Open your Bibles with me to the
book of Hebrews chapter 8. Last week, I brought a message
entitled, The New Covenant in Jesus Christ. And I want to continue
talking about that. Anytime I do a series of messages,
I try to make each message a message in and of itself so that you
who weren't here last week won't be lost in the mix. So each message
will stand on itself. The new covenant in Jesus Christ. Now that's important. It's important
for us. We're a new covenant church.
The church, the true church of the Lord Jesus Christ has been
a new covenant church ever since the Lord Jesus Christ instituted
it in time when He said it's finished. It had its official
inauguration beginning at Pentecost when Peter preached it in Jerusalem
and proclaiming the accomplishment of redemption in and by the Lord
Jesus Christ in time. And so we're going to talk about
the new covenant in Jesus Christ. Look at Hebrews chapter 8. Look
down at, well let's begin at verse 7. for our reading, just
read a few verses here. It says, for if that first covenant,
now that means the first in time, and the first covenant is the
old covenant. That's the law of Moses, that's
Sinai. God brought the children of,
the Hebrew children out of Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, brought
them to the foot of the mountain, and sent Moses up into the mountain
to receive the law. That's the Ten Commandments.
That's the ceremonial law. That's all the laws that were
given to that group of people, that nation. And he says, if
that first covenant had been faultless, now there were faults
with that covenant. That's what he's saying. It wasn't
faultless. It wasn't a perfect covenant.
There were several things that were wrong with it, and I'm going
to talk to you about them just a bit. He said, then should no
place have been sought for the second. Now the second covenant
there is the new covenant. That's in time, second in time,
revelation, accomplishment in time. And so he says for verse
eight, for finding fault with them, the old covenant, he saith,
behold, the days come. Now he quotes from Jeremiah 31. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, when I will make a new covenant. with the house of Israel,
with the house of Judah. Now, I believe that's talking
about spiritual Israel, the church. And I know there's a lot of people
today who don't agree with that. And they would call me, if you've
heard the term replacement theology, you replace Israel with the church.
And I didn't do that, first of all, God did. But the thing about
it is, it's not really replacement theology, it's fulfillment theology. This is what God intended all
along. And he told Israel that back under the old covenant,
he told them that. Like I said, he's quoting from Jeremiah 31
here. And this was a message not just
to the nation Israel, it was to all nations. He told Abraham
that, read Genesis 12. He said, I'll make you a blessing
to all families of the earth, not just one family. Now, the
blessing will come through the instrument of one nation, Israel,
but it's going to go out to all. And that is not all without exception.
That's God's elect out of every tribe, kindred, tongue and nation.
Israel means those who have prevailed with the Lord. That's what the
term means. It means, we say prince, but that's what it's
talking about. Literally, it's those who prevail
with the Lord. How do you prevail with the Lord?
I'll tell you exactly how. You come to Christ. You believe
in Christ. You plead Christ. And that's
prevailing with the Lord. Judah means praise. Those who
prevail with the Lord will praise God. So what he's talking about
here in this new covenant with the house of Israel, with the
house of Judah, now look at verse 9. Now listen to what it says. The first word in verse 9 is
what? Not. Not what? This new covenant is
not something. Well, it's not according to the
covenant 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
continue not in my covenant. And I regarded them not and said,
Lord, this new covenant is not going to be like that. How plain
can it get? People talk about, listen, when
the Bible speaks of the future restoration of Israel, now you
mark my word and you look up the scripture. It's always a
restoration of Israel under the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Always. Read it. Read the prophecies. It's always the restoration of
that nation under the headship of Christ. And he said, they
continue none of that. They broke the old covenant.
It was a conditional covenant. And he said, I regarded them
not, saith the Lord. In verse 10. And he says, for
this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, saith the Lord. Now here's the kind of covenant
it is. I will put my laws into their mind and write them in
their hearts. You know what he's talking about
here? He's talking about the new birth. He's talking about regeneration,
conversion, the power of the Holy Spirit. He said, I will
be to them a God and they shall be to me a people. That's indicative
of a marriage union there. That's the kind of language that
the Old Testament used in prophecy of a marriage union. In other
words, under the old covenant, God was sovereign over a rebellious
people. But under the new covenant, it's
not going to be like that. Now, under the new covenant,
they're still sinners. We're sinners, but they're saved
by grace. They're made willing, loving, bond slaves of Christ.
And he says, I'll be to them a God, and they'll be to me a
people. There's a marriage union. That's an unbreakable union.
And he says in verse 11, 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. One of the greatest
complaints that the prophets brought against the nation Israel
under the old covenant was that they didn't know the true and
living God. God who had given them so much.
They didn't know him. And it's like people today. You
know, how many times have I told you, take your next breath. Did you do it? That's a gift
from God. What you just breathed in, that's
a gift from God. Now, do you know that God? Some
of you do, some of you may not. Some of you don't, maybe. And
that's like Israel was under the Old Covenant. They had all
kinds of good things given to them. The Promised Land, the
Word, the Tabernacle, all of those good things. But they didn't
know the Lord. That is, they didn't know the
God of salvation. They didn't know Christ. That's
what he said. And the prophets kept coming
saying, my people will be destroyed for lack of knowledge. They were
ignorant of the true and living God. They were ignorant of God's
righteousness. Remember, Paul wrote about that
in Romans 10. He said, I bear them record, they have a zeal
of God, but not according to knowledge, for they being ignorant
of God's righteousness and going about to establish a righteousness
of their own, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. You see, if you don't know Christ,
you don't know God. Because God reveals Himself through
Christ. It pleased the Lord that in Him
should all fullness dwell. Christ is the revelation of God. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. And if you don't know Christ,
you don't know God. Well, they didn't know God, but he says
it's not going to be like that under the new covenant. They're
all going to know him. Everyone who is under this new
covenant, they're going to know him. From the least of them,
he says, to the greatest. Doesn't matter what station they
are. One old preacher said, from the dumbest to the smartest,
they're all going to know him. But they all know him. And then
it says in verse 12, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness,
And their sins and their iniquities, will I remember no more? That's
important now. Does that mean God has the ability
to forget things? I don't believe so. I don't believe
that's what it's talking about. God never changes. When it says
God will not remember them, it means He won't bring them up
again. It means He won't hold them against you. The Apostle
Paul wrote it like this in Romans chapter 8, Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. You
see, that's how God sees His people when He looks at them
through Christ. They're not condemned. No condemnation. In verse 13 it says, In that
He saith a new covenant, He hath made the first old. This new
covenant. That old covenant. He says now,
listen to it. Now that which decayeth and waxeth
old. The word waxeth just simply means
grows. It means a word of degrees. That
which decayeth and grows old is ready to what? What does that
say? Vanish away. Not hang around. Not to be brought up again. It's
gone. Alright? New covenant in Christ. Now when I started this series
of messages, I started it using 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse
17 as my base text because the term new creature or new creation
is mentioned there. Remember it says, if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creation. That's what I believe the word
would be better translated. He is a new creation. Old things
are passed away. Old things are gone. Behold,
all things become new, have been made new, have become new. What
are these old and these new things? And I've been going through several
scriptures here. Well, one of the new things that
he's talking about is this new covenant, this new covenant. But let me tell you just a little,
let me tell you the gospel story. How about that? The gospel story
as it's revealed in the word of God. And I don't really have
time as I go through this to give you all the scripture references
because basically we would pretty much be reading Genesis through
Revelation. And we can't do that this morning.
I hope you are taking the time to follow along in your Bibles
to read as we give you the scriptures for reading the Bible through
the year. But the gospel story begins in time now, in time,
with the old creation. God created the world. In beginning,
God. Actually, if you read Genesis
1.1, it says, in the beginning, God. Leave the the out in the
original. In beginning, God. That's talking
about how God is eternal. He has no beginning and end.
But there was a time. God appointed time. God uses
time. God is sovereign over time. And
in time, He created this world. And you know the story. You've
read Genesis chapter 1. And you know how he made man,
made Adam. The term Adam means man. Remember
that. And so Adam the man, he set Adam
in the garden. He made man in his own image.
A lot of people speculate on what that means, but I believe
it means with the spirit of life, with a mind, affections, a will. Adam was not in any way, shape,
form or fashion equal to God or even on his way to being equal
to God. Adam was man. And he was a perfect
man in the sense that he had no sin. He was created upright.
And Adam, the Bible tells us, was the representative of all
of his posterity. That's the whole human race.
That includes you and that includes me. Adam in that garden represented
me, represented you. Every one of us. You say, well,
I don't like that. Well, that's just too bad. Because
it really doesn't matter whether you like it or not. I don't believe
that. That's even worse because it doesn't matter whether you
believe it or not. That's the way it is. That's what this book
says. And so Adam had the responsibility of his whole posterity, of his
whole family. There was nobody born yet, but
he still had a family. That's what the Bible says. And
he gave him Eve. Created Eve and gave him Eve
as his helpmate. Incidentally, her name was not
Eve until Genesis 3. You all realize that, don't you? You know what her name was before
then? It was Ish. It means woman. She was a woman. Eve means the mother of all the
living. And she didn't become the mother of all the living
until after the falling, Christ was set forth and prophesied
of. Because without Christ, she'd
been the mother of all the dead. So you see Adam in the garden,
he had Eve, alright? And they were husband and wife,
and what happened? God put them under what I believe
is a covenant. You can call it what you want,
covenant of creation, whatever. Some people say the covenant
of works, and that's what I like to call it. And it simply was
represented in the garden by a tree called the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. And what did God say in Genesis
chapter 2? He said, now you can eat of every
tree of this garden except one tree, and that's that tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. Now that tree represented, symbolized
God's sovereign rule over the man, over creation. And God's sovereign right to
be the standard of good and evil. In other words, good and evil
can only be measured and judged as it pertains to God. And that's
why it's very wrong, if you're going to talk about salvation
and pleasing God and relationship with God, it's very, listen,
it's very deadly to compare yourself with other people. Because they're
not the standard, God is. Actually, now Christ is, Jesus
Christ the God-man is. And so God said, you can eat
of every tree except that one. What happened? You know what
happened. Satan tempted Eve. And she ate of that tree. Now
man didn't fall then because Eve wasn't the representative.
Eve fell. And here comes Adam. And he took
sides with his wife against God. And when Adam sinned, disobeyed,
the whole human race was plunged into what? Sin, depravity, and
death. Ruined by the fall. Now that's it. And as a result
of that fall, what shape are we in by nature? Well, we're
fallen. We're ruined. We're born dead
in trespasses and sins. And since then, man has been
totally unable to do anything to remedy that situation. The
problem is sin. Man cannot deal with sin. He
tries. He tries with religion. He tries with dedication. He
tries with philosophy. He tries with science. But he
cannot conquer this old disease called sin. He can't do it. Sin
and depravity. The best that he can be renders
him useless, unprofitable, the scripture says, man at his best,
altogether vanity. And that's the situation. That's
the old creation. Now that's why in salvation,
there has to be a new creation. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creation. Well, what we find out in the
scriptures, you say, well, you know, gospel means good news.
If that's the gospel story, where's the good news? Well, here it
is. The Bible teaches us that behind the scenes of all of that
that I just told you about the old creation and the fall of
man and Adam, in the annals of eternity, whatever that is, God
was already at work. Now, am I right? I mean, was
this thing, you know, did God create the world and turn His
back and sit down and say, well, let's just see what? No, you
know better than that. God had already been at work
with an eternal purpose, an eternal work in the mind and purpose
of God. And what God reveals is that
before Adam ever fell, before this world was created, that
God had already made a covenant with His Son. The second person
of the ring. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit. This is a covenant within the
Trinity. And it's called the everlasting
covenant of grace. Or some people say the everlasting
covenant of redemption. Either way, it's the same. And
this everlasting covenant now, certainly it's not new, it's
eternal, isn't it? It's new to us when God reveals
it to us. But this new covenant stands
in relation with that old covenant that God, or this everlasting
covenant of grace stands in relation to that old covenant that God
made with Adam. And here's what it says. That God, before the
foundation of the world, chose a people in Christ. That's the
election. God gave them to Christ. Now is that taught in the Scripture?
God gave them to Christ. Whoever God chose, He gave to
His Son. Didn't Christ say in John 6.37,
All that the Father what? Giveth me, shall what? Come to
me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. This is the will of Him that
sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I should lose
what? Nothing, but raise it up again
at the last day. You see, there it is. Now what
do you mean he gave us to Christ? That means this, Christ was set
up, appointed to be the representative of those people. Just like Adam
represented the whole human family, Christ was set up, the Son of
God was set up to be the representative of what the Bible calls the election
of grace. All God chose and gave to it.
And Christ agreed to become our surety. Why do we need a surety? Because we owe a debt to God's
law and justice that we can't pay. So Christ, a surety now,
he says, I'm going to pay it all. This surety, the type of
surety that Christ, you know, if you sign a note with somebody
today, here's what you're saying, essentially, is if they can't
pay it, I'll pay it. But now that's not the surety
ship of Christ. The surety ship of Christ says, I'll pay the
debt, period. They can't pay it, not even one
penny, not even one farthing. I'll pay the debt. So all the
responsibility, now listen to this, this is important. All
the responsibility of the salvation of all whom the Father gave to
him was upon him and him alone. You see that old covenant of
Israel? The responsibility of their existence in that land
and their prosperity was on them. And what'd they do? They failed.
Not so with the everlasting covenant of grace. So all the responsibility
of the whole salvation of God's elect was placed on Christ. One
way of saying that in prophecy, Isaiah 9, 6, the government was
upon his shoulder. He bore the weight of it, Isaiah
9, 6, and 7. And so Christ, as the representative,
became our surety. And he agreed to stand in our
place under the justice of the law and pay our debt in full. You see, the condition of that
covenant, that everlasting covenant, was redemption by blood. Redemption
by blood as we were ruined by the fall we have to be redeemed
by the blood Why because the wages of sin is dead sin reigned
unto death and So the condition of that covenant was redemption
by his blood issuing forth in the righteousness of God what
the Bible calls the righteousness of God Whereby God could be just
and and still be merciful to sinners like us. And give us
all the blessings of salvation and bring us into his fellowship.
Now, in order to accomplish this redemption by blood, what had
to happen? Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had to become man. He had to take on human flesh
without sin. He had to be made sin, in that
sense, but he had to be made flesh. The son of God, who is
co-equal with God in every attribute of his character, had to condescend
to become man, to become a servant, to make himself of no reputation.
Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh. Isn't
that amazing? He had to do that, he had to
become man in order to die. God cannot die, but this man
who is God, He did die. He had to be found under the
law to redeem his people. He was, in the fullness of the
time, he was sent of the Father under the law to be made of a
woman. Now, upon his accomplishing that
task, now he came to this earth, and what did he do? He became
man, he grew in wisdom and stature, he walked under the law of God,
he obeyed it perfectly, even unto the death of the cross,
Not for his own sins, but for sins that became his by imputation. By God charging them to him. Charging the debt to him. He
was our sin bearer. He's our substitute. He's the
Lamb of God slain. Alright? When he accomplished
that task, in time, All of the conditions, all of the stipulations,
all of the requirements of the everlasting covenant of grace,
alright, we're finished. He said it's finished. Redemption
accomplished. You see, this is not Jesus Christ
trying to do something if you'll let Him. This is not Him making
salvation possible. He accomplished it in time. And when He accomplished it in
time, That's what the Bible calls the new covenant. That accomplishment
in time. Remember I told you last week,
the new covenant is the accomplishment in time of all the terms and
the stipulations and requirements of the everlasting covenant of
grace made before time. That's the new covenant. And
so upon his accomplishing this task, the father promised that
he would raise him from the dead. He died, was buried, rose from
the dead because he completed the task. He fulfilled the requirements. He met the conditions. Daniel
said it this way in Daniel 9.24. He made an end of sin. He finished
the transgression. He brought in everlasting righteousness
in time. And the Father promised him that
He would give him all the ones He redeemed, bring them to him
by the power of the Spirit. That's regeneration. Ruined by
the fault, redeemed by the blood, regenerated by the Spirit. All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me, he said, and give
him a name which is above every name, that he would preserve
them unto the end and glorify them. Now that's the gospel story.
It has to do with the security of the salvation of God's people
because the surety of that salvation has fulfilled the conditions. All of it. And so this new covenant
has to do with time. That's what this book is talking
about in Hebrews chapter 8. All of this. And this new covenant,
what he's telling us in Hebrews 8 here, has power that the old
covenant didn't have. The old covenant. Here's the
Ten Commandments. A fellow told one of the men
down in Georgia, he had a little wristband that had a gold tablet
hanging off of it and had the Ten Commandments on it. And he
looked at the man and he said, now right there is my salvation.
He said, I just have to keep these. So I asked him, well,
did they keep the Ten Commandments under the Old Covenant? Did the
Israelites keep the Ten Commandments? And the answer is no, they broke
them. Well, that fellow who had that wristband, he must be better
than those guys back then. That's the only thing I can figure.
He's not like them. Are you better than they? He'd
have to say, yeah, I am. I'm better than them. Because I keep
those. Remember the rich young man who
said, I've kept those things from my youth up? And then Christ
put it to the test. Well, let's see. Let's see if
you've kept them from your youth up. Go sell everything that you
have and give it to the poor and come follow me. And the man
went away what? Sorrowful. What does the Bible
mean when it says, all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God? Does that mean that we are all raving, looming, perverted
lunatics? No. It means we missed the mark. What's the mark? Righteousness.
There is none righteous, no not one. None that doeth good. In God's sight, remember the
tree of knowledge of good and evil? We are talking about good
as compared to God. As set forth by God. So here's that old covenant.
Here's the Ten Commandments. Do you keep them? No, you don't. Here's all the laws and the ceremonial
laws and all of the dietary laws, all of the civil law. What they
did, they broke them. What would we have done if we
were under there back then? We'd have done the same thing
they did. We'd break them because we're sinners. So that when the
Old Testament, during that 1500 year period
of time when the Old Covenant was in force, when it talks about
a bright hope for the future, a better promise, everything
better, is that all based upon the fact that we today are better
than them? Is that the hope of it? I mean,
when Jeremiah spoke of a new covenant, is he talking about,
well, God's just, there's just going to be a better class of
people back then, you know, in the future. You know, instead
of bound down to Baal, they're going to watch Father Knows Best
or something. I don't know. That's not what
it's talking about. The bright hope of the future
that was always given in the old covenant was the promise
of Christ coming to fulfill the requirements, the conditions.
That's the New Covenant. You see, the New Covenant had
its establishment in time. When? On the cross. When Christ
died. Now the blessings of the New
Covenant are not restricted to time because it was always certain
to be established by the blood of the surety, the Lord Jesus
Christ. David, King David, physically, temporally speaking, he was under
the old covenant. But spiritually speaking, he's
under the new. And it hadn't even been established
yet. He said in 2 Samuel 23, 5, he said, although my house
be not so with God, he hath made a covenant with me that is ordered
in all things and sure. Certainly not conditioned on
David, he failed. He said, although my house be
not so, my family's a shambles, he said. And he was at fault. He said, but God's made a covenant
with me that's ordered in all things insure. What covenant
is he talking about? Talking about the covenant of
grace in Christ. He said, this is all my hope and all my desire. Noah, he wasn't under the old
covenant because it hadn't been established yet. But he had the blessings of the
new covenant. Genesis chapter 7, God said, in this day, in
your time, in this day, I see you righteous before me. How
was Noah righteous? Well, the first thing that's
said about Noah in Genesis chapter 6 is what? Anybody know? What's
the first thing said about Noah? He found what? He found grace
in the sight of the Lord. You know, the verse before that
talks about how everybody's rotten and wretched and depraved. But
it says, but Noah found grace. Now if Noah wasn't wretched,
rotten, and depraved like the rest of the bunch, he wouldn't
even need grace. It was just said Noah was a better
man. Now Noah found grace. And what does grace reign through,
Romans 5.21? Through righteousness. And how does it reign through
righteousness? Unto eternal life. And why? Through Jesus Christ
our Lord. Noah looked to the future. What about Abraham? When was
righteousness imputed to Abraham? Well, it was imputed to him before
the foundation of the world, when Christ was set up to be
the surety, but it was realized in Abraham's time, because Abraham
rejoiced to see my day, the Lord said, and he saw it, and he was
what? He was glad. If you ever see
Christ, you'll be glad. Won't be mad anymore, you'll
be glad. We go to Job. He was upright.
He was justified. See, these blessings of the New
Covenant were even applied to the Old Covenant saints, the
Old Covenant believers, because they looked to the future. But
it hadn't been established in time until Christ came. But it
was always sure and certain. There was no doubt that He was
coming. There was no doubt that He was going to do His work.
There was no doubt that all the conditions of the salvation of
God's people is going to be fulfilled in Him. They were justified by
promise. And all the promises of God in
Christ are in Him. Amen. Well, he speaks here of
the power of the New Covenant. In Christ, by the grace of God,
we see the power of the New Covenant. We see it in two ways. Number
one, the power of the New Covenant to put away sin and establish
righteousness for God's people. The old covenant couldn't do
that. Look over at Hebrews 10 that Brother Joe read. Let me give you this briefly. The power of the new covenant
to put away sin and establish righteousness for God's elect.
He says in verse one, for the law having a shadow of good things
to come. not the very image of the things,
can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year
continually make the comers thereunto perfect. Those sacrifices could
not put away sin. For then would they not have
ceased to be offered because the worshipers, once purged,
once cleansed, should have no more conscience of sin. That
means no more guilt of sin. In other words, it says in verse
3, but in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of
sins. They are brought up every year. That is why Paul called
it the ministry of condemnation in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Condemn,
condemn, condemn. Why was the Old Covenant given?
Galatians chapter 3 said it was given because of the transgression. Romans chapter five and verse
20, moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. It was given to show the utter
impossibility of salvation by the works of man. It was given
to show that all men and women by nature, not just the Jews,
but all men and women by nature deserve and have earned condemnation
and death and hell. That's why it was given. But he says it's not possible
that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin. The
Old Covenant could not take away sin. The Old Covenant could not
purge away sin. The Old Covenant could not establish
righteousness before God. So what happened? Verse 5, Wherefore,
when he cometh into the world, that's Christ, he says, Sacrifice
an offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared
me. Those animal sacrifices wouldn't do it. But God prepared a human
body and soul for the Lord Jesus Christ. In burnt offerings and
sacrifices for sin thou hast no pleasure. There was no completion,
there was no redemption, there was no putting away. Then said
I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book, It is written of me
to do thy will, O God." There's the everlasting covenant of grace.
It's always been the will of God. Above, when he says, sacrifice
an offering and burn offering and offerings for sin, thou wouldest
not, neither has pleasure therein which are offered by the law.
Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away
the first that he may establish the second. And he said, by the
witch will, by the will of God, we are sanctified. We're set
apart. How? Through the offering of
the body of Jesus Christ. And if you read that literally,
it would say once. One time. Look at verse 14. For by one offering, he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Blood of bulls and
goats couldn't do that. Old covenant couldn't do that.
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Let me tell you
something. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ. No condemnation. And what does
he say? Look at verse 18. Now where remission
of these is, there is no more offering for sin. There is nothing
else but Christ. And having therefore, brethren,
boldness to enter the holiest. How? By the blood of Jesus. by
a new and living way. This is the new way. This is
the new covenant. And it's a living way. That other
way under the old covenant, that's a dead way. This is a living
way which he, Christ, hath consecrated. Christ newly made. Christ did
it. Not you, not me. For us, as our
substitute in surety through the veil, that is to say his
flesh, that's his death, And having a high priest over the
house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, a sincere
heart, an honest heart, convicted heart, in full assurance of faith. What's full assurance of faith?
That's the assurance that we have by looking to Christ as
the author and finisher of our faith. And having our hearts
sprinkled from an evil conscience, the guilt and condemnation removed,
how? By the blood of Jesus Christ.
And our bodies washed with pure water, our whole persons accepted
before God. Turn back to 2 Corinthians 5.
You see, you know, this is what 2 Corinthians 5 is talking about. You know, when it says, therefore,
verse 17, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, old things
are passed away, behold, all things are... Technically, he
is not talking about regeneration there. He is talking about reconciliation. That is how God and sinners are
brought together on a common ground and our reconciliation
is related to our justification, our being declared not guilty,
righteous before God in Christ. That's what he's talking about
really here. Look at it, verse 18, and all things are of God
who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. The old covenant
couldn't do that. and given to us the ministry
of what? Reconciliation. Peace between God and sinners
through the blood of the cross. That's what that reconciliation
is. To wit or namely, that God was in Christ, God, the Father,
the Son, the Spirit, in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead,
reconciling the world unto Himself. Now that word world there is
not referring to everybody without exception. How do you know that? not imputing, not charging, their
trespasses unto them. Whoever the world is there, he's
talking about people to whom God does not impute or charge
sin. What David said, blessed is the
man to whom the Lord imputes not iniquity. And the Holy Spirit
shows us in Romans 4 that that means not only the non-imputation
of sin, but also the imputation of righteousness. In other words,
if God doesn't charge me with my sin, what does He charge me
with? Righteousness. Whose? Christ. Where did that come from? From
the cross. From His blood being shed on
Calvary's tree. And have committed unto us the
word of reconciliation. So now then we are ambassadors
for Christ as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you,
and Christ said, be you reconciled to God. For he hath made him
sin for us. Christ who knew no sin that we
might become the righteousness or be made the righteousness
of God in him. One more thing and I'll close. Look back at
Hebrews chapter eight. So you see first there the power
of the new covenant to put away sin. To bring in righteousness,
everlasting righteousness. But secondly is the power of
the new covenant to do something else. That is to give life to
the dead. To give a new heart, a new mind,
a new spirit. That's regeneration. Look at
Hebrews 8 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 law into their minds. God's gonna write
it on their hearts. That's you must be born again.
The old covenant couldn't do that. This is circumcision of
the heart. The old covenant couldn't do
it. It could circumcise the flesh, but not the heart. Here's the
power of the new covenant to give a new heart. I'll be to
them a God and they shall be to me a people. That intimate
relationship between Christ and his bride, the old covenant couldn't
do that, but the new covenant does. And he says, they shall
not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying,
no, Lord, they'll all know me. Now, this knowledge is a specific
knowledge. It's a special knowledge of God
in Christ concerning how God saves sinners, who God is, who
I am. This comes from conviction of
sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And every one of
his children in this new covenant will know him. And then he said,
I'll be merciful to their unrighteousness. In Christ, there is no condemnation,
no charge of sin. In Christ, there is no spiritual
or eternal death. That's the new covenant.