Taking Hold of the New Covenant — David Wilkerson

Don't forget our services Tuesday night Wednesday or Thursday our intercessory prayer meeting nights, and then Friday night Bible school. Keep those Services all in mind. Would you turn to Psalm 89 please Psalm?

Taking Hold of the New Covenant

89 89th Psalm. I want to read one verse before we proceed. Verse 34, please. My message tonight. Taking hold of the covenant. Hope. Taking hold of the New Covenant. Taking hold of the New Covenant. Verse 34.

My covenant will I not break there. All to the thing that has gone out of my lips. My covenant will I not break and are all to the thing that has gone out of my lips. We're going to 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 this mattering 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 he said I'm going to 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 trust in him fully. God says I'm going to show you the Covenant now that means that you have to believe that you have to claim it you have To press into it.

But we're going to 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 and these last days 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 at 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 it may hear. No, 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 Mention, 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.

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. 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.

Why the New Covenant Has Been Neglected

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 is so glorious it's so life-freeing that many people take advantage of it and have in the past and and they have misused the covenant.

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 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 said Israel's they said Israel's Israel Jew is Jew and is Jerusalem is Jerusalem.

It's natural. It's 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 is 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 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. It's only lately the Lord seemed fit to open just a few views into this and I've told God I'm 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 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 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 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 go until he shows and unveils this new covenant and I believe they're going to be many others. I see God revealing this to pass the card 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 and carry It off into some extreme it 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 reason the only way you can they hold of the covenant the new covenant is to be absolutely persuaded.

Spiritual Israel and the People of the New Covenant

That is meant for you and me today. That it's not for some Jewish nation. It's not for natural Israel or natural Jerusalem the actual Jew. It is for spiritual Israel. There are two Israel's there are two kinds of Jews there are two kinds of Jerusalem's.

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 a faith name and represented all the seed of faith. All the children who had 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 I have a clean heart. It 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 is to Israel's immediately.

Romans 9 6 not as though the Word of God has taken that 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 to 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 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 side-eye 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 it's the mother of his all he said it's to Jerusalem's up to Israel's one natural and one spiritual Revelation 228.

Or Romans 228 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's 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 going to come to the new the new Israel. The natural is 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. There were no position. 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 that 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. And what's 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 Israelites you wouldn't be in Christ were brought into it later.

We're brought into it because we're 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.

Heavenly Father and his son remember Jesus the Son of God though. He was not in flesh when the bosom is 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.

The Covenant Between the Father and the Son

And in time before it was all any 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 are not made in secret.

Now I want you to follow me very very close if you will all the Contracting and all the conversation that is coming 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 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 speakest 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 will become who have become by sin weak and miserable.

Hopeless and overwhelmed and they will be unable to find a 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 and 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 this 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 to the single one should perish Came out of the heart of God's heart of love. Now when when God said that he set up the terms. You're going to go but I'm going to lay help on you.

I'm going to make you mighty. You're going to 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 this is Jesus accepting the terms of the covenant. No, he's speaking to his father. I've 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 To help you lay on me. I accept your might and your power. I'm going to 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 of when he said I do it my father only what I see and hear from my father. He saw it 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 going to have to lay down my life and I agreed. John 12 49. So 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 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.

Christ's Incarnation and Sacrificial Mission

First of all God said the term of the covenant on his part, but 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. He's the father said part of the term 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 or comeliness. He said I'm 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 should go 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 going to be placed in the hands of wicked men and in great agony. You're going to lay down your life as an offering. I'm going to lay the sins of the whole world upon you my son. He said this is the term.

Then the father Says your ministry is going to be one first of all of a priest. You're going to have to carry this Seat 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.

I 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 there are in your arms into your bosom and bring him back.

You're going to go as a shepherd. You're going to lead him besides 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 his 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. They that come 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'll 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 come in to do with you and for you. And. These are all clearly revealed in the scripture.

The Father's Promises to the Son

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 Son.

Giveth this not the Spirit by measure unto him. God did not give the Spirit by measure. He didn't get it and drips and dribbles. He didn't get a drop of the Spirit here and there. Now you and I received 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 in 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 do me 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 said judgment in the earth. God said every time the enemy comes into your discouraged. I will be there and by my spirit I'll 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. And I will bring you back to glory in victory and power and anointing. Ought not Christ who 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 Scriptures that 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 that 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 you're in 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. Is for the seed for his children. I think back of everything Jesus did if 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 healing 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 it you say I can't accept that that this covenant was made before time.

Listen to what this good just says in hope of eternal life, which God who cannot lie Promised before the world began and that word promise letters 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 out to the last seat take him his arm bring it back. That's what the father told him. He would do in covenant. He's just fulfilling the covenant. Hallelujah. And you 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 that 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? It's all about the love of God for His people and for the loss the covenant that was cut Is because God said he's not willing that any should perish.

The Covenant's Security for Believers

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? And start with me at verse 26. This is Jesus speaking the father. I told you it's all in the word. It wasn't hidden. This contact wasn't made in secret.

Verse 26. He shall cry unto me now aren't my father my God and the rock of my salvation. Here's the father saying and I will make him my firstborn Higher than the kings of the earth. The father 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 whole help you understand it.

This is for you and it's for me. It is so glorious. It's mind-boggling. We can cast 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 going to do with his sinning body his sinning children those who transgress? Those who grieve him.

What is he going to do? Read the next verse nevertheless. My loving kindness will I utter well? I'm 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. It's gone out of my lips. I will not lie to David and to 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 receive. 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 them 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 them to read it to you. I have 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 end.

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 as the body is one and as many members and all the members of that body.

Of that one body being many there's still one body. So is Christ in other words. You look at me. I'm one body, but I've got fingers. There's I got ten members right there. I've got two members here. I got two members here.

I got two members here. I got ten toes ten members there. I got eyes two members here. I've got two members here all members of one body. Folks in bright 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 the trust in me to you. But we will be one man everything you promised me our claim in covenant for them. He said these are my terms my blood. Thank you for Purify the devil.

Christ's Mediatorship and the Prayer of John 17

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 is praying covenant to his father. 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 Fathers 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 what Jesus is doing. He's going back into eternity. He's reminding the father at 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. Rejoicing as 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 helped me to come into the Covenant 17. One these words speak. Jesus lifted his eyes to heaven to said father the hours come. Glorify thy son that thy son may also glorify thee.

Remember when the terms of the covenant. You come and then I will bring you back to glory. I'll restore all the glory you had with me Before you left. He's saying now father. I have completed all the terms that come and I'm going to the cross and it'll be finished.