A God of Promise, Part 2

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Short Summary
The discourse explores the nature and significance of God’s eternal promises, focusing on the new covenant mediated by Jesus as described in Hebrews and other scriptures. It emphasizes the spiritual and earthly dimensions of God’s covenant with Israel, the role of the true church as co-mediators, and the prophetic fulfillment of Israel’s restoration and ultimate peace under God’s everlasting kingdom. The new covenant represents an internal transformation written on hearts, culminating in a future where God’s presence dwells with humanity, fulfilling His original plan for eternal life and harmony on earth.

Long Summary
Detailed Summary of the Discourse on “A God of Promise” Part Two: The New Covenant and God’s Eternal Plan

Introduction and Review of God’s Integrity and Covenants
– The discourse begins by emphasizing the confidence believers have in God’s promises due to His integrity—God’s unwavering adherence to a high moral code.
– Several Old Testament covenants were reviewed previously, all labeled as eternal:
– The Rainbow Covenant (post-flood, God’s promise never to destroy the earth by flood again).
– The Abrahamic Covenant (God’s promise to Abraham and his descendants, foundational for future promises).
– The Sabbath Covenant (an eternal sign of God’s relationship with His people).
– The Davidic Covenant (promise of an eternal rulership through David’s line).
– The discourse emphasizes that God’s original design from Genesis was for humanity to live eternally on earth, reflecting God’s plan for everlasting life and dominion (Genesis 1:28).

Focus on the New Covenant
– The new covenant is introduced as another eternal covenant, mediated by Jesus Christ.
– It is described as a better covenant than the Mosaic law covenant due to better promises and a more excellent mediation (Hebrews 8:6).
– Unlike the Mosaic covenant, which had regulations about earthly worship and required yearly animal sacrifices (Hebrews 9:1,7), the new covenant’s mediation involves Jesus entering the heavenly sanctuary with His own blood once for all, obtaining eternal redemption (Hebrews 9:11-12).
– This marks a shift from physical, earthly rituals to a spiritual reality.

Distinction Between Fleshly and Spiritual Israel
– The Apostle Paul’s allegory in Galatians 4 contrasts Hagar (the law, earthly Jerusalem, slavery) with Sarah (the covenant of grace, heavenly Jerusalem, freedom) (Galatians 4:24-26).
– Believers in Christ are likened to Isaac, children of promise, representing the spiritual seed of Abraham.
– The spiritual Jerusalem (“Jerusalem from above”) corresponds to the New Jerusalem described in Revelation 21:1-3, a holy city coming down from heaven prepared as a bride for her husband.
– This reinforces the dual nature of God’s promises: physical (nation of Israel) and spiritual (Christ’s followers).

God’s Eternal Plan Through Abraham’s Seed
– Abraham’s seed was divided into two: earthly (Jacob/Israel) and heavenly (Isaac/Jesus).
– God reiterates His promise to Isaac that his descendants will be numerous as the stars of heaven and inherit the land (Genesis 26:2-4).
– Jacob’s dream highlights the physical nation’s future blessings spread across the earth (Genesis 28:13-15).
– These promises form the foundation for understanding the new covenant’s scope—both earthly and spiritual blessings flowing from Abraham’s promises.

Role of the Church and the New Covenant
– The true church (followers of Jesus) is described as a chosen people, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9).
– The church is privileged to administer the benefits of the new covenant to Israel and the world.
– Hebrews 12:22-24 highlights the church’s heavenly enrollment alongside Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, stressing Jesus’ centrality but affirming the church’s role.

Prophetic Context of the New Covenant’s Inauguration
– Prophecies about the judgment of spiritual Babylon (false church systems) and Israel’s regathering are discussed (Jeremiah 50:4-5).
– The return of Israel and their turning to God in an everlasting covenant signals the new covenant’s beginning.
– Zechariah 12:8-10 prophesies God pouring out the Spirit of grace on Jerusalem, leading to mourning over “him whom they have pierced,” a recognition of Messiah.
– The new covenant will begin in Israel, the land promised to Abraham and his descendants (Ezekiel 37:24-26).

Jeremiah’s Prophecies and the New Covenant’s Nature
– Jeremiah 16:13 describes Israel’s exile due to sin, fulfilled historically in 70 AD and beyond, setting the stage for a future restoration.
– Jeremiah 31:31-34 outlines the new covenant’s key difference: the law written on hearts rather than tablets of stone, an internal transformation rather than external compliance.
– God promises to forgive sins completely and establish a direct, intimate knowledge of Him for all His people.
– Jeremiah 31:35-37 uses the fixed order of the cosmos as a metaphor for the covenant’s unbreakable and eternal nature.
– The Sabbath command (Exodus 31:16-17) as a perpetual covenant is tied into this eternal plan, emphasizing reverence for the Creator.

Restoration and Blessing of Israel
– Jeremiah 23:3-8 promises God will gather His people back, restore them, and they will be fruitful and multiply, echoing God’s original command in Genesis 1:28.
– The deliverance from exile and regathering will surpass the Exodus from Egypt in significance and impact.
– Jeremiah 16:19-21 foretells nations recognizing God’s power through Israel’s restoration, leading to global knowledge of God.
– This restoration sets the stage for the worldwide extension of the new covenant’s blessings.

The Kingdom of God and Final Fulfillment
– Daniel 2:44 prophesies God setting up an everlasting kingdom that will replace all earthly kingdoms, identified as the new covenant kingdom.
– Isaiah 11:9-10 describes the earth being filled with the knowledge of the Lord “as the waters cover the sea,” a picture of universal peace and righteousness.
– Psalm 22:27-28 affirms that all nations will worship the Lord and recognize His sovereignty.

Conclusion: The New Covenant’s Eternal Promise
– The new covenant is inaugurated through Jesus’ sacrifice and mediation, with His faithful followers participating in its ministry of reconciliation.
– Revelation 21:1-4 depicts the new heaven and new earth, the New Jerusalem coming down from God, God dwelling with His people, wiping away all sorrow, death, and pain—fulfilling God’s eternal promise for humanity.
– The discourse closes by affirming God’s integrity: He always fulfills His promises, and His eternal plan is for the ultimate good of all creation, forever.

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Key Bible Verses Cited or Referenced:
– Genesis 1:28 — “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and have dominion.”
– Genesis 17:7 — God’s everlasting covenant with Abraham and descendants.
– Hebrews 8:6 — Jesus as mediator of a better covenant.
– Hebrews 9:1,7,11-12 — Descriptions of the first covenant and Christ’s eternal redemption.
– Galatians 4:24-26, 28 — Allegory of Hagar and Sarah; earthly and heavenly Jerusalem.
– Revelation 21:1-4, 9 — New heaven, new earth, and the New Jerusalem.
– Genesis 26:2-4 — God’s promise to Isaac.
– Genesis 28:13-15 — Jacob’s vision and promise.
– 1 Peter 2:9 — The spiritual identity of believers.
– Hebrews 12:22-24 — The heavenly Jerusalem and the church’s enrollment.
– Jeremiah 50:4-5; 16:13-15, 19-21; 23:3-8; 31:31-34, 35-37 — Prophecies about Israel’s exile, restoration, and the new covenant.
– Ezekiel 37:24-26 — The everlasting covenant with Israel in their land.
– Exodus 31:16-17 — Sabbath as a perpetual covenant.
– Daniel 2:44 — God’s everlasting kingdom.
– Isaiah 11:9-10 — The earth filled with knowledge of the Lord.
– Psalm 22:27-28 — Universal worship of God.

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Summary Insight:
This discourse outlines the unfolding of God’s eternal promises through biblical covenants culminating in the New Covenant, mediated by Jesus Christ. It stresses the dual aspects of God’s plan involving both physical Israel and spiritual believers, the internalization of God’s law in hearts rather than stone tablets, and the ultimate restoration and peace that will cover the earth. Prophecies from Jeremiah, Daniel, Isaiah, and Revelation are woven together to present a comprehensive picture of God’s unwavering integrity and the certainty of His eternal plan for humanity and the earth.

Transcript

So we’re going to continue with part two of A God of Promise, and just by way of a very, very quick review, let’s just remember, kind of put ourselves back where we left off. When someone makes you a solemn promise, what gives you the confidence that they will keep it? The answer to that is their integrity. The sense, the firm adherence to a high conflict code of values.

And as we discussed yesterday, our God is a God of integrity. What he says he does and what he does is always utterly and completely harmonious from beginning to end. We looked at several of God’s promises, covenants. Remember what a covenant is? It’s that sign, solemn promise that in the Old Testament was symbolized by walking between the parts of sacrificed animal.

And we looked at several of God’s covenants that were labeled as eternal. We looked at the rainbow covenant after the flood. We looked at the Abrahamic covenant. We looked at the institution of the Sabbath which God put in place as an eternal, eternal promise for us, and then we looked at the rule of the line of David as an eternal promise, an eternal covenant.

We introduced the new covenant as another eternal covenant. We’re going to spend a lot more time on that today. So we’ve got the basic understanding and just want to put, put things in order. The point of all of this is to start at the beginning, to go back to Genesis, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and have dominion you have. That original wasn’t labeled as a promise, but that was God’s direction, His solemn direction.

And he gave that to mankind, and what we see in all of these other promises is the verification of what he had started. Because his intention, we all know, was for the world of mankind to live eternally on earth. That’s why he created humanity. He’s a God of integrity.

He allows sin and death and all of those things to come into play so that eternity has a population to work with. Because without the experience, you can’t go anywhere. So we had. Let’s just quickly touch on Genesis 17:7. I will establish my covenant between me and you and your descendants after you, throughout the generations for an everlasting covenant to be God to you and your descendants after you.

This is God talking to Abraham. That’s really the basis, the core value of, of what everything else is built upon. So we’ve discussed, discussed as we mentioned, several of God’s covenants, and now we’re focusing on the new covenant and how it works. I’ve established that it’s set up with Israel and we’re going to continue with the how of its operation.

So as we begin to unfold this, there’s going to be a lot of details just like. Just like yesterday, and we’re not going to be able to cover anything comprehensively because there’s just too much. But we’ll do the best we can. So how does this new covenant promise work?

How does it work? It’s promised to be an eternal basis for the foundation for earthly life. The new covenant we know is mediated by Jesus in Hebrews chapter 8 and 9. It helps us understand the context of this mediation. So we’re going to just lightly touch on a few verses in Hebrews8.9 so we can get a sense of what they actually mean.

Hebrews 8. 6. But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. So the apostle is talking to Jewish Christians. Their challenge, the reason for the Book of Hebrews was to take the Judaizing out of Christianity by going back to what they knew to be true in the law, what they knew to be historic, and to say all of those things were in place for specific reasons to bring you to a point now where those things need to be left behind and you need to walk forward and accept Jesus as the centerpiece.

And when you look at the Book of Hebrews, it’s a masterful reasoning for those who had were stuck, were stuck in the law. They were stuck in Jewish tradition, and rightfully so. That’s all they ever knew. That was the way God dealt with humanity, period, and to be told all of a sudden, well, that was then, but now this is totally different.

That’s a hard thing. So the apostle writes this to put things into perspective. So in Hebrews 8. 6, it talked about him being the mediator of this better covenant. Better in contrasting to the law covenant which we established was not eternal.

Hebrews 9:1 says now even the first covenant had regulations of divine worship and earthly sanctuary, and so in Hebrews 9. One, it had regulations of divine worship. It was good. The apostle is not belittling what they had believed in.

He’s putting it in the proper perspective. It was good. So now we’re just, and again, I apologize, we’re going to just jump through several different verses. So we’re not going to connect everything in the interest of time.

So in the tabernacle, in the temple, to be in the most holy was to be in the presence of God. A blood sacrifice was always the price for entry into the Most holy, Hebrews 9, 7, it says, but into the second, the most holy. Only the high priest enters once a year, not without taking blood, which he offers for himself for the sins of the people committed in ignorance. So now the apostle is going to show us the differences. Jesus had fulfilled this blood requirement because.

And earned the right to enter into the presence of God with his own blood sacrifice. Hebrews 9, 11, 12. But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, he entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands. So now we’re seeing a spiritualized vision of what they knew and understood in a physical way. He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, and not through the blood of goats or calves, but through his own blood.

He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. Let that sink in. This is a spiritualized picture of what they knew to be reverentially holy, and we’re being shown that Jesus enters the presence of God. He earns the ability to be in the presence because he pays the price of blood.

And it’s now no longer once a year, it’s once for all. So there’s a massive change that’s being introduced here. He obtained eternal redemption. He earned his way into God’s presence by his perfect obedience and sacrifice. Okay, so we see that the Jesus is established as doing something entirely different on an entirely different level.

And you notice it’s a spiritual level, not an earthly level. Now, for the followers of Christ, the Galatians. Let’s look at the Galatians for a few minutes. Were influenced by Jewish Christians toward following the law covenant. They were.

There was a lot of Judaizing influence within Galatia, and the Apostle Paul wrote that to them so to firmly set them straight, and in so doing, he revealed where the call to Christ fits in relation to the law and therefore to the new Covenant. Paul in Galatians gives the allegory of the bond woman, Hagar. We all know the context of that.

And the free woman Sarah, as a comparison between fleshly and spiritual Israel, and this is important because when we look at how is a new covenant administered, we need to understand the difference between fleshly and spiritual, because what we see is the new Covenant, as we will go through several texts coming up, is very, very, very, very much an earthly presence. It’s continually described in the context of. Of the world, of the physical earth. So in Galatians 4, 24 and 25, it says this is allegorically Speaking for these women he’s talking about, Hagar and Sarah are two covenants.

One preceding, proceeding from Mount Sinai, bearing children who are to be slaves. She is Hagar. Now. This Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem. For she is a slate, is in slavery with her children.

Hagar represents the law, covenant, the present Jerusalem in present sinful Israel today. That’s what he’s saying at that time. He’s writing this and saying, this is what Hagar represents. Then he goes on in chapter 4, verses 26 and 28. But the Jerusalem from above, the Jerusalem from above, free.

She is our mother, and you brethren like Isaac are children of promise. Again, gotta let that sink in. The reasoning before showed how Jesus entered the most holy in a spiritual sense, not an earthly sense, by his blood, and now he’s saying, you, brethren like Isaac are children of promise.

We’re going to get back to that Isaac connection in a few minutes. Sarah represented a covenant of grace through which Isaac was born. That is what we’re looking at, the comparison between the two. So Jesus disciples inherited the capacity to bless along with Jesus himself as God’s spiritual government. The Apostle Paul is telling us that Sarah and the covenant she represents is a spiritual covenant.

It’s a Jerusalem from above, not like the physical Jerusalem going to Revelation 21:1 3. You can see how this comes into play, and you know, I can’t help but think this is a brotheric opinion that the Apostle Paul, in some of the things that he were revealed, he saw perhaps some of the pictures of Revelation, because in Revelation, it’s interesting how it talks specifically about Jerusalem coming down from above. Revelation 21:1 3. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth.

For the new first heaven and the first earth were passed away, and there was no longer any sea, and I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. The Apostle Paul described that basically in Galatians, and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he will dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them. How will God himself be with him?

The Jerusalem from above descends as a bride adorned for her husband. You see this tremendous focus on the spirituality. So when we’re looking at what the Apostle says in Hebrews, he’s talking about Jesus earning his way into the spiritual most holy by paying the price, and then in Galatians, we’re seeing that we are representative of this new spiritual Jerusalem, which is verified in Revelation. So there’s a tremendous difference between earthly and heavenly, one more important and powerful distinction.

We know that God’s eternal plan works through the Abrahamic covenant. We established that yesterday when we were talking about it. The Abrahamic covenant sums up what had happened before and what was going to happen later in that one promise. That’s what the Abrahamic covenant is really the pivot point of which Jesus is the centerpiece.

Excuse me. We know that Abraham’s seed was divided into two parts, heavenly and earthly. So let’s look at the promise that was repeated to Isaac. Let’s just re. Establish that just again and again.

Brethren, I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, all right? Just want to put it in order because the. The whole point of this discussion from yesterday and today is to tie together Genesis all the way through Revelation and all of the eternal promises and how they work together. That’s the point, okay? That’s what we’re trying to establish here.

So we know Abraham’s seed was divided into two parts, heavenly and earthly. So the promise repeated to Isaac, there’s a famine in the land and Isaac wants to go to Egypt. So when we go back to Genesis 26:2 to 4, it says the Lord appeared to him and said, don’t go down to Egypt. Stay in the land of which I shall tell you, sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you. For you and your descendants, I will give all these lands and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham.

So he’s saying, no, stay in the land that I’m giving you. You don’t have to go there. Stay. He’s talking to Isaac specifically, and then he says to Isaac specifically, I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and I will give you descendants, all these lands, and by your descendants, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed.

So in the reiteration of Abraham’s promise, Isaac is told, your descendants will be like as the stars of heaven, and he says, and you’ll inherit the land. So he’s talking about both pieces and. But he focuses in on the stars of heaven as the picture of what Isaac’s descendants are. Why?

I think this confirms the spiritual side of the promise. That Isaac represented Jesus as the spiritual seed doesn’t negate the other part, but it’s simply a focus. Go a little bit further. Go down to Jacob. Jacob then represents, we believe, the physical nation of Israel after All Jacob’s name was changed to Israel.

12 sons, 12 tribes, and you have a nation after all. That’s what he saw. So now let’s go to Jacob’s dream of the stairway to heaven. Okay? In Genesis 28:13 15, in Genesis 28:13 15, it says in the context of this dream, and behold, the Lord stood above that stairway and said, I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.

The land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants, and your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. So now you have the focus on the dust of the earth, the earthly picture, but it’s still the blessing of all the families of the earth.

It’s not leaving anything out, but it’s focusing on a different portion. Maybe a little bit subtle, but I think it’s important. Isaac was very clearly a representation of Jesus. Jacob is clearly a representation of the physical nation of Israel. So we see the two pieces being put in place way back with the Abrahamic covenant being repeated.

So now when we are going to just leap forward to the new covenant, we have to take all of these pieces with us to understand who and how and so forth. Blessing comes from the physical seed of Abraham, which is the nation of Israel, and it also comes from the spiritual seed of Abraham and which are the followers of Jesus as well. In 1st Peter 2. 9, we go back to the spiritual seed. So, you know, we’re looking at the.

How does, how does this new covenant work? We’ve established that Jesus is the entrance into heaven that establishes this heavenly presence, if you will. First Peter 2. 9 says, but you, you, that means you. You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you might proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

Brethren, that’s what you are called to, that is entirely focused on, on a spiritual end result, because that all happens with and through Jesus in His perfection. So the how of this new covenant being inaugurated, we want to look at that and say, okay, the new covenant comes through Jesus. While his true disciples don’t receive the benefits of the new covenant, they are privileged to give the benefits of that covenant to Israel and then to the world as Jerusalem coming down. That’s where it begins. That’s where it starts, that’s where it flows from.

And that will they administer, that they meaning you faithful unto death, being given a crown of life as kings and priests under the Lord Jesus. So we’re trying to put this in order so that when we get into the details of the New Covenant, we understand the role that the true church is supposed to play, and listen, side note, I know that there may be differences of perspective on the New Covenant and how it relates to the, to the true church. So I’m giving you Brother Rick’s studied opinion and if you have other thoughts, wonderful. Be great to talk about them.

Okay. It really would. It would be great to put it to scripture because it’s really important for me. Again, another Brother Rick opinion to keep keep this in order to understand the power of God’s eternal promises for earth and how the church is actually lifted to an entirely different place on an entirely different path to contribute to the fulfilling of that final promise, the New Covenant. So now we’re going to focus on the when and the where of this new Covenant.

And as we do, we’ll get back into a little bit more of the Church’s role as well. We can better format our further understanding by absorbing the apostles reasoning to the Hebrew Christians. So we’re going to go back to Hebrews. Okay, and again, I keep apologizing because I do really, truly feel bad because this is such a big subject and just trying to pick out the little pieces to put together makes it is a little bit of a challenge.

So bear with me. We’re going to jump now to Hebrews 12. Okay, we are in 8 and 9 now, just all the way to Hebrews 12, 1222-24. But you, these are the Hebrew Christians in Paul’s day that are following Christ. Here’s what he’s telling them.

You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. This has been reiterated now several times, and to myriads of angels, God’s whole heavenly family, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous men made perfect. See Hebrews chapter 11 for examples of that, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant into the sprinkled blood which speaks better than the blood of Abel.

So there’s a whole lot in that verse, those verses, but what we see is you are enrolled in heaven, the new Jerusalem, the spiritual Jerusalem, and to Jesus the mediator, you say, okay, well wait a minute now that seems to be separating Jesus as the mediator from the church. Because you’re like, okay, Jesus, the mediator is mentioned and the church enrolled in heaven is mentioned, and don’t we see it as we are part of the mediator? The answer is yes.

It’s focusing on Jesus because the Hebrew Christians needed to get that clear. He’s zeroing in. Jesus is the reason for everything. He’s the centerpiece of everything. He’s the reason for the call.

He’s the reason for salvation, and you need to look at him and put all thinking aside. So Jesus is the mediator, let’s be clear. But the church does play a role in that. Let’s also be clear.

So as we go through, let’s look at when all of this comes into play again, different perspectives. That’s okay. I’m going to give you brother Rick’s opinion, knowing all of these elements will come together. We’re now going to look at prophecy, at a specific prophecy, just for a moment, that’s speaking about the judgment against Babylon, spiritual Babylon, prophetically, the false church systems. Now, the context, we’re going to go to Jeremiah chapter 50, just for a few verses.

The context here is that Cyrus and his army are overwhelming Babylon, and we see that as a picture of Messiah overthrowing mystic Babylon. In a prophetic sense, we understand the demise of these systems to be part of the prophesied time of trouble. The church systems cannot survive the great time of trouble. They cannot survive the ending of this age because it’s corrupt.

It’s pretty simple, and we’re going to verify all of the corruption that fits in with the rest of the corruption of the world. We’ll touch on that a little bit later. In Jeremiah 50, verses 4 and 5, it says in those days and at that time declares the Lord. So there’s a prophetic statement in those days.

And at that time, the sons of Israel will come, both they and the sons of Judah as well. They will go along weeping as they go, and it will be there, and it will be the Lord their God, they will seek. So it’s talking about an awakening. They will ask for the way to Zion, turning their faces in its direction. They will come that they may join themselves to the Lord in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.

So the prophecy is talking about the regathering of Israel in a very advanced stage because they’re looking to find the joining to the Lord in this everlasting covenant. That’s the new covenant. So what we’re seeing in the context of all this. Because God has always planned that through great trouble will come great blessing. So we understand this to be a process, not an event.

Oftentimes our Christian friends will look at things like the return of Jesus, and they make it a big event where he suddenly appears. He’s got one foot on one mountain, another foot on another mountain, and every eye will see him in a moment. We need to understand that scriptures unfold as a process, and most of the time, that process takes longer than we’d like it to. You know what I mean?

It takes longer than we’d like it to. But that’s all in God’s hands, and you know why it’s good for it to be there? Because our God is a God of integrity. What he says he does and what he does is always utterly harmonious from beginning to end and for the good of all.

So through. Through great trouble comes great blessing. We understand this to be a process, not an event. I said that already. Having already seen many Jews come back to Israel in the land being developed, we know that the spiritual awakening, this spiritual awakening is still yet to come.

But the process is underway, and, brethren, when you stop and think and look, you gotta look and say, man, we are living in a time that is so blessed it is. The world is beginning to change, and you get to see it. Let’s understand what we need to do with that. Zechariah 12, 8, 10.

Back to the regathering. In that day, the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and one who’s feeble among them in that day will be like David, and the house of David will be like God and like the angel of Lord before them, and in that day.

In that day I will set about to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. Who does the destroying? God does. I will set about to destroy. It is his will.

And done his way. I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I will pour out. Listen what gets poured out on them. The spirit of grace and the supplication, so that they will look on me whom they have pierced.

So they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over him, like weeping bitterly over a firstborn. There’s this transformation for those who are being regathered to recognize what’s really happened, and they will recognize and they will see, and that’s how this new covenant finds its place to begin.

So the prophecies are helping us to unfold all of the pieces of this, I have no idea how I’m doing on time. Well, he thinks I’m good. He has no idea how much else I have to say.

Okay, so where is this? Where is this going to be? Okay, well, that’s easy. We know. We already know the answer to that.

We’ve already seen many scriptures unequivocally point to Israel, and after all, this is the land that God originally promised Abraham. No surprise, I’m going to give you this land. It’s part of my eternal promise. So when the new covenant comes, where is it going to start?

Where God said it would be, because you’re going to get it forever. It really is a simple equation. Ezekiel 37:24 to 26. They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob, my servant, in which your fathers lived, and David, my servant, will be their prince forever.

I just want to pause here for a moment and I want to thank brother Ernie for his discourse yesterday because not only did he pick up where I left off, but he cited several scriptures that we are talking about today. So it really worked well, and no, we didn’t talk ahead of time. Okay, so it’s a beautiful confirmation of the integrity of the plan of God. David my servant will be their prince forever.

I will make a covenant of peace with them. It will be an everlasting covenant. It will be an everlasting covenant with them, and I will place them and multiply them and set my sanctuary in their midst forever. So you can see, it’s coming to Israel.

It’s coming to Israel. Now, Jeremiah, Jeremiah had a lot to say about this world changing development. In this next prophecy, he’s going to be showing the people of Israel their sins, and I just want to pause here for a moment because Jeremiah has this heart for Israel, and when you read lamentations, you feel the pouring out of his heart.

He was so distressed by their sins and their difficulties, and when you read his prophecies, you can see the emotional attachment he has to Jehovah and to the people, and he recognizes the gap and it pains his heart to see all of that. So in this next prophecy, we’re going to be looking at Jeremiah 16. He’s going to be showing the people of Israel their sins and then showing them just how dramatic their deliverance is going to be.

It’s another emphatic proof that the new covenant is, is with the physical nation of Israel. Jeremiah 16:13. This is where we’ll start. So I will hurl you out of this land into a land that you have not known you are being tossed out of the land that you had been given as an eternal promise because of your disobedience, and you’re going to be somewhere where you have no idea what’s happening.

This was not only fulfilled in Jeremiah’s day, but it was even more dramatically fulfilled in A.D. 70 after Jesus said several years before, behold, your house is left unto you desolate. The greatest disfavor in Israel’s history, which started with AD 70, which started with the words of Jesus, sets up the greatest favor in Israel’s history. So from disfavor and the curse to favor is a dramatic turnaround. Next, Jeremiah points them to the day of the new covenant, Jeremiah 16, 14, 15, continuing in the next verse. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord.

Before I read this, just one second.

This. These verses, and this is mentioned several times in Scripture, are some to me of the most dramatic verses in all of the Bible. Let’s read them. Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it no longer will be said, as the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but as the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all of the countries where he banished them. For I will restore them to their own land, and I will that which I gave to their fathers.

Why are these so dramatic? One of the most often repeated events in the Old Testament is Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian slavery. Constantly, again and again and again, I delivered you out of slavery. This was a focal point as it showed God’s foresight, His power, his wisdom and his promise and his providence. Think about that delivery.

Millions of people in one day walked out of slavery without a shot being fired, and they walked to freedom, and that was a marking point for the beginning of the nation of Israel, and that is a point that Scripture continuously goes back to. Remember what I did.

Remember what I did for you. Remember what I did. Jeremiah is saying here that the deliverance from Egypt will no longer be Israel’s focal point. That will be a small happening. That will be a small happening.

Their new focal point will be the regathering from the ends of the earth and the eternal restoration of the nation to their promised land. So as big as that deliverance was, it will not hold a candle to the deliverance that we have begun to see unfold before our eyes. That’s how big this is, and that’s how big the new covenant is, and these verses are mentioned several times. So when we look at this, how is this new covenant inaugurated?

The precursor to this and the eternal covenant is trouble for both Israel and the world. Trouble is a necessary breaking down of society, purging out of religious error and refocusing of Israel to the wholehearted reliance on the God of promise. A wholehearted reliance. Not a check the box I fulfilled, I was supposed to do, but a wholehearted reliance. The drama of Israel’s restoration to their land and to their faith will be overwhelming.

We have begun to see the restoration to their land and that’s exciting. We what this is talking about is overwhelming. The end results of this will absolutely reflect the description of this new covenant as God’s covenant of peace. You notice how often it’s described as the covenant of peace. There’s a reason for that because it is so overwhelming.

It takes all of the deception and the disobedience and it puts it all aside and it brings something entirely new.

So what does this covenant accomplish? Oh, this is the best part. Why is God doing this? Okay, let’s look at the what of what this covenant accomplishes and then why? What makes this covenant so different from the law?

What does it accomplish? What? What does it actually do? Back to Jeremiah, let’s go to verse chapter 31, verses 31 and 32. Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Jacob.

Not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant which they broke although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. So we go back and we see there’s what was, and now we look. We’re going to go to Jeremiah 31, next verses, and see how it’s unfolded.

And we’re going to see a fundamental difference. But this covenant, this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put my law not on the tables of the law, like the Ten Commandments. I will put my law within them, and on their hearts I will write it. Not on tables of stone, but on their hearts I will write it.

And I will be their God, and they shall be my people, and they will not teach again. Every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know the Lord, for they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin. I will remember no more.

I will write it on the tables of Their hearts. That changes things. It is now an inside out process rather than an outside in. Moses gave them the law. Here the law will be coming from within them.

That’s the difference between the law covenant and the new next. The next few verses in Jeremiah tell us that this is an unmistakably eternal promise which produces eternal surety and confidence. Why? Because our God is a God of integrity. What he says he does and what he does remains constant and is for the good of all, for all of eternity.

I love these verses. Jeremiah 31, 35, 37. Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so as its waves roar, and the Lord of hosts is his name. So it says, I am the Lord of all of these natural phenomenon which you cannot even comprehend.

He’s introducing. Jeremiah’s introducing God as the God of these wonderful, powerful, earthly things, and then he says in verse 36, if this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then the offspring of Israel will also cease from being a nation before me forever. Thus says the Lord, if the heavens can be measured and the fountains of the earth searched out below, then also will I cast off all of the offspring of Israel. So all they have done, declares the Lord, let’s go back.

The one who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order and the moon of stars for light by night. That God is saying, if that just stops, then I won’t be taking care of Israel. Is it going to stop? If you can measure the expanses of the universe, if it becomes measurable, then I will cast off Israel. Is it measurable?

No, it’s ever increasing. So what Jeremiah is telling us is the assurance that as the sun rises every day, so God loves and protects Israel every day, and the day the sun stops rising, then all bets are off. You see, the power. That’s what the new covenant is.

That’s why it’s an eternal covenant. It’s based on the. On what God intended the earth to be. This covenant will maintain the sanctity and reverence. Gonna go way back now.

Reverence of the Sabbath. Remembering it. Yeah. Exodus 31. The sons of Israel shall observe the Sabbath to celebrate the Sabbath throughout the generations as a perpetual covenant.

Why? For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day, he ceased. So part of this is going to include stopping and reverencing the Creator of all, regularly, always. That’s part of the what of this new covenant? Why?

Why does God do this? Because it was his plan all along. Because he’s a God of integrity. Because when he says something, he does it, and when he does it, it’s always for the ultimate good for all, for eternity.

God created man to live forever. In Genesis 1:28 said God blessed them and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subd and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the living things that move on the earth. After proclaiming the sins of Israel, spiritual leaders going back to Jeremiah, he again goes back to that day, and Jeremiah 23, we’re going to read verse three and verses seven and eight it says, then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, bring them back to their pasture, and then you know what it says? And they will be fruitful and multiply.

So the first promise of God to humanity is be fruitful and multiply. The inauguration of the new covenant Israel, be fruitful and multiply. God is a God of promise. When he says it, he does. Just takes a lot longer than we’d like it to sometimes.

Therefore, verses 7 and 8 in Jeremiah, behold, the day is coming, declares the Lord, when they will no longer say, as the Lord lives who brought back the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt, but as the Lord lives who brought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from the northland and from all the countries where I have driven them, then they will live on their own soil again. Recognize this is the biggest deliverance the world will ever see, and it opened the door for the resurrection of all mankind. The new covenant we know is for the benefit of all the people. Back in Jeremiah 16, a few verses after the proclamation of the regathering from the ends of the earth and the eternal restoration of the nations to their promised land. Jeremiah 16:19 21 O Lord, my strength and my stronghold and my refuge in the day of distress to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say, our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood, futility, and things of no profit.

Can man make gods for himself. Yet they are not gods. Therefore, behold, I am going to make them know this time. I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know my name is the Lord, and what’s going to happen Israel’s restoration is going to bring men flocking to them and saying, we thought it was this way, but that doesn’t work.

You can’t do that stuff. I will make them know as well. So through the establishment of Israel, the new covenant comes the flooding of truth and true reverence to the rest of the world once again. The drama of that time cannot be underestimated. Trouble will bring peace.

Daniel 2:44 and we are actually starting to wrap up, brothers. Daniel 2:44. In the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left to another people. No, no, no.

It will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever. This kingdom is the new covenant. So here we are in this world. We’re just talking with sisters before the meeting.

My statement to them was, start the bulldozers. It’s time to plow under the kingdoms of this earth, because that’s what Daniel says. They will be crushed under the grace and sovereignty of this new kingdom, which will endure forever. All nations will see God. They will understand his righteousness and live under this new covenant of peace.

Isaiah 11, 9, 10. They will not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain. For the earth will be covered with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Get the picture? As the waters cover the sea, the earth will be covered with the knowledge of the Lord.

There is not one place where it is won’t be evident. Have you ever noticed when there’s a flood, water gets everywhere. As the waters cover the sea, the earth will be covered with the knowledge of the Lord. Then in that day, the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, resort to Jesus, who will stand as a signal for the peoples, and his resting place will be glorious.

Psalm 22, 27 and 28. All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations will worship before you. For the kingdom is the Lord’s and he rules over the nations. Amen.

That’s what the new covenant brings, and it has to go through the promise. So this new covenant is inaugurated. It comes to be as a result of Jesus paying the price for Adam’s sin. This covenant will be mediated by Jesus himself, along with his true followers.

That’s why we are given the ministry of reconciliation. That’s what it’s for. It’s an eternal covenant of peace with all of humanity, and it fully exactly fulfills what God had originally designed for his human creation. Last Scripture, Revelation 21:1 4.

We quoted part of it earlier, and I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth, they were passed away, and there was no more sea. There was no more restless masses anymore, and I, John, saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

That’s you, brethren. That’s what we’re here for, so we can be part of this. I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them.

They shall be his people, and God Himself shall be with them, just like in the garden. God Himself shall be with them and be their God, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying. Neither shall there be any more pain.

Because the former things passed away. They’re gone. That’s the new covenant. That’s what’s promised. Our God is a God of integrity.

What he says he does and what he does is eternal. For the goodness of everyone forever. May the Lord add His blessing.

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