Haggai 2:5 Remember The Cut

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It is through a means of questioning. It's grandparents, parents should be reminded of.
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So brothers and sisters, I would encourage you and ask you please to turn to Haggai chapter two, verse five for today.
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Haggai chapter two, verses five.
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Haggai chapter two, verse five. Haggai is the third to last book in the
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Old Testament. So if you're having a hard time finding where the book of Haggai is, it's right before Zachariah, shortly before Matthew in the
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New Testament. Haggai chapter two, verse five. As you're turning there, let us just go ahead and open up with a word of prayer today.
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Lord God, I do ask Lord that we would be reminded today of who you are, that we would consider the peace that we have through our propitiation that was upon the cross of Calvary, Lord.
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That we would remember that we owe to you and to you alone, God. Honor and glory and praise,
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Lord. And I would ask that as this week goes on, Lord, that we would be reminded of what this text here has,
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Lord. That it would feed our soul and it would result in sanctification. Now it would also, through this sanctification, it would result in the advancing of your kingdom,
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God. For we thank you for being members of this kingdom. Lord, I do ask you today that you would let us read this text properly, that we would sow them deep into our souls and that you would rape the fruit from it,
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Lord. And we just say this in your name, Jesus Christ, amen. Haggai chapter two, verse five.
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If you remember last week, I said last week how I really, really wanted to get to verse five, but I realized
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I was writing a whole message just for verse five and I was skipping over the entirety of verses one through four. So I'm very excited to be here in verse five today.
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Very, very excited. So I'm excited to read this with you guys and I hope that you'll understand after today the reason for why
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I'm so giddy about this text. Haggai chapter two, verse five. A text that I didn't know about when
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I came to the book Haggai. When we started in here, there's some very sweet theology and some important things that are made note of here in Haggai chapter two, verse five.
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So let's go ahead and read it right now. Haggai chapter two, verse five says this.
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As for the promise, which I cut with you when you came out of Egypt, my spirit is standing in your midst, do not fear.
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It's a short verse. Let's read it one more time. As for the promise, which I cut with you when you came out of Egypt, my spirit is standing in your midst, do not fear.
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This comes after verses one and four where God has told them to take courage for I am with you.
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Go and rebuild the house. Let's go ahead and pray over this text here right now, Lord. Lord God, I thank you,
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God, for this wonderful text. Lord, I thank you for the cutting of the covenant. Lord, I thank you for the promises therein.
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And Lord, I do thank you so much as even today we can say your spirit is standing in our midst.
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Lord, and we have nothing to fear about. Lord God, I do ask you today that we would remember this covenant and that we would have thanksgiving as we come tail end off of this
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Thanksgiving week, Lord, that we would lift up thanksgiving to you because of these things. Lord, let us be reminded by these doctrines that are here,
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Lord. And we just say this in your name, Jesus Christ, amen. So I wanna remind us real fast of the context here.
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Let's take short note to remind us where we've been and where we're going. This is written in the year of 520
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BC. Many years after they have been released from captivity from Babylon and God released the captives.
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And he said that they should go and rebuild a temple for him. He's commanded them to go back and rebuild the city.
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And what has happened in these last 20 years is that they've not done so. They've said, no, we actually need to build our houses prior to building the house of Yahweh, the house of the
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Lord. And because of this, they haven't done anything really. All they've done is laid the foundation.
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That's what all of chapter one talked about was all they've done is laid the foundation and they have not been honoring
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God by obeying his command. And so when we come here to chapter two, which is about a month after they proceed to work on the temple.
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And so they've started this work on the temple. And so you could imagine they might have framework done. They might have lumber cut, whatever the means and the methods of what that day looked like.
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About a month's worth of work has taken place. And the people that would have lived back in the day where the temple prior stood are looking at this in construction piece of work in front of them right now.
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And they're feeling discouraged because they remember what the old temple looked like.
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And so this text is chapter two, verses one through nine. The whole reason Haggai is receiving this prophecy from God is for Haggai to encourage three different people, three different groups of people that we have in this text.
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According to verse two, it says it's to Zerubbabel, to Joshua. And then the third group is the remnant of Israel, the remnant of the people, the faithful of Israel, those that actually believe in God.
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And so this prophecy is being given to them to say, don't be discouraged by what you see.
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God is with you. God is going to bring about this second temple for a purpose and for a reason. And it's gonna be glorious just like the last one.
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Don't be discouraged. Keep on working. Keep on going. Don't stop for God is with them.
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And so when we come here to verse five, so that's in the year 520
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BC, five years pass after this book of Haggai is recorded for us and the temple is finished, it's completed.
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So this book, this prophecy of Haggai did exactly what it was intended to do. It encouraged, it lit the fire underneath the bottoms of all these people and they went and built the temple.
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So when we come here to verse five, we have to remember that it is this letter, this prophecy from Haggai to these individuals is to Zerubbabel, to Joshua, and to the remnant of the people.
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Now, before we even get into this text, there's going to be a couple things that we talk about today. I hope as you open your own translations, your own words today of God, you would see that your translation might read a little bit differently than mine.
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If you're reading out of the ESV, or if you're reading out of the King James, or if you're reading out of the NASB or the
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CSB, it might read a little bit differently, but the meaning is still there and it's still the exact same. Some of the ways that you might've noticed a difference is that the
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ESV might say, remember the covenant or according to the covenant
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I made with you when I took you out of Egypt. The King James version might say something along the lines of that.
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The NASB or the CSB, or what I'm reading from today, the LSB, the
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Legacy Standard Bible, it says, remember the promise. And the NASB would say, remember the promise
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I made with you. And these are important for us to notice this language in here, because this is gonna have some serious theological implications for us today.
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Some serious theological implications. And we're gonna talk about these things.
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This is the whole reason that we couldn't even get into verse five last week was because there's so much to discuss here.
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Now, one thing that is going to be a theme here in verse five is the covenant, covenants.
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We talked about this in short last week, covenants. We all understand what covenants are.
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What is a covenant? A covenant is an agreement made between two or more parties.
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And covenants are more than just agreements. Last week I had an agreement to turn on the heat and I didn't do it, right?
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I know, Chad's shaking his head back there because I'm gonna remind everybody about it because I failed and I stink at it. But I had an agreement set up and I failed to keep it, right?
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That's a little bit different than a covenant. A covenant is a little bit more serious because a covenant usually has penalties.
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Chad didn't come in here and shot my head off for not turning on the heat last week, right? He didn't, thank goodness.
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I know I deserved it. I think everybody in here would have probably applauded him for it because of how cold it was. However, that's the seriousness of what a covenant is.
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A covenant usually has in it promises, it has rewards, it has promises, it has blessings.
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Covenants usually have terms and conditions. They have punishments though, is one of the most important thing that covenants have is punishments.
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And it usually goes about, which if you wanna learn about covenants, I would really encourage this book.
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I know Pastor Greg before me two years ago even suggested this, The Mystery of Christ, His Covenant and His Kingdom.
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It is a wonderful book that teaches us about covenants and it goes through. And even in that book, it's very clear.
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So even in the garden, God has revealed himself to be a God that operates through covenants.
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And we see this even in the garden. What does God tell Adam to do? He says, don't eat of this fruit, don't eat of it.
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And if you don't eat of it, what is the blessing, the promise and the reward if they don't eat of it? They shall live, they shall not die.
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But what is the punishment for if they do eat of it, they break God's law, what is the punishment?
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You shall surely die. And so even in the very beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the world and mankind, he was operating through a covenantal system, a covenantal means.
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God has shown who he is through the means of covenants. All right, and this is something that we're going to be discussing today.
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And it's so important. But we see even in that covenant, even in the beginning that there was promises, rewards, blessings, a terms with conditions and punishments for breaking that commandment, breaking that covenant, all right?
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You and I have covenants. Most of us in this room have covenants. We're married and we have a covenant sign that we wear on our left ring finger, right?
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We show the world the sign of our marriage is this ring that is around our finger. We show people that.
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We do this all the time. We know what covenants are. It's a big word that a lot of Christians, it seems like sometimes are scared of in the
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Old Testament and the New Testament. But brothers and sisters, this being a Baptist church and me loving the
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Baptist type of theology, I really think that in the last many years as Baptists go, we've been scared to discuss what covenants are.
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I'm a Baptist because I love covenants. I'm a Baptist because covenants are in the
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Bible and they teach us about how God has shown himself to be. And the way that we view covenants is going to dictate our theological positions.
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It's what differentiates us from Presbyterians. And I love our Presbyterians brothers and sisters. They're Christian, they're in Christ, but they have a different understanding of the covenants.
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And like I said, Baptists have wearied and have seemed to have taken a step away from covenants, even though the very first Baptist thinking and theologies, those distinctives, these particular
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Baptists, they were made Baptists because of their view of the covenants. And so today, Christian, I would encourage you to understand better and study out these things of covenants because they will dictate your beliefs severely.
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Covenants, terms, blessings, and punishments. Now, what is the promise that we have in that garden?
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This is something that we're going to see here because as you notice in the NASV, the
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CSV and the LSV is that I have here with us today, it says, as for the promise, it says this word promise.
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If you're looking at an ESV, a King James version or something akin to that type of a translation, it would say, remember or according to the covenant.
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And that word covenant is not the word promise in here. That word covenant is actually the same word as the word cut in my translation or the same word as the word made in other translations.
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And we're gonna discuss these things, but this word promise today is so important because God is telling them to remember the promise.
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Remember the promise that I cut with you. And this is a covenantal language. Remember the promise.
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God has given promises throughout each one of his covenants to the people. In Genesis 3, verse 15,
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God gives a promise. He says to the serpent, God says, you shall bruise the seed of the woman on his hill, but he shall bruise your head.
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That is one of the very first promises of a covenant that we have. The seed of the woman would be bruised, but the seed of the woman would ultimately conquer the serpent.
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Immediately our mind should go to the cross of Calvary. That is the seed that is promised there in Genesis 3, 15.
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Well, we have more promises than that. We fast forward to the day of Abraham and Abraham has a covenant with God and there's a promise in there.
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To your seed, I will give on all the nations and your seed will be innumerable as the stars in the sand.
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We'll read that text today. There's a promise in it. There's promises within each one of these covenants.
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So what God says in here in verse five is this. And before we even read verse five again, we have to remind ourselves to whom is this promise given?
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Does God give this promise to everybody and anybody? Yes, it is true that there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile.
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There's no one that is not able to come to God or is disqualified because of their ethnicity or whatever the means or the age or whatever it is.
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The gospel is a message for all people. There is no distinction between Jew or Gentile.
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So in that way, the promise is meant for everybody, but to whom has God given this promise to in this text?
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To Zerubbabel, to Joshua and the remnant of Israel, to the people that have faith in Yahweh.
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Those that have faith in God are the ones that are to remember the promise.
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It's those that the promise has been given. And this is very, very particular when we consider this.
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There's going to be a lot of meaning for this. So it says, as for the promise, so to who is this promise given and who is this promise for?
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What is for the remnant, Zerubbabel and Joshua? I want to now turn real fast here because there's a day that God is reminding the people of in here.
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As for the promise, which I cut with you, and we're going to talk about that word in a moment, which
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I cut with you when you came out of Egypt, the promise that I cut with you when you came out of Egypt, what is that speaking of?
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I would encourage you to please turn to Exodus chapter 19, or yeah, Exodus chapter 19, verses four through five.
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Exodus chapter 19, verses four through five. Exodus chapter 19, verses four through five.
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This is after Israel has been taken away from Egypt. God has led them out of captivity there.
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And Moses is in this text and he receives a promise from God.
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He receives a promise from God. Exodus chapter 19, verses four through six says this.
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You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I lifted you up on eagle's wings and brought you to myself.
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This is redemptive salvation type language that God is the one that has done this. We know
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God does not have eagle's wings, but he has lifted them up in this way that it is like they have been lifted up on eagle's wings and brought to himself.
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Verse five, so then if you will indeed listen to my voice and keep my covenant, then you shall be my treasure, possession, my treasured possession among all the peoples for all the earth is mine.
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And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
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These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel. So Moses is to tell the sons of Israel that God has a promise for them and that they are to remember the covenant that's prior to them, that God has a promise to bring about a way and a seed that's going to have this kingdom of priests and a nation of God.
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This message today, when we go to Haggai chapter two, verse five, this is very, very deep theological meat that we have here that we're taking part of today.
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Haggai chapter two, verse five, when God says in there, as for the promise of the day that when
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I took you out of the land of Egypt, God is saying, Israel, though you are discouraged right now because yes, you have not built the temple, my temple still lays in waste, though you are discouraged.
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I have a plan for you. I have a promise for you, Israel. Don't forget that.
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The something that's coming is gonna be far greater than what you currently have.
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What is to come is far superior than what is before you. Remember my promise
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I made not to just you because this is many years after Moses, but to Moses when I took him out of Egypt and to all the people of Israel that day, this is to the remnant, to the people of Yahweh, the remnant of the people of Israel, to Zerubbabel and Joshua.
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God is telling them to remember this promise. I will make you a kingdom of priests, a holy nation to God for his own possession.
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So he's reminding them of what has come prior. So he's saying, remember this promise.
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Remember the promise. Now, if we go back to Haggai chapter two, verse five, we need to notice something in here, which is remarkable.
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The promise that he's talking about in Exodus 19 is a continuation of the promise that he gave to Abraham beforehand.
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The promise that has been given to Abraham is found in Genesis chapter 12, Genesis chapter 15 and Genesis chapter 17.
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We're gonna turn there in just a moment to a couple of different places in there, but that is the covenant that God made with Abraham.
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And that's what the covenant that is being spoken of in Exodus 19 is, and the promise that lies within.
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Notice here in Haggai chapter two, verse five, how many of your guys' translations says covenant?
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Okay, how many of your translations say made? I made you,
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I made with you, this promise I made with you, or a covenant I made with you. So that word in there is a word that has been translated as made so you and I can understand it.
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That word is quite literally for us, cut. God cut this with us.
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What does that mean? Why is it like that? Why does that Hebrew word cut? You and I would understand this more than what we would if we just read through this quickly.
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If I was to try to sell a vehicle to you, I said, let me cut you a deal.
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That type of language comes from this. God cuts covenants.
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God cuts deals in this way. God cuts this. What does that mean?
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What is our mind supposed to think of when we see this word made with us or cut with us or covenanted with us?
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It's calling back to actually that text in Abraham when God made a covenant with Abraham.
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I wanna turn there in short. Genesis chapter 15.
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Genesis chapter 15, which is the covenant that God is raking reference of in Exodus 19.
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Genesis 15 verses eight and on says this.
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What does this word cut mean? This should really be powerful for our understanding of this covenant, this understanding of how
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God operates through the means of covenants. Genesis 15 verses eight and on says this.
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And he said, oh Lord Yahweh, how may I know that I will possess it?
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This comes after God has given Abraham a promise, the promise that the people are to remember in Haggai chapter two.
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That he says that your seed will be innumerable as the stars and he says, God, how will
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I know that I will possess this? My wife, she is barren, we can't have kids, God. How do
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I know that you aren't lying to me? How do I know that you're gonna be faithful to this promise? How do
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I know you're gonna be faithful to the promise of this covenant? And so what happens is so he said to him, bring me a three -year -old heifer and a three -year -old female goat and a three -year -old ram and a turtle dove and a young pigeon.
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And he brought all these to him and he split them into parts down the middle and he laid each part opposite to the other.
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But he did not split apart the birds. Then the birds of prey came down upon the carcasses and Abram drove them away.
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Now I wanna pause here and make mention of what happened to those animals. They were cut and split down the middle.
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They were dead. And when you think about this, imagine this three -year -old heifer, this three -year -old goat, this three -year -old lamb.
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And I know Lizzie's here with us today who sees butchering happen often. Is that a scene that is pleasant to us to look at?
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You don't watch it that often. Because it's gruesome, is it not? What is it? It's death. It's disgusting.
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If you've ever smelt blood on the ground, you can immediately taste the copper in your mouth, right?
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You know that something is dead. And here you have multiple animals that have died before Abram.
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And they're split down the middle and they're put side by side across from each other. Death, remember that, death is in this text.
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Cutting of a covenant is death, cut. Now notice this.
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Now it happened that when the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram. And behold, terror and great darkness fell upon him.
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Then God said to Abram, know for certain, this is the promise, know for certain that your seed will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs.
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And they will be enslaved and mistreated for 400 years. But I will also judge the nation to whom they are enslaved.
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And afterwards, they will come out with many possessions. As for you, you shall go to your fathers in peace and be buried at a good old age.
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Then in the fourth generation, they will return here for their iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete. Now it happened that the sun had set and it was very dark and behold.
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Now let me pause before we read this. Abram is sitting there, sun has gone down. He's smelling that death.
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He's seeing the gruesomeness. It says that there's these birds of prey that have come to feast upon the carcasses. They are dead.
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It's this gruesome scene that Lizzie wouldn't wanna look at. I know my wife would turn her head away from it. It's gruesome.
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What happens? It says that when this had taken place, now it happened that the sun had set and it was very dark and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch, which passed between these pieces.
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On that day, Yahweh cuts a covenant with Abram saying, to your seat
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I have given this land from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river of Ephrates.
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Think about this for a moment. Covenants, what are they? They're agreements between two and more parties.
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They have promises and they have punishments. If I had made a covenant with Chad last week that I was gonna turn on that,
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I might've gone out back and grabbed one of my chickens and cut it in half and shown Chad, look
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Chad, I understand the severity of my promise to you. I will walk through the dead animal and if I don't obey it,
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I suffer the same as these chickens. I suffer the same as this dead animal.
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Now, to whom did God make the covenant with here? To Abram. Did Abram walk through that?
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No, he didn't. Who walked through it? God did.
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In what's called a theophany, this picture of who God is, this smoking oven and this burning torch goes through the animals and it says that Yahweh was the one that cut the covenant.
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Now, pay attention to this. Who receives the blessings in this? Abraham and his seed. Who pays the price of the violation of the covenant?
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God does. I love covenants.
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Now, every time that you see in your translations, if yours says made, know that that word is cut.
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And every time that you read that word made or God covenanted with you, you better think of Genesis 15 and remember
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God suffers the punishment of the covenant that he made with me and I received the blessings.
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I'm undeserving, I'm the one that broke the covenant. I should be the one that suffers this gruesome death scene, but God is the one that will suffer.
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So when you go to Haggai chapter two verse five and it says in there, remember the promise. Remember the promise that the seed will come to whom all nations will be blessed.
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For I cut with you when I took you out of Egypt. God cut a covenant with Abram and he promised in doing so that though your descendants
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Abraham, though those that would have faith in me, even though they have sinned against me and they deserve death,
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I will suffer in their place. When we go to Haggai chapter two, this is why
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I love covenants. We can't understand the Bible unless it's through the framework of covenants.
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When you see here in Haggai chapter two, he says, as for the promise, which I cut with you, he's talking about this group of people through Abraham, their federal head, this representative of this whole that I cut with you when you came out of Egypt.
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So after they come out of Egypt, he promised to them in the midst of this covenant people that I will make you a kingdom of priests, a holy nation unto
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God. God himself was promising that there will be a day that I suffer in your place.
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That's the significance when you see this word cut in this text or this word made in this text or this word covenanted with you in this text.
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This is why I love covenants. As for the promise, which
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I cut with you when you came out of Egypt, my spirit is standing in your midst, do not fear.
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We need to make mention of a couple things here and then we'll go fast forward to something that's very significant for us to remember.
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In this day of 520 BC, who is dwelling with them? It says that my spirit is in your midst.
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Last week in Adventure Club, Rick went through again with the children here, the Trinity, that God is father, son, and the
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Holy Spirit. Even in the Old Testament, we see in the New Testament, which is very, very clear for us to see,
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God says that your body is a temple, a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 2, he says that you are a house, a temple being built unto
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God and he is dwelling with us. We understand that the Holy Spirit dwells in us because we have been born again, but often we forget that even in the
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Old Testament, it wasn't like the people prior to the cross were saved by another means that you and I have been saved.
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They are saved the exact same way. In God's covenant people, God's covenant people, they have the spirit with them.
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They can rest assured that what is to come is far better than what is before them because God himself was with them.
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And what is it saying after that? My spirit is with you. My spirit is standing in your midst.
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Do not fear. As Christians today that live post to the cross, how often do we live our life in fear of what's to happen?
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I know I do all the time. I get discouraged what's before me and I am fearful and I ought not to be.
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God says, don't be anxious in the New Testament. He commands us not to. Do not fear,
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Christian, for God's spirit is dwelling. He's standing with you.
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Now, expressively and more importantly, I think we forget this, that when we come here to church on Sundays, on the
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Lord's day and we celebrate his resurrection and we glorify God, this is the most obvious means in showing that God's spirit stands with us.
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It gives us the importance and if you haven't today, if you come to church every once in a while, not due to health reasons or not due to other things that hold you back from doing it, but it's just a,
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I come here because Christmas is, or I come on Christmas Sunday or Easter Sunday and that's the only times
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I go to church. Brothers and sisters, this, when we meet together, God is standing with us.
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You can't think that we just go every once in a while and that's an okay thing. You aren't saved from coming to church, but God stands with us.
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You ought to come and glorify him. Do not fear. In a day and age that the world is sinning constantly and there's terribleness outside, this ought to be the very first place that we run and make priority to because this is
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God's dwelling places with us. He stands with us. Do not fear.
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Remember the promise, the covenant that God cut with us. Do not forget that.
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Do not fear, Christian. God's spirit is standing in your midst. It was standing in the midst of the people that believed in him in the
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Old Testament, 520 BC. 2 ,500 years ago, God's spirit was standing with the people that had faith in him.
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God has been the same yesterday, today and tomorrow and he stands with us today if you have faith in him as God's covenant people.
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This is remarkable. So when then it says in here, well, let's read one more thing real fast for us because I just said something that I hope you paid attention to.
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We are God's covenant people. God hasn't just changed the way that he works.
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We are God's covenant people. Again, I'm a Baptist because I believe in God's covenants. What do
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I mean by that? I wanna read for us two texts, maybe three, maybe four.
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We might just see what happens in here. But Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34.
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Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34. I think this ought to be the text that every church ought to operate under.
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This is the constitution of the Christian church in my opinion. Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34.
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Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34 says this. This is my
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LSB translation, words it as this. And I hope you pay attention to the differences between translations here.
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Behold, days are coming. So this is a future thing for Jeremiah. Behold, days are coming declares Yahweh, Lord, when
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I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which
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I cut with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. That's the same promise that God has already talked about in Haggai chapter two.
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Not like that covenant, not like that covenant when
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I took them by the hand to bring them out of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, but I was a husband to them declares
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Yahweh. But this is the covenant which I will cut with the house of Israel after those days declares
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Yahweh. I will put my law within them and I will write upon their heart and I will be their
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God and they shall be my people. And they will not teach again, each man is neighbor and each man is brother saying, no
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Yahweh for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest of them declares Yahweh.
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For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin, I will remember no more. What is this covenant speaking about?
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Behold, days are coming when I will cut a new covenant. And this covenant is gonna result and it's not like the covenants that were cut before, it's much different.
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This covenant is not going to be one that it's just merely physical descendants, but it's people that actually know who
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Yahweh is and are known by Yahweh. And what else does it say in here? It says that their sins will be forgiven and I will remember them no more.
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Immediately your mind should be taking you to what we read last week out of Matthew chapter 28 or Matthew chapter 26 verse 28 that says, behold, this is the blood of my covenant that I give to you for the forgiveness of sins.
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That what we did last week for communion was the profession as us as members of this new and better covenant, the covenant that actually forgives sins through the spilling of the blood of the perfect sacrifice, the covenant keeper, the federal head, the one that represents us all.
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Now, let me turn here to, because something that we've made mention of several, several times in here is the seed that's promised.
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That's the thing that pierces all these Old Testament covenants is the seed.
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It's consistent, it's used often over and over and over again. What does the New Testament tell us about this seed?
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According to Galatians chapter three, verse 16, it says, now the promises, again, that word should stick out to you.
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Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Paul says in here, he does not say to seeds as referring to many, but rather to one and to your seed, that is
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Christ. Let's go down and read verse 25.
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Well, let's actually just read this. And what I am saying is this, what I am saying is this, the law which came 430 years later does not invalidate a covenant previously ratified by God so as to abolish the promise.
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So the promise is consistent. It doesn't get abolished when a new covenant comes. The promise stays there. It keeps on going, it advances.
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What was the promise again? It was the seed that wasn't referring to many, but it was referring to Christ. And then it says to this, for if the inheritance is by the law, it is no longer by promise, but God has granted it to Abraham through promise.
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Let us fast forward here to verse 25. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
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For all of you who are baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek.
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There is neither slave nor free man. There is neither male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
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And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise.
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So when we read in Haggai chapter two, verse five, and we see that that promise is used there.
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And remember the cutting of the covenant. What is the promise? Christ.
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What is the cutting of the covenant representative of in the Old Testament that was pointing out and shouting what?
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Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, He's coming. Have faith in Yahweh. And what is it that they're to have faith in?
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The promise. What's the promise? Jesus Christ is coming,
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Old Testament believers. He's gonna pay the price of sin and iniquity.
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And if you have faith in that seed, you are Abraham's descendant. Not according to the letter of the law, but according to the letter of faith.
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You have faith in the promise, you are saved. So when we look at this and we consider, let me just read one more place for us here.
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And we'll end in this text. Hebrews, Hebrews I have loved going through as a Bible study because what is that consistent word that we talk about every single time after every single
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Bible study or in the midst of every single Bible study? Better, better, better, better, better.
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Hebrews chapter eight, Hebrews chapter nine, Hebrews chapter 10, all reference Jeremiah 31, 31 through 34.
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This is a new covenant which I will cut with you. Hebrews says that has been cut at the cross, that Christ is the better mediator of a better covenant.
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So when we come to Hebrews chapter 13, verse 20, I want you to pay attention to this.
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This is beautiful. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 20 says this.
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Now the God of peace who brought up from the dead, the great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, our
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Lord Jesus. Brothers and sisters as Christians, you ought to love covenants.
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You ought to love them. You ought to seek them, study them and understand most importantly what the new covenant is.
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What the covenant of the blood of the eternal lamb, this eternal covenant that was shed by the eternal shepherd.
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What is that? What does that mean? This great shepherd, this eternal covenant. You need to study these things out today.
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But just remember this, that we under the commandments and laws of God have suffered or not suffered, but have sinned against God.
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Under God's commandments, we have sinned against him and we are fully deserving of the punishment of that covenant that God made.
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When we see the death of the cutting of the covenant, you ought to think that should be me. I ought to be cut in half and suffer the wrath of God justly and righteously.
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It should be, I should be cut down the center right now where I stand. But it's not you that has walked through those dead animals.
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Who walked through them? God himself did. And God himself paid the price of our sin upon the cross of Calvary where he suffered and died in your place.
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And he was buried and rose again on the third day in victory. It is through faith in this covenant keeper,
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Jesus Christ, that you and I have salvation. And I would ask you today, if you haven't turned and believed in Jesus, that you would do so quickly.
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Let us go ahead and pray. Lord God, I do thank you, Lord, for this text in Haggai chapter two,
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Lord. And God, I do ask you, God, that you would help us as new covenant members of this better covenant made through a better mediator that is
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Christ, our Lord and King. God, that I would ask you to help us remember these things.
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Remember that we have faith in the same promise that you had given to those in the old, and it is through your seed,
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Jesus the Christ, the son of God, the son of man, this perfect lamb, Lord, that we have been saved.
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Lord, let us love your covenant today. Let us be reminded that we are covenant members, Lord. God, you are faithful, you are true, you are holy,
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Lord. And I just would ask that we would praise your name louder and more clearly today.
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And we say this in your name, Jesus Christ, amen. Brothers and sisters,