Covenant (1/22/2017)

Purposes:

  • Build faith in God and His word through an understanding of covenant thinking – especially that Jesus is the guarantee
  • Show how serious and committed God is
  • Show WHY God wants us to follow the commandment of love – our fellow believer is under the same covenant. If I poured out my life for you, you should pour out your life for one another.
  • Realize the position we have in His covenant

Main Message:

God made covenants with Israel and by extension all humanity throughout scripture. He “locked” himself into blessing us and making us a blessing through covenant. We must not be foreigners to the covenants of promise.

Definition and History

How many have heard a teaching on covenant?

We have learned the Secret of the Kingdom.

We know the lifestyle of focusing and meditating on the Word releases the Kingdom in our life.

It centers on the Word. But there is a foundation the Word is built on. It’s another secret.

Something had to happen to put the word into effect.

Jesus did not come without something that God did in advance.

God did something to inaugurate the Word in the earth.

How did God inaugurate the Word?Through COVENANT.

What is the common denominator of every covenant in the Bible? BLOOD!

  • The blood saves you, sanctifies you, His blood takes away your sins.

The Word comprises the terms of the covenant.

  • The covenant itself is the guarantee that backs up the Word.

The nature of a guarantee.

  • You have to know the terms of the guarantee, then cash in on it when the product not working.
  • The shedding of blood is what consummates a covenant. Getting that word in your heart activates the execution of the covenant’s promises in your life.

There is no shedding of blood without a covenant and no covenant without the shedding of blood. They are one in the same. One without the other means nothing. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony (Rev 12:11)

Introduction to covenant

Covenant means a cut where the blood flows

A solemn, irrevocable pledge between two or more parties

We use the word in Christian circles so lightly

Evidence of covenant in the history of every ethnic group

Blood covenanting is embedded in every historic culture

“Blood is thicker than milk.”

The Western mind has no concept of the depth and seriousness of covenant

Somehow embedded in our consciousness

Started at the fall when God spilled blood of animals to cover man’s nakedness

Some tribes have been known to eat the flesh and drink the blood of humans – they understand in a perverted way about the life is in the blood. They are looking for immortality. The Word expressly forbids us to do that.

Agreements part of everyday life

It’s a legal will – “will and testament”

The Bible is a legal contract (Old TESTAMENT and New TESTAMENT)

The Bible is a blood book

Covenants defined

Worldwide

Started at the fall. God sacrificed animals (blood) to cover man’s nakedness.

Absolute and unbreakable guarantee of a man’s word

Called a covenant of strong friendship

Everything I have is yours

Lasts for at least eight generations

Personal research and knowledge

Broken Arrow TV serial

The book, The Blood Covenant, Trumbull

The story of Sir Henry Morton Stanley and his search for missionary and explorer David Livingstone

They all point to and signifythe blood of the Messiah on the cross

God’s covenants are all covenants of love for you. Every one of them. GRACE

Covenants mentioned in the plural here, and in Romans 9:4

Covenants based on the strengths and weakness of the parties involved. Example:

Tribe A: Excellent Warriors, poor farmers, starving

Tribe B: Excellent Farmers, poor fighters, oppressed by their enemies

Covenants became necessary in situations like this

  • Tribe A provided protection for Tribe B
  • Tribe B provided food forTribe A

Rites of the Covenant

Many of these elements were included in some form or another in covenants throughout history all over the world.

Almost all of them corrupted and perverted. For example: drinking blood

Terms Negotiated

  • Negotiated over time; when agreement was reached, the ceremony took place

Representatives Chosen and a Site

Animals Killed

  • Split in half, making a bloody walkway

Walk of Blood

  • Spoke the blessings
  • Willing to die for each other just as these animals were killed
  • May I be cut apart if I break this covenant
  • The representatives bound their wrists together with blood
  • Representative bore the scar of the covenant

Exchanges

  • All I have is yours and all you have is mine
  • Exchanged coats, which represented their identity and authority
  • Exchanges weapons, which represented their strength – My strength is your strength, your enemies are now my enemies
  • We do that too – We put on the full armor of God – You’re strong despite your weaknesses.

Covenant Meal

  • Exchange of bread and wine, this is my body and my blood
  • I will die before I let anything happen to you; I offer my life;
  • A bond of love and fidelity “hesed”;
  • Matthew 18:19-20: Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

Exchanged Names

  • They become one family
  • Fred Farmer became Fred Fighter-Farmer; Phil Fighter became Phil Fighter-Farmer – Ephesians 3:15 says we bear the name of Jesus

Signs of Covenant Today

The handshake

Ear rings and nose rings (blood)

Bracelets

Common traits

Everything I have is yours; everything that is yours is mine

They all involve blood. (Example: circumcision.)

Blessings and curses – blessings for honoring and abiding by it; curses for violating it – usually death

Knowledge of the terms was vital: Story of starving passenger – your lack of knowledge can kill you – Hosea 4:6

Mutual benefit – afforded strengths and skills needed by each party

Love and devotion, obedience forever

Protection for the weaker party; skills for the unskilled party

Bound for life. Penalty for violation: death.

Good news: God has cut a covenant with and for you!!

Everything you have is His; everything He has is yours

Be covenant minded

Ephesians 2:11-13, 19 – Don’t be foreigners and strangers to the covenants

Romans 8:17 and Galatians 4:7 – Joint heirs

Covenant is not just a promise; but an absolute commitment in terms of life and death!

Covenant in Scripture

Common characteristic

  • Blood – Hebrews 9:9-14
  • Love and Intimacy – Genesis 17:1-7 – Always the reason for God making covenant

Between God and man; between men as well

  • God and Man – 22?
  • Some more explicit than others: Eden, Adam, Noah, Job, Abraham, The Land of Palestine, David, New (Jer. 31:31-34)

One covenant builds on a previous one all the way through to the New Covenant.

Between men

  • David and Jonathan
  • Joshua/David and the Gibeonites (Joshua 9-10)
  • Deception – covenant – deception discovered – attack – battle – sun stood still!
  • Hundreds of years later, David avenged Saul’s slaughter to the Gibeonites (2 Samuel 21);
  • Shows how GOD honored covenant between people

David knew about covenant when he stood before the nine-foot giant

Nothing else would have convinced Abraham that God would give him the land.

Strength of covenant in the Jewish culture: David enabled to defeat the Phillistine (1 Samuel 17:34-37) because he had a covenant mind

God made promises to Abraham, but nothing short of a blood covenant would have convinced Abraham

That’s why Abraham could offer Isaac – Romans 4:21

A revelation of covenant puts an end to doubt and unbelief.

Hesed – Loving kindness, faithful love, tenderness, compassion, GRACE, Psalm 23:6; John 3:16

Feeling inside a mother or father has when their child is threatened

God: Everything I have is yours; Man: Everything I have is yours.

There are conditional and unconditional covenants that God made with Israel

Conditional Covenants – each side is to do something, or the covenant is invalidated

  • Usually between equals based on mutual needs
  • When he cuts a covenant, it is conditional

Unconditional Covenants – an eternal promise from God not requiring certain behaviors from its beneficiaries

  • Sometimes between men (David and Mishibopheth)
  • When he establishes or gives a covenant, it is unconditional

Reinforcement of a previous covenant

Each covenant builds on the previous ones

Covenant of Moses was conditional

Most of the them are unconditional – especially the Abrahamic covenant

The covenant of grace

Covenants are strongly rooted in Israel’s history and in Jewish culture to this day.

That’s the reason they have survived as a people and a nation, and excelled.

The Jews are the only ancient people group out of possibly hundreds of identified people groups in history whose language and traditions have survived after others have been dead for thousands of years

Jewish Covenants are valid for Christians today.

  • Christians were grafted into Israel, so they apply to us well as Israel
  • We have the place of Christ in the covenant (Gal 3:16)

Christians are confused about the “Old Covenant”.

They mix the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic covenants together because they are in the Old Testament canon of scripture.

They are not the same thing.

  • The covenant of Abraham is a covenant of grace
  • The covenant of Moses (or Sinai) is the covenant of law
  • The covenant of Abraham is still in force, but renewed and enhanced by Jesus, and includes all who are born again and have received eternal life
  • The covenant of Moses (or Sinai) came later to show us our sin and drive us to the Savior; to those who have accepted Jesus, the Law has been totally fulfilled by Jesus on our behalf, so that we would not suffer the curse of the Law

God Making Covenant with Abraham

God Himself entered into covenant with Abraham.

He found a man who would teach his children the covenant

Abraham was a covenant believer – had a covenant of strong friendship with God.

“Abraham my friend.” 3x in the Bible

Abraham was blessed

Gen 12:1-3; 13:2; 24:2; 26:12-14

Gen 12:1-3 READ

Born to be a blessing; born to be blessed

Promised: the land (Canaan); enhancement of his name; wealth; Messiah

Genesis 15:1-21 READ

Promised child through Sarah; many descendants

Abraham believed God’s promise about descendants, but struggled over His promise about the land.

Abraham believed, loving trust, gave himself wholly up, to be a part of Himself, go right into Him, the unqualified committal (Gen 15:6)

God’s remedy to that struggle was making covenant with him.

Abraham knew exactly what God was doing.

Abraham drove away the birds of prey

Abraham did not walk the walk of blood; only God did.

God alone passed between the slaughtered animals while Abraham slept – he rested

  • This shows that our covenant is a covenant of rest, again emphasizing the unilateral nature of this covenant
  • Also, the ultimate level of commitment involved - God putting his very life on line, as it were, as a guarantee.
  • Hebrews 7:22; Romans 4:16: The promise comes by faith, so that it might be by grace that it might be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring

Sodom and Gomorrah – God came to consult with his covenant partner and Abraham had the opportunity to intercede

Reason why Abraham was able to sacrifice his son years later (Genesis 22:1-10)

  • Surmised God would bring Isaac back from the dead
  • God swore an oath Gen 22:16-17 and Heb 6:13-14
  • Abraham gave his son for sacrifice, so God promised He would – this happened at the same site – Mount Moriah

Exodus 2:24 – God remembered (was mindful) of His covenant with Abraham when His people cried out

Genesis 17, circumcision: a covenant of blood, perpetuated through the generations

and family after discussing it with His friend Abraham

  • Same when he saved Jacob and family and brought them to Egypt
  • Same when they cried out, God remembered (was mindful) of his covenant; Exodus 2:24

Partakers of Christ in the Covenant

We relegate all our blessings to our arrival in heaven

The Last Will and Testament: How did your parents’ will work?

Did your parents’ will take effect when you die or when they died?

When THEY died!Not when I die! Same with the New Covenant.

Galatians 3:1-14

Verse 6 First thing Abraham received: Righteousness

  • Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness: ts’dakah
  • “Acts of loving kindness.” To do what is right, to be just. Doing more than just the minimum for someone who is hurting. Also means going over and above the tithe to charities.
  • God’s very righteousness is imputed to you.
  • We know that Jesus deserves all the blessings of God, correct?
  • Well, if you have His standing, doesn’t it follow that you deserve all the blessings of God also? YES, BECAUES IT’S ON HIS ACCOUNT, NOT OURS.
  • He has given us the store. This gospel is way over the top. The blessing of Abraham is so big and all encompassing, it’s beyond our imagination. (Eph 1:3; 3:19)
  • How does it happen? Follow the model of Abraham’s faith.

Verse 7 Faith makes you Abraham’s son, not being Jewish

Verse 8 Promise called the gospel

Verse 9 We are blessed with faithful Abraham

  • We are partakers of the covenant of GRACE,
  • Grace = Hesed (which also means loving kindness),

Verse 10-12

  • Remember, if you sin just once, you deserve the curse.
  • James 2:10 – If you break one of the 613 commandments, you have broken them all.

Verse 13-14

  • Deuteronomy 28 – lists the blessings and curses
  • Referenced in Galatians 3:13-14
  • Curses: sickness, poverty, second death
  • Blessings: health, wealth, eternal life – the blessing of Abraham
  • Specific to the Mosaic covenant, but were applicable since the fall in the garden
  • Thou shalt not murder didn’t start at Sinai
  • Abraham blessed in every way, including wealth
  • Deuteronomy 8:18 – Power to make wealth, which He swore to your forefathers, as it is this day – the Abrahamic covenant
  • Also, wealth: Not just for the Jews.
  • Gal 3:14, 16, and Eph 3:6
  • Promise made to Abraham and to US

The blessing of Abraham is really the Gospel of Jesus Christ

There is a reason God called it the blessing of Abraham

We need to look at his life to get an idea of what it entails

Galatians 3:15-18

Verse 16

  • The promises were spoken to Abraham AND to His seed, namely Christ

Jesus took the penalty for our sin. In exchange, He gave us His inheritance

  • We have inherited the standing of Jesus in the Abrahamic covenant, i.e. all the blessings
  • Like Isaac, children of promise – Galatians 4:28

The blessings of Deuteronomy 28 are for the believer, not the curses. Why?

  • Jesus took the curse on the cross even though He did not deserve it because of His righteousness. We take the blessing even though we don’t deserve it because of our sinfulness.
  • We were redeemed from the curse by the heir so we would get the bless intended for him (Galatians 4;1; 2 Corinthians 8:9)
  • Not just for the Jews (Ephesians 3:5-6)

Galatians 3:19-25

Verse 20

  • Unconditional Read Galatians 3:20 AMPC
  • Now a go-between (intermediary) has to do with and implies more than one party [there can be no mediator with just one person]. Yet God is [only] one Person [and He was the sole party in giving that promise to Abraham. But the Law was a contract between two, God and Israel; its validity was dependent on both].
  • Abraham did not walk between the pieces in Genesis 15; only God did.

Verses 21-25

  • The promises do not come by obeying the Ten Commandants (the Law).
  • The Law has not gone away.
  • Jesus did not abolish the Law; He fulfilled the Law,
  • Then He suffered the penalty on the cross for our disobedience to the Law
  • Then He turned around and imparted His righteousness to the Law WITH ITS REWARDS
  • Hebrews 8:12 – I will be merciful to their wrongdoing and I will never again remember their sins; 9:26 – He removed sin by the sacrifice of Himself
  • Jesus instituted the New Covenant (Renewed Covenant per Jer 31)

Galatians 3:26-29

Clothed – remember the coat?

Neither Jew nor Gentile, male or female, eetc.

  • Coat on me
  • We are part of this covenant (Gal. 3:26-29)
  • WE are Abraham’s seed – another witness that we have inherited Jesus’ part in the covenant

Conclusion

Under the New Covenant, we are recipients of this covenant

Jesus was the cut of the covenant; He was the covenant meal (John 6:47-59)

There is not a curse associated with the New Covenant for us! (Born again)

  • God made the covenant with Abraham AND Jesus
  • A COVENANT BETWEEN THE FATHER AND THE SON.
  • HE GAVE US HIS STANDING IN THAT COVENANT
  • If the New Covenant is between God the Father and Jesus the Son, then we can’t break it. And neither will God nor Jesus.
  • If you are born again: No curse in this covenant – because neither God nor Jesus will ever fail in the covenant.Since you have Jesus’ part in it, you cannot suffer any curse of breaking it or being under the curse of the Law – unless
  • you put yourself back under the law, are ignorant of the covenant, or just ignore it
  • We can get out of fellowship and be restored instantly
  • The availability of the blessings (i.e. the New Covenant) does not depend on your ability to keep it, but on His ability to keep it

This works by faith in the covenant, not being a foreigner to the covenantsThe nature of a guarantee.