In this sermon, the preacher starts off by expressing gratitude to the Lord and emphasizing the importance of starting on a positive note. He then refers to a verse from the Bible that talks about the Lord refining and purifying his people. The preacher encourages the audience to offer their lives as a righteous offering to the Lord. He also addresses the issue of time and urges the audience to prioritize their spiritual growth and not worry about the length of the sermon. The sermon concludes with a reminder of God's love and a call to prayer.

Let's turn to the scriptures, beloved, shall we? I'm nearly in a panic, in that we've only got one more night left, and I haven't said half that I ought to stay. I'm rather thinking I ought to say tomorrow night to be continued in August or something like that. But the Lord may have other plans. In that we're on this great theme of the Covenant, and last night we spent a while, well, somebody told me it was two hours. Well, it was only a while. Looking at our blessed Lord as he wants us to look at him. One of the thrilling things about the Lord Jesus is his glorious identification with us. He just loves us, and that's the end of it. And there's nobody can do much about that except respond to it. If the devil doesn't like it, that's up to him. And if people don't want to believe it, well, that's simply up to them. But oh, glory to God, for those of us who believe it and receive it, it's heaven on earth. And that's what God wants. And tonight I want to read with you just somewhere to make a start on this great line that's in our hearts. Let's go to the Hebrews letter, shall we? Even as I suppose we all know that this is really the letter that contrasts the Covenants. Let's look into chapter 12. I love reading this anyway. It says in verse 18 of the 12th chapter, that you are not come unto the mount that might be touched and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness and darkness and tempest. And the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more. It's sad, isn't it? Don't speak to me any more. You think men saying that to God. You ever sit there? And the reasons given in the next verse, for they couldn't endure that which was commanded. That's why they said it. They could not endure what God was saying. And think of this. When this was all going on, so much as a beast touched the mountain, it had to be stoned or thrust through with a dart. So terrible was the sight. Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake. Bless God that the covenant of terror is over. God himself said he did terrible things. It wasn't the nicest thing that he did to all the first born in Egypt. It was a terrible thing. You wouldn't have liked to have had your first born son slain, would you? But God did there terrible things. Such a tremendous thing is it for people to play around with God like the Egyptians did. God does do terrible things. He says he does. But oh, praise God, he also does some wonderful things. Let's make no mistake about it, hell is a terrible place. It's a terrible thing he's going to do to turn all nations into hell and forget God. Think of that. God doesn't gloss it over in the Bible. He doesn't want you to think of him only one-sidedly. It's all according to your attitude and relationship to him that either makes God a terrible God or a wonderful lover. Perhaps if we were to write psalms which say Selah after that. Pause and think. Hallelujah. Now look at verse 22. You are come unto Mount Sinai and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of angels to the general assembly and church of the firstborn which are written in heaven and to God, the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus who himself we are told in this epistle was made perfect through suffering the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel See that you refuse not him that speaketh. Don't say, Lord, don't talk to me anymore. Will you? I want then, I, you know, I'm almost bound to expound this chapter if I'm not careful but I want to keep on my theme that God has given us for these days. And here we have the great contrast made between the old and the new. And I don't suppose anybody, I hope nobody for instance that was gathered together last night in Westcourt would think that God is doing and moving in a terrible covenant toward us in these days but that he is actually indulging himself. He loves to love and he's letting himself go. He let his son go. He let his blood go. He's let the Holy Ghost come. God's really giving himself to it with his uttermost and eternal and infinite grace to love us to his heart's content and I trust to yours also. So may the Lord then lead us on into this fullness that he has for us. We took as our reading last evening sorry if you weren't there but I make these comments only we took as our reading the 31st chapter of Jeremiah last evening when we read God as saying that the days come that he's going to make a new covenant with the house of Israel is recorded for us again in the 8th chapter of this book. We'll read it, shall we? It says this, verse 8 of chapter 8 Finding fault with them he saith Behold the days come, saith the Lord when 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 for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God that's the sort of thing that God does masterful, purposeful, miraculous Hallelujah he's altering human nature now he's altering human beings he's altering heart states he's altering lives he's altering mental conditions do you need yours altering? this is God really being God Amen I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people and they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying know the Lord for all shall know me he's going to alter the knowing faculties of you he's really dealing in what we would call abstract personalities he's dealing with untouchables things that drugs don't touch and shocks can't reach and philosophies can't do anything about and psychology can only guess at he says this is what I'm going to do I will be merciful they shall all know me from the least to the greatest and I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more in that he saith now remember when he said it in Jeremiah this is when he made the first covenant old in that he saith a new covenant he made the first old he was talking about a new covenant through his prophet Jeremiah hundreds of years before Jesus Christ was born or the first writer of the New Testament took up his pen by the urge of the spirit and under the power and guidance of the Holy Ghost started to write the great sacred canon of the New Testament think of it he made the Old Testament old whilst the Old Testament was still in being they did not know it was the old covenant then they just knew it was the covenant that God has made with them he made it the old covenant by his pronouncement in Jeremiah Amen now let's go back into the Old Testament shall we to catch up our thinking we will go back into the book of Malachi I am not thinking that to many of you I am going to say anything new tonight in that I know that some of us have been into these great scriptures before but I hope you get as much thrill out of re-looking at them and listening to them as I do with reading them and thinking about them for this great covenant as we read last night that God makes with us as David said he says this covenant that God has made with me ordered in all things sure he says it's all my delight he keeps thinking in this great covenant he says it's all my delight I love it it's like a cloudless morning it's like the dewy grass when the sun shines on it it's always fresh hallelujah it's an eternal covenant never weary of going back over what God has said pledged owed to do on his behalf never weary of it and here we are then in Malachi and you know that Malachi was the last book of the Old Testament and we're going to read in the third chapter and God is speaking behold I send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me saith the Lord now you know this is John Baptist who and the Lord you seek he whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple that's Jesus even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in behold he shall come saith Jehovah Sebaoth the Lord of hosts but who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth for if you want to know what he's like he tells his old people he's like a refiner's fire and he's like fuller's soap you know what fuller's soap is don't you perhaps if you ran a laundry on the cleaners you might know something about it they don't call it today and he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness by the way I better say now I'm not aiming to be finished at half past nine so keep your eye on the clock if I'm still going in an hour's time I'm aiming to finish when I'm finished so I'll say goodnight to you now if you'll have to go hallelujah praise the Lord you ask your neighbour that sits up and looks at the late television play whether they worry when it gets to half past nine or half past ten or half past eleven and we who have the word of God we who have the better things we who have the eternal things should we not indulge ourselves occasionally we have a bad head in the morning sometimes amen alright so you see that we're introduced by the great prophet of the Lord to the Lord Jesus Christ there are two messengers here John Baptist the messenger of the Lord and the Lord himself who is called here the messenger of the covenant praise the Lord what a name for him really you know if you look right through your Bibles you will discover an abundant wealth of ideas suggested in the names of the Lord Jesus Christ he is just about everything and the Lord has got a name for him to cover everything that he does it's all comprehended in the one name Jesus and when you say Jesus it's the all inclusive great comprehensive name for this one in whom God has vested everything to do for us and he has done it praise his name and he comes and he is the messenger of the covenant now you will know that he never he doesn't say he is going to preach the message of the covenant it says he is the messenger of the covenant and you are not surprised I suppose when you turn to your New Testament and you take John's gospel that he starts back by saying that Jesus is the word in the beginning was the word the message the message that Greek word logos can quite truly be translated word, message, sentence it's so profound that you could write a book about that one word he is the message in the beginning was the word and when you say that the word became flesh and the word dwelt among us and the word was called Jesus then Jesus is the all inclusive word his life from its inception or from its recognition on the earth and way back before that because it says that in the beginning was the word the word was God the word was with God it's always been like that with God so we go right back before his birth we go right back into eternity and we look at his life and we read the stories of him we hear his parables we listen to his wisdom we take his statements and his charges and we see Calvary we see the empty tomb we go to the hill of ascension we come with him onto his throne and we see all that's happening up there in heaven and we say that is the word all that in fact this is the way John speaks in his epistle you will remember somebody that doesn't know anything at all about it said that the one that wrote the gospel of John didn't write the epistles of John I mean he discovered that, poor chap I don't know what devil led him to discover it but it's amazing how you can John wrote that epistle and he says this that which we've seen which we've heard that which was with the father the word of life there you are, talking about Jesus it's so comprehensive it's so gloriously all inclusive to say Jesus because we're so used to hearing names like Bill, Joe, Jack, Mary, Joan and all this you see it doesn't really mean anything to us at all it's connected automatically in our mind with a personality and some things we may know and some things we don't know but this tremendous word Jesus it is all everything so the Lord wants us to take this into our heart and he comes and he is the messenger of the covenant he comes and God's got a great covenant to make with us in this precious, precious person if you look at Luke's gospel for instance let's go into the first chapter of Luke just a while to get our bearings back with the old and you will know that in the first chapter of Luke we have the story among other things of the birth of John Baptist and this is what John Baptist's father who had been dumb Zacharias because he didn't believe the word that the angel had spoken to him and was dumb all the while John was coming through his mother's womb into the world and until this boy was born and Zacharias moved into the purpose of God for that boy's life and for the world, praise God he was kept dumb and at last when he consented to what God wanted his mouth was opened and he starts off by saying in verse 68 Blessed be the Lord hallelujah it's a good way to start when you've been dumb it's a good way to start Blessed be the Lord he said oh glory amen isn't this wonderful and he goes down and he says all sorts of things and he says verse 72 this has all happened that God should perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant the oath which he swore to our father Abraham not what he gave Moses at Mount Sinai notice that wasn't the covenant there's only really one covenant as we shall see there's only one of everything really in fundamental things as we read in the Ephesian letter but you see as some of us who were together on Saturday night saw that that covenant came in by the way God was moving on from Abraham and he was going to go right the way through but because of sin in the hearts of his people he gave a covenant called the Mosaic or the legal covenant to contain them in sin and we're told in their sin they were contained we're told this in Galatians 3 we shall be going into that chapter presently I trust that until faith came that is the faith of Jesus Christ came says this writer to the Galatians himself a Jew Paul he'd been a Jew he wasn't a Jew any longer he'd been born again and of course you lose your nationality once you've been born again and he was not a Jew anymore he was a Christian and so he says before faith came we were kept under the law shut up God kept them shut up he contained them shut up unto the faith which should afterward be revealed says the law it was only our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that's all to keep us going along the way it's the Greek word pedagogos we get the word pedagogue from it when we talk about we won't say who we're talking about when we talk about the pedagogues but it was the slave that was used in the household of those days to take the children along to school that's who he was and he was only the master of people going along to school he was never the real teacher it's really a mistranslation that word and that's all the law was never a teacher just the one that conducted us all in our infancy as we were being taken along through time to the moment when Jesus Christ should come that's right that never was the thing that God intended you see God had to do that because of the sin in the hearts of his people it was a terrible, terrible thing and it was this oath this covenant this thing that God had promised unto Abraham this is what he was acting on all the time no legal code there God just came in grace Abraham didn't know anything about God at all he was just a devil worshipper probably a snake worshipper in Ur of the Chaldees that's what they used to do then as so they tell us these that dig up the past these so on and so on these scientists that used to go on there and God just came to him he just came to him out of the blue came and said now look Abraham you do this and art no, no, no you see out came the whole covenant out of God's heart and he was going to move in this free way he just wanted to keep coming to people and revealing himself to people he wanted to keep coming and talking to them he didn't really want to give them two tablets of stone with laws written into them and they're non-existent now those tablets of stone are missing and a good job too I mean if people that's right if people would pay a million pounds for a footballer to kick a bladder of wind round the field what would they do? what would they pay for two tablets of stone written by God sell the world for it wouldn't they? surely it must be so unless we're all mad they're gone amen like the cross it's gone like the grave we don't know where the grave is let them all quarrel about it we think it's here Gordon says it's here somebody else says it's here what does it matter? you're the grave beloved amen and it's a tremendous thing for us to understand that God is really wanting to teach us something and he's back on this great oath that he made to Abraham praise his wonderful name when God could move in the freedom of his heart and give God's love to men and women and be God to people as he wanted to be he never could be God to his ancient people as he wanted to be he never could really let them know who he was and what he was like never could he wanted to he did oh so many tremendous things but he was limited and now he's moved already he's sown the seed in Mary's womb already and just three months before Jesus was born John Baptist was born and this dumb unbeliever Zacharias a priest you know it's about the sons of Levi didn't you now hold this very closely on your heart from Malachi this son of Levi this Zacharias this unbelieving priest this blind leader of the blind when at last he agrees to talk God's language and go God's way his mouth is open and he says Lord I see it he's speaking by the Holy Ghost look at verse 67 he was filled with the Holy Ghost unprophesied but he wasn't born again temporarily filled with the Spirit for the ministration of a gift Amen keep that very clear you'll understand a lot if you'll read your Bible properly you'll understand a lot not that we don't need to be filled with the Spirit but I must get in front of myself but here then is the tremendous thing beloved he still belonged to the old covenant he didn't belong to the new the distinctive message of the New Testament is regeneration put that down in your book if you're writing the distinctive message of the New Covenant is regeneration praise the name of the Lord and they never had it in the Old Testament at all and God is moving on then and so Jesus is born into this earth and it's a precious thing to follow the great life of our Lord Jesus Christ I want just at the moment to look say into the 22nd chapter of Luke we mentioned this last night those of us that were together may remember this that in the 22nd chapter of Luke the Lord Jesus Christ says this He's gathered them together in the upper room and they're keeping the last Passover and they're keeping the first commemoration service of the New and He says in verse 15 of Luke 22 with desire I have desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer but I say unto you I will not any more eat thereof until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God and He took the cup and gave thanks and said take this and divide it among yourselves for I say unto you I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God shall come and that finished the Passover now He institutes the memorial feast and He took bread and gave thanks and break it and gave unto them saying this is my body which is given for you this do in remembrance of me likewise also the cup after the supper you see the Passover supper is over He takes the cup after the supper and this is really a breakfast don't call it the Lord's supper any more the supper's over this is the next meal it's breakfast yeah so you come to breakfast next Sunday morning you know how the old nonsense talking traditionalism read your Bibles beloved read your Bibles people don't read their Bibles it's breakfast you see it always begins in the new day the Lord's table the Lord's supper it's a breakfast beloved He's anticipated the day Hallelujah Hallelujah you don't have two suppers in one night do you you see how quickly the night passed ah but no you think I'm being funny the night's passed it's over He's instituted the breakfast in a tick the darkness is gone this is what He's teaching you the suffering's over I don't want you to mourn and moan about me just a tick in eternity that's all you hang on the cross it's all over and you see He did this as from His life but it never took effect until after His death put that down if you're writing put that down for He wanted you to understand that this only comes from the living Christ you see let me repeat that He instituted it whilst still alive He was still alive and He's saying here's my blood you're drinking it He's saying here's my body you're eating it you say we could only do that after He's dead I mean we only eat the body of dead animals don't we you had mutton or beef perhaps for today you've been slain I'm not being coarse or vulgar this is right but He was alive He said eat my body eat the body of the living Christ that's what He's saying drink the blood of the living Christ ooh that alters it all doesn't it you think you sort of drink the blood of the dead Christ that was shed at Calvary He said no drink it I haven't got there yet drink the blood of the living Christ that's what He's saying you say that's new isn't it yes it's a new kind it's breakfast time it's breakfast time it's the new day glory it's so glorious but this is what I want you to see He says this cup is the new testament in my blood which He shed for you and I want you to notice this word given in verse 19 do you see this twice He says He gave it unto them and then He said this is my body which is given likewise that means exactly the same the blood is given keep your finger there although you needn't because you can memorize that now go back into Leviticus chapter 17 brother I don't think we're going to get very far I don't think we are I believe God's going to talk to all our hearts in a very wonderful way it's best we learn truth and merely follow a feed and in Luke chapter 17 this is what God is saying oh sorry Leviticus chapter 17 you will remember that God is saying this the blood He's talking about He says the life of the flesh is in the blood verse 11 and in verse 10 He says if anybody eats any manner of blood I will even set my face against that soul that eateth blood I will cut him off from among his people the life of the flesh is in the blood and I have given it to you there it is that's the word given but see where He's given it on the altar that isn't where He gives it He gives it in the cup it's very clear I've given it under the old covenant it was the blood of death in the new it's the blood of life He doesn't say the blood at Calvary is the testament He says it's this cup got that? of course it was meaning the blood that He was going to shed at Calvary but He was meaning this blood as it's running now coursing through me this living Christ I'm personified I'm brought down into the flesh for you but all I want you to know that I'm living, living, living, living they stamped the red plasma down into the ground along with all the other blood that had been shed on Calvary's mountain for He wasn't the one only one that was slain on Calvary it was the public execution spot but He says I caught it in this cup the new covenant is this cup why did He catch it in a cup pray for you to drink it that's what a cup's for isn't it to drink out of not to pour it out on the ground Hallelujah Hallelujah I say isn't the Bible an amazing book when you really read it now this is what God wants us to understand He's really teaching us a marvelous thing He says they're going to shed my blood I'm going to give it it's for the life of the world but listen I want you to know that that's why of old I set my face against people that drank blood now I'm setting my face against everybody that won't drink it that's right setting my face against everybody that won't drink the blood but it has to come to the want it has to come to the stubborn refusal He's prepared to look upon all made with favor to invite them to it praise God and He calls and leads to this precious place where in the spirit you know what He was saying don't you that all the spiritual value of His life and blood was caught up into a cup that God would give us all to drink there it was red wine in a chalice if it was a chalice I reckon it was an old earthenware pot not myself but you please yourself you might want to get very nice and delicate about it but Jesus Christ was very common beautifully common wonderful play no silvered cups for Him He was a man of our manner praise God and it was caught there all the blessed spiritual intent and content and meaning of Jesus oh it's all in the spirit beloved the wine will only ever be wine you'll sip it and it will pass on and all sorts of things but unless my beloved when you come together and drink that cup and drink and eat that bread if you don't publish abroad the fact that you're a partaker of the cup the new covenant in that cup the life of the Lord Jesus Christ you're blighting your soul and damning yourself for eternity that's what you're doing don't you touch it unless you're doing that don't you go anywhere near it you shall be guilty of the body and the blood of Jesus Christ for when you come there you're either on one side or the other concerning Calvary one side or the other it was in His blood this precious and marvelous covenant and we know that it had to be shed shed for many for the remission of sins this is my blood of the new covenant oh don't you see beloved the whole difference God wrote the new covenant into flesh and blood that's right God wrote it out for us plain large as life in the Son of His love spelled it out for us the great ABC yes He said He was both the Alpha and the Omega the complete alphabet and if you know how to put letters together you'll make up every word that it's possible to make in this tremendous thing He spelled it all out for us in simplicity and in love and in carefulness in detail and in fullness in time and in eternity in natural terms and in infinity He's written it out for us beloved for us to understand the terms of the new covenant the terms are the life of Jesus the word is the life of Jesus Amen the commandment, the charge is the life of Jesus Amen praise God is that sinking in? Amen it's not a book containing four gospels the acts of the apostles and some other letters and the revelation bless God we have them praise God but that's not the new covenant the new covenant is the life of God made manifest in the flesh the new covenant is Christ entirely the new covenant is Him He's the word He brought the message of the covenant and He had the blood of the covenant in Him and He died on the cross to shed the blood of that covenant and He went back home to ratify it in heaven Amen that's what it's all about beloved the new covenant is Jesus it's Christ it's Him it's God and man in one it's God achieving His ambition coming to His ultimate it's God fulfilling His promise made to Abraham oh praise the name of the Lord this new covenant and He's made it with us ah this is the thing for us to understand beloved once we come here why? oh let's go into Galatian shall we we'll have a look in this Galatian letter chapter three oh hallelujah hallelujah in this third chapter we find some wonderful things and we can read where shall we start it says in verse eight it says the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preach the gospel unto Abraham did you know that there are three he preached the gospel to Abraham what do you think of that? did you know that was in the bible? that God preached the gospel to Abraham hallelujah marvellous and he said in thee shall all nations be blessed glory be to the name of the Lord it's a gospel of blessing but you see it's all brought down to its basic things it's marvellous how things are brought down to basic things for instance if I said to you I want you to repeat I want you to repeat the old covenant go on the basis of it what would you do? what would you do? you'd start in Exodus 20 wouldn't you say? hey? no you wouldn't but you can simplify it I tell you instead of going through all Exodus 20 start in Deuteronomy chapter 6 hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and all thy strength and all in thine and the second commandment is like unto it thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself that's the whole of the old covenant there you are that's the ten commandments see how they can be simplified did you realise that? why it's precious isn't it? isn't it true? you sum up the first half of the Decalogue and it means love God with all your heart sum up the second half you know thou shalt not steal thou shalt not commit adultery thou shalt not do this thou shalt not it's love your neighbour as yourself then you don't do it that's all it is everything can be simplified in this precious thing so God simplified, simplified, simplified everything he had to say and said I'll send Jesus that simplifies the new covenant it's as simple as that it was in his blood it was the very basic elemental coursing red stream of his being it was the reason for his living it was his ability to love blood flowing round his veins into his arteries the new covenant was Jesus Christ's ability medium basic fundament of life what do you think of that? everything came from that blood everything built up into flesh first in his mother's womb and then it was born and then it grew it was lovely, glorious so simple this wonderful covenant I hope you're seeing this I hope your eyes are open wide and your hearts really reaching out into all the truth for this is what God wants us to grasp and it's precisely because these things have not been grasped and understood that we have all kind of manufactured theories and ideas angles and emphases instead of the Lord being able in simplicity to come to our hearts and just start to move on us and that's what it's all about beloved he cannot do it as he wants to do because we've got our head just about chock full of notions and Jesus Christ came and lived and died and they thought that's the end of him and they sealed up the tomb and he beat them all he'd come out without breaking the seals their stupid minds thought he'd have to come out that way but he came out that way God always does the unexpected but he'll never get that stone out of the way he had it rolled away afterwards so that you and I could go in and see that he wasn't there but this is the marvel of it all and so he just lived his glorious life and we know lots of things that went on in between I hope we do and then there came the day when they followed him out to the mountain where he had appointed to meet them and whilst they watched him as he was blessing them and he'd said to them now look whatever else you do you're to tarry in Jerusalem until you be endued with power from on high and don't you go away and then they saw him go up into heaven he said I'm going to send the promise of the father upon you that's what I'm going to do now listen the promise of the father the father went and made a promise to Abraham keep that very clear he went and made a promise to Abraham I'm going to send the promise of the father to you Galatians chapter 3 we're still in it we're not going to read all the verses but this is what we're going to see verse 13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ the blessing of Abraham as you can read in verse 6 is that he believed God and righteousness was imputed to him in other words he knew justification by faith now the blessing of justification by faith could come on the Gentiles in order that verse 14 we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith Hallelujah justification by faith imputed righteousness is in order that we might receive the Holy Spirit Amen now let's go on shall we brethren I speak after the manner of men though it be but a man's covenant see he's brought this word covenant in now yet if it be confirmed no man disannulleth or addeth thereto now to Abraham and his seed where the promise is made he saith not and to seeds as of many but as of one and to thy seed which is Christ and this I say that the covenant that was confirmed before of God in Christ the law which was four hundred and thirty years after cannot disannul with it should make the promise none effect if the inheritance be of the law it's no more a promise but God gave it to Abraham by promise wherefore then serveth the law it was added it was added because of transgressions till the seed should come to whom the promise was made and it was ordained by angels in the hands of a mediator now a mediator is not a mediator of one but God is one and so the thought of mediation is introduced and we will go into the Hebrews letter and you will remember that it said in the Hebrews letter in chapter twelve that we've come to new Jerusalem to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant the new covenant had to be mediated oh it was in his blood but it has to be mediated and we're told in Galatians quite rightly that a mediator is not a mediator of one if there's only one there's nothing to mediate if there are three if there are two there's no need for mediation either it's just a straight passing alright I give you this you give me that so you see but when there are three you need a mediator and when there are millions and millions and millions you need a mediator a mediator cannot be a mediator of one and there's another thought about it that Jesus Christ didn't just come to be a mediator from man to God it says this in Timothy you remember there's one God and one mediator between man and God men and God sorry plural men and God the man singular very important like seeds and seed the man he can mediate to God there's one great mediator and this is the precious truth beloved that Jesus Christ when he went back to heaven he went back and he showed himself to his father for me for me that God at last got a man up there who'd atoned for sin a man that represented me to him I can't atone for sin I couldn't atone for one sin that I've ever committed I could never justify my actions to God I could never I don't know where to find him anyway do you? I mean I know now it's since I've become born again but before that I didn't know couldn't find him in a communion I didn't find him in church what's a church anyway? I didn't know until I was born again did you? do you now know what a true church is? couldn't find him in the Bible I ought to know I've brought up to believe it from infancy I didn't find him there I found him ultimately here knocking at my heart's door that's where I found him is that where you found him? I found him here speaking to me knocking here he knocked a long time but at last he came in and I knew him but you see I couldn't get to find him I didn't know what to do for him but there went up a man with scars on him furrows down his back hole in his side in his hands and his feet went back and says that's that chap Northfather this is plain sense written in the Hebrews letter did you know that? isn't the Bible a wonderful book? it tells us everything in the ninth chapter we read this verse 24 Hebrews 9 and 24 Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the truth but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God for us just a minute you know on the day of ascension up he went and he went straight I didn't put that chair there it helped stop me wandering around he appeared there for me father looked on him there's a man here who's made an atonement for sin it's Jesus he says father I've come that's that man North it's unbelievable not expected to believe it unless the Holy Ghost convinces you only the Holy Ghost can convince you of this that's what Jesus said I've got to come I've got to get out of the way the Holy Ghost's got to come he's got to convince the world he didn't come to convince the world Jesus didn't Jesus came to atone for the sin of the world the Holy Ghost has come to convince the world that's what he's come for told you that in the Old Testament the Holy Ghost convinces me I'm sure of it as I'm standing in your presence tonight and I haven't got a mark on me I don't think I have anyway if you could see on my face that I'm appearing in the presence of God tonight as him and he appears as me my Jesus and he is mediating me to God amen but a mediator is not a mediator of one he's mediating from God to me and you know what he's mediating from God to me don't you the Holy Ghost he's mediating the Holy Ghost from God to me that's why I said don't you go away from Jerusalem don't you go there you think you've got all the facts and you've got it all at your fingertips but I want to tell you I've got to mediate God the Holy Ghost to you or my task is not complete it did not end with blood shedding certain amount of things ended with the blood shedding it did not end with him lying in the tomb it did not end with the resurrection it did not end with the ascension and enthronement it ended this phase of it when he mediated the Holy Ghost oh no that's not ended yet praise God we're still moving he's coming back again sometime but we're not going to reach there tonight the whole thing is there well you know what I mean it may reach us the whole position beloved is here laid at our hearts door he is mediating the third person of the Trinity to me that's what it's all about he's not just giving me forgiveness I've got justification the blessing of Abraham Abraham had that but he never had the baptism in the spirit he never had that he got forgiven all his sins he'll be there glory be to God he never once took the communion he'll be there but hallelujah he glory he did that that I should receive the promise of the spirit and it's a covenant listen we'll read again in this ninth chapter of Hebrews it's a very important chapter it says this that we'd better have it all I suppose really as much as we can anyway let's start in verse 13 if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctified for the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God and for this cause he is the mediator of the new covenant that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance for where a testament or covenant is there must also of necessity be the death of the testator or covenant victim for a covenant or a testament is a force after men are dead or in the force of the Greek here it is stable over the dead otherwise it has no strength it's of no strength at all while the testator liveth the new covenant was of no strength at all while Jesus was alive on the earth before his death it's only of force since his death I was in a house the other day let me illustrate this I was in a house somewhere a lady that's a good bit older than I am I've known her for a long time and one of her worries that day when I called was that she was making a will and she asked me if I would sign on the dotted line for her and become one of these witnesses of the signature which I did in the end but I learned in process of being with her for some time that she was always making wills she made a will and then she thought of something else so she added a bit then she made another one and she took something away from someone and gave it to someone else you see the will, the testament, the covenant was not in force all the time she was alive because it could be added to or disannulled once she dies, she's headed, she can't that's right you see now this is exactly what we're being told in the bible a covenant is only stable over the dead all the time a person's alive they can change their mind an alteration not that Jesus Christ intended to alter his promises but what we're being told is this that the new covenant was not in force whilst Jesus was living on the earth the blood of the covenant had to be shed first amen for part of that great covenant beloved of God is shown us in the tenth chapter where we are told in verse 16 this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days I will set the Lord I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more and God couldn't help remember them if he hadn't shed the blood of Jesus to block them out amen shed the blood of Jesus to expunge purge eradicate the memory of them glory be to God and purge your conscience from them too give you a nature like the nature of the sinless one who never knew sin Jesus which of you convinces me of sin he said yet if I tell you the truth you won't believe me an old pilot had said I can't find any fault in him I'll let him go amen is that right? yeah do you know he's going to bring me into faultness this one day he's going to present me faultless but at this moment I can be void of sin and of the memory of it and of the conscience of it because it's the blood of Jesus amen it's the covenant the covenant arranged in God not with a man God became man in order to ratify it but it was arranged in God and the holy ghost is the spirit of the covenant the holy spirit of the covenant amen Jesus shed the holy blood of the covenant to show us what the holy man of the covenant is and bring us into that manhood and life unless we're not alive we're dead but the holy ghost is the spirit of the covenant gets down into that subconscious mind of yours that exists in spirit to purge your conscience from dead things works, words, ideas, doctrines and I don't know what prayers and genuflections and I don't know what all the love of them purge you of it, purge you of it purge you of it Jesus Christ was rid of it all he only ever went in the temple so we know to purge it he never went in there to smell the incense or burn the candles or even offer a sacrifice he had no sin for which to sacrifice none at all he left it, knocked it down out of it what are you doing? messing around in candle smoke and incenses what's that got to do with it? Jesus Christ left it smashed it poured it into the reality not into the smoke of it poured it into the light not the candle of it not the artificial, the real not the typical, the actual oh, this is the reality beloved into which we've been brought in this great covenant of love and grace oh, it's so wonderful this great love of Jesus and he's up there representing me to God he says I'm that man north and he ministered the Holy Ghost to me down here that I might be the man Jesus to men that's right, that's what it's all about that's the covenant that I might be as the man Jesus unto my fellow man oh, and I'm so little and I'm so poor he says, never mind, blessed are the poor in spirit and I'm so broken, he says, blessed are the brokenhearted that's right, that's what he meant he says, this is the thing he comes he comes, you see he has to make us poverty stricken in spirit we have to recognize our absolute poverty we have to recognize our impurity of heart he says, blessed are the pure in heart we have to recognize that we're not peacemakers but warmongers, all a lot of us always kicking up rows and troubles and fights in our natural that's what we're doing, always now, come on, stand up, anybody who's never done that that's what we are, all a lot of us he's got us all in that great statement of Matthew 5 let's go there we're all there he's come to make us new men I'll tell you how he does it by taking the laws off the tablets of stone and writing them in your heart now, beloved now, beloved, this is how it all works because Jesus Christ was the end of the law and that he fulfilled it this is the word he uses in Matthew chapter 5 he says in the 17th verse of Matthew 5 don't you think I've come to destroy the law or the prophets I have not come to destroy but to fulfill now, who could fulfill it save the one from whose heart and mind those laws came all right, now you've got to fulfill it too so this is what he says then he starts to take up the law he says, like this you've heard, verse 21 that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not kill whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment now, you see, that was the law but now he shows you the spirit from which it came you've got to have this kind of heart in you now here it is I say unto you if you're angry with your brother without a cause you're in danger of the judgment and whosoever shall say to his brother Raker shall be in danger of the Sanhedrin or the council but whosoever shall say thou fool shall be in danger of Gehemah hell fire but you see he's not saying thou shalt not kill now he's in the heart from which it came he's interpreting it from God's heart now that was put out there on the circumference of things chipped in stone thou shalt not kill that's at the extreme this is how he contained them he contained them kept them under the law but they were still in sin and sin in their heart he's telling you now look, look at the next thing he says therefore if you come with your gift to the altar and you remember that your brother's got altar gates due leave your gift don't come here waving your hymn book and saying hallelujah go and get right with your brother that's it don't you come here saying amen and giving prophecies and talking in tongues until you've got right with your brother do you understand? that's right praise God leave your gifts he said go and get grace that's right no of course we don't bring gifts to altars now like sheep and rams and that but we bring what we call the gifts of the spirit well leave them leave, don't worry about those go and get on with the heart of God will you leave your gifts he doesn't say come back and get your gift again he says come up and pick up your gift again that's what he says that's right, read it I put it colloquially I've interpreted it into the new covenant terms see this is what he's saying all this thing he said you're not even to think you're never even to think of ever calling anybody a fool I'm not killing anybody do you know where murder starts? from thinking in your heart that somebody's a fool say never, never I thought insomany people were fools you were an incipient murderer a murderess it was there oh now you see he's interpreting the spirit of the Lord the heart of God this was what was in his blood you say you've been washed in it you say you've drunk it you say you believe in it do you? his life was lived from this look how it goes right down to this and he says you've heard in verse 27 that it was said by them of old time thou shalt not commit adultery but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart he's already done it see in other words his lust started and in his imagination it was all done and then he went and gave the lustful look afterwards that's right that's what Jesus is saying and it's a tremendous thing and he said and he said look it's so important I want to tell you that if it's your eye that do it he said take them eye and pluck them out or your right hand that did offensive things well have it cut off that's Jesus this is Brooklyn I tell you this new covenant it's absolute fire fire he gives the spiritual interpretation of what God could only write on stone of old time he was the covenant him the seed had come to whom the promise was made Jesus blessed God and what a seed he was what a seed oh when you go all the way down through these these precious things that Jesus said you know well I won't I won't tarry with you through them all our time is not too limited as we know we only have one more evening together but the Lord is saying this precious thing the covenant beloved the mediator the mediatorial work of the Lord Jesus Christ is that the promise of Abraham should come unto me the seed came the life was lived in the flesh to know the kind of life that I could never be for me to know it until God my blessed Savior on the ground of his own blood shed went back to heaven and received of the Father the promise of the Spirit there's the promise it's all there the great promise of the Spirit this was in God's mind when he made the promise he was promising Abraham Jesus he was promising Abraham the Holy Ghost he was promising Abraham God he said I want to be a God dear you may read it I'll be a God dear I don't want him merely if I may say this to be a God to me in history I just don't want him to be a God to me on the cross I just don't want him to be a God to me in heaven I need him to be a God to me in here and he knows it and I cannot live the life he wants me to live if he denies me this if he gives me just a Bible to stick to better than ten commandments on stone to try to stick to as well as the words of the covenant I have no stickability and God knows I haven't it will be my crushing it will be like rock on my head it will deal the death blow to all my best hopes and intentions but I cannot be what I read in that book blessed are the pure in heart they shall see God blessed are the peacemakers when I have such a quarrelsome rotten nature that I've inherited that I make trouble wherever I go or if I don't people make trouble for me he has to come blessed one he's come and he's written these laws in my heart amen I'm here to fulfill the law but not by trying to I forget about it I forget about it and all I do is to live in the knowledge of the presence of the glory of God in me by the Holy Ghost living in me and he's put his thoughts in my mind he says I'm writing them in your mind in your heart my heart is the great passionate motivating driving force of me my mind well it's not quite sawdust but it's there all written there my thoughts now have power it's all right heart and mind are pure glory be to God he's written his laws there and you know what these laws are? the laws of his own eternal being and life soul and life if his laws of eternal being and life aren't in you you haven't got eternal life because this is how God lives eternally pure wonderful righteous glorious hallelujah I'm left with fragmentary hopes of attainment without this reaching forward hoping hoping hoping ere the darkness flows in and extinguish the faint light but if he comes and he baptizes me as he wants to baptize me into Jesus Christ then I partake of his life simple isn't it? simple there's nothing complicated about this God wants us to understand what it's all about he said now you tarry there you tarry there I've got to mediate the spirit to it yet you stay there so they stayed there and Jesus went up and he did this glorious work you know it's just as I said there my father looked here he is of course he can be filled with the spirit now, can't he? he suffered he suffered for his sin I've done it for him he's paid the price I've done it for him he's made me atonement I've done it for him you see that's what he said all the time of course he can have the Holy Spirit of course he can be filled it's quite natural logical proper that I might receive the promise of the spirit through faith amen and if you haven't received the promise of the spirit through faith your faith has let you down whatever it is for faith is a through thing faith is like a like a a great big water pipe laid up to heaven for the water to flow through that's all it is you see God is wanting to minister to us in all his fullness of grace and love this is the covenant this is the covenant oh I've said this before I don't want it to be a cliche but it's absolutely so right it impresses in my being there was an arrangement in God diatheke covenant testament means a thorough arrangement that's what your word means in the Greek a thorough arrangement for those of you that are studying Greek or want to know it that preposition dia means through thoroughly through it's a thorough complete eternal logical proper arrangement and the arrangement was this that if Jesus would come down on this earth and die to put away my sin and remove the reasons why God could not do it God would give me the Holy Ghost that was the arrangement and the Holy Ghost would come direct from Father's heart through Jesus Christ into me first hand personal actual I'm not catching anything that's floating about in the air like some people you see them reaching about there's something out here you know it's here glory directly I am directly linked with God and he poured straight into me through my other self my man my Jesus God's Jesus the real life he says I'm complete in him amen he's the complete me man is not complete if he isn't in Jesus alright and Jesus was man the man he came as me I wasn't man there's no man here is man no man unless he's been born again a new man in Jesus Christ Jesus Christ was the man hallelujah he was the man who lived on earth by all the laws of eternal being he that were in God in the beginning and ever shall be and this local arrangement of universe and heaven and earth and everything else passed away amen when all the scientists have scratched their last bald heads and not discovered what it's all about amen it's all passed away I should be there with the same life that God was in the beginning and ever shall be oh hallelujah that's what it's all about that's what it's all about this is the covenant the promise is made to the seed I'm the seed I'm one of the seed I'm one of the seed glory ha ha ha praise God it's as simple as that the seed had to come to whom the promise was made no it's a marvelous thing and you know this is your privilege every one of you in this room tonight I don't know whether this has ever taken place in your life your privilege is to see the utter destruction of your old self and sin on that cross this is your privilege you are dead that's what the bible keeps on telling you that you won't believe it you are dead you are dead you're not to try and get dead we don't want any suicides in heaven you are dead slain done away with hateful rotten unwanted that's what Jesus came to do he came to take on the ugly task but he's done it done it amen you are dead but you won't believe it and because you won't believe it you go through hellish struggles you're trying to stop this and you're trying to be that and you're trying to be something else as though God wants cheap imitations stop the nonsense he's got his man all ready he's up there that blessed, true, simple, sweet personality the Holy Ghost is pouring through him bringing his virtues bringing the glory not the blood of his life now that's sprinkled there for us it's been caught in the spirit in the cup to commemorate it but he's pouring through the actual risen Jesus Christ bringing the virtues the last abstract wonders of him so concrete and real in the spirit only abstract to us in our poor limited thinking bringing them all in the sweetnesses and the so indescribable lovelinesses pouring them into me pouring them into me wants to pour them out through me wants everybody to see Jesus wants everybody to know Jesus wants everybody to know the miracle wants everybody to see what God can do in me needing me what can I say who was so horrible and ugly and rotten and vile and desired to be buried buried and forgotten about for all eternity or else be tortured in hell for the rottenness of me to me here to me to me, the real me oh how can you describe it this is what it's all about it isn't me struggling after holiness it's me living Jesus that's right it's as simple as that it's not me struggling after power it's me living Jesus see it's not me trying to be a prophet yes it's living Jesus that's what it is it's not me trying to get a ministry or make my mark on the earth it's living Jesus Jesus made no mark on the earth it's this temple and you can't find hell no, no, no not a mark but oh, he's come to fill us he's come to be us he's come to make the change it's so simple and you know all you've got to do is to receive the Holy Ghost this is the covenant you've got to receive the Holy Ghost don't fix your mind on anything don't get ending like this, that or the other hope not, receive the Holy Ghost if you believe God's going to betray you now you'd better not have any more to do with it if you believe God's going to let you down now and he's only a Judas really don't have anything more to do with it if you believe he's you if you believe that you're not really alive you're non-existent you're just going to eke out a few more years and drop into a grave and now if you believe he's the real you and you were only born and allowed to draw God's good breath into your lungs on this earth for this purpose you'll stop all your other nonsense and die die right here in this room forever die, finish that's the end of me how many of you just revolve around yourself nobody wants me, nobody loves me you sniveling, whining do you really want all the angels and God and all the churches in the world to dance around you do you? when we can't even remember the place where Jesus was born we'll find the spot where he died and who are you? die we'll have a mighty feast when you die we'll have a wonderful time no funerals here it was a breakfast that Jesus is into a breakfast the beginning of a new day food of a new life wonder of the ages hallelujah all glory let him fill you with the Holy Ghost let him enter into the covenant stop all this sneaking around the back way stop making out you do it when you know you haven't really done it don't try and impress anybody just collapse and die and fade away God's good he loves you amen he's just waiting to do it praise the name of the Lord and if you'll believe him you'll believe him you'll go home tonight in the covenant and the covenant will be yours how can we have talked so long and said nothing there's so much more to say now let's pray shall we