"God Makes Covenant With Us"

Sermon Transcript for October 22, 2000

By Rev. Mike Beck

Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 31:31-34

 

We return today to our sermon series related to the "Christian Believer" study that deals with thirty of our basic church doctrines. Today’s topic of "covenant" at first glance does not seem to be over exciting. But, as I began to prepare for today’s message, I began to realize how valuable an understanding of covenant is to our appreciation of the awesome nature of God’s love and grace for us. Now the idea of covenant--we would call it today a contract--was widely understood in Bible times. And in the Old Testament, it normally had to do in some way with the blood, which seems a little repulsive to us as 20^th Century Americans; but when you realize that the Hebrew understanding was that the whole essence of life was found in the blood. And if you think it through, that’s not a radical idea for today either. What do you do when you go to the hospital or you have some kind of medical problem? They check your blood. They do a blood transfusion. They do an IV where things go directly into the blood stream. For the life is still found in the blood.

Let me use some contemporary illustrations. Again we often would call it today a contract. We recently bought a newer car; and I didn’t want to have to worry about the transmission going out or those thousand dollar unexpected expenses, so we purchased one of those 100,000 mile service agreements. And I got the contract in the mail the other day which told exactly what was covered, what their responsibilities are, what our responsibilities would be. That was a covenant between me and the Ford Motor Company. Yesterday afternoon in a small wedding ceremony here, Kurt Kozinski and Abby Brooks were joined in marriage. They committed themselves to a convenant one with the other. At 11:00 a.m. today Michael and April Moss will bring their new son, Jacob, to dedicate him before God. To enter in to a covenant with God that they will nuture him in the faith. Next Sunday we will be receiving a number of new members in which we are reminded of the covenant we share in the membership of Christ church.

Let me give a simple definition for covenant which has three parts each of which are very important. A covenant is an agreement between two parties that defines their relationship. An agreement between two parties that defines their relationship. In the Old Testament there are numerous convenants. Now it wasn’t actually described as a covenant but in a very real sense God entered in to a covenant with Adam and Eve there in the garden. God says, "I’ve given you all of this. Enjoy it, but don’t eat of the tree in the center of the garden." They entered in to covenant together. God entered in to a more formal covenant in the story of Noah that most of you remember. God had seen all the evil in the world, decided that He was going to destroy that which He had made, but spare Noah who was a righteous man and then gave the covenant of the rainbow that never again would all of civilization be destroyed. God entered in to a convenant with Abraham who although old in years God said, "I’m going to give you a son and from that heir will come forth a people, the nation of Israel, through which I will reveal who I am to human kind." And then, finally, God’s covenant with Moses in the giving of the law there at Mount Sinai. In fact, when we speak of the old covenant, the Old Testament, that covenant is primarily summarized in the giving of the law. What God is doing is revealing Himself in a step by step preliminary kind of way through these Old Testament covenants.

But then the Prophet Jeremiah, in the scripture that we read today, gives us an insight into the new friend that God will be. The passage is short so let me read these words again. "The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah..." Now, keep in mind, the old covenant had been given to the specific nation of Israel. The church, with the coming of Jesus Christ, becomes the new Israel. So when Jeremiah talks about a new covenant with the land of Israel and Judah, we are incorporated in to that because we are a part of the church. "It will not be like the covenant I made with your forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt because they broke my covenant though I was husband to them. This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel. After that time, declares the Lord, I will put my law in their minds. I will write it in their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people." And then skipping down..."For I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sin no more."

Friends, that’s good news! "I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sin no more." One of the pivotal verses in all the New Testament is Galatians 4:4 where the writer says, "When the fullness of time had come..." What did God do? "...God sent His Son." The essence of the new covenant of which Jeremiah gives us a glimpse is realized in the person of Jesus Christ in the Upper Room there in what we call the Last Supper. In Luke 22:20 Jesus says these words, "This cup..." as he holds up the cup "...is a representative of the new covenant in my blood poured out for you." I remember again the definition of covenant. An agreement between two parties that defines a relationship. So when Jesus said, "This cup represents a new covenant in the shedding of my blood", it’s defining how we will be in relationship with God. And as I was writing down these words in my sermon preparation I thought of the hymn, "Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to they cross I cling." That’s why it’s good news of a new covenant. It’s not what we do for God, but what God has done for us in Jesus Christ.

As we move towards the close of this message though, I shared with you a number of weeks ago, it would be real easy in these sermons to add it would only be a head trip. And I don’t want that. I want to end each message by us being able to see how this doctrine in a practical way relates to our life. I believe it does it in two ways through two questions that I share with you in closing.

1. What do these covenants teach us about the nature of God? That’s a very practical question. Four things I believe:

(1) That it is God that initiates the relationship. Now make sure you catch that because in most of the religions of the world, it is mans attempt to connect with God. That’s the beautiful difference of Christianity. This idea of covenant tells us God initiates the relationship. God wants to be in relationship with us.

(2) The covenants and scripture remind us that God is faithful. That’s why we’re going to sing joyfully in closing in a few moments "Great is thy Faithfulness". That although we may not keep our end of the bargain, God will keep His.

(3) The covenants teach us that God is infinitely patient with us. Oh, I’m thankful for that because just about the time I think I’m getting it right I blow it again. And we look at those Old Testament stories of the tremendous ways God blessed the nation of Israel and they turned their back on Him over and over again. Why God just didn’t say..., if I’d of been God I’d of said, "To heck with these people." But God is infinitely forgiving and patient.

(4) God is forgiving. All of you this morning, just like me, have those things in your life that you have done that oh you wish you could relive the moment and not do that, not say that. They are etched in your memory forever. But the wonderful news of covenant of God’s forgiveness is that if you went to talk about those things to God, God would say to you, "What are you talking about? I have no knowledge or remembrance of that. Didn’t you remember in my Word that I said I will bury your sins in the depths of the deepest sea?" God is forgiving.

2. And then a second practical question for us to ask is this. What is required of us to sign on to God’s covenant of grace? Again I’d like to suggest, very quickly, four things:

(1) That we choose life. In the Old Testament, especially in the giving of the Law, there are numerous times in which Moses or later Joshua in articulating the Law to people say to them, "Here you will find life and death. Life found in following the law. Death found in going against it. Choose life." We sign on to God’s covenant of love when we choose life.

(2) We sign on to God’s covenant when we repent and believe. Brother Dan on Wednesday evening a few weeks ago, reminded us of the critical importance of our repentance. Our acknowledgment of our sin. Our sorrow for it. And then, believing in faith that God truly forgives.

(3) We sign on to that covenant when we walk in faith and obedience. When we walk in faith and obedience. Friends, today you’re going to have some opportunity to exercise faith. Faith, as you’ve heard me say before, is like walking a dark night with a flashlight. The flashlight gives you some of the road ahead and when you exercise faith to walk in it and obedience then you’re able to see the next step forward. We appropriate God’s covenant when we walk in faith and obedience.

(4) And then finally, we appropriate God’s covenant when we live in community with others. This idea of covenant is never found in isolation. It’s found in the Old Testament within the covenant community of Israel. The new covenant is found in the covenant community of the church. In other words, we are connected one to the other in our relationship with God.

I want to share this illustration. I recently turned in a car that I’d leased for a three year period. When I got ready to turn it in, Steve, at that point I read the lease carefully. I didn’t at the beginning. And I knew I was going to have to pay ten cents a mile for the miles I’d driven over 45,000 miles. But, one day when I was going down to Big Foot to get my drug of choice, my diet Coke, a guy rear-ended me and did some cosmetic damage to the bumper. I had a $500 deductible and he didn’t do his share of the bargain and I never fixed it. But I read the contract and realized they had every right to charge me for that damage to the bumper. And when I turned the car in I was good and honest person, and I said, "You’ll want to check the bumper. There’s some damage that I didn’t repair." And I waited for the final bill to come in the mail fully expecting them to bill me for $300 or $400 of repair to that bumper. How pleasantly surprised I was when I opened the bill. No charge for the damage to the bumper.

Now that’s a poor analogy, but yet it’s still a parallel to God’s wonderful covenant of love and grace He gives to us. Where we have every right to be charged, He says, "Paid in full." I asked Tara to prepare this graphic in closing today. God’s covenant of love, the essence of it is found in the cross of Jesus Christ. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

That covenant of love is signed by Jesus Christ to remind us His blood is on that covenant for us. But friends, in that covenant are some marvelous benefits. The benefit that we’ve talked so much about this morning of forgiveness. The benefit of strength which Lyndon and Linda are experiencing in these days. The benefit of a purpose for living. That we aren’t just wandering aimlessly through life. The guidance that God gives us. And Dorothy, the wonderful hope for your mother as I stood there by her bedside early Saturday morning. She had slipped across that bond of life and death, but yet we believe she’s never more alive than in that moment because of the hope of eternal life.

I simply ask you as we close, "Have you signed your name?" There are the benefits. God has done His part. And if you haven’t signed your name you can do that right now by repenting of your sins and believing the gospel, by walking in faith and obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and by sharing in the covenant with other believers in the church of Jesus Christ. Let us pray. "Oh God, I give you thanks that through the leading of parents and a pastor, there was a day in which I signed my name on that line of your covenant of love. But I’m sure that most hearing my voice in my message today, also remember that time, and we give you thanks that you offered that covenant to us so freely, for those who helped us understand your amazing love. If there be anyone Lord who knows about you but hasn’t come to know you, right now, right there where they are seated, in repentance, and faith, and obedience, may they receive that gracious gift you give to us. In the name of Christ Jesus we pray these things.. Amen."