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. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us for this message today. And I'll be teaching from
the book of Hebrews, the New Testament book of Hebrews chapter
eight. And the text that I'm going to
focus on, I'm going to go through much of this chapter. And I have
two messages that I want to preach on this subject. The title is
Jesus Christ and the Better Covenant. Jesus Christ and the better covenant. And I took the title from verse
six of Hebrews chapter eight. Let me just read this verse and
then I'll go back to the context. And like I said, this is the
first part of a two-part message, Jesus Christ and the better covenant.
And it says in verse six of Hebrews chapter eight, it says, but now
he, or now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry. Now the he
there is the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God incarnate
who is Emmanuel, God with us. He's the one that this whole
book, the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation is about. This is the book of Jesus Christ. And he says now Hath he obtained
a more excellent ministry? Jesus Christ has obtained a more
excellent ministry. More excellent than what? Well,
this is a contrast between what Christ has established in the
New Covenant as contrasted with the old covenant, the law of
Moses given on Mount Sinai back when the Hebrew children met
at the foot of Mount Sinai. Moses went up into the mount
and God gave him the law. So Jesus Christ has obtained
And how did he obtain it? By his coming into the world,
his incarnation, that's what the theologians call that, and
that's good. The word was made flesh. The word incarnate, the
root word is flesh. And in John 1.14, it says, the
word, that is Christ, who is the living word, the word personified,
you might say, that the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us. Now, His being made flesh does
not mean that when He came into the world, He was born dead in
trespasses and sins, born in sin like you and I were. He was born the perfect God-man. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
And as I said, His name is Emmanuel, God with us. And then he obtained
this more excellent ministry by his work that he completed
by himself. Hebrews 1.3 talks about that. When he by himself purged our
sins, that is the sins of his people, his sheep, God's elect.
And so he obtained this more excellent ministry when he by
himself But as he did it by himself, it was his work exclusively.
We had no part in it. We who are saved had no part
in it as far as helping him, contributing to it. It was totally
a work done by Jesus Christ and he did it alone and by one offering,
but he didn't do it as a private person. In other words, he didn't
do it for himself as a private person. He did it for his people. And that's not everyone without
exception now. Bible doesn't teach that. He
did it for God's elect. He did it for his sheep. They
are the same, you see, his church. He redeemed his church. And he
did it as their surety. That is, he took the place of
his people as a surety to pay their debt to God's law and justice. The sin debt is what we might
call it. For the wages of sin is death. That's what everyone who is saved
is a sinner saved by grace and their debt has been paid by Jesus
Christ because he acted as a surety. In other words, he became surety
for their debt. And in that sense, the sins of
God's people were charged, accounted, reckoned, or imputed to him. The Apostle Paul wrote about
that in 2 Corinthians 5.21, for he was made to be sin. Christ who knew no sin for us,
that is those who are reconciled to God. that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. So the sins of his people were
charged, accounted, imputed, reckoned to him, and his righteousness,
what he obtained by his work, you see, his merits, his value,
his worth, his righteousness has been imputed, charged, accounted,
reckoned to them. That's his satisfaction, that's
what the Bible calls propitiation. That word propitiation is translated
three times that way in the King James Version of the Bible in
the New Testament. Other times it's translated merciful
or mercy, or it's translated reconciled. But what happened
there was that Christ on that cross, as the surety of his people,
took their place as their substitute. died in their place and satisfied
justice. How do you know he satisfied
justice? How do you know that he brought forth righteousness?
Because when he was buried, he didn't stay in the grave. He
was raised from the dead. That's what the resurrection
is all about. You see, it's not just the simple
miracle of God giving life. God is God. He is life. But it's
the fact that Jesus Christ brought forth the only ground upon which
God justifies His people. Now that's how he obtained, verse
6 of Hebrews 8. But now hath he obtained a more
excellent ministry. Now everything that he accomplished
in this obtaining a more excellent ministry could never have been
accomplished under the old covenant, under the law. Let me read on
verse six and I'll go show you another verse here. He says,
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. So he's the mediator of a better
covenant, Jesus Christ and the better covenant. Now that's the
contrast. What covenant is he talking about?
What is a covenant? A covenant is a testament. Sometimes
the word covenant is translated testament when Christ instituted
the Lord's Supper, for example. He told his disciples when he
took the wine, he says, this is the new covenant, the new
testament, as recorded in the book of Matthew. This is the
new testament in my blood. In other words, the New Testament,
the New Covenant was ratified and sealed by the blood of Jesus
Christ. Do you understand that? And that's
important because I want you to understand, listen, the New
Covenant is not ratified or sealed by my faith or your faith. No, sir. Now, is faith important? Yes. Is faith necessary? Yes. God-given faith in the true
Messiah, submitting to Him as the only way of salvation, believing
in Him, he that believeth not shall be damned. But you see,
the New Covenant, the New Testament, is not ratified by what we do. And that's so important. The
New Covenant is ratified and sealed by what Christ did alone. And we who truly believe, who
have God-given faith, given by the Holy Spirit in the new birth,
that's what we believe. That's what we rest in, the blood
of Christ, the righteousness of Jesus Christ. We don't have
faith in our faith. You see, my faith is not in me
or in my faith. My faith is in Jesus Christ.
Now, I want you to understand that when I say these things,
I'm not just splitting hairs. This is important. This is the
difference between saved and lost. This is the difference
between that which glorifies and exalts Christ and that which
glorifies and exalts man. But Christ obtained this more
excellent ministry And he says, by how much also he's the mediator
of a better covenant. The mediator. That's the one
who stands in between the two parties involved in this covenant. And Jesus Christ is the only
mediator. Angels are not mediators. The saints are not mediators. Mary, the human mother of Jesus
Christ, is no mediator. There's one mediator, Paul wrote,
between God and men. There's one God and one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And if we look
towards any other mediator or depend upon any other mediator,
then we deny the one mediator, Jesus Christ. The mediatorial
work of Christ, he's the intercessor, he's the advocate, He's the,
as Job said, the days man, the Twixas, all of that. And what
he does as the mediator, he ever lives to make intercession for
his people, the Bible says. What he does is he stands as
the advocate of his people and the merits of his righteousness
continually pleads for them forever. Now that's the more excellent
ministry, that's the better covenant. Now, as I said, this is a contrast
here between the new covenant in Christ, the better covenant,
and the old covenant, the law of Moses. Over in Hebrews 7 and
verse 19, listen to this verse. He says, for the law, now the
law is the old covenant. The law made nothing perfect.
The law made nothing complete. The law finished nothing. The
law accomplished nothing as to the salvation of a sinner. The
law covenant, the old covenant, was not a covenant of salvation.
He says the law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in
of a better hope did. What is that better hope? That's
Jesus Christ, the mediator of the new covenant. Jesus Christ
and the better covenant. The better covenant means a better
hope. What hope did the nation Israel have under the Old Covenant
as to their law-keeping? The answer is absolutely nothing.
In fact, the law was given to do what? To expose their sinfulness,
their depravity, the impossibility of salvation by their works.
But that law in its ceremonies In the tabernacle, for example,
the priesthood, the sacrifices, the feast days all pointed to
a better hope away from themselves and to Jesus Christ as the promised
Messiah who would come in time and establish a new covenant.
So he says it's a better hope by the which we draw nigh unto
God. How do you draw nigh to God?
How do you get close to God? That's what that's talking about.
Not through the law and not through your obedience, not through your
works. You only draw nigh to God through
the blood of Jesus Christ, the righteousness of Christ imputed,
accounted. That's what Hebrews chapter 10
says. When it talks about the coming to God, he says in verse
19 of Hebrews 10, listen to this, having therefore brethren boldness
to enter the holiest. Entering the holiest is coming
near to God, getting close to God, being accepted with God. And we have boldness to enter
the holiest, enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. You see that in verse 19? In
other words, somebody says, well, I've had a bad day and I did
all kinds of bad things. Now I'm not qualified to come
near to God. Well, let me tell you something.
If you're coming near to God is ever conditioned on your being
qualified by your works, you are never qualified to come to
God. That's right. My only qualification
at my worst days or my best days is Jesus Christ the Lord my righteousness. I have to be continually cleansed
in his blood. Now the blood of bulls and goats,
the writer of Hebrews wrote over in Hebrews 10 and verse 4, he
says, for it's not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats
should take away sins, purge away, cleanse away sins. pay
the debt to law and justice, establish righteousness. That's
not possible. So that old covenant couldn't
make anybody perfect. That law. Because it's not possible. The blood of animals could not
cleanse a sinner of sins. But this bringing in of a better
hope, you see, did. And it's the blood of Jesus Christ
that continually washes away my sins and puts me in a right
relationship with God. Jesus Christ and the better covenant.
Now, one of the, I think, one of the most interesting and profitable
studies that a person can do in the Bible is a study of God's
covenants, God's covenants with men and with nations and with
all of that. And I really believe that this
is one of the main keys to understanding the reading of the Old Testament
because most of the Old Testament is the history of the nation
Israel under the old covenant, the covenant of law, the Sinaitic
covenant, because it was made at Mount Sinai. Some theologians
call it the Mosaic economy. That's the economy under which
they existed given by the law through Moses. And so when you
look at this, you see God is a covenant God. A covenant is
an agreement between two parties. They come together on a common
ground. And in the Bible, there are two
types of covenants. There is what we might call a
bilateral covenant. Now bilateral meaning it's between
two, but the success of the covenant is conditioned on both parties
meeting the requirements. They have to come together. And
then the second type of covenant is a unilateral covenant. Now
that's a covenant where only one party initiates and fulfills
and makes the covenant successful. Bilateral meaning two, have to
agree, cooperate. Unilateral meaning one, does
it all. That's what it's talking about.
Now, the covenant of salvation, any covenant, that had anything
to do with the salvation of a sinner in the Bible is a unilateral
covenant. All right? Now, what that means
is that God is the one who initiates it, who accomplishes it, who
makes it successful, and who applies it. Salvation is of the
Lord. The success of the covenant is
not conditioned on the qualifications or meeting certain conditions
by those who are saved. Now, that unilateral covenant
of salvation has a lot of benefits and fruits. It has a lot of things
that are applied to those who are saved, but it's not conditioned
on them. It's all conditioned on Christ.
And so let me give you an example. For example, when God created
Adam and put him in the garden, Even though the word covenant
is not used, for example, in Genesis chapter two, there is
a covenant and it's a bilateral covenant. You can state it in
Genesis chapter two, you can read about it in Genesis chapter
two, I believe it's verse 16, where he talks about how God
put conditions on Adam and Eve in the garden. He says, you can
eat of every tree of this garden except one. And that's the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil. And that tree represented
God's sovereign prerogative to set the standards of what's good
and what's evil. And he told Adam, he said, in
the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Now there's the terms of the
covenant. It's a bilateral covenant. God said, you'll live in this
garden as long as you meet the requirement." What was the requirement?
Don't eat of that tree. And that's the condition. Well,
we all know what happened. Adam disobeyed God. Adam, as
the representative of the whole human race, disobeyed God, sinned
against God, and brought the whole human family into sin and
depravity, sin and death. Romans chapter five, verse 12
states that, and other verses. In Adam all died, scripture says. For as by one man sin entered
into the world, and death by sin. Death passed upon all men
for that all sin. What does that mean? It means
that Adam did what he did as my representative. And so when
he fell, I fell in him. You say that's not fair. Well,
that's what the Bible teaches now. Whether you see it as fair
or not, it is fair because God does what's just. Now, that covenant
was a bilateral covenant. And what happened? Man broke
it. Even man in the garden before
the fall. Before the fall, in his innocence,
in his human righteousness, he could not stay there. He sinned
against God. That's a bilateral covenant.
Well, right after that, God revealed the terms and conditions of another
covenant when he prophesied of the Messiah in Genesis 3.15,
called him the seed of woman. And he's the seed of woman who
would come and die for the sins of his people. And that's the
covenant of salvation. Some people call it the covenant
of redemption. That covenant was made before
the foundation of the Lord, even before Adam fell. And the reason
I want you to understand that is if you read the Bible and
know the Bible, The covenant of redemption. The Bible calls
it the everlasting covenant of grace. That covenant was not
God's plan B. I read a sign the other day that
said God always has a plan B. No, he doesn't. He has one plan
and he works his plan. I don't always understand every
intricate thing about God's purpose and plan. That's okay, he's God
and I'm me. Such things are too high for
me. That's what the Bible teaches us. Somebody said, well, I just
can't wrap my mind around all this. Well, join the club. You
see, we're limited. But God has revealed some things
here. And he gives his people an understanding
of those things and brings them to believe them by faith. In
other words, we believe it because God said it. But that covenant
was made before the foundation of the world, and it was made
between God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
The scripture teaches this. And the salvation of God's chosen
people, they're called those whose names are written in the
Lamb's Book of Life, I know some preachers that book of life,
they've got God up there writing names in, then erasing names
out and writing them in. That is totally heresy. That
is not scriptural. Those whom God saves, their names
were written in the Lamb's book of life before the foundation
of the world. I know what Revelation says about
being blotted out, but that's not what it's talking about.
It's not talking about God erasing the name of his elect people.
That's talking about a person who rejects Christ and has no
hope of salvation or being in the book of life. But God, God
made that covenant. That's a covenant between the
Godhead. And it's a unilateral covenant because it's not conditioned
upon the objects of God's love or God's grace or God's salvation.
If it were, it would be a failure just like Adam in the garden.
God chose a people. and gave them to Jesus Christ.
And He conditioned all of their salvation upon Christ. It was
all on His shoulders. It was all upon Him. All the
promises, 2 Corinthians 1.20 says, all the promises of God,
those are covenant promises. All the promises of God are in
Him, that's Christ. Yeah, and in him, amen. And over
here in Hebrews chapter eight and verse six, it says, but now
hath he obtained a more excellent ministry by how much also he's
the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better
promises. Now, what are the better promises?
Well, in that everlasting covenant of grace, God promised to save
his people from sin. In the old covenant, the covenant
of law given on Mount Sinai, that was a bilateral covenant.
It had some unconditional aspects, but it was a covenant between
God and the nation Israel, and the nation Israel failed, just
like we would now. I'm not putting them down saying
I would do better, because I wouldn't have. You wouldn't have either.
I think that's the way a lot of people read the Old Testament.
They look at it and they see the failures of Israel, to keep
the terms of that covenant, and they act like, well, I've done
better than that, or I would be better than that, or America
would be better than that. It's not true. That covenant
was given to show how impossible it is for any of us, Jew or Gentile,
to be saved based on our works. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified, declared not guilty and righteous in God's
sight. Salvation is not by works. If
salvation were the product of a bilateral covenant, God looking
upon us to meet certain conditions to attain or maintain salvation,
no one would be saved. That's what the Bible teaches.
But all of the covenant of grace, the covenant of salvation was
conditioned on Jesus Christ. And he didn't fail. He obtained
a more excellent ministry. He kept the law perfectly for
his people. He died as their surety and substitute
and literally drank damnation dry. He suffered, he bled, he
died. He was made a curse, the scripture
says for us, cursed by the law. For as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse. When Christ, he was, Galatians
4 said he was made of a woman, made under the law, a broken
law for sinners. He shall save his people from
their sins. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners and he satisfied God's justice according to the
terms of that covenant in the place of his people. And as a
result of what he accomplished, they're justified before God.
They are given life, spiritual life, to believe in Him, to obey
Him, to come to Him. That's the more excellent ministry.
I 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
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at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia, 317-07. Contact us by
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today and may the Lord be with you.