A Better Covenant

I've divided the discussion into the Old and the New. What's the purpose of the Old? What's the purpose of the New? Let's open with Hebrews chapter 8 to figure that out.

Good morning! How are you guys doing today? Good? It's a hot one today, so stay cool. Thank God for air conditioning, amen! Would you open your Bibles with me to the book of Hebrews? If you don't have a Bible, you can raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. Open your Bible, your iPad, or whatever device you have. Hebrews chapter 8 is where we're at. Hebrews is right near the end of your Bible, so open to the very last book, Revelation, and turn to the left. You'll pass First, Second, and Third John, First and Second Peter, and James.

Now, let's look at Hebrews chapter 8, and we're going to pick it up today at verse 6. There, the author writes, "But now He"—and the "He" here is Jesus—"has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He also is a mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, He says, 'Behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them,' says the Lord.

'For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,' says the Lord. 'I will put My laws in their mind and write them in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, "Know the Lord," for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.' In that He says a new covenant, He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away."

Father, would You give us wisdom and insight as we consider the text here?

Hebrews chapter 8 reminds us that Your word is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. We believe that it is inspired by You and is useful for our instruction and righteousness, so that we would be thoroughly equipped for every good work. We pray, God, that by Your Spirit and through the power of Your word, You would transform us by the renewing of our minds today. Teach us and help us to see what it is that You want us to apply from this passage. We ask this in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen." You can be seated.

In 1974, a 30-year-old film director was shopping a movie treatment and a rough screenplay around to a number of movie studios looking for funding. He had already had a two-picture deal with Universal Pictures, and they had just completed the first movie. They were getting ready to send that out to see if it would stick. When the Universal executives looked over this new movie treatment, they weren't really interested in what this director had to offer. They said, "Well, you can go shop it around somewhere else."

So he did. He finally found an open opportunity with Fox Studios. As he was in negotiations through his agent with the executives at Fox, they said, "Listen, we'll do this movie. We'll give you $50,000 to write the screenplay, $50,000 to produce the movie, and another $50,000 to direct the movie."

While they were in negotiations, his first film with Universal came out, and it was a runaway hit. It instantly made a ton of money. His agent came back to him and said, "Listen, I think we can get more than $150,000. I think we could get a half million, maybe a million dollars for this new movie if we shop it around a little bit more."

However, the director wasn't interested in a half million or a million. In fact, he wasn't interested in more money from the studio. He said, "No, I want something else." He wanted a new deal to be drafted up and asked for something that had never been asked for before and that no one has ever done since. Fox Studios said to him, "Yeah, you know what? Sure, we'll give you what you want."

What he wanted were the sequel rights to this movie, and he was hoping for all the licensing rights to any merchandise that would be made from this movie. He was hoping that this single movie would become a series of nine movies called Star Wars. Now, 40 years after it came out in 1977, that has proved to be a much larger success than anyone could have imagined.

In the 40 years since "Star Wars" came out, the franchise has brought in over thirty-one billion dollars. George Lucas retained the licensing rights, and Lucasfilm sold those rights in 2012 to Disney Pictures for four billion dollars. As a result, George Lucas is now the 294th richest man in the world, with a net worth of 5.1 billion dollars. His agent brokered a better deal and came up with a plan that no movie studio will probably ever replicate. Fox still regrets letting go of the licensing and sequel rights for "Star Wars," which now has seven films, with two more set to be released over the next several years. Obviously, Disney Pictures is making a lot of money off of that franchise.

Over the last four months, we have been going through the book of Hebrews. This New Testament book features an author defending the position that Jesus is better. So far, we have seen that Jesus is better than the patriarchs, the fathers of the Jewish people and the Jewish religion. He is better than the prophets, better than angels, better than Moses, and better than the priesthood. He is also better than the high priests.

This whole book serves as an apologetic, a defense for Jewish readers 2,000 years ago who were leaving Judaism to put their trust in Jesus. They were being tempted, or perhaps told by family members and friends, that they needed to return to Judaism. This letter was written to defend the superiority of Jesus, emphasizing that He is better than all the things they held onto in their former lives and religion.

As they faced pressure to abandon Christ and revert to the covenants and promises of the Jewish religion, the temple, the ministry of the priesthood, and the ministry of the law, the author—whom I believe to be Timothy—states in verse six, which I just read a moment ago: "But now Jesus is our high priest." Reading from the New Living Translation, it continues, "He has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood, for He is the one who mediates for us a far better covenant."

Covenant with God, He is the one who negotiates or brokers a far better deal on our behalf. Much in the same way that George Lucas's lawyer negotiated a better deal, the deal that Jesus brokers is far better than that, even though it yielded some thirty-five thousand times the amount of money that Fox originally had contracted with him to give him. Jesus is the one who brokers for us a far better deal.

The author is asking, why return? Why go back to the covenants, to the promises, to the ministry of the temple, the priesthood, the law, back to Judaism? Point number one on your outline: the author contends that Jesus is the mediator of a far better covenant.

Now, the Jewish people two thousand years ago, who would have been reading this letter, understood the concept of covenants probably much better than we do. We don't use the idea of covenants too often in our culture unless you are a contract negotiator, a lawyer in that field, or involved in business that has to do with covenants and contracts. This is not something that we typically talk about, especially as it relates to our religious experience. We don't spend a whole lot of time thinking or talking about covenants.

However, the Jewish readers two thousand years ago were steeped in this concept of covenants because their entire identity, their whole life, was wrapped up in them. If you read their literature, Genesis to Malachi, the first thirty-nine books of the Bible are called the Old Covenant, and that was the entirety of the holy scriptures for the Jewish religion.

If you read Malachi from Genesis to Malachi, you will see covenants come up quite a bit. In fact, there are seven major covenants between God and humanity that are listed in the chapters of Genesis through Malachi. Specifically, from the time of the book of Genesis until the time of the Jewish monarchy, when they began to have kings ruling over them, there was a significant period when they did not have a king. However, there came a point in their history when they said, "We would like a king to rule over us." Their first king was not the best, but their second king was quite a bit better—a man after God's own heart named David. From the time of Genesis until the time of David, there were seven major covenants.

There are major covenants in which God brokered a deal, if you will, with the people. There was the covenant through Adam; each one of these covenants had a broker, a negotiator, if you will, a person who was the mediator of it. So, you have a covenant that God made with humanity through Adam—two covenants, in fact. Then, you have a covenant that God made with humanity through Noah. Following that, there is a covenant that God made specifically with Abraham and his descendants, the Jewish people, with Abraham as the negotiator.

After that, you had the covenant with Moses, which is really the most important one for the Jewish people as you look at the Old Testament of Scripture. Then, there was another covenant that God made with the priests of the nation of Israel through a man named Aaron; he was the negotiator. Finally, you had the covenant that God made with David and his family. The people of Israel would have understood this idea of covenants, and every covenant has a mediator. Everyone has a broker.

The author of the book of Hebrews states that Jesus is the one who has brokered a far better covenant, a far better agreement between God and man for us—better than what came through Adam, better than what came through Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, or Aaron. Jesus has secured a much better deal for us. But why is the deal that Jesus brokered better than those that came through Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham, David, or Aaron?

Look at what the author says in Hebrews chapter eight, verse six. He tells us that Jesus is also the mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. His is a better covenant because it is based upon better promises. The reason that it is a better covenant is that it is based upon better promises.

I think it is difficult for us to understand the weight of what the author of this book was presenting to his original readers, his first intended audience—the Jewish readers of this letter. Their entire national, geographical, historical, and cultural identity as a people was completely centered upon these covenants, most especially the ones mentioned.

Covenants that came through Abraham, Moses, Aaron, and David really established who they were for centuries. Their entire identity as a people group, along with all of their faiths and outlooks, was built upon these things. The land they lived in, the promised land, came to them through the covenant with Abraham. Their identity as the chosen people of God came to them through the covenant with Moses. The way they were able to approach God, interact with God, and connect with God came to them through the covenant that God had made with Aaron, the priestly covenant. The hope of looking forward to a king who would be on the throne from their descent for eternity came through the covenant that God made with David.

For 1,500 years, their entire identity was wrapped up in these things. Everything about who they were and what they would become as a people centered upon these covenants. Now, the author of the book of Hebrews comes in and says to them that all of this is essentially unnecessary and unimportant from this point forward. Everything they trusted in, everything they looked forward to or back to, and everything they found their identity in can be set aside. They can walk away from it; their identity is no longer that identity. They have been given a new identity.

Even though most of us, probably all of us, are not from a Jewish background, we are also entering into that new identity. When you become a follower of Jesus and put your trust in Him, you have a new identity. The Bible describes it as being an identity that is found not in Moses, not in Abraham, not in the priests, not in the temple, and not in all the feast days. Your identity is now found in Christ.

The author of the book of Hebrews is writing to these Christians who came out of their identity as Jewish in every respect, and he is saying they can walk away from that because they have a totally new identity. I'm sure you can imagine that it would be a difficult step to leave everything that makes you who you are culturally, nationally, and historically. To walk away from that is no small feat. He says they can step into this new covenant, which is a far better covenant. Of course, they would ask, "How is this possible? How is it that this is a better covenant? How is it that these are better promises?"

It makes it better. It's better than the covenant that Moses had brokered for us. It's better than the covenant that made us the people of God, which has really been our entire identity for fifteen centuries. How could that possibly be the case?

To answer that question, which these people were wrestling with, the author of this book, Timothy, does what he routinely does. He goes back to the Holy Scripture, the writings that came out of that first covenant. He takes us back 500 years from the time in which this was written to the Book of Jeremiah, to the Prophet Jeremiah. In verses 7 through 10, he quotes from the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. You could turn there if you'd like to; you'll see that the language is almost exactly the same for the most part. Jeremiah is right about the middle of your Bible. You'll be in the Psalms, and then you can turn to the right. You'll pass Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Isaiah, and you'll get to Jeremiah, specifically Jeremiah chapter 31.

The author of the Book of Hebrews is quoting from Jeremiah when he writes these words. If you're in Jeremiah 31, you'll see that the words written there almost identically mirror what I'm going to read here in Hebrews chapter 8. Verse 7 states, "For if the first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been thought for a second." Because finding fault with them, he says, and now quoting Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 31, "Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord."

Timothy steps back and says, "I know that this is a stretch for you. I'm asking you to leave your national, geographical, cultural, and historical identity to put your trust in Jesus alone. Step away from everything that you've known in those covenants that you had with Moses, David, Aaron, and Abraham. Walk away from that and put your trust completely in this new covenant." You may object and say, "I can't do that. These covenants are important." He responds, "No, there's a better covenant based on better promises. This is not something that you should be ignorant of, because your own prophets, 500 years ago, said God was speaking through the Prophet."

Jeremiah says, "I will make a new covenant. Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah." God promised prophetically that one day He would bring about a new covenant. Essentially, what the author of the Book of Hebrews is saying to his original audience is that they should already know this. They should know that they were going to be stepping away from the Old Covenant, specifically the covenant under Moses, because God promised that there would be a new covenant.

But why a new covenant? What was wrong with the old covenant? What was the problem with that agreement that God had made with the children of Israel through Moses? When you look at the covenant itself, when you examine the language of the contract, you will not find anything wrong necessarily with the covenant. There is nothing wrong with the language, but there was still a problem.

Point number three on your outline: the fault of the first covenant is the fault and failure of Israel, not the covenant itself. We see that very clearly in Hebrews chapter eight. Look again at verses seven and eight. Follow carefully along with me. "For if the first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been thought for a second." Finding fault with them, He says, "Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord, "that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah."

A new covenant was necessary not because the covenant was broken, but because there was a problem with the people with whom God was making the covenant. Back in Jeremiah, which he quotes from here, he says, "I'm making a new covenant because you broke my covenant."

At this point, it would be legitimate for someone studying this, reading this, to say, "Wait a minute. If God is who the Bible presents Him to be, if He knows all things and if He knows us, He knows our nature."

Isn't it on God for brokering a broken covenant with a broken people? Isn't it His own fault if He drew up this perfect contract and knew full well that the people with whom He was going to make that contract were going to fail? Isn't it completely on Him for drawing up a bad contract?

I mean, I'm sure a number of you here today have had a contract before. When you're entering into a contract, even if it's for something as simple as someone coming over to your house and working on your plumbing, you make sure to look on Yelp and see what the rating is. Are they really going to follow through on this contract? You probably pick, like I do, the people who come and do work for you or enter into an agreement with you—someone you can trust. If someone tells you, "I don't know about that person," you may not want to enter into a contract with them. You might say, "Oh, wait a minute. Why? Tell me, do tell, what's the problem?"

You see, I would assume that we're probably pretty good at making sure we enter into agreements and contracts with people who are going to follow through on those things. Maybe you've had someone break a contract with you before. If you enter into a contract with someone who you know is probably going to break it or is probably not going to do the work, you were a fool for doing it.

So, God, you knew full well that Israel would not be able to keep this contract and all the agreements and clauses of it. Why would You enter into a contract with someone who had a one-star rating on Yelp? It's not smart; it just doesn't fit. God, why would You do that?

You would be right to think that of God if His purpose and point in the Old Covenant contract with Israel was that they would keep it and that it would make them perfect. If God's purpose in the Old Covenant was to see them follow through on the covenant, then it would have been foolish for Him to enter into that covenant because He knew full well that they could not bring it to pass.

But this begs the question: what then was the purpose of the Old Covenant and its commandments? I suggest to you that when you read through the Bible, the purpose of the Old Covenant, the law, the temple, and everything that took place in the Old Testament through Moses was not salvation. It was never to purify or perfect the people. The purpose of that covenant was not to take...

Away with sin. How do we know that? Well, if you're in Hebrews chapter 8, just turn a couple of chapters over to chapter 10 and look at Hebrews chapter 10, verse 1.

Hebrews chapter 10, verse 1 states, "For the law"—that's the Old Covenant—"having a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of those things, can never with the same sacrifices which they offered continually year by year make those who approach perfect." The Old Covenant cannot make you perfect, for then would it not cease to be offered? If it could have made you perfect, you would have kept doing that. We would still be going to a temple and offering animal sacrifices.

For the worshipers, once purified, would have no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year. Note this verse: "For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sin."

God did not enter into the covenant with the children of Israel through Moses, which gave them the law and the temple and the sacrificial system, hoping that they would keep it and that through it they would be perfected or receive salvation. He knew full well that they would never be able to keep it.

So, what was the purpose of that covenant? In the New Testament book of Romans, chapter 3, Paul gives us some insight. He says in Romans chapter 3, verse 20, "Therefore by the deeds of the law, by the keeping of the Old Covenant, no flesh will be justified; for by the law is the knowledge of sin." The Old Covenant is the knowledge of sin.

Going on a few chapters after that, in Romans chapter 7, verse 7, Paul says, "I would not have known sin except through the law." God gave the Old Covenant under Moses, the law of God, not so that you, I, or the Jewish people could keep it and bring about their salvation, purification, or perfection. God gave the law so that you and I would know that we're breakers of the law.

In Galatians chapter 3, verse 24, Paul says, "The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith." The whole purpose of the Old Covenant was to show you and me just how sinful we are. If you realize...

That’s the purpose of the Covenant. You realize that the Covenant was really good at showing you and showing me that we are total and complete failures. If you are trying today to make yourself right with God by doing the works of the law, maybe you even came to church because you thought, "If I go to church, that’s going to make me more right with God," you’re in deep trouble. It is never going to make you righteous. You cannot do enough good to undo your sinful works. I can’t either. Even all of our righteous works are as filthy rags before God. God said through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 64, verse 6, "The fault of the first covenant was that you and I are complete and total losers and failures." That’s the problem. It’s not the Covenant; the Covenant is great. The Covenant and its requirements are given to show your guilt and my guilt before a holy God, and it is really good at that.

So then, what now? Once we realize our failure, look at what he says. He goes on in Hebrews chapter 8, verse 10, continuing to quote from Jeremiah. God is speaking through the prophet Jeremiah 2,500 years ago. He says this: "For this is the Covenant that I will make." This is Jeremiah chapter 31, verse 33. "This is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days," says the Lord. "I will put my laws in their mind and write them in their hearts, and that will be their God, and they shall be my people. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more."

Notice the five "I wills" of God in this passage of Scripture. This is 500 years before Jesus came, 500 years before the author of the book of Hebrews wrote the book of Hebrews. God is speaking through the prophet Jeremiah to the nation of Israel, who is under the Covenant system of the Old Covenant. He says, "I’m going to make a new covenant with you because you guys broke my covenant. You could never keep it. The whole purpose of the Covenant was to show you how completely lost you are. But now I’m going to make a new covenant with you. I will make a new covenant. I will put my law in your mind and in your heart. I will be your God."

Merciful to your unrighteousness, I will remember your sins no more.

Point number four in your outline: His new covenant is faultless because it relies entirely upon His faultlessness, and it forgives our failures. The Apostle Paul, writing in Romans chapter 8, said this: The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do by sending His Son in a body like the bodies of we sinners. In that body, God declared an end to sin's control over us by giving His Son as a sacrifice

The old covenant has been rendered obsolete and unnecessary, which is why we preach the gospel of the new covenant. We do not go around preaching the laws of the Old Covenant because they have become obsolete and unnecessary.

A Jewish reader of this 2,000 years ago might ask, "What about the structures, the instruments, and the implements of the first covenant? What about the temple and the tabernacle? What about the Holy of Holies and the altar of incense? Are you really saying that all of these things are unnecessary and obsolete? Do we no longer need the temple?"

Open your Bibles to Hebrews chapter 9 and look at what it says. In Hebrews chapter 9, verse 1, it states, "Then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances and divine service and an earthly sanctuary." In the Old Covenant, there was a tabernacle or a temple, and there were priests who served in these rituals and ordinances.

Verse 2 continues, "For a tabernacle was prepared for the first part, in which there was a lampstand and a table of showbread, which is called the sanctuary. Behind the second veil was a part of the temple called the holiest of all, which had a golden censer and the Ark of the Covenant, overlaid on all sides with gold. In it was a golden pot with manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat." Of these things, we cannot speak in detail.

The author explains that under the Old Covenant, there was a temple, a tabernacle, and a holy place, along with various instruments and priestly duties. In verse 6, it states, "When these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle performing the services." The priests were there serving, but into the second part, only the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sins committed in ignorance.

The Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. It was symbolic for the present time, in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience. These were concerned only with foods, drinks, various washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of the Reformation.

What is Timothy saying? He is explaining that under the Old Covenant, there was a priesthood, a temple, and all of these instruments, sacrifices, and divine services. However, all of that was a shadow of what was to come.

Was to come at the Reformation. Look at this verse:

"But Christ came as high priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect Tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood, He entered the most holy place—not the holy place here on the earth, but the most holy place in heaven. With His own blood, He entered the most holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies for the purifying of the body, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

And for this reason, He is the mediator of the New Covenant by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance."

What’s He saying? He says all of us are transgressors of God's law under the first covenant, and the first covenant cannot deal with your sin. All of the sacrifices of the first covenant are not enough to pay the debt of my sin and yours.

So, Jesus came at just the right time to give His life as the one sacrifice once for all, that we might receive the new promises, the better promises of the New Covenant.

And what is the better promise? Right there at the end of those verses, verse 15 says that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. What’s that? Eternal life. That’s the much better promise. The first covenant could not touch that. The first covenant offered veiled access to God on the basis of the limited atonement of perpetual animal sacrifices, conditioned upon the absolute perfect fulfillment of impossible-to-fulfill commandments and requirements.

The New Covenant offers mercy for our unrighteousness. It offers forgiveness for our iniquities on the basis of His unlimited atonement through His death, burial, and resurrection for our sins once for all. That is called good news. Amen.

Would you stand with me as we close?

Prayer. Jesus, we thank You. I thank You today that You are the broker, the mediator of a much better deal. God, we could never buy our own works, our own ability, our own strength. We could never make ourselves right before You, a holy God.

I'm sure that many, if not most, of us here today, Lord, have tried to do better, to do away with our own sin, to live righteously for Your glory. Apart from Your strength, apart from Your work working in us, we have absolute inability. God, we need Your grace. When we try to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, we thank You that it is You who works in us to will and to do Your good pleasure.

Thank You, Jesus, that You died once for all, the just for the unjust. You did what we could not do, what the law of Moses was unable to do because of the weakness of our sinful nature. We thank You that You became sin for us that we might receive Your righteousness. We thank You that You lived a perfect and holy life so that we would receive Your forgiving grace.

Lord, help us to walk in the rest and the liberty of Your forgiveness, to rejoice, and that the joy of that forgiveness would be seen in our lives by everyone we come in contact with. Praise You, Jesus.

It may be, as we're standing here today, that you have been trying in your own strength to deal with and undo your sin. You've been trying to keep some sort of law, some standard of righteousness, in hopes that someday you'll stand before God and He'll say, "Good job, you did a great job." The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ, that we might be saved by faith, not by keeping the law, because there's no way we can keep the law perfectly enough. If you've been trying to deal with your own sin by your own works, the covenants of the Bible say...

It's impossible, but Jesus did for you. He did for me what we couldn't do ourselves. If you'd like to receive His forgiving grace, I want to give you a chance to do that today. If that's you and you want to receive His grace, would you just lift up your hand high so I can see it?

Anyone here this morning? God bless us here in the front. Anyone else? Thank you, Lord. If that's you, I want to lead you in a prayer of confession and faith today. Just simply pray with me where you're at.

Dear Jesus, I recognize my need for You. I pray that You'd come into my life, forgive me of my sin, and help me to follow You.