The Better Covenant With Better Promises

Transcript

GR 1695
06/23/13
The Better Covenant and its Better Promises
Hebrews 8:7-13
Gil Rugh

We're in the book of Hebrews in your Bibles, Hebrews 8. And we come to the concluding portion of Hebrews 8 and you always feel like you're making progress when you are moving from one chapter to the next. And we will have moved through the first eight chapters.

Let me say something about our next study that I was going to do this week and then decided to wait a week. We're going to be talking about the New Covenant in our study together today and some of you may not have as much background in the covenants of the Old Testament. And we keep talking about the Old Covenant, the New Covenant, there are other covenants. One covenant has been canceled, no longer operative. How do these covenants fit together? So for our next study I want to take a break from the text of Hebrews and talk a little bit about the covenants of the Old Testament, particularly what we might refer to as the redemptive covenants that God has established with the nation Israel, of which the New Covenant is one. And how this fits in the overall scheme of the covenants of the Old Testament. I mention that now because we may be saying some things about the New Covenant that will raise some questions on how that fits with the church and Israel and so on. We'll try to cover some of that next week. I don't want to oversell what we're going to do next week, but I hope it will answer some of the questions. And if you come next week and I've called in sick, you'll know I couldn't get it worked out.

But we're in Hebrews 8, and Hebrews 8 opens up with the statement, now the main point in what is being said. We noted that is a present participle, we have it translated as a past tense. The main point in what is being said is this—we have such a high priest. Everything he has said about the priestly ministry and the superiority of the priesthood of Melchizedek and Christ God's Son as the fulfillment of that priesthood and the superiority of the sacrifice that He has offered out of the perfection of His own person. What he is going to say, really, through Hebrews 10:18 focuses on this—we have such a high priest, a Son made perfect forever as Hebrews 7 concluded. That emphasis reminds these Jewish believers who for a variety of reasons that we have talked about are contemplating a return to Judaism and the Levitical system of worship. You are going back to nothing because it is no longer there as far as God is concerned, it's no longer an operative system. It is now man carrying out his own desires. There is no salvation found in that system, it never could provide what man needed. We needed a new priesthood with a new covenant associated with that priest, we needed a Son made perfect forever.

Back up to Hebrews 5:8, although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered and having been made perfect He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, having been designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek. He is superior in His person; He is superior in His work. The Mosaic Covenant and the Levitical priesthood, which are inseparably joined together, are over. Now we have the new priesthood of Christ in the order of Melchizedek and you have a new covenant which he is going to elaborate on.

Back in Hebrews 8. We had preparation for this when we were told in Hebrews 7:19, the Law made nothing perfect. The Law refers to the Mosaic Law which is the same thing as the Mosaic Covenant. But on the other hand there is a better hope, something that can do what the Mosaic Law and the priesthood associated with it could never do. Remember the Law and the priesthood go together. Hebrews 7:11, if perfection were through the Levitical priesthood, for on the basis of it the people receive the Law. It was the Law that gave instructions about the priesthood, the Levitical priesthood. But really the Levitical priesthood was the foundation and heart of the Mosaic Law. If you take that out, all you have is a list of commandments and instructions, similar in many ways to what other nations at the time had. The priesthood that provides access to God, that provides forgiveness and enables you to have a relationship with God are tied to the priesthood and its ongoing ministry. That's what made Israel unique as a nation, and once a year the high priest would go in and make sacrifice in the very presence of God in the Holy of Holies. That enables the nation to remain in an acceptable relationship to God.

Hebrews 7:22 said, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. Then down in Hebrews 8:6, but now He has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as He is the mediator of a better covenant which has been enacted on better promises. A change of priesthood requires a change of covenant. Hebrews 7:12, for when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change of law or covenant also because the covenant is based upon and centers in the ministry of the priest.

So what he is going to do in Hebrews 8:7-13 is talk about the better covenant and the better promises associated with the better covenant. He starts out with a general statement in verse 7, for if that first covenant had been faultless there would have been no occasion for a second covenant. It's the same argument that was used regarding the priesthood, the announcement of a new priesthood. The prophecy in Psalm 110:4, remember, in Hebrews 7 reminded the Jews and told the Jews that there was going to be a replacement to the Levitical priesthood. Hebrews 7:18, on the one hand there is the setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness. What set it aside? Verse 17, the prophecy in Psalm in 110:4, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. We're rounding off and saying the Mosaic Covenant was given around 1500 B.C., that's an easier number to remember. It was closer to 1450, 1445 B.C. But we'll round it off to 1450. Fifteen hundred years before Christ you have the Mosaic Law and the Levitical priesthood established. Then a thousand years before Christ, 500 years after the Mosaic Law a prophecy was given, Psalm 110:4, concerning God's Son, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now the Jews may not have picked up the significance of that, but prophesying a new order of priesthood announced that the former priesthood would come to an end.

Now it's the same argument when you come to the covenant in Hebrews 8:7. The prophecy in Jeremiah 31, given about 500 years before Christ, a thousand years after the Mosaic Covenant was given on Mt. Sinai. The announcement of a new covenant declared what? The Old Covenant was not able to accomplish what needed to be accomplished. The statement in Hebrews 7:19, the Law made nothing perfect. The Mosaic Covenant and the priesthood associated with it could not bring the perfection that God required. So in the announcing of a new covenant, you are preparing the hearts of anyone listening for the finishing and canceling of the old covenant. That's the argument. If the first covenant had been faultless, able to accomplish what needed to be accomplished, there would have been no occasion for the second. For finding fault with them, with the people operating under the old covenant, they are not perfect. God finds fault with it.

Now be careful. God had established the Old Covenant, but it never was a way of salvation. It never did provide eternal salvation; it did not contain the promises that the New Covenant contained. In fact, the salvation that occurred under the Old Covenant and even before it could be provided by God because of the provisions He would make into the New Covenant, which is a permanent and eternal covenant.

So he'll pick up in Hebrews 8:8, after saying finding fault with them here is what God says. And when he makes this declaration through the prophet Jeremiah, he is declaring the Old Covenant inadequate, faulty, a failure in that it cannot do what man needs to have done. He'll conclude this section in the same way, Hebrews 8:13, when he said a New Covenant, he has made the first obsolete. The same thing, we're familiar with that. If a car manufacturer says we're going to have a totally new model car coming out, it will operate on a totally new principle, not internal combustion, blah, blah, blah. By announcing that they've made the old one obsolete, it's just a matter of time until that is carried out. Whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. These statements become important. Some people think the Mosaic Law continues. It can't continue, it's been rendered obsolete, faulty. It's going to disappear and no longer be operative. There is no reason for anyone to say, we're still under parts of the Mosaic Law. We are not under the Mosaic Law. There may be things that were in the Mosaic Law that are continued under the New Covenant, but now we operate in light of those because they are in the New Covenant not because they are part of the Old Covenant. The Old Covenant has been nullified and will be rendered obsolete.

All right, back to Hebrews 8:8. He's going to quote Jeremiah 31, so we won't go back to Jeremiah 31, because he quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34. In fact, this is the longest quote of the Old Testament found anywhere in the New Testament. Of all the Old Testament quotations this is the longest single quote we have from the Old Testament in the New Testament. And it's of the New Covenant from Jeremiah 31.

Finding fault with them he says, behold days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. So here we are reminded in announcing a new covenant he is declaring the failure of the Old Covenant. So he is not going to remodel the Old Covenant, he is going to replace it. This has always been part of God's plan. The Old Covenant never was a covenant that provided eternal salvation. We'll talk more about that in days ahead, in studies in the future.

It says days are coming, says the Lord. Remember how Hebrews started out? Go back to Hebrews 1:1. God after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways in these last days. At the end of these days He has spoken to us in His Son. He goes on to talk about His Son. And he starts out, He is the One who is better than everything associated with prior revelation. That includes the angels in verse 4, better than the angels. And we've been talking about the better covenant that He will bring. So in these last days He has spoken to us in a Son. That connects to Jeremiah, days are coming, God said through Jeremiah. And do you know what? Those days have come with the coming of the Son of God when the Old Covenant will be replaced with the New Covenant. A New Covenant.

Interestingly this covenant is not mentioned often outside the book of Hebrews. We're very familiar with the expression the New Covenant because at the Last Supper when Jesus broke the bread and then gave the cup, He said, this cup is the New Covenant in My blood. So we repeat that every time we partake of the communion service and we become very familiar with the terminology, New Covenant. But you know that New Covenant is only mentioned on those occasions in the Gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke—each recording that Last Supper record that Jesus said, this cup is the New Covenant in My blood. And then Paul wrote to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 11:25 and says God has revealed to him the truth of that occasion as well. So we usually read from 1 Corinthians 11:25 where Paul said God had revealed to him what Jesus said, this cup is the New Covenant in My blood. I wonder how many people who partake of the service regularly stop and think, New Covenant—what does that mean? Our Bible is divided into the Old Covenant and the New Covenant or the Old Testament and the New Testament. It's all tied to a specific covenant, distinct from the Mosaic Covenant and intimately tied to the other what we will call the redemptive covenants God made with the nation Israel.

There is another reference using the specific words new covenant. Turn to 2 Corinthians 3. And it's a reminder that we are operating with a ministry under the provisions of the New Covenant. In 2 Corinthians 3:5 Paul says, not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves. But our adequacy is from God who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant. Then he contrasts that with the Old Covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. And often we have heard people who haven't considered carefully the context. When you are trying to explain to them some detail of the Word of God they say, the letter kills but the Spirit gives life. As though if you're involved too much in the details of the Word of God, that's what he is talking about here. The letter refers to the Mosaic Law given to Moses on Mt. Sinai. All you have to do is read the next verse—but if the ministry of death in letters engraved on stones came with glory so the sons of God could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was. Remember? Moses went up on the mountain, He gave him the Mosaic Law, the Law given to Moses, or the covenant established through Moses with Israel. When he came down from the mountain his face glowed from being in the presence of God. God gave him two tablets of stone on which the finger of God had inscribed in letters the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments are part of the Mosaic Law, they are a summary, if you will, of the Mosaic Law. People say, I think I'm saved, I try to keep the Ten Commandments. You understand, that has been canceled. It is not even operative, hasn't even been operative for 2,000 years. Paul says, I am a minister of a new covenant, not the one engraved at Sinai on stones, but the one engraved on the hearts by the Spirit of God. That's the New Covenant ministry. So that's what Paul was involved with in his ministry, the proclamation of the provisions of God's salvation in the New Covenant. That's what we are preaching when we preach the Gospel.

You might as well back up to Romans 11, we're going to be back here in a future study. He refers to the New Covenant; he doesn't use the word new but in the context it's the content of the New Covenant as we'll see in a little bit. Verse 26 says, so all Israel will be saved just as it is written, the deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. And we're going to read in a moment, that's the provision of the New Covenant, quoted in Jeremiah among other places in the Old Testament. God will take away the sins of Israel. So when he says, this is my covenant, I don't want you to get the idea the New Covenant is not mentioned. Its provisions are mentioned often because every time we talk about the sacrifice of Christ, His paying for sin with His death on the cross, the perfection of His person as God's Son, we are talking about provisions that are included in the New Covenant because the New Covenant is built on the priesthood of Christ and that's what it's all about ultimately.

Come back to Hebrews 8. Behold days are coming, verse 8, says the Lord, when I will effect a New Covenant. I want you to pick up one more thing before we move on—I will. What stands out in the New Covenant is God's sovereign control in it all. Just mark I will, I don't know how you mark your Bible, I highlighted the “I wills” here. You might underline or circle them. When I will effect a New Covenant. Come down to verse 10, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days I will put My law into their hearts, I will write them upon their hearts. I will be their God. Come down to verse 12, for I will be merciful to them, I will remember their sins no more. I will, I will, I will. This covenant is sovereignly established by God and assured and guaranteed by Him. Jesus was called, in Hebrews 7, the guarantee of a better covenant, Hebrews 7:22. Then down in Hebrews 8:6, He is the mediator of the better covenant. So it's based upon Him and His work. God will do it, it's sure, it's guaranteed.

Under the Mosaic Law God met with Israel, He laid out the blessings and the curses and Israel said, we will keep the covenant. But we're going to see there is a promise, they didn't. And that was not a surprise to God. That's why the Mosaic Covenant was always a temporary covenant that would be ended because the persistent sin of the people rendered it ineffective.

All right this covenant, verse 8, is with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. That's repeated in verse 10, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel. He says the house of Israel and Judah because since the days of David's grandson the nation had been divided into northern and southern kingdoms—the northern ten tribes called Israel, the southern two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, called Judah. And sometimes just referred to the whole thing as the nation Israel. So he makes clear this involves the whole nation, all twelve tribes, Israel and Judah. And then he just refers to them as Israel in verse 10.

Now we want to be clear, we can't change this. One recent commentator that I read this week on this passage said, what he is really saying is I'll make this covenant with Israel and Judah, he simply means that the divisions and conflicts among God's people will be resolved by this covenant. Then he goes on to talk about as though we are not taking about literal, physical Israel, we're talking about God's people. And as a result of this covenant all conflicts among God's people will be done away with. And somehow we just move away from the promises God gave regarding a physical nation, Israel, and spiritualize it, take it in a non-literal fashion, and now we just apply it to all God's people. All of the covenants, again I keep saying redemptive covenants because there is the Noahic Covenant that precedes the existence of Israel, but all the redemptive covenants are made with the Jews. That's one thing that stands out in difference between Jews and Gentiles. All the covenants were made with the Jews. We as Gentiles are experiencing the blessing of God's salvation that was provided under a covenant that is made with the nation Israel.

Back up to Ephesians 2. Paul said in Romans 3:2 that one of the great blessings given to the nation Israel was the oracles of God were given to them, the revelation of God through Old Testament history was given through the Jews. Ephesians 2:11, after talking about the wonders of God's salvation by grace through faith and not of works in verses 8-10, he says therefore, verse 11, remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, because the church in Ephesus is in the Gentile part of the world and would primarily be comprised of Gentiles. That you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the circumcision. The Jews identified Gentiles as the uncircumcised. Why? Circumcision was the sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham, that physical circumcision that marked off a physical people. Verse 12, remember that you, you Gentiles, were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenants of promise. We weren't part of those covenants, God made them with Israel. The Gentiles are outsiders. There could be Gentiles that would convert to Judaism and worship the God of Israel, but Gentiles as Gentiles—no. We were strangers to the covenants of promise.

Now we're talking about a better covenant with better promises. And you understand as Gentiles, this is a covenant promise to whom? The house of Israel and the house of Judah. Having no hope, now with the New Covenant we've been promised a better hope and somehow we as Gentiles have gotten tied into that covenant. Without God in the world because God had revealed Himself as the God of Israel. He made clear, the gods of the nations are not gods at all. There is only one true and living God and He is the God of Israel. And you either come to worship the God of Israel or you go to an eternal hell. We're Gentiles, we realize.

So now the Gentiles have the audacity to declare themselves the ones to whom all the covenantal promises apply. Paul approaches it just the opposite. You realize what an outsider you were. But in the coming of Christ and the establishing of the New Covenant that is to be made and its fullness with the nation Israel, there is a provision for us. And we'll talk more about that when we talk about the provision founded in the Abrahamic Covenant in our next study. We'll pick up, but now in Christ you who were formerly far off have been brought near. And so with the abolishing of the Mosaic Covenant which was a temporary covenant, there has been provision made for us to become partakers of the salvation provided by a Jewish Messiah to fulfill the promises given to the Jewish people. And even our blessings come because of a provision made through the covenant with the father of the Jewish nation, Abraham.

Come back to Hebrews 8. So the covenants made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, as we read through this you'll see there are provisions in this covenant that have not been fulfilled to this day. And their fulfillment will be in the nation Israel. So because there is a provision made for us, be careful that we don't think that we can assume and take over the covenant and now somehow exclude the Jews because we've become the spiritual Israel or the Israel of God or some other passages that are mistreated and misinterpreted.

Verse 9, this covenant, the New Covenant that will be established with Israel and the house of Judah is not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. That's the Mosaic Covenant obviously. What did God do? And the picture here is like you see a father walking down, leading his child across the street or something, the care and the authority and the sovereignty of God. He has Israel by the hand and He brought them out of Egypt. They didn't do anything, God did everything. He brought them out of Egypt. And then what did He do? Exodus 19, brought them to Sinai and established a covenant there with them—the Mosaic Covenant or the Mosaic Law.

This New Covenant will be different than that covenant. And you'll note the last part of verse 9, they did not continue in My covenant and I did not care for them, says the Lord. They persistently sinned and rebelled against the covenant they had established with God in spite of the fact when God presented the blessings and the curses. The blessings that would be given for obeying that covenant and the curses that would come for disobeying, they persistently disobeyed. What happened when it came time to go into the Promised Land? God didn't care for them anymore, didn't lead them by the hand into the Promised Land. Just the opposite. Curses came upon them and not one of that generation, can't say not one, with a couple of exceptions everyone 20 years old and older are going to die, not going into the land. That's a little bit of a preview of the effectiveness and non-effectiveness of this covenant. It will eventually be totally done away with because of the sin of the people. It couldn't bring perfection, all it did was reveal how sinful they were and their constant disobedience. How sad it is, there are people today when you ask them, do you think you're going to heaven? Yes. Why? I try to keep the Ten Commandments. What a terrible answer. Of all the answers that has to be one of the worst. That never was effective and brought nothing but the judgment of God upon them. I did not care for them.

So that's the context here. They didn't continue My covenant; I didn't care for them. The context particularly of the Promised Land was where they were going, but that generation was closed out because of continual, persistent rebellion.

Verse 10, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. Now we're ready. Remember back in Hebrews 8:6, Christ is the mediator of a better covenant which has been enacted on better promises. Now the better promises of this better covenant are going to be unfolded, which reveal this is a better covenant, it has better promises—promises that are guaranteed because God says, I will do this, I will do this. It won't be like the Mosaic Covenant, if you will do this, I will do this; if you don't do this, I will do this. There is only one answer in the New Covenant—I will do this; this will be the result. There will be no failure.

I've just listed four provisions, I've broken them out as four, you can break them out how you want. They are in pairs so you have two lines saying the same thing. The first promise of the New Covenant, God's law will be put in their minds and hearts. I will put My laws into their minds, I will write them on their hearts. So you see you have the two parallel expressions, saying basically the same thing. God's law. Not written on tablets of stone but put into their minds, inscribed on their hearts. The problem with the Old Covenant, back up to Hebrews 3:8, do not harden your hearts as when they provoked Me as in the day of trial in their wilderness. Verse 10, I was angry with that generation and said they always go astray in their hearts. You see, they didn't have God's law in their minds and in their hearts, they had it out here. But it hadn't taken hold in their minds and in their hearts. They had hard hearts, hearts closed, would not obey. Then the warning in verse 12, take care, brethren, that there not be in anyone of you an evil, unbelieving heart in falling away from the living God. What is required for salvation is a transformation of heart. External things could never bring salvation. The provisions of the Levitical priesthood were never a way of salvation, as we're going to be moving into in Hebrews 9-10. The blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin, going into the waters of physical baptism can never cleanse you from sin, external physical things can never change a heart or create a new mind.

Come back to Ezekiel 11. And this is in the context of the restoration. And we'll see, coming up in the New Covenant is the provision for the restoration of Israel to the land and so on. In this context of Ezekiel 11 he's talking about when Israel will be restored to the land and experiencing God's blessing. Verse 17, therefore thus says the Lord God, I will gather you from the peoples, assemble you out of the countries among which you have scattered. I will give you the land of Israel. Verse 19, and I will give them one heart, I will put a new spirit within them, I will take the heart of stone out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh that they may walk in My statutes and keep My ordinances and do them. Then they will be My people, I will be their God. That's another provision of the New Covenant we will come to when we continue our consideration of Jeremiah 31. So these provisions, you see, spread through. He doesn't refer specifically to a new covenant here, but the special things that are going to happen to Israel in the context of their being restored to the land and under the leadership of their Messiah are provisions of the New Covenant. And here they get a new heart, a new spirit. It's the same thing as saying having God's law inscribed in their minds and on their hearts. They've been made new within. It's what we talk about when we read 2 Corinthians, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, a new creature. The old things are gone, the new things have come. What Paul talked about in Romans 6, we are a new man. The old man has died, dead, is gone, there is a new man. We have been made new on the inside. That's the problem with all systems, they can't change you from the outside in. But God's salvation starts to change in the very center of your being. He makes you new, puts His Spirit within you.

Stop in Ezekiel 36. If you would take two extensive passages on the New Covenant, you would have Jeremiah 31 which refers to the New Covenant, which we are looking at as quoted in Hebrews, and Ezekiel 36 is another extensive passage on the New Covenant. And important we see the provisions that we've referred to as it is quoted from Jeremiah. God says, I will, I will, I will, I will. This is what I'm going to do to you and for you. What about what they do? It's just telling them what He'll do for them. You'll note how He is going to act, verse 22, therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake, oh house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name which you have profaned among the nations where you went. I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. You see here God operating, fulfilling what He has promised to do for the nation. Not because the nation was worthy but because God has promised. His holiness, His great name as the promised covenant-keeping God is at stake. This is what He will do.

Verse 24, I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. The cleansing. That's why Jesus in John 3 when Nicodemus, a teacher in Israel, came and Jesus said, you must be born again or you'll never see the kingdom. Nicodemus says, how can you be born again? Jesus says, how can you be a teacher in Israel and not understand these things? I mean, born again, you need a new heart, you need to be made new within, born of water and the Spirit. The Jews ought to understand that, that cleansing from the defilement that was pictured under the Mosaic Covenant. But that washing of water didn't provide cleansing but it represented and symbolized the need in being cleansed from defilement.

God says at the end of verse 25, I will cleanse you from all your filthiness, all your idols. So the sprinkling clean water just represented the cleansing that would take place, the spiritual cleansing that God brought about. Moreover, I give you a new heart.

Verse 27, I'll put My Spirit within you, cause you to walk in My statutes. You'll be careful to observe My ordinances. You see it is in their mind, it is on their heart. What they do will come from within and the presence of the Spirit to empower and enable action coming from that new heart and new mind. Then you'll live on the land, part of the provision that is not yet operative.

Okay, come back to Hebrews. So the first provision, first promise of the New Covenant is God's law will be in their hearts and minds. The second provision or promise—a personal relationship with God. Again we have the second pair at the end of verse 10—I will be their God, they shall be My people. I will be their God; they shall be My people. This was the promise given to Israel in connection with the Mosaic Law, if you will obey. We won't go back because of time but Exodus 6:7, Deuteronomy 26:17-18, God tells them, I will be your God, you will be My people. This blessing comes if you keep My commandments. And here are the blessings I will bring if you keep My commandments, here are the curses I will bring on you if you don't. And the people say, we will keep the covenant. But they never did. But under the New Covenant this promise is guaranteed. I will be their God; they will be My people.

Something of this work of Christ provided under the provisions of the New Covenant is recorded by Paul in Galatians. Back up to Galatians 4. And here in Galatians 4 he is contrasting, really, without using the terminology the Old Covenant, the Mosaic system with the New Covenant and its provisions. And the picture is under the Old Covenant Israel was like slaves living under the requirements of the Law or under guardians and so on. Verse 4, but when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, Abba, Father. You are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God. You see the relationship established by the work of Christ, His high priestly ministry. God sent His Son to redeem. The Law couldn't provide redemption, those under the Law needed a Redeemer, they needed One who had a different order of priesthood, operating under a different covenant because there was no success in trying to keep the Law. There was no internal desire and motivation.

Look around us in the world around us, the world of the unbeliever. They move from rebellion to rebellion to rebellion, and as soon as one sin becomes somewhat promoted and they get a guise of acceptability, pretty soon you have a majority approving it. Because that's where the heart of man is, it's not drawn to obedience to God, it is planted in rebellion against God. That was Israel's condition. They need a new heart, they need a new mind, they need God's Spirit within them. That's what is provided in the redemption God has provided.

Ultimate realization of this, come over to Revelation 21, when all will experience its full and final fulfillment. Verse 3, we'll talk more about the tabernacle when we get into Hebrews 9-10, the earthly tabernacle, the heavenly tabernacle and the climax when heaven comes to earth. Revelation 21:3, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is among men. And He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people and God Himself will be among them. And that's what God has prepared for us in His eternal earthly kingdom. This is not just some washing out of everything and blurring it into some kind of ultimate spiritual reality, this is on this physical earth and all the marvelous fulfillment of all that God has promised.

All right, come back to Hebrews 8. So the second provision. The first provision was God's law inscribed on hearts and minds; the second promise is a personal relationship with God. A third promise in verse 11, universal knowledge of God—and they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen and everyone his brother saying, know the Lord. For all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them. Now no one who takes the Scripture in any kind of rational, reasonable way can say that is being fulfilled. Yet I read commentary after commentary that say it is because all believers know God. In other words, this says nothing, that believers know God. That's not what it is saying. It says there won't be any longer any need to evangelize, there will no longer be any need to tell people about Christ and His salvation. We are still doing that today. Does everyone in our city, just to bring to a local level, know the living God, from the least to the greatest? We have people going out, knocking on doors to tell people the truth of the Gospel. We are still carrying out that commission of Christ, to make disciples of all nations. It's not done, everybody doesn't know Him.

Come back to Isaiah 11. This chapter opens up by talking about the coming of Christ and His first coming and the realization ultimately in His Second Coming as He rules. And the description then in verse 6, the wolf will dwell with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the young goat and so on. The curse will be lifted from creation. Then you come down to verse 9, they will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain. And a mountain in prophetic Scripture is a reference to a kingdom. In all My holy kingdom for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. That's why you won't need to tell people, everybody will know. The knowledge of the Lord will be pervasive in the world; they will know it everywhere. That's what the New Covenant makes provision for, and its ultimate realization will be in the coming kingdom which is where ultimately the covenants find their fulfillment. Even though there is provision in the implementation of the New Covenant for salvation, the fullness of the New Covenant has to wait and it will be fulfilled as God promised in the relationship with Israel.

So that provision is yet future. So we want to be careful. People who try to fulfill these things and then end up not taking it literally. I've shared with you, there is a man who has written a book on how to interpret the Bible, of all things, and he says, in Christ all the promises of the land to Israel have been fulfilled. So there is no real physical land for Israel, that was spiritually fulfilled in Christ. And then you can fulfill the promise that everybody knows the Lord and the earth is covered with the knowledge of the Lord because . . . Maybe not everybody but most places you go in the world have at least heard about Christ. I mean, does the Bible mean what it says or not?

There are things that stretch us in our understanding, what they really take is more study. But God is not fooling us by saying, I said this but I tricked you. I really meant this. The provision of this covenant, if the provision of verse 11, universal knowledge of God, is not true, how do you know it's true literally that He'll give you a new heart and new mind? How do you know it's true that He will remove iniquities and remember sins no more, which is coming up as our next provision and promise? So we pick and choose, we take that as literal, but no we don't take that as literal. What we want to do is take everything that was promised to Israel as a physical nation, descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and take it to ourselves. So what we can't take physically, we'll just spiritualize. And what an attitude. At the basic heart of it is what we would call anti-Semitism. The idea that Gentiles should be so arrogant, like Paul refers to it, don't be arrogant, Gentiles. You are where you are because of promised blessings to the Jews. And the Gentiles think they can declare themselves to have superseded the Jews. No, there are promises here that can't be fulfilled, this covenant is not fully in operation. There are provisions of it that are.

So the third provision was universal knowledge of God, yet future. And the fourth provision is the removal of all sins. For I will be merciful to all their iniquities. I will remember their sins no more. There are individual blessings that come with our salvation, we've touched on that, we've been reading about it in Hebrews. But you'll note what he is talking about here—this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel, I will remember their iniquities no more. We won't go back to Romans 11:25 because of time and we'll be back there in our next study, but God refers to the time when all Israel will be saved. That's what he is talking about here, when there will come a time when God's promises that Israel will be a nation of priests. They will be a people that belong to Him and He will be their God. There will come a time when all Israel will be saved. How do I know? God says He will do it. I will be merciful to their iniquities; I will remember their sins no more. Not because of some sentimental or emotional reason. Well you know all the Jews have suffered, the Holocaust and everything, they deserve some blessings from God. No, remember what we read? God says, I am not doing this because you deserve it, I'm doing it for My holy name. You have done nothing but profane My name, you deserve nothing but judgment. I'm doing this on the basis of grace. There will come a time when you, the Jews, will realize the covenant that I will make and bring about your salvation as a nation.

Now we are entering into these blessings because the blessings that provide for the forgiveness of sins for the nation in coming days have been provided by the high priest who incidentally is a Jewish high priest of the tribe of Judah. We Gentiles have jumped on board by God's grace, or maybe consistent with God's grace we have been thrown on board. We are recipients of that salvation. And every individual Jew here that we're talking about, we're talking about all Israel being saved, it will have to be individually. Each of those Jews will receive new hearts, new minds, the presence of the Spirit.

So the provisions of this New Covenant. 1. God's law in their hearts and minds. We know something about that, we've been given, made new, made new creatures. 2. A personal relationship with God. We know something about that. 3. Universal knowledge of God covering the earth. We're not even touching that. 4. Removal of all sins. Well, we know something of that personally, the national dimension of that has yet to be realized.

What does this all mean then with the New Covenant? When he said, verse 13, a New Covenant, he has made the first obsolete. Whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. By declaring there would be a New Covenant he has declared it is only a matter of time until the old one is obsolete. That doesn't mean the Mosaic Covenant continues today. Jeremiah declared this 500 years before Christ. But the Old Covenant did not finally become obsolete until Christ came and performed His high priestly ministry. Now it is obsolete.

This is important. Some people try to write, they want to continue the Law and say it says in verse 10, I will put My laws in their minds, I will write them on their heart. Every time they see law they read Mosaic Law. No, every covenant will have laws and regulations, they are legal documents, associated with it. They just didn't alter and take the Mosaic Law now and internalize it, the Mosaic Law in its entirety is obsolete and has now disappeared because we have a new priesthood with a new covenant with that priesthood. You can't have both. This is crucial. I can't understand people trying to figure out ways. Well the Mosaic Law, when he says laws he really means instead of having the Mosaic Law externally He's going to put the Mosaic Law in their heart. That's not what he says, he says that Law is done. Now the New Covenant will have laws associated with it and that New Covenant may include some things that were found in the Old Covenant. And that's true.

I found the deed for a house my dad bought when I was a teenager. There are some things in that contract that are found in new contracts. That doesn't mean the old contract is somehow still operative, it just means a new contract had some things that were also true in the old one. But the old one was done. Remember James says, the Law stands or falls as a unit, everything in it. We don't keep the Sabbath today. Well, the Ten Commandments, that's intended to continue on. No, because then you have to spiritualize one of the ten—remember the Sabbath day which is the seventh day, to keep it holy. And here we are on Sunday morning. Where were you yesterday? We missed it. Do you know what happened to the man who gathered sticks on the Sabbath? He went under the stones. Well, we don't take that one literally, we've made this the Christian Sabbath. How does that sound? The first is the seventh. Where do we go with this? Maybe the second is the ninth. Maybe heaven is just a feeling you get in your heart, but that's a spiritual promise. There really is no literal heaven. I take everything God says at face value. That doesn't mean there aren't pictures, there aren't types; we've talked about that. But we take things historically, grammatically.

I'm excited the New Covenant will be made with the nation Israel, but it has been established in the death and finished work of Christ, carried on by His high priestly ministry. So the salvation provision in that which is foundational to everything is operative today. That's why there is no order of priests, no order of angels, no order of saints that stand between you and Christ. That's why your good works cannot be brought in. The only thing that can satisfy a holy God is what He does and what He has done in His Son. By His death and resurrection and His present ministry as high priest He has provided an eternal salvation for all who will believe in Him. You cannot add to that; you cannot take away from that. Well, I believe that but I think it would be helpful to have priests in it, I think it would be helpful to have Mary intercede for me. You have nullified it. That's the antidote to God's salvation program, the devil's antidote to cancel out the effectiveness of what God has provided. You can only have God's salvation based upon the work of God's grace in Christ. And when you recognize your sin, turn from your sin and place your faith in Christ and His finished work and nothing, no one else, nothing else, He brings you His salvation, gives you a new heart, a new mind, puts His Spirit within you. And life is different forever. That's God's salvation.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the riches of your grace. And Lord easy for us to pass lightly over the wonder of what you have accomplished in Christ, the significance and importance of every detail of your Word. Things that seem buried in the prophets who wrote long ago, yet these things are alive. Your Word is alive, it is powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, pierces through the innermost recesses of our being. Thank you, Lord, that the truth concerning Christ and His finished work is your power for salvation to everyone who believes. I pray for those who are gathered here who do not know you. Perhaps by their external activity, coming to this church, being baptized here, doing good works they think that's what will enable them to be acceptable before you. May their eyes be opened to see the beauty of your grace. For those of us who have believed, Lord, may we never tire of plumbing the depths of the riches that you have provided for us in Christ. And it's in His name that we pray, amen.