Good morning to everyone. Oh pastor, it seems like it's been a month of Sundays since I've been up here preaching, so I've been missing it in the last couple weeks. We're gonna continue our study in the book of Hebrews this morning and in chapter 12 we come to a most interesting passage. I've been thinking about this passage for quite a while and looking forward to preaching on it because I think it's a crucial text for us to understand and to see the difference, the distinction between the Old and the New Covenant and what that means to our Christian life. 

I find that one of the most important, yet most neglected truths of the Scriptures and the Christian life is the distinction between the Old and the New Covenant. There seems to be a great lack of understanding as to what Jesus did when he raised that cup and said, this is the New Covenant in my blood which is shed for you. Through his death, burial, and resurrection, Christ brought a new and better covenant based on better promises. And this is a central message of the book of Hebrews that we've been studying all these months. 

As the author said in chapter 8, this is the main point of the things that we are saying. That very chapter ends with this statement referring to the Old Covenant Law of Moses. It says, in that he says a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. A large portion of Christianity teaches that there is really no distinction between the Old and the New Covenants and many more within Christendom have little to no understanding of the significance of this distinction. Yet this is perhaps a single most important truth to understand in order to live out the Christian life as God intends. 

The book of Hebrews is central to this understanding and the text before us highlights the contrast and it gives us the implications. In the context of chapter 12 and the flow of the book, there is one central truth that we must understand that these Hebrews needed to get a hold of and that is that in the New Covenant in Christ, contrasted so starkly with the Old Covenant, is that there is nothing to fear. 

We're saying that Him, because He lives, because He lives, all fear is gone. We have a living Savior, we have a living High Priest. He ever lives to make intercession for us. He's the fulfillment of all that the old pictured as we have studied. But to fail to understand that and try to mix the old with the new is the mistake that's so often made either in theology and Christian teaching or in application and how we live. So this is an important section for us to look at. We're going to spend a couple of messages on it. 

I'd like for you to turn with me to Hebrews 12 verse 18 and we'll read down through verse 24. 

For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire and to blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. For they could not endure what was commanded and if so much as a beast touches the mountain that shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. 

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. I've given you three points on your outline. First, we're going to look at the law covenant, second the new covenant, and third the important implications. 

Well first in our text we see the author highlight the nature and implications of the old covenant law of Moses. He takes us back to Exodus and the giving of the law covenant at Sinai and the picture he creates is one of total terror and fear. My brothers and sisters, all the religions of our world, the so-called Christian and otherwise, miss this very truth that the law brings only wrath. Every religion created by man, every works righteous religious system where law-keeping is part of the requirement for salvation, tragically misses the most important truth and thus misses the contrast between the old and the new covenant and really the purpose of the law, why God gave it. 

It's vital that we as believers in Jesus Christ, as witnesses in this world, are clear on these things so that we might bring a clear message to religious men, to lost men in this world. A message of hope, of grace, of mercy, and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible gives us an abundantly clear message concerning the law of Moses, concerning its purpose and its implications, especially concerning trying to keep it for our salvation. 

I want to start back in Exodus and the time that our text refers to if you turn to Exodus 19 at verse 1 with me please. We're going to read a long passage in Exodus 19. 

In the third month after the children of Israel had gone out of the land of Egypt on the same day, they came to the wilderness of Sinai. For they had departed from Rephidim, had come out to the wilderness of Sinai and camped in the wilderness. So Israel camped there before the mountain. And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. 

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel. So Moses came and called for the elders of the people and laid before them all these words which the Lord commanded him. Then all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do. This is the first promise keepers meeting, by the way, right here. All that the Lord has spoken we will do. 

So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord. And the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I come to you in the thick cloud that the people may hear when I speak with you and believe you forever. So Moses told the words of the people to the Lord. Then the Lord said to Moses, Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes, and let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death. Not a hand shall touch him, but he shall surely be stoned or shot with an arrow, whether man or beast. He shall not live. When the trumpet sounds long, they shall come near the mountain. 

So Moses went down from the mountain to the people and sanctified the people, and they washed their clothes. And he said to the people, Be ready for the third day. Do not come near your wives. Then it came to pass on the third day in the morning that there were thunderings and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain, and the sound of the trumpet was very loud, so that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet with God, and they stood at the foot of the mountain. 

Now Mount Sinai was completely in smoke, because the Lord descended upon it in fire. Its smoke ascended like the smoke of a furnace, and the whole mountain quaked greatly. And when the blast of the trumpet sounded long and became louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him by voice. Then the Lord came down upon Mount Sinai on top of the mountain, and the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain. And Moses went up, and the Lord said to Moses, Go down and warn the people, lest they break through to gaze at the Lord, and many of them perish. Also let the priests who come near the Lord consecrate themselves, lest the Lord break out against them. 

But Moses said to the Lord, The people cannot come up to Mount Sinai, for you warned us, saying, Set bounds around the mountain and consecrate it. Then the Lord said to him, Away, get down, and then come up, you and Aaron with you. But do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them. So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them. 

You think about the book of Hebrews and what it's taught us about the New Covenant, and what a contrast that is with this picture given in Exodus 19. Let us come boldly to the throne of grace to find help in time of need. Let us crawl right up into the throne of grace into our daddy's lap to find help. What a contrast. In Exodus 20, we have the giving of the law, the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments. This is the law, and my friends, it is a very frightening thing. So frightening that when God spoke, they begged that the words would no longer be spoken to them. They could not endure them, the text says. So terrible that Moses was exceedingly afraid and trembled. 

The law is a fearful thing, but why? Why is it that the law, and particularly the thought of the law as a standard of perfection for me to keep in order to earn my salvation, should make me quake and shake to my very core and beg for mercy? What do the Scriptures teach us about the law and why it is so exceedingly terrifying? There's a very clear, consistent teaching from Exodus all the way through the New Testament, and the message is this. God is holy, and man is sinful, and man cannot approach God because of his sinfulness. 

The law brings only wrath, it shows us our sin, it brings us fear and death, and the intent of the law is to shut our mouths, to convict us of our sinfulness before a holy God and lead us to faith in a Savior, in Jesus Christ. All the religions of the world teach that you must keep the law to be saved, that you must strive to keep the Ten Commandments, to do works, to earn your salvation, to please God. But this is not what God says; this is not what the Bible teaches about the law. 

What purpose does the law serve according to the Scriptures? This is so important, do you see this? Because how do you understand the Sermon on the Mount? How do you understand the law teaching of Jesus in the Gospels if you don't understand the purpose of the law and who he's talking to and why he's saying it? So many misunderstand this and therefore confuse people, confuse believers, and we're unclear about these things. 

What does the Scripture say? Turn over to Romans 3 at verse 19, please. Romans 3:19, a very clear statement by Paul after spending chapter 1:18 through 3:19 explaining the condemnation, the sinfulness of man, the judgment that he deserves. He says, now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, why? That every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. This is the purpose of the law. Therefore, here's his conclusion, verse 20, therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 

Turn over to Galatians 3 at verse 19. Paul asks the question directly here and answers it. Galatians 3:19, he says, what purpose then does the law serve? What's the purpose of the law? It was added. That's an important phrase. It was added. Remember there was a long period of time from Adam until Moses where there was no law. Romans 5 tells us that. From Adam to Moses there was no law, but it was added because of transgressions until the seed should come to whom the promise was made and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. 

Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not. Look at this statement right here. For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the scripture has confined all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 

Romans 4:15 says, because the law brings about wrath. For there is no law, there is no transgression. James 2:10 says, whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. You see, the law requires perfection. And the problem is that man is not perfect. He is sinful; he transgresses the law; he is corrupt on the inside, and this is manifest on the outside. So those who are under the law are under a curse, for cursed is everyone, listen to this, who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. 

That's the standard. That's why Jesus said at the end of Matthew 7, at the end of his law sermon to legalistic religious Jews on the mount, the man who hears these sayings of mine and does them, I will liken to a man who built his house on a rock. What would you have to say if you were one of those Jews that day? What would you have, how would you respond to this standard of perfection? You'd have to say I've built my house on the sand. You'd have to say my religion is not going to get me there. 

The whole point of law preaching is to show man his sin, to show him his need and to lead him to faith in Christ. Justification by works requires perfection. Jesus said to these people in the sermon on the mount, if they were to be saved by works by the law, that their righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees. That would be like today saying you must be more righteous than Mother Teresa if you want to enter the kingdom of heaven. In fact, in verse 48 of chapter 5, he said this, you must be perfect as God is perfect in order to enter the kingdom. 

The law brings wrath, fear, judgment, death because we cannot measure up. Now sometimes we hear Christian teachers try to divide the law of Moses up, the old covenant. You'll hear this often teaching on the book of Hebrews. They'll say, well, when the author says the old covenant's obsolete, that it's passed away, he's talking about the ceremonial or the civil law, but not the moral law, not the ten commandments. And they will tell you that the moral law is still binding on the believer. And I've been studying this and thinking on this for about 20 years and I still don't know what that means. The law is binding on the...what does that mean? This is confusion. 

There is no justification for this in the scriptures. The Bible speaks of the old covenant as the ministration of death. And when it does this over and over and over again, even in the New Testament epistles, it very often highlights the moral law, the ten commandments specifically. Turn over to Romans 7 with me please, Romans 7 at verse 7. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not. On the contrary, I would not have known sin except through the law, for I would not have known covetousness unless the law had said, you shall not covet. 

But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire, for apart from the law, sin was dead. I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. Paul's talking about his experience here where the law worked like it was supposed to. He thought he was going to justify himself by the law, by doing good works, all those things he listed out in Philippians 3. But when the law came and he understood his sinfulness, then he died. And the commandment which was to bring life, what he thought was going to bring him life, he found to bring death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it killed me. 

What law, Paul? The ceremonial law? The civil law? Is that what brought death to you? Is that what killed you? Is that what's passed away? Is it the ceremonial law that worked with the sin in you to make you realize your dead condition in Adam? No, Paul says, thou shalt not covet. It was the moral law, the Ten Commandments. Turn over to 2 Corinthians 3 at verse 2. Such a tremendous passage, 2 Corinthians 3. He writes to the believers in Corinth, you are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read by all men. 

Truly you are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God. Not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of flesh, that is your heart. And we have such trust through Christ toward God. Look at verse 5. Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. 

But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect because of the glory that excels. For if what is passing away was glorious, here Paul agrees with the author of Hebrews, the old covenant, the ministry of death, the ministry of condemnation, engraved on stones, is passing away. What remains is more glorious. 

Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech, unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. But their minds were blinded. For until this day, the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament because the veil is taken away in Christ. But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. Nevertheless, when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 

What an important passage this is. It makes clear the distinction between the old and the new. Paul says, we are not ministers of the old. We are not ministers of the law. What law? The law engraved on stones. Well, that sounds like a specific reference to the Ten Commandments. We are not ministers of the law, Paul says, but of the new covenant, not of the letter. What's the letter? The law. Not the letter, but the Spirit. For the letter kills, he says, but the Spirit gives life. He goes on to call the moral law of God, the Ten Commandments, a ministration of death, and he shows the great and surpassing glory of the new covenant and the truth of coming to Jesus, to Mount Zion, not Mount Sinai, by faith when the heart turns to the Lord. 

Ephesians 2:14, it says, For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. Jesus, by his death, burial, and resurrection, by instituting a new covenant in his blood, has broken down the middle wall of separation, has abolished the old covenant law, having fulfilled it, having brought a new and better covenant built on better promises, which was prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures in Jeremiah 31 and Ezekiel 36. 

The old is gone, the new has come. This is the good news of the new covenant in Christ. Now I just want to comment on what this text means to the Hebrews to which it was written. We have to remember that the whole context, the issue in this community of Hebrews, was that the Jews were in danger of going back to the law. They were in danger of going back to the temple, to the old covenant sacrifices. They were leaning back. Why were they leaning back? Why were they thinking about forsaking their confession in Christ and going back to the law? They were afraid. They were afraid of the persecution that they were experiencing. They were afraid of the alienation from their families, from the temple, from their communities. 

Perhaps even the loss of earthly possessions, maybe even physical harm. I thought about how really that's the only fear we have today, isn't it? That we might lose our comfortable lifestyle. That's really the only fear we have. But fear was the issue in this community, and you can understand that. You can understand the pressure they were experiencing, what they were suffering for Christ. So the author's clear message here is that if they go back to the law, if they go back to the old covenant, then they have something to fear. They have something to fear and they should fear greatly because what awaits them is certain judgment from a holy God, the law that can only bring wrath. 

Look again at the words, the picture he creates in verse 18 of our text, for you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire into blackness and darkness and tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore for they could not endure what was commanded and if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. 

If fear was their issue, the author wants to say to them, the single most frightening place in the universe is in a works righteous law-centered religious system. Think about that. The most frightening place you could ever be is in a place where you're trying to establish your own righteousness by your works. Like Jesus said, do not fear him who can kill the body, but fear him who can kill the body and cast the soul into hell. There is real reason to fear if you reject Christ and His all-sufficient one-time sacrifice on the cross and attempt to justify yourself by works. 

Remember the warning that he already spoke to them back in chapter 10. Listen to these words again. If we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? 

For we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord, and again the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The willful sin is unbelief, is choosing with full knowledge of the gospel to reject Christ, to count His blood an unholy thing, to reject the new covenant and go back to the old, to the law. And that's what we see men all around us doing in so-called Christian religions that re-sacrifice Jesus and put Him to an open shame. 

You see, the issue is this. Is the one-time sacrifice of Jesus fulfilling the law in all that it pictured? Is His death in my place sufficient to satisfy the wrath of God and to justify me from all things which I could not be justified from by the law of Moses? Going back to the law, trying to add works to Christ for my salvation, this is a full and complete rejection of the sufficiency of Christ and it will only result in wrath and judgment and eternal damnation in the lake of fire. 

If these Hebrews really wanted to fear, then all they need do was go back to the law of Moses. Then they really truly have something to fear. But for those who believe, for those who have turned from Mount Sinai to Mount Zion to Jesus in faith alone, here's the amazing, tremendous good news of this text. You have nothing to fear. Look at verse 22. 

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. 

The law is black and dark and thunderous and utterly, totally frightening. It brings wrath and judgment; it cannot justify, it cannot sanctify, it cannot save. Not because the law is bad. Not because there's something wrong with the law of God, for it's simply a manifestation of His character and nature, His holiness. The problem is the sin that dwells in man. Romans 8:3, for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin, He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 

The law could not save because man could not keep it because of the weakness of the flesh. Listen again to those clear words from Galatians 3:21, is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not. For if... There had been a law given which could have given life. Truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin. 

The fact is, every man is a sinner. Every man born in Adam has indwelling sin ruling and dominating him. It's an inside problem. He needs to be recreated. The Scripture has confined all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. You see, the law was given that the trespass might increase. The law was given to show us our sin, to shut our mouths, to make us guilty before God, to show us our need and our desperate situation. The law was given to lead us to faith in Jesus and His sacrifice in our place for our sins. 

The good news in light of the bad news is this. What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did. That's the good news, my friends. God did. Religion says do, but God in Christ says done. It is finished. God is satisfied with the sacrifice of Christ. Salvation is accomplished. What the law could not do, God did. He sent Jesus to take on flesh, to become a man, to live a perfect and sinless life and then take my sin upon Himself on the tree. He paid a debt He did not owe because I had a debt I could not pay. Jesus did it. He accomplished my salvation and now I can receive His righteousness as a gift by faith, not by the works of the law. 

Go back to Romans 3 with me, please. Go back to verse 19 that we read earlier. We stop before we got to the good news. Romans 3:19, now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God, therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. 

But now, but now, the righteousness of God, remember Jesus said we had to be as perfect as God is perfect? How are we going to have the righteousness of God? Here you go. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed. Not my faith plus my works, not a little bit of grace, a little bit of law, apart from the law. The righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God, how? Through faith in Jesus Christ. For who? To all and on all who believe. Because you see, there's no difference. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation. 

That word means a full satisfactory payment, a propitiation by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, look at this, in order that He might be just punishing all sin. He's punishing my sin. He's not winking at it. He's not overlooking it. He punished my sin, all of my sin on the cross. He remains just and He is the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. What amazing truth. What amazing good news. 

Look at Romans 4:1. What then shall we say that Abraham our father is found according to the flesh? This was true for Abraham. This was true all the way through the Old Covenant. Men were justified by faith always, looking forward to that sacrifice. So we see that the Jews and the Hebrews had become entangled and made this into a works righteous legalistic system and were trying to justify themselves by the law rather than by faith. But what did Abraham find? Verse 2, for if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. It was accounted. His sin was imputed to his account. His sin was imputed to Christ. Christ's righteousness was imputed to him by faith. 

Verse 4, now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt, but to him who does not work, it's not works and faith, to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, the one who knows his sin, the one who knows his need, his faith is accounted for righteousness. How clear God's Word is, if we will just take it for what it says, if we will believe it, if we will depend on His promises and in Jesus all the promises are yes. 

My friends, we have not come to Mount Sinai to the law, to fear and doubt and trembling, to judgment and wrath. We have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly of the church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect. That's such a tremendous phrase, to Jesus, to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant and the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. 

We are sons of God through faith. We are born again, part of the church, registered in heaven. Listen to Peter's words in 1 Peter 1, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance, what's this inheritance like? It's incorruptible. It's undefiled. It does not fade away. It's reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. 

We have security in Christ because our salvation is accomplished by Him. It is dependent not on my works, not on my law keeping, but on His work on the cross, His death, burial and resurrection. And now He lives, making intercession for me. I am kept by the power of God through faith. I have come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. I am made perfect in Him by faith. This is the contrast between the old and the new. And to mix the two is irrational. It's insane. Yet we see it all the time under the banner of Christendom. 

From false religions who mix works with faith, law with grace, who try to merge old and new to the binding of the believers with the law of Moses, preaching some sort of works sanctification. It's muddy, it's cloudy, and it has believers all mixed up. What we need is a clear understanding of the distinction between the old and the new. What we need is a crystal clear teaching on the implications of the bringing of the new covenant and the abolition of the old. What we need is a grasp of the implications of the new covenant brought by the blood of Christ. 

Very often the gospel of grace is accused of being antinomian, against the law. The common accusation is that if we are saved by grace through faith, faith alone, then we can do whatever we like. We can sin all we want. They believe that we need the law for holy living, for salvation. But I take solace in the fact that the Apostle Paul suffered the same accusation again and again in his ministry. Romans 5:20, he said, moreover the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death... This is why he saved you, my friends, so that as sin reigned in death in Adam, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

Then the question comes, what shall we say in response to this abounding grace? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? That's the accusation. Just keep on sinning, grace abounds, right? Do whatever you want. If you're saved, my friend Joe, he says this to me all the time, Johnny, you're saved! Do whatever you want! Because he believes in a works-righteous system. What does Paul say? Certainly not. No, no, no, no, no. How can we who died to sin live any longer in it? 

You see, the religious man doesn't understand the New Covenant, he doesn't understand grace, he doesn't understand the new creation, he doesn't understand that there's been an internal recreation that allows me now by the power of Christ living in me to live a holy life. The Bible is very concerned about holy living. We as believers in Jesus, saved by grace, want more than anything to live a holy life that is glorifying to God. 

But the key to having this fruit in our lives, the secret of the Christian life, is tied directly to a right understanding of the distinction between the Old and the New Covenant, primarily an external requirement versus an internal recreation. When we came to faith in Jesus Christ, we died with Him. We were buried with Him. We rose to newness of life in Him. As Paul answers the accusation of grace as a license to sin, of antinomianism, his answer is clear. We who died to sin can no longer continue in it as we were in Adam. This is the central truth that unlocks the proper understanding of a holy life in Christ in the New Covenant. 

And Lord willing, that's what we'll study next week in part two of this message from Hebrews 12, nothing to fear. Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful for Your grace, for the New Covenant, for Christ's coming and fulfilling the Old and all that the sacrifice has pictured and all that we've been studying through Hebrews and we see in the Old Testament. Thank You that it's finished, that it's done, that Your plan is consummated in Christ, that the promise to Abraham of a seed and blessing to all nations has been fulfilled. Father, we thank You for Jesus, for our salvation. I just pray that You help us to understand these things and to rightly apply them, help us to believe them, to reckon them to be so, to abide in You one day at a time. For fruit, for Your glory, in Jesus' name, amen.