Come with me to Hebrews chapter
8. This Wednesday, Marvin Stoniker is going to be visiting with
us and he's going to preach for us. And I'm anxious to hear him
preach. He found out recently, I think
many of you know, that he had cancer and it is a good prognosis. cancer of the bladder and they
think that he's got it early, but I'm just anxious to hear
his preaching. There's something about finding
out you've got cancer that does something to you. So I'm looking
forward very much to that. Hebrews chapter 8, verse 13.
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." I've entitled this message, The
New and the Old. We read both of those words in
that verse of scripture, the new and the old. What is meant by the new and
the old? This is not a contrast of age
when it's talking about the new and the old. It's not a reference
to being recent in time or being old in time. It's talking about
something that's different. Different. Not one's older than
the other in time, but one is completely different than the
other. The new and the old. Now in reality, as far as time
goes, the new is a whole lot older than the old. The new is
eternal. The old took place in time, but
in our experience, we know the old before the new. Now the new
is the gospel. The new is the covenant of grace. The new is Christ Jesus in the
New Testament. And it's always new. Salvation by Christ. It's always
fresh. It's always powerful. It never
gets old. It never gets stale. It's always
new. Like those mercies that are new. every morning. Now, there's no
doubt that our hearts sometimes grow stale and old, and it doesn't
seem new to us, but the problem's not with the newness of the gospel,
the problem's with us. This is always new, always fresh,
always powerful. The old is salvation by works. It's the Old Testament. It's
the commandments of God, the Ten Commandments, the moral law,
the civil law, the ceremonial law, the priesthood, the sacrifices. That is the Old Testament or
the Old Covenant. It is salvation by works. So we have the new and the old,
and we have men continually trying to blend the two together. I was listening to a man preach
recently, and he kept using this word, syncretism. Anybody know
what that word means? If you do, you're smart. I didn't
know what it meant, and I was embarrassed to ask the guy what
he meant by it. I didn't want to expose my ignorance,
so I heard it six or seven times, and I thought, what in the world
is that? And I went home and looked it up in a dictionary,
and actually, it's a very good word. Webster defines it as the attempt
to blend opposite and contradictory tenets into one system to produce
union and concord. That's what syncretism is. It's
trying to take two things that can't be brought together and
bring them together and try to make them work together. Now
that is precisely what men do with the old and new covenants.
They try to blend them together, make them work together. You
know, I thought of that. I'm sure you've noticed, for
instance, in Leviticus chapter 19, verse 19, we read where you're
forbidden to put linen and wool together. Now, why? Why? It's not because in and of itself
a garment made of linen and wool is bad. It's to teach us that
we're never to blend two things together. You can't blend grace
and works. It can't be done. I think of
the parable of the Lord gives of the taking the new cloth and
putting it on an old garment. He said, you can't do it. You
can't mix Christ's righteousness and human righteousness. It won't
work. It'll tear. He said, you don't
take new wine and place it into old bottles. You don't take the
wine of his grace, the wine of his spirit, and put it into your
old natural heart. It won't work. You have to be
given a new heart to receive His grace. Your old heart won't
receive His grace. This thing of trying to blend
the two together will not work. Now, I read in that passage of
Scripture in Revelation 21 where the Lord said, Behold, I make,
this is His work, I make all things new. We read of new doctrines. Turn with me to Mark chapter
one. Verse 22. And they were astonished at his
doctrine. For he taught them as one that
had authority, and not as the scribes. That scripture tickles
me every time I read it. I just love it. I love that slam
on the scribes. You know, they had all the things
they said, but it had no authority. It didn't recommend itself as
true. But everything the Lord said, everything that came out
of His mouth, it recommended itself as the very truth of God.
That's the way truth works. You know, when you hear something
true, you know it's true as soon as you hear it. You may not like it, but you
know it's true. You know it's the truth. That's
the words of our Lord. Now let's go on reading. And
there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit,
and he cried out, saying, Let us alone! What have we to do
with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us?
I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked
him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him. And when
the unclean spirit had torn him and cried with a loud voice,
he came out of him. And they were all amazed, insomuch
that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? What
new doctrine? Is this for with authority commanded
the, even the unclean spirits and they do obey him. The doctrine of Christ has the
very power of God. There's no such thing as old,
dry, dead doctrine. Not the doctrine of Christ. It's
the very Word of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they said, what new,
what different doctrine is this? What authority is in what He
says? We read in Matthew 26-28 of the
New Testament. He said, this is the blood of
the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of
sins. I love to think about that. When
his blood was shed, you know what took place? Sin was remitted. Sin was put away. Sin was taken
away. My sin was put away by what the
Lord did. And I love thinking about this.
It was put away before I was ever born. It was put away before
I knew anything about it. Christ Jesus put away my sin. He made it to not be. Don't you
love the blood of the New Testament? Don't you love the New Testament
and the promises of the New Testament? We read, In Ephesians 4, 24,
of the new man, the new man, which after God is created in
righteousness. Did you catch that word created?
That new man, it's created. It's a creative act of God. He
put something there that was not there before. It's created
in righteousness and true holiness. And then we read of the new nature. or excuse me, the new name, to
him that overcometh will I give to eat of the manna, and give
him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which
no man knoweth save he that receiveth it. And we have so many examples
in the scripture of the new name I have. Abraham. What was his name before Abraham?
Abram. And then God changed his name.
That H is the Hebrew breath, life. It's where life comes from.
Now, all of a sudden, he has life. Jacob's name is changed
to Israel. Jacob, heal, supplanter, deceiver. It wasn't much to him, but he's
given a new name by the Lord Jesus himself. He's called Israel. As a prince, thou has power with
God and you've prevailed. And that's true of every single
believer. Listen to me. You have power
with God. Isn't that amazing? What a glorious
new name. Paul's name was changed. He was
Saul. And you can remember the Old
Testament character Saul. He stood head and shoulders above
everybody else. He was a big dog. He was somebody.
And he changes his name to Paul. You know what that means? Diminutive.
Small. Little. Paul thought he's big.
He found out he was small. He gives a new name. What is
our new name? This is the name wherewith she
shall be called Jehovah Sidken you, the Lord our righteousness."
What a name that is. That's my name, the Lord our
righteousness. We read of new knowledge. Turn
with me to Colossians chapter 3 for a moment. Colossians chapter 3, verse 10. We put on the new man. We put on the new, which is renewed
in knowledge after the image of Him that created Him, where
there's neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision,
barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all and in
all. That's the new knowledge of the
new birth. I know that Christ is all. We have a new song. They
sang a new song. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. We have a new walk. As Christ
was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so
we should walk in newness of life. We have new service. Romans 7, 6 says we should serve
in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the leather.
We're journeying to the new Jerusalem. We're going to a new heavens
and a new earth. And here's a scripture that I
believe sums it up all of this. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature, a new creation. Old things are passed away and
behold, all things are become new and all things are of God. A new creation. Now I've heard
preachers debate over whether this is talking about something
in our subjective experience or something that's objective.
And the argument they would use is, well, it couldn't be subjective
because we still have a sinful nature and we can't say that
that sinful nature is gone. It's still there. We can't say
it's passed away. Therefore, he's not talking about something
subjective. He's talking about something objective, who we are
in Christ. And that's true. Old things have
passed away. My old standing before the law
has been passed away. And I've got a new standing before
that law. I am perfect in God's sight. I'm holy in God's sight.
That old standing has passed away. But it's also talking about
things in our subjective experience. You know, I now love what I once
hated. That's in my experience. And I now hate what I once loved. Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new. And all things are of God. All things in this new creation
are of God. Now, there's really no understanding
of verse 17 without some understanding of verse 18. I'm going to have
to understand what he means when he says all things are of God
if I'm going to understand what he's talking about when he says
if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. He's a new creature. Now, what is he referring to
when he says all things are of God? What's meant by all things? Well, the answer is found in
the context. all things of the new creation.
Whatever has anything to do with the new creation, it's of God. All things are of God in the
new creation. This is what we've been hearing
in the songs we've been singing. It's what we've been hearing
in the scriptures, what was in that special. All things are
of God. Now, creation. Think about creation
for just a moment. In the old creation, God had
no help. He created the universe without
any aid from anybody. He simply spaked the world into
existence. He had no help. And we would
consider it ridiculous. heretical and blasphemous to
think that he had help in creation, wouldn't we? I mean, somebody
that had that kind of view that somebody helped God out in creation,
we'd say, well, that's ridiculous. That's blasphemous. That's heretical.
We wouldn't accept that for a second. You know something that's worse
than that? is if somebody thinks God had
some help in the new creation. You know, the new creation is
actually more glorious than the physical creation. That God takes
somebody like me and makes me just like the Lord Jesus Christ,
perfectly conformed to His image, that He brings His great grace
upon me, that He puts away my sin. that He makes me the righteousness
of God in Him. Why, there's more glory in that
than there is in the first creation. And for someone to think that
God had to have some help in this new creation, that is unthinkable. Well, what things are of God
in the new creation? Well, all things that refer to
our new privileges, our new actions in this new creation. Now, you
think about this, that I have a desire, a craving to be found
in the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want to stand before
God in any way but in Him. And where that desire came from?
It didn't come from me. He placed that within me. I have
a desire to know the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to know him. I know exactly what Paul meant
when he said, oh, that I may know him. I want to know him. I feel like my knowledge of him
is so little compared to why I want to know him. Where'd that
desire come from? He put it there. It wouldn't
be there unless he put it there. Right now, I'm trusting the Lord
Jesus Christ. Where'd that faith come from?
He gave it to me. Right now, I love and adore the
Lord Jesus Christ, and I can say by His grace, I love Him
more now than I did five years ago. I see more glory in Him
now than I used to. I love Him. Where'd that love
come from? He gave it to me. It's His work. You see, within
my heart, my natural heart, it's barren and dead and vile and
evil, and nothing like that could come out of my heart. Nothing
but weeds could come out of my heart. This is His gift. Leave a man to himself and these
things shall never be. You know, the very idea of free
will is so ridiculous and ludicrous. If you know what you are, you
know better than that. And you know, you know sure as
if you're alive, if you have true faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, if you have a true desire for Him, if you really love Him,
if you want to walk with Him, if you want to follow Him, you
know where that came from. He gave that to you. It wasn't
in your natural heart. Do you believe? It's of God. Do you repent? It's of God. You see, every good gift and
every perfect gift cometh down from above. It comes from the
Father of lights, in whom is no variableness, neither shadow
of turning. You know that, don't you? Every
good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from above. Now you think of the privileges
of the new creation. They're all of God. What a privilege
to be chosen of God. Election. What a privilege to
have God choose me before time began. He knew me. That's of
God. It didn't have anything to do
with me. I didn't enter into that equation. It's His work alone.
You think of being predestinated to be conformed to the image
of Christ. That's of God. You think of Him purposing your
salvation. That's of God. Justification,
being made to where I'm really not guilty before God. And really
so, not as if I weren't, but I'm really not. I stand before
God without sin. That's of God. That's His work.
It's not my work. What about sanctification? Being
made holy, being made a partaker of the divine nature. That's
of God. That's not of man. That's of
God. That's His work. All things are
of God. All the actions of the new creation
or of God. And here's an example, the action
to the new creation. Here's a man that God has saved.
And he feels impressed, let's say, to go to some horrible place
away from his homeland to preach the gospel. Somebody said to
me recently, I thought it was kind of funny, we sing that song,
islands, sands, or Greenland snow. And they said, why do the
missionaries always go to island sands and never Greenland snow?
I guess because you'd rather be where it's warm. I mean, but
at any rate, let's think of a guy going to Greenland snow. He goes
to a place where nobody would ever want to go out of love to
the Lord, out of love for his gospel, wanting these people
to hear the gospel. He moves his wife and family
to preach the gospel to these people. And let's say his wife
gets sick and dies. Does he give up? Does he quit?
No. Out of love for his Master, out
of love to those people, he continues preaching the Gospel to those
people in this terrible environment. He himself gets sick. He's so
weak he can't even, gets to the place where he can't even preach
anymore. He's laying on his bed, dying. And perhaps he doesn't
have any visible results that any good came out of anything
he did. And yet he has no regrets. Gospel ought to be preached to
every creature. Whether anybody believes it or
not, it's still altogether glorious. And he dies. We admire this man. We admire this man. But we know
every bit of that came from the Lord, don't we? And he would
have been the first to tell you that if the Lord left him to
himself, he would be a wicked, evil, vile creature with no interest
in the Gospel at all. You see, even the actions of
the new creation. Those are of the Lord. Now, how are all things of God?
Well, first, all things of God are in their planning. You know,
if you want to build a house, what's the first thing you do?
You get a plan for it. Nobody ever plans, I mean, nobody
ever just does something without a plan for it. Well, the Lord
plans salvation. Here's three words I love. Here's
four words I love. They're all scriptural words.
Election. Foreknowledge. Predestination. Purpose. Those are good words,
aren't they? I love those words. You see,
the Lord planned salvation. He planned it all in eternity.
And just like when the Lord gave Moses instructions regarding
the construction of the tabernacle, he didn't leave anything up to
Moses, did he? He didn't say, well, make it however you want.
He gave exact instructions as to precisely how it's going to
be. And that's exactly how the Lord does the church. He planned
everything. But not only are all things of
God in planning, all things are of God in the purchase of it.
You see, he didn't plan it and then leave it up to us to see
what happens. No, the scripture says in Hebrews
1.3 that he by himself, remember all things are of God, he didn't
have any help in this, he by himself purged us of our sins. It didn't say He will purge us
if. It says He by Himself purged us, washed away our sins so that
I and everybody He died for, we do not have any sin. You do not have anything to feel
guilty about. The blood of Christ has washed
away your sin. It is gone. Now believe it. Believe it. Don't try to hold
on to something that makes you think maybe that's not altogether
true, because it is altogether true. I have no sin. He was manifested to take away
our sins, and in Him is what? No sin. And if I'm in Him, I
have right now no sin. and beloved. It's not as if I don't have sin,
but I really do. I have no sin. Believe that. Lay hold upon that. That's what
the Lord did. He by himself purged our sins. And notice that word by himself.
You know what that means? That means you didn't help out in
this thing. He did it by Himself with no help from you. He by
Himself purged, put away our sins. So He planned salvation. He purchased salvation. And He's
the one who applies salvation. He gives me a new heart to believe
this. He gives me a heart to receive
this. He gives me eyes to see. He gives
me ears to hear. He applies the blood to me. I
don't apply the blood to myself. You know, those people in that house where
the blood was over the door, somebody put the blood over the
door, but there's a lot of people where they didn't put the blood over
the door, somebody did it for them. God applies the blood to me in the
new creation. All things are of God in the maintaining of grace.
How quick would you fall away if he took his hand off of you?
How quick? How quick would you go to hell?
Very quick. Wouldn't even take a second.
And all things are of God in the completing of this great
work. When we stand before God, perfect and complete, just like
the Lord Jesus Christ, we'll know all things are of God. And He gets all the glory. Now,
we see how all things are of God in the new creation. Let
me ask you another question. Why are all things of God in
the new creation? I've got some pretty rock solid
reasons for that. First, and this is the one that
hits me first, because if they weren't, I'd be doomed. I'd be doomed. If one aspect,
any aspect of my salvation is in any way dependent upon me,
I will not be saved. That's just all there is to it.
If he doesn't do it all, there's no hope for me. There's one reason. And here's another reason why
all things are of God in the new creation, because this only
gives Him all the glory. He gets all the glory. There's
not one thing that I can glory in from myself. I say, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And I appeal to every believer, you know this is so. We are His
workmanship, created. in Christ Jesus unto good works
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Now all things are of God in salvation, aren't they? Every
aspect, all things are of God. Now this glorious truth, this
new doctrine, The doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ, the doctrine
of the scripture, different from the scribes and Pharisees, always
fresh, always powerful. And you know what is amazing
to me? I've been preaching now for, and I know this is only because of
the grace of God, but I've been preaching now for 27 years. That's
how long ago we started this church. And what I'm talking
about, this is what I believed when we first started. This is
exactly what I believed. This is what I was taught. It's more glorious, it's more
fresh, it's more powerful, and it's more new to me than it's
ever been. Now that's only because of His
grace, but that's real. The gospel's new to me. It's
not old. It's new. It's fresh. It's powerful. And you know, there's something
about the truth. This is what I love about the truth. It gets
hold of somebody. They may hear it and say, well,
I'm not going to listen to that fellow anymore. I don't like that. But
they can't get it out of their crawl. There's something about
the truth. You can't escape from it. It
gets you and won't let you go. Aren't you thankful for that?
You know, there's something about this that strengthens a man.
If you believe all things are of God, it'll give you some courage.
It'll give you some strength. And there's something so humbling
about this. This slays all self-sufficiency. I'll tell you what, I'm still so self-righteous and
proud. I've got so much of that in me,
and I hate it. And every time it raises its
ugly head, You're such a hypocrite for thinking
that way. It slays self-sufficiency. It lets you know that you're
nothing and He's everything. But it's a good thing to know
you're nothing. It's easy to trust Jesus Christ as your righteousness
before God when you truly don't have any, isn't it? It's easy. What a consolation for the man
who believes that salvation is of the Lord. It's so consoling,
so comforting to know all God requires of me, He provides. All God requires of me, He looks
to His Son for. All things are of God. Everything
we believe is in that statement, isn't it? All things are of God. This is encouraging to the sinner.
You don't have to bring anything to recommend you. You don't have
to bring your experience. You don't have to bring your
understanding. You don't have to bring your faith. You don't
have to bring your repentance. You don't bring anything to recommend
you to God. You come empty handed. All things are provided. All
things are now ready. Come to the feast. Why? Even
the wedding garments provided. The righteousness and merits
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the wedding garment. All
things are provided. Don't say, I can't believe, whoever
said you could, but you come to Christ for that faith. All
things are provided. Would you turn with me to Matthew
chapter nine for a moment? Matthew chapter nine, verse 27. And when Jesus departed thence,
two blind men followed Him, crying and saying, Thou Son of David,
have mercy on us. And when He was coming to the
house, the blind men came to Him. You know, when you come to Him,
you come blind, don't you? These two blind men came to Him. And
Jesus saith unto them, believe ye. Now look up for a
moment before we look at what he said. He didn't say, do you believe
you're saved? He didn't say, do you believe
you're a Christian? He didn't say, do you believe
that your experience back then was real? Or was it perhaps just
hypocrisy? He didn't say, do you believe
that the Lord's done something for you? He didn't say anything
like that. He said, believe ye that I am
able to do this. Now that's what I'm asking you
right now. I'm not asking anything about
your experience. I'm not asking anything about the things you
know. I'm not asking anything about the things you've done.
Forget it. Right now. Do you believe that
He is able to do this? Do you believe that His precious
blood is such that it makes you clean before God right now with
no help from you. You believe he's able to do that?
Do you believe that he is able to present you before the very
throne of God spotless, unblameable, perfect and complete? Let me
take it a step further. Do you believe he's already done
it? I'm not asking if you believe He will do it on Judgment Day.
Do you believe that when He was raised from the dead, it was
done? And when He ascended to the Father, you know who else
ascended to the Father? Everybody He died for. And He
presented them holy and unblameable and unreprovable in His very
sight. Do you believe that He is able to do this? This is the
only question. Do you believe He is able? I don't want to know about anything
else. Now beloved, that's what faith
is. Do you believe he's able to give
you faith? Do you believe he's able to give you repentance?
Do you believe he's able to preserve you? It's all a belief in his
ability. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I am persuaded, I am convinced that he is able
to keep that which I've committed to him. against that day. Being in Christ, I'm a new creation. And I really believe that. I
really do. I know the old man's still there,
but I know the new man's there too. Thank God for that. Now back to our text. Hebrews chapter 8. 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. Look back in chapter 7 and look
at the way he described this old covenant. He said, who is
made, talking about Melchizedek, not after the law of a carnal
commandment, that's what he calls the old covenant, a carnal commandment,
but after the power of an endless life. Verse 18, for there's verily
a disannoying of the commandment going before for the weakness
and the unprofitableness thereof. Now he's talking about the old
covenant. He's talking about salvation by works. He says it's weak and
unprofitable. And somebody says, how can that
be if God wrote it? The problem's not with the commandment, the
problem's with us. It won't save you. So in that sense, it's weak
and it's unprofitable. Look what it says in chapter
six or verse six of chapter eight. But now if he obtained a more
excellent ministry by how much also he's the mediator of a better
covenant, which was established upon better promises. For if
the first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been
sought for the second. Verse 13 of chapter 8, in that
he saith anew, he maketh the old first old, now that which
decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. That's talking about the old
covenant. But here's something else I like to think. Here's
another slant on this. This old man that I'm carrying
with me now, It's ready to vanish away. It's going to when I die. And then all there's going to
be is perfect likeness to Christ. You see, I have that right now.
I'm not going to be any more holy in heaven than I am right
now. Now, I believe that. I don't
understand it, but I believe it. Because I've been given this
new nature, this holy nature. I'm not gonna be any more holy
in heaven than I am right now. Here's the difference. This old
man's gonna be taken away. And that gives us some idea of
how much this old man brings us down. Because when I say I'm
not gonna be any more holy in heaven than I am right now, every
one of us think that is impossible. That shows how much this flesh
drags us down. But thank God, it's ready to
vanish away, and then I'll be perfectly conformed to His image. Out with the old, in with the
new. Let's pray.