Hebrews 8 - Jesus Brings a Better Covenant

Well, good afternoon church. It's so great to be with you today. This Sunday, Jason and I were at our annual Arriba local Association Convention yesterday. Jason was able to have a table there for the church plants and they had a sub to pray over. Both of us is church plants and I just wanted to encourage you just buy what? How the meeting went? It went longer than I expected but it was a good thing because there was just a sweet time of prayer together that lasted longer than I thought. I got a little uncomfortable cuz we're all holding hands in a circle and Jason so strong and like my left shoulder was like falling asleep. So I had to I'm just messing with you but it was really a sweet time. There was a deer couple that were missionaries in in North Africa that Sheridan and talking about what an amazing story talking about. They he he was not a pastor, he was a Forester. And kind of a nominal Christian, really, not super serious about the Lord and he went on a short-term adult trip to North Africa, and it just changed his life. And he came back. And his wife said, I knew something was different because he came back singing. But he never sang in church prior to that, but he came back singing. What a remarkable thing, isn't it? Like I love to stand in the front because I hear you all saying and I love it that we're singing church and it reflects a heart that understands what Jesus has done for us. And I know it can be embarrassing if we don't have the greatest singing voices. And and and sometimes we don't want a belt it out and sing loud and be off tune. But what a, what a evidence of the Lord's work in our life when we can't help, but sing praises to God for who he is, and what he's done. Well, we're in the book of Hebrews chapter 8. So, turn over there. And the title of the sermon is Jesus brings a better Covenant. And we know that as we've been looking at this this is a sermon. The book of Hebrews is a sermon on Psalm 110, so it's a little bit of what what's the movie? It just went out of my head where it's, there's at the Christopher Nolan movie. I think it is where it says, it doesn't matter. Either way, was it doesn't matter. It's not important the one where they go to sleep, and then they go deeper and deeper, and it's like layers upon layers Inception. Thank you, appreciate that. The sermon is like, Inception. It's like a big book of Hebrews, is a sermon on Psalm 110, and I'm preaching a sermon on Hebrews 8. So, let's take a step back and look at the big picture. Psalm, 110 begins with this statement, the Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet. And then he says down in verse for the Lord has sworn and will not Change his mind, you are a priest Forever After the order of Melchizedek, and that was what we looked at a month ago, over a month ago. Now, the last time we were in the book of Hebrews. So what's been going on, is for the first seven chapters of the book of Hebrews. The author is telling us, we need a certain kind of high priest. We need a high priest. That's perfect. We need a high priest, the teacher, and the levitical high priests. They're not it. Remember, they have to offer sacrifices, not only for the sins of the people but their own sins. That your lawyer needs a lawyer, right? We need a good lawyer, we need the best lawyer. We were on trial as it were, and we need a mediator and Advocate a lawyer. But we don't want one who's guilty. We want one, who's innocent, and holy and harmless, and undefiled in separate, from Sinners as the book of Hebrews says, and that's what we have in Jesus of the first seven chapters. He's telling us, we need a high priest, we need a lawyer, we need a mediator. And now in chapter 8, he says and we have one in Jesus. This is his mic drop moment in the sermon. The original sermon that is because he let's read this together. Hebrews chapter 8, beginning in verse 1,

He says.

Now the points in what we're saying, is this, here's the main point of his whole sermon, we have such a high priest. One who is seated at the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in heaven. A minister in the holy places in the true tent that the Lord set up, not man for every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices. It is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer. Now if he were on Earth, he would not be a priest at all. Since there are priests who offer gifts, according to the law and they serve a copy and a shadow of the Heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God saying, see that you make everything, according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain but as it is priced is obtained. A Ministry, that is much more excellent. Then the old is the Covenant immediate is better since it is enacted on better. Promises that will stop right there for a moment. Jesus has a better Ministry in the true Sanctuary. This is what the author is getting at is there are shadows and there are the reality. There are promises and there is the Fulfillment. There are types and there's the antitype. What is this? Like well This is how the Old Testament all of the patterns, all of the temple that the priesthood, the sacrifices, all of that was a shadow. It was temporary. He's going to argue later. It was a type, but it wasn't the ultimate fulfillment of it. Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of it. In other words, all of those Old Testament patterns, all of those were pointing to Jesus. And we've seen it in the book of Hebrews. Jesus is the better Temple. He's the better priesthood. He's well, he haven't got to it yet, but he's going to say, he's the better sacrifice. He's the better Moses, he's the better Adam. He's better. The whole point of the book of Hebrews is Jesus is better. I love the songs. We sang, so appropriate to sing of the goodness of Jesus when we re why? Because he's all that we need to sing of the ministry of him. Being our Advocate Before the Throne of God above. We have a savior Jesus, who is our high priest. And when Satan tempts us to despair as Satan tempted, you to despair this week. He's tempted me to despair this week. Upward we look and see him there. Jesus who made an end to all our sin and because the sinless Savior died. My sinful soul is counted free. Forgot to just to satisfy the look on him and pardon me, what a glorious thought of you. Come in here crawling in thinking. It's all I can do to get the church, and I'm only here cuz it's expected of me. And we're small Church in, it's obvious when you're missing, like we know who's not here, it's obvious. It's not a guilt trip and sometimes we come in and it's all we can do to get here and we're not even here for the right motives. And yet we have a savior. Who loves us who intercedes for us and even Even in our weakness in our foolishness. And in our sin, Our Savior says, it's forgiven. It's paid for it to come and draw near to the father Hebrews for. You can find grace and mercy to help in your time of need your able to draw near to him. And he's our heavenly father and he's not going to cast you out. I'm just, I'm just ruminating on since we've been in chapter 1, in Hebrews, we've heard all of this already Reality. As we know we're not home yet. We know that that this is a wonderful truth and and and we know the Jesus is better and we know he's coming back to make all things new and that illustration of home is kind of interesting isn't it? Because what is home look like? I was thinking about this last night, is it my childhood home on Regent's Park Drive down the road here? Not really any more. You know, I my kids get sick of me driving around town, in Vallejo and saying, did I tell you the story about how I was here and they're like, yeah, you told me a thousand times, Dad, don't want to hear it. So now Paul is here that, you know, so I can tell her all the stories she hasn't heard him. So and Wesley, when he gets old enough, I'll do the same thing with him, but that home doesn't feel like home anymore. Is it, is it 734 Greenleaf in Brentwood where I raised my kids were Fourteen and a half years? All very precious memories. They're very dear. But it doesn't feel like home anymore, isn't my most recent home? And I begin to realize your home is where my family is, it's where my relationships are. It's where, where the church is, where were these dear meaningful relationships are? That's home. But we know of ultimately, we're not yet home or Heavenly home is where the father is, where our savior Jesus is where the spirit is the remarkable thing. Surf Hebrews is going to show us. Is that now the father has made himself at home in us, because we're in Jesus, who is now the temple and the spirit isn't dwelling Us in the New Covenant. And so, we have this reality that we're getting a taste of an example of a, we're getting up an appetite for what true home. It's being in the presence of God and knowing that he's pleased with us, knowing that he wants us in his presence, but he desires. This is not, you know, reluctant he's not thinking, oh yeah, you need to. I just put up with, you know, he looks at us with great fondness and delight and sees us as his inheritance. And it's all because of what Jesus has done. It's all because of the high Priestly Ministry of Jesus. So Jesus has a better Ministry in the true Sanctuary. That's the first two verses. The point of what we're saying is this, we have such high priest, he seated at the right hand of the Throne of the Majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places in the true tent that the Lord set up. Not man. So we have a high priest in the heavens. This is what the author had started Within Chapter 1. Quoting Psalm 110 the Jesus after he made purifications for sins. He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high and have him become so much greater than the Angels because the Navy inherited is better than there. Now he's saying he's repeating himself coming back to that idea and saying here's why this is so important. Jesus isn't a priest in the temple in Jerusalem. He's a priest in the true Temple that God set up in heaven and he seated at the right hand of the Father in Heaven. He's not in the temple on Earth. He's in the Temple of Heaven and he's going to later, say the temple on Earth was a shadow. It was a copy, it was a pattern. You have, I was struggling to think of an illustration of this, so forgive me for I love Star Wars, I had a Millennium Falcon that was, you know, action figure size. So I think when I was a kid, it was as you know, it was huge. It was on my bad, I loved it. Put the action figures in it. But yet it wasn't the true Millennium Falcon. But then a few years back when they open Star Wars land and I walked into that Star Wars land for the first time, and I saw that life-size Millennium Falcon didn't matter. I was in my forties. It was like I was a kid. Again, I got a motional. I got tears in my eyes and I had to stop walking. And Jennifer's like are you okay and I'm like I'm not sure I'm okay like I'm overwhelmed because my childhood ideas of what this fantasy world would be like. And I've been a huge fan since I was a little kid. It's now a reality and then we got to go in it course I was excluded from the Moss Eisley Cantina cuz you had to have reservations at. I was mad and Spencer somehow figured out a way to weasel his way in there and take a look at it and I'm still jealous cuz I haven't seen it. But this idea of a you have this toy this it doesn't matter how Grand it is. It's it's simply are a replica, but yet when they build life-size and you you see the reality is so much greater It's so much more Grand. Jesus is a minister in the true tent. The true temple in heaven where God is in this idea of Temple. I don't want you to miss this. I know I've talked about this a lot, but the importance of the temple is because that's where God's presence is among his people. It's not just that it's a huge building, that's a huge edifice. That's beautiful me Solomon's Temple and its Glory covered in Golden and Splendor in Majesty. That's not what made it. So Grand in God's eyes, it's because God's presence was there. And so you have from the very beginning, the Garden of Eden was like the first temple. Do you remember this in Genesis where God walked with Adam in the garden? His presence was with Adam and God told Adam, you need to keep and serve the garden and those two words keeping serve in the Hebrews Shemar in a vad that was the language of the Tabernacle in The Book of Leviticus and numbers and Deuteronomy the priesthood was to keep in to serve the Tabernacle the place where God's presence was among his people in the holy of holies. There between the the two angels, the cherubim that were on the top of the Ark of the Covenant. I was making jokes about it. This week though, the Indiana Jones Ark, you know, they are kids, it's right there, Indiana Jones, you seen the movie. Well, God's presence was manifest in between the Angels Above the Ark of God is everywhere. But he manifested his glory among his people. To tell them he was with them in the wilderness. And so then you come to the New Testament and God says Jesus is the true and greater Temple. He's Emmanuel God With Us, God's presence in a man because he's the Eternal Sun. And I only that, now, that we're Christians, we are the temple of God. So God's spirit is dwelling inside of us. So people no longer go to Jerusalem to meet with God, where they come now to us, because we're the temple. And in the ultimate in Golden Revelation, is that all of the new Earth will become the temple of God where God's presence, dwells what a glorious thought. And Jesus is the one who's the Eternal ultimate high priest, everything was pointing to him, and it's in the true Temple. The true sanctuary in heaven and Heaven is coming down to earth. Scripture tells us, And so he's not only a better Minister verse 3, he's a better sacrifice says, he had to have something to offer. This priest has to have something to offer gifts and sacrifice as well. We know what it is that he's going to offer. Tells us in chapter 9, turnover 2, verse 11 when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come 9:11 through greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is not of this creation. He entered once for all into the. Holy place is not by means of blood and goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal Redemption for the blood of goats and voles in the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, Sanctified 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, he offered him self, this is the better sacrifice. And he appeared in the presence of God on our behalf for us. So this is the remarkable thing about being in Christ is he's the ultimate priest, he's the ultimate sacrifice, but he also turns us into a priesthood of Believers. One, another and he gives us gifts and sacrifices to offer. And this is why we are called to be a church. And why we make such a big deal about the priesthood of Believers that we would serve one another and love one another in and we would be doing what Jesus has commissioned us to do because he is our high priest. Until the officer then turns in Verses 4 and 5 to say the old Covenant is a shadow. It's a copy of the Heavenly things, even Moses when he went up on the mountain was about to build the Tabernacle the tent. God said, make it according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain make it according to the pattern. But it's not the true. Tabernacle the true Temple, it itself is a copy and Shadow. Meaning, it was temporary.

And Jesus. He goes on to say that verse for that Jesus would not be a priest at all in the Earthly Temple because the priest their offer according to the law of Moses and Jesus is not a levite, but he's a priest not of the Earthly Temple, but of the Heavenly Temple. And the shadow. The Shadow, the type is pointing to the reality in Greek culture at that time. Everyone would have been familiar with Plato's parable of the cave. Have you ever heard that you might had to read it in school? Plato's parable of the cave, he taught that knowledge is like a man in a fire lit cave. Who only sees the shadow of real objects when he looks at the wall. You've done that before, maybe you've lately our kids, we used to go camping Yosemite in the valley. And you would always see the campfire Shadows on the tent wall. You're wondering what's out there? Is it a bear? Surely, it's a bear. It's got to be a bear. It's always a bear. Why is it always a? Cuz you're in Yosemite, but then it's not a bear, really? It's something else. It's Dad walking around or whatever that idea of a shadow, Plato says, that's our knowledge. We only see knowledge in Shadows and not the reality. And it appears that the author here is picking up that idea that they would have been familiar with him saying all the temple in the Old Testament in Jerusalem. That was a shadow pointing to her a greater reality, but that wasn't the reality itself. The reality itself is Jesus, the high priest in heaven, at the right hand of the father interceding for us. The Tabernacle is the Shadow, the throne room in heaven is the real objects. Lenny says were 6, as it is Christ, has obtained a ministry, that's more excellent. Then the old as the Covenant he mediates is better. Since it's an acted on better promises but not only is he about a priest with a better sacrifice. He has a better Covenant and acted on better promises. That's not a shadow, but the reality now, this word cray tone in the Greek better. We looked at it once before, it's all over the pages of the book of Hebrews, that Jesus is better. Let's just take a moment and look at these again, back in 7:19 The law made nothing perfect. But on the other hand a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God, why is Jesus better? Because in him we have a better hope we can actually draw near to God and he's not going to Nuke us. He's not going to judge us because we're in Christ. So we have a hope that will never put us to shame. We have a better. Covenant e says 7:22, Jesus is the guarantor of a better Covenant. He says it again in 8:6 that we just read a better Ministry and acted on better promises. In 9:23, Jesus is a better sacrifice. It was necessary for the copies of the Heavenly things to be purified with these rights, but the Heavenly things themselves with better. Sacrifices the nice 10:34. We have a better position. You had compassion on those in prison and you, joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves, had a better possession and an abiding. One even our Earthly Goods pale in comparison to what we have. In Jesus, he's better, we have possessions that will never fade away will never be destroyed. We have a better country, 11:16 they desire, a better country that is a Heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God for he's prepared for them. A city back to that idea of home. We have a city waiting for us. What's a better city than any City we've ever lived in? This is the city where God's presence is in its unveiled glory and its Perfections Mount. Zion the New Jerusalem, the Heavenly City, what a picture of what's a waiting? We have a better Resurrection 11:35. Women received back their dead by Resurrection somewhere tortured refusing to accept release so that they might rise again, to a better life. We know that even when our bodies die Our Spirits are at home with the Lord to be absent. From the body is to be present with the Lord. Jesus Christ to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

There's nothing like a midlife crisis. Make you think about your mortality? I turn 50 in June and I know some of might you dear brothers and sisters are thinking. I'm still young, I appreciate that, but I live in March before. I turn 50 in June, I was losing sleep thinking about the end is coming. Right, I've got more days behind me than ahead of me by statistics. Anyway, I began to think. Wow, this this life is ending all my hopes and dreams that I thought would happen that haven't happened. I'm running out of time to get them in this life.

And yet the reality is, is what we have waiting for us, is so much better than anything in this life. Why? Because Jesus is better and everything that he's giving us is eternal and Lasting and doesn't fade, and it doesn't perish. And the joy is Everlasting at his right hand is fullness of joy and Pleasures forevermore not in the things in this world. Jesus is better. Go back to chapter 8, what is the better promise, that's what he's going to go into here now in the next section versus 7213. What is the better promise for 7? If that first Covenant had been found faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second before he finds fault with them. When he says, behold the days are coming declares the Lord. When I will stab Lish, a New Covenant with the house of Israel in the house of Judah. Not like the Covenant that I made with their fathers on the day. When I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt for, they cannot continue in my covenants. And so I showed no concern for them. Declares the Lord for this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, declares the Lord, I will put my law into their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be my people. Mission not teach each one. His neighbor. And each one is brother saying know, the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest. I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember their sins. No more in speaking of a New Covenant, he makes the first one obsolete in what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. So this New Covenant was promised in the old Covenant, Jeremiah 31, that's the old Covenant, but in the old Covenant, God promised there'd be a new covenant that the old one was temporary. It was a shadow. It was a type. What why was it temporary or seven? The old covenant could not deliver? It could only condemn. If the first have been found faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. What's he getting at there? Well, he says, in 7:11 that if Perfection had been attainable through the lytic a priesthood or under it, the people receive the law. What further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek? The law could not make us perfect. You cannot deliver us. It could not save us. A good only condemn has Isn't that true? You look at the Ten Commandments, it doesn't save us or Deliver Us. It condemns us.

So there needed to be a law that needed to be a promise of a New Covenant that would save and deliver. And perfect us and this is what Jesus brings to us. See the New Covenant was needed for forgiveness of sin that's versus 8 to 12. What was promised in the new covenants says I'm going to establish first date a New Covenant and it's not like the old Covenant versus nine when I brought them out of Egypt and they broke that Covenant. He says this New Covenant verse 10. First thing he's going to do is I will put my laws into their minds and I will write them on their hearts. We know this as the the teaching of regeneration that were born again, that we receive a new Hearts New Life. The law is written on our hearts rather than on tablets of stone. We heard it and 2nd Corinthians 3 when Jack read it. That this is done by the spirit. and that it transforms us into the same image of Jesus from one degree of Glory to another And this is what we need, isn't it?

You know, I was thinking about an illustration of this. It's one thing if you know, we took one of Jack's muscle cars and we tried to pump nitrous oxide into it. This external source of more power That would get you some temporary power, some temporary energy to maybe quarter mile racetrack, get you a little boost but if you want to really change that, you need to swap out the engine for something larger with a greater capacity, something with the ability to have more power, inherently, not externally, but inherently. And this is what God does by writing his law on our hearts. He changes us. It's one thing for the law to say, don't steal, don't commit murder, don't lie, don't covet your neighbor's possessions and you have that on the wall, telling you not to do it. We all have those rules, they're all over our workplace. We have them all over our streets. Speed limits, external laws. Sometimes they work to Hema sand and keep us from getting too out of control.

The letter of the law. Is far different than the spirit of the laws in it. And with the spirit of God does, he writes God's law on our hearts? So that now we want to obey the law. We don't need the law written on the wall because it's already in our hearts. We already go bad. We already have the right motives in the right desires, because the spirit of God has changed us.

Charles Spurgeon said, when God writes the law in a man's heart, he takes the lawn more to himself than he applies it to anybody else. His cry is not see how my neighbor's send, but see how I said, this clamor is not against his brother's fault, but against his own faults, not no longer. Does he look for specs in other men's eyes? But he's most concerned about the beam that he is, quite sure is in his own eye and asked the Lord, to remove the humor. That Jesus said before you go remove the speck out of your brother's. I get the log out of your own eye, when I had youth ministry in, Napa the kids started saying log. I to one another As a shorthand for hey, get the log Halo, guy. They don't be, don't be harassing me for my sins law guy. That's pretty funny actually. Kind of like that. Why what Jesus saying? You can't see to get the speck out of your brother's eye. You're going to be a bad position because you're blinded by the big giant log in your own eye. We have now the law written on the heart. That's the first thing we get with this new covenant. And isn't that glorious? Isn't that wonderful? This means that the law is not designed only to condemn like an external law. Thats hanging above us in a courtroom. It's a law written on our hearts. That changes us that's designed to deliver and save to make us different. To change us from what we were, anyone is in Christ. He is a new creature. We've gone from that caterpillar to a butterfly. We, we've been changed this metaphor of morphis has happened. The second he says, in verse 10 is I will be their God and they will be my people and they shall not teach each one is neighbor each one. His brother saying know, the Lord why they show all know me from the least of them to the greatest. So relationship and communion, I will be their God and they will be my people. We draw near to him. This is the whole point of the temple now is real. They would draw near very often under compulsion why? Because they were commanded to do so, and offer sacrifices animals for their sins and it would cover their sins for a year and they were obligated to travel up to Jerusalem to do so. But now, We are not under compulsion to draw near to God by a law that external. We desire to draw near to God because the spirit of God is shed and God's love abroad in our hearts that in stirring up, family affection. So we cry out Abba. Father, you see, God is our father, he's our friends scripture, says he's our Rock. These are refugees. Our Fortress, he's our Hightower, he's our castle of Defense. He's our home, he's our Heaven. This is what we have now in Jesus, because he's better. And this is new, but it gives us this. It was promised in the Old Testament in Jeremiah, and now you have it today, you're not waiting for it, you have it. In Jesus, you can draw near to the father and he hears you and he loves you. and he's going to give you exceedingly abundantly above, all you could ask or think scripture tells us Not only that he then ends it with. I will be merciful verse 12 toward their iniquities and I will remember their sins. No more forgiveness. The, the thing. The stumbling block that keeps us from communion with God, the barrier the wall that keeps us from Drawing Near to the presence of God is our thin because he's a holy God. Who's dwells in unapproachable light who no man has seen or can see in what happened. Now is that God has removed the barrier by forgiving Us in Jesus, as glorious as good news. Our sins are forgiven. Can I just meditate on this a little bit? Scripture has beautiful imagery for forgiveness. Psalm 103 12. God removes our sin as far as the East is from the West. No. Last time I checked, that's impossible to find the end of that. East from the West, you just keep going. I mean, I passed geometry in high school even though it was Vallejo geometry. I passed it. That's all Eternal line from east to west God, removes, our sins from us. As far as the East is from the West, did you come in here this morning? Heavy-hearted, because of your sin this week. Thinking, it's stuck to you. It's clung to you. You feel like you just can't get rid of it. In Jesus God is removed your sin. As far as the East is from the West. Hallelujah. Well, Isaiah 1:18 God, completely cleanses us from the stain of our send you or what it says in Isaiah. I'll wash you whiter than snow. Though your sins are like Scarlet, they'll be like wool. He completely cleanses us from the stain of our sin. I think that's one of the most beautiful promises because very often, our sin leaves a stain on us where we just regret it. We just mole over it. We just think about it. We can't get rid of it in our minds and yet in Jesus we can be reminded that he is completely cleansing us from the state of our sin.

I often wonder if in Revelation when it says, he wipes every tear from our eyes. The part of that is he's wiping away. When we finally see him and we become Perfect, all of the regrets of our sins to where we don't have them anymore. I don't know if that's true, but I would like to think that's true.

Isaiah 38. He says he throws our sins behind his back and in the Hebrew it's kind of a graphic word picture he places them between the shoulder blades that part of your back, you can't scratch. I mean the older I get the bigger it gets cuz I just don't have as much flexibility. You knows back-scratchers seem like a necessity item, not a luxury item anymore. I still haven't broken down and bought one but what the picture is is God taking our sin. The God who sees everything. He's Jehovah Jireh yahweh-yireh he sees everything and he places it behind his back. Never to be seen Again by him. That place, you can't touch the place in the middle of your back. That's where God puts our sin and Satan. He's a, he's a master at making us feel guilty, doesn't he? Cuz he attempts to think that old God. He hasn't forgiven you. So, he's bringing it up again. He's like, we do in our relationships. He buried the hatchet believe, the handle sticking out so he can bring it up again in another conversation and remind you of it later. You spouses never do that with one another. I know. God has removed our sin and placed it behind his back. He's not going to bring it up again. He's not going to bring it up again. Really, he's not going to bring it up again. That is good news. in fact, he says in Jeremiah 31, here that's repeated in Hebrews 8, he remembers our sin, no more, He's a God who never forgets. So, doesn't mean that he's somehow got dementia. It means he's chosen not to bring it up, to remember it no more. And this is true. Forgiveness, by the way, think about the application and our relationships. If we want to truly forgive one another, we have to be determined not to bring their sin up to us to them or to God. We will not bring it up again. We will determine to remember it. No more. That's what God has done with our sin.

Perhaps the illustrations. I love the best. ER in Micah 7 verse 19. It says he Treads are sin underfoot, he stamps it out. The power of God to tread our sins underfoot, and then what he does with it, once he stamps it out. once the waffle stomp sit, as I heard someone describe it, then he throws it in the depths of the sea. The ocean floor, at the bottom of the ocean, the Mariana Trench? I don't know. The deepest part. The idea is you'll never find it. It's buried and never to be brought up again. This is what God has done with our sins in Christ. This is why Jesus is better. This is why the New Covenant was promised and it's what he's given us. And this is why he concludes his thought in verse 13 and says the New Covenant has made the old Covenant Obsolete. And speaking of a New Covenant, he makes the first one obsolete in what's becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. I want to be careful here. We want to be careful, not to say that the old Covenant was broken, or that it was bad. That's not what the author's getting at the laws. Good and it's right and it's a reflection of God's character. But it was temporary until Jesus came. Galatians tells us it was the shadow. Hebrews tells us here the copy, not the fullness, it was the bumper Lanes as it were at the bowling alley. You know, those bumper Lanes, you might still use them, I won't judge you. Those things are a glorious invention if you want to actually hit the pins in your. No good at bowling, it keeps the bowling ball in the lane so that it hits the pins at least some of them, doesn't matter. If it bounces 10 times, the law of Moses was like those bumper Lanes to keep Israel headed towards God to so that sin wouldn't increase so that they would understand the God Alone is God and they would be broken of their idolatry and so on and so forth, it was a Jailer until Christ came. So it was good but it was temporary and it was never intended to save. It can only condemn, that's why it's now obsolete. In other words, the law was a placeholder. The law was a placeholder until Jesus came. Imagine we we did a play, the Charlie Brown Christmas at church one year when we were kids and Christy smiling. She remembers we all have this fun memory of Kevin memorizing. The the Luke he was Linus in the play and he was this little squeaky voice and he read out you know, Angels appeared in the sky Shepherds were keeping watch over their sheep by night and low. Angel Lord appeared in the glory Lord appeared around them and they were sore afraid. I don't even know what the sore afraid means. But that's the King James. They were very afraid and Kevin had the squeaky voice Christmas is at Christmas tree. That's pathetic in the story, The Charlie Brown, Christmas tree. But imagine if we were getting ready to perform it and we didn't have a tree so I said, hey son, why don't you stand in for the Christmas tree at your place, holder, just stand there. Don't move. Hold your hand. Look like a tree, do whatever. But don't talk your tree, don't move around your tree, your place holder. Until that treat comes the law was a placeholder. To demonstrate the glory of God to, to demonstrate his righteous character to keep Israel from wandering to give a means by which God's people could draw near to the holy of holies in Jerusalem. But once The reality came once the antitype came, once the Fulfillment came, the placeholder is no longer necessary.

The Romans came in in 70 AD under Titus best vacation and they destroyed the temple in Jerusalem. And when Jesus promised that, not one stone will be left upon another. They thought. How is that prom? How is that ever going to be fulfilled? Well, what happened was? They lit the temple on fire and all of the gold melted into the cracks of the rocks and so the Roman soldiers started pulling apart the temple stones to get to the gold cuz they were greedy and not one stone was left upon another in 70 AD in fulfillment of what Jesus Promised. And that the author of Hebrews are here says, what's becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. And in, so it kind of tells us that this was probably written before 70 AD cuz he surely would have mentioned the temple being destroyed. See the wood in the Tabernacle was made of acacia wood even if it lasted for Generations by now it's decayed. The veil that was the most expensive fabric that was in there. We know was torn from top to bottom and that veil has disintegrated by today, two thousand years later, but the New Covenant of Christ. No time effects it. The message of Salvation is just as good today, as it was two thousand years ago, the promise of the Father, the merits of the Sun, the indwelling ministry of the spirit are all for you today and time will never wear them away. And if you're not a Christian come to Christ, He's a perfect high priest, who will forgive you since forever. And you'll never be put to shame. You'll never be disappointed. And his right hand is fullness of joy and Pleasures forevermore where do you turn when you're looking for? Hope in the midst of Despair? Where do you turn when you're looking for encouragement? But you find yourself underneath discouragement. Do you look to better circumstances? Some platitude things will get better. All things happen for a reason. Hebrews the book of Hebrews says to the Christian. That's not where you look for hope. You don't look for Hope in your circumstances. You don't look for helping your circumstances, changing. You look somewhere else. Your hope is found somewhere else to town in a person who seated at the right hand of the father. Who when Satan tempts us to despair? Because when dwelling send that remains, we look to him and we know that Jesus Paid It All. Thanks for giving us and he's going to bring us safely home to God. So what do we do with this? Well, this is the main point of what he's been saying that we have such a high priest. You have him. You don't need to get him, you have him. If you're not a Christian, of course, you need to get Jesus. You need him as your high priest of come-to-jesus. But beloved, if you're a Christian, you have him. So, the application today is to remember him to contemplate him to think upon him. And if I were to show you just a few of the things here that were to think about in regard to him first. Think about this New Covenant, this new promise. This thing is orderly this Covenant. It sure it's steadfast. It is proof of the fathers eternal love for us and it's expressed towards you. You can draw near to him. You don't have to pull away, you don't have to think you got to clean yourself up before you come to, God know, you run to him, you draw near to him. He is for you and not against you. How do I know that he didn't spare his son? He gave him up for you and if he didn't spare Jesus with Jesus he's going to give you. Everything else is going to give you a new heavens and a new Earth. So, think about that. Remember, that are you struggling to pay the bills? Are you struggling to make ends meet and feel like God may have forgotten about? You know, he's concerned about you. He knows the number of hairs on your head. He knows how to close the flowers of the field and he knows how to feed The Sparrows. Those little tiny birds. And your other much more value than those. Jesus says, remember that. Remember the Privileges you have in this new covenant Remember that? Now you call Godfather, you're adopted into his family. You're a child of God, you're seated at the table, you have refrigerator rights. You get to sit and eat at God's table and you're not kicked out. And the Thanksgiving table is big enough that you're not even at the, at the little kids table. Write the folding table that has one leg, that's bent and broken in either gravy, spills off your mashed potatoes and onto your lap. You're not at that table, you're at the main table. You have privileges. Contemplate. Jesus, as your mediator, your lawyer, the one is going to advocate for you. Think about this today, even if you sent today, Jesus is at the right hand of the father and it says, if he leans over to the father and he says, father, I died for that sin. Remember I died on the lawyer, on The Advocate, on the mediator and I died for that sin. You committed today. Jesus died for all your sins, past present, and future remember that, Remember the promises that are so abundant that are so sufficient that are so suitable to you. They bring real hope that when you plead your case before the father he hears you and he answers timely any answers quickly and he gives you what is best for you. Maybe not what you asked for but what you need?