He was cut off from the land of the living. I was cut off from sin and death. When he breathed out his last breath and cried, it is finished. Cause it no longer masters me For made I have been set free I will choose every moment to live In the new life he gave me In the new life He gave me, the very life of the Savior. In the new life He gave me, I'm free to be all He made me. I set my mind on the things above Where Christ my life has seated Here I'll never be defeated In the new life He gave me In the new life He gave me, the very life of the Savior. In the new life He gave me, I'm free to be all He made me. Crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but He lives in me. In the new life He gave me. The very life of the Savior. The new life you gave me, I'm free to be all He made me. He was cut off from the land of the living for me. It's all about the new life he gave you and me. Two brief announcements before we get going this morning with today's message. We are taking up an offering, we announced this on Tuesday also, taking up an offering for a dear lady in Kenya. Her name is Susan Masamba, who was terribly injured in an auto accident. This is something we rarely do or ask you to do. But if anyone wishes to help, see Dan at the end of the service. Next, starting this Friday, restarting this Friday, January 27th, we resume our Friday Night Live meeting where we eat the flesh and drink the blood of Christ and afterward have a delicious treat or two. food and fellowship with one another it's always a joyous time so please plan to attend if you can and now to the matter at hand our series from sea to shining sea the big picture that's our series title today's message is entitled the new covenant part two there's a lot of confusion about the new covenant who it belongs to and how we interpret the passages and messages that the Word of God has with regard to the new life, the new life He gave me and the new covenant matches perfectly. That's why we chose that song for today. It's Sunday, January 22nd, 2023. Turn to Jeremiah. Jeremiah. Past just past Psalms. Major prophet. Jeremiah's a major prophet. Why is he a major prophet? Because his prophecy is so long. Like Isaiah, 66 chapters. I think I'd say, I think Jeremiah has a little few less than that. Jeremiah 31, 31. That's where we left off. That's where we'll take up. Jeremiah 31, 31. Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. You know what the new covenant is? The New Testament. Testament is a covenant. It's a will and testament. The New Covenant is the New Testament. Would it say for Israel and for Judah? Why, of course. The same one for them and for us, regardless of our knowing of any national heritage or Jewish heritage. Indeed, all Jews and Gentiles, as they're called, who believe in Christ Those living on the finished work side of history following upon the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus would find themselves under the New Covenant, under the New Testament. Truly in the church age, which is also called the age of the Spirit, where each believer at the moment he believes is given the fullness of the Spirit and is placed into union, into soluble spiritual, organic and spiritual union with Christ, unbreakable union with Christ, with the opportunity to live in communion with Him, union and communion, your great privilege of communion with Christ and the body of Christ, placed into the body of Christ, the church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. Also called the Age of Grace. Never has there been a manifestation, a demonstration of grace like the grace that came by Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth. That one gracious act as he hung naked on the cross. I was talking to Susie today, said I was out in a golf outing and somebody said to me, oh yeah, you're a pastor, I got a Jesus joke. I said, well let me tell you a story about Jesus, that one where he hung on the cross naked and all of your sins were gathered and charged to him. It's no joke. I didn't say that, but I should have. I patiently listened to his joke. That's funny. Anyway, truly in the church age, the age of the Spirit, the age of grace, there's no racial or ethnic distinctions at all. There are only, listen carefully, believers and unbelievers, no Jews and Gentiles, only believers and unbelievers, only saved people and lost people. Jews in the Old Testament, even in the Old Testament, unless they believed in Christ, are no different and no better than anyone else, than any Gentile or ethnic person. anywhere in the world. To this end, Galatians was written, which clears up the matter once and for all, in case you're confused. Galatians 3.26 says, for you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Not without faith, but through faith, you're all sons of God. through faith in Jesus Christ. For all of you who were baptized into Christ, that's a dry baptism by the way, have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither June or Greek. There's neither June or Gentile. The word Greek is ethnos, no ethnic nation other than, or no one of an origin other than Israeli origin or Jewish origin. That's what a Genco is, a Greek. So he says neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave, nor free man, there is neither, I love this one, male nor female. The war of the sexes doesn't exist in the church. Neither male nor female, we're all equal on even ground, on level ground. We need you ladies and you need us guys. We need one another. I need you and you need me. We need each other in the family tree. Anyway, so, all of you who are baptized into Christ shall clothe yourselves with Christ. There's neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free, neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, this is a great saying, this is a great verse, then you're Abraham's descendants. according to promise." There are many implications in that passage. So, now all that I said last Sunday regarding the blessing and heritage of Ephraim and the lost tribes of Israel is true, but you have to see how it works. It's true, it's right, and it's real on the divine side. We don't see it. doesn't matter on the human side. God only knows, as Paul Simon once said, God makes His plan. The information is unavailable to the mortal man. So slip, slide away. He's a Jew. I hope he's a believer in Christ. Anyway, so in 2 Timothy 2.19, nevertheless the firm foundation of God stands. having this inscription, this seal. The Lord knows those who are His. But on the human side, no one knows who is who. All we know is whether or not we are believers, the rest is up to God, and is enacted for His purpose And according to his promise, back to our Jeremiah passage, he says, not like the covenant, this new covenant, it's not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke. Although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord." At Sinai, he's referring to the receiving of the law at Sinai, they chose the law. Israel chose the law. They were given a choice. They said, we want the law. All that you said today, Moses, all that you read to us, we'll do it. At Sinai, they chose the law rather than God's offer of continuing to bear them on eagle's wings. And therefore, they would have to learn, as we do often, the hard way. We want to learn the hard way. No one can be justified, forgiven, or accepted by the holiness of God by obeying the law. In Exodus 19, 4 through 10, in case you don't know or have somehow forgotten, here's a good categorical reference should the subject come up for discussion. Romans 3.20, listen carefully. Because by the works of the law, the works that the law requires, no flesh will be considered or declared righteous. his sight for through the law comes the knowledge of sin that's what the law was given for so you can know how sinful sin was you know what sin was so the laws for you know if you break that you said break the law you said all of it or any part of it you're done the soul that sins Ezekiel said shall die. And that's all there is to it. By the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. How about Romans 3.28? For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law. Don't skip over these passages, they're so important. It takes us from the old covenant, weak as it was through the flesh, to the new covenant, which is called powerful and life-giving. Galatians 2.16, Nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we, Paul says, have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. Then he says, in case you didn't hear me, I'll say it again, since by the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified. Three times in one verse. Moreover, not only is righteousness a gift apart from the law or the old covenant, those who place themselves under it or attempt to please God by keeping it, and who fail even once, this is what people don't understand, are cursed. Say, where'd you get that? Galatians 310. You haven't read Galatians in a while, have you? Galatians 310. For as many as are of the works of the law are cursed. They're under a curse. How can that be? That's God's law. You're under a curse. For it is written, you're cursed if you do not abide by all the things written in the book of the law to perform them. In other words, if you mess up once, you're done. Anyone who attempts to please God by obeying the law or performing what it demands will find himself in dire straits without salvation, without forgiveness and without life or eternal life, no prospect of eternal life through the law. It doesn't promise eternal life. If a law had been given whereby we might have life, then verily righteousness would have been by the law. But it's not. It's by faith in Jesus Christ. Please remember that for the rest of your days on earth. In case you still think being Jewish matters, be assured, no one is saved by race, R-A-C-E. Never was, never will be, but only by grace and through faith. Don't youns forget it. Please don't. Of course, all of you know this very well. Moving on. Verse 33. Jeremiah 31 33, but this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord I will put my law Within them and on their heart along with the inclination to do it. He says I'll write it on their heart and I will be their God and they shall be my people." See, not only for them in the future, but for us. It works the same way. What God has done for them and has planned to do for them in the future kingdom, He's already done for us. He's done it here. In the meantime, gathering the nations to Christ serves God's purpose in moving the Jews to jealousy. by the great happiness and prosperity that you have, the prosperity, great happiness and prosperity of Ephraim. In Romans 11, 14, he said he moved the Jews to jealousy. The greatest and most blessed nation that you live in, the United States of America, the nation of many nationalities of all time, the USA, the place where to this day so many Jews have called home, made their home here. Genesis 48 20, he blessed them that day saying, by you, that is Ephraim and Manasseh, by you Israel pronounced blessing saying, may God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh. If you don't know what I'm talking about, listen to last Sunday's message. It's very clearly presented. As Jewish world population increases to 15.2 million, that's how many they say there are today, 2022 census, 90% are split between two places. 45% of the 90%. are in Israel, 6.9 million and 6 million in the United States. The rest of them are dispersed throughout the world, along with, I always say, 380 million, that's people in the United States or so, of European descent who have Jewish genetics dating back to the Assyrian deportation and subsequent migration into the European continent and from there to America, the nation of many nationalities, that Ephraim would become the only one of its kind in all of the world. There's no nation like the United States of America, none at all. So it must have a unique status. So by it, and by the Jewish population of the United States and Israel, the stage is set for the end times. And that's what the prophecy of Jeremiah is about, the new covenant. And so from the prophetic to the historic, the new covenant for the Jews is the same one that governs the church. People are so confused about it. They said, it must be two. It must be one for Israel, one for us. That's the same one. Some have proposed there must be two distinct new covenants. As I said, one for us and one for them. What they don't understand is that they are us. And we are them under the same new covenant. of which there is only one." What do you mean by that? Listen, you'll understand. The proof is found in Hebrews, New Testament, which is re-quotation for the vast majority of its content from the Old Covenant, from the Old Testament. but fulfilled in or under the New Covenant. Unless you would say that Hebrews is not for the church, which it most certainly is, how often do we quote it and live on its principles, precepts? Unless you say Hebrews is not for the church, though, I don't argue about doctrine. You would force me to back you into a corner and slap some sense into you if you said it wasn't for the New Testament. So don't make me do that, okay? Hebrews quotes our Jeremiah passage extensively, addressing this very subject where New Covenant believers are concerned. Listen to Hebrews 10, 16. This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts. We just read it. and in their minds I will write them." Whether Paul wrote Hebrews or not, and I don't think he did, he didn't. Because if he did, he would betray the lucky number assigned by God, the lucky number 13. Thirteen epistles, the thirteenth apostle. written to the 10 lost tribes, known as Ephraim, the 13th tribe, dispersed throughout the world, concentrated in E pluribus unum, 13 letters, which means the many are one. Verse 33, but this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my law within them, and on their heart I will write it, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." Hebrews 10, 16, again. This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, said the Lord. I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them. Paul agrees and says it like this, not in Hebrews, but elsewhere, 2 Corinthians 3, 3, explaining further how this should happen. 2 Corinthians 3, 3, being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God. Not on tables of stone, but on tables of human hearts. God writing His law, His Word, in our hearts, even as He will for Israel, the end of human history. Hearts programmed with God's Word, written on a hard drive. adding files and all of the necessary apps for full function. Faith apps for maximum apprehension, hope apps for maximum assimilation, and all the rest for love application. There it is again. That pesky 13. Can't get around it. What do I mean? 1 Corinthians 13, 13. But now, faith, hope, and love, these three abide. But the greatest of these is love. 13, 13, 13. I love 13. It's my lucky number. Yours too. Not lucky. We're not lucky. Blast. When these wonderful things dawn in the soul, there's nothing that competes with finding and eating the Word daily, spending quality time with the Lord, thinking about Him and His Word, marinating your mind, saturating your soul with the Word of God, so that when you get hurt, the Word comes out. When you get cut, the Word comes out. When you're hungry, when you're happy, When you're sad, when you're sick, the word is your food, your solace, your joy, rejoicing, and the healing balm. It's all about the word. There it is, the answer you've been looking for. It's there for the taking, free for the taking. If, that is, you want to be happy for the rest of your life or you want to continue and you're stewing in your own misery, and who wants to do that? We did 12 or so messages recently on the secret of happiness when we recently studied the Beatitudes, which can be summed up in this brief statement. Here it is. Those who desperately, remember it says, happy are the poor, happy are those who are sad, deeply sad, happy are those who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, those who are mild-mannered and don't assert themselves. Those who desperately require the Word. These are those who desperately require the Word, the Word of truth. And therefore, make the Word of God their first priority. They are the happiest people for time. and eternity. I'll say it once more. Those who desperately require the word of truth and therefore make the word of God their first priority are the happiest people for time and eternity. I think we should make refrigerator magnets, bumper stickers, coffee mugs, and t-shirts with that saying on them. Dan, take care of that for us, would you please? Order those. So that everything we do and everywhere we look we're reminded. of this most important truth so easily, readily overlooked and forgotten. This being the case, God has proposed to one and all, to anyone and everyone, who only let or allow Him to write His Word in their heart, as He proposed in the New Covenant. When will we learn? when we listen to the voice of reason and stop resisting God. Because you can resist Him, you know. This you're free to choose and free to do in the moments before, the moments during, and even after everything else that you do, that you choose and do. No matter what else it is you think you have to do, What will you answer when the Lord asks? And He will ask every one of us without any condemnation, with no condemnation. Don't think that there's condemnation, for there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. What will you answer when the Lord asks without condemnation, why is there so little of my word in your soul, in your heart? What will you say? You won't be able to lie. but only tell the truth. It would be a lie if you said the things you say now, liar. You said, I had too many other things, more pressing things, that I had to do. Really? OK. It's OK with me. Sounds good to me. Rather, you'll tell the truth and say, I was too lazy. There's a good one. Too interested in making money. Thinking up excuses, making excuses. Hatching schemes, planning crimes. Finding every reason to neglect the well-being of my eternal soul. That's what you did. You can change that starting today. Too busy squandering the great privilege and opportunity that was mine. Instead of feasting on the word, I chose fasting from it. God knows. And as a result, I forsook my own well-being. I did not number my days, Matt Schultz. This is a verse he gave me a long time ago, stuck like glue, that I might present to the Lord a heart filled with wisdom, Psalm 90, 12. Well, here's what happens in the future. There's no question In the future, after the exit resurrection of the church and the testing and tribulation of Israel on the earth, the great tribulation, Jacob's trouble, is over and the Lord returns, there's no question that for a thousand seven years, according to the Scriptures, there will be those who will be sad and ashamed in a glorified body. Yeah. twinkling rather than shining brightly. In 2 Corinthians 5.10, Romans 14.10, 1 Corinthians 15.41, and 1 John 2.28, some will shrink back at His coming in shame rather than step forward with confidence. Granted, these passages in Jeremiah are relative to Israel, saved from great tribulation, ushered alive into the millennial kingdom where this blessedness will be theirs with supernatural accompaniment and without satanic and demonic influence, because Satan is bound in the bottomless pit, that we live in, that is, that with supernatural accompaniment, without satanic and demonic influence that we live with, that we live in, and under in the present age. In other words, there's still a factor of deception and satanic devices used and weapons used against us. But nevertheless, the same blessedness of the new covenant is ours, even as it shall be for them in the millennium. That should clear up any questions. Likewise true for you. Likewise true for me. We have the same power and provision, the same covenant, the same blessedness and protection of this wonderful and powerful life force under the same new covenant. Verse 34, they will not teach each man his neighbor, and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares the Lord. Where redeemed Israel is concerned, in a millennium, preachers like me, you won't need preachers like me, will not have to endlessly remind believers to get the word so that they can know the Lord. No. The Lord will be on TV every day. You say, will there be TV then? I would think so. No, there's not gonna be any technology, no TV in the millennium. We're gonna go back to the days of the pioneers when they didn't have anything. Of course there'll be TV. He'll be on TV every day on the Today Show, the Today Show with Jesus. not with Hoda and Jenna, but with Jesus, teaching the word to the world. And almost everyone, with very few exceptions, will be listening intently and then discussing all day long with the others they encounter what Jesus said. Did you hear what Jesus said this morning? about the things to come, about righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, which constitutes the kingdom. Romans 14, 17. Did you read the chapters and verses that he mentioned and assigned for us to read? We can give you an assignment. Go read this today. Wasn't that, isn't that just about the most wonderful thing you ever heard? Kind of like some of you do when you hear the messages I bring to you from my study in the Lord. You kind of do that. I'm serious. Some of you have unimaginable and glorious things to look forward to in the future, and others not so much. But that can change, too, if you wanted to. Back to our passage. He says, for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember. No more. When the testator of the new covenant died, Hebrews 10, 16 and 17, he died for our sins, Romans 6, 6. He died unto sin, Romans 6, 9. He put away sin by the offering of himself, Hebrews 9, 26, bearing our sins in his body to the cross, 1 Peter 2, 24. He did so in order that sin shall not be master over you. where you're not under law, but under grace. Just like our Jeremiah passage, for the Jew and for you, as a most wonderful feature of the new covenant, he never forgets to remember our sins. No more. You don't know that about him, do you? Or you don't fully realize it. You may say, that's great for them. I wish that were true for us. What do you mean? Hebrews is in the New Testament. Where it's stated in Hebrews, in case you don't hear it the first time, God says it twice. Quoting these very passages for us as believers, under the same new covenant, as true for us as it is for them, and vice versa." Hebrews 8, 7. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second for finding fault with them. He says, Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel, quoting Jeremiah 31. and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt." This is Hebrews. for they did not continue in my covenant and I did not care for them says the Lord for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days says the Lord I will put my laws into their minds and I will write them on their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people and they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen and everyone his brother saying no the Lord for all of them will know me from the least to the greatest of them I'll be on TV For I will be merciful to their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more." When he said a new covenant, he has made the first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to disappear. Then in case you missed it, He brings it once again two chapters later in Hebrews 10, 16. This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws upon their heart and on their mind I will write them, he then says, and their sins and lawless deeds. I will remember no more. If you don't know this, then you must not have read Romans 6 or any of the New Testament, the New Covenant, that so boldly and clearly proclaims it. Verse 35, Jeremiah 31, 35. Thus says the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar, the Lord of hosts the armies, Yahweh Sabaoth, Jehovah Sabaoth, is his name, Jesus Christ. Verse 36, if this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then the offspring of Israel will also cease from being a nation before me forever. We know from 20th century history that that Israel has become, once again, a nation. Not only a nation, but a powerful and very modern nation with military might, with a nuclear arsenal, eighth largest in the world, with a thriving economy and culture. But for 1,848 years, from 70 AD until the year 1948, there was no Israel. until Ephraim, the United States of America, and Manasseh, Great Britain, stepped in and facilitated the reestablishment of ownership through land leases and historical documentation that the world court could not deny. And as a result, May 14, 1948, Israel became a nation once again in your lifetime. No, just before it, maybe. I was born in 54. How many were born in 48? Before 48? Don't tell me. We don't want to know how old you are. You don't have to declare how old you are. Not many. Anyway, so, May 14, 1948, Israel became a nation once again after 1,848 years wasn't a nation at all. So how can anyone say that God is through with or has rejected Israel, and how can anyone assert that the ensuing chapters of Revelation speak of the disposal of Israel in 70 A.D. as the preterists insist or claim? See, God's done with Israel, and that's what Revelation's about, God being done with Israel. Or how can they say that from that time forward the church has entirely replaced Israel, who is no longer the apple of His eye and His beloved as a replacement, theologians purport. They couldn't be more wrong. read again the earlier passages of Jeremiah 31, like 31.3. The Lord appeared to him from afar, saying, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, I have drawn you with loving kindness. Doesn't sound to me like he's done with Israel. It sounds to me like he just began. He's just begun. Verse 37, thus says the Lord, if the heavens above can be measured and the foundations of the earth searched out below, then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel for all that they have done, declares the Lord. He says, when you're able to accurately measure the universe, and when you're able to definitively measure and plummet the depths of the earth, then I will cast Israel away. Since no one will ever be able to meet those conditions, He says, I will also never cast Israel away, but will, as promised, turn and save Israel, my beloved people. And how much more the church, which is his body, not one small part of it, disregarded or put aside. His commitment to Israel guarantees it. Never left. never forsaken again Hebrews Hebrews 13 5 I will never no never leave you nor forsake you verse 38 behold days are coming declares the Lord when the city will be rebuilt talking about Jerusalem for the Lord from the tower of Hananel to the corner gate the most beautiful city ever seen will be the rebuilt city of Jerusalem and the new Jerusalem 39 the measuring line will go out further straight ahead to the hill garab Then it will turn to goa a sprawling metropolis As far as the eye can see the new jerusalem for the new creation living a new life Under the new covenant all things for israel Even as they are for us made new all things are made new Out with the old, in with the new. Verse 40, and the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes. He's talking about that which occurred at the end of the tribulation period. Add to the city limits 200 miles, the length of the valley of Megiddo, the slaughter of all the enemies, the feast of the fowl, that is the birds. the air the ashes that remain from burning the carcasses picked clean by the birds revelation 1420 and the wine press was trodden outside the city and blood came up from the wine press up to the horses bridles for a distance of 200 miles ever read that verse there it is correlates perfectly with Isaiah 31 or Jeremiah 31 40 Then he says next, he says, and all the fields as far as the brook Kidron to the corner of the horse gate toward the east shall be holy to the Lord. It will not be plucked up or overthrown anymore, forever. In Psalm 48, 1, great is the Lord and greatly to be praised. David saw this well in advance. In the city of our God, the mountain of his holiness. beautiful in its elevation or for situation. The joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the north, the city of the great king. Guess what? You and I will be there with them, all of us together, seeing ourselves, being ourselves, knowing ourselves, even as we're known of God. This is shown also to us in Hebrews, Hebrews 12, 22. He says, but you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem. Who? You, me. And to myriads of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn. That's you, me. who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, Old Testament saints, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood which speaks better things, than the blood of Abel." Finally, 2 Corinthians 5.17, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. I lied. Philippians 3.13 also. But this one thing I do, Paul says, in the light of these things, this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, the old things, forget the old things. and reaching forth unto those things which are before, that is the new things, I press on in the new life, under the new covenant, in the new life he gave me. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for those who came out this morning to receive it. May this word stick with them, stay with them, help them, heal them. and cause them to progress in your plan of grace for your glory, for their well-being and happiness, and for your glory. For we pray it in the matchless name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Are you going to do your song? If you know this, if you know any of it, sing along. Vicki's gonna do the same song she started with, The New Life He Gave Me, and you can sing along if you know it. She sang it enough times that you should know some of it anyway. I know I do.