Introduction: What Is Covenant?
Covenant, at its most basic level, means an agreement between two or more persons. It's an agreement between two or more persons. Very often in the Bible, when we speak of covenant, we speak of God's dealings with His people. In fact, our Bible is sort of set up to reflect that.
We have the Old Testament, or the Old Covenant, and we have the New Testament, or the New Covenant. And here in Hebrews chapter 8, the author is celebrating the fact that the New Covenant is superior. The New Covenant is better. Not saying that the old was horrible and wretched and monstrous and bad, but he is just highlighting by way of a contrast that the New Covenant under its head, the Lord Jesus Christ, far exceeds what the old covenant did.
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 8
So I'll just pick up reading in Hebrews chapter 8 beginning in verse 1. 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 and not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices.
Therefore, it is necessary that this one also have something to offer. For if he were on the earth, he would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law, who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things. as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For God 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 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 no 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 in New Covenant, he has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
Introduction
Well, we are going to focus primarily on the center portion of this section, specifically verses 7 to 12. And basically what the author is doing here is appealing to Jeremiah chapter 31. Jeremiah was an Old Testament prophet who lived at a time when Israel or Judah specifically was going to go into exile for having broke the covenant. And so from Jeremiah 30 to 33, God consoles the people.
God gives them a message of hope. It's looking beyond their present state, looking beyond the captivity that is to come to that future state when God in Christ will do a great and glorious work. So, he appeals to Jeremiah 31, again an Old Testament prophet who announced the coming of this new covenant, this better covenant, this better covenant that was established on better promises because it revealed and it was ratified by the Lord Jesus Christ. But prior to getting to that section there are a couple of observations we should make in the rest of the chapter.
Minister of the True Tabernacle
The first is the minister of the true tabernacle verses 1 to 2. The word tabernacle means dwelling place. You perhaps have heard of the temple. Solomon built this great big temple under the direction of God.
It would be a place where Israel could go and meet their God. They could present sacrifice. But prior to the building of that temple, there was a mobile temple. There was a tabernacle.
They would put up a tent, and they would put the furnishings in there. And that is where God and sinners would meet together. And so what our author is saying with reference to this tabernacle, the new covenant tabernacle, the blessing that we have in terms of salvation, we have Jesus. He is the minister.
He is the mediator. He is the surety of this particular thing. Notice what he says in verse one, chapter eight. 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. I think what the author does right here is says, this is theology for dummies. You ever see those books, dog handling for dummies, windows for dummies? They're usually yellow and black and it has whatever your interest is, they have that for dummies.
The idea is, is that people who aren't real skilled can take one of those books off the shelf and figure out quantum physics. Hopefully they don't have quantum physics for dummies. But you take that off the shelf because you're not skilled, you're not schooled, you don't understand a lot. Look at what the author does here in chapter 8 verse 1.
This is the main point of the things we are saying. He started in chapter 5 verse 1 to present to us Jesus as the high priest of the new covenant. He's not like those Levitical priests. He doesn't go daily to offer up sacrifice.
He doesn't go first to offer sacrifice for himself because he is sinless. He is of the order of Melchizedek. That's what the author says in chapter 7. And he brings this to application.
He says this is the main point of the things we are saying. We have such a high priest. We look at the deficiencies of the Old Testament priesthood. We look at the limitations of those sinful men who ultimately were cut off because they died.
We have a high priest who far exceeds everything and anything they ever did. And look at the language of the text. We have currently right now in our possession such a high priest. We need to think about that as the people of God.
We don't have human priests that we go into a box and confess our sins to. We have a high priest stationed at the right hand of God most high who has rendered up the best possible sacrifice, namely himself. He has offered up himself as a substitute for guilty sinners. And what we read in the scriptures is that he ever lives to make intercession for us.
Now all of us get discouraged. All of us get tried. All of us get tempted. All of us get downcast.
May I direct you to Hebrews 8, verse 1. We have such a high priest who answers everything with reference to God. Who answers in everything with reference to man. He says he is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens.
It's unique, isn't it? It's blessed. He's like Melchizedek. He is both priest and king.
He not only offers up himself, but because God is pleased with his offering, he exalts him to his right hand. He stations him at his right hand, and he gives him universal authority, sovereignty, reign, and rule over all things for the church. He is telling Christians who are battle weary that you have such a high priest. You have one who is at the throne of the majesty on high.
This is Paul's way in Romans chapter 8, when he is encouraging Christians to live consistently with their profession. He says, God did not stare, but He delivered up His Son. How will He not also freely with Him give us all things? Church of Jesus Christ, we have a great high priest stationed at the right hand of the majesty on high in a position of sovereignty and of power and preeminence so that he can aid the people of God.
This is one of the recurring themes in the book of Hebrews. Turn back for just a moment to Hebrews chapter 4. Hebrews 4, verse 14, seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. He exhorts them to two things.
Seeing the fact that Jesus has passed into the heavens, he needs to hold fast your confession. That means don't waver. Don't let go. Persevere.
When everybody else is challenging historic Christian orthodoxy, don't you follow suit. If people call you names, if they say you're weird, if they say you're an odd duck, don't relinquish. Hold fast. In this particular context, what was going on is that Jewish Christians were being pressured to go back to the Mosaic ritual.
They were being pressured to go back to the temple to bring their sacrifices. And our author says, hold fast your confession. Don't go backwards. Be like Martin Luther.
When he was summoned before the man, he said, here I stand. I can do no other. Unless I am convinced by Holy Scripture, unless I am shown from the book that I am wrong, here I stand. I can do no other.
That's what the author is saying. Notice in verse 15, he says, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Beautiful. Sometimes people read this and they say, well, he doesn't really know what it's like.
No, we don't know what it's really like. Have you been tempted fully? Or have you given up along the way? If 100% represents the fullness of a temptation, some of us on the best of days might get to 30% and then we fall.
We don't know what it's like to be tempted the way Jesus was, but he knows what it's like to be tempted the way we are, yet without sin. Notice what he does now. Secondly, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. He's a pastoral heart.
It's a pastoral perspective. He wants his readers to stand fast. He wants them to apply to Christ. He wants them to come prayerfully.
He wants them to fetch help in their time of need. Which, if you are a thinking Christian, is every moment of every single day. We ought to pray always. We ought to come boldly to the throne of grace.
We ought not to make peace treaties with our sins. We ought to deal with them by the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, this minister of the true tabernacle. And then verse two, he says, a minister, chapter eight of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord erected and not man. He's talking about heaven.
He's talking about the glorious promise to come. He's talking about the fulfillment of all of God's promises. Jesus administrates that realm. Jesus is over it all.
Jesus is our King of Kings. Jesus is our Lord of Lords. And we can come to Him. We can come through Him.
That's the point of the author. This is the main point of the things we are saying. We have such a high priest. If you lived in old covenant Israel, you saw the high priest, at least intimately, one specific day of the year.
It was that day of atonement when he would come and he would offer up sacrifice for himself. He would offer up sacrifice for the sins of Israel. Then he would take a goat, he'd lay his hands on that goat, and he would confess the sins of Israel. And then he would send that goat out into the wilderness.
You would hear him confessing your sin. You would see him confessing his own sin. But you probably wouldn't have nearness to him. So I suspect the Levitical priesthood hung out together.
They're not going to hobnob with the riffraff in society. Isn't this one of the complaints of the Pharisees about Jesus? This man receives sinners and eats with them. Jesus hobnobs with us.
Jesus is with us. Jesus promises, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Jesus is present with His church in their evangelism and missionary enterprise. Jesus is present with His church in all facets of her being in life.
And Jesus is with His people. That's what our author wants you to get. Yes, we're here to witness a baptism. Yes, we're here to reflect on the entrance into the Kingdom of God by way of the Gospel.
But as the people of God, we need to suck the sweetness out of this flower. We need to understand we have such a High Priest. We need this High Priest. He is fitting.
He is fitting for us. Because we're so sinful, He is so holy, and He brings us into the presence of God.
The Function of the High Priest
He then goes on to show the function of the High Priest. Verses 3 to 5. Every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore, it is necessary that this one also has something to offer.
Jesus offered. You see, a priest engages in two activities. Offering, sacrifice, and intercession. He's not a priest if he doesn't offer.
He's not a priest if he doesn't sacrifice. He's not a priest if he doesn't engage in this act of atonement. We all know what it was that Jesus offered. He didn't bring a bull.
He didn't bring a lamb. It wasn't like the old covenant. Imagine for a moment that you're a worshipper in the old covenant. Instead of getting up today, putting on your nice clothes, getting in your car and driving here, you would have went out into your yard.
You would have grabbed an animal. You would have taken it down to the tabernacle. You would have taken a knife. You would have slit its throat.
You would have engaged in dissection. You would have handed that over to the priest who would then burn it as a sweet-smelling sacrifice to our God. You see, sinners need sacrifice in order to approach God. It's a fundamental principle that the Apostle lays out in Hebrews 9.22.
Without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness. You mark my words right here, right now. If you are not a believer in Jesus, If you are a sinner who has not dealt with the Savior, there is no way to deal with your sin apart from the blood of Jesus Christ. There's no way.
You might come to church and say, wow, I need to fix up my life. I need to change things. I need to stop going here. I need to start going there.
I need to implement a course of moral reform or change. Hebrews 9.22 lays it down, without the shedding of blood there is no remission. You're not going back in history. Don't go out to your yard or your neighbor's yard, take his dog or his cat and put a knife to his throat in an attempt to appease our thrice holy God.
No, the glory of the Christian message is that Jesus offered himself once. Jesus offered himself at Calvary to the Father. The Father accepted that sacrifice. Now, every single sinner that looks to Christ in faith receives forgiveness.
It's that good. It is that good. You say, well, if you preach that, everybody will go out and live like wicked sinners. No, they won't.
They will see that Jesus' blood and righteousness is theirs. They will strive by God's grace and the power of the Spirit to please their Savior. It is the Gospel that brings liberty from both the power and penalty of sin alone. It is that good.
It is that wonderful. It is that blessed that you look to Christ in faith and you'll receive forgiveness and you'll receive a righteousness. You'll be clothed in a righteousness not your own so that you'll stand before God most high on that day of judgment. And instead of him saying, depart from me, you curse it into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels, in Christ you'll hear.
Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into your rest. It's that good. He offers sacrifice.
He offers himself. He offers up his own body at Calvary.
Superiority of the New Covenant
Now let's get thirdly into the superiority of the new covenant. Look at what he says in verse 7 for if that first covenant had been faultless then no place would have been sought for a second. What's the implication. There was fault in that covenant arrangement.
You say, well, God made that covenantal arrangement. Did he make something faulty? No, the problem wasn't the covenantal arrangement. The problem wasn't Moses.
The problem was us. The problem is sin. You see, the covenant made with Moses and the nation of Israel called them to a certain life. And I believe in so doing, God showed them their moral bankruptcy.
God taught them, even in this, their need for blood atonement. He taught them about the coming of the Lord Jesus. The fault in this covenantal arrangement is right here. It's in your heart and mind.
Remember when I said the good news is that good? It is that good because the bad news is that bad. Some of us think we're okay. In fact, there's a book that says I'm okay, you're okay.
Some of us think that everything is just dandy in the world around us. Some of us think that, yeah, we're not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm not like other men. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not unjust.
I'm not a liar. I'm not a cheater. I'm not like these tax collectors. I'm pretty all right.
Do you realize that each and every one of you here deserves God's wrath and curse, both in this life and that which is to come? Do you understand that? I'm a firm believer that the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, doesn't make a lot of sense until we understand what the Bible says about our hearts. The same prophet Jeremiah that the writer's going to appeal to says in Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.
We don't like to think that way, do we? Not desperately wicked. Who do you think you are, preacher? I'm a part of a social club.
I'm a family man. I got a plaque on my wall that says I'm the employee of the month. And you're sitting here telling me that I'm desperately wicked. I'm not.
God is. See, apostles say when he wants to bring this point home, he says there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none who understands.
There is none who seeks after God. If you think you're all right, for just a moment, walk with me. The first and foremost commandment is this, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Fail.
Every single one of us, Christians, fail. What's the second commandment? Which is like unto it, love your neighbor as yourself. That's another big fail.
We are selfish. We are proud. We are arrogant. We are bitter.
We are grumblers. We are complainers. We are whiners. We are perjurers.
We are covetous. Some of us even go beyond those internal sins that everybody doesn't see. We engage in outward acts of wickedness. That's what the Bible says.
If you don't understand that, the good news of Jesus doesn't make that much sense. See, if all you need is a little help from on high, if all you need is a little help from your friends, if all you need is a bit of remedy that you can apply, or if you just need what Michael Horton calls therapeutic, moralistic deism, if that's what you're in the market for, you haven't come to grips with this biblical reality that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. What does God through the prophet Isaiah say when he's celebrating the atoning work of Jesus to come? He says, all we like sheep have gone astray.
The Bible likens us to sheep. Sheep are not the most intelligent creatures. Sheep are wayward beings. Sheep need a shepherd.
All we like sheep have gone astray. We have made a mess of our lives. We have engaged in filth. We have engaged in ungodliness.
We have engaged in all manner of evil. We have raised the fist to God. There's a part in Romans 1 where the Apostle Paul is indicting the sin of man. And he says they did not even like to retain God in their knowledge.
Who do we think we are? When we don't even want to retain the knowledge of our Creator in our minds? When we say, no God, that's how Edwards translates Psalm 14. 1, the fool is said in his heart, there is no God. Edwards says, the man says in his heart, no God.
It's not just confined to the pages of Holy Writ. This is the attitude of mankind out there and in here. Do you come to grips with this reality, this savage reality? The Gospel makes no sense.
You'll see it as a contending religion. You'll see Jesus as a nice teacher. You'll see him as a moral example. That's not how the apostles preached him.
Just prior in 1 Corinthians, Paul said the Jews, they seek after signs. The Greeks, they want wisdom. He says, but we preach Christ and him crucified. It's a stumbling block.
It's a scandal. A crucified Messiah? That's crazy. That's like military intelligence.
That's like old news. That's like jumbo shrimp. That is just not something we traffic in. A crucified Messiah.
But that, according to the Apostle, is the wisdom and the power of God. Such that when we sinners look to Him, we receive forgiveness and we receive His righteousness. You need to understand that the fault was not with the covenantal arrangement. The fault was with the sinner under the covenantal arrangement.
Now notice verse 8 of Hebrews 8, because finding fault with them, He says, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord. I already read it, so we'll just rehearse some of the more salient points. God's making a covenant. Not like the one I made with them when I led them out of Egypt.
The covenant that they broke.
The New Covenant Is Unbreakable
You know what the first feature of the new covenant is that we ought to find great comfort in? Is that it's unbreakable. God is relentless. God is indefectible.
God is going to save us. God will be victorious. You see, Hebrews 7.25 doesn't make sense if we can break this new covenant. Because in Hebrews 7.25 it says that Jesus is able to save to the uttermost.
Jesus is able to save completely all those who draw nigh unto God through Him. The first feature of New Covenant Christianity is that it's unbreakable. That's why any scheme, any system, any view that places a sinner in the New Covenant and then suggests that he can lose his salvation is not biblical. It's not theologically correct.
You see, God, who begins this good work in us, will complete it unto the day of Jesus. Not like the covenant that I made with them before. The one that they broke. And in Jeremiah, he says, even though I was a husband to them, it underscores their guilt.
Yes, He was Lord. Yes, He was Master. Yes, He was Sovereign. But He was husband.
Husband. He broke it. They had a good thing. They had a good relationship.
They had a good marriage. Have you ever heard of a man leaving his wife, and then you say, why? Or a woman leaving a good man, you say, why? What's the problem?
What's the issue? You don't say, well, marriage as an institution is bad. You say, that person's got a messed up heart. They left their husband.
Internalization of God's Law
Notice the second feature of this new covenant that is true of all those in the new covenant. He speaks of the internalization of the law. That just means kids that God takes his law and puts it right in our hearts. See, in the Old Testament, that law was external.
They were called to obey. Some were internally circumcised. Some obeyed from the heart. But it wasn't an essential feature of that covenant like it is today.
In the New Covenant, one of the things that is true of every New Covenant member is that the law is in our hearts and minds. Notice. Not according, verse 9, 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 write them on their hearts." Isn't that beautiful? Isn't that great? I heard a caricature of Reformed theology the other day. The man seemed to indicate that Reformed people think they're under the Old Covenant.
That's not true. The Old Covenant, especially according to Hebrews 8, is done. It's obsolete. It's over.
But there's elements that were there present in the Old Covenant that are still present in the New. And the law of God is one of them. Only the Christian doesn't look at the law and say, oh, how I hate your law. It is my consternation all the day.
Oh, how I despise the command that I have to honor my parents. Oh, how I despise the command that I'm not supposed to murder people. No! The Christian has the law of God now inside.
The Christian now sees that law and says, oh, how I love your law. The language of the Apostle John in 1 John, he says the commandments of God are not burdensome. They're not grievous. Here's a little point, friend.
This is a good way to know if you're in the new covenant or not. What do you think of God's law? Is it your dread? Is it something you hate?
Now, I'm not asking you to keep it perfectly. None of us do. That's why we need Jesus. But do you say, forget that law.
I want to do whatever I want. I'm the captain of my own destiny. I make my own decisions. And I'm going to be a rebel under God.
But I love Jesus. Yeah. What did Jesus say in John 14, 15? If you love me.
What? Well, do whatever you want. It's the way Christianity has interpreted that passage. If you love me, you just no holds barred.
You be as wicked and as ungodly and as worldly and as licentious as you possibly want. No. Jesus said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. That's a feature of New Covenant Christianity.
You're in an unbreakable covenant. Not because of you. It's because of our covenant head, Jesus. But one of the features in that New Covenant is that the law of God is now your friend.
It's not something you delight in. Again, you will not keep it perfectly, but when you break that law, you go back to the Savior and say, please forgive me. Wash me afresh in the blood. Fill me with your Spirit.
Keep me on the careful path. Cause me not to stray. You can sing with that hymn we just sang, I'm prone to wander. I'm prone to leave the God I love.
You confess it as a genuine demonstration of your contrition before God. People say, your law is horrible, God. Don't make such rules for me. That's not Christianity.
Personal Knowledge of God
What's another feature in this covenant? It's the personal knowledge of God. Notice this in verse 10. Yeah, verse 10 at the very end, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.
None of them shall teach his neighbor and none of his brothers say, no, the Lord. No, the Lord, you know him. If you're in this covenant, doesn't mean you know about him. Yeah, I know that, you know, Muslims have the Prophet Muhammad and they worship Allah.
They go to Mecca on Hajj. They engage in jihad sometimes. They do certain things. The Buddhists or the Hindus, they have these certain features to their religion.
And all these Christians, they have a God who's Trinitarian. And Jesus allegedly died on the cross. That's not the knowledge he's talking about. You see, in Jeremiah's day, this was a real practical element in the life of Israel.
What's the prophet Hosea say? My people perish for lack of knowledge. Not that they don't know who Yahweh is. They don't know Him intimately.
The sin of sins, according to the prophet Hosea, is my people have forgotten me. They've forgotten me. They have not wanted to retain the knowledge of God in their hearts. So what's a feature of New Covenant Christianity?
They'll know the Lord. You believe the Gospel and what happens? You know the Lord. He knows you.
You know Him. It's a beautiful relationship. This overlaps into what he says, I will be their God and they shall be my people will be with each other. We'll hang out together, we'll enjoy each other, we'll fellowship with one another.
Some of you might say, well, that's language that kind of belittles God. No. Look at God in the tabernacle, what's he telling Israel, I want to be where you're at. One man has made a good observation with reference to Exodus.
Exodus 25 begins that portion of the book where God says he wants to dwell with his people. Exodus is very easy. Just keep this in your mind. God delivers, God dwells, God demands, and God dwells.
This is all courtesy of Dr. Ralph Davis. The dwelling portion, chapter 25, he starts to specify how they're supposed to build the tabernacle. Has anybody ever read that and go, oh man, wow.
Curtains and hooks and tenons and construction materials. And maybe you architectural types and you building contractors and you guys who work with lumber, read that with gusto. Look at how they're hanging stuff. For most of us, we go, oh, man, that's a lot of chapters between 25 and 40.
It's not interesting. The bulk of the book is about God dwelling. What happens? Smack dab in the middle. 25, 32.
What happens in 32? They get impatient, the people do. They tell Aaron, make us a God that we can worship. What's Aaron do?
He fashions a calf for them to worship. Moses comes down. He sees this. He's irate.
What's Aaron do? He lies. Oh, the people, they just wanted a God to worship. So I threw this gold in and out came this calf.
After God deals with all this, what do we get back to? Hanging curtains. Putting lumber in. Tenants.
All these items. He might be tempted to go, oh man, back to this boring stuff again. He says the judicious Israelite reader would have said, oh, blessed routine. Blessed routine, because we almost lost this.
With that calf worship, with that exchange of the glory of God for that which is not God, we almost took this tabernacle and threw it into the sewer. Give me chapter 35 and talk to me about curtains. It's the knowledge of God, it's intimacy with God, it's personal union with God. This is what Jesus prayed in John 17, chapter 17, verse 3.
In his high priestly prayer, he said, This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. When you go into heaven, you're not going to say, wow, look at those streets of gold. Look at those pearly gates. You might think that, to be sure.
But the beauty of heaven is God. This is the essence of eternal life. It's God. Again, a place to examine yourselves.
Some of you young people and children, do you read your Bibles? What do you think about church? Do you want to listen to sermons? Do you want to go on sermonaudio.com?
Do you want to listen to good men bring the truth? Do you want to have your fathers and your mothers instruct you from the Word? And a feature of New Covenant religion is the knowledge of God. Sometimes I wonder about North American Christianity.
There's very little knowledge of God. There's knowledge of how he'll help me. Suggestions for how to be a better me. There's ways for him to give me a shot in the arm so I'll be a better worker.
I'll be a better husband. I'm not saying these are bad things, but how many of us oftentimes just come in and bask in the presence of God. If that's the essence of eternal life, why chase all those shadows? Why chase all those substances?
Why chase all those things? If your life is characterized by the knowledge of God in terms of His new covenant Christianity, what are you to be about? You care about God? You care about the knowledge of God?
Great litmus test. Where do you spend your time? I'm sorry, but if you've got more hours on Facebook than anybody in the Western Hemisphere, you may get a jewel from the Facebook innovators. What's it say about your relationship to God?
If you know every hockey player that's ever lived in his professional amount of times that he put the puck in the net, And you can rattle off statistics and facts about whatever and anything it is, but you know not God. You can't give a simple gospel explanation to a sinner on how to be saved. You can tell what kind of headers are on this kind of a hot rod. Well, you ladies, you got all the fiction works down, have you read any of Louis Burkard?
Are you men chasing whatever pursuit to relax your mind? Fine. Those are legitimate things. We are social creatures.
I'm not here to condemn everything. But you can't define justification for your kid. If an essential feature of New Covenant Christianity is the knowledge of God, how are we doing? How is it going with us?
I'm not talking about the Armenians. I'm not talking about the Catholics. I'm not talking about them. I'm talking about us.
And brethren, it is unconscionable for us as Reformed Christians. We've got such a heritage. I love the way Spurgeon describes it. When I walk back into church history, I can shake hands and hug and embrace brothers who believe the same thing I've believed over 20 centuries.
It is unconscionable for us as Christians to be illiterate with reference to the knowledge of God. Again, this is not saying that no one knew the Lord in the Old Covenant, but it was not an essential feature. In the Old Covenant, you had your Jacob's and your Esau's. You had your Isaacs and your Ishmaels.
Of course, Isaac and Jacob knew God, but it wasn't an essential feature of that old covenant religion. Whereas in the days that Jeremiah prophesied of, when Jesus says, this is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins, He came to bring us the knowledge of His Father, the knowledge of Himself. He came to give us the Holy Spirit so that we may approach Him, so that we may come to His Word, so that we may have an interest in spiritual things. If you don't have that interest, you need to believe the Gospel.
You need to be saved. We've lowered the bar. I'm guilty of lowering the bar. Christianity demands our entirety.
What's Paul say in Romans 12? Therefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech you by the mercies of God, present your bodies as a living sacrifice, which is not the sacrifice or service of the super-spiritual among you. That's your reasonable service. You've been bought with a price.
Therefore, glorify God with your body and your soul, which are Christ's. Don't buy into this lie. And I'm sorry if I have perpetrated. I ask forgiveness that the bar of Christianity is down.
I'm not saying we work to get it. We believe by God's grace for the saving of our souls. But when we're Christians, is there a spiritual appetite? How come for an hour and a half, it looks like we're engaged in punishment.
Sunday worship at times looks like it's just like killing us. But man, put me in front of that hockey game and I've got an energy and a ferocity. Not me. I couldn't give a whatever about the hockey.
I'm just handing in my man card here in Canada, right? You're not a real man if you don't like hockey. I love my sons-in-law and my son. They play hockey great.
Put whatever in. Put whatever in. What's Jesus saying in the Beatitudes? Blessed are they who what?
Hunger. Thirst after righteousness. Younger thirst after righteousness. Notice Jesus uses two lively images.
What do you do when you're hungry? You get food. I do. If I'm hungry, get out of my way.
Actually, my family knows. Throw them an apple. Throw them a burrito. Throw in something.
Why does Jesus use that image? Because it's something in our gut we know. Blessed are you. Not if once in a week you throw God his religious bone, and you show up for an hour and a half, and then you go on your way and do what you really like.
You hunger for righteousness. You thirst for righteousness. Some of you young people, that is going to affect the way people look at you in this world. What a blessed thing.
That guy's weird. Jesus says He's hungering and He's thirsting after righteousness. I'd rather be weird in the sight of God-haters than approved by the Lord of all the earth. You see, this is an essential feature of New Covenant Christianity.
Forgiveness of Sins
And the final one is the forgiveness of sins. For I will be merciful, verse 12, to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Praise God. Praise Him.
Bless him, honor him. Every one of us who have received the forgiveness of sins, this would be an appropriate time for us to get on our faces and do shower praise to Almighty God. He's forgiven us. He has cleansed us.
He has washed us. He has done this by virtue of the fact that his son lived and died and rose again on our behalf. Not because we deserve it. Notice what he says.
I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds. I will remember no more. That old concept that the prophet Micah introduces in Micah 7, using his own name. Who is a God like you?
Pardoning sins. He says he has taken our sins and he has cast them into the depths of the sea. He doesn't remember them. We're not the proverbial puppy that made a mess in the carpet.
God hates our face and He rubs it in there every single time. So I fear some of us look at Christianity. He's forgiven us. He's cleansed us.
He's washed us. He's purified us. I confess, for some of us, it's hard to wrap our minds around this. Some of us who have been reared in homes filled with guilt.
I'm not saying all guilt's bad. Guilt is good if it causes us to flee to Christ. But as forgiven Christians, you are to enjoy what He has done in your life. That doesn't mean when you sin, you should feel guilty.
You go, you confess it, and you believe that He forgives you, and you move on. There's no merit. There's no extra points if you sit on your couch for ten hours and say how guilty and miserable you are. Oh, Martin calls that evangelical penance.
We have to atone for our sin before we'll feel good. Confess your sins. First, John one nine, it's a small passage, he says. God is faithful or if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us.
And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Not God is faithful, but you need to go out and feel bad for four hours. How does that look? After four hours, well, I felt bad long enough now.
Now I can have this joy and liberty. At least the Catholics, you go in, they give you your penalty, you go out, you pray the prayers, and you're done. With us Protestants, it's kind of hard to quantify. Well, how bad do I have to feel?
Can we believe the gospel and understand the forgiveness of sin through Jesus and move on? This is what the prophet Isaiah did. When God shows him his glory, the prophet says, woe is me, for I am undone. He says, I have unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.
What does God do? God sends a hot burning tongue to atone for his sin. And then what? God says, who shall go for us?
Who shall we send? The prophet's hand goes up. Here am I, Lord. Send me.
I don't think I'd do that. I'd probably say, oh God, I have to feel bad for a few hours before I'm of any use to you. I have to be long faced. I have to make everybody around me miserable.
I have to really demonstrate that I deserve this forgiveness. We don't deserve it. That's why it's grace. That's why it's mercy.
That's why God says, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds. I will remember no more.
Application: Baptism and the New Covenant
So what's the rub here? What does this have to do with baptism? It's a good question. What does this have to do with baptism?
I think it has to do with baptism in two ways. One, It defines for us what New Covenant membership looks like. It defines for us what New Covenant membership looks like. There are some churches who practice infant sprinkling.
We must ask the question, or the question begs to be asked, are those infants herein described? The question isn't, can God save them? What God does in his secret decree and sovereignty and the mystery of his own will, and it's outworking between him and those infants. The question is, when we go to put somebody into that tank, can we say these features are true in their lives?
Not are they perfect. Not are they the most excellent specimens of a human being we've ever seen, because no one would be baptized that. But through their profession and through a life that gives some sort of credibility to that profession, can we say, yeah, they know the Lord? Yeah, they've been forgiven of their sins.
Yeah, they have the law of God written in their hearts. I think this passage has everything to do with baptism. I think it is loud and clear what we ought to expect in the new covenant. What ought to be essential in the New Covenant?
What ought to be in the hearts of everyone who professes faith in Jesus Christ? So yes, this passage deals with baptism.
Reflect on Your Own Baptism
A second way is that baptism causes all of us, and it should, to reflect on our own baptism. It should cause all of us to be mindful of that time that we publicly identified with Christ. Let's ask the question again, how are we doing? Are we living as those who know God?
If somebody in your workplace or at your school were pressed and said, what's most important to that person? Would they say hot rods? Would they say the newest recipe? Would they say my doll collection?
Would they say my record collection or my CD collection? Would they say, my jewels, or my gold, or my silver? Would they say, you know, they're kind of weird, kind of odd, but they really seem to follow Jesus of Nazareth. Let's think about our own baptism.
I don't want to take away anything from Sarah's special day at all. But in light of these features that are essential in the New Covenant, where are we at, us professors of faith?
The New Covenant Is Blood-Soaked
And then a third reason this passage has to do with baptism is because it tells us that the New Covenant is blood soaked. Sometimes people don't like the Old Testament. It's full of blood. Animals being sacrificed.
People groups being exterminated. The Old Testament is all about blood. Look at how this new covenant is surrounded. Hebrews 7 verse 27, who does not need daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the people's.
For this he did once for all when he offered up himself. The new covenant is blood soaked. Look at chapter 9 verses 11 to 14. 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 once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. Notice verse 14.
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? Hebrews 10, verse 10. By that will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ Once for all, verse 12, but this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God from that time waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. For by one offering, he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
You see, the New Covenant is blood soaked because of the demerit of our sin, because of the gravity of our lawlessness, because of the fact that we pursued every manner of evil that God had forbade. The New Covenant is blood soaked because it took the blood of Jesus Christ to take away that sin. You see, when he's saying that in Hebrews 9.22, without the shedding of blood there is no remission, he's got a point. And his point is it's in the blood of Christ alone that there is remission of sins.
Consider the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 53, a passage we're all familiar with, probably. The song of the suffering servant, the one who would bear the guilt of his people. Well, prior to Isaiah 53, get this, is Isaiah 52.
So you're dazzled here with mathematic acuity. But Isaiah 52 announces or summarizes or gives us a condensation of what will be the thrust of 53. It talks about kings bowing before our Lord Jesus. It talks about His victory.
But smack dab, in the middle of this summary, it says this about our Lord Jesus. Just as many were astonished at You, so His appearance was marred more than any man and His form more than the sons of men. Why was His appearance marred? Because he was beaten.
He was bloodied. He was bruised. It's not talking about later in Isaiah 53 when he says, we esteemed him not. That kind of means that in his earthly ministry, we didn't pay him any attention.
He was nothing special. He was no big deal. Isn't this not the carpenter's son? Of course, we didn't esteem him.
He was no big potatoes. But in the summary statement, it's talking about his cross work. The ESV translates Isaiah 52, 14 this way, as many as were astonished at you. His appearance was so marred beyond human semblance.
You want blood. Go to the New Covenant and is formed beyond that of the children of mankind. The Holman Christian Standard Bible translates, just as many were appalled at you, his appearance was so disfigured that he did not look like a man. And his form did not resemble a human being.
Why? Because of our demerit. Because of our sin. Because of our guilt.
Because of our shame. Because of our raised fist. Because of our sheep-like ability to go astray, Jesus was disfigured. Men hid themselves.
Men didn't look at Him. But they say, He saved others. He cannot save Himself. Praise God.
Praise God, because if He would have saved Himself, we would be dead in our trespasses and sins. You see, the New Covenant is blood-soaked. When we go into this water, what we need to think about is the great redemptive work of Jesus. We don't congratulate Sarah and say, man, you're doing a good thing today.
We praise God that he saves miserable sinners like Sarah Neufeld. Oh, but she's such a sweet little girl in Adam has gone astray and deserves the wrath of God. Let me just close with a statement concerning atonement. commenting on 2 Samuel 21, which was an atonement ritual in a place called Gibeah. Dale Ralph Davis writes, this text says atonement is horrible.
It is gory. Atonement is never nice, but always gruesome. We need to see this, for we easily fall into the trap of regarding atonement, atonement for those who are not Savvy with the term means God and God reconciling sinners to himself through the blood work and through the blood shedding of Jesus at Calvary. He says we need to see this for we easily fall into the trap of regarding atonement as merely a doctrine, a concept, an abstraction to be explained, a bit of theology to be analyzed. or little better to view it as a moving story to be replayed during Passion Week.
But we should know better. Surely the Israelite worshipper realized this when he towed a young bull to the tabernacle and had to slit its throat, skin it, cut it in pieces, and wash the insides and the legs. It was all mass and gore. From slicing the bull's throat in Leviticus 1 all the way to Calvary, God has always said atonement is nasty and repulsive.
Christians must beware of becoming too refined, longing for a kinder, gentler faith. If we've grown too used to Golgotha, perhaps Gibeah can shock us back into truth. Atonement is a drippy, bloody, smelly business. The stench of death hangs heavy wherever the wrath of God has been quenched.
That's what the new covenant is all about. Your way in is to believe on the Lord Jesus. Believe all that the Bible says concerning him. Believe that he lived.
Believe that he died. Believe that he rose again. you will have everlasting life. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we thank you for your word and we thank you for the superiority of the new covenant. We thank you for your grace and your mercy displayed in the people of God. We thank you for the fact that Jesus lived in obedience to your law, died as a sacrifice at Calvary, and rose from the dead, and that we have such a high priest. I pray that we would not soon forget this, that we would come often to Hebrews chapter 8, that we would feed our souls on the good doctrine contained herein, and that it would be a source of help and encouragement to us along the way.
We just ask as well, Father, that you would have dealings with any and all who do not know you, May your spirit be at work. We trust in the Sovereign God. We know with men it is impossible to bring conversion, but we know with you all things are possible. We just pray today it would be the day of salvation, a day of joy, a day of rejoicing.
Not just because Sarah got baptized, but because sinners found everlasting life. And we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.