HEBREWS – PART TWO - LESSON 8



HEBREWS – PART TWO - LESSON 8

“Are Things Tough? Don’t Drift Away!”

Kay Arthur, Teacher

Are things tough? Hold fast; don’t drift away! Do you know why? Because Jesus has given you a better covenant, enacted on better promises. Therefore, He is able to save forever those who draw near to Him, because He is the mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises, and affected through a better sacrifice. You see, in Hebrews 7, 8, and 9, some phrases. All of them have one thing in common, and that is the word “better.” He talks to us about what Jesus has brought, and what Jesus has brought is better. Remember, the Hebrews are undergoing persecution. They are in a tough place. It is hard for them to stand in their Christianity right now. And because it is hard, because it is tough, they are about to drift away. They are about to let go of what Christ has wrought for them, and if they let go of that and they drift away totally, then they never really had salvation. But they are also tempted, just in that trial, just for a moment, to let those things slip. The author of Hebrew is saying to them, “Look, don’t drift away. Listen to God; hear what He is saying. Pay close attention to what God has spoken to us in Christ Jesus.” He then begins to take us through a process in Hebrews 1, all the way through Hebrews 8:1, showing us that Jesus is our high priest, and therefore, He is able to save forever.

Let me take you back and show you an overview of Hebrews. In Hebrews 1:7, he is going to show us the person of Christ, our high priest. The emphasis in Hebrews is the priesthood of Jesus Christ, because it takes us all the way through Christ’s finished work. It seats Him at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty on high, where he shows us that He has conquered death; He has paid for sin. He has wrought redemption for man, and He has seated Himself at the right hand because His work is totally finished. He has one work and one ministry now, and that one work and that one ministry is to intercede for you as a high priest, so that when things get tough, He is able to save forever those who draw near to Him. So, in Chapters 1-7, he is going to show us the person of Christ, our high priest.

In Chapter 8:1, all the way through Chapter 10:18, he is going to show us the work of Christ, our high priest. When he finishes in 10:18, he is going to finish the doctrinal section of the book. He has finished laying down the doctrine that we need to know. Anytime someone comes along, and says to you, “Forget doctrine. It is not important.” do not listen to them. They are not speaking from God, because everything that you and I act upon, the way that we live, is always based on doctrine. So doctrine is key.

In Chapter 10:19, all the way through the end of Chapter 13, he is going to show us the endurance of faith as he shows us the endurance of faith of those who have Christ as their high priest. If you have Christ as your high priest, then you will endure. As we move from the person to the work, he is going to show us that Christ, as a high priest, has brought for us a better covenant, enacted on better promises, and affected by a better sacrifice. Therefore it is a better hope. He began introducing this in Hebrews 7.

Hebrews 7:12 says, “For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law also.” [He has established for us, up to this point, that the priesthood has been changed, that Christ is not a priest after the order of Aaron. Aaron came from the tribe of Levi, and any priest that ever officiated, or any man that was ever called to be a priest under the old covenant had to be from the tribe of Levi, and had to have come from the family of Aaron. This was the way that God appointed it. Therefore, anyone who was not of Levi and not of Aaron could not officiate under the old covenant. He has already shown us in Hebrews that Christ is a priest after the order of Melchizedek, and in the process he has shown us that Melchizedek existed even before the priesthood came into being. He takes the Jews back to Abraham, to Father Abraham. Every Jew claimed Abraham as their father. He takes them back and shows them Father Abraham, and shows them the fact that Father Abraham paid tithes to a priest who was also a king. He was the king of Salem, and this priest was called Melchizedek. He takes us back in Genesis, to a book that stresses genealogies, that tells when so-and-so was born, and from whom he was born (who his father was), and a book that tells us when so-and-so died—“and he died,” “and he died,” “and he died.” He takes us back to Melchizedek, a man who is without father or mother, not literally without father or mother, but Genesis does not give his genealogy. He is one who abides forever—it never tells us about Melchizedek’s death. Melchizedek just appears on the scene. There he is, the priest, the king of Salem. Abraham comes to him after a victory, and he walks out to Melchizedek, and he pays Melchizedek tithes. What God shows us in His marvelous, marvelous word, in this inerrant, absolute word that gives us shadows and types in the Old Testament, and anti-types and fulfillments, reality, in the New Testament, is that Melchizedek was made like Jesus Christ. He was without father. He was without mother. He has unending days. He has no record of his death. He abides a priest forever. He shows us that Melchizedek was made like Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus Christ was previous to Melchizedek. So he establishes the priesthood of Jesus Christ.

Now he says, “Since under the new covenant we have a new priest, there has to be a new covenant. We can no longer be under law, but now, because there is a new priest, there must be a change in the law also.” He is going to show the Jews how God went from one covenant, which was the Law, to the other covenant, which is grace, how He moves from the old covenant, which is what the Law is called, to grace, which is the new covenant.

Look at 7:18. “For, on the one hand, there is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its uselessness” [Now he is talking about the Law. He is saying that the Law was weak, and the Law was useless. He is going to show us why the Law was weak and why the Law was useless, and why it is set aside.] (19) “(for the Law made nothing perfect), [In other words, the Law can say, “This is what perfection is.” The Law can say, “Do this, and you will live.” But the Law cannot change man, so God is going to make a new covenant. Instead of the old covenant, which is the Law, He is going to make a new covenant, which is grace. This is going to be a better covenant.] (19) “(for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God.”

Let me ask you a question. Right down here in front is a dear brother. Lon, I am so glad to see this dear brother. This dear brother was married to a woman who was a very, very precious friend of mine. For years, Joanne drove from Cleveland, Tennessee to Chattanooga, Tennessee to be our Precept leader and to take Precept back to Cleveland, Tennessee. Joanne became sick. And I remember when Lon was sick, and I remember how we prayed for Lon, how we went to the throne of grace, and just beseeched God that He would extend Lon’s life, because it was touch and go there for awhile. With his diagnosis, we just didn’t know what would be wrong with him. Then Joanne got sick, and it came to us near the end of her days that she had cancer. Things were tough for this family. When things are tough, what do you have a tendency to do? You have a tendency to turn around and run the other way. You have a tendency to try to do something. You have a tendency to try to bargain with God. You have a tendency, possibly, to get angry with God; unless you understand what God has given us in Christ Jesus through the new covenant. I saw this family, and I saw this man, go through a death of their loved one that was so surprising and so shocking to all of us, because before we knew it, Joanne had gone home to be with the Lord. Instead of turning away, instead of rebelling, instead of walking away, instead of drifting away, I saw this family grab on to the Lord Jesus Christ, and grab on to the promises. They had a better hope. They had a better promise.

He is telling us in Hebrews that when things are tough, whether it is an external persecution or an internal trial, don’t drift away. You have a great high priest. He is seated at the right hand of the throne of God, and He is the mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises, and it is all there for those who will draw near. Watch what he does. In 7:19, he says, “It is a better hope, through which we draw near to God.” [And then he comes on down to v. 22, and he tells us this.] (22) “So much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant.” [So he has introduced that because there is a change in the priesthood, there must be a change in the Law. We are going to move from Law to grace. He has shown us that this is a better hope. He has shown us that Jesus has become a mediator of a better covenant. As our new high priest, this is what he has done.]

Drop down to v. 24. “But He, on the other hand, because He abides forever, holds His priesthood permanently. (25) Hence, also, He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him (Jesus), since He always lives to make intercession for them.” [So we have a great high priest, and our great high priest has brought in a new covenant. He is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him.] (28) “For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, made perfect forever.” [We have, through Jesus Christ, a Son who has been made perfect forever.] Drop over to 8:6. “But now He (Christ) has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.” [Tonight we want to look at this better covenant which was enacted on better promises, and which was affected by a better sacrifice. Let me show you the better sacrifice.]

Go to Hebrews 9:23. “Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these (He is talking about the earthly tabernacle cleansed with blood—blood of bulls and goats), but the heavenly things (and you are going to study that earthly tabernacle next week, and it going to be a great assignment, and you are really going to learn. It is going to be super for you!) themselves with better sacrifices than these. (24) For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;” [What did he say? Christ went into the presence of God with a better sacrifice, a better sacrifice of a better covenant that brought a better a hope enacted on better promises.]

Now I want to take you through Hebrews 8, and show you this covenant. I want to show you this word of exhortation that he is giving us through this doctrine. 8:1 says, “Now the main point in what has been said is this: (up to this point in Hebrews ) we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, (2) a minister in the sanctuary, and in the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, not man.” [You are going to study this next week, but you are going to see that the earthly tabernacle that was built down here was built after the pattern of the true tabernacle in heaven. As the Aaronic priests came into the earthly tabernacle, so Jesus, a priest after the order of Melchizedek, goes into the heavenly tabernacle. If Christ were down here on earth, He would not be allowed to offer sacrifices in the earthly temple. Do you know why? Because He was not of Aaron. So He has to offer sacrifices in the heavenly tabernacle. He has to do it through a new covenant, because when the priesthood is changed, then the Law must be changed also, for the Law requires somebody from the tribe of Levi, somebody from the family of Aaron. So here is Christ; He is in the true tabernacle.]

(3) “For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer.” [Now follow me—Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, a new covenant that comes because the old priesthood is changed, and you have to move to a new covenant. As in the old priesthood, they offered sacrifices, the blood of bulls and goats, so Christ has to offer a sacrifice too. He is going to offer a better sacrifice than the blood of bulls and goats (and you are going to study this later on, and you are going to see the picture in the Day of Atonement). But the sacrifice that Christ is going to offer is going to be His very own blood.]

Look at Matthew 26, but keep you place in Hebrews 8, because we are coming right back. In Matthew 26, we find Jesus in the upper room. It is just before He goes to Calvary. He is celebrating the last supper just before His arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane. He is gathered with His disciples, and this is what happens. (26) “And while they were eating (the Passover Meal), Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’ (27) And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you; (28) for this My blood of the covenant,” [What covenant? The old covenant, or the new covenant? New covenant. Why does it have to be a new covenant? Because we have changed priests. We have moved from Aaron to Christ, and when there is a change in the priesthood there is a change in the Law. So we have moved from the old covenant to a new covenant. He is going to offer a sacrifice, and that sacrifice is not going to be the blood of bulls and goats. You are going to read, in Hebrews 10, that it says, “Lo, in the volume of the book it is written of Me, I come to do Your will, O God.” It says that He takes away the first, the old covenant, in order to establish the second, the new covenant. He is going to offer, not the blood of bulls and goats, because they can never take away sin, because they can never change a man. But He is going to offer His blood, which will change a man through the new covenant. Therefore, it is a better hope, enacted on better promises.

Matt. 26:28, “for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.” [In the Old Testament, under the old covenant, there was a remembrance of sins year after year after year after year, because the Law could not change a man. But you are going to see that under the new covenant, there is one offering for sins for all time. That offering brings forgiveness of sins, and it can bring forgiveness for sins because it changes us. The Law could not change us. It was useless in that sense. It was weak in that sense because of the weakness of our flesh, so God, sending His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemned sin in the flesh, and brought us forgiveness of sins. That is what he is going to show us, and he is going to say, “Don’t drift away, because if you drift away, you are going back to something that is weak. You are going back to something that is useless. You are going back to something that cannot change you. Don’t drift away!”]

Go to Hebrews 8 again. (3) “For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; hence it is necessary that this high priest (Christ) also have something to offer. (4) Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law; (5) who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, ‘See,’ He says, ‘that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.’” [That is a quote from Exodus 25, which you will be studying next week when you study the tabernacle.]

(6) “But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. (7) For if that first covenant had been faultless,” [if it could have done its job,] “there would have been no occasion sought for a second. (8) For finding fault with the, He says,” [From here on, down to the end of the chapter, he quotes Jeremiah 31. Let me read this, and then we will look at Jeremiah 31, in the light of this.] (8) “For finding fault with them, He says, ‘Behold, days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;’ [When He says, “with the house of Israel and the house of Judah,” He says this because, by the time of Jeremiah, the kingdom had been split. The house of Israel, the ten northern tribes, had gone into captivity under the Assyrians in 722 B.C. Now, under Jeremiah, the southern kingdom, the house of Judah is about to go into captivity under the Babylonians, and this will take place in 586 B.C. He is saying, “Although the kingdoms have been split, I am still speaking to the house of Israel and the house of Judah, because I made a covenant with them—and I am a covenant-keeping God, and the promises of God are, “Yea, and Amen.” He made a covenant before the Law ever came. He made another covenant with Father Abraham. Because of His covenant with Father Abraham, and because the Law did not nullify that covenant with Father Abraham, He is making this promise to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah.]

“The house of Judah and the house of Israel” means all of Israel, all the Jews, but He is also going to make a covenant with the Gentiles who will believe in the Messiah that comes for Israel, and comes for Judah. He is going to make a covenant also with you and with me, Gentiles who will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because way back here, before He ever made the Law, the Law which they broke, He made a covenant with Abraham. When He made that covenant with Abraham, He did not only give the gospel to Abraham, as the father of the Jews, but He said to Abraham, “In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” When He said that, He preached the gospel, not only to Father Abraham and all those Jews that were going to come from his lineage, but He preached the gospel to the Gentiles. As you look at this quote from Jeremiah 31, I want you to know that, as he quotes Jeremiah, he is including us. I will show you how again.

(8) “For finding fault with them, He says, ‘Behold, days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; (9) not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;’” [What covenant did He make with the fathers when He took them out of the land of Egypt, when He took them by the hand, when He made a covenant with them at a mountain? What covenant was that? This is Mount Sinai. What covenant did He made with them? Remember the tables of stones, and Moses up there with the tables of stones? (Did you see the movie, The Ten Commandments? I never forgot it. After I got saved I remembered it when I was reading it. I could see Moses up there with those tables of stone, and the hand of God coming down in lightning and writing the commandments on those tables of stone.) He said, “I am going to make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,”] (9) “not like the covenant which I made with them when I took them by hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke.” [Remember when Moses was up here getting this, the children of Israel were down here fornicating and playing the harlot, worshipping idols, and everything, and Moses came down with tables of stone, and he threw them down on the ground. Then he went back up, got the Law again, came back down again, and they are all messed up. So what happens? They broke the commandments, and God was upset with them, and they could not keep God’s commandments.

Now watch, v. 10 says, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ says the Lord; ‘I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (11) And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,” for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest of them. (12) For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.’” [Can you imagine having your sins remembered no more? Can you imagine having them blotted out? Can you imagine having them paid for, and not only that, but can you imagine being set free from the power of sin, so that you are actually changed, so that you are actually transformed? Can you imagine knowing, with an absolute certainty, that He is your God, and that you are His people, and that nothing can ever separate you from God? Nothing can ever tear you away, that you are able to be saved forever, because Christ, your high priest, has enacted a better covenant based on better promises that gives you a better hope because of a better sacrifice, a sacrifice that takes away your sins? This is what He is saying.

These Jews are in danger of drifting away; things are tough. They are in danger of stopping up their ears, and not really clinging to what God is saying. He is saying, “If you drift away, what are you going to drift away to? You are going to leave reality, and you are going to go back to shadow, and shadow can’t save you, because once reality comes, then shadow is obsolete. Once you have the substance, the shadow moves away.]

Look at v. 13. “When He said, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.” [When he wrote this, there were priests that were walking into a tabernacle, and they were offering sacrifices. The priest was going in daily into the holy place, and he was arranging the bread on the table of showbread. He was standing in the light of the seven-branched candlesticks. He was waving the incense from the altar of incense. They were going through the form, and they were going through the ritual, a form and ritual that could take care of the outer man, and never change the heart. He says, “Don’t drift away. You have Jesus, your high priest, who has brought you a better covenant, with better promises, with a better hope, and with a better sacrifice.

Let’s look at this covenant. I want to take you to the book of Galatians, and give you a brief comparison between Hebrews and Galatians. Hebrews is a word of exhortation. We know that from Hebrews 13:22. “Bear with this word of exhortation, brethren, for I have written to you briefly.” Hebrews is a word of exhortation to continue in the faith, the faith of the gospel. It is an exhortation to not return to Judaism, to not return to the old covenant. That is what it is—an exhortation. As a matter of fact, it tells you this, that if you don’t continue in it, then you were never saved. Hebrews is going to show us that continuance in the faith is the evidence of your salvation, so if you don’t continue in it, you were never saved.

Galatians is an exhortation also, but Galatians is a word that is written because people have come along with another gospel. Judaizers have come in, and Judaizers have mixed Law plus faith. They say, “You are saved by faith and keeping the Law.” Galatians is showing us a combination of Law and faith. Hebrews is saying, “Don’t leave faith and go back to the Law.” In Galatians it mixes Law and faith, or it mixes—under Law, you could put “works and grace”, because faith and grace are the same thing. “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.” So it is mixing Law and faith, or works and grace, and it is saying that when you combine these two you get salvation. You are saved by faith, and you keep your faith by staying under the Law.

In Galatians, he is going to deal with the law and its relationship to grace. The minute I say “law”, what covenant do you think of? You think of the old covenant. The minute I says “grace”, what do you think of? The new covenant. He is going to show us, in Galatians, the relationship of the old covenant to the new covenant. When we see that relationship it will help us to better understand what he is showing us in Hebrews, when he shows us that the old has become obsolete because the new has come.

Go to Galatians 3. Remember that Jeremiah said, “The days are coming (they aren’t here yet) when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.” (This means all of the Jews.) But, remember that I told you that He is going to affect that new covenant because of a covenant that He made with Abraham. (1) “You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? (2) This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit (Holy Spirit) by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?” [How did you get saved, by the works of the Law or by the hearing with faith? How do you get saved? By hearing with faith. “God has, in these last days, spoken to us through His Son,” Hebrews says. “Hear Him. Believe Him.” Salvation is always by faith.]

(3) “Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” [Now that you got saved by the Holy Spirit coming into your life, by believing in Jesus Christ, do you think that you are going to be made perfect by the flesh? What is the answer? No, you can’t be made perfect by the flesh.] (4) “Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?” [The Galatians were suffering, even as the Hebrews were suffering, and they were suffering (for different reasons) because of the gospel, basically, which was the same reason, but then there were other reasons on top of that.]

(5) “Does He then, who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?” [How does God bless you? Does He do it because you keep the Law, or because you listen to Him and believe Him? How does He do it? Because you listen to Him and believe Him. The church of Jesus Christ needs this today, because so many times, when we get in trouble, we go back, and we begin to bargain with God, because we think we are in trouble because we have done something wrong to God. Therefore, we are going to bargain with God. We are going to promise Him to be better; we are going to promise to keep the Law. Or we get in a hard trial, and we begin to try to negotiate with God, when everything in our Christian life is on the basis of faith, and on the basis of grace.

(5) “Does He then, who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?” [When you stop to think of Hebrews 3 and 4, what is he telling them? He is talking about the children of Israel, and they had problems because they got hardness of heart, because they would not believe God, because they would not have faith in God, and they would not act in the obedience of faith.] (6) “Even so… (The author of Hebrews has gone back to Abraham. The author of Galatians goes back to Abraham, because Abraham is their father.) “Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.” [In other words, how did Abraham get saved, by keeping the Law, or by believing God? By believing God. Write it down if you don’t know it: Salvation in the Old Testament was by grace through faith. Salvation in the New Testament is by grace through faith. You say, “What is the purpose of the Law then?” We will show you in just a minute. Salvation has always been by faith.]

(8) “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, ‘All the nations shall be blessed in you.’ (9) So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.” [What is he talking about? He has just quoted to you Genesis 15, when he says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.” He is showing us that God preached the gospel to Abraham when He said, “In you shall all the families of the earth be blessed.”]

Let’s go back to Father Abraham, and let me show you the Abrahamic covenant. There are three covenants involved in your salvation, so if you make a cross on your paper, I will show you the three covenants that are involved in your salvation. At the top of the cross, put “The Abrahamic Covenant,” and that promises you the seed. (We will see who that seed was in just a minute.) Then, to the left of the cross, as you look at it on the paper, write “The Old Covenant,” or “The Law.” On the right hand side of your cross, write “The New Covenant,” or “Grace.” The new covenant is synonymous with the covenant of grace. The old covenant is synonymous with the Law. The Abrahamic covenant promises a seed.

Now let’s go back and see that Abraham was saved by faith. Go back to Genesis 12, and let me show you where God preaches the gospel to the Gentiles. God appears to Abraham (his name is Abram at this stage). Abram was living in Ur of the Chaldeans, and God called him out of Ur of the Chaldeas to go to the land of Canaan. When He called him, this is what He said, (1) “Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; (2) And I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; (3) And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.” [Now here is the gospel to the Gentiles.] “And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Keep your hand there, and go back to Galatians 3, and let me read it to you. I don’t want you to miss this. I tell you, when this hits you (if you haven’t studied covenant with us, when this hits you), it will open up the word of God and your understanding of the covenants and salvation in a whole new way. I cannot tell you what it has done for me as I learned it years ago. We just read Genesis 12, where it said that all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in you. Gal. 3:8 says, “And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying ‘All the nations shall be blessed in you.’” [Now listen to me very carefully. There is debate on the new covenant that is promised in Jeremiah. Some say that that covenant does not belong to the Gentiles. But I want to show you that it does belong to the Gentiles, because there is only one new covenant. That new covenant is the fulfillment of the seed that was promised to Abraham. And that seed is Jesus Christ, and it is a fulfillment of that. I am going to show it to you. So when we read about the new covenant promised to the house of Israel and the house of Judah, that is a covenant that is also promised to us, as Gentiles, so that Jews and Gentiles come in one body under the new covenant.]

Go back to Genesis 15, and let’s see what happened when Abraham got saved. God has promised to Abraham a son. From Abraham’s loins He is going to make a great nation. Abraham waits and waits and waits. Every month he asks Sarah, and every month Sarah said, “No, Abraham, not this month. I am still not pregnant, darling.” So they go on, and he waits and he waits and he waits, and still nothing. So Abraham starts to figure out God. Here is a trial, and Abraham, in that trial, is tempted to drift away from what God has said to his own means, to his own designs for fulfilling this. That is what so often happens in trials. Instead of drawing nearer to Him who has spoken to us in His Son, instead of coming boldly to the throne of grace and to find help in the time of need, when we get in a trial we start to drift away, and we forget the better covenant. We forget the better promises; we forget the better sacrifices; we forget that we are going back to that which is not better. We are going back to the lesser. So this is what Abraham is about to do.

(2) “And Abram said, ‘O Lord God, what wilt Thou give me since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?’” [Maybe it will be my servant. Maybe You didn’t mean it. Maybe I am not going to have a nation that is going to come out of me and out of Sarah. Maybe it is going to be my servant. And then God says, “Abraham, Abraham!”] (3) “And Abram said, ‘Since Thou hast given no offspring to me, one born in my house is my heir.’ (4) Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying…” [If you are ever in a trial, when you are ever tempted to drift away, grab the word of the Lord. Hang on to the word of the Lord. Hang on to those promises. Don’t look at the circumstances; don’t look at the situation. They all belie the reality of the word of God, because His promises are “Yea and Amen.” Cling to them. God has spoken. Listen to what God says.]

(4) Then behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, ‘This man will not be your heir; but one who shall come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir.’ (5) And He took him outside and said, ‘Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ And He said to him, “So shall you descendants be.’” [The Hebrew says, “So shall your seed be.” The seed that comes out of you (Abraham) will be like the stars in the heavens. You can’t count them.] (6) “Then he (Abraham) believed in the Lord; and He (God) reckoned it to him as righteousness.” [Look at me. I am standing on the edge of the platform, and I am about to fall off. It is as if I am on a thousand foot precipice, and God is standing down there. I am in a trial, and God says, “Believe Me.” It is a trial of my faith, and God says, “Believe Me; believe Me; believe Me.” What do you do? You just spread your arms, and you do a swan dive right off that precipice, right into the sure arms of God who cannot lie. You just catapult yourself in there. This word “believe” means a total committal of oneself to another. When you are in a trial, don’t drift away. You have better promises, a better covenant. You have a better sacrifice, you have a better hope. Swan dive into it. Commit yourself to it. Just trust God. Hang on to what God says. When Abraham believed God, do you know what God did? Right then and there, He wrote it down in heaven. Write it down—saved by faith. It was counted to him as righteousness, and he didn’t do a thing. All he did was believe God. That is all he did.

What is God saying in Hebrews? “Listen, you are in a trial. Don’t drift away. Here is Christ, your high priest. Believe Me; believe Me; believe Me. Come to Me; come to Me; come to Me. Draw near to the throne of grace. You will find grace to help in the time of need, because He is able to save forever.” And on that day, on that day when Abraham believed God, he was saved forever and ever and ever and ever. God made a covenant with him.

(7) “And He (God) said to him, ‘I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.’ (8) And he said, ‘O Lord God, how may I know that I shall possess it?’ (9) So He said to him, ‘Bring Me a three year old heifer, and a three year old female goat, and three year old ram, and a turtledove, and a young pigeon.’ (10) Then he (Abraham) brought all these to Him (God) and cut them in two,” [He hacked them right down the middle. He split them right down the head, right down the nose, right down the chest, so that you have an arm and a leg over here, and as arm and a leg over here. He split right down the middle, and he laid them one opposite the other. You had two walls of blood. You had a mess of blood, and you had your goat half and half. You had your ram half and half; you had all of it half and half, except the birds. You had one bird over here and another bird over there. You have got two birds (they never cut the birds).

(12) “Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep came fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him. (13) And God said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.’ [Where is that going to be? Egypt. They are going to be slaves for 400 years. They are going to be there longer, but slaves for 400 years.] (14) ‘But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve; and afterward they will come out with many possessions. (15) And as for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace; you shall be buried at a good old age. (16) Then in the fourth generation they (your children) shall return here.’ (17) And it came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch’” [That smoking oven and that flaming torch came down, and that walked between the pieces. It passed between the pieces. When they made a covenant in the old days, they passed between the pieces in a figure eight. That path, that wall of blood, those parts of the animals, set up a walk into death, a path into death. Listen to what it says.] (18) “On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, (Hebrew reads “cut a covenant with Abram.”) [Abram believed God. God counted it to him for righteousness, and God cut a covenant. The word for “covenant” is beriyth, and it means “a compact, an agreement made by passing through pieces of flesh.”]

So what did God do on that day that Abram believed God, and God counted it to him for righteousness? God made a covenant with him. A covenant is a solemn, binding agreement. God came down Himself (Abraham did not do it) and God (Now listen, this is going to get so good next week that you won’t be able to stand it) walked through the pieces. God walked through the sacrifice that was cut in two. Just remember that. And when God walked through, He made a covenant. You just stop and think about that next week when you read Chapter 9, and you go through it in Chapter 10, and the rent veil. You just think about all these things that I am sharing with you this week, because we are going to finish it next week.

Here is the Abrahamic covenant. It promises a seed. Now go back to Galatians 3, and we will wrap it up with this for this week. But know this, we have not wrapped it up. We have just begun; we have just dipped our toes into this wonderful, wonderful truth of God, and it is going to send ripples down through all the pages of Scripture, and illuminate them for you. We have seen that God preached the gospel to the Gentiles. He declared Abraham righteous. He did it by faith. Gal. 3:9, “So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. (10) For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, to perform them.’” [God gave the Law. The Law was good; the Law was righteous; the Law was holy; the Law was perfect. The problem was that the Law was weak, and the Law was useless because I was not perfect. If I kept the whole Law, and I broke it in one point, then I came under the curse of the Law. The curse of the Law is death. So if I keep the whole Law, and I break it in one point (James 2:10), then I am guilty of all, and the curse of the Law is this: If I don’t keep it in its whole part, then I have to die. So what happens?] “‘Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the Law, to perform them.’ (11) Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for ‘The righteous man shall live by faith.’” [Faith is taking God at His word. Faith is hearing what God says, and believing it.]

(12) “However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, ‘He who practices them (the Law) shall live by them.’ (13) Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’— [What does Hebrew 2 show us? Hebrews 2 shows us Jesus Christ dying in our place, Christ hanging on the tree, on the cross for us, so that we might be saved.] (14) “in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” [When you believe in Jesus Christ, you get the Holy Spirit. You get it by faith.] (15) “Brethren, I speak in terms of human relations: even though it is only a man’s covenant, yet when it has been ratified, no one sets it aside or adds conditions to it. (16) Now the promises were spoken (now hang on!) to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.” [When God made a promise to Abraham “that in your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,” what He said to Abraham was this, “Abraham, you are going to bring forth Messiah, and everyone, Jew of Gentile, that believes in Messiah by faith will be saved.”]

That covenant was given 430 years before the Law was ever given. Let me read it to you, and then we will come back next week. (17) “What I am saying is this; the Law, which came 430 years later does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise.” [What do you have? You have a covenant made to Abraham, 430 years before the Law. You also have a priest, receiving tithes from Abraham 430 years before the Law. Who was that priest? That priest was Melchizedek, a picture of Jesus Christ. Salvation by faith it has always been. Salvation by grace it has always been. It has been there. Then 430 years later, the Law comes. Why the Law? He says, “For the sake of defining your sins, to show you that you are a sinner, and that you cannot save yourself, so that you will believe in Jesus Christ, the new covenant.”

We are going to look at it next week, so hang on. Rehearse these things in your mind. But just know this: Don’t drift away. You have a better hope; you have a better covenant; you have better promises; you have a better sacrifice. It is all in Christ, the work of your high priest. Now, “In faith—endure,” is what he is saying, “because of your high priest.” We are going to look at it. It is going to get good, good, and gooder as you do your homework, so be faithful. Hangeth thou in there, and we will show you the practicality of it all next week.

Let’s pray. Father, thank You for Your word. O Lord, we thank You for it. We thank You that there is a covenant, a new covenant which can change us. The old covenant can’t; the Law can’t make us perfect. But Father, we thank You that the new covenant can. In Your name we pray. Amen.

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