Jeremiah 31:31-34.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that 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 that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
Please turn to the New Testament, the book of Hebrews, chapter 8. We will read from verse 6 through verse 13.
But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second.
For finding fault with them, He saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will consummate 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 that I took them by the hand to lead them forth out of the land of Egypt; for they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put My laws into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people.
And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest of them.
For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins will I remember no more.
In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. But that which is becoming old and waxeth aged is nigh unto vanishing away.
Our God is a God of covenant. In His relationship with human beings, He often made covenants with them.
For instance, He made covenant with Noah in Genesis 9. Then He made covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15. He made covenant with the children of Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai.
Afterwards, when the children of Israel came to the border of the promised land, in the land of Moab God made covenant again with them. That is in Deuteronomy 29. After they entered into the promised land, God made a covenant with David in 2 Samuel 7.
Then, in Jeremiah 31, God spoke of a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.
Of all these covenants, there are two that stand out, and these two are in contrast to each other. One is the Mosaic covenant, the covenant of law. The other is the new covenant, which is the covenant of grace. These two stand out in the Word of God.
Before we enter into these two covenants, let us consider a little what a covenant is.
A covenant is an agreement. It is a contract. We sign agreements and contracts everywhere. If you want to buy a house, you sign a contract. If you want to buy a car, you sign a contract. If you want to join a company, you sign a contract.
Why do we need these contracts? Why do we need these agreements, or covenants?
Because in a covenant or contract, it defines the responsibilities and rights of both parties. It has legal binding power. After a contract is signed, then you are obligated to keep it.
This is because we human beings are so undependable. Our word should be trustworthy, but because we are not that trustworthy, a contract has to be signed. There must be some kind of legal binding to force us to do what we have promised.
But even so, you will find that many contracts are broken and many agreements are abrogated, because we human beings are not trustworthy.
Our God is trustworthy. He is faithful.
In Numbers 23, we are told that God is not a man, that He will lie. What He says, He will do. What He speaks, it shall be done.
Our God is faithful and trustworthy. What He says is as if it is already done.
So with our God, He does not need a covenant to bind Him. But why is it that He seems to love to make covenant with men?
It is not because of Himself. It is because of us.
In Hebrews 6, we are told that God Himself is unchanging. His Word is true. But in order to encourage our faith, aside from His own unchangeableness, He also made an oath. He also made a covenant, as if He bound Himself with a legal binding.
With these two unchangeable things, He is trying to encourage us to put our faith in Him.
Whenever you find covenant in the Bible, remember that it is for our sake. God has no need to make covenant, but He loves us so much. He wants to encourage us, so He binds Himself in a covenant.
After He delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, He brought them to Mount Sinai. There He made a covenant sealed with blood.
In that covenant, simply speaking, were the Ten Commandments. God gave them the Ten Commandments.
In these Ten Commandments, God reveals Who He is. God also reveals their responsibility to God and to one another.
We know that these Ten Commandments were written on two tablets of stone. The first tablet contains four commandments, and these four concern the relationship between God and man.
Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, nor worship it.
Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
The first tablet relates to our relationship with God. In the second tablet, there are six commandments, and it defines our relationship with one another. In the will of God, what should be our relationship with one another?
With these Ten Commandments, God covenanted with His redeemed people of Israel.
God said that if you should keep these commandments, then you will be My people. After you prove yourselves as My people, then I will be your God, and I will bless you.
This covenant of law is conditional. God gave commandments, and the people of Israel had to keep them. If they kept them, they would be blessed. If they did not keep them, they would be cursed.
You have to keep these conditions, and then God said, “I promise to bless you, and I will be your God.”
Even while Moses was on the mount receiving the Ten Commandments, the children of Israel had already violated and broken the commandments.
They made the golden calf, and they worshipped the golden calf as their god. Before the Ten Commandments reached their hands, they had already broken them.
When Moses came down and saw the situation, you remember, he smashed the two tablets.
But God, in His mercy, forgave them. He still gave the Ten Commandments to the children of Israel.
When you read the history of the children of Israel, you find that they broke the Ten Commandments continuously—in the wilderness, in the land, during the times of the judges, and even in the time of the kings.
God was very patient with them. He endured them for a long period. But finally God said, “They have not kept My covenant. They have not kept their promises. They have not fulfilled these conditions. Therefore, I will abrogate this covenant.”
The children of Israel were captured and led into Babylonian captivity. But before this happened, God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah.
“One day, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.”
It will not be like the old covenant. The old covenant had been broken; it was abrogated and abolished. God would make a new covenant with them.
This new covenant is entirely new. It is a covenant of grace.
After God promised this new covenant, for six hundred years nothing happened.
After seventy years of captivity, a remnant returned to Jerusalem. They rebuilt the temple, resumed the temple service, and continued until the days of our Lord Jesus.
In the fullness of time, God sent His Son into this world, that He might deliver us out of the curse of the law and that we might inherit sonship.
Our Lord Jesus came into this world. At about thirty years of age, He began to travel and preach the gospel of the kingdom. For three and a half years He ministered, and then came the day of His crucifixion.
But on the night of His betrayal, He gathered His disciples around Him. They were having the Last Supper. It was the Passover supper.
Towards the end of the Passover supper, our Lord Jesus stood up. He took the bread, blessed it, broke it, and said:
Take, eat: this is My body which is given for you.
Afterwards, He took a cup. During the Passover, there were four different cups. This was the third cup of the Passover, called the cup of blessing.
Our Lord took this cup of blessing, blessed it, and gave it to His disciples. He said:
This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.
This is for the remission of sins.
Brothers and sisters, for six hundred years, since God promised the new covenant, nothing had been heard. But suddenly, on that night, our Lord Jesus took this cup and said, “This is the new covenant,” sealed with His own blood and given to us.
What God promised the house of Israel and the house of Judah concerning that new covenant is still in the future. It has not yet been fulfilled for them.
But on that day, our Lord Jesus brought this new covenant to us, the church today. Why? Because our Lord Jesus came into this world not only for the Jews. He came into this world for the whole world.
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.
Our Lord Jesus took this new covenant—the covenant which one day God will make with the house of Israel and the house of Judah—and He covenanted with us, the church, today.
Brothers and sisters, today we are not under the old covenant of law.
Under the old covenant of law, all will perish. According to the book of Romans, the words of the law are spoken to those under the law.
The children of Israel had the written law. The Gentiles do not have the written law, but we have the unwritten law inscribed upon our hearts. Our conscience tells us what God’s law is.
Whether you are a Jew under the written law of Moses, or a Gentile under the unwritten law of God upon your heart, we are all under law. Under law, no one can be justified.
We are all condemned, because we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.
There is only one Person who can live under law and be approved. That is our Lord Jesus. Throughout His life, He lived under the law, and He kept everything in the law.
Therefore, God proclaimed Him as righteous. In this whole world, there is only one Man who can live under law and live. Aside from the Lord Jesus, all who live under law die.
But our Lord Jesus not only kept the law Himself; He went to the cross to keep the law for us.
There are two ways to keep the law. One way is to do what the law has said. The other is to pay whatever the law demands as penalty.
For instance, you are driving a car, and the law says that you cannot exceed one hundred kilometres. If you drive within that limit, you keep the law.
Now suppose you drive one hundred and ten kilometres. You have broken the law. The law says that you must pay a certain amount of money. If you pay the money, then you are clear, as if you have kept the law.
This is what happened to us. We all broke the law of God. Christ is the only One who kept the law of God.
Him Who knew no sin He made to be sin on our behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
He paid the penalty for us. We broke the law, and we should die. Christ kept the law, and He should live. But He died in our stead, so that we might not die.
He delivered us out of the law. He delivered us out of the old covenant, and He made a new covenant with us.
Brothers and sisters, we are not under the old covenant. Thank God for that. We are under the new covenant. We are not under law, but we are under grace.
This new covenant is altogether new. What are the characteristics of this new covenant?
Our relationship with God today is all on the basis of the new covenant. God deals with us according to the new covenant, and our dealings with God are according to the new covenant. This is the way we can live our Christian life.
Therefore, it is very important for us to know what covenant God has made with us. If we do not know the covenant God has made with us, then we do not know how to live before God.
Unfortunately, you find that many Christians today are still living under the old covenant. That is the reason why they are under law, always have a guilty conscience, and have a weak Christian life.
They do not know that God has put them under the new covenant. We live under the new covenant. It is a covenant of grace, and that is the only way we can live a normal Christian life.
First of all, it is a new covenant. It is not a patching up of the old, as if the old is not perfect and therefore you patch it up and try to make it complete.
It is not like taking a new cloth and trying to mend the old garment. God does not do patching work. God always lets the old pass away, and He makes everything new.
This new covenant is altogether new. It is altogether different from the old covenant. It is a new relationship.
Second, this new covenant is a better covenant. Why? Because it is on the footing of better promises.
In the Old Testament, in the old covenant, God did promise blessing. But that blessing was conditional upon your keeping the law. If you did not keep the law, the promise would not come; the curse would come instead.
But the new covenant is different. The new covenant is unconditional.
In the old covenant, God said, “Thou shalt,” and “Thou shalt not.” You have to bear the first responsibility, and then God will take up His responsibility.
But in the new covenant, He does not say, “Thou shalt,” and “Thou shalt not.” He says, “I will, I will, and I will.”
The old covenant is a covenant of law. Law makes demands upon the flesh. The new covenant is a covenant of grace. It makes no demands, but it first gives the supply. It is unconditional.
Third, this new covenant is under the mediatorship of a better Person: our Lord Jesus Himself.
He is not only the new covenant; He is the Mediator of the new covenant. This new covenant is a Person. God covenants with us through a Person. He gave us a Man. He gave us Christ. That is the covenant—all that Christ is.
But He not only gives Christ to us. Christ Himself becomes the Mediator. That is to say, He will see to it that all the articles and all the promises in that covenant become real to us.
We have a better Mediator, better than Moses. Moses can tell you the law, but he is not able to help you keep the law.
But our Lord Jesus not only gives us the new covenant; He will see to it that you enter into the joy of the new covenant.
Fourth, this new covenant is internal, not external.
With the old covenant, God said to the children of Israel, “I took your hand and led you.” Even though it is very good to have God taking our hand, it is still external.
You see a child walking, and the mother or father takes the child’s hand. That is very good. But it is still external. The child can see something elsewhere, struggle out of your hand, and run away.
That is what the children of Israel did with God. God held their hands, but they struggled out of God’s hand. It was external.
But the new covenant is inward. He said, “I will put My law in your inward part. You shall know Me in yourselves.” It is altogether inward.
God is not just standing by us and holding our hands. He comes and lives within us. Now that is different. If He is by your side, you can run away. But if He is in you, no matter where you go, He is there with you. This is your very life. It is always there.
It is inward, not outward. Christian life is an inward life; it is not an external action.
In the Old Testament, under the old covenant, God was as their husband. He protected them, provided for them, and took care of them. Yet the children of Israel rebelled against God.
Even though God was like a husband, He could only stand by their side. But the children were unfaithful to God.
Under the new covenant, we are joined with God in life. We are joined to God in Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, here is a relationship closer than husband and wife.
As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be in Us.
The old covenant is a covenant of works. You have to keep the law. You have to do.
But the new covenant is a covenant of grace. Grace means that God says, “I will do it for you. You have to do it, but I am going to do it in you and for you.”
The old covenant is abolished. But the new covenant is an everlasting covenant. It cannot be broken, because it is based upon God Himself.
If it depends on you, it will be broken. But if it depends on God, then it will never be broken. It is an everlasting covenant.
We need to thank God that He is so merciful to us that He should make such a covenant with such people as we are.
What is the covenant? That covenant is very simple. It has only three articles. You find them in Jeremiah 31 and Hebrews 8.
So far as our experience goes, let us start with the third article.
The third article is in Hebrews 8:12:
For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins will I remember no more.
In this new covenant that God has covenanted with us, He said, “I will forgive your sins.” Not only will He forgive our sins, but He will even forget our sins.
Brothers and sisters, what a blessing that is. We who are under the law of sin—the Lord says to us, “Your sins are forgiven.”
Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
All our sins, our iniquities, and our transgressions are forgiven. It is because of the blood of our Lord Jesus. God looks at the blood of His beloved Son and says, “All your sins are forgiven.”
Not only are they forgiven, but He says, “I do not see them anymore. I have forgiven you, and I have forgotten it.” God does not remember your sins anymore.
Brothers and sisters, this is the new covenant.
Many Christians are still under a guilty conscience. They cannot forget their past. They have already confessed their sins before God, and yet their past sins come back and bother their conscience all the time.
Why? Because they still live under the old covenant. They do not know that under the new covenant, if we confess our sins, God is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
He not only forgives, but He forgets altogether.
But our mind plays tricks upon us. We forget what we should remember, and we remember what we should forget. What God forgets, we remember.
We have confessed our sin, and God said, “Your sins are forgiven.” Tomorrow we go to God and confess again, and God says, “What are you talking about? I do not remember.”
Why do you remember? Why do you not see the preciousness and the sureness of the cleansing blood of the Lord?
Under the new covenant, daily, hourly, every moment, every second, we can live before God without any shadow or cloud.
It is true that we sometimes fall. We are not perfect. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to His covenant, righteous to the blood of our Lord Jesus. He must forgive, and not only forgive, but He does not remember.
Brothers and sisters, we can live daily in uninterrupted communion with God. What a blessing.
That is just the beginning. Now we come to the second article, in Hebrews 8:11:
And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest of them.
Under the old covenant, the law was written upon stone. Later on, it was written in books and scrolls. So you had to read the scroll, and you had to have somebody teach you and explain the law to you.
The knowledge of God came from outside. It was informational. By gathering information, you had knowledge about God. But even so, such knowledge of God is mental and external. It is not really in you. It is not an experiential knowledge of God.
You know about God, but not God Himself. If nobody teaches you, then you say, “Well, I do not know what kind of God He is.” If people teach you and say, “Know the Lord,” you say, “I know what kind of God He is, but He is billions and billions of miles away.”
“I know there is God, but I do not know where to find Him.” That is the old covenant.
But He said, “You do not need anybody to teach you, ‘Know the Lord.’” Why? Because everyone, from the least one among you to the greatest, shall know Me in themselves.
In the Greek, you find that these two words translated “know” are different words. “Know the Lord” is external, mental knowledge. The second “know”—“know Me in themselves”—is an experiential, inward knowledge of God.
After we are saved, one question we always ask is this: “Now I am the Lord’s. I want to please God. I want to do His will. But how do I know His will? How do I know God?”
If you know the new covenant, you know that God has already solved that problem for you.
When you believe in the Lord Jesus, He puts a Teacher in you. That Teacher is the another Comforter, and He will teach you in all things. He will glorify Christ.
You have the anointing within you. You have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, and the Holy Spirit Who dwells in you is your Teacher.
He is teaching you unceasingly. He is teaching you of Christ. He is leading you into Christ.
That is the reason why He said, “From the least one to the greatest, they shall know Me.” A newly born Christian has the Holy Spirit in him.
The Bible says that we need to obey the teaching of the anointing within us, and then we will abide in Christ.
Our problem in Christianity today is that, after you believe in the Lord Jesus, people give you rules and regulations. They say, “If you keep these rules and regulations, then you are a Christian.”
So you find that our Christian way becomes an outward way, and one day you come to a dead end. Christianity is an inward way.
The Holy Spirit in you will teach you in all things.
Is it not true that after you are saved, nobody has said anything to you, but formerly you liked to tell lies—even white lies? After you are saved, suddenly you find within you Someone telling you, “You are a Christian. You should not do that.”
Your Teacher is teaching you. Brothers and sisters, do you have such an experience? I believe you do. But you do not follow. You go the other way, the external way. Therefore, you come to a dead end in your Christian life.
If you follow the inward way, the teaching of the Holy Spirit within you, it is from glory to glory.
This is article number two. This is our birthright. Our birthright is not only to have our sins forgiven and forgotten. Our birthright is to know God, to get close to Him, to have communion with Him, and to allow the Spirit of God to teach us properly.
Now we come to the first article, in Hebrews 8:10:
I will put My laws into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people.
The law of God is no longer written on stone or paper. Now the law is written upon your heart.
If you turn to Jeremiah, you find that “law” is in the singular. But in Hebrews, it is in the plural. There is no contradiction.
God has written one law upon our heart. It is the law of the Spirit of life. It is the royal law of love. It is the perfect law of liberty. Only one law—not hundreds and thousands—it is the law of the Spirit of life.
The law of the Spirit of life not only tells you what God’s will is; it also gives you the power to do the will of God.
Life is power. The Holy Spirit in you is the Spirit of life. He is supplying that power to you.
It is a law. In other words, it always acts in this way, like the law of gravitation. No matter where you go, the same law is working in you.
This law sets you free from the law of sin and of death.
It is the same as when God says, “I will be your God, and you will be My people.” It is just the reverse of the old covenant.
The old covenant said, “You shall be My people; then I will be your God.” But in the new covenant, He says, “I will be your God, so that you can be My people.”
Our God is the Almighty God. He Himself in us is our power. That is grace. He tells us what His will is, and He is the power in us to fulfil that will.
Do not say, “I do not have the strength to do the will of God.” Yes, in yourself you do not have the strength. But if you look to God, nothing is too hard and nothing is impossible with God.
Brothers and sisters, not only is there forgiveness of sins, and not only is there the inward knowledge of God, but there is also the power of life. That is our birthright.
You can come to God and say, “You have covenanted. Now fulfil it.”
According to the new covenant, if I confess my sins, You are bound to forgive—not only to forgive, but to forget. Now I want You to keep Your covenant.
According to Your covenant, You say that I may know Your will. So I come and ask You to show me Your will.
According to Your covenant, You say that You will be my power. I cannot, but You can. So do it according to what You have covenanted.
That is the way we come to God, and that is the way God loves us to come to Him.
Let us consider Hebrews 8:13:
In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. But that which is becoming old and waxeth aged is nigh unto vanishing away.
So far as God is concerned, the old covenant is passed. He has made a new covenant with us, and all His dealings with us are according to the new covenant.
He will not deal with us according to the old covenant, according to ourselves.
Yet oftentimes we still have our relationship with God on the old basis. We do not believe God can forgive us. Even if He forgives us, we think He will still remember.
We do not believe that He will make Himself known to us. We are still looking for people to teach us, because we think we cannot know Him.
When we know the will of God, we say, “No, we cannot do it.” We have forgotten that there is the power of life within us.
This old covenant must become old and aged in our experience. Do not keep the old covenant like Moses, who lived to such an age and did not seem to get old or aged.
Then we will have no progress in our Christian life. Let the old covenant in our experience gradually grow old, age, and pass away. Let it disappear.
For now we are living under the new covenant. Brothers and sisters, may the Lord help us.
Lord, we thank You and praise You, for You know that we cannot keep the old covenant. You did not give us the old covenant, but You have given us a new one.
Lord, we pray that You will open our spiritual understanding, so that we may see what covenant it is that You have made with us.
May we, in our daily life, live according to the new covenant. May the old covenant disappear, and may the new covenant be lived out in us, so that You may receive praise and glory from within us.
In the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.