1484 - “Introduction to 5 Biblical Covenants”

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Welcome to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Each weekday, Dr. Crisp will be discussing biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Tune in daily to start your day right and deepen your understanding of how to better walk the way and enjoy the journey. Here's your host, Dr. Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Welcome to On the Way. This is Tony Crisp, and this is Podcast 1484. We are studying the story of the Crimson River, the story of blood redemption from Genesis to Revelation. And as you study this great story, you're going to come across words that appear over and over again, concepts that are explained over and over again. And one of the words that we find early in the book of Genesis, and it runs all the way through the book of Revelation, is the word covenant. It has to do with a promise between individuals from one to another. And I want us to look at these as they relate to redemption because there's a lot of confusion in the Church of Jesus today about this concept of covenant. Now I have picked out five that we're going to look at and a couple with more scrutiny than others. And there are other promises, other covenants that are made, but I want to center in on five The Noahic covenant, that is the covenant that God made with Noah, and the covenant that God made with the earth and how all of that came about and whether it was conditional, in other words, does it have conditions? Does God say I will do this if you do this? Or is it unconditional? God makes a promise to a person and says I'm going to do this because of who I am and the choices I make, not based upon your obedience or disobedience, not based upon how you keep your end of the bargain, because it is dependent upon me. Now that's an unconditional covenant. A conditional covenant is based upon some condition. And based upon that I would list the Noahic covenant as an unconditional covenant. God said this is what I'm going to do, Noah. I'm going to promise all of mankind, starting with you and your descendants, I'm going to make a covenant with the earth that I will never destroy it again by water, by flood, by deluge. And so that is an unconditional covenant. And with some covenants he gives a sign. And this is what he did with his covenant with Noah and the earth. He said, I'm going to put a bow in the sky. I'm going to put a rainbow there. And every time you see in the cloud that rainbow, I want you to remember the promise that I made to you, and I am faithful to my promise. And so God made a covenant with Noah. There is the covenant with Abraham. And that covenant is an unconditional covenant. God said, I'm going to do what I'm going to do for you, Abraham, because of who I am, not because of who you are or your obedience or any aspect of your character. I'm going to do this based upon my character and my choice. And he did that. It's an unconditional covenant. And it is forever. Whereas Noah and the covenant that God made with him and the earth, that's as long as the earth shall stand. God said the covenant that I make with you, Abram, Abraham, I'm changing your name, I'm changing everything because of who I am, not because of who you are. So it is an unconditional covenant. And he said, It will be forever. It is an everlasting covenant. That is an amazing statement. It is forever. God will never break that covenant. God gave him a sign. It's the sign of circumcision. God said, I want you to circumcise all of the males that are born in your household and in your lineage from now on. Now we're going to come back to these covenants and we're going to look at the content of the covenant, the details of the covenant, but I just want you to understand that there are primary covenants that God made, promises that God made, and he said, Here's what I'm going to do. And so the first two are unconditional, the Noaic covenant and the Abrahamic covenant. Both have signs and practices that God said, I want you to do. In the case of Abraham, it's circumcision. In the case of the Noaic covenant, God said, I'm going to do it. Every time there is a rainstorm, there will be the reminder that I will never destroy the earth by water again. The third covenant is in the book of Exodus. It is the Mosaic covenant. It is a covenant of law. And God said, I'm going to bless you, I'm going to give you a land, and that land is an eternal possession. It is something I'm going to give to the seed of Abraham, and I'm going to do that forever. But the law that I'm going to give to you, Moses, is the law that I want you to keep when you go in the land. And the land that I promised to Abraham is his forever. But the land as far as you enjoying it and being able to go into this land that I promised and stay there will be based upon your obedience and you following through as a people on the promises that you have entered into. And this is why the people came and God gave out the law, and they said, Yes, we will observe it all. And God said, If you do, you'll be blessed. If you do not, you will be spewed out of the land. Now that is a conditional covenant. The people could be in the land by the grace of God, and God was going to give it to Abraham as a forever possession, but he said, You're not going to enjoy the land, you're not going to be able to stay in it unless you walk with me and seek my face. God didn't ask them to be perfect, no one is. And so he brought about the law to show just how sinful man is. We'll see that it was a potty gogas, it was a child conductor. The whole purpose was never for salvation, but for revelation, not to save us from our sins by keeping the law, no, but by showing us and revealing to us that we are sinners and we can never keep the moral law of God because all of us have sinned and we fall short of the glory of God. And so you have the Noahic covenant, which is unconditional, the sign is the rainbow. God made a covenant with Abraham, it's unconditional, the sign is circumcision. It's a specific covenant to Abraham and to his seed, of land, of lineage, of being a light and blessing to the earth. And it is forever. And the Mosaic covenant is conditional. The sign of it is the Sabbath, and we'll get into that. You say, Well, I didn't know there was a sign to it. Well, according to Exodus 31, verses thirteen through seventeen, God says, I'm giving you Shabbat as a sign that you are my people and that I have entered into a covenant with you. And so that is a conditional covenant. Then the fourth covenant is the Davidic covenant that we will look at. The Davidic covenant is made with the house of David, and in this God narrows down the line through which the Messiah will come. We know he will come from Abraham. Now God is saying it's going to come through the tribe of Judah, and it is going to come from the household of David. It is an unconditional thing. I'm going to set a man, a person, on your throne, and you will have one that will rule forever. And God said, I'm going to do this, David, because of who I am, not because of who you are. And everyone that God made a covenant with, no matter who they are, they are sinners. And so was David, and so was Abraham, and so was Moses, and so was Noah, and everyone who is of the seed of Adam is. And so God made this covenant with David, and he will fulfill it. And then the last covenant we're going to look at, the fifth covenant, is what the prophet Jeremiah talked about, a new covenant, a Barit Hadeshai. And we're going to look at that because it is an unconditional covenant. And God said, I'm going to do this, I'm going to give you a new heart. And I'm going to put them in in your heart. And once you enter into a covenant with me, then it is forever. It's an everlasting covenant. These are amazing promises that God made. And as we go through these and as we search the scriptures to see what they say, and we look at all the signs and symbols associated with them, the blessings of the promises that God has made, we're going to be able to, I pray, to filter out this nonsense about replacement theology. It's amazing to me how many are taken away with this, and it has to do with how you interpret the scriptures, your hermeneutic, your method of discovery. You tell me what you think about Israel, you tell me what you think about salvation, and I will tell you how you interpret the scriptures. If you tell me how you interpret the scriptures, if you interpret them in a grammatical, historical, geographical, cultural context, and you take historical narrative as historical narrative, whether it's in the past, history that has already happened, or history that will happen, because when God makes a promise, it is called prophecy. It's just forthelling the word of God. And if it's in the future, then it's going to happen just as sure as if it had already happened. And that's why we talk about prophecy being nothing more or nothing less than history, historical events written before they ever happen. And God made promises. And when God makes a promise, it's going to happen. So you tell me if you take historical narrative, whether it's in the past or in the future, as historical narrative, and you interpret metaphor and analogy and allegory as those elements of speech when it's obvious that's what it is, and you don't make historical narrative allegory, then uh you're going to come out believing that God has made a covenant with Israel that's everlasting, a covenant with Abraham. And you say, well, you know, God replaced the Israelites and his promises that he made to Israel, those are all now applied to the church. And we are grafted in. Grafted into what? If the covenant is no longer in effect, we're not grafted into the covenant promises of Abraham, they don't exist anymore. Well, it's fulfilled. Well, if it's fulfilled, then what are we being grafted into? Because when Paul wrote that to the Romans, that was years, years, decades after the crucifixion and burial and resurrection and ascension of Jesus. If it was all fulfilled, then what are we being grafted into? This is nonsense. And the only reason we do that is simply because we take historical narrative related to the nation of Israel and we make a decision that we in the church have replaced the Jewish people, which again is nonsense. The first ten years of the church was nothing but Jews. Now we have done away with the apostles and everyone else and say, okay, well, God's finished with the Jews. Well, if he is, he's got a funny way of showing it because in the future he talks about the Jews and how he's going to set apart twelve thousand and he goes into great lengths with numbers and events and places. And if all of that is just allegory, then nothing makes sense. I mean, we're back to the Bill Clinton era of what is is. And language means nothing. And you can make it anything, say whatever you want to. That's a bunch of hogwash. That's what we call it in East Tennessee. Hogwash. That's slop. That is a fairy tale that some theologian created the template and says God's got to fit into this template, and prophecy has to fit in the template because that's the template I create. Let God create the template, and his is that he has not cast off his people. And the church came into existence, and the church will leave this world one day. And it had a particular purpose and has a particular purpose, but the people of God, Israel, they have a purpose as well. And when the church leaves this place, which is made up of Jew and Gentile, hey, God is going to still have a future purpose for Israel. God has not cast his people away. As we go through these covenants, I hope you'll listen. I hope you'll be blessed, and I hope that all of us together will learn something as we go through the scriptures together and we study the great story of the Crimson River. For on the way, this is Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Thanks for listening to On the Way with Tony Crisp. Tune in every weekday for information on biblical passages, people, places, and prophecies. Fridays are for your questions. Email your questions to questions at TonyCrisp.org. Then just listen for your question to be answered on Friday's podcast. That's Questions at TonyC R I S P dot org. Thanks for listening and have a blessed day on the way.