There are few experiences in life that are more
painful than the death of a marriage. I'm not
talking about two people who casually dated for
a few months and then decided to go their separate
ways. I'm talking about two people who stood
together on a wedding day. The room was full
of people that they loved. Pictures were taken.
Tears were in the eyes of their parents, and
they stood before all of those witnesses, making
promises like, for better or for worse, for richer
or for poorer, in sickness and in health, forsaking
all others. I will be faithful to you and you
alone for as long as we both shall live. And
on that day, they meant those words. They built
a home together. They bought furniture together.
developed traditions that belonged only to them,
celebrated birthdays and anniversaries, took
vacations, held each other in hospital rooms
through grief, maybe even raised children together,
accumulated pictures and inside jokes that only
they knew, no one else would completely understand,
and then something happened. Maybe it happened
suddenly through an unfaithful act. of betrayal.
Maybe it happened slowly throughout the years
of unfaithfulness and dishonesty and broken promises.
But eventually one person looked across the room
at the other person and decided that the vows
and the covenant and the marriage was shattered
and over. And I want you to think about the emotion
of that. Maybe some of you have experienced that
very thing and the emotion that comes with that.
The person that was supposed to be faithful became
unfaithful. The person who promised to stay walked
away. The person that promised that you could
trust them became untrustworthy. And the pain
was so deep precisely because the relationship
was so significant. You do know that a stranger
cannot betray you like a spouse can betray you.
Betrayal only hurts because the covenant love
that was supposed to be there. And then imagine
something even more faithful than that, imagining
one spouse who had done everything right, completely
faithful, kept every promise, loved, provided,
protected, forgave, pursued reconciliation every
single time, but the other spouse just kept walking.
away again and again, unfaithful, broken promises,
returning, never to leave. How many times can
a covenant be broken before there's no hope left?
How many promises can be shattered before the
relationship is beyond repair? How much betrayal
can love endure? And church, that is the emotional
weight we need to feel in order for the text
that we're looking at today to carry the weight
it needs to have. Worshipped other gods, trusted
other nations, ignored his word, oppressed the
vulnerable, and broke their covenant. And eventually
we know the consequences came for all of that.
The kingdom collapsed, split in two, the temple
was destroyed, the people were carried out into
exile, and from a human perspective the marriage
was over. In fact, the prophet Jeremiah doesn't
pull back on this language at all. He says in
Jeremiah 320, surely as a treacherous wife leaves
her husband, so you have been treacherous to
me, O house of Israel declares the Lord. This
is how God wants us to feel about the weight
of Israel's sin. This was not simply a nation
breaking rules. was a people breaking their covenant.
It was covenant betrayal. But then this same
prophet, in the midst of the same book, records
something completely unimaginable. You would
think that God would say, I'm done. with having
a people for myself. I'm done with these humans.
I'm done with their unfaithfulness. But then
we read these words. Behold the days are coming,
declares the Lord, when I will establish a new
covenant. You feel the shock of that? After all
the betrayal, God was not finished with having
a people for himself? And he wasn't just gonna
restate the old vows and tell them, hey, let's
try this again. Let me give you another shot.
Because the deepest problem that Israel had was
not, it wasn't that they didn't know what the
law required. They had the law, they knew the
commandments, they had the prophets, they knew
the vows. The problem was something was wrong
with their heart. So God promised something.
astonishing this time he wasn't simply gonna
put rules in front of them or put his law in
front of them he was going to put everything
within them he would be their God and they would
be his people they would truly know the the contrast
and the weight that we have to feel before we
ever come to Hebrews chapter 8 7 through 13 The
new covenant is not God giving sinful people
a second chance to keep their promises. The new
covenant is God acting in Christ to accomplish
for His people what they would never be able
to accomplish for themselves. Through Christ,
God is creating a marriage that will never come
to an end. A covenant in which the bridegroom
will never stop loving the bride and by grace,
the bride will be given everything she needs
to become a faithful spouse to her husband. And
they will love Jesus, the bridegroom in return.
Turn with me to Hebrews chapter eight. I want
you to keep this imagery of a broken covenant.
and a broken marriage in mind as we work through
this whole thing because the contrast is there
and we'll come back to it at the end as well.
But it's an important imagery for us to feel
the weight of the new covenant. Hebrews chapter
8 verses 7 through 13. For if the first covenant
had been faultless, There would have been no
occasion to look for a second one. For he finds
fault with them when he says, behold the days
are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish
a new covenant with the house of Israel and with
the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that
I made with their fathers on the day when I took
them by the hand to bring them out of the land
of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant.
And so I showed no concern for them, declares
the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will
make with the house of Israel after those days
declares the Lord I will put my laws in their
minds. I will write them on their hearts I will
be their God and they shall be my people For
they shall not teach each one of his neighbor
and each one of his brothers saying know the
Lord For they shall all know me from the least
of them to the greatest For I will be merciful
toward their iniquities and I will remember their
sins no more And in speaking of a new covenant,
he makes the first one obsolete. And what is
becoming obsolete is growing old and is ready
to vanish away. The writer begins in verse seven
with a statement that might sound surprising
at first. For if the first covenant had been
faultless, there would be no occasion to look
for a second. That's very strong language about
the old covenant. The writer says the first covenant
was faulty. And it was faulty in accomplishing
everything that God intended to accomplish for
His people. And that is why there is need for
another one. Because the first one is faulty.
There would have been no promise to Jeremiah
of a new covenant if the first one could accomplish.
everything God wanted to accomplish for his people.
There would never be a reason to talk about something
better if the first one did the job. Now we need
to be very careful here. The writer is not saying
that the Old Covenant was sinful. There's a difference
between faulty and sinful. The writer is not
telling us that the law itself was wrong. God
did not make a mistake at Mount Sinai. He didn't
try one plan and then go, oh gosh, that plan
was terrible. Let me try a different plan. Paul
makes this clear in Romans chapter seven verse
12 when he says the law is holy. And the commandment
is holy and righteous. The law came from God,
did it not? The law revealed the character of
God. It showed the holiness of God. It defined
righteousness. It exposed sin. It restrained
evil. It ordered the worship and the life of
Israel. The law accomplished exactly what God
intended for it to accomplish. But there were
things that the Old Covenant could not do. It
could never bring God's people into perfect access
with God. It could not provide permanent priesthood.
It couldn't offer a final sacrifice for sin or
cleanse the conscious once and for all. It could
not produce a covenant people who would remain
faithful to God. This is the tension between
verse 7 and verse 8. So verse 7 is wrapped up
in all of that is what I just said. It is a faulty
covenant because it cannot accomplish everything
that God intends to accomplish in His people.
Then we get to verse 8, and verse 8 says, for
he finds fault with them. So we have a faulty
covenant, and then it says that God finds fault
with them. For those of you that are textual
scholars, I am very aware that there's a textual
variant here. We're not dealing with that this
morning. Those of you that care about that, care
about it. Those that don't, forget what I just
said. The writer is now taking us to the sinful
people. Faulty covenant that can't accomplish
everything that God intends for his people. Then
he turns to the people and says the people are
sinful. And he characterizes Israel's problem
in verse 9. They did not keep my covenant. So
the guilt is with the people and in one sentence
he summarizes up basically all of old covenant
Israel. This is everything wrapped up in one
verse. They did not Continue. We see this pattern
from the very beginning when God takes Israel
out of slavery in Egypt. He divides the Red Sea,
destroys Pharaoh's army, He leads the people
through the wilderness, He brings them to Mount
Sinai, and He enters into covenant with them.
Exodus 24 verse 7 says, What a promise. All the
Lord has spoken, we're gonna do it. But before
Moses had ever come down from Mount Sinai with
the stone tablets, what were they doing? Worshipping
the golden calf. How quickly that promise fell
apart. They knew the covenant, they heard the
words, and yet they still broke it. And that
pattern continues all throughout the Old Testament.
God speaks, Israel promises. Israel breaks the
promise. God disciplines them. Israel cries out.
Israel fails in the promise after God delivers
them again. And then the cycle just repeats over
and over and over again. It happened at the edge
of the promised land. It happened during the
period of judges. It happened under the kings.
It happened under the prophets. They refused
to listen. And because of that, eventually, They
fell to Assyria, Judah was carried out to Babylon,
Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was burned,
the people were carried out into exile, all because,
verse 9, they did not continue in my covenant.
Something was broken in the people. And that
old covenant was faulty because it couldn't fix
it. Everybody clear on that? We're not saying
the Old Covenant was sinful. We're saying the
Old Covenant did not have what it needed to have
to fix the problem that Israel had. The law could
say love the Lord your God with all your heart,
with all your soul, with all your might, but
while it could command love, it didn't create
love. That's why Paul says in Galatians 3, for
if the law that had been given could give life,
the righteousness would indeed be by the law.
The law could command life, it could describe
life, but it couldn't produce life. It couldn't
give life. Paul says again in Romans 3, for by
works of the law, no human being will be justified
in his sight, since through the law only comes
the knowledge of sin. The law can show you where
you're sinful. It can show you where you're failing
It can show you why you're messing up, but it
has no power to get inside of you and make a
change That's why it's faulty The law is like
a medical scan Okay, you go to the doctor and
you get a medical scan and the doctor brings
that medical scan out and shows it to you and
says look right here There's what this scan revealed.
You've got this tumor in your elbow And the doctor
goes, you see it, it's clear. We know 100 % by
this scan, you got a tumor in your elbow. So
here's what we're gonna do. You see it? They're
like, yep, yep, we see it. I see the tumor as
well. You're looking at it. And the doctor goes,
so here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna do
that scan every day for the next three years.
And we're just gonna hope that that scan makes
the tumor go away. You would look at that doctor
and say, I'm gonna have to go get a second opinion.
Because that tumor, is not gonna go away by you
just keep doing an MRI. When you take the law
and you hold it up and you say, here is the scan
that reveals your sinfulness. But if you think
that scan, if you think that law is gonna deal
with the actual problem in your heart, you need
to go reach a second opinion. It's never gonna
do it. The Old Covenant could reveal with perfect
clarity what was wrong in the human heart, but
it could not fix what was broken. Why? Romans
8. What the law weakened by the flesh could not
do. The problem was the sinful hearts, the rebellious
hearts, the idolatrous hearts. hearts that can
hear the voice of God and still turn away and
walk away. And that is the tragedy of Israel's
history. Not a lack of light or a lack of privilege
or a lack of commands. The problem was the heart.
And that is what the Old Covenant demonstrated
across all of Israel's history. Church, we have
to understand the depth of the problem before
we can possibly appreciate the solution. Because
if our problem was simply ignorance, then we
just need better information, right? If that
was all of our problem, if the problem was just
ignorance, it would just give me more information.
If the problem was simple confusion, then just
give me clear instructions. But if the problem
goes deeper than that, if the problem goes deeper
than just the lack of effort, if something is
actually broken in our hearts, then the Old Covenant
cannot be the answer. The Old Covenant can bring
the clarity, but it cannot bring the solution.
As Martin Luther wrote, the law says, do this,
and it is never done. So there's the problem
with the faulty Old Covenant and the guilt and
the problem of those human beings. And now we
turn to that better covenant in verses 10, beginning
in verse 10. Having shown what the old covenant
could not do, the writer turns to verse 10 to
make what makes the new covenant so much better.
And here he begins quoting Jeremiah 31, okay?
So this quote right here in your text is Jeremiah
31, 31 through 34. and the contrast between the
old covenant and new covenant could not be greater.
I just want you to listen to the language of
verses 10 through 12. I will put my law in their
minds, I will write it on their hearts, I will
be their God, I will be merciful toward their
iniquities, I will remember their sin no more.
Do you already start seeing the difference? Right
off the bat, you begin seeing the difference?
Old covenant demonstrated the sinfulness of the
people confronted them with the holy commands
of God The new covenant announces that God himself
what God himself promises to do for the people
The hope of the new covenant is not ultimately
found in a better promise from us to God That
is not the new covenant the new covenant is not
human beings just saying, okay, we're gonna rededicate
ourselves to following you. That's not the new
covenant. It's not our promise to God. The new
covenant is God's promise to us. You see the
difference? It's God's promise to us. It's founded
on better promises from God to humans. And that's
exactly what Hebrews 8 .6 has already told us.
The new covenant is enacted on better promises.
But before we look at those promises, and there's
three of them in this text, before we look at
them, I want you to see these promises are not
just floating out there, kind of by themselves,
untethered to anything. The writer of Hebrews
has spent all of this time talking about the
priesthood of Christ. So I need you to understand
something. He has not spent chapter after chapter
after chapter talking about the priesthood of
Christ simply to change subjects in chapter 8.
He's not changing subjects. It is the same topic.
Why? Because priesthood and covenant are inseparable
from one another. You cannot take them apart.
If we look back to Hebrews 7 -11, it says now,
if perfection had been attained through the Levitical
priesthood, and then he says this, for under
it, the Levitical priesthood, the people received
the law. Okay, so if perfection of people could
be found in the little Levitical priesthood under
which they receive the law Then what further
need would there be for another priest from a
different order Melchizedek? Notice the connection
the writer is making under the law Levitical
priesthood old covenant and priesthood the priesthood
the Levitical priesthood was was put within the
very structure of the Old Covenant. The priests
administered the sacrifices. They maintained
the sanctuary. They carried out the ceremonies.
They represented the people before God. And the
entire covenantal system was dependent upon the
Levitical priesthood. So here's what you can't
do. You cannot just remove the Levitical priesthood.
and then take Jesus and put him into the old
system and it worked. Why? Because the Levitical
priesthood and the old covenant are inseparable
from one another. So what God does is then God
steps in and says, I'm creating a new order of
priest that is not Levitical. So guess what you
got to do when you change priest. What do you
have to change? The covenant. If you change the
priest, then the covenant has to change as well.
They're inseparable. You can't keep the old covenant
and just create it, drop a new priest in. When
you establish a new priesthood, you also establish
a new covenant. That is what the very next verse
says in verse 12 of chapter 7. For when there
is a change of priesthood, there is necessarily
a change in the law as well. Did you know that
Jesus was not even qualified to be an Old Testament
priest? Did you know that? He couldn't even be
one. Jesus was unqualified. So even if you take
Aaron and all those faulty priests out and say,
let's get rid of all these faulty priests and
let's bring in the perfect priest and you drop
him into that system, he wouldn't even be allowed
to be a priest. Was it from the right tribe?
He was from the tribe of Judah not the tribe
of Levi. He couldn't even be an old covenant
priest So we got to get rid of this idea that
somehow Jesus is coming just to make that old
covenant or that old law possible for us wrong
He's establishing something completely different
Completely new by establishing a new priest a
priest who doesn't just help us understand the
new covenant, but one who mediates the new covenant
himself. He doesn't just deliver its terms. He
secures the blessing in himself. The new covenant
is better because the mediator is better. And
this better priest does not merely give us a
set of demands. He delivers new promises. Please
catch this. Because I because I think Christians
get this wrong sometimes this is how I think
Christians how we think about it. We have the
law we have the rules they couldn't follow the
rules Jesus comes just gives us new rules and
puts his spirit in it to make it possible for
us to follow the rules, but then we all know
we don't follow those rules anyway, so then we
feel like major failures all the time, and we're
looking at God saying, well, God must not love
me, and that's not a proof of me, must not think
much of me, because I can't follow these new
rules. Just like Israel couldn't follow the old
rules, I can't follow the new rules. And that's
how we look at the Old and New Covenant. That's
garbage. All of that is garbage. Jesus doesn't
come and give us a new set of rules and go, let's
see if you can do it. The new covenant is not
based on rules at all. It is based on the promises
of God that Jesus secured by His life, death,
burial, resurrection, and ascension. Do you see
the difference? It is not God waiting for us
to do something. It is God doing all the stuff
for us. He secures. everything we need with better
promises. So what are those promises? Let's look
at all three of them here. Verse 10, first part
of verse 10. Now I want to say something about
this before I even get into what I have written
here. What God does not do is take the Mosaic
Law and write the Mosaic Law in your heart. and
then say you gotta follow the Mosaic Law. You
remember when we did the series Upside Down Kingdom?
You remember that? We talked about the new law
of God. Paul describes that new law as the law
of what? Love. We talked about how Jesus sometimes
says things, let me say it this way, the way
we said it. He gives us a completely different
kind of law. Okay? The fulfillment of the Mosaic
law has happened, and now what Jesus does is
Jesus comes and gives us a completely different
kind of system to live under. And some people
make the mistake of saying, well, what God is
doing when He says law here is that God is giving
us the Mosaic law written on our hearts. And
we've talked about the problem with that, because
every one of you in this room is violating that
law right now. Number one, by the clothes you
wear. Number two, by the haircuts you have. Number
three, probably by your diet. Did God come along
and write the dietary laws on the hearts of human
beings in the New Covenant? Well, that wouldn't
make any sense, because what did he say to Peter?
Peter, don't call unclean things that I'm calling
clean. Did he come along and write the ritual
laws about what kind of clothes you're supposed
to wear, and they can't be two different fabrics,
they gotta be all one fabric, and you can't cut
the hair on your temples, and did he write that
on the hearts of new covenant members? No. The
law that we're talking about here is the law
of Christ. It is the law that Jesus brings that
goes far beyond that old covenant law. Just want
to clarify that because there's so much confusion
that people have when they start talking about
that They're saying God wrote the Mosaic law
my heart really Because I've never met anybody
following it So let's talk about The main point
of verse 10 he's going to do something inside
his people Under the old covenant, the law was
written on tablets of stone. It stood before
the people, holy and righteous. It told them
what God required. Now God says, I will put in
them. I will put in their hearts. God promises
to do an internal work in his covenant people.
That was not promised in the old covenant. That's
a promise in the new covenant. Now, does this
mean that nobody in the Old Testament loved God?
It's not what this means, but I want to make
a clear distinction here. In the Old Covenant,
there were a bunch of people who loved God. David
loved God. Moses desired to see the presence
of God because he loved God. Abraham loved God.
The Psalms are written by people who loved God.
We can look in the Old Testament and see a bunch
of people that love God. But here's what I need
you to see. If you're taking notes, write this
down. The Old Covenant did not secure that love.
Please understand that. It was not the Old Covenant
that secured David's love for God. It was God's
grace that God gave it to him. Because Abraham
had it before the law was even given. So it wasn't
the law... that moved in people's hearts to make
them love God. It was always, Brother James has
said this since I came here when I was 12 years
old, people in the Old Testament were saved the
same way people in the New Testament were, by
grace through faith. But the old covenant law
doesn't give them the grace and didn't give them
the faith. It was apart from that. Now God promises,
I'm gonna do by grace through faith in every
single person in the covenant. Every person in
this covenant, I am going to do something inside
of them. Causing them to love me. Causing them
to have faith in me. I'm going to do something
to them. This promise appears through a bunch
of the Old Testament prophets. Here's Ezekiel
36, 26, and 27. I will give you a new heart.
a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove
the heart of stone from your flesh and give you
a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within
you. Again, notice the words, I will, I will,
I will, I will. The new covenant's not God lowering
his standards. See, people get real nervous when
I say God didn't write the Mosaic Law on new
covenant members' hearts. They get nervous because,
well, then the new covenant Christians are just
gonna do whatever they want to. They're just
gonna go out and sin and it's not gonna matter.
You've gotta lay those laws on them to keep them
under control. When somebody says that, I go,
you don't understand the new covenant. You're
missing the plot. You're missing what this is
all about. You're thinking that way that I described
a while ago. Here Ezekiel says, I'm gonna give
you a new heart so you wanna do what I ask you
to do. I'm gonna give you a new spirit that doesn't
rebel against me, but loves me. Remember, we
talked about this. Is the problem of a Christian,
if you were in the new covenant, is the problem
your heart? No. Stop saying, well, you know that,
my heart's wrong. No, it's not. You've been given
a new heart. Your heart is right. Your heart
wants... God, it wants the good things of God.
You have a new spirit within you, a spiritually
alive spirit that wants the things of God. The
problem is the flesh, which includes the mind.
It is not your heart. You've been given a new
one of those. And God is not lowering his standard
in the new covenant. It's not like God went well,
you know, I really wanted those people to follow
my will but it doesn't look like they can do
it So I'll just my will is not that not that
important. Maybe maybe holiness should be optional.
Maybe we should just go with religious activity
Maybe we should stop caring about obedience because
these people can't do it That's not the new covenant
The new covenant still has righteousness and
holiness and new creation living, but what God
does is he doesn't wait for us just to try to
figure it out. He comes and says, I'm gonna do
this in them so that they obey me and follow
me and walk with me. See the difference, church?
Not if you see the difference. If you got a blank
stare at me, then I'm thinking you're not getting
it. God acts within his people by his spirit
to increasingly move in us so that we obey God.
Augustine famously said this, give what you command.
In other words, if you give me the ability to
follow your command, then command whatever you
will. It's a beautiful quote. You command me
anything Lord you you you tell me to follow you
and do anything and go anywhere and be Anything
and as long as you give me the power to do it
then command whatever you want But don't just
command me and leave me to myself And that's
not what the new covenant does at all Yes, the
Christian will struggle with sin yes, we still
have a flesh, but we no longer make peace with
sin The Christian still fails, but there's now
a desire for God that is not produced outside
of himself. So the new covenant creates a transformed
people. We good with that one? Let's go to the
second promise. God promises a people who truly
know Him. Verse 10 continues, and into verse
11, and I will be their God, they will be my
people. Verse 11, and they shall not teach one
His neighbor and each one, his brother saying,
know the Lord for they will all know me from
the least to the greatest. This is a very intimate
promise here. God is not simply improving our
behavior. That's not what he's, he's not simply
promising to improve our behavior. He's promising
himself. I will be their God and they shall be
my people. That is the language. of covenant.
The tragedy of Israel was a covenantal betrayal.
God had loved them and they repeatedly gave their
hearts to other gods. But now God is promising
a covenant people who will know Him. A covenant
people who will know Him. Not merely know about
Him. Not merely know his will, not merely know
the stories of the past, not merely be a part
of religious ceremonies, but will know God intimately.
And notice the extent of this. They shall all
know me from the least to the greatest. Now,
to appreciate that promise, we need to understand
something about the Old Testament. In the Old
Testament, over and over and over again, There
was a constant responsibility of God's people
to teach other covenant members to know the Lord.
Okay, so priests, the Levitical priests, were
supposed to teach the people, the covenant people,
to know the Lord. Parents were supposed to teach
their children who were covenant people to know
the Lord. The prophets came over and over and
over and called Israel back to knowing the Lord.
Hosea says, let us know, let us press on to know
the Lord. Isn't it weird that you can be in the
old covenant with God and not know him? But that
was the condition of Israel. You could be a covenant
member of the old covenant and not know God.
You could be born an Israelite and not know God.
You could be circumcised, participate in the
festivals, bring sacrifices to the temple, possess
the scriptures, be a physical descendant of Abraham
and not know God in the Old Covenant. And here's
what God is saying in this promise. There will
be no such people in the New Covenant. Every
person in the New Covenant will know me. To be
in the Covenant, is to know God. And to know
God is to be in the new covenant. In the old
covenant, you could be in the covenant and not
know God. No such thing in the new covenant.
Every person in the new covenant knows God. It
is part and parcel to being in the covenant that
you know Him. What a remarkable difference. They
shall all know me from the least to the greatest.
God is creating a covenant people characterized
by the fact that they know him. Now I want to
say something here because it says in verse 11
that this covenant is going to be made with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
You see that in the text? The house of Israel
and the house of Judah. Some have therefore concluded
that these promises belong exclusively to ethnic
Israel. and that Gentiles can just kind of maybe
get some blessings out of it. But that's not
how the New Testament explains the fulfillment
of God's promises. The New Covenant, listen carefully,
the New Covenant is not an abandonment of Israel's
promises. It is a fulfillment of those promises.
Everyone who belongs to the Messiah shares in
the promises secured by the Messiah. That's why
Paul says in Galatians 3, know then that it is
those of faith who are sons of Abraham. That's
why he says in Galatians 3, there is neither
Jew nor Greek, for you are all one in Christ.
And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's
offspring according to promise. The new covenant,
are a people of God that are gathered around
Jesus from every tribe and nation and tongue.
It doesn't matter what you look like, where you
came from, what your genealogy is. If you have
given yourself to Christ, if you are in Christ,
then you get all the promises that Christ secured.
Believing Jews are not excluded. Gentiles are
not second -class citizens. Everybody's one in
Jesus Christ. He is creating one covenant people
from every nation. That's why Paul says in Ephesians
2 Christ broke down the wall of hostility Creating
one new man. It's why he says in Galatians 6
16 of the new people of God They are the Israel
of God The point is not that God is abandoning
Israel and starting over somewhere else The point
is that God's promises to Israel reach their
fulfillment in Israel's Messiah. Does that not
just make sense? God makes promises then sends
the Messiah to get those promises and everybody
who has the Messiah has the promises. So this
new covenant is not just for ethnic people from
Israel and Judah. It's for anybody who comes
to Christ. It is union with Abraham's promised
seed, Jesus. This means church that this promise
is ours. I will be their God and they will be
my people. Think of that wonder for a second
church. God looks at you and says, that one's
mine. That one is mine. And we look at God and
say, you. What a wonder. If it wasn't for the
new covenant, that would not be able to happen.
It's not about just getting forgiven so we can
go up to heaven one day. The goal of the covenant
is knowing God himself. J .I. Packer in his book
Knowing God says, what were we made for? To know
God. What aim should we set ourselves in life?
To know God. What is the eternal life that Jesus
gives? the knowledge of God. Promise three, God's
promise to have a completely forgiven people.
For I will be merciful toward their iniquities
and I'll remember their sins no more. Do you
see that word four? Four, I will be merciful.
That little word means a lot. The promise of
forgiveness is not simply one of the other blessings
added randomly to the end of the list. It is
the foundation beneath the other promises. John
Piper said, the death of Jesus for our sins is
the foundation of the new covenant. It's the
basis of the other promises. How can a holy God
take sinful people and say, I'll be their God?
How can covenant breakers be brought into a relationship
with the God they've betrayed. How can guilty
people come into the presence of God instead
of running away? Mercy. And notice how complete
this mercy is. I will remember their sins no
more. God is promising that the sins of his new
covenant people will never again be brought up
to put them under condemnation. Romans 8 .1.
Their guilt has been dealt with their debt has
been paid their condemnation has been removed
in the blood of Jesus on The night Jesus was
crucified Jesus took the cup and said this is
the cup poured out for you It is the new covenant
in my blood the promises of Hebrew eight are
all purchased by the blood of Christ. Our transformation,
our knowledge of God, our place among the people
of God, our forgiveness of sin, all of it by
the blood of Jesus. This is why Jesus is not
merely a messenger of the New Covenant. He is
the one who guarantees, who inaugurates, who
secures, and who ministers it. It's all based
on Him. This is why the new covenant is better
not simply built on better intentions It is established
on better promises in Jesus Again and again,
here's the pattern Old Testament if you obey
me you're blessed if you don't obey me covenant
curses The old covenant was just one big if.
IF, I even wrote it bigger in my notes. IF, one
big if. It's not the new covenant. The new covenant
language is completely different. The new covenant
language is God saying, I will, I will, I will.
He doesn't leave it to an if. You hear me church?
He doesn't leave it to an if. He doesn't leave
it up to you. He does it in you. The hope of
the old covenant rested upon the people's covenant
faithfulness. The hope of the new covenant rests
on God's covenant faithfulness. It's not rest
upon our ability to obey God's Word, but God's
determination to keep His Word. Last thing in
verse 13. Just want to point this out He says
in speaking of a new covenant he makes the first
one obsolete and what is becoming obsolete is
growing old and Is ready to vanish away now you
may hear that and say well that seems like a
little weird language to me because it says What
is obsolete is growing old and ready to put away?
When did it become obsolete church Jesus Jesus
made, once Jesus died, rose again, sent to the
right hand of the Father, old covenant obsolete.
Then why is Paul saying it is growing old and
ready to vanish away, if spiritually it's already
done? And here's what I want to point out, listen
carefully. Spiritually speaking, old covenant
done when Jesus did his work. You with me there?
Old covenant done. When this book was written,
was the temple still standing? Yes. Were the
Levitical priests still offering sacrifices?
Yes. Were they still mediating on behalf of the
people? Yes. Everything about that old system,
the old mechanism still existed even though Jesus
had come. Remember what Jesus told the disciples
on the Mount of Olives as he's looking down over
the temple? in Matthew chapter 24, he says, know
this, there will not be one stone left upon another.
This temple is coming down. When the writer of
Hebrews says it is ready to vanish away, most
theologians believe what he's referring to is
this whole structure, this whole mechanism is
coming down. Spiritually, it's pointless. They
can keep doing their stuff, but that's idolatry.
Once Jesus came, offering one sacrifice, idolatry.
Going to a priest, idolatry. Going in the temple,
idolatry. All of it is a rejection of Jesus and
his covenant. And Jesus says, part of my judgment
for their idolatry and rejection of me is this
structure, this mechanism is coming down. So
it has not yet vanished away, but in AD 70, it
was about to be gone, but it hadn't been gone
yet when the writer wrote this book. You don't
think that the people who had read this book
when that temple fell, that they didn't go, oh
it's vanished now. It's vanished now because
any visible sign of it has been crumbled to the
ground. The Old Covenant was typical, shadowy,
removable, and the new covenant is substantial,
permanent, as containing the body which is Christ,
John Owen. The temple can be gone? His true temple
exists, doesn't it? His new covenant temple exists?
Earthly altar could be gone? Jesus isn't. Covenant's
still there. It doesn't depend upon the blood
of animals. Levitical priests can be gone. It
doesn't affect the new covenant whatsoever, because
that depends upon Jesus. Jesus is seated at the
right hand of the Father. Church, this is why
there is nowhere else to go but Jesus. There
is nowhere else to go. You go anywhere else,
there is no salvation. There's no better priest,
no better sacrifice, no better covenant, no better
promises. It was all pointing to Jesus. And if
you have Jesus, you have all the new and better
things. Let's return now at the end to this broken
marriage. The bride was unfaithful. She broke
her vows. She gave her heart to others. And from
every human perspective, the marriage was beyond
repair between God and human beings. But God
did not give up. on having a people for himself.
In the New Covenant, the bridegroom does what
his unfaithful bride could never do. He pays
for her betrayal with his own blood, he forgives
her completely, he gives her a new heart, and
he brings her home, and he creates a bride that
knows him, belongs to him, and loves him. The
New Covenant is the story of a faithful bridegroom
who gave himself to save an unfaithful bride
and by his grace makes her faithful forever.
That is why it is a better covenant.