The Better Covenant

There are few experiences in life that are more

painful than the death of a marriage. I'm not

talking about two people who casually dated for

a few months and then decided to go their separate

ways. I'm talking about two people who stood

together on a wedding day. The room was full

of people that they loved. Pictures were taken.

Tears were in the eyes of their parents, and

they stood before all of those witnesses, making

promises like, for better or for worse, for richer

or for poorer, in sickness and in health, forsaking

all others. I will be faithful to you and you

alone for as long as we both shall live. And

on that day, they meant those words. They built

a home together. They bought furniture together.

developed traditions that belonged only to them,

celebrated birthdays and anniversaries, took

vacations, held each other in hospital rooms

through grief, maybe even raised children together,

accumulated pictures and inside jokes that only

they knew, no one else would completely understand,

and then something happened. Maybe it happened

suddenly through an unfaithful act. of betrayal.

Maybe it happened slowly throughout the years

of unfaithfulness and dishonesty and broken promises.

But eventually one person looked across the room

at the other person and decided that the vows

and the covenant and the marriage was shattered

and over. And I want you to think about the emotion

of that. Maybe some of you have experienced that

very thing and the emotion that comes with that.

The person that was supposed to be faithful became

unfaithful. The person who promised to stay walked

away. The person that promised that you could

trust them became untrustworthy. And the pain

was so deep precisely because the relationship

was so significant. You do know that a stranger

cannot betray you like a spouse can betray you.

Betrayal only hurts because the covenant love

that was supposed to be there. And then imagine

something even more faithful than that, imagining

one spouse who had done everything right, completely

faithful, kept every promise, loved, provided,

protected, forgave, pursued reconciliation every

single time, but the other spouse just kept walking.

away again and again, unfaithful, broken promises,

returning, never to leave. How many times can

a covenant be broken before there's no hope left?

How many promises can be shattered before the

relationship is beyond repair? How much betrayal

can love endure? And church, that is the emotional

weight we need to feel in order for the text

that we're looking at today to carry the weight

it needs to have. Worshipped other gods, trusted

other nations, ignored his word, oppressed the

vulnerable, and broke their covenant. And eventually

we know the consequences came for all of that.

The kingdom collapsed, split in two, the temple

was destroyed, the people were carried out into

exile, and from a human perspective the marriage

was over. In fact, the prophet Jeremiah doesn't

pull back on this language at all. He says in

Jeremiah 320, surely as a treacherous wife leaves

her husband, so you have been treacherous to

me, O house of Israel declares the Lord. This

is how God wants us to feel about the weight

of Israel's sin. This was not simply a nation

breaking rules. was a people breaking their covenant.

It was covenant betrayal. But then this same

prophet, in the midst of the same book, records

something completely unimaginable. You would

think that God would say, I'm done. with having

a people for myself. I'm done with these humans.

I'm done with their unfaithfulness. But then

we read these words. Behold the days are coming,

declares the Lord, when I will establish a new

covenant. You feel the shock of that? After all

the betrayal, God was not finished with having

a people for himself? And he wasn't just gonna

restate the old vows and tell them, hey, let's

try this again. Let me give you another shot.

Because the deepest problem that Israel had was

not, it wasn't that they didn't know what the

law required. They had the law, they knew the

commandments, they had the prophets, they knew

the vows. The problem was something was wrong

with their heart. So God promised something.

astonishing this time he wasn't simply gonna

put rules in front of them or put his law in

front of them he was going to put everything

within them he would be their God and they would

be his people they would truly know the the contrast

and the weight that we have to feel before we

ever come to Hebrews chapter 8 7 through 13 The

Hebrews 8 · chapter mention

new covenant is not God giving sinful people

a second chance to keep their promises. The new

covenant is God acting in Christ to accomplish

for His people what they would never be able

to accomplish for themselves. Through Christ,

God is creating a marriage that will never come

to an end. A covenant in which the bridegroom

will never stop loving the bride and by grace,

the bride will be given everything she needs

to become a faithful spouse to her husband. And

they will love Jesus, the bridegroom in return.

Turn with me to Hebrews chapter eight. I want

you to keep this imagery of a broken covenant.

and a broken marriage in mind as we work through

this whole thing because the contrast is there

and we'll come back to it at the end as well.

But it's an important imagery for us to feel

the weight of the new covenant. Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 8:7–13

8 verses 7 through 13. For if the first covenant

had been faultless, There would have been no

occasion to look for a second one. 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. 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 laws in their

minds. I will write them on their hearts I will

be their God and they shall be my people For

they shall not teach each one of his neighbor

and each one of his brothers saying know the

Lord For they shall all know me from the least

of them to the greatest For I will be merciful

toward their iniquities and I will remember their

sins no more And in speaking of a new covenant,

he makes the first one obsolete. And what is

becoming obsolete is growing old and is ready

to vanish away. The writer begins in verse seven

with a statement that might sound surprising

at first. For if the first covenant had been

faultless, there would be no occasion to look

for a second. That's very strong language about

the old covenant. The writer says the first covenant

was faulty. And it was faulty in accomplishing

everything that God intended to accomplish for

His people. And that is why there is need for

another one. Because the first one is faulty.

There would have been no promise to Jeremiah

of a new covenant if the first one could accomplish.

everything God wanted to accomplish for his people.

There would never be a reason to talk about something

better if the first one did the job. Now we need

to be very careful here. The writer is not saying

that the Old Covenant was sinful. There's a difference

between faulty and sinful. The writer is not

telling us that the law itself was wrong. God

did not make a mistake at Mount Sinai. He didn't

try one plan and then go, oh gosh, that plan

was terrible. Let me try a different plan. Paul

makes this clear in Romans chapter seven verse

12 when he says the law is holy. And the commandment

is holy and righteous. The law came from God,

did it not? The law revealed the character of

God. It showed the holiness of God. It defined

righteousness. It exposed sin. It restrained

evil. It ordered the worship and the life of

Israel. The law accomplished exactly what God

intended for it to accomplish. But there were

things that the Old Covenant could not do. It

could never bring God's people into perfect access

with God. It could not provide permanent priesthood.

It couldn't offer a final sacrifice for sin or

cleanse the conscious once and for all. It could

not produce a covenant people who would remain

faithful to God. This is the tension between

verse 7 and verse 8. So verse 7 is wrapped up

in all of that is what I just said. It is a faulty

covenant because it cannot accomplish everything

that God intends to accomplish in His people.

Then we get to verse 8, and verse 8 says, for

he finds fault with them. So we have a faulty

covenant, and then it says that God finds fault

with them. For those of you that are textual

scholars, I am very aware that there's a textual

variant here. We're not dealing with that this

morning. Those of you that care about that, care

about it. Those that don't, forget what I just

said. The writer is now taking us to the sinful

people. Faulty covenant that can't accomplish

everything that God intends for his people. Then

he turns to the people and says the people are

sinful. And he characterizes Israel's problem

in verse 9. They did not keep my covenant. So

the guilt is with the people and in one sentence

he summarizes up basically all of old covenant

Israel. This is everything wrapped up in one

verse. They did not Continue. We see this pattern

from the very beginning when God takes Israel

out of slavery in Egypt. He divides the Red Sea,

destroys Pharaoh's army, He leads the people

through the wilderness, He brings them to Mount

Sinai, and He enters into covenant with them.

Exodus 24 verse 7 says, What a promise. All the

Exodus 24:7

Lord has spoken, we're gonna do it. But before

Moses had ever come down from Mount Sinai with

the stone tablets, what were they doing? Worshipping

the golden calf. How quickly that promise fell

apart. They knew the covenant, they heard the

words, and yet they still broke it. And that

pattern continues all throughout the Old Testament.

God speaks, Israel promises. Israel breaks the

promise. God disciplines them. Israel cries out.

Israel fails in the promise after God delivers

them again. And then the cycle just repeats over

and over and over again. It happened at the edge

of the promised land. It happened during the

period of judges. It happened under the kings.

It happened under the prophets. They refused

to listen. And because of that, eventually, They

fell to Assyria, Judah was carried out to Babylon,

Jerusalem was destroyed, the temple was burned,

the people were carried out into exile, all because,

verse 9, they did not continue in my covenant.

Something was broken in the people. And that

old covenant was faulty because it couldn't fix

it. Everybody clear on that? We're not saying

the Old Covenant was sinful. We're saying the

Old Covenant did not have what it needed to have

to fix the problem that Israel had. The law could

say love the Lord your God with all your heart,

with all your soul, with all your might, but

while it could command love, it didn't create

love. That's why Paul says in Galatians 3, for

if the law that had been given could give life,

the righteousness would indeed be by the law.

The law could command life, it could describe

life, but it couldn't produce life. It couldn't

give life. Paul says again in Romans 3, for by

works of the law, no human being will be justified

in his sight, since through the law only comes

the knowledge of sin. The law can show you where

you're sinful. It can show you where you're failing

It can show you why you're messing up, but it

has no power to get inside of you and make a

change That's why it's faulty The law is like

a medical scan Okay, you go to the doctor and

you get a medical scan and the doctor brings

that medical scan out and shows it to you and

says look right here There's what this scan revealed.

You've got this tumor in your elbow And the doctor

goes, you see it, it's clear. We know 100 % by

this scan, you got a tumor in your elbow. So

here's what we're gonna do. You see it? They're

like, yep, yep, we see it. I see the tumor as

well. You're looking at it. And the doctor goes,

so here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna do

that scan every day for the next three years.

And we're just gonna hope that that scan makes

the tumor go away. You would look at that doctor

and say, I'm gonna have to go get a second opinion.

Because that tumor, is not gonna go away by you

just keep doing an MRI. When you take the law

and you hold it up and you say, here is the scan

that reveals your sinfulness. But if you think

that scan, if you think that law is gonna deal

with the actual problem in your heart, you need

to go reach a second opinion. It's never gonna

do it. The Old Covenant could reveal with perfect

clarity what was wrong in the human heart, but

it could not fix what was broken. Why? Romans

8. What the law weakened by the flesh could not

do. The problem was the sinful hearts, the rebellious

hearts, the idolatrous hearts. hearts that can

hear the voice of God and still turn away and

walk away. And that is the tragedy of Israel's

history. Not a lack of light or a lack of privilege

or a lack of commands. The problem was the heart.

And that is what the Old Covenant demonstrated

across all of Israel's history. Church, we have

to understand the depth of the problem before

we can possibly appreciate the solution. Because

if our problem was simply ignorance, then we

just need better information, right? If that

was all of our problem, if the problem was just

ignorance, it would just give me more information.

If the problem was simple confusion, then just

give me clear instructions. But if the problem

goes deeper than that, if the problem goes deeper

than just the lack of effort, if something is

actually broken in our hearts, then the Old Covenant

cannot be the answer. The Old Covenant can bring

the clarity, but it cannot bring the solution.

As Martin Luther wrote, the law says, do this,

and it is never done. So there's the problem

with the faulty Old Covenant and the guilt and

the problem of those human beings. And now we

turn to that better covenant in verses 10, beginning

in verse 10. Having shown what the old covenant

could not do, the writer turns to verse 10 to

make what makes the new covenant so much better.

And here he begins quoting Jeremiah 31, okay?

So this quote right here in your text is Jeremiah

31, 31 through 34. and the contrast between the

old covenant and new covenant could not be greater.

I just want you to listen to the language of

verses 10 through 12. I will put my law in their

minds, I will write it on their hearts, I will

be their God, I will be merciful toward their

iniquities, I will remember their sin no more.

Do you already start seeing the difference? Right

off the bat, you begin seeing the difference?

Old covenant demonstrated the sinfulness of the

people confronted them with the holy commands

of God The new covenant announces that God himself

what God himself promises to do for the people

The hope of the new covenant is not ultimately

found in a better promise from us to God That

is not the new covenant the new covenant is not

human beings just saying, okay, we're gonna rededicate

ourselves to following you. That's not the new

covenant. It's not our promise to God. The new

covenant is God's promise to us. You see the

difference? It's God's promise to us. It's founded

on better promises from God to humans. And that's

exactly what Hebrews 8 .6 has already told us.

The new covenant is enacted on better promises.

But before we look at those promises, and there's

three of them in this text, before we look at

them, I want you to see these promises are not

just floating out there, kind of by themselves,

untethered to anything. The writer of Hebrews

has spent all of this time talking about the

priesthood of Christ. So I need you to understand

something. He has not spent chapter after chapter

after chapter talking about the priesthood of

Christ simply to change subjects in chapter 8.

He's not changing subjects. It is the same topic.

Why? Because priesthood and covenant are inseparable

from one another. You cannot take them apart.

If we look back to Hebrews 7 -11, it says now,

if perfection had been attained through the Levitical

priesthood, and then he says this, for under

it, the Levitical priesthood, the people received

the law. Okay, so if perfection of people could

be found in the little Levitical priesthood under

which they receive the law Then what further

need would there be for another priest from a

different order Melchizedek? Notice the connection

the writer is making under the law Levitical

priesthood old covenant and priesthood the priesthood

the Levitical priesthood was was put within the

very structure of the Old Covenant. The priests

administered the sacrifices. They maintained

the sanctuary. They carried out the ceremonies.

They represented the people before God. And the

entire covenantal system was dependent upon the

Levitical priesthood. So here's what you can't

do. You cannot just remove the Levitical priesthood.

and then take Jesus and put him into the old

system and it worked. Why? Because the Levitical

priesthood and the old covenant are inseparable

from one another. So what God does is then God

steps in and says, I'm creating a new order of

priest that is not Levitical. So guess what you

got to do when you change priest. What do you

have to change? The covenant. If you change the

priest, then the covenant has to change as well.

They're inseparable. You can't keep the old covenant

and just create it, drop a new priest in. When

you establish a new priesthood, you also establish

a new covenant. That is what the very next verse

says in verse 12 of chapter 7. For when there

is a change of priesthood, there is necessarily

a change in the law as well. Did you know that

Jesus was not even qualified to be an Old Testament

priest? Did you know that? He couldn't even be

one. Jesus was unqualified. So even if you take

Aaron and all those faulty priests out and say,

let's get rid of all these faulty priests and

let's bring in the perfect priest and you drop

him into that system, he wouldn't even be allowed

to be a priest. Was it from the right tribe?

He was from the tribe of Judah not the tribe

of Levi. He couldn't even be an old covenant

priest So we got to get rid of this idea that

somehow Jesus is coming just to make that old

covenant or that old law possible for us wrong

He's establishing something completely different

Completely new by establishing a new priest a

priest who doesn't just help us understand the

new covenant, but one who mediates the new covenant

himself. He doesn't just deliver its terms. He

secures the blessing in himself. The new covenant

is better because the mediator is better. And

this better priest does not merely give us a

set of demands. He delivers new promises. Please

catch this. Because I because I think Christians

get this wrong sometimes this is how I think

Christians how we think about it. We have the

law we have the rules they couldn't follow the

rules Jesus comes just gives us new rules and

puts his spirit in it to make it possible for

us to follow the rules, but then we all know

we don't follow those rules anyway, so then we

feel like major failures all the time, and we're

looking at God saying, well, God must not love

me, and that's not a proof of me, must not think

much of me, because I can't follow these new

rules. Just like Israel couldn't follow the old

rules, I can't follow the new rules. And that's

how we look at the Old and New Covenant. That's

garbage. All of that is garbage. Jesus doesn't

come and give us a new set of rules and go, let's

see if you can do it. The new covenant is not

based on rules at all. It is based on the promises

of God that Jesus secured by His life, death,

burial, resurrection, and ascension. Do you see

the difference? It is not God waiting for us

to do something. It is God doing all the stuff

for us. He secures. everything we need with better

promises. So what are those promises? Let's look

at all three of them here. Verse 10, first part

of verse 10. Now I want to say something about

this before I even get into what I have written

here. What God does not do is take the Mosaic

Law and write the Mosaic Law in your heart. and

then say you gotta follow the Mosaic Law. You

remember when we did the series Upside Down Kingdom?

You remember that? We talked about the new law

of God. Paul describes that new law as the law

of what? Love. We talked about how Jesus sometimes

says things, let me say it this way, the way

we said it. He gives us a completely different

kind of law. Okay? The fulfillment of the Mosaic

law has happened, and now what Jesus does is

Jesus comes and gives us a completely different

kind of system to live under. And some people

make the mistake of saying, well, what God is

doing when He says law here is that God is giving

us the Mosaic law written on our hearts. And

we've talked about the problem with that, because

every one of you in this room is violating that

law right now. Number one, by the clothes you

wear. Number two, by the haircuts you have. Number

three, probably by your diet. Did God come along

and write the dietary laws on the hearts of human

beings in the New Covenant? Well, that wouldn't

make any sense, because what did he say to Peter?

Peter, don't call unclean things that I'm calling

clean. Did he come along and write the ritual

laws about what kind of clothes you're supposed

to wear, and they can't be two different fabrics,

they gotta be all one fabric, and you can't cut

the hair on your temples, and did he write that

on the hearts of new covenant members? No. The

law that we're talking about here is the law

of Christ. It is the law that Jesus brings that

goes far beyond that old covenant law. Just want

to clarify that because there's so much confusion

that people have when they start talking about

that They're saying God wrote the Mosaic law

my heart really Because I've never met anybody

following it So let's talk about The main point

of verse 10 he's going to do something inside

his people Under the old covenant, the law was

written on tablets of stone. It stood before

the people, holy and righteous. It told them

what God required. Now God says, I will put in

them. I will put in their hearts. God promises

to do an internal work in his covenant people.

That was not promised in the old covenant. That's

a promise in the new covenant. Now, does this

mean that nobody in the Old Testament loved God?

It's not what this means, but I want to make

a clear distinction here. In the Old Covenant,

there were a bunch of people who loved God. David

loved God. Moses desired to see the presence

of God because he loved God. Abraham loved God.

The Psalms are written by people who loved God.

We can look in the Old Testament and see a bunch

of people that love God. But here's what I need

you to see. If you're taking notes, write this

down. The Old Covenant did not secure that love.

Please understand that. It was not the Old Covenant

that secured David's love for God. It was God's

grace that God gave it to him. Because Abraham

had it before the law was even given. So it wasn't

the law... that moved in people's hearts to make

them love God. It was always, Brother James has

said this since I came here when I was 12 years

old, people in the Old Testament were saved the

same way people in the New Testament were, by

grace through faith. But the old covenant law

doesn't give them the grace and didn't give them

the faith. It was apart from that. Now God promises,

I'm gonna do by grace through faith in every

single person in the covenant. Every person in

this covenant, I am going to do something inside

of them. Causing them to love me. Causing them

to have faith in me. I'm going to do something

to them. This promise appears through a bunch

of the Old Testament prophets. Here's Ezekiel

36, 26, and 27. I will give you a new heart.

a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove

the heart of stone from your flesh and give you

a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within

you. Again, notice the words, I will, I will,

I will, I will. The new covenant's not God lowering

his standards. See, people get real nervous when

I say God didn't write the Mosaic Law on new

covenant members' hearts. They get nervous because,

well, then the new covenant Christians are just

gonna do whatever they want to. They're just

gonna go out and sin and it's not gonna matter.

You've gotta lay those laws on them to keep them

under control. When somebody says that, I go,

you don't understand the new covenant. You're

missing the plot. You're missing what this is

all about. You're thinking that way that I described

a while ago. Here Ezekiel says, I'm gonna give

you a new heart so you wanna do what I ask you

to do. I'm gonna give you a new spirit that doesn't

rebel against me, but loves me. Remember, we

talked about this. Is the problem of a Christian,

if you were in the new covenant, is the problem

your heart? No. Stop saying, well, you know that,

my heart's wrong. No, it's not. You've been given

a new heart. Your heart is right. Your heart

wants... God, it wants the good things of God.

You have a new spirit within you, a spiritually

alive spirit that wants the things of God. The

problem is the flesh, which includes the mind.

It is not your heart. You've been given a new

one of those. And God is not lowering his standard

in the new covenant. It's not like God went well,

you know, I really wanted those people to follow

my will but it doesn't look like they can do

it So I'll just my will is not that not that

important. Maybe maybe holiness should be optional.

Maybe we should just go with religious activity

Maybe we should stop caring about obedience because

these people can't do it That's not the new covenant

The new covenant still has righteousness and

holiness and new creation living, but what God

does is he doesn't wait for us just to try to

figure it out. He comes and says, I'm gonna do

this in them so that they obey me and follow

me and walk with me. See the difference, church?

Not if you see the difference. If you got a blank

stare at me, then I'm thinking you're not getting

it. God acts within his people by his spirit

to increasingly move in us so that we obey God.

Augustine famously said this, give what you command.

In other words, if you give me the ability to

follow your command, then command whatever you

will. It's a beautiful quote. You command me

anything Lord you you you tell me to follow you

and do anything and go anywhere and be Anything

and as long as you give me the power to do it

then command whatever you want But don't just

command me and leave me to myself And that's

not what the new covenant does at all Yes, the

Christian will struggle with sin yes, we still

have a flesh, but we no longer make peace with

sin The Christian still fails, but there's now

a desire for God that is not produced outside

of himself. So the new covenant creates a transformed

people. We good with that one? Let's go to the

second promise. God promises a people who truly

know Him. Verse 10 continues, and into verse

11, and I will be their God, they will be my

people. Verse 11, and they shall not teach one

His neighbor and each one, his brother saying,

know the Lord for they will all know me from

the least to the greatest. This is a very intimate

promise here. God is not simply improving our

behavior. That's not what he's, he's not simply

promising to improve our behavior. He's promising

himself. I will be their God and they shall be

my people. That is the language. of covenant.

The tragedy of Israel was a covenantal betrayal.

God had loved them and they repeatedly gave their

hearts to other gods. But now God is promising

a covenant people who will know Him. A covenant

people who will know Him. Not merely know about

Him. Not merely know his will, not merely know

the stories of the past, not merely be a part

of religious ceremonies, but will know God intimately.

And notice the extent of this. They shall all

know me from the least to the greatest. Now,

to appreciate that promise, we need to understand

something about the Old Testament. In the Old

Testament, over and over and over again, There

was a constant responsibility of God's people

to teach other covenant members to know the Lord.

Okay, so priests, the Levitical priests, were

supposed to teach the people, the covenant people,

to know the Lord. Parents were supposed to teach

their children who were covenant people to know

the Lord. The prophets came over and over and

over and called Israel back to knowing the Lord.

Hosea says, let us know, let us press on to know

the Lord. Isn't it weird that you can be in the

old covenant with God and not know him? But that

was the condition of Israel. You could be a covenant

member of the old covenant and not know God.

You could be born an Israelite and not know God.

You could be circumcised, participate in the

festivals, bring sacrifices to the temple, possess

the scriptures, be a physical descendant of Abraham

and not know God in the Old Covenant. And here's

what God is saying in this promise. There will

be no such people in the New Covenant. Every

person in the New Covenant will know me. To be

in the Covenant, is to know God. And to know

God is to be in the new covenant. In the old

covenant, you could be in the covenant and not

know God. No such thing in the new covenant.

Every person in the new covenant knows God. It

is part and parcel to being in the covenant that

you know Him. What a remarkable difference. They

shall all know me from the least to the greatest.

God is creating a covenant people characterized

by the fact that they know him. Now I want to

say something here because it says in verse 11

that this covenant is going to be made with the

house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

You see that in the text? The house of Israel

and the house of Judah. Some have therefore concluded

that these promises belong exclusively to ethnic

Israel. and that Gentiles can just kind of maybe

get some blessings out of it. But that's not

how the New Testament explains the fulfillment

of God's promises. The New Covenant, listen carefully,

the New Covenant is not an abandonment of Israel's

promises. It is a fulfillment of those promises.

Everyone who belongs to the Messiah shares in

the promises secured by the Messiah. That's why

Paul says in Galatians 3, know then that it is

those of faith who are sons of Abraham. That's

why he says in Galatians 3, there is neither

Jew nor Greek, for you are all one in Christ.

And if you are Christ, then you are Abraham's

offspring according to promise. The new covenant,

are a people of God that are gathered around

Jesus from every tribe and nation and tongue.

It doesn't matter what you look like, where you

came from, what your genealogy is. If you have

given yourself to Christ, if you are in Christ,

then you get all the promises that Christ secured.

Believing Jews are not excluded. Gentiles are

not second -class citizens. Everybody's one in

Jesus Christ. He is creating one covenant people

from every nation. That's why Paul says in Ephesians

2 Christ broke down the wall of hostility Creating

one new man. It's why he says in Galatians 6

16 of the new people of God They are the Israel

of God The point is not that God is abandoning

Israel and starting over somewhere else The point

is that God's promises to Israel reach their

fulfillment in Israel's Messiah. Does that not

just make sense? God makes promises then sends

the Messiah to get those promises and everybody

who has the Messiah has the promises. So this

new covenant is not just for ethnic people from

Israel and Judah. It's for anybody who comes

to Christ. It is union with Abraham's promised

seed, Jesus. This means church that this promise

is ours. I will be their God and they will be

my people. Think of that wonder for a second

church. God looks at you and says, that one's

mine. That one is mine. And we look at God and

say, you. What a wonder. If it wasn't for the

new covenant, that would not be able to happen.

It's not about just getting forgiven so we can

go up to heaven one day. The goal of the covenant

is knowing God himself. J .I. Packer in his book

Knowing God says, what were we made for? To know

God. What aim should we set ourselves in life?

To know God. What is the eternal life that Jesus

gives? the knowledge of God. Promise three, God's

promise to have a completely forgiven people.

For I will be merciful toward their iniquities

and I'll remember their sins no more. Do you

see that word four? Four, I will be merciful.

That little word means a lot. The promise of

forgiveness is not simply one of the other blessings

added randomly to the end of the list. It is

the foundation beneath the other promises. John

Piper said, the death of Jesus for our sins is

the foundation of the new covenant. It's the

basis of the other promises. How can a holy God

take sinful people and say, I'll be their God?

How can covenant breakers be brought into a relationship

with the God they've betrayed. How can guilty

people come into the presence of God instead

of running away? Mercy. And notice how complete

this mercy is. I will remember their sins no

more. God is promising that the sins of his new

covenant people will never again be brought up

to put them under condemnation. Romans 8 .1.

Their guilt has been dealt with their debt has

been paid their condemnation has been removed

in the blood of Jesus on The night Jesus was

crucified Jesus took the cup and said this is

the cup poured out for you It is the new covenant

in my blood the promises of Hebrew eight are

all purchased by the blood of Christ. Our transformation,

our knowledge of God, our place among the people

of God, our forgiveness of sin, all of it by

the blood of Jesus. This is why Jesus is not

merely a messenger of the New Covenant. He is

the one who guarantees, who inaugurates, who

secures, and who ministers it. It's all based

on Him. This is why the new covenant is better

not simply built on better intentions It is established

on better promises in Jesus Again and again,

here's the pattern Old Testament if you obey

me you're blessed if you don't obey me covenant

curses The old covenant was just one big if.

IF, I even wrote it bigger in my notes. IF, one

big if. It's not the new covenant. The new covenant

language is completely different. The new covenant

language is God saying, I will, I will, I will.

He doesn't leave it to an if. You hear me church?

He doesn't leave it to an if. He doesn't leave

it up to you. He does it in you. The hope of

the old covenant rested upon the people's covenant

faithfulness. The hope of the new covenant rests

on God's covenant faithfulness. It's not rest

upon our ability to obey God's Word, but God's

determination to keep His Word. Last thing in

verse 13. Just want to point this out He says

in speaking of a new covenant he makes the first

one obsolete and what is becoming obsolete is

growing old and Is ready to vanish away now you

may hear that and say well that seems like a

little weird language to me because it says What

is obsolete is growing old and ready to put away?

When did it become obsolete church Jesus Jesus

made, once Jesus died, rose again, sent to the

right hand of the Father, old covenant obsolete.

Then why is Paul saying it is growing old and

ready to vanish away, if spiritually it's already

done? And here's what I want to point out, listen

carefully. Spiritually speaking, old covenant

done when Jesus did his work. You with me there?

Old covenant done. When this book was written,

was the temple still standing? Yes. Were the

Levitical priests still offering sacrifices?

Yes. Were they still mediating on behalf of the

people? Yes. Everything about that old system,

the old mechanism still existed even though Jesus

had come. Remember what Jesus told the disciples

on the Mount of Olives as he's looking down over

the temple? in Matthew chapter 24, he says, know

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

this, there will not be one stone left upon another.

This temple is coming down. When the writer of

Hebrews says it is ready to vanish away, most

theologians believe what he's referring to is

this whole structure, this whole mechanism is

coming down. Spiritually, it's pointless. They

can keep doing their stuff, but that's idolatry.

Once Jesus came, offering one sacrifice, idolatry.

Going to a priest, idolatry. Going in the temple,

idolatry. All of it is a rejection of Jesus and

his covenant. And Jesus says, part of my judgment

for their idolatry and rejection of me is this

structure, this mechanism is coming down. So

it has not yet vanished away, but in AD 70, it

was about to be gone, but it hadn't been gone

yet when the writer wrote this book. You don't

think that the people who had read this book

when that temple fell, that they didn't go, oh

it's vanished now. It's vanished now because

any visible sign of it has been crumbled to the

ground. The Old Covenant was typical, shadowy,

removable, and the new covenant is substantial,

permanent, as containing the body which is Christ,

John Owen. The temple can be gone? His true temple

exists, doesn't it? His new covenant temple exists?

Earthly altar could be gone? Jesus isn't. Covenant's

still there. It doesn't depend upon the blood

of animals. Levitical priests can be gone. It

doesn't affect the new covenant whatsoever, because

that depends upon Jesus. Jesus is seated at the

right hand of the Father. Church, this is why

there is nowhere else to go but Jesus. There

is nowhere else to go. You go anywhere else,

there is no salvation. There's no better priest,

no better sacrifice, no better covenant, no better

promises. It was all pointing to Jesus. And if

you have Jesus, you have all the new and better

things. Let's return now at the end to this broken

marriage. The bride was unfaithful. She broke

her vows. She gave her heart to others. And from

every human perspective, the marriage was beyond

repair between God and human beings. But God

did not give up. on having a people for himself.

In the New Covenant, the bridegroom does what

his unfaithful bride could never do. He pays

for her betrayal with his own blood, he forgives

her completely, he gives her a new heart, and

he brings her home, and he creates a bride that

knows him, belongs to him, and loves him. The

New Covenant is the story of a faithful bridegroom

who gave himself to save an unfaithful bride

and by his grace makes her faithful forever.

That is why it is a better covenant.