WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.000 I've been meditating on the phrase and Jude keep yourself in the love of God. 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:08.480 Keep yourself in the love of God. 00:00:08.480 --> 00:00:15.839 That doesn't mean that you have to please God in such a way for him to continue to love you. 00:00:15.839 --> 00:00:18.199 He's not a cruel God like that. 00:00:18.199 --> 00:00:20.679 Does it mean you keep yourself in God's love? 00:00:20.679 --> 00:00:26.559 God loves you nonstop, but we forget. 00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:28.300 We forget. 00:00:28.300 --> 00:00:29.539 We don't live in that love. 00:00:29.539 --> 00:00:34.560 We sometimes don't remember the love of God. 00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:39.159 I know some of you are going through some hardships and difficulties. 00:00:39.159 --> 00:00:43.159 In fact, who's not? 00:00:43.159 --> 00:00:49.399 There's a lot of hurt and pain that we're going through, but I'm convinced you can go through anything. 00:00:49.399 --> 00:00:54.159 I could go through anything if I know Jesus loves me. 00:00:54.159 --> 00:01:02.399 To know that Jesus loves you, not just loves you generically like he loves the church generically. 00:01:02.399 --> 00:01:05.719 That is a precious baby. 00:01:05.719 --> 00:01:22.560 You know, it's not that he just loves you generically or just has to love you because you're a part of the church, but if you can remind yourself that he loves you particularly, that he has a unique love for you. 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:26.799 Now, whatever you're going through, you can be sustained. 00:01:26.799 --> 00:01:35.000 So let me pray for you this week that the gospel of Mark comes alive to you. 00:01:35.000 --> 00:01:37.760 Let's pray. 00:01:37.760 --> 00:01:39.959 Dear Lord, we're grateful for the gospel of Matthew. 00:01:39.959 --> 00:01:47.640 In it we saw an experienced and glorious truths about your son, Jesus. 00:01:47.640 --> 00:01:59.359 Here we're looking forward to opening up another gospel, a shorter gospel, but with the same glorious truths of your son. 00:01:59.359 --> 00:02:10.840 Lord let us, let us who've heard the gospel so many times not grow weary to not think it's just dry truth. 00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:19.639 I pray dear Lord for the people here, your people, your sheep, pray for them. 00:02:19.639 --> 00:02:33.960 I'd ask that Lord that you would speak to them through your word, in your word, by your word to such a special way that they know that you have spoken to them. 00:02:33.960 --> 00:03:09.080 Or that they have feasted directly, not just through the mediation of the church or through the sermon or through the fellowship of the saints, but you would speak to them directly without the mediation of people, but directly through your written word, that they know that you love them, that you speak to them, that you encourage them, that they will see how glorious Jesus is and have a greater love for him. 00:03:09.080 --> 00:03:10.879 This we pray in your son's name. 00:03:10.879 --> 00:03:11.879 Amen. 00:03:11.879 --> 00:03:12.879 All right. 00:03:12.879 --> 00:03:17.400 We are in Jeremiah 31 and we're going to finish up our series on covenant theology. 00:03:17.400 --> 00:03:35.039 I'm going to try to wrap up all the loose ends today and make the old and new Testament make sense because it's strange and that we have two major testaments and it's easy for us to think, why are there two testaments? 00:03:35.039 --> 00:03:40.759 Why is the Bible broken up into two divisions? 00:03:40.759 --> 00:03:49.360 And there are various ways to understand the relationship between your old Testament and new Testament. 00:03:49.360 --> 00:03:57.360 And depending upon how you understand that relationship will determine to a large degree your overall theology. 00:03:57.360 --> 00:04:01.520 It'll shape how you understand the scriptures. 00:04:01.520 --> 00:04:18.220 And there are those who stress the unity or the newity between the old and new Testament and they stress it in such a way that it gives them warrant to baptize their little children. 00:04:18.220 --> 00:04:27.959 So you wonder why our Presbyterian brothers and sisters are so eager to baptize their children when you don't see a new Testament command issuing that. 00:04:27.959 --> 00:04:41.720 Well, it's not because there's a command or lacking a command, but it's because they see that the new covenant is just a continuation in basic harmony and unity with all the covenants of the old Testament. 00:04:41.720 --> 00:04:44.519 There's basic unity. 00:04:44.519 --> 00:04:57.480 And so for the Presbyterians, they look at all the old Testament covenants, not as administrations of the covenant of works as I have been teaching, but they view it as an administration of the covenant of grace. 00:04:57.480 --> 00:05:01.680 So at the heart of these old Testament covenants is grace. 00:05:01.680 --> 00:05:03.439 It's not do and live and curse. 00:05:03.439 --> 00:05:17.600 It is the one who doesn't do, but grace is the heart and soul or the essence of these old Testament covenants and these old Testament covenants all included an earthly prosperity. 00:05:17.600 --> 00:05:21.720 It all included your earthly descendants. 00:05:21.720 --> 00:05:24.459 We'll see that the old covenant was a theocracy. 00:05:24.459 --> 00:05:26.860 You know, you're, you're born into it. 00:05:26.860 --> 00:05:29.319 You know, you're a American citizen by birth. 00:05:29.319 --> 00:05:31.000 You don't have to be born again. 00:05:31.000 --> 00:05:36.860 You don't as if you're born here, you don't have to go through a ceremonial process to become a citizen. 00:05:36.860 --> 00:05:38.319 You're just born here. 00:05:38.319 --> 00:05:40.759 You're American. 00:05:40.759 --> 00:05:46.120 Too bad, Ryan. 00:05:46.120 --> 00:05:49.959 I just happened to be looking at them. 00:05:49.959 --> 00:05:52.600 But that's the way it was for the covenants of old Testament. 00:05:52.600 --> 00:05:58.639 You're Israelite because of birth and thus it made sense that you're circumcised. 00:05:58.639 --> 00:06:01.319 You're brought into the covenant community. 00:06:01.319 --> 00:06:03.360 You don't need regeneration or faith. 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:07.379 It's just natural generation. 00:06:07.379 --> 00:06:09.199 But they see that as a covenant of grace. 00:06:09.199 --> 00:06:23.759 And now that the new covenant is just the last and final installment, the fullest manifestation of that covenant, they just automatically assume, hey, this covenant of grace is also going to include our earthly descendants. 00:06:23.759 --> 00:06:27.079 That's the way all other covenants were like. 00:06:27.079 --> 00:06:29.519 So why would this covenant be different? 00:06:29.519 --> 00:06:31.279 So that's why they baptize their children. 00:06:31.279 --> 00:06:37.920 So they're, they're overstressing the continuity and the unity of the two covenants, the old and new Testament. 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:42.439 Then there's others that like to stress the discontinuity. 00:06:42.439 --> 00:06:49.160 You have some radical ones that said the old covenant needs to be just basically dropped off our Bibles. 00:06:49.160 --> 00:06:56.279 Some of the old extreme Kembalites and church of Christ, they basically disregard the old Testament. 00:06:56.279 --> 00:07:09.160 And then the old school, I'm not talking about contemporary dispensationalists, but the old, old, old original dispensationalists, they really stress the discontinuity of the old and new covenants. 00:07:09.160 --> 00:07:28.040 And as if there are two peoples, two, two plans, plan A, plan B, and that the new covenant is kind of just this side deal going on for a temporary time until God goes back to what He originally was planning to do with the nation of Israel. 00:07:28.040 --> 00:07:46.639 So you have two covenants, two people, and some would even say, you know, two laws, two different ethical standards and to, to the extreme, which thankfully there's hardly anybody that I know that would say this today. 00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:54.120 But to the extreme would say there's two ways of salvation in which that's heretical. 00:07:54.120 --> 00:07:58.360 But that's where you have these, this great discontinuity. 00:07:58.360 --> 00:08:04.279 And then you got people today, contemporary evangelists will say we need to unhitch ourselves from the old Testament. 00:08:04.279 --> 00:08:10.079 You know, that's just, that's a, that's a God, a different God than the God of the new Testament. 00:08:10.079 --> 00:08:13.040 That's extreme form of discontinuity. 00:08:13.040 --> 00:08:27.120 So as we got our Bibles, we got this, some that wants to stress the unity and continuity between the two covenants and others that want to stress the discontinuity and the division of the two covenants. 00:08:27.120 --> 00:08:45.440 Well, what I want to do is, as we wrap up this series on covenant theology, I want to show the continuity and the discontinuity of the old and new Testament, particularly as we look at Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34. 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:47.159 Let's read with me. 00:08:47.159 --> 00:08:54.360 Behold, the days are coming declares the Lord when I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel in the house of Judah. 00:08:54.360 --> 00:09:03.799 Not like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke. 00:09:03.799 --> 00:09:10.799 Though I was their husband declares the Lord for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord. 00:09:10.799 --> 00:09:12.840 I will put my law within them. 00:09:12.840 --> 00:09:15.200 I will write it upon their hearts. 00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:36.519 I will be their God and they shall be my people and no longer shall each one teaches neighbor and each his brother saying, know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest declares the Lord for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. 00:09:36.519 --> 00:09:40.840 So first we will look at the continuity of the old and new Testament. 00:09:40.840 --> 00:09:46.360 That way we don't want to chop off the old testaments that we don't need that. 00:09:46.360 --> 00:09:50.519 The old Testament is the foundation of the new Testament. 00:09:50.519 --> 00:09:55.419 In fact, the new Testament doesn't make sense without the old Testament. 00:09:55.419 --> 00:10:02.519 One of the things that unites the two testaments together is that they have the same promises. 00:10:02.519 --> 00:10:04.399 It's the same promises. 00:10:04.399 --> 00:10:10.620 Now you could go back to the promise of the gospel given to Adam after the fall. 00:10:10.620 --> 00:10:13.600 Your seeds going to crush the serpent's head. 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:16.399 That promises the old Testament gospel. 00:10:16.399 --> 00:10:18.679 That's the same promise that we have in the new Testament. 00:10:18.679 --> 00:10:21.600 It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:24.919 Now you could go to the covenant that God made with Abraham. 00:10:24.919 --> 00:10:29.360 He says in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed. 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:30.360 That's a promise. 00:10:30.360 --> 00:10:34.840 And it was given not you don't have to wait to the new Testament to see the promise. 00:10:34.840 --> 00:10:44.440 You see that promise given to Abraham and Abraham believed that his seed he saw the day of Jesus. 00:10:44.440 --> 00:10:49.000 Jesus says Abraham saw my day and he was glad by faith. 00:10:49.000 --> 00:11:13.519 Abraham knew that it would be his Messiah that his seed would be the Messiah and in this Messiah in this coming child that would be his descendant all not just his nation or his physical children but all children of the world all nations all ethnicities would be blessed and Abraham believed and was justified by faith. 00:11:13.519 --> 00:11:15.759 That's the same promise we have today. 00:11:15.759 --> 00:11:24.799 Well throughout the promises depicted in the Abrahamic covenant is not a different promise than the new covenant. 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:27.940 I want you to see that it's not a different gospel. 00:11:27.940 --> 00:11:31.539 God promised Abraham a people. 00:11:31.539 --> 00:11:34.840 He promised him the world. 00:11:34.840 --> 00:11:36.679 He promised him a kingdom. 00:11:36.679 --> 00:11:41.220 He promised him that his children would be the children of God. 00:11:41.220 --> 00:11:44.639 These are the very same promises of the new covenant. 00:11:44.639 --> 00:11:49.519 Now the promises are also in the Mosaic covenant. 00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:55.879 We see it typified in the animal sacrifices in the ceremonial laws. 00:11:55.879 --> 00:11:58.960 We get all these types and shadows. 00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:06.600 These animals that died did not do anything in of themselves but they did point to the one who would take away our sins. 00:12:06.600 --> 00:12:20.039 They showed the way of salvation is through death through blood and we can look at the temple and we can look at all the all these things and we can see the gospels everywhere in the Old Testament. 00:12:20.039 --> 00:12:25.759 You see believers were saved in the Old Testament by the gospel through faith just like Abraham. 00:12:25.759 --> 00:12:28.679 He's the model of how salvation took place. 00:12:28.679 --> 00:12:32.419 It wasn't through works. 00:12:32.419 --> 00:12:34.820 They looked ahead. 00:12:34.820 --> 00:12:37.600 We look back. 00:12:37.600 --> 00:12:46.679 See it's the same gospel, the same promises, the same faith and the same Messiah. 00:12:46.679 --> 00:12:57.379 You see in these promises of the old covenant what God promised Abraham and when God told Moses I'm going to raise up a prophet like you. 00:12:57.379 --> 00:13:05.679 These promises in the Old Testament are the very promises that are fulfilled in the New Testament. 00:13:05.679 --> 00:13:10.879 Though the Old Testament covenants were administrations of the covenants of works. 00:13:10.879 --> 00:13:15.399 They all promised the gospel. 00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:18.960 The Davidic covenant promised a kingdom, a people for God, a blessing to the nations. 00:13:18.960 --> 00:13:22.919 The Boseaic covenant foreshadowed the gospel through its types and shadows. 00:13:22.919 --> 00:13:30.980 The Davidic covenant promised a king who established perfect righteousness and peace on the earth. 00:13:30.980 --> 00:13:36.799 Though they demanded perfect obedience to their physical offspring. 00:13:36.799 --> 00:13:46.240 Now it promised these glorious truths but these promises place the physical offspring, these earthly children, natural generation. 00:13:46.240 --> 00:13:52.440 It placed all of them under this legal demands and law. 00:13:52.440 --> 00:14:01.039 But these very promises are the very realities that the New Covenant brings about. 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:08.000 You see there's basic continuity between the Old and New Testament because it's the same promises. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:13.960 Secondly, the Old Covenant and New Covenant are united by the same law. 00:14:13.960 --> 00:14:27.840 Now I've already talked about over and over how there's a difference between positive law and moral law and the positive law like don't eat of this particular tree or you have to be circumcised or the positive laws of not eating pork or not having diverse fabrics. 00:14:27.840 --> 00:14:36.480 All these positive laws these things can be abrogated and changed because they're restricted to the various administrations of the covenant in which they're given. 00:14:36.480 --> 00:14:44.399 And once those covenants are nullified or abrogated those positive laws go to non-existence. 00:14:44.399 --> 00:14:45.759 They no longer apply. 00:14:45.759 --> 00:14:49.639 We don't have to worry about not eating of a particular tree. 00:14:49.639 --> 00:14:51.299 That command is not given to us. 00:14:51.299 --> 00:15:06.919 But all those positive laws are rooted in the moral law and that moral law undergirds all those old covenants and that moral law, the law of God is the very fabric foundation of the New Covenant. 00:15:06.919 --> 00:15:13.120 This is why our passage says I'm going to make a new covenant. 00:15:13.120 --> 00:15:15.279 He says I'm not going to make a new law. 00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:24.000 He says I'm going to write the law not on tablets of stone but I'm going to write that law upon fleshly tablets of the heart. 00:15:24.000 --> 00:15:29.240 It's a new covenant in that it's no longer external but internal. 00:15:29.240 --> 00:15:31.080 But it's the same law. 00:15:31.080 --> 00:15:36.720 It's not a new morality or new standard of ethics. 00:15:36.720 --> 00:15:49.620 In other words the commands of the old covenant are the same standard of the new covenant and the commands of the old covenant however have been satisfied or fulfilled in Jesus Christ. 00:15:49.620 --> 00:15:55.600 This is why Jesus is in Matthew 5 17 do not think that I've come to do away with the law. 00:15:55.600 --> 00:16:00.960 I've not come here to say hey I'm pushing it off the rug let's forget about that. 00:16:00.960 --> 00:16:03.960 That was too demanding too hard too strict too severe. 00:16:03.960 --> 00:16:04.960 You can't keep that. 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:07.759 Let me make a easier one for you. 00:16:07.759 --> 00:16:11.039 No thankfully he didn't do away with it. 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:12.159 He fulfilled it. 00:16:12.159 --> 00:16:15.720 He satisfied its demands. 00:16:15.720 --> 00:16:19.720 And this is why Romans 3 31 talks about salvation by faith. 00:16:19.720 --> 00:16:22.600 Faith doesn't nullify the law. 00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:27.840 You know just because you're saved by grace through faith it doesn't mean the law is active like it doesn't exist. 00:16:27.840 --> 00:16:34.200 Your faith doesn't nullify the law but Paul says your faith establishes the law. 00:16:34.200 --> 00:16:35.860 And what does that mean? 00:16:35.860 --> 00:16:39.220 Your faith is in Jesus Christ and he is the fulfillment of the law. 00:16:39.220 --> 00:16:40.480 He becomes your righteousness. 00:16:40.480 --> 00:16:42.279 He comes your satisfaction of the law. 00:16:42.279 --> 00:16:45.179 You need righteousness right but you can't do it. 00:16:45.179 --> 00:16:50.639 Your faith doesn't say hey there's another way of salvation that doesn't require obedience. 00:16:50.639 --> 00:16:55.840 No your faith takes their obedience of Christ and applies it to you. 00:16:55.840 --> 00:17:00.399 This is why faith is not against the law. 00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:05.039 You see this is the continuity between the Old and New Testament. 00:17:05.039 --> 00:17:07.920 Same promises the same law. 00:17:07.920 --> 00:17:19.480 The third element of continuity between your Old and New Testaments is the fact the greatest of all things, Jesus Christ. 00:17:19.480 --> 00:17:24.839 You know some have suggested that the church unhitch itself from the Old Testament. 00:17:24.839 --> 00:17:31.240 But we must understand that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah of the Old Testament. 00:17:31.240 --> 00:17:34.599 Christ is the central theme of the Old Testament. 00:17:34.599 --> 00:17:38.559 He's the central character of the Old Testament. 00:17:38.559 --> 00:17:44.200 Jesus said in John 5 39 you search the scriptures because you think in them you have eternal life. 00:17:44.200 --> 00:17:52.759 It is they talking about the Old Testament scriptures which bear witness of me. 00:17:52.759 --> 00:18:00.799 If you miss Christ in the Old Testament you haven't yet begun to understand the Old Testament. 00:18:00.799 --> 00:18:04.039 Jesus says in John 5 46 you have believed Moses. 00:18:04.039 --> 00:18:10.039 If you would have believed Moses you would have believed me for he wrote about me. 00:18:10.039 --> 00:18:15.779 Luke 24 27 this is Jesus explaining to his disciples beginning with Moses and the prophets. 00:18:15.779 --> 00:18:21.240 He explained to them what was written in all the scriptures about himself. 00:18:21.240 --> 00:18:27.400 So the heart of the Old Testament is Jesus Christ and the heart of the New Testament is Jesus Christ. 00:18:27.400 --> 00:18:28.400 It's the same gospel. 00:18:28.400 --> 00:18:30.519 It's the same Christ. 00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:34.359 He's the central theme of the Old and New Testament. 00:18:34.359 --> 00:18:40.519 You see Jesus Christ is the hitch. 00:18:40.519 --> 00:18:42.720 He's the hitch. 00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:47.640 With his left hand he holds the Old Testament. 00:18:47.640 --> 00:18:50.759 With his right hand he holds the New Testament. 00:18:50.759 --> 00:18:54.240 He's the one who holding the Bible together. 00:18:54.240 --> 00:19:06.200 And if you're going to cut the Old Testament off the New Testament you're going to have to split Christ in half. 00:19:06.200 --> 00:19:13.559 He's the unity of the Bible. 00:19:13.559 --> 00:19:16.759 Jesus is everything. 00:19:16.759 --> 00:19:19.319 And I know we can we can get caught up in theology. 00:19:19.319 --> 00:19:22.400 I love systematic theology in particular. 00:19:22.400 --> 00:19:30.480 I've given my life studying the various branches of systematic theology. 00:19:30.480 --> 00:19:48.200 But sometimes we can forget when we study theology we make theology into just these dogmas and their definitions and it ceases to be personal. 00:19:48.200 --> 00:19:52.119 We forget that it's theology is about a person. 00:19:52.119 --> 00:19:56.920 Do you realize Jesus displays the wrath of God on the cross? 00:19:56.920 --> 00:19:59.160 So you want to see the wrath of God? 00:19:59.160 --> 00:20:00.759 Look at the cross. 00:20:00.759 --> 00:20:03.960 He displays the justice of God. 00:20:03.960 --> 00:20:06.640 Jesus is the righteousness of God. 00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:08.880 Jesus is the wisdom of God. 00:20:08.880 --> 00:20:11.640 Jesus is the power of God. 00:20:11.640 --> 00:20:13.400 Jesus is the love of God. 00:20:13.400 --> 00:20:16.079 Jesus is the fullest revelation of God. 00:20:16.079 --> 00:20:21.759 If you want to know who God is you need to know Jesus. 00:20:21.759 --> 00:20:25.160 If you see me Jesus says you've seen God. 00:20:25.160 --> 00:20:32.000 So he's the he's the greatest manifestation of God is the person of Jesus Christ. 00:20:32.000 --> 00:20:41.559 That's why I want to say when we read Mark this week we're not just trying to fill our minds with theology or with doctrine with knowledge. 00:20:41.559 --> 00:20:46.240 We want to know the living person of Jesus Christ. 00:20:46.240 --> 00:20:47.400 We want to experience him. 00:20:47.400 --> 00:20:49.039 We want to relate to him. 00:20:49.039 --> 00:20:51.079 We want to deal with him. 00:20:51.079 --> 00:20:55.980 If we have sinned we want to not just confess it to the unknown entity in heaven. 00:20:55.980 --> 00:20:58.119 We want to confess it to our Savior. 00:20:58.119 --> 00:20:59.519 I'm sorry. 00:20:59.519 --> 00:21:08.400 And know that we have offended him and know that his grace covers us and live and abide in his love and in his truth and his knowledge. 00:21:08.400 --> 00:21:15.119 This is a very personal thing. 00:21:15.119 --> 00:21:16.480 You see him in the Old Testament. 00:21:16.480 --> 00:21:20.160 You see him in the New Testament. 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:31.920 You see Jesus is the one that was under all the demands of the covenants of the Old Testament. 00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:37.079 Jesus was the child of Abraham who had to be circumcised not just in the flesh but in the heart. 00:21:37.079 --> 00:21:43.259 Jesus was born in Israel that had to obey the law of Moses. 00:21:43.259 --> 00:21:55.880 Jesus was the son of David who was obligated to be the federal head of his people and establish righteousness in the land by his life and his death. 00:21:55.880 --> 00:22:06.420 So as we bring my first point to a conclusion here we see that the unity or the continuity between the Old and New Testament is that it's one basic story. 00:22:06.420 --> 00:22:07.759 It's not one story. 00:22:07.759 --> 00:22:12.599 Let's interrupt that story with a part B or some secondary side endeavor. 00:22:12.599 --> 00:22:17.759 No, this is one gospel story from Genesis to Revelation. 00:22:17.759 --> 00:22:19.680 It's a unified message. 00:22:19.680 --> 00:22:22.759 It's the story of redemption. 00:22:22.759 --> 00:22:25.960 Thus there's unity between the Old and New Testament. 00:22:25.960 --> 00:22:32.599 The Old Covenant is the foundation of the New Covenant and the New Covenant is the fulfillment of the Old Covenant. 00:22:32.599 --> 00:22:49.839 The Old Testament is incomplete without the New Testament and the New Testament doesn't make sense without the Old Testament or of as the church brother Augustine says the new is in the old concealed and the old is in the new revealed. 00:22:49.839 --> 00:22:51.559 So that's the continuity. 00:22:51.559 --> 00:23:00.740 However, just because we hold to a continuity in unity between the Old and New Testaments, the Bible is one unified story. 00:23:00.740 --> 00:23:08.039 We still think there is some great contrast between the Old and New Testament. 00:23:08.039 --> 00:23:19.640 There are some things that are quite different between the covenant of works and the covenant of grace and that's what Jeremiah 31 is telling us. 00:23:19.640 --> 00:23:24.039 Like I need to make a new covenant. 00:23:24.039 --> 00:23:38.960 He says in verse 31, behold the days are coming declares the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah not like the covenant I made with her fathers on the day that when I took them by the hand and to bring them out of the land of Egypt. 00:23:38.960 --> 00:23:47.559 So unlike our Presbyterian brothers that want to look at the New Covenant, that's just a new version, an improved version. 00:23:47.559 --> 00:23:54.440 You know every year they come up with a new iPhone and it's essentially the same thing. 00:23:54.440 --> 00:23:56.240 I hope you understand that by now. 00:23:56.240 --> 00:24:08.079 It's essentially the same thing, but with some new improvements, you know, a better camera, you know, and other little things that make you want to go out and get it. 00:24:08.079 --> 00:24:15.400 But it's essentially the same and that's the way they essentially view that the New Testament is essentially the same as the Old Testament. 00:24:15.400 --> 00:24:18.559 I mean the New Covenant is essentially the same as the Mosaic Covenant. 00:24:18.559 --> 00:24:24.880 It's just got some more revelation, a little bit improved. 00:24:24.880 --> 00:24:27.240 But that's not the way Jeremiah explains it. 00:24:27.240 --> 00:24:31.519 He says I need to make a not an improvement. 00:24:31.519 --> 00:24:37.599 I need to make a different covenant because the Old Covenant, there's something faulty with it. 00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:46.980 And we're going to see that it's faulty not because the law is faulty is that the participants can't do it. 00:24:46.980 --> 00:24:51.799 It brought death rather than life. 00:24:51.799 --> 00:25:00.240 So there are some major contrasts or differences or discontinuity between the Old and New Testaments. 00:25:00.240 --> 00:25:06.599 One unlike the Old, the New Covenant is based on grace. 00:25:06.599 --> 00:25:07.599 This is huge. 00:25:07.599 --> 00:25:09.160 Look at verse 32. 00:25:09.160 --> 00:25:15.559 My covenant that I that they broke though I was their husband declares the Lord. 00:25:15.559 --> 00:25:16.839 Now you cannot break. 00:25:16.839 --> 00:25:18.799 I'll say this very clearly. 00:25:18.799 --> 00:25:24.000 You cannot break the covenant of grace. 00:25:24.000 --> 00:25:27.920 That's glorious news for us who are in it. 00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:31.259 If we could break it, we would be out. 00:25:31.259 --> 00:25:40.920 If you had to maintain your salvation by your performance or your faithfulness, you and I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. 00:25:40.920 --> 00:25:44.480 It's grace from start to finish. 00:25:44.480 --> 00:25:47.400 But this covenant placed these demands. 00:25:47.400 --> 00:25:53.359 You will be my people and I will be your God if you keep my commandments. 00:25:53.359 --> 00:26:00.680 And then it says cursed be you if you do not do all, not most, but it is written in the law to do them. 00:26:00.680 --> 00:26:07.160 That is a scary covenant for sinners. 00:26:07.160 --> 00:26:13.240 That's the way is I need a new covenant and it can't be based upon works. 00:26:13.240 --> 00:26:20.160 And Hebrews eight picks up this theme and you could read the whole chapter of eight and I encourage you to do that. 00:26:20.160 --> 00:26:22.200 But it's basically saying the same thing. 00:26:22.200 --> 00:26:34.960 If the first covenant would have been faultless, there wouldn't have been a need for a new covenant, but finding that the covenant was unable to do what it promised. 00:26:34.960 --> 00:26:41.960 It could tell you how to live, but it couldn't help you live. 00:26:41.960 --> 00:26:44.480 The law in itself is good. 00:26:44.480 --> 00:26:47.559 It's holy, but it can't make you live. 00:26:47.559 --> 00:26:48.559 Holy. 00:26:48.559 --> 00:26:51.599 It can only expose your unholyness. 00:26:51.599 --> 00:26:53.480 And this is a huge problem. 00:26:53.480 --> 00:26:57.039 It could command the heart, but it cannot change the heart. 00:26:57.039 --> 00:27:23.000 And thus all the earthly participants of the mosaic covenant, all the natural children, Abraham, unless like Abraham, they believed and many of them did and was justified by the blood of Jesus Christ of the new covenant where the new covenant retroactively is saving people in the Old Testament through the blood of Jesus Christ. 00:27:23.000 --> 00:27:28.039 Those who are just naturally born, they're under these legal demands of the law. 00:27:28.039 --> 00:27:37.640 And it says over and over and over again, as in Psalm 78 10, they did not keep the covenant of God and they refused to walk in his law. 00:27:37.640 --> 00:27:44.240 Or as Jeremiah 11 10 says, the house of Israel in the house of Judah have broken my covenant, which I made with her fathers. 00:27:44.240 --> 00:27:49.960 Therefore this says the Lord, behold, I'll bring evil upon them, which they're not able to escape. 00:27:49.960 --> 00:27:52.720 Jesus says your house is left unto you desolate. 00:27:52.720 --> 00:27:57.759 I would have gathered you together like a hen would gather her chicks, but you would not. 00:27:57.759 --> 00:28:04.240 And therefore the curses of the law rest upon you. 00:28:04.240 --> 00:28:08.799 What is a covenant that you and I need out of? 00:28:08.799 --> 00:28:12.660 And this is why the new covenant is based upon grace. 00:28:12.660 --> 00:28:14.279 The old covenant brought death. 00:28:14.279 --> 00:28:15.440 The new covenant brings life. 00:28:15.440 --> 00:28:29.599 And this is why Paul in second Corinthians three says, if the old covenant, which was administration unto death was glorious, how much more glorious is the new covenant, which is administration of life? 00:28:29.599 --> 00:28:35.799 So this is one of the great contrast between the mosaic covenant and the new covenant. 00:28:35.799 --> 00:28:38.359 Secondly, unlock the old covenant. 00:28:38.359 --> 00:28:41.319 The new covenant regenerates its membership. 00:28:41.319 --> 00:28:43.799 Look at verse 33 with me. 00:28:43.799 --> 00:28:48.279 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord. 00:28:48.279 --> 00:28:53.160 I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts. 00:28:53.160 --> 00:28:56.839 Now this is just a old Testament way of saying, I'm going to give them life. 00:28:56.839 --> 00:28:59.559 I'm going to regenerate them. 00:28:59.559 --> 00:29:02.839 There's no difference between the law and love. 00:29:02.839 --> 00:29:04.000 What is the law? 00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:06.880 Love God with all your heart, mind and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. 00:29:06.880 --> 00:29:09.039 The essence of the law is love. 00:29:09.039 --> 00:29:14.200 And the old Testament also speaks about the love of God being poured out in your heart. 00:29:14.200 --> 00:29:20.519 The heart of stone being broken and taken away and a heart of flesh being put in its place. 00:29:20.519 --> 00:29:22.200 What is this? 00:29:22.200 --> 00:29:25.019 It's the love of God being poured into you. 00:29:25.019 --> 00:29:26.960 It's not just a command on the outside of you. 00:29:26.960 --> 00:29:29.440 He says, Hey, you need to love God with all your heart, mind and soul. 00:29:29.440 --> 00:29:30.920 And you're going, Oh, I can't do that. 00:29:30.920 --> 00:29:31.920 I've tried. 00:29:31.920 --> 00:29:32.920 I fell. 00:29:32.920 --> 00:29:33.920 Love your neighbor as yourself. 00:29:33.920 --> 00:29:34.920 I can't. 00:29:34.920 --> 00:29:35.920 I haven't done that. 00:29:35.920 --> 00:29:39.200 And the law outside of you condemns you. 00:29:39.200 --> 00:29:43.480 But the law inside of you changes you from the inside out. 00:29:43.480 --> 00:29:46.680 See the new covenant makes you a new creation. 00:29:46.680 --> 00:29:49.519 This is what we call being born again. 00:29:49.519 --> 00:29:52.519 The old covenant, you're, you come into it by natural generation. 00:29:52.519 --> 00:29:54.799 You know, you're a Jew just because of birthright. 00:29:54.799 --> 00:29:58.200 Hey, I'm a Jew. 00:29:58.200 --> 00:30:04.440 I've been circumcised, but the Bible says that it's not the circumcision of the flesh that makes you a true Jew. 00:30:04.440 --> 00:30:08.559 It's not the matter that you can say, I have Abraham as my father. 00:30:08.559 --> 00:30:13.059 John the Baptist says, don't make that boast that Abraham is your father. 00:30:13.059 --> 00:30:14.559 I can raise up these stones. 00:30:14.559 --> 00:30:26.599 In fact, I can take the stones of your heart, your heart, my heart, and put the love of God there and raise up children for Abraham. 00:30:26.599 --> 00:30:30.359 This is the glory of the new covenant. 00:30:30.359 --> 00:30:37.779 It surpasses the glory of the old covenant because the old covenant condemns the new covenant changes. 00:30:37.779 --> 00:30:40.640 It regenerates us. 00:30:40.640 --> 00:30:47.480 It turns us into new creations. 00:30:47.480 --> 00:30:48.480 Now I don't have to go through. 00:30:48.480 --> 00:30:57.400 I got in my notes here, like all these verses about how the nation of Israel and the physical children of Abraham, the Israelites as a whole. 00:30:57.400 --> 00:31:00.519 Now there was a remnant according to election saved by grace. 00:31:00.519 --> 00:31:05.960 And we can look at the heroes of the faith, the Old Testament, but as a whole, we could see how as a nation, they fell. 00:31:05.960 --> 00:31:09.319 They disobeyed. 00:31:09.319 --> 00:31:19.400 Isaiah 11 says, for earnestly, I exhorted your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the, out of the land of Egypt and to this day, raising early and exhorting and saying, obey my voice. 00:31:19.400 --> 00:31:25.759 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone followed the dictates of their evil heart. 00:31:25.759 --> 00:31:35.400 Therefore I will bring upon them the word of this covenant, which I will come to, which I commanded them to do, which they have not done. 00:31:35.400 --> 00:31:43.839 Jeremiah 11, Jeremiah is like from the days of old, from the days I brought you out of Egypt until now, you have disobeyed God. 00:31:43.839 --> 00:31:47.400 You have failed to obey his commands and his covenant. 00:31:47.400 --> 00:31:52.160 One of the last words of the Old Testament is Malachi three seven from the days of your fathers. 00:31:52.160 --> 00:31:55.640 You have turned aside from my statutes and you have not kept them. 00:31:55.640 --> 00:32:00.720 You see, Israel says you will be my people if you obey. 00:32:00.720 --> 00:32:02.799 They just didn't obey. 00:32:02.799 --> 00:32:11.480 They made a golden calf at the beginning and they never was able to get their act together. 00:32:11.480 --> 00:32:24.720 But all who are in the new covenant because of the work of Christ and the law being given to us inside, all know the Lord as we'll see. 00:32:24.720 --> 00:32:34.960 We're all members of the new covenant who are saved by faith and we all have the law written in our hearts. 00:32:34.960 --> 00:32:41.400 Thirdly, unlike the old, the new covenant establishes memberships as the people of God. 00:32:41.400 --> 00:32:44.000 Look at the end of verse 33. 00:32:44.000 --> 00:32:48.920 Not only will he write the law in our hearts, he says, I will be their God and they shall be my people. 00:32:48.920 --> 00:32:51.720 Again, here is the message of the Old Testament. 00:32:51.720 --> 00:32:57.240 You want to be the people of God, then obey. 00:32:57.240 --> 00:33:05.079 Now he stretches out his hands all day long to Israelites and they continue to stone the prophets and refuse. 00:33:05.079 --> 00:33:15.000 And even Jesus weeps over Jerusalem because here's the day of the visitation of God and they don't perceive it. 00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:24.519 But to you, the Bible says, I was found by those who did not even seek me to you. 00:33:24.519 --> 00:33:28.119 This is what it was prophesied according to Paul in Romans nine. 00:33:28.119 --> 00:33:44.079 He's quoting Hosea and he says this is fulfilling the prophecy as indeed he says in Hosea, those who are not my people, I will call my people and her who was not beloved, I will call beloved. 00:33:44.079 --> 00:33:50.039 And in the very place where it was said to them, you are not my people there. 00:33:50.039 --> 00:33:54.079 They will be called the sons of the living God. 00:33:54.079 --> 00:33:58.160 Do you understand how privileged you are? 00:33:58.160 --> 00:34:07.119 How did you become the children of God? 00:34:07.119 --> 00:34:11.360 Not because you're born to Christian parents. 00:34:11.360 --> 00:34:17.440 It's not because your mom and dad. 00:34:17.440 --> 00:34:20.719 Not because you're born in the right race, ethnicity. 00:34:20.719 --> 00:34:26.000 It's because you've been born again by grace. 00:34:26.000 --> 00:34:34.960 The fourth major distinction between the Old and New Testament, unlike the old, all the members of the new covenant know the Lord. 00:34:34.960 --> 00:34:36.880 This is very important. 00:34:36.880 --> 00:34:47.639 Look at verse three, four and no longer shall each one teaches neighbor and each one his brother saying, know the Lord for they also know me from the least of them to the greatest of them declares the Lord. 00:34:47.639 --> 00:34:51.199 Now in the Old Testament, it was a theocracy. 00:34:51.199 --> 00:35:09.119 It was literally, I don't, I can't use the word Christian because that's a New Testament term, but it was, if you could use Christian, you could call it was Christian nationalism. 00:35:09.119 --> 00:35:11.719 It was a theocracy. 00:35:11.719 --> 00:35:17.440 It was based upon carnal generation, physical offspring. 00:35:17.440 --> 00:35:21.400 This is why you had to take the Old Testament memberships. 00:35:21.400 --> 00:35:22.920 Now some of them didn't know the Lord. 00:35:22.920 --> 00:35:24.639 Moses knew the Lord. 00:35:24.639 --> 00:35:25.639 David knew the Lord. 00:35:25.639 --> 00:35:29.119 A lot of them knew the Lord, but not all of them. 00:35:29.119 --> 00:35:35.360 And this is why you had to go to the Old Testament membership and say, Hey, let me teach you about the Lord. 00:35:35.360 --> 00:35:36.360 Know the Lord. 00:35:36.360 --> 00:35:43.840 Let me tell you about the Lord because it's built on the assumption that just because they're in the Mosaic covenant doesn't mean they know. 00:35:43.840 --> 00:35:49.519 Sophistically, does it mean that they know Christ, that they know the Lord? 00:35:49.519 --> 00:35:55.719 In fact, we learned that many of them, or not most of them did not know the Lord. 00:35:55.719 --> 00:35:58.239 And now here's the beauty of the new covenant. 00:35:58.239 --> 00:36:00.400 Now hear me really clearly on this. 00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:12.039 There's not one single member of the new covenant that doesn't know the Lord. 00:36:12.039 --> 00:36:15.360 Not a single one. 00:36:15.360 --> 00:36:19.039 Now there may be church members that don't know the Lord. 00:36:19.039 --> 00:36:25.920 The wheat and the tare do grow together, but God knows who's in the new covenant. 00:36:25.920 --> 00:36:29.480 It's by grace, not by works. 00:36:29.480 --> 00:36:35.760 In years not by carnal generation, but by regeneration. 00:36:35.760 --> 00:36:40.840 This is why Jesus says you must be born again. 00:36:40.840 --> 00:36:43.760 To be in the kingdom of God, you have to be born again. 00:36:43.760 --> 00:36:48.880 And listen, this kingdom is not a physical national kingdom. 00:36:48.880 --> 00:36:51.239 We looked at that last week. 00:36:51.239 --> 00:36:56.679 As an American, just tip my hat on my politics, I'm a nationalist. 00:36:56.679 --> 00:37:01.320 I don't want globalism as a citizen of this world. 00:37:01.320 --> 00:37:06.360 But as the church, we're globalist. 00:37:06.360 --> 00:37:12.679 The church is every tribe, every tongue, every people, every nation. 00:37:12.679 --> 00:37:23.480 He says out of every nation, after every kingdom, God is pulling out of himself a people for himself out of this world. 00:37:23.480 --> 00:37:27.460 This is why the church is not American. 00:37:27.460 --> 00:37:30.840 My kingdom is not of this world. 00:37:30.840 --> 00:37:35.639 In this kingdom, Jesus says you cannot even see unless you're born again. 00:37:35.639 --> 00:37:41.079 You come through it not by natural generation, but by regeneration. 00:37:41.079 --> 00:37:48.079 See, this is a key distinction between what I call Baptist Catholic theology and the other positions. 00:37:48.079 --> 00:37:52.719 The other positions have a mixed kingdom or mixed covenant. 00:37:52.719 --> 00:37:55.039 You have believers and unbelievers. 00:37:55.039 --> 00:38:08.199 You have those who are regenerated with those ungenerated mixing together in one covenant community where the new covenant has just exclusively only those who know the Lord. 00:38:08.199 --> 00:38:18.199 This is important because the federal head of the new covenant is Jesus Christ. 00:38:18.199 --> 00:38:19.199 He's the federal head. 00:38:19.199 --> 00:38:20.360 He's the one that kept the covenant. 00:38:20.360 --> 00:38:21.360 He's the one who obeyed it. 00:38:21.360 --> 00:38:24.639 He's the one that established it by his blood. 00:38:24.639 --> 00:38:33.639 If there's one member of Jesus Christ that he legally represents that does not make it, then Jesus Christ is a poor federal head. 00:38:33.639 --> 00:38:50.719 But just as much as Christ cannot lose any of those that God has given them, I've kept them all, then that means the new covenant cannot be otherwise than exclusively restricted to believers. 00:38:50.719 --> 00:38:57.719 This is so important as we think about all the issues of our day and the purpose of the church. 00:38:57.719 --> 00:39:07.199 It's not to, now I do believe the church and the gospel brings a lot of restraining grace upon our culture and our nations and we pray for that. 00:39:07.199 --> 00:39:09.219 And we, as we would do, we need to vote. 00:39:09.219 --> 00:39:16.079 We need to do what we can and the kingdom God does improve the world around us. 00:39:16.079 --> 00:39:23.960 But our goal and our mission is to redeem God's people out of this world from every tribe and tongue and people. 00:39:23.960 --> 00:39:30.079 This world will be destroyed, but the kingdom of God will last and is the only thing that will last forever. 00:39:30.079 --> 00:39:32.719 Five, and this is the most glorious truth. 00:39:32.719 --> 00:39:40.559 I left it, I would say I left it at the end because I'm smart, but no, it's the last phrase. 00:39:40.559 --> 00:39:43.840 Unlike the old, the new covenant brings the forgiveness of sins. 00:39:43.840 --> 00:39:53.840 It says, for I will forgive in verse 34, I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins no more. 00:39:53.840 --> 00:40:04.380 The old covenant could point out sin and even in the types and shadows, it could show, hey, the way of forgiveness is the gospel. 00:40:04.380 --> 00:40:12.000 It could point us to Christ, but it couldn't bring us to Christ. 00:40:12.000 --> 00:40:17.679 It could point us, it can point out, but it couldn't forgive us. 00:40:17.679 --> 00:40:21.800 Member Moses, he represents the Mosaic covenant. 00:40:21.800 --> 00:40:32.800 He could take Israel all the way to the point of looking into the glory land, looking in, but he himself could not cross. 00:40:32.800 --> 00:40:37.320 The law can keep you from thinking I can do it. 00:40:37.320 --> 00:40:44.480 In fact, it's meant, and the Mosaic covenant and this law, it wasn't meant just to say, hey, you need to try better and you can work your way into it. 00:40:44.480 --> 00:40:47.159 No, it wasn't meant to try to get you to work your way into it. 00:40:47.159 --> 00:40:49.940 It was meant to close your mouth and show that you couldn't. 00:40:49.940 --> 00:40:52.099 It was meant to say, don't look to self. 00:40:52.099 --> 00:40:57.719 And then also in the law, you have these promises and you've got the tops and shadows and it was meant to look to the Messiah, look to the Messiah. 00:40:57.719 --> 00:41:06.239 So the old time is pointing to Christ, pointing to Christ, and it can take you to look to Christ, but the law can't bring you over into Christ. 00:41:06.239 --> 00:41:11.159 It leaves you powerless. 00:41:11.159 --> 00:41:16.760 Sometimes even as Christians, we get thinking that we have to re-earn God's favor. 00:41:16.760 --> 00:41:21.219 We have to go back to the law in order to please God. 00:41:21.219 --> 00:41:32.440 And we, we under this condemnation and this unbearable weight that we can't bear. 00:41:32.440 --> 00:41:54.039 And we forget to look to Christ and as he that brings forgiveness, the weight is removed in Christ, not in the law, but in Christ because Christ obeyed the law on our behalf and took the curses of the law for us. 00:41:54.039 --> 00:42:02.880 And so let me make this closing appeal to you who do not know the Lord, because I know there are many here that do not know the Lord. 00:42:02.880 --> 00:42:18.559 Many of your children and older people and some of you who may be pretending deep down you're afraid to confess your sins and you're afraid to admit that you're lost because your spouse thinks you're a Christian and you're, and it's your pride. 00:42:18.559 --> 00:42:21.480 It doesn't want to, you know what that is. 00:42:21.480 --> 00:42:35.679 I'd hate to be in that position where you got this pretense going on and you're scared for that pretense to be exposed, but you don't want that pretense to take you to destruction. 00:42:35.679 --> 00:42:44.760 So you who don't know the Lord and you have the weight of the law upon your head, there's only one way of salvation. 00:42:44.760 --> 00:42:57.039 There is only one way of forgiveness of sins, all your sins, every one of them, the big ones, the small ones, all of them. 00:42:57.039 --> 00:43:00.960 But this is what it says. 00:43:00.960 --> 00:43:03.840 I will forgive their iniquity. 00:43:03.840 --> 00:43:06.079 And I love this last phrase. 00:43:06.079 --> 00:43:12.679 I will remember their sin no more. 00:43:12.679 --> 00:43:17.199 You see in conclusion, there's no two gods. 00:43:17.199 --> 00:43:19.039 There's one gospel. 00:43:19.039 --> 00:43:24.239 This gospel comes from the law being satisfied in Christ. 00:43:24.239 --> 00:43:26.039 There's no grace without law. 00:43:26.039 --> 00:43:28.599 There's no new covenant without the old covenant. 00:43:28.599 --> 00:43:29.960 Life comes from death. 00:43:29.960 --> 00:43:37.199 Grace comes from fulfillment of the law and the new covenant is the old covenant fulfilled. 00:43:37.199 --> 00:43:41.199 Let's pray. 00:43:41.199 --> 00:43:49.440 Lord, we don't know of a better book in the world than the Bible. 00:43:49.440 --> 00:43:52.119 It has life. 00:43:52.119 --> 00:43:55.320 It has truth. 00:43:55.320 --> 00:43:58.480 It has your son. 00:43:58.480 --> 00:44:00.639 How beautiful is your son? 00:44:00.639 --> 00:44:04.199 Lord, the Old Testament is filled with them. 00:44:04.199 --> 00:44:07.280 The New Testament is filled with them. 00:44:07.280 --> 00:44:09.440 Help us to be filled with Christ. 00:44:09.440 --> 00:44:12.559 Help us to be a living epistle to the world. 00:44:12.559 --> 00:44:27.639 Lord, we marvel at the beauty of the unity of the testaments and also the great contrast between grace and law between Moses and Christ and the old covenant and the new covenant. 00:44:27.639 --> 00:44:34.559 They work together, but in one way they couldn't be any more opposite. 00:44:34.559 --> 00:44:42.159 How you bring these two opposite things together perfectly in the gospel. 00:44:42.159 --> 00:44:51.000 I pray, Lord, that the gospel would be powerful to our souls who are already saved and powerful to the souls that are yet to be saved. 00:44:51.000 --> 00:44:59.000 In your son's name, amen. 00:44:59.000 --> 00:45:00.000 Amen. 00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:00.000 Amen. 00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:02.000 Thank you. 00:45:02.000 --> 00:45:04.000 You