The Distinction Between Covenants

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Let's pray, and then we will get started. Heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting

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God, we come before you in humble awe. You are the one true God, there is none other like you. Come, we pray, and bless our hearts and our minds as we study your word.

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Send your Holy Spirit into our lives so that we may grow in love and grace, and that we may go forth into all the world, proclaiming your gospel, so that others may learn of your saving grace.

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Through Jesus Christ our Lord, amen. Okay, what we are going to do today,

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I'm gonna answer a quick question that came up from, let's see, Mike, and it has to do with what was

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Jesus referring to when he talked about his baptism and cup. And then we're going to do a little mini study today on covenants.

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Have you ever wondered why is it that Christians do not celebrate the

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Sabbath? Why we are not required to celebrate the Passover? The Feast of Booths, the

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Feast of Weeks, Yom Kippur, and all these kinds of things. All of that is wrapped up in the fact that we are not under the

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Mosaic Covenant, and the Mosaic Covenant, as I said in the announcements today, is kaput. That's the official theological term for it.

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It's not Latin, I'm not sure. I think it's German. But, you know, German is one of the languages of theology, so kaput is a good way to talk about the

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Mosaic Covenant. You're gonna, at the end of this, hopefully understand why and which biblical texts that you can go to to kind of work that out.

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So, that being said, there was a question that came up that said, Pastor, the Gospel reading today, could you explain, and with the baptism with which

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I am baptized, you will be baptized. Jesus, in talking about his cup and his baptism today, was referring to his sufferings.

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Referring to his sufferings and death. And you'll note that one of the Zebedee brothers was actually martyred.

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And so James, they called him Camel Knees after Christ's ascension.

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Because he prayed so often on his knees, he actually built up camel -like knees.

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And they were very leathery. And he was one of the earlier Christian martyrs.

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And so you'll note that when you read the book of Acts, Christians were made to suffer. They were persecuted and they were killed.

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And so the baptism that Christ was referring to and the cup he's referring to is the sufferings that they went through.

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And so we participate in the sufferings of Christ when we are persecuted, slandered, mistreated, martyred for his name's sake.

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So that's the baptism that he was referring to. So hopefully that answers the question.

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Now all of that being said, I've done something I don't do very often, and that is I have created, get this, slides.

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Okay, hang on a second, that's from my Greek class. That's not what we want. Sorry, I'm not gonna make you guys learn third declension nouns.

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Be thankful for that. What we are gonna talk about are covenants. And I'm gonna make a series of statements as it relates to covenants that I think is gonna be helpful for us as we look at Jeremiah 31, which is our

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Old Testament text today, as well as Hebrews 5. Those are gonna be woven in. And if today's

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Sunday school class sounds like an insurance seminar, my apologies. Sometimes theological concepts are a wee bit on the dry side.

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I remember when I got my MBA from Pepperdine, I was required to take several courses in business law.

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There's a reason why I'm not an attorney. I figured out what attorneys do for a living. They write letters, and they research.

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That seems to be the primary, and avoid court, and then charge you lots of money to do that. That's kind of what

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I figured what attorneys do. That's my impersonation, my impression of what they do. But all that being said, when we talk about covenants in the

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Bible, we need to understand that they are very similar to, I would actually argue, quite synonymous with our concept of contracts.

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If you remember, those of you who own a home and you have a mortgage, do you remember the day you signed the escrow papers?

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I still have carpal tunnel syndrome from that. I remember leaving the real estate office, cradling my right hand, going, uh, uh.

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It was just horrible. And I assure you that I entered into a covenant with the bank, the mortgage lender, who carries the mortgage on our house.

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And in entering into that covenant, there are obligations. There are things that I am required to do, namely send them money every month, a certain amount, minimum, by a certain amount of time.

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And that I'm required to keep particular insurances and things like this. There's responsibilities.

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And there are curses, we'll call them curses. There are curses if I don't follow through on my end of the bargain.

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Namely, they can repossess my house and kick me out of it, okay? So when we take a look at covenants, think of them like contracts.

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So, and when we do that, we're gonna note that in the Bible, there are unilateral covenants, that is one party is promising to do all the work, the other party is merely the recipient of those promises, on the one part.

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Then there are bilateral covenants, where two parties enter into a covenantal agreement, and there are blessings and curses and obligations on both sides.

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And then we're gonna note, similar to contracts, once a covenant is ratified, you can't change it, unless both parties agree to the change, all right?

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Once the documents are signed, once the blood is cut, you get the idea, and then when we talk, so there are blessings for obedience, my mortgage company allows me to continue to live in my house, as long as I keep making my mortgage payment, that is a blessing, okay?

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There are curses for disobedience, and we'll talk about that. And then in biblical covenants, biblical covenants have signs.

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And this is one of the most interesting aspects of biblical covenants, there's always something that is chosen, that is a visible representation or reminder, or let me use another word, remembrance of the covenant and the promises or the blessings or the curses thereof.

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And then here's another interesting thing, that once you've entered into a covenant, subsequent covenants do not nullify previously ratified covenants.

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Yeah, yeah, okay, good question, Marilyn. Executive orders, we'll leave that.

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I like the way they do it in the corporate world nowadays. We're just gonna put that in the parking lot over here, maybe we'll get back to it and maybe we won't, okay?

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I hate corporate talk that way. Anyway, so yeah, the executive orders, that's a different theology altogether, okay?

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So subsequent covenants do not nullify previously ratified covenants. And so we're gonna ask the question today, what is the new covenant?

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What is the status of the Mosaic covenant? How do you know, all right? And so this is going to have everything to do with our

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Old Testament and epistle text today. So we're gonna start with a basic covenant. One of the very first covenants that appears in the scripture is the

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Noahic covenant. This is a unilateral covenant, you all know the promises associated with it.

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And the sign of the covenant is the rainbow, and the Noahic covenant, God makes all the promises, the rainbow invokes the promises.

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And we're gonna note here, it's important, both parties see the sign, and both parties remember the promises.

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Both, not one or the other. So our text for this, if we're gonna just do a basic understanding of how covenants work, is

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Genesis chapter nine. This is after the flood, after the waters have receded, God has allowed

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Noah and the animals off the ark. And so it says that God said to them, be fruitful and multiply.

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And then we get these words in verse eight. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, behold,

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I establish my covenant with you, and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you.

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So you're gonna note, the covenant is with humanity and all living creatures. That is gonna include spiders, and lions, and tigers, and bears, and tarantulas, and flies, everything that's on the earth,

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God has made this covenant with all of it. Remember, God is the creator of all of those things. So this includes the birds, the livestock, every beast of the earth that is with you, as many as came out of the ark.

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It is for every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.

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We're talking about the earth in its entirety. If you remember a couple of weeks ago, Pope Francis said that if we don't get our carbon footprint down, that we're going to experience a second global flood.

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My immediate question was, how does one become the pope without reading Genesis nine?

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It's kind of basic, okay? Okay. So the promise of the noadic covenant that God made with everybody, is the noadic covenant still in place?

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Yes, okay? God hasn't nullified it. I sometimes wonder if he's regretted that, you know.

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But he hasn't nullified it, and then you'll know, and this is a sign of the covenant that I make between me and you, and every living creature that is with you for all future generations,

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I have set my bow in the cloud, it shall be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

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So every time we see the rainbow, we remember the promise. I remember my kids, we'd pack them up into the minivan, which was an embarrassing thing to have to drive, it always challenged my masculinity.

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We'd pack them up into the minivan, we would be driving to one place or another, and from time to time it would rain, and then from time to time when it was raining, there would be a rainbow.

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And whenever my kids saw the rainbow, it was very exciting. Look, daddy, there's a rainbow!

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Yes, yes, that's a rainbow. And what does the rainbow remind us of? That God promises never to flood the whole earth again.

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Right, very good. So even my kids, when they were little, excited about rainbows, knew what the rainbow meant.

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It has a meaning, okay? And so, and then you're gonna note, we remember, but note more importantly, when

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I bring the clouds over the earth, and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me, and you, and every living creature of all flesh.

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Now, I'm gonna preface this now. When we hear Christ, when he establishes the new covenant, he says, do this as often as you drink it, into the remembrance of me.

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This is in the context of Christ establishing the new covenant. When we talk about remembrance in the

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Lord's Supper, it is a remembrance of the covenantal promises of the new covenant that Christ is establishing that very night that he's betrayed.

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But all that being said, you'll note that when God sees the rainbow, and yet God's watching, every time

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God sees a rainbow, he remembers the promises of his covenant. That being said, the

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Noahic covenant is a unilateral covenant. Is there anything we need to do? Nope, there's nothing we need to do.

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We are simply the recipients of God's promises. Plain and simple, right, that's right.

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Carbon footprints don't need to be worried about here regarding global floods. All right, next one, and this is probably our most important and least understood covenant, the

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Abrahamic covenant. It is a unilateral covenant in the direction, but there are two specific recipients of this covenant.

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So it is made between Abraham and his seed singular.

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The seed is Jesus. The Abrahamic covenant has two specific parties that it was made with,

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Abraham and Jesus. And you're sitting there going, are you nuts? Jesus isn't in Genesis 15.

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Oh yes he is, and we're going to look at the official, if you would,

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Holy Spirit -inspired legal interpretation of the Abrahamic covenant, which is found in the book of Galatians.

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This is where we understand this, and if you miss this part, then you're gonna get a lot of things wrong.

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You're gonna get a lot, and I mean like a ton wrong. So that covenant is established in Genesis 15.

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The sign of the covenant is circumcision, and that is not established until Genesis 17.

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And note, both parties see the sign and they remember the promises as it relates specifically to the

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Abrahamic covenant. So that being the case, let's take a look at our,

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I like to think of Galatians 3 and 4 as the

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Supreme Court interpretation and ruling on that particular covenant. And remember where our three rules for sound biblical exegesis, they are context, context, and context.

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That being said, we're gonna note that in the book of Galatians, not only is there a lot going on, let me give you some context here.

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Galatians 1, Paul has some pretty hard words to say to the

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Galatian churches because they had fallen under the sway of the Judaizers, the

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Judaizers. Now let me give you one more text that is gonna help us.

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In fact, I need another Greek window. Hang on a second, I'm gonna duplicate that. In Acts, I'm gonna go to 15.

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And listen, you get a really good idea of what the Judaizers were about in Acts 15. Some men came down from Judea.

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They were teaching the brothers, listen to this, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

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Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.

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Okay, all right, so you're gonna note, we're gonna see this also then in Galatians, that the

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Judaizers taught that not only did Gentiles need to have the snip -snip operation, but that they weren't saved unless they did, and they were also keeping the

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Mosaic covenants feast days, which would include the Sabbath, it would include

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Passover, it would include the Feast of Weeks, the Feast of Tabernacles, all of these prescribed feast days as part of the

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Mosaic covenant, and claimed that if you didn't keep them, you cannot be saved.

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So Paul, writing to those churches in Galatia had fallen under the sway of the Judaizers, he says,

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I'm astonished that you're so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ, and are turning to a different gospel.

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Not that there is another, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ, but even if we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached, let him be accursed.

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As we've said before, so now I say again, if anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed, or damned.

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Yes, Dave. The Mosaic covenant is put to rest with the death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, okay?

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He fulfilled it in its entirety, and we'll take a look at some texts that talk to this, but you'll see that, like I said, the official status of the

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Mosaic covenant is it's kaput, and we're gonna see that for real in just a few minutes. Listen to Christ, listen to him.

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So in the transfiguration event, you have Moses and Elijah, who are representative, if you would, of the entirety of the

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Old Testament. No, so, yeah, Moses and Elijah.

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So Moses, the author of the Pentateuch, Elijah, the representative of the prophets who wrote the remainder of the

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Old Testament, and the voice from God the Father says, this is my beloved son, listen to him.

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That is technically not the official kicking off of the new covenant, but if you would, a kind of a really nice picture that Moses and Elijah were pointing to Christ, and what were they discussing with him?

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According to Luke, they were discussing with him his exodus. That's what they were discussing, his imminent death, burial, and resurrection.

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That's his exodus, and so, but transfiguration doesn't quite bring the Mosaic covenant to an end because Christ hadn't fulfilled it in its entirety yet.

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Yes. Yes, God was indeed priming them. All right, so in Galatians three, here's our context then.

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Paul writes, oh foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

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So let me ask you this. Did you receive the Spirit? We're talking about the Holy Spirit. Did you receive the

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Spirit by works of the law? And you can take law here, and you can probably understand that as Torah, Mosaic covenant.

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By works of the law, or by hearing with faith? The answer, by the way, is the second one.

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It's by hearing with faith. Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?

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Did you suffer so many things in vain, if indeed it was in vain? Does he who supplies the

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Spirit to you and work miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith?

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Just as Abraham believed God and it was counted or credited to him as righteousness. Here Paul, under the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit, is quoting from Genesis 15. Genesis 15 is the chapter where God establishes his covenant with Abraham.

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And Abraham believed God, it was counted to him as righteousness, then

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God establishes the covenant. The timeline's important. So Paul then says this.

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Know then it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. And I must, those of you who are struggling and like detoxing from like bad, charismatic evangelicalism and things like this, know this, everybody who believes in Christ, according to scripture, is a son of Abraham.

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Full stop. Being genetically Jewish does not give you an inside track with God.

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The sons of Abraham are anyone who believes in Jesus, regardless of whether or not you're

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German, Norwegian, you know, if you're Bajan or from Nigeria or from Korea, it doesn't matter.

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Regardless of your ancestry, if you believe in Christ, you are, according to scripture, a son of Abraham.

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So I always like what Mikey says in this regard. Mikey, where'd Mikey go? If Mikey were here, he would say mazel tov, right?

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So we can celebrate regarding this, all right? So the scriptures then foreseen that God would justify the

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Gentiles how? By faith, preach the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you shall all nations be blessed.

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So then those who are of faith are blessed, along with Abraham, the man of faith.

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For all who rely, and that's your important word, rely. All who are relying on the works of the law for the purpose of what?

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Salvation. They're under a curse. Do Christians do good works? Absolutely.

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There's no such thing as a Christian who doesn't do good works. So why do we do them? In order to be saved?

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Uh -uh. If you're doing them to be saved, you are relying on your works. We do good works because we is saved.

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That's the reason why we do it, okay? So all who rely on works of the law, they're under a curse, one of the curses of the

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Mosaic covenant, because it says, cursed be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the

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Torah, and keep on, keep on, keep on doing them. That's really kind of the gist of the doing them there, okay?

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So it's evident that no one is justified before God by the law. Notice what he said there.

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It's evident. It's practically self -evident. How many people are gonna be saved by keeping the law?

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Zero, not one, all right? For the righteous shall live by faith.

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The law is not of faith. Rather, the one who does them, does the commandments, shall live by them.

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So note, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. The curse of the law is on anybody who does not perfectly obey the commandments of the

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Mosaic covenant. Did anyone keep them perfectly? No. So Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law.

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How? By becoming a curse for us, for his written curse is everyone who is hanged on a tree, so that in Christ, the blessing of Abraham might come to the

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Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith. So here we go. Now comes the contract talk, all right?

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It's a little bit in -depth, but it's very necessary to get these things sorted out.

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So to give a human example, brothers, even with a man -made covenant or a contract, no one annuls it or adds to it once it's been ratified.

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Note, that was one of the things I pointed out, that a subsequent covenant doesn't nullify previously ratified covenants.

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Now, the promises, who were they made to? They were made to Abraham, and watch what

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Paul says here. And to his offspring, and we hear the word offspring in English, and well, offspring, although it's singular, we know that what that's really referring to is a plurality of people.

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My offspring are three, right? You got Joshua, you got

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Faith, you got Christina. I have three offsprings, okay, but I say offspring.

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But watch what Paul does there. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he points something out. The promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring, and it does not say to offsprings.

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And so he's really drilling into the Hebrew in Genesis 15, that God really made the promises to Abraham and to his

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Zerah, not his Zerahim. Zerahim would be the plural of Zerah.

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Zerah is seed, Zerahim is plural seeds. So, and then note this, so he does not say into offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is

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Christ. So coming back then here, we're gonna note that in the Abrahamic covenant, the promises are made to Abraham and to Jesus.

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Those are who the promises are made to. Important, important bit here, and you're sitting there going, boy, that sure is nitpicky,

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I know. I had somebody on social media this past week who was complaining about my videos on YouTube, and said, you know, you just seem like you're really nitpicky to me.

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And my response was, well, the difference between heresy and orthodoxy, when it came to the

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Arian heresy, came down to one letter, an iota. It was the difference between homoousius versus homoiousius, of like substance or of same substance.

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The difference between heresy and truth came down to one letter. So the minutia matters, the minutia absolutely matters, and you're gonna note something then, that without Galatians three, we don't have a way to spot clearly and definitively the fact that the

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Abrahamic covenant, that the promises were made to two, Abraham and to Jesus. Without Galatians three, we miss that fact.

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And it's all too lost, and it would be all too easy for the Judaizing heresy to snatch us and drag us away in that case.

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So the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring. It does not say to offsprings, referring to many, but referring to one, and to your offspring, who is

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Christ. So this is what I mean. The Torah, the law, which came 430 years after the

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Abrahamic covenant, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God so as to make the promise void.

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So note that the inheritance, salvation, all of this was promised by God because Abraham believed

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God and it was credited to him as righteousness. God made promises to Abraham that through him all the world would be blessed, and that was a promise.

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And so the Mosaic covenant, which comes 430 years later, doesn't annul the

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Abrahamic covenant. It's still in place until, and we'll talk about the until.

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For if the inheritance then comes by the law, it no longer comes by a promise, but God gave it to Abraham by a promise.

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So you get the idea here. All right, now let's take a look just a little bit at the Mosaic covenant, at least some of the details.

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Mosaic covenant, made 430 years after the Abrahamic covenant, promises blessings for obedience, that is going to include,

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I should put the word perfect in front of every one of these, perfect obedience to moral laws, perfect obedience to civil laws, perfect obedience to ceremonial laws.

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And we are gonna learn from the book of Hebrew that the ceremonial laws, as it relates to the tabernacle, which eventually would become the temple, that all of those were foreshadowing

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Christ, including the Passover, including the Sabbath, including the

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Feast of Weeks and Feast of Booths and all of the festivals that they were supposed to observe.

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Now, there were specific rules regarding priests and there were specific rules regarding sacrifices, plural, and priests then were required to come from the tribe of Levi and their sacrifices made no one perfect, no one.

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They were always foreshadows, they were never the substance, all right? So blood, and the blood of those sacrifices were sprinkled in the copies or the replicas of the heavenly tabernacle.

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And this is an important thing. People are talking about, whoa, there's gonna be a third temple built in Jerusalem. A third replica, what do we need it for?

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We don't need a third replica in Jerusalem built. Christ has already ascended into the real deal tabernacle with his real blood, okay?

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And you're gonna note then that disobedience to the Mosaic covenant threatens ever increasing curses for disobedience resulting in the ultimate threat of eviction.

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Now, the question is who was in this covenant? Answer, this was a covenant between God and the genetic descendants of Abraham, the children of Israel.

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It's a bilateral covenant and a good way to think of it is it's a land lease agreement. It's akin to a mortgage agreement or a rental agreement.

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You can stay on the land as long as you obey. And you'll note in the ceremonial laws that were made for the

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Mosaic covenant, they were intended by God because they were foreshadows of Christ to prepare

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Abraham's genetic descendants for the arrival of the Messiah. That was the purpose of them.

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And that their sacrifice has made no one perfect, no one, not a single person.

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And we're gonna see that in a minute. So then the question that Paul asks next, all right, is why then the law?

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All right, well, if the law doesn't make anyone perfect and if no one's gonna be justified by works of the law, then why did

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God even give it at all? You just see somebody asking it in that question, that tone, right?

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Here's the reason why. It was added because of transgression. Do you notice that in the story of Exodus just how absolutely backwards and sinful the children of Israel had become in their time in slavery, right?

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They didn't even know the right hand from their left spiritually. So the law was added because of transgression.

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And here's an important word, archeus, until.

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Watch that word, until, okay? If I were to say to you, my wife and I did not live under the same roof until we got married, you would know that prior to being married, we lived in separate homes.

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And then after we got married, we lived under the same roof. The until has a purpose.

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So then note that the Mosaic covenant was added because of transgression until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made.

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That's the second one, second party. So the Mosaic covenant is put in place until Christ shows up.

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And it was put in place through angels by an intermediary, not now an intermediary implies more than one, but God is one.

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So then he asked the question then, is the Torah, is the law contrary to the promises of God? Talking about the

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Mosaic covenant. Is the Mosaic covenant contrary to the Abrahamic covenant? No.

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If a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law.

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But the scripture imprisoned everything under sin so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

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Now, before faith came, we were held captive under the law imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.

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So then the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.

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And again, watch this. The law was our guardian for how long? Until. Now this leaves an important question that has to be answered.

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What about the 10 commandments? You're gonna note that in the new covenant, in the new

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Testament, nine of the 10 commandments are rolled into the new covenant.

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There's one specifically left out. The one that's left out is the

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Sabbath keeping. Now, this kind of begs the question. If circumcision was the sign of the

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Abrahamic covenant, what is the sign of the Mosaic covenant?

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Answer, the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the sign of the

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Mosaic covenant. The weekly, you know, not doing any work from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday.

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And there were also yearly, you know, every seven years was a

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Sabbath year followed by the big year of Jubilee at the end of seven sevens. That was the sign of the

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Mosaic covenant, the Sabbath. And the Sabbath is a type and shadow according to scripture of salvation by grace through faith alone without works, apart from works.

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And we get this from Hebrews four. So the law was our guardian until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.

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Now that faith has come, we're no longer under a guardian. For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.

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For as many of you were baptized into Christ, you've put on Christ and there is neither Jew nor Greek.

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There is neither slave nor free. There is no male, no female. For all are one in Christ Jesus. And if you are

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Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to the promise.

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And everyone said, mazel tov, right? It's pretty straightforward, but you have to kind of keep the details in sync.

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Now I'm gonna check questions real quick before we jump into four because four fleshes this out with further detail.

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All right, let's see here. All right, okay, so when I get a chance, someone said,

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God is a gentleman, he doesn't force you. To which he said, I disagree. I'll have to save that for a different time or at the end here if I have time.

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I wanna talk about that because everybody who's a Christian is a Christian by God's will, not their own.

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Okay, so Carlos and MJ, what should we make of covenants or ceremonial offerings, feasts that are said to be perpetual?

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Okay, so this is real simple. The Hebrew Roots Movement takes the word olam in Hebrew.

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This is a perpetual or an everlasting covenant. And they say that that means that it's eternal, but that's not true.

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The word olam in Hebrew, perpetual, oftentimes refers to this will be the order of things until the order changes.

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So it'll be a perpetual covenant until such and such a time.

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So when you read in the Mosaic Covenant that this is a perpetual covenant and the word behind it is olam, that is not referring to it's gonna continue on until the end of the earth.

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It means it's gonna continue on until the end of the Mosaic Covenant. And I would argue with the

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Mosaic Covenant being brought to an end, God smashed it. It's impossible for anybody to keep Torah today.

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Nobody does. Nobody is keeping these perpetual things. So that's the idea behind it.

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They're misdefining the Hebrew olam to somehow mean eternal, meaning till the end when

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Christ returns. But that's not what the Mosaic Covenant is established on. Okay, so is the word rely in the

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Greek in the NASB, it says as many as are of the works of the law. Rely is an interpolation.

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That's right, the Greek word behind it is a me, to be. And the idea then is that the thrust of the idiom there in the

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Greek that Paul is using is for the purpose of reliance, all right? And as many as are the works of the law, that is talking about doing them for the purpose of receiving the inheritance.

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That's why the ESV puts the word rely because the word rely gets the gist of the idiom in that passage.

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Okay, side note, what is the abomination of desolation? That is a whole other discussion. So I got two questions now.

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We're putting them in the parking lot. Okay, we'll have to talk about the abomination of desolation when we come back to the book of Revelation.

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And then also I promise that when I have a moment, we will discuss this idea that God is not a gentleman, okay?

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All right, so Ascari says, even though we are not obligated to have Sabbath, we still are obligated to rest one day a week since God rested, or is it up to a person?

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Let me put it this way, we are not under compulsion by a commandment to rest one day a week.

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I would argue that that's a good thing to do, by the way. But it's not like you're committing a mortal or a venial sin if you work on Saturday.

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And you'll note that the requirements of the Sabbath are actually quite extensive. And in fact, on my website at piratechristian .com,

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years ago I did a, I put together an article, hang on, let me find this real quick.

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And the question that I asked, hang on, why is that? I don't know, piratechristian .com.

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I asked the question, are you a Sabbath keeper or are you a Sabbath breaker? I think it's in my captain's log, hang on a second here.

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Because years ago I debated a Hebrew roots guy, Sabbath. His name was Jim Staley.

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And by the way, I asked Jim Staley in that debate if they rebuilt a third temple in Jerusalem, would you be offering sacrifices there every year?

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And he said, absolutely. And you're gonna see why that's absolutely blasphemous.

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You're gonna see it here in a second. So, yeah, so it's from May 14th, 2014 in the captain's log on Pirate Christian.

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And here's the question, are you a Sabbath keeper or are you a Sabbath breaker, all right? And my point is this, is that the

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Torah and the Torah alone defines what it means to keep or to break the Sabbath. So here's what it teaches.

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Leviticus 23, 32, Sabbath must be observed from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday.

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From evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath. No work can be done on the Sabbath. It is wholly a day of rest.

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Six days shall work be done, but the seventh is a Sabbath day of solemn rest. Holy to the Lord. And if you turn your furnace on during the winter on a

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Sabbath, you're a Sabbath breaker, okay? Those of us who live up here in the northern climes of North Dakota and Minnesota, oh man,

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I don't wanna have to go to hell for turning my furnace on on a Saturday. But that's, so you know, you shall kindle no fire in all your dwelling places on the

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Sabbath. The oven that we have, we have

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Sabbath settings on it. So is it a Samsung, is that what we have? But we actually have

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Sabbath settings so that you can set the date and time and it knows when daylight savings time is so that all the burners and the oven are at a low temperature, because that means they're all on on the

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Sabbath, and then it'll, that way you're not guilty of kindling it.

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It's a complete waste of energy, by the way. Okay. But you're kindling it before time. Yeah, yeah, well, yeah, you gotta do it ahead of time, before the sun sets on a

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Friday. Oh, you mean May and then Congress? Yeah. So, and then I say, if you bake or boil food on the

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Sabbath, you're a Sabbath breaker. That's Exodus 16. If you travel far from your home, you're a

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Sabbath breaker. If you don't keep the Sabbath unless you enforce it with the death penalty.

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God required the death penalty for those who broke the Sabbath. None of us can say we're doing that.

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Could you imagine? I mean, death row in Minnesota for all the Sabbath breakers. That'd be weird. Okay. And then you don't keep the

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Sabbath unless your priest sacrifices two lambs every Sabbath. All right? So everybody who says that they're

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Sabbath keepers, they're lying. There isn't a single person on planet Earth who keeps the

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Sabbath today. Not one. And so, in fact, here's the thing, coming back to our little bit of a note here.

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The Mosaic Covenant is a land lease agreement between God and the children of Abraham. None of us are in that covenant.

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We're not part of it. We're not required to keep these aspects of it. These were minutia of that covenant that the people of Israel were required to keep.

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They didn't keep it. That's why they got kicked out. If you haven't read the curses section of the

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Mosaic Covenant in the book of Deuteronomy, read it. Every single one of those curses, including God scraping them out of the land and scattering them into the nations, all occurred.

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It's over and done with on their end as well, but Christ is the one who fulfills it. So then coming back,

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Elizabeth says, if you can't cook, then why have the ovens on? I don't know. That's kind of the thing is that today's modern

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Orthodox Judaism is not biblical Judaism. It's a different religion altogether.

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In fact, modern Orthodox Judaism is the direct theological descendant of the Judaism of the

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Pharisees, which Christ said was anathema. You know, so keep that in mind.

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You know, today's Orthodox Judaism isn't. It's not Orthodox. Now on to chapter four then.

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So I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything.

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He is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. So note the analogy. The analogy here is you got some kid whose dad died and his dad left him everything, but he's five years old when his dad dies.

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Is he able to run the estate? No way. So what did dad put in place for that time?

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A guardian, a manager, somebody who was in charge of him until once he reaches the right age or something happens, the until happens and he's no longer under the guardian.

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He's no longer under the person who was put in place. That's what the Mosaic covenant was. It was a guardian.

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It served its guardian purposes until Jesus appeared. So as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, though he's the owner of everything.

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He is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way also, when we were children, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

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And here it's good to look at the cross references to this. Elemental principles of the world, Paul talks about them in Colossians.

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The rules, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch. Those are the elemental principles of the world.

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We were enslaved to the elemental principles of the world, but when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.

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And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts crying, Abba, Father.

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So are you under a guardian anymore? No. Have you entered into full sonship?

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You betcha. So you're no longer a slave, but you're a son, and if you're a son, then you're an heir through God.

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So note that his argument in verses one to seven is on the idea that the

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Mosaic covenant is a guardian and everybody under it was enslaved, even though they owned everything.

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And now that Christ has come, we are no longer slaves, we are sons. The until has happened.

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That's the point. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those by nature which are not gods, but now that you have come to know

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God or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world whose slaves you want to be once more?

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You observe days and months and seasons and years, talking about the feast days of the

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Mosaic covenant and the new moon festivals and the Sabbaths. And Paul says, I'm afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

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Roseborough's translation, I think I may have wasted my time on you. That's kind of the gist of it, right?

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Why are you going back to all of that? So in verse 21 then, here comes another great analogy.

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So tell me, you who desire to be under the Torah, do you not listen to the

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Torah? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free woman.

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But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh while the son of the free woman was born through a promise.

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Now this may be interpreted allegorically. These women are two covenants.

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One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery. She's Hagar.

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Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia. She corresponds to the present Jerusalem for she is in slavery with her children.

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But the Jerusalem above is free and she is our mother for it is written, rejoice, O barren one who does not bear.

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Break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor for the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.

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You see the idea here? So if you want to be under the Torah again, well, you're the child of the slave woman.

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And God makes it clear, the child of the slave woman doesn't get to inherit with the son of the promise. And Isaac is the son of the promise.

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So now you brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, so also it is now.

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But what does the scripture say? Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.

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So brothers, we are not children of the slave, but children of the free woman. So every

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Judaizer is putting us back into slavery, the slavery of the

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Mosaic Covenant. But Paul says until, until, until. We are children, we are not slaves.

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And that's then the point of Hebrews five and seven and on.

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And I'm gonna note that we're gonna spend a little bit of time in Hebrews, and it's a little thick.

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Hebrews is a very thick book in this sense. Yes, James. Yes, when the

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Hebrew Roots folks get a hold of this lesson, they will beat me within an inch of Shabbat.

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So that's all I gotta say. Hi people of the future criticizing this Sunday school. I hope you don't have bunkers.

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Yeah, all right. So let's now take a look at our epistle text here.

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Now before we do that, let me throw in at this point, Jeremiah 31.

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Because you're gonna note something here. Jeremiah 31, and let me get to the text here.

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Hang on a second here. All right, here we go.

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Hold on a second here. Here it is.

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No, that's not it. Hold on one second. Let me just find something really quick here. There we go.

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I need Jeremiah 31, 31 to 34. That's it, here we go. So behold, the days are coming.

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This is the big prophecy regarding the new covenant. We as Christians are not under the Mosaic covenant. We're under the new covenant established by Christ.

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Totally different one altogether. Because you remember the Abrahamic covenant was made also with the one, the seed of Abraham, and that was there put in place until that guy shows up.

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So behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

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It's not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

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My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares Yahweh. Did they even keep it?

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No. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, declares

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Yahweh, I will put my law within them. They will write it on their hearts. I will be their

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God. They shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each one his brother, saying, know the

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Lord, for they shall all know me. From the least of them to the greatest, declares Yahweh, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.

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The important promise of the new covenant for us, because you're gonna note, some of these are very eschatological.

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There is a day coming when we don't have to be, we don't have to go to Sunday school anymore. You don't have to have pastors teaching you.

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Everybody's gonna know the Lord from the least to the greatest. That's not today, all right? But the promise that's here in the new covenant is this one.

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I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.

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I like this promise. God promises to not remember. So when

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God sees the sign of the new covenant, God remembers to not remember my iniquity. God remembers not to remember your iniquity, which begs the question, what are the signs of the new covenant?

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Answer, let's take a look at 1 Corinthians chapter 11. You see it in the words of the

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Lord's Supper. So this is Paul reciting

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Christ's words from the night that he was betrayed. And listen to this. On that Passover meal that Christ had with his disciples,

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Christ establishes the new covenant. And he also establishes the signs of that new covenant.

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You can tell because if you know how covenants work, you've got signs that are there for the purpose of remembrance.

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For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you that the Lord Jesus, on the night that he was betrayed, took bread.

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When he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body which is for you. Do this into the remembrance of me.

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Remembrance, covenant talk. But it gets more specific. In the same way also, he took the cup after supper, saying, this cup is the what?

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The new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in the remembrance of me.

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Oh, so what are the signs of the new covenant? The body and blood of Christ. Well, in this particular case, our obligation is to believe.

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Okay, so there is an obligation. Belief is, and obedience to Christ is really the obligation.

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So it is bilateral in the sense that it presupposes and specifically says that you gotta obey

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Christ and Christ says to obey him is to believe in him, okay? So you'll note that every time a congregation has the

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Lord's Supper, the signs of the new covenant are present. We see bread, wine.

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God sees body, blood. It's like the rainbow. The chalice, the bread, the wine, these are the visible signs of the covenant.

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They're like the rainbow. And when you see these things, you should remember the promise because God doesn't promise not to flood the earth.

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He promised not to destroy you. God promises to remember to forget your sins and that's a good thing.

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So you'll note that the new covenant is now in place and the new covenant has a completely different priesthood altogether than the

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Mosaic Covenant. And this is one of the other reasons why you can't go back to the Mosaic Covenant because there has been, and you'll see this explicitly in Hebrews, there's been a change of the priesthood.

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And when there's a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law too. The covenant itself has totally changed.

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So let's pay attention then to the details of Hebrews 5 and we'll jump into 7 and keep reading.

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Again, it's a little thick but I think we're all gonna be okay to track with it. Hebrews 5 says, every high priest chosen from among men is appointed to act on behalf of men in relation to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.

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He can deal gently with the ignorant and the wayward since he himself is beset with weakness. So you note that the priests of the

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Mosaic Covenant, they're sinners too. Because of this, he's obligated then to offer sacrifices for his own sins just as he does for those of the people.

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And no one takes this honor for himself but only when called by God, just as Aaron was. So also

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Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest, but he was appointed by him who said to him, you are my son, today

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I have begotten you. As he says also in another place, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

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And we'll talk about this in a second. So when we look at the new covenant, it technically is bilateral but all the promises are made unconditionally by God.

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So it's made between Christ and all who believe in him. And it is established when Christ created the

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Lord's Supper. The signs of the covenant are the body and blood of Christ. Remembrance equals God and us remembering the promise of not remembering our sins.

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This covenant has its own priesthood and its own sacrifice. The priesthood is according to the order of Melchizedek and the single sacrifice in the new covenant makes people perfect.

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The blood sprinkled as a result of that sacrifice was sprinkled in the actual heavenly tabernacle, not in a replica.

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And that's an important bit. We continue.

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So you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

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Now, who is that guy? Okay, this is an interesting character.

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In Genesis 14 is where he shows up. I won't read the entire account, but you remember when

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Lot was taken captive after a battle between the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and Kedalaromer, and so Abraham gets his 300 men, a little over 300, and they go and they conquer

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Kedalaromer and they free Lot. Well, after that happened, something bizarre shows up here in the text.

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It says in Genesis 14, 17, after his return from the defeat of Kedalaromer, the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom, went out to meet him at the valley of Sheba, that is the king's valley, and Melchizedek, the king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.

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Say what? He did what? Now, remember,

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Christ is a priest in the order of who? Melchizedek. When Christ establishes his covenant, what does he bring out?

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Bread, wine, you sit in there and go, okay, I see what's going on here. Now, Melchizedek, in Hebrew means the king of righteousness, king of Salem, king of Shalom.

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Some scholars argue that maybe he had said he was ruling and reigning and doing his work as priest of God most high, so notice he's a king and a priest, that he may have been doing his work in the region where Jerusalem would be built.

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It's a little hard to know if that's true or not, but you get the idea. So Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine.

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He was priest of God most high. He blessed him and said, blessed be Abraham by God most high, possessor of heaven and earth, and blessed be

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God most high who has delivered your enemies into your hand. So, coming back then here to our text, actually,

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I wanna go this direction. So you'll note that Christ is a priest forever, not according to the order of Aaron, because what tribe does

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Christ descend from? Judah. Are there any priests in Judah?

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No. In fact, you would note that God forbids any guys from outside of Levi to actually do the

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Levitical work. When Saul, who was a member of the tribe of Benjamin, offered sacrifices to God rather than wait, he was in trouble.

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God got angry at him for doing that, okay? So in the days of his flesh, then

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Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.

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Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered, and being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.

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How do we obey Christ? By believing, okay? The work of God is to believe in the one whom the

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Father has sent. So being then designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.

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Now about this we have much to say. It's hard to explain since you become dull in hearing. So the author of Hebrews is chastising the recipients of the epistle of Hebrews.

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Chapter seven then continues with the theme. For this Melchizedek, the king of Salem, priest of the

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Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and he blessed him, and to him

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Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first by translation of his name, king of righteousness.

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He is also king of Salem, that is the king of peace. He is without father or mother, genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the

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Son of God, he continues as a priest forever. So that means in Genesis 14, who showed up to bless

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Abraham? The pre -incarnate Jesus, the Son of God. That's who this is.

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See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils.

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And those descendants of Levi who received the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is from their brothers, though these are descended from Abraham.

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But this man who does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises.

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So it is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. In the one case, tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one of whom it is testified that he lives.

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One might even say Levi himself who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when

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Melchizedek met him. Now if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood, for under it the people received the law, what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek rather than one named after the order of Aaron?

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So you're gonna note here, perfection is not attainable through the Levitical priesthood. That's not its purpose. For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well.

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Has there been a change in the priesthood? Yes. Are there Levitical priests serving today?

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There haven't been since 70 AD. There's been no temple. Who is our priest?

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Christ. That means there's been a change in the priesthood and there's been a change in the covenant.

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We're not under the Mosaic covenant, we're under the new covenant. For the one of whom these things are spoken belong to another tribe from which no one has ever served at the altar.

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For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.

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So this becomes even more evident when another priest arises in the likeness of Jesus. Who has become a priest, not on the basis of a legal requirement concerning bodily descent, but by the power of an indestructible life for it is witnessed of him, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

01:00:17

For on the one hand, a former commandment is set aside because of its weakness. Watch this. Former commandment is set aside.

01:00:25

Which commandments are those? The commandments of the Levitical priesthood, the commandments of the Mosaic covenant.

01:00:30

They're set aside. For the law made nothing perfect. But on the other hand, a better hope is introduced through which we draw near to God.

01:00:39

Okay? So you get the idea here. And I'm gonna have to wrap up because I'm on a hard timeline here.

01:00:45

But if you read the rest of chapter seven, eight, nine, and 10, in this portion of Hebrews, you see very clearly, very clearly that the

01:00:57

Mosaic covenant has come to an end. It is fulfilled. It has been set aside. As Christians, we are under the new covenant and we have a priest,

01:01:07

Christ. And not only do we have a priest, we have a better sacrifice that's able to make us perfect because Christ is not only our high priest, he's the sacrifice.

01:01:17

And you'll also see in the book of Hebrews that Christ takes his blood and he sprinkles it in the

01:01:24

Holy of Holies in the actual heavenly temple, not on the temple, the replica here on earth.

01:01:31

You get the idea here. So when you understand how your covenant's working, that we're under the new covenant, you are going to be inoculated against the modern day

01:01:40

Judaizers who would tell you, well, we gotta return to the Hebrew roots. You Christians need to be circumcised.

01:01:45

You need to follow Shabbat. You need to observe the Passover. Bah humbug, all right? Those are all a type and shadow.

01:01:51

Christ is the substance. We're in the new covenant. And all of that was pointing to him. And now that he's come, we're in a different arrangement altogether, all right?

01:02:01

Yes, James. Yeah, people, they don't deal with them well.

01:02:17

They always spend an inordinate amount of time making these texts say the opposite of what they say. It's a weird hermeneutic. But when you let the scriptures speak and you just say, okay, this is how it is, then you get the idea.

01:02:30

So, all right, let's see here. Bruce Burns was here. Oh, wow, take a look at that. Okay, let's see.

01:02:37

Even though we are not obligated to have Sabbath, okay, we already talked about that. God gives me a plane ticket. I saw the debate with you and Staley.

01:02:43

That was a fun debate, by the way. And then he went to prison for bilking people out of millions of dollars. He's out now, unfortunately.

01:02:51

Hebrews 5 .9, being made perfect. Yeah, root. Yeah, hearkens back to the fulfillment on the cross.

01:02:58

Tetelestai, so powerful in Christ's preaching. Good point, Bruce. That's right, being made perfect. It is finished. You know, tetelestai.

01:03:04

Yeah, that is off the same root. Wait, Melchizedek was a Christophany. Eric says, yes, he was.

01:03:12

In fact, if he wasn't, then I don't know who he was. Because if he has no genealogy, no beginning of days, no end of days, you know, yeah, that sounds like, and he's the king of righteousness.

01:03:23

He's the king of peace and priest of God most high. That sounds like Jesus to me.

01:03:28

Yep, all right. Hugely cross -centered according to Christ's testimony. Indeed. All right, brothers and sisters, thank you for the good questions.