Message 56 - By Leroy
Surface
The
New Covenant
Introduction
In the church today, there is a great error
in the thinking of many. This erroneous thinking keeps them from receiving the
wonderful and perfect salvation Jesus Christ purchased for us when He gave His
life on the cross. The “error” is to
think of the “old” and “new” covenants as two separate plans
God gave for the salvation of man. Plan “a”
would be the old covenant which, according to their thinking, would begin with
the “Ten Commandments” and would
include all of the six hundred and thirteen commandments of the Law of Moses.
This “old covenant” would require a
perfect obedience to every commandment at the penalty of death to those who
broke the least of them. After fifteen hundred years of failure to keep the
commandments, by God’s “chosen people,” God, according to this erroneous
thinking, instituted plan “b,” which
is the “New Covenant of grace.” According to the terms of
plan “b,” God understood that man
could never keep His commandments so He sent His Son to obey them perfectly in
life, and to “take the penalty for our
sins” in death, so that we could continue in sin and be acceptable to God
at the same time. Oh what a terrible lie from the devil this is.
There are several things I will seek to
show in this message.
1.
The “New Covenant,” which is now in effect, is the same “covenant of blessing” God gave to Abraham, four hundred and thirty
years before the Law of Moses was added (Galatians
3:17). God told Abraham, “…because
thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: That in blessing I will bless
thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven,
and as the sand which is upon
the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy
seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice” (Genesis 22:16-18).
2. The “Ten
Commandments,” which God spoke audibly from the fire on Mount Horeb, are a
part of the same covenant of blessing that God gave to Abraham. God said to the
children of Israel, Exodus 19:5-6, “Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me
above all people: for all the earth is
mine: And ye shall be unto me a kingdom
of priests, and an holy nation.” The children of Israel were never
brought into God’s covenant, which He made to “Abraham and his seed,”
because they refused to even listen to the voice of God at Horeb. The Ten
Commandments, which God spoke from the mountain, were incorporated into the Law
of Moses only after they had to be written in stone, and not in the hearts of
the people.
3. It is the Law of Moses that is commonly
referred to as “The Old Covenant.” In
fact, the phrase “old covenant” is
never found in the scriptures. Instead, it is called the Law, and always refers to the “Law of Moses.” The Law of Moses was never a part of God’s plan for
man. It was, as the apostle Paul explains in Galatians 3:19, “added
because of transgressions, until the seed should come to whom the promise was
made.”
4.
The “New Covenant of Grace” is God’s law,
written in the hearts of His people. It is the same words of God that the
children of Israel refused to hear at mount Horeb. God did not fail, and He did
not change His mind. Instead, He sent His Son to do what the Law of Moses could
never do. “For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness
of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4).
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 an
husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this
shall be 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 write it in their hearts; and 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 I will remember their sin no more.”
The
Promise
“Behold,
the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house
of Israel….” These
words, which were spoken by God to the prophet Jeremiah, and thus to the entire
nation of Israel, are not a “prophecy,”
but a “promise.” It is the promise of
a “New Covenant;” an “everlasting covenant” which would never
be broken, either by God or by the people of the covenant. There are two things
that we should understand as we go into this message: first, this is the covenant that was initiated by the shedding of
the blood of Jesus Christ at Calvary. Jesus confirmed this in Matthew 26:28 when He offered the
sacraments at “The Last Supper,”
saying, “…this is my blood of the new testament (New Covenant), which is
shed for many for the remission of sins.” God’s promise in Jeremiah 31:31-34 is a promise of the
New Covenant, which we call the “Covenant
of Grace,” which was instituted for the salvation and deliverance of
everyone who would receive Jesus as “the
Christ” whom God promised to send into the world to “make an end of sins” (Daniel
9:24-25). Many teachers of dispensationalism tell us that the “New Covenant,” spoken of in Jeremiah 31:31-34, will not be in force
until the “millennial reign of Christ,”
and, that it will be a covenant made with the nation of Israel during that
time. They are “unmistakably mistaken.”
In Hebrews 8:7-8, the apostle Paul
writes of both the “old” and “new” covenants; “For if that first covenant had been faultless, then
should no place have been sought for the
second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, when I will make a new
covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.” Paul was not “prophesying” of a covenant with the Jews that would not be in
effect for at least another two thousand years from his time; instead, he was
telling the Jews about the “New Covenant”
that had been instituted by the shedding of the blood of the Son of God on the
cross at Calvary. He repeated this great truth in Hebrews 10:14-17, saying, “For
by one offering he hath perfected for
ever them that are sanctified. Whereof
the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before (in
a time past; Jeremiah 31:31-34), 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; And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”
The second thing we should understand is
that the “New Covenant” is the same
covenant of blessing that God gave to Abraham in Genesis 22:16-18; “By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD,
for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine
only son: …in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as
the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy
seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because
thou hast obeyed my voice.” The apostle Paul confirms this great truth in Galatians 3:16-17; “Now to Abraham and his seed
were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one,
And to thy seed, which is Christ. And
this I say, that the
covenant, that was confirmed before
of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and
thirty years after, cannot
disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.” Notice that
God’s covenant of blessing was confirmed four hundred and thirty years before
the law was added. In verse nineteen,
the apostle poses a question and answers it in the same verse; “Wherefore then serveth the law (Why was the Law of Moses added)? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed (Christ) should come to whom the promise was made”
(Galatians 3:19).
An
Immutable (Unchangeable) Covenant
Hebrews
6:13-18: “For when
God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by
himself, Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will
multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
Wherein God, willing more abundantly to
shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: That by two
immutable things, in which it
was impossible for God to lie, we
might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
set before us.”
Notice the words, “two immutable things,” which I have capitalized. These two
immutable things are the things concerning the New Covenant that God promised
and confirmed with an oath. When God “swears
by Himself,” there is absolutely nothing that can prevent Him from keeping
His promise. The first “immutable thing” is this promise to
Abraham. “By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD… I will bless thee… I will
multiply thy seed… thy seed
shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in
thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because
thou hast obeyed my voice.” This great promise to Abraham’s seed did
not depend upon anything that Abraham would do in the future. It was based upon
Abraham’s “obedience” to God when he
offered his son Isaac on the altar at Moriah (Genesis 22:1-18). It was a promise that could not fail. It would
not, however, be fulfilled upon a “disobedient
and gainsaying people” (Romans 10:21),
even if that “people” were the direct
descendants of Abraham.
The second
“immutable thing” is the priesthood
of Jesus Christ, who was made to be a priest “forever” by the oath of God which is first revealed in Psalms 110:4; “The LORD hath sworn, and
will not repent, Thou art a priest for
ever after the order of Melchizedek.” The apostle Paul concludes in
Hebrews 7:22, “By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament (covenant).” Jesus could not have been a priest
under the Law of Moses, because He was of the tribe of Judah. Every priest
under the Law of Moses had to be of the tribe of Levi. God’s oath that Jesus
Christ, His Son, would be a “priest forever,”
guaranteed that the Law of Moses must be abolished and a new and better
covenant must be established upon the “better
promises” which were sworn to Abraham. The “New Covenant” was consecrated for us when Jesus, our high priest,
offered His own body and blood as a sacrifice to God for the sins of the whole
world. He is the “mediator of the New
Covenant” (Hebrews 12:24), made
so by the unchangeable oath of God, His Father.
Israel’s
Transgression
The scripture tells us that “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted
unto him for righteousness.” God “chose”
a nation, in Abraham, and desired to set His blessing upon them. That “nation,” though few in number when God
chose them, was the children of Israel. They were the direct descendants of
Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, who became the nation of Israel. The “Law of Moses,” which the apostle Paul
says, “was added because of transgressions” (Galatians 3:19), was added because of their refusal to hear and
obey the voice of God when He spoke to them at Mount Horeb. It was their transgression, not Adam’s, that
brought the Law of Moses, commonly referred to as “The Old Covenant,” upon
them. Adam’s disobedience brought sin and death into the world, and a curse
upon all the earth. Israel’s disobedience brought “the curse of the law” upon all humanity, which could not be lifted
until Christ came to “redeem us from the curse of the law”
(Galatians 3:13). “Sin” entered through Adam’s
transgression, but “the law,” which
could not justify anyone (but, only “strengthened
the curse of sin;” I
Corinthians 15:56), entered through Israel’s transgression.
Adam’s transgression was that he “disobeyed
the voice of God,” who had
specifically warned him that “Of every
tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day
that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17). When God gave the immutable covenant of blessing
to Abraham, it was “because thou hast obeyed my voice” (Genesis 22:16-18). When God came down
on Mount Horeb to speak audibly to the entire nation of Israel, He first gave
them a promise that was conditional, not immutable. The promise was, “If
ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be…” (Exodus 19:5). These were the direct descendants of Abraham, and
should have been his “seed of promise.” God
desired to bless them with all the blessings of His immutable promise to
Abraham; but first, they must “hear God”
when He speaks, “believe God” as
Abraham believed, and “obey His voice”
as Abraham obeyed. Had Adam obeyed the voice of God, he would have lived
forever in the paradise of Eden, in wonderful fellowship with God; and all of
his descendants would have lived eternally upon earth without the curse of sin,
sickness, and death. Abraham “believed God;” but he also “obeyed the voice of God.” It was his obedience that caused God to “swear”
(“by Himself”) an immutable
promise to Abraham and to “his seed,”
that could not fail. The children of
Israel, however, who were Abraham’s natural seed, refused to even listen to God
at Horeb. According to the words of the apostle Paul in Hebrews 12:25, they “…refused
Him that spake” from the mountain. They cried to Moses, “Speak thou with us, and we will hear
(you): but let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Exodus 20-19).
It was the “Ten Commandments” which God had given audibly to the children of
Israel. Forty years afterward, Moses reminded the congregation of that day when
God came down on Horeb to speak to them. He related the (ten) commandments
which God had spoken to them on that day; and in his own words, Moses said, “He added no more” (Deuteronomy 5:22). If the children of Israel had “drawn near” to the mountain and “listened attentively” when God spoke
(the Hebrew word translated “obey”
means to “hear intelligently”), God’s
words would have been “written in their
heart.” Instead, when the people “drew
back” and refused to even listen to His words, God said to Moses, “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my
commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children
forever!” (Deuteronomy 5:29). True obedience to God can only come
out of a “heart” that is right with
God. The children of Israel transgressed against God exactly as Adam had
transgressed before them. They were just as guilty as Esau, the “birthright son” of Isaac, who “despised his birthright,” and lost his
inheritance. According to the words of God to Pharaoh, while Israel was still
in Egypt’s bondage, God had “chosen”
the children of Israel to be his “birthright
son,” saying, “Israel is my son, even
my firstborn (the birthright
son;” Exodus 4:22). It was not “law” that God had offered to them at
Horeb; it was “the spirit of grace,” which,
had they received it, would have written all the words of God in their
heart. It would have been in their “new nature” to do the things that
pleased God. Instead, they “despised the
spirit of grace” and thus brought the vengeance of God against themselves (Deuteronomy 32:35; Hebrews 10:30).
The words that God spoke from Mount Horeb,
which we call “The Ten Commandments,”
would bring a wonderful blessing to the children of Israel “if” they would only “obey
His voice.” They would be, according to the promise of God to them in Exodus 19:6, “a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation.” And, above and beyond that, they would be God’s “peculiar treasure,” a people “above all people.” It is impossible for
the natural mind of man to grasp exactly what this would have meant to them if
they would have “drawn near” at Horeb
and “chosen God” when He spoke to
them from the mountain. About eight hundred years later Isaiah confirms this
sad truth when he writes, “For since the
beginning of the world men have
not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside
thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth
for him” (Isaiah 64:4). The
words of Jesus as He wept over Jerusalem are very revealing; “If
thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace (the things God had
prepared for them)! but now they are hid
from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall
cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every
side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee;
and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation” (Luke 19:42-44). God had visited them at
Horeb and they had rejected Him. Yet, for the next fifteen hundred years, He “stretched out His arms to a disobedient and
gainsaying people” (Romans 10:21),
sending His prophets to them. Finally, He sent His only begotten Son, whom they
also rejected. They never understood the things that “belonged to them;” things which were forever lost to them, because
they never recognized the times of God’s visitation.
The Curse of the Law
Galatians 3:10: “For
as many as are of the works of the law
are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them.”
The Law of Moses was not given as a
blessing to the children of Israel, but as a “curse.” After Moses had completed his law and read it to the
entire congregation of Israel, he told the priests to place it in the side of
the Ark of the Covenant, “…that it may be
there for a witness against thee”
(Deuteronomy 31:26). As long as the
children of Israel remain under the “Law
of Moses,” it is a testimony against them; a testimony that they refused
God when He spoke to them at Horeb (Hebrews
12:25), and, that they also refused “the
Christ, the Son of God” whom God sent to them (John 1:11-12).
The “Law
of God,” which God gave audibly to the children of Israel, was meant to be
a great blessing if only they would “receive
Him that spoke.” If they had received Him, God would have “written” His law in their hearts. His
law would have been “life” to them.
It would have been their new “nature”
to do those things that please God; and the Law of Moses, which is the Old
Covenant, would never have been given. Never again would they have offered an
animal sacrifice or a burnt offering. There would never have been a Levitical
priesthood, and they would never have observed new moons or holy days. The
prophet Jeremiah understood this when God spoke to him.
Jeremiah
7:22-28: “I spake not unto your fathers, nor
commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt,
concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your
God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have
commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the
counsels and in the imagination
of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. Since the day that
your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent
unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but
hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers. Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them;
but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they
will not answer thee. But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD.”
When God could not write His law in the
hearts of the children of Israel, He wrote it upon stone. We should understand
that when the law of God is written on anything other than the hearts of the
people, it is death to those who are under it. This is what the apostle Paul
refers to in Romans 7:10, “…the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.” The Law of
Moses was never ordained to life. Instead, it was a punishment and curse upon
all who refused to hear God. The Law of God, however, is life to everyone who
has it written in their heart; but when “written
in stone,” even the “Ten
Commandments” of God are a “ministration
of death” to all who either break them or trust in them.
II
Corinthians 3:7-8: “But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious,
so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses
for the glory of his countenance; which glory
was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather
glorious?”
The
New Covenant of Grace
I
Peter 1:10-11: “Of which salvation the prophets have
enquired and searched diligently, who
prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them
did signify, when it testified beforehand the
sufferings of Christ, and the glory
that should follow.”
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and other
prophets of God spoke of a “new covenant”
which was to come, though not always in the same words. Peter says they (the
former prophets) prophesied of “the grace
that should come unto you.” This is a promise of the “New Covenant of Grace,” which would be established by “the sufferings of Christ,” bringing in “the glory that follows.” It is here
that we encounter opposing forces in man’s understanding of the nature of the “covenant of grace.” God spoke
explicitly through Jeremiah to say, “…this shall
be 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 write it in their hearts; and will be
their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33). The “New
Covenant of grace” is “God’s law, written in the hearts of His
people.” Here is the best possible definition of “grace” that can be given: it is “God’s law, written in the hearts
of His people.” This is the “glorious
liberty” of the children of God which Paul speaks about in Romans 8:21. It is not a “liberty” to “continue in sin,” but a “glorious
liberty” in which we are “free from
sin” to serve the living God (Romans
6:7, 18, 22).
“In
Order That…”
And
this is his commandment, That we
should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment.
I John 3:23
Recently, while doing a final edit of my First John commentary, I discovered
something that at first, seemed insignificant; but it soon began to speak great
and wonderful things to me. My “significant
discovery” is in the meaning of the word “that,” which I have capitalized in the above scripture. It was
translated from the Greek word “hina,” which always means “in order that,” and denotes a reason or purpose. When the
commandments of God are written in the heart of a person, that person is
enabled by the commandment itself to do the things that please God. Consider
the words of Jesus to the woman caught in the act of adultery; “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no
more” (John 8:11). According to
Moses’ law, this woman should have been stoned to death for her sin of
adultery. A group of scribes and Pharisees had brought her to Jesus, saying, “Moses in the law commanded us, that such
should be stoned: but what sayest thou?” (John 8:5). The reason they brought this woman to Jesus was not that
they were concerned about the sin of the woman, but in an attempt to get Jesus
to say something contradictory to the Law of Moses, so they could condemn Him
to death by stoning. Jesus tried to ignore their questions, but they pressed
Him for an answer until He said to them, “He
that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Then one
by one, from the eldest to the youngest, they all turned away until there was
no one but Jesus and the woman remaining; because their own hearts had
condemned them. Jesus turned to the guilty woman and asked, “Where are your accusers? Has no man
condemned you?” She answered, “No
man, Lord.” Any two of the scribes or Pharisees could have condemned the
woman to death and there would have been nothing (legally) Jesus could have
done about it. When Jesus said to her, “Neither
do I condemn thee,” He was simply saying, “Neither will I condemn you to be stoned to death for your sin. Go, and
sin no more.” The apostle Paul would later write, “For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned
sin in the flesh” (Romans 8:3). The Law of Moses would have
condemned this woman to death; but the Son of God was come and He did for the
woman what the law could never do.
He did not “condemn” the woman that
was in adultery, but rather,
condemned “the adultery that was in the woman.” In this, the woman
was made free. His words to her, spoken out of the same love that would cause
Him to lay His life down for her (and for all mankind), were “Spirit and Life.” Receiving His wonderful words with joy, she lived the rest of her
days with “His commandment” written
in her heart.
When God gave His commandments to the
children of Israel at Mount Horeb, His purpose was “in order that” they would be His “peculiar treasure,” a people “above
all people,” a “kingdom of priests”
and a “holy nation.” This would only
be possible if they “drew near” when
He spoke, and received His words into their hearts with joy. There were two
classes of people that heard the voice of God that day. The vast majority of them heard God
speaking and refused to even listen. They were afraid of dying if they “got too close to God,” so they “went backward and not forward” (Jeremiah 7:24). “…we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen
this day that God doth talk with man, and he liveth. Now therefore why should
we die? for this great fire will consume us: if we hear the voice of the LORD our God any more, then we shall die.
For who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the voice of the living God
speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we have, and lived?” (Deuteronomy 5:24-26). To these, God’s words were too strong and harsh. They
would interfere with their lifestyle. Who was this “God” that would so control their every action? Within six weeks
they had proved they would rather worship a “god”
which they could fashion with their own hands, out of their own imaginations.
This they did when they cried to Aaron, “Make
us gods to go before us.” They fashioned a golden calf, and called its name
“Jehovah,” saying, “this is the god that brought us out of
Egypt.”
Not everyone, however, rejected the voice
of God when he spoke at Horeb. In Hebrews
3:15-16, the apostle Paul exhorts the Jewish believers of his day, saying,
“Today if ye will hear his voice, harden
not your hearts, as in the provocation. For some, when they had heard, did
provoke: howbeit not all that came out
of Egypt by Moses.” There were only a very few, namely Moses, Joshua, Caleb, and possibly a few of the very
young men, who rejoiced to hear the voice of God speaking to them from the
mountain (Matthew 7:14). They “drew near,” while all the others “drew back.” They listened while the
others closed their ears. God was speaking! His words were (and are) “Spirit and Life.” The few received His words into their
hearts, and became God’s “peculiar
treasure.” So why “go with the flow”
when you can “draw near” and become God’s
special treasure by simply receiving all His words into your heart. The enemy
will try to make you think it is “too
lonely” not to go with the multitude, but that also is a lie of your
adversary. Those whose fellowship is “with
the father and with His Son, Jesus Christ (I John 1:3)” will never
be lonely, nor will they ever be alone.
When the truth of the gospel is preached,
the intent of God is the same as when He spoke to the children of Israel at
Mount Horeb. Pay close attention to the words of the apostle Paul to the church
at Thessalonica. Paul had just forewarned them of a falling away (an apostasy),
which would come “after his departure”
(Acts 20:29-30). He warned them of a
“strong delusion” that would cause
many to believe a lie and be damned. He foretold the workings“…of Satan with all power and signs and
lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they
received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (II Thessalonians 2:9-10). It is in this
setting that he speaks to the saints at Thessalonica, saying, “But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren beloved of the
Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of
our Lord Jesus Christ” (II
Thessalonians 2:13-14). The call of the gospel is to gather a people, as
many as will believe, into Christ, to “the
obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Peter spoke to all the
believers, both Jews and Gentiles who “trusted
in Christ,” saying, “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal
priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew
forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are
now the people of God: which
had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy” (I Peter 2:9-10).
There are those who hear the “truth of the gospel” and receive it
with joy. “It is wonderful what Christ
has done for me through His death on the cross; to deliver me from sin and make
me over in righteousness and true holiness, through His resurrection from the
dead.” The vast multitude, however, will hear the same gospel, and cry, “This is too hard. It would destroy my
lifestyle and take away my dreams. If that is what God expects of me, then I’ll
just be lost.” Others, the “religious,”
who have already “believed the lie” will
say, “A just God would never expect such
a lifestyle from me. He knows that I am a sinner, therefore he sent Jesus to
take the penalty for my sin, so I will just continue in sin with the assurance
that I will go to heaven when I die.” Both of these have rejected the
savior who came into the world on a mission to “save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). They have denied “the
Lamb of God,” whom God sent to “take
away the sin of the world” (John
1:29). They refuse to believe that Jesus is “the Christ” who came to “make
an end of sins” (Daniel 9:24-25).
They “draw back” when they should “draw near,” and never attain the great
blessing God has prepared for them in Christ.
God’s
Preparation for His People
For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by
the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth
for him.
Isaiah 64:4
Eight hundred years after the event at
Mount Horeb, the prophet Isaiah said to the people of Israel, “It has never been seen or heard since the
beginning of the world (since the fall of Adam), the things God has prepared for those who wait for Him.” These
are the things which the apostle Paul spoke of in Hebrews 4:3, saying, “For we
which have believed do enter into rest,
as He said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest:
although the works were finished from
the foundation of the world.”
The wonderful blessings of God were prepared for His people from the foundation
of the world, that is, from same the day Adam transgressed. They were promised
to Abraham “and his seed” through
Abraham’s faith and obedience to God (Genesis
22:16-18). They were set before the children of Israel at Mount Horeb, who
never received them because they “refused
Him that spake” from the mountain (Hebrews
12:25). All these blessings were fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and the promise
remains to this day for those who will “wait
for Him.” Notice the words of Jesus to those who saw Him ascend into the
heavens; “And, being assembled together
with them, commanded them that
they should not depart from Jerusalem, but
wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with
water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence” (Acts 1:4-5). Of “above five hundred”
who saw Him after His resurrection (I
Corinthians 15:5), about an “hundred and twenty” of them “waited” about seven or eight days for the “promise of the Father,” when “…suddenly
there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all
the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues
like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak
with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:2-4). These had received the
promise, the “blessing of the Father.”
Set before them was everything God has prepared for His people from the
foundation of the world. It is the “inheritance”
of the children of God, which is received by the working of the Holy Ghost in
those who receive Him.
Repentance
Unto Salvation
For godly sorrow
worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the
world worketh death.
II Corinthians 7:10
God could not write His law in the hearts
of the children of Israel at Mount Horeb, because they hardened their hearts
against God until they were “hard”
and “stony.” This is reflected in
God’s words to Moses in the day they refused to hear His voice; “O that there were such an heart in them,
that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be
well with them, and with their children forever!” (Deuteronomy 5:29). David
recognized that sin is a heart problem when he repented in godly sorrow for his
affair with Bathsheba. He cried to God in Psalms
51:5, “Behold, I was shapen in
iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” He understood that he had
been born into this world with a sin polluted heart and nature, even from his
conception. “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts” (Psalms 51:6). He was aware that God
knew the content of his heart better than he himself, as he cried to Him, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (verse seven). He pleads for God to do in him what he could never do
for himself. He actually establishes the basis for why Christ came into the
world. Malachi prophesies of Christ in Malachi
3:2-3; “He is like a refiner’s fire,
and like fullers’ soap: And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver:
and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that
they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness.”
Notice that David did not ask for
forgiveness in his prayer of repentance. Undoubtedly, David was already
forgiven for the things he did when he wrote this prayer of repentance.
Instead, he was seeking for something that was not yet available in his day;
something which could not be until Christ would come to: “…take away the sin of the world” (John 1:29), and “…make an end
of sins” (Daniel 9:24-25). He sought for something that would have to be
“created” in him by God, because it
did not exist among fallen men. “Create in me a clean heart, O God.” His
cry to God was not “forgive me, oh please
forgive me for the things I did;” instead, David’s prayer to God was “Wash
me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse
me from my sin” (Psalms 51:2).
“Purge
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalms 51:7). “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and
renew a right spirit within me. Cast me
not away from thy presence; and take
not thy holy spirit from me. Restore
unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold
me with thy free spirit” (Psalms 51:10-12).
It grieves me to remember a time in my own
life when I was in a backslidden condition. Over thirty five years ago, after a
time of neglecting Christ and the will of God, I found myself living “in sin” for the first time in my life.
I sinned against God with a sin that so grieved me that I repented in tears day
and night for a full year and a half. At the same time, however, I was
continuing in sin, because I had become a slave to sin. I very well understood
the words of Jesus in John 8:34, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of
sin.” I felt forgiven over and over, but I had become one of those whom
Peter spoke of in II Peter 2:14 that
“…cannot cease from sin.” I tell this
shameful time in my life, only to tell you something that God spoke to me after
many months of repenting every day. I was at an altar, repenting of the things
I was doing with many tears, when I heard, even in my backslidden condition,
the voice of God saying to me, “Stop
repenting of what you are doing, and repent of what you are.” His words hit
me like a ton of brick. I knew that I was lost. I knew that if I died in that
sinful condition, I would go to hell, but, like millions of others in religion,
I believed that somehow if I quickly repented of the sins I committed, God
would receive me. My problem was worse than I had even realized. It wasn’t what
I was doing, but what I had become and what I was, that condemned me and damned
my soul. A person who professes Christ as their savior and tells lies to
deceive, may ask God’s forgiveness for the lies, but they do not want to
confess the fact that “I am a liar,”
because they know that “…all liars, shall
have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone” (Revelation 21:8). Even a “forgiven liar” is lost, as long as he “remains a liar.” Only God can change
that condition. It doesn’t matter what the sin is that a professing “Christian” commits, he (or she) does
not want to place a name on what they are. They may be committing adultery, and
they may “repent” every time they do
so, but refuse to say, “I am an
adulterer,” because they know that the “wrath
of God” is reserved for all who do such things.
I have heard it said, on an international
television broadcast, that if a “believer”
is overcome by temptation and commits adultery, they will be received by
God as long as their “faith” remains
in the cross of Christ, even if the Lord should rapture His church while they
are in the very act. How foolish and damning it is to believe such a thing. The
apostle Paul admonishes, in I
Corinthians 6:9-10, “Know ye not that
the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor
thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall
inherit the kingdom of God.” Not one
fornicator, idolater, adulterer, homosexual, thief, greedy person, drunkard,
abusive person, or extortioner will be accepted by God in the Day of Judgment.
No amount of “Christian psychological
counseling” can change that, because it cannot change the heart of man. A
step plan may help the drunkard remain sober, but he must confess every day of
his life, “I am an alcoholic, and I will
always be an alcoholic.” These things may change what a person does, but they can never change what a
person is. God, however, has
prepared for us a wonderful “salvation”
through the death and shed blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. Paul continues in
the eleventh verse, “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye
are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. Thank
God, that he said, “…such were some of you.” All these things
that we “were” are in our past, and we are no longer what we were, because we are “washed, sanctified, and justified.”
Notice the order of transformation the
apostle gives for those who truly repent and trust in Christ; “Ye are washed,
ye are sanctified, ye are justified…” (I Corinthians 6:11). “Orthodox”
theology tells us that in the very moment any person expresses any faith in
Jesus Christ, they are instantly “justified,”
even though nothing about that person has been changed. According to this “orthodoxy,” God pronounces the sinner
to be “innocent, righteous, and perfect”
in the same moment they express, by any means, “faith in Jesus.” They tell us, however, that “righteousness” and “perfection”
are only “in the eyes of God.” Well,
so much for “orthodoxy!” It has also
been said that the apostle Paul was a great man of God and a great soul winner,
but a very poor “theologian.” What an
incredible thing to say about the man that first received “the revelation of Jesus Christ” in its fullness, and gave it to
the world in his epistles. If he was a “very
poor theologian,” it is because he never heard of Augustine, Luther,
Calvin, and/or many others who formulated, only a few hundred years ago, what
today is called “orthodox.” The apostle Paul who, thank God, knew
absolutely nothing about “orthodox
theology,” understood everything about the “gospel of Christ.” It is he who says we are “washed and sanctified” through “faith
in His blood” (the blood of Christ; Romans
3:25), and “justified” on the
cross “in union with” Christ (Romans 6:6-7).
Revelation 1:5: “Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood….”
Hebrews 13:12: “Wherefore Jesus also, that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without (outside) the gate.”
Romans 6:6-7: “Knowing this, that our old man is
crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we
should not serve sin. For he that is
dead (with
Christ) is freed (justified) from sin.”
Born
Again
Four hundred years after David repented
before God for what he was, God gave a promise through the prophet Ezekiel that
could have been a direct answer to David’s prayer; “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” This is what it means to be “born again.” In the same place where
Jesus said “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7), he explains: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh;
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6). Those who have been “born
again” of the Spirit of God are spiritual sons of God, and have a “new heart and a new spirit.”
Jeremiah
31:33: “I
will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and
will be their God, and they shall be my people.” This is the purpose of the “new heart” and the “new spirit” that is in those who are “born of God.” It is by virtue of the “new birth” that we have His law written in our hearts. Even those
who may have never heard of the “Ten
Commandments” have them written in their heart when they are born again of
the Spirit of God, and they cannot break the least of them because their hearts
have been made pure by the washing of the blood of Jesus.
The
Case for a New Heart
Mark
7:20-23: “And he (Jesus)
said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within,
out of the heart of men, proceed evil
thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness,
deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All
these evil things come from within, and defile the man.”
The apostle Peter gives testimony of the
day God first poured His Spirit upon the Gentiles at the house of Cornelius; “And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare
them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put
no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. Now therefore
why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither
our fathers nor we were able to bear?” (Act 15:8-10). There were those in the church at Jerusalem who would
have required the Gentiles to be circumcised and become proselyte Jews before
they could be received as brethren. They would be required to keep all feast
day, holy days, new moons, and Sabbaths, all of which had not brought salvation to the Jews in fifteen hundred years
under the Law. Peter objected
strongly. “Why would you put a yoke on
the neck of these Gentiles which we ourselves can’t bear? God, who knows the
hearts has purified their hearts by faith, and placed no difference between us
and them, giving them the Holy Ghost even as He gave to us.” The bottom line
of this dispute between the Judaizers and the apostles is that God does not
require rituals, ordinances, step plans, or principles to purify the heart of
man. All He requires is that they trust in Christ who loved us and gave His
life for us, to take away our sin. It is with that simple “faith” that God purifies the heart of man. He does it in an
instant of time when the light of that glorious truth shines into their heart.
Cornelius and all those in his household that received the Holy Ghost that day
had nothing remaining in their hearts that would defile. The blood of Christ
had washed it all away.
Jeremiah
31:34: “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…” According to this prophecy of the New
Covenant, given through Jeremiah, no one will have to teach the covenant people
to “know the LORD,” because “they shall all know me.” Christ must be
preached in all the world, to every nation, in every language to every person
on the earth. No one can be saved without the knowledge of the savior, the
Christ, who came into the world to take away sin. The truth of who He is and
what He did for lost humanity through His death and resurrection must be
preached. We must not think, however, that after they have “received Christ” we must teach them “how” to live for God. Those who “receive Christ” receive the “privilege”
of being the sons of God. We are no longer alien creatures, trying through our
human abilities to please God lest He “crush”
the life out of us (mans thinking). We are “born
of God,” the sons and daughters of God. While there is much to learn of
Him, and to be taught “by Him,” through
His revealed word in the scriptures and waiting in His presence, there is no
need to tell anyone that has been “born
again” of the Spirit of God that they need to “stop sinning.” Sin has been taken away, and if they continue in
sin, it is because they have not “known
Him;” they have not “seen Him” and
they are not “born again.” According
to the apostle Peter, we who have been “born
of God” are partakers of the “divine
nature” and have “escaped the
corruption that is in the world through lust,” which speaks of the horrible
“nature of sin.”
“Sin” is nothing more or less than the nature of
the serpent that deceived Eve and caused Adam to disobey God. Christ, who was “in the beginning with God,” and “was God,” the one by whom all things
were created (John 1:1-3), was “made a little lower than the angels, for
the suffering of death” (Hebrews 2:9),
that “through death, He might destroy him
that had the power of death, that is, the devil” (Hebrews 2:14). He suffered and died as the “Lamb of God” to “take away
the sin of the world” (John 1:29),
which is the nature of the serpent. The apostle Paul tells us this: “Being then made free from sin, ye became
the servants of righteousness” (Romans
6:18). “Righteousness” (I John 2:29), and “love” (I John 4:8),” both of which are the nature of God,
becomes the new nature of all those who are born of God. We know that a sinner
does what he does by nature. He doesn’t have to “remember not to do righteousness,” because “sin” is his nature, and to “commit
sin” is natural. So it is with the children of God. They have God’s law
written in their heart. It is their new nature. To them, it is “natural” to love others “as Christ loved us” and to “do righteousness as He is righteous” (I John 3:7). No one has to teach those
who are “born of God” how to “please God.” They do not need the
commandments engraved in stone, because they are “written in the fleshy tables of their heart” (II Corinthians 3:3). Notice the short conclusion of the book of
Hebrews which the apostle gives in Hebrews
13:20; “Now the God of peace, that
brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing
in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
New
Covenant Perfection
The apostle Paul tells us repeatedly in the
book of Hebrews that there is no perfection (completion) in the law when it is
engraved in stone or written on paper.
Hebrews
7:11: “If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood,
(for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should
rise after the order of Melchisedec….”
Hebrews
7:19: “For the law made nothing perfect, but the
bringing in of a better hope did; by the which we draw nigh unto
God.”
Hebrews
9:8-9: “The Holy Ghost this
signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest,
while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered
both gifts and sacrifices, that could
not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the
conscience.”
Hebrews 10:1: “For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things,
can never with those sacrifices
which they offered year by year continually
make the comers thereunto perfect.”
Hebrews
10:11-14: “And every priest standeth daily ministering and
offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on
the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his
footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that
are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a
witness to us: for after that he had said before, 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.
The “perfection
(completion)” that is promised in
the New Covenant of Grace is fulfilled when God’s law is written in the hearts
of His children. This, however, cannot be accomplished through the gradual “processes” of religious training. The
scripture says, “…by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.”
Someone said, “This is true only of those
who are sanctified.” That is true, but our sanctification cannot be the
result of the processes of religion. The apostle speaks of when the eternal
Christ came into the world through the womb of Mary; “Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and
offering thou wouldest not, but a body
hast thou prepared me: In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come… to do thy will, O God”
(Hebrews 10:5-7). What is the “will of God” that Christ came to do? Hebrews 2:9 answers the question; “But we see Jesus, who was made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering
of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”
A flesh and blood body was prepared, in the womb of Mary, for the eternal
Christ to come and offer for sin, thus fulfilling the will of the Father. His
holy flesh and blood, when offered to God as a sin offering, would atone for
Adam’s transgression, and, in as many as will trust in Christ, reconcile Adam’s
descendants back to God. The sacrifice was perfect, and the redemption is complete.
It was, and is, finished at Calvary.
Hebrews: 10:10: “By the which will we are
sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”
Hebrews: 13:12: “Wherefore Jesus also, that he
might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate.”
Made
One With Christ
Romans
6:6: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified
with him… (Christ).” In each of the
following scriptures which deal with our identity “with Christ,” the
word “with” was translated from the Greek word “sun,” which
literally translated means “in union with.” When Jesus died on the
cross, the “old man of sin” died with Him for everyone that believes. Romans 6:3 says, “Know ye not, that
so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?”
We who believe were first joined to Christ and made one with Him in His death
on the cross. It was the purpose of His death, that “through death,” we
would be reconciled to God (Romans 5:10).
Colossians 2:12 “Buried
with him in baptism….” Buried “in
union with Him” in baptism. It is not water baptism that accomplishes this,
but the “baptism into His death,”
spoken of in Romans 6:3.” Jesus
spoke of His death as a baptism. “I have
a baptism to be baptized with; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished!”
(Luke 12:50). We were crucified in
union with Christ; therefore, when they placed His dead body in the tomb, our “old man of sin” was also buried “in union with Him.”
About forty years ago, there was a popular
song on “Christian radio” titled “Bull frogs and Butterflies.” The
message of the song was, “They’ve both
been born again.” This was my first introduction to what has become known
as “spiritual metamorphosis.” We know
that metamorphosis is the process by which a tadpole becomes a frog, a wiggler
becomes a mosquito, and a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Let me say at the
outset that there is no process that can change a sinner into a child of God. I
recently spoke with a young man in a rehab. He told me that the rehab was his “cocoon” and that when he entered into
it he was a “caterpillar,” addicted
to drugs and alcohol. In his “cocoon,” he
was separated from his old environment and “fasting”
from drugs, alcohol, and every other addiction, while “filling” himself with positive things from the scriptures, so that
when he emerged from the “cocoon” in
six months, he would be a “butterfly,”
able to fly far above the things that had bound him in the past. If this were
true, Martin Luther would have found his answer in the monastic lifestyle he lived
before coming to the knowledge that “the
just shall live by faith.” To the extent that “step plans” are successful, they are not spiritual, and cannot
save a soul. As a child of God, sanctified by the blood of the Son of God, and
justified through death with Him on His cross, I know that my “cocoon” is the empty tomb. It is there
that I, and you who believe, were “buried
in union with Christ.”
Ephesians
2:4-5: “But
God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ….” We were dead in sins. “His great love wherewith He loved us” speaks of Christ, whom Paul
says, “loved me, and gave Himself for
me.” He loved us, “even when we were
dead in sins,” by laying down His life for us. We who believe were made one
with Him in His death, and when God “quickened
Him,” He also quickened us.
Ephesians
2:6: “And hath
raised us up together….” This phrase can easily be misinterpreted to
speak of His ascension, but the Greek wording is repetitious, speaking of His resurrection. A beautiful prophecy by
Hosea best explains this repetition; “After
two days will he revive us: in the
third day he will raise us up, and
we shall live in his sight” (Hosea
6:2). It was the Spirit of Christ that was in the prophet (I Peter 1:11), foretelling our
redemption, which is “in union with
Christ.” Jesus Christ was quickened before the stone rolled away; “…after two days He will revive us….”
When the stone rolled away, He came forth in newness of life; “…in the third day He will raise us up….”
“…and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians
2:6). The dwelling place of the children of God is “in Christ Jesus.” As we
“abide in Him,” we are “in union with Him.” As we “sit together in heavenly places,” Hosea
says, “…we shall live in His sight.”
The prophet continues in the next verse,
“Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his
going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth” (Hosea 6:3). This is a prophecy of the
wonderful baptism with the Holy Ghost, which “comes suddenly from heaven” (Acts
2:4). The prophecy of Ezekiel
36:26-27 has been fulfilled. It says, “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. And I will put my Spirit
within you, and cause you to walk in
my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.” Notice that it is a “new heart,” and a “new
spirit,” and “God’s Spirit” within
us that “causes” us to “walk in His statutes and do His judgments.”
The Law utterly failed, in every way, to produce this in man. Philosophy, psychology,
step plans, and principles also fail; they can never produce the ways of God in
the heart of man. Only in the New Covenant of grace is this fulfilled; “I will put my law in their inward parts,
and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my
people” (Jeremiah 31:33).
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Message 56 - By Leroy Surface - The New
Covenant
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