:48.909 those two parties are established. The old covenant, therefore, was a promise 120 00:10:48.029 --> 00:10:54.740 that established a relationship. The new covenant was a promise that established a relationship. 121 00:10:54.259 --> 00:11:00.539 What is the difference between these things. Why does it matter? Well, 122 00:11:00.580 --> 00:11:05.769 the old covenant was that Covenant that God pronounced at Mount Sinai, after 123 00:11:05.889 --> 00:11:09.450 bringing the people out of Egypt. He he met with them there at that 124 00:11:09.610 --> 00:11:13.769 mountain, that Holy Mountain, in which he warned the people do not touch 125 00:11:13.809 --> 00:11:16.850 it, do not come near. If you touch the mountain, you shall 126 00:11:16.850 --> 00:11:22.120 surely die. Moses, however, was called to come up on the mountain. 127 00:11:24.039 --> 00:11:28.840 He does so with fear and trembling. He comes up to the mountain, 128 00:11:28.000 --> 00:11:33.830 is called by God to receive the law, the law in which God 129 00:11:33.950 --> 00:11:41.149 would give to his people and command their obedience. And at for were obedience 130 00:11:41.269 --> 00:11:46.990 to that law, God established a relationship of blessing, massive blessing. If 131 00:11:46.070 --> 00:11:50.860 they obeyed the law. This people would stay in the land, they would 132 00:11:50.860 --> 00:11:56.379 be blessed with fruitfulness in the womb, fruitfulness in the field, they would 133 00:11:56.379 --> 00:12:00.100 have a freedom from their enemies, they would be prosperous in many ways. 134 00:12:00.139 --> 00:12:05.929 Indeed, the nations of the world would come and marvel at this kingdom that 135 00:12:05.090 --> 00:12:09.769 God had established in the world, a kingdom that was ruled by righteousness, 136 00:12:09.970 --> 00:12:16.519 ruled by love, concerned for neighbors. This was the kingdom that they established, 137 00:12:16.600 --> 00:12:24.039 or that God had established by this this covenant. The flip side of 138 00:12:24.120 --> 00:12:28.440 this is that if they did not obey, if they did not follow his 139 00:12:28.480 --> 00:12:33.830 laws, the curses would fall upon the people of God and all the opposite 140 00:12:33.830 --> 00:12:37.429 of everything I just said is what would happen. Instead of fruitfulness, there 141 00:12:37.470 --> 00:12:43.309 would be barrenness. Instead of production in the fields, there would be famine. 142 00:12:43.350 --> 00:12:46.139 Instead of freedom from their enemies, they would be a destroyed by their 143 00:12:46.179 --> 00:12:52.940 enemies. Instead of a kind of earthly paradise, it would be in earthly 144 00:12:54.100 --> 00:12:58.809 hell. It would be terrible and the people, and this is the this 145 00:13:00.169 --> 00:13:03.730 is the promise that God put on his people. This is the thing, 146 00:13:03.009 --> 00:13:09.009 this is the relationship that he established them. We get a sense of how 147 00:13:09.090 --> 00:13:15.120 this would go immediately as Moses descends down the mountain and sees the people engaging 148 00:13:15.159 --> 00:13:20.399 in idolatry having made the golden calf. You remember what Moses does with the 149 00:13:20.480 --> 00:13:26.909 Covenant. He breaks it. The tablets on which the Covenant, so to 150 00:13:26.990 --> 00:13:33.389 speak, was inscribed, tablets which would be remade by the grace of God 151 00:13:33.549 --> 00:13:39.389 and then later placed into the arc, the the the Ten Commandments, as 152 00:13:39.429 --> 00:13:46.740 we read here in Hebrews Nine, the Covenant was broken before they really even 153 00:13:46.779 --> 00:13:52.059 ever got going, and it would be broken again and again and again, 154 00:13:52.100 --> 00:13:56.289 and God would send his profits again and again and again, pleading with the 155 00:13:56.370 --> 00:14:01.009 people to come back to him. And of course there are lots of ups 156 00:14:01.049 --> 00:14:05.529 and downs. Again, we have to read the Old Testament to know better 157 00:14:05.649 --> 00:14:11.279 the the details of that story. But in the end the curses of the 158 00:14:11.399 --> 00:14:15.240 Lord fell upon the people. There were times of Great Blessing, like under 159 00:14:15.320 --> 00:14:18.679 Solomon and under David, but ultimately the kingdom fell apart and everybody was left 160 00:14:18.720 --> 00:14:26.389 wondering, what about the promise, not under Moses but under Abraham? What 161 00:14:26.509 --> 00:14:31.549 about the promise of an eternal kingdom that God made to David? What about 162 00:14:31.549 --> 00:14:35.549 these promises which would establish us as a people for where ever and ever and 163 00:14:35.629 --> 00:14:43.740 ever? Because we broken the Covenant, we've not obeyed. And that's where, 164 00:14:45.139 --> 00:14:50.779 in the mixed all up with accusations and condemnation in the prophets, we 165 00:14:50.980 --> 00:15:01.289 also have these these glimmers of Grace, spotlights, lighthouses showing the way to 166 00:15:01.409 --> 00:15:07.519 a better future, a passage. One example of that is quoted here in 167 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:18.960 Hebrews A, where we have the Prophet Jeremiah, Jeremiah Thirty One, speaking 168 00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:22.909 to the people under the old covenant. Behold, the days are coming, 169 00:15:22.029 --> 00:15:28.149 declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the House of 170 00:15:28.230 --> 00:15:33.350 Israel and with the House of Judah, not like the covenant that I made 171 00:15:33.389 --> 00:15:37.220 with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring 172 00:15:37.259 --> 00:15:39.940 them out of the land of Egypt, for they did not continue in my 173 00:15:41.100 --> 00:15:46.379 covenant, and so I showed no concern for them. Is that that's my 174 00:15:46.539 --> 00:15:48.620 prepsites struck you as strange the first time I read it. Why did the 175 00:15:48.740 --> 00:15:54.490 Lord show no concern for them? Because that's what he said he would do 176 00:15:54.649 --> 00:15:58.690 if they did not continue in his covenant, if they broke the covenant, 177 00:16:00.529 --> 00:16:04.360 if they separated themselves from him and from his law, he would be separated 178 00:16:04.440 --> 00:16:08.039 from them, he would separate himself from them. The curse instead of the 179 00:16:08.080 --> 00:16:15.639 blessings, would fall upon them. But this new covenant, this New Covenant 180 00:16:15.639 --> 00:16:18.950 that he would make verse ten with the House of Israel after those days, 181 00:16:18.990 --> 00:16:22.269 declares the Lord, would be different. Why? Because of instead of the 182 00:16:22.389 --> 00:16:26.789 tablets, just be written on tablets of stone, he says, I will 183 00:16:26.789 --> 00:16:30.710 put my laws into their minds, I will write them on their hearts and 184 00:16:30.789 --> 00:16:36.379 I will be their God and they will be my people. The all know 185 00:16:36.580 --> 00:16:41.460 me verse eleven, and I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will 186 00:16:41.460 --> 00:16:48.370 remember their sins no more. This covenant that would come would not be a 187 00:16:48.570 --> 00:16:53.409 covenant which primary note was a covenant of Law, but the primary note of 188 00:16:53.450 --> 00:16:59.610 this covenant would be a covenant of Grace. Not that there wasn't grace in 189 00:16:59.649 --> 00:17:03.759 the old covenant. The Old Covenant in many ways pointed and anticipated and readied 190 00:17:03.759 --> 00:17:07.400 us for the new covenant. The sacrifices, the purifications, the Washings, 191 00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:11.480 all of these things, the priesthood right preparing us, but it was preparing 192 00:17:11.519 --> 00:17:17.789 us for something new, something better, something more excellent. This is who 193 00:17:17.829 --> 00:17:21.829 Jesus is. This is the Promised Messiah, this is the anointed king, 194 00:17:22.029 --> 00:17:26.869 the son of David, that everybody's been waiting for, one that will fulfill 195 00:17:26.029 --> 00:17:33.099 those promises and establish a kingdom that will not fall apart, that is not 196 00:17:33.339 --> 00:17:42.420 dependent on the People's obedience, but is instead dependent on the righteousness of the 197 00:17:42.539 --> 00:17:48.970 Messiah himself. Moses was great, Moses was amazing. When Moses came down 198 00:17:48.970 --> 00:17:52.490 from Mount Sinai, his face was shining with the glory of God. The 199 00:17:52.569 --> 00:17:56.569 people said, cover it up, it's too much, it's too intense. 200 00:17:57.049 --> 00:18:03.839 The glory of God reflecting off the face of the Servant of God was too 201 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:10.880 much for them. And now we have in the new covenant, this one 202 00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:12.869 that we spoke about this morning. Let me read that to you again. 203 00:18:15.430 --> 00:18:21.430 The Sun not a servant in the house, the sun of the House. 204 00:18:22.789 --> 00:18:26.549 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our 205 00:18:26.630 --> 00:18:29.900 fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he's spoken to us by 206 00:18:29.940 --> 00:18:33.339 his son, whom he appointed the air of all things, through whom he 207 00:18:33.420 --> 00:18:38.619 also created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God, 208 00:18:44.769 --> 00:18:49.890 the radiance of the glory of God into whose presence God invites us. Instead 209 00:18:49.930 --> 00:18:56.319 of saying stay away, do not touch Jesus, says coming to me, 210 00:18:56.480 --> 00:18:57.799 all who are weary, and hey, they later, and I will give 211 00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:06.119 you rest. Coming to me and ask for the forgiveness of your sins, 212 00:19:06.160 --> 00:19:11.990 and I'll wash them away wider than the snow I will remember your sins no 213 00:19:11.230 --> 00:19:17.190 more. Instead of holding them against you, I won't even remember them. 214 00:19:18.150 --> 00:19:25.339 You will receive the forgiveness of the Lord. The New Covenant is a better 215 00:19:25.460 --> 00:19:30.700 covenant because God would because it would be a covenant which would affect the internal 216 00:19:33.259 --> 00:19:37.339 the the internal parts of his people more than the old covenant ever did. 217 00:19:38.210 --> 00:19:41.569 God would put his law in their hearts and their minds. That would be 218 00:19:41.650 --> 00:19:47.130 forgiveness of sins, not only in general, but, as we read in 219 00:19:47.210 --> 00:19:55.319 Verse Fifteen Sins Against. Here it says he weredeems them from the transgressions committed 220 00:19:55.359 --> 00:20:00.160 under the first covenant. You want to go back to the first covenant? 221 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:06.000 No, how about faith in Christ and being established in the new covenant, 222 00:20:06.160 --> 00:20:10.549 which forgives all the sins that you committed in the first covenant, the sins 223 00:20:10.589 --> 00:20:15.230 in which you broke the covenant, the sins which put you not under God's 224 00:20:15.269 --> 00:20:22.859 blessing but under his wrath. This reminds us that through the new covenant there 225 00:20:22.859 --> 00:20:30.900 would be promises of grace which would far outstrip that which came before. It's 226 00:20:30.940 --> 00:20:33.460 not just so that we be forgiven too, but that we would be righteous, 227 00:20:33.900 --> 00:20:37.609 that we would be holy. In other words, when God says he'll 228 00:20:37.650 --> 00:20:42.809 ride his law and his heart and on our hearts, it means that all 229 00:20:42.970 --> 00:20:48.410 that obedience that is pictured for us and taught in the old covenant, it's 230 00:20:48.450 --> 00:20:52.119 not something that he forgets and says, well, now I don't care about 231 00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:55.400 you living well anymore. Now I don't care about righteousness, now I don't 232 00:20:55.400 --> 00:20:59.319 be care about love. No, that's not what he says. He cares 233 00:20:59.359 --> 00:21:00.960 about it. He always cares about he still cares about it, but now 234 00:21:02.359 --> 00:21:03.990 he's going to write it on our hearts in such a way that we are 235 00:21:03.990 --> 00:21:10.190 enabled to do the things that he calls us to do. His Holy Spirit 236 00:21:10.230 --> 00:21:12.269 would be poured out on his people in a new way, in which they 237 00:21:12.269 --> 00:21:18.859 would know the Lord and follow him. This in the old covenant, much 238 00:21:18.859 --> 00:21:25.099 of the sanctification that occurred under the terms of the old covenant, to be 239 00:21:25.220 --> 00:21:30.339 specific, was an outward one. So, for example, in verse thirteen, 240 00:21:30.539 --> 00:21:33.970 for if the blood of goats and bulls and of the sprinkling of defiled 241 00:21:34.049 --> 00:21:37.970 persons with the Asher ofs of a heifer, ashes of a Heffer, sanctify 242 00:21:38.130 --> 00:21:45.730 for the purification of the flesh of the outward man in making us wholly and 243 00:21:45.849 --> 00:21:48.319 allowing, for example, the people to come into the temple to worship, 244 00:21:48.480 --> 00:21:55.799 to be pure, these kinds of things that that ceremonial cleanliness and the like. 245 00:21:56.000 --> 00:22:00.599 Verse Fourteen, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through 246 00:22:00.640 --> 00:22:06.950 the eternal spirit, offered himself without blemish to God purify our conscience from dead 247 00:22:07.029 --> 00:22:11.390 works. To do what? To serve the living God. This is why 248 00:22:11.470 --> 00:22:17.180 the commit new covenant is is established not so that righteousness can be throughout the 249 00:22:17.259 --> 00:22:22.339 window, but so that righteousness can actually happen. What the Old Covenant teaches 250 00:22:22.420 --> 00:22:26.299 us is that God can give us his law with all kinds of clarity and 251 00:22:26.460 --> 00:22:30.690 were incapable of obeying it, apart from his work in our lives, in 252 00:22:30.809 --> 00:22:37.970 changing our hearts and drawing us to himself. So, if this is the 253 00:22:38.089 --> 00:22:45.480 new covenant that is established, who is Jesus? He is the mediator of 254 00:22:45.640 --> 00:22:49.559 the new covenant. And to help us understand that a little more, the 255 00:22:49.640 --> 00:22:56.400 the rider points us to the old, the old covenant. He says the 256 00:22:56.519 --> 00:23:02.509 priests, they used to go only once a year and and buy themselves into 257 00:23:02.509 --> 00:23:07.910 the holy places. But we know that, as that curtain that separated the 258 00:23:07.950 --> 00:23:11.390 most holy place from the holy place was torn at the crucifixion of Christ, 259 00:23:12.140 --> 00:23:18.099 Christ enters into that holy place and we enter with him. This makes him 260 00:23:18.099 --> 00:23:22.460 more effective, this makes him so that we're not offering the this sacrifice is 261 00:23:22.579 --> 00:23:26.369 over and over and over again, but we depend on the one in final 262 00:23:26.490 --> 00:23:33.529 sacrifice of God, notice to the temple in which he enters to is the 263 00:23:33.609 --> 00:23:40.369 better one as well. Verse Eleven, when Christ appeared as a high priest 264 00:23:40.490 --> 00:23:45.200 of the good things that have come. That's that new age, that new 265 00:23:45.400 --> 00:23:49.240 creation breaking in. Then, through the greater and more perfect tent, not 266 00:23:49.440 --> 00:23:56.150 made with hands that is not of this creation, he entered once for all 267 00:23:56.309 --> 00:24:00.670 into the holy places. Jesus didn't just go into the temple, into the 268 00:24:00.789 --> 00:24:04.349 holy place, the most holy place where the High Priests Aly win. Jesus 269 00:24:04.470 --> 00:24:11.779 went in to the the the the Heavenly Temple to which the earthly temple pointed. 270 00:24:11.940 --> 00:24:18.740 He went into the Throne Room of God and he sat down, stationed 271 00:24:18.819 --> 00:24:27.609 himself there as the king. And he brings all of us with him. 272 00:24:30.369 --> 00:24:37.650 The Psalms, Psalm twenty two for exampless. Who can dwell on the Lord's 273 00:24:37.690 --> 00:24:40.599 Holy Hill? The one who does this and does this and does this and 274 00:24:40.680 --> 00:24:44.240 does this? Who Can Dwell on Mount Zion? The one who is obedient 275 00:24:44.279 --> 00:24:48.680 to God's law? Who can go up on Mount Sinai only the one, 276 00:24:48.839 --> 00:24:53.589 the mediator between God and Man, but in Christ he brings us all with 277 00:24:53.750 --> 00:24:57.910 him. He brings us into the holy places, he brings us onto the 278 00:24:57.950 --> 00:25:03.190 Holy Mountain, he brings us into the Holy Kingdom which he establishes forever. 279 00:25:03.589 --> 00:25:07.619 This, brothers and sisters, is the new covenant. Don't leave it, 280 00:25:08.099 --> 00:25:11.900 don't walk away, don't turn away, don't seek anything else, even the 281 00:25:12.140 --> 00:25:19.339 good covenants that God has previously established, because everything was leading up to this 282 00:25:19.619 --> 00:25:27.970 point and to this person. This is Jesus, this is the promise Messiah, 283 00:25:29.250 --> 00:25:36.279 this is the Covenant in which we now stand. And so, if 284 00:25:36.319 --> 00:25:41.799 we're looking, if you're looking for the forgiveness of your sins, for everlasting 285 00:25:41.920 --> 00:25:45.799 life, for freedom from dead works, so that you might serve the new, 286 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:52.269 the the Living God, with new works and alive works, Holy Works, 287 00:25:52.549 --> 00:25:57.230 Jesus is the one that you need to pay attention to. Jesus is 288 00:25:57.390 --> 00:26:02.190 the one that you need to put your faith in, and he will accomplish 289 00:26:02.190 --> 00:26:03.940 these things that he is set out to do, for he is not a 290 00:26:04.059 --> 00:26:11.339 man only. He represents US man, but he is God himself, Emmanuel, 291 00:26:11.220 --> 00:26:15.299 who now dwells with his people. Praise be to God.