Members of the New Covenant

If you have your copy of God's Word, please take it out and turn to 2 Corinthians 3 and find your place at verse 14. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 14. Over the past several weeks, what began as a single sermon has become a four-part series and, as I was considering why I was so foolish as to believe I could do it all in one sermon, each week getting to expand on each of these points has really been a blessing.

And we've been looking at what the Bible teaches regarding the New Covenant because it is in chapter 3 of 2 Corinthians, verse 6, that Paul calls himself a minister of the New Covenant. He then gives an extended explanation and a comparison between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant in verses 7 to 18.

The book in the Bible which most clearly defines the New Covenant for us is the book of Hebrews. But this chapter in 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 3, verses 7 to 18, is like, as I said in weeks prior, is like having the book of Hebrews in miniature because the same principles that we find in the book of Hebrews, that the New Covenant has replaced the Old Covenant, that the New Covenant is a better covenant, it has better promises, better sacrifice, and the Old Covenant is transient, the New Covenant is permanent, all of those things that we have seen are all found in just these few verses of 2 Corinthians.

It's obvious that whoever wrote the book of Hebrews, and I am convinced it was not the Apostle Paul, but if it were, it's fine, but I don't think it was, but whoever wrote the book of Hebrews had the same theology of the covenant that the Apostle Paul had.

I'm convinced it was one of his, one of those who were his companions, possibly Luke, who was writing it as a sermon of Paul's, was essentially transcribing what Paul taught in a letter, and so if you want to know who I think wrote it, it's possibly Luke.

But having said that, this section in 2 Corinthians is all of that, and it is all of that in a condensed version. I've been following through this series a fourfold outline. We have looked at the promise of the New Covenant, and if you'll remember, the promise of the New Covenant comes in the Old Covenant.

We're told in Jeremiah 31 that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, and that new covenant would be different than the Old Covenant. It would not just simply be a new administration of the same covenant, but it would be a new covenant, and that new covenant would have, again, a new priesthood, a better priesthood, new promises, better promises, and a forever longevity.

Then we looked at the inauguration of the New Covenant. We looked at the fact that the New Covenant began at the cross of Christ when His blood was shed and He received in Himself the atoning sacrifice, when He made the atoning sacrifice and received in Himself the wrath of God on our behalf, the New Covenant was established.

He says on the night before He held up the cup and He said, this cup is the New Covenant.

In what?

In My blood. Last week we looked at an exposition of the New Covenant. We examined how Paul uses the veil that Moses covered his face with. Remember when he would go into the presence of God and he would come out and he would be illuminated with the presence of God's glory on his face, and Paul says he covered himself with a veil because that glory was fading.

That glory was coming to an end, and it was going to give way to a greater glory, a glory of the New Covenant. Well, today we're going to look at who belongs to this New Covenant. Who is the members of this New Covenant?

So we're going to begin at verse 14. I invite you to stand and we're going to read verses 14 down to verse 18. Speaking of the Jewish people specifically, Paul says, beginning in verse 14,. But their minds were hardened.

For to this day, when they read the Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts.

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another.

For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. Father in heaven, I thank you for your word. I thank you for this opportunity to again preach your word. And I pray, O God, that you would keep me from error, Lord, knowing I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error.

You know, Lord, that I cannot do this without you, and whatever I do in my own power is useless and vain. So I pray, O God, that by the power of the Spirit, the word of God would be proclaimed, that the people of God would be illuminated, that they would be instructed, that they would be challenged, that they would, as your word says, that they would be even rebuked if necessary.

Lord, let us all be subject to the word of God. And Lord, if there are those who are here who do not know the Lord, that today might be the day that you would take out the heart of stone, that you would put in a heart of flesh.

And Lord, give them a heart which beats for you. Lord, forgive us of our failures. And in this moment, Lord, forgive me of my failures and use this jar of clay for your purpose in Christ's name, amen.

The New Covenant and Israel in the Debate Over End Times

Last week, I told you that today I was going to be answering a very important question, and that is the question about God's plan and purpose for the people of Israel. And that is a subject which is highly and hotly debated, especially in the United States.

Especially in our own time. We live on this side of the great Adventist movement of the 1800s, which brought with it many new doctrines regarding the return of Christ, and some of those doctrines specifically centered around a particular understanding of the Jewish people and their relationship to the return of Christ.

Just last Thursday evening, I did a debate, and the debate was on the subject of the pre-tribulation.

Rapture.

And I'm thankful that I had the opportunity to do it. I'm friends with the man I was debating, so it was not in any way contentious or hateful. We loved each other before and we love each other still, even though I still believe he's.

Wrong.

I do believe the phrase I used was cuckoo for cocoa puffs, but that was because I was giving him a hard time. But what's interesting about the debate is if you listen to it, you'll notice most of his argument was not centered around the pre-tribulation rapture, but rather his contention about the nation of Israel.

And his contention that the reason why his position must stand is because there is this whole divide between the church and the people of Israel, and therefore you have to come to these conclusions because of this understanding.

And that is not proof, that's assertion. You assert something and then you just keep asserting it, but you don't prove it. Well, today we're going to seek to understand what the Scripture says, and we're going to ask four questions.

Here are our four questions for today. Number one, who is the New Covenant made with, and I know all of you great English teachers out there are dying because I ended that sentence with with. I should say with whom is the New Covenant made, and I apologize.

So I'm just going to say homeschool moms, don't come get me. I know I was wrong. You say, well, why'd you do it? Just so I could say this. No, with whom is the New Covenant made? It should be the way that's written, but it's not.

Who is included in the New Covenant? Number three, why have the Jewish people generally rejected the New Covenant? And finally, is there a coming future revival among the Jewish people? Now, I will do my best to answer these questions as fairly from the Scripture as I can, knowing that some of them, some of these questions may still be left with questions when we're done as far as how far we can take the answer.

But as I said, one of the most debated subjects in the church today in the larger scale of scholarship and debates among teachers and preachers and scholars is the subject of God's dealing with the nation of Israel.

And often discussions of this type center on political questions, often regarding Israel's land. Politicians even demand support for the nation of Israel based on their interpretation of Bible passages.

Just a few weeks ago, and I think I mentioned this already once, but just a few weeks ago, there was one of our nation's congressmen was asked about his position on Israel. He said, I support Israel because the Bible tells me I have to.

That was his position. He said, I support Israel because that's what the Bible demands. And I believe the Bible, so I support Israel. And what he meant was he supports the geopolitical nation of Israel because he believes that's what the Bible commands him to do.

So it's an interesting thing that that is the interpretation that some people have gone to without question and without seeking any further investigation. And I want to say something else. Just a few weeks ago, I preached a sermon where I said some of the similar things that I'm saying today.

And I'm not just repeating myself. I'm following the text. This is where the text is taking us. But I was called an anti-Semite. If you don't know what that means, it simply means that you are prejudiced against Jewish people.

Well, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. What I am saying is in no way anti-Semitic. In fact, what I hope to show you today is that we have been grafted into Israel and therefore it would be foolish of me to be anti-Semitic because I, too, am by faith a son of Abraham.

So anti-Semitism is not the goal or the purpose or the heart of any of this. It is simply to show that God has expanded His work from Israel to every tribe, tongue and nation and we have been grafted in.

Now, for the sake of this message, I do want to say something else. I believe it is important, and I said this in my debate, I believe it is important to distinguish between ethnic Israel and national Israel.

Some people are unwilling to make that distinction. But allow me to make the distinction and hopefully help you understand what I mean. The ethnic descendants of Abraham, those who are physically the, oh, thank you, I saw your eyes and I was like, oh, by the way, we have a poll going on who is going to be the first person to spill something on this carpet.

And I'm certain it's going to have somebody in my family. I just have no doubt. Probably me.

Sorry.

Ethnic descendants of Israel, ethnic descendants of Abraham are all over the world. They are all over the world. There's Jewish people in America. There's Jewish people in Europe. There are Jewish people all over the Middle East.

There are Jewish people in the Southern Hemisphere. There are Jewish people everywhere. But the nation of Israel is a place, it is a, where the people of the Jewish descent have gathered together and have claimed this land in Israel.

That is the nation of Israel. And the existence and continuation of the nation of Israel as a political entity is not an issue I'm concerned with in this sermon. Now you may have reason for believing that's a good thing.

And I do too. I believe in Israel's right to exist. I believe in their right to national sovereignty. And I believe that they have the right to protect themselves. So if you want to come have a political conversation with me about that, we can do that.

But that's not what I'm talking about in the sermon. Because my concern in the sermon is not about the nation. It's about, and today we're talking about people who are ethnically Jews and they're all over the world.

And the salvation of those who are of the lineage of Abraham is the question of today. Does that make sense? You understand the distinction?

Okay.

Who the New Covenant Is Made With

So with that in mind, with that question, or with that sort of laying the groundwork, let's answer the first question. Who is the new covenant made with? Well if you go into your Bibles and turn back with me to Jeremiah 31.

Let's just look at the text again. You'll remember the new covenant was promised in Jeremiah 31 beginning in verse 31. And it tells us specifically who the new covenant is made with. I'll give you a second to get your Bibles turned.

In Jeremiah chapter 31 beginning in verse 31, it says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. All right. Hard stop right there.

We've already talked about what the covenant is. We've already read through Jeremiah 31 down to the definition. But today we're looking at the question of who is the covenant made with? It says it is made with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

And by the way, that is the same group that the old covenant was made with. Who was the old covenant made with? Was with the house of Israel or the house of Judah? The old covenant, specifically the Sinai covenant, was made by God with the people of Israel.

And this is ethnic Israel. There is no debate about that. If you read Romans chapter 1, Paul says that the gospel goes to who first? The Jew. Over and over in Paul's letters, he says it goes to the Jew first and then to the Greek or to the Gentile, the non-Jewish person.

So we can look at this verse, we can answer the question, who is the new covenant made with? It is made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. But then that raises the next immediate question.

Does that then exclude Gentiles? Some would say yes. In fact, there is an entire teaching, an entire subculture that says that you, if you are not Jewish, are not a member of the new covenant. In fact, I will quote to you.

This is from a website called jewishawareness .org. And this is what it says, speaking of Jeremiah 31. It says, the church is nowhere to be seen in these verses. No one can truly say this is a covenant given to the church.

It is for literal and physical Israel only. And you know what the Greek word for that is? Baloney. Because even though this covenant is made with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, if you say the church has no place in this covenant, then you don't understand the covenant.

Because the covenant is made with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah through.

Whom?

Christ. He is the mediator of the new covenant. And in His mediation, He brings in all who believe in Him and He makes them what? Sons and daughters of Abraham. You see, that's the importance. If somebody says, well who is the new covenant made with?

Made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Well then how are you, Keith Foskey, born of English descent? British, not Jewish. How are you a member of the new covenant? And the answer is because I have been grafted in to the root.

I have been grafted in as a wild olive tree branch into that root. So who is the covenant made with? It's made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. But does that exclude then the Gentile? No.

And that leads to the second question. So we asked who is the new covenant made with? We see the answers in the text. But who is included in the new covenant? See that expands the question and that question is answered by answering this.

Who is of Israel? Paul says not all who are born of Abraham are truly Israel. Right? Just to be clear. In fact, if you want to, just turn with me. Go over to Romans 9. Hey, Calvinist going to Romans 9 knew that was going to happen.

No, we're not talking about predestination today. But we are going to see something. Paul had to deal with this very question. Paul had to deal with the question. If God has made his new covenant through Christ, then why does it seem like there's not very many Jewish people who are believing in this new covenant?

And Paul's answer is right here. He says in verse 1, he says, I am speaking the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart.

For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Who's he talking about? Ethnic Israel. That's who that is, who he's talking.

I mean, I don't think anybody would debate that he's talking about. He says, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Paul tells us he is of the tribe of Benjamin. Paul tells us he knows his lineage. Paul tells us who his brethren are and his brethren, according to the flesh, are the Jewish people.

And guess what? Paul cared about the Jewish people. Paul was not an anti-Semite, as some foolish people have tried to imagine or apply to him. Paul cared so much about them that he says here, I wish myself cut off for Christ if it meant that they would be saved.

But then it goes on. Oh, by the way, if you don't know who the Israelites are, verse four tells us they are Israelites and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises.

That's all the blessings that were given to the the Israelites during the Old Covenant. They were given all those things. All of those blessings belong to them. To them belong the patriarchs and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ who is God overall blessed forever.

Amen. By the way, that's one of those places where it actually calls Jesus God overall. That's important. Just on a side note. Nice little Christological truth there says Christ, who is God overall. Verse six.

But it is not as though the word of God has failed, for not all who descended from Israel belong to Israel. Here is the key. Not all who have descended from Israel belong to Israel. Just because you have Abraham's blood flowing through your veins does not mean you have Abraham's faith in your heart.

And he says, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. But through Isaac shall your offspring be named. And what he does here is Paul engages in what's known as biblical theology.

He goes back into the Old Testament and he begins to make his argument from the text of Scripture. He begins a biblical argument through the text. He first starts with Isaac. He says Abraham had multiple sons.

He had an adopted son, Eleazar of Damascus. He had a son through the handmaiden who was Ishmael. He had other sons after Sarai died. He had other sons and daughters through Ketorah. But only one of those sons was the son of the promise through Isaac.

Through Isaac shall your offspring be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring. And he goes on after this to talk about the distinction between Jacob and Esau.

He says those two men were as close as any two men could ever be. They were both of the lineage of Abraham. Both came from the same womb. Both were born on the same day. They were twins. And yet God said to one that he would be the son of the promise and the other that he would not.

So in this, we have this. Again, I don't want to get too far into election and predestination, those things. But what we do have here is we have the reminder that physical lineage alone does not save.

Physical lineage alone does not place ones into a saving relationship with God. So, who is included in the new covenant? Well, go with me to Romans 4. Since we're doing apparently Bible drills today, running from one to another.

In Romans chapter 4, Paul is expressing his doctrine of justification. And he says that justification is by faith alone. And why do we know justification is by faith alone? Because Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness.

That's how we know justification has always been by grace alone, through faith alone. But notice verse 9, is this blessing? And what's the blessing? The blessings in verses 7 and 8. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count sin. That's the blessing of the new covenant, by the way. The blessing of the new covenant is the blessing that your sins will be forgiven. So, is this blessing only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised?

What is he asking there? He's asking, is this blessing only for the Jews? Is the new covenant only for the Jewish people? That's the question he's asking. And he says, we say that faith was counted to Abraham as righteousness.

How then was it counted to him? Was it before or after he was circumcised? It was not after, because that didn't come until Genesis 17. He was actually counted righteousness in Genesis 15. He says, was it before or after he was circumcised?

It was not after, but it was before. He received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him get this. Please hear this, church.

If you don't hear anything else today, hear this. The purpose was to make him the father of all who believe without being circumcised so that righteousness would be counted to them as well and to make him the father of the circumcised who are not merely circumcised, but who also walk in the footsteps of faith that our father Abraham had before he was circumcised.

Abraham is the father of all who believe, circumcised or not. That's Paul's point. Paul's point is that the new covenant, this forgiveness, this promise that was made in the old covenant, look forward to the new covenant is given to all who believe.

And you say, well, but it was made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Yes, but we have been brought in by faith. Do you remember when the men were sitting there with Jesus and they were chastising Jesus and they were saying, how can you say that you believe or that you're greater than Abraham?

And Jesus said, Abraham, look forward to seeing my day. Why? Because Abraham looked forward to the promise of the new covenant. He looked forward to what Christ was going to do. And he says, if you believed in Abraham, you would believe in me.

Christ is the mediator of the new covenant. Everyone who is in him.

Thank you.

Everyone who is in him. Jew or Gentile, thank you, brother, is in the new covenant. The wall of separation has come down. Amen. Turn to Galatians three just quickly. Galatians three, verse twenty seven.

It says this, for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. What happens when you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? You're baptized. And what does baptism signify? It's a symbol of our entrance into the new covenant.

Baptism does not save us by itself, but baptism is the symbol of us being grafted into Christ or being placed into Christ. We say buried with him in baptism, raised to new life. There's the symbol of union with Christ.

That's what baptism is. It's a symbol of our union with him and his death, burial and resurrection. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free.

There's neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring. Heirs according to the promise. I don't know how he could make it any clearer.

I literally don't know what he could have said or what he could have written that would have been any clearer than that. You've been placed into Christ. Now that you've been placed into Christ, you are now no longer Jew and Gentile.

You are now one in Christ Jesus. And now that you're one in Christ Jesus, you're all heirs of Abraham's promise. This should cause us to exalt the Lord. This should cause us to praise. It should give us a little bit of maybe a little charismatic here.

We should get a little excited. You guys all bunch of Calvinists, frozen chosen. Be a little excited that you have been grafted into Israel. You have been made a part of this covenant. When you didn't deserve it, but God came and did it.

Being in Christ, we have been grafted. Into Israel, we are, and I keep saying that verse, we're going to look at Romans 11 in a moment, if you if you're worried, we're not going to get there, we will.

But I want us to ask the next question before we do that, because the next question is, OK, if it is true that the new covenant is made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah and and and Gentiles are included in that because we have been grafted in because of being made children of Abraham by faith, if that's true, if we are included in the new covenant and this is a new covenant church, that's one of the only things I really wish I would have said in the debate the other night, one of the things I forgot.

And if you've never been in a debate, it's your mind is just just really like you're really thinking the whole time. Every once in a while, something just doesn't come to your mind. And it was God's will, apparently, that I didn't ask this question.

But the one question I wish I would have asked. Was do you believe your church is a new covenant church? Now, I think he would have had to have said yes. OK, if you're a new covenant church and the new covenant was made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, does that not mean that you have been grafted in?

That's what I wanted to ask. Does that not mean that your whole argument about the division is really an argument that is being forced upon the text? Why have the Jewish people and by Jewish, I mean ethnic Jews?

Why have the Jewish people generally rejected the new covenant? Now we're going to get to 2 Corinthians because Paul answers this in verse 14. Paul, last week, you remember, he talked about when Moses was in the presence of God, his face was shining and he would put a cover over that shining face because the the the he said, because that was a picture of the transient nature of the old covenant, that the the glory of the old covenant was a was a glory that was going away.

OK.

Look at verse 14 now, he says, but. Their minds were hardened for to this day, when they read the old covenant, by the way, I have to say this, and this could be a whole sermon by itself, it won't be, but it could be.

Notice what he just said. He said when they read the old covenant. You may have just glossed over that, what he's saying there is he's talking about the Old Testament of our Bible. And what I believe is implicit in that statement is he knows that what he's writing is the new covenant scriptures.

Scriptures.

Because they read the old covenant scriptures and when they read it, they read it like there's a veil over their face. How do you understand the old covenant? You understand it with the new covenant. How is that veil lifted?

We're going to see in a moment the veil is lifted by Christ. The Christ you have to trust in Christ and that veil is lifted. And guess what? Then you see the Old Testament for what it is. You cannot understand the Old Testament without Christ.

This is what got called me anti-Semitic a few weeks ago when I said that Jewish people, I've heard people say, oh, Jewish people understand their Old Testament better than we do. I said, no, they don't.

If they reject Jesus Christ, they don't understand their Bible better than they do because they literally read it with a cloth over their face. That's what this text says, it says when they read the old covenant, when they read the Old Testament, they are reading with blinders on because they cannot see the Lord Jesus Christ and they refuse to see him in the text.

So don't tell me they know the Old Testament better because they don't, because if you're interpreting the Old Testament without Christ, you are missing the point of the book. And if you think that's anti-Semitic, you are absolutely wrong.

It's truth. It says their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the Old Testament, Old Covenant, that same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is it taken away. Only through Christ is that veil taken away.

Yes, to this day, verse 15, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. Mike and I were talking about this. I remember what day it was last week. And Mike said something that's kind of been resonating in my ears ever since he said it.

He said. Two thousand years is a long time. I remember how exactly he said it, but it's been so long they've had this veil over their face, it's been so long they've had this veil over their heart. It's been two thousand years and they still don't see Christ.

Jewish people today, you take them to the scripture, you show them Christ. I'll say that's not Christ. I remember having dinner one night. I was I used to train in something called Krav Maga. Krav Maga is an Israeli martial art.

So my teacher was from Israel. He was a few seats down on the table. We were having dinner. And as I was sitting, eating, one of the other men said, Jesus in the Old Testament and the teacher, the guy who was from Israel.

He said, no, he is not. And he was emphatic and he was angry. Jesus is not in the Old Testament. Why did he say that? He said that because of this passage. There's a video out there where there's a man.

Mike shared this video with me. There's a man who went into Israel and he was he was showing them Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53, one of the clearest passages about Jesus. It's not read in their weekly readings.

It's not read at their feasts. Isaiah 53 is wholesale ignored. So he's reading it to these people. And who is this about? It's about Jesus. But this is your Bible. They can see that it's about Jesus. They know that it's about Jesus, but they will not accept it.