243. The First And The Second.

He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. - Hebrews 10:9.

THE way of God is to go from good to better.

This excites growing wonder and gratitude.

This makes men desire, and pray, and believe, and expect. This aids man in his capacity to receive the best things. The first good thing is removed, that the second may the more fitly come. Upon this last fact we will meditate, noticing:

I. THE GRAND INSTANCE. First came the Jewish sacrifices, and then came Jesus to do the will of God.

1. The removal of instructive and consoling ordinances.

While they lasted they were of great value, and they were removed because, when Jesus came:

· They were needless as types.

· They would have proved burdensome as services.

· They might have been dangerous as temptations to formalism.

· They would have taken off the mind from the substance which they had formerly shadowed forth.

2. The establishment of the real, perfect, everlasting atonement.

This is a blessed advance, for:

· No one who sees Jesus regrets Aaron.

· No one who knows the simplicity of the gospel wishes to be brought under the perplexities of the ceremonial law.

· No one who feels the liberty of Zion desires to return to the bondage of Sinai.

Beware of setting up any other ordinances; for this would be to build again what God has cast down; if not to do even worse.

Beware of imagining that the second can fail as the first did. The one was "taken away"; but the other is established by God himself.

II. INSTANCES IN HISTORY. These are many. Here are a few:

1. The earthly paradise has been taken away by sin; but the Lord has given us salvation in Christ, and heaven.

2. The first man has failed; behold the Second Adam.

3. The first covenant is broken, and the second gloriously takes its place.

4. The first temple, with its transient glories, has melted away; but the second and spiritual house rises beneath the eye and hand of the Great Architect.

III. INSTANCES IN EXPERIENCE.

1. Our first righteousness is taken away by conviction of sin, but the righteousness of Christ is established.

2. Our first peace has been blown down as a tottering fence, but we shelter in the Rock of Ages.

3. Our first strength has proved worse than weakness, but the Lord is our strength and our song; he also has become our salvation.

4. Our first guidance led us into darkness; now we give up self, superstition, and philosophy, and trust in the Spirit of our God.

5. Our first joy died out like thorns which crackle under a pot; but now we joy in God.

IV. INSTANCES TO BE EXPECTED.

1. Our body decaying shall be renewed in the image of our risen Lord.

2. Our earth passing away, and its elements being dissolved, there shall be new heavens and a new earth.

3. Our family removed one by one, we shall be charmed by the grand reunion in the Father's house above.

4. Our all being taken away, we find more than all in God.

5. Our life ebbing out, the eternal life comes rolling up in a full tide of glory. Let us not grieve at the taking away of the first. Let us expect the establishment of the second.