Sunday Night, July 28, 2019 PM

I don't have it figured out, and I've just thought a lot about it and worshiped

God as I've thought about the glories of it. So there was a two -part question that had to do with the different signs of the covenants.

And in meditating on the different passages that talk about covenants in the

Old Testament, and just for a quick review, I think a good way to talk about a covenant is an identity -binding agreement.

It's an identity -binding agreement between two or more persons. And so it is that when

God makes a covenant with someone, He is usually saying something about their identity in a way that is forever unchanged after.

There's something very significant that happens to who they are when they come into relationship with God.

For instance, to make it a very practical example, we call marriage a covenant, and that is an identity -binding agreement, is it not?

That there is a change in identity from two to one, from persons of two separate families to now a new family.

And so what are the covenants that God made in the Old Testament? Well, to generalize, we can talk about the covenant that God had with Adam.

Hosea says that Adam, like Israel, violated the covenant. We talked about Noah, that God made a covenant with Noah and his descendants and the creation.

We also talked about Abraham. We talked about Israel at Mount Sinai.

And we also talked about David. I don't know if Eden was on a mountain.

Some Puritan interpreters of the scriptures and some ancient scholars in the church thought that Eden, the

Garden of Eden, was actually up on a mountain. I always kind of wondered why,

I mean, why was it important that they would say that? And they would make certain allusions to Mount Zion and so on, and I never really knew how much stock to put in that, you know, it's a nice thought, but it is something to recognize that when

God made a covenant with Noah, Abraham, Israel, and David, mountains were involved.

So God made the covenant with Noah on Mount Ararat.

God confirmed the covenant with Abraham on Mount Moriah when he sent

Abraham up to offer Isaac on the altar. And then afterwards, when Abraham was obedient, he said, now

I know, and he said, I confirm my covenant with you. And then with Israel, it was Mount Sinai.

And with David, it was on Mount Zion. So that is interesting, is it not?

That was in my notes for two weeks ago, and I just totally forgot about it. So if I don't get this out of my system, it's going to bug me.

I also talked about different signs of the covenant. We talked about the sign of the rainbow. We talked about the sign of circumcision.

We talked about the sign of blood. We talked about the sign of the temple.

And so the question came, I didn't get to last week, concerning the covenant

God made with Israel at Sinai and the covenant God made with David in Jerusalem. The first question really was phrased this way, is not the

Sabbath a more clearly delineated sign of the

Sinaitic covenant than the sprinkled blood? And probably so.

But when we go back to Exodus 24, as I was preparing the sermon, it was not my normal custom to preach a doctrinal sermon or a topical sermon and to run the gamut of different scriptures throughout the

Bible about a certain topic. So I was doing my best to pick out of all of the different passages that we could look at.

And in Exodus 24, we have the following account.

And again, we have this, so God says to Moses, come up to the

Lord. Now, again, you know, it's like, well, where do you find the Trinity in the Old Testament? So he said to Moses, come up to the

Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and you shall worship at a distance, which is an important connection to what we're at in Jeremiah 31.

He says, you know, from afar, I called you from afar, I made covenant with you. So there's an allusion here to this passage, you shall worship at a distance.

Moses alone, however, shall come near to the Lord, but they shall not come near, nor shall the people come up with him.

Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances, and all the people answered with one voice and said, all the words which the

Lord has spoken, we will do. Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord, and then he rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain with twelve pillars for the twelve tribes of Israel.

He sent young men of the sons of Israel, and they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as peace offerings to the

Lord. So, the picture being built here is that Moses is the mediator between the people and God at Mount Sinai as the covenant is being forged, the covenant is being established.

So Moses is the go -between. Moses alone can go up the mountain at this point.

Now, all the twelve tribes of Israel are represented, and the idea is that God gives them his word and they say, we will do your word.

This is very much like everything else that we find when God makes a covenant. The word of God is given to the image of God.

Why? Because the three ingredients of a covenant with God are the people, the place, and the rule, so that God's people live in God's place, blessed under God's rule.

That's the way it was with Adam, Noah, Abraham, Israel, and David.

Those are the ingredients of the covenant, that God's people would live in God's place, blessed under God's rule. Here they are saying, here we are gathered together before God, and we're going to do what

God tells us to do. And all the people are represented there with the twelve pillars, with the altar at the foot of the mountain.

And then there's the sacrifices that are made as peace offerings to the

Lord. Peace offering, sometimes called a wave offering, and when it was offered, when it was sacrificed, it was waved like this, between God and the people.

I don't know all the technicalities about how cooked this carcass was, but if it was scattering blood, all the better,

I think, in their particular worldview, and the particular symbols that God had made for them to understand.

But the idea was, and they would actually, out of the sacrifice, they would cook it, they would cook it and make a pleasing aroma to God, so at least they're spreading the aroma from heaven to earth, and then they would eat part of it, but they were also waving it up to God.

And the idea, and the symbol, the picture was that they were sharing in the same. They were sharing in the same.

Anyway, that pattern persists in several different sacrifices in the Old Testament, that they would find satisfaction in what

God found satisfaction in. And ultimately, that is revealing of who

Jesus Christ is as the Lamb of God. So verse six,

Moses took half the blood and put it in basins, and the other half of blood he sprinkled on the altar.

So the altar is where God's concerns are, okay? So these peace offerings are being made, and half the blood goes to the altar, and where does the other half go?

Well, he took the book of the covenant, read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, all that the

Lord has spoken, we will do, and we will be obedient. So Moses took the blood out of the basins, the other half of the blood of these peace offerings, right, and sprinkled it on the people.

So all these sacrifices were made, a peace offering between the people of Israel and God, that they would be at peace, that they would be in one accord.

And there was, these sacrifices were made, and the blood was drained out of these animals, and half of it went to God on the altar, and half of it went sprinkled all over the people.

So by the blood of the covenant, they would be at one. That was the picture that was given.

So he said, behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. So when

I reflect upon that, I think, and Jesus uses these very same words when it came to the

Last Supper, when he's with his disciples, and they're celebrating Passover, and of course Passover is the pinnacle of all peace offerings between man and God in the

Old Testament, because they were to kill the lamb and sprinkle the blood on the doorpost of the house, and then they were to eat the complete lamb, that whatever they sacrificed, they had to eat all of it.

So they would be absolutely fully satisfied in the sacrifice that was offered up to God, and God was saying, in the sacrifice offered,

I'm satisfied with the sacrifice, and you are satisfied with the sacrifice, and that picture of the

Passover was repeated again and again and again, every year, until finally Christ came, and the

Gospel of John just hits this note again and again and again, that Jesus is the

Passover. He's the Lamb of God in whom we are satisfied, in whom God is satisfied.

So, it makes sense that Jesus, at the Last Supper, and when they're celebrating Passover, he would say, of himself, as he offered the cup of wine, and put symbol upon symbol, and he says, this is the blood of the covenant, this is the blood of the covenant.

Matthew says, records Jesus saying, this is the blood of the covenant. Mark records Jesus saying, this is the blood of the covenant.

Luke records, this is the blood of the new covenant. Paul records, in 1 Corinthians 11, this is the blood of the new covenant.

So, there is this connection being made from the sprinkled blood, and so that's where I naturally gravitate when

I think of the covenant that God made with Israel, the sprinkled blood being the sign of the covenant, and that Hebrews talks about it a great deal, to what degree was the blood actually efficacious for the forgiveness of sins?

Well, the blood actually didn't do anything, it was a symbol, it was a sign, it was a shadow.

What actually forgives sins, who actually forgives sins, is God through Christ. And in fact, in Hebrews 12, 24, when it says that we have not come to a mountain that can be touched, but we come to Mount Zion, we come to the heavenly

Jerusalem, we come also to the sprinkled, we come to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and the sprinkled blood.

So, in my mind, that's why I just naturally go there, I think about the sign. However, there's a passage in Exodus 31, in verses 12 through 17.

Before we read it, I just want to let you know, when I was trying to figure out how to talk about old and new covenant together in a single sermon, which ended up being two sermons, which is normally how it happens,

I was trying to find helpful ways for us to kind of grab a hold of these really big ideas and kind of put them together in a way that would be helpful for us.

So, this is another thing that we could add to this. So, in verse 12,

Exodus 31, it says, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, but as for you, speak to the sons of Israel saying, you shall surely observe my

Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations.

You may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you. God says, I have set you apart, you are my holy people.

The way that Peter talks about it, for the people of God, I think the

King James says, a peculiar people, it doesn't mean that we're a bunch of odd ducks, which we might be a bunch of odd ducks, but a peculiar people, it means, another translation is a people for his own possession, a particularly set apart kind of people, and that's what it's saying here.

I'm the Lord who sanctifies you. Verse 14, therefore, you are to observe the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Everyone who profanes it will surely be put to death, for whoever does any work on it, that person shall be cut off from among his people.

And that's the way of saying you're out of the covenant. That was also said of those who did not celebrate the day of atonement.

It's also said of those who did not get circumcised. It's also said of those who did not celebrate the Passover. And there were several things that would eject you out of the covenant.

Verse 15, for in six days, work may be done, but on the seventh day, there is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the

Lord. Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall surely be put to death. So the sons of Israel shall observe the

Sabbath to celebrate the Sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. Okay, so it says that the

Sabbath is a covenant. And then it says in verse 17, it is a sign between me and the sons of Israel forever.

For in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day, he ceased from labor and was refreshed.

So in the particular relationship of God with the nation of Israel, the Sabbath is called a sign, but it's also called a covenant, which is the exact same pattern that we have in Genesis 17.

When God speaks to Abraham about the circumcision, he calls it a sign and he also calls it the covenant.

Okay, so it's a very similar pattern, which makes this a great candidate for thinking about a sign when it comes to God's covenant with Israel.

And obviously, I looked and read around, I can't find a place where it says that sprinkled blood is the sign of the covenant

God made at Sinai. It just appeared that way to me. This is a passage that actually says in God's relationship with Israel, the

Sabbath is a sign. Um, so when we're thinking about that, that also makes sense too, because when

God accused the nation of Judah of breaking covenant, and when he punished them, he said that they would be taken away into exile.

And he did. In fact, where we are at this point in Jeremiah, the majority of them who were going to go into exile were already there.

The rest of them that are still in Jerusalem are just going to be killed. And God said, when 70 years are completed for Babylon, after the 70 year reign of the empire of Babylon, once they're through, then

God said he's going to start bringing the people back to the land. Now, he specifies, though, that it was only after he would only bring them back to the land, after the land had had its fill of Sabbaths, that his people had profaned and refused to honor.

And so when God wants to talk about them breaking covenant, he points to the fact that they were not keeping

Sabbath. And when he wants to talk about the due punishment, he talks about time for the land to catch up on its

Sabbaths until he brings them back. For all those reasons, I think the Sabbath is, needs to be talked about.

If we're going to talk about the covenant that God made with Israel, the Sabbath is a very important factor.

And we can call it the sign of the covenant that God made with Israel. That's very helpful.

Now, I think that related to that is, related to that is some concern about how it is that we, how we keep the

Sabbath, right? Isn't there some concern about that? That sometimes if you're talking with somebody you know, maybe a relative or a friend or co -worker who's a

Seventh -day Adventist or someone who maybe is a Seventh -day Baptist was not as common.

Or perhaps talking with somebody who is, let's say, Sabbatarian in their beliefs so that they don't see

Saturday as the Sabbath, but they see Sunday as it. And therefore, there are certain things you don't do on Sunday because it is the

Sabbath and they keep that in a certain way. How are we supposed to think about these things?

Well, I think that it would be helpful to remember that if all the other signs of the covenants were fulfilled in Christ, then the

Sabbath is too. How does that manifest? Is it, well, now we just, now we keep Sabbath on Sunday.

I would suggest that if that's the case, then we need to find a way to shift, as we would shift a day from one day of the week to a different day of the week, we have to shift circumcision to a different physical sign.

And we would have to shift the temple to a different physical location. Right? I think there would have to be some kind of correlating shift as well.

So that's why I'm, and so, but I don't think that that's the case. I think it is fulfilled in Christ.

And I think the best way to keep Sabbath is to do what we're doing right now. You come together with the people of God and you rest in Christ and you rejoice in Christ.

I think it's the best way to keep Sabbath. It's definitely not the only way to keep Sabbath. And I don't think it's a day.

The reason why that is, is because of how Jesus treats it in Matthew. At the end of chapter 11 in Matthew and the beginning of Matthew 12.

And we can also, we don't have time to go to Hebrews 4 passages. But the pattern for how to keep the

Sabbath was established by God. And it was established by what he did on the seventh day.

Right? God made the world in six days and on the seventh day, he rested. Right?

And in that text that I read in verse 17 of Exodus 31, it says it is a sign. Sabbath is a sign between me and the sons of Israel forever.

For in six days, the Lord made heaven and earth. But on the seventh day, he ceased from labor and was refreshed.

So if we can figure out what does it mean for God to be refreshed, I think we'll make it.

We'll make progress on what it means to keep Sabbath. That's what God did. God who is omnipotent, all -powerful,

God who is not tired out by anything, somehow refreshed. And maybe we'll talk about that more next time.

We're running out of time. So at the end of Matthew 11, it says,

Jesus says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That's the key word of the

Sabbath is rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy, my burden is light. So twice he says, come to me and I will give you rest.

Come to me, I will give you rest. This is the key word of the Sabbath. And lo and behold, the very next few verses is a story about the

Sabbath. Chapter 12, verse 1. At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the

Sabbath. And his disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat.

But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, look, your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.

But he said to them, have you not read? I love that question. Have you not read what David did when he became hungry and he and his companions, how he entered the house of God and they ate the consecrated bread, which was not lawful for him to eat, nor those with him, but for the priests alone?

Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and are innocent?

But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means,

I desire compassion and not a sacrifice, you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.

Okay, so what is Jesus saying there? Okay, so there are people who are weary and heavy laden, and probably weary and heavy laden by these

Pharisees running around, tell them you're not doing enough. You're not being good enough, and so on and so forth. And so, the

Pharisee jumped out of the bushes and catch his disciples eating grain, which you're not allowed to do on the

Sabbath. Okay, well, you weren't allowed to do a lot of things on the Sabbath. They say they're not doing what is lawful.

Then he gives them two examples. He says, don't you remember, have you never read, David and those with him, they went and they ate the bread of the presence, the show bread from the tabernacle.

And the only people allowed to eat that were the Levites, were the priests. Now, we can understand perhaps how

David was able to eat it. After all, he was a man after God's own heart. He was the Lord's anointed and so on and so forth. But why did the ones with him get to eat?

Because they were with David. It was fine as long as they were with David.

And Jesus is saying about his disciples, oh, it's fine for them to eat bread. Why? Who are they with?

They're with Jesus. How can they break Sabbath when they're with Jesus?

It's impossible to break Sabbath when you are with Jesus. Second example, he says, have you never read that in the temple, the priests break

Sabbath? I don't know if you've ever slaughtered an animal and then butchered it and then processed it, which is what you're doing in sacrifices.

I have, that's a ton of work. It's a mess. You got to clean up after yourself.

Slaughtering and butchering animals is a lot of work. And that's what the priest did on the Sabbath. And Jesus said, now, why did they get to do that hard, sweaty work in the temple?

And then that's not breaking the Sabbath. It's because of where they're at. They're in the temple. And Jesus, again, is pointing to that and saying something greater.

He's saying of himself, something greater than the temple is here. How is it possible for his disciples to break

Sabbath when they're with Jesus? It's impossible. And he says, the Son of Man is

Lord of the Sabbath. And so in that way, whether it's the sprinkled blood that was at Sinai or it's the

Sabbath, that's the sign, which I think probably textually is closer, having studied it again.

Either way, we see that sign fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The second question that I'll talk about briefly is there was a question about the covenant that God made with David and the temple.

And I'm just going to point you in the general direction of this one. When we read in 2

Samuel chapter 7 verses 12 through 17, David having got himself to a position of strength and security, living in his palace, recognized the fact that he was living in a marvelous house, but God, the

Ark of the Covenant was still in a tent. And David felt pretty bad about that. He wanted to build God a house. And Nathan the prophet stops

David's plans and says, you're not going to build a house. God's going to build you a house. He's going to build you a dynasty.

And God makes a covenant with David and promises that a descendant of David will be on the throne of Jerusalem.

So in verse 12, it says, when your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers,

I will raise a descendant after you who will come forth for you and I will establish his kingdom. He will build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

I will be a father to him. He will be a son to me. Okay, and he goes on to talk about how he's going to keep him accountable and so on and so forth.

The idea is that God is saying, okay, I'm going to build you a house and then your son, the son of David will build me a house.

Okay, and God promises verse 16, your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever.

Your throne shall be established forever. Okay, so the thought was, okay. Is it not, even though the temple is mentioned here, the building of God's house, the temple is mentioned here, is it, the question was, is not the perpetual enthronement of one of David's descendants, isn't that the sign of the covenant?

Well, I think that's actually the covenant itself. I think it's like, that's the details of the covenant. I think that's what God is promising to David.

This is the arrangement that God has made with David. Okay, but the sign of the covenant,

I think, the sign of that promise that this would actually come about, that this would actually be true, the bolster, the bolster, the faith of those who receive this promise,

I think that is the temple. And one of the reasons for that would be in 1 Kings 8, 1

Kings 8. Now, in verses 12 through 26, we won't read the whole thing.

Now, the fact of the matter is that God in several places, or at least a couple of places in the

Old Testament, communicated and said, I will not utterly destroy

Jerusalem at this time, or I will not wipe out this wicked king at this time.

And he gives his reason that there would be a lamp of David left in Jerusalem.

And God speaks of the lamp that he wants to keep lit in Jerusalem. Okay, so he gives his reasons why, and that's referring back to this covenant.

God said, okay, I'm going to leave your descendants reigning on the throne. So he's not going to snuff out the lamp, he says.

Okay, well, in 1 Kings 8, and I'm going to encourage you, if you're interested in seeing the connection between the enthronement of David's descendants and the temple, that those things are connected, 1

Kings 8, 12 through 26 is an excellent read. And in there, as Solomon is dedicating the temple that was just built, he takes the time to note, verse 15, he said,

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to my father

David, and has fulfilled it with his hand. And then he goes on to describe the whole thing in detail.

But he's saying, God has kept his promise to my father

David, and he says that as he's dedicating the temple. Okay, so that's why

I think the temple serves as a sign of the covenant. See, it's true. See, the temple.

And that's why. And the final note about the

Davidic covenant that we have in the scriptures, the connection of both the temple and the lamp in Jerusalem are in Revelation 21.

And we'll end on this. Revelation 21, verses 22 through 23.

In describing the New Jerusalem, where God in the

Old Testament talked about, there's a temple where I place my name there in that city.

There's a temple in Jerusalem. And there's always a lamp lit in Jerusalem, the descendant of David.

Okay, here's the final word on it. Revelation 21, verses 22 and 23.

I saw no temple in it. For the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple.

And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it. For the glory of the Lord has illumined it. And the lamp is who?

Lamb, the descendant of David. And there it is. So that's why it's a glorious thing.

I think when we read the Old Testament, and we look at those passages, we meditate on them, and we see what they meant to the original audience and those original situations.

And then just track through about what happens to those promises. They get clearer and bigger and glorifying to God, the closer you get to Jesus Christ.

And the more you look at Christ, the more you see that those promises are indeed fulfilled in him in a way that glorifies and magnifies

God to the maximum degree. Well, let's go ahead and close by singing the doxology.