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I would like you to turn to Luke 
chapter 24. This is a PS to what I was saying last hour. This isn't an answer to our next 
question, which is, what is the new covenant? So this is kind 
of a freebie. I didn't know where to put this. 
I noticed that I skipped over something in my notes, and I 
started saying it over there to guys that were asking questions. 
So where do we put this in the flow of the lectures? We don't. 
a freebie down there someplace. You know how John Owen, if you 
read the Puritans, sometimes he'll be going along, your follower, 
and then suddenly, this digression, that's what this is. It's connected. 
I'm not sure how. No, I think you'll see how. Luke 
chapter 24, verse 7, saying, excuse me, verse 6, he is not 
here, but he has risen. Remember how he spoke to you 
while he was still in Galilee, saying that this is what Jesus 
taught when he was in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered 
into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and the third 
day rise again. Then turn over to verses 25 through 
27 of the same passage, and he said to them, this is the resurrected 
Christ, O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that 
the prophets of the Old Testament have spoken. Was it not necessary 
for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his 
glory? Sufferings and glory, according 
to Jesus, find their revelational taproots in the prophets of the 
Old Testament. Then, beginning with Moses, a prophet, writing prophet, and 
with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning 
himself in all the scriptures. Then turn over to verse 44. Now he said to them, these are 
my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you. That 
all things which are written about me in the law of Moses, 
the prophets, and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened 
their minds to understand the law of Moses, the prophets, and 
the Psalms are called scripture here. to understand the scriptures 
and he said to them, this is fascinating, thus it is written, 
now this is not a direct quotation of the Old Testament, it's indirect. 
Thus it is written, number one, that the Christ would suffer 
and rise again from the dead. So the sufferings and the entrance 
of glory of the Christ are in the Old Testament. rise from 
the dead, the third day, the third day resurrection, the prophets 
wrote about it. And this is in the Old Testament 
as well, that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be 
proclaimed in his name to all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. Why do you think Paul writes 
to the Jew first and then to the Greek? Is it just a historical 
fact that Jesus was a Jew, the apostles were Jews, they started 
in Jerusalem, so of course they preached to Jews first and then 
they go to Greeks. Is it just historical or is there something 
more to Jew first than Greek? This says all this is connected 
to that which has been written, proclamation of the forgiveness 
of sins in the name of the Messiah was going to go to all nations 
according to the prophets, but it was going to start from Jerusalem. 
If you read the prophets of the Old Testament, you'll see a theology 
of Messiah to come connected to a remnant of believers, believing 
Jews, that occurs in Jerusalem, and that after that, Gentiles 
are brought into the covenant people of God. That's what Jesus 
is saying. The Old Testament said I was 
going to come, I was going to suffer, enter into glory, and 
then proclamation of the forgiveness of sins in my name was going 
to go through the apostles to the Jews first and then to the 
nations of the world. That's all found in the Old Testament 
according to Jesus. Then turn over to Acts chapter 
26. Acts chapter 26. Verse 19, so King Agrippa, I 
did not prove, this is Paul, I didn't prove disobedient to 
the heavenly vision, but kept declaring both to those of Damascus 
first, and also at Jerusalem, and then throughout all the region 
of Judea, and even to the Gentiles. By the way, Acts 1.8, that's 
kind of an echo of Acts 1.8. You know how people say, Acts 
1.8 to Jerusalem, then all Judea, and to the remotest parts of 
the earth. Everybody has a Jerusalem. Everybody has a Judea. Everybody 
has a wider sphere of ministry. That's not how Acts 1.8 is supposed 
to be. You know what Acts 1.8 is? It's 
a microcosm of what the prophet said was going to happen when 
Messiah came and the proclamation of forgiveness of sins would 
occur through his designated servants. That's what it is, 
but I digress. That they should repent and turn 
to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance. For this reason 
some Jews seized me in the temple and tried to put me to death. 
So, having obtained help from God, I stand to this day testifying 
both to small and great, stating nothing but what the prophets 
and Moses said was going to take place. That Christ was to suffer, 
and that by reason of his resurrection from the dead, he would be the 
first to proclaim light both to the people, the Jewish people, 
and to the Gentiles. Sufferings and glory. First written about through the 
prophets, including Moses, of the Old Testament. So the Old 
Testament points to the sufferings and glory of the Messiah. And the Gospels record the sufferings 
and the glory of the Messiah and the resurrection and ascension 
for us. And the rest of the New Testament is God's interpretation 
and application of the events recorded for us in the Gospels, 
the interpretation and application brought to the churches in the 
first century. So God acts covenantally in space 
and time on the Earth. Then God interprets his covenantal 
acts through the inspired written word of God. So that's just kind 
of a PS to the first hour. I skipped that. I think I got 
lost in my notes at some point. And I skipped other things, too, 
but I'm not going to go back to them. So no more PSs. We have 
a second question, or a third question. What is the new covenant? 
The first question is, what is a divine covenant? Second question 
is, what is covenant theology? Can we justify it? Third is, 
what is the New Covenant? Remember, I said we were going 
to kind of go chronologically backwards by starting at the 
New Testament. And I'm going to fudge on even 
that. But to answer this question, what is the New Covenant, we'll 
look at how the Old Testament promises the New Covenant and 
how the New Testament explains and applies the New Covenant. OK, I think it's a faulty hermeneutical 
move just to look at the Old Testament all by itself. The 
Old Testament is not a book that can stand on its own, irrespective 
of what Walter C. Kaiser said many, many years 
ago. He said this, the Old Testament can stand on its own. It did 
so for many years before the New Testament was written. Now, 
why was the New Testament written? Because the Old Testament couldn't 
stand on its own. Because the Old Testament promised 
that God was going to do something greater than the old exodus. 
And he did it through the skull-crushing seed of his woman, the Lord Jesus 
Christ. And then God explained what he did in Christ in the 
New Testament. The Old Testament, it can't stand on its own, Dr. Kaiser. So we'll look at the 
Old Testament. But we're going to look at the 
New Testament which is the full, mature explanation and application 
of that which was promised in the Old Testament, in our case, 
the new covenant. We'll see it in its inauguration 
and formal establishment, the death of the blood or death of 
Christ. And then we'll see the apostles 
applying it briefly. So let's look, first of all, 
at the Old Testament. What is the new covenant? Let's go to 
the Old Testament. Jeremiah chapter 31. In case I go too long and we don't 
have time for questions, which is probably going to happen, 
your pastor would be glad to answer any questions you might 
have, especially difficult ones, thorny ones, hard ones, after 
I leave. The only types of Q&A I like 
is when I write the questions. at the pastor's conference last 
fall. I knew none of the guys were going to write questions 
or ask many questions. So I wrote all the questions. 
And then I was on the panel that got to answer them as well. So 
if we could do it that way, I get to ask the questions and answer 
them. That would be great. Jeremiah 31, of course, this 
is the classic passage in the Old Testament that actually uses 
the phrase new covenant. The phrase new covenant is used 
I forgot, six or seven times in the New Testament, only once 
in the Old Testament, here in Jeremiah 31. So Jeremiah 31, 
31 through 34. Let's read the text, and then 
I'll make a few observations. Behold, days are coming. Sometimes the prophets say, in 
that day. Sometimes in that day or coming 
days is near historical. It's a judgment that's coming 
or whatever. At other times, in this case, it's far historical. It's farther out than just a 
contemporary judgment or a blessing for the people of God. Days are 
coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with 
the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 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. 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 should be my people. They will not teach again 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 for I will forgive their 
iniquity and their sin I will remember no more for I will forgive 
their iniquity that word for is very important why why is 
it that they will all know me Now, this isn't just a knowledge 
about God. Everybody possesses the knowledge 
of God, and even unconverted people, they suppress it unrighteously. It's not something that they 
can acquire if they put their mind to it. It's something that 
is innate, that we already have. If everybody has the knowledge 
of God, we just push it away, okay? That's not what he's talking 
about here. For they will all know me. What 
does he mean? They'll all know about me. They'll 
be taught about me. They'll be instructed. They'll 
sit in classes like this. They can say, oh, I know about 
God. I know about the Lord. They all know me, for I'll forgive 
their iniquity. These are saved people. These 
are people with their sins forgiven. This knowledge of God is a covenantal 
or a saving knowledge of God that he's talking about here. 
Let me make three observations and we'll go to another text 
in the Old Testament about the New Covenant. This New Covenant 
is promised to be revealed as a covenant to be formally inaugurated 
in the future. Its formal inauguration, its 
actual historical establishment will be in the future. Verse 31, behold, days are coming. So this is a prophecy. of the 
future. A second observation is that 
this covenant is not like the covenant at Sinai, a covenant 
which could be and was broken by old covenant Israel, verse 
32. 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. The new covenant's not like that. 
It can't be broken. Once you're in, you're in. Third, the new covenant secures 
various blessings for all in the covenant. You have the law 
written on the heart in verse 32, that is God himself tinkering 
with our souls. God comes in from the outside, 
God enters into the life and the soul and the experience of 
a sinner and the heart has the law written on it. you can ask 
your pastor what all that means, practically speaking. Secondly, 
the universal saving knowledge of God within the community is 
also a promise here in the New Covenant, different from the 
Old Covenant. In the New Covenant, it says here, for all will know 
me for I'll forgive their iniquities. Everybody in the old covenant 
knew about God, but didn't necessarily have saving communion with God, 
because the old covenant didn't ensure the forgiveness of the 
sins of every single person that was in the covenant, the actual 
forgiveness of sins, the personal forgiveness of sins. So here 
we have the universal saving knowledge 
of God within the covenant community. Everybody in this covenant community 
knows God savingly. Why? Their sins are forgiven, 
which is another blessing, the universal forgiveness of sins 
within the covenant community. Everybody in this covenant community 
has their sins forgiven. And it's hard not to read this 
in the light of the New Testament. Why are their sins forgiven? 
Because an objective, exhaustive, expiation for their sins was 
offered once and for all. It was completed and finished 
in the suffering death under obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
Jeremiah 32, 40. Notice I'm just kind of picking, 
I'm just going in, just picking a verse here and there or a passage. 
We can't do all the exposition. Your pastor will provide that 
for you. He's like John Gill. By the time he's finished, he's 
going to have gone through every single book of the Bible and 
commented on it, except some. You've got a lot of wind in you, 
man. And some of what Jim says is 
actually worth hearing. It's true of all of us. There's 
only one infallible interpreter of the Holy Scripture, and it 
is the Holy Spirit in the Holy Scripture. He's not an infallible interpreter 
of Holy Scripture. Neither am I. No one is. No churches, 
no body of men, no theologians, no women, no boys, no girls, 
no nothing, except the only infallible being in the universe could be 
the only infallible interpreter of the Word of God has to be 
God Himself. Jeremiah 32, 40, just picking this one out there, 
I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Isaiah also calls 
what ends up being called the New Covenant by Jeremiah and 
the writers in the New Testament. Isaiah calls it an everlasting 
or eternal covenant. Paul or whoever wrote Hebrews, 
who do you say wrote Hebrews? Paul wrote Hebrews. Thank you. 
Paul will just say in Hebrews 13, 20 calls the new covenant, 
an everlasting or eternal covenant, I will make an everlasting covenant 
with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good. And I will put the fear of me 
in their hearts. I'm not going to turn away from 
them to do them good, and they're not going to turn away from me 
either. I'm going to put my fear in their hearts so that they 
will not turn away from me. So here we have the language 
of everlasting covenant Isaiah 61.8 and then Hebrews 13.20 uses 
the same or similar language. God will not turn away from those 
in this covenant like He did when old covenant Israel broke 
the covenant by turning away from Him. And then God will work 
in their hearts and none in this covenant will turn away from 
Him. These are not conditions. God's 
not saying, if you don't turn away from me, guess what? I'm 
not going to turn away from you. Let's sign that baby. That's 
not what it is. God's saying, here's what I'm 
going to do. I'm going to go in there, I'm going to change 
their hearts. I'm not going to turn away from them, they're 
not going to turn away from me. You can bank on it. This is not 
like the covenant that He made with the fathers, which they 
broke. This is different. Ezekiel chapter 
36, Ezekiel chapter 36, verses 24 through 27. For I will take you 
from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring 
you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water 
on you. There's a justification for sprinkling 
as a mode of baptism. I'm kidding. But I think Matthew 
Henry or somebody does use that text. John Gill doesn't. Then I will sprinkle clean, Jim 
Butler better not. Then I will sprinkle clean water 
on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your 
filthiness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give 
you a new heart echoes of Jeremiah here, and put a new spirit within 
you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and 
give you a heart of flesh. Nicodemus, you should have known 
this, Jesus tells us later in the Bible. I will put my spirit 
within you, and here it is, cause you to walk in my statutes, and 
you will be careful to observe my ordinances. Just three observations. Number 
one, everyone in this covenant will be forgiven of all their 
sins. Verse 25, then I will sprinkle 
clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you 
from all your filthiness and from all your idols. There is 
therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. All past, all present, and all 
the ugly future sins that we're gonna commit. If you're in Christ, 
You're forgiven. Why? He exhausted the wrath of 
God for us. God is promising the forgiveness 
of all the sins of all the people that will be the beneficiaries 
of this covenant. Secondly, everyone in this covenant will have a 
new heart. This is the promise of regeneration, a new heart 
for everybody in this covenant. Verse 26, moreover, I will give 
you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will remove 
the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of 
flesh. I forgot to accentuate, I will. I heard Sam Waldron preach 
this passage, or maybe the Jeremiah. God says, I will, nine times, 
brother, or whatever. Maybe it was seven. That's the 
number of perfection. And every time you read it, I 
will. I will. And the paint started coming 
off the walls. Some of you know Waldron. He just looks like a 
beast. He's really a sweet teddy bear. But notice the divine initiation. Okay, this is coming from God 
to men. No negotiations. This is what God is going to 
do. And then third, everyone in this 
covenant will possess the Spirit of God as the effective cause 
of their obedience. Verse 27, again, this is a blessing. This is not a condition. God 
is not saying, if you obey my law, I'll give you my spirit. 
No, he says, look, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to 
put my spirit in you. He's going to cause you to obey my law. 
So it is not the result, the spirit being my privilege to 
possess, is not the result of my obedience. It's not the condition. If you obey, you get the Spirit. 
It's, you're gonna obey. Now, here's why. There's gonna 
be this vertical, top-down, from heaven to your soul, work done 
in your soul that causes you to obey. Verse 27, I'll put my 
Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. You will 
be careful to observe my ordinances. So everything promised by God 
is ensured by what? Our sincere obedience? 
By God. I don't usually say this, but 
this is a God thing. God is acting. When God says 
he's going to act, God's going to act. And when God acts, Who 
can, as David or somebody said, Daniel, who's going to thwart 
his hand? Who's going to hit God's hand? 
How dare you come in here and try to change my heart and give 
me the Spirit and forgive me of all my sins and make me love 
the truth and make me repent and believe and make me obey 
you. How dare you do that? We don't do that. God does that. That's why we call it, when did 
you get saved? What does that imply? I didn't 
save myself. I was passive. Something outside 
of me came, and I was transformed from the inside out. I remember 
right after I was converted, I was standing in a Burger King. 
Do you guys have Burger King up here? I think it's a Burger 
King or Burger Place. Big line. I'm standing there 
waiting, and behind me, somebody taps on me. I turn around, it 
was a buddy from college, Robert, and he says, Barcelos, is that 
you? I said, yeah. He said, I heard you got religious. 
And I looked at him, I said, I didn't do anything. This happened 
to me. I mean, yeah, I repented, I believe, 
but God, I didn't know how to explain it then. I'd say, what 
do you think? I'm an Arminian? I'm a Calvinist. I didn't know 
what those words were. But I knew that whatever this 
text is saying, now that I'm Arminian, I'm going, yeah, yeah, 
yeah, that's happened. God did that graciously, OK, 
without my invitation. No, I subsequently received the 
gospel. I repented of my sins. I believed 
in Christ all by grace. God acting. So everything promised 
is to be given. As I said before, several times 
in both these passages, God says, I will. I will. And the result of those I wills 
is pardon of sin, a new heart, and obedience to the law of God. 
So everything required is provided. And in this sense, the new covenant 
is not like the old covenant. The blessings of the old covenant, 
remember, were conditioned upon Israel's obedience to the law. There's Exodus 19, 4 through 
6, we already read, but you could read Leviticus 26 and other places, 
the if, then, if, then, if, then. If you obey this, then I'll do 
this. If you obey this, then I'll do this. The blessings of 
the old covenant were temporal for the promised land in ancient 
Palestine, ancient Israel, and conditioned upon the obedience 
of the covenant people. And when they violated to the 
point that God would no longer be patient with them, then the 
sanctions came upon them. And they end up getting exiled 
from the special place of God on the earth that he gave them. 
their land. By the way, they weren't the first sons of God 
to be exiled. You know Israel was a son of 
God, right? In Exodus chapter 4, verses 22 and 23, Moses is 
going, you know, what am I going to tell Pharaoh? And God says, 
tell him to let my people go. My son, my firstborn, that's 
Israel. Israel was God's son, God's firstborn, 
exiled from the special place that God appointed them to live 
in. But the first son that got exiled 
out of a special place that God put him to live in and serve 
him in was Adam, right? Anyway, I don't know why we did 
that, but we just did that. Oh, Old Covenant Israel. The 
blessings of the Old Covenant were conditioned upon Israel's 
obedience to the law. In the new covenant, though, 
God bestows all the blessings of the covenant to all its members 
as a result of what God does to them and in them they obey. God acts graciously toward us 
and in us, and the fruit of that is obedience, which is one of 
the promises, very promises, of the new covenant, one of the 
I wills. I'll work in them, and my work 
in them will produce fruit out of them. But the condition in 
order to gain the benefits of this covenant is not They're 
working out for me. They're law-keeping. That is 
the fruit of having received the work of God. It is not a 
condition for receiving blessings from God. Their obedience is 
not a condition to be met in order to be blessed. It is the 
result of having been blessed. You have any obedience in your 
life, you have any sanctification in your life, It's the result 
of having been blessed by God through Jesus Christ. It's the 
result of grace coming to the soul and God blessing the means 
of grace to further your soul into Christ-likeness. It's not 
the condition upon which your sins are forgiven. It's not the 
condition upon which you get the promised benefits of the 
New Covenant. The promised benefits of the New Covenant are lavished 
freely upon us in the Beloved One. They were earned, but not by us. What are the benefits 
of redemption? Justification, adoption, sanctification, 
glorification, at least those four. Do we earn justification? A verdict from heaven towards 
sinners. But even though you're still 
a sinner, I consider you righteous. Based on your own righteousness? No, it's the righteousness of 
Christ. Adoption into the family of God, full privileges, all 
that which is going to be inherited by one and every true son or 
daughter of God is yours. Based on what? My goodness? I was a child of 
wrath. Based on the obedient son, Christ 
again. sanctification, obeying God's 
law. Where does that come? By grace, glorification. We get 
glorified only if we have more law keeping than law breaking. What is our glorification based 
on? The righteous obedience of Christ 
and Him alone. All the benefits of the new covenant 
have conditions. The sufferings, Christ. And we know that his 
sufferings, his obedience, was received by the Father. He raised 
him from the dead. He entered him into glory. He 
exalted human nature in the Incarnate Son from death to life. And now he sits at the right 
hand of the Father. This obedience is the fruit of 
covenant membership, not the condition of covenant membership. The obedience in us is that which 
is produced in us by the grace of God coming to us because of 
the merit of Jesus Christ. That's the Old Testament kind 
of theology of the New Covenant. And let's look at the New Covenant 
in the New Testament. The New Covenant in the New Testament. 
This will probably be quicker. 1130 is good? It's inaugurated by the shed 
blood of Christ. Now this is in a few places in 
the Gospels. Let's look at, well, we'll start 
at Matthew 26. Matthew 26. 26 through 29. But if you're taking notes, Mark 
14, 22 through 24, and Luke 22, 19 and 20, Matthew 26, 26, while 
they were eating. Now, we didn't read Exodus 24, one through eight. If you're interested, read Matthew 
26, 26 through 29, then go read Exodus 24, one through eight. And then just try to make some 
mental notes, some parallels, some things that are common here. 
It's the inauguration of the old covenant with the shedding 
of blood. God is there, present in a special 
way with a select few of the covenant community who represent 
the others. There's bloodshed. God's specially 
present. It's on a mountain. And it says, 
and they ate with God. I think it's Exodus 24, verse 
8. Very interesting parallels with this passage. passages we did in the Old Testament. 
What do you think Jesus is talking about here? Something never revealed 
before? Jesus, what in the world are you talking about? They're 
totally disconnected from all the revelation already given 
in Moses and the prophets. I don't think that's what's going 
on here. This is connected to revelation already given. It's 
the blood of the new covenant. But I say to you, I will not 
drink of this fruit of the vine from you until that day when 
I drink it with you in my Father's kingdom, the kingdom, the eternal 
kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, as Peter says in chapter 2. By 
the way, as a footnote, the Lord's Supper has an eschatological 
or an anticipatory element to it. Jesus said in the eschaton, 
there's going to be drinking of the fruit of the vine with 
the glorified saints and their Savior. So the Lord's Supper 
should cause us to look forward as well as not only to look back, 
but that's a side note. Now the other passage in Luke 
22 is the one I want to look at. Luke 22, verse 19. Just to show you something. Luke 22, 19, and when he had 
taken some bread and Given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, 
saying, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this in 
remembrance of me. And in the same way, he took 
the cup after they had eaten, saying, this cup, which is poured 
out for you, is the new covenant in my blood." So if Matthew wasn't 
clear enough, Luke is. By the way, it's interesting, 
and Jim, you might be you probably are, since you're like John Gill, 
you preach through all the books of the Bible. You've already 
preached probably through both of these, right? Matthew and Luke? Okay. Okay. Matthew doesn't use New 
Covenant. Luke does. Now if you think about 
the audiences, most likely from all that we know for those two 
Gospels, the Gospel of Matthew was written by a Jew. I think 
he wrote it in Jerusalem. I think he wrote it relatively 
early compared to the other books in the New Testament. Sorry. 
And well, this much is true. A Jew wrote it, probably to Jews, 
probably in Jerusalem or around Jerusalem. And Matthew is a very 
Jewish Old Testament. So if he doesn't use the phrase, 
new covenant. But the concept is there. His 
readers, boom, boom, like that, would know it. Luke, probably, 
from what we can tell, even from Luke's own pen at the beginning 
of Luke and Acts, He's probably writing to a Gentile audience. 
So using the phrase New Covenant might be more appropriate. Gentiles 
not as well steeped in, of course, the theology of the Old Testament. But nonetheless, we know that 
the New Covenant is said to be inaugurated by the shed blood 
of Christ. In other words, Christ brings 
the blessings of the New Covenant to us through what he has done 
for us. So redemption accomplished, what 
he did for us, becomes redemption applied, what he does to or in 
us. The blessings of the New Covenant 
are conditioned upon what Christ did not upon what we do. Okay? The New Covenant doesn't 
come to us and God doesn't say, okay, if you do this and if you 
do that, I'll give you a long life in the land. See, it's not conditioned like 
the older Mosaic Covenant, is it? It does have, in one sense, 
it is conditioned upon obedience. the obedience of our Lord Jesus 
Christ. Another thing about the New Covenant 
in the New Testament is that it's very clear its blessings 
are enjoyed by those in the church, both Jew and Gentile. Second 
Corinthians chapter 3, verses 1 through 3 and 6, in the context 
of Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, writing to a Gentile church, 
he says basically that the results of the inaugurated New Covenant 
have been are illustrated in your lives because God, through 
my preaching, changed your souls in fulfillment of that which 
He said way back in Jeremiah 31. He said, a new covenant I'd 
make, and He's made it, and you're the fruit, you're the evidence, 
you're the testimony that my apostolic ministry is actually 
blessed by the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Only God did through 
my preaching only what God can do. He tinkered with your soul. 
He made you alive together with Christ. And he goes back to the 
theology of the promised new covenant in Jeremiah chapter 
31 in 2nd Corinthians chapter 3, which is very fascinating. 
I didn't make this comment, but when we're reading Jeremiah 31, 
it says, I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and 
the house of Judah. And then he drops Judah. And it just says, 
House of Israel could be the other way around. The second 
time, and that's caused some interpreters, some of us were 
talking about this at the break, to say, oh, that's for the Jews. 
But that's not the way the New Testament reads the application 
of the new covenant. There's a new covenant for the 
Jews. Some of you know that an older dispensational scholar 
actually said there's two new covenants, one for Jews, one 
for Gentiles. That's not the way Jesus or the apostles read 
it. They saw one new covenant promised by the Old Testament, 
by the prophets of the Old Testament, inaugurated through the obedience 
and shed blood and exaltation in the glory of the Lord Jesus 
Christ and applied by the power of the Holy Spirit in conjunction 
with the proclamation of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
One new covenant shared in by both Jew and Gentile. You ever 
thought a little about the concept of mystery? You know how, especially 
like in Colossians and elsewhere in the New Testament, it talks 
about the mystery, Christ in you, the hope of glory, Colossians 
1, 26, I think. It's a great mystery. Some people 
looked at mystery as, and they said this, oh, a mystery is something 
that's, it's never been revealed before. It's new, okay? So they looked at the church 
as the mystery. Church, not revealed in the Old 
Testament. Two Gentiles in one body under 
Christ, not revealed in the Old Testament. It's a mystery. And 
the reason why the church came into existence, this is old school 
dispensationalism, is because the Jews kicked Jesus in the 
shins in Matthew chapter 12. They committed this blasphemy 
against the Holy Spirit and then Jesus changed. He stopped offering 
the millennial kingdom to the Jews and then he preached through 
the parables, okay, to confuse them, Matthew 13. That's not 
what mystery means. It doesn't mean unrevealed, okay? When you read a mystery novel, 
things are being revealed, right? And then by the time you finish, 
you look back and go, wow, that's chapter one. And then you think 
back to chapter two, oh, man, now I can see it, okay? That's 
the concept of mystery most often in the New Testament. That which 
was revealed has been clearly now explained as far as the details 
of fulfillment by the New Testament. So, and I'm not sure why I did 
that, except this, the Jew-Gentile thing, okay? What was the mystery? Gentiles coming to the Lord, 
is that the mystery? Never ever revealed before by 
the Old Testament? It was way back to Abraham. You're going to be a conduit 
through which the blessing is going to come to the nations 
of the earth. Jesus, at the end of Luke 24, remember we read 
that? He said, hey, Moses and the prophets and the Psalms said 
this would happen, that the Messiah would come. that the Messiah 
would suffer, that he would be raised on the third day, that 
he would enter into glory, that proclamation of the forgiveness 
of sins would be proclaimed in his name first in Jerusalem. The implication is then elsewhere, 
to the Jew first, and then to the Greek as its taproots. in the Old Testament. And the 
promise of the New Covenant was by one of Israel's prophets revealed 
by God through the prophet to the Old Covenant people in the 
language of the Old Covenant, but it's clear in the New Testament. 
The fulfillment is in Christ. The application is to the Jew 
Gentile Church. Another observation is that its 
virtue, the virtue of the New Covenant, is that by which all 
true believers were saved prior to its formal inauguration. Listen to these words in the 
book of Hebrews. This is so liberating to be able to say this. Turn 
to Paul's letter to the Hebrews. I'm at home here, brother, Pastor 
Butler said. Hebrews 9.5. Let me say this 
again. The virtue of the new covenant, 
the blessings, that which it brings to sinners, is that by 
which all true believers were saved prior to its formal inauguration. That's a fancy way of saying 
this. Anybody throughout the history of the world that's been 
saved has been saved by virtue of the sufferings and entrance 
into glory of the Lord of glory. Before he became a man, after 
he became a man. Christ is always the object of 
the saved sinner's faith, no matter what period of this world's 
history that he or she might live in. Hebrews 9, 15. For this 
reason, he, Christ, is the mediator of a new covenant, so that since 
a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions 
that were committed under the first covenant, those who have 
been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. Okay, so people committed transgressions 
under the First Covenant, but they weren't saved, or their 
sins weren't dealt with in an eternal kind of a way. The sacrifices 
of the Old Covenant were temporary pictures of what God would do 
in the Son. Hebrews chapter 10, verses 1 
through 4. for the law since it has only a shadow of the good 
things to come and not the very form of things can never by the 
same sacrifices the laws of the old covenant which they offer 
continually year by year make perfect those who draw near otherwise 
would they not have ceased to be offered because the worshippers 
having once been cleansed would no longer have had consciences 
consciousness of sins but In those sacrifices, there is a 
reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the 
blood of bulls and goats to take away sins." So anyone and everyone 
who has been the beneficiary of eternal life, who's saved, 
is saved by virtue of what Christ does. This is why our confession 
reads this way in chapter 8, verse paragraph 6. Although the 
price of redemption was not actually paid by Christ till after his 
incarnation, yet the virtue, efficacy, and benefit thereof 
were communicated to the elect in all ages, successively. from 
the beginning of the world in and by those promises, types, 
and sacrifices wherein he was revealed and signified to be 
the seed which should bruise the serpent's head, the lamb 
slain from the foundation of the world being the same yesterday 
and today and forever." Another observation on the New Testament 
theology of the New Covenant is that it is permanent, unlike 
the Old Covenant. It's permanent. It's called eternal. 
in Hebrews 13 20 in Isaiah chapter 61 verse 8 Hebrews 8 7 very clear 
that the old covenant became obsolete new covenants never 
gonna become obsolete because he it has to do with the eternal 
redemption not just temporary blessings of a particular people, 
but the eternal redemption of sinners. Fourth or fifth, it's 
better than the Old Covenant because it had better promises. 
This book on covenant theology by E.M.I. Cox and John Owen. 
It's John Owen's exposition of Hebrews chapter 8, verses 6 through 
13. and of the various things he 
covers is this, the New Covenant is better than the Old Covenant 
because it has better promises. What are the better promises, 
or at least some of the better promises of the New Covenant? 
The forgiveness of all your sins. The universal saving knowledge 
of God for everybody in the Covenant. The law written on the heart 
of everybody in the Covenant. Sixth, this New Covenant ensures 
the justification, sanctification, and glorification of all of its 
participants in Hebrews chapter 9 verses 11 and 12. But when 
Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He 
entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not 
made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation, and not 
through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, 
He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal 
redemption. This covenant ensures the eternal 
redemption of everyone in the covenant. That is, justification, 
sanctification, and glorification are benefits of the new covenant 
enjoyed by everybody in the new covenant, which, by the way, 
which benefits were also enjoyed by people before This new covenant 
was actually formally inaugurated. It is by the grace and benefits 
of this covenant that anyone and everyone that has been, is, 
and will be saved was saved. And another observation, this 
covenant is all of grace apart from any and all works of the 
law. It's not conditioned upon our obedience to the law. of 
God. Justification, sanctification, 
glorification are gifts, benefits brought to us. The efficacy of 
this covenant is based on what Christ did for us and has nothing 
to do with what we do for Christ, okay? It's not just that Christ 
died under the wrath of God and absolved us of our past sins, 
and now in order to get there, okay, we got our sins forgiven. 
Now to get there, we have to offer our obedience to contribute 
to that which Christ has already done. Christ did His part, we 
do our part. His part was to suffer because 
of our sins. Ours is to obey God to finally 
get there so at the judgment day we can say, hey, I have some 
works to contribute to this thing. No, the efficacy of this covenant 
is based on what Christ did for us alone and has nothing to do 
with what we do for Christ. You see, if your motive for obeying 
the Lord is, I need to contribute to the final 
verdict, I don't think there's anybody in here, I hope there's 
nobody in here that thinks that way. That's death to your soul. You really want to contribute 
to the verdict that you are righteous? How are you gonna, you're gonna 
offer up, God's gonna take what, sincere obedience? As perfect obedience? No, God's requirement for perfect 
obedience has never changed. Now our confession uses the language 
of sincere obedience. But not in the chapter on justification. Sincere, imperfect obedience, 
amazing thought is received gladly by the Father through the Son, 
from His children, but not as the grounds or basis of the justifying 
verdict that there is therefore now no condemnation for those 
who are in Christ. Okay? He receives our weak-kneed 
obedience, and he is pleased to do that, but not in order 
to get us to glory, but as a token of thankfulness that because 
of Christ, I'm going to glory, not because of me. So, in conclusion, 
this covenant secures all the blessings promised by it through 
the work of Christ. Christ earns the blessings of 
the covenant by obeying. By the way, the first Adam sinned, didn't he? The last Adam obeys. Christ fully satisfies all the 
demands of God's law. He also exhausted damnation for 
us on the cross. He also earned the gift of the 
Spirit for us by his obedience, Acts 2.33. And he confers upon 
us all the benefits of the New Covenant through the means of 
faith and faith alone. So that is what is the New Covenant. We looked at the Old Testament. 
We looked at the New Testament. The next section, which I want 
to do at Sunday school, tomorrow is why is the New Covenant necessary? Why is the New Covenant necessary? 
And that's when we'll go backwards in our Bibles and we're going 
to end up, well ultimately, where Pastor Butler preached in the 
Covenant of Redemption, but we're going to end up in the Garden 
of Eden because I think that's where it all started. That's 
where Covenant theology started. That's where the first divine 
covenant was, divine human covenant was, God imposing this relationship 
with man in order to have communion with him and the stipulations 
or the conditions upon which that communion would not only 
be maintained, but I think brought to another more permanent level. Adam was put on the earth to 
obey and he sinned. Christ didn't sin. All have sinned 
and fall short of the glory of God. Adam was the first sinner, 
so what did he fall short of? The glory of God. Adam wasn't 
created in an eternal kind of a conditioned state. Adam was 
created in such a way as he could fall. He could change the state 
of his soul and his relationship with God by his sin or obedience. Christ didn't sin. Therefore, 
he didn't fall short of the glory of God. But he suffered because 
of our sins, and he entered into glory. And he's going to bring 
many sons, Hebrews 2.10, to glory. And the gospel is preached to 
us for one reason, that we might understand that we're going to 
share, 2 Thessalonians 2.13, or 14, or 12, something like 
that. It could be 14. We're going to 
share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So we're going 
to end up in the Garden of Eden in our study as far as the necessity 
of the New Covenant because it's Adam's sin. But we'll do that 
tomorrow. Let's pray and then you can go 
to Pastor Butler's study and ask any questions of him that 
you'd like. Lord, we thank you for the Word 
of God. And we pray that you would send your spirit to make clear to our minds what 
your Word teaches, which I fully confess that is not necessarily 
all that I have said this morning. But surely something that I have 
said accurately reflects the Word of God. And we know that 
that's what the Spirit blesses. So blow away, weed out anything 
that was not true and right, and cement in our souls that 
which was true and right. And we know that is only that 
which reflects Your Word. Bless your word, our souls, and 
we thank you for the opportunity as well for later today to rejoice 
in your goodness to this congregation for many years, and we look forward 
also in anticipation of the Lord's Day for your blessings upon public 
worship, and we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.