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It might first appear. We'll
read together chapter eight down through chapter nine and verse
eleven. Now, this is the main point of
the things we are saying. We have such a high priest. Who
is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in
the heavens. a minister of the sanctuary and
of the true tabernacle, which the Lord erected, not man. For every high priest is appointed
to offer both gifts and sacrifices, therefore it is necessary that
this one also has something to offer. For if he were on earth,
he would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the
gifts according to the law. who served the copy and shadow
of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when
he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, See that you make
all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. But
now he has obtained a more excellent ministry inasmuch as he is also
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 to lead 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 I will write them on 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 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. Then indeed, even the first
covenant had ordinances of divine service and the earthly sanctuary. For a tabernacle was prepared,
the first part in which was the lampstand, the table, and the
showbread, which is called the sanctuary. Behind the second
veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the holiest of
all, which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid
on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had
the manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant.
And above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy
seat. Of these things we cannot now
speak in detail. Now when these things had been
thus prepared, the priest always went into the first part of the
tabernacle performing the services. But into the second part 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 indicating this, 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, which
cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard
to the conscience, concerned only with foods and drinks, various
washings, and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation. But Christ came as a 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. We remember that the context
of the book of Hebrews has to do with possibly Roman Christians,
but Roman Christians who had been raised and steeped in the
Old Covenant, what for them was the only covenant that they knew,
we call it the Old Covenant, but they were Jewish believers
of Jewish heritage who knew the Torah very well, who've been
raised in the priestly worship of the tabernacle or of the temple
during the time of Jesus. They were used to synagogue worship
where Moses was read week by week. They were Jews through
and through, all the way through, no matter where you slice them,
they were of the blood of the people of Abraham. And they have,
as I've painted in past pictures and introductions, come to hear
about the Lord Jesus. They've heard of the one who
is the fulfillment of the messianic office, the son of David, the
one who came as Savior. And they have believed the gospel.
And they have begun to disconnect themselves from, as difficult
as it was, the Jewish heritage which they had had, particularly
in the sacrificial system, and now were meeting partially because
of their own choice, partially because of the persecution and
the difficulty of continuing in that. They had now moved into
house churches, but because of the difficulties, because of
the increased pressure, were now feeling temptation to move
back into Judaism and said, we'll just worship the symbols and
remember Christ in them. And this is an argument, Hebrews,
is an extended argument why they ought not to do that. And he
begins in the beginning, chapter 1, of how Jesus is better than
the angels, and he opens that up. We spent the first week looking
at that. We saw then in chapter two, moving
into chapter three, how Jesus was better than Moses because
he not only was faithful in his house, it was his house that
he built. He was God. He was the one who
created the house. Therefore, he's superior to Moses.
We saw in chapter four the imagery of the Sabbath, of moving into
a place of rest. There yet remains a Sabbath for
the people of God, the future bringing about of the kingdom
and the rest from our works. And now he is arguing, as we've
seen over the past couple of weeks, from Melchizedek, from
the high priest. And now he has moved from the
angels, Moses, into the tabernacle worship, into the temple worship,
particularly associated with Melchizedek. Now, we saw at the
end of chapter 5 that he says, I've got more I want to say about
Melchizedek. There's a lot more to say. It's
hard to teach. And we saw that chapter 6 is
why it is it's difficult to teach for them. And then he comes back
in chapter 7, what we saw last week of saying, OK, I've given
this footnote, I've given this parenthetical statement. I'm
going to press on, I'm not going to treat you like children. And
we saw chapter 7, how it is from the argument of Melchizedek.
We saw three things. We saw his argument from Genesis
14, the opening up of Abraham paying tithes to Melchizedek.
We saw his argument from Psalm 110 in verse 4, I have sworn
and I will not relent, you are a priest forever according to
the order of Melchizedek. We saw him break open that argument.
We saw him break open the argument from the gospel itself of Christ's
one sacrifice on the cross because of his resurrection from the
dead. He is arguing Christ is better. Don't go back. The priesthood
is better. And now this week in chapter
8 and chapter 9, he's continuing that extended argument. They
got it in one shot, in one reading. We get the joy of breaking it
down week by week. And so that's the context. That's
what we come into. Chapter 8 and chapter 9 are not
isolated texts. They come into the flow of the
argument. We have to keep that argument in mind as we look at
these verses. Now, chapter 8 and verse 1, he
introduces this section by saying and giving us a preacher's tool
of rhetoric. It is a little tool that says,
OK, now I'm making my main point. He's telling us this is the main
thing he's saying. Notice in chapter 8, verse 1,
this is the main point of the things we are saying. Don't you
love it when a preacher does that? Finally, he said all of
this different stuff. What is your point? Okay, I'm
going to tell you my point. Here it is. So that's what he
does here. And the main point he says in verse 1, it has to
do with Jesus as High Priest. Chapter 8 verse 1, this is the
main point of the things we are saying. We have such a High Priest
and the rest of this section is a description of that High
Priest. But the main point is Jesus as
High Priest. Now what I want to attempt to
do is in chapter 8 verse 1 through chapter 9 verse 11, break down
three arguments that he's using in this section of why Jesus
is better, not only than the priesthood of Melchizedek, he
has a better place that he's serving in. You'll see that under
heading number one, Jesus serves a better tabernacle or a better
temple. OK, so you see better than the
angels, better than Moses, a better Sabbath, a better than a high
priest, Levi. Now it's a better tabernacle.
Are you starting to see a theme there? I think it's pretty clear.
A better tabernacle. Chapter eight, verses one through
five, he repeats the argument and expands it in the beginning
of chapter nine. Jesus, Roman numeral number two,
Jesus mediates a better covenant, better tabernacle, better covenant.
And then what we won't get into, chapter nine, verse 12, Lord
willing, next week will be Jesus offers a better sacrifice. So you following his argument?
It all has to do with Jesus being better than all of this stuff
that he's referring to. Okay, well let's look at that
then. Jesus serves a better tabernacle beginning in chapter 8 verses
1 through 5. Now when he refers to the tabernacle
here, it's a word for tent. Now, it might be somewhat surprising
that he uses the word tabernacle instead of temple, because you
know the difference. At the beginning, when Moses
establishes the place that God is to be especially worshipped,
it is a tent. It is a literal tent that they
can roll up the cloth. They can roll up the tent poles
and they can move around. And it was particularly during
their wilderness wanderings that they were able to move this.
It was a movable building. It's not until the time of Solomon
and then later during the day of Herod that you have a building
of an edifice that is more permanent. They lay a foundation, they build
buildings on it. You're not just going to pack
that thing up and move it somewhere else. It's been said that some
of the stones that were laid for that temple were just huge,
10 feet or more large, moving those things, building this temple.
You didn't just pack that up, throw it on your back and move
to another place. So it's somewhat surprising at this point that
he's arguing from a tabernacle and not a temple because at that
point a temple is standing in Jerusalem. Why does he do that?
I think he's going back to the origins of God's worship found
in the Torah because nowhere in the Torah is there a legitimacy
for a temple that is allowed later under Solomon. Remember
David wanted to build him a house? And God said, when did I ever
require that of you? I've always dwelt in a tent with
my people, but now I'm going to allow your son to do that,
to build me a house. But before that, and our writer
is arguing that in the law, there's a tabernacle. It is the tabernacle
that was made after a particular pattern, he'll come back to in
a minute, that particularly God gave to him. And the temples
were of a different pattern. They're not exactly the same
as the tabernacle, even in their dimensions. So he refers to not
the temple, though he means the whole sacrificial system that
now exists in the temple in the day that the readers or the hearers
are hearing this book. This becomes a theme that he
picks up. And this word tabernacle is used 10 times in this is the
first time here in chapter eight, verse two, but he uses it nine
more times throughout the book. This is one of his main arguments.
And so he has this has to do with the high priest serving
in a tabernacle or in a place where God is especially worship.
Now, you'll notice he says in verse one there that there's
this imagery, this mixture of an imagery. He is using tabernacle
imagery, that which is of the tabernacle of worship of sacrifice. But he does something that hasn't
been done, and that is mixes the imagery of the throne in
the midst of it. And so probably what he's referring
to is like the Ark was there in the Holy of Holies, which
we'll come back to later. was the seat of God. It was like
the throne of the invisible God with Cherubim going over it.
He is mixing this imagery. He says, chapter 8, verse 1,
we have such a high priest, speaking of Jesus, who is seated at the
right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heaven. So here's
the high priest doing something that a high priest had never
done before. And he goes into the place of
majesty and he sits down. There were no chairs in the Holy
of Holies for the high priest, because the priest goes in, he
does his business, and he comes back out. This high priest has
gone in, and he now shares the rule and reign of God in that
he is in the holy place, and he is seated at the right hand
Here, sit here at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool.
Sit here at my right hand. And so there is the picture of
a high priest offered sacrifice, entered into the holiest place
in heaven, and now is seated, something that no high priest,
and that itself is an argument of how this high priest is greater
than the previous high priests. So that's what he's arguing here.
Well, what kind of place is this that he's seated in? We begin
to read in verse two. He is a minister of the holies
or minister of the sanctuary or of the sacred things and of
the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man. Now the word here minister is
not the typical word for house servant. It's not the typical
word for slave. It's a very particular and rarer
New Testament word which means one appointed to public service. In Britain, they talk about the
Minister of Education, the Minister of Finance. That's this particular
term that has the idea not of a servant, not of a house servant,
not of a slave, but one who is appointed in an official place.
That's the word that's used here. He is one appointed to the particular
place of the sanctuary. And notice the terminology he
uses here in verse two of the true tabernacle. And then he
describes it as that which the Lord erected and not man. So
here's our first contrast. We have the tabernacle that is
on the earth, erected by Moses, erected by the hands of the priests. And he says, but this Jesus,
this high priest is serving in a tabernacle that is greater
because it is something that is the true tabernacle which
the Lord erected. OK, so now picture God setting
up a tent. That's the imagery here. Picture
God somewhere in heaven erecting a tent. That's the image. And
it is that place which is the true tabernacle which he says
then that the Lord erected that this high priest has gone into. Now when he says true tabernacle,
he's not saying that the old tabernacle is false. Okay, so
you've got the true tabernacle, you've got the false tabernacle,
because remember, God was the one who said build that for him.
So it's not true in the contrast of false, but what he means by
true is original. and notice how he argues this
going down through the verse. Verse 3, every high priest is
appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices therefore it is
necessary that this one also have something to offer. Let's
jump down to verse 5. They serve the copy and shadow
of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when
he was about to make the tabernacle. For he said, see that you make
all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. So
the author is arguing that on the mountain, Moses not only
is told the pattern of the tabernacle, he is shown the pattern. It seems
to me he was shown in a vision of the true tabernacle, of which
he is to make a copy of that on the earth. So in a vision,
it seems. He was not merely told, make
things according to the pattern, but according to the pattern
shown you on the mountain. And so this is his argument,
that this tabernacle is better. It is true. Why? Because the
one that they are tempted to go back to, which now is the
temple, that is just another form of the tabernacle, all of
those are not the true. See, they're struggling with,
do we go back to true worship and to true religion? He's saying
that's not the true. What you're seeing is not the
true. That is a reflection, a copy of the individual which is, or
the true, which is in heaven. And that's the one that Jesus
has passed into. That's the imagery being used
here. And then he goes on to say about this sacrifice, verse
three, every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices.
Now follow his argument. Therefore, it is necessary that
this one also has something to offer. What is his argument?
Look at the shadow and the type on the earth. Look what Moses
did. Look what God told Moses to do.
And what did the high priest, what did the priest do? They
offered sacrifice. He argues backwards. If this
is a copy of that, what you see here is a reflection of this.
Therefore, if priests offer sacrifice here, then the priest that serves
there must also offer a sacrifice. Do you see his argument? What
you see here, it is necessary. There's a very strong term. He
says, verse three, therefore, it is necessary that this one
also has something to offer. How do we know Jesus offered
something in that tabernacle? You see it because of its copy
on the earth. OK, so that's his argument at
this point. He says, verse 4, if he, speaking
of Jesus, were on earth, he would not be a priest. We've talked
about that before, how he was not of the tribe of Judah. And
here's the staggering thing. Jesus, the incarnate God, in
following the law, was never allowed to enter into the temple.
It would have been unlawful and sin for Jesus, as a man of the
tribe of Judah, to walk up and say, excuse me, I'm God, and
go into the temple. Is that a staggering thought?
But it was not lawful for him. He would have broken the law,
the law which Galatians tell us he was born under. God was
not welcome in that earthly tabernacle. Well, does that mean he's something
less? No, absolutely not. It argues the opposite. because
he doesn't allow, he isn't allowed to go into the copy, but he alone
is allowed to go into the original. Again, showing his superiority,
his greatness. Here on earth, he says, verse
4, if he were on earth, he would not be a priest since there are
priests who offer the gifts according to the law. Jesus could not do
that. Verse 5, who served the copy and shadow of the heavenly
things as Moses was divinely instructed. So here's his argument. All of that is a copy of something
greater. Jesus is a greater high priest,
he offers greater sacrifices because, the big argument is,
he serves in a better, greater, original, true tabernacle in
heaven. Now, he repeats this argument
and expands it. If you'll jump over to chapter
9, verses 1 through 11, he makes this same argument. In chapter
9, verse 1, then indeed, even the first covenant had ordinances
of divine service and the earthly sanctuary. We'll come to that
in a few minutes. A tabernacle was prepared, the
first part in which was the lampstand, etc. What he does here is he
describes that first tabernacle. He spends some time in saying,
OK, in that first room, what did you have? You had the lampstand
that had the seven parts of it. It was designed in a very specific
way. The priest would go in and have oil and put oil in that
and it would keep light and would give light to that first chamber
that all the priests who were ordained to do so could go into.
They had the table. They had the showbread where
fresh loaves of bread were put there day after day. You have
there the incense altar where it's burning before the veil.
So you come through the first veil. There's the first room
with the lampstand with the showbread. Actually, I think it was this
way as you walk in. So you have the table of showbread
on the right, you have the lampstand on the left, you have the incense
altar before the second veil, and that is called the holy place.
And so he basically spends a few minutes or a few lines here describing
that. Behind the second large veil
then was the holiest of all or the holy of holies. And he says
in summary here that the priests were allowed to go into that
first one day after day, but that second chamber, which he
actually attributes the incense altar to that chamber, not because
it was something that goes in that chamber, it was clearly
on the outside, but because apparently that incense being burnt goes
in And goes in because they couldn't go into that. But once a year,
how do you keep incense for the inner circle or the inner square?
How do you do that? We had to have access to it.
That's why it's on the outside. But he says here it was for the
inner chamber, the holiest place. There, what do you find there?
You have the ark covered on all sides by gold. What do you have
there? You have the pot of manna. You have the tablets of the covenant. You have Aaron's rod that budded.
You have the cherubim that are there overshadowing it. He's
spending a few moments reminding us of what that first tabernacle
and what for them the temple was like. That's what he's doing.
He said, that's all good. And that's what God gave. But
then notice what he goes on to say. Verse 6, Now when these
things had been thus prepared, the priest always went into the
first part of the tabernacle performing the services, but
into the second part the high priest went alone once a year,
not without blood, which he offered for himself for the people's
sins committed in ignorance. Now what does all that have to
do with this argument? He says the Holy Spirit was teaching
us something about giving us that whole system. It was not
unnecessary, but the Holy Spirit intended for us to draw a certain
application from that. And he tells us what it is in
verse 8. The Holy Spirit indicating this, that the way into the holiest
of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was
standing. You're supposed to come away
from that system and saying the access to God that is one way
and permanent is not yet made. Why? The priest keeps coming
out. He offers sacrifice year after year, the outside day after
day. There's something that's missing.
The fact that there has to be a perpetual offering, a perpetual
sacrifice tells us things aren't quite right yet. They're not
perfected yet. We have to keep doing this. When
it's perfected, can't you stop doing that? That's what He says
the Holy Spirit here is indicating. Verse 9, it was symbolic. What does He say about the tabernacle,
the whole system? It's symbolic. Could it ever
take away sins? He says later in the book, absolutely
not. It was symbolic. What was it symbolic of? Well,
it's a good thing He told us. We don't have to guess. We don't
have to get out our fantastical charts. We don't have to come
up with all kinds of allegorical interpretations. He tells us
what it stands for. I'm so thankful for that. It
was symbolic for the present time, in which both gifts and
sacrifices are offered, which cannot make him who performed
the service perfect in regard to the conscience, concerned
only with food and drinks, various washings, fleshly ordinances
imposed until the time of reformation." Now he's speaking of something
utterly new. There's a good word for us, reformation. What he means is an utter undoing
and renewal of something. We'll get back to what that is
at a later time. But notice in verse 11, all of
that was symbolic of a time because all of that could not really
and perfectly remove sin from the conscience. It was symbolic
up until the time of Reformation. You have the symbol until you
have the coming of the real, he is arguing here. Verse 11,
in contrast to that whole system, he says, 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. So there, in a pretty short compass,
is his argument. We have a greater high priest
because he serves a greater tabernacle. He serves a greater tabernacle
because the old tabernacle, the way that he describes it, it
was ordained by God, but it was symbolic until the time of Reformation. But now we have a higher high
priest, a better high priest who serves in a tabernacle. So
what does that do for Jewish believers who are feeling the
pressure? You got to let the old go because you got something
better. And to leave what is better for
the symbol is to actually deny that the reality has come. To
go back to the symbol, to go back to the high priest, because
the time of reformation has come, Jesus has come. To do that, you
are actually, because it is symbolic, what you will do is deny that
the real has come. You will have denied Christ.
You will have denied the true tabernacle. You will actually
go back to the things that were only temporary. And for that
reason, he's saying and he's arguing, don't go back. Okay, so that's what he is doing
here. While the old covenant tabernacle,
our author tells us, was divinely inspired, There is one sense
in which the whole history of humanity is filled with this
sense of reality that there is something else. Not only under
the tabernacle, I would argue, as I think Lewis does, that wherever
there is blood sacrifice, wherever there are altars built, wherever
there are priests that are interceding between the people and the gods,
there is a remaining evidence that something is wrong. Now,
this system was ordained by God in a way that no other system
was or has been. But I think Lewis rightly argues
the fact that there is death, the fact that there are altars,
the fact that there are priests are remaining evidences that
people know that something is wrong between them and what is
higher. Often they don't know who that God is through their
wisdom, through their trickery, through their superstitions.
They don't know who God is, but they know that there's something
that they have offended that must be sacrificed to. And somebody's
got to die for their sin. That's what we see in all the
sacrificial systems. That's what we see most preeminently
in the old covenant system. But even the old covenant system
was a symbol. It was the best symbol there
was. It was a divinely ordained symbol, but it was still temporary,
symbolic, until the time of Reformation. The Old Covenant system was God's
ordained system and closest to the original, but it wasn't the
original itself. With the revealing of the true
in Jesus Christ, the copy is no longer necessary, he argues. That is why great buildings are
not, under the New Covenant, necessary. Though perhaps reflective
of good aesthetics, they're not necessary under the New Covenant.
Worship became proper in a house in Judea. Well, you can't worship
without the temple. Yes, we can. Why? Because those
are symbolic of Jesus who goes into a greater tabernacle for
us, even if we meet in a house. That was what made worship proper
in catacombs, in ancient Rome, under the ground, in caves. To
go from the temple to catacombs was an incredibly humbling thing. How could they do it? Because
we have access to Jesus, who is a better high priest, who
has access to a better tabernacle. We are not going to leave that
to go back to the symbols of Athena and of Jerusalem and of
the other temples. That's what makes worship appropriate
in the basement of an old hospital in Tennessee. Because why? Because we come to the true tabernacle
through Jesus Christ. That's why it's appropriate in
China to meet in a dilapidated building and still worship God. To meet in a jail cell in Russia
is still appropriate. Why? Because we have the true
tabernacle in Jesus Christ and a better sacrifice. And so he
says in chapter 12, verse 22, listen to this imagery. Chapter
12, verse 22, you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of
the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable
company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn
who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the
spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of the
new covenant, to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better
things than that of Abel. But we want Mount Zion in Jerusalem. We want the physical Jerusalem. We want the physical temple.
He says, why? You've got something so much
better that in your heart by the Spirit you carry in with
you in a house, in a catacomb, in a basement. And that is his
argument. Don't go back. Why? Because you have a high priest
that serves a better tabernacle. You don't need the old. And so
that's his first argument. Let's move quickly to his second
argument, which we've already referred to. Jesus mediates a
better covenant. And this strikes at the very
heart of everything these folks would know. These are brothers
and sisters. Jesus mediates a better covenant.
For this, we go back to chapter eight, verse six. He now has
obtained a more excellent ministry inasmuch as he is also mediator
of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. Jesus better than the angels,
Jesus better than Moses, Jesus better than the earthly Sabbath
Jesus better than the Levitical priesthood Jesus better because
he serves a better tabernacle and now Jesus is mediator of
a better covenant Do you see the argument building like an
avalanche? Okay Jesus mediating a better
covenant. He says in verse 6 He's obtained
a more excellent ministry because he has a better covenant. Well, let's talk about the idea
of a covenant What is a covenant? A covenant is, in the words of
John Murray, an oath-bound promise. You can think of a marriage covenant,
as we see Tony and Mandy here this week, a marriage covenant,
a promise to another party. They're a mutual conditional
promise. And with the Lord, it is speaking
of a promise that he has made, an oath bound commitment, which
he says now God is working in a better covenant. Not the same
covenant in another form, a better covenant than the previous covenant
is what he's arguing here. What makes this covenant better?
It was established on better promises. There were lots of
promises attached to the old covenant. He says this new covenant
is better because it's based on, established by, firmly set
on better promises. You don't want to go back to
the old covenant. Why? because the new covenant has better promises.
What are those better promises? I'm glad you asked because he
tells us. What he does then, verse 7, tells us in contrast
to the two covenants, and let me say here that in the writer
of Hebrews vocabulary and language, he only sees two covenants. Paul
in the book of Ephesians sees under the old covenant multiple
covenants. OK, for some of you, that's going
to be really significant. For others of you, that doesn't
make any sense. Paul sees you were foreigners,
strangers, aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, to the covenants,
plural, of promise, singular, speaking of Jesus. He looks back
to the Old Testament, the Old Testament history and says there
were covenants of the promise Jesus. The writer of the Hebrews
does not see it that way. It doesn't contradict. He's viewing
it in a different way. He sees two covenants. One, the
covenant established in the law in Moses and the other, the new
covenant through the mediator, Jesus. OK, so I make that theological
observation at this point, which for some of you will be significant.
For others, it may not. But here's what he says. Verse
seven. If the first had been faultless, speaking of the first
covenant, If the first had been faultless, he doesn't say it's
one in the series of many. He sees it as the first covenant.
That's why I say that. If the first had been faultless,
there was no place that would have been sought for a second.
And so he argues here. There was something at fault
with the first covenant. Was it God at fault? Absolutely
not. Was it his promise at fault?
No. What is the fault in the old
covenant? He's going to tell us. I'm glad
you asked. He says there's a fault in the first covenant. If there
hadn't been something wrong with the old covenant, he says there
would be no place to have been sought for a second. OK, so he
doesn't see a series of covenants in David and in others, though
I think Paul does see that. Hebrews, the writer, sees the
first and then there's the second. What's the second? It's the new
covenant. OK, but be careful when we talk about covenant theology,
what we mean by that. If the first had been faultless,
then no place would have been sought for the second, because
finding fault with them, with who? With those who were in the
covenant. Here's what he says, verse 8,
and then what he does is quotes Jeremiah chapter 31, verses 31
through 34. He's going to argue again, Hebrews,
the writer is an exegete. He loves to take scripture Use
it and then break it open. Here's what he says. Verse 8,
because finding fault with them, that is the people he says. Starting
here all the way through verse 12 is Jeremiah 31, 31 through
34. Let's pick through it together and see what he has to say. Behold,
the days are coming, says the Lord. And remember, this is in
Jeremiah. This is as Jeremiah is preaching
for almost five decades to the southern kingdom of Judah. He
says Babylon is coming. They're coming down from the
north. They're coming, they're going to overthrow us, they're
going to overthrow our city, we're going to go into exile,
they're going to destroy our temple. And in the middle of
Jeremiah, chapter 31, he makes this prophecy of a new covenant.
It's the only explicit place in the Old Testament where the
term new covenant is used. In the midst of Israel's coming
despair and destruction, he prophesies, the Lord prophesies through Jeremiah,
of a new covenant, and this is that text. Behold, the days are
coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant. Why? That
assumes there's something wrong or faulty with the old. A new
covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, not
according to the covenant which I made with their fathers. OK,
so he's saying there's something different. These aren't the same
covenant. These are different in some way. This covenant. that I make, he says, not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers. When did he make
that? What covenant is he talking about? Not that I made with their
fathers. Which fathers? In the day when
I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt. That's the
what? OK, the Exodus. And they gave it to them when?
On Mount Sinai. OK, so that's that. He's speaking
to the law of Moses, the covenant given to the people after the
Exodus. What was the difference? It's not according to that covenant.
Why? He says, because they did not
continue. There was a fault in the covenant
because they did not continue. It wasn't actually a fault in
the covenant, but they defaulted on the covenant. God made promises. They did not keep those promises
in response to the Lord. They said, all that the Lord
has said we will do. They did not continue. And what was the
Lord's response? I disregarded them, says the
Lord. I disregarded them. This Greek
word means to neglect, to be unconcerned about, to the point
of allowing someone to suffer or to overlook. And here's what
I think He's essentially saying. I promise you, and remember particularly
in Deuteronomy, I lay before you the path of life and death.
If you do this, and if you do this, and if you glorify me,
and if you honor me, and if you obey me, then I will bless you.
I will give you peace from your enemies. I will give you abundant
crops. You're going to have a bunch of babies. All of this stuff
is going to happen. But if you turn from me, And
what he basically says is, I'm going to back off and all of
the horrors of a fallen world are going to fall upon you, your
enemies, wild beasts, there are going to be famines, there are
going to be all those problems. And then he says, but if you
will turn to me, then I will bless you. If you turn away from
me, I will withdraw myself. And that's what I think he means
here by disregarding them. When they did not continue, he
then did not cover them with his blessing, but kept his promise
and said, I told you, if you went your own way, he backs off.
And the devastation of their life was evidence that God had
disregarded them. And that's what he says was wrong
with that covenant. It was conditioned on their obedience
is what he's saying here. And because they disobeyed, he
disregarded them. Now, in verse 10, he's going
to tell us the difference between that covenant and the new covenant,
which is a better covenant, and what the difference is between
them. Notice what he says, verse 10. This is the covenant that
I will make, new covenant in the future, with the house of
Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws,
where? In their mind. I will write them
on their, where? Heart. Where had the law been
written previously? On stones. External. Why did
they not keep it? It was an external law that was
not necessarily in their hearts. What's the difference between
the Old Covenant and the New Covenant? The New Covenant, he says, I'm
going to do a work in the mind and the heart of my people. I'm
going to write my law there. So not that it's an external
constraint that pushes them down and that they rebel against,
but now that they desire to obey Me. They will continue with Me. Why? Because My Spirit has done
a work in them. It has changed their minds about
My Word. It has changed their hearts about
who I am. And they will, He says, continue
with Me. That's what makes this a better
covenant, because He says it's based on better promises. Notice over in Psalm 40 in verse
8. What does this mean to have the law written on your heart?
Psalm 40 in verse 8 tells us that. The psalmist says in Psalm
40 in verse 8, I delight... It's interesting, he actually
quotes this text in chapter 9. We'll come back to it. It's a
perfect description of Christ. But what is it to have the law
within your heart? Verse 8, I delight to do your will, O my God, and
your law is within my heart. Most of you have been around
long enough to know that's Hebrew parallelism. It is a progressive
parallelism that describes the one thing in two different ways.
I delight to do your will, O God. Why is that? Your law is within
my heart. They obviously did not delight
to do the will and the word of God. Under the new covenant,
that's going to be very different. Why? Because rather than taking
my finger and writing it, remember, it was the finger of God that
wrote on the stones. You remember that? It wasn't
it wasn't Moses up there with a chisel writing. He says, you
bring me the tablets. And he wrote it with his own
finger on tablets of stone. There are three places that I
remember that God is said to write. One is at Mount Sinai.
Two is here. And the other is when Jesus writes
something on the ground that there's no there's no record
what that actually was. He says, this is the covenant
and this is a promise of the covenant. I will write my laws
in their mind, will write them on their hearts. And notice where
he says, I will be their God. They shall be my people. That's
a mutual inheritance. What do we get? We get God. What
does God get? Us. Under the new covenant. But people who love him, desire
to do his will, who desire to do his word, And who do not,
he says, depart from the Lord so that he ultimately disregards
them. That's the promise of the new
covenant. And Jesus is mediator of that covenant, not conditioned
on the Lord's or the people's obedience, conditioned on the
Lord's promise. He goes on to say, this mutual
inheritance, verse 11, none of them shall teach his neighbor,
none his brother, saying, Know the Lord. Now he's not talking
about knowing the Lord as far as growing in the Lord, growing
in the grace and the knowledge of Christ. But he's talking about
being in an actual knowing relationship with God. In the new covenant,
people don't have to go, man, you really need to get to know
God because you don't. He says that's not necessary.
Under the old covenant, there were tons of people who didn't
know God. He says under the new covenant, those who are genuinely
under the new covenant don't have to be evangelized. They
don't have to be converted. They are converted. He says no
longer or he will not take to say to his neighbor, know the
Lord from the least of them to the greatest, whether it be age,
whether it be stature, whether it be socioeconomic levels. from the least to the greatest,
they shall all know Me." Everybody that I work a work of grace in
their mind and their heart, He says, they will know Me. And
then here comes the best part. Verse 12. Notice how one-sided
this is? I will. I will. I will. I will. I will. And then He comes
to verse 12. I will be merciful. Why? Because there are a bunch of
sinless people. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. His
people will have unrighteousness, which needs mercy. He says, I
will be merciful to it. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness
and their sins. You mean they have sins? People
under the new covenant have sins? You betcha. What does God do
with those sins? Their sins and their lawless
deeds? I will remember no more. And he says, that's how the two
covenants are different. A new covenant I will make in
the house of Israel, in the house of Judah, not like the covenant
that I made with their fathers that they broke because they
did not continue in it and therefore I disregarded them. But this
is the covenant that I will make with them. I will write my law
on their mind and on their hearts so that they will not depart
from me. They will love me. They will know me from the least
of them to the greatest. Will they have sin? You betcha.
But I will forgive their sins, their lawless deeds I will remember
no more. And he says, Which one do you
want? Which covenant do you want? Do
you want to go back to Moses? Do you want to go back to the
old covenant? Do you want to go back to the old sacrificial
system? Do you want to go back to the old high priest? Do you
want to go back to promises that were conditioned on your obedience? Or do you want the promises of
the new covenant and of the mediator of the new covenant? And he says
in verse 13, in that, he says, a new covenant. He has made the
first obsolete. Obsolete. The new one comes along. And the old one's not supported
anymore. It's not produced anymore. Like a car that is made obsolete,
it stops being made and supported at some point. There might be
a transitional period for a time that it's supported. We'll see
that in the next part of the verse. But it's finished and
it's done. It doesn't become a collector's
item. Obsolete. This word obsolete. In the active
voice in the Greek means declared as no longer in use. This verse tells us and who is
it that declares this? Is it just the writer? The writer
says, I've decided that the Old Covenant is obsolete. You know,
we've taken a vote and we've decided the Old Covenant. No,
it's clearly a declaration of the Lord. This first has been
because who is it that makes these covenants? God does. Who
can alone make them obsolete? God does. And he says here, the
tabernacle, the sacrificial system, the high priesthood under Levi,
under Aaron, all of that took place is by God, outmoded, made
obsolete because something better is here. For those of you who
were here during the Sunday school, I suggest this has to be addressed
in regards to a discussion of the temple in Ezekiel. If it
is suggested that in some future age the temple and all of the
sacrificial system will be erected as it was under the Old Covenant,
that this verse has to be seriously dealt with. It is to say that
God will take something that has been made obsolete and resurrected
and something that is not what the new covenant is. And he himself
ordains that the whole system be re-resurrected. And Jesus
comes and sits in the midst of that system. This is one reason
I do not believe that. And notice what he says in verse
13, what is becoming obsolete? And growing old is ready to vanish
away. When did that happen? I would
suggest by way of historical note that that happened in 70
AD. When the armies of Titus, under
the marching orders of Caesar, siege Jerusalem and dismantle
the kingdom, dismantle the tabernacle, and fulfill the prophecy which
Jesus spoke, I tell you truly, when his disciples said, look
at all the beautiful stones of this temple, of this building,
Jesus said, I tell you the truth, the day is coming when not one
stone will be left on another. And that God himself in 70 AD,
after a transitional period, in 70 AD puts his historical
stamp of approval on the fact that the old covenant system
is made obsolete, And he says in his time, which is before
70 AD, I believe, it is now growing old and ready to vanish away.
He says, you better get out now. Because the time is coming. Transitional
will give you support for a little while. It's like when you have
an obsolete computer, an obsolete car, obsolete software. There's there's a transitional
time. The day's going to come. The date's going to come. You're
going to come and ask for help. And there is no more help to
be found. And for that reason, he says, don't go back. This Greek word translated vanish
away, obsolete. It's only used here in the New
Testament. It's used in First Kings chapter nine, verses six
through nine to speak of the destruction of Jerusalem. That
was in that time future. It's used throughout the prophets
in the Greek version of the Old Testament to speak of the utter
destruction of nations. I suggest what he is Highlighting
here is that a whole old covenant system that he made with Israel
is obsolete. Fulfilling the words of Jesus,
where he said, I tell you the truth, the kingdom of God will
be taken from this nation and given to a nation that will bear
its fruit. What is that nation? According
to Peter, he says, even to Gentiles, you are a holy nation. You are
a holy priesthood. First to the Jew, but also to
the Greek of every kindred, tribe and tongue that come to the Lord
Jesus, who serves a better tabernacle. And as he then argues, which
we won't get into now, chapter nine, verse twelve, which I think
is the highlight of this chapter. What is this better covenant,
this better priest who is in a better tabernacle do? He gives
a better sacrifice. Lord willing, we'll look at that
next week. If you are a part of the New
Covenant, connected particularly to inclusion in God's people,
our brother who will be testifying of his embracing of Jesus Christ
and entering into the New Covenant through baptism, celebrated week
by week by his people in the Lord's Supper, This is the covenant
of my blood which is shed for you. Why do we do baptism? Why
do we assemble as a local church? Why is it we keep the Lord's
Supper? It's because we are members of the new covenant. Because
the old has become obsolete. If you are a part of the new
covenant, you, my brother, my sister, are greatly blessed. You are greatly blessed. by God's grace. Why? Because you know the Lord. Why? Because your unrighteousness
and your sin and your lawless deeds, God is merciful toward,
and He doesn't remember them anymore. You know Him, and He is your
God You are one of His people. What is the evidence of that?
Because the law of God is written on your mind and on your heart.
A delight to do your will, O God. Your law is upon my heart. So, serving Jesus under the New
Covenant, gathering together with His people, celebrating
baptism, taking together of the Lord's Supper, hearing His Word
preached, sitting with anticipation and hungry spiritual bellies
saying, Pastor, don't give us a bunch of stories. Don't give
us a bunch of ideas. Give us the Word of God, because
we want His will. We delight to do His will. Tell
us how to please God. We want that more than anything.
That is the evidence of being in the New Covenant. Not baptism. Not membership of a church. but
a delight to do God's will, which includes these other things.
It's a desire to walk in the Word of God, to walk according
to His commandments, not to merit salvation, but because I am forgiven. It's based on better promises.
And I know I will not ultimately depart from Him. Why? Because
His Spirit has given me a new heart and a new mind. And He
has taken out the heart of stone and put in a heart of flesh.
Now, God, when I sin, I am broken. And when I sin, I come in repentance. And I seek Your grace, and I
seek Your people, and I want Your Word, and I desire Your
Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. I pray, not my will,
but Yours be done. And when I sin, I am broken.
But I come to the cross and say, remember no more. Remember no
more. Forgiven my iniquity, my sin,
my lawless deeds, I will remember no more. And I worship in the
new covenant. My brother, my sister, I want
you to ponder the magnitude of what we claim. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment
of everything that was done under the Old Covenant. and through
which the old covenant becomes obsolete because it is a new
and better covenant. Jesus is in one sense the fulfillment
of the blood of chickens and goats and bulls and animals and
in some cultures of human beings. Because they knew they were wrong
with something or someone up there. And they sacrificed and
they killed their children to appease the gods. At least they
knew blood had to be shed to appease somebody higher than
us. And Christ is the ultimate fulfillment of all of those longings. Though they are misdirected,
though they are sinfully enacted, they had a longing to say, we
are wrong. Someone, something up there is
right. Christ is the global and the universal fulfillment of
all of that. And amazingly, you heard the
gospel. And multitudes of people have
never heard the gospel. And people have sacrificed their
children trying to appease their gods. And you've heard the gospel
and believed. Everything else is a shadowing
copy in the human attempt to appease the gods. And you've
heard the Gospel that says there's one God. And He's revealed Himself
in the person of Jesus Christ. And He so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. You've heard that message
and you have believed it if you're a part of the New Covenant. Two things that this could do.
One is puff up our pride. I am chosen among all of the
multitudes of the earth. Aren't I special? All those pagan
people out there, all those false believers out there, that is absolutely ludicrous. The other thing and the right
thing to respond to Being a member of the New Covenant, my brother
Aaron, I would especially exhort you today to remember this is
humility. Humility, being baptized, taking
of the Lord's Supper, being a part of a church, being a follower
of Christ, taking up his word with the desire to follow after
him. What does that make of us? It makes everything of Christ.
For us, humble, to say not we are chosen, I am the chosen,
but with almost utter disbelief, me chosen, of the billions of
humanity that have perished in their sins. Do I really have
the audacity to believe that the gospel is the power of God
to salvation? and that I've heard and that
God has done a work of the spirit and written his law in my heart,
my mind, and he has promised to forgive me that I will not
face judgment and I have something greater than all of the old covenant.
If this is true of you, my brother, my sister, then we are blessed
beyond all measure, no matter what our circumstances, no matter
what our trials, no matter what our struggles, and they are real
and they are often hard. We are blessed beyond measure. My brother, my sister, fellow
member of the New Covenant, whether you're a member of this church
or not, if there's the evidence of being a member of the New
Covenant in your life, glory in the cross. Glory in the new
and better covenant. Glory in Jesus Christ. Glory
in God's mercy towards you. Let that glory temper and flavor
and spin everything that you face. All shall be well. Because it is well with my soul. Fellow member of the covenant,
believe deeply. Witness confidently. Live boldly. Walk in righteousness for Christ's
name. If you are not a follower of
Christ, a member of the new covenant. I invite you to the desire of
the nations. That which the nations and the
pagans in their darkness have never heard, yet they long for. I invite you in the revelation
of Christ and of the Gospel to believe on Him. Follow Him. Cry out to Him for
a new mind, for a new heart. Become a member of the New Covenant
by grace, through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Amen. Let's pray, please. Father, we sometimes in reading
the Scripture wonder what it would be like to see the glory
of God in Solomon's temple that so filled it that the priests
could not remain inside. To see that magnificent building
erected, which was the desire of the nations. And even those
like the Queen of Sheba came to see the luxury and the throne
of Solomon, to hear of his wisdom, And Lord, here in a basement
in Madison, Tennessee, we serve in a better temple, a better
tabernacle with greater sacrifices. We have as our teacher through
the Word and Spirit, one who is wiser than Solomon. And Lord, it's often to our sad
admittance that we are lethargic and dull and cold when they say
to us, let us go to the house of God. Forgive us, O Lord, for
that too frequent sense that we have of dullness. Stir us, O Lord, to greater love
for the one who is greater above all, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in His name we pray. Amen.
Jesus, Mediator of a Better Covenant
Series Hebrews
| Sermon ID | 320091622540 |
| Duration | 1:03:39 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Hebrews 8:1 |
| Language | English |
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