Hebrew 8, pt. 2 | The Supremacy of Christ and the New Covenant

Hebrews 8 and the Supremacy of Christ in the New Covenant

All right, if you would turn with me in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 8, we will consider verses 1 through 13, Hebrews chapter 8, 1 through 13. Father, Lord, we love you, and Lord, we thank you for all that you do for us.

Please, right now, in this moment where the book is open, speak to us in Christ's name.

Amen.

All right, so our theme for this Lord's Day, as it was last Lord's Day and it will be again the next Lord's Day, is the supremacy of Jesus and the new covenant. This week, our focus will be on the new covenant and how it is better than the old covenant.

You heard that saying, out with the old and in with the new. That's what's taking place here. This is the great announcement, right? This is what the apostle is proclaiming. He is exegeting the message that he heard from our Lord and Savior himself and from what the Old Testament taught.

Now this is something that we have gone over in weeks past when we were dealing with Reformed Theology, right? That's why we laid that foundation. So we had something to point back to, something that our foot could get a grip on, right?

So what I'm bringing is nothing new, but I hope to shine new light on it. That's the goal. I know that as we were going through covenant theology, we got into the weeds. Well, hopefully today and next week, the sun will brighten those weeds because covenant theology is Reformed Theology.

Reading Hebrews 8:6-13 on the Better Covenant

So today, we'll consider the text. We won't read it all this time. We will just read verses 6 through 13. So read with me, Hebrews chapter 8, verses 6 through 13. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the ode, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enticed on better promises.

For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 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 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 into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, 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 iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more. And speaking of the new covenant, he makes the first obsolete.

And what has become an obsolete is growing old, is ready to vanish. But wait. So in our outline today, the writer is focusing on the supremacy of Jesus over the priesthood and the new covenant over the old covenant.

Last week, we focused on Jesus and his supremacy over the priesthood. This week, we'll focus on the new covenant over the old covenant. And I pointed out three things to notice. And we've looked at two of them last week, the first two, the point and the place.

And we'll kind of do a recap of those two next week. And today, we'll begin to look at the promises. To understand the promises, I want to address some subheadings. And we'll look at three of the subheadings today and three next week.

Two men, two covenants, two laws, one people, one covenant, one law. So this week, we'll look at the two men, two covenants, and two laws. Next week, one people, one covenant, one law. And as we transition, I have a question.

You don't have to answer this. What is the new covenant? My hope is that as we walk through these subheadings, the text itself will answer these questions. Now let's look at our first subheading. Two men.

Let's read again Hebrews 8, 6. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better since it is enticed on better promises. So the question is, is better than who?

Right?

Well, look at verse 5. They serve a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect a tent, he was instructed by God saying,. See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain.

But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old, as the new covenant he mediates is better since it is enticed on better promises. Better than who? Better than Moses.

Right here we have a comparison of Moses and Jesus. This is not the first comparison in Hebrews. We see it also take place in chapter 3. Turn with me to chapter 3. We'll read verses 1 through 6. Chapter 3, verses 1 through 6.

It says this,. Now Moses was faithful in all God's house as a servant to testify the things that were to be spoken later. But Christ is faithful over God's house as a son. And we are his house if indeed we hold fast to our confidence and are boasting in our hope.

So this portion of Scripture compares Jesus to Moses and it gives the analogy of a builder and a building. Look back at verse 3. One more time at verse 3. For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, as much more glory as the builder of the house has more honor than the house itself.

The writer is telling us that the builder is greater than the building.

Right?

We know that. Buildings give glory to builders. So the builder has to be greater than the building. So in doing this, he is telling us that Jesus is greater than Moses. Moses was faithful as a servant, but Jesus is faithful as a son.

So question, how was Jesus greater than Moses? The text answers, because the son is greater than the servant.

Right?

This ain't nothing that we're making up. We're pulling it from the text. How is he greater? Moses was a servant. Jesus is the son. Sons are greater than servants. Second subheading, the two covenants.

Again, we'll go back to our text, Hebrews 8. We'll read verses 6 through 9. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enticed on better promises.

For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. 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 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, so I show no concern for them. Question. A lot of questions asked today. What are the two covenants? The text answers this. The old covenant and the new covenant.

There's an old covenant and there's going to be a new covenant. The old covenant in our text is speaking about the Mosaic covenant. Our text, when it mentions the old covenant, it's speaking about the Mosaic covenant.

In Galatians, we see that the Mosaic covenant was added to the Abrahamic covenant. We've read this a number of times, and we'll do so again just to see it more clearly. So if you would turn to Galatians, go to chapter 3.

We'll read verses 15 to 19a, but here's what I want you to notice as we read it. There's three examples of a covenant here. We have a human example. We have the Abrahamic example of the covenant. We also have the Mosaic covenant as an example.

So just listen to what the text is saying and try to prepare yourselves for what's about to take place after I read this. Listen, if you don't feel tension from this message, what we're about to go to, if you don't feel the tension, something's wrong.

To give a human example, brothers, even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now, the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say into offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is Christ.

This is what I mean. The law, which came 430 years afterwards, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to make the promise void. For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise, but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions. Now, our position as particular Reformed Baptists, we believe that all these individual covenants that the Old Testament gives us, tells us about, are a part of the covenant of works.

The covenant of works started with Adam. We spoke about this many times as we were going through our covenant theology series, dealing with Reformed theology, that God put Adam in a garden, and he was told that he could eat of any tree of the garden except for one, that if he was to break this covenant, then he would die.

Surely, this day, he would die. And in my view, my interpretation, this is speaking about the death that he would die would just be him being removed from the garden. So it wasn't that lightning was going to come, or an axe was going to come from God's hand and crush him, but he would be removed from the garden.

If he would have kept this covenant, he would have been able to eat from the tree of life, which he would have been able to live forever. By removing him from the garden, he would not be able to eat from the tree of life, and therefore, he will die.

And so, again, you have to think with a covenant theology mind, right? So I'm trying to just put you there. So the covenant of works is keep the law and live. Any covenant in Scripture where you're told to keep this in order to live is a covenant of works, just like Adam's covenant.

So we believe that the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the Davidic covenant are all administrations of the covenant of works. Every one of those covenants was do this in order to live, right?

Are we tracking? The new covenant, however, is the covenant of grace, or shall we say the covenant of grace is the new covenant? Remember Genesis 315. The curse upon Satan is actually the covenant of grace for the world.

He said that he would put enmity between Satan and the woman, and the woman's offspring that would come from her would bruise the head of the serpent while only bruising the heel. And as a particular Reformed Baptist, we see this covenant of grace being promised.

It gives a promise, and it gives the fulfillment. So the promise is that an offspring would come who would crush his head while only bruising his heel. When will it happen? When will it be established?

When the offspring comes and bruises his head while only bruising his heel, right? Unless the offspring comes and bruises the head of the serpent while only bruising his heel, there is no covenant of grace.

This understanding, however, is quite different from our Presbyterian brothers. If you recall during our message of Reformed theology, I pointed out that they believed that the covenant of works was only with Adam, only, and that all the other covenants throughout the Bible are administrations of the covenant of grace.

They believed that the covenant of grace began at the moment whenever God told this promise, this curse to Satan, that this woman, when he foretold that this offspring would come who would bruise the head of the serpent while only bruising his heel, they said right there is when the covenant of grace was inaugurated.

And all the other covenants that come afterwards are an administration of the covenant of grace, which is why infant baptism works in their system. If the old covenant and the new covenant are both the covenant of grace, listen, nothing's changed.

There's nothing new but the administrations. That's it. Now to the recipients of this letter, the Mosaic covenant would have been an administration of the Abrahamic covenant. How do you know that? Because Paul was a G.

And Paul clearly states, we saw it in Galatians 3 .19 because it was added. It was added to the Mosaic covenant. Our listeners would have been waiting. Listen, they would have been waiting for the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant to be added to the Mosaic covenant, not recognizing that it has been established.

They were looking for a Messiah figure to come and lead them into the new heavens and the new earth, which they would have seen as physical earthly realities. Jesus comes as the stumbling stone, comes preaching the new covenant and a spiritual kingdom, one in which if someone isn't born again, they cannot see or enter.

Again, let's look back at our text, verses six and seven. The tension is about to start building. Verses six and seven. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better.

Speaking of the new covenant, it's better than the old covenant since it is enticed on better promises. For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second question.

How was it faultless? How was the first covenant faultless? The answer is it was faultless because it was a covenant of works. Keep the law and live. If no one can keep the law, no one can live. Everyone dies.

Period.

Shut the door.

It's over.

It's faultless because no one could live. It could give life to no one. Turn with me to Romans chapter three. Very familiar verse. It's one that I know we all could quote. Romans three, verse 23. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Turn to 1 John chapter three, verse four. Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. Sin is breaking God's law. Everyone, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

All of us have broken God's law. Keep the law and live. No one lives. That's why it is faultless. The covenant of works, the old covenant, listen, it's tied to the law. The Ten Commandments written in stone.

You remember the analogy, right? They throw the transmission down the well. The billy goat is tied to the transmission because the transmission weighs more than the billy goat. The billy goat goes where the transmission goes, down the well.

The covenant is tied to the Ten Commandments that were written in stone. Turn with me to Exodus chapter 34. Please, Lord, let the tension be building. Exodus 34, verse 20.

Let me see.

Let's start with verse 27 just to give you some context. The main part I want you to see is 28C. Let's start in verse 27. And the Lord said to Moses, write these words for in accordance with these words, I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.

So he was there with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights. He neither ate bread or drink water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. The Mosaic covenant is tied to the Ten Commandments written in stone.

If that law, that Ten Commandments written in stone is still for today, so is the covenant of works. It's abiding on us today. And guess what? No one lives.

We're dead.

I hope my theonomy brothers are listening. No one lives. Back to our text. Hebrews chapter 8. Here in Hebrews chapter 8, 8 through 12, is the longest quotation in the New Testament of the Old Testament.

This passage is quoted from Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34. And in Jeremiah, this is the only place in the Old Testament that clearly speaks about a new covenant that is to come. This is an announcement of something new, not something old that has been repackaged.

God is not regifting.

Right?

This is something new, not something old, repackaged. This is not a republication of another covenant. This is something new. Verse 8. 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.

So the question is, okay, how is it new? Verse 9. Not like the covenant I made with their father on the day when I took them by the hand and to bring them out of the land of Egypt. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I show no concern for them.

Answer. It's new because it's not like the one made with Moses. It's not repackaged. It's not a republication. If the new covenant is not like the old covenant made with Moses, it must be something new.

That's what the writer is trying to get into their heads. And so just to kind of put things together, a short summation of what we just saw was two men, Moses and Jesus, two covenants, the old covenant, which is the covenant of works, and the new covenant, which is the covenant of grace.

Now as we transition, the covenant of works, remember, do this and live, the covenant of grace, which began with Christ, what Christ ushered in is Christ did the work so that you and I can live. It's a better covenant.

That's a better covenant. Our third subheading. Now if the tension hasn't got you yet, it really should in a second. I should look up and see you sweating. You should be ready to throw your Bible down and walk out.

Seriously, and I hope you don't. But I'm just giving you what the text gives. I was challenged this week, actually. Third subheading, two laws. 10 through 13. Chapter 8, verses 10 through 13. 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 into their mind, and I will write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his own brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest.

For I will be merciful towards their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. And speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what has become an obsolete is growing old and ready to vanish away.

I'm about to ask you to do something that most Christians are afraid to admit, even though the Bible says it. I'm going to go back to Galatians chapter 3, and I'm going to continue reading. Listen to me.

I want you to remember. Don't let me lose you here. I want you to remember, Jesus is not Moses, and that the old covenant is not a new covenant. But I want you to ask yourselves, what law is he talking about?

What law is Paul talking about? It's not the covenant that God made with Moses when he brought their father, when he brought Moses and the fathers out of the land of Egypt. But as I read this, Galatians 3, 15, I'm going to read to verse 26.

I want you to ask yourself, what is the law? What is he talking about? What is it that Paul is speaking about? I was on the phone having a short debate a few weeks ago with a theonomist brother, and finally I just took him to this portion of Scripture, and I read it, and I asked that question.

What law is he talking about? Silence. He had no defense. Listen, and ask yourself the same thing. What law is he talking about? Remember, he gives a human example, he gives the Abrahamic covenant example, and he gives the Moses example.

What law is Paul talking about? To give a human example, brothers, even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring.

It does not say to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one and to your offspring who is Christ. This is what I mean. The law, listen, the law which came 430 years afterwards does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void.

For if the inheritance comes by the law, it no longer comes by promise. But God gave it to Abraham by a promise. Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions until, listen, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made.

And it, speaking of the law, was put into place through angels by an intermediary. Now an intermediary applies more than one, but God is one. Is the law then contrary to the promise of God? Certainly not.

For if the law had been given that could give life, remember the law cannot give life. If the law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the scriptures imprison everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Now before faith came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. So then the law was our guardian until Christ, in order that we might be justified by faith.

But now that faith has come, we are no longer, listen, we are no longer under a guardian, speaking of the law. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith. Turn with me to Acts chapter 7.

This is Stephen. He is preaching to the Pharisees and those who were coming against the church. First, I'm going to take you to verse 37, and we'll read chapter 7, verses 37 and 38. Excuse me. Okay, Stephen says, This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers.

This is the one who was in the congregation in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai. And with our fathers, he received the living oracles to give to us. The living oracles is the law, the Ten Commandments, written on stone.

On the back was the covenant, as we saw earlier in Exodus. Now go to verses 51 through 53. Stephen says to these religious Jews, You stiff-necked people, uncircumcise your heart and ears. You always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did.

So do you. Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whom you have now betrayed and murdered. You who received the law as delivered by angels and did not keep it.

Now go to Hebrews chapter 2. We'll read verse 2 only. Well, let's go to verse 1. Therefore, we must pay close attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For since the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and every transgression and disobedience received a just retribution.

As we exegeted this portion of Scripture, we pointed back that this is speaking about when Moses was on the mountain. This was the intermediary. God used angels as the intermediary. God wrote on the tablets with his finger the ten words.

God gives them to the angels. The angels, as the intermediary, hands them off to Moses. And Moses writes the covenant on the back, as you see in Exodus 21, 22, and 23, I believe. So the law given by angels was the ten commandments written in stone.

And the covenant is tied to these things. Question, what is the law? Answer, it's the ten commandments written on stone tablets. That's the law. That's the covenant that our writer is saying is no more.

It's done away with.

It's over.

It's obsolete.

It's vanishing away in his time. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians, just to drive this home further. 2 Corinthians 3. Some things I want you to listen for. We've been talking about the earthly versus the heavenly.

The earthly is the physical letter. In our text, you'll see as I read it, it's going to be pointing to several different things, but the earthly is always a physical letter. And the heavenly in our text is a spiritual letter.

Earthly, physical, heavenly, spiritual. Beginning in verse 1, Paul writes,. Are we beginning to commend ourselves again, or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you or from you? You yourselves are our letters of recommendation written on our hearts to be known and read by all.

And you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered 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. Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God.

Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us sufficient to be ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit.

Listen, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face, but because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the spirit have even more glory?

For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed in glory. Indeed, in this case, which once had glory, has now come to have no glory at all, but because of the glory that surpasses it.

For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. Since we have such a hope, we are very bold. Not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end, but their minds were harding.

For to this day, when they read the old covenant, the same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ can it be taken away. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts.

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another.

For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Now my argument is this. The Ten Commandments on stone are earthly, while the Ten Commandments that are written in our heart, same words, they're in our mind and they're in our hearts for the new covenant.

This is spiritual.

The old covenant is a physical kingdom, earthly. The Jewish people, Israelites, earthly. The new covenant, spiritual kingdom, Christians, spiritual. Under the old covenant, the law was written on stone tablets.

Under the new covenant, the law is written on our hearts. In order to be in the old covenant, one just had to be born. In order to be in the new covenant, one has to be born again. In the old covenant, after a baby was born, they would begin to teach that child to know the Lord.

And people would also begin to teach their neighbors to know about the Lord. The key thing here to understand is that their neighbor was already in the covenant by physical birth. Under the new covenant, everyone knows the Lord.

Being born again is a spiritual kingdom. Being born again means that you have been given faith to believe. And those who have faith to believe, what do they do? They call upon the name of the Lord, meaning they know the Lord.

How can you call upon him whom you do not know? Under the old covenant, God was not merciful towards their iniquity and he remembered their sins. Under the new covenant, God is merciful. God is forgiven.

The old covenant was vanishing away and now is obsolete. And our writer told us that the new covenant is here to stay. The old covenant was a covenant of works. Do this and live. New covenant is the covenant of works fulfilled for us by Jesus on our behalf.

He lived the life we could not live. The old covenant was Moses. The new covenant is Jesus. Look with me. The Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 17.

What does it say?

For the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Jesus spoke of John the Baptist as the last Old Testament prophet. John the Baptist said of Jesus, he must increase, but I must decrease.

That old covenant system John represented must decrease, fade away, come to an end. It has to stop. Jesus in the new covenant must increase, spread, enlarge, expand, flourish. The kingdom of God must prevail.

Listen, the kingdom of God must prevail. The spiritual, not the earthly, the spiritual. And you, listen, you do not want to be under the old covenant. But just to lift your spirits up, there is no such thing as the old covenant no more.

It's done away with. It's no more.

There is only the new covenant. The old covenant was tied to the 10 words written in stone. And when Christ fulfilled them, they were taken down the well, and the covenant followed with them. Under the new covenant, the covenant of grace in Christ, the same 10 words are not written on tablets of stone, but they are written in the heart of everyone who has called upon the name of the Lord.

And listen to me, if you are not in Christ, although you might know the law, it only condemns you. It only condemns you. The law only condemns. Read Romans chapter 3. The law only condemns. Every mouth is stopped under the law.

Pastor Cal beautifully brought that to us. But listen, in Christ there is no condemnation. There's no condemnation. Under the law, condemnation. In Christ, no condemnation. And our call to repentance and faith is found in Romans chapter 7, verse 6.

You don't have to turn there, but please listen. But now we are released from the law. I'm going to read that again. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive so that we can serve in the new way of the Spirit, not in the old way of the written code.

The Ten Commandments, that covenant that followed with it, that's written on stone. Now, Pastor Cal laid it out for us, those Ten Commandments. Although that covenant's gone, those Ten Commandments, those ten words, they still exist.

Even though it's in our heart, those Ten Commandments condemn the whole world. Not us, but that's the transcendent law of God. It will never vanish. And it shuts the mouth of every single person. But while it was on those two stone tablets, the covenant with it, that had to end.

And now the Christian only has it written in their heart. But if you're not a Christian, this law still condemns you. And so the question is, have you died to that which held you captive? If you're here today, have you died to that which held you captive?

Have you died to that which your mouth has stopped? Because if you haven't, today is the day of salvation. The Gospel is very clear that Jesus died for our sins and that Jesus kept the law. Therefore, because this is true, Him dying for our sins, we are justified.

In order to be justified, someone has to stand in your place. That's what Jesus did. Jesus Christ died for our sins. Because that is true, because He kept the law, you and I can be counted righteous. I don't know if y 'all understand this.

When I talk about the hypostatic union and I talk about Him living the life we could not live and Him dying the death that we should die, right? In the hypostatic union is Jesus being both God and man, truly God, truly man.

In order for Jesus to die for our sins, He had to be truly man. Why? Because God cannot die. In order for Jesus to live the life that we could not live, He had to be truly God because man cannot keep the law.

He cannot keep the law. So Jesus Christ lived the life that we could not live. He died the death that we should die. And because that is true, we can be justified through His death and we can have His righteousness, the life that He lived credited to us by faith and repentance, by turning from ourselves.

Stop trusting in yourselves and trusting God. Stop trusting in the law. Stop trusting in whatever it is you want to put in that word. Stop it. Turn to Jesus in faith. Call upon the name of the Lord. That is the only way this is done.