In this sermon on Hebrews chapter 8, the preacher begins by summarizing the previous chapters, highlighting the power and superiority of Christ. He emphasizes the need for dependence on the Holy Spirit and the privilege of preaching under His unction. The preacher encourages believers to be bold witnesses for Christ, relying on the Holy Spirit to give them the words to speak. He also emphasizes the forgiveness and cleansing that comes through confessing our sins and the power of the new covenant established by Christ. The sermon concludes with a reminder that the old, sinful nature is ready to vanish away as believers embrace the power of God in their lives.

...one of the Times Square Church Pulpit Series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing World Challenge, PO Box 260, Lindell, Texas 75771, or calling 903-963-8626. You are welcome to make additional cassettes of this message for free distribution to friends. However, for all other forms of reproduction or electronic transmission, existing copyright laws apply. Beloved, we're going to take just a few minutes tonight and go to Hebrews chapter 8, a thought on my heart that I'd like to share with you, which I believe is from the heart of God. Now, Hebrews chapter 8, beginning at verse 1, Father, I just thank you for the unction of the Holy Ghost. Lord, I am so dependent on you, and I thank you for that place of dependence. I thank you, Lord, that you are well able to quicken me and take me beyond the realm of mortality, take me beyond all of the natural man, all of natural strength. And my God, I thank you for the privilege of reckoning these things dead, that I may live and preach under the unction of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, exalt Jesus through me tonight. I ask this in Christ's name. Now, Hebrews chapter 8, the writer begins in verse 1 by saying, Now, of the things in which we have spoken, this is the sum. In other words, this is the total. We're talking now the total of chapter 1 to chapter 7. If you've been attending these studies, you know the things that have been spoken about Christ, whose voice is more powerful than the prophets and all these other things, who is the one who is going to fold up the universe one day, has the power to fold up our sins. We've heard about him being a city of refuge. We've heard about him being one who has a better sacrifice, better covenant, made upon better promises. The writer says, Now, this is the sum total of what we've been speaking about. We have such a high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. Now, you remember in one of our sessions, we talked about Jesus being sat down. It's a finished work, an absolute finished work at the right hand of almighty God. He sat down just as God finished, the writer of Hebrews says, on the seventh day from his work. So the Son of God entered into his rest and sat down and finished his works. And so when we come to Christ, beloved, we have to have the knowledge that we are entering into a finished work. The victory was won. Sin was defeated. The power of God was released to all of humanity to whosoever will now can be a partaker of the divine nature of almighty God. Through the promises, the apostle Peter said that are given to us through Jesus Christ. Verse seven says, If the first covenant, that's the Old Testament covenant of the law, had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. But finding fault with them, he said, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. Now stop there just for a moment. God said, There was a day when I took a people and I literally, God says, I took them by the hand. Isn't that what God did to Israel who were in Egypt? And I took them by the hand and I led them out and I made promises to them and they made promises to me. You remember the Old Testament when the Lord said, If you will do this and if you will do this, then I will do this. And the people, remember under Moses and Joshua said, Yes, he is God. We will live for him. We will serve him. But they very soon found out that their promises had no weight behind them. They made promises they couldn't keep. So foolish to make promises to God. I think it's foolish to make promises to anyone because you and I, in and of ourselves, have no power to keep the promises that we make. And God was saying, Essentially, even though I held them by the hand, they had no power to walk with me. And many, many, many of us coming into the kingdom of God remember the days when we tried our best to walk with God. And even though we knew he was holding his hand, we could sing it, Truth takes me by the hand. Precious Lord, take my hand. We could sing all the old hymns and all the choruses. But yet within ourselves, we could not find the power to walk with God. We could make all the promises we wanted to make. I have very real difficulty with any organization that says that we should be making promises to God. For I know my promises are worthless. I can't keep a single promise I make to anybody. The only strength I have now is because I have the power of the Holy Spirit residing in my life, imparting to me as it is the very nature of Jesus Christ. And God said, I took you by the hand, but you had no strength. I took you by the hand, but you had no power. And so he said, so this is the covenant in verse 10 that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I'm going to make a new covenant, God says. I'm going to put my laws in their minds and write them in their hearts. And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And in verse 10 says, they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. God said, I'm going to do it a new way. I'm going to make a new covenant. I'm going to put you to sleep, in a sense, and put you out of the picture just like I did. Abraham wanted to walk with me, and I made great promises with Abraham. But before anything could be fulfilled, I had to, as it is, put Abraham out of the picture. And I had to walk through the pieces as it was, what were the types of that covenant. I had to walk through it all alone. And God says, this covenant is going to be fulfilled not by your strength, it's going to be fulfilled by my strength. I'm going to look for people whose hearts are open. I'm going to find the people who want me. And not only am I going to take them by the hand, but I'm going to indwell them. I'm going to come and live inside of them, and I'm going to give them the power to be everything that I've called them to be. I'm going to speak precious promises into their lives. And by these promises, if they reach out in faith, trusting that they can't do it, but I will do it through them. If they will for it, if they want it, I will come in the power of the Holy Ghost, and I will work out the very things in them that I have promised to them. I will be to them a God, and they shall all know me. There will be no more people saying, in the church as it is, know the Lord, for they shall all know me. The word know really has the context of an intimacy. They shall all be intimately acquainted with me in my house. They shall know who I am. I will come upon a people that I set apart from myself, and they will know. I will not only take their hand, but I will indwell them. I will be God to them. I will lift them out of their weakness. You heard it tonight in the pulpit. I had this message on my heart, albeit in a much longer form, but I had this on my heart. And you heard it tonight. Pastor Patrick stood here, the Holy Spirit so confirming what God had put on my heart to say tonight. It's the Holy Ghost came up. How many times did you hear that? And the Holy Ghost came upon this young man, and he stood up and spoke. And the Holy Ghost came upon this young woman, and she had the power to go to the flagpole as it is and be a testimony of God's grace. And another girl, the Holy Ghost came upon her in a prayer meeting. Folks, God says, this is exactly what I'm going to do. The Holy Ghost is going to come upon you. You're going to be turned into another person as it is. I'm going to write my nature in you. I'm going to come and live in you. I'm not going to ask you to make promises to me. I'm going to ask you to receive my promises to you. And you know, many people have a question. The question is just simply this. Okay, if I'm under the new covenant of grace, and if my old man is dead, and I am brand new and alive in Jesus Christ, then why the purging? Then why this season that we're having in the church where God seems to be pointing out sin? If sin is gone, if it's not imputed, if it's done away with, then why? You see, beloved, here's the issue. The old man is dead, but he has a tendency to want to be resurrected. He wants to come back to life. He loves to put on religious clothes and come back and say, Here I am, and even call himself by the name of God. He has many names. He can be called pride. He can be called self-ambition. He can have many, many forms, and he can come back and try to manifest himself as the glory of God. But God says, I love you so much. I'm so jealous for the work that I've begun to do in your life. I'm not going to let the old nature come back and begin to rule you again. That's what it's all about. That's why God will time out a church as it is, and the Holy Ghost will begin to speak just as He began to speak to us sometimes when we first got saved. And we look back and say, What's this all about? Hey, I've been walking with you for 15 years. I know the new covenant. I know the power of God. But God says, Yes, but you don't fully understand your old nature. You don't understand the power of that hidden nature that's in you that is still alive and still wants to be resurrected, wants to control your life, wants to crowd out the power of God and bring you exactly back into a position of powerlessness where you are the one making promises to God you can't keep. And God says, I don't want you rising up. I don't want you making promises to Me. I don't want your old nature resurrected. I want you to understand that I have a people that I will be glorified in when the power of the Holy Ghost comes upon them. It's not by might. It's not by power. It's by My Spirit, says the Lord, that you will become everything that I have destined you to be. Hallelujah. I thank God. I've been saved 24 years, I guess it is now. I've been preaching a good part of those years. But I thank God for the times of purging. I thank God that He still speaks to my heart. I thank God He will not let this carcass that wants to rise up and reign, I thank God by the power of the Holy Ghost, He will not let that happen in my life. And you better thank God that He won't let it happen either because it would be very detrimental to you and to your walk with God if this is the word that you're listening to. And so, beloved, we're so thankful for the dealings of God. We're so thankful that He loves us so much that He draws us in and begins to speak to us and begins to tell us, I've made a covenant with you and I will not let you live again. I will not let you rise and take the preeminence one more time because that will lead you into defeat. There is no other way to victory in the Christian life but to lay hold by faith of that work which Christ alone finished on Calvary. And you know, folks, that's why we will all know Him, the Scripture says. There will be no big guys and little guys in the body. We will all know Him because everybody has equal access to the new life that He promises through Jesus Christ. That's why there are no limitations by education or by culture or race or class, language, social status. There are no limitations. The veil was torn. Equal access is made to all to the throne of God. You can be everything that God called you to be tonight. Hallelujah. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God. There's a flagpole in my life, and I want to go there, whatever that might be. I want to go to the flagpole. Maybe that should be your prayer tonight. God, take me to the flagpole, whatever that means. It could be the water cooler in your place of work. It could be the local corner where people hang out in your neighborhood where there's a flagpole in your life somewhere that God by His power will take you to. And then when people begin to ask for a reason, He by His power again will open your mouth and give you the words that you need to speak. He will do it. He will do it, folks. He will do it every time we stand. He'll give us the grace we need to be what He has called us to be. Hallelujah. He says in verse 12, I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities. I will remember no more. First John 1.9 says if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now, we have a tendency in the church to say that verse so fast that we don't see there are two actions in there. Number one, He says, I will forgive their sins. If we confess, God says, I will forgive you. As a matter of fact, if you're a Christian, you were forgiven even before you confessed. If you are a true follower of Jesus Christ, the Bible clearly says, God says, I will not impute sin to you. Because I know your heart. I know you want me. I know you don't want to walk in failure. You're not playing games with me. God says, yes, we need to confess because the Bible says if we do, we need to clear the record. We need to get the relationship back in order again. Confession is not so that we get saved every time we make a mistake. Confession is to keep our relationship in right order. And God says, if you confess your sin, I'm faithful and just to forgive your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Now, that really means, and I will deal with the source of, if it's in your life that caused this un-Christ like this to rise up in you. God said, I will forgive you. But then, I'm going after the source. I'm going after what leads you to the bar. I'm going after what takes you to the theater. I'm going after what motivates you to lie. I'm going after what causes you to be proud. I'm going after what causes you to take easy offense when somebody does something you don't like. Yes, I'll forgive your sin, but I'm going to go after the unrighteousness. I'm going to go after it. That's what the Holy Ghost does. Hallelujah. Thanks be to God He goes after the unrighteousness in our lives. He goes after it because He loves us. Hallelujah. He goes after it because I'm saved. Not to save me, but because I'm saved. He goes after the unrighteousness in my life. I thank God for that with all of my heart. I thank God for the faithfulness. The Holy Spirit loves me. He loves you. He will not let unrighteousness begin un-Christ-likeness. Really is what it means. Develop in my life. He will forgive me. Peter, if I say something to you and offend you, and I go to God and say, God, forgive me, He will forgive me, but then He will go after what's in me that caused me to say it to you in the first place. He will go after it. He will forgive my sins and cleanse me from all un-Christ-likeness, unrighteousness. And the last verse in verse 13, in that He sat the new covenant, He has made the first old. Hallelujah. God says, I consider that which used to be gone. I consider yourself effort history. I consider it worth removing and getting out of the way. Because my desire is to be God to you. I want to be God to you. I want to be so God to you that you have nothing else to say when people ask you. I want to be so God to you that you're busting in your inward parts to let that river of life that's in you begin flowing out of your mouth. I want to be God to you in your neighborhood, your home, your workplace. I want to be God. Hallelujah. I want to bring you to the place where you will stand and not be ashamed, not be triumphed over by fears and hard looks and all these other things that the world and sin will throw against the Christian. And He says, now that which decays and waxes old is ready to vanish. Thank God that that which is unlike Christ in me, God says, is ready to vanish. Hallelujah. You're seeking me so everything unlike me, everything you leaned upon that was old is ready to vanish. It's like sitting in an airport terminal. It's got a ticket and it's gone. There's no way out. God says, I'm going to take it out of your life because I have established a new covenant with you. You have now a high priest in heaven. You have the Holy Ghost now in your life. There's no longer an excuse to live in sin. There's no longer an excuse to be encompassed and surrounded and defeated by weakness. God says, now the power of eternity is within you. The power of God is in your life. And that which is old, let that get in your heart tonight. That which is old is ready to vanish away. When you look in the mirror and you go home tonight and say, Oh, you rotten attitude of heart. You lying tongue. You backstabbing deceitful worker in the office. You're going to vanish. You're done because I'm seeking God. You're finished. Hallelujah. And all you empty promises, look at yourself and talk to yourself. It will do you some good. All you empty promises that you've made, promises to God and promises to your family, your history, your history. You're vanishing away because the power of God is coming into my life. Hallelujah. Beloved, don't be satisfied. Don't be satisfied until you are filled with the fullness of God. Don't be satisfied to live a second-rate Christian life. Don't be satisfied with anything but the full life that God has promised us through Jesus Christ. This is the sum total. We have a high priest in heaven who's made a new covenant, and he said the old things are going to vanish away. Father, thank you tonight. Thank you, mighty God, for this wonderful gospel of truth, wonderful gospel of great liberty and power. Mighty God, a gospel where you make the weak strong and you take the foolish and make them wise. You take those who sit in dunghills and place them among princes. You do everything that you said in your Word that you were going to do, and, my God, we want it in our lives tonight. We want to be a church that truly is a lighthouse. We want to be Christians who truly stand for truth, who truly have a voice that must be reckoned with in our generation. We thank you, Lord, for what you're doing in our children, but we ask, oh, God, do it in us too. Do it in us, God, in everywhere we go and all that we are. Do it in us, and, God, let that which hinders your life vanish. Let it be history. Let it die. Let it not rise again. Father, we thank you.