WWUTT 1843 The New Covenant (Hebrews 8:7-13)

When Jesus was with his disciples, he said, A new covenant I give you in my blood.

Jesus was referencing the new covenant that was promised in Jeremiah 31, and that is the covenant we have in Christ when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, studying God's word to reach all the riches of full assurance in Christ.

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Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We're back to our study in Hebrews chapter 8.

I'm going to pick up where I left off yesterday. So let me begin by reading in verse 7 through verse 13 out of the

Legacy Standard Bible. This is the word of the Lord. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second covenant.

For finding fault with them, he says, Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when

I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which

I made with their fathers in the days 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 laws into their minds, and upon their hearts

I will write them. 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 will 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.

When he said a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

So we come back again to what we've been studying this week in Hebrews 8.

We understand that Christ is a superior high priest. We read about his superior priesthood in verses 1 through 6.

He sits at the right hand of God. That's in verse 1. He serves in a superior tabernacle.

That was in verse 2. A true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man. He offers superior sacrifices, the sacrifice of himself, as mentioned in verse 3.

Yesterday we considered how he is the priest of a superior covenant. He's not like the old covenant priest, as mentioned in verse 4.

He does not serve under the old covenant, as said in verse 5. All of those things were copies and shadows of the heavenly things.

But he is the mediator of a better covenant, which we read yesterday in verse 6. He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.

Now, this better covenant, we are a part of now. The covenant that has been sealed by his blood.

When Jesus was with his disciples at the Last Supper, he broke bread and passed it to them and said, this is my body, which has been broken for you.

He took a cup and passed it among them and said, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood.

That's in Luke 22 .20. And Paul mentions it again to the Corinthians in 1

Corinthians 11 .25. This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

You know, as Jesus was passing that cup among his disciples and saying to them, this is the cup of the new covenant.

They would have understood that he was making a reference to the new covenant that's promised in Jeremiah 31.

That's where the Lord promised a new covenant. Jeremiah 31 .31. Behold, days are coming, declares

Yahweh, when I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

And that's what we read right here in this next section, which we pick up in verse 8. Well, I started reading in verse 7.

The reference to Jeremiah 31 is in verse 8. But first of all, let's understand how this is a better covenant on new promises, on better promises rather.

What are the better promises that we receive in this new covenant? Well, we are part of a superior religion.

This is not like the religion that Israel practiced, where they had the tabernacle or the temple and the sacrifice of animals.

We don't have to do that for the sacrifice of Christ has been given on our behalf. And we are able to live holy, upright, godly lives in this present age because of the

Holy Spirit of God that dwells within us. Everyone who has put faith and trust in Jesus Christ, we are filled with his spirit.

And so we are made part of a holy nation, as said in 1 Peter 2 .9,

a royal priesthood. That makes this religion that we are a part of superior to the old.

It is a better religion. It is also better in the fact that we receive better promises.

What are those promises? The everlasting life that we have with Jesus Christ.

We are fellow heirs with him of his heavenly kingdom. And we will dwell forever with God.

We have access to God now. And it doesn't have to be done for us by a high priest on earth who goes into the

Holy of Holies for us once a year to sacrifice on behalf of the people to atone for their sins.

There's not a high priest doing that for us. Jesus is our high priest, a superior high priest, as we've read about this week, who has entered into the

Holy of Holies for us, is seated at the right hand for us, advocates for us before the

Father, is a mediator for us, as said in 1 Timothy 2 .5, there is one mediator between God and man, and that is the man

Christ Jesus. So we have access to God now. We can enter into the presence of God, not somebody mediating for us, because Christ mediates for us.

The God -man is mediating on our behalf. We don't need another mediator. And so we can go to God now, and we have the promise of fellowship with God forever in his heavenly kingdom.

We will be right there with him in his throne room, worshiping around the throne.

That's how this covenant is enacted on better promises. You know, when you have some of those sects of Christianity, S -E -C -T -S, sects of Christianity, they claim to be

Christian, but they're not actually Christian. And I'm thinking of things like Mormonism, Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, the

Jehovah's Witnesses. Look at all of the requirements of those particular religions, and you will see that they have different mediators than Christ.

In the Mormon religion, it is said that a person gets into heaven through Joseph Smith.

Brigham Young, who was a successor of Joseph Smith, overseeing the

Mormon religion, he said that anybody who gets into heaven will only get into heaven through Joseph Smith.

As he sits there as a judge, that no one is able to enter into, well, whatever three levels of heaven there are, according to the

Mormon faith. No one gets in, though, except by the approval of Joseph Smith. What did

Jesus say? John 14, 6. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one gets to the

Father but by me, not through some other person. So the

Mormons believe in another mediator. Roman Catholics believe in multiple mediators.

Mary's a mediator. You can pray to Mary to take your request before Jesus. This, according to Roman Catholics, that's not according to Scripture.

Then, of course, there's all the other saints that you can pray to as well. No, we don't have any other mediator but Christ.

We have access to God himself. We don't need anyone else to be praying to to take those requests before Christ who takes them before the

Father. Scripture says no such thing. If you're praying to someone else other than God, then you are appointing to whoever you're praying to godlike qualities, an omnipresence about them.

Only God is omnipresent. Mary is not everywhere to hear your prayers and then receive them to take them before her

Son. That's absurd. And yet the Catholics want to insist that they don't worship

Mary though they ascribe godlike qualities to her when they pray to her.

Even if they want to say, we're just asking that she pray for us on our behalf. No. You're praying to her if you are asking her to do something.

We don't have any other mediator. There's only one mediator between God and man. And that's the man,

Jesus Christ. We're part of a better covenant with better promises.

Don't try to diminish those promises toward other things. We can go straight to God himself through Jesus Christ our

Lord. The one who is the mediator of this better covenant. A better high priest, a better covenant.

So he is the fulfillment of the promise of this new covenant which was given through the prophet

Jeremiah. Let's consider again Hebrews 8 beginning in verse 7. For if that first covenant had been faultless there would have been no occasion sought for a second.

So the old covenant was not good enough. And yet there's the Hebrew roots movement.

Have you heard about that religious movement? It's basically the idea that in order to really be a true

Christian you need to be following all of the Old Testament laws as well. That's going back to the old covenant.

It's going back to the inferior covenant that was passing away. We have a new covenant.

And so this statement here about the new covenant which quotes from Jeremiah 31 it's bookended by this statement that the old covenant was inferior.

So you have in verse 7 and verse 13. Let me read again from verse 7. If that first covenant had been faultless there would have been no occasion sought for a second.

And verse 13. When he said a new covenant he made the first obsolete. It's inferior.

It wasn't good enough. There needs to be a better covenant. And so God has fulfilled that in Christ. Whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear.

So those two statements are on the opposite sides of this reference now to Jeremiah 31.

Picking up in verse 8. For finding fault with them he says Behold days are coming says the

Lord when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

So let's understand the elements of this preamble here before we get into the rest of this reference from Jeremiah 31.

So first of all, behold days are coming. Those are the days of Christ.

Jesus in his earthly ministry. He fulfilled and he accomplished the establishing of this new covenant.

Once again, the passing of the cup among his disciples. A new covenant I give you.

The new covenant in my blood. Now the disciples would have known that he was making a reference to the new covenant as stated in Jeremiah 31.

Though they may not have understood it. For as it said later on in Luke 24 before Jesus ascended into heaven he opened up their minds to understand how he was the fulfillment of the

Old Testament scriptures. And he also said to them in the gospel of John the Holy Spirit will be given to you and he will bring to your mind these things that I've taught to you and new things he will teach to you as well.

So there were other things that they would come to understand about how Christ was the fulfillment of this promise of the new covenant that was given in Jeremiah 31.

But the days, the days are coming would be the days of Christ when he enacts and fulfills this new covenant.

Days are coming says the Lord when I will complete a new covenant.

Now stating that it will be completed means that it will be permanently established.

This covenant will not pass away. Though it's being talked about here that the old covenant is passing away it's becoming obsolete.

This new covenant will not. It will be permanently established. So I'm completing a new covenant.

And to remind you once again what a covenant is as we concluded with this yesterday a covenant is an agreement.

It is a disposition or an arrangement or a plan how

God is ordering certain things and how he will define his people. He will gather this people to himself and this covenant will be established on better promises.

As we read back in verse six that we are part of this heavenly kingdom.

We are fellow heirs with Christ. We will live forever with him. That's much better than the old covenant which had to do with land promises.

The land that we have been promised is not of this earth. It is of a heavenly nature of heavenly things in that we will even be indwelt with the spirit of God.

We have God with us in Jesus Christ who has been given to us. And then the Holy Spirit that he gave after his departure all of these better things and better promises that come as part of this better arrangement or better covenant that God is making with his people.

I will complete a new covenant. And I've read from John Gill how he considered that this covenant was also new not just in the sense that it's something more recent than the old but it's also new in the sense that it is perpetually new.

Just like we read in Lamentations chapter three his mercies are new every morning.

And we are to walk in this newness of life that we have in Jesus Christ. Every day it is new for us.

So that is also the sense in which we understand this being a new covenant. It's not like the old where the old wasn't even good enough to get you through tomorrow.

You had to do new things today in order to meet the requirements of the old covenant.

But today we are being new. We are being made new in Christ Jesus.

This is indeed a new covenant. And then the end of verse eight with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

Now if you'll remember that after Solomon died the kingdom was split into two houses if you will.

So there was the northern kingdom made up of the ten tribes and that was considered

Israel. And then the southern kingdom made up of Judah and Benjamin who's referred to simply as Judah.

Now through the prophet Ezekiel it is said that these two kingdoms will be united together again as one.

And that's kind of reflected also in this statement of a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah that the two are being joined together again.

But we need to recognize that this is not simply talking about the ethnic lines of Israel and Judah.

This is in reference to spiritual Israel and spiritual Judah. The Israel of God, Galatians 6 .16

and the Jew who is one inwardly according to Romans 2 .29. He is a

Jew who is one inwardly and circumcision is that which is of the heart by the spirit not by the letter.

We are spiritual Israel. We are God's people. We who are of Jesus Christ.

So this is not the ethnic lines of Israel and Judah. It is in the sense that that was fulfilled during the time of Christ and John the

Baptist when these things were being proclaimed to the houses of Israel and Judah but it is through Israel and Judah Christ has come who is saving his people and making a covenant with those who are in Christ.

And that's all who are in Christ. Don't read this as just with Israel and Judah because otherwise this is a new covenant that has no promise for us.

Everyone who is in Christ is spiritual Israel. Philippians 3 .3

For we are the circumcision who worship in the spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

We must understand the people of God in this way in the spiritual sense not in the ethnic sense for otherwise this new covenant is not good news for us.

It would only be good news for those who are literally descended of Israel and of Judah.

So verse 9. It is said this is not like the covenant which I made with their fathers with the ethnic lines of Israel and Judah in 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. So earlier when we read at the start of verse 8 for finding fault with them finding fault is not finding fault with the covenant it's finding fault with those who were unable to keep the covenant.

They did not continue in my covenant and I did not care for them says the Lord. That covenant did have certain qualifications that Israel did not meet.

They had to keep the law of God in order to keep the land that God had given to them.

And if they did not keep his law if they did not obey his statutes it was said in Deuteronomy there were curses that would come upon them.

You had blessings and curses that were announced from Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim.

If they were to keep the land if they were to receive the blessings of the land for God's blessings for Israel flowed from the land that he gave to them if they were going to receive the blessings of the land they had to keep his law if they did not keep his law they would be driven off the land.

And so this was the covenant that was made with them but they did not keep it. They did not continue in my covenant and I did not care for them says the

Lord. So he cursed them as he said that he would do because they did not keep his law.

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 minds and upon their hearts. I will write them and I will be their

God and they shall be my people. So this is not some external law written on tablets of stone.

This is a law that is written upon the heart. We will know God and we will know what he requires of us because these things will be written upon us.

This is talked about even in Ezekiel 36. I will take out their heart of stone and I will give them a heart of flesh and I will cleanse them of their uncleanness as I will sprinkle them with water and I will cause them to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules and this statement.

I will be their God and they shall be my people. That is what is said about the church

Revelation 21 3. I heard a loud voice from the throne saying behold the tabernacle of God is among men and he will dwell among them and they shall be his people and God himself will be among them.

Verse 7 he who overcomes will inherit these things and I will be his

God and he will be my son. I will be their

God they shall be my people Hebrews 8 11 and they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen and everyone is brother saying know the

Lord for all will know me from the least to the greatest of them. This is how we know the people of God.

They know God. We are known by God and we know God you know there were times in Israel's history they did not know

God but this is not a characteristic of the church if you have people who claim to be

Christians but they do not know God they're not of God and so with the spiritual people of God he knows us and we know him and there is never a time when we as his people do not know the

Lord Jesus Christ we are in fellowship with him continually from the time we come to know

God to the time we enter into his presence forever in his heavenly kingdom we are always known by the

Lord and we know the Lord remember there are going to be those that will stand before him in judgment on that day according to Matthew 7 and they will say

Lord did we not do many mighty things in your name and Jesus will respond to them depart from me you workers of lawlessness

I never knew you but we who are in Christ who are truly the people of God there is not going to be a need for us to have to teach one another hey know the

Lord because we will know the Lord now there are certainly things we know about God or learn about God as we continue to learn his word but we will not have to introduce

God to the people of God because the people will already know him everyone his brother will know me from the least to the greatest of them that's part of this new covenant that we are in so you come to know

Christ and you become a Christian and you always know from that point forward from the least to the greatest of them the people of God know the

Lord not even all of Israel could have said that remember that in Matthew 2 when the

Magi came into Jerusalem saying where is he who has been born king of the Jews for we have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him

Jerusalem had no idea what they were talking about because they did not know God but we who are his church know the

Lord you can see this covenant this new covenant in every church of Jesus Christ that you walk into we know

God and he knows us verse 12 for I will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more that is about us that's about everyone who is in Christ Jesus this is not about ethnic

Israel and ethnic Judah this is about the spiritual people of God who have been made his people by faith in Jesus Christ verse 13 when he said a new covenant he has made the first obsolete no one is of the people of God by any keeping of the old covenant we are of the people of God through Christ who is the new covenant a new covenant