Good morning.
Turn with me once again to the book of Hebrews. We will begin looking together in Hebrews 7:17.
Thou art a priest for ever
According to the order of Melchizedek.
For there is a setting aside of the commandment going before, for its weakness and unprofitableness
(for the law perfected nothing),
And the introduction of a better hope,
By which we draw nigh to God.
Verse 20:
And inasmuch as it was not without the swearing of an oath
(for they indeed have been made priests without an oath;
But He with an oath by Him that saith of Him,
The Lord sware and will not repent Himself,
Thou art a priest for ever),
By so much also hath Jesus become the surety of a better covenant.
And that is the phrase I want you to remember: “By so much Jesus became surety of a better covenant.”
And they indeed have been made priests many in number, because that by death they are hindered from continuing:
But He, because He abideth for ever, hath His priesthood unchangeable.
Wherefore also He is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through Him,
Seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.
For such a high priest became us, holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
Who needeth not daily, like those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people:
For this He did once for all, when He offered up Himself.
For the law appointeth men high priests, having infirmity;
But the word of the oath, which was after the law, appointeth a Son, perfected for evermore.
Then, reading in Hebrews 8:
Now in the things which we are saying the chief point is this:
We have such a high priest,
Who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,
A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle,
Which the Lord pitched, not man.
For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices:
Wherefore it is necessary that this high priest also have somewhat to offer.
Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all,
Seeing there are those who offer the gifts according to the law;
Who serve that which is a copy and shadow of the heavenly things,
Even as Moses is warned of God when he is about to make the tabernacle:
For, See, saith He, that thou make all things according to the pattern that was showed thee in the mount.
Now, this is the verse I want you to focus on:
But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry,
By so much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant,
Which hath been enacted upon better promises.
For if that first covenant had been faultless,
Then would no place have been sought for a second.
For finding fault with them, He saith,
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,
That 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 that I took them by the hand to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt;
For 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 on their heart also will I write them:
And I will be to them a God,
And they shall be to Me a people.
And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen,
And every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord:
For all shall know Me,
From the least to the greatest of them.
For I will be merciful to their iniquities,
And their sins will I remember no more.
In that He saith, A new covenant,
He hath made the first old.
But that which is becoming old and waxeth aged
Is nigh unto vanishing away.
I think we will stop right there for now.
Lord, we do come to You, and we do present Your Word back to You. Once again, our declaration is, “You alone have the words of eternal life.” As we are coming here this morning, we confess our need, and we confess our desire to see only the Lord Jesus—to have Him so unveiled, our eyes so opened, and our spirits so quickened, that we could behold the living Lord.
Then we could behold Your great ministry in this issue of the better covenant. Help us, Lord, as we bow in Your presence and acknowledge You as the source of everything. In Jesus’ beloved name, amen.
Well, I think everyone knows by now that we have been dealing with this book of Hebrews. I hope you remember the one word in Hebrews that is central to the understanding of the whole epistle. Now, what is that word?
Speak up good—better. Some people have been listening.
The word that stands out, that makes us understand the whole thought of the epistle, is this single word: better. As I said, now I will avoid the temptation—you know me too well—of making a long introduction. But we have to get beyond our consumer concept to appreciate the significance of this single word.
Because we still, in this consumer nation, have this idea of good, better, and best. When it comes to the book of Hebrews, there is no better word than better. Now, I know that may sound a little confusing. I have mentioned that each time. But if, by the grace of God, He can drive that point home by the Holy Spirit and cause us to see the significance of this word, I think we can be helped.
That word runs through this book thirteen times: better. It is really the message of this book.
Now, we have looked at a few “betters.” Definitely, you know that by now. The first “better” in this book has to deal with the Lord Jesus Himself. He is the subject of this book.
Dear brothers and sisters, what we need to understand as Christians is that He is the great subject of God. If we miss this first point, we will never appreciate and understand the message of Hebrews. He is the whole message.
The message begins that God, in former times, through the prophets and through the fathers, has spoken to us; but in these last days, He has spoken to us. Now, the significance of that is that He has spoken to us in the Person of His Son.
The whole message of Christianity, the whole message of the book of Hebrews, the whole importance of the Word, is the Person of the Son.
If we ever—listen to me; this is a burden on my heart—if we ever leave that message, we have left the Christian life. That is the whole message.
He is better than the angels. He is better than Moses. He is better than Aaron. He is better than Levi. He is better than Abraham. He is better than the tabernacle. He is better than the law. That is the whole message of the book of Hebrews.
I believe, brothers and sisters, that is the first thing we need to see.
Secondly—and this blessed me so much when I saw it—God is concerned for us. It says in Hebrews 6, and let me diverge for a moment, as I often do.
My sister asked me, “Why do you think that better does not occur again until the sixth chapter of the book of Hebrews?” I believe there is a very real reason.
The Lord, the God of glory, is not interested in us seeing anything else but how much better His Son is. That is the message.
But then, when we come to Hebrews 6, it says, “But concerning you, He has some better thing in mind for us.” Then you have to go back to the earlier chapters and discover what those better things are.
First of all, we are called to be partakers of the heavenly calling. Secondly, we are called to be companions of the Christ. Can you imagine that?
He has overlooked—oh, “overlooked,” how you like that? That is engineer-speak—He has overlooked the fallen seed of the angels. He has overlooked the angels, but He has called us to be companions of the Lord Jesus. What a message.
It even goes so far that it declares of the Lord Jesus that He is not ashamed to call us brethren. Those that are sanctified and He that sanctifieth are one. Can you imagine? That is a better thing He has for us.
Somehow, in the economy of God, it is all the Son; but somehow, in that same economy of God, He has called you and me into such a union, such a joining, such a linking to Christ, that we together—the glorious Son, the infinite Son, and finite man—would be joined together in testimony. That is the whole message of the book of Hebrews.
Now, last time we dealt with one more “better.” By the way, in case you are worried—some of you may be worried—I am not going to speak on all thirteen betters.
But we dealt with another better, and that was: we have a better hope. Brothers and sisters, because you have been called to be companions of Christ, because you have been called to be partakers of the heavenly calling, you have a better hope.
There is no hope that can compare to that hope. There is no inheritance that can compare to that inheritance. There is not a single thing that you can want, desire, or know that can begin to rival the better hope that we have in the Lord Jesus.
The Word of God is very clear that we should hold fast to that hope. We should not let it go. The book of Hebrews says, “Hold fast to that hope, firm to the end.” It is a book of encouragement.
Brothers and sisters, today we want to look at one better. We would like to look at this issue of the better covenant.
I think if we can lay hold of just a little bit—just a minuscule bit—of what God has done for us in this better covenant, we will be a liberated and joyful people in the Lord. If we could just see, if for one moment God could take away the blinders and cause us to look into what He has done, it would be an overwhelming thing to us.
So today we want to look at this matter of the better covenant. In Hebrews 7:22:
By so much also hath Jesus become the surety of a better covenant.
And then, again, in Hebrews 8:6:
But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry,
By so much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant.
Now, Hebrews 8:6 is a turn in the book. You need to understand this, because here the Word of God does something different. For the first seven chapters, up to Hebrews 8, we have been dealing with the Son—the better Son, the Person of the Lord Jesus. That has been the whole message of the book, and that is the theme of the book.
But now, when you get to Hebrews 8, there is a turn in the book. What the Holy Spirit is trying to get us to see is that not only have we to do with the infinite Son, but we are having to do with the work, or the ministry, of the infinite Son.
“By so much”—that familiar phrase—does He have a more excellent ministry. It is the ministry of the Son when we come to Hebrews 8.
Now, Kenneth Wuest, some of you are familiar with his word studies from the Greek New Testament, says this verse pivots, and the whole book changes with this verse. We begin to look not only at the infinite, glorious, marvelous, incomparable Son, but we are now looking at His ministry and His work: the better covenant.
So, dear saints, I hope you begin to see that. It is no longer just Christ alone, but the work of the Lord Jesus. Those two things, dear saints, ought to be our message in the days in which we live: the Person of the Lord Jesus and the work of the Lord Jesus.
If we ever leave the Person of the Lord Jesus, and if we are removed from the work of the Lord Jesus, we are shipwrecked concerning the faith. It seems to me to be the message of the book of Hebrews.
You will notice in both Hebrews 7:22 and Hebrews 8:6 a familiar phrase. That familiar phrase, if you have been with us the last two times, is “by so much.”
It does seem insignificant when we read the English language. We think this is not a very important phrase, but it is incredibly important in the book of Hebrews. It is a phrase that is repeated over and over.
What it is—let me try to explain, because I am not sure I am capable—but I believe it is the measure of the infinite.
Human language here strains for a proper explanation, but here, over and over, the Holy Spirit has one message: “By so much more.” It is the measure of the effect where we can look into heavenly things and behold the infinite Lord Jesus and His infinite work. That seems to me to be the message.
Now, when we come to this matter of the better covenant—and our brother Clay already shared with us before the meeting—there is a contrast. The whole book of Hebrews lays out a contrast between the old covenant, some might just say the law, and the new covenant, or as Hebrews puts it, the better covenant.
There is a contrast, and what we are challenged to see, brothers and sisters, is the difference in these two things.
Now, I think there is one word. I hope you remember this one word. I am not sure what you will take away, but remember this one word: there is only one word that can describe the old covenant, and that is this word: limited.
That may not seem like a very important word to you, but that single word describes all of the old covenant. The one problem with the old covenant is that it was utterly and completely limited in what it could do.
It seemed, when I was praying about this, the Lord just said that was the one word He spoke to me. I will tell you a little story.
Last week, I was with Linda down at the hospital, waiting for her to get her blood work done in the circle at MCV. Some of you know where that is. I was reading Jessica’s Bible, her Quest Study Bible, a New International Version. This issue of limited had been on my heart, and I turned in that Quest Study Bible—and this is the way the Lord encourages you—and there was a sidebar question over in the margin.
The person who put together this Bible said, “What is the main problem with the old covenant?”
The answer was: It was limited.
That is the problem. Today, we want to look at four limitations, and maybe you will appreciate, as we consider those things, something of the better covenant.
First of all, the old covenant was limited in power. You need to understand that. It was limited in power. It did not lack in regulation. It did not lack in law. It did not lack in instruction. It did not lack in exhortation. But it lacked in power. It was limited in power.
You might say, “Well, if it was given of God, why was it limited in power? That makes no sense.” It was limited in power because of you.
I do not know if that upsets anybody. I do not want to upset—I upset enough people not trying. I do not need to try to upset people. But you are the problem.
It says in Hebrews 8 that the reason He gave the law, the reason He dismissed the law and gave the better covenant, was because He found fault with the people. This should not be a great revelation to us, but saints, we are the problem.
The law was not the problem. The law was limited, but the reason it was limited, the reason the Word says fault was found, was because of us.
I do not need to tell you the story of Pogo again. You are probably tired of it. But in this politically correct age, that is not a popular message. We have spent a generation preaching self-worth. We have spent a generation telling people they are all among themselves. We have spent a generation telling everybody they are the best—be all they can be.
When you look at the Word of God, it says, “You are the problem.” Now, you will not be depressed long. Stay; do not leave the room. Stay with me.
When you turn to Romans 7, I think there is an explanation of this issue. Turn to Romans 7:7-25. We will not read it all, but there are a few things, starting with verse 12:
So that the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.
Did then that which is good become death unto me? Far be the thought.
But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, by working death to me through that which is good;
That through the commandment sin might become exceeding sinful.
For we know that the law is spiritual:
But I am carnal, sold under sin.
Now, that is the whole explanation, in simple terms, of the fault of the old covenant. We are not, by our nature—our human nature—spiritual. We are not, by our human nature, holy. We are not, by our human nature, capable of fulfilling the law.
The whole law is summarized in two words: “Thou shalt.”
The whole law: two words, “Thou shalt.” Brothers and sisters, when that was given to the people of God—you know the story, and some of you may be able to help me with it—when Moses came down from the mountain with this single exhortation of “Thou shalt,” what did the people say?
“We can do it.”
It was a huge mistake. A Nike commercial: “We can do it. All that You say to us, we can do.”
I believe God, in His mercy, had a single purpose for the law. It is in Romans 7. He brought us to the edges of His holiness. He brought us to the circumference of His character. He showed us a bit of what He was like, and He challenged us to be like that. That was the purpose of the law.
It was revealed to us, and it is revealed to all of us who try to walk with God, that this is the problem: we are not like God.
You may say, “Why did He do such a thing? It seems to be a cruel lesson.” It is not a cruel lesson at all. Oh, it is the most valuable lesson there is, brothers and sisters.
Do we understand how limited the law is? We need to see that we are the limitation. God, in His mercy, teaches us a better way.
Listen to this: the whole of the old covenant is captured in two words, “Thou shalt,” and is based on our performance—our doing all that God requires and following everything that He requires, every jot and tittle. It says if you miss one point of the law, you break the whole law.
That is a burden. That is a burden. If you fail in one point of the law, you fail in the whole law.
But when we come to the New Testament, we find something more infinite, more better.
I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel,
Not according to the old covenant.
I will put My laws into their mind,
And I will write My laws upon their heart.
Now, brothers and sisters, that is glorious. What we were powerless to do under the old covenant, God does in the better covenant. Do you see?
What we have no energy or strength to do—what we are impotent to do in the old covenant, even though we think we can do it—God does in the new covenant. He writes the laws in our minds. He writes the laws in our hearts. Then, brothers and sisters, by the Holy Spirit, that resident expert begins to do what we absolutely cannot do.
This is the better covenant. Oh, I hope we understand that.
In the first covenant, it is “Thou shalt.” Remember that. In the second covenant, it is “I will.” Remember that. That is the whole case: “Thou shalt,” and “I will.”
What a difference. What side do you want to be on? Would you rather be on the side where you are always having to perform, cannot fail in one single element, and if you do, you are guilty under the judgment of the whole law? Or would you rather be on the side of a better covenant where God says, “Let Me do the work in you”?
He comes into you by the Holy Spirit, right into your very heart, with the law of God. As we turn and respond to Him, we discover a new power and a new strength to do what we cannot do. That is the better covenant.
The Holy Spirit comes into you. Can you imagine anything better than that? God Himself comes into you.
That was not in the old covenant. In the old covenant, there may have been times when the Holy Spirit came upon people, but the Holy Spirit did not come into people. But for every believer under the better covenant, this is our glorious inheritance: the Holy Spirit comes into you, takes up residence in you, and produces in you what the law could never do from the outside.
Now, I do not know if I can explain it any better. That is the best attempt.
Maybe I can illustrate. Maybe that will help.
Obviously, I have spoken to you before about some of my computer woes. They may become legend if I keep going. I tease my partners because I feel like a dinosaur on computers, so that really ought to scare you.
But I have been doing a lot of Word documents lately, and maybe I need help on this. There is this little fellow that always appears. He is an aggravating thing. He shows up on a bicycle, and he is the most annoying thing.
If one of you could help me turn him off, I would appreciate it. But he shows up and says, “You need help? I am the expert.”
He makes these weird, annoying noises. You computer people need to explain why they made this thing that way. But he is annoying. The point is, he is an expert.
I discovered, when I did not know the way, I began to listen to him. I discovered, “I do not know what to do here with this Word document, with this computer, with this beast that we created. How do you make the thing work?” He was there: “This is the answer.”
God is coming to us by the Holy Spirit. All the resources, all the power, all the strength, all the wisdom of God—we can live because of this inner abiding of the Holy Spirit, the resident expert.
I will never get upset again at this little peeping thing—how he has helped me.
Brothers and sisters, God has put in you—I hope you get this before you leave—the Holy Spirit. You have in you the resident expert, and that resident expert is able to teach you everything, to lead you into all truth, to convict you of sin and righteousness and judgment, and to mould you into the image of the Lord Jesus. It is His child.
The whole of the Old Testament, the whole of the old covenant, the basis of the whole thing was outward conformity to the law. The basis of the whole better covenant is inward conformity to Christ. There is a difference, and He gives the resource.
That is the first matter of the better covenant. It is infinitely better than the old covenant. It is infinitely better because, in the old covenant, you did not have the power although you were commanded. It was to show you and teach you an incredibly valuable lesson: our great need of a Saviour, and that we cannot do what is required of us.
The second point: the old covenant had limited forgiveness.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is a very important point. We need to understand that the old covenant had absolutely limited forgiveness. In the Old Testament, our sins are covered. Our sins are only covered. But in the new covenant, our sins are done away with.
This is the difference. What an incredible, infinite, without-measure difference there is between the old and the new, between the old and the better.
Think of the predicament they were in in the Old Testament. They only had their sins covered once a year. Now, can you imagine being a child of Israel and having sinned on the first day after the Day of Atonement?
Can you imagine? You bore the guilt of that sin for 364 days. You were never free of it, and you were continuously judged under it. You did not get liberty until the whole cycle came around.
Once a year, that high priest went into the Holy of Holies and there, first of all, offered sacrifice for his own sins and then for the sin of the people. Limited forgiveness.
It says in Hebrews 10:3, speaking of the old covenant:
But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance made of sins year by year.
The whole point of the old covenant is that sins are remembered.
Year after year, there was continuous sacrifice, and you lived under the judgment and heaviness of that sin until that infirm high priest came into the Holy of Holies and there offered a sacrifice that, at best, could cover your sins, but never do away with them. That is the old covenant.
But it says in the new covenant:
For I will be merciful to their iniquities,
And their sins and their lawless deeds will I remember no more.
Let me read it to you the way it is in here specifically: “I will never remember anymore.”
That is a double negative. It has a double negative. The language gives force by repetition: “I will never remember anymore.”
Brothers and sisters, that is the glory of the better covenant. That is what we need to see. In the old covenant, our sins are remembered, and only once a year is there atonement on that glorious Day of Atonement.
I believe they then went out, after that year of labouring under their sins, with rejoicing and joy that at least now their sins were covered. But in the New Testament, sins are put away and forgotten.
I do not know if you understand what that means. Brothers and sisters, that is the most glorious thing. God does not even remember our sins.
You remember them. You are always reminding God. You say, “Well, You remember?” I believe the Lord says, “No, I do not remember.”
This infinite God does not remember, but we remember. We are always rehearsing that.
I remember a story. There was a little boy, Johnny, and he went to visit Grandma. The bad news is, he took little sister Sally with him. This story does have meaning; bear with me.
Johnny was given his first slingshot. Now, all you guys know that we always like to break things. That is the reason guys break things. He got his first slingshot, and he was a miserable shot. He went out in the woods, pulling back, aiming, trying to hit something. He could miss a tree by ten feet. He could not hit a single thing with it.
He almost gave up, but he was walking back to the house, and Grandma’s pet duck was there. Johnny just pulled back and let it go—whack. The duck was dead.
You can imagine the horror on Johnny’s face. He thought, “I killed Grandma’s duck.” So, swift with imagination, he grabbed the dead duck and stuffed it under the woodpile. But little did he know, when he turned around, Sally was nearby. She saw the whole scene.
They went back, but Sally did not say a word. Self-righteous Sally did not say a word. They went back to the house, they had dinner, and little old Grandma said, “Sally, it is time we do the dishes.”
Sally said, “Oh, I think Johnny wants to do the dishes.” Then she leaned over to Johnny and said, “Remember the duck.”
Johnny said, “I will do the dishes.”
Later, Grandpa said, “What if we go fishing?” Sally said, “I think Johnny wants to stay and clean up. I will go fishing with you, Grandpa.” She leaned over to Johnny and said, “Johnny, remember the duck.”
Johnny was beside himself. He spent that summer doing all Sally’s chores, all because of the dead duck.
Finally, he broke down to Grandma and said, “Grandma, I have a confession to make. I killed the duck.”
She said, “Johnny, I knew you killed the duck. I saw it when it happened. I forgave you for killing the duck. I just wondered how long Sally was going to keep you enslaved.”
Are we like that? Do we remember our sins? Jerry was speaking about the enemy. I believe this is his chief weapon: he accuses you of your sins. There is ground there. We have committed sins. He says, “You are a sinner.”
How many times has the enemy said that to you? He says, “You killed the duck.”
This is a better covenant. Our sins He remembers no more. That is the good news.
Sometimes we remember other people’s sins. How many marriages have broken down? How many friendships have terminated when someone remembers some juicy element?
It is like an apple in your hand. It is juicy; it tempts you. The longer you hold on to that apple, the more it will rot.
There was once a lady who went to Robert E. Lee after the Civil War. She was so embittered, so filled with bitterness. This lady in Kentucky—the lesson is on human nature, because it is amazing what means something to us—but the thing that devastated her and made her most bitter was the tree she had grown up playing on from her house, the tree she had swung on.
She went to the general and said, “General, would you condemn the Union army? Their artillery decimated everything I treasured.” She was so embittered.
The general, who was a Christian, in his great wisdom said to her, “Madam, cut it down and forget it.”
Are you going to bring up other sins?
Oh, my prayer has been, “Lord, make others’ sins microscopic to me, and magnify my sin, that I may discover the better covenant.”
Oh, saints, I think that is the message here. That is the difference between the old and the new.
Hebrews comes to a conclusion in Hebrews 12 and 13, and it says this in Hebrews 12:15:
Looking carefully lest there be any man that falleth short of the grace of God;
Lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you,
And thereby the many be defiled.
I wonder if we do not have two problems. Are we remembering what God has forgotten, and is it keeping us in bondage? Or are we remembering what others have done to us and never forgiving, and thereby defiling us?
Which is true of us?
I think probably Joe Bosaman could tell us stories that would make our hair curl—not his, but maybe ours—about bitterness and the force of that great bitter root.
“I will remember your sins no more. Never anymore. Never again.” That is the better covenant.
The third thing about this better covenant that I think is remarkable is that the old covenant gave only limited access to God.
This is illustrated by the temple, or the tabernacle, for that matter. The people could only go into the outer court. That was as far as you could go if you were a person of God. The priest could go into the holy place for service. Only one person, the great high priest, could go into the Holy of Holies, which is the presence of the Almighty.
Only one person had access into that place, and only once a year, and only then to remember his sins and the sins of the people.
Now, is that not limited access? That is the nature of the old covenant. The nature of the old covenant is that we really do not have any access at all to God.
But the nature of the new covenant—when the Lord Jesus went and hung on that cross—it tells us in Matthew 27:50-51, and it says it in all three Gospels, that when the Lord Jesus gave up the ghost, that veil in the Holy of Holies was rent from the top to the bottom.
What that does for us is give us unlimited access to a holy God. That is the difference between the old and new covenant.
You do not think that is a big deal? Do an experiment for me. Call the Oval Office and say, “W, what say you and I have lunch a little bit and just chew the fat together—not literal, but talk—this afternoon?” See if you get access. That phone will hang up quicker than lightning.
Even doctors—call your doctor tomorrow. I am not picking on doctors; do not let any doctors get offended. Lawyers have been picked on too much. Call your doctor and say, “I am coming to see you.” The receptionist will have a fit. “Two weeks at least. You cannot come to see him. You cannot come in here. You cannot just walk in. He is important.”
Even at my office, you may have a little trouble, and I am not important. But my secretary might make an excuse: “He is busy.” Favourite excuse of businessmen: “He is with someone.” We always say—I hope we do not lie—“We are with ourselves.”
It is not a lie. He is with somebody. But you do not have unlimited access.
Brothers and sisters, in the new covenant, in the better covenant, we have absolute, free, and unlimited access into the presence of the holy God. Unlimited. Every moment. Forever. Unrestricted, free access.
Can you imagine that?
It says in the book of Hebrews that by this, the way to the Holy of Holies was not yet opened. But when the Lord Jesus hung upon that cross and that veil was split from the top to the bottom, the message is that you, as a Christian, have unlimited access to a holy God.
That is good news. Remember that the next time the enemy pounces on you and says, “You cannot go to God.” Unlimited access—that is the glory of the better covenant.
Another thing He does in giving us unlimited access is that we can enter freely and we can stay.
Now listen to me. Try to follow me. I will try to make it as clear as I can. There would be a problem with us going into the presence of a holy God in ourselves. There would be a problem. He dwells, it says in the Old Testament, in unapproachable light.
There would normally be a problem. But do me a favour, because I am out of time. Go back and read the book of Hebrews, and look how many times it says He cleanses and purifies our conscience. He sprinkles our conscience with the shed blood of Jesus so that we might enter into the presence of a holy God with all boldness, in all confidence of faith.
That is what He does.
This is what the better covenant does that the Old Testament never did: it never relieved the conscience. But if we look in the New Testament, we discover a glorious thing: not only does He grant us access, but He cleanses our conscience.
Not only does He grant us access, but when that wicked conscience begins to accuse you, it says in Hebrews 10 that He sprinkles that wicked conscience with the blood of Jesus.
So there is absolutely no reason you should hold back from visiting and abiding in the presence of God.
Now, the last limitation we want to look at today is also in this prophecy from Jeremiah in Hebrews 8. Let us turn to Hebrews 8:11:
And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen,
And every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord:
For all shall know Me,
From the least to the greatest of them.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is a very important message in the better covenant. The better covenant is not based on external instruction. The better covenant is not based on conformity to the outward law. The better covenant is not based on performance.
We are a performance-driven society. The better covenant is based on knowing the Lord.
You may think, “Well, you know, I do not know the Lord very well.” But it says, “From the least even to the greatest.” There is no longer a need that you instruct people, “Know the Lord, know the Lord,” because even the least to the greatest of you will know Me. That is the New Testament.
We can know the Lord.
Now, knowing is an ongoing process. If you came to my house and I introduced you to my neighbour, you would not know my neighbour. You would have met my neighbour. Do you understand the difference? There is a huge difference.
Some of us have met the Lord. We had no relationship with Him. But if you have met the Lord and you go on to know the Lord, then that is the better covenant.
We have unlimited knowledge of the whole life. If we abide in the secret place of the Most High, the Holy Spirit will open up to us all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, the glories, the secret glories of God.
Because the difference in the New Testament is that we can know the Lord. It is blessed. It is intimate. It is personal knowledge. It is not distance. It is not regulation. It is not outward conformity, but it is an inward knowing of the Most High God.
Brothers and sisters, how we need to see that.
Let me just read, in closing, a phrase that I think really tells us how complete this redemptive work of the Lord Jesus is. If you turn with me to Hebrews 7:27, there is one phrase that, to me, seems to summarize how much better the better covenant is.
It is the phrase: “once for all.”
That single phrase, “once for all,” occurs particularly in the book of Hebrews, more than anywhere else in the whole Bible.
In Hebrews 7:27, it says:
For such a high priest became us,
Holy, guileless, undefiled, separated from sinners,
And made higher than the heavens;
Who needeth not daily, like those high priests,
To offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins, and then for the sins of the people:
For this He did once for all, when He offered up Himself.
Hebrews 9:12 says:
Nor yet through the blood of goats and calves,
But through His own blood, entered in once for all into the holy place,
Having obtained eternal redemption.
Brothers and sisters, when He went into that Holy of Holies, when He took His own blood—not for Himself; there was no need—when that was presented before the Most High, what you got was eternal redemption. That is good news.
Hebrews 10:9-10 says:
He taketh away the first,
That He may establish the second.
By which will we have been sanctified
Through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Now, dear saints, that means what He has done in His work is absolutely and forever complete. There is nothing you can add to it. There is nothing you can expand upon. There is nothing you can do to improve it. It is absolutely, once-for-all complete.
God sees us complete in Christ. Now, to add to that, the glory of the New Testament: not only has He done a completed work where God sees us as wholly sanctified, there is a word that will give you some trouble if you read all the book of Hebrews with attention. There is a word that says we are perfect.
Now think of that. That should give some of you a little heartburn. You know me; I am not perfect. But the word perfect there means complete. Once for all, it is done. Rejoice. This is the better covenant.
But not only that—turn with me to Hebrews 7:25. It says this, and this shows the better covenant:
Wherefore also He is able to save to the uttermost
Them that draw near unto God through Him,
Seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.
Listen to that word: save completely.
Not only has this infinite Christ done it all, He never stops. He always lives to intercede for us. He never quits.
I do not know what you think about that, but brothers and sisters, what this means is that you have a friend of the court. You have an advocate up in the heavens. The Lord Jesus is beside the right hand of God, ever living to intercede for you, to ensure that that completed work be carried out to completion.
Do you understand the difference? He is there, ever interceding. He is always beside the Father. He always has you as the task He is working on. He is always determined that everything He has done be worked out for us.
The way I like to look at it is this: He is always at sidebar with God on your behalf.
Have you ever seen that? The first time I heard that word, not understanding much of legal terms, was the O. J. trial. I am embarrassed to say that I too got caught up in a bit of the O. J. trial. But these people were always at sidebar.
I thought that was an interesting term, where they had this private counsel with the judge and could talk to him and explain things. I wondered sometimes whether they just talked about dinner. I did not know. But they would do this.
Our Lord Jesus always has the ear of God the Father on your behalf, and He ever lives to make intercession for us. Brothers and sisters, that is the better covenant.
Oh, that God would release us from our limited understanding of His work and help us to see what He has done. I believe if He could, it would set us free.
Lord, we commit to You these words. Our prayer is that, in Your mercy, our prayer is that by Your grace, You would open our eyes to see the better covenant.
We confess, Lord, so often we have remembered what You have forgotten. So often the enemy beats us up. So often we do not appreciate that unlimited access we have. You never turn us away.
So often, Lord, we do not appreciate that unlimited power You put in us by the Holy Spirit. So often, Lord, we do not appreciate that unlimited ability to know, in a deep personal way, the living God.
Lord, open our eyes. We ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.