Promises Made and Promises Kept (Hebrews 8:7) with Pastor Andrew Courtis

Me in your Bibles this morning to Hebrews chapter 8.

Hebrews 8 · chapter mention

As you turn with me in your Bibles, a reminder that we are working verse by verse through the epistle to the Hebrews.

We've been in this uh since the end of last year.

We continue to track our way through, and we find ourselves in this incredible section, Hebrews 8 to 10, that is dealing with the beauty and the glory of the new covenant.

The theme of Hebrews is Jesus is better.

And we saw in Hebrews 8, 1 to 6 that we have a better priest.

And in Hebrews 8, 7 to 13, we will learn that we have better promises because of Christ as the mediator of a better covenant.

But just before we read the scripture and pray, uh he introduced Hebrews 8, 1 to 6.

And as we get into verses 7 to 13, which is the new covenant, um, one of you came up to me after the service and shared that the the audience that the writer to Hebrews wrote this to had such a grasp of the biblical covenants.

And when we talk about the new covenant, there is just so much that doesn't instinctively come to our minds.

And the reminder was it would be so nice to learn a little bit more about the biblical covenants.

So I'm going to do something a little bit different this morning.

I'm going to preach one word in the text.

Have a look at verse six.

We're not even going to look at the whole verse.

The word is covenant.

And I want to give you a little bit of a background to that word covenant so that you see the richness of what we're going to look at in verses 7 to 13 next time.

But let's read verse 6, and I want you to see this rich word covenant.

But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, in as much he is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

It's that word covenant that we're going to learn about this morning.

Let us pray.

Our gracious and loving Lord, we thank you for your precious word.

As we open it now, as we consider the preciousness of your covenant dealings with us, I pray that you would please take my frail words and inadequate effort and be able to help us see the beauty and glory of the new covenant in Jesus.

Help us to see his greatness.

Help us to see his loveliness.

And I pray that this would be of the nearest and dearest help to everyone here today, no matter what they're experiencing in their life.

We believe, Lord, that your word is sufficient, and I pray that you would minister to us in Christ's name.

Amen.

When you hear the word covenant, a lot should come to your mind if you're familiar with the Holy Scriptures.

In the Old Testament, the word covenant's mentioned over 300 times.

In the New Testament, just over 30 times.

Covenant is really at the heart of the story of the Bible.

Some have described the biblical covenants as the spine of the scriptures.

It's certainly the framework of what we read in Scripture.

When we hear the word covenant, we should be immediately reminded and understanding in our minds that we are talking about a gracious agreement and pact in which God enters into with his creature.

In this covenant, there will be stipulations, there's requirements, and there is reward.

And the Lord attaches to his covenants signs that both attest to, point to, confirm, and seal the promises of God that God has chosen to deal with his creatures through covenants.

But we need to understand that the very first covenant that God had made with his creatures was a covenant found in Genesis 1 and 2.

In the Genesis narrative, you might not read the word covenant, but a covenant's there.

And a covenant gets broken.

We know that because Hosea 6 and verse 7 says, Adam transgressed the covenant.

So though the word covenant may not be mentioned in Genesis 1 to 2, there was a covenant arrangement in the Garden of Eden.

Theologians have given it all kinds of names, but this is a creation covenant, a creation covenant with Adam.

Attached to this covenant were stipulations and requirements that if Adam had done what the Lord said he should do, there would be blessing.

There would be life.

And the Lord attached outward signs that were to serve as a reminder of the blessings and curses attached to this covenant.

And those signs were two trees in the Garden of Eden.

But we know the bad news that we immediately are confronted with.

In Genesis chapter 3, we only make it to the third chapter in the story of the Bible, and we learn that Adam transgressed the covenant.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

He defied his creator, he disobeyed his creator.

And Adam, who was a real man, was also a representative, a representative of all his people, all humanity.

And when Adam sinned, all in Adam also fell.

You and I fell in Adam.

The bad news is described in Romans 3 and verse 23.

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

Is by one man's transgression sin spread to all.

The gap that has now been created between the creature and the creator is so great that we can do nothing to create a bridge to him.

We can do nothing to reach heaven.

We can do nothing in our own efforts and works to have access to the glory of God.

And it's amazing, the moment Adam and Eve sinned, we remember how they felt immediately.

Something happened to them instantaneously when they rebelled against their good Creator.

They felt the guilt, and they were now ashamed.

And Adam and Eve attempted to cover up their nakedness with their own fig leaves, and this was their attempt to cover their guilt and shame.

But this was not acceptable to the Lord, and immediately the Lord gives them a preview of what is absolutely necessary in order for them to be forgiven of their sins, to then have access to his throne.

The Lord clothed Adam and Eve.

In clothing, Adam and Eve meant that the Lord had killed some animals.

And these animals' skins had been placed upon Adam and Eve as clothing, as a gracious gift of God.

But this gracious gift of God was a picture, it was a preview.

It was pointing them to the fact that they needed to be clothed in a righteousness that is not their own in order to be acceptable in God's eyes.

But the bad news of Genesis 1 to 3 is this: God had made a covenant creation with Adam.

Some people even call it a covenant of works.

Adam had transgressed the covenant.

He broke the covenant, plunging humanity into ruin.

What hope is there then for men?

The amazing thing is, as dark as that moment is in Scripture, we read what many call the first gospel, a glorious promise given in Genesis 3 and verse 15.

The Lord God says, and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.

He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

This is a seed of promise.

But this seed of promise has now been planted by God.

And as you read through the story of the Bible, this seed of promise will begin to grow.

It will eventually flourish into a glorious tree that will bring shade to the nations.

But this little seed of promise unveils for us a glorious covenant in which God is going to graciously deal with his people.

As history unfolds in the Bible, step by step, God is going to progressively unfold this glorious promise.

He will do so with pictures, he will give promises, they'll even be prophecies.

And each of these are going to give more clarity and more information, expanding the glories of what's promised here in Genesis 3.

But what I want you to see clearly in Genesis 3 is that the solution to the sin problem of this world, the solution to the lack of access that we have to God as a result of Adam's sin is found in the seed of the woman.

The serpent will bruise his heel, but the seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head.

God unfolds this promise into a series of covenants.

Adam transgressed the covenant arrangement in the Garden of Eden.

But God, in his condescension, in his tenderness, in his grace, in his kindness, made a series of covenants through redemptive history.

And you mustn't think of the covenants in the Bible as random covenants or just simply disconnected covenants, but rather they're a part of a whole.

They all flow out of this beautiful promise in Genesis 3 and verse 15.

In fact, the covenant arrangement that God has throughout redemptive history all ultimately is founded on a covenant that took place before the foundation of the world.

And that is that eternal pact between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

We learn in Titus chapter 1 and verse 2 that God had made a promise before time.

Titus 1 · chapter mention

Who is that promise to?

It was a promise between the Father, Son, and Spirit.

And we learn more about this promise in John chapter 17, where the Lord Jesus prays to the Father, acknowledging the fact that he had been sent into this world as a mediator.

John 17 · chapter mention

And being sent into this world, he had come into this world to redeem those that the Father gave him before the foundation of the world.

Before this world was around, before you and I are around, there was an eternal pact between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in which there was a promise of redemption given, where the Father, Son, and Spirit agreed that there would be a people given to the Son, that the Son would submit himself to frail humanity, would come into this world as a mediator, would uphold the law of God that they have broken, that he would go to the cross and suffer in their place, that he would secure their salvation, and that the Spirit, in the sovereign work that he is commissioned to do, would awaken them to their sin, would seal them unto the day of salvation, and would hold them to the day of eternity.

Jesus came into this world as a covenant mediator, and he has now inaugurated a new covenant.

And this new covenant is what we're going to be leading our way to today.

But before we can appreciate the new covenant that the writer is going to talk about in Hebrews 8, verses 7 to 13, you need to understand the flow of history with these covenants.

Hebrews 8:7–13

I want to just very quickly survey these biblical covenants.

And what I want you to note with regards to these covenants that God makes with his creatures, these covenants in the scripture are the solution to the covenant that Adam broke in the Garden of Eden.

And these covenants that I'm sharing with you are built upon the foundation of an eternal covenant between Father, Son, and Spirit.

And these covenants that I'll share with you are flowing out of the promise of Genesis 3 and verse 15.

Don't lose sight of the fact that Genesis 3 and verse 15 tells us that the solution to the sin that Adam brought humanity into is the seed of the woman who will crush the serpent's head.

So let's very quickly look at the first covenant that God gives as a result of the glorious promise in Genesis 3 and verse 15.

And it's a covenant found in the narrative of Genesis 6, 7, 8, and 9.

And this is the covenant that God makes with Noah.

This is called the Noahic covenant.

This is a covenant that is actually made with all humanity.

We remember in Genesis 6 that wickedness had prevailed in the world.

The monstrous sins of humanity had become so gross and so wicked that the Lord had brought destruction upon the entire globe.

He did this by means of sending a flood, a devastating flood, a flood that swept up all humanity, all the animals, all of life.

It was plunged and immersed under the baptizing waters of this global flood.

It was a crushing experience.

It was devastating.

It was a cleansing act of God in which he would flush away the wickedness of this world.

But he preserved one family.

It was Noah, his wife, their three sons and their wives.

There were only eight.

And the Lord had brought animals into this ark.

And we recall that the flood waters came upon this world, it brought devastation and ruin.

Those same people who would have mocked Noah for years for building this ark suddenly were confronted by these waters.

Thomas Watson teaches us that just as there was one ark to save sinners from drowning, so there is one Savior that saves sinners from damning.

This ark was a glorious picture, that there is only one way to enter the kingdom.

There is only one door.

And of course, we learn later on it is the Lord Jesus Christ.

But God saves this family.

And after the water subside, after the family comes out and steps upon dry ground, the Lord makes a covenant with Noah.

And what's interesting about this covenant is it's almost a repeat of the covenant with Adam.

But it's different.

The covenant that God makes with Adam is a covenant that was made in a world that was not fallen, but now this is a covenant that's made with man in a fallen world.

So it has some similarities to the covenant God makes with Adam.

But in this covenant, God pledges a word.

He states that he will not bring this world under destruction again by means of a flood.

And God pledges this by means of a sign.

It's a bow.

And the bow is what a warrior would have.

And the bow is pointing up to the heavens.

And God is giving this sign saying, I promise you that I will not flood this world again.

That rainbow, that bow is a sign in the sky to attest, to confirm to you that my word is true.

It is a visible word, it is an outward representation of what I've promised.

And he calls upon his people to believe his promise.

Now, why does God make this promise with all of humanity?

It's because from humanity are going to come the people that the Son of God will save.

The bride that was given to the Son before the foundation of the world is going to come from humanity.

So if the Son is going to save these people and bring them the glory, there actually needs to be a humanity.

So God makes a promise that I will allow the seasons to continue.

There will be summer, there will be winter, there will be spring, there will be autumn.

These seasons will continue until the end because I will preserve this world so that my purposes of redemption will unfold.

So this covenant that God makes with Noah is a covenant that actually benefits everyone in the world.

People get to experience blessings in this world.

But the ultimate purpose of this covenant wasn't just so that people get to be alive and to have good food and to have good sights, though they are graces of God.

It's so that there would be a humanity to redeem.

So God makes this covenant with Noah.

And this covenant you need to read through the lens of God making a promise that the seed of the woman is going to crush the serpent's head one day.

So God preserves humanity by means of this glorious covenant, the covenant with Noah, issued with a sign of the rainbow.

But then we move over to the book of Genesis, chapter 12.

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

And in Genesis 12, Genesis 15, Genesis 17, Genesis 18, Genesis 22, we have another promise of God, a promise that is then reiterated, a promise that is ratified, a promise that is formalized.

And that promise is a covenant that God makes with Abraham.

And as God meets with Abraham, he promises Abraham that you will be given seed, you'll have descendants, and later on he will say, Your descendants are going to be innumerable.

They're going to be like the Stars of the sky.

Start counting them, Abraham.

They're going to be like the granules of sand on the seashore.

Try counting that.

You can't.

It's going to be incalculable.

It's innumerable.

It is a huge number.

God makes him a promise that you are going to have descendants, and these descendants are going to be wide and far.

You're going to be given land, he promises, and he also promises him blessing.

Blessing.

Land and descendants.

And God then places a sign, a sign that both points to and also provides a confirmation of the promise of God.

The sign in the covenant with Abraham is circumcision, and it's to be applied to the boys on the eighth day.

And this was to be a sign that pointed to the promises of God.

God had made this promise to Abraham.

And we learn through the story of the Bible as you get into the book of Joshua, and I want you to note Joshua 24, verses 41 to 43, that these promises of God came true.

God fulfilled his promises.

But the promise that God makes with Abraham, as we continue to read in Scripture, has physical fulfillments, but also spiritual fulfillments.

And we learn in Galatians 3 that the covenant with Abraham has not been annulled.

So even though there is a fulfillment in the covenant with Abraham, there is an element of the covenant of Abraham that is yet to be fulfilled.

And what's absolutely fascinating about this covenant with Abraham is God promises Abraham that it is through your descendants, Abraham, the nations will be blessed.

At this point, Israel wasn't even a nation yet.

And God is saying, Abraham, through you, I am going to build a nation.

I am going to build the people of Israel.

They will be my people.

But through your seed, the nations are going to be blessed.

And later on he'll say to Abraham, From you are going to come kings.

There's going to be rule from your family.

So this covenant to Abraham is pointing out that God has a plan to bring blessing, blessing that is going to reach the nations, blessing that is going to touch the land.

Blessing that is going to be seen through Abraham's seed.

It is through Abraham's descendants.

We then move to another covenant that God makes.

And this covenant can be seen in the book of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

This is the covenant with Moses or the covenant with Israel.

But here, this covenant continues on this progressive step-by-step unfolding of the beautiful promise in Genesis 3 and verse 15.

But now this covenant is a little bit more peculiar because it's dealing specifically with a physical nation.

It's dealing with the physical seed, the physical descendants of Abraham, the nation of Israel.

And in this covenant, laws are given.

Civil laws that apply to the physical nation of Israel, ceremonial laws that are peculiarly belonging to the nation of Israel, but also the moral law of God that is eternally binding.

And that moral law of God was written down on stone tablets and placed inside the Ark of the Covenant.

This covenant with Moses was both a gracious covenant, but also a law-filled covenant.

It was gracious because it was given to those that God had redeemed from Egypt.

But it was also a covenant that pointed out that in order to have access to God, this is what you must do.

And the law of God pointed them to God's holiness, it pointed them to their sinfulness, it provided a gracious curb for evil in the world, and for those who love the Lord, it provided the grounds of living a life that is holy and good and pleasing unto him.

But this law was to point them to their need, the need for one who could uphold that law, one who would deliver them from the penalty of that law.

If they broke these laws, they'd be cursed.

God gave these laws to the nation of Israel, firstly, so that the nation of Israel would actually be preserved.

If they lived in these laws, this would preserve the nation.

And it did for many years.

Why would God want to preserve this nation?

Because it's from this nation, it's from his people, Israel, that the seed would come.

That the one who would crush the serpent's head would come.

We have the covenant with Noah.

We have the covenant with Abraham.

We have the covenant with Moses.

But then we have a covenant with David.

Just note 2 Samuel chapter 7.

2 Samuel 7 · chapter mention

Interestingly enough, it's not called a covenant in 2 Samuel 7, but there is another passage of scripture in the Psalms that calls it a covenant.

Just like the covenant with Adam isn't called a covenant in Genesis 1-2, but in Hosea 6, it's called a covenant.

Or so it is with the covenant with David.

God makes a covenant with David, and in this covenant, the Lord promises that there will be descendants from David's line on the throne.

And he promises that there will forever be a son from David's line that will be on the throne and that will rule and reign.

And as you look at the accumulation of all of these covenants, we're getting a picture that is being built.

We're seeing promises made, prophecies given.

But the picture is becoming more complete.

But as we go through each of these stages in history, we learn that the individuals in which God makes this covenant with aren't the ones who are going to crush the serpent's head.

God made a covenant with Noah.

But Noah failed miserably, didn't he, when he got off the ark?

God made a covenant with Abraham.

Abraham messed up a lot.

He made a covenant with Moses.

Moses didn't even get to go into the land.

He makes a covenant with David, and David, a man after God's own heart, was still a sinful man.

But then we come to the crown jewel of the covenants.

And this is what's leading us to the sermon next week in Hebrews 8, verses 7 to 13.

Hebrews 8:7–13

It's called the New Covenant.

It was anticipated by the prophets for a long time.

Jeremiah the prophet himself said in Jeremiah 31, 31, Behold, I make a new covenant, says the Lord.

This new covenant has been described by some people as a constellation of God's promises.

I like to think of the new covenant as the ocean in which the rivers of all of God's promises run into.

It is glorious.

What is this new covenant?

It's not new in the sense that it's saying things for the first time, because what the new covenant says has been said before in other covenants.

What makes this covenant the new covenant, what makes it a better covenant, what makes it more glorious is first of all who it's mediated by.

And secondly, this covenant is the fulfillment of the other covenants.

It's where all the other covenants run into.

It's a covenant that brings expansion.

And what's absolutely stunning and beautiful about this new covenant is that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the mediator of it.

And this was always the plan of God.

Back in Jeremiah 31, and it will be quoted again in Hebrews 8, verses 7 to 13, it was made with the house of Israel and Judah.

Hebrews 8:7–13

And the Lord continues that promise.

But in this new covenant, that promise has been expanded as God's plan always was.

Remember, I said in that beautiful eternal covenant, the Father gave a people to the Son.

God made a promise to Abraham that the nations would be blessed.

And it is no coincidence that when you enter into the New Testament, which that word testament should just be translated covenant, the new covenant, the Gospel of Matthew begins with a genealogy of the Lord Jesus.

Who does he descend from?

Abraham.

And how does the Gospel of Matthew end?

It ends with him sending his disciples to go and make disciples of the nations.

Because the one in whom this promise was given has arrived.

And the night before he was crucified, the Lord Jesus, as he took the bread and took the cup, had said at the cup, this cup represents the blood of the new covenant.

The Lord Jesus was inaugurating this new covenant.

And the new covenant has now been inaugurated by the Lord Jesus Christ.

And what's precious about this covenant is this is God binding himself, making an agreement, a pact with his people in Christ.

The question is: who are the people of the new covenant?

The people of the new covenant are the seed of Abraham.

But we need to understand that in the new covenant, the seed of Abraham have been expanded, and the seed of Abraham are those who are of faith.

It's those who believe in the Lord Jesus, Jew and Gentile, those who have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus is ultimately the seed of Abraham.

Genesis 3 and verse 16.

And anyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ becomes a part of the family of Abraham.

You remember the Lord Jesus said in John chapter 8 as he stood before the religious leaders of Israel who denied that he was the Messiah, who rejected the ways of God.

John 8 · chapter mention

Jesus said to them the most offensive thing he could have ever said.

He said to those religious leaders, you are of your father the devil.

Why was that so offensive?

Well, it's offensive to be called a son of the devil, but you need to understand how offensive that was, especially to them, because they were proud about the fact, no, we are children of Abraham.

And Jesus says, No.

You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you will do.

He was a liar from a beginning, from the beginning, and he did not abide in the truth.

He will he will go on to say in verse 32, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

To be a true child of Abraham, you need to come to the true seed of Abraham, and that is Jesus Christ.

And outside of Jesus Christ, you will not experience the blessings given to Abraham, because they are only found in the Lord Jesus.

The Apostle Paul declared in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 22 that all the promises of God in Christ Jesus are yes and amen.

2 Corinthians 1 · chapter mention

They find their fulfillment in him, and in Christ they find their expansive blessing, blessing that goes to Jew and Gentile, blessing that is going to reach the nations, blessing that is going to spread and bring streams of righteousness only by the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant, a covenant established on better promises.

Now I want to come to those better promises next week, but what I want you to see is that this new covenant that the writer to the Hebrews is about to write about is a covenant that had been promised, previewed, and prophesied in the Old Testament.

And the writer wants his congregation to know that the Lord Jesus is the mediator of this covenant.

And as the mediator of this covenant, he brings you, those who belong to him, the glorious benefits and comfort and assurance that comes from this covenant and this covenant alone.

This covenant had been veiled, but is now been revealed through the Lord Jesus Christ.

And the beauty of this new covenant is it was inaugurated by the Lord Jesus Christ and is being experienced now, but it will be consummated when he returns, and the fullness of this covenant will be experienced at his glorious return in his magnificent kingdom.

And what a wonderful thought this is.

This new covenant is a better covenant.

But again, I want to remind you of something that we've looked at once before.

The Lord Jesus, who is the mediator of this covenant, is to be trusted in.

Our hope is to be placed in him, and we can count on him no matter what hits us in this world.

You remember the people of Israel.

The people of Israel were called out of Egypt.

First of all, they went into Egypt.

Remember Jacob and his sons, and of course Joseph.

Israel goes into Egypt.

And then God calls his son out of Egypt.

He brings his son through the water as they are delivered from the Egyptians.

Israel is brought to the mountain where Moses, the covenant mediator, gives the law of God to the people of God.

Israel goes into the land.

God sends to Israel prophets, priests and kings, kings to rule over Israel, prophets to point them to God, priests to represent them before God.

Israel breaks the law of God, breaks covenant with God, is exiled from the land.

God in his mercy and grace restores Israel back to the land.

But then we come to the New Testament, and we see in the Gospel of Matthew, in chapter 2, the descendant of Abraham goes down to Egypt.

Then in Matthew 2 it says, Out of Egypt I brought my son, Jesus comes out of Egypt.

In Matthew 3, Jesus goes through the waters of baptism.

In Matthew 5, 6 and 7, he stands on a mountain and declares, You've heard that it is said, but I say unto you.

In Matthew 12, he says, A greater than Solomon is here.

A greater than Jonah is here.

A greater temple is here.

The true prophet, priest, and king.

He's then exiled to the cross, not because of his sins, because of our sins.

He's then returned to the land of the living through the resurrection.

And he then stands on a mountain and he says to his disciples, Go into all the world and make disciples of the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I'll be with you always, even to the end of the age.

What's going on there?

The seed of the woman has come.

And at the cross, the cross was thrusted into a place called Golgotha.

What is Golgotha?

The place of a skull.

The cross crushed the skull of the serpent.

And he continues to unfold his glorious power through the spread of this gospel.

And his kingdom will be made visible and will be seen in its fullness and all of its blessing at his glorious return.

But until then, he is bringing more people into this new covenant.

A covenant that has a better mediator.

It's Jesus, the true son of Abraham.

And in Jesus, you can become a child of Abraham.

And this covenant has better promises.

And these promises will bring about a change that no other covenant could, but every other covenant pointed to.

And this is why our Lord Jesus is better and why we must trust him and be assured that the purposes of God are unfolding in this world and you can count on him.

Friends, I know this is a bit of a unique sermon today as we're just expositing one word in Hebrews 8 and verse 6.

But I want you to see the beauty of this new covenant.

I want you to appreciate so much that when we get into Hebrews 8, verses 7 to 13, and we learn about this covenant that Jesus is mediating, that we will rejoice and we will persevere in our Christian life and we will keep on going.

Hebrews 8:7–13

And that no matter what happens in our lives or this world, we will make much of our Lord Jesus.

That's what we're called to do.

He must increase.

We we must decrease.

Are you considering Christ?

Are you looking to Christ?

Truly, that is the answer for any struggle that you're going through now.

Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Look to him, and it's our privilege to serve him.

Let's pray.

Father in heaven, I do thank you and praise you for your gracious and kind covenant arrangement.

If it were not for your condescension, we would not have life.

We thank you for the final Adam who came, the last Adam, who met all the requirements of the law and offered the sacrifice so that we could have our sins atoned for and granted access to you.

Thank you for our dear Lord Jesus and for the work that He continues to be doing.

Help us to drink from the waters of this new covenant.

Help us to cling to the promises of the new covenant, and help us to look to the mediator of it, always honoring him.

I do pray this in our dear Savior's name.

Amen.