“The New Covenant”
Hebrews 8:7-13
Warden Assembly of God
Pastor John L. Harper
October 19, 2008
Introduction: After the death of Elvis Presley it became fairly common to read headlines in the Tabloids such as: "I was Elvis’ Love Child" or "Elvis’ Ghost is My Father". Many people claimed to be related to "The King" either for the prestige of wearing his name or possibly to try and get a share of his inheritance. In the heat of all this activity, a Detroit radio station advertised that for just $2 and a self-addressed, stamped envelope, YOU TOO could be Elvis’ child.
For that sum you could receive an authentic birth certificate from the radio station signed by a Radio Disk Jockey named Dick Puritan. The certificate claimed it entitled the bearer to "appear on any talk show in the country." About 2000 people sent in their envelopes and became "children of the King."
APPLY: Everybody knew it was a worthless piece of paper. No one became Elvis’ child because of this certificate. And the people who bought those documents had no legal standing for anything.
BUT WHY? Why couldn’t you become Elvis’ child by purchasing one of those documents? Because the people at the radio station had no authority to issue the document in the 1st place.
I. What the writer of Hebrews is telling us is that there is now a legal document - a “New Covenant” - that literally makes us children of THE King. (Jeff Strite Sermon Central)
I. THE DECLARATION OF THE NEW COVENANT (vs. 7-8)
A. There is a reason for a new covenant
1. The first covenant was faulty
The Law made nothing perfect
They could not make those who approach perfect - He 10:1-3
(Heb 10:1) For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
(Heb 10:2) For then would they not have ceased to be offered? Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
(Heb 10:3) But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
The blood of animals offered by the priests could not take
away sins - He 10:4, 11 (Mark Copeland)
(Heb 10:4) For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.
(Heb 10:11) And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
2. There is not room for two covenants
B. The people lived according to a faulty covenant
1. The Lord declared the coming of a new covenant
2. This would be a covenant with His people
A Covenant is an agreement between two people. Our part is to first commit ourselves to the Lord in His service.
Illustration:
Everything we do needs to be a part of our service to God. A young boy by the name of James had a desire to be the most famous manufacturer and salesman of cheese in the world. He planned on becoming rich and famous by making and selling cheese and began with a little buggy pulled by a pony named Paddy. After making his cheese, he would load his wagon and he and Paddy would drive down the streets of Chicago to sell the cheese. As the months passed, the young boy began to despair because he was not making any money, in spite of his long hours and hard work. One day he pulled his pony to a stop and began to talk to him. He said, “Paddy, there is something wrong. We are not doing it right. I am afraid we have things turned around and our priorities are not where they ought to be. Maybe we ought to serve God and place him first in our lives.” The boy drove home and made a covenant that for the rest of his life he would first serve God and then would work as God directed. Many years after this, the young boy, now a man, stood as Sunday School Superintendent at a church in Chicago and said, “I would rather be a deacon in this church than to head the greatest corporation in America. My first job is serving Jesus.” So, every time you take a bite of Philadelphia Cream cheese, mix a quart of Kool- Aid, slice up a DiGiorno Pizza, cook a pot of Macaroni & Cheese, stir a bowl of Cream of Wheat, slurp down some Jell-O, eat the cream out of the middle of an Oreo cookie, or serve some Stove Top, remember a boy, his pony named Paddy, and the promise that little James Kraft made to serve God and work as He directed.
Application: Have you committed yourself to the New Covenant? Have you made up your mind that serving the Lord will come first?
II. THE DETAILS OF THE NEW COVENANT (vs. 9-11)
A. This covenant would not be
Illustration:
Marriage is not a contract; it is a covenant. In a contract, the two parties remain separate (Party of the first part and party of the second part). Like salad dressing, oil and water, shaken up and mixed together, put never really one. Left alone and still, salad dressing will eventually separate into their original respective parts. In a covenant, the two become one in the same. The Marriage Covenant is a lot more like mashed potatoes. How do you make mashed potatoes? Take 2 potatoes, skinned them alive, cut them up, put them in hot water to soften their temperament, and mash them together into 1! (Sermon Central)
1. The previous made with their forefathers
2. The covenant made as they left Egypt
B. The old covenant was disannulled
1. Because of their disobedience
God found fault because they did not continue in His covenant
Jer 11:7-10 (Jer 11:7) For I earnestly protested unto your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even unto this day, rising early and protesting, saying, Obey my voice.
(Jer 11:8) Yet they obeyed not, nor inclined their ear, but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart: therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do; but they did them not.
(Jer 11:9) And the LORD said unto me, a conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
(Jer 11:10) They are turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, which refused to hear my words; and they went after other gods to serve them: the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers.
(Jer 11:11) Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.
2. Because of the disregard of the Lord
For this reason He disregarded them, allowing them to be taken
away by their enemies Jer 11:11-14
(Jer 11:11) Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them.
(Jer 11:12) Then shall the cities of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem go, and cry unto the gods unto whom they offer incense: but they shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble.
(Jer 11:13) For according to the number of thy cities were thy gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem have ye set up altars to that shameful thing, even altars to burn incense unto Baal.
(Jer 11:14) Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.
Even so, He did not leave them without some hope, for through
the prophet Jeremiah He made a promise...
C. The new covenant will be of the heart and not of tablets of stone
(Jer 31:31) Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
(Jer 31:32) Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers 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:
(Jer 31:33) But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
(Jer 31:34) And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
1. The laws of the Lord will be put on our mind
• Are they only on our bookshelf?
• God wants to put His laws on our mind, because He is a personal God.
2. The laws of the Lord will be written on our hearts
• Not on stone tablets, to be broken
• But on our hearts that we won’t sin against Him
3. He will be our God, and we will be His people
Unlike the first covenant, in which people entered it at
birth; as they grew up, they needed to be taught about the
Lord
In the new covenant, one must come to know the Lord before
they can enter the covenant (Mark Copeland)
4. The benefit of this relationship will be the renown of the Lord
Covenant is a promise to protect and provide for, but if we don’t have relationship with the one who has made that covenant we will suffer needlessly. Listen to the story of Mephibosheth. He is the son of Jonathan (Saul’s grandson)
Kay Arthur writes: If only… if only he had known… If only I had known! He had been summoned. What could he do? There was no higher authority to appeal to, no one to mediate. He had been bidden to come – and go he must. Most people looked on him with contempt because of his physical appearance. Some even derisively spat out the word “cripple” as he passed them by. He hated the stares of the people who watched his rocking body lumber and jerk as he approached the throne – the throne of a man who he was sure desired his death. He sweated profusely. The fear churning within caused his hands to tremble. He clenched them together to hide the misery from the watchful eyes. But it was no use – both shook. Bitterness had hardened his countenance, but inside he felt as spongy as mud and as worthless as dirt. He felt cheated by life, ignored by God. Robbed of a bright and seemingly certain future at the age of five, when his father and grandfather were killed suddenly in battle, he had spent his life in an out of the way village. All his life he had successfully hidden from this man – a man who, he had heard from his grandfather, could never be trusted. Now this man had found him! “How much worse could it be?” he wondered in irony… and heard his angry heart respond with a refusal to weaken. He didn’t know it, but in a matter of minutes he would discover how needless his years of bitterness, fear, poverty, and hiding had been. Even his physical disabilities could have been avoided had he and others known one thing – the covenant that had been made on his behalf! King David had made a covenant with Mephibosheth’s father to care for his descendants. And David made good this covenant! If Mephibosheth had continued to live in the darkness of his lie, he would have died never knowing the home that awaited him in the palace of the king.
Application: Are you like Mephibosheth fearing punishment? The Lord does not want to punish you; He wants to provide for you.
III. THE DISSOLUTION OF THE OLD COVENANT (vs. 12-13)
A. There will be mercy for those who are unrighteous (who cry out to the Lord)
1. Their sins will be remembered no more
2. Their lawless deeds will be remembered no more
B. There will be a dissolution of the old covenant
(THE NEW COVENANT HAS MADE THE FIRST "OBSOLETE"... (13)
By even calling the promised covenant "new", God made the
first covenant obsolete
The death of Jesus rendered the sacrifices of the first
covenant unnecessary
1. The covenant is growing old
Before long, the temple itself would be destroyed, and
along with it, the last vestiges of the Levitical
priesthood (Mark Copeland)
2. The covenant is ready to vanish away (typewriter vs. computer)
Verse 13 -- Here’s a great word: "OBSOLETE".
Do you own anything that is obsolete? Appliances, 8 tracks, beta VCR or camera, old commodore computer, rotary phones, hi-fi’s, tube TV’s or radios, etc. (John Holt)
CONCLUSION:
Altar Call
• There is a new covenant
• It is a covenant of the heart, not of stone
• The new covenant will forgive your sins, and give you a relationship with Jesus, the author of the New Covenant
Listen to this insight from Dr. Ray Vander Laan: In the first century, when a young Jewish man reached marrying age and his family selected an appropriate wife for him, the young man and his father would meet the young woman and her father to negotiate the “bride price,” the figurative cost of replacing a daughter. The price was usually very high. With negotiations complete, the custom was for the young man’s father to pour a cup of wine and hand it to his son. His son would turn to the young woman, lift the cup and hold it out to her, saying, “This cup is a new covenant in my blood, which I offer to you.” In other words, “I love you, and I’ll give you my life. Will you marry me?” The young woman had a choice. She could take the cup and return it and say no. Or she could answer without saying a word—by drinking the cup, her way of saying, “I accept your offer, and I give you my life in response.” (From His Body, His Blood, by Dr. Ray Vander Laan)
Will you accept the offer of Christ and in turn give Him your life?
