The New Covenant

Transcript

GRM 1204
11/04/2018
The New Covenant
Jeremiah 31:31-33; Selected Verses
Gil Rugh

I want to take a little bit of time with you this evening to talk about the covenants of scripture. Thought it would be a good time to remind ourselves of this since we just had the communion service and that we say this is the new covenant in my blood as Jesus stated it. And be sure we understand something of what the biblical covenant are so I’m going to overview them let me start by reminding you of the covenants that are well, how do I put it? Presupposed by covenant theology. We are dispensationalist in our approach to scripture, meaning we take a literal interpretation of scripture and with that we only call covenants with the bible calls covenants, but as I talk with you a little while ago about covenant theology, we put up with the covenant theology people present as covenants. Now these are not the covenants we hold so don’t get confused but these are the covenants of people who are covenantal and sometimes there’s confusion because we believe in covenants, they believe in covenants, but as you see these three covenants, none of them are called covenants in scripture. Where do covenants theologians come up with these covenants well they think they find the elements of a covenant and what the scripture says in there various passages and they create that as a covenant. They presuppose in there theology there’s a covenant of redemption that was established in eternity past, between God the father and God the son. God the father desire was for the son to come to earth to suffer and die Christ agreed he would come to earth and suffer and die to pay the penalty for sin, and thus provide redemption. The covenant of Grace is the basic covenant when we talked about this in a previous study noted some covenant theologians just have one covenant here the covenant of grace and include the covenant of redemption in that. The covenant of grace is God’s covenant with the elect made in eternity past. God and His son had agreed that He would come to earth and by the Redeemer and He would provide redemption for a certain group of people for whom Christ would die and the covenant of grace would be applied to them. The covenant of works is said to be made between God and Adam in the garden if he was perfectly obedient to God he would have eternal life, if He disobeyed He would suffer death and he failed.

These are the covenants, but I don’t call these covenants because the scripture doesn’t call these covenants. I thing you generate confusion and this confusion permeates since there’s a covenant of works for example they presuppose them for them Christ had to come and fulfill the covenant of works that Adam failed to fulfill so he had to perfectly keep the law and thus, provide righteousness by his keeping the law so he could give us the righteousness that Adam forfeited by not keeping the law. Well that may seem to be a logical story, but I don’t find it supported by scripture. Christ perfectly kept the law, but not so he could provide righteousness for us, we get the righteousness of God through faith in Christ. He kept the law so he could be the sinless sacrifice to pay the penalty for sin. A covenant of grace so these are just covenants presupposed as we have talked about in a previous study. I don’t call any of those covenants. I don’t disagree God planned redemption before the creation, but he doesn’t it call it a covenant. I think the safest clearest thing to do is call a covenant what the scripture calls a covenant. And the first use of covenant in the Old Testament is with the covenant of Noah. After the flood God made a covenant with Noah if you want to turn there. You can turn in Genesis 9 in your bibles. Genesis 9:9, “Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, sayin, ‘Now behold, I Myself do establish My covenant with you, and with your descendants after you;’” So there you have the word Covanant, God establishing a covenant. I say this is the first covenant, first use of the word covenant in the Old Testaments so I take it this is the first covenant. This is what we call a non-redemptive covenant. It is a covenant that includes God’s creation. “I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh” (vs. 15). So this encompasses not only the humanity that descends from Noah and we all do because it wasn’t only Noah and his sons, their family on the ark. So just like we’re all decedents of Adam we are all decedents of Adam through Noah and here it’s expanded to include the animals that were on the ark as well. And it’s a covenant that promises that he’ll never again destroy the earth with a flood he puts the rainbow in the sky as a sign “between me” vs. 13, “and the earth” so this is a universal covenant with God’s creation if you will establishing it through Noah who here is the representative because he’s the father of humanity and animals that were on the ark with him from those animals will develop all the animals that come subsequently verse 13, the sign of the rainbow is the sign of that covenant. Verse 16, “When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth… This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.” So that’s the Noahic covenant, the covenant made with Noah that is a covenant made with all of life. From that point on the earth will never be destroyed by a flood.

Now we just studied in our earlier study today in Revelation and am reminded in chapter 21 there will be a new heaven’s and a new earth because the old earth will be destroyed by fire, but there will not be a destruction of the earth by a flood. The next covenant we have is the covenant God establishes with Abraham and this is the foundational covenant what we call the Abrahamic covenant we’ve chart you’ve seen and as a mentioned these charts are also available on the website if you want a copy of them they are there if you would like a hard copy and can’t print it out Jeff will get you one if you send him an email. The Abrahamic covenant. Genesis chapter 12 you can go there. We’re not going in to the details we’ve done studies of these covenants more in detail on other occasions, I just want to remind you of them so when we talk about covenants and I mention covenant theology or where, covenant theology is not talking about this the see the Abrahamic covenant and all subsequent covenants that we are going to talk about as subsets of the covenant of grace. So there’s one in our overarching covenant for covenant, it’s a covenant of grace. We just take the covenant as they come. The covenant with Noah as we just looked at now the Abrahamic covenant first mentioned in chapter 12. The content of what it is you just have God stating Abraham, Abram, as he’s known at this time, so if I go back and forth and call him Abraham his name will be changed to Abraham later, but needs to go forth, “And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” So Abraham believes God and leaves His home land.

Now it’s not called a covenant here and you say why I thought the word covenant had to be used. Now you come over to chapter 15, and God formalizes the covenant with Abraham, Now this is where the covenant was formally established. Look at verse 18 of chapter 15, “One that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram,” so the provision of the covenant what will be the covenant what is formally established the promises are given to Abram in chapter 12. The covenant is not formally presented until chapter 15, but what is included is why we go back to chapter 12 why did God promise Abraham is now formalized in a covenant, a binding agreement between God and Abraham, or Abram as he still is. He’s promising Abraham descendants you’ll remember Abram and his wife Sarah are childless and they’re getting up in years. So God promises, no you are going to have children, that’s the basic promise here. One that comes forth from your own body will be your heir, Abraham is given up hope of having his own children, so no one to be his heir so it will pass to his most trusted servant, God said, no it’s going to be someone that you Father and further more as the later instructions are it will be with Sarah, your wife, so it won’t count on if you father a child with someone other than Sarah which he will do as your aware, but it has to be with Sarah as further development. “Now look towards the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them… so shall your descendants be” (vs. 5). “Then he,” Abram, “believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.” Then God tells him I brought you out of your home land Ur of the Chaldees and to the end of verse 7 they give you this land to possess. So then you have the cutting of the covenant. To establish it and you’re aware, verse 12, first Abram’s told to take these animals and birds and you cut them, that’s where we get the expression to cut a covenant. They cut the animals and the birds in two. And they laid half on one side of the path and half on the other. So you have a path between. These animals that have been cut in two. Then the parties to the covenant walk between them. And they are by that like we would sign paper work for a covenant, a contract this is the binding of that agreement. That is formalized, now what is unique, we talk about conditional and unconditional covenants, some again in reform position don’t like the terminology, but I think it is biblical in the way they are carried out, a conditional covenant is conditioned on obedience, agreement. We agree with the covenant, an unconditional covenant is one that just one party takes full responsibility for fulfilling. We are going to note more about that in a moment. But verse 12, “Now when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram; and behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.” And then God in his sleep, evidently in a dream, vision as he’s sleeping tells him that his descendants are going to be enslaved in a foreign land, which we know is Egypt for 400 years, And the God will judge the Egyptians and they’ll come out, verse 14, with many possessions.

For your Abram, you are not going to see any of this, you are going to die, be buried with your ancestors, your fathers, in a good old age, and he’s going to live to be hundred and seventy five. That’s a good old age at this time, and Sarah will die at hundred and twenty seven years of age, so Abram is going to outlive here by almost fifty years and father a number of other children with other women. They can’t go into the land and possess it yet because iniquity has to build the point that it is right for judgement and people in the land of cannon are not ready. Verse 17, “It came about when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch.” So now a visibility, something to make God’s presence visible. Passed between these pieces on that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying, “To your descendants I have given this land” (vs. 18) and he makes out the land. You note only one person passes through the animals, that’s an unconditional covenant. In so doing God is saying I guarantee this covenant. I guarantee its fulfillment, it’s all on me so to speak, Abram’s asleep. He doesn’t pass through the animals. But God makes a binding agreement with Abraham not conditioned on what Abraham does or does not do, now that doesn’t mean that you know there’s not faith required for salvation, and so one, but Abraham already believed God back in chapter 15. But the establishing of this covenant it’s an unconditional covenant, this is important because the provision of this covenant, when broken it down into three parts, land, seed, and blessing, that’s enumerated in chapter 12, the land becomes a focus like in chapter 15 and the seed in chapter 15, and these elements is going to be repeated that covenants covered in chapter 12, the provisions of it, chapter 13, chapter 15, chapter17, chapter 18, chapter 22 with Abraham. Now we don’t have time to go through this we’ve done it one other occasions if you want to details you can go look. Then he reiterates it with the son of promise, Isaac. It’s not enough to be the descendent of Abraham, we hear today in the news and so one and in the Middle East with you know the disagreements between Arab nations and the Jews and the surrounding peoples and they say we’re all decedents of Abraham. There’s an element of truth in that, they are decedents of Abraham, but all the decedents of Abraham are not in the line of promise. God told Abraham I’ll bless your son Ishmael that he fathered with a slave girl of Sarah. But the line of promise will only be through Isaac.

Come over to chapter 25. Let me read you what I just told you in chapter 17, verse 18, And Abraham asked God if he could bless Ishmael because he still hasn’t had another son, and he say’s I’ll be happy if you just bless Ishmael and fulfill your promises and then God says no your Sarah your wife will bear you a son and you shall call his name Isaac and I will establish my covenant with him. Note that I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants of Abraham after him. As for Ishmael I’ve heard you I’ll bless him too, but verse 21, my covenant I will establish with Isaac. So just to be a physical descendant of Abraham does not bring you in the line of promise. You have to be in the covenantal line. It’s only through Isaac and then from Isaac it will pass through Jacob. So to be in the line of promise you have to be of the decedent of Abraham through Isaac, through Jacob, and through the twelve sons of Jacob. That’s the Jews. When you come over to chapter 25 of Genesis you see Abraham took another, wife, his wife, Sarah died. Her death is recorded back in chapter 23 verse 1. One hundred and twenty-seven years and she died and buried in the cave there. Then in chapter 25, Abraham takes a second wife, Ketuvah, and she bares him a number of children who will father other nations. And evidently Abraham also fathers a number of children through concubines, which the scripture does not go into, but we’re told in verse 5, “Now Abraham gave all that he had to Isaac; but to the sons of his concubines, Abraham gave gifts while he was still living, and sent them away from his son” they travel to the east and that’s where we get the other people’s there. Who can claim to be descendants of Abraham, but they are not covenantal decedents of Abraham. That’s crucial. So when it says he gave all he had to Isaac, and then we’re told he gave gifts of these, is what you’re really saying is his heir is Isaac, and he will receive the bulk of the estate. Abraham gives gifts, sort of like some of you, you may leave your inheritance to your child or certain children, but you might give gifts to other people, but really your heir, or heirs, are specific designated, what he does here. So that’s the Abrahamic covenant it includes land, seed, blessing. Each of these will be developed with a substantial covenant. So if you put up that next chart the land will be in what we call the Palestinian Covenant, which is a misnomer, which is a land covenant, but it’s been given the name Palestinian because of subsequent name given to that land and we use but it is a misnomer and we call it Palestine it’s the land of Israel. It’s the land marked out by God for Israel. So don’t get confused, this is the land covenant. That’s recorded in primarily Deuteronomy, 29, Deuteronomy, 30 it’s elaborated, if you want to turn over there quickly, Deuteronomy 29. These are covenants that elaborate, these are subsets of the Abrahamic covenant, there’s three of them, the land will be developed in the Palestinian or land covenant. The seed in the Davidic Covenant, the blessing in the new covenant. In Deuteronomy 29, verse 1, “These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He had made with them at Horeb.” That Horeb was the Mosaic covenant of the law which is a conditional covenant, but don’t get side tracked, what we want to note here is he makes commanded Moses to make a covenant with the sons of Israel, and that is the land here that they’re going to enter into with God and you read the context down through here, now you come over to chapter 30 the first 8 verses elaborate this and they entering in to all the fullness of this is connected to them having a circumcised heart. But God is obligated to Himself with the Abrahamic covenant to all the provisions of this covenant which includes the land. But Israel won’t be able to enjoy the fullness of what the blessing, promises his covenant inheriting the land until they have a faith relationship with the God who has covenanted with them. So they’re saved, that’s why all of Israel will be saved as we’ve been talking about, then we can have the millennium and the kingdom and then Israel gets the land in its fullness. So anything prior to that is a temporary situation, Israel is in their land at least a portion of what’s promised to them today. But that’s not the fulfillment that we are talking about in the covenant. They have been brought back to the land for judgement, for their unbelief in preparation for as we’ve seen in the book of Revelation bringing Israel to their knees so that they’re ready to call upon their Messiah in faith, he’ll return to earth as we saw in chapter 19 in Revelation and then the fullness of what is promised in the Abrahamic covenant will be realized, the land, and the same with the seed. The seed is expanded in the Davidic covenant. Which the descendants and the ruler who will rule over all these descendants and the Davidic covenant. A promise to Israel, a dynasty, a kingdom, a throne, which the descendant of David will sit ruling overall and we saw even David will subsequently sit, that’s in 2 Samuel 7 and it’s referred to in Psalm 89 and the covenant that God made with David.

The blessing, and this is what is connected to the new covenant, the spiritual blessings for Israel. And you all the nation of the earth will be blessed and the realization of that comes with the new covenant. That is the salvation now I put in here on this chart you can see the dotted line and the law. The law was a conditional covenant, the bible says it was added four hundred and thirty years later. Come over to the book of Galatians chapter 3. Just mention it, but we are not going to go on to the law, we’ve talked about this when we talked about in our study of Galatians, so you can go back and refers your mind the promises given, the law was added later, verse 16 of Galatians 3 for time. You have had the faith of Abraham and the faith that Abraham had when he believed God in Genesis 15 and God credited to him as righteousness, is what is required of all. All of the decedents of Abraham physically the Jews the must have the faith of Abraham to experience the blessings God provided for Abraham, but God is also expanded a provision made in that for all the nations and that’s the period of time of which we live you’re the church age when God now is focusing his work of salvation on the nations not the nation. So there are Jews being saved, but they are minority, they are in no way the bulk of the nation. The bulk of the Jews today, don’t even believe the Old Testament, is the final word of God. We have representative of those kind of Jews in our country and in bulk recall of the Jews in the United States. Verse 16 of Galatians 3, “Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his see. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as referring to many, but rather to one, ‘And to your seed,’” Now that goes back to Genesis 22:18. Chapter 22, 18, the promise there and is no context he is going to have a multitude of seed, but then he makes a statement to your seed and the emphasis is the singular, because all of these will be channeled through Christ. And the blessing promised to a multitude of seed of Abraham will come through one seed. Now this doesn’t change any of the promises, but it’s Christ who can bring about the fulfillment, so in your seed, all this blessing will come, because that one person, that one decedent, the second Adam who is a decedent of Abraham, Christ is the one who can bring the blessing to all the physical decedents of Abraham, who experienced salvation and all the nations. And that’s what Paul is making clear here. Now it doesn’t come through the law, that’s why we came here. What he says in verse 17, “What I am saying is this: the law, which came four hundred and thirty years later, does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise.” So the Mosaic Law was a later addition. What he’s making clear is it can alter the Abrahamic covenant. That was set in stone. In concrete if you will, and when God promised Abraham that’s it, so he added the law, four hundred and thirty years later. Why? Because of transgressions verse 19. To help keep Israel on track until the coming of the seeds singular, Christ. But Israel wasn’t prepared, but that was the purposed of the law, to an extent it did because it separated Israel from the other nations, by its requirement. A circumcision. The food regulations. Even today we have the issue of anti-Semitism. The Jews are still a marked out people, but the law marked them out from all the nations around them. So you refer to the uncircumcised Philistines. Because circumcision marked them off as particular people with a covenant of the law and so on.

All these things get bound down, the food, the holidays, that was only until the seed would come. Verse 19, elaborates. So that’s why I put it out like that. It is not in the line of the Abrahamic covenant, it was added on to fulfill a purpose, with a coming of Christ it had fulfilled its purpose, so we’re not under the law, this is different with covenantal theologians and the covenants they created, they say the Mosaic law is part of the covenant of grace. So in many ways the law still has its purpose in and is binding in certain of its aspects and that’s why Christ had to keep it to provide the righteousness and so one. So there are major differences and we want to be clear on the covenants of scripture. The new covenant is what brings blessing. Two passages there are others that we could go to, but two main passages, come to Jerimiah 31. Important because the new covenant and this is something the Old Testament did not clarify. There is a division that exist among dispensationalist on the new covenant. So we want to be clear for ourselves, verse 31 of Jerimiah 31. “’Behold days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ’when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,’” is a new covenant in contract to the Mosaic Law which is the old covenant. And this will be the superseding covenant that can fulfill the promise of blessings. To Abraham’s physical decedent and beyond, but here it said “I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah” And it contrast with what we call the old covenant, the covenant he made with his father’s when he brought them out the land of Egypt. We know that was the Mosaic covenant that is made with Israel after they came out. This will not be like that covenant. Verse 33, “’But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,’ declares the Lord, ‘Will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it;’” So it won’t be an external law, it will be a law built on their heart. And this comes as a result of the Spirit of God, making us new within, so that regeneration that makes you new on the inside, this is what God required of Israel all along. Circumcised your heart, the physical circumcision was to be a mark of a covenant that God had with Israel but without the heart being changed the sin being removed within, external things are nothing. And you can’t start from the external and go in. We observe the communion service. There are people who have made that some kind of magical service that it’s in partaking of these elements that we become Spiritually alive and no! You have to start within and the change within manifest it’s self without. That’s true with behavior. It’s out of the heart that all kinds of sin comes, Jesus said. To try and reform the external’s with an unreformed heart, it’s accomplishes nothing. So this is what he’s going to do. I’m going to put my law within on their heart, I will be their God, they will be my people and all God’s promises that connect to the new covenant. Now it says he’ll make it with the house of Israel with Judah. Some dispensationalist say the new covenant can’t be applied to the church, God said it’s just for Israel. He doesn’t say its’s just for Israel. He says he will make with Israel, but the Church has not talked about it in the Old Testament. So how is God going to say I’m going to make this with non-Israelites? Turn over to Ezekiel, chapter 36, Ezekiel, chapter 36, Just after Jeremiah. Ezekiel chapter 36. Verse 22. And God says, He’s addressing Israel, “It’s not for your sake O house of Israel that I am about to act, but for my holy name.” You see we’re back to the Abrahamic covenant. Remember God alone passed through those divided animals. He’s very name, who He is, the living God, who cannot lie, who cannot fail. This is at stake. And in spite of the fact Israel has been an ungodly, unfaithful people. God has to act because He’s name is at stake. You don’t find those kinds of promises to any other nation. He could wipe out the Babylonians, because he hasn’t covenanted to save the Babylonians as a nation or the United States as a nation, there’s only one covenant nation in all scripture. And so in all the world. The United States is not God’s country except as he rules over all, but in his covenantal relationship it’s the Jews, it almost makes you wish you were a Jew, except in the New Testament we find out the church has a special relationship by the plan of God, not revealed in the Old Testament. Verse 23, “I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst.” Now a really serious issue that is so offensive to God is my people have profaned My name. One thing the Egyptians do it, the Syrians did it, the Babylonians and the Persia and everybody else, but you did it. You see the seriousness of being one of God’s children, the church today is to be a holy people. We’re not Israel, but we are the people that God’s called for himself. How serious is it that we would profane his name. Function contrary to his word. We have contrary to care what is he say, you shall be holy for I am Holy. Peter repeats it just had God had for Israel, we haven’t become Israel, but this is what God respects and requires for the people that belong to Him. Here it’s the nation Israel. He’s going to take them from the land, verse 24, “from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean.” This is why Jesus says you have to be born of water in the Spirit to Nicodemus and he says how could you not understand this, you’re a teacher in Israel. That’s cleansing water and the picture of it that’s used. He should have understood, I’m talking about the new covenant. I’m the one who can fulfill the new covenant. I have come to provide the redemption that could do what could not be done otherwise. “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you…I will put My Spirit within you” Those are the provisions of the new covenant. Now some of the broad provisions of the new covenant like the land is going to be given to, are unique to Israel. But the salvation blessings are promised to all the nations. So that’s not a change of the Old Testament. So even though, like in Jerimiah 31, God’s establishing the new covenant with Israel and Judah. That will be combined into one unified nation again. That does not exclude us as being part of it. Because provision was made for us in the Abrahamic covenant. And that’s why Jesus could say this is the new covenant in my blood. And Paul then could be given that revelation directly and talked to the church at Corinth about the proper conduct of it. Because we have been included in the new covenant, but not to replace the physical seed of Abraham, well if we do that we won’t skip the land promise, but we get salvation promise.

And so we don’t have time to go through the new covenant passages in the New Testament, a number of them that I enumerated with, gone through them on other occasion. You can read the book of Hebrews, particularly chapter 8 we talked about the new covenant in some detail there. That’s what it means when we partake in this, this is the new covenant. It took the death of Christ, on the cross, of the Messiah. The fulfillment of what Isaiah 53 prophesied about, but the Jews could not and would not understand it in their sinful condition. It took the coming of Christ and the fullness of later revelation. So now we understand the new covenant was establish by the death of Christ. There is no other death. He appeared once to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. He’ll appear a second time. Not to deal or provide for sin and redemption, that’s been done. But now to bring its full application in the destruction of the wicked and the ultimate salvation of the nation Israel. And of the Gentiles who have believed in Him. So I think the New Covenant is operative today, not in its fullness. That’s why, come over to Ephesians chapter 2. We were in Galatians, just after Galatians, Ephesians. Chapter 2, this is what Paul’s talking about when he says in preceding verses and can read them on your own. Verse 8 says “for by grace you have been saved through faith,” and Paul developed that in Romans chapter 4 in particular. The faith of Abraham. And that’s what is required for salvation, faith, faith, faith and it’s having faith as Abraham did in the promises of God and the provision he makes. So here, “so by grace you have been saved through faith and that salvation is not of yourself it’s the gift of God not as a result of works that no one would post, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works” there you see the order. First you’re created in Christ Jesus as a new creature. And a man be in Christ he is a new creature, a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5. And we’re created now for good works to produce the character of God in our lives that comes from within. We have a new heart, a new mind, verse 11, “Therefore remember that formally you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called ‘uncircumcision’ by the so called ‘circumcision,’ formed in the flesh by human hands, you were at that time separated from Christ.” From all the promises of the Jewish Messiah, Israel you know we have Gentiles will be saved recorded in the promises of the Old Testament, but nothing about the focus of this massive Gentiles, becoming the focal point of God’s salvation. We were outside the covenants. They’re focused on Israel. Verse 12, “Excluded from the common wealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of the promise, having no hope without God in the world, but not in Christ Jesus you who were formally far off had been brought near by the blood of Christ.” He’s broken down the dividing wall, He’s making the two into one new man, reconciling them both in one body to God through the cross. And now verses 19-20 we’re being built on the foundation of the apostles in the New Testament prophets. And this is new revelation, that’s where he goes in chapter 3. Verse 3, “That by revelation there was no made known to me the mystery.” And the mystery is something that hadn’t before been revealed. Which is what? “Which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit” and I am the prime recipient what he is talking about. “That the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” And so understand now the magnificence of what just was if I could put it this way hinted at. And the Abrahamic covenant is originally given. The Jews had no comprehension. But someday this is going to explode and mass salvation of Gentiles with a new entity, the church. That will be Gentile focused including some Jews, because these original apostles and Paul were Jews. The original church was Jewish as we start in Acts. But it’s soon blows outside the confines of Judaism and we understand that we live in a time of Gentile salvation. We summon Jews being saved even in the Old Testament, some Gentiles were being saved. We’ve talked about some of those, but they were rare and today in the overall perspective of the Gentiles who have been saved and are being saved from the time of Acts 2 to today of all the nations of the world. The Jews are just a small representation, but we see what happens. We now are partakers of the promise and the promises, we won’t fulfill them, God has to keep His covenant with the specifics of Abraham, but when we have the kingdom we’re going to be part of it, so that kingdom promised in the Davidic covenant to Israel, the church will share in its particular place and role in that. And that distinction will be maintained in eternity and we’ll talk more about that when we go further and completing the book of Revelation, so this distinction will be carried on. Israel is unique. It does not lose its uniqueness in this day God’s work of salvation is focused on the Gentiles. We appreciate Israel. We support Israel in that sense, they’re God’s people, but don’t get confused, Israel has its worst days ahead. Now they’re going to get to a place where things are going to get good, under the anti-Christ, but as we studied in Revelation, that is just a calm before the storm. So we recognized, even though we support Israel as believers in the sense that they are the chosen nation. We understand we cannot rescue them. From the doom to come, we can just bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to them as well as to others. That will be a seed sown perhaps for coming days. So we as Gentiles are blessed. We have the new covenant, we have entered into it with a fullness and a way that was not revealed in prior days. So we partake of the elements and say this is the new covenant. As Paul wrote in the Ephesians 2. We shouldn’t take this for granted. We were the outsiders, stragglers who were blessed with salvation, in Old Testament times, now we are the focus of God’s salvation. Look around here. Gentiles by and large saved. Look across the city. Primarily Gentiles. Of the East Coast where we had a lot of Jews. I worked for a Jewish boss. Shared the gospel with him at different times and had opportunity to have lunch with him and so on. Ignorant of the salvation provided by God. Conservative in the sense of trying to fulfill keeping the feast of the Old Testament as to where is your sacrifice Mitch. I don’t know Gil. Quit asking me that question. Mitch I can tell you. It has been made you need him, but they are rare. But he didn’t get saved at least during the time that I knew Him. But we’re saved, we oughtn’t to take it for granted. That’s Roman’s 11. Don’t you Gentiles get arrogant, complacent because God can cut you off, just like he cut the Jews off? So be careful and appreciate all that God has done for us in Christ. Let’s pray together.

Thank you Lord for the riches of what you have provided for us. Lord truths that were just given in preliminary form, without any development, through the Old Testament prophets. And then with the coming of your son, clarity that is given through the truth of His life on this earth. And then Lord as a result of His death and your plan and bringing Judgement on the nation you have given covenantal promise’s to, but that they would be set aside, cut off from the blessings that are theirs, but now are shared in such a full way with us Gentiles, Lord I thank you for such a privilege, a privilege we would not take for granted. We would not be complacent in enjoying. Lord we thank you that you are a God who teaches your promises. That every detail would be fulfilled with the nation Israel as you have given. But because Christ had provided a full salvation, the provision that seemed less clear is now clear we will someday dwell in the New Jerusalem, and also rule and reign.