======================================================================== THE OLD COVENANT AND NEW COVENANT by Randy Krahn ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon delves into the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, emphasizing the significance of Jesus ushering in a better covenant of grace through His shed blood. It explores the symbolism of the Passover lamb and how Jesus now serves as our Passover lamb, satisfying the wrath of sin. The message stresses the need to die to sin, overcome the enemy through the blood of the lamb, and share our testimony of Jesus' work in our lives to become overcomers in Christ. Topics: "New Covenant", "Overcoming Sin" Scripture References: Romans 6:14, 1 Corinthians 15:55, 1 John 5:4, Romans 8:1, Revelation 12:10, 1 Corinthians 6:9, Romans 8:2, 1 Corinthians 10:13, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Philippians 4:13 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon delves into the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, emphasizing the significance of Jesus ushering in a better covenant of grace through His shed blood. It explores the symbolism of the Passover lamb and how Jesus now serves as our Passover lamb, satisfying the wrath of sin. The message stresses the need to die to sin, overcome the enemy through the blood of the lamb, and share our testimony of Jesus' work in our lives to become overcomers in Christ. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Good morning. I wanted to share a little bit about the Old Covenant and the New Covenant. We can simplify it in kind of two general statements. The Old Covenant, God gave a law because men were lawless. It was intentioned that men would live by faith, but because sin was abounding, he saw it necessary to bring the Ten Commandments by the hands of Moses and many other laws to show the children of Israel that they were lawbreakers. But he had no intention that men would be made righteous according to those laws, but that they would see what sin was so that they would have a knowledge of sin and they would look to the Lord. And then we see in the process of time, John Baptist comes on the scene and he's preaching a gospel of repentance. Repentance from sin. We also hear Paul talking about repentance from dead works and of faith toward God and of Christ. Then Jesus comes on the scene and we see that he is speaking a message of hope and he's bringing in a better covenant. He's ushering a new covenant, a covenant of grace through his blood, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. I was reading this week about the children of Israel, how they were in bondage for 430 years and how God sent the Pharaoh to put a heavy yoke on them, but he also raised up Moses to deliver his people because their cry was heard. And how God hardened that Pharaoh's heart time and time again. And Pharaoh was like a law unto the people and he made his yoke heavy upon them. And in the same way, it seems as though the law became a yoke on the children of Israel and it became heavy upon them. And then there had to be the power of God manifested through these plagues and through seeing how God would put his heavy hand on the Pharaoh and cripple the Pharaoh by his outstretched hand and his mighty power. And then finally he said, now this last time I'm going to send an angel of death to come. And I'm going to pour out my wrath on all the firstborn over the land of Egypt. But he said, it shall not come upon you if you do exactly as I tell you. And he told him to take a lamb of the first year. And he said to go and sacrifice this lamb and to take the blood in a bowl and that they would dip it in hyssop and put it on the, the lentil of the house and on the door posts. And they should remain in the house because the angel of death would pass over. And this is the institution of the Passover. And we have this now symbolism that Jesus Christ now is our Passover lamb, that he satisfies the wrath of sin and passes over us. And so we can overcome the Pharaoh. We can overcome the enemy. We can overcome Satan through the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. And we can tell our children, our children's children, what Jesus did for us and what he's done for our forefathers and what he'll do for them. And it will be an everlasting covenant of grace under this new covenant. So what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own son, Jesus, in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us. Because of the work of the cross. Jonathan shared about the gospel, the good news, the good news is that Jesus died and not only died for our sins, but he rose again, and that we can also be raised up with Christ. I was reading here in Revelation chapter 12. Something and it says in verse seven, that a war broke out in heaven and Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon his angels fought, and they did not prevail nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So that great dragon was cast out that serpent of old called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world. He was cast to the earth and his angels were cast out with him. Now I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ have come. When did this happen? I mean, I know this happened at the cross. I don't know if it happened any other time. But I know that at the cross, this happened, salvation, and the power of Christ had come, there was an enemy that was defeated at the cross. And Jesus said, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. And he's given us that authority in Jesus name to tread on snakes and scorpions and to overcome the wicked one. Under the old covenant, they couldn't overcome because the law, which was holy and good, kept holding them down and reminding them that sin was utterly sinful. And the good they wanted to do and the evil that they hated, that's what they were practicing, who will deliver us from the body of death. Now I have come, the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come, Jesus Christ, the righteous, to satisfy the righteous requirements that were written in the law through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. So when Jesus comes to you, when the angel of death passes over, it's just as if you've never sinned, because he sees the blood. This is the importance of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Now I heard a loud voice from heaven. Now salvation has come. Now Jesus has come. He is our salvation. The power of his Christ have come for the accuser of the brethren who kept what reminding us of sin, reminding us of the law, reminding us of all those things, the do's and don'ts and the righteous requirements of the law have now been satisfied through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. To those who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. That's when there's no condemnations, brother. For the accuser of our brethren who accused them night and day before God, saying, aha, you see what they've done? You see what's going on? You see this? You see that? He says, he's been cast down. He no longer can come before the presence of God. And it says, and they overcame him. Who's him? The devil who keeps bringing this accusation and these thoughts through the blood of Jesus Christ, the blood of the lamb and through the word of their testimony. My question to you is Jesus satisfied the righteous requirements of the law and he overcame the power of sin and death and he paid the penalty for us. But have you overcome? Are you an overcomer? Do you have a testimony of Jesus Christ? Are you able to share the gospel or the good news of Jesus Christ or what Jesus has done for you? This is the good news. When I look in Matthew and I look in the subtitle, it says the gospel according to Matthew. That is what Jesus was to Matthew. The gospel according to Mark. That was the revelation that Jesus revealed unto Mark. The gospel according to Luke. The good news of Jesus Christ to Luke. The gospel according to John. How John experienced Jesus. And the gospel according to you. When you share what Jesus has done for you. It has to be a gospel according to you. How you overcame him. The one who accused you night and day before God. Through the blood of Jesus Christ and the word of our testimony. That message of faith which we preach. May the Lord help us to understand that we're no longer under law. We're under grace. If indeed Christ is in you. If Christ is in you, we have to die to what we're held by. Paul says the law is good, righteous, holy. For by it there's a knowledge of sin. But then what happened was he said he was alive once in Romans 7 apart from the law. But then sin revived. And he said I died. There was something that was death was working in him. And he had to die to something. You know it says also in Romans 7 and he gives this example of marriage. And he talks about a woman who's bound by law to her husband as long as the husband is alive. It's a covenant of marriage. Until death do us part. And you know what? This flesh is a part of us when we're born. In Adam all die. And so this old man, this flesh nature, this carton is bound under sin. And so it has to be buried with him in baptism into death. We have to die to what we're held by. So that we can be raised in the newness of his resurrection. But if while the old man is alive, if while we're still living for the flesh, if while we're still practicing sin, we say that we are joined to Christ and there's no change, then people will look at us and call us hypocrites. People will call us the harlot church. People call us a backslidden people. We have to die to what we're held by. So that we're no longer slaves of sin, but slaves of Christ. Bond servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. The law was dealt with at the cross. But there's many people today who are still under bondage. They're still practicing sin. They're still governed by the rule of the law. Because the law is made for lawbreakers. And if you're practicing adultery, you're looking at pornography, you're in sexual immorality, you practice masturbation, you're a thief, you cheat on your time card, you gossip about people, you get angry and you don't repent of it, and it causes you to sin. And you grumble and complain against everything and everybody. You are being judged by the law as a lawbreaker. And Paul said, who will deliver me? He said he was battling with covetousness. He saw the brothers, he saw the people who had things that he wanted. And it was producing in him all manner of death. He was not content with what he had. And he said he had to die to what he was held by. This, my friends, is the message and the mystery of the cross. It's foolishness to them that are perishing. But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God. Jesus satisfied the righteous requirements of the law at the cross. But now we have to die to what we're held by. This is baptism. And Dan shared it. We have to die daily. Daily there's things that we need to die to. Because in my flesh dwells no good thing. So with the mind I serve the law of Christ, but with the flesh the law of sin. And so we have to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to Christ. Don't let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey it in its lusts. Put off the old man with his lusts. Put off lying. Put off sexual immorality. Put off all these things. Consider yourself dead to sin. It says, but if the old man dies, then you're free from that law. You're no longer under that law of marriage, that first covenant of marriage. You're because you've been married to another, to Christ, to him who was raised from the dead. Because it says when you were in the flesh, we were bound by sin and the shame and the condemnation that sin brings. And that's what the law did. It brought condemnation. Thou shalt not commit sexual immorality. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife. Thou shalt not. And it produced in us all kinds of condemnation. But what does the writer say? What does Paul say in Romans in chapter 8 verse 1? There is now no condemnation. No, no, no condemnation for those who are in Christ, who walk not after the flesh. They put off the old man with his lusts, but are raised up with Christ in the spirit. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending Jesus Christ in the likeness of sinful flesh. And on account of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh. So we need to get into grace. We need to walk by grace. Grace is not a license to sin. It's the power of God to deliver us and raise us up with Christ. Baptism, there's one baptism, death to the flesh, dying to what we're held by, and being raised up in the likeness of his resurrection, being joint heirs with Christ, being seated with him in heavenly places, walking not according to our own ungodly lusts. Therefore put off all these. That's what the writer says. And put on something in the renewing of the mind. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Put on tender mercies. Put on compassion. Put on generosity. Put on these things. Make a conscious choice, because you're not a slave to sin. You're a slave to righteousness. You've been bought with a price. You've been redeemed. The angel of death has passed over, and now you are keeping the Passover feast. Jesus himself is our feast in the new covenant. We feed on Christ. We've been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and that's how you overcome when Satan comes to tempt you, through the blood of the lamb, because of the finished work of Christ, and through the word of our testimony. He has delivered me from so great a death, and he does deliver me, and he will yet in this trial deliver me in Jesus name. We are more than conquerors through Christ who gives us strength, but there are some who are bound by law. There are some who like to live according to the righteousness of the law, who are proud. There are some who seem to feel justified by not knowing anything against themselves, even though there's greediness and dead men's bones in them, the Pharisees, and they seek to justify themselves this way, but what does it say in John in chapter 3, about verse 19, it says, this is the condemnation. Their hearts condemn them when the spirit of Christ rises up, that men love darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil. Jesus said, you are those that were spoken of who clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside is full of dead men bones. Inside is full of self selfish ambition, self-seeking. That's where the condemnation is. Men love darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil. Outwardly trying to look good, inwardly being dead in trespass and sin, and the law judging them as lawbreakers. Just say, Lord Jesus, I can't do this anymore. I've been trying to clean the outside of the cup and dish, but Lord, clean me on the inside. Make me, breathe on me breath of God, and make me ever thine. Make me new in spirit, and cause me to rise over this flesh nature. I'm not a slave to sin. Grab it. I remember a time in my life I was slave to masturbation and lust, and I would have been born again, and then I came back under this bondage, and for nine months I couldn't get victory, and I heard this message. You're not a slave to sin. You're a slave to righteousness. Sin shall not be your master. You're not in bondage to law. You're under grace. I grabbed it, and I said, Lord, I'm going to die to what I'm held by, whatever it takes. I'm not going to do this anymore. This is the message of the cross. You have to die to sin. You can't say, well, you know, I'll try to change a few things. I'll try to cut my internet back. I'll try. No, you need to cut off those things that offend, those things that cause you to go and stumble into sin. You need to get them out of your life, and for every person it may be different, the struggle that they have, and people may not understand it and say, that's legalism. No, that's life. If you know that there's a plague that's coming to the land, and you know people all over the place have the plague, flee from that plague, and run to the Lord Jesus. He is a refuge. He is a shelter in the time of storm. We want to find our safety and our refuge in Him. He says, a thousand may fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near your house, because the blood is on the doorpost, and on the lintel. He is our refuge. They were to go run into their houses, and they were to remain in their houses until the angel of death had passed. We know that Jesus satisfies the righteous requirements of that law, and when we're found in Him, not having our own righteousness, which comes from do's and don'ts, having an appearance of godliness, but a righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus Christ, then we will become part of the overcoming people. The overcomers are the ones who are granted to eat from the tree of life. The one who feeds on me shall live. The overcomers are the ones who get a new name on their foreheads. They don't have that mark of the beast on their foreheads and on their hand. The one who overcomes are the ones who inherit all these things. If we read of those seven churches, there's a promise to the overcoming people of God. This is His church. Of all the seven churches, there's one body being built up into a spiritual tabernacle in the Lord in Christ, Jesus being the chief cornerstone and the capstone, the alpha and the omega, we being knit together as the Holy Spirit gives us grace to knit together in the Spirit and encourage one another to contend for this faith, which was once for all delivered to us. To walk by faith, to live by faith, the righteous shall live by their faith. And when you walk by faith, the fruit will manifest. Faith and fruits are inseparable. How do you separate your faith from the result of your faith, which is works? James says, show me your faith without what works and I'll show you my faith by what I do. It says Abraham was justified when? By when he offered his son on the altar when God told him. See, his faith was made complete by what he did. And we also, your faith, you'll say, I don't know about getting victory over the pornography. You know what? Maybe you need to go and have a good cry of repentance and take a hammer to your phone and smash the thing in the yard and say, Lord, how could I have done it? It's time for a flip phone. I don't know your struggle, but I'm saying when we're ready to die to sin, when you're ready to be done with it, that's when you'll get victory. Otherwise you'll be like those from John 8 who say that they're believers in Jesus. And then what? Jesus said, come to me to be free. And they said, you know what? We're not in bondage. We're King's kids. We just happen to be slaves to pornography. You know what? They come and they want to kill Jesus in just a few verses. Why? Because they hate the word. The word has no place in them. We need to love the word. When the word comes and says, if you look at a woman to lust after her, you commit adultery in your heart. And he says, you adulterers and adulteresses, friendship with the world is hatred toward God. Anyone who wants to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. We have to take seriously. So you want victory over sin? You want to get the condemnation off? Don't go listen to those preachers who tell you there's no condemnation while you're living according to your sin. Those preachers will give an answer at the judgment seat of Christ. They'll give an answer. And I don't think it'll go well with them. It says, knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. At the judgment seat of Christ, there's going to be some terror. Knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. Put off all these. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, Jesus finished the work at Calvary, but he also said something to us. That we have a responsibility to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. This is how we pick up our cross and follow him. And so proving that we are his disciples. Because it's God who works in us, both to will and to do for his good pleasure and for his glory. So we have to die to what we're held by. That's how you put something off. That's how it works. That's grace. We're sin abounded, grace abounded more. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? May it never be, brother. Who's he speaking to? How shall we who died to sin in baptism live any longer in it? But if Daniel were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is seated. When we're in the flesh, we have our fruit to death, which we are now ashamed of. All those things which we repented of. But now we've had a change of direction. We had a change of heart. He's taken our heart of stone and he's given us a heart of flesh. And he's given us a new heart and a new spirit. And there's a war for the soul. And so that Jesus be glorified, not just justified. In our spirit, not just sanctified in our soul, but also glorified in our body. That Jesus would be glorified, that people could see you as his hands and feet. That takes time. But it's one good decision after another by the grace of God. Walk in the grace and the glory of Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to obey it in its lusts. You were buried with him. You died. Your life is now hidden with Christ and God. And when Christ, who is our life, appears, where will he appear? The Lord is in his holy temple. We used to sing this song, that all the earth keeps silent. When he came in his glory there and when Solomon built that great and awesome temple. And then when Zechariah rebuilt it and he said, what is the glory of this temple now in comparison to that temple? He said, it seems like nothing. Everybody was building their own houses. But he told Zechariah, it's time to work. It's time to build. And so they started to work on the house of God. And he said, what is the appearance of this house of God? He said, it seems like nothing. Today, the house of God seems like nothing. But you're that house. You are God's house. You are God's building. Seems like nothing. But the Lord is in his holy temple. That all the earth keeps silent. Let God be magnified in your body, in your mortal flesh, to give him glory. Let him have full reign. If you are fully yielded to the grace of God and the power of God, if you are bearing your cross and denying self and living for Christ, then the joy of the Lord and the peace of God and the righteousness of Christ will be seen in all the earth. One man yielded to the presence of Jesus and to the word of God. People can see this woman, this man, this one has been spared as a firebrand plucked from the fire. And the glory of the Lord shall rest upon him. Just as the glory of the Lord rested upon Jesus, he has caused us to become joined heirs with Christ. Are you a joined heir with Jesus? We can be seated with him in heavenly places, us in him and he in us. What a mystery that we would be changed in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye, not at the first trumpet, but at the last trumpet. The dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed. Paul says, I speak to you in a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed. Has that change come to you? Have you had a revelation of Jesus Christ? Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh death, where is your sting? What's the strength of sin? It's the law. But we're not under law, brethren. We're under grace. I want to encourage you to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Let God be magnified. Jesus said Satan has fallen like lightning from heaven and he's given us authority to tread on snakes and scorpions. He's given us authority to speak to those works of the flesh. In Jesus' name, I'm not a slave to sin. I'm not giving in. I'm not under bondage. I'm under grace. In Jesus' name, I'm not giving in to fear. I repent of that. I'm turning from it. God has given me not a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. In Jesus' name, I'm going to stir up that gift that God's given me. I'm not going to just give in to intimidation. I know mighty men who were wicked and worthless like Saul of Tarsus, and then the Spirit of God came. I remember other men, I won't name them by names, but many of them were worthless and useless. And then Jesus came and made them worth the price of gold. He redeemed them by his shed blood. Don't call those things that were as though they are. Call those things that are not as though they are. You call yourself by what Jesus calls you. Calls us children of God. This is a mystery. It hasn't been revealed what we shall be, but when he is manifested, we shall be like him. We want to see him as he is. Allow him to reign in your mortal body, that he would be glorified, not just in our spirits, and not just in the battle for the soul, but in our bodies. That the full temple of God would bring glory to his name. That we would understand the working of grace in this hour in which we live. Come Lord Jesus, the Spirit and the Bride say come. Come Lord Jesus, help us fulfill your purpose and your call in our lives. That we would not be cowards. That we would not be with those sexually immoral and the cowards. They all go together. They say, oh I never practiced sexuality, I'm just a coward. You know, I'm just here hiding in my cave, just like Gideon. No, the angel came to Gideon and said, oh mighty man of power, who me? I'm just the least and I'm this and I'm that, and there's so many others. No, he said mighty man of power. If God calls you a mighty man of power, then you don't say no, that's not true. Don't call God a liar. Call him what he is, faithful and true in Jesus Christ. Say by the grace of God, I am what I am. That's what Paul said. By the grace of God, I am what I am. You are what God calls you and says you are in Jesus name. Go out and fulfill the purpose and call of God for your life because therein lies the blessing of the Lord Jesus Christ. In Jesus name, be blessed. Amen. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/K7u9S8G-M28.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/randy-krahn/the-old-covenant-and-new-covenant/ ========================================================================