SUBJ: The covenant made and provided for in God and our living and vital connection with Him witnessed in the work described here as essential to salvation in that man is incapable.

AIM: That we might own the fact of a divine work in us as having produced that which is required of us and which failed in the Old Testament.

INTR: Chapters thirty and thirty-one are connected and contain many messianic prophecies and are a great comfort to all the Lord’s people as we see them realized in Christ our Lord.
1. The term “New Covenant” is used here with a specific aim to contrast with the old one and the failures of he people under it.
2. The problems began with Mount Sinai and continued through the long history of the house of Israel. So, much is there that Paul calls them examples of what not to do.
3. A similar problem exists even today in that many persist in the belief that an acceptable standard of righteousness can be met through fleshly ability.

THESIS: All that has been required for salvation since the fall has been provided by the Lord and only that which He provides is acceptable.

I. Why a New Covenant? (vv. 31-32)
1. First, we would note what the old one was and why it failed – the Israelites degenerated through a series of fleshy attempts to please God when the call was always to trusting and obeying Him – the Law was weak through the flesh!
2. A word of explanation is in order in that it is the house of Israel that is addressed here and not we Gentiles. The answer is found in Hebrews 8 and 10.
1) Hebrews 8 contrast the old priesthood with that of Christ – Israel failed morally and ceremonially.
2) A new arrangement was needed and given: 10 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 write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people: 11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 8:10-12.
3) See also 16 This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; 17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Hebrews 10:16-17.
3. The display of attention to Israel was so that the Lord could not be faulted; it was complete and thus, so was their failure.
4. We may make application today and clearly see that :”ye must be born again.”

II. Terms of the New Covenant (33)
1. There is no dismissal of moral obligation and the necessity of a holy life in the New Covenant. This condition is met by a miraculous work of grace. It is referenced twice in Hebrews.
2. The essential to compliance with the demands of fellowship with God: A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26.
3. The writing of God requires a clean place to do so and in regeneration He provides it and in conversion He continues to write it.
4. There is likewise a new nature underlying it all wherein we are brought into full agreement with Him: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 2 Peter 1:4.
5. The effect is new life which could never be accomplished in the fleshly manner of human religion or any other proposition. – Gods makes the deal and then answers for both sides of the contract.
6. That new and essential nature is made receptive to the writing of the Lord and it remains there as the Spirit of God makes a permanent etching.

III. The conditions met in the New Covenant (v. 34)
1. A strange way of addressing the issue yet quite effective in that it describes the fellowship of the saints and the character of the regenerate in the Kingdom.
2. Consider, And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. John 17:3.
3. Knowing the Lord is the order of the day and all true believers know Him.
1) We are taught things “pertaining to life and godliness but
2) We need not be taught who He is!
4. The forgetfulness of God is a deep blessing – He knows all and yet forgets our sin as a matter of any intent to punish in that all has been accomplished in Christ – He is the mediator of the New Covenant.
5. Thus a life of peace with God and the sense of full forgiveness. “Be sure your sin will find you out is contrasted with sin not remembered as the terms of the New Covenant are fully met in Christ our Lord.