Participants: Danny Shelton (Host), Jim Gilley (Host), David Asscherick
Series Code: 13HC
Program Code: 13HC000010
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00:50 We are continuing our study of the covenants.
00:52 Are we learning anything here? Yes! 00:55 I'm feeling really good. 00:56 Not just learning in terms of an intellectual growth 00:59 but I'm feeling really good about the personal, familial 01:04 applications of this as well in terms of trust 01:07 and relationship and not self-preservation 01:11 and self-centeredness but other-centeredness. 01:14 And really, that's the way the universe works, beloved... 01:17 that is the way the universe works. 01:21 Because - as we put that first piece on the table there... 01:24 What is it? That "God is love. " 01:26 That's the way the universe works, and so I want my family 01:28 to work that way. I want my life to work that way. 01:31 I want my heart to work that way. 01:34 I want to enter into covenant with God 01:36 and to live the way that He created me to live. 01:38 And that's what we're going to talk about now. We're really 01:40 getting full on now into the guts of the Abrahamic covenant. 01:45 And so we're just going to pray again 01:47 and we're going to dive right in. 01:48 We're going to pick up where we left off. 01:52 Father in heaven, Jesus Himself said that "No man 01:57 knows the day or the hour 01:59 no, not even the Son of Man, but My Father which is in 02:02 heaven. " And Father, we stand here 02:04 and it must be painful to Your heart because You have 02:06 communicated to us that there is a dynamic... 02:10 that there is an elasticity in the day that Jesus will return. 02:15 We can hasten or by extension slow that day. 02:20 And Father, the prayer of my personal heart - 02:22 David Asscherick's heart - and I'm sure that the others 02:24 here pray this same prayer: I don't want to be that kind 02:30 of a person or among those who are slowing the process down. 02:35 Father, make us movers and shakers 02:38 in the literal sense. Moving and shaking and agitating 02:41 with regards to the kingdom of heaven on earth. 02:43 Father, may we be dissatisfied with the status quo, 02:46 with this world full of death and disease 02:50 and oppression and injustice, 02:52 murder and every other kind of violence, and hate. 02:56 Father, may this world not be our home. 02:59 May we not feel comfortable here... even though 03:01 the birds sing and the sun yet shines. 03:02 May we have a deep dissatisfaction with this earth. 03:07 May we pray in our innermost heart of hearts 03:09 and our soul of souls "Thy kingdom come, 03:12 Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. " 03:13 And Father, we know that that will never eventuate 03:16 this side of the return of Christ. 03:17 But may we be - inasmuch as we are able - 03:20 creating that environment, creating that atmosphere. 03:24 And Father, we long to live in harmony with the great 03:27 principle upon which the universe operates... 03:29 and that is love, other-centeredness. 03:31 Father, remove even the last residual vestiges 03:35 of self-preservation and self-centeredness 03:37 and selfishness from us. 03:39 All of those things which are out of harmony or in discord 03:43 with the way that You have made the universe to operate. 03:47 Father, teach us how to love as You love, 03:49 to live as You live, to walk as Christ walked. 03:53 And as we now continue our study of the covenants 03:56 Father I pray that this would be far more than a mere 03:58 intellectual or cerebral exercise for us. Father, 04:01 may we enter into covenant with You. 04:06 Teach us what that means. Teach us how to trust 04:08 in the faithfulness of Your Son, the Messiah, Jesus. 04:13 Be with us now as we open scripture. 04:15 Illumine our minds is our prayer in Jesus' name, 04:18 let everyone say "Amen. " 04:23 In order to continue our presentation here, I want to 04:26 start by reminding us of something that we've mentioned 04:28 before, and that is the basic structure of the 04:31 book of Genesis. 04:33 We talked about there are fifty chapters in Genesis. 04:36 And the first 11 of those chapters are by far the most 04:40 hotly debated and hotly contested passages 04:42 in all of scripture. 04:44 More than Jesus being born of a virgin, 04:46 with a few loaves and fishes, 04:48 and even His resurrection from the dead. 04:51 Genesis 1 to 11 is a cauldron of controversy... 04:56 not just outside of the Christian church but even inside 04:59 of the Christian church. 05:01 Because if Genesis 1 to 11 is portraying an actual 05:05 history... And by the way, there are great textual 05:07 and exegetical reasons to believe that this is more 05:10 than figurative, it's more than metaphorical. 05:13 It is the history of the earth. 05:15 Right? Now we're not going to spend any time on that here. 05:17 That's another series to talk about the sort of 05:19 evidences within Genesis to believe in its basic 05:23 historicity. But our point here is this: 05:25 you have fifty chapters and the first eleven chapters 05:29 cover roughly - you know - 2,000ish years of human history 05:32 and then the last 39 chapters basically cover 100-150ish years 05:36 as well. So when you think about that 05:39 it is very strongly - hugely - disproportionately weighted 05:44 toward the history after Abraham and the history 05:48 of Abraham. Which kind of raises the question: "Why? " 05:51 In this sense it's a little bit like the gospel of John 05:54 for example. You know, Jesus lived 05:56 some 30ish years on planet earth. 05:58 And John's gospel is 21 chapters, right? 06:02 Twenty-one chapters, and the last few days 06:05 of Jesus' life in the gospel of John 06:08 begin in John chapter 12. 06:10 Now just let that disproportion settle in for a moment. 06:13 Here Jesus lived some roughly 30 years 06:16 which is basically John 1 to John 11. Right? 06:20 And then the last few days of His life is John 12 to John 21. 06:23 Right? In other words the last few days 06:27 and even hours of the life of Jesus. 06:29 It's disproportionately weighted. 06:31 In the book of Genesis the reason that you have that 06:33 disproportion is that it's as if Moses is racing 06:37 to get to the point, right? To get to the main point 06:41 which is God's covenant with a man named Abraham. 06:45 He's just... There was creation, there was the flood, 06:47 there was the Tower of Babel. Chhew... Genesis chapter 12 06:50 we're at Abraham. Now before we get right into 06:54 the texts that talk about Abraham, there's a couple things 06:56 that we have to address here that are very important. 06:58 I hope we have nailed down firmly in the mind that Satan 07:03 the enemy's basic MO 07:05 is to undermine and to bring doubt into our mind 07:09 about the character of God. So far so good? 07:11 You remember the statement: "It is Satan's constant 07:13 effort to misrepresent the character of God. " 07:18 And then the statement went on to say 07:20 that he causes us... he seeks to cause us 07:23 to relate to God on the basis of fear and hate 07:27 rather than on the basis of love, and he paints 07:30 the picture of God with his own cruel character. 07:33 And we looked at instances of that. 07:35 Vignettes... Biblical vignettes of that 07:37 in the experience of Job, in the experience of even Eve 07:40 in Genesis 3 and also of the demoniacs in the Gadarenes. 07:44 And many other instances could be given. 07:46 I mean those are just real quick instances. 07:49 Basically our point here is that in seeking to undermine 07:52 the character of God, the trustworthiness of God, 07:54 the person of God, Satan has brought about 07:58 a climate - an environment - of distrust. 08:00 And in a climate and an environment of distrust 08:03 sin is the natural consequence. 08:05 Now just a quick word on this. 08:07 I want to talk to you just very briefly about 08:10 what C.S. Lewis calls "the eternal mystery. " 08:13 Right? "The eternal mystery of God. " 08:15 And I love this idea. He refers to it as 08:18 "the greatest miracle that God ever wrought. " 08:21 And I want to sort of enter into that with you here 08:23 for just a moment. The idea here is that God 08:27 is not ruling the universe 08:31 by the strength of His nature. 08:34 He could... because He has the resources of omnipotence 08:37 and power at His disposal He could... to use the very 08:41 picturesque words of Ellen White... He could destroy Satan 08:43 "as easily as a child casts a pebble to the ground. " 08:46 So we're not dealing with an issue of might or of strength 08:49 or of power here, right? And Lewis makes an amazing point - 08:52 what he calls "the greatest miracle of all miracles" - 08:55 is that God actually made a thing. He fashioned and formed 09:01 His creation but He invested it with the ability to resist 09:06 the Creator. Right? We call this free will 09:10 and it is the grand eternal mystery that the Creator would 09:14 create not just a widget, not just a robot, 09:16 not just a puppet, not just a marionette... 09:18 but He creates a will. 09:21 An actual being that possesses will and intelligence 09:24 and reasoning and volition. 09:26 And then He doesn't just provisionally give that over 09:29 and say "You can keep your free will as long as you continue 09:31 to make decisions that are in harmony with My will. " 09:33 He literally genuinely gives actual free will 09:38 to His creation. Lewis calls this 09:39 "the eternal mystery. " 09:40 The greatest of all miracles that the Creator 09:44 could be resisted by His creation. 09:47 Are you with me? Yes or no? 09:49 Well the moment that that resistance takes place, 09:51 the moment that that rebellion takes place, 09:53 the rebellion that we've been describing 09:54 where Lucifer - you know - suggested that he had access 09:57 to what was behind the veil so that he could go and say: 10:00 "Hey look, I know what you don't know. 10:01 I've had access. I'm concerned about what's back there. " 10:03 The moment that he begins his clandestine plan of undermining 10:08 and innuendo and subterfuge 10:09 God could solve this problem in just two moments. Right? 10:13 He could just give Satan a good whacking, 10:16 a good kicking, or He could just blink His eyes 10:19 and blink Lucifer out of existence. 10:20 Right? The whole thing could be instantaneously solved 10:25 just like that. Which raises the question: 10:28 why doesn't He do that? 10:29 Why doesn't He do that? 10:32 And part of the answer lies in this fact: 10:35 God - rather than overpowering His creation with the force 10:39 of His character and will - which incidentally would only be 10:41 to confirm the basic accusation of Lucifer - 10:43 Rather than winning... listen to this carefully... 10:46 rather than winning - or even winning is the wrong word - 10:49 rather than causing His creation to submit 10:54 based on the force or the strength of His nature - 10:57 He is God after all - 10:59 He will woo and win His creation back 11:03 on the beauty of His character. 11:07 See, God is powerful, but the kind of power that God exercises 11:13 is not a power that most of us would exercise 11:15 given the opportunity to do so. 11:17 He exercises what Shelley talked about the other day: 11:20 the power of love. 11:23 Rather than forcing back on the strength of His nature 11:27 He will woo His creation back by the beauty of His character. 11:32 So far so good? 11:33 Well that's not going to be an easy process. 11:36 It's going to be a painful... pain filled, suffering filled, 11:39 difficult, complex, circuitous process... 11:42 and it is the process in which we find ourselves now. 11:44 Now, speaking of Abram and getting up to Genesis chapter 12 11:49 we've got to mention a couple things here. 11:50 We often talk about the "sin problem" only in terms 11:55 of Genesis chapter 3. We've spent time on that. 11:57 We talked about shame and fear and hiding and covering 11:59 and blaming and all of that. 12:01 And essentially Genesis chapter 3 you could summarize 12:05 it - it would not be an over-simplification to say - 12:07 that the message of Genesis chapter 3 is man's 12:11 disloyalty to and severing from God. 12:15 Right? It's a vertical separation 12:17 where they chose to basically go their own way 12:19 and God essentially honored their choice. 12:22 But in those opening chapters, those quick 2,000 years of 12:26 human history - Genesis 1 to 11- 12:28 there is another sin problem. 12:30 And it's not just the sin problem of Genesis 3 that 12:33 God is setting out to bring healing and restoration to... 12:36 it's the sin problem of Genesis 11. 12:38 Now the sin problem of Genesis 11 12:40 and you tell me, Bible students, what happens in Genesis 11? 12:43 We've mentioned it a couple times. It's the Tower of Babel. 12:46 The sin problem in Genesis 11 is very interesting. 12:49 It says in Genesis chapter 11 you can read the first several 12:51 verses there - it says that all of the people were of one mind 12:56 and of one voice. And they basically said - 12:59 now listen to this, this is very interesting - 13:01 They said: "Let us make a name for ourself. " 13:06 Right? So they were unified. 13:08 And we think: "Oh, unity is a good thing, right? " 13:10 Depends on what you're unified on. 13:12 Here we have a profound unity. 13:14 A unity that is so profound and so thorough going 13:17 that God Himself has to come down and personally 13:20 investigate and interrupt the unity that had become 13:24 so... that had so galvanized humanity. 13:26 But notice that it was a unity built around making a name 13:30 for ourself. It was a unity based on self-preservation 13:33 and selfishness. So far so good? 13:36 So look at what God does. 13:37 God confuses their languages 13:40 and thus effectively separates or fractures 13:45 the various groups of humanity all over the earth. 13:50 You with me? 13:51 So in Genesis 1 to 11 basically Moses paints the picture 13:54 like this: you have two major problems. Number one: 13:57 a personal severing from God which is largely the problem 14:01 of Genesis chapter 3... a turning away from God. 14:04 Then you have the problem of Genesis chapter 11 14:06 which is humanity being separated from their own 14:10 communities and from themselves. 14:11 And so we make all kinds of divisions now. 14:13 We say: "Oh, those people live on that side of the mountain 14:15 but we live on this side of the mountain. " 14:17 "Those people have black skin; these people have white skin. " 14:20 "Those people live on that side of the river; 14:22 these people live on this side of the river. " 14:24 And all of a sudden you have these linguistic, social, 14:27 racial, geographical distinctions between people 14:31 and millions... no... perhaps hundreds of millions 14:34 or more have been killed. People have been killed 14:37 on the basis of these distinctions, these arbitrary 14:40 lines that are drawn between God's children. 14:44 You with me? Yes or no? 14:45 The whole world is a mess! 14:47 It's a complete mess, right? 14:49 People elevating themselves and thus devaluing others 14:53 on the basis of foolish things like skin color or height 14:58 or language or even religion. 15:02 Right? This is the world in which we live. 15:05 It is a fractured, fragmented humanity 15:08 and that is the sin problem of Genesis chapter 11. 15:10 Now I don't have time to go into this in too much detail 15:12 but let me just say this... very interesting: 15:14 after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus 15:17 when the Holy Spirit is poured out on the Day of Pentecost 15:20 God starts reversing the curse. 15:24 Now watch what He does. 15:25 In Acts chapter 2 when the Holy Spirit is poured out 15:30 it says they were all "in one accord in one place. " 15:34 Now don't miss that. You have a profound unity 15:37 in Genesis 11, but it's a unity for self. 15:39 And you have a profound unity in Acts chapter 2 15:42 where they wanted to make a name for ourselves. 15:45 The church in Acts chapter 2 says "We want to make a name 15:47 for God on earth. " And you know what God does? 15:50 He brings the languages back together in Christ. 15:55 Oh, this is a profound point. And by the way, 15:58 it's the very point that Luke is making in the book of Acts. 16:00 Because what happens is this thing that started off 16:03 in Abraham... that started off as a very Jewish thing... 16:06 and this is the tension of the book of Acts: 16:08 Jewish scriptures and a Jewish Messiah and a Jewish economy 16:12 and a Jewish legacy and a Jewish history. 16:14 How do you take that thing that is patently, thoroughly Jewish 16:17 and start translating it into the Gentile peoples 16:21 of the Mediterranean and beyond? 16:24 And they didn't always get it exactly right. 16:27 You know, you read the book of Acts and it's not as though 16:28 they just had everything figured out. They're sort of 16:30 stumbling and making a mistake. Backtracking a little bit here 16:34 then some advance. But the point of the book of Acts 16:36 is that God is reversing the curse not only of Genesis 3 16:41 and reuniting people with God but He's reversing 16:43 the curse of Genesis 11. 16:45 He is bringing people back together. Where the languages 16:48 had been confused because they tried to make a name 16:50 for themselves, the languages are now un-confused and there's 16:53 unity, there's connectivity. And the connectivity 16:56 is in Christ. Amen? So in restoring the covenant 17:01 which we talked about the family of God and the family of earth 17:06 having been broken, that relationship having been broken, 17:08 God is bringing families back together on earth 17:12 and He's also bringing His family back 17:15 to the family of man. 17:17 Which is why... which is why we can have Julia come here 17:20 and talk to us about Russia. I've not yet been to Russia. 17:23 I've not had that privilege, 17:24 but there are many places where I have been. 17:26 And I've traveled all over the world and I have seen 17:28 people with very different eating habits 17:32 and clothing habits and the way that they talk 17:36 and the way that they carry themselves and the places 17:38 in which they live. These are not my people. 17:41 Ah, but in Christ these ARE my people! 17:45 In fact, I had a privilege recently of being in the 17:47 Philippines and I stood up in front of 5 or 6 thousand 17:49 people. And I said: "Here is a profound gospel truth: 17:52 I am more connected with and more identified with 17:56 all of you people here... " Sabbath morning 17:59 thousands of them. I said: "You are more my people 18:02 than my fellow Americans are my people. " 18:05 Because I am an American and I was born here. 18:08 By the way, I've never understood the thing about 18:10 being proud of something you have no control over. 18:15 I just have to say that. People say: "Oh, I'm 18:18 proud to be black. " "I'm proud to be white. " 18:21 How pray tell? Was that a choice you made? 18:25 Now if you have done something and you have acquired something, 18:27 you did really good on a test or you... If there's something 18:30 that you have done... "Look at this car that I built. " 18:32 Well that's something to be proud of if it's something 18:33 you did. But you didn't choose to be born white and you didn't 18:36 choose to be born black and you probably didn't choose 18:39 to be born in the United States. 18:40 All of this - you know - balderdash about being prideful 18:44 of things that you have no control over: 18:46 away with it! 18:48 The thing that unites us and that binds us together... 18:51 And yes, I feel a tremendous solidarity with the 18:53 United States of America. I'm happy that I was born here 18:55 because of all the countries on earth - no offense to other 18:58 countries - I feel most ideologically identified with 19:01 the United States because I see it as the principles 19:04 of the United States growing out of what scripture says. 19:06 You with me on that? 19:08 And so that is a choice that I have made. 19:10 It's a choice that I have made. Sure, I was born here, 19:12 but I am happy now to be in this country where the 19:15 principles of religious liberty and civil liberty are at least 19:18 given lip service to and are part of our founding fathers' 19:20 legacy. So far so good? But here's the point: 19:23 my identity with my fellow Americans 19:26 is this big in my identification with them 19:29 compared to my identification with others who have put their 19:32 faith in God's Messiah Jesus. 19:34 So I can look at black-skinned people who don't even speak 19:36 my language and who don't live like I live, eat like I eat, 19:39 or act like I act and I can say "You are my people. " 19:42 And the linguistic barrier is a bit obnoxious 19:45 on this side of eternity, but God will sort all of that out. 19:48 And what He began to do in Acts chapter 2 19:50 with the bringing back together of the nations and the languages 19:52 He will finally and fully complete in the new heaven 19:56 and the new earth. 19:57 Yes, we are various citizens... We are citizens of our various 20:02 countries and nations and kingdoms. 20:04 I get that, but we are first and foremost 20:07 citizens of God's kingdom on earth. 20:10 This is the reversal of the curse. 20:12 Not only of my connection with God - the reversal of the curse 20:15 of Genesis chapter 3- but the reversal of the curse 20:17 of Genesis chapter 11 where God is bringing the nations 20:21 back together. What did He say there in Isaiah? 20:23 "My house will be called a house of prayer for all people. " 20:26 This is what I love about the Three Angels' Messages 20:28 because they're to every nation, kindred, tribe, 20:32 and language. This is not a little parochial message 20:36 to be guarded and kept away. 20:38 No! There is a universality in this message. 20:41 It is for everyone. The educated; the uneducated. 20:44 The black and the white. The male; the female. 20:46 It's for everyone. 20:48 Whooo! Can you say "Amen? " 20:50 Amen. So Genesis chapter 12 out of this quick 2,000 years 20:54 of history Moses gets right to Genesis 12. 20:58 He has a point to make; he races to Abraham 21:01 and here's why. I'll give you the punch line of the sermon 21:02 right up front so you know where we're going. 21:05 Because Biblically speaking there is not discontinuity 21:09 between the Old and the New Testaments. 21:10 There is a radical continuity. 21:12 And the continuity is built around God's covenant 21:15 with Abraham. God's covenant with Abraham 21:20 is... Let me say it this way: the covenant with Abraham 21:23 is God's answer to the sin of Adam. 21:27 Did you get that? 21:29 God's answer to the sin of Adam 21:32 is His covenant with Abraham. 21:35 The Abrahamic covenant becomes absolutely central 21:39 and normative for every- thing that God does on earth. 21:43 In fact, let me just show you that idea here. 21:44 Go to Genesis 6. Let's just talk briefly about Noah 21:48 because before we get to Abraham God makes a covenant 21:51 with Noah. Genesis chapter 6 and verse 18. 21:55 God says: "But I will establish My covenant 21:58 with you and you will go into the ark. You, your sons, 22:01 your wife, and your sons' wives with you. " 22:03 God establishes a covenant with Noah. 22:04 Incidentally, He had already established a covenant 22:07 which C.A. did a great job the other day of identifying 22:10 for us the legal stipulations and the non-elasticity 22:14 that's contained in an agreed-upon covenant. 22:17 Even though the language is not used, God had a covenant 22:20 relationship with Adam and Eve. Yes or no? 22:22 Yeah. The covenant basically went something like this: 22:25 "I am your Father; you are My children. 22:28 You can eat of every tree. Be fruitful and multiply. 22:30 Have a great time, just don't eat of that tree. " 22:33 So far so good? 22:34 It was a covenant in a sense based on faith. 22:37 Faith in God's good will and in God's good character. 22:40 Not faith in the righteousness of Christ... 22:43 that was not yet necessary. 22:44 But faith in God's good will and in God's good character. 22:47 There's reasons for you not to eat of that tree. 22:50 And so in this covenantal relation God trusts 22:54 Adam and Eve. Whooo! He did what? 22:56 He trusts Adam and Eve. And Adam and Eve... 22:59 what did they do to God? 23:01 They trusted God, and that's what we've already said. 23:03 All relationships are built on time and trust. 23:05 Time and trust. Time and trust. 23:06 Yeah? Which is why the Sabbath is so significant. 23:08 We don't have time to develop that. 23:10 That's why the Sabbath becomes a sign of the covenant: 23:12 because it's time and trust. It's relational. 23:14 OK. And when you put the Sabbath back on the table of truth 23:18 and you preach the Sabbath like that: it's built around 23:20 time, it's built around trust, it's built around relationality 23:23 now you're preaching the Sabbath fully. 23:26 You're preaching the Sabbath as it was intended both 23:28 creationally and redemptively. Not just: it's Saturday 23:30 not Sunday. Now you're preaching the point! 23:34 OK... are you with me? And that's not this series... 23:36 that's another series. So God had a covenantal relation 23:40 with Adam and Adam broke the covenant. 23:42 So far so good? 23:44 Now again, the language... The word covenant isn't used 23:46 but it's patently a covenantal arrangement. 23:48 So now God does a really cool thing with Noah. 23:51 He basically hits control alt delete 23:53 on the hard drive. For those of you that are PC 23:55 users do you still have to do that? 23:58 Restart... restart the whole thing 24:01 and He does it in the flood. Now just very quickly here, 24:03 it's fascinating. When God had originally created 24:06 in Genesis chapter 2 it says: "In the beginning God created 24:08 the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form 24:09 and void and darkness was over the face of the deep. " 24:12 In other words, the earth was basically a watery mass. 24:15 We don't know how long the earth was in that watery, fluid 24:18 form, but it was basically a watery mass. 24:21 And God said: 'Let there be light and there was light. " 24:22 And then the next thing that God does is He creates a space 24:26 in the watery mass. And it says that He... 24:28 He made a firmament in the midst of the waters 24:31 and He divided the waters that were above the firmament 24:33 from the waters that were below the firmament 24:34 effectively creating an atmospheric space, OK? 24:38 And you can just imagine with your mind's eyes that it 24:40 was very much like my hands here. As it were, God 24:42 slid His hands into the watery mass and He separated 24:45 the waters above the firma- ment from the waters below. 24:48 So far so good? And that's how creation takes place. 24:52 God starts creating these spaces like a good painter 24:55 and many scholars have noted this: 24:56 that Genesis is basically a chiasm of God creating spaces 25:00 and filling spaces. 25:02 He creates a space here and then He's going to fill it 25:05 with the birds. He creates a space on the dry land: 25:07 He's going to fill it with the animals and the humans. 25:09 He creates a space in the watery depths 25:11 and He's going to fill it with the fish and the other 25:13 sea creatures. Incidentally, on the seventh day He then 25:15 creates a space in time. 25:18 Not a geographical, right... not a geographical space 25:23 He creates a space in time - a chronological space - 25:27 and then He fills it with Himself... with His presence 25:29 and invites us into a relationship with Him. 25:31 That's back on the Sabbath as it should be preached. 25:33 But now check this out: in Noah 25:36 when the Bible says that "God saw that the thoughts 25:38 of man were only evil continually... " 25:41 They had so completely severed themselves from God 25:43 and His will and His covenants 25:47 that God basically says "We're going to reverse 25:49 creation. " And what happens is it says that the windows of 25:54 the heavens were opened. 25:56 God removed as it were the upper hand 25:58 and the water begins to come down. 26:00 And then it says the fountains of the deep 26:02 burst forth and God removes this hand. 26:04 And the waters rush from below the crust of the earth 26:09 and the waters rush from above 26:11 and do you know what you have after the rain had come 26:14 forty days and forty nights? 26:15 You have a watery mass. 26:19 That's exactly what started in creation: a watery mass. 26:23 And God here now makes a watery mass and He's starting over. 26:27 And He starts over with His new man, and His new man's name: 26:30 Noah. Just as he had His first man with whom He had made 26:33 a covenant - Adam - and a watery mass had created a habitat 26:39 or an environment for him, 26:41 He now has a new watery mass and He has a new man 26:43 and the Bible calls him Noah. 26:45 And in Genesis chapter 9 verse 20, you can go look at it 26:47 yourself, it says - my Bible says, your Bible says probably: 26:50 "Noah was a farmer. " 26:54 But literally what it says in the Hebrew is: 26:56 "Noah was an earth man. " 26:59 Now you tell me: who was the first earth man? 27:03 Adam was made of the earth. 27:06 Noah is here made of the earth 27:09 and fascinatingly, the first command - the first outright 27:14 command that God gives to Adam and Eve 27:15 is... you should know this... He says to them: 27:19 "be fruitful and multiply. " 27:21 Guess what the first thing is that God says to Noah 27:24 after the flood waters have receded and now you have a 27:27 habitable earth again. What does He say to him? 27:29 "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. " 27:32 Same command. So you have all of these scholarly... 27:35 many scholars have looked at these various parallels 27:37 that I don't have time to completely flush out here. 27:39 But God is re-starting. 27:41 He had His first man - Adam - that was an earth man 27:45 and then, by the way, he falls by illegitimately 27:48 partaking of the fruit of the garden. 27:50 Noah is disobedient to the covenant by illegitimately 27:53 partaking of the fruit of the vine in which he becomes drunk. 27:56 And there's all of these parallels here. 27:58 And it's as if again Moses is just like racing 28:03 through the story to get you to Abram. 28:06 God's covenant with Adam was established and was broken. 28:10 God's covenant with Noah was established and 28:13 partially kept in the sense that he built the ark 28:15 and God protected him. But in terms of Noah being 28:18 God's on-going man, that covenant was broken 28:21 when he partook illegitimately of the fruit of the vine. 28:24 So now you get to Genesis 12 28:26 and the rest of Genesis is weighted toward Abraham 28:30 and his family because God establishes a covenant 28:32 with Abram. Let's pick it up in Genesis 12 verse 1. 28:36 "Now the Lord had said to Abram: 'Get out of your country, 28:39 from your family, and from your father's house 28:41 to a land that I will show you. 28:42 I will make you a great nation. 28:44 I will bless you and make your name great 28:47 and you will be a blessing. I will bless those 28:49 who bless you and I will curse those who curse you 28:51 and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. ' " 28:54 Now people have noted the various elements of this 28:56 covenant relation. You get the land; 28:58 you get the covenant; and you get to bless. 29:01 But here's a fascinating thing. Notice that the whole 29:04 covenant is built around a bunch of stuff that God 29:07 is going to do. That's the first thing that must jump out at you 29:12 when you read this arrangement that God has with Abraham. 29:14 He basically says: "Abraham, I need you to get out of your 29:17 country and from your father's house because 29:20 I need you in your own place. 29:22 I need to start with a tabula rasa... a clean slate. 29:25 He tried it with Adam; He tried it with Noah. 29:27 And He says: "I need you in a new place because... " 29:29 now watch this... "I am going to do this and then I'm going to 29:31 do this and I'm going to do this 29:33 and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this 29:35 and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do THIS! " 29:37 In other words, it's inescapable that the covenant that God made 29:42 with Abraham was based not on Abraham's promises 29:46 to God but God's promises to Abraham. 29:51 That's the point and that's the gospel! 29:54 Oh... that's the gospel right there. 29:56 If all we had was Genesis 12:1-3 we'd have enough. 29:59 Plenty enough that the heart and soul and guts of the gospel 30:03 is not about those ridiculous 30:07 and non-strong and weak promises that you make to God. 30:13 It's the promise that God has made to you 30:15 and your responsibility is to believe it. Amen! 30:20 You believe it! 30:22 Yes sir... that's all right. Now check this out: 30:25 he begins to believe the promises of God 30:29 and Abraham - more than Adam, more than Noah - 30:32 latches on to this basic truth of the covenants: 30:36 that God is the One who will make the promises 30:39 and He is the One who will keep the promises. 30:42 Oh, let's say that. God is the One who will 30:45 make the promises and He is the One who will 30:48 keep the promises. 30:49 And all of the New Testament writers - Paul in particular - 30:52 pick up on this. They basically say 30:54 just universally in the New Testament that the reason 30:57 the Abrahamic covenant is so normative for the Old Testament 31:00 and the New is that Abraham believed God 31:05 and it was accounted to him for righteousness. 31:08 He believed! 31:11 The heart and soul... I'm going to say it again... 31:12 the guts of the gospel is not about the promises 31:15 that you made to God. 31:16 And all of us have made promises to God that we have 31:18 subsequently broken... usually within moments 31:21 but sometimes we make it a few days or even weeks. 31:23 But... and here's the point... God has extended Himself 31:27 in covenant, God has extended Himself in promise, 31:30 and He's never broken a single promise that He makes. Amen! 31:35 Now... Genesis 15. 31:38 Genesis 15 gets to the kind of heart of the covenant 31:41 language. We'll pick it up in verse 18. 31:43 Genesis 15 and verse 18. 31:45 There's the covenant language then we'll go back. 31:48 "On the same day the Lord made a covenant... " 31:52 I'm in Genesis 15:18. "On the same day the Lord made 31:54 a covenant with Abram saying: 31:56 'To your descendants I have given this land 31:59 from the river of Egypt to the great river - 32:00 the river Euphrates - the land of the Kenites, 32:02 the Kenizzites, Kadmonites, the Hittites, Perizzites, 32:04 Rephaites, the Amonites, and the Canaanites, 32:06 the Girgashites and the Jebusites. ' " 32:08 He makes a covenant with Abram. 32:10 I keep saying Abram and Abraham interchangeably. 32:11 You'll forgive me for my imprecision there. 32:13 We know who we're talking about, right? 32:16 Now in making this covenant a very interesting thing happened. 32:20 God essentially says that 'You will have a child... 32:24 you will have descendants. " 32:25 Well that's going to be problematic because Abraham 32:26 at this point is an old man and he doesn't have children. 32:28 Right? And so he sets out to keep God's promises. 32:34 Whoo... did you hear that? 32:35 He sets out to keep... because he's an old man 32:37 and Sarah is old. And after He had made the initial promise 32:40 back in Genesis chapter 12 a number of years have gone by 32:43 now and he still has no descendants. 32:45 He still has no evidentiary indication 32:49 that God is going to keep His promise. 32:50 And so like we are inclined to do - just like Adam and Eve - 32:55 right? Rather than waiting for the covering of God to come 32:58 and the good news of God to come they tried to make their 33:00 own good news and cover themselves. 33:01 Right? And so in a natural state of self-dependence 33:05 and self-reliance, he submits to Sarah's suggestion - 33:10 which he obviously was complicit in - 33:12 he may have even been a kind of initiator in it, we don't have 33:15 all the details here... but he agrees to take Hagar. 33:18 Right? And that's Genesis 16 by the way. 33:21 So Genesis 12 to 15 God establishes His covenant. 33:25 It's a covenant based on faith and it's a covenant 33:26 based on the literal genealogical descendants of 33:29 Abraham, then Genesis 16 is Abraham trying to keep 33:34 God's part of the promise. 33:36 Now this is where things get really interesting 33:38 and I don't mean to be indelicate or non-decorous here 33:40 but I do need to just tell you what scripture says. 33:42 In Genesis 17 God gives what the Bible calls 33:46 "the sign of the covenant. " 33:49 And the sign of the covenant is circumcision. 33:52 Now we're going to spend just a moment on circumcision. 33:54 Here's the point: God basically shows up to Abraham 33:56 and says: "You're going to have a son. Sarah will bear a child 34:02 and you will get the land, you will get the descendants, 34:05 you will... " And he says: "Oh Lord! " 34:07 Abram says: "Let Ishmael live before You... 34:10 my son. " 34:12 And God says: "Well, it is true. 34:14 He is your son, but he's not the promised son. " 34:18 Right? "That's your son, and as such I will treat him 34:23 fairly and kindly and magnanimously 34:26 because that's in keeping with My character. But he's not 34:27 the promised son. " And you will forgive my indelicacy here 34:31 God essentially says "Here is the sign of My covenant 34:35 with you: you will circumcise your foreskin - 34:39 the foreskin of your flesh. " 34:41 Now, basically what He's saying here 34:43 is: "You tried to solve the problem of a descendant, 34:48 you tried to keep the covenant by resorting 34:51 to your own masculinity, your own power, 34:55 and your own ingenuity. " And so God essentially says 34:58 symbolically: "We're going to cut the tip of that thing off" 35:02 Are you with me? 35:05 "We're going to cut the tip of that thing off and I'll STILL 35:09 fulfill My promise to you. " 35:10 Whoa... I mean, what a strange thing for God to say! 35:14 I mean, circumcision is a weird thing. You just have to 35:18 be straight up about it. I mean, it's like 35:20 whaa... where did that come from? 35:23 Right? I mean, you wouldn't just invent that. 35:26 "Hey, let's start cutting stuff off and let's start there. " 35:30 You wouldn't do that. 35:32 Now many of you are sitting there thinking 35:34 "Well, you know... of course, circumcision. " 35:37 But it's because of our own familiarity with it 35:40 that we've just grown accustomed to something 35:41 that's actually kind of strange. 35:44 Yes or no? The Romans regarded... 35:46 This is one of the major reasons that there was disconnect... 35:49 Not one of the major... one of the many reasons 35:51 that there was disconnect between the Romans and the Jews 35:54 because they regarded the practice of circumcision 35:56 as roundly primitive and superstitious. 36:00 "What is that? " Right? 36:02 But the theological reasoning behind it 36:05 is that God establishes His covenant, 36:07 He says: "I will keep My promises to you. " 36:09 Abraham grows impatient with God's timing. 36:11 Whoo... you heard that, didn't you? 36:13 He grows impatient with God's timing and so he decides 36:16 to do for God what God said He would do for Abraham. 36:21 Right? And God says: "Let me give you a sign. 36:23 And it will be not just a sign for you because I know all your 36:25 descendants are going to be prone to that same inclination 36:28 and that is to try and do for God what God said He would do 36:31 for you. We'll snip that thing off 36:33 as a perpetual sign... 36:36 as a sign that the gospel is not about the promises 36:40 that you made to Me... it's about the promises 36:42 I made to you. And I'll keep My promises. " 36:44 That's circumcision. By the way, when Paul gets to 36:47 the New Testament and the Jews had taken - 36:49 not all of the Jews but many of the Jews of 1st century 36:52 Judaism - had taken and they had actually made - 36:55 and this is one of the most astonishing ironies in all 36:57 of scripture - they had taken circumcision and they had 37:00 turned it into a rite of initiation that was a kind of 37:05 I wouldn't say meritorious 37:07 but it was certainly a symbol of their national 37:11 ethnic identity. 37:13 Right? And this is one of the major things 37:16 which is why you have so much controversy in the New Testament 37:17 over circumcision because "Do you circumcise the Gentiles? " 37:20 Paul say: "I don't think so. 37:21 Now that's going to be a tough sell. " 37:24 Right? And then even later Paul has the audacity to say 37:28 "Even the Jews don't have to be circumcised. ' 37:30 And here's one of the great ironies in scripture: 37:32 and that is that the very symbol that was a symbol of 37:35 righteousness by trusting in the faithfulness of God 37:38 had become a symbol of our own righteousness and identity. 37:42 And so Paul has to make this fantastic argument in the book 37:45 of Romans where he says: "Why don't you remind me... " 37:47 writing to his Jewish readers and listeners... 37:51 "Why don't you remind me: did God make His promise 37:53 and covenant with Abraham before or after he was 37:56 circumcised? " 37:59 You tell me: what's the answer to that question? 38:01 Before! Circumcision was almost punitive 38:04 as a reminder... a reminder, a continual reminder 38:08 that the heart and guts of the covenant 38:10 is God's promises to you 38:12 and your response is to believe. 38:14 And Abraham got it mostly right. 38:17 He got it what did I say? Mostly right... 38:20 which is why the New Testament picks up on Abraham. 38:23 Abraham, Abraham, Abraham, Abraham. 38:25 Because he believed God. 38:26 Now did he always get it exactly right? No. 38:28 He said: "Sarah is my sister. " 38:30 Not only once... he said it a second time. 38:31 And so we see Abraham as a pretty good example 38:35 of headed generally in the right direction 38:37 but sometimes stumbling, sometimes fumbling, 38:39 and sometimes not getting it exactly right. 38:41 Exactly the kind of hero we need, by the way. 38:44 Did you get that? 38:46 Someone who is like us who we can relate to. 38:49 We can say: "Yeah, that's what it looks like. " 38:51 Now, the descendants of Abram - 38:54 Abraham - to fast forward - end up in Egyptian captivity 38:57 and that's a story that you know. 38:59 Exodus 2 has God saying a very interesting thing. 39:01 I think it's to Moses. He says... Or actually, Moses is 39:04 just writing it and he says I think it's Exodus 2:24 39:07 "God remembered His covenant that He had made with Abraham 39:11 and his descendants. " Hooo! 39:13 He remembers the what? 39:16 The covenant. He remembers the agreement. 39:19 And so God essentially says to Moses when He meets him 39:22 at the burning bush: "Go tell Pharaoh to let My son go. " 39:26 "To let My firstborn go. " 39:29 Right? Now check this out... we've already mentioned this. 39:32 When Jesus comes, He's repeat- edly referred to in scripture as 39:35 the Son of God. He's also called the Son of Man... 39:38 but the Son of God. And there are two primary 39:40 figures in scripture that were the Son of God. 39:42 We've mentioned these. 39:43 Who was the first one? Adam is the son of God. 39:46 And so when Jesus comes He's basically... when He 39:48 announces Himself as the Son of God He says: "I'm coming 39:50 to undo what Adam did. " 39:52 OK? And who was the other? We just mentioned it. 39:55 Who was the other one? It's Israel. 39:57 So Adam and Israel are the son of God 39:59 and the gospel writers and the New Testament writers 40:01 paint in a marvelous theological fashion 40:04 Jesus as the true Adam and as the true Israel. 40:09 Yeah? So God establishes His covenant with the descendants 40:13 of Abram. And we could go into that. 40:14 We could talk about and maybe we should just talk a moment 40:16 about it... the ratification of that covenant took place 40:19 with blood. You can read this in Exodus 19 down to verse 24. 40:24 And it's very interesting. In fact, take a look at 40:25 Exodus 34 which is very interesting. 40:28 Exodus 34. As this covenant is being re-communicated... 40:33 not re-established but re-communicated 40:36 to the descendants of Abraham that had frankly forgotten it 40:40 Exodus... what chapter did I say? 40:41 That's right... and verse 28. 40:44 "So he... " speaking of Moses "was there with the Lord 40:47 forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor 40:50 drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words 40:52 of the covenant: the Ten Commandments. " 40:57 Now this is where things get amazing. 40:59 They have already been amazing. Now they're getting even more 41:01 amazing. God basically says "Build Me a house. " 41:03 I'm going to teach you this. Some of you are visual learners. 41:06 Some of you are auditory learners. 41:07 I'm going to give you not only the words - the auricle - 41:10 I'll give you a depiction of how this is going to work. 41:12 "Build Me a house, and the house will have 3 compartments. 41:15 It will have a courtyard, a holy place, and a most holy place. 41:17 And these will be the various ceremonies and other details 41:20 surrounding the sanctuary. " I'm reading a book right now 41:22 by Roy Gane that's just blowing my mind on the details 41:26 and idiosyncrasies... particu- larly on the Day of Atonement. 41:28 By the way, it's a great book. It's called Cult and Character. 41:31 Highly recommend it... Cult and Character. 41:33 So anyway, basically you have the courtyard, 41:36 holy place, most holy place. 41:39 And God says: "Build a box... " 41:42 Build a what? A box! 41:46 "and overlay it with gold as a symbol of value 41:49 and of importance and of beauty. 41:52 And build this box and put the tablet - 41:56 the contract of the covenant - inside of the box. 42:00 Put a lid over it - the mercy seat - 42:02 and I will dwell there. " It's as if God is saying... 42:05 Not as if, God IS saying 42:07 "I will reside in My place, in My most holy place 42:11 and I will stand on... I will sit on the terms of the covenant 42:16 waiting for you to come into My presence. 42:19 I am here where I have always been. " 42:22 And this was the most holy place. 42:24 And the most holy place was just exactly what it sounds like 42:27 the most holy place. But inside of the most holy place 42:30 the singular piece of furniture there was a box. 42:32 And what made the box so important - the ark of the 42:34 covenant - was what was in there. 42:36 And what was in there was the terms of the relational 42:39 connection of the family of God. 42:41 Not a mere list of rules. 42:43 Shame on you for having ever thought of the Ten Commandments 42:46 as that, and shame on me for doing the same! 42:49 The Ten Commandments are so much more than a list of prohibitions 42:53 you can't, you can't, you won't, you won't, 42:54 you aren't allowed to, you aren't allowed to. 42:56 Oh no, no, no. These are the encapsulization 43:00 of the whole law that defines and prescribes 43:05 and protects a holy relationship. 43:10 We know this because when Jesus was asked in the New Testament 43:13 "All right, Jesus, what are the great commandments in all the 43:15 law? I mean, there are hundreds of them. 43:16 What's the most important? " He's like: "Oh, 43:19 so glad you asked. 43:21 The great commandment in the law 43:24 is to love the Lord... " What a funny thing to say! 43:29 "What's the most important rule? " 43:32 And Jesus says: "to love. " 43:37 Since when is love a rule? 43:40 Since when is love a commandment? 43:42 It's... and this is another great book that you should read 43:44 if you've not yet read it... It's called: The Lost Meaning 43:47 of the Seventh Day by Dr. Sigve Tonstad. 43:49 This book is marvelous: 43:50 The Lost Meaning of the Seventh Day. 43:51 And in there Dr. Tonstad - published by Andrews University 43:54 Press - in there Dr. Tonstad calls the Sabbath - 43:56 ooh, I love this - he calls the Sabbath 43:59 "the reluctant commandment. " 44:03 Right? It's the reluctant commandment because 44:06 it's a little problematic to command someone to 44:09 spend relational time with Me in intimacy. 44:12 Right? So is it a commandment? Yes or no? 44:15 Yes, but it's the reluctant commandment. 44:16 And all of the Ten Commandments are reluctantly prohibitive. 44:20 In fact, in their original language 44:21 they're not "you shall not; you shall not; 44:25 you shall not. " A better rendition is: 44:27 "You will not. " 44:29 Now we're getting somewhere. 44:31 Not prohibitions but promises. 44:34 "You will not have other gods before Me. " 44:36 "Really God? You can enable me? " "You won't. " 44:38 "And you will not take My name in vain. " 44:40 "Really God? You can do that in me? " 44:41 "I can do that... you won't and you will not commit adultery. " 44:46 "Really? You can do that even in me? " 44:47 These are promises. This is exactly why Ellen White 44:49 says, and she was profoundly insightful in her 44:51 basic exegesis. She said: "All of His biddings are... " 44:54 Do you know this? "enablings. " That's just another way 44:57 of saying: "The Ten Commandments are not primarily prohibitory 45:00 they're promises... they're promissory. " 45:03 And God puts them in that little box and He says: 45:05 "This is the guts; this is the covenant; 45:08 this is what it's about. " And so when Jesus was asked 45:10 "What's it all about? What's the great commandment? " 45:11 He said: "Oh, that's an easy one. You will love the Lord 45:16 your God. " And listen to this language; it's borderline 45:18 romantic: "with all of your heart, with all of your mind, 45:21 and all of your soul. " You could render that that: 45:23 "You will fall in love with who I am. " 45:26 Again, an interesting command- ment; a reluctant commandment 45:29 but a commandment nonetheless. 45:30 "And the second one is like it: 45:32 you will love your neighbor as yourself. " 45:35 And right here we have in embryonic form 45:38 the essence of the covenants: 45:42 supreme love for God and authentic love for mankind. 45:46 So far so good? By the way, this solves the problem of 45:49 Genesis 3 and this solves the problem of Genesis 11. 45:53 Oh... you get that? 45:55 Genesis 3: reconnected with God in love and intimacy 45:58 and trust. Trust! 46:00 And solving the problem of Genesis 11 which is being cut 46:03 off. "Oh, you're black, you're white. You're male; 46:06 you're female; you're slave; you're free; 46:09 you're educated; you're un-educated; 46:10 you're Russian; you're American. " 46:12 He's: "No, away with this! Away with it! " 46:15 In fact, oh man, I don't have time but even there there was 46:19 a parochial sense in Jesus' day about: "I am loving my 46:21 neighbor, and my neighbor is my people... the people 46:24 I live next door to. " And Jesus said: "Let Me tell you 46:25 a story about a Good Samaritan. " 46:27 He takes the whole thing... He takes the apple cart 46:30 and He just turns it over and all the apples go everywhere. 46:33 "Yeah, there was this guy and he'd fallen down 46:34 among thieves and a Levite walked by... " 46:37 Hmmm, a Levite walked by... "and a priest walked by... " 46:39 Hmmm, a priest walked... "and then a Samaritan came 46:41 and took care of him and healed up his wounds 46:45 and put him on his horse and took him to the inn 46:46 and paid for him. Now which one of these guys 46:48 is the neighbor? " And they were stuck 46:50 because their parochial little view of what it meant to 46:53 really love humanity had just been overturned. 46:56 He was basically saying "All of these regional, 46:59 racial, religious distinctions that you are making between 47:03 you and other people... AWAY WITH IT! " 47:06 We are not only solving the problem of Genesis 3 47:09 which is love between God and man, 47:10 the covenant solves the problem between people groups 47:15 on earth: black and white and yellow 47:19 and red and all of the different... male and female. 47:24 God said: "Put that in the most holy place. " 47:26 And so what we have here is a picture; it's a drama. 47:30 Some of us are verbal learners 47:34 and others are more visual learners. 47:36 And God gives a play basically - a divine play - 47:39 that happened 359 days out of a Jewish year. 47:41 And then on that 10th day of the 7th month the high priest 47:43 this is not this series but the point is he goes in to the 47:47 most holy place, into communion, into at-one-ment 47:50 with God. And that at-one-ment, that love... 47:54 That what? Love. That love and that appreciation 47:58 and that trust is founded on this right here: 48:01 "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, 48:03 and soul... " 1, 2, 3, 4 commandments... 48:05 and love your neighbor as yourself... " 48:07 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 commandments... 48:10 And that right there is the heart and soul 48:13 of the covenant. So far so good? 48:15 Except the rest of the New Testament is basically - 48:18 Old Testament rather - is basically an uninterrupted 48:21 history of breaking the covenant. 48:28 God extends His covenant hand to Adam 48:31 and Adam breaks the covenant. 48:34 God extends His covenantal hand to Noah. 48:36 Noah keeps part, breaks most of the covenant. 48:39 God extends His covenantal hand to Abram 48:41 and Abraham gets the basic idea. 48:44 "Wait a minute. God's making me a lot of promises 48:47 And God's God and He's awesome and He's big and He's gracious. 48:51 I believe Him! " Amen. 48:53 And God just: "That's it! That's exactly it. 48:56 That's it; that's it; that's it! 48:58 You believe. I will do and I will and I will 49:00 and I will and I'm going to do this and it's going to be 49:01 awesome. I'm going to do this! " 49:04 And Abram said: "Yeah, He is going to do this. " 49:06 And he waits a few years and it doesn't happen 49:07 so he sort of goes the Hagar route. And God says 49:10 "We need a reminder about this. " 49:15 You with me? "We need a reminder about that 49:18 so that for every generation - generation to generation 49:21 to generation - there would be a reminder 49:22 that the essence of the covenant is not about what I do 49:26 to fulfill my promises to God. It's about what God has done 49:28 to fulfill His promises to me. 49:30 Amen. So far so good? 49:31 And yet, you read the Old Testament 49:34 broken covenant after broken covenant after broken covenant 49:37 God extended His hand. 49:39 Don't get me wrong. There were some that were faithful 49:41 for a time. There were some that got it 49:43 but on the whole Israel and later Judah 49:46 broken covenant. So much so that when we get to 49:49 the book of Daniel... Right, we've just fast-forwarded 49:51 through huge amounts of history here... 49:54 when we get to the book of Daniel, Daniel is on his knees. 49:56 Daniel 9... check it out. 49:58 And he's praying this prayer because... man... 50:03 the Bible is such an intertwined tapestry of truth 50:06 that you can't talk about one thing without talking about 50:08 another. And the difficulty with a preacher... 50:11 the problem that a preacher faces... 50:13 is to keep the line of reasoning without talking about everything 50:16 that could possibly be talked about. 50:17 And I mostly fail, but today I'm going to try and succeed. 50:22 Here's Daniel and you have the exile. 50:26 The Israelites have not been "punished" by God 50:30 so much as God has honored their choice 50:31 to live apart from Him. Did you get that? 50:35 By the way, I run a school. The school is called ARISE. 50:37 I run it with James and Ty and Jeffrey. 50:39 And the school that we run... over the years we've 50:41 had hundreds of students come. And occasionally - 50:44 very occasionally - we have to kick a student out. 50:48 The thing is that we don't kick them out. 50:50 Never... never. 50:52 We've had hundreds of students; we've had maybe eight 50:54 that have had to leave. And when we sit down with them 50:56 they say: "Oh, I'm real sorry, " you know, or whatever it might 50:58 be. "I hope you're not going to kick me out. " 51:00 And we say: "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Slow down there 51:01 partner. We're not kicking you out. " 51:04 "Whoo... good. " 51:05 We say: "We are simply honoring your choice to leave. 51:14 We're certainly not kicking you out. We wanted you to come. 51:16 We invited you to be here; we accepted your application. 51:19 We are glad you're here. We're not kicking you out 51:23 as if the initiation is on our part. 51:26 We are honoring your choice to leave. 51:28 You have made decision after decision after decision. 51:30 We have spoken with you; we have spoken with you; we have spoken 51:31 with you and we now are forced to honor your choice 51:35 to not want to stay here. " 51:38 "No, no, no, no... I want to stay. 51:40 I want to stay. " But at that point we have to say 51:41 "Hey look. Actions speak louder than words 51:44 and you're welcome to come back next year. " Which by the 51:45 way is a standing policy at ARISE. If you are... 51:47 If we honor your choice to leave this year, 51:49 you are welcome to come back the next year for free. 51:51 That's pretty gracious of us, isn't it? 51:53 "You can come back. You go back; you sort things out, 51:55 you get all those details. We'll have you back for free 51:57 because we want you here. But this year we've got to honor 52:00 your choice to leave. " That's what God did with 52:02 Israel and with Judah. He said: "Look... what can I do? " 52:05 You see a little picture of this when Jesus, with great 52:08 lamentation and pathos, in Matthew 23 says: 52:11 "Ah Jerusalem, Jerusalem. 52:12 How often I wanted to gather you together 52:15 as a hen gathers her chicks but you wouldn't let Me. 52:18 What more, pray tell, can I do? " 52:21 And much of the history of the Old Testament is 52:24 the descendants of Abraham in unfaithfulness to the covenant 52:27 keeping themselves further and further and further 52:30 outside of God's protective parameters. 52:32 And finally God says: "OK, but what can I do? 52:34 What can I do? An army will come 52:37 from the north and it will be terrible. " 52:39 And Daniel was in the thick of that. And here's Daniel 52:42 in Daniel chapter 9 praying one of the most 52:44 emotive prayers in all of scripture. 52:46 Perhaps THE most emotive prayer. 52:48 And look at the very first thing he said: 52:52 Daniel chapter 9 verse 4. 52:54 "I prayed to the Lord my God and made confession 52:57 and I said: 'Oh Lord, great and awesome God... ' 53:01 OK, that's the introduction... 53:03 'who... ' What does He do? 53:07 What does the great and awesome God do? 53:09 'who keeps His covenants. ' " 53:14 And then he goes on to say: "We have sinned; 53:16 we have failed; we have fallen; we have not... " 53:19 So what you have here is just as C.A. communicated 53:22 the other day a covenant takes two. 53:24 And God extended His hand in covenant faithfulness 53:27 to Adam: rejected. 53:29 Extended His hand in covenant faithfulness to Noah: 53:31 largely rejected. Extended His hand in covenant 53:32 faithfulness to the descendants of Abraham 53:34 over and over and over and over and over 53:37 and over and over again... so much so that Daniel 53:40 cries out to God and he says: "Oh God, here we are in 53:43 the midst of the 70 years that You had promised. 53:46 The great army from the north has come. 53:48 You have honored our decision to separate ourselves from You. 53:50 You keep the covenant 53:54 but we have sinned... we have sinned. " 53:57 And whoo, Daniel doesn't leave us hanging. 53:59 Because just two chapters later in Daniel chapter 11 54:03 there's this promise. And I do not pretend to understand 54:05 Daniel chapter 11 very well, but I understand 54:07 the main parts of it. 54:10 My friend James Rafferty knows more about Daniel 11 54:12 than I know about anything. 54:13 And look at what it says right here in the heart of 54:16 Daniel chapter 11 verse 22: 54:19 "With the force of a flood they will be swept away 54:22 from before him and be broken. And also the prince 54:26 of the covenant. " 54:29 Daniel is built on the edifice of the covenant. 54:32 In fact, many of you would be familiar. John Dinzey just 54:34 preached the other morning about the 70 weeks. 54:37 "Seventy weeks are determined upon your people 54:39 to... " And it says: "He will establish His covenant. " 54:46 And here's one of the coolest verses on this. 54:48 It's in Isaiah 42. Check this out. 54:52 And we are perfectly set up for our last presentation. 54:54 Check this out. 54:56 Isaiah 42. We all there? 55:00 This is one of the Messianic promises... 55:02 one of the Messianic prophecies about the Messiah 55:04 who would come. This is so awesome. 55:07 Verse 5. Isaiah 42 verse 5. 55:09 I want everybody there. You've got to see this. 55:11 By the way, Will... get ready with that last slide. 55:13 I need that last slide. 55:15 The next slide. Verse 5... look at this: 55:17 "Thus says God the Lord who created the heavens. 55:20 Who stretched them out. Who spread forth the earth 55:23 and that which comes from it. 55:24 Who gives breath to the people on it 55:26 and spirit to those who walk on it. " That's creation. 55:30 Verse 6: "I the Lord have called you in righteousness. 55:34 I will hold your hand. I will keep you 55:36 and give you... " Now this was Israel the servant 55:40 but it later becomes Jesus the Messiah, who 55:42 was the true Israel... "I will give you as a covenant 55:46 to the people, as a light to the Gentiles. " 55:50 What? The Messiah comes not merely to keep covenant with 55:55 God but God here in prophecy says: "The Messiah 56:01 IS the covenant. " 56:03 Well how so? 56:04 Because He lived in perfect relational integrity before 56:07 His Father. "I do always those things that please Him. " 56:09 And He lived in perfect harmonious love 56:11 before His fellow man. 56:13 Failure failure failure failure failure failure failure failure 56:16 failure... And here the promise is: 56:19 "Someone will come. Someone will come... 56:22 and it will be a descendant of Abraham 56:25 and He will keep covenant with God. " 56:29 Look at the statement that we've got right here. 56:31 We should have it up there, and if not I'll just read it 56:33 for you. 57:07 Friends, God has extended His hand in covenant 57:10 as God over and over again. 57:13 And in our last presentation 57:14 we'll see that He Himself has kept covenant as man. |
Revised 2014-12-17