Cranbrook 1993 the New Covenant Is Impartation (10-4-93) — George Warnock

The New Covenant as Spiritual Impartation

For the last year or two, I've been more and more aware that the New Covenant is to be, it is an impartation, not just a new set of rules that God established for the Church. It's to be an impartation.

And I believe it will and can be and should be an impartation. It will be as we seek to let the Holy Spirit be in control. I really believe that the Lord will bring us to the place as we seek to follow on to know him where the Holy Spirit will be in control of our individual lives as well as of our gatherings together in his name.

And that individually it's very important to seek to come to that place where we give the Lord the preeminence in all things so that when we gather together, the same thing will be true. And we can hardly have the one without the other.

Nevertheless, we help one another so that we gather together for fellowship, if so be we might be able to encourage one another to come closer to the Lord so that we help each other. Nobody comes to the fullness by himself, but little by little we seek to encourage one another and help one another.

And I believe God's way is that there should be a divine impartation to God's people. Every time we gather together, not only as the Word goes forth, but as the Spirit of God is in charge all through the meeting, there should be an impartation of his Spirit one to another, a greater measure than we have known.

Until we come to that fullness that God has in mind. The other night I read through three verses from 2 Corinthians 3, and I think we'll just read those again and maybe go on a little further. It says, Do we begin again to commend ourselves, or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?

Ye are our epistle, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart.

And so it is evident that Paul, writing to the Corinthians, is comparing the two covenants. The one that came by Moses, which was written on tables of stone, and the one that Christ is writing upon the hearts of his people, the fleshly tables of the heart.

And Paul says of the Corinthian church that you are manifestly declared to be Christ's epistle, ministered by us. What a glorious thing it is to consider that God wants his word to be so manifest in us, so taking such root within us, that we are manifestly expressed before the world about us as God's epistle to them, the epistle of Christ to them.

And when we understand that, we will understand why the world is not too impressed with what goes on in the church, not too impressed. Because they read the church, they read it, they like reading it, and they see so much that doesn't line up with their concept of what God's people should be.

And God wants his church to be such that as the world reads it, they'll read something about Christ, they'll see Christ manifestly revealed in his people. God bring us to that place where as God writes his holy laws upon the fleshly tablets of our heart, we'll manifestly reveal that to those about us.

The Letter and the Spirit of the New Covenant

And such trust have we through Christ to God, not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything is of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, who also have made us able ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter, but of the spirit.

For the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. And we did touch on that a little, showing how that we certainly desire and must cherish and honor the letter of the word. And not as some say, well, the letter killeth, so away with it.

But honoring the letter of the word, because in the letter of the word there is the life concealed under the shell, as it were, protected by the letter of the word. The truth is there. But we can't eat the shell.

The shell must be broken open before we find the life in it. People say you're spiritualizing too much of the word. No, we just want to open the word by the spirit, crack it open that we might find the life that's within it.

Otherwise, the letter will kill. But the spirit giveth life. And so the scriptures are, I believe, something that God has given for us, and Paul says to read the scriptures, and you know that in the scriptures we find the way of life, and we honor the scriptures and must read them.

But knowing that unless God reveals it, unless God takes it and brings forth the living truth that's there in the word, we will not be profited. And then he goes on to compare the two covenants in greater detail.

And he calls the law the ministration of death, written and engraven in stone. And he calls the new covenant the ministration of righteousness, the ministration of life. So he compares the two. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stone, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away, how shall not the ministration of the Holy Spirit be rather glorious?

He says the ministration of the law, which he calls the ministration of death here in this verse, pointing out that though it was given by God, and God's intention was that men would go beyond the law and embrace his grace, for even Moses said when he gave the law, and when he reiterated the law in the book of Deuteronomy, the word that God speaks to you, he says, is not far off from you, it's not up in heaven that one would say who shall go up to heaven to bring it down to us, nor is it in the deep that one should say who shall go and bring it to us, but the word is nigh thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart.

And Paul quotes that when he declares the gospel of Christ to the Romans. He says, as it is written, the word is nigh thee, even the word of faith which we preach, the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.

So hidden away even in the law was the truth of the gospel. It was there, but somehow it was sealed. Paul says their hearts were hardened in unbelief. Paul says that which was intended to bring life, it brought death.

And God knew it would happen that way, because the time had not yet come when in fulness he would be able to reveal the intent of the law. Nevertheless, God offers it for those who have eyes to see. And I think Moses saw much in the law and lived much in the realms of God's grace.

He had a greater manifestation of the glory of God, I believe, than we see today in the church. It shouldn't be that way, as we shall see as we go on. But he had a great revelation of the Christ. He had a great walk in the Spirit.

He talked with God face to face as a man speakers of his friends. He saw God's glory, and yet God wouldn't let him come into the fulness of it even then, because his ministration was to be a ministration of the law which brought condemnation and death.

And so Paul says the ministration of death, or the ministration of the law which brought death, which was written down in stones, was glorious, so glorious that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance, which glory was to be done away.

Moses, the Golden Calf, and Divine Intercession

And so Paul is referring to the incident that happened when Moses had been up in the mountain commuting with God, and God wrote upon the tables of stone his own holy law and gave it to the children of Israel, brought it down from the mountain to give to the children of Israel as the law that they were to keep.

But even before he got to them, they had committed idolatry, they had gone astray from God, and when it was all about, when he came around a certain corner, I guess, on his way down the mountain, he saw them.

They erected the golden calf, and they were singing and dancing around the golden calf while Moses was up receiving for them the ordinances of God. And oh, what anger arose up in Moses as he saw that even before he had given them God's holy law, they had violated all the principles of it.

And he threw the thing down at his feet and smashed the tables at his feet. And then you know the story how he had to reprove the children of Israel for their sin and their error and chastise them, how he took the golden calf and grounded the powder and cast it into the water and made the Israelites drink of the water, and it was God judging them for their sin.

God said to Moses, I will destroy them. Let me destroy them, and Moses interceded as a faithful priest of God. For Moses was not an opportunist. God had prepared his heart so well that he had become priestly in heart.

He'd become merciful in heart. He'd become meek and tender and broken in heart. And that's why God called him. And I believe that's why God waited those 40 years to prepare that vessel for that great ministration of bringing a people out of Egypt who were not worthy of God's redemption, never were worthy, and God knew that.

Nevertheless, for his own name's sake and for the Father's sake, for he had promised that Abraham's seed would be in a strange land and would be in bondage, but God would bring them out, and God's always faithful to his promise, regardless of man's unfaithfulness.

And so Moses interceded before God when God threatened to destroy them, and he would have destroyed them except for Moses' intercession, and he cried unto God and God spared them. And he says, I will forgive.

According to your word, I will forgive. Nevertheless, he said, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. And I used to wonder why he made that connection, and I think I recognize why it was.

God said, I'll forgive your people. I'll forgive the people of Israel, but if I do that, I'm going to fill the whole earth with my glory. As if to say, if I forgive them, they totally are undeserving.

Well then, if they're totally undeserving and I forgive them, I'll have to fill the whole earth with my glory. And so God's purposes are never frustrated by man's disobedience. Those who are disobedient will fall short of God's promise.

They will not enter into the thing that God has promised. But when God declares his purposes in the earth, he doesn't change his purposes because of human failure. But he will wait until the time comes when God will once again bring that promise back and give it life and fulfill it in some different way.

God doesn't abrogate his word because of man's unfaithfulness. And often, as we will discover as we go through the Scriptures, man's disobedience opens up the way for God to show greater mercy to others who have not had an opportunity.

You've been disobedient. You don't deserve a thing, but I'm going to forgive you. But if I do that, then I'm going to open up a door of mercy to all the earth. It's really what God said. So that in the fullness of time, when God sent the ultimate promise, the ultimate hope of Israel, and he was manifest in the earth, even the Lord Jesus Christ himself, Israel's ultimate hope, the thing that the nation had been looking for all through the centuries, and when he was rejected, and Israel thought God had to come to us because we're his chosen people, and he did.

He came to them and visited them. But when they rejected him, God didn't say, Well, I guess I'll have to start all over again. Call another man like Abraham and discipline him and train him and make a holy nation that would receive me.

God has no problem along that line. When Israel rejected Christ, God just took the blindness off the eyes of the Gentiles and grafted them into the tree. We talked about it a little this morning, grafted them into the olive tree of Israel by breaking down the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, making one new man, grafting the wild branches into the good olive tree of Israel, the original branches being broken off.

Not all of them, but most of them became dead branches so that the tree was almost bare. But God is not to be frustrated in his purposes. The olive tree was a good tree, and so he grafted in wild branches into the good olive tree of Israel.

The Church doesn't see that as a whole, but it's because they won't accept Paul's interpretation of the Old Testament. They won't accept the inspired revelation concerning the Old Testament, because it's so clear that as many of you as have the faith of Abraham, the same are the seed of Abraham.

Those of you who have the faith of Abraham, you are Abraham's seed, and further, you are heirs according to the promise. We who are Gentiles who at one time were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, excluded from the covenants of promise, God has torn down the wall of partition by his cross to make of the Jewish people and the Gentile nations, to make one new man soul-making peace.

One new thing by tearing down the wall and bringing in Jews and Gentiles. Not all the Jews, not all the Gentiles. And I might further say, not too many of the Jews, the most of them being Gentiles, because the Jews had rejected the Messiah.

Nevertheless, the door was open. As Paul says, God put the Jews and the Gentiles in the same prison house. He has shut up all in the prison house of unbelief that he might have mercy upon them. It's so clear to me, and I don't see how anyone could read the New Testament, especially Paul's epistles with an open heart and fail to see that God has one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.

That there is no difference between Jew and Gentile. Nevertheless, God respects his own electing purposes. And so in his electing purposes, he sought this to bring the Gentiles in, and he sees fit in the end of the Gentile age to bring back the broken branches, the dead branches, according to election.

Nothing to do with merit at all when you're talking about election. As far as the Gospels was concerned, they were enemies, Paul said, for your sake. Becoming enemies of the Gospel had opened the door to the Gentiles.

They're enemies for your sake, according to the Gospel, but concerning the election, they are beloved for the Father's sake. So election has nothing to do with merit. It's simply a case, God said, I will in the end of the times of the Gentiles, I'll grasp back the dead branches.

Where? Into the same olive tree that he put us in. And when that happened, Paul said, that means life from the dead. Life from the dead. And so we're in the tree, but we realize that fullness of life is not there.

But the time is coming when God brings back the elect of God of Israel, of natural Israel, and grasps them into the tree. It's going to take a miracle which is described simply as a resurrection miracle.

Life from the dead. According to the working of the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which is our inheritance, but which we too have not really seen functioning in any degree of fullness. So I foresee the next phase of the church as the next phase when Israel is grafted in to the same tree from which they were cut off.

The tree that we've been in, but which has likewise become depleted of the vitality of it, and the Gentile churches are going to be cut off, those who have not known Christ. Not all of them. Paul says he didn't cut off all Israel.

He just cut off those who didn't have faith. And so he says the same will happen to the Gentiles. Those who don't really have faith but are called to church, they'll be cut off and they'll give life to the dead branches and bring them back into the good olive tree.

The same tree. How can anybody miss that? The very same tree that we're in. That we got in by their default. And they're going to get back in by our default. But we who remain and those who have remained of the natural Israel will together be in that same covenant tree.

Once strangers from the commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise, you who were once afar off are brought nigh by the blood of Christ and made to be fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God.

And so God's purposes are never frustrated because of human disobedience, because God knows how just to turn to another people when his own people reject him. And he's done it in the church. Turn from a people who profess to have been heirs of his promises and he'll move in another people in the same stream, in the same river of life, in the same olive tree, but nevertheless another people who were alienated from that life before.

And he'll do it again. And he is doing it again. He's moving mightily even now in many of those nations beyond the sea who have been neglected. Great revivals going on in Africa and China. I hear reports of a tremendous moving of God's spirit in China, I'm sure.

And we hear of those things going on elsewhere and we wonder, well, Lord, what about us? We should know the reason. To him that hath shall be given and to him that hath not shall be taken away, even that which he seemeth to have.

When God brought the Gentiles into the commonwealth of Israel and grafted them into the good olive tree, Paul says, I'm just hoping that when God does this, I may provoke my people to envy. When he sees Gentile dogs coming in that, you know, they were far below them and they come in and become heirs of the promises which should have been theirs.

Paul says, I just trust that somehow I'll provoke them to jealousy. That's why God is doing it. To provoke this people to jealousy. You mark my word, when God starts moving on this continent, he's going to move in those areas where they're rejected or neglected or very poor or don't fit into society.

Watch him move amongst the colored people and amongst the native people. Watch him move mightily in some of these areas. Because somehow it seems that there's a feeling of supremacy, you know, in the white races.

And we've got it. We're God's chosen people. And certainly God did move mightily in those realms. I talked to a man in Kenya. He wanted to get a visa to come over here. And I told him, be patient. Let God send them.

And he says, God gave him a vision of lights in Africa. And God told him he was going to send many lights to come over to dark America. Which is in fact darkness. We used to talk about dark Africa. And now the Christian people in Kenya, this man said, God said he would send him as a light to dark America.

And God, you know, God's no respecter of persons. But he does respect his own purposes. And he has purposes. And when man in his influence and pride somehow seeks to frustrate God's purposes, God is not frustrated.

He goes on out and he fulfills his promises in ways we never imagined. And he'll do it again. And as I live, saith the Lord, all the earth shall be filled with my glory. And so Moses broke the tables of stone.

The Law Written on the Heart

And that wasn't the end of it. After God had reproved them, after he had listened to Moses' pleas of repentance, after all this, God said to Moses, come up to the mountain and bring with you two tables of stone.

And I will write upon them my holy law, which I wrote upon the first tables, which you broke. And you will take them down to the children of Israel. But you won't present it to them as my law for them to keep.

In so many words, I mean, he said that because he said you'll put it in the ark of the covenant. And certainly it was for them to keep. And he expounded those laws to them. But God was doing something in type here.

He said, take these tables of stone and put them beside the ark, the ark of the covenant. And in the ark of the covenant there was a mercy seat over top that covered those tables of stone. And the ark of the covenant was in behind the veil in the holiest of all, which was in behind the doorway to the holy place, which was in behind the gate to the outer court, secluded there in the holiest of all.

That's where the tables of law were placed. God telling us in type that though we've broken his law, that's not the end of it. God would have another covenant, which he would write upon the fleshly tablets of the heart.

His holiness, which he required of man, he would now impart to them. There would be an impartation. And God wants to do that. I'm not saying we haven't had it, but I'm trusting that there will be a real measure of it that we'll all recognize and know that it's happening.

That in the ministration of the new covenant, it's not just that our minds are getting a little more knowledge, but there's an importation of what that word says. There's an actual importation of it. Let's look for that.

Let's anticipate. Expect it. And as the word goes forth, which we recognize to be from the Lord, let's have open ears and open hearts to receive it, that God might begin to write that word upon our hearts.

I know we've all had experiences where he has done that in measure. When we received him as our Savior in later times, we know that God made quick himself and made it alive. But we're just encouraging you to believe that this is the day for the unfolding of the new covenant in fullness, that God wants to bring it forth in fullness in the midst of his people, because we know, we simply recognize that we're not that living epistle that God wants the church to be.

I think we don't have any problem recognizing that. We're far from it. And it's because that holy law of God has not been written there to bring forth that light that others will seek after and seek to know what God has to say to them as the living epistles of Christ.

Moses' Radiant Face and the Glory of the Spirit

And so when Moses was up in the mountain receiving the tables of the law, took the tables of stone up with him for God to write upon in this holy law. And it says in verse 20 of Exodus 34, It came to pass when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with two tables of testimony in Moses' hand.

When he came down from the mount, that Moses whispered not that the skin of his face shone while he talked with him. While he talked with him, while God talked with Moses. While he talked with him. It's, I guess, not clear there whether it's Moses or God in the first instance.

But I understand that it's saying, Moses whispered not that the skin of his face shone while God talked with him. Either way, I suppose, it would be similar. He didn't know that as God was talking with him and as he was talking with God.

For if you're talking with a person, it's a two-way conversation if you're talking with him. Not talking to him, but you're talking with him. So there's conversation. And I believe true prayer ought to be that.

Not just telling God what you want. If God's there, anything you tell me, just tell me and I'll be quick to do it. I know we have promises. If he says anything you ask in my name, I will do it. But that's for a people abiding in him.

Don't forget that. You read John 14, 15, 16. It's very clear it's for a people abiding in him. They're not asking for their own benefit, their own selfish benefit. They're asking for the glory of God.

And because they're talking with God, God puts it on their heart. To pray for this and to ask for that. God inspires that desire that we have if we're truly walking with him. And then it will come to pass.

Ask what ye will and it shall be done. And we know very well that I suppose all of us have claimed that over and over. And it didn't happen. And we almost give up on it. But let's just face up to it. It's for a people who are abiding in Christ and Christ is abiding in them.

And there's a great fulfillment of that scripture yet to take place when God has this people in union with him. And he is abiding with them and they with him. And they're one with Christ. They ask what they will and it shall be done.

It doesn't mean they're set free to ask for anything they want because their wills even have been changed. Their wills have been centered around God's will. Their heart is one with the heart of God. And so they ask what they will because you're in a place where you will what the Father will.

Your desire is what the Father desires. So you ask whatever you will and it's done. I'm not limiting this scripture. I'm enlarging it. When you abide in Christ and Jesus abides in you, you have God's desires.

You have God's mind. You have God's heart. You know what he desires. You ask what you will and it shall be done. Because your will has been so completely transformed that you're one with the will of God.

That's a tremendous thing. But God wants to bring his people to that. And so as Moses talked with God, and God talked with Moses, the glory of God was being transferred to Moses' countenance by reason of the fact he was talking with him.

So there was a ministration of the new covenant. But the new covenant had not yet come and Israel was not yet ready for it. And so to them it became a ministration of condemnation. Read on a little further.

When Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone and they were afraid to come nigh him. And Moses called unto them, and Aaron and all the rulers of the congregation returned unto him, and Moses talked with them.

And afterward, all the children of Israel came nigh, and he gave them in commandment all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. As he came down from the mountain, they were afraid of that light.

They were terrified. They withdrew. They squinted. They tried to shave their eyes. They would like to run away, but Moses called to them, beckoned to them, And little by little, they fearfully drew nigh to Moses.

Now before we finish that part, I want to read on in 2 Corinthians 3. The ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance.

They couldn't keep looking at him. They'd glance and glance away quick like you would if you were looking at the sun and its brilliance. Just a quick glance and that's it. Otherwise you'd be blinded. You know you'd be blinded.

He kept staring at it. Men have gone blind by staring at it. And they couldn't stand it because of their sensitive eyes. Paul says, Now if that glory was that bright in the dispensation of the law, how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious, more glorious?

Would you and I settle if we had the glory that radiated from Moses' face? Would we settle for that? And Paul says, That was the ministration of death. But he says it was glorious. But he says if that was glorious, the ministration of death, ought not the ministration of the Spirit be more glorious?

I mean you read 2 Corinthians 3, you know, tearfully like that, and you just see how far short we are of the glory of God. When the law that came with glory came with the season, and even as it came on Moses' face, it was just transient.

It was just for a few minutes perhaps, and it kept on fading away and fading away and fading away. How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? Because He came to abide. He came to abide in His temple forever.

God's plan is that unto Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. But somehow we expect that there should have been a passing away of the glory of God from the early church until now to end up in total apostasy.

And so we can justify our faith by saying Moses said in the last days there would be a great falling away. And we know there's a great falling away, and we know it's there. But unto Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.

And if the ministration of death came with glory, how shall not rather the ministration of the Spirit be with an enduring glory? It's as clear as can be. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect by reason of the glory that excelleth.

He's comparing the two glories, the glory that Moses had and the glory that we have. And he says that which came with glory is somewhat glorious, but nothing compared to the real glory. As if to say here's a dark room and you light a candle.

Well, it gives light. You can see a little. You can see where you're walking perhaps. You turn on these lights and that little candle could be burning. You wouldn't even notice it. It has no glory by reason of the greater light.

That's what he's saying. You compare it. Then he says it didn't have any glory at all. And so the moon has glory. It has a reflected glory from the sun. And sometimes a full moon has quite a glory. But when the sun rises, it's still there in the sky.

If you know where it is, you could find it. But really it has no light at all compared to the excelling glory of the sun. So that's what he's saying. So let's go on. For that which is done away with glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

Paul says that which remaineth, that covenant which abides, that covenant which remains in the church throughout all ages, world without end, is glorious. I've learned that when our experience does not measure up to what the Word says, to accept what the Word says and seek God earnestly why we come short of it.

Instead of explaining it away, Paul says there's going to be glory in the church throughout all ages. And so we've got it. It's there. It's God's provision. It's there in God's purposes. It's there in the Holy Spirit.

And He abides within us. So is our inheritance. But let's face up to it. We haven't appropriated that. We've lost that glory. God wants to bring us back to that glory. It's there in the church. It's in the Holy Spirit.

But when we fall short of God's provision, let's not take the theological stand. The Bible says I've got it, so I've got it and forget the rest. The Bible says we've got it that we might nurture it, that we might seek after that which He has given us as the lost treasure, which has been lost and obscured under the many traditions and forms and rituals of human tradition.

I know it's in the church. It's in the Holy Spirit. But we've lost it. God wants to bring us back because it's an abiding glory. It remaineth. The glory that remaineth. Much more is that more glorious than the glory that was done away.

The Veil, Unveiled Hearts, and Transformation

And so having made that comparison, He says, Seeing then we have such hope. We use great plainness of speech. And not as Moses which put a veil over his face. I want you to notice why Paul put a veil over his face.

That the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished. He put the veil over his face so that the children of Israel wouldn't be looking on that glory that was fading away.

He didn't want them to see, as one translator put it. He put the veil on his face so they wouldn't see the last rays of that glory fading away. That's why he covered his face. And I never realized that until I read this in other versions and then read it back again in Exodus.

I thought when he came down and Aaron and the children of Israel said, we can't look at you, Moses. There's too much light there. I thought Moses quickly pulled out a veil and threw it over his face. Okay, come on now.

I'll talk to you. I've got my face covered. He didn't do that. He beckoned to them with that glory radiating from his countenance. He beckoned to them. They came nigh. And with open face, he declared unto them what he had heard from God.

Back to Exodus 34, verse 33. And till Moses had done speaking with them. Till is in italics, indicating the translators put it there feeling it made a better translation. Any of you looking at other translations at this moment?

Exodus 34, 33. What does it say? When Moses finished. When. When Moses. Anybody else got a translation? 33? When Moses finished. That's the correct translation. It gives you a whole different concept.

When Moses had done speaking with them, he put the veil on his face. Not before, but when he finished speaking. And that's confirmed by the Apostle Paul when he said, We don't have a glory such as Moses had that faded away.

And therefore, we have great boldness because this covenant is not a covenant that fades away. It's one that takes on more and more glory as we continue to walk in the light of it. And so he says, We have great, use great plainness of speech.

He says we're bold about the new covenant. Not as Moses. He's saying Moses wasn't too bold about that covenant. Because though he did not know that the glory was radiating from his face when he came down from the mount, he was aware when the glory began to depart.

God gives us grace to recognize when the glory departs. Moses had that grace. That's something that he'd been in communion with God. And though he didn't know his face was taking on the brilliance of it, he was aware of God's presence.