Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. The message today will
be taken in the Bible from the book of Hebrews chapter eight.
I've been going through this chapter and this, the issues
of Hebrews, the whole book of Hebrews actually, but especially
this chapter here is a summation of all that had been set up to
this point concerning how much better the gospel of God's grace
in the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ himself, how much better
he is than anything that man could ever imagine. Christ is
better is the theme of the book of Hebrews. And in the verses
that I'm going to deal with today, I'm gonna talk about the new
covenant and the old covenant, how the old covenant is passed
away and the new covenant is enforced. The title of the message
is, A New and Faultless Covenant. A New and Faultless Covenant. Now, he mentions in verse 7,
the first covenant, he says. It says in verse 7 of Hebrews
chapter 8, For if that first covenant had been faultless,
then should no place have been sought for the second, that is
the second covenant. So if the first covenant, now
what is the first covenant? Just hold on to that thought.
If that first covenant had been faultless, now faultless means
without fault, obviously, means perfect. If that first covenant
had been without fault, without some fault, then should no place
have been sought for the second, then look at verse eight, for
finding fault with them. Now the them there has to do
with the nation Israel under that first covenant. So finding
fault with them. Let me give you some things to
think about here when we talk about the covenants. First of
all, the Bible is very clear from Genesis to Revelation that
God is a covenant God. You know what a covenant is.
Basically, in the Bible, you can look at it this way, there
are two types of covenants. There's what we call bilateral
covenant, a bilateral covenant. We're sort of familiar with what
bilateral means or bilateral covenants because those kind
of agreements, a covenant is an agreement, a covenant is a
testament. We have the Old Testament, that's
the Old Covenant. Then we have the New Testament,
that's the New Covenant. But a bilateral covenant, we're
familiar with that because we make those every day between
each other. If you go buy something on credit, for example, that
whatever you buy is given to you on the condition that you
make the payments. That's a bilateral covenant.
Covenant between two, that's why bi, bilateral. And that means that you have
two parties, and there's an agreement, And conditions must be met. So
that's a bilateral covenant. The other type of covenant is
what we call a unilateral covenant. And a unilateral covenant is
conditioned on one. It's a covenant made of one. Not between two, but of one.
And This, you know, I don't want
to get too technical here, but here's what I'm saying. The old
covenant, the first covenant that he talks about here in verse
seven, for if that first covenant, he's talking about the old covenant,
which is the law of Moses, the law of Mount Sinai. That was
the covenant that God placed the nation Israel under on Mount
Sinai. You remember he sent Moses into
Egypt to deliver them out of Sinai, to deliver them out of
Egypt, and he brought them to Mount Sinai. You know the story
of the Ten Commandments. And through Moses, who was the
mediator of that covenant, he established a covenant with that
nation, and it was a bilateral covenant. The blessings of that
covenant, now listen to, God established choosing them and
bringing them out of Egypt and all that. That wasn't a bilateral
covenant. That was a covenant made 400
years before with Abraham. That was a unilateral covenant.
It was all of God, one. But when he brought them to Mount
Sinai and he made that covenant with the nation, he made a bilateral
covenant. In other words, the blessings
of that covenant The promises of that covenant were all conditioned
on Israel's obedience. Now what happened? Well, they
failed. All right? And so that was the
old covenant. Now it's called the first covenant
here because it was the first in time. And I mentioned this
last week and I want to make this very clear, salvation The
grace of God, salvation by grace, based upon the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, has always been the way of salvation.
That was the result of a unilateral covenant set up before the foundation
of the world between the Father and the Son and the Spirit, the
Godhead. One God, three persons in the Godhead, but one God.
That's why it's a unilateral covenant. God chose a people. and gave them to His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and all the conditions of their salvation
was placed upon Christ. Now, that's an eternal covenant.
That's an everlasting covenant. Christ's blood, in Hebrews 13
and verse 20, His blood is called the blood of the everlasting
covenant. Now, in time, Christ had to come
and actually pay the sin debt of His people. You see, Christ
was made the surety of the covenant, a covenant of grace before the
foundation of the world. All the sins, the whole sin debt,
put it that way, the debt of their sins were placed upon Him. He became totally, completely,
100% responsible for the debt the sin debt of his people. And
in order to pay that debt, what did he have to do? He had to
die. He had to shed his precious blood. That's why it's called
the blood of the covenant. He had to satisfy the justice
of God. You see, God is a holy God. He's
a just God. Yes, He is a merciful God and
a loving God, but He cannot, and here's the issue of the gospel
now, God cannot show love and mercy towards any sinner apart
from law and justice being satisfied. Isaiah in chapter 45 put it this
way, He is both a just God and a Savior. How's that possible? How can He forgive my sins in
love and mercy and grace, and still satisfy His justice which
demands my death? Only by His grace, through the
work, the merit, the debt payment, by a substitute, a surety, one
who is appointed by God, one who is willing to do what it
takes to pay the debt, and one who is able to pay the debt. And that's Christ. Okay? Now,
Christ had to come in time. He had to be made flesh without
sin. The Word made flesh. He had to
become a man because He had to die. And as God-man, He obeyed
the law unto death and died on the cross, was buried, and rose
the third day because He paid the debt. Righteousness was established,
you see. That's what it's all about. Now,
He had to do that in time. When did he do it? He did that
a little over 2,000 years ago. And so, the Law of Moses on Mount
Sinai was established in time now, 1,500 years before Christ
came and lived and died, was buried and rose again. So in
time, the Law of Moses is called the First Covenant, even though
salvation was before the Law of Moses, before the world began.
The Gospel. But in time, in the process of
time, in the fullness of time, the Law of Moses came into the
world and was put upon the Jewish people before the Lord Jesus
Christ actually came in time. And what He did when He came
in time, the Lord Jesus, He established the New Covenant. Now the New
Covenant is the fulfillment in time of all the terms all the
conditions, all the stipulations of the everlasting covenant of
grace. So it's called the New Covenant. Here it's called the
Second Covenant. Look at verse 7 again of Hebrews
8. For if that first covenant had
been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the
second. That's the New Covenant. And
we're going to see that as we go down through these verses.
Now, the first covenant had fault. Okay? It was a weak covenant
in that sense. Why? Where did the fault lay? Was it in the covenant itself?
No. Look at verse eight again. For
finding fault with them. Who? The Israelites under that
covenant. Here's my point. The problem
with the old covenant law was not the law itself. It was with
the sinners who were under it. And that's what I'm saying about
us today. Whenever it comes to the law
of God, we cannot be saved by that law. We cannot be saved
by our works under the law. Why? Because the law is the problem? No, because we are the problem. We have the fault, we're sinners. And by deeds of law shall no
flesh be justified. for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Now here's the point. If salvation
were in any way conditioned on me, any of its blessings or its
promises, then the covenant is bilateral and it's not faultless
because I'm a sinner. And it means it would fail just
like the Israelites failed under the old covenant law. Now listen
to what he says here in Hebrews chapter eight and verse eight.
He says, for finding fault with them, those sinful Israelites. And I don't say that self-righteously. I'm a sinner too. You know, a
lot of people, they go back and they read the old covenant promises
and they apply those promises to themselves. And what you're
doing, you're saying, well, if I'll do this, God will do this.
If I meet this condition, what you're actually saying there
is that you're better than the Israelites of old because they
failed. You say, well, not all of them failed. Yes, they did.
The law condemned them all. Even believers under that covenant,
they were not saved according to the terms of the old covenant.
They were saved according to the terms of the everlasting
covenant of grace by promise of Christ to come. Righteousness
was never attained for any person under the Law of Moses by its
terms. It was always in Christ. Look
forward to Him. That was the Old Testament promise.
The Old Testament believers were saved by looking forward to Christ
to come. The New Testament believers are
saved by looking back to Christ who has already come. So finding
fault with them, look at verse eight now. Behold, the days come,
saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel and with the house of Judah. Now I know this is
difficult for some people to accept and to understand. But
when he talks about the house of Israel and the house of Judah
there, what he's talking about is spiritual Israel. There are
a lot of people who accuse me of what they call replacement
theology, claiming that the church replaced Israel as a nation. And that's not what I believe.
There is no such thing as replacement theology in the Bible. There
is, however, what the Bible calls and shows to be fulfillment theology. And what I'm telling you is this.
What the nation Israel pictured and typified under the old covenant
is fulfilled in perfection by the church as redeemed by the
blood of Christ. That's fulfillment theology.
Now let me give you an example of what I'm talking about. You
know that under the old covenant, they slew animal sacrifice. They made animal sacrifices.
Let's talk about lambs. They slew lambs and bullocks
and all of that, turtle doves, all that. But let's just talk
about the lambs, okay? There were sacrifices before
the old covenant. Abel brought the blood of a lamb. Now all those lambs, that were
slain on Jewish altars could never take away sin. But the
Lamb of God, who is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, shedding
His blood on the cross, took away the sins of the world. That's
God's people, God's chosen people out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. That's not everybody without exception.
It's only for believers. It's only for the church. He
redeemed His church with His precious blood. But His blood
satisfied justice, paid the debt. Now, did the blood of Christ,
the Lamb of God, or did Christ as the Lamb of God, did He replace
all those Jewish lambs that were slain on Jewish altars? No. He is the fulfillment of what
those lambs typified and pictured. And so what I'm saying is this,
the church is not a replacement for Israel. The church is the
fulfillment of what Israel as a nation under that covenant
typified and foreshadowed. And so when he talks about the
house of Israel and the house of Judah, why didn't he just
say Israel? There are times that he does.
Romans 11, all Israel shall be saved. Who is that? That's God's
elect spiritual Israel out of every tribe, kindred, tongue
and nation. Paul establishes that in the book of Romans by
inspiration of the Spirit clearly. Romans 2, 28 and 29, he talks
about how he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, and circumcision
is not that of the flesh, but circumcision is that of the heart.
That's the new birth. In other words, if you're a true
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you're a member of the spiritual
Israel of God. That's what the Bible teaches.
In Christ, there's neither Jew nor Greek. There's only his people. So he says he's gonna make a
covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Well,
the house of Israel, at the time of this writing, Israel was the
northern king. After Solomon, the kingdom of
Israel divided into two nations. There was the Northern Kingdom,
called Israel, made up of 10 tribes, and the Southern Kingdom,
called Judah, made up of Judah, who was the main tribe, and Benjamin. The capital of Judah was Jerusalem. The capital of Israel was Samaria. And what happened was the Northern
Kingdom was destroyed and obliterated and scattered by the Assyrian
Empire, And then later on, about a hundred years later, the southern
kingdom was destroyed and taken captive by the Babylonians. However, God allowed them to
return back to their land and exist for 400 and some more years
until he was finished with them. And that's when the Messiah came.
And that's what happened. What he's saying here in Hebrews
chapter eight and verse eight is that this new covenant is
not going to be made with a divided kingdom. It's going to be made
with one kingdom, spiritual Israel, the house of Israel and the house
of Judah. Israel, the name Israel means
those who have prevailed with God. How does a sinner prevail
with God? Only by pleading the merits of
Christ's blood. Only by pleading the merits of
His righteousness. The term Judah is the kingly
tribe from which Christ came. And listen to what he says in
verse nine, Hebrews 8, nine. He said, I'm gonna make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Now listen
to this, verse nine. Not according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by
the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they
continued not in my covenant. And I regarded them not, saith
the Lord. So God says, I'm gonna make a
new covenant. Now here's what's happening here.
In the book of Hebrews, the Holy Spirit is showing that the new
covenant has been established and fulfilled and has been inaugurated
and enacted by Christ And so the old covenant is gone. It's
vanished away. It's grown old and vanished away. And he's quoting the fulfillment
of a prophecy. Where do we find the prophecy?
Well, you can find it in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 31,
beginning at verse 31. And that's where this is quoted
from. Verse eight, he said, I'm gonna make a new covenant. Verse
nine, not according to the covenant, not according to Sinai, not according
to the law of Moses. And he says, which they, he said
that covenant that he took them by the hand and lead them out
of Egypt. And why is it not gonna be like that? Because they continued
not in my covenant. They broke it. They broke that
covenant. That was a bilateral covenant
because its promises and blessings were conditioned on Israel as
a nation and their obedience, and they failed. All right? But look at verse 10. He says,
for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of
Israel after those days, saith the Lord. Now listen to what
he says. And notice how many I wills are
here, and that's God's will. I will put my laws into their
minds and write them in their hearts. Now his word, that's
what he's talking about. And he said, you know, the law
could tell you what to do and what not to do, but it couldn't
give you a heart change. It couldn't give you spiritual
life. It couldn't give you a mind and a desire. But God said, I'm
going to do that. And he said, I'll write it in
their hearts. That's the new heart. That's referring to regeneration,
conversion, the new birth. And he says, I will be to them
a God and they shall be to me a people. Now it's a marriage
union contract there. And he says in verse 11, they
shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother
saying, know the Lord for all shall know me from the least
to the greatest. Under the old covenant, the majority
of the nation Israel, even though they claim to be religious and
claim to worship God, they didn't really know God. The prophets
came along and pointed them to the truth and they hated the
prophets. They persecuted the prophets,
even killed them. But under this new covenant, whoever's a member
of this covenant, they're not gonna They're not gonna remain
ignorant of the true and living God, a just God and a savior,
who God is. Christ said in John 17, this
is life eternal, that they might know thee and thee only, and they might know thee and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent. You see, they're gonna know Christ.
They're gonna be taught of God. They're gonna hear the gospel.
That's how you come to know God. The gospel in the hands of the
Holy Spirit who drives us to Christ. for salvation. And here's
what I'm saying, if you really know God, if you really know
Him, you're trusting Christ for all salvation, for all righteousness,
for all eternal life, for all glory. And he says, from the
least to the greatest, and then verse 12, he says, he says, for
I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. Now that's a unilateral covenant.
God said, I'm gonna be merciful. Now what is mercy in God's plan
of salvation? It's not just looking over sin.
It's not just in forgetting it or acting like it never happened.
It's mercy at the mercy seat. It's mercy established with justice
through the blood of Jesus Christ. And you see this covenant is
sure and certain because it's all conditioned on Christ. It's
a unilateral covenant. Christ met the conditions. If
a covenant is established upon sinful people who have fault,
the covenant fails. But if the covenant is conditioned
on or established upon a perfect person who has no fault, then
it's sure and certain. Well, the New Covenant is conditioned
on and established upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect God-man,
who wrought out and worked out by His obedience unto death a
perfect righteousness. and it's conditioned on him.
And God says, their iniquities will I remember no more. What
does that mean? Does that mean God can erase
them from his mind? No, God doesn't change. And that's a glorious thing for
the people of God. What it means is that God will
never bring them up again in a way of condemnation and damnation. God will never again, God will
never charge His people with their sins. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. He imputes righteousness without.
God says, I will not keep record of those sins. We're sinners
if we're saved. Sinners saved by grace. but God
cannot and will not charge us with our sins so that there is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
And so he says in verse 13, in that he saith a new covenant,
he hath made the first old. That first covenant, that old
covenant, he says now that which decayeth and waxeth or groweth
old is ready to vanish away. My friend, the Old Covenant has
been abolished. Now, there are many people who
claim to be Christian, who try to keep that Old Covenant law
in force over the church, but they're denying Christ. They
don't know what they're doing, whether it's a Sabbath or whether
or not, anything. The old covenant has been abolished. The new covenant is in force.
Hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's
word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
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at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
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today and may the Lord be with you.