Hebrews: A Much Better Promise.… · Hebrews:AMuch(Better(Promise) ))))) November)23)&)24,)2013) Intellectualmaterialsarethepropertyof ) ) ) Traders)Point)ChristianChurch.)All)rights)reserved.)))))

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Transcript November 23 & 24, 2013

Hebrews: A Much Better Promise Aaron Brockett | Hebrews 7:23-8:13

Well good morning! It is good to see you all. If you have a Bible by all means grab it and get to Hebrews chapter 8. That is where we are in the study of this book together. And you are turning there and finding that, one of the things that I think is true for just about everyone in this room is that we all have certain preferences or allegiances to a product or system or a way of doing things that we get fiercely loyal to. So, just a few examples: a few of you in this room are Chevy people and some of you are Ford people, right? Some of you are android and some of you are iPhone. Some of you are Samsung and some of you are Panasonic and some of you are Chipotle and some of you are Qdoba. These are the important things in life, right? You kind of prefer this product, system, and way of doing things. There is nothing really wrong with it, but have you ever had anyone ever mess with it? Have you ever had it changed on you and you weren’t the one to change it? You kind of lament that decision and so maybe you are a PC person and your company just sent Mac so you are kind of lost. This happened to me a couple of months ago, you rent a car but they don’t have the brand you prefer driving so you have to drive some other brand. This happened to me; I got in [the car] and didn’t know how to start it. I’m trying to figure out where to turn the key and there is no key. There was just a fob, but it turned out that the fob was the key. I got really frustrated with that. If you can relate any of that, any sort of system or product that you have an allegiance to that has gotten changed on you, then you kind of understand the dilemma of the Hebrew people. As we have been walking our way through this book of the Bible throughout the fall, it really reads like a sermon. This is written to a congregation made up of people that grew up under a certain system that they would have really had great affection for. It was kind of like a security blanket to them. And so it is for the purpose of our time together described as the old covenant. The Jewish sacrificial priestly system -‐ The Old Testament law. Now they had somebody describe the gospel message of salvation by grace alone through Christ alone. Many of them had responded to it and a number of them were considering it. But as is the case today, in the first century there really were no social benefits to becoming a Christian. One of the unfortunate things about Christian-‐dom is this idea that it sort of had social benefits for you to be religious or for you to be a Christian. Now it is not really popular anymore. That is actually a good thing because it means that if you are following Christ it is ‘legit’ that you don’t have any side agenda for being a Christian. Well, in the first century they had accepted the gospel message of grace through faith but their family had rejected them. The culture was persecuted them. So they are very naturally getting discouraged and a bit distracted and disenchanted with the whole thing. They are showing signs of reverting back to the old system.

Hebrews: A Much Better Promise November 23 & 24, 2013

Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 2

Last week, if you were here, we said that a helpful word picture for us to describe all thirteen chapters of the Hebrews is the author standing in the road with a reflective jacket on waving his hands up in the air saying you don’t want to travel any further down this road of law. Turn around and travel back towards the grace of Jesus Christ. As so last week from chapter 7 we looked at a better deal that has been offered to us through Christ. And now in chapter 8 we are going to look at a better promise that has been given to us in Christ. One of the questions that I think that some of us have at times is we know that Jesus has done something for us in the past -‐ He died on the cross for our sins. We know that He is going to do something for us in the future by coming back to take us to heaven with Him. But have you ever stopped to consider what He is doing now? What is He doing now? Does He have his feel up somewhere on the other side of the universe? Is He playing a round of golf? Is He retired? Is He tuning in every now and then on television to see how you are doing and say well, I hope everything works out because I’ve already done my job? Just hang tight until I come back. Is that what He is doing?

Well, to this question is what chapter 8 turns its attention to. So I want to back up to chapter 7, verse 23 and read the last part of chapter 7 because I think you’ll see what this is important in a minute to give us a running start into chapter 8.

So starting in verse 23 of chapter 7 it stays, “23 The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office,” and so we said that the priests were mortal men and they kept dying so God had to keep bringing into the office to make sacrifices for sin but Jesus holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever.

We made this point last week that that is the reason that Jesus is the way. Jesus isn’t the way just because He’s smarter than everybody else, has a better philosophical system than everyone else, although I believe that to be true. But He’s the way because He is the only one who’s permanently serving as our high priest right now. He is interceding on our behalf. And so he says consequently He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him. Since He always live to make intercession for them. So it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest.

Then he just goes on to explain the qualities of Jesus – he’s holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinner, exalted above the heavens. “27 He has no need, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices daily, first for his own sins and then for those of the people, since he did this once for all when he offered up himself. 28 For the law appoints men in their weakness as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever.”

So what you have happening here is in the Old Testament you originally had something called the tabernacle. The tabernacle was a blueprint that God had handed to Moses and He said this is the way that people are going to make atonement of sins so that we can be reconciled. The tabernacle was originally a tent because it had to be portable because the Israelites were always on the move. Then later, once they settled, it became the temple which was a building but it served the same purpose in function.



So you had the holy the place which was where all the priests could go, but you had the holy of holies and only one person could go only once a year and that was the high priest. The high priest would go into the holy of holies and make a sacrifice or atonement for the sins of the people.

Now unfortunately, this whole idea is largely lost on us within our culture because thankfully we don’t really deal with tabernacles and temples anymore. But we do deal with courtrooms. And that may kind of help us to understand what is going on here. Just imagine every time you violated the law -‐ let’s just say every time you went 46 miles an hour in a 45 mile an hour zone, every time you were greedy, every time you told a white lie, and every time you had a lustful thought you had to go and get a defense attorney to plead your case in court to get the judge to through it out.

Aren’t you glad that we aren’t under the Old Covenant? That would just be an exhausting system on a regular basis and this was what was going on under this old system known as the law. If you were here last week, we said that the law cannot bring about perfection. Then what does the law do? The law just simply reveals imperfection. The law shows me my desperate need for grace. And so God sent Jesus as our one and only and final and permanent high priest to get rid of that whole system once and for all.

So now the question of what is Jesus doing now? Jesus is functioning as our high priest, not in the tabernacle or temple on earth, but in the temple in heaven in the heavenly places on our behalf. That was a mouthful and some of you are saying I think I’m choking right now on that steak. Let me just go ahead and tell you that that is awesome! The place should have erupted in cheers because that is awesome, awesome news.

I realize I have been studying it all week so I’ve got a little bit of an advantage on you. It is hit me like this is amazing stuff and I’m hoping that here in the next few moments together that you would be able to see some of the distinction here between old law and new law. Between Old Covenant and New Covenant and what it exactly is that Jesus has done for us. So, with all that said, we’ve got a running start now into chapter 8; look with me in your Bibles in verse 1. If you didn’t bring a Bible, just look onto the person’s sitting next to you. If you don’t know them they won’t mind. They won’t mind. Just look over their shoulder or I’ll just put this up on the screen and you can make it easier for the person sitting next to you.

Look at what it says in verse 1, “Now the point in what we are saying is this:” I love this guy because he knows he is wordy. He knows he's complex. Chapter 7, 8 and 9 are one whole big, huge cohesive thought, he’s just saying it over and over again. And I will say this, chapter 7, 8 and 9 are the deepest part of the deep end in Hebrews. So once we emerge out of chapter 9 it is not going to say that this context gets any less relevant it just not as deep waters.

Chapters 10 through 13 is just some awesome, awesome practical stuff, but here he says ‘the point of what we are saying’ so he is trying to summarize, making sure that we get the main idea is “we have such a high priest, one who is seated” you might circle that word seated, in your Bible. This is the second time we have seen that. The first time we saw it was in chapter 1 verse 3 where Jesus took a seat next to God in the throne room of heaven.

Why is that so significant? When do you take a seat? When you have been working a job, when do you sit down? Well, hopefully it’s not when you are lazy, taking a break. You usually take a seat when the job is done. This is my third time to preach through this content. When I get done I’m taking a seat. I’m



tired. That’s what this signifies here is that Jesus has done it! So this why religion is so futile because we are still in the operations of we need to justify ourselves. So he gives this amazing word picture to say hey man, all the works been done. In fact it has been done to where I’m taking a seat next to the majesty in heaven.

“2 a minister in the holy places, in the true tent” and you might underline ‘true tent’. This is not like a camping tent; this is referring to the tabernacle which was the tent. It was portable. He says this is a true tent. He’s not saying that the tabernacle was a false tent, this is not true versus false. This is true verses illustrative, this is true verses temporary. So he says that the tent that’s in heaven, the heavenly places where Jesus is functioning as your high priest right now is the true tent. “… the Lord set up, not man. 3 For every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices;” because that is what priests do. Athletes compete, teachers teach, plumbers plumb, and dentists cause pain. Alright? I know we have a number of dentists in our church that was for you. I love you guys.

Priests offer sacrifices for sin. And then he says that “it is necessary for this priest” (Jesus) “also to have something to offer.” He offered himself. “4 Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all,” Probably because he didn’t come from the Levitical line. We covered that last week. He’s been ordained by God. “5 They serve a copy and shadow” here are two more words for you to underline. Those are really important words. “of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” So that was a mouthful, here is essentially what this is saying. Some of you have asked me this question; is it that God created us, we fell into sin and so He’s trying to reconcile us back to Him? And so He created this system of law, priests, and sacrifices to get us to Him and it failed. So He went to plan B which is Jesus and Jesus came to bat clean-‐up and died on the cross for our sins. That is not the gospel. We saw this last week that Jesus is foreshadowed in a high priest by the name of Melchizedek. And Melchizedeck comes to Abram and refreshes him with bread and wine signifying the symbols of communion. So we’ve got communion way before the law. We’ve got communion way before the priestly, Old Testament sacrificial system revealing to us that this has been God’s plan A all along. Not only do we have that, but now we have things like true tent, copy and shadow to back that up.

So he’s saying that the true tent isn’t anything made on man, but actually the tabernacle, the temple and the Old Testament sacrifices are all just a copy of the real thing in heaven. And so religion is the copy. The gospel is the real thing. So what does a copy do? Well a copy is just a picture of the real thing but a copy does not carry as much weight as the original document. Lindsey and I came to discover this truth about twelve years ago when we moved to California and we had to get our California driver’s license. Man, we probably could have become astronauts sooner than we could have gotten our California driver’s licenses. It was a very complicated process. They had long, long lines.

We had to go to California BMV which is a form of purgatory. We went there and I am not even exaggerating this, we take a ticket with a number to wait in line and the line is wrapped all the way outside the doors. We left and bought groceries and went home to unload the groceries and then went back and waited another two hours. That is just how extenous this process was. We get up to the counter and we had been told that we needed a marriage license as proof for Lindsey to get her driver’s license in California.



So we called the courthouse a head of time in the county in which we got married and they faxed us a copy of our marriage license. We walked up to the desk and they looked at it and they said this isn’t going to work. I was like are you kidding me we just waited in line for like ½ of our life. They said the fax won’t work we need the original. We said, but this is the copy. You can even see the copy of the seal that is there. They said it is not going to work – this is a copy but it doesn’t carry the weight of the original. We learned a tough lesson that day.

He also says this is a shadow of the thing to come. So the shadow is the essence of something but not the substance of something. And so he says that the Old Testament, the old law, the priestly, sacrificial system is all a shadow of the real thing. So you’ve got the shadow but don’t get too excited about the shadow because it’s not the real thing.

This last Thursday night my wife had worship practice because she is singing on the team this weekend. So I got home at 5:30pm and she is on her way out the door so we did a high five, good to see ya. It is almost like I’m going to tap in, you tap out. You parents know what I’m talking about. She leaves and I get dinner ready for the kids, get their baths, help them with homework, and get them to bed. At 9:00pm the house is quiet, I go up to our bedroom to read and I’m waiting for Lindsey to get home I haven’t seen her all day and I’m excited to see her to find out about her day. I hear the garage door open up and I get kind of excited that she’s finally home. I go out on the 2nd floor and I’m looking down into the kitchen but the ceiling comes down far enough that I can’t see into the kitchen, but I can see the floor. Her shadow is cast across the kitchen floor and I’m just all excited because here is her shadow. She’s like right here. And she’s got an amazing shadow, right? So, I’m looking at her shadow and that is all I can see.

Now how silly would it be if she’s coming up the stairs and she’s like hey, sweetheart and I’d be like wait a minute, I’d like a little more time with the shadow. You’ve got such a great shadow. Now I love the shadow. I would prefer the shadow to nothing. But it would be silly for me to say I’m just going to settle for the shadow. I can’t hug the shadow, I can’t touch the shadow, I can’t talk to the shadow … I’m going to stop right there. Alright? I love the shadow, but I love her better.

This is what he is saying about old covenant – new covenant. Hey, man the shadows not bad. The shadow is better than nothing. But now in Jesus Christ you’ve got the real thing. Why would you ever resort back to empty religious behavior and action? Some of you are like well, this is great but I’m not Jewish, I’m not Hebrew. It doesn’t matter. You do this as a protestant. You do this as a catholic. You do this religiously week-‐in and week-‐out; just settling for the shadow.

When are you settling for the shadow? When you try to justify yourself before God and the eyes of others. Your heart has not yet been transformed you are just going through the motions. Trying to appease God by external religious behavior. The whole point is you have got the real thing so why are you so fixated on the copy or the shadow? And he goes on in verse 6, “6 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.”

So this is where we got the title for this series – Jesus is Better. This is where I got the title for this morning’s sermon – A Better Promise right there is verse 6. Verse “7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.” So he does say here that under the old law, the old system, it was faulty. But he is going to get to where the fault lies here in just a minute.



So what he is doing is comparing in contrast this idea between a contract and a covenant. Does anybody know the difference between a contract and a covenant? Let’s just say you and I are going to enter into a contract right now. What would happen is that two parties establish the terms. You agree to do some things and I agree to do some things and we enter into a contract together that is legally binding. But if you break the terms or if I break the terms then we both lawyer-‐up and are lives get real complicated. That is a contract.

A covenant is fundamentally different in the sense that only one party establishes the terms for the benefit of someone else. So the word covenant is a Greco-‐Roman term that has this idea of a last living will or testament. So when you establish a will it is one party establishing the terms of the will for the benefit of those receiving it. Does that make sense? If it doesn’t just say it doesn’t make sense and I can go over it again. No, you don’t want that, right? Let me try to illustrate it this way, a few years now Lindsey and I decided that it was time to set up our will and trust. We have four kids and we decided we should probably do this now. So we went downtime to meet with a very capable attorney and he walked us through the process.

Now if any of you have done this, if any of you have set up your will and trust, it is not a very fun meeting to have is it? You are faced to confront some stuff that you would really rather not think about. Namely, your death. So he says who do you want to take care of your kids and I’m like, me, I want to take care of my kids. Well, you’re dead so you can’t do that. So, what happens if both of you die and we are trying to establish who the executor of our estate is and who the guardians of our kids would be? How much of our money would they get at what age they would be?

It is just the type of meeting that when you get done you are in a hey, let’s go see a movie. You are just very sober at that meeting. But what you are doing are establishing the terms for the recipients of the benefits. Do you want to know what we didn’t do that day? We didn’t load our kids up and take them with us. We didn’t say hey kids come on? [they respond] Where are we going? We are going to the attorney’s office so we can talk about what happens when Mommy and Daddy die. We really need your input on this. What would you like the terms to be? Who would you like to live with? How much money would you like to have? When do you think you will be old enough to receive this? That’s not a covenant.

A covenant is one party establishing the terms for the blessing of the recipients. And so under the old law it was a contract, meaning it was transactional. And we broke our end. So, what God did, instead of giving us what we deserved, He ripped up the contract and exchanged it for a covenant. And He established the terms and then now Jesus is the executor of the estate. Jesus is the mediator. Jesus is the one negotiating on our behalf. Here is the word the Bible uses, Jesus is our advocate.

In Matthew, chapter 10, verse 32 Jesus says, if you will confess my name before men I will confess your name before God the Father. That is a mediating, advocating kind of role. In 1 John 2:1 he says, “My little children”, I love how He is speaking to us this way. “I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.” Oh man, but I have sinned. He goes on to say, “But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” And so Jesus is making sure we get this.

It is important to understand that the Old Testament law didn’t fail. Our hearts failed it. Hebrews 8 For he finds fault with” Who? “them” Did he say he found fault with the system? Did he find fault with the law? No He didn’t say that he says he finds fault with them. And so the law was not flawed, our ability to



keep it was the flaw. Romans 8:3-‐4 says, “3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

Man, those verses right there, if they don’t stir you up, you need to re-‐read them and re-‐read them until they do. That is powerful. He is basically saying what caused the law to fail us was that our flesh weakened it. We couldn’t live up to it so God abolished the law and put Jesus’ spirit in us.

So the old covenant was compromised and so God makes provision for our human weakness by promising to give this to us by placing it within us. This is about as simple as I can make it. External law and religion is from the outside in which never changes you. The new covenant is from the inside out and God gives you a new heart.

How many of you abide by the speed limit because your heart delights in it? How many of you say it is 45 miles here so I’m going to go 44 because delight in the law? No, what do you do? You go 46 right because you think they won’t pull you over for that. Because your heart resists the external. You haven’t been changed on the inside. This is why religious behavior is so toxic and why many of you have grown up in church and you still don’t know Christ.

You have resisted and rebelled against the law like the Bible is just a big extensive rule book that tell me how to have any more fun and to be boring. So my heart rebels against that when the gospel is God wanting to do heart surgery. He wants to give you a new heart and a new desire and new affections.

The old covenant is transactional. The new covenant is transformational. From verses 8 through 13 he is going to spell out six reasons why the new covenant is better. He is quoting from Jeremiah 31. You might want to write Jeremiah 31 in the margins on your Bible next to verses 8 through 13 because it is a direct quote. He uses the Old Testament so much because of who he is talking to. He knows his audience.

Six reasons why the new covenant is better. Here is the first one:

1. It is unconditional. Look with me at verses 8 and 9, “8 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,” It is important to understand when he says Israel and Judah that he is also referring to you and me. Because we have been grated into the family. Jews and gentiles. “9 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.” Who is he talking about there? He is talking about the Israelites and Egyptians slavery when Moses delivered them and they go through the red sea and he says, “For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.” Wow, that is kind of abrupt, right? It kind of sounds like a warning. God essentially says I took them by the hand as children and they resisted and rebelled and they refused. So I said I Am Done! Now you might think that sounds like God isn’t being very gracious, but every single person in this room who has ever had the privilege of parenting a child knows exactly what he is talking about.

Right? Okay, it is time to go, come with us. You take them by the hand and if your child refuses or rebels or resists, you say I am done. Last Friday night we had a staff gathering in the indoor



park for us to bring out kids and play in the indoor park. It’s not open yet, but we just go together to have a little bit of time together as a staff. Man, I don’t know how many kids there were in there, maybe 50 or 60 kids; our staff is very fruitful. All these kids are in there playing around and it is 8:00pm and time to go home and good luck trying to round up 50 kids. It is like herding cats.

All of a sudden all these kids who were previously angelic, having the time of the lives, saying that you father for the opportunity to play in the playground. And all of a sudden when it is time to go they start throwing a fit. Not my kids! It was everybody else’s. No, I was right there with them. I would take them by the hand and say it was time to go and they would say one more time down the slide. And one point they just throw a fit and throw themselves on the ground. We don’t want to go! You are trying to be gracious and you are trying to do patient. I don’t want the staff to see me lose it with my kids.

At one point I just decided to say I’m going to the truck, we are going to leave. This is essentially what God is doing here. He isn’t going to force you and take you by the hand. But if you refuse and rebel and resist we are done. Aren’t you glad we aren’t under the old covenant anymore?

In the new covenant God says this offer has been made to you over and over and over again and instead of waiting for you to get things right and come to me, I am going to draw near to you through my Son. In 1 Peter 3:18, “8 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God” And we said this last week that the function of a priest was to what? Bring people to God.

So Jesus is our high priest by being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit. The whole point of this is that God won’t back away from you. The law shows us that we couldn’t do it and so God, in His grace, did it for us. And so salvation is accomplished and the deal has been purchased and the debt has been paid. And some of you need to hear this and some of you need to be reminded of it. That God will never give up on you! You might give up on Him, but He will never give up on you. As long as you are drawing breathe into your lungs, God’s spirit is beckoning you, wooing you, stirring some stuff up within you.

There is nothing that can keep you separated from Him. In fact the only thing that can keep you separated from Him is if you reject Him. So this isn’t some type of universalism that says all you have to do to go to heaven is just die and God will just accept you as you are because He loves you. No you have got to repent, you’ve got to come to Him in humility and say God I receive that gift. And man it is unconditional in the sense that it isn’t up to anything you’ve done. It is up to what God has done for you through Jesus Christ.

I don’t know how many of you have heard of a guy by the name of David Berkowitz. Several of you have. David Berkowitz, otherwise known as the Son of Sam, there is a movie made after his exploits. But in the summer of 1977 he terrorized New York City and the surrounding areas. He had a pretty poor upbringing, he was mixed up in the occult, and he took a 44 caliber pistol and walked around the streets of New York and would just walk up to people randomly and for no reason take their lives. He didn’t want anything from them, he didn’t steal anything, he didn’t touch them. He just walked up to people he didn’t know and took their lives. He killed six



people, wounded seven others, and one young lady is a paraplegic for life. Another one lost her eyesight. He was convicted and sent to prison for life in 1977.

Many people would see a guy like that as an absolute monster. In fact the prison guards said that for the following ten years in the prison, David Berkowitz was one of the darkest individuals that they had ever been around in their life. Prison guards didn’t want to be around him. But David Berkowitz in 1987 gave his life to Jesus Christ. Listen to his words as he writes around his testimony. He says” There was time back in 1987 when I was in the prison yard another inmate walked up to me and introduced himself as boldly told me that Jesus loved me. After he said those words I laughed at him and told him that there was no way that God could love me. I told him I was too evil and that he was wasting his time. But this man had such a compassionate heart and I saw that he really was sincere. I cannot describe it, the way in which he treated me.

One day he offered me a small pocket New Testament which includes the Psalms and encouraged me to read it. Some nights I would peak into the Bible just to check it out. I had never read the Bible before. I started to read the Psalms for the first time in my life. I said to myself these are some of the most beautiful words I have ever read. And I began to cry. I came across Psalms 34, verse 6 which says, “This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.” I turned out my light and felt compelled to get on my knees. I began pouring my heart to the Lord. This was all new to me. Feelings of grief and deep remorse welled up inside and I talked to God as if He was right in the cell with me. I didn’t know for sure if God was listening but I had to pray and He heard my prayer.

David Berkowitz was genuinely converted to Jesus Christ. Now there are some of you in this room that don’t like that. Some of you in this room that are thinking is it that easy, really? I mean a guy like that deserves hell. And if it is really that easy I don’t think I really like that message. I would simply say to you that if David Berkowitz doesn’t have a shot at redemption then neither do I. The Bible makes no distinction between murder and anger. The Bible makes no distinction between lust and adultery. Now the consequences of those sins are very different, but the Bible says if you break the law even at the smallest part then you are guilty of breaking all of it.

Even the smallest of sins separates you from God. So, did David Berkowitz genuinely experience conversion? Well, for starters are really aren’t the ones to fully judge that. Only God judges that. But there is such a thing as fruit and evidence. That was 25 years ago. He stills seems to be tracking. Some people say, well that is what hardened criminals do, they go to prison for life and they get religion so other people feel sympathetic for them because they have an angel and agenda.

David Berkowitz has been up for parole six times and all six times he tells the judge, leave me in prison. I believe I’ve been totally forgiven in Jesus Christ but my sins have a certain consequence to this and out of respect for the families and out of paying my civil duty to society, I’ll just stay in prison for the rest of my earthly existence.

The prison guards didn’t believe it at first. They spent ten years with the dude. One of the guys who had been transferred to another prison said I’ll believe it when I look into his eyes. Because I looked into that guys eyes and he was dark. There was some dark stuff going on in there. He



went back to the prison and he looked into David Berkowitz’s eyes and he said, that man is a changed individual.

There is nobody outside the grasp of the grace of Jesus Christ. It is unconditional in the sense that there isn’t anything than you can do to make God love you more. God does it all. When you come to Him in faith and humility and repentance and the Bible says anyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. He will do it, man. The work of salvation isn’t even preempted by you. The work of salvation is preempted by His Holy Spirit who does it in you.

Ephesians 2, verses 1-‐9 is one of my favorite passages in the New Testament. It just spells out the gospel without any additives. In Chapter 2, verse 1 it says, “And you were dead” what’s that word there? Dead. It doesn’t say you were asleep, daydreaming, or distracted. It says you were spiritually dead, “in you trespasses.”

Here is a pop quick. How many decisions do dead people make? None. They don’t do anything. They don’t get to decide anything. “You were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you once walk following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air.” We talked about this earlier in this series that who is the prince of the power of this air right now? Satan, right? He’s on a leash but he’s causing havoc. 2 … the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience”.

Hey, be really careful. Some of you in this room are not so sure about the Jesus thing but I am a spiritually person. Be careful about that. The Bible says tests the spirits because spirits are either of God or the angels or the their demons. They masquerade as angels of light. So it is not enough to be spiritually people.

Are you a person that’s for Jesus Christ? It says you were part of the, “sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. 4 But God,” Man, that is one of the greatest ‘butt God’s in the Bible’. 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses,” He’s reminding us just in case we were dead. “made us alive” Oh man, what is that word? Alive. He made us alive. We didn’t make ourselves alive. He made us alive “together with Christ” And then this next part is so awesome we just have to say it out loud, “—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated” Seated us. Haven’t we covered that somewhere? seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

Hey I want you to write something down. It’s not a real long sentence, but you are not going to get it the first time I read it to you so I’ll read it more than once. But I want you to write this sentence down. I know some of you are like I’m not a note taker, Aaron so don’t force me to take notes. Get over it! Write this down. Tweet it out or put it on your phone or whatever. I want you to talk about this as a Life Group.



The glory of the new covenant is that it doesn’t bring about responses from God directly proportionate to how we live. If God responded to us directly proportionally to how we lived, the result would be hell. But in the new covenant God tore that old contract up and by grace you have been saved enacted by faith.

2. The New Covenant is internal. It is unconditional and it is internal. Look at verse 10, “10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts,” Now the Israelites were very, very serious about the law. And so they would write it on their doorposts. They would put it in this little box and where it on their foreheads so that they could read it all day. Their kids would memorize the Torah. They knew the law externally.

And so where did God write the law when he originally gave it to the Israelites? Think Charleston Heston, alright? He wrote them on stones. Now under the new covenant where does God write the law? On our hearts. That is the fundamental difference a religious person and a gospel-‐centered-‐born-‐again person. A religious person is trying to do this external stuff, law written externally, it is following the speed limit because I have to not because I delight in it. Now God, in the new conversion, when you become a new creation in Christ He writes the law on your heart. And so know it isn’t one of those things that you find yourself constantly resisting, but you begin to delight in it. So it’s not a drag anymore.

Your affections for Christ have been stirred up. Max Lucado uses this illustration that I think may be helpful. He says, imagine that you came home from a two week vacation and your deep freeze quit working while you were gone. All of your food defrosted and all that meat that you had inside rotted. When you first walked up to the deepfreeze you probably couldn’t tell. But when you opened it up you could tell. It was rank on the inside. Now how would you go about the problem of the deep frosted deepfreeze? Would you get out a sponge and soapy water and clean the outside of the deepfreeze? Would you relocate the deepfreeze in a different part of your house and say maybe it will work better there? Would you scold and yell at the deepfreeze? Well, you might do that. But would it make it any better? No. Would you establish a new set of rules for the household that the deepfreeze must apply? No. The only way to fix that problem is to change the insides. And this is the new covenant.

It is the passage that pierced me to my heart when I was 17. The verse that led me to Jesus Christ, Romans 5, verse 8. “8 … while we were still sinners, Christ died for me (Aaron personalized it by changing us to me). And for you. As a 17 year old kid I was sitting on a picnic bench and that verse just about knocked me to the ground. It was the Spirit of God. Dead in my transgressions making me alive in that moment. Hey, man I can see it across the room week in and week out.

Paul says in the Bible to Timothy in the book of Timothy, to preach the Word God in season and out. I used to think that meant in the fall and in the spring. Is that what that means? No, it means preach the Word of God faithfully when it is popular and when it’s not. What I’ve even come to discover is that it actually comes right down to the individual. Some of you have been really surprised when I say to you that I can see you up here. I actually look for people who really listen intently because it encourages me. I’m a better preacher when you like lean forward and nod, even if you are faking it. I’m just a better preacher. I think these people are into it, I’m



awesome! It is amazing to me at times though, even on the same row, I’m up here preaching my guts out, going at it and trying to be as clear as I can and one person is leaning forward misty eyed, nodding their head and I’m getting it. And three seats down somebody is sitting there asleep. In season – out of season.

The Puritans had a saying that said the same sun that melts the wax, hardens the clay. And so for those of you who have been pierced to the heart and been given a new heart, this just stirs up your affections for Christ. Some of you this seed of the gospel is bouncing right off of you. In fact, it is just hardening you the longer you resist. This is an internal work that God desires to do in you and me. What we find happening is that the things that the sins that we used to enjoy we will find distasteful now. It isn’t about white knuckling it into holiness. It is about asking God to give you a whole new set of desires. Put all the safeguards on your computer you want, you’ll still not overcome those images until God gives you a new set of affections by giving you a heart transplant.

3. It’s personal. Verse 10, “I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” If you are living under the old contract God seems very, very distant. God desires to be a personal God that you know. Not somebody you know about, but that it is somebody that you know. We live for God not to gain his favor, but because we have his favor we live for God.

That is a fundamentally different shift in knowing about God and actually knowing Him. Some of you here this morning are big, big fans of Andrew Luck. And you know a lot of stats that he has been acquiring. You know where he lives, his favorite things to do, but you don’t really know him. You know about him. But you don’t know him. Many of you know God about like you know Andrew Luck. Big fans of God – you know a lot about Him. But through the gospel, through the new covenant, God wants you to know Him personally.

4. The new covenant is universal. Verse 11, “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.” This is just basically the idea that the gospel is for the entire world. And so it is not relegated to one group of people or one geographic region but this is global. That is why we will be involved in world-‐wide missions. And why I encourage you to go on a mission trip in 2014.

5. The new covenant is merciful. He’s merciful. Verse 12, “12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” Some of you this morning that are living in insecurity and fear over I don’t know if my religion is making it. I don’t know if I’m really saved. God are you pleased with me? God do you love me? God do you see me over here punishing myself for my sin? Are you happy with me, God, because of the things I’m doing to punish myself? No God is not happy with that. Because you are still living under the old law which separates you from Him. If you are apathetic and indifferent towards the new covenant that means that self is still sitting upon the throne of your heart. God says man in mercy I’m going to save all of you.

6. Eternal. God is not going to change His mind. This isn’t a temporary thing. Verse 13, “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.” Man, I am so thankful that we are done with the old



covenant. Let’s just have a big going away party for the old covenant. Don’t let the door hit ya, where the good Lord split ya old covenant! See ya. Wouldn’t want to be ya. I have got clichés all day, alright. Quit living under the old law. God did away with it. Jesus did not give us a law so that we would obey it, He gave us the law so that we would realize that we could not obey it. We are in desperate need of the grace that comes through Jesus Christ.

Man, I hope you know Him. And if you do know Him I hope your affections for Him have been stirred up today again. Because we need that. If you don’t know Him, I pray that maybe just like when I was a 17 year old kid when Romans 5:8 knocked me to the ground that maybe today would be the day that the Spirit of God would pierce your heart. And that you would stop trying to white knuckle religion. You would allow God to give you a new heart.

I love you, every single one of you. I love being your pastor and I love this journey that we are on together to grow towards maturity in Jesus Christ. We are going to take our tithes and our offerings just as an act of worship so do it that way. Alright? Then we are going to take communion together. May the Spirit of God speak to you in this time.

Father, we come to you know. I thank you for this text. I pray that I handled it well. That You were pleased and that the hearts of both the people who are very far from God and the people who are near you would have been pierced by the same passage. It is what I love about expository preaching; it can do both discipleship and evangelism. I pray that Your Spirit would feel thick in this room right now. Meet us in this place. That everyone of us would be humbled before You. We ask this in Jesus’ name and the church says Amen.

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