Skip to content The Blood Covenant - Part 3 Mar 25 · 47 min ...more
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Dr. Jim Garlow is a lifelong pastor who most recently served in San Diego, California, and now leads Well Versed, a ministry dedicated to bringing biblical
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The Centrality of the Covenant 0:10 Grab a bible if you would. Genesis 22. We're continuing our walk through understanding of the covenant. This I said last week is the most important concept you could ever understand. This is the 1,0:22 topic that if you understand this, there are hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of bible verses will suddenly make sense without which they do not make sense. The covenant is the central truth. That's why it's called the0:33 old covenant and the new covenant. We use the word testament most of the time, but the old and new covenant makes up your entire bible. So understanding this 1 word is the most important 1. Pull the chart up if you0:45 would, Debbie. Take a look at this congregation. You'll see we talked about 6 different covenants that God has made. We're not gonna focus on Adam's covenant. That's temporary. Not gonna focus on Noah's covenant. That0:56 was temporary. We're not gonna focus on the covenant or the agreement that God made with Moses only we'll touch on it very briefly today. We are focusing on the Abrahamic covenant. The covenant made that God made with1:06 Abraham that ties over directly with David and ties over to the new covenant or the time of Jesus. Those 3 covenants are really telescoped into 1 and you'll notice that1:18 they are solid lines on the chart because they're eternal. They're ongoing. They're impacting you this very day. For those of you that might have missed the last couple weeks, we're not able to be here, let me just say1:30 that the word covenant had meaning in the old ancient near eastern cultures in a way we don't understand it. And we said the last 2 weeks that when 2 people made covenant, let's suppose they were tribal chiefs and they1:40 were gonna cut a covenant, that's the phrase that was used. As they would cut a covenant with each other, they would walk through some standard steps. I don't mean to imply that every time a covenant was made, they would1:51 walk through all of these. But in various covenant making ceremonies in various parts of the world, they would use some of these and perhaps in some rare cases maybe all 10 that we're referring to and then2:02 another 3 or 4 others that are found in my book, the blood covenant. I wanna urge you to pick up a copy of the blood covenant. We have them available at our cost at no profit and they're available out in the atrium after2:14 the service. Buy them in quantity and give them away for Christmas gifts. This is the most important concept you could ever share with anyone. In the ancient near eastern world where 2 leaders or 2 individuals or2:26 2 persons came together to cut a covenant with each other, they stood before a crowd of witnesses in an open field and they went through the steps we've looked at so many times. They exchange robes, which meant they2:35 exchange identities. They exchange belts, which meant strengths. They exchange their weapons, which means they were exchanging enemies. If somebody comes after you, they're going to go through me first, I will defend2:46 you. Making this this particular covenant making ceremony, they would sacrifice an animal. The animal would be cut. That's why they call it the cut, cutting of the covenant. That's why they call it the blood2:58 covenant. And so there would be the sacrificing of the animal, they'd walk between the parts. This is a tender delicate thing I'm about to say, but there are those who suggest there's even a theological meaning, meaning3:10 as a husband and wife come together for the first time in the marriage bed at the in in the case of virginity, when the hymen is broken and the blood flows over the male parts, that's even given a picture of a blood3:22 covenant in that particular moment. The next step is the walk of death. The walk of death, the person would walk between the parts of the animal that had been cut open, and in that walk of death, it's the loss of3:34 identity from that point on I will always be intertwined in your life and you in in mine. And then after that was the striking of hands or the mark on the body. Sometimes it3:45 was the hands the hands, in Hebrew culture includes the wrist, an incision made and the blood intermingled there, or somewhere on the body. We looked last week at the text for the role the circumcision plays. The3:57 circumcision was the mark on the body in the old testament, a covenantal mark. The next step was the pronouncement of blessings and curses. If 2 people were making covenant, they stand facing each4:09 other. Blessed shall you be as long as you honor this covenant, but cursed shall you be if you violate the terms of the covenant. That explains many many passages including Deuteronomy chapter 28. That's all covenantal4:21 language. The next thing they would do is the covenant meal. They would feed each other. That in in a wedding ceremony, a bride and groom feeding each other is because it makes a nice picture, it actually has covenantal4:32 rootage. And so people making a covenant, say 2 tribal chiefs making a covenant with each other, they would feed each other the first few bites as a way of saying, as you ingest this, you're taking me into yourself, we4:43 are announcing our oneness. And then the exchange of names, we said they would swap names, and I use the illustration if Jim Garlow and Dan Grant were making a covenant, I would take a portion of his name, put it4:55 in the middle of mine, Jim Grant Garlow, and he would take a portion of my name. He would forever be known as Dan Garlow Grant. In other words, when people pronounce their names, it would announce who our covenant5:06 partners are. And so it was with Abraham. Abram became Abraham. The breathy h from Yahweh, the name for God was put in the middle of Abraham. Sarai became Saraha.5:22 Of Abraham. That was in the oh, steps we walked through in the old covenant. Now we're moving to the new covenant, an understanding of the nature of the new covenant. When we get to Hebrews chapter 7 22 and chapter5:34 8 6, 2 remarkable passages that say the old covenant was good, but it's not good enough. The new covenant is something better. Let me read it to you, Hebrews chapter 7 verse 22. So much the5:46 more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. Now the old covenant wasn't any too shabby. Most of us probably could have lived without 1, but there is something going on that a5:58 new and a better covenant is coming. Hebrew says, by now he has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which he has6:10 been enacted on better promises. In the Old Testament, there's an intriguing thing you've heard me say before, the word atonement means to cover, and so when it talks about atoning our sins, our6:21 sins are covered. There's the blood of the animal that was slain in the Old Testament, But there's something about the difference between that and the death of Jesus, your sins are not merely6:33 covered, your sins are gone. In other words, atonement covers your sin. The implication could be what if it got uncovered someday? But in the new testament, your sins are completely6:45 gone. Is there anybody here besides me that grew up in a Sunday school as a child where you sang a little ditty, a little song that went gone gone gone gone. Yes. My sins are gone. Anybody else know that? Okay.6:57 A bunch of you. It's kind of a song that I thought was maybe a little bit corny, we sing it, I didn't think much about it until I got older and discovered the theology of that song. That is a great7:09 song. Gone, gone, gone, gone. Yes, my sins are gone. And in the new covenant, 1 of the things that makes it so much better is your sins aren't merely covered or toned,7:21 your sins are gone. And another thing, there's a difference between the old and the new covenant. The old covenant is a shadow of the real thing. It says in Hebrews 10 1, for the law says it is7:33 only a shadow of good things to come and not the very form of things. I'll stop right there. If we had a light, I can see it here, you probably can't see it where I am, but my hand here I can see from this light right7:44 over here, I can see my shadow up over near the piano of this hand moving around, the shadows there. Now you could look at the shadow and you could tell a lot about my hand, but that's only 2 dimensional And it's it7:55 doesn't have the coloration to it. But it's when you see the real thing, the incarnational component. That means the enfleshment. When you see this, now you're seeing three-dimensional, and you can see the coloration,8:06 etcetera. Well, what so it is in the old covenant, you're seeing a shadow. It's a glimpse, but it's not a good enough glimpse. But now in the incarnation, the enfleshment of God in the person of Jesus, now you8:18 get three-dimensional and and you get the actual coloration. You actually can see what really this new covenant is all about. And so all the steps of the ancient old8:30 testament covenant making ceremony that we just walked through 2 weeks ago, and we went through all those passage from the old testament, that's what your new testament is again. The old testament it was distinctly8:42 physical. In the new testament portions of it are gonna be distinctly spiritual, but if you wanna understand your new testament, your new covenant, you can only understand it if you understand it in the context8:54 of the covenant making ceremony, the steps that you go through. Remember the steps we just walked through? Now let's go through with only new testament passages. Here we go. When Jesus and I decided9:06 to make covenant, we went before a crowd of witnesses in open field, and I stood facing Jesus, and he said, let's swap outer garments, let's swap robes. And I said, Jesus, if we doSuperior New Covenant: Sins Gone, Robes Exchanged 9:18 that, you're gonna get ripped off, because I have this shabby clothes, it's not worth anything, and you have those royal garments, that's incredible. And he says, I know but I'm up for this, let's9:29 swap outer garments. And so we swapped outer garments, and that means an exchange of identity. So much so that when the father looks at me, he sees now9:41 the righteousness of Christ because I'm wrapped in his robes. When the father looked at his son, he saw my shabby filthiness and it took him to the cross as a consequence.9:53 This exchange of identities cost Jesus enormously and it got you and me off the cross. That's what it says in second Corinthians chapter 5 21. He made him who knew no sin to be10:05 sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. I wanna admit to you openly, I do not understand this passage. This passage is over my head. I have contemplated these words,10:18 I would assume it'd be in the hundreds of hours trying to understand fully what it means. I understand the exchange, I get that part. He made him who knew no sin to be sin. It does not say,10:30 he made him who knew no sin to take upon us on himself our sins as if he's responsible, but he made him to be sin. The full10:42 absorption of the sins of the world are poured upon this 1, his son. Not till we get to heaven where we fully understand the implications, the full implications10:54 of what takes place in this passage. I wish we had time to stop and unpack some of the thinking about this verse. Time doesn't permit us there because we'd be we'd be stopped there for a long time, but I I give this11:05 simple illustration. Years ago, I was involved with operation rescue. This is back when operation rescue was in its heyday. So it'd be a long time ago, I don't know, 20 25 years ago or so. And and operation11:17 rescue would attempt to close down the killing centers, the obituaries, of our nation. And so all over the nation, people sprung up and they blocked the entrances as civil disobedience is no different than than11:29 when when people took civil actions of civil disobedience for civil rights in the sixties or even actions that founded our own denomination. This denomination, the Western denomination was founded, for the people11:41 person of radical abolitionism to free slaves back when slavery was normative. And the earliest Wesleyan churches, in case you don't know this, were founded 1 day's journey apart intentionally so they could smuggle11:52 slaves out of the south into the north. So we were born out of civil disobedience in an appropriate way. That means we were obeying God's laws over man's laws when man's laws are inappropriate12:04 and violate the truth of scripture. We were also as I think you all know 18 48 in Seneca Falls, New York, the first women's right to vote conference was held in a Wesleyan church. We launched helped launch that movement.12:14 You women get to vote in part because of the denomination that we're part of. So we were born out of that. So here's a group of people attempting to stop the killing and the killing centers and closing them as well as12:26 living in Dallas Fort Worth. I did not feel my calling was that, I felt my calling was to bring large groups of people to form circles on the sidewalks legally, we had the right legally to be there for worship and12:36 praise, but many of my friends were involved directly in operation rescue. In the course of the time, in the early days of operation rescue, some of the police departments did not know how to handle them appropriately12:46 and there was a lot of a really brutality to some of the people. I went to city hall, I complained about it mightily to Dallas City Hall. As a result, operation rescue said, will you be a liaison at each 1 of these12:57 events? And I got permission from the captain of the tactical unit to stand 3 feet away from every arrest as it was being made. Back in that that day, nobody had video cameras, very few. So we had to bring in video13:07 cameras. We were allowed to have 1. The police department have 1. And so every arrest was filmed to make sure it was in compliance with except for the law. So people weren't beat up on the spot, but they were just simply13:16 carried carried away. And so I formed friendships with quite a few of the police and I would meet through with them on a Thursday before a Saturday before an operation rescue event, and we would talk through what was13:26 going to happen. 1 day I was pleading with the, this was early on the process and pleading with them not to be so hard on. I said, these are passive resistors. These are people who are not gonna resist you. These are13:36 nonviolent people. These are just grandmas and grandpas and kids and parents and these are normal people like all of us. They're not violent offenders in any way. There's no no no need to put particular pressure points13:47 where they would take the thumb and ram it in right here to to inflict some pain to get the person to comply. So you don't have to do that with these. These are totally passive. You can move them. We'll pay for the13:55 gurneys. If you don't have the gurneys, we'll pay for you. You just carry them if you want to. There's no need for you to there were some some terrible things that had happened early on. And so I was arguing that case,14:05 and and I I it wasn't always being totally well received by the 4 or 5 members of the police department I was meeting with in Dallas police department. And at that point, the guy who was in charge of operation rescue, a14:17 young Catholic layman who who later went into the priesthood, but a very brilliant guy who's an MIT graduate, and and and he was the leader of operation rescue, and he finally broke in and he says, Jim, you don't have to14:28 you don't have to try to defend us. I I I want him to be quiet because I was trying to defend him. He said, you don't have to defend us. I I don't I don't care I don't care what they do to me. They can drag me, limp for14:39 them. They can inflict any kind of pain they want. That's nothing compared to what's going on in there and the pain of our savior and the pain of those babies are going, I I don't care what they do. They if if they kill14:48 me this Saturday, it makes no difference. I thought I think it does. I'm trying to defend you. And then what he went on to say was 1 of the most eloquent speeches I've ever heard. He says,15:00 someone has to absorb the sin of this world. You see, and then he looked at the police department, and it it it was almost the point of tears, and he gave those eloquent speeches, we're not there as protesters. You said15:10 you're used to all kinds of protest groups, we're not protesters. We're not protesting against somebody. You're used you said you were used to homosexual protest, we're not like them. You're used to Ku Klux Klan15:21 protesters, We're not them. You're used to all the union protests. We're not them. We're not we're not protest. We're not blaming anybody. I thought to myself, well, aren't we kind of kind of trying to stop what's going15:32 on? He says, no. No. The problem is not the abortionists who are killing babies. It's not the women who are going or the men who are paying for them. It's not it's not spineless leaders who15:44 who put laws like that. It's not wimpy judges who won't defend the unborn. They're not the problem. We're the problem. The church is the problem. We're not gathering to protest. We're gathering as an act15:56 of repentance. We're repenting for our sin. That's why we're there. That's why we don't care what you do to us. We're not protesting. We're not even making demands. We're laying down our lives to be taken.16:08 And then he said, somebody's got to absorb the sin of this society, and we're willing to take it. Do it as what you want. And then he continued. He said,16:20 somebody's gotta take all of this, and we're not beating up on them or them or blaming them. Do to us what you want because we're repenting of the sin in our lives that have caused this to take place. What what threw in16:32 mind at that moment was I just in a nanosecond, I thought, what do you think of a boss that beats up on somebody intermediate leadership in the company? He's really tough on him and he goes to lower management, beats up16:43 on him and and and and that guy goes home and verbally attacks his wife who who who who's hard on junior and and and junior slaps Sally and Sally kicks the dog and the dog bites the cat. I mean,16:55 there's this kind of ongoing handing on of anger and wrath in our society. Getting man on the freeway, so you take it on somebody else. And he's saying, somebody's gotta be the shock absorber and just take it17:07 all and not pass it on. And what he's saying that all this sin, this killing, this murder, it's it's our fault. It's the church has been silent. It's an act of repentance. And in that17:19 instant, this passage had more sense. Jesus, here's this flow of thousands of years of cumulative sin and, loom, he17:30 becomes the grand shock absorber and says the father made him to be sin on our behalf. I tell you this exchange of robes cost him17:42 a lot. Philippians 2 7, but he emptied himself. That's the passage you've heard me talk about so many times, kenosis in the Greek, k e n o s I s k17:54 e n o s I s. The reason I want you to know kenosis because we can't translate it. There's no way to translate. It means to empty oneself empty oneself of oneself. I can't empty me of me. I don't have the capacity to do18:06 that. You can't empty you of you. But he emptied himself of himself. His god like qualities, he he he he took that out somehow. When you're God, you can do things like that. And he took out18:17 this and he took on the form of a servant and being made in the likeness of man. This is great exchange where God said, I will swap with you. Second 1Strength Exchange: Grace Powers Weakness 18:29 is exchange of belts or shrinks. Second Corinthians 12 7, and because of the surpassing greatness of revelations for this reason to keep me from exalting myself, this is Paul18:41 writing, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me. Now I I grew up hearing sermons about this, perhaps you did too. And what is this thorn in the flesh that Paul faced? And18:53 I've heard pastor say, well the thorn in the flesh Paul must had some illness. No, it doesn't say that. Somebody, well, it was his his eyesight. He had trouble with eyesight. Later gives clues to that. So that was19:05 his thorn in the flesh was his challenging eyesight. No. The worst theory I ever heard was Paul thought that the thorn of his thorn in the flesh was his mother-in-law. Now it does not say that anywhere in the text. Okay?19:17 A thorn in the flesh, and it it describes that they're a messenger of Satan to buffet me. Now the people who read this had come from a Hebrew culture. They know a Hebraism. A Hebraism is a19:29 particular you unique, idiomatic use of the language. In other words, phrases. Like we say, the sun came up. The sun didn't come up. We're not pre Copernicus. We know the earth turned, but we say that. It's a it's a19:40 cloaca, it's a matter of speech. And so the thorn a thorn in the flesh was a known for a curse 3 times in your old testament. Joshua once, I believe numbers, I can't remember the third 1 right now, but it occurs and it19:51 always refers to the enemies of God trying to thwart what God is doing. It goes on to explain it right there, a messenger of Satan to buffet me. So I was trying to do the work of God and here came here came the people20:02 who are actually functioning as the enemies of God trying to stop the work of God. That's what Paul was facing. He goes on, to keep me from exalting myself concerning this I entreated the Lord 3 times. I went to Lord 320:14 times, God God help me. And he said to me, I'm going to help you. No, he didn't. Why did God not say, Paul, I'm gonna help you.20:25 And he said to me, my grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in weakness. Now this is distinctly covenantal language that makes no sense unless we20:37 understand the covenant. My grace is sufficient. Why did why did God say we knew his grace is sufficient, but Paul's not asking, he's asking for help. What he's saying, Paul, is if anybody knows about grace, you do.20:49 Charisma. The word isn't original. If anybody knows about charisma, about grace, Paul, you did. You wrote the book on it. Now knowing that, you know it goes on, my for in my power is21:01 perfected in weakness. Paul, if anybody knows about that, the word grace, the grace we we define grace oftentimes as unmerited love. Now that's not an inaccurate definition, it's just an inadequate definition. Grace21:12 is more than unmerited love. Grace is God's willingness to release his power in your behalf though you don't deserve it. Repeating, grace is God's willingness to release his power in your behalf though you don't21:24 deserve it. Paul, you know about grace. I'm willing to release my power in your behalf though you don't deserve it. And because of that, you've declared in your weakness because we are covenant21:36 partners, my strength. The exchange of belts, exchange of strengths, my strength is now with you. And that's why it says at the end of the passage, verse 10, it says, therefore, I will be content with this is Paul21:48 saying, I'll be content with weaknesses, insults, distresses, persecutions, difficulties, for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, I am strong. You sing that. That's 1 of the songs we sing here on Sunday21:59 mornings. Now that doesn't make sense unless you understand covenant because you can't be weak and strong at the same time. Logically, that's not true. When I'm weak, I'm strong. No. If I'm weak, I'm weak or if I'm22:09 strong, I'm strong. But Paul understands covenant and so do we. When I'm weak, I'm strong. Why am I strong when I'm weak? In that weakness is strong, we exchange belts. That's covenantal language and22:21 that exchange took place. He took upon our weakness and like a, Isaiah is gonna tell us, like a lamb to slaughter, he was killed. If you worked22:33 around butchering animals, a hog doesn't go quietly. In fact, the decibel level of hogs being killed for slaughter is so loud that you literally have to have ear protection severe. Cattle22:45 can be pretty challenging on that. A lamb, you can walk up, you can slit its throat, it'll bleed to death, it'll stand there, it'll not make a sound. And so that's the analogy, he chose weakness, our weakness,22:57 and he was like a lamb to slaughter. And we will operate in the power of God. You remember, this is not the first time I've taught on the covenant here, though some of you are newer to the church and may not23:09 have heard of it. But this is gonna jog the memory for a number of you. How many of you remember the phrase cry grace to the mountain as you drive by? How many remember that? Good good, a number of you do. My mother and23:19 3 others. Okay. Zechariah 4, then he answered and said to me, this is the word of the Lord Zerubbabel's saying. Now Zerubbabel was trying to get the church built, building the23:30 temple. He's trying to get the building for worship built and all kinds of problems, difficulties. They couldn't seem to get the thing built. So he says, here's the word of the Lord. Not by might, not by your might. You23:42 can't do it. Not by your power. You can't do it. But by my spirit, says the Lord. That's covenantal language. So you're not gonna operate in your might. I'm gonna do an exchange with you. You're gonna operate mine. He23:53 says, what are you, oh great mountain? Now, he's talking about a mountain. This this mountain needs to be quarried. Looks like our mountain right here. It needs to be brought down. We need to be quarried down and cut the24:01 stones out of it to build the temple. He says, what are you, oh, great mountain? Before in other words, the implications is this mountain is strong. In Fact the word el mountain in Hebrew actually means strong. Before24:11 Zerubbabel, you became a plain. I brought you down. In other words, they hewed out the rocks. They got what they need, the stones for building a temple. Before Zerubbabel, you will become a plain, and you will bring24:21 forth the top stones. You people will bring forth the top stones with shouts of grace. Grace to it. They were facing this incredible challenge trying to build the temple. How difficult it was.24:33 Zerubbabel, get the people to write grace to the mountain. What is grace to the mountain mean? His willingness to unrelease his power in my behalf, though I don't deserve it. Grace to the mountain. Release your power,24:44 God, to us to get this job done. And so for years, I ask you as you drove by the freeway when this was just a big old mountain the gray grace to the mountain. And and when my kids were younger, we'd roll down the24:56 windows as we come here, and they get really embarrassed particularly if the stoplight is red out here and we pull pull out there and I pull the windows down, and we go, grace to the mountain, and the other people in25:06 cars around us were like this. My kids were ducking undercover. They were totally embarrassed. But you did it, and we're here because of that. And so it goes on to say, the hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of25:17 this house and hence his hands will finish it. Here we are at the point, this is really applicable to us. Here we are at this point on the very verge of finishing this. What's gonna cause us to be able to see 60000025:28 dollars come come through us is not because of us, it's because this point right here, this exchange of belts and the strengths, and that means the assets. And it means all of his as heaven's assets are ours. Well, you25:40 understand covenant. You understand he's going to flow that through us. That's why I asked when Eli made the announcement appear today, and by the way, Eli is the mayor's son. And when he made that announcement up here a25:51 little bit ago, he said, don't fill it out today. Don't fill it out, I want you to pray. Now that's not that's not some pastor's trick. That's an issue of God speaking to your heart supernaturally,26:04 a dollar amount that we will fill out. And when if you truly hear him and listen to him and not are not driven by panic, or not driven by watching watching Standard and Poor's, or or or not the Dow26:16 Jones, or even the checkbook, you're actually listening to him and he as your covenant partner, who not only owns the cattle on 1000 hills, but owns the hills they're standing on,26:28 he will tell you the right amount. His mouth is not broken, our ears are not to be broken. And and it says here, we'll not only start that, we'll finish this project. And this is a promise not just as rubble, this is26:40 a promise to us as a people. He'll speak to you something. It may be scary, I admit that. I don't think I've ever filled out with these cards. I wouldn't go on, but then the story start pouring in about, I can't believe26:51 what God did. I can't believe what God did. I can't believe what God did. God's helped me to meet every 1 of these, and that's exactly the experience we're all gonna have. If you let God, not some pastor persuade you,27:03 not moved by the emotions, not just because you want a gym, a kitchen, you want what they call the commons or the mezzanine, the second floor, not because we want them and need them, because God has plans for them and he27:13 can speak to us. He'll speak and tell you an actual amount. And as those of you married, husbands and wives come together. This is covenantal. This is living out the covenant in a very practical way. Let's go to the27:24 third 1, exchange of weapons. When you exchange weapons it's a symbolic of the exchange of enemies. What was our greatest enemy? Death. Oh, man. Death. Do we hate death? We don't likeCovenant Steps: Weapons to Name Exchange 27:36 death. It is awful. I hear stories people saying, oh you know violence in the background kind of melodrama and people, no death is not pretty. Death is not pretty at all. Death is hard.27:48 And then that's our enemy, his enemy is the evil 1. His enemy is Satan himself, and there's an exchange that takes place. He says, you take on my enemy, I'm gonna embolden you to be able to28:00 stand against the work of the evil 1 on earth, and I'm gonna take on your enemy, death. Ephesians 6, finally be strong in the Lord and strength of his might. Notice it does not say, be strong with your strength, be28:11 strong in his might. Why? That's that's covenant language, the exchange. Why would you be strong in somebody else's? Nobody says, hey, Jim be strong in Luke's strength. No, I can't. Hey, Luke be strong in Jim's28:23 strength. No, we we we can't do that with each other. But when there's a covenant exchange between the the Jesus and you, be strong in his might. His strength flows into you.28:35 Strong in his might. Put on the full armor of Jim. Oh, no. Or Dave or Mary or Bill or Jason. No. Put on the full armor of God. Put on his28:47 armor. Let's go clear to the very the very end of that. Notice the very verse 17, we're going to the end of the passage, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Jim? No. Take the sword of the28:59 spirit, which is the word of God. There's that grand exchange of weapons that takes place, so you're now operating on his strength. There's things happening supernatural in your life you cannot explain29:10 because you're operating in his strength. Number 4, sacrificial animal is cut. Hebrews 10 19, since therefore brethren we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus.29:23 Oh, there's always blood that's shed. So now we see where the the sacrificial animal is the lamb, the lamb of God, Jesus. By the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way29:35 in which he inaugurated for us through the veil that is his flesh. Now what is Hebrews, the writer of Hebrews? We don't know for sure who wrote Hebrews. What is he talking about? Through the veil, that is his flesh.29:46 The veil? Well you know, it goes and takes us back to Matthew 27. And Jesus cried out again. Now Jesus is hanging on the cross at this point. He cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit, and29:58 behold the veil of the temple was born it was torn in 2 from top to bottom. This veil was an enormously thick curtain, extremely thick, a massive curtain. And that thing split30:10 from top to bottom in the same way that the animal and the sacrificial animal was cut from top to bottom and split open. And that veil30:22 was a physical representation of the spiritual reality of the flesh of Jesus being cut in half, torn in half, and as a result of that, we30:34 had access to the father through that. The walk of death and the tearing of the veil, and now our identities are further merged. Go to the next 1. The walk of death, give it's a30:45 matter of giving up our rights. Our individual identities are now lost. Luke 17, whoever seeks his life shall lose it. Whoever loses life shall preserve it. These passages don't make no sense unless you understand30:57 covenant. Then if I walk through that covenant, I'm saying I'm giving up my life, I yield my life right now. I lose my identity from this point on, I'm forever blended with the identity of Jesus. Luke 9, and he was31:09 saying to them, if anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. Number 6, the covenant mark. In the old testament, there31:21 was a mark on the body of circumcision, or in some tribal groups, there would be the incision on the wrist. Spiritually in the new testament now, circumcision is different. Paul31:33 redefines it. It's circumcision of the heart. Now what does that mean? Romans 2, for he is not a Jew who is 1 outwardly, neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is31:45 a Jew who is 1 inwardly. Now Paul is redefining what it means to be a part of the covenant people. He's now broadening it from the original Jewish people, and31:56 grafting us into that process, and broadening the definition of Jew. He's redefining circumcision in the New Testament, and circumcision is that which is of the32:08 heart by the spirit. What does it mean? Remember we talked about the reason for circumcision last week. Circumcision of the heart means we cut away the flesh. The32:20 flesh don't think of flesh being skin, the word flesh when Paul writes about it generally almost always means that which is sinful desires. We cut away sinful practices,32:32 we cut away sinful desires, we walk away from sinful practices. He's not asking for circumcision physically on the body now, he's asking for circumcision of the32:44 heart. We're willing to cut away fleshly or sinful practices. Number 7, the pronouncement of blessing and curses. Now this is the 1 that does not apply to us.32:56 That did not apply in the Abrahamic covenant, the pronouncement of blessings and curses do not occur. It doesn't say curse shall you be. Now it is true we bring we bring curses on ourselves if we sin, but God is not33:06 pronouncing curses on us. This 1 applies in Moses. Deuteronomy 28, blessed shall you be when you rise up when you lay down. Blessed shall you be when you go in the city when you're in the country. But cursed shall you be33:17 if you violate me. That's from the Moses covenant. Instead, what we find in the new testament, in the new covenant is this avalanche of blessings in the the most incredible33:29 example is Philippians 4 9 19, and my God shall supply all your needs according to his riches in the blessings. Okay. It says, he's gonna supply your needs according to his riches. Okay? If I said to you, I'm33:41 gonna supply I'm gonna supply all your needs according to my riches. There would be limitations to that, there's only so much I can do. But if somebody who has everything comes to you and says, I'm33:53 gonna supply your needs according to or based upon what I have, wow, you're set. And God is saying, I'm gonna supply your needs in accordance with what I have, he has everything. Now why34:05 does the why does the curses not follow through on this Abrahamic covenant? Because the Abrahamic covenant, the David covenant, and the new or Jesus covenant are 1 and the same. And I take you back to that passage,34:16 Galatians 3 13, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become Now remember earlier I said he became sin for us and I said to you, I can't fully understand that. I don't grasp totally and fully what that34:28 means yet. That really boggles my mind. Here's another 1 that goes in that, it's the same pattern. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become He didn't just take the curse, he became a34:39 curse for us. And so that's why in this new covenant, you don't have a saying, the covenant you're under now, blessed shall you be, but cursed shall you be. No. We well, we bring curses on ourselves. We can34:51 certainly do that, but nobody's pronouncing it on ourselves. Nobody else is saying, boy I'm gonna smash you if. That's not the language of this covenant, that's the language of the Moses covenant, and that's another35:02 reason why the Moses covenant which is the old covenant is not nearly as good as the new covenant. Remember what I said to you last week, the old covenant technically is is the35:13 Moses covenant, the new covenant is Abraham, David, and flows into the person of Jesus. And then the covenant meal, John 6. And John 6, I'm the bread of life, your fathers ate of the man in this35:25 wilderness and they died. This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that you may eat of it and not die. Now, at this point in verse 52, the Jews get confused. They get confused, begin to argue with 1 another35:37 saying, how can this man give his flesh to eat? They think he's being cannibalistic. And he goes on to say, if you don't drink of my blood and eat of my flesh. He's talking about the covenant meal. He's actually giving35:47 them awareness of what you and I would call the Eucharist, or you and I would call the Lord's supper. He's saying if you don't make covenant with me, you don't have life.36:00 If you don't have a covenant with me, it's over for you. And then he goes on to say in an incredible passage in in first Corinthians chapter 11. He says when you enter into the covenant, this is Paul speaking, when you36:10 enter the covenant meal, make sure you're careful. Don't enter into this flippantly. Make sure when you enter into the covenant meal you do so out of reverence. And in fact, he says the fact that36:22 many of you have not entered into this covenant meal with reverence. This is why the communion, we take it seriously. We don't just charge into it flippantly. He says, that's why Paul running to the church in Corinth, he36:33 says some of you participated in the Eucharist, and you know so flippantly about your sins, and that's why some of you are sick and ill, and that's why some have actually died in your church. Now now don't take that36:45 passage wrong. Not everybody who's sick and ill, not everybody who dies dies because of those reasons, because we're in a broken world. But in other words, there were people who are flippant about it and it brought up on36:53 them those kinds of consequences. Now let's go to the next step, the exchange of names. At the point of the covenant making ceremony, I became known as Christian, Christian we say it, The I a n suffix means 1 who37:05 is of somebody else, 1 who is of Christ. You're called a Christian, 1 who is of Christ. And he took upon he could have called himself the son of God, which he is, he chose to take upon himself the son of man. He37:17 identified with me, and now it brings us to the last point of the sermon. It's the most important. The last step I didn't talk about is to seal or test or to prove a covenant.Show more In this video 0:00 The Centrality of the Covenant9:07 Superior New Covenant: Sins Gone, Robes Exchanged18:29 Strength Exchange: Grace Powers Weakness27:26 Covenant Steps: Weapons to Name Exchange37:21 Sealing Covenant: Sons Exchanged
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