Welcome to Walking with Jesus. This is a devotional journey through books of the Bible from Forest Hill Presbyterian Church. I'm Pastor Jason Van Bemmel. Well, we are continuing in the book of Hebrews. This is day 26 of our devotional journey through Hebrews, and we are in chapter eight, which discusses the new covenant. And today we're gonna be looking at verses six to 13, and we're gonna be considering this question, what made the old covenant obsolete? So our scripture reading for today is Hebrews chapter 8 verses 6 to 13. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts and I shall be their God and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest for I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more. In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete, and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. That's Hebrews chapter 8 verses 6 to 13 in the English Standard Version. Well, a couple years ago I was driving down the road in my 1999 Chrysler LHS when all of a sudden the right outer tie rod end failed and came apart. It was a catastrophic failure. I could no longer steer my right wheel. So when I had the car towed to the repair shop, they told me that the whole front drive train assembly would require around $2,000 in repairs. That was the end of my car. It was now obsolete and it got towed away to the junkyard. The author of Hebrews says something really radical in chapter 8, right at the end. Hebrews was written before the year 70 AD, which means the temple in Jerusalem was still standing. It was the pride and joy of all Jewish people. The sacrificial system that was carried on in the temple by the Levitical priests had been the center of the Jewish people's worship for hundreds of years. The second temple, which had been greatly expanded by King Herod, was actually built by Ezra and the returning Israelites after the Babylonian exile over 500 years prior to the writing of Hebrews. But the first temple, built by Solomon, was built over a thousand years prior and the Levitical system of worship with its offerings and sacrifices and priests and dietary laws, that was put into place 1,500 years before the writing of Hebrews, and yet the author of Hebrews says that this worship is obsolete and ready to pass away. Think about that. A system of worship given in detail by God Himself and established for 1,500 years was now declared obsolete, growing old, ready to disappear forever. How? Why? First of all, let's take a minute to realize how amazingly accurate the letter to the Hebrews is. That temple was, in fact, destroyed probably within 10 years of the writing of this letter. Once destroyed, it was never rebuilt. Here we are 2,000 years later, and that temple has never been rebuilt. Why? Was it because the Romans destroyed it? Ultimately, no. The Romans were just the instrument in God's hand for judgment. God judged His people because they rejected their Messiah, but, careful here, He removed the temple because it was obsolete. If it wasn't obsolete, He would have seen to it that it got rebuilt like it did when it was torn down in 586 and then rebuilt about 70-80 years later. So what made it obsolete? Was it because it didn't work? No, not really, because it never worked in the sense that some people thought it did and should work. You see, the temple sacrifices never cleansed the people of sin. This will be made even more clear when we get to chapter 10, but it's important to know that the temple did not become obsolete because the sacrifices stopped working. They were never designed to save anyone. They were always designed to point to a deep need and to a redemption beyond themselves. So why did the temple become obsolete? Because what the temple pictured had become a reality. What the temple promised had been fulfilled. The greater redemption had been won and the people of God had been set free from sin and guilt forever by the once-for-all sacrifice of Jesus. Jesus' death on the cross made the temple obsolete, which is why the veil in the temple was torn in two when Jesus died. It was not only pointless, but disobedient for God's people to hold on to the old forms of worship when they had been fulfilled. Jesus brought full redemption to God's people at the cost of his life. Forgiven and freed, God's people no longer need the shed blood of animals and the regulations that accompanied the old covenant system. That's what made the covenant law of Moses obsolete. full and perfect redemption purchased by Jesus Christ.