Better Covenant, Better Promises

Hebrews 8:6-13

mpt-God has a new covenant or contract with His people that is better than the old one. Today we want to look at both covenants and stare in appreciation at God who has reconciled man to himself.

“Better covenant, better promises”

Lets unpack some of these beautiful praiseworthy promises! Can I get a virtual amen if you are ready to worship!

10 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 into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

- Declares the Lord

I will put

- God does this work
  - God puts His law in our minds, and writes on our hearts
  - If God does it, He does it well
  - If God does it, He is the one who can sustain it
  - If God does it, we can trust it
  - It is only God, who can take His word, His will, His commandments, His perfect law and move it from the outside, into the inside
    - I can’t do it myself
    - My spouse can’t do it for me
    - My parents can’t do it for me
    - My praying grandmother can’t even do it for me
    - But God, who philippians 2 says works in me both to will and to work for His good pleasure can constrain me to cry out to God to do a work in me!
      - We can cry out, Lord put your perfect law in my heart and mind
      - Ezekiel 36:26-27 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And 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, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.
      - This is what God does, what God does!
      - Our Christianity if it is true, is not of ourselves, but of God!
      - This should encourage us in our walk with Christ, on thus bumpy hills of our walk, on those hidden potholes of our journey, when the night seems dark and God seems distant, this truth encourages us that it is a supernatural spiritual act that has brought us from death to life and that will sustain us
      - Ours is a life that has its roots in eternity where God has said in Romans 8:29 29For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
        
        God is the one doing a work in you! Where doing this work?

10 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 into their minds, and write them on their hearts,

Laws into minds and hearts

- - Why does God’s law need to get into our mind and hearts?
    - Often when I am ticked at an action one of my children has done, I ask the rhetorical question, with the absolute expectation of an answer “why would you do that?!?!”
      - Their replay is always, “i don’t know”
      - I am upset because their action is not what is best for them, it is not what I would have them to do
      - This is why we need God’s laws in our hearts and minds, so we know how to live in this life, how to live in such a way that unlike my children sometimes, are well pleasing to our heavenly father
      - When we displease God, we can’t reply, “ i didn’t know” because His laws are written in our mind and written on our heart
    - We want God’s law to be tattooed on our heart because:

Psalm 19:7-11

- - - - This is why we want God’s laws tattooed, imprinted, drilled, etched into our hearts and minds, because:
        
        It is perfect, it converts my soul, it makes us wise, because it is right, because it causes joy, it is pure, it brings enlightenment to my eyes and way I see things, it is clean, it is eternal, it is righteous, it is better than gold and sweeter than a honey
        
        This is why we savor this promise
- We live in a world full of information, I wonder how cluttered our minds would be if we retained everything
  - Every song lyric, every book read, every conversation, everything said on television, radio, social media, internet. Everything.
  - Thankfully, God made us with a short term and a long term memory
  - Ie, i will never, until the day I die forget the positions on the football field, the holes on the line, a down block, a 36 power or 37 counter, why? Because it was drilled and repeated so much that it has been written in my mind and heart. It is etched into my longterm memory.
    - What is that thing for you? Those things you can never forget? Maybe it is a scent, maybe it is a face, maybe it is something regarding a hobby or your profession…
  - This is what God has done with His law, written it into our heart and mind so we can’t forget it
    - But God has taken it a step further, His laws speak up even when we don’t have a book, chapter or verse. His laws speak up even when you haven’t read it in the scripture or heard in a sermon, because His word isn’t just the scripture, but we the spirit of truth living in us.
    - Jesus describes this in John 14:15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper,[f] to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be[g] in you.
      - . 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.
      - The promised holy spirit is the vehicle in which God’s perfect, righteous and holy law is imprinted into our minds and hearts!
      - Hallelujah, thank you for the spirit of the living God that has made a home out of our hearts!
      - Thank you Lord for writing your perfect law in our minds and hearts, what a privilege!

10 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 into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

I will be their God, they shall be my people

- This is personal
- Look at the possessive nature of the statements
  - I will be their God, they shall be my people
  - I will put My laws into their minds, their hearts
  - Saints, not only is God, the God of the universe, but He is Your God, Jesus is Your savior, He is not a Father that is limited and has to space out His finite time and resources between His kids, but our God is infinitely able to have a relationship with all of His children

These are the better promises and better covenant we have been given

7For if that first covenant had been without fault, no place would have been sought for a second.,

as a new testament believer, that looks back into the old testament, I can’t help but wonder, if this is a better covenant, built on better promises, why did God not start with this one first?
God does everything for a purpose. The law or the old covenant was our tutor or guardian that magnified and glorified the new covenant.
- Galatians 3:24 24So then, the law was our guardian until Christ came, in order that we might be justified by faith.
  - These tutors or guardians were in charge of teaching a boy about life and walking with them and guiding them towards maturity into adulthood.
    - This is what the law was for, this is what the old covenant was for, to guide us and prepare our hearts for the new covenant in Christ.
    - The original audience of Hebrews was grappling with the old covenant as the new covenant was still fresh; however, we as new covenant Christians still find value and appreciation for the new covenant by looking at the old covenant
- Lets look at two lessons that the old covenant taught us
  - 1) The old covenant taught us about sin and our need for a savior
    - Romans 5:13 for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law.
      - In other words, the law brought recognition and accountability to sin
    - Romans 3:20 20For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
      - This is the desperation of the law, we are not good enough to be justified by the law because it is impossible to meet God’s standard
      - This is the eternity sized problem of the old covenant
    - Romans 4:15 15For the law brings wrath, but where there is no law there is no transgression.
      - This is the sting of sin, that it brings God’s wrath
      - If we sin under the old covenant, there was God’s wrath and God’s punishment
      - Here is the where it points to Jesus, because we needed a savior that was perfect that lived up to the standards of the law.
      - Not only that, but God is just. Sin requires punishment, Jesus took that punishment for us so under the new covenant, when we sin, the wrath has already been paid for by Jesus! Hallelujah!

- - - 5:20-21 Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
      - Through Jesus, in the new covenant we now have grace
      - Where sin and death used to reign, we now have grace and life through christ!
  - 2) The old covenant taught us about sacrifice and atonement
    - Hebrews 9:22 22Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.
      - Leviticus 3-8 details different type of sins that require different types of sacrifice
      - Certain sins required the sacrifice of different types of animals, this was required for forgiveness
      - Not only were particular animals required, but they had certain standards
        
        Ie, leviticus 5:15 a ram is required that is unblemished and worth a certain amount of money
        
        The point is that Christ was a sacrifice with the ultimate standards
        
        No sin, perfect, the only sacrifice worthy to for all time make atonement for us!
    - Hebrews 9:13-14 13For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, sanctify for the purification of the flesh, 14how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God.
    - Back to the text

11No longer will each one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’

because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest.

This is another new covenant promise for the believer

If you are a Christian that has placed their faith in Christ as Lord, you will know the Lord
You have a personal relationship with the Lord, the eternal Creator of the universe and all that is seen and invisible, God almighty!
This weekend my wife’s grandma passed
- Her name was Samella, what a beautiful name and what a beautiful woman she was
- I knew lots of stuff about her, either second hand from my wife, or small sessions when I came to visit and she sat in her recliner.
- First she called me bobo, then later, atchie
- I knew her, but I could have known her more
- As I sat in the funeral yesterday, I began to think about my grandma, Emma and Idella
- I know them, but as they are still living, I can know them better
- I can call them, I can go down to Muncie and visit them, I can even facetime or marco polo them, kinda…
- What is the point? We as believers have a great opportunity and a great promise before us. From the least to the greatest. From the youngest to the the oldest, we can spend our life getting to know our God and Father and the Lord Jesus Christ with the aid of the HOly Spirit!
- Let us grab hold to this promise and spend time getting to know our God more!
- As Jesus is confronting and counseling the churches in Revelation He makes a startling statement
  - Revelation 3:20 20Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.
  - Saints, there is no better way to get know someone than having a meal with them, Jesus is offering this intimacy with us, let us open that door!

12For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.”

For the unbeliever, here is your promise
If you repent, believe on Jesus, and follow Him, your sins will be forgiven and you can begin your relationship with God