Christ’s New, Final, and Everlasting Covenant

[0:00] But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better since it is enacted on better promises.

[0:16] For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

[0:38] Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, for they did not continue in my covenant.

[0:50] And so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.

[1:04] I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be my people.

[1:18] And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest.

[1:29] For I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more. For in speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete.

[1:44] And what is becoming obsolete is growing old and is ready to vanish away. This is the word of God. Thanks be to God indeed.

[1:56] And you may be seated. Let's pray and ask for the Holy Spirit to illuminate and make clear the meaning of these words for our life in Christ.

[2:07] Father. We thank you that we can approach you through Jesus Christ. We thank you that you have brought us together as your spiritual family.

[2:19] And we do think of our brothers and sisters gathering on the Lord's Day around the world. We think of villages across India.

[2:30] Small groups sitting in the dirt. We think of the church. Those redeemed by Jesus hiding in China. We pray for missionaries that are undercover in parts of northern Africa and North Korea.

[2:50] Lord, we pray now that your word in every biblical church will go forth. And that you will raise up the church. And establish your kingdom of heaven on earth.

[3:03] We long for the day, Lord Jesus, when you will be here. Standing with all your people from every nation, tribe and tongue. And you will fully reveal and teach and proclaim of the goodness of God to save sinners.

[3:18] We long to hear from you, Lord. And I pray that these words that your Holy Spirit inspired will now minister them to the souls.

[3:29] And the spiritual ministry of the Holy Spirit who is with us and in every true believer. I pray that the gospel and the law of God will exalt the work of Christ in our eyes in a fresh way once again today.

[3:47] We ask all of this, Father, for your glory. Only because we approach you in the name of Jesus, your son. And with the help of the Holy Spirit, with every breath, we say amen.

[3:59] Amen. Well, one man's trash is another man's treasure. About 100 years ago, there was a grandpa in Scotland.

[4:10] And he bought a little single piece of chest for about $6. Put it in a box with a bunch of other junk and passed it off to his relatives. Well, years later, some of the relatives took that little piece to an antique shop and had it appraised.

[4:25] They found out that single piece was over 1,000 years old and was going to complete a set that's at the Museum of Scotland. Therefore, it was worth $1.2 million.

[4:37] The Bible says the heart is deceitful above all things and utterly wicked. You know what that means? It's that your heart and my heart because we're under the curse of Adam.

[4:49] We twist what should be our treasure. We make it cheap. And what is trash our hearts like to treasure? The fundamental problem with the evangelical world today, according to David Wells, see if you agree with him, is that God has become too inconsequential in church.

[5:15] His truth is too distant. His grace is too ordinary. His judgment is too benign. His gospel is too easy. His Christ is too common.

[5:27] We've been hearing in this series that the church that this sermon was preached to, these Hebrews, were facing more and more persecution. We don't know. Maybe by this time they're underground in the catacombs gathering to worship whatever remnant was left.

[5:41] They're tempted. They're being peeled off by Gnostics on one side, by Judaizers and legalists on the other, and libertines saying you can live however you want to.

[5:53] What can we believe? And I think the message in quoting from Jeremiah 31, I think the message is this. Church, you need to receive the ministry that Christ obtained for you because it's so much better.

[6:09] It's better than your greatest temptation and your biggest fear. You need to receive Christ's ministry. And my prayer as I prepare is that, not that you'll remember each point, but really that I think the Holy Spirit inspired Jeremiah to pack in like an avalanche.

[6:26] All this gospel truth, the law and the gospel, packed in. And all that the apostle does is open it up now saying this is how Christ obtained such a ministry for you.

[6:37] And that's my desire is that we go through verse by verse and you receive the ministry of Christ like an avalanche. And by the end, you behold what Christ obtained and it changes us.

[6:49] So what did Christ obtain? Look at verse six. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry.

[7:03] How did Christ get his ministry? What does the Bible say? He obtained it, didn't he? He had to obtain it. Yes, being very God, when he took on flesh, he had to obtain the ministry of the new covenant.

[7:20] Let's not rush past that word. Obtained. Obtained means to hit the mark. It's language used of discharging a javelin or an arrow. It means to reach, attain, get, accomplish, earn, merit, to become the master of this ministry.

[7:39] And it's given to us this verb in the perfect active tense. You know what that means? It means that Christ currently holds this ministry.

[7:50] He presently owns his ministry. He possesses it in its completed form. It is not going away. It will never end.

[8:01] Therefore, Christ's covenant is not only new, it's also everlasting. Well, let's look again at verse six. As it is, Christ obtained a ministry.

[8:14] We heard last week at Bear Lake that Jesus, look back to verse two. Look at verse two. Jesus is, what is he? He is a minister in the holy places, in the true tent that the Lord sat up.

[8:32] So as minister in this ministry that he obtained, that word could be translated also as liturgist or worship leader. It means that Jesus is the chief liturgist over his church.

[8:45] And every time you walk in, you receive one of these orders of worship, which we call a liturgy. And it's a very appropriate word for it because the very, the very order, the very sequence of a service where we gather to receive the ministry of Christ, it's discipling us.

[9:03] It's training us and it's disciplining us as soldiers in the army of Christ. So Christ is the liturgist discipling his church. That's what he's doing.

[9:13] And we can pray like the old hymn says, and I want to pray this right now. Jesus, stand among us in your risen power and let this time of worship be a hallowed hour.

[9:30] You know what makes the ministry of the church effectual? What makes it actually count in your life? It is one thing only. It's if Jesus Christ is ministering himself to you.

[9:40] Therefore, any church that brings itself under the rule of Christ is doing that, saying, please, Lord Jesus, you minister in our midst. We have nothing of ourselves.

[9:53] Christ teaches us of the loveliness of God by the grace he's opened up in the new covenant. And that's what we get to explore here. Well, look at the rest of verse six.

[10:03] This is going to be a challenging phrase that I want to try to help you see what I saw here. So the rest of verse six says this ministry that Christ obtained. It is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better since it is enacted on better promises.

[10:24] So you heard the word covenant. And if you're like me, probably like most, you've heard some really wrong, unbiblical teaching about covenant. When we think of covenant, you should not think about a contract like humans make a contract to buy a house or something like that.

[10:40] Don't think that way. A covenant is a word the Lord gives us to help us understand how a holy, just, good and loving God. How in the world can such a God have any kind of relationship with broken, rebellious sinners?

[10:57] How? And it's only through covenant. Covenant is an oath bound promise, but it's more than that. It has legal sanctions. There are blessings for obedience and there are curses for disobedience.

[11:13] So a covenant with the Lord God who is eternal is a high stakes relationship. And the covenant that Jesus mediates, we're told, is better. Well, the other phrase that's difficult before we unpack why it's better is it says that he mediates.

[11:32] Look again at verse six. He mediates this covenant that's better since. Why is it better? He says since it's enacted on better promises. Do you see that? So you're saying that the promises in the old covenant were inferior.

[11:47] They were worse than the promises of Christ. And in one sense, yes, because the hope of most of the people in Israel would have been on earthly blessings, prosperity in the land of Israel.

[11:57] But when they as a nation disobeyed, they lose that. They get the opposite of prosperity and physical blessings. But that's not really what all the promise of the Bible, the whole gospel from Genesis to Revelation, it's not really ever been about physical material blessings anywhere.

[12:13] Has it right? We know this. So John Calvin helped me to understand this. It's that the final destination of all the promises of God, they're the same. Except the way that people could even understand that is so much better now, so much more clear in Christ than it's ever been any time before in the old covenant.

[12:31] So I want to help illustrate it for you this way. You think of maybe like a four-year-old little girl, the best thing in her mind is going to be able to go visit grandparents and play with all your cousins.

[12:44] That's as good as it's going to get. That's like heaven for a four-year-old if they don't know better. Well, in the early 1800s, that same little girl could have heard that promise.

[12:54] You're going to get to go just one state away and be with your grandparents and all your cousins and play. And they would have gotten so excited traveling from Colorado. Except for a four-year-old, what that really means is you're going to sit for eight hours in a dusty, bumpy wagon, very uncomfortable, sweating and screaming babies.

[13:11] And it's not going to be fun. And you're going to do that for one day and another day. And I looked it up. You would have traveled about three miles an hour. Just to get one state away, it would take 28 days. And if you don't travel on the Sabbath because you're resting on the Lord's Day, 32 days.

[13:24] So for a four-year-old, this is not a good promise. It's a bad promise. You're going to be miserable for 32 days. Then something that you can't even imagine way off in the future, a month later, will be good.

[13:36] That's what it would have been like to be in the old covenant. It's enacted on inferior promises. They couldn't even handle how much love God had. But now, it's like telling a four-year-old, we are going to go be with your grandparents and all your cousins.

[13:49] You're going to get to play. All we have to do is walk through that gate, get on that jet. And in one hour, that's two Peppa the pigs. We will be with your grandparents. And you'll get to play with them.

[14:01] See how it's the same destination, but it's enacted on better promises. That's why the new covenant is better. Okay. Well, the contrast here is between two different mountains.

[14:12] Remember verse five, he's talking about Moses. And when you hear the word Moses, if you're one of these Hebrews or if you know your Old Testament, which we all should as Christians, that's part of our family story too. You hear Moses, you picture the mountain of terror.

[14:25] That's Sinai. But the new covenant, the emblem is Calvary, the mountain of God's sacrifice. The old covenant would have had a regular man, Moses, normal man like anyone else.

[14:41] Everyone obviously could see he's a sinner. The new covenant has a better mediator. God himself took on flesh. The old covenant required national obedience by God's judgment.

[14:54] However, you want to devalue that. If a sufficient amount of the nation was following the Lord, you see that pattern in the old, blessings flow. But if a significant number rebels and returns to their idols, judgments flow.

[15:06] That was the contrast. The old covenant required perfect law keeping in every way. The new covenant requires one thing of you in Jesus, which is faith in Jesus Christ himself.

[15:22] That's it. Well, the old covenant was for national Israel. The new covenant is for believers. The old covenant we can picture like Ezekiel 36. It's a valley of dry bones.

[15:33] The new covenant means that bones have been given ligaments and blood and flesh and they rise up as a nation of priests with joy and praise on their lips for their God.

[15:45] The curse of the old covenant was banishment from the land. Northern tribes taken away by Assyria. Southern tribes by Babylon. You know what the curse of Christ's new covenant is?

[15:58] It's the crucifixion of Jesus Christ himself. You see the reversal? The new covenant, the curse, it comes at the beginning. Christ took the curse as the mediator so that you only get blessing.

[16:16] That's how good the new covenant is. Do you see how great God's love is for you? That Christ obtained such a ministry? So now the gates of heaven are thrown open to you through faith.

[16:31] Well, how is this new covenant better? Here comes the avalanche, point after point after point. Starting at verse 7. The covenant of our Lord Jesus Christ is better because your faults cannot break it.

[16:44] Look at verse 7. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. So it had a fault in it.

[16:55] Look at verse 8. For he finds fault with them. That same word again. So we need to understand what does the author mean with using this word fault? And that same word in the Greek is used in Mark chapter 7 verse 2.

[17:07] And the disciples of Jesus were accused of eating a meal with faulty hands. The exact same word. So fault really means dirty, defiled. You're a lawbreaker.

[17:19] So really the fault of the old covenant was this. It exposes the fault of sinners. Our sin brings on covenant curses. And don't think this was just for national Israel.

[17:32] Because in Romans, Paul explains, you're either under Adam, which includes everyone, or you're under Christ. The second, final Adam. It's one or the other. If you're under Adam, you're under all the curses of Adam as a lawbreaker as well.

[17:46] So, this is where it gets real, church. Because our Lord Jesus, as gracious as he is and he shows, he hates sin.

[17:58] And he also requires obedient living. When Jesus was on earth, after he cleansed the temple because people loved money and prosperity more than they loved communion with their God, making it a house of prayer, he turned over the tables.

[18:13] And after he cursed the fig tree, which represented the nation of Israel, he cursed it for being barren. For not bearing fruit like it was created to bear.

[18:24] In Matthew 21, 43, Jesus said, Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.

[18:36] You see, the kingdom of God requires that the people of God produce fruit. That's who the kingdom of God belongs to. John Bunyan said, this is how important this law of God is.

[18:50] From Adam on, he said, The man who does not know the nature of God's law cannot know the nature of sin. You cannot know your sin and your fault before God until you know the nature of God and his law and what that means for your life.

[19:10] So look at what this meant for national Israel, which is meant to be a picture lesson for us. Look at verse nine. They, national Israel, Verse nine did not continue in my covenant.

[19:25] The result is that the sin of Israel made the land vomit them out. They get carried off into captivity. And even though God brought them back so that Christ could fulfill all the promises, Jesus came bringing redemption through judgment.

[19:41] In Matthew 3, 10, Jesus said, Even now the axe is laid at the root of the trees. See the sharp edge touches the bark.

[19:53] Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. He didn't say just the one tree representing a nation.

[20:05] He said every tree. That means all men will be held accountable to the holy God. And your faults, your sin, your defilement, and mine deserve the fire.

[20:20] That's what Jesus preached. The wages of sin, what are they? Death. Have you felt the weight of God's law exposing your faults?

[20:34] Scottish preacher Ralph Erskine said in a lyric, A rigid master was the law, Demanding brick, denying straw.

[20:47] The standard doesn't go away. You got to come up with your own insides that will hold it all together. Are you capable of that? God's unfading moral law exposes the fault with man.

[21:01] How do you come to know you're faulty? You're a sinner. Well, they asked that question of Christian and Pilgrim's Progress. And he said, I came to know it gradually, slowly, little by little, as I read God's word.

[21:15] Because you know what happens? You spend time in God's word. The Holy Spirit shows you the true nature of the holy and just God. And you're laid bare. God's perfect law exposes me.

[21:29] When you have a high view of God from his word, You will have a high view of your offense against him. And the opposite is true as well.

[21:41] Your view of God starts to lower. You start to think sin, this trash, Is something that you can treasure a little bit in a corner of your heart. And here's why it's so important.

[21:51] If you have a low view of your sin before the holy God, You will have a low view of Christ's work to forgive your sin. And a low view of Christ means spiritual death.

[22:01] You need to see the cost of your sin for Christ. You need to see that there is no hope of salvation apart from the only one who could be a perfect substitute for sinners.

[22:15] Because he took on flesh. He became a man so that he could be a substitute for you. And the only one who could satisfy the justice and the holiness of an eternal God, Which is God himself.

[22:31] Who else could stand in our place? You see why the ministry of Christ is so much better. It's so much better. It's new. And it's bright and full of life for you.

[22:44] Christ's active and passive obedience inaugurated a new creation. To show you God's great love for you.

[22:55] That you are now free from the curses of the law. Your faults cannot break his covenant. Because Christ obtained this ministry for you.

[23:06] How else is Christ's ministry better? It's better because he cuts it within you. It's not just on the outside. Look at verse 10. Verse 10 says, For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel.

[23:21] So there is continuity. As new as it is, It's going to come through Israel. Through the seed of David. After those days, declares the Lord. So God's promise of grace.

[23:34] It is continuing the same promise throughout all of the Old Testament. Jeremiah 31, Which the apostle of Hebrews is quoting. It is the longest quotation of any part of the Old Testament in the New Testament.

[23:48] And Jeremiah 31 is introduced back in Jeremiah 29. And Jeremiah 29 says, Picture the suffering prophet. Probably the prophet who was the most abused and tortured and persecuted was Jeremiah.

[24:02] And picture him after he's been left for dead in a pit and put in stocks. He's kicked out of the city, He's mocked. Jeremiah receives this glorious promise that somehow God will restore these exiles back into the land.

[24:15] And from that promise, He will bring a new covenant. Somehow. Imagine Jeremiah just writing down these words. And then sending this off. And then picture those exiles.

[24:26] He says it's to the elders, The prophets, The priests that have been carried off to Babylon. That's who it's for. So picture maybe 80 year old Daniel. Like we read of him in our confession of sin.

[24:38] Maybe Daniel, His stiff knees, His weak back. And he reads these words. Once again, His faith is encouraged. I don't know how you will do this, Lord, but by the help of your spirit, I believe.

[24:52] And I believe that you will redeem what has been scattered and cursed by our sin. That's why the second London confession can say it this way. God's covenant of grace in the singular one covenant of grace throughout the whole Bible is revealed in the gospel.

[25:10] Opened up, shown to you. When did this start? First of all, So Christ's covenant is new.

[25:29] It's everlasting. And it's final. There will be no further revelation of God's grace. Praise God for the work of Jesus. All of God's promises, in fact, do find their yes and amen in Christ.

[25:44] Second Corinthians 1 20. God has one plan of salvation, one people throughout all time, and one purpose. Look at verse 10. Now next, this gets tricky.

[25:56] You're going to need to pay attention and think sharp here. Verse 10 says, I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. So first of all, who is the actor here?

[26:08] Who's the one performing this action? It's God who does it right. God makes the covenant. God sets the terms of the covenant. It's God who cuts, who puts, and who writes.

[26:20] It's the Holy Spirit, even today, who makes you capable of believing and living to please God. God does it. Here's Ralph Erskine again.

[26:31] He said, remember, run to work. The law commands. The gospel gives me feet and hands. The one requires that I obey. The other does the power convey.

[26:45] John Bunyan put it in his own words, preaching the gospel back to himself. Run, John, run. The law commands, but gives us neither feet nor hands. Imagine being told, you got to step up against the top five Olympians in the world and get first place in the hundred yard dash, or else you die.

[27:07] Well, you look around you and you see these world-class athletes that train their whole life. You start to think, I'm okay. I used to play tag at recess, and I'm pretty quick. And then you look down, you realize you have no arms or legs.

[27:22] Run, John, run. Listen, the law commands, but gives me neither feet nor hands. Far better news the gospel brings. It bids us fly and gives us wings.

[27:38] You're not an upside down caterpillar. The Holy Spirit lifts you up, transforms you like a butterfly. Now, here's a question. Verse 10. I will put my laws into their minds.

[27:52] And write them, those laws, on their hearts. Here's the question. Every Christian, either the easy way or the hard way, needs to wrestle with.

[28:04] What laws? What laws does God do? Does he put in your mind and your heart? Well, Sinclair Ferguson helped me to understand this a little bit better.

[28:18] He said, let's apply our rules of hermeneutics, of biblical interpretation. What would the original audience and the original preacher have intended or thought of when they heard that? And within the book of Hebrews itself, we can eliminate two of three options.

[28:34] So, we're told in Hebrews 11, 16, even Abraham, before Mount Sinai, before the giving of the Decalogue, the really clear Ten Commandments, which we call the moral law of God, Abraham longed for a better country.

[28:48] He didn't have the civil law or the ceremonial law, and he knew it wasn't really about national Israel. Abraham longed for heaven. So, we can rule out the civil law.

[28:59] We're not waiting for a king in geographic Israel to bring, you know, a new Hammurabi code or something like that. No, it's not the civil law. Can we rule out the ceremonial law?

[29:11] Yes, because Hebrews 10, 4 says, it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Don't look back to those shadows again.

[29:24] Therefore, the original audience and the preacher would have had in mind the moral law of God. That very moral law that God writes. Where else does God himself write? He writes it on your heart.

[29:35] He wrote it on the tablets made of stone that will not erode. And he tucked them away inside the Ark of the Covenant, kept in the Holy of Holies, representing the inside, the intimate part of his relationship with his covenant people.

[29:51] He would have thought of the Ten Commandments, the moral law of God. Even the Sabbath? Hmm. Well, you know, Israel kept the Sabbath before they were even given the Ten Commandments.

[30:03] Remember? They had to gather manna the day before the Sabbath so they could rest. They had to gather twice as much. And how about Abraham? I mean, how would he have kept God's moral law? Well, the Holy Spirit would have shown him and taught him, but God spoke to Abraham.

[30:19] Genesis 26, 5 says, Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge. And in case any pastor, anyone tries to make you think it was some vague, confusing notion of what pleases God, God says, Abraham kept my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

[30:39] So our conclusion is this. In the New Covenant, it pleases God when we obey him by following his moral law. And if you see Jesus as the Lord of your life, he has not left you to go figure out what pleases God.

[30:54] He has given you the Ten Commandments as your rule for life in Christ. There's comfort in that. There's liberty in that. Look at the rest of verse 10. God says, this is that wonderful expression of relationship which he's used in every covenant.

[31:10] Look at verse 10. He says, I will be their God and they shall be my people. Those words should be very familiar to you. That's the covenant with Abraham.

[31:21] That's the covenant with the people at Mount Sinai. And that's the covenant with the second generation before they enter the land. I will be your God. You will be my people. What does that mean for us in the New Covenant?

[31:32] It means that same Jehovah, Lord, is yours. See how there's one covenant of grace because there's one people of God? And that relationship with God in the New Covenant works powerfully in you.

[31:48] It transforms you. Pastor, a Puritan pastor named Samuel Bolton said, the law may restrain sinners though it cannot renew sinners.

[31:59] It may hold in and bridle sin though it cannot heal and cure it. We need cure and we need healing on the inside.

[32:11] And that can only come by the relationship with Jesus Christ himself as the minister of God. And that fulfills what's been prophesied of the work of Christ from all along.

[32:23] In our English Bible, Malachi is the last book of the Old Testament. The last chapter in that last book gives us this glorious promise of the work of Christ as your healer. Malachi 4 says this, For behold, the day is coming looking to Christ.

[32:38] For you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. Do you see how great is God's love for you?

[32:50] The Holy Spirit fills you with out of this world love because of the ministry that Christ obtained for you. How else is the ministry of Christ better?

[33:01] It's better because in Christ you know God directly. Look at verse 11. And they shall not teach each one his neighbor and each one his brother saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest.

[33:18] They shall know me, says God. If you're in Christ, you need to hear these words. You know God through the ministry of Christ.

[33:34] My heart so quickly cheapens what I ought to treasure. This means that the Holy Spirit so works in the soul of every human being that Jesus redeems that from the least of them to the greatest, they will know God.

[33:53] It's a promise we have to receive by faith. Picture the least of these. God works in their soul to know God. Yes, somehow. But what if they can't speak?

[34:04] What if they're going to be in a wheelchair and adult diapers for life? Well, even when you don't have the words to utter, the Spirit intercedes on your behalf. You can know God and his, your soul is going to be prepared by the Holy Spirit for eternity.

[34:21] and your death is simply means you are done with the sanctification marathon. Leave that broken flesh behind. Your soul is ready for eternity with your Savior.

[34:33] How about the greatest? Praise God if you've been given gifts, but it's not any of your hard work that's going to give you knowledge of God. It's your communion through the ministry of Jesus.

[34:45] And to whom much is given, you know how it ends. Much will be required. See how good Christianity, true faith, communion with God through Christ, see how good it is?

[34:58] Compared to probably people you work with every day. The biggest religion around us is Oprahism. Comes into most TVs and it's a goosebump religion.

[35:09] There's no standard for truth. How do you know God? Well, based on what revelation or truth, Oprahism is a goosebump religion. You can't know anything. It's based on emotion.

[35:21] How about Mormonism? Well, from what I understand, you have to earn everything. Apart from a wrong view of Christ, it puts it all back on you. You're under the curse of Adam.

[35:32] You have to earn anything you want in this life and a false hope after you die. How about Scientology? You have to buy for hundreds of thousands of dollars more and more curriculum to gain knowledge and as one higher up said, I'm successful because it makes the able more able.

[35:49] Christianity says we are beggars. We have nothing but receiving Christ. That's all we have as Christians. How about Buddhism?

[36:00] Or, the current trendy one that plagiarized Buddhism which is some forms of yoga. Tell you to, you know, clear your mind. Like, kill off your desires.

[36:11] Stop thinking those covetous thoughts. Stop lusting. Stop having so much pride. Well, by what strength am I supposed to change my nature? It's a covenant of works. You're under the principle of works.

[36:23] Anything you want, you're going to have to do it yourself. That is not Christianity. And that's why for us as believers, the norm, the pattern of our church is the finished work of Christ.

[36:34] And we set our standards not on the old covenant, not on Abraham as the best form of revealed grace. We don't look to promises to national Israel or even like blessings to our physical offspring because we see Colossians 2, circumcision refers to circumcision of the heart.

[36:53] And those who get to enjoy the signs of the new covenant, baptism in the Lord's Supper are those who know God because in the new covenant they will know me from the least of them to the greatest.

[37:04] How else does Christ's work better? It's better because in Christ's work God remembers your sins no more. Look at verse 12. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities.

[37:19] The word iniquities means gross behavior. It means heavy-handed, high-handed sin against God, rebellion. But God says, I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more.

[37:38] How does that not violate God's justice? How can a God who is truly just not remember sin? You wouldn't want a judge doing that in our civil government.

[37:50] That would be an unjust judge. The only way that God can remember my sin and your sin no more is because He's already given the curse of that sin on His Son, Jesus Christ.

[38:02] And now for you, this means your debt, your biggest debt that was bearing you and your family is completely erased. It means that you were an abandoned orphan thrown into a dumpster and now you've been cleaned up, brought into the family of the King Himself as an adopted child.

[38:24] It means you were once a slave that was abused in the worst way every single day because of the bondage of sin and Satan. But in Christ, you have been set free and you have been healed of your PTSD.

[38:38] And we look to Christ as our mediator that He is our Redeemer. He will remember our sins no more in the same way that ancient Job, Job, here's how God helped him to see this promise.

[38:53] In Job 19, he says, I know that my Redeemer lives and at the last He will stand upon the earth and after my skin has been thus destroyed yet in my flesh I shall know God whom I see for myself.

[39:12] My eyes shall behold Him, not another. My heart faints within me. The promise of seeing Christ, your Redeemer, the one who remembers your sins no more, it should make your heart melt within you.

[39:28] The only heart that doesn't melt is a heart of stone. Which raises the question, isn't this gospel too good? Like, don't let the word get out.

[39:38] People will just start living any way they want to and they will abuse the grace of God. That's something every church has had to work out. Paul had to address that head on in Romans chapter 8.

[39:48] And here's how Puritan Robert Trail explained it. Will some abuse the grace of the gospel and turn it into license to sin? He said, yes.

[40:00] Some do, ever did, and still will do so. But, it is only the ill understood and not believed doctrine of grace that they abuse.

[40:13] The grace itself, no man can abuse. for its power prevents its abuse. This grace is all treasured up in Christ, offered to all men in the gospel.

[40:28] It's poured forth by our Lord in the working of faith. And it is drunken by the elect in the exercise of faith. And it becomes in them a living spring from which will and must break out and spring up in all holy living.

[40:48] John Owen agreed. He said, nothing but effectual grace will secure a covenant obedience one minute. See how great God's love is for you?

[41:02] God remembers your sins no more because of the ministry Christ obtained for you. How else is this covenant better? Well, it's better because there is no other way to God.

[41:14] The content of the new makes the old one vanish away. Look at verse 13. In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.

[41:29] See, Jeremiah's prophecy in Jerusalem to the exiles, it put an expiration date on national Israel's covenant of works to try to earn any earthly blessings.

[41:40] So put no hope in a physical temple or in Jerusalem or in some future idea of animal sacrifices.

[41:51] Don't let any pastor or antichrist tell you different. Now kids, I'm going to read something and you need to hear this because us grown-ups may not be around when the church needs to apply this.

[42:03] The second London makes it super clear. this office of mediator between God and humanity is appropriate for Christ alone. Only Jesus can be our prophet, priest, and king of the church.

[42:18] And it may not be transferred from him to anyone else either in whole or in part. And we don't know when Christ will return or how close we are to the final last days.

[42:33] But you need to remember that no part of Christ's ministry can be transferred in whole or in part to any other man. Beware. Well, isn't this gospel wonderful that Christ has inaugurated a new, final, and everlasting covenant?

[42:50] It's so new. It's like the new wine. It's sweet. It bubbles up and it will burst a vessel that's not prepared specially to contain it.

[43:02] This gospel is why we do street evangelism. Why we want to share with whoever has ears to hear and eyes to behold Jesus. Whoever the spirit will regenerate and cause them to believe.

[43:13] This gospel is why Kyle Davis and Hannah are moving to South Africa to train up pastors and Bible translators for these unreached people groups in Africa. This gospel is why we want to plant a church right here in Colorado because the good news of Jesus Christ must go forth.

[43:32] final implication for us is this. God's new covenant people pattern their life and worship not on old Jerusalem but instead on new Jerusalem we look to heaven itself.

[43:46] We see there is one way of salvation because that was Christ alone. One people of God it's all those who Christ has redeemed and one purpose that it's his people may glorify him and enjoy him forever.

[44:00] Christ keeps you on the way in truth to life till the very last day. There is no other way to the Father. Stay in Christ.

[44:12] You need to hear these verses written in a hymn by John Newton and William Cooper. William Cooper suffered with severe depression and suicidal thoughts.

[44:23] Then all my servile works were done a righteousness to raise. It says I used to work like a slave trying to lift up my own righteousness.

[44:34] Now hear the change freely chosen in the Son I freely choose his ways. What shall I do was then the word that I may worthier grow?

[44:45] What shall I render to my Lord is my inquiry now to see the law of Christ fulfilled and hear his pardoning voice changes a slave into a child and duty into choice.

[45:02] Church, you must treasure and marvel once again at what Christ obtained for you and you must receive again today all that Christ's ministry brings to you.

[45:13] There was a king who died in a rich land. The executor of his will looked around and there were no clear children to receive the inheritance.

[45:25] Well, three men came forward each of them claiming to be the son of the dead king. So they propped up the body of the king and he gave each of these three men a spear and he said whoever can throw the spear from a good distance closest to the heart of the king will get the riches.

[45:44] First man picked it up threw it right on the leg. Second man picked up the spear threw it and it right on the shoulder. Well, the last man picked up the spear raised it to his ear and took his stance and then his arms started to tremble.

[46:01] He dropped the spear turned around and walked out in silence. It was very clear to everyone who was the true son of the king. If you are an adopted child of God Christ's love in you will make it harder and harder for you to continue striking against your father's heart.

[46:25] This is what Paul wrote to the church in Rome chapter 13. Therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. And hear how Christ promises to you in John 14 you'll get help to do that.

[46:39] He says, if you love me you will keep my commandments and I will ask the father and he will give you another helper who will be with you forever.

[46:53] It's the Holy Spirit who helps us who sanctifies us and prepares us as we walk and abide in Christ. And Christ is praying for you right now from heaven as the mediator.

[47:06] and his prayers are powerful over everyone he has redeemed. You need to respond to the ministry of Christ. Bow yourself low at the foot of King Jesus and know that your faults cannot break God's love to you.

[47:24] Verses 7 and 9. Hear God say through Jesus don't you see how much I love you? And ask the Holy Spirit to put the love of Christ within you.

[47:35] Verse 10 to make you willing and ready from now on to live for him. Thank Jesus that you can know God directly through his ministry.

[47:46] Verse 11 let your heart get full with Christ and rest knowing that because of Christ God remembers none of your sins anymore.

[47:59] Let Christ minister his grace to you today because there is no other way to have peace with God. Let's pray. Like Paul prayed in Philippians 1 9-11 O Lord may your love abound more and more in us.

[48:21] Fill us with the fruit of Christ's righteousness to the glory of God. We pray. Amen. Amen.