Go with me, if you would, back
to Hebrews 8. Hebrews 8. We've been going through this
book mainly on Sunday nights. A few times we've gone through
it. We've looked at it for a Bible study. But I felt led to look
at chapter 8 this morning for our message. And the reason is
because I believe this will be a great blessing to God's believers. I have so enjoyed Hebrews. I have thoroughly enjoyed this
book. And I believe this will be a
great blessing to God's believers. And I also believe this will
be very eye-opening to God's unbelievers. He's everybody's God, whether
we believe him or not, right? But I believe this will be very
eye-opening. If a person has been struggling
over the issue of law and grace, and a lot of people do, If a
person has been struggling over the issue of salvation. Given
to us. According to the works that we
do. Salvation given to us based on
our earning it based on our obedience to what he has written in this
book or. Salvation given to us absolutely
apart from any work that we could do, apart from our obedience
to his commandment and totally by God's free and sovereign will
and grace. If a person has been struggling
over this difference, if any person sees in this word And
when two people argue the scriptures, one will pull up a verse and
say, well, this says this, and the other one will say, yeah,
but this says this. Isn't that right? And if a person sees in
this word where God says, do this and live, don't do this
and die. And I'm going to tell everybody
in here, that's in here. It says that. It says that. Specifically, it says that in
Deuteronomy 8 verse 1 and it's repeated in Luke 10 verse 28. But in other words, that is in
here many, many times. Okay? Many times. So if a person
sees those verses, and those verses cause that person to struggle
with other verses, like Titus 3, 5, which says, Not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy
He saved us. Or a verse like Ephesians 2,
8 and 9, By grace are you saved through faith and that not of
yourselves. That's the gift of God. Not of
works, lest any man should boast. Or Galatians 3 10 which says,
as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. The next verse there in Galatians
3 verse 11 goes on to say, but that no man is justified by the
law in the sight of God, it's evident. It's so evident. So if a person is struggling
over what seems to be a real contrast, And it's not. There is no contradiction between
those verses, but if a person sees them to be a real contrast,
and if a person is struggling to make heads or tails out of
all this, I believe Hebrews 8 will be a big help, a huge help. I honestly do pray the Lord will
make this clear to our mind and make this a blessing to our heart
at the same time. The title of this message is
The First Covenant and The Second Covenant. Chapter 8 begins with a recap
of everything that he said up to this point. Verse 1 says,
Now of the things which we have spoken, this is the sum. Here is the summary of the whole
thing. He said, We have such and high priest who is set on
the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens,
a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which
the Lord pitched and not man. For every high priest is ordained
to offer gifts and sacrifices, whereof it is of necessity that
this man have somewhat also to offer. For if he were on earth,
He should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests that offer
gifts according to the law, who serve unto the example and shadow
of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he
was about to make the tabernacle. For see, saith he, that thou
maketh all things according to the pattern showed to thee in
the mount. But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, By
how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was
established upon better promises. For if that first covenant had
been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the
second. For finding fault with them, he saith, 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. 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. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws into their
mind and write them in their hearts, And I will be to them
a God, and they shall be to me a people. And 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. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. In that he saith a new covenant,
He hath made the first old, now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away." Now here's what Hebrews 8 is
saying. God made a covenant with His
people. He gave a covenant to His people. And He said, these are my commandments
and my laws. He gave them to Moses. He brought
him up into that mountain. And he said, Moses, I want you
to tell all the people, these are my commandments and my laws.
If you obey them, if you do them, you'll live. You will live. And that was a
true and binding covenant from God. Look with me at Luke chapter
10. Luke chapter 10 verse 25 says,
And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tempted him, saying,
Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him,
What is written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering
said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy
mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. And the Lord said unto him, Thou
hast answered right. This do, and thou shalt live."
Now, there is no reason, absolutely
no reason to struggle with any of us, starting with me. There
is no reason to struggle with or try to deny that God said,
if you do this, you'll live. No reason to struggle with that
at all. God said it. We believe God, don't we? If
you obey my commandments, he said, you'll live. At the same point in time, With
that being said, there is also no reason to struggle with or
no reason to try to deny that nobody did. Right? This is what God said, if you
obey this, and he even brought it down to two commandments.
He said, on these two commandments, hang all the law. You love the
Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind,
and all your strength. And you love your neighbor as
yourself, and you'll live. I don't struggle with that. I
don't deny that. If a person did that, they'd
live. I also don't struggle with and I don't deny the fact that
nobody did. Nobody did. Nobody has. Nobody will. Nobody. Every person in here has sinned
against God. We don't need for that to be
proven to us. We just don't. We know. We have not kept God
in the front of our mind. I mean, absolutely right in the
right in the center of our heart. We've had other gods before him,
right? We've gone after and worshiped
and desired other things. We have not kept the Sabbath
day holy. We haven't kept anything holy. Today's Mother's Day. Happy Mother's
Day to all you mothers. We all know we have dishonored
our mother, don't we? Dishonored our father and our
mother. We've lied. You know, you don't want to hurt
somebody's feelings. You don't. So you just, you just tell a
helpful lie. Still a lie. We've coveted. We've stolen. Our Lord said, hate is murder.
He said, lust is adultery. Every single one of us has sinned
against God. And mankind is not just like
God is. Mankind is not just. We get a
speeding ticket. You know what mankind says? I
tell you what, after three years, we'll let that fall off your
record. We filed bankruptcy. You know
what mankind says? After seven years, we'll let
that fall off your record. Those kinds of injustices have
crept into our thoughts about God. They've influenced us. Well, yeah, I committed that
sin, but that was 20 years ago. Surely it's fallen off my record
by now. It doesn't work that way with
God. It just doesn't work that way. Our sins are stained onto
our record. They cannot be undone. What's done is done. It's a done
deal. Now, if we never send another day in our life, starting today,
I got up, I went to church, I had an emotional experience, and
starting today, I really did, and I'm not being silly, if I
really did turn over a new leaf. If I really did. And if I truly
did get right with God, starting today, and if I, if this were
possible, if I never committed one more sin in this lifetime,
what has been done is still done. Does that make sense? It's done. It is done. The covenant has
been broken. It's broken. You cannot undo
it. God's commandments have not been
kept. And what did God say the result
of that would be? He said, don't do this and die. Don't do this
and die. That's the end of it. That's
the fair, just, right end for you and me. Now go with me back
to Hebrews 8. Hebrews 8 verse 7 says, For if that first covenant had
been faultless, if my people had truly obeyed me, if they would have truly kept
my word and my covenant, he goes on to say, then should no place
have been sought for the second. There would have been no need
for the second. But not one soul has ended up
faultless in God's eyes. He found fault with every single
one of us. So verse 8 says, Finding fault with them, he saith, Behold. Now this right here is what we
call the gospel. This was his answer. I was amazed we were singing
some of these songs and I was just thinking about a minute
ago, if we could ever enter in, you talk about a blessing to
the heart, if we could ever enter into the fact that God is a merciful
God, meaning God is able to do whatever he wants to do. He's
God. And what he wants to do is be
merciful. It's his character. It's who
he is. If we could ever enter into the
fact of how kind he is. We would rejoice because when
you get to the end of this message, we're going to see we still didn't
earn salvation. We still didn't. He is a merciful,
merciful God, because that is his desire. Because showing mercy
is truly his greatest delight. He said in verse 8, 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. He didn't
have to do that. The word with means upon, concerning. I'm going to make a new covenant
concerning the house of Judah. I'm going to put a new covenant
upon them. Verse 9 says, Not according to
the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when
I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt,
because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them
not, saith the Lord. I brought them out and I gave
Moses this covenant, do this and live. This new covenant is
not going to be like that. Verse 10, For this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord, I will put my laws into their mind, and write them
in their hearts, and I will be to them a God And they shall
be to me a people, and 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." Do you notice how
he keeps saying I? I will, I will, I will. That first covenant said
you. If you will, if you will, if
you will. This second covenant, God said,
I will. I will. Now, here's the heart
of the whole message, OK? This is the key to the whole
message. If we leave here this morning
having gotten a hold of one thing, make it this. Get a hold of this. This has just blessed my heart.
God made the first covenant with man. You do this and you'll live and
man couldn't do it. So God made a second covenant,
but this time he didn't make it with man. He made it with
Christ. And he looked at Christ and he
said, if you'll do this, they'll live. You give your physical life for
them. And I'll put your spiritual life
in them. I'll take all these. You know
what the law is? When he gave Moses that law, what he was saying
is, Moses, this is who God is. He keeps everything holy. He
doesn't covet anything. It all belongs to him. All of
those laws represent the character of God Almighty. He said, I'm
going to take who I am and I'm going to put it in them. I'm
going to fill their mind with it. I'm going to fill their heart
with it. I'm going to create a new creature. And he told Christ, they've sinned
and that sin must be paid. And if you will take care of
that, I'll put your spiritual life in them and they'll live. They will live. Verse 12, for
I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. Here's how I will respond to
all of their unrighteousness. I'm going to pour mercy all over
it. And their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. How can God truly be merciful
to you and me. How can God do that? Mercy is
not getting what we deserve. God is a just God. What that
means is he can only do justice. That's all he can do. He can
only do what is just. That's all he can do. How can
God not give you and me what we deserve? Only one way. Only one way, and it's not through
turning over a new leaf. It's not through going, going
back around, making a list of everybody you wronged and going
back and having a conversation with them and writing that wrong.
And it's not. It's only one way. God had to
take all of my and your sin and iniquity and lay it on and press
it into Christ. He had to make Christ us. And then he had to justly deal
with Christ. He had to give Christ what we
deserved. And then the only result to that
is, the only thing that's fair and right is, he had to give
us what Christ deserved. That's what we inherit. Verse
13 says, In that he saith a new covenant, he hath made the first
old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away. In Christ, that first covenant
is no longer needed. That's why we don't preach works.
That's why we don't preach works. It's no longer needed. In Christ,
our works are no longer relevant. Does that mean we don't have
a heart to obey God? I'll flip back to my Bible study
notes. Absolutely not. We love him. Oh, I wish, I can't
wait to be conformed into his image. But we do not preach works
because they are put away. It's irrelevant concerning the
salvation of the sinner. That is the best news a sinner
could hear. Honestly, men and women, you
know, they're told you got to work your way to heaven. So they
start trying. But they know they're not doing
it right. They know they're not doing it right. And then they finally come to
find out Christ did it right. You just rest in that. And buddy,
you talk about relieving. All that our works could do.
Do you want to see what all our works could accomplish? The only
thing they could accomplish was kill Christ. That's all they
could do. All they could accomplish was
punishment in death. I would not claim my own works
for anything. People make that statement. I
wouldn't do that if my life depended on it. My life depends on it. My life depends on it. I wouldn't
claim my own works for anything. The only work that a child of
God will claim is the work of Jesus Christ. That's it. Now, to give our God all the
glory in these two covenants. All the glory. Let's ask this
question, OK? God says he made that first covenant
and man couldn't keep it. There was fault in it. Does that
mean that God's original plan didn't work out? Is that what
that means? God had to go to a plan B covenant. Did God have to change his mind? Look with me at Hebrews 13. Hebrews 13 verse 20 says, Now
the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord
Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood
of the everlasting covenant." His death was the everlasting
covenant. This covenant that God made with
Christ is not the second covenant. It's the everlasting covenant. Christ is the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. The scripture calls Christ the
second Adam. You know that? The scripture
calls Christ the second Adam. Did Christ come after Adam? Christ is the one who made Adam.
He formed him from the dust of the ground. The reason he calls
himself the second Adam is because he revealed himself to us after
he revealed Adam. And the reason this covenant
is called the second covenant is because it's just been revealed
to us. Every sinner by nature knows
the covenant of works, works, works. And then God reveals this
new covenant, new life, new creature. But before God formed the foundations
of this world, he made this covenant of redemption with Christ. It's
the only covenant. The only reason he gave man a
covenant at all was to show man that he couldn't keep it and
he needed to covenant with Christ. The law points us to Christ.
The law was given to expose sin. The only reason. Our Lord said
to Adam and Eve, he said, do not eat of that tree that's in
the midst of the garden. And then he said, In the day
that you eat thereof, thou shalt surely die. He knew that he was
going to eat of that tree. He knew he couldn't keep that
covenant. He knew. As soon as Adam and Eve ate of
that fruit, God killed a lamb. And he took the skin of that
lamb and he laid it on both of those sinners. And you know what
he was saying when he did that? You have a high priest. You have
a high priest who will make intercession for you. The first covenant was
given to point us to the second. Now go with me back to Hebrews
8. We're going to close with this. Hebrews 8 verse 1 says, Now of the things which we have
spoken, this is the sum. We have such an high priest who
is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the
heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which
the Lord pitched and not man. Those priests of the first covenant,
they wandered around in the wilderness for 40 years. They ended up in
the land of Canaan. That's where they ended up. Christ,
the second covenant is seated in the heavens. He's not in Canaan. Our Lord said, if they tell you,
lo, He's over there, don't go. They asked David, where is your
God? David said, He's seated in the
heavens. That's where He is. And verse
two said, he's a minister of the sanctuary and of the true
tabernacle, which the Lord pitched and not man. Those priests of
the first covenant, they did their work in a tabernacle that
was a tent made out of badger skin. The Christ of the second
covenant did his work in the true tabernacle of his own body. He said, a body hast thou prepared
me, and then he tabernacled among men. All of that reconciliation
was made right inside that tabernacle. Verse three says, for every high
priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices, wherefore it
is of necessity that this man have somewhat also to offer.
The priest of the first covenant, they offered animals. They offered
the blood of bulls and goats. But the Christ of the second
covenant offered his own self. He offered his own body and his
own blood. Verse 4 says, For if he were
on earth, he should not be a priest, seeing that there are priests
that offer gifts according to the law, who serve unto the example
and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God
when he was about to make the tabernacle. For see, saith he,
that thou make all things according to the pattern shown to thee
in the mount. If he were only a priest of this
earth, he would just be a picture. He would just be a shadow, he'd
just be a type of better things to come just like Moses was.
Verse six, but now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry. The
work of Christ accomplished what the work of Moses pictured. The
work of Christ accomplished what the work of Moses pictured. He
has a better ministry. A better ministry, a successful
ministry. Verse six says he's obtained
a more excellent ministry by how much also he is the mediator
of a better covenant. This is one that both parties
are able to keep. God, the father, God, the son.
Both parties. And it goes on to say, which
was established upon better promises, the promises of that first covenant
was Canaan. It was the land over there on
the west side of the Jordan River up to the Mediterranean Sea.
It was a good land, a large land, a land flowing with milk and
honey. That's great. But the promise of the covenant
of Christ is eternal life. I mean, eternal life, glory itself,
complete forgiveness from sin. Not just a huge thing of grapes
that two men have to carry on a pole. Complete forgiveness
from sin. Look one more time at verse 12.
For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sin
and their iniquity will I remember no more. In that he sayeth a
new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth
and waxeth old is ready to vanish away. You know what his final
word is saying right there? A man or a woman's salvation
is not at all dependent on his or her obedience to the first
covenant. Men and women say, well, yeah,
but it says, I know it does. I acknowledge it does, but we
can't do it. And thank God, the good news
of mercy is, a man or a woman's salvation is not at all dependent
on obeying the first covenant. A man or a woman's salvation
is completely, totally dependent on the blood of Jesus Christ. That's it. That's it. God in
mercy took us out of the equation. All we could do was ruin it. Put man involved, you know, ruined
by the fall. You put man involved, all it's
going to be is ruin. So God cut us out of the equation. And God the Father made a covenant
with God the Son. And our salvation is absolutely
ordered and sure based on the fact that Jesus Christ kept that
covenant. And he did. He did. Thank God. If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Great news. Let's all stand together.