Let's go ahead and get started.
If you would, turn with me to Matthew 26. Matthew 26. I'm just going to read one verse
for now. Verse 28. Matthew 26, verse 28.
Very familiar. For this is my blood of the New
Testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins. I've entitled this message, The
New Testament. This is Christ, of course, talking
to the apostles when they were about to partake of the bread
and the wine, the Lord's table, as we call it. The wine, of course,
is what he's talking about as it is in remembrance of him shedding
his blood. But his blood, he says, is of
the New Testament. I think we all know that this
is not talking about the New Testament as in Matthew, Mark,
Luke, John versus Genesis, Exodus, and so on. This is talking about
the old covenant, which was do this and live, versus the new
covenant, which is a new kind of covenant, an unprecedented
or fresh. The word there for testament
is the same word translated covenant in other places. Another word
you can use is contract. But it says here that his blood
is of that New Testament. Keep in mind, this is before
he went to the cross. So Christ is saying this blood
is of the contract that was made. Christ is telling here, telling
us that His blood is of the New Testament before He went and
died on that tree. And I think that's important.
That tells us that this was already known to have been part of that
covenant. I know this is Jesus Christ,
but He lets us know right here that this is part of that new
kind of covenant. So I want to look at some things
today as it concerns the New Testament or New Covenant. Why
is there a need for a new covenant? What is the new covenant? Who
is involved in the new covenant? So first, why is there a need
for a new covenant or a new kind of covenant? I do want to point
this out though. Where it says new covenant and
old covenant, this has nothing to do with age, if you will. The new covenant is just as old,
if you will. This has to do basically with
a broken covenant and a promised covenant. As I said before, this
is a new kind of covenant. So since there's a need for a
new kind of covenant, there must have been a problem with the
old covenant. We can see this by going back
to Jeremiah and looking at Jeremiah 11. So turn with me there, Jeremiah
11. You can see it in other places,
but this is a good place to read this. Jeremiah 11, Jeremiah 11, that's
just after Isaiah if that helps. Jeremiah 11, 1 through 10. The word that came to Jeremiah
from the Lord saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and
speak unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
And say thou unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel,
Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the words of this covenant,
which I commanded your fathers in the day that I brought them
forth out of the land of Egypt from the iron furnace, saying,
Obey my voice, and do them according to all which I command you. So
shall ye be my people, and I will be your God. that I may perform
the oath which I have sworn unto your fathers, to give them a
land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then answered
I, and said, So be it, O Lord. Then the Lord said unto me, Proclaim
all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets
of Jerusalem, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and
do them. For I earnestly protested unto
your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the
land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting,
saying, Obey my voice. Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined
their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil
heart. Therefore, I will bring upon them all the words of this
covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they did them not.
And the Lord said unto me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah
and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They are turned back
to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words,
and they went after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel
and the house of Judah have broken my covenant, which I made with
their fathers. So we see right here in this
passage right here, one thing we can say about the old covenant
is this, we did not keep it. If you look back and see what
it says, you can see that the people agreed that they would
do the commands of the Lord. But as we read, they did not. But the fact is, we cannot do
it under the old covenant. It's not possible. Romans 8.4,
Romans 8.4, turn over there with me to Romans 8.4. I'm sorry, Romans 8, turn over
to Romans 8, verses 1 through 4. And Paul writes this, there is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. For the
law, the spirit of life in Christ Jesus have made me free from
the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son
in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. The law, which is that which
was part of that old covenant, and it was weak. That's what
we just read right here. How was it weak? Through the
flesh. Listen, all of us are born flesh.
In Adam, we are born forth from him and Adam died spiritually.
So that communion with God directly from being born in this flesh
is not possible. God is life itself and we are
born dead in trespasses and in sins. You all know the litany
the scripture goes through in Romans which speaks of every
son and daughter of Adam. There is none righteous, no not
one. Man has no righteousness as he
is born in Adam. But any righteousness that we
do have, the scripture says is filthy rags in God's sight. The
old covenant said, do this and live. But because the law was
weak through the flesh, just to be clear, the do this and
live had to do with the law. God said obey these commandments
and live. They did not and no one does
because the law is weak through the flesh. We read this in scripture
in Galatians 3.21. Is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. Righteousness cannot come by
the law because the law cannot give life. But Romans does not
stop there. It says, we do not understand
who God is or what he is telling us to do, and we are not seeking
after God that we may do his commandments. There is none that
understandeth and none that seeketh after God. Put us all together
and there's nothing profitable in us or about us. There's none
that doeth good. Doing good would be to do as
God has commanded, but it says there is none that doeth good,
no not one. It goes on to say more, but I
think that's enough to get the idea of what scripture says about
men born of Adam. The old covenant could not be
kept because the old covenant was made with you and I, and
we being born of Adam could not, cannot, and will not do or keep
his commandments. The covenant was made with this
flesh. I know the passage we read in Jeremiah was speaking
to Israel, but we are no better than they. What does Romans 3,
9 say? Paul says, what then? Are we
better than they? And he's talking about the Israelites,
better than the Gentiles. No, and no wise, for we have
before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin. We are born dead, every single
one of us. Dead spiritually, and we have
already read that the law cannot produce life, or you can say
righteousness. Life comes from God. He is life
itself. And without that life, we are
dead in trespasses and in sin. This flesh is that way, and that's
all it will ever be. The law was given to this flesh,
as I said, to show us what sin is. and we will never keep God's
law with this flesh. It was never intended to give
life or to be a way of life. So since that is true, there
is a need and has always been a need for a new, fresh covenant,
one where we can be brought near to God again. So next, what is
the new covenant? This covenant is a new kind of
covenant, as I said. It's a covenant that still involves
man, but it's one man, along with his promised body that this
covenant is made for. We've already saw how he could
not meet the demands of the first covenant, that is, fallen sinful
man. So there's no reason to think we could keep another covenant
in and of ourselves. We had to have a go-between,
one who would stand in the gap. One who would now be our federal
head as Adam is our federal head in this flesh. One that would
perform what is needed in our place. Listen, we've already
broken God's law, so that disobeying must be punished. The old covenant
was real, and God said those who do not obey this would be
cursed. That's what we just read in Jeremiah.
God with this new covenant is not just going to forget about
sin, that sin that was done against him and not obeying his word,
his commandments. We need one who, when he does
something, we do it in him. He will be the doer of it all,
therefore we are the doers of it. Remember the account of Joseph
in Genesis 39, 21 through 23, we read, But the Lord was with
Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favor in the sight
of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison
committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the
prison. And whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked
not to anything that was under his hand, because the Lord was
with him. And that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper. If we do anything toward God,
it will be in His Son. And we ought to be thankful for
that. For if we stand before God with our works on our own,
we will not make it. To stand there before God with
our filthy rags of righteousness will get us consumed. But He,
the Son, is also the doer of it. He has taken on and in Himself
all of those evil works which we have done in this flesh, which
are sin, and He died the death we should have died. Justice
must be satisfied. The first covenant was broken
and all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Those
sins must be punished. That's where the new covenant
comes in, a new kind of covenant. The son agreed as one with the
father that he would die that death because we could not do
it. It had to be a man that would
die for the sin of men and women who broke the first covenant.
Remember, everything brings forth of its own kind. So God had to
come down as a man born under the law that he might redeem
them that were under the law. Again, man born of Adam cannot
accomplish this, but this man born of God could and did. There was an agreement between
the Godhead to carry out salvation, because sin had to be atoned
for. This was done by God the Son, done for fallen man, and
for God the Father, and applied by God the Holy Spirit. What do we read in Scripture
in 1 John 5, 7, Joe? For there are three that bear
record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one. Amen. There are three in heaven,
the Father, Jesus Christ, because He is the Word, and the Holy
Ghost. But we cannot miss it. It says
these three are one. This is one of those things in
the scriptures we cannot explain, but we must believe it. But it
is these three are one. Now this is always true no matter
what we're talking about in scripture. We're not just talking about
the covenant. It's always been true. God manifests in three
persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
So it's not just for the covenants, everything, God is always one.
I started looking into this because someone asked me about the new
covenant and where it is said in the scripture that there was
a covenant between God the Father and God the Son specifically.
And I mean using those exact English words. Something like
the Father made a covenant with the Son. And I'm not sure you'll
find that in scripture using those exact words. I didn't really
try to look it up in depth. I did try to look it up some,
and I didn't find it. But the fact is, there is a covenant
between the three and one, and it's found throughout the scripture.
And I want to say, I did appreciate this question. It was not asked
to me in any negative way, so I just was asked, wondering where
the scripture had said that. I was just asked that, about
that. But when thinking about the subject, I did recall this
statement from our text as it concerns this. My blood of the
New Testament. The word for testament is the
same word translated as covenant in the New Testament scripture,
as I've said. Not to confuse New Testament when Christ is
speaking there with Old Testament versus New Testament. When you
read the word testament in scripture, it's talking about covenant.
You can read it in Mark 26, 28, Mark 14, 24, and Luke 22, 20.
It's the same account, just to name a few where the word testament
is used. But it's not just the word for testament that strikes
me, as I think I've already kind of pointed that out by how I've
been saying it. It is when he said, this is my
blood of the New Testament. This blood was a part of this
New Testament and in fact was the crux of satisfying this New
Testament. So this blood spoken of here
is of this New Testament, this new kind of covenant. I believe
when we begin to listen to who is speaking and what it is he
says, it will bring greater clarity on the subject. His blood is
of this New Testament, this new covenant, this new kind of covenant.
So let's get back to this covenant. In Hebrews, it talks about this
covenant or testament, that is, that testament he is speaking
of when he says, speaking of the bread and the cup, his blood
of the New Testament. He's saying what it says in Hebrews.
In Hebrews 7.22, you can read it. In Hebrews 9, you can read
it, 15 through 18. But we'll read Hebrews 7.22 here. By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament. That word for testament is the
same word used covenant. But to go even further, this
says he was made a surety. Now I don't wanna be too technical
here, but the meaning of this word is pledged, or that is a
bondsman. We have a sense of what this
word means when you think about, you know, I went to get my first
loan, and you had someone who had to co-sign for you. You might
had to have someone co-sign for you. And I want to say this word
means much more than just a cosigner. But it's the sense that you get.
Christ said he would be the surety of this covenant. Or you could
think of it like a bondsman, and I don't know exactly how
this works, but a bondsman is someone who's, we have someone
who's accused of something, and then someone pays money to bond
them out. That bondsman is responsible
for them to come back to court. So that's, you can kind of think
of it. He's one who stands in our place. He was made this,
it says. He was made a surety. We've already
broken the first covenant. It's clear from Scripture. So
there's no use for God to make another covenant with us alone.
We had nothing to pay, nothing to stand for surety. So He is
our cosigner, if you will. He is the one who made the agreement
with the Father that He would pay the price needed for this
purchase. In verse 15 of Hebrews 9, you
see the word mediator. The word means a go-between.
Thayer says this about the meaning of the word. One who intervenes
between two, either in order to make or restore peace and
friendship, or form a compact, or for ratifying a covenant. Christ ratified the covenant
by what he did on that tree. This was the purpose of God for
this to be so. Christ says in the Scripture,
He always did the will of the Father, and of course He did,
because these three are one. But Scripture tells us this because
of what it says in Acts 2.23. I'm not going to turn to it or
anything, but it says, It was the term in a council on foreknowledge
of God that Christ died because His blood is what ratified it. The father and son agreed on
this, and he always did the will of the father. Now to see further
on this, into this from scripture, we read the following from Galatians
3.16. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not into seeds as of
many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. So it's one. promises were made
to Christ. God promised the son, you do
this and I promise you this, if you will, is how you can look
at it. They made a covenant and agreed upon it because these
three are one and he swear by himself, Hebrews 6, 13 and 14,
for when God made promise to Abraham because he could swear
by no greater, he swear by himself, saying, surely blessing I will
bless thee and multiplying, I will multiply thee. Based on this, and I'm sure there's
far more that agrees with this in Scripture, but I believe the
Scripture does teach there was a covenant between God the Father,
God the Son, and as well the Holy Spirit. These three are
one. But last of all we have, who
is involved in this new covenant? Man could do nothing to ratify
it. We know that God made a covenant before with man, but man failed
to keep it. So it would do no good for him
to make another covenant with fallen man alone. There had to
be one who would mediate or carry out that covenant on their behalf. That's substitution. This new
covenant could not have been made with us in and of ourselves. We are born dead in trespasses
and in sin, so we could in no way agree to any covenant. And
even if we would agree, we had nothing in ourselves that could
secure this covenant. The Son did this. He agreed with
the Father to do for a people what they could not do for themselves.
Christ obtained the promises for us, and so did we in Him. being his body. He is our mediator,
the one who signed the covenant in agreement with the Father
to redeem a people for his name. Now listen, I want to be clear.
Adam was our federal head which took us to the grave. We died
in Adam because we all, and by that all, I mean every single
man and woman, young and old. We all died in Adam He represented
us. But then there are many who,
and who they all are, I don't know. Other than this, they are
the ones who will believe this record God has given of his son
because of their second head. Jesus Christ is the federal head
of all those he died for. Did he die for all without exception?
No. He died for all who were in the
covenant made with the Father and the Spirit, I might add.
Romans 5.15 says this, but not as the offense, so also is the
free gift. For if through the offense of
one, many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift
by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto
many. This covenant is the covenant
of grace. This covenant paid the penalty.
The old could exact a penalty, but it could not give life. This
new covenant could, and it did. That grace, that is favor from
God. Favor comes through a man, one
man, Jesus Christ. He did what fallen sinful man
could not do. And listen, Christ did this by
himself. Hebrews 1, 1 through 3 we read.
God, who at sundry times and in diverse manners spake in times
past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last
days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all
things, by whom also he made the worlds, who, being the brightness
of his glory and the expressed image of his person, and upholding
all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. I'm glad he did this by himself
because I could not stand before God on my own. It's clear from
scripture that Christ did this by himself. And what he did was
to purge his people's sins. Purged. They're gone. I'm also thankful that though
he did this by himself, he did not just do this for himself. He did this for himself and for
the Father. He did this for the Father. And I remember Joe pointing this
out one time, John 20, 17, we read, Jesus saith unto her, touch
me not. For I am not yet ascended to
my father, but go to my brethren and say unto them, and listen
to this, I ascend unto my father and your father, and to my God
and your God. How wondrous is that? But this
shows us he was going to the father to present himself to
the father to be accepted on our behalf. So he did this for
the father, but thank God he did this for you and I, all those
who were in him. He both satisfied the law of
God and paid for the sins of many through his dying on that
tree and shedding his blood. He signed it or ratified it.
How did he do this? What does our text say? For this
is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many for the
remission of sin. He signed or ratified this testament,
this covenant with his blood. We have proof of that in scripture,
because he said, it is finished. The word is tetelestai, and that
word means paid in full. It's like a bill that's been
stamped, paid in full. It has his signature on it, his
blood. He signed it with his blood.
He is the surety, the hope for all of His people. He said this
is the blood of the New Testament. No other testament is needed.
This is a new kind of covenant. One where another takes our place
and satisfies God to purge our sins. He satiated God on our
behalf. God is satisfied with the Son
and therefore He is satisfied with us. He will bring many to
Him by His grace and He will give them what is needed for
them to believe on Jesus Christ. So there's only one question
for us or to anyone who may hear this. Do you believe Him? Amen. Our holy sovereign God,
dear Lord. How can it be that to us fallen, sinful creatures,
dear Lord, that you can call us your friend, dear Lord. But
you do, dear Lord, all because of what you have done. Forgive
us of our sins, dear Lord. Be with us as we go out, dear
Lord, and be with us as we partake of this food that's been prepared,
dear Lord, and thank you for those who have prepared it. May
it be that we have fellowship in your dear son, dear Lord.
All these things we ask in Christ's name, amen.