We could turn with me in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter eight. Hebrews chapter eight. I'll begin reading in verse one. 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 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 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 in as much 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, 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. Amen. Well, let us pray.

Opening Prayer

Our Father, we thank you for your written word, and we pray now for the ministry of the Holy Spirit to guide us and to help us and to lead us as we consider this blessed passage of Scripture. We thank you for the priestly office of our Lord Jesus, that he is both priest and victim, that he is both the sacrificer and the one sacrificed. and that that sacrifice was in fact as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In this we greatly rejoice, Most High God, and we pray even now that you would help us to appreciate these things and to see the blessedness and the supremacy and the superiority of our Lord Jesus Christ and the new covenant. And our Father, again, forgive us now for all sin and anything that would darken our understanding, and we pray through Jesus Christ the Lord.

Amen. Well,

Introduction

remember that the book of Hebrews was written prior to the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. And as a result, there was still a temple, there was still a sacrificial system, it was apostate to be sure, but those things were extant. The people of Israel were continuing in these patterns, and yet there were those among Israelites that had believed the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of them were being pressured to go back to this sort of system of sacrifice and temple worship.

And so the apostle writes this letter to steady them, to call them to perseverance, to call them to endurance, to call them to continued faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, not to relinquish faith in Christ. And they go back to these mosaic ceremonies. So that's the broader context. And one of the ways that the Apostle argues that the people of God maintain fidelity to Christ is to show his superiority.

And he does that throughout this book. The entirety of Hebrews is taken up with the superiority. superiority of Jesus Christ over angels, over prophets, over Moses, over Joshua, over all persons, and as well over that old covenant priesthood. In chapters 5 to 7, the apostle indicates that Jesus is the high priest. Jesus Christ is the priest that God sent to save His people from their sins.

That Old Testament system was typical. Those bulls and those sacrifices and those heifers and those various elements pointed forward typologically to that Lamb of God who would come to take away the sin of the world. Well, here in chapters 8 to 10, he wants to emphasize not only the greatness of Christ as High Priest, but he also wants to demonstrate the priest's sacrifice. It was in the giving of himself.

Jesus is different than that Levitical priesthood. They took animals, they slaughtered those animals, and then they presented those unto Yahweh. Christ rather was not only the priest, but the victim as well. And he also wants to show here in chapter eight, the superiority of Christ's covenant, this new covenant, not that Christ was in no ways connected to the old covenant, but the superiority of the new covenant is developed here by the apostle in Hebrews chapter 8 at verses 7 to 12.

So

Minister of the True Tabernacle

I want to look first at the minister of the true tabernacle in verses 1 and 2, secondly the ministry of the high priest in verses 3 to 6, and then finally we'll focus on the superiority of the new covenant in verses 7 to 13. And I will try and make a few comments that are appropriate to the doctrine of baptism along the way. But with reference to the minister of the true tabernacle, notice what he says in verse one in chapter eight. Now, this is the main point of the things we are saying.

We have such a high priest. He's not speaking in some sort of theoretical way. He's not just sort of saying, wouldn't it be great if we had this kind of a priest? He says, we have this kind of a priest.

We have the Lord Jesus Christ. He is exalted. He is enthroned. He's at the right hand of God almighty.

And he is in fact, the minister of the true tabernacle. This is the main point of the things we're 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. Now there is a contrast here again between old covenant and new covenant.

God commanded Moses. He gave him the plans and then gave him the execution order to build the tabernacle. And then under Solomon, the temple was built. And these served their purposes.

They functioned appropriately in God's covenant and in God's timing. But they were destined for obsolescence. They were going to be done away. They were typical in nature.

And when the fullness of the time comes, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law. The tabernacle and then the temple pointed forward to the Lord Jesus, such that now that Jesus has come, the idea of constructing a tabernacle or a temple is absolutely contrary to the New Testament. We are not to go backward in redemptive history. We're not to look to a future temple wherein there will be animal sacrifices.

This is simply inconsistent with the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. Over and over again in this book of Hebrews, the author emphasizes the once for all offering of the Savior. That one offering, Christ confesses on the cross, it is finished. And so he is now the minister of this true tabernacle.

He is the reason for which it stood. One man says it is described as the true tent or true tabernacle because in contrast to the perishable tent or tabernacle which accompanied the Israelites in their wilderness wanderings, The heavenly reality into which the Ascended Lord has entered is the genuine sanctuary, the imperishable Holy of Holies. Remember that reality in Leviticus chapter 16. The one day out of the year the high priest actually went into the Holy of Holies, he was only in there for a brief amount of time.

He was only in there to sprinkle blood for his sins, for the sins of the people, for the sins of the very tabernacle itself upon that mercy seat. But he got out. Later in chapter 10, the book of Hebrews is gonna indicate that once Christ finished his redemptive work, he sat down. In fact, this text emphasizes that as well.

He is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens. An Old Testament high priest never sat down in the Holy of Holies. An Old Testament high priest went in, did his business, and got out. Not so with Christ.

He now occupies this place, the Holy of Holies. He is the true minister, or rather the minister of the true tabernacle. Now

Ministry of the High Priest

notice, secondly, the ministry of this high priest in verses 3 to 6. He says that there is a necessity for the offering of sacrifice. Again, he's already indicated that Christ gave himself in chapter 7, and he's going to develop this more so in chapters 9 and 10. But here, suffice to say, this is what marks a priest.

We are to understand with reference to the priestly office, they both sacrifice and intercede. That's the task that the priest has. You can kind of look at the difference between a prophet and a priest this way. A prophet comes on behalf of God to declare the mind of God to the people.

So he functions on behalf of God to the people. The priest goes to God on behalf of the people. And the priest goes to God on behalf of the people in prayer or intercession, and then as well with reference to sacrifice. And so the apostle, the apostle Paul is indicating that Christ is this high priest.

Christ is this minister of the true tabernacle. And Christ did not become this without sacrifice, but rather he sacrificed himself. Notice in verse three, for every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this one also have something to offer.

And he did. This is the significance of Golgotha. This is the significance of the passion narratives.

Christ as Sacrifice, Not Mere Example

Christ doesn't go to that cross simply as an example. Christ doesn't go to that cross simply as some sort of moral persuasion. Christ goes to that cross as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Christ goes to that cross as a substitute.

Christ goes to that cross as a sacrifice, because as Paul will say in Hebrews chapter nine, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission for sins. And if you're not a believer here this morning, you need to take this to heart. Unless Jesus died and was raised the third day, there's no hope of heaven. The fact that Jesus has died, the fact that Jesus Christ was raised, the fact that Christ is now stationed at the right hand of the majesty on high means that there is hope. means that there is forgiveness to be had for sinners who come to God through this Jesus.

In fact,

Christ's Unchangeable Priesthood

look back for just a moment at chapter 7, at verse 23. Also, there were many priests because they were prevented by death from continuing. But he, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

That's the good news of the gospel. Sometimes people preach the gospel as good advice. Sometimes people preach the gospel as some assistance. But the reality is that God is in the world, God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself.

The reality is 2 Corinthians 5.21, God made him Christ who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. My point simply is this, if you're not a believer here this morning, listen, listen to what scripture says. May the spirit of the living God give you understanding to see this Christ, this one who is altogether lovely and chief among 10,000, this one who is holy, harmless, and undefiled, separate from sinners. Well, why does the text indicate this?

To show his fitness as a sacrifice. Remember in the prophet Malachi in chapter one, The people of God are indicted, the covenant people are indicted by the prophet, God through the prophet, for their having brought the worst in terms of sacrifice. They'd go out, you know, the night before the Sabbath and they'd find the worst animal in their flock. I mean, that is just pathetic.

They'd find the mangy one, they'd find the lame one, they'd find the loser in any sort of barnyard scrap, and they would take that one to the very temple of God Almighty. And God indicts them. He says, would your governor be pleased with this? At this point, Israel was under Persia.

God says, try to pay your taxes to the Persian pagan king with a mangy loser in a barnyard scrap. Try to pay your governor's taxes with a blind animal. And yet that's what the people of Israel were doing. So the fact is, is that Christ is wholly harmless and undefiled in accordance with the Levitical law that stipulated that the worshiper bring the best of his flock.

When God comes to deal with men in our salvation, he doesn't do it half-heartedly. He doesn't do it haphazardly. He doesn't do it in a manner that's inconsistent with his dignity and his honor and his majesty, but he sends the son of his love. He sends the best.

He sends the second person of the Trinity. and that one takes on our humanity in order to redeem our humanity. And you need to hear this and you need to understand that this is evidence that God is in the business of saving sinners. It never ceases to amaze me, living in our community, how many persons have this idea that God's really not a savior. God is a Savior.

There will be a multitude from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. We invoke that passage in Matthew 22. Many are called, but few are chosen. Later in Matthew 26, Jesus says that he sheds his blood for the remission of sins of many.

Maybe Matthew 22 doesn't mean that only a handful of people will be in heaven. I would argue that it doesn't. The reality is, is what we find in the book of Revelation, a great multitude that no man can number. So before you try to argue yourself out of being saved, listen.

Listen to the word of God. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It's a beautiful thing. In fact, I would emphasize that as well.

It's not just corporate worship and the public preaching of the gospel. You should take up and read every day. If you're not a believer in Christ, if you are a sinner, somebody still in their sins, you need Jesus. That's all I want to tell you is you need Jesus desperately.

And the place to find Jesus is in the word that is all about Jesus. He says to the religious leaders of his day, you search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. But these are they which testify of me. You want Christ?

Go to his word. Privately, family, publicly, in the corporate worship of the living and true God. This Christ offered up a perfect sacrifice, and that sacrifice was himself. For every high priest is appointed, eight three, to offer both gifts and sacrifices.

Therefore it is necessary that this one also have something to offer. Now note this contrast. 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 serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. The contrast is simple.

The Old Covenant priests offered up sacrifice on a daily basis, except that one yearly Day of Atonement sacrifice that Leviticus 16 expounds upon. But what Christ has done is a once-for-all offering. He wouldn't be a priest in Old Covenant Israel prior to the destruction of AD 70 because he had already fulfilled that task. And yet the ones that were existing at the time that the apostle wrote were daily continuing to offer up these sacrifices to God, or as they thought, to God.

And then notice, bringing this to bear, on the point in verses 1 to 6. Verse 6 he says, 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. That's a good statement, isn't it? Sometimes we're taught that the New Covenant is just like the Old Covenant, but that's not what the author is saying.

He's saying it's a better covenant with better promises. It affords a better hope because it's got a better surety and a mediator, namely the Lord Jesus Christ.

Superiority of the New Covenant

And then that moves us thirdly to consider the superiority of the New Covenant over the Old Covenant, and that's what verses 7 to 13 takes up. Before we look at that, I don't wanna not read what I've got from Owen. It's always a good thing to read John Owen. But when he comments about this, specifically about verse six, it says, now he has obtained a more excellent ministry in as much as he is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.

John Owen writes, he is in the new covenant, the mediator, the surety, the priest, the sacrifice, all in his own person. The ignorance and want of a due consideration hereof are the great evidence of the degeneracy of the Christian religion. Let me just unpack that for a moment before we move on. He first highlights the significance of Christ as priest in the New Covenant.

The superiority of Christ as priest in the New Covenant. He is in the New Covenant the mediator. He is prophet, priest, and king. He is the surety.

When the one that pays our debt is the Lord Christ, we have great confidence. If I paid your debt, I would come up short. If Christ pays your debt, He doesn't come up short. He says from the cross, it is finished.

He goes on to say, the priest, the sacrifice, all in his own person, the ignorance and want of a due consideration hereof. In other words, the ignorance of who Jesus is. The ignorance and lack of concern for these realities about Jesus Christ are the evidence of the degeneracy of the Christian faith. In other words, what problems are the churches facing today?

What problems are individual Christians facing today? Well, as I read Owen, I would surmise that he is saying a lack of understanding of who Jesus is. So we talk about church. How do we get people in?

Thankfully, we don't do that. We just seek to be faithful. But you talk about church and problems with churches. What's lacking?

What's absent? What does Owen indicate was the truth in the 17th century? It was a lack of an understanding of who Jesus Christ is. See, brethren, it's called Christianity.

It's all about Jesus. We are to be consumed with and concerned for His glory, His honor. We're supposed to understand His person, His work. We're supposed to understand the sacrifice that He wrought out.

We're supposed to understand His life of obedience, His sacrifice on the cross. We're supposed to get these things because this is defining for the Christian church and for Christian individuals. Laziness on this point is simply intolerable. We are not to be lazy with reference to Christ.

Do you meet a man or a woman that you're going to eventually marry and show the attitude that, eh, I don't really need to know much about this person? You know, I know they breathe. That's pretty good for me. I know they can say my name.

That's pretty good. No, you want to know that person. You want to understand that person. You want to know what they like.

You want to know what they don't like. Well, for Christians, it's all about Jesus. There is in us this tendency to be lazy at this particular place, to be sort of bored or unenamored with doctrine about who Jesus Christ is. But read Scripture.

The scope, the focus, the very thrust, the foremost champion in all of the Bible is our Lord Jesus Christ. I don't think Owen's wrong, and I think Owen's probably even more right for our current situation concerning the degeneracy of Christian religion. See, church isn't supposed to be entertainment. Church isn't supposed to be fun and games.

Church isn't supposed to be a rah-rah session among the people of God. It is a place of worship. We come to the Father through the Son, by the Spirit, and we need to know that God. As Jesus prayed in his high priestly prayer in John 17 3, and this is eternal life, that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

See, it's the book of Hebrews and it's heavy emphasis on the superiority of Jesus Christ that all of us would do well to study in this coming year. Now let's get to the superiority of the new covenant in verses 7 to 13. There is first an introductory statement, and then there is secondly an appeal to the prophet Jeremiah. But notice this introductory statement.

Verse 7, for if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. That's the reality. If the old covenant functioned in a way as to make the people of God the people of God, there'd be no need for a new covenant. Now, when we talk like this, we need to understand that God designed, God purposed, God decreed the existence of the old covenant.

It was good. It served the purpose for which God intended it. In the last hour, we considered general revelation. God manifests his glory, his power, his eternal Godhead in the created order.

The created order does its job. The problem is with the receptors. The problem is with us. We see that, and then we suppress that truth in unrighteousness.

Same with the law of God. The law is good. The problem is us. We break that law.

And in fact, if you look specifically at verse eight, he says, because finding fault with them, Not with the covenant, not with the law, not with the particular sort of elements and features of that covenant, but the problem was with them. The problem was Old Covenant Israel. The problem would be with us. God says, do this and live.

We get, oh, about 30 seconds in, and then we have not done it, and then we decline. Remember that ratification ceremony in the Old Covenant at Exodus 24. All that the Lord has said, we will do. They promise fidelity to their covenant Lord.

Chapter 32 comes and they're dancing before a golden calf, evidencing that they have not one whit of understanding what it is to obey the law of God Almighty. So the Old Covenant was purposed by God for a particular purpose. Hughes says, the fault of the Old Covenant lay not in its essence, which presented God's standard of righteousness and was propounded as an instrument of life to those who should keep it, but in its inability to justify and renew those who failed to keep it, namely, the totality of fallen mankind. The New Covenant went literally to the heart of the matter, promising as it did a new and obedient heart and the grace truly to love both God and His fellow men.

That's a very important statement, and when we consider this contrast, we need to soak it in. The New Covenant is better. The New Covenant does have better promises. The New Covenant does afford a better hope.

Again, that's no commentary on the Old Covenant being bad. It functioned for the purpose for which God had intended. And now, with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, that Old Covenant was done away with. Now, it was still, at least in terms of the people going to the temple, those still engaged in animal sacrifice, in their minds, it was still going.

And that's why the apostle argues as he does here, and then specifically in verse 13 indicates something of the contours of Old Covenant to New Covenant. Before we get there, let's look secondly at his appeal to Jeremiah. Verses 8 to 12 are a quotation from Jeremiah 31, 31 to 34. It is the announcement of the new covenant.

Now, just a little background, not a lot. I don't want to keep us all here. I notice our clock has stopped, so I guess I could keep all of us here. You start getting hungry in about three hours, you say, what's with that clock?

It still says 923. I kind of like that. We can just forget it. Actually, I keep a watch so I don't punish the people of God.

It's never my intention to punish the people of God. I really don't plan to do that ever. Sometimes it may happen, but it's never purposeful. But when it comes to this particular section, it is the announcement of the new covenant.

And just to give you a little background, Judah was in sin. That shouldn't surprise any of us because that's what the prophets relate. The prophets functioned as if they were God's prosecuting attorneys. God would send the various prophets to the nation.

The prophet would remind them of their sin, excuse me, and their rebellion against the terms of that old covenant. And then the prophet would call them to faith in and repent and store our great God and father. And when you look at specifically Jeremiah chapters two and three, you see the kinds of sin that Judah was engaged in. And one of the things that is obvious is idolatry.

In fact, God through the prophet says, has a nation changed its gods? Yet my people have exchanged me. In other words, the pagans are consistent and at least show fidelity to Asherah, to Baal, and to the various deities that they subscribe. But the people who have the true and living God have departed.

They have been wicked. They have been lawless. It's in the chapter 3 of the book of Jeremiah, where God, in the midst of indicting them for their gross sin, says five times, yet return to me, says the Lord. It's a beautiful thing.

And even the last time, or the second to last time he says it, he says, return to me, backsliding Israel, and I will heal your backsliding. See, the thought, I think, among some is, I've got to stop doing these bad things and then I'll go to God. That's not biblical. The gospel isn't good advice, stop doing things and then God will accept you.

The gospel is good news. Christ came to save his people from their sins. Now, when he saves you, you don't continue in sin, but rather he saves you from that sin. But there's nothing you and I can do to clean ourselves up.

There's nothing any of us can do to pretty ourselves up, to make ourselves more lovely to the Lord God. We are lawbreakers. We are rebels. We are those who have taken every one of the Ten Commandments, and we have tossed it onto the ground, and we have stomped on it.

The way of salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. So the sin of Judah is the broader context, but then in Jeremiah 30-33, this is the book of hope, or the book of consolation. And essentially what you have there is you have the promise of restoration. God will restore Judah, according to Jeremiah 30.

You have the promise concerning the New Covenant, which we have here in essence in Jeremiah 31. And then you have an illustration of God's faithfulness in Jeremiah 32. It's when the prophet is told to buy a piece of property. Now you've got to understand, he's being told to buy a piece of property in Judah.

If you were halfway smart, you wouldn't have done that apart from supernatural revelation. Because what's going to happen to Judah in the prophet Jeremiah? Judah is going to be overrun by Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar is going to lead the hordes into Judah, and he is going to decimate their city, and he is going to destroy their temple.

And yet God says to the prophet, I want you to buy this piece of property in Judah. Why? It's an expression of faith in the reality that God will restore, that this will in fact be a 70-year period of exile and desolation, but after that, they will return. After that, they will be reconvened in the land of Judah.

After that, the Messiah will come and save his people from their sins. So that's the context of this book of hope in Jeremiah 31. Now let's look specifically at what the prophet and what the apostle indicate concerning these blessings of the new covenant.

The New Covenant Is Unbreakable

Notice in the first place, the new covenant is unbreakable. The new covenant is unbreakable. Look at what it says in verse eight. 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.

Who's the house of Israel and the house of Judah? It's the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know that because of the apostles invoking this prophecy and applying it to the church. This is not some future sort of unification between the 10 Northern tribes and the two Southern tribes.

That is to misread biblical prophecy. House of Judah, House of Israel is an Old Testament convention indicating the people of God. There will be this unification that transpires and it's in Christ, it's in the church. So this much we know.

But then notice what it goes on to say. I will make this covenant. And then verse nine, 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. See, this is an essential feature of New Covenant religion, is that it's unbreakable.

I think it was John MacArthur who said, or probably famously popularized the reality, if we could lose our salvation, we would We would brethren, we would send ourselves right out of the new covenant as fast as God placed us into the new covenant. The old covenant was breakable. Deuteronomy 28, Leviticus 26, God says, when you go into the land, This is the way you're to function. If you don't function in this particular way, you will be ejected from the land.

And that is precisely what happens in the old covenant. The Northern tribes in 722, the Southern tribes in 586, they are thrown out of the land because they broke God's covenant. One of the blessings of new covenant religion is that it's unbreakable. The reality is stipulated by the Apostle in Philippians 1.

He says, I'm confident that he who began a good work in you will complete it unto the day of Christ. Or that bit at the very end of Romans chapter 8. There is nothing that shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's a brand of theology out there that teaches this external connection to the new covenant.

That is an old covenant construct that is not extant in the new covenant. When you're in by grace, you are kept in by the power of God. He puts His Spirit in you. He does everything else that's indicated in this particular section.

Will you struggle? Will you have temptation? Will you have remaining corruption? Absolutely, positively.

But actually sever yourself from the head? Positively not. This covenant is inviolable. That means it is unbreakable, and that is an essential feature of New Covenant religion.

The Law of God Internalized

Notice, secondly, we have the law of God internalized. Notice in verse 10. 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.

The internalization of the law. This was available to Old Covenant believers. David says, oh how I love thy law, it is my meditation day and night. But it wasn't an essential feature or element of the Old Covenant.

Does everybody understand that? At the time of the Old Covenant, you had Isaac and you had Ishmael. At the time of the Old Covenant, you had Jacob and you had Esau. Well, certainly Jacob and Isaac had the law of God written on their hearts in this way of obedience and a desire to do what's pleasing to God.

The others didn't because that wasn't an essential element of Old Covenant religion. You could be in, just like Esau, just like Ishmael, just like the godless kings in the north, the many godless kings in the south. They were covenant members. They were part of the old covenant commonwealth.

They were members of the theocratic nation. They were participants, and yet they did not have this law written on their hearts, which is an essential element in the new covenant. Think about this. The prophet Jeremiah is telling the people that in the days that are ahead there's this covenant coming that can't be breakable and there's this covenant coming where the law of God is written in your heart and you actually want to do it.

And we live in the days of that covenant. What does Jesus say in John 14? The one who loves me keeps my commandments. What does John say in his first epistle?

The commandments of God are not burdensome. They're not grievous. Don't we with David say, oh, how I love thy law. It is my meditation day and night.

Again, there's remaining corruption. There is a proneness to wander, a proneness to leave the God that we love. But we find that principle in us that we love God's law. We want to do what pleases the father.

We want to honor him. We want to glorify him. That's not because we're good, it's not because we're virtuous, it's by virtue of this covenant wherein God has saved us and put this law in our hearts. It's a good and a blessed thing.

Now

Saving Knowledge of God

notice thirdly, the persons in this covenant have the saving knowledge of God. Verse 10, 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, know the Lord for all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them. See, again, in the Old Covenant, Esau was a member.

He had been circumcised. Others were members that had been circumcised, but they didn't necessarily know the Lord. Remember those sons of Eli? They were great kids, weren't they?

Just kidding. Trying to break it up a little bit. Everybody looks a bit heavy. Maybe it's the heat.

Maybe it's the cold. I don't know what. But think about those sons of Eli. They were actually priests ministering.

And these were the kind of priests that would be this way. When people would come and they would bring meat to offer up to the Lord. They take their fork and they put it in there, pull something out, and make sure they got theirs first. They had that, I, GM, I got mine, sort of a sentiment.

And then they also lay with temple prostitutes. I mean, again, these were not wonderful human beings, not persons that you would say, hey, these are the best that we have to offer. But it tells us in 1 Samuel 2, 12, they did not know Yahweh. You see, it wasn't an essential element to be in the Old Covenant and even function as a priest in the Old Covenant to knowing Yahweh.

But that's not true in the New Covenant. Everybody in the New Covenant knows Yahweh. know about him, it's just not cognition, but it's experiential knowledge, it's the knowledge of God. It's the John 17 three, that they may know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. It's the apostle Paul in Philippians chapter three, and to know him and the power of his resurrection.

See, this knowledge of God that we have in the new covenant is an essential element. It is a necessary feature of the new covenant that wasn't so in the old. So do you start to see why the apostle calls it a better covenant with better promises that affords a better hope? Because when you're in this new covenant, the Bible tells us that you're a believer, you're a Christian, you're somebody who has been forgiven, which is that final feature we'll look at in just a moment.

But back to verse 11, or the end of verse 10. I will be their God and they shall be my people. One has called this the Emmanuel principle. I will be their God and they shall be my people.

Isn't this the pinnacle of covenant religion? Isn't this the pinnacle of our Christian experiences, the knowledge of God? We are His people. He is our God.

That comes as a result of this blessed new covenant. You see this emphasized from the beginning of the Bible to the end. You see it in the book of Exodus, the book of Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Zechariah, Corinthians in the New Testament, Revelation 21.3. Revelation 21.3, that actual realization, God is our God and we are his people.

That is an essential element of the new covenant that wasn't so in the old covenant.

Forgiveness of Sins

And that brings us fourthly to consider the forgiveness of sins. Notice in verse 12, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more. That's spoken in the manner of men. God doesn't forget.

There's no way God forgets, right? That would... introduce confusion into who God is. Is there something he forgot? It's for us that he says this.

I will remember them no more in terms of justice and righteousness and punishment. The prophet Micah uses the imagery in chapter 7 of God casting our iniquities into the depths of the sea. It's the same sort of a sentiment. It's the same sort of a reality.

God is not going to continue to bring those things to bear upon us. He's not going to continue to bring it to us and say, well, remember back in 1985 when you did such and such? No! He says, I will remember them no more.

This is covenant blessing, the forgiveness of sins. Brethren, I hope that you know this. I hope that you understand this. I hope that you revel in this.

If you are not brethren, if you are sinner still, and hopefully friend, but if you are in your sins, the way is to God through Christ Jesus, because it's the blood of Jesus Christ his son that cleanses us from all sin. Again, David had the forgiveness of sins. Others in the Old Covenant had the forgiveness of sins. They enjoyed those blessings, but it wasn't by virtue of the Old Covenant.

It wasn't an essential element of the Old Covenant, whereas in the New Covenant, it is essential. This is what makes up the people of God. This is what they all have in common. We come from different backgrounds.

We have different ages represented here. We have different socioeconomic pasts. We have all this stuff, but these things are true. We're in a covenant that can't be broken.

We're in a covenant that affords to us the internalization of the law. We are in a covenant wherein we are God's people and he is our God. And we're in a covenant where we can sing with the hymn writer, my sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought. My sin, not in part, but the whole is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Isn't the forgiveness of sins glorious and grand and most excellent? I want to provoke anyone here that doesn't know it to want it. There is nothing more reassuring than 1 John 1, 9.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Nothing more assuring than Jesus' emphasis to Peter when Simon Peter comes to the master and says, Lord, if my brother sins against me seven times in a day, am I supposed to forgive him? I bet Peter thought he was being very generous. very benevolent, very kind, very large-hearted, very much the sort of Christian that you want to be. Jesus says, no, seven times 70.

And I don't think Jesus' emphasis there is on counting how many times a day that person sinned. The emphasis is on, if God is profuse in his forgiveness toward us, we need to be profuse in our forgiveness to one another. In Ephesians and in Colossians, the apostle tells us we're to forgive one another, even as God in Christ forgave us. Why would we harbor grudges?

Why would we engage in that sort of bitterness? Why would we have that sort of resentment when God has forgiven us of our sins? There is the blessedness afforded to us in this goodness of God. the forgiveness of sins from God Almighty. Again, David knew it, David reveled in it, David rejoiced in it, but it was not an essential element of old covenant religion.

It is an essential element of new covenant religion. So those are the four blessings that bind us all together and hopefully encourages us. We're in a covenant that can't be broken, again because of God, not me. We're in a covenant where God has put the law in our hearts such that I actually want to do what he called me to do.

I'm in a covenant where God is my God and I'm his people, and I'm in a covenant where God has forgiven me of my sins. That's Psalm 130 reality. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? That's a powerful question, isn't it?

If God should mark iniquities, who could stand? Is there anybody in this room that says, well, I'll take a stab at it. I'll stand before God. No righteousness of Christ.

I'll try it on my own. That'll last for about a millisecond. If thou shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But he goes on to say, but there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared.

This theology that tries to keep people in a place where they don't think they can ever go to God is an affront to the God of grace. This God says through His inspired prophet, there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared. It's a great joy and a privilege to be able to tell real sinners about a real Savior and a real forgiveness of sin. You say, well, what kind of sins?

Ten Commandments sort of sins, bad sins, wretched sins, horrible sins, the Apostle Paul type sins, the King David type sins. The sorts of sins that we look at and say, wow, I cannot believe this. Well, it's the grace of almighty God. And in a few minutes, we're gonna sing of that grace, and we're gonna say, amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. Isn't that the glory of the Christian gospel? Well, that's essential to the new covenant, and that's why the apostle says it is superior.

The Old Covenant Made Obsolete

And then quickly and finally, notice in verse 13, he says, in that he says a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. Where was the old covenant rendered obsolete? The cross. It is finished, Christ said.

The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through our Lord Jesus Christ. That is the great sort of covenantal transition. In that, he says, a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. He speaks to the historical reality now.

Now, what is becoming obsolete and growing old? See, at the cross, not everybody got the memo. At the cross, those who believed the gospel understood. The old covenant is gone.

We're in the new covenant now. But those who rejected Jesus continued, as I said, to go to the temple, to go to the priesthood, to go and bring their sacrifices, they were still continuing in it, and this is what the Apostle recognizes. So it was made obsolete at the cross. Now, what is becoming obsolete and growing old, in terms of its external manifestation among Israel, is ready to vanish away.

That is a reference, I would argue, to A.D. 70. When the Romans come in A.D. 70, they destroy the city of Jerusalem and the temple. That was the visible representation, the manifestation that the transition between Old Covenant and New had in fact occurred. And that's what the apostle speaks to there at verse 13.

Application

Well, in conclusion, a few thoughts. And then our brother and I will enter into the water together. In the first place, we need to appreciate the superiority of the new covenant. The new covenant is a better covenant.

It really is. The attempts to flatten the two, the attempts to make the two into one, well, it's not that much better, it's not that much newer, it's not that much greater. The very argument of the apostle tells us it is that much better. It is that much greater.

Of course, Jesus as the mediator of the new covenant isn't going to mediate something that is only a little bit better. It is glorious. It is wonderful. It's a better covenant.

This is established in 722 and 8-6. It's established on better promises according to 8-6, namely the incarnation of the second person of the Trinity as the mediator of this new covenant who ratified the covenant through his own precious blood. In Exodus 24, I had mentioned, they say, all that the Lord has said, we will do. Well, Moses sprinkled the animal blood on them.

That covenant was ratified in blood. So is the new covenant. This is the blood of the covenant. Jesus says, this is my blood, the blood of the new covenant, which is shed for the remission of sins of many.

So this is the glorious truth that the scriptures tell us in this place concerning the New Covenant. Secondly, we ought to appreciate who makes up the New Covenant, the members of the New Covenant. Notice what it tells us. In the first place, the members of the New Covenant are those who believe the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

They believe the truth as it is in Jesus. Remember, saving faith believes everything that the Bible says, but the principal acts of saving faith have regard to Jesus Christ, receiving and resting upon him alone for salvation. So faith in Christ by the grace of God is absolutely imperative for New Covenant believers. Secondly, consistent with what we find here, they're the sorts of people that can't even break the covenant that they're in.

They're the sorts of people that have the law of God written upon their hearts. They're the sorts of people that know God. They are God's people, and God is their God, and they are the people that have their sins forgiven. In fact, John Owen makes this observation.

He says, the new covenant is made with them alone, who effectually and eventually are made partakers of the grace of it. Indeed, this is the excellency of this covenant. And so it is here declared that it does effectually communicate all the grace and mercy contained in it unto all and everyone with whom it is made. Whomever it is made with, his sins are parted." See what Owen is saying?

Everybody in the New Covenant looks like this. See, there's no external non-saving relationship to the New Covenant like there was in the Old Covenant. This is why we baptize believers. This is why persons that have believed, persons who have by grace repented, persons who demonstrate evidences of the reception of these particular blessings, they and they alone are supposed to be baptized.

Now, John Owen would say, and their children in other places. We do not believe that. We are a Baptist church. We give the covenant sign, which is baptism, to the covenant community, which are the persons described like they are in this passage.

Now, as far as infants, as far as babies, as far as toddlers and children and young people, we love them. We preach to them. We catechize them. We teach them at home.

We encourage them to flee to Jesus Christ. We don't treat them as heathen. We don't treat them as Gentile. We don't keep them out at family worship time.

But we do not give them a covenant sign that the covenant mediator has given to those in the covenant. This is a most important reason why, from a covenantal perspective, we ought to baptize believers. The Westminster Larger Catechism seems to indicate this reality as well. Which, if you know anything about the Westminster Catechism and Confession of Faith, they practice believer's baptism.

But listen to what they say in Larger Catechism 31. With whom was the covenant of grace made? The covenant of grace was made with Christ as the second Adam, and in him, with all the elect, as his seed. That's it.

It's done. Amen. Praise God. That's a wonderful articulation of gospel truth.

It's only those who believe, only those who have received these essential elements of New Covenant religion, it's only they that should go into the waters of baptism. Some have said we practice adult baptism. No, we practice believer's baptism. If a believer happens to not be an adult, we baptize them if they give evidences of faith and repentance.

It's believer's baptism. It's the persons who manifest these things in their lives that are to go into the water of baptism. And those Members of the New Covenant, those who should reflect often on the significance of baptism. It's great to be able to refer to Pete as my brother today.

It's great when he came to me, or called and said he wanted to be, he came actually, came and said he wanted to be baptized. What an encouraging thing, what a blessed thing. We pray for that, we ask God to attend the preaching of the word, we pray for the Holy Spirit to open eyes, open hearts, and to implant that faith and repentance so that sinners can close with Jesus Christ. What a blessed thing, and what a blessed time for all of us, Pete and every single one of us here who are members of the new covenant, to reflect upon the significance of water baptism.

Our confession of faith is good here. Baptism is an ordinance of the New Testament, ordained by Jesus Christ to be unto the party baptized, a sign of his fellowship with him in his death and resurrection, Romans 6. Death, resurrection. That's the significance.

You go into a watery grave, a dead sinner, and you come out united to the Lord Jesus Christ. Again, not because of the magic of the water, not because of the magic of anything, you know, mysterious in the water. This is an external, visible, symbolic representation of what God the Spirit has done in the brother's heart. goes on to say of his being engrafted into it, of remission of sins, and of his giving up unto God through Jesus Christ to live and walk in newness of life. This is really how the Apostle Paul appeals to baptism in Romans 6.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? May it never be! You died!

You were buried! You've been raised again! You don't continue in sin, you seek by the grace of God to put sin to death. He's given you the resources, He's given you the power, He's given you the Holy Spirit in order to do that.

The idea is, is reflect upon the significance of water baptism in your own Christian life and experience. It's not just a one-off, it's something that we as God's people ought to reflect on on a regular basis. Something big happened on that day. Again, wasn't that we were saved?

It wasn't that there was magic conveyed through the waters into our pores or anything like that, but it was a public declaration that we are Christ's and he is ours. That is most glorious. And then the final thing I want to mention is the blood of the covenant. The old covenant as mentioned was ratified with blood, Exodus 24.

The apostle will tell us in Hebrews 10, that blood could never take away sin. It was a reminder, it caused us to reflect upon our own sin and the need for blood atonement and that sort of thing, but it never did atone. It pointed forward to the one who would atone. The new covenant was ratified with the blood of Jesus Christ.

You see that in Hebrews 7, 27, Hebrews 9, 11 to 14, Hebrews 9, 26 to 28, Hebrews 10, 12 to 14. It's the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, that cleanses us from all unrighteousness. And I want to quote a particular fellow in a commentary on 2 Samuel 21. You think, what does 2 Samuel 21 have to do with blood atonement?

Well, it's an instance of blood atonement. There needs to be a reckoning for the way that Saul dealt with the Gibeonites. Remember, Israel entered into a covenant with the Gibeonites, and they weren't supposed to slaughter them, and yet Saul did have them slaughtered. And so the remaining Gibeonites come, and David indicates, or David executes atonement.

And Ralph Davis comments, and I think the lesson here should be graspable to all. He says the text, 2 Samuel 21, 1 to 14, says atonement is horrible, it is gory. Now think about this for a moment. We talk about as Protestant Christians that salvation is free, salvation is grace.

Well, it did cost the Son of God. It's free to us, right? He paid a debt He didn't owe, so we could be free. It cost Christ, according to his humanity, his life.

He says, the 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 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 and to be replayed during Passion Week. But we should know better.

Surely the Israelite worshiper 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 legs. It was all mess 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. Now I say all that to say this, we speak of the blood of the covenant, we speak of the blood by which God cleanses us, and we don't, as Davis calls upon us to reflect sufficiently on what really occurred.

Jesus was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Jesus, the very darling of heaven, comes into this world. He comes to his own, and his own receive him not. He is not welcomed.

He is not bowed to. He is not worshipped. He is not glorified. He is, by the mass of men, rejected.

When it comes time to Pilate's question, Barabbas or Jesus, they say, give us Barabbas. They want a terrorist. They want Solomony instead of the Lord Christ. It is absolutely horrific.

So what do I do with him? Away with him, away with him, crucify him. They nail him to the cross, they mock him, they spit on him, why? It is for this reason, so that we might have everlasting life, so that we might have the forgiveness of sins, that we might have the internalization of God's law, that He might be our God and we might be His people.

Brethren, we need to reflect upon this and rejoice in it, because what God has done for us is truly amazing and glorious and wondrous. And if God does that, it demonstrates His willingness to save sinners. If you are still in your sins today, quit playing games and flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on Him and you will be saved.

Let us pray.

Closing Prayer

Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for your gospel. Thank you that you save sinners. Sinners, not people that deserve it, not people that are upright, not people that are a little bit better, but sinners.

Sinners as you find us, transgressors of the law, those who lack conformity unto it, those who not only transgress but do so willfully and joyfully and happily. And yet, God, you cleanse us in that precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You grant us the graces of faith and repentance. You give us all things necessary for eternal life.

And this founded upon the blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, the one in whom all the promises of God are yea and amen. We ask that you would encourage and strengthen our hearts. We ask that you would draw sinners unto yourself by the power of your Holy Spirit. And we pray these things in Jesus' holy name.

Amen.

Scripture References

• Exodus 24; 24:3
• Leviticus 1; 16; 26
• Deuteronomy 28
• 1 Samuel 2:12
• 2 Samuel 21:1-14
• Psalm 119:97; 130:3-4
• Jeremiah 2-3; 3; 30; 31; 31:31-34; 32
• Micah 7:19
• Malachi 1
• Matthew 22:14; 26:28
• John 1:17; 5:39; 14:21; 17:3
• Romans 6; 6:1-2; 8:38-39
• 2 Corinthians 5:21
• Ephesians 4:32
• Philippians 1:6; 3:10
• Colossians 3:13
• Hebrews 5-7; 7:23; 7:24-25; 7:27; 8; 8:1-2; 8:3-6; 8:6; 8:7; 8:8; 8:10-11; 8:13; 9:11-14; 9:22; 9:26-28; 10; 10:4; 10:12-14
• 1 John 1:9; 5:3
• Revelation 7:9; 21:3