Coffee and The New Covenant Part 3 God's Law

Hi there, welcome to Reformed Ex Mormon. I'm Pastor Braden and I hope you're having a wonderful and blessed day today.

Today we're going to continue on with Coffee in the New Covenant. This is part three. Today I'm just drinking two shots of espresso.

That was made a little bit ago so it's getting more on the cold side but still very good and delicious.

A great thing to be drinking while we look at Hebrews chapter 8 verses 8 through 12 as we deal and talk with about the

New Covenant and what that means. So what we've already covered so far as this is part three is that we've looked at what it means to have the newness of this new covenant.

What it means that God is the mediator of this better covenant.

There in verse 6 of Hebrews chapter 8 says, but now he has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much he is also the mediator of a better covenant which has been enacted on better promises.

And then the last video that we did with part two was we were looking at what was called definite redemption.

And we were saying that in this new covenant all the members of this new covenant know God. And so it's definite, it's permanent, it's a reality meant expressively and effectually for those that are members of this new covenant.

Now this week what we're going to be doing is looking at what it means to be having the law written on our very hearts.

And we're going to be just discussing this and looking at it. Again a lot of this is coming from the ideas that have been put forth in this book, a reformed baptist manifesto, the new covenant constitution of the church.

I highly highly recommend this book. I think it does a great job at talking through many of these things that we're discussing here.

And so today like I said we're just going to be looking at what it means here. So in regards to the law being written upon the new covenant members' hearts.

So what we're going to do is we're going to read verses 8 through 12 out of Hebrews chapter 8. And again this is being quoted from Jeremiah 31 verses 31 to 34.

So let us go ahead and read what the text has to say for us. For finding fault with them, he says,

Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which

I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.

For they did not continue in my covenant, and I did not care for them, says the

Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel.

After those days, says the Lord, I will put my law into their minds, and I will write upon their hearts.

And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen and everyone his brother, saying,

Know the Lord. For all shall know me from the least to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.

And so why is it important that we discuss this law being written on our hearts? When we look at this, this would be consistent with what is regarded in Christianity as being born again.

It's when the heart of stone is removed and the heart of flesh is put therein. And this is what's known as regeneration.

This is a reality that happens in everybody's life that becomes a believer in Jesus Christ.

It's when they're born from above, that heart of stone is removed, and this new heart that's put in them is one that loves

God's law. Why is that important to discuss? Well, there's a false doctrine out there that many,

I think, evangelical Christians that we see today promote, and that is the idea of antinomianism.

And again, this is discussed in this book, but this idea of that term is that it's defined as people that are against God's law.

And the reason that they're against God's law is they think that as long as they just have faith in Jesus Christ, that's it, they're saved.

It's almost this thought of easy -believism, which it is true. When you have faith in Jesus Christ and you're born again, and you're justified, you're saved in that regard.

However, it's not true to have a

Christian not love God's law, because God's law is flowing and stemming from who he is.

And so for us to hate and be against God's law would actually be to hate and be against God's holiness and righteousness and justice.

And may that never be. That cannot be the case. Being a lover of God's law is part of our sanctification.

Will we ever keep God's law? Absolutely not. God's law, we all fall short of the glory of God in that regard.

We are not righteous, no, not one. The law was actually given to hold everyone accountable before God.

But let's look here in verse 10 of Hebrews chapter 8 and discuss a little bit about this here.

So there's two things I would really want you to pay attention to in this text here. And so verse 10 says this, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel.

After those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind and I will write them upon their heart.

And I will be their God and they shall be my people. Now the first thing

I would want you to pay attention to is the pronoun that's used in there with God referring to himself as I will be the one that does this.

This is not something that the Christian writes upon their heart. This is not a work that stems from the nature of the believer.

This is the reality of God doing something that man cannot do. And just as in the

Old Testament when God gave his 10 commandments and he wrote them upon the tablets, it was

God who wrote those 10 commandments. He wrote the law on the stone.

We now see in this reality that God is the one that writes his law on the believer's heart.

It's an action, it's an action that's done, a work that's done by God and God himself.

And the second thing that I would say that you should also pay attention to in this text is that where is this law written?

And it says that he's going to write it upon our minds and he's going to write it in our hearts.

Now why is that important? As I previously mentioned with the stone tablets, the 10 commandments, the moral law that was given many many years ago, it was written on stone.

Well now we have it written within us. It's no longer that we have to look at something, it's actually written in our very core.

And so are we saved by obeying God's law in this way? Absolutely not.

We know that we cannot keep God's law in its fullness in any way or any shape or form. James 2 .10

says that if we have broken the least of the letter of the law, we are guilty of it all.

And so when we look at this and we realize that we are saved because God has been merciful to our iniquities and he remembers our sin no more because we're his people, this changing of the heart, this placing of his law into our life is something that should cause the believer to want to be sanctified by God's word.

It should cause the believer to hate their sin oh so much more and it should make them want to be more and more like Christ who is the perfect keeper of that law and whom his righteousness has been imputed to our account.

Now I want to read really quickly just out of two places. I think the 1689 Lenten Baptist Confession of Faith is well said when it comes to God's law.

But what we're going to read right now is God's law and paragraph 7. It says, these uses of the law are not contrary to the grace of the gospel but are in sweet harmony with it.

For the spirit of Christ subdues and enables the human will to do freely and cheerfully what the will of God has revealed in the law requires.

So as a Christian we have to walk a fine line because if we go too far into wanting to obey

God's law in the sense of saying that it's required, we are erring into that of legalism.

We're erring into the thought of works based salvation, which may it never be. The Christian is not saved by the works that are produced from their own hands.

It's only on the merit of what Christ has done. But on that front, if we only look to what

Christ has done and we ignore the holiness of God's law and what we need to do, what we should be doing as followers of Christ, we then fall into that antinomianism where we are actually against God's law.

And that's not a good reality either. And so when we look here at 2 Corinthians chapter 3,

I'll read here in verses 3 -6 for us. 2 Corinthians 3, 3 -6 says this, being manifest that you are a letter of Christ cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living

God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.

And such confidence we have through Christ toward God, not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God.

Amen. I love this. Verse 6 says this, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit.

For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. What is this new covenant that's spoken of here in this text?

It's the very new covenant that Christ instituted by giving his flesh and spilling his blood on our behalf.

He is the mediator of this better covenant that is spoken of here in Hebrews chapter 8 and is repeated often here in this whole book of the book of Hebrews for us.

One other place I would want us just to turn and read here in the idea of thinking through keeping of God's law and wanting to obey him and wanting to be more like Christ in this way, knowing that our adequacy comes only from God through what

Christ has done for us. That's truly where our salvation is, is only from Jesus Christ.

When we look at Romans chapter 11 verses, and we'll read verse 26 to 27 just to help us understand this.

Again, it says here in verse, well, let's read 25 to 27. It says, for I do not want you brethren to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation that a partial hardening has happened to Israel, and to the fullness of the

Gentiles has come in. And thus all Israel will be saved.

Just as it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion. He will remove ungodliness from Jacob, and this is my covenant with them, when

I take away their sins. Specifically, verse 27 is a quotation from Jeremiah 31, 31 -34, and is repeated for us in Hebrews chapter 8, those verses that we already read, verses 8 -12.

And so God's righteousness is imputed into our account. Our sins are remembered no more because Christ paid the debt of them.

That wage of our sin was satisfied at the hill of Calvary.

But God has written his laws in our hearts. And as a

Christian, you need, you will, and you ought to be being sanctified by that very law that's written on your heart.

It is no longer written on a stone tablet. It is written upon your very core.

And so therefore you should be a lover of God's law. You should want to seek it.

You should want justice to be done continually. You should be always going after that which is righteous and good in the

Christian's eyes, because we have our sins remembered no more. And again, who has done this?

Who has been the enactor of this? It is God himself, and it is

God himself that has written that law on our core. So please, if you are a Christian, do not be a hater of God's law.

Do not think that it is wrong for you to want to obey it. In fact, it's now part of your new nature, part of being born again.

You want to keep God's law because you know him, you love him, and you want to honor him.

God bless. Go in peace. I hope that this video has helped you understand a little bit more about this new covenant that's spoken of here in Hebrews, as well as Jeremiah chapter 31.