Are You Part of God’s Covenant
Sunday, December 05, 2010
Pastor James May
Our God is a covenant making God. His covenants are given through his great love for man that was created in God’s own image. From the very beginning we see that God is ever reaching out to draw rebellious people back to right relationship with him. It is never God’s will that anyone should perish. It is God’s perfect will that every man, woman and child, that would ever; and will ever; be conceived into this world should be saved.
With God’s love in mind, and his great desire to see all men saved, we can begin to understand God’s covenants and why they were made.
I want to look at the Covenants of God this morning; specifically God’s Covenant with Abraham and the New Testament Covenant that was given through the Jesus Christ and his blood that was shed for us.
The thing that we must always remember is that these covenants were initiated by God and not by man. Sinful man has no power to approach God and say, “Let’s Make a Deal”. We cannot approach God, nor have a part in any of God’s promises on our own terms. If we are to have a part in God’s Covenants then we must do it God’s Way because there is no other way.
Looking into the Old Testament Covenant, we can see where God began to deal with a man called Abraham who lived in the land of Ur of the Chaldees. The city of Ur was one of the most important and prosperous cities of its time. It was located about 10 miles west of the Euphrates River near the Persian Gulf, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad. It had an advanced culture with a world of opportunities and wealth to be had for anyone willing to be a part of that society. According to the archaeological record, gold was plentiful because golden helmets, daggers and drinking cups have been found. There was a royal cemetery where kings were buried right along with all of their servants. Education was also important because lots of clay tablets, scrolls and writings have been found. Along with that was discovered all sorts of musical instruments, elaborate headdresses, a lot of jewelry and a 70 foot high ziggurat (much like those of the pyramids of the Inca’s in Mexico).
But God told Abram, whose name was later changed by God to Abraham, in Genesis 12:1 … Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:
Abraham wasn’t leaving behind some primitive, backward, poor country. He left the splendor, beauty and wealth of all that could have been his by inheritance as a son of this father and a citizen of Ur, to begin a journey into the unknown. He didn’t know whether he would become wealthy beyond his wildest dreams, or die poverty stricken and penniless in some foreign land where he would be forever forgotten and lie in an unmarked grave in some remote place.
I can believe that Abraham had second thoughts about answering the call of God upon his life. I can’t help but believe that he thought long and hard about what he was leaving behind that was a sure thing, to step out by faith and walk down uncertain paths, trusting in God’s covenant alone.
It is no wonder that God called Abraham such a man of great faith. It took faith to believe that the Lord God Jehovah was truly God above all of the idols of the Chaldees. It took faith to believe that Jehovah God would fulfill his promise to Abraham, especially when you think about the fact that not much of God’s Covenant ever came to pass in Abraham’s own life. He only lived to be 175 years old and had only two sons, Ishamael and Isaac, and only Isaac was part of God’s Covenant being fulfilled.
Abraham walked with God, failed God many times, lied, cheated and disobeyed God on a number of occasions, yet God’s Covenant of birthing with Abraham a great nation and giving him the land wherever he walked in obedience, was still fulfilled in the end.
Abraham was a man of faith like no other. He trusted God’s promises even though he never saw them come to pass. He believed God would hold up his end of the covenant if only Abraham would walk in obedience and faith.
I wonder how long we would have walked with God if we had been in Abraham’s shoes? In this modern day of people who are seeking more for the things of this world, than the things of God; a church that is focused on self gratification more than on the true worship of Jesus; a people who are more focused on the loaves and fishes that Jesus promised more than the Christ who will give eternal life. The New Testament Covenant is not found in the things of this world that God can and will provide for those who obey him. It is found in walking by faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ and trusting God to bring us into eternal life and a home in Heaven. God’s covenant with Abraham didn’t contain one word about all the wealth he would gain, or the power or prestige that Abraham might receive. It was all about building a great nation and a land that he could call home forever.
What does the New Testament Covenant promise to those who will be faithful and trust in Jesus to follow him and walk in the paths where we are to be led by the Holy Spirit?
2 Corinthians 6:17 Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
2 Corinthians 6:18 And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.
Look at God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis:
Genesis 12:2 And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:
Genesis 12:3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
How would all of the nations of the earth be blessed through Abraham’s Covenant? It would be the result of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, being born in that little town of Bethlehem thousands of years after Abraham had passed from the scene. Talk about faith! Abraham’s faith wasn’t for miracles of healing and deliverance, but it was that God would do what he said he would do, no matter how long it might take for God to do it!
Now look at what God promises through the New Covenant in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Peter told us what kind of people we are to become if we abide in God’s Covenant while we live on this earth.
1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
God made Israel a nation that would bear his mark and his name to all the nations of the earth. God established the church as a holy nation that must be washed in the blood of the Lamb, and then commissioned us to carry his word and preach his message to a world bound in darkness and in sin.
In both Covenants, it is God reaching out to fallen man, because man has no hope without God’s mercy and man could never initiate the regeneration of the heart and soul so that we could become one with God again.
Abraham obeyed God, walked out by faith and journeyed into the Land of Canaan that would one day become the land of the nation of Israel. It was never Abraham’s land. As he journeyed through it, the Canaanites still owned it. Not until Joshua would bring Israel into Canaan and begin to destroy the people who dwelled in the land would the land be in their possession. It was all given to Abraham, but Abraham never owned it for himself. He remained a pilgrim and a stranger until his dying day. Yet God blessed Abraham all the while and he did become a man of power and influence in this new land. Even though he never saw the promise fulfilled, Abraham never doubted God’s promise that it would come to pass. That faith is what earned him the title, “The Friend of God”.
God’s covenant with Abraham was built upon possession of an earthly nation, but God’s Covenant in the New Testament is built upon a Heavenly kingdom.
Hebrews 8:6 But now hath he obtained a more excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant, which was established upon better promises.
Hebrews 8:10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:
Hebrews 8:11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.
Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.
In that Old Testament Covenant, the sin of man could only be pushed ahead until the day that the Messiah would come and have the power and authority to remove that sin forever. The blood of bulls and goats, sacrificed daily in the temple, never had the power to forgive or wash away sin. The blood of sacrificial animals only served the purpose of teaching Israel that a sacrifice of perfect blood would be sufficient and kept them ever focused on the day when that sacrificial Lamb of God would appear. Even so, they didn’t see the Lamb of God when he came because they had become spiritually blind.
Now we have a New Testament Covenant that is far superior to that of Abraham’s Promise.
Hebrews 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
It is the shed blood of Jesus Christ alone that has the power to wash away sin. His was the only perfect sacrifice that could fulfill all of the requirements of the Old Testament Covenant and Law, and bring in the New Covenant.
Hebrews 9:15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
Thank God for this New Testament built upon the blood of Jesus. In this covenant we are given greater promises and life eternal, with a personal relationship with God once again.
Now I took a long route to get to a point that I want to make. In that Old Testament Covenant with Abraham and Israel, there were a lot of Jews who never experienced the fulfillment of the promise. Yes God’s promise was fulfilled, but only those who walked as Abraham did, by faith, would gain the inheritance. Multitudes, in every generation, passed into eternity without that faith in God. The vast majority of those people who should have had an inheritance through God’s Covenant, never had a part in it. Because of unbelief, doubt and idol worship the vast majority of Jews lost out with God and threw away the promise of Abraham’s covenant, and today they are forever lost.
The Covenants of God always carry stipulations for those who would inherit them. Those stipulations are faith in God, separation from the world, obedience to the call of God and then walking by faith wherever God will lead! It was that way for Abraham and the Jews, and it’s still that way for us today.
Where do we stand today in relationship to the New Testament Covenant established by Jesus Christ? Are we walking by faith in the blood of the Jesus to cleanse us from sin? Are we separating ourselves from this present world as much as we can and embracing the promise of a better world to come? Are we walking by sight and by our own desires, or are we walking by faith, trusting the Lord to bring us where he wants us to go? Are you on a journey with Jesus; or are you just walking through this world on your own pace?
Just as it was for the Jews, only those in our day who are walking by faith, trusting in the Lord and living in obedience to his call will ever gain the promise of the inheritance that comes through the New Testament Covenant. Just as it was for the Jews, the vast majority of those who make claims to be a part of the New Testament Covenant, really have no part in it, for their lives prove that they are not living by faith, not walking in obedience and that they are worshipping the idols of this present world. Not one of us will make Heaven our home without that walk of faith just like Abraham.
Your promise will never be gained fully in this life, for your promised land waits beyond the grave. Your Promised Land is in Heaven, not upon this earth. Your wealth is should be stored in that land where moth and rust cannot corrupt, rather than in the bank vaults of this world where it can lose all of its value in an instant.
God may bless you in this life with some of the wealth of this world, but that should never be your focus. Our focus must remain fixed upon the final goal of the promises of the New Testament Covenant. Our eyes should be fixed upon Jesus, and upon that eternal home that shall be ours.
Are you walking in the covenant of Jesus Christ and the power of his blood to cleanse you from sin? Don’t miss your inheritance. Answer the call of God to leaven this world behind, to travel to an unknown destination, a place where you have never been, and a place where you will never arrive in this life. Walk by faith as Abraham did. Walk by faith as so many others have. Earn that same title as Abraham and be called a Friend of God. Your Promised Land is waiting for your arrival. Make sure that you arrive!
You can either be a part of God’s Covenant, or you can let someone else inherit your reward. Stake your claim today and keep walking by faith. Come to Christ, accept his sacrifice for your sin. Be led by the Holy Spirit and trust in God’s Covenant that it will come to pass. The only way to gain that inheritance is through Jesus Christ so serve him today.
