Back in the days, some of us
can still remember when our schools taught history rather than social
studies, they taught certain things concerning history that
are very important to understanding. History has pivotal points. History has, if you understand
the movings of God's providence in history, and that's what history
is, it is his story. It's the story of God's works.
It has certain pivotal things that take place, things that
mark climactic change. And teachers used to teach history
referring to two very crucial, two really pivotal points in
history that transpired within 100 years of one another. One
of them was the coming and crucifixion of Christ, and of course, the
establishment of what men call Christianity. And the other was
the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. The destruction of
Jerusalem as it was known to that time, and it has never been
the same since. Both of these were dealt with
plainly in the scriptures, both in the prophets of the Old Testament
and in the declarations of our Lord Jesus in the New Testament.
He told us from the beginning. that it was never God's intention
for sinners to be saved by the observance of carnal, legal,
ceremonial ordinances such as those set forth in the law of
God and given to Israel as a nation in the worship of the Old Testament.
Those things were only typical pictures. They were only types
and representations of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, his
person as God, our Savior, and our being accepted of God in
him by his obedience and death as our substitute. The Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world to fulfill and to forever put away
all the carnal ordinances of Old Testament legal worship,
so that now we worship God in spirit and in truth. Now let's
begin our reading tonight in Hebrews chapter 6, or chapter
8 rather, and at verse 6. Now that Christ has come, any
observance, now listen carefully, I'm stating what I'm stating
tonight with great purpose. Now that Christ has come, any
observance of those laws and ceremonies by which God commanded
Israel to worship him in the Old Testament is worse than ingratitude,
it is base idolatry. To worship God through a Jewish
priest at a Jewish altar or in the observance of any of the
legal Jewish commands given by Moses to the children of Israel
is no more worshiping God than worshiping at a stump in the
heart of a dark tribe in the heart of Africa. We worship God
in spirit and in truth. Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 6.
Now he, the Lord Jesus Christ, hath obtained a more excellent
ministry than Aaron and all the Levitical priests, by how much
also he is the mediator, the only one there is, the mediator
of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
For if that 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 and with
the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with
their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead
them out of the land of Egypt, Because they continued not in
my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws into their
mind, and 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 all shall know me, all the
Israel of God, being taught of God, shall know me, from the
least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities will I remember
no more. 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 at verse 13 very carefully.
This will be our text this evening. In that he saith, he said it
back in Jeremiah chapter 31 and verse 31. He said it again in
chapter 8 of Hebrews and verse 8. In that he saith a new covenant,
a new covenant I've made the first old, he says. Now if the
second is new, the first has got to be old. The meaning is
simply this. Finding fault with the first
covenant, not because it was a faulty covenant insofar as
its purpose was concerned, but finding fault with the first
covenant because it was never God's intention that by obedience
to that covenant, men should be saved. God pictured in that
covenant what salvation is. God pictured in that covenant
how that salvation is accomplished. And it was only as men and women
saw Him who was represented in the tithe, only as they saw the
Lamb of God represented in the Paschal Lamb, only as they saw
the sacrifice of Christ represented in the morning and evening sacrifices,
only as they worshiped God, trusting His Son, who was portrayed in
those pictures, did they truly worship Him. Now then, finding
fault with that covenant because it was not designed to bring
men to God. It was not intended to make a
way of salvation, but only to point to the way of salvation
and turn our eyes to Christ. He takes away the first, that
he may establish the second. Hold your hands here and turn
to chapter 10 and verse 9. Our Lord says much the same thing
here. Hebrews 10 verse 9, he's talking about his purpose for
coming. Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. Now notice
specifically what he says is involved in doing the will of
God. He taketh away the first, the first covenant, the law of
carnal ordinances and commands. that he may establish the second,
doing the will of God by the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
That old covenant could never sanctify except ceremonially. That old covenant could never
cleanse except ceremonially. That old covenant could never
put away sin except ceremonially. That old covenant could never
make atonement for sin except ceremonially. But Christ has
come. He has by his sacrifice sanctified. He has, by His sacrifice, cleansed
us from sin. He has, by His sacrifice, made
us accepted with God and reconciled us to God. Alright, back here
in Hebrews chapter 8. Once Christ came, the old covenant
was antiquated, out of date, and made old. Made old not by
accident, made old not by some freak chance of circumstances,
but made old by God's design and purpose. Now that which decayeth
and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. This sentence is translated
in Young's literal translation this way. He hath made the first
old. And what doth become old is obsolete
and is nigh disappearing. In other words, that which God
has made old by the person and work of Christ, by the accomplishments
of Christ at Calvary, is now obsolete and all that's remaining
of it is rapidly vanishing away. Now, the destruction of Judaism,
the dissolution of the old covenant, the destruction of all those
outward symbols of religion was both gradual and climactic. It
was climactic in that it was done once for all when the Lord
Jesus said, it is finished. He bowed his head and gave up
the ghost, and the veil in the temple was rent from top to bottom. That's climactic. Can you imagine
the terror that must have seized the mind of that high priest
on that Passover day when he was going about his business,
his ordinary routines, doing what he had done many times before?
And suddenly that temple's veil split right smack dab in two.
What on earth is happening? What on earth is happening? He
climactically made the old covenant old and obsolete. The temple's
still standing. The veil is still there, torn
in two, but it's still there. The Jerusalem and the city of
Jerusalem and the priesthood is still there. But now it's
obsolete. No need for it because the veil
has been rent. The way for sinners to approach
God through Jesus Christ the Lord is now open. But it's also
gradual. This dissolution or disappearance
of the old covenant was gradual in this sense. It began way back
in the book of Genesis before it was ever announced. You remember
in Genesis 49 and verse 10. Look at it with me again. We
looked at it sometime last week, but turn back there if you will.
Genesis 49, 10. Jacob is giving prophecy concerning
the tribes of Israel and the accomplishments of God's purpose
in time to come. And he says the scepter shall
not depart from Judah. The scepter is the rod of law. But Judah didn't have a scepter.
The nation of Israel hadn't even been established yet. But it
was going to be as God had purposed that it would be for a period
of time. And now the Lord says the scepter shall not depart
from Judah once it's put in his hands. nor a lawgiver from between
his feet. The civil government of Jerusalem
and Israel, the civil government of Judah, shall not be dissolved,
though tried and tested, though persecuted, though at war time
and time again, it will not be dissolved until Shiloh comes. Until Christ comes. Now when
Christ comes, it will be dissolved. That's the prophecy. And unto
him, Shiloh, the Lord Jesus Christ, the gathering of the people will
be. Rex read about it in Isaiah 43. The Lord God says to the
north, give up. To the south, keep not back.
He'll gather his sons from the east and from the west. He'll
say to them, they're far off. Come unto me. And when he says
come, they'll come. He will fetch them to him by
his almighty grace. All right, now this was spoken
of in Judah's day. But the Chaldeans came then,
and they took captive the city Jerusalem. They took captive
the Temple and the Ark of the Covenant, that imminent type
of Christ. And when they took it captive,
God was demonstrating a gradual dissolution of Judaism and of
Jewish worship and of the Old Covenant. As a matter of fact,
from the time of the Chaldeans, Until the utter desolation of
Jerusalem and of Judaism, Judaism was in disarray and in confusion,
the priesthood and the services of the priesthood were in constant
confusion. When John the Baptist came announcing
that the Lord Jesus Christ was in the world, He came declaring
that Messiah has come, saying, Behold, the Lamb of God which
taketh away, not the Lamb of God who has come to make an offer
to take it away, but the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin
of the world, obviously not of everyone in the world. Not everyone's
sins taken away. That's as obvious as those on
your face. What's he talking about then? He takes away the
sins of his people in all parts of the world. He takes away the
sins of the world of his elect. Behold, the Lamb of God, who
takes away the sin of the world, John declared. And when he did,
he was saying to Israel, and they understood what he was saying.
That's the reason he was opposed. They understood he is saying
Messiah has come. He is saying that the message
of the covenant promised in Malachi chapter 4 has come. He's saying
the old is vanishing away, the new now stands. And then our
Lord Jesus, when he had finished his work, when he had made an
end of sin and brought in everlasting righteousness by his obedience
and death as our covenant surety, once he was risen from the dead,
once he was exalted to the throne of God as King of kings and Lord
of lords, the old covenant was completely abolished. When the
day of Pentecost came, and our Lord Jesus poured out His Spirit
upon all flesh, so that Jews and Gentiles alike were made
to hear and taste of His grace, Joel's prophecy in Joel chapter
2 was fulfilled. And God gave testimony that it
was done. Christ is King. Christ is King. Now, Peter gave us a good lesson.
He gave us a good example. When you read the scriptures,
don't ever try to interpret scriptures by history. Don't do that. Don't try to interpret scripture
by your newspaper. Folks look at what's going on
in Israel and say, whoa, this is it. Pay no attention to that.
Wait until it's done. And then interpret history by
the scriptures. Nobody ever understood Joel's prophecy in Joel chapter
2. Not one commentator. And all the ancient Jewish writings,
not one of them, understood what was written in Joel chapter 2.
Until Peter said, boys, this is it. This is what Joel was
talking about. And as we look at the things
that transpire in time, we come to understand something of them
in the light of scripture. We never, never, never interpret
scripture in the light of the things that transpire in time.
Our Lord told us plainly that this was the accomplishment of
what he was speaking of in John chapter 4. Turn over there if
you will. John chapter 4. The Samaritans and the Jews,
just the fact that the Samaritans existed and there was a division
among the Jews and the Samaritans was another demonstration that
this old covenant was being dissolved. It was not a permanent thing.
Our Lord is here conferring with this Samaritan woman. And he
saith to her, verse 21, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh when
you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship
the Father. You worship you know not what. We know what we worship
for salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh and now is.
Isn't that amazing? I'm right here. The hour cometh
and now is. Things are now transpiring that
folks don't grasp, that folks don't understand. The hour cometh
and now is when true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. Not at this mountain here in
Jerusalem or that mountain you speak of in Samaria, but rather
in spirit and in truth. He's saying to this woman, the
time has now come when this temple and this holy place and these
ceremonies and this law is no longer significant. I stand before
you who am the resurrection and the life, who am God Almighty,
who am the way to God. He says, I speak to you in me.
Read on, read on. God is spirit and they that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Verse 25. The woman
saith to him, Sir, I know that Messiah comes, which is called
Christ. When he has come, he will tell
us all things. Jesus said to her, I that speak
unto thee, am. He says, you're talking about
the I am? You're looking at it. You're
looking at it. And yet the temple was still
standing. The Jewish order of worship, insofar as the outward
symbols of it are concerned, were not physically destroyed,
as our Lord had prophesied they would be. Now, if you want to
read at your leisure the opening paragraphs of Matthew 24, that's
exactly what our Lord was talking about in Matthew 24, when he
talked about that time of great tribulation. He talked about
that time when great persecution would come. He talked about the
time when there would not be one stone left on top of another
in that temple. He's talking about the destruction
of Jerusalem and of Judaism as he spoke to those folks in Matthew
24. Yet at the time the book of Hebrews was written, the time
was rapidly approaching when God would fulfill that Matthew
24 prophecy. When he would destroy the visible
symbols of the old covenant. And that's what's described in
verse 13. Look at it again. In that he saith a new covenant,
he hath made the first old, Now that which decayeth and waxeth
old, that which is obsolete, is ready to vanish away. This
is, in my opinion, one of the most important and least understood
texts of scripture in the book of Hebrews. So I ask your careful
attention as I endeavor to preach to you what this text teaches.
You have the title of my message in the text itself. He hath made
the first old. Now if you want a subtitle, being
as how everybody in the world is now kind of focused on Christmas,
my family and yours, we don't pay any attention to the holidays
as far as spiritual significance is concerned. There's not any
spiritual significance to it at all, none whatsoever. If you
were to pick one day of the year in which I'll guarantee you the
Son of God did not come into this world, it was December 25th.
That's one day certain it didn't transpire. The day that men use
and make the idolatrous superstitions claims with regard to has absolutely
no relevance to scripture. But Christ did come. The Son
of God did invade this world. And I'll tell you what it means.
It means Judaism is over. It means the reality has replaced
the type. It means that God deals with
men not nationally, but personally. And it means that God deals with
men in mercy on the basis of blood atonement. Now that's what's
declared here in Hebrews 8.13. This is what I want you to see
from my text. In the establishing of the old covenant, or in the
establishing of the new covenant, the Lord God made the old Levitical,
legal, ceremonial covenant completely obsolete. Fulfilled it, and by
fulfilling it, has abolished it. Now I didn't say destroyed
it. There's a big difference. There's
a big difference. Our Lord said, I came not to
destroy the law, but to fulfill it. And fulfilling it, he put
an end to it. Christ is the E-N-D of the law. He's the end of it. You can get
your dictionary and find out what all that word end means.
That's what he is. He's the end of it. He fulfilled
it, he put a period to it, and he said that's it. This is as
far as the law goes. Turn to Galatians chapter 5 for
a moment. The Old Covenant served its day,
but it's now disappeared forever. It is used no more. Like an old
garment rots and vanishes away, that Old Covenant has been put
away by God's purpose. This was a problem at Galatia.
Now, let me tell you how serious it was. Peter, in Galatians chapter
2, Paul speaks of Peter when he was at Antioch. He'd come
down there to visit with those Gentile brethren, and they were
having a, I guess they were having some kind of a feast, I don't
know what it was, but I suspect they were eating pork chops.
And then some Jewish brethren came down, and Peter saw them
coming. Now this is all they did, this
is all they did, lest they smell pork chops on his breast. He
just scooted away from the table and stood over here. That's all
he did. But by his action, he was declaring
the law still to be in effect. And Paul withstood him to the
face. And he said, you've led a dissimulation against the gospel
of God's grace. Your actions are declaring the
salvation by your works. And I withstood him to the face.
And the Galatians picked up on this. The Judaizers came to Galatia
trying to teach the Gentile believers to be circumcised and keep the
law. I guarantee you, not one of them came and said, now boys
if you want to be saved, the thing you have to do is keep
the law. There's nothing cunning or deceitful about that, that's
open red flag. What they did say is we're saved
by grace, but now if you really want to be a good Christian,
if you really want to be close to God, if you really want to
be sanctified, if you really want to be holy, you've got to
live by the law. Now look at what Paul says in
Galatians 5. Stand fast, therefore, with the
liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say to you,
that if you be circumcised, Christ is nothing to you. Christ shall
profit you nothing. As long as you attempt to get
to God, or to get favor from God, or to get acceptance with
God, or to gain holiness before God by something you do, you
don't know Christ. He'll profit you nothing. But
he don't. Verse 3. For I testify again
to every man that is circumcised. He's a debtor to do the whole
law. Christ has become of no effect unto you. He didn't say
Christ is of no effect. That's not going to happen. He
said Christ is of no effect to you. You haven't received any
benefit from his mercy. Whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you've fallen from grace. You've missed the gospel.
For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith. For in Christ Jesus, listen now,
neither circumcision of Abel hath any vain, nor uncircumcision. Who your mama and daddy was doesn't
matter a hill of beans to God. Whether you were raised in religion
or out of religion is irrelevant. Whether you were raised to live
by the commandments or raised to disobey the commandments is
irrelevant, totally irrelevant as far as your acceptance with
God's concern. Your morality or lack of morality, your religious
orthodoxy or your pagan idolatry is irrelevant insofar as you're
standing before God's concern. This is the only thing that matters,
faith, which works by love. That's all. In other words, your
past will not commend you to God. And bless God, your past
will keep you from God. Faith works by love. All true
worship then is spiritual, heart worship. We're no longer under
the law. We no longer live under that
carnal legal covenant of works. Turn to Colossians chapter 2
for a moment. Colossians 2. Verse six, as you have therefore
received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in him. You received
him by faith, walk with him by faith. Rooted and built up in
him, established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding
therein with thanksgiving, beware. Oh, sons of God, beware. Lest
any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world. Now read the rest
of the chapter and you'll find out when he says rudiments of
the world, he's talking about the ordinances and laws and mosaic
economy. After carnal religion and not
after Christ. How can you say that? Verse 12,
verse 13 rather. Because we're dead. We were dead
in our sins and uncircumcision of our flesh. Yet now hath he
quickened us together with Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses.
Well, how did he do that? Blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. Now, what on
earth could be plainer than that? What did Christ do with the law?
What did he do with it? Here's the ordinance. Love God
with all your heart. That'll never be for you. It's
against you. It's against you. It'll never
be for you. Not in you personally. Love your
neighbor as yourself. That'll never be for you. It's
written against you, condemned you, and your own conscience
says it so. Can't do it. What did Christ do? He took it.
nailed it to his cross and blotted out the ordinance, fulfilling
it all for us. Now, the law has nothing to speak
against us. He has forgiven us our trespasses. Now this thing that was spoken
of here in Hebrews 8.13, the dissolving, the becoming old,
making obsolete of the old covenant, is something that's We can't
possibly over-exaggerate or overstate. That which took place in Jerusalem
in 70 AD is of immense importance. You see, God had been at work
among the Jews for 2,000 years. He had established an elaborate
system, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of laws given to
the Jews, telling them what kind of clothes to wear and when to
wear them. Telling them what to eat, what not to eat. Telling
them how to work, when to work, when to quit working. Telling
them how to worship and when to worship. Requiring that they
obey his law under penalty of death. And he promised all the
blessings of the old covenant to them only conditionally upon
their obedience to the law. That's the reason we're always
in trouble. They couldn't obey it. They thought they could,
but they couldn't. They never did obey it, not at
all. But that old elaborate ceremony and all things connected with
the law was the Jewish way of life, it was their way of worship,
their way of religion. When the Lord Jesus came, he
understood, or they understood, exactly what his claims were.
He told them he was son of God and he picked up rocks and was
going to kill him. He told them he's Messiah the King. They said,
if you're the cross, tell us plainly. He said, I told you over and
over again. And they kept pretending they didn't understand, but they
understood plainly. They said, this man claims to be king. This
man claims to be God Almighty. If we leave him go, all our nation
will be destroyed, and all of us are going to lose our jobs.
Look, we won't have any church to go to, any place to go, anybody
to pay our salaries. And for that, they crucified
him. and that persecuted all who claimed to believe in his
name. You see, the gospel of Christ threatened the very core
of Jewish life and religion. By declaring that the Messiah
had come, that Jesus of Nazareth was and is the Christ, Christianity
declared Judaism is null and void. It's meaningless. The great
mass of Israel rejected our Lord's claim, though he spoke it plainly. And that resulted in his crucifixion,
them calling for Pilate to put him to death. The Jews, you see,
must have looked at him and must have heard his claims and said,
well, what will become of our way of life? So how can you be
sure of that? Because I've been there. You
have too. I meet up with preachers frequently.
confronted with the gospel of God's free grace, their first
initial response is, if I preach that, what's going to happen
to our church? First response. And most of them count the cost
and say I won't preach it. Most of them do. What will become
of our church? What will become of our way of
life? This is exactly what happened with Stephen. Read Acts chapter
6. Stephen demonstrated with the plainest terms possible.
He demonstrated irrefutably with irresistible argument from history
and from scripture that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah of
God of whom all the prophets spoke. And they took up stones
and killed him. We're told in Acts chapter 6
verse 13, they set up false witnesses which said, this man seeth not
to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law.
For we've heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall
destroy this place and shall change the customs which Moses
delivered to us. Now that's the first meaning
of what happened there. That's the meaning of Christianity
as far as the Jews were concerned. It meant the destruction of their
old ways, the vanishing of the first covenant, and they sensed
it. Stephen spoke against this place,
they said, that is against Jerusalem. Against the temple and against
the law. And they really believe that the gospel of Christ threatened
the very existence of Judaism. And they had reason to believe
that, Bobby. It did. It did. The gospel of Christ
threatens the existence of all carnal, man-centered religion. You can't have both. You can't
have both. Luke chapter 19, turn there if
you will. Not only had our Lord actually
said that the temple would be destroyed, He predicted the destruction
of the entire city of Jerusalem. Luke 19 verse 43. The Lord Jesus says, For the day
shall come upon thee, that thine enemies will cast a trench about
thee, encompass thee round, and keep thee on every side. and
shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within
thee, and they shall not leave thee one stone upon another,
because thou knowest not the time of thy visitation. That
is to say, these Jewish people and the early Christians were
to be made to understand that even though these believers were
meek and would not for anything take up a sword against another,
you would not find them marching with any army against any religious
order, be it Jewish, Muslim, or otherwise. Nevertheless, the
very heart of the gospel means the destruction of man's religion,
means the destruction of carnal worship. And the time came in
70 AD. For decades before and after
the birth of our Lord, the political atmosphere in Jerusalem was so
tense, so thick, so heavy you could cut it with a knife. The
rebellion of the Jews against their Roman oppressors was constant,
a constant fomenting turmoil. In September 66 AD, the Roman
emperor Florus, the Roman governor of Judea, provoked the Jews terribly
by raiding the temple and taking from them the treasures of the
temple for taxation to Rome, which he thought they were withholding
from him. And that provoked a riot, a riot which he ruthlessly put
down. He allowed his soldiers not only
to murder and slaughter and crucify people, but to plunder portions
of Jerusalem at leisure. Eleazar, the captain of the temple,
persuaded the priests no longer to offer daily sacrifices for
the Roman emperor. And then, in a surge of folly
as well as courage, they led an attack against the fortress
in Jerusalem that was guarded by the Romans. And the Romans
were, needless to say, upset. Vaspasian, the Roman general
in 67 AD, took Jerusalem, led the nation of Israel into captivity
and possessed everything except the city of Jerusalem itself.
And then he went back to Rome to become emperor and left Jerusalem
in the hands of his son Titus. And Titus laid the city in sage
for five months, for five months. He kept the city in captivity.
And then he leveled it. I mean, he leveled it. Not one
stone left on another in that city. And it came to pass, as
Daniel had said, the abomination of desolation had taken place.
And that was the end of Judaism. Now what's called Judaism today,
what you see over in Tel Aviv, and what you see when you see
these even the most conservative, ascetic Jews in various large
cities around the country, and all of their religious superstition
and all of their religious works, what you see as Judaism today
is not even similar to Old Testament Judaism. That was destroyed forever
in 70 A.D. Well, preacher, what on earth
does all that have to do with us? What does all that mean to us?
The destruction of Jerusalem in 78 A.D. is a testimony to
the world. that Jesus Christ, God's Son,
who came in human flesh 2,000 years ago, is indeed who He said
He was, the fulfilling of all the Old Testament prophets, the
fulfilling of all the law, the fulfilling of all the types,
the fulfilling of all the ceremonies. He is indeed the Christ, the
Lamb of God, King of kings and Lord of lords, and all who come
to God must come by Him. There's no other way. What does
it mean? The destruction of Jerusalem
was not an act of anti-Semitism, it may have been on the part
of the Romans, but it was not an act of anti-Semitism in reality,
rather it was an act of divine judgment. Our Lord said this
is why it happened, because you knew not the day of your visitation. I came here. I preached to you. I proclaimed myself to you and
the gospel of my grace to you. And I called to you and called
you to repentance by prophet, by John the Baptist, by my own
lips. And you knew not the day of your visitation. Therefore,
destruction has come upon you. And it will upon all who despise
the day of his grace. One of the early church fathers,
Athanasius, lived in 373 AD, put it this way. He said, the
destruction of Jerusalem is a sign and an important proof of the
coming of the word of God, that Jerusalem no longer stands. For when the truth was there,
what need they any more of the shadow? And as this was why Jerusalem
stood till then, namely, that the Jews might be exercised in
the types as a preparation for the reality. So what does it
mean to us? Three things. It means, first
of all, that the carnal has been replaced by the spiritual. The
type has been replaced by the reality. The Passover, the Sabbath
days, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the temple, the veil, the holy
place, the most holy place, the Ark of the Covenant, all of it
has been put away now because Christ has come. He's come. And now we are the circumcision.
What did Paul say? We are the circumcision. We're
the people of God. We're the Israel of God who worship
God in spirit and in truth. and rejoice in Christ Jesus,
believe on the Son of God and have no confidence in the flesh.
Secondly, it means this, grace is personal. Grace is personal. Now listen
to me. I know exactly what I'm talking
about. Folks today try to keep bringing law and grace back together
and they'll bring their babies to the front of the church and
slosh a little water on their face and talk about bringing
them into the covenant because they believe grace is family.
Grace is not family. You cannot believe for your sons
and daughters, nor can I. We cannot give them life and
faith. We cannot, of ourselves, bring
them into the kingdom of God. It can't be done. All we can
do is delude them with a false hope. Grace is personal. How is it that sinners come to
believe on the Son of God? When God commands the light to
shine out of darkness. into our dark hearts and gives
us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Oh, Spirit of God, cause your
word to shine forth in the hearts of men to give the light of the
knowledge of Christ. I beg of you that you pray for
your pastor, not for me only, but for every man who preaches
the gospel of God's free grace. And particularly, as we come
together here week after week, three times a week, preaching
of the word, the lady stands here and teaches the class. Sunday
mornings, these folks teach the children. Pray that God will
be pleased to make his light to shine in our hearts by his
word, by his spirit. If God turns the light on, men
will see. And if God doesn't turn the light
on, Lindsay, there's no way on this earth we can make them see.
Can't be done. Well, preacher, that just shuts
us up to Christ. Yeah, it does. That means, preacher, that all
the shenanigans that go on in religion, programs and all the
compromise and all the entertainment and all the methods and all the
gimmicks and all the tricks are useless, worse than useless,
they're deceiving to the souls of men. Deceiving to the souls
of men. You wonder why I don't give some
kind of an invitation, commonly called invitation, get folks
to be stirred up emotionally Persuade them, massage their
minds a little bit, get them to come down to the front and
make a perfection of faith. Why? Because it only deceives men.
Nobody's ever been saved in that mess. Nobody. Nobody. Only deceived. But how are men
saved? When saying you hear the word,
and you hear the word, and you hear the word, and you hear the
word, and God turns the light on. Verify. Is that what happened
with you? That's what God does for sinners. Thirdly, this is
what it means. God is merciful. He says in verse 12, I will be
merciful to their iniquities and their sins. We'll remember
their sins no more. God delights in mercy. He promises for a covenant people
to be merciful to all our iniquities. That word West takes in every
kind of sin. Iniquity, transgression, and
sin. Past, present, and future. And to remember our sins no more.
But there's a big problem. It's called justice. Justice. For this same God says the soul
that sinneth it must die. This same God declares I will
by no means clear the guilty. Well how can both be so? One
way. through the blood, listen now,
through the blood, Hebrews 13, 20, of the everlasting covenant. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
has fully satisfied the justice of God Almighty in the room instead
of His covenant people so that God, looking on the blood of
His Son, says, I will remember their sins no more! I've already
remembered them against my son and he canceled their debt. Now
they go free. Thank God the old has been put
away by God himself and now he's made all things new in Jesus
Christ the Lord. Amen.