Jay Rabon opens by setting the stage for why the Old Covenant, though good and given by God, ultimately could not save. Preaching from Hebrews 8:7-12 to a congregation rooted in the Book of Hebrews, he explains that the Old Covenant's failure was never in the law itself — the law is good — but in the sinful human heart that could not keep it. As Romans 8:3 puts it, "the law was weakened by the flesh." Written on tablets of stone rather than on the heart, the law could reveal sin but never remove it, leaving the people in a cycle of idolatry and unfaithfulness. What was needed was not a reinvigoration of the old system, but an entirely new covenant — one promised by Jeremiah in the darkest hour of Judah and inaugurated 600 years later in the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

From that foundation, Jay walks through the three great promises of the New Covenant. First, God writes His law on our hearts, giving His people a new heart of flesh in place of a heart of stone, and working faithfulness into them by His Spirit (Ezekiel 36:26-27). Second, all people — regardless of race, nation, or status — can now know God personally and intimately, without the need for any human intermediary. Third, and perhaps greatest of all, God remembers our sins no more. Forgiveness in the New Covenant is not spelled do, as in every religion built on human effort, but done — accomplished once and for all through the perfect sacrifice of Christ. Jay closes with the beautiful image of a bride in her wedding gown, reminding the congregation that the way the world sees a bride on her wedding day is the way God sees every believer, every single day, because of the robe of righteousness woven by Jesus Christ.

Wow, the lyrics and just the chorus in that song, is it not the best? It is done. It is finished. If you're in Christ, listen, No more debt that you owe. Paid in full. All sufficient merit now my own. Hallelujah! What a great, great song!

Well, I started in my. I guess you could call it my regular career about 35 years ago. And when I started working at Nationwide Insurance, I was in Claims, and I was working in an office.

So many of you have been there when you started working out maybe 30 years ago, you're working. You're in an office. And so everything was related to the office. Well, then, lo and behold, something special came out, and it was called Dial Up. Anybody remember Dial Up?

Oh, boy. Oh, look. If you were born just like sky or Hannah, Hannah's looking at me like, what is Dial Up? But you remember Dial Up. So that allowed me to go home and work so I could dial up my big old computer to my office and work.

Now, the only problem with the Dial up is that it would take, like, three hours for a document to upload. And sometimes it would take overnight if it was a really large document. But that was Dial up. And it was the best until they came out with these little boxes or whatever with. With cable.

And you could get this cord, this ethernet cord or whatever you call it. You could plug it into that box, your computer, right into it. And your computer would go faster. David knows about. David knows what I'm talking about here.

Your computer would go faster and then. Until. You won't get this. Then in Wilkes, we lived in Wilkesboro. My office was upstairs, and our computer box, or whatever you call it, was downstairs.

And we got this thing called WI Fi. And I was able to sit upstairs and work on my computer and didn't have to be downstairs. And then they come out with these things like my files, like we have now, or Apple watches, all kinds of new things. Well, what happened to Dial Up?

It became obsolete. You know, I was going to use digital music versus albums for this illustration. But people know albums aren't obsolete. Young people are buying albums in droves. But not one young person in here, Landon, is ever going to use Dial up again.

Never. So that illustration, though, while not perfect, it's going to help us to understand today the Old Covenant and what it served. And then the New Covenant in Christ and how he has brought the Old Covenant to obsolescence. So where have we come from? Well, we're in the Book of Hebrews, and, you know, we have an author who's intimate with his audience there.

He is writing to Jewish Christians Maybe theyre in Rome, but they're facing increasing persecution. They're flailing in their faith. They're starting. Some of them are starting to lean back into Judaism. And what does he tell them?
He said, hey, look, hold fast to your confession. Stand firm in Christ. I go back to what David said a couple of weeks ago. Stay in the boat with Christ because He is greater. There is none like him.

And why is he greater? Well, he is the eternal Son of God. He is our high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, not after the temporary order of the Levitical priesthood. Remember, we've talked about that. And so because he's greater and because he holds his priesthood forever, he actually introduces a better hope than what those folks had come out of.

"A better covenant, of which He, Christ is the guarantor." (Hebrews 7:19)
"A more excellent ministry." (Hebrews 7:22)
"Founded on, enacted on better promises." (Hebrews 8:6)

Because Christ is better, because he mediates this new covenant. He brings that first covenant to obsolescence. Now, what is the old covenant? So to talk about the new covenant, we need to talk a little bit about the old covenant. Well, the old covenant is the covenant that these folks, these good Jewish Christian brothers and sisters in Rome came out of.

It was the covenant between God and Israel at Sinai that was mediated by the Levitical priesthood. It contained great promises for obedience and great curses for great promises for God's people for obedience, great curses for disobedience. After God gave the law through Moses, the people made a solemn vow so we can look up on the board. And they made a solemn vow in Exodus. So God has given them this covenant, this great covenant.
There's nothing imperfect with God. He's given them this covenant. And then we look at Exodus. It says,

"Then he, Moses, took the book of the covenant, the law, and read it in the hearing of the people. And the people said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do, and we will be obeyed, obedient. And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words." (Exodus 24:7-8)

Well, they promised to hold up their end of the bargain, to be obedient. But what happened?

They're human. They could not fulfill it. They could not hold up their end of the covenant. And what was the reason?
The sinful human heart. See, the problem with the old covenant was the infidelity of the people. All we have to do is read the old covenant and we will find a continuous history of idolatry and unfaithfulness or faithlessness. And actually Jeremiah, who gave us the new covenant, writes in chapter three, verse two of his book. Before that, he uses an illustration that just shows the issue with the people.

And he said in three verse chapter three, verse two,

"Lift up your eyes to ship to the bare heights and see where have you not been ravished by the wayside. You have sat awaiting lovers you have polluted. He's talking to the people. You have polluted the land with your vile whoredom." (Jeremiah 3:2)

So he kind of just sums up all of what happened in the old Covenant with the people.
So the defect in the old covenant was not with the law itself. The law is good. But to borrow Paul's language In Romans chapter 8, verse 3,

"The law was weakened by the flesh" (Romans 8:3)

by the inadequacy of the human material which it had to work with. It was weakened by our flesh or by the flesh. What was needed was a new nature.

A heart liberated from its bondage to sin. A heart which not only spontaneously knew and loved the will of God, but had the power to do the will of God. A heart that loved the will of God, but also had the power to do the will of God. Under the old covenant, the heart did not have the power to do it because the law was written externally. On what?
Stones, Tablets of stones. It was not written on the heart, it was written on stones, not on the heart. The law laid down that God was holy and expected his people to live holy lives. But it did not give the inner power and strength to obey God.

Thomas Hewitt, theologian, writes this and sums it up this way. I think well, it

"The old covenant, the law could reveal sin but not remove it. And being defective, meaning being incomplete, it could not save or justify guilty sinners. It failed to meet the deepest needs of sinful man. Sin had made it ineffective." (Thomas Hewitt)

The real cause of the covenant's weakness was man's sinfulness. Therefore God finds fault with them, which is verse eight. Ultimately, and Rick talked about this last week, God gave the first covenant a great gift of mercy along with its rituals and sacrif that it best covered the sin of the people. It was a temporary and necessary step in redemptive history to reveal human limitations and point to the need for a permanent grace based new covenant. So now the new covenant prophesied by Jeremiah about the year 587.

So think about this a second. The new covenant itself prophesied by Jeremiah. And there's a parallel with Ezekiel about 5,87 B.C. this is about 600 years before Christ would be crucified. So the Lord through Jeremiah is giving this great covenant.

It is found in Jeremiah 31, verses 31 through 34, and Ezekiel 36, verses 24 through 28. And our author or our preacher here in Hebrews is giving us the Jeremiah version. He's using the Septuagint. So when was this? When did God give Jeremiah this vision of the new covenant?

Well, it was not in the brightest days of Judah. This was in the darkest hour of Judah. It was right before the destruction of the temple and taking the folks, the people, off into exile, the Babylonians doing that. And in this darkest hour, when things look the worst, God himself promised a new covenant that would bring to pass the salvation that the first covenant could not and will never be able to do. So this great covenant was inaugurated by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, Right?

We recite this verse a lot of times in communion. Luke 22:20. At the last Supper, Jesus said,

"This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood." (Luke 22:20)

The new covenant in my blood. It was inaugurated at his death.

Now, we're just starting to talk about the new covenant right now. We'll talk more about it in chapter 9 and chapter 10. But in chapter 9, verses 16 and 17, the author there explains that a will or covenant is only enforced after the death of its tester, confirming that the new covenant could not begin until Jesus died. So you can look over to chapter 9, verse 16 and 17, and see that inaugurated by the precious blood of Jesus Christ upon his death, mediated by Christ, a better covenant enacted on better promises. A covenant for all the spiritual children of Abraham, not just for Judah or Israel.

And this morning we're going to talk about the three great promises that are in this new covenant. The three great promises that are yours if you're in Christ. And those three great promises are in the new covenant. God writes his law on our hearts. In the new covenant. We have a personal and intimate knowledge and relationship with God. So he gives us knowledge of Himself personally and in the new covenant. And this is the greatest of the promises. God remembers our sins no more. The three great promises in the new covenant, fulfilled in the blood of Christ, mediated by Christ.

So let's read together those verses in Hebrews, chapter 8. And since Rick took verse 8 last week, I'm going to start with verse 7 this week, but I'm not going to cross back over his ground, which was so wonderful last week. But we'll read from verse seven together. So let's read it out together, please.

7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion to look for a second.
8 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,
9 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.
10 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.
11 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.
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.”

(Hebrews 8:7-12)

Amen. In speaking.
Amen. Thank you, brothers and sisters. That first. So let's look at that first great promise in verse 10. If you're taking notes where God says, I am going to write my laws on their hearts, that's the first great promise of the new covenant.
In the Old Covenant. Listen, God gave the people his law. There's no different law. There's no new law. He gave the people his law.

But that covenant did not give them the ability to receive it, to love it, or to keep its demands. It didn't give them the ability. Think about these verses a second or 2. Deuteronomy 10:16. Now this is Moses. He's saying,

"Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart, and no longer be stubborn." (Deuteronomy 10:16)

He's telling the people to circumcise their hearts. Jeremiah again, 4:4 says,

"Circumcise yourselves to the Lord. Remove this foreskin of your hearts." (Jeremiah 4:4)

He's saying, hey, look. Circumcise your hearts. Well, how do we circumcise our own hearts? Is it possible for us to circumcise our own hearts? No, it's not possible for us to circumcise our own hearts. Why? Jeremiah 17, 9 says,

"The heart is deceitful above all things and it's desperately wicked." (Jeremiah 17:9)

We are not able to circumcise our own hearts. But I thought about this for a second, and just as a side, I said, well, so orthodox Jews today, those who hold fast to the orthodox faith, what is it that they believe about this new covenant? What is it that they believe? Because they would hold to this new covenant.

And the consensus is that they believe that the new covenant is not a replacing of the existing covenant, but merely a figure of speech expressing the reinvigoration or revitalization of the existing covenant. The people of Israel possess an old covenant, yet a new covenant, truly an everlasting covenant. So they believe that somehow this covenant will be reinvigorated, but it still doesn't change the fact that we cannot circumcise our own hearts. You see what I mean? I don't know what they're thinking is going to happen.

But unless the heart is changed, it doesn't matter. So God has to change the heart. So in the new covenant, listen, God now is the actor. He makes provision for human weakness, promising not only to give the law, but to actually place it within us. So he promises to take the action.

In fact, not only is he promising promised to place it within us, he promises to give us a new heart. And let's look at that, Ezekiel 36, 26 and 27, where God said,

"And I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give your heart. Give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my. You see? Hear that? And cause you to. To walk in my statutes and be careful to cause you to walk in my statute and to be careful to obey my rules." (Ezekiel 36:26-27)

This new heart that God promises to us is the work of the Holy Spirit, which emanates from God the Father and Christ the Son. So through this promise, God promises that he is going to be the one to work faithfulness into us.
What the old covenant could not do, give us a heart to obey and glorify God, the new covenant can do. This means that if you have faith in Christ, if you are saved under this new covenant, God is the one doing this in you. For it is God who works in you, Paul says,

"Both to will and to work for his good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13)

It's God who works within you. If you possess eternal life through this faith in Christ, you have experienced at least something of this.

You can look back. But if you have faith in Christ, you start wanting to do things you never wanted to do before. Old pleasures seem to be disturbing to you. You find yourself eagerly wanting to attend church, praying, reading the Bible, serving others, while shunning evil more and more as Christ leads you and God writes His law on your heart. If you're in Christ, you can say, I don't.

I'm not where I want to be in Christ. But you can look back and see how far you've come, right? You can look back and see what your life was before Christ. And that is a testimony to those who do not know Christ. The greatest testimony is for you to be able to say, I can look back and see where I was before Christ saved me.

Because that is your personal testimony. A new mind and heart means that we have a desire and power to follow and obey God. It means that we have a desire, an earnest desire to obey God. And keep his laws. A new heart and mind stirs us to love God, because He has renewed us.

And this love stirs us to seek his face continually, even when we fail and come short, which we all do ever too often our hearts are stirred to see, seek forgiveness, and to repent and begin anew to follow and obey him because of his work in our lives, not because of our work. If you want to look at a parallel passage in the New Testament to this, look over at Second Corinthians chapter 3, where Paul provides a parallel to this promise in Hebrews 8. There Paul also contrasts the external work of the old covenant to the internal work of the new, using the same metaphor of tablets of stone, in contrast to tablets written on the heart on which God has written. And that chapter concludes with this verse which we will see. And this is from 2nd Corinthians 3:18.

And this is how transformation takes place.

"And we all, with unfailed veiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit," (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Who does it come from ourselves? No, this comes from the Lord. So if you're in Christ, God is working faithfulness into you. He is the one that's transforming you from one degree of glory to another. And that is the first great promise, the new covenant. That is God, who will write his laws on our heart, that he will give us a heart of flesh and not a heart of stone. And so that second great promise then is this, that we have a personal and intimate knowledge or relationship with God. And you'll find that in verse 11.
Verse 11 says,

"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." (Hebrews 8:11)

The second great promise is that knowledge of God can now come from direct with him without the need for intermediaries. Fellowship with God will be such that everyone will know him among his people. There is no longer any priest among men who stands between God and man. There is only Jesus Christ, the mediator of the new covenant.

When a person comes to God through Christ, he is accepted by God. Given this glorious privilege of knowing God face to face, look at a couple of scriptures on this. The first one, John 17:3, and these are in the King James, so beautifully done.

"And this is life eternal. That they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent," (John 17:3)

Philippians 3:10,

"That I might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death," (Philippians 3:10)

meaning becoming like him in his death.

This great promise also means that the privilege to know God is now open to all races, all nations, all people. The new covenant is universal. All shall know me, from the least to the greatest. The rich and the poor, the black and the white, the yellow and the red. Leader and follower, male and female, slave and free, child and adult.
No matter who they are or where they are, all can now know God and know him face to face to face.
Let's look at a couple more verse passages that. Galatians 3:27 through 29

"For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is no male or female. For you are all one in Christ. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:27-29)

Revelation 7, 9 and 10. After this I looked,

"And behold a great multitude that no one could number. From every nation, from all the tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." (Revelation 7:9-10)

We don't. We may not think about this often, but this is the truth. That Christianity. Christianity is the most geographically and ethnically diverse religion in the world. Not Islam, not Judaism, not Hinduism.
Christianity is the most geographically and ethnically diverse religion the world. Well, we had that first great promise that's yours if you're in Christ. That God will write his laws on your heart to give you a heart of flesh. And that second great promise is that you can now personally and intimately know God. That you don't have to have an intermediary between you and God.

And then this third promise may be the greatest promise in the New Covenant. That God will remember our sins no more. Amen. He remembers our sins no more.

"I will be merciful toward their iniquities. I will remember their sins no more." (Hebrews 8:12)

Let me tell you the difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant regarding forgiveness can be summed up by six letters. I can name that tune in six letters. Forgiveness in the Old Covenant. Forgiveness in the New Covenant.

The first two letters relate to the Old Covenant. The letters do. Do because adherence in the Old Covenant was based on strict external obedience characterized by human effort. Do human performance. Do the Old Covenant.
Do. Forgiveness in the Old Covenant. Temporary covering at best. Right through repeated animal Sacrifices year after year, which in the end did nothing more than to remind the people of their sins rather than a complete removal of them year, year, reminder after reminder of their sins. The Old Covenant.

Do the New Covenant D O N E and what does that spell done?

Do Judaism? Do Islam? Do every religion in the world done? Christianity? Listen.

Mercy and forgiveness flow from what Christ has done on our behalf, offering Himself as a once for all perfect sacrifice for the atonement of sin. The Puritan theologian John Owens writes this about this third great promise. He says,

"This third great promise is the great fundamental promise and grace of the new Covenant. The first thing that is necessary is the free pardon of sin." (John Owens)

In fact, if you look at verse 12, verse 12, if you want to circle it in your Bibles, verse 12 starts with the word for.
It starts with the word for, because that is the basis for all the other promises.

Mercy and forgiveness is the basis for all the other promises.

But brothers and sisters, this perhaps is the most difficult aspect for us to believe. For it forces us to do two difficult things. And the first is this is to recognize that we do wicked things. To recognize in our hearts sometimes that we do wicked things, we do fall short in sin, but also to believe that God has already made ample provision to set aside that wickedness and continue treating us as his beloved children.

The forgiveness of sins is based upon the mercy of God. We are not forgiven because of works or law. God does not accept us and forgive our sins because we do the best we can and try to be good.

Now, as fallen sinners do we try to do the best we can and try to be good? Yes. But that's not why he forgives us. He forgives us because Jesus Christ died for our sins. Because Jesus Christ has already paid the penalty for our sins.
And we ask God to forgive us through the sacrifice of Christ, his all sufficient merit. Ron Right. We ask him to forgive us based off of the merit of Christ. And when we ask what will God do, forgive us, that's it. He will forgive us.
Some scriptures. John 1:1:9 we know this one.

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful. Not only is he faithful, he's just. He is just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)

Titus 3:4 5 one of my favorite verses.

"But after that kindness and love of God, our Savior toward man appeared not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy. He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." (Titus 3:4-5)

Listen. This forgiveness of sins Means that God remembers our sins.

No.

What is the problem in our lives? What is it that we tend to do? We tend to remember, and then we kind of expect that God would remember. But the fact of the matter is that God remembers our sins no more. He cast them completely out of his mind and memory and never thinks about them again.
Think about that. Should that give us the freedom to never think about forgiven sins again? Should it?
They never come back into his memory, are not even allowed to seep back into his thoughts. What a glorious salvation from sins. Complete and total forgiveness of sins all through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, brothers and sisters, if you're in Christ, listen. God has removed your sins

"As far as the east is from the west." (Psalm 103:12)

He has

"Put them behind his back," (Isaiah 38:17)

and

"Hurled them into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7:19)

He has

"Blotted them out of his record and promises to never bring them up again." (Isaiah 43:25)

You are free from the accusation, not because of anything whatsoever in you or me, but because of God's grace alone in Jesus Christ, you are free.

The three great promises. Are those not great promises? Those are great promises and one great reality. Three great promises and now one great reality. Verse 13.

We talked about it at the beginning.

"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." (Hebrews 8:13)

What is so interesting about that verse, specifically about this, and just call it out if it comes to your mind. And what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. What is interesting about that?

Hebrews was written between 64 and 67 A.D. what happened in 70 A.D. the temple was destroyed.

The covenant, the old covenant, vanished away, at least functionally. The Levitical priesthood in the sacrificial system stopped and has never been reinstated.

Well, what do you think these dear brothers and sisters thought about? That? They had come out of this system, right? They'd been washed in the blood. They're now hearing this, this preacher preach to them, saying, hey, Stick, stay in the boat with Christ.

What do you think they thought about that? And everybody may have a different thought. But I think that's fascinating because just a few short years later, after they received these encouraging and challenging words, as Rick has shared with us, before the old covenant vanished and passed away. Well, I don't know for sure, but I am confident of this. I am confident that they ultimately held firm to their faith, that they stayed in the boat with Christ, Pastor David and I am confident that they proclaimed that Christ is greater than all.

He is our great high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. He is the guarantor of a better covenant because it is enacted, acted on better promises. I am confident that they held firm and that they continued in their faith well. Three great promises. The first one, God writes his law on our hearts.

The second one, we can have a personal and intimate relationship and knowledge with God. And the third one, God remembers our sins no more. So the question I have for you this morning. So are these promises your promises? Do they belong to you?

Do you proclaim these promises? Do you claim these promises in Christ?

A bride purchases her gown. And that's my sweet daughter. Had to put that there.

Brings me to tears just thinking about you. A bride. Listen. A bride purchases her gown and puts it on for just one day.
Afterwards, she will change into regular clothes and her white wedding gown is put away. But here's a fact.
The way we see the bride for just one day is the way that God sees us every day. If our lives are in Jesus Christ. This is what this new covenant is all about. A love relationship sealed and consummated forever by the blood of Jesus and the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Because Jesus has woven your gown of righteousness and taken away your sin.
What Isaiah says is true.

"As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you." (Isaiah 62:5)
God has given us a garment of salvation, a robe of righteousness, even the righteousness of Christ. And he's working in us the love and affection suitable for a bride. To such a husband there will be no divorce.

For this covenant is made effectual by God himself. God says, so long as we both shall live, I will be your God. And by his work within us, all God's people respond in love. So long as we both shall live, we will be your people. We will know him and acknowledge him as Lord and God.

We will follow him with minds renewed in the truth, with hearts renewed in holiness, our affection drawn to him. And we will be to him forever. A bride in shining white. He has promised it. He has accomplished it in Christ.
And through faith in His Word, it will be true in our lives.

Well, Father, what can we say to these things? If you are for us, who can be against us? How grateful and thankful we are, Lord, for the new Covenant that you have established with us. The covenant that stands forever because it is predicated on better promises. It is premised upon Your faithfulness and we know Lord that You will not fail. And, so, Lord, help us to begin to grasp some of the richness of what we have in Christ. And may we fully hold on to the promises you have made. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Sermons

The Better Covenant - Hebrews 8:8-13 - June 14, 2026 - Jay Rabon