The New and Better Covenant #2

You know why we don't have altars? An altar is a place of sacrifice. There is no place for a true church to have an altar in its place of worship, because the altar is a place of sacrifice, and the sacrifice has already been made. Welcome back to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello, I'm Bill Wright. Today Don wraps up his two-part look at the new covenant Jesus came to earth to establish, and how his sacrifice on the cross of Calvary did away with the need for animal sacrifice for the remission of sins once and for all. So friend, if you've got your Bible handy, let's get started. Here is Don Green with part two of a message called The New and Better Covenant from the Truth Pulpit. Thirdly, the new covenant provides better access to God.

It provides better access to God. Under the old covenant, the high priest could only enter the holy of holies once a year. And in chapter 9 of Hebrews, verse 6, you see this discussed.

There was a time limitation, and there was a person limitation. It was limited to the high priest. Hebrews chapter 9, verse 6, now when these things have been so prepared, speaking about under the Old Testament dispensation, now when these things have been so prepared, the priests are continually entering the outer tabernacle, performing the divine worship.

But into the second, only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit is signifying this, that the way into the holy place has not yet been disclosed while the outer tabernacle is still standing. I'll stop there for a moment and think about that through New Testament eyes. Think about how sad that is for one who longs for the presence of God and to realize that the inner sanctum, the place where God manifested his presence, was off limits. There was access.

Yes, there was access, but it was once a year through the high priest bringing the blood of an animal. And I picture that as a New Testament believer, stand doing a little bit of time travel, I'm speaking as a fool here, but doing a little bit of time travel and loving God with a New Testament new birth heart and seeing that that inner access is restricted. You can't go to where the fullness of the reality is made known. And while it's so gracious for God to provide any access to sinful people, standing looking on the outside with a New Testament heart, you look at it and you weep, saying, oh, there's still a barrier.

I still can't go into the inner reality here. And it was deliberately set up that way by the Holy Spirit to show that the fullness had not yet come. Well, in the New Covenant, which we enjoy today, we have far better access.

I mean, there is no comparison to the access that we have now compared to what they had then. The contrast is stunning. It is infinite. It is magnificent. Because by contrast to that Old Testament reality, Jesus Christ serves now in heaven and he serves in reality, not with symbols. Look at chapter 9, verse 11. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, he entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. Christ has entered into the holy throne in heaven for us. And as it were, he carried us with his own blood there.

Whereas the high priest had stones on his outer vestment with the 12 tribes of Israel inscribed on stones on his vestment, and in a sense he carried them in in a representative way into the inner sanctum. Christ, by contrast, carries us with our names written in his hands, as it were, written in his blood, and has entered in there with us there with him, united with Christ. He's carried us into the inner place where we have immediate, full, and bold access to God at all times, with no further sacrifice needed, with no human priest needed.

For those of you still confused by Catholic false teaching, look over at the book of Ephesians. Turn back in your New Testament to Ephesians chapter 3 to just see a statement about this access. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in him. We can go immediately into the presence of God in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ as Christians be immediately received, immediately welcomed. When we go to God in prayer, we have immediate access and we belong there. By Christ's shed blood, it is our access, it is our privilege. We have a right to be there because of that is the wonder of the gift of the new covenant that we have received in Christ. And because Christ is our priest, you must understand this, beloved, because Christ is our priest and is the one who intercedes for us. Because Christ is our one and only mediator with a holy God, 1 Timothy 2 verse 5. Because Christ is our priest and Christ's work is finished and the Father has accepted his work, we are fully reconciled so that there is no barrier to our access with God whatsoever anymore. If you are in Christ, you have full, complete, immediate, ongoing, confident, bold access to God in the inner throne room of heaven. I want to tell you, that's a whole lot better than the way they had to do it in the old.

That's a whole lot better. That's the reality, not the shadow. The new covenant provides better access. The ongoing presence of Jesus Christ at the right hand of God guarantees that we always have access to our God.

We can no more lose our access to God as Christians than someone could kick Christ out of heaven. That's remarkable. That's how much better the new covenant is than the old. And we have that reality. Now, beloved, I want to just pause for a moment.

You're probably like me. You tend to take these things for granted. We tend to forget the wonder and the magnificence of it under the weight of adversity, trials, uncertainty in life, and we lose sight of it. Well, one of the reasons that God established communion is for the church to remember things like this and for it to reorient our thinking and reorient our priorities about what really matters and the marvelous gift that has been given to us in Christ.

This is unspeakable how great this is. This is that which was withheld from the sight of the Old Testament nation of Israel. And now here, you and I are dwelling and luxuriating, as it were, in the midst of it. And this is the reality that belongs to us. This is what Christ has done for us. This is the great gift that Christ has given to us. Better access, a new heart, and Christ as our priest rather than some human flunky, if I can put it that way. Tell you what, just to maintain a little bit of a polemic in an area that needs this particular polemic, I'd sure rather have Christ as my priest than those imposters in the Catholic Church. There's no comparison, is there?

There is no comparison. And it's for love for Christ and even love for people in the Catholic Church that I say that. They're in the same realm as wanting to dance around in the Old Covenant with sinful human mediators who can't do anything for them while Christ is in our midst providing us with immediate access.

And an access in which he says, I will never, never, never leave you, nor will I ever, ever, ever forsake you. Look over at Hebrews 13. That's the force of the Greek text. Hebrews chapter 13. You see, this kind of theology matters.

This changes everything. Hebrews 13 verse 5. Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have, and he gives the ground for contentment. He's giving you the ground for Christian contentment, and it is rooted in the reality of the things of which we speak today. For he himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you. The idea is I will never, never, never desert you. It's a triple negative in Greek. Nor will I ever, ever, ever forsake you.

In case you missed it on the first round or the second round, you're supposed to get it on the third with this kind of emphasis. Christ will never forsake his people. Ever.

It's impossible. The stars will fall out of the heaven before that happens. And so, what does this mean for us? Verse 6, so that we confidently say, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What will man do to me? If this is my Christ and this is my access, what do I have to fear on earth? The obvious answer is nothing. No man, not death, nothing. That's how wonderful it is.

Well, fourthly, we need to keep moving here. Another contrast that shows us how the New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant. The New Covenant has a better sacrifice. It has a better sacrifice.

This is undeniable. The old system offered up sacrifices that could not really, genuinely take away sin. It was just a covering for a time. Chapter 10, verse 1 of Hebrews. For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered? Because the worshippers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sin?

Why do you have to keep offering it again and again if it actually accomplished what you were looking for? It was merely a pattern, a shadow to point to the future reality. Verse 3, but in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. The animal sacrifices only were a symbol.

They symbolized the ransom price. Do you know, do you realize, do you remember what we have in Christ? We have the actual price paid. We have Christ actually paid the price in his own blood. He was able to offer the perfect human sacrifice because he was sinless.

He was able to offer a sacrifice that took away human sin because it takes human blood to pay for human sin, and it takes human blood that has the quality of deity to it to provide an infinite value to it that allows many to find their access in him. Bulls and lambs and goats, they could never do that. It's astonishing to me that there are people who are so fascinated with Old Testament symbols and want to go back to those and practice those even as supposed Christians. We don't do that. We don't do that because Christ has eclipsed all of that and made it all unnecessary.

Now that the reality has come, the symbols are not needed and should be put away, never to be brought out again. Look at verse 11 of this same chapter, chapter 10 verse 11, and we'll start in verse 9. Behold, I have come to do your will. He takes away the first in order to establish the second. By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But he, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, that's amazing isn't it?

One time he did it one day and it was good forever. He sat down at the right hand of God waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet. For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified, those who are set apart by God. And so we have in Christ a better sacrifice infinitely, obviously so than anything that was offered under the old dispensation. And so we have seen for the contrast there's a better mediator, it's better because it changes the heart, it provides better access, it's a better sacrifice. Fifthly and finally the new covenant brings real purification. Real purification. You see as I've already said, under the old covenant there was just a covering for sin, it wasn't actually taken away.

The new actually removed it. Look at verse 15 where it says, and the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws upon their heart and on their mind I will write them. He then says, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Now where there is forgiveness of these things there is no longer any offering for sin. You know why we don't have altars in a true New Testament church? An altar is a place of sacrifice. There is no place for a true church to have an altar in its place of worship because the altar is a place of sacrifice and the sacrifice has already been made. And so we take out altars, we bring a table of remembrance instead. Because there is no sacrifice because Christ has obtained complete forgiveness by his once for all sacrifice at the cross of Calvary. You know, when you read the four gospels, you read about the crucifixion of Christ. It's easy to get caught up in the human drama of it.

It is a compelling story for sure to read that. But what we have in the Epistles is that which interprets it and helps us understand the fullness of the meaning of what was going on there. Christ was not only dying for our sins there, he was inaugurating something completely new, completely better for the people of God. Which is immeasurable and infinite and eternal in its scope.

Friends, let me say something by way of application here. If you can hear things like this and be unmoved by them, I want to tell you, you are not a Christian no matter what else you think about yourself. No matter what else your experience in religion has been. Because the new heart which is given to you in the new birth vibrates with love for the reality of these kinds of things.

And so I say that simply to help you discern your own heart. The one sacrifice of Christ 2,000 years ago excels the sacrifice of millions of animals. You could sacrifice bulls and goats and lambs hundreds of times an hour, every hour of the day, for all of the years spanning throughout all of eternity.

And the one sacrifice of Christ would still be infinitely greater than them all combined. That's how great the sacrifice under the new covenant is. Well, what shall we make of this new covenant and how shall we appropriate it as believers here today?

Well, the writer of Hebrews goes on in verse 19, having set forth all of these wonderful contrasts for us, he says in verse 19, therefore, as a consequence of the superior excellence of the person of Christ and the superior excellence of his sacrifice, the superior excellence of the new covenant compared to the old, therefore, as a consequence of all of those things, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, here's what we're to do. We're to draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful, and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

What do we do in response to this new and better covenant? We draw near. We draw near not by the deeds of our hands, but by faith in Christ. We draw near with a sincere heart that is fully assured that Christ is who he said he was, that Christ did fulfill and accomplish redemption for his people, that there is nothing more to be done, nothing more to be added, that Christ is all in all to us. He has satisfied the demands of divine justice for everyone who believes in him, and we draw near by faith. We draw near in humble repentance and give thanks, and give of this new heart that he has given to us.

We give it all in totality back to him. I belong to thee. Gratefully, I belong to thee. I am thine, O Lord. Take me, use me, keep me until you bring me to my heavenly home.

Is that your hope today? Is Christ the way, the truth, and the life to you? So much so that you understand that you forsake all of your own righteousness. You forsake any other way to God.

The thought is abhorrent to you that there could be any other way taught to men. Are you trusting Christ by faith alone? Because, my friends, he is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him.

Indeed, Jesus Christ is our only hope for the forgiveness of sins and a future home in heaven with him. Thanks for being with us today on The Truth Pulpit with our teacher Don Green. We invite you to join us next time for more from God's magnificent Word. Meanwhile, if you'd like to learn more about our ministry, or perhaps you'd like to hear this message again, just go to thetruthpulpit.com.

That's thetruthpulpit.com. And now before we go, here again is Don with a closing word. Well, my friend, before we say goodbye at the end of this episode of The Truth Pulpit, I have three words of gratitude in my heart that I want to share with you. First of all, thank you for listening. It is a great privilege for us at The Truth Pulpit to minister the Word of God to you. And so we're grateful to God that you listen in. Secondly, thank you for supporting our ministry with your gifts.

Humanly speaking, that is what enables this ministry to reach you through the internet or through the radio station that you listen to. Thank you. And then finally, my friends, thank you for your notes of support and encouragement that you so often send. And let me just say this. If you've never contacted us, go to thetruthpulpit.com and let us know you're listening.

That means more than you know. Now for today, we'll see you next time on The Truth Pulpit. Thanks, Don. And friend, with that, our time today has come to a close. I'm Bill Wright. Join us again next time on The Truth Pulpit as Don Green continues teaching God's people God's Word.