Promise of the New Covenant

If you have your copy of God's Word, please take it and open it to the book of 2 Corinthians and go with me to chapter 3 and find your place at verse 4. Now we began last year an exposition of 2 Corinthians and then we took a couple of weeks off as Brother Mike preached on Christmas Eve morning on Zechariah 14 and then last week I gave a message hopefully encouraging us in the new year to use our spiritual gifts for the good of the body from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and Romans chapter 12.

Well today we are back in our study of 2 Corinthians and I can think of no better subject to begin the new year with than what we are going to begin studying through this book this morning because it is this book that reminds us in this point that we are in of the glory of the new covenant and so it is my purpose and desire over the next several weeks to spend time in chapter 3 going through what Paul tells us about the glory of the new covenant as well as the fact that the old covenant has not continued but rather has been replaced by the new covenant having been made obsolete.

And if that offends you or you don't understand it I hope that by at least the end of today's message you will see what I mean and that those words are not mine but rather the words of the writer of the book of Hebrews who says that because the greater and more excellent covenant has come the old covenant has been made obsolete and there is a blessing in learning what that means and how it is to be applied.

So let us stand together and read from 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and we are going to read verse 4 -6. Paul writes such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us but our sufficiency is from God who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant not of the letter but of the spirit for the letter kills but the spirit gives life.

Father I thank you for your word I ask that even now that I would decrease and Christ would increase that you would in this moment of time where I will be speaking with that you would keep me from error that you would fill me with your Holy Spirit and that your spirit would be the teacher and Lord that as we all come under subjection to the word of God that we would not only hear the truths of the word of God but that we would apply those truths in our own lives.

I pray for those who are members of the new covenant by faith that they would recognize the glory of the new covenant as we go through that exposition over the next few weeks and Lord for those who are not yet members of this new covenant who have not bowed the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ who have not entered into a relationship with God through faith in his son and repentance of sin I pray that today might be the day that you would in your mercy grant repentance that leads to life and we pray this in Jesus name Amen.

The Division of History and Scripture Around Christ

It is an interesting reality that our Bible and our method of keeping a record of human history are both divided the same way. The Bible is divided in two ways. The Bible is divided into two testaments.

The Old Testament and the New Testament. The calendar is divided between BC and AD. BC is before Christ. AD is Latin for Anno Domini which means in the year of our Lord. So we are currently in the year of our Lord 2024.

The New Testament is 2024. Now modern scholars in an attempt to eliminate Christ from anything in academia have changed BC and AD to BCE and CE. BCE stands for Before Common Era and CE stands for Common Era.

When I was in university and I was doing my studies for my bachelors every textbook I had when it referenced a date and I have a degree in social studies so I did a lot of books reading books with dates in them.

Every textbook I had used CE and BCE. But here is what is funny about that. Even if you replace the Before Christ and Anno Domini with BCE and CE you still have to admit that the point that made the difference is Christ.

What brought us into the Common Era was Jesus and what was before the Common Era was before Jesus. Jesus Christ is history's midpoint. As Paul Barnett says in his commentary the midpoint of history is not an invention, it's not the discovery of a continent, it's not a war but it is a person and it is the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

All events are calculated in relationship to Him. The world changed when the cries of the babe ran out from the manger in Bethlehem and it would never be the same after the cross was accomplished and the tomb was vacated.

And as I said not only is history divided by the coming of Christ but so is our Bible. We call the longer section of our Bible the Old Testament. In fact if you hold your Bible up and you flip to the New Testament and separate them you'll notice it's not half and half.

It's not even really three quarters and a quarter. It is so much more in the Old Testament than it is in the New Testament. And what's interesting about that word testament is that word testament is actually just another word for covenant.

The word testament simply means covenant and therefore when we talk about the Old Testament we are actually referring to the scriptures of the Old Covenant. And when we talk about the New Testament we're talking about the scriptures of the New Covenant.

This is what makes Mormonism so foolish, well among many things. But if you've ever noticed in Mormonism what do they call their Book of Mormon? Another Testament of Jesus Christ. Because the way they're using the word testament is as if testament means chapter.

Like another chapter in the story. No, no. The word testament means covenant. And Christ came to give one covenant not another covenant. Not a covenant through some imaginary history here in the Americas that happened before the time of Joseph Smith and was unearthed by some magical reading of some golden tablets that were handed down by an imaginary angel named Moroni.

No, that's not what is the truth. The truth is Christ came and he gave a new covenant. And that new covenant would last forever. Not needing to be replaced. Not needing to be reestablished. But rather needing to be remembered.

What do we remember in the table? This is the new covenant in my blood. Never to be repeated. Never needing to be done again. So as we consider the covenants of the Bible, we begin with the simple distinction of old and new.

Now we can break the covenants down even more than that. If you go through the Bible you'll see that there are many covenants in the Bible. Some of them are made between people. And those aren't really the ones in view here.

But they help us to understand what a covenant is. A covenant is an agreement by two or more parties that come together and form a relationship around promises and expectations. That's what a covenant is.

When you're married you enter into a covenant. You come together under promises and expectations. You make vows and you enter into a covenant relationship. Every time we see people be married we remind them that they're entering into a covenant that's supposed to last how long?

Till death do us part. And the Bible says God made covenants with certain individuals in the Bible. The first time the word covenant is ever used in the Bible is with the person of Noah. Noah when he came off the ark God made a covenant with him that he would never destroy the world again by water.

And he gave Noah a sign. And the sign was the rainbow. Later God would make a covenant with Abraham. Abraham was given a covenant from God. A promise and a command. Go from your people and your kindred and go to a land that I will show you and I will make you a great nation and I will bless those who bless you.

I will curse those who curse you and through you all the nations of the world will be blessed. That's the promise made to Abraham which was later cut into a covenant. That was in chapter 12. In chapter 15 God makes a covenant based upon that promise where he splits the animal in half and he passes through as a smoking pot and a fiery torch.

We remember this. This is all throughout the Old Testament. We read of these covenants God makes and these promises he gives. Covenants with Moses. We see the promises in the covenant with David. We see these things happening throughout the Old Testament.

But then something new happens. A new covenant comes. And the covenant of Jesus Christ. The covenant made through the finished work of Christ. The final everlasting covenant. Well today we are going to see Paul describe himself as a minister or a servant of this new covenant.

We're going to examine the history of this covenant as it was promised in the Old Covenant. We're going to see the distinction between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. And when we say Old Covenant are we referring to simply every covenant or is there something specific that's in view?

And I'm going to show you what I believe is in view. And we're going to note the peril. And this is the key. We're going to note the peril of seeking to go back under the Old Covenant once we are in the New Covenant.

Once we have become members of the New Covenant. Paul will say such a thing as death. And it's a false gospel. He talks about this in Galatians. He talks about the fact that those who would seek to bring you back under the Old Covenant are preaching a gospel that's not a gospel at all.

So as I said we're in 2nd Corinthians so let us at least examine the context so we know what has brought us to where we are. I know some of you are not regular attenders here. Some of you are first time visitors and so jumping in with both feet to a new book can be a little confusing at times.

And we have been away from this for two weeks so I want to remind us of what we have seen so far. Paul is writing to the church in Corinth where a group has arisen in this church who is challenging his teaching and his authority.

He has described his vexed relationship with the Corinthians particularly in regard to the accusation of his lack of integrity particularly regarding his travel plans. Paul said he was going to come and didn't come and some have used that as an accusation against his character.

To say here Paul says one thing and he does something else. He says he's going to be here and then he doesn't come. Paul can't be trusted. And that was part of the issue that Paul is describing in 2nd Corinthians.

2nd Corinthians is his most personal letter outside of possibly Philemon in the sense that it's autobiographical. He's talking about himself. He's talking about his ministry. He's defending the integrity of his ministry.

And he says in defending his ministry that he has been willing to suffer for Christ. He's described himself as one who's been taken captive by Christ. And his very life has been a fragrance of life to the believer and the stench of death to the unbeliever as brother Mike mentioned in his prayer this morning.

Now in our last message we looked at chapter 2 verse 16 through chapter 3 verse 6 and we notice that Paul asks a question. If you have your Bible and you want to just glance back at chapter 2 verse 16 you'll notice the question Paul asks.

At the end of the chapter or end of the verse he says who is sufficient for these things? And one would ask naturally what things? Who is sufficient for what? Well he then goes on to describe what he's referring to there as the ministry and he goes on to describe how his ministry is sufficient because it is marked by sincerity.

It's marked by fruitfulness and it's marked by humility. All of which would show that his ministry is genuine. More importantly that his ministry was from God. He said it's not as if I'm sufficient in and of myself but rather it is Christ who has made me a minister.

And this brings us to our verse for today. You'll notice in this section when he is speaking he says that our sufficiency is from God that's verse 5 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant.

Unlike Paul's opponents who needed letters of recommendation, Paul had a commendation from Christ. Paul's message had gone out to the Corinthians, was written on their hearts and now they were his letter of recommendation.

You want a commendation for my ministry? Look at yourselves. You are our letter of recommendation. So it is in this context that Paul begins to address his role as a minister of the new covenant. And I am convinced that the reason why Paul now begins to defend the new covenant is because it is very likely that Paul's opponents are encouraging the Corinthians to some form of old covenant worship.

This was one of the most common issues that we see Paul writing about in his letters. And that is the issue and this is in Galatians, it is in Colossians, in fact it's the whole reason for the letter of Galatians which I believe is Paul's first letter.

Some argue not but I argue it's his first letter. I believe it's his least encouraging letter because he starts with no gracious introduction but he just immediately lights them up for being foolish enough to go back to another gospel when it cannot be a gospel that saves because there is only one gospel that saves and that is by grace through faith alone and Christ alone.

And that is the whole book of Galatians. But Paul also in Colossians spends time dealing with, and I preached through Colossians last year so many of you remember, dealing with these people who would come in and try to enforce the old covenant upon the new.

And I believe that like in Galatia and Colossae there are Judaizers in Corinth. A Judaizer is someone who attempts to lay the burden of the old covenant law upon the new covenant church. So Paul spends chapter 3 describing the surpassing glory of the new covenant over against the fading glory of the old covenant.

That's his words. He describes the old covenant as having a fading glory which is surpassed by the glory of the new covenant. And I just have to mention this so you'll notice our banners all of the decorations for the Christmas season are gone and I had these banners made about I don't know 10 years ago or so and I hadn't even looked at them in a while and I said boy what good banners and I know from the front it's hard to turn around and see but these banners were made for a reason and it is to remind us of two important truths.

The law came through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. There is an Old Testament law that has purpose and we're going to see what it is and the law ultimately does just what that Psalm says it does.

The law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul. The law is what shows us our need for salvation. It shows us the depth of our depravity and the need for Christ and then that verse there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

And understanding the distinction between law and grace, between law and gospel is understanding the distinction between the old covenant and the new. The old covenant, the writings of the old covenant kill because we cannot be saved by keeping the law but the new covenant brings life because it shows us that we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.

Interestingly enough the way anyone has ever been saved even in the Old Testament no one was saved by keeping the law. Everyone was saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone even though they didn't know who Christ was at the time.

They had the pictures that pointed to Christ. The Bible says in Colossians that they had a shadow of things to come but the substance was Christ. Every Old Testament ceremony, every Old Testament sacrifice, every Old Testament feast, all of these Old Testament practices pointed forward to the fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So I want us to understand that we as members of the New Covenant do not need to go backwards into the Old Covenant. You might say, well, Brother Foskey, the Corinthians had to deal with that but we don't.

There's no one who's trying to bring us under the Old Covenant. Au contraire. There are entire movements which at their core are based in the idea of trying to reinforce Old Covenant theology, Old Covenant practice, Old Covenant law on the New Covenant church.

We see this in the Hebrew Roots movement. We see this in Seventh-day Adventism. We see this in so many other places where they will tell you that if you truly want to please God that you will do these things and where do they always go?

Into the Old Covenant. So today what I want to look at, I want to look at the promise of the New Covenant. I want to look at the inauguration of the New Covenant. I want to look at the exposition of the New Covenant and then finally the members of the New Covenant.

Think we'll get it all today? Well, that's the hope because I've got something for next week. But we'll see. I'm not in a hurry. But I do hope that these all fit together because honestly if you don't understand these four things, you're not going to understand the rest of the chapter.

We can read through 2 Corinthians 3 and we can see the glory of the New Covenant. But if you don't know what it is and you don't know when it was promised and you don't know when it was inaugurated and you don't know who it's for, then it's not going to make a lot of sense to you.

So that's what we're going to do today. So let's look first at the promise of the New Covenant. There is only one passage in the Old Testament that uses the phrase New Covenant. And if you have your Bibles open, turn with me to Jeremiah chapter 31.

And go with me to verse 31. If you're there, say Amen. Alright. It says in verse 31 of chapter 31, it says, Behold the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

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, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the Lord.

Now stop right there. I just want to for a moment before we read the rest, I want to make a distinction in verse 32. Notice how he describes the Old Covenant as the covenant that was made when he took the people by the hand and led them out of Egypt.

So when we refer to the Old Covenant, we can say the Old Testament is all of the writing, but particularly what was given through Moses. Because that's what was given when they were taken by the hand and led out of Egypt.

And that's what is distinguished between when we say old and new, we're referring to the covenant of the law made with Moses. Made through Moses. Alright, so continuing. He says, For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord.

I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.

For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. Amen. What a blessing. Boy, I can just stop right there. Because that's a sermon. To say that in this new covenant, that one thing it's going to be, is it's going to be all encompassing.

Everyone in this new covenant will know the Lord. Unlike the old covenant, where men and women were born into the old covenant, but didn't know the Lord. In the new covenant, you are born again and everyone in this covenant knows the Lord.

I don't want to get too far into that. That's why I'm a Baptist, by the way. Jeremiah 31, Hebrews 8. I tell you what, if you're a Baptist and don't know those passages, you ought to. Because they're helpful.

Because everyone in this covenant knows the Lord. In fact, for instance, just for a moment. Every week, I call for anyone who does not believe in Christ to trust in Christ. I call for that. But, you'll notice in this church, we don't have a Billy Graham style invitation.

Where Laurie comes up and plays 48 verses of Just As I Am. And we wait for somebody to come forward. And if nobody comes forward, we say, play another verse, sister. We got to get somebody forward, right?

Now, why is that? Well, the reason for that, one, is there is certain manipulation in that that we are trying to avoid. But also, because the gathering of the church is for the church. The gathering of the church is for those who know the Lord.

And therefore, every week we come together, I'm not calling you to know the Lord because if you're in the new covenant, my assumption is you know the Lord. Now, I would never assume everyone in here is a member of this church and I would never assume that everyone in here is a member of the new covenant.

That's why every week I call for repentance and faith. And even as a believer, don't we need to repent and believe always? But, there is something to be said about the fact that once we are in the new covenant, we are all people who know the Lord.

You, if you are in the new covenant, you know God. And more importantly, God knows you. Because you know what? The great curse of Matthew 7, many will come unto me that day and say, Lord, Lord, did we not do this?

Did we not do that? And he will say, depart from me, you never knew me. No, that's not what he said. He said, depart from me, I never knew you. So, there is something important about the Lord knowing us.

And if we're in covenant with him, he knows us. If we're in the new covenant with him, he knows us and we know him. And that's the blessing that we see here. This blessing of this. There are so many and I am going to, again, in the weeks ahead, we're going to expound more on these things.

But for now, let it just be said that from the least of them to the greatest, they shall all know me and I will remember their sin no more. Let me tell you something. God is, we sang it this morning, God omniscient and knowing, right?

God knows all things. But when it comes to our sin, he chooses not to remember. He chooses not to hold a record of wrongs against us because our record of wrongs has been nailed to the cross, it says in Colossians, that Christ took our record of wrongs on himself.

And that's why he remembers our sin no more. Not because we deserve it, but because Christ took what he didn't deserve and he gave us what we didn't deserve and that was his righteousness. I tell you, we're going to be here all year because the new covenant, I'm in part one of point one, but the new covenant is just this grand thing that is worthy of our time.

And the problem I have, again, with these people who want to go back under the old covenant is do you realize that you are trampling the blood of the covenant under your feet as you walk back? So the writer of Hebrews says, you are laying to waste the blood that was shed for you as you go back and try to find some righteousness in this old covenant when you have been given the perfect righteousness of Christ by faith.

It's an amazing reality. We cannot do better than what God has done. And we don't know better than the Holy Spirit of God who wrote this. Now, is, well let me say this, Jeremiah 31 is the only passage in the Old Testament that says new covenant.

It's the only one where we have the word new covenant together. But it is my conviction, and I believe all of our elders' conviction, and I think most New Testament scholars would say, that it's not the only place that it's mentioned.

It's just the only place where we have the phrase new covenant. So if it's mentioned other places, where would that be? Well, another place where you could go, and if you have your Bibles open there to Jeremiah, just turn a few books over to the book of Ezekiel, and find your place in Ezekiel 36, and go to verse 26.

Now in Ezekiel 36, 26, we have the promise of what comes with the new covenant. So even though the word new covenant is not used here, we have the promise of what accompanies the new covenant, therefore we can say this is a new covenant promise as well.

And this is what it says. It says, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

What is that, church? That is the gift of regeneration and the filling of the spirit that comes in the new covenant. One of the things that we know about the old covenant is the administration of the spirit was different under the old covenant.

Now there are some who disagree with me on that, but I don't see how they can. Not because I'm the smartest guy. I'm not even the smartest guy in this room. But I can say this, the very words of Christ, a particular word of the gospel of John, make it so clear that it is a new administration of the spirit that is coming with this new covenant.

It can't be any other way. Jesus said, I must go away and it behooves you that I go away because if I don't go away, he cannot come. And if I go away, I will send you another comforter and he will be with you forever.

And it is the Holy Spirit of God who comes to live inside of you. This is the promise Ezekiel is making here. I will put my spirit in you. And the spirit of God is going to come. And the spirit of God is going to seal you under the day of redemption.

He is going to empower you as I preached last week. He is going to empower you to serve within the body. And he is going to lead you in the ways of righteousness. He is going to convict you of your sin.

He is going to be grieved when you sin. The Bible says, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. And he is going to be your prayer partner. I know that might be a weird way of saying that, but the Bible says when we don't know what to pray, the spirit of God intercedes, prays on our behalf with groanings that we can't even understand.

See, that's the blessing of the new covenant, that the spirit of God would come and reside, not behind the veil of the temple, not within the ark of the covenant, but within the person, Paul says, we are now the temple of God.

Because we are the body of Christ. And so the promise of the old covenant in Ezekiel, this promise, I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit in you. And I will remove that heart of stone. Boy, how many Calvinists love that verse.

We are always talking about Ezekiel. Take out the heart of stone and put in the heart of flesh. Well, what is that, beloved? It's regeneration. It's taking out that dead heart. It's giving us a heart that beats for God.

Beloved, if you have never been born again, you will never see the kingdom of God. If you are not born again, you will not see the kingdom of God, Jesus says. And old Nicodemus, he didn't understand that.

What did he say? Do I got to go back into my mother's womb? He said, no, knucklehead, listen up. That's not exactly what he said. But that's, I mean, think about the way, should I go back into my mother's womb?

No. You have to be born from above. That's another way of translating the phrase born again. It means to be born from heaven or born from above, born from God, to have your heart of stone take it out and replaced with the heart of flesh.

Let me ask you this, and this is an important question. Have you been born again? Have you been born again? Again, if you're a believer or a member of the new covenant, I'm not asking you to question your salvation every week.

We don't, every one of us will know the Lord. But if you haven't been born again, beloved, without being born again, you will not see God except in judgment. And this is the promise of the new covenant.

This is what Jesus meant when he talked to Nicodemus that night. This is what we have to consider. That the heart will change and the spirit of God will come. That's the promise of the new covenant. Now, are there other passages?

There are other passages. And again, the further I get into this, the less specific these passages are going to be. But there are passages, such as Isaiah 55, 3, that references an everlasting covenant that seems to specifically be pointing to the new covenant.

But, I want us to just for a moment, before we leave the promise of the new covenant, I want us to consider that every covenant in the Old Testament, in one way or another, pointed to Christ. In fact, if we just consider Abraham.

Turn in your Bibles with me all the way back to Genesis chapter 12. Abraham is certainly the most important figure in Hebrew history, even more important than Moses, as the Jewish people see Abraham as their spiritual ancestor.

In fact, three religions, you may not know this, three religions claim Abraham as their ancestor. I wrote a paper about this in, again, when I was at university, I wrote a paper and it was entitled, don't call me a heretic or throw anything at me, it was entitled Three Religions, One God.

I was not arguing that all three religions serve the same God. What I was arguing in the paper is that all three religions claim to be serving the God of Abraham. And that is true. If you ask a Muslim who is Allah, they will say he is the God of Abraham.

Because that's what they believe. They believe the God that made covenant with Abraham was Allah. If you ask a Jewish person who is their God, they will say it's the God of Abraham. And we would agree, but we'll talk about the distinction in a moment, because the God of Abraham certainly is Yahweh, and that's who we would say is the God of the Jews.

The problem is in modern Judaism, they have rejected Jesus Christ, and Jesus said to reject him is to reject the Father. So as Brother Mike said this morning in a very unpopular statement, but I'll repeat it just to show that I stand beside him in his lack of popularity.

Sorry. Modern Judaism is a, what was the word you used? Irrelevant religion. Because they are seeking to worship the God of Abraham in a way that he is not prescribed. And therefore they have a false worship.

It's irrelevant, because it's false. All the things you see, the yarmulkes and all of the dress and all of the things of traditional rabbinic Judaism are nothing but religious cosplay. Because they're not worshiping the God of Abraham, because they rejected his son.

So with that, let us see what the God of Abraham promised Abraham. It says, and by the way, I think we're probably only going to get to point one today. I just, I can't stop. This is important. The God of Abraham, it says in chapter 12, this is when he was still called Abram, it says, Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

And I will make of you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you. And him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Hear that last sentence again. Speaking to Abraham, God says, In you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. Now, very quickly with your nimble Bible turning fingers, turn to Galatians chapter 3 and verse 8.

Actually, go to verse 7. Galatians 3 verse 7. Paul writes this. He says, Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. By the way, if you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have been grafted into Israel.

You have been made a son of Abraham by faith. Romans chapter 4 says that, Galatians 3 and other places. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, In you shall all the nations be blessed.

So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. You hear what he just said? He said, In that verse we read a moment ago, that verse which was written, I'll say, 1500 years before this one, and that verse which pointed to a reality that was 500 years before that, during the life of Abraham.