The Centrality of Christ in Israel — Keith Malcomson

The Centrality of Christ in Israel

Turning to Romans chapter 9, and this is part 4 of our series, and my message this morning, the centrality of Christ in Israel. The centrality of Christ in Israel, reading from Romans chapter 9 verse 1, and this is Paul the Apostle writing, I say the truth in Christ.

Notice where he is saying it. He is about to speak about Israel, but he is saying the truth as it is in Christ. He's looking at Israel from the perspective of the person of Christ. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not.

My conscience also bear in me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises, whose are the fathers, and of whom as concern in the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever, amen.

Not as though the word of God has taken on effect, for they are not all Israel, which are of Israel, neither because they are the seed of Abraham, or the old children. But in Isaac shall thy seed be called, that is they which are the children of the flesh.

These are the children of God. But the children of the promise are counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, at this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. Not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac.

And then turning over to chapter 11 of Romans, Romans chapter 11 and verse 1. I say then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid, for I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.

God hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew. Will you pray with me here this morning as we come to the word of God. Father I thank you that Christ is the center of the written scriptures, every book, every passage.

He is central in all of creation. He was central in eternity past. But here this morning will you show us in a remarkable way your divine purpose from eternity into time throughout history in making the Lord Jesus Christ to be central within a family, within a tribe, within a nation.

Lord God within a people, a remarkable people. Lord God to whom you gave covenants, promises, prophecies, to whom you raised up many prophets that not only expounded the present but revealed the future that we are yet seeing come to pass.

It is remarkable when we see your dealings with this people called Israel. You are the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. You are the God who makes covenants. Lord God that swears in your holiness by yourself.

You are the God that revealed yourself, that gave them the knowledge of your character and of your person and we bless you this morning. Will you reveal Jesus Christ in the midst of Israel this morning?

Israel and the Error of Replacement Theology

In Jesus mighty name, Amen. We looked last week at the centrality of Christ in the Bible, a remarkable message of seeing him in every single portion of the Bible wherever you look. But here in part four I want to deal with the centrality of Christ in Israel within a particular family and a nation.

There are those in the church of our generation who believe in replacement theology, that the church replaced Israel, that God set aside, forsook, cut off Israel and that he brought in, and that he brought in the church of Jesus Christ.

This is a teaching called replacement theology and it's actual heresy. It is a false teaching. It will confuse your thinking. To think that you can merely replace the name Israel in our Bible with the name church, you're going to make serious, remarkable mistakes.

And I'm going to show you first of all that that is false. Many years ago Candice in her home church in Durban, South Africa, she's told me more than a few times about a particular time when her pastor in that church back then, there were several hundred in the church, and he came onto a new revelation called replacement theology.

What did he start teaching? The replacement of Israel by the church, that the names are synonymous, that all the promises suddenly become the church and God has forgotten about Israel, finished with Israel and set aside Israel for 13 long weeks each Sunday morning in her home church, every Sunday morning for 13 weeks.

Do you think I'm bad? For 13 weeks he preached on why the church has replaced Israel. She said it was very hot, the fans were high up, there was no cooling system in there. And for 13 weeks she sat and doodled, drawing pictures, writing things on her notebook, utterly disinterested.

We have missed it so often in the church by preaching and dealing with things that don't matter. But in preaching about Israel, I'm not going to miss the mark. You see, I believe I cannot preach on Israel without expounding the Lord Jesus Christ.

I want you to see very clearly before we go into this message that God is not finished with Israel, that he still has a purpose, that the name Israel cannot be synonymous or Jew is not synonymous with Christian or Israel with the church.

Listen at this one verse here this morning, 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 32. Don't turn there. Listen. Give none offense, neither to the Jew nor to the Gentiles nor to the church of God. The apostle Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, did not confuse these things.

He says there are Jews, there are Gentiles, and there is the church of God. They're not the same. Jews are radically different from Gentiles. And the Jew is different than the church of God. Just because there's a church doesn't mean there's Jews anymore.

We are not spiritual Jews. That term is never in the Bible. Neither are we spiritual Israel. That doesn't appear in the Bible. We need to understand our terms, that God still has a unique purpose for Israel and for the church.

There's differences. There's certain prophecies for Israel that although we get blessed by them, they're only specifically for Israel, not for the church. There's other promises for the church, which are specifically to the church.

One extreme is replacement theology, that you say God is finished with Israel. God is never going to use them again. That the present state of Israel is no fulfillment of Bible prophecy. There's another extreme, which actually makes idolatry of Judaism and of Israel.

They keep the feast. They look at the moons. They celebrate these things as if we're meant to. They wear skull caps. They say to wear a Jewish prayer shawl, makes your prayers more anointed and it reaches the throne of God quicker.

They like to talk about Yahweh rather than the Lord or of Jesus. A lot of this becomes Jewish idolatry. It's a reaction against replacement theology, but both groups are confused about the place of Israel in the plan of God.

I hope you'll get a clear vision. You see, you'll never understand the place of Israel in God's plan or prophecy or his purpose until you look to Christ. When you speak about Israel in Christ, the truth in Christ, or you look at Israel from Christ's perspective or in the plan of Christ, then you get a clear vision.

These other extremes are running after a nation or rejecting a nation, but if they really came to Christ, they would see the reality of this. You see, the Jews were not the same as the Gentiles. Even Christ recognized this.

Salvation Is of the Jews

In John chapter 4, when Jesus sat at the well in Samaria, speaking to the woman who had five husbands, listen to what he said, or listen to what she said to him. Ye worship ye know not what. We know what we, sorry, it's Jesus speaking to her.

Ye worship ye know not what. We know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews. Notice what Christ said to a half-baked, interbred Samaritan. The Samaritans had a portion of the scriptures, but they had mangled it, confused it, didn't have clarity.

They picked and chose what they would have of the Bible. That's what a Samaritan was. And Jesus is saying to this woman, who's just about to say, don't you realize salvation is of the Jews? We know how to worship God.

You do not know how to worship God. Salvation is of the Jews. He didn't say of the church. He didn't say of the apostles. He didn't even say of him. He said salvation is revealed through the Jews. That tells me that Christ had a very clear vision of Israel.

He didn't despise it. He didn't reject it. He actually honored them saying salvation in the plan of God is of the Jews. If you cannot accept that, there's something wrong in your heart. You see, Ireland has been a very anti-Semitic nation.

Do you know why? Because of Catholicism. Because of where you get old-fashioned Catholicism, they're very anti-Israel. That ought to alarm you and concern you. The name Israel occurs about 2 ,600 times in the Bible.

When it talks about Israel, it's not talking about the church. It's talking about the children, the family, the generations of those who come out of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's talking about a family line.

You could trace their DNA. You could trace their genealogy all the way back to Abraham. That is who Israel are. They're a people. They're a nation. They are a culture. They are a genetic makeup which was planned of God.

These people are all through the Bible. You can't read the Bible, really, and be anti-Semitic. You cannot love Jesus Christ and hate the Jew. How could you possibly do that? Jerusalem is mentioned 800 times in our Bible.

Israel is mentioned 79 times in the New Testament. And every time Israel is mentioned in the New Testament, it's not synonymous with the name church or Christian. You see, often Israel is a type or a picture of the church, but it's not synonymous.

And that's a major difference. We can read in the Old Testament and see the church in it, a picture, a message. But it is not the church. You cannot replace them. Every time the name Israel is used in the New Testament, it's talking about the family of Abraham, the natural seed of Israel.

The term Jew is used 84 times in the Old Testament, and 190 times in the New Testament, the term Jew is used. You see, Israel did bring people in from Gentile nations. So Rahab became a member of Israel.

Uriah became a member of Israel. But they had to be converted. Then they married into that system and become a part of that entire nation. God has revealed in Scripture that Israel and Jerusalem is God's timepiece.

In other words, if you want to tell what time it is in the world, you need to look at Israel. The only city in the world chosen by God was Jerusalem. No other physical city in the entire world was chosen by God.

Not one. Jerusalem is the only one written in Scripture, time after time after time, as being God's physical literal city with humans living in it. No other city in the entire history. The Hebrew prophets predicted that the future of Jerusalem, it would be the capital of world dominion.

That from there, the Messiah would rule over all the earth with a worldwide religion, a worldwide political system, a social system that would be based around the Messiah. And it is also called the throne of the Lord.

Look at the little nation of Israel today. It is smaller than Ireland, far smaller, I think maybe a quarter of the size. Its population is very small on a worldwide basis, and yet this little nation, we find it not only central in the Bible, but listen, this is my message this morning, the centrality of Christ in Israel.

I'm going to show you a bit of God's plan and purpose in Israel, and do you know what His ultimate plan for Israel? Do you know why they're so unique? Why the target of opposition in this hour in an amazing way, while Jerusalem is at the center of all of history.

Do you know why? Because Christ is central to the little nation of Israel. I've got five points here this morning. First of all, the centrality of Christ in Israel, wait for it, in eternity past. This is very important before I even move to Scripture and to history and the birth and of a nation.

Christ’s Centrality in Israel Before Time

I've actually got to take you back. If I look at the nation of Israel, the Jews, the Israelites, if I look at them when I read the Bible as the truth is in Christ, I actually find that I don't start with Israel, with Abraham.

I don't find the beginning of the nation when I look at Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and these women who couldn't have children, who supernaturally were touched of God to bring forth children. I don't start there.

You know what I've got to do? I've got to go back into eternity past and I find that in Christ, I find the centrality of Christ in Israel. In other words, before time, before Adam, before the fall, I find that in Christ there was a plan to make Jesus central in the nation of Israel.

I know I haven't convinced some of you, so I'm going to take you to the Bible. And this is my first point, the centrality of Christ in Israel in eternity past. Romans chapter 11 verse 1, I say then, hath God cast away his people?

God forbid. If anyone tells you God's finished with Israel, you need to go to the Bible. God forbid. Can you get it more clear? Has God cast them away? Is replacement theology true? God forbid. This is the written scripture.

For I, Paul speaking, I'm also an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. You can't get it clearer. He's not speaking about his genealogy in the church, but of his ancestral family.

God has not cast away his people. Notice this, which he foreknew. God has not cast away Israel in this hour. Do you know how I know it? God foreknew Israel. Do you remember what foreknowledge means? It means an eternity past that God foreknew.

A people who aren't existent before time, in eternity, outside of creation and the visible world. God foreknew Israel. Why has God not cast away Israel? They're in rebellion. Do you know today that about 25 of the nation of Israel living there are radical atheists?

It's one of the strongest. A Jew that's an atheist is more radical than any other atheist in the entire planet. They are godless. They are sinners. They are reprobates. It is a wicked nation. But I want to tell you, God foreknew them.

He hasn't finished with Israel yet. There's only about 1 of 1 of Israel believe in Christ. That's a very small percentage today. But do you know what? God foreknew them. It's not talking about time after they were created.

It's saying way back before time. God foreknew the nation of Israel. No other nation in the world does he say about that. He knew all nations. He knew everything he was going to do. But only Israel did he foreknow.

Do you remember what foreknowledge means? He loved. He had an intimate relationship, a deep concern. So we see that why has God not cast off Israel? Because before time he foreknew Israel. Listen again in chapter 11 verse 5.

Even so then at this present time also, there is a remnant according to the election of grace. He's talking about Elijah's day. There were 7 ,000 who did not bow the knee. Then Paul comes forward to his own day and he said, and there's now in our generation there are certain Jews who still follow the Lord.

They haven't compromised. And he said, why have they not compromised? Why is it in every generation there's always some Jews saved? Why is it some of them? I mean in every generation, even if it was only ones and twos here and there, 1 of 1%.

Why is there that 1 of 1 saved? Because of the election of grace. And so we see there's a remnant in Israel that were foreknown of God. They were elected of God. It's all of grace. And if you do not bow the knee, it's all of God's grace being demonstrated.

In Romans 11, 28 it says, as concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. So at this time, we know God has chosen Israel. We know He foreknows them. And it's because He's got a plan. And He's got grace that He's going to reveal.

They are enemies for your sake. See today, see for 2 ,000 years now, Israel has been enemies of God for your sake. You've got blessed out of that. And it says, but as touching the elections, as touching the election, they are beloved for the Father's sake.

I want you to see an entire people who've rejected the Messiah, rejected the gospel, rejected the love of God, who are either atheistic or they're Orthodox Jews who rejected the Messiah. And yet we see the centrality of Christ in eternity.

Why do you thank God the Father for new Israel? Why? Have a wild guess here this morning. If you've heard me the previous weeks, why is it in eternity past? God looked down through time and He looked on a rebellious, backward people who kept backsliding and rebelling and who are in rebellion.

They're blind to the gospel. Why do you think God loved them, foreknew them and chose them? It was because of Christ, because of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is why I've called this the centrality of Christ in Israel in eternity past.

Why did God the Father love them? Because Christ the Son was there. He was central to Israel. And so God the Father says, I choose out Israel. I choose the city of Jerusalem. I choose the seed of Abraham.

I love them. They're going to rebel against me, but I'll never forsake them. You know what? They're my enemies for the gospel's sake that all of you might receive the gospel. But in the Father's heart, they are beloved.

Do you know God loves Israel? Oh, yes, they reject Him, but He loves them. You know why? Because of election, because of God's plan and purpose. Do you know Israel were taught this during their time? Listen to what it says in Deuteronomy.

For thou art not a holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God has chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love upon you or choose you because you are more the number than any people.

For ye were the fewest of all the people. But because the Lord loved you, why did He choose you? Because He loved you and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers. Has the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen?

Why didn't He leave them there and just start afresh? Why didn't He forsake them? You know why? He had chosen them because He loved them. And He swore an oath to Abraham. He said, Abraham of your seed, your family, I swear, I make a covenant with you that I'm going to work perpetually in your family.

Then He come to Abraham's son Isaac and He said, I make a covenant with you and with your children. And then He came to Jacob, wayward Jacob. Would you have committed yourself to Jacob? And He said, Jacob, I'm making a covenant with you and to your children after you.

I actually believe that God moves in families like this, that you can have such a relationship with God, that God moves uniquely in a family line. I've seen families that are uniquely. Other families, maybe one every now and again gets saved out of it, but I've seen families.

It's remarkable what God does in that family line. But we're dealing here with God's divine purpose. Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generation.

This is my first point. I want you to see that in eternity past, God loved Israel, chose Him, and had a plan for the entire history of Israel as a physical nation, a physical people, because of Christ.

Israel doesn't realize that today. Why are they unique? Why are they different? Why are they attacked by the UN and all of the Muslim nations and all of the Arab nations and even the Irish government hate Israel?

Do you think that's natural? It's not natural. Do you know that comes out of an eternal plan? When creation wasn't here, nothing had been created. God actually had a plan in Christ for Israel. You say that's not fair.

Then go and read Romans 9 when you get home and then come back and speak to me. It's not fair. Paul deals with it in Romans 9. He gives an entire chapter talking to all those who say it's not fair. It's not fair that He saved you.

You didn't deserve it. Why should He love you? Why would He love you? I only know one reason why He loved me, because of Christ. I only know one reason why He chose me, because of Christ. I only know one reason why He foreknew me, because of Christ.

Christ in Israel’s Old Testament Scriptures

My second point, the centrality of Christ in Israel's Old Testament history. I'm gonna have to preach five messages on this. But I want you to catch this simple thought of the place of Israel in God's plan.

The centrality of Christ in Israel's Old Testament history that we have written here. I've got several points here that I wanna show you to show you that Christ was central in the Old Testament in everything that Israel done, everything.

You can't look at any area of Israel in the Old Testament and not see where Christ is central. In fact, it's overwhelming. When I look at Israel, God made Christ central before He was born of the virgin.

Let me prove it to you. First of all, the centrality of Christ in her scriptures. In Romans chapter three and verse two, listen carefully. It says, unto them, that is Israel, were committed the oracles of God.

Who received the oracles of God? Do you know what the oracles of God are? The spoken word of God written down. Was it given to the Irish? It's well, it wasn't. They would have lost it along the way, forgotten it, buried it.

Who knows what they would have done with it? It certainly wouldn't be here today. God actually committed, entrusted, gave over to Israel the oracles of God, the spoken word of God. No other nation in the world, no other nation at all, not no Westerner, no white man.

It was given to the Jews that God committed to them. I'm talking about Christ being central in her scriptures. It also says in Acts 7, verse 38, speaking about Israel again, who received the lively oracles to give unto us.

Do you hear that? That they, Israel, received the lively oracles, the written word of God, the spoken word of God, in order that they could hand it over to us. Do you know Israel preserved the written scriptures?

They preserved the Old Testament, the Bible, 39 books of the Old Testament. It was committed unto them, why? So they could give it unto us. They actually had the Old Testament Bible, the prophets, the teaching, the moral law, the instructions, the commands.

All of this was given to them. What are the oracles of God? The written scripture, the word of God. Do you know in the Old Testament it says, thus saith the Lord, 3 ,808 times, go and count it. All through the Old Testament, it is integral to the oracles of God, that God is speaking.

In them we find the 10 commandments, which reveals the righteousness of God. The Bible was given to the Jew. The Bible was given to a nation, a particular people. No other people in the entire world were entrusted with the written word of God.

Not one other single nation. Israel were given to it. God knew they would preserve it. God made sure they would protect it and copy it accurately. That was a task given to Israel, to bless the entire world, every other nation.

They only had it to give unto you. Do you know why they were chosen to have salvation? To give it unto the Gentile nations. This is God's plan. The early church's Bible, I mean the first century. What Bible did the early church use?

What did Peter use, and Matthew, and Mark, and Luke, and John, and Jesus himself? It was the Old Testament scriptures. The oracles that had been entrusted to Israel became the Bible of the early church.

They hadn't written the New Testament yet. The Old Testament was the Bible that they preached out of. Their entire doctrine was based on the Old Testament. The Old Testament is quoted in the New 300 times minimum.

That's about 4 of our New Testament is just direct quotes. Some say it's as much as 8%, about 600 quotes. Paul the Apostle quotes the first five books of Moses 100 times. Christ quotes the Old Testament 60 times in his messages.

Do you know what that tells me? The apostles who preach Christ preach from the Old Testament. The centrality of Christ is in our scripture. In our own written Bible, Christ is found everywhere in the Old Testament.

In Acts 8, verse 35, we read about Philip the evangelist who begins to evangelize a eunuch who's on his horse and chariot riding back to Ethiopia. And the Spirit of God says, "'Go and join yourself under the chariot.'".

And as he does this Ethiopian eunuch is reading the scroll from Isaiah, from Isaiah about the Messiah. And he doesn't know what he's reading. Philip comes alongside, says, "'Do you know what you're reading?'.

"'No, I don't.'. "'Get up and show me or explain it to me.'". Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and he preached onto him Jesus. Do you know the Bible of the Jew is filled with Christ?

Christ is central in their Bible. If you ever speak to a Jew and they're holding to their word, you can say, "'Do you realize your Bible is filled with Christ? "'Christ is flowing over. "'I can preach Christ from your Bible.'".

I've said this to Catholics before, they say, "'Oh, that's your Bible. "'We have a Catholic Bible.'. "'I said, give me it and I'll preach. "'You must be born again. "'I'll show you that without the shedding of blood, "'you're a sinner.

"'I'll show you you need to repent and put faith in Christ. "'Oh, give me your Irish, Catholic, Gaelic Bible "'and I'll preach the Lord Jesus Christ out of it. "'It may be a bit obscured, "'but I'll make sure the message hits home.'".

One of the top preachers in America in recent decades called Andy Stanley. He become very famous. Listen to what he says. We do not need, or the New Testament does not need propping up by the Jewish scripture.

He's a top preacher in America. He says the generation creation, or sorry, the Genesis creation is a myth in Genesis chapter one. He says you can reject the history and the miracles of the Old Testament, but still accept the New Testament.

He said the resurrection of Jesus from the dead can be separated from the written scriptures in the Bible. Do you hear how dangerous this is? This is one of the top prominent, I think Baptist pastors in America, a mega ministry.

He says, he goes further, you can reject the history of Israel, but still embrace the grace of Christ. He said the apostles of Jesus unhitch the gospel from the Old Testament. He goes further, the foundation of our faith is not based on the written scriptures.

And he says we can unhitch Christianity from the Old Testament. Do you wonder why I preach the things I do? Because heresy becomes very popular. I've got to tell you that this Old Testament reveals the Lord Jesus Christ.

Any pastor who says we don't need the Old Testimony is a heretic, he is a liar, he's a deceiver. He doesn't even know the foundations. This man, Andy Stanley, is a false teacher. He's not regenerate, he's not born again.

He preaches a Christ separated from the Bible. But do you know what I want to tell you? The centrality of Christ in the Jewish scriptures, their Bible presents Jesus. The early church preached Christ from the written scriptures.

Christ in Israel’s Covenants

Also, we see the centrality of Christ in Israel's covenants. Listen, Romans chapter nine, verse four. Who are Israelites? He's going to explain. To whom pertaineth the adoption? God adopted Israel as his adopted son out of Egypt.

And the glory, who had the glory of God? Israel. And the covenants. So he's saying here, Israel, Old Testament Israel had the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the law, the service of God, and all the promises.

Israel had them, not you. They didn't belong to you as Gentiles. They were given to Israel. But notice one of the terms there, and the covenants. God not only gave the scriptures to Israel, he gave the covenants to Israel.

Not only is Christ central to the scriptures of the Jews, he is central to the covenants that were given to Israel. It says here that certain covenants were given to Israel. And we're going to find Christ is central in all of them.

Listen again to Ephesians 2, verse 12. You may say, why is this important for us? It doesn't mean anything. It's in your Bible, written by an apostle, to the church of Jesus Christ. This is for you. You may not have seen it before, but it's for you.

Ephesians 2, 12. That at the time that ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and note this, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.

You didn't have anything. If you don't have Christ, you don't have the covenants. Israel has the covenants of promise. In other words, God made covenants, not just one. He made various covenants with Israel.

And in those covenants were many promises. But they're not for you, you're outside them. They were given to a nation. How do you get them? Through Christ. You see, you were without Christ, but if you find Christ, these covenants become yours.

They are covenants of promise. You say, what covenants were given Israel? His covenant with Noah. I will not destroy the world again with the flood. I make a covenant with you, Noah, and all of creation.

I will not destroy this world with the flood again. I don't care how much it rains in Ireland. You can teach your children. My old great-grandmother, I used to go and dung out her houses, her cows' houses.

If you don't know what dunging out means, you haven't lived, I want to assure you. Margaret knows what I mean. But I used to dung out all of her houses, and it would begin to pour down with rain. And then she'd shout out, Keith, cup of tea.

And I went running in. And I'd sit down with her. And as the rain poured down, she'd begin to preach to me, share with me. Say, God judged them with the flood because of their sin. And I'd sit there. Yes, great-aunt Jenny, yes.

And she would tell me about the flood. But God's covenant of grace with Noah and his family. Do you know I've entered into the blessing of that? The covenant God made with Noah. Do you know that Christ is a type of the ark that saved that family from the flood?

And so you see, this covenant belonged to Israel. What about the covenant with Abraham? That's another covenant. Oh, what blessings are in there in the covenant to Abraham. There's the covenant to Israel, the covenant to David.

And there's also the new covenant, which Israel hasn't entered into yet. Jeremiah and Ezekiel talk about, there's a day coming when I'm gonna make a new covenant, not like the old covenant. It's a new covenant I'm gonna make with you, Israel.

It's gonna be based on better promises. It's gonna be different than the law of Moses. Do you know Israel has not entered into that as yet? But we, the church, have been blessed. Do you realize through Christ, Noah's covenant that made with him comes on me.

Abraham, David. You know what it says in the Bible? It says about the sure mercies of David coming to you. Since all of the promises that were Israel's too flew on to me, I haven't replaced Israel. God has not cast away Israel, but I as a Gentile have been brought right in.

Look at the covenant for a second with Abraham. In Genesis chapter 15, we're told that Abraham was put asleep. He prepared the blood sacrifices. They were parted. A trench was made. Now look, God told him to prepare all the blood sacrifices.

You know why? I'm going to make a covenant with you, Abraham, and that covenant's gonna be given to Israel, and Israel's gonna carry it all the way down until the church arises, and all the nations of the world receive and are blessed with the blessings of Abraham.

So Abraham makes this covenant, sets everything up. Do you know what happens next? God puts him into a deep sleep. In other words, God's just about to make a covenant. Who's he making it with, Abraham?

No, he's actually not. It says in Genesis 15, 17, and it came to pass that when the sun went down and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between the pieces of the blood sacrifices.

I want you to see this for a second. Abraham is fast asleep. It's not made primarily with him. It's called an everlasting covenant. Therefore, it didn't have a beginning. It came out of eternity. What is this covenant that's being made with Abraham?

Abraham's fast asleep. I mean, the most momentous thing is happening in his entire lifetime, and there's Abraham in a deep sleep, but do you know what you have? No human eye can see it. A smoking furnace and a burning lamp are going between the pieces of the blood sacrifices.

I'm talking about Christ being central in each of the covenants. Look at the covenant made with Abraham. Do you know what I see? There's two flames of fire walking together through the pieces, making a covenant.

Do you know who made the covenant with Abraham? A smoking furnace and a burning lamp. I believe it was the Father and the Son. You see, this everlasting covenant was made between the Father and the Son to bless men on earth.

Abraham was brought into this. It was in the midst of blood, and we have God the Father and God the Son as flames of fire entering into a covenant with a man that's fast asleep that was trying to keep all the birds away from the sacrifice.