A Greater Mediator

Listen Online:

Watch Online:

Transcript:

For a while now, Charla has been wanting to buy the kids a go-kart. She says it’s for the kids, but she’s really excited about the go-kart idea. And she was showing me some online, she came and was showing them to me, and they were all in about the $1,000 price range.

Now, y’all know I’m not going to spend that much. I mean, I’m enough like my grandparents that I think that’s what a car ought to cost still. And I told her, I’m not spending $1,000 on a go-kart.

I mean, for that, you can buy a month worth of groceries for all these kids. You can buy a couple pieces of plywood. I mean, there’s so much more stuff you could do with $1,000.

Our neighbors, a few weeks ago, we noticed they were having a garage sale, and they were selling a go-kart. As a matter of fact, we’d been looking at kits. Maybe we could build one cheaper with a kit.

No, apparently we’re the first ones to ever think of that. So I start figuring out how we can maybe rig one up with an old washing machine like they did in that Little Rascals movie. But then we saw our neighbors were selling one, and I thought, okay.

It was a little beat up, and it needs a little bit of work to get it running, but I thought it’s going to be easier than trying to build one out of a washing machine. So we bought it. talked them into selling that and an ATV and one of those little power wheels cars for Charlie for way less than, well, we got a good deal on it.

Because I’ve told you all before, I pronounce it fiscally conservative, she pronounces it cheap, but we got a great deal on it. And trying to get this go-kart running, and the kids are already very excited about this go-kart. They will go and sit in it already and pretend like they’re driving.

And Benjamin, you know, he’ll sit in the driver’s seat of it and he’ll put his feet on the correct pedals and he’ll sit there and he’ll act like he’s driving and Charlie will hang off the back. And I’m thinking this is not good because that’s, I see that in our future. It’s a good thing we live close to the ER, right?

We’re not a 40-minute drive anymore. Carly Jo, I even noticed, she went out outside with Granny yesterday. Granny found Carly Jo sitting in the passenger seat by herself trying to buckle up.

And I thought, this is good. She’s learning. And one of the things I’m excited about with it, I’m excited that it’s going to be fun for them, but I’m also excited it’s going to give them some idea of how a car works.

Some idea. At least they’ll understand how you steer, how you hit the gas, how you hit the brake, which side those are on. That’s important to remember.

Although my kids may have that down because Madeline, I heard her yell once upon a time, stuck in traffic, it’s the long skinny pedal on the right, which she’d heard me say numerous times. But they’re going to learn from this go-kart, that’s one of the things I’m excited about, that it may not be such a screaming fit like it was when my parents taught me how to drive, because they’ll already have a little bit of familiarity with how a car works. And I know, though, that as excited as they are now by this go-kart, they are going to be far more excited by what’s to come.

Because as fun as a go-kart is, a car is going to be even more fun because they can go more places. Now, until they learn, wait, we have to run errands for mom and dad, then they may not enjoy it so much. But one day, there’s going to come a day that that go-kart is going to be replaced by something even better.

And that go-kart, hopefully, will have prepared them for that better thing that’s to come. As we’ve been in this series of messages on Jesus in the Old Testament, I told you we weren’t really looking at prophecies. I’ve taught on that before, and it’s always an interesting study.

We may do that at some point. But we’re looking at the foreshadowing of Jesus throughout the Old Testament, the places where God said, here is a picture to prepare you of what’s coming. And one of the places he did that was with Moses.

Moses, again, just like these other pictures, When I say something is a picture in the Old Testament, I don’t mean that it’s merely symbolic. I don’t mean that it’s just a story that was written down and told. I believe these things really happened, but I believe that as they really happened, they were engineered by God purposely to prepare people so that they would understand Jesus and what he was going to do when he came.

Moses is one of those pictures. Moses is one of those things, is one of those pictures in the Old Testament that for those who were paying attention should have prepared them to understand Jesus when he came and to understand what he was going to do. If you would, turn with me to Hebrews 8 this morning.

Hebrews 8. We’re going to start in verse 6. If you don’t have your Bible with you, it’ll be up here on the screen on this app, or not the app, but whatever you call it, website that we have our digital bulletin on now.

You’ll see the scripture readings have been in there week after week. They took my suggestion, the company did, and made where we could do clickable links. So if you’ve been using that and you read your Bible on your phone, you can just click right there and it’ll give you the scripture.

We put that in there. So once you find it, if you’ll stand, and we’ll read together from God’s word if you’re able to stand for just a moment. Hebrews chapter 8, starting in verse 6, it says, 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.

This is Jesus that the writer of Hebrews is talking about. He, Jesus, has obtained a more excellent ministry. He’s comparing him.

If you read back in chapter 8, he’s comparing Jesus to Moses and saying his ministry is even more excellent because he has come, Jesus has come, as the mediator of an even better covenant than what Moses brought us. Verse 7 says, For if that covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. Because finding fault with them, he says, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them, says the Lord.

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. None of them shall teach his neighbor, and none his brother, saying, Know the Lord.

For all shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. And you may be seated.

So throughout Israel’s history, Moses was regarded as the model of a mediator. He was the one they looked to as the lawgiver, as the mediator, as the greatest example of the one who stood in the gap between God and the people. See, there were other high priests that came and followed after him.

There were other priests that ministered. But as far as the one who actually bridged the gap between them and God, they considered Moses to be the ultimate example. He was the model of the mediator.

He was the one that stood between them and God. He was the one that brought the truth of God to the people, and he was the one that showed the people the way to God. And Moses faithfully carried out that work.

Now, it doesn’t mean that he was perfect, But Moses is somebody that faithfully carried out that work for all the days that God left him here to do it. But as faithfully as he carried out that work, the system that God sent him to introduce, the system that God sent him to bring to the people, was never intended to be enough. The writer of Hebrews here says that that covenant was not enough, but scripture also makes it clear it was never intended to be enough.

Paul in Galatians says that the law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The law is sort of the training wheel so that we can understand our own sinfulness. Because without the law, we might look at ourselves and say, well, I’m a pretty good person. But when I look at the law and I look at the demands of God’s law, I realize how far short I fall.

I’ve told you before that the law is sort of like the sign in the amusement park that says you must be this tall to ride. It says you must be this holy to enter into God’s kingdom. And it’s an infinitely high standard and we’re all down here.

It shows us just how far short we all fall. It was never intended to be enough to make us right with God. It was just supposed to prepare us to understand how we need to be made right with God because we are not right with God so that we would be ready when the one came to make us right with God.

So Moses was faithful in carrying out this work, but that whole covenant was never supposed to be enough. It was to help us understand our need for a Savior and prepare us for the idea of an even greater mediator who would bring an even better covenant. And that’s where the writer of Hebrews talks about Jesus and says he has obtained a more excellent ministry because he’s the mediator of an even better covenant.

And I want to outline for you this morning some differences between the covenant of Moses and the covenant of Jesus. Some areas of comparison where if we were to look at the covenant that Moses brought, as important as it was, we don’t want to throw out the Old Testament. It’s still God’s word, but it was there to prepare us for what was to come.

As important as Moses’s covenant was, I want to outline a few ways for you this morning that Jesus’s covenant is superior here in Hebrews chapter 8. First of all, we see this morning in verses 8 and 9 that Jesus’s covenant is unconditional. It’s an unconditional covenant, and it contrasts the way the covenant that Moses brought was conditional. It was based on what they were supposed to do. It was based on how they were supposed to keep it, how they were supposed to perform.

You see, God gave Israel through Moses a list of rules, and he told them that if they did those things, then he would bless accordingly. And we see that all throughout the Old Testament. If you do this, I will do this.

If you perform in this way, then I will bless you in accordance how well you perform. That was a big part of God’s covenant with Israel. Now, to be clear, God was far more gracious with Israel than probably they deserved.

And I don’t say that to be mean, because those of you deacons who were in the prayer meeting this morning with me, did I not start out by saying, Father, you are far better to us than we deserve. Okay, that’s true of us today. God is far more gracious to us than any of us deserve.

It’s not just Israel, it’s us too. But when the agreement was, you do this and I will bless accordingly, many times God still blessed accordingly even though they fell short. But the agreement was, you do this and I will do this.

But time after time, the nation of Israel abandoned that covenant throughout the Old Testament. They continually broke God’s laws. I mean, the book of Judges is not the only example, but it’s a pretty good one.

It’s filled with examples and it’s just a big vicious cycle of the people rejecting God, walking away from it, God saying, okay, this is what you want. You get the natural consequence of this. Some other country comes in and oppresses them.

And finally they recognize, hey, we’ve messed up. And they call out to God and they repent. And God says, okay, I’m going to rescue you.

And they walk with him for a little bit until they don’t. And they abandoned the covenant all over again. This went on all the way to the end of the Old Testament.

They abandoned the covenant and they forfeited some of those blessings. But in Jeremiah 31, 31, and 32, which if you’re saying, oh, I need to turn there, you can turn there later if you want to, but it’s quoted in verses 8 and 9. A big chunk of what we just read from Hebrews here is quoted from the Old Testament.

In Jeremiah 31, 31, and 32, God promised Israel a different kind of covenant. He promised that there would one day come a covenant that was better because it would not be conditional, meaning it wasn’t based on our performance. He said here, behold, the days are coming says the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with them, made with their fathers in the day when I took them out of the land, took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt because they did not continue in my covenant and I disregarded them.

He’s talking about that conditional covenant that they broke and God still continued to be gracious, but they broke and they broke and they broke and eventually God said, Okay, I’m out. God promised them all the way back in Jeremiah. 500 plus years before Jesus came, that he was going to send them another covenant that was not conditional. It was not based on works.

Now, when I say not conditional, understand what I mean. There are some conditions. We have to have faith.

He calls us to receive that covenant by faith. When I say it’s unconditional, I mean continuing in that covenant is not based on our performance. Actually, entering into that covenant is not based on our performance.

It’s not based on our works. It’s simply based on accepting the covenant that he has presented to us. He said there was going to come a day that he was going to send a better covenant.

This is not something that somebody made up in the book of Hebrews. This is not made up by an apostle. He’s quoting what Jeremiah said 500 years earlier, that God was going to send a better covenant that was not going to be based on our performance.

And that’s why the Bible describes us being sealed in Christ and being secure in Christ. and our salvation being dependent on Christ alone. Nowhere in Scripture, nowhere in the New Testament will you see any indication that our relationship with God, that our eternal standing with God, is dependent on how good we can be. You won’t find that in there.

Because Ephesians 2, 8 and 9 says, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not by works, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 1 talks about how we are sealed until the day of redemption. The covenant is conditioned on how good Jesus Christ is. So from our standpoint, it’s unconditional. That’s just the first way that Jesus’ covenant is better.

God doesn’t annul it when we fall short. But we see also in verse 10 this morning that Jesus’ covenant is transformational. Verse 10 says, 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.

Now he had talked to Israel in the old covenant about him being their God and them being his people. But again, it was based on all these outward behaviors and in this outward performance of the duties of the law. This is something completely different.

Under the new covenant, we are able to walk as his people and with him as our God because he promises to transform us. He’s talking about changing us from the inside out. It’s not just a matter of getting our outward behaviors in line.

Because our outward behaviors are going to flow from the inward condition of the heart. Who we are in here, it doesn’t matter how good of actors we are. Who we are in here eventually is going to show up out here.

Jesus even said that, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. And see, that was part of the problem for the Pharisees. That Jesus had to deal so harshly with at times.

The Pharisees did a lot of religious things and they acted a certain way outwardly. But every once in a while through the cracks, you could see the condition of their hearts. And Jesus called them on it and said, that’s not enough.

That’s why he told people, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not enter into the kingdom. Because the outward righteousness of the things that they were doing was not enough. Our hearts have to be right with God.

And here he says in verse 10 that he’s going to put his truth into our minds and into our hearts. That unlike in the old covenant where God is just saying, here’s the list of behaviors, here’s the things you have to do. And by the way, he did say at times it dealt with the heart, but that was so often missed.

In the New Testament, we see much less a list of things to do and rules to perform than we see God talking about the condition of the heart and a change that only He can bring about, something that only He can transform. The book of Romans talks about Him circumcising our hearts in Romans chapter 2. In Romans chapter 12, it talks about Him renewing our minds.

You see, it’s up to Him to cut away the filth and the rebellion and the wickedness. It’s up to Him to transform us. It’s up to Him to make a change in us.

That’s why His Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of us and takes up residence and begins to transform us from the inside out, begins to go into all the deep, dark, secret corners of our hearts and to sweep it clean. Is it an overnight process? Not in every area.

But it’s something that He does and it’s something that only He can do. And so we need to understand that in this new covenant, it’s not just a matter of here are the rules, you stick to them. It’s a matter of you need transforming and He says, I’ll do it.

He says, I will put my truth in their hearts and in their minds and then I will be their God and they will be my people. Part of why Israel, especially we see some examples like the Pharisees later on, why they could never really get it together to consistently walk with God as though he were their God and they were his people is because the condition of the heart wasn’t right. So he had to transform them.

And we see in verse 11 that Jesus’s covenant is relational. See, under Moses’s covenant, people could know about God, but under Jesus’s covenant, we can know God. There’s a big difference. What a difference a preposition makes, right?

The difference between knowing about God and knowing God. We see this all the time. I mean, we know there are differences of degree of relationship, right?

I know who Governor Stitt is. I’ve met him at the Kanawha Tea Party years ago. I’ve run into him at the Capitol.

I’ve been on a Zoom call with him. He wouldn’t know me from Adam. I know about Governor Stitt.

I know my wife. In many instances, I can tell you what she’s thinking. I’m not going to try it right now.

Probably thinking, don’t ask, right? Don’t ask me to say it. I know her.

I know about him. I know her. There’s a difference.

We get that, right? Under Moses’ covenant, you could know about God. And by the way, there are still a lot of people in our world who know about God, but don’t actually know God.

If we want to know God, we have to know God through Jesus Christ. All throughout the New Testament, it talks about Jesus revealing God in His fullness. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son of God has declared Him.

Nobody’s seen the Father, but Jesus Christ shows us exactly who He is. Hebrews chapter 1 talks about Him being the express image of His person. Jesus Christ showing us exactly what the Father is like.

1 John talks about the connection between the Father and Son, and if you know the Son, you know the Father. Colossians calls Jesus Christ the image of the invisible God. You see, we are no longer peering at God through a fog like we were in the days of Moses.

Glimpsing a few things about him. Through Jesus Christ, we can know God. And so he says here in Hebrews under this new covenant, that there’s going to be no need to be taught.

Now understand what this, I’m not trying to talk myself out of a job here. Understand what this means. This is not a contradiction.

There are far too many places in the New Testament where we are taught to go and teach. The Great Commission, Matthew 28, he says, go and teach all nations. In Paul’s letters to Timothy, he talks about teaching God’s word to others who can teach also.

So this is not saying nobody ever needs to teach God’s word. This is not negating the importance of the ministry of teaching. Got to understand what he’s talking about here.

In context, he’s talking about Moses and this system with the priests. and before, somebody had to go to the priests to understand anything about God. To have any kind of legitimate connection to God, they had to go to the priests.

And when we see in verse 11, he says, none of them shall teach his neighbor and none of his brother saying, know the Lord, for all shall know me. He’s not saying nobody will ever need to teach ever. Look at the two different words here, know.

Those are two different Greek words. The first word is ginosko, and the second word is oida. They are two different words.

Gnosko is talking about an acquaintance. And in the old days, the priest would have to kind of explain the essence of God to people so that they would know about him. And the writer of Hebrews is here saying that because of Jesus Christ, we no longer have a need of somebody saying, let me tell you about God.

Let me help you know about God. And he’s talking to believers specifically here, to God’s people. You don’t need a priest to help you know about God.

You look at the more intimate second Greek word for know. He says, you will know me. So it’s not saying nobody ever needs to teach God’s word.

It’s talking about a connection here. And you don’t have to go through a priest. You don’t have to go through a human mediator to bring you a connection with God. You don’t have to go through other channels and have some kind of distant, tenuous grasp on who God is.

You can know Him. Because Jesus Christ has established a relationship between us and him. Jesus is the only mediator that we need.

Because he’s brought us an intimate knowledge of God. And so he says nobody’s going to need to go through a priest. We’re able to walk with him and we’re able to know him intimately. That’s why Romans chapter 5 says we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through whom also we have access.

We have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Jesus Christ has brought us into direct contact with the God of the universe. So this is not saying that we don’t need to be taught.

This is saying we don’t have to go through a teacher for a connection with God. By the way, that’s true. You don’t have to go through me to have a connection to God.

By the way, if you’re counting on going through me for a connection with God, you’re going to be sadly disappointed, right? No, through Jesus Christ, we all have direct access to the Father. And then finally this morning in verse 12, we see that Jesus’ covenant is merciful.

Because it’s not a list of rules. It’s not a list of things where God says, you do this and I’ll do this, but if you don’t do this, then I’m going to do this. He says in verse 12, I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.

That old covenant brought condemnation for those who broke the law. It brought condemnation in this life and in the life to come. There were not only the eternal consequences, but there were consequences here on earth.

As a matter of fact, Benjamin and I were listening to John MacArthur on the way in this morning. Because I was scrolling through podcasts, I was like, who do I want to listen to this morning? I saw John MacArthur was teaching on God’s rules for children.

I was like, let’s just slip that one in there. And I know he was listening because he said, Daddy, what’s repudiate me? As we pulled in, I said, did you hear what he just said?

He said, yeah. huh is that why they’re he said how would there not be any children how do you say it how would that not lead to there being no children left alive because he was talking about under the old covenant a rebellious child was supposed to be taken outside the city and stoned to death I said well he’s not talking about every time it’s not talking about every time a child disobeys you stone them otherwise the human race would have died out thousands of years ago he’s talking about an out control teenager. So just remember this.

You didn’t hear it from me. You didn’t even hear it from John MacArthur. It says it in God’s word.

He goes, oh, I said, buddy, it’s all right. We’re under the new covenant. There’s condemnation in this life and in the life to come under the old covenant.

If we insist we’re going to try to get to God through our works, we’ve got our work cut out for us because that covenant leads to condemnation for anybody who breaks it. But Jesus’ covenant, the new covenant, brings forgiveness through him. The new covenant is about mercy.

Now, don’t misinterpret that to think, oh, well, that means God’s just good with whatever I do. Not what that means. That means God will transform us.

He will change us from the inside out. And he will change the pattern and the trajectory of our lives. He will bring us more and more in line with who Jesus Christ is, All the while, God knowing that we are still sinners and we are still going to fall short.

But when we fall short, we fall on His mercy. We don’t fall into the open abyss of condemnation. We fall on His mercy.

And we land there. And He dusts us off. And He cleans us up.

And He puts us back on the straight and narrow. He says, I’m going to be merciful to their unrighteousness. And their sins and lawless deeds I will remember no more.

And you may think, well, how is that possible? How is there this covenant, this agreement with God that we have where we can have this relationship with Him, but suddenly He’s gone from here are the rules and you must follow them or there are consequences, to now saying, I’m going to change you, I’m going to help you do the right thing, and when you fall short, I’m going to be merciful to you. How has God gone from this covenant to this?

How has the agreement shifted from here to here? It’s because Jesus Christ fulfilled the covenant for you and me. Where you and I could never be good enough, Jesus Christ was good enough for all of us.

Where you and I could never suffer enough to pay for the sins that we’ve committed, Jesus Christ suffered infinitely on that cross. Suffered a punishment He did not deserve for those of us who deserved it and could never bear it. The reason why there’s so much difference in this covenant is because there’s such a different mediator.

We’re not looking at a human lawgiver. We’re looking at God the Son who became a man and fulfilled all the demands of the law in our place. Still too many people try to come to God through that old covenant, through works.

Many, many times when I talk to somebody about their salvation and I ask them that question, if you were to stand before God and he were to ask you, why should I let you into my heaven, what would you say? I’d say about 80% of the time the answer has something to do with I’m a good person. Let me tell you, I know a lot of good people, But none of us are good by God’s standard.

If the standard is absolute, sinless perfection, you must be this holy to enter in. We’re all down here crawling around with the roly-polys. None of us are going to get any closer to God by our works.

Our works are not enough. All the good stuff we could do, it’s not enough. It was never enough.

It was never meant to be enough. That’s why he said in verse 7, if that first covenant had been faultless, if that first covenant had been enough, then no place would have been sought for a second. if that first system of rules and religious rituals and doing and being and trying harder, if that had ever been enough, there would be no need for a second covenant.

There would be no need for Jesus to have come and brought another covenant. That’s why Jesus died. So he could pay for our sins, so he could credit his righteousness to us and provide us with the only way to really know God and walk with him.

And so this morning, if you want to know God, if you want to have that intimate knowledge of him, if you want to have a genuine relationship with Him where you can call on Him as Father, if you want to know that you’re right with Him, stop trying to do it by this old covenant that was never designed to be enough. Stop trying to get there by your good works. The Bible says it’s not enough.

And instead, come through the new covenant. Come through Jesus Christ. And it’s as simple, it’s as simple as admitting to God that you’ve sinned, that you’ve disobeyed Him. And maybe you haven’t done anything particularly wild.

I’ve told you before, I was saved at five years old. And I had strict parents. I hadn’t had time to be wild.

But I know the rebellious condition that was in my heart and still is. And that’s sin enough. We’ve all got hearts that are in rebellion against God.

Admit your sin to God. Acknowledge that you believe Jesus Christ bled and died on the cross to take all the punishment for your sins. And that He rose again three days later to prove it.

And then ask God for the forgiveness that He’s promised. And you’ll have it. You won’t have it because I said so.

you won’t have it because Central Baptist Church says so. You’ll have it because God in His Word promised that you would. You can have it this morning.