Jeremiah - New Covenant — Stephen Kaung

This is Monday evening, May 6, 1974, in Richmond, Virginia. The ministry is given through Brother Stephen Kong.

Jeremiah's Prophecy of the New Covenant

...into the book of Jeremiah, chapter 31. Jeremiah, chapter 31, 34. All days Kong said, Jehovah, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers.

In the day of my taking them by the hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt, which my covenant they broke. Although I was a husband unto them, said Jehovah, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, said Jehovah.

I will put my law in their inward parts and will write it upon their heart. And I will be their God and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more, every one his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, No, Jehovah, for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, said Jehovah.

For I will pardon their iniquity and their sin will I remember no more. A call of God from the children of Israel refused to turn back to God finally came upon that nation. And yet, judgment came. The judgment was coming.

It was inevitable. It finally came to the prophet Jehovah of a distant future. God gave them to enter into judgment. God gave them a most precious what we find here in this passage of Jeremiah. God said, Behold, days come.

I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers. Once upon a time, God made a covenant with a nation of Israel.

He brought them out of Egypt and to Mount Sinai. And there you remember in Exodus chapter 19, God spoke to the people through Moses, saying, I have brought you out of Egypt unto myself. I have brought you as on eagle's wings.

Now if you will hearken to my voice, you will keep my covenant. Then I will make you a special possession out of all nations. I will make you a nation of priests. And I will be your God. The word was spoken.

How did they respond? They said, All that God has said, we will keep it. God called Moses. Give Moses the Ten Commandments and the precepts. All the people there, again in Exodus chapter 24, he read to them from the book the laws, the commandments, the precepts, and so forth.

And once again the people said, All that God has said, we will keep them. So an altar was built. And Moses called a young man of the children of Israel, because that was before the Levitical peace was set aside.

Moses called a young man of the nation of Israel to come and offer up, burn offering unto the Lord. And the blood, half of the blood, was shed on the altar. And he took the other half of the blood in a basin.

And he sprinkled with the blood. And he sprinkled the people with the blood. In other words, established between God and his people, a covenant was sealed with blood. It cannot be broken. Now this was the covenant that God made with the nation of Israel when God first took them out of Egypt.

Israel's Failure Under the Conditional Covenant

When you come to the time of Jeremiah, a thousand years, a thousand years, did the nation of Israel have the covenant of God? During that long period of a thousand years, how patient was God with his people?

They broke the covenant of God repeatedly, continuously, persistently. After a thousand years, God said, that should be enough. Because they did not keep the covenant. Therefore, he disregarded it. It was a covenant with condition.

Fulfill the condition. Beyond any doubt. After a thousand years. They just did not fulfill the condition. They just could not fulfill the condition. And they would not fulfill the condition. They broke their side.

So God said, I will break. And just disregarded it. A new covenant. Now in this old covenant, God said, I took their hands to the nation. Of the nation of Israel. That was like a father to the children.

God said, I am like a father to you. I took you. I led you. I listened to you. I provide for you. I do everything for you. Now is there anything that God can do much more than he had already done to this nation of Israel?

Of all the relationships on earth, there was no relationship that could be more intimate than the relationship between the parents and the children. Between the husband and the wife. The closest relationships that on earth you could ever have.

And God did all these to them. He was like a father to them. He was like a husband to them. In spite of all that God had done, we must remember you find two personalities here. One is the nation of Israel.

A father may take the hand of a child and try to lead him. But the child has his own will. He is stronger and is able to pull him to one side. But there is always that little will stubborn, trying to go the other way.

You will find however real and close the relationship it is still as instead of one. Two personalities. A husband and a wife. They are to be joined together into one flesh. There is nothing closer than that relationship.

But still you find two personalities. The husband is not in the wife and the wife is not in the husband. The father is not in the child and the child is not in the father. The closest of all relationships and yet it is still external.

That is the nature of the old covenant. That is the nature of the covenant of law. That is all under that covenant. It was a covenant with conditions. God said if you will keep talking to my voice I will make you my people and I will be your God.

In other words the responsibility was upon the people. You first fulfill all these conditions and then I will be your God and don't. Then I will be. And the result was they broke. I will make a new covenant.

The New Covenant as Pure Grace and Inward Oneness

A better covenant. Now can there be anything better than the old covenant? Can there be any relationship closer more effective than the relationship of the father and children the husband and wife? Humanly speaking no.

But divinely speaking yes. God is able to do something that ears have never heard eyes have never seen and it has never entered into human heart. The nature of the new covenant is altogether different.

It is not only a non-conditional covenant. In other words it does not depend upon us. It depends upon God. God takes upon himself the full responsibility of all things. And we are the recipient of his grace.

Pure grace. The relationship of the nature of the new covenant is such a relationship even closer than the father and the child than the husband and the wife. It is not an external relationship. It becomes an inward oneness.

An inness. You remember our Lord Jesus on the night of his betrayal? How he gathered his disciples with him. And after a Passover feast the Lord the love he blessed it. He broke it. He gave to the disciples and said eat all of you.

In remembrance of me and said drink ye all of it. Of the new covenant. Nothing was heard about this new covenant. The prophesied of the new covenant the nation of Israel went into captivity. And even after they returned from captivity and rebuilt the temple and the walls of Jerusalem and yet nothing was heard about this new covenant.

And then for 400 years God was altogether quiet. Silent. God did not even speak to his people. Until suddenly the voice of John the Baptist preaching the repentance to the nation of Israel and then Christ came to preach the same message.

Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. Nothing was heard of this new covenant. Until that night when the Lord Jesus he took up the cup he delivered it to his own people his disciples and said this is the cup of the new.

Here you find the new covenant. With the nation of Israel the new covenant is still in the future. Behold days come and the days still in the future. You have to wait until the coming of the Lord. Until the return of Christ on earth.

For the nation of Israel to God. Then this new covenant will be with the nation of Israel. It will be fulfilled in the millennium kingdom. But thank God there is a true Israel of God today. There is the church today.

You will find Christ on the the last night the night of his betrayal. Here he delivered the cup to the disciples those who are redeemed those who believe in him and say this is the new covenant. What is the new covenant?

What is the nature of this new covenant? You will find after he had instituted the last supper the last table with his disciples and then in John chapter 12, 14 through chapter 16 the Lord began to explain the nature of this new covenant with his disciples.

And how did he explain it? He said in that day you shall know that I am in the Father. Nature of the new covenant is such that it is a new relationship. Father taking the hand of his child and try to lead them.

It is not like a husband trying to provide and help in every way he can. It is more than that. It is an inness of the finished work of Christ on the cross. Because Christ is glorified the Holy Spirit is come.

And God is able to dwell within us is to be our very life. No longer an external force it may be. It is an inward relationship. He is in us and we are in him. And therefore you'll find in John chapter 15 the Lord said I am the true vine and ye are the branch.

I in you and you in me. If you abide in me I will abide in you and you shall bear much fruit. For without me you can do nothing. Dear brothers and sisters, nature of the new covenant relationship with God.

Christianity is an inward relationship with God. Christ in us the hope of glory. And this is something divine. Because there is no such relationship human relationship possible on earth. It is just beyond human ability.

So dear brothers and sisters by the mercy of God we are now the people of the new covenant. God has a new covenant with us. And this new covenant is sealed by the precious blood of our Lord Jesus. It cannot live under the new covenant.

We do not live under the old covenant. But unfortunately many Christians today are still living under the old covenant. God has not covenanted with you according to law. We are ourselves under the law as if we belong to the old covenant.

We are still trying to do everything. Hoping that we may do it. Even though we know it is hopeless. God in His mercy He has covenanted with us in a new covenant. And today we should learn to live in the new covenant and not to live under the old covenant.

God's Provision in the New Covenant

Now in order to live in the new covenant in other words in order to know what is God's covenant with us today we have to know what God has provided in that covenant. The promises of God. God promised.

What has God done for us? All privileges. What can we expect of God? Our whole dealing with God today is according to the new covenant. That will give us ground. It is not wishful thinking. It is not just hope on which we stand and by which we can have our dealings with God and God dealing with us.

They are all based upon this new covenant. So dear brothers and sisters it is very very essential that we know what is the new covenant. Now first of all we know the nature of the new covenant is that inward relationship.

He is in us and we are in Him. But now we would like to see what do we find in this new covenant. Verse 33 of Jeremiah 31 This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days said Jehovah.

I will put my law in their inward parts and will write it in their heart and I will be their God and they shall be my people and they shall teach no more. Every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying no Jehovah for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them said Jehovah and I will pardon their iniquity and their sin will I remember no more.

Not once do you find in this new covenant that God lays down certain conditions for us to fulfill first. Before He will do His part. Not even once. You'll find through all the new covenant it is God. He promises that He will do this.

He will do that. He promises that's what He's going to do with us and it does not depend anything upon us. It is unconditional. Because it is grace. It is the fulfillment and the realization of God's covenant with Abraham.

You know God's covenant with Abraham is a covenant of promise. And because it is a covenant of promise it is by grace. It cannot be annulled by the covenant of law which comes in 430 years later. The law is given that will give us the knowledge of sin.

The law is to lead us up to Christ. But this new covenant is the continuation. The fulfillment of God's covenant with Abraham. The promises of God. It is purely in the covenant. In the inward parts. And I will write it in their heart.

And I will be their God and they shall be my people. That is the first thing. Number two. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying no Jehovah for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them said Jehovah.

That is number two. And number three. For I will pardon their iniquity and their sins will I remember no more. Now for the sake of better understanding we have to start from the end and go up. Why? Because in God's order it is I will put my law in their inward parts first.

And the last one is I will forgive their pardon their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more. But so far as our experience goes, you know it goes from the first thing forgiveness. From forgiveness we enter into the inward knowledge of God.

Intuitive knowledge of God. And from the intuitive knowledge of God we enter into experience Him as the spirit of the law of the spirit of life. So probably for better understanding we will start from the last point.

Forgiveness of Sin Through Christ's Sacrifice

God said I will pardon their iniquity and their sins will I remember no more. We all have committed sins. We all have our iniquities. Mr. Mark. We all trespass the boundary that God has set for us. Is there forgiveness?

How can a just God forgive? That is an age long. How can a just God ever forgive? We need to be just and justify the sinners. Oppose each other. There is no way of solving it. But God has a way to solve that.

Not by sacrificing His just by sending His Son to this world and to die in our stead on the cross. And that's the reason why you find the first word that our Lord spoke on the cross is Father forgive them.

For they know not what they do. The Heavenly Father forgive the sins of the world. Let God pardon our iniquity. It is based on the cross. Because Christ offered Himself as a sin offering for this world.

And God has accepted Him. Therefore, God is able to forgive our iniquity. Brothers and sisters, as we look back, under that heavy load of sin, there was no way out. And yet, God opened our eyes to see that Christ has already borne in His body our sins and iniquity.

He who was sinless was made sin for us that we may become the righteousness of God. And when you experience God's forgiveness, brothers and sisters, how can you forget that? He forgives all of us. God not only forgives them no more, He forgets too.

I can forget. Remember, why should I forget it? Because He has already forgiven. God will never dig them out and remember them anymore. It is gone forever. Brothers and sisters, what grace that is! God does not say, I will forgive and forget your sins before you believe in Christ.

Now, after you have believed in Christ, you shouldn't sin. And if ever you sin, I will not forgive nor will I ever forget. He doesn't say so. He will forgive and I will forget nevertheless. Brothers and sisters, you know that?

Often times there is a kind of misunderstanding. We think that all the things that we have committed before we believe in the Lord Jesus, yes, when we come to the Lord Jesus, we repent and believe in Him, He will forgive and forget.

God said, after we become a child, children of God, oh, He will remember everything. He will not forget. He said, I will pardon their iniquities and I will remember their sins no more. It doesn't matter whether you are a sinner or a saint.

Repent, come to the Lord. He forgave and He forgave. It is not to encourage us to sin. On the contrary, it is to encourage us not to sin. Knowing that Christ has to pay such a price. Christ died on the cross.

He bore in His body all our sins. Were you born at that time? Have you committed one single sin yet? Christ has already borne His body all our sins. That includes everything. And He forgave. He called God to come in and said, now look here.

God does forgive all your sins of the past. But God cannot forgive and forget. You see, you come in. You shouldn't. You shouldn't. But if you do, we find in 1 John 1 .9 it is said,.

If we confess our sins, God is faithful and.

Righteous. He will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all our iniquities. If we confess our sins. Now remember, this is the word spoken to believers. 1 John is written to believers not to the world.

It doesn't say if you believe, God will forgive. You have already believed. It just says if you confess. There is no merit in confession, you know. Not because you confess, God forgives you. If you confess, God will condemn you.

Right? You are guilty. God will defend you. Not because there is any merit in confession. Not at all. But why is it here? You find the word of God does not say if you believe. It only says if you confess.

Why? Because you have already believed. You have already believed that Christ died on the cross for your sins. Once for all. Therefore you don't need to believe that fact anymore. You have already believed.

All you need to do is based upon your faith. In the perfect word of Christ, you confess your sins. You tell the Lord you are sorry for it. You really repent. You do not hide it in your heart. But you confess.

And as you confess, repent before the Lord. The Bible says God is righteous and He is faithful. It doesn't say God is merciful and gracious. For our sins to be forgiven, God has to be merciful and gracious to do that.

It is true. It is the mercy and the grace of God to send His Son to this world to become a substitute for us. That is graciousness. That is mercy. But after Christ has died on the cross, now it is no longer a matter of mercy and grace.

Mercy and grace has already been given. It is now a matter of righteousness and faithfulness. If anyone should come to the Lord as a sinner, repent and believe in the Lord. If anyone should come to the Lord as a believer, confess your sins before the Lord.

God is righteous to what? He is faithful to what? To the new covenant. The new covenant has been established. And according to the new covenant, God said, I will forgive and I will.

Forgive. So.

When we come to the Lord and confess, God is righteous and faithful to His covenant. And because of that, God forgives and forgets. God does not forgive and forget. What does it mean? It means God is not righteous.

He is not faithful. And God cannot be. He cannot be unrighteous. He cannot be unfaithful. He is righteous and He is faithful to His covenant. Therefore, brothers and sisters, when we come to the Lord, to the Father, through our Lord Jesus Christ, thank God there is nothing that can stand in between.

All the barriers will fall. Do you believe that? Possibly today I haven't done too well. And because of that, you know, I do not dare to come to God. I try to keep myself away from Him for a while. Myself in a room and brood over my failure.

I try to inflict some punishment on myself. Do some penance. And after I've done enough, I say, now, God should have mercy upon me now. Now He should forgive me. Then we go to Him with trembling and say, no, if, if, if.

Is that what we do? Do you think by doing that you are honoring God? You are being very godly and very pious? Not at all. All the time God is waiting there and said, where is my child? I want fellowship.

Why should He keep Himself away from me? I have made for provision for Him to come back. The longer He keeps Himself away from me, the longer He suffers and the longer I suffer. Why should it be with Him?

Why doesn't He come to me according to the New Covenant? Oh, brothers and sisters, where is your faith? Faith is based upon the New Covenant. The quicker you come back, the better. Not in any sense being light.

Oh, no. But if you only see what God has done for us in Christendom, it makes all the difference. Is your covenant right? This is the way that you come to God. There is always pardon. There is always forgiving.

Oftentimes God forgives, but we cannot forgive ourselves. God forgets, but we cannot forgive. And you know if you do that in spiritual life, because you will keep yourself away from God, maintaining a close fellowship with God on the basis of the precious blood of our Lord.

Knowing God Intuitively Through the Spirit

New Covenant relationship. God has not only promised that He will forgive and forget, but God said, you do not need to tell your neighbor or your brother know the Lord. Because everyone will know me. Think of the children of Israel.

How can the children of Israel know God? They have to be taught. They have to be instructed. And that's why they needed to study the law. And then you remember when they had feasts, the set feasts together, especially during the Feast of the Tabernacle, you remember?

All the children of Israel would be gathered together in the open space. The men and the women and the children who could understand and they will all be there. And the priest of Levi's, they will read from the book of the law and they will explain the law to them so that the people might understand.

In other words, if there is no one to teach them, how could they know God? The only way of knowing God is to be taught. To be instructed. In other words, their knowledge of God had to come from outside.

By gathering information. After you have gathered enough information, then you have sufficient knowledge about it. And that was the way with the old covenant. And you remember even the book of the law was lost.

Nobody knew where the book was. And when that happened, nobody knew God anymore. Until you remember in the 18th year of Josiah, King Josiah, when they repaired the temple, they found the book of the law.

Oh, and what a time it was. They began to read the book, they were greatly afflicted before the Lord, and how they made a covenant with God to serve God. In the old covenant, everything depended on outward instruction.

There was no other way of knowing God. The Ten Commandments had to be written on stone. The Ten Commandments had to be inscribed in books. And if you cannot read, you don't know it. You have to have it read to you.

That was normal. But with the new covenant, God said no longer in that way. You don't need to teach your neighbor. You don't need to teach your brothers, they know the law. You don't need to do that. Why?

Because every one of you know me. From the least among you to the greatest among you. The moment a person is born to the family of God, not only his sins were all forgiven, but from that day onward, he knows God.

Of course, here you'll find there are two different kinds of knowledge. In the Old Testament time, you teach your neighbor and say, know the Lord. The know there is the external knowledge gathered by information.

It is objective. But you shall know me in yourself. The word know is an inward knowledge, an intuitive knowledge, inborn knowledge, a direct knowledge. It is not something that comes from outside. It is not something that is reduced or deduced by logic and reasoning.

It is a direct knowledge from God without human help. Dear brothers and sisters, when we come to the Lord Jesus, we have not only our sins forgiven. Thank God for that. Oh, I know. I know it. The day I could still remember so many years ago, I came as a person way down with a load of sin.

It rolled away. Oh, the joy, the peace. We know that. But brothers and sisters, God has done something much more than that. Spirit in sins and transgressions. No matter how much we search, we cannot find God.

There was no contact. There was no communication. All we know were accumulated from outside. We know about Him, but we never know Him. We know He was there, but where? But dear brothers and sisters, when we come to the Lord and believe in Him, something happens.

He that is born is saved. Where you find the Holy Spirit, He not only convicts us of our sins, but He has regenerated our sins. That was dead in sins and transgressions is brought into new life. A new spirit.

And we know it is with our spirit that we have communion with God. It is with our spirit that we know God intuitively, directly. Therefore, the moment you are saved, the Bible says, the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.

You cry out. You do not need anybody to tell you. You know. You know your Father. You know God is your Father. You cry out for Father. He is no longer God miles and distance away, but He is here with you.

Oh, He is even in you, and you are in Him. You know it. Spirit. The functions of the spirit is intuition. You just know directly. Whenever God wants you to know something, His spirit just touches your intuitive faculty of your spirit.

And you know. And you know this is not something very advanced. We will say, well, probably for advanced Christians. Certainly not for us beginners. But do you know when you read 1 John? 1 John? John said there are three different kinds of people in the church.

Some are little children. Techno. Little children. They. Some are young people. And some are fathers. And you go, certainly that's the experience of the fathers. No. If you read 1 John chapter 2, you find John is talking about little children.

He is not talking about the fathers, nor is he talking about the young men. He is talking about the young children. He said, little children, don't you know? There is the anointing within you. Don't you know there is the unction within you?

Don't you know that the anointing will teach you in all things? Don't you know that? You do not need anybody to teach you. Because the anointing within you will teach you in all things. And whatever He teaches is true.

If you listen to the teaching of the anointing, you abide in Christ. It is from the least to the greatest. It is true. As you grow in the Lord, your intuitive power should be sharpened and increased. More exercise.

You'll find from the very first day you believe in the Lord Jesus, there the Lord gives you the intuitive power in your new spirit to know Him directly. And that is the way God wants us to know Him. Often you'll find after a Christian is born again, he just knows, that's all.

Has not yet read the whole Bible. We often say, if you want to know, you have to read the Bible. That's true. See what the Bible says. What the Word of God says. But he has not read the Bible yet. He's just starting.

And with a Bible in his hand, he cannot even find a place. He does not even know how to use a concordance yet. But you know. You know how sad it is. We leave our teacher within and go around to ask the teachers without and how we are convened.

One teacher will tell you one thing and another teacher will tell you another thing. Now, who will you listen to? Though I'm afraid there are too many teachers. The anointing. The Holy Spirit. He is moving in our spirit.

And if we are quiet enough. And if we are in communion with God. He just touches. No reason. You may not be able to explain it. But you just know. And this know is real know. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

Know the truth only mentally it does not set you free. But when you know intuitively it sets you free. You just know. Oh brothers and sisters often times you know there you just walk with the Lord. You don't need to be bothered too much.

The only thing is commune with the Lord. Walk with the Lord. And as you walk with the Lord you know what will happen? When you are trying to go somewhere or do certain things. The anointing is working within you.

Sometimes it is a restraining. Sometimes it is a constraining. You know that. He is trying to teach you. Knowing God is an inward thing. Knowing God intuitively is a little thing. Usually some outward things.

And later on maybe something deeper. And then something still deeper. You know your knowing God intuitively progresses. That is true. And yet you have to know Him intuitively. We need to be very careful.

If you really know God do not try to be too quick to be other people's teacher. Help to direct them to seek the Lord themselves. Teachers then. Bible says you don't need to teach anyone anymore. So we don't need any teachers.

But God raised up teachers. He gave to the church teachers. What are they for? These teachers are for prophets. They are not to direct our lives. They are just there to help to confirm or to correct. Not to direct.

They have been mistaken in this inward way of life. Therefore God will raise up teachers to confirm what He has already spoken or sometimes spoken. So be humble enough. You know? Praise not the Spirit.

Despise not prophesying. You have to maintain a right balance. So in other words you find this is our covenant right. Remember that. Often people say, I don't know the will of God. This is the hardest thing in the whole world.

This is not true brothers and sisters. To know the will of God is the easiest thing in the world. It gets harder and harder. That's true. But in the beginning it's very easy. You understand me? The reason is in the beginning when we are just a child the moment we turn to the Lord He speaks.

He does not wait. He tells us in black and white, in clear voice. As you go on with the Lord, sometimes even when He speaks it is not that clear. You know why? And sometimes does not speak at all. He says, you guess.

Not just wow, guess, of course. In other words God said, you ought to know me now. You don't need me to tell you. You ought to know. You ought to know me. You should know my nature. What do I like? What do I not like?

You should know it. You are no longer a child. That has to be told. You have grown up. You should understand. Brothers and sisters, you know that? Therefore I will say with young Christians to know the will of God is the easiest thing in the world.

Often times you find young people say, God tells me this, God tells me that. It is true. And the older you go you cannot say that anymore. Well, I think this is what God wants. Going backwards is going forward.

And you find all the time it is the inward knowing of God. Brothers and sisters, remember this is our covenant relationship with God. It is always here. It is already given. It is already provided. Why don't you go this way and use it?

The Spirit of Life Written on the Heart

And then number three. God said, I will write my law in their inward parts. I will inscribe them upon their heart. And I will be their God and they shall be. Put my law in their inward... Now what are the inward parts?

Here you find in Hebraism, you find the way the Hebrews do is to repeat something in different ways. So here you say I will put my law in their inward parts and I will write it in their heart. In other words, the inward part of the heart.

Now what is the heart? The heart is the inward part. Of course this is not speaking of this cardiac. It is a physical heart. This is speaking in a moral and spiritual sense. Just like our physical heart is so essential to our whole being.

So this moral or spiritual heart is very essential to our spiritual being. Guard your heart above all things for out of it comes all the issues of life. What is heart? So the Bible tells us the heart is the inward parts.