That verse is in between two other verses. I guess every verse is just about. But the context is a set of three verses, talking about unchangeable things. The ninth verse talks about unchangeable doctrine. Doctrine is not to change. The Word of God is delivered to us once for all, and it remains the same. And Jesus Christ is the same in his essence, yesterday, today, and forever. Verse seven, it talks about people who are always the same. Remember those who rule over you, who have spoken the Word of God to you, whose faith follow, considering the outcome of their conduct. People who are always steady for the Lord. As we come to a close of another conference, I'm reminded that this is the eighty-fifth of the conferences here at Atlantic. And I want to find out who was here at the beginning or as far back as we can reach. So let's do that for a moment. Some of you people who are the same yesterday and today and forever, like Jesus and like the doctrine, help with that. Who was here the longest? Who can give us some help on that? Nineteenth-Thirty-three. Anybody beat nineteen-thirty-three? I guess that's it. You were here at camps. Hey, I wasn't a baby. I wasn't a gleam in my father's eye at that point. Hey, you were here. Anybody? Thirty-three. But you go back to thirty-three? Twenty-seven. Nineteen-twenty-seven. Nineteen-twenty-six. In the back? Nineteen-twenty-five. We got nineteen-twenty-two. I feel like an auctioner up here, eh? Only we're going the wrong way. Nineteen-twenty-four. You know, it gives me a great deal of encouragement to come and see folk who have been coming to this conference for that long. And the Bible, Hebrew says something about them. Whose faith follow? Do you hear it, young people? Whose faith follow? Imitate those people. And see if you'll be here, if the Lord be not come. Nineteen-twenty, what was that, twenty-three, four? This is, what is this, ninety-eight? Somebody give me the math there. Seventy-four years. Whose faith follow? It is always encouragement. That is one of the encouragement of gathering together with the saints and seeing people who for so many years have remained faithful. It's a challenge to all. I don't know if I'm a young person or I feel like, but I'm not. It's a challenge to young people. It's a challenge to Jamie, isn't it? Hey, it's great to see next generation coming on board and ministering, isn't it? That's exciting. Whose faith follows? Unchangeable. Like the doctrine that is unchangeable. And like our Savior who is unchangeable. And I'm grateful to... people long ago who are now with the Lord at a better conference than this one, enjoying His presence who have started and the vision to start things like this. And I'm thankful to each of you who have been good illustrations of faithfulness and carry on, and particularly to the people who worked hard to put this together. I saw Gene Millett carrying trays. I've seen Gene carrying trays forever. I'm glad for that. And we get to see old friends. I almost lost my place when Don Ella Fritz walked in a little late, and Lou and Margaret are right behind. I sort of had a exceptionally good friends of mine who have made my life possible in many ways. The home in which I live and the ministry that I can carry one in a mass is intertwined with those sets of lives. And I'm glad to meet people like that again and again and again. And I look the other way at my dear daughter Linda and her good husband and all that you folks have meant to her. in the ministry that you have entrusted to them and how you care and love them. It's good to be with the saints, isn't it? A little stronger amen than that. Good to be with the saints. We are really tied together in a very close relationship, and it's wonderful to be able to do this. And isn't it encouraging to see, I think, a larger than has been of the recent years' conference? Maybe people are taking a deep breath and figuring out that golf isn't quite that important. And the word is better. And it is. And it's just always enjoyable to come and meet with God's people. We know what fun is, don't we? The enjoyment we can have in the Lord Jesus. Look at chapter eight of Hebrews. There are two more chapters that deal with the priesthood. Chapter eight is a difficult one. The Lord Jesus is a better priest because he administers a better covenant. The author of Hebrews using the technique, let's see where we can prove it from the Old Testament. Comes across this passage in Jeremiah thirty-one where he reads, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. And when he reads that word new, he goes, whoa! What's that due to the other one? And the conclusion is it makes the other one old. What year? Who's driving a new car this year? I'm not sure what year we're in. Is it ninety-eight or are we in ninety-nine now, as far as cars go? Is a new one a ninety-eight? You got signs up. You're driving around in your new car and you got a ninety-eight. And, hey, that's nice. I have a nineteen ninety-eight car. It's a new car. And then you see a billboard out there. And it says, go to such and such a dealership and see the nineteen ninety-nine models. And as soon as you read that, you know something has happened to your car. You won't call your car a new car anymore. That's an old car. It breaks your heart when you see that sign. Oh, no. I don't have a new car anymore. It's an old car. We could probably do a little contest and see who has the oldest car here, too, but that wouldn't be very beneficial. As soon as you see a sign out there that says new car, it does something to you, to your car. It makes it old. And when you're reading along in the Old Testament and you're under the Mosaic covenant and you're reading along in Jeremiah and you come along in this concept, I'm going to make a new covenant with the house of Israel. Whoops, there goes the other one. All at once, the one that's been called the Mosaic Covenant or the Law now becomes the Old Covenant. And the author of Hebrews says that's a death doubt to the Old Covenant. And then he reads on in Jeremiah and he quotes a long section from Jeremiah thirty-one. Hebrews chapter eight is mostly Jeremiah thirty-one. A long quotation and he picks out that one word new, but he also gives some insight into why that is a better covenant. And we'll come on that directly. New Covenant. New Covenant is made with Israel, not with the church. The New Covenant relates to the future of Israel. It relates to the time when Israel will be in the land. It is the rule of life for the millennium. Ezekiel talks about the New Covenant as well, and this genius author does not quote from Ezekiel. He quotes from Jeremiah, and if you look at the two passages, they both talk about the New Covenant. Jeremiah talks about the spiritual dimensions of the New Covenant. Ezekiel talks about the land dimensions of the New Covenant. And that would not serve the author for his quotation. That would, in fact, muddy the waters. So he quotes the one from Jeremiah that talks about the spiritual realities of the New Covenant. It isn't a new covenant that Nicodemus should have known about when Jesus said, don't you know you must be born again? Are you a leader or a teacher in Israel and you don't know that you must be born again to enter into the kingdom of God? There has to be regeneration, a new nature. When we break bread this morning, broke bread this morning, and every time we do, we are taking the blood, what, of the new covenant. And the Apostle Paul in Corinthians identifies himself as a minister-servant of the new covenant. Now the church has a relationship to the new covenant. As Israel will function under the new covenant, we have a relationship to it. And I think Darby is correct. Don't you? He's always correct. Or almost all. Darby is correct when he tells us that we enter into the spiritual reality of the New Covenant. There is a common ground between us and the New Covenant and Israel and the New Covenant. The common ground is the shed blood of Jesus Christ that makes possible our salvation. and makes possible a New Covenant time. The common ground is an internal change that takes place when we trust in Jesus Christ, which will be the reality of people in New Covenant time. Because we share some of the aspects of the New Covenant with the nation Israel, it does not mean that the New Covenant is fulfilled in the church. It is not. The logical description there is the fact that we have a common touch, a common relationship. To say that because I touched the New Covenant and Israel touches the New Covenant, the church in Israel is the same, is an undistributed middle, logically. It is to say a cow has four legs. A table has four legs, therefore a table is a cow. And I don't think that's true, though I'm not a real good farmer. That's not true, is it, George? A table is not a cow. Okay, we're safe now. A cow is not a table. It's an undistributed middle. You don't take that middle and say, okay, if two things are in common, then the two things that touch that are the same. That's not true. We share something with Israel. The reality of the new covenant. New birth through the new covenant. A change of the individual through the new covenant. And it's that part of the new covenant that is emphasized here. Jesus will administer a better covenant as the king-priest comes together in one person in the millennial period. He will administer the new covenant. That will be the rule of life. He will be the priest-king ruling over the nation Israel and the whole of the world in that fifth world empire. That is the rule of man, finally, of the second chapter of Hebrews. Now what this means to me, and we need to understand that this is an important concept, new covenant people. What we have in relationship to the New Covenant and what Israel has in relationship to the New Covenant in the future day is this, that we are changed people when we come to faith in Jesus Christ. Changed people. Something happens more than salvation. Something happens metaphysically to you. Isn't that exciting? That means before you were saved, you were this way. After you're saved, you become another way. Before you were saved, you did not have a will that was alive to God. We could relate to one another. Martin Luther says we could make choices from the neck down. We could choose career. We could choose how we would relate to one another. We could do those kind of things. But we would never choose God. Because our will was not in touch with God. We were dead in trespasses and sin. We did not have a God instinct. Well, let me correct that a little. We had a God instinct. It is a God-shaped vacuum, but fallen man never puts God in that vacuum. We'll put anything else but God in that vacuum. And there's none that seeketh God. No, not one. And we'll try everything before we try God. It's only when God takes up a work in our life that we respond in the proper way. When we are saved, our will becomes alive to God. Our spirit part of us, that which relates us to God, as soul relates us on a horizontal level, as the body relates us to the physical needs. Our spirit becomes alive to God. Our intellect and will becomes alive to God. That's different than when we were unsaved. We're altogether a different kind of person. Now the struggle I have is that the Old Testament saints who are not spoken of in terms of new birth or regeneration, you look in vain in the Old Testament to find a new nature ascribed to an Old Testament saint. They have very much of the spiritual experiences that you and I have. But there was an altogether different... kind of a relationship. Under that time, God was saying, you obey me and I'll bless you. And in New Testament time, in church time, New Covenant time, because we have been blessed, we obey God. Notice how the prophet Jeremiah and the quote that the author has in chapter eight relates to who we are now as New Covenant people. Verse eight, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, not according to the old one. And here is the description of the change in verse ten. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them in their hearts, and I will be their people, and they shall be I will be their God. They shall be my people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brothers saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds. I will remember no more. It's finished. There's no additional sacrificial system in place. Talk about that soon in chapters nine and ten. But the essence of it is there's this inherent spiritual regeneration, new creation that takes place that makes you and me instinctively alive to God. That's different. That's new. That's better. Alive to God. I have an instinct that is Godward. So do you. Have you noticed it? Look, we can, just like Jesus will say in the next chapter, We can delight to do the will of God. We never delighted to do the will of God beforehand. That's a new creation concept. How many of you delight to do the will of God? Don't be bashful. Come on. Am I? There's got to be more than the three of us. Come on. We delight to do the will of God. This is joy we're having. This is not drudgery, boring drag. We delight to do the will of God. Jamie was talking about the preference we have. What's our preference? It's right here. It's not. It's gone. Where'd the table go? Soon it passes away. The element fades. This time. Look, we delight in the Lord's Supper, do you? My son said to me one time we were driving home from school, he said, Dad, you know my favorite meeting? I said, what is it, John? He said, the Lord's Supper. I almost wrecked the car for joy. You know, when a teenager comes up with that kind of a statement, I'd love to go to the Lord's Supper. No. We delight in that. That's not a game we play. That's real. And it is too soon the elements pass away. Too soon we rise. And I am encouraged, Franklin and our assembly back in Dubuque that's full of young people, that we can hardly get the breaking of bread ended in time for the next meeting. Do I hear a praise God for that? Hey, that's good. And our young people will respond to our excitement and joy. when we gather together. We delight when Jesus says, will you meet with me every week with the saints to remember me? What do we say? It's a delight. I love to do that. Delight to do your will. I delight to see people come to salvation, don't you? Isn't it exciting? I come from a I'm in the middle of five generations of Christians. All my father, mother's children except one, one who grew up before my grandfather came to faith. All the rest were saved. In my home, all the kids were saved. My brother and my sister. In our home, our children. have all come to faith in Jesus Christ. Barbara and Lois and Linda and John. Three have married well, fine Christians. John is still looking for a fine Christian young lady. Is there... Come talk to me afterwards. But what I see happening is And some of you here have seen this happening as the grandchildren getting saved. One by one, as a faith that dwells first in Grandma, then in Ma, is seen in the children as well. Don't you delight in that? Hey, I delight to do your will, oh my God. We have a heart for God now if we only let him rule supreme. Now there's some tugs. There's a world system out there that went to destroy it. There's Satan and all his fallen hosts who are ubiquitous. They're everywhere present it seems. There's a sin nature that is still within me. But reckon this, as Paul tells us, we are dead to sin and alive to God. And yield your members because it is the instinctive right thing to do. as a new creation in Christ Jesus. Yield your members once for all as instruments of righteousness. Paul pleads with those Romans who were believers, present your bodies a living sacrifice to God. And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. I look at a group of young men. Think of the potential there on that row of being transformed. by the renewing of their mind for Jesus Christ. You guys want to do that? Go for it. Because there's something in us that's different than the unsaved person out there. We have a will and a spirit that because we are new covenant people, believers, is alive to God. And don't be tricked. That's where we find meaning to life in delighting to do the will of God. That's the kind of priest we have who administers that kind of life on our behalf. I have come that you might have life and that you might have life abundantly. Peter says he who would love life and see good days. One of the things I appreciate about my friend Lewis, he loves living. I almost died a few months back. I walked in. I was visiting him. He just had triple bypass, you know, and everybody said he was doing fine. But, boy, he looked like a ghost of Christmas past. I almost went like that. He's gained some weight. I'm for gaining weight. They look good. My life verse is found in the book of Daniel. Meany, meany, Teagle, you farthest? You're weighting the scales and found lacking. So go do something about it. All right. I don't think that's consistent interpretation. Probably is not good hermeneutics. But, hey, can we love life? Lou, do you love living? How many of you love living? It's great. Yeah. He would love life and see good days. We don't have time. Christianity doesn't have time for, oh, man, is this thing a drag? Now I know there are plenty of problems. We've all had them. We would love life and see good days. That's part of what the Lord has given to us in this whole new covenant life that we have in Jesus Christ. He is a better priest because he administers the better covenant. He is likewise a better priest. And then this is the holy of holies of the book of Hebrews. It's where he really wanted to go, the author of Hebrews, right from the beginning. Having made purgation for sin, he sat down. Let's look at chapter ten. Now chapter nine begins the statement relating to the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus of our great high priest. Ten brings it to its conclusion. for the law having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of these things, can never, with these same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect, make those who approach perfect. And then he asked a question. If that were the case, wouldn't they have stopped offering? If it made them perfect, why do we have the Day of Atonement? where the worshippers once purified would have had no more consciousness of sins. But think of standing outside that tent on the day of atonement when the sacrifices are being made and there's the burnt offering for the priest and for the people and the sin offerings for the priest and the people and the scapegoat that's carried off and the goat that's slain and all the Work is done and the sins of the year are atoned for and you start over with a fresh year in typological fashion. And on the way home, you cut somebody off in the chariot and he yells at you and you yell at him and you've sinned and you've got to carry that around with you for another whole year. Now you make a temporary sacrifice next day around. I understand that. But you got to wait for another day of atonement. They went to sleep every night if they were good Jews. with a consciousness of sins that needed to be taken care of. Those sacrifices never took it away. In fact, they had a design to say, you need a better sacrifice than this because this doesn't work. Else they would have ceased. But they didn't cease. because it is not possible. But in those sacrifices, there is reminder of sins every year. I remind you, that old system just kept bringing it up. It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sin. How in the world could animal blood bring about a spiritual reality of forgiveness of sin? That's impossible. cannot be efficacious. Therefore, when he came into the world, oh I love this. You know, in chapter two we were looking at the humanity of Jesus Christ and in chapter five his struggling of humanity that are common to each one of us. Here's a statement of deity when he comes into the world. Hebrews exegetes Christmas for us. Here is the communication, if you will, from the newborn babe in his mother's arm. He is still the God of the universe, isn't he? Yes? By him all things are held together. though he cannot coordinate those hands to even clap, he is still fully God. And here is communication from deity to deity from the cradle. When he comes into the world, he says, sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you have prepared for me. Here it is. It's a little baby boy, fully man, fully God, as fully God is saying, this is the body you have prepared for me. I'm in it. This is it. In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, You had no pleasure. By the time of the end of the Old Testament, it was a stench to God, not a sweet savor. By the time of Malachi, the priest would not even offer up sacrifices without a bribe. And the sacrifices they offered up were not perfect animals. They were flawed. It was all form and empty. And God is sick of that. And what he wants is obedience. Then said, I behold, I have come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do your will, O God. And every high priest, verse eleven, stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. For by one offering, verse fourteen, he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days as he brings the previous chapter forward. says the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts and in their minds, and I will write them. Then he adds their sins and lawless deeds. I will remember no more. That's a better sacrifice. In the Old Testament, there was always a consciousness of sin. Our conscience never accuses us. that the penalty of sin is unpaid. I can lie down every night with a conscience clear relating to sin, knowing that I have a perfect standing because of the one sacrifice for sins forever of the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you glad for that? What a blessed truth that is. And even when we do sin and our conscience accuses us, we know that God has made provision for that. It does not affect our salvation. And the high priest goes to work to intercede on our behalf. And as our conscience strikes us, we confess our sins. And he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to restore fellowship. But salvation was never in question. Fellowship was not salvation. And he's made provision for that. It is wonderful to be certain of your future. To be certain of sins forgiven. And I would be less than correct to come to a passage such as this without asking the question, are all of you certain of that? There has been one sacrifice for sins made by Jesus Christ for all the world. And receiving with an empty hand the free gift of salvation, we can be certain that we will never have to pay the penalty for our own sin. I look around and I know most of you rejoice in that. But lest there be one who has never come to that, be aware of the fact that one man offered one sacrifice for sins forever. He finished the work and he is seated at the right hand of God. What a priest we have. Better than angels. Better than Moses. Better than the Aaronic system. God has spoken finely. In the best way he can. In the person of his son. And he who has seen the son. Has seen the father. And I trust all of us. Through Jamie's ministry. And through this ministry. Has seen the son a little more clearly. This weekend. And consequently have seen the father. A little more clearly. And we are challenged then to walk. in the light of that revelation. Let's pray that we do that together. Our Father, we thank you for so great salvation, which has once for all been delivered to the saints. We thank you for the blessedness of this weekend of meeting with your people. and for that higher blessedness of meeting with your Son and hearing from your Word. And so help us to walk as Christians who delight to do your will, who have found the secret of living in Jesus Christ and in your revealed Word and will for each one of us. We pray that we can say with our dear Savior, I delight to do thy will. Oh my God, we pray in the worthy name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest. Amen.