Pt. 1 - First and Second

We will be speaking of "The Appearing of Christ", and all of the ramifications of that term, "appearing". And now we will be looking at the time and order of His appearing. It is extremely important that we understand by the scripture this term, "time and order". "Time" as it is related to in the scripture is something very few folks understand. Now we will deal with what I feel to be necessary to understanding time and order; and that is, to just define Biblically FIRST and SECOND. And I have found that not too many folks understand, comprehend that. Time and order relates to something, and I don’t think it’s an oversimplification to say that our Bible, as it is written, is divided by this understanding of THE FIRST and THE SECOND. So we are going to relate FIRST and SECOND to the scripture so that we understand what time and order deals with.

The Lord has really reasoned with my heart over this, and now every place I go, I just reason with those that are there, in the scripture concerning this understanding of the division of the Bible. And I’m going to throw another word in here. There is "the first ORDER of things" as opposed to "the second ORDER of things". And the term we are going to come to is COVENANT: First Covenant and Second Covenant. And we all know the division between the First and Second Covenant is THE CROSS, and we should know that The Cross is not merely an historical thing, but when we speak of The Cross, we speak of Christ crucified. We speak of Christ as related to His death, His burial, His resurrection: that momentous Work of God in His Son whereby not only is the first order of things divided from the second, but the first order of things comes to its finish, and the second order of things begins.

And so we have this division in our Bible between what the scriptures often just refer to as "the first" and "the second". But that first and second defines something: and what it is actually defining are things relating to Covenant. Everyone will agree that God is a Covenant God, that He relates to man, and always has, by Covenant. He has always done that. And in relating to man that has included a lot of things. This whole natural creation at one time was greatly disturbed because of God’s relation to man. So it’s not just man and nothing else being touched by that - everything has, but His Covenant has never been with a tree, it’s never been with a stone. It might have been written on one, but it’s never been WITH one. It’s never been with the natural creation, though the natural creation has certainly been affected by it. Things have been affected, but God has never entered into a Covenant with things. His Covenant has always been in one way or another, with man.

And we understand from that, through the pages of the scripture, God’s purpose in relating to man, and what He desires through His relating to man, and finally how He had to ultimately, through His Son, perfect - make complete that relationship to man. But in all of that, there are just two covenants: there’s a first one, and a second. His dealing with Adam to Noah is summed up in a Covenant. His dealing with Abraham and Isaac is summed up in a Covenant, and with Israel. But it all comes together in Israel, and is shown to be the same Covenant; it’s all The Old Covenant. After all, Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible, which includes the creation, which includes Adam, which includes Noah and people like Enoch and the Tower of Babel and all of that. It was Moses inspired of God to think and to write that and it’s all brought in under The Old Covenant. We all know from the scriptures that before the Law came, that all men were adjudicated under sin; and when the Law came, even those who were alive before Moses were brought in under the Law, because the Law was for the condemnation of sin. The Law was for exposure of sin, but even before the Law, sin reigned, death reigned. It is just that the Law recognized that, and adjudicated that, and necessitated some answer to that.

So from every direction that you care to approach it, there is a general agreement that everything from Genesis to Malachi is brought in under what is called "The First Covenant Order". And it is an ORDER. It has an order to it, the order of The Spirit. The Spirit ordered that Covenant: in diverse places, and in sundry times, in diverse manners, GOD SPAKE. Yes, He used all of these types and shadows, but it was still God speaking. And in doing that He established an order of The Spirit. Though it was NOT spiritual, because the scriptures say that THE FIRST is not spiritual, but rather THE SECOND is spiritual. But even in the first order we find testimony of that. Even in the First Covenant we find the testimony that the first is not spiritual, but rather, the second. As far back as Cain and Abel we see that order established: that the first, Cain, was not spiritual, but rather Abel, the second. And you can follow that all the way through: Esau and Jacob, Ishmael and Isaac. These are very obvious, but you will find a lot that are not so obvious, but they still maintain this order of God showing that it is not by might, nor by power, not even by natural order, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord. It is God Who determines, and He determines according to an ORDER. And the order that He has established is this First, and this Second. We might then ask ourselves, what is The First all about? Hebrews tells us that the First was a necessary pattern of things to come, a necessary figure of He Who was to come, a necessary testimony of the Witness that was to come. The First is always necessary to the Second, but never is brought over into, or substituted for the Second; and the end of the First always comes with the Second.

So just looking at it in general terms we come to understand that the First is time related. From its inception, it had a designated end. Time relates to this First Order of things; it had a designated beginning, it had a designated end that was actually according to time - days, weeks, months, years. GOD IN THE FIRST USED TIME TO SIGNIFY ETERNITY; to speak of Eternal things He used timely things. To speak of a day that has no boundaries, a day that has no beginning or end, He used the day that had a beginning and an end - The Sabbath. He regulated that according to a numeral 7: a seven day, then a seven week, then a seven month, and then a whole series of those. Then a whole series of those coming in a series of ten, making up a Jubilee. And on and on and on - God used time signifying timelessness: time signifying Eternity. Think of the Feasts of Israel. These are times, but each of those Feasts signify a work of The Spirit that is timeless. I mean, how many times did THE REAL LAMB have to die? ONCE! Not every year - Once! In fact the argument of the Hebrew writer is that if He had to die every year then He’s no better than the sacrifices that came before Him; He’s no better than the priests that offered them. But ONCE! So that relates to the time and the order in which we will speak, and all this relates to His Appearing.

But first we want to look at - what is The First, what is The Second? And, is there a Third? Or is our Bible complete in its teaching with regard to The First and The Second? Is there a Third, a Third Covenant spoken of? Everything that relates to The First has a purpose which is served, which is fulfilled, which is realized IN THE SECOND. Is there in fact anything of The First that is not fulfilled in The Second? If there is, how could the Apostles ever believe the Jews would ever accept anything they had to say; except they show in The Second all things of The First fulfilled. And if they couldn’t do that, then what kind of insanity was it to believe that any Jew would accept it? And how could they themselves ... how could Paul who was a "doctor of The Law" ever accept the validity of Christ, unless in The Second, the Second Order of Things which are summed up in Christ Jesus, he find everything of The First fulfilled there? How could he possibly have ever accepted The Second? Those are questions that we have to face if we are to understand that our whole Bible is based on The First and The Second Order. And that everything in our Bible relates to one of those two Covenants, one of those two orders. And that it is according to those Two Covenants, those Two Orders that Christ has His Appearing.

Turn now to Hebrews 9:1-7. Here you’ll see this term used, and let’s understand what he’s talking about. In the first place he’s talking about the first tabernacle; that’s The Tabernacle of Moses. But in that first tabernacle, this writer is saying there were actually two - a first and a second, and the second is that which comes to be fulfilled in Christ. That’s what he’s saying. And he also comes to say that as long as that first tabernacle remains that had a division between the first and the second, the way into the second was never made manifest. So that Tabernacle, which means the whole Jewish system, the whole Old Covenant system HAD TO BE DONE AWAY, because as long as it stood, it spoke of a First and a Second, but couldn’t get you to the Second. It spoke of it; it was there, but a veil was there, and a High Priest only one time a year could enter in, and he couldn’t stay there! And he could only come there with the blood of another.

And so he concludes this in verse 8. He concludes the whole thing was The Holy Spirit saying something. It was saying that as long as this Tabernacle, with its division between the first and the second remains, then you are NOT going to get to the second: the way into the Second, The Holiest of All, is what he calls it, is not made manifest. Verse 1, "Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances..." You see "the first covenant", but the word "covenant" has been added there by our translators, and this is one of the times that they are right since it is Covenant that is being spoken of. My heart certainly agrees. We will see that the first man, the first priesthood, the first tabernacle - all of those are things of The First Covenant, they are all Covenant related things. In other words, The Tabernacle served The Covenant, the Priesthood served The Covenant, The High Priest served The Covenant. Man was with whom God made Covenant, and established Covenant; so with the First Covenant this is true, and it has to be true with the Second Covenant, or New Covenant. We can label these "old" and "new" because throughout the scriptures you find that relation - old and new. We could also label it "flesh" and "spirit", because in Romans 7 and 8 particularly it is labeled "flesh" and "spirit".

And to understand The Lord’s dealings with us today in realms of flesh and spirit, we have to understand the Biblical division of what is flesh and what is spirit. That which belongs to the Old Covenant is flesh, and that which belongs to the New Covenant is spirit. And it doesn’t mean that everyone of us who are in Christ are walking after the New Covenant. We may be in Him, still with an Old Covenant mentality, following after the flesh, trying to make ourselves something, because that’s basically what the Jews tried to do. But the First Covenant was never given for that reason. It was given to show you that no matter what you did, you’d never come to be anything! Paul’s frustration with this in Romans 7 comes out when he said the more I do good, the worse I see it is! Because the Law keeps showing that my goodness is sin. So the more I do good, the more sin encompasses me.

That’s what The Law is: it’s like a Catch 22. The Law was given NOT to bring righteousness, but to show you that you are not righteous. That’s a simplification, but basically that’s right. So the more you kept The Law, the more unrighteous you saw you were: if you were really a true Law-keeper. And Paul was an honest hearted Law-keeper! Jesus tells the Pharisees ‘you’ve long since left The Law, and substituted it for the traditions of your elders so that now you are the blind leading the blind. And if you really believe Moses, which is The Law, you would receive Me. But you’ve substituted your traditions for that.’ See, they had come to a point that they had found in The Law a self righteousness; and The Law doesn’t teach that. Paul saw that: he saw that I’m after The Law. According to The Law I am blameless, he says at one point. And yet that very Law kept showing him that no matter how good you are, or no matter how much good you do, you are not righteous. And finally he says, What’s the answer, O wretched man that I am? Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And Bible scholars will tell you he is talking about the body of the administration of death that he was bound to; that body of Israel, that body of the administration of death. "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God for JESUS CHRIST!"

So he puts that right between Romans 6 and Romans 8, and he comes into Romans 8 talking about NOW I have found that IN CHRIST JESUS there is no condemnation. That’s the condemnation of The Law. That doesn’t mean there’s no conviction of The Holy Spirit, but there’s no condemnation brought about by The Law to those who are walking not after The Law, but after The Spirit; to those who are not trying to find themselves righteous, but rather understanding that CHRIST IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. That’s what that whole chapter is about. But unfortunately people get a hold of Romans 8 today, and they don’t understand the difference between The First and The Second, so they talk about their "old flesh" and make excuses for it. But Paul’s whole emphasis there is they that are after the flesh are those who are still trying to establish their righteousness by The Law.

And they that are after Christ are they that are learning that they have no life but Christ, and that He is our righteousness. And if you’ll see the true division there in Romans 8, it’s not talking about a schizophrenic Christian, but it’s talking about those that maintain after The Law, and those that maintain after The Spirit. And even to this day there are those Christians who do maintain after The Law; trying to find an understanding of God that is not of The Spirit, but of The Law of the letter - trying to find a righteousness other than Christ. And that brings us under condemnation. The Spirit will condemn that every time. And The Law condemns it every time. And there’s only two answers to that. One is the right answer: that is the understanding of Paul’s frustration where he came to this - I am crucified with Christ, and HE is my Life! The other answer to that is to form a self righteousness such as did the Pharisees, and find a self righteousness in The Law. But you can’t do that and be honest in the scriptures; you have to revert to tradition, and a lot of Pentecostals have done that! I don’t know how we got from the real truth of Romans 8 to some of the areas of Pentecostalism where we get into how long your hair is, and what kind of clothes you wear; but we labeled these things, and we started teaching traditions, and unfortunately much of that continues to this day.

But my point is that the whole Bible is seen in two realms: THE FIRST and THE SECOND; that which is the FIRST ORDER of things, and the predominant issue there is The Law, but it’s the Old Covenant. You remember that The Law is just part of the Old Covenant. It’s the enforcement part, because actually "Covenant" in the Bible means "an understanding by which two walk as One." Even when two men made a covenant it brought those two folks together and they walked in the understanding of One. Their understanding became One by Covenant, and they would have a sign of that. Sometimes the sign was a shoe. God’s sign with man was circumcision, because that was going to be fulfilled at The Cross at a point in time. But my point is they became bound in One understanding relating to each other at least on that particular issue; wherever they were bound by Covenant. Well, in a very broad term, it’s an understanding given of God. Under the Old Covenant there is an understanding given of God, and in the New Covenant there is a PERFECT understanding given of God. In other words, in the Old Covenant the understanding that God gave of Himself to man had to be in types and shadows. So He said, "Build a Tabernacle", and He brought them into it, and there He appeared in types and shadows. And He gave them an understanding of Himself, but it was never perfect, and it couldn’t make anybody perfect, because it was an imperfect understanding. It had to be imperfect because it was in types and shadows and facsimiles, and it was meant to be.

But it was until that which is Perfect come. In Christ we have a PERFECT UNDERSTANDING; whether we understand Him perfectly or not - IN CHRIST we have a perfect understanding, because in Him we have The Word of God made perfect. Not types, not shadows. "God, who in sundry times...spake in this way...but HATH NOW, at the end of those days spoken IN SON." That’s the first chapter of Hebrews. He hath brought us from the FIRST to the SECOND; from the First Covenant which is in types and shadows, blood of animals, people, places and things; to the Second Covenant which is secured, and fulfilled, and perfected in HIS SON. No wonder Paul said, ‘Now what we need is the eyes of our understanding enlightened, that we may know HIM, that we may grow up into HIM in all things!’

Why? Because IN HIM is this understanding given of God that He could only speak of in pictures and types and shadows in the First order of things. But in the Second order of things He shows us in The Person of His Son. In the First order of things He could only say there’s a time coming when I will dwell in the midst of My people; they will be in Me, and I will be their God, and they will be My people. But in the Second order of things, He doesn’t just speak of such a place, He actually brings us into such a union with His Son. So that the fulfillment of the First is seen in the Second - He DOES dwell in His people, His people DO dwell in Him, we DO walk in Him, we DO live in Him through our union with The Lord Jesus Christ. So the Second is NOT a promise of a greater to come, but is the FULFILLMENT of what the First promised would come.

We have a whole First order full of promises and prophecies, and types and shadows of all of those promises and all of those prophecies. Because to every promise and every prophecy there is a type and a shadow of it. You get a promise of an Eternal Kingdom, and God gives a type: He gives a David and a Solomon, and a temple made of gold. But it’s a type and a shadow. When Solomon dedicated it, he knew that. He got the whole thing ready and then he looked at it in his dedication prayer, and he said ‘God will never dwell in anything WE make! Let alone this building. But, Oh, God, that you would just honor the people that serve your name; that you would honor them and keep them, and bless them - who keep your name in this place.’ And he realized that. And so the glory of The Lord filled it, but it was in type and in shadow, and that was only when the only original thing left was brought in and set in its place; that original type and shadow of Christ in union with a people through His death, burial and resurrection - that Ark of The Covenant.

When it was set in its place in that Temple of Solomon, God did not honor the grandeur of that Temple, He honored that little piece of furniture! When it was set in its place and the staves were taken out, then the glory of The Lord filled the place. He honored that type and that shadow that He would fulfil in The Person of His Son, through the redemption of the blood, through the death, burial and resurrection of The Lord Jesus, that He would bring a people into Himself, and He would dwell in a people. Paul speaks of these prophets and then speaks of the fulfillment of all of this in 2 Corinthians. And he says, ‘Don’t you remember when God said, I will dwell...I will ...I will...’ Then he says, ‘Don’t you understand YOU are the Temple of God? Don’t you understand that? The very fulfilment of which Jesus spoke of when He said you will understand that I am in My Father, you are in Me, and I am in you.

So God hasn’t given us a Second Covenant full of promises, but full of fulfilment. He hasn’t given us a Second Covenant full of distant prophecies, but a fulfillment of what He has said! And it’s our IGNORANCE of the Second Covenant that only causes us not to see the reality of all that God has given us in Christ Jesus. And our tendency is to want to go back to the First Covenant and live there, in that mentality. And most Christians are in that "time" mentality that relates totally to the First order. And that is so clearly set forth in the scripture.

Now, I am not smart, I am not a Bible scholar, but God has graciously revealed His Son in me, and I sit in amazement that men who are "Bible scholars" and "language scholars" can not see the simplicity of the First and Second Order of things. But then The Holy Spirit reminded me that in the days of Jesus, He healed the common people - yes, but He addressed the doctors, He addressed the lawyers and the scribes, He addressed the Pharisees, and not one of them could make the connection. And that was The Lord Jesus addressing them! It was The Lord Jesus relating it, and His only answer finally was, you are blinded by the tradition of your elders. You have become leaders of the blind. And their answer to that was: ‘Let’s kill Him! Let’s get rid of Him! He makes Himself to be something He is not. Why, He makes Himself to be God! He said He would destroy this Tabernacle, and raise it up again in three days! Let’s kill Him! He’s blaspheming!’ And I thought, no wonder we have been so overcome by tradition that we’ve lost the reality of the Second. We’ve really lost the reality of the First as being fulfilled in the Second. We’ve lost it; we preach it as though it’s not real.

So what I want to do now is just establish in our hearts that there is a First and there is a Second, and what it is. Well, it’s COVENANT. Look again at Hebrews 9:1, " Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary." That meant the whole deal, the whole thing. "For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary. And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all." He starts referring to this as the "first" and "second". "Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant." It had the golden censer because the Priest took that in there once a year, otherwise the golden censer was part of the golden altar that was in the first tabernacle, or what we would call The Holy Place, over against The Holy of Holies.

"And over it the cherubims of glory shadowing the mercyseat; of which we cannot now speak particularly. Now when these things were thus ordained, the priests went always into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the service of God. But into the second went the high priest alone once every year, not without blood, which he offered for himself, and for the errors of the people."Now what was this all about? Here it is: verse 8, " The Holy Ghost this signifying that the way into the holiest of all(which he has called "the second") was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing." And by this he means the whole of the first, in which there was a first and a second stipulated. But while that whole thing stood (which included both the first and the second); while that whole Tabernacle stood, which was in the outer court the offering of animals, the burnt offerings, the laver; then every day the service of this other; and then once a year into The Holiest. But while that first Tabernacle stood, it represented this first and second that was shown in it - separated, they could not come together; there was no way from the first into the second shown, it was not yet made manifest. Something was YET to be made manifest, though it was shown clearly in type and shadow.

Verse 9, "which was a figure for the time then present..." Now that "time then present" is spoken of in the first chapter, verse one as "time past". "Hath spoken in time past...hath at the end of those days spoken in Son." That brings "those days" to an end, and that’s what the Hebrews writer is showing in every chapter. He is showing that what was embodied in the First, has found it’s fulfillment in the Second. It has not gone beyond it, but has come to its fulfilment, its end, its goal, its purpose, its time. It’s all been fulfilled IN CHRIST, Who is the substance of the epitome of the Second. In verse 9 he describes the services but then in verse 11 he says, "But Christ being come an high priest of GOOD THINGS TO COME..." Now, what "good things to come"? The good things that these things were a type of! The First said that there were some good things to come, and it was in figures, and in washings, and ordinances.

John... do you realize that the baptism of John was NOT a "Christian" baptism? Jesus simply went down there and submitted Himself to the Jewish washings. He was washed of John in the Jordan. He wasn’t baptized in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. That wasn’t a Christian baptism: that was Christ, the supreme sacrifice, the last sacrifice, the only sacrifice accepted of God submitting Himself to the washing of the ordinances of the Law in the river Jordan. John Himself said ‘there’s a GREATER baptism coming than mine. Mine speaks of good things to come. Well, it’s coming! This One is going to baptize you in that.’ All of these spoke of good things to come. Not good things YET to come; no, the good things spoken of here to come. What he’s showing here is what is shrouded in the First, is revealed IN HIM; what is spoken of in the FIRST is revealed IN HIM; what the FIRST Tabernacle couldn’t do, this High Priest could. Look in verse 11, "... by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building." And that word "building" is translated in the Greek as "creation". It is not of this creation.

And so he presents not only that Greater Tabernacle having come, but it having come by it’s High Priest, which is Christ! And then he goes on and relates the believers to that Tabernacle - that Greater Tabernacle wherein the High Priest Himself lives, and wherein the High Priest Himself ministers by His Own blood. And that established the Second Covenant, of which the First could only speak through animals, and priests, and rooms and chambers. But now - CHRIST BEING COME an High Priest of these good things to come, by a perfect Tabernacle. And that means one that is complete, one that has no divisions in it. The veil is gone, the veil is done away. There is not here a First and a Second - this is The Second. This is what the First spoke of, but couldn’t take you into. This is what the First indicated, but couldn’t perfect, because as long as the First was there, these two were only there symbolically: one speaking of the other, but there was no way into it. Even the High Priest could only go there once a year, with the blood of others, and even then in fear and trembling for himself and for Israel.

BUT CHRIST BEING COME... See what He’s doing here? He’s taking them from one whole order of things, to another whole order of things; He’s taking them from one tabernacle to another Tabernacle. And He’s taking them from the tabernacle that had in it the very testimony of what Christ has done! Throughout the First Covenant is this testimony of the First and the Second, and always the Second speaks of the good things to come - The One to come, the things to come, the blessing to come - whatever. But it always speaks of that which is to come. This Hebrews writer is saying - IT IS COME IN THIS HIGH PRIEST! IT IS COME IN CHRIST!

Here he presents Him as The High Priest because he’s already presented Him as the sacrifice, he’s already presented Him as the Great Salvation, he’s already presented Him as The Eternal Word of God. Now he’s presenting Him as The High Priest. This whole book of Hebrews doesn’t let one thing slip. Then he presents the better mountain, he presents the better faith, he presents the better resurrection. And every time he does, he concludes it as being IN CHRIST - IN CHRIST - IN CHRIST! My point here is that The Bible speaks of a First and a Second. It’s there, and we will relate to that The Appearing of Christ, because in chapter 9 he goes on to do that. That’s in verses 24-28. "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands; which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place very year with blood of others; For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation." His argument is still that if He’s like the other, then He must have suffered a lot of times since the foundation of the world. (Verse 26). But now once in the end of the world... And the word "world" there refers to the Jewish age, the age of the Old Covenant. It does in Matthew 24 and it does here. What age is being spoken of, what world is being spoken of here? The Old Covenant world up against a New Covenant world.

We’ve got to see this here, and in other places that it didn’t just get tired and wear out; it didn’t just give up and die; it didn’t find its end in itself; that is, it didn’t find its completion in itself. It would just go on, and on, and on - not finding its completion in itself. Something had to bring it to its end. We see in this verse - CHRIST APPEARED! It took Christ appearing - He had to appear to bring this whole age to its end. Its designated end came when Christ appeared. We’ll see that in "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son..." What time is that talking about? We’ll find in that very setting that it’s the time of children, the time of tutors and governors, the time of the Law, the time of the Old Covenant. This writer is saying exactly the same thing, but he’s relating it to the High Priest in the Tabernacle. And it’s the same First, and the same Second being talked about here. Everything of the First is gathered up, and brought to its fulfillment, its climax, its end IN CHRIST.

We will deal now with this "take away" and "establish" that is in Chapter 10. "He taketh away the FIRST that He may establish the SECOND." And there he doesn’t apply First and Second to any particular part of it; he applies it to the whole of it. He takes away the first ...well, what part of it? ALL of it! He’s already applied it to parts - now, ALL of it. That He may establish the second... what part of it? ALL of it! How does He establish it? The same way He takes it away: IN HIS APPEARING. You’ll find that to be so. So He appeared once at the end of the First. Verse 28 is relating to the Second, and any Interlinear Bible will show you that "time" is not in the original text. It doesn’t belong here because we are not talking about "time". It’s talking about First and Second. "Time" has been added there, but it does not belong there. To whom does He appear in the Second? TO THOSE WHO LOOK FOR HIM! That means a turning of the heart to see, and that has to do with His appearing.

But my point now is there is a First and a Second, and that both are related to His appearing. He appears at the end of one; His appearing was necessary to bring it to an end, to its climax. But more than that: to take it away! And we will look at the Greek words describing "take away". And it will show us that the First didn’t just get tired and wear out and go hide itself, but it was thoroughly, absolutely, irrevocably done away. That is a tremendous word that shows us without room for doubt that this "taking away" was done AT THE CROSS. We certainly should be able to see that in "once in the end of the world to offer Himself". Now, if the First was taken away in His death, the Second had to be established in His resurrection, or else what is His resurrection about?

We can look at the type of that in this High Priest who went in, once a year on the Day of Atonement. And we can see how that relates to Christ in His death, burial and resurrection. And what Israel was doing during that time, and how he presented himself at the end of that time. And that’s only a figure of good things to come. All of those things were just figures, but Our High Priest has not presented us with another figure, but a fulfillment! That’s what Salvation is really all about! Our Salvation is tremendous - GREAT SALVATION! Because our Salvation is in a Person, it can only be comprehended as we know that Person and learn that Person. That Person Who is also The Covenant of it, the understanding of it, The Word of it, the security of it, the guarantee of it. That Person is everything to Our Salvation!

So, the FIRST and the SECOND. And that gives us a foundation. We see this also in 1 Corinthians 15: the First man, the Second man is The Lord from heaven; but again it’s the First and Second. There it is applied to man, applied to resurrection truth. Here it is applied to tabernacle, priesthood, but it’s the same. It’s The Covenant, it’s the First Covenant, and all of its articles, and the Second Covenant and it’s fulfillment in One. And that He has done this ONCE and for all! That’s the only kind of gospel Paul could have received because he was looking for "once and for all". And he would be the first to tell you: I have not comprehended all of this, I have not laid hold upon it, I have not apprehended that for which I was apprehended of God; but one thing I do - I press on... To know Him! TO KNOW HIM! That’s the whole thing, folks. It was this Paul who said, "That you would grow up into Him. Who is The Head in all things." Yes, that’s what is in the scriptures. Whether we have laid hold on all that is fulfilled or not is beside the point. But the point is - IN CHRIST THE FULFILLMENT IS FOUND! YOU NEED NOT LOOK SOMEWHERE ELSE!

Pt. 2 - First Fulfilled in The Second

We are dealing with the Appearing of Christ. Here’s the reason for my dealing with this subject, notwithstanding The Lord’s dealing in my heart; for there is the theological reason for it, meaning the doctrinal issues bound up in it, and the spiritual significance of it in each of our lives concerning The Appearing of Christ. Theologically I’m looking at the scriptures and presenting The Appearing because the theory of dispensationalism says that "The Appearing" that the Bible speaks of has not taken place yet, and will not take place until the "end of time". But they have no concept of spiritual time! And in my search on The Appearing I began to realize that our whole Bible and the whole basis of our belief is bound up in the two words - FIRST and SECOND. It is about a First Covenant and it’s about a Second Covenant. It’s about the Second Covenant being everything promised, prophesied, spoken of, types and shadows and figures in the First Covenant. So what the scriptures are presenting to us is that everything that is involved in the First Covenant - by promise, or prophecy or type is FULFILLED in the Second Covenant.

The scriptures present the First Covenant administered by angels; the Second Covenant by The Spirit of God. The scriptures present the First Covenant in association with Moses; the Second Covenant associated with Christ. Moses was the mediator of the First Covenant; Christ is the mediator of the Second Covenant. Moses in mediating the First Covenant mediated an understanding given of God that kept God at a distance from His people. For instance: when Moses went up on the mountain (and there are two mountains in the Bible: Sinai, which is associated with the First Covenant, and Zion is associated with the Second Covenant.) Sinai was in the wilderness, and Zion was part of that high place, that mountain upon which Jerusalem was built. But Zion in the Bible always has a futuristic tone to it. The way Zion is used in the Bible, it is understood that Zion is always something spiritual. Zion always is a summation of God’s highest thought concerning Himself and a people. God has a high thought with regard to Himself and a people, and that high thought is summed up in a relationship. The high thought of God is that He will live in a people, and have a people living in relationship with Him. The high thought of Zion is: I will dwell in My people. Here is My thought concerning Zion: this is My mountain, this is My dwelling place, herein will I dwell - forever!

That’s a prophecy concerning Zion. Then "Zion - My people, Zion - My glory." So in the First Covenant the Second was consistently spoken of, but was never perfected, was never given because the Second could not be given as the First. The First was given as a TESTIMONY OF THE SECOND. So the Second can not come along and be given as a Testimony of itself, or as a Testimony of a Third. The Second must come as a FULFILLMENT OF WHAT THE FIRST WAS ABOUT. So you can’t have with the First Covenant that was associated with Sinai, a promise of Zion, and then say that the Second Covenant is ANOTHER promise of Zion; that the Second Covenant assures us all over again that "one day", sure enough, Zion will come. NO! The Second Covenant is the fulfillment of the First. And if it’s not, then it’s not a legitimate covenant at all! And my contention with the theory of dispensationalism is that you have all of these promises in the First. And what makes the First so distinct is that in the First you consistently see the First and the Second, the First and the Second. But you also see that the Second is NEVER ACHIEVED. It’s spoken of. The First is achieved: it’s written in a stone, it’s given to a people, because the First Covenant is made up of the promises and prophecies, types and shadows of the Second.

That’s what the First Covenant is: it’s a PROMISE of the Second. Now therefore if we say that the Second Covenant, the New Covenant has come IN CHRIST, what are we saying? We are saying that the promise of the First HAS COME; that the prophecies of the First has come; that the types and shadows that the First has HAS COME! That’s what we’re saying. But the dispensationalists say no, part of it hasn’t come yet! Well, if part of it hasn’t come, none of it has come! Because the Second is of the same nature, the same order as the First. And you can’t say that we keep PART of The Law, but don’t keep it all. If you keep any part of it, you keep it ALL. If you fail in any part of it, you fail in it all! It’s a whole package. The Second Covenant which is a fulfillment of the First has to - by nature be a whole package. Now here’s the point: did the First Covenant speak of heaven? We know that it did - in the Tabernacle. The Holy of Holies is translated in the scriptures as, and speaks of heaven. The Second is the fulfillment of the First, so the Second Covenant can NOT be then another promise of a heaven "yet to come". It has to be a fulfillment of what the First called "heaven", of what the First referred to as "heaven". It has to be or it’s not a fulfillment. And if it’s not a fulfillment, it’s not a Covenant.

Well, the First Covenant was given by PROMISE; but the Second was given IN PERSON - THE PERSON OF CHRIST. The Second Covenant is not another writing; it’s a Person. The New Testament is written ABOUT the Second Covenant; it is NOT the Second Covenant. THE SECOND COVENANT IS THE REALIZATION THAT COMES IN CHRIST. The New Testament presents Christ as THE NEW COVENANT. The New Testament does not present ITSELF as the Covenant; the New Testament is just a series of writings by Apostles, either as letters to the Church, or as gospels to the whole of the Christian community, presenting CHRIST as the answer, as the fulfillment to the Old Covenant. So consequently, the New Covenant, that is the "new understanding" that God would have a people to walk in concerning His relationship with them - that new understanding is found in a Person. It’s found IN CHRIST! Christ IS... So what does He say? "I AM..." "No man can come to the Father but by me. I AM. I’m not here to tell you about a way to get to God - I AM that way! Come to Him through Me! I’m not here to tell you a truth about God - I AM that Truth! In learning Me you know Him! I AM the Life! I’m not here to tell you about a life to come - I AM The LIFE. By receiving Me, you have Life, and shall never die."

Now that’s how Jesus presents it. And so the whole of the understanding that God would have you and I to have concerning our relationship with Him: that understanding that was set forth in an Old Covenant, a First Covenant, in types and shadows and promises; that understanding is plainly, clearly, perfectly revealed IN HIS SON. His Son was what God was talking about! When God said, ‘Build a Tabernacle, kill some animals, put some furniture, do these ceremonies, do them this many times, do it this way - His Son is what He was talking about. He was showing His Son. His Son - the sacrifice that would come. His Son - the altar, the laver, the candlestick, the bread, the incense - received of God. His Son - The Ark of The Covenant - The Covenant - fulfilled in Christ, His Son. He was involving a people with that Tabernacle, showing that a people would be involved with His Son. How will a people be involved with His Son? In the type it was through sacrifices and offerings, but in the fulfillment it’s that HIS SON HIMSELF made the sacrifice, gave the offering. So that we, through associating with His death, His burial, His resurrection - and understand that that death is mine, and that burial is mine, and that resurrection is mine in association with Him; we come to realize that everything that is set forth in type and shadow in the Old Testament is fulfilled IN CHRIST.

We don’t have to bring an offering because HE IS the offering. All we have to do is accept HIM as our offering. We don’t have to enter into a tent: we have to by faith, by the realization of The Spirit understand we live in Him. And all those pieces of furniture set forth a realization of Christ. It was just a type and shadow, just a promise under the First one, but in the Second one, He fulfilled it Himself. He fulfilled everything the brazen altar stands for. He fulfilled everything the laver of washing spoke of - the washing of the water of The Word. He fulfils everything that it stand for. He fulfils everything that the candelabra stands for. He fulfils it, and He did that through The Work of The Cross in His death, His burial and His resurrection in bringing forth in His resurrection, as it says in Hebrews, a sanctuary, a more perfect sanctuary not made with hands, of which He is The High Priest Himself. And the sanctuary that He brings forth is His Own Body! How does He do that? By The Spirit - by you and I being born of The Spirit of God. By His very Spirit dwelling in us, we are bound by that Spirit as His dwelling place, as the New Temple that is not made by hands, but brought together in Spirit, by The Spirit - birthed by The Spirit of God. And it’s His Tabernacle because HE lives in it, and HE ministers in it. Well, He ministers according to what was the type and the shadow. Did the Priest of that day offer daily sacrifices? Yes. The Spirit of Christ ministering into us, ministers Himself to us everyday as the sacrifice of God. Every day - every day His death to sin is our death - every day, every day ... it’s a continual thing. And yet it was by Him done once and for all, but it’s a daily realization to us.

So what I’m saying is that our whole Bible is divided into these two Covenants, and that the one Covenant is essentially promises and prophecies, in types and shadows. Moses’ Tabernacle was both a promise and a prophecy of a Greater One to come. Solomon’s was a promise and a prophecy of a Greater One to come. Then you have Isaiah and Jeremiah written, just stating word promises and word prophecies, and Ezekiel - what did Ezekiel prophesy? A Tabernacle to come, a city to come. Well, Moses did the same thing. Moses was considered a prophet because the Tabernacle of Moses was a prophecy. The Old Covenant is just that -it’s a promise! It’s a prophecy! And it’s God relating to a people by promise, by a prophecy, and He gave many signs and wonders in their midst to prove to them that it was He Himself Who was speaking to them. He gave many signs: The Red Sea, The Jordan, the cloud - all of that. They weren’t just natural phenomena, those were miracles wrought by God to show the people that these prophecies, these promises are really from God, because Who else but God could do these things?

But the things that He did were not the Covenant; they were simply signs showing Israel that it was God Who was giving them these promises and prophecies. And the Law, that would keep them, until the fulfilment of His promises and prophecies came, because they weren’t able to walk without it. They started out without a Law, but when they built themselves a golden calf and started worshiping that, God said, "I’m going to give them a Law, because I must establish in the earth my prophecies and my promises concerning One to come, and I must establish them in this people, and this people are going to have to be put under the Law in order to be sustained." So, for transgression sake, God put them under the Law, and they were kept, Paul says, kept under the Law, shut up unto the faith for that period of time UNTIL faith should come. The faith that came, of course was CHRIST HIMSELF! So the Law comes in there. Paul says it was a schoolmaster. Schoolmaster to what? It kept them in the prophecies and in the promises, in the Old Covenant until God brought the curtain down on the Old Covenant, and with that introduced its fulfilment in the New. And He didn’t wait 2,000 years between the two to do it either!

Dispensationalists have got people believing that the Old Covenant ended 2,000 years ago, and the New One hasn’t gotten here yet! Well, what kind of ridiculous thinking is that? Because the New Covenant is God’s answer to the Old one. If it is not in the New in full force, then God has not answered the First. That seems simple enough to me! And when you’ve only got the two Covenants, and the Second one is not the First: the First speaks of a Second, the Second does NOT speak of a third. The Second answers the First! But most Christians today think that the New Covenant is simply a better promise of "something to come". But the New Covenant has as its SUBSTANCE all that was to come. But it’s a Spiritual Covenant, and all that was to come was to come in Spirit, as SPIRITUAL SUBSTANCE, Eternal substance - not material.

The First Covenant was material, but it spoke of a Spiritual. How could the Second be material as well and fulfil the aspects of the First? How could it do that? No, it has to be Spiritual and the scripture says that it is Spiritual. The scripture says the First was NOT Spiritual; the second is Spiritual. And that’s true. So my search on "The Appearing of Christ" has been along the line of showing that there is no time gap between The First and The Second Covenant, and that there isn’t a Third Covenant, or a Fourth. But the Second came with Christ, and that He is the substance of it, the fulness of it; and that everything that was set forth in the First IS NOW fulfilled IN CHRIST. We may not be walking in it, we may not be comprehending , we may not be laying hold of it, but it is fulfilled in Him nonetheless. Look at the type of that - and to do that you have to go back to the First. God called Israel out of Egypt, He delivered them, brought them out. They were to go in to a land that was called Canaan, and they were to possess it, and fill it up. So that the name of it would be changed to Israel itself, and the very land would bear their name - Israel. That’s what they were to do.

They didn’t do that, did they? God delivered them: there was nothing wrong with the deliverance. The Egyptians were not still chasing them across the wilderness. The deliverance was full and complete and thorough. And a few weeks after that, there they were right at the bank of the Jordan. THEY refused to enter in. God did not originally say it will be 40 years before you can go in there - they determined that. Instead of going in they sent out spies. The spies were gone 40 days, and they came back and gave a false report. The people rose up and said ‘We’re not going in there!’ And Moses could do nothing with them. They said we are NOT going in there. God told Moses because this is a rebellious people I’m going to give them a year for every day, because of their false report. They were gone for 40 days: they will wander for 40 years! And not only that: everyone over the age of 21 years will die during that time. And while they are dying, I will raise up a NEW generation. And that generation shall go in. There’s the type of the First and Second coming.

We may not comprehend, we may not walk in the fulness of the Second, of that which is in Christ; but it is there nonetheless. It is fulfilled in Him nonetheless. As surely as the land was set before them... God did not after 40 years take them back to a different spot on the Jordan, or a different land. He took them right back to the same place they had failed forty years earlier, only now it was a different people, but it was still Israel, wasn’t it? It was in fact a type of the "Second Israel", The New Israel, The Second Man, The Man who had come out of the death of the first. Do you see the type there? The first Israel died; out of that death, a second Israel, The New Man went in under new leadership - Joshua, who is a direct type of Jesus Christ. Joshua was the one who saw the Heavenly Man. Joshua was the one who saw The Man who said ‘I’m the Captain of the Lord’s Host’, which is the same in the Greek as saying ‘I’m the Head of the Body". Joshua is associated with Him as The Heavenly Christ. Even though it’s a type and shadow of the Second, it’s still a type and a shadow. And I’m trying to show you that the First is filled with types of the Second because the whole purpose of the First was to promise the Second. Then the whole purpose of the Second is to FULFIL the First!

And if you say He didn’t do it, then it’s not a real Covenant, because His whole purpose was to do it. All the First Covenant is, is a promise and a prophecy - that’s all it is. What the Second is, is a fulfilment. Not a fulfilment in writing, not a fulfilment in some more words - fulfilment in a Person, a fulfilment IN CHRIST. A closer scrutiny of the First Covenant would show you that that Covenant itself says these things will be fulfilled in a Person. In every type and shadow that Covenant says that. Now that would take years to go through, but in every type and shadow, in every prophecy and promise that is given; if you follow it to its end, it is always a Person. The whole Old Covenant says ONE WILL COME. We said the Tabernacle says that another Tabernacle will come. Yes, but the way the Tabernacle was arranged, was in fact - CHRIST! Yes, all of the poles and all of the gold and silver... if you take it piece by piece by piece, it is a picture of Christ. It’s a picture of Christ The Redeemer, Christ The Sacrifice - it’s a picture of Christ. The furniture, which is the order of ministry (because they went from one piece of furniture to another) is in the arrangement and the order, of course of THE CROSS. Not only the shape of The Cross, but the Order of The Cross.

All this blood, all this killing, all this burning. And then that blood taken on back and actually the whole Tabernacle itself had to be sprinkled with the blood. So what is the Tabernacle? CHRIST CRUCIFIED. And what is the Tabernacle saying? ONE WILL COME! All of these thousands, and hundreds of thousands of sacrifices being made are NOT saying that one day another hundred thousand sacrifices are going to be made. No, it’s saying one day ONE will come. The writer of Hebrews 10 lets us know that when he quotes a prophecy saying, "In the volume of the book it is spoken of Me. I come to do Thy will, O God. I do NOT come to offer more sacrifices and offerings wherein you have no pleasure. I come to do Thy Will, O God. He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second."

So it doesn’t make any difference where you go in the Old Covenant; whether you go in the types and the shadows, or you go in the promises or the prophecies - the summed up end of every one of them is just this: ONE WILL COME, One will come. It talks about the promise of glory, the promise of God dwelling in His people and the glory of God. And we end up seeing in type and in shadow, and in prophecy and in promise that this glory is A MAN! Ezekiel says, "And I saw the glory of The Lord come in from the east and HIS..." And he starts describing it as a Man - One will come... One will come. The whole essence then of the Second Covenant is THE ONE. And that brings us to The Appearing of Christ. Has He come - or not? One Who IS come - has He come or not? Well, overwhelmingly our answer to that has to be, yes! But now the dispensationalists have messed that up again. And they say, ‘Well, He’s come once, but He’s got to come again.’ And when we ask where is that taught, invariable they go to some New Testament scripture. But wait... you can’t do that! Because the New Testament is declaring the reality of that which Christ is, so now if you are going to show me a place where He’s going to come twice, then you’ve got to show that to me in the First Covenant where all the promises and prophecies are concerning Him.

Well now, what you find there is what the Jews knew it said, but they didn’t understand it. They knew that the First Covenant predicted This One as a Suffering Servant and as a Reigning King. But they could not put the two together! They couldn’t see how a Suffering Servant was ever going to be a Reigning King. Paul says this is the mystery of God which was hidden from ages and generations, but is now made manifest to His saints. The Jews could not put that together. The prophets themselves, Peter says, did not fully understand what they were speaking of. Then Peter goes on and says, "But we have a more sure word of prophecy..." He doesn’t mean that we have a better prophet, or we have a better prophecy. The phrase "we have a more sure word of prophecy" means we have the prophets made more sure. What do you mean? Because we know what they were talking about! We have seen HIM, of Whom they spoke! We’ve seen the Suffering Servant and we’ve seen the Reigning King, and both of them are one. And His name is JESUS CHRIST THE LORD! Now that’s the gospel they had to present to the Jews otherwise not one Jew would have ever become a Christian - not one! The Jews were not as ignorant as Christians today, who will take half a Salvation, half a Covenant. No sir - the Jews wouldn’t do that! Because they were looking for Messiah, and the Apostles had to prove Jesus to be Messiah. Well, obviously they did or the whole first Church never would have been born!

Jesus proved Himself to them to be Messiah because He showed to them for forty days both His death and His burial, and His resurrection. He showed them He was both the Suffering Servant and the Ruling King. That’s something that dispensationalists haven’t gotten a hold of yet! They are still looking for the Ruling King to come. Jesus showed them when One came, the other came - I AM BOTH! But the mystery of that is THE CROSS. He was the Suffering Servant in His death: He was the Ruling King in His resurrection. That’s not some future event, but in His resurrection. The so-called First and Second coming is just that: His First is in His death, His Second is in His resurrection. The Suffering Servant - The Reigning King. Not a Suffering Servant and then... 2,000 years later a Reigning King. Not a Suffering Servant and then... 2,000 years later a Kingdom is "going to come". No, The Kingdom of God is in you! The Kingdom is where The King is!

But Christians have been so bombarded by this "fantasy world" thing. And preachers have gone back over and taken these First Covenant promises and brought them way over beyond what we call Second Covenant, and say "one day...", "one day..." But if that’s so, you’ve just said the Second Covenant is no good. You can’t have it in part! We say Jesus died as our Savior to forgive us of our sins. But that’s First Covenant realization: that’s "Suffering Servant" realization. Where is "Ruling King" realization? They haven’t accepted it yet! And yet they want Jews to become Christians. No Jew in his right mind would accept that kind of gospel! Of course that wasn’t the gospel that was preached immediately after the resurrection. The gospel that was preached then was that the Suffering Servant and the Reigning King are One, and that’s what the mystery of God always has been.

The Jews as a whole would not receive that. They would have gladly received Him as a Reigning King, but they didn’t associate with Him as a Suffering Servant. So they said we can’t accept that. The Messiah is supposed to come and set up a Kingdom, and you are talking about dying! Peter even got upset about that and Jesus said, "Get thee behind Me, Satan. Yours is the mind of Satan. Until I’m a Suffering Servant I can not be a Reigning King. You do not know the wisdom of God. Get away from me, get behind Me!" To the Jews The Cross was a stumbling block: they stumbled over it. They could not understand how could our King be crucified; they couldn’t put the two prophecies together. Paul did, the Apostles did, the first Church did - they finally got it together, but then through 2,000 years that has been lost, and we know back historically it was probably all lost before the third century, maybe before the first century ended. And then it went on through the Dark Ages, and on and on, and so the dispensationalists said here’s a good point for us to jump in and "revive" this hope for a Reigning King! One day Jesus is going to come back and rule and reign!

Well - wait a minute! What do you mean He’s going to come back? Where did He go? He went away to death, and came back in Life - now, where did He go? He hasn’t left any more! He indwelt His Church and brought His Church forth in New Birth. Then - what? He left again? He’s not in it? Then The Church is a corpse!! And they’d rather believe that The Church is a corpse, and that "one day" it’s going to be resurrected. But, HE’S THE RESURRECTION OF THE CHURCH! If He’s in you - you are resurrected! If He’s not in you, you are never going to be resurrected! He’s The Life! He is the substance of the Second Covenant. The Second Covenant is not another list of promises and prophecies. It is the fulfilment of the First. And all of the First OF NECESSITY had to be fulfilled in a Person.

Now we come to our lesson. Therefore the necessity that Christ would appear. He had to appear! He had to appear, and His appearing is two fold. And here is another mystery that dispensationalists and most Christians can’t get a hold of. He appears as to the First, and He appears as to the Second. As to the First, HE IS THE END. Here is the order of His appearing: First as the end of the First, then as the beginning of the Second - The Second, which has no end! No linear end. He appeared - the time and order of His appearing is what we’re looking at. But everything of the First Covenant spoke of that. So He comes, and His coming is at The Cross. Hebrews 10 says, ‘Lo, O come in the volume of the book it is spoken of Me.’ He gathers it all up and says here is "the coming" the book speaks of. The "volume of the book" is the volume of the Old Covenant. Here is the coming that it speaks of; here is the volume of it. ‘I come to do Thy Will, O God. I don’t come to reinstate the First, I don’t come to perpetuate the First, I don’t come to offer some more sacrifices. A body hast thou prepared for Me. I come to do Thy Will, O God. He taketh away the first, that He may establish the second."

So we understand by Hebrews 9:8 that as long as the First remains, the way into the Second is not made manifest. So His appearing is to the First an END. And that appearing is in death. I’m going to show you that the end is death. We’ll look at the term"taketh away", and we’ll see that by definition it is death. Where does He take away the First? In His death, because what is "the end of the First"? Look at the First itself; what is the end of it? Where does it bring you? The end of it is death. Death - death - death. "Moses, my servant is dead." Sacrifices, blood - death, death. It’s called "the administration of death." Unto man it was said, "Thou shalt surely die." All life comes out of death; no death comes out of life. That’s a divine order. The end of this First Covenant appropriately is DEATH, because the whole thing is what it speaks of. It says blood must be shed: remission of sins... redemption - blood must be shed. So the end of it is death. So Christ, The Eternal Godhead agreed to die! But to do that He had to appear in the First.

How did He appear in the First? By taking on the image of it. We are in Hebrews 9:26-28, talking of these two appearings. "Hath appeared once in the end of the world..." That’s just Old Covenant. "To them that look for Him, He shall appear the second (and "time" is not in the original. We’re not talking about "time here, we’re talking about First and Second)." And as we’ve been saying, First and Second is related to Covenant, because the writer says in Hebrews 9:1 - First Covenant. Christ appeared to bring the end of it - not a perpetuation of it. So then, how did He appear? To die! How did He do that? He had to take on the image of the First because the First is the only thing that can die. So He was made under the Law. "A body hast thou prepared Me." He was born of a woman, He made Himself of no reputation, He took upon Himself the form of a servant, He was made in the likeness of man. And AS A MAN He humbled Himself, became obedient to The Cross, to death, even to the death of The Cross. He first became obedient unto death, obedient unto this death, this First Covenant, this administration of death - He became obedient to it!

When did He become obedient to the administration of death? At His baptism - that was a "demonstrated" obedience. He went down to John. And the Bible says that the prophets and the Law continued unto John. That means that John stood for the summation of the Law and the prophets. All of a sudden, for God’s purposes, all that Israel stood for is summed up in John. He’s the bridge between First and Second. See, Christ is NOT a bridge between First and Second: He is The Second! John is the bridge between them. That’s why in Jewish teachings Elijah must first come and set everything in order. Do you know we’ve still got people in the Church looking for Elijah to come? And Jesus Himself said John was Elijah. He told them: He said if you can receive it, John is in the spirit of Elijah. John set everything in order. What did John say? "Make straight, repent!" He was the bridge between the First and the Second.

Jesus came down and submitted Himself to who? To John! John said, ‘Wait a minute, I’m not supposed to do this. You are greater than me!’ John recognized that You are the greater, You are the greater Covenant, You are the Great One! Jesus said, ‘Yes, but we must fulfil all righteousness. Suffer it to be so.’ Jesus had to submit Himself unto the administration of death. Why? Because He had to take it upon Himself - He had to become the fulfilment of it. And He did that in His baptism. That’s why immediately when He had done that, He came up out of the Jordan, the heavens opened and God announced, ‘Yes, but THIS IS MY SON.’ Immediately when He submitted to the First, and He came up - you see The Second - The Son of God, and the glory of The Lord, and the dove upon Him. God and heaven recognized Him!

Well that’s the order of that. God did that, but that’s what it says in Philippians 2: became obedient unto death. Vs. 9 "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name." That name is Son, of course. And right there in that baptism the order of that is seen. Immediately He was obedient unto death, even the death of The Cross, because John’s baptism was not a Christian baptism. A lot of people think that John the Baptist introduced Christian baptism. No, John was down there doing ceremonial washings, Jewish washings. And Jesus submitted Himself, as a sacrifice, to Jewish washings. And thus, for all intents and purposes, brought an end to sacrifices: when He became by submission THE sacrifice, the washed sacrifice - ready to be offered. That’s what Daniel talked about: in the middle of the week, because He was baptized in the middle of that Daniel’s week. And in the next 3 ½ years, the final part of that week, comes right up to The Cross, and Daniel’s seventh week is fulfilled! It’s fulfilled with the oblation and the offering of all that was signified at the baptism. That’s exactly what Daniel says. So again, the First is all being brought to its end, the First is all being summed up. IT DOES NOT PROGRESS BEYOND THE CROSS!

But the point is, it is summed up IN CHRIST, Who had to appear, He had to appear as to the First. In order to appear as to the First, He had to appear in a body that was prepared for death. This little lady one time came up and poured her ointment all over Him, and anointed Him, and they rebuked her, but Jesus said, you don’t know what is going on! She has just anointed Me to My death! She has anointed Me for My death - a body Thou has prepared for Me - for My death.

But do you understand the dispensationalists and the Church order of today want to see that body in the Second? They still want to see a materialistic body. They want to see one wearing a robe, wearing sandals, with a beard. But that’s the one prepared for death! That’s the one that associated with the First Covenant. That body does NOT associate with the Second Covenant. There is this transition period of 40 days where He appeared to them, but it wasn’t actually, in actuality that same body. He took on a form of that same body, but He went through walls then; but my point is, He was showing them there His death, His burial and His resurrection. For 40 days - it was a transitional period. It was a 40 day transitional period and then that body went out of their sight, NEVER to be seen again; because they were to be His Body; He would indwell them, indwell His Church. That Body was not prepared for death. But see, we want to bring that First body over into the Second Covenant, and worse of all, we want it to "come again" at the end of it! Which totally defies order, because if He is the end of the First, by Divine Order, He has to be the beginning of the Second. He can’t be the end of the First and the end of the Second, and there even be a second! If He is the END of the one, He has to be the BEGINNING of the other.

So His appearing can not be at the end of the Second; it has to be at the beginning of it, or the Second doesn’t begin! No part of it can begin. Now, that’s just logic with regard to Biblical order. But that order is substantiated throughout the whole of the scripture. First - Second, First - Second... never third, Second. It wasn’t Cain and Abel... and Seth. No, Cain - Abel. Cain killed Abel. Seth replaced Abel. It’s still First and Second. It wasn’t Esau and Jacob, and John, Bob or Pete. No, it wasn’t Ishmael and Isaac and "thingamajig". No - First - Second, First - Second. With Israel itself: the First group died. During their death the Second group came up. "Moses, My servant is dead. Joshua, rise up..." That term, "rise up" in the Old Covenant is synonymous with "resurrection." Joshua is Moses in resurrection. "Rise up, in three days you and these people will cross over." "Three days I will raise this whole thing up," Jesus said.

We must understand that He associates with the First in death, and He associates with the Second in resurrection. There if you have to have the "two comings", are the two comings! There is the Suffering Servant, and there is the Ruling King. There is the end of the First Covenant, and there is the beginning of the Kingdom of God in reality. Here is the end of Old Covenant Israel, here is the beginning of New Covenant Israel, which is The Church, The True Church. And here is Christ appearing in each of them, and it is HIS APPEARING that makes each of them real. Except He appear The First has no end. That means it had no fulfillment. Except He appear in The Second, The Second has no substance, because the whole substance of the Second is Him. He is the fulfilment of the First. The First was not promising a bunch of "things", but ONE would come. Oh, a bunch of things were used - some shadows and promises and prophecies, but they are all summed up in One.

That’s what it means when it says, "In the administration of the fulness of time, God is gathering all things up and presenting them in One - even in Christ; both things in heaven and earth." That’s what The Holy Spirit, Who is that administrator of the fulness of time does. He gathers everything up, and presents it fulfilled in Christ! That’s what the Second Covenant, the Second understanding is. The Second understanding given of God is that EVERYTHING I’ve said in the First one is fulfilled IN MY SON. That’s the understanding given of God. CHRIST IS THE SECOND COVENANT. But the Second Covenant is not written on a page; it’s revealed in you. And until The Father reveals His Son in you, you may know ABOUT Second Covenant, but you don’t know THE Second Covenant. You can "read" the First one, but you can’t "read" the Second one. You can "read" about it, but you can’t read it. Even the things that Paul wrote, he wrote having seen it, yet he still wrote about it. So he said, ‘I’m just praying that the eyes of your understanding would be enlightened, and that God would give to you the spirit of wisdom and knowledge in the revelation of His Son’, because GOD ALONE reveals that Covenant, which is CHRIST.

Jesus says that to Peter. He says, ‘Well Peter, I’m telling you flesh and blood can’t do this. Only My Father can reveal this.’ So you can read the First Covenant, and that’s why I’m telling you the books of the New Testament are NOT the Second Covenant. They come out from it, they are written by men who understood it; and the purpose of those letters was that others would come to know Him, and in Him find an understanding given of God with regard to His relationship with a people. The only way we can understand God’s relationship with us is IN THE SON because THE SON is that relationship! It is "no man comes but by ME." "In that day you will understand I am in My Father, you are in Me, and I am in you." That’s Second Covenant understanding. And that comes through Christ appearing. He appears to take one away; He appears to establish the other.

Now in Hebrews we have mentioned "He taketh away." That’s in Hebrews 10:7-9. He taketh away... how does He do that? Well, He APPEARED once in the end of the world. And that word "world" is "age", and that’s the only world the Bible ever talks about coming to an end. It’s amazing to me that we still have so many preaching "one day when the world comes to an end." That world ended with the appearing of Christ once and for all! THAT WORLD ENDED AT THE CROSS! I was getting a haircut during the millennium change, and everyone was looking for Christ to appear. Well, He’ll appear if you look in the right place for Him! You need to look where He is, and if you look where He is, the promise is: when you look - He’ll appear! So the barber asked me, since she knew I was a "preacher", what I thought about this, and if I thought the world was about to come to an end. I said, "If you want to be strictly biblical, "the world" as described in the Bible ended 2,000 years ago!" Well... nobody spoke - all quiet! Nobody asked any questions. She finished cutting my hair, I paid her, and left, and it was silent! At least until I got out of there.

But that’s true! The "world" is "age". Now we’ve been talking about the order of His appearing, and the order is: The First shall be Last and the Last shall be First. Now that’s the order of the Kingdom of God. Why? Because the First became Last, and the Last became First. And that happened in Christ. And it won’t work any other way with you and I. Until the First in us is Last, the Last can never be First. In other words, you always come to YOUR END before you come to The Beginning. Christ became first, The End; then, The Beginning. You can’t find The Beginning until you face The End. And you and I don’t want to do that. See, the Jews did not want to do that. In fact, Paul wrote in one of his letters they would not steadfastly look to the END of that which is abolished. They wouldn’t look to the end, because CHRIST was the end of it. But He is the end of that which is abolished. He’s the beginning of that which is Eternal. But we won’t look steadfastly to the end. We want to play this skip-to-my-Lou business; we want to jump over here into the beginning and never face the end. That is a Divine impossibility! You can’t do that.

That’s why I can look at a dispensationalist, and I can say you can’t have two ends. It’s a Divine impossibility. You can’t have Him coming at the end of two ages, because how did this Second one get started? It’s not a carryover of the First. He is distinctly the end, and then He’s exclusively the beginning. And that beginning has NO END - no linear end, no time end. But this one did. "At the fulness of the time..." Time only involves the First Covenant. Time has nothing to do with the Second Covenant. Weeks, days, months, years - First Covenant. They all have spiritual significance, but that all ends here. "When the fulness of time came... God sent forth His Son..." And it ends here.

But now, "Take away". In all the Bible dictionaries I’ve checked this in, here is what the word"take away" means. He taketh away. It means "to abolish, to remove violently, put to death, slay, kill, murder with violence." It doesn’t sound like the old just got tired and crept off somewhere. Now historically the "old" as being the whole of the First Covenant, He put it to death violently. The violence of His death; the violence of The Cross, the violence He suffered - not so much without, but WITHIN. The violence of a soul that was God, being separated from God. That’s the violence, because it is the realm of the death, hell wherein His soul went. "Ye shall not leave my soul in hell." This wasn’t "pretend" time with Jesus. The violence that was required! And we think that we are just going to lay it aside! And escape that violent end to it in ourselves? Not on your life! No, you’re not going to do that. You can try if you want to, but you’re not going to give it a sleeping pill, you’re not going to give it an injection - no you’re not! No, it ends with VIOLENCE! In us it ends with violence. That’s the reason we don’t want to look to that end.

We just say, ‘well, I’ll just get better. I’ll just improve with years.’ But the Old Covenant did not get better with years, nor did it just get old and die. It required HIS APPEARING - ONCE in the END hath HE APPEARED. And when He appears in you... and we’re not talking about two Jesuses here. We’re talking about His appearing as to the First, and as to the Second. And He always, when He’s revealed in you; you always see Him in His appearing as to the First - First. Always you do, always He is your end before you can ever see the beginning. The problem is that some Christians all of their lives struggle with the end, and never really are released to a beginning - a new beginning, a Newness of Life. They’re always in a battle with the old: the old concept, the Old Covenant. CHRIST IS THE END OF IT! See, He didn’t just simply bring it to an end historically: He Himself is the end of it. Every time you see Him you see the end of it. Every time He appears, He appears as what He is - the END of the one, the BEGINNING of the other. And yet Divine order of The Spirit says He is first - END; second - BEGINNING. So that’s the way you know Him. That’s the way you see Him. And in fact until the First is done away, the Second cannot be established. And the scriptures are clear about that in Hebrews 9 and 10.

So it’s not just a Divine Order: it’s a Divine necessity. God will not bring in one understanding upon another. And the Second Covenant is not the First improved. It is the First done away with violence, because the Second is so absolutely superior to and altogether other than the First, it requires the doing away with the First, and the Second is established; although the First is a testimony of it. But else we hold to the Testimony and reject the Living Witness, the one has to be done away. The sentence is death. He suffered it in Himself, because He Himself is the End, and He is that End eternally. And He is the Beginning, and He is that eternally.

So the appearing that the Bible teaches is as to the First and as to the Second. And historically and theologically He has already done that. He HAS appeared as the end of the First, He HAS appeared as the beginning of the Second, or there wouldn’t be a Second. Now as to you and I, in our own hearts, that’s the way He yet must appear IN US, because that’s the way He DID appear. That’s the way He must appear when we come to know Him. You see, because over the years there are believers being brought into this thing. Thank God there’s more believers than there were just in the first century, but we come into that very reality. And so God shows us His Son, to end in us a whole First order of humanity, a whole First order of the thing, that He might begin to establish in us the reality of His Son, the reality of what Life really is - CHRIST LIVING IN ME! I thought it was ME living, but the Second Covenant says, No, it is Christ living in you! If I can ever accept that, let alone understand that, I must then see that I am dead; that which I thought was life is dead. And having seen that, and reckoned that to be so, I can now look to another for Life. Something happens in me that I can accept that. But you can never accept that until you see the one dead. You can’t be released. We try all these ways, but it doesn’t work.

And that is Christ in His Appearing. That is the order of His Appearing: First as The End, Second as The Beginning. See, those things are NOT separated by thousands of years. It’s a THREE-DAY deal! And all of the prophecies of the First Covenant revolve around three days in some order or another. They had seven feasts, but they were called three feasts. And those three feasts were called three days, because they were called Sabbath days. It’s just amazing! And then Jesus says, "Three days". Do you think He just dreamed that up? And in Joshua - three days. Why not four, why not five, why not two? No - Divine order says three days. "Three times a year Israel will come before Me." Why not six? No, three; because it is representative. Jesus says, "Tear this temple down and in three days I will raise it again." Those are the days of His death, His burial, His resurrection. It’s The Cross! That’s the only separation between the First and Second. It’s just One Work of God - in His Son, Christ crucified. And there’s no other teachings in the Bible, particularly in the First Covenant other than that. Suffering Servant and Ruling King: He is one in death, He is the other in resurrection!

I tell you the modern day Christian and dispensationalists are more ignorant than the Old Covenant Jews were! They are - the Old Covenant Jews said we might accept Him as Reigning King, but we aren’t accepting Him as Suffering Servant. So here come the Christians now; the theology of today, and say we’re going to accept Him as Suffering Servant, but He’s NOT YET Ruling King. It’s foolish! And you want people to accept THIS as Salvation? I mean, particularly people that know anything about the Old Covenant. You want Jews to just come flocking to Jesus. If you could show them that The Ruling King was also The Suffering Servant they would receive Him. That’s what the disciples did. They said The One you killed is The One Who lives, and we live by Him, and He’s in us, and we present Him to you - both The Suffering Servant and The Ruling King! And the ones who did receive it, received Him!

But we come along as the Church and say all you Jews are wrong - you need to come and accept Jesus. He’s the True Suffering Servant. Well, where’s The King? Oh, He didn’t come yet! He’s going to come along "one day". And if I was a Jew I’d say, well, I tell you what, when He gets here, come and talk to me about it then. He’s the One I want to see.

But if you can say, Look, He’s The Same One! The One you killed, that I killed - we all killed Him... is The One Who lives! And His Kingdom is forever! Well now, the mystery is solved! THE CROSS! The hidden wisdom of God. That’s what Paul said. He said this whole business of The Cross to the Jews is a stumbling block, and to the Greeks it is foolishness, but to we that are saved it is the power of God and the wisdom of God. We understand HERE is the very wisdom of God; we understand here is the mystery of The Suffering Servant and The Ruling King brought together in One - death, burial, resurrection. There we are! There’s His appearing, and He’s every appearing in the Second because He’s substance of it. For God’s sake - HE IS THE SECOND! So how does He establish the Second? In His own appearing, in His glory. And there are three terms that apply to His Appearing: REVEALED, COMING, and APPEARING. Christ revealed, Christ coming, Christ appearing. They are all synonymous as to substance. They are only different as to effect. And these are important as we consider the TIME AND ORDER OF HIS APPEARING.