The new covenant, established through Jesus Christ, is presented as superior to the old covenant because it is written on the heart and sealed with Christ's blood, offering spiritual understanding and power. Unlike the old covenant, which was imperfect, unperformed, and impermanent due to inferior promises and incomplete provisions, the new covenant provides the ability to fulfill God's law through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. This superior covenant is ultimately completed and validated by Christ's once-for-all sacrifice, which purges the conscience and secures eternal redemption, fulfilling the purpose foreshadowed by the Old Testament sacrifices. The sermon emphasizes that Christ's death was a necessary, divinely ordained event for the remission of sins, offering a better and eternal inheritance to those who believe.
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when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 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 will I remember no more. In that he saith a new covenant he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. Now here we have verses that deal with both the old covenant and the new covenant.
But now just one verse in passing, and then we'll read from chapter nine. Would you go to chapter twelve and notice the verse twenty-four? I'd just make a passing reference to this, but I'd like you to read it. Verse twenty-four of chapter twelve, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Now the word new attached to the word covenant in chapter twelve is different from the word new attached to the word covenant in verse thirteen of chapter eight which we have read.
That's why we just read the verse in chapter twelve. Now let's turn to chapter nine and read from verse twelve. Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he, the Lord Jesus, entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifier to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
For this cause He is the mediator of the New Testament or the new covenant that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Now here is a reminder that all of those who were right with God through the first covenant with its blood of animals, were not actually eternally blessed through those offerings.
But by faith, since those offerings pointed to the offering of the Lord Jesus, their blessing comes through his sacrifice, toward which the other sacrifices pointed. Let's remember that, shall we? Verse sixteen, for where a testament or covenant is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is of force after men are dead. Otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Now here the thought of an inheritance or a heritage is in view.
A father leaves his goods to his children, but his children do not come into the good of them until after his death. That's her thought here. Now let's go on. Whereupon neither the first covenant was dedicated without blood. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats with water and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the Testament, or the covenant, which God hath enjoined unto you.
Moreover, he sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle, and all the vessels of the ministry. And almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission. Now when do we say, what can wash away my stain nothing but the blood of Jesus? What can make me whole again nothing but the blood of Jesus? Now if this was true under the old economy and in connection with the old covenant, notice verse twenty three, it was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these.
but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. If the old covenant was good, and blood was so very necessary in connection with it, and the new covenant is better, then the blood associated with it must be a better blood. This is the argument. And so it is. Verse twenty four. for Christ is not entered into the holy place is made with hands which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us.
Nor yet that he should offer himself often as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with the blood of others. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once, In the end of the world, or in the end of the age, have he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself? And that it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.
Now in those readings, and because of them, you can see why I want to talk about both the superior covenant and the superior sacrifice, because they are interwoven in the chapters, and they are interwoven in their relationship. The covenant is based upon the blood. Now we're going to separate them, however, and we'll look first of all, as you can see according to your outline, at the old covenant and we'll compare it with the new. Then we'll look at the comparison of the old and the new with regard to sacrifice.
Now what he said about this wonderful, albeit old and obsolete, covenant? Verse seven and eight of chapter eight. If that first covenant had been flawless, faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. Here's the first thing that I want you to notice about the old covenant. It was not perfect. So you can put that down. Now the reasons for this are given. God was not to blame, the covenant was not to blame, but it was simply impossible to keep.
Man was not perfect, and this was the problem. Now there is an inference here, according to verse six, that one of the reasons why this covenant was not perfect enough to endure was because the promises were inferior. Now that sounds rather a sweeping statement, but I have scriptural warrant for this. Verse six says, the better covenant is going to be founded upon better promises. Then if the new covenant was founded upon better promises, the old covenant must have been founded upon those that were inferior.
Now please let us not for a moment think that this is a reflection upon God who made them. We'll see why they were inferior promises in a moment. But the Bible says that the old covenant was not perfect because first of all the promises were inferior and then secondly because the provisions were incomplete. God made demands upon men that men in their frailty were not able to meet. The old covenant, and it was basically the law, said, thou shalt, thou shalt not, thou shalt, thou shalt not, and while it made the demands, it supplied no power.
with which the demands could be carried out. And so man repeatedly failed to live up to the provisions of the Old Covenant. So it was not perfect. First of all, because the promises were inferior, and secondly, because the provisions were incomplete, demand was made without power being supplied. Verses seven and eight. Now verses nine, ten, eleven and twelve tell us something else about the old covenant. And this is related to the fact that it was not perfect. And this is it. It was not performed.
It was not performed. Listen. Verse nine. They continued not in my covenant, and I disregarded. I turned from them, said the Lord. It was not performed. Now there are two things that are obvious here. First of all, the statement, they continued not in my covenant. And secondly, the reason. This law was written upon tables of stone. The new covenant, in contrast, God says, I'm going to write upon the tablets of their hearts.
So here's the second thing about the old covenant. Not only do we have to remind you it was not perfect, but according to these verses we have to remind you and according to history too, it was not performed. The statement is made and we know the reason this covenant was written upon tablets of stone. But now look at verse thirteen and you'll find it was not permanent. In that God says a new covenant Already his declaration has made the first old. You cannot have a new covenant without you have an old covenant. And if a thing has become old and decays, it's ready to pass away.
So the old covenant was not perfect, the old covenant was not performed, and the old covenant was not permanent. God relegated it to the obsolete when he said, a new covenant will I make with you? Now what is said in these verses and in chapter nine about the new covenant? Look at verse ten, will you, of chapter eight. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind and write them in, or the margin says, upon their heart.
If you were to go to Jeremiah chapter seventeen, where we read, The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it, either Lord, search the heart, you would find that chapter begins, For the sin of Judah is written with the point of a diamond upon the tables of their hearts. Inscribed upon man's heart by nature is man's own sin, and it has become a witness against him. but says, God, I'm going to make a new covenant with men. I'm going to replace the sin in their hearts with my own brand new covenant sealed with the blood of my Son.
Here then is the new covenant, and first of all, it is written in the heart. Now this means two things for the person blessed under that new covenant. First of all, He has spiritual understanding, for God says, I write my laws in his mind, and he has spiritual power, for says God, I'll write them upon the tablets of his heart. In other words, the new covenant is going to carry with it what the old covenant never had, the ability to carry out the terms of the contract. And that's why you and I are so privileged and blessed and benefited today.
Under the old economy, when the Spirit of God came into the picture, he came down upon an individual for a given task. But under the new covenant, and under the new order, and in this new dispensation, the Spirit of God has come into our lives, taken up his abode in our hearts, and so Jesus, in the person of his Spirit, dwells within us. If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. and having the Spirit of God, we have all of the power at our disposal that the Israelites never had. Now you can see why this is a better covenant, can't you? Now you can see why this is a superior covenant.
It is written in the heart. And then go to chapter nine and verses twelve, thirteen and fourteen, and you will see secondly that it is sealed with Christ's blood. Now we've reminded ourselves that the earthly sanctuary, the old was associated with an earthly sanctuary, the new with a heavenly sanctuary, that the old was associated with tables of stone, while the new is associated with the tablets of the heart. We have seen, we have read that the old was associated with the blood of these. Now we see that the new is associated with the blood of Christ.
And this is called the precious blood of Christ. You are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. We have been reminded that the old is associated with the keeping of the law. The new we see is associated with being kept by grace. We've seen that the old is associated with temporal blessing, and the new with spiritual and eternal blessing, and so it must be obvious, all so obvious, that the new is so much better than the old. The new covenant is written in the heart.
It is filled with Christ's blood, and the reference there is chapter nine, verses twelve through fourteen. And finally, verse fifteen, it is the completing of the old covenant. So while it has rendered the old covenant obsolete, it has never, nevertheless, become the capstone to the old. The old could never have been complete without the new. Because without the new covenant, filled with the blood of Christ, All the thousands upon thousands of sacrifices in the past would have been absolutely pointless and useless, and they could never have accomplished for the people of that day what those people sought in offering up those sacrifices.
Those beasts pointed forward to the day when God should, as Abraham said, give himself a lamb as a burnt offering. And John the Baptist said that he pointed to the Lord Jesus, Behold the Lamb of God which beareth away the sin of the world. Not all the blood of bulls on Jewish altars slain could give the guilty conscience peace or take away one stain. But Christ the heavenly Lamb takes all our guilt away as sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood than they. The new and better covenant.
that verse fifty, and let's just make reference to it as in chapter nine as we pass on. For this cause, that is because the shedding of the shedding of his blood, for this cause he is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, they which are called, might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Have you got it? It's the completing of the old covenant because not until Jesus died were the sacrifices under the old covenant of any virtue or point at all.
Now let's talk about the superior sacrifice, shall we? And in verse twenty three of chapter nine we read the heavenly things themselves must be purified with better sacrifices than those which involved calves and goats. and so on referred to earlier in the chapter. Now there are several things, there are three things that I think you should note if you're taking notes, and it's obvious, perhaps there are four. First of all, number one, death is a necessity. I don't know whether I have this, yes I have this on your outline. Death is a necessity. Now that is true whether the covenant be an old one or a new one.
Whether we're talking about the old economy or the new economy, death was absolutely necessary. There was a picture of this in the Garden of Eden. When having sinned, Adam and Eve recognized that they were naked and God clothed them with skins. Now for the very first thing, in order, for the very first time, in order to provide man with a covering, death came into the picture. and an animal died in order to provide them with clothing. Now there was a picture there of what was to follow. Now under the old economy there was death day after day to bring about a temporary covering for man until the Lord Jesus once and for all could offer up himself and provide that which would adequately cover for all eternity.
is a necessity. Let's find it in the chapter here, verse sixteen, where a testament is. There must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is a force after men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. This is the reason why neither the first testament nor the second were dedicated without blood. Death is a necessity. There are two thoughts here. One is the thought of a will and a testament. And again I reminded you, when a man writes a will, he makes known his mind.
But the fruits of that will are not enjoyed until death comes in and changes the picture and takes away the testator. Death brings the inheritance. There is that thought. and a testament. And then there is the thought of a sacrifice with a victim. A testament is a thought where there is death. Under the old order, it was the death of the animal. Under the new, it was the death of the Lord Jesus. The death is only settledly. The modernist talks about the gospel as the gospel of God.
He would have us seek to emulate the Lord Jesus, to follow his example, and so to improve our living as we hold up a picture of the life of the Lord Jesus before us. Now no man can ever be saved by the life of the Lord Jesus. Men are condemned by the life of the Lord Jesus. He was a man, how be it the God-man, and Peter the man of action says he did no sin. Paul the man of learning says he knew no sin. And John the apostle of love who leaned on his breast said, in him is no sin. Now the life of the Lord Jesus does not save us, it condemns us. Because when God wants to take a good long look at our lives, he does not do what we do.
We compare our lives with the lives of other people, always those who are worse than we are, and say, see, I'm not such a bad fellow after all. But God doesn't do that. God looks at your life when he places it alongside the life of the Lord Jesus and says, How desperately does this life come short? And so by the life of the Lord Jesus we stand condemned. It is the death of the Lord Jesus that brings about our salvation. There was no other good enough to pay the price of sin. He only could unlock the gate of heaven and let us in. And that he did when he laid down his life, when he died for us. Death then is a necessity.
This is what we are taught in verses sixteen and seventeen of chapter nine. Second thing, verse twenty-two, blood is a demand. Almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood is no remission. The modernist who rejects the blood is going to go to hell, and those he has deceived with him. The Lord Jesus spoke of the blind, leader of the blind, and both falling into the ditch. Without blood there is no remission. Blood is a demand. It was so under the old economy and it is so under the new economy.
This sacrifice is a better sacrifice because while the others were by their hundreds, the Lord Jesus offered up himself once for all. Now look at verse twenty-three and notice the third thing. Sacrifice is a picture. it was therefore necessary that the pattern of things in the heaven, that is, those things under the old order, which were the shadow, it was necessary that the pattern should be purified with these. That is, the blood of the sacrifices. But when we come to the actuality, when we come to the substance, when we come to the heavenly things, a better blood than the blood of beasts must be found.
However, under both economies, there must be sacrifice. And the sacrifice of the animal was a picture of a sacrifice yet to come, the giving up, the surrender, and the death of God's Lamb. Finally, and here it is, verses twenty-three through twenty-eight, Christ's sacrifice is a fulfillment. In verse twenty-three it's called a better sacrifice. In verse twenty-three we are told it pertains to heavenly things. In verses twenty-four through twenty-eight we are told it was once and once only.
Oh, the logic here is so beautiful. If it had to be more than once, then the Lord Jesus would have had to suffer time and time and time and time again from an eternity past. But when this blood flowed, it was so adequate, it wasn't necessary that it should ever flow again. The blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleansed us from all sin. I love that word once, and it's found time and time again in the Epistle to the Hebrews.
I'm through, but let me just point out some of these references to you. You might like to make a note of them. They are so beautifully interrelated. Go back to chapter seven, will you, and look at verse twenty-seven. Speaking of the Lord Jesus, it says, he needed not daily as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins, and then for the peoples, for this he did once, when he offered up himself. Now the thought here is that the sacrifice of which we are speaking was on a voluntary basis.
It happened only once. And when it happened, Jesus offered up himself. His sacrifice then was on a voluntary basis, once when he offered up himself. Now look at our chapter nine and verse twelve, will you? Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place. Now you can see that this entrance was by a costly process. He entered in once. but it had to be by his own blood.
Any sacrifice less than that was not enough. Now look at verse twenty-six of the same chapter nine. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world, and that is unthinkable, says the writer in effect. But now, once in the end of the age hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Now you will notice that this sacrifice... which was on a voluntary basis and associated with an entrance by a costly process, it took place at a specified time, at the end of the age.
The death of the Lord Jesus was not accidental. It was foreordained and at an exact point in time. Now that's why the Lord Jesus could not be slain earlier when men tried to push him over a cliff to his death. When they raised their boulders and sought to crush him, and he passed unharmed through their midst. He was not born to die mangled at the foot of a cliff. He was not born to die crushed by the boulders of an infuriated mob. He was born to die hanging an object of scorn and derision. upon a Roman givet at God's own moment of time.
Once at the end of the age he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, the sacrifice is coming. What of a specified time. Look again, will you, at verse twenty-eight in the same chapter. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. And unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Will you notice that the offering, the sacrifice was for a particular purpose? He was offered to bear the sins of many. That's the only reason why Jesus died.
Do you realize, since we read the wages of sin is death, that the Lord Jesus was the only man born who would never have died, Dev had absolutely no claim upon him. He did not trace his ancestry to Adam. He was conceived of the Holy Ghost, though born of the Virgin Mary. He was untainted by sin. He was the seed of the woman, and not like all the rest of men, the seed of the man. And he lived a life apart from sin. Therefore, since the wages of sin is death, and he never sinned, he never have died. That's why he said, No man taketh my life from me. He couldn't do it. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it again. And so once he was offered to bear the sins of many, it was for a particular purpose that Jesus died. He didn't die as a martyr. He didn't die because men were mad at him. He died because God gave him. And he died because he gave himself. And he died because there was no other way. that men could be saved. One other reference, look at chapter ten, will you? And verses nine and ten. Then said he, lo, I come, to do thy will, O God, be taken away the first, that he may establish the second, by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Will you notice that his death came about in a prophesied manner. It had been planned from an eternity past. Isn't it wonderful to see God so deliberate in this business? Isn't it wonderful to see how things painful as they were for the Father, and desperately painful as they were for the Son, so exquisitely planned, and so meticulously carried out, just once, because once was enough. Shall we bow in prayer? Our Father once again, how we thank thee, that the Lord Jesus is our Savior, and how we thank thee for reminding us again of what it cost him.
We've said it before, we've sung it often, and we say it again, how greatly Jesus must have loved me. to bear my sin in his body on the truth. May we never forget that we are not our own. We are bought with a price the precious blood of Christ. Or that we might believe and live as though we believe the truth that sometimes we think. We mustn't go where Jesus would not have us go. We must not do what Jesus would not have us do. We must not say what Jesus would not have us say because we are not ours.
Rivet that thought upon our hearts we pray as our session this morning comes to a close, for we ask it in his wonderful name. Just another quiet moment of meditation while the instruments close.