Participants:
Series Code: LGS
Program Code: LGS019408A
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00:01 Hello, I'm Lyle Southwell.
00:02 And this is Let God Speak. 00:04 After they returned from Babylonian captivity, 00:07 the Jewish people renew their covenant 00:09 to faithfully followed God. 00:11 They signed a solemn written covenant 00:13 to be true and obedient. 00:15 In the scriptures today, 00:17 we will study the contents of this covenant 00:20 and the major covenants of the Bible. 00:48 On our panel today, we have David Currie 00:51 and Andrew Russell. 00:53 As we begin, let's bow for a moment of prayer. 00:57 Father in heaven, as we take up this most important subject 01:00 of the covenants that You have made with us. 01:02 We pray for the presence of Your Holy Spirit. 01:05 And may we experience Your covenant of grace today. 01:08 We ask in Jesus' name, amen. 01:10 Amen. 01:12 The Babylonian returnees experienced a deep revival 01:16 under Nehemiah and Ezra. 01:19 And at the conclusion of a long 01:20 and very heartfelt prayer by Ezra, 01:23 what did they do, Andrew? 01:26 Well, they made a covenant, 01:29 we'll read that in verse 38. 01:33 If we read verse 38, it says, "And because of all this 01:35 we make a sure covenant, and write it, 01:38 and our princes, Levites, and priests, 01:40 seal unto it." 01:42 So they actually wrote a covenant. 01:44 They wrote their covenant and then they signed 01:47 their names to that covenant. 01:48 Why did they do this? 01:50 It was a way of making a permanent record 01:54 for the nation of Israel, something that was cited, 01:57 something that was clearly stated 02:00 and could be remembered. 02:01 Okay, so this wasn't something that was incredibly unusual. 02:04 This is something that, you know, 02:06 God has made covenants with His people down 02:08 through history. 02:10 That's right. 02:11 What was the general nature 02:12 of a covenant in the Bible, David? 02:14 Yes. 02:15 Well, the covenant is mentioned many times 02:17 and most of the covenants are made between equals, 02:20 but the covenant we wanna talk about today 02:24 is an everlasting covenant that God Himself initiated. 02:28 And He expected people to walk into the way of that covenant, 02:33 and to keep the covenant. 02:35 And God pledges to care for His people 02:37 when they didn't keep the covenant 02:39 and the covenant that He made with them, 02:42 established families, it helped them 02:44 to give work opportunities 02:46 and apart from anything else 02:48 and help them able to worship the true God. 02:51 Okay, so we call this the everlasting covenant, 02:53 but when was it that God actually started 02:56 making covenants with His people? 02:58 How far back does this go? 02:59 Well, you know, we go to Hosea 6:7. 03:02 And there we see that Hosea says that 03:06 God made a covenant with Adam. 03:08 So... That's a long way back. 03:10 Right at the beginning. 03:11 Right at the very beginning. 03:12 And, of course, this was a very significant nature 03:16 because they were told to multiply, 03:19 they were told to eat, and what they should eat? 03:21 They're told to work, to cultivate the fields, 03:24 and worship God. 03:25 All that in Genesis 1 and 2. 03:27 And this was a covenant that was made 03:31 before sin came into this world. 03:33 Absolutely. 03:34 It came with Adam right at the very beginning, 03:36 and this was quite significant. 03:38 Okay, so covenants are obviously something that 03:40 are integral to God's relationship with us. 03:43 God repeats a lot of this to Noah. 03:46 Andrew, can you share a little bit about that? 03:48 Yeah. 03:49 Well, just referring to that covenant 03:51 that God made with Adam in the very beginning, 03:53 it talks about their multiplying 03:56 and replenishing the earth, it talks about them, 03:58 you know, they, you know, what they should eat. 04:02 It goes and I think is worship, and they work, it's all there. 04:04 And one of the interesting that in both covenants, 04:06 he talks about how we eat. 04:07 Yeah, we see that repeated in Noah, 04:10 in the time of Noah. 04:11 So we'll go to Genesis Chapter 9. 04:13 And we can look at that Genesis 9:1 just for a moment. 04:18 And God makes this covenant with Noah. 04:21 And we'll look at verses 1, 04:23 and we'll look at verse 13, as well. 04:25 And you see this repetition here, 04:28 even as it was in the days of Adam. 04:30 It says, "And God blessed Noah and his sons, 04:32 and said unto them, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, 04:35 and replenish the earth.'" 04:37 When you read Genesis, you read that very clearly, isn't it? 04:38 Yeah, yeah. When God speaks to Adam. 04:41 And in verse 13, as well, it says, 04:43 "And I do set my bow in the cloud, 04:46 and it shall be for a token of the covenant 04:49 between me and the earth." 04:52 And so, yeah, and so here, you know, 04:55 God gives a more formalized covenant here. 04:58 We can also... 05:00 Should we look at verse 11 or verse 9 and verse 11, 05:04 it also says here, "And I, behold, 05:06 I establish my covenant with you, 05:09 and with your seed after you." 05:11 And verse 11, "And I will establish my covenant with you, 05:14 neither shall all flesh be cut off any more 05:17 by the waters of a flood, 05:18 neither shall there any more be 05:20 a flood to destroy the earth." 05:22 So here God is expressing this covenant 05:24 now to Noah as well. 05:25 Okay. 05:26 What I like about it, Lyle as that is very soon 05:28 as the Adamic covenant 05:30 because they're told to multiply, 05:32 and they're told to eat just as he is back to Noah. 05:35 And obviously to worship God. That's right. 05:38 Come central to this whole concept of the covenants. 05:41 Okay, so we've gone from Adam to Noah, 05:45 who do we go to next? 05:47 To Abraham, of course. 05:48 Abraham? Abraham is the next one. 05:50 One of the most famous covenant, 05:51 when we think of the covenants, 05:53 some, one of the most famous ones. 05:54 Yeah, most well-known and recognized. 05:56 In just the next chapter, Chapter 12 of Genesis. 05:59 In Genesis 12:1-4 we can read that. 06:02 It says, yeah, "Now the Lord had said unto Abram, 06:05 'Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, 06:08 from thy father's house, 06:10 unto a land that I will shew thee. 06:12 And I will make of thee a great nation, 06:14 and I will bless thee, 06:16 and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. 06:18 And I will bless them that bless thee, 06:20 and curse them that curseth thee, 06:22 and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.' 06:25 So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him, 06:29 and Lot went with him, 06:30 and Abram was seventy and five years old 06:33 when he departed out of Haran.'" 06:36 And so, yeah, God's got a special calling 06:38 here for Abraham as well, in terms of a covenant. 06:41 Yeah. 06:43 And he's 75 years old when this covenant is made. 06:44 I wonder why God chose somebody who was so old. 06:47 Does, David, does God formalize this covenant at some point? 06:52 Yes. You come over to Genesis 17. 06:56 And it says when he was 99, 06:59 I mean, that's a pretty old age. 07:00 That's getting up there. 07:01 He is nearing to the century. 07:03 "And God said to him, 'I am an Almighty God. 07:06 And I'll make a covenant between Me and you, 07:10 and will multiply you exceedingly." 07:12 And then in verse 4, he says, "As for Me, behold, 07:15 My covenant is with you, 07:17 and you shall be a father of many nations." 07:20 And then a little bit later on in verse 8, he says, 07:23 "And I'll give to you and your descendants 07:25 after you the land in which you are a stranger to. 07:28 And as for you, you shall keep My covenant, 07:30 you and your descendants 07:32 after you through their generations." 07:33 So God was wanting all people to keep this covenant 07:36 because it did have many promises as well. 07:39 That was for sure. 07:40 Yeah, that's fantastic. 07:41 Now did, when God formalizes this covenant with Abraham? 07:46 Does God get Abraham to sign a document 07:49 like they did in the days of Nehemiah 07:51 where they signed that covenant? 07:52 And like we do today. 07:54 And like we do today, yes. 07:55 Important to sign. 07:57 Now in actual fact, the signature of the covenant 08:00 was in circumcision and the boy, 08:03 males were all to be circumcised 08:05 as a sign that they were serving God 08:08 and accepting this covenant 08:10 and wanting to obey the covenant. 08:13 Okay, so far we've gone through, 08:16 we've had Adam, 08:17 we've had Noah, we've had Abraham, 08:19 who is the next great leader that a covenant is established 08:25 in relation with in the Bible? 08:27 And it's well-known within the Christian community, 08:30 Moses in at Sinai and this covenant 08:32 that's made there. 08:34 And we read that in Exodus Chapter 19. 08:36 So we go to Exodus Chapter 19 and we'll read verses 5-8. 08:40 And we read about this covenant here now, 08:43 with the children of Israel through Moses, God's servant. 08:47 And so it says here in verse 5-8, 08:50 "Now therefore, 08:51 if you will obey my voice indeed, 08:53 and keep my covenant, 08:54 then you shall be a peculiar treasure 08:56 unto me above all people, 08:58 for all the earth is mine. 09:00 And you shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, 09:02 and an holy nation. 09:04 These are the words which thou shall speak 09:06 to the children of Israel." 09:08 And it says, "And Moses came 09:09 and called for the elders of the people, 09:11 and laid before their faces all these words 09:13 which the Lord commanded him. 09:15 And all the people answered together, and said, 09:19 All that the Lord hath spoken we will do. 09:22 And Moses returned the words of the people unto the Lord." 09:26 And this covenant, you know, of course, 09:28 included the Ten Commandments here. 09:30 Fantastic. 09:31 Okay, so we've got this commandment, 09:33 this covenant here. 09:34 Is there one more? 09:35 Do we find another one after this one? 09:37 It's quite incredible here, when you read this unfolding 09:41 of covenants in the life of God's people. 09:43 We'll go to Jeremiah Chapter 31. 09:45 Jeremiah 31st Chapter, and we can read one here. 09:50 Now, this covenant really applies to all the world. 09:54 And so let's read Jeremiah 31:31-33. 09:59 It says, "Behold, the days comes, says the Lord, 10:01 that I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel, 10:04 and with a house of Judah. 10:06 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers 10:08 in the day that I took them by the hand 10:11 to bring them out of the land of Egypt, 10:12 which my covenant they broke, 10:15 although I was an husband unto them, say the Lord. 10:18 But this shall be the covenant 10:19 that I will make with the house of Israel. 10:21 After those days, says the Lord, 10:23 I will put my law in their inward parts, 10:26 and write it in their hearts, 10:27 and will be their God, and they shall be My people." 10:32 And I say to all the world 10:34 because this is what we read about in the New Testament. 10:35 Yes. 10:37 The New Covenant in the Book of Hebrews, 10:38 Paul talks about this. 10:40 In Hebrews Chapter 8 is where 10:41 this is the New Covenant that is, you know, 10:43 made with the house of Israel. 10:44 And it applies to all. 10:45 Yes, indeed. 10:47 Fantastic. 10:48 Now just moving on from there. 10:50 If we go to Hebrews Chapter 9, 10:52 and Hebrews Chapter 9, 10:54 we're going to read verse 14 and 15 here. 10:57 The Bible says, "How much more shall the blood of Christ, 11:01 who through the eternal Spirit 11:03 offered himself without spot to God, 11:06 purge your conscience from dead works 11:08 to serve the living God?" 11:11 Continues on, "And for this cause 11:13 he is the mediator of the New Testament 11:16 or the New Covenant, 11:19 that by means of death, 11:20 for the redemption of the transgressions 11:22 that were under the first testament 11:24 or the first covenant, 11:25 they which are called might receive the promise 11:28 of eternal inheritance." 11:32 David, what is the basis of this New Covenant? 11:35 Yes, the basis of the New Covenant 11:37 is the death of Christ. 11:38 And Hebrews brings us out very clearly, 11:39 as you mentioned, 11:41 and unlike in the Old Testament where they were circumcised, 11:46 baptism, were baptized into Christ. 11:49 And this, of course, 11:50 is a very significant part of the New Covenant. 11:53 Okay. 11:54 So I noticed that 11:56 if we continue on in this passage 11:58 here in Hebrews 13:20, 12:01 that this new covenant is called 12:03 the everlasting covenant. 12:05 David? 12:06 Yes. 12:08 He says, "Now may the God of peace 12:09 who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, 12:12 that great Shepherd of the sheep, 12:14 through the blood of the everlasting covenant." 12:17 It was a blood of Christ that indeed covers us. 12:21 We think of Calvary, 12:22 and we think of all that Jesus went through. 12:24 And this, of course, was the basis of this 12:26 New Testament covenant. 12:29 Okay, so just thinking about that a little bit more further, 12:32 if we have an everlasting covenant, 12:35 then that would indicate, would it not that, 12:37 you know, this covenant has always been here? 12:40 This is the covenant that extends 12:41 from one end of the Bible to the other. 12:43 Absolutely. 12:44 And this is also the covenant that is called 12:46 the New Covenant. 12:47 Isn't that right? Yes. 12:49 So my question is this 12:50 just to toss a thought out there. 12:53 How do you have an everlasting covenant 12:56 that is always been there, 12:58 and yet we call it the New Covenant, 12:59 wouldn't that indicate that it hasn't always been there, 13:01 that it's just arrived. 13:04 Almost seems like there's two covenants, 13:06 isn't there? 13:07 Two different covenants. 13:08 Okay. Yeah. 13:10 Well, we do have the old and the new covenant, don't we? 13:11 We've the old and the new. Yeah. 13:12 But it's always new to every generation. 13:14 This is the point. 13:16 When Andrew read about it from Jeremiah, 13:20 there was a New Covenant there, 13:21 there was a new covenant with Abraham, 13:23 new covenant with Moses, basically. 13:25 And for us it's a New Covenant. 13:27 It's a covenant with us at this present generation. 13:30 Yes, absolutely. 13:31 This is a topic where, you know, 13:33 many people are confused over, 13:34 and not quite sure how does this all fit together? 13:37 You know, you hear statements like some people gonna say, 13:40 "Oh, the Old Covenant that was how the people 13:41 of Israel got saved back then, 13:43 but, you know, we're saved by the New Covenant." 13:45 And that's through the blood of Jesus 13:47 kind of indicating that the people of the Old Covenant 13:50 under the Old Covenant couldn't find salvation 13:52 by the blood of Jesus 13:53 that they found salvation some other way. 13:54 Yeah. 13:56 And sometimes you get people that, 13:57 you know, you listen to what they're saying, 13:58 and it sounds like and I think that, 14:00 you know, they're actually are implying 14:02 that some people get into heaven under the Old Covenant 14:04 and some people get there under the New Covenant. 14:06 Yes. 14:07 Whereas in reality 14:09 there is only one everlasting covenant. 14:10 And we all get into heaven by that. 14:12 We all get into heaven by the same covenant. 14:14 There are not two standards of salvation here. 14:15 And that's what was entrusted to Abraham. 14:18 And we said, you know, 14:19 God tasked him with something special. 14:20 If we go to Genesis 17, 14:23 back to Genesis Chapter 17, 14:25 and we read verse 7. 14:27 You notice, it uses the word everlasting covenant here. 14:30 It says, and God says to Abraham, 14:32 "And I will establish my covenant 14:33 between me and thee," well me and you, 14:35 "and your seed after you in the generations 14:38 for an everlasting covenant, 14:40 to be a God unto you, and to your seed also." 14:46 And so really, what's happening here is it's a recovenanting, 14:49 isn't it? 14:50 You know what we really means God 14:52 recovenanting and recovenanting with His people. 14:55 Okay, we'll take a moment are they still a part 14:57 of the New Covenant because, you know, once again, 14:59 we often hear this concept that we're New Covenant Christians, 15:01 therefore, we aren't gonna keep the Ten Commandments. 15:03 Yeah. That's what's happening here. 15:06 That's right. That's... 15:07 Why that would go against, 15:08 you know what the apostles taught 15:10 in the Book of Hebrews 15:11 in Hebrews Chapter 8, for example, 15:12 we go to Hebrews 8:10. 15:17 It says, and here Paul is drawing 15:18 actually from Jeremiah, 15:20 which we just read early on. 15:22 This covenant that goes to all the world, 15:24 "For this is the covenant that I will make 15:26 with the house of Israel 15:28 after those days, says the Lord, 15:29 I will put my laws into their mind, 15:32 and write them in their hearts, 15:33 and I will be to them a God, 15:35 and they shall be to me a people." 15:38 And so the same law that was written 15:39 by the finger of God on two tables of stone, 15:41 at the end of the day was never meant to stand 15:43 two tables of stone. 15:45 It was supposed to come into our heart, 15:47 and it comes to into our heart 15:49 through faith in the atoning sacrifice 15:52 of Jesus Christ. 15:54 Yeah, and I love the way that the Bible says that 15:56 God will write it on our heart, 15:58 in other words, so that we want to do it. 16:00 Yeah. 16:01 And He'll write it in our mind so that we know what it says. 16:04 That's right. It includes both aspects. 16:05 And this what David says 16:07 the law of the Lord is perfect, right? 16:08 Converting the Saul, and he loves God's law. 16:10 And we get to Paul, Romans 7:7, you know, he says that, 16:13 you know, I think in verse 12 it said, 16:15 "His commandment is holy and just and good." 16:17 And he quotes from those Ten Commandments. 16:19 Yes. 16:20 And so the only places in the Bible 16:22 that actually tell us what the New Covenant is, 16:26 and actually spells out the New Covenant, 16:27 both of those places are uplifting the law of God. 16:32 Amen. 16:33 And they're exalting the law of God 16:34 and calling us to obedience to the law of God. 16:36 What's the foundation of His kingdom, isn't it? 16:38 Yeah. The law of God. 16:39 That's it. Okay. 16:40 Let's go back to Nehemiah's day 16:42 and the written covenant that they had in those days. 16:45 David, what did the people pledge to do there? 16:48 Yes, well, they wanted to do a number of things, 16:50 they've been coming out of captivity. 16:53 And one of the things that they said, 16:54 we're not gonna buy grain on the Sabbath. 16:56 We're not gonna marry our daughters 16:58 to sons of the heathen people or vice versa. 17:02 And we're going to look out the temple 17:04 and bring our tithes into the temple. 17:07 It was quite a clear statement that they were making, 17:10 that they wanted to do. 17:11 This was how they were responding to God's covenant. 17:14 Why was this so important to them 17:16 at this particular time period? 17:18 Well, the reason being, of course, 17:19 they wanted to reestablish themselves as a nation 17:23 they had been in captivity, 17:24 and now it was important for them to 17:26 reestablish themselves as God's nation, 17:29 and the nation among the peoples. 17:31 And why had they gone into captivity? 17:33 Because as the Bible says they neglected the Sabbath. 17:37 In other words, 17:39 they were neglecting true worship, 17:40 the communication with God 17:42 that was so significant and important. 17:44 Absolutely. 17:46 And they get together, 17:47 they establish this new covenant, 17:49 they all signed their names to it. 17:50 And, Andrew, 17:52 how well did they do with this New Covenant? 17:54 They get out there and they... 17:55 Yeah. 17:57 They've decided, you know, 17:58 we put Babylonian captivity behind us. 18:00 We're never going into Babylonian captivity again. 18:02 So we're gonna take this very, very seriously right now. 18:05 Yeah. 18:07 And, you know, they've got that whole experience of 70 years 18:08 in captivity behind them. 18:11 A great example of, you know, the disaster that can come 18:13 from turning away from serving God. 18:15 Yeah. 18:17 How long do they make it with keeping this New Covenant? 18:18 Yeah, look, they don't do too well. 18:21 I mean, amongst them were still some faithful 18:22 but they don't do too well at all. 18:24 And, you know, the leadership in particular 18:26 we read about let them down. 18:29 So Nehemiah had, you know, returned to Babylon 18:32 after 12 years, 18:33 but then some disturbing news brought him back to Jerusalem. 18:37 I wanna take us to Nehemiah 13:7. 18:41 Nehemiah 13:7. 18:44 And notice what's happening here. 18:48 This what Nehemiah finds 13:7, 18:51 it says, "And I came to Jerusalem, 18:54 and understood of the evil 18:56 that Eliashib did for Tobiah, 18:59 in preparing him a chamber in the courts 19:03 of the house of God. 19:05 So Tobiah is a bitter enemy of Israel. 19:08 And Nehemiah finds him 19:12 living in the temple of God. 19:14 In one of the apartments there. 19:15 In one of the apartments of God. 19:18 Yeah, so it's quite a serious situation there. 19:21 When we think about that, 19:23 I mean, it kind of blows your mind a little bit, 19:25 that this avowed enemy of God 19:28 would find a place living amongst the people of God. 19:33 Do you think we ever fall into the same trap 19:35 ourselves of allowing the enemies of God 19:39 to live in our very midst? 19:42 You know, when we think about it, 19:43 we, there are occasions when, 19:45 you know, we're Christians, and we want to love everybody. 19:47 Yeah. 19:49 But Nehemiah was quite a confrontational character. 19:52 Yeah. 19:53 And you can see them like, oh, we're Christians, 19:55 we love people, 19:57 and we got to be loving towards our enemies. 19:58 And so therefore, 19:59 we'll let this man live in the temple. 20:01 Yeah. 20:02 Love is based on principle, isn't it? 20:03 It's not just this emotional kind of love that we have. 20:06 And we do find that, I mean, even in realistically, 20:10 in the church community today, you know, 20:11 we'll find some individuals that may be going against 20:15 what the church stands for and so forth. 20:17 And, you know, often the leadership of the church 20:19 has to address them. 20:21 And it's not always well received 20:23 because no one wants to be told 20:24 that they're sinning against God, and they, 20:27 you know, bringing contempt upon 20:29 the name of the church and so forth. 20:31 So do we just sit there and say, 20:33 "Well, we just love everyone," and we do nothing about it. 20:35 And within Christianity, 20:37 how many times have we seen a situation 20:38 where a child abuse case comes along and everybody says, 20:43 "Oh, but he's such a wonderful person, 20:45 surely not, you know." 20:46 And they'll protect the perpetrator 20:49 and they let Satan live in our midst 20:50 rather than being like Nehemiah being a man of action, 20:53 and tossing them out. 20:54 Absolutely. Yeah. 20:56 And Nehemiah did something about this. 20:58 We're reading verses 8-9. 21:01 It says, listen to Nehemiah here. 21:03 It says, "And it grieved me sore, 21:06 therefore I cast forth all the household stuff 21:08 of Tobiah out of the chamber. 21:11 And then I commanded, and they cleanse the chambers, 21:13 and then brought I again the vessels 21:16 of the house of God, 21:17 with the meat offering and the frankincense." 21:20 Like I said, this wasn't just any random apartment. 21:23 This was a place 21:24 that had been actually set aside 21:25 for the services of the temple. 21:27 Yes. Yeah. 21:29 You know, Nehemiah was quite a confrontationist. 21:31 And sometimes I wonder 21:33 how well he would get on if he was 21:36 a pastor in one of our churches today 21:39 because he certainly didn't stand for any 21:41 funny business amongst God's people. 21:43 And he certainly wasn't scared to act 21:45 when the time came to act. 21:48 Okay, David, what else was going wrong in 21:52 Judah at this particular time? 21:54 Yeah. 21:55 Well, he recognized 21:56 and you look at Chapter 13:10-12. 21:59 He says, "I also realized the portions of the Levites 22:02 had not been given to them." 22:03 So the Levites were suffering under bankruptcy, 22:08 you might say. 22:10 And so he saw that. 22:11 And then he says, 22:12 "Why is the house of God forsaken?" 22:14 They've even neglected the temple. 22:16 And this, of course, was a great trouble to him 22:19 at that particular time. 22:22 Okay, so this was... 22:23 Yeah, there was a whole bunch of things 22:25 that were happening here and, 22:26 you know, the last thing that you want to have happening 22:29 is obviously your ministry being affected. 22:30 Yeah. 22:32 And one of the... There's a couple of things 22:34 here that are highlighted in this passage that really, 22:37 I think speak to symptoms amongst God's people. 22:43 And the first symptom we find here 22:45 is that they had withheld their finances, 22:48 they're holding back, 22:50 they weren't being free with their money. 22:53 And they were, 22:54 you know, and as a result the Levites 22:56 starting to go without and so, 22:57 of course, the Levites are gonna have to go out 22:59 and work or do something 23:00 rather to provide for themselves, 23:02 which is not a healthy environment 23:04 for them to be in at this particular time, 23:08 but it wasn't the only reason that... 23:11 It wasn't the only symptom that they discovered 23:13 that was a problem here at this particular time. 23:16 What were some of the other symptoms 23:19 if you go on to like verses, 23:20 I think it's verse 16 and 17. 23:22 Is it there, David? Yes. 23:24 Very clearly. 23:25 And even the verse before goes back to Jeremiah, 23:28 when Jeremiah tells them that they're 23:29 doing things on the Sabbath, like, 23:32 bringing the sheaves and loading donkeys 23:34 with wine and so on. 23:35 But then he says, "Men of Tyre dwelt there also," 23:38 here the Gentiles coming in, 23:40 "and they brought their fish and all kinds of goods, 23:42 and they sold them on the Sabbath 23:44 to the children of Judah, 23:45 and in Jerusalem." 23:47 And he says, "Then I contended with the nobles of Judah, 23:49 and said to them, 23:50 'What evil thing is this that you do, 23:52 by which you profane the Sabbath?'" 23:53 The very thing that basically took them into Babylon 23:57 barriers, beginning to do again break the Sabbath 24:00 and allowing people to come in 24:01 and sell their goods on the Sabbath. 24:04 And how quickly this took place? 24:06 You know, this is 12 years after they have 24:08 signed their names to a covenant. 24:09 Yeah. 24:11 And all this is happening. All right. 24:12 So what is, fill us in on the story there, David? 24:14 What does Nehemiah do to solve this particular problem? 24:17 Well, he says, "I contended with the Judas. 24:20 And I shut the gates and I put people at the gates." 24:24 And I was thinking about this too, 24:26 that was probably a Sabbath duty 24:27 for men to stay at the gates keeping out these Gentiles. 24:31 Yeah, so that the Sabbath worship could continue. 24:33 That's exactly right. 24:35 Okay, so he was a man of action. 24:36 And it's interesting is you find that 24:39 the Gentiles all turned up, you know, 24:40 and they can't come in 24:41 and they can't set up their stall 24:43 and they can't sell their product. 24:44 And so they can't, you know, 24:46 they set up camp outside the gates 24:48 and they're selling stuff over the wall still. 24:51 You know, when you walk away from God, 24:54 it's kind of sad the length that we go 24:56 almost at times to be disobedient. 24:59 And so Satan is there to help us to do it. 25:00 That's it. Yeah, yeah. 25:03 And once again Nehemiah he steps in, 25:05 and he's a man of action, 25:06 he gets this sorted out. 25:08 Now... Yes, go ahead. 25:10 I was just thinking, 25:11 Nehemiah has worked so hard 25:12 to take the reproach away from God's people. 25:15 I mean, in the beginning chapters 25:17 of the Book of Nehemiah, 25:18 I mean, that's what he wants to do. 25:19 They realize that they're in that position because of it. 25:22 They are in the position of captivity 25:24 because of the very things that they're even doing now 25:27 as we're reading about. 25:28 And Nehemiah work so tirelessly hard to remove that reproach 25:31 to turn them back to the Lord. 25:33 And now they are really, you know, 25:36 in apostasy for the most part. 25:39 People tend to move from one extreme to the other. 25:41 The devil likes to get us to move 25:43 to one extreme to the other, 25:44 and he have got them breaking the Sabbath. 25:45 When you come down to the time of Jesus, 25:48 had they moved to another extreme there? 25:50 They had. 25:52 And what were they doing there? 25:53 They brought in at least 400 regulations 25:56 apart from the commandments 25:57 that were manmade and expected people to do that, 26:00 like, you couldn't even go into a cornfield and pick up a bit 26:03 of wheat to eat on the Sabbath, you know, 26:06 all those kind of things were brought in by men. 26:08 Yeah 26:10 And you couldn't even, you know, 26:11 Jesus wasn't even allowed to 26:13 heal somebody on the Sabbath day. 26:14 Absolutely. 26:15 And we might smile at that today, 26:17 but, you know, it does illustrate 26:20 the danger of what happens when we, 26:22 you know, go to one extreme or the other. 26:25 You end up trying to determine what's right in your own eyes, 26:28 isn't it, you know? 26:29 So you can be in the church, but you're still determining 26:31 what's right in your own eyes, 26:33 rather than what is right in the eyes of God. 26:35 Very quickly. 26:37 Andrew, why was the temple so important? 26:38 The temple was the life of Israel. 26:40 It was, you know, 26:42 it was in the temple is the gospel of salvation, 26:46 it was there for them to celebrate God's goodness, 26:48 everything pointed to Christ in the temple. 26:51 And yeah, it should have been their place of rejoicing, 26:55 their place where they learn about the grace of Christ, 26:58 and the place where they realize that 27:00 they can trust God and follow Him and do His work. 27:03 Absolutely. 27:04 And receive His blessings. 27:06 And this is where we see God's grace coming through 27:08 in the covenants. 27:09 You know, God expected His people 27:11 to take His covenant very seriously. 27:15 Likewise, we're invited to commit ourselves 27:18 to God's everlasting covenant of love and grace. 27:22 And we're also called to be faithful in our lives. 27:26 That's Let God Speak for today. 27:28 You can view all our past programs 27:30 on our website 3abnaustralia.org.au. 27:34 You can download teachers notes there. 27:36 You can email us on lgs@3abnaustralia.org.au. 27:41 Join us again next time. 27:43 God bless you in a special way. |
Revised 2020-03-02