Covenants in Contrast

 

 

"Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, ² a minister in the sanctuary and in the true  tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man. ³ For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. ⁴ Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law; ⁵ who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, “See,” He says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.” ⁶ But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. 

 

⁷ For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. ⁸ For finding fault with them, He says,

“Behold, days are coming, says the Lord,When I will effect a new covenant
With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;
⁹ Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers
On the day when I took them by the hand
To lead them out of the land of Egypt;
For they did not continue in My covenant,
And I did not care for them, says the Lord.
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 into their minds,
And I will write them on their hearts.
And I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.
¹¹ “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen,
And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
For all will know Me,
From the least to the greatest of them.
¹² “For I will be merciful to their iniquities,
And I will remember their sins no more.”

¹³ When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear." 

Hebrews 8:1-13

 

 

Good Morning My Beloved,

Welcome to worship this Lord's Day!

We would like to welcome our beloved new brothers and sisters in Christ, joining us for the first time, we are so glad to have you are all here with us today.

 

One of Satan’s biggest goals is to diminish the supremacy of Jesus Christ. You can evaluate one teaching by if it diminishes the glory of Christ, it is not of God. Satan, is a deceiver and has long been using legalism to divert Christians to the superficial, as opposed to sufficiency, which is in Jesus Christ. If he can shift our focus onto external rules and outward observances, then we become fooled into thinking that we are good Christians. However, if the person of Jesus Christ is not our primary focus and His work our joy, we can do numerous outward things, but fail to accomplish the most important thing, which is to glorify Christ and come to know Him more intimately.

 

Satan often uses difficulty and trials to take our focus off of Christ. Rather than allowing the trial to drive us to the sustenance and comfort of Christ, we turn to worldly counsel. The counsel may even work, in the sense of providing temporary relief from our pain. But it is the relief without Christ, that is deceptive and dangerous form of relief. The enemy uses the temptation of worldly pleasures, especially ones we have struggled to overcome in the past, to attempt to lure us from Christ.
 

Luke 8:14 says " The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity."

 

The world chokes the Word that directs us to Jesus Christ, we can become satisfied with all that the temporary pleasure the world offers, forgetting that its pleasures are fleeting at best. Because only Christ satisfies the soul for both time and eternity.

 

Let us bow our heads in prayer.

 

Heavenly Father,

 

Father, we thank You for this great truth, we desire to know and understand Your Word for us, guide us, help us to comprehend. We thank You for the new covenant. WE thank You for those You have chosen to gather with us today, may they be blessed by the great truths of this superior covenant. For those of us who know and love Christ, create a hunger in our hearts. For those among us who do not yet know Christ, cause them to look upon the Messiah and know that the new covenant is for them as well, if they would only come to Christ. May today be that day, touch their hearts Lord, soften the hardened places. May it all be for Christ's sake and Your great glory.

In Christ's precious name

Amen

Today's Message: Covenants In Contrast

As Christians we talk a great deal about the death and resurrection of Christ but we need to remember that we serve a living Christ Who is at God’s right hand and Who has a ministry there for us. The emphasis is upon the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is living. He is not dead, He is not on a cross; He is not lying in a grave. He arose from the dead, and so the emphasis is upon our living Christ.

 

In our society, Bible believing Christians are often criticized as being narrow minded or intolerant for maintaining that Jesus is the only way to God. Yet the reason that we make this claim is because that is what the Bible teaches. However, in John chapter 14, Jesus himself said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me." Jesus is not only able to save; He is the only way salvation.  

 

And, in Acts chapter 4, the Apostle Peter said in verse 12, "And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." 

 

Because of Jesus Christ, our High Priest, we have been given immediate access to the Father, through the Son. However, the prayers of the church, prevailing, acceptable, and fruitful as they may be, are not a thing of beauty as they leave the lips of saints, but as they make their way heavenward, thanks to the intercession of Jesus Christ. What a blessed, and comforting thought is this amidst our frailties. 

 

Open your Bibles with me to the eighth chapter of the book of Hebrews, its amazing how the Spirit of God often gives us a double dose of the Word so that we can really let it sink in. I am grateful, that the Holy Spirit has so wonderfully blessed us as we have studied our way through the book of Hebrews. The primary issue and the key to the covenant, whether old or new, is the priesthood. The priesthood was the agency by which God and man were brought together. Therefore, the priesthood becomes the key. And so, the theme of the epistle is the absolute sufficiency and superiority of Jesus Christ. 

 

 I invite you to follow along with me as I read to set the text in our minds, as we prepare our hearts for a Word for our Lord. Hebrews 8:1-13. 

"Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,  a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man. For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer. Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law; who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, “See,” He says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain.” But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises.
  For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second.  For finding fault with them, He says, “Behold, days are coming, says the Lord,When I will effect a new covenant With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers On the day when I took them by the hand To lead them out of the land of Egypt; For they did not continue in My covenant, And I did not care for 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 into their minds,
And I will write them on their hearts.
And I will be their God,
And they shall be My people.
  “And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen,
And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
For all will know Me,
From the least to the greatest of them.
 “For I will be merciful to their iniquities,
And I will remember their sins no more.” 

When He said, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear."  

 

The Holy Spirit has said much about the priesthood of Christ, but much more needs to be said. Here, in chapter 8, He gives us three more salient points indicating Jesus is a superior priest, and they are fantastically important things. Three more points proving He is a better priest, superior: His seat, His sanctuary, and His superior covenant. His seat, His sanctuary, and His superior covenant. And that leads us to the beginning statement made here in chapter 8, "Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens" 

In the heavens speaks of Christ’s ascension. Christ is superior priest because of His seat. I just love this, because it is such a marvelous statement. "Now the main point in what has been said is this: we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne." In other words, though we have said must about the priesthood of Christ, this sums it all up! "we have such a high priest." This is the apex. In all of the great things that have been said, here’s the most important of all. The most important feature about our Priest is that He’s sitting down. No other priest could do that. The highest proof of His superiority is that He’s sitting down. This is important because no other priest could sit down, because they hadn't finished the job. So he had to keep offering more and more sacrifices because the sacrifice that he offered was only as good as the time until they had committed the next sin. It was never complete, it wasn't final. 

In all my studies on the temple, I came to realize, there aren’t any seats in there, in the holy places there’s only one seat; that’s the mercy seat. And no priest is ever going to sit in the mercy seat.
That would be the absolute epitome of blasphemy, because the mercy seat represented the throne of God. That’s where God was. 

The priest would enter there in fear and trepidation and a sense of awe, once a year, on the Day of Atonement, and sprinkle the blood on the mercy seat,then turn around and get out of there. That’s the only time he could ever go into that place; however, there was never any sitting down, least of all could anybody ever sit down in the only seat there: the mercy seat. That was God’s throne, and nobody would dare be blasphemous enough to himself on God’s throne and sit with God.

 

Then, Jesus came along, offered one sacrifice, He said "It is finished." And, it was done! The entire Levitical system never could accomplish this, and Jesus did it all in one sacrifice. Then, He sat down. That's the key. In other words, He brought men unto God through one sacrifice, and it was the sacrifice of Himself. Christ did it all; the work finished. As far as your salvation is concerned, He sat down, nothing needs to be added to it, it is finished. Yet, even today, many religious people are still trying to add to the simple, pure grace of God and salvation by faith.

 

Now, if that weren't enough, that after He completed the job, He sat down, the author says "He sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens." The right hand has always been the seat of honor. It was always the seat of exaltation, as well as the seat of power.When Christ sat down, God acknowledged His sacrifice, exalted Him, and made Him royal.

 

I'm sure you will recall the Sanhedrin. The ruling body of 70 men known as the Sanhedrin. These men were responsible for making the judgments. They were technically the Jewish house of judgment. They were the ones who were executing justice whenever justice was being executed in the land. And there were always two scribes before the judges of the Sanhedrin. One scribe sat on the right hand, and the other scribe sat on the left hand. And it was always the business of the scribe who sat on the right hand to write the acquittals, and it was the business of the scribe on the left hand to write the condemnations. 

 

Jesus' place is never on the left hand, its always on the right hand for He writes the pardons for His own.

In John chapter 3, it says "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

 

In other words, Christ was given a place of honor, He was ushered into the Holy of Holies, and has been seated with God on the throne.Now, here is something that I find to be completely amazing, allow me to read it to you quickly, Revelation 3:21, "He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne." Do you see that? What a astonishing reality, when we get to heaven we will get right up there in that throne also. And, so will all who overcome. Those who put their faith in Jesus Christ are overcomers. And all of us who are overcomers can get up there on the throne. I believe this is incredible! In other words, Jesus is saying in John 3 and Revelation 3, "You come up on the My throne as I have come up on the Father’s throne."

 

Throughout the book of Hebrews is repeated that Christ is at the right hand of God. So, the crowning argument for the superior priesthood of Jesus Christ as well as His exaltation to heaven, to sit with the Father, that is the glorious sum of everything else that shows us He is, indeed, a superior High Priest. 

 

Look at verse 2, "a minister in the sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man." Since He is a superior Priest, who has ascended to heaven, He ministers in a superior sanctuary. That is the second aspect of the chapter. He doesn't minister in some earthly temple, in fact, those crumbled years ago, His temple is in heaven. He ministers in the real Holy of Holies. Did you catch that, "He is a priest in the true one, which the Lord pitched and not man." God's has His own Holy of Holies, and that’s where Christ sits.

 

Over the years, I have heard many attempt to argue something it says in Acts chapter 7, I'll just read that to you, I believe it's verse 55. "But being full of the Holy Spirit, he gazed intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God." Jesus was standing, see He never finished the work! That's their argument. Wrong! As far as redemption is concerned, His work is finished, He is seated. However, anytime one of His own gets into trouble, He stands up, because He is our mediator. His power and His energy is activated in the behalf of His own. What a tremendous thought, that every time one of His own gets into trouble, He stands up on our behalf.

 

So, in verse 2, it says He is a minister. This comes from two Greek words, one word means belonging to the people, and the other means to work. And He is one who works for the sake of the people. He is one who ministers for our sake. I constantly am reminded of this truth, and yet find it so hard to really grasp. The fact that Jesus Christ, in all of His glory, in all of His magnitude, in all of His exaltation in heaven, is still preoccupied with ministering to me. That's just unbelievable. He’s always serving. He condescends even in His glory on the throne of God, to stand up and minister in my behalf when I have needs. He never received His majesty as something to be selfishly enjoyed. It is in Jesus Christ that majesty and service are in perfect harmony, united together. 

 

Now, in verse 3, "For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices; so it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer." Notice that He begins to pursue His argument from the general to the particular. To the Jew, at this point he could say, "He isn't a priest at all, He's up there doing nothing. If he’s a legitimate high priest, he’ll be busy, ministering in the area of gifts and sacrifices." Remember, there were two kinds of sacrifices. The first kind of sacrifice was the meal offering.And, the other kind were the sacrifices of blood. 

 

Now, in the Old Testament, all of the meal offerings had to do with Thanksgiving and dedication. When a man brought a meal offering, He was thanking God and dedicating His life to God. It was not atonement for sin, there was no blood shed, He was acknowledging God in his life and committing himself to live for God. Jesus is continuing to do this. Here's the part most people miss, He is not doing it for us, none of us can praise God, can dedicate ourselves to God, can truly worship God, or truly thank God unless we do it through Jesus Christ. So, Christ continues to minister gifts to God, our gifts, as we bring the thanks and the praise and the worship of our hearts and the dedication of our lives to present them to God. Christ takes those gifts of our thanks, praise, worship, and dedication and offers them to God. 

 

Then, in  verse 4, He goes on to talk about the fact that He’s a heavenly priest. "Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law;"

 

Now, why wouldn’t Christ have been a priest if it were an earthly priest? What’s the one thing that would have disqualified Him from the earthly priesthood? He was from the wrong tribe. He could not qualify to be a priest because He was not born of the tribe of Levi and would therefore, be disqualified.

And so, Jesus Christ cannot be an earthly priest for the very fact that He’s from the wrong tribe. He must minister somewhere else. And the fact is, He does minister somewhere else, in a better place, which makes His priesthood a better priesthood. That's the point.

 

So in verse 5, He goes on to talk about the priests, "who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, just as Moses was warned by God when he was about to erect the tabernacle; for, "See,” He says, “that you make all things according to the pattern which was shown you on the mountain."

 

That's Exodus 25. In other words, even Moses must have known that this was not the real thing but only the shadow because he saw the pattern that was heavenly. So, Christ must be a priest of a superior sanctuary. The other priests are only shadows of the heavenly priesthood and the heavenly temple, the heavenly Holy Place. A shadow has no independent existence. The Aaronic priesthood; it has not independent existence in itself; it is merely a shadow of the real, which is heavenly.

 

Then He moves on in verse 6 to make a transition to His final point, "But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises." He says "He has obtained a more excellent ministry," what a fantastic statement of truth! That’s the climax. He is a better priest all the way down the line. He is seated; He is in the true sanctuary, the sanctuary of heaven. Therefore, He has obtained a more excellent ministry. We have a Priest who is in the Holy of Holies in heaven, not just in the shadow. Not only is He a better Priest, not only is He in a better sanctuary, not only is He a better mediator with a better covenant. He enacted better promises! He is the real deal, not a copy.

 

In verses 6 through 13, He is making his transition complete. "He is the mediator of a better covenant, which is established on better promises." That's a quote from Jeremiah 31. The word used here for mediator, is the word mesitēs from mesos which means in the middle. All covenants were made on the basis of promises. God would promise to do something. That's what a covenant is, God's promise to do something. The promises are clearly outlined in verses 8 to 12 of this chapter, which are directly out of Jeremiah 31:31 and following. 

In verse 7, "For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. And before they question about finding fault with the old covenant, He says in verse 8, "For finding fault with them, He says, "Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, When I will effect a new covenant With the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;" So, He's saying that's in Jeremiah! Your own Word says to you that the old covenant has problems, and God’s going to have to get another one. Even today, there are many Jews  who are hanging on tenaciously to the old covenant, and they despise the truth that is preached about the new covenant.  

 

Their own beloved prophet Jeremiah, the weeping prophet who said, "God is going to write a new covenant." God prophesied in His own words, Jeremiah recorded it. God said "I’ll make a new covenant." God is the author of it. The word used is diathēkē, which is reserved for wills. The Greek for agreement is sunthēkē, which is used for an agreement between two people who are equals, like a marriage contract.  God at no time has ever considered Himself equal with men. I know that is shocking to many people who have attempted to bring God down to their level. God and man never enter agreements on equal terms. God never says, "Here are my terms, now, let's both work together and get this this done." And, then we present our terms and come to an agreement, that never happens! The terms are, God makes a covenant. You either accept it or you reject it. Period. Our relationship to God is based solely on God’s terms, never on our terms. God knows what's best, there's no argument. 

 

That's why the word used, diathēkē, is reserved for a will.You don’t have anything to say about it. You don't get to bargain with a will. You accept it or reject it. That's the second thing about the new covenant is it is different. It’s different than the old. It's not an addendum to the old covenant. 

 

God is the author of the new covenant. It is different. It is made with the Jews. It will not be legalism.

So, in verse 9, He says "Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers On the day when I took them by the hand To lead them out of the land of Egypt; For they did not continue in My covenant, And I did not care for them, says the Lord."  That's some pretty strong language! God had a legalistic, Mosaic covenant, and He made it with them. He led them out of Egypt, put them in their land, and they went against all of His standards, and He said,

"I regarded them not."  That’s the Mosaic covenant, "If you do this, I’ll bless you. If you don’t do it, I’ll just walk away." God say's "I’m going to make a new covenant, and it’s not going to be that way."  I’m going to have a covenant different than that, a covenant that not only forgives them but keeps them. He is permanently in our hearts, therefore,  we’re secure in Him. He does not ever leave us nor forsake us.That's the new covenant. 

 

Then, in verse 10, I love this, "“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 into their minds, And I will write them on their hearts. And I will be their God, And they shall be My people." In the old covenant, the law was written on stone. In the new covenant, the law is written in our hearts. In the old covenant, they were told to obey but they didn’t have the power. In the new covenant, we have the power to obey, the Holy Spirit and the new nature. What a beautiful promise. 

 

Now, look at verse 11, it's personal, "And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen,
And everyone his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ For all will know Me, From the least to the greatest of them." 

 

Now, to explain, in those days, only the religious leaders had access to the Word, the lower class, poor were victimized. They were not faithfully taught, and they were not made aware of the teachings that could have changed their lives. That was reserved for the religious elite. So, God says, in the new covenant, everybody’s going to know this truth, not only the educated, religious elite. Every believer is going to have a resident truth teacher who will lead them into all truth and bring all things to their remembrance, even the Holy Spirit. 

 

Then, the Holy Spirit really knocks the ball out of the park, with verse 12, "For I will be merciful to their iniquities, And I will remember their sins no more." 

 

Beloved,  that's the best part of the new covenant is total forgiveness of sins. Then, He makes a closing statement, in verse 13, "When He said, "A new covenant," He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear."  There's a new covenant, therefore, He renders the first one old. did you catch that?  "He has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear." Incidentally, only a few years after this was written, Titus hits Jerusalem and wiped out Judaism. The age of the law is over, the age of the Son, is here, forevermore. 

 

May it be so..

 

And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;

the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.

Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen

 

 

 

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