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People of the New Covenant
September 07, 2014
God promised Moses that He would raise up a later prophet like Moses to whom the people must listen. God spoke through the prophets of a new covenant with Israel and Judah. He also said that He would be a savior to the Gentiles, as well as to the offspring of Abraham. The new covenant would be written in the hearts of the believers, and not on tables of stone. - Bernie Parsons
People Of The New Covenant
by Bernie Parsons
Presented to Globe church of Christ on 09-07-2014
Presented to Load church of Christ on 10-12-2014
We saw in the last study that God had established the children of Israel as
the people of covenant, which they promptly broke. The Lord had also told
them that He had plans for a new covenant in the future. Who would be the
people of this new covenant?
Jeremiah 31:31 "Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a
new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day
that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which
my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel;
After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts,
and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my
people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his
brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least
of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their
iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
This correlates to what we read in the book of Hebrews.
Hebrews 8:7 "For if that first covenant had been faultless, then should no
place have been sought for the second.
8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the
Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the
house of Judah:
9 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day
when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because
they continued not in my covenant, and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.
10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write
them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a
people:
11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his
brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the
greatest.
12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their
iniquities will I remember no more.
13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that
which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away."
We see that the new covenant is established in Jesus Christ. Like the
Israelites of old were the people of the old covenant, so are Christians the
people of the new covenant.
Exodus 20:18 "And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings,
and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people
saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.
19 And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let
not God speak with us, lest we die."
Deuteronomy 4:11 "And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the
mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds,
and thick darkness.
12 And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the
voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.
13 And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform,
even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone."
Hebrews 12:18 "For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and
that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,
19 And the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that
heard intreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more:
20 (For they could not endure that which was commanded, And if so much as a
beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart:
21 And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and
quake:)
22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the
heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in
heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made
perfect,
24 And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of
sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
25 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who
refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn
away from him that speaketh from heaven:
26 Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet
once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.
27 And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things
that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot
be shaken may remain.
28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have
grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:
29 For our God is a consuming fire."
Like the Israelites, once delivered from Egypt, gathered at the mountain to
witness the power of God and to receive His laws, so are we gathered at the
spiritual Mount Sion to witness the power of the resurrection and to receive
the freedom to serve God through Christ.
Isaiah 49:6 "And he said, It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my
servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of
Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest
be my salvation unto the end of the earth."
Acts 13:46 "Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary
that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put
it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn
to the Gentiles.
47 For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light
of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the
earth.
48 And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word
of the Lord: and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed."
Under the new covenant, Gentiles would be included in the people of God.
Acts 26:21 "For these causes the Jews caught me in the temple, and went
about to kill me.
22 Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue unto this day,
witnessing both to small and great, saying none other things than those
which the prophets and Moses did say should come:
23 That Christ should suffer, and that he should be the first that should
rise from the dead, and should shew light unto the people, and to the
Gentiles."
Ephesians 2:11 "Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in
the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the
Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having
no hope, and without God in the world:
13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by
the blood of Christ.
14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the
middle wall of partition between us;
15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so
making peace;
16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby:
17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that
were nigh.
18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens
with the saints, and of the household of God;
20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus
Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy
temple in the Lord:
22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the
Spirit."
The new covenant is with all believers in, and followers of, Jesus Christ,
the savior of the world. It is for both Jew and Gentile, for both are made
one nation under God, by the blood of Christ.
