The Ministry of Christ pt 2 - Hebrews 8:7-13 - Pastor Ryan Nichols- Sunday Morning Service 10:30AM
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Transcript
Organized into readable paragraphs from the preserved Whisper transcript. Non-speech markers are removed.
All right, good morning. It's really good to see you guys. Glad you can make it out on this rainy morning. If you guys want to go ahead and stand with us, we'll pray and we'll kick things off here.
Father, we come before you this morning. God, we just thank you for another day. Thank you for allowing us to be here. Lord God, we just ask your blessing upon this time. Lord God, awaken us. Lord God, focus our hearts on you this morning. We love you, Lord. We praise you. And in Jesus' name, amen. Sing that again.
Oh, Father God, I just pray that we would run to you each and every day. God, because we need you more than we know, more than we ever realized, God. Lord God, we need you so much. Would you guys stand with me for the last one? That the house would wear.
I was lost, but he brought me his love.
Thank him.
Oh, Lord God, we just thank you for who you are. And thank you that in you, Lord God, we have new life. That we are your children, Lord God. That who you set free is free indeed. Lord, I know we sometimes have a hard time believing it. But Lord God, we're as saved as we're ever going to get. Lord, we are free. And help us to live like it and act like it, Lord God.
Lord God, you've paid that penalty. Help us to stop living like we're still in chains. Lord, now as Pastor Ryan comes, I just ask that you would be with him, Lord God. Overflown by the power of your Holy Spirit. Move mightily this morning, God, in our lives. We love you, Lord. We praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's take some time and greet one another.
Good morning. If you could begin to find your seats. Grab your bulletin. We'll go over some announcements.
Welcome to Calvary Chapel. I'm glad that you joined us this morning. A handful of things to take note of. Over on the left-hand side, as always, are the things going on throughout the week. But one of those is going to change this week. Because over in your middle section, a reminder that Vacation Bible School starts this week. So Wednesday is the day that it begins.
So there will be no midweek service this week. And just to make sure that you are aware, first of all. Hold on, I'm making sure I read the notes. My wife left me. There is a quick meeting for volunteers. Here is right after second service. So if you've signed up to help out with VBS, if you could jump back in here after second service down in the Agape room.
There will be a quick meeting, a stand-up meeting about a few little details that you'll need to know. Make sure that if you've got kiddos that aren't registered yet, that you get them registered. Also, and this is really important, okay? Everybody listening to me? There's a workday on Tuesday, okay? I'm here all day that day. I get to be at that workday. So I want as many friends here with me as I can possibly have.
That's all I'm saying. I would like a lot of friends on Tuesday. It will begin at 9 a.m. And we will, listen, we will work until it's done. Meaning I don't get to go home until we're finished. So I'd love a lot of you to come join me so that I get to go home that day. So seriously, though, workday Tuesday to get everything kind of transformed. So if you can come out for that, that's great.
A reminder that there is a prophecy conference in Emporia this coming weekend. If you're interested in that. Also. There's a Falls Creek parent meeting Friday, June the 19th, 6 p.m. In the Agape room. And then last, but certainly not least, we are going to have a baptism on Wednesday, July the 15th. This summer shaped up really busy. So we decided to do it on a Wednesday this time.
Wednesday, July the 15th. If you have not been baptized and you have questions about that or you would like to be baptized, there is a sign-up sheet out there in the lobby by where the bulletins are. If you'll just put your name and phone number, I'll get a hold of you. And we can talk about that. And we will probably do a picnic ahead of time, although I don't have that part lined up yet.
But more information will be coming out about that. So those are the things that are going on. If you would make sure that your mobile device is silenced. And for our responsive reading this morning, we are going to be in Psalm 67. Psalm 67. Look at the New American Standard. So hopefully we all sound the same. If you need a copy, it should be one in a row around you.
As you are turning to Psalm 67, if you are able, please stand in the honor of the reading of God's Word.
I will read the odd verses if you will follow along with Pastor Allen and the even verses. Psalm 67. For the choir director with stringed instruments, a psalm, a song. God be gracious to us and bless us and cause His face to shine upon us. Selah. That your way may be known on the earth, your salvation among all nations. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples.
Let the nations be glad and sing for joy. For you will judge the people with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth. Selah. Let the peoples praise you, O God. Let all the peoples praise you. The earth has yielded its produce. God, our God, blesses us. And read verse 7 with me. God blesses us that all the ends of the earth may fear Him. And Father, we do praise you, Lord, that your blessings create a deeper,
a deeper desire for the knowledge of you, Lord. And they declare who you are to the world around us. And so, Lord, I thank you for the many blessings that you've given to us in our lives. And I pray now that as we spend time studying your word, that your Holy Spirit would begin to do the work that only your Holy Spirit can do through your word. And so, Lord, work in our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen. You may be seated. If you would, open up in your Bibles to the book of Hebrews, chapter 8. Hebrews.
Hebrews, chapter 8. Well, we come this morning to the second part in our series, the ministry of Christ. We said that there were four things that we were going to cover. We covered the first one last week, which is that the ministry of Christ is in a better sanctuary. Today, we will cover the second one, that the ministry of Christ is a ministry of a better covenant.
And so, we will begin teaching, actually, in verse 7. But for context's sake, let's start in verse 6. It says this. 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 for a second.
For finding fault with them, he says, Well, 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. I did not care for them, says the Lord, for this is the 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 citizens, 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. Again, a reminder to build the context for this is that these Hebrew Christians were wanting to return to the law. They were wanting to return to the old covenant. And so the writer to the Hebrew. Has been showing over and over again the superiority of Christ over everything to do with the old covenant.
Superior to the angels that delivered the old covenant. Superior to the high priesthood of the old covenant. Superior to Moses who gave the old covenant. And superior in his ministry to the ministry of the priesthood in the old covenant. And so as he is doing so, he's now going to tell us about this better covenant that has been given. As a reminder, verse 6 was sort of the linchpin.
The linchpin. The hinge, if you will, that took us from the first part of Jesus being the minister in a better sanctuary, a heavenly sanctuary, to this next part about how Jesus is a mediator of a better covenant. And so as we look at verse 6, it says this, but he has obtained a more excellent ministry by which he is the mediator of a better covenant. I lied.
We are going to teach a little bit out of verse 6. That's on me. I want to talk about this word mediator really quick because this word mediator is really important. The word mediator means, one who intervenes between two people to bring peace. One who intervenes between two people to bring peace. And so Jesus is the mediator, the go-between. He's the go-between of a better covenant.
The word covenant means an agreement. In other words, he is the go-between of a better agreement. Well, who is this agreement made between? Well, the agreement that he's talking about is the covenant between God and between man. The old covenant, which we'll talk about in just a minute, was an inferior covenant because it never, never ultimately bridged the gap between God and man.
Because as we'll find out in just a moment, the old covenant failed because of the failure of man. So that steps in Jesus, who is the better mediator of a better covenant because he creates the bridge between God and man. Our sins had created a chasm that separated us from God and we could never achieve the ability to reach God because of those sins. The chasm was so great that we could never cross it.
The law created a bridge, but the bridge wasn't sufficient to hold us. And so Jesus became the better bridge between God and man to become the mediator of a better covenant. The word better, there's such an interesting word because it means more useful, more advantageous, or more excellent. Jesus becomes the only way between man and the Father, which is interesting because, it's exactly what Jesus said when he said, I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father except through me. What he meant by that was, there is no bridge that can cross the divide between God and man unless it's me. Because all other bridges fall short. All other bridges fail and will cause you to fall into the chasm of sin, which is ultimately destruction. And so he says, he is the mediator, the mediator of a better covenant.
Well, now the second thing he shows us is the problem with the old. Notice what it says in verse seven. For if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them, he says, and we'll get into what he says in just a moment. If there had not been something wrong with the old, we would have never sought the new.
Well, I hope you're asking yourself a question right now, especially maybe those of you that aren't as familiar with scripture. I hope you're asking yourself, what on earth is the old covenant? Anybody got that question right now? You don't have to put your hands up. In your mind, you can put your hand up right now. I want you to turn to a place in scripture with me.
I want you to go to the book of Exodus, all the way back at the beginning of the Bible. If you hit Genesis, you went too far. I want you to go to Exodus, and I want you to go to chapter 19 of the book of Exodus. Specifically, we're gonna look at verses five and six, but again, let's paint a picture of where they are right now in the book of Exodus, okay? The children of Israel have been set free
from the bondage of Egypt. They've gone from a group of 70 people that entered Egypt into a group of over a million people that have been set free from slavery. This large camping party of a million people is working their way across the desert. The first thing they come to is the Red Sea. Oh no, the Red Sea's in front of us. The Egyptian army's behind us. What are we gonna do?
God parts the Red Sea, they cross the Red Sea. They arrive at Mount Sinai. And the most fascinating thing happens when they're at Mount Sinai. God tells them, prepare yourself, for in three days, I will descend in all of my glory. And that's exactly what happens. The glory of God descends upon the mountain. There's thunders and lightnings and quakes and a fire.
Everything's just going, the greatness of God is seen. And God speaks from the cloud to Moses, and he says, tell the people this. He says, tell them, this is what you need to say. Verse five. Now, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you will be my possession among all the peoples for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests
and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel. That's what God told Moses to now go and tell the children of Israel after they've seen all this greatness of the glory of God. If you obey me, then you will be my people. And of course, all the people go, we'll obey you. obey. And they meant it. They were sincere in their desire to obey the law. But if you remember
the story in Exodus, Moses goes up on the mountain and he's there for 40 days and 40 nights, right? And what he's doing is he's receiving the law directly from God. Well, so for 40 days and 40 nights, the rest of the children of Israel are sitting down at the bottom of the mountain. You know why they're down at the bottom of the mountain and he's up on the mountain? Because
when they saw the glory of God thunder from the mountain, they said, Moses, you go talk to God. We'll wait here, right? Because God was awesome in his power. And so Moses goes up there and while they're waiting, they're like, we don't even know what happened to Moses. I bet he died. I bet he's never coming back. Aaron, you make for us a God. And that's exactly what he did.
He made for them a molded image called the golden calf. And when Aaron forms the image of the golden calf, he says, behold, your God who delivered you from Egypt. And within 40 days of them saying, we will obey God and we will do everything he wants for us to do within 40 days, they'd failed. And they'd already built an idol that they were partying around. You understand why the old covenant has a little bit of an issue. The old covenant has an issue,
not because there's anything wrong with the laws, because the law is holy and righteous and the law is good. But the old covenant has an issue because the people that are to keep the old covenant have a sin nature and they can never obey all of the laws as they are supposed to. They couldn't even make it 40 days with the presence of God sitting directly in front of them because the cloud that left all of the smoke and the fire and the thunder and the lightnings was still on the mountain with Moses up there. And they still couldn't keep the old covenant.
It's interesting. If you go on to the book of Deuteronomy towards the end of the book of Deuteronomy, you'll find that there's these two chapters called the blessings and the cursings. The blessings take up about this much of the chapter and the cursings take up this much of the chapter. Blessed are you if you are a man of God. And if you are a man of God, then you are a man of God.
You obey. But if you disobey, there are curses because the entire old covenant is built on. If you will, then I will. In other words, it's completely contingent upon man's ability to obey. And the unfortunate thing about most of the church today is we still think that our relationship with God is built upon our ability to obey, which is why people either become legalistic and miserable
to be around. Or they become licentious and completely take away all of the things of the word of God and create their own religion to be however they want it to be. Because they have not realized that God had an intention in the old covenant to point them to a new covenant. Go back over to the book of Hebrews. He says this. He says, if the first covenant had been faultless, there would have
been a no occasion sought for a second one, but finding faultless. Throughout many of Paul's writings, he says, is there something wrong with the law? Absolutely not. For the law is holy and the law is righteous and the law is good. If it's used lawfully, the old covenant was always intended to point us to a new. The old covenant was always intended to point us to an ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. And so he says, why are you going to go
back to the old? It was only meant to point us to a new. Well, that's where he begins to explain what this new covenant actually is. Look again at verse eight. It says, for finding fault with them, he says, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will affect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. What he'll do for the rest of this chapter is he will directly
quote, and you might write this in the margin of your Bible next to all these quotations, he directly quotes Jeremiah chapter 31 verses 31 through 34. Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34. I would actually encourage you to go back sometime this week and read all of Jeremiah 31 because it's a great chapter in the Bible. It's a very hopeful chapter in the Bible because it reminds us, I think at the beginning of it, it says something along the lines of, I have loved you with an everlasting love, declares the Lord. It's a great chapter.
But Jeremiah chapter 31, it says, I have loved you with an everlasting love, declares the Lord. It's a great chapter. But Jeremiah chapter 31 was written in a little bit of a dark time in Israel's history. The nation of Judah, although under Josiah and in the midst of a little bit of a revival was ultimately told that judgment is coming upon the nation of Israel because they had failed to keep the covenant because they had failed the covenant and because they had gone into idolatry and because they had done things that eventually God said, I have to discipline you for this. And I'm going to be sending you into Babylon to be disciplined for
these 70 years. But remember, there's something new coming. This, this, uh, quotation out of, uh, Jeremiah chapter 31 reminds us that God had a better hope and a better place for the children of Israel than the old covenant that they had failed in. He had something better for them than the idolatry that they had lived in. He had something better for them than the disobedience that they had lived in. He had
something better for them than the shame that they were living in. And what he had for them was something totally brand new. And that's what he begins to explain in this old or in this new covenant. And as we look at this, we find that there are five things that he's going to tell us about this old or about this new covenant that are important for us to pay attention to. The number one thing that he tells
us is that this covenant is new, sort of in the name, isn't it? Right? No, it's important. We pay attention to this word, right? This word new does not mean new in time, right? Uh, for instance, I, as a runner follow, runner's magazines and things like that. And what you find is runners find one pair of shoes that they like. I don't know if you know that about them or not, but they find one pair of shoes that
they like, and they buy every new edition of those shoes because you're like, that one doesn't hurt my feet because the older that you get, the more your feet hurt. Amen. And so you're like, you got to find the ones that don't hurt your feet and don't hurt your shins and your knees. And so, so you find the ones that you like and you buy every new iteration of it. And you go,
look, a new pair of Brooks adrenaline. Right? That's my shoe, a new pair of Brooks adrenaline. And yes, they're new, but they're only new in time because it's a new iteration of the old, right? But that's not the idea. Now, maybe y'all are car guys out here. I don't know. And you have one particular, you have bought a Chevy Silverado for the last 300 years of your life. Ever since the insemination
of the Chevy Silverado, you've bought every new iteration of it. And it's not a new truck. It's a new version of the old truck, right? Anyway, same thing, but this is not the new that he's talking about here. The new that he's talking about is new in character and in quality. In other words, it is never to be replaced. This is not a new version of the old. This is something
completely different in character and in quality and in nature. And this new thing is never going to be replaced. And I want you to take note of something. He says, I make this covenant with the house of Israel and Judah. Oh, what's that mean for us? If this new covenant was to be made with the house of Israel and Judah, then why is he talking to a bunch of Christians about this new covenant? What does that mean for
us as the church? Well, I think it's important that we understand something. It's important that we understand that according to the new Testament, you and I as Gentile believers have been grafted in to the nation of Israel by faith, because we are now in this place, where God has grafted us in and given us the exact same promises that he has given to the nation of Israel in the new covenant. That does not mean the church has replaced the nation of Israel. It means we have been grafted in by faith. And now we get the blessings of the new covenant,
just like Israel in the house of Judah is going to find its ultimate fulfillment in that millennial kingdom. When God begins to rule and reign over a repentant Israel again, but we get to enjoy all of those same things. That's what Paul talks about in Ephesians. When he says, behold, I tell you a mystery. And the mystery is that the church is now one, both Jew and Gentile, because we've been grafted in by faith. And so all of these promises are new,
but they are for us because of the mystery of the church, but they find their ultimate fulfillment when Christ rules over a repentant Israel. And he says, one more thing about this, this new covenant. He says, this new covenant is 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 Egypt. Remember that covenant said, if you will obey, then I will be your God. But this one's very different because this one is
not, if you will, this is, I will now you follow me. And it's completely contingent. Not upon man's ability to obey, but it's completely contingent on God's faithfulness to deliver. And we can trust a faithful God. He says, it's not like the old covenant because they couldn't keep the old covenant. Therefore I kept my promise of discipline. So the first thing he tells us about this new covenant is new in nature. The second thing that
he tells us about this new covenant is that is in their minds and on their hearts. It is in their minds and on their hearts. I want you to notice what it says in verse 10, but 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. I will put my laws in their minds and I will write them on their hearts. The idea is this,
the old covenant was an external covenant. It was all about the things that you do on the outside. And there was external transformation that took place. The new covenant is very different because the new covenant is one of internal transformation. It is a complete changing of the heart. And it is a complete changing of the mind. You see, if you, if you show up to church and you follow some rules
and regulations, the rest of the world may be able to look at you and go, well, that's a pretty good person. I think that they're a really strong believer in Jesus Christ. Meanwhile, your heart's never actually been changed because while you show everybody the right things on Sunday or on Sunday or, or, or when you need to in the secrecy of your heart, in the privacy of your home, you may be completely disobedient to the Lord because your heart has never changed. You see, I can change your actions, but I can't change your heart. It's the same thing when we're raising our kids. I look at
it like this. When you're raising your kids, you have to give them rules, especially when they're really young, right? You got to break that will before they really remember what's going on. And so you put all of these rules on them. This is what you can do. This is what you can do. But eventually they turn 18, right? They leave your home and they've got a decision to make at that point in time. Will I obey the
rules that I was raised with, or will I now go do whatever I want to? Well, if the law is only external in nature, then they'll go live however they want to completely opposed to you. But if you've gotten a hold of their heart, then they'll continue to live as you raise them because it's a change that's taken place in their heart, not on the outside. Everybody following me here? This is
what Jesus does when he comes on the inside of us to make a change. He comes and makes his home inside of us and he makes our soul alive that has been dead to sin. And he puts in our minds the knowledge of what it looks like to follow him. And he puts in our hearts the desire to do so. It doesn't mean that we'll be perfect now, but it does mean that nobody has to tell you to repent. Nobody has to tell you to follow Jesus. Nobody has to tell you to seek
the Lord because that change has been affected in your heart by a working of the Holy Spirit. And those of you that really walk with Jesus, if you're a Christian, if you're a Christian, if you're Jesus in here, you know exactly what I'm talking about. See, when I was in high school, I went through a period of time where I wanted to be a good person, but my heart had never really changed. I tried to be, but you know why I wanted to be a good person? Because I wanted to win wrestling
matches. That's not a joke. I'm not making that up. That was just the way that it was. One year I was like, I'm going to be a pretty good person so that I can win some wrestling matches. And so I started doing things right on the outside, but there was no true change in my heart. Until April of 1998, when God got a hold of my heart. And then it didn't matter what benefit I
got out of it. I just knew that I wanted to follow Jesus. I just knew that I wanted to do what God had called for me to do. And as I've told you before, that next Sunday, nobody had to tell me to bring a notebook and open my Bible. Because I brought a notebook and opened my Bible. I was not sure I didn't bring a notebook, but I wrote it in the back of the bulletin. Nobody had told me to
open my Bible and take notes. I was like, I should write that down. That feels important. Right? And I just started doing that kind of thing. And all of a sudden it was like, I don't want to go to all the parties that my friends are going to because nobody's meeting Jesus at those parties, right? There ain't nothing good going on there. I don't want to do all that
stuff anymore because Jesus isn't there. And I want to be where Jesus is. And even though it costs some things, I made those decisions. And it's not because I'm some great person. It's because the Holy Spirit got a hold of my heart so hardcore that this is all I can do. And I haven't changed since. It hasn't been perfect, but it was written in my heart. And that's what all of scripture has to say. Matter of fact, I want to talk to you a little
bit more about this internal transformation based on some of the scriptures that I've written down here. I wrote down three of them. There was a whole list of them from some of the commentaries that I read. And I don't want you to turn there. I just want you to listen to what they have to say. The first one I want you to write down is Ezekiel. He wrote this one last week.
Ezekiel chapter 36 verses 26 and 27. Ezekiel 36 verses 26 and 27. And this is what it says. He says, I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and I will cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. It's a really
similar quotation to what's there in Jeremiah chapter 31. Why? Because it is a reiteration. Ezekiel was writing to the children of Israel in Babylon and he was telling them this is God's desire for you. God's desire for you is that one day there's going to be a new covenant and that new covenant is going to be the complete replacement of your heart. It's going to be the
complete changing of who you are because the Holy Spirit's going to come in. He's going to make his home inside of you. And when he makes his home inside of you, he's going to take away your heart of stone, which is hard to the things of God. And he's going to replace it with a heart of flesh that is soft and tender to the working of the Holy Spirit in your life. And I will put my Holy
Spirit within you and he will actually give you new life. And I'm here to tell you right now, if you've been trying to walk with God without the work of the Holy Spirit in your, in your life, if you've been trying to be a good person without a true regeneration of heart, you've failed because you can't do it. That's called law. And you're always going to fail in law because all of the laws that you make can never bridge the gap between you and God. The bridge will always collapse, which is why you need a transformation of your heart
that takes place through the power of the Holy Spirit. The message of the gospel through the blood of Jesus Christ is because when you put your faith in Jesus, not only does he pour out his blood upon you to completely cleanse you of all of your sin, by the way, in Isaiah, it says he takes that which is crimson and he makes it white as snow, that which is stained beyond removal. And he makes it pure and unstained, but he also gives you a heart that wants to obey him, a heart that wants to follow him, a heart that starts to be able to discern right from wrong. And so he says, I will take that heart out of you, that heart of stone, and I will replace it with a heart of flesh because I put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. Well,
it continues on from there. You might write Romans eight verses one through four, Romans eight, one through four. And this is what it says. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free. And so he says, I will take that heart out of you, that heart of stone, and I will
set you free from the law of sin and death for what the law could not do weak as it was through our flesh. God did sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And as an offering for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. That's what the Holy Spirit does when he makes his home inside of you is he makes you brand new and now gives you the ability to walk with him. And as you walk with him, you will be able to walk with him. And as you walk
with the Holy Spirit, your entire life is transformed. It is a day by day transformational process because an internal transformation is taking place. It's not, it's not a action modification. It's heart modification. It is an internal change. Then I'll give you one last scripture. Second Peter chapter one, verse three. It says that his divine power has given to us all
things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue. We now have everything we need, not because we have some sort of outward action, but because we have the inward knowledge of Jesus Christ and it gives us everything we need for walking with him. Not only is the new covenant new in nature and in character, but the new covenant gives us an internal transformation. Of both our hearts and our minds. And can I ask you a question this morning?
Has your heart and your mind been made new by the spirit of Jesus Christ? Only you can answer that question. Only you know whether or not you've truly been born again, but I'm here to tell you right now in just a little bit, we're going to partake in a meal for born again believers. And I would encourage you to do that business in your heart between you and the Lord. And I'll walk you through what that looks like in just a
moment. The third thing he tells us about the new covenant is he says, I will be their God back down here at Hebrews chapter eight, verse 10, middle of verse 10. It says this, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. Remember everything in the old covenant was contingent. If you obey me, then. I will be your God. If you do what I ask, then I will be your God and you will be my people,
but that's not the way that it is in the new covenant and the new covenant. Once you have been made new in Christ, he is now your God. What does that mean? It means that you have a new personal relationship with the savior, a new personal relationship with the creator. It's interesting to see how God always intended this, this truth of the personal relationship
that God had for us with him is something that he foreshadowed often in the law. As a matter of fact, when the 10 commandments first started being given in the book of Exodus, God said, when I called them out of Egypt unto myself, that's the idea behind those 10 commandments. This is you, how you're to obey me because I've called them out of Egypt unto myself. It's interesting because in Exodus, God gives Moses the layout for the way everything is supposed to be. He not only gives
him the layout, but he also gives him the layout for the way everything is supposed to be. He not only gives him the layout for what the law is, what the sacrifices are, but he gives him the layout for the tabernacle. Remember we talked about that last week. We won't go into the tabernacle again today because we'll go into that a little bit more soon. But when he gives them the information for
the tabernacle, which was to be the center of the worship of the nation where they would meet with God, he gives them how the camp is supposed to be set up. And it's interesting to see how the camp is supposed to be set up because the camp was set up kind of like a big plus sign. There were three tribes, three tribes, three tribes, three tribes. That equals 12 altogether.
They would camp all around one thing. And the thing that they would camp all around at the center of the camp was the tabernacle. And the whole reason why the tabernacle was always at the center of the camp is because it was to be a reminder that God was always to be at the center of the life of the nation so that each individual would understand that God was always supposed to be at the center of the life of the individual. individual, and so this personal relationship with God is something that was foreshadowed in the Old Testament, but found its fulfillment in the New Testament, because now as New Testament believers, we no longer have a tabernacle or a temple that we go and worship at. What do we have?
We have the temple of the Holy Spirit. Well, what's the temple of the Holy Spirit? Well, you're the temple of the Holy Spirit. You're the, and since we live in tents right now, you're the tabernacle of the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit now no longer dwells at the center of the nation. The Holy Spirit dwells in your heart. God is not looking to put himself at the
center of the nation. He's looking to put himself at the center of our hearts. Therefore, this internal relationship creates a person, or this internal change creates a personal relationship between us and the Father. It's what God has always intended for us. This personal relationship was first exampled for. Adam and Eve, who would every day go and walk with God in the garden, and as they would go and
walk with God in the garden. Okay, I have two questions about this. I can't help it. I want to know how long it was that they were in the garden before they really blew it, right? Like how many days were they walking? Was it like one day and they're like, oh, the fruit looks really good. Let's eat that. Or was it like 10 years? You know, I don't know. I want to know how long they were in
the garden before they blew it. The second thing I want to know is, what did they talk about? Like, what were those? What were those conversations with God like? You ever think about that kind of thing? Probably not. I'm weird. I was wondering, what were those conversations with God like when they're walking in the garden? Like, dude, you're chilling with God. There's nothing between you and Him. There's
no sin barrier. There's nothing. You're just walking with God, and you're just naked and unashamed, and the whole nine yards, and you're just completely, in every way possible, bearing yourself to the Lord, and He's just talking to you. Just like you're going and having coffee with a really good friend, or you're going playing golf with a really good friend or something, right?
Golfing with Jesus. Can you imagine? That would be amazing. I don't even like golf, and I would probably do that. As long as He would talk to me, and Jesus would be like, I'd hit a little more to the left. I'm like, of course you would. I don't know. I don't know anything about golf, but I wonder what those conversations were like. It's kind of interesting, because that's what God
always intended for us, and that's what God restores to us in this new covenant, because now you have this relationship with the Lord. Every morning, every Sunday morning, I get up, and I go sit in my recliner, and I put all my stuff in my lap to finish putting my study together, and I don't know why, but that's always my best time of prayer. And this morning, I sat down, and I started praying, and I'm like, Lord, why don't I just sit and talk to you more like this? Actual words from Ryan. I said, why don't I just sit and talk to you more like this? This is
just so good, because I know that if I'm going to have anything to give to you guys, I have to make sure that I receive it first from the Lord, and if I'm going to receive it from the Lord, I better And I just start talking to God, and I think, why do I not do this more? Where I'm like, Lord, I know that there is zero in my day today that I can handle if I don't take this time to talk with you, but for some reason, it's more important to me on a Sunday morning than it is every other morning. I'm not saying I don't pray every morning. I do, but I'm saying it's more focused on Sundays, and all I could think this morning as I'm putting this study together is that personal relationship is what Jesus died for.
That personal relationship is what his greatest desire was for us, and that's what he provided for us in the new covenant. The one friend that'll never let you down. The one friend that will never abandon you. The one friend that will never hurt you. The one friend that was, that can be counted as more faithful than a brother, and he died to make sure that that relationship was for
you. It is this personal relationship of him being our brother, and he died to make sure that that relationship was for you. It is this personal relationship of us being his people that he gives to us in the new covenant. It is a relationship of response, responding to everything that he has done for us, but it is a relationship of true personal knowledge. I want you to notice what it
says in verse 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. Of course, we have some form of this now in our true personal knowledge of Jesus Christ, but it will find its ultimate fulfillment in the new covenant. So, I want you to notice what it says in verse 11, and when he is ruling and reigning in a perfect world where we won't have to be like, you should really know Jesus. We'll be like, when I go talk to Jesus together, I hear he's playing golf right now.
It'll just be like that, right? It'll be amazing, but that true deep personal knowledge is what he has for us. Again, I will remind you of those words of second Peter chapter one, verse three, where he says, his divine power has given to us everything that we need for life and godliness through, through what? Through the knowledge, which by the way, that, that word means experiential knowledge of him who has called us. In other words, the more that you experience
a true personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the more you have everything that you need to walk with him, because that personal relationship is what continues to transform you inwardly into who he has created for you to be. You know why I get so excited to tell people to spend time with the Lord and his word? Because of all of the amazing times that I've had, sitting in the middle of the room, and I'm like, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. I'm sitting down with God's word and a cup of coffee and a journal and just saying, Lord, I just need you to speak to me. This is what's really going on in my life. This is what I've
really got happening in my life. And I need you to speak to me. And I'm here to tell you right now, when, when you sit down and you pray a prayer like that, and God makes the words from the page leap off at you, there's a change that happens in you that you can't explain. There's a, there's a work in your heart that takes place that can't be put into words. You just have to say, you just
got to experience it for yourself, which is why I tell everybody, you got to just get into God's word for yourself as the Holy Spirit draws you in. This new covenant is first of all, new in its quality, in its character, in its nature. This new covenant is a covenant that is in our minds and on our hearts because it is an internal transformation. This new covenant says, I will be their God because it's a covenant of personal relationship.
But the fourth thing that I want to point out to you is he says, I will remember their sins no more. I want you to notice what it says in verse 12, for I will be merciful to their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more. It sort of just builds an excitement, doesn't it? All the things that he tells us about this. New covenant. Mercy is not getting what you deserve. I think it's important we understand
that that's exactly what God has shown to us in this new covenant is he has shown to us mercy. I will always say the reason why more people don't come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, they won't accept the gospels because they don't know that they're dying. They don't know what their destiny is. Most people don't realize that everyone is going to die. They're going to die. They're going to die. They're going to die.
They're going to die. They're going to die. They're going to die. They're going to die. It's destined for hell apart from the saving work of Jesus Christ. I'm a pretty good guy. I mean, I gave a kid a sandwich the other day. That's great, but that doesn't cover over your murderous thoughts. It doesn't cover over your profanity that flows from your mouth. You giving a poor
kid something nice doesn't cover over the pornographic thoughts in your mind. It doesn't cover over the addictions that you won't let go of. It doesn't cover all those things. It doesn't cover all the times that you've used the name of God. It's a swear word, and you have profaned God's name by bringing it down to a level of filth and trash. It doesn't cover over those things, and we have to understand that, that no nice act that
we've done will ever overshadow all of the sin we have in our life. The only thing that can do that is the blood of Jesus Christ, and God said, I want to show mercy to you, but I can't because of your sin. Therefore, I will provide a covering for your sin so that I can not give you what you deserve because I already put it all on Jesus. That's why this new covenant says, I will be merciful in their iniquities. He says, that's what you deserve, but I'm not going to give it to you.
Not only that, not only is he merciful to us by not giving us what we deserve, but I want you to notice what it says next. He says, I will remember their sins no more. I will remember their sins no more. Listen, we have to understand something about God here, right? Like, like God is not Dory from finding Nemo. I mean, he's just not, he's not like, oh shoot, they sinned. I forgot about that.
That's not the forgetfulness that he's talking about here because God is God. He can't forget anything. The idea behind the word forget here, I will remember no more is he holds them against us no more. He holds them against us no more. You hear people say this in relationships where one person has hurt someone else. They say, you know, you just have to forgive and forget. And I can't tell you how many people have come
to me and they've said, I can forgive, but I can't forget. And I said, that's a hundred percent correct. You, you will never be able to truly forget that our minds are fascinating, right? Like God has built a supercomputer of our brains and we are still trying to plumb the depths of it and the computers that we create. And we still can't do with a computer that we create what our
minds have the ability. To do the, the files that you have stored in your brain are going to be really hard to forget, but God chooses to not hold it against us. God chooses to not remember our sins. In other words, he doesn't bring them up to us anymore. I remember a friend of mine in Bible college saying, I read this book and he said, we think of it like this. Like when, when we ask for forgiveness,
God, we just put it in our mind, we just think of it as something that we can just forget. And we don't even remember it. And so the point is, God throws away the slate and grabs the slate clean. He says, but that's not true. God throws the slate away and grabs a new slate because he chooses to remember them no more. And I want to bring up maybe three points.
If I can keep track of all of these in my brain. Number one, are you still keeping track of your own sense? Are you still holding your sense against yourself? Because I think there's way too many people in the world. that are still holding their old sins against themselves. You think about it every day. You feel bad about it every single day. And what God wants you to do is God wants you to quit holding it against yourself.
I always say the last person to forgive you is you, right? Because somehow we're like, I just can't let that go. Well, then you need to tell God that you have a problem with unforgiveness and it's the unforgiveness that you have of yourself. Because God's already let it go. God's already moved on. God has already chosen to not remember it. Now it's time for you to choose not to remember it.
But it's still in my mind that you need to rebuke that in the power of Jesus. In the name of Jesus, you need to say, I rebuke that. Get that out of here because that's not who I am anymore. Number two, I think that we need to declare this to the world that is around us that you don't have to have your sins held against you anymore. We should not be the kind of church that remembers what everybody did,
what everybody did wrong. Listen, you know why the church gets a bad rap all the time? Because we're a bunch of judgmental jerks. I mean, I don't mean to be any other way about it. That's just who we are sometimes. We see somebody walk in that's got a reputation. Can you believe they're here? Thank God they're here, right? Praise God. Because this is where you get set free.
And so if somebody's going to walk in that you're going to hold something against, I promise you, I can probably come up with stuff on you too. And this is the place we got to be, people. Okay? Then I can tell you about the stuff I've done too. We can't hold things against each other because if God won't remember my sins anymore, then God's not going to remember your sins anymore.
And I shouldn't be in the place of God holding people's sins against them. But the last point that I want to make is this. If you want restoration in a relationship, you have to learn to do the exact same thing that God does. You have to learn to stop holding your sins. Loved ones' sins against them. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that there are people who've been hurt in this church.
You know why? Because everywhere you go, there's people that have been hurt. And you've been hurt by something someone has done for you. And you say, I can forgive, but I can't forget. And I understand that, but you have to choose to. You see, forgiveness and forgetfulness, forgiveness and not holding sins against somebody are a choice. We have to make. And if we don't make that choice, we've now put ourselves above God who remembers our
sins no more.
And if you're in that place this morning, then I want to tell you, it's time to put it away. Matter of fact, I'm going to tell you before we partake in this meal, you have to put it away. You have to tell the Lord, Lord, I forgive them. And I'm going to choose to forget. I'm going to choose to not hold them, hold that against them anymore. Because that's what we are called to do.
And that's the new covenant that we live in. The new covenant that we live in is I have been set free and God remembers my sins no more. Therefore, I'm going to set you free and not remember your sins anymore. See, the restoration that God does is not just the restoration of me to God. The restoration that God does is the restoration of me to God and me to you.
And he bridges the gap between us and himself, which gives us the opportunity to be free. It gives us the ability to bridge the gap between us and anybody else. Because he who has been forgiven much, loves much. Amen. So then he goes on to say one last thing about this old covenant. He says in verse 13, when he said a new covenant, he made the first obsolete.
But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. The last. The last. The last. The last thing that he tells us about the old covenant is that the old is obsolete. The old is obsolete. That word obsolete means old and worn out. Old and worn out. And he tells us that's what that old covenant is. So I have a question for you. If the old covenant, if the old things are old and worn out, why are we going back to
them? Why are we going back to what's old? Why are we going back to what's worn out? And I think that that means two things for the people that are sitting in here in this room this week. Number one, that means if you are wanting to always go back to law, you're always wanting to go back to a list that you've kept of the rules that you've done that's old and worn
out and that can never bridge the gap between you and God, why do you want to go back to what's old and worn out? If it couldn't save you the first time and so you came to Jesus, why are you going back to it the second time thinking that it's going to do you any good now? I've known some people in the past two or three years that have gone into legalistic systems and I'm going, why? Why do you want to go back to what's old and worn out?
Why do you want to go back to the shadow when you have the reality? Why do you want to go back to the shadow when you have the firm foundation of Christ standing right in front of you? And for some of you, you think, oh, well, you know, I just, I love all the ceremony. I love all the ritual. What do those do for you? What do those do for you that Jesus can't?
The answer is nothing. Why do you want to go back to the old and the worn? But the second group of people I think that need to hear this are the people that don't want to go back to the law, but you want to go back to your old sins. You want to keep living in the sin that's old and worn out. You want to keep living in the sin that caused you to come to church, that caused you to
come to Jesus to begin with, and you want to go back to it. And as a dog returns to its vomit, as it says in the book of Proverbs, so a man returns to his sin. Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why?
Why?
Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Because the ministry of Christ is the ministry of a better covenant. Amen? Well, this morning is Communion Sunday. And so I'm going to ask the worship team to come up and join me here.
And as we prepare. to partake in this meal together, I want to talk to you about a couple of things, a couple of things that I already sort of addressed in the message. What we're about to partake in here is a meal for believers. Inside of each of these trays, I always give this little explanation so you know what's going on, especially if you're new. Inside of each of these trays
is a couple of cups that are stacked together. The top cup has some juice in it. The bottom cup has a cracker in it. And in and of themselves, they don't mean too much to us, but what they represent means everything in the world to us because we are told that what they represent, what they symbolize is the declaration of the death of Jesus Christ, which is what ultimately makes us right with him.
Basically, what we have in here is the implements of the new covenant because on that last night of the feast, Jesus took the bread. And I always like pointing this out to try not to get too redundant, but this is a place where I think it's important to get redundant. The bread that Jesus would have used was not a sweet loaf of bread like you see today. The bread that Jesus would have used would have looked like a giant cracker.
It's because it was unleavened bread. And so it would have been flat in nature. And there's something interesting about that unleavened bread. There were three interesting characteristics of it. First of all, leaven in scripture represents sin. And so that bread had no leaven in it, symbolically speaking of the sinlessness of the bread. That bread had no leaven in it,
but the bread was also pierced because of the way that they had to bake it. They would take something and roll it over and it would pierce all over that bread. And the way that they would bake it, it would create stripes on the bread. So that bread was sinless. That bread was pierced. And that bread was striped. And what you think about when Jesus held that bread up
and he broke it. So this is my body, sinless and pierced and striped. And it's broken for you. Because that breaking of the body of Jesus was the pouring out of all of the sin of humanity upon him. And he says, take and eat. And we're told in scripture as often as we do so to do so in remembrance of him. And then he took the last cup. He said, this is the cup of the new covenant in my blood,
which is shed for you. So every time we do that, every time we partake of that cup, we are reminded of the blood of Jesus Christ that guarantees a new covenant for us. And so we're told in scripture to make sure that we partake of this in a worthy manner. And that means three things. Number one, understand what we're doing. That's why I take the time to explain it.
Number two, you need to make sure that you're a believer in Jesus Christ. Remember I told you before that I wonder if there's not some people in here that you have never really been born again. You've never really, truly, been born again. You've never really, truly, been born again. You've never really, truly, been born again. Again of the spirit. And that internal change hasn't taken place.
You've made some external changes, but no true internal change has taken place. Well, while we sing this last song, you can make that change. And it's simply you crying out to the Lord and saying, Lord, I'm a sinner. I need you to be my savior. And in that moment of your heart being right before the Lord and your heart crying out to Jesus, he will come and make his home inside of you.
There's no right words. There's no right place. There's no really right way. There's no right way to do it. You just, you just got to cry out to the Lord because it's the condition of your heart that matters. For me, it was on an old country road out by Prairie View Christian Camp when I said, Lord, I'm sorry. I need you to be my God again. And in that moment,
everything changed. And that's what God wants to do in your heart today. And then there's somebody all in here that you need to deal with the stuff that we talked about this morning. You're still holding other people's sins against them. And it's time for you and your heart and in your life to do that. And to say, Lord, I'm not going to do that anymore. I'm going to choose to not hold that against them.
And so I need your help because it's not easy. But Lord, I want that bitterness to end. And that's what God's able to do for you. And so as we sing this last song, I ask that you would take the time to let the Holy Spirit do the work in your heart that needs to be done. As the ushers hand out the elements, if you would please stand and then we'll all partake together as a family.
Jesus is calling to tell them to drink from the well. Jesus is calling to come to the flesh as blood of Jesus and regret for joy.
Would you bow with me? Father, we come to you now. Lord, I thank you for your body that was broken for us. Lord, broken for the sin of humanity as you took upon yourself and your own body on the tree all of our sin. And Lord, I thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ that was able to cover all of our sins. Or the blood of Jesus Christ that makes us white as snow.
And so Father, I pray that as we partake in this meal together that we would know and understand that we declare the death of Jesus but we also declare our oneness with you through a new covenant. And so Father, we thank and we praise you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Let's partake.
And if you'd bow with me one last time. Father, we thank you for our time together. I thank you for your word. And I pray that you would continue to minister deeply into our hearts. Father, lead us out from here and draw us near to you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed. Have a great week.