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Scripture Reading: Matt. 26:28
We have seen what a promise is and what a fact is. This morning we will see what God's covenant is. A covenant includes a promise and a fact. Today we will consider in detail what the new covenant includes. God has never established a covenant with the Gentiles. There was no old covenant and no new covenant with them. Before the new covenant, of necessity, there was another covenant that became old; hence, the new covenant. This point relates to biblical knowledge. Originally I had no intention of mentioning this. But, for the sake of helping those who want to study the Bible more and want to understand the origin of the covenant, I have to say something. In the Bible the new covenant is strictly for the Jews, the people of Israel; it is not for the Gentiles. Jeremiah 31:31 says, "Behold, days are coming, declares Jehovah, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah." This verse is the first mention in the whole Bible of God's making a new covenant with the Jews. Notice that the covenant was made between God and the house of Israel and the house of Judah. What time does "after those days" in verse 33 refer to? Most people believe that it refers to the beginning of the millennium at the end of the tribulation. They believe that God will not make a new covenant with the Israelites until that time. If this were the case, God has not made a new covenant with us because He has yet to make a new covenant even with the Jews. Please note that only Christ's special grace allows us to participate in the new covenant. The Bible clearly says that when the Lord Jesus died, He shed His blood for the enactment of the new covenant. This blood is the blood of the new covenant. The time for enacting the new covenant between God and the Jews, as mentioned by Jeremiah, will be at the end of the tribulation and the beginning of the kingdom. However, the writer of the book of Hebrews applied Jeremiah's word to us. Matthew 26:28 says that the Lord's blood is the blood of the new covenant, and Hebrews 8:8-13 says that the new covenant belongs to this age. How can we explain this? We have to realize that God made a covenant with Abraham. He did not make a covenant with us. Just as Abraham was justified by faith, we are also justified by faith. Today we can similarly enjoy the future new covenant. We are doing what the Israelites will do in the future. God has put us under the blessing of the new covenant today.
In Romans Paul told us that a man, through faith, could participate in the covenant God made with Abraham. The same principle applies in obtaining the covenant that God will make with the Jews. As long as we follow the footsteps of Abraham, we will receive the covenant that God gave to Abraham. As long as we trust in the same thing that the Israelites, in the future, will trust in, we will receive the future covenant. Zechariah says that the people of Israel will one day come, believe, and acknowledge Jesus as their Savior, not just as their Messiah. If we believe in the Lord Jesus, as the Jews will believe in the future, God will put us in His new covenant. If we believe what Abraham believed, we will receive Abraham's blessing. If we believe now what the Israelites will believe in the future, we will receive what the Jews will receive in the future.
We can see clearly that the time for realizing the new covenant is in the future at the beginning of the millennium. Through the Lord Jesus' death for us, we now have a foretaste of the blessing of the new covenant. There is no doubt about this. We need to pay attention to what the new covenant is. From the time God spoke about enacting the new covenant through Jeremiah to the time the Lord Jesus established the new covenant, how many years were there? The time span was very long; it was a few hundred years. During these few hundred years, the new covenant was just dead letters. It is a pity that many Jews did not receive the blessing of the new covenant. Although God's covenant was written out, placed before them, and they had read about God's making a new covenant with the people of Israel, they did not know how they could obtain this new covenant, nor did they receive the blessings of the new covenant. Thank the Lord that He did not mention a covenant throughout most of His lifetime. He did not speak of a covenant. All He did was cast out demons, heal the sick, feed men by multiplying loaves, and preach the gospel. Our Lord worked quietly, day after day and year after year. Then one night, when He was alone with a few disciples at dinner, He suddenly brought up a covenant which was very old, buried, concealed, and completely forgotten, but was still very precious, reliable, and signed. It was a covenant that had never been used or claimed by anyone. Suddenly the Lord declared that the cup was His blood, which was shed for the new covenant. From the time He came to the earth to the time He died, the central thought occupying the Lord Jesus was enacting the covenant. But until that night He had not explicitly mentioned that He was going to fulfill this covenant. He said then that the blood He was to shed was for the enactment of the new covenant.
Today man has forgotten the full gospel. Most people say that the Lord Jesus shed His blood to redeem man from sin. Truly, the blood of the Lord was shed for redemption. But at the same time, it was also shed for the enactment of the new covenant. If the Lord had not died and His blood had not been shed, the new covenant would not have been accomplished, and God could not have made a covenant with us. Truly, the Lord shed His blood for redemption. But redemption is not the final goal of the shedding of His blood. Redemption is only a means and a way to reach the final goal. The final goal is the enactment of the new covenant and the bestowal of the blessing of the new covenant on us. Our sins are forgiven through the blood of the Lord, but the purpose of His shedding the blood was for the enactment of the new covenant. We know that without the shedding of blood, there is no redemption. Hebrews 9:22 says that without shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. Redemption and the enactment of the covenant are very intimate and closely related. However, there is a distinction between the two. Brothers and sisters, please remember that God made a covenant to give us knowledge, life, and power. Because our sins are not yet cleansed, we do not receive them. Sin lies between us and God, and separates us from the knowledge, life, and power that God wants to give us. All of our sins before God must be removed. The way to remove the sins before God is not by our work, merit, or future improvement. If our sins are not dealt with and removed before God, He cannot forgive our sins. Thank the Lord that He has been crucified for our sins; He has shed His blood, has resurrected from the tomb, and ascended to God. God is fully satisfied in His death and resurrection. Therefore, He must forgive us.
The only one way for our sins to be forgiven is for us to be cleansed righteously in the Lord's blood. However, when sinners want to be saved, they will try any method, whether righteous or not. Before we were awakened and before we repented, we refused salvation. But when we realized the result of sin, the danger of our present position, and the pain and terror of eternal punishment in hell, we tried many methods to be saved. However, with God, there cannot be many methods. God's way of salvation must not conflict with His righteousness, holiness, nature, and will. At the time we were saved, we were filthy and sinful persons; we did not know God's holy, righteous, and glorious salvation. God's salvation must not come into conflict with His righteousness, holiness, and glory, and, at the same time, still save sinners. We did not know and we did not care about these things because we were short of the glory of God anyway. Romans 3 through 5 say that the Lord was delivered and crucified for our sins and resurrected for our righteousness. Since we were so sinful, filthy, and hopeless, we were very short of God's glory. But when the Lord died and resurrected, He recovered God's glory.
God did not forgive our sins in a careless and foolish way. He did not forgive our unrighteousness in a loose way. He cannot deal with sin carelessly and loosely. God has judged and punished the sinners in the Lord Jesus. We have passed through God's judgment and punishment in the Lord, and we are saved through the Lord. Our sins have not been forgiven in a careless and loose way. Rather, we passed through God's judgment and punishment in Christ.
When I was in Shanghai, I met a friend who was a lawyer and also a Christian, and I asked how he was saved. He told me that after he heard a message, he realized that the doctrine of salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus was very lawful. According to the law, when man transgresses the law, he must be judged by the court and punished by the government. After he has been judged and punished, he is no longer a sinner. If a criminal commits a crime and deserves to be punished ten years in prison and then is imprisoned for ten years, when he comes out of prison, he is no longer guilty of any crime. No one can put him into prison for another ten years. Even if his adversary meets him on the street, the adversary cannot do anything to him because he is no longer a criminal. Originally, we were all great sinners, but we were judged and punished by God. We do not have our sins anymore, and no one can say anything against us.
God's way of salvation must be able to save us according to His righteous demands and must allow the conscience to approve it. In the past we did not know that the way God saves sinners is in accordance with His righteousness and holiness. We did not know that sin had to pass through severe judgment and punishment. God is absolutely holy and righteous. His eyes cannot behold sin. Because the Lord died for us and resurrected, the blood He shed satisfies God's heart. When the holy and righteous God saw this death, He considered it our death and passed over us. He had nothing more to say about us. The holy and righteous God said, "This is enough. It is all right." Even more, we can say, "It is enough. It is all right."
God cares for His holy nature and righteous way more than we do. He cannot do anything contrary to His virtuous nature. He has to act according to His nature in righteousness, holiness, and glory. Otherwise, He is not qualified to save the sinners. The Lord's blood is precious because it satisfies the righteous and holy God. This is why the sinners can be saved and become sinless, righteous ones. When God enacted the new covenant, our sins were removed once and for all. When the Lord saves us, He eternally saves us to the uttermost. When God accepted the sacrifice of the Lord, our filth, rubbish, and everything that blocked God's way was removed, and we were accepted by God.
The blood of the new covenant not only removed the hindrances, it also bought back something. It bought back an inheritance for us. The Bible speaks of the Lord's work of salvation; it also speaks of His bringing us back to the Father's house and His kingdom, and of His giving us an eternal inheritance kept in the heavens. He has not just saved us as poor individuals. When we consider the blood, we should see that it has not only removed something, it has also bought us something. The blood enables us to draw nigh to God. God has not brought us just to the outer court. He has not just told us to go in peace and that our sins have been forgiven. He has brought us through the veil into His habitation and removed the separating veil. Not only have our iniquities and unrighteousness been removed and cleansed, but God has given Himself to us to be our all. Therefore, whatever He can do, we can do also. The blood is a big plus; it has added everything to us. Paul said that if God "did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?" (Rom. 8:32).
The blood of the Son of God not only redeemed us, but purchased an inheritance for us who believe in the name of His Son. I hope that whoever is sitting here today would lift up their hearts to God and say to Him, "Thank You, the blood has removed everything that is against me." If you can say this to God, I will thank the Lord for you. The blood has not only removed your sin and hindrances before God, it has also put you in a covenant. Through the blood, God has now given you everything in the covenant.
Brothers and sisters, do you know that a covenant is most effective? If you do not know God's covenant and only pray according to your own will, you will not obtain what you want. You will not even have the power to ask for what you want. When you see the effectiveness of the blood, when you see all the spiritual blessings in the heavenlies that it has bought for you, when you see all the things pertaining to life and godliness, and when you see that all these things are yours, you will realize that it is foolish to painfully beg for God's work to be accomplished. If I go to the Shanghai Bank today and say, "I am very poor. Please give me fifty dollars," I could beg from eight in the morning until eight at night, but I do not think that I will receive fifty dollars. It is difficult to receive by begging in this way. But if I deposit some money there, do I still have to beg? All I have to do is claim it. There is no need for me to pitifully beg. If the banker pays me too slowly, I can even ask him to hurry up. In one instance, I do not have money in the bank, and I can only beg. In the other instance, I have money, and I can claim it. In the former case, the bank's money has nothing to do with me. In the latter case, it is my own money. Brothers and sisters, have you seen what a covenant is? Have you seen what a vain request that has no basis is and what a request that is based on a covenant is? The covenant is a document that shows that the Lord has bought all things pertaining to life and godliness for us with His blood. When we ask according to the covenant, we are not asking for something that is not ours; we are claiming what is ours and has been kept in custody. A request based on the covenant is not an empty request, but a claim for what has been promised in the covenant. Before the Lord died, there was a need to ask and pray. But since the Lord has died on the cross, do we still need to ask and pray, or should we claim what is ours? We should realize that now all of the spiritual blessings are ours, and all we have to do is to claim and apply them. God is now standing on our side because of the blood. We can obtain all the blessings through the blood. Many times, through the blood, we can come to God and claim rather than ask. This does not mean that we do not need to pray, but our prayers should be more of a claim than a request. Mr. Gordon said that since Golgotha, all the references to asking in the Bible should be changed to taking. Everyone who knows God, who knows Golgotha, and who knows the meaning of the blood will say "amen" to this word. The blood shed on the cross on Golgotha has purchased all the spiritual blessings concerning life and godliness for us. Now everything is being kept for us, and all that we have to do is claim them back. Through the blood, we do not have to ask God to give us what He has, but what we have. This is why we say that God is now dealing with us according to the principle of righteousness and not grace. Everything that the new covenant gives to us is according to righteousness and is rightfully ours. We can claim all these things through the new covenant.
We need to consider specifically what the new covenant is and what the difference is between the blood and the covenant. The new covenant is nothing other than a written document that lists the inheritance purchased by the Lord's blood. This document is signed by God Himself, and it acknowledges that all the inheritance purchased by the Lord Jesus is ours. We have gained the new covenant with the price of the blood. This document is bought with the price of blood. One gets as much as he pays for. The new covenant includes all that the blood has purchased.
What has the Lord's blood purchased? The Lord's blood has redeemed us. But whatever has been recorded in the new covenant has also been purchased by the Lord's blood. Among the many things, three are very precious. Later, we will consider them in detail. Man does not know how to speak to God according to the record of the covenant because he does not know the rights that the blood has granted him. He does not realize that he can speak to God according to the letter of the covenant. Based on the fact that God has made the covenant with him, all the spiritual blessings are his.
Do you know about the first covenant God made with man? Let me tell you about the first covenant God made with man. According to my study of the Bible, the first record of God's making a covenant with man was at the time of Noah. Before Noah, God had never made a covenant with man. The earliest record of covenant-making was God's making a covenant with Noah. In the story of God's covenant with Noah, the most difficult thing for God to do was to make man understand His will. God has tried His best to speak to us in different ages and in many ways through the prophets concerning His will for us. He truly wants us to know His will. But when we do not have a covenant, we are not clear about God's will, we do not have much assurance, and we do not know how to pray.
Brothers and sisters, do you realize that man is prone to doubt God's promises? During the meeting here, you surely think that you have faith. But when you are alone and destitute, when you are by yourself with no one helping or comforting you, what about your faith? When you are in extreme poverty and helplessness, when you are depleted of any financial means, you will see how hard it is to believe that God will supply your need. When you are seriously ill, and the doctor says that you are about to die, your heart may say, "How do I know if my prayer will help me?" You may think that you have to earnestly pray many times before God might heal you. After you pray this way, you may not know how to believe, and you may even feel that you can no longer believe in God. This is why many people do not pray at ordinary times. They think that it does not make any difference whether or not they pray, and that either way they will live. They will live if they pray, and they will live if they do not pray. They have no desire to know God's will. They realize how precious it is to understand God's will concerning a matter only when the bridge is broken and the way has disappeared before them. When they find that no one can tell them anything, they begin to pray to God and to try to understand God's will concerning a certain matter. When they encounter difficulties, the devil will put all kinds of doubts in their heart and say to them, "You have been so defiled and committed so many sins. You have been so terrible. Will God hear your prayers now? Are you not ashamed? Do you still have the boldness to ask God for help?" Not only will the devil tempt you, but your flesh will be weakened, and you will begin to doubt God in many ways. "How can God answer the prayer of men like me? How can He answer my prayers?" God already knows the smallness of your faith. That is why He only asks that you have faith like a mustard seed. He does not ask for greater faith, for He knows that you will never have greater faith. The mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds. As long as your faith is as great as the smallest seed, you will be all right. God knows that your heart is small. This is why He gives all kinds of promises to you, so that you will believe in Him. No one ever has great faith. God cannot make you believe. For this reason He has covenants with man. If you understand a covenant, you will realize that God does not require you to be perfect and has not rebuked you; He knows that you are short, and He sympathizes with your weaknesses. He sympathizes with the fact that your faith cannot match His position. He knows that your faith is too small and cannot climb over the high wall to reach Him. So He lowered Himself to covenant with man. The covenant is initiated by God and ordained by God. God gives it to us because He sympathizes with our weakness. God gives us a covenant so that we can have a means by which we can believe in Him.
At the time of Noah, man had greatly sinned and was filled with iniquities. God sent the flood to destroy them because of the great sins and iniquities. All of the living creatures, including man and animals, were destroyed by the flood. Only Noah's household of eight, together with the animals that they brought into the ark, were preserved. The people who were not destroyed by the flood could have been extremely apprehensive that a flood would once more come and destroy the world if they committed some sins again, and that there might not be another ark, and that no one could preserve the eight of them. They were kept in the ark for a year. During this time they did not see any land or people. Day and night, all they saw was a great span of water, and all they heard was the sound of water. Later when the water subsided, they began to dwell in an uninhabited lonely wilderness. They did not know if they would have to face another devastating deluge again. They did not know God's will concerning this matter. They did not know that God would not destroy the world with a flood again, keep them from hunger and thirst, cause the earth to produce food, and ensure that they lived without peril and in peace. God knew that it was difficult for man to understand His good intention; therefore, He gave man something to hold onto. He made a covenant with Noah: "And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth" (Gen. 9:8-17). God made a covenant with Noah because when Noah's household came out of the ark, their past experience would inevitably cause them to worry about their future. God was concerned that they would not believe that God would protect them from another destroying flood. As a result, He made a covenant with them so that they could believe. When Noah took hold of the words of this covenant, he was at peace and did not have to be afraid. Once he had the covenant, he could believe in God and rest in the covenant. This is the use of a covenant. Man does not know or understand God's will. God has to give man a covenant so that man will have something to hold onto. We know God's will through the covenant.
The history of God's dealing with man is almost the same as the history of His covenants with man. God has put man into the covenants. He put Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and all past and present believers into the covenants. The whole Bible is the covenants of God. All the blessings that God gave to Noah, Abraham, David, etc., are all contained in the covenants. He has put all the blessings to the Jews and to the present-day believers into the covenants. In this way man will no longer doubt Him, but believe in His Word. God is willing to be bound and lose His freedom by entering into covenants with man because of our weakness and unbelief. All that we need to do is ask and enjoy according to the deed of the covenant.
After Solomon completed the building of the temple, he realized that God had made a covenant with his father David, and he prayed that God would accomplish the words He promised with His own mouth. Solomon took hold of the word that God had provided and asked God to accomplish what He had promised. Now, we have the new covenant that God has established with us. What should we do? All we have to do is ask God to fulfill in us what He has promised according to the covenant. God is great, infinite, and seemingly untouchable. We dare not draw near to Him and do not know how to pray to Him because He is so great. Therefore, He has limited Himself to the covenants, so that we can draw near to Him, pray to Him, claim from Him, and speak to Him according to the covenant.
Only when we know the greatness and riches of the new covenant will we realize the vastness of God's love and grace. Without the covenants, how could we bargain with God and speak to Him according to the words of the covenants? If God has not been gracious to us, how can there be the covenants? If only we will have a small, feeble, and weak faith, it will be like the little candlelight that flickers before the wind. But we can lay hold of God's handle in His Word, and God will answer us and fulfill all our needs.
Remember the word in the book of Isaiah which says, "Put Me [God] in remembrance" (Isa. 43:26). This seems to indicate that, like us, God tends to forget; we have to remind Him, so that He will remember. When we pray and have not received, we should remind God saying, "Have You forgotten the covenant You made with me? Please give according to what You have said." If you do this, you will surely receive. (This word is only to those who know the Lord in a deep way.)
What should we do? Hebrews 13:20-21 says, "Now the God of peace, He who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, in the blood of an eternal covenant, perfect you in every good work for the doing of His will, doing in us that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen." This is a written prayer of a believer, one of the greatest prayers in the whole Bible. It says that God will do in us that which is well pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ. What a great prayer this is! He asks God "in the blood of an eternal covenant." He stands upon the eternal covenant of God and asks God, according to the covenant which He made when He brought up the Lord Jesus from the dead, that the Lord Jesus would live in us, and that we can do the things that are well pleasing to God. A great prayer is none other than a request that is based on the eternal covenant which was established by the shedding of the Lord's blood. We should have the faith which allows us to stand on the covenant and prays by clinging to the covenant. Based on the covenant, we should say to God, "God, I am now praying to You according to the handle that I lay hold of in Your Word." This kind of prayer is powerful and effective. If we believe in the covenant, we will be strengthened and emboldened to pray to God.
Brothers and sisters, what kind of prayers are based on the covenant? The prayer by the writer of Hebrews is one of these prayers. There are many other prayers in the Bible like this one. Unfortunately, no one today prays to God according to the letter of the covenant, and no one asks God to give to him the riches promised in Christ so that he can glorify God.
Finally, remember that you have the firm right to pray to God according to the covenant. You can ask God to act according to the covenant. You can say to God, "You have covenanted with me. Please accomplish for me according to the covenant." I have to repeat again that without faith, you can pray all you want and nothing will happen. God can only do so much. Suppose a friend says to you, "I have deposited a great deal of money in the bank in your name. Here is the check. Whenever you want the money, just sign your name and withdraw the money from the bank." If you do not move your hand to sign the check, you will not get the money. The blame will be on you. God can only cause the Lord Jesus to come to earth, be crucified, shed His blood to enact the new covenant, and allow you to bargain with Him according to this covenant. If you do not exercise your faith to claim and apply, these things will not have any effect on you. I can frankly say that many believers do not have any faith at all. Not only are backsliding and cold believers lacking in faith, even Christians whom others consider to be very zealous are also lacking in faith. They all pray according to their own feelings. They think that as long as they repent and do good, God will surely answer their prayers. Some think that as long as they promise God that they will repent and try their best to be good and proper Christians, God will answer their prayers.
Today we have seen the basis of the new covenant. May we rise up and exercise our faith to lay hold of all these riches. Tomorrow, we will speak on the sphere and contents of the new covenant. We will also speak on the three main parts of the new covenant.
