Covenant Maker [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. The real beauty of marriage is when you can grow to a place where there is so much trust that you see the worst about me and yet you don't leave.

We still love each other. What happens in this is that we are living in transparency and we are now experiencing a bit of heaven on earth. And what it means is that in the saddest times and in the gladest times I have a covenant partner. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in our series called Moses as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now and be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, we encourage you to go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. We have a custom that we began with me asking a simple question. Are you ready for some good news?

And depending on everybody's mood, sometimes there's more energy than other times. I was preaching in Prosper, Texas last weekend. I do not want them to have the capacity to outshout you in my own church. Are you ready for some good news? You are recipients of God's covenantal blessings. Everyone in Christ, Ephesians says, has received every spiritual blessing. Every blessing that God ever promised in the covenant is yours because of Christ.

And I'd like to convince you of that today. We're in a series on Moses and we come today to the scene at Mount Sinai where the old covenant, as we call it, sometimes called covenant of works or the Mosaic covenant, where this covenant is made and ratified. There are so many ways that Moses prefigures Christ. Moses is the deliverer who brings people out of bondage because of the blood of the lamb. Moses is the intercessor who advocates for the people and goes between the people and God. And today we're going to see the way in which more than any other way Moses prefigures Christ, and that is he is the covenant mediator.

And that's who Jesus is for us, a mediator. We're in the second book of the Bible, Exodus chapter 19. I'm going to read a portion here. I'm going to also read some text that is in the 24th chapter. Then we're going to look at the prophet Jeremiah and also at Hebrews. If you are new as a Christian or new to your Bible or even just new to seeing that the whole Bible is one big story, all interconnected, it's going to seem like a lot of Scripture and a lot of ideas.

But I promise you that though it's endlessly deep, it really is not complicated. And when you see the thrilling revelation of what the new covenant is all about, it will change you forever. This is Exodus chapter 19, and I pick up reading at verse 3. The end of verse 2, Israel encamped before the mountain while Moses went up to God.

The Lord called to him out of the mountain saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the people of Israel, You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagles wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine. And you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel. So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. And all the people answered together and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do. And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. Now go over to Exodus chapter 24 and you will see that here is where this covenant is ratified. Exodus chapter 24. Then he said, verse 1, Then he said to Moses, Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel in worship from afar.

Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him. Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord and all the rules. And all the people answered with one voice and said, All the words that the Lord has spoken we will do. And Moses wrote down all the words of the Lord.

He rose early in the morning and built an altar at the foot of the mountain and twelve pillars according to the twelve tribes of Israel. And he sent young men of the people of Israel who offered burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings of oxen to the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in basins and half of the blood he threw against the altar. And then he took the book of the covenant and he read it in the hearing of the people. And they said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient. And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people. And he said, Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words. Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu and the seventy elders of Israel went up and they saw the God of Israel.

And it was under his feet as it were pavement of sapphire stone like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel. They beheld God and ate and drank. So just notice, we will come back to this, that there is going on here all the elements of ratifying a covenant. These are two representatives, all the solemn oaths that are made, the promise of benefits and blessings, the blood that is shed, and then there is a shared covenantal meal. That is the elements of a covenant. So therein is the formation and ratification of what we call the Old Covenant or what we call the Mosaic Covenant. The problem was the people could not keep this. They had said with full gusto, we will do everything the Lord has said. We are going to keep all these commandments. But the problem was they could not keep it at all. In fact, if you know the story, you will know that Moses goes up to the mountain and it is not very long.

They say, Moses seems like he has been gone a long time. We are not sure if God is enough. And they make a golden calf. They cannot keep this hardly for a long weekend.

Much less can they keep it for all their lives. So this is the big problem. And so the answer to this problem comes about in a way that is absolutely breathtaking. It is most clearly articulated in the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 31.

Where the Lord comes at verse 31 of Jeremiah 31. Behold the days are coming declares the Lord when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt.

My covenant that they broke. Though I was their husband declares the Lord. But this is a covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days declares the Lord. I will put My law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their God. And they shall be My people. And no longer shall each one say to his teacher's neighbor and each his brother saying, know the Lord. For they shall all know Me from the least of them to the greatest declares the Lord.

For I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. Jeremiah is saying something astounding. He's saying there's a day that is coming in which the Lord says I'm going to make a new covenant and it's going to be categorically new. It's not going to be just a modification of the old covenant. It's going to be something that's absolutely different. It's something that's absolutely totally new that no one has ever seen before. It's going to be a covenant all right but it's going to be something that's very different.

It's not going to be about laws that's written on stone. It's going to be something that happens on the inside of people. And this is going to be something that is going to be so wonderful that people will all... that in this covenant they'll all know Me.

They'll all just be... they'll have intimate knowledge of Me. And so this is prophesied and the people are awaiting such a time. When Jesus comes and He walks in our midst and He heals the sick and He raises the dead and He teaches the masses and He feeds the poor and He comes to this point on a Thursday night before His crucifixion and He's having the Passover feast with His disciples and they think they're just celebrating the Passover as usual but then Jesus takes one of the cups of the Passover and He lifts it up and He says this is the cup of the new covenant.

And He says it's My blood and it's poured out for you. It's the forgiveness of your sins. And in that moment He was saying the new covenant is now being inaugurated. This is the very thing that Jeremiah prophesied about.

This is now taking place in your midst. And so it is that the new covenant has come in Jesus Christ and though if you're new to your Bible and new as a Christian when you read the book of Hebrews at first it might seem a little confusing. I encourage you in it because in so many ways it's the key to opening up the entire message of the Old Testament that then comes to reality in Jesus Christ. So I'm over now in Hebrews in chapter 8 where we begin to speak of Jesus Christ who is the high priest of a better covenant. Pick up reading at verse 6 of Hebrews 8. As it is Christ has obtained a ministry that is as much more excellent than the old as the covenant He mediates is better since it is enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless there would have been no occasion to look for a second. And then He quotes Jeremiah and he comes to verse 13 and says in speaking of a new covenant He makes the first one obsolete and what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. Continues on and describing all of this in chapter 9 and comes to say this point blank in Hebrews 9 15. Therefore Jesus is the mediator of a new covenant so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance since a death has occurred that redeems them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. This whole idea of covenant is other than just knowing Christ Himself this is the most important thing you can understand as a Christian. It opens up the entirety of the abundance of the Christian life to really understand what new covenant is all about and it wasn't until about 15 years ago that I understood it. I'd been a Christian most my life I'd been a preacher I'd been to seminary and my eyes had not been open to this glorious breathtaking truth until really about 15 years ago and that's what I want to share with you this morning. That's Alan Wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Ever feel like something's holding you back as if you lack an important key that could change everything?

Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them but how? What's missing? Blessing. We all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives. You can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book The Power to Bless which quickly became an Amazon number one best seller after its recent release. Until now the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales but this month Alan Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation. Make your gift today and discover the power to bless. The gospel is shared when you give to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support.

When you give today we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues.

Here once again is Alan Wright. Now every day in our lives we have little contractual covenantal kinds of agreements. We have agreements between people that are essentially saying that if you will do this then I will do this. You pull up to the gas station, you get out a credit card, you put it into the gas pump and you pump some gas. And what's taking place is actually an agreement.

The gas station is saying if you will agree to give us your credit card information so that we can charge you per gallon then we will supply you with the gas that you need to put into your car. Simple transactions. We don't even think about it but life, ordinary life as we know it, would be impossible if it weren't for these little contractual agreements.

Agreements between people, you do this and I'll do this. And it happens when you buy a gas. It happens if you buy a car. It happens if you buy a house.

It happens in everyday little business transactions. But it also happens in our relationships. And maybe the most beautiful image of this is marriage. Next month Ann and I will have been married 30 years. And we're looking forward to celebrating our 30 years.

Thank you. It's absolutely wonderful. Not everybody is called to be married but I do want to say having done this for 30 years I highly recommend it. Marriage gets a little bit of a bad rap these days but I just want to tell you that marriage is wonderful. There's something about that covenant relationship that opens up possibilities that you would never otherwise have.

You can't come close to having this. I don't mean to stomp on somebody's toes but here goes anyway. You can't have this cohabitating because when you're just cohabitating you have an arrangement and say well we're going to try to test things out but we're not really in a covenant with one another. And the benefit of marriage is that when you have a covenant what you're saying is that we have a relational bond that has been that has come because of our agreements that we have made. And I have made this agreement that I'm going to love and I'm going to cherish you and the ups and the downs. I'm not going to leave you and she's not going to leave me. And what this does when you have a covenantal relationship is it affords you the opportunity to risk a lot more, to be a lot more open. See if you're always afraid somebody's going to leave you or somebody's not going to be there then you're always going to be on guard. But the real beauty of marriage is when you can grow to a place where there's so much trust that you see the worst about me and yet you don't leave. We still love each other.

What happens in this is that we are living in transparency and we are now experiencing a bit of heaven on earth. And what it means is that in the saddest times and in the gladest times I have a covenant partner. What I'm just saying is that all of life, anything from going to a gas station and putting a credit card in or to the beauty and majesty of marriage depends on these agreements. You might call it a contract. I think when you start thinking about relational agreements you're talking about covenant.

But everything in life depends upon these types of agreements. So it should be no surprise that when God describes the nature of His relationship with His people it is done so exclusively in terms of covenant. This is how He formed a people for Himself in the Old Testament. He called this people Israel not because they were better than other people, not because they'd sinned less than other people, but because out of His sovereign plan and His sovereign grace He took them.

And in fact He calls Himself metaphorically their husband. Because what He's describing here is a covenant, a covenantal kind of love. And what we see in Exodus chapter 19 is God doing a very very gracious thing. He is forming a covenant with this particular people out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. And so it is that the old covenant is formed. This covenant probably follows a pattern that would be familiar in the ancient world. At all times and all places people have wanted to strike up bargains with God.

People have had a sense that I need God and I need to get some sort of arrangement. I always chuckle at the story of a little boy who's up on a rooftop and goofing around and then he starts sliding and he's going to fall off and he hollers out the top of his lungs, Lord save me and I'll be a missionary. And right about that time his trousers got caught on a nail that was protruding from the top and he stopped. And he said, never mind Lord this nail save me.

There's a whole lot to that isn't there? Because what he's saying is that if you will protect me God then I'll do something that seems like a great sacrifice to me and I will serve you if you will promise to protect me. But if I don't need you right now to protect me then my part of the deal is off also. And what we've discovered from sociologists and anthropologists is all throughout history and ancient world people have been forming various kinds of religious covenants. People are all times offering different kinds of sacrifices and blood sacrifices and making agreement with the gods with an attempt to say that the gods will look after us if we will do certain things. It's like there's something in the human soul that's just instinctively aware that we are weak and we need someone stronger than us to take care of us but in order for us to have someone stronger to take care of us we need to do our part and so we have to reach some sort of covenantal agreement. This is why cultures everywhere have formed these kinds of covenantal arrangements with God. And you'll see it sometimes in the Old Testament amongst the pagan people like at Mount Carmel where Elijah is having this big contest with the prophets of Baal and they start calling on Baal who doesn't exist and so he can't do anything for him but he doesn't come down and consume the altar with fire because and they just they think what we're going to do is we need to ramp up our shouting. We need to ramp up our dancing.

We need to ramp up our self-flagellation. They start cutting themselves and beating themselves trying to do more so that their God Baal will work on their behalf. That's a picture of the human heart instinctively believing I've got to do something to strike a bargain with God. This kind of treaty would emerge amongst a strong nation and a weaker nation. The suzerain vassal type treaty that is in ancient Hittite literature we'll read about where there'll be a strong nation and a weaker nation that will come into a covenant. And in this covenant the stronger nation would say we're we're strong we don't need you except in this sense we want you to pledge that you're not going to align yourself with other little nations and attack us. So if you're a strong nation you can get all these people around you to agree to not conspire against you. You then will agree and we'll protect you.

The weaker nation they obviously need somebody to help protect them against other invading nations. They say we will promise that we will not align with others against you if you will pledge to protect us with your military might. And so they enter a covenant. And all these ancient covenants all had five components to it. And this is very important these pieces of it because that's what we're going to see in the covenants we're talking about is there two representatives for each side.

The whole nation doesn't meet with one another they're representatives from each side. So this nation has a chief representative this nation has a chief representative they come and they meet to make the covenant. And then the covenant has these solemn oaths oaths that are made that say this is what we're going to do to protect you this is what we're going to do and in return and you make these solemn oaths. And then the third element is the promise of benefits or blessings rewards that in keeping this here's what's going to happen. So two representatives they come together they make their solemn oaths they articulate what the benefits of the of the covenant are. And then the fourth element is the shedding of blood.

There was no such thing as lawyers and drawing up extensive detailed contracts and all of that. So how it was that they sealed these covenants was through the shedding of blood symbolically. It would cut innocent animals and slaughter them and they would make a little kind of gauntlet this bloody gauntlet and each one of the representatives would walk through it and as they did they would repeat their solemn oaths and they would be essentially saying if I do not keep this oath then may my life be as these slaughtered animals may this blood be my own blood if I don't keep this oath is what they were essentially saying.

So it was ratified through the shedding of blood. This is so important because in the old testament anytime you see the word make the phrase make a covenant it literally says cut a covenant. Allen Wright and today's teaching on covenant maker unlock the power of blessing your life. Discover God's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for Allen Wright's free daily blessing. If you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement get Allen Wright's daily blessing.

It's free and just a click away at pastorallen.org. Ever feel like something's holding you back as if you lack an important key that could change everything? Is there someone you love who seems stuck? You'd like to help them but how? What's missing? Blessing. We all need a positive faith-filled vision spoken over our lives. You can learn how to embrace the biblical practice of blessing through Pastor Alan Wright's new book The Power to Bless which quickly became an Amazon number one bestseller after its recent release. Until now the hardcover book has only been available through retail sales but this month Allen Wright Ministries wants to send you the book as our thank you for your donation. Make your gift today and discover the power to bless. The gospel is shared when you give to Allen Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today we will send you today's special offer. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Allen Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860. That's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastorallen.org. Allen when we think back into this teaching and life of Moses and thinking about covenants, why is that important today in the 21st century? Well this is one of the most important messages that impacted my life ever and just today as we're learning about the nature of a covenant it is going to come to its consummation tomorrow as we learn about this that a covenant, the new covenant in Jesus Christ is the utterly the most powerful and practical thing you could ever know is what is so different about it from the old covenant because we're always you know kind of in these making bargains with people and contracts with people and for the Christian just to give a preview of where we're going with this it is to say your covenant with God is not really about your agreement with God it's about God's agreement within himself father and son the son agreed to be obedient the father agreed to bless and Jesus fulfilled all this so when Paul says we're in Christ what he means is we're in covenant with God through Christ it's not it really in many ways Daniel it takes us out of the picture it's not like okay my obedience doesn't have any part in this covenant anymore right it's not that my obedience is not important of course it is but it's not what is establishing or breaking the covenant that has to do with Jesus well this is the best news imaginable it changes everything not only for the security of the believer but the entire way in which you can live your life accepted in the blood free from shame and free from all the fears of failure and it gives you a whole new faith that's where this is going today's good news message is a listener supported production of Allen Wright Ministries