THE NEW COVENANT

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Text: Hebrews 12:18-24
 
Verse 24: "to Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel."
 
 The Old Covenant was severe. It showed the terribleness of God. People were given many rules and regulations, but they were impossible to fulfill and therefore the people could not get to God. The Old Covenant was to show mankind the impossibility of pleasing God without God intervening.
 
The New Covenant is full of the grace of God, but there are still responsibilities on our part. Many people, when they come to the Lord think they are free to do what they want. The New Covenant sets us at liberty- but still has boundaries.
 
The New Covenant appeased the anger of God towards sin through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ-- He is the Mediator. The New Covenant holds back God's wrath. He stood before God and mankind's sin. Through Jesus Christ we receive mercy and grace!
 
In Hebrews 10:19-22 we learn that Jesus Christ is the NEW and LIVING WAY. It is no longer a way of bloody sacrificed animals which people have to bring every day to the priest. But Jesus died once and for all- and then was resurrected which made the New Covenant a new and LIVING way! There is continual perpetual cleansing going on. We enter in through the veil- the flesh of Jesus Christ. We must yield to the New Covenant and consider the Old as dead 9 (the law of sin and death). We can't be an instrument of reconciliation if we aren't living in the New Covenant.
 
 
 
2 Corinthians 5:17- "Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new."
 
 
(Taken from Pastor Keith message 8/11/2013)

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