1506 - "The New Covenant, An Introduction" Jeremiah 31

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 1506. And today we begin our journey through the New Covenant. That's right, the prophecy of the prophet Jeremiah in chapter 31. Now we're going to look at the greater context of Jeremiah 29 through 33, because that is where Jeremiah centers in on those who are in exile who will one day return as God promised, and God always keeps his promises, that the people after seventy years will come back to their homeland. And history proves again that God is faithful and God is true to his word. And so we're going to look at this in conjunction with the great story of the crimson river of redemption. And there is no more important part, no greater prophecy as it relates to your salvation and mine than the promise that is couched within the prophecy of the new covenant. Now I want you to notice how I said that, because all prophecies do not contain promises. But this prophecy, that is, history written in advance, is the promise that God is going to make a new covenant with his people Israel. And so I want to give you the context of Jeremiah's life and where he is and where the people of God are. But I want to say this up front to help you to know where I'm going. Because we're going to look at the New Covenant, which I truly believe as a pastor now preaching for fifty years, I can tell you that one of the most misunderstood of all the prophecies and New Testament teachings, doctrine is the New Covenant. It is a misunderstanding that leads to supersessionism and replacement theology. Because there's an entire segment, a huge segment of modern day Christianity and Christian thought that truly believes that the primary recipients of the New Covenant are Gentiles. But that is not the case, and you cannot twist the scriptures to make it say that. If you take the context, the New Covenant is a promise to the Jew, not the Gentile primarily, but to the Jew. And it is only in the New Testament that the mystery of God opening up salvation to someone besides the Jew is made clear. And that is at least ten years, certainly eight years, but more like ten years after the substitutionary penal death of Jesus, his burial, his resurrection, and his ascension. Now I will give where I can give, but I will not give one inch on this. You cannot read the prophecy of the New Covenant and say it is primarily to the Gentiles. The new covenant is to the Jew. And we're going to see that God says he will never go back on that. God will not cast his people off for what they have done. Now that's what the Bible says, whether I like it, you like it, whether your professor likes it, whether you are a theology professor, whether you are one who studies the church fathers and did your dissertation on one of the early fathers, the anti Nicene, Nicene, or postnicene fathers. It might be the fathers of a certain segment of the world and a certain geographical area. It doesn't matter. The Bible is the final authority, not the church fathers. Not the fathers of the Reformation. It's the Word of God. That is the final authority to which we all must appeal. Can we learn from what people have learned before us, the Church Fathers? But it's amazing to me that we take the Church Fathers as authoritative when it fits in our theological grist meal, but not in much of what they believe, because almost all of the fathers that are quoted to me about being authoritative on salvation are way off in certainly during the Reformation period on baptism. We either have to take the prophecies as they're written, or we are just living in something of our own making. So please listen this week to these podcasts. You share it with anyone you want to. Send it all over the world, doesn't make any difference. But I can tell you this much what I'm going to tell you, you're going to find right in the scripture in the context in which it's written. Now we're going to deal with the middle wall of partition that is broken down because of Jesus. We're going to talk about there is neither Jew nor Gentile because the reality is the ground is level at the cross after the cross. But when we talk about the prophecy of the New Covenant without equivocation, without reservation, I can tell you that is a promise that God made to the Jew, and you and I, according to the Book of Romans, chapter eleven, we are grafted in to the New Covenant promise. I hear people talking about a fulfillment theology, and I hear people saying that God has fulfilled everything related to the Old Testament. That is not true. It's just not scripturally true. As a matter of fact, some of the most prominent promises concerning Messiah, Jesus have not been fulfilled and will not be fulfilled until his return to the earth. And as we look at that again, you have to spiritualize every promise made to Israel to believe that the church has replaced Israel. Now, I know this is not what some of the popular talk show hosts and people you'll see on YouTube say. I know this is not what many of the most popular preachers on YouTube. I know this is not what many of the great professors that you had and some that I studied under who were some of my favorite professors in seminary and university and college. But I can tell you that if you read the Bible, you will come out believing just what I'm going to tell you this week. Because I'm going to show you the scriptures, I'm going to show you the context, and we're going to see what God says. Now, if you come up with something different, that's between you and the Lord. But I'm going to preach this as long as God gives me breath. And if you will stick with me this week, I will teach you about the new covenant. And I promise you, if you're pastoring a church, it doesn't matter if you've been there a while and you've been preaching a while. Most of your people, or many of your people, maybe not your leaders, but the people sitting out there in the pew don't understand the New Covenant. And they don't understand the context of the New Covenant. And they think it's something else. But this is what we celebrate every time we have communion together, because this is what Jesus cut the night that he met with his disciples in that last Seder meal that he had with them. He said, This is my blood of the new covenant. And so the next day he cut that covenant as he gave his life as the sacrificial lamb of the new covenant. And God so honored that sacrifice that Paul said in his Magnum Opus on Salvation, the Book of Romans, he said that Jesus is declared to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead. Was he the Son? Yes. Is he the Son? Yes. Shall He ever be the Son? Yes. He is the Son of the Triune God. He is not the Father, but He is one with the Father. He is not the Spirit, but He's one with the Spirit. So much so that Jesus said, If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. So much so that the Apostle Paul said that Christ in us is the hope of glory. Well, he's talking about the Holy Spirit. But you see, the Holy Spirit is Jesus in us. And we're going to talk about these things in relation to the new covenant. And we're going to see that God has not cast his people off, but he has grafted us in. Grafted us into what? Grafted us in to the covenant promises. Has God broken his covenant with Israel? No. No, they have broken the covenant, but that's the Mosaic covenant we're talking about. That's the covenant he came to fulfill. He is still fulfilling his covenant that he made to Abraham because it's not finished yet. He is still fulfilling his work that he promised to David because the Davidic covenant has not been fulfilled yet. Yes, some aspects of the Abrahamic covenant have been fulfilled. Others of it still remain, because those were unconditional, unbreakable covenants because God pledged himself that he would keep those. It was not a conditional covenant like the Mosaic covenant. And that's the covenant that is the old covenant in reference to the new covenant. And that's what Jeremiah says. And we're going to see that tomorrow and the next day and the next day. The old covenant is the Mosaic covenant. It's not the Abrahamic covenant. It's not the Davidic covenant. It is the Mosaic covenant, which was only, only the law of God written on tablets of stone. The new covenant, God said, I'll write my law in your heart. It'll be in your mind. It's about a personal relationship with God, not a private relationship, but a personal relationship. I'm in the midst of teaching my church about this over and over and over again. Because I believe it may be, it may be one of the top three most misunderstood and one of the top three doctrinal issues that are misunderstood and not taught by pastors because pastors don't understand it themselves. And I can tell you, over the last three weeks, I have got a real eye opener about pastors. I've been meeting with a lot of pastors, and I can tell you, we are in a time in our walk with God, in this season that God's letting us live in, where pastors are spending more time on YouTube and listening to messages. Now I know this because I talk with a lot of pastors all over the nation every month. And they tell me they are listening to this, listening to that, and when I talk to them about their study habits, it's more listening habits than it is study habits. And I can tell you, studying the Word of God, digging it out of the languages, and there's no excuse for anyone not to dig that out of the language today if you've never had a lesson in Greek or Hebrew in your life. Because if you want to spend some time listening and online, get into the language because there's so many language tools out there today, there's no excuse for anyone not to know that. But what I'm finding out is men are listening to what other men say instead of digging it out for themselves. And what other men do ought to validate what we have come to learn on our own through the rigorous study of the Word of God. What I'm finding is that a lot of men today are apathetic and lazy. And I'm talking about men that say they are called by God after being saved are called by God to the gospel ministry and to the ministry of teaching and preaching the Word of God. And many are pastors of church who are not digging into the Word of God to see why it says, and if you were to say to them, explain to me the new covenant in relationship to Israel, in relationship to the Gentiles, and give me the key scriptures on that, I can tell you because I have asked many men that they can't do it. Or they can only partially explain it, or they will halfway explain it. Folks, this is our mandate. The new covenant is what Jesus died for. The new covenant is what we preach. And we've got to understand why it's called the New Covenant and what it is standing in contradistinction to. And you say, well, wait just a minute. No, you wait a minute. James, the Lord's half brother, says this. The one that keeps the whole law, the whole law, and yet offends in one he is guilty of all. Guilty all of us. We stand condemned. And it is only through the blood of Jesus of the new covenant and what he did to pay for our sins that you and I can stand before God forgiven and whole today. I will never back up on that. Cut my fingers off. I cannot deny that. That is by the grace of God how you and I are made right with Him. Boy, don't miss this week. Pass this on to others. And if you don't listen to me ever again after this week, please listen this week and let someone else not because I'm something, not because I am the one who makes it crystal clear. All I'm going to do is point you to the scriptures and help you to see what I, as one man who has found food in the Word of God, will try to teach you how to bake bread for yourself. And if I can help you more, let me know. For on the way, this is Tony Crisp.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

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.