What’s New about the New Covenant?
Sermon Downloads
Sermon Transcript
[00:00:00] Close to Hebrews chapter eight. Hebrews chapter eight. And as you're turning there, I have a question to ask. So as you're turning to Hebrews chapter eight, and my question is this, what is new about the new covenant? And in a very real sense, Anthony answered that question in his prayer. It's Jesus. Jesus is new about the new covenant, but in what sense?
How does he make it new? And that's the question that we're gonna look at today, and I ask you. To humbly hear the text I surveyed, I went to that bastion of theological insight called YouTube, and I searched different, uh, short sermons, longer sermons, and there is some odd stuff. There are some really odd explanations for what this new covenant is, and there's also very well reasoned explanations, but explanations that I don't think stick to the text.[00:01:00]
So I ask you this morning, allow yourself to be challenged, hear the word of God for what it is. We're about to read it. So I'm gonna ask you to stand, and I'm gonna ask you to hear this maybe in a way you've never heard it before, but let the text speak to us. Let us not put into the text, but take out of the text.
So hear this for what it is, the living, the true, the authoritative word of God. Hebrews chapter eight, we're gonna read the entire chapter. Now, the main point in what has been said is this. We have such a high priest who has taken a seat at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. A minister in the sanctuary and in the true tent, which the Lord pitched not man for every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices.
So it was necessary that this one also have something to offer. Now, if he were upon earth, he would not be a priest at all. Since there are those who offer the gifts [00:02:00] according to the law, those who serve a copy and a shadow of the heavenly things. Just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle, foresee, he says that you make all things according to the pattern, which was shown you on the mountain.
But now he, Jesus has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant. Which has been enacted on better promises for if the first had been faultless, there would've been no occasion sought for the second for finding fault, he says to them, behold, days are coming, says Yahweh, when I will affect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant, which I made with their fathers on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.
For, they did not continue in my covenant and I did not care for them. Says Yahweh, for [00:03:00] this is the covenant I will make with the House of Israel in those days, says Yahweh. I will put my law into their minds. I will write them upon their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people and they shall not teach everyone, his fellow citizen and everyone, his brother saying No.
Yahweh for all will know me from the least. To the greatest of them for I will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more. When he had said a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete, but whatever is becoming obsolete and is growing old is ready to disappear. May God add a blessing to the reading, the hearing, and obedience to his word.
Please be seated.
Again, the sermon title and the question I want you to contemplate is what's new about the new covenant? And I wanna start with an analogy, [00:04:00] and I fear that if you're under the age of 50, this may not resonate with you as much as it resonates with me, but I think you'll get the point. I'm in my sixties, Stacey's still in her twenties, but I'm in my sixties and we've recently purchased a new car.
We were comfortable driving our old cars, you know, 2000 ish Nissan Pathfinder. The only thing that I would change in that car is I'd have roll up windows. Okay. But we bought a new car, we bought a, uh, 2017 GMC Yukon, and it has been a challenge. The first time I tried using the windshield wipers, it's like it had a mind of its own, and we were warned, but I tried to set it and it did its own thing.
And there's all kinds of things that come up on the dash and buttons and bells, and I don't know what I'm doing, but here's the point. It's a car. I know how to get into it, and it doesn't take a key. It takes a fob, [00:05:00] but I know how to get into it. I know how to push the button. I know how to start it. I know how to put it in gear.
I know how to point it in the right direction. I've never had a problem getting from point A to point B. It's a car. I want you to think of the covenant in that light. The text that we're looking at today speaks of a new covenant, but it's still a covenant. And we spent about four weeks looking at how the covenants developed in the Old Testament, and we can't lose sight of how they develop and the elements.
And I've shared with you that covenants have both continuity and discontinuity, and we have to carefully seek those things out. The second thing that we need to keep in mind, and this is vitally important, and that is the context of the book as a whole, and we kinda looked at that last week when we, we ran through the book of Hebrews and we studied the topic of the atonement.
But keep in mind, and I'll keep this very short, Jesus is superior. That's the point of the book. The book is about Jesus. Anything [00:06:00] spoken of the, in the book somehow comes back to Jesus. He's the best of the best. He's superior, and he is our new high priest. Which means there has been a change in God's law, a change in the priesthood, and as our president might say, that's huge, huge.
Maybe the hugest thing in all of history. It's big, and he'd be correct. The fact that the priesthood was changed, the fact that the law was changed, the fact that Jesus is now our high priest, and again, the Book of Hebrews focuses in on the ceremonial laws. He is our once for all sacrifice, and according to chapter eight, verse 13, the old covenant system is ready to disappear.
As I've argued before, Hebrews was written somewhere in the mid sixties, so within three to five years, Jerusalem would be destroyed. By the Romans and the old covenant system, all the vestiges of the old covenant system would be taken out of the way. There has not been [00:07:00] a sacrifice at the temple for over 2000 years because Jesus removed it.
And the last thing that we need to keep in mind in terms of the book of Hebrews as we move forward is apostasy. Walking away from Jesus is a reality, and I've explained that in the past. It is a covenant reality. You can be in covenant with Christ and you can turn your back on him and you can walk away.
We are in a section that basically extends from chapter seven through about the middle of chapter 10, but what's interesting is the section that we're in seven to the middle of 10 is bracketed by two of the most extreme frightening warnings you will find in scripture. In terms of apostasy, Hebrews chapter six, verses four to eight, and Hebrews chapter 10, verses 26 to 31.
So as we interpret the covenant, as we see what's new about the covenant, apostasy is [00:08:00] real and alive in the mind of the author. Number one. On your outline, you have several things in your bulletin. You have an outline. Uh, you have another handoff that I made for you with some extra notes I'm gonna ask you.
To exercise some self-control, because I don't want you to look at that, look at it when you get home. I just want you to listen to me and follow along. But what I've done on that outline is I've included a, a, a lot more verses on some of the topics we're gonna talk about today. So, number one on your outline, Jesus Hi priest of a better covenant.
And before we get started, I'm gonna ask for your patience. I, I wanna pray again, so join me in prayer. It'll be short. Father, help me, help me get this right. Father, do not let me get in the way of your holy, precious, true word. Help us all to be challenged for, I know some of this [00:09:00] will be new today. Help us to be challenged and help us to understand your word accurately.
Spirit of God work in us today. All of God's people said, verse one of chapter eight. Now, the main point in what has been said is this, and the author is referring back to everything he said in chapter five through chapter seven. In fact, look at the very last verse of chapter seven. Look at chapter seven, verse 28, chapter seven, verse 28 says, for the law appoint men as high priest who are weak, but the word of the oath, Psalm one, 10.
The word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a son, made perfect forever. That's kind of a summary of chapters five through six, and now the author says, the main point is this. We have that high priest. He's ours. It's Jesus, the Son of God, the one who is superior to all [00:10:00] things. It is Jesus, the one who has risen from the dead, ascended back to his glory, and sits at the right hand of his father to judge, to rule, and to mediate.
We have such a high priest who has taken his seat at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens. Verse two. This high priest, this Jesus is a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched, not man. And just so you know, we're gonna rapidly go through number one 'cause I want to spend time on number two.
I wanna spend time on the words of the new covenant. And most of this we've covered. The author is really recapping, but this word for minister is a fascinating word. This word for minister is literally the word that we get for liturgy. It comes into English as liturgy. And the way liturgy works is liturgy comes first you.
You create a liturgy. Liturgy usually, and most of us believe it comes from God. Even the liturgy that we follow [00:11:00] here. I believe it follows a biblical pattern. I've presented that to you, and you put the liturgy in place, and then the minister adheres to the liturgy. The minister follows the liturgy. Jesus came to perform a liturgy.
Jesus came to perform a function. It was to take our sins upon himself and take it to the cross and become a sin on our behalf and live a perfect righteous life. So he didn't deserve to die, and he would rise again. And while his sin is impute, our sin is imputed to him. His righteousness is then imputed to us, but he ministers in the heavenly sanctuary.
Verse three, for every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. So it is necessary that this high priest also have something. To offer, and this is really fascinating. Listen to the words. Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts, plural and sacrifices plural. So it is necessary that this high priest have something [00:12:00] singular to offer because as we've already read and as we'll reread, Jesus offered his body kids.
This is on, uh, one of your questions. What did Jesus offer? Jesus offered his body. I think the question before that was Jesus is, uh, the mediator of a better sacrifice, but Jesus offers his body, and according to chapter seven, verse 27, he does not need daily like those high priests. To offer up sacrifices first for his own sin and then for the sins of the people because he did this once for all when he offered up himself.
And I, and I've said it before and I'll say it again, and all you need to do to check me out is go home, get a good lexicon. But this word translated once for all. You could translate it once, never to be repeated. It's a timeframe word. It means that Jesus died once. Jesus offered his body once, and that was it.
That one sacrifice accomplished what Jesus set out to do. [00:13:00] One sacrifice, verse four. Now, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all since there are those who offer the gifts according to the law. And we've covered this, and the, the writer of Hebrews has covered it. The priesthood in the Old Testament came from the tribe of Levi, and it came from a very specific family, from Levi.
As things progressed, Jesus was of the tribe of Judah, so there had to be a change in law. There had to be a change in sanctuary. Verse five, remember these Levitical priests, they serve a mere copy and shadow of the heavenly things. This word for copy, it means a symbol, a sketch in a shadow. You all know what a shadow is, but think this through.
In reality, shadows are nothing. Shadows are a reflection of reality. When I stand out in the sun and my body casts a shadow, there's no real substance in the shadow. It is a reflection, an outline of the reality of who I am, [00:14:00] and it's the same thing in the Old Testament. There's a heavenly temple. I know that might be foreign to some of our ways of thinking, and I don't know exactly why God created that way, probably to condescend to our level that we would understand.
But there's a heavenly sanctuary and the earthly sanctuary and the earthly temple was modeled after the heavenly one, but it's a mere copy. It's a shadow of the heavenly things. Just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the temple. Foresee, he says that you make all things according to the pattern, which was shown you in the mountain.
And there are a lot of patterns in the Old Testament, even the creation account. Now, I believe the creation account is a historical event. I believe it is written in historical prose, and we should understand it that way. The creation account of chapters one and two, while there is some poetry sprinkled in, is not poetry, it's history.
But when you read the creation account and you read the account of the tabernacle and the temple, you will see a parallel. [00:15:00] God is building a temple and the Garden of Eden was his Holy of Holies. Why was the entrance on the east? Because it reflected the tabernacle and the temple. The entrance was on the east there as well.
So there are kinds of illustrations and examples that you could look at in the Old Testament, but look at verse six. But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as he is also mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. So three things. First of all, Jesus has obtained a better ministry.
He wasn't just given this, he agreed willingly to become incarnate, and he came to earth and theologians rightly so, call that his humiliation because it was humiliating. Think of it. God to become a man, come to earth, to suffer, to grow weary, to grow tired, to be around sin and have to see it repeatedly to touch sinners and [00:16:00] sickness.
It was a humiliation, and there's nothing wrong with calling it that. God is far above and far superior to us. It would be like you being remade into a slug. Theologians call it humiliation. And he took that humiliation all the way to his death, a gruesome, painful murder of one who didn't deserve to die.
And yet he rose and he ascended back into his glory. And in that sense, he obtained a heavenly ministry. In this heavenly ministry. He is a mediator of a better covenant. And it's important to understand what is meant by mediator because I think sometimes we get so comfortable with Christ. We get so comfortable in being Christians, going to the table, approaching the throne of grace that we forget we only, we can only do it because of a mediator.
It should not be a big thing to fall on your knees. What should be huge? What should be hard is not to fall on your face, [00:17:00] is to stop at your knees. Because we need a mediator and we have a mediator, and he mediates all the time. There's not a time that he doesn't stand before the father or in Christ's case, sit before the father, and the father is reminded of his redeeming work.
The father is reminded of his salvific work. The father is reminded that he is poured out his spirit upon us to continue to change us because we have a mediator. We don't know how to pray. And so both son and spirit pray on our behalf and we need a mediator. Kids. A mediator is a go-between, so it's like kids.
If you get in an argument with your brother or your sister, and what does your mom do? She'll come up and she'll separate you and she'll talk to you and, and she'll restore that relationship. You may have to confess, you may have to say you're sorry. A mediator is a go-between and we're all familiar what that means.
But in the case of us and God, we would not have a [00:18:00] relationship apart from a mediator, and he's the mediator of a better covenant based on better promises. And those promises we're gonna look at in a minute. But let me just give you maybe the core promise of this new covenant that makes it better. It cleanses the conscience, the death of Jesus Christ cleanses the conscience.
Listen to Hebrews chapter nine, verse nine. The author is talking about the tabernacle and the furniture and the tabernacle, and then he says, which is a symbol for the present time. Accordingly, both gifts, plural and sacrifices plural, are offered, which cannot make the worshiper perfect in conscience, but the one single once for all sacrifice of Christ Jesus makes us perfect in conscience.
It makes us complete, our sins are actually forgiven, and we can approach the throne with confidence. That is maybe the core promise of this new [00:19:00] covenant. But there's also, and I don't want you to lose sight of it because as we move on, you might think that I don't hold to this, so I wanna make sure you understand this.
There's also a super abundance found in the new covenant. The law of God is written on our hearts. I'm gonna argue and attempt to prove it was written on the hearts of Old Testament Saints. Our sins are forgiven. Old Testament Saints were forgiven, but there is a super abundance in the new covenant that they didn't experience and we do.
So he has obtained a more excellent ministry for he is a mediator of a better covenant. Number two on your outline, the newness of the new covenant, the newness of the new covenant.
Look at verse seven for if that first covenant had been faultless, there would've been no occasion sought for a second one. Okay. God himself inspired by the Holy [00:20:00] Spirit is telling us that the first covenant had fault. The fault was, it could not cleanse the conscience. The fault was, it could not really give forgiveness of sins.
It was always a pointer. It was always a type and a shadow. And what is important to understand here is the fault was built in. It's not as if God tried his best. I'm gonna make this covenant, I'm gonna save these people. And ah, it didn't work. No, the fault was built in. We've already studied. The law was given to increase sin.
The law was given as a tutor to Christ. The law was given so that we would see we're sinful, we need a savior, and then it would walk us to Christ. So there's a fault in the old covenant what it is, a built in fault. And it parallels what the writer said in chapter seven, verse 11. Listen to these words about the priesthood.
Now if perfection completeness. Now, if perfection was through the Levitical [00:21:00] priesthood, what further need was there for another priest? You see, there was a fault built into the covenant. There was a fault built into the priesthood, and that's important as we move forward. The old covenant was unable to cleanse the conscience kids.
Verse eight, it's on your handout. It's a fill in the blank verse. I'm gonna read it in a way that probably differs from your translation, and I'll explain in a minute for finding fault with them. He says, behold days are coming, says Yahweh, when I will affect a new covenant with the House of Israel and the house of Judah.
And just keeping a very long story short, and I've shared this both in Bible study and from the pulpit, but we have many copies, many manuscripts of the New Testament and the science of textual criticism is putting it all together and getting back to what was originally written. And we've done a really good job.
Less than one half of 1% is even a question out there as to, in terms of what was originally written. Well, this is one of those places where you find a variant [00:22:00] so you could read it, finding fault with them. You could read it Finding Fault. He says to them, and I think that second reading is superior because he just said that the covenant had fault.
So finding fault in the covenant, he says to them, behold, days are coming and I will affect a new covenant with the House of Israel and the house of Judah. And right here we have our hyperlink. We need to take just a minute and we won't take a whole lot of time, but our hyperlink is Jeremiah 31. But you see Jeremiah 31 falls in a section of the book that extends from Jeremiah 30 to 33.
And not only that, but it falls in the middle of the book and it is surrounded by judgment passages. So the whole up to verse 29 judgment passages after verse 33, beginning with, uh, chapter 34 judgment passages. And then all of a sudden in the middle you have light. You have the promise of a new covenant.
And even that narrows down because then it [00:23:00] narrows down to the section we read at the beginning of the sermon, Jeremiah chapter 31 verses Jeremiah chapter 31, verses 27 to 40. And I told you to, to listen for the uh, phrase. Behold days are coming. You see, this new covenant is not a standalone thing, and we need to understand how it functions.
We need to understand how Jeremiah understood it to function so real, real quickly, in Jeremiah 31 verses 27 and 30, behold days are coming, the people were were restored from exile, and that's taken place. The people have been restored, they were restored from exile, they were brought back from Babylon in verse 31.
Behold days are coming and the new covenant is presented. And the new covenant took place hundreds of years later, the new covenant manifested itself with the coming of Jesus Christ. Follow the thought of Jeremiah. The people will be brought into the land. A new covenant will be introduced, but it wasn't introduced until Messiah.
And then what does he [00:24:00] say in verse 38? Behold, days are coming, the city will be rebuilt. And if you study that passage and you study the uh, the uh, uh. The way it's marked off, the way the city is marked off, Jerusalem was never rebuilt to that extent. In fact, it'll surprise you if you go back and you study that passage, Johanna, which was a garbage dump, which was disgusting, is described as being part of the holy city.
You see what's being described is the rebuilding of the church. You see, the whole point of the book of Revelation is we are the new temple. We are the new Jerusalem. We are the bride of Christ. Yes, the people were brought back from captivity, and then Christ the Messiah came and he introduced this new covenant.
But there's more to happen and this rebuilding of Jerusalem, this rebuilding of the holy city, that's you and me, and it will take place until he comes again. That's our [00:25:00] hyperlink. But when Isaiah was writing, when he says days are coming and he introduces the new covenant, it was future to him, but he says more.
He says, behold days are coming, says the Lord, when I will affect a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Remember I said there's continuity and discontinuity, and when God says I will affect a new covenant, that's continuity. We've seen in every covenant that God enters into with man, that he sovereignly initiates it.
So with the new covenant, God is sovereignly initiating this covenant. But listen to who He initiates it with. The House of Israel and the House of Judah. This too is continuity because it's the same people, but there's a catch, there's an addition and there's a way that we must understand this. Because at the end of this sermon, we're gonna sing another song and we're gonna go to the table and what are we gonna celebrate at the table?
The new covenant. [00:26:00] You see, you and I are part of this new covenant. The writer of Hebrews makes it very clear the new covenant came with the coming of Jesus, and while God makes it with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, Gentiles are involved. You see, the House of Israel and the House of Judah have taken on an entirely new form, a form that was expected all the way back to Abraham.
What did God promise? Abraham? I want the world Abraham. I want all the families of the world. And Israel missed that. They were not good evangelists. And so when he says, I'm going to enter into covenant with the House of Israel and the house of Judah, I submit to you, he is entering into covenant with the church.
Now let me read you some verses and see if I can demonstrate that. Galatians chapter three, verses eight to nine, Galatians chapter three, verses eight to nine, the scripture for seeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preach the gospel beforehand, saying to Abraham, Abraham, [00:27:00] all the nations will be blessed in you.
So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham the believer. It was always meant to include the Gentiles. Galatians chapter three verse 29. This is very important, and if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed. You are a part of the family of Abraham heirs according to promise. Listen to Ephesians chapter two.
This is a long passage, but hear me out. Ephesians chapter two verses 11 to 16. Therefore, remember that formerly. In the past, you Gentiles in the flesh who were called uncircumcised by the so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands. Remember that you were at that time in the past separated from Christ, excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, but now in [00:28:00] Christ Jesus, you who are formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
Now that Gentiles do share in the Commonwealth, they are no longer strangers to the covenants. They have hope in God. Verse 14, for he himself is our peace who made both groups Jew and Gentile into one new man. Let me reread that 'cause I jumped ahead. Now in Christ Jesus, you who are formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
For he himself is our peace who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall abolishing in his flesh. The enmity, which is the law of commandments, contained in ordinances, the ceremonial law, so that in him, he might make the two into one new man. Think about the history of the church at Pentecost, the entire church was Jewish and the entire, and it was in the thousands on the day of Pentecost, and it continued to grow [00:29:00] and the apostles didn't go to the Gentiles until sometime after Acts seven and God had to do something.
He had to have one of their own martyred. And finally they obeyed and went out there, and then Gentiles were being added to the church. But what does Paul say? He describes it as being grafted into the olive tree. Israel is the olive tree, and the Gentiles are grafted into Israel. But Israel was never meant to be understood as simply an ethnic people.
Israel was always the root of the tree for the world. And so in Galatians chapter six, verse 16. Paul says, and those who walk by this rule, the rule of faith in Christ, the rule of bowing the knee, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. He calls the church the Israel of God. In Philippians, chapter three, verse three, for we the church, this gentile church for we are the true circumcision.
And in Romans chapter nine, and trust me when I tell you I can go on, but in Romans chapter [00:30:00] nine, Paul takes the promises of Hosea. Promises that were initially given to Israel, to National Israel, he takes the promise of Hosea and he applies it to the church, to the Gentiles, even us whom he called, not from among the Jews only, but also from among the Gentiles.
As he says. Also in Hosea, I will call those who are not my people, my people, and her who is not beloved, beloved. It shall be that in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people. There, they shall be called the Sons of the living God. This is not replacement theology. This is biblical covenant fulfillment theology.
Israel was always supposed to expand. It was never meant to be just a national people, and it expanded in the church and over and over again. The New Testament calls the church, the Israel of God, the true Israel.
God affects the [00:31:00] covenant. That's the same. The people are the same. Look at verse nine. Not like the covenant, which I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt for they did not continue in my covenant and I did not care for them, says Yahweh.
Now this is interesting because if you remember our original reading in the original Hebrew, it says My Covenant, which they broke, although I was a husband to them. And yet here the writer of Hebrews adopts the the Stigen or the Greek translation. And I think he does it for a reason, and I think it fits his context.
And the reason he does it for the reason, for a reason is he's doing what Paul did. He's painting the people of Israel, and this is not an insult. He's painting the people of Israel as children. When you read this phrase, when I took you by the hand. There's only two options there. It could be a wife, 'cause that that phrase is used, but often it's used of children.
It's our children that we take by the hand. And so the writer adopts the stient reading because he says, and I did not care for you. [00:32:00] And what the writer is saying here, and he said it throughout the book, is you were immature. You've reached the age of maturity with the coming of Jesus is the age of maturity, the exact same thing that Paul argues in Galatians chapter three and four.
The old covenant was always meant to be a tutor, a guide, a pointer. So what's new about the new covenant? Listen to verse 10, for this is the covenant that that I will make with the House of Israel still refers to Israel, and yet the covenant has been made with the church, with the Church of Jesus Christ.
I will make with the House of Israel after those days says, Yahweh, I'll put my laws into their minds and I will write them upon their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And again, it's important to understand there is a super abundance of this in the New Testament, but this was also true of old covenant believers.
So this is not what's new. The writing of the law on our hearts is not what's new. It's super abundant. It's [00:33:00] different. It's much. I mean by comparison, it seems new, but it's not. The law was written on the heart of every Old Testament saint, every Old Testament believer. Listen to Psalm 37, verses 29 to 31.
The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever. Now think about this, who is described as righteous in the Old Covenant, and I just want to give you some of the highlights. Noah Abraham. David. And then when we get to the New Testament, because the New Testament begins in the midst of the old covenant, we see Zacharia and Elizabeth described as righteous.
John the Baptist is described as righteous. Joseph. The stepfather of Jesus is described as righteous. The righteous will inherit the land and dwell in it forever, and the mouth of the righteous utters wisdom and his tongue speaks justice. Now, why is it that the righteous can utter wisdom and speak justice?
Well, verse 31 answers that question. [00:34:00] The law of his God is in his heart. The law of God is written on the hearts of all men. Romans chapter two, but it is written in a special sense on the hearts of believers. And I wanna take a very short, a very quick excursions here, not because it's in the text, but whenever we talk about the new covenant, this comes up all the time.
And oftentimes what is argued, and it's find it all over YouTube, but oftentimes what is argued is the new covenant is an internal covenant where the old covenant was all external. That is not how scripture presents it. The Holy Spirit was alive, well, and active in the Old Testament. For you not to acknowledge, that would basically be to argue that there was no one saved in the Old Testament, because the Bible makes very clear to be saved, you must be born again.
In fact, when Jesus was discussing this topic with Nicodemus, Jesus was shocked. [00:35:00] Nicodemus, you're a teacher of Israel and you don't understand what I'm telling you. The spirit of God was active in the Old Testament, active in regeneration, active in giving faith, active in sanctification. Listen to the words of Zachariah, chapter seven.
Zachariah is describing the hard-hearted Israelites. They made their heart like Flint so they could not hear the law and the words, which the Lord of hosts had sent by his spirit. The spirit was alive and well in the Old Testament. Listen to Stephen's speech in Acts chapter seven, and this is at the end of the speech.
This was probably the trigger that caused him to be stoned. Listen to what he says. You men are stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart with ears that are always resisting the Holy Spirit. Now if, if we stopped right there, you might think, well, he's talking to people that were alive, the new covenant's been initiated, the Holy Spirit's [00:36:00] active.
Maybe that's what he means. No, listen to what he means. You stiff-necked and uncircumcised of heart ears that always resist the Holy Spirit you are doing just as your fathers did. Old covenant unbelievers were resisting. The Holy Spirit. Old covenant believers were born again, regenerate by the Holy Spirit.
Yes, something new happened at Pentecost. The spirit was poured out in super abundance. The spirit was poured out in a way that he now indwells us, and I don't think that took place in the Old Testament, but the Spirit was alive and well. I will put my laws into their minds. I will write them upon their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people.
And hopefully it goes without saying. That's the same promise we've been looking at how that promises goes from covenant to covenant to covenant to covenant. It begins with Adam, it goes through Noah, it goes through Abraham, it goes through Moses. It goes through David. And [00:37:00] it is found again in the new covenant, verse 11.
And I submit to you that verse 11 is the key. The key to the newness of the new covenant. They shall not teach. They shall not teach everyone, his fellow citizen, everyone, his brother, saying no. Yahweh for all will know me from the least to the greatest of them. And I submit to you that if we can figure out the they of this passage, we know the newness of the new covenant.
You see, it has to refer to some kind of teaching that no longer exists. And it was a teaching that exposed or brought to mind the knowledge of God. It was a teaching that led to knowing God. It can't be discipleship. We're commanded in the uh, um, in Matthew 28. The Great Commission we're commanded in Matthew 28, the great commission to go out and make disciples to teach people it can't be parental [00:38:00] teaching.
The kind found in Deuteronomy chapter six because we're commanded in Ephesians six for parents to bring up their children in the discipline and knowledge of the Lord. It can't be preaching and what's the crux of preaching? What is my job? No God, no, Jesus. Understand the Bible. The very same thing that was going on in the Old Covenant because we're commanded to preach in two Timothy four, two, and the content of this teaching is to know God.
What kind of teaching took place in the old Covenant that doesn't exist today, that accomplished that? Well, we're gonna come back to it, but let's look at the last two elements from the least to the greatest, from the least of them to the greatest. And, and I, I encourage you, go home and read Jeremiah chapter six, verses 11 through 13.
Because it defines very well for us what is meant by this phrase. And this phrase is used multiple times in the Old Testament and the new to refer to classes and ranks of people. [00:39:00] So listen to what Jeremiah says in chapter six, verse 13, for from the least of them, even to the greatest of them, everyone is greedy for gain.
And the prophet, even the priest, everyone deals falsely classes. Everyone, the populace, greedy for gain ranks, priest and prophet. But let me explain the classes, because Jeremiah lays out who he's talking about in verses 11 and 12, and I won't read the passage. I'm just gonna list off who. Jeremiah lists children, young men, husband and wife, the aged and the very old from the least to the greatest, includes children to the very old.
That's not new about the new Covenant because in the Old Covenant children were members. We believe here that children are members of the New Covenant as well. For I will be merciful to their iniquity and I will remember their sins. No more forgiveness [00:40:00] was found in the Old Testament. Listen to the words of Psalm 103, beginning in verse.
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding, and loving kindness. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sin, nor rewarded us according to our iniquity. Think of David's prayer in Psalm 51. Sins were forgiven in the old covenant.
So what was this teaching? What was this teaching function for? This is the newness of the new covenant, and it perfectly fits the context. Of Hebrews, the new covenant begins with Christ. But who were the teachers in the Old Covenant? They were the Levitical priests. The Levitical priest had the teaching function.
They taught both verbally and in the ceremonies to know God. That's what's different. No longer do the Levitical priests exist. No longer does a [00:41:00] specific class of people who are called priests exist, but Peter describes us all as priests. That's what's been removed. The old covenant priests were teachers.
They taught us to know God. They also knew God in a special sense, and everyone else, believe it or not, were considered strangers and outsiders when it came to approaching God. So let me just give you a few examples In Deuteronomy 33, verse 10, speaking to the Levitical priest, you shall teach your ordinances to Jacob and your law to Israel.
But how did they teach it? Yes, they did it verbally, but how else the verse goes on. You shall teach your ordinances to Jacob and your law to Israel. They shall put incense before you and whole burnt offerings on your altar. One of the way the old covenant priest taught was the ceremonies. And you don't have to believe me, listen to Paul [00:42:00] in Galatians chapter three, verse 24.
Therefore, the law, and if you remember when we looked at this passage in Galatians, the, the overarching emphasis is the ceremonial law. For the ceremonial law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ so that we may be justified by faith, and the job of the priest was to teach us to know God, but the priest also had a unique relationship with God.
Listen to the words of Malachi chapter two. Then you'll know that I have sent this commandment to you and my covenant may continue with Levi. God had a special covenant with the priests. There was a special intimacy, says the Lord of hosts. My covenant with him was one of life and peace. It was an intimate covenant and I gave them to him life and peace as an object of reverence.
So he revered me and stood in awe of my name. True instruction was in his mouth and unrighteousness was not found on his [00:43:00] lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness and turned many back. From iniquity. You see, that was the teaching function of the Old Testament, the Levitical priest. That's what's been removed.
That's what's new about the new covenant Jesus. And now all of his people can teach. All of his people know God, covenant, ally, all of his people can proclaim and all of his people can approach the throne of grace with confidence. Listen to how the layman was described in the Old Testament in numbers chapter three, verse 10.
And again, there's more verses. In your notes in the bulletin, so I'm not just cherry picking, and believe me, I had to restrain myself. Numbers chapter three, verse 10. So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons that they may keep their priesthood, but the layman, the common folk who comes near shall be put to death.
But he gets even more graphic because sometimes Bible translators do things in a way that. They hope will help you [00:44:00] understand. Sometimes they'll, they'll do things in a way that seem less offensive. Okay? I'll give you one real quick example. When Elijah was taunting the prophets of Baal, uh, in most Bibles it says, well, maybe your God is off doing something literally in the Hebrew.
Maybe your god's in the bathroom. But the Bible cleans those things up for us. Well, the Bible cleaned it up here. Literally this word translated layman literally means strangers and outsiders. When it came to approaching the throne of grace, all of Israel, except for the Levitical priesthood, were considered strangers and outsiders.
And this is a word that was often used of gentiles as well. So the priests had a very unique relationship. But in the New Testament, we read in one Peter two. The entirety of the church, you were a chosen race, A royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. All words that described Israel in the Old [00:45:00] Testament.
Now descriptive of the church. So they may proclaim the excellencies of him who was, who was called you out of the darkness into his marvelous light.
Verse 13 wraps it up. When he said a new covenant, he made the first obsolete, literally useless in the Greek, but whatever is becoming obsolete, useless, and is growing old, is ready to disappear. And as I've argued, I'm sure that the writer of this epistle lived long enough to see his prophecy come true.
It was only another couple years where the old covenant system would be destroyed. So what is the meaning of this? How do we sum this up? Kids? There's one more question in your outline and moms and dads, this applies to you. What is new about the new covenant? And the simple answer is Jesus, but number one on your outline, kids and parents, again, this applies.
Jesus is our new high priest. Jesus is our high priest. Number two, [00:46:00] there will be no earthly priests because we are all priests. There's no special class of priests anymore. That's what's been removed. Now we're all priests and we can all approach the throne of grace with confidence. Number three, there will no longer be sacrifices or ceremonies.
There will no longer be sacrifices or ceremonies. In addition to this, there is a super abundance of grace and outpouring of the Holy Spirit, but that's not what the author of Hebrews talks about. He is simply talking about the removal of the Levitical system because we have a new high priest. He will teach his people.
But additionally, elsewhere in scripture, there is a super abundance of grace, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. There is now the transformative power of the law, where in the Old Testament, the law was nothing but a curse. Nothing but something that would increase sin in the lives of believers. It is transformative.
And lastly, there is the bringing of [00:47:00] Jew and Gentile together into one new man. I wanna close with this comment from John Calvin commenting on this passage. He wrote The following, it may be asked whether there was under the law, meaning the old covenant, a sure and certain promise of salvation, was there the promise of salvation in the Old Testament, whether the fathers had the gift of the Spirit, whether they enjoyed God's paternal favor through the remission of their sins.
Calvin's answer, yes, those things existed in the Old Testament. And yet the Apostle, by referring to the prophecy of Jeremiah to the coming of Christ by referring the prophecy of Jeremiah to the coming of Christ, seems to rob them of those blessings. Often we read this and we think the law wasn't written on their heart.
They didn't possess the spirit of God. Their sins weren't forgiven. It seems to rob them to this. I reply that he does not expressly deny that God formally wrote his law upon their hearts and pardon their sins, but he makes a comparison between the less [00:48:00] and the greater. You see there's a super abundance and you live in a time of super abundance.
Will you bow the knee to Christ? Will you fall on your knees and will you thank him that he is our new high priest and our sins and everything that the Old Testament Saints waited for, and everything that the old covenant pointed to has come true? And it came true 2000 years ago and you reap the benefits of the new covenant.
Let's pray. Father in heaven, help us understand this. Help us understand this accurately. Help us understand what's new. And if, if we get nothing else, help us know that what's new is Jesus. Jesus is our high priest. Jesus did what no Old Testament high priest could do, and he does it in the heavenly sanctuary.
And he does it while seated because his sacrifice [00:49:00] is done never to be repeated. And now he, he sits and he mediates for us. And so our salvation is secure. The forgiveness of our sins secure, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Secure. We are in dwelt by God. We are in dwelt by your spirit. Help us to stop striving against him.
Help us to yield. To his leading, help us to yield to his control. Help us to submit to bow the knee and let him change our lives. Let him rebuild us. Let him sanctify us. Father, thank you that we live in the new Covenant era. Help us to understand and help us to make application for We ask this in Christ's name, and all of God's people said.
