WEBVTT 00:00:01.760 --> 00:00:08.240 The book of Hebrews ends, Hebrews 13, verses 20 and 21, with these words. 00:00:08.400 --> 00:00:27.440 Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good, that you may do his will, working in us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:28.399 Amen. 00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:36.880 Late 1500s, there was a group that developed in Europe, Poland really, called the Sassinians. 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:45.039 And the Sassinians would go on through time, they would morph and they would become what's became the brethren in parts of Europe, even in the United States. 00:00:45.200 --> 00:00:47.039 It eventually gave way to the Unitarians. 00:00:47.119 --> 00:00:51.119 So you see how this theological thread goes, as they end up as Unitarians. 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:55.840 But in the 15 and 1600s, the Sassinians were not Unitarians. 00:00:56.000 --> 00:01:05.200 They were arguing that they were in fact evangelicals, that they did in fact believe the scriptures, that they wanted the necessity of personal conversion. 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:06.640 They took on the Catholic Church. 00:01:06.719 --> 00:01:10.560 They were on the face of their movement Catholic. 00:01:10.719 --> 00:01:18.959 They were supposedly under the authority of the Catholic Church, and yet they fancied themselves evangelicals because they were calling for people to come to faith. 00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:23.120 This is after the Protestant Reformation, so they were trying to have a foot in both worlds. 00:01:23.359 --> 00:01:30.799 But the heart of the Sassinian teaching came down to this logical dilemma that they were unable to answer. 00:01:30.959 --> 00:01:37.280 They would present it to other believers, and this is how many, so many people became as Sassinians, is they were not able to answer this question for themselves. 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:40.079 They would ask the question, is salvation free? 00:01:40.239 --> 00:01:42.159 Does God freely save? 00:01:42.719 --> 00:01:46.640 Is it in God's heart or is it in God's desire to save? 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:51.120 And we would be prone to answer yes to that question. 00:01:51.599 --> 00:02:02.560 And they would argue that if salvation were free from God's heart, that God was freely saving, then there's no need for the cross. 00:02:02.879 --> 00:02:07.519 Because the cross represents a payment required for salvation. 00:02:07.760 --> 00:02:08.719 So it goes. 00:02:08.800 --> 00:02:18.319 And so they said you would have to choose between either believing God wants to save people freely, or that God saves people reluctantly through the cross. 00:02:18.479 --> 00:02:28.000 So either the cross purchases your salvation, in which case God is not freely giving it, or God is freely giving it, and the cross does not purchase it. 00:02:28.319 --> 00:02:36.639 And this eventually became known as the exemplary view of the atonement, the idea that the cross didn't purchase your salvation, but it was just a model of love. 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:38.639 It was a model of self-sacrifice. 00:02:38.800 --> 00:02:47.360 And if you keep going through history, that view morphs into really modalism, that Jesus wasn't God in the Son of God. 00:02:47.439 --> 00:02:48.639 He wasn't the eternal Son of God. 00:02:48.800 --> 00:02:54.560 Rather, he was just a person who was born that had the Spirit of God dwell in him in a unique way for a period of time. 00:02:54.719 --> 00:03:00.240 And that ends up being Unitarianism, and which, you know, now really is universalism and you know, whatever. 00:03:00.479 --> 00:03:06.240 Unitarianism is, you know, you see a Unitarian church today, it's everything all at once. 00:03:06.400 --> 00:03:07.599 Um, it's a total mess. 00:03:07.759 --> 00:03:20.800 But it traces its way back to this very idea that if the cross actually accomplishes your salvation, that means God can't freely be desiring to save you. 00:03:21.039 --> 00:03:24.879 In other words, you don't want to give something away if you're also charging for it. 00:03:25.120 --> 00:03:30.159 You can't say, Oh, I desired for you to have this, but I demands$100 for it. 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:32.560 Well, which one is it? 00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:33.520 Which one is it? 00:03:33.680 --> 00:03:46.960 That was the great Sassinian riddle, and it has stumped a lot of people through the centuries, but I think this notion of a covenant of redemption that is taught here at the end of verse 20 of Hebrews 13 is the way that we solve that riddle. 00:03:47.199 --> 00:04:00.479 It allows us to say that salvation is free from the very heart of God, that God desires in himself to save, and at the same time the cross is the necessary payment for our salvation. 00:04:00.800 --> 00:04:08.560 Before we get to how this passage solves that, I want us to look at the phrases in this these two verses more carefully. 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:15.280 In many ways, this little paragraph here at the end of Hebrews is a fitting partner with the passage we looked at this morning. 00:04:15.439 --> 00:04:27.120 Be an imitator of God, walk in love as Jesus did, who gave himself up as a sacrifice and a fragrant offering for us to God, as Ephesians 5, 1 and 2 says. 00:04:27.199 --> 00:04:43.839 This partners with that so well, because this is a verse in light of all the moral commands that go through Hebrews 13 for you to live out these moral commands, you know, keep the marriage bed pure, be submissive, and uh all the moral commands in Hebrews 13 are building up to this blood of the eternal covenant. 00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:48.720 This demonstration that God is the one who can work these in your life. 00:04:48.879 --> 00:04:54.319 There's parallelism in these two verses, and maybe you notice that verses 20 and 21 as I read through them. 00:04:54.480 --> 00:04:55.279 There's two actions. 00:04:55.360 --> 00:05:02.399 There's an action in verse 20, that is God bringing Jesus up from the dead, and there's an action in verse 21, that God is equipping you. 00:05:02.560 --> 00:05:05.360 God is working in your life to do his will. 00:05:05.519 --> 00:05:08.560 And so as you look at these two verses, they're joined together. 00:05:08.959 --> 00:05:30.560 God is at work on Jesus, bringing Jesus out of the grave, and that same energetic work of God, the same power of God that is at work resurrecting Jesus Christ from the grave is also at work in you, equipping you for every good work that the Father would have you do, working in you which is pleasing in his sight. 00:05:30.720 --> 00:05:32.079 So both are pleasing in his sight. 00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:37.600 The resurrection of Jesus is pleasing in the sight of God, and you being sanctified is pleasing in the sight of God. 00:05:37.759 --> 00:05:40.240 Both are works of God too. 00:05:40.720 --> 00:05:44.720 It's God who worked in Jesus to resurrect him from the grave. 00:05:44.879 --> 00:05:53.920 This is resurrection power as through the Holy Spirit, as Paul says to the Philippians, and it is also God at work in you to sanctify you. 00:05:54.000 --> 00:05:55.519 And he's at work in you in the same way. 00:05:55.680 --> 00:06:07.439 His Holy Spirit is convicting you of sin and equipping you, gifting you, encouraging you, putting you in the church that is built together by the Holy Spirit to do his will is the language in verse 21. 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:09.759 So there's this parallel act of God. 00:06:09.920 --> 00:06:12.160 He works on Jesus to resurrect him, he works on you. 00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:19.040 By the way, the word for equip here, I love, love this word, the first word in verse 21 in the ESV, to God is equipping you. 00:06:19.120 --> 00:06:25.279 That word equip, it's the word for fixing something that's broken, which should be humbling to you. 00:06:25.519 --> 00:06:28.000 That you're broken and God's got to fix you. 00:06:28.079 --> 00:06:31.600 It's used in Matthew 4, it's another place it's used in the New Testament, for mending nets. 00:06:31.680 --> 00:06:32.720 That's what the fishermen were doing. 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:33.920 They were mending their broken nets. 00:06:34.000 --> 00:06:38.480 Their nets have holes, can't catch a fish with a net with uh you know a holy net. 00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:40.240 Jesus makes nets holy, but in a different way. 00:06:40.399 --> 00:06:44.319 They had to knit their nets together so it could keep the fish in them. 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:53.680 That's this word here, that the Holy Spirit is doing that to you, so you can then be useful again according to the will of God. 00:06:54.399 --> 00:06:56.240 God's working in you. 00:06:56.480 --> 00:06:59.439 Moreover, he's called here the God of peace. 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:01.519 He's working in you at the beginning of verse 20. 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:06.720 He's the God of peace, which is the way Paul ends most of his letters, a description of the peace and grace. 00:07:06.800 --> 00:07:09.519 He goes back in verse 25 to grace be with all of you. 00:07:09.600 --> 00:07:17.680 So this is a typical uh Pauline ending here, but it's different in that he calls out the eternal covenant in the middle of this. 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:21.839 Now, Hebrews 13, this is another lame seminary joke. 00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:25.920 I want seminary to learn this, but Hebrews 13 comes at the end of the book of Hebrews. 00:07:26.160 --> 00:07:30.000 You'll have to look in your study Bible to get that without paying tuition for a seminary. 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:31.920 It's the end of the book of Hebrews. 00:07:32.000 --> 00:07:40.319 And when you track through Paul's argument through the book of Hebrews, you build up this monument to the glories of the new covenant. 00:07:40.639 --> 00:07:51.600 Hebrews chapter 1 is all about the supremacy of the Son of God over angels, that angels were ministers of God, and yet Jesus is greater than angels. 00:07:51.680 --> 00:07:53.360 He's superior to angels. 00:07:53.680 --> 00:08:09.279 In Hebrews chapter two, it talks about how Jesus frees you from death in a way superior to how people were freed under the old covenant, in a way that really crushes death and delivers people from this fear, this lifelong fear of slavery, he says in chapter two. 00:08:09.600 --> 00:08:12.480 In chapter three, it talks about how Jesus is greater than Moses. 00:08:13.120 --> 00:08:20.959 So he's greater than angels, he's greater than death, he's greater than Moses, even, in the same way that the one who builds a house is greater than the house. 00:08:21.120 --> 00:08:22.639 Jesus is greater than Moses. 00:08:22.879 --> 00:08:29.040 Moses was just a brick leading to Jesus, and he's the one who made Moses, and he's greater than Moses. 00:08:29.439 --> 00:08:31.839 In chapter four, it talks about how you get a better rest. 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:41.200 The old covenant rest came on the Sabbath, it came every Saturday, and you would cease from your works to think about the nature of God who made work, and in the new covenant, you have a different kind of rest. 00:08:41.360 --> 00:08:43.519 You cease from your labors for salvation. 00:08:43.679 --> 00:08:47.440 You have full rest in Jesus Christ as the Word of God is active in you. 00:08:47.519 --> 00:08:53.519 In chapter 5, you have a better high priest, a better priest than the Old Testament priest, a better priest than Melchizedek. 00:08:54.799 --> 00:09:01.759 In chapter 6, you have a better understanding of godliness, a better understanding of God's promise through Jesus than you had in the Old Covenant. 00:09:01.840 --> 00:09:05.200 The promise is more secure through the person of Jesus Christ. 00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:08.399 Chapter 7 is back to Melchizedek again. 00:09:34.399 --> 00:09:44.320 That's inferior to what you have in the new covenant, because Paul's words here is the old covenant is obsolete, it passes away. 00:09:45.039 --> 00:09:55.840 And then chapter 9 speaks of the holy place, that when you pray, you're brought into the very throne room of God because Jesus is in the throne room of God making intercession for you. 00:09:56.000 --> 00:09:59.600 How different is that than the throne room under the old covenant? 00:09:59.679 --> 00:10:02.639 Or the old covenant, the priests would go in and then but once a year. 00:10:02.799 --> 00:10:06.480 Now in the new covenant, you pray, Jesus is making intercession for you. 00:10:06.639 --> 00:10:10.000 The Holy Spirit is sanctifying you because you are the temple. 00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:12.559 It's not a place you go into, you are it. 00:10:12.639 --> 00:10:17.039 And your conscience is cleansed by the blood of Christ, so you can serve the living God. 00:10:17.200 --> 00:10:21.120 How much better is that than the sacrifices made by Moses? 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:27.759 And then chapter 11, my goodness, is the faith. 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:33.360 He's not saying that you have a different kind of faith than the old covenant saints have. 00:10:33.440 --> 00:10:34.879 You have the same faith they did. 00:10:35.039 --> 00:10:40.159 Their faith was in the future, Savior, your faith is in Jesus Christ, but they were not made perfect. 00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:42.000 They were not made complete without you. 00:10:43.840 --> 00:10:50.879 So when you take all that together, you have a better kingdom promised than the kingdom of Israel. 00:10:51.120 --> 00:10:54.639 You have a better covenant, the new covenant, than the old covenant. 00:10:54.799 --> 00:10:56.399 You have a better priest. 00:10:57.759 --> 00:10:59.679 You have all of this as superior. 00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:08.639 And then you get to chapter 13, after all of that, verse 20, the God of peace who brought up the Lord Jesus from the dead. 00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:12.480 There was never a Passover lamb that was resurrected. 00:11:13.360 --> 00:11:14.000 Never. 00:11:14.559 --> 00:11:17.759 Hundreds of thousands of them killed every single year. 00:11:18.000 --> 00:11:19.519 Never was one resurrected. 00:11:19.679 --> 00:11:23.440 They repeated the sacrifices every year, over and over and over again. 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:28.720 Those sacrifices could not sanctify the conscience and make the worshiper able to serve God with a clean heart. 00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:29.840 That couldn't happen. 00:11:29.919 --> 00:11:33.600 But now through Jesus Christ, his blood does sanctify us. 00:11:33.759 --> 00:11:42.879 It speaks a better word than the blood of Abel, and it makes us able to worship him, capable of worshiping him, because it results in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 00:11:43.039 --> 00:11:47.279 That's how qualitatively different the new covenant is from the old covenant. 00:11:47.679 --> 00:11:51.679 The pinnacle of the old covenant sacrifices did not get resurrected. 00:11:52.399 --> 00:11:59.440 But Jesus, our only new covenant sacrifice, was resurrected, led back out of the dead, and so he becomes the shepherd of the sheep. 00:11:59.519 --> 00:12:01.519 And of course, we are his sheep. 00:12:01.840 --> 00:12:05.519 We uh serve him, we go into this world as sheep. 00:12:05.600 --> 00:12:07.679 There's all kinds of humility with being called a sheep. 00:12:07.759 --> 00:12:12.240 You know, sheep are dumb and they're bite and they're angry and they wander away and they just do ridiculous things. 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:22.879 And you've heard all kinds of illustrations about how dumb sheep are, and then you're humbled by recognizing the Bible calls you a sheep, and you need a shepherd, and Jesus is your shepherd, and you you have all that together. 00:12:24.240 --> 00:12:29.919 But here it's the shepherd of the sheep who has resurrected to work in your heart. 00:12:30.559 --> 00:12:36.879 And then there's this phrase in the middle of this this happens by the blood of the eternal covenant. 00:12:38.000 --> 00:12:39.919 The old covenant is certainly transitory. 00:12:40.720 --> 00:12:52.960 I just gave you a summary of the book of Hebrews and how much Jesus is better than all of those other things that have gone before him in the book of Hebrews, but I want to talk specifically about how much this new covenant is better than the old covenant. 00:12:54.240 --> 00:12:55.200 Here's a couple phrases. 00:12:55.279 --> 00:12:56.159 You don't need to flip there. 00:12:56.480 --> 00:12:59.039 If you're familiar with Hebrews, these verses will sound familiar to you. 00:12:59.279 --> 00:13:04.399 Hebrews chapter 7, verse 22 says that Jesus is a guarantor of a better covenant. 00:13:05.440 --> 00:13:09.919 Jesus signs off on a covenant that is better than the old covenant. 00:13:10.000 --> 00:13:12.480 That's the language that Paul uses, Hebrews 7, 22. 00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:14.080 It is a better covenant. 00:13:14.159 --> 00:13:21.919 It's just I just like that Paul cuts through all the fog just there and says, you know what, the new covenant is better than the old covenant. 00:13:22.720 --> 00:13:23.600 It just is. 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:28.960 And then you can make a list of a million ways it's better than the covenant given to Moses. 00:13:29.679 --> 00:13:30.399 But it just is. 00:13:30.639 --> 00:13:37.919 Hebrews 8, verses 6 through 13 says the old covenant is obsolete and replaced with a new and better covenant. 00:13:38.000 --> 00:13:40.320 Now, obsolete is something that just runs out. 00:13:40.879 --> 00:13:43.919 If you have an iPhone, you understand what obsolete means. 00:13:44.480 --> 00:13:46.720 Your iPhone is obsolete right now. 00:13:47.120 --> 00:13:49.519 Those things are programmed to be obsolete. 00:13:49.679 --> 00:14:01.200 I mean, there was a class action lawsuit a few years ago that Apple settled when it was revealed that some of their batteries were programmed to start losing capacity after a couple years to force you to go out and buy a new one. 00:14:01.519 --> 00:14:02.720 Man, that's infuriating. 00:14:02.799 --> 00:14:05.600 We have an Apple computer in our house that is just pristine. 00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:06.559 It is kept. 00:14:06.639 --> 00:14:11.759 We just took the plastic wrappers off of it a few years ago, and we can't sync it with anything because none of the software updates. 00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:18.639 This thing is precise and glorious in our basement and entirely worthless because it is obsolete. 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:23.039 That is the idiom or that is the picture for the old covenant. 00:14:23.360 --> 00:14:24.799 It didn't update. 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:30.320 The update came through and it didn't sink, it wasn't connected to the Wi-Fi, the old covenant did not get updated. 00:14:30.639 --> 00:14:37.519 And so if you're living under the old covenant, you have no access to God because it hasn't been updated. 00:14:37.679 --> 00:14:43.279 Even when he was working properly, it wasn't doing what the new covenant can do. 00:14:43.360 --> 00:14:45.440 That's an argument for a new phone, by the way. 00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:50.799 Even when your old one is working fine, it can't do the things the new things the new phone does. 00:14:51.840 --> 00:14:55.919 The new covenant is so superior to the old covenant because the old covenant ran out. 00:14:56.320 --> 00:14:57.279 It's obsolete. 00:14:57.360 --> 00:15:02.879 And one of the many ways the new covenant is better than the old, is that the old covenant is obsolete. 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:10.320 And one of the many ways the obsolescence of the old covenant is seen is that the new covenant provides an eternal inheritance. 00:15:10.399 --> 00:15:12.559 That's Hebrews 9, verse 15. 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:15.519 That through the new covenant, we have an eternal inheritance. 00:15:15.600 --> 00:15:18.320 And that's where Paul drops the word eternal on us here. 00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:19.759 We have an eternal inheritance. 00:15:19.919 --> 00:15:22.559 Through our faith in Christ, our inheritance does not run out. 00:15:22.639 --> 00:15:24.080 It doesn't expire. 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:28.720 It's not like one of those coupons you get in the mail that says expires after 30 days. 00:15:28.799 --> 00:15:32.480 It's not one of those offers you get that says act on it by the end of this year. 00:15:32.559 --> 00:15:37.279 You know, you go to refinance your house and you're told you have this rate locked in for 30 days and then you could lose it. 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:39.039 That's not what the new covenant is like. 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:40.879 There's no expiration on it. 00:15:40.960 --> 00:15:42.399 It doesn't expire. 00:15:42.720 --> 00:15:44.159 The terms don't change. 00:15:44.399 --> 00:15:48.720 It's an eternal inheritance stored in heaven. 00:15:51.519 --> 00:15:56.159 Now that doesn't mean the new covenant doesn't require blood, as we see here. 00:15:56.480 --> 00:15:58.480 It is the blood of the eternal covenant. 00:15:58.559 --> 00:16:03.200 Even the old covenant required blood, and its obsolescence it required blood, but the blood couldn't sanctify you. 00:16:03.279 --> 00:16:05.200 That's where Paul goes in Hebrews chapter 10. 00:16:05.279 --> 00:16:10.879 The blood of the new covenant can actually sanctify you, it actually purifies your heart. 00:16:12.879 --> 00:16:15.279 That's what he says in Hebrews 10, verse 29. 00:16:16.559 --> 00:16:18.720 And there he says it in a negative sense. 00:16:18.960 --> 00:16:23.759 If you reject the blood of the old covenant, you deserve death. 00:16:23.919 --> 00:16:29.519 If you walked away from the blood of bulls and goats and you rejected the Torah, you deserve to be stoned to death. 00:16:29.679 --> 00:16:31.279 There were capital offenses in the old covenant. 00:16:31.440 --> 00:16:33.120 If you committed one, they would put you to death. 00:16:33.279 --> 00:16:40.720 Now, how much more, Paul asks in Hebrews 10, verse 29, would you deserve death for rejecting the blood of the new covenant? 00:16:41.039 --> 00:16:43.279 Which is so far superior to the old. 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:49.039 But even that phrase, don't miss that phrase, for rejecting the blood of the new covenant. 00:16:49.200 --> 00:16:53.039 The covenant requires blood, which Jesus shed. 00:16:53.120 --> 00:17:01.440 And then he takes that theme all the way to chapter 12, verse 24, when he says, the blood of the new covenant speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. 00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:03.759 That's Hebrews 12, 24. 00:17:04.160 --> 00:17:06.079 What did Abel's blood say? 00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:08.240 Remember, Abel was murdered by Cain? 00:17:08.480 --> 00:17:09.759 What did his blood say? 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:11.759 Well, his blood cried out from the ground. 00:17:11.839 --> 00:17:18.160 If you go back to Genesis chapter 4, Abel's blood was crying out from the ground for vengeance. 00:17:19.279 --> 00:17:22.079 God declares that he heard the cry of Abel. 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:23.200 He sees his blood. 00:17:23.279 --> 00:17:25.200 It demands a punishment on Cain. 00:17:25.279 --> 00:17:29.599 So the blood of Abel was crying out for justice and for revenge. 00:17:30.960 --> 00:17:34.079 But the blood of Jesus cries out something different. 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:40.480 It doesn't cry out for vengeance and cries, Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they're doing. 00:17:40.559 --> 00:17:41.759 That's the better word. 00:17:42.000 --> 00:17:48.079 It tethers you through faith in the blood of Jesus to an eternal covenant and an eternal inheritance. 00:17:56.160 --> 00:18:01.039 We should have looked at the use of the word blood through Hebrews and saw how it's building up to this crescendo. 00:18:01.119 --> 00:18:06.720 But there's one more word that's used repeatedly in Hebrews that I want to get you to track with throughout this entire book. 00:18:06.880 --> 00:18:08.400 It uses the word eternal. 00:18:12.240 --> 00:18:15.200 And lots of things are called eternal in the book of Hebrews. 00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:16.640 Salvation is called eternal. 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:19.759 In Hebrews 5, verse 9, there's an eternal salvation you can have. 00:18:19.839 --> 00:18:21.279 A judgment is called eternal. 00:18:21.440 --> 00:18:27.759 In Hebrews 6, verse 2, if you are apart from the gospel, you stand condemned to an eternal judgment in hell. 00:18:28.400 --> 00:18:34.079 Hebrews 9, verse 12 says that the new covenant, salvation, and redemption are eternal. 00:18:34.559 --> 00:18:36.240 That your redemption won't expire. 00:18:36.400 --> 00:18:37.599 It is also eternal. 00:18:38.079 --> 00:18:39.039 We looked at this one already. 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:41.759 Hebrews 9.15 says your inheritance is eternal. 00:18:42.880 --> 00:18:49.359 But most critically, in Hebrews 9.14, it says that the Holy Spirit is eternal, which makes sense if you understand the eternity. 00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:54.880 The Holy Spirit is the has all the attributes and the essence of deity. 00:18:56.319 --> 00:18:58.240 A person of the triune Godhead. 00:18:58.319 --> 00:18:59.519 And so of course He would be eternal. 00:18:59.599 --> 00:19:01.519 If God is eternal, the Holy Spirit is eternal. 00:19:02.799 --> 00:19:09.839 And you see where all of these threads run together and they join in Hebrews 13 to the end of verse 20. 00:19:10.880 --> 00:19:20.400 Here you see the superiority of Jesus Christ, resurrected from the dead, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant. 00:19:21.680 --> 00:19:30.480 Paul has developed all three of these themes blood, eternality, and the covenant independently throughout this whole book, and they all connect here in verse 20. 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:34.240 This is a reference to an old covenant verse. 00:19:42.880 --> 00:19:48.559 Ezekiel 37, verse 26 says, When the new covenant comes, it will be an everlasting covenant, an eternal covenant. 00:19:48.640 --> 00:19:49.519 It won't end. 00:19:49.680 --> 00:19:53.839 And so there were already Old Testament prophecies about a new covenant coming. 00:19:54.079 --> 00:19:55.599 That's his point back in chapter 9. 00:19:55.680 --> 00:19:59.440 There wouldn't be a promise of a new covenant if the old covenant wasn't obsolete. 00:19:59.599 --> 00:20:03.119 But by promising you a new covenant, it makes the old one obsolete. 00:20:03.279 --> 00:20:10.960 Well, here Paul says, the old one will be obsolete, but the new one will also come with blood, and that blood will bring with it an eternal promise. 00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:14.000 But it too is a covenant. 00:20:15.680 --> 00:20:22.640 This is an eternal covenant because it's God's final, costly payment for our sins. 00:20:22.960 --> 00:20:25.440 It results in an eternal forgiveness. 00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:28.160 Our forgiveness won't ever run out. 00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:30.400 We won't ever lose track of our forgiveness. 00:20:30.480 --> 00:20:33.519 We won't ever get to a time where our forgiveness expires. 00:20:33.759 --> 00:20:36.880 Our forgiveness also is eternal. 00:20:41.920 --> 00:20:52.000 But instead, it's fitting that God would completely remove our sin from us because in all of his ways he's holy, righteous, and true, and he died his own death on the cross in the place of sin. 00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:53.680 That's what the old covenant couldn't do. 00:20:53.839 --> 00:21:00.079 The lambs and the rams and the bulls could be, in some sense, sacrificial, in some sense substitutional. 00:21:00.240 --> 00:21:04.000 They could go in our place, but they could not actually take on our sins. 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:06.319 They would even lay their hands on the scapegoat. 00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:19.599 They would lay their hands on the goat as a public demonstration that our sins became the goat's sins, and one goat would be killed, and one goat would run away to demonstrate that your sins went away and it was your goat took your sins away with you. 00:21:20.799 --> 00:21:23.440 You did not want that goat wandering back in the camp, did you? 00:21:23.839 --> 00:21:24.640 Like, whoa. 00:21:26.480 --> 00:21:29.599 But when Jesus dies, he never wanders back into camp. 00:21:29.920 --> 00:21:32.319 He actually took our sins on him. 00:21:32.880 --> 00:21:37.519 And he actually takes them away forever. 00:21:37.920 --> 00:21:41.279 And that's why looking forward is called an eternal covenant. 00:21:41.519 --> 00:21:44.720 Because you will experience the joys and the privileges of this forever. 00:21:45.359 --> 00:21:48.960 I know I've coming close to beating a dead ox here. 00:21:50.720 --> 00:21:52.720 But the old covenant wasn't eternal. 00:21:53.279 --> 00:21:54.559 It was not eternal. 00:21:55.920 --> 00:21:57.920 Have you feared Yahweh in the wilderness? 00:21:58.960 --> 00:21:59.759 Every year. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:01.759 You sacrifice the lamb. 00:22:01.920 --> 00:22:03.119 Every year. 00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:07.839 You come into the promised land, every year you sacrifice. 00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:11.200 Well, the five sacrifices that are described in Leviticus. 00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:13.039 You're doing them all the time. 00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:22.880 And you're doing them knowing that they are obsolete, knowing that they're going to run their course because there's a new and better covenant coming. 00:22:23.200 --> 00:22:37.440 So the whole time you're doing this, there's the sense of eternality is lost on this because you know it will be repeated next year, and then the year after that, and then the year after that, until it's not repeated anymore because it's no longer effective. 00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:43.119 There's a real sense of lostness in that, a real sense of hopelessness in that. 00:22:43.680 --> 00:22:53.680 That is replaced with the blood of Jesus that is eternal and not repeated once for all time, once for sin. 00:22:55.839 --> 00:23:02.720 When you understand that, you understand why it's so significant that the sacrifice of Christ was singular. 00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:06.160 It's not repeated every time in the Catholic Mass. 00:23:06.319 --> 00:23:08.160 And that would make it obsolete again. 00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:10.240 That would make it impotent. 00:23:10.319 --> 00:23:13.200 It would make it powerless to actually produce change. 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:20.400 Moreover, you understand that the benefits and the blessings of it don't run out after a year. 00:23:21.039 --> 00:23:22.640 Or a million years. 00:23:22.960 --> 00:23:24.559 Forever and ever and ever. 00:23:24.880 --> 00:23:28.000 But there's one more word I want to drill down here on verse 20. 00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:33.200 That pretty much covers blood and the eternal, but the last word here, covenant. 00:23:33.759 --> 00:23:36.240 What a strategic word that's used. 00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:38.799 This is the blood of the eternal covenant. 00:23:39.359 --> 00:23:43.599 Now, all of God's dealings with mankind are through covenant. 00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:50.559 And when you define covenant the right way, it's just this idea that there's expectations, there's commands, there's two parties involved. 00:23:50.720 --> 00:23:55.920 God is not negotiating with an equal here, he's giving to us commands about how we should live our life. 00:23:56.000 --> 00:24:02.160 And so it's fitting here that he would describe the eternal plan of salvation also as a covenant. 00:24:03.440 --> 00:24:11.440 It was Dwight Pentecost, the professor at Dallas Seminary, who said it's critical to understand that God relates to people through covenant. 00:24:11.759 --> 00:24:16.160 And a covenant is not a plan, Pentecost writes. 00:24:17.440 --> 00:24:20.079 A plan is not eternal. 00:24:20.319 --> 00:24:23.440 A plan is not internal, and a plan can change. 00:24:23.519 --> 00:24:24.960 Those are Pentecost's three points. 00:24:25.119 --> 00:24:26.799 That a plan is not eternal. 00:24:26.960 --> 00:24:30.160 When you plan something, you're just going with it. 00:24:30.240 --> 00:24:33.200 And the plan has this idea of flexibility, Pentecost writes. 00:24:33.359 --> 00:24:34.640 That plans are flexible. 00:24:34.799 --> 00:24:36.240 We use that word the same way, right? 00:24:36.480 --> 00:24:38.319 What are your plans for this weekend? 00:24:38.559 --> 00:24:40.400 You know, and you probably go through this with your kids. 00:24:40.480 --> 00:24:41.759 Your kids ask, what are your plans? 00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:46.559 You tell the kids the plans, and something changes, and your kids at first are like, rah, you promised. 00:24:47.200 --> 00:24:48.400 No, we planned. 00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:49.680 It's wrapped up in the word. 00:24:49.920 --> 00:24:52.640 We planned it, but it didn't go out that way. 00:24:53.200 --> 00:24:53.680 We understand. 00:24:53.839 --> 00:24:56.799 This of Pentecost says that's one of the reasons a plan is different than a covenant. 00:24:56.880 --> 00:24:58.640 A covenant can't change. 00:24:59.039 --> 00:25:03.839 You don't write a covenant or a contract would be more of an English word, and then change it. 00:25:03.920 --> 00:25:09.359 You know, you can't tell your bank, yeah, you know, I signed that contract, but hey, contracts change. 00:25:09.839 --> 00:25:11.599 You know, we have that idiom with plans. 00:25:11.680 --> 00:25:14.240 You can tell somebody, yeah, plans change, so we didn't do that. 00:25:14.319 --> 00:25:16.880 But you cannot tell your bank, yeah, contracts change, you know? 00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:18.160 What are you gonna do? 00:25:18.799 --> 00:25:20.640 You'll find yourself in court. 00:25:22.319 --> 00:25:24.960 A plan can be entirely internal. 00:25:26.079 --> 00:25:28.400 You can plan something to yourself. 00:25:28.640 --> 00:25:30.240 You can say, I'm scheming this. 00:25:30.319 --> 00:25:32.880 I have a plan in my own mind of what I'm going to do. 00:25:33.039 --> 00:25:34.160 It's my own plan. 00:25:34.319 --> 00:25:36.720 I didn't consult with anybody, I did this myself. 00:25:36.799 --> 00:25:38.000 It's my own plan. 00:25:38.480 --> 00:25:40.240 But a covenant is not that way. 00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:43.279 You can't covenant with yourself. 00:25:43.680 --> 00:25:48.480 A covenant requires another party, it requires a second person to covenant. 00:25:48.799 --> 00:25:50.960 That's part of what makes it so formal. 00:25:54.079 --> 00:26:02.160 So, when Paul uses this word here, the blood of the eternal covenant, what does he mean when he calls it a covenant? 00:26:02.559 --> 00:26:04.319 Who is he talking about here? 00:26:04.559 --> 00:26:06.640 Well, in some sense, he's talking about the new covenant. 00:26:06.720 --> 00:26:09.599 It's new covenant, which is, you know, replacing the old covenant. 00:26:09.680 --> 00:26:11.039 The old covenant has become obsolete. 00:26:11.200 --> 00:26:13.680 The blood of Jesus Christ ushers in a new covenant. 00:26:13.839 --> 00:26:15.680 And we understand that we look forward. 00:26:15.839 --> 00:26:18.880 You know, it started at a point in time when Jesus came to earth. 00:26:18.960 --> 00:26:30.880 The new covenant was inaugurated at Passover when he had his blood, and he held up the cup, the wine, and he said, This is the blood of the new covenant, and be poured out for the sins of many, and do this often in remembrance of me. 00:26:31.039 --> 00:26:33.359 And he inaugurates the new covenant through his blood. 00:26:33.519 --> 00:26:34.799 That's the starting point of it. 00:26:34.960 --> 00:26:41.119 But you understand that the blessings of it go into eternity future, but that doesn't wholly make it eternal. 00:26:41.680 --> 00:26:50.880 For something to be truly eternal, it has to be eternal in the way the Holy Spirit is eternal, without a beginning, going in to eternity past. 00:26:51.599 --> 00:26:55.519 And this is what it means when he describes this covenant as eternal. 00:26:55.599 --> 00:26:57.359 It stretches back in both directions. 00:26:57.440 --> 00:27:07.279 It goes into eternity future where your salvation is always secure, and it goes back to before the creation of the world, the time before time, when God made this covenant. 00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:10.160 Who are the parties of this covenant? 00:27:10.319 --> 00:27:13.200 When he describes the blood of the eternal covenant, who are the parties? 00:27:13.279 --> 00:27:19.519 If a covenant requires parties, or a covenant requires two people, who's God making a covenant with? 00:27:19.599 --> 00:27:22.960 Well, he's already hinted at this earlier in Hebrews, in Hebrews chapter 6. 00:27:23.119 --> 00:27:27.759 He says, the God who cannot lie wanted to make a promise by something secure. 00:27:27.920 --> 00:27:29.920 So what is God going to promise by? 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:33.519 You know the old schoolyard expression, you know, I swear on my mother's grave. 00:27:34.559 --> 00:27:36.400 What is God going to swear by? 00:27:36.559 --> 00:27:40.720 Who can God make a promise to where it's vouchsafe? 00:27:41.119 --> 00:27:42.640 Of course, God is the God of truth. 00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:49.279 There's no lies in him, so in that sense, he wouldn't need to promise, but he would promise by himself. 00:27:49.519 --> 00:27:52.720 There's nothing greater than he could swear by than himself. 00:27:53.920 --> 00:27:55.839 Well, who's he swearing to? 00:27:56.319 --> 00:28:02.880 This is the language in Titus chapter 1, verse 2, that God made a promise before the ages began. 00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:07.359 It's a very interesting question, isn't it? 00:28:07.599 --> 00:28:10.079 God made a promise before the ages began. 00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:11.200 To who? 00:28:12.640 --> 00:28:13.599 To the angels? 00:28:13.759 --> 00:28:15.839 Did God swear to the angels he would do something? 00:28:16.000 --> 00:28:17.519 I mean, that's a strange dynamic. 00:28:17.599 --> 00:28:18.480 I don't think so. 00:28:18.720 --> 00:28:20.960 Plus, it was before the angels were made. 00:28:21.279 --> 00:28:23.039 God's promising to himself. 00:28:23.359 --> 00:28:25.839 It's the same phrase he uses earlier in Hebrews 6. 00:28:25.920 --> 00:28:26.960 And it gets brought up here again. 00:28:27.119 --> 00:28:28.400 Only here it's not the word for promise. 00:28:28.480 --> 00:28:29.599 Here it's the word for covenant. 00:28:29.759 --> 00:28:31.759 God covenants with himself. 00:28:34.240 --> 00:28:36.000 Hebrews 6 14. 00:28:36.160 --> 00:28:37.279 It's God speaking to Abraham. 00:28:37.440 --> 00:28:38.799 Surely I'll bless you and multiply you. 00:28:38.880 --> 00:28:47.839 And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise, and God made the promise, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself. 00:28:50.319 --> 00:28:54.799 You understand the eternal covenant as being between the eternal Father and the eternal Son. 00:28:55.519 --> 00:28:58.559 It colors your view of salvation differently. 00:28:58.880 --> 00:29:03.119 This is a covenant our Heavenly Father made with the eternal Son of God. 00:29:03.440 --> 00:29:10.799 Two persons of the Trinity, they covenant together, they promise together, they pledge together, they plan together. 00:29:11.359 --> 00:29:15.119 Of course, the persons of the Trinity share one will. 00:29:25.680 --> 00:29:27.680 Well, I'll do this as long as you don't do that. 00:29:28.000 --> 00:29:34.079 They share one plan together, but they covenant and they purpose together to do this. 00:29:34.240 --> 00:29:35.519 This was their plan. 00:29:35.920 --> 00:29:37.759 This was their covenant. 00:29:38.799 --> 00:29:40.000 They did this. 00:29:41.359 --> 00:29:44.160 That should color the way you view salvation. 00:29:45.440 --> 00:29:51.759 When you see salvation as an eternal covenant between the Father and the Son, it should put to death works righteousness. 00:29:51.920 --> 00:29:54.720 You cannot earn your salvation. 00:29:55.119 --> 00:30:00.640 When God plans before time and promises to his son that he will save you. 00:30:00.880 --> 00:30:03.279 What works do you have to offer to that? 00:30:03.839 --> 00:30:16.160 Imagine you coming in to the throne room of God, an eternity past, where the Father and the Son are planning and covenanting salvation, and you speak up and you say, I have something I could offer. 00:30:16.480 --> 00:30:19.119 I have something to contribute to my salvation. 00:30:19.839 --> 00:30:20.960 It's outlandish. 00:30:21.039 --> 00:30:24.000 You're not, you're out of, you're out of your league there. 00:30:24.880 --> 00:30:29.519 This is an eternal plan between the Father and Son, witnessed by the Holy Spirit. 00:30:29.839 --> 00:30:32.000 He's a party to this, he's witnessing it. 00:30:32.880 --> 00:30:34.720 This is his plan as well. 00:30:35.200 --> 00:30:36.720 It's not our plan. 00:30:37.200 --> 00:30:38.880