“Partakers Of A New Covenant” Hebrews 8:6-13 #1 SERIES INTRODUCTION If you were asked to define the church, how would you do it? Although this might seem like an elementary task, it is much more. Our definition of the church reveals how we view, relate to, participate with, and esteem the church. Some see the church as… …A BULDING. We hear this when we often make the statement, “I’m going to church,” or “down there at that church.” We have a tendency to associate the church with a building. Sadly, this definition causes people to think of the church in terms of a physical structure. The white building we meet in on a weekly basis is a place where we come together to worship, but IT IS NOT THE CHURCH. …A GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO GATHER TOGETHER ONCE A WEEK. Although we are commanded to gather together on a regular basis (cf. Hebrews 10:26), the church is more than one weekly meeting. When we’re asked, “How is the church at Lakeville?” Our minds automatically think about Sunday morning – the crowd, the music, the preaching, the number of conversions, etc. If we define the church as a group of people who gather once a week in a building, then we will view the local church like a golfer views the club-house, a member views their country-club, or a partygoer views a night club – a place to gather for an hour or two, hang out with some friends, meet some acquaintances, have a good time, and then go home, never thinking about anyone who was there until the next time I go back. THE CHURCH: A COVENANT-COMMUNITY The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is so much more than a location! The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is so much more than just a group of people who gather together once a week! The church of the Lord Jesus Christ is THE COVENANT-COMMUNITY OF GOD. 1

DEFINING “COVENANT-COMMUNITTY” Webster defines “covenant” as “a usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement; a written agreement or promise usually under seal between two or more parties especially for the performance of some action.” Webster also defines “community” as “a unified body of individuals.” During this series, when I refer to the “Covenant-Community”, I am referring to this: “A unified body of believers who are recipients of God’s New Covenant, and thereby in covenant with – bound to – one another.”

HEBREWS 8 – Two Covenants This text contrasts the two covenants – the Old and the New – and describes the blessings God has given to His covenant community. Both covenants were initiated by God. Both covenants bring a people to God and to each other. John Piper said, “both of them are designed to bring a people into special relationship with God and with each other: the first was the covenant with Israel that God made when he took them out of Egypt; and the other covenant—the new covenant—is the one God made with the church when Jesus died for the church and rose from the dead. The first covenant created the nation of Israel and the new covenant created the church…” It is by receiving this covenant that we are brought into a proper relationship with God and each other.

THE OLD COVENANT  The Fault… The first covenant was the covenant God made with His people (Israel) in the Old Testament. It is referred to as the Law (the 10 Commandments). Something becomes very clear from the text: The First Covenant Had A Fault. What was it? From the text and from the Old Testament, we can see what the flaw wasn’t and what it was. 

Wasn’t God. If there is a major flaw in the way we view the Old Testament and the New Testament, it is in our view of God. If you ask most believers what is the major difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament, you might receive an answer that sounds like this: “In the Old Testament God is a just, righteous, vengeful God, but in the New Testament God is a loving, gracious, merciful God.” It is almost like people see God as having a split personality; the Old Testament shows us the just side of God while the New Testament shows us the gracious side of God.

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Is God righteous and just in the Old Testament? Yes! But He is also righteous and just in the New Testament. Is God gracious and merciful in the New Testament? Yes! But He is also gracious and merciful in the Old Testament. In fact, in Exodus 34:6-7, when God made the covenant of the Law with Moses, he described himself with these words: “6 And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, 7 Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” Does that sound like a mean, harsh, ungracious God? No! The fact that God would enter any covenant with sinful man proves His gracious nature. So, the problem with the first covenant wasn’t that God was too just to be gracious to people! 

Wasn’t The Law. God didn’t give a “bad law”. The law was a reflection of His perfect righteousness, His holiness, and His glory. In fact, scripture testifies that the Law wasn’t at fault. Psalm 19:7 says, “7 The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul: The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.” Paul, in Romans 7:12, says this of the Law, “12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Do the words “holy, just, and good” seem like the fault was with the Law? No.

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Was The People. Verse 8 doesn’t say, “For finding fault with it,” but “For finding fault with them…” The reason the Old Testament couldn’t bring people into a perfectly righteous relationship with God was because the people with whom this covenant was given were sinful, depraved people.  They were unable to obey God’s law. Exodus 24:3-8 records how the Law was given to the nation: “3 And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD, and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do. 4 And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel. 5 And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt offerings, and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen unto the LORD. 6 And Moses took half of 3

the blood, and put it in basons; and half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. 7 And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient. 8 And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.” What did Israel agree to do? They agreed to obey “all” the Law, everything the Lord had commanded. The reality was, when they made the agreement, they had already broken the commandments. Being in a right relationship with God under the Old Covenant required perfect obedience and righteousness, something man cannot attain on his own; therefore, the Old Covenant kept man and God at a distance.  They were not enabled to obey God’s law. Other than the sacrifice of Christ, the greatest difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant is that the Old Covenant gave laws and commands, but did not provide the ability to obey them. In fact, Deuteronomy 29:4 tells us why Israel kept failing and sinning in the Old Testament: “4 Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.” God did not give Israel the ability to obey the commands He had given them! Therefore, the Old Covenant is THE GOSPEL minus ENABLEMENT. The Old Covenant demonstrates how a sinful person cannot keep the Law of God apart from the power of God in their life. The Old Covenant is a testimony that people who attempt to get to God by keep certain rules and regulations will never be in a proper relationship. That is why people who attempt to live righteous enough to get to Heaven will never be saved; they don’t have the ability in themselves to live according to God’s holy standard. If the Christian life is a bunch of rules and regulations, then you badly misunderstand the Christian life. You are guilty of trying to be a modern-day Israel, a people who attempt being in a right relationship with God through keeping commands without God’s enablement. Because of this fault, God made a NEW COVENANT with His people.

THE NEW COVENANT In verses 8-12, the writer quotes Jeremiah 31:31-34, a text the Hebrew audience would have been very familiar with. In this text, God promised His people a new covenant. This new covenant would be better than the first covenant for several reasons. 4

 The People…  Would Be United. When Jeremiah mentioned “Israel” and “Judah”, the people would have known clearly that those tribes were divided; in fact, Israel (the 10 northern tribes) was no longer in existence after being taken into Assyrian captivity – those tribes never returned to the land. What was Jeremiah saying? Jeremiah was saying to the nation that God was going to unite His people in a New Covenant. This New Covenant would create a new, unified people of God, a CovenantCommunity [THE CHURCH].

 The Blessings… This New Covenant would provide tremendous blessings for God’s people.  Enablement What would God’s law be written on? Tables of stone? No! In the New Covenant God writes His law in our hearts and puts them in our mind. Whereas the Old Covenant was the GOSPEL minus ENABLEMENT, the New Covenant is THE GOSPEL plus ENABLEMENT. The prophet, Ezekiel, also promised this blessing in Ezekiel 11:19-20 and 36:27: “19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: 20 That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God…27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” The New Covenant would provide the means of obedience, not just commands to obey. The Holy Spirit recreates us at our new birth, cleanses us, and internalizes God’s law. APPLICATION: This removes the idea of a professing Christian living in perpetual, continuous, unrepentant sin. Why? Most of the time, when professing Christians want to justify their sinful activity, they say, “Well, look at what David did; he’s a great person than me.” Yet, what we fail to realize is this: We have a blessing that David didn’t have – we’ve been made anew through the power of the Holy Spirit. This, by no means, suggests we will live perfect, sinless lives; but it does mean that anyone who claims to be a partaker of the New Covenant and there is no obedience in their life is fooling themselves. One of the marks of the New Covenant is that God will “cause you to walk in my statutes…and do them.”  Community 5

God, through the New Covenant, creates for Himself, a new people for His glory. He promises to be our God; He promises to make us His people. Notice the community language in this promise. God doesn’t just say that I will be his “son” (singular), but He says that “they” will be “my [possessive] people *plural+”. Although we have a personal relationship with God, our relationship with God brings us into a relationship with other covenant-people. We, not just I, are the people of God. [In the weeks ahead, we’re going to study the responsibility associated with being God’s in God’s covenant-community].  Relationship Now, the idea of our individual relationship with God is mentioned. This is somewhat difficult to understand. What does He mean when He says, “they shall not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest’”? In the Old Covenant, it was very possible to be a part of the nation of Israel (God’s covenant-community in the Old Testament) and not know God personally. A person could be born into a Jewish family, be circumcised, and not “know” God. Thus, God sent prophet after prophet who proclaimed: “Know the Lord!” This is not the case with the New Covenant Community. Everyone who is a part of this community “knows” the Lord, they have a personal relationship with Him. It is important not to misunderstand this: Not everyone on a church book knows the Lord; not every who attends church knows the Lord; but everyone who is a member of God’s covenantcommunity [the true church] knows God!  Forgiveness God promises to forgive our sins and remove our iniquities. Isaiah 1:18-20 is as true today as it was the day Isaiah penned it: “18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. 19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: 20 But if ye refuse and rebel, Ye shall be devoured with the sword: For the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.” Are the people in God’s covenant-community perfect? No, but we’re forgiven!  Completion

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God promises to never remember our sin again! This may not seem like much to you, but to a Jewish audience, this truth was enormous! Why? Because there was a remembrance of sin each year under the old covenant. LOOK AT HEBREWS 10:1-3. Every year, on The Day Of Atonement, Israel was reminded of the fact that their sin had not been completely dealt with. There was no finality to sin’s penalty under the old covenant. Thankfully, under the New Covenant, Christ has forever remedied sin for His people! When Jesus was dying, offering Himself as a sacrifice for sin, he looked up into Heaven and cried, “It is finished!” (John 19:31) Now, no other sacrifice will ever be made for sin; there is no need for it! Hebrews 10:10, 14-17 says, “10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all…14 For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. 15 Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before, 16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” SECURE IN CHRIST That is why members of the covenant-community (not just professors) are secure in Christ. Our salvation and our glorification is dependent on God’s offering of His Son! Romans 8:3239 says: “32

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth. 34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. 37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. 38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 The Sealing…  Christ’s blood seals the new covenant blessings for us. In an upper room, the night before his crucifixion, Christ took a cup of wine, gave it to his disciples and said these words (and we oftentimes miss the meaning of them): “Drink ye all of 7

it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.” (Matthew 26:27-28) Christ sacrifice sealed for those who would repent and believe, the blessings of the New Covenant. He pays the price on the cross, the Holy Spirit now applies that to our life, recreating us and placing God’s Law in our heart, and He (the Holy Spirit) unifies all believers into one covenant-community, THE CHURCH. CONCLUSION Through the blood of Jesus, God creates a new heart within us, forgives our sin, brings us into fellowship with himself, and creates, for His glory, a unified people (Covenant-Community)!

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