June 8, 2025: Sunday School

Order of Service

• Sermon
• Prayer of Dismissal

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Sermon Title: The Superior Covenant Mediator and Our Eternal Inheritance

Scripture: Hebrews 9:15-22

I. The Superior Covenant Mediator

A. Christ is the only mediator between God and man

1. 1 Timothy 2:5 — "There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus"
2. Hebrews establishes Christ as both divine Son and fully man, uniquely qualifying him to stand between God and man

B. The mediator is needed on both sides — for man and for God

1. In Genesis 15, God alone walked through the divided animals, placing upon himself all the covenant curse if his people failed
2. In Exodus 24:3-9, the people pledged obedience, yet Moses immediately built an altar — knowing they could not keep the covenant
3. Because God's people inevitably broke the covenant, God's own curse would fall upon himself (Rick Phillips); therefore God himself required a mediator

C. The law (Mosaic covenant) did not nullify the covenant of grace made with Abraham

1. Galatians 3:10-19 — the law came 430 years after Abraham and did not annul the promise
2. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (Galatians 3:13)
3. The law was added because of transgressions, to make God's people ready for the offspring — Christ — to whom the promises were made
4. The word translated "intermediary" in Galatians 3:19 is the same Greek word as "mediator" in Hebrews 9:15

II. The Superior Covenant Inheritance

A. The underlying question of the passage: how is the accomplishment of Christ's blood applied to those who receive it?

1. Paul in Galatians stresses faith as the means — "those of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith" (Galatians 3:9)
2. Hebrews is not opposed to faith (see Hebrews 6:12 and the coming chapter 11), but here focuses on the sphere behind saving faith: a gracious calling to an eternal inheritance (Hebrews 9:15)

B. Inheritance requires the death of the one who made the will (Hebrews 9:16-17)

1. A will takes effect only at death; it is not in force while the testator lives
2. Christ's death is therefore the means by which the inheritance becomes available and effectual for God's people
3. The moment of saving faith is like the moment a name is called at the reading of a will — the name was always written down, but the inheritance is now named and applied

C. The first covenant was also inaugurated by blood, foreshadowing Christ (Hebrews 9:18-22)

1. Moses sprinkled the book of the covenant and all the people with the blood of calves and goats, saying, "This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you"
2. He likewise sprinkled the tent and all the vessels used in worship
3. Under the law, almost everything is purified with blood — "without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins"

D. The nature of the inheritance

1. It is eternal — the names of God's chosen people were always written in the will (1 Peter 1:3-5)
2. It is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for those being guarded through faith
3. It is redemption from transgressions — Christ's blood shed to forgive sins committed under the first covenant and all sin
4. We are adopted sons and daughters with no natural right to the inheritance; God himself names us and grants that right

III. The Proper Response to the Inheritance

A. Gratitude is the fitting response to the gracious gift of Christ as mediator and of the gospel inheritance

1. We were once children of wrath; now adopted sons and daughters of the King
2. The Spirit poured into our hearts enables us to cry "Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15)
3. New birth by the Spirit is necessary to enter into this inheritance — echoing Christ's words to Nicodemus in John 3 and 1 Peter 1:3