Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with a hymn from the hardbacked hymnal, hymn number
46, O for a Thousand Tongues. Let's all stand together. Number
46. Oh, for a thousand tongues to
sing my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of His grace. My gracious Master and my God,
assist me to proclaim, to spread through all the earth abroad
the honors of Thy name. Jesus, the name that charms our
fears, that bids our sorrows cease, tis music in the sinner's
ears, tis life and health and peace. He breaks the power of
cancelled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest
clean. His blood availed for me. Hear Him ye deaf, His praise
ye dumb, Your lucent tongues employ, Ye blind behold your
Savior come, And leap ye lame for joy. Please be seated. Good evening. I'd like to have
our scripture reading tonight from Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. We're going
to be looking in number 17. You remember when Aaron's rod
budded, being a picture of Christ as our high priest. And in Hebrews, beginning at
verse 21, for those priests, those Old Testament priests,
were made without an oath. But this, with an oath by him
that said unto him, the Lord swear and will not repent, thou
art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. By so much
was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. Not under the law. This is a
better testament. This is not one that has to rely
upon sacrifice after sacrifice. This is a testament that's been
made by one sacrifice once for all. And they truly were many
priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason
of death. But this man, because he continueth
ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore, he is able also to
save them to the uttermost, that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them." That can only be said
of one priest. He saves to the uttermost. You
say, where's the uttermost? You ain't got there yet. For such a high priest became
us who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners, and
made higher than the heavens, who needeth not daily as those
priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins and then
for the people's. For this he did once when he
offered up himself. For the law maketh men high priests
which have infirmity, but the word of the oath which was since
or before the law maketh the son who is consecrated forever. Let's pray together. Our heavenly father, we come
before thy holy throne of grace with hope. knowing that we have
an advocate before thee, one who ever liveth to make intercession
for us, one who is holy, harmless, and undefiled, and separate from
us. We ask, Lord, that you would,
for his namesake, accept our worship. We pray that you would
be pleased to bless us with thy spirit that you would enable
us to set our affections on Christ, to look to him, to rest in him,
to find our hope and all our satisfaction in him. Oh, Lord, we're so worldly and
fleshly in these bodies. We ask that you would, in this
time, deliver us, Lord, and enable us to worship thee. in the power
of thy spirit and according to the truth of thy gospel. For
we ask it in Christ's name, amen. Number 36 in the softback temple,
36. 36 in the softback temple. Out of the depths, O Lord, I
cry, convicted of my sin. With, in, without, in heart and
deed, I'm nothing else but sin. If you should mark iniquity,
O Lord, I could not stand. Eternal wrath, eternal death,
your justice would demand. But there is forgiveness with
thee, that thou mayest be feared. Yes, there is forgiveness with
thee, that thou mayest be feared. Since Jesus lived and died for
men and satisfied the law, you can forgive me of my sin and
never bend your law. And so, my God, I plead the blood
of Christ your own dear Son. I hope for mercy and for grace. I wait before your throne. Though sinful, Lord, I do have
hope, I hope in your mercy. I know that if you will, you
can forgive iniquity. Yet I have hope that stronger
still founded upon your word. He that believes is not condemned
the promise of your word. Now I believe in Jesus Christ,
confessing all my sin. In justice and in faithfulness,
you do forgive my sin. Please be seated. I welcome our brethren in Sarasota
for joining us tonight. Always so encouraged to know
they're there and fellowshipping together. Numbers chapter 17. Would you
turn with me there in your Bibles? Numbers chapter 17. The Lord Jesus Christ himself is
the end of all things. God has given us his word in
order to point us to Christ and reveal to us the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our life. In the volume of the book, it
is written of me. Beginning with Moses and the
Psalms and the prophets, he expounded unto them those things concerning
himself. Sunday, this past Sunday, we
looked at some tokens. Those were road signs, if you
will, pointing to the destination, pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. The first thing you remember
was the bow after the rain, after the deluge, and how the Lord
pointed to Christ in that rainbow and said, when I see the rainbow,
I'll remember the covenant that I've made with you. And what
a hope we have in realizing that the Lord is a covenant-keeping
God, that he's faithful to all of his promises. The second one
was that of circumcision. Circumcision pointing to Christ
in that it's the circumcision of the heart. It's the work of
the Spirit of God that was accomplished through the death of Christ on
Calvary's cross when the old man was put to death and the
flesh was cut away. And though in our experience
we still live with this old man, I understand that In some ancient
cultures, if you were found guilty of manslaughter, they would take
the corpse of the person that you killed and strap it to your
back for a period of time as part of your punishment. And
you had to carry that rotting corpse around. And when Paul
concludes in Romans chapter 7, who shall deliver me from this
body of death? And perhaps that's what he had
reference to. And isn't that our experience? Here we have
this body of death that we carry around with us. And yet, spiritually,
that body is dead. And we are to reckon ourselves
to be dead because a work of circumcision has taken place
as a result of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's
cross. What a glorious sign, token,
pointing to Christ. The third one was that one of
Moses on Mount Sinai, being able to worship God without the fear
of the law. There is now, therefore, with
the next verse, after Paul says that in Romans chapter 7, is
Romans 8, 1, where he said, thanks be to God, through Christ Jesus
I am free. There is now, therefore, no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. He has met all the demands of
the law. And the Lord said to Moses, this
will be a token unto you. The fourth one was, of course,
the blood that Moses put on the doors of the houses in Egypt. The blood of the Passover lamb. And God said, when I see the
blood, that blood will be a token. It'll be a token to you, it'll
be a token to me. Just like with the bow, when I see it, when
I see the blood, I'll pass by you. What hope we have in knowing
that there is a lamb. There is a lamb that was slain
by God in the covenant of grace before the world ever began.
And that 2,000 years ago, he fulfilled the requirements of
that covenant in time when he hung on Calvary's cross and became
the sinner's substitute and shed his blood as a covering for our
sin. There's our hope. There's our
hope, that's what we need. We need a blood sacrifice before
God. We need one that God's pleased
with, one that will put away our sin once and for all. Well, the fifth one that I want
us to look at is here in Numbers chapter 17. And we'll just read
verse 10. first and the Lord said unto
Moses, bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony to be kept
for a token against the rebels. For they shall quite take away
their murmurings from me that they die not. The Lord said,
this token that I'm going to give them, is going to be against
the rebels, and it will be that which will cause them to stop
murmuring. And that's fulfilled spiritually
for us. Truth is that there's still a
spirit of rebellion in each of us, isn't there? It's that old
man. It's that old man. And yet, there is one thing that
the child of God does not rebel against. Oh, we may rebel against
God's providence, we may rebel in our flesh, we may find our
pleasures in the things of this world, and we rebel against God
in so many ways, but we do not murmur against God when it comes
to who the priest is. who the priest is. God said this
rod of Aaron, symbolizing the Lord Jesus Christ as the only
ordained priest of God, will cause the rebels to stop murmuring. And we see that among God's people.
One thing becomes obvious to me is that when you talk to anyone
else other than a true child of God, They murmur against the
Lord Jesus Christ being their priest. They do. They think that
there's something that they can bring before God that will aid
them in their acceptance before God. They do not believe that
the Lord Jesus Christ all by himself is their only access
to God. They murmur against the priesthood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's people don't do that. Why? Because the token, the sign,
they've been able to read it. By God's grace, they understand
what it means. And by God's grace, they don't
rebel. Not in that department. Not in
the area of, they don't say, well, you know, I've got to No. No. And yet all along, at the
same time, at the same time, there's something even in the
children of God that has to be reminded again and again and
again that no offering that we make before God, no sacrifice,
that our Our best and most sincere attempts to worship God are in
no less need of an intercessor, a priest, to make them acceptable
before God than when we come like the prodigal son fresh out
of the pig pen. You believe that? We need to
be reminded of that, don't we? Because we think, well, we need
more grace when we're really struggling with sin than we need
when we're worshiping God. Oh, no. Not one gram of grace less do
we need when we come before God. The scripture says Aaron made
the holy things sanctified. He had to set apart those holy
things. The truth is that we need more
grace now when we're coming before the presence of God in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that He would open the eyes of our
understanding, that He would open our ears, that He would
give us faith, that He would meet with us and speak to us. We're in much need of His grace
now, if not more, than when we're coming out of the pig pen. I
think it was Jonathan Edwards that said, The tears of repentance
have to be washed in the blood of Christ in order to be accepted
before God. Now that's the truth. There's
nothing we bring. Nothing we bring. Our very best
efforts, our most sincere prayers are in need of a priest. are
in need of an intercessor, are in need of someone who has acceptance
in the presence of God that can present them in such a way as
they would be pleasing to God. That's what this, you see, this
token is for the rebels. It's for the rebels. It's to
remind them of their need for a priest And when the token is
laid down and seen, they're not gonna murmur against needing
a priest. They're gonna do exactly what
you're doing right now. They're gonna be shaking their
head saying amen. That's true. Everything that I do is infected
with my sin and I'm in need of an advocate with the Father.
I'm in need of one who is holy. separate from sinners, undefiled. That's what I need. Without a priest, no man can
approach God, ever. Right now, you can't approach
God without a priest. No, when we think of John 14
6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come to
the Father but by me. That's true for you and for me
right now. Right now. We can't come before
the Father without the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what the problem
was. In Numbers chapter 16, a man
by the name of Korah led a rebellion against Moses. And that's the
story where God just opened up the earth. Moses told the children
of Israel, he said, you get back away from them because God's
fixing to swallow them up. And that's exactly what happened.
The earth opened up and Korah and all those who were in rebellion
with him fell into the pit. Gone, never to be seen or found
again. And then at the end of chapter
16, God sends a plague. And Moses has to run out with
a censer, representing the priestly intercession again of the Lord
Jesus Christ, praying on behalf of us. I love what the Lord said
to Peter. Peter, before the cock crows,
you're going to deny me, but be of good cheer. I've prayed
for you. Father, I pray not for the world, I pray for them which
thou has given me out of the world. And the Lord, and here
Aaron runs in to the congregation of Israel between those who are
dead and those who are alive and stays the plague as a result
of his offering the fiery censer, a picture of the prayer of Christ
on behalf of the people. That's what we need. The effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man. One to intercede on our
behalf. And chapter 16 is a picture of
God's judgment against the rebels. And he just, he just executed
his righteous judgment against them. And now in chapter 17,
the Lord is not judging the sins of his people, the rebels, but
he's giving them a token. He's giving them grace to, to,
to, to keep them from doing what those people did in chapter 16.
He's given them a token, he's given them a sign, so that they
will come, not saying like Korah, who made you to be priest over
us? We've got just as much right
to go before God as you do. That's what Korah said in chapter
16. Well, look at chapter 17. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and take of every
one of them a rod, according to the house of their fathers,
of all their princes, according to the house of their fathers,
12 rods, and write thou every man's name upon his rod. So this
was a stick, a walking stick, a dead stick, a dried, carved,
twisted stick, perhaps a shepherd's crook or a club of some sort,
but it was a stick. And they were to write their
names, the names of each of the 12 tribes. Here's the whole church. And in the book of Revelation,
the scripture says that he has written his name on us. Turn
with me there. Here's the fulfillment of this
spiritual picture. Revelation chapter three. Verse 12 of Revelation chapter
3, he that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my
God and he shall go out no more. And I will write upon him the
name of my God and the name of the city of my God, which is
new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God, and
I will write upon him my new name. And then later we see the
Lord Jesus Christ himself with his name written on his thigh,
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And now he's saying he writes
his name right on the children of Israel. As he is, so are we. By virtue of our union with Christ,
we have acceptance before God. We have an advocate with the
Father. We have a priest who has satisfied the demands of
the law. He's met all the demands of God's
justice. And he's, well, how did Paul
put it in Ephesians? We are accepted in the beloved. In the beloved. So here's the
picture. Each one of the 12 tribes now
has a rod. And those rods were to be brought
into the temple, into the tabernacle, and laid before the Lord. And
one of those rods had Aaron's name on it. Let's go back to
our text. In Numbers chapter 17, verse
four, and thou shalt lay them up in the tabernacle of the congregation
before the testimony where I will meet with you. That's where God
always meets with his people, before the testimony. That's
the Ark of the Covenant. That's that box that was made
out of Shetum wood and overlaid with gold and had a mercy seat. God told Aaron to put the blood
on the mercy seat and the seraphim were hovered over that mercy
seat. God said, here, here, I will
meet with you. where the blood of the lamb is
placed on the mercy seat. And now Moses is instructed to
take these 12 rods and bring them in before the tabernacle
in the ark of the testimony and lay them there. Verse five, and it shall come
to pass that the man's rod whom I shall choose, whom I shall choose, We just
read in Hebrews chapter seven, if a man's to be a priest, God
has to choose him. God has to consecrate him. God
has to ordain him. A man can't just set himself
up as a priest. If he's gonna be the priest of
God, he's gotta be chosen by God. Here's God's elect, mine
elect, the one that I've chosen. And it shall blossom, and I will
make to cease from me the murmurings of the children of Israel, whereby
they murmur against you." I'm going to make it to cease. Now,
if God says he's going to make to cease the murmurings of the
children of Israel, he's going to do it. This sign does just
that. This sign shuts the mouth of
the children of Israel as to who is the only priest that can
intercede on their behalf. And if you're a child of God,
your mouth is shut in that department. You may murmur in a lot of other
areas, but when it comes to your acceptance before God, you know,
you know that nothing you bring earns you any merit with God
that you are completely dependent upon that rod that came alive. It came alive. All the rest of
them were just dead sticks. That's all they were. And Moses
spake unto the children of Israel, verse six, and every one of their
princes gave him a rod apiece, and each prince one, according
to their father's house, even 12 rods, and the rod of Aaron
was among their rods. And Moses laid up the rods before
the Lord in the tabernacle of witness. God's gonna witness. And that's what he's done. That's
what he's doing here, and that's what he's done throughout all
of his word. Do you believe the witness of God? It's his witness. It's his testimony. It's not
up for cross-examination. You either bow to it or you but
it. There's no in-between, is there?
It's God's witness. And when we preach the gospel,
all we do is say, thus saith the Lord. And we're confident
of this. Those who belong to the Lord,
those who are of the truth, they'll hear his voice and they'll believe
it. They just believe it. They don't need any further explanation. And it came to pass, verse 8,
that on the morrow, Moses went into the tabernacle of witness,
and behold, the rod of Aaron for the house of Levi was budded,
and brought forth buds, and bloomed blossoms, and yielded almonds. And Moses brought out all the
rods from before the Lord unto all the children of Israel, and
they looked and took every man his rod." Can you see the countenance on their faces from
those last two statements? Moses brings out all the rods.
He hadn't brought out Aaron's rod yet. He just brings out all
the rods. Lays them out. They see their rod with their
name on it. Looks just like it did when it went in the night
before. Just a dead stick with their name on it. And they looked
and they reached down and sheepishly and shamefully picked up their
rod. Just as dead as it was the night
before. Isn't that the way we are? The Lord just shows us. It's not unto us. It's not unto
us, O Lord. His rod is so much different.
His staff. This rod is a picture of authority. It's all throughout the scripture.
It's a picture of power. royalty, these are the heads
of the household of the 12 tribes. They looked and they took every
man his rod. He just picked it up. The Lord
said unto Moses, bring Aaron's rod again before the testimony
to be kept for a token against the rebels, and thou shalt quite
take away their murmurings from me that they die not. And the only thing that's going
to keep you and I from dying is for the Lord to enable us
to not murmur over who it is that's our advocate, our savior,
our priest. If we're not settled on that, we haven't
believed the gospel. We haven't believed the gospel.
We're still trying to add to what Christ did, or we're still
buddying what Christ did and taking away from what Christ
did, and we're still murmuring, then the token hasn't been understood. Lord, I'm in need of a priest. I can't come before your presence.
A priest must be set apart by God himself. He must be consecrated. A priest must be one who God
hears. One who God hears. One who can go into the very
presence of God and speak to God and God hears and answers
every word he says. Who's going to do that? The effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. He's that
righteous man. He's the only one that can go
into the very presence of God and pray for us. Peter, I've
prayed for you. Be of good cheer. Father, I pray
for them. Those that you've given me out
of the world, oh, the high priestly prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ
in John chapter 17 is so much of an encouragement to the child
of God to know that the Father heard those prayers, everything
he prayed. Father, I pray that you would
keep them. He must, a priest must have access
and acceptance before God. He must be holy. He must come with the proper
sacrifice. He must approach the presence
of God with a sacrifice that's acceptable to God. And that's
exactly what the sacrifice that the Lord Jesus Christ offered
to the Father was. It was acceptable to God. And
no sacrifice that you and I have to offer is acceptable to God.
Again, let me emphasize this, rebels, Rebel, let me emphasize
this. Our best efforts are in no less
need of grace than our worst sins. We've got to have a priest. We've
got to have an advocate. And that's who the Lord Jesus
Christ is. We have a priest. We have one
who brought a sacrifice that is acceptable to God, his own
blood, his sinless perfect blood. It's the only thing God's pleased
with, only thing he's gonna accept. He must be able to bring the
blessings of God back to God's people. For him to be an effective
priest, he's got to take the blessings of God and bring them
back to God's people. And that's exactly what he's
doing right now. That's exactly what he's done through this spirit
as he makes the gospel effectual to our hearts and gives us the
gift of faith. He's bringing the blessings of
God back to his people. He must feel the needs of those
that he intercedes for. See, the conclusion is that the
only priest that's going to be able to get the job done is one
who is both God and man. He's the only one that can get
the job done. He's the only one that can present himself before
God and be acceptable, and he's the only one that can bring the
blessings of God back to us. One who is able to be touched
with the feelings of our infirmities. One who in all manners was tempted
as we are, yet without sin. One who was born of a woman,
born under the law, to redeem those who are cursed by the law,
able to save to the uttermost. Didn't we read that in Hebrews
chapter 7, verse 25? Saves them to the uttermost.
How many times can I ask God to forgive me of the same sin? You hadn't gotten to the uttermost
yet. He's a high priest. He's able to save to the uttermost.
Is it possible that the Lord would forgive me of that? Yeah. Yeah. Can the Lord fix the mess I've
made? Yeah. Can He save my children? Yeah.
Yeah, He can. He saved to the uttermost. What a glorious priest we have. It's a token. And it's for you. And it's for me. Have you noticed that this rod
budded, flowered, and produced fruit? Now, I can just see it. There's
some bulges at the bottom of the rod, the staff, and it's
kind of putting out new growth, and then about halfway up there's
flowers, and then at the very top, it's full-blown fruit. What's the picture there? Well,
it's the progressive revelation of Christ. The budding began
in the garden. The budding began in the garden
when God told Adam that the seed of the woman would crush the
head of the serpent. It followed on with Abel when
he made that sacrifice, that blood sacrifice. That was the
budding. Noah's Ark is the budding. It's,
you know, the ark itself being a picture. These are, you wouldn't
see these things as clearly as we see them if you didn't have
the full fruit at the end of the staff, would you? We're able
to look at the buds from the fruit end of the stick. But,
you know, these guys were just looking at the buds from the
buds. And all these buds were, you
know, the covenant that God made with Abraham and the slaying
of the animals and the promises that God made to Abraham. Circumcision,
that was a bud. That's all it was. It was a vague
picture of something that would not be fulfilled until later.
God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto
our fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days, Everything
that took place prior to God giving us his name. When did God give us his name?
None of the believers prior to that burning bush knew the name
of God. Abraham didn't know the name of God. Isaac didn't know
the name of God. Jacob didn't know the name. Joseph
didn't know the name of God. God gave his name Jehovah to
Moses. And then he gave him the law.
And then we have the rock. And then we have the promised
land, and the sacrifice, and the temple, and the slaying of
that lamb, the Passover ceremony, and all those things. Now it's
beginning to flower, isn't it? The buds are turning into flowers. until the fullness of time comes. The flowers continue as Jeremiah
and Isaiah and Ezekiel and Daniel prophesied more clearly the revelation
of who Christ would be in his priestly role. And now he comes
as our priest. And the full tree, the full tree
has now grown out of dry ground. the tree of righteousness, which
was the planting of the Lord. He planted it by the river of
life, and its leaf shall not wither, and its fruit it will
bear in its season." Now we've got the full fruit at the top
of the stack. That's Christ. All these things are leading
up to and pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. The full ripe fruit
of righteousness. As the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
all the demands of God's law, he answered the demands of God's
holy justice. He redeemed the mortgaged inheritance
of his poor brother. That's what he did. He paid off
our mortgage. We had a debt we couldn't pay. By death, he overcame death,
and by his resurrection, he became the firstborn among many brethren.
And then he sends his Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our understanding
and enable us to see the token, the rod that has produced its
full fruit. And it's put in the tabernacle
as a testimony And verse 11 in our text says, and Moses did
so as the Lord commanded him, so did he. And the children of
Israel spake unto Moses saying, behold, we die, we perish, we
all perish. They're saying exactly what Isaiah
said. Our eyes have seen the king. We're dead. Woe is me. Whosoever cometh Anything near
unto the tabernacle of the Lord shall die. Shall we be consumed
with dying? Oh, don't come before the Lord
with anything other than the Lord Jesus Christ. Don't come
before God with anything other than him. He's this, he's our
priest. He's the token. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 8. Now of the things which we have
spoken, and we could say of the things that we've spoken now
for the last 30 minutes, This is the sum, this is the
summary. We have such a high priest who
is set at the right hand of the throne of the majesty of heavens. We have an advocate with the
father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one. We have a priest and your
best efforts require a priest. a minister of the sanctuary and
of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man.
Where is that priest now? Where was Aaron's rod to be put? All those guys picked up their
staffs. They were just like they were when they put them in or
they had their name on them. And that's what we've got. We're
just dead wood, aren't we? And we got our name on us. But
Aaron's staff, which had been made alive and had brought forth
fruit, was put in the ark. Where's Aaron's staff now? It's
in the tabernacle. Not a tabernacle made with hands.
It's in the heavenlies. It's the Lord Jesus Christ who
is seated at the right hand of God, whoever lives to make intercession
for us. These are signs. These are tokens,
these are physical manifestations of a much more glorious spiritual
truth fulfilled in Christ. For every high priest is ordained
to offer gifts and sacrifices, wherefore it is of necessity
that this man have someone also to offer. He had to have something
to offer, for if he were on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing
that there are priests that offer gifts according to the law, He's
not on the earth now. He's in the heavens. Who serve
under the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses
was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle.
For see, saith he, that you make all things according to the pattern
showed to thee on the mount. God told Moses, when you make
that tabernacle, you make it exactly like I told you to make
it. Because every detail of that tabernacle, in one way or the
other, points to Christ. Don't deviate. Don't change it. A little leaven leavens the whole
lot. Don't take the edge off the gospel.
Don't give men something else to hope in besides Christ. The offense of the gospel. Paul
said, if I still preach circumcision, then why am I suffering persecution? For then has the offense of the
cross ceased. If I'm still giving men something
to do, to earn favor with God, a prayer to pray, a decision
to make, a will to, a work to perform, whatever, whatever,
a worship, a duty, a faith, something, no, nothing, nothing. Make it according to the pattern.
But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry by how much
also he is the mediator of a better covenant established upon better
promises. Now there's the theme to the
book of Hebrews. If there's somebody listening
to this message that's bound up in covenant theology, they're
not gonna understand this. They're not going to understand
it. They're still trying to reconcile the Old Testament to the New
Testament. They're still christening babies and calling it circumcision
and all kinds of stuff, trying to figure out a way to marry
the two. No. I will make a new covenant
with my people. Well, let's just go on and say
that. For if the 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, 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
that's what number 17 and 16 was happening. That was all happening
in the wilderness. "'cause they continued not in
my covenant, "'and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. "'For
this is the covenant that I will make with them.'" I'm gonna make
a new covenant. I'm gonna make this with the
house of Israel, the true house of Israel. Most of those Israelites
died and were separated from God for all eternity. They never
believed the gospel. This is the covenant that I will
make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord.
I will put my laws in their mind, and I will write them in their
hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me
a people. And they shall not teach every
man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the
Lord, for they shall know me from the least of them even to
the greatest." In the Old Testament, you had a few believers and a
whole bunch of unbelievers. And the believers were always
having to chastise the unbelievers. Not in the New Testament church.
You don't get into the church unless you're a believer. And
if you're a believer, you know, you don't murmur anymore. You
don't try to add to or take away. from the accomplished work of
the Lord Jesus Christ, you know that He is your only hope of
access with God, your only hope of acceptance before God, your
only ground of standing before God is in the person of the Lord
Jesus. You just know that. You know
that. You don't murmur against that.
You don't butt that. You don't try to, you don't do
like everybody else does. Why? Because the Lord's brought
you into the new covenant. And from the youngest believer
to the most mature child of God, they all believe the same thing. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness. Lord, my worship is unrighteous.
My prayers are unrighteous. My tears of repentance are unrighteous. My burdened heart is unrighteous. My sorrow is unrighteous. Do
you believe that about yourself? Or do you think that there's
something that you can bring before God that would meet the
standard of His righteousness? for I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness. That's what I need. I need mercy. And their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. Oh, what'd they say? We're gonna
die. We've rebelled against God and we deserve judgment. That's what they were saying.
We deserve to die. If God gives us what we deserve,
we're gonna die. We need him to forgive us of our unrighteousness.
We need him to separate our sins. Well, look what he says, in that
he saith a new covenant, probably merciful to their unrighteousness,
their sins and iniquities, I'll remember no more. No more. Put
them away. That's what I need. I need a God. I need a savior
who will stand in my stead before a holy God, and represent me
fully. Fully. So that when God looks
at him, he sees me. And in looking at him, there's
no sin to be remembered. No sin to be remembered. It's
been put away. In that he saith a new covenant
he hath made, the first old, now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away. Oh, that first covenant with
all of its ordinances and laws and sanctuaries and everything
else. He goes on to say in chapter 9, then barely the first covenant
had also ordinances of divine service and worldly sanctuary.
For there was a tabernacle made, the first, wherein was the candlestick
and the table and the showbread, which are all called sanctuary.
After the second veil, the tabernacle, now he's going into the holies
of holies, he's just given a very quick survey. And there's one
piece of furniture conspicuously missing in the first tabernacle. Know what it was? It's the most
conspicuous piece of furniture in heaven. What's the most conspicuous piece
of furniture in heaven? It's a chair. It's called a throne.
It's the throne of God, where he's set down. Why? Because He's
finished. Those priests in the Old Testament
could never finish their work. They could never sit down. He
has sat down at the right hand of God. He's our priest. He intercedes for us. For everything
we do. For the worst things that we're
most ashamed of. And for the best efforts that
we ever make. We need a priest. And there he is in the rod of
Aaron, the token for the rebels. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we ask that you would enable us, enable us, Lord, to find
the hope of our salvation in the person and finished work
of thy dear son. For it's in his name we pray.
Amen. Number 28 in the Sop Act hymnal.
Let's stand. Behold, the Lamb of God was slain
by God's own wise decree. The blood of Christ has stood
for me from all eternity. God's wrath could not destroy
the world, though Adam fell in sin, because the Lamb was slain
for man before the world began. And at the time ordained by God,
the Lamb poured out His blood. For all the world of His elect
had paid the debt we owed. Dear Lamb of God, your precious
blood has ransomed me from death. And I will praise you for that
blood as long as I have breath. Though Satan rage against my
soul, though I am full of sin, I trust Christ's in atoning blood. It gives me peace within. That blood is my security. Christ must be satisfied. Not one can ever be condemned
for whom the Lamb has died. when I have dropped this robe
of flesh and enter heaven's bliss. The Lamb who has been slain for
me I shall forever bless. Eternal blood, eternal Lamb,
eternal God, my King. A worthless sinner saved by grace,
I owe you everything. Thank you, thank you.