Hebrews 8, and I do ask you if you would take a Bible out today and be ready to look at some scripture together. Hebrews 8, using a house Bible that's around page 1005, on page 1005. I'd like to begin by drawing your attention to the Word of God itself. Hebrews 8, beginning with the 6th verse. But as it is, Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old, as the covenant he mediates is better, since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second. For he finds fault with them when he says, 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, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, that they did not continue in my covenant. And so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord, for this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law in their minds, and I will write it on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach, each one his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. covenant is a biblical way of describing the terms of God's relationship with humankind. The original covenant that God made with mankind in the Garden of Eden had this command, you may eat of any tree in the garden except the tree in the midst. In the midst of the garden, that tree you shall not eat of it. And the Lord said, if you obey, you may have life Inherit eternal life, symbolized by the tree of life in the garden, but if you disobey, symbolized by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, eating of that, if you disobey you will surely die. And many of you perhaps have heard the old saying, in Adam's fall we sinned all. The whole human race fell under condemnation and the curse of a righteous and holy God. But God chose to demonstrate that he would create a new humanity. He began with a family, made a covenant with Abraham. That reached its culmination in a nation and a covenant made at Sinai. And that covenant reflected the same dynamic having statutes and commandments and terms by which the Lord said to them, if you obey, if you observe, if you do, then I will be your God and you will be my people and I will bless you in the land where I'm bringing you. But if you do not, I will curse you and you will be cast out of that land. And of course, the rest of the Old Testament history is the sad, testimony of their failure to love and obey God, and their reaping of the curses of that covenant. But like Paul Harvey used to say, and now for the rest of the story, for God had promised from the beginning another kind of covenant, that God himself would do for mankind what mankind failed to do. that He would keep the terms of His covenant Himself on behalf of its members. And so, in that way, bring about that new humanity, that new Jerusalem, that new heavens and new earth that He had long promised. The first word of the gospel proclaimed in Genesis 3, The promise that God gave to Abraham, the types and the shadows of the Old Testament priesthood and the sacrifices in the temple. God would make a better covenant, a covenant not like the old covenant according to Jeremiah 31, it's quoted here, but a better covenant that is established upon better promises. We began to look last week at the amazing promises of the New Covenant. As Jeremiah had predicted it, as the writer of Hebrews now expounds upon it, four glorious promises of the New Covenant. The first is in the middle of verse 10. I will put my laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. This is the promise of the miracle of regeneration. That God gives a new heart and transforms a mind so that He creates a genuine desire to do the will of God from the heart. This is not something that came through the Old Covenant. Some under the Old Covenant did receive new hearts, but not because of the Old Covenant. but rather through faith in the promise of the covenant of grace through Jesus, their Messiah. But the sad truth is that there were whole generations of those people who were largely characterized by unbelief. And the prophets rose up to condemn them, for though they were circumcised in the flesh, they refused to circumcise their hearts. But in the new covenant, God promises that He would do just that, to circumcise the heart, to give a heart of flesh and not a heart of stone, to cut away the old and to create the new. And this morning, if you have, this morning, a mind to obey God, a heart that desires to do His will, then this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. There's a second glorious promise of the New Covenant. In the end of verse 10, the Lord says, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. This covenant is not just about deliverance from damnation for our sin, it is about a relationship with God. Under the Old Covenant, This was a conditional promise. The Lord said, if you obey My voice and keep My covenant, I will be your God and you will be My people. And indeed because of the sin and the spiritual adultery of the people, the Lord through the prophet Hosea called those people, not My people. And He said, I am not your God. And so Jesus said to the Jews in Matthew chapter 21 and verse 43, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. But in the New Covenant, God, because He does for you and in you what you have failed to do, gives this promise as an eternal security. I will do this for them. and so no one will be able to pluck them out of my hand. Oh, the blessing of this covenant in Jesus Christ that God should be called our God and that we, that we should be called his people to be recipients of his Holy Spirit by whom we cry out to him, Father, Abba. This is the grace of the new covenant in Christ Jesus. There is a third precious promise of this covenant, and this is where we turn our attention now today, in verse 11. So would you take a look again at that verse? And they, that is the members of the new covenant, 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." What a wonder that is, when you think about the many, many unbelievers among the nation of Israel, that in the new covenant, God would create a community in which all know the Lord. In the Old Testament, Whole generations of those people were called faithless. But in the New Covenant, established in the latter days, God creates a community in which all its members know the Lord. And none shall teach his neighbor and his brother, for they will be taught by God. Now that little phrase, none shall teach his neighbor in the New Covenant, None shall teach his brother has been interpreted various ways. Many of the Quakers and the Anabaptists at the time of the Reformation believed that this verse means that there's no need for formal teaching. There's no need for preachers in the New Covenant. No one will teach his neighbor and teach his brother. And this is to be, and this is fulfilled now in the New Testament church. And so their meetings would be characterized by the absence of any kind of formal teaching or preaching. Just everybody sort of waiting on God for a direct revelation of the Holy Spirit. Some paedo-baptists recognizing that in the New Testament era we still need teachers, we still need preachers. then concluded that this doesn't refer to now, but to the not yet, that is, to the day in which we are all glorified and no one needs teaching and preaching. But this isn't denying the need for teaching at all. Take a look again at the text. This is a denial of the need for a specific instruction, and that instruction is, That instruction is, know the Lord. So I want to work through a series of four texts that I hope will shed light for you on this saying that all will know the Lord in the new covenant. So I'd like to have you turn to these various passages, so if you could get a Bible, look at them, this would be a real help to you. Let's start by going back to Isaiah 54 that we read earlier in the service. And I'm gonna go through this again, but just try to work our way through it more thoughtfully, pausing to comment here and there as we go through it. Remember the context in Isaiah, if you were here with us in our morning services over the last few years, you remember that the first part of the book, the first 39 chapters or so, is heavily emphasizing condemnation and judgment upon people and nations for their sin. The nations are condemned, Israel herself is condemned. He says finally to them, who has believed what he's heard? Even those who'd heard the word of God had refused to believe and were under the condemnation of God. And then in chapter 40, he begins to comfort the people of God with the hope of salvation. And that salvation would come through the servant of the Lord, the servant of Yahweh, remember that? Some people remember it. Chapter 40 and following, and that is salvation. So if you want to call the first half condemnation, the second half is salvation, and that salvation climaxes in chapter 53, what is probably one of the greatest texts in all of the Bible about the substitutionary atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then immediately following that, in chapter 54, he addresses those who see and understand and believe what has been proclaimed in these verses. And if you look at chapter 54, you could just kind of divide it this way, verses 1 to 10, he is addressing these people under the image of a woman, a woman who is a bride. And then in verses 11 and following, he's addressing them under the image of a city, a new Jerusalem. So a woman and a city, a bride and a city. So beginning in verse 1, he addresses her as a woman. Sing, O barren one who did not bear. Break forth into singing and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor. What does it mean that she's been barren and not in labor? Well, this is a testimony of the spiritual infertility of Israel. They had not borne fruit pleasing to God. Not that this woman is incapable of bearing fruit, rather she has been unfaithful to her husband and master. And now, because of her unfaithfulness, she has been sent away with a certificate of divorce, chapter 50, verse 1, and of Jeremiah, and left desolate. As Jesus said, your house is left to you desolate. But the days are coming, verse 1, for the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married, says the Lord. A new Israel will be incredibly fruitful. Unlike the unfruitfulness of the old, this one who was desolate will now be abundantly fruitful. In fact, so much so that he says, enlarge the place of your tent, make your house bigger, strengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes, lengthen the cords of the tent of your house, because you're going to spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring is going to possess the nations and people, the desolate cities. Verses 2 and 3. This woman's household will grow, right? It will expand to encompass what? To encompass the whole earth. Every tribe and nation on the face of the earth is going to be under this tent now. This woman will be fruitful indeed. And so he says to them, verse 4, fear not, for you will not be ashamed like you once were ashamed. Be not confounded, for you will not be disgraced, for you will forget the shame of your youth and the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. And that theme is a wonderful theme, to remember no more the reproach. It's a theme that even comes out in the promises of the New Covenant. 4, verse 5, your maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called. And verse 6 says, the Lord has called you to himself like a wife who was deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off. And why would she cast off? For her sin, for her rebellion, for her adultery. But the Lord says, for a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you, says the Lord, your Redeemer. The Lord promises here, in this text, that though he brought his judgment upon that nation for her rebellion, for her spiritual adultery, he has put her away, for she has married herself to another. In spite of all of that, he will regather his people, he will reestablish his house, and he will do that through the one descendant of the nation Israel to whom those promises were made, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the New Covenant, Jesus Christ, God will gather a people for Himself, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. It will be a nation made up of the peoples of all of the cities of the earth, covering all of the nations. And in that day, in that day, it will be a day of covenant with those people. Verse 9, still following along, verse 9. This is like the days of Noah to me as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, referencing a covenant, a promise, a swearing of an oath. So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you and will not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed," says the Lord who has compassion on you. In that day, the Lord says, God will establish a covenant of peace, an eternal covenant, not a covenant that leaves a woman barren and rejected. but a covenant of everlasting love by which she will become abundantly fruitful with children covering the entirety of the earth. And now in verse 11, stay with me, he begins to liken this woman to a city. Oh afflicted one, storm-tossed and not comforted, behold, I will set your stones in antimony and lay your foundations with sapphires. I'll make your pinnacles of agate, your gates of carbuncles, and all your walls of precious stones. So now the image of a bride bedecked with jewels is being shifted to a city bedecked with jewels, much like you have in Revelation chapter 20 when the Lord says, I want to show you a vision of the new Jerusalem. What is that? The bride, the bride of Christ, the bride of the Lamb. And it's a beautiful city, a bride adorned for her husband, a city prepared by God with the glory of God. And verse 13, he says this about that city, and all your children shall be taught by the Lord, and great shall be the peace of your children. So in other words, here's a city, here's a city very unlike the ancient city of Jerusalem, right? Here's a city in which the entire population is all taught by God. There is no need for anyone to teach his neighbor and his brother, for the Lord Himself teaches them to know Him, to love Him. And verse 14, in righteousness you shall be established, which hearkens back to the very beginning of Isaiah's prophecy that the Lord would come and redeem His people. And in chapter 1, verse 26, that afterward, when He redeems them in the latter days, they will be called a city of righteousness, a faithful city. Not the faithless generation, but the faithful city. No longer the old Jerusalem unfaithful and unfruitful, but new Jerusalem, the city of righteousness and faithfulness. Now verse 13 says, all your children shall be taught by the Lord. which is being echoed again in the other promises of the New Covenant, like in Jeremiah. But that phrase there is the link, then, to our next passage, our second passage. So you might want to even underline that and write beside that John 6. What does it mean for all the children of this city to be taught by the Lord? What does that look like? What does that mean? John 6. Follow, hear the text. What does it mean that all the children of the New Jerusalem are taught by God? Well, verse 44, Jesus is explaining. He's explaining unbelief, the unbelief of the great majority of the Jews. Remember, the nation as a whole rejected their own. He came to his own and his own did not receive him. So how do you explain that in light of these promises here, especially? Jesus says, no one can come to me. unless the father, what? Unless the father draws him. So what happens to the person whom the father draws? He says, I will raise him up on the last day. That's a word for resurrection. So this verse teaches us our moral inability to come to God in the flesh, that we are unable and unwilling to ever come to Christ on our own. No man can come, but it also teaches the effective call of God upon a people that He draws to Himself. The effectiveness of that call, that saving call of God, can be seen in its result. The one that the Father draws does come because He's raised up by Christ on the last day, right? So it's an inability by nature, but an effective call of God's grace so that all who are drawn come, and all who come are raised up with Christ on the last day. And as support for that now, as support for that, he quotes the very passage that we just saw Chapter, verse 45 here, it is written in the prophets, and here's Isaiah 54 we just looked at, and they will all be taught by God. In John 6, that teaching is God's drawing. And now he's saying this is God's teaching, God's drawing is his teaching of them. They're taught by God, they're drawn by God, they're taught by God. You could kind of say these are the same thing. And then in verse 47 he says, just jump down a couple verses, truly, truly I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. So, putting it together, right? How does it fit? Those who are drawn by God, or those who are taught by God, they all come to Christ. They all believe in Christ, and they all have eternal life. That is, they are raised on the last day. This is John's interpretation of Isaiah's prophecy. So Isaiah then foresees a new covenant community, a new Jerusalem, that will in fact be a community in which all those people come, and all of them believe, and all of them have eternal life. This is the glory of this city. Now how does that community relate to the Old Covenant community? And I think there's a help to us in answering this question in the book of Galatians. Would you turn over then to Galatians chapter 4, Galatians 4. And in Galatians Paul explains that most of the Jews of his day in their zeal for the law had missed the whole point of the law. They'd been captivated by the Old Testament type and the picture of God's family And because they've been so fixated on this type of family, they missed the reality that family is only in Christ. Instead of looking in hope to the Messiah, they look to their family connection to Abraham and the fleshly sign that they were part of his children. And so he takes them right back to their own law. And he says to them in verse 21, Galatians 4.21, Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman, and of course, if you know the story, you know that Abraham did have a child by his slave Hagar, one by the slave woman and one by a free woman. Of course, that's his wife, Sarah. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, that is, by natural generation. This child was born to Abraham and Hagar the same way that your children are conceived and born to you. The son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through Remember that God had made a promise to Abraham and Sarah, Sarah who was long past childbearing years. God made a promise that He would give them a son. In other words, this is a supernatural offspring, right? Not an offspring by natural generation. And so Paul then makes a theological conclusion here, interpretation of this. He says in verse 24, now this may be interpreted allegorically. These women, Hagar and Sarah, are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, that of course is the old covenant, bearing children for slavery. She is Hagar. Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. And now get this, she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. Of course, the Jews would have been scandalized by this, for them to be compared to the children of the slave woman. for the present Jerusalem to be considered as Ishmaelites, no inheritance in the land of promise, slaves. We've never been slaves to anyone, they said, right? But of course the law produced only slavery because apart from the covenant of grace, it could only condemn. But, now look at verse 26, here's the contrast, but the Jerusalem above is free and she is our mother. For it is written, and now here's the link that ties this text into our whole discussion here. For it is written, back again in Isaiah chapter 54, rejoice, O barren one who does not bear, and break forth and cry aloud, you who have not been in labor, for the children of the desolate one, now remember how Sarah herself was childless for a while, the children of the desolate one will be more than the children, more than those of the one who has a husband. Now, the contribution of this particular text here in Galatians is that it clearly links two peoples. That is, the offspring of Hagar and the offspring of Sarah. It links those two peoples to two, what? Covenants. The Old Covenant and the New. And it further identifies the two different peoples that they were created by those two different covenants, it identifies those people created by those covenants as, number one, those who were descended from Abraham by natural generation, that is the whole nation of the Jews, and on the other hand, those who descended from Abraham by supernatural birth, those who were born again in Christ, regenerated, The New Covenant creates a new community, a community that's unlike the community of Israel under the Old Covenant, a community of supernaturally regenerate people, that is, people who come to Christ, people who believe, people who are fruitful, people who are raised up on the last day, all those in community created by the new covenant know the Lord from the least of them to the greatest. And this language is used then explicitly in one more text that I want to show you in Hosea chapter one. So go back now to the Old Testament book of Hosea, Hosea chapter one. Hosea is a key prophecy of the new covenant that God would establish in Jesus Christ, Hosea chapter one. I mentioned this passage last week because it includes another New Covenant promise, that God will be their God and that they will be His people. And remember that Hosea, the prophet, was commanded to marry a woman who would prove to be unfaithful, and of course this is just a picture of the nation of Israel who was unfaithful to their God. And one of this woman's children would be called, under the command of God, he would be called, not my people. because the people had broken their covenant, had broken their marriage vows with their God. So He would say to them, you are not my people and I am not your God. He put them away, as it were, for abandoning Him and joining themselves to another husband, false gods. And yet, in spite of all that, you have this amazing prophecy. Now look in chapter one, verse 10. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea which cannot be measured or numbered." Of course that's a fulfillment of that Abrahamic promise. And in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people, it shall be said to them, children of the living God. And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together and they shall appoint for themselves one And of course, who is that? It's not the prime minister of some modern state of Israel, this is a prophecy about Jesus Christ. And I don't really have the time to argue for it, I guess I've been assuming it as we've gone along that these promises of the regathering of Israel are by New Testament Enlightenment promises of the ingathering of all of the nations. That is the creation of the New Testament church. These, he says, are children. These are the children. Children of the living God. Children of the woman in Isaiah 54. Not physical children, but spiritual children. Not children by natural generation, but children by new birth. And if you look in chapter 2 now, Just flip a page or look across the page in chapter 2, the Lord says that this people, these children, this bride will call the Lord her husband And the Lord says in verse 19, chapter 2 and verse 19 of Hosea, and I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and you shall, what? Know the Lord. This is the promise of the new covenant. that God would establish a new covenant not like the old which covenant that they broke, though he was their husband and they were his bride, that covenant relationship that proved barren and produced no fruit, that covenant that created a community filled with unbelievers. No, that God would now establish a new covenant, a covenant that would create a community in which all of its children know the Lord. A family created not by physical but by spiritual birth. A city whose every inhabitant is taught by God, who comes because they're drawn, who believe and are raised up on the last day. This is not the same kind of community as that of the Old Covenant. Or this community is a community created by a covenant that is not like the old. And this is why we give the sign of the new covenant, that is Christian baptism, only to those who bear evidence that they have come to Christ and believed in him, have a new heart and a new mind, who are born from above, who are taught by God, who know the Lord. These are the children. These are the children of God, whatever their physical age. But though many Reformed people acknowledge and affirm that with the death and resurrection and ascension and cession of Jesus Christ and the establishing of the new covenant, they acknowledge that there is no more physical temple but only a spiritual one, no more fleshly sacrifice but only a spiritual one, no more earthly priesthood but a heavenly one, no more temporal promised land but an eternal one, yet they insist that there is not only a spiritual seed, but that there still remains a fleshly and physical one that is the infant children of believers. And this just seems to me a sad inconsistency among otherwise incredibly discerning people. One that many earlier Baptists believed was a misguided attempt to try to reconcile justification by faith alone with the baptism of infants inherited from the Roman Catholic Church. But we believe that the new covenant creates a new community, not like the old. And then we come to the fourth great new covenant promise in verse number 10. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. How can I possibly do justice to this in the short time that we have left? And yet, how can I not continue with this final glorious promise of the new covenant? Thankfully, we come back to this very promise two chapters from now in Hebrews 10. But for now I want you to remember the first promise of the New Covenant. Remember what the first one was? That I will put my law in their minds and I will write it on their hearts. In other words, I will give, by way of covenant, a genuine desire within these covenant members to please God. That's true. That is one of the great blessings of the New Covenant. But this should never be mistaken to be teaching us that new covenant members are received by God because they have perfectly obeyed God's holy law themselves. The great historic confessions of faith list four important reasons why even our very best works, even works done in faith, created by the power of the Holy Spirit, can never justify us before God. In other words, it's not that the New Covenant makes you sinlessly perfect and thereby you are accepted by God. The reason that our best works can never justify us before God is because, first of all, of the disproportionality between our earthly deeds and the incredible glory of eternal life. And secondly, even if, even if, you can imagine, once you are regenerate, being able to live perfectly from then on, well, all you're doing is simply your duty, what you owe to God anyway. nothing worthy of reward. And thirdly, because no good works, however truly righteous they are, can ever make up for your past sins. And finally, because our very best works are still, as the confessions say, defiled and mixed with so much weakness and imperfection, and how true we find that to be, even though they are, from our hearts, trying to please the Lord, seeking to obey Him, yet we find that they are not what they ought to be. No, friends, there is no hope for us apart from God's promise that He will remember our sins no more. This is not something that was given through the Old Covenant. We'll see in chapter 10 and verse 3 that in the Old Covenant and its sacrifices, there is a reminder of sin every year. and that it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Taking away of sins can only be given through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He took the place of the guilty. He satisfied the justice of God. He makes possible mercy from God. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world like that goat that was led far off into the wilderness bearing the sins of the people. This is the one to whom it all pointed. And so God does not deal with us according to our sins or repay us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him. And as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove your transgressions from you. He casts them into the deepest sea, the sea of his forgetfulness. Oh, what a wonder, what a mercy this is. I will remember their sins no more. No more. Let those words echo through the chambers of your despair. No more will I remember your sins. These are the glories of the covenant that is in Christ Jesus. For the reason that this covenant is so much better is that Jesus Christ has put himself forward as its guarantor. This is at the heart of what makes this such a blessing. to his people, oh take the world but give me Jesus. He is my mediator, he's my priest, he's my righteousness, he's my surety, he is my sacrifice, he is my pardon, he is my hope, my only hope that my sins will be eternally forgotten by a holy God. Praise to the Savior. Amen. The mediator of the covenant of grace. Heavenly Father, we praise you for the Lord Jesus Christ. For in ourselves, there is nothing but condemnation and sin. We praise you for these precious, precious promises that are ours in Jesus. Now, Lord, minister these promises and this covenant to the hearts of your people now. We praise you, we thank you, we rejoice. And we want to tell you that by your grace, we are standing on these promises, resting in them, taking hope in them. In Jesus' name, amen.