The Old and New Covenants — Robert B. Thompson

The Old and New Covenants

Lord, as we come unto you tonight, it is with great praise and thanksgiving. It is a wonder, Lord, how you bring us through all the vicissitudes of life. It is a wonder, and yet you do, Lord. You just seem like we're never going to last, but you just keep bringing us on, bringing us on.

And we know it's your faithfulness, Lord, and we thank you for it. We pray tonight, Lord, for the families represented here. Lord, you know the needs, and we pray that you keep their families, their concerned loved ones, in health and safety, Lord.

All of our families, keep us, Lord. As we go forward tonight, Lord, we pray that the truth of God's kingdom will be real. You'll make it real to us. The Holy Spirit will teach us. Bring Christ to each one in Jesus' name.

Amen. Alright, we will turn then to Hebrews. Okay, starting with verse 6. But the ministry Jesus has received is as superior to theirs, that is referring to the Mosaic priesthood, as the covenant of which he is mediator is superior to the old one, and it is founded on better promises.

The Old Covenant and the New Covenant

So, the old covenant is what? Moses. And what is the idea of a covenant? Did they teach you about that in Point Lowell?

What did they teach you? The covenant is a promise between two people. That's true.

Like a marriage covenant. And the covenant was between God and Israel, and the idea was that if they did what God said, God would do what he said in return. And it was established with blood of animals.

That's the first covenant. And now we're under a new covenant. It's not the same. And you know, Christianity has been in existence now for 2 ,000 years. And the difference between the covenants is still not clear.

And you'll hear people mixing the old covenant with the new, without really understanding. They say, well, we're not under the law, but under grace. What they mean by that is, we don't have to do what God commanded in the first covenant.

What do we have to do? Believe. The new covenant has become one of belief. And as I said, the common understanding is that the difference is that the old covenant was works, and the new covenant is faith.

But what did we say about that Sunday? Do you remember? Every covenant works by faith. The distinctive is not faith. It's not faith. How did faith work in the law of Moses? Well, you had to have faith to do it.

And if you did it without faith, then you were in the way of Cain. Remember, Jude speaks of the way of Cain. That's the way of Cain, is to do your religious duty without loving God. And you can do that under Christianity.

Just as slick as you can under Moses. And the outworking under Moses is that you get off into all these little things that don't really matter, like throwing a switch on Saturday or pushing the elevator button on Saturday.

The minutia of it all. That's what happens. That's the natural evolution of keeping the law of Moses without faith. You can keep any covenant with God without faith. Now, the natural evolution of the new covenant is licentiousness.

There's no rules, nothing governs. That is as much an aberration as you can't chew a breath mint, which was part of the things that were threshed out. They call them peppercorn. It was a peppercorn that used a breath mint.

You couldn't chew it on the Sabbath, on Saturday. And we say, how ridiculous. But that's what happens when you go in the way of Cain. When you offer your religious duty without loving God. And the basis of faith is loving God and trusting Him.

That's the basis of it. And you can go through the Jewish law of Moses with a heart full of love for God and offer your offering with a heart full of love for God and keep the Sabbath and rejoice and love God and do the laws of leprosy and love God and everything else and love God.

More than then, you're justified by faith. And Paul, of course, when he talks teaching about that, goes back to Abraham. See how he was justified by faith. Because he believed God. He loved God. And Cain says, yeah, more than that.

He was justified by faith when he offered up the son. And so then it comes, you know, what's it works when he doesn't. The common denominator is to love God. And if you do what you do without loving God, it's not accepted.

It's not faith. And you can't please God apart from faith. The righteous live by faith. The way of Cain. And so, under the New Covenant, it spells out as it has today by taking a scripture here and a scripture there and proving that we don't have to do anything.

That way you keep what it says, but you do it without faith. Do you see that? So you can do Christianity without faith wonderfully. You just take Romans 10, 9, and 10. And John 3, 16. And John 5, 27. Dip in here and dip out there.

And leave out the stuff you don't understand or apply it to the Jews. And you come up with this abomination that you don't have to live righteously. Does that make sense to you? That's what Hebrews is telling us.

Abel's sacrifice was better because he offered it with faith. Cain didn't have it. He had a bitterness and strife in his heart. And so God didn't accept it for that reason. So the Old Testament is full of instances where God reproves Israel because their heart wasn't there.

They were not circumcised of heart. They were not circumcised of heart. The circumcision was in the flesh and that was done without any love for God or anything. It was just to do their duty. And God didn't accept it.

So the distinctive of the Christian new covenant is not faith. Faith is common to all the covenants of God. And without faith you cannot please God. As it says in Romans 11, without faith it is impossible to please God.

You can't please God by keeping the statute of Moses or a verse or two of the New Testament. You can't do that. Your heart has to be toward God. If there could have been a law made that would have created righteousness it would have been the law of Moses.

But God had something better in mind. What is one of the distinctives of the New Covenant? Yes, exactly. Remember what Jesus said at the communion? This is my blood of the New Testament. That's one of the main distinctives.

It's the blood of Jesus. So the basis of the covenant is no longer the blood of animals but the blood of Jesus.

Jesus Christ as the New Covenant

Yes. It's interesting that you say and use that word testament because I was raised in a church and this is probably most of the churches in America and we refer to the New Testament not as ourselves but as the Scriptures, the Bible.

This becomes what's worshipped and this becomes what is biblically authoritative. Yes.

This can never be the New Covenant or the New Testament. This isn't the New Testament that we have here. What we have here is a record of men who themselves were the New Covenant. See, the New Covenant is people.

You'll see that in Isaiah 42. I will make you a covenant of the people. And Jesus is the covenant Himself. And when He is in us and we are crucified and Christ is living in us then we become the covenant of God to people.

And if they do what we say then God will bless them. That's the priesthood, the royal priesthood. So, in the last analysis, in the finest sense of the word the New Covenant is Jesus Himself. Can anyone find that quickly in Isaiah 42?

I will make you a covenant of the people. It's about the middle of the chapter and it's speaking of the servant of the Lord. What's the verse? 6? I don't think it was that early. Okay, 42 .6. But, that's speaking of whom?

Who is the servant of the Lord? Christ, head and body is the servant of the Lord. Christ is the servant of the Lord and Jesus is the head and the church is the body and that's all the servant of the Lord.

So, the whole servant of the Lord is the covenant of God with men. So, you are the light of the world. Whosoever sins you remit are remitted unto them. You have the keys of the kingdom. These kinds of things set the church apart from mankind as being the covenant of God toward man.

Okay, so a covenant is an agreement. So, the Old Covenant can be written on papyrus or a lambskin or paper or the walls of your house. But, the New Covenant can only be written where Audrey said. Only written in the heart of man.

The Holy Spirit, the Church, and the Written Word

Okay, yes. The idea of sins being remitted by the church that the prophets really don't hold to. The prophets really don't hold to that idea. The strong sense, that's kind of something that's got out of the Catholic Church when the priest forgives sins is the priest of the Lord.

And it comes in that manner. But, we don't hold to that. The church has that power.

Well, then the church has a problem if it departs from the written word. Because the written word cannot be changed. But, the key to it is not the pathosy. The key to it is the preceding verse where it says Jesus breathed on them and said receive ye the Holy Spirit.

Whosoever sins you remit are remitted and whosoever sins you retain are retained. So, it only operates when you're living in the Spirit. The basis of that is the Spirit of God. When you're not living in the Spirit of God it's non-operative and it can't be passed down in the church organization.

It cannot do that. Of course, many of the things in the Catholic Church are shadows of what once was a reality in the very early centuries. And so, it's vestigial.

But, it is true. Bill, you had a question? I think this follows on what you were saying in the next part of the covenant that I was talking about as all men shall know me. Jesus breathed on the Lord and that...

Well, let's look at what... That's right. And let's look at what it says. The minute... And it's founded on better promises. Verse 7. For if there had... Hebrews 8 .7 For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant...

Now, this is important to look at here. What was wrong with the first covenant? Very important to understand. If there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant no place would have been sought for another.

But, now notice what was wrong with the covenant. But, God found fault with the people. There was no problem. The law is perfect. The problem was with the people. I think sometimes the idea is that it was an inferior covenant.

It was not... Well, it's inferior to the new. But, it's still a divine covenant issued from Sinai. Yes.

That's an affiliation, though, where Paul said that the promise of the new covenant was given before the law. And the law was only given to hold people in prison until faith had come. That's absolutely true.

That's absolutely true. The law was given to keep sin on ice until the seed should come. The seed of Abraham should come, which is Christ and all who are part of Christ to whom the promise was made. That is the promise of the Holy Spirit.

That's the promise. To whom the promise was made. So, that's absolutely true. The law was a stopgap until the new covenant would come. Nevertheless... Huh?

Oh, I'm thinking. This says, God found fault with the people. This says, then I'll make a new covenant. But he already...

The problem with the covenant was that it operated in terms of the Adamic nature. So, you can say it was imperfect for that reason. Nonetheless, the bottom line was that Christ kept it perfectly. And we see that when Pilate said, I find no fault in him.

See, that's a legal statement concerning the Passover lamb. The Passover lamb had to be inspected and be without blemish. And Pilate inspected Jesus and he said, there's no fault in him. And that made Jesus eligible to be the Passover lamb.

Yes?

The thing... The new covenant is kept when both sides keep it. In the first covenant, people couldn't keep... People couldn't keep their side of it. But in the second covenant, the new covenant, because of the Holy Spirit, because of the blood of Christ, we are able to keep it so that we keep our side, God keeps his side, and that's what makes the old one sweet in comparison.

Yes.

But it causes you... Yes. Yes. And Jesus said that. He said, I didn't come to do away with the law. I came to fulfill the law. It's pretty sometimes that the law was here and then we go... No more law.

And now we have Christ. But the truth is that by receiving Christ, we're able to fulfill the intent of the law. Yeah. Every portion of it. Because it was Christ himself who gave the law in Sinai. But it was addressed to the natural man.

The point is, the time... the problem with it was that the people could not keep that righteous behavior. Well, Tony, we're talking about the new covenant from Hebrews 8. Verse 8. But you see how the preaching of Christianity has missed the point?

Because it teaches that the new covenant is better because now we don't have to live righteously. Which is a non-sequitur. Because God gave a covenant that enables us to live righteously. Not as an alternative to righteous behavior.

If the new covenant was an alternative to righteous behavior, then it would not... then God would not... See, God found fault because they weren't living righteously. So, the idea is that the covenant now makes you live righteously.

That's why it's better. Not that God gave up and said we don't have to keep it anymore. And that's a fundamental misunderstanding of evangelical thinking. That the new covenant is better because now we don't have to obey God.

I'm just putting it succinctly, but that's about where it is. We just take a theological stance. That's how the just live by faith. If we misbehave and everything, it's not critically important. It's undesirable, certainly, but not critically important because now we have an alternative to having to live righteously.

Thus missing the entire thrust, the entire purpose of having the new covenant. It's like God wanted righteousness and you didn't get it, so now He gave us a new covenant in which righteousness is not required.

We're saved, rather, by faith. A complete missing of the intention of God. Completely missed the point. Now, that's what happens when your heart isn't in it. See, that's what happens when your heart is not...

Isn't that what Stephen said? You do always err... Where? In your heart, Acts 7. You do always err in your heart. It's heart trouble that we have. And the Jews have had it, and the Christians have. We do always miss the point.

Every time God zigs, we zag. Well, try not to do better than that. The time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant. Now, do you know where that's quoted from? Jeremiah 33, isn't it?

Chapter verse 33. Yeah, I think it's 31 verse 33. I think 33 figures in there somewhere. And now, it's interesting that the word used in Jeremiah is Torah. The traditional Hebrew word for law. And I think it's the same word used here, if I recall.

I checked that out one time. When I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel. Now, I want to stop there, because this will put your mind into a trajectory. The new covenant cannot be made with a Gentile.

It's only made with the house of Israel. So, in order to come under the new covenant, what must you do? You have to be grafted into the almighty. Because there are not two olive trees. There's only the one.

And God does not have a Jewish olive tree and a Gentile olive tree. And that is a tremendous... I don't know as I've ever heard anyone get that straight. That just is a profound problem in Christian thinking.

Israel, the Church, and the Olive Tree

The church and Israel. No such thing. There's only Israel. Israel under the old covenant was by the race of the Jews. Israel under the new covenant is the church. But, that does not mean that God has given up on the physical land and people of Israel.

That's another mistake that's made. Replacement theology. The Bible teaches clearly in Romans that God is going to return again to the physical land and people of Israel and graft the Jews by race back into the olive tree.

And there are several verses to that. Some in the old covenant. Some in the new. But the idea seems to be, the best I can make out of the various verses is that that they will come out of Zion that out of the church that deliver the body of Christ and bring salvation to Israel and the whole nation will be saved.

And I say, well how can that be? Just like Paul was saved on the road to Damascus. He says, I'll take away their sins. And God can do that with any person at any time he wants to. You can just take away your sins.

You don't have to go through an altar call. The apostle Paul did not go through an altar call. He did not accept Christ. He did not do the four steps of salvation. It's as it were, he was saved against his will, so to speak.

Not actually, but in looking at it superficially. I mean, he's going along trying to murder Christians, going up to get the names so he can throw more people in jail. And a light comes, you know, knocks him off his camel, or whatever it did.

He's blinded by it. Why are you kicking against the gold, you know? Well, who are you? I'm Jesus whom you persecuted. Go up, you know, and you'll be told what to do. Whoa. I mean, picture the guy. He just got through helping with the murder of the first martyr.

And he had all this blood, all these people. He never forgot that either. That's why he said, I'm the chiefest of sinners. Because every church he'd go to, they had relatives that'd be thrown in jail.

And he never forgot that. God had ways of keeping old Paul humble. But it was almost against his will. I mean, God just says, not only are you saved, but the apostles and the Gentiles now get on with it.

You're going to suffer. And God can do that any time He wants to. We see that in the revival in Wales. But God just poured out His Spirit on Wales at the turn of the century. And I mean, those coal miners were getting saved by the hundreds and thousands and closed the bars, closed the dance halls.

They were singing hymns in the mine shafts. He can do that any time He takes a notion to. We don't realize that, but it's true. And so, what I get out of Isaiah that talks about Israel and Romans and so on is that in the last days, God is just going to take this that He has developed in His church, His bride, and just bring it down onto the land of Israel and the whole thing will be restored and that's the meaning of and all Israel shall be saved.

But you never, if you want to deal with God, you have to deal with Israel. And the church is Israel. And Israel is the church. Israel was the church in the wilderness. Because the word church means called out.

And Israel was the called out people of God in the wilderness. They were the church in the wilderness. And we are called out from the world today. And the first Christian church was 5 ,000 Jews keeping the law of Moses.

Honest.

I wouldn't put you on. Yes. Where does the switch to anti-Semitism in churches even as far back as Lutheranism was already back? What turned the tide?

I think it goes way back beyond Luther. Luther was very anti-Semitic, it's true. But I think when you go way back probably before Constantine. What happened was in the very early stages the Jews persecuted the Gentiles which brought up a bunch of hostility right there.

And then when Christianity became it's always set up close to the front of you, Hunter. When Christianity became what shall I say? Christianity became secular. If you read about the way the early people for example from Scandinavia and the British Isles Christianity rapidly became into a situation where the bishops would go after the leader of a tribe and he would get converted and then he'd command the whole group whether it was Celts or what was that Irish tribe?

There was a famous Irish tribe. No, that's a religion. There was a wild Irish. No, those were warriors. The Berserkers were warriors. I don't remember whether they were from Scandinavia. I think they were from Scandinavia.

They would go out in front of the army paint themselves blue. They were naked and they were like wild men and they would charge and that's where you get the term Berserk. Those were the Berserkers. But there were wild wild tribes in Ireland and Scotland and England and a lot of the people in England some were coming in from Scandinavia and some were coming in from France from Scotland and Ireland so England was a real hodgepodge.

But what happened was that Christianity became a case they'd march a whole tribe down into the water and then they'd give them masks because the Catholic Church was very active way back there in the beginning and they'd give them masks and they were Christians there was no born again or anything like that.

I'm sure there was a lot of sincere people that God really touched but it's almost you almost call it secular. So then this idea began to grow up against the Jews. So that goes way back because they murdered Christ and so and the church became very political and had vested interests in all these geographic areas where it went and so the Jews were out of it as far as the church they wouldn't obey the church for one thing they would not and the church was very rigorous it was political it was run like an organization and the Jews of course would not agree and so they were very quickly on the burnt end of the stick.

Yes? It turns back to the early 70's.

80's when they'd apologize to them because right before the Jews were expelled the Christians all exited the city and that created a rift between the Jews what they called the Nazarene sect which were the Jewish Christians and the Gentiles and because they deserted the city and the Romans came and destroyed everybody that separated them from their Isle and then...

Well, did Gentile...

Well... did Gentile Christians leave the city? Are you saying... Or just Gentiles?

Oh, they were Christians. They were... they were the side of the Christians. Someone received a vision that they should leave and they left and the next two days the city fell and so they were kind of as being... as having abandoned their fellow people I see.

And then... under Nero when the persecution started there they... the Jewish... which... Jewish people who weren't Christians were leaders and were inciting the government against the Christians themselves because they wanted to see leaders who were actually converting the Jewish people into Christianity.

They wanted them out of the way so they stopped doing that stuff that started pretty far back. Well, you can see it in the book of Acts where the Grecian widows where there's a rift between the Grecian widows.

And the Jewish widows wasn't it? Wasn't it? And then they appointed Stephen so very early. And it's because both were in the flesh. They both were in the flesh. Both the Jewish Christians and the Gentiles were in the flesh and...

So whenever people are in the flesh that's the way it happens. All right. I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Now I don't know if that that kind of reminds you doesn't it?

In Ezekiel where they had one stick in his hand for Israel and the one they had was for Joseph and Ephraim and the other stick was for Judah. And we are we are included in the Ephraim thing by the prophecy that Jacob prayed over Ephraim that he would be the father of many nations not just the Jews.

So we come under Ephraim but we are Israel. Make no mistake. You read in Galatians the third chapter about the second to last verse and it says if you belong to Christ then you are Abraham's seed. The seed is singular and it only applies to Christ and it only applies to a Jew when he becomes part of Christ because the Jew without Christ is not of the seed of Abraham.

Because Paul said it's not by natural birth but it's by promise in Romans 9. So we are true Israel but we have not replaced the land and people of Israel. We have not replaced them. God broke them out of the olive tree because of unbelief.

And he says you are grafted in. And he says be careful because you stand by faith. And he says lest you also be removed. But he said God has not forgotten them and the redeemer shall come from Zion and turn away ungodliness from Israel.

And then all Israel will be saved which means all who are part of Christ Jews and Gentiles. That's what the Bible teaches. Ok. So the new covenant is made only with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah the two sticks that will become one in God's hand.

And that of course is the cross. And that's in Ephesians the second chapter is broken down the wall of enmity by the cross and made us both one and made us the house of God. Any questions? Ok. It will not be like the covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt.

And by the way if you are part of Christ they are your forefathers. Don't forget that God made that plain to me. You are in the lineage when you belong to Christ. You are in the lineage of Israel and it's not a fanciful thing.

It's a very real thing. You no longer are a Gentile. Do you understand that you no longer are a Gentile. And Peter when he's writing to the strangers and so on he said speaking to Peter was first Peter was speaking to Gentiles Christians and he calls them the royal priesthood.

And he said that your behavior should be excellent among the Gentiles meaning they were no longer Gentiles. You are not a Gentile if you belong to Jesus. If you are a Gentile you're still in the Gentile tree.

That's an uncultivated tree. It's a wild olive tree. It's not acceptable. You've got to be part of Jesus that makes you. And the Jew which is not part of Jesus is not a Jew. He's not. He's a Jew by race but he's not of Israel because Israel is always by what?

Promise. By promise. That's what Paul said. And the reason that Isaac continued the seed of Abraham was because he was given to Abraham by promise. And the same way with Jacob. Isaac had two sons but only one of them was of the promise.

Only one of them was Israel which was Jacob. But Esau was the son of Isaac and Rebekah but he was not counted. God said Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated because the promise went on Jacob. And then the promise continued by prophecy on the sons of Jacob.

Now where did the promise light on us? In Hosea. You remember where it was at in Hosea? I will call them my people who are not my people. And that's where the promise of God passed on to Gentiles. But if you read the book of Acts you'll find that those Gentiles that received eternal life were selected by the Lord.

And that's repeated several times in the book of Acts. Those who were ordained to eternal life believed. So God went out as the prophet said I'll take out of the Gentiles a people for my name. But then as Ezekiel he says there shall be one fold and one shepherd and David will be king over all of them.

So you are an integral part of the Israel of God. And the only way you can be in there is by promise. And you remember in Romans that he said today there is a remnant of Jews and Gentiles that God has chosen.

But the other Jews Paul said the prayer of David was fulfilled. I will make your table a trap unto you. And so they were blinded by prophecy. And that prophecy is in the sixth chapter of Isaiah where he said go and tell this people that seeing you may not see and hearing you may not hear.

And then Paul repeated that in Acts that's all by prophecy. And that's the way Israel is. It's chosen of God. It's by promise and never by the flesh. And you are here by promise. And that's John 15. You did not choose me.

I chose you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit. And that fruit is the image of Jesus Christ the fruit of Christ. And the bride interacting brings forth the image of Christ. Does that make sense?

Ok. So the new covenant is very profound isn't it? When I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt because they did not remain faithful to my covenant and I turned away from them. They broke the covenant and then God called it quits not forever.

But at the time I turned away from them I turned away from them. So Israel be as the sand of the sea. A remnant shall be saved. God is strict. Remember you stand by faith and you mess up. You'll be cut off.

Remember in Romans chapter 11. Alright the Bible is much stricter than it's preached in America. It's much stricter. We have a spoiled citizenry as regards Christianity and God's fixing to take us to the woodshed.

Repentance, Righteousness, and the Purpose of the New Covenant

Alright this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time. Now I want you to notice carefully what the covenant is. First of all the primary thrust of the covenant is not forgiveness.

Christianity is preached as being primarily forgiveness and probably from the book of Acts because the first thing that the apostles preached was repentance and forgiveness. They never preached forgiveness apart from repentance.

There was no forgiveness unless you turned away from the world as it says in Acts you have to do works suitable for repentance. So there's no forgiveness unless you turn from the ways of the world. There's no forgiveness in Acts apart from repentance turning away from the world.

So forgiveness is preached today without repentance. It's not a biblical message and it is works do works suitable for repentance. That's in Acts. We are, as James says justified by works. Yes absolutely absolutely.

God's covenants whatever they are always have one goal and that is to make man in the image of God. Now in the beginning God said we're going to make man in our image. We're going to make him male and female.

We're going to make him fruitful and we're going to give him dominion. And that will never change. And every covenant is for that purpose to make man in God's image to make him male and female. But that male and female has a limited fulfillment in the human race.

But all of these have a transcendent and ultimate fulfillment in Christ and the church. And so the first man that ever on the earth in God's image was who? Christ, not Adam Christ. And then the fulfillment of male and female is where God gets us away from our singleton life of individuality and we're married to Christ.

Because as long as we're not married to Christ we're a wandering star in the universe. We were made male and female. We do not exist as a singleton. We only exist in God's image. We only exist as married to Christ.

We were made to be married to Christ. When God said in the beginning it is not good for a man to be alone I will make a helper suitable for him. He was talking about. He says that in Ephesians 5 where he said bone of his bones.

This is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the church. When God spoke in the beginning of the Genesis he was speaking when he said it is not good for man to be alone. He was talking about Christ.

This whole thing is a Christ. Paul says I speak in a mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the church. And so if you recall the original marriage was not like marriage we have today. One person was made from the other so we can see right away that that's not human marriage because in human marriage one isn't made from the other but in our marriage to Christ we are made from Christ.

That's the fulfillment of the divine fire first that we're in God's image. Secondly that we lose our individuality never our uniqueness but we lose our our state of being detached from the only thing that gives significance which is marriage to Christ.

When we're detached from Christ we're dead, we're nothing. We're an animal. We have no eternal life. There's no eternal life other than in Jesus. Until we're married to him we have no eternal life. We're an animal homo sapiens.