Hebrews 8:7-13

“For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. ⁸ Because finding fault with them, He says: ‘Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— ⁹ not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they did not continue in My covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. ¹⁰ 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 in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

¹¹ None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. ¹² For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ ¹³ In that He says, ‘A new covenant,’ He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”

Jesus gave us a New Covenant in His own blood. He eliminated the need for the sacrifice of any animals ever again. Jesus completed all that was or will be ever needed for the salvation of all men from Adam to the last human to ever be born. This is an important doctrine; one of the hardest things to get into people’s heads and minds is that there is no work or works on our part that will save us from Hell and an eternity without God. The work, all of the work, has already been done. Yet, we have several religions that claim to be ‘Christian’ that teach that one has to have Jesus and works to be saved. Not just trust in Jesus alone for eternal salvation. This diminishes the power of all that Jesus has done. Paul, the writer here, goes on to paint a wonderful picture for us about the nature of this New Covenant.

• The Fault in the Old Covenant, verse 8

The fault with the Old Covenant was that everything was temporary with regard to sacrifices. Moses and Abraham were not temporarily saved in the Old Testament. God made eternal covenants with them based on their faith in what was to come. We are told in Romans 4 that Abraham ‘believed God,’ and it was accounted to him for righteousness. But to satisfy His justice, there had to be a temporary way of dealing with man’s sin until Jesus came. God had promised Jesus from Genesis 3:15. He promised Abraham that He would provide ‘himself’ a scapegoat in Genesis 22. He promised to send a ‘Prophet’ like Moses from among the Jewish brethren, and it is to this prophet that the nation should listen. On and on we can go with God’s promises to send the Messiah.

Why did we have to wait? God sent Jesus, the Bible tells us, in the ‘fullness of time.’

Galatians 4: 4-7 (ESV) “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

Jesus had to come at a specific time for God’s plan. A time when the Roman Empire was in power, a time when the Romans had built safe, durable roads that extended to countries all over Europe and part so Northern Africa and Asia Minor. A time when the common language of Greek was in place and the language would soon die out, leaving a perfectly preserved scripture. A time when the Roman government would send persecution on Israel and thus spread the Gospel to the very ends of the earth. We can go on and on, but the fact is that Jesus came exactly when God wanted Him to come and not a moment sooner or later.

• A New Covenant Written on our Hearts, verse 10

This was a new thing; this talked about an event that would transform how God dealt with us mere men. This event was the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell us. In so doing, the Word of God would live in us and be written ‘in or on’ our hearts. God would live in us, and we would become the Temples of God. There would be no need for Tabernacles and Temples built by men’s hands, and no longer would we have to go to Jerusalem to worship as the Jews did. God is with us, with you and I, all the time in us, and we could worship anywhere.

John 20: 21-22 “So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit'” (NKJV).

The Holy Spirit would speak to us and make us aware of God’s word, God’s ways, and God’s leading in our lives.

John 16: 13-14 “However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you” (Berean Study Bible).

Notice, He will guide us into ‘all truth.’ This new indwelling was a new thing, part of the new covenant that marked us with God’s holiness from the moment we were saved. The Old Testament saints did not have this. And as such, even up to the thief on the cross, when they died, they went to live in Paradise. But Jesus came and died; He rose from the dead, and now when we die, we go to the third heaven. Paul got a glimpse of this in 2 Corinthians 12: 3-4:

“And I know that this man—whether in the body or out of it I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to Paradise. The things he heard were too sacred for words, things that man is not permitted to tell” (Berean Study Bible).

Notice he was caught UP in Paradise, referring to Heaven. In the past, Paradise was in the heart of the earth. But now, in the New Covenant, we go directly to Heaven. There are so many benefits to the New Covenant. I pray that you are a part of it. The temporary Old one is gone, and only the New Covenant in Jesus remains. Do you have the Holy Spirit in you? If not, you need Him.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch
Online: https://mmbchurch.ca/
Email: seangooding@mmbchurch.ca

Hebrews 8:1-6

“Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, ² a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man. ³ For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore, it is necessary that this One also have something to offer. ⁴ For if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law; ⁵ who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle. For He said, ‘See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.’ ⁶ But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.”

Last week we looked at the New Covenant that we have in Jesus. He paid for the covenant in His own blood and secured eternal life for all who trust in Him, from the Old Testament saints that looked forward to the New Testament saints that look back at His sacrifice for us. This new chapter begins by stating that Jesus “is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens.” This refers to sitting at the right hand of God.

As we explored and learned last week, the Old Testament priests were not allowed to sit as they ministered in the Tabernacle or the Temple. This was because the work of covering man’s sins was never done until Jesus came. Now, Jesus is sitting in Heaven as the work has been completed. All that was required by God for the eternal salvation of all men from Adam was completed by Jesus on the cross in about 32 AD. Jesus did not go to Hell, as we often hear many false teachers saying. He did go to Paradise; he told the thief that He would meet him there. This is not Hell.

• The Sanctuary in Heaven, verse 2

When we read through the book of Exodus and then into Leviticus, we get this elaborate explanation of how the Israelites were to build the Tabernacle. This was a tent that served as a temporary place for God to meet with His people. Later in 2 Samuel, we find the building of the Temple by Solomon, and this place was very, very elaborate. There was gold everywhere, and no expense was spared to build this marvelous place. But we are told that the Tabernacle and later the Temple were just copies of a similar sanctuary in Heaven. This heavenly sanctuary was erected by God according to verse 2. We can also see other verses like Habakkuk 2:20:

“But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.”

Psalm 11:4, “The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.”

These are just a few verses about the Lord in His Temple. There are many more. This Tabernacle and the Temple were just pictures of the Temple in Heaven where God resides. Moses, we are told, was instructed to build it exactly the way that God told him; he was not to take any artistic license at all. Jesus is our High Priest in Heaven. He is the one who offered his own blood to blot out our sins and transgressions. In Acts 20:28, we are told this by Luke:

“Keep watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood.”

We have been purchased, redeemed, and restored into the right relationship with God by Jesus, who bought us with His own blood. His blood was and is powerful enough to wipe out our sins once and forever. He finished the work, and He sat down.

• Our Mediator, verse 6

Webster’s Dictionary defines the word mediator as ‘one that mediates between parties at variance.’ The two parties, in this case, are God, who is Holy and perfect, and mankind, you and I, who are imperfect and unholy. The ‘variance,’ the reason for the divide between God and man, is Sin, yours and mine. Jesus, our Mediator, is the one who settles and negotiates peace for us based on His finished work on the cross. The Bible offers us an example of a mediator in the person of Moses in Exodus 32: 10-12:

“Now leave Me alone, so that My anger may burn against them and consume them. Then I will make you into a great nation.’ But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God, saying, ‘O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians declare, ‘He brought them out with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce anger and relent from doing harm to Your people.”

God was going to kill all of the Israelite people and begin a new Israel with Moses. God was angry at their sin, their constant complaining, and rebellion. He had enough, and He was about to wipe them out. But Moses intercedes and asks God not to kill them based on God’s good character and how it would look to the nations around them. Jesus mediates based on His shed blood and finished work at Calvary for our eternal security. We will never lose it because Jesus’ blood is enough to cover all of our sins and blot them out. Our security is in Jesus, and there are several verses that promise this. See Micah 7:18-19:

“Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion? He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea.”

See also Isaiah 43:25, “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”

Isaiah 38:17, “Behold, it was for my welfare that I had great bitterness; but in love, you have delivered my life from the pit of destruction, for you have cast all my sins behind your back.”

There are many, many verses that remind us and comfort us in our current failures and sins that God has removed forever, yes, even the ones you have not committed yet, and you are secure in Jesus. The work is done, it is finished, and Jesus is our permanent Mediator.

God bless you,

Dr. Sean Gooding
Pastor of Mississauga Missionary Baptist Church

How to Connect with Us

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MississaugaMissionaryBaptistChurch
Online: https://mmbchurch.ca/
Email: seangooding@mmbchurch.ca