Confidence from the New Covenant

10/26/02 and 10/27/02

Review:

We have been talking about Covenant. We looked at the BLOOD COVENANT, THE MARRIAGE COVENANT, COVENANT RELATIONSHIPS and this weekend we are finishing up by looking at our Covenant with God.

-We have an agreement with God in the Blood of Jesus so secure that we can place total faith in what it means for us.

-That is what I want to focus on: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU?

Hebrews 8 and 9 TLB

6 But our High Priest has been given a ministry that is far superior to the ministry of those who serve under the old laws, for he is the one who guarantees for us a better covenant with God, based on better promises.

7 If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for a second covenant to replace it. 8 But God himself found fault with the old one when he said:

“The day will come, says the Lord,

when I will make a new covenant

with the people of Israel and Judah.

9 This covenant will not be like the one

I made with their ancestors

when I took them by the hand

and led them out of the land of Egypt.

They did not remain faithful to my covenant,

so I turned my back on them, says the Lord.

10 But this is the new covenant I will make

with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord:

I will put my laws in their minds

so they will understand them,

and I will write them on their hearts

so they will obey them.

I will be their God,

and they will be my people.

11 And they will not need to teach their neighbors,

nor will they need to teach their family,

saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’

For everyone, from the least to the greatest,

will already know me.

12 And I will forgive their wrongdoings,

and I will never again remember their sins.”*

13 When God speaks of a new covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and ready to be put aside.

Chapter 9

1. Now in that first covenant between God and Israel, there were regulations for worship and a sacred tent here on earth. 2 There were two rooms in this tent. In the first room were a lampstand, a table, and loaves of holy bread on the table. This was called the Holy Place. 3 Then there was a curtain, and behind the curtain was the second room called the Most Holy Place. 4 In that room were a gold incense altar and a wooden chest called the Ark of the Covenant, which was covered with gold on all sides. Inside the Ark were a gold jar containing some manna, Aaron’s staff that sprouted leaves, and the stone tablets of the covenant with the Ten Commandments written on them. 5 The glorious cherubim were above the Ark. Their wings were stretched out over the Ark’s cover, the place of atonement. But we cannot explain all of these things now.

6 When these things were all in place, the priests went in and out of the first room* regularly as they performed their religious duties. 7 But only the high priest goes into the Most Holy Place, and only once a year, and always with blood, which he offers to God to cover his own sins and the sins the people have committed in ignorance. 8 By these regulations the Holy Spirit revealed that the Most Holy Place was not open to the people as long as the first room and the entire system it represents were still in use.

9 This is an illustration pointing to the present time. For the gifts and sacrifices that the priests offer are not able to cleanse the consciences of the people who bring them. 10 For that old system deals only with food and drink and ritual washing—external regulations that are in effect only until their limitations can be corrected.

11 So Christ has now become the High Priest over all the good things that have come. He has entered that great, perfect sanctuary in heaven, not made by human hands and not part of this created world. 12 Once for all time he took blood into that Most Holy Place, but not the blood of goats and calves. He took his own blood, and with it he secured our salvation forever.

13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people’s bodies from ritual defilement. 14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our hearts from deeds that lead to death so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. 15 That is why he is the one who mediates the new covenant between God and people, so that all who are invited can receive the eternal inheritance God has promised them. For Christ died to set them free from the penalty of the sins they had committed under that first covenant.

-There is so much we could say about the whole subject of covenant that I am going to have to pick some thoughts and drop some others.

-Lets focus on several keys thoughts from this Scripture.

-We talked several weeks ago about God’s covenant with Abraham. It was based on a promise, not performance.

-Abraham’s job was to believe.

-A Covenant with Israel was added temporarily to serve as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.

-It was based on performance. Israel broke it like all humans would have.

-The entire message of the O.T. is the futility of trying to serve God by works.

-The O.T. is preparation and promise. The N.T. is fulfillment and possession.

-The purpose of the O.T. is to show the void that only the N.T. can fill.

1. THE NEW COVENANT IS BASED ON FAITH

-There is nothing you can do to make it happen except to believe God.

-Abraham is the Father of our Faith because he believed God could and would keep His promise to him.

-The Covenant with Israel was based on law.

-It poses the question to which Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross is the answer.

-How can people draw near to God? Only by the shedding of the blood of a perfect sacrifice with no personal sin.

-Jesus is the other party of the covenant made in Genesis.

-God made a covenant and put Abraham into a deep sleep.

-Jesus, Abraham’s seed finished the agreement thousands of years later.

-God made a covenant with Himself. The only way it can be broken is if God gets broken.

-Our part is to believe God.

-The covenant is by faith.

2. THE NEW COVENANT IS BETTER THAN THE OLD

-It said in Hebrews that it is a better covenant based on better promises.

-That means we should have it better than those under the O.T.

-God saved them miraculously from Egypt.

-He healed them.

-He prospered them.

-They were delivered from their enemies when they sought Him.

-ETC.

-We should have all of that and more.

-Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever.

-We are Abraham’s seed through Christ. We are heirs of the promise.

-We act like adopted children sometimes as if we don’t really belong here.

Galatians 4 TLB

Abraham’s Two Children

21 Listen to me, you who want to live under the law. Do you know what the law really says? 22 The Scriptures say that Abraham had two sons, one from his slave-wife and one from his freeborn wife.* 23 The son of the slave-wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of his promise.

24 Now these two women serve as an illustration of God’s two covenants. Hagar, the slave-wife, represents Mount Sinai where people first became enslaved to the law. 25 And now Jerusalem is just like Mount Sinai in Arabia, because she and her children live in slavery. 26 But Sarah, the free woman, represents the heavenly Jerusalem. And she is our mother. 27 That is what Isaiah meant when he prophesied,

“Rejoice, O childless woman!

Break forth into loud and joyful song,

even though you never gave birth to a child.

For the woman who could bear no children

now has more than all the other women!”*

28 And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac.

-The children of Promise are those, wheter Jew or Gentile who are children of God by faith, not natural origin.

-Our covenant is based on our new birth, not our natural birth.

-This Scripture is comparing the two covenants.

-This one is better.

-I made the comparison last week about children.

-When they are little you tell them everything. You give them a curfew and establish strict rules.

-When they are truly born again and changed by the Lord, they don’t have to have rules.

-The internal, eternal compass is their guide.

Hebrews 8

10 But this is the new covenant I will make

with the people of Israel on that day, says the Lord:

I will put my laws in their minds

so they will understand them,

and I will write them on their hearts

so they will obey them.

I will be their God,

and they will be my people.

11 And they will not need to teach their neighbors,

nor will they need to teach their family,

saying, ‘You should know the Lord.’

For everyone, from the least to the greatest,

will already know me.

-Rules melt in the light of desire to love and serve God.

-The New Covenant is a covenant of grace. The Old covenant was a covenant of law.

John 1

16 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

-God believes that if we are truly changed we will truly live changed.

3. THE NEW COVENANT HAS THE POWER TO REALLY REMOVE SIN

-The dictionary defines salvation as the removal of sin and sin’s penalty.

Hebrews 9

12 Once for all time he took blood into that Most Holy Place, but not the blood of goats and calves. He took his own blood, and with it he secured our salvation forever.

13 Under the old system, the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a young cow could cleanse people’s bodies from ritual defilement. 14 Just think how much more the blood of Christ will purify our hearts from deeds that lead to death so that we can worship the living God. For by the power of the eternal Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.

-Jesus’ blood is enough to really cleanses you and even to change your conscience.

-If you don’t forgive others, you won’t believe that God can totally forgive you.

-Your confidence is forgiveness is set by your standard for others.

-The measure you use is the measure you get.

James 2

12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!

-Sometimes we think that a person can be forgiven but we are sure they are going to have to wear a sign in heaven telling how bad they really were.

-I have decided to forgive and show mercy because sometimes it is difficult to believe God can totally forgive me. I need mercy so I need to show mercy.

-If you are not a merciful person, you will never experience the true freedom of the mercy of Christ.

-You set the measure you receive by what you give to others.

4. THE NEW COVENANT DRAWS YOU NEAR

-The purpose of a covenant is to draw two parties closer.

-God went looking for Adam when he was hiding from God. Adam, where are you?

Hebrews 10

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.

-God is calling you to have confidence in the covenant He made with you through Jesus Christ. Come close and hang out with God.

-The message of the New Covenant is “COME BACK TO GOD.”

-The message to Christians is come close.