People of the Covenant

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Beginning to read at verse 6. This is a comparison. The book of Hebrews is in many places a comparison of the old law and grace. It's an encouragement to a people that had started out to keep on. [00:00:34] People that were facing opposition to not be distracted, but to stay on course. Now let's read verse 6, chapter 8. 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. I think we ought to stand to read this. Let's stand. Hebrews chapter 8 verse 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. [00:01:14] For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no place have been sought for the second. For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, says the Lord, when I will make 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 when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, says the Lord. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. [00:01:48] I will put my laws into their mind, write them in their hearts, and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. in that he saith a new covenant he has made the first old now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away [00:02:24] okay you may be seated I trust that our focus will be on what God has for us this morning you know it may be the last time that you and I are going to sit together in this place could be May be the last time that I'll ever stand behind this pulpit. That I don't know. But it is our opportunity to receive from God. [00:02:55] Let's open our cups to Him. Now the Bible speaks about a relationship between God and man as the covenant relationship. A covenant, well let me say this first also. The true church, the early church, the Anabaptist church, often talked about their relationship with God as a covenant relationship. Now covenant, Webster says that a covenant is a binding and solemn or serious agreement [00:03:30] A commitment made by two or more individuals or parties to do or to keep from doing a specific thing. It's an agreement. It's a commitment. We are going to do this. I was thinking of that song this morning where it says, I intend to be true. I intend to go through. Now it is the mindset of people that often determines the success or the lack of success of what's going to happen. [00:04:03] It's the way we put our heart into something. That's why the Bible speaks about loving God with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, and our strength. Webster says further that it's an agreement among members of the church to hold to a point of doctrine, faith, and so forth. So, the promises made by God is another definition, to men, as recorded in the Bible. The promises made by God to men, as recorded in the Bible. [00:04:36] That was a covenant. The interesting thing is, God made a covenant. Now, God did not need that covenant to keep Him on course, or to follow through, or to do what He promised. But God made a covenant. Often when there is a covenant, usually when there is a covenant, it is two people agreeing together, like we read in the definition. But God made a covenant when no man made a covenant with Him. The first covenant we read about is when God made a covenant with Adam and Eve. [00:05:10] And He said, the time is coming when I'm going to send a Redeemer, after they had sinned. God said, I will do it. And God did it. God is a covenant keeper, not only a covenant maker. We can look at many covenants made in the Old Testament by God. With Adam, next with Noah, later with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, with the people of God. And the people made a covenant with God as well in some of those places. Let me read just a few of these scriptures. [00:05:43] Hebrews 10.23 says, Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised. God is a covenant keeper, and the reason that you and I have any confidence, that we have any assurance, that we have any basis to keep on the course is the fact that God is faithful. If God would not be faithful, we would live like some people do. We'd say, we'll just have to see which way the wheel tips over when it rolls to the bottom of the hill. [00:06:18] We just don't know. But He is faithful, the Bible says, that promise. That's why we today have the confidence that we do. Not in us, but in God. Malachi 3.6 says, For I am the Lord, I change not. In other words, what God has said is trustworthy. He doesn't change. Whatever God has said, whatever God has planned, [00:06:52] whatever God has provided will not change. We do not need and we do not go looking today for a new gospel. When people come to us with a new gospel, we have good reason to be cautious because there is not going to be a new gospel the gospel of Jesus Christ the gospel of God is fully revealed in Christ and it's not going to change so if someone comes with a new doctrine even an angel from heaven, Paul said [00:07:23] we don't accept it because it is a fully disclosed plan of God 1 Kings 8.56 says There hath not failed one word of his good promise. As Moses and as the children of Israel looked back on the promises the covenant God has made, they said this, There has not failed one word of his good promise. Everyone held true to the end. I'd like to turn to Deuteronomy chapter 7 and verse 9. [00:07:58] Read one more of these scriptures that speak about God's faithfulness. Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him, and keep His commandments to a thousand generations. If every generation is 25 years, that promise is good at least for 25,000 years. He says He is faithful and He keeps His covenant and His mercy to them that love Him and keep His commandments. [00:08:38] There you get a picture of the other side of the covenant. God is faithful on His side to a thousand generations. And you could add another thousand or million or a hundred million to that and still be true. God is always faithful to His promises and His covenant. It is in this that we find the basis for our confidence. It's the basis for our security. Now if somebody just says maybe, if we talk about making some agreement, [00:09:11] they say well maybe, or if, so and so, then I will do so and so. What kind of confidence do you have? We are left with a big question mark, aren't we? we just wonder now how what will actually happen in the end but because of God's faithfulness and his covenant with us we today can with assurance and confidence know that there is going to be an eternal destiny for all people either good or bad that's a given it's certain it's written it's declared [00:09:49] and the basis for that assurance is the faithfulness of God. So we know that there is life after death. People that say we don't know, the agnostic says, I don't say that there is no heaven nor no hell. I don't say that there is no God. I just don't know. But the believer says, I know in whom I have believed and I am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day [00:10:22] because God is faithful. It is the basis for our assurance and our security, our safety. It is the motivation to keep on going. It is the covenant with God that he has made with man. In 1 John 1.9 he says, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How do we know today that if we confess our sins they no longer stand against us? [00:10:55] Because God is faithful. He is faithful to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from our sins, from all unrighteousness. It is the basis for our confidence that we can live victoriously. He says in 1 Corinthians 10 There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful and will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able. [00:11:33] It is our confidence for heaven. Now, not only did God enter into a covenant, God's people entered into a covenant. All that the Lord has said, the people said to Moses when he received the Ten Commandments Will we do? That was a commitment, that was a covenant God spoke, people said It is too fearsome, too fearful, too awesome to be in the presence of God Moses, you talk with God [00:12:04] Tell us what he said Then he says, all that God says, we will do that was a commitment I don't know how it was for you but I remember one thing that stood out clear to me when I was born again that I had never really understood before that has made me wonder about many things in life and has settled me on issues in life and that is to be born again [00:12:35] the moment came when I came to the end of the self life to the end of the road and there was a negotiation took place that day and that negotiation was like this I don't care who says what what people think of me it matters not what how people look down on me one thing I know I am committed to Jesus Christ and it seems to me that makes a tremendous difference in how we stay on target with God that we come to the place where we say [00:13:12] by the grace of God I will go through I intend to go through and I will be true by the grace of God it is a decision it is a commitment it is a positive step we'll look at that a little bit more yet. Ecclesiastes the fifth chapter verses four and five. When thou vowest a vow unto God do not defer to pay it. I'd like to introduce you to a booklet. Some of you know about this book but how [00:13:46] many of you have this book at home? Vow Keepers, Vow Breakers. A few. It's a book that has a message for our day, a necessary message, vow keepers, vow breakers, vows are being broken, covenants are being broken all over the place today and many people don't seem to have a conscience against it, but God holds us to our covenants and you will find that in the Old Testament [00:14:20] And along the way, the thought is also clear in the New Testament that God's covenant with man is related very much to man's covenant with God. It doesn't take long until parents learn that you don't reward disobedience of your children with some gift. How many parents, and when your children disobey you, say this would be a good time to give them a gift? [00:14:57] That would promote what? More disobedience, wouldn't it? Now God is not more simple than people. God clearly knows that principle. God does not award disobedience with his blessing but to the contrary that's why he says if we make a vow before God don't defer don't put it off [00:15:29] don't delay but don't fail to pay it it is meant to be kept and he says further for God has no pleasure in fools Pay that which thou owest. Better is it that thou shouldest not vow than that thou shouldest vow and not pay. Now that could be applied to so many areas in life. Every time we buy something on the credit plan we have made a covenant. [00:16:01] Do we sometimes buy things and people say well if you don't want to pay it it's alright. If you can't pay it today. We all know how it works. If we buy something on credit, that is a commitment that we will pay it at some point. And he's saying it's better not to vow than it is to vow and not to pay. Now let's just make that very literal and say it is better not to buy than it is to buy and not to pay. [00:16:33] That's just some pretty good financial sense. works real well and it's scriptural and it's according to God's plan whenever we make a commitment we are held accountable before God to live up to it well that's not the real purpose of this message today but God's plan is that this covenant be Godward as well as [00:17:04] manward from God Let's look at some practical areas yet. Before we... Well, let's look at some practical areas. We've already mentioned that parents do not reward children for disobedience so God does not reward people that don't keep their part of the covenant. There are some statements that I might be making out of this book this morning or partial statements, ideas at least, that are very, very true, so true. [00:17:43] One of them is that a covenant, or let's say it this way, a public commitment establishes a reference point. Does it help you to make a commitment? We talk about being accountable. What do we mean when we talk about being accountable to one another? I think of those boys that I saw outside a church house one night after the number of them made a commitment that picture in my mind is still a blessing to me today [00:18:16] as I see those boys, I didn't know what they were doing but I was told that those boys vowed together to commit themselves together to keep on following the Lord and whenever there is something comes up in life they have that reference point we made a commitment and not only that they know that the other boys heard them make that commitment now that's one of the values [00:18:47] of the covenant relationship we commit ourselves together to God as a reference point back there if we forget if we are negligent If we go our own way and don't think about it, every once in a while, Oh yes, I made that commitment. Does that ever help you in life? To remember you made a commitment to God. Or in other areas as well. That's why I believe it's good. [00:19:20] Why it's necessary. Why it says in Romans the 10th chapter, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. That does not say in that scripture that if thou shalt confess thy sin. It says if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. [00:19:51] It is a declaration. It is a covenant. We say it out loud. We say it so people can hear it. I'm glad that we often have visitors in a time of baptisms. Gladly make our declaration in front of as many as possible. It is our covenant with God. He carried it out. The least we can do. The psalmist said, what shall we do because of the salvation of what God has done for us? [00:20:34] Then he said, I know. I will take the cup of salvation. Now, I did not refer much to the scriptures back here in Hebrews 8 yet. Let me go back to Hebrews 8 and verse 10. this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord or after the Old Testament time this is the covenant that I will make with them I will put my laws into their mind and write them on their hearts [00:21:06] and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people that's the Godward part of the covenant and the manward part of the covenant they come together we make that declaration that commitment to each other I don't clearly understand the language of the rest of that passage there when he says we aren't going to teach other people anymore to me it seems the meaning of this passage is [00:21:39] that the time is coming when God is going to have a relationship with every person personally It is talking about not just going through an outward form but it is an inner heart personal relationship with God when He is real to us and we are obedient to Him but when that happens, when that takes place there cannot really be a heart relationship [00:22:11] without an outward expression. Any child that has life in himself has to somehow show life. And so it is with the people of God. It's the covenant relationship. God is our God. He is our Savior. Today, many people are calling on Jesus as Savior. They say a few words. They raise their hands. They make some kind of a statement. And they go merrily on their way living for themselves. I think, according to Scripture, we may be bold enough to say [00:22:45] they are not born again. Born again is when a person comes to the end of himself and the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit is born into their life and there is a new outlook. There is a new creature, new creation. There is a new way of life and there is a new destination. But otherwise, it is. I'm not saying this morning that people understand all the mechanics about the new birth but if there is no heart change [00:23:20] there is no evidence of God within there must be a new birth experience so there is need for a public commitment in life not secret Christians but people with the courage didn't Jesus himself say Whoever is going to be ashamed of me and this wicked and adulterous generation Of him also will the Son of Man be ashamed at his coming But whosoever is going to confess him [00:23:52] He will be confessed by Jesus as well Jesus will present him I don't know how it will all be before this great God But I imagine that Jesus who had taken on the form of man Is going to confess to the Godhead This is one of my brothers. This is one of my children. He confessed me and I'm confessing him as a testimony to his transformed life. At baptism, we make commitments. It's a covenant. [00:24:29] At marriage, there is a covenant. There are questions asked and responded to that are tremendous promises. We say, will you in the presence of God and these witnesses take the brother, sister by your side, will you be faithful until death do you part? we say I will [00:25:00] and half half of those cases where people say I will and make that covenant end up in divorce and the record in the church is almost the same as it is in the secular world what is happening? people are not taking serious their covenant And we could have looked at scriptures in the Old Testament [00:25:31] that say what God did when people disregarded their commitment. What happened? One of the reasons that marriages fail today is the lack of a covenant. People are saying in their hearts, while they're saying with their lips, I will as long as you both shall live. they are saying as long as you both shall love and that's not the marriage covenant [00:26:02] the marriage covenant is as long as you both shall live so people say when love is no longer there I'm better off without her she's better off without him but it's not true whenever there is a breaking of a covenant in marriage the children suffer The partners suffer and it is a sin against God himself who has established the permanence in marriage. [00:26:36] Now, is it any different in the church? When God looks at this issue in Malachi, he says, as his conclusion, when he sees the breaking of the marriage covenant, you know what God says about that in Malachi? He says, I hate divorce. Because he sees the suffering that it brings. He sees the blessings that it withholds. And so he says, I hate divorce. [00:27:09] In the King James Version, at least is how it reads. Where there is no commitment, there is no confidence. How would it be, brethren, to get married to someone and your wife would refuse to say, I will or I do? That would leave us with one big question mark. And the same thing is true in any other organization. We have all kinds of covenant relationships. [00:27:41] We have covenant relationships in our jobs. they are sometimes unspoken many times maybe usually they are not even written out but there is this understood covenant that if I work for this company and they start at work at 6 o'clock in the morning I am committing to be there at 6.05 no, 6 o'clock that's the covenant and as long as we relate together [00:28:12] Together, we can experience the blessings together. And that's true all over in organizations. There is commitment, there is responsibility, there is covenant. But today, there are so many people that have no longer got the vision of the covenant. That's why our society is fragmenting and falling apart. Things are going every which direction. I've never seen, of course that's true probably in every generation, But in my short lifetime, and in yours, you have seen a fragmentation, a breaking down of moral fibers in so many places. [00:28:53] What is happening? There's lack of commitment. We want what we can get, but we don't want to give what we have been given to share. We want the paycheck. We want the blessing. and that's somewhat to be expected in the world but in the church what if our Lord would have kept his end of the covenant [00:29:24] like so many people do today on the other end our salvation would not be a very thorough one there would be none at all a commitment, a covenant is not a commitment to follow one's preferences there is a price tag that goes with a covenant but the price, no the reward is worth the price [00:29:56] the reward is always greater than our part there used to be a saying around that I haven't heard for a long time Something like this that you can never out give God. Wouldn't it be a challenge? Maybe something we ought to try sometime. See if we can out give God. I don't know how you do that exactly, but it might just be a good experience to see if we couldn't out give God. [00:30:32] Just give more than we get back. Well, that's kind of beside the point. But a covenant is not a commitment to follow one's preferences. It's a commitment to go by the rules. And in God's case, we don't always know what all that may mean. We just shared with you one area that we're facing. That we don't always know where God is going to locate us. What God is going to ask us to do. [00:31:04] We just don't know. But that's not important. The important thing is that we keep our covenant with God. And we cannot out give Him. A leading cause for spiritual decline in the church is the lack of the vision of the covenant relationship. I think it's a leading cause. People go to church with the idea that I do my thing, you do your thing. [00:31:35] we talk about the way that the direction that young people go in our day the sports mindedness the all kinds of light heartedness the shallowness but I wonder if the reality is not that it already happened two generations back when people We go back to when I used my school experience as an illustration. [00:32:11] Those young girls in the school back then, about 50 years ago, they looked just like our girls do. That were from what we call the Mennonite church. Long since, things have changed. It's one of these areas of concern that we've been talking about somewhat. What makes a church drift? What makes us lose out our spiritual vitality? [00:32:45] Well, there were people back then, like there probably always have been and still are, people that said, you know, I just don't see it quite that way. I've even heard people say, heard that it was said, that let's try it once, see what happens in the church. Let's just try it and see what happens. They knew what the church had asked. They knew what it said. They knew what was expected. But they didn't prefer to do that. [00:33:18] They wanted to do it differently. So they said, let's try it. There are people that try to direct the church Church by raising situations so that the church makes decisions by default. Now, did I say that so complicated? Nobody understands it. But, you know, you kind of force issues and then we change things to accommodate what? The covenant? The covenant is a following through in obedience. [00:33:53] If there is not obedience, what is there? That's the word, disobedience. The Bible even has another word. That word is called rebellion. There are things in every business. There are things in our homes. There are things in our churches. Wherever there are people, there are things that you know we prefer to do them differently [00:34:27] and in fact it may not even be wrong to do them differently there's more than one way to do some things and they're not wrong but there's no way that I have found yet that I can do different from the organization's agreement and still be called obedient Can you? I think Brother Laverne talked about obedience a few weeks ago when it was. [00:35:00] Then we shared that little story about the boy that painted the barn door instead of weeding the garden. And he was hoping to make it through on the basis of having painted a barn door that needed paint. It was a legitimate deed that he did. but the problem was I didn't tell you that he learned a little lesson in obedience that day the problem was [00:35:31] he was disobedient it wasn't the issue so much the barn door needed paint the garden needed weeding both were important the issue is not the issue sometimes But the issue is a heart condition. And that has been the cry of those people that have made their own ways in life, taken their own courses and made their own choices in disobedience. [00:36:06] They have said, it's not spiritual. So we're going to change something. let me ask you if they are now more spiritual than they were since they have now cut their hair they have now thrown away the covering they have now admitted divorce and remarriage into their churches they are now wrestling with the issues of homosexuality and those issues are they now more spiritual? [00:36:37] because they got rid or changed those things those things do not make people spiritual and doing things another way do not make people more spiritual. It's when the covenant with God is there that we do those things that are pleasing in His sight. And we are transformed in our heart. It's the covenant relationship. Lord, it is Your plan that I obey You. [00:37:09] And that means when I obey God, I obey what he has established. I do not say I'm obeying God but I'll be unfaithful in my home. I'll serve God but I won't serve my wife. You can't do it. You cannot serve God and disobey the church. You can't do it. The two go together. Am I talking too hardly? [00:37:41] I'm only sharing with you what I find in the scriptures that's my intention I think I would be safe in saying if you look at history you will find that every time when people began to shirk their covenant relationship with their God and God-constituted authority [00:38:11] that you will find when they fudged a little here their children ended up in one or two generations in divorce and remarriage. What was going on? The children were seeing that the covenant is not really important. And if it wasn't important here why is it important in our home? And so if things don't go well Smoothly, and it cost me too much, then I'll just get another partner. [00:38:45] That's why we said it didn't start now, it started back there. The children were looking. They are not ignorant. They know, they understand. They understand, they get the message much more by what we do than by what we say. We either bring honor or we bring dishonor to Christ and to his church by how we keep our promises. [00:39:21] I'd like to read just a few phrases from this book that Simon Schrock wrote the book. Very capable writer and speaker. And he says then, what is the answer to the loss of this vision? He says, the word from God is, what is the answer? The word from God is, repent. Repent. The remedy for the problem is repentance. [00:39:54] If you're not a good pattern of keeping vows, repent. If you have violated your marriage vows, repent. If your actions and lifestyle have been following your me policy of doing what is right in our own eyes, repent. If doing what is right in our own eyes has brought disobedience to the scripture and to the body of Christ, repent. If you were involved in scheming politics, pressure groups, aligning peer pressure to gain changes and force leaders to change church policy by default, or you could say in government, repent. [00:40:33] That's as far as all that we'll read. But you see the seriousness of the issue. The covenant people. Who are the covenant people? They were those people that followed the Lord when it led them to the cross. When it led them to the stake. They were those people that you see pictures of in the martyr's mirror that were tied to the side of a wagon or they were drugged behind a team of horses they were taken to their places of execution [00:41:06] and in their going at times they were singing you remember children the picture of a man on the ladder there was a fire the man was tied to a ladder they set it up to topple him over into the That was the covenant people. They were faithful to God no matter what. They did not follow their ways. They did not call disobedience spirituality. But obedience meant obedience. Covenant meant covenant. They were faithful until death because their God was the faithful God.