Hebrews 8, pt. 3 | The Supremacy of Jesus and the New Covenant

Today, if you would turn with me with your scriptures to Hebrews 8, we will once again be in verses 1 through 13,

Hebrews 8, 1 through 13, let's pray. Father, Lord, we love you, and we ask that you be merciful to us as we walk through this portion of scripture, and Lord, that you will speak to us through this message.

We long to hear from you, and we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.

So our theme has been the supremacy of Jesus and the new covenant, the supremacy of Jesus and the new covenant.

And this week, we will focus again on the new covenant, how it is greater and better than the old covenant.

So our text is found in Hebrews chapter 8, 1 through 13, we're going to read it all this week, so we read it all the first week, half of it last week, we'll look at it all again this week.

Verses 1 through 13, the writer says, now the point in what we are saying is this.

We have such a high priest, one who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in heaven, a minister in the holy places in the true tent that the

Lord set up, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, thus it is necessary for this priest also to have something to offer.

Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law.

They serve a shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God saying, see that you make everything according to the pattern that I 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 covenant he mediates is better, since it is enticed on better promises.

For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.

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 show 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 in speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first obsolete.

And what is becoming obsolete is growing old, is ready to vanish away.

And in our outline, the writer is focusing on the supremacy of Jesus over the priesthood and the new covenant over the covenant.

He's saying that Jesus is greater than the priesthood, and Jesus brings in a greater covenant.

So if I could frame that in a sentence. And I had you to notice with me three things, and this was our main outline, the point, the place, and the promise.

In the first week, we looked at the point and the place, and we saw that the point of the entire book of Hebrews was that Jesus' ministry, that Jesus' ministry in the holy places was that he sat down.

So how is it that Jesus is greater? Well, Jesus sat down. His historical proof that the

Levitical priesthood was weak was the fact that the priesthood stood week after week, day after day, performing sacrifices year after year.

They could never sit down because there was always sin that needed sacrificing for.

And the writer makes it clear that to us that after Jesus entered into the holy places, he sat down.

And in doing so, he's giving us a comparison. Earthly priest, day after day, week after week, year after year, still standing, still performing sacrifices.

The Melchizedek priesthood, Jesus comes, makes sacrifice, sits down.

And we saw that the holy places that Jesus entered is not the earthly holy place. It wasn't the physical temple that was standing at that time.

But it was the heavenly temple, the heavenly holy places. And he did so through his ascension.

So on earth, Jesus' sacrifice is kind of like that heavenly, earthly, the divine takes on humanity, right?

And in his humanity, he makes sacrifice. So that's earth.

But Jesus in the divine, the ascension, he sits. Jesus in his divinity in heaven sits.

So there's always this earthly and this heavenly thing taking place.

We see that especially when you get into the Johanna writings and especially in Revelation.

You have in the book of Revelation, you have Jesus on earth being crucified.

But when you read Revelation, you have a lamb in heaven being sacrificed. You have it pictured two ways.

And that his sitting down points us to the Davidic covenant.

Jesus sitting down on the throne of David points us to his resurrection, which the church worldwide next week will be celebrating.

Thankfully, we celebrate this every week. Right? Hallelujah. We saw

Peter in the book of Acts use the resurrection of Jesus to point us back to the Davidic covenant.

Also, I would add to his ascension that Jesus is on the throne of David.

And let's just read that one more time before we leave this section. Acts chapter two, and I'll give us a couple of things to notice after I read it.

Beginning in verse 29, brothers, this is Peter speaking to a

Jewish audience. Brothers, I may say to you with confidence about the patriarch

David, that he both died and was buried.

And his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet and knowing that God has sworn with an oath to him that one of that he would sit one of his descendants on his throne.

He foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of the

Christ. He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption.

This Jesus God raised up, and of that we are witnesses, we are witnesses.

Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the

Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.

For David did not ascend into heaven, but he himself says, the

Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.

And let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both

Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. So notice in the text,

David's tomb was still with them. David died, David was buried, and they're saying, and he's still in his tomb.

Notice also David's throne was empty until David's prophecy was fulfilled through Jesus's resurrection.

That's what's being pointed out here. They were looking for a Messiah figure to rule on the throne of David.

Peter is saying that seat is now taken through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The earthly temple had no seats for the priest to sit, why? Because their sacrifice was never completed.

The heavenly temple within the throne of David, the heavenly temple within it, the throne of David, and the

Lord Jesus sits because his sacrifice was completed. So I mentioned last week that the earthly temple, it named off the furniture that was in it, it did not have any place to sit.

But the heavenly temple, we saw in Isaiah chapter 6 that God was on a throne.

And I mentioned that in this heavenly temple that the earthly temple was patterned after, there is a seat, and that is the throne of David, and that is where the

Lord Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father. Again, it was given a comparison.

Now to understand our third heading, the promises, I gave us some subheadings to look at.

The subheadings were two men, two covenants, two laws, one people, one covenant, one law.

As we transition, last week we looked at the first three subheadings, two men, two covenants, two laws.

This week, we'll look at one people, one covenant, one law.

We saw that the two men were Moses and Jesus, and how

Jesus was greater than Moses because Moses was a servant, and Jesus is the

Son. Moses was a servant, Jesus is the Son, and that the Son is greater than the servant.

We saw that these two covenants were the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, and that the Old Covenant was a covenant of works, do this and live, and the

New Covenant was the covenant of grace. Again, the covenant of works, do this and live, while the covenant of grace means, listen, when you hear the words covenant of grace, this is what you should be thinking,

Christ did the work so that I can live. Covenant of works, Old Covenant, do these, keep these laws, keep these rules and live.

New Covenant, the covenant of grace, Christ did the work, Christ kept the law so that you can live.

All right? The living under the Old Covenant was a physical life in Canaan, living in the

New Covenant is the spiritual life that we have in Christ that will continue after.

Those that are in Christ will never die. We sleep, right?

All right, hallelujah? All right, subheading, hold on, yeah, okay, so we saw the two laws were both the ten words.

So I might have never explained this, so we know them as the ten commandments, but that's not how the

Jewish people knew them. They call them the ten words. We came in as, you know,

Americans and our just Christian history, we call them the ten commandments, that's not what the

Jews call them, they're the ten words, that's what they're known as, the ten words.

Now through these ten words, commandments are given, that's where you get the whole idea of the covenant. The covenant is rules and regulations, stipulations, do this and live, this is what needs to be done.

They were originally known as the ten words, so we saw that the two laws were both the ten words, one was written on the tablet of stone while the other one was written on the hearts of the believers.

Now I don't know why I keep, like I find myself, the more

I study this, I find myself in more arguments and more debates, right, because you know that I've been having this thing with theonomists, right?

At one time I was struggling with this issue, do I hold to theonomy or do

I not, is this something that the church is under, should the Mosaic covenant be established, and I come to the conclusion that no, the

Mosaic covenant should not be established, we should not be theonomists, that this is more of a

Judaizing our sanctification instead of Judaizing our justification. Well now,

I find myself in debate with Hebrew roots, so there's a main guy who is the main spokesman for Hebrew roots, right now they're trying to set up a debate with me and him, because he believes that we should keep the old covenant, he is what theonomy will be if it keeps growing.

The reformed theonomist that we know, love, we call brothers, this is where they are heading, and it's this guy that I'm about to enter into debate with, he is a

Hebrew roots, because they're practicing everything, if the law says it, they do it, whenever Passover comes they're slaughtering a lamb, and they're sacrificing a lamb, they're putting the blood there, they're doing everything that the old covenant told them to do.

That they believe that you are to keep all 613 laws, if you're able to, so they know that you can't go to the temple, you can't go to Jerusalem and make sacrifice, but when that temple is rebuilt, you need to go, listen, that's where it's headed, if you take theonomy to it's logical conclusion, that's where you're headed, to Hebrew roots, and in doing so you deny

Jesus Christ, you deny his life lived for you. A true theonomist has to concur with the idea that Jesus did not live the life that I could not live, because if Jesus actually lived a life that we could not live, then there is no old covenant for us to keep, and that's why

I'm so passionate about this issue, that's why I'm so willing to enter debate, because this guy is a charismatic, good looking guy, and people are afraid to stand up to him.

Ladies and gentlemen, we spoke about it earlier, we have to call out false teachers, and that's all

I'm trying to do, we cannot, people in the Southern Baptists are leaving the church in droves and becoming

Hebrew roots, because they don't understand that a new covenant has been given, and we'll get more into that,

I do believe, as the story unfolds, I get up in here and I'll just passionately tell you.

Okay, subheading number four, one people, one people, and as we get through here, we then, what

I've said in mind, you'll kind of see how it unfolds. Hebrews 8, 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 in order for us to figure out the one people, we must first look at how we got here, so just like a little bit of history lesson.

Some of this you'll know, some of this you probably won't know. God made a covenant with Adam, you should know this, we went over this,

Adam broke that covenant, and from there God pronounced a curse upon the serpent who deceived him and his wife.

Through that curse, we are introduced to the offspring of the woman, a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, by whom the covenant of grace will be made.

That offspring was passed through the line of Abraham, from Abraham God establishes an earthly kingdom of people, the

Jews, by Moses, God gives this people the law, the Torah. So in your

Bible, you'll have the five books of Moses, right? That's not what the

Jews called it. It was one book. It was Moses, it was Torah.

It wasn't the five books. That came about probably about 150 years before Christ when they separated the books.

It was originally one book, it was called the Torah, the writing of Moses, that's why in the New Testament they refer to it

Moses said. So whenever someone says they keep

Torah, this is what it means, right here. This is what that Hebrew roots idea is, you have to keep

Torah. By Moses, God gives them Torah. Through Joshua, he gives them a land, the land of Canaan.

After Joshua, he establishes judges and rulers over the people. And when we get to 1

Samuel, we see in 1 Samuel that the people, the Jews, reject

God as their king, remember we spoke about that, and God gave them the earthly kingdom people, an evil king to rule over them.

Saul, being this king, was the appointed king, and then in 2

Samuel we see the anointed king, the rule of the anointed king, who was

David. So remember Saul, even before the kingship was taken from Saul, David was anointed.

David was the anointed king while Saul was the appointed king. We see

David will pass his secession off to his son Solomon. King Solomon was known for being the wisest man in the earth, the wisest man to ever live.

But in his old age, he stopped following the God of his father David, and you ask why?

Solomon gave in to his lust for women and he ended up having 700 wives, picture this men, 700 wives and 300 concubines, 1 ,000 partners.

David warned his son Solomon not to turn from the God of Israel, yet that is exactly what

Solomon did. Now if you would turn with me to 1 Kings, we'll look at chapter 11 for a second.

I'm going to read verses 9 through 13, but I want to also touch verses 3 and 4 just to show you what

I just said is true. 1 Kings chapter 11, let's look at verses 3 and 4, and then we'll go over to verses 9 through 13.

He, speaking of Solomon, had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 concubines, and his wives turned away his heart.

For when Solomon was owed, his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the

Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father.

Verse 9, and the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the

Lord, the God of Israel, who appeared to him twice.

And he commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods, but he did not keep what the

Lord commanded. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, since this has been your practice, and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you,

I will surely tear the kingdom from you, and I will give it to your servants.

Yet for the sake of your father, I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give you one tribe.

So he's speaking to the tribe of Judah that he's going to give him another tribe. To your son, for the sake of David my servant, and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.

So when you see in Hebrews 8, 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.

It's talking about that Jerusalem, Israel was divided, that the kingdom had been divided, the earthly kingdom was divided.

The earthly kingdom was divided because of Solomon's sin, the sin of Solomon.

Why was it divided? Because of the sin of Solomon, the sin of one man, as goes the king, right?

So goes the kingdom. Solomon was not able to sit on that throne of David, neither was his son,

Rehoboam, who was just as evil, or more evil, excuse me.

The servant to whom God gave Israel, meaning ten tribes, was

Jeroboam, and the son of Solomon to whom Israel was taken from was

Rehoboam. Rehoboam kept Judah and Benjamin, while Jeroboam took the other ten tribes.

Solomon broke God's covenant of works, so God divided the kingdom.

So, just a little bit of more history, throughout this division, the kingdom of God, throughout this division of the kingdom of God, God sent prophets.

So that's where you're introduced to the prophets, right? So again, it's

Samuel, he receives a king, and through the kings, they're divided, that's what 1

Kings chronicles talk about, and then you get into Ezra and all this other stuff, that's where you're introduced to the prophets.

God sends the prophets to the divided kingdoms, calling them to turn to their

God and to be faithful. For the most part, the prophets prophesied about a coming

Redeemer and a coming judgment if the nations would not turn back to God, and then were introduced to Jeremiah.

Jeremiah spoke of a new covenant that he would make with the house of Israel, the ten tribes, and the house of Judah, the two tribes, the southern and northern kingdoms.

And this new covenant would not be like the old covenant, that's the declaration that Jeremiah is trying to make.

This is going to be a better covenant, a new covenant. The old covenant was to be kept by the earthly kingdom people, while the new covenant will be kept by God himself, and we see that in the person of Jesus Christ.

Through this new covenant, God would unite the people, that's the declaration.

Through the new covenant, God is going to unite the people, meaning there will be no division, there will be no separation, the kingdom will be united and not divided.

I'll let you sit on that for a second. The kingdom would be united and not divided.

And yet, here we are almost 2 ,000 years later, and the Hebrew people have not received their

Messiah. And those of us in the church that bears his name, do we have division?

Yeah, there's a lot of division. There's a lot of division.

We'll get back to that in just a second. First John, chapter 1, 11 through 13, says that he came to his own, speaking about the

Jews, and his own people, the Jews, did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, speaking of the

Gentile, who believed in his name, he gave them the right to become children of God, who were not born, excuse me, who were born not of blood, this is speaking about under the

Jewish descent, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Also look with me at Ephesians, chapter 2. So his own people did not receive him, but to all who did receive him, he gave the right to become children of God.

Ephesians, chapter 2, we'll look at verse 11 and read of verse 22.

Therefore, remember that at one time you

Gentiles, who's the Gentiles, me and you, right? You Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called circumcision, speaking of the

Jews, which is made in the flesh by hands. So remember that you were at one time separated from Christ.

Remember he came to his own, and his own did not receive him. So because we're not his own, we're separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in this world.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

For he himself is our peace, who has made us both, right here speaking of Jew and Gentile, both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.

How did he do this? Verse 15, by abolishing the law and the commandments expressed in his ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two.

One people, ladies and gentlemen, one new man in place of the two. So making peace, it might reconcile us both,

Jew and Gentile, to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.

And he came to preach peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near.

Still speaking of the Jew and Gentile. Verse 18, for in him we both have access in one spirit to the

Father, so then you are no longer strangers and aliens, Gentiles listen, you're no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundations of the apostles and prophets,

Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the

Lord. For in him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the

Spirit. Now as we transition, the house of Israel and the house of Judah are to come as one kingdom together with you and I in Christ, that is one kingdom, one body, one bride in Christ.

So in Christ, Jew and Gentile are united, how? One body.

The one body is Jesus and it's the church. If you're in Christ, as the man and the husband shall cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh, we saw that this morning in Sunday school with the church.

If you are in Christ, you are his bride, you are his body. Israel, Judah, Gentiles are to come together in one body, the body of Christ, the people of God.

And yet, Jesus said, you will know my people by their love for one another.

And I'm asked all the time because of my love for eschatology, Jeff, do you believe we're in the end times?

And my answer is no. And it's no because the world does not know us by our love for one another.

We are not united. We're not united.

We are fighting one another, still trying to figure things out. And listen, if social media has accomplished anything, it's this.

It shows us that we're not united. When love for one another is what we're not known for, then every false

Christian church looks just like Christian because we're not loving each other.

We look just like the world. So no one can tell if we're part of a

Hebrew movement, a Jehovah's Witness, a Mormon, because we're just, we're fighting one another.

We're not accepting one another's profession. Josh spoke about this earlier. We're not loving one another.

We're not receiving one another into the body. We're doing what 1 John speaks against. You hate your brother?

You are a murderer. And it's not talking about a physical brother. It's talking about, well in 1

John, it's talking about the Jews hating Gentiles. They're not receiving the Gentiles into the body. John's like, you are a murderer.

You're walking in darkness. God's not listening to your prayers. Our biggest problem in the church is not

CRT. It's not the government. It's not public school. It's not the alphabet people.

It's Christians not loving other Christians, not being the body, not being the bride, not being what

Christ has set us apart to be. Subheading number five, one covenant.

The one covenant is the new covenant, and that is the covenant of grace. We spoke about that earlier.

It's not a kingdom that's divided, but it's supposed to be a kingdom that's united in Jesus Christ.

And so if you need any reason to love your brother, it's for that purpose that we are to be a kingdom that is united in Jesus Christ.

Now am I saying that there's no room for debate? No. I'm not saying that at all. I love debate.

I love debate. We have to be careful who we toss out the kingdom.

We are to love our Presbyterian brothers, even though they're wrong, and you're wrong, Presbyterians, right?

That's what we say as Baptists. You're wrong, but I love you. And as reformed people, we say, yeah, yeah, reform.

What about the assembly of God? This hits us all hard, right? Listen, I didn't become a

Christian when I became reformed. I was a

Christian when I was a minister of the assemblies of God. We got to love one another, ladies and gentlemen.

Help each other. Walk each other through these doctrines and have debate. Debate is good.

We are not to be throwing people out of the kingdom who profess faith in Jesus Christ. If you are a

Christian today, there was a time when you were united with Christ, and that was through baptism,

Romans chapter 5, and we're going to see the purpose of this if you read verses 1 through 8,

I'm sorry, Romans 6, excuse me, 1 through 8. What shall we say then?

Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means.

How can we who die to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ were baptized into his death?

We were buried, therefore, with him by baptism into his death in order that just as Jesus was raised from the dead by the glory of the

Father, we too might walk in the newness of life. For if while we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.

For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

Ladies and gentlemen, your baptism is a sign of what Christ has done, what

Christ has accomplished on your behalf. Baptism points to, listen, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

First Peter talks about a baptism that saves. The context is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

Does baptism save? You better bet your butt on it, right? Because that baptism is what

Christ did. It's his death, burial, and resurrection. When you and I are baptized, we're baptized into his death.

Does that water that we partake in save us? No. Christ's baptism, him dying the death that we should die, that's what saves us.

Your baptism is a sign that says when Christ died, you died.

The old covenant was tied to that law. Remember that analogy? When that transmission went into the well, so did that donkey.

When the law was abolished, so is the covenant. New covenant is not tied to the law, but the new covenant and the law are tied to Christ.

And as goes the king, so goes the kingdom. Subheading number six, this one will be real fast, one law.

So the one covenant is Christ fulfilling the old covenant. The one law, the 10 words, the 10 commandments are the same 10 words that were on the stone, same 10 words, but now they're put into our mind and written in our heart.

We don't need an outward physical appearance of something.

It's now inward and spiritual. So the new covenant, again, the one law and the new covenant is the 10 words put into our heart and put into our mind and written in our hearts.

Again, go back to our text, Hebrews 8, verse 10.

Listen, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. So what he's about to say is the covenant.

After those days, the Lord declares to the Lord right here, I will put my laws into their mind and write them on their heart.

And I will be their God and they shall be my people. So everyone who has the law in their mind and written on their heart,

God is their God. And we who have this law in the mind and law written on our heart, we are his people and he is our

God. That's the new covenant. And this law and this covenant are tied to Christ, meaning we are in Christ.

This is what the Bible explicitly over and over says. You are in Christ, baptized. We are united with him and baptized.

We're in him through faith. These things are written in our mind and it's put into our mind and written on our heart.

That's the new covenant. It's no longer an outward, visible, physical thing, but it's an inward reality of a spiritual presence of Christ in us.

It's no longer physical and earthly, but it's heavenly and spiritual. It's no longer keep the law and live in a land, but it's

Jesus Christ has kept the law because he has done so when we believe in him, we are united with him and we live forever in him, that where he is, so will we be.

Because as goes the king, so goes the kingdom. If Jesus is in heaven, well, one day, so will we be.

The promise of the new covenant was this. One people under one covenant united under one law in Christ.

So that's the promises. And now, again, I want to come back to where we were earlier.

This seems to be an already and not yet perspective of the kingdom because the

Jews have not received their Messiah and the church is not united.

Why? Because the people, the church who are not united, even though as individual, as a group, as a prophetic group, as a group of people, we are the church.

Like I'm not just talking about this church, I'm talking about the churches right down the street and all over the world. We're not united.

But in every one of these churches, there are people who are united.

Not united as a body, but united as themself as the temple, that they are truly in Christ.

Although our beliefs are not united yet, like there's certain things where we argue and debate over.

We're not united as a people, but we are united as temples, little temples. Now this might be my little post -millennialism coming out of me, but I believe that one day this will be true.

I believe that one day the fulfillment of this covenant where we will actually be one people united as a body.

And listen, when that day comes, whenever Christians are loving one another, whenever the world looks at us and they can tell who we are by our love for one another,

I believe in that day, we're not going to have to worry about what I talked about earlier. The government, public schools, and the alphabet people, and CTR, because all those things are going to be put to wayside, they're going to be put under the feet of Jesus.

Because the church is actually loving one another. That's the command that God gave us, that we love one another.

And I'm not necessarily saying that y 'all don't love one another, like that's not, I'm just trying to teach the text.

So please don't, I mean, if you don't love one another, I hope it convicts you, but other than that, I hope you just understand that this is what the text is teaching.

Jesus is greater than the old covenant, because under the old covenant there was no love. There was no love for neighbor. So the point was, he sat down.

Why? Because he sacrificed and it was finished. His sacrifice caused him to sit down. The place and where this was done, the earthly temple for the regular priesthood, for him the place was the heavenly temple through his ascension.

And the promise was that it wasn't going to be the old covenant, earthly, written in stone law that you had to keep in order to live or you die.

The promise was that we would be one people united under one covenant and one law that's in Christ.

That's the promise. The promises of the new covenant and the call of faith and repentance is if you have not been saved by grace through faith alone in this

Jesus that I've been speaking about. This life is all that you have.

This life is all that you have. When you die, you should not expect anything from God but wrath.

That's all the unbelievers should expect from a holy, holy, holy God. The new covenant is that Jesus lived in the life we could not live and taken upon himself as a substitute, the death and punishment that we deserve.

Salvation is believing that Jesus has accomplished what we could not on our behalf.

And I posted this on Facebook earlier, for God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned. But whoever does not believe in him, believe in his name, believe in him is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only son of God.

O covenant, live a perfect life. New covenant, believe in him who has lived the perfect life and has died in our place.

Ladies and gentlemen, that's two different covenants. It's two different covenants. My challenge to you as a

Christian, if you are a Christian in here, my challenge is that you love one another the same way that you love

Christ. Now, it's not telling us to go out and love everyone in the world like that.

That's not what it's saying. It's talking about Christians loving Christians. Remember the analogy, if I stomp my toe, my whole body grabs for it.

One of us are hurting. We're to be here for each other. What about a church down the road? What if someone there is hurting?

This church needs to be there for them. If there's any way that we have that knowledge, right? We're to love one another.

I'm available as always. Pastor Cal, Josh, if anyone wants to talk, have a discussion, let's pray.

Father, Lord, we thank you for the new covenant. Lord, we thank you that we ourselves do not have to live under a yoke of bondage,

Lord, but that we have taken upon the yoke of Christ and that under the new covenant, our burdens are easy and our burdens are light because Jesus Christ has carried the burden.

He has done what we could not. He pleased you, and in doing so, he became the perfect sacrifice.

So God, I just pray that everyone under my voice right now, Lord, that their faith is in you and they are clothed with the righteousness that we can only have through him, your son, our beloved saver.

And Lord, I pray right now as they prepare their hearts to partake in this meal, Lord, that you will use it to conform us to the image of your son.

Lord, we love you and we just thank you. Thank you for your word. We thank you for what this week means as Holy Week.

I pray that as Christians, we will reflect on, especially this week, what

Christ has accomplished, that our redemption is in him and that he sits down on the throne.