Hebrews
8:6-13 Complete Apostles' Bible (6) But now He has obtained
a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better
covenant, which has been enacted upon better promises. (7)
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have
been sought for a second. (8) For finding fault with them,
He says: "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will
establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of
Judah, (9) not according to the covenant which I made with
their fathers, in the day when I took their hand to lead them out of
the land of Egypt. Because they did not persevere in My covenant, and I
disregarded them, says the LORD. (10) For this is the
covenant which I shall covenant with the house of Israel after those
days, says the LORD: I will put My laws in their mind, and I shall
inscribe them upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they
shall be My people. (11) And by no means will they teach
each one his fellow citizen, and each one his brother, saying, 'Know
the LORD,' for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the
greatest of them. (12) For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I shall by no
means remember anymore." (13) By the saying "new ," He has
made the first obsolete. And the one becoming obsolete and growing old
is ready to vanish.
Let us bring ourselves back up to where we left off this morning in
Hebrews 8.
The old testament system, or old covenant, had a fault.
- The people involved at that
time were unable to PERSEVERE in that covenant.
- The KJV says they could not
"CONTINUE" in it.
- They could not keep the
covenant.
- They failed.
- And failed and failed.
And God said A NEW COVENANT was going to come, which is the one we live
within today.
- He compared the New covenant
with the one they had back then by calling it a covenant that was going
to be quite different.
- It was different because it
would have God put HIS LAWS INTO THE HEARTS AND MINDS OF THE PEOPLE.
- Also, each person involved
would not be held back from personally knowing God for themselves,
whereas teaching was only provided to a select few -- sons of the
prophets, etc.
- Synagogues only had bare
reading of Law, with no explanation.
But our new covenant has every person with a bible and every family
with the ease of opportunity to hear detailed teachings of God in local
churches.
So, if the old covenant's problem was that they could not persevere
under it, and the new would put God's law into the heart and mind, then
putting it in the heart and mind would cause us to be able to persevere.
- We can continue.
- It can make us OVERCOMERS so
that we can continue without failing.
Hebrews 9 speaks further explanation of how the old covenant could not
cut it.
As if to continue explaining reasons as to why the old one was
incompetent and a new one had to be instituted, Heb. 9:1 says:
Hebrews
9:1-7 Complete Apostles' Bible (1) Then indeed, even the
first covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly
sanctuary. (2) For a tabernacle was prepared: the first
part, in which were both the lampstand and the table and the showbread,
which is called the holy place; (3) and after the second
veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holy of
Holies, (4) having a golden altar, and the ark of the
covenant having been overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were a
golden jar having the manna, and the rod of Aaron which budded, and the
tablets of the covenant; (5) and above it were cherubim of
glory overshadowing the mercy seat; concerning these things we cannot
now speak in detail. (6) Now when these things had been
thus prepared, the priests always went into the first tabernacle,
accomplishing the services, (7) but into the second part
the high priest goes alone once during the year, not without blood,
which he offers for himself and for the people's sins committed in
ignorance;
God's Word teaches us that the picture of priests working in a first
tabernacle with no one entering into the holy of holies gives us
a message of how OLD TESTAMENT TIMES AND RITUALS fell short of what man
needed.
Hebrews
9:8-10 Complete Apostles' Bible (8) the Holy Spirit
signifying this, that the way into the Holiest of All was not yet
revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing, (9)
which was symbolic for the present time, according to which both gifts
and sacrifices are being offered, which are not able, in respect to
conscience, to make perfect the one performing the service,
(10) concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings, and
fleshly ordinances which are imposed until a time of reformation.
They were fleshly ordinances.
- God is saying that while
there are only fleshly rituals and rites and activity in effect, only
the outward man is affected.
- But the reason man was unable
to continue and persevere without failing again and again in sin was
because something had to be done that would affect THE CONSCIENCES of
people -- the inner man -- which was not being dealt with.
- The old covenant only touched
the surface of people's problems and dealt with the physical level of
things, and never penetrated into the hearts and minds of people.
Recall that Chapter 8 said the Law needs to be written on two kinds of
tables.
- MIND AND HEART.
- But being written on stone,
as the Old Covenant had it, is only representative of touching the
physical and outward, and not getting to the root of the problem.
- It is only affecting the
fleshly element.
- But we are more than flesh.
- We are spirit and soul, as
well as body.
- And until something can get
hold of us and make some changes in the hearts and minds of people, we
will never be able to persevere in the things of God without blowing it.
Ezekiel
36:25-27 KJV Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye
shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will
I cleanse you. (26) A new heart also will I give you, and a
new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart
out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
(27) And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk
in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
All the promises to Israel speak of very spiritual things, and actually
go beyond the level of the flesh and the outward.
Deuteronomy
30:1-6 KJV And it shall come to pass, when all these things are
come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before
thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither
the LORD thy God hath driven thee, (2) And shalt return
unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I
command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and
with all thy soul; (3) That then the LORD thy God will turn
thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and
gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath
scattered thee. (4) If any of thine be driven out unto the
outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee,
and from thence will he fetch thee: (5) And the LORD thy
God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou
shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy
fathers. (6) And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine
heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all
thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
The language used in Deut. is New Testament language, and this is
repeated as follows:
Colossians
2:11 KJV In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision
made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by
the circumcision of Christ:
Deuteronomy
30:11-14 KJV (11) For this commandment which I command thee
this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.
(12) It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go
up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do
it? (13) Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest
say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we
may hear it, and do it? (14) But the word is very nigh unto
thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
These words are found in Paul's epistle to the Romans and are explained
as a reference to the New Testament preaching of the Gospel!
Romans
10:6-10 KJV But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on
this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that
is, to bring Christ down from above:) (7) Or, Who shall
descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the
dead.) (8) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even
in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we
preach; (9) That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the
Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (10) For with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation.
Moses' reference to a return to the land is fulfilled in something that
is beyond a physical land, of which the physical land was a shadow.
- The entire old covenant
concept was fleshly and outward.
Hebrews
9:10 Complete Apostles' Bible (10) concerned only with
foods and drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances which are
imposed until a time of reformation.
Hebrews
9:11-14 Complete Apostles' Bible (11) But Christ came as a
High Priest of the good things to come, through the greater and more
perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this
creation. (12) Not through the blood of goats and calves,
but through His own blood, He entered once for all into the Holies,
having obtained eternal redemption. (13) For if the blood
of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling those having
been defiled, sanctifies for the purity of the flesh, (14)
by how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, will cleanse your
conscience from dead works in order that we might serve the living God?
Why go back to a lesser covenant?
- The old one was ONLY UNTIL A
TIME OF REFORMATION.
Some teach God will revert back to law for seven years after the
rapture, whereas the bible says law was weak and only scratched the
surface, unable to cause a man to continue underneath it and
successfully persevere.
- Nothing in the bible hints at
a time when God shall revert to law in our future.
- Plain statements like this
state that Mosaic Law is forever over and gone.
- A new covenant has been
created where God puts his laws into our minds and hearts.
The old only cleansed the FLESH, but we read here that the new one gets
in all the way to where we really need help -- our hearts and minds,
and consciences.
Would God go back to COPIES OF THE TRUE?
- How is reverting to copies a
progression?
All the rituals and rites of the old testament were symbols and
foreshadows of the actualities that God would deal with when the NEW
COVENANT came into being.
Every year the high priest offered animal blood and went into the
holiest one day and came out again for another year, and none of it
ever touched and affected the hearts and consciences of the people.
- But Jesus came and made one
sacrifice of Himself and entered into the holiest and STAYED THERE and
SITS DOWN IN THERE.
- And He is sitting and waiting
for us to ENTER THERE, TOO, AND SIT WITH HIM.
The Bible says He is FORERUNNER for us in there.
- It's the rest we need to
enter.