23/3/2013 - David Asscherick The New Covenant

all right happy Sabbath everyone let's see do I have anything important to say before the sermon nope Oh No let's pray nothing to say father please be with us this morning as we give our lives into your hand you are the Potter we are the clay you have been so good to us not just this week you have been great to us this year our life is in your hand father we thank you for the good times and for the trials as well though many of those trials we recognize do not come directly from your hand we believe that you can use and employ even the darkest moments father be with us now as we seek to understand you better as Blake and Sondra have shared may we understand who you really are your true character of love and goodness and mercy Grace and father as we spend time here as a church community this morning in this little oasis in spiritual time may our understanding of Scripture be clearer may our understanding of you be clearer and more accurate and father I just pray that you would do something more than human this morning that you would send your spirit not only into this room which would be insufficient but that you would be true to the promise that that the Spirit would be in us and father please be now in the person of your spirit inside of us to lead us and guide us into all truth I thank you for the Kings love Church for pastor Marcus and young-shin and just ask that we would today be drawn into your presence through the foolishness of preaching is our prayer in Jesus name let everyone say Amen all right well I understand that surf camp was last weekend so we missed quite a number of you and I'm going to just spend not for that purpose only but it will be helpful to those of you who were at surf camp or who were away we're just going to spend a bit of review just a brief moment in review and I'm gonna invite you to open your Bibles to Psalm 40 it's where we began our last presentation Psalm 40 and just maybe five or yeah five or ten minutes here in review to sort of set the the table for what we're gonna be talking about today which is could you turn me down just a little bit Nathan I feel like it's kind of Nate can you turn me down just a bit thanks man we basically said that when we get to the Bible particularly the New Testament we find that the New Testament is saturated with this family language this family motif God is our Father and the family of God has been United in Christ Jesus as our elder brother we refer to one another as brother and sister and that that family motif goes all the way back to the creation and we noted that where God in particularly the genealogies of Luke goes all the way back to Adam and he says so-and-so was the son of so-and-so was the son of so-and-so and then he says Adam who was the son of God and so what you have basically in Scripture both old and new testament but really prominently in the New Testament is this idea that God created a family he created a what everyone God created a family and that family is the human family and extension of the divine family Father Son and Holy Spirit and that family then experienced a break up it experienced a fracture because of rebellion because of sin now that that break that fracture in the human divine family would eventually be bridged and God would re-establish and reconnect himself with the human family and it would happen through the Messiah Jesus and in the Old Testament we have lots of sort of anticipations and prophecies about the coming Messiah these are what we call Messianic prophecies passages that give us some clues some hint some some intimation of who the Messiah would be and what he would do and what he would accomplish and where he would come from and what the nature of his mission would be and one of those messianic prophecies was in Psalm 40 and let just go there together psalm 40 this is how we began the last time we were together and the Psalms in particular are David's rapturous musical musings and so we find a number of these sort of Messianic prophecies emerging in the Psalms David in in rapturous musical song or poetry would have his mind under the impression of the Spirit turn to the coming Messiah the one who would set the divine family back into harmony and unity with the human family and one of these prophecies is found in Psalm chapter 40 we read all the way down from verse 1 but in the interest of time today we'll just go to verse 6 it says sacrifice and offering you did not desire that's not God's primary interest in the words of Blake God is not a blood thirsty God and he's exactly correct there my ears you have opened and we learned last Sabbath that the other word therefore opened is what my ears you have pierced very good my ears you have pierced burnt offering and sin you did not require then I said behold I come in the scroll of the book is it is written of me in the Old Testament prophecies it is written of me and today we're gonna spend time on this one here verse 8 I delight to do your Will O my god yes your law is what does it say your law is where is within my heart now the last time that we were together we spent most of our time on verse 6 and we noted that a Jew reading that prophecy would immediately be aware of exactly what the prophet in this case David the psalmist was saying my ears you have pierced and we went back to Exodus chapter 21 and we learned that that really powerful little law in Israel that when a servant went to work for someone else to indenture himself to another person he could indenture himself for how many years does anyone remember up to 6 years very good to pay off a debt or for some other purpose and just remind me of this it said that if the man indentured himself remember I was working for Leon last Sabbath so so if I indention myself to Leon and I go in as a single man how do I go out of my indentured servitude I go out a single pretty simple so I go in a single I go out a single if however I go in as married and place myself for two for five up to six years in there Yardley on you're on the opposite side this time if if I work for Leon if I go in as a married man when I go out how do I go out as a married man right but then there was that that little caveat that that well what if this happens and that was what if I go in as a single man but then I find one of Leon's daughters or nieces or servants or maybe a daughter of one of his servants and I fall in love with her and we get married and we have children in the course of my working for Leon I could then go to Leon at the end of my my period of servitude and I could say Leon I don't want to go free I love you I love working with you you are my master I don't want to be out on my own I love my wife I love my children I love my family I want to work for you remember this and then Leon could say all right that sounds fine and good I love you in the same way that you love me I love what you bring to my clan to my tribe to my family then Leon and I would both go to the does anyone remember we would go to the judges we would go to the judges and then the judges would take us to the door as a symbol who remembers what did that mean what does the door symbolize it means that I can what I'm free to leave if I want and I'm free to stay and then the judges would take and they would put my ear against the doorpost and they would pierce it and that pierced ear that all through my ear was a symbol that I was a willing servant that I loved my master I loved my wife I loved my family and even though I was free to go I was choosing of my own volition to stay in Leon's household and to be a blessing to him and he too I and so here in Psalm 40 when it says my ears you have opened literally my ears you have pierced every Jew would immediately understand that this Messiah would be a willing indentured servant to his master that's his father God the Father so that he could keep and preserve his wife that's the church and the children now with that sort of in mind with that picture in mind I want to I want to pick up on this idea of this coven ental faithfulness of Jesus who is and you'll remember the analogy from last time Jesus who is God and so he wraps his arm firmly around the divine family he is one and the same with God in the words of Ellen White in Christ was life original unborrowed and under I've that's her emphatic way of saying what John said in John chapter 1 in the beginning was the word and the Word was with God and the Word was remember this the word was not so Jesus was in the most emphatic sense God and so Jesus as God in fact there's this great little passage in the New Testament it's in Philippians chapter 2 it says that when Jesus became a man he didn't try to steal godhood he didn't try to rob godhood because he already had it there's no need to go steal something that you're already in possession of and so Jesus he has his arm wrapped firmly around divinity and around the divine family but then Jesus in this marvelous condescension became a man can he say amen to that this is the good news Jesus becomes a man and in so doing he in circles also the human family and as he binds this human divine family together in this covenant 'el faithfulness the family of God that was established and Eden is reunited and reconciled recounts 'old brought back together well what I want to try and do in our presentation here is talk about this verse eight one of the elements here of this messianic prophecy is I delight to do your will oh my god yeah your law is where is it everyone yeah your law is within my heart okay so that finishes our review ten minutes what I want to do now is sort of just orient us to the whole biblical concept of covenants with the raising of hands how many of us have heard of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant raise your hands you've heard those ideas before okay great what we're going to try and do today is understand the old and the New Covenant in a biblical way and I'm going to imagine for many of perhaps most of us here today in a new way and in the correct way let's just start sort of in the beginning you could go all the way back you could make a biblical case for the fact that God's covenants with mankind begins in the Garden of Eden and God makes a covenant with Adam and the Covenant is actually fairly simple God provides a place to live God provides life God provides breath God provides companionship and everything for the happiness delight and pleasure of Adam and Eve incidentally the Garden of Eden the word Eden means pleasure and God placed Adam and Eve in a garden of pleasure and he had one minor stipulation and the minor stipulation was of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden don't eat of it right so so God made this broad broad broad palette of freedom of every tree of the garden you may freely eat but and there was a very small voting booth of of restriction and that was of this one tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the myths of the garden don't eat of that but as the story goes Lucifer Satan actually comes along and he recasts God's vast palette of freedom with limited restriction and he actually makes it seem as though there's this vast area of restriction but just a little bit of freedom he says has God really said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden and so he completely twists and begins to disorients the picture of God and the minds of both Adam and Eve they sin and fall and now it becomes necessary for God to continue to re-establish his covenant with peoples always in the hopes and always with the anticipation that someone will at last be true to this basic covenant I'll be faithful to you you will be faithful to me that's the essence of the covenant God had asked Adam and Eve and a very reasonable very responsible and very understandable way I've been faithful to you you be faithful to me that's the nature of a covenant right that's that's how covenants work if I if I have a covenant with Tim and I extend my hand I expect him to act act responsibly and I'll act responsibly that's the nature of the covenant but in the case of the of the covenant with Adam Adam irresponsibly Eve also acted irresponsibly and so the Covenant was broken God then begins to reestablish his covenant this is really in many ways the history of the Old Testament is a history of the establishment of a covenant the breaking of a covenant the establishment of a covenant the breaking of the Covenant in fact take a look at Genesis chapter 6 turn there we'll just go through a brief history of the covenant here to sort of orient ourselves when we get to the new testament to just how the covenant would be fulfilled it springs a bit of a surprise on the student of Scripture as we're going to see so we get to a Genesis chapter 6 this is the story of Noah and verse 18 Genesis chapter 6 verse 18 God says but I will establish my and what's the next word everyone I will establish my covenant with you and you shall go into the ark you your sons and your wives and your sons wives with you and he goes on to basically give the terms of the Covenant I will establish a covenant with Noah now there's so much here I wish I had time to sort of develop this but I would just briefly point out just how significant biblically the covenant with Noah was in the beginning when God created the heavens and I follow this this is really heavy awesome stuff it says in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth and the earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters in other words there was a great big watery mass and then it says that the first thing that God does is he says let there be light and the second thing that God does is he with his voice effectively splits the waters above the firmament this space that he's creating with the waters below the firmament and he creates this space and then on the the watery mass below he brings forth dry land and then he starts to fill these spaces that he creates in fact that's really how creation works God creates his face and then he fills his face right so he creates the space and the air the waters above and the waters below and then he fills it with the birds he creates the space of the dry land and he fills it with the animals he creates the space of the Seas and then he fills it with the fish and the sea creatures and then fascinatingly when he gets to the Sabbath he creates a space not in G graphical space dimensions he creates a space in time and he fills it with himself so we had this marvelous sort of creation motif or God creates a space fills a space creates a space fills a space creates a space and fills a space and very interestingly Adam was made of the dirt he was made out of the earth right the Lord God formed Adam of the dust of the ground but when Adam was unfaithful to the Covenant and then Adams descendants were unfaithful and faithful and faithful and faithful in fact their unfaithfulness became so rampant and so terrible that God finally said wha I got a hit control-alt-delete here and start from scratch and I want you to notice what God does in creation God separated the waters that were above the firmament from the waters that were below the firmament now watch what he does in in recreation the Bible says that the windows of the heaven were opened in other words God removed his restraining hand and the waters began to pour from the sky right and it also says that the Fountains of the deep were opened and so God removes his restraining hand here and you know what happens to the earth in the flood it becomes a watery mass again we're in the beginning there had been a watery mass God had separated the Earth's are the waters from above from the waters below here God removes his separating hand that gap is filled and once again he has a watery mess but here rather than selecting Adam who he made of the dirt he selects Noah and we just read that God would make his covenant with Noah and it's very interesting if you read Genesis six seven and eight it says an interesting thing about Noah it says that Noah was a man of the earth now your Bible probably says that Noah was a farmer Noah was a farmer but literally what it says in the Hebrew is that Noah was an earthy man in the same kind of way that Adam was an earthy man now Adams sinned and fell when he partook illegitimately of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and shortly after God established his covenant with Noah Noah fell by partaking inappropriately and illegitimate Lee of the fruit of the vine and becoming drunk so there's all these very interesting little parallels as God is establishing a covenant then that covenant is broken he establishes a covenant a covenant is broken well in the history of the Old Testament not long after Noah's failure to keep the covenant the children of men decided to build a great big spiraling tower reaching into the heavens and God confounded the languages of the people and out of this confounding of the languages of the people in Genesis chapter 11 shortly thereafter in fact Genesis chapter 12 we find God calling a man named who knows this God calls a man named Abram is his name and God establishes his covenant with Abram now the Covenant that had been begun with Adam that Adam was unfaithful to that had been continued in Noah that Noah had been unfaithful to God now says here's my man Abram is my man look at Genesis chapter 15 Genesis 15 this is after the call of Abram Genesis chapter 15 we'll notice verse 18 it says on the same day the Lord made a what did he make everyone he made a covenant with Abram saying to your descendants I have given this land from the river of Egypt to the great river the river Euphrates and then he goes on to talk about it so God here makes a covenant with Abram now the Covenant is essentially this let me just try and explain how the Covenant works going back to the illustration with Tim God essentially says Abram I will be faithful to you I will multiply your descendants and I will give you land and in in ancient times that was like basically life to have descendants and to have land that was the essence of life it guaranteed security it guaranteed prosperity it was your guarantee that your lineage would continue but there was a third element of the prophecy not only will I give you descendants in land but there was this sort of mysterious element that the Messiah the deliverer the one who will come and set right the human divine family he will come through your lineage and God extended his hand to Abram and Abraham reciprocated and they had a covenant okay now God called Abram not because Abram was so awesome not because Abram was so faithful but pretty because he could see that in Abraham's heart there was a willingness to believe there was a willingness to what everyone to believe and a very interesting little thing takes place that many of us don't really understand and and if we didn't understand it we wouldn't have to pause and deal with it we just have to deal with it briefly here God makes us covenant with Abram in Genesis 15 and the covenant is basically that I'll multiply your descendants well Abraham was an Abram who becomes Abraham was an old man by this time so was his wife Sarah and after a number of years when Sarah is not getting pregnant and there is no indication physiologically that she is going to or that she should both Sarah and Abraham sort of conspired together to create away now watch this to create a way whereby God's covenant will be fulfilled by them God's half of the Covenant will be fulfilled by them Abraham's job was basically to believe the promises of God you believe the promises of God you follow me you believe in me and you obey my modest and reasonable statutes and I will fulfill my covenant with you but Abraham actually he overstepped his boundaries and rather than just seeking to fulfill his own part of the bargain which was basically to believe he tries to fulfill God's part of the bargain and he takes one of Sarah's handmaids a woman by the name of Hagar and he lies with her and then she bares a child and that child's name is Ishmael well several years later now Abraham and Sarah are quite old 90 plus God approaches Abraham and he says Abraham I will fulfill my covenant with you and I will give you descendants and you will have land and you will have descendants and you will be a great people and the deliverer will come through your lineage and Abraham says oh lord thank you for fulfilling your covenant to me behold Ishmael now this is Genesis 16 right after Genesis 15 which we just read and then God says to Abram no no no no Ishmael he is your son but he's not the promised son and then he does a very weird thing and let's just be honest it's weird in Genesis 17 he gives him the right of circumcision okay now let's just appreciate this for what it is it's a strange thing right God basically says to Abram I need you to cut the the tip of your penis off and people are like whoa that's kind of strange kind of odd now if it's just done willy-nilly let's have him cut off there well that would be strange but think about it in context God had established a covenant with with Abraham in Genesis 15 Abraham then tried to fulfill God's part of the Covenant in typical male fashion right he sees a problem he's gonna solve a problem but the the means by which he uses to solve this problem is his maleness right it's it's his maleness and he takes his maleness and he goes and lies with another woman and so when God comes and says I'm gonna fulfill my promise to you he basically says oh you already have look at Ishmael and he says no no no Ishmael is not the promised son he's your son but he's not the promised son and then he says in fact let me show you just how this works you can cut the tip of that thing off and I'll still fulfill my promise to you as a symbol not of some random act of self-mutilation but as a symbol that it is not the works of man or the ability of man or the strength of man but God can snip that thing and still fulfill his original promise and so that symbol of circumcision was a symbol of not trusting to oneself not trusting to my ability to fulfill God's half of the covenant it was a wound if you will an ongoing perpetual wound so that everyone remember this is a covenant of faith this is a covenant of belief this is not a covenant of my doing it's a covenant of God's doing and my believing it we together every one so then the children of Israel go into Egypt for a time and God after a number of years he raises up a man named Moses and he says to Moses go tell Pharaoh to let my people go Pharaoh after some persuasion eventually lets the children of Israel go and they find themselves at the foot of Mount Sinai God is now seeking to renew his covenant that he'd begun with Adam that he'd continue to Noah that he had given expressly now to Abram to the children the descendants of Abram look in Exodus chapter 19 join me there Exodus chapter 19 and notice verse 5 the children of Israel have gone through the Red Sea the ten plagues have fallen and they find themselves at the foot of Mount Sinai Exodus chapter 19 verse 5 it says now therefore Exodus 19 verse 5 now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my one covenant you will be a special treasure to me above all people for the earth is mine God here establishes or continues to establish his covenant with people and where Abraham had actually been somewhat unfaith with regards to the covenant god retains his faithfulness retains his faithfulness of the covenant and extends it not only to Abraham but also to Isaac and to Jacob and to the to the descendants of Jacob and then now to the whole nation of Israel I'm gonna make a covenant with you and the terms of this covenant are not now just a verbal agreement like we had between Tim and I it now becomes a contractual arrangement and that contractual arrangement that God establishes with Israel is what's called the Torah the Torah teo ra h which is basically the law right the law and so god essentially says here's the torah and he gives it to moses and he says these are the terms of the Covenant and then the people respond by saying all that the lord has spoken we'll do that we'll do that we'll be faithful to you you be faithful to us God essentially extends his hand to the children of Israel they reciprocate and now they have a term of their covenant in fact this covenant is so sacred the terms of the Covenant is so sacred that it's actually placed in a box called the Ark of the Covenant right so the important part about the box was not the box it was just a box but the important part was this agreement that went into the box and this agreement was basically the terms of the covenant between the children of Israel and between God and they would take this covenant etc and they were supposed to be faithful to that covenant but over generation after successive generation they continued to be unfaithful the rest of the new testament is essentially the ongoing consistent unfaithfulness of the children of men to be faithful to the Covenant of God and so then we get these sort of interesting little prophecies and I want to show you one of these prophecies in Isaiah two of them actually go to Isaiah 42 Isaiah 42 theologians sometimes refer to Isaiah as the gospel prophet and the reason that they refer to Isaiah as the gospel prophet is that much of Isaiah centers around this promise this prophecy of the coming servant of the Lord it's what he's called the servant of the Lord in fact most of the last third of Isaiah is all about this coming servant of the Lord who will be a light to the Gentiles in fact the name arise the school comes from one of those prophecies arise shine for thy light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon they behold darkness covers the earth and gross darkness the people but the Lord shall arise on thee and his glory will be seen on thee now that that prophecy these anticipations of the servant in their original application where for Israel God was saying to Israel if you'll live by the terms of the Covenant if you'll trust me if you'll believe me you will be a light to the Gentiles and people from all over north south east and west will flock to you but here's where the the the the the New Testament and the Old Testament throw the Bible reader a unintuitive twist Israel the servant turns out unfaithful consistently unfaithful God establishes his covenant they break it establishes it they break it in fact you find this over and over again with the Kings so and so and so and so was the king of Judah and he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord so and so so and so was the king of Israel he did what was evil in the side of the Lord in other words he didn't abide by the terms of the Covenant interestingly on the side of the throne of the kings of Judah in Israel there was a little place a special place that that was just for the book of the law the Covenant the book of the law was placed on the side of the ark the Ten Commandments went inside of it but there was another little place on the side of the Ark where the book of the Covenant went there there was also a spot on the side of the throne of the King for the Covenant right because he was supposed to lead by example and to keep the Covenant there's huge significance of this that I don't have time to develop right now but when we get to Isaiah go to chapter 42 Isaiah chapter 42 and verse 6 and here we have an interesting little dynamic that's thrown in a bit of a spin I'm in Jeremiah Isaiah 42 and notice verse 6 will actually pick it up in verse 5 thus says the Lord God thus says God the Lord who created the heavens and stretched them out who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it who gives breath to the people on it and the spirit to those who walk on it I the LORD have called you in righteousness this is speaking of the servant this coming servant that could have been Israel but ends up not being Israel and I will hold your hand and I will keep you and watch this and I will give you this is the servant now the Messiah the coming Messiah that could have been Israel it wasn't because they were unfaithful and I will give you as a 1 as a covenant to the people I will give you as a covenant to the people and as a light to the Gentiles what an interesting little transition here God says that this servant will be given as a covenant to the people now there's another one here let's also look at it very quickly it's an Isaiah 49 and notice verse 8 Isaiah 49 verse 8 it says this is again a prophecy about the servant the coming Messiah Isaiah 49 verse 8 in an acceptable time I have heard you and in the day of salvation I have helped you I will preserve you and I will give you as a covenant to the people to restore the earth to cause them to inherit the desolate Heritage's that that restore the Earth is a fascinating one there because that's exactly what Adam was supposed to do in creation to restore the earth to replenish the earth to subdue the earth and and here's this amazing prophecy of a restoration of the earth not just the physical ecological earth but a restoration of God's original plan for the earth which was the the unity of the divine human family and in the context it says it will happen because I will give you as a covenant to the people now when Jesus shows up he starts doing some really strange things things that were not anticipated things that people did not fully understand but they would understand later and one of the things that he does and this is particularly in the Gospel of Matthew where this is brought out Jesus appears to be sort of purposefully acting out a kind of drama of the history of Israel and this happens in many ways for example in the Old Testament there was a man named Joseph that was the son of Jacob who had dreams and when Joseph had dreams the children of Israel went into Egypt Matthew constructs his gospel and he says there was a man named Joseph and he had dreams and the angel said to Joseph take Jesus into Egypt so they go into Egypt and then after a little while bring him back out of Egypt and then Matthew starts doing this really weird thing so does Mark Luke and to a lesser degree John they start lifting these passages from the Old Testament and they start saying oh this was fulfilled in Jesus wild stuff stuff like Hosea chapter 11 verse 2 out of Egypt I have called my son this is clearly a reference to historical Israel but Matthew takes plux this prophecy up and he says fulfilled in Jesus that was fulfilled in Jesus now not only that after the children of Israel were after the the the children of Israel came out of Egypt the next thing that they do is they walk through the next major event is that they go through the Red Sea and in Matthew's Gospel the next thing that we see is Matthew chapter 3 after the events of matthew chapter one and two Jesus is baptized so just as the children of Israel had gone through this baptism experience after being called out of Egypt Jesus is called out of Egypt after a man named Joseph has dreams and he goes through the Red Sea and he's baptized and the children of Israel go wandering right because of their unfaithfulness and their disobedience in the wilderness for forty years immediately after Jesus baptism he goes wandering in the wilderness for how many days forty days and that the tempter comes to him one two three times and he tempts him on these three temptations cause these stones be made bread Kaushik cache yourself down from the temple and in each of the instances he replies by saying it is written and in every instance he quotes from the book of Deuteronomy the book of Deuteronomy for all practical purposes is the book of the law he's quoting from the very book that God had given to the children of Israel in their desert wanderings to prepare them to engage the temptations that were upon them and so Jesus here it's as if he's retracing the history of national Israel but there's even more just as God had provided manna in the wilderness Satan tempts Jesus to provide manna bread for himself very interestingly after the passage through the the short passage through the wilderness they were only supposed to be there for about a month and a half the passage to to Sinai or CH ended up being a 40-year detour after Sinai on Mount Sinai God gives the law he gives the terms of the Covenant in Matthew's Gospel though it happens as it was supposed to because Jesus was faithful in the Covenant in Matthew chapter 5 what do we find we find Jesus on the mountain as the new lawgiver saying crazy stuff like this you have heard that it was said by them of old thou shalt not commit but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart what's he doing this is the New Covenant Sinai this is the New Testament Sinai Jesus has gone through the wilderness he's been faithful he's gone through the baptism experience he's come out of Egypt and here is the law Giver establishing the true meaning of the law from sign eyes summon and so what we see is this remarkable intentionality with Jesus where he is obviously purposefully retracing the history of Israel point by point but where they had been unfaithful to the Covenant he is being faithful to the Covenant where where they have been unfaithful to God's terms he is being faithful to God's terms and all of the New Testament writers pick up on this and they just start grabbing events from the Old Testament and they say oh this thing that happened Israel fulfilled in Jesus oh this thing in fact this is Matthew's favorite word and all his Gospel fulfilled fulfilled fulfilled fulfilled and he just he just starts randomly grabbing stuff apparently randomly grabbing stuff out of the Old Testament saying fulfilled in Jesus lift some incident from the history of Israel fulfilled in Jesus lifts another incident from the history and Jesus starts doing it himself he says things like this Oh as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so the Son of Man must be lifted up that all that would look and believe so you have this remarkable instance where Jesus is becoming Israel Jesus is becoming Israel now this goes back to Isaiah 42 in Isaiah 49 I will give you as a covenant to the people now let me just sort of put the the cap on this so you can see just how powerful this is God had established a covenant with Adam Adam had been unfaithful God had established a covenant with Noah Noah had been unfaithful God had established a comment with Abraham Abraham had been unfaithful God had established a covenant with Abraham's descendants Israel Israel had been unfaithful they were successively unfaithful so then what God does is absolutely mind-blowing he a man this is the story of Scripture God becomes a man to what end to what purpose simple to fulfill both halves of the Covenant the divine half of faithfulness to humanity and the human half of faithfulness to God Jesus becomes a man and faces the real difficult actual temptations and vicissitudes and struggles of humanity he was a real man who walked a real mile in our shoes he knew what it was to be a man in fact the New Testament is just adamant on this point just over and over again Paul in the book of Galatians says it this way when the fullness of time had come God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law that's the Bible's way of saying a man so God becomes a man faithful on this end God had always been faithful to the Covenant in fact over and over again faithful faithful faithful faithful faithful faithful but when unfaithfulness was prevalent in the land God became this half of the Covenant he said I will become a man I will see what it is to face the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life I will see what it is to be hungry to be thirsty to be frustrated to be disappointed to be betrayed to be angry I will come and I will see if it's possible to be faithful to the Covenant now the word covenant only occurs one time in the entire book of Matthew let me show you where it occurs it's in Matthew 26 Matthew 26 join me there you're hanging on you're doing a great job Matthew 26 and notice verse 28 it's the Last Supper Matthew chapter 26 we'll pick it up in verse 27 so he took the cup and he gave thanks and he gave it to them and he said drink from it all of you for this is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for many for the remission of sins now that language there that new covenant language is straight out of the Old Testament this is something that many people don't understand the new covenant is actually out of the Old Testament and this new covenant was a covenant that God had promised back in in Jeremiah let me just read it to you here and in this promise in in Jeremiah it's easy to remember this is always an easy one to remember because it's Jeremiah 31:31 that's just easy 31:31 listen to the nature of this covenant Jeremiah 31:31 behold the days are coming says 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 lead them out of the land of Egypt my covenant which they broke though I was a husband to them says the Lord but this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord I will put my laws in their minds and write it on their hearts and they will be my god and I will be their people in fact this was the this was the mantra of the Covenant throughout the whole Old Testament I will be your God you will be my people I will be your God you will be my people this was the covenant mantra I will be your God you will be my people and here it says this covenants gonna be new it's gonna be different the nature of this covenant is that it will not be written externally on tablets of stone and placed in a box and carried around external to the person this New Covenant that I will make I will take my laws and I will write them on your hearts and I will put my laws on your mind now if you're remembering back to Psalm 40 which was that messianic prophecy that we began the whole thing with let me just remind you of it Psalm 40 verse 8 this is the prophecy of the coming Messiah it says beginning at verse 6 sacrifice and offering you did not desire my ears you have pierced burnt offering and sin you did not require then I said behold I come in the Old Testament that's the scroll of the book it is written of me I delight to do your Will O God yea your law is within my heart someone would come that would establish a new kind of covenant and this covenant was one in which the law would be written not on the external tables of stone but on the fleshly tables of the heart and this person would be faithful to the human side of the Covenant but the the curveball that scripture throws that no one could have anticipated is that it's not some super saint it's not a Noah it's not an Abraham right it's not even an Adam it's not some super saint and this is what the Pharisees and many believed and hoped for in fact there was actually a proverbial a proverbial rabbinical saying in the days of Jesus among the Pharisees that if someone could keep the Torah for just one day the kingdom of heaven would begin if somebody could keep the Torah for just one day was this sort of proverbial idiom in the days of Jesus among the Pharisees that the kingdom of God would begin and so there was this sort of hope and this belief that that someone would finally keep the Covenant but scripture throws a monkey wrench it throws a curveball where God Himself in in the man Jesus comes to earth and then with great intentionality and purpose starts retracing the history of Israel's unfaithfulness but were they were unfaithful he is faithful were they failed he doesn't fail were they were rebellious he was obedient and God Himself fulfills not only the divine half of the Covenant but the human half of the Covenant as well now but this in mind you've hung on this long and all of this sets this up okay give me my slides boys okay just go right past that those first three slides okay this is where I want to go okay everything that we've said up to this point establishes something that I want you to understand it'll take just a few minutes in the New Testament there's this phrase that occurs numerous times in the Greek and I'm not a Greek scholar and none of you are Greek scholars probably either but I'm just going to tell you about this Greek phrase the Greek phrases pista screw stew pista screw stew and what it means is faith Christ pista sees faith belief faith Christ and historically that phrase pissed is Cristo has been translated because it's just literally faith Christ that's it faith Christ historically that has been translated in the English as faith in Christ okay house have been translated everyone faith in Christ okay but and that's what's called the objective genitive for those of you who are interested translated faith in Christ but there has been growing over the last several decades a a movement and an awareness that this might not really be the best and most biblically consistent and maybe even the most lexically consistent way to translate this phrase in the objective genitive faith in Christ perhaps an even better way lexically exegetically and and theologically is to translate this phrase pista Chris to faith Christ as the faithfulness of Christ now I want you just to hear those two phrases and I want to ask you a question faith in Christ and the faithfulness of Christ in the first phrase faith in Christ where is the location of the faith that saves faith in Christ where is the location of the faith it's in us my faith in Christ saves me do you hear it I put my faith in Christ therefore I am saved but now look listen to the second phrase the subjective genitive the faithfulness of Christ where now is the faith it's in Christ isn't it now with this in mind let's just look at a couple things and wrap this up and send you on your way this is from Ellen White God's amazing grace page 129 she says the terms of this oneness notice the terms the terms the terms of this oneness between God and man in the great covenant of redemption that's this divine family human family the great covenant of redemption the term of this oneness between God and man the great covenant of redemption were arranged with Christ from all eternity the covenant of grace was revealed to who patriarchs that's another way of saying Abraham the Covenant made with Abraham was a covenant confirmed by God in Christ the very same gospel which has preached to us don't miss that the Covenant that God made with Abraham go back the Covenant that God made with Abraham was confirmed by God who confirmed the covenant god but according to this one of those two words there he did it in who he did it in Christ why because Noah couldn't do it Adam couldn't do it Abraham couldn't do it and you've not done it right next one here for you have not received the spirit of bondage to fear but you have received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry out to God Abba Father we spent time on this in our youth Sabbath school class and we'll spend time on it here next Sabbath the spirit of bondage is engendered by seeking to live in accordance with legal religion through seeking to fulfill the claims of the law in our own strength leave it there bondage and legalism is created when you try to keep the terms of the Covenant in your own strength that's legal religion I'm gonna do it I'm gonna be faithful I know that Abraham wasn't completely faithful I know that Noah wasn't completely faithful I know that Adam wasn't completely faithful but I will be faithful good luck with that right next slide there is hope for us only as we come under whose covenant the Abrahamic covenant only as we come under the Abrahamic covenant well what is the Abrahamic covenant which is the Covenant by faith in Christ the gospel preached to Abraham through which he had hope was the same gospel that has preached to us today through which we have hope Abraham looked to Jesus who was also the author and finisher of our faith and this becomes Paul's whole point in the New Testament he holds it can he hold that for just a moment he holds Abraham up not as a paragon of virtue but as a paragon of belief I want to say that again God holds up Abraham not as a pair of the New Testament holds up Abraham not as a paragon of virtue but as a paragon of belief in fact the New Testament would say it this way the strength of the Abrahamic covenant was not in Abraham's promises to God but in God's promises to Abraham which Abraham chose to believe the source of the Covenant strength was not in Abraham's faithfulness but in God's faithfulness now last few slides and what we're gonna do is I'm gonna read to you Galatians chapter 2 verses 15 you can open up your Bible if you want Galatians chapter 2 verses 15 to 21 and we're gonna read it in the New King James Version new King James Version which is going to translate pissed as Chris do in the objective genitive it's gonna translate it as faith in Christ this is the way that you've been reading it since you were in Sabbath school this is how you've been reading it oh yes I'm gonna be saved but in a subtle way what ends up saving me is my faith my faith in Christ will save me okay so we're gonna read it this is how you've been reading it for years this is how this is how the Christian Church has been reading it since the time of Luther translating it into the German and Wickliffe into the English okay here's how it goes we who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ there's our phrase faith Christ pissed is Chris - you're not justified by the works you do you're justified by your faith faith in Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ now that's an apparent unnecessary redundancy take a look at that we are justified by faith in Christ and we have believed in Christ well woah what aren't those basically the same thing in fact in the Greek they're almost exactly the same they're both pissed as' believe in faith faith in Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law for by the works of the law no flesh will be justified but if while we seek to be justified by Christ we ourselves are found sinners is Christ therefore a minister of sins certainly not for if I build again those things that I destroyed I make myself a transgressor for I through the law I died to the law that I might live to God I have been crucified with Christ it is no longer I who lives but Christ lives in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me I do not set aside the grace of God for a francha sness comes through the law then Christ died in vain ok that's how you've been reading it forever that's how everybody's been reading it for the last millennium now what we're gonna do is we're gonna read a new translation in which pista screw stew is rendered not in the object of genitive faith in Christ but in the subject of genitive the faithfulness of the Messiah tell me if it makes a difference we are Jews by birth not Gentile sinners but we know that a person is not declared righteous by the works of the Jewish law but through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah is there a difference is there a huge difference there is let's read it again we are Jews by birth not Gentile sinners but we know that a person is not declared righteous by the works of the Jewish law but through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah this is why we too believed in the Messiah there's no redundancy there Jesus so that we might be declared righteous how on the basis of the Messiah's faithfulness and not on the basis of the works of the Jewish law well notice where the salvation comes from now the salvation comes now because the Messiah has been faithful not because your faith is so strong and so great and so awesome but because the Messiah's faithfulness is so awesome he has kept his half of the Covenant not only the divine half but the human half as well continuing on on that basis you see no creature will be declared righteous well then if we it well then if in seeking to be declared righteous in the Messiah we ourselves are found to be sinners does this make the Messiah an agent of sin certainly not if I build up once more the things that I tore down I demonstrate that I'm a lawbreaker let me explain it like this through the law that's through the Torah by the way through the Torah Paul says I died to the Torah that's not just the Ten Commandments that's the all of the writings of Moses through the writings of Moses I died to the writings of Moses so that I might live to God I have been crucified with the Messiah I am however alive but it isn't me it's the Messiah who lives in me and the life I do still live in the flesh I live within the faithfulness of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me I do not sit aside God's grace because if righteousness that's covin until faith fulness if covenant 'el faithfulness comes through the law then what's paul's conclusion the Messiah what he died for nothing you guys have been super attentive and I can just close this up in about a minute or two here the history of the Old Testament is a history of failure I want to say that again the history of the Old Testament is the history of human failure failure to keep the Covenant failure to keep the Covenant failure to keep the Covenant failure to keep the Covenant the anticipation of of Judaism leading up to the Messiah was that somebody would comment last and truly keep the law and in a wild and wonderful way that is what happened but the person that comes and keeps the law is God himself God Himself was faithful not only to the divine half of the Covenant the only way that humanity ever would or could keep his half of the Covenant is that God becomes a man and he fulfills his half of the Covenant the divine human family is locked in and saved and you become saved not by your amazing awesome faith but because you believe in the faithfulness of God's Messiah so my question to you is is today not is your faith strong enough to save you but do you believe that the Messiah was faithful to the Covenant and that it is he alone who has been righteous do you believe that then according to scripture according to Scripture and this is Paul's whole point he makes this point at the end of Galatians chapter 3 he says if you believe that if you believe in Christ's covenant faithfulness then you are Abraham's and you are you're Abraham's seed and the promise is fulfilled to you so today the good news beloved is that the gospel is not about your faithfulness to God but God's faithfulness to you it's not about your faith in the Messiah the gospel is about the Messiah's faithfulness to the Covenant do you believe that then you are God's Son and you are God's daughter let's pray father in heaven today we want to put our faith where it belongs not in a sense of self or a sense of accomplishment or personal achievement we want our faith to rest we want our belief to rest in that place where a lone strength is found and that is in the Messiah's faithfulness father down through the ages we have a history of failure and our own lives to greater or lesser degrees or histories of failure father I want to pray for forgiveness for each of us that is sought to live and to fulfill a legal religion a religion of bondage a religion in which we are faithful father help us today to live in the light of the great glorious gospel of Christ where we trust to his faithfulness father today we believe the gospel not that our promises to you are so strong but that your promise to us has been so strong your promise as God has been true and your promise as a man in Christ has been true and today we believe that we are reunited the divine human family because we are trusting totally and completely to the righteousness and the faithfulness of Jesus Christ your Messiah and it is in his name that we love to pray and we love to call you Father let everyone who believes say Amen

Channel: Kingscliff Church

Views: 27,140

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Keywords: David Asscherick, kingscliff SDA Church

Id: mjWd2XV-tS8

Length: 57min 56sec (3476 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 25 2013