THE COVENANTS (Heb. 8:6-13)
I. Introduction
A. We have seen that there is to be a change in law and priesthood as a result of Christ taking His priesthood after the Order of
Meichizedek (Heb. 7:12-17)
1.Of necessity then there is to be a change in Covenants
II. What is the Old Covenant?
A. It is the Covenant God made with Israel at Mt. Sinai
1.We must be clear that the word covenant as used here does not mean what we may think.
a. We are apt to think of an arrangement between two parties arrived at further mutual consultation
b. As a matter of fact in neither covenant was man consulted at all as to their terms
2. Dr. G. Campbell Morgan - the word denotes an undertaking made by one party by which other parties may benefit on the conditions stated by the Covenant- maker
a. It is really more like what we call a Will or Testament
b. In chapter 9 the word is translated testaments (15-18)
B. First statement of the Old Covenant is found in its simplest form in Exodus 19:5-6, when Israel was approaching Sinai. "Now, therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; for all the earth is mine; and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation."
1. There you have it, certain blessings promised by God conditioned on certain moral requirements being fulfilled
2. It was God's covenant but they were to keep the covenant He commanded (Deut 4:13). He declared unto you His covenant which He commanded you to perform - even Ten Commandments.
C. Israel Attitude toward the Covenant
1. The conditions seemed reasonable so in their naivete they felt themselves well able to fulfill them.
2. They responded to God - all the Lord has spoken we will do
3. For final ratification it was written in a book and read to the people. The blood of a sacrificial offering was sprinkled on both the book and the people.
4. The terms of the covenant we quite simple - This do and thou shall live
a. They never Did do, nor did they keep God's covenant
b. The commandment which was ordained to life, had they obeyed it, they found to be death because they disobeyed.
III. Old Covenant is Still in vogue to Most
A. That covenant is still the one the natural man understands best
1. Man in street, if he thinks about his relationship with God at all thinks on it as an exterior code of ethics he must obey
a. Do the best you can, do not harm anybody
b. If there is a God at all, He will be pleased with you
2. This is also the covenant to which many ill instructed believers gravitate
a. It is so natural to feel that to find the fullest peace with God, to be used by Him, we must approximate the standards of a
holy life
b. We must be more involved in the church, give more, pray more, only then can we find blessing of God
c. It sounds fine but what if we fail to do these things
d. What if we never attain that peace of spiritual success?
3. Obviously the other side of the covenant comes to say, Fail to do this and thou shalt die
a. The fact is none of us have kept the covenant of law
b. Not even the most dedicated feels he has attained to being all God expects of him
c. All that is left is reproach and condemnation
d. We feel if we only try again - try even harder this time
4. All of this way of thinking slips into minds and teaching.
a. Try as we may we find it is not natural to us to love God and our neighbor as ourselves
b. It is not natural to us to love our enemies and bless those who curse us
c. It is natural to hate my enemy and resent those who curse us
d. Being what we are we never take it on God's terms
B. In God's economy this old covenant is rendered obsolete because it is "weak thru the flesh"
1.God has rendered it obsolete by the new and better covenant which Jesus brought in
2. The poet put is most graphically
IV. The New Covenant
A. This covenant, like the first, is arrived at not by mutual consent but by His disposition.
1. Certain benefits are conferred on other parties on conditions stated by the covenant-maker
2. Only this time we do not seem to be able to find what the conditions are for the simple reason that there are none.
No conditions at all
a. The implied one is that the beneficiary confesses his lack of blessing and his desperate need of them
b. In other words, it is a covenant of grace whereby God loves us as we are and does not require worthiness from us before He
blesses us
c. It is a one sided covenant without strings
B. What kind of a Covenant is it? (Jer. 31:33)
1.The law of God is no longer an exterior code of ethics
a. It is something He is going to put into us, it is to become a part of us; written on our hearts
b. The one qualification to experience this inner dynamic is to confess my emptiness
2. If I do so He fills it with His fullness
a. Ez. 36:26-27, How about that. I will cause you to walk in my statutes
b. To the Philippians, Paul says, "It is God that worketh in you, both to will and do of His pleasure"
c. Why does God repeat this phrase about God working in us (Heb. 13:21)
d. God is saying grace puts into us what God wants out of us
e. If God wants holiness, gentleness, love out of me, then He will have to put them in me
3. If you come to a place where God is asking something that is not in you, confess that fact to him, He has pledged to work it in you
a. The gracious God of glory has been writing His law in our hearts
b. By His presence in us, Jesus lives again His life through us
4. For those of us living under the old covenant we have been trying to do His work for Him and falling into condemnation for failing to do it
5. How we need to pass from under the old to the New (8:13)
V. The New Covenant Implemented
A. We come no to a vital promise of that covenant
1. It begins with the word for (Heb. 8:12)
a. Previously he had been speaking about the process by which men come to know the Lord
b. The only way to really know the Lord is to know Him as a forgiving God, that means taking the place of a sinner who needs His forgiveness
2. We do not get to know Him merely by studying the Bible, as important as that is
a. We get to know Him by going back to the foot of His Cross where love and mercy finds us again
b. Because He delights in mercy we need not suffer broken fellowship with Him any longer that it takes to repent
3. It is by the many experiences of His forgiveness that He writes His law on my heart
a. He deals with me on this matter and that until I confess I am wrong, then He cleanses me
b. In the process of my confessing these matters He writes the opposite of what I am confessing on my heart
4. So I go on repenting and being forgiven and as I walk this way, He works a progressive holiness in me
a. I find l do not get love for a difficult brother by asking for love, but by repenting of the un love in my heart
b. I find without much asking that Jesus is giving me his love for them
c. I do not get faith by asking for faith but by confessing unbelief and calling it sin
d. Automatically faith and confidence in the Lord takes its place and I am at peace
5. A desperate asking for this or that quality can only be a form of struggling
a. But confessing I am empty of that quality makes me a fit candidate for the grace of God
b. This involves submitting to many convictions of sin from the Holy Spirit
c. But it also means many sweet experiences of mercy and forgiveness at the feet of Jesus
VI. What Happens Within Us
A. The person involved in largely unaware of any in himself
1. He is only conscious of new points on which he has come to Jesus as a sinner
2. But others see and feel the difference and are delighted to see the new sweetness and grace about him
a. Oswald Chambers called it conscious repentance leading to unconscious holiness
b. I prefer it that way don't you?
c. A person who thinks that he is holy is not very attractive to me
3. A holy person is only conscious when there is a failure in holiness and readily judges himself this process is progressive holiness
a. As we do so Jesus expands further his territory in us
b. Let us move out from the old to living with Jesus in the New