Welcome back to our series on the covenants. This is our final lesson in our series. If you were with us in the last lesson, then you'll remember how we talked about Christ's work. So we've made it all the way through the Old Testament. We've looked forward and forward and forward to finally seeing the covenant of grace fulfilled in Christ's coming, in his earthly life, in his death and resurrection. So today we'll talk about the blessings of the new covenant. So this lesson will sort of answer the question for you all of, so what? So I remember when I was in school, I would write papers for teachers, and I would write and write and write. And what I was saying, maybe it was good, it was okay. If it was like a theology paper, it was all correct theology. But at certain points, I would make a statement, and then they would write on the paper in big red ink, big red letters, so what? So what difference does this make for us? So there's a degree of good in studying the covenants, in understanding the Old Testament, in understanding the context like we've talked about, in seeing each individual covenant, in seeing the result of what happened between covenants. of following God's progressive redemption through history, of seeing how the Old Testament looks forward to Christ, how even men like Abraham, as far back as he was, looked forward to the one that would come and fulfill all the promises made to him. but there is a real sense in which we have to just move beyond the realm of just truth. So there have been times in these lessons that we've made points of application and saying, okay, this is how this applies, or here's a principle that we can pull out and make a real application. There have been times at the end of each episode where I would give a call to respond rightly to the truth that we learned of seeing Christ and having faith in Him and seeing God and taking Him at His word and believing Him and what He says. So the answer to the so what question and what this means is what the covenants mean is that when Christ came to accomplish His earthly mission that Christ thought in a pattern of covenants. He understood his role and his sacrifice, his life, as fulfilling a covenant that God had made. So listen to Galatians 4 verses 4-6. It says, But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law, that he might receive these adoptions as sons. So Christ didn't come just sort of arbitrarily in this pattern of, well, He just sort of appeared. But Christ came in a real and significant way as one born in a specific pattern. That He came born under a woman with not an earthly father. He came as one born who was born under the law, that Christ obeyed that law for us, that there was this looming standard that we could not meet of the Old Testament laws, of even just worshiping God, that as a fallen humanity we could not fulfill that. So, let's talk about this lesson then, or these covenants then, in sort of four categories. So first, we'll talk about the foundation of the New Covenant, of what's the basis for it. We've talked before about Christ being more than just, you know, a plan B, that Christ was always the plan. That His coming and His life was the plan, the reason for us to come. So we'll remember the lesson on the covenant of redemption as that eternal pact, that council of peace, as one prophet described it, where Christ was sent by the Father, empowered by the Spirit, to accomplish this divine mission given to him. That John 10 and 17 and other parts of the book of John really describe Christ's own understanding of his mission, that it's an expression as Christ saw himself with the mission that God had given him to do. We also can read of the anticipation of the seed of the woman promised in Genesis, the seed that would come to crush the head of the serpent. So outside of what we have recorded in biblical history in these books of the Bible, we can go back and read history of just stop and think for a second what life without the hope that we have in Christ would be like. It would be nothing but death and destruction and famine and hardship and sickness and disease that there weren't modern inventions of medicine, so people died often, regularly. In spite of modern advances in technology, there's this real sense in which those people would have died with no hope. They followed some pagan god, some made up religion. They had no light of the gospel, no truth of the one true God. That most people who died before Christ came did not know this God. In addition to that, there was this anticipation through the Old Covenant. So we've talked at times in these lessons before about how the promises made to Abraham anticipated more to come. The promises given to Moses anticipated more things to come, that Israel wasn't just going to wander around a desert and then, you know, just always be doing that. There was a physical land they were set to inherit, that they wouldn't always have worship of God in a tent. They would eventually have a permanent structure, a tabernacle, one temple built up by King Solomon. That there was this moving towards a finality, moving towards permanence, moving towards being established as God's covenant people. That their sin, their ongoing and continual and habitual sin before God caused God to destroy that nation. that there's a story in Isaiah chapter 7 of King Ahaz where God basically says to Ahaz, because you are an unrighteous king who will not listen to me, the Messiah to come to redeem the world, he's not going to come in riches into a grand kingdom of the nation of Israel because I'm going to allow this nation to be destroyed. This messianic figure, the one to come, he'll come in poverty. He'll come with no reason to look at him. He'll come with no outward appearance or state that we should look at him. So it's this building anticipation as we look forward ahead to the New Testament for this new covenant to be formed that was promised with the prophets. Second, we have the establishment of the new covenant, that we saw Christ work in the last lesson, so I won't go over it very much in detail, but we saw him as mediator, as the one between God the Father and man. We saw him as prophet, as priest, as king, as being the final and ultimate in each of those offices. that he speaks to us the word of God, that he is himself the word made flesh, that he is our great high priest, having no need for Old Testament sacrifices, because he has no sin in and of himself. We see him as our king, ruling and reigning even now, that he is sitting at the Father's right hand of the majesty on high. Hebrews 8.6 is a good verse that I won't read, but it talks about Christ having a better ministry, a better covenant, enacted on better promises. So there's a point in the Old Testament in Exodus where God is angry with the nation of Israel. Moses offers himself up and says, God, before you destroy them, please, I'll be cut off. Please take me instead. But even though Moses was genuine and sincere, God wouldn't take Moses because he was not a perfect mediator. But Christ did the same in a way. He offered up himself and said, not your will but mine. I will die for this people. Leave nothing of your wrath left. Pour it all on me and I will take it upon me. finish this mission that you have called me to." So Christ was a pleasing offering, a pleasing sacrifice to God, that God was pleased to crush his son as we read in Isaiah chapter 53. Hebrews 9 talks about the removal of the blood of bulls and goats, that if you imagine in Israel's history for centuries and centuries there was the slaughtering of animals and as time went on more and more and more had to be killed. that the rivers, the streets ran red with blood, that as sin was heaped and offense occurred, as God was offended by His people who didn't follow Him, they had to make physical sacrifices to return to Him. But finally and ultimately, the establishment of the new covenant is Christ coming and being the Lamb of God, the final once-for-all sacrifice. And His sacrifice isn't just in the pattern of the Old Testament. His sacrifice is a better sacrifice. It's a better renewal of the people's conscience of cleansing sin once and for all. We also saw in a recent episode expectation in the prophets. So we didn't read Ezekiel 36, but it's a wonderful chapter if you'd like to go there and read it on your own. It's Ezekiel describing for God to Israel about He will make them clean. He will cleanse their filthiness and idols. He will cause them to have a new heart and a new spirit. He'll take out their stone hearts that can't respond to God. Put in a new heart of flesh that can respond to God. That He will cause the people to walk in His ordinances. That they will live in the land of their forefathers. That land promise they saw will finally come true. That He will be their God, they will be His people, and He will provide their every physical need. That we know this as God's people now, that He doesn't allow His people to languish. He doesn't allow us, not to go on with, you know, much in excess, but every need that we have, God, through Christ, fulfills. We saw in Jeremiah 31, which we saw at length, the promises through there that a new covenant would be ratified, a renewal of the old covenant, but a new and better covenant would come. That the law, instead of being on the outside of the people, would be put on the people's hearts. It would teach them who God is and how to love him, how to express that love that they have for their God. It described all the people knowing the Lord and loving Him, that they don't have to be taught, that it's internalized, that God makes them a new creation. It's this strange mixture of you're fallen and the outside is decaying, but the inside is being renewed by God through His Word, through His Spirit, through means of grace day by day. That's the foundation of the New Covenant. That's the establishment of the New Covenant. So the blessings of the New Covenant, of what does this mean for me if I'm in this covenant, if I'm in Christ, no longer in Adam. That's exactly what Romans chapter 5 speaks about. Let me turn there and read just a couple of verses. So Romans chapter 5, the second half of the chapter makes a clear distinction between Adam and the sin and corruption through him, the death if you follow the way of Adam, and the life offered in Christ. But the first blessing we have, the first benefit that we have is justification offered to us. So Romans chapter 5, verse 17 through 19. For by the transgression of the one, speaking about Adam, death reign through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and have the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the one, Christ Jesus. So then, as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of all men. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, Christ, the many will be made righteous. So we have there that people are justified. They're made to be right before God. They have a right legal standing before God. That they're declared righteous, but they're also treated as being righteous. That the condemnation of Adam, of being a human in the human race, it's removed by Christ's work. that they're being accounted righteous. So not just forgiven and then left to live an earthly life trying to do right, but we're forgiven that our sins, our iniquities are removed, they're remembered no more, and that we're also given a right permanent standing before God. that there's this idea of an alien righteousness or a foreign righteousness. So in one lesson of this series, I talked about us being saved by works, but they're not our works. So because Christ came and like Galatians 4 said, he lived that earthly life under the law, That He kept the covenants that every man before Him broke. That He obeyed God's law. That He earned in Himself a righteousness, a right standing before God. That He was that right covenant keeper. And going to the cross and dying as that righteous man, He could pay for our sins. So when we place our faith in Christ, we receive His righteousness just as He receives our sins. We receive the benefits of being in Him just as He receives the penalty of taking our sins upon Himself. In the New Covenant we also have regeneration and sanctification. So we spoke in Jeremiah 31 about having a new heart of the Spirit being put within us. We've spoken here about a new creation. That's part of what regeneration is. It's a new birth. It's a second birth. So in John 3, you can read about this in a conversation Christ has with a man. But unless we're born again, not of a physical birth, but of a spiritual birth, we cannot know and see God. That we also have this idea of being sanctified. So God doesn't just save us and then leave us where we are, and then we die and go to heaven. But he regenerates us, he justifies us, he saves us. And then he goes on to continue through our earthly life to sanctify us, to make us more like Christ. That we're led by God's spirit according to God's word and how to be a part of God's people. that there's also the blessing, the benefit of adoption, of preservation as well. So we saw with David, there was that promise of the father and son relationship. And because in the new covenant, when we have faith in Christ, we're united with Christ, we have union with him. then the blessings that he receives as God's son, we also receive. So we're God's sons and daughters because of Christ. That we're also preserved, so again, we're not just left to ourselves. We don't have our slate wiped clean and then we're left. But God ensures that every one of us who he began a good work in, he will bring to completion. that there is also this hope of the resurrection and of glorification. So in the last lesson we talked about how Christ, that he died, that he went to the place of the dead, that he was raised again on the third day, that he's sitting at Christ's right hand ruling and reigning, that he spent time on earth where he walked around as a resurrected man. That was the proof that Christ's work was pleasing was that God gave him that reward as in Isaiah chapter 53. That reward of life, of being raised again from the dead. That in Christ we receive that eternal life. That death has no sting because death is just a passageway to go see Christ face to face. That sin has no power because Christ has defeated that power of sin. He has and he will crush the head of the serpent. Lastly, we see rest and assurance offered to us. So there's been a big pattern of labor and of work from Abraham and Moses and Noah of all these covenant heads that none of them were able to finally and fully give rest to the people from their deeds. But in Christ we have that, that he is our Sabbath rest. He is the one in whom we can place our eternity with because he has accomplished and assured all of it to all who will believe in him. that our assurance, and this is maybe the one that is overlooked in talking about covenant theology, talking about being in Christ, that because God has fully done all of this of His own initiative in sending Christ and giving us new eyes, giving us new hearts, giving us a faith, causing us to walk in his ways, giving us his spirit, that we do have the responsibility of responding with faith and repentance. We have the choice of obeying God, of trusting God, of taking him at his word. But because this new covenant is monergistic, it's a single act by God that he does to a people to redeem this people for himself, then our assurance will never be found in us living some kind of righteous life. Our assurance will never be found ultimately in our good works or our sanctification. Those things will take place if God really has saved us, but our assurance is really and truly, it's finally and ultimately in Christ himself as the one who has gone before us, as the one who has died for us, as the one who is our high priest. He's our mediator. He's our prophet. He's our king. So lastly we have, after the blessings of the New Covenant, we have the anticipation of the New Covenant. So, if you've read the book of Revelation at all, then you know that there are some strange things that are going to happen between when Christ came the first time and Christ's second coming. And this is not to debate about, you know, eschatology and how it'll all play out and are we in the end times now or will it be a time to come? What exactly do those details and numbers mean? This is really to give hope to us as we sit here in this earth, as we sit here as God's new creation, as we're citizens of the kingdom of heaven and still have to live life as citizens of this earth. That we know that we will die one day and one day Christ will wipe away this earth, finally, and there will be a new heaven and a new earth, unstained by sin, unmarred by destruction and decay and suffering. That this place will be free of sin and of evil. That God's salvation now, His work in us to conform us to His Son's image, prepares us for seeing Him one day face to face. And that's the second hope that we have in seeing Christ one day face to face. That now on this earth we walk by faith, that we haven't seen Him but we love Him, but that one day we will see the one who we love. That we hopefully are growing in our love for that Christ, that we're depending on Him more and more, we're giving more over to Him, that one day when we die, we will be able to see Him. that the Christian life is nothing more and nothing less than growing in love for Christ. So I was talking to a group of pastors recently, and we were talking about 1 Timothy 3, the qualifications for an elder. And, you know, really it's just qualifications for a mature man in the church that he should have these certain things about him that mark him as a Christ follower. But, at the end of the lesson, I got to a point and I said, okay, we have two options. Option one is that you can take all of these things and you can apply them to yourself and you can say, okay, I'm going to follow these ten principles and I'm going to try to be, you know, free from the love of money, for example. You can chase after principles, I said, or because we're in the new covenant in Christ, because we have that knowledge of God open to us, because Christ says, come to me, that You can follow the principles or you can follow after Christ. Because Christ's earthly life for us is such an example that he showed us what it is to walk as a man on this earth. And so our conformity, our goal, our aim as Christians is not just to fit a set of principles, but it's to conform our lives, to conform our desires, conform our hearts to this Christ that we know that has saved us. In the office here at HeartCry, you know we're a missions organization, first and foremost. So we find ourselves praying often for the needs of the field. We have a prayer meeting every morning where we ask God to send His Spirit to cause revival, to open up new doors. We pray for kings and those in authority, according to 1 Timothy 2. But we also will pray, after praying for, you know, felt needs of others, after praying for our men on the field, we will pray that the Lamb would receive the full reward for his suffering, that Christ died to accomplish something, that as that wonderful Lamb of God, he is owed a reward, that there is a people that he is building up as his church, that Christ has already won. There's no battle to be fought because he's done it all. That in the age to come, in the new heavens and new earth, all of God's people from every tribe, tongue, and nation will be gathered in and will all be together as God's people who he set himself out to redeem. So lastly, I'll say two things finally in closing. That a distinctive of Baptists of our covenant theology, and this is very important, is some see the Old Testament and New Testament as one covenant of God and it's just two different administrations or two different outworkings. So instead of Israel and circumcision, we have the new covenant and we have the church with sprinkling the children of the covenant as a sign of God's promise to continue to build His people. But as Baptists we see that as being incorrect, that logically that might make sense. But biblically we see that there are two different covenants. That in both covenants, in the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, people are saved by the same way. But there is a difference in this New Covenant. That all who are in this covenant, it's not like Israel where you have Israel and not Israel, or true Israel and Israel. So that within the group of God's people that He's called, some are His and some are not. But in this new covenant, in this church that He's building, everyone who is truly in are His. They truly belong to Him. There is no stepping in and out. There's no stepping out and then back in. It's Christ's pure people that He's drawing out and leading home to Himself. So lastly, I want to warn you, though, that... hearing all of these wonderful things about Christ and what He's done for us, hearing all the blessings and benefits of Christ and how He justifies us, how we receive His blessings and rewards, how He sanctifies us, how He keeps us. All of those are so wonderful, but we have to warn ourselves to not go to Christ for what Christ can do for us. We don't want to go to God for what God can do for us and say, okay, I need this, where are you? But we go to God because He is a worthy God. We go to Christ because He is a worthy Savior. That they, as God, deserve our worship, deserve our praise, deserve every beat of our hearts, every breath of our lungs. Every word that comes from our mouth, it's rightly owed to God. in God by some voluntary act, as we read in the very first lesson. By a voluntary act, he has sent his son to make a covenant with a people, to draw this people out for himself, to cause him to be their God and to be his people in a special and unique relationship. That he offers this for us and says, all who will come to him, all who will repent of their sin and trust, finally, ultimately, and only in Christ, That every blessing, every benefit, every bit of knowledge of God is open now for you. That eternal life waits for us of those who are in Christ. So thank you for watching these lessons. It's been fun for me to go through these. I've really benefited. It's helped my soul. It's helped my understanding of the Bible in working through these covenants. I hope that you are convinced, not of a system, not of a pattern, not of types and arguments and different things, but I hope that you're more convinced than you were at the start of the need for a love for Christ, of the beauty of what He's done, of this Christ who is worthy of every bit of our worship. I hope that Christ uses what good things I've said in this to cause you to be more inclined to Him, to love Him, to give more over to Him, to labor every day, whether you're working in a missionary society, or in a church, or in a factory, or you're a doctor, or a lawyer, or you're at home, or you're a child. I hope that He uses you to build His kingdom, to cause His will to be done as it is on heaven and now on earth. So thank you for watching these lessons. As a reminder, in the next lesson, lesson 12, we'll go through questions and answers, and I'll recommend some books for further reading. So thank you for watching, and God bless.