Message of the Month –”The New Covenant – Coverage You Can Count On!”

Hebrews  8:6-13, “ 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. For they did not continue in my covenant, and so I showed no concern for them, declares the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.  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. For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.” In speaking of a new covenant, he makes the first one obsolete. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away.”

Someone aptly said, “The understanding of covenant has been all but lost in today’s world of high business dealings, frail international treaties, and transient human relationships.” This is especially true in the lives of most Christians who live unsure of what kind, how much, and when, if ever the coverage of the New Covenant can be applied for. For this reason many are plagued by doubt and defeat, and live unsure of the extent of the coverage they are under in the New Covenant. How much of the “then of the world to come” is available now? Is there adequate coverage in the New Covenant so that we can live with a God-big purpose, God-underwritten provisions, God-released power and the God-promised assurance of the permanence of our salvation?”

One of our local news stations here in Augusta advertises as providing “news coverage that you can count on.” The New Testament Hebrew believers to whom the book of Hebrews was addressed were having serious doubts about the type of covenant that they had entered into and the true nature of its coverage. If the New Covenant was better than the first one, or the Old Testament, why were they undergoing such hardships and heartaches? Did they need to try and maintain some sort of “double coverage” – trust Jesus, worship with other Christians, but offer a lamb for sacrifice and try to be a good Jew and keep the law as best they could? The preacher of this sermon to the Hebrews would exclaim – NO! – You need to see with unveiled hearts the contents and coverage of the New Covenant!

Pastor David Wilkerson said: “I can tell you that the unveiling of the New Covenant has been the most life-giving, sin-destroying, and liberating truth I have ever known or experienced.”

I. The New Covenant Fulfills all the Promises of the Old and Climaxes in a Person!

A. The New Covenant is New in Time, but was Forever in the Heart of God – Hebrews 13:20, “Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant…”

The word for new is “kainos” which means fresh, or on new lines as opposed to the old. This covenant is not called “a new covenant” because it is newly made, or of a new origin. How do we know this? Because this covenant is elsewhere called “the everlasting covenant.” It is a covenant made with Christ our covenant Surety (the Guarantee) before the foundation of the world (Heb. 13:20).

It is called a new covenant because it is newly revealed in this Gospel age. — That which is revealed second was made first. It is called a new covenant because it is always new, and fresh. — It will never grow old, or give place to another. It is called a new covenant because it gives us a new record, a new heart, a new nature, a new spirit! It places us in a new covenant community as a part of the New Temple of the Lord, with coverage you can always count on!

B. The New Covenant is Now in Time, because it is Formed with Christ and in Christ! – Isaiah 42:1, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. Isa 42:6, “I am the LORD; I have called you in righteousness; I will take you by the hand and keep you; I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations,” Isaiah 42:7, “to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.”
Luke 22:29 could be translated as, “And I covenanted to you, just as My Father covenanted to Me, a kingdom.”  Almost all the translations read, “I appoint (appoint is the verb from which diathe?ke? — the word for covenant is derived) unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me – Read “I covenant unto you a kingdom, as my Father has covenanted unto me a kingdom.”  You shall be ministers of the new covenant, as I am king in that spiritual kingdom to which it relates.

All of the various phases of the Old Covenant (Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, etc) fell short of their fulfillment? Why? We are told in Hebrews 8:7-8a that it was not due to the faultiness of the plan and promises, but due to the faultiness and infidelity of the majority of the people in Israel. So God made a final and forever covenant with the only truly faithful Jew that ever lived – Jesus, His Son!  Jesus kept the whole law’s precepts for us and then took the whole law’s penalty that we deserved, for us, so that we can get not just the promises and provisions of the New Covenant – but first and foremost the Person of the covenant living in us and empowering us to experience and express the coverage of the covenant!

Jesus fulfills all the old covenants and in him there is a new covenant that fulfills all the others and replaces them with something much better. Before Jesus, God could never find a covenant partner who could receive the blessings he wanted to give. Jesus became a man to be that adequate covenant partner, and God has poured out all his covenanted blessings on him. Now, by faith in Jesus, we, too, become partners in those blessings.

Dudley Hall, “Jesus is the only way mankind can have communion with God. His relationship with the Father is ours. His fellowship is ours. His standing before God the Father is ours. We have no hope of communion apart from Jesus who fulfills the covenant. John, the Gospel writer-prophet, tells us in chapters 14-17 of his Gospel that union with God is union with Jesus. Jesus is the Vine that had depicted Israel in former times. Now, we who trust him are the branches. So the people of God are the people of Christ. He doesn’t have two separate peoples on earth. There is only one. The New Covenant fulfills the others. The law written on the hearts of believers is the Law of Christ. The knowledge of God that is available to his people is the knowledge of Christ. The forgiveness that is provided is provided only through the sacrificial death of Christ. And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” Luke 22:20 (ESV)”

1. At the time of the writing of the book of Hebrews, Christ “WAS” the Mediator – 8:6 — “He ‘is’ also Mediator” – present tense! It doesn’t say he “will be” the Mediator in the Millennium, but He is NOW!

2. At the time of the writing of the book of Hebrews, the Better Covenant “WAS” Established: 8:6c, “…a better covenant, which was established on better promises.” At the time of the writing, it “was” established. Its coverage was put into effect then and it has all true believers adequately covered now and forever!

3. At the time of the writing of the book of Hebrews, Christ “IS” the Mediator of the New Testament: Hebrews 9:15, “And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.  By virtue of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the sins not only of us, but also the Old Testament believers have forever been put away. This verse negates any concept that there are two New Covenants — a theory made popular by dispensationalists.

4. In Hebrews 10, the preacher is discussing the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He Says in verse 15 that the Holy Spirit “Is” a Witness to “Us” i.e. first century Christians. Hebrews 10:15-17, “But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before…” Then in verses 16-17, he quotes Jeremiah 31 again and specifically applies it to believers in the first century. Hebrews 10:16-17 (NKJV) “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” 17 then He adds, “Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.”

Beloved, the New Covenant is operative NOW – in Christ! Its coverage has been in effect since its inauguration at Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension and the sending back of the Holy Spirit. Christ is its Mediator, the Holy Spirit is its Power-provider and Provision-giver, we are its ministers, baptism is its badge of identity marking us off as members of the covenant family, the Lord’s Supper is its covenant renewing ordinance, and the turning of men into disciples from every nation on the earth is its terms!
Hebrews 8:5 says that the priests serve a copy and a shadow of heavenly things. The tabernacle and temple were a shadow; the official priesthood was a shadow; the animal sacrifices were a shadow; the feasts and dietary laws were a shadow. And when Christ came, the shadows began to fall away, because Christ himself is the Reality. He is our temple and tabernacle, our focus and place of worship. He is our High Priest and Mediator and Intercessor. He is our atoning sacrifice. He is our Passover feast and spiritual food. He is our purity and holiness that sets us off from other people.

And that is coverage you can count on!

II. The New Covenant Furnishes all the Power and Provisions Needed So that We can be Blessed and a Blessing to the Nations!

If God’s covenant desire and design is that we be free from religion — with all its externalism, formalism, ritualism and traditionalism — and freed up for relationship with Him –so that our faith and our corporate worship and our life can be radically spiritual and personal and internal, then we need more than just a change in the shadows of the Old Testament. Simply Replacing Shadows with the Reality is not enough! It would never work even if God set Christ before us as the great Reality and left us to ourselves to know him and love him. He is going to have to do something powerful and dramatic in us and not just outside of us. We need for God to write his will on our hearts. We need for him to assert himself powerfully in our lives as our God. Praise God! That’s the coverage offered in the New Covenant!

A. Four Basic Benefits of New Covenant Coverage:

1. A Spirit-empowered Motivation – 8:10a – The New Covenant provides internal motivation by the life of Christ’s indwelling presence instead of trying to life up to external lists of do’s and don’t’s! This type of coverage will take care of that “I-Can’t-Ever-Measure-Up” type of mentality.

2. A Sense of Identification – 8:10b – “…I will be their God and they shall be my people…” – This God most nigh, close, personal, intimate relationship is available to settle the issues of struggling to find myself; of trying to find acceptance, approval, appreciation, and affirmation based on what I do or what I think others think about me. The coverage offered in the New Covenant will take care of that “I-Just-Don’t-Know-Who-I-Am” type of feelings!

3. A State of Illumination – 8:11 — Psa 25:14, “The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will show them his covenant.”
The Message – 1John 2:20, “But you belong. The Holy One anointed you, and you all know it. 1John 2:27, “But they’re no match for what is embedded deeply within you–Christ’s anointing, no less! You don’t need any of their so-called teaching. Christ’s anointing teaches you the truth on everything you need to know about yourself and him, uncontaminated by a single lie. Live deeply in what you were taught.” 1Cors 2:12, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.”

The eyes of our heart are opened so that we can understand the things freely given us by God in the New Covenant! We have received His life; we can relish and reciprocate His love; we can reflect His likeness; be recipients of His legacy (inheritance); we reign as kings in life by His life; and can know beyond a shadow of doubt that when we die we will reside in His presence forever! The coverage offered in the New Covenant will take care of that “I-Just-Don’t-Know-Where-I-Stand” type of attitude!

4. The Security of Reconciliation – 8:12 – All that God promises in the New Covenant is inaccessible due to one huge, humanly impossible to remove obstacle – Our SINS! Our alienation or separation from God was because of our sins and unrighteousness. How shall a holy and just God treat us sinners with so much kindness as to give us the greatest Reality in the universe (his Son) to enjoy with the greatest joy possible? The New Covenant answered that question by revealing that God put our sins on his Son, and judged them there, so that he could put them out of His mind, and deal with us mercifully and remain just and holy at the same time. Hebrews 9:28 says, “Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.”

Coming to faith in Christ means the sins are gone. They do not remain in God’s mind as a basis for condemnation because they have been consumed in the death of Christ. Which means that we are reconciled to God so that He is now free, in his justice, to lavish us with all the blessings of the new covenant. The coverage offered in the New Covenant will take care of that “I-Just-Feel-So-Guilty-About-My-Past” type of feelings!

In the New Covenant, God offers us the greatest Reality in the universe to enjoy and then moves in us to see to it that we can enjoy it with the greatest freedom and joy possible.

The Old Covenant was a come-see type arrangement, where one man from one tribe, on one day of the year could enter into the holy of holies. The New Covenant is a go-tell arrangement. That is why Christianity is radically spiritual; radically internal; radically personal; and radically ethical. It is meant for all peoples, tribes, tongues and nations.

B. Two Big Blockers of New Covenant Coverage:

1. Ignorance of the Contents of the Coverage — Romans 10:3, “For, being ignorant of the righteousness that comes from God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.”
Peter Deyneka, one of the founders of the Russian Gospel Association (later called the Slavic Gospel Association), which brought the Bible to East European immigrants on every inhabited continent, was born in Russia. His family mortgaged their farm to send him to America. He knew nothing about traveling – like what was included in the far and what wasn’t – so he took his own food aboard ship, not realizing that his meals were included in the fare. The sailors played on his ignorance, promising him that if he washed dishes, they would see he got something fresh to eat. So he tried to earn what was already paid for!

We must daily search the scriptures in order to be informed of the promises and provisions made available to us in the New Covenant. When we do so, we will be transformed as we discover that the covenant under which God’s people live, now and forever, is grace, not law; the blood of the Lamb, not animal sacrifices; the eternal priesthood of Melchisedec, not the earthly order of Levi; the temple of believers which is the spiritual habitation of God, not a stone building made with hands; Jerusalem above which is free, not Jerusalem on earth in bondage; spiritual Israel, not natural Israel (God’s plan has always been one of grace and not race, one of supernatural faith and not natural flesh); the present eternal King in his glorious, present, eternal kingdom and not the imaginary revival of a faded human monarchy.

As believers we are seated now with Christ in heavenly places (Eph. 2:6) where we are already blessed with all spiritual blessings (Eph 1:3). We now are heirs to the promises made to Abraham (Gal. 3:29) and heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). We now are members of the household of God (Eph. 2:19) and a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation and God’s special people (1 Pet. 2:9). We have already been translated into the kingdom of God (Col. 1:13) and we are now kings and priests unto God (Rev. 1:6) and reigning in this life (Rom. 5:17).

2. Unbelief of the Contents of the Coverage – Matthew 13:58, “And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief.”  Hebrews 3:19, “So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief.”

There is a subtle and vehemently denied form of unbelief today that has and is robbing the people of God of much of the NOW coverage of the New Covenant. Those who teach that most of the provisions of the New Covenant are not for believers today but for Jews in a future millennial reign, or that there are two New Covenants and the best is for Israel in the future, are misreading the terms of the Covenant. This is a nothing more than misinterpreted unbelief which keeps the people of God today ignorant of the benefits and full coverage made available through Jesus, who is the New Covenant.

C. One Bestower of New Covenant Blessing
2Cors 3:5, “ Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 2Co 3:6  who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.”

There is no power in the New Covenant to save or bless except as it is a ministry of the Spirit. Only as we honor Him and give Him His place as the Spirit of the New Covenant, by expecting and accepting all He waits to do for us, will we find the extent and benefits of the coverage. He is the great gift of the Covenant. He is the only teacher of what the Covenant means: dwelling in our heart, He wakens there the thought and the desire for what God has prepared for us. He is the Spirit of faith, who enables us to believe the otherwise incomprehensible blessing and power in which the New Covenant works, and to claim it as our own. He is the Spirit of grace and of power, by whom the obedience of the Covenant and the fellowship with God can be maintained without interruption. He Himself is the Possessor and the Bearer and The Communicator of all the Covenant promises, the Revealer and the Glorifier of Jesus, its Mediator and Surety. To believe fully in the Holy Spirit, as the present and abiding and all-comprehending gift of the New Covenant, is the only entrance into its fullness of blessing.

Pray this prayer for illumination of the coverage available now in the New Covenant:

Lord Jesus, I believe, help my unbelief! I believe that you are our Covenant-Maker and Covenant-Keeper, and that being in relationship with you means that Your divine nature has given me everything that pertains to life and godliness. I have needs, problems, besetting sins that I can’t resolve, but you have promised to provide me with all that I need to be a victorious, overcoming, child of God. So Lord, I come boldly and believingly as a New Covenant believer asking for revelation as to the contents of the coverage and for faith to rise up and lay hold of the promises of God. I move out in faith that the Holy Spirit will work in me and through me and with me to see you Kingdom come more fully and your name honored more gloriously!