The New Covenant, Part 2

Hebrews 9:1-14

     As we come to our study, let's bow in prayer.

     We're grateful, our Lord, that you are real, Jesus Christ is real, the Spirit of God is real, the Word of God is real and our salvation is real.  How fitting it is that that song be sung, that, Father, we are no longer involved in a ritual, but we are involved with a reality.  And even as we come to the Book of Hebrews, we are reminded, as the Spirit of God has taught repeatedly through this book, that all of the old covenant and all of the old priesthood and the old sacrifices and the Old Testament and all that was, was only a shadow of the real.  But when Jesus came, the real came.  And, oh, it is real.

     Thank you, Father, that we do not worship in the shadows, that we do not bow before a pale copy of truth, but that we have real substance, that we have the reality Himself, Jesus Christ, God in us.  Now, as we come to this Word tonight, we pray that our hearts would be open to be taught of the Spirit.  Strip away our blindness and our prejudice.  Make us into soft clay, upon which the Spirit can write the truth that will harden into indelible...an indelible part of our lives, that these things may become ours for eternity.  We give the glory to Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray.  Amen.

     As you well know, I have a great love for the Old Testament.  I have a great love for all that makes up Judaism, for all that Judaism is.  I have a great love for Israel.  I would have to say that the most joyous experience apart from the experiences of love and salvation was the experience of visiting the land of Israel, the experience of seeing some of the things that I saw which brought so close to my own heart those things which have been a sacred part of my life in the study of the Word of God for some years.

     And as we have studied the Book of Hebrews, we have not only been studying the truths of the New Testament, but we have been studying the truths of the Old Testament, so rich and so deep and so picturesque.  And tonight we come to the ninth chapter of the Book of Hebrews, and, if you have your Bible, I want to ask you to turn to that chapter. 

     My, it seems as though that we have hardly begun our study in Hebrews, and we're already in chapter 9, and there's only 13.  Some of you are saying, "Praise the Lord," because this is tough to handle.  Well, that's all right.  It is difficult.  But oh, what a blessing it has been.  We have endeavored to be somewhat repetitious in order that you might get some lasting impressions and some cardinal truths if, in fact, you don't get every detail, which we would never assume.

     But as we come tonight to the Book of Hebrews, just a couple of comments to lead us into the ninth chapter.  To the author of Hebrews, a book written to those in a Jewish community just some time past the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and those in that community had heard the truth of Christ.  Some had believed and some had come all the way to the edge, but not quite believed.  Now, to the author of Hebrews, the most important truth is a simple truth, access to God.  What He is talking about in this book is how to get to God. 

     He uses the terms "access to God," "salvation to the uttermost" and "perfection."  And those three are really synonymous terms having to do with entering into the presence of God.  And He shows that such access to God, or perfection, if you will, or salvation to the uttermost, is impossible except through Jesus Christ.  He shows to the Jew how that all of the old economy, all of the old priesthood, all of the old sacrifices and all of the old covenant could not bring men to God.  They could only take a man so far.  They could not provide uttermost salvation, full access to God. 

     And full access to God, according to the New Testament and according to the Holy Spirit writing in the Book of Hebrews, is by Jesus Christ.  And Jesus Himself had said, "No man cometh unto God but," what?  "By me."  And that's exactly the message of this book.  There is no access to God apart from Jesus Christ.  Because of Christ, men have access to God.

     So, first, the Holy Spirit is concerned with presenting Christ in this book.  Because if you're going to get to God, you must accept the fact of who Christ is.  If you're not willing to respond to Christ, then you have cut off the only access.  So He begins with a clear presentation of the superiority of Jesus Christ and tells us that He is superior to everything and everyone. 

     And then He goes on to show us three things by which Christ had made this access possible.  First of all, by His priesthood, and this through divine mediation.  In chapter 7, verse 27, "who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins and then for the people's, for this He did once, when He offered up Himself."  And He shows us that Jesus has a new priesthood.  And by His new priesthood of divine mediation, He has brought us to God.

     And He not only talks about a new priesthood, but, secondly, He talks about a new sacrifice, a new sacrifice.  Very clearly, this becomes a theme in chapter 10, but look at chapter 9, verse 22.  "Almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission."  In other words, there's no forgiveness of sin apart from sacrifice.  And if you go to chapter 10, you find that Jesus says, "I am the final sacrifice."  So He brings a new priesthood and a new sacrifice.  One is divine mediation.  The other is divine redemption.

     Then the third thing that He offers that is new is a new covenant, or divine promises.  And that we found in chapter 8, didn't we, in verse 6.  "He hath obtained a more excellent ministry.  He is the mediator of a better covenant which was established on better promises."  Now, the Old Testament worship was based on those three things, the priesthood, the sacrifices and the covenant.  Jesus says, "I bring a better priesthood, a better sacrifice, a better covenant."

     Now, that only comes from chapter 7 on.  The first six chapters are to show you that He is a better mediator to begin with.  So the first six chapters deal with the preeminence of His person, then the preeminence of His priesthood, then the preeminence of His sacrifice, then the preeminence of His covenant.  That's the message of Hebrews.  And on the basis of His priesthood, His sacrifice and His covenant, men can enter into God's presence.  There is access.  And since His is an eternal priesthood, an eternal sacrifice and an eternal covenant, our access is eternal as well.  To put our trust, then, in Jesus Christ is to receive the benefit of all three of these things.

     Now, if this is going to be His theme, it's no shock to us that He's going to talk about these three in relation to the Old Testament, and that's exactly what He does.  If He's going to show the Jews that there needs to be a better priesthood and a better sacrifice and a better covenant, He'll have to show them out of their own text, which is the Old Testament, and He does.

     First of all, you'll remember that all through chapter 7, He uses Psalm 110:4.  For example, look at verse 21.  Here He quotes Psalm 110:4.  The middle of the verse, "The Lord swore and will not repent, 'Thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.'"  Now, He says, in effect, David prophesied that the Messiah would be a priest after a different order.  If there needs to be a different order, that means the Levitical order is not sufficient.  And that's his point.  We need a new priesthood, which provides divine mediation that is final, that is eternal.  And He uses the Old Testament prophecy that there would be such a priesthood.

     The second thing He wants to talk about is a new sacrifice.  And He uses Psalm 40, verses 6 to 8, and that comes in chapter 10, verse 5.  And here He quotes out of Psalm 40, verses 6 to 8.  "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared me.  In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.  Then said I, 'Lo, I come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will, oh God.'"  Above when he said, "Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldst not, neither hadst pleasure in them, which are offered by the law."  In other words, Psalm 40 said God is not pleased with the sacrificial system.  He wants to prepare a body for His son to offer a new sacrifice.

     So He proves there needs to be a new priesthood and a new sacrifice, and proves it out of the Old Testament, that the Old Testament prophets and the God of the Old Testament never intended the Old Testament priesthood and the Old Testament sacrifices to be the ones that brought final access to God.  There had to be better ones.

     The third thing is, He wants to prove there needs to be a better covenant.  And He does that by quoting Jeremiah 31.  And that we studied last week in 8:8 and following.  You'll remember that He quotes right out of Jeremiah, "'Behold, the days come,' saith the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel.'"  And the very fact, look at verse 13, that He said a new one realizes that the old one isn't any good.  As soon as the new one comes, the old one vanishes away.

     So what are we seeing, then?  The Holy Spirit is talking about three things that are new in Jesus Christ, and He wraps up the discussion of the covenant which is new in verse 13, "In that He saith."  By the very fact that God said "a new covenant, He hath made the first old."  Do you understand that?

     I have a 1972 Volvo.  You know that.  I just thought I'd throw that in.  No, I have an illustration.  But I have a 1972 Volvo.  That is a new Volvo.