The Covenant

Scripture: Jeremiah 31:31, Genesis 9:1-17, Galatians 3:6-9
Date: 12/12/2015 
Lesson: 11
"The salvation God provides is a gift, unmerited and undeserved, and the human response to that gift - in a sense humanity's holding up its side of the deal - is faithfulness and obedience."
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Welcome, again, to Sabbath School Study Hour - a very warm welcome to those of you joining us across the country and around the world for a time of study together. Also, a special welcome to the members of the Granite Bay church and those visiting. Thank you for joining us. Beautiful day that God has given us - blue skies and sunshine always a wonderful opportunity to gather together to worship him on this, his special day, the Sabbath. We've been studying through the book of Jeremiah as part of our quarterly and today we find ourselves on lesson - I believe - #11 entitled the covenant.

So those of you who are watching, if you'd like to follow along and you don't have your own lesson quarterly, you can go to the Amazing Facts website - just amazingfacts.org - you can download lesson #11 on the covenant and you can follow along with us as we study together. We also have a free offer that goes along with our lesson called why the old covenant failed and this is for anybody in North America. If you'd like to call our resource line you can ask for this book. The number to call is 866-788-3966 and ask for offer #716 and we'll be happy to send you the book why the old covenant failed. For our friends watching outside of North America, you can go to the Amazing Facts website, amazingfacts.

org. You can download a copy of this book and you can read it for free. Well, again, welcome. Glad you're all here. And let's begin our time with some singing.

So I'd like to invite our song leaders to come and now lead us together in our praise of God today. Thank you, Pastor Ross. This is my favorite time of year to be singing because we get to sing the Christmas songs. So I invite you to hymn #132 - o come all ye faithful! - Which just happens to be my favorite Christmas song of all time, so we're going to do all three verses - hymn #132 - o come all ye faithful! O come all ye faithful! Joyful and triumphant, o come ye, o come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold him, born the King of angels, o come let us adore him! O come let us adore him! O come let us adore him! Christ the Lord! Sing choirs of angels, sing in exaltation, o sing all ye citizens of heav'n above.

Glory to God all glory in the highest. O come let us adore him! O come let us adore him! O come let us adore him! Christ the Lord! Yea Lord we greet thee, born this happy morning. Jesus to thee be all glory giv'n. Word of The Father now in flesh appearing. O come let us adore him! O come let us adore him! O come let us adore him! Christ the Lord! Our next Christmas song that we're going to sing is hymn #135 - o little town of Bethlehem - we're going to sing all four verses - o little town - #135.

O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie! Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by. Yet in thy dark street shineth the everlasting light, the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. For Christ is born of mary and gathered all above, while mortals sleep the angels keep their watch of wondering love. O morning stars together proclaim the holy birth and praises sing to God the King of peace to men on earth. How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is giv'n.

So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heir. No ear may hear his coming but in this world of sin, where weak souls will receive him still our dear Christ enters in. O holy child of Bethlehem descend to us we pray. Cast out our sin and enter in - be born in us today. We hear the Christmas angels, the great glad tidings tell.

O come to us, abide with us, o Lord, immanuel! At this time I'd like to invite Pastor Ross up and he will lead us in prayer for our study. Dear Father in Heaven, once again we are so grateful to be able to gather together and open up the Bible - the word of life - and we ask your blessing - we ask for the Holy Spirit to guide our hearts and our minds and, Lord, lead us into a clear understanding of the great covenant that you have made with mankind and how we can become the recipients of the blessings of that covenant by faith in Jesus. Be with us this morning, for we ask this in Jesus' Name, amen. Our lesson today will be brought to us by pastor Doug Batchelor. Thank you, Pastor Doug.

Thank you, Pastor Ross. Good morning everybody. Good morning. And Happy Sabbath. I want to welcome our friends that are studying for Sabbath School Study Hour with us on tv.

We have an extended class out there. We're reminded whenever we travel, how many people out there are part of the growing class and that is a privilege to greet you. We are studying the book of Jeremiah and, in particular today, we're going to be looking at Jeremiah 31:31. You know, a lot of months have 31 days in them. You might remember it that way - Jeremiah 31:31 - when you think about the new covenant people always think, well, you go to the new testament to find the new covenant.

That's not true. First place you find the new covenant is the old testament. Matter of fact, you can find the new covenant all the way back in the book of Genesis. It's repeated by Moses. But certainly Jeremiah :31 - and that's our memory verse if you want to say this with me - I've got it here out of the new king James version.

You ready? "'Behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord, 'when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of judah'" - now before I go any farther, and we study the subject of the new covenant, if you asked the typical Christian in a baptist or methodist or presbyterian church and say, 'tell me, are you saved under the new covenant or old covenant?' They'll say, 'new covenant.' And I'll say, 'is the new covenant with the gentiles or with the jews?' You know what they'll say? 'It's with the gentiles, of course, the old covenant was with the jews.' Try it sometime. But it's patently wrong. Where does he say he makes the new covenant? 'I will make a new covenant after those days, with the gentiles'? No, that's not what it says. 'I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the people of judah.' So in order for you to be able to be a recipient and benefit from the new covenant, you must be a spiritual jew - and we'll get to that in just a minute. But anyway, there's a number of covenants that are given in the Bible.

And what is a covenant? I should maybe say we're going to talk about the covenants - a covenant is an agreement. A covenant is more of a formal agreement. If you say, 'yeah, come on over for lunch at 12:30' and I say, 'okay.' You can say, 'you made a covenant.' Well, that's a little over the top. That's just an agreement. But a covenant is a little more of a formal agreement.

If you say, 'I'm selling my house.' And I say, 'okay, how much do you want?' And you say, 'I want $200,000.00.' And I say, 'okay, that sounds good to me.' Then you say, 'okay, let's write it up.' And you write it up and you usually have two copies, don't you? You've got one for you and one for me so we both have a copy. Periodically I will do an article for a magazine or a book and the publisher will send me - once they agree they say, 'look, we'll pay you this much.' I say, 'okay.' We get a verbal agreement and they say, 'alright, we'll send you a contract.' They send me a contract and they say, 'here's two copies. Sign them both. Keep one for your records. Send one back to us.

' That's a covenant. That's a publishing agreement. They have them when you buy houses - when you buy cars. Sometimes I'll sell a used car and I say, 'look it's a used car. It's not coming with a warranty.

Here's how much we want. Here's how many miles are on it.' I say, 'we're selling it 'as is' - I'll sign it. You sign it. You keep a copy. I keep a copy.

' It's a good idea to have those kind of covenants. Well there's a covenant - there's an agreement that's made that is sealed in blood. That's a pretty serious agreement that God makes with us. And you notice when God gave the Ten Commandments, first he spoke them - first verbally, God said, 'here's the deal:' - he spoke it - the people heard it. They said, 'sounds good.

All the Lord has said we will do.' God said, 'okay, I'm sending Moses up the mountain to get the written transcript of the verbal agreement. You see, that's how a covenant works - and that's when he went up the mountain. Well, while he was getting the written transcript, they got into a lot of trouble and they forgot, basically, all of it. So there are a number of covenants that you will find in the Bible and the covenant of salvation is, of course, the most important. We need to understand what covenant we're saved by.

It is a mistake to think that people were saved in the old testament by the old covenant and we are saved in the new testament by the new covenant. Nobody is saved under a covenant of works. And some are saved by the covenant of faith or grace. You've probably heard that before. There's this old dispensation that God saved jews by the covenant of works and now he saves the gentiles by the covenant of grace.

'We're under the new covenant.' Is anybody saved by works? Was Abraham saved by works? Or does the Bible say 'Abraham believed God and God counted it unto him for righteousness'? So was Abraham saved by works or by faith? Belief? Everybody is saved by faith. Now the covenants went through some different iterations, and we'll talk about that, but - a lot of misconceptions about the covenant. God does not make this saving covenant with the gentiles and a different covenant with the jews. The gentiles are grafted into the covenant of the jews. That's what Paul said in Romans chapter 10.

Alright, you've got first the edenic covenant - the covenant God made with adam. You'll find that - if you look in Genesis chapter 3, verse 15, "and I will put enmity" - God says - "between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel." God makes a covenant to save. It's made based on the grace of God. It's made on the promises of God and you find this battle between God - the seed of the woman - and the serpent and the woman. There's these three characters involved in the plan of salvation: you have God.

You've got the devil. And you've got the church. Do you find those same three characters in Revelation 12? The dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed. And God - she keeps the commandments of God and has the testimony of Jesus. And so you've got the same three characters that are in this principle battle between good and evil.

So God says, 'look, the penalty for sin is death, but I'm going to show you mercy.' He covers adam and eve's nakedness with a robe - what kind of robe? Skin. How'd that happen? Something was sacrificed. So God establishes the sacrificial system. That's why, in Revelation, you read about the lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world - sacrificial system was established way back then that they would be saved by grace because God would send his own son. The lambs that were sacrificed were always a symbol of that.

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That's not in the Bible but it's a good song. But it does say in the Bible 'calves and rams thou does not desire. A body I have prepared.' Talking about the sacrifice of his son. So that was always understood.

Now there are other covenants in the Bible. Let's go to Genesis chapter 12 and talk about the Abrahamic covenant and this is one of the most important covenants that God made in the Bible. Genesis 12:1 to 3 - in a few moments someone is going to read for me Matthew 3:9 - Genesis :1, "now the Lord had said to abram: 'get out of your country," - this is before he got his new name - "get out of your country from your family and from your Father's house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

" Now how did Abraham understand that covenant? What did he mean 'in you' all the nations of the world would be blessed? What was the world looking for? A Savior - Messiah - what tribe? Who would he come through? Well, they were all related to Noah back then, but now God singles out a remnant. You'll notice that God often saves a remnant and he transfers those promises - that remnant becomes a conduit for the promises that God gives. And so God was saying that the promise of this covenant now was going to come through Abraham - the Messiah would come through his seed. And you can trace through the Bible, he continues to narrow the focus - the target - of who the Messiah would come through. We say it's going to come through Abraham, but then Abraham had several sons - which one? Then through Isaac - Isaac had Jacob and esau - which one? But then through Jacob - Jacob had twelve sons, which one? Then through judah - judah had many sons - which one? Then through David.

See how he continues to say the focus - the branch - that's why it says that David comes from the branch of jesse - it's a tree that goes all the way back to Noah and adam and you can follow that family tree and in that family tree the Messiah would come as a man. They were all wondering, 'where?' They were looking around at the branches and the leaves and the twigs - where is he going to be? So God identified that through these covenants and through promise. Another covenant to Abraham - he repeats the covenant to Abraham about three times. You go to Genesis chapter and you can read, beginning with verse 1, "after these things the word of the Lord came to abram in a vision, saying, 'do not be afraid, abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.

' But abram said, 'Lord God, what will you give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is eliezer of damascus?' Then abram said, 'look, you have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!'" - Meaning his chief steward, eliezer, who was a good guy, by the way. He's the one that found the wife for Isaac. "And behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 'this one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.' Then he brought him outside and said, 'look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.' And he said to him, 'so shall your descendants be.'" And it says - you jump down to verse 6 - "and he believed in the Lord, and he (God) accounted it to him for righteousness." Because he believed the promise of God, God looked upon him as righteous. You've heard of righteousness by faith? This is exhibit a of righteousness by faith. He believed the promise of God that the Messiah would be born through him and he was declared righteous.

You know, we're getting into the Christmas season and there's that song little town of Bethlehem that has that verse, 'be born in us today.' A miracle birth took place when Jesus came in that the Holy Spirit conceived Christ within mary in a miraculous way and when the angel promised this would happen, she believed what the angel said and a conception took place. Does God promise that Christ can be born in us? Do you believe - that you can be born again? And that Christ can live out his life in you? Be it unto you according to your faith. If you believe it, God will count it unto you for righteousness and you begin to live a new life. This is something you need to understand because it's connected with the new covenant - believing a miracle that you can't explain takes place - any more than you can explain the virgin birth. You start talking to pagans about the virgin birth and they scoff.

Alright, we're going to read Matthew - Matthew 3:9. "And do not think to say to yourselves, 'we have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones." Now because God made a covenant with Abraham, you'll find that through the teachings of Jesus and the apostles, John the baptist - that many of the descendants of Abraham thought that they were saved by virtue of being blood relatives of Abraham. Was there some advantage to being physically Jewish? Yes, if you were part of the Jewish nation, God had committed to the jews the oracles of truth. They were to be the guardians of the word. Did God guarantee that if you had Jewish dna he would save you? No, there's no guarantee.

Matter of fact, you will find that with most of the descendants of adam and Noah and Abraham and David, they seemed to be in a lost condition. The benefit was in having the covenant of faith. One of the things that John the baptist said, and we just read this, 'do not think to say within yourselves, we have Abraham as our father and so God's going to save us.' Whoever is Christ's, he is Abraham's seed. So when God said, 'Abraham, look at the sky, look at the sand - count the stars, count the grains of sand - so shall your seed be.' And the implication that your descendants would be saved - it's talking about those who are children of Abraham by faith. Jesus said - he was talking - having an argument with some of the pharisees and they said, 'we're Abraham's seed.

' He said, 'you're not children of Abraham.' 'What?! Let's go get a dna test. Of course we're children of Abraham.' And if they had taken the dna test, they would have been right, but Jesus wasn't looking at that. He said, 'you're of your father the devil.' Well, that's not very nice. But he said, 'Abraham never did the works that you're doing. If you were Abraham's children you'd do the works of Abraham.

Abraham believed me. Abraham longed to see my day and he saw it.' And what did they do? They took up stones to kill Jesus. And so when we talk about being saved under the new covenant, even people in the old testament that were saved - David was saved by faith - doesn't - read Hebrews 11. What is he saying in Hebrews 11? Hebrews 11 doesn't mention any new testament characters. Hebrews 11 - where it talks about that hall of faith - heroes of faith - it talks about gideon, Abraham, Sarah, barak, Samson - he talks about them being saved by faith.

They were all saved by faith back then, right? We are saved by faith. They were not saved by blood type. God is no respecter of persons, is he? But whosoever in any nation believes - and then Paul says - but is there some advantage to being a jew? - He says, 'yes, in many ways. First of all, but because to them was committed the oracles of truth.' They had the first opportunity to hear it. Jesus said to the disciples, 'do not go in the way of the gentiles, go first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel' - when they started preaching - they had the first opportunity, but it wasn't because of their blood or their genetics that they were going to be saved.

You know, it's interesting that there are certain genes - certain races of people that get diseases that other people don't get. There are diseases that are exclusive to african-Americans. There are diseases that are exclusive to jews. Did you know that? And so, as we get further and further away from adam and eve and the Tree of Life, our genes aren't always a benefit. And if we marry too close to the family tree it can cause problems, as they say.

So what does it mean to be a child of Abraham? Galatians 3:6, "just as Abraham 'believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.' Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham." I'm going to say it again and I want you to say 'amen' if it's clear. "Therefore" - Paul says - Galatians chapter 3, verse 7, "know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham." - He's talking about the real sons - "and the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the gentiles by faith, preached the Gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, 'in you all the nations (of not just the Hebrews) in Abraham all the nations of the world would be blessed.' Meaning that it included the gentiles - were blessed through Abraham, right? And so - but you are grafted in, spiritually, to the stock of Israel because the new covenant is only made with jews. So you become adopted in and you become children of Abraham. And that's why we can read the old testament - you see, one reason it's so important to understand this - and I come from the perspective of first attending evangelical churches before I was a Seventh-day Adventist Christian, where some churches had no old testament. They said, 'that's the old covenant.

We're now saved under the new covenant.' And it was very frustrating for me because I thought, 'wow, you can't even understand the new covenant without the old covenant.' And they didn't even read their old testaments - and all these beautiful promises about the new covenant are in the old testament. Amen. You can't understand the prophecies about Jesus without the old testament, but I get to claim the promises of the old testament just like any jew does. Well, I've got double benefit because I physically am half Jewish but, I mean, any of you do. We get to claim the promises made to Abraham because we are grafted in and heirs according to the promise, right? Alright, I'm taking too much time.

This is a great study. John 8:39 - and - I read this already. Jesus said, 'if you are Abraham's children you do the works of Abraham.' And then Galatians 3:29, "and if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." Alright, now if you look in Genesis 17, you've got another covenant to Abraham - 1 and 2 - "when abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to abram and said to him, 'I am almighty God; walk before me and be blameless. And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will multiply you exceedingly.'" Why did God repeat his promise to Abraham? From verse 12 and then chapter 15 of Genesis and now chapter 17? Was Abraham having problems finding that promised seed? Took - first he wondered if, you know, it was his servant, eliezer, and God said, 'no, he's going to come through you.' He said, 'oh, okay.' And Sarah brought a handmaid, hagar, and he said, 'oh, I guess it's going to come through me and hagar.' God said, 'no, it's going to come through you and your wife, Sarah.' That really messed things up and we're still struggling with the fallout from Abraham and hagar today in the world. And so he's reminding him again a third time - ninety-nine years old - it's going to come through Sarah.

And then a year later he had Isaac with Sarah and he promised that. And he gives him a covenant - he gives him a covenant - a sign - you've got a physical sign of the rainbow, now he gives Abraham a physical sign of the covenant. What do we call that? Circumcision. It's circumcision. And you can read about that in, of course, the rest of chapter 17.

Now I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but the Bible says a lot about it and so you need to address it and be as delicate as you can, but God was promising, through the seed of Abraham, the Messiah would come. There would be a consecration of the seed. There was also going to - it was going to represent a cutting away of the flesh because the descendants of Abraham are going to be not controlled by the flesh, but by the Spirit. The new covenant is the Spirit-filled life. It is not the life being controlled by the flesh.

And there's that and much more involved in that. You know that the first time Jesus shed his blood was eight days old - when he was named and they brought him to the temple. He was circumcised and that's when he was named and Simon took him in his arms. Jeremiah says something about circumcision in the new covenant. Go to Jeremiah 4:4 - someone's going to read for me, in a moment, Deuteronomy 36 - who's got that? Okay.

Jeremiah 4:4 - he says, "circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, you men of judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it," - there you go again with unquenchable fire - "because of the evil of your doings." So God was asking for what kind of circumcision? Your hearts. Now did Jeremiah just dream up that concept and metaphor by himself or was he quoting the Bible? Deuteronomy 10:16 - Moses said - this goes all the way back to Moses - 'circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer." So even Moses understood the heart is what the covenant is all about. Read for me, please, Deuteronomy 30, verse 6. "And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live." You know, we always think of Moses and the ten commandments and what is the great commandment that Moses continued to emphasize? 'I command you this day that thou shalt" - we always think about 'shalt not' - those are the negative commands, but there is a positive command - 'thou shalt love' - now how many of you like being ordered around? Some of you are very compliant you're, you know, a little insecure and you like someone - 'just tell me what to do.' But most of us, we kind of like the freedom - it's interesting sometimes, young people, they run away from home to get away from mom and dad and they join the military (laughter) because they want to be on their own. (Laughter) and they think that mom and dad were authoritarian and then they end up in marine boot camp.

You don't get to decide anything for yourself - not until you're with them for awhile. But nobody likes to be ordered around and especially, how do you like it when someone says, 'love me.' 'You better love me.' 'If you don't love me, I'm going to burn you.' And, you know, it doesn't - people don't understand that. But God, when he commands us to love him, why is he commanding us to love him? Because he's basically saying, 'I made you so you will never be satisfied or fulfilled unless you love me. I'll show you who I am so that you see I'm loveable, but if you love other things - if you worship other things besides me, you're never going to be satisfied. You will be addicted to other things.

The only way to have real fulfillment is to love me and to love your neighbor.' Even in the ten commandments, are we commanded, in the ten commandments, to love the Lord? Is one of the Ten Commandments to love God? You know what it says in the commandment about idolatry? Read it all. It says, 'showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.' So what's the key for keeping his commandments? Loving him. He says that all the way back then. And that's the new covenant. Now let me also read for you Romans 2:28, "for he is not a jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a jew that is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men" - you might say, 'oh, this person, you know, they circumcised me physically.

' You might praise them - and Paul said they were going around in his day saying, 'oh, I'm of Paul. Paul baptized me.' 'Oh, I'm of apollos. Apollos baptized me.' 'I'm of Peter. Peter baptized me.' It's almost like they were giving credit to men. But when you are born again in the heart, who gets that credit? No man can give you a new birth in your heart.

It is a work of the Spirit. Amen. You know, I've been reading this week - not really reading, to be honest, I've been listening to the tape this week in my car - of Patriarchs and Prophets, talking about David and Saul and all of that. And it talks about when Saul was anointed, that the Holy Spirit came on him and a new spirit was given to him. And it happened to David and it happened when Saul sent people to arrest David later, it says that these messengers had come to Samuel to arrest David - the Spirit of the Lord came on them.

Oh they didn't plan that. It wasn't in their appointment book. It's something God did. And at pentecost - they were praying together - they didn't know what was going to happen that day. God has to do it.

What can we do to prepare for the outpouring of the Spirit? Is there anything we can do? Humble ourselves before God, put away our differences with each other, love one another - that's what the disciples did. That's what the children of Israel did before the rain came. They humbled themselves. They said, 'the Lord, he is God.' And when we do these things, we are making room in our heart for God to fill us with his spirit. You can choose the day of your baptism - water baptism.

You may not be able to schedule the day of your spirit baptism. All you can do is surrender yourself to the Lord and hope that God will do it when he sees best - and you need to have it - a thorough conversion - that new birth. Now getting into the specifics of the covenant difference. I want to read something. What is the old covenant? Let's be real clear.

Deuteronomy 4, verse 12, "and the Lord spoke to you out of the midst of the fire. You heard the sound of the words, but saw no form;" - God emphasizes you didn't see a form, don't make an idol. You heard him - "you only heard a voice. So he declared to you his covenant which he commanded you to perform, the Ten Commandments; and he wrote them on two tablets of stone." Front and back - now I've heard some eloquent arguments - remember what we said about covenants - that there's two copies? And some have said, 'well, the reason they were written on the front and the back is because the ten commandments that Moses brought down, there was one for them and one for him.' I don't know. It does say there were two stones written on both sides.

And it may be that it took - one stone had the first four and the other stone had the last six. God does have a copy in heaven. Have you read Revelation 11? 'I saw the temple of God open in heaven; I saw the law.' And that's why Jesus said heaven and earth have to pass away before one tittle of the law fails - because he's got an original. You might destroy your contract I've made with you, but I've got a copy, you know what I'm saying? And God said, 'I've got a copy. It's not changing.

Heaven and earth would have to pass away.' So the Ten Commandments are the covenant. Now this is very, very, very, very, very, very important. He declared to you his covenant that he commanded you to do - this is Deuteronomy 4:13 - "...he commanded you to perform," - he wants you to do it - "the Ten Commandments" - wrote them on two tables of stone - verse 14 - "and" - three-letter word - "and the Lord commanded me" - Moses was speaking - "at that time to teach you statutes add judgments, that you might observe them in the land which you cross over to possess." Was there a difference between the Ten Commandments and the other statutes and judgments and ceremonial laws and ordinances that Moses wrote out? One is written on stone - the Sabbath is part of that - the seventh-day Sabbath - Ten Commandments - there were ceremonial Sabbaths that were written on paper - ten commandment Sabbath goes back to creation - it's in Genesis 2 - the ceremonial Sabbaths were part of the law - the passover, the Exodus - because when you get to Colossians - I'm going to jump there right now just because we're on the subject. When you get to Colossians chapter 2 and he talks about verse 13 - "and you, being dead in your trespasses and uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out" - notice - "the handwriting" - the what kind of writing? Handwriting. Written by hand - speaking of a man's hand.

God wrote with his finger, not his whole hand. Notice - there's a difference there - notice - I'll prove it - hang on - "having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us." Some of these ordinances were against us - why does he say 'against us'? - "Which was contrary to us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross." Have you ever heard that the old covenant was nailed to the cross? - "Having disarmed principalities and powers, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths," - plural - "Sabbaths, which are a shadow" - there were some Sabbaths which were shadows - "of things to come, but the substance is of Christ." Alright, first I want you to notice - 2 Chronicles - you - you'll want this verse because most people don't know about it - 2 Chronicles 33:8, "and I will not again remove the foot of Israel from the land which I have appointed for your fathers - only if they are careful to do all that I have commanded them, according to the whole law and the statutes and the ordinances by the hand of Moses." Handwriting - the Ten Commandments in the ark; handwriting of Moses on paper - parchment - outside the ark in a pocket. They are two different laws.

You don't nail stone to anything. The Ten Commandments were not nailed to the cross, so the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant is not that God changed the law, the new covenant is the same law, but he's writing it in a new place. Let me give you another example: Deuteronomy :24, "so it was, when Moses had completed writing the words of this law in a book, when they were finished, that Moses commanded the levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying: 'take this book of the law,'" - it's not the tablets - "'and put it beside the ark of the covenant'" - where - that's the new covenant - that's the old covenant, rather - the ten commandments - "'of the Lord your God, that it may be there as a witness against you;'" - you remember what he said in Colossians? 'The handwriting that was against us.' It's the book of the law - the ordinances that a were witness against us curses everyone that does not do everything found in the book. And so the Ten Commandments have not been done - you know, friends, if you want to talk about a doctrine of devils, one of the most obscene things - one of the greatest abominations that is taught in Christian churches - you know, a lot of us have - different churches have some, you know, strange heresies. Some are not that dangerous.

The most dangerous, deadly heresy is that Christians do not need to keep the Ten Commandments because they were nailed to the cross. That's the definition - sin is the transgression of the law. That is a terrible teaching. This statement, that is often taken out of context, is clearly talking about the Jewish ordinances that Christ fulfilled when the veil was torn in the temple - the sacrificial system was done away with - he was the fulfillment of that. Those things were all shadows pointing forward to Christ.

The covenant God made with Israel is the Ten Commandments. The new covenant is 'I will take that law and put it in their hearts.' Now I've got to get back here and talk about what the differences are - is - I'm not going to have time to get into this - here, go with me to Hebrews 10, verse 15 - we're talking about the covenant at sinai. It says - well, I'll tell you what - some - who's got Hebrews 8:6? You're going to read that in a second, alright? You'll have Hebrews 8:6 in just a moment. Let me read Exodus 24:3, "so Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord" - here you've got the verbal part of the ten commandment covenant - "and all the people answered with one voice and said, 'all the words which the Lord has said we will do.'" We will do. Who will do it? People said, 'we will do it.

' Did they do it? No. Before he even got down the mountain they had broken them all. Hebrews 10:15, "but the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after he had said before, 'this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,'" - there I'll write them - and he adds, "their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." So the new covenant God says, 'I will.' The old covenant the people said, 'we will.' The new covenant is based upon better promises. Why are the promises better? The old covenant was the people saying, 'we will do it.' That promise didn't work. Our promises are no good.

The new covenant is God saying, 'I will do it.' Is the law different in the old covenant and the new covenant? No. Was there anything wrong with the Ten Commandments? The new covenant is 'I will write my law' - he still has his law - 'in their hearts.' That's why Jesus said, 'do not think that I have come to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy but fulfill.' And he goes on to say, 'whosoever therefore will break one of the least' - this is Matthew 5:19 - "whosoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments," - what commandments? He had just said - 'you've heard it said by them of old, 'you shall not commit adultery.' 'You shall not kill.' 'You shall not bear false witness.' - He's quoting the Ten Commandments. It says, "whosoever therefore will break one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them," - Jesus came to magnify and exalt the law. This idea that is spreading through Christian churches is likely as wicked as it could be that Christians don't need to keep the ten commandments.

That is a doctrine - the devil just is so happy that they think that the Ten Commandments were nailed to the cross and that Jesus died so we can sin freely. And, you know, the only problem they've got with the Ten Commandments is one commandment. You realize that? Because you go to most of these churches that say the Ten Commandments are the old covenant nailed to the cross, you stand up in their church and say it's okay to commit adultery, they'll throw you out. You stand up and say you can steal, they'll throw you out. You stand up and say you can use God's name in vain or that you can covet, they'll throw you out.

You stand up and say, 'remember the Sabbath day' they say, 'oh man, heresy! That is the old covenant. That's been nailed to the cross.' The only reason they have to try to convince people that the Ten Commandments are nailed to the cross, is because one commandment in the middle really makes them nervous and the devil hates it above all the others because it's about worshiping God and giving him our time. You don't love someone without time with them and the devil doesn't want us to have that holy time with God. Anyway, I'm running out of time and I've still got lesson left. Okay, so you have, you know, there's the Davidic covenant - God promised David that through him - he said, 'you will have a son and he will build a house that will last forever.

God told David, 'you're going to have a son that will build up my house.' So when Jesus comes, The Son of David, and he says, 'destroy this temple made with hands and in three days I will make one without hands.' That was a fulfillment of the Davidic covenant. Christ was not talking about the Jewish temple, he was talking about his body. The church is the body of Christ. Jesus is that son of David. Jesus is going to reign over the new Jerusalem.

He is melchizedek. He is The Son of David. And so those things are reiterated there in that covenant. So, when you read in Jeremiah 31:31, "'behold, the days are coming,' 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 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. 'But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel.

..i will put my law in their minds, and write it on their hearts;'" - how many would like that? - "'I will be their God and they will be my people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'know the Lord,' for they all shall know me,'" - the new covenant's about what? Knowing him. 'This is eternal life that they might' - Jesus said - 'know thee.' John chapter 17. Now, not only do you find the new covenant being mentioned by Jeremiah, but also by one of his contemporaries. Who has Luke 22:19? Did I ever let you read yours? Oh, I forgot.

You go ahead and read your verse - I - I got enamored with my own voice. "But now hath thee obtained a more excEllent ministry by how much also he is the mediator of a better covenant which was established on better promises." Alright, there you have it - better promises. The old covenant - people said, 'we will.' The new covenant God says, 'I will.' Now does somebody have Luke 22:19 - you'll be next. Alright, just a moment. Let me read something first.

Ezekiel - was Ezekiel a contemporary of Jeremiah? He was, remember? He was carried off in, I think, the second captivity of Nebuchadnezzar. Listen to what Ezekiel says about the new covenant - 36:24 - "for I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you," - some use that as an argument for baptism by sprinkling - "I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you" - by the way, the reason he says 'sprinkle' - they used to sprinkle the blood in the temple and he's just using that same language - "I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you will keep my judgments and do them.

" How many of you would like the Lord to do that? To cause you - to put that spirit - that's the new covenant. That's what we need to plead and pray for. And the more that you hunger and thirst for it, the more you'll receive it. I believe that you can experience that new covenant in varying degrees. The more room you make in your heart for God's leading and his will, the more you'll experience it.

The more surrendered - the more filling you'll have. It says, "then you'll dwell in the land that I gave your fathers; you shall be my people, and I will be your God. I will deliver you from all your uncleanness." That's the beautiful new covenant. Read for us, please, Luke 22:19. "And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'this is my body which is given for you; do this is remembrance of me.

' Likewise he also took the cup after supper, saying, 'this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is shed for you.'" Alright, thank you. Old covenant? They consecrated the temple with the shedding of blood. New covenant? Jesus' body is the temple. He gives them the grape juice - of course it's a symbol of his blood that would be shed and it's the token that ratifies the covenant - just as circumcision was the physical tangible token, when we celebrate the Lord's supper together it is a reminder that we are embracing the new covenant that God will write his law on our hearts - that he will give us his spirit. What God did in filling Jesus - where God became a man in Christ - he will fill us with his spirit in the same way.

And so, our time is up, friends, but hopefully we've learned something more about the covenant subject and how it appears in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. And don't forget: if you haven't heard yet, we have a free offer that deals with this subject and it's called why the old covenant failed - and this is written by Joe Crews - it is a classic - ask for offer #716. The number again is -788-3966 - that's 866-study-more. If you're somewhere outside of the u.s., You can just go to amazingfacts.org and you can find this for free online and read it there. God bless you and we'll look forward to studying His Word together again next week.

Port royal, here in jamaica, was once considered the most wicked city in the world. They had more bars and brothels per square foot than any other place on the planet. It was said to be just full of cutthroats and pirates but, during this time, the King of France, louis xiv, he began to persecute the protestants and the huguenots in the Kingdom and many fled. That's when louis galdy and his brother laurent came to port royal. When louis galdy arrived, he was absolutely dumbfounded at the unrestrained immorality, violence, and extravagance that filled port royal.

That's why nobody was surprised when the judgment of God finally happened. Just before noon on June , 1692, there was a massive earthquake that affected the whole island, port royal, in particular. Two thirds of it slid into the sea. Then came a tsunami. Thousands perished.

Unfortunately, even louis galdy was swallowed up in the earthquake. You know, much of jamaica is a rock, but port royal was built on the sand. And so, when the earthquake struck, the sand virtually liquefied, swallowing much of the city and thousands of people. Louis galdy was buried alive, but while underground he was still conscious and he prayed. He resigned himself to his fate, prayed to the Lord, and then another miracle happened.

There was an aftershock, with volcanic activity, that exploded, blowing louis galdy out of the earth hundreds of yards off into the sea where he had a pretty hard landing, but he was able to swim until he was rescued. Louis galdy dedicated the remaining 47 years of his life to serving Jesus in this island and he's even buried here still today. You know, the Bible tells us, just before Jesus comes back the conditions in the world will be very much like they were in sodom and in port royal. There's going to be a tremendous earthquake and even islands will be swallowed up. But God's people don't need to be afraid.

The same way that the Lord took care of louis galdy, he will take care of you. It says in psalm 91 that you might see a thousand fall at your side or ten thousand at your right hand, but only with your eyes will you see and behold the destruction of the wicked. He can protect you and resurrect you. Can't get enough Amazing Facts Bible study? You don't have to wait until next week to enjoy more truth-filled programming, visit the Amazing Facts media library at 'aftv.org'. At 'aftv.

org' you can enjoy video and audio presentations as well as printed material all free of charge, 24 hours a day 7 days a week, right from your computer or mobile device. Visit 'aftv.org'. Amazing Facts changed lives. Nobody was there to defend me. Nobody was there to protect me.

My question was, 'why did that happen to me, God? Why didn't you intervene?' Once I hit my teenage years, everything just started coming out. I felt embarrassed of what had happened because for so long I felt it was my fault. There were times that I prayed, but it was prayers of resentment and anger and just yelling at God. I was so confused, so depressed, and I could not bear any more of the pain. You know, what's the point of living? It's might as well just die.

I started cutting myself but I heard a small still voice and it said, 'stop! Give me a second chance.' And right there I just felt something completely different. I felt a presence there and I put everything down and I went to my room. I just started crying. I realized that me and God connected so well and I no longer saw him as just a God that no longer cared, but I actually saw him as a father and I continued praying. One day I was sleeping.

My mom came to the bed and she said, 'connie, he's here. He's in town and the Lord impressed me that you need to face the situation. It's time for you to forgive.' When something so drastic and so painful has happened, forgiveness is very hard because you're vulnerable. You let go of that ego - that pride - that has taken over you for so many years. I prayed and when we confronted the situation, it was the most amazing moment where we could pray and we could cry and we could forgive.

And because of that, I'm able to help others and tell others that there is hope and there is someone that does care. Together we have spread the Gospel much farther than ever before. Thank you for your support. (Dramatic music) Amazing Facts began in 1965 with a God-inspired concept. Hello, this is Joe Crews and the Amazing Facts broadcast facts which affect you.

Each radio broadcast would begin with an amazing fact from science, nature, or history, followed by a Bible message that touched the hearts of listeners from every walk of life. The program was an instant success and the ministry soon began expanding to include Bible lessons. In 1986 Amazing Facts added the medium of television to its growing outreach efforts, offering soul-winning evangelistic messages for viewers around the world. In 1994, Pastor Doug Batchelor assumed leadership of the ministry, adding the Bible answers live call-in radio program and new ministry tv programs began airing on multiple networks around the world. For fifty years the driving vision of Amazing Facts has been the bold proclamation of the everlasting Gospel.

And with a team of evangelists circling the globe and thousands of men and women being trained through the Amazing Facts center of evangelism program (afcoe), the ministry is helping God's church see a rich harvest of souls. Amazing Facts: God's message, our mission. Did you know that Noah was present at the birth of Abraham? Okay, maybe he wasn't in the room, but he was alive and probably telling stories about his floating zoo. From the creation of the world to the last-day events of Revelation, 'Biblehistory.com' is a free resource where you can explore major Bible events and characters. Enhance your knowledge of the Bible and draw closer to God's Word.

Go deeper. Visit the amazing Bible time line at 'Biblehistory.com'.

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