This is The Main Point

This is the Main Point Hebrews 8:1–13

• You don’t have to force me to spend time with my wife because I love her. I prefer her. 
• But imagine if our relationship was reduced to rules, scheduled visits, and legal obligations. 
• It might survive, but it wouldn’t thrive. That’s the difference between religion and relationship
• Jesus established a better covenant built on better promises. The old covenant exposed sin but could not transform the heart. In Christ, God writes His law within us, forgives our sins, and calls us into a new relationship. We live for him because we want to, not because we have to ///
• 8 Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: Jesus did not improve the old system. He replaced it. Because of Christ, everything changed.  

• We Have What They Never Had (v1–2)

• •  Kids don’t know how good they have it Your grandparents would say the same thing about you.
  • The people of the old testament lived under a system that was a cumbersome system of regulations and processes to establish worship and connection with God
  • They had priests, we have the Son. Hebrews 8:1 READ 
  • They needed a system to approach God. We have a Savior who brought God near.
  • Repetition. Religiosity. Relationships. I still think there’s many people who don’t come to church to worship God. They want deliverance. Control. Outcomes. They want what God can DO
  • Jesus said- John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.
  • Is it the way FVC do it? Maybe. But I’m sure its not disinterested hands in pockets watching. 
  • When we gather as the people of God, its to worship and CONNECT with the CREATOR
  • Not to consume a service, but to encounter the Savior. You are not here for a show. 

• American Christianity is the most selfish endeavor of religiosity in the history of the World

• But Israel understood something we’ve forgotten: His presence was everything.

• • The people of Israel wanted GOD Exodus 33:15 Then he said to Him, If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here.
  • Psalms 4 One thing I have desired of the Lord, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord All the days of my life
  • Israel had distance! Through a Human priest! We have nearness to the Creator! Enter in like so!

• Israel did not play when it came to proper and engaged worship of God. Wasn’t allowed

• • Wrong bread? Cut off. Wrong sacrifice? Cut off. Neglect Passover? Cut off.
  • There were standards and commands for worship if you claimed to be Israel. They were fierce. 
  • Us? Come when you want. Participate on what you want. You control the relationship. Selfish. 
  • There are no ceremonial processes by which you have to enter into the presence of God and its still too much for some people. They claim they want God, but they don’t. Commitment shows 

• The veil is torn. The way is open. And some still won’t enter.///

• • They had shadows, we have substance. We have the substance of The Savior. We have it! 

• They longed for what we casually ignore. You have access to God and you choose apathy

• If you’re resting in a NT religious system instead of the unabashed direct access to JC you’re lost

• God lived in one place. In one tabernacle. One process. Now He dwells within us. What a privilege. What a mercy. What a loss if you ignore it
• 2.We Have a Better Covenant (v6) System changed
  Hebrews 8:6 6 But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises.
• Hebrews 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.
• If it could take away sin, they wouldn’t have had to keep doing it.
• It wasn’t just better blood. It was better because it actually finished what the old blood could never finish.
• Morning sacrifice. Evening sacrifice. Year after year. Again and again. The repetition was proof that it was incomplete. The process was never finished. It never stopped. 
• The old system never let you rest because it was never done.
• Jesus has forgiven all of your sins completely forever. He’s never going on the cross again
• One sacrifice. One time. For all time. When you sin, Christ isn’t reforgiving you, you’re just appropriating his forgiveness to walk in it. Its already been forgiven and atoned.
• You are not re-entering forgiveness. You are returning to forgiveness.///
• The old covenant managed sin. Christ removed sin. And forgiveness means nothing if there’s no one to keep you reconciled. He’s A better mediator1 Tim 2:5 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus
• Not just to introduce you to peace, but to maintain your peace. He keeps you reconciled.
• Under the old covenant, the priest could only represent you temporarily. Under the new covenant, Christ secures you permanently.
• The old priest could die. Jesus lives forever.The old priest could fail. Jesus cannot fail.
• The old priest stood between God and man. Jesus brought God to man.
• Why return to a system that could never settle what Christ already finished?
• When Deployed writing letters. Don’t know how it got home. But now, would I rejoin, go back, and mail my wife letters to try and connect with her? She’s right here with me. Just talk!
• Why would I go back to delayed communication when I have immediate access?
  Why would I go back to distance when I have nearness?
• So don’t romanticize the old system. Yes, you’re not an OT Jew, but there’s nothing in the past
• Not old religion. Not old sin. Not old identities.
• The flesh has a way of editing history and making bondage look beautiful.
• Why would you look back at an old broken relationship as a better option than now?
• Don’t look back at your old life in Christ as more fulfilling. More full. You can overthink it.
• Egypt always looks better in memory than it felt in reality.
• You are now a new creation in Christ. There’s nothing of your old creation that is part of you.
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation
• This covenant is not built on your performance. It is built on Christ’s finished work.
• And if it’s finished, stop living like it still depends on you.

• • 3. because of that We Have a New Relationship (READ v8–12) heart changed
  • These are the Better promises of Heb 8:6 
  • Not better because they’re easier. Better because they actually change you.
  • promise of A New Heart- the bible says that the heart is deceptively wicked above all things
  • Ezekiel 36:26–27 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
  • The other night I had a dream- and there was opportunity for sin in my dream. I chose righteousness in my dream. I woke up and thought- man- if my subconcious is choosing righteousness, then God is working in my mind more than I realize! 

• God wants righteousness in me more than I want it for myself so he’s going to transform me!

• The new covenant doesn’t just command righteousness. It creates it.

• • Promise of A New Identity. You will no longer be known as your past or past sins
  • God didn’t just change your heart. He changed your name. You are not who you were before
  • And I get it- if you have had a despicable past, you’ve wronged people and bad reputation, you want a new one. You want a fresh start. But you’re still thinking more about man than God
  • Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me 
  • He looks on  YOU as righteous. He looks on you as NEW. You are the apple of his eye! 
  • That God would receive and bless a despicable man such as myself is the power of the cross!
  • When he sees you he doesn’t see your sin, he sees a fresh new creation in Christ Jesus! 

• What you did may be remembered by men, but it is no longer held against you by God///

• • 1 Peter 2:9–10 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness 

• A New Mercy is the most powerful aspect of this new relationship

• BC a new heart and a new identity would mean nothing if your sin was still held against you.

• • He says-Hebrews 10:17–18Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. 
  • 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
  • understand Mercy? Must und. punishment Mercy only feels amazing when judgment feels real.
  • Levi 10:1–2 Nadab and Abihu offered unauthorized fire before the Lord and were consumed by fire instantly. God judged improper worship on the spot. Worship wrong you get destroyed
  • Num 16:31–35 Korah rebelled against God’s appointed authority. The earth opened and swallowed him, and fire consumed 250 men offering incense. No submit? Swallowed. 
  • Num15:32–36nA man openly violated the Sabbath by gathering sticks and was stoned by the congregation at God’s command. Covenant defiance was not treated lightly. It serious! 

• Joshua 7:24–25 Achan hid what God had forbidden after Jericho. His hidden sin brought judgment on the whole camp, and he was stoned and burned. Hidden sin equaled destruction

• • 2 Samuel 6:6–7 Uzzah touched the Ark to steady it and God struck him dead for irreverence. Good intentions did not override God’s holiness. The smallest detail not followed equaled death
  • ever worshipped wrong? Not submitted to authority? Not tithed? Hid sin? Messed up a little?
  • Under that covenant, some of that got you killed! We’d all be destroyed at this point. All of us!
  • Did God strike you dead? No. No he didn’t! look at you. You’re still here. Because of his MERCY
  • The fact  we’re not struck dead is probably the greatest evidence of God’s eternal mercy on us
  • that mercy has been holding you longer than you realized. He’s forgiven us over and over
  • 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins [b]and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.” He will remember them no more! Hallelujah! Thank you Jesus! 
  • 4. So We Live a New Way (v13) life changed
    Hebrews 8:13 In that He says, “A new covenant,” He has made the first obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.
  • As New Covenant believers, we do not live by external regulation, but internal transformation.
  • Here’s the lynch pin- 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
  • We live by 2 Corinthians 3:6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
  • Romans 7:6 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.
  • Galatians 5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
  • The new covenant is not freedom from obedience. It is freedom into obedience

• But how? How do we do that? Not by trying harder, but by surrendering deeper.///

• •  We must fully submit to the priesthood of Jesus and be transformed by his grace and mercy so that he can renew our hearts and lead us. Die to self more. Live for him more. 
  • Here’s the crux- If you have no desire to worship, serve, give, love, fellowship, live for Jesus you have to have an honest conversation with yourself if you’ve submitted to the Lordship of Jesus

• Because where the heart has been changed, the life will eventually show it.

• • People will say “we’re under the new covenant, there’s no rules” and that’s somewhat true

• But don’t confuse freedom from the law with freedom from holiness.

• • in the past it was the RULES that drove us, now its our HEART that Rules us. A changed heart!
  • We have the spirit of God, living in us, and the spirit himself guides us into all righteousness

• And hear this- He’s not leading you to yourself, your desires, your plans, your protection

• • The Spirit will never lead you away from the Word, away from holiness, or deeper into yourself.
  • You know its God when it lines up with his word, its sacrificial, painful dying to self action. 

• And this is where the new covenant confronts us.

• • Its like this- If you don’t want to come to church, don’t come. Stop coming. You don’t have to
  • If you don’t want to give your money to the Lord, stop. Don’t do it. You don’t have to
  • You don’t like these people? Don’t want relationships? Don’t want to Serve? DON’T
  • BC that’s an indication of your heart towards God. It shows what covenant you’re under
  • I don’t have to be told to worship. To Gather. To destroy the sins in my life. Ive Been renewed
  • The power of the Old v the New is that Old was religious activity to be forgiven, now, you’ve been forgiven and the religious activity is a by-product of the transformation

• The activity didn’t create the relationship. The relationship created the activity.///

• • You’re not worshipping to get saved, you are worshipping because you have been saved!
  • Rom 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
  • Col 1:27 Christ in you, the hope of glory.
  • You want new covenant living, come to the one who will save you, intercede for you 

• Walk with him, respond to the spirit and watch the life that lives under Grace and mercy

• Everything changed when Christ established the new covenant./// The question is: has it changed you?////