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Beth Jones is a Bible teacher and founder of The Basics With Beth, a non-profit Christian teaching ministry dedicated to helping people learn the Bible basics.
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Understanding the New Covenant 0:00 Hi, guys. I'm Beth Jones and welcome to the Basics with Beth where learning God's Word is a joy. And I just want to say we are so honored to be with you right here on Pray0:12 dot com. In every message, we will do our best to teach you the Bible basics in such a way that it strengthens your faith foundation. In addition,0:24 I want to empower and equip you so that you have confidence to share these Bible basics with others. So, lean in and listen with your heart. If you'd like to know more0:36 about our ministry, just go to thebasicswithbeth0:54 Supposedly, this is a life of rest and peace. How does that work? With that in mind then, let's go over to Hebrews 4. In Hebrews 41:06 verse 1, we're told this, therefore, since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to1:18 us as well as to them, those in the old covenant, old testament, but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. Verse 3, For we who have believed do enter1:29 into rest. So, we're told in the Bible that there is this thing called rest. You can live the Christian life in rest and in peace. This thing called rest exists. And those who believe1:41 enter into rest. Believe what? What is it they're supposed to believe? Jesus gave us a little bit of a clue in Matthew 11. He said, Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy1:53 laden, burdened down, tired, come to me and I'll give you rest. My burden is easy, my yoke is light. Learn from me, he says. I'm gonna show you how to live this Christian2:05 life. And what happens often for a lot of us is we are looking for the formula, we're looking for the magic bullet, the secret sauce, we're looking for the list, give me the list. Tell me the things I'm supposed to do,2:16 tell me the things I'm not supposed to do. I can get that. That's what we're looking for. But then Jesus says things like this, just come to me. Okay. I know Jesus. I'm coming to you. I'm coming to you. Fine. But what do2:28 you want me to do? What do you want me to do? And and we'll see here as we get into this that we think do, do, do, do, do, and God says it's been done. We're2:39 thinking, do, do, do, checklist, got that. And Jesus is like, just come to me, it's been done. So, with that in mind, we're gonna look at this thing called the new covenant.2:52 The new covenant. This new agreement, this new contract, this new covenant that Jesus came to the earth to bring, to3:04 mediate, to implement, to activate. This new agreement, this new contract, this new covenant that is not like the old. So let's look at the new and the3:16 old and see what we can learn. If you'll go over to second Corinthians 3. Let's take a look at this. Second Corinthians 3 verse 4 says, we are confident of all this because of3:28 your great trust in God through Christ. It is not that we think we are qualified to do anything on our own. Our qualification comes from God. He has enabled us to be ministers of his new3:39 covenant. This is a covenant not of written laws, but of the spirit. The old written covenant ends in death. But under the new covenant, the spirit gives life.3:52 The old way with laws etched in stone led to death, though it began with such glory that the people of Israel could not bear to look at Moses' face, for his face shone with the glory of God,4:04 even though the brightness was already fading away. He's saying in the Old Testament, when God gave the old covenant or what we might know sometimes as the 10 commandments, Moses' face was lit4:16 up like a candle from God's glory. And he's saying that old covenant, that old agreement, those old rules, they were pretty glorious. So glorious, Moses' face was lit up. But do you know the minute he4:28 got the old covenant, it started to fade away because there was something brighter coming. Shouldn't we expect far greater glory under the new way now that the Holy Spirit is giving life? If the old4:40 way, which brings condemnation, was glorious, how much more glorious is the new way? Which makes us right with God. The old 1 brought condemnation because we4:51 couldn't keep the 10 Commandments. And it was glorious. That was a glorious agreement. But the new agreement is even more glorious because it makes us right with God.5:03 God actually gives us his righteousness as a gift. Verse 10, in fact, the first glory was not glorious at all compared with the overwhelming glory of the new way. Verse5:15 11. So, if the old way which has been replaced Everybody say replaced. Replaced was glorious. How much more glorious is this new which remains5:26 forever? Let's talk about the old and the new covenants. What what is he telling us here? He's saying there was this old covenant, now there's this new 1. The word covenant let me give you5:38 some definitions here. A covenant is not a term we use a lot, but we could understand it when we think of an agreement. A contract would be some ways we would use it, although a covenant is actually even stronger.5:50 The most often we would see the word covenant used in our world is in marriage, a marriage covenant. With a contract, if you have a contract with somebody in business or, you know, a college6:02 loan contract or something, usually a contract has to do with your stuff. Your stuff becomes my stuff, my stuff becomes your stuff. We have a contract, we have an agreement. You give me6:14 10000 dollars, I will pay you back 10000 dollars with interest. Your stuff is my stuff, my stuff is your stuff. We have a contract, we have an agreement. But a covenant isn't about just our stuff, a6:26 covenant is about our lives. You get my life, I get your life. So for an example, in marriage, that would be a good 1 to think about. In marriage, we have an agreement, we have a contract, a legal6:38 document, but we have a covenant. Like when Jeff and I got married, he got all my stuff. Now in my case, I didn't have much stuff. I had books and tapes. That's it. I had books and tapes because I was in Bible6:49 school, and that's about what I had. I had boxes of books and boxes of cassette tapes teaching the Bible. When I came into Jeff's life, though, he had a lot of stuff. He7:01 had a house, a car, food, furniture. He had stuff, lawnmower. I mean, he had stuff. So when we got married,7:13 all of my stuff became his, and he was thrilled. And all of his stuff became mine. Because in marriage, in that covenant, in the contract, it's 1 and the same.7:25 But more than that, I became his, and he became mine, the person. This is what a covenant is about, and this is what God wants with you and I. It's about a relationship. I mean, the7:37 whole point of all of this is that God wanted a relationship with you and I. He didn't just want all of us, he wanted us to have all of him. That was the covenant. I'm gonna give you all of me,7:49 all my stuff, but not just my stuff, all of me. And then we are going to give him our books and tapes. And all of us. Amen? So in the old8:01 covenant, the old law, you know, we have our Bibles, and in the Bible, there is the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the Old Testament or the Old Covenant, there were certain agreements, certain things they had to8:12 abide by. To make it simple and basic, I mean, we know that they had laws to keep, rules and regulations to keep, like the 10 commandments, for an example. And the Old Testament was set up kind of with the8:24 if then. If you keep these commandments, then you will get these blessings. That was basically the premise. If you do this, then you will get this. The8:36 new covenant is not like that, the new covenant is because then. Now a lot of us, we still live under if then. Well, if I do all these things that please the Lord, if I pray, if I read my Bible, if I8:48 go to church, if I serve, if I'm nice to my neighbor, if I do all these things, if, if, if, then, the Lord is sort of obligated to bless me. But that's not the9:00 new covenant. That was the old covenant. But the old covenant, according to this, has been replaced. Like it's obsolete, like it's not in effect for you and9:12 I. The purpose of the old covenant or the old agreement or what's called the law, the purpose of that, in part, was just to prove to us we can't keep it. In fact, it's called9:23 a tutor. It was a tutor to bring us to Christ, to have us realize, I can't keep this, this is impossible. Nobody can keep this. I can't keep these laws. And it just showed us that we couldn't keep it9:35 and that we needed a savior, we needed a redeemer, we needed Christ. That was the purpose. But a lot of us still try to live under that law. We we actually try to mix it. We try to live under the 10 commandments and do9:47 all the do's and don'ts and don't forget them all, and then over here, Jesus loves me, this I know. And we get confused. We're like we're like confused Christians. So what I believe you're going to experience as we get9:56 into this and as the Lord helps us, I believe what you're going to experience is happy rest. Your heart is going to be happy. You're going to go, is this too good to be true? Okay. What did she forget? Where's the10:08 catch? Obviously, she forgot, like, a bunch of things. She forgot to tell us a bunch of things. What's the catch here? No. Your heart is going to be happy, which is how God wants it. He wants your heart filled with joy.10:19 I mean, how many times did Jesus say in John 15, I've told you these things so that your joy would be full. And if you read John 15 and thought, Lord,10:31 I'm missing something here. Why is my joy not full? Because I still find myself living under condemnation and guilt, and I don't measure up, and I must be doing something wrong, and a little bit of if10:43 then, a little bit of because then, and it's just muddy. But today, God wants to clear it up. And all the people said Let's continue on then in this idea of this new and old covenant.10:54 But now Jesus, our high priest, has been given a ministry that is far superior to the old priesthood. For he is the 1 who mediates for us a far better covenant with God based on11:06 better promises. There's a lot in that verse. If the first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need for the second covenant to replace it. But when God found fault with the11:18 people, he said, the day is coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the people. Okay. Let's just hit pause there for a minute. Jesus is the mediator of a far better covenant based on11:30 better promises. So the old covenant, it was glorious. There was a lot of promises in the Old Testament. If you read the Old Testament, there are a lot of promises. The promises and the blessings of Abraham, to have11:42 long life and to have your family blessed and everything you do blessed and success in life. There were the blessings and the promises in Deuteronomy 28. Blessed are you in the country and in the11:54 city, blessed is your family, blessed is the fruit of your womb, blessed is everything you put your hands to, blessed is your body, blessed is everything you shop for. I mean, the blessings in Deuteronomy 28 are12:06 amazing, the promises. Those were good promises, but then he's telling us Jesus came to institute something even better, a12:18 better covenant with better promises. Under the old covenant, they had to, every year, to deal with the sin of the Israelites,12:30 of the Jews, to deal with sin, every year they had to offer sacrifice. And they would offer it numerous times throughout the year depending on the particular sacrifice or feast. But every year, annually, there was a big12:41 sacrifice where the folks would bring a spotless lamb. Families would gather up their funds and they would find and come up with or raise a spotless12:53 lamb without spot or blemish, perfect lamb. And they would bring that lamb to the temple, they would make the trek to Jerusalem, bring that lamb to the temple, and there, the high priest would13:05 inspect this lamb, this sacrifice. Because what would happen is, in essence, I mean, there were a lot of different sacrifices, but in essence, the family bringing the lamb would,13:17 in essence, lay hands on the lamb and transfer their sins to the lamb and or to a goat, which is where we get the phrase scapegoat. They would transfer the sins to this13:28 innocent animal, and then somebody had to pay for the sins, somebody has to pay for sin, even still, somebody has to pay for the sin. And so, the animal would give its life, the lamb's blood would be shed, they13:40 would be sacrificed, the blood would be shed, and the life in the blood was an atonement to cover sin for 1 year. This was part of the sacrificial laws of the Old Testament.13:52 They did this every year, once a year they had to do this. Now, they bring this lamb this is what I want you to get they bring the lamb to the high priest. The priest was inspecting the lamb,14:05 not the people. These were sinful people, they made mistakes, they weren't perfect, they had not kept all the 10 commandments. But the priest did not inspect the people. The priest14:16 inspected the lamb. And as long as the lamb was perfect and spotless, its blood could be shed, and then they would get the benefit of that shed blood and their sins14:28 would be covered for 1 year. Are you following? So, this is what they did under the Old Testament. So the good news was the priest looked at the lamb, not at the people. But in the new covenant, it tells us Jesus14:41 is the 1 who mediates a far better covenant based on better promises. His ministry is far superior to the old priesthood. Not only was he the high priest, he became the lamb.14:54 The Bible says he's the lamb of God who was slain from the foundation of the world. So then we come to the Lord, just giving you the analogy here, and Jesus is the15:05 high priest. But the high priest is not inspecting us. The high priest inspects the lamb. He became the lamb. He became the mediator.15:17 He inspects the lamb, and the lamb is perfect, and the lamb is sinless, and the lamb is spotless. He, the high priest, the Bible says, became a man, set aside all of his God qualities, humbled himself15:29 and became a man who lived a perfect life, who had perfect blood, who could shed his blood for our benefit. He looks not at us and15:41 goes your fault, that fault, that mistake, condemnation, unworthy, not perfect, don't measure up. He doesn't even look at us. He's looking at the lamb, and the lamb is perfect. And then15:53 we get all the benefits. Go ahead,16:10 See, and so what happens is so many times we are living not from that realization, we are often living from the realization, Lord, I don't measure up, you are looking at me. You are looking at what I am doing, not doing16:21 where I have missed it, where I have messed up, where I wasn't consistent, where he is not looking at that. God made a covenant, let me just do a quick little rabbit trail here. In the Old Testament, when God made his16:33 agreement, his covenant, the first covenant he established was with Abraham. And if you were Abraham's kids or any of his descendants, you got the benefit of that covenant. Why? Because he made a covenant with16:45 Abraham. Now the Bible tells us we are Abraham's seed. There was a covenant with Abraham and all the people connected to Abraham got in on it. As long as they did the if then. If they didn't do the if16:57 then, then there would be degrees of their blessings. Then there was Noah's covenant, then the covenant with David, all these agreements. And there were rules and regulations and if thens applied to all of those. But if17:08 you were part of Noah's, you know, umbrella, you get on no pun intended. You get in on that. You guys will get that when you go home. Then we get over to17:20 the new covenant. Listen, listen, listen. God made a covenant with Jesus. God the father made a covenant with Jesus. And if we17:32 are in Jesus, if we are with Jesus, if we are believers in Jesus, we get in on all the benefits. I'm with him. That's what you say,17:44 I'm with him. I'm with Jesus. I'm in Jesus I will boast in Christ alone. No problem there. His righteousness, not my own, I am with him. I am with the lamb.17:57 The agreement was with the father and Jesus, and he completely fulfilled everything, not from the if then, from the because then. Now,18:09 if your wheels are spinning, I'm going to make this make more sense. Okay, so let's take Deuteronomy 28, okay? Old Testament, promises, part of the Old Testament covenant: If you keep all my commandments,18:21 if you keep my statutes, if you do all these things, then the blessings of God will overtake you. Blessed shall you be in the city, the country, all of that. If then, if then, if then. But the truth was they18:33 couldn't do it. You and I can't do it. We can't keep all of those commandments. So then we are not qualified, we disqualify ourselves from all the blessings. That's the if then old covenant. But18:45 if we now jump into the new covenant, because the old 1 is obsolete, we jump into the new 1 that Jesus the lamb has mediated, then we can read Deuteronomy 28 and go, if you keep all the commandments,18:57 Jesus, thank you, you did. If you keep all of my statutes, Jesus, thank you, you did. If you walk in all of my ways, Jesus, thank19:09 you, you did. Then all these blessings will come on you. Thank you, Jesus. It's the because then, because you did, then I get the blessings.19:21 We live in the because then. Anytime you read a scripture, you're like, oh, I don't measure up, I don't measure up, just stop for a minute and go, wait a minute, wait a minute. Did Jesus measure up? You don't measure up,19:32 but did Jesus measure up? Because we live in the because then, because Jesus measured up, because he was perfect, because he fulfilled everything, because he was the spotless, sinless lamb,19:45 God the father looks at him, and because he was, then I get the blessings. You say, that is just too good to be true. Give me a checklist. Give19:57 me give me something I'm supposed to do. What you're supposed to do, what I'm supposed to do is to believe it and to receive it. Okay. What is what is it he wants us to20:09 see? He said in Hebrews 8, he said, I'm going to write these new laws in their heart. What laws? Not the 10 commandments. It's the law of love. The laws of love. Let's look20:20 at this in first John 4. First John 4, verse 9. In this, the love of God has been manifested toward us. God's love always manifested toward us.20:32 Manifested, not hidden. Toward you. God's love is always going towards you. He's not running from you. He's not withholding from you. He's always trying to get his love towards you. He's always moving towards20:45 you. He's for you. He's on your side. He's moving towards you. The love of God is manifested towards you. That God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might20:57 live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our21:09 sins. It's not that we loved God, although it's great that we love God. And of course we love God, but it's not that we love God. It's not21:21 all the stuff we do. It's not all the commands we try to keep. It's not the songs we sing. It's not it's not it's not that we love God. It's that21:32 he he he loved us. It's not do do do do do. It's done. He loved us. You21:44 turn the paradigm. You turn the pair of glasses around. It's like, God, I've been trying to love you. I've been trying to do all this stuff. Or not doing it because I know I couldn't. Just thinking, well, that's how it21:55 works. Instead of being in receive mode and believe mode, like, wow, God, you love me. There's rest, there's peace. Maybe this Christian life is doable.22:08 Maybe it's possible this Christian life is doable. If it's about the fact that you love me, and then I respond to you, Verse 16, and we have known and22:20 believed the love God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this, that we may have boldness in the day of22:32 judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. Well, it says here, we know and believe. I believe that a lot of us here22:44 are making a little paradigm tweak. You know, you know God loves you, you've been hearing it forever. You know it, you know it, you know it, you've been knowing it. But today, if you haven't already flipped the switch,22:54 today, I believe it. I know God loves me and I believe it. I may or may not feel it, I may or may not even understand it, I believe it. I just choose to believe it. I23:06 know and believe this love he has for me. It's not that I loved him, it's that he loved me. Holy smokes, I got the whole thing backwards. I know and believe He loves me, and then I get23:18 this promise, what? I get this promise that as He is, so are we in this world. As He is what? As He is the perfect lamb, so23:30 are we perfected in this world. As he is righteous, so have we been made righteous in this world. As he is loved by his father, so are we loved by our father. As he23:42 is well pleasing to the father without having done anything, Jesus heard the voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son, everybody. In him I am well pleased.23:54 If that was true for Jesus, then as he was pronounced with that blessing that the heavenly father called him his beloved in whom he was well pleased, that as Jesus was, so am24:06 I. In this world, what? His beloved son, his beloved daughter, in whom he is well pleased. But I haven't done anything. In fact, I've done bad things. That's my whole point. There's no checklist. Haven't done anything.24:13 In fact, I've done bad things. That's my whole point. There's no checklist. Hey, thanks24:20 so much for listening to today's message. I hope you were encouraged. Be sure to hit the follow button so you can binge on all the Bible basics throughout the24:32 week and stay encouraged in your faith. And don't forget to share these messages with your friends. If you'd like more information about our ministry, you can always go to thebasicswithbeth dot com.24:44 That's thebasicswithbeth dot com. It's been great to be with you and I will look forward to seeing you next time right here on pray dot com.In this video 0:00 Understanding the New CovenantComments No comments yet. Start the conversation.
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