Living in the Freedom of the New Covenant (Gen 15 & Jer 31)

Speaker: 
Andrew Fountain
Date: 
Sun, 2022-06-12
  • When you really understand the New Covenant, it will transform your life, bring you into a new freedom, and enrich your relationship with God.
  • Sadly it is rarely explained, and most Christians are not entirely free from the Old.
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Sermon Slides - Living in the Freedom of the New Covenant

  • Martin Luther was a Priest in Germany, 500 years ago and he was constantly driven by guilt.
    • Luther’s story…
    • Suddenly he was free from guilt, and flooded with joy
  • I believe many of us could have more freedom and joy if we truly understand what Luther did.
    • Most of us have an inner critic who constantly tells us we are not good enough, not working hard enough, full of deep flaws which other people usually don’t see.
    • So, let’s try and do this today!

Living in the Freedom of the New Covenant

  1. The Covenant with Abraham
  2. The Old Covenant
  3. The New Covenant

1. The Covenant with Abraham

What is a Covenant?

“Hittite treaty of Kadesh”

Hittite treaty of Kadesh

Image source: wikimedia

Covenant:
“A forever relationship with serious commitments”

Genesis 15

  1. After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram! I am your shield and the one who will reward you in great abundance.”
  2. But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, what will you give me since I continue to be childless, and my heir is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3Abram added, “Since you have not given me a descendant, then look, one born in my house will be my heir!”
  3. But look, the word of the LORD came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but instead a son who comes from your own body will be your heir.”
  4. He took him outside and said, “Gaze into the sky and count the stars—if you are able to count them!”
    Then he said to him, “So will your descendants be.”
     
  5. Abram believed the LORD,
    and
    the LORD counted his response of faith as righteousness.
     
  6. The LORD said to him, “I am the LORD who brought you out from Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess.” 8But Abram said, “O Sovereign LORD, by what can I know that I am to possess it?”
     
  7. The LORD said to him, “Take for me a heifer, a goat, and a ram, each three years old, along with a dove and a young pigeon.” 10So Abram took all these for him and then cut them in two and placed each half opposite the other, but he did not cut the birds in half.
  8. When birds of prey came down on the carcasses, Abram drove them away.
  9. When the sun went down, Abram fell sound asleep.
    Then great terror overwhelmed him.
  10. Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign country. They will be enslaved and oppressed for four hundred years. 14But I will execute judgment on the nation that they will serve. Afterward they will come out with many possessions. 15But as for you, you will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16In the fourth generation your descendants will return here…
     
  11. When the sun had gone down and it was dark, a smoking fire-pot with a flaming torch passed between the animal parts.
  12. That day the LORD made a covenant with Abram:
    “To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River…”

adapted from NET Bible

2. The Old Covenant

Deuteronomy 28

  1. “If you indeed obey the LORD your God and are careful to observe all his commandments I am giving you today, the LORD your God will elevate you above all the nations of the earth.
  2. All these blessings will come to you in abundance if you obey the LORD your God:
  3. You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field.
  4. Your children will be blessed, as well as the produce of your soil, the offspring of your livestock, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.
  5. Your basket and your mixing bowl will be blessed.
  6. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
  7. The LORD will cause your enemies who attack you to be struck down before you; they will attack you from one direction but flee from you in seven different directions.
  8. The LORD will decree blessing for you with respect to your barns and in everything you do - yes, he will bless you in the land he is giving you.
    …
  1. “But if you ignore the LORD your God and are not careful to keep all his commandments and statutes I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force:
  2. You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field.
  3. Your basket and your mixing bowl will be cursed.
  4. Your children will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.
  5. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
  6. “The LORD will send on you a curse, confusing you and opposing you in everything you undertake until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the evil of your deeds, in that you have forsaken me.
  7. The LORD will plague you with deadly diseases until he has completely removed you from the land you are about to possess.
  8. He will afflict you with weakness, fever, inflammation, infection, sword, blight, and mildew; these will attack you until you perish.
  9. The sky above your heads will be bronze and the earth beneath you iron.
  10. The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust; it will come down on you from the sky until you are destroyed.
    …

adapted from NET Bible

3. The New Covenant

Hebrews 8:6–8

  1. But now Jesus has obtained a superior ministry, since the covenant that he mediates is also better and is based on better promises.
  2. For if that first covenant had been faultless, no one would have looked for a second one.
  3. But showing its fault, God says to them… [ quote from Jeremiah 31:31]

Jeremiah 31:31–34

  1. ‘Look, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will complete a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
  2. It will not be like the covenant that I made with their fathers, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt,
    my covenant that they broke…
  3. But this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord.
  • The Four promises of the New Covenant:

Jeremiah 31:31–34 cont’d

A. God’s law written on our hearts I will put my laws in their minds and I will inscribe them on their hearts.
B. We will belong to him and he will belong to us And I will be their God and they will be my people.
C. No need for priests between us and God 34. And there will be no need at all for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, “Know the Lord,” since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest.
D. Our sins are all forgiven For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer.
  • Next week I will try to unpack all the tasty food in this highly compressed package
  • For now I want to focus on D. Our sins are all forgiven

Martin Luther

“I pondered night and day…
Then I grasped that… through grace and pure mercy, God justifies us through faith.
Immediately I felt that I had been reborn and that I had passed through wide-open doors into paradise!”
The Lutheran Reformation p.65

Abraham’s part

  1. He wanted to be brought into this covenant
  2. He trusted God
  • God says that if these two things are true of you, and you ask him in prayer, he will make this covenant with you.

Summary:

  • God’s requirement for you is that you trust him with your life
  • Do that, and he will take care of everything else
  • “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus...” Rom 8:1

Updated on 2022-06-12 by Andrew Fountain