four better things. He takes time in these two chapters, eight and nine, to go into detail about each of them. We've looked at the better priesthood. We've looked at the better sanctuary. Now we have two others, the better covenant and the better sacrifice. And it's in these chapters that he goes into detail, some detail, about these. Now much of what is written here really calls for no comment from me. There will be some, but it doesn't really call for it, because it's self-explanatory. Let's begin where we left off this morning in chapter eight. It's the verse six. But now, and you'll remember we were reading about the better sanctuary. In verse six we're going to read about the better covenant. But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant. Now that expression, the mediator of a better covenant, is found three times in the next two or three or four chapters. In fact it is once here in chapter eight, once in chapter nine, and once again in chapter twelve the reason why it's a better covenant is because he is the mediator his ministry is a more excellent ministry earlier on in our studies i pointed out to you that this phrase is only used twice in the new testament it's used of the name of the lord jesus a more excellent name and accused of the ministry of the Lord Jesus a more excellent ministry. And it seems striking to me that the Spirit of God should have reserved this especial phrase which means particularly eminent for the ministry and the name of the Lord Jesus. He is the mediator of a better covenant which was established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, 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. And I love that expression. 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. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. And he's speaking now, of course, of the wider Israel, the spiritual Israel. I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts, and I will be to them God, there is no A in the original, and they shall be to me, and again there is no A in the original, people. I will be to them God, and they shall be to me people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor, saying, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. Now those two words again, the two words know, K-N-O-W, are different Greek words, and the first one signifies a progressive knowledge, going from one thing to the next, building upon a basis, and learning and learning and learning. They shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother saying, Know the Lord. Keep on learning about the Lord. Progress in your learning. For all shall know me. And that means a comprehensive knowledge. 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 has made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. Now obviously there's an old covenant. I want to talk about it in just a moment or two. Turn over to verse twelve of chapter nine, please. We've been reading this morning about the new, the greater and more perfect tabernacle. Now there he's added, Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he 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 sanctifyeth of the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offer himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And 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 Testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where a Testament 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. Whereupon neither the First Testament, this is the word covenant, by the way, it's exactly the same word in the Greek, 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 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. 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. And that brings us to number four. For Christ is not entered into the holy places 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 hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as he 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 did you notice, of course you did, the repetition of that word covenant, covenant, covenant, and you've heard me read it earlier in the week. And then the word blood, time and time again. And you heard me read that too, a number of times during the week. Now, the first, of course, has to do with the Old and the New Testaments. You have an Old Testament in your Bible, and you have a New Testament in your Bible. It simply means covenant. As I said, the same Greek word is used in both. on both occasions, and then the blood, of course, is the blood of the New Testament, the New Covenant, shed for us, the Lord Jesus said. And in that we have the better sacrifice. Now very quickly, the Old Covenant, I don't want to seem to be laboring these things, but they are all here, and it would be a shame if we left these two and went on our way. Three things are said about the old covenant in the verses six to nine. The first is that it was not perfect. If that first covenant, verse seven, had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. It was not perfect. Perfect. Back up a verse and it says, He is the mediator of a better covenant which was established upon better promises. Now, it was not perfect because the promises were inferior. The new covenant is based upon better promises. Does this mean to say that the word of God... was inferior as we read it in the Old Testament, superior as we read it in the New No. But God was using this time of sacrifices with an old sanctuary and an old priesthood and an old covenant and an old sacrifice. to teach the people that they were to look for the perfect in all of these areas. They were excellent promises for that time, but now there are better promises. So in that sense the promises were inferior. They depended upon compliance. God gave, you know, God gave a number of covenants in the Old Testament. You remember he gave a covenant to Noah. You'll recall, of course, that he gave a covenant to Abraham. There were others. And then on the Mount Sinai, or at the Mount Sinai, he made a covenant with Israel, and it was based upon the law. And in order to reap the benefits of the promises that were made, they had to comply. But while those promises were the basis for compliance, there was no power supplied to the people through that first old covenant so that they might be enabled to comply. We know when we read the Ten Commandments that it is not possible for a man to keep those Ten Commandments. God gave them this standard to AMAT. And when they complied, in the best way that they could, God blessed them. But they were not supplied with the power to do that complying. That's why the promises were inferior promises. And that's why the old covenant was not perfect. It was based upon those inferior promises. And also the provisions were incomplete. If indeed, when God made this covenant with his people, there was no ability on the part of the law to deliver them from the judgments that were uttered, then obviously, The provisions were incomplete and the Old Covenant was not perfect. Mark you, if you read the story of the Old Covenant, it's a wonderful story and you can detect in it how much God loved his people. How great a concern he had for the successful living of his people, how anxious he was to make sure that his people always kept their eyes elevated. That was why he gave them such a high standard. But that old covenant, which was not perfect, was not performed. Go back to verse eight here. For finding fault with them, he said, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, 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. That old covenant was not performed. The statement is made in verse nine. They continued not. And the reason is, of course, because that old covenant and the law was written on tables of stone. How different with the new covenant. If you look at verse thirteen, that's the end of the chapter here, chapter eight. It says, In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old, so that which decayeth, and waxeth old, is ready to vanish away. It was not permanent. But what about the new covenant? Verse nine, chapter nine, verses twelve through fifteen. You know, when it speaks of a new covenant, Again, there are two words used, one which means new in character, a different kind of covenant, as we just read not according to the old promises, but a new one having a new character. And there's another word which means new in time. And the new covenant was new in both. Now Jesus is called the mediator of that new covenant. Again there are three things here. We are told in chapter eight and verse ten concerning the new covenant, I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts. I will be to them God and they shall be to me people. Now he is speaking of those of us who are blessed with this arrangement. And that is what a covenant is, you know. That's what a testament is. And we have an arrangement with God that is based upon the work of the Lord Jesus, a covenant of which He is the mediator and so the guarantor of its success. The old covenant was not successful, but the success of this one is guaranteed. and God, instead of writing it on tables of stone, has written it upon the fleshy tables of the heart. And it's been written in the mind. For us, there is a way through the Spirit of God to new spiritual understanding and to new spiritual power. That covenant is written in the heart, and with the covenant goes the ability to meet the condition. A second thing, it is sealed with Christ's blood. Two things are mentioned in these three verses. In verse twelve, having obtained eternal redemption for us, and in verse fifteen, they which are called shall receive the promise of eternal inheritance. There is no decaying and waxing old about this covenant. It carries into the future, it carries into the distant future, it carries into the eternal future, again because the Lord Jesus is its guarantor and it is sealed with his blood. It is the blood of the Lord Jesus that guarantees to you and to me eternal redemption. Elsewhere the scripture tells us that, ye were not redeemed with such corruptible things as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. And what a price. And what a price. As we read on through chapter nine, we read about the blood of bulls, and we read about the blood of calves, and we read about the ashes of an heifer. we read about the things that could never bring the man who in a sense depended upon them depended upon them the kind of peace and satisfaction and cleansing of conscience that's the language of Hebrews such as we know today because the law is in our mind and it is the covenant is written in our hearts And this new covenant, look at verse fifteen in chapter nine, where it says, For this cause, and that is speaking about the blood of Christ, cleansing us, making it possible for us to be presented without spot of God, 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 Testament they which are called might receive. The things that were under the First Testament, why this New Testament is the completing in that sense of the old. So it's written in the heart and it's filled with the blood of the Lord Jesus and it is a completing. of the Old Covenant. When you read the Old Testament, you can see glimmers of light as to what God had in mind for his people in the future. And indeed it is true that the New Testament, as we know it, is a fulfilling of the Old Testament. And all of the shadows under the Old Covenant have now been fulfilled in the substance of the New Covenant. and all in order that we might receive. I'm glad that I don't have to struggle like the Jew had to struggle in order to meet the conditions that God had laid down. I'm glad that I didn't have to look at the tiniest things that the Jew had to look at in order to please God. I'm glad... that I am not trained to a law that says, Thou shalt, Thou shalt not, Thou shalt, Thou shalt not. But I must never forget that if God gave to His people under the old order a very high standard, God has given to me under the new covenant an even higher standard. He tells us, that we are to do as God does. That's enough to make any of us tremble. Let's go on to the better sacrifice. Verse nine says, and the expression of course is used in verse twenty-three, it was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these that is with the blood sacrifices of the old economy, 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. The old order, the pattern. The new order, the fulfillment. The things themselves. Now, did you notice in the reading, I read also the word death several times. Now, you will notice in the old order and the new order, under the old covenant and under the new covenant, death was necessary. That's what it says here. Because when the word is changed in our English Bible, from covenant to testament, it is included with the thought of a will. And that's the idea, while the will stays in the safe deposit box, and the man is still in the body, all of the promises and the things that he has in mind for those that he loves, they don't come into play. It says, where a testament is, a will, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. They don't read the will until the one who wrote it has passed away. For a testament is a force after men are dead. Otherwise it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon neither the First Testament was dedicated without blood. When Moses had spoken every precept to the people, he took the blood of calves, saying this, verse twenty, is the blood of the Testament that God has joined unto you. But then we read that the things themselves, the heavenly things themselves, call for a better sacrifice. And then we read, Christ did not enter into the holiest, made with the hands which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. But we have been reading earlier on by his own blood he entered. You know, There's a little word here that occurs and reoccurs. It's the little word once. If you look back in chapter seven, you'll find in chapter seven, the verse twenty seven says this, and the word once is used. Of the Lord Jesus, he needeth not daily to offer up sacrifice, for this he did once. when he offered up himself. He offered himself so that his sacrifice was on a voluntary basis. No man takes my life from me. I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down. And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus did. He shed his blood. He shed his blood willingly. He shed his blood vicariously. and he chose to shed his blood. Death was a necessity under the old economy, and death is necessary under the new. Under the old it was the death of bulls and of calves, the ashes of unheather. Under the new it is the blood of Christ and nothing else can do it. What can wash away my stain? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Death is a necessity and blood is a demand. We read, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. And that was true of the old order and true of the new. There is a call for death. and for blood. In verse twenty three we see that sacrifice is a picture. It is a pattern. We read that verse. The sacrifice, the dying of the bull, the dying of the calf, the dying of the dove, these were things that pointed forward they were pictures. Sacrifice is a picture. But Christ's sacrifice is a fulfillment. So Christ was once offered to bear the sin of many. Let me refer you again to this little word once as I close. In chapter nine and verse twelve we read, Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holiest having obtained eternal redemption for us. His sacrifice was on a voluntary basis, once when he offered up himself. His entrance was by a costly process, by his own blood. He entered in once. There are those, you know, who refuse to get saved because they say, If I cannot do something for myself, then I don't want what you offer. And in saying this, they are inferring that God's salvation, because it is freely proffered, is a cheap salvation. God forbid, that ever we should think in terms of cheapness, because we get God's salvation for nothing. Someone has aptly said... The reason why salvation is free is because God is too rich to sell and you are too poor to buy. And so the gift of God is eternal life through the Lord Jesus. Now look at verse twenty-six in chapter nine where it says he doesn't have to offer a sacrifice time and again. Christ was once. In verse twenty-six it says, Once in the end of the age he appeared. The coming of the Lord Jesus was at a specified time. There's nothing accidental or coincidental in all of this. We were reminded of the hour a little earlier on in this service. The day was decreed, the hour was decreed, the moment was decreed, both of the births. and the death of the Lord Jesus. And here in verse twenty six we are reminded that his coming was at a specified time and in verse twenty eight that his offering was for a particular purpose. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many. That was the reason. That's why he came. The Lord Jesus was the only man born for the purpose of dying. Every other man was born for the purpose of living. But the cradle for the Lord Jesus was but a prelude to the cross. The manger, the beginning of the path to the Roman gibbet. But his death, you know, came about in a prophesied manner. When we come to chapter ten, Verse nine and ten, again we have that word. Then said he, this is a quotation from the Old Testament, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh 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. You remember those Old Testament prophecies that said the Lord Jesus would come? that spoke, although the Jewish writer knew nothing about death of this fashion, they pierced my hands and my feet. The writer knew nothing of death by crucifixion, and yet writing by the Spirit of God, and writing prophetically, he says, they pierced my hands and my feet. Prophetically, the Farnest wrote, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You know, we began our conference with the words of the Lord Jesus from the cross and they rose to their peak in that sentence in that question my God my God why has thou forsaken me it was all in order that the new covenant might be a covenant that the blood of the one sacrifice might be shed, that we might receive these eternal things and never for one moment have to lift a finger to make them ours. But again we must remind our hearts that God having saved us by grace, God having given to us a salvation that's eternal, God having covered us with that new covenant, having paid the price with a better sacrifice, says in Hebrews, by the Spirit, look at the Lord Jesus. Look for a long time at the Lord Jesus. Study the Lord Jesus. Gaze upon the Lord Jesus and then know. Every day that you live, I expect you to become more and more like him. Shall we pray? Our Father, there is deep down in the heart of each one of us a longing to be like the Lord Jesus. There is also in our hearts a consciousness that we come so far short. But we pray, the Lord, that we may learn what it is looking upon him to lay hold of all those things that are ours in him so that we might progress, we might go on in the things of God as we have read in this epistle, that we might get closer and closer.