INTRODUCTION
Pastors Jason & Lori spoke last week on relationships and used the example of their marriage and how they as husband & wife work on their own personal relationship with God first... and then on their relationship with one another.
Our series is about relationships in general not marriage in particular.
However, marriage allows us to reflect on the covenant relationship Jesus has with His church.
While society no longer views marriage as a union between a man, a woman and God for a lifetime, God still views marriage as a covenant, revealing His faithfulness to His church no matter how unfaithful she has become.
Andrew Murray once said, "Covenant was, above all, to give man a hold upon God as the covenant-keeping God, to link him to God Himself in expectation and hope, to bring him to make God Himself alone the portion and the strength of His soul"
Once we understand covenant, we will never again be plagued by doubts regarding our relationship to God or the salvation we are meant to enjoy.
Even a question like, “Can a Christian lose his/her salvation?” will no longer be part of your thinking.
Remember, Christianity should be viewed as a practice in which we continue to grow daily into the image of Jesus.
What is covenant?
Covenant is a solemn and binding relationship between the one who initiates it and those who are party to it.
Questions concerning covenants.
Who is the initiator?
Who are the parties involved?
What is the reason for the covenant?
Is there a sacrifice?
Are offspring or future generations affected?
Is there a promise or oath?
Is there a sign or witness?
What is the length of the covenant?
Is there a meal, an altar or a name change involved?
Covenant is a strange sounding word to our generation but a word that needs to be part of our understanding as ministers of a new covenant.
MINISTERS OF A NEW COVENANT
2 Corinthians 3:5-7, “Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 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.”
God has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant.
He has made many covenants in scripture but they all point to the New Covenant made by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross.
Let’s look back for a moment at a reminder in Deuteronomy of what was promised in Exodus.
Deuteronomy 7:8-9, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him...”
This scripture is reminding us that the God we serve not only makes promises to us but He also keeps them...He is a covenant keeping God.
As Christians, we are called to follow Jesus. To grow up and become mature and be teachers who enjoy the meat of the Word not just the milk.
Believe. Belong. Behave.
Simple stages of growth that enable us to know who and what we believe; to enjoy covenant relationship and belong in the family of God because of the finished work of Jesus; and behave by bearing fruit because of the indwelling Holy Spirit and the power of God at work in our lives.
BACKSTORY OF A PEOPLE
Egypt - the house of bondage and slavery for 400 years. A temporary home for the people of God until the fullness of time when God would set them free to serve Him fully and to inherit the Promised Land as noted in the Abrahamic Covenant.
God entered into covenant relationship with many in scripture like Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Jesus.
Covenants were both conditional and unconditional.
They were based on a promise given, and were entered into through a sacrifice made which most often included blood.
2 Conditional Covenants
Conditional - A guarantee that God will do His part when the human requirements stipulated in that covenant are met.
Edenic - Genesis 1:26 -31; 2:16-17. Life and blessing or death and cursing depended on the faithfulness of Adam & Eve. They failed and died 1st spiritually and eventually physically but also plunged the entire human race into it’s patterns of sin and death.
Mosaic - Exodus 20:1 - 31:18. The 10 commandments covering His will and His ways in worship, judgment, religious, social and civic affairs and ordinances.
Temporary until the cross of Jesus who would remove the covenant of works and replace it with His new covenant of amazing grace. Tutor.
Mixed into these covenants were identifiers unique to the Jews such as circumcision - a permanent sign in the flesh of an everlasting covenant.
Jews would also be represented by priests through Aaron’s lineage and be called a holy nation under God.
6 Unconditional Covenants
Unconditional - fulfillment is promised by God and depends upon His power and sovereignty alone.
Adamic - Genesis 3:16-19. The promise of a redeemer after they sin.
Has God fulfilled that promise?
Noahic - Genesis 9:1-18. The promise to never destroy flesh by flood again. His sign - rainbows.
Has God fulfilled that promise?
Abrahamic - Genesis 12, 13, 15, 17. The promise of posterity, blessing, father of nations/land (Israel), all families blessed through the Jews from whom came the Law, the prophets and priests, scripture and the Messiah.
Genesis 15:7-21, Verse 10 “cut them (animal sacrifices) in half and lay each half over against the other...” To cut covenant.
Jer. 34:18-19; Neh. 9:8; Gal. 3:17 all show the same covenant truth.
Has God fulfilled that promise?
Promise Land - Deuteronomy 30:1-10. The promise of land to Abraham’s descendants through Jacob/Israel. An unconditional promise of territory for the Jews. 2000 years after exile - May 1948 Israel is re-born in a day.
From the Euphrates to the Nile which includes most of modern day middle eastern nations.
Has God fulfilled that promise? In part!
Davidic - 2 Samuel 7:4-16. The promise of an unending royal line, the throne and kingdom connected with the Jews and the land (guaranteed).
Jesus is the rightful heir who will reign on the throne of David forever.
Gospels reveal a literal, promised, earthy messianic kingdom out of Jerusalem at His second coming.
Has God fulfilled that promise?
New Covenant - Jeremiah 31:31-40. The promise that what was external in practice would, through the work of Jesus, the mediator of a better covenant, become internal.
On the night He was betrayed He took bread, wine...
Jesus’ blood secured for us the better promises of the NC. Heb. 8:6
Jesus is now the source of eternal salvation for those who believe. Heb. 5:9
Jesus is now the Head of the Church which is made up of Jews and Gentiles alike. Eph. 2:20-22; 5:23, Col. 1:18.
Has God fulfilled that promise?
What about today? How am I to live as a minister of the new covenant?
DAVID & JONATHAN’S COVENANT LOVE
1 Samuel 18:1 says, “As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul...then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul.”
Jesus, the lover of your soul like David was to Jonathan reminds us that our covenant relationship with Him is based on His love for us. Love only does good to the one who is loved.
As followers of Jesus, we are called to grow up into mature men and women like Him and to be filled with all the fullness of God.
THIS IS MY BIBLE
I am what it says I am.
I have what it says I have.
I can do what it says I can do.
Today, I am ready to receive, into my life, the ever-living, ever-lasting, the incorruptible seed,
called the Word of God.
Now, Holy Spirit, speak to my heart about the value
and importance of covenant in my life.
Romans 8:29-35 says, “For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son... in this life and throughout eternity...if God is for us, who can be against us?
LET’S DECLARE TOGETHER
Because our God is a covenant keeping God we can boldly affirm...
I am the object of His love and His salvation.
I am justified through the blood of Jesus Christ - acquitted.
I am eternally reconciled to God through the cross. Totally forgiven.
I am sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise.
I am the righteousness of God in Christ. I am holy. A saint.
I am legally adopted into the family through the blood of Jesus.
I live by faith in the covenant keeping promises of God.
I enjoy all His spiritual blessings - fruit, gifts, even an open heaven.
I am in His body, the church, my new family, to do what He is doing.
If I sin, I have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.
I know He is interceding for me right now at the right hand of God.
And...I have full assurance that His love will never fail me.
God says. “Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him...”
SCRIPTURES
Psalm 25:10
All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.
Psalm 89:28
My steadfast love I will keep for him forever, and my covenant will stand firm for him.
Psalm 105:8
He remembers his covenant forever, the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations.
Jeremiah 50:5
They shall ask the way to Zion, with faces turned toward it, saying, ‘Come, let us join ourselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that will never be forgotten.’
Matthew 26:28
for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.
Luke 1:72
to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant,
Galatians 3:15-17
[ The Law and the Promise ] To give a human example, brothers: even with a man-made covenant, no one annuls it or adds to it once it has been ratified.
Hebrews 7:22
This makes Jesus the guarantor of a better covenant.
Hebrews 8:10
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.
Hebrews 9:15
Therefore he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant.
