Before we start, let's pray.
Father, we ask that you would be with us and unfold and open
your word to us and direct our hearts into the love of God,
our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself and who was given for
us for our sins, and that we would find all of our hope in
him. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. So the question that arises
when we look at Hebrews chapter eight and from throughout scripture
is this question. What about sin? What about sin? What about God's holy law? It
convinces us, it convicts us, it exposes us as guilty before
God. What about sin? Religion is not
just getting together. It's dealing with God. So we
have God's law, his own law reveals that we're filthy and foul and
revolting to God in all of his holiness. It condemns us, it
pronounces a curse upon us. What about God's holy law? What
about our sin? What about God who is holy? And
what about our heart? What about our own evil thoughts? What about this desperately wicked
heart? God says it, the heart of man
is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things who can know
it. So what about our sin, our heart, God's holy law and God's
own holy nature and character? What about these things? Well,
the law of God, was given in order to teach us that we are
sinners and to convict us and convince us that we're guilty
and condemned by God himself for our own disobedience, our
own character. It's to reveal what we truly
are, to expose us, to lay us open as naked and our intents
and our motives of our heart as sinful. It was never given
to give us the strength or the power to do what we know we ought
to do. God's law was never given for
that reason. It doesn't provide us the strength to obey God. It only tells us what we ought
to do. And it doesn't provide a way for us to take away our
offense. against God, it only does a dramatization. It does a figurative portrayal
of what God has suggested by law will take away our sin. And that is a sacrifice. So the
law teaches our need for a sacrifice. And the law also teaches that
God has ordained and set up one called a high priest who can
come before God for us and offer that sacrifice for our sins.
If we deny that this is true, then we throw out all hope of
salvation for our own selves. And we go about to establish
our own righteousness in the eyes of men. And we set God down
and put ourselves on the throne. And we make man, mankind, or
ourselves the center of all that's important in life. But God has
a different view. What's important to God is his
throne, his character, and his nature. That will not change. And we will always be found to
be in need of what he provides for us that we might be able
to come to him. And what he says is it's through
a high priest. So in Hebrews chapter eight,
let's read this together. And I wanna go through this with
you in a way that shows us the great grace of God that he's
given to us in our high priest and what he's done for us. Listen
now. Chapter eight, verse one. Now of the things which we have
spoken, this is the sum. We have such an high priest,
one God ordained. One, it says in chapter five,
verse one, he's taken from men, for men, in things pertaining
to God, for our sins. From men, for men, by God, to
God, for our sins. God did this. Doesn't that suggest
to your mind and your heart that God is gracious, that he would
do for us, he would take full responsibility to bring us to
himself by providing a high priest, one who can come to God, who
offers to God, not to us, but to God, for our sins in order
to bring us to God. That's a high priest. Now, of
the things which we have spoken, this is the sum, the totality,
the conclusion, this is the main point, this is what we have to
say, everything up to this point. We have such a high priest who
is set 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 and not man. The object here in the letter
to the Hebrews was to show them that their priesthood, the priesthood
of Aaron and Levi, was nothing in comparison to the priesthood
of Christ. That theirs accomplished nothing.
It taught what we needed, but it provided none of what we needed. Only the priesthood of Christ
could do that. But notice how he reveals to us our high priest
and where he is. Where is he? He is seated on
the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens
and he is a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which
the Lord pitched and not man. Where is he? He's in heaven. Where is he in heaven? He's on
the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. That's where he's, and what is
he doing there? He's seated. And what is this
place where he's seated on that throne, on that right hand of
the majesty on high? What is he doing there? He is
ministering in the sanctuary. So all that was taught and lived
in the thousand plus years of Old Testament history was like,
I don't want to make light of it, but to help us understand
it, because it's hard for us to really grasp the intent of
it. It was like a puppet show. a
dramatization, where things were happening and we were hearing
things and seeing things, but it was a drama that spoke of
truth that was outside of the drama. It was contained of events
and people and things, all of which were not pointing to themselves,
but to something outside of the story, outside of the figures. In other words, when you go outside
in the sunshine and the sun casts a shadow of you on the ground,
you look at that, it's just an outline. You have some sense
that there's a person there, but you can't see the details.
You certainly can't see colors, you can't see depth, it's just
a flat, two-dimensional outline. And so the law served as just
a figure of these things that it represented, but not the substance
of them. But here, in verse one and two,
it's telling us that the priest, the high priest that was figured
in the law, has a reality, a corresponding reality, and it's so far above
and outside of the law that is beyond our comprehension. We
can't fly even in our imagination to take in really what this is
all about. But he says our high priest is
real, he's true. He's actually accomplished what
God gave him to do, set up the high priest to accomplish, which
was what? To offer to God for our sins and thereby bring us
to God. And where is he? He's in heaven
at the right hand of God on his throne in his majesty. Now this
says something to us, significant, extremely significant, because
if you want someone to, how shall I say it? If you want
someone to be able to defend you, someone to argue for you,
to advocate for you, to make a defense for you and to obtain
things for you. Where would you want that one
to be? Not with you on earth. You want that one to enter into
the Supreme Court, the Supreme Court where God is on his throne,
and you want him to be accepted and be successful in his advocacy,
in his intercession, In all that he is given by God to do, you
want him to be successful so much so that he's right there
in the presence of God, appearing there for you at the throne of
God. And that becomes your place of
refuge and safety and defense. It's the one through whom and
in the presence of whom all blessings are given by God to you. And
so that's what he says here. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
is. He's the fulfillment of all that came before, which to our
minds was the way we were to understand the outline of it,
but now the reality of it has come. And it's so far above our
ability to comprehend that he had to spend thousand plus years
going through this process to see our need for a high priest
and a sacrifice and a sanctuary where we could meet with God.
And God would meet with us and he would make himself known and
he would give us blessings and receive us. We would find acceptance
and access to his throne. And that was in the sanctuary
at the time in the Old Testament on earth. But now it's in heaven.
And our advocate, our intercessor, our high priest, our mediator
is there at God's right hand. So if I ask this question in
verse two, look at verse two, a minister of the sanctuary and
of the true tabernacle. What is this sanctuary? What
is a sanctuary? Well, it's the place where God
meets with us and where we meet with God. It's where God makes
himself known to us and in making himself known, gives us life
and light and understanding. If we were separated from God,
we would be in darkness. If we were separated from God,
we would have no life, no light. We would be in the dark, no comfort,
no understanding, no truth, completely confused because there would
be no anchor, no foundation. The sanctuary is the place where
God is seen. where we are given access to
God, where our requests, the pouring out of our needs are
heard. It's the place where we have
a defense from all of our enemies. That's where you take your case.
My enemies are against me. We bring our case to the throne,
the sanctuary. where God is, and there we find,
if the Lord is gracious, we find relief, we find protection, we
find all the blessings. That's the sanctuary. Look at
Jeremiah chapter 17. He teaches us here what this
sanctuary is. In Jeremiah chapter 17, he says
in verse 12, notice, Jeremiah 17 verse 12, a glorious
high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. So what is the sanctuary? It's
a glorious high throne from the beginning. It's the place where
God rules. It's heaven and God's throne
in heaven. Now, we would have no place there.
Sinners can't approach God. The law teaches us our need of
a high priest because we're sinners and God is holy. And his law
condemns us and curses us, but God provided a high priest, and
in our high priest, we are accepted into the sanctuary of God's most
holy place, where God rules, and there our high priest has
been seated. He has been exalted and enthroned
with God on the throne because God has accepted him, and if
our high priest is accepted, we are accepted in him. That's
the comfort, that's the message here. And what is that place
where we are accepted, where we are protected, where we are
blessed and given all blessings from God, where we find favor,
where we can bring all of our needs? It's the very throne of
God. It's a throne of grace because
of our high priest. Look at chapter four of Hebrews
and verse 14. He says, seeing then that we
have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus,
the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, the Old Testament
saints. who truly believe God, we call
them saints for that reason, but the Old Testament people
in the nation of Israel, they had a high priest. But we hold
fast our profession because our high priest is the son of God
and he has already entered heaven, not a place on earth. Verse 15,
for we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities. Our high priest is intimately
connected with our infirmities, our sins, and our ignorance,
and our foolishness, and our being out of the way. But he
was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let
us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we
may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Look
at chapter two of Hebrews and verse 17. Wherefore, in all things it behooved
him, Christ, to be made like his brethren, that he might be
a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God to make propitiation, and thereby reconciliation, for the
sins of the people. Christ offered his blood, and
that offering of himself to God was the satisfaction of God.
It removed the wrath of God because it removed our sins. And so we
approach the throne of God in our high priest and we're accepted
because our high priest is accepted for us. Back to chapter eight
now. So the Lord Jesus Christ is in
heaven. We are on earth, but because he is in heaven, we're
accepted. And he's accepted at the highest
level of authority and power and justice and rule in this
world, always has been. From the beginning, this throne
has not moved and Christ is there. He's entered for us. I wanna
take you to one more verse. Look at Hebrews chapter nine
and verse 24. Look at this. Hebrews 9, 24, Christ is not
entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the
figures of the true. Kind of like you could say it
this way, that was just a pretend worship. It wasn't the real thing. It didn't accomplish anything.
And that comes as a tremendous shock. shaking the foundations
of that Old Testament people who relied on that for over a
thousand years, maybe 1500 years. This is the way we come to God
through the priest and the sacrifice and so on. He said, no, it didn't
accomplish anything. He says, it was just a figure
of the truth. But Christ has entered into heaven itself now
to appear in the presence of God for us. Where is he? In the
presence of God. Why is he there? For us. What
has he done there? He's offered himself. Was he
accepted? Yes. He sat down, the work is
finished. How do you know he was accepted?
He's exalted on the throne. Look at chapter 10, Hebrews 10. He says in verse 19, now we are
here, right? We are here on earth, we're not
in heaven, but our forerunner, our captain has entered into
and been seated now in heaven. He purged our sins, he sat down.
Look at this verse, Hebrews 10, verse 19. Having therefore, brethren,
boldness without concealing anything, openness and confidence, boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. So even though
we're here, we come to God by God-given faith, and in so looking
to Christ, understanding and being persuaded that he is our
acceptance at the throne of God, then we by faith, with his blood
having been offered by him, faith enables us to also have access
and enter into the holiest. because of our high priest. Okay,
so back in chapter 8. It's important that we understand
something at least of the reality, not the figure, but the reality
of this. The gospel is a declaration of
what has been accomplished by our high priest and what it means
to us. It's not about what you need
to do. It's about what Christ has done. It's not about a grace
that hinges on your performance. It's about a grace that foresaw
our need in Christ from eternity, or our need in ourselves, and
met it in Christ from eternity. And that grace has been given
to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he is all of our hope
and all of our blessing here. So Hebrews chapter eight, let's
go on. Verse three, for every high priest is ordained to offer
gifts and sacrifices. That's why he was set up, remember?
He was taken from among men, ordained by God for men in things
pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices
for sin. What a miracle of grace. So he
says in verse three, for every high priest is ordained to offer
gifts and sacrifices, wherefore it is of necessity that this
man have someone also to offer. It's necessary. If Christ is
our high priest, then he must have an offering. He must have
a sacrifice, and it must be for sins, and it must be given to
God It doesn't depend on what we think of the sacrifice that
puts our sins away. Our thought of the sacrifice
doesn't put away our sins. It's what God thinks. Remember
Hebrews? I'm not Hebrews, but Exodus.
He says about the Passover, when I see the blood, I'll pass over
you. It's what God thinks. So the
sacrifice is offered to God. The death of his son was offered
to God. He made propitiation. He is that
propitiation. And propitiation is a word that
means God received satisfaction and his wrath was averted. It
was taken away. It was pacified in the sacrifice. Christ is that propitiation for
our sins. So every high priest is ordained
by God to offer gifts and sacrifices, wherefore it is of necessity
that this man have somewhat also to offer. So here we have a high
priest, we have a sanctuary, and we have a sacrifice. Not
on earth are high priests not taken from among the sons of
Levi. He has an endless life. He's the Son of God. And He has
a sanctuary, not on earth, but in heaven. And He didn't offer
the blood of animals. What did He offer? What did the
Lord Jesus Christ offer? In Hebrews 7, 27, it says, He
offered up Himself. He offered himself. This he did
once when he offered up himself. And so, in verse 4, Hebrews chapter
8, he says, For if he were on earth, if he were a high priest
on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests
that offer gifts according to the law. The law was on earth. The law had to do with men on
earth, and the law only had to do with a service that was done
on earth. So, if he was a priest on earth,
he wouldn't have anything to offer, because he wasn't of the
right tribe, he wasn't of the sons of Levi, and there were
already priests ordained to offer on earth. Animal sacrifices. He had no priesthood here on
earth. His priesthood was in heaven.
Verse 5, those people, those priests who serve under the law,
serve to the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses
was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle.
So God is saying here that the entire Old Testament tabernacle,
and God spends many chapters in the book of Exodus talking
about how to set it up, what it would be made of. He describes
it in detail. But that was all just a shadow
of the true. It was an image. Christ is the
substance. Heaven is where the real thing
is. So he says, when God, and this is proven because when God
spoke to Moses, he said in chapter eight, verse five, he says here,
see, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern
showed to thee in the mount. At Sinai, at Mount Sinai, God
showed to Moses the true. And he then laid out the pattern
of the true and gave it to Moses in order to implement it on earth.
Right there from Sinai. He brought down the tables. He
gave all the law to Moses. Moses told Aaron, this is what's
going to happen. They set it up just like that. And it was
meant to be a reflection, just a shadow of what was true in
heaven. But it was clear when Moses was up on that mount that
he saw the true in the shadow. So Moses wasn't looking just
at the physical tabernacle and the sacrifices and those men
who were priests. In those, he saw Christ. So when
he came down the mountain, his face was all glowing. It was
lit up. And the people who saw Moses
were afraid, because his face shone, having been in the presence
of God. And what did he have in his arms
coming down? Those two tables of stone, and
on them were written the Ten Commandments, which required
obedience of us, and promised curse for disobedience. It was
a conditional law, a conditional covenant. So Moses comes down,
his face is shining, and he has the law in his hands, what are
you going to conclude? This is what God requires. Moses
must have met it. Look how shiny he is. And you
were condemned and you were afraid because you knew you were a sinner.
but you couldn't look beyond that. You couldn't see beyond
the fact that the law required of us, but didn't provide for
us what it required. You couldn't look beyond your
own personal obedience as the way that you would meet what
God required, and you just assumed that Moses had done something
in order, he was a good guy, I mean, he's obviously shining,
there must have been something he did to meet all those requirements.
and you drew the wrong conclusion, because that's what our proud
heart does. It puts all of the credit back on us, and it tries
to earn from God what we can never earn. Okay? So this is what happened. But
the gospel does something else. Listen, verse 6, but now at this
present time, Christ having come, now hath he obtained a more excellent
ministry." Christ has obtained a more excellent,
not like those Old Testament priests, He has obtained a more
excellent ministry by how much also He is the mediator of a
better covenant, which was established upon better promises. So we had
another covenant, we have another minister of that covenant, and
we have promises. We have a better sanctuary. We
have a better sacrifice. And something else is going to
follow, which is a better writing of that covenant. So in the old
covenant, we've said this a number of times, but what was the document?
It was the Ten Commandments, wasn't it? And it was all the
other laws having to do with the priesthood and the service
and the tabernacle and everything. But those things only, again,
they only portrayed in an outline way, in a way that wasn't the
substance of it, what needed to be done and what would be
done. What needed to be done was a
perfect righteousness, a perfect conformance to that law. but
the law gave us no power. And since we were sinners, it
could only condemn us. So it left us in this futile
hope that somehow we're going to someday produce or come up
with what God requires of us. And we even carry that forward
in what we call the Christian life. I gotta do something in
order to get myself aligned with the pattern. I gotta get myself
to look like what God describes. But that's the same attitude
that the Old Testament unbelieving saints had. You can't call them
saints and unbelievers, but they couldn't see. They were like
the people who looked at Moses' face and all they could see was
the veil. They couldn't see beyond that veil. They couldn't see
what made his face really glow. And it was a passing glory, because
when his face stopped shining, then there was no more need for
the veil, but he didn't take it off, he just left it on there.
And so all that is meant to show us a couple of things. First,
that what the law says is like a hidden It's like a not full
disclosure of the truth. It just portrays it in kind of
a figurative way. It doesn't make it clear. In
fact, it obscures it. And then it pronounces condemnation
on us for not fulfilling the righteousness it requires. So
that's what the law does, and it leaves our hearts blind to
the truth about how the law can be fulfilled, and how we can
receive blessing and life from God. The law says, do this and
live. So we think, gotta get busy.
If I'm gonna be a Christian, I gotta do all these things.
I say, you know, you've got to read your Bible, and you've got
to give your money, and you've got to go out and witness, and you've
got to attend church, and all these things. So we start doing
those. And I've got to dedicate my life, I've got to have some
long-term goal, somehow I'm going to follow Jesus. I'm just translating
these requirements that we impose on ourselves with the mindset
that we're doing something in order to meet the requirements.
The Gospel is not about that. It's not about a new set of requirements
for us to meet. It's about a fulfilled righteousness. It's about sins being put away,
all of these things being done by the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Remember that emphasis Christ
gave to the rich young ruler? There's only one good, and it's
God. It is not you, right? It is not you. And Jesus said
in Matthew chapter five, don't think that I have come to destroy
the law and the prophets. I am not come to destroy them,
but to fulfill them. And if your righteousness does
not exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,
you shall in no wise enter heaven. It has to exceed that. And theirs
was outwardly conforming to the law. And Paul the Apostle said
in Philippians chapter three, in the performance of the law,
I was blameless, but something was wrong on the inside. The
heart was still desperately wicked and deceitful above all things.
And in the eyes of God, he stood guilty, condemned, and helpless
to do one thing to make himself right. And so Christ has obtained
a better ministry. a more excellent ministry, by
how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant which was
established upon better promises." What is this better ministry,
this excellent ministry? What is this better covenant
and better promises? It's the gospel, it's the New
Testament. That's what Jesus Christ came
to fulfill. Remember, he holds forth a cup
to his disciples at that last supper and he says, this cup
is the New Testament in my blood. By the blood, he says in Hebrews
13, 20, by the blood of the everlasting covenant. This covenant had no
beginning and it has no end and it's made in Christ's blood.
He offered himself to God. It was that blood that fulfilled
what God required for his people and that blood was offered by
him, brought into the presence of God, into the holiest place
of all, and it was accepted. The blood of Christ was accepted
and therefore our sins were completely remitted. God forgave all of
our sins when he received the blood from Christ and he released
us. He released us from the curse and the condemnation our sins
deserve. And He released us from the bondage of having to provide
a righteousness which the law required, because in His offering
of Himself, He fulfilled the law all the way, perfectly and
completely. And it was done. It was terminated. It came to an end because it
found its full measure of satisfaction and fulfillment in Him. That's
the message here. The more excellent ministry is
not do this and live, it's Christ has done all and we are complete
in him. In him, the fullness of the Godhead
dwells. There's nothing lacking and you're
complete in him. How could you not be complete
in the one who is the fullness of the Godhead and sits on the
throne of God and therefore dispenses all mercy and grace and blessings
on account of what he offered and was accepted? God has blessed
us in our high priest. And the covenant, that new covenant,
is the revelation of what Christ has done to fulfill all the conditions
necessary for the promises of God to be given to us. Look at
2 Timothy chapter 1. He tells us that this is revealed
now. Unlike when Moses put the veil over his face, when God
gave the law, it was written on stones, it was hiding from
us the way righteousness would come, hiding from us how we could
have access to God, how our sins could be taken away. It made
this show that made us think, oh, it's by the blood of animals,
or it's by this man who went into this little tent called
the tabernacle. But in 2 Timothy 1, let's look
at this. The Lord says in verse eight, it's Paul writing to Timothy,
he says, but be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our
Lord, this is the gospel he's talking about, nor of me, his
prisoner, but be thou a partaker of the afflictions of the gospel
according to the power of God, who has saved us, it's in the
past tense, and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is
now, listen, it's made manifest, not hidden, it's made manifest
by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished
death and has brought life and immortality to light through
the gospel. All that the law said pronouncing
our guilt and our condemnation and our death has been abolished
because the Lord Jesus Christ came and fulfilled it and made
it known in the gospel. And we could just go on and on
from place to place. But I want to take you to 2 Corinthians
3, where we read earlier, and point out some of these things.
2 Corinthians 3. Now listen. When the law was
written, it was put on stones by the finger of God. You would
think, what could go beyond that? The problem is, is that it was
only external. And it was on a physical writing.
Even though it was by the finger of God, it was still physical
stones. And it only pronounced condemnation, our guilt and condemnation. But listen, in 2 Corinthians
3, he says, you are our epistle. We don't need people to recommend
you to us or us to you by these letters of commendation like
a resume. You are our epistle. God has
done something. He did the writing. Written in
our hearts, known and read of all men for as much as you are
manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ. Ministered
by us, that's the gospel. Paul was a servant to Christ
for what reason? To preach the gospel. That's
what he was preaching. Ministered by us, written not
with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tables
of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. The gospel is written
on your heart. Do you see it? Is it clear? What's written on our heart?
It's the truth of Christ crucified and finishing the work of our
salvation and obtaining an eternal redemption. We're set free from
the curse of the law, set free from death. and we're welcomed
and have access to God through his blood. He obtained that.
Not something yet to be done, already obtained. That's the
gospel. Christ died for our sins, according
to the scripture. He was buried. He rose again
the third day, according to the scriptures. He actually did what
he came to do. And we're going to read more
about that in a minute here. But notice, he says this in 2
Corinthians 3, verse 6. He has made us, the apostles
and all who preach the gospel, He has made us able ministers
of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the
Spirit gives life. He's talking about the gospel itself, that
there's something inseparable between the gospel and the Spirit
of God, the Spirit of Christ, so that when the gospel is preached,
Christ, by His Spirit, attends that Gospel and makes it life-giving. It reveals the finished work
of Christ, Christ exalted, Christ enthroned, it directs us to the
Lamb of God, it points us away from ourselves, all hope of any
personal obedience in order to bring us to God, and it finds
all of its acceptance in Christ. And it comes to God on the basis
not of a tenuous or a conditional reception at the throne of God,
but a certain reception because Christ is enthroned there. And
we come with all the doubts that we might have about ourselves,
and we should have doubts about ourselves. There's no reason
for confidence in ourselves. In fact, we need to forsake all
of that and find all of our acceptance in Christ. That's the way we
come. And so he says here, the letter kills, but the spirit
gives life. The gospel tells us about Christ,
what he's done. And the spirit of God makes us
know that this is all of our access and hope and blessing
from God, the removal of all of our sins and everything that
God has for us. And he goes on here, look at
verse nine. For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, that's
the law, giving of the law, much more does the ministration of
righteousness exceed in glory. What is that righteousness? It's
the Lord Jesus Christ and his obedience in offering himself
to God. And so when Moses gives the law,
there's this hiding of the gospel in the law. The law was a figure
of it, but in that the fact that it was a figure and not the full
disclosure of it, It meant the gospel was hidden. And look at
2 Corinthians 4. He says, "...in whom the God
of this..." Verse 3, "...if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them
that are lost." That's what the law did. It hid the reality of
what it pictured. It hid it because it didn't make
it clear, where is all this? It pretended as if this was the
real thing, but it wasn't. It never was. But notice in 2
Corinthians 4, "...if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that
are lost, in whom the God of this world, that's the devil,
hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine to them." What is the light of the glorious gospel of Christ?
I mean, what is the light of God? It's the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ. That's the light. Verse 5, For
we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves
your servants for Jesus' sake. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, as in Genesis 1, hath shined in
our hearts. What did he shine? To give the
light. of the knowledge of the glory of God, and where is that?
In the face of Jesus Christ. In other words, directing us
to the Lord Jesus Christ. In all of his offices as our
mediator and high priest, the Lamb of God, having accomplished
our salvation and obtained all blessings from God because he
offered himself to God in obedience. One more verse, or two more actually.
Look at Philippians chapter two and verse six. This is what the
Lord Jesus Christ did, who being in the form of God, Philippians
2.6, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but what did he do? He made himself of no
reputation. He took upon him the form of
a servant. He was made in the likeness of men and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. What was the obedience
of Christ? All these things are just described. He made himself
of no reputation. He took upon him the form of
a servant. As a servant, he took on the nature of our nature as
man, and he humbled himself as a man, and he became obedient
to God even unto death. That's our righteousness. That
is the obedience that's counted to us for righteousness. Look
at 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter five. Now understand this, the gospel
is always pointing us out of the pit of our filth and shame
and sin and helplessness to one who is exalted and has done all
this. Notice, it describes it clearly,
verse 21, for God has made him sin for us who knew no sin. The Lord Jesus Christ knew no
sin that we What did we do? It was our sin
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. It's describing
the fact that all that Christ did, he did as a representative. As Adam acted and we were guilty
for his action, Christ acted and we were righteous for his
actions. His obedience is our righteousness
and his obedience was fulfilled in his death. The sacrifice of
himself was an obedience that also took away our sins and established
our righteousness. And God justifies us by his redeeming
work. Look at Romans chapter three.
These things are so essential. This is the spirit of life that's
preached to us in the gospel. Romans chapter three. He says
in verse 24, being justified freely not for any cause in ourselves,
freely by His grace. Because what God found in Himself
on the basis of or through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. And we know what caused that.
What obtained our redemption, verse 25, whom God has set forth
a propitiation. through faith in his blood to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God. It's all spelled out,
isn't it? Justified not for what God finds
in us, but for the righteousness, the obedience and sacrifice of
his son. And faith in him is God given
so that we can know it. and we can enter into it. We
come boldly by the blood of Jesus. Back to Hebrews chapter eight. Hebrews chapter eight. So I hope
that you get some sense here of the magnitude of the shift
and the substantive bringing into reality of all that was
typified in the Old Testament in our high priest, in his sacrifice,
in the sanctuary, in the new covenant, and in the ministration
of that covenant through the gospel, which is applied by the
Spirit of God. Let's read on. Hebrews chapter
eight and verse seven. For if that first covenant had
been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the
second. And we know there was another covenant promised by
God by what follows here. But you might hesitate, because
it says that first covenant was faultless, had been faultless,
and so no place should be sought for the second. Verse eight,
for finding fault with them, he saith, behold, the days come.
So there was something wrong with the Old Testament, or it
wouldn't have been replaced. You understand? There's something
faulty with it. But how could anything that God
gives be faulty? because it depended upon the
faulty sinner, you see. If righteousness comes by the
law, then Christ died in vain. If righteousness comes by our
obedience to God's law, or we could say it this way, if our
being accepted by God and pleasing to God comes by our fulfilling
the requirements of God, then Christ died for nothing. He didn't
die for nothing, did he? He actually died to justify us. Therefore, it doesn't come by
the law, but it does come by his death, our justification. That's the argument scripture
makes in Galatians 2.21. And he says it again in 3.21,
he says, for if there had been a law given, which could have
given life, then righteousness would have come by the law. But
there was no law given that could have given life. because it depended
upon our own personal obedience. So the only way that we could
be righteous is by the gospel which says God laid it all on
him, our high priest. But Hebrews chapter eight, for
finding fault with them, verse eight, He says, 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. This is quoting
from the book of Jeremiah, who came way after Moses. And so
he's saying after Moses, there's coming a day when God is gonna
make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the
house of Judah. Is he talking about the nation of Israel over
in the land of Israel? No, because he didn't make a
covenant with them. He didn't make this covenant
with them. They died in unbelief, therefore it could not apply
to them. Listen to what he says this covenant is going to accomplish.
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. They broke the covenant
of that old covenant that depended upon their own obedience. They
broke it when they wouldn't continue in it. And so, God says, I did
not regard them. cast them off for their disobedience. They wouldn't keep my covenant.
It was an obligation. They wouldn't fulfill it. Verse
10, 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. Now, we just
read about this in 2 Corinthians 3, didn't we? What does God write? It's the ministration of life,
the ministration of righteousness. It's the ministration of the
gospel which holds forth Christ to us in the mirror or the glass
of the gospel and we look steadfastly into his face. The light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
That's what the gospel reveals. That's what's written on our
hearts. Romans chapter 2, we're on verse
14, it says that the work of the law is written on our hearts,
we know by nature what sin is. But not the gospel, that's not
naturally put on our hearts. We know there's a God, naturally,
and we're liars if we deny God. But not the gospel, we don't
know that naturally, it comes by the writing of the Spirit
of God on our heart. Not with ink, but the Spirit
of God writing this. He says, I will write my laws
into their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be
to them a God, they shall be to me a people. God is for us.
Who can lay anything to our charge? Who can be against us? God is
for us. And we are His. That's this promise.
Is God for everybody? No. Because he says, if God be
for us, who How does he put it in Romans
chapter 8? Who can be against us? Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? Who are those that are God's?
His elect. And what do they do? They believe
Christ, because that's the result of it, as we see right here.
So let's go on. I will be a God to them, they
shall be my people, verse 11. 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. This
is the fact. If you are the Lord's, then you
know him. You know him. How do you know
him? You don't know him in any other way except in the Lord
Jesus Christ and his saving grace. He goes on, he proves it, for
I will be merciful or propitious to their unrighteousness and
their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. God makes
himself known to us as our propitiating sacrifice in the Lord Jesus Christ,
our mediator and high priest. That's the way we know him. We
say, He's put away my sins in Christ. God writes that on our
hearts. We come to God by Him alone.
Therefore we come boldly to the throne of grace. And we know
this is the new covenant. And we'll get into some more
detail on that next time. Let's pray. Father, we thank
you for this covenant you made with your Son, promises given
to us in Christ Jesus before the world began. You saved us
and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to to the Lord Jesus Christ, your own purpose of grace
in Christ our Savior. And now in these last days you've
made this known in the gospel. It was foreshadowed in the law,
but it was hidden. It was hidden both by the obscurity
of it in law and also by the blindness of our self-righteous,
proud hearts that looked only to ourselves as the way to God,
but you have revealed the way. It's the Lord Jesus Christ and
the truth of how we're brought into the presence of God, accepted
at the throne of God. God is for us. He justifies us
because of Christ our Savior. And now all of our concerns are
brought by through his blood to your throne and are heard.
And we know, Lord, that you are for us, and we are therefore
for you, because you've made yourself known to us in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We are for your praise and your
glory, the glory of your grace, and we actually find in our hearts
this satisfaction in knowing that Christ is our all. And we
love the Lord Jesus Christ and your greatness and goodness that
you would be so holy and just and righteous and true and satisfy
your justice and righteousness by your grace in the blood of
your own Son for our sins. Amazing grace. amazing salvation,
eternal, certain, and sure in the heavens. Help us at all times
to come to you, Lord, and to find all of our salvation and
all of our worship and praise through the Lord Jesus Christ.
In his name we pray, amen.