Hebrews 8. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, is the mediator of a better covenant established
upon better promises. The Lord Jesus is the high priest
who abolished all other priestly offices, The Lord Jesus Christ
is the end of the law, having fulfilled the types and shadows
of the Old Testament sacrifices and ceremonies. The Lord Jesus
Christ has done away with the temple worship of old, having
risen and entered into the holiest of all on God's right hand, where
he now sits a king and high priest who rules and ever lives to make
intercession. In verse 6 of chapter 8, the
last portion of that verse says, 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 continue 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." When that first covenant was
made, God chose Moses to be the mediator between God and the
physical nation Israel. And God met with Moses in Mount
Sinai. And He gave the law of that first
covenant to Moses. Moses descended and gave the
laws of that covenant to the children of Israel. And the old
covenant said, this do and live. It said, if you will, I shall. But God gave that covenant to
teach His true Israel. That man wouldn't, and that sinful
man couldn't. And the new covenant leaves nothing
in the hands of helpless sinners. The new covenant is better, established
upon better promises, because it's fulfilled by God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Instead of saying, if
you will, I shall, the new covenant, God says, I will, and they shall. That's the title of the lesson
this morning, I Will and They Shall. First, our text declares
to us that the old covenant was replaced by the new because the
old covenant was faulty. Verse 7, if that first covenant
had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for
the second. The old covenant was never intended to bring satisfaction
to God. It never was intended for that
Hebrews 10 one says it was a shadow of good things to come and not
the very image of the things The mediator of the old covenant
only foreshadowed the true mediator between God and men the man Christ
Jesus the Lord The blood of the sacrifices was only the blood
of animals Not the sin purging blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
The priests were only men not the eternal righteous God man
The nation to whom it was given was a physical nation, not God,
God's true Israel, which is a spiritual nation made up of a people saved
out of many nations. And therefore we read, if that
first covenant had been faultless, then no place should have been
sought for the second. Now, secondly, during Jeremiah's
ministry, the Lord declared that he had appointed a day in which
he would do away with that old covenant and make a new covenant
established upon better promises. That's what we find here in verse
8 when he says, 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. Verses
8 through 12 in our text are quoted from Jeremiah 31. in verses 31 through 34. And
we'll take it a verse at a time here and notice a few points
contained in it which make it a better covenant. It's called
a new covenant for several reasons. One, it's not new to God because
it's the everlasting covenant made between the triune God before
the worlds were made. It's everlasting. Though it was
revealed after that first covenant, it really came first. the God
of peace that brought again the dead, our Lord Jesus, that great
Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. It was the covenant that David
rejoiced in. Back in 2 Samuel 23, 5, David,
when he was dying, he said this, Although my house be not so with
God, yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered
in all things, and sure, For this is all my salvation and
all my desire, although he make it not to grow. It's called a
new covenant because it's established in God. Therefore, it'll never
grow old or give place to another covenant. It's everlasting. It's called a new covenant because
it gives us a new standing with God, a new record, a new heart,
a new nature, a new spirit. When I was first converted, the
doctrine of Christ. I can remember listening to Brother
Henry Mahan. And he preached the same thing
I'm preaching to you. And he would turn to Scriptures
and support everything he said with Scriptures. And I can remember
how my heart just overflowed with joy. These things were so
new to me and so fresh to me that I just rejoiced in them.
And all these many years later, It's still the same. I still
rejoice in them. They're still new to me, just
like they were in those days. What could make a man stand for
over 50 years and preach these same truths over and over, and
it never grow old? We'll watch a movie, and after
we've seen it once, maybe twice, we want to see something new.
We're tired of it. But this is new constantly because
God makes it new. He continually makes it new in
our hearts. It never grows old. Then this
new covenant here, we're told, is not like the old covenant. As we look at these following
verses, notice how the Lord says, I will and they shall. Look here
at verse 9, beginning of verse 9. It's 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 continue 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. If anyone asks you to sum up
the sovereign, free, effectual, irresistible, saving grace of
God, here it is. God said, I will, and they shall. Somebody asks you what you believe.
Tell them, I believe God said, I will, and they shall. The everlasting
covenant of grace, this new covenant, it leaves nothing dependent upon
helpless, sinful objects of mercy. Instead all all All is established
by the triune God of glory in mercy and truth Let's see that
First of all, he says I will put my laws into their mind and
write them in their hearts now This is more than a legal understanding
of the moral law All men have the law of God written by God
on their conscience. Turn with me to Romans 2. Romans
chapter 2 and verse 14. In Romans 2 14, we find this. But when the Gentiles, which
have not the law, they don't have the oracles of God, but
when they do by nature the things contained in the law, these,
having not the law, are a law unto themselves, which show the
work of the law written in their hearts. their conscience also
bearing witness, and their thoughts, the meanwhile, accusing or else
excusing one another. How did they come to have that?
Look back over at Romans chapter 1, verse 19. Because that which
may be known of God is manifest in them, for God hath showed
it unto them. The invisible things of Him from
the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead,
so that they're without excuse. God has written the law upon
a man's heart. When God puts His law into the
mind and writes His law in our hearts through the Holy Spirit,
the Holy Spirit creates something new that no man can produce himself. Paul had God's law. He thought
he was obeying God. But when the commandment came,
he said, that's God writing his law on the inward parts. When the law came, when God wrote
his law in Paul's mind upon Paul's heart, only then did Paul loathe
his self-righteousness and delight in the truth of God. Only then,
only then did he know how holy, just, and good God's law is. He said, I was alive without
the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived. Sin became
alive. And everything that I thought
was righteousness died. And the commandment which was
ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taken
occasion by the commandment, deceived me and by it slew me.
Sin did it. Sin made Paul look at the law
and think he could obey it, because he's carnal, sold out to sin,
as every man is. The law is spiritual. If we're
going to understand God's law, it has to be revealed in us spiritually,
or we won't hear what it says. This is what it is to be renewed
in the spirit of your mind, what it is to put on the new man,
which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
over in Ephesians 1, 17. Paul prayed, and this is what
he prayed. He said, I pray that the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, give unto you
the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the
eyes of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know
what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory
of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness
of His power toward us who believe. You see, it's more than As you see there with Paul, when
he said that, he said that when your eyes are enlightened, it's
not that now you hear what the law says and you run to the law
to try to be under the ordinances. It's that now you delight in
the whole counsel of God. Now you hear the whole Word of
God. Now you delight in the Gospel, in the truth. Now you know something
of the hope of His calling. which is Christ. Now you know
something about the riches of the glory of the inheritance
of the saints, which is Christ. And now you know something of
His power. And now we're dependent upon
Him. Now we long to be under His power, thankful to be under
His power, because by His power we're held and kept and preserved. And by this work of God, we're
born of the Spirit, and the Spirit of God dwells in you, and you're
led by the Spirit. And we're made to believe that
by Christ's person and work, by who He is, Him being God,
eternal, and Him taking upon Himself flesh and blood and being
man, the God-man, that on our behalf and by Christ dwelling
in us, the righteousness of God is fulfilled in us. We don't
depart from Christ because therein is our righteousness, in Him.
The whole counsel becomes easy and light and joyful. Look at
Matthew 11, 28. Matthew 11, 28. This is what
the Lord said. He said, Come unto Me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden. Heavy laden with what? With this
carnal understanding of God's Word. Not being able to comprehend
the things of God. Not being able to understand
what God says. Having the oppression and the
weight of God's law upon us. knowing that we're guilty, knowing
constantly that we haven't lived up to the righteousness of God,
which he demands. And he says, and I'll give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I'm meek and
lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke's easy and my burden
is light. That's what happens when he writes
his law in our hearts. And the person that he does this
with loves him that did the begetting. He loves him that gave us life. And he loves those to whom he
gives life. We love God and we love our brethren.
It's not a hard thing. We do it because God overcame
the world on our behalf. in Christ. And now He's come
to us and He didn't even leave it up to us to make a decision
for Him. Didn't He prove it to us in that
Old Covenant that we couldn't do anything if He did that? He proves to us that He must
come and He must do the work in us. He's done the work for
us and He comes then and applies the blood in our hearts. He has
to do that. We cannot even do that. And then He says to them here,
back in our text, He says, I'll be to them a God and they shall
be to Me a people. When God puts His Word in us,
He becomes to us everything that God is. He says, I will be to
them, I will be to them a God. Moses said to Aaron, this is
what he said, I'll be sanctified in them that come nigh me and
before all the people I'll be glorified. In our inward man,
God reveals who he is and he becomes to us. We see him as
holy. We see him as the most high God
for the first time. We see him as being separate
from sinners. We stop comparing ourselves to
one another, and now we see who true righteousness is. He becomes
our shield, our defender, our protector, our exceeding great
reward, our all. He said, I will be to them a
God. That's what God is. And he makes
himself that to us. And not only this, but he says,
and they shall be to me a people. When God gives the spirit of
adoption into our souls, we cease being children of wrath and brought
into the household of God, the children that he's everlastingly
loved. But he reconciles us to himself. And by writing his law in our
hearts, he causes us to be reconciled to him. And He becomes our God,
our protector, our shield. And we become His people of His
household. Look at Romans 8.14. Romans 8.14. For as many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are the sons of God. This is God writing His
law on our inward parts. We're led by the Spirit of God.
And we're sons of God. For you have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but you've received the spirit
of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit that we're children of God. And if
children, then heirs. Heirs of God. in joint heirs
with Christ. If so be that we suffer with
Him that we may be also glorified together. Over in Jeremiah 32,
40, I just want you to understand this, I'll be to them a God and
they shall be to me a people. This is what he said in Jeremiah
32, 40. He said, I'll make an everlasting
covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do
them good. I'm not going to turn away from
them. But I'll put my fear in their hearts that they shall
not depart from me. Do you see when He puts His fear
in our hearts, a godly reverence in our hearts, and He has to
do that. He has to do it. We can pretend it. We can make
a show of it. But true godly reverence is something
God puts in us. He gives it to us. and He becomes
God to us and we become a people to Him. And it makes us cry out
with Simon Peter and say, Lord, to whom shall we go? Where are
we going to go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. We believe and are sure that Thou art that Christ, the
Son of the living God. But there's more to this. Look
back in our text there, verse 11. We're taught of God Himself. for the rest of our days. Look,
verse 11. 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. Back
there in Hebrews chapter 1, in verse 1, it said, God, who at
sundry times and in different manners spake in time past unto
the fathers by the prophets, but now, In these last days,
He's spoken to us by His Son. And He's still speaking to us
by His Son. That's what He meant by after
those days. After His Son is risen and seated
at the right hand of God, I'm going to pour out my Spirit.
I'm going to pour out my Spirit on my people, and they're going
to all be taught of God. Under that old covenant, if a
man wanted to know what the Lord had to say, he had to ask one
of the Lord's prophets. If a man wanted to bring a sacrifice
to God, he'd bring it to a priest, and that priest would bring it
to God on his behalf. But this is not the case with
those to whom God has made this new covenant. In 1 John 2.20,
you have an unction from the Holy One, and you know all things. If you're born of the Spirit
of God, if He's written His Word in your heart, you've got an
unction from the Holy One. and you know what he has to say.
2 Corinthians 2.9. This would be good for you to
look at. 2 Corinthians 2.9. As it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard,
neither have entered into the heart of man the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed
them unto us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things. Did I say 2 Corinthians? I mean
1 Corinthians 2.9. I'm sorry. 1 Corinthians 2.9. Let me start over. As it is written,
Verse 9, the eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him. The natural eye, the natural
heart, it hath entered into their mind what God has prepared for
them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. Look at verse 12. And now we have received not
the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Look down there at the last verse
16. Who hath known the mind of the
Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. You see that? This is what this
inward writing of this law, this new covenant is revealing in
us. We have the mind of Christ. The
law and the ceremonies have been taken from between the believer
and God. God teaches all his children. Through the Spirit, He teaches
us personally. And every believer is a son who
has free access to his father. And every believer has been made
a priest, free to offer up sacrifices of prayer and praise. You know why? because we have
a high priest who's entered into the holiest of holies and sat
down on the right hand of God. And he ever lives to make intercession
for us. Isn't that what we've been learning
through Hebrews? Over in chapter 4 and verse 14,
seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into
the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 10 19 Having therefore brethren boldness
to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and
living way Which he hath consecrated for us through the veil that
is to say his flesh and having a high priest over the house
of God Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance
of faith having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our
bodies washed with pure water We can come to God. We don't
have to go to a prophet. We don't have to go to a priest.
We go straight to God, our counselor, our advocate, our intercessor,
our high priest. We go to Him directly. And when
we go to Him, we go into God. We have direct access to Him
now. Isn't that a delight? We didn't have that under the
Old Covenant. We have that now. You who have
His law written in your hearts have that now. Those that don't
have the law of God written in their hearts, they're still under
the law. They're still under the law in
the respect that the law still pronounces them guilty. They
don't understand these things. But when God comes and reveals
them in us, then we see that we're not under that old legal
bondage anymore. We're free now. But what about
the fact that in my flesh I'm still a sinner? What about that? Well, look at verse 12. I will
be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more. God will be merciful to our unrighteousness
because He executed justice on Christ Jesus, our substitute,
in our room instead. And therefore, our sins and iniquities,
He said, I'll remember them no more. Our sin in Adam, He says,
I'll remember it no more. The sins we commit before and
after conversion, He said, I'll remember them no more. What a
blessing! Do you see why this covenant's
better? Do you see why these promises
are better? Because God said, I will and
you shall. He said, I will and they shall. There's no possibilities in that
equation. There's no chance in that equation. Do you think that every man deserves
a chance? I want every man that God has
saved to be saved sure, surely. That's what David said. This
thing is sure. There's not a possibility. And
this is all my salvation, all my desire. How did he have that
desire? Because God made a new covenant
with him. Even back there when he was under
that old covenant dispensation, God said, I made an everlasting
covenant with you, David. You're righteous and complete
in my son. You have free access to me. You're
righteous in me. That's the new covenant in his
blood. In Christ Jesus, we've been made
the very righteousness of God. Well, here's the last thing in
conclusion. Verse 13. In that he saith anew,
he hath made the first old, now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away. When Christ established the new
covenant, and we looked at this Thursday night, when He rose
from the dead and He ascended to the Father and He sat down the new covenant was established. When he died and said it's finished,
the veil rent in two, showing that there was nothing in those
sacrifices, nothing in that ceremonial law worth a plug nickel. None
of it. And when he rose and poured out
his spirit on the day of Pentecost, he showed that he is king and
priest. and that the New Covenant is
established. And now He poured out His Spirit
not only on one nation, but on an elect people out of many nations. And when Christ established that
New Covenant, He abolished the Old Covenant. The practice involved
in the Old Covenant slowly rotted and vanished away forever. When
the time that this letter was written, There was many still practicing
the ceremonies, going through a vain show. It was just empty. That's all it was. And God didn't
destroy it immediately, but it was destroyed. It had been broken
apart back there when Solomon's temple was destroyed and all
the vessels in the temple were taken out of it. When Christ
walked this earth, when He came to this earth and walked this
earth, He said, now is the time of your visitation. He said that
to Israel. And they rejected Him. And when
He died, that veil ran in too. And when He ascended and poured
out His Spirit, He manifest clearly that that old covenant had fulfilled
its purpose. And He let it go a little while.
a little while before He came and destroyed Jerusalem like
He said He would in 70 A.D. And He destroyed Jerusalem. But
I think we can learn something from the fact that they continued
practicing that old law even after He said it's over and it's
done. What the Spirit of God is teaching
our Hebrew brethren here in this day is the same thing He's teaching
us today, brethren. Any man that tries to bring you
under that old covenant in any shape, form, or fashion, he don't
have a clue. He don't have one idea that it's
old. It's rotted away. It's like a
rotten corpse. It's like these deer you see
on the side of the road around here. It's no good to anybody. And it vanished, and it's gone.
And when he saves the sinner and writes his law in their hearts, all our days, we have that old
nature struggling to want to bring us back under bondage.
And all our days, we're made to continually see that it's
just an old garment that's just rotting away. It's just perishing. It's just going by the wayside,
just like that old covenant did. But this new man is renewed day
by day. Continually made new. And this
is what Paul said about that. That's why he said this in Galatians
5.1. Stand fast therefore, speaking
to believers who had the law of God written in their heart.
Stand fast therefore in the liberty I bet you every American would
fall over backwards if some religious leader stood up and said, we
need to go back to England. We need to go back to England
and take upon us another form of government. We need to go
to a communist country and become communist. No, we have liberty. We don't want to be brought under
the yoke of bondage. That's exactly what God says
to His people. I've delivered you. Don't go
back to that yoke. Christ hath made us free, and
be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul,
say unto you that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, or that
is looking to the law for sanctification, to try to say that in measuring
himself by the law, he's become more holy. Our holiness is Christ. Or any man that is looking to
some day to say that because he observes that day, he somehow
becomes more favorable to God. Or any man that is saying...
I'll give you one that's occurring in our day right now. Any man
that's saying When God quickens you and makes you alive and regenerates
you, He gives you a spirit wherein you're willing either to accept
Him or reject Him. You might as well be preaching
that old covenant. The same thing. There are no
ifs, ands, or buts in what God says here about I will and they
shall. I will write my law on their
hearts and they shall be my people. Paul says, any man that's circumcised,
he's a debtor to do the whole law. If you want to approach
God outside of Christ, you're a debtor to in ourselves live
up to the very righteousness that God is. And he says, Christ
has become of no effect under you, whosoever of you are justified
by the law, you're fallen from grace. For we, through the Spirit,
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For in Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but faith which worketh by love." That's the message of the new
covenant. It's not just switching from an old system to a new system.
It's switching from self to trusting Christ alone. That's what it
is. All right, we'll take a short
break and come back here in a little while.