Introduction:
Psalm 110:4 - The LORD has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
Why Jesus is the Superior Priest? (Hebrews 8:1-13):
- Jesus made the final Sacrifice . (Heb 8:1-2)
- Jesus offers our Gifts to the Father. (Heb 8:3-5)
- Jesus delivers better Promises . (Heb 8:6-13)
5 Better Promises Jesus Delivers in the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:8-12):
- It's a New covenant. (Heb 8:8)
- The new covenant is not Conditional . (Heb 8:9)
- The new covenant is Internal . (Heb 8:10a)
- The new covenant is Personal . (Heb 8:10b-11)
- The new covenant gives total Forgiveness . (Heb 8:12)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:01-01:04
Open up your Bibles with me. Hebrews chapter 8.
01:06-01:18
And as we turn there, we are heading to our Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.
01:19-01:39
And I just want to encourage you, Harvest family, you know, like Christmas, "Easter is a time when people will come and visit a church "when they might not normally come." So if we're going to be gracious hosts, we're going to accommodate our guests, right?
01:40-01:43
So here's what we're gonna do, and it's even alliterated for you, all right?
01:45-01:49
Now this is hard, but the gospel calls us to do hard things, all right?
01:49-01:51
So first of all, we're going to move up.
01:51-01:54
And I don't mean like there, I mean up this way, right?
01:54-01:56
So we're going to move up, all right?
01:58-02:01
I know like good Baptist, you wanna fill the back first.
02:02-02:03
Let's fill the front first.
02:03-02:07
So we wanna move up and then we want to move in.
02:08-02:09
All right?
02:09-02:12
That way the seats on the aisle are open for our guests.
02:12-02:12
Right?
02:13-02:15
We're doing this to welcome and accommodate our guests.
02:15-02:19
So we wanna move up and we wanna move in.
02:19-02:24
And also we want to make friends.
02:24-02:28
Now, let me tell you something about this.
02:29-02:33
If you make this hand gesture, you better be a woman.
02:34-02:35
(congregation laughing)
02:37-02:41
And even then, even then it's not great.
02:42-02:46
But here's the thing, we are redeeming that just for a season.
02:47-02:51
And after Easter, I don't wanna see anybody doing that, but just for a season.
02:53-02:55
And we're doing that to get it cemented into our minds.
02:55-03:00
We wanna move up, we wanna move in, and we wanna make friends.
03:00-03:03
All right, now I want you all to do that with me with the hand motions.
03:04-03:05
Don't leave me up here, you ready?
03:06-03:12
We're going to, say it with me, we're going to move up, we're going to move in, and we're going to make friends.
03:13-03:15
Some of you still won't do the hard hands.
03:16-03:17
I'm not mad at that.
03:21-03:21
All right.
03:23-03:27
Let's just bow our heads and we're going to be turning to God's word.
03:28-03:38
And if you're visiting with us, we place a premium on God's word around here because God says he works through his word.
03:39-03:42
He said that his word accomplishes the purposes for which he sends it out.
03:43-03:47
His word says that faith comes by hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.
03:47-03:49
So this is a big deal to God.
03:49-03:51
It should be a big deal to us.
03:51-03:52
So we're just gonna stop.
03:53-03:59
And I want you to please pray for me, to be faithful to communicate the word of God accurately.
04:00-04:08
And I will pray for you to have a heart open to receive the word of God for what it is, the word of God.
04:08-04:08
Let's pray.
04:15-04:18
And all of God's people said, amen.
04:20-04:22
Hebrews 8, are you there?
04:25-04:38
You know, it happens quite frequently, and it has for years, that Pastor Taylor will randomly send me a text with a "Would you rather?" question.
04:40-04:43
And I just want you to sort of feel my pain here for a second.
04:46-04:48
But these are the kinds of things that I'll just randomly get.
04:49-04:59
He's like, would you rather have a face tattoo of your choosing or a tattoo that can be hidden but is picked by the person who likes you the least?
05:01-05:02
And see, I always try to get around them.
05:02-05:04
I'm like, well, what about, and he's like, no, no, just answer the question.
05:05-05:06
You have to pick one.
05:06-05:07
I'm like, well, I don't really want to pick.
05:07-05:08
He's like, you have to pick one.
05:09-05:11
All right, so what about you?
05:12-05:15
Show of hands, who would rather have the face tattoo of your choosing?
05:17-05:19
Oh, you see, it's not so easy, is it?
05:20-05:25
Okay, how many people would rather have a tattoo that can be hidden, but it's picked by the person that likes you the least?
05:26-05:29
Wow, I did not think it was going that way.
05:30-05:31
Oh, here's another one.
05:33-05:40
Would you rather have hiccups all day, every day, or profusely sweat no matter what you do?
05:42-05:42
Right?
05:44-05:44
(congregation laughing)
05:47-05:50
So, show of hands.
05:51-05:55
How many people would rather have the hiccups all day, every day?
05:58-06:02
How many people would rather profusely sweat?
06:05-06:07
Once again, I did not see it going this way.
06:08-06:09
(congregation laughing)
06:12-06:12
See what I mean?
06:14-06:17
Okay, here's one for the married people.
06:20-06:21
Here's one for the married people.
06:21-06:24
Would you rather smell bad or have your spouse smell bad?
06:24-06:25
(congregation laughing)
06:27-06:33
I am, listen, if you are married, I am begging you not to raise your hand right now.
06:34-06:35
(congregation laughing)
06:35-06:37
I have lots to do.
06:37-06:39
I don't have time for more marriage counseling right now.
06:40-06:40
Okay?
06:41-06:44
That's one you think about silently in your head.
06:44-06:44
All right?
06:46-06:50
Oh, here's one that's really easy.
06:52-06:53
This one's easy.
06:53-06:54
Okay, we gave you the hard ones.
06:54-06:55
Here's an easy one.
06:55-07:02
Would you rather hold onto the old covenant or believe Jesus and God's new covenant?
07:03-07:39
Would you rather hold onto this old covenant that can't save you, wasn't designed to save you, or would you rather believe in Jesus Christ God's new covenant where he takes your sins away and you're adopted as a child of God. That's an easy one, right? But that's where we're going in the book of Hebrews. That's the question that's being presented to the Jews. Why would you hold on to the old covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the Levitical priesthood when the new has come? And just as a quick review, if you're like, man, I feel like I could draw this at this point.
07:39-07:40
Well, that's kind of the point.
07:42-07:46
So we've been talking about Abraham, right?
07:46-07:47
Remember Abraham?
07:49-07:51
Father Abraham and many sons.
07:53-07:57
And who was the son in question here, the child of the promise?
07:58-07:58
What was his name?
08:00-08:00
Isaac, right.
08:00-08:01
Go ahead and shout it out here.
08:01-08:02
Help me out.
08:03-08:12
Isaac and next in this line and under consideration here, Isaac had Jacob, right?
08:12-08:16
Well, Jacob and Esau, but we're mainly focusing on Jacob here.
08:16-08:20
And Jacob got into a wrestling match with God, changed his name to Israel.
08:21-08:22
The Lord changed his name.
08:22-08:26
Well, Jacob had a bunch of kids, right?
08:26-08:30
And they became known as the 12 tribes of Israel.
08:31-08:35
but the one in particular in question here that we're talking about is who?
08:35-08:36
Which one have we been talking about?
08:38-08:38
Levi, right?
08:39-08:41
Not the blue jeans guy.
08:42-08:48
This is Levi, because from Levi, under the old covenant we've learned, came what?
08:48-08:50
All of the priests.
08:52-08:56
And the very first high priest was who?
08:57-09:02
Yeah, Aaron was the first high priest, right?
09:02-09:09
And we talked about how these priests ministered in the temple or the tabernacle.
09:09-09:17
The tabernacle was just the portable version of the temple before Israel settled into the promised land and built the permanent temple.
09:17-09:20
But the, I'm gonna make it big.
09:21-09:22
I made it really small last week.
09:22-09:23
I'm sorry about that.
09:23-09:37
So this is just like a very basic crude sketch here, but in the temple you had courts, but the main structure inside, there was the, well, there's, we had this altar here, but there was the holy place here.
09:40-09:46
And then you had in here, the Holy of Holies.
09:47-09:49
And then the Holy of Holies was the Ark of the Covenant.
09:50-09:52
And this was divided by a thick veil.
09:53-10:05
Leviticus 16, once a year, the high priest could go in there, sprinkle blood on the mercy seat, and make atonement for the nation of Israel.
10:05-10:07
Okay, back to Abraham's day.
10:08-10:15
Abraham, remember he slaughtered some kings because his nephew got kidnapped and he took exception to that.
10:15-10:18
So Abraham rallied some troops, slaughtered some kings.
10:18-10:25
And way back, he met a man named, tell me, Melchizedek.
10:29-10:32
Mel, well, Mel, what am I doing here?
10:32-10:33
What am I doing?
10:34-10:38
You know, I've written his name like a thousand times and I never do it confidently.
10:39-10:48
M-E-L-C-H-I-Z-E-D-E-K-I-Z-E.
10:48-10:53
E, K, Melchizedek.
10:55-10:57
Second place in the fourth grade spelling bee.
10:57-11:09
All right, so Melchizedek, Abraham met Melchizedek and he was important because we learned that he was both a priest and he was a what?
11:11-11:12
And he was a king.
11:14-11:30
So the Hebrew writer, here's the point, The Hebrew writer in this giant section that we're in, he's saying that the Messiah, Jesus Christ, came in this order of priesthood, not this order of priesthood.
11:30-11:31
And that's significant.
11:32-11:32
Why?
11:33-11:38
Because Psalm 110, verse four says, "The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind.
11:38-11:48
You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek." The Messiah would be in this line, not in this line when it came to his priesthood.
11:49-11:55
And we saw last week for the Jews, that's hard to change, right?
11:55-12:02
Because their whole lives, their whole national identity, their whole culture revolves around the temple and the priesthood.
12:02-12:05
And now Jesus Christ brings in the new covenant.
12:06-12:08
And it's like, you know, all of this stuff is over.
12:10-12:11
We're not offering sacrifices anymore.
12:12-12:14
We're not going through the priests anymore.
12:17-12:24
We have a new high priest, we have a new covenant, because God promised us that by the way, in Psalm 110 and verse four.
12:25-12:38
So in case you still aren't sold, the Jesus priesthood in the order of Melchizedek is greater than the priesthood that came through Levi and Aaron.
12:38-12:45
If you're still not sold, we get to chapter eight, he says, let's examine what Jesus is doing right now.
12:46-12:53
because the results of Jesus' work are being eternally ministered to us.
12:55-13:00
All right, so on your outline, if you're taking notes, which we always encourage, why is Jesus the superior priest?
13:03-13:04
Number one, write this down.
13:05-13:08
Jesus is the superior priest because Jesus made the final sacrifice.
13:09-13:11
Jesus made the final sacrifice.
13:12-13:15
Look at first couple of verses in chapter eight.
13:17-13:27
He says, "Now the point, and what we are saying is this, "we have such a high priest." What do you mean?
13:27-13:34
Well, remember before he said, "Jesus allows us to draw near to God." You couldn't do that here, but you could do that through Jesus Christ.
13:35-14:07
He's like, "We have a high priest like that." He says, "We have such a high priest, "One who is seated at the right hand of the throne "of the majesty in heaven, "a minister in the holy places in the true tent "that the Lord set up, not man." So Jesus made the final sacrifice and the biggest word here that should stand out to us as we study and consider these things, honestly is the word seated.
14:08-14:12
because in the old covenant, there was a lot of, we're gonna be talking about this down the road.
14:12-14:21
There were a lot of furnishings and things in the tabernacle in the temple, but something that never existed here were chairs because the priests were never done, right?
14:21-14:23
You ever have downtime at your job?
14:24-14:25
We're like, well, I just have some time to do whatever.
14:25-14:27
Well, the priests never had that.
14:27-14:29
They were constantly offering sacrifices.
14:29-14:30
They didn't sit down.
14:30-14:33
They weren't taking any breaks because people kept sinning.
14:35-14:36
There were no chairs in the temple.
14:36-14:41
Actually, there was one seat, and that was the mercy seat.
14:41-14:43
That was the top of the Ark of the Covenant.
14:43-14:44
That's where God sat.
14:45-14:46
So a priest certainly wasn't gonna sit there.
14:49-14:56
But Jesus, as our high priest, finished his once and for all sacrifice, and he sat down.
14:58-14:59
He didn't sit down because he was tired.
15:01-15:03
See, the point here is he sat down because he's done.
15:04-15:05
Sacrifice is over.
15:07-15:08
He made the final sacrifice.
15:10-15:13
Secondly, number two, why is Jesus the superior priest?
15:15-15:17
Here's something that's mind blowing.
15:18-15:20
Jesus offers our gifts to the Father.
15:21-15:23
Look at verses three and four.
15:24-15:32
It says, "For every high priest is appointed "to offer gifts and sacrifices.
15:35-15:43
"Thus it is necessary for this priest," that's Jesus, "it is necessary for this priest also "to have something to offer.
15:45-15:55
"Now, if he were on earth, "he would not be a priest at all, "since there are priests who offer gifts "according to the law." So stop there.
15:56-15:58
Okay, priests, like we just said, they go to work, right?
15:59-16:04
And you're like, okay, well, the priest work, the sacrifice is done, we've already established that.
16:04-16:06
Jesus offered a once and for all sacrifice.
16:06-16:07
So that work is done.
16:08-16:13
And we learned last week that Jesus is making intercession for us, right?
16:13-16:14
We talked about that last week.
16:15-16:16
But what are the gifts?
16:16-16:22
It says here in verse three that like every priest offers gifts and so our high priest should offer gifts.
16:24-16:28
Well, when you study your Old Testament, you see there was more than just blood sacrifice.
16:29-16:33
There would be non-blood sacrifice like the meal offerings.
16:34-16:39
And you didn't offer those for sin, you offered those to give thanks.
16:41-16:43
You offered those to give praise.
16:43-16:46
You offered those to give dedication to God.
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This is mind blowing.
16:51-17:01
The Hebrew writer is saying that Jesus Christ takes our praise and he takes our thanks and he takes our adoration of God and he offers that to God on our behalf.
17:02-17:02
Think about that.
17:04-17:18
While we stand here and lift up our voices, pouring out our love and appreciation for our Father in heaven, Jesus Christ is taking that praise and saying, here, this is a gift unto you.
17:18-17:19
We couldn't do that on our own.
17:21-17:23
Jesus offers it for us.
17:24-17:36
And here he tells us, Jesus couldn't do old covenant ministry because he wasn't an earthly priest, because we talked about this, because he wasn't a Levite.
17:38-17:40
So Jesus couldn't offer those gifts according to the law.
17:41-17:42
He wasn't in this line.
17:45-17:50
But his point here is God doesn't need Jesus to do what the Levitical priests did.
17:50-17:50
Why?
17:51-17:57
because this stuff is just a shadow anyways.
17:58-17:59
Look at verse five.
18:02-18:08
He says, "They serve, these priests, "they serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things.
18:09-18:40
"For when Moses was about to erect the tent," he's talking about the tabernacle, this, the portable version of this, "When Moses was about to put that tent up, He was instructed by God saying, "See that you make everything according to the pattern "that was shown you on the mountain." Even Moses knew that this was just a shadow, right?
18:41-18:43
Because the real thing's in heaven.
18:44-18:49
You realize like a shadow, The shadow really doesn't have any substance, right?
18:49-18:51
Like see my shadow on here, can you see that?
18:52-18:53
I'm not gonna make puppets.
18:53-18:56
I'm not gonna entertain you, though I could.
18:56-19:00
I'm not going to, but there's no substance to that shadow.
19:02-19:03
You couldn't weigh it.
19:03-19:06
You couldn't cut it up and divide it.
19:06-19:07
You couldn't take it home.
19:07-19:08
There's no substance.
19:08-19:12
The only thing this does is tell me that something real exists.
19:13-19:14
You see, and that's what he's saying about this.
19:15-19:18
God instructed Moses, Make sure you make this exactly like I'm telling you.
19:19-19:19
Why?
19:19-19:24
Because this is to be a shadow of the real one that's in heaven.
19:27-19:38
So Jesus' ministry is in heaven, the real holy place, the real holy of holies, directly offering our praise and thanks to God.
19:39-19:40
And that is better.
19:41-19:46
That is a way better priesthood and a ministry than could ever be done here.
19:49-19:55
And then finally, number three, why is Jesus the superior priest?
19:58-20:00
Because Jesus delivers better promises.
20:03-20:04
Look at verse six.
20:05-20:16
It says, "But as it is, "Christ has obtained a ministry "that is as much more excellent than the old.
20:17-20:29
"As the covenant, he mediates is better "since it is enacted on better promises." What's he saying?
20:29-20:45
He's saying because of all that we just said, final sacrifice, seated, offering our gifts to the Father, doing way more than any Levitical priest could do, because of all of this, Jesus has a better ministry, because it's a better covenant, because it's built on better promises.
20:46-20:46
Do you see that?
20:47-21:02
Verse seven, he says, "For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second." Covenant.
21:03-21:07
A covenant is really a way of saying a promise.
21:08-21:09
That's what a covenant is.
21:09-21:10
It's a promise.
21:11-21:17
And he's saying here that in Jesus Christ, God has promised us some things.
21:17-21:21
He's promised better things than this that came under the old covenant.
21:27-21:31
But he says the old covenant had some faults.
21:32-21:33
So we needed a new one.
21:35-21:51
And I'm sure at this point, A devout Jewish person who heard this would say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you need to, I think you need to pump the brakes on that kind of talk." Like, who said the Mosaic covenant had faults?
21:52-21:56
Who said that this thing that God designed had faults?
21:56-21:58
Who says that this is lacking?
22:02-22:05
God said, that's who said.
22:06-22:07
Like, what?
22:08-22:09
Excuse me?
22:10-22:15
And the Hebrew writer here quotes Jeremiah in chapter 31.
22:16-22:29
And he says, look guys, this whole new covenant, Messiah in the kingly priesthood of Melchizedek, this wasn't some like last minute idea that God came up with.
22:30-22:34
He's like, I've already showed you from the Psalms, this was always part of God's plan.
22:35-22:43
He goes, and I'm gonna show you from Jeremiah, you know, one of our favorite prophets, this was always part of God's plan, right?
22:45-22:49
So five better promises that Jesus delivers in the new covenant.
22:52-22:55
Five better promises Jesus delivers in the new covenant.
22:56-22:57
You ready to do some theology?
23:03-23:04
One of you.
23:06-23:09
"Are you ready to do some theology?" Yes, that's what I wanna hear.
23:10-23:12
Let's do some theology.
23:13-23:14
All right, what are the better promises?
23:15-23:19
Letter A, five better promises that Jesus delivers in the new covenant.
23:19-23:21
Letter A, it is a new covenant.
23:23-23:24
Like, wow, Pastor Jeff, that's very profound.
23:26-23:27
We're going where the text is going.
23:28-23:33
Look at verse eight, it says, "For he finds fault with them," meaning the people who failed in the first covenant.
23:34-23:36
"For he finds fault with them when he says, And now he quotes Jeremiah.
23:37-23:47
"Look, 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." Stop there.
23:47-23:52
We have to address this because it's a new covenant.
23:52-24:02
And the word for new in the Greek literally means something that exists now that did not exist before.
24:02-24:04
That's what that word new means.
24:04-24:08
You see, sometimes when we use the word new, we say something like, I got a new car.
24:10-24:14
That's not the way the Greek word is used here because cars already existed.
24:15-24:17
Maybe you're replacing a car you already had.
24:18-24:21
Okay, you didn't get something that never existed before.
24:21-24:22
There's lots of cars out there, have you noticed?
24:24-24:25
Okay, that's not what that means.
24:25-24:31
It's new in the sense of, like when television was invented, right?
24:31-24:42
that we have this new thing that broadcasts programs and has moving pictures and sound in our home when television was a brand new thing.
24:42-24:44
We didn't have it before, but we have it now.
24:44-24:46
It was, television was new.
24:47-24:50
And you see, that's the sense in which he's using the word new here.
24:51-24:54
This covenant is, you're like, well, what's the point?
24:54-24:55
Here's the point.
24:56-24:58
Jesus Christ isn't an add-on.
24:58-24:59
That's the point.
25:00-25:04
It's not like we had this old covenant and then God's like, okay, get my staple gun.
25:04-25:07
We're just gonna add Jesus to the old covenant.
25:07-25:08
Ka-chunk, ka-chunk, ka-chunk.
25:09-25:10
And okay, we added him.
25:11-25:13
No, he's like, this is new.
25:16-25:18
He says it's with the house of Israel and Judah.
25:19-25:26
You see, Gentiles are beneficiaries of the covenant, but make no mistake, the covenant is made with Israel.
25:26-25:29
All right, but it's new, it's new.
25:30-25:33
Letter B, the new covenant is not conditional.
25:34-25:36
The new covenant is not conditional.
25:37-25:38
Look at verse nine.
25:40-25:47
Speaking of this new covenant, he says, it's not like the covenant that I made with their fathers.
25:49-25:52
Okay, he's like the new covenant, not like this one.
25:53-25:54
How so?
25:54-26:08
He says, on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them up out of the land of Egypt, here it is, for they did not continue in my covenant, so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord.
26:11-26:13
The new covenant is not conditional.
26:15-26:17
See, the old covenant was conditional, it was.
26:18-26:20
God says, if you do this, then I'll do this.
26:22-26:27
There was a problem, as the Lord points out here, They did not continue in his covenant.
26:29-26:30
Read your Old Testament.
26:33-26:36
How was Israel in the area of obedience?
26:37-26:38
Were they good or bad?
26:38-26:38
Tell me.
26:40-26:41
Bad, repeatedly.
26:42-26:44
Worse and worse and worse and worse.
26:45-26:49
And God would send prophets and God would call them back.
26:49-26:53
And it was just like more idolatry, more spiritual adultery.
26:54-26:56
What else besides the Lord can we worship around here?
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It just got worse and worse and worse and worse.
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And the Lord says here, "So, because they did not continue my covenant," He says, "So I showed no concern for them." Ouch.
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"Let the weight of that sink in." God said that, by the way.
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"Let the weight of that sink in." What God was saying was, "Oh, oh, you wanna have other gods in your life.
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You wanna put something ahead of me.
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You wanna worship something else." God says, "Go for it.
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And you know what?
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I'm not gonna show you any concern.
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You're on your own.
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Go for it." Enjoy the fruit of what that brings.
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It's miserable and it's destructive.
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And it never leads anywhere good when you choose to worship something besides God.
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But God's like, you know what?
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You wanna persist in that, have it.
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Done.
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I'm not going to care for you.
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Wow.
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But you notice he says the new covenant's not like that one.
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That's, I can't even tell you how glorious that is.
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The new covenant's not like that one.
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See, the new covenant isn't based on our obedience and our righteousness.
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The new covenant is based on the obedience and righteousness of Jesus Christ, which he applies to you when you believe in him.
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So it's not conditional.
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Five better promises Jesus delivers in the new covenant, letter C.
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The new covenant is internal.
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Internal, look at verse 10.
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First part of verse 10.
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This is huge, guys, please tune in.
28:59-29:07
What I want you to do now is reach over to the person beside you and grab their sleeve and give it a tug and say, "Pay attention." Go ahead.
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Easy, easy.
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Some of you are a little too aggressive.
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This is really important.
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Okay, really important.
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Look at verse 10.
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Thank you for your help, by the way.
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It says, "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel.
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After those days, declares the Lord, I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts." I want you right now to underline my laws, underline that, my laws.
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Let's talk about the law, because this is something that many Christians do not understand.
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And when it comes to the law and the place of the law and the life of a Christian, do you know what it's like?
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It's like one of my favorite commercials.
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Do you ever see, it was on a few years ago, the Little Caesars commercial, where the guy walks in and he wants his hot and ready pizza or whatever, and they're like, here you go.
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And he goes, he's standing there at the counter and he goes, no calling, no waiting.
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There are no rules.
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And he whips his shirt off.
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And you hear somebody off screen go, put your shirt back on.
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And he goes, there's one rule.
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and he puts the shirt back on.
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And that's how a lot of Christians are when it comes to the law of God.
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Some Christians are like, "We're in Jesus Christ.
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There's no rules." Like, "Oh, so you can do whatever the heck you wanna do?
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Oh, I guess maybe there's some rules and we don't know." We're gonna know today.
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Are we under the law?
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Don't shout out an answer.
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I want you to just think about this.
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Are we under the law?
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And if you're like, "There's no rules, we're under grace." Then I would say, "Okay, what about the 10 commandments?" You know the 10 commandments, right?
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You know, don't have any other gods, don't worship any idols, don't use the Lord's name in vain.
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Remember the Sabbath, keep it holy, honor your father and mother, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, Do not lie and do not covet.
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Those are the 10 commandments.
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So what do we do with them?
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And some Christians have said, "Well, like the 10 commandments, like we're not under the law, so those don't apply to us at all." Like the 10 commandments don't apply to us at all.
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Okay.
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So is it okay for me to murder?
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Like, well, probably not.
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Okay, you using the word probably frightens me a bit.
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Is it okay for me to commit adultery?
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Well, I guess not.
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Aaron doesn't think so.
32:27-32:29
Is it okay for me to steal?
32:31-32:32
Is it okay for me to lie?
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Like, well, you know, not really.
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Why not?
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If you're saying the law has no place in my life, then why don't I just do whatever I wanna do?
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And you're like, because Holy Spirit.
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So do I live my life based on feelings?
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That's not smart.
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So what place does the law have in the life of the believer?
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And some of you, the gears are turning right now.
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And for some of you, I guarantee you, you're like, I haven't even thought about the law in a very long time.
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You know why?
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Because nobody talks about it.
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Even in modern evangelicalism, how do we share the gospel?
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Believe in Jesus.
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Like, okay, why?
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Why should I believe in Jesus?
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Because he died on the cross.
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Yeah, so did lots of other people.
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What makes Jesus any different?
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What makes him special?
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You see, we're missing something, church, when there's no reference to the law that people have violated.
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You can't understand how awesome forgiveness is in Jesus Christ unless you understand how horrible of a sinful, rebellious lawbreaker you are.
33:57-33:59
So let's talk about the law.
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Okay, law, when we say law, understand biblically even, it's used different ways.
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We sort of use it as a catch all term for the Old Testament.
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But there were some components to the law.
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One would be like the moral law of God, you could say.
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The moral law, that's the one in question today.
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The moral law, like the 10 commandments, right?
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We're gonna get back to that.
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But the other part of the law, that's the ceremonial aspects of the law.
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Those have passed away, right?
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Because, you know, the ceremonial aspects of the law, we're dealing with sacrifice, right?
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Are there more sacrifices to be made?
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No, Jesus made once and for all.
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Well, what about the non-blood sacrifices?
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We just covered that.
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Jesus is offering our praise to God as our priest on our behalf.
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And by the way, those ceremonial aspects, they were for Israel for a season.
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Jesus fulfilled all of that with his death on the cross, with His resurrection.
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But what about the moral law?
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What about like the 10 commandments?
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What place do they have in the life of a Christian?
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Well, let's talk about that.
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Isn't that fun?
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Anyway, sorry.
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I'm gonna put this here so I don't lose my place 'cause that would be bad for all of us.
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We'll be here till supper.
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That's not gonna do it.
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All right.
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Let's go way back.
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Let's go way back to Adam.
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Remember Adam?
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Garden of Eden, Adam.
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When man was created, he was created, the Bible says, "In the image of," who?
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Yes, right, in the image of God.
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So that means Adam, like, the moral law of God would have been on Adam's heart.
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That moral law, that would have been on his heart, right?
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God told Adam, okay, you can eat off any tree except this one, right?
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But Adam didn't have the law written down that he had to reference.
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Like, let me make sure that I do all of the things that God says honor him.
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He didn't have that.
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He was created in the image of God.
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He was uncorrupted.
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That moral law would have been in his heart, right?
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So, this moral law is on the heart of man, but after, you know what happened, right?
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We've talked about this.
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Adam brought sin into the world.
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And what happened with sin?
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The heart of man got corrupted.
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So we're just gonna write corrupted here.
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The heart of man got corrupted.
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Yes, still made in God's image, but now we're broken.
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We're marred by sin.
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So we go from Adam's day to Noah's day to Abraham's day, which is on the other side of the board.
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And then eventually, what does God do?
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We get to the time of Moses.
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And the Lord says, "I'm going to write the law again, "but this time I'm going to put the law "on tablets of stone." Right?
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We're gonna let that represent the 10 commandments.
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The law.
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God says, I'm gonna write it on tablets of stone.
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Now you see, this law, this was condemning.
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This was judging.
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This was, do not do this, do not do this, do not do this.
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And the purpose of this was the Lord was showing Israel, really all of us, but the Lord was showing Israel, this is how sinful you are.
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This is how broken you are because of sin.
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This is how sinful you are.
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That was the purpose of this law.
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Then we're gonna fast forward.
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We're gonna get to Jesus.
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And when we get to Jesus, what do we have?
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We could say, regarding Jesus and God's law.
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You're like, well, Jesus wasn't under the law, right?
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Not exactly.
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That's not exactly right, I mean.
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Jesus actually is the perfect representation of God's law.
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You see, when it comes to honoring God in every way, Jesus is perfect.
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The perfect revelation of God's law.
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So when Jesus came and he talked about the law, you see, Jesus didn't downplay this.
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He actually elevated this, right?
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Like for example, you go through the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 6, 7, over and over, Jesus said something like this.
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"You have heard that it was said, "but I say to you, "Did Jesus make this easier or harder?" Shout it out, harder.
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For example, Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, "you shall not murder.
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"But I say to you, if you're angry with your brother, "have hatred in your heart." He says, "You're guilty of murder." Jesus said, "You have heard that it was said, "you shall not commit adultery." And somebody can hear that and be like, well, that's good.
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I never messed around on my wife at all.
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Jesus says, but I say to you, if you look at a woman with lustful intent, you've committed adultery in your heart.
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You see what Jesus did?
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He said, look, as people were trying so hard to focus on the externals, I want to look good.
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I want to look good in front of other people.
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I wanna check all the boxes on being a good person.
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And Jesus goes, no, no, no, no, no.
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This was never just about the external.
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It's about the internal.
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You see, Jesus was saying the law's about the heart.
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It's not just rules on stones for people to reference, to obey.
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Now let's fast forward again.
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You see, let's go to, I know, let's go to us right here, sitting right here or streaming right here.
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Let's go to us.
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Here we are.
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And we've been studying, you know, we're certainly corrupted by sin, but we're no longer living under the Mosaic law.
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We live under what?
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The new covenant, right?
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We live under the new covenant.
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And we're like, well, this part didn't really help us very much.
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This just showed us how sinful we are.
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And if we're gonna be completely honest, Jesus living the perfect life, that doesn't really help me that much because I can't live like Jesus lived.
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So us, we're under this new covenant.
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And for a lot of Christians, they're like, "Oh, do you know what that means?
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"That means all of the law of God "and all of that, that's eradicated.
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"We don't live by any of that at all anymore." That's not true.
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Like, well, how do you know?
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Well, look at verse 10 again.
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What did I tell you to underline?
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What did I tell you to underline in verse 10?
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You didn't do, okay, some of you did.
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I was gonna say, you didn't do it.
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I'm gonna start over.
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All right.
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Okay, so if God says, I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts, did God say, I will completely eliminate my laws?
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Is that what he said?
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I will eradicate my law.
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My law is no longer relevant, meaningful, appropriate.
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And is that what he said?
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No, that's not what he said.
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Here's what he said.
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This is what the new covenant gives us.
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This is what we have in the new covenant.
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God says that he's going to write his law onto our heart.
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That's the new covenant.
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You're like, well, what does that mean?
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That means this, listen closely.
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When we receive Jesus Christ, God forgives us of our sin.
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He takes away our sin and he transforms us.
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He gives us his life.
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He gives us a new heart.
44:27-44:34
And according to this, he writes his law on our hearts.
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You see, God changes us.
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He changes our appetites.
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And we become people who love and delight in the law of God because we want to obey.
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We want to obey the law.
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See, as Christians, we shouldn't look at the 10 commandments and be like, not for us.
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We should look at this and be like, oh, I love that because this tells me the heart of God.
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That's why I love this.
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Do you know why the 10 commandments, do you know why the ninth one is don't lie?
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Do you know why God gave us that commandment?
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Because he's a God of truth and he wants us to reflect that character.
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Do you know why God says don't commit adultery?
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Because he's a God who is faithful to the covenant and he calls us to reflect his character by doing the same.
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So you see part of the transformation isn't hating the law of God.
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He wrote it in our hearts.
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We should love that.
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Sin doesn't dominate us anymore.
45:36-45:39
What dominates us is the law of God.
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The moral law of God should be our delight.
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And yes, we still sin because we still live in this fallen corrupt flesh, Romans 7.
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That's a whole different sermon.
45:52-46:01
But even though we sin, if you're a believer in Christ, you love, you love the law of God.
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And that's not my opinion.
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That's what God said, because God said, he wrote it on your heart.
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You see that?
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Brass tacks, that's an evidence of salvation.
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That's a subjective test.
46:21-46:23
Do you hunger for the things of God?
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Do you love the word of God?
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Do you like have this natural love for the word of God?
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That's evidence that you have a new heart.
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The reason, Christians, the reason you love the word of God is because God wrote this on your heart.
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This resonates with you.
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Like, oh, I love this.
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But I'm gonna tell you the opposite is true too.
46:49-47:04
"The truest expression of your heart is to hate "the law of God, to resist the word of God." If that's your inclination, then you don't love it because it isn't written on your heart.
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You see, for Christians, when I stand up and, or Taylor or Rich or whoever stands up here and proclaims the word of God, We know for true born again believers, that's gonna click.
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I don't have to talk a believer into applying the word of God, into loving the word of God.
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The people that I'm going to have problems with, the people that are resistant to that are the people that haven't received Christ, haven't come into the new covenant, and don't have the law of God written on their hearts.
47:41-47:42
That's why they're so resistant to it.
47:45-47:46
Do you see that?
47:48-47:50
In the old covenant, everything was external.
47:52-47:53
It was on the stones.
47:54-47:54
It was ritual.
47:55-47:57
And the new covenant is internal.
47:57-47:58
It's the power of the Holy Spirit.
48:00-48:03
In the old covenant, you obeyed God out of fear.
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In the new covenant, with the law written on our hearts, we obey God out of love.
48:13-48:27
You see, the old covenant, we had these stones that told us to obey, and the new covenant, we're given the desire to obey, and we're given the power to obey, because God's Holy Spirit is in us.
48:29-48:30
So that's the point here.
48:30-48:33
God's saying, this new covenant is internal.
48:33-48:34
I'm going to change you.
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I'm going to write my law on your hearts and on your minds.
48:39-48:41
God's Holy Spirit at work within us.
48:42-48:45
Five better promises Jesus delivers in the new covenant.
48:45-48:45
Two more.
48:47-48:49
Letter D, the new covenant is personal.
48:50-48:50
It's personal.
48:51-48:53
Look at the end of verse 10 and verse 11.
48:54-48:57
It says, "And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
48:58-49:17
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.' I will be their God, they shall be my people." It says that is deeply personal, that is security, that is a whole nother sermon.
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He says they'll all know me.
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See that's huge.
49:22-49:29
In the Old Testament times, unfortunately a lot of times the truth was really only known by the elite.
49:30-49:33
You see, they didn't have a stack of Bibles in every home.
49:35-49:45
Now that the law is written on the heart of the believer, you see, you don't need the Old Testament law to motivate you to obey.
49:46-49:47
Now listen, don't misunderstand me.
49:48-49:55
Don't turn into the Little Caesars commercial and be like, "Oh, Pastor Jeff says we don't need the Bible." No, no, no, no, no, never said that.
49:56-50:02
Absolutely, it's excellent to read and study the word of God.
50:02-50:06
And this is where God's revelation is revealed.
50:06-50:09
We absolutely have to have the word of God.
50:09-50:10
Here's what I am saying.
50:10-50:14
I don't need the old covenant to motivate me.
50:17-50:21
I have God's spirit that motivates me to righteousness.
50:23-50:28
And there's nothing more personal than God indwelling in the hearts of his people.
50:29-50:30
The new covenant is very personal.
50:32-50:38
And finally, letter E, the new covenant gives total forgiveness.
50:39-50:44
Look at verse 12, this is one of the greatest verses in the New Testament and obviously the Old Testament too.
50:45-51:01
But it says regarding this new covenant, it says, "For I will be merciful toward their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more." Wrap your brain around that.
51:01-51:03
God is willing to forget your sin.
51:06-51:10
Don't get this faulty notion that God forgets because he's old.
51:11-51:12
He's been around a while.
51:13-51:14
Things are starting to slip his mind.
51:14-51:15
That's happening to me.
51:17-51:18
That's not happening to God.
51:19-51:24
God's not forgetting your sin through some weakness on his part.
51:24-51:26
He's choosing to not remember.
51:29-51:35
Look, church, I can stand in front of you and tell you that by far, I am the worst sinner that I know.
51:37-51:38
I am.
51:40-51:40
You feel that?
51:42-51:44
And you're like, yes, Pastor Jeff, you're the worst sinner that I know.
51:46-51:46
No.
51:48-51:48
Do you feel that?
51:48-51:52
You are the worst sinner that you know, because you know your heart better than anyone.
51:54-51:55
You know the wicked thoughts that you have.
51:55-52:05
You know the rebellious garbage attitudes you have, the horrible things that you say, horrible things that you've done, the way you've hurt other people.
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I'm keenly aware of my own.
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And sometimes even believers think that they're gonna stand before God someday and he's going to chastise them.
52:17-52:18
Like, "Get a seat, son.
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I'm gonna tell you how horrible you are.
52:22-52:25
What a terrible life you lived on the earth." I've had people tell me that.
52:26-52:28
They think that's their idea of standing before God someday.
52:29-52:37
Like I've had people say, don't stand behind me in line because God's gonna have a lot to, you know, kind of, you know, I'm like, that's just not true.
52:39-52:41
If the Bible's true, that is.
52:45-52:49
Because of Jesus, God doesn't remember your sin.
52:51-53:02
So hypothetically, if you stood before God on that day, if you stood before God and say, God, I messed up so bad, I really hurt these people with this foolish decision that I made.
53:03-53:18
If you're a follower of Christ, God's gonna say, "I don't remember that." God, you know the struggles that I had with addiction, and there was a season in my life where that addiction was the only thing that mattered to me.
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God, you saw how horrible that was.
53:21-53:33
And if you're in Christ, God's going to say, "I don't remember that either." He is willing to forget your sin.
53:35-53:41
So it shouldn't be any wonder to you why we're so fired up about Jesus Christ around here, because he accomplished that.
53:41-53:44
He made that possible through his death on the cross.
53:50-53:52
We've come this far, might as well finish the chapter, right?
53:53-54:00
Verse 13 says, "And speaking of a new covenant," okay, he's done quoting Jeremiah.
54:02-54:05
He says, "And speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete.
54:05-54:13
And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away." The new covenant is going to make the old covenant obsolete, right?
54:14-54:17
Obsolete, obsolete, obsolete, like a sundial.
54:19-54:21
Like a typewriter, like a rotary phone.
54:22-54:28
All of those things in history had a place and truthfully, they're no longer needed.
54:31-54:37
With this high priest, Jesus Christ, and all he's done, and all he's doing now.
54:40-54:42
Why would I need the old covenant?
54:43-54:47
With everything Jesus delivered, why do I, oh, we're on the wrong side now.
54:47-54:53
With everything Jesus delivered, Why do I need to go through this system?
54:56-54:57
We have better promises.
54:59-55:01
We have the forgiveness of sin.
55:02-55:04
We have total transformation.
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Why would I need anything besides Jesus Christ?
55:11-55:13
You bow your heads with me, please.
55:16-55:17
As our worship team comes forward.
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Father in heaven, we bow ourselves before you.
55:27-55:33
Father, sometimes it's just, I don't know, foolishness, ignorance, lack of faith, not believing, I don't know.
55:34-55:50
But sometimes, Father, we think that Jesus is an add-on to the law, or we need to add things to Jesus, And your word makes it so clear that Jesus Christ accomplished everything.
55:51-55:56
And you have called us to embrace that by faith.
55:58-56:04
So Father, I pray today for two things.
56:06-56:09
This was a lot of high level stuff here.
56:09-56:17
I just pray, Father, first of all, that you would open our hearts and minds to really understand what it is that you're saying here.
56:18-56:21
And secondly, God, I just pray that you would give us the faith to believe it.
56:23-56:25
We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read Hebrews 8:1-13
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
How would you respond to someone who says “We don’t need to obey the 10 Commandments! We are not under the Law because of Jesus!”?
Why do you think many Christians struggle to believe that “God will remember our sins no more” (Heb 8:12)? Why should we have confidence this is true (based on what Jesus did/does as described in this passage)?
Heb 8:13 says the New Covenant makes the Old Covenant obsolete. What, exactly, is obsolete from the Old Covenant?
Breakout
Pray for one another.