Restoration 2018:  Our Picture of God

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Restoration Ministry

Dee Casper

The Grace of Christ and the New Covenant

Oh, sweet Jesus, thank you that we can come into your presence in prayer.

I thank you that we can come and worship together, and I just ask that your Spirit would be among us and that you would speak with power, with conviction, with clarity, and that you would show us your glory this evening.

Help us to better understand a topic that I believe has been greatly misunderstood, and I pray for tact and wisdom in addressing it.

The grace of Christ and the new covenant.

So what I'd like to do is first of all just go straight into where the new covenant is introduced in scripture.

The new covenant is found in Jeremiah chapter 31.

Did you know that the new covenant is found in the Old Testament?

Jeremiah chapter 31, beginning in verse 31.

It's actually a kind of an easy way to remember it.

31, 31, the new covenant, God's agreement that he's wanting to make with his people, a pact he's making with his people.

Behold the days are coming says the Lord when I will make what type of covenant?

A new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand and lead them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them." So something went wrong.

He made a covenant, something went wrong.

Let's define this original covenant and we'll come back to Jeremiah 31.

Exodus chapter 19 and beginning in verse 3.

Exodus 19 beginning of verse 3, And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountains, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel, you have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself.

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, then you should be a special treasure to me above all people, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.

These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.' So Moses came and called the elders of the people, laid before them all these words which the Lord commanded him.

And then all the people answered together and said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do.

So Moses brought back the words of the people to the Lord.

Moses goes up, he tells God the answer of the people.

God then tells Moses, go back down, tell them don't come up to the mountain, don't touch the mountain unless you die.

And if they have to die, you can't even touch them.

Like they have to be stoned or shot with an arrow.

And Moses then goes back up to the Lord after telling the people this.

And the Lord said to Moses, So he's saying, Look, we already told them this.

But the Lord says, Away, get out of here, man.

Get down and then come up, you and Aaron with you.

But do not let the priest and the people break through to come up to the Lord, lest he break out against them.

So Moses went down to the people and spoke to them.

Whatever it is that's about to transpire is so important that God wants Moses with the people when it happens.

What's the very next thing that happens in Scripture?

Exodus chapter 20, 1 all the way through verse 17.

So, skip over to verse, chapter 24, verses 3 and 7.

Exodus 24, beginning of verse 3, we're defining the old covenant.

1 round they've said, all the Lord has spoken, we will do, and then the very next thing that happens and what he's asking is the 10 Commandments.

Then Exodus 24 in verse 3, so Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the judgments.

And all the people answered with 1 voice and said, all the words the Lord has spoken we will do.

Then he took the book of the covenant and read in the hearing of the people, and they said, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do and be obedient.

So 3 times, once in Exodus 19, twice in Exodus chapter 24, the people say, all that the Lord has spoken, we will do.

They seem to be very confident that whatever it is that God is asking them, they can handle it.

I have a very simple question for you this evening.

Yeah, less than 40 days later, they're running laps around the mountain in pagan revelry around a golden calf.

And 1 of the things mentioned in that thing, they said that all these spoken we will do was not to have idols.

So there seems to be a weakness here, and this is what God was alluding to in Jeremiah 31.

Not according to the covenant that I made with your fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt.

My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.

So they didn't keep their promise, And this is why, how many people have seen the movie The 10 Commandments?

Yeah, I cannot see this scene, what initially happens, whenever Moses comes down from the mountain and sees what the Israelites are doing, what does he do?

What does he have in his hands, first of all?

The 10 Commandments, the stone tablets, and what does he do when he sees it?

He throws the things down, and I cannot read that text without seeing Charlton Heston and his gnarly beard.

It puts images there, you just can't get rid of them.

And this is why he broke down the tablets, because they broke the covenant.

The covenant that they just said, all that you've said we will do, they didn't.

And when Moses broke the tablets, it was signifying what the people themselves had done.

Now, if we're curious as to any other definition of what this covenant is, and we're still a little unsure, let's go to Deuteronomy 4 very quickly.

Deuteronomy chapter 4, verses 11 to 13, just to make sure that we understand why we're using this language.

Deuteronomy 4, we were just in Exodus, I believe, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.

Deuteronomy chapter 4, beginning in verse 11, and the reference is up on the board as you're turning.

Then you came near and stood at the foot of the mountain and the mountain burned.

First of all, the book of Deuteronomy is basically the second reading of the law, right?

The word D-E-U, it's kind of alluding to deuce, to 2, the number 2, and in this situation Moses is recounting to the people their history because they as a people are prone to forget where they came from.

I don't know if you're aware of this, but that thing we talked about a couple nights ago, don't forget where you came from, God is continually wrestling with his people and having this problem.

That's why Deuteronomy is there, that's why the prophets are sent to remind them of where they came from, that's why there's at least 3 or 4 psalms that are just recounting the history of Israel, right?

Trying to remind the people of where they came from and what God has done for them.

But in Deuteronomy, And that's why they were to keep reading this law every year to remind themselves so they wouldn't forget.

The Grace of Christ and the New Covenant

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