Sermon Tone Analysis

The Promises of a New Covenant

We are going to start this morning jumping right into the word, so if you would open your Bibles we are going to read from Hebrews 8:6-13.

This is pretty short chapter.

It’s not often that we can cover an entire chapter in just 2 messages, but we have building our theology to this point in Hebrews and it is all starting to click together.

That said, there is a lot in this passage that needs to be expounded, so we are going to jump right in.

Our message is the second in our series Better Things and is entitled The Promises of a New Covenant.

Old Vs New

Before the book of Genesis and before the book of Matthew or the title pages the Old Testament and the New Testament respectively.

Ever since we began calling those books by those names there has a risen something of a conflict in our understanding of how to approach these groups of books that make up our Bible.

We go to terms Old Testament and New Testament from what we read in 2 Corinthians 3:6, 14

2 Corinthians 3:6 (KJV 1900)

6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

2 Corinthians 3:14 (KJV 1900)

14 But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.

We can fall into error in believing that old means entirely antiquated and new means that this is now the only testament to which we are to follow.

If I'm going to be honest even using the word testament as the delimiter between these collection of books is a little confusing because the word testament means covenant, and commitment to a course of action between two parties.

But it's more than idea of new versus old that I think we struggle with.

When we read new testament it's not saying new as in something that comes in sequence after something else: what new means here is that this is a covenant that is superior in quality to the previous covenant.

Then, to layer on some complexity to that we have to understand that God has used different modes of communicating his law, and by His law I mean the moral law.

You will see why that is important to specify shortly.

We could start at the very beginning Adam did not need the written law of God in order to carry out God's law.

He was in a fellowship with God and had only one rule that was don't eat from this tree.

God created Adam in sinless perfection but gave him the freedom to choose whether to obey or rebel against his creator.

Unfortunately we all know how that worked out.

Before the law was written God communicated his will to the patriarchs.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob didn't have the 10 Commandments to reference but their fellowship with God and their knowledge of God made them unique in the world and having a covenant from God dispensed to them.

When Israel came it was a different situation.

The things of God was communicated to one man who then served as a mediator to the people of Israel.

One man this mediator knew God.

It is knowledge of God and his intimacy with God which is what that word new means meant that it was his job to communicate God to God's people.

And the law that was given to Moses on Sinai was the vehicle for which God used to deliver his law.

Remember, this was a law given to a nation that God had specifically set aside for the purpose of His glory.

In the vehicle with God's moral law, was the law was also the ceremonial law and the civic law that this people had to abide by.

Up to this point in redemptive history, where Christ dies on the cross.

Where He becomes the mediator of a new covenant.

The Jewish people had been living under a covenant that was established with Moses.

The law that was delivered by the books of the law.

What we call the Pentetuch, the first 5 books of the Old Testament.

But in the new more adequate covenant: a nation is no longer in view.

Not only is a nation not in view but neither is ceremony.

That is where the book of Hebrews has been building two.

When Christ fulfilled the sacrifice in the true temple, the subject of last weeks message, then there was no longer a need for ceremonial worship.

What need is there of a picture that foreshadows a future sacrifice in the true temple of God, once that sacrifice has been made?

And so, the New Testament is divided from the Old.

The 3 Promises

Depending on how your Bible is formatted you might find that verses eight through 12 stand out.

What is trying to be indicated by whoever set the type in your Bible is that these verses are a quote from the old testament.

Jeremiah 31:31-34.

You can mark it to read later if you want, but we're not going to read it this morning, because it is almost identical to what we have here in Hebrews chapter 8.

He Says

Before we get into those verses I do want you to notice what we read before the quotation.

Hebrews 8:8 (KJV 1900)

8 For finding fault with them, he saith ....

I put this out because the author of Hebrews doesn't say Jeremiah said.

He recognizes that these are the words of God and they are only being delivered by Jeremiah.

The town crier doesn't get credit for the decree.

The more importantly what this is is the author of Hebrews acknowledging that scripture is divinely inspired.

It is the word of God.

So we continue.

The first promise of the new covenant can be found in verse 10.

Promise 1 - Law on Minds & Hearts

The first promise is that God will put His laws into the minds and into the hearts of His people.

Now, this doesn't mean that upon our conversion the entirety of scripture is downloaded from heaven to our brains for instant memorization.

That would give a whole new meaning to the term downloading from the cloud, wouldn’t it!

But the moral law of God does get impressed upon the believer.

In the same way that it was with Adam and the same way it was with the patriarchs.

And the vehicle now for delivering the law is the Holy Spirit.

In John 16:13 Jesus says

See it is that person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit who speaks the law of God into believers.

We see this law impacting man in two places, don’t we?

In verse 10 we read:

Hebrews 8:10 (KJV 1900)

10 .....

I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: .....

We would probably be tempted to use these two words interchangeably mind and heart.

The Greek idea behind these words are at least subtle different.

Mind, διάνοια (dianoia) in the Greek, refers the seat of intellect.

This is the part of you from which you reason and think. 1 Corinthians 1:23 says

And the reason that they think that the things of God are foolishness is because they do not have an intellect that has be regenerated by the work of God.

The same is true for their heart.

The word heart in v10 is very much the idea of a - heart.

It’s καρδία (kardia) — it’s where we get the word Cardio from.

This alluded to the core of someone’s being, the seat of emotion if you will.

In Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon he defines the word:

the centre and seat of spiritual life, the soul or mind, as it is the fountain and seat of the thoughts, passions, desires, appetites, affections, purposes, endeavors

Ezekiel 11:19 says

And one of the amazing truths of the gospel God changes the heart of the believer he changes the thoughts of the believer, the passions of the believer, the desires of the believer, the appetites of the believer, the affections of the believer, the purposes of the believer, and also the endeavors of the believer.

That is what it is to be a new creature.

Promise 2 - The Knowledge of God

The next promise can be found in v11 of Hebrews 8.

Remember that in the previous covenants we had mediators of those covenants who had exclusive access to God.

It was very few people who knew God.

By knew, I mean that there were very few people who had an intimate knowledge of God, who were acquainted personally with God.

I know it's relatively cliché but when we talk about Jesus being our personal savior that is what we are talking about.

We are talking about having a relationship with Jesus Christ, with God, that is a personal relationship, not just some abstract idea of who we think God might be.

In Hosea 4:6 God says through his prophet Hosea:

Hosea 4:6 (KJV 1900)

6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: Because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

The greatest problem with the old covenant is that the people of that old covenant often didn't know God.

We read story after story about Israel rejecting the Lord and following after false gods.

But — In the new covenant there's no need for a prophet like Hosea to cry out to those under that covenant to Know the Lord.