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So tonight I'm starting a series called the Old Testament vs. the New Testament. And tonight will be what you would call the covenant timeline. So I feel like I know that this is a subject that a lot of people don't understand. This is something that's not taught. It's not clearly taught as far as what was the Old Testament about. Why did they have the Old Testament before the New Testament? What was going on? Did it end? All these different things. So I want to get into that type of stuff and I don't believe I could do it in one sermon. So we're going to kind of be doing this every Sunday night to cover everything that we want to cover. And tonight I just want to plainly state what was going on before Moses, what was going on during Moses in the Old Testament, and then what's going on now. And what's the timeline of those things? When did they start? When did they stop? And so that's what I want to talk about first. And this chapter actually covers all three. Because a lot of people have a misconception that the Old Testament starts from Adam. Now we would say the Old Testament. When we say the Old Testament we would include Genesis in there. We talk about reading the Old Testament, the law and the prophets. Sometimes those things are used in a group. And I don't think there's anything wrong with saying that Genesis is in the Old Testament. But the Old Testament, the covenant, was not made until Moses. So the Old Testament actually didn't start until Moses. And so we're going to talk about what was going on before that. So there's three things. What was going on was what the Bible kind of calls here is the order of Melchizedek. Then you had the Old Testament and then you had the New Testament. And so I don't believe these things overlap at all. I believe there was the order of Melchizedek which was from Adam until he got to Moses. And then from Moses until he got to Jesus, and Jesus' death in particular, you had the Old Testament. And then from the New Testament we'll see it never ends. So that's what I want to show tonight. I want to prove that to you through the Bible. And so this chapter really encompasses all those things. We talk about Melchizedek meeting Abraham. Abraham was not in the Old Testament. The Old Testament didn't start until Moses. That was the First Testament. But first before I get into that, I just want to lay down the fact that we've talked about this before, but these Testaments and what's going on here, the order of Melchizedek, the Old Testament, New Testament, that's not how someone's saved. It's not a different way of salvation throughout these time periods. Salvation's always been by faith. And we've gone through that. If you go to Revelation chapter 14, I want you to just see this verse. Revelation chapter 14 and verse 6. So I just want to touch on this real quick because this isn't really the point of the sermon, but I want you to see when we talk about these timelines and all this stuff, this is outside of salvation. Salvation's always been the same. It always will be the same. Revelation 14 verse 6, it says, And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel, to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. So we have the everlasting gospel. I believe the gospel is from Genesis to Revelation. The gospel's the same from the Old Testament to New Testament and even before that, because Abraham obviously was out of the Old Testament. David was in the Old Testament. And then we're in the New Testament. But before you go to Romans 1, which you're going to be tired of hearing Romans 1, go to Hebrews 4. Go to Hebrews 4. Hebrews 4 and we're going to look at the first two verses there. Hebrews 4 and verse 1. It says, Therefore, for you lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. Now notice what it says in verse 2. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them. Who's the them? Those that were in the wilderness that died in the wilderness. If you go to chapter 3. For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them, but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. Do you know that the same gospel that was preached unto Paul? That was preached unto the people he's talking to right here? In the New Testament. This is the New Testament when they're writing this. He says the gospel was preached unto us as well as unto them. It's the same gospel. It's the everlasting gospel. It's the gospel from the foundation of the world. The lamb's slain from the foundation of the world. Christ has always been the savior. And that has always been the gospel. That he was going to die for us. From Genesis 3 when man fell, and he was going to be the seed that was going to come, that was going to bruise Satan's head. That's been the gospel from the very beginning. So, salvation. Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. David also spake of the blessedness of the man unto him. God impudeth righteousness without works. And so, if you want to look at those references, verse 15 is where Abraham believed God and it was imputed unto him for righteousness. And in Psalm 32 is where David, it's quoting David, it's saying David also spake of the blessedness of the man unto him God impudeth righteousness without works. And then it quotes Psalm 32 right after that. So, I'll read to you Psalm 32. If you want to turn to Psalm 32. So, Psalm 32, David's writing this as he's in the Old Testament. And Abraham was in the order of Melchizedek. Because he gave tithes to Melchizedek. David gave tithes to the Levi priests. And we in the New Testament give tithes to the local New Testament church. And that's a whole other sermon in itself as far as tithing. And we'll probably get into that as well. But eventually, eventually. But Psalm 32, notice what it says here. It says, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord impudeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit is no guile. Do you know that even in the Old Testament they had a perfect soul and spirit once they got saved? And they went to heaven just like everybody else. And so, just to nail that down, salvation's always been by faith. It's always been by grace. It's always been through Jesus Christ. It's always been through the Messiah. It's always been through Christ. And I can show you scores of verses where Moses counted the sufferings of Christ. You know, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. And that's Moses talking about the sufferings of Christ and all this stuff. And the riches of Christ. And so, the Christ was the rock in the wilderness. You know, there's all these verses where it talks about that. But that's not what I want to get into. Tonight I want to just talk about the timeline. And so, Melchizedek, I believe that Melchizedek, if you go back to Hebrews chapter 7, I believe Melchizedek is an Old Testament appearance of Christ. Notice what it says about him. First of all, his name means king of righteousness, king of peace. That's what the interpretation, it says, Melchizedek, for this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who made Abraham return from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being by interpretation king of righteousness, and after that also king of Salem, which is king of peace. So, what's Melchizedek mean? King of righteousness, king of peace. But, he's also the high priest of God. Now, one thing that you need to remember in the Old Testament is the fact that a priest cannot be king, and vice versa. Only Christ is that kingly priest. And we are the royal priesthood in the New Testament because we're the children of God. And so, you have that royal priesthood. But in the Old Testament, it wasn't like that. But this Melchizedek was a kingly priest. But also, notice what it says about him in verse 3. Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like unto the Son of God, abideth a priest continually. This guy didn't have a father. He didn't have a mother. He didn't have beginning of days or end of life. You know how that sounds like? God. So, it says he was made like unto the Son of God. Do you know that God talked and revealed himself to people in the Old Testament? To Abraham. Remember, before he destroyed Sodom, he met with them and there were two guys with him. Remember, three guys met him. Three men met him. And one of them was God. I believe that's an Old Testament appearance of Christ. And so, from Abel to Moses, I believe that there was this order of Melchizedek where there was this Old Testament appearance of Christ where he was the high priest to these sacrifices. They did these sacrifices from Abel on. If you go to Genesis 4, 4, you'll see Abel's sacrifice. And so, I don't want to belabor all these different things that all the people before Moses did sacrifices to the Lord. But they didn't have a Levitical priesthood. They didn't have all these ordinances and all this stuff that was going on in the Old Testament yet. And so, who were they doing it to? Who was the high priest? Melchizedek. And I believe he was... And one thing, he was made like unto the Son of God, but then you see when it talks about Jesus, it says he's made after the similitude of Melchizedek. See how they go back and forth? And it says that it's witness that he ever lived it. That's talking about Melchizedek. It never said that he died. So neither the beginning of days nor end of life. And Jesus Christ, instead of a carnal commandment like the Old Testament, he was made after the power of an endless life. He was made high priest after the power of an endless life. And so, not to get into Melchizedek, I don't want to really just teach on Melchizedek today because that's a whole sermon in itself talking about Melchizedek. But I want you to see that before the Old Testament started, they did sacrifices in Melchizedek, before the Old Testament, this appearance of Christ. And so, but just to see some offerings, Abel in Genesis 4, 4, it says, Abel, he also brought of the first slings of his flock and of the fat thereof, and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. Now Hebrews 11, 4 kind of gives you a little more information about that, but it says, Hebrews 11, 4, it says, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead, yet speaketh. So, we know by faith is how Abel was made righteous and that's why he being dead yet speaketh, but we know that he did sacrifices. So, in the Old Testament, the same as with Melchizedek, they would do these sacrifices to get a hold of God. They would build these altars and they would call upon the Lord and do these sacrifices to get a hold of God and also to get right with God. And so, but then in the Old Testament, when the Levitical priesthood was set up, it's the same thing, but it's under human high priests that have infirmities that die. And so, I don't want to stick in that too much, but Noah offered, it says in Genesis 8.20, it says, Noah built an altar unto the Lord and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Job's offering, you know, Job offered sacrifices to the Lord as well and I believe Job was before the Levitical priesthood and it says, and it was so in Job 1 and 5, when the days of their feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them and rose up early in the morning and offered burnt offerings according to the number of them all, for Job said, it may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts, thus did Job continually. Why was he doing it? For his sons, because they may have sinned and he wanted to get that right with God. And so, we see that in this order of Melchizedek, he was doing this and he gave tithes to him. He gave all the tithes of the spoils and so, he was the priesthood. He was the priesthood of Melchizedek and so, this whole chapter is basically saying, he wasn't made a priest after the order of Aaron. He was made after the order of Melchizedek and so, I believe that Melchizedek was basically before the Old Testament appearance of Christ and that's how he, you know, that man and God would reconcile between each other. And that's really what these testaments are about. If you really want to know what the testaments are about, it's about our walk with God, our communication with God and how we deal with sin here on this earth in the flesh. And so, in the New Testament, it's much better. We don't have to do sacrifices. We just come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may attain mercy and find grace to help in time and eat. And so, that's a lot easier. But, so we have that. I believe that ended when the Levitical priesthood started. Now, when did that start? So, there's debate on that and when it started. But go to Exodus 19. This is where it talks about that covenant. So, Exodus 19. So, we see, up until Exodus, what was going on. All of Genesis, what was going on with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? They weren't under the Levitical priesthood because Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob gave birth to the Levites. Right? This was their progenitor. So, obviously, they weren't there yet. And that's what it even says in there, is that Levi gave tithes to Melchizedek because he was yet in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him. So, a lot of people don't even know that. A lot of people just think the Old Testament started from Adam, but it doesn't start until Exodus. And go to Exodus 19 and verse 5. We won't go through the whole chapter here, but this is where God is making a covenant with the nation of Israel that he brought out of Egypt. And so, I just want you to know what this covenant is. And so, Exodus 19 verse 5 says, Now, therefore, if you will obey my voice and deed, now, underline the if, if you don't mind underlining something, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me, above all people, for all the earth is mine, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel. So, and I don't know if I mentioned this before, but covenant and testament are interchangeable terms. So, when we see New Covenant, New Testament, Old Covenant, Old Testament, it's the same thing. So, Covenant, Testament, same thing. So, we see here, that's the covenant he made with them. It's a conditional covenant based off them obeying his voice that they would be a holy nation, that they would be this peculiar people. We know in the New Testament that that nation was taken away. It says the kingdom of God is taken away from you and given forth to the nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. And so, we know, we haven't got to that yet, but the fact is that the New Testament, it's the same promise, but it's an unconditional promise instead of this conditional promise. But when did it start? I believe it started at the Passover. And so, we have the Passover in Exodus 12, and I'll prove to you why I believe it started at the Passover. And I believe when they killed the Passover lamb, that's when it started that Old Covenant, but I also believe that's when the New Testament started, when Christ, our Passover, was killed. And I'll prove to you that that's when that would start. And so, when did the Old Testament start? Well, Exodus 12, verse 11, it says, I just want you to see that this is where the Passover is happening. This is the night before they go out. They go out from Egypt. So, the Passover is killed, and literally, they're eating this Passover during the night, and that morning, they leave on the 15th. So, on the 14th, they kill the Passover. The 15th, they're on the road eating unleavened bread and all that. So, in Exodus 12, verse 11, it says, And thus shall ye eat it with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand, and you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. And then, in Hebrews 8, 8, and I know I'm kind of throwing you around here, Hebrews 8, 8, I want you to see why I believe this is when the Covenant was made. I believe it was made when this Passover was done, when they put the blood on the door lentils and door posts. That's when the Covenant started. Hebrews 8, 8, it says, For 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. So this has a lot in it, because this is talking about the new covenant as well, but in the day when he took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt is when he made that covenant with them. And so I believe that was the Passover. That's the Passover. The Passover feast starts from when you kill the Passover, and then seven days after that, you do the feast and eat unleavened bread. And it's also called the Days of Unleavened Bread. But that's when it started, is when they came out, and then they were baptized under the sea, the Red Sea, the parting of the Red Sea. So you could see the picture of being saved with the Passover and being baptized in the Red Sea, kind of like a believer in the New Testament gets saved, and then they get baptized, and then they go through the wilderness until they get to heaven. So there's a lot of pictures and symbology. So we're not going to get into all that stuff. I just really want to show you, okay, this is when it started. It started in Exodus 12. So everything before that was Melchizedek, the order of Melchizedek. And that's all we have in the Bible, so I'm not going to go too deep with that stuff. I believe that that's what was going on before that. Obviously, they were doing sacrifices. They were saved the same way. They were saved in the Old Testament, New Testament. But how did they get right with God? Who were they making sacrifices? Who was dealing with that? I believe Melchizedek was the one dealing with that. And so it was definitely different before the Old Testament. God would meet with Abraham in person, you know? And the thing to remember is that you say, well, you know, that doesn't make sense because Christ wasn't in... well, he wasn't in the flesh there with Melchizedek. He didn't have a father or mother. In Christ, it says that he was made of a woman made under the law. So when he came in the flesh, he was made of a woman. Melchizedek wasn't made of a woman. He had neither father nor mother, neither beginning of days nor end of life. The man Christ Jesus had a mother, and he had beginning of days in the flesh, God in the flesh. Now, God, him being the son of God, had no beginning because he's God from eternal past, eternal future. But I don't want to get too deep with that. But what we see with the Old Testament, it started at the Passover. It started the day when he took him out of the land of Egypt. And then when did it end? So go to Matthew, chapter 27. Matthew, chapter 27. So I know this is more like a Bible study tonight, but I think this is something that a lot of people struggle with or they don't really understand it. We're going to get into more so later on as far as what did it mean to do this stuff, like why did they do this? Did the Old Testament sacrifices take away sins? You know, Hebrews really covers all this. And so when you read through Hebrews, it really explains this stuff. But if you have the skeleton, if you have that skeleton of what's going on, salvation, just take that out of there. As far as salvation has always been by faith through grace, or by grace through faith, and that these covenants that were made were for believers to be a holy nation, be a peculiar people in how they get right with God, how they reconcile with God, how they talk to God. And as we go on, obviously the New Testament is the better testament. It's the best. When you look at the Old Testament and compare it to the New Testament, it's way better. Not because it was hard to get to heaven by doing your works. That's what people say and that's what people think. They say, well, it's better because it's by grace. No, it's always been by grace. But it's better because I don't have to go take a bull and go slit its throat in front of a priest and go to Jerusalem to do all this stuff. I can go straight to the high priest himself, Jesus Christ. So there's a lot of stuff that's better. We're not going to get into that tonight. I just want to get into the timeline. So we know the Old Testament started when the Passover happened the day that they brought them out of the land of Egypt. So Matthew chapter 27 and verse 51. So this is when Jesus is on the cross and this is when Jesus dies. And so in Matthew 27 verse 51, notice what it says here. We'll start in 50. It says, Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. So Jesus just died. And behold, the veil of the temple was rent and twain from the top to the bottom and the earth did quake and the rocks rent. So as soon as Jesus died, immediately when he gave up the ghost, that veil was rent from the top to the bottom. What's the veil? The veil was between the two tabernacles. There was the tabernacle, the holy place, and then there was the holiest of all. There was where the Ark of the Covenant was at and there was a veil between it. And it said the Holy Ghost is signifying that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest. And so when this veil was rent, that proved that the Old Testament was done. And I'll prove that even further. But this is where I believe the Old Testament stopped and where the New Testament started. This explains why Jesus told them to take a sacrifice to Moses. When he healed somebody, he says, go give your sacrifice to the priest as Moses commanded you when he was in his ministry because he was still in the Old Testament. It was not the New Testament until he died. So when you see them taking a gift to the altar or doing these different things and people try to use that to say, hey, we need to do all this stuff. We need to take this. We need to do these sacrifices. It's like, no, they were still in the Old Testament when he was in his ministry, in his life. Until he died, all those ordinances were still to be obeyed. All those sacrifices were still to be done. But as soon as he died, all that was done. And I'll prove to you that it doesn't overlap. And this is where people think that it overlaps and that the Old Testament went on until the temple was destroyed in 70 AD and there was this overlap of the Old Testament and New Testament. No, it ended right there. It ended right there as soon as he died and as soon as that veil was rent. Hebrews 8, 7. I just want you to see what the Bible teaches on this as far as the Old Testament, New Testament. Because in order for the New Testament to start, you have to get rid of the First Testament. You can't have two covenants simultaneously. And the Bible really talks about this. But in Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 7, Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 7. So you notice we're in Hebrews a lot. That's what Hebrews is generally written for. It's to show the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament, what was replaced, what wasn't, what was the why. Like the why and the how and the where and all that is mentioned in Hebrews. But Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 7, it says, For if the first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. So there's a reason why there's a second covenant. Go down to verse 13. And that he saith, a new covenant, he had made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. So a lot of people will use this and say, well, you know, it's ready to vanish away, but it's not completely gone. And that's where they hold on to, well, the Jews are still under the Old Testament today. It's ready to vanish away. I believe the vanishing away is having to do with they were still doing sacrifices, but you know what, they haven't been doing them since 70 AD. So now it's completely vanished away, like it was saying here. But notice what it says in Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 9. And then we'll go to 2 Corinthians and I'll put the nail in the coffin that the Old Testament has done. But Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 9, Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 9, it says, Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. In order to establish the Second Covenant, and we already saw that the first was called old, so what's the second called? The new. So we have the First Covenant, which is now called the Old Covenant, because we have the new one, which is the Second Covenant, and he says he taketh away the first, that he may establish the second. So in order to establish the second, and unless you don't think that the New Testament is established yet, then the Old Covenant could be still here, right? So obviously he taketh away the first, that he may establish the second, meaning that as soon as he died, that Old Covenant stopped, and that the New Testament was established. And so, yeah, so, it overlaps, so I have my notes kind of here, so I'm talking about the Old Testament. There's a point I was getting to, but it's in the new, when we're talking about the New Testament. So I know that the beginning and the ending, so the ending of the Old Testament is the same as the beginning of the New Testament, so we're going to get into that. I don't want to get ahead of myself. We're going to put the nail in the coffin that the Old Testament is done, and it was done in Paul's day, not when the temple was destroyed, but before that, even in Paul's day, the Old Testament was done. Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. 2 Corinthians chapter 3, and go down to verse 6. And just to get some context, I want you to know what's being talked about here. We're going to start in verse 6 there. It says in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 in verse 6, Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory? For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth. So he's just basically talking about how the New Testament's a lot better. Right? If this was glorious, this is even more glorious. Notice verse 11. For if that which is done away, underline is. That's present tense, my friends. For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech, and not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. So it's not only it's done away, it is abolished. But their minds were blinded, for until this day remaineth the same veil untaken, away in the reading of the Old Testament, which veil is done away in Christ. Nail in the coffin. The Old Testament is done, it was done, in Paul's day. When he's writing this epistle, he's saying the Old Testament is abolished. It is done away. Because it ended the moment that veil rent. It was done. He was done with that Old Testament. And this goes straight into, how did the New Testament start? When did the New Testament start? And so, first I just want to read to you the promise of the New Testament. So Jeremiah 31 is where we see the promise of the New Testament that's to come. And we've already read in Hebrews where it's quoting that. But I just want you to see, first of all, who was the New Testament for? This is something, this is where they say, well, the Old Testament is for the Jews, it's for the Israel, the New Testament is for the Gentiles. Let's see if that's what the Bible says. Jeremiah 31, 31. And you'll find this same thing written in Hebrews 8 and in Hebrews 10, it repeats it as well. Jeremiah 31, 31. Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Who's he making a new covenant with? The house of Israel and the house of Judah. So that covenant was to them, and it was actually for all people and all nations, this new covenant was to encompass everybody. But for them to say that the new covenant was not to Israel is ridiculous. So it replaced it. It replaced the Old Testament with the New Testament, which was to Israel and to the house of Judah and to all nations that would believe. 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 Egypt, out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they break, although I wasn't husband unto them, saith the Lord. So we see that, and you can read on, and that's quoted in Hebrews 8 as well. That's the New Testament. That's the new covenant that was promised, and it obviously came, and Jesus is the one that established that covenant. When did it start? Well, I believe just like the Old Testament, the Old Testament started with the Passover lamb that was in Egypt. And I'll just prove to you, and you don't have to turn there, but in 1 Corinthians 5, 7, it says, Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. So Christ is called the Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. He's our Passover. He's the Lamb without blemish. In 1 Peter, it talks about the Lamb without blemish and without spot, and by His blood, that's how we're saved. But it's His blood that established the New Testament. The Old Testament was not established without blood, and I don't want to get too far into the details of it, but the Old Testament was established with blood as well, and it was dedicated with blood, and the same thing with the New Testament. But instead of the blood of animals and the bulls and goats and all that, it was with the precious blood of Christ. And so in Hebrews chapter 9, go to Hebrews chapter 9, and I believe this is really where, you know, we really see this is when the covenant starts, and this is what establishes a covenant or a testament. And also, there's a lot of stuff in here. I mean, the fact that He died for all the sins of the Old Testament. Everybody that ever lived, ever did live, ever would live, He is the Savior of them all. And so in Hebrews 9 verse 15, it says, And for this cause He is the mediator of the New Testament, 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. Notice verse 16 and 17. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator, for a testament is of force after men are dead, otherwise it is of no strength at all, while the testator liveth. So as soon as he dies, that's when the testament, and you can think of this as the last will and testament of somebody. That testament doesn't mean anything until you die. So you can make all these testaments and say who you're going to give all your stuff to, but it's not until you die that that actually has force and power. And so Christ died, that's when the testament was in force, and He didn't stay dead, obviously. He said, Behold, I am He that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, Amen, and have the keys of hell and of death. So we know that Christ still ever liveth, He's the high priest that ever liveth, and so we see that that testament started in His death when He shed His blood on the cross. And notice Matthew 26, 28. I know we're going all over the place here, but I just want you to see these different aspects of the fact of His testament starting with that. And Matthew 26 and verse 28, it says, For this is My blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. So His blood is the New Testament. The New Testament in His blood and His death, that's what established the New Testament. If you remember, He shed His blood on the cross, and it says, By His stripes we are healed. But also after He died and rose again, you remember Mary wanted to touch Him, and He said, Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended, because He went into the whole, He went into the tabernacle, into the temple, not made with hands. And He was sprinkling that blood upon the mercy seat that's actually in heaven, which the high priest would do every year in the tabernacle made by hands. So we see that that was established. The New Testament was established by blood, and it was established by His death. And so when He died on the cross, that veil was rent, and that marked the end of the Old Testament, and that marked the start of the New. It was simultaneous. Now why people usually try to say, you know, they overlap, because what they say is, Well, what about people that still believe, like in the Old Testament, but they don't believe in the New Testament? And therefore, there needs to be this time period of where they all hear of Jesus. Therefore, they can get saved or hear of them and switch over to the New Testament. Now, the foolishness of that is the fact that people are saved differently. That's where that comes from. But do you know, Nathaniel was saved before, you know, they were still in the Old Testament, obviously, but he was saved before he knew who Jesus was, before he knew that he was the Messiah. But as soon as he heard his voice, he says, Thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel. As soon as he heard the shepherd's voice, because my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. So there was people that were saved before they even heard him. Apollos was that way. Remember, Apollos only knew that Jesus was supposed to come, and then Priscilla and Aquila had to instruct them more perfectly and say, Hey, you know who John the Baptist was talking about, the Son of God that was supposed to come? That's Jesus. And he's like, Okay, now I'm going to go preach that Jesus is the Christ. And so it's just a light bulb. It's just a revealing. And it's not that he got saved. He was already saved. It's just that a saved person, have you ever gone out soul winning and you ask someone a question, and then you, and this happens a lot, too. I'll ask them if they can lose their salvation, and they're like, No, you can't lose your salvation. It's by faith alone. And then you'll say, Well, what if you stop, you know, what if someone like was faithless or whatever, and you bring this like extreme example up there or something like that, or they just get tripped up on something, right? They're like, Well, you know, I've been struggling with that. I always thought it was, you can't lose it. And then as soon as you show them reverse, they're like, Yeah, that makes perfect sense. You know, they were already saved. And it's just the fact that sometimes things need to be revealed to them. They didn't understand something. And so the same thing with this Old Testament, New Testament, it's just a false argument because the fact that they believe that people were saved differently in the Old Testament or they believed in something different. They believe the same thing that we believe. We believe that Christ took away our sins and that we're putting our trust only in Him for salvation. Did they understand that He was going to be named Jesus in the Old Testament? No, that wasn't revealed until later. Did they understand all the ins and outs of how it was going to be done? No, but they understood that it was forever. They were fully persuaded that what He had promised He was able also to perform, which is eternal life. And so that is something that's always been there. And when they would hear, I believe the people that, let's say they didn't hear of Jesus until after He died and rose again from the dead, as soon as they heard it, they would have believed it, just like Nathaniel. As soon as he heard that shepherd's voice, it'd be instant, yep, that's right, that's who it is. And there would be no doubt. And so that's what I believe about that transition period. But that's why they usually try to hold to that and say, okay, as soon as that temple was destroyed, if you were saved in the Old Testament, you're going to hell. That's what they believe. That's what they believe, is that if someone was saved in the Old Testament, then if they didn't put their faith on Christ, or after that temple fell, or after they destroyed Jerusalem, and they didn't switch over to Jesus, then they were saved, but now they're not. That's losing your salvation. So that's not eternal life. And it's just a foolish thing, because it has to do with the misconception that they're believing something different, or there's some other way that it was different in the Old Testament than the New Testament. You know, they had eternal life in the Old Testament, too. And it just comes down to the notion that they wouldn't put their faith in Christ. They put this hypothetical, well, what if they don't? Well, it wouldn't happen. That's what would happen. They would not reject them. If they were saved, they would accept them. It's plain and simple. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And just like Nathanael did, he was already saved. It says, Behold an Israelite in whom is no guile. What's he saying? There's a saved man right there. And as soon as he said that to him, and he basically said he was Nathanael, and he said, Whence nowest thou me? And he said, Before Philip called thee, I saw thee. And he said, Thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel. And Jesus was even like, Believeest thou me, because I said I saw thee under the fig tree? You're going to see a lot greater things than these. And so it was just like, You saw me under the fig tree. You're the Son of God. It's like, that's all it took? Is that you saw me under a fig tree? He just heard a shepherd's voice. And so you want to know what the transition is? That's the transition. He hears that shepherd's voice. As soon as someone would give him the word of God on Christ, they would be automatically, just like Apollos, just like Nathanael. And so that is based off a false premise that people were saved differently in the Old Testament than the New Testament. But the Old Testament stopped immediately when Christ died, and the New Testament started immediately when Christ died, so simultaneously. Now the question is, when does it end? So when does the New Testament end? Now this is where you get into dispensationalism, because a lot of people, they have all these different dispensations, and you get into all this stuff. The New Testament doesn't end. Go to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. When you have God as the high priest, and the God who's establishing a covenant himself, that's when you know that it's eternal. And so Hebrews chapter 13 verse 20. Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. So we see it's the blood of the everlasting covenant. Now last time I checked, everlasting doesn't end. And so we have an everlasting covenant in the New Testament. Why? Because the high priest will never die. And that's why, you know, they talk about the high priest. They suffered these priests that would die. They had infirmities, and they'd have to bring another priest in. They had to bring another priest. Did he ever live it to make intercession for us? And just to prove that, I'm going to show you all the places where it talks about how he's a priest forever. So you have an everlasting covenant, and you have a priest that is a priest forever. So Hebrews chapter 5 verse 6. So I got these in order, so if you want to follow along with me. Hebrews chapter 5. So we're going to see here that he's the high priest forever, and he has an unchangeable priesthood. Unchangeable priesthood. Hebrews chapter 5 verse 6. As he saith also in another psalm, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6.20. Hebrews 6.20. Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus made an high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 7.17. For he testifieth, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And then go down a little bit in Hebrews 7.20. And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest, for those priests were made without an oath, but this with an oath by him that said unto him, The Lord swear and will not repent, thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament, and they truly were many priests because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death, but this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. So when does the New Testament end? It doesn't. Just as much as God doesn't end. Just as much as God is forever. Jesus Christ ever liveth to make intercession for us, he has an unchangeable priesthood, and we have the high priest, he's a high priest forever. So this is the timeline. I know we kind of had like a short sermon today, but this is the timeline. I want to get into a lot of different aspects of the Old Testament and New Testament, but this is the skeleton. We have two covenants, the Old Testament and the New Testament, the First and Second Covenant. One was a conditional covenant based on them obeying their voice to be this holy nation. The New Covenant was an everlasting covenant, and it's based off conditions that Jesus is never going to die. So obviously the condition is the fact that Jesus is going to ever live, he's ever making intercession, his blood is better than anything else, better than any bull or goat or anything like that. And so, and then before the Old and New Testament, we had what we would call the Order of Melchizedek. Basically before that law was given, before all this started with the law, we had this Order of Melchizedek where they would do sacrifice to get right with God, and I believe basically before the Old Testament there was an appearance of Christ as Melchizedek that was this priest between man and God, the mediator between man and God. But the New Testament, he's actually the man Christ Jesus because he was born of a woman, he was made under the law, and he is the propitiation for our sins. He's that faithful high priest to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. And he could only do that by becoming one of us. So there's a difference between Melchizedek and Jesus obviously in the fact that when God would appear to Abraham, he wasn't God in the flesh. Does that make sense? Because angels would appear to people and they weren't angels in the flesh, right? They just looked like people. And so there's a lot to get into. When you look at the Old Testament, New Testament, what do you think of? You think of the law and you think of grace. And this will be just a little segue into what we're going to talk about next week, but just a little food for thought. Go to John chapter 1. John chapter 1. Because I want you to understand what's going on with the Old Testament, New Testament, why the Bible uses the term an allegory in Galatians when we talk about picturing things. An allegory is just two things that would picture something else, right? So Hagar and Sarah was an allegory of the two covenants, right? You had the covenant of the flesh and then you have the covenant of the promise, right? And so that's an allegory. And I believe that's the Old New Testament is an allegory of the law and grace. It's not that people were saved by the law, but it represents the law. And it shows that they couldn't do it. They failed. Because of their fault, he found fault with them, that's why he's making a new covenant. And he already knew that was going to happen, but it's an allegory to show just as much as he gave the law knowing that we couldn't keep it, it's a schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. But in John, 1 John, verse 17. John 1, I'm sorry, John 1. You guys are in John 1, right? So, the cold's coming to me now. I don't know, I can't blame that. Can't blame it on being sick. John chapter 1, verse 17, it says, For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Can you see the allegory? Moses represents the law. Jesus represents grace. The Old Testament represents the law. The New Testament represents grace. It's an allegory, and it was used to see that if you just step back to the big picture of the Old Testament, New Testament, trying to get there by the righteousness of the law, trying to get there by the righteousness of God. We talked about this in Romans 2. There's two ways in order to make it to heaven. Be perfect and never sin, and keep the whole law, which is impossible, or go the route of grace. The covenants in which these people lived in, no one was ever held as far as to the law to go to heaven, because no one could ever do that. But it represented that. And the New Testament represents grace, the Old Testament represents the law, but everybody was saved by grace through faith, and the law was always a schoolmaster. The law is still a schoolmaster today to the New Testament. It's still a schoolmaster to those that need to believe, so nothing's changed with that when it comes to salvation. And so we see that. We see that allegory going on with the Old and New Testament, and we're going to get into those type of details as far as what's been done away, what's it represents, all those different aspects. But just so you see, you have the order of Melchizedek, you have the Old Testament, then you have the New Testament that never ends. And so when you're reading through your Bible, you kind of understand that as far as when these things stop and start, and I don't believe they overlap. And so the Old Testament and New Testament do not overlap. If the Old Testament ended, the New Testament started immediately. And so I believe that's clear in the Bible. And we'll get on to more other aspects of the Old Testament, New Testament, and all that. And if anybody has any questions, if there's something you're like, well, what about this, you know, come to me, ask me about it, because sometimes I'm not always thinking about what everybody has issued, or what the stumbling block is when it comes to just confusion about it and all that. In Hebrews 9, it talks about the fact that the Old Testament sacrifices were for the purifying of the flesh. And so those sacrifices, we're going to get into all that type of stuff, that the Old Testament sacrifices never took away sins. And it was all just for the purifying of the flesh. In the New Testament, it says that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of all our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Forgive us from our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So there's a lot that goes into what's so much better about the New Testament. We can eat bacon, amen. That's not the best part, but that is up there. That is up there, right there, bacon. So, amen, we're in the New Testament. So hopefully all that makes sense with the covenant timelines. And so if you have any questions about that, come to me, ask me. But hopefully that clears up some dark areas when it's coming to understanding the Old Testament, New Testament, when it started, when it stopped. And we'll get into a lot more as we go on. And we'll just end with prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you today. And, Lord, just pray that you'd be with us throughout the rest of this upcoming week. And, Lord, we just thank you for your Word and thank you for grace, Lord. And we know that the law can never save us because we can never be good enough. And, Lord, we thank you for saving us from hell, giving us eternal life. And, Lord, that it's always been the same, that you've been the same, Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. And, Lord, we just thank you for that. And, Lord, we love you. And, for all this in Jesus Christ's name, amen.