A Superior Covenant (Part 1 of 2)

The book of Hebrews were shown how the old covenant, which was administered by the priesthood was a shadow of something better. God's people needed a great high priest who would come and permanently deal with their sentence today, untruthful life.

Alistair Begged teachers from Hebrews chapter 8 is titled, his message, the superior covenant we are as we have noted before, studying here the most Old Testament of all the New Testament books and it is therefore very important for us in studying in this way to keep in the forefront of our minds the unity of the Bible.

The very fact that the Bible is split into the old and the New Testament has contributed in the thinking of some people to have a truncated view of Scripture so that some tend to read only in the New Testament and thereby miss the foundations on which later truth has been built and others have become stuck in the Old Testament, and have never made their journey across perhaps the most helpful analogy is one that was delivered years ago by an Old Testament scholar by the name of John Bright, and he picking up on the two Testaments of the Bible and described the Bible in terms of a two act play and he pointed out that in a two act play without either act.

The play is incomplete.

Each act as something individual to say and neither act can stand on its own without the other act and when you think about the Bible in the old and new Testaments. In that way. I think you'll find it to unfold very helpfully for you. Act one unfolds and as Adesso tensions begin to appear because for example there are all these references to the sacrificial system, but there are also sins which the sacrificial system does not explicitly cover and then as farther threads unfold, it becomes apparent. For example, in the prophecy of Isaiah that in the ultimate sentence. Only a person can substitute for the sins of the people, and this is all in act one and as you redirect one, you realize that the sacrificial system is not covering all of sin and then you realize that only in a person can sin finally be dealt with. You find yourself same. I wonder where the answer to this question lies in so act one is waiting for act two in the testimony however of act one is valid in and of itself, and then act two comes in on the flood tide of act one says here is the human perfection of a willing substitute and all of the questions and bits and pieces of the first act in terms of the sacrificial system are necessary. Otherwise there would be no significance in the arrival of the Lamb who was without blemish. Russo cares about that behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is committed to 45 minutes late.

You missed all of act one, and you walk in and I do in regards behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world you majorly grant for the program you going there must be significance and that I'm not sure what it and that's exactly the point because we will back into the Old Testament into act one to the first act and the drama you see that it is unfolding towards this great conclusion in the one who will be a provision for sin and then again act two distinctively speaks on its own, making clear that when the ultimate substitution for sin was made it was God himself who came and stood in our place. I say all of that by way of background, to try and crystallize this for some of us who are having real difficulty with for the whole of the Bible centers in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Old Testament predicts it in the Gospels we haven't revealed in the acts we haven't preached in the epistles explained and in Revelation, we have Jesus expect now you will note the chapter 8 begins very helpfully to many of is the point of what we're seeing is this some of as last time were saying. Is there any point to this at all and the writer almost anticipating that response as well. Just in case you were wondering, let me tell you that the point of what we're saying is this now, this reaches back into the concluding verses of chapter 7 and on into 89, and indeed halfway through chapter 10. In verse 26 of your Bible is open of chapter 7. You will note that the writer had said that the high priest that was needed was one who is holy and blameless, pure, set apart from sinners and exalted above the heavens. Many of the readers would be saying to one another. Now, do we really have such a high priest and the writer says the point of what I'm telling you is this. We do have such a high priest, and this high priest is none other than the Lord Jesus himself and as you read through chapter 8 and on into Chapter 9 the same recurring emphasis is there, the ministry of this high priest is better the covenant which he establishes is better and the promises which are inculcated with the establishing of this covenant are also better and clearly loved ones. This is a very great importance, and I'll show you before were finished just how important it is.

But for now understand least up here except what I'm telling you to be true.

Otherwise, the writer would not continue to reinforce again and again and again. One essential fact, namely the superiority of Jesus Christ. He has told us is greater than the Angels.

He is more significant. He is greater than Moses. He is a greater figure than Abraham.

He is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. It is to Jesus as Paul will write later say that the father has given a name which is above every other name, and at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the father and that is of pressing important and so he comes to it with renewed emphasis.

Everything about it. Many of his readers were struggling, they were struggling with the idea that in the opposition that they were receiving. There was perhaps validity to the claims of the people because the people were coming to them and saying you know you have given up on act one and act one was terrific. There were, say, we had all the priestly functions we have the sacrificial system.

We had a ton of stuff going on when we came together for our worship. We knew what day it was.

We knew what we were doing and the there was just tremendous significance to adults but not what you poor souls doing you registered all the one day you call it the Lord's day a resurrection day and we come to some weird services and there's nothing you don't have any rules you don't have any tables you don't have any altars you don't have any bells or smells. You have nothing going on. Are you sure you even have a high priest. You see, they would be say are you sure you got anybody in the front of this parade. After all, you've given up on your past, you join with a group of people you're heading in a certain direction, but if you run up to the front to see if anyone's there ever been caught up with a crowd of people serious about getting caught up in this and her friends were sitting out on the anybody's at the front. That's what our friends say to either of these. They say to me you know what you just bought a bag of tricks you just go together and using kind of Christian managers and you pump one another up and it's true because you believe in your belief makes it true. And you all cite one another up for a couple of hours on a Sunday and then you go out and margin your parade, but the front of your parade, there's nobody there. If you ever go up front. You'll find is an empty place. There may be a Chadian but there's no one in it and that's exactly what was being said to these people and so they're looking at one another and the same is there any truth in the right of recognizing the answers to the listen I want you to understand that there is in the Lord Jesus the antidote to all of your struggling and all of your discouragement in all of your fearfulness. I may take into Chapter 12. In verse three to say it succinctly, but he says it clearly consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

And as they grew weary and as they began to become fainthearted. The antidote was always the same. A consideration of Jesus who is the author and perfected of their faith you've come to worship this morning. As a believer and your struggling and you feeling beleaguered and weary and press down and put upon and opposed, and all these other things, that is one sure antidote that is to fix your days humbly and believing me on the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, every other solution will be of secondary impact in comparison to that simple approach you see these other priests to whom they had been referring had been prevented by death from continuing in office as verse 23 of chapter 7. Now there have been many of these priests since death prevented them from continuing in office but I want you to know. He says that Jesus lives forever and he has a permanent priesthood. What is this mean well he unpacks it in chapter 8. He points to the set up there in verse two. The set up. Speaking of Jesus who serves in the century, the true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by men of people use that phrase all the time. As it was the set up or how did this get set up or who set this up. They come around to the experience of worship of the sick. I was the set up. Who did this, who is behind this. What's the deal in the same way they had had something that had been set up. I know something is been set up in its place in the writers is I want you to understand that this was set up by the Lord and not by men what he is doing is he is contrasting the old with the new. He is contrasting the shadow with the reality he is contesting the promise with the fulfillment which you find all was between Act I and Act II in the Old Testament the people set up an earthly tabernacle simply means a tent, and he used it for worship in the wilderness wanderings. For example, in Exodus and in chapter 27 union turn to but I'll just quote quote you from it.

Exodus chapter 27 verse 20 command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of press dollars for the light so that the lamps may be Earning in the tent of meeting outside the curtain that is in front of the testimony, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the Lord, from evening until morning, and this is to be a lasting ordinance among Israelites for the generations to come. That is why growing up as a child in Scotland with many Jewish friends in my class. Not only did they have assured my symbolically represented on the lintels of the door. When I walked into their house, but also the discharge me on a Friday afternoon around 330, so that he could set up for the Sabbath preparations and the also in the Orthodox framework of their worship paid attention to Exodus chapter 27 and verse 21 because it was important and that's why God said to Moses in back in Hebrews 8 here. I want you to do everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain because the tenant in the wilderness corresponded to a heavenly reality. It pointed from itself to a fulfillment.

The people in the wilderness wanderings could not fully grasp and it is in the heavenly reality that the exercise of Christ's ministry takes place and that's why we are Christ ministers is described as the true tabernacle that doesn't mean that the previous tent of meeting was false, but it distinguishes again the reality from the shadow back here.

He said we had the tent of meeting, we had the art and so on. And that was symbolic of a heavenly reality. These priests exercise their ministry within this covenantal procedure they die. There is obsolescence marked in this and now we have in the person of the Lord Jesus, a great high priest who is not dealing with the shadow but is dealing in the realm of the reality. That's why in verse five, he described the priests serving at a century that is a copy and a shadow of what is in heaven. It was invested with significance. It had meaning. That's why God speaks to Moses in that way.

In verse five, but in the end it was only a pale reflection of what the reality really wants.

If you turn over a page in your Bible to Hebrews 9 and verse 24. It says it very clearly. For Christ did not enter a man-made century there was only a copy of the true one. He entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God's presence.

These people were so concerned to have a priest they wanted to know how they could draw near to God. They had become totally befuddled by the framework which was pointing them in a direction, but giving them no ultimate solution in the same way that some who are worshiping here this morning.

Find your experience of religion to be doing exactly that to.

It is all external. It's all pointing somewhere but you could not. In all honesty say that you have close the loop wasn't well and you have come to an understanding of the reality to which the shadow points still dealing in the realm of the cardboard cutout is aware the poster but not the person.

The set up. Then he says is been set up by the Lord, according to his purpose. Also, I want you to notice that the high priest, our high priest sat down. You said yourself well.

Is there really any significance in this while. Again, this all has to do with knowing that one if you know I one, then this phrase will strike you when you see it in Act II because he night one. It was patently obvious that the priest never sat down and the reason that the priest never sat down was on account of fact that his work was never done.

It would be silly to sit down because there still was stuff to do and when, on the day of atonement once a year. He offered first for the sins of himself and then for the sins of the people having entered and stood. He then exited and in a sense, took his place at the end of the line so that it might happen all over again. The guys went around and they came in procession and there was Monday and the offered up the sacrifice and then they went out and everyone is sitting like crazy all over again. They took their place at the end of the line and then they came back down and they did another sacrifice so we got the 7 o'clock sacrifice.

The 8 o'clock sacrifice, the Tanner club sacrifice. The 330 sacrifice in the 7 PM sacrifice and we better have another one. First thing in the morning unless of course there was some who made a once and for all sacrifice, thereby nullifying making obsolete all of that previous preoccupation with the sacrificial system, which was a copy and a shadow, not the reality. How could it ever be that once an individual had understood the reality that it was still live with the shadow the booth on the other things are well. I don't know why believe unreservedly in Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for my sins. I need no other sacrifice I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died for me, but I still continued to go to the 7 o'clock to 8 o'clock or 10 o'clock to 230. Well I'm sorry you just haven't grasped it matter you have not understood. If you understood you would need anybody to offer up sacrifices on your behalf. Day after day, Christ's absence from the earth, which was what they were concerned about his absence from her is the necessaries result of them being when he is and of his having done what he is done when the Lord Jesus offered one sacrifice for sins, he sat down and he sat down on the throne of the Majesty in heaven.

Why because the work was done. The finished work of Christ, then as the person lays hold up on this and as the opposition in the tempting and the challenge comes in some poor beleaguered soul is confronted by their friend who meets them in the bazaar and says to them you know I feel sorry for you, Simeon. I feel really sorry for you because you don't have a high priest on earth you got nothing. In fact, I was just talking with some people in the coffee shop up the street and they were saying that you guys were this Jesus of Nazareth thing you are into cannibalism.

We hear that you read in his body and drinking his blood is not good. Simeon and you've got no high priest on earth what you have to say that Simeon Simeon has understood not only the foundation of act one, but the reality into which he is been brought in Act II, he would've said no we do not have a high priest on their and it is far better that we don't because if we had, he would not be the high priest that we need.

Even the disciples had difficulty with this. When Jesus said to them as April approaches that the time immediately prior to his death.

He said I'm going to prepare a place for you and if I go I'll come back and the disciples are all up in arms as a Lord Jesus, you mustn't go away from. As you can move away from us.

If you go away from us will be stuck. Jesus gathers around him and he tells him about the Holy Spirit is as is necessary for me to go away.

If I'm here. I'm just here, but when I go on everywhere when I send the Holy Spirit on all of his fullness. He will not only be in you, but you will be with you and he will take the things that are mine and he will make them precious to you and he will take the pages of the Bible and he will make it ring in your hearts and transform your life's and he will manifest on you. Indeed, he says if a man loves me will keep my commandments and I will come and my father will come and we will live within the deception, I can understand this is why the Gospels we have Jesus revealed and then in the epistles we have Jesus explained in the same chaps that couldn't get a hold of and in John 14 are explaining it within 40 or 50 year because the Holy Spirit has come and done exactly what Jesus said the Holy Spirit would many people have got an external religion an interest in a cosmic principle in God's way out there somewhere. And they've got into all kinds of things about this God. But if you asked them to the know God ever met a Buddhist or city new Buddha.

I never met a Buddhist is sending you but it doesn't matter whether Buddhist nose would shiver me in the habit of sending you Mohammed asked since I came to know Mohammed personally. They never said that because it is impossible to do its see the distinctiveness of this great high priest. This is not some arm's-length theology. This is the crux of life.

This is the issue of humanity. This is the apex of what it means for God to make himself known and for sinful men and women to build a draw near to the it is a radical distinctive in Christian living is to even if I say so myself. The superior covenant of God is a relevant topic for the past five days we been listening to a series from Alistair Begg called fix our eyes on Jesus. If you missed any of the earlier programs work you'd like to share a particular study with a friend can access all of Alister's teaching for free but Truth for Life.org or through the Truth for Life mobile app the free sermon downloads are reaching historic numbers and were delighted that a growing number of people from all over the world are downloading content, due in part to the generous people who give the Truth for Life to make free access to all of Alister's teaching available today we'd like to thank you when you give a donation to providing you with a helpful bundle of books we've selected these particular books because they will better equip you with information and motivation designed to help you share the gospel with friends and family. The first book is called, have no fear contains a brief guide to help you overcome any hesitation to give you a simple template for using Scripture as the basis of your conversation. The second book is called the word one to one will actually send you two copies of this book one for you and one to give away to a friend. This book is laid out in a way that helps you take a friend through the first chapter of the Gospel of John. There are engaging questions to help stimulate discussion. You can take a look at the format of this book on our website. We've included page samples for you@truthforlife.org request all three books in the three book bundle when you give today a truth for like.org/donate or call 88858878843 pack includes have no fear, and two copies of the book the word one to one. Now if you're looking for a way to supplement the teaching you received from your local church this weekend. Don't forget that Alister's teaching the Parkside church is streamed live most weekends to find out of Alister's teaching this weekend. Check the schedule Truth for Life.org/live on Bob Lapine for Alistair Begg and all of us a truth for Hope you have a restful weekend and hope you can join us Monday as Alister continues her series rooted in the book of Hebrews titled fix our eyes on Jesus, today's program was furnished by Truth for Life with the wording is for living