Well, I invite you to turn this morning in your Bibles to Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 8. As I said, we're going to conclude chapter 8 today, and then we'll take probably a few months break here from Hebrews over the summer months and then come back to it. Last time we looked at the heavenly ministry of Christ as he is our high priest from heaven and rules us and cares for us from heaven. and now we move into explaining the benefits of that and so we will look at verses 7 and we'll read to the end of the chapter we'll pick up at verse 6 let's give our attention to the word of the lord but as it is christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better since it is enacted on better promises and now our text for if that first covenant had been faultless there would have been no occasion to look for a second but for he finds fault with them he when he says behold the days are coming declares the lord when i will establish a new covenant with the house of israel and with the house of judah not like the covenant that i made with their fathers on the day when i took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of egypt for they did not continue in my covenant and so i showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law into their minds and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, and the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more in speaking of a new covenant he makes the first one obsolete and what is becoming obsolete is growing old and ready to vanish away and there ends the reading of god's word one announcement i forgot to make this morning is there will be no new members class after church on today so if you're attending that please make that note well this morning we are bringing to a close a hebrews chapter 8 this wonderful chapter on the new covenant and my goal is just that my goal this morning is to help you appreciate why the new covenant is so much better than the old one it's a it's a straightforward we have to wait through a little bit of difficult territory here and then you'll see the it it it shifts to the beauties of what we get to enjoy but i think you'll see today with the foundation that we've already laid sort of going through and working through Hebrews, the reasoning is very clear for us, isn't it? And I hope to sort of connect the dots for you today to help you see how wonderful the new covenant is and that you would have a greater appreciation, a greater appreciation for how good your God has been to you, that you would appreciate more his steadfast covenant love and that these truths would lead you more to trust him and to believe him that's the goal of all this we can't forget the goal in working through thicker sections of scripture it's a very practical goal in this regard to believe him and to trust him and to let that then inform our worship as we've studied we've been able to come and worship now right into the most holy place as Jesus is the mediator from heaven of a much better covenant. The point of everything he has been saying is expressed in verse 8. That we have such a high priest who is ministering to us from heaven. That ministry, he says, is more excellent than the old ministry. the old covenant the covenant he mediates is better since it is enacted on better promises that's what he's developing today better promises what are the promises of the new covenant why are they so much better and what does this ministry that we get to enjoy really look like from heaven what do we live in light of now that we have this heavenly ministry of jesus and on better promises. And you'll notice here, as I've emphasized throughout the service so far, that he puts here into this section, he grabs Jeremiah 31 and sees that as absolutely crucial to what we are receiving right now as God's people. That he had always intended something to be better. He had something better in place from the beginning. And that's really important to work through a little bit. Better, as was promised to Abraham, that all the nations of the earth would be blessed in him. That was the covenant of grace. That covenant of grace is still ongoing. The covenant of grace that was promised to Abraham, who's already made this case, when he looked at Melchizedek and saw the greater priesthood of Jesus, That covenant of grace is exactly what we're enjoying right now. But the placement of Jeremiah 31 here is vital today. Because he's explaining what went wrong with the covenant at Sinai. In fact, he even says that here. For he finds fault with them in verse 8 when he says. He finds fault with that arrangement. And that's what he's saying. It's obsolete. It's over. that arrangement's over that's not saying the law of God is over the moral law of God let me make that very clear that administration as it was given and the nation of Israel at the time of Jeremiah 31 was about to be hauled off to Babylon it seemed like all had been lost it seemed like everything had been lost it seemed like israel failed and they did did their disobedience make the covenant of grace void and jeremiah is working with that theme in the middle of this he announces the new covenant the new covenant looking back all the way back to Abraham now in fulfillment in the time that we live he is addressing this why it is so much better but he has a little bit of a concern and I think I have a little bit of a concern working through this I'm not really any better than the average Israelite all those things that we study about Israel in the wilderness I mean, we do the same things. We struggle with idolatry. We struggle with sexual morality. All those things that Dr. Bittner gave an excellent sermon the other night on fighting against this and guarding your hearts against these things. All those same sins are in us. The same problems of the culture are in us. why wouldn't this just be another giant do-over you see the the concern here why would we not end up in the same place as israel because we're no better that should be a big concern for us when you study the the the old testament and you read all these stories and you see these stories none of us should stand back this is why paul constantly said pray for israel we're no better they failed how do we know we're not going to fail and that's really what he's helping us to understand this morning that's the important question i think behind this text and he begins then with the failure of the arrangement to bring in righteousness namely that the old covenant was broken itself. Now I've tried to help you with what that means in looking at Old Covenant in relation to Sinai. And that's essentially what he says here in quoting Jeremiah 31, for if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. That's why I read in the law, the next section down, look what happened after the law was read. They were scared to death. I mean, we came today, You heard the law and some of you popped in a Wilhelmina mint. They didn't do that. They feared and trembled. They saw smoke. They saw fire. Well, notice what he says here. For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. When was that? When was that covenant given? Sinai. For they did not continue in my covenant. And I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. They broke it. now you read that carefully that's not mentioning and talking about the covenant of grace with abraham he specifically mentions the covenant that was made when they were brought out of egypt on that day and that was the administration of sinai that was broken now it's absolutely right i think it's important to say there's been a lot of discussion on this point that that was an administration of the covenant of grace it served the purpose of the covenant of grace but it was a specific arrangement a covenant that the author says was broken now paul picks up on this in galatians chapter 4 when he says these women are two covenants talking about Sarah and Hagar. One is from Sinai, Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery, which is Hagar. Now, Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above, now where's Jesus seated as high priest? Heaven. The Jerusalem above is free. And she is our mother. Well, that's what Jesus is mediating from. In the Jerusalem above. But notice what he said. They broke the covenant. Remember Exodus 19, when this happened. Right before the giving of the law in Sinai, when it was given, God said this. You shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel, you yourselves have seen what i did to the egyptians and how i bore you on eagle's wings and brought you to myself now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant that's the one jeremiah is talking about you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples for all the earth is mine and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation these are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set them before, set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded them. Now listen to this. And all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has commanded and spoken, we will do. And Moses came back. They've agreed to the contract, covenant, the parties. they brought it back to the Lord and the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I'm coming to you in a thick cloud. And when that happened, the law was given. Where was the law written when Moses came down from the mountain? On stones, boys and girls. On stones. How did they do? Did they keep it? Well, we didn't even get away from the mountain. And as Moses, before he even walked down with the law, they're already making a golden calf, violating the first two commandments. Big problem. Now, why did God put them under that arrangement? Why did God do that? Paul told us in Romans chapter 2, a very plain reason, that they were put under that arrangement so that the mouth of all the world might be stopped in trying to establish their own righteousness. Big point. Israel never submitted to the righteousness of God that was announced in the covenant of grace. They tried to establish their own. Moses couldn't bring righteousness to them himself. Bulls and goats didn't actually forgive sins. They need to look in faith to Jesus. And the law could not save. Because the people couldn't perform it. All the words will do, they said. This captures the problem today. It captures the problem of all religion today. Understand this. This is where it gets really important. The law was written on tablets of stone. For what great reason? What did God keep saying to Israel? What's the heart of the law? What's the summary of the law? It's love. It's love. What did God keep saying to Israel? Circumcise your hearts and love me. Circumcise, Deuteronomy 10, therefore the foreskin of your heart and stop being stubborn. You're stubborn. How does anyone circumcise their hearts? That should have been the question. Had anyone heard that? How in the world do you circumcise the heart? Remember what Hebrews 3 said. That's why I was angry with that generation. I said their hearts are always going astray. And they've not known my ways. They don't know me. Their hearts are going astray all the time. Now that leads us a little bit to the question of why is the New Covenant so much better, doesn't it? What is the first promise of the New Covenant? And that's what he moves to now in this section. And notice what he says as he quotes Jeremiah 31. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. That's now. That's the time we live. That's the day of salvation. It's the day when the gospel has been opened up to all the nations. Notice that it's now. That's important. We are the house. I will put, now listen to this difference. I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. That's a fundamental difference of the old and the new. When Moses carried stones, now God says, I'm engraving on hearts. Such a crucial point. One of the great gifts of the new covenant is the law written on your heart. What is that describing? What are we talking about? Well, I think it's important to say, I mean, I think you see this play out in the ministry of Jesus with the religious leaders in Israel. he's describing here what you might say interior religion as opposed to it merely being external. What am I describing? Well, I think you capture it with Jesus and Nicodemus, don't you? In regeneration. Remember, Nicodemus had come to him by night and saw Jesus as this good teacher, has the same mentality as the rich young ruler. What shall I do to inherit eternal life? It's the same sort of mentality of the Pharisees. And Jesus looks at him and says, I tell you, Nicodemus, truly, truly, now listen, it's so important. Unless you're born again, you cannot perceive the kingdom of God. Born from above, there's that heavenly ministry. Unless you're born from above, you cannot see, you cannot perceive the kingdom of God. In other words, unless I take your dead heart, which is merely related to me by a law written on stone and I regenerate that heart and I put life into the heart, you will not see the kingdom of God. And the astonishing thing right after that little discussion was he had no idea what that was. You're a teacher in Israel and you don't know this. I've been saying it throughout the old covenant the whole time. You need circumcised hearts. This was the great battle of Jesus and the religious leaders of the day. This is the great battle in religion today. Who thought they pleased God by establishing righteousness because they're just generally good moral people and they're obedient to the law of God. It was a nasty fight, wasn't it? In the Gospels. They never had any joy. They were always complainers and grumpy. Their traditions were of more importance than the word of God. They exalted them. Jesus was constantly going after it. Here's the big thing. Nothing they did was out of sincere love for God. What was the heart of the commandments? Love. What did God say? What was the promise? In Deuteronomy 32. I'll do it. I will circumcise your hearts so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, your children, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live. Now when the New Covenant says the law is written on the heart, that is opposed to a lifeless, religion of duty with no love. But don't miss it. It's not just saying in the new covenant, I put the law on the heart so that you can establish your own righteousness again. That's not what it's saying. None of this is possible apart from faith. This is Romans 10. That's the gift of the new covenant. It's faith. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own, there it is again, they did not submit to God's righteousness. Now listen, for Christ is the end of the law, the goal of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness that's based on the law, that the person who does the commandment shall live by them. There's that principle. Do this and live. But the righteousness, based on faith, says, Do not say in your heart who will ascend into heaven, that is to bring Christ down, or who will descend into the abyss, that is to bring Christ up from the dead. What does it say? The word is near you. Where is that word? On stones? The word is near you. In your mouth? profession of faith as it comes out of what and in the heart that is the word of faith that we proclaim because if you confess with your mouth that jesus is lord and believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead you will be saved for with the heart one believes and is justified and with the mouth one confesses and is saved so in the heart one believes and is saved. That's the gift of God in the new covenant promised through Abraham and throughout the old covenant anyone who looked by faith had this. And what changes now? We do the commandments of God out of love for Him and response. That's the life changed by the Spirit. and he is absolutely committed in the new covenant by the spirit to transform us into the image of his son that that's what is captured we're being transformed into the likeness with ever-increasing glory which comes from the lord who is the spirit that's the new covenant ministry of the spirit that's what he's doing and that's my challenge to you today when you're truly saved and you're living by faith and you've been given regenerated hearts and again we need to preach regeneration more you must be born again you could come here for years and still be relating to god with the law written on stone no heart you're just dead when you're truly saved the heart of stone is replaced with a heart of flesh a soft heart a heart that's given life what does that look like the heart that is um the heart of stone only relates to god in light of the law written on stone there's no real relationship there. It's just not there. There's no life there. Someone like this would say, I just find no joy in any of this. There's a burden to this. You're not really here because you want to be here. There's fear. It's one of empty routine and duty. That's why we have this endless battle in Jesus in the ministry with religious traditionalism and formalism. And those traditions can be good according to the word. And being formal is not always bad. But religious traditionalism and formalism was a great opponent to this ministry of the Spirit and life in the heart. And when you're born again, and you're given life, and sincere love flows, you're not saying, oh, worship is such a burden. I can't believe I'd be called to worship. Or, you know, because God and our family will notice we're not here. That's why we come. That's relating to God with all kinds of bad things. True heart religion loves the Lord. Comes to his house because we're in his presence. It's not a burden to us. I love the Lord's house. I love his people. That's how you know. The real change has taken place when you really begin to love this new family that's been given to you. The Jews didn't love their neighbor. Jesus was going after that. They didn't love God. True religion says, I do all this because I'm immensely grateful for this indescribable gift. That characterizes the people of the new covenant who are born again by the Spirit. That's life. Remember Jesus kept saying, I've got to give you life and you'll have life and you'll have it most abundantly. He who comes to me out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. That's the first promise of the new covenant. The first promise is the word of God written on the heart. And it's beautiful. I see it in you. When you hunger and thirst for righteousness and thirst for his word. I see it. that is you could never produce that and we as parents have to recognize that with our children no matter you could raise your children perfect or you could be a pretty dud of a dad the lord has to regenerate the heart life has to be put there that's the promise of this did you notice that it said that there um where it includes our little ones in this and their offspring i mean it's just it's just beautiful when he says these things what's the second promise of the new covenant we'll know the lord we'll know the lord listen to it i will be your god and you will be my people you know you just kind of have to say that every morning when you get up That's how you preach the gospel to yourself. That's the formula of the covenant. Boys and girls say this in the morning. From the least of them to the greatest is talking about you. Children all the way to the oldest. That's my God. I am his. I belong to him. He bought me. I don't have the option to go do what I'm tempted to go do. I'm his. And notice this. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. When Jesus gave his high priestly prayer, that's what he prayed. That was the heart of his high priestly prayer for you. Since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him, And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. The greatest gift of the new covenant is that we will actually know the Lord. Remember in the Sermon on the Mount last day, Jesus was thundering down the law on Israel in the Sermon on the Mount. And there's an awful statement on the last day toward the end of the Sermon on the Mount. many will come to Him and rehearse that they did all these things in the kingdom. I was on boards and I was good and I did all this stuff in the church and I did all these things. He will say, I do not know you. There was no saving knowledge of the Lord to Him or back. What am I talking about? Knowing the Lord. You know what He's like to you. you know Him in the face of Jesus. And you know what's been given to you. That's how you know Him. It's absolutely beautiful, isn't it? Jeremiah, let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord. Now what do you need to know? What does he say right after that? That I am the Lord who practices steadfast love. That's covenant love. Justice and righteousness in the earth. For in these I take delight, declares the Lord. Who does he take delight in? Those who know his covenant love. That's how you know him. You don't anymore live in fear that He's ready to strike you down as Israel did when they received the law written on stone because that's how you've related to Him. You see? I've often thought that when the Lord was describing this in the parable of the talents, I thought it always captured this so beautifully. There were two kinds of people in the kingdom. They were given talents and they were to go out and to use those opportunities to serve in his kingdom. And the master came home one day and Jesus describes them. And remember the first two servants? Remember the language of the first two servants when they came back to their Lord? Master, you gave me all this. Remember what he said? Look it, I went out and I made double the money. and he who received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, Master, you delivered to me five talents. See, he's excited. See, look. I have made five talents more. You just, you get a sense of what a privilege it was to be in your kingdom and in your house and to serve you. They loved the Master. Thought it was great to be able to be in his kingdom. But the other came back and had buried his talent. Listen to his response. Master, I knew you to be a hard man. Reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seed. So I was afraid. And I went and hid your talent in the ground. that's someone relating to God by the law written on stone. They don't know Him. They don't know Him. You're cruel. You're hard. No one can ever please you. Who can do this? He didn't know how wonderful the Lord was. God's children will know Him from the least to the greatest and take great delight in hearing I am your God and you're my people. You know, look at what God has done for us and our children. You know, can't you prove this right here in the Escondido URC? Look at all these children who run around. They believe. We get to teach them Sunday school classes. We have all these opportunities to grow. And we have sermons and we've got a whole community devoted to doing what? One great thing. One great thing. Making known the Lord. And that's a great priority for godly parents, isn't it? And it should be a priority for adults to continue to grow in that knowledge and all these opportunities. The Lord's proven this in here in this community. Of all He's saving, all those given to Him by the Father, they know Him and their children. That's the beauty of this. That's what's being said here to us. That's the heart of the new covenant, what the Lord is like to us. It's not saying we don't teach anymore. What it's saying is, is that He is known in this covenant. And we're proof of that. I just think it's beautiful. It's wonderful. There's one more promise this morning. Close with this. For I will forgive their iniquities and i will remember their sin no more what a scary thing to have your sins remembered on the new covenant can't be broken because as we've been considering we have a high priest who's seated in heaven and by the one sacrifice has made atonement and sat down so it's over it's it's paid for it's paid in full it's finished there's nothing else you need nothing else that needs to be done it's impossible for that to be taken away from you so what does the new covenant mean as far as the east is from the west psalm 103 anticipated this so far have i removed your transgressions from you i don't hold them against you a pastor was given a story of a man who owed a great debt and every time he saw his debtor he tried to run away from his debtor because every time he saw his debtor, the guy kept reminding him, you owe me. You owe me. You pay up. God never does that. He doesn't come and say, I know what you did. And you still owe me. All those terrible things in your past pay up he remembers our sins no more Israel didn't live in enjoyment of that if they were looking to their own righteousness and the mosaic what we say administration teaches us that so you see how wonderful it is of what we're involved with the Hebrew Christians were thinking of going back They're thinking of giving up. How many people want to give up today in all this hardship? And they're turning away from Jesus. And what do you have if you turn away from Jesus? He'll remember your sins. Well, he says in closing, speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete is growing old and ready to vanish away. That's what happened in AD 70. At the time Hebrews is writing this, he's thinking of AD 70. when the temple was finally torn down. And he wants you to relate to God now in the wonderful gospel of his Son, who is our temple, who is our life. And that's what he's calling us to today. So look to Jesus for righteousness, for life. And in all the hardship that's going on in the world right now, think about it. Think of what's just been preached to you. We, of all people, are optimistic. Because we belong to a kingdom that can't be shaken. The God of heaven and earth, we know. The God of heaven and earth has included us and our children. And the God of heaven and earth has promised that he remembers our sins no more. So next time you complain about President Biden, you remember that. He is our God. And we are his people. And we know him in the face of Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, thank you for all your goodness, all your blessing, all your kindness to us in the covenant of grace, and for forgiving our sins all the way as those Old Testament saints look to Christ and receive the same thing, who are trusting and living by faith. So now we get to enjoy all of this in fulfillment. it and so we praise you and thank you for so great a salvation and we pray lord if there are any here who it's the most difficult thing as we see among the people of israel that if we've been raised in it that we take it all for granted and still relate to god on the law written on stone if there are any dead hearts here today give life and i pray that they would come to the savior and we anticipate even though we still struggle with sin as we confess our sins you continue to forgive our sins we anticipate the great day in glory when this will be fully realized this is an everlasting covenant and that in glory we will love you in perfection which is right now what our changed hearts have begin and begun to enjoy we bless the name of the Lord today thank you for hearing us in Jesus name, Amen