Will you please turn to Jeremiah? Jeremiah 31. We will read from Jeremiah 31:31-34.
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that 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 bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord.
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they shall all know Me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.
And please turn to Luke, the Gospel of Luke, chapter 22, verse 20.
And the cup in like manner after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in My blood, even that which is poured out for you.
And finally, Hebrews chapter 8. We will read from Hebrews 8:6-13.
But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises.
For if that first covenant had been faultless, then would no place have been sought for a second.
For finding fault with them, He saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will consummate 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 forth out of the land of Egypt; for they continued not in My covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord: I will put My laws into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to Me a people.
And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know Me, from the least to the greatest of them.
For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins will I remember no more.
In that He saith, A new covenant, He hath made the first old. But that which is becoming old and waxeth aged is nigh unto vanishing away.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for Thy table, Thy table of love. We who were far, far away from Thee, even Thine enemies, and yet in Thy great love Thou hast sought us and brought us back to the Father’s house.
We praise and thank Thee for the love that loves to the uttermost. And now, as we continue in Thy presence, we pray that Thy Holy Spirit will illumine Thy Word. Give us a spirit of wisdom and revelation, and lead us into a relationship with Thee that is altogether new and better.
Oh, dear Lord, we are here, Thy people, opening our hearts, really. Let Thy Word do its work in us, to the glory of God our Father. We ask in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters, it has been upon my heart in these days to go again to the very foundation: What is now our relationship with the Lord? On what ground will God deal with us, and on what ground may we approach Him? So this matter of the new covenant came to my mind.
You know, as you read the Bible, you will discover that God has made a number of covenants with men. Now, if we know what a covenant is, it is the most amazing thing, because covenant is the modern word contract. So, in other words, God seems to like to make contracts with us.
And why do we have contracts today? I remember in my grandfather’s day, when they did business, they just said a word, and that was it. But today you find it is so different. Everything has to be contracted. We have to sign the contract. Why is it so? Because we are so unreliable.
We may promise one thing and never do it. So this is the reason why you find we have contracts everywhere. If you buy a house, you need to sign a contract. If you buy a car, you need to sign a contract. Everything has to be contracted. Why? It is because of the unfaithfulness of man.
Man’s words are undependable, so we have to have a contract with legal binding. Now, what is a contract? A contract is something signed by both parties. There are promises and there are responsibilities. It specifies the privileges as well as the duties, and everything is put down in detail with legal binding.
So when you think of what a contract is, does God need to sign a contract with men? This is almost something unthinkable, because our God is so faithful. What He says, He does. What He promises, He performs. He never needs a contract.
You remember in the prophecies of Balaam, in Numbers 23:19:
God is not a man, that He should lie;
neither the son of man, that He should repent:
hath He said, and shall He not do it?
or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good?
So, in other words, you find God is so reliable. Whatever He says, it is done. He never eats up His own word. That is God. And yet we find, amazingly, in the Word of God a number of times, that God made a contract with man. So we must ask this question: Why is it so?
If God does not need a covenant to bind Him, why does He always bind Himself with a covenant? Now, if you turn to Hebrews 6, you find the answer. Hebrews 6:17-18 says:
Wherein God, being minded to show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of His counsel, interposed with an oath:
that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.
Which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and entering into that which is within the veil.
So the only reason why we find in the Bible that God made contracts with man is because He wants to encourage us in faith. We are so faithless; we cannot believe His Word. And God, on the one hand, is so true and faithful—what He says, He does. On the other hand, He even binds Himself with an oath, saying that He has to do that. Now, with these two things, He just wants to encourage our faith.
So that is the reason we find in the Bible there are contracts. Now, this morning, what I would do is just to lay a foundation. For those who may not be familiar with God’s covenants, we have to make it clear.
When you open the Bible, even in Genesis 1 and 2, you find after God created man, Adam, He blessed him. He said, “Multiply, and fill the earth.” But at the same time, He said, “Subdue it.”
And then God put man in the garden of Eden, and God said, “Of every tree you may freely eat, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.” And He put man there in the garden, not at leisure, but to till it and to guard it, because God knew that Satan was outside the garden, trying to get in to that man.
Now, even though you do not find the word covenant there, when you read Hosea 6:7:
But they like Adam have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against Me.
Now, even though God was talking to Ephraim, He said Ephraim, like Adam, broke the covenant. So, in a sense, we can say that even at the very beginning of God’s dealing with man, God covenanted with man.
Unfortunately, Adam did not listen to God. He rebelled against God. He fell into temptation. He ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and because of that he was driven out of the garden of Eden. That was the first dealing of God with man, and it ended in the failure of man.
Then you move on to Genesis 9. After the flood, God used a flood to destroy the world. But after the flood was over, Noah offered sacrifices to God, and God made a covenant with Noah. The word covenant is there.
He covenanted with Noah and his sons, and with all the living creatures. And He said again, “Multiply, and fill the earth.” The fear of the animals and the fishes was to be upon men. Man was permitted to eat meat, but not the blood. If anyone should shed blood, his own blood would be shed, because life is in the blood.
And to comfort the trembling heart of Noah, God gave a sign of His covenant: the bow. So after the rain, you will always find the bow. It shows us that God said He will never use a flood to destroy the earth. As long as the earth exists, there will be the four seasons. This is the promise of God, and this we call the Noahic covenant.
And after that, we find again in Genesis 15 that God made a covenant with Abraham. The God of glory appeared to Abraham in the land of Ur of the Chaldeans, and commanded him to leave his country, leave his kindred, and go where God would show him. And by faith, Abraham followed.
Then you find in Genesis 15, after he had defeated the four kings to rescue Lot, his nephew, somehow, after a great victory—and that always happens—after a great high, you suffer a deep blow. So somehow he began to be afraid. He said, “I have won a great battle, but now I am surrounded by all these Canaanites. They will all come and destroy us.”
So God again comforted him and promised him that God would be his shield. Now, at that time, Abraham’s faith was very weak. God said, “I will give you a seed.” But he said, “I have no son. My steward will be my heir.” In other words, you find he doubted that God would ever give him a son.
So you remember how God led him out. It was night, to see the stars in the sky, and God said, “As the stars are, so shall your seed be.” And Abraham believed God, and this was reckoned as his righteousness.
Then again God said, “I will give you the land, the land of Canaan.” And in order to strengthen his faith, God made a covenant with him. Because at that time, the way of making a covenant was to cut the animals and put them on two sides, and the two parties would go through them. It is a blood covenant, to show that it is valid. And there God covenanted with Abraham that He would give him the seed and the land.
Now after that, chronologically speaking, it should be the covenant that God made with Israel at Mount Sinai, after He delivered them out of Egypt. But, for the sake of comparing the old and the new covenant, I will jump over and mention the Davidic covenant first.
You remember that David, after he had brought the ark into Zion, into his own tent, and God had strengthened his kingdom—in 2 Samuel 7, David had the idea of building God a temple where God’s name would be set. God was pleased with it, but God would not let him do it because he was a man of blood. So God said, “Your son will build.”
David may have wanted to build God’s house, but God said, “I will build your house first.” That is always the way that God deals with us. And God promised him to build his house, that his seed would sit on the throne forever. But God also said, “If you do not keep My word, there will be discipline.” Yet God would not go back on His promise. His seed shall be on the throne of David forever, and we know that this is fulfilled in Christ, the Son of David.
And then, of course, when God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt, He brought them to Mount Sinai. There He made a covenant with them. He said, “If you keep My commandments, then you will be My people out of all the nations, and I will be your God.”
And we all know that it is a covenant of law. God gave them the Ten Commandments and all the statutes and ordinances. And God said, “Now, if you keep all these, you will be My people, and then I will be your God.”
Why do we call it the covenant of law? Because the law is, “Thou shalt,” and “I will.” In other words, God said, “If you do this and that, then I will be your God.” In other words, if you do not do this and do that, then I will not be your God. So this is a covenant of law.
And the law bound the children of Israel. Under that law, the children of Israel could not enter into the promised land. They failed, and they wandered in the wilderness for forty years until that generation had all passed away.
But when Moses led them to the eastern border of the promised land, to the land of Moab, God made another covenant with the children of Israel. We find that in Deuteronomy 29.
There God made another covenant with the children of Israel. It was a covenant of law and mercy. It was under that covenant that they entered into the promised land, and it was under that covenant that they lived in the promised land until they broke that covenant.
They did not keep the law of God. God gave them mercy, gave them a second chance, but they did not keep God’s law. Eventually, we find God had to disperse them in the Babylonian captivity, when Judah was captured and transported to Babylon.
Now, that is history. But thank God, even so, you find that in Jeremiah, when Jeremiah lived towards the end of the southern kingdom of Judah, he saw the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple. And you find God, through Jeremiah, promised to the children of Israel and to the children of Judah a new covenant.
In Jeremiah 31, He says, “I will make with you a new covenant, not like the old.” The old one was that God had to take the hands of the children of Israel and lead them forward. He was like a husband to them. Even though His relationship with them was very close—husband and wife, actually they should be one—even so, they were still two persons. So it was still outward, and God had to take their hands and lead them.
But it did not work, because you find the Jews struggled out of the hand of God. While they were in the promised land, they did not worship God; they turned to idols. God sent His prophets to warn them again and again, but they would not repent. Eventually, God said, “Now, if you have not kept My covenant, all right, I will put it aside.”
Now, that is the condition with the children of Israel. But thank God, even so, God through the prophets promised that eventually God would win. Eventually God would give them a new heart. God would write His law into their hearts. God would be their God, and they would be His people, so that they would be able to do God’s will.
And this is promised to the children of Israel and to the children of Judah. Even to this day, this new covenant with the children of Israel and Judah has not been fulfilled. But we know that it will be fulfilled one day, because God is faithful to His Word.
And this will happen during the millennial kingdom, because as you read the Bible, you find that during the millennial kingdom Israel will be the first of the nations. They will be a nation of priests, and they will go out to the world to preach the gospel. But this is still in the future.
Now, when you come to the New Testament, brothers and sisters, if you read Ephesians 2, you find that we, who are Gentiles—that means that we are not Jews—we are Gentiles. And as Gentiles, God has not made with us a special covenant of law.
Because you remember, the covenant of law was made with the children of Israel, not with us. So, strictly speaking, we as Gentiles were without law—lawless. And that is what we are.
But as you read carefully the Word of God, when you come to Romans 2, you discover something. We will read from Romans 2:14-16.
For when Gentiles that have not the law do by nature the things of the law, these, having not the law, are the law unto themselves;
in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith, and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them;
in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, according to my gospel, by Jesus Christ.
In other words, God has not made the covenant of law with the Gentiles; it was made with the Jews. But by nature, God has already put in us an unwritten law. We have a conscience, and our conscience is the voice of God.
And oftentimes we find, even though we have no law, when we are doing things, our conscience may accuse us. And when our conscience accuses us, we know that we have violated the law of God. Even when our conscience seems to agree with us, it only shows how far we have fallen from the righteousness of God.
But anyway, you find we who have no written law, and yet by nature have the law within our hearts, basically know what is right and what is wrong. And for that reason, we find how we sin against God.
So from time to time, even when we were unbelievers, after we had done certain things, our conscience bothered us. And this is the reason why we have religion. Religion is man’s way of trying to appease a guilty conscience. But religion never works.
So we would say, we as Gentiles, neither the old covenant of law nor the new covenant of grace has anything to do with us, because it was promised to the children of Israel. And why is it today that we claim that we are the people of the new covenant?
Well, one day, before the betrayal of our Lord, at Passover, He gathered with His disciples to eat the Passover feast. And while they were eating the Passover feast, the Lord took the bread, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “Eat, all of you. This is My body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.”
And toward the end of the Passover feast, He took the cup, He blessed it, and He said, “This is the cup of the new covenant in My blood. This is for you. Take it, and remember Me.”
So we know that on the day of Passover, when our Lord instituted the Lord’s Supper, He brought the new covenant that He had promised to the children of Israel and the children of Judah in the future, and it is now being given to us.
He brought that new covenant to us. Sure, brothers and sisters, we who believe in the Lord Jesus, we are a people of the new covenant. That is why we have the Lord’s table. We keep it weekly, just to remind us that we are a covenanted people. There is a covenant, a contract, between God and us.
From then on, all relationship with God is governed by this new covenant. God’s dealing with us—all God’s dealing with us—is based upon this new covenant. And all our dealings with God must be based upon this new covenant.
Now, the question is: Are we living in the new covenant? Is this the way we live our days? Or is this the way that we serve our God? So, to me, I view this as very, very basic.
Unfortunately, we find that many of God’s people today are still living under the old covenant of law. It is as if our dealings with God, and God’s dealings with us, are still according to law and not to grace. We do not know how to live by the grace of God.
I will put it another way: We do not even know what grace is. We have received grace upon grace, and yet we do not know what grace is.
Even though we are saved, the way we live does not seem to be any different from the days before we were saved. In other words, we live all our days still by our self-life.
We have the life of Christ in us, and that life is supposed to live through us and for us. And yet we do not know how to live by the life of Christ. We still depend upon that old Adamic, fallen, selfish, self-centered life.
We try to live a Christian life with the old Adamic life, and that is impossible. And that is the reason why we find our Christian life is not successful; it is a failure. All the time we struggle, we fight, but we fail.
I always say good Christians are nervous Christians. Why? Because they care so much to please God, and they try so hard to please God, and they find that they cannot do it. And because of that, they get nervous. Now, if you are not nervous, if you feel very satisfied with your life, something is very, very wrong.
Do we realize this? Do we really realize that all God’s dealing with us today is according to the new covenant? If we live outside of the new covenant, we live outside of God.
So this morning, my burden is: Where are we today? How do we live our Christian life? Are we living outside of the dealing of God, or do we know how to deal with God according to the new covenant, which is a covenant of grace?
So you find that Jeremiah prophesied it, and Hebrews re-emphasized it. God said it is no longer an outward way of life. Even though the relationship of husband and wife is close, it is still an outward thing. So it is like holding the hand and leading along. But somehow, we struggle out of the hand of God and want to do our own way. That is the old covenant way.
The new covenant way is totally different. It is a covenant of grace. And what does it mean? When you read the new covenant, it is very simple. Only three articles. But in those three articles, you find the order is reversed.
Instead of the covenant of law, where God says to us, “Thou shalt,” and then He promises, “I will,” in the new covenant it is just the opposite. Not only the opposite, but it is all, “I will, I will, and I will.”
“I will put My law into your heart. I will inscribe it into your inward parts. I will be your God. Then you will be My people. You do not need to teach everyone, ‘Know the Lord.’ Why? Because everyone shall know Me in themselves. It is an inward knowledge. For I have forgiven your sins; I will remember them no more.”
So you find three articles there.
Number one: the power of God. “I will be your God. I will do it in you and for you.”
Number two: inward knowledge of God. Not something you gather from outward information, but something within you. The Holy Spirit, as the anointing, will teach you in all things.
And number three: “I will forgive your sins.” And not only that, but “I will not remember them anymore.”
So, dear brothers and sisters, we have just laid this new covenant before us this morning. Let us realize before the Lord, and hopefully we will see how we can really live daily in the good of the new covenant. That is the only way that will please God.
Dear Lord, as we put the matter of the new covenant before us, we do pray that Thou wilt open our understanding, that we may leave the old covenant of law behind and really enter fully into the new covenant of grace.
As Thy Word says, the old will grow weaker and weaker; it passes away. We pray in Thy precious name. Amen.