A New Covenant By Paris Reidhead*
owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to My people, My chosen. This people have I formed for Myself;
with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense. Thou hast bought Me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled Me with the fat of thy sacrifices: but thou hast made Me to serve with thy sins, thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. I, even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine Own Sake, and will not remember thy sins. Put Me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified. Thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against Me. Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches.”
Jeremiah 31, beginning with the 31st verse. In Isaiah 43, God declares He will do a new thing. In Jeremiah 31, it is declared that God will make a New Covenant. And since you will be seeing this New Covenant later in the Book of Hebrews, I want you to note carefully the reading at this time. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying Know the LORD: for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jer. 31:31-34) May the Lord bless to our hearts this, His Word.
A familiar portion, but one that is apropos to that which we have just read in Jeremiah. So will you turn to Ephesians, the first Chapter, while I read, beginning with the 15th verse. Remember Jeremiah said
things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head over all things to the church, which is His Body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.”
Now to Ephesians 3, verses 14-19 for a few verses: (His Body, the fullness of Him that filleth) verse 14. “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened
In preparation for the Message, there are two Scriptures that I would have you see, in the Old Testament. Isaiah 43: Verse 18
to 21 and Jeremiah 31: verses 31 through 34. So will you turn, please to Isaiah 43: 18 through 21, a familiar portion to this
Congregation. Perhaps it would be better if I read in addition to the Isaiah portion that balance of that chapter: “Remember ye
not the former things, neither consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not
know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field shall honor me, the dragons
and the
they shall shew forth My praise. But thou hast not called upon Me. O Jacob; but thou hast
been weary of Me, O Israel. Thou hast not brought Me the small cattle of thy burnt-offerings; neither hast thou honored Me
, that I will make a new Covenant, and I will
dwell in them, and I will walk in them: “Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the
saints, Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father
of Glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: The eyes of your understanding being
enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.
And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power,
Which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, Far
above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in
that which is to come: And hath put all
with might by His Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in
your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the
breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled
with all the fullness of God.” Relate this to Jeremiah who said, I will write My law upon their hearts and I will dwell in them and
walk in them. May God bless this Word to us.
Will you turn, please, to Hebrews, the 1st Chapter. Inasmuch as this if Reformation Sunday, I would like to preface our
consideration of Hebrews by reminding us that the contest between Luther1 and Rome was this: Rome said, “The truth is
where the Church is.” Luther said, “The Church is where the truth is.” Now this summarizes it, and this puts it into focus. Rome
said, “We are the custodians of the truth, and what we say is true is true. And it is true, because the Church has approved it as
being true.” Luther said, “You are judged by the truth. You do not judge it. And you are true only where you are in accord with
the Word, and the Church is only the Church where it is in accord with the Word.” Now we are grateful for everything that God
gave through Martin Luther, for all the privileges we have today; the democracy, the freedom we have today has its basic roots
in this revolt. For it was not only the Church is where the truth is, but also the individual has the right to determine what that
truth is as he reads the Word, and as he studies it, and he has with the right of determining what is true the obligation to walk
in that truth. We are grateful also for the heritage of truth that was given to us by Dr. Luther. For he it was that, rescued from
oblivion and under the rubbish of centuries of Roman domination, the truth of justification by faith...That we are justified from
all our past sins by the finished work of Jesus Christ, not by penances, not by vain ceremonial observances, not by useless
sacrifices, but by faith in the finished work of Christ, that in an instant a man is justified from all that he has done. This is Bible
truth, and it is part of our heritage today.
But remember, the Reformation was not completed with Martin Luther. We are indebted also to John Calvin, for in a different
area, a different country, a different situation, Calvin is one of the heirs of and participants in the Reformation gave to us the
truth that God is Sovereign. In His Sovereignty He reigns, by His Word He reveals His Character, and indicates His sovereign
Will, and that the true privilege of the Christian is to bow to the Sovereignty of God, and to submit to the rule of God in his life,
and that this bowing to God’s Sovereignty, and this submission to His Rule is the ground and the condition of Justification by
Faith. And we need remember that. For Salvation was intended to be not a humanistic provision for our need, as much as a
Divine provision whereby man can come back in right relationship with God.
But the Reformation was not complete with Luther and Calvin, for each of these men was seeking to rescue some neglected
truth from the ashes of meaningless ceremonialism, and God raised up John Wesley2. I consider him one of the foremost, for
his place in the Reformation was to add another truth to those two that we have mentioned. For he had no contest with
justification by faith, nor did he contest either with the sovereignty of God in the life of the individual. This is what he said, “It
must be genuine. It is not just a theory. And that when you have actually submitted yourself to the Lordship of Christ and
consented to the sovereignty of God, and repented of your sin, and he it is who equated repentance with the renunciation of
your own policy of being God in your life, and actually gave to the Church the testimony that to believe on Jesus Christ is to
submit to His Sovereignty; to confess with the mouth Jesus to be Lord is the condition for being saved.”
John Wesley then said, “These things are not just doctrines, they are not just theories; they must be actual experiences of the
individual heart, and when you have actually submitted to the sovereignty of Christ, actually repented of your sin (and the two
are somewhat similar and synonymous), when you have savingly believed on Jesus Christ, then you are born of the Spirit. And
the way you find out you are a Christian, is not by inferring that you are a Christian because of what you have done. But by
experiencing the power of Christ, and the Life of Christ imparted to you by a supernatural work of God called regeneration, or
the New Birth.” Wesley it was that said in this building together of truth, that the day-or the moment actually--that you are
justified in Heaven you are regenerated in your heart. And you know you are regenerated because you have the witness of the
Spirit, and that only he that has the witness of the Spirit dare claim that he has been saved, born of God. He defined the
witness of the Spirit as an inner certainty or knowledge which did not depend upon outward evidence or proof. It was
something that you knew inwardly because God who is Spirit had joined Himself to your Spirit. And in the joining, you had
partaken of God’s Life and were aware of that Life. This is the reason the Anglican Church closed their doors to him, because
what he said made most of the people of that day to recognize that in his terms and definition, they had not been saved. And,
therefore, there was a great conflict.
1 Martin Luther (1483-1546) German monk, former Catholic priest, who wrote the Ninety-Five Theses.
2 John Wesley (1703-1791) Anglican cleric, Christian theologian, and founding the Methodist movement.
But he it was also who added to this Reformation heritage by saying, that God not only wants to come in conscious presence to
tell you that you are forgiven, but He wants you to present your life to Him, and to be filled with the Spirit. And that this is not
optional, but that this is mandatory. It is commanded of God. God says that this you must do, that you must be filled with the
Spirit.
Since that time, we have gone on generation by generation, ignoring part of our heritage, accepting part. We have crystalized
around these men. We find those who bear the name of Luther, and are Lutheran. We find those that bear the name of Calvin,
and are Calvinist. We find those that bear the name of Wesley, and are Wesleyan. And we are today the heirs of all that these
men gave. But the principle that I wish to make clear this morning is this: That we are not responsible simply to what we
received from these men. Our responsibility is to the Word of God, and to the revelation of the Word. And I am not at all sure
that Luther knew and saw everything that God wants you to see today. I think that you have the right of seeing all that he saw,
plus all that the others have been shown by God. I do not believe that Calvin knew all that God wanted him to know, though I
am deeply indebted to him, and find that a right understanding of what he said what God’s Word says makes the two friends
indeed. But I do not feel that Calvin saw all that God wanted us to see, and that it pays for us to identify ourselves in any
restricted sense with one of these men.
I have the entire works of Wesley and read them avidly with great pleasure and profit, and find no real conflict incidentally
between Wesley and Calvin. I am sure if they were here (they lived a hundred years apart), if they were together, they could
have sat in the same room, and shared a cup of tea and rejoiced happily in the things of the Lord, because they knew the Lord.
Now that is more than some of their professed followers can do, but I find that these two would have gotten along beautifully.
And so I get great profit and delight out of reading Wesley and fellowshipping with him. Not because I am trying to straddle the
fence. Someone has said the posture of a preacher in the present day is to be astride the fence, with ear to the ground, his
shoulder to the wheel, and his nose to the grindstone and it is awfully difficult to maintain very long.
Well I am not in that position nor posture, nor do I - that the reason for it. I simply feel that each of these men saw some great
area of truth, and they have given it to me as part of my heritage, and it is not my responsibility to be loyal to anyone of them,
but to profit from all of them, and take from them what contribution they have made to a fuller, richer understanding of the
revelation of God to our hearts.
Now, all this is to point out that God has a plan. Whether Luther saw it, or Calvin, or Wesley, to the degree to which we are to
see it today, I do not know and have no interest in proving. But I am simply saying that unless you have this, you have missed
the grand purpose of the Reformation and the grand purpose of God for your life. I read it to you in that portion that I call the
definition of the normal Christian, in Ephesians 3:14-21. “That Christ may dwell in your heart by faith.”
During the Convention we had the repetition to us over and over again by the varied speakers that when God left Heaven, His
destination was not the stable in Bethlehem. When He left Heaven, His destination was not the home in Nazareth, nor was it
the Temple in Jerusalem, nor was it the Cross on the Hill, nor was it the Tomb at the foot of the Hill, nor even was the
destination the Throne at the Right Hand of God. When Jesus Christ left Heaven, the destination was your heart. His purpose
was to come to you and live in you, that He wanted to get a nation, a holy nation. He wanted to get a peculiar people, a royal
priesthood. He wanted to get a witness, someone who would show forth His praise. He tried it once by living in a tent in the
midst of a company of people who were a nation by virtue of their being born of the flesh, born of blood, born of man. And it
failed. And so He said, I am going to do a new thing, and this time I am going to get a people, and they will be a nation all right.
But they will be supernaturally born. The only way they can get into that nation is to individually partake of my nature in the
miracle of the New Birth. They will have to be born of God to get in. And this became then the criteria for the new thing, and
the definition of the new thing.
But you see, we have had an idea that God’s purpose was birth; that we could be born again, and then we could become
optional regarding all the rest that Jesus Christ provided. We have had an idea, and it has been emphasized more in the last
hundred years more than in any time previously, due to the influence of the philosophy of Humanism. We have had an idea
that all that God did was basically man centered, that God loved the World, and His concern for you, and His concern for me
moved Him to send His Son so we would not suffer. Now this is true. But this is only a peripheral portion of the truth. It was
not simply that we should be saved from Hell, but that we should be kept from perishing.
And this word perish is just more than just being saved from Hell. To perish means, to fail of its intended purpose. And God
made you for Himself. You were made to be the vehicle of God, and the Temple of God. Sin ruined all this. Now in Grace, God’s
purpose is to remake you in His Image, and to fulfill what He intended when He made man in the first place.
Therefore, with the emphasis on Humanism, and the benefits that the individual gets out of Christ, there has been a tendency
to ignore what God had in mind for those whom He saved, and what God’s purpose was in saving them; to get a witness for
Himself, to get a people that would show forth His praise. Now you do not show forth God’s praise by being born of God. You
show forth God’s praise by repenting, but not by being born of God. You do not show forth God’s praise by being born of God,
any more than Israel showed forth God’s praise when they were in the Wilderness. They were God’s people. God had brought
them across the Red Sea, which speaks of repentance and faith. But they were a murmuring people, whining and whimpering.
They were a stubborn and rebellious people. They were a proud and an arrogant people. They were a people that lusted after
Egypt more than they did after Canaan. They were a fear filled people. And I defer anyone to go into the record of Israel in the
Wilderness for those forty years, and try and establish that God is glorified, and God is praised by the people that were there,
that were under the sentence of death, and God had to make the rest wander around until they were gone.
And I do not believe that you or I glorify God by our being born again, any more than Israel glorified God in the Wilderness.
There was only forty days necessary from their going from the Red Sea to Canaan, if they had followed God. They would have
been there in forty days. But they rebelled. They became stubborn. And they refused to enter into His rest. And the
consequence of that was that God had to wait for one generation to die, to raise up another, that He could get a people that
would go across the river and into the Land, so that God could get the glory that He deserved. And it was only when they went
through the Jordan River, and up on the Bank, and came to this place that they were that God had intended them to be, that
they began to show forth His praise in the manner that God had purposed.
And I will reason from that, that we are certainly going to be grateful for everyone that is born again, everyone that is passed
from death to Life, but I am going to maintain as stoutly as I know how with every kind of phrase and expression that I can use
in due course, that until we come to the place that Ephesians 3:14-21 is normal to us we are a spiritual liability to God, rather
than a spiritual asset. Because everything that God has purposed for the Church, and everything that God has determined to
do to get glory to Himself is postulated on being filled with the fullness of God. And I maintain that this is the normal Christian
life, and that none of us dare stop short of that.
Now in order to enforce this, I have asked you to turn to Hebrews, and presumably your Bible is open there. And I am going to
now try to prove to you from reading through the Book of Hebrews, briefly and selected portions, that there is no option in the
matter of being filled with the Spirit. There is no option permitted by God to the matter of being filled with the fullness of God;
that this is not an optional matter, but that if anyone claims to be saved who refuses to go on, he evidences a basic
stubbornness in his heart with which God cannot deal.
Now will you watch while I read and I begin with the first verse of Hebrews. (And if I were you I would make a note of these,
either on the page or in some other page.) The theme of Hebrews is given to us in the first two verses: “God, who at sundry
times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by His
Son,” (Heb. 1:1,2) (whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by Whom also He made the worlds) Now bear that in mind. This
is the Theme. God has spoken by His Son. What He has said by prophets, He has now said by His Son. What did His Son say?
“Out of your innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” (John 7:38) What did He say? “Abide in Me, and I in You.” (John
15:4) “Without Me, ye can do nothing. He that abideth in Me, and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit. If a branch
abide not in Me, he is cast forth and burned.” (John 15:5,6) This is what Christ said.
In His High Priestly prayer He said, “That they all may be in union, in the same way Father Thou hast lived in Me, and I have
lived in Thee, I want to live in them, and I want them to live in Me, that the world will be able to believe.” (John 17:23) We
have selected just two or three out of innumerable Scriptures.
The Theme, therefore, is this, That what the prophets declared of old, God has finally said by His Son. And it is now the more
authoritative because He has spoken by His Son.
Now the first warning that you find in Hebrews is given in the 2nd Chapter, verses 1 to 4. And of course the remainder of
Chapter 1 is the setting forth of the excellence of the Son. Now notice what Paul (What the writer. I show my prejudice here.
We do not know that it was Paul. I think perhaps it was.) Notice what we have in this first verse of the 2nd Chapter.
“Therefore.” What is this therefore referring to? God has spoken to us by His Son; therefore we ought to give the more earnest
heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was
steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; How shall we escape is we neglect
so great salvation; (which has been spoken to us by His Son). This is not to the unsaved. For years I have known that Hebrews
2:3 did not refer to the unsaved. It refers to Christians, professedly. How shall we escape, If we neglect so great salvation. Well,
what is this great salvation? It is given to us in epitomized form in Galatians 2:20. “I am crucified with Christ. Christ liveth in
me.” “How are we going to escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord.”(Heb.
2:3) He started it, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him. God also bearing them witness both with signs and
wonders and divers miracles, and the gifts of the Holy Ghost according to His own Will. For He said, You have the Son saying it,
but then you have the demonstration of this in the early Church. How are we going to escape if we neglect something that God
was willing to seal to this degree.
Now the second warning is given in Hebrews Chapter 3, verses 7-19. The second warning: “Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith,
To day if ye will hear His voice, Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When
your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years. Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said,
They do always err in their heart; and they have not known my ways. So I sware in My wrath, They shall not enter into My
rest.) Take heed, brethren.... (How shall we escape?) Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief,
in departing from the.... (Words spoken by the Son. The Word of the living God.) But exhort one another (May I stop here to
remind you that John Wesley was used of God to start the Class Meeting. I do not know much about them, but I am sure they
are needed. The Class Meeting I understand was a group of people who gathered together for the purpose of meeting and
encouraging one another to go on into entire sanctification. To go on to the fullness of the Spirit. And they would meet
together. And the reader would ask pointed questions as to your state. How, what is your state? Questions that had been
formulated and were understood and agreed to by the group. And they would ask these questions. And the individual was
forced to answer those questions honestly and earnestly. And they were to lead on into this normal Christian life, filled with
the fullness of God.
“Exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we are
made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end; While it is said, To day if ye will
hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all
that came out of Egypt by Moses. But with whom was He grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose
carcases fell in the wilderness? And to whom sware He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not?
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”
Now the promised rest is described for us, or this relationship is described as a life of rest, in Chapter 4, verses 1-11. And
incidentally relative to this Scripture, is one of the most magnificent books on this subject that you could find...It is entitled,
The Saints’ Everlasting Rest, by a great Puritan, Richard Baxter, in which he teaches the same thing that Wesley taught, only in
different words. The Presbyterians call it, The Saints’ Everlasting Rest; and the Wesleyans call it, Entire Sanctification I do not
care what you call it, just so you go there. That is what I am interested in.
“Let us therefore fear, (Here it is) lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest...” (Heb. 4:1) What is the rest? Crucified
with Christ. We live, yet not I but Christ. This normal Christian life.
“For unto us was the good news preached, as well as unto them; but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed
with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, As I have sworn in My wrath, if they
shall enter into My rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He spake in a certain place of
the seventh day on this wise, And God did rest the seventh day from all His works. And in this place again, If they shall enter
into My rest. Seeing therefore it remaineth that some must enter therein, and they to whom it was first preached entered not
in because of unbelief: Again, He limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To day, after so long a time; as it is said, To day if ye
will hear His voice, harden not your hearts. For if Joshua had given them rest, then would he not afterward have spoken of
another day. There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into His rest, (Christ’s rest) he also
hath ceased from his own works, as God did from His.” (Heb. 4:2-10) Not I that work. Not I that live, said our Lord Jesus. “The
Father that dwelleth in Me. I am crucified with Christ,” said Paul. Christ liveth in me. This is resting from one’s own labor.
Notice verse 11: “Let us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.”
Are you filled with the fullness of God? Are you walking in the fullness of God? Have you experienced the fullness of God? This
is to you, if you are born again, and you have not come to that place. It is no longer a matter of option. It is a matter of God’s
sovereign purpose.
Now the exhortation to enter into this rest is given to us in Hebrews Chapter 6, verses
1-3: “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection;” (go on unto maturity). What is
maturity? Filled with the fullness of God. “Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward
God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this
will we do, if God permit.”
What is maturity? That they all may be wrought to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Christ living in you His
own Life.
Now we will notice the third warning. Hebrews Chapter 6, 4-12. “For it impossible for those who were once enlightened, (and
have learned that there is this life.) and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have
tasted the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to come, If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto
repentance; Seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. For the earth which
drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing
from God: But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned. But,
beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. -- Here we have
in these words the third warning. And I go down to the 12th verse: “Be not slothful. Take the more earnest heed. Be not
slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
Now the exposition of this is given to us in Hebrews Chapter 8. You turn to it. Verses 6 - 13. I cannot read the extensive
portions that I would have, 8: 6-13. I will simply read beginning with verse 8: “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, 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:
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