The New Covenant Part 1 of 6 Taking Hold of the New Covenant — David Wilkerson

Welcome to all who are visiting tonight. We trust the Lord will manifest his word to you as he's manifested his presence here in our worship. We thank God for his presence all the time. Amen. Still a bit more, okay.

Don't forget our services Tuesday night, Wednesday, Thursday, our intercessory prayer meeting night, and then Friday night Bible school. We'll keep those services all in mind. Would you turn to Psalm 89, please, Psalm 89.

Taking Hold of the New Covenant

89th Psalm, I wanna read one verse before we proceed. Verse 34, please. My message tonight, taking hold of the covenant, taking hold of the new covenant, taking hold of the new covenant. Verse 34, my covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips.

My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. We're gonna talk about a subject that many of you have never even heard a single message about other maybe than from this pulpit.

Let me ask, how many of you have heard, other than from this pulpit, how many of you have ever heard one full message on the new covenant? Would you raise your hand, please? Amazing, just a smattering of hands here tonight, just a few who have heard about the covenant.

That's why it's so very, very important that we deal with it more and more. We trust that the Lord will begin to open our eyes. When I was just a young preacher, I don't even know how old I was, but the Lord, in prayer one day, led me to the 25th Psalm, and He said, I'm gonna make this the theme of your life, and He gave me the very verses.

I'll just read them to you. Don't turn there, this is from Psalm 25, verses 12 to 14. What man is he that feareth the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way he shall choose. His soul shall dwell at ease.

His seed shall inherit the earth. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant. He will show them His covenant. Now, this is a promise for every single believer that fears the Lord, that trusts in Him fully.

God says, I'm gonna show you the covenant. Now, that means that you have to believe that, and you have to claim it, and you have to press into it, but we're gonna see tonight a glimpse, just one view, another view of what the new covenant means.

Heavenly Father, I pray for the Holy Spirit to come down upon this house, from the balcony, to the choir, to everyone listening to me, and those who will hear this message on tape or video. Lord Jesus, you're trying to open to the body of Jesus Christ in these last days, these truths that'll set us free, that will keep us from the wicked one in the time of storm, when the enemy comes in like a flood in the last final hour of this time.

Lord Jesus, I pray your Holy Spirit quicken us now. We have got to pray, Lord, for an opening of our understanding that we may see and that we may hear. Lord, we're not interested in preaching a sermon tonight.

We're interested in you opening your heart and your mind to us, and giving us the revelation that we need in these last days, that you will put in our hands the truth that truly changes our lives and sets us free.

Oh, Holy Spirit of living God, quicken me to speak this, and quicken our ears to hear it, I pray in Jesus' name, amen. Now, this promise has been made to all believers that if you fear the Lord, God says, the secret of the Lord is of them that fear him.

And this has been a secret that's been hidden for many, many years from the body of Jesus Christ. I tell you, in all my years, I have not heard a full message. I've heard it mentioned, I've never heard a full message on the meaning of the new covenant.

Now, I know there's been some talk about the old covenant, and in fact, if you get into that, you get into one covenant after another, covenant after covenant after covenant throughout the Old Testament.

And I have never yet heard anybody who can fully explain all these covenants to me. But God said he was going to make a new covenant for the last days people. And I have not heard that. Now, when I was a young preacher, I'm trying to figure out why this has not been taught.

When I was a young preacher, I was more or less led to believe that covenant theology was a theology of a number of old dead Scottish churches, and that it produced a permissive lifestyle. Because you see, when you understand the glory of the covenant and what God agreed to with Christ, it's so glorious, it's so life-freeing, that many people take advantage of it and have in the past, and they have misused the covenant.

The New Covenant and Spiritual Israel

Another reason why the theology of the covenant or the teaching of the covenant has not been revealed to the church in the last days is because the scripture says that God said, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.

And so what dispensationalists have said, well, Israel is Israel, Jew is a Jew, Jerusalem is Jerusalem, it's natural. And so they have assigned it into the millennial age, saying that this is for the Jews.

And so it's been neglected, because we've said Israel, they've said Israel is Israel, Jew is Jew, and Jerusalem is Jerusalem. It's natural, you can fly there, you can go there, so it's just been put aside.

They said it's not for us. And folks, I'm telling you now, and listen to what the pastor's saying tonight. This is going to be the one truth that God opens up in the last days, because it's going to be the most freeing truth.

It's been neglected, it has not been sought out, because theologians have told us it is not for us, it's for the Jew, or that it's in the past and it has nothing to do with us today. It's amazing that Paul can teach so much about the new covenant and be totally ignored by the church.

I saw this when I was just a young man, and I've been seeking and praying about it, and it's only lately the Lord's seen fit to open just a few views into this. And I've told God, I'll not let go of this.

I spent all my time praying for the revelation of this new covenant, because I believe it's the secret of waking up the last day church. I believe it releases such power, and if the devil, the Bible says, is going to come down to us in the last days having great wrath, knowing his time is short, and he's going to send a flood against the church, against this woman, the church, how much more do you and I have to have the secret of the Lord in our hands, how to overcome?

And the power and the glory of the new covenant has to be released in our spirits, in our minds. It has to come. And I told God, I will not let him go. I'm not going to let him go until he shows and unveils this new covenant, and I believe there are going to be many others.

I see God revealing this to Pastor Carter in a very clear way. You're going to see others who are praying and seeking God. Now, I know that the prosperity people are going to come, and they're going to try to abuse it, and carry it off into some extreme.

Let that be what it may. God will not let this truth be hidden much longer, because this is the last day, and this truth is going to come forth. Now, let me show to you, I want to prove to you, that this covenant belongs to you and me.

Now, the only way you can lay hold of the covenant, the new covenant, is to be absolutely persuaded that it's meant for you and me today, that it's not for some Jewish nation, it's not for natural Israel or natural Jerusalem and the natural Jew, it is for spiritual Israel.

There are two Israels, there are two kinds of Jews, there are two kinds of Jerusalems. We're going to go right into it. Now, Israel's first mention is found in Genesis 32, 28. It was a name God gave to Jacob by faith.

It was his regenerate name, and he said, thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel. That name was given to him only after his spirit, his carnal spirit was broken. He was given the name Israel as his faith name and represented all the seed of faith, all the children that would come to God by faith, through Abraham and his seed, and this now through Jacob and his seed.

Truly God, the Bible says, is good to Israel, even to such as have a clean heart. He says, God is good to Israel, those who have a clean heart. Now, he distinguishes Israel as those who have a clean heart.

The natural Jew at the time had no clean heart because the blood had not been sprinkled on them. It is only those, no heart can be clean other than through the sprinkling of the blood. So he's distinguishing between two Israels immediately.

Romans 9, 6, not as though the word of God hath taken none effect, but they're not all Israel, which are of Israel. In other words, natural Israel is not just Israel. There is an Israel according to Galatians 6, 16, the Israel of God.

Galatians 3, 7, know you therefore that they which are of faith, they are the sons of Abraham, not the natural Jew, but the spiritual Jew by faith is in Jesus. Jesus Christ is the seed of Abraham, the spiritual seed of Abraham.

Romans 9, 8, they which are the children of the flesh, they're not the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted for the seed. Nothing could be clear in all scripture. Galatians 4, 25, and 6, this Agar is Sinai in Arabia and answers to Jerusalem, which now is.

He said, there is a natural Israel. There's a natural Jerusalem. He said, which now is, is in bondage with all her children. But Jerusalem, which is above, is free and is the mother of us all. He said, there's two Jerusalems, two Israels, one natural and one spiritual.

Revelation 2, 28, Romans 2, 28. For he's not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that which is of the heart and in the spirit and not of the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of God.

Now, the new covenant is for spiritual Israel, all Jews and all Gentiles who have put their trust and faith in Jesus Christ. If you're in Christ, you are the new Jew, you are the new Israel, and you are born again in the new Jerusalem.

Hebrews 8, 6, but now, now, in the new covenant, he has obtained a more excellent ministry. He's a mediator of a better covenant. Now, folks, when Jeremiah gave the announcement of the new covenant was gonna come to the new Israel, the natural Israel was divided into two groups at the time.

They had two different kings, two different centers of worship, and they were enmity with each other, so this could not have been to the natural Jew. They were in opposition, they didn't have the clean heart, they didn't have the hunger for God, they were backslidden, they were in idolatry, they were two different groups, they were mixed up, they were enemies at enmity with God and with each other.

So it was no possibility could be given under Jeremiah's first announcement of the new covenant could have been to the natural Jew. Now, who are the parties? Remember, a covenant is agreement between two parties and what is to be done and what is not to be done, and we would call it a contract.

The Covenant Between the Father and the Son

And once this contract has been finalized, it had penalties by the law if one party did not fulfill the terms of the covenant. Now, there are terms made by each party. Now, who are these parties? Bible says that God made a new covenant.

Now, he said with Israel and Judah, but Israel and Judah, the spiritual Israel, that's you and me and Christ, were brought into it later. We were brought into it because we were brought into Christ. But the two parties of this covenant is God the Father and God the Son.

Now, listen to me closely. Before the earth was begun, before the world existed, before time itself, the heavenly Father and his Son. Now, remember Jesus, the Son of God, though he was not in flesh, in the bosom of his Father, created all things.

All things were created by him and for him. Now, in eternity, God the Father, God the Son, realizing that the first Adam was going to fail, he's going to bring reproach. God said, I will not lose this generation that I created.

I will not lose mankind. I will not let him go. I will not let this fail. And in time before it was all, the world was created, there was an agreement. There was a covenant made between God the Father and God the Son that there would be redemption made, that there would be a sacrifice made.

God said to his Son, if you will go and be the slain redeemer, the Lamb of the Father, I make a covenant with you. And this covenant, this agreement was made not in private, but every word of this covenant, all the conversation of this covenant has been revealed in the word.

God wanted us to know every detail, all the terms of the covenant made because he wanted us to rejoice in its security. I'm going to show it to you in just a few moments. These terms were not made in secret.

Now, I want you to follow me very, very close, if you will. All the contracting and all the conversation of this covenant between God and his Son, all the terms of the covenant were openly recorded and they are here in the word.

The spirit of the Lord, when he inspired this, made sure that every word that was spoken on that covenant time was made between the Father and his Son was fully recorded so we know the details. Let me give you an example of covenant conversation between the Father and his Son recorded in the scripture.

Don't go there, but Psalm 89, 19. Then thou spakest in vision to thy Holy One and said, I've laid help on one that is mighty. I've exalted one chosen out of the people. This is the Father speaking in covenant to his Son.

He is saying to his Son, now, Son, this seems like a mystery, but I'm going to ask of you to go into the world and I'm going to send you to people who have become by sin weak and miserable, hopeless and overwhelmed, and they will be unable to find their way back to me and they will be lost.

They will absolutely be lost. I must have you go. He said, I've appointed you and I've laid help upon your shoulder and I've made you mighty for the purpose. This is God, what he's saying there. I have laid help on one who is mighty.

I've exalted and chosen one out of the people. He said, I have chosen you, my Son. I want you to go on my behalf. This is an agreement the Father is making and he's spelling out the terms of his going and then Christ will spell out the terms of his accepting it and you'll see it all.

It becomes very, very clear as we go on. Now, the purpose of God in making a covenant with his own Son was to recover lost humanity from the power of the devil. This was God's rescue plan out of the very clutches of Satan and it was done absolutely in divine love for God was not willing that a single one should perish.

Came out of the heart of God's heart of love. Now, when God said that and he set out the terms, he said, you're gonna go but I'm gonna lay help on you. I'm gonna make you mighty. You're gonna be called the mighty one and Jesus answers back in so many words, Father, you've laid help on me, on my shoulders.

You've sent me to rescue the imprisoned, heal the hurting, break satanic strongholds, to reconcile creation back to you and here in his own words recorded is his acceptance of this term of his Father.

Listen to it. This is Jesus accepting the terms of the covenant. Lo, he's speaking to his Father. I come. In the volume of the book, it's written of me. I delight to do thy will, oh my God. That's Jesus saying, Father, I accept the help you lay on me.

I accept your might and your power. I'm gonna need it for what you've sent me to do so I've come now to submit myself. I've come now to do your will. Jesus said, my meat will now be to do your will and to finish your work and everything Jesus did on this earth, he did it as fulfillment of the terms of the covenant.

Every healing, every bit of good that he did, every word that he spoke of divine life, everything he received of his Father, it was given to him before time was created. Every word was spoken to him. When he said, I do it, my Father, only what I see and hear from my Father, he saw it and heard it before he ever came.

This commandment I've received in my Father that I should lay down my life. He said, that was one of the terms. When I go, I'm gonna have to lay down my life. And I agreed, John 12, 49. For I've not spoken to myself, but the Father has sent me, who sent me, he gave me these commandments, what I should say and what I should speak.

When the covenant was made, when it was cut, the Lord told him, laid out his whole ministry before him. The word of God clearly states that the terms of the covenant and all of the requirements were laid out.

And here are some of the requirement. It's all recorded in the scripture. First of all, God said the term of the covenant on his part was he was to divest himself of all of his glory. He was to strip himself of all the appearance of his Godhead.

He had to strip himself of all godness. Scripture says then another term, he was take on a human body. And then Jesus answered, a body, have you prepared for me? He said, I agree to the terms. He said, you'll be born of a woman.

Jesus, it is written of him that God sent forth his son made of a woman. He was to take on the form of a servant. He was to be holy, harmless, undefiled. He was to endure great sufferings. He was to endure reproaches, injustices.

The father said, part of the term of the covenant, you'll be termed a man of sorrows. You'll be acquainted with much grief. He was to grow up in the presence of his heavenly father without any form of comeliness.

He said, the father said, I'm going to have to watch you grow up even from childhood as an undesirable. He shall grow up before him, before whom? Before his father. He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of dry ground, having no form and no comeliness.

And then part of the term was also this, and after all this, you're to humble yourself. You're gonna be placed in the hands of wicked men. And in great agony, you're gonna lay down your life as an offering.

I'm gonna lay the sins of the whole world upon you, my son. He said, this is the term. Then the father says, your ministry is gonna be one, first of all, of a priest. You're going to have to carry this seed of yours all through time and bring them into eternity.

He said, I'm going to make you a shepherd. You're going to go under many ministries, but your main ministry is going to be a shepherd. And then he handed him a list of names. He said, these are the names.

This is your flock that I have known from the foundation of the world. Even in the womb, I will number their members. Even in the womb, I will count every hair. He said, I want you to be a shepherd. And if one of them ever goes astray, I want you to take him in your arms, into your bosom and bring him back.

You're going to go as a shepherd. You're going to lead him beside still waters. You're going to restore their soul. You're going to cause them to have all the green pastures they need. You're going to comfort them.

No wonder the scripture said he called his sheep by their own names. He knew their names. John 6, 37, all that the father given me, they're going to come to me and they shall come to me. I will know I was cast out because I came down from heaven, not to do my will, but the will of him that sent me.

The father said, if you go for me, if you cut this covenant with me to go and seek my lost, here's a list of what I'm going to require of you. Here are the terms. You're going to have to preach tidings, good tidings to the meek.

You're going to bind up the brokenhearted. You're going to proclaim liberty to the captives. You're going to open prison doors to those that are bound. You're going to bear with the weaknesses of the frail.

You're not going to break any bruised reeds. You're not going to quench any smoke flax, but you're going to tenderly deal with ignorance. You're going to supply all the shortcomings with your strength.

You're going to feed the flock. You'll gather the lambs. You'll gently lead the young. You'll give your strength to those who are weak. You'll guide them with your counsel. And you will promise to send them the Holy Spirit to take them on when you leave.

You will cherish them. You'll protect them. And then you will bring them home to glory with you. Now God says, if you will do that, my son, let me tell you what I covenant to do with you and for you. And these are all clearly revealed in the scripture.

Nothing is hidden. The father says to his son, if you will go, first of all, you'll have the Holy Spirit without measure. And that's exactly what God did. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, Jesus said, for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.

God did not give the Spirit by measure. He didn't get it in drips and dribbles. He didn't get a drop of the Spirit here and there. Now you and I receive the Holy Ghost in measure. But he said, if you'll go, I will empower you with my Spirit.

You will have the Holy Spirit on you every hour. You will not go in your own strength. You will go in the power and the anointing of the Holy Ghost. You remember the moment the dove came and settled upon this my beloved son.

The Holy Spirit was upon him. He did all his works through the power of the Spirit, unlimited in the Spirit. Secondly, if you go, you will never be out of my sight. My presence will be with you everywhere you go.

I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son, Hebrew 1 -5. He said, I'm a father to you. And you know that not even an earthly father that is an honest man would ever give up on his son. Would always be there to help him.

If he asked bread, he would not get a stone. If he asked fish, he'd not get a serpent. I'll be a father to you. You'll be my son. Thirdly, I will lift you up in all your times of opposition and discouragement.

He shall not fail nor be discouraged till he has set judgment in the earth. God said every time the enemy comes in and you're discouraged, I will be there. And by my Spirit, I will lift that off of you.

And I will encourage you by my Spirit every time you need it. Then he said, I will highly honor you and give you a name above all the other names on earth, heaven or earth. Wherefore, God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow.

And then he said, son, after all of this, and you have fulfilled all the terms of the covenant on your part, then I will bring you back to glory in victory and power and anointing. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter then into glory, the scripture says.

There it is, it's all written, it's all out there in black and white for us to see. Now, Jesus gladly accepted the terms of his Father's covenant. He agreed to fulfill the demands and the terms to become a sacrifice with his own body.

Scripture said he made of himself no reputation. He took upon himself the form of a servant and he was made in the likeness of man. And Jesus himself answering the Father, he said, I was not rebellious, Father, neither turned away my back.

I gave my back to the smiters. I gave my cheeks to them that plucked off my hair. I hid not my face from shame and all the spitting. He said, they spat on me, I gave my back, but I knew this was the term of the covenant and I was willing to fulfill it because there's a plan.

I do this for a reason. I know, Father, your love for your children and you sent me to save your children. You sent me to keep your children and I share that love because I share the spirit of almighty God.

He was not doing this for his own good. It's for the seed, for his children. Now, think back of everything Jesus did, of every person he healed, of opening the prison doors of death and raising people right out of the grave like Lazarus.

All the miracles, all the healings, everything he did, he was fulfilling the terms of the covenant. These were the things that God sent him to do. He was not doing them on his own. He said, Father, I'm doing exactly.

We agreed way back before the world was created. We agreed that I would do this. I am doing it. He went about doing good, which was keeping the covenant. He was keeping the terms of the everlasting agreement, the contract they made in eternity.

In hope of, you say, I can't accept that, that this covenant was made before time. Listen to what the scripture says. In hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began.

And that word promised there is covenanted. He covenanted before the world began. Second Timothy 1 .9, according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before the world began.

The covenant being fulfilled in Christ Jesus before the world began. Hallelujah. You see Jesus going after the last sheep, taking his arm, bring it back. That's what the Father told him he would do in covenant.

He's just fulfilling the covenant. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And you see him all through his ministry, appropriating the promises God made to him. Remember what Jesus said, and my God shall be my strength.

I will put my trust in him. Hebrews 2 .13, Jesus said, I put my trust in him. He made a covenant with me and it's settled, it's eternal. My father can't lie. He's my strength. I appropriate it. So what's that have to do with you and me?

Christ’s Covenant Benefits for His People

It's all about the love of God for his people and for the lost. The covenant that was cut is because God said he's not willing that any should perish. Now you see, God gives his son and the son gives his life and we get all the benefits.

God said, I give you my son. The son says, I give you my life. And why? That you and I may have all the benefits. By mutual consent, this covenant was made to keep and preserve the seed of Christ, his children.

I want you to see that in Psalms 89. Are you still in Psalm 89? Start with me at verse 26. This is Jesus speaking to the father. I told you it's all in the word. It wasn't hidden. His contact wasn't made in secret.

Verse 26, he shall cry unto me, thou art my father, my God and the rock of my salvation. And here's the father saying, and I will make him my firstborn higher than the kings of the earth. The father's speaking to his son now.

My mercy will I keep for him forever more and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed. Now who's the seed? The spiritual Israel. You and I are the seed. Folks, get this. Ask God to help you understand it.

This is for you and it's for me. And it's so glorious, it's mind-boggling. We can scarce conceive it. His seed also will I make to endure forever and his throne is the days of heaven. And if his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments, if they break my statutes and keep my commandments, I will visit their transgression with rod and their iniquity with stripes and send them to hell.

What's he gonna do with his sinning body, his sinning children, those who transgress, those who grieve him? What is he gonna do? Read the next verse. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him nor suffer or allow my faithfulness to fail.

My covenant will I not break. I will not alter the thing that's gone out of my lips. I will not lie to David, that David there is Christ. I'll not lie to my son. I made a covenant with my son to keep him and by faith you're in him and every promise I've made to my son is yours.

Hallelujah. If you're in Christ by faith, you're his seed. The pledge the father made to his son is if you go, my son, I'll be faithful to you and I'll be faithful to all your children, your seed, and I covenant with you, my son, to keep and preserve them just as I've kept and preserved you.

My faithfulness that I've shown you, I will show them. I swear to cause your children to endure. I will keep them from falling. I cannot lie. Remember what Jesus, remember the pledge the father made to his son in Isaiah 42 .6.

Don't turn, let me read it to you. I, the Lord, have called thee in righteousness. I will hold thy hand. I will keep thee and I will give thee for covenant to the people and for the light to the Gentiles.

The Lord said to his son, if you go, there'll never be a time that my hand is not in yours. There'll never be a time that you're away from my keeping power. I will keep you from the power of the devil, the power of the enemy.

I will keep you. I will be faithful to this promise. Faith in Christ brings us into this blessing of the covenant, all these blessings of covenant. Bible said, for the body is one and has many members and all the members of that body, of that one body, being many, they're still one body.

So is Christ. In other words, you look at me, I'm one body, but I've got fingers. I got 10 members right there. I've got two members here. I got two members here. I got two members here. I got 10 toes, 10 members there.

I got eyes, two members here. I've got two members here. All members of one body. Folks, in Christ Jesus, though we be many, we are one body, one body, one Israel. Jesus was the one Jew, and in this one Jew, he brought the Gentiles, he brought all nationalities, everybody into himself, and in eternity, he covenanted with the Father, Father, you will deal with me as one man.

I will bring all humanity that trust in me to you, but we will be one man. Everything you promised me, I claim in covenant for them. He said, these are my terms. My blood sanctifies, wipes out. In John 17, you find the greatest covenant conversation God and the Father made, and it's amazing that God allowed us to hear it and share it.

Jesus’s Prayer as Covenant Mediation

Jesus is praying covenant to his Father. In John 17, we hear the Lord's last prayer before he leaves this earth. He's already fulfilled all the terms of the covenant now. He's about to go to the cross, and now he's taking on his mediatorship, and the mediatorship of Christ has to do with covenant.

He mediates the covenant to make sure that Father's reminded that he has fulfilled all the terms, and then to come and remind you and me that we have every right to come and lay hold of his covenant. He mediates the covenant to us as well as interceding for our sins.

John 17, one, go to John, would you please? 17th chapter. This is all covenant, and you know what Jesus is doing? He's going back into eternity, and he's reminding the Father of that time they cut the covenant.

It's amazing. When the Holy Ghost didn't open this, I just got up and walked around my house weeping and rejoicing. I said, oh God, I've carried such useless burdens all these years. I've carried such helpless guilt and fear and condemnation.

Lord, I'm so ashamed of that. God, help me to come into the covenant. 17, one. These words speak Jesus lifted his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy son may also glorify thee.