Rsbc

December 7, 2003

Sunday Night

The Book of Hebrews

Subject: "The New Covenant"

Text: Hebrews 8: 8-13

Intro: Last Sunday Night we looked at the True Tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. The new covenant is about him and his work for his people.

This covenant is accomplished in the LORD JESUS CHRIST. This new covenant is first realized by the ISERALITIES, and then it is experienced by every soul that GOD saves by his grace.

I... "THE OLD COVENANTS ARE CLEARLY STATED: VS 8-9

Let me make it clear the fault really was not in the covenant but the people of the covenant..It was their fathers, their ancestry that refused to walk in the ways of the Lord.

Notice the text says "they continued not in my covenant"..vs 9

1st. The goodness of God to them in the old covenant.. " I took them out"

Let me read you what David said about his people and their rebellion against the Lord...

Psalm 78:14-17 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire. 15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness, and gave [them] drink as [out of] the great depths. 16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers. 17 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.

2nd. In spite of what he had been to them " I regarded them not"

The verse from which this is quoted renders it this way:

Jeremiah 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers

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in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

II... " WHAT IS THIS NEW COVENANT"..VS 10-13

1st. It’s origin...vs 10 " I will make"

For anything to be any good for the spiritual welfare of God’s people it must indeed come from him. It cannot find it’s roots in man made religion, man made systems. It must come from the Lord.

The Lord Jesus talking to Nicodemus said "John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

Jonah was in the belly of the whale and said these remarkable words: Jonah 2:9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay [that] that I have vowed. Salvation [is] of the LORD.

2nd. It’s power...vs 10 " I will put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts"

This is the big difference between the old and the new. The old external laws and ordinances and the new written in the heart. Paul said of this new covenant..

2 Corinthians 3:3 [Forasmuch as ye are] manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

This is regeneration clear and simple. This is not just for the Jews, this is for all the elect of God. Just think about it, God has written his word in our hearts with the power of the Holy Spirit.

James the brother of the Lord said: James 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

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To write the word of the Lord in our hearts, it takes some things to happen, and sometimes I think we loose site of it. It takes the old nature to be change by the Spirit:

This is what the Lord promised: Ezekiel 36:26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

When God says live, we live, when God says rise up, we rise up, when God says go we go. God sent Ezekiel to preach to a valley of dry bones and lets read it...

Ezekiel 37:1-14

1st. The origin of this event..vs 1 " Thus saith the Lord"

2nd. The work of God on him..vs 2 " He caused him"

3rd. The word of God..vs 3

4th. The command of God... vs 4-6

5th. The obedience of Ezekiel..vs 7

6th. The results..vs 8-14

This is the new covenant, this is the work of the Holy Spirit, this is not just about land, or being a Jew, this about being the elect of God in the nation of Israel...

Note only do we see it’s origin, it’s power but now we come to the...

3rd. The results of the new covenant..vs 11

No longer will it be up to them, up to us, it will be the LORD.. They shall not teach, the LORD will do it. all will know the Lord, not all without exception...that would be contrary to all that we have learned concerning the distinguishing grace of GOD.

A.. In this covenant we shall experience the mercy of God as they did..vs 12

Jacob said:

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Genesis 32:9-10 And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the LORD which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee: 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; for with my staff I passed over this Jordan; and now I am become two bands.

Not that he said I will be merciful to their unrighteousness... that is a great blessing from the LORD...

B.. "With mercy comes forgiveness...vs 12

1. Forgiveness a great blessing: Romans 4:7 [Saying], Blessed [are] they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.

2. Forgiveness is on the account of Christ: Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

3. Forgiveness is complete: Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;

1 John 2:12 I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.

4. The promise he makes in this covenant: " I will remember them no more"

What a blessing, you can count on it, you can rest on it, you can go to your grave with it, Christ hath forgiven us and he will remember them no more.

He has blooded them out Isaiah 44:22 I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, as a cloud, thy sins: return unto me; for I have redeemed thee.

 

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He has removed them: Psalm 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, [so] far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

 

He has put them behind his back: Isaiah 38:17 Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul [delivered it] from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back.

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