well we're continuing tonight our reflection in the book of hebrews and i invite you to um to please turn to hebrews chapter 9 we are in the thick of chapter 9 and i have to say this is probably one of the thickest sections in the book of hebrews um but necessary so i hope i don't put you to sleep but it's a really wonderful section uh really helping us to understand now as he moves to covenant theology and what the covenant means for us so we're going to be looking at verses 15 through 22 next week we'll conclude hebrews 9 and pretty soon we'll be in hebrews 11 and look at all the figures of what we call the hall of faith but tonight i'll pick up at verse 11 and read through verse 22 text being at verse 15 let's give our attention tonight to the holy word of the lord but when christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come then through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands that is not of this creation he entered once for all into the holy places not by means of the blood of goats and calves but by means of his own blood thus securing an eternal redemption for if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh how much more will the blood of christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to god purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living god before i move on on read verse 15 16 i want you to notice that um in verse 16 for where a will is involved and then verse 17 for a will i will be reading that as covenant because i the word is dfak there in the greek and um a better translation of that is covenant so therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promise eternal inheritance since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant for where a covenant is involved the death of the one who made it must be established for a will takes effect only at death since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood for when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people saying this is the blood of the covenant that god commanded for you and in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship indeed under the law almost everything is purified with blood and without blood a shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins there will end tonight the reading of god's word well we've been looking at in hebrews from last time the benefits that arrive from the death of christ remember that was the the great theme last time and looking at the precious blood of christ we say that in our heidelberg catechism we are redeemed by his precious blood what a beautiful truth that is and he rehearsed remember some blessings that we enjoy um the benefits of his shed blood and they were really wonderful to work through last time that his shed blood redeems us and his shed blood clears us and his shed blood consecrates us as his people the large point he was making is that christ's blood has the effect of clearing our consciences we carry around a lot of guilt because of sin we carry around a lot of defilement still in that struggle against sin and that's precious isn't it that's precious in the gospel that His blood cleanses our consciences from dead works to worship the living God. That when your hearts condemn you, God is greater than your hearts and knows all things. The Lord desires us to live in confidence in that. That His blood has cleansed us. That His blood has washed us. That's how we stand before Him. whenever we feel that defilement and struggle with defilement this is what he does in the gospel he sprinkles his blood on our consciences if you will it's purifying this is what we said last time baptism signifies the inward washing away of our sins by the blood of christ but now the author wants to help us to understand how secure that is for us how true that is for us and that's rooted in the fact that god made a covenant god doesn't deal with people apart from a covenant it's a very important concept boys and girls in the scripture we have to give our attention to it and tonight he wants us to appreciate how many blessings flow out of the truth that god established a covenant with he and his people with us and our children as we kind of considered this morning didn't we and what it means that jesus is the mediator of the new covenant he's already introduced this thing back in chapter 8 where he went through and cited jeremiah 31 but how now his death is in connection with the entire history of god's covenant with his people is what he's now transitioning to he's taking all the old concepts of of the old testament and he's helping us with them and showing jesus is better jesus is superior and how jesus fulfills the whole design of the covenant and with this in mind he wants to encourage us he wants us to think now about what it means that he is the mediator of the new covenant through his death through his blood as we have worked with this theme and that's what we're looking at i think as i said a moment ago this is probably one of the more complex sections in hebrews i knew coming here this would be a little more challenging because you really have to have some basic understanding of covenant theology and what he to understand what he's doing here so we're going to go through a little bit of that tonight and hopefully um it's clear for you but that's how we'll look at this tonight looking at the new covenant explained the new covenant established and the new covenant celebrated and i think he's working with that great theme tonight so that we would appreciate when we live the benefits that have come since the veil as he's already helped us to understand has been torn in two and that heaven is open to us well looking tonight at verse 15 that's where he begins at least where we're beginning as he's developing this argument by the way if you think this is difficult they probably read this whole book in a setting so this would have been a lot to take in just hearing it read but verse 15 tonight is where we are and you'll notice up front therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promise inheritance since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant it's interesting that he says first i have a theory as to why he says first because i think he's tying it back to creation but i won't spend my time on speculation now i'm going to conclude with what is celebrated here there's a lot celebrated up front but i'm going to conclude with that notice the opening he's the mediator of the new covenant and verse 18 says therefore not even the first covenant was inaugurated without blood and he ties together the first covenant you'll notice there with moses with moses So I want you to notice here that really what are spoken of here are two covenants. Now they're unified. We'll look at in a sense that we always want to maintain that there's a unity to this. It's an administration of the covenant of grace. It serves the purposes of the covenant of grace. We're going to get there. But notice what's referenced here. The first covenant and then the new covenant. Two big themes here that he's working with. Because they've wanted to go back to the first covenant, haven't they? to find the solution and he's tearing that all down he's saying he said this um that in in chapter eight for if the first covenant had been faultless then no place would have been sought for a second and then he quoted jeremiah 31 behold the days are coming says the lord that i will make a new covenant with the house of israel and the house of judah and he quotes really the the long section there in chapter 8 of jeremiah 31 to tell you all you're in that you are the people of the israel of god that he's gathered out of all the earth and made one people who are enjoying the benefits of jeremiah 31 why would you ever want to go back then to the first covenant is what he's working with so this is why we call it a covenant of grace where was the covenant of grace introduced well if we say that the new covenant was for the first time enacted in history after the death of jesus we would be missing the unity of the scriptures um this is important because god had always had something in place that was in in revelation what we say the bible progresses in its clarity so in genesis 3 the lord comes and he makes a promise that the seed of the serpent right um the seed of the woman would crush the head of the seed of the serpent there embedded there was a promise that somebody would come who would have a seed and who would crush the head of the serpent and his seed seed theology is important throughout the scriptures and that would make us fast forward a little bit to genesis chapter 15 and in genesis chapter 15 you remember and and and again um the bible doesn't just drop out of the sky it comes to us in a context and this is what's important about covenants and i think this is what he's working with here in hebrews is that when covenants were made and covenants were ratified they had to be made officially valid how were they made valid how were they made officially valid well the parties entering into a covenant were represented in those days by animals and shedding of the blood of animals so two parties would come together and they would draw terms and agreements and that would be called in a covenant a bond or an oath taken of an agreement between two parties on something about something you somewhat do this when you go and buy a house you know there's no bloodshed but you see the long list of papers you have to go through the first time i did it i thought is this ever going to end what am i really signing here i'm not reading all this the reality is they knew exactly what they were agreeing to they knew exactly what they were agreeing to and and he's working with this concept of ancient covenants here both parties would cut open animals when they made a covenant so if you can imagine this the animals would be separated and in these covenants they would put animals in rows and the parties would walk down the middle of the rows and if a particular party did not fulfill the terms of the covenant the very death represented by the shed blood of the animals would fall on the offending party would fall on those who break the covenant so covenant breaking is a is a real problem now you know this story where do we see the first development of the the covenant of grace in history. The first announcement of it was Genesis 15. And the Lord God said, remember God said, I'm going to give all this land to you. And I'm going to give you a seed to Abraham. And Abraham said, oh Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it? He said to him bring me a heifer three years old a female goat three years old a ram three three years old a turtle dove and a young pigeon and he brought him all these he cut them in half and laid each half against each other but he did not cut the birds in half when the birds of prey came down on the carcasses abraham drove them away as the sun was going down a deep sleep fell on abraham Abram when the sun had gone down it was dark behold a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying to your offspring I give this land on that day the Lord made a covenant where was Abraham asleep that's a big moment. Abraham didn't walk down the aisle to fulfill his side. God walked there and you'll notice there those, I think, very playing off of when it says the smoking fire and a flaming torch. It would have been similar to what Israel saw in the wilderness that passed them through the sea with the legs of god if you will walking cutting this covenant walking in oath stance oath and promise but abraham was asleep so god was declaring something here god just made a covenant and we see something dimly i think at this point we really can only understand this through the eyes of looking at the fulfillment in the new covenant but we're seeing something dimly that abraham is out of the equation in fulfilling the requirements of the covenant of grace the cutting of the covenant with us is in christ so that the terms would be met by him and the author here is fixated on this by saying helping us understand what blood accomplishes the ratifying of a covenant animals were split in two and it was legally binding because blood was shed blood was shed now hold that thought that's an important important section but now he moves here this is some background into the covenant of grace he moves here to the first covenant of what happened at Sinai. God entered into a covenant with Israel. The author here calls it the first covenant. There was something different that happened, do you remember? Remember in Exodus 19, the law was being given, and remember who swore in that covenantal arrangement. Exodus 19, and I quote, All that the Lord has said, we shall do. And the covenant was cut. This is Exodus 24. And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. And by the way, he's quoting Exodus 24 here in Hebrews 9. He's working with it. Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord. He rose early in the morning. He built an altar at the foot of the mountain and 12 pillars, according to the 12 tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half the blood and put it in basins and half the blood he threw against the altar. Then he took the blood of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people and they swore, they said, all that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient. and Moses took blood imagine this you're standing there Moses grabs a handful of blood of all these animals and he flings it on the people blood is splattered all over him and said behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words now the author here is speaking of this as the old covenant or the first covenant but notice they're not asleep they're not asleep um they're not standing to the side they have they have made full agreement to the terms of this and then the determined the the terms of this were summarized in leviticus 18 the man who does these things shall live by them now that's where where the author of hebrews in our text goes notice verse 19 for he says when moses had spoken every precept to the people according to the law he took blood and sprinkled it on all the people and they said all the words of the covenant will do that's taking it from exodus 24 and the question that any i think good reader would ask did they did they it's a clear emphatic no so you had a choice is what i'm trying to help us with here you had a choice you would either look to the promise of god made to abraham in christ in the covenant of grace and that's why again we say that the covenant of grace was always in operation and the the first covenant here served the purpose of the covenant of grace um that you would look to jesus which is all these types and shadows that's all they taught everyone to do the gospel was preached to abraham the gospel was preached to israel in the wilderness all these types and shadows and when you look to christ in the types of shadows there was an announcement that his blood would cover you his blood will cover you or you said i can do this i've got this and then your blood would be required at your own hand it'd be your own blood see this is basic to christianity isn't it it's very basic to christianity there's two kind of systems at work here there's a system of of your own righteousness what do you think jesus was fighting all the time with the pharisees they were trying to establish their own righteousness before god because they didn't listen to the law they didn't hear the law and its full power condemn them and they said we will establish our righteousness before god this way this gets down to the basic principle in life when you're talking to somebody and they say to you yeah you know i'm a good person well how do you think you're going to get to heaven well in the end i think my good has outweighed the bad they're in a covenant arrangement that's why at the last day when the books are opened the sins are written down for those who aren't covered by the blood of christ so i think this is a really important point philip hughes says this the inability of man to keep to keep the law's demands made unmistakably clear his guilty state before God. Man's great and radical need is justification. You have to be made right with God. But the law could never justify the lawbreakers. Despairing of his own efforts to achieve righteousness by his works, man's only hope was to turn away from himself and seek refuge of faith in the pardoning grace which had been promised. Thus the law, now this is important, the law was our custodian, our tutor, our teacher, until Christ came that we might be justified by faith. Now here's the whole point of this section tonight. That's why you don't want to relate to God based on the terms of the Old Covenant when the people said, we'll do it ourselves. We're all in trouble that way. It'd be a scary thing to go through our sins and to stand before God to have to give an account for them. And yet, again I emphasize, it is not innate to us to think that we're bad people, but that we're good people. and that god accepts us based on our goodness so as jesus dealt with the israel of his day who didn't celebrate his coming who didn't celebrate the righteousness he was bringing in who didn't celebrate his person and work but fought him tooth and nail the whole way based on the law this is why jesus said in john 5. There is one who accuses you, Moses, on whom you have set your hope, the law. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. See, this was the problem. This is why the first covenant, had it been faultless, there would not be need for another now let me put it together so if you look now at verse 16 i hope we can make some progress with this for where a covenant is involved the death of the one who made it must be established for a covenant takes effect only at death since it is not in force as long as the one who made it is alive there's a fundamental difference between a will and the covenant you're agreeing to the terms of a will yourself to notice in the covenant god is the one god is the one determining and what he's saying here is when a covenant is made it is only established by a death without a death it's not established and he says even the old covenant and here's the continuity blood was sprinkled to declare this truth that without the shedding of blood there's no remission of sins so it was sprinkled on the people and the tabernacle and the book because of defilement to teach them this truth that they could not do this. Guess what God did? Guess what God did for us? He fulfilled it. This is what we celebrate in the incarnation. This is the gift of God to the world. Through the blood of His Son that was shed, guess what that means? The new covenant is ratified and it's in effect because his blood was shed. And since his blood was shed, all the terms of the covenant of grace have been met by Christ to set you free. Even faith, which is the response that is demanded, is the gift. Isn't that what Ephesians 2 says? Even faith is a gift. You apprehend all these benefits by faith. Now, I said a lot tonight. If you hear this, you'll get the sermon. It's really simple, I think, this statement. He's the mediator of the new covenant through his blood, and that means the death of the redemption of the transgressions made under the first covenant he is the one that stood in your place for you to bear the curses of the covenant because we are lawbreakers to take them all on himself and to set you free when israel looked to jesus they had the mediator the only mediator between god and man and that was all anticipated beloved in the old covenant was anticipated that jesus would come in the fullness of time and that he would be born under the law and become the curse that he might redeem us from the curse and set us free tonight he says there are major things to be celebrated about this major things to be celebrated about this first tonight he is your mediator and notice this um back at verse um um 15 therefore he's the mediator of the new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised inheritance since the death has occurred that redeems that is a wonderful statement he is your mediator so that those who are called those who are the called of God so beautiful here may receive not achieve may receive the promised inheritance what has Hebrews been telling you? heaven has been opened to you Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you. And where I go, when I come back, I'm taking you to be where I am. This is the promised inheritance that is prepared for us. We receive that through His death. It is certain, it is sure, and He wants us to live that way by faith. When He finished His work and heaven was opened up, the message of Hebrews is He has continually, as your high priest, been ministering to you on your behalf. That's why whenever you sin, you can pray to Him and He cleanses your consciences from all sins. I think Peter was captivated by this in 1 Peter 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled and unfading kept or reserved in heaven for you who are by God's power being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed at the last time see it was the benefits and blessings of the covenant of grace that drove the new testament authors to say something like that that inheritance is reserved for you and he desires for you to believe that jesus didn't go through this for nothing to trust him and then he says so that notice verse 15 since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions he goes on to say um he goes on to say there that there is full remission of sins it's a beautiful it's a beautiful thing beloved all your sins have been let go by the blood of christ he has forgiven you he is not holding them against you because he walked that path for you this is what the cross was to fulfill every place that you broke the arrangement your sins are great and i think this is intended to give us so much peace i think this is why hebrews 2 said therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of god to make propitiations for the sins of the people propitiation he makes it he satisfies the wrath of god he accomplishes it he said it's finished and that's the fulfillment of everything that was promised to abraham that you're enjoying um that should give us optimism that should give us hope it's the best news that could ever be announced. Our sins are great. We weep over them. We repent of them. We're in a struggle against them. We experience guilt and shame for them. But God does not desire to leave us there. He picks us up. He doesn't expose the guilt and shame of our sins to leave us in that place. He desires and desires for us to appreciate the perfect mediator that's been sent on your behalf. Offered himself without blemish to God for you by his blood. And what that means is that what the law could not do, God did by sending his son so that in him you might become the righteousness of God. That's what the new covenant is all about. You have the mediator. You have the perfect performer of the covenant of grace who stood in your place. This is justification by grace through faith alone right here your greatest need is met that when you believe christ and you trust in him which is a gift as we said of faith then he gives you and credits to you the perfect satisfaction righteousness and holiness of christ as if you had never sinned or been a sinner as if you had been perfectly obedient it's what we say but we confess and that's what he's constantly mediating to you all the precious benefits of the covenant of grace there's a warning here i think in the book those wanting to go back to confidence in the law and they're standing before god those who think their righteousness is achieved by it those who think they're just good moral people on their own and that that's what god will accept that's a scary place to be. For then you're denying the only mediator between God and man. Our blood would be required and it can never cover and meet the debt and pay the payment. That's why there is a judgment to come. I think all the world shows us there's a judgment to come. Wasn't it awful the thing in Tennessee the other day of a gal out running and the wicked brutally murders somebody well she was a member of a Presbyterian church she was the piano player there's a judgment to come and this proves no one in the human heart is righteous before God look at the depths we can go to in evil but look what he can achieve through the blood of his son by redeeming a people who will love him and respond by his grace when you look to by faith to christ the greatest news is made known to you all of your sins are expiated they are forgiven they are wiped away jesus meant it when he spoke son when he said to the man son your sins are forgiven you as far as the east is from the west so far if I cast them from you I am the mediator who took on the the judgment the sanctions of the covenant in your place and the result for you is peace and reconciliation with God now is that going to create in a people who understand this disregard for the covenant what did we study this morning complete disregard for the covenant they didn't give their children the sign they didn't teach their children they didn't speak of the lord's ways that's not going to produce that in the covenant of grace among those who have been redeemed and bought by the precious blood of christ it's going to produce a people who begin to taste what it means to love the lord their god with all their heart soul mind and strength anticipating the fullness of that in the new heavens and the new earth so we're called to rejoice in this tonight to celebrate the covenant of grace to rejoice in the new covenant promises of god that god has been faithful god has supplied what we need this covenant he has made with us and our children is an everlasting covenant and isn't that the note to end on tonight when those memorial stones were set up they were told to look to Christ when Christ gave the supper he said this is my blood of the new covenant which was shed for you so look to me and there is a day coming where we will eat and drink anew together in my father's kingdom he says what a wonderful covenant God we serve who includes us and our children let's pray heavenly father thank you for the blessings of the new covenant through the shed blood of christ thank you for being faithful to fulfill all that you promised that you would do give us by your mercies tender hearts and may we receive since you have said we are receiving a kingdom not achieving the kingdom receiving it by grace may we receive it by faith believing your promises and may it make us a people who are deeply committed in response by true faith to love the lord who has blessed us and our children with such mercies in jesus name we pray amen