Chart: Mysteries and Covenants

okay the last four or five weeks we spoke about some topics dealing with covenants in your bible and we tried to go back to learn the lessons that the covenants would teach us even though we are not the participants in those covenants we're not the nation of israel we're not david we are not abram and so we do not have the same promises and covenants that god gave them and yet they're in the bible and paul says all scriptures for our learning and they're important things that we learn from the covenants that are different than the actual promise themselves for example abraham was promised a son you're not promised a son but we learn from god's covenant with him that you can be justified by faith because abram just believed without works and god counted it to him for righteousness so we can learn lessons like that david for example was promised again a son that would be a king over israel forever and though you weren't promised a son that be king over israel forever we can learn from david what it's like to have sure mercy because that promise included in it a sure promise of forgiveness no matter what sin occurred in his family and so we talk about grace or certain mercies so these are the lessons we've been dealing with in detail the last four or five weeks this morning i'd like to deal with a chart that brings together the mysteries and covenants in the bible and tries to to illustrate how they're connected there's a lot of confusion we learned about the divide perhaps about the way churches have communicated the scripture may be in your past which concerns a covenant everywhere and always and you're under a covenant all the time the dispensational idea is that god doesn't always deal with everybody under a covenant there's these dispensations and grace that he provides that creates a new creature that means you're not under israel's covenants but he's still dealing with humanity according to his purpose so how do we reconcile these these mysteries and his dispensations that god gives and the covenants he gives to israel we'll start with the new testament books the new testament books of the bible fulfill the promises of the old testament this is clear and understood and accepted by most majority of christians the new testament fulfills the old testament promises you see that kind of structure in the scripture and so when you look at the new testament of your bible you see the 12 apostles and peter james and john wrote epistles they wrote gospels right matthew was one of the apostles uh john's one of the apostles we have james writing an epistle we have peter writing a couple john writing three plus revelation jude was one of the apostles you have the twelve apostles here make that little more legible here let's make the 12. and we have these books that detail the coming kingdom to israel matthew mark luke and john began the new testament detailing the gospel of the kingdom that was preached by jesus and his disciples and so his disciples carried on that program so we have books burdened by the 12 about a kingdom and we read in these new testament fulfillments allusions to the old testament covenants this is what we've been teaching about for example a covenant was made with david and if we can draw david back here in the old testament and the covenant was made with david that he would have a seed like the son of david we dealt with that the son of david would be the messiah would be the king over israel and his kingdom would last forever and we see this covenant promise to david fulfilled when jesus christ comes and the twelve apostles preached jesus as matthew 1 1 says as the son of david here's jesus at the center of the old new testament fulfillment kind of given to david we have a covenant given to moses let's throw moses back here this is old testament law he walks down off of mount sinai with the ten commandments and this covenant was a law in order to bless israel if they kept it or a law to curse israel or their enemies it taught them proper judgment right so it talked about a blessing that would come from israel when they kept it and it taught them how to judge right and wrong it also was a law that defined that nation of israel moses we covered a couple weeks ago the law of moses spoke to and foreshadowed the coming of one that would be the judge over israel and it would be the source of blessing over israel and so we have this covenant given to moses again kind of fulfilled by jesus at the center jesus came teaching the law the 12 disciples came teaching the law and how jesus said in matthew 5 i do not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it a covenant that law was supposed to speak of and point to jesus christ so the ministry of christ and the twelve dealt with moses's law as well we have the covenant given to the fathers abraham isaac and jacob and the covenant back there to the fathers was about a land and a seed and a blessing they promised once again a seed that would come from these men abraham's son isaac isaac son jacob and jacob's seed which would be the twelve tribes of israel so if we draw the fathers over here this covenant that would separate a certain people a circumcised people remember abraham was told to circumcise his son then isaac and then jacob and he had a 12-tribe nation this promise of a circumcised nation of people is fulfilled over here with the 12 apostles preaching about a coming kingdom they're preaching about a kingdom come that was promised since the fathers jesus in romans 15 8 it said about him he was a minister of the circumcision to confirm the promises made to the fathers for the truth of god well that goes all the way back to the fathers that goes beyond moses so he's the son of david he's the son of abraham he fulfills the law of moses all these covenants then speak to this ministry that jesus had with the twelve apostles we have a covenant with abram and we covered this briefly abram back here was given a promise before he was told to circumcise his son before he was told to do anything there's a promise i'll give you a seat a son without condition abraham believed him and it was counted for righteousness so he's promised a seed and along with that seed the seed in abram himself would be a blessing to the world the promise that abram and his seed would bless the entire world we see this fulfilled once again with jesus at the sinner jesus is the son of abraham right through him the world gets blessed right yes fulfillment of covenants that's what we're talking about then of course we covered last week adam adam was the first man at the beginning of the world when god created the world and to adam he was promised well adam and eve there after they sinned there was a promise god made about a coming seed we see a theme here seed seed seed see god keeps promising the seed if you promise adam and eve when they send that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of satan remember and satan would bruise the heel of the seed of the woman genesis 3 verse 15. and so this promise from genesis chapter 3 verse 15 of the bible prophesied the need for a coming man right that would destroy the devil where is satan destroyed we read revelation 20 christ throws him into the lake of fire binds him up for a thousand years and ultimately gets rid of him forever so we have this this battle between god and the devil over humanity and the earth and to adam and eve he said the seed of the woman will bruise the head of satan and that kingdom will fulfill that christ being the king so again satan jesus comes and he says i saw satan fall from heaven jesus cast out the devils why is he doing this because that's what was promised back to adam fulfill this kingdom destroy the head of satan right his power over people of death and all that these are the covenants in the bible going from the beginning of the world to revelation which talks about this kingdom come the end of the world and this is how christians see the scripture they see these covenants in the old testament they see them fulfilled in the new testament with christ in the middle like he fulfills them so the whole scripture speaks about jesus christ right and thus they call this christocentricity right christ the center of the bible is christ christ centric look covenant theologians like to talk about that they're christ-centric they don't focus on other things like nations of israel they're christ in the center this is why they're get that because christ fulfills all these covenants in the ministry the new testament communicates this right these covenants notice as i drew the illustration here all seem to point to one nation and one one nation through the fathers one nation through moses one house through david as we get more and more covenants in the scripture gets more specific adam just said a seat of a woman well how many seed of a woman has there been well a lot of people have been progeny from adam and eve right well then abram he calls this one man out and says through you not just through abraham but isaac and jacob well that's really narrowing it down where this seed is going to come from and then moses there's a nation one nation of people and then david in your house will come the messiah and so when jesus comes matthew 1 1 begins he's the son of david the son of moses all these covenants speak to this one seed jesus christ the messiah so when jesus says search the scriptures they speak of me you see what he's talking about all the covenants and prophecies were pointing to him the need for him in order for this to happen he had to come that's what the bible teaches this is the covenant gospel these covenants point to one nation one family one man jesus christ okay these covenant gospels that if you're if you're to preach a good news about the covenants you know the covenants themselves are good in that when god gives you a promise you rejoice but the good news happens when the covenants start getting fulfilled right the promise god made he's going to deliver on it that's when you're like okay let's preach that that's good news and this is what happens in the new testament matthew mark luke and john jesus comes they preach the gospel the good news of the kingdom what does that mean all of these covenants are going to be fulfilled that's what that means and he's the one that's going to do it well that's really good news for god's purpose and plan but it all depends on jesus and his working out his covenants to the fathers so the covenant gospel then would include the name of jesus christ i mean all these covenants were promised a seed you had a seed from adam a seed from abram or seed of the woman a seed from abraham a seed from isaac and jacob an israelite who was the son of david well who who is this seed jesus but they didn't know his name so one major point of matthew luke and john is the preaching of the gospel of the name of jesus christ jesus who is the promised christ the promised messiah the word christ or messiah i mean savior jesus is the one identifying who is that savior so the covenant gospel is the gospel of the name of jesus because that's why all the covenants point to a certain man one man they prophesy about it it also points to the kingdom so you call this the gospel of the kingdom because it's the good news of that fulfillment it's also a gospel to israel because again god promised a nation would bless the other nations the kingdom on earth would get fulfilled here's the world through one nation blessing the other nations and so that one nation is the nation israel christ is king so it's a good news to israel as well so when jesus came in matthew 5 for example preaching the gospel to kingdom he chose 12 guys his disciples and his apostles and said do not go to the gentiles go to the lost sheep of the house of israel why would he say this because the covenant said that the world will be blessed through a nation right through the one people so jesus christ at the center of these covenants and promises this is where people get the idea that there's only one gospel because they all point to jesus it's his name it's his kingdom it's one nation one family there's one gospel right i mean if the covenants are fulfilled that's the gospel fulfilling the covenants but what if god doesn't always operate through covenants you see the issue and so if all the covenants is all we had in the scripture then what the one message is fulfilling the covenants jesus christ fulfills them what if there's something in the bible that does not concern the covenants given to the fathers that was kept secret since the beginning of the world that doesn't concern the kingdom or israel twelve tribes will that be a different message maybe a different good news you see and this is what we talk about we talk about the revelation of the mystery the bible speaks about revealed mysteries in fact each one of these additional covenants and prophecies add more information to describe how god's going to fulfill his purpose for history so there's revealed mysteries for example the nation of israel and those laws were not revealed to abraham or adam the house of david the son of david that promise that the messiah would come from david wasn't given to moses or abraham so there's there's revealed mysteries in the covenant program and they all reveal things about how god's going to fulfill this program jesus christ is pointing to him right it's pointing to the kingdom look at jeremiah jeremiah or hebrew chapter eight rather he was 13 verse 8 13. realizing this point can help us with some very complicated ideas just realizing these covenants go fulfilled in jesus and the purpose of these covenants are what they do hebrews chapter 8 hebrews is a book describing the new testament the new covenant right and hebrews chapter 8 talks about this new covenant that's going to replace this old one he quotes jeremiah 31 and jeremiah the prophet says i'm going to make a covenant a new covenant with the house of israel that different than the one that i made with him through moses right i'm going to make another one and i'm gonna forgive their sins and i'll fulfill my covenants with them hebrews 8 verse 13 in that he saith a new covenant he hath made the first one old now that which decays and wax old is ready to vanish away this idea of the old covenant or old testament comes from hebrews comes from the new testament portion of your bible that looks back and says there's one of these covenants that's old it's going to go away what doesn't go away are the covenants god says last forever david's covenant for example said the kingdom would last how long forever it doesn't go away they're the fathers of israel multiple times the promise is given to abram isaac and jacob god says forever i'll give it to you in your seed circumcise your study told abraham and i'll make you give you a land forever nation forever to adam i mean you bruise the head of somebody that's not just like you got a bruise on your forehead it's like you crush their head right and so they're done do they come back from that no like they're done forever like you brew someone's heel you come back from that not their head okay so you have a lot of forever promises here through the fathers and david and adam but moses's covenant was never said to be forever in fact there was an inherent problem in it the problem was not with god the problems with man man couldn't keep the law israel couldn't keep it and so hebrews describes this and says well the law of moses was going to vanish away replaced by this new covenant and so you can see how this law here could not last forever and was going to be replaced by something new a new covenant this new covenant would be to the same people the fathers of israel right it would help accomplish what jesus would perform or jesus would actually help accomplish the new covenant in order for this salvation to occur over here this kingdom to be established and forgiveness to be worldwide and blessing to be given so you see what the new covenant fits in it replaces this covenant jesus comes fulfilling the law so that he can bring in a new covenant right hebrews 8 jeremiah 3 1 says to the house of israel the house of judah the same people that the old covenant was made with all right the old covenant could not accomplish what god wanted to do forever in israel the new covenant can and so you see some mysteries revealed the new covenant being one of them i mean the new covenant wasn't something that you talk about abraham abraham didn't even know the old one he didn't even talk about the new covenant in detail to moses you can find the new covenant promise inherent in the law but the main thing in moses's books is do the law this is the covenant is what you should do inside the curses was well if you keep breaking my law eventually i'm going to punish you to a point where you're almost going to be gone but i'll remember the promises i'm made of the fathers remember that and so he'll remember and that's that allusion to i'm going to do something to fix this problem so that i keep the promises here this helps you hopefully this illustration helps you with galatians as well galatians says if there was a law that could save moses law was a good law god gave it but the law could never save which begs the question if the law could not be fulfilled then how can god fulfill the covenant to the fathers it depended on that right so god has to replace it so that he can keep his promise to abram isaac and jacob that's why he has to replace that law with the new covenant we'll see here in a bit that to say you're under the new covenant is really going to cause problems for you now saying that outside of our illustration here you might say well yeah why is that but as i'm drawing covenants about an earthly kingdom that point to an earthly messiah over a nation of israel and one people and 12 tribes you might see how this is an issue if you're under the new covenant what's that put you under moses law david's covenant a kingdom and a house forever over in israel what if you're not israel well if you don't have a house forever what if you're not one of the 12 tribes what if you're never given a law in the first place you were never given a law that needed to replace you didn't have a law so what's the deal there oh we'll see this a little bit here look look at matthew 13 11 jesus when he came he spoke about things like this god reveals secret things throughout the scripture some people point to this fact to discount the revelation mystery given to paul they'll say well paul is speaking about one of many mysteries that the bible reveals as god reveals his will but something greater than that as we'll see matthew 13 11 jesus is preaching here in his parables and his teaching and his disciples ask why he speaks unto the crowd in parables and parables are hard to understand they are not as many preachers have falsely assumed illustrations to make teachings easier they're not that parables intentionally make things harder like a riddle okay now if you know the key to the riddle then you can get some information but if you don't know the key it will hide information from you and that's precisely what the parables were he spoke in parables people went away said good servant pastor but didn't know he's talking about his disciples who trusted he was the messiah said what does that mean and his disciple he told his thoughts what it was gave them the key to understanding it so he they asked him why you speak in parables why are you making it hard for them right he says in verse 11. he answered and said unto them because it is given unto you believing disciples 12 apostles here given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to them it is not given that's interesting so you see as god reveals more information even in his own ministry he separates these 12 and says you are going to understand about the mysteries of the kingdom but the rest of israel will not if they do not believe me do not follow me they will not get this and so any more details about the kingdom i'm not given to all of israel i'm given to those who follow me the disciples they're following jesus they get mysteries of the kingdom now there are mysteries here you can read about those mysteries details information revelation that god gives about the kingdom that was not known before but what's the mystery about a kingdom that was promised before that was covenanted who did he give it to 12 disciples his disciples in israel which was promised would be a nation forever right so these mysteries in the bible reveal things according to god's purpose look at deuteronomy 29 the law of moses god told moses that there'd be secret things that he would have and the things that are secrets are god's and the things that are revealed are for people to know people interpret that verse and say well god works in mysterious ways and there are many things we do not understand about god there's a truth to the statement that the things we know about god is what he has revealed in his word and if you try to say things about god that his word does not say you are escaping the bounds of your knowledge about god damage 29 and verse 29 people want to claim they have special visions of revelations like paul did they're not paul they're not peter they're not you're not prop you're not a prophet okay god has closed this book and it has as we'll see here everything we need to know we've already seen the covenants promised covenant's fulfilled and then we'll see some more here where paul says he fulfills the word of god 29 verse 29. it says the secret things belong to the lord our god but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children question who is the us in this verse deuteronomy is directly speaking to the nation of israel entering the promised land israel was given the promises of god in romans chapter 9 verse 4 paul says specifically that israel was given the adoption and the glory and the sonship and the laws and to whom christ came right the revelations the oracles of god were given to israel what advantage has the jew paul asked he said in much every way it's much better to get revelations from god than not get revelations from god and israel was given revelations from god so you see there were mysteries revelations things that were no longer secret he's revealing to these people and the content of them speak to a coming seed a coming savior a coming nation and kingdom that would reign in dominion over the earth that was the content of these revelations more details being revealed notice also paul or not paul moses here says that the secret things belong to god so there's some secret things up here that god keeps right and down here is what we see he's revealed to israel specifically right this is the scripture from genesis to revelation and jeremiah 29 says that he's revealed them there to us to israel and our children he says our children because when god says a promise he has to fulfill them here are the fathers here are the children right the given and the promise the fulfillment of the promises but the scripture speaks of this but the secret things are god's if god hasn't told us hasn't told them it's not for them you might see where i'm going here with us a little bit because in the scripture i drew on the board here the old testament we got the law we got the prophets we got the psalms here with david we've got the new testament with jesus is coming there and the 12 disciples in the kingdom and all those epistles but we're missing something which is 13 epistles given to paul he doesn't talk about the kingdom to israel he's not one of the twelve but here we have this apostle we'll draw him over here the apostle paul he's got 13 epistles in the new testament portion of your bible right he's not talking about the content of these covenant promises let's cover a few verses just to remind ourselves of that they're not written by the twelve apostles paul was not one of the twelve peter james and john had their own epistles paul had separate ones his epistles are not written about the name of jesus though he mentions jesus the christ in the lord jesus christ quite often that's not the new revelation is epistles he's not talking about the name being a new thing he's not talking about israel as a nation either in fact he says many epistles there's no jew or gentile he says outright in romans 11 israel's fallen well then paul what are you talking about are you talking about the fulfillment of the old testament promises no he's not well for not talking about the old testament fulfillment one of those old testament promises then what are you talking about right people lump them in with other new testament books but he's talking about something different look at romans 16 25 or just remember it it's a verse we often quote here and i want to bring to our attention in the light of our study today this idea that is kept secret since the world began paul says now to him is the power to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of jesus christ now wait a minute we've already seen how all the covenants point to jesus he is the seed the holy seed right from from the seed of the woman to abram's seed to the seed of isaac and jacob to the sea the seed through david he was the promised one right but here's paul saying i preached jesus christ according to the revelation of the mystery oh wait a minute where's the mystery here well people will make that if you ever wonder what other non-dispensationalists make that verse like coming to the lotus they'll say paul is talking about the revelation of the name of jesus and how he was manifest in the flesh but that's what matt martha and john talk about paul's talking about something else beyond this as we'll see but he says this preaching of jesus christ according to revelation the mystery kept secret since the world began now adam was pretty close to the beginning of the world now paul's talking about what he say it was kept secret oh he's talking about secret things before the world began revealed to the apostle paul right the revelation of what was secret he said you're being real simple and redundant yes i got to make this clear because this is before the world it was not something that was promised before and he's giving more information about like the mysteries of a kingdom well they all know what the kingdom was they wanted to know what those secrets were about the kingdom paul says it's jesus christ according to the mystery kept secrets as the world began okay in 1st corinthians 2 verse 7 paul calls the mystery the hidden wisdom maybe we should erase this word secret because it's revealed now and what we'll call it is what the scripture calls it a mystery of christ that was kept secrets as the world began so it's not just a mystery it's a mystery of christ kept saying began so apparently there's a way to preach jesus that the prophets did not directly speak at or did not reveal they pointed at jesus they pointed at what he did in mac north and john what he would do to accomplish his kingdom but there's something about jesus christ that was kept secret in ephesians chapter one verse nine i gotta show some verses to you to communicate the idea that what paul was given in this revelation was not simply a continuation of the covenant promises but was something beyond it greater than it it wasn't within it okay in ephesians chapter 1 verse 9 paul says god made known unto us the mystery of his will apparently god's will his purpose for all of all all things was not yet revealed now that's a bold statement when we realize that god had already covenanted a kingdom through a nation in a people and a messiah to bless the whole world that seems pretty complete i mean the whole world's gonna get blessed through a kingdom and a nation and a king but question what about the heaven what about satan what about people's sins and reconciliation you know what about everyone is not a jew well that is interesting in ephesians 1 there's the mystery of his will that's made known according to his good pleasure which he had purposed in himself that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things like the fullness of times well maybe that's about the kingdom people say or we talking about when the times are full like the kingdom happens at a certain time but like what about at the very very end of time most christians and when they speak about the end times what are they speaking about right there what are the signs of the coming kingdom right but you know revelation does reveal to you that there's a kingdom that lasts a thousand years and then there's time after the thousand years right so if you're at the beginning of the thousand years is the time filled up yet no there's still time but the fullness of time means everything that was prop all the time has been full right so paul says the destination the fullness of times his will here is that he might gather together in one all things in christ but we know all things gonna be in christ but what's he say both which are in heaven and on earth that's interesting because here this christ was talking about an earthly dominion and an earthly blessing and earthly salvation and paul says earth and heaven well that seems to go a little beyond just the earth right this revelation to paul exceeds just the earthly dominion it encompasses heavenly places okay so you see how this revelation is beyond it's not confined by one house one nation one earth but the universe right let's move on here to ephesians chapter three paul says for this cause i paul the prisoner of jesus christ and don't mistake this as christ chose the twelve jesus christ chose the apostle paul paul is a prisoner of jesus christ but not according to his earthly ministry jesus christ resurrected in glory is how paul became an apostle ephesians 3 verse 2 says if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of god which has given me to you word now we covered some four lessons ago there's between a covenant and a dispensation where a covenant is made with somebody a covenant is made because it's a promise to a person about a certain thing so you have to make a promise to someone right so you need another party and you make it uh and you have to keep that covenant else it's not a covenant when you make the promise then you have to keep the thing as an obligation but if you just give someone something there's no covenant there it's a gift it's a given and a dispensation is something given not made with somebody a covenant is something god makes with someone so he picks abram makes a covenant with him he picks isaac makes the covenant with him jesus moses makes a covenant with him and chooses israel and then david makes the covenant with them there's jesus christ he gives them a better covenant makes the covenant with them right but a dispensation is something god just gives this paul says there's this dispensation of the grace of god given to me to you you're not entering a covenant here there's something that was given to paul paul says by revelation he made known to me the mystery apparently this thing given is a revelation is information about something concerning christ he says in verse 4 when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of christ so there's new information about jesus christ given to paul it's not an additional covenant it's just here you go that'd be nice to know in fact you don't have a complete bible without that information right if all the covenants the old testament fulfilled in the new testament without paul's epistles you don't have a complete bible you don't have all there is to know about jesus revealed jesus said i gave a dispensation to paul about me which in other ages in verse 5 was not made known to the sons of men as it is now revealed unto the holy apostles and prophets by the spirit that the gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body partakers of his promise in christ by the gospel christ was promised okay what was not covenanted or prophesied is that god would make something called a new creature or a new man that in one body jew and gentile would be blessed with salvation through the gospel of grace okay verses three verse six that was not a part of any of these covenant promises and that does not fulfill the earthly kingdom promise to israel right that's something else god's doing presumably distinct from these earthly covenants in fact paul says that's a heavenly thing right but what this does is reveals god's manifold wisdom for heaven and earth for everybody at all time okay the mystery of his will look at ephesians chapter 3 down in verse 8 he says he is the minister of christ unto me whom less than the least of all saints is this grace given that i should preach among the gentiles the unsearchable riches of christ and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery this fellowship in a kingdom was not a mystery the fact that to be a nation that would bless all the nations of the world and in him all the nations the world be blessed was not a mystery okay the fact that you'd be a gentile to get blessed by one of abraham's seed was not a mystery your fellowship with jesus christ doesn't concern your relationship to the promised seed and circumcised people your relationship to jesus your fellowship with him concerns you being a member of one body what if i'm a gentile doesn't matter what i'm a jew doesn't matter or if i'm circumcised it doesn't matter what if i don't keep the law it doesn't matter that's a different fellowship right then what god was establishing here the fellowship of israel and this kingdom on the earth the kingdom of god come so ephesians 3 verse 9 to make all men see this look what he says which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in god the beginning of the world was not moses it was not abraham it was not even adam it was before adam before the world began god had a purpose about christ which everything will be brought together in him he kept it secret which means it wasn't israel's and then he started revealing something he'd do for the earth that points to one man that would be the king over all the earth that would be a savior of all the earth and dominion over the earth and he reveals in a mystery that that one man is actually the key to salvation everywhere do you see how that fits into god purposing it before the world began like if you got to purpose it and you got an adversary you don't reveal your big plan what you reveal is not the big plan what you reveal is like this it's not the secondary plan it's just like something else in fact you might even misdirect law of moses do these laws i'll bless you misdirection he's not even going to bless israel by those laws he's going to bless them freely too right this mystery revelation surpasses all the covenants he gave to israel we learn from these covenants in fact knowing god's manifold wisdom as paul says in ephesians 3 verse verse 10 let's move on here he gave this mystery to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers and heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of god the manifold wisdom okay it's manifest it has different aspects to it but now it's revealed so if it's revealed is it secret anymore no and who did he reveal it to israel nope he gave it to paul to give to gentiles well the secret things belong to israel the secret things regarding the covenants well not that right that was given to paul to give to the world for all men so ephesians 3 verse 10 with manifold wisdom according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in christ jesus our lord verse 11. paul's talking about an eternal purpose this is not just a new aspect of the kingdom they didn't know yet like jesus said well guess what i am the king and i'm going to bring the kingdom but i'm going to come back again i'm going to leave go to heaven come back again well that's something you couldn't really figure out in the prophets it's like you're going to come back twice okay but it's all about this kingdom paul's saying no i'm talking about an eternal purpose something bigger than just one nation on earth okay eternity doesn't begin with adam like it goes back before the world in the beginning what was before the beginning answer eternity it's like god that was it and so this is an eternal purpose something god had purposed look at colossians chapter 1 verse 25. do you see how when paul explains this information he's been given it's not just additional information in line with what the prophet said it was kept secret and it's greater information than what has ever been known before it's the key to understanding god's purpose for all time costs 125. this may sound very grandiose but this is the time which we live this is the dispensation which we live in 125. that's why we we we revere okay we hold sacred we call holy the word of god in this book okay it's it's not because it's because it's not just in scrolls anymore in caves in a temple it is inspired from the beginning to the end about all time above all things telling us god's eternal purpose and thus this book is holy okay there's things we can learn that we can't learn anywhere else from this 1 25 paul says i am made a minister for the church's sake i made a minister according to the dispensation of god which is given to me for you he doesn't say he made a covenant with me there's no covenant given to paul he doesn't put you in a covenant there's a dispensation given to him a dispensation a giving of a revelation about jesus christ and what he's doing but he says it was given to me for you to fulfill the word of god you see what he said there fulfilled the word of god now he's not talking there about fulfilling some promise that was given to the covenant he's talking about completing the manifold wisdom of god you see the earthly covenants without god's hidden purpose is incomplete right but when you reveal his hidden purpose from eternity past from before the world in addition to the covenant revelations you now have the full word of god you have a completed understanding of god's wisdom for the ages right like i said before if you take paul's epistles out you don't have that thus paul says it was this was given to him to fulfill the word of god verse 26 what fulfills it even the mystery which hath been hid from ages from generations ages is time generations as people that means it was hidden from all time and people but now is made manifest to his saints what a privilege this concerns verse 27 christ in you the hope of glory it doesn't concern christ in a covenant or christ the promised seed but christ in you well point to the covenant that talked about that like in you gentiles in a body no longer a distinction when jew and gentile this kingdom is established on the distinction of israel and the gentiles not this not this mystery of christ this brings everything together now there's a unity that everyone will have on christ alone you hear songs written about that this is a paul line idea yes the covenants point to christ but christ above all is what was revealed in the mystery look at this look at timothy 1. i'm hoping a little different chart this morning but i'm hoping to show you how all the scripture comes together we as dispensationalists we who preach christ's corner of the mystery do not discount the covenant promises do not say we don't need this it's not just that's not for us it's the bible it's god's holy word but we need to see the relationship of how what god revealed to our apostle and who he made us fits in with what he's doing for all time okay what we can learn from all scripture second timothy one verse nine paul says that he uh he's preaching the gospel here the power of god who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling now if that's where he stops with salvation and holy calling that can just as easily apply to israel they had a holy calling god promised to them salvation and that through jesus christ but look what he says not according to our works that discounts the law of moses doesn't it it discounts the circumcision doesn't it right but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us what from the from adam from the fathers no in christ jesus before the world began i'd like to point out you were not there right you were not there this idea that a covenant was made with you before you existed is kind of silly like how's that you don't even exist but he's not making a covenant here it's given he creates a grace creates a purpose and says i'm going to give this to everybody after i get to a point here in my covenant program i'm going to reveal i'm going to purpose this before it will begin he says in verse 10 but it's now may manifest see god had purposed the timing here it's now may manifest by the appearing of our savior jesus christ who hath abolished death the appearing of our savior jesus christ is not advent season advent means appearing or coming and so the advent season is people looking for the coming of jesus though he's already come they like to remember what it was like before jesus was here in the flesh and anticipation of the son of david coming right so that's what they're saying they're doing in the advent not not to consider that his birth wasn't really more important than his death and resurrection paul says here that the manifestation of god's hidden purpose was revealed at the appearing of jesus christ not in a manger right he said he abolished death he didn't do that in a manger he has abolished death and that brought life in a mortality to light that means it's after his death and after his resurrection when was this purpose revealed after his death after his resurrection look at verse 11 whereunto i am appointed a preacher now wait a minute paul wasn't even a believer when jesus died right from the dead so paul says the appearing of jesus christ after his death and resurrection to me jesus appeared in acts 9 to the apostle paul you understand this like we think about jesus appearing in liturgical churches about his birth that's not it paul discounts that or okay well maybe it's him coming from the dead again after he died oh yeah he kind of appeared again he rose from the dead he was there that people saw him but jesus paul is talking about his appearing from heaven to make him a minister you forget that jesus came back and not according to prophecy and so in verse 10 i'm appointed a preacher an apostle to teach of the gentiles and so he suffers these things because he knows the purpose that god's given them this mystery concerned a new creature as paul says in second corinthians chapter 5 it's not concerning jew or gentile distinction or a nation or this or or david's house forever or the circumcised people right what is the concern this mystery changes how we view the rest of the scripture again this is where people get confused they they say well we know paul's episodes are part of the bible and we know what god's purpose is to see soul saved through christ and so they go back and they reinterpret the scripture and that's not really wrong to do in light of the mystery when you get new information you got to go back and review what you knew before to see how that changes it right but what they tend to do is they go back and reinterpret and then remove the promises and covenants like oh no he didn't mean a nation he didn't mean an actual house on the earth well no he did but we do learn things in the light of what we now know we go back and read the covenants and say hey that's jesus and that's jesus and that's jesus and joseph's the type of jesus and adam's the type of jesus and we start seeing that he's not just the center of the earthly program he's the center of everything right he's not just above all the nations on the earth he's above all principality and power right his bruising satan wasn't just so that he can reign on the earth his bruising satan was so that there would be nothing against humanity for eternity like to deal with sin and death right so we go back and as we've been learning the last four or five weeks we learned about adam where adam was promised the seed of the woman would bruise the head of satan right and we learned it's not just about the seed of the woman though it is about to see the woman i mean we need jesus christ right here manifest in the flesh born of virgin mary we need that we need him but we learned through paul we talked about that adam teaches us about the fall of humanity and in one man we all sinned so that in one man we can all be saved so it teaches about reconciliation we learn from adam not just the coming seed but the message let me draw it up here the message of reconciliation and this is precisely the ministry christ gives us today right he's given us the word of reconciliation that he's not imputing sins of the world and that we're reconciling the whole world now is that just one nation is that through one nation is that by the circumcised people well no it's the whole world it's like there's no distinction because there's no distinction with adam either like the whole world is in him so in christ we have the message of reconciliation we learn from adam something we learned from abraham like i said even though he was promised a nation above the nations we learn through light of what the mystery is that we have righteousness by faith without works and paul goes back remember abram the promise he was given is without works he was giving it to him by faith only and so we learned it's this message of faith alone now notice reconciliation of faith alone are lessons learned outside of the law in fact another lesson we learn are you under the law of moses no my illustration hopefully communicates this as well you're not under the law of moses you're beyond it how can be beyond god's law well the fact that the law isn't sufficient to save anybody the law can't perfect us the law can't bring in what needs to happen in a new creation or crucified with christ so we're not under the law that would be a lowering of your standard right you're in christ by grace but we learn from moses something which is what we're not under the law we're dead to it but we're not without service people who want the law to remain on you are confused by that statement if we're not supposed to keep the law what are we supposed to do like i'm not supposed to keep the law then there is no service well no no there's a way to serve god without the law of moses like there's a way to serve your spouse without me dictating to you what you ought to do like out of love maybe like out of grace maybe like naturally from your heart maybe that would be a way to serve god according to how he's revealed his will right what he desires don't you respond to each other that way you figure out their desires and if you love them you do them right that's a big if and that requires a lot on you perhaps but a service that's genuine and honest and sincere and changes your heart and it's not required by a law you're not under the law the new covenant would change your heart but it changes the heart by giving you the holy spirit and causing you to keep the commandments that's different there's only 613 commandments of the law we covered this two weeks ago right there is innumerable ways to love each other and love god jesus even said all the law is summed up and love god love your neighbor right and so we learn from moses that no man can do it that we're all sinners the knowledge of sin and that we can serve god without it because we're now servants of righteousness not because we serve the law but because we serve christ he is the righteousness right so we're servants not because of a covenant made with us because we're in him right we learned from david in 2nd 2 verse 8 david was promised a sea that his house would be reigning on the earth forever well we're not david's house but paul says in second timothy 2 verse 8 that jesus christ of the seed of david was raised from the dead according to my gospel remember we covered with the seed of david and how inherent in that covenant was resurrection the son of david this is forever would have to be a resurrected son right well that was fulfilled in jesus when he resurrected from the dead but what was not known was that resurrection in jesus is now going to be your resurrection since you're in christ jesus rose from the dead not just to be the king of israel but according to paul's gospel that everyone else can have that power in them right that's why paul says he wrote from the dead according to my gospel there was something about that that was not known something about his death that wasn't known something was resurrection that wasn't known something about jesus that wasn't known and that's this mystery of christ this body of christ we learn from the fathers and circumcision do you have to be circumcised to be saved not in your flesh you don't do anything to be saved colossians 2 says you're circumcised without hands philippians 3 says you're the circumcision has no confidence in the flesh before the circumcision was they have no confidence in flesh and we learned them from the fathers something different in light of what we now know it's not that i guess we've got to do some work no we learned that flesh has no power and it's not there's no confidence in it so we learned these things differently you see then how preaching jesus christ according to the mystery is greater and more excellent than anything he's ever revealed before all right you also see now if you're preaching a gospel of the kingdom which harkens back to david's promise he has promised a kingdom from his house forever you're preaching about israel and to israel if you're talking about a new covenant that covenant's made with the house of vigilant house of judah 12 tribes right you're confining the message of jesus christ what he was doing to earth through one nation right even if you go back to the fathers which paul does and says well look these fathers back here we learn about faith and righteousness by faith and reconciliation even then you go back to abram isaac and jacob what about people who are not of abram isaac and jacob not everyone is from those guys we learn a principle about righteousness by faith you see our message is not the gospel of the kingdom our message is not the gospel of the circumcision you've heard that message before paul says peter was given the gospel the circumcision paul was given the gospel of the uncircumcision the gospel of circumcision goes back to abram isaac and jacob speaking to how the whole world gets blessed through the circumcised people right we are not under that there's something beyond it circumcision doesn't matter anymore according to the mystery of christ circumcision uncircumcision what avails is a new creature so what paul says in galatians 5. so whether you're circumcised whether you're uncircumcised it doesn't matter what matters is a new creature doesn't that raise the new creature in importance yeah what's more important your physical circumcision or new creature well new creature according to galatians 5 people would have would put us under however these covenants you put us under the covenants you're making those more important than the mystery of christ and paul says we should approve things that are excellent on page 129 after chapter 10 and cornelius stam's book things that differ shamely name by the way it should be not things that differ but things more excellent he's trying to quote and re-translate philippians 1 when paul says you should approve things that are excellent he makes things a different trying to show the differences well differences are good but what differences do not do is explain the biblical truth of things that are more excellent okay are these different covenants and mysteries dispensation and covenant yes those are different covenants to israel demonstration of grace to us it's different but one's more excellent than the other and there's a relationship to that excellency right like these are good the law of moses is righteous holy and good promises are great but what's greater than all these things god's eternal purpose his manifold wisdom it's more excellent if you realize what's more excellent then you realize what's most important and you'll realize how it changes how you view everything of lesser importance right we know this in our lives if i talk to you about your eternal hope and your eternal salvation what matters is eternal glory it changes how you view everything else of lesser importance i have eternal glory coming to me i guess mowing the grass looks different now right it's like not as important you know just one example but everything under eternal glory is changes your perspective on it the same thing here your perspective on the rest of scripture the covenants given to israel the law given to moses the covenants given to david changes in light of the more excellent mystery that's now been revealed known to you so don't fall into the trap of thinking which i think unfortunately is created by things that differ right is that it's not just different it's more excellent because that shows you the relationship to the rest of the bible people say well how do i learn from the rest of the bible well if they're different i understand the question right if you segregate i understand the difference you're over here they're over there don't touch well how do i learn from that then but if one is greater than the other you know being graduated from school is greater than not being graduated from school why the idea is that you get educated to a point where you can somehow exist in society right this is idea so if you're uneducated didn't graduate kindergarten you're going to be at a disadvantage right if you go through school learn how to read and write you're going to have an advantage right this is the idea it's something's more excellent it's not that you don't learn anything in kindergarten he said something more excellent than that you see the law of moses was a schoolmaster to bring us to christ paul says points to christ but paul's making the point it's not christ according to prophecy it's christ according to mystery it's like knowing these covenants teaches us things that now is revealed that was once secret that now we see how god had purposed this since the beginning of the world from the beginning before the world like the whole bible speaks to this like it's not revealed right but it speaks to god's eternal purpose for heaven and earth we praise god for that it's not just us that god works through he's going to work through israel he's going to work through the kingdom it's everywhere and how perfect that plan is right how perfect this whole plan is you see so is jesus still at the center there's this debate between the covenantal theologians dispensations and the covenant theologians will say well we're christo-centric it's all about jesus christ because all the covenants speak to him and this dispensationalist they want to divide israel from the church well yes there's divisions see but it's all about jesus christ he's at the center of it all not just on the earth but above all things paul says he was lifted up by the power of god's resurrection above all things right complete colossians 2 10 says you're complete in him above all principality and power in heaven and in earth wow that's amazing and so ephesians 3 verse 18 paul finishes up the knowledge of this mystery with this this prayer that you might know and comprehend what is the length and the breadth the depth and width of the love of god remember that because it was once confined to a nation that you had to learn from confined to a law that god gave confined to an earthly kingdom that he had to go to not anymore right in ephesians 3 paul says i want you to comprehend the breadth of this thing the depth of it the height of it to no love of christ which passes knowledge be filled with the fullness of god that's god's purpose for all time ephesians 4 verse 6 jesus is at the center and he's now above all as ephesians 4 6 says and he's through all and he's in you all right you could not say that under the covenants given to israel and now we can he's above all through all in you all what a great mystery this is and paul says that he's in spy it's a great mystery concerning christ in the church it's more excellent but there's a relationship to the covenants that we can learn from any thoughts questions you

Channel: Grace Ambassadors

Views: 2,384

Keywords:

Id: bGVLQYjK9N8

Length: 58min 26sec (3506 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 06 2021