like Galatians and Colossians,
Paul is writing into the Hebrews to deal with the Old and the
New Covenant. He's writing to formerly religious
Jews, formerly they would have been Judaizers, that would have
been the religion, Judaism. And Paul expounds even more so
than perhaps in Colossians and Galatians that the distinct difference
between the Old Testament, the Old Covenant, and they translate
the same, Old Testament, Old Covenant, it's actually the same
word, and the new, and how that the Lord's people are not to
return to the Old Covenant. They're not to return to the
law. There is no life in the law. Then, Paul continually points
us like all of scripture, to the focal point of Hebrews, and
it's Christ. That's the reason that we don't
return to the law. Christ is the reason. Let's read our text
here at Hebrews 1, verse 1. God, who at sundry times and
in diverse manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the
prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,
whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made
the world, the worlds. Let's stop there. Paul says God
chose to speak in sundry times and in diverse manners. He chose
to speak in old and mysteries and in types and in pictures. And we use the allegories now
that many of them spoke, but he spoke through the prophets
under the fathers. You know that he revealed himself
in many different scenarios to his people of old. He spoke to
Adam physically, walking with Adam in the cool of the evening,
but we know it was the voice of the Lord that was walking
in the cool of the evening. After that Adam had sinned and
made his covering out of fig leaves, the Lord spoke to him,
physically spoke. We see that he spoke unto Cain.
He spoke unto Abel whenever they offered up sacrifice. He had
no respect unto Cain and Abel. I had no respect unto Cain and
his sacrifice, but unto Abel he did because Abel brought blood
and Cain brought the works of his hand. He spoken to Noah and
he said, Noah, build an ark for it's going to rain. Noah found
grace in the eyes of the Lord by God giving it to him. He spoken
to Moses through a burning bush. He spoke unto Abraham, he said,
Abraham, I am thy shield, I am thy exceeding great reward. Get
thee up out of this place into a land and country, which I'll
show you. Then he revealed himself unto Abraham, the physical manifestation
being the priest, the order of Melchizedek, didn't he? So he
spoke in many different ways to people of old and didn't go
through the prophets into the minor prophets. The only time
that the Lord spoke was through that prophet. Sometimes there
would be many prophets that would be speaking and sometimes there
would just be one and sometimes there would be zero prophets
speaking. There's always been false prophets. throughout all
the Old Testament, and even now, there's always false prophets.
I actually saw someone this week, and it was a woman, and her title
was Dr. Prophetess, and I can't remember
her name now. So she's a doctor and a prophetess.
And I thought, okay, well, you might be a doctor if you went
to school somewheres and learn, but a prophet's something that's
called of the Lord and Christ was the last prophet, wasn't
he? He was the reason for all the prophecies. He was the fulfillment
of all the prophecies. Everything in this book was a
prophecy about him, about the finished work of Christ, about
the judgment and the wrath of God to come because of sin. We
see that the prophecies are no longer necessary. Prophets are
no longer necessary because Christ came. The only prophecy we have
now is that, behold, I come quickly. The Lord's coming back. That's
the prophecy, isn't it? That's what we cleave to. No,
we just declare the Lord's gospel. We declare this new covenant.
We declare Him. Now all these prophets of old,
they did just that. They spoke what the Lord had
given them. They spoke the truth about the Lord. They spoke what
God said. My hope is that every time we
gather together, we do the same thing. We speak what God has
said. Not something new, not something
entertaining, not something that may get a ruse out of the flesh,
but no, what God has said. It's in spite and despite of
us, regardless of our opinion, what God has said. That's what
we want to hear when we come together. Men try to take this
old covenant that was in the Old Testament and the prophecies
that were given and put men under the law saying that it's the
covenant of works that you must keep. Yes, it's all of grace,
but you have to do this and you have to do that. That's the old
covenant. It's gone. Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness. This is what Paul is bringing
to light here. He's saying God at sundry times
and in diverse manners, he used to speak. Now he speaks one way,
only one. That word his is in italics.
It's the word son. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
how he speaks, through and by his spirit. That's how he speaks. Now we just say what God said
and he chooses whether to speak or not to speak. Can you imagine
everything I understand what I'm saying here. If he chooses
to speak, we hear. If he doesn't, we'll never see
and we'll never hear. And the best example I can give
us is can you imagine the children of Israel seeing physically everything
that they saw? The 10 plagues of Egypt. You
just start right there if you want to. 10 plagues of Egypt,
all the things that happened to the Egyptians didn't happen
to the children of Israel. The Lord, by his providence,
sheltered them, protected them. The scripture's clear that the
land of Israel was completely black in so much they could feel
it, a darkness that could be felt. And yet in the land of
Goshen, where the Lord's children were, they had light. They had
light. The Lord kept them from that
darkness. What is that a picture of? It's
a picture of the Lord's people being kept by His power, being
shown His light, and everyone else is left in darkness. It's
Him. He does that. It's by His choice. We see all the plagues that happened,
the fire, the hell that came that was on fire, the death,
all the way to the death of the firstborn. And yet the death
of the firstborn didn't come to the children of Israel. Why?
For one reason, the blood of the lamb. They saw all these
things. They heard the wailing of the
Egyptians. And then the Lord gives great deliverance and they
leave. They go forth into the They're free. Think about the
miracle of just them being released from the bondage of Egypt. What
clutches the Egyptians would have had a hold of all these
slaves that did all of this work for them. The Egyptians didn't
have to do the work because the children of Israel did the work
for them. yet the Lord brought about mighty deliverance by his
wonders, by his power. And the children of Israel witnessed
every single one." Well, then they get to the Red Sea and it
would seem as you and I are the same way would have been like,
well, did the Lord deliver us just to let us die here? I mean,
that's, we've thought the same thing. It's different scenarios,
physically speaking, but No, the Lord was going to deliver
them again, wasn't he? Over the Red Sea. All these are allegories,
pictures of the Lord endearing the wrath of God on the cross
of Calvary. That's what the 10 plagues represent. And then the
children of Israel passing through the Red Sea. Can you imagine
the walls of the sea being folded back and they're not walking
across through mud, they're walking on dry land. There was no wrath
for the children of Israel because they were sheltered by the Lord.
It's a picture of what Christ has done for his people. There
is nothing that death can do to touch the child of God. The
children of Israel saw all of this. Then they continued going. They went to Mount Sinai. They
saw the earth open up and literally swallow up those who were opposed
to God, those that were blasphemous against God. The earth swallowed
them up. They saw that. They saw the fire on top of Mount
Sinai and the smoke and the lightning. They saw the Lord's glory. They
saw his splendor, so to speak. They saw his power, some of it. You understand what I'm saying?
They saw all of these things, physically saw them. Their shoes
never wore out in 40 years in the wilderness. They saw the
manna fall from heaven. And yet, some of those men and women died
and went to hell. Why? Because the Lord did not
give grace for them to believe the truth. The Lord did not give
grace for them to believe the truth. It's all by grace. It's
all by grace. It is not that every one of them
were elect of God, every one of them because of their last
name being Israel, because of them having that title, they
were guaranteed a spot in glory that had nothing to do with it.
Physical Israel was called, yes, but it's spiritual Israel that
the Lord came to save. Somebody said, are you saying
the church replaced Israel? I'm saying the church is Israel.
and always has been since the foundation of the earth. God's
chosen people are his chosen people in Christ, not a physical
people over in the Middle East is not where Israel is. Israel
is right here, brethren. Israel is where the kingdom of
the Lord is. Israel is his chosen people, according, not the flesh,
but according to the spirit given in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Then they're brought to the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ being all, being all their righteousness, all
of our wisdom, sanctification, and redemption. That's what the
new covenant does. It's the covenant of grace. It
reveals he is all. The children of Israel, they
were given the old covenant, weren't they? They were given
the old covenant. When they got to Mount Sinai,
God said, if you want to worship me, this is how you must worship
me. And he said, we're going to set up a tavern. You can read
Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, all the ordinances and the continual
sacrifice that had to be made, daily sacrifice that had to be
made, everything in order for them to be able to worship God.
That was their worship. And that was the covenant of
works. Do this and live. Do this and live. If you don't
do this, you will die. You will die. This is the covenant
of works. And it is to be said that it
could never could never bring us into redemption. It never
could have redeemed the Lord's people because it was what we
were doing. It was because what was done
in the flesh could never have brought about redemption. It
took the sacrifice of one that was perfect. In Hebrews, we're
gonna see that it's not by the blood of bulls and goats that
the priest stood and offered up daily, but by His blood. His blood is what brought about
redemption, not about how many sacrifices they made, not how
good they did, not, and they had to keep all of these ordinances.
They had to keep them in order to have worship, a communion
of whatever sort they could with God, if they believed God. They
were saved looking to the cross forward. We're saved looking
to the, and you understand it's Christ of the cross as we sung
the first hour, but we're saved looking to the Christ of the
cross that's already happened. The picture that they brought
when they worshiped wasn't that they were worshiping that little
lamb that was offered up. They weren't worshiping the blood
that was being spilled there. They were worshiping the Lamb
of God. They were looking forward to
the cross. But even looking forward, they
could not enter into the holiest of holies. Why? Because that
blood that was offered, no matter what animal they brought, could
not take away sin. It was not able to remit sin.
And yet Lord said, if you want to worship me, this is where
I'll meet you is at this altar. And you have to do it this way
until the Lord Jesus Christ comes. God no longer speaks to the prophets.
God no longer asks or demands. He doesn't ask anything, does
he? Got to be careful. Sometimes some of them old words
creep in. Lord never asked anybody for
anything, did he? He demands. He demands and we do. Lord never
demands sacrifice anymore from you and me. Do you mean it's
not, he's not demanding that I do this and I do that. God
doesn't demand anything from you and I anymore. Anything that
he requires of his people in this new covenant of grace, he
looks to his darling son at his right hand who is seated and
he says, satisfied, satisfied. That's what the new covenant
is. It's not the covenant of works anymore. It's the covenant
of grace. He only speaks through and by
his son now. The simplicity of hearing Christ,
brethren, is taking the word do, which would represent the
old covenant, and changing it to the word done, which is the
new covenant. The word do is the responsibility
of men and women. The word done is the responsibility
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what was his cry from the
cross? It is finished. It's done. It's done. That's
the simplicity of the new covenant. Hebrew deals with the result
of hearing the son say, it is finished. He says that the Lord
tooketh away, he taketh away the first that he might establish
the second. Now understand that the Lord
in this first covenant, it couldn't just be excused. It couldn't
just be omitted. It had to be kept. It had to
be kept and the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled that covenant on the
cross of Calvary. He took it away. How did he do
that? By the sacrifice of himself. He is the end of the law for
righteousness. He satisfied God's demand in
every ordinance and every and all the pictures and types of
all the ceremonies that they did. You remember when the Lord
was on the face of the earth, they were still doing all of
the feasts. They were doing the feast of the tabernacles where
they literally, they went outside their house and they had to build
a tent and they had to stay outside there for eight days. They had
to stay out there. What's that a picture of? Whenever
they were in the wilderness, they had to pitch a tent, but
it's a picture of, of this earth is not our home. We have a, we
have a heavenly home found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what the picture is. They kept all the ordinances
thinking they were obeying God and they were good enough. And
yet the Lord says, you can't please me by what you do. It's
the new covenant that's going to bring about salvation. It's
the new covenant that's going to allow you to enter into the
holiest of holies. It's the new covenant. And that's
what Jesus Christ established, taking away the covenant of works
by his own works, by his own works, fulfilling the law's demand.
taking away the covenant of the law and establishing the covenant
of grace. The old covenant brethren of
works has ceased by the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, by
his life, his death, his burial and his resurrection. That is
the old covenant. It's ceased. He's, he's caused it to cease
by that, by his life, death, burial and resurrection. Therefore
he says in Romans 10, Christ is the end of the law for righteousness.
full righteousness to everyone that believed, every ordinance
fulfilled, every law kept. You and I could never keep a
single law, could we? But God, who is rich in mercy,
where in his great love wherewith he loved us, he sent his son,
being born of a woman, being born under the law to redeem
them that are under the law. Being made a curse for us, for
the scripture says, cursed is everyone that hangeth upon a
tree. Being made sin, who knew no sin, that we would be made
the righteousness of God in him. He fulfilled everything necessary
according to the old covenant to establish the new covenant. What mercy there is in God choosing
to redeem a people. The only reason God is only obligated
by his word, He chose to do, he chose, he spoke, I will and
you shall, I will redeem you. I've bought you, he obligated
himself in doing so. We don't obligate God to do anything.
But he must keep his word, he cannot lie. He cannot lie, and
he said, I will redeem you. How is that gonna happen? Is
he gonna redeem us by the covenant of works? Can't happen. It can't
happen because we can't produce any righteousness in and of ourself.
We can't do anything good in and of ourself according to the
covenant of works. Nothing that he sees is good.
So what must happen? The Lord sent forth his son in
the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in
the flesh. You and I would be made the very
righteousness of God in him. What mercy there is in God choosing
to redeem. What mercy there is in God choosing
to speak. Have you ever And I know you
have, but you saw your wretchedness, your vileness, and yet God chose
to speak to you. And we're talking about the creator
of the universe. We're talking, we look at small
things such as ants, the insect ants, and we don't have compassion
on ants at all. Matter of fact, during the summertime,
most of us will set out traps and things, won't we? We'll try
to get rid of them, they're pests. What did we have to offer God? What
did we have to offer God? Nothing. We're worse than ants,
aren't we? We're worse than ants. And yet,
what did he become to save his people? What they are. He condescended
in the most mysterious, most glorious way. He became a man.
He entered into this covenant with his father of redemption
for his people and chose to become a man. Born of a woman, born
of the creature. That he might save his creatures
from their sin. That's what the covenant of grace
is all about is him doing it. Him doing it all. It's iniquity
to try to do something now to add to your righteousness. It's
iniquity to try to do anything that would please him. We saw
that we're just a bunch of worthless ants. We saw that it's all by
grace. What grace it is that He spoke
to us. He who spoke light into existence
in darkness. He who spoke the world into existence. He who spoke all things into
existence chose to speak to His people. He chose to speak. He chose to speak. And how does
he speak? Only by one way now, his son,
his son. And what does his son say to
those whom he died for? Come unto me, all you that are
labored and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. How can that
be? The covenant of grace, the new covenant, the covenant of
grace. It's interesting. We call it
the new covenant because it's the only one that's everlasting.
Covenant of grace is the one that far exceeds the old covenant,
the covenant of of works was given in time, but the covenant
of grace was in eternity. We say eternity past because
we can't, how else are you going to describe what's happened before
time? I don't know. But in eternity past, the covenant
of grace, it's everlasting. The Lord said, I have loved you
with an everlasting love. How can that be? Because of the
covenant of grace found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not
based upon our works, our merits, not based upon our good deeds.
No, we see that we have nothing to offer. We have nothing good. It's based upon His merits, it's
based upon His goodness, it's based upon His mercy, and it's
all by His grace. If we're ever made to realize
what abominable creatures we are, we'll rejoice that God chose
to speak to me. He chose to speak to me. He chose to speak to you. He didn't have to do that. Not according to us. Not because
of any good in us. There is none. No, it's all by
grace, isn't it? He chose to speak to you. What
a glorious, I mean, we could camp on that for the rest of
the time. He chose to speak. Not in wrath, not in judgment,
but in love. He says, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. He chose to speak that to his
people. He can't lie. He can't lie. And he says, I've
loved you with an everlasting love. Do you know how he does not speak
to us in wrath, but in mercy? By his son. That's the only way
it could be. Look in verse three. Christ Jesus
being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his
person upholding all things by the word of his power when he
had by himself purged our sins sat down on the right hand of
the majesty on high. Now, the Lord's given me two
or three messages in this, and I'm going to try not to preach
all of them to you. But for the sake of what I'm trying to get
across, the message that he's given this morning, what I'm
trying to get across to us is this. Everything written here
is past tense. When he had, past tense. By himself
purged, past tense. Purged our sins, he sat down,
past tense. This is what the covenant of
grace is all about. It's about God doing. God demanding,
God doing, God satisfying God in the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is the covenant of grace. It's not about us doing. It's
not about God demanding and us responding. It's not about God
obligating us to do something. It's hearing the glorious words.
It is finished. And we rest in the same Sabbath
that the Father rests in, the Lord Jesus Christ. See, everything
written in that Old Covenant, whether it be the Sabbath day,
represented Christ. Whether it be the manna that
fell from heaven, it represented Christ. Whether it be the water
that came from the rock, represented Christ. Whether it be Moses striking
the rock, that's the law, striking the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and water coming forth, it represents Christ's finished work. for his
people, everything, everything about that old covenant could
not be fulfilled by you and I doing anything, not by our works of
righteousness, not by our hands. Now we rest in the new covenant,
the covenant God made with God. It's not the covenant God made
with man. If it was a covenant made with man, we would have
to do something. That was the first covenant. That was the
old covenant. He said, if you do, you shall live. Now this
covenant says, I will, And you shall, I will redeem you. I will pay the ransom for you. I will buy you by my own blood.
I will put away your sin and you shall be the very righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus. That's the new covenant. That's
the new covenant. No longer does the law loom over
the elect of God. No longer does the law strike.
Because the Lord put away the sin that caused us to be found
guilty. The law has nothing against the
child of God. He purged our sin by his own
blood, they're gone. Now what is the evidence of the
Lord purging our sin in this new covenant? He was resurrected.
He couldn't have sat down if he hadn't been resurrected. We
believe that, don't we? He was resurrected by God. He
died. Now, I can't explain this, and
we can't understand this, but God died for his people. He really did. And then he was
resurrected because death could not hold him. Being the perfect,
sinless son of God, death could not hold him, and now he is seated
as a successful redeemer of every single person that he died for
on the cross of Calvary. That's what the covenant of grace
teaches us. Christ died that you and I might live. Christ
worked so that you and I can rest on our Sabbath, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ suffered so that you and
I would never see the wrath of God. Christ shed his blood for
without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin
because you and I could do nothing to remit one single sin from
what we do and what we are. He did. He did it all. We've been made to hear the glorious
words, it is finished and rest in Christ. What else do we hear the son
say? Well, I've loved thee with an everlasting love. But he says,
I've kept the covenant you could not. In your room instead, I've
stood in your place. I drank the cup of damnation
dry in your stead. I took your wrath. That's what
the son says to his people. That's what he says. Therefore,
you're mine. Don't you love the truth that we can't prevent God?
We can't prevent the son from speaking anything. No matter
how bad I am, I can't prevent his light from shining forth
into my heart. No matter how good I think I am, I can't prevent
Him from showing me I'm nothing but a dead dog sinner. I can't
prevent Him. I can't constrain, prevent. And
I can't restrain Him. I can't obligate Him in any way,
and you can't either. He speaks. He speaks according
to His will, and all things happen according to His purpose. What is His will? Well, the Lord
told us all that the father giveth me shall come to me. This is
the will of my father. All that the father giveth me shall come
to me. He that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. This
is what he's spoken. They've been made willing in
the day of his power. All by grace. The old covenant was entirely
based upon what we do. We had the priesthood of entering
in as the mediator. You had the blood sacrifice that
was offered up by those priests for each household that would
appease the wrath of God for a year. You had the mercy seat
where God said, I'll meet with you. Here's where I'll meet with
you. This was the covenant of the Jews only. You had to have
tribal identification in order to take part in this ritual,
in this ceremony, in this worship. Now you either had to be born
a Jew or you had to be made a proselyte Jew. What a proselyte Jew is,
is one that has relinquished any affiliation with family and
friends of their original birth, meaning they were a Gentile.
The scripture is very clear, either you're a Jew or a Gentile
by bloodline. Anybody that was a Gentile that
wanted to become a Jew had to renounce everything that they
ever had known or done in life and said, wiping the slate clean,
I'm going to be a Jew now. They had to be circumcised. They
had to start the ordinances and do everything that a Jew being
born would have done in order to be accepted in order to do
this. Everything revolved around who
you were and what you did in the old covenant. In this new
covenant of grace, it doesn't matter who you are or what you
do or have done. It is all by grace. It is all
by grace. Christ is the fulfillment of
the old covenant and he is the establishment of the new covenant
of grace. He being our high priest entered
once into the holies by his own blood, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. Do you remember what the scripture
says when he was on the cross of Calvary? The veil in the temple
was rent in twain, which is a picture of his flesh. But it was written
in twain from top to bottom. Now you and I can enter boldly
to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, having to find
grace to help in the time of need. Having obtained mercy to
find grace to help in the time of need, you and I don't need
a priest anymore, physically speaking. We have a high priest
who is seated in the heavens, an intercessor pleading our case
before God, pleading the blood of Christ for everyone that he
died for. You and I can enter the very
throne room of God and cry out unto him. That's what this new
covenant did. He's the fulfillment of all the
prophecies. He being born of the tribe of Judah was qualified
as a Jew, as a Jew to fulfill every demand that God had regarding
this old covenant. He's God's ordained prophet,
priest, and king. And to you and I, he is our prophet.
He is our priest and he is our king as well, isn't he? Now I want to make this very
clear. There's so many people want to
run back to the law. They want to try to keep some
ordinances, something to do something. I've seen so many different variations
of this, but there's just something that has to be done that hasn't
been completed yet. You have to do your part in some
way, shape or form. You have to give this amount
to the church. You have to have your name stamped
in a book. You have to. Whatever religion
it is, that's what men are doing is they're bringing men back
into the old law. The old, not the old law, but
the old covenant. The old covenant that says do,
do and live. The old covenant, the Lord Jesus
Christ accomplished salvation. The old covenant has ended. It
has ended. There is no other grounds whereby
we can approach God but by this new and living way, by this new
covenant only found in the Lord Jesus Christ, only found by His
blood alone, only found in His person and His character because
of who He is. We can't approach God any other
way and live. There's no other hope except
the cleft of the rock. We must be found in the cleft
of the rock. There is no other hope except to be found in the
ark. When the wrath falls, we've got
to be found in Him. There's no tribal grounds. We're not Jews. Can't approach
God, not physically speaking. Christ was. Aren't you glad in
the covenant of grace bloodlines don't matter? We have a dog that
they told us it was a full-blooded chihuahua when we bought it,
and we paid extra for that. And I said, you'll get the papers,
and the papers are in the mail. Yeah, I think that dog's about
six years old, and the papers are still in the mail, I guess.
We sent off a DNA test, and he's got more of that shizu in him
than anything. He's a scrappy little mongrel is all he is.
That's what you and I are. Aren't you glad that it's not
our pedigree? It doesn't matter what percentage
we are of this or what percentage we are of that. Christ says it's
all of grace. You don't have to be a full-blooded Chihuahua.
You don't have to be an Israelite. They are not all of Israel which
are of Israel. It's not your blood. It's not your creed. It's
not your origin. It's not what you do or what
you are. By grace are you saved through
faith. In that not of yourself, it is
the gift of God. Look to Christ. Look to Christ and live. Look
to Christ and live. Come unto me, he says. Come unto
me. Whosoever will, let him come.
Take of the water of life freely. Covenant of grace is established.
It's firm. It's the foundation whereby we
can approach God. Not based on what we do, but
based on the merits and works of the Lord Jesus Christ alone.
Everything, everything. We can't emphasize this enough.
Everything is finished. Come, take of the water of life
freely. He that hath no money, come,
buy. Without money, without price.
Why? Precious blood of the Lamb has paid it in full. Paid it
in full. Now, interestingly enough, I'm
about to come to a close here. The Old Testament is also translated
Old Covenant. It's the same word. Covenant
and Testament are the same. Now, does that mean that that null
and void is the Old Testament? No. No, you and I get to look
through the lens of the gospel in the Old Testament and see
that the Old Testament is Christ concealed and the New Testament
is Christ revealed. We get to rejoice in everything
written from Genesis to Malachi. We get to rejoice knowing it's
all written of him and we can see it now because he's revealed
it. We can see it. Old Testament is still of great
use in declaring the New Testament, New Covenant, New Covenant, Old
Covenants. It's good. It's great in declaring
the New Covenant, but we don't declare the Old Covenant as our
righteousness. We declare Christ as our righteousness. It's not due. It's done now because
we have heard his voice and seen his salvation. We rejoice in
the fulfillment. of the old covenant and we rest,
we just rest in him establishing his new and living way, his new
covenant, the covenant of grace. I've said this already, but in
closing I want to tell you this, the new covenant far exceeds
the old covenant. The old covenant was given to
man in time between man and God. First time we see it was in the
Garden of Eden. And how'd that work out? No,
man fell. One law. One. One law, thou shalt not eat of
the tree that's in the midst of the garden for the day that
you eat thereof you shall surely die. The Lord didn't just say
don't eat of it, he told them the consequence of it. You're
going to die if you eat it. You're going to die. And what
happened? How much time passed before they
ate of it? I don't know. It doesn't matter. They still
took of it, didn't they? So what was the woman that did it? Adam
was just as guilty. He took with her, didn't he? He partook with
her. They were guilty. They were unable to keep the
covenant of works from the very beginning. We can't either. I
can't stress this enough. Don't ever, ever try to keep
the old covenant. You can't. And it's blasphemy
to try. It's literally discrediting the
cross of Christ saying, I can do it alone. I can go at it alone. I can have a righteousness before
God myself. If I keep this law or I do this
ordinance, don't do it. It's called iniquity. And God
says, I hate the workers of iniquity. All of them. Psalm chapter five,
verse five. But if you've seen the grace
of God and it's been revealed to you that you can't keep it,
keep the works that had to be kept, the law that had to be
kept, come to Christ because he kept it for you. He kept everything
necessary for your salvation. He did everything, everything
necessary for the salvation of his people. The old covenant
says do, whereby most men approach God with works. The new covenant
says it is finished. New Covenant says it is finished. Whereby the most wretched and
vile sinner. We had a snow. I haven't seen
snow in a long time. Lived in Florida. Last year it
snowed a little bit, but this covered everything. I forgot
how beautiful snow was. You know what the scripture says? Though
your sins be as scarlet, though they be red, though they be scarlet,
they shall be whiter than snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. How can that be? Because the
new covenant of grace, the blood of Christ, washes away the sin
of all of his people. Thereby they are declared the
righteousness of God in him because of this covenant. He's God and he put away the
sin of his people. That's why David could say with great assurance,
and you and I can say this too, although it be not so with my
house, Yet the Lord hath made with me an everlasting covenant. He's made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things, ensure, for this is all my salvation
and all my desire. It's all my salvation, all my
desire. What is? The everlasting covenant of grace
found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank God for his everlasting
covenant. I'm gonna ask the men if they'll
come